Exploring the leadership of multidisciplinary collaboration in child maltreatment service organizations: A case study of the Southern Alberta Children Advocacy Centre
Date
2020-07-06
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Abstract
This qualitative case study aimed to provide an understanding of collaborative leadership at the newly established Southern Alberta Child Advocacy Centre (SACAC). Specifically, the purpose of the research was to 1) describe the particular activities the senior leadership team engaged in to guide collaboration, and 2) how each team member contributed to, and experienced, the leadership process while working towards providing child maltreatment services to children and their families in the Lethbridge and Medicine Hat communities. The study was conducted with seven participants – senior executives from social service organizations – over an 18-month period. Data was collected from individual semi-structured interviews and participant observation at six team meetings, and the review of meeting minutes and draft organization documents including the Business Plan and by-laws. Case study research was the methodology of choice. NVivo was used to organize the data. Boyatzis’ (1998) and Crabtree and Miller’s (1999) thematic analysis were used to analyze the data and yielded major themes and thematic categories: 1) creating and sharing a vision; 2) the need for planning; 3) the need for planned intentional collaboration; 4) demonstrating respect; 5) utilizing self-identified leadership styles; 6) leadership roles; 7) benefits of leadership; and 8) challenges to leadership. Leadership theories including transformational, transcendent, and facilitative, and models of collaboration utilized in healthcare, were examined to provide an understanding of the application of leadership and collaboration in social service settings. Discussions in this dissertation were guided primarily by the Reclaiming futures: Communities helping teens overcome drugs, alcohol, and crime framework (termed the RF Framework), which focused on collaborative leadership. The study built on the foundation provided by the RF Framework to propose a Child Advocacy Centre (CAC) Model of Collaborative Leadership and presented a discussion on its implications for social work practice and education, and policy development. Limitations of the study and areas of future research were also outlined.
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Keywords
Collaborative leadership
Citation
Fields, J. A. (2020). Exploring the leadership of multidisciplinary collaboration in child maltreatment service organizations: A case study of the Southern Alberta Children Advocacy Centre (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.