Digital Commons Network^™

From Pencil To Pixel: How Leadership Shapes Organizational Responses To Competence-Destroying Technological Change, Jennifer Underwood

All Dissertations

This dissertation examines how managerial leadership enables organizations to overcome inertia during competence-destroying technological change through a historical comparative case analysis of the animation industry's transition from hand-drawn to computer-generated imagery (CGI) between 1980-2000. Drawing on archival data from Disney, Pixar, and Don Bluth Studios, I identify three distinct leadership approaches—pioneering, bridging, and preserving—that differently influenced how workforces adjusted their views of identity, process, and change. These adjustments led to three different outcomes: transformative integration, constrained adoption, and entrenched resistance. This research makes three theoretical contributions and develops a novel framework that explains how leadership can constrain or enable transformation, …

Organizational Metamorphosis: When Artificial Intelligence Transforms Companies Into New Economic Life Forms, Allan M. Glass

All Dissertations

Traditional theories of organizational change fall short in explaining how artificial intelligence (AI) transforms organizations. This grounded theory study, based on interviews with 34 organizational leaders, identifies a novel phenomenon: organizational metamorphosis - the irreversible transformation of organizations into fundamentally new entities through deep integration with AI as a cognitive partner.

The metamorphosis process unfolds in three phases. Individual Awakening occurs when leaders experience powerful interactions with AI, prompting a rapid shift from skepticism to advocacy. Once a critical mass of leaders undergo this shift, it initiates Organizational Restructuring, characterized by reimagined work design, boundary dissolution, and altered temporal rhythms. …

Evaluating Efforts To Shift Power Through Listening: Defining Power And Listening To All Sides, Sarah Stachowiak, Juan Clavijo

The Foundation Review

There are a variety of ways funders and nonprofits are trying to shift the power dynamics between those who typically have held it (i.e., funders and organizations) to those who have unique and important expertise: those most affected by the problems the social sector is trying to solve.

In this article, we share lessons from two evaluations that sought to understand how those who were being listened to experienced the listening process, exploring the degree to which people felt heard and their experiences of how, and in what ways, power shifted for them. One evaluation focused on the experiences of …

High Flying Adored: How Ceo Narcissism Influences Firms’ Responses To Above-Aspiration Performance With Risky Organizational Change, Korcan Kavusan, Daniel Mack, Matthew P. Mount, Gokhan Ertug

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research Summary: Research on performance feedback presents conflicting views on how above-aspiration performance influences organizational change. Some studies argue that it constrains change due to a lack of organizational motivation, while others suggest that it enables change by expanding managerial discretion. Reconciling these perspectives, we suggest that managers’ narcissistic tendencies can fundamentally alter how a firm responds to above-aspiration performance. We theorize and find evidence that high-narcissism CEOs respond to above-aspiration performance with more acquisitions—attention-generating actions that align with their self-enhancement motives, while under similar conditions low-narcissism CEOs avoid acquisitions, due to their uncertainty and risk. Our findings highlight the …

Human Resource Management And Black Teachers’ Employee Experience In K-12 Urban Public Schools, Danielle Renee Cooper-Williams

Dissertations

National teacher data indicate that publicly funded schools in the United States struggle to retain Black teachers in high-need urban areas and in comparison to other groups (Carver-Thomas & Darling Hammond, 2017). This qualitative investigation employed case study methodology. The case study focused on one school within a charter management organization (CMO), exploring interactions among Black teachers and their supervising administrators at the site and management organization levels. The study was organized around concepts articulated at the nexus of teacher retention scholarship and human resource management theory, two bodies of literature yet to be substantially integrated to understand Black teachers’ …

Advancing Diversity Training For Police Officers Through Community-Based Multicultural Immersion Practices: Recommendations For Law Enforcement Trainers And Managers, Chaunda L. Scott, Jeanetta D. Sims, Charles Wilson .

