Organizational Leadership 500: Introduction to Leadership
(Dr. John Horsman)

Starting the program Organizational Leadership Masters’ program was daunting. I was in a moment in my policing career where I did not feel as if I had a future within my own workplace; I sought to make a positive impact on that. The course provided me an introduction to different leadership styles and their impact on organizations when effectively and ineffectively applied (Yukl, 2010). I began to recognize certain leadership qualities in myself that were not effective in developing others to be good officers. But I also learned to recognize effective behaviors and a good qualities in myself and others that I could use to challenge what I saw as dysfunction in my workplace. This class also taught me how to recognize power dynamics in a leader-follower relationship and how those dynamics could be used in positive and negative ways. It is the ultimate responsibility of the leader to develop subordinates, not to be in lock-step with the leader, but to help build others into whole people. This building process comes through a creative, mutual relationship where the leader and the follower learn from each other (Freire, 2000). These pieces have been foundational in my work to develop community-based servant leaders in my own department. Though I had a scant introduction to Servant Leadership in this course, my initial leadership philosophy paper solidified my commitment to the philosophy for the remainder of the program.

Organizational Leadership 501: Methods of Organizational Research
(Dr. Barbara Kingsley)

This course provided a deeper understanding into how to ask questions and how to make appropriate correlations to information through research. Though more methodical than any other course, it helped me examine that which had been previously studied and reviewed, seek appropriate survey methods, and follow a prescription for academic writing (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008; Neuman, 2012). The course allowed me to conduct research on a topic in which I was interested; through that I learned that there really is not much research that correlates the impact of servant leadership on a policing organization or its community. As I would like to pursue a doctorate after I retire, I felt more comfortable with the prescription for academic writing and research after this course. Because the course itself was well-organized and broke the research and writing phases into small, digestible pieces, I walked away believing that I would be able to continue researching the topic of policing and Servant Leadership.

Organizational Leadership 502: Leadership and Imagination
(Dr. Michael Carey, Dr. Kristine Hoover, Dr. John Horsman, Dr. Adrian Popa, Dr. Lazarina Topuzova)

Imagination, environmental functions, and visioning play immense roles in connecting people and ideas. The Leadership and Imagination course helped provide various frameworks for learning how to look more creatively at moving an organization forward.  “How do we get from A to B?” where the process is “not A” was the question posed to us in the course that was most fascinating (Horsman, 2013). Rather than seeing the final end product as the goal, the creative journey develops people, organizational functions, and a spiritual connection between the two. Because of this course, I have taken the creative process as being a very important part of discovery and leadership when problem-solving. It is a point where I can learn about the people whom I serve and begin to see things to which I am blind (Halpern, 2009). My final project for the course was a survey tool that my unit uses when doing security surveys for university department. The tool provides the departmental managers with a better understanding of their own employee’s security concerns. It also provides our officers with a better framework, based on employee concerns, with which they can supply security recommendations. We no longer build a security recommendation that does not fit into a department’s philosophy or framework; instead, we work with them to create something that fits their and our needs.

Organizational Leadership 503: Organizational Ethics
(Dr. Barbara Kingsley)

The ethics course shook my understanding of what “ethics” really are. I had always been under the impression that to be ethical is to be in compliance with certain standards. However, ethical theory is about discovering what is valued and what our duties are in discovering what is “right” or “wrong” in our making decisions (Freeman, 2000; Wall, 2008). The ethics course also gave me different frames from which I could look at dilemmas to bring clarity to a problem. When I took the course, the policing profession was under intense scrutiny after the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases in Missouri and New York. This course allowed me to examine police use of force with a world-view basis, rather than one that simply comes from the view of a police officer. The exercise provided me with an empathetic understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement, versus a defensive one (Gaudine & Thorne, 2001). I have used the lessons learned from this exercise several times in preparing officers for community meetings where they may have to answer questions in an environment where others may seem to have an opposing view as to how we do our jobs.

Organizational Leadership 504: Organizational Communication
(Dr. Michael Hazel)

This course helped me better understand the roles and communications structures within my own department and how it affects our department internally and externally. I learned to think systemically about the communications that come from management to our officers, and from the officers to management (Conrad & Poole, 2012). In understanding the systems that the department uses, I’ve been able to better avoid misinterpretations of information with officers.  In completing the communications audit, I have been able to better evaluate how information is conveyed within the department and externally. In several cases, such as with a homicide, a shooting, and an increase in robberies on our campus, it has been helpful in creating spaces where officers and community members felt free to talk with one another and be heard.

