Education Commons^™

Leading Change During Crisis: Nonprofit Leaders’ Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jose A. Diaz Jr.

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover which experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic led to leadership and organizational changes within nonprofit organizations located in southern Florida. Data for the study were collected by interviewing leaders of five nonprofit organizations that provided human and social services to individuals and families before, during, and after the pandemic. The participants discussed some of the challenges they experienced with social distancing protocols, service delivery continuity to service users, and the concerns among staff and volunteers. Four themes were common among the participants of the study: operational restrictions, technological adaptations, staff morale and …

A Phenomenological Study On The Lived Experience And Leadership Of Project Managers In An Agile Transformation, Randall Hopkins

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

This study employed a phenomenological methodology to investigate the shared experiences of project managers of corporations in the United States during a transition to agile project management methodologies. The project managers’ transformation was noteworthy because agile introduces a change in work structures, processes, and leadership. This study sought to understand how eight project managers described their lived experience and leadership during the transition to agile methodologies. Interviews with project managers uncovered identity facets that evolved with their understanding of leadership. The traditional project managers’ common-sense approach to work served as both a barrier and enabler of a change. Project managers …

Equity And Inclusion For Leaders In The School District: Exploring Gender, Michele Radomski

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

There are increasing expectations that educational leaders attend to social justice. However, little attention is paid to their own experience of equity and inclusion, and there is an ongoing omission of gender from organizational discourse. This problem of practice identifies the lack of attention to the experience and implications of gender for leaders in a school district. The organizational improvement plan aims to prioritize gender on the organization’s agenda, bridge the gap between representation and equity and inclusion, and create a gender-inclusive leadership climate. Feminist frames for change establish the underlying change strategy and Lewin’s change model structures the change …

The Cost Of Organizational Change For Rural Community Colleges, Randy Clayton Scaggs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study will investigate the unintended consequences of implementing structural change in a rural community college in the mid-South region of the United States. Specifically, this study will examine the unanticipated outcomes of merging student affairs and academic affairs into one division. Scant empirical evidence exists about the benefits of this structural change or literature reviewing assessments of the unanticipated financial and nonfinancial costs to the institution. This critical case study is situated in a rural community college that recently changed its organizational structure by combining the academic and student affairs divisions. A purposeful sample, from different levels of …

An Application Of Lewin In A Trans-Pandemic World: A Narrative Inquiry In A Case Study With A Suggested Model For The Future, Chandler Barksdale Ewell Caldwell

Theses and Dissertations

Change is constant in today’s post-pandemic world. This is truly evident in online business success with entrepreneurs that defy past limitations and rely on future vision. This study purposely attempts to identify and qualify the impact of stylized change focused leadership in response to workplace changes during the variant challenges of the corona virus pandemic. The relevancy of Lewin’s organizational change model in today’s new normal provides the foundation for this research. Data were gathered through interview with a purposive sample of 12 managers executives and team members from a public sector organization. Evolving through an iterative process of evaluation …

Change Readiness And The Mediating Role Of General-Dispositional Internal Structures, Genevieve Joy Clark

Theses and Dissertations

This case study offers insight toward the impact of the general-dispositional, internal structures on a planned organizational change in the field of education. The process used and the findings of this may be applicable to a variety of fields. Stones’ strong structuration (2005) served as the theoretical framework guiding this study, though Chater and Loewenstein’s (2016) model of sensemaking offers supplementary consideration.

The context for study was the shift to virtual learning because of the COVID-19 global pandemic and subsequent closure of schools beginning in March 2020. This empirical study examined agents-in-situ’s response to the change, including the structuring interactions …

Employee Perceptions Related To Specific Work Processes Within The Crime Control Model Known As The Stratified Model, Robert William Steinkraus

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure employee perceptions of satisfaction as they relate to specific work processes and products within the Stratified Model. The Stratified Model is a crime-reduction model that was developed and gradually implemented first within the Port St. Lucie Police Department between 2004-2011. The full implementation of this crime-reduction model occurred in 2012. The Port St. Lucie Police department has since achieved greater reductions of the overall crime rate than other cities in Florida consisting of similar populations. In 2019, Port St. Lucie had the 7th largest population in Florida.

Currently, it is unknown how …

Exploring The Perceptions Of Leaders In Investor-Owned Utilities In California On Managing Organizational Change Initiatives, Maria Liza Legaspi

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study employing in-depth interviews was to identify the strategies and practices executive leaders and midlevel managers of investor-owned utilities (IOUs) perceive are effective in creating employee acceptance and support of organizational change and to identify the supports and barriers executive leaders and midlevel managers perceive as affecting employee acceptance or resistance to organizational change in IOUs.

