The Impact of Community Service on Public Sector Leadership

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine and understand the relationship between community service and public service leadership. The aim of the study was to contribute to the current body of work by focusing on public sector employees and exploring how community service impacted their leadership skills and development. To achieve this, data was collected through personal interviews with 16 public sector leaders who reside in Central Illinois and employed with either a municipal, county, state or federal government agency. Four main themes emerged from the data collected: Cultural Conditioning Influencing Community Service and Leadership, Altruism and Public Service Motivation (PSM), Involvement with Community Service Organizations and Political Engagement and Advocacy. These themes led to the recommendation that enlightened conversation commence to investigate the utilization of skills acquired from the unpaid experiences of potential employees to forecast and determine employee suitability which will ultimately move the field of public sector leadership forward. Additionally, the data lends to the larger conversation of what skills and abilities are required of public sector leaders, how they can be identified and what paradigms must be developed for the inclusion of community service in employee development programs.

Grantor dc:publisher

Creighton University

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Nunn Spencer, Sarahjini

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Greteman, Adam

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is retained by the Author. A non-exclusive distribution right is granted to Creighton University and to ProQuest following the publishing model selected above.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/121872

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:cdr.creighton.edu:10504/121872