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Full-Text Articles in Business
The Myth Of Endless Accumulation: A Feminist Inquiry Into Globalization, Growth, And Social Change, Martha Freymann Miser
The Myth Of Endless Accumulation: A Feminist Inquiry Into Globalization, Growth, And Social Change, Martha Freymann Miser
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
This theoretical dissertation examines the concept of growth and its core assumption—that the continual accumulation of wealth is both socially wise and ecologically sustainable. The study challenges and offers alternatives to the myth of endless accumulation, suggesting new directions for leadership and social change. The central question posed in this inquiry: Can we craft a more ethical form of capitalism? To answer this question, the study examines conventional and critical globalization studies; feminist scholarship on standpoint, political economy, and power; and the Enlightenment notions of progress and modernism, drawing on a number of works, including Aristotle on the three intelligences, …
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 Full-Text 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 …
Communication Channels Utilized By Emirati Females To Enact Leadership, K. Kathleen O'Neill
Communication Channels Utilized By Emirati Females To Enact Leadership, K. Kathleen O'Neill
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify the communication channels six Emirati females concurrently employed in organizations in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in which they had supervisory responsibilities; formal, legitimate authority; and positional leadership roles recalled using with their direct reports to enact leadership. In particular, the study attempted to ascertain the reasons for the selection of communication channels when engaged in downward communication with organizational subordinates. Data were collected via three interviews with each participant over a four week period. Interviews were conducted both face-to-face and via telephone. Data were analyzed via thematic content analysis to …
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 Full-Text 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 Full-Text 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, …
Collaboration And Climate Action At The Local Scale, Linda Lyshall
Collaboration And Climate Action At The Local Scale, Linda Lyshall
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
This dissertation encompasses a case study and a Participatory Action Research project. The case study focuses on climate change mitigation activities within King County, Washington and its 39 cities and towns and discusses progress and challenges related to transportation issues, efficiency measures, and sustainability planning. The findings indicate there is a high level of activity in waste reduction, environmental outreach and education, bicycle and pedestrian promotion, tree canopy protection, sustainability policies, and green building. Other categories, such as energy efficiency, electric vehicle infrastructure, and greenhouse gas emission inventories and goal setting are on the rise. Twelve of the cities were …
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 Full-Text 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 …
Strategic Asymmetric Multicultural Alliances In Business, Anthony James Scriffignano
Strategic Asymmetric Multicultural Alliances In Business, Anthony James Scriffignano
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
Global economics and other factors make it increasingly difficult for organizations to operate within the boundaries of one country in a rational way (e.g., leveraging best practices, profitable, achieving goals). In this study, I looked at strategic business alliances, transcending simple quid pro quo relationships to deliver ongoing partner value. I refined my study to multicultural relationships, having differing cultural identities (i.e., ideas, heritage, language, or demographics from differing geographies). Finally, I considered asymmetry (i.e., inequity in working relationship). Using a mixed-methodology design, I surveyed alliance participants and interviewed participants from selected alliances. A multi-case study addresses emergent themes of …
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 Full-Text 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 …
Holographic Leadership: Leading As A Way Of Being, Janet L. Byars
Holographic Leadership: Leading As A Way Of Being, Janet L. Byars
Antioch University Full-Text 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 …
Contextual Leadership: The Social Construction Of Leadership In A Comprehensive Healthcare System, Mark J. Moir
Contextual Leadership: The Social Construction Of Leadership In A Comprehensive Healthcare System, Mark J. Moir
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
Healthcare is a complex and dynamic environment containing a plurality of social forces and perspectives that shape the organizational culture and the nature of the leadership. As leadership is a social phenomenon, it is important to understand the complex social processes that mediate our perceptions and that in turn influence processes of leader attribution. The central purpose of this study has been to illuminate the nature of culturally specific processes that emerge within a specific organizational setting and that fuel leader attribution and the social construction of leadership. Accordingly, this qualitative study has developed a Grounded Theory utilizing Situational Analysis …
Mentoring Women Of Color For Leadership: Do Barriers Exist?, Sandra Yvonne Jeffcoat
Mentoring Women Of Color For Leadership: Do Barriers Exist?, Sandra Yvonne Jeffcoat
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
The number of women in the workforce is increasing, but they continue to hold few corporate leadership positions. Women are running into the glass ceiling, a ceiling that is thicker for Women of Color. The under-representation of women and minorities in leadership positions and the recognition of the business value of Diversity in this global economy have driven organizations to launch diversity programs and use mentoring as support for aspiring women leaders. Ragins and Cotton's 1991 research found that there were barriers for women who were looking to use mentoring as a tool for leadership development, but her participants were …
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 Full-Text 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 …
Life-Affirming Leadership: An Inquiry Into The Culture Of Social Justice, Raquel Delores Gutierrez
Life-Affirming Leadership: An Inquiry Into The Culture Of Social Justice, Raquel Delores Gutierrez
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
A new paradigm for leading social change is emerging; a worldview acknowledging the importance of leadership that is life-affirming and lasts over time. The current inquiry explored the ways in which the social reality of Life-Affirming Leadership is created and the implications those realities have for the current and future generations of social justice workers, their organizations, and the communities in which they work. The dominant paradigm for social justice work needs to be radically renovated (see Horwitz, 2002; James, 2005; Ohlson, 2006; Polansky, 2005; Utne, 2006; Wheatley, 2005; Williamson, 1997; Yáhzí, 2005); as such, a re-evolution is in progress, …
Fostering Sustainability In Higher Education: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Transformative Leadership And Change Strategies, Kim H. Mcnamara
Fostering Sustainability In Higher Education: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Transformative Leadership And Change Strategies, Kim H. Mcnamara
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
As evidence of the earth’s limited capacity to sustain human life mounts, institutions of higher education are being looked to for leadership in the effort to educate students about environmental concerns and support the development of sustainable innovations. Colleges and universities are responding to this call for leadership by starting and/or expanding environmental research programs, integrating sustainability issues throughout the curriculum, adopting sustainable operations, and building green facilities. Reflecting upon the sustainability efforts of these institutions, this research study explores the following questions: What factors are essential for initiating and leading a successful change effort to foster sustainability in higher …
On Being A Nonprofit Executive Director, Janet Elizabeth Rechtman
On Being A Nonprofit Executive Director, Janet Elizabeth Rechtman
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
In describing the course of change in a dynamic field such as the nonprofit sector, neo-institutional theorists argue that isomorphic forces such as replication of best practices tend to increase the homogeneity of actors. This interplay of structure and agency creates what is known as the structuration of an institutional field. These theorists have little to say about the people who influence and are influenced by these dynamics. This study explores this personal experience at the micro level of the nonprofit field executive leadership. It focuses on their challenges related to the isomorphic pressures resulting from: (1) socio-economic roles, (2) …