Prince Hall Masonry Leader and Leadership Development: A Historiometric Analysis

Abstract

The research question addressed in this dissertation investigates the presence of leader and leadership development processes in the annual proceedings of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Ohio (MWPHGLO) since its inception. Two periods of time are assessed and compared, approximately the first generation from the founding of the MWPHGLO in 1849 and the first generation from the centennial of the MWPHGLO in 1949. The first period portrayed the organization's processes immediately after the Civil War into Reconstruction and the second period engaged the "modern" Civil Rights era. Several researchers (Komives, Mainella, Osteen, & Longerbeam. (2005), Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm, and McKee (2014), and others) point to the relative lack of scholarly investigation of leader development processes, particularly compared to leadership studies generally. The methodological approach is characterized by historiometric analysis and therefore integrates textual narrative analysis and statistical quantification to generate insights. This unique application of the historiometric technique produced more than 6500 codes linked to conceptualizations of leadership development. This work constructed a coding model to identify the leader and leadership development constructs as outlined by Van Velsor, McCauley, Ruderman, (2010). They outline "assessment", "challenge" and '"support" as the basic elements for both leader and leadership development processes. The project represents an interdisciplinary effort, integrating the disciplines of leadership studies, historical analysis, and institutional studies. The analytical and interpretive lens features African centered principles.