Date of Award

1996

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Leadership Studies

Abstract

We have come to a point in time when the problems in the world such as environmental degradation, human rights, overpopulation, and ethnic strife seem more difficult to solve than ever before. While it is possible that this is because the problems are more complex and require solutions beyond current human comprehension, it is more likely that we have been looking to the wrong institutions to solve our problems. However, we are in the midst of change. A paradigm may be shifting. Human beings around the world are gradually moving away from completely relying on sovereign state actors to address their problems to a system of participation with a multitude of leadership sources.

The primary problem in comprehending satisfactory, holistic solutions for the world's seemingly overwhelming impending crises is a function of the paradigm from which the majority of the world's people are viewing the problem. What if we were to construct a new Jens based on new sources that emerge to address specialized issues? This is the lens created in a post-international global order with multi-sourced leadership. We are currently in a transition stage between the realist paradigm based on state-centric leadership and a post-international global order based on a multitude of sources of leadership.

The Commission on Global Governance, which included citizens from many nations, was convened in 1995 and produced a report on the growing potential for 'global govemance' in which new actors emerge as leaders to do work in areas that governments aren't. While the United Nations works to address global crises, the U.N., since it is bound by the sovereignty of the member-states, is often incapable of implementing solutions to interdependent problems. Transnational companies, NGOs, and other international affiliations are becoming organizational leaders in a new global civil society that have ideas and values that are defying national boundaries and leading a new global order. Transformational leadership within these organizations has never been more vital as the world is in the midst of great change in which a global ethic is emerging and needs to be defined.

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