Digital Commons Network^™

All For One And One For All: One Market-Oriented Culture, Four Ceo Leadership Styles, Chris Linden Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The value of a market-oriented culture as one that sustainably satisfies customers, engages employees, and provides profitable growth is well-established. Market-oriented firms are more profitable, more innovative, and deliver higher customer and employee satisfaction than their competitors. However, we still know little of how leaders of such operations create and sustain their organizations’ market orientation. This research, positioned at the intersection of leadership and marketing strategy, draws on interviews with 66 CEOs and senior executives across a variety of firms and industries to generate insights into how these leaders developed their market-oriented approach and to identify the behaviors they engage …

Gender Differences In The Impact Of Worklife On Executives’ Psychological Health, Marcus B. Mueller

WCBT Faculty Publications

The Impact of Worklife on Executives’ Psychological Health Purpose: This is the first scientific research studying the impact of worklife factors on executives’ psychological health by gender. The study has a particular focus on the factors of ‘Community’ and ‘Work-life balance’.

Design: Survey data were collected from N=481 senior executives to measure seven worklife factors and psychological health. Standardized regression analysis was performed for each worklife in a regression model predicting psychological health by gender.

Findings: Results showed significant differences between female and male senior executives in the profiles of seven worklife factors in terms of their relationship with …

Strategies For Success In Servitization Initiatives, Ralph F. Stauffer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some software business leaders lack strategies for implementing servitization (Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS) initiatives, which has the potential for adverse business outcomes. Software business leaders are concerned with implementing service initiatives to remain competitive and foster sustainability. Grounded in the resource-based view theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies business leaders in the software industry use for implementing servitization SaaS initiatives. The data were collected using interviews with eight leaders from four software firms who successfully implemented servitization initiatives within at least the past 20 years. Interview data were confirmed with secondary data sources, including …

Exploring Leadership Strategies To Enhance Worker Performance, Charles J. Oloo Kodi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractMultiple leadership strategies have been used by some organizations in the US to improve worker performance. A literature gap still exists regarding how transformational leadership style may enhance worker performance in Connecticut state manufacturing industries. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of organizational leaders about how best to improve the knowledge and the effectiveness of transformational leadership styles. Transformational theory and contingency theories were chosen to serve as the theoretical foundation for the conceptual framework of this study. The research question examined the perceptions of employees of a manufacturing organization located in Connecticut about how …

Communication Strategies To Enhance Productivity For Virtual Advertising Account Executives, Gregory Scott Christman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractSignificant communication challenges experienced by leaders in managing virtual dispersed teams can hinder production schedules, completion timelines, and service to stakeholders. Grounded in situational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore communication strategies three online automotive managers used to motivate virtual sales team members to maintain productivity in California, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and a review of organizational documents, including performance reports, and were interpreted using thematic analysis. The three primary themes that emerged were (a) accountability, (b) leadership communication and engagement practices, and (c) leadership role in …

Strategies To Promote Employee Engagement In The Aerospace Industry, David R. Cunningham

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Disengaged employees harm organizational performance. Lack of employee engagement costs manufacturing leaders in the United States billions of dollars annually in productivity. Guided by the personal engagement theory, the purpose of this single case study was to identify strategies manufacturing leaders use to improve employee engagement. The participants were manufacturing leaders in the aerospace industry in southern California. Data were collected from face-to-face semistructured interviews with three participants and a review of company engagement strategies available on the company website. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and methodological triangulation. Four themes emerged: (a) leadership competency, (b) intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, …

Influence Of Knowledge Sharing Behaviors On Global Virtual Team Performance, Robert Nolen Goodson, Jr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Global virtual teams (GVT) are increasingly important in organizations. Barriers to knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) could negatively impact GVT performance. The purpose of this quantitative study was to discover the extent of predictive power of KSB on GVT performance and how Leader-member exchange (LMX) moderates this relationship. Research questions investigated the extent that KSB influences GVT performance and the extent that LMX moderates the relationship between KSB and GVT performance. LMX theory focuses on individual relationships between superiors and subordinates and ways each relationship impacts team dynamics and performance provided theoretical foundation for this study. Online survey measured the influence …

A Biblical, Culturally Relevant, And Contextually Applicable Financial Literacy Curriculum, Wallace Kanyuira