Journal of the North American Management Society

From 2014 to the present, police shootings with the use of deadly force among communities of color have become a matter of heightened national concern. This study draws on an extensive literature review gathered from open sources, academic journal articles in law enforcement, criminal justice and government documents as well as on key definitional foundations to explore the impact of cultural competence training activities for police officers. Through a case study of primary research, insights are offered from an adult education community-based multicultural immersion program. The authors of this paper argue for the integration of community-based multicultural immersion learning approaches …

Ethical Dilemmas And Solutions In The Adoption Of Ai Technologies In Supply Chain, Mohammad Reza Sadeghi Moghadam, Taha Mansouri, Iman Ghasemian Sahebi

Communications of the IIMA

As organizations increasingly adopt artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to optimize their supply chain operations, they face a growing set of ethical challenges that demand careful consideration. This study explores the key ethical dilemmas and potential solutions in implementing AI within the supply chain context, drawing insights from in-depth interviews with a diverse group of experts. The thematic analysis of the interview data revealed four primary ethical dilemmas: algorithmic bias and discrimination, lack of transparency and explainability, privacy and data ethics issues, and the socioeconomic impacts of AI-driven automation. To address the dilemmas, this study identified various mitigation strategies, including techniques …

Ingenious Impulsiveness Of Environmentally Motivated Female Entrepreneurship For Sustainable Development, Saranya Senthilnathan, Chandrasekar Kaliyaperumal

Management Dynamics

Women's roles are crucial to the economic prosperity of any nation, with their participation in entrepreneurship being a key driver of sustainable development. This study focuses on the contributions of women entrepreneurs in India, highlighting their potential to advance economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The purpose is to examine the role of female entrepreneurs in promoting sustainable practices within the economy, society, and ecology. The study employs a descriptive research design to assess how integrating environmental factors into female entrepreneurship impacts the growth and sustainability of the Indian economy. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 355 …

Social Media Marketing Impacts On Sme Customer Engagement And Prodictivity, La'keisha J. Morton-Carter

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative multiple case study explored the underutilization of social media marketing among small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs and its impact on customer engagement and business productivity. Grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory, the study examined how SME owners perceive, adopt, and apply social media platforms in their marketing efforts. Data were collected from 38 participants through semi-structured interviews and surveys and analyzed using NVivo 15 software. Thematic analysis revealed five emergent themes: Digital Hesitancy, Strategic Gaps, Customer Engagement Variability, Resource Constraints, and Peer Influence. Findings indicated that while entrepreneurs recognized …

The Effect Of Cognitive Biases And Organizational Constructs On Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation Success In Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises: A Pls-Sem Approach, Michael Davidson

Dissertations

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are crucial to enhancing organizational performance, efficiency, and strategic competitiveness in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). ERP adoption in SMEs has been known to fail, with more than 75% of the implementations considered failures. These barriers are compounded by cognitive biases, such as temporal discounting (TD) and optimism bias (OB), which skew the strategic decision-making process. The framework suggested in this paper explains the relationships between top management support (TMS), information quality (IQ), system quality (SQ), user satisfaction (US), optimism bias (OB), and temporal discounting (TD) and their impact on ERP implementation success (EIS) and …

Factor Analysis Of The Cultivated Leadership Questionnaire (Clq) And Measurement Against The Short Dark Triad (Sd3), Christopher Ewing, Michael Epstein

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

This study aimed to evaluate the Cultivated Leadership Questionnaire (CLQ), a self-report tool designed to assess leadership based on key constructs such as self-regulatory behaviors, emotional intelligence, prosocial actions, positive motivational strategies, and personal influence. An exploratory factor analysis identified two main components that together accounted for 65.44% of the variance, suggesting a general leadership factor and a secondary factor capturing more specific leadership attributes. The study also examined the relationship between Dark Triad traits—psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism—and the leadership behaviors measured by the CLQ. The results revealed negative correlations between both Machiavellianism and psychopathy with leadership behaviors, while narcissism …

A Dynamic Leadership Approach In Different Situations And Contexts, Francois Kammoe

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

This paper is one of the first to provide empirical evidence supporting the conceptualization of a dynamic leadership approach in which employee maturity and organizational dynamism help leaders make the right choice of leadership styles to improve employee job satisfaction. As business environments change and employee maturity differs in this dynamic business era, and as there is a chaos characterized by numerous leadership styles in the leadership literature, adopting a dynamic leadership approach has become important to identify the most effective leadership styles suitable for employees. A quantitative study using conditional process analysis was conducted to examine a dynamic leadership …

Crafting Ethical Problem-Solving Cultures: A Leader’S Role In Complex Adaptive Systems, Elizabeth A. Luckman

