| The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to explore perceptions about Maathai's leadership and to inform a theory about leadership. This was accomplished by analyzing the perceptions about how Maathai produced leadership thus earning global recognition as an agent of change. The research involved analyzing perceptions about processes that can explain the production of Maathai's leadership. The researcher in this study focused on general problems of leadership in Africa and acknowledged the inapplicability of theories whose research had been conducted using the lens of western concepts of leadership. Grounded theory design offered a compelling approach to systematically derive from field data a new theoretical model that takes into consideration the complexities of leadership in the African cultural contexts. The researcher analyzed perceptions of people from Kenya with leadership experience, who were familiar with the leadership of professor Maathai, and who were residing in the United States of America at the time of the study. The ARISE leadership model emerged from this study and consists of five pairs of themes with each pair carrying two subthemes. Theme pairs were education and empowerment, socialization and selfless service, internationalization and integration, resolve and resilience, and, authenticity and self-actualization. The identified subthemes were vision, trailblazing, passion, courage, exposure, open mindedness, objectivity, upbringing, cultural influence, intelligence and initiative. The ARISE leadership model offers a process that can aid towards the development of leaders. |
