A facilitative ethnography of the communication of an Evangelical church leadership team

This dissertation extends qualitative descriptive--interpretive and facilitative/interventionist applied communication scholarship conducted on teams in organizations by investigating and facilitating the communication of the top management (leadership) team of an Evangelical church through three stages over nearly 2.5 years. The first stage (which lasted from fall 2007 to summer 2009) identified, described, and interpreted the communicative practices, processes, and structures of the church leadership team, and by examining those practices vis-a-vis the team's goals, determined several communication challenges that hindered the team from fully achieving its goals. After describing those communicative practices, the second stage involved implementing a 3-month unique facilitation program, based on the findings from the first research stage and relevant group facilitation literature, to help the leadership team move toward its goals. Finally, the third stage assessed the team and the effects of the facilitation for 2 months following the completion of the facilitation program.;The findings obtained through these three stages offer numerous insights into the nature of top management team communication and its facilitation within a large church, as well as important methodological and practical implications of such engaged research. First, this study enhances the scholarly understanding of communicative practices and challenges of a group---a church leadership team---in a largely understudied but greatly influential organizational context of U.S. megachurches. As the only descriptive and facilitative study (as far as I am aware) focused directly on the communication of a church top management team, this study tests and extends literature on top management team communication and power dynamics, the integration of expressions of faith and rationality in decision making, and effective teamwork practices, within the unique context of an Evangelical church. Second, the comprehensive communication facilitation program helped members of the team to clarify, pursue, and become better able to reach their goals; develop their collaborative potential; and gain skills to enhance their organization's effectiveness. Third, this study proposed and tested a distinct methodological approach to engaged scholarship---facilitative ethnography---that integrates ethnographic research practices with group facilitation and organizational intervention goals and practices.