AN INVESTIGATION INTO PERSPECTIVISM AS IT RELATES TO LEADERS

DEVELOPING LEADERS IN CHRISTIAN CAMPING INTERNATIONAL,

LATIN AMERICA

by

Lisa Anderson-Umana

B.S., Penn State University, 1982

Master of Arts, Wheaton College Graduate School, 1993

FINAL PROJECT

Submitted to the faculty

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
ME 9250 Leadership Development and Culture, Jim Plueddemann
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Educational Studies
at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Deerfield, Illinois
July 2008
 CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

Chapter

1. THE PROBLEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Statement of problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Background of the problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Statement of hypothesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Definition of terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Conceptual assumptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Scope and delimitations of the study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Stages of perspective or role-taking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Role taking as a part of transformative learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Role-taking cross referenced with the stages of collectivism

vs. individualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Literature related to leaders developing other leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Brief summary of literature reviewed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Instrumentation and procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

iii
 Methodological assumptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Data processing and analysis related to perspectivism (questions 1-13) . . 30

Data processing and analysis related to

leadership development (questions 14-24) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Limitations to this study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

4. RESEARCH FINDINGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Summary of research question and methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Summary of findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Observations of the findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Relationship between Stages and leadership development. . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

General Trends noted in the findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Reoccurring themes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Inferences drawn from the observations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Interpretation of findings in relation to theory and review of literature . . . . 39

5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Brief summary of Chapters I, II, III, IV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Discussion points for the next Board of Directors

meeting (Oct. 15-19, 2008) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Further questions for study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

REFERENCES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

iv
 ILUSTRATIONS

Figure Page

1. Broader perspective leaders develop more leaders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. Image of an ego-centric individualistic perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3. Image of an in-group (family) centric collectivistic perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4. Image of an ethno-centric collectivistic perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

5. Image of a world-centric individualistic/collectivistic perspective . . . . . .. . . . . . 24

6. Sample score for subject Carlos Baca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

7. Leaders develop leaders at each of the Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

8. Sigmoid Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

v
 TABLES

Table Page

1. Negative impact of hidden and null curriculum on CCI/LA's leadership image . . 3

2. Characteristics of New Testament servant leadership (Compiled by Chin 2006) . . . . 8

3. Review of Developmental assumptions regarding human development (Crain, 1985) 11

4. Core assumptions as they relate to leadership and its development . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5. Comparison of the stages of role taking, moral reasoning, and cognitive development . . 15

6. Social-cognitive stages (Selman et al. 1983), cross-referenced with the stages of

collectivism vs. individualism and leadership (Plueddemann 2008 in press) . . . . . 22

7. Some signs that leaders are developing other leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

8. Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

9. Questionnaire used in study of perspectivism and leadership development . . . . . . . 28

10. Time plan of research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

11. Summary of answers related to subject’s Stage of perspective and number of actions
taken toward developing other leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

vi
 CHAPTER I: THE PROBLEM

Statement of problem

“We have no direction.” We have little clarity in what our roles are, apart

from the instructors, no one really knows what to do.” Spoken by a Panamanian member of

the Association of Christian Camping International, Latin America (CCI/LA).

“We do not delegate well, we do it all ourselves just to be sure it is done well.

Moreover, we know what we have to do but since we have not made it explicit, we cannot

really delegate the work to others. Spoken by the team of leaders from CCI/LA in Costa

Rica.

“We need new leaders, the ones who have been around a while are ready to

take a back seat but there is no one to take our place so we continue to do what we have

always done.” Spoken by CCI/LA leaders from Guatemala and El Salvador.

“We are experiencing relational problems amongst our instructors causing a

number of them to desert the team.” Shared by the President of the CCI/LA National Board

of Directors in Peru.

These comments were made at CCI/LA’s Leadership Summit, May 22-25,

2008, where thirty of its core leaders gathered for four days of inspiration and learning. The

author, who serves as one of six full-time staff members concluded : “We are the association

leaders but we recognize we have a leadership problem. We are not performing up to our

own standards of leadership, much less are we developing other leaders who do.”

1
 2

Background of the problem

CCI/LA is an association which differs greatly from a business company. An

association is made up of members who voluntarily pay a yearly due to join. Besides

acquiring a sense of belonging, they receive benefits and are able to give shape to the

association by the expertise and contacts they bring to it. Networking and sharing resources

and ideas are among the key benefits. Of the twenty or so CCI associations around the

world, the majority of their leaders are volunteers and the few staff members are often

missionaries who raise their own support because of the inadequacy of dues and charges for

services to sustain paid personnel. The leadership of a business company is top down and

not dependent on the whims and wishes of volunteers to execute their plans (Bruneau 2008).

CCI/LA decentralized in the early 1990’s from being one central office run by

two missionaries to forming national offices in various Latin American countries, held

together by volunteers. This created more dependency on its volunteer leaders and weakened

the central office, thus provoking a greater sense of autonomy and independence among the

National Associations. This, in turn, seemed to feed an already nationalistic fervor causing

some to lose sight of the broader perspective of belonging to CCI Latin America as a whole.

In 1992 CCI/LA embarked on a program to form instructors throughout

Mexico, Central and South America (Anderson 1993). The focus has been to create in each

country where CCI/LA operates a team of instructors motivated and equipped to teach its

core curriculum consisting of five workbooks for forming camp counselors, program

directors and Bible study curriculum developers. Fifteen years of work has yielded 167

instructors, who have taught approximately 400 courses, which have trained 8000 some local
 3

church or para-church leaders, who as a result have programmed Christ-centered camps for

almost one million campers in eleven different countries of Latin America.

Just like every virtue has its shadow side, every curriculum has its unintended

or hidden curriculum which refers to those unintended outcomes of the explicit instructional

agenda. In addition, what CCI/LA has not taught, which Eisner (1994) calls the null

curriculum, has had some negative consequences. Table 1 describes the manner in which

both the hidden and null curriculum have negatively impacted CCI/LA’s leadership image.

Table 1 Negative impact of hidden and null curriculum on CCI/LA's leadership image
Unintended outcomes of CCI/LA’s Negative impact on CCI/LA’s leadership image
training curriculum described by
quotes from its leaders
“We must protect CCI/LA’s name, This attitude hinders the formation of strategic alliances with those
we do not want our brand stolen or graduates of courses who started in CCI/LA but have felt led to branch
misused.” out into other ministries or set up their own camp related ministries.
“We know about camping because Response of some campsite personnel: “You may know the theory but I
we are graduates of CCI/LA’s live and breath camping 24/7.” CCI/LA cuts itself off from gaining the
Institute for Forming Instructors.” valuable expertise of practitioners.
“I am ready and equipped to teach CCI/LA’s explicit curriculum has focused on training trainers so its null
courses, who needs a National curriculum has “taught” its leaders the relative unimportance of a
Association anyway?” structure to sustain and support the ministry, i.e. a National Association.
“The core of CCI/LA is training, CCI/LA has focused on its strength—training—which is but one
that is what we do best.” component of leadership development (McCauley and Van Volser
2004). Networking one camp with another is a core part of being an
association and there are plenty of camps in Latin America who are
running excellent programs who have never heard of CCI/LA.
Therefore CCI/LA does not benefit from them nor do they benefit other
camps through the forum for sharing an association creates.
“In CCI/LA we have created our Unintentionally this reads: “If you do not follow our way of doing
own camping philosophy and modo things, it is not as good or second best.”
de proceder or way of doing things Camp leaders may feel forced to choose “CCI/LA’s way” or “their way”
(Lowney 2003). as if it is a choice between good and bad. Many experienced camp
leaders reject and rebel due to the projected “our way or the highway”
and therefore may not get involved in CCI/LA which represents a loss of
their vital input and participation in the association.

Statement of hypothesis Figure 1 Broader perspective leaders develop more

leaders
In light of these problems, the
perspective

hypothesis to be studied is: Broader perspective

leaders develop more or better leaders (see Figure1).

Leaders developed
 4

Definition of terms

Since the hypothesis guides the research to measure perspective horizons and

the effectiveness of leadership development in the context of Latin America, the following

definitions will be understood:

Culture. The anthropological use of the term refers to “the collective

programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people

from another” (Hofstede and Hofstede 2005, 400). A somewhat broader definition defines

culture as “the more or less integrated systems of ideas, feelings, and values and their

associated patterns of behavior and products shared by a group of people who organize and

regulate what they think, feel, and do” (Hiebert 1985, 30).

Whenever reference is made to societies collectively, such as “Western” or “Latin

American,” the author acknowledges that there is substantial diversity within these regions
and that the use of such terms is justified only for convenience. In addition, identification of
cultural differences between societies inevitably runs the risk of overgeneralization, since no
group of people is completely harmonious and different groups may share commonalities.
Yet the definition of culture itself hinges on the recognition of common values and norms
that bind groups of people together, but which at the same time distinguish them from other
groups. Dimmock and Walter 2005, 107.

Anthropologists (Hall 1981), social scientists (House et al. 2005), business

men (Trompenaars and Turner 1997), educators (Dimmock and Walter 2005) and cultural

experts and consultants (Lanier 2000, Sorti 1999) have observed different cultures and

created categories to describe these patterns of thought and behavior. Hofstede cautions one

to remember that explicit cultural dimensions do not exist in and of themselves, they are tools

which help analyze a situation and may or may not bring clarity—one should not reify them.

On the other hand, while “cultural features may mask finer points of details and difference,

they enable groups of people to gain identity” (Dimmock and Walker 2005, 8).
 5

One of these categories or cultural dimensions describes notions of personal

identity on a continuum of individualism/collectivism.

Collectivism “stands for a society in which people from birth onward are

integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to

protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty” (Hofstede and Hofstede 2005, 399).

“The communitarian culture sees the group as its end and improvements to individual

capacities as a means to that end” (Trompenaars and Turner 1998, 59).

In-group collectivism Trompenaars and Turner (1998) added the concept of

in-group collectivism by noting that different individuals feel a greater sense of identification

with different groups, for instance, the Japanese identify strongest with the corporation or

institution, the Irish with the Catholic church, and Latin Americans with their family. House

et al. (2004) further elucidate this distinction by awarding separate scores to institutional

collectivism and in-group collectivism. Their studies reveal that most of Latin America and

African countries tend toward in-group collectivism in which there are close ties among

family members, people are concerned with others, are respectful of authority, and have

fewer rules” (House et al. 2004, 473); they are family-centric.