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

In today’s complex and interconnected world, leaders play a critical role in fostering ethical problem-solving cultures within organizations. To enable leaders to succeed in this evolving landscape, this paper advocates for a necessary paradigm shift: a transition in mental models about how organizations function. Historically, organizations have been viewed as mechanistic systems, but there is a substantial opportunity to improve our work by viewing organizations as complex adaptive systems. This shift alters fundamental assumptions about organizational operations and redefines leadership as the creation of conditions for effective and ethical problem-solving. In this paper, I examine the changing mental models that …

Empowering Hispanic Managers In The Us Through Authentic Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, And Mindfulness, Louise Kelly, Ehsan Danesh, Patricia Denise Lopez, James Okrah, Eissa Hashemi

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

This research investigates the relationship between authentic leadership, Emotional Intelligence (EI), resiliency, and mindfulness among Hispanic Managers in the US, contributing to the understanding of authentic leadership and its antecedents, particularly in the context of Latinx leaders in the United States. The study suggests that emotional intelligence, resiliency, and mindfulness play key roles in the formation of authentic leadership, especially in the Latinx community, where cultural values such as familismo, personalismo, and collectivism may influence leadership styles. It highlights the potential benefits of these factors, including improved self-awareness, empathy, and the ability to overcome adversity, while also acknowledging challenges and …

Enhancing Employment Readiness Of Information Technology (It) Professionals Of India - A Talent Refactoring Approach, Lakshminarayanan K.V

Theses and Dissertations

The Indian Information Technology (IT) sector is undergoing significant transformation due to the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, cloud computing, and cyber-physical systems. These changes have redefined workforce expectations, shifting employment readiness from mere technical competence to a holistic combination of adaptability, behavioral attributes, and continuous learning capabilities. In this context, the study proposes a Talent Refactoring Framework to address employability in a rapidly evolving VUCA–BANI environment by integrating organizational, career-oriented, and individual dimensions.

A review of existing literature reveals notable gaps in understanding employment readiness as an ecosystemic and psycho-social construct, particularly …

Navigating Economic Uncertainty With Small Business, Angela E. Nwaomah

SDA Business Teachers Conference

Abstract: In recent years, economic uncertainty has present significant challenges for many, particularly those with irregular jobs and unstable wages. This study examined the perspectives of the faith-based casual and contract employees on how they navigate the economic uncertainty with small businesses. The objective of study was to explore how contract/casual employees in faith-based organizations (FBOs) navigate financial instability by engaging in small businesses as a supplementary income source. All participants were workers of organizations of the same religious affiliation and the same employment policies guiding their operations in Kenya. Using a case study research design and purposive sampling techinque, …

The Influence Of Millennial Women In Leadership: Examining Emotional Intelligence And Motivations Of Millennial Women, Leah Gossai

PhD in Organizational Leadership

This quantitative study explored the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and motivation to lead (MTL) among millennial women in leadership roles. Using the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) and the Motivation to Lead (MTL) framework, the research examined how four EI dimensions, self-emotion appraisal (SEA), others’ emotion appraisal (OEA), use of emotion (UOE), and regulation of emotion (ROE), relate to three MTL dimensions: affective-identity (AIMTL), social-normative (SNMTL), and non-calculative (NCMTL). Data were collected from 117 millennial women leaders across various industries in the United States. Results revealed a significant negative correlation between SEA and NCMTL, suggesting that those …

Servant Leadership In Empowering Marginalized Communities: A Qualitative Case Study Of A Nonprofit Organization With A Holistic Mission, April D. Mosely

PhD in Organizational Leadership

This qualitative case study examined the impact of servant leadership on organizational culture, service delivery, and long-term sustainability within faith-based nonprofit organizations serving marginalized and racialized populations. The research focused on the City of Refuge (COR) in Atlanta, Georgia, an organization with a holistic mission dedicated to life transformation through supportive services. Employing Greenleaf’s servant leadership theory as the theoretical framework, data were gathered via semistructured interviews with nine staff members and analyzed thematically. The findings revealed three primary themes: cultivating culture, cultivating compassion, and cultivating community. The results indicated that servant leadership positively influenced COR's capacity to foster trust, …

Multifaceted Skepticism: A Comprehensive Approach In Auditing Practice, Ida Ayu Budhananda Munidewi, Unti Ludigdo, Ali Djamhuri, Wuryan Andayani