Doctor of Leadership

Poverty in Kenya is high, and the church should respond by economically empowering the people to be self-reliant. People are in poverty, not for lack of opportunities and resources, but because they lack the knowledge and skills to exploit these opportunities, make decisions they are ill-equipped to make, and lack financial literacy. Many people who are financially struggling tend to seek solace in churches. Consequently, pastors need to master and teach biblical financial literacy and reshape the church culture to be responsive. In Hosea 4:6 God says: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. . . .” Biblical financial …

How To Effectively Manage Virtual Teams Created Due To Covid-19?, Aakanksha Santosh Rane

University Honors Theses

With the spread of COVID-19 and the social distancing regulations in place, multiple organizations have transitioned their workplace to a virtual setting. With the increase in business' transitioning to remote teams, it is first crucial to understand the various needs and characteristics of virtual teams. Through the analysis of multiple peer-reviewed articles and other texts on virtual teams, this study identifies building trust, effective communication, and performance management as the main points of focus in order to ensure effectiveness of virtual teams.

Investing In Leadership Development: A Tool For Systems Change In The Community Health Center Field, Michael P. Arnold, Natalie J. Blackmur, Brenda Solórzano, Carolyn Wang Kong, Bobbie Wunsch, Sunita Mutha

The Foundation Review

Over the course of 12 years, the Blue Shield of California Foundation committed nearly $20 million to growing a pool of community health center leaders who were prepared to be effective agents of change in their organizations and in the safety net field. This signature investment, the Clinic Leadership Institute, was implemented in partnership with the Healthforce Center at University of California, San Francisco, in anticipation of a generation of California health center leaders beginning to transition into retirement.

During the institute's 10 cohorts, access to community health centers dramatically increased with the Affordable Care Act, and this — coupled …

The Role Of Leadership On Corporate Governance, John Brackett

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Corporate governance and internal controls over the accounting and financial reporting processes are critical to timely and accurate financial data reporting. Sheikh (2019) concluded that internal controls establish accepted practices, manage risk choices in decision-making, and improve ongoing monitoring activities to ensure compliance with laws, regulations, and company policy. Wang and Zhou (2016) identified leadership as a critical component of corporate governance and concluded that a company’s accounting process and related controls were interdependent with enterprise management and directly correlated to the sustainability of operations and business success. The Board of Directors and the Chief Audit Executives are responsible for …

Implementing Best Practices In Human Resources For A Local United Way Organization, Keyona Mcneill Bostick

Education Projects

This consultancy project provides Human Resources (HR) best practices, policies, and procedures for a small nonprofit organization. The project focused on developing solutions that will decrease risk and improve performance for the challenges faced in HR departments. The challenges discovered were inadequate employee personnel files, absence of compliance policies and training, lack of a health and safety program, and other HR internal practices. The results of this project included establishing HR policies and the significance of each policy that was implemented with step-by-step procedures. It also included solutions to assist with compliance of employee personnel files, compliance training programs that …

Strategies For Sustainable Continuous Improvement Initiatives, Jason Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizations implementing a continuous improvement (CI) initiative may see 30% or higher failure rates in sustaining a CI project. Supply chain leaders who lack specific strategies to sustain CI initiatives longer than 1 year risk financial and resource losses. Grounded in total quality management, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies supply chain leaders use to sustain CI initiatives beyond the 1st year. The participants consisted of six supply chain leaders from one supply chain distribution organization located in the Midwest region of the United States who successfully implemented CI initiatives. Data were collected from …

Characteristics Of Authentic Entrepreneurial Leadership Within Information Technology Startups In Kenya, Christine Mukhwana

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In Kenya, over 60% of nascent entrepreneurs start businesses with minimal leadership experience, engendering founder-CEOs who cannot sustain a business beyond its formative years. The problem is the nascent entrepreneurs’ lack of understanding of effective leadership. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to develop a more nuanced understanding of authentic leadership behavior from the perspective of nascent entrepreneurs. Authentic leadership theory and the three-factor model were used to conceptualize the study. The research question focused on nascent entrepreneurs’ lived experiences and understanding of authentic leadership. The participants in the study were entrepreneurs from the information technology industry in …

Hotel Managers’ Motivational Strategies For Enhancing Employees’ Performance, Nickea Katherine Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

More than 87% of United States hotel employees are not engaged. Hotel general managers who struggle to engage employees are at risk of damaging organizational effectiveness. Grounded in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies general managers of full-service hotels used for enhancing employees’ performance. The participants consisted of general managers from 3 full-service hotels in Hawaii who have successfully developed and deployed strategies to enhance employees’ performance. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, company websites, advertisements, and observations. Yin’s 5-stage analysis was used to analyze the data, and 3 …

