The Development of Leaders - Assignment Example

Journal article summary Journal article summary Blancher, Buboltz and Soper, in the first article, discusses content analysis of various research literature published in the Journal of counseling and development over the past years. The content analysis year range starts from volume 74 published in 1996 to volume 84 published in 2006. Moreover, the article examined the frequently published authors and their institutional affiliations. Besides, the research integrated an analysis of the influential factors such as gender, race, and sample. In accomplishing such analysis, the authors employed use of frequency distributions. Finally, Blancher, Buboltz Jr., and Soper, 2010 compared the results obtained with two previous results of content analysis. The previous two results of content analysis originated from a researched conducted between 1989 and 1999. Gibson, Dollarhide and McCaIlum, 2010, in the second article, elaborate the lifetime experiences of former president or presidents-elects who served the American counseling Association departments. The authors focus their research on six of such non-tenured assistant professors who have devoted their service to ACD in the previous years. In conducting the research, Gibson, Dollarhide, and McCaIlum, 2010, engaged the professors by noting their views, shared experiences, and motivations leaders in the counseling profession. The six non-tenured professors also describe their experiences with the reasonable expectations from the universities who expectedly advance them with scholarship opportunities. The literature finally suggests potential future strategies for the new look of counseling leadership. It explores the new avenues of professionalism in counseling based on the experiences inherent from the six non-tenured professors. Introduction Self-assessment has significant benefits in improving an individual’s productivity and designing of plans based on analyzed weaknesses and strengths. The same self-assessment applies to the counseling profession with far much greater benefits. Personalized guidance in professional studies encourages periodical content analysis of present status and future strategies by scholarly individuals. In the counseling profession, JCD has the mandate of such content analysis. JCD acts as a flagship journal that disseminates ideas and information in the relevance to the counseling profession. Editors of journals such as JCD are imperative in revealing the pertinent issues that influence the contemporary society in relation to a particular profession. In the inherent, content analysis, the authors elaborate the relevance and content of JCD in relation to contemporary counseling leadership. Content analysis ensures that documents and publications pass through a strict review process by editors to ascertain their appropriateness, quality, and relevance. Once the process is complete, the editors have the hope that the scripts would address community issues and report as well essential issues within the counseling profession. Gibson, Dollarhide and McCaIlum, 2010, discuss self-assessment strategies that define the development of counselors within the counseling profession. Professional role models in counseling, professional passion, affiliation, identity, and seized opportunities are attributes that define leaders in the counseling profession. Effective counseling leaders always strive to mentor others through professional guidance and empowerment. Mentorship is central to the development of future leaders in the community. Individuals who aspire to become great leaders must consider several factors that determine their development. The factors include stability at workplace, opportunities for mentorship, self-motivation, and organization structure. Cultural alignment also affects the development of leaders in the counseling profession. Individuals who adopt universal cultural theory have the potential of applying their leadership in all aspects of life unlike those who embrace contingent cultural theory. Personality and general mental ability of individuals in the society influences effective leadership. Leadership studies in counseling employ many counselors who have experience in modeling future leaders. Information gathered from them have unlimited value and remains relevant to aspiring leaders. Contrary studies indicate that assistant professors seldom engage in professional service activities. Assistant professors mostly engage in behaviors that reflect traditional scholarship. The researchers acknowledge the presence of non-tenured assistant professors as counselors in the nursing profession owing to few studies that recognized the contributions of the professors. The study also investigates both beliefs and thoughts of the non-tenured professors about counseling profession. Most importantly, the authors examined non-tenured assistant professors’ particular aspects such as mentorship, challenges, leadership training, doctoral experiences, and support conferred to the counseling profession. Methods Blancher, Buboltz, and Soper, 2010 classified several counseling articles that were both non-empirical and empirical through their contribution to JCD. The study examined about 627 articles relating to volumes 74 and 84 between 1996 and 2006. The basis of content categorization of the articles included analysis of previous work and content. Comparison