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Leadership Focus: Social Capital
BY ATHANASIOS “ALEX” ALEXANDROU, PH.D., CORE FACULTY, FRESNO STATE DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY
Leadership Development The California Agricultural Leadership Program (CALP) is designed to enhance the leadership skills of its participants in three different primary areas: personal/individual growth, social/civic engagement and institutional/ community engagement. The program seeks to develop measurable competencies such as skills and knowledge but also competencies that are difficult to measure such as values, self-image, motives and traits (Hay Group, 2003). It uses a diamond model of leadership developed by Dr. Pat Lattore (Fig. 1) which has four interconnected elements that constitute the basics of a leader, namely: doing, current reality, future reality and being.
Doing This dimension of the leader is related to both individual and collective growth. It is based on the skills, competencies and courage that allows the leader to develop qualities that would enhance his/her executive abilities and understanding of his/her surroundings.
Current Reality This dimension of the model allows the participant to develop an understanding of the current challenges that may reside at the individual relationship level and also at a larger institutional or higher level. Both require traits related to an understanding of the cultural and organizational challenges.
Future Reality The leader needs to lead self or the group into the future with actions and decisions that will enhance the element of trust that the followers endow upon the leader. The futuristic element includes a certain degree of uncertainty and needs to include a measure of transparency, thus making the involvement of the stakeholders in the decision-making process necessary. Such involvement will increase the acceptance of the leader’s decisions and indicate that they are willing to create and use social capital.
Being This dimension focuses mostly on the individual and its personal growth. It targets the development of skills that will increase the leader’s emotional intelligence, ability to change, to understand different opinions, question established patterns, communication skills and other similar traits.
The above dimensions of leadership can be used at an individual level, to form and shape character and spirituality at the community and organization levels as figure 1 indicates. In other words, the current model used by CALP nurtures the development of individual sets of skills that can be used to understand how to relate to others and engage with civic functions and social networks. To achieve the above, the CALF Education Team exposes the fellows to leadership theory, effective communication, motivation, critical thinking, change management and emotional intelligence, among others, that contribute to improved performance and “immersion into complex social and cultural issues.” The program uses individual coaching as an important part of the experiences offered.
Social Capital Social capital is a term that has grown in use since the 1990s (Scrivens & Smith, 2013) and today is used in a variety of disciplines including economics, education and politics. The term has been defined in a number of ways based on the discipline and perceptions. Most authors relate social capital with relationships within and between groups, while others consider the concept of social capital as the “productive value of social connections” (Scrivens & Smith, 2013).
Robert Putnam (2000), James Coleman (1998) and Pierre Bourdieu (1996) have contributed significantly to the understanding of the concept of social capital theory. Each author’s view is popular and contributes “to the understanding of how social capital networks provide value, yet the type of networks and the type of value considered in their respective work differs significantly” (Scrivens & Smith, 2013, p. 12).
Scrivens & Smith (2013, p. 8) identified four areas of focus that describe the term social capital, namely: “(1) personal relationships; (2) social network support; (3) civic engagement and (4) trust and cooperative norms” (Fig. 2).
In the context of social capital: 1) Personal relationships can be understood as part of a personal social network which includes the people that the person knows. 2) Social support network can be understood as “a range of different kinds of assistance and advantages facilitated by people’s social ties” (Scrivens & Smith, 2013, p. 25). 3) Perez, Espinoza, Ramos, Coronado and Cortes (2010) defined civic engagement as “providing a social service, activism, tutoring and functionary work” (Perez et al., 2010, p. 245). 4) Trust is a concept difficult to define and related to the way that a person interacts with their peers, institutions and the way he/she views society. It can be described as institutional trust or trust in individuals. Cooperative norms describe the tools and means that individuals and institutions have established and follow in order to communicate and collaborate between themselves. Trust together with cooperative norms support societal functioning and cooperation for mutual socioeconomic advancement.
Social Capital and Leadership Development CALP focuses not only on the personal characteristics of the leader, but also on their leadership skills, accepting that a leader alone will not create successful organizations (Thorpe et al., 2009, p. 202). A successful leader is merged within his/her community, organization and “creates a social process that engages everyone in the community” (Day, 2000, p. 583). “The leader’s task is to get work done through other people, and social skill makes that possible” (Goleman, 2004). In other words, social processes and networks are important in a leadership development program.
The social capital theory offers the tools to better understand the value of social processes and focuses on participation, engagement and trust (Leitch et al., 2013, p. 352). The emphasis is on the relationships developed between individuals or groups, in public or private settings, within and between groups, inter- and intra-organizational. It explains personal relationships, social support networks, civic engagements, and trust and cooperative norms that are necessary in order to build social capital. A leader that understands the above will grow at the individual and collective levels.
For Balkundi and Kilduff (2005, p. 943) “leadership can be understood as social capital that collects around certain individuals—where formally designated as leaders or not—based on the acuity of their social perceptions and the structure of their social ties.” Social capital can be considered a relational development tool that could be used by leadership development programs to create the skills required to build relationships and social networks. Using the above, the fellow will be able to bridge the gap, reach other social groups, develop individual and organizational trust, create synergies and get the job done.
The above are important traits for any leader. The Ag Leadership Program offers a mix of interpersonal skills and social competencies including emotional intelligence. Goleman (2000) states that emotional intelligence has four fundamental capabilities: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social skill. The latter two are directly related to social capital. Although some may suggest that the program in its current form may be skewed towards human capital, significant elements of the social capital theory are already present. These elements need to be further enhanced and strengthened so the program can provide the participants social skills and network traits to become efficient and effective leaders.
Dr. Athanasios “Alex” Alexandrou teaches undergraduate courses in mechanized agriculture at Fresno State. His research focuses on mechanical weed control as part of organic farming, tractor-implement interaction, soil mechanics with particular interest in soil compaction and its assessment. Research interests also include assistive technology for people with disabilities so they will remain engaged in agriculture, technology into the classroom and ancient Greek technology. He joined the industrial technology department in 2006.
ORGANIZATION FUTURE REALITY
Vision, Mission, Purpose, Hopes & Dreams for Future
COMMUNITY DOING
Skills, Capabilities, Competencies, Courage, Building
FEEDBACK & REFLECTION
CURRENT REALITY
Climate, Culture BEING
Inner Self, Confidence, Becoming SPIRITUALITY
CHARACTER
Diamond Model of Leadership.
©1996 P. A. Lattore
Figure 1. The Diamond Model of Leadership (Lattore, 1996).
SOCIAL NETWORKS SUPPORT TRUST AND COOPERATIVE NORMS
SOCIAL CAPITAL
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Figure 2. Social Capital Dimensions (Barcelo Monroy, 2020).
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