The influences of the learning organization model on mixed-gender co-leadership in groups

Mahoney, Thomas G. (2001) The influences of the learning organization model on mixed-gender co-leadership in groups. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the Department of Justice contracts with a community-based agency to provide counselling services to offenders. The standards for the provision of these services require that these group counselling programs be co-led by a mixed gender team of counsellors. -- The site contracted to deliver these services has an organizational structure based on the learning organization model (Senge, 1990). This thesis was a case study, using a collaborative action research design. It had two purposes: first, it was intended as a professional development initiative as the participants sought to find new ways of working in mixed-gender teams; secondly, it describes the influences of the learning organization model on mixed-gender co-leadership, with a specific focus on the discipline of team learning. -- Six participants, two males and four females, voluntarily participated for a sixteen week period. Audio tape recordings of clinical meetings and stimulated recall sessions, as well as participant journals, were used to gather qualitative data to answer two research questions. The first was: How does learning occur in mixed gender co-leadership teams used in group programs? The second was: What assists and distracts from the mixed- gender teams working through issues to prepare for co-leading group programs for male batterers and sex offenders? -- The findings indicate that collaborative action research and the discipline of team learning facilitated the participants working through personal and emotional issues to prepare for co-leading these group programs. Important processes identified by the participants were summarized to describe how their learning occurred. Factors that were identified as assisting and distracting from working through issues to prepare for these groups are also discussed.

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