with the previous work ensured consistency within the analysis of the articles. Such uniformity would also present a trend of counseling analysis over the years. However, using previous analysis in the current research contributed to minor variations that researchers modified through examination of the articles. Modifications included professional interviews, special issues, feminism identity, and content type. The authors then used cross-classification method in content analysis of the empirical and non-empirical articles. Cross-classification was possible since the article could fit in more than one content category. Gibson, Dollarhide and McCaIlum, 2010, employ a phenomenological approach in investigating the contributions of non-tenured assistant professors to the counseling profession as either presidents or president-elect of American Counseling Association (ACA). Since the study adopted qualitative research, there was a need to analyze the accompanying biases. The authors accomplished analyses of biases through assessing the relationship between the ideas in the study and the researchers. The research team comprised of a doctoral student as a third member and two or three non-tenured assistant professors who had served in ACA. The study used six participants aged between 35 to 45 years with majority being male than females. Selection of participants embraced factors such as diversity, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, family composition, and geographic representation. Gibson, Dollarhide and McCaIlum, 2010, in their article used grounded theory that demanded purposive sampling or preliminary decisions from the participants. As, a result, the authors sent emails with the general description of the study to participants accompanied by an informed consent form. The researchers then interviewed the participants based on the research guidelines. Gibson, Dollarhide and McCaIlum, 2010, analyzed the data collected through open coding followed by axial coding to establish the study theme. Results On average, the number of empirical and non-empirical articles analyzed by Blancher, Buboltz Jr., and Soper, 2010, for both Volumes 75 and 74 was 17.9. Out of the 627 articles published by JCD, 68 percent represented non-empirical data while 32 percent were empirical articles. The statistics indicate that JCD has developed into a competitive publication outlet. Such development has resulted from 24.8 percent decrease in the number of pages per volume of the published articles. Results of cross-classification indicate that the highest percentages of published articles resulted from research studies, group and individual counseling, consultations, reviews, and methods. Subsequent review of the articles depicts an addition of new categories of articles, which is reflective of globalizing trends in the counseling profession. Additional journals indicate developments in the publication of counseling reports over the years though emphasis on JCD articles has remained constant. After data analysis, Gibson, Dollarhide, and McCaIlum, 2010, identified seven themes, which influenced non-tenured assistant professors decisions in leadership. Educational systems such as the doctoral programs influenced the counselors’ decisions through mentorship. Issues such as tenure and promotion, challenges and support ideas, leadership and professionalism, and reasons for national service also influenced professional decisions made by the instructors. Others influential subjects included influence from existing ACA leaders. Table 1 below indicates themes in counseling profession explored by the researchers. (Adapted from Gibson, Dollarhide and McCaIlum, 2010) Discussions Content analysis of JCD articles enabled researchers to comprehend the development of the counseling profession as shown by contributing authors and editors. The content of JCD published articles has remained stable and has improved insights in emerging trends of counseling as a profession. Gibson, Dollarhide, and McCaIlum, 2010, noted that most of the non-tenured professors participated in ACA presidential elections and had high chances for winning. The study revealed that the education programs at doctoral level influenced the professors’ decisions including passion for counseling and willingness to participate in ACA leadership. In addition to training programs, mentors and role models of the professors also influenced their professional decisions. Urge of giving back to the counseling profession also influenced professional decisions of the assistant professors. Content analysis of counseling and development journals creates insights in improvement of leadership roles in the profession. Analysis of counseling journal articles is imperative in understanding of the contribution of counselors such as non-tenured assistant. It is essential that aspiring counselors acknowledge previous experience through content analysis of published counseling journals. References Blancher, A. T., Buboltz Jr., W. C., & Soper, B. (2010). Content Analysis of the Journal of Counseling & Development Volumes 74 to 84. Journal of Counseling & Development, 88(2), 139–145. Gibson, D. M., Dollarhide, C. T., & McCaIlum, L. J. (2010). Nontenured Assistant Professors as American Counseling Association Division Presidents: The New Look of Leadership in Counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 88(3), 285–292. Read More