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From A Boy To A Leader, Alejandro Zayas
From A Boy To A Leader, Alejandro Zayas
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
The following autoethnographic dissertation examines my personal experiences of trauma, abuse, and violence. Drawing on journals, memories, and artifacts from my life, I use self-reflection to illustrate the impacts of trauma on my childhood and adulthood. My traumatic experiences of sexual abuse, childhood violence, and emotional abuse are situated within broader sociocultural contexts of masculinity, Hispanic culture, and social norms. This study illuminates possibilities for healing and transformation for myself and others with shared traumatic backgrounds. It calls for trauma-informed education, masculinity, and resiliency. Evocatively sharing my traumatic life events provides an accessible window into often silenced experiences, bearing witness …
From Me To We: A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Group Beingness, Stacey K. Guenther
From Me To We: A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Group Beingness, Stacey K. Guenther
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
To be human is to be a member of myriad groups. The universality of groups in our lives poses an important area of study for social scientists investigating human flourishing. Additionally, inquiring into the evolutionary potential of groups may begin to inform new ways of addressing the intractable issues we face as a human species. While most empirical studies of groups focus on group performance, or group doingness, this study explored group beingness and the experience of manifesting deep union and oneness, which is an intersubjective phenomenon that has been called coherence. Intersubjective coherence is often written about from a …
Integrating Interpersonal Neurobiology In Healthcare Leadership And Organizations, Lynn Redenbach
Integrating Interpersonal Neurobiology In Healthcare Leadership And Organizations, Lynn Redenbach
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) is an interdisciplinary, science-based field that seeks to understand human reality including the nature of mind, brain, and relationships. IPNB has been used extensively by mental health practitioners as well as child development and parenting experts. While practitioners and scholars have described ways that IPNB can be used in leadership and organizations, there has been no systematic inquiry into the practical and phenomenological experience of this application. IPNB offers an alternative to dominant models of care and leading in healthcare settings and fields, which are characterized by disconnection, objectification, and separation. It offers a relationally centered approach …
Click-Enter-Send: The Relationship Experiences Of People Who Are Blind Or Visually Impaired In Text-Based Workspaces, Kelly Bleach
Click-Enter-Send: The Relationship Experiences Of People Who Are Blind Or Visually Impaired In Text-Based Workspaces, Kelly Bleach
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Companies have increasingly turned to text-based communications to recruit, hire, and manage a distributed remote workforce. For people who are blind or visually impaired, this movement presents both challenges and opportunities for attaining and retaining employment. Does the potential isolation of telework have a negative effect on workplace relationships for people who are blind or visually impaired? Does participation in text-based workspaces mitigate stereotypes and stigmatization experienced by people with visible disabilities? Using a constructivist grounded theory framework, this study explored how people who are blind or visually impaired experience relationships in text-based workspaces. Building and maintaining social connections and …
Video Meetings In A Pandemic Era: Emotional Exhaustion, Stressors, And Coping, Betty J. Johnson
Video Meetings In A Pandemic Era: Emotional Exhaustion, Stressors, And Coping, Betty J. Johnson
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
In the first quarter of 2020, societal upheavals related to the COVID-19 pandemic included employers’ work-from-home mandates and an almost overnight adoption of video meetings to replace in-person meetings no longer possible due to contagion fears and social distancing requirements. This exploratory study aimed to address, in part, the scientific knowledge gap about video meetings as a source of emotional labor. The study used mixed methods to explore three hypotheses concerning how the contemporary use of video meetings related to emotional exhaustion, stressors, and coping. Data were gathered through an online survey questionnaire. Emotional exhaustion, the dependent variable in the …
Saving A Seat For A Sister: A Grounded Theory Approach Exploring The Journey Of Women Reaching Top Policing Executive Positions, Nicola D. Smith-Kea
Saving A Seat For A Sister: A Grounded Theory Approach Exploring The Journey Of Women Reaching Top Policing Executive Positions, Nicola D. Smith-Kea
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
The world of women in law enforcement is a thought-provoking one that has received increasing attention both in academia as well as in practice over the past few decades. Even more intriguing, and despite advances in the profession, is the low number of women in executive leadership positions in law enforcement. There is a vast underrepresentation of women in top executive leadership positions across the 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the complex journey of women to top executive policing leadership positions. Embracing a positive psychology approach, …
The Experience Of Children's Mental Health Leaders During Times Of Constraint: A Narrative Study, Jody Levison-Johnson
The Experience Of Children's Mental Health Leaders During Times Of Constraint: A Narrative Study, Jody Levison-Johnson
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Across the United States, each state has a public mental health system that is designed to support children and youth with emotional and behavioral challenges. This is critically important as recent estimates show that one in six children in the United States has a diagnosed mental health condition (Whitney & Peterson, 2019). The design and structure of these systems vary by state, but consistent across them is the presence of a state-designated leader who is faced with an array of constraining factors that influence their behavior and shape the resulting system. This study describes the experience of leaders in children’s …
The Good Bloke In Contemporary Australian Workplaces: Origins, Qualities And Impacts Of A National Cultural Archetype In Small For-Profit Businesses, Christopher George Taylor
The Good Bloke In Contemporary Australian Workplaces: Origins, Qualities And Impacts Of A National Cultural Archetype In Small For-Profit Businesses, Christopher George Taylor
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
This study explored the nature and significance of a common but widely misunderstood phrase encountered in Australia: The Good Bloke. Underlying this enquiry was awareness, based on the researcher’s personal and professional experience, that the idea of a Good Bloke powerfully influences individual perceptions of leaders in Australian small-to-mid sized for-profit firms. The study commenced with an exploration of the origins and history of the phrase, tracing it to the 1788 arrival of a disproportionately male Anglo-Celtic population was composed significantly of transported convicts. The language and mores of this unique settler population evolved for two centuries based on relationships, …
The Relationship Between Mindfulness And Leadership: How Mindfulness Practices Affect Leadership Practices, James Van Auken
The Relationship Between Mindfulness And Leadership: How Mindfulness Practices Affect Leadership Practices, James Van Auken
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
The aim of this study was to explore and understand the relationship between mindfulness practices and actual leadership practices. This qualitative study utilized narrative inquiry with phenomenological interviewing techniques to explore selective leaders who use mindfulness practices, and see how they used mindfulness in their leadership practice. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted and thematic analysis was utilized. Eleven themes were identified with multiple sub- and sub-sub-themes, including: “Personal, Internal Mindfulness Practice,” “Being Mindful Toward Self,” “Being Present with Others,” “Being Present with a Group,” “Mindful Shift of Focus/Attention,” “Emotional Intelligence,” “Buffering of Reactivity,” “Resilience and Recovery,” “Alignment,” “Improved Job Performance,” …
A Method To My Quietness: A Grounded Theory Study Of Living And Leading With Introversion, Leatrice Oram
A Method To My Quietness: A Grounded Theory Study Of Living And Leading With Introversion, Leatrice Oram
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Leadership scholar-practitioners must create a more sustainable, diverse, and equitable future, fostering emergence and development of resilient, competent leaders, including those who may have been previously overlooked.Leadership studies, particularly those situated in early trait and behavior paradigms, have long privileged extraverted leaders as ideal.The scholarly conversation is limited on introverted leaders; moreover, most of that literature depicts introversion as either a pathological construct associated with shyness and social anxiety, or includes introversion only by omission, as a state of deficit-of-extraversion.This study instead began with positive inquiry, framing introversion as a positive individual difference, and explored the lived experiences of introverted …
Influencing Behavior During Planned Culture Change: A Participatory Action Research Case Study, Michael Valentine
Influencing Behavior During Planned Culture Change: A Participatory Action Research Case Study, Michael Valentine
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
The study was conducted in a global, for-profit, advertising firm, which initiated a culture change effort focused culture change.The objective of the effort was to manage the negative impact of implicit bias (IB) in the workplace.This type of bias is known to influence behaviors and judgements (Amodio & Mendoza, 2010).It is hypothesized that if employees shift behavior to better understand and manage these biases in the basic work activities that are typical in any organization—like working on a team, making decisions related hiring, developing and promoting talent, and the numerous creative decisions that are typical of designing advertising campaigns—more inclusive …
A Mixed Methods Perspective: How Integral Leaders Can Contribute To The Growth Of Emerging Leaders, Susan M. Hayes
A Mixed Methods Perspective: How Integral Leaders Can Contribute To The Growth Of Emerging Leaders, Susan M. Hayes
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Given that organizational complexity continues to increase, leaders are looking for credible information, and a process that helps them become a better leader. Emerging leaders are faced with trying to be the best leader they can be while leading teams of people who think and act differently from them. To assist emerging leaders with their leadership, this study explores the literature and looks to highly respected and admired leaders for how they became the leader they are today. The purpose of this study was fourfold: first, to identify and describe first and second tier integral theory leaders from a sample …
Organizational Leaders’ Experience With Fear-Related Emotions: A Critical Incident Study, Al Barkouli
Organizational Leaders’ Experience With Fear-Related Emotions: A Critical Incident Study, Al Barkouli
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
This study used the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to better understand how organizational leaders experienced fear-related emotions. Through semi-structured interviews, fifteen executive leaders, mainly chief executive officers (CEOs), shared their experiences in response to threatening, risky, or dangerous incidents. In addition to a phenomenological understanding of the experience, participants illuminated the role that fear-related emotions play in leader decisions, how these emotions influence leader-follower relationships, the impacts of fear-related emotions on leaders’ health and well-being, and the ways leaders managed their experience with fear-related emotions including the role courage played. Leaders often faced threats, risks, or dangers (stimuli) from within …
Spirituality And Leadership: Integrating Spirituality As A Developmental Approach Of Improving Overall Leader Effectiveness, George Gregory Houston
Spirituality And Leadership: Integrating Spirituality As A Developmental Approach Of Improving Overall Leader Effectiveness, George Gregory Houston
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
The role of leadership continues to be a consistent topic of discussion whether you are considering the seminal work of Stogdill (1974), Burns (1978), Kouzes and Posner (1995), or Van Hooser's (2013) Leaders Ought to Know, one of Amazon's 2013 Top Ten Leadership books. A consistent question in leader development circles is-how can leaders be more effective in their role given the current state of leadership? One dimension of leadership development that is often overshadowed, downplayed, minimized, or completely ignored is the concept of spirituality. If the spiritual development of individual leaders can be integrated with other accepted leadership …
Understanding Relational Agility: Exploring Constructs Of Relational Leadership Through Story, David M.I. Mclean
Understanding Relational Agility: Exploring Constructs Of Relational Leadership Through Story, David M.I. Mclean
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Organizational storytelling was used within Tri Fit, a Canadian health promotion and fitness company, to explore relational leadership practices. Through 27 confidential one-on-one interviews and an interview of the four-person leadership team, the research attempted to examine how relational agility, a new leadership construct, exists, how it is defined, and to describe its organizational impacts. Two hundred and forty unique stories were shared through this process, out of which nine storylines emerged. The distillation of these revealed three cultural themes: a culture of relational connection; a culture of nice and a culture that values positivity. Demonstrations of transformational leadership, authentic …
To Transform A Culture: The Rise And Fall Of The U.S. Army Organizational Effectiveness Program, 1970–1985, James Michael Young
To Transform A Culture: The Rise And Fall Of The U.S. Army Organizational Effectiveness Program, 1970–1985, James Michael Young
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
In the early 1970s, following a decade of social upheaval in the US and a traumatizing military defeat in Vietnam, a group of progressive army officers, armed with recent graduate degrees in the social and behavioral sciences, created a grass roots movement that soon led to the implementation of the largest organizational development program ever conducted. Wartime atrocities and chronic careerism in the Army officer corps, along with President Richard Nixon’s promise to create an All-Volunteer Force (AVF), opened up a window of opportunity for these progressives to promote transformational leadership theories grounded in humanistic psychology. In institutionalizing OD across …
Role Of Foundations In The Changing World Of Philanthropy: A Houston Perspective, Ronnie Hagerty
Role Of Foundations In The Changing World Of Philanthropy: A Houston Perspective, Ronnie Hagerty
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
From the earliest days of the American nation, philanthropy has had a defining role in leading change. Philanthropy has provided vision and voice for nascent social movements ranging from civil rights and the women’s movement to AIDS research and environmentalism. As the 21st century has moved into its second decade, philanthropy finds itself facing significant pressures that threaten to compromise its ability to innovate and advocate for issues and individuals whose voices cannot be heard over the public rhetoric of the day. Once perceived as the purview of the rich and well connected, modern philanthropy cuts across social, economic, and …
Downsized Survivors: Areas Of Loss And Work Behaviors, Cyndi J. Schaeffer
Downsized Survivors: Areas Of Loss And Work Behaviors, Cyndi J. Schaeffer
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
This research design used factor analysis to develop subscales related to areas of loss, and subscales related to work behaviors of survivors following a downsizing. Five loss subscales were revealed as a result of factor analysis. They were loss of sense of justice and supervisory support; loss of security and support; loss of positive outlook; loss of territory; and loss of control and identity. There were two work behavior components identified through factor analysis. They were lack of productivity and sabotage; and intention for flight. The loss components, sense of justice and supervisory support; security and competence; and territory, were …
Millennial Integration: Challenges Millennials Face In The Workplace And What They Can Do About Them, Chip Espinoza
Millennial Integration: Challenges Millennials Face In The Workplace And What They Can Do About Them, Chip Espinoza
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
There is a monumental changing of the guard that is currently taking place in organizations due to demographic metabolism. One of the largest birth cohorts or generations in history (Baby Boomer) is beginning to retire while their predecessor (Builder) is almost completely out of the workforce. Gen X is hitting stride and on the cusp of inheriting the proverbial organizational mantle. The three aforementioned age cohorts have learned to play in the organizational sandbox together. However, a new age cohort (Millennial, a.k.a. Gen Y), equal or greater in size to the Baby Boomer cohort started entering the playground approximately ten …
Leading Deeply: A Heroic Journey Toward Wisdom And Transformation, Richard Warm
Leading Deeply: A Heroic Journey Toward Wisdom And Transformation, Richard Warm
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
This dissertation will explore leadership as a mytho-poetic transformational journey toward self-knowledge, authenticity, and ultimately wisdom; the power to make meaning and give something back to the world in which we live; and the necessity of transformation. I view leadership as a transformative process and a transformational responsibility. As leaders we must undergo our own transformation in order to lead change on a larger scale. The dissertation will be both philosophical and theoretical, exploring how the threads of the hero’s journey, transformation, wisdom, and leadership intertwine. It will also examine the role of education in this process. Education does not …
The Shift In Coaching Dynamics During Long-Term Business Coaching Relationships, Axel Meierhoefer
The Shift In Coaching Dynamics During Long-Term Business Coaching Relationships, Axel Meierhoefer
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
The focus of this dissertation was on the changes in long-term external business coaching relationships (defined as more than 4 months). The current study intended to answer two questions: (a) how does the relationship between a coach and a coachee change in long-term coaching engagements? and (b) how do these changes impact the coaching process dynamics and results? The phenomenon that was discovered through this research is called the shift moment. It exemplifies the transition from skill or problem oriented issues, which often represent the original cause of the coaching relationship, to the holistic transformation of the coachee. A qualitative …
The Meaning Making That Leads To Social Entrepreneurial Action, Kathleen Roberts
The Meaning Making That Leads To Social Entrepreneurial Action, Kathleen Roberts
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
This dissertation is an exploratory study of the meaning making that leads to social entrepreneurial action; specifically, action that has either moved beyond the local or at the local level has impacted several different systems. Recent leadership research suggests that to meet today's complex challenges and create sustainable change, leadership must possess bigger minds, meaning advanced and mature ways of understanding the world (Cook-Greuter, 1999; Torbert, 1999). By challenging and changing established equilibriums with new structures, new systems, and new relationships, social entrepreneurs reflect a capacity to understand the world in complex ways. Through the lens of constructive-developmental theory (Kegan, …
Leadership Development In Financial Institutions In South Dakota: A Slow Growth State, Stan Wayne Vinson
Leadership Development In Financial Institutions In South Dakota: A Slow Growth State, Stan Wayne Vinson
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