Methodology: A qualitative research design enabled the capture of deeper thoughts and insights of executive leaders and midlevel managers of 4 IOUs in California. The study delved into the strategies and practices used by IOUs that are perceived …

A Study Of The Effectiveness Of Growing Leaders Through Team Building And Continual Learning, Bruce Robbert Lotarski

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Team building and continual learning methods have become transdisciplinary, and the effectiveness of these approaches have yet to be fully appreciated across industries. Training, coaching, and team building may alleviate many of the challenges for positioning talent with organizational change. Organizational leaders should provide direction and support with team building by clarifying and prioritizing goals before inducing innovative initiatives (Peralta, Lopes, Gilson, Lourenço, & Pais, 2014). Setting transparent goals and commitment is characteristic of mature groups, which team building may help develop (Peralta et al., 2014). Four goals for team members at the group level are to set goals, assign …

Determining Impact Of Appreciative Inquiry: A Case Study, Kimberly Davis

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

This qualitative study was an exploratory, single-case study from the perspectives of Appreciative Inquiry [AI] practitioners that explored how they determined the impact of an Inquiry. Through AI worldwide, the common call to action has been for empirical, critical analysis of the theory and practices of AI (Bushe, 1998; Bushe & Marshak, 2011, 2014, 2015; Clarke, n.d.; Conklin, 2009; Grant & Humphries, 2006; Hart, Conklin, & Allen, 2008; Kessler, 2013; Tartell & Vogel, 2017; Willoughby & Tosey, 2007). Bushe and Marshak (2013) stated a lack of unifying theory of change being offered and “a rather large gulf between academics who …

Ne Maquixtia: A Mixed Methods Exploration Of Leaders’ Dispositions And Their Impact On The Organizational Cultures They Lead, Georgina Yvette Garcia

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies: Doctoral Research Projects

The aim of this field-based research study was to explore and examine the importance of leader dispositions and their impact on organizational culture and sustained success. It focused on answering the following research question: What leadership dispositions, whether in education or in business, transcend organizational boundaries and most likely lead to organizational cultures that sustainably impact results and support continuous improvement?

This study spotlights the urgent need for leaders in all organizational contexts to immerse themselves in a profound and meaningful manner with developing greater awareness of the dispositions related to their leadership and the cultures they directly impact and …

Hiding In Plain Sight: How Binary Gender Assumptions Complicate Efforts To Meet Transgender Students' Name And Pronoun Needs, Dot Brauer

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Existing literature about transgender college students calls upon higher education organizations to support trans students' use of self-identified first names (in place of legal names, given at birth) and self-identified pronouns (in place of assumed pronouns based on sex assigned at birth, or other's perceptions of physical appearance), but that literature lacks guidance on how to achieve this work, which is deceptively complex. This study addressed this gap in the literature in two ways. First by using critical theory to show how hegemonic, binary notions of gender shape intellectual, social, and regulatory dimensions of higher education in ways that complicate …

Qualitative Examination Of Strategies To Overcome Resistance To Change In Lean Manufacturing, Elizabeth Burmester

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Approximately 80% of lean manufacturing program initiatives are abandoned in the first year of implementation. Only 2% of organizations that embark on the lean journey complete it with the results and the sustainability they expected. There is a gap in past research regarding, the leadership strategies organizations can use to overcome resistance to change during lean manufacturing program implementations. The problem in this study was that leaders have limited information to overcome resistance to change when implementing these programs. The purpose of this study was to explore how leaders within manufacturing organizations may overcome resistance to change through leadership strategy. …

Faculty Inside A Changing University: Constructing Roles, Making Spaces, Leslie D. Gonzales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The notion of a multiversity was stamped into the higher education literature by Clark Kerr in 1963 when he spoke about the numerous purposes tied to U.S. higher education. Kerr highlighted how the University is often pulled in many directions at once, asked to fulfill promises of the cultural, educational, national, societal, and now, of the global kind. Yet it is imperative to remember that these multiversities are not empty spaces. They are occupied and brought to life by the people who work inside them, especially the faculty, who Gregorian (2005) names as the "heart and soul, the bone marrow …

The Role And Impact Of Leaders' Mental Models In Effecting Planned Transformational Change, Stephen C. Rathmill

Educational Studies Dissertations

Presidents and CEOs play a critical role in leading their organizations through planned transformational change (PTC) and generally, do not do it very well. This may, in part, be a result of leaders not closely examining and challenging their thinking about PTC and their role in leading it. Leaders' mental models determine what and how they think about their organizations, employees, transformational change and what their leadership means and how their mental models determine their actions and behaviors in planning and implementing PTC. By examining and challenging their mental models, leaders may gain insights into alternative ways of leading and …