For whom the bell (really) tolls: A grounded theory of millennial academic supervisors’ sensemaking of communitarian values as a springboard to enrich their transformational leadership attributes

Abstract

ABSTRACT The emergence of millennials in strategic positions of academic organizations paved the way for a peculiar execution of leadership practices due to their work ethic and generational stereotypes. Scholars argue that one of the neo-charismatic modalities that they embrace is transformational leadership. By and large, the said leadership paradigm becomes a multifaceted phenomenon if viewed from the specific generational and professional lenses. There is a paucity of studies that discovers its translation on developing countries that imbue a communitarian schema of values. Through a Glaserian grounded theory, the qualitative inquiry purported to provide a model which would uncover the process of sensemaking of communitarian values to enrich the transformational leadership attributes of the millennial academic supervisors. Twenty (20) information-rich cases from various comprehensive universities in the Philippines participated in the inquiry. Interestingly, the study revealed four (4) distinct yet interwoven stages of Build up, Engage in, Lean on, and Live through. The ‘BELL Model of Culturally Sensitive Transformational Leadership Attribute Enrichment among Millennial Academic Supervisors’ can serve as a pragmatic framework that could assist the teacher-leaders hailing from communitarian societies with a scaffolding that resonates with their modern-day sensibilities and celebrates their indigeneity.