Article Review #3: Innovation/Creativity in Leadership

Name: "Animating Recreation Experiences through Face-to-Face Leadership: Efficacy of Two Models"


Journal: Journal of Park & Recreation Administration


Author(s): Terry Long, Gary Ellis, Eric Trunnell, Kevin Tatsugawa, Patti Freeman


Date Retrieved: March 19th, 2012


How Located:  I used the Murphy Library article database search under the Recreation Leadership subject guide to find this article. I typed in the keywords creative leadership and recreation into the search box.


What I learned: 
  This article discussed two different models of leadership.  These models included recreation leadership involving leading an activity on pleasure, self-efficacy, and creativity.  The results of the study conducted showed that the use of the various models did indeed promote self-efficacy and pleasure.  Some of the implications for recreation leadership derived from this study include: using novelty at the start of the activity to attract attention of the participants, increasing participants' confidence through modeling the activity and verbal encouragement, and keeping participants involved in the activity by altering the complexity or content of the activity. 


  The article emphasizes the use of verbal, personalized persuasive messages by the leader to provide encouragement for the participants. This includes praising, smiling, reinforcing, modeling, and providing adequate instructions.  Some of the key elements that must be monitored and managed are interacting people, the setting, leisure equipment, rules, and animation.  I learned that leaders should be able to create a positive environment, both physically and socially, in order to facilitate a positive leisure experience and optimize the benefits derived from the activity by the participants. The creative aspect of the leadership evaluated in this article involves the awareness of the importance of animation within leadership. 


Application of Knowledge: 
  This article was very interesting and applicable to not only my future career, but also to leadership in many situations.  In my future, I know that I will have to lead different activities and the leadership style may be different depending on the individuals I am working with, the specific activity, the number of participants, and the number of other leaders.  This article helped me to better understand important aspects of leadership which I will be able to use in my future.  I think that it fit right in with TR because animation is a very important part of leadership when working with individuals who have disabilities.  Animation allows the activity to get started and also sustain action throughout.  Some individuals may lack enthusiasm about participating in an activity and animation from the leader may be the turning point for them to "get their feet wet" and try an activity.  Animation can be seen as a creative and innovative aspect of leadership.


Recommend article?: 
  Yes, I would definitely recommend this article for other TR students. Leadership is a very important aspect of therapeutic recreation.  This article highlights some important parts of leadership along with emphasizing the importance of animation. It can be directly correlated to TR and I think it is a very interesting article!