Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding The Connections Between Cross-Sector Collaboration And Service Delivery For Charitable Organizations Using Mixed Methods, Kristin Elizabeth Darby

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Two of the most pressing challenges in the world today are food and water access. Charitable organizations frequently use cross-sector collaboration to address food and water access. Cross-sector collaboration is grounded in knowledge, relationships, communication, action, and trust, which cultivate innovation and resilience. However, very few studies have discussed the connections between collaboration, service delivery, and perceptions. Using a convergent design of mixed methods, this thesis examined how cross-sector collaboration enhances service delivery and resilience in charitable organizations. Specifically, the project is guided by three research questions: (1) What communication practices support effective cross-sector collaborations for impactful service delivery for …

Enabling Innovation In The Energy System Transition, Bonnie Wylie Pratt

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Innovation in the electric sector has the potential to drive job growth, decrease environmental impacts, reduce rate payer costs, and increase reliability and resiliency. However, the traditional electric system was built to deliver a controlled flow of energy from a centralized location with maximum reliability and minimum cost. As both customer expectations and generation technologies change, new avenues for grid innovation are being explored. Residential customers, commercial and industrial clients, and electric utilities must all find a way to balance goals for decarbonization and social justice with maintaining a least cost, reliable power grid. Grounded in Geel’s energy system transition …

Psychotherapists Becoming Leadership Consultants: The Making Of An Institutional Entrepreneur, Mercy Burton Russell

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

Leadership consultants bring specialized knowledge into their clients'

organizations. Advisor leadership consultants (ALC) trained as psychotherapists

apply concepts from human behavior theories as advisors to business leaders. They

also bring service-oriented professional norms and values of objectivity, neutrality,

and lack of self-interest. Their business clients in the market sector operate

according to norms and values of pragmatism, financial self-interest, and advocacy.

In order to establish credibility in the organizational field of business clients,

leadership consultants must negotiate between these different value systems.

This study is a grounded theory inquiry using narrative analysis tools to

study how ALCs navigate across …