Date of Award

2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Management (DMgt)

First Advisor

Larry M. Starr, PhD

Second Advisor

Dominick Volini, PhD

Third Advisor

Andrew McLaughlin, EdD

Abstract

For more than a decade the repeated use of conventional analytic thinking and linear strategic planning approaches produced little effective progress or solutions for the many ongoing and emerging problems of St. Laurentius Catholic School, a parish elementary school within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Indeed, many in the community believed that their distressing pathway characterized by continued differing perceptions among stakeholders, resource limitations and lack of autonomy were leading the school to closure. When a new clerical leader who was also a Doctor of Management in Strategic Leadership student was assigned, however, he suggested a novel approach. By reframing the situation as a complex system problem, reframing the school as a complex adaptive system, and applying the theory and methodology of Russell Ackoff’s Interactive Planning and Idealized Design (IP/ID), a systems-informed planning-and-problem-solving framework, many longstanding conflicts and obstructions dissolved enabling the school to “turn-around,” grow and develop.

This dissertation describes the history and nature of the school’s challenges, the methodology of IP/ID applied to address the most significant problems, and the processes used to interview the stakeholders who participated in the IP/ID experience. Results of the interviews revealed the adaptive nature of this Catholic school and how a shift from analytic thinking to systems thinking reframed both the problems and the opportunities for potential solutions. The dissertation also revealed that system-framing and design-based problem-solving not only addressed immediate challenges but fostered a new, future-oriented perspective among stakeholders, equipping them with new strategies for effective problem solving in subsequent community crises.

Comments

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Management in Strategic Leadership

Download

Share

COinS