DLSU Business & Economics Review

This research uses a modified grounded theory approach to understand the behavior of auditors in Indonesia who have an Eastern cultural background in applying professional skepticism. The research results reveal that auditor behavior in practice applies multifaceted skepticism. Multifaceted skepticism refers to the idea that professional skepticism in auditing is not a one-dimensional approach. That recognizes the complexity of the audit environment and the need for auditors to consider various factors when applying their skepticism. Multifaceted skepticism brings us to a less simplistic view of professional skepticism, which until now has only been seen as an on-or-off switch. Instead, this …

The Impact Of Configuration Management Decisions On Firm Resilience: Integrating Resource Configuration, Operational Flexibility, And Collaborative Supply Chain Strategies, Zeplin Jiwa Husada Tarigan, Sahnaz Ubud, Zefanya Valentino Bastanta Tarigan, Ferry Jie

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Global competition requires the company's appropriate rules and policies. The company is trying to build strong, firm resilience to maintain sustainability. The research aims to analyze the influence of management configuration decisions on company resilience through the integration of resource configuration, operational flexibility, and collaboration in the supply chain. This study was conducted on 462 manufacturing companies in Indonesia that were experiencing changes in operational systems and global competitive pressures. Data was collected through questionnaires and analyzed using the Partial Least Square (PLS) method. The research results show that management configuration decisions influence resource configuration and supply chain collaboration integration …

Green Practices On Sustainability Performance: The Moderating Role Of Slack Resources, Mariska Ramadana, Julia Julia, Erna Wati

Jurnal Akuntansi dan Keuangan Indonesia

Background: The growing urgency of environmental issues and economic imperatives has made sustainability a critical component of corporate strategy, particularly in developing countries like Indonesia. This study examines how green CEOs, green innovations, and green investments affect the sustainability performance of Indonesian companies listed in the Sri Kehati Index. Methods: Data from 2019 to 2023 were analyzed using regression analysis in STATA. The study also examined the moderating effect of absorbed and unabsorbed slack resources. Findings: The results show that a green CEO has no proven positive impact on sustainability performance, while green innovation has a negative …

The Failure Of Change Management Projects In Strategy Implementation, Brandon S. Cupp

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Change management is critical to strategy implementation, yet organizations frequently struggle to integrate change initiatives, leading to high failure rates. This study explores the systemic challenges associated with change management projects within strategy implementation programs, identifying key factors contributing to success or failure. The research, using a flexible qualitative case study, examines the perspectives of executives, middle managers, and front-line employees in a U.S.-based public safety apparel company. Findings reveal that ineffective communication, insufficient training and support, lack of leadership accountability, employee resistance, generational and cultural differences, and misalignment between strategic vision and operational execution significantly contribute to change management …

Accounting For Heritage Assets In Government Finance Statistics Manual (Gfsm), Alaa Ababneh, Ahmad Ababne

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

The preservation and management of heritage assets is critical for preserving a country's cultural identity and promoting tourism. However, guidance on how to account for heritage assets in government financial statements is lacking. In response to this need, the United Nations Statistical Commission has developed the Government Finance Statistics Manual (GFSM) to provide guidelines on the accounting treatment of heritage assets. This paper set the GFSM’s guidelines for accounting for heritage assets and provided a critical analysis of their applicability and effectiveness, as well as highlighting the challenges and limitations of heritage asset accounting. The methodology involved a literature review …

Gsbj Editor's Note, Robert Mcdermand

Global Sport Business Journal

Editor's Note for Volume 10 (2025)

Organizational Change, Servant Leadership, And Christian Perspective, David Macauley, Randall Trent Stevenson, Helen Mitchell, David S. Fowler

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

In today’s dynamic business environment, organizational change is inevitable, yet with a failure rate of more than 70%, successfully navigating change remains elusive for the majority of business leaders. Effective change management requires more than just strategy, it demands a leadership approach that fosters trust, engagement, and resilience among employees. Servant leadership, with its focus on humility, empathy, and support, offers a powerful framework for guiding leaders and the organizations they serve through transformative periods, and can increase the effectiveness of organizational change efforts. By putting the needs of others first, and aligning leadership actions with values such as patience, …

The Servant Leader's Influence, Kevin J. Hurt

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

No abstract provided.

Steering The Future, Shai Ganu

Asian Management Insights

Embracing the emergence of corporate stewardship.

Building A Sustainable System: Reimagining Nonprofit Leadership Through Critical And Creative Thinking, Darius Tafadzwa Shenje Peyton

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This synthesis introduces the Critical and Creative Thinking Leadership Toolbox (CCTLT), a practitioner-oriented framework designed to support nