INTRODUCTION

Background of the Problem

Leadership is a key factor in the makeup of societies and cultures.  Societies and cultures continuously change. Leadership must also change and adapt to meet the changing needs of institutions and groups within societies.

Of course, leadership comes in many forms and is carried out in many ways. I have found myself in many different leadership roles, most prominently in my family, in education, and in the arts. My family roles include son, spouse, father, and cousin. In institutional educational settings, I have served as a classroom teacher, school principal, college professor, and administrator. As a leader in the arts I have been a band leader, an orchestra conductor, writer, composer, visual artist, teacher, administrator and community leader.

Each context and each role in which I have had leadership has brought successes and challenges. For example, I have been able to successfully teach all levels of institutional education, from kindergarten through university. At the same time, at each level there have been classroom learning difficulties that were not easily met, sometimes not met at all. No matter what the context, I have been part of the context and interacted in the culture.  Continuing with the schooling example, each institution in which I have worked had a unique mix of people, perspectives and traditions with which I interfaced. Likewise, I brought my own unique personhood, perspectives and traditions to each institution and, by necessity, the institution interacted with me. I come to each context as myself, the unique person who I am.   My negotiation of the culture and the culture’s negotiation with me contribute to both the successes and the challenges. Anything that I accomplish or fail to accomplish is connected to myself, to the unique person who I am – my identities – in the context of the environment in which I lead.  I bring, at least, three very important identities to every situation: I am a Black male, I am a Christian, and I am a “creative” in the mold of the jazz avant-garde.

Several examples of these successes and challenges come to mind. In my family, I largely enjoyed good relationships with my children. However, there are occasional conflicts. While I might know the surface reason for the outcome of the situation (e.g. we went to the beach and everyone was happy, or there was disappointment because the trash was not taken out), I am not aware of how my identities may have contributed to the situation or outcomes. That said, I suspect that such a lack of awareness is not unique to me. There are likely leaders in many circumstances who are not aware of how their identities impact or are impacted by a given situation (Ford, 2006).

There have been many attempts to supply leaders with knowledge and resources. Treatises on leadership and studies on the topic have been approached from many perspectives. Subjects such as transformational leadership (J. M. Burns, 1978), servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1970, 2003), and Situational Leadership ® (Hersey et al., 1979), among others (Georgopoulos et al., 1957; Heifetz et al., 2009; House, 1971), advance theories of leadership. In addition to general theories of leadership, some scholars emphasize the importance of the leader as an individual who must develop in ways that are characteristic of their identities and the circumstances in which they lead (Hogg, 2001; Luthans & Avolio, 2003; May et al., 2003). Even more specifically, studies on racial identity (J. M. Hughes, 2013; D. Jenkins, 2019; Williams, 2009), gender identity (Burton & Weiner, 2016; Ford, 2006; J. M. Hughes, 2013; Nash & Moore, 2019), religious identity (Barentsen, 2021; Williams, 2009), are entering the discourse on leadership.

As there is a plethora of theories of leadership, there is also no shortage of definitions of leadership. When attempting to define leadership, scholars have characterized the nature of leadership as essentially universal to humans (Bass, 2007) and a function of social relationships (Stogdill, 1948). Leadership scholars emphasize the process of influence in their definitions, many of which seem to follow Stogdill (1950) who defines leadership as “the process (act) of influencing the activities of an organized group in its efforts toward goal setting and goal achievement” (Stogdill, 1950, p. 4). Yukl (2011) builds on that definition with “[understanding] and [agreeing] about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating…” (Yukl, 2011, p. 8). Northouse (2018) paraphrases Stogdill: “[Leadership is] a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Northouse, 2018, p. 4).

Through a study of 160 works in the literature, Winston and Patterson (2006) constructed a sweeping definition of leadership as “one or more people who selects, equips, trains, and influences one or more follower(s) who have diverse gifts, abilities, and skills and focuses the follower(s) to the organization’s mission and objectives causing the follower(s) to willingly and enthusiastically expend spiritual, emotional, and physical energy in a concerted coordinated effort to achieve the organizational mission and objectives” (Winston & Patterson, 2006, p. 7). By contrast, John Dugan (2017) makes an extensive and compelling review of influential leadership theories in which he identifies characteristics of leadership. However, he intentionally omits a definition of leadership, stating: “The choice not to provide a definition for leadership is a purposeful exercise in restraint to avoid adding yet another set of terms, another semantic differential to the pantheon of preexisting definitions” (Dugan, 2017, p. 26).

This study draws on a broad definition of leadership that, similar to previously cited constructions, includes the concept of influence. Unlike many definitions however, what is used here does not attempt to make conditions like organization, commonality, or shared goals necessary attributes of leadership. Those factors may be present in certain circumstances but they are neither universal nor necessary. I define leadership as the process of influencing and being influenced in dynamic states of social existence. Such a definition provides for both individual and collective relationships in every aspect of human experience (context).

Thinking broadly about social and cultural issues and, specifically, about my leadership contexts, it is necessary for me as a leader to understand the demands of societal and cultural circumstances. I dialogue with my children and other family members about how to navigate a society charged with a potent mixture of nationalism and religious identity (Perry et al., 2023; Whitehead & Perry, 2020). In the classroom, as I teach both pre-service and in-service educators, I engage important conversations with students about understanding identity and positionality and their bearing on teaching practice (Holmes et al., 2021; Kavimandan, 2021). In other working spaces I encourage colleagues to think deeply about diversity, equity and inclusion issues, especially as those issues have both history and currency that bear upon realities in academia (Bell et al., 2021; Subbaraman, 2020). It may be that as leaders better understand their own identity, as it has been shaped by society, culture and subculture, they are better able to lead. They might be better able to identify problems, propose solutions and implement actions that affect positive/necessary changes for the improvement of their contexts.

A study of how I as a leader and a unique individual interact within the cultures of my leadership contexts is part of increasing understanding and growth as a leader. Leaders impact the cultures in which they lead (Fransen et al., 2016; Lovelace, 2019; Romão et al., 2022). Leaders are also impacted by the cultures in which they lead (Akanji et al., 2020; Aydin, 2018).  Leaders must understand the unique identities that they bring to the table and how those identities shape their responses and the responses of people in their leadership contexts.

How do leader interactions within the culture influence leadership effectiveness? How does a leader’s identity influence leadership to meet the demands of the context? Those are important questions that suggest serious implications for leadership. Before those questions can be answered, more fundamental inquiries must be explored. Questions of the how and whys of the interactions themselves, seen through the lenses of identity and culture, must be answered. Once those fundamental issues have been addressed, it is then reasonable to turn to the matter of leadership effectiveness.

Statement of the Problem

Leadership is often understood as dependent on a set of skills and/or traits (Northouse, 2018) that a person ought to possess in order to be a “good” leader. Leadership may also be understood from a personal perspective as being shaped by identity (Hogg, 2001). Individual identity is a product of both the society and the self, of external and internal factors (Bandura, 1999; Batra, 2013; Erikson, 1994; Marcia, 1966; C. Wijeyesinghe & Jackson, 2012). External to the individual, societies have constructed racial identities (Obach, 1999; Smedley & Smedley, 2005). Individuals may also self-identify as a matter of choice. Religious identity may be construed as a choice (Chaudhury & Miller, 2008; Peek, 2005) or ascribed (Ammerman, 2003; Peek, 2005). Individuals construct artistic identities (Lundin, 2019; Travis, 2020).

In terms of my own identities, I believe that my society generally identifies me racially as Black. I choose to discourse in and around Black identity, mostly as a matter of convenience. That is, I go with the identification flow because attempting to continually reframe and explain how and why I identify differently would be both impractical and emotionally exhausting. I add to the Black identity a biological sex identifier: male. That addition is very important because of the particular challenges of being identified as a Black male (A. L. Brown, 2018; Fitzgerald, 2015; T. S. Jenkins, 2006). Such an identity, as assigned, carries particular weight in this present discussion.

In terms of religion, I identify broadly as Christian and more specifically as a member of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Formally organized in the United States in 1863, the Seventh-day Adventist church is a diverse body with 21.9 million members worldwide (General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Office of Archives, Statistics and Research, 2022). Members of the Seventh-day Adventist church in North America identify as White (54%), Black (19%), Hispanic (8%), Asian & Pacific (5%), and Multi Ethnic & Other (14%) (Center for Creative Ministry, 2018).

I also have an artistic identity. I have taken up musical art as a cultural practice. Within that practice, I was trained in the jazz avant-garde subculture.  As such, I identify as a jazz avant-garde artist. As I examine myself as a person and as a leader, the identities that are most prominently highlighted are my Black male identity, my Christian identity, and my identity as an artist in the jazz avant-garde cultural tradition.

Each of those identities has features that contribute to my successes and challenges in leadership. Taken together, those identities are important in both their combination and in their interaction(s) in the leadership context, ranging from full and prominent engagement to distant, if invisible obscurity.  I am aware that I have been and am interacting in leadership contexts. However, I have previously been unaware of how my identities are impacting the interactions and outcomes – how those identities are contributing to the successes and challenges of myself and those who are in my leadership contexts.

As I reflect on a lifetime of over 40 years of leadership experiences, it occurs to me that I have had many successes and many challenges as a Black male, Seventh-day Adventist, Black jazz avant-gardist. It also occurs that my leadership journey has been at the same time unique and part and parcel of cultural dynamics. I believe that I have been positioned by God to take time out from leadership to study and grow in understanding of the unique ways in which He has gifted me. However, I believe that my growth as a leader and my effectiveness in who I am cannot move toward fullness until I have a better understanding of how and why I have been successful or unsuccessful in my experiences. One way to understand that success is by conducting this study – a study of self in context, a study of self in identity, a study of what is now unknown about how who I am interacts with the world in and around me.

Pupose of the Study

The purpose of this work is to describe and explore experiences of leadership as a Black male, who is a Christian in the Seventh-day Adventist tradition and who approaches leadership from creative, non-traditional frameworks via the jazz avant-garde. The research is offered as a means to improve my own leadership and as a contribution to leaders who might benefit from themes or points in the study that are salient to their life and work. In particular, this study seeks to give voice to Black leaders by presenting creative means for understanding practice with a variety of cultural contexts.

The questions that will guide this study are:

1. What successes and challenges have I experienced as a leader?

2. How have my successes and challenges been shaped by my identities?

3. How do my leadership experiences reflect interaction between myself and society?

4. What lessons can be learned from my experiences?

Methodology

This research uses the qualitative methodology of autoethnography. The study primarily uses personal narrative to facilitate inquiry into leadership and identities in societal, institutional and cultural contexts. The challenge of examining multifaceted, intersecting identities that include significant artistic features are explored through layered accounts of my experience, including traditional textual and non-textual sources, including music and visual art (Barone & Eisner, 2011). Such an approach to research provides means for representing the complexities of identity in culture in ways that both reflect the nuances of social identity and make this research accessible (Ellis & Adams, 2014, p. 264) to persons/communities that might otherwise see themselves as undervalued, if not devalued, in traditional academic discourses.

Significance of the Study

This study offers a unique perspective on leadership. It provides views that illustrate how leadership works from my identities. It also affords insight into how people and culture in the contexts of leadership engagement impact the leader both directly and indirectly. The study adds to the literature a voice that tells underrepresented stories. Both leaders in the mainstream and those at the margins can benefit from this work.

A review of academic and popular literature reveals that there is little or nothing that provides guidance on the impacts of and to leadership outcomes from a Black male, Christian, avant-gardist perspective. Nevertheless, as I reflect on my own leadership through the lens of my identities, I believe that I could benefit from a rigorous study of leadership through my identities.

Other leaders could also benefit from accounts of my leadership. This study seeks to give voice to the underlying hows and whys of successes and challenges of leadership at the intersection of Black male identity, Seventh-day Adventist Christianity and the jazz avant-garde. As the study explores my leadership experiences, it sheds light on the hows and whys of the interactions in my leadership practice. Understanding those hows and whys scaffolds success in future endeavors. Understanding the hows and whys helps to navigate around pitfalls and to avoid past mistakes. Understanding agreements and conflicts between identity and culture could lead to more harmonious shared existence in all contexts. Moreover, these understandings are not only beneficial for myself, they are also profitable for leaders in any field, especially family, education and the arts.

Limitations and Delimitations

One limitation of the study is that it focuses on narrow bands of culture and identity, namely Seventh-day Adventist Christianity and the jazz avant-garde, that have features that might not be transferable to broader population segments. Another limitation is that my memories of events and circumstances might be incomplete or even faulty. It is possible that I have forgotten or added details to memories. Such is the case with any study that requires human recall. Likewise, there might be certain biases in either my memories or my interpretation of events and circumstances. Again, bias is necessarily a part of any human narrative. I have done my best to be appropriately transparent in the narratives and allow them to be subject to scrutiny and critique by family, friends and scholarly colleagues.

Delimitations of the study include investigation of a subset of my experiences within societies and cultures described, as those experiences relate to my own leadership roles. Artifacts of those roles, journals, notes, correspondence, memories, and artwork in various comprise sources of data that are analyzed and explained.

Definition of Terms

jazz avant-garde – a movement in Black American music, characterized by freedom of expression (sometimes called ‘free jazz’) and departure from traditional theoretical conventions of Western music (e.g. form, rhythm, meter, melody, harmony); unconventional creativity as a site of resistance to racial oppression.

Seventh-day Adventist – a movement in Western Christianity whose adherents affirm Jesus the Christ as God and personal Savior, believe that the seventh day of the week is Saturday and that that day was created and set aside by God as a holy day of rest in perpetuity, and that Jesus the Christ is the Messiah whose imminent coming (advent) will usher in an eternal age of perfected, unspoiled existence.

Media and Organization of the Study

This study is, fundamentally, a work of arts-based research. It employs prose, poetry, music, and visual art as fundamental ways of knowing, analysis, creating meaning, and understanding. Media are integrated throughout the work. Those media should be read as one reads text; they are _not_ to be conceived as supporting artifacts or in any way ancillary to the other textual components of the work. In fact, it might be argued that the media have primacy or are more salient to the research both by virtue of the topic (i.e. the jazz avant-garde) and because, as an artist, my primary means for making sense of the world is through the arts. That said, every effort has been made to include textual context for the media in consideration of those who engage this work with less experience with or preference for “reading” art.

The foregoing considerations of art and media present special challenges for publishing studies of this nature. For example, it is impossible for a print version to convey the meanings inherent in the audio and video components of the work. Moreover, even though traditional academic publishing now incorporates electronic delivery methods, the designs and implementations of those methods tend to mimic the attributes of print publishing which, again, present appreciable technical limitations for delivery of high-quality media experiences.

As a means to both provide a rich media experience and to satisfy the requirements of academic publishing, this dissertation is furnished in two formats:

1. An online version at https://andrews.edu/go/dissertations/michael_gayle This version is recommended as the best articulation of the study. The online version most closely represents my intents in storytelling, analysis, and making meaning.

2. A PDF version for traditional print and print-style publication. Points at which audio and video media exist in the online version are indicated by this media   icon throughout the PDF.

While such an arrangement is not ideal, it is my best attempt to satisfy the requirements for academic publishing. Once again, it is highly recommended that the online version be understood as the most “authoritative” version of the study.

The original music, visual art, and poetry were created specifically for and in the process of the present research. The study also includes sourced material for which the creators and/or rights holders are credited. All original material included in this dissertation (text, images, photos, music, audio, and video) is under copyright with all rights reserved by the author of this dissertation, Michael Scott Gayle. Other materials are under copyright by the original creators and/or rights holders and included here within the guidelines of Fair Use for educational purposes.

The study is organized in six chapters. Chapter 1 presents the background and problem of leadership at the margins of societies and cultures. The first chapter also provides the purpose, significance, limitations and delimitations. Definitions of terms of the study are also included in Chapter 1.

Chapter 2 offers a review of the literature as a rationale for the appropriateness of autoethnography as a method to study leadership experiences of a Black male, Seventh-day Adventist, jazz avant-gardist.

Chapter 3 describes how this work uses autoethnography as a methodology to study the research questions about leadership experiences via data collection, storytelling and analysis, validation and ethical considerations.

Chapter 4 provides background information as context for the experiences on which the study focuses. Also in the fourth section, I discuss my identities and identity formation with respect to both my early experiences and several leading identity theories.

Chapter 5 presents stories of experience – the experiences that form the basis for the research. The stories are at once data, inquiry and analysis, shaped by the research questions and, in turn, providing sites for reflection and understanding.

Chapter 6 brings the identity experiences described and explored in the stories forward into the present. The sixth section is reflection space where both the author and the reader foreground salient questions that emerge from the research. There is a type of research art gallery where the visitor may draw understanding, meaning, and enquiry from the study on their inner walls.