How The Use Of Cc, Bcc, Forward, And Rewrite In Email Communication Impacts Team Dynamics, Tessa Haesevaets, David De Cremer, Jack Mcguire

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The present research examined how the use of different email functions impact dynamics between team members. We first illustrate that it is not so uncommon for employees to find out that the Bcc option has been used in email communications at work. Building on this insight, we then demonstrate that senders using the Bcc option are evaluated by recipients as less moral and consequently as less fitting to be the team leader compared to senders who use the Cc option. Interestingly, this effect occurred regardless of whether or not the sender provided a commonly cited reason for Bcc use. Next, …

Effective Leadership In Virtual Teams During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Shivani Agarwal, Sara Ferdousi, Mareena John, Alison Nalven, Tyler Stahl

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about an unprecedented economic and social crisis that has affected many businesses. Due to health concerns, many organizations are being managed virtually. This can be challenging, especially for employees and employers that are used to face-to-face interaction and for those who are not tech-savvy. Organizational leaders need to develop strategies and methods to maintain business, as well as maintain the productivity levels of employees. This research paper investigates the most effective ways to lead virtual teams during a pandemic. This is a semi-empirical study based on a short literature review and the survey responses of …

Authentic Leadership Within Local Government: An Empirical Evaluation, Anthony Scott Morris

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research study established the current issue of low authentic leadership in business as a known issue that has contributed to lower confidence in leadership throughout various organizations. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between authentic leadership and confidence in leadership in a medium to large size department of a local government located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. To achieve this aim, the researcher adopted a descriptive and diagnostic analytical approach. The sample of the study consisted of 207 participants, consisting of positions consistent with regular positions within local government. The researcher used two survey instruments to achieve the …

A Quest To Identify The Emerging Leadership Skills In Vuca World And Investigation Of Their Applications In Various Organizational Levels And Security Environments, Ali Can Kucukozyigit

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The theoretical framework of this research is based on “skills approach” that emphasizes the leader’s capabilities (skills, knowledge, and capabilities) that can be learned, taught, and fostered. VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) environment is chosen as the focal point of this research as the leadership skills are extracted from studies referring to such environment. Although the acronym is dominantly used in management and business domains, the military also uses it to describe the complex operational environments like in Iraq and Afghanistan. The identification of individual leadership skills and delivering the right skill, at the right time, to the right …

Accelerating Leadership And Professional Development For Adults: Developing A New Measure For Assessing Kegan’S Constructive Developmental Orders, Tom Pierce Coker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Much has been learned and theorized about adult development and its importance in leadership effectiveness and professional development interventions thanks to the framework proposed by Kegan’s Constructive Developmental Theory (CDT). However, research and practice in this area has been hindered by the difficulty of utilizing the current method for assessing constructive developmental Level, the Subject-Object Interview. The present study addresses this problem through the development and preliminary validation of a new self-report instrument that measures the Levels of development described in Kegan’s CDT. This new measure, the Constructive Developmental Self-Report (CDSR), was constructed through theoretical-based item generation that utilized both …

Leadership Role Effectiveness As A Mediator Of Team Performance In Virtual Teams, Soo Jeoung Han, Mirim Kim, Michael Beyerlein, Darleen Derosa

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

In spite of the wide usage of globally dispersed virtual teams (VT), there has been relatively little research on how leadership affects team performance, particularly with new product development teams in a global VT setting. A research model of VT leadership was developed and evaluated with a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling for a unique sample of 19 globally dispersed VTs and 25 nationally dispersed VTs in a variety of industries. Results showed that less geographically dispersed VT members have shown higher team performance only when leadership roles were performed effectively. In addition, leadership role effectiveness fully mediated …

Strategies To Reduce Restaurant Employee Turnover Rates, Steven K. Dewey, Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractHigh employee turnover rates adversely affect profitability. Restaurant owners who fail to retain employees are at risk of increased employee turnover costs, reduced profit potential, and risk business failure. Grounded in Herzberg’s two-factor theory, the purpose of this qualitative, single case study was to explore leadership strategies to reduce employee turnover. Participants comprised 6 restaurant leaders based out of the same New York restaurant. Leaders participated in semistructured interviews to provide information on strategies they used to reduce employee turnover. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Three themes emerged: leadership, financial benefits, and contributing to a higher purpose. …

Leadership Strategies For Improving Mergers And Acquisitions Performance, Alon Ben Jacob

