Business Commons^™

Working Remotely And Corporate Culture Wars In The Post-Pandemic Era, David M. Savino, Danielle C. Foster

Journal of the North American Management Society

Organizational culture is a sacred element of any organization. It is the lifeblood and the guiding force that makes each organization unique in its ability to navigate day-to-day and longer-term perspectives of corporate operations. Strong cultures help identify direction and philosophy and provide confidence in how to proceed to pursue innovative ideas and solve problems. Since 2020, the core value and the strength of many organizational cultures have been tested as a result of the increased reliance on working remotely and the adoption of a hybrid model of business operations not previously utilized to a great degree. While many survived …

Strategies For Effective Labor-Management Relationships In The Foodservice Industry, Nichola A. Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The relationship between unions and management is particularly critical for food service firms, which rely heavily on unionized employees to meet operational needs. Food service managers are concerned with ineffective strategies for engaging with unions because managing these ineffective relationships jeopardizes employee retention and the firm's performance. Grounded in authentic leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies food service managers use to develop and maintain an effective union-management relationship for retaining unionized employees. The participants were six food service managers from three large food service firms who implemented success strategies to develop and maintain …

Mokṣa, Seeking A Humanizing Way Of Being: I Am Recognized. I Am Acknowledged. I Am Human., Lauralynn Jansen

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation delves into the intricate dimensions of humanization by shifting the analytical focus from denial and exclusion to affirmative aspects of inclusion. The central aim of this research is to unravel the mechanisms underlying the process of humanization, or how individuals perceive and internalize their being recognized as human beings. Employing the critical incident technique, this research methodically examined the lived experiences of a highly diverse group of individuals living with varying social stigmas and how they experience humanization. This research displays the intricate interplay of language, actions, and sensory elements engendered before, during, and after a humanizing moment. …

Innovative Behavior Among Service Workers And The Importance Of Leadership: Evidence From An Emerging Economy, Albert Amankwaa, Pattanee Susomrith, Pi-Shen Seet

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study focuses on how service firms can nurture innovative behavior of employees through the important role of leadership. Despite the growth in innovation research, scholars have been slow to move from an R&D (i.e., technical capital) focus to that focusing on employee innovative behavior. However, organizations’ innovation initiatives heavily depend on employee human capital and behavior at work as these are key inputs in the value creation process. We focus on a specific type of leadership, transformational leadership, and explore a nascent employee concept, job embeddedness, to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms and conditions by which leaders may …

Exemplary Human Resources Administrators Leading Through Storytelling, Colleen Slattery

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe how exemplary human resources administrators use storytelling to lead organizations using Denning’s (2011) model. In addition, it was the purpose to understand how they use storytelling to create transformational change. Denning’s The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling highlights eight storytelling narrative patterns: to ignite action and implement new ideas, build trust, build your organizations’ brand, transmit organizational values, foster collaboration, share knowledge, neutralize rumor, and create and share vision.

Methodology: This phenomenological qualitative study described the lived experiences of exemplary human resources administrators in Northern California. The researcher was …

Change Management And Guided Pathways: Creating A Plan For Implementation At A Washington State Community College, Sandra Spadoni, Saovra Ear

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Objective: This article addresses a problem of practice in community college leadership: how to effectively use change management strategies to implement a guided pathways model at a community college. Guided pathways is a recent national movement to create more structured and better coordinated academic pathways within community colleges. Using the case study of one Washington State community college looking to implement this model, we identified change management strategies for community college leaders seeking to implement the guided pathways model. Methods: We conducted interviews with national consultants, state system leaders, and college leaders around the country who have effectively …

Work Groups And Teams In Organizations: Review Update, Steve W. J. Kozlowski, Bradford S. Bell

Bradford S Bell

This review chapter examines the literature on work team effectiveness. To begin, we consider their nature, define them, and identify four critical conceptual issues—context, workflow, levels, and time—that serve as review themes and discuss the multitude of forms that teams may assume. We then shift attention to the heart of the review, examining key aspects of the creation, development, operation, and management of work teams. To accomplish objectives of breadth and integration, we adopt a lifecycle perspective to organize the review. Topics involved in the team lifecycle include: (1) team composition; (2) team formation, socialization, and development; (3) …

Revisiting The Meaning Of Leadership, Joel Podolny, Rakesh Khurana, Marya Besharov