Indivdualism “stands for a society in which the ties between individuals are

loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family

only” (Hofstede and Hofstede 2005, 401). “The individualist culture sees the individual as

‘the end’ and improvements to communal arrangements as the means to achieve it”

(Trompenaars and Turner 1998, 59).

 6

Perspective or role taking. The ability to view the world (including the self)

from another’s perspective—is explicitly social-interpersonal in requiring the ability to infer

another’s capabilities, attributes, expectations, feelings, and potential reactions. However,

taking another’s perspective implies the ability to differentiate the other’s view from one’s

own, and the ability to shift, balance, and evaluate both perceptual and cognitive object input,

all of which is clearly cognitive. Role taking is a prototypical social-cognitive skill (Selman

1971b, 1722) and it occurs in stages. These stages will be further described in Chapter II.

Perspective horizon. Plueddemann (2008, in press) suggests the existence of

stages of individualism and collectivism in relationship to one’s perspective or role-taking.

His chapter entitled Cross-cultural leadership dilemmas in emerging missions: Implications

of individualism and collectivism describes how the worldview of leaders develops in phases

as horizons expand from ego-centric individualism, to in-group (family)-centric collectivism,

to ethno-centric collectivism to world-centric collectivism. Plueddemann illustrates how

“just as a stone makes ever-widening ripples in a smooth pond, so the horizons of leaders

grow as their perspectives expand” (Plueddemann 2008, in press). The author perceives the

broadening of one’s perspective horizon as analogous to how Google Earth ® works. The

satellite camera zooms in to provide a close-up of a person (ego-centric view), then

progressively zooms out to see the house and neighborhood (in-group--family-centric view),

then it zooms out further still to encompass a view of the entire nation (ethno-centric view)

until finally the camera zooms out to reveal the entire globe (world-centric view). Chapter II

contains further description as to the development of worldview in leaders from this

perspective.
 7

Christian Camping International. Known by its initials, CCI is an alliance of

Christian camping associations throughout the world, helping each association to be more

effective in serving its membership of Christ-centered camps, conference and retreat

ministries, to the glory of God and for the building up of his Church. CCI operates through

19 national/regional associations in more than 26 countries around the world (Bolin 2008).

The regional association in charge of serving the interests and members of the Spanish-

speaking countries of the Americas is called CCI/Latin America, abbreviated CCI/LA. The

author serves as a missionary in the role of Director of Leadership Development for the

region of CCI/LA.

National Association. The regional association of CCI/LA encompasses

twenty some countries that make up Mexico, Central and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean

Islands and countries of South America (Brazil has its own CCI association). Where CCI/LA

operates with a distinguishable team of leaders in a given country is called a National

Association.

The second variable of this study’s hypothesis relates to leadership and its

development. Given the number of publications that exist on leadership, it would appear that

each author defines leadership in his or her own unique manner. “Leadership is an enigma—

a puzzle within a puzzle. It has an ‘I know it when I see it’ feel, yet there is no single,

comprehensive definition that encompasses all divergent views about leadership” (House et

al. 2004, 51).

Biblical definition of leader. Table 2 shows the characteristics of New

Testament servant leadership (Compiled by Chin 2006) as compared with GLOBE’S

culturally implicit theories of leadership (House et al. 2004).

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Table 2: Characteristics of New Testament servant leadership (Compiled by Chin 2006)

# Seven Seven Five social Six spiritual GLOBE’s six culturally
qualifications undesirable qualifications qualifications implicit theories of leadership
for leadership: traits (a study of the relationship of
A leader must… A leader is… The leader… culture to conceptions of
A leader must leadership)
…
1 Be above Not be To be the husband Should love what is Charismatic/ Value-based:
reproach (1 Tim. addicted to of one wife (1 Tim. good (Tit. 1:8) Visionary, inspirational, self-
3:2; Tit. 1:6-7) wine (1 Tim. 3:2; Tit. 1:7) sacrifice, integrity, decisive,
3:3; Tit. 1:7) performance-oriented. (This
was the only universally
desirable leadership style).
2 Have a desire Not Able to manage his Should not be a Team-oriented: Effective team
for the office of pugnacious (1 own household new convert (1 building and implementation
elder (1 Tim. Tim. 3:3; Tit. well (1 Tim. 3:4) Tim. 3:6) of common purpose,
3:1) 1:7) diplomatic.
(This was the second most
desirable leadership style.)
3 Be temperate (1 Not Not to have any Must not carry any Participative: Involve others
Tim. 3:2; Tit. contentious (1 children who do obvious prejudice in decision making and
1:8) Tim. 3:3) not believe in and should be just implementing.
Christ (Tit. 1:6) before God (Tit. (This style was seen as
1:8) acceptable in some societies
and not so acceptable in
others.)
4 Be prudent (1 Not in love To be hospitable Must hold fast the Humane-oriented: Supportive
Tim. 3:2; Tit. with money (1 both to believers faithful Word (Tit. and considerate leadership,
1:8) Tim. 3:3) and unbelievers 1:9) compassion, generosity.
(Tit. 1:8) (This style was seen as
acceptable in some societies
and not so acceptable in
others.)
5 Be respectable Not fond of To have a good Should be able to Autonomous: Independent and
(1 Tim. 3:2) sordid gain reputation with teach (1 Tim. 3:2) individualistic leadership.
(Tit. 1:7) those outside the (This style was seen as
believing acceptable in some societies
community (1 Tim. and not so acceptable in
3:7) others.)
6 Have self- Not self-willed Ensuring safety and security
control (Tit. 1:8) (Tit. 1:7) of leader, self-centered, status
concerned, face saver.
(This style was universally
undesirable.)
7 Be gentle (1 Not quick-
Tim. 3:3) tempered (Tit.
1:7)

This series of lists begs to be reread a second in order to answer the question:

Which part of the Biblical definition of a leader differs from what the Bible expects of every

believer? Almost without exception, every characteristic listed is also required of each and
 9

every growing believer. This comparison highlights two of this study’s assumptions outlined

in Table four: (1) indispensable need for spiritual formation in the life of a leader and (2)

every Christian can and should be a leader in some sphere of their lives.

After reading the Globe leadership styles, it is odd to imagine that all of these

styles would not be very desirable, that some cultures view with suspicion a leader while

others glamorize and even idolatrize them.

Depending on how one defines leadership determines how one does

leadership development, which in turn informs those leaders how to develop others in a

similar manner.

Leadership. For the purpose of the study “good leadership is the spiritual gift

of harmonizing, enhancing and focusing the spiritual gifts of others toward a common vision

of the Kingdom of God” (Plueddemann 2003, 1). Components of Plueddemann’s definition

coincide with the tasks of leadership as espoused by the Center for Creative Leadership

(McCauley and Van Velsor 2004, 2) which are setting direction (determining the common

vision), creating alignment (harmonizing and enhancing), and maintaining commitment in

groups of people who share common work (focusing).

Absent from this definition is the “dominant worldwide assumption that

leaders have the responsibility and power to control people” (Plueddemann 2003, 1). Present

in the definition is the notion that people work best with a common vision (Katzenbach and

Smith 2003) and are driven by that vision as Collins discovered in his level five leaders

(Collins 2001).

Leadership development. In the simplest terms, leadership development is the

expansion of a person’s capacity to be effective in these leadership tasks, roles and processes.
 10

How is it done? By a creative combination of three factors—assessment, challenge and

support (McCauley and Van Velsor 2004, 2, 3). McCauley and Van Velsor clarify:

These are the elements that combine to make developmental experiences more
powerful. We know that although leaders learn primarily through their experiences,
not all experiences are equally developmental. For example, the first year in a new
job is usually more developmental than the fifth or sixth year. Working with a boss
who gives constructive feedback is usually more developmental than working with
one who does not. A training program that encourage lots of practice and helps
participants examine mistakes is usually more developmental than one that provides
information but no practice. Situations that stretch an individual and provide both
feedback and a sense of support are more likely to stimulate leader development than
situations that leave out any of these elements. You can make any experience—a
training program, an assignment, a relationship—richer and more developmental by
making sure that the elements of assessment, challenge and support are present (2004,
3).

Conceptual assumptions

Developmentalism as a school of thought undergirds this study’s concept of

the various stages of perspective or role taking (Selman 2003; Flavell 1968) as well as

leadership development which believes leadership can be taught (Parks 2005; McCauley and

Van Velsor 2004). The approach that leaders can be taught contrasts somewhat with the

more traditional understandings of leadership which focus on personality or trait

characteristics like charisma, task or skill competence, situation analysis, or transactions of

power and influence. Table 3 outlines the core assumptions of developmentalism as they

relate to the stages of perspective or role-taking.

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Table 3 Review of Developmental assumptions regarding human development (Crain, 1985)

1 Human beings develop through a series of stages. Each stage is qualitatively different than the other
stages.
2 The stages are structured wholes, in that they are not just isolated responses but are general patterns of
thought that will consistently show up across many different kinds of issues.
3 Development occurs through an invariant (unchangeable) sequence of stages. They do not skip stages or
move through them in mixed-up orders. Not all people necessarily reach the highest stages; they might
lack intellectual stimulation. But to the extent they do go through the stages, they proceed in order, not
skipping stages or mixing up the order.
4 Stages can be characterized as hierarchic integrations, like a pyramid in that they build on one another.
People do not lose the insights gained at earlier stages, but integrate them into new, broader frameworks.
Each stage is a reorganization of, rather than a mere addition to, the previous stage.
5 Stages are cross-cultural universals. In the case of Kohlberg (1968), he contends that although different
cultures do teach different beliefs, his stages refer not to specific beliefs but to underlying modes of
reasoning, which have remained consistent through testing in other cultures. At the same time, people in
different cultures seem to move through the sequence at different rates and to reach different end-points.
6 Kohlberg says that his stages are not the product of maturation. That is, the stage structures and sequences
do not simply unfold according to a genetic blueprint; the forward moving sequence is not wired into the
genes.
7 In the case of Kohlberg, he maintains that his stages are not the product of socialization. That is,
socializing agents (e.g., parents and teachers) do not directly teach or transfer to another new forms of
thinking.
8 For Kohlberg, the stages of moral reasoning emerge, instead, from our own thinking about moral
problems. Social experiences do promote development, but they do so by stimulating our mental
processes. As we get into discussions and debates with others, we find our views questioned and
challenged and are therefore motivated to come up with new, more comprehensive positions. New stages
reflect these broader viewpoints.
9 In stage development, subjects cannot function mentally, socially or reason morally at a stage more than
one stage beyond their own. Stages cannot be skipped.
10 In stage development, movement through the stages is effected when cognitive disequilibrium is created,
that is, when a person's cognitive outlook is not adequate to cope with a given moral or social dilemma.
For example, in the area of moral reasoning, the person must feel some conflict or indecision over what is
the right or moral action (Selman and Lieberman 1975).
11 In stage development, since individuals are cognitively attracted to reasoning one level above their own
present predominant level, exposure to moral reasoning slightly more evolved than his own may facilitate
development to the next stage (Selman and Lieberman 1975).
12 It is quite possible for a human being to be physically mature but not morally, cognitively or socially
mature.

