Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Organizational Leadership

First Advisor

Cindy Petersen

Second Advisor

Jonathan Greenberg

Third Advisor

George Sziraki

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory phenomenological study was to identify and describe the strategies used by exemplary superintendents of elementary school districts in Fresno, Kern, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo counties to create conditions for empowerment for everyone in their organization based on five variables: trust, love, belonging, strategy, and culture.

Methodology: This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of exemplary elementary school district superintendents in Fresno, Kern, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo counties. Purposeful, criterion sampling was used to identify 10 participants who met the study’s criteria. The semistructured, open-ended interview protocol was developed by a thematic research team of five peer researchers and two faculty advisors. Data collected from the interviews and artifacts were analyzed to identify themes related to the study’s research questions.

Findings: Analysis produced eight major findings: (a) superintendents empowered others by developing employee capacity for strategic responsibility, (b) using varied evidence to support strategic and cultural learning, (c) pairing strategic priorities with collective norms, (d) making employee and community influence visible in organizational decisions, (e) enacting values consistently, (f) extending relational care across roles and identities, (g) protecting psychological safety for honest communication and risk-taking, and (h) balancing high expectations with concrete support.

Conclusions: The study concluded that empowerment developed through the alignment of relational conditions—trust, care, belonging, and psychological safety—with organizational structures that built capacity, clarified direction, supported shared learning, and distributed meaningful responsibility. These conditions enabled employees to exercise judgment and contribute to organizational work while remaining aligned.

Implications for Action: Implications for action include superintendents, district leadership teams, county offices of education, and superintendent preparation programs to (a) establish capacity-development systems, (b) conduct cross-role evidence reviews, (c) pair priorities with norms, (d) make feedback-to-action processes transparent, (e) apply values-alignment checks, (f) extend relational practices across roles, (g) prepare leaders to respond constructively to disagreement, and (h) pair accountability with concrete support.

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