hi Pine,
this is an excellent point, and I believe there are definitely too few
systematic studies on the topic, as well as targeted programs.
<blatant promotion mode on>
In my book, "Common Knowledge? An Ethnography of Wikipedia", which has
left the press last week, I have a whole chapter ("Between Anarchy and
Bureaucracy: Wikimedia Governance") dedicated to issues of governance and
internal leadership.
http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=24010
Unfortunately, Google Books preview has most of the pages limited (and
Stanford University Press is not too keen on open access of their
publications, sadly).
http://books.google.pl/books?id=hBpuAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA178&dq=jemielniak%20common%20knowledge%20leadership&hl=pl&pg=PP1#v=snippet&q=between%20anarchy&f=false
</blatant promotion mode off>
best,
dariusz "pundit"
On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 7:12 AM, ENWP Pine <deyntest...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I've heard the word "leadership" used a lot in WMF, synonymously with
> "management" in my experience. That makes sense in a somewhat hierarchical
> organization like WMF, although this model has received some criticism from
> the community for allegedly excessive top-down thinking. I'm not familiar
> enough with the culture in the WMF Office to comment about its strengths
> and weaknesses, but I would like to ask questions about leadership in the
> community.
>
> In the community, which is diffuse and where roles are highly flexible,
> there have been some studies done done about leadership but the ones I know
> about usually focus on hierarchies within the community, especially how
> people get chosen for administrator roles on-wiki. As we are thinking about
> our online culture, we can be thinking about movement leadership. Who are
> the leaders, how are they trained, how are they selected, what do they do,
> what makes them effective, and how can they be given ongoing support and
> training? I think many of us would agree that adminship and leadership are
> not always synonymous, and there are many ways that people exercise
> leadership in non-hierarchical ways.
>
> I hear frequently about stress from members of English Wikipedia's Arbcom,
> and I hope WMF is thinking about how to train and support people who get
> chosen for such visible, important, and often stressful volunteer roles.
>
> I would also like to point out that Wikimedia is developing training
> materials for leaders of chapters and programs.
>
> Is there anyone at WMF who is taking a holistic view of community
> leadership and how to understand, train and support it in ways that support
> the strategic plan goals?
>
> Training that might be relevant could include how to create friendly
> spaces online,
> resolve online conflicts, engage in cross-cultural communication,
> encourage strategic thinking, influence change, and maintain morale. I
> think a series of five-minute training modules could be helpful for online
> and offline volunteers, along with dedicating some Program & Evaluation or
> Research time to understanding leadership in the non-hierarchical
> community. These initiatives could help with encouraging teamwork and
> collaboration online by influencing and training "leaders".
>
> I would also be interested in hearing about how WMF thinks about
> "leadership" internally, since there seems to be some community feeling
> that WMF's thinking about leadership is incompatible with the community's.
> I don't have an opinion but I would like to be more informed, and hopefully
> encourage WMF to think about how the organization as a whole interacts with
> the community.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Pine
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
> wikimedi...@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
--
__________________________
dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak
profesor zarządzania
kierownik katedry Zarządzania Międzynarodowego
i centrum badawczego CROW
Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego
http://www.crow.alk.edu.pl
członek Akademii Młodych Uczonych Polskiej Akademii Nauk
_______________________________________________
Wiki-research-l mailing list
Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