Table 4 outlines the core assumptions as they relate to leadership and its

development.
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Table 4: Core assumptions as they relate to leadership and its development

1 Leadership is not learned through classroom instruction, academic institutions or training courses—by
seminars teaching theories of leadership or learning elaborate management techniques; but through
disequilibrating experiences (see point #10 in Table 3). Most of the time leadership development is
promoted through what educators call disorienting dilemmas (Mezirow and Associates 1990).
2 Leadership is a spiritual gift mentioned in Romans 12:8, meaning to provide for others or to give aid. The
list of spiritual gifts in I Corinthians 12:28 uses the word administration, or guidance or those who get
others to work together, depending on the translation. “The Holy Spirit gives all the gifts necessary to
provide leadership for His people. In an important sense, God is the only leader. We are all His servants”
(Plueddemann 2008, in press).
3 Every person functions as a leader in some sphere of their life. “In the course of their lives, most people
must take on leadership roles and participate in leadership processes in order to carry out their
commitments to larger social entities—the organization in which they work, the social or volunteer groups
of which they are a part, the neighborhood in which they live, and the professional groups with which they
identify. …The person may have a formal role with a title or they may have an informal role. …So, rather
than classify people as “leaders” or “nonleaders” and focusing on developing only “leaders”, the
assumption is that all people can learn and grow in ways that make them more effective in the various
roles and processes they take on (McCauley and Van Velsor 2004, 3).
4 The debate on whether people are born leaders or formed misses the point. “No doubt, leadership capacity
has its roots partly in genetics, partly in early childhood development, and partly in adult experience. The
point is that people can develop the important capacities that facilitate their effectiveness in leadership
roles and processes (McCauley and Van Velsor 2004, 3).
5 Leadership development and personal development are intricately linked. For the Christian, spiritual
formation is personal and character development. Willard defines spiritual formation “as the process
through which those who love and trust Jesus Christ effectively take on his character. …Becoming Christ-
like never occurs without intense and well-informed action on our part (italics his). This in turn cannot be
reliably sustained outside of a like-minded fellowship” (2006, 80).
Therefore, an underlying assumption is that regular, carefully planned and sustained over time spiritual
exercises or disciplines are vital to a leaders development, as has been documented by Lowney’s (2003)
study of the best practices of the 450-year-old company that changed the world (The Jesuits).
6 Leadership is formed in community. As Willard’s quote points out, how growth in Christlikeness cannot
be reliably sustained outside of a like-minded fellowship, likewise, “there can be no leadership without a
sense of community. Without community, one merely has gifted individualists doing what is right in their
own eyes. Lone Rangers cannot build on the complementary gifts of others” (Plueddemann 2003, 1).
7 Being a successful leader in one culture does not guarantee that one will be a successful leader in another
culture given the fact that different cultures have special ways of thinking about vision, strategy, the
situation and worldview (Hofstede 2005). Since leadership is not culture free, but rather culturally
defined. Even if one claims that they are teaching a “Biblical model” of leadership, they may not realize
that the way they read the Bible is already influenced by their cultural theories about leadership
(Plueddemann 2008, in press).

Scope and delimitations of the study

The jury is still out on one definitive, universal, ageless model of leadership

development (Bass 1990) so this study is an initial attempt for CCI/LA to put its ear to the

ground to listen to the voices of those currently involved in leading its National Associations

as well as to listen to a selected number of published voices on leadership development. The

 13

focus zooms in on two aspects: (a) the point of view, perspective or role taking of the

CCI/LA leader currently active in the affairs of their National Association and (b) whether or

not they are presently involved in developing the leadership of others.

Such a brief incursion in the expansive field of leadership only wets the

appetite for further investigation. One may be compelled to read any and everything ever

written on leadership in hopes of finding the Holy Grail, but “the one best way” is a

yearning, not a fact (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner 1998, 14). The image portrayed in

the ancient fable (Saxe 1887) of the six blind men groping different parts of the elephant in

an effort to discover what kind of animal it was illustrates the point that this side of heaven

we still see dimly (1 Corinthians 13:12), so one’s search for understanding leadership should

be done with humility and in cooperation with others around the Globe. This study begins

the walk around the proverbial elephant in the hopes of seeing the multiple aspects in need of

improving in CCI/LA’s mission to glorify God by linking the ministry of camping with the

work of the local church and para-church ministries to fulfill to Great Commission; training

leaders in camping.

Chapter II reviews the literature relating to the stages of perspective or role-

taking in human development as well as the purported stages of individualism and

collectivism. Chapter II also contains a brief foray into literature related to leadership

development including cross-cultural approaches. Chapter III briefly reviews the methodology

used for the three activities realized with the thirty-two subjects studied. Chapter IV analyzes the data

gathered from their questionnaires and prayer cards and Chapter V ends with conclusions regarding

the veracity of the hypothesis, conclusions and recommendations for CCI/LA.

 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter reviews the literature related to the variables of the study:

(1) Perspective or role-taking: Studies done by Selman (1971a, 1971b, 1976, 2003) and

Flavell (1968, 1969) on the stages of perspective or role-taking will be reviewed as well as

Meizrow (1990) and Brookfield’s (1987) view on perspective transformation.

Plueddemann’s (2008 in press) stages of collectivism and individualism as they relate to

perspective-taking will also be outlined.

(2) Leaders developing leaders: Research done by the Center for Creative

Leadership (McCauley and Van Velsor 2004) regarding leadership development will be

reviewed together with several other approaches (Lowney 2003; Plueddemann 2008 ).

Mention will be made of the research related to the cross-cultural nature of leadership

development of Hofstede and Hofstede (2005); Derr et al. (2002); of the Globe Study of 62

Societies (House et al. 2004); Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1998); and Dimmock and

Walker (2005).

The author recognizes the inability to do justice to these voluminous works

given the limited scope of this study. Their inclusion points to the fact that while no Holy

Grail for cross-cultural leadership development exists, nonetheless, substantiated overarching

principles do exist which would be perilous to ignore.

Stages of perspective or role-taking

Flavell (1968) and Selman (1976) have done extensive research in role taking

or taking another’s perspective. Their research identifies role taking to be an age-related

14
 15

social-cognitive skill that can be observed in an ontogenetic sequence of

stages (Selman, 1971b). The influence of Piaget is apparent in Kohlberg’s (1968) and

Flavell’s (1968) work in formulating a developmental sequence of the child’s orientations of

thought relative to some aspect of the social domain, for Kohlberg it was on moral judgment

stages and for Flavell and Selman, it was on role-taking.

Although Kohlberg’s research focused on moral reasoning, his findings led

him to strongly emphasize that higher levels of moral thought require the ability to take the

role of another. Stage three and above (i.e. conventional morality) are based in large part on

role taking, or taking the perspective of other people” (Selman, 1971a, 81, 88). Selman’s

study (1971a) supports this general hypothesis by indicating that reciprocal role taking (a

higher stage of role taking) is a necessary condition for the development of conventional

moral thought.

Cognitive development, moral reasoning and role taking are interrelated.

Table 5 contains a summary of Selman’s stages of role taking, Kohlberg’s stages of moral

reasoning and Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.

Table 5: Comparison of the stages of role taking, moral reasoning, and cognitive development
Four Stages of role taking (Selman 1971a, Five-six Stages of moral reasoning Four Stages of cognitive
1971b, 1976, 2003) (Kohlberg 1968) development (Piaget 1936)
There are no parallel stages in social-cognitive or moral reasoning due to the very Stage 1: Sensorimotor (birth to
young age represented. Piaget’s first stage, however, does start at birth. 2 years)
The sensorimotor stage begins at
The ages cited are the approximate age of emergence, they show development levels birth, and lasts until the child is
and not exact time a given level appears. approximately two years old. At
this stage, the child cannot form
mental representations of objects
that are outside his immediate
view, so his intelligence
develops through his motor
interactions with his
environment.

Four Stages of role taking (Selman 1971a,
1971b, 1976, 2003)
Stage Zero – Egocentrism
Egocentrism refers, in part, to the young
child’s (ages two to five years) inability to
perform role-taking operations. Role taking
as a skill does not really become functional
(accurate) until middle childhood, but
which shows distinct beginnings as young
as ages three or four. However, this early
role taking is rudimentary and inaccurate
(Selman 1971b, 1722).
One perspective exists—not his or
another’s, since he cannot differentiate
other viewpoints. The child may have a
sense of other, but fails to distinguish
between the thoughts and perceptions of
other and self (Selman 1971b, 1733).
Good is what I want. Bad is what I do not
want. (Selman 1976, 313)
Motives or intentions are not relevant or
conceived of (Selman 1971a, 82).
Stage One— Nonreciprocal role-taking
Emerges at roughly ages six to seven.
Person is aware that there are motives and
intentions of others but cannot project what
they might be (Selman 1971a, 82, 88).
Person may say: “I cannot read his mind.”
But, this level reasoning is immature in
that it goes no farther than understanding
that the other’s view is different than one’s
own.
Able to see what he might do for others in
order to win them to his side (Selman
1976, 313).
The differentiation of self’s and other’s
viewpoints is made. You are aware others
may have a different point of view, but it is
not clearly separate from your own
perspective (Selman 1976, 315).
Child’s sense of self is distinguished from
other, but he fails to see any commonality
of thoughts between self and other (Selman
1971b, 1733).
Stage Two— Self reflective role taking
“By approximately ages eight to eleven,
most children are capable of articulating a
second reflective level that includes an
understanding both that the self as subject
can look inward in a self-reflective manner
on psychological events (feelings,
thoughts, motives) and that humans
interact on the basis of their capacity for
realizing the reciprocity of shared
16
Five-six Stages of moral reasoning
(Kohlberg 1968)
Stage One: Preconventional stage
Obedience and punishment orientation:
“Might makes right”
Motivation is to avoid physical
punishment and give in to or defer to
power. This stage has an egocentric
deference to superior power or prestige,
meaning the “child assumes that
powerful authorities hand down a fixed
set of rules which he or she must
unquestioningly obey. The main
concern is with what authorities permit
and punish” (Crain 1985, 119).
Stage Two: Preconventional stage
Naively egoistic (hedonistic)
orientation.
“At this stage children recognize that
there is not just one right view that is
handed down by the authorities.
Different individuals have different
viewpoints” (Crain 1985, 120).
Interpersonal reciprocity or instrumental
exchange: “The Egoist”
“You do for me, I’ll do for you” or
“You scratch my back, I’ll scratch
yours.”
Justice is an “eye for an eye,” as
vengeance is considered a moral duty.
Stage Three: Conventional stage,
Good-boy orientation.
Orientation to approval and to pleasing
and helping others, often called the
“Tyranny of the They”.
Age range: Usually entering into teen
years, most people end up here with the
acceptance of the rules and standards of
one’s group.
“There is a shift from unquestioning
Four Stages of cognitive
development (Piaget 1936)
Stage Two: Preoperational (2 to
6/7 years)
The preoperational stage
typically lasts until the child is
six or seven. According to
Piaget, this is the stage where
true "thought" emerges.
Preoperational children are able
to make mental representations
of unseen objects, but they
cannot use deductive reasoning.
At this age, according to Piaget,
children acquire representational
skills in the areas mental
imagery, and especially
language. They are very self-
oriented, and have an egocentric
view; that is, preoperational
chldren can use these
representational skills only to
view the world from their own
perspective (Dawson and
Medler).
Stage Three: Concrete
operations (6/7 to 11/12 years)
The concrete operations stage
follows, and lasts until the child
is eleven or twelve. Concrete
operational children are able to
use deductive reasoning,
demonstrate conservation of
number, and can differentiate
their perspective from that of