This dissertation asks the question, “What are the challenges of developing a leadership program in community banks in South Dakota, a slow growth environment?” The research looks at the intersection of leadership development, transformational leadership, and context—against a backdrop of community banking, corporate social responsibility, and demographic trends in South Dakota. The objective of the study is to provide theoretical and practical understanding of leadership development activities in South Dakota community banks. Using quantitative methods, seven hypotheses were created and tested using insights gained from reviewed literature and informational interviews that framed the study. The hypotheses were built looking to …
Stories Of Resistance: Black Women Corporate Executives Opposing Gendered (Everyday) Racism, Cheryl D. Jordan
Stories Of Resistance: Black Women Corporate Executives Opposing Gendered (Everyday) Racism, Cheryl D. Jordan
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
For this research, I explored contemporary resistance strategies that Black women executives in the corporate world use to oppose negative behaviors by others associated with their race and gender. The dissertation reviews scholarship about the major role the convergence of race and gender play in the day-to-day existence of Black women. Historically, negative images and beliefs have influenced the treatment of Black women in society. These same thoughts and images affect Black women executives in today’s workplace. African-American women continue to see limited advancement to senior levels within the corporate organization, even though diversity programs abound. As leaders in the …
Expanding Leader Capability: An Exploratory Study Of The Effect Of Daily Practices For Leader Development, Simon Rakoff
Expanding Leader Capability: An Exploratory Study Of The Effect Of Daily Practices For Leader Development, Simon Rakoff
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Leadership is, at its essence, an influence relationship between people. Leaders are often thought of as those who are able to influence people to take actions oriented toward achieving specific goals and objectives. While many books have been written, and myriad scholarly research studies conducted enumerating countless personal characteristics, qualities, and skills of the exemplary leader, little has been done to understand and convey the ways in which an individual might go about cultivating these virtues; which are often said to include charisma, empathy, communication skills, and others. Through a multiple single-subject design, this research examines the individual-level effect of …
Eutopiagraphies: Narratives Of Preferred Future Selves With Implications For Developmental Coaching, Florence Anne Diehl
Eutopiagraphies: Narratives Of Preferred Future Selves With Implications For Developmental Coaching, Florence Anne Diehl
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Eutopiagraphy is a narrative of a preferred future self that extends the research tradition of biography and autobiography. Taking place at the intersection of adult development, futures studies, and the practice of developmental coaching, this research asked the question, “what can eutopiagraphy reveal about a client’s meaning-making that may inform a coaching relationship, goals, and outcomes?” Using an adapted form of the subject-object interview, and subsequent thematic analysis, the eutopiagraphies of eight participants were collected and studied. Structures of constructive-developmental theory (values, view of others, range of perspective, control, and responsibility) were identified and constructive-developmental stages were estimated. This work …
Holographic Leadership: Leading As A Way Of Being, Janet L. Byars
Holographic Leadership: Leading As A Way Of Being, Janet L. Byars
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Holographic Leadership integrates values-based leadership into an understanding of an energetic holographic world. It is a world where the unseen is the primary influencer, where the smaller is more powerful (Bohm, 1994). I will synthesize many diverse ideas into an exploratory theory that will suggest new insights into sustainable leadership. I will propose a new model of practice from which to work. I suggest that it is through an internal state of physiological coherence and psychological balance that a leader can truly learn to “hold steady” (Heifetz, 1994), creating an intentional holding environment, a coherent group dynamic, which draws forth …
Poetic Leadership, A Territory Of Aesthetic Consciousness And Change, R. Amrit Kasten-Daryanani
Poetic Leadership, A Territory Of Aesthetic Consciousness And Change, R. Amrit Kasten-Daryanani
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Poetic leadership is a new theoretical construct that views leadership as an activity that unites a lyrical intellect with keenly felt emotion for the purpose of producing changes in the consciousness of self and others. This change begins within the interiority of self, moving surely to broader realms of one's surroundings and society, provoking movement that impacts the developing potential of the individual and the cultural milieu in which they exist. Emotion is the primary trace into consciousness used in this dissertation, which serves to unite experiences of the heart with experiences of the mind. The unification of these disparate …