Marya Besharov

During the past fifty years, organizational scholarship on leadership has shifted from a focus on the significance of leadership for meaning-making to the significance of leadership for economic performance. This shift has been problematic for two reasons. First, it has given rise to numerous conceptual difficulties that now plague the study of leadership. Second, there is now comparatively little attention to the question of how individuals find meaning in the economic sphere even though this question should arguably be one of the most important questions for organizational scholarship. This chapter discusses several reasons for the shift, arguing that one of …

Powerlessness Within A Budget-Driven Paradigm: A Grounded Theory Leadership Study From The Perspective Of Michigan Corrections Officers, Timothy Michael Eklin

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This study explored the lived-experiences of 15 correctional officers and 5 sergeants working in adult state-operated prison facilities in Michigan. In particular, this qualitative grounded theory study revealed the impact that budget driven decision-making had on the lives of correctional officers: its effect on institutional custody, security, and safety. The study finds that many recent policy changes resulted in a sense of powerlessness expressed by the participants of the study. Participants found themselves in a precarious position, situated in between the prison population and the administration. Having an understanding of how correctional officers make meaning of their work in relation …

Consequences Of Destructive Leadership Through The Experiences Of Millennial Followers, Rhonda M. Martin

Theses & Dissertations

Destructive leadership has serious detrimental effects on organizations and their employees. Today U.S. companies are spending an estimated $23 billion annually on healthcare costs (e.g. chronic absenteeism, high turnover, and dissatisfaction) resulting from the negative impacts of destructive leaders (Tepper, Duffy, Henle, & Lambert, 2006). This emerging theory was worthy of additional research because of the adverse effects it has on the personal and professional lives of followers. According to Padilla, Hogan, and Kaiser (2007), the success of a destructive leader depends on susceptible followers (Millennials) and a conducive environment, which creates a toxic triangle. In 2009, Trickey & Hyde …

The Dialectics Of Staff Unionism And University Management; Critical Discourse For Effective Educational Service Delivery, Olukunle Saheed Oludeyi, Adebayo Olatunde Akinsanya

Olukunle Saheed, OLUDEYI

This paper was poised by the lingering lamentations about the acute fall in standard of education and rapid knowledge declination among Nigerians today. The problem has become so intense that Nigerian ivory towers are now accused of producing ill-prepared and unemployable graduates who seriously lack the skills and competencies needed to positively assist the nation in its quest for growth and development. Unfortunately apart from poor university management, suspicious and insincere, if not selfish relationship between leadership of staff unions and leadership of university management is another factor impeding adequate and effective educational service delivery in Nigeria today. With pluralist …

How Union Leaders View Job Training Programs, John E. Drotning, David B. Lipsky

David B Lipsky

How do local union leaders view manpower training programs for hard-core-disadvantaged blacks? How do they perceive their members' attitudes towards these training programs? Do unions block the implementation of job training, or do they support it? What are the union leaders' views on special treatment and double work standards for the hard-core-disadvantaged black trainees? How difficult do union leaders think it will be for these trainees to achieve the educational standards set by the firms? We, along with Myron D. Fottler, explored some aspects of these questions in fairly intensive interviews with 51 local and regional union leaders in western …

Leading Amidst Competing Technical And Institutional Demands: Revisiting Selznick’S Conception Of Leadership, Marya Besharov, Rakesh Khurana

Marya Besharov

This chapter explores how Selznick’s approach to leadership can inform contemporary organizational theory and research. Drawing on Selznick’s writing in Leadership in Administration and related works, we characterize organizations as simultaneously technical entities pursuing economic goals and value-laden entities pursuing non-economic goals arising from their members and their role in society. These two aspects of organizations are deeply intertwined and in continual tension with one another, and the essential task of leadership is to uphold both – protecting and promoting values while also meeting technical imperatives. To do so, leaders establish a common purpose that includes values and ideals not …

The Power Of Questions, Ken Margolies

Ken Margolies

[Excerpt] “When you are tempted to make a statement, ask a question instead.” That valuable advice came from Fred Ross, Sr., the veteran organizer who was a mentor to the legendary Cesar Chavez, a founder of the United Farm Workers union. Ross was teaching the power of questions to provoke people to action, gather needed information, share knowledge, and focus their attention. Stewards would be wise to include this tactic in the chest of tools they use when advocating for their co-workers.