Four Stages of role taking (Selman 1971a,
1971b, 1976, 2003)
Stage Two— Self reflective role taking
(cont.)
knowledge or subjective experiences
between persons” (Selman, et. al. 1983,
82).
The actor can attribute a solution to the
other by using her own ability to put
herself in a hypothetical situation. She
progresses to inferring what the other’s
view is by imagining what her own would
be under the other’s circumstances
(Selman 1971b, 1730).
Child attributes his own ideas to other
because he hypothetically puts himself in
other’s position, but sees other as having
interests similar to his own (Selman 1971b,
1733).
Flavell (1968) noted a shift between ages
8-10 toward a progressively less egocentric
view and towards a progressively greater
ability to use role-taking skills in solving
interactional problems. However, Selman
notes that this stage, although more
integrated and complex than the previous
levels, it is still egocentric in the sense that
the child does not really account for the
particular other’s different perspective—
that is, the child naively assumes other’s
thoughts to be the same as his own would
be if he were in the other’s situation
(Selman 1971b, 1733).
Stage Three— Mutual or reciprocal role
taking
Emerges at roughly ages twelve to
fourteen.
Child is aware that other has perspectives
based on her own reasoning which may or
may not be similar to her own. She can
weigh the perspective of self and of others
(Selman 1976, 315).
The actor can infer the other’s choice by
imagining what the other’s point of view
is, but he further indicates an awareness
that the other may make his choice on the
basis of other factors like personality,
hypothesized trickery, or other
characteristics of the situation himself is
unaware of. Whereas at Stage 1, the actor
says he is unable to know what the other
will choose, at Stage 3, the actor implies
17
Five-six Stages of moral reasoning
(Kohlberg 1968)
Stage Three: Conventional stage,
Good-boy orientation (cont.)
obedience to a relativistic outlook and to
a concern for good motives. They
believe that people should live up to the
expectations of the family and
community and behave in "good" ways.
Good behavior means having good
motives and interpersonal feelings such
as love, empathy, trust, and concern for
others” (Crain 1985, 122).
Right is conformity to the stereotypical
behavioral, values, expectations of one’s
society or peer.
Stage Four: Conventional stage, Law
and order: The Good Citizen
Authority and social-order-maintaining
orientation: “Orientation to doing duty
and to showing respect for authority and
maintaining the given social order for its
own sake” (Selman 1971a, 80).
The person makes a moral decision
from the broader perspective of the
society as a whole. Stage 1 answers may
concur with Stage 4’s, but the reasoning
behind their answers differs greatly.
Regarding the famous “Heinz” moral
dilemma, they both say it’s wrong to
steal. “Stage 1 reasons it is wrong
because stealing can get a person jailed,
whereas, Stage 4 respondents, in contrast,
have a conception of the function of laws
for society as a whole--a conception which
far exceeds the grasp of the younger
child” (Crain 1985, 121).
Four Stages of cognitive
development (Piaget 1936)
Stage Three: Concrete
operations (6/7 to 11/12 years)
(cont.)
other people.
As opposed to Preoperational
children, children in the concrete
operations stage are able to take
another's point of view and take
into account more than one
perspective simultaneously.
They can also represent
transformations as well as static
situations. Although they can
understand concrete problems,
Piaget would argue that they
cannot yet perform on abstract
problems, and that they do not
consider all of the logically
possible outcomes (Dawson and
Medler).
Stage Four: Formal operations
(11/12 to adult)
Formal operations is the final
stage. Its most salient feature is
the ability to think abstractly.
Children who attain the formal
operation stage are capable of
thinking logically and abstractly.
They can also reason
theoretically. Piaget considered
this the ultimate stage of
development, and stated that
although the children would still
have to revise their knowledge
base, their way of thinking was
as powerful as it would get.
It is now thought that not every
child reaches the formal
operation stage.

Four Stages of role taking (Selman 1971a,
1971b, 1976, 2003)
Stage Three— Mutual or reciprocal role
taking (cont.)
that his hesitation in making an attribution
is not due to a general inability to impute
another person’s thoughts and feelings, but
is due rather both to his inaccuracy as a
role taker and to the presence of various
unknown influences (Selman 1971b,
1731).
“Reciprocal role taking is the realization
that others are making judgments on the
basis of his own actions and intentions as
he is on the basis of his own cognizance of
others’ intentions and actions” (Selman
1971a, 90).
Development of reciprocal role-taking
ability implies an increasingly accurate
perception of what another will do in a
given situation, and specifically of how
one’s own actions will affect the attitude of
another toward oneself (Selman 1971a,
80).
Stage Four— Third-person and
generalized other level role taking
Emerges at roughly ages fifteen to
eighteen.
Selman (2003) describes the person as
being able to understand his or her own
perspective in the context of multiple
perspectives.
Socially the person displays interdependent
sharing of vulnerabilities and self-
identities. Their social perspective is
intimate, in-depth and societal.
Given the relationship of Selman’s work with social awareness and
perspective-taking, additional attention will be given to integrate it with other theoretical
constructs.
18
Five-six Stages of moral reasoning Four Stages of cognitive
(Kohlberg 1968) development (Piaget 1936)
Stage Five: Postconventional or Stage Four: Formal operations
principled morality stage (11/12 to adult) (cont.)
Social Contract and Individual Rights:
Few reach this stage, most not prior to Developmental psychologists
middle age. also debate whether children do
At stage 5, people begin to tend to go through the stages in the way
theorize, asking questions like: "What that Piaget postulated. Whether
makes for a good society?" They step Piaget was correct or not,
back from their own society and however, it is safe to say that
consider the rights and values that a this theory of cognitive
society ought to uphold. development has had a
Stage 5 respondents basically believe tremendous influence on all
that a good society is best conceived as modern developmental
a social contract into which people psychologists (Dawson and
freely enter to work toward the benefit Medler)
of all. They recognize that different
social groups within a society will have
different values, but they believe that all
rational people would agree on two
points. First they would all want certain
basic rights, such as liberty and life, to
be protected. Second, they would want
some democratic procedures for
changing unfair law and for improving
society (Crain, 1985).
Stage Six: Postconventional stage
Conscience or Universal principle
orientation:
Stage 6 individuals are rare, like
Mohandas Gandhi, Jesus of Nazareth,
Gautamo Buddha, Martin Luther King,
Jr.
They define the principles by which
agreement will be most just. Only when
an individual right is clearly at stake
does violating the law seem justified,
which would form the rationale for civil
disobedience.
However, in his latter years, Kohlberg
deemed this stage more theoretical and
has dropped stage 6 from his scoring
manual (Crain 1985).
 19

Role taking as a part of transformative learning

“Reflection on one’s own premises can lead to transformative learning”

(Mezirow and Associates 1990, 19). Selman’s Stage Two is self-reflective in nature, and

Mezirow and Associates put forward that “by far the most significant learning experiences in

adulthood involve critical self-reflection—reassessing the way we have posed problems and

reassessing our own orientation to perceiving, knowing, believing, feeling, and acting”

(1990, 13). One might suppose that only Stage Two is necessary for transformative learning

to occur within the individual. However, transformative learning also speaks of “meaning

schemes” and “meaning perspectives” which take into account the richness and growth

provoked by interacting with others, which then presupposes adults to be at formal cognitive

operations as well as Selman’s Stage Three reciprocal role-taking.

Critical reflection, as defined by Brookfield (1987) requires the individual to

be in Stage Two if not Stage Three of role taking.

The development of critical thinking in adult learners is the developing of an

awareness of the assumptions under which we (and others) think and act. Critical
thinking comprises two interrelated processes:
1. Identifying and challenging assumptions
2. Imagining and exploring alternatives
(Brookfield 1987, ix).

When Mezirow speaks of perspective transformation, he shares Brookfield’s

definition of critical thinking with the addition of an action component. He insists on the

individual acting on the new perspectives gained in order for transformative learning to

occur. Likewise in the arena of social development, there is an intricate interplay between

social understanding and social behavior (action). Selman quotes Piaget (1978) who pointed

out that “knowledge must occur on the plane of action before a child can fully understand

any social or logical concept on the plane of conscious thought and reflect on it” (Selman
 20

1983, 99). Flavell and Wohlwill (1969) argue that concepts are constructed as the child puts

them into practice. The role of acting on new perspectives gained through self and –other

reflections appear to play a pivotal role in learning both for the child and the adult.

It is not enough to just perceive another perspective or role. In order to fully

apprehend it, action must be taken, either to act in compliance with this new perspective or

react against it. Meek (2003), in her description of knowing uses the term “laying out” as

when you fling yourself out to grasp a frisbee. To really know in Polanyi’s (1966) tacit

model of knowledge, requires tacitly connecting the from (i.e. the broader perspective

acquired) and that to which one attends (i.e. a leadership decision or action).

