Digital Commons Network^™

Weakness Is The New Strength: How Vulnerability Makes Leaders Stronger, Scott Dick

Transform

Weakness is the new strength: How vulnerability makes leaders stronger is the result from the meta-analysis of five phenomenological studies designed to generate a theory that explains how exemplar leaders from five different fields used “soft-skills” and four domains of behavior to create mutual shared knowledge, resolve conflict and transform relationships to produce breakthrough results. The four domains of behavior are communication, collaboration, ethics, and emotional intelligence. The sample was composed of 75 exemplar leaders from five different professional fields and included an analysis of over 1,300 pages of interview transcripts as the main data source for the study. The …

“You Are The Key”: A Co-Design Project To Reduce Disparities In Black Veterans’ Communication With Healthcare Providers, Anna M. Barker, Renda S. Wiener, Dave Crocker, Makayla Dones, Oluwabunmi Emidio, Abigail N. Herbst, Jenesse Kaitz, Lauren Kearney, Danielle Miano, Gemmae M. Fix

Patient Experience Journal

Interventions are needed to overcome a key barrier to patient-provider communication, namely that patients hesitate to participate in clinical conversations because they believe their expected role is to be passive. This expectation is reinforced for veterans, who replicate their experience of military hierarchy in the patient-provider relationship. Black veterans, moreover, encounter structural racism that compounds this power imbalance. This paper describes a co-designed intervention to empower Black veterans to talk with providers, using shared decision-making (SDM) for lung cancer screening (LCS) as an exemplar. We worked with a diverse group of 5 veterans to develop materials that normalize participating in …

People And Process: Successful Change Management Initiatives, Gene E. Fusch, Lawrence R. Ness, Janet M. Booker, Patricia Fusch

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said πάντα ῥεῖ (Panta rhei, for everything flows, in contemporary English), and people have expanded upon this philosophy to mean the only constant in life is change. In this article, we will discuss organizational change through change management implementation (CMI) to improve organizational performance as well as a leadership response to social distancing and the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. We will discuss research exploring leadership communication, the importance of communication in minimizing or addressing change, and CMI roadblocks including employee resistance.

Positive Patient Experience In Eye Care During Covid-19: A Case From Eye Hospital Sistina Oftalmologija, Vesna Cado

Patient Experience Journal

COVID-19 was a wake-up call, changing the world we know and our experiences in every possible way. Healthcare systems, as the most exposed and stressed in this situation, were called to urgently respond to the new reality. Physical distancing and stay-at-home directives have flattened the curve and decreased the risk of viral transmission but also decreased the clinical volume in eye care medical practice. Hospitals must work hard to find a balance in responding to the pandemic while providing quality care and positive patient experiences. Previous research on crises has been mostly focused on implementing crisis management strategies to handle …

School Administrators’ Communication Skills As A Predictor Of Organizational Silence, Mehmet Durnali Asst. Prof. Dr., Sait Akbaşli Prof. Dr., Okan Di̇ş Phd. Candidate

i.e.: inquiry in education

The aim of this study was to determine not only the level of teachers’ perceptions of organizational silence and school administrators’ communication skills but also the correlation between communication skills and organizational silence. The study aimed to determine to what extent school administrators’ communication skills and teachers’ gender predicted teachers’ organizational silence as well. The target population consisted of 206 teachers of primary schools in the district of Yakutiye of the city of Erzurum in the academic year of 2018-2019. Data were collected using a personal information form developed by the researcher, the Communication Skills Scale (CCS) developed by Wiemann …

The Changing Face Of The Wildlife Profession: Tools For Creating Women Leaders, Wendy S. Anderson

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Women continue to be underrepresented in the natural resource sciences arena, including the field of wildlife biology. The gender gap widens further with advancement to higher level positions. This paper explores potential reasons behind the lack of women in leadership and the array of challenges that women may face in their career paths. A variety of tools are proposed to support and encourage career advancement for women. Studies show that organizations with higher numbers of women in leadership roles perform better and diverse teams are more dedicated and committed to the mission. Understanding gender issues and generating organizational change is …

Seven Steps To Successful Change: How A Large Academic Medical Center Prepared Patients For Organizational Change, Brian Carlson, Madison Agee, Terrell Smith, Paul Sternberg Jr, Jason Morgan

Patient Experience Journal

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) launched a new electronic health record (EHR) in a “big bang” implementation that saw the new software go live across multiple hospitals, clinics and geographic locations in a single morning. The organization rightly focused most of its energy on preparing its nearly 25,000 employees for the impacts of the transition, but it also considered the effects that would be felt by its patients and families. Survey data indicate that patient satisfaction scores demonstrably dip before, during and after an EHR implementation, and take approximately a year to recover. A team at DMC employed a seven-step …

Problem-Solving In Complex Settings: Techniques For Crossing Organizational Boundaries, Adrian Wolfberg

Engaged Management ReView

Solving problems in complex organizations requires managers to successfully navigate organizational boundaries. Yet, crossing boundaries can be an extremely difficult endeavor that requires sophisticated and multifaceted skills and behaviors. In this paper, we introduce boundary permeability to expand on the available boundary crossing techniques identified by Carlile (2004). Acknowledging the messiness in organizational life, we propose a set of techniques requiring that managers consider the multiplicity of boundary conditions and, in many cases, use multiple techniques simultaneously. We describe an innovative, real-world, problem-solving program within the U.S. Department of Defense to demonstrate the practical application of the proposed techniques and …

An Organizational Communication Approach To Information Security, Kofi Arhin, Gamel O. Wiredu

The African Journal of Information Systems

Organizations thrive on efficient information management systems as they support activities. Hence, these systems need to be protected from attacks that threaten their existence and use. Although non-technical information security ideas have been espoused by researchers, they have excluded the role of organizational communication. As such, this study explains information security from an organizational communication perspective. Drawing upon a framework of discourse and organizational change, we analyze an empirical case of how information security in an organization is implicated by communicative actions, deep structures, and communication traits. The analysis reveals that (1) prevention of security breaches is achieved by structures …

Empowering Internal Stakeholders Through The Dissemination Of Useful Information: A Review Of Crisis Management Concepts, Patricia I. Fusch, Janie A. Hall, Gene E. Fusch

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

In this article, we define crisis management as not only a problem, but also an opportunity for leaders to be flexible, creative, and innovative that contributes to social change. In the past, organizational leaders often looked at crisis management as a quick fix or stopgap to business as usual. Empowering internal stakeholders and disseminating useful information that is relevant, valid, timely, and reliable to people within the organization can lead to crisis resolution at the closest point of action and contribute to social change. We look at the primary and secondary stakeholders and stewardship of the employees during the …

Servant Leaders As Change Agents, Janice P. Tanno, David K. Banner

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

Servant leadership (SL) produces high performance and employee engagement. Non-SL senior leaders lacking business ethics have caused negative outcomes. This study explored the lived experiences of senior leaders’ decision-making in SL organizations. Maslow’s theories, decision theory, spirituality, Cicero’s virtue theory of ethics; SL comprised the theoretical/conceptual foundation. Data collection used purposive sampling of 18 senior leader participants in SL organizations employing Giorgi’s descriptive psychological structures of experiences analysis method. Findings confirmed ethical decision-making in SL organizations. Recommendations included examining CEO ethical leadership and firm performance interrelations and promoting ethical decision-making at all levels. Conclusions supported teamwork as the one …

Using Critical Thinking Styles To Inform Food Safety Behavior Communication Campaigns, Arthur Leal, Joy N. Rumble, Alexa J. Lamm

Journal of Applied Communications

Consumers have struggled with maintaining consistent food safety behaviors over the years, which has been affected partly by their limited food safety knowledge. Researchers in this study set to determine Florida residents’ food safety behaviors while also assessing their critical thinking styles. The social cognitive theory and the University of Florida critical thinking styles (UFCTI) inventory served as the guiding framework. The UFCTI has emerged as an effective tool in measuring how an individual’s critical thinking is expressed, performed, or done. Online survey responses were collected from 510 Florida residents and data were analyzed using non-probability and weighting measures. The …

Relational Leading: Practices For Dialogically Based Collaboration. By Lone Hersted & Kenneth J. Gergen., Stanley E. Patterson Phd

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

RELATIONAL LEADING: PRACTICES FOR DIALOGICALLY BASED COLLABORATION By Lone Hersted & Kenneth J. Gergen. Chagrin Falls, OH: Taos Institute Publications (2013). Kindle edition, 197 pages.

The Taos Institute and the authors have made a valuable contribution to the leadership community by providing not only a theoretical base for relational leadership but also a description of a practical application of the concept. The model is explored primarily in the corporate management context where “new and highly complex problems require linking many different kinds of knowledge; cooperation across cultural borders is increasingly necessary; work teams are needed to supply continuous innovation. Successful …

Tea Time: Raising Awareness And Support For Extension, Nancy K. Franz, Chris Fahey

The Journal of Extension

In a time of reliance on electronic media for information, chaotic programming environments, and declining public resources, Extension workers need to find unique ways to connect with stakeholders to maintain and increase support for programming. To address this need, we developed, conducted, and evaluated a series of stakeholder teas. We found this method of communicating with stakeholders builds social, political, and fiscal support for Extension programming.

Supporting Online Faculty: Developing A Supporting Website Resource, Peter John Anthony, Eric Nordin

Higher Learning Research Communications

Current trends in post-secondary education enrollment indicate that colleges and universities are likely to experience an increase in the number of online students. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the type of resources and support features online faculty need, desire, and expect in a support website. The method used to collect research findings was an online survey. The participants for this study consisted of the online faculty population at an institution of higher learning in the southwestern United States. Participants were invited by email to participate in a 13 question survey which asked participants to rate the importance …

Photo-Elicitation As A Method Of Assessing Village Needs, Lulu Rodriguez, Denise Bjelland

Journal of Applied Communications

Photo-elicitation is a method of gathering data from respondents who are asked to take photographs or critically examine and reflect on images taken by others to offer a more “native” view of often cross-cultural or inter-group experiences. This method was applied to determine what the residents of a village in China’s Hangzhou province saw as their community’s development priorities by asking them to take photographs of local scenes, characters and objects to depict their needs. Through their snapshots, they indicated the need to diversify their community’s economic base (currently limited to snake production and processing), the need for better transportation …

Organizational Learning Stages Of Assimilation, Integration And Optimization And Their Relationship With User Satisfaction Of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems, Edith Galy, Jane Lemaster

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Literature on organizational learning suggests that various processes have to occur in order for an organization to learn. This study provides empirical evidence for measuring organizational learning in three stages: assimilation, integration and optimization. A path model of organizational learning was tested establishing the significance and magnitude of the total effect of assimilation, integration and optimization on the satisfaction level of top information executives in firms with Enterprise Resource Planning systems. The model indicates that the optimization-satisfaction path is the strongest, followed by the integration-satisfaction path. Measuring and improving the factors composing organizational learning is essential for successful implementation of …

A Model Of Organizational Responsiveness To Stakeholders, Caron Chess

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Dr. Chess explores the relationship between risk management and risk communication and its affect on an organization/stakeholder relationship.

The Emergence Of Law Firms In The American Legal Profession, Thomas Paul Pinansky

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.