A Paradoxical Leadership Model For Social Entrepreneurs: Challenges, Leadership Skills, And Pedagogical Tools For Managing Social And Commercial Demands, Wendy K. Smith, Marya Besharov, Anne K. Wessels, Michael Chertok

Marya Besharov

Social enterprises offer the promise of financially sustainable organizations that can respond to the world's most pressing problems. Yet for social enterprises to succeed their leaders must effectively manage conflicting demands that arise from dual commitments to improving social welfare and achieving commercial viability. While existing research highlights distinct skills for enabling social missions or for achieving business outcomes, we draw on paradox research to build theory about the challenges and associated skills for effectively managing the tensions emerging from the juxtaposition of social mission and business outcomes. We then use two exemplary settings for educating social entrepreneurs, one in …

[Review Of The Book Icons Of Democracy: American Leaders As Heroes, Aristocrats, Dissenters And Democrats], Nick Salvatore

Nick Salvatore

[Excerpt] Icons of Democracy is a welcome change from the rather arid, often quantified analyses of political leadership so prevalent in academic writing. Well read in both primary and secondary sources, Miroff has deeply grounded his ideas in the rich historical context. In addition, he carefully chose his subjects and drew from their experiences central themes which, in divergent fashion, they also held in common. The resulting collective biography engages and challenges the reader. While partial to leaders in the dissenting tradition (they are "our true subversives and at times our truest democrats"), Miroff consistently points to the complexity of …

Three Good Steward Habits, Ken A. Margolies

Ken Margolies

[Excerpt] I learned these habits from a former colleague, Jessica Govea Thourborne, who developed them when she was one of the founding members of the United Farm Workers Union with Caesar Chavez. Cancer took Jessica from us, but her legacy lives on and there are hundreds of dedicated union and community activists inspired by her who have adopted her good work habits.

How To Strengthen Positive Organizational Behaviors Fostering Experiential Learning? The Case Of Military Organizations, Andrzej Lis

Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation JEMI

The aim of the paper is to study the challenges concerning organizational behaviors crucial for Lessons Learned capabilities in military organizations as well as to indentify the solutions and recommendations to develop and strengthen positive organizational culture, climate and behaviors fostering experiential learning. The attention is focused around positive behaviors recognized by NATO as the key success factors for Lessons Learned capabilities such as: the engagement of leaders, positive mindset, willingness to share information and stakeholder involvement. The contents of the paper are mainly based on the interviews with Lessons Learned experts and practitioners representing both NATO commands, bodies and …

Mindful Leadership, Lyn Hopper

Georgia Library Quarterly

The author proposes mindful leadership for library officers and staff. She says that such leadership may be difficult to practice amid declining budgets but it is essential for effective leadership. She adds that psychologist Ellen Langer noted that job mindfulness boosts productivity, flexibility, leadership, innovation and job satisfaction. She claims that mindfulness originated from Buddhism by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh to reduce stress and encourage healing.

A New Alliance In New York State: A Progress Report On The Labor Movement’S Restructuring, Capacity Building, And Programmatic Work, Jeff Grabelsky

Jeffrey Grabelsky

The labor movement in New York State (NYS) has undergone a dramatic restructuring that is part of a national American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations program called the New Alliance. The purpose of the New Alliance is to build the capacity of local labor movements and to empower unions to help shape a region’s political and economic agenda. The restructuring in NYS led to the consolidation of twenty-five central labor councils into five area labor federations, each of which is developing the resources, staff, and leadership to help grow labor’s regional power across the state. This article describes the …

Appraising Work Group Performance: New Productivity Opportunities In Hospitality Management, Mark R. Edwards, Leslie Edwards Cummings

Hospitality Review

In - Appraising Work Group Performance: New Productivity Opportunities in Hospitality Management – a discussion by Mark R. Edwards, Associate Professor, College of Engineering, Arizona State University and Leslie Edwards Cummings, Assistant Professor, College of Hotel Administration University of Nevada, Las Vegas; the authors initially provide: “Employee group performance variation accounts for a significant portion of the degree of productivity in the hotel, motel, and food service sectors of the hospitality industry. The authors discuss TEAMSG, a microcomputer based approach to appraising and interpreting group performance. TEAMSG appraisal allows an organization to profile and to evaluate groups, facilitating the targeting …