Role-taking cross referenced with the stages of collectivism vs. individualism

The study’s hypothesis is that the more developed leaders are in their

perspective (moving from ego-centric, to in-group (family)--centric, to ethno-centric, finally

to world-centric), the more and better they develop other leaders. The previous and

following Tables should be read with that Selman, et al.’s warning in mind.

It’s one thing to have the theoretical constructs all neatly laid out in a developmental
hierarchical manner but behavior in real life is not as qualitative and distinct as it
appears on paper. It should be remembered that although the use of the theoretical
construct of developmental levels paints a picture of behavior as qualitative and
distinct, this is a theoretical simplification (Selman 1983, 98).

Selman’s et al. (1983) research on role-taking include an analysis of how

children get what they want at each stage through what he calls negotiation strategies. The

individual’s communicative competence and their negotiation strategies pursuant to a task in

a natural setting were assessed and related to a certain stage of role-taking. How a leader

gets things done—for example, pushing versus demanding versus asking politely, —

negotiation strategies (social behavior) relates to their level of social-cognitive

 21

understanding. Through listening to what a leader says, one could identify what level of

social understanding or perspective taking they are at. For example, if one heard speech

demonstrating their ability to step back and take a second-person perspective of their own

subjective experiences and objective behavior, as well as an ability to articulate an

understanding of reciprocity of thoughts, feelings, and expectations between persons, one

could infer they were at least at Stage Two (Selman, et. al. 1983, 84, 88).

Table 6 lays out in column one Selman’s research results from studying the

negotiation strategies of children at each stage of role-taking, parallel to that in column two

are Pluedemann’s (2008 in press) stages of individualism and collectivism, and column three

contains Plueddemann’s corresponding implications for leadership


Table 6: Social-cognitive stages (Selman et al. 1983), cross-referenced with the stages of collectivism vs.
individualism and leadership (Plueddemann 2008 in press. Used by permission.)
Levels of negotiation
strategies related to the
stages of social-cognitive
development (role taking)
Negotiation strategies at
Stage Zero—Egocentric
Strategies express the
actor’s raw will in a
situation. They do not
indicate that he or she is
at all reflective about
what he or she says or
does. Neither does he or
she reflect on the other’s
point of view.
He is unable to see the
perspective of his
followers, the only point
of view that exists is his
own. He leads to get what experience no personal
is good for him and will
not lead unless there is
personal benefit.
Followers are meant to do
things for him, to be nice
to him, to do as he says
(Selman, 1976, 314).
Negotiation strategies at
Stage One—Non-
reciprocal role-taking
Strategies express a one-
way understanding of
negotiated interaction in
that mostly they express
only the actor’s needs or
wishes in the situation
without reference or
inquiry about the needs or
wishes of others. There is
a tacit or explicit one-way
relation with authority
insofar as the adult’s or
authority’s point of view
defines the situation for
the actor.
22
Cultural variables (Stage of
perspectivism) (individualism vs.
collectivism)
Ego-centric individualism
The size of the ripple-circle for a Leaders at this stage assume that the organization
new-born baby is extremely
small. The whole universe is
tied up in the egocentric,
existential here-and-now. Since
God intended for babies to be
egocentric, one does not blame
them for being narrowly
individualistic, a perfectly
normal stage of development.
Immaturity is not a problem for
babies, but will become a serious ladder.
challenge if individuals
development, they may get stuck of others:
in egocentricism.
In-group (family)--centric
collectivism
Children begin to see the world
through the eyes of parents,
siblings, grandparents and others
in the household. The ripples in
the pond of their worldview
expand outward to include both
the nuclear and extended
families. As children learn they
are not the center of the
universe, their egocentricism
develops into a broader family-
centric perspective. The
individualism of babyhood
moves into a narrow
collectivism of the in-group or
family.
How a leader may lead
Ego-centric individualism
exists for their benefit. While appropriate for an infant,
it will always lead to strife when found in adult leaders.
They may claim to be servant leaders, but in fact they
serve others for their own selfish ends. In John 10 Jesus
described bad shepherds as those who abandon the
sheep when the wolf comes because they care nothing
for the sheep. It seems that many shepherds are not
good leaders because they primarily care for
themselves. As ego-centric leaders climb the ladder of
success, they often climb over or dislodge others on the
At this stage, why they may not develop the leadership
They do not have time to develop others except if it
behooves them. They can get what they need done by
themselves and see no need to delegate, besides, they
are convinced they can a better job themselves.
In-group (family)--centric collectivism
While family-centric leadership is an improvement
over ego-centric, the limitations become evident
through the “us versus them” mentality. Pastors seek
to grow their little church through competition with
other churches. A youth pastor may have a passion for
the youth in the church, but not have a vision for how
the youth ministry fits into the broader vision of the
whole church. In missions organizations, “turf
protection,” or the desire to see one’s own department
or committee gain resources to the detriment of other
departments is all too common. Leaders seek
advantage for their circle even if this means hurting the
larger organization.
At this stage, why they may not develop the leadership
of others:
They all have too many commitments as it is. They are
preoccupied dealing with their own concerns to
develop “outside” leaders. Besides, there are plenty of
their “in-group leaders” to get things done. Moreover,
they tend not to trust those outside the family or in-
group.

Levels of negotiation
strategies related to the
stages of social-cognitive
development (role taking)
Negotiation strategies at
Stage Two—Self-
reflective role-taking
Strategies demonstrate
that the actor has an
awareness of other
individuals as having their
plans, opinions, feelings,
and behaviors that impact
on those of the self. This
includes strategies that
find out what others want
to do, communicating
what the self wants in a
nonbinding manner. Also,
this level describes ways
of working together and
attending to others’ needs
and wishes, working with
others to achieve one’s
own objectives.
When the issue regards
their family interests, they
operate at a higher level
of moral reasoning. But, if
the issue does not pertain
to their social group, they
use an instrumental
orientation.
Negotiation strategies at
Stage Three: Mutual or
reciprocal role-taking
Strategies include
negotiations that express
an awareness of the
complexity of the actual
interaction process and of
the individual’s own
theory of interaction in a
natural setting. There is
an explicit awareness of
group processes and of
multiple levels of
meaning in the
communication process.
23
Cultural variables (Stage of
perspectivism) (individualism vs.
collectivism)
Ethno-centric collectivism
The horizons of young teens
grow ever wider to include peers
outside their family—other
families, neighbors, distant
relatives and those in
neighboring towns. In-group
(family)--centric collectivism
expands into ethno-centricism ,
the viewpoint that all the people
one knows are the center of the
universe. An ethnocentric
viewpoint is broader than a
family or ego-centered universe.
One might suspect that most
collectivistic societies are
ethnocentric. There are probably
levels of ethnocentricism,
moving from the narrow
collectivism of one’s family, to
one’s village, to one’s clan, to
one’s state, to one’s country, to
one’s race. There may be
dozens of ever-expanding
ethnocentric circles as the
ripples in the pond expand
outward, or as the Google Earth
camera zooms out (see Figures
2-5).
World-centric or Theo-centric
It is not possible for mere
humans to see all the people of
the world as God sees them, but
one can try.
John 3:16 For God so loved the
world… God’s horizons
incorporate individuals, families,
and all nations in a world-centric
collectivism which avoids the
“us versus them” mentality—the
temptation to love our friends
and hate our enemies. It is
humanly impossible for mere
mortals to obey the commands
of Jesus and love one’s enemies.
How a leader may lead
Ethno-centric collectivism
The ethnocentric leader has a much broader perspective
than the In-group (family)--centric collectivism
leader. A pastor may see the church as one of the many
in the community and seek the good of the whole
denomination. They may form alliances with churches
in the community and become interested in global
partnerships. The ethnocentric leader has severe
limitations though. If these pastors seek to reach out to
the rest of the world, they will do so from the
perspective of the leadership values of their own
culture and assume that what they have learned about
successful churches will apply to all cultures. This
attitude can cause tensions with global church-to-
church partnerships, with each pastor thinking their
cultural values are universal. The ethnocentric pastor
of a mega-church in one culture may assume that their
principles of success are effective in any culture.
The danger of collectivism is that it inevitably creates
an “us—them” mentality. One treats people in their
circle with respect and care, but those outside the circle
are often the enemy deserving of being cheated and
oppressed.
At this stage, why they may not develop the leadership
of others:
They are a world unto themselves, promoting
leadership only as it benefits the good of their
denomination or organization, assuming the rest of the
world can learn from their successes.
World-centric or Theo-centric
To see the world from God’s perspective is theo-
centric collectivism. Because Theo-centric collectivism
is uncommon, the leader who begins to see the world
from this perspective might seem like an individualist
going against the crowd. But the person would be a
principle-centered individualist-collectivist, not an ego-
centric individualist,.
Leadership development at this stage:
The world-centric leader will look out for the good of
the individual, family, clan and nation, but in the
context of seeing the bigger picture. From a biblical
perspective the world-centric leader will see fleeting
glimpses of the world from God’s perspective and
approach a theo-centric perspective. The theo-centric
leader will care for individuals and seek the good of
 24

Levels of negotiation Cultural variables (Stage of How a leader may lead

strategies related to the perspectivism) (individualism vs.
stages of social-cognitive collectivism)
development (role taking)
Negotiation strategies at World-centric or Theo-centric
Stage Four— Third-
person and generalized their organization, but not at the expense of hurting
other level role-taking other groups.
Interpersonal negotiation
strategies are a This level of reasoning and leading no doubt taking
collaborative integration divine intervention, as one is almost like a prophet,
of relationship dynamics, indeed, the person no doubt, operates at Kohlberg’s
involving commitment. level five or six in their moral reasoning.

Figure 2 Ego-centric individualist perspective. Figure 4 Ethno-centric collectivistic perspective.

Figure 3 In-group centric collectivistic perspective. Figure 5 World-centric individualist/collectivistic

perspective.
 25

Literature related to leaders developing other leaders

What are the signs that a leader is developing other leaders? This relates to

the second variable of this study’s hypothesis: Broader perspective leaders develop more or

better leaders. This question serves as a filter for selecting salient points from the

publications chosen by the author. A disclaimer is merited at this point. Given the sheer

volume of books and articles available in electronic form and in printed form on the subject

of leadership and given the narrow scope of this study, only a random sampling of

publications were chosen by the author.

In order not to ignore the substantiated, overarching principles of leadership

development that do exist and to inform the author as to what to look for in the data gathered

from CCI/LA’s leaders, Table 7 contains clear signs that will indicate leaders are developing

other leaders.

