The presentation highlighted the spring 2018 course that was designed to explore culture not only at the national level, but also at the team and individual person levels.
The course objectives included learning about Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and how they are manifested in cultures of volleyball-playing nations around the globe, with a particular focus on Italy.
In addition, these student-athletes completed assessments to trace the development of their own personal cultural and athletic identities and the factors that shaped them. They also engaged in in-depth analyses of the values, rituals, and practices of their own team culture and their interplay with team dynamics and performance.
An organizational psychologist, Leupold facilitated these discussions and analyses and will continue to support head coach Mary Tendler, her staff, and the players in applying these observations and findings as a means of optimizing team functioning and performance in the Colonial Athletic Conference during the 2018-2019 season.
This two-credit course was offered as part of the university and Elon Athletics’ commitment to providing student-athletes with an opportunity to study abroad. In addition to participation in cultural activities and class meetings while in Italy, the course included 18 hours of in-class meeting time before and after. As are all other study-abroad courses, this course was subject to the formal approval of the Global Education Center and Elon’s faculty-led University Curriculum Committee.
Leupold also serves as the Executive Leadership Coach in Residence at Elon’s School of Law.
The Experiential Learning Leadership Institute is an organization dedicated to educating leaders in higher education, K-12, and nonprofit organizations on experiential and project-based learning (https://www.suu.edu/siel/elli/).