Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• McLerren, Ronald

Titel

Conscious leadership: Exploration of the individuation process in corporate America

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2004

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The purpose of this project is to explore the role of the individual (and specifically, the individuation process) and conscious leadership in regaining a connection to self and soul, with the hope of identifying a “road map” that others can follow in the reclamation of values and meaning in corporate America as a whole. My study explores, via personal interviews with eight corporate representatives, our present economic model and the central leadership tenets used to sustain this model. The subject matter covered with the interviewees centered on twenty-one questions designed to answer four guiding questions. The research methodology used is a heuristic-influenced model of qualitative research. In addition, the study examines how and in what ways each of the individuals interviewed has brought meaning to both their personal and professional lives, and how they have progressed in their own attempt to live a more conscious life. The ultimate objective of the study was to identify sustainable bridges to self-authenticity and true self-discovery, in the hopes of developing a road map that others could follow in their own journey toward “reclamation” of their individual lives. My initial motivation for creating this project grew out of an ever-increasing frustration with the lack of meaning I felt working at a certain level within corporate America. I believe this perceived loss of meaning is why many of the central tenets surrounding our existing business models, and the associated leadership principles use to sustain these models, have come under increasing scrutiny, as evidenced by recent cases of ethical improprieties, litigation and even criminal charges against major U.S. corporations and their leaders. The outcome of the study shows a split between the top executives of corporations and those consulting, teaching or working at a lower level of these organizations. The executives, without exception, supported the present growth-oriented economic model and rejected the notion that our present Western economic model is not sustainable in the twenty-first century. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the consultants and teachers working with American corporations supported my basic premise and agreed that our present Western economic model is not sustainable moving into the twenty-first century, and that both major changes in our approach and a shift in values are required to survive.