Table 7 Some signs that leaders are developing other leaders

# What are the signs that a leader is developing other leaders?
1 The leader meets regularly with them for purposes of growth.
“While mentoring and modeling came in different styles and forms, it remained the most significant
leadership development influence expressed by the leaders. Formal education was seen as valuable by the
leaders, yet the informal and relational aspects of mentoring provided powerful ‘living examples’ of
ministry from which to learn. …Due to the personal impact of mentors in their own lives, most leaders
expressed their own commitment to mentoring, as many have intentionally sought to reinvest their own
training into the lives of others” (Information gleaned from 15 ethnographic interviews of culturally diverse
Christian leaders, Smith 1999, 32).
2 A leader identifies and unlocks others’ latent leadership potential.
“It is a lesson of experience that all men are more delighted and more moved by what they find out for
themselves. Hence, it will suffice just to point, as with the finger, to the vein in the mine, and let each one
dig for himself” (Lowney 2003, 287).
3 A leader with a multi-cultural view encourages other leaders to shed their “cultural baggage that are
keeping them in cultural shackles.”
For Latin Americans, author Soza 1998, points to the residuals of passivity and underachievement left by
the Spanish conquistadores. Using other imagery, Bentley (2002) advocates Latin American leaders doing
honest appraisal in order to shed one’s own cultural wineskins that hinder using the new wine skins in order
to operate successfully in today’s new globalized economy (Friedman 2005).
4 A leader expands the worldwide horizons of those being developed.
“Many leaders mentioned exposure to different cultural contexts and worldviews as a key component of
their personal leadership development. …Not only does cultural exposure expand leaders’ vision of God,
 26

but it also teaches them to ask different and more relevant questions while stretching and burdening their
hearts for peoples not their own. Leaders noted that such cultural exposure contributed towards their
ministry vision formation, helped them develop personal independence as well as dependence on God and
others, and taught them new ways of thinking and leading” (Information gleaned from 15 ethnographic
interviews of culturally diverse Christian leaders, Smith 1999, 32).
5 The leader prompts their fellow leader to progressively greater degrees of self-awareness, recognizing that
one reaches outward from one’s center, so caring for the “center” (one’s self) is a core aspect of leader
formation. For the Christian, “Christ in us” is our hope of glory. Although filled with sin and deceit, God
chooses to dwell within the unique individual he created. Self-awareness for the Christian holds the
paradox of discovering both the depths of one’s self-deception and the heights of one’s dignity and worth,
as one made in the image of God. The Arbinger Institute (2002) pinpoints the destructive effect of self-
deception and betrayal on the leader’s life. Self-assessment is one of the three cornerstones of the Center
for Creative Leadership’s (2004) approaches to leader development. The 450-year Company of Jesus
(Jesuits—Lowney 2003) started their leadership training with thirty-days of intensive spiritual exercises
designed among other things to foster self-awareness of one’s weakness, strengths, values and worldview.
Two thousand years of church history show the utter necessity of incorporating the spiritual disciplines into
the life of a leader who leads outward from the center (Willard 2006). So, a sure sign that a leader is
enhancing the leadership of another is the prompting the incorporation of spiritual disciplines in their lives.
6 A leader guides another to critically reflect on life’s experiences and grasp the value of that practice.
The underlying assumption is that every experience, good and bad, is a gift from God, brimming with
lessons and significance if one is willing to shift through them like a miner searching for gold.

Brief summary of literature reviewed

Chapter II contains an overview of literature related to the stages of role-

taking, the stages of individualism/collectivism as they relate to leadership and leadership

development and a brief list of signs that would indicate that a leader is developing the

leadership of others.
 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Subjects

The subjects were thirty-two Christian Camping International, Latin America

leaders, representative of eight National Associations in addition to the Central Office. All

the subjects are graduates from at least one or more of the training courses CCI/LA offers.

Twenty of the thirty-two are recognized instructors, graduates of CCI/LA’s Institute for

Forming Instructors. These thirty-two people make up approximately half of the active

leaders in CCI/LA. The remaining twenty to thirty national leaders were unable to attend for

various reasons, like financial constraints, inability to be free from responsibilities both at

work and at home, and for some, lack of interest. Table 8 provides further details of the

thirty-two subjects.

Table 8: Subjects
Total Gender Age ranges Number of years Countries represented
number involved with CCI/LA
16 females 1 - 20-25 years 2 - 0-1 year 8 - Honduras 6 - Costa Rica
16 males 8 - 26-35 years 4 - 2-4 years 5 - Mexico 1 - Peru
32 17 - 36-50 5 - 5-10 years 5 - El Salvador
years
6 - 51+ years 16 - 11-20 years 2 - Guatemala
5 - 21+ years 5 - Panama

Instrumentation and procedure

At CCI/LA’s Leadership Summit, May 22-25, 2008, thirty-two of its top

leaders gathered for four days. On the second evening of the assembly, the author applied a

pen and paper questionnaire found in Table 9.

27
 28

Questionnaire regarding CCI AL and its leaders

Leadership Summit III, May, 2008

Complete name: Country: Age: Gender:

Length in years of your active involvement with CCI AL: Church

Your specific involvement with your National Your responsibilities with your church:
Association:

Table 9: Questionnaire used in study of perspectivism and leadership development .

1. If someone asked you to write your vision of camping, what would you write?
2. If you went to live in another country, what factors would you look for in the church you attend?
3. If someone gave you $50,000USD with no strings attached, how would you spend it?
4. If you did not have to have a job, how would you use your time?
5. If you have children or nieces/nephews, what are your greatest aspirations for them?
6. If you could solve the most pressing problems in your country, which problems would you tackle and
how would you proceed to solve them?
7. What do you do for fun on a regular basis?
8. What movies have you liked? And why do you like them?
9. What books have you read lately?
10. Where have you traveled to and why?
11. What stories are you currently following in the news?
12. What do you watch on T.V. with certain regularity?
13. On the basis of what criteria will you vote for the president?
14. Are you writing something to inform or educate others?
15. How many books have you loaned or shared with others? To who? What are the books about?
16. How many people are in your email address book (approx.)?
17. How many people are in your cell phone directory (approx.)?
18. What computer/internet programs do you have and use to communicate with others?
19. Do you meet regularly with anyone or with a group of people? Who are they?
20. How would you define the purpose of your meeting together?
21. Do you sense that anyone intentionally meets or interacts with you on a regular basis? Who is it?
22. What would you consider his or her purpose to be in meeting with you?
23. If you were to purposefully develop the leadership of someone, who would that be?
24. For what purpose or goal would you develop their leadership?
 29

The entire group of thirty-two participants gathered in a large room and for

ninety minutes realized two activities.

Activity One: A four by six inch card was given to each participant. They

were asked to write out a prayer, to pray for whatever was on their heart and mind; no further

indications were given, even though more instructions were solicited. After all were finished

writing, the cards were collected and set aside.

Activity Two: A two-page legal size paper questionnaire was handed out to

each individual. They were given as much time as they needed to complete the twenty-four

questions. Questions one through thirteen attempt to determine the stage of the subjects

perspectivism. Questions fourteen through twenty-four attempt to ascertain the subject’s

concrete actions related to leadership development.

Table 10 indicates the time line for the research activities connected with the

study.

Table 10: Time plan of research

April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008
Hypothesis formed,
methodology created
X
Questionnaires
applied, data gathered
X
Data finding analyzed
X
Final paper written
and conclusions drawn
X

Methodological assumptions

Unobtrusive methods were used to investigate the veracity of the hypothesis,

which was to measure the perspective horizons of the leaders currently serving in CCI/LA

and to measure their effectiveness in leadership development.

 30

Webb et al. (1966) outlines three sources for unobtrusive measures for

nonreactive research: (1) physical traces; (2) archives; (3) direct but unobtrusive

observations. This study employs a type of direct but unobtrusive observations. The

questionnaire attempts to connect apparently unrelated sources of information in order to

discover insights into the breadth of their perspective and ascertain whether or not they were

intentionally or unintentionally developing the leadership of others.

These measures were intended to cause as little reaction in the subjects as

possible. These leaders know the author well, some for as long as 10-15 years, many are

close friends. In the Latin American culture the friendship factor might create a dynamic

whereby in their desire to please, they would try to guess what answer is being sought and

then try to provide it.

The other reason an indirect approach was chosen is due to the difficulty of

answering questions like: How broad are your perspectives? How would one expect a leader

to respond without skewing their very answer as the subject would naturally want to appear

as “broad-minded” as possible? Or, how effective are you at developing leaders? Asking

such direct questions would require far too much explanation to fully understand what

exactly is being inquired, which in turn, would tend to condition their answers as well.

Data processing and analysis related to perspectivism (questions 1-13)

The author read the questionnaires twice. The first reading consisted of

reading each person’s questionnaire from start to finish, taking note of general trends and just

getting a general feel for the data. The second reading entailed taking one questionnaire in

hand and for questions one through thirteen placing a code beside the answer for each

question according the following criteria:

 31

• Egocentric individualism stage: The answer focuses on one’s personal benefit.

• In-group-family-centric collectivistic stage: The answer shows an interest or intention
to benefit the group of people with whom they most identify, ie. Extended family, or
church, immediate work.
• Ethno-centric collectivism stage: The answer showed a broader outward focus, a
reaching out to benefit a larger group like their denomination, region or nation.
• World-centric or Theo-centric individualism-collectivism stage: The answer
demonstrates an equal portion of attention towards the individual’s needs or concerns as
well as the bigger world-wide picture.

Data processing and analysis related to leadership development (questions 14-24)

Just like for the first series of questions, the author read the questionnaires

twice. The first reading consisted of reading each person’s questionnaire from start to finish,

taking note of general trends and just getting a general feel for the data. The second reading

entailed taking one questionnaire in hand and for questions fourteen through twenty-four

placing a code beside the answer for each question according the criteria of the number of

actions taken in pro of leadership development. The focus of the criteria is establishing

whether the individual is taking any concrete action towards (a) being discipled or developed

as a leader and (b) developing leaders.

The questions are designed to discover five key actions.