Organizational Leadership 505: Organizational Theory
(Dr. Heidi Scott)

Organizational Theory helped decipher parts of my own organization into different frames so that I had other ways to solve problems with the way I saw my own organization and moved through it (Bolman & Deal, 2008). In viewing my own experiences with an organization in which I was highly dissatisfied at the time, I could see where even non-emergency problems were treated in the same way that an emergency would be handled – quickly and with a very top-down structure. Taking this into account, I have worked with others to slow down and build certain organizational pieces in a more participative and creative way. While I am not a Level 5 type of leader as Collins (2001)  described in his “hedgehog concept,” I have worked towards making mission-based decisions and holding people accountable to the mission of our department. I have also worked towards a more humble way of handling my job and the pieces of it that require inputs and critiques from others. This has provided information that I otherwise could not have received from my leaders, officers, and community members.

Organizational Leadership 506: Leadership and Diversity
(Dr. Steven Walker)

My understanding about diversity came from less of a leadership view, but more of an operational view: most of the people we serve at the police department are considered racial or cultural minorities in the United States (Allen, 2010; hooks, 2000). In this class, I was better able to explore my assumptions with regards to race, gender, and economic status and how all of those pieces play into the power structures in communities in the United States. In completing my project on policing and community, I was able to discover certain negative impacts that police can have on those whom we serve most in my community, generally those who are lower income African-Americans. I also was able to find intersections between the police and community members where we could afford each other areas for listening and mutual respect where we can work together. In doing this, I believe that I have been able to help members of my police department better respond to discord in our community. This work has continued, as well, in evaluating our department’s diversity training and officers’ work in the cultural house Adopt-A-Cop programs.

Organizational Leadership 530: Servant Leadership
(Dr. Larry Spears)

Servant Leadership was the reason I chose Gonzaga. The course provided me with a deep understanding in how to recognize servant leadership traits in others and myself (Sipe & Frick, 2009). As it is a philosophy that is deeply steeped in human development theory, as I work to serve others in my own department so that they are able to lead, I am better able to understand where each person is in his or her own development on their leadership journey (Thompson, 2000). As a “Servant Leader In Training,” the course also helped me to understand that the leadership philosophy must constantly be nurtured through constant seeking (Greenleaf, 2000; Horsman, 2015). The course came at a time where our department switched from a command-and-control management group to one that values Servant Leadership. In the year since taking this course, my colleagues and I have worked to serve each other better. We’ve become more nurturing to each other and patient with the officers’ growth processes.

Organizational Leadership 537: Foresight and Strategy
(Dr. John Horsman)

I originally signed up for this course believing that it would be a technical course in how to do strategic planning. Based off of Scharmer’s Theory U (2009), the course provided participants with meditative, spiritual, and collective tools for deep listening and moving a group collectively and creatively towards a goal. I came away from the course with a better understanding that we are called to leadership and that it is a spiritual journey. As leaders, we are meant to connect with the world through its people and through nature. When I find myself feeling as if I am no longer connected to the work I am doing or find that the noise is too much, I move back to nature and take long walks simply to reconnect and listen quietly with love. Because of this class, I have become more thankful for the people with whom I work and work to honor them for their feelings and ideas. I am also learning how to appreciate the collective wisdom of my working groups.

Organizational Leadership 680: Capstone Course
(Dr. Barbara Kinglsey)

To say that it is the end would be a farce. It is the end of the degree program, but not the end of learning. This course is designed to synthesize all of the learning that has taken place throughout the Masters’ program in Organizational Leadership. It has allowed me to review all of my previous classwork. Through that review, I was able to look at a very personal and sometimes chaotic journey as I struggled with myself and the servant leadership philosophy. I remembered the frustration in the earlier classes. However, I could see change and growth into the later ones. This course reminds me that, even though I am nearing the end of this chapter, I am really only beginning.  Rather than being relative for 8-week chunks of fast learning, all of the information in the courses now become fiber woven through the new part of the journey. My project for the class was a presentation on servant leadership and its value in policing at a state-wide law enforcement conference.

Communications Leadership 513: Peacebuilding Through Dialogue in Ireland
(Dr. John Caputo, Dr. Ann Kelleher)

Having grown up with an Irish mother who feared visiting Belfast because she associated everything with the north as violent, I had the privilege to visit Derry and Belfast to see structured and creative peacemaking projects. We learned the value of storytelling and how creating an opportunity for others to speak and be heard creates intersections that become a foundation for relationship (Law, 1993; Sampson, 1993). The course also provided us with evidence as to how disaffected groups of people could turn violent if there is not a positive outlet for them to express their concern and outlets through which they can change their environments peacefully (MacGinty, Muldoon & Ferguson, 2007). Listening, forgiveness, and a willingness to cross our own tribal boundaries to find commonalities with another were keys to providing more peace after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, though there is still sectarian violence in the region. This course became a foundational experience where I had tangible evidence of programs that work to negotiate peaceful living environments for members of disaffected groups. This experience continues to have application as I work in my own community to create understanding between police and members of our community.

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