Leadership for a Better World

Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development

Susan R. Komives, Wendy Wagner, Susan R. Komives, Wendy Wagner

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781119207610
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Leadership in Education

The essential guide to the theory and application of the Social Change Model

Leadership for a Better World provides an approachable introduction to the Social Change Model of Leadership Development (SCM), giving students a real-world context through which to explore the seven C's of leadership for social change as well as a approaches to socially responsible leadership. From individual, group, and community values through the mechanisms of societal change itself, this book provides fundamental coverage of this increasingly vital topic. Action items, reflection, and discussion questions throughout encourage students to think about how these concepts apply in their own lives. The Facilitator's Guide includes a wealth of activities, assignments, discussions, and supplementary resources to enrich the learning experience whether in class or in the co-curriculum. This new second edition includes student self-assessment rubrics for each element of the model and new discussion on the critical roles of leadership self-efficacy, social perspective, and social justice perspectives. Content is enriched with research on how this approach to leadership is developed, and two new chapters situate the model in a broader understanding of leadership and in applications of the model.

The Social Change Model is the most widely-used leadership model for college students, and has shaped college leadership curricula at schools throughout the U.S. and other countries including a translation in Chinese and Japanese. This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the model, with a practical, relevant approach to real-world issues.

• Explore the many facets of social change and leadership
• Navigate group dynamics surrounding controversy, collaboration, and purpose
• Discover the meaning of citizenship and your commitment to the greater good
• Become an agent of change through one of the many routes to a common goal

The SCM is backed by 15 years of research, and continues to be informed by ongoing investigation into the interventions and environments that create positive leadership development outcomes. Leadership for a Better World provides a thorough, well-rounded tour of the Social Change Model, with guidance on application to real-world issues. Please note that The Social Change Model: Facilitating Leadership Development (978-1-119-24243-7) is intended to be used as a Facilitator's Guide to Leadership for a Better World, 2nd Edition in seminars, workshops, and college classrooms. You'll find that, while each book can be used on its own, the content in both is also designed for use together. A link to the home page of The Social Change Model can be found below under Related Titles.

Part 1
Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to the big differences that we often cannot foresee.

—Marian Wright Edelman

The Social Change Model of Leadership Development (SCM) is all about positive, social change. Social change often includes acts that aim to improve the human condition or care for the environment. It may also be revealed in the more purposeful ways people work together because they value socially responsible leadership. The SCM embraces both modal and end values (Burns, 1978). How people engage with each other matters, along with the outcomes and purposes of their change activity.

Change is a dynamic constant in people's lives. Heraclitus wrote, “Nothing endures but change.” Change comes at us all the time. It is the intersection of the way things are with the way they will be. Leadership for social change is the opportunity people have to direct change toward a future we desire.

Futurist Alvin Toffler observed that “change is the way the future invades our lives” (1970, p. 1). Extending Toffler's observation, Komives (2005) asserts “leadership is the way we invade the future” (p. 157). Leadership means responsibly choosing courses of action toward a desirable future.

Change is explored fully in Part 5 of this book yet needs to be introduced here to keep the end goal in perspective. Leadership and change are inexorably intertwined. After developing the SCM, several ensemble members went on to develop Leadership Reconsidered (Astin & Astin, 2000), which captured this important relationship:

We believe that leadership is a process that is ultimately concerned with fostering change. In contrast to the notion of “management,” which suggests preservation or maintenance, “leadership” implies a process where there is movement—from wherever we are now to some future place or condition that is different. Leadership also implies intentionality, in the sense that the implied change is not random—“change for change's sake”—but is rather directed toward some future end or condition which is desired and valued. Accordingly, leadership is a purposive process which is inherently value-based. (emphasis added; p. 8)

The leadership values of the SCM could guide this purposive process. Chapter 1 sets the context for this approach to collaborative, values-based leadership. Chapter 2 presents an overview of the Social Change Model and a summary of its key values.

References

1. Astin, A. W., & Astin, H. S. (2000). Leadership reconsidered: Engaging higher education in social change. Battle Creek, MI: W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
2. Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
3. Komives, S. R. (2005). It's all about relationships. In A. B. Harvey-Smith (Ed.), The seventh learning college principle: A framework for transformational change in learning organizations (pp. 157–164). Washington, DC: National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.
4. Toffler, A. (1970). Future shock. New York, NY: Bantam.

1
Transitions and Transformations in Leadership

Dennis C. Roberts

The adaptive demands of our societies require leadership that takes responsibility without waiting for revelation or request. One may lead perhaps with not more than a question in hand.

—Ronald Heifetz

The Social Change Model of Leadership Development (SCM; Higher Education Research Institute [HERI], 1996), on which Leadership for a Better World is based, emerged at a time when numerous researchers and theorists were beginning to think of leadership in different ways. Those who created the model believed that there needed to be a framework for understanding leadership that college and university students could embrace and that would reflect the societal changes that were under way at the time. It is gratifying that so many years later the model remains relevant and is one of the most widely used on college and university campuses throughout the United States and in many other countries around the world (Kezar, Carducci, & Contreras-McGavin, 2006).

The creators of the SCM were uniquely concerned with leadership that started with personal commitment, was transformed through collaboratively sharing the work of leadership with others, and was ultimately intended to serve others and society at large. This focus on individual, organizational, and societal or community transformation was prophetic in anticipating the commitment to social justice and service that we see among many of today's college and university students.

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The authors of the Social Change Model wrote:

a leader is not necessarily a person who holds some formal position of leadership or who is perceived as a leader by others. Rather, we regard a leader as one who is able to effect positive change for the betterment of others, the community, and society. All people, in other words, are potential leaders. Moreover, the process of leadership cannot be described simply in terms of the behavior of an individual; rather, leadership involves collaborative relationships that lead to collective action grounded in the shared values of people who work together to effect positive change. (HERI, 1996, p. 16) (bold in original)

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Chapter Overview

This chapter provides background on how views of leadership have changed over time and how leadership for social change fits in this story. It will also describe how the SCM emerged and how it has now become so important.

As you will see throughout this book, the original team that studied, struggled, and strived together to create the SCM referred to themselves as the ensemble. Members of the group were educators who had studied and taught leadership for many years. Several members of the group were also musicians who offered their observation during our meetings that we behaved much like a group of musicians would behave as they practiced and performed. Classical musicians interpret manuscripts written by composers in order to bring ideas, images, and emotions to life through their combined artistry. Jazz musicians improvise individually and collectively but always with the purpose of giving voice to each other. Whether skilled as classical, jazz, or popular artists, musicians know that any group will only be effective in performance if each seeks perfection on their own instrument while also embracing other musicians and their contribution to the ensemble.

In many ways, the study of leadership that you are undertaking through this book is similar to learning to be a skilled musician. You will explore new ideas, engage in critical thinking, compare your ideas and approaches with peers, and ultimately attempt to create an approach that makes sense to you plus relates in meaningful ways to the views and actions of others. First and foremost, leadership is not an individual act or gift—it is done in concert with others and it is likely to be something that evolves over time and through many trials.

Leadership: An Evolving Idea and Need

The study of leadership has been a fascination for scholars and for those who practice leadership for a very long time (Kellerman, 2001). It has been the subject of literature, theater, and art, and it has been studied through disciplines as di...