1. Meeting with mentors.

Figure 2 Sample score for subject Carlos Baca.
2. Meeting with disciples or potential leaders.
3. Sharing written resources. Subject: Carlos Baca
4. Writing resources for others’ benefits. World-Theo
5. Efforts to be in communication with others. individualist—
collectivism
An average score regarding their
Perspective

Ethno-
centricism
collectivism
appropriate stage of perspectivism was In-group-
(Family)-centric
collectivism
estimated for each subject along with the Ego-centric
individualism
number of concrete actions they take. If the
1 2 3 4 5
score were to be plotted on the figure used to Key actions taken

illustrate the hypothesis, it would look like Figure 6: Sample score for subject Carlos Baca.
 32

Limitations to this study

It is impossible to sort out all the factors that contribute to leaders developing

leaders, role taking (perspectivism) may well be only one of many contributing factors. In

addition, it is impossible to isolate and test just role taking. Selman et al. (1983) himself used

a combination of methods like reflective one-to-one interview, a real-life activity group, and

related group discussions in their Naturalistic Study of Children’s Social Understanding. The

use of a naturalistic setting to study perspectivism and leadership may yield a more accurate

picture of the leader’s social-cognitive skills than a simple questionnaire.

The use of only one evaluation procedure (the questionnaire) provides only a

bare minimum of information related to the subjects’ perspectivism and development of

leaders. In-depth follow-up interviews would most likely be required to gain a more

thorough understanding of each individual leader as well as the Association of CCI/LA as a

whole.

The author is not aware of any statistically reliable assessment tool to test for

the stages of individualism/collectivism, only inferences can be made.

Another limitation is the small, non-random sample size, which represents less

than half of the number of leaders active in CCI/LA. Although the sample size would not be

statistically sound, it will provide the author with some descriptive statistics from which

inferences can be made.

Two further weaknesses the limited understanding the answers of a

questionnaire can provide for a complex problem like lack of leadership and the limits

imposed by a relatively short research paper.

 33

Even so, this study represents CCI/LA’s first formal attempt to understand the

leadership challenge it faces; more studies are sure to follow in an ongoing effort to fulfill its

mission to glorify God by linking the ministry of camping with the work of the local church

and para-church ministries to fulfill the Great Commission; teaching leaders in the ministry

of Christian camping.
 CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS

Summary of research question and methodology

In light of leadership problems encountered by CCI/LA, the hypothesis

studied was: Broader perspective leaders develop more or better leaders.

The analysis of their answers is seen through the grid of the stages of

individualism/ collectivism, as it relates to their development of other leaders. The reader

will recall the Stages as ego-centric individualism to in-group (family)-centric collectivism,

to ethno-centric collectivism to world or theo-centric individual-collectivism. For the

purpose of this study, the actions that were determined to imply leadership development were

writing to impact others, communicating electronically with others, both reading and loaning

written materials to others, being mentored or “fed” on some consistent basis and specifically

meeting with others to develop them.

To determine the subject’s final scores, the author had to read between the

lines of the surveys taken, including reading and re-reading even their prayers, searching for

recurrent themes, for clues that would indicate:

• The breadth of their perspective horizon as individuals

• The development of their own leadership in addition to their development of the
leadership of someone else.

As adults one could safely assume that those surveyed operate at least at Stage

three role-taking, and as Latin Americans they are more collectivistic than individualistic in

their cultural orientation.

34
 35

Summary of findings

The summary of data findings are in Table 11.

Table 11: Summary of answers related to subject’s Stage of perspective and number of actions taken
toward developing other leaders
# Name of subject Estimated stage Number of # Name of subject Estimated stage Number of
of Perspectivism Actions of Perspectivism Actions
taken taken (0-5)
Females (0-5) Males
1 Panama Ethno-centric 5 17 Costa Rica World-centric 5
2 Argentina World-centric 5 18 Costa Rica Ethno-centric 4
3 Costa Rica Ethno-centric 3 19 Panama In-group centric 4
4 Costa Rica Ethno-centric 5 20 El Salvador In-group-centric 4
5 El Salvador Ethno-centric 4 21 Honduras In-group-centric 2
6 Honduras In-group-centric 3 22 El Salvador Ethno-centric 4
7 Panama In-group-centric 4 23 Costa Rica In-group-centric 5
8 Panama World-centric 5 24 México In-group-centric 3
9 Honduras Ethno-centric 5 25 Guatemala World-centric 1
10 Honduras In-group-centric 4 26 México In-group-centric 3
11 Honduras In-group-centric 4 27 Peru Ethno-centric 2
12 México In-group-centric 1 28 Mexico Ethno-centric 4
13 El Salvador Ethno-centric 5 29 Costa Rica In-group-centric 1
14 El Salvador World-centric 5 30 Honduras Ethno-centric 4
15 Honduras In-group-centric 3 31 Mexico Ethno-centric 4
16 Honduras In-group-centric 4 32 Panama World-centric 5

The names have been changed to the country to protect their identities.

Observations of the findings

The findings are interpreted along the following lines: Relationship between

the Stages and leadership development, general trends observed from the reading of all

thirty-two questionnaires; and reoccurring themes.

Relationship between Stages and leadership development

There seems to be little observable relationship between a subjects’s Stage of

perspectivism and their development of other leaders. Upon observing the scores, one can

observe those at Stage In-group-centric with scores ranging from one to five regarding their

developing leaders; likewise, those at Stage Ethno-centric with scores ranging from two to
 36

five. One leader who serves in his church mission committee has a strong transcultural

perspective but shows very little intentionality to develop leaders through writing,

communicating, loaning written resources, being mentored and specifically targeting leaders

to mentor or develop. Another subject who appears to be at Stage In-group centric is

nonetheless very intentional and active in developing the leadership of her children and her

small group.

Lack of intentionality to develop leaders directly related to CCI/LA. Although

leaders developed leaders at all Stages of perspectivism, there were also leaders at each Stage

of perspectivism that did not appear to be developing leaders. The findings revealed that

only two subjects mentioned they were forming leaders directly related to CCI/LA.

Relationship of a specific task and leadership development: When the subjects

did intentionally develop others it was usually in relationship to a specific task, like teaching

Sunday School, completing a project at church, planting a new church, programming a camp.

General Trends noted in the findings

Male/Female ratio: The same amount of males as females were found in the

Stages of world-centric (three each); ethno-centric (six); and in-group-centric (seven).

Age of the CCI/LA present (see Table 8) Most of those present at the CCI/LA

Leadership Summit were over thirty-five years of age.

Relationship between formal or informal positions and leadership

development: There was no apparent relationship between the subject’s formal or informal

responsibility at church or in CCI/LA and their Stage or whether or not they developed

leaders
 37

Relationship between age and years of involvement with CCI/LA, Stage of

perspectivism and leadership development: There was no discernible relationship between

the age of the subject or how many years they had been involved with CCI/LA and their

Stage or development of other leaders.

Reoccurring themes

Role and vision of camping: In regards to what the subjects’ vision for

camping was, most linked the ministry of camping with the work of the local church, in

addition, what the subjects looked for in a church was openness and involvement in a

camping ministry.

Absence of writing for ministry impact: Very few subjects are developing

leadership through writing, but most do read and loan books to others.

Travel linked to CCI/LA: Many of the subject’s travels are directly related to

CCI/LA functions.

Aware of the news and events of their nation: With few exceptions, most of

the subjects are in-tune with the general happenings of their nation, most watch the local

news and several are aware of international news as well.

Awareness of and compassion towards the socially disadvantaged: Almost

without exception, the subjects had a strong social sense of the problems experienced by

those less advantaged in the area of education, food, calamities, and the energy crisis.

Intended use of financial resources and time: Over a third of the subjects, if

given $50,000 USD would use the money to purchase property to build a camp. A similar

response was found if they did not have to work, a third of them would invest their time in

camp-related activities.
 38

Inferences drawn from the observations

Camping is linked to work of the local church: In light of how the subjects

described their vision for camping and what they looked for in a local church, one can infer

several things: (1) the subjects have a strong belief in the role camping plays in the work of

the local church; (2) CCI/LA has done a credible job aligning its leaders with its Mission

which is to glorify God by linking the ministry of camping with the work of the local church

and para-church ministries to fulfill to Great Commission; training leaders in camping.

Need for younger leaders to be developed in CCI/LA: The fact that most of

those present at the CCI/LA Leadership Summit were over thirty-five years of age points to

several issues: (1) The most obvious is for there to be a concerted effort for younger leaders

to be developed in general; (2) CCI/LA needs to make a greater effort at getting the younger

leaders that do exist moved up into the leadership of the National Associations; (3) Lastly,

CCI/LA needs to facilitate the attendance of its younger leaders to this type of international

event.

Intended use of financial resources and time for camping: This finding reveals

several things: (1) The urgent need to establish more campsites especially because there are

few in each country but those are always being rented; (2) The general lack of understanding

as to how much it costs to purchase property and build facilities; and (3) The love and

commitment that exists in people’s hearts for this ministry, something that could be drawn

upon in the recruitment process for more full-time workers for CCI/LA, camp programs and

camp sites.
 39

Means of communicating and lack of writing for impact: Within the

association of CCI/LA the communication between members, between one National

Association and another and between the full-time staff and the National Association is

mostly verbal requiring phone calls, verbal exchanges via Skype or personal face-to-face

conversations. Frustration runs high for those who have an expectation for regular

communication via written means like email or letters.

Worldwide expansion: The travel prompted by attendance of CCI/LA events

and functions plays a vital role in the development of its leaders, as exposure and interaction

with people from other cultures broadened one’s horizons (Smith 1999).

Interpretation of findings in relation to theory and review of literature

Possible interpretation regarding the lack of correlation between Stages of

perspectivism and leadership development:

Selman says in his article: Taking another’s perspective: Role-taking

development in early childhood (1971b):

The purpose of the present exploration was to delineate the possible nature of
this early role-taking development, to clarify the relation of perceptual and conceptual
role taking, and to search for empirical evidence of the existence of qualitative levels
of conceptual role taking that one would expect to find if the same principles of
development as have been posited by Piagetians in the physical domain applied to the
social-cognitive domain (1722).

The author’s purpose was to explore if the same principles of social-cognitive

development and stages of individualism/collectivism apply to leadership and leadership

development. Interpreting the data regarding perspectivism the author has not found there to

be a perfect correlation between higher levels of perspectivism and role-taking and leadership

development.
 40

In the same manner that Kohlberg's scale with moral thinking has not always

obtained perfect correlations with moral action, a higher ability of role-taking appears not

lead to a leader developing other leaders. People who may be able to talk at a high moral

level may not behave accordingly. Likewise, a leader may be able to perceive the

perspectives of others but may choose to ignore them out of their own self-interests.

Kohlberg argues that there should be some relationship and as a general hypothesis, he

proposes that moral behavior is more consistent, predictable and responsible at the higher

stages (Kohlberg et al., 1975).

The hypothesis of this was similar to Kohlberg’s in proposing that leaders

with a broader perspective tend to develop more leaders. But, the empirical evidence does

not support that hypothesis. From the data one could infer that leaders develop leaders at

each Stage. Figure 7 illustrates how leaders develop like-minded leaders at all stages.