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a critical process business leaders use to increase profitability and grow their business. Still, the majority of M&As fail to deliver the expected value to the acquirers. Grounded in Sarasvathy's effectuation theory, the purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies to conduct successful M&A processes. The participants were 8 individuals from a global healthcare company who acted as the company's presidents and had experience conducting M&As. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of company documents. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The following themes emerged: leadership focus, value creation, …

Leadership Strategies For Improving Mergers And Acquisitions Performance, Alon Ben Jacob

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a critical process business leaders use to increase profitability and grow their business. Still, the majority of M&As fail to deliver the expected value to the acquirers. Grounded in Sarasvathy's effectuation theory, the purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies to conduct successful M&A processes. The participants were 8 individuals from a global healthcare company who acted as the company's presidents and had experience conducting M&As. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of company documents. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The following themes emerged: leadership focus, value creation, …

Project Management Leadership And Interpersonal Skills: The Past, Present, And Future, Valerie Denney, Gordon Haley, Edward Rivera, Daryl V. Watkins

Publications

The purpose of this research is to examine how interpersonal competencies have evolved in the project management profession and describe which additional skills will be needed in the future. Using an applied thematic analysis, the authors examined the past, present, and future of interpersonal skills in peer reviewed academic literature and project management textbooks. A gap analysis was used to compare the reviewed material vs. interpersonal competencies. This research concluded that project management interpersonal transferrable skills are the ones that will be most highly sought after into the future. The future of interpersonal skills will need to concentrate on those …

Lessons Learned From Battling Covid-19: The Korean Experience, Sang M. Lee, Donhee Lee

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world like a gigantic tsunami, turning social and economic activities upside down. Methods: This paper presents some of the innovative response strategies implemented by the public health system, healthcare facilities, and government in South Korea, which has been hailed as the model country for its success in containing COVID-19. Korea reinvented its public health infrastructure with a sense of urgency. Results: Korea’s success rests on its readiness, with the capacity for massive testing and obtaining prompt test results, eective contact tracing based on its world-leading mobile technologies, timely provision of personal protective equipment …

Leadership Strategies And Millennial Organizational Commitment, Louis Wilford

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Managing millennial employees may present challenges to managers as the workforce demographics shifts to a population of employees who have management needs that differ from previous generations. Managers who struggle with retaining millennial employees may experience business failure. Grounded in the transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the strategies managers in the financial management industry use to harness the creativity and commitment of millennial employees to increase organizational profitability. Two financial management industry managers who successfully retained talented millennials to improve profitability were interviewed; organizational documents were a secondary data source. A …

Leadership Techniques To Catalyze Organizational Productivity In Small Consulting Firms, Benjamin Philip Zapien

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractSmall business owners employ 47% of the U.S. labor force, yet 50% of small businesses do not survive beyond 5 years. This failure can impact approximately 29% of the U.S. workforce. Therefore, this study is important to small business owners because the research and findings may help them evaluate their leadership techniques, which may help them improve their organizational productivity and survive. Grounded in the vertical dyad linkage theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore effective leadership strategies small business firm leaders used to maintain a steady growth of their organizations past the initial 5-year life …

Interrelations Among Leadership Competencies Of Bim Leaders: A Fuzzy Dematel-Anp Approach, Seyed Armin Mirhosseini, Reza Kiani Mavi, Neda Kiani Mavi, Behzad Abbasnejad, Farzaneh Rayani

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 by the authors. The use of new, digitally enabled innovations, such as building information modeling (BIM), raises issues such as the delineation of a competent leader. Even though BIM-based competency assessment models have become essential tools for maximizing the potential values of BIM implementation, the current competency models provide limited focus on leadership aspects that facilitate and enhance the BIM implementation efforts. This paper seeks to identify the specific competencies required for BIM implementation and examines the relationships between these competencies. Thirty-two experts from around the globe investigated a total of 15 leadership competencies under three categories pertaining …

Playing Darts In The Dark: How Are Chamber Of Commerce Leaders Aligned For Greater Effectiveness?, Robert J. Rohrlack Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper researched what the United States chamber of commerce paid Executives and the volunteer Chairpersons identified as the factors influencing their chamber for effectiveness. There has been little research on chambers of commerce in the U.S. This study adds to the small amount of research available, working to establish baseline information for research to continue this ubiquitous industry. We conducted 24 interviews, 12 paid Executives, and 12 volunteer Chairpersons at chambers of commerce in 11 states. They were asked to identify factors that make their chamber more effective or inhibit their chamber from being effective. The interviews were coded, …