Salina, Kansas
Email: gregs3@cox.net

Greg is generalist on the faculty at Kansas State University in Salina where he teaches business, supervisory management, and a technology history course in the technology management program. Besides teaching for several years, he has worked on leadership training programs and consulted with farm groups, rural business, and non-profit organizations.

Title: Constructing the diversity of leadership patterns and organizational policy through an analysis of the narratives of five Kansas farm organizations.

There have been numerous rural and farm groups organized over the past century, which include general farm organizations, commodity groups and cooperatives. Most seem to have pursued the same type of objectives, which have been to improve farming production methods and/or the economic well being of farmers. However during this same time period farm numbers have dramatically declined, in part because of technology, but also due to a relative lack of collaboration among farm groups.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the communication patterns and narratives told by Kansas farm group leaders and members have had an impact on the mission, success, cooperation, and organizational development of selected farm groups. This dissertation will take a social constructionist approach using mixed methods such as archival analysis, narrative analysis and ethnography.

Included will be a historical analysis of the five major conventional general farm groups- Kansas Grange, Kansas Farm Bureau, The study will also contrast these older farm groups with the current trend of sustainable agriculture groups, which have emerged in the past three decades; these groups are characterized by a tendency to have adopted a more post-modernist approach to leadership and organizational development. Kansas Farmers Union, Kansas National Farmers Organization, and Kansas American Agriculture Movement.

The study will include oral histories and interviews of leaders and members, an analysis of organizational communication materials, and personal reflection.