Figure 3 Leaders develop leaders at each of the Stages.

World-Theo
individualist—
collectivism
Ethno-centricism
Perspective

collectivism

In-group-(Family)-
centric collectivism

Ego-centric
individualism

1 2 3 4 5
Leaders being developed

It could be deduced that one tends to form like-minded leaders. So, at the

egocentric stage the leader would tend to form egocentric individualist leaders, leaders at the

in-group (family) –centric stage would form leaders with that level of perspective and so on.
 41

Possible role of the task/challenge in leadership development: The findings

revealed that some of the subjects who were intentionally developing the leadership of

another were motivated by a task to complete (one wanted to train someone to serve as a

Sunday School teacher to replace her, several were engaged in running a camp program and

another was planting a daughter church). A number of leadership development theories

advocate the essential nature a challenge or a compelling task (McCauley, and Van Velsor

2004; for which Lowney uses the term “Heroic ambitions”, Plueddemann 2008). A task that

needs to be completed may drive the development of other leaders. The nature of something

concrete driving something more theoretical is reminiscent of McPeck’s (1990) posture

towards critical thinking. McPeck’s posture is that one needs a specific subject matter upon

which to develop critical thinking, he argues for the inseparability of critical thinking from

the subject matter thought about. One could infer the same for leadership development.

What drives leadership development? Having a task that needs to be completed or having a

compelling vision or ambitious goal to complete? Just like McPeck does not believe in the

existence of critical thinking in a vacuum, one may surmise that leadership development

cannot exist in a vacuum either. The task provides the impetus for leadership to surface and

the on-going realization of the task keeps one’s leadership growing, provided there is on-

going supervision, feedback, reflection and improvement.

There is an opposing school of thought espoused by Richard Paul (1990) who

advocates the existence of critical thinking skills independent of any particular subject

matter. This contrasts with McPeck who asserts that critical thinking is meshed with the

discipline or subject matter. He asks the question what kind of critical thinking is one
 42

interested in developing? For whom and for what? (1990, 29). The same questions should be

asked of leadership development. For whom and for what?

Perhaps some are analogous to Richard Paul, perceiving leadership to be

independent of the task and of who is being led; leadership is a set of skills to be acquired.

Others may see leadership as being totally dependent on the situation at hand or the inherent

traits of the person. What if leadership development is not either-or but a mixture of both?
 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Brief summary of Chapters I, II, III, IV

The problems presented in Chapter I referred to leadership problems

experienced at the National Association level having to do with a lack of direction, of not

being sure of what to do, of not knowing how to delegate, nor even being prepared to

delegate, of lacking a new generation of leaders, of just maintaining the status quo and not

moving forward, of experiencing debilitating relational difficulties among the team of leaders

and not performing up to good standards of leadership. It was noted that these problems are

further complicated by the nature of an association being volunteer-based and thus subject to

fluctuation in the leaders’ availability, desire to participate and ability to manage. Lastly the

author identified a number of unintended consequences of CCI/LA’s training program,

namely zealousness for CCI/LA’s way of doing things that hinders establishing strategic

alliances with likeminded ministries, closes the door to experienced camping people with

other equally valid modus operandi, projects a snobbish attitude of being the experts and

lastly has concentrated the majority of CCI/LA’s training efforts on individual church or

para-church leaders to the neglect of a focus on campsites.

A hypothesis was formed that more leaders would be formed if the leaders we

had possessed a broader perspective. Therefore, Selman’s research related to the

developmental stages of perspective or role-taking was reviewed in the hopes of

extrapolating the same type of progression in the perspective of an adult. To show the nature

of stage development, Selman’s social-cognitive stages were aligned with both Kohlberg’s

stages of moral reasoning and Piaget’s stages of cognitive operations.

43
 44

Plueddemann’s theory of stages of individualism/collectivism was studied as

it relates to leadership development in order to provide a frame of reference for studying the

data gathered from the participants in this study. Literature in the area of leadership was

reviewed and assumptions made explicit in regards to leadership development.

Chapter III clarifies the manner in which the twenty-four question surveys

were administered to thirty-two leaders currently active in CCI/LA and how the answers

would be scored.

The findings in Chapter IV showed there to be no apparent relationship

between the subject’s Stages of perspectivism and whether they were developing other

leaders. There did appear to be a certain correlation between the existence of a clearly

defined task and whether or not the subject was intentionally developing leaders.

Conclusions

Conclusion: The development of a broader perspective for the leader is a

necessary but not sufficient condition for the leader to develop other leaders.

Selman (1971a) made an analogous discovery when he studied the

relationship between moral reasoning and social-cognitive development. He concluded that

the development of a reciprocal nature of interpersonal relations is a necessary but not

sufficient condition for the development of conventional moral thought (1971a, 79).

It is a false assumption that only leaders at a certain Stage of perspectivism

develop other leaders as clearly from the findings, one can infer that leadership development

occurred at all stages independently and even at the higher Stages of perspectivism

leadership development did not always appear to be taking place. So, that begs the question,

what are the conditions that need to be present for leaders to develop leaders? If a broader
 45

perspective is but one of the necessary but not sufficient conditions, what are the other

conditions that need to exist for leaders to develop leaders?

The findings showed that only two subjects mentioned they were forming

leaders directly related to CCI/LA. One could infer that the responsibility to develop other

leaders is not on their “radar screen” so to speak. However, the National Association leaders

themselves expressed disappointment at the lack of new leadership (quotes from both

Guatemalans and Salvadorans on page one). Perhaps CCI/LA has the underlying assumption

that some of the graduates from their counselor and program director courses will eventually

become instructors (trainers) who in turn will become National Association leaders.

Moreover, CCI/LA seems to assume these training instructors will naturally know what they

have to do to lead the National Associations, which is a false deduction as noted by the

comment made by the Panamanian (on page one) who said that the trainers knew how to give

a course but there was little direction regarding how to lead a National Association.

CCI/LA has no explicit, consolidated process that teaches their leaders what is

expected of them in leading a National Association, other than the Association’s Board of

Director’s policy manual and an internal procedures handbook, which should not be mistaken

for a leadership development manual or process. CCI/LA has no critical path laid out, nor

any type of roadmap for its leaders-in-development to follow.

There may be a feeling amongst the training instructors that becoming a

National Association leader is the kiss of death to active ministry (Plueddemann 2003) so

they prefer being on the “front-lines” of ministry. But, the type of leader CCI/LA

desperately needs is one who has the spiritual gift of harmonizing, enhancing and focusing

the spiritual gifts of others toward a common vision of the Kingdom of God.
 46

Recommendations

The first recommendation is for a number of key decisions to be made by the

CCI/LA’s Board of Directors.

Discussion points for the next Board of Directors meeting (Oct. 15-19, 2008)

Something is broken in regards to the leadership at the National Association

level. Although the CCI/LA Board of Directors consists of representatives from each

country where there is a CCI/LA National Association, they will have to take their “National

Association leader” hat off and put on their “Regional Latin America Association” hat as

they ponder what is broken.

A problem-posing approach (Freire 1970) would be the most recommendable

since the Board needs to grapple with the situation from the point of view from their country

and in Latin America as a whole.

First, a lengthy discussion of the problem from their country’s perspective.

Second, they need to name it and to define the problem in their own words.

Thirdly, they must personalize the problem, sharing how their country is

impacted by this problem.

Lastly, they need to discuss the alternatives to the problem.

As fodder for this Board discussion, the author perceives there to be a problem

with the leadership of the National Associations. Something is not working properly in spite

of the fact that over the last decade and a half hundred’s of thousand campers were impacted

for Christ at camps being directed by counselors and program directors trained and

influenced by CCI/LA. But CCI/LA should not be blinded by its own success.
 47

Something is wrong because CCI/LA is not growing beyond the reach of a

few churches, denominations and para-church ministries.

Something is wrong in spite of the fact that CCI/LA’s mission is being

fulfilled, in a slow but sure manner the ministry of camping is being linked to the work of the

local church and para-church to fulfill the Great Commission; leaders are being trained

consistently in ten or more countries due to the training materials published by CCI/LA.

The goal, the mission of CCI/LA is not to prepare the leadership of the

National Association leadership. It is a means. That does not make National Association

leadership irrelevant. The National Associations provide the structure to sustain the ministry

and not the other way around. So the fact that something is not working at the level of

National leadership in spite of yearly pastoral visits from the executive director and other

staff members, annual Board meetings and a Leadership Summit events every three to four

years makes patently obvious that just following the status quo is not a feasible alternative.

Operating just like CCI/LA has always operated will only further obscure the problem and

will lengthen the time needed to improve. Handy (1994) suggests that the need to make

changes is before an organization reaches its peak, at point A on the Sigmund curve (see

Figure 8). Whether or not CCI/LA is past or before its peak does not matter as much as the

urgency of dealing with the issues raised in this study.

Figure 4 Sigmoid Curve

 48

Along the lines of more fodder for thought for the upcoming annual Board

meeting is the need to ask if an explicit curriculum needs to be created for training National

Association leadership? Does CCI/LA need a leadership development model for its National

Association leaders? CCI/LA possesses an explicit model of pedagogical training for the

formation of camp counselors, program directors and instructors, but it does not possess an

explicit model of leadership development for the level of its National Associations.

Does CCI/LA need a leadership development model for National Association

leaders (volunteer)? Are there alternatives like raising funds to hire full-time staff or

recruiting missionary staff that would report to the Central office but live and serve in the

countries where CCI/LA operates? Is there another structure that can be created to

accomplish the same objective of harmonizing the work of CCI/LA, like volunteer national

coordinators who report directly to the Department of Leadership Development for

coordination and coaching?

If the Board determines the road to travel is to create an explicit leadership

development model, a series of questions would need to be addressed.

What does CCI/LA want that leader for? What will be their ultimate purpose

related to CCI/LA mission and vision?

What kind of leader is needed to lead its National Associations?

The place to start would be to design a model of leadership development that

integrates theology and philosophy, theory and practice, culture and the Bible, goals and

methods.
 49

Further questions for study

Stand on the shoulders of others who are further down the road. Investigate

other regional associations around the world of CCI to discover how they are leading their

National Associations with volunteers. Include in the list to study other similar organizations

like Scripture Union, Intervarsity that are heavily dependent on volunteers.

Team leadership. Investigate how the in-group collectivistic cultural

dimension of Latin America can be maximized for developing teams of leaders in each of

CCI/LA’s National Associations.

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