Competencies Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agents Need to Manage Conflict in Master Gardener Programs
Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
12-2023
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6302-5371
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Dr. Teresa Starrett
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Dr. Donna Smith
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Dr. Jon Schwiethale
Abstract
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension agents manage volunteer programs with vast efforts in public education. Volunteer programs such as the Texas Master Gardener program are significant to the public because they provide a service by educating people in horticulture and related topics. Extension agents oversee volunteer programs such as the Master Gardener program. The Texas Master Gardener program is comprised of more than 9,000 volunteers who give over 500,000 hours of service to their communities. When there are misaligned goals or personality conflicts, it may impact the program’s mission and educational efforts. Extension agents must manage those situations to retain the effectiveness of the program. Most agents are trained in areas such as agriculture or family and community health. Often, agents do not begin their careers with a skillset in managing volunteers or conflict resolution. Therefore, qualitative research was conducted to discover the competencies needed by Extension agents to manage conflict in the Texas Master Gardener program. Further, prior training of agents in managing conflict was discovered, as well as preventative steps to prevent conflict from occurring. Finally, transformational leadership characteristics were found useful in the training of Extension agents on methods to manage conflict situations.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Fry, Jayla Brook, "Competencies Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agents Need to Manage Conflict in Master Gardener Programs" (2023). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 720.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/720