The organization that I will use for this course is my employer Bethel University. In 1842, Bethel University was founded in McLemoresville, Tennessee as Bethel Seminary (Bethel University, n.d). Bethel President W.W. Hendrix, in 1872, led an initiative to relocate Bethel to its current location in McKenzie. In 2009, to reflect the school’s momentum, Bethel’s Board of Trustees voted to change the name from Bethel College to Bethel University (Bethel University, n.d). Over the last 175 years, Bethel has seen many ups and downs. Fortunately, our leaders have found ways to keep Bethel on the cutting edge which in turn allows us to remain competitive in the education industry. A few examples of these innovations are the Success program, which allows adults the opportunity to earn a degree while continuing to stay employed; the laptop initiative, which Bethel was the first college to provide full-time student with a laptop computer in Tennessee. Another innovation was the Renaissance Performing Arts Experience, which offers performing arts students scholarships that are modeled the same as …show more content…
Therefore, it is essential to have qualified and well trained employees in leadership positions. This can be accomplished by implementing leader development activities and having a thoughtful understanding of developmental theories and principles. Furthermore, the organizational culture must support the development and reinforce the importance of development across all levels in the organizations. Also, leader development needs to be an accountable activity in all that the organization does (Ruvolo, Petersen, & LeBoeuf, 2004). Our leaders understand that Bethel is an open system comprised of interconnected subsystems and the performance of each department affects and are affected by the performance of the other (Nassar, 2007). Therefore, our every department has a significant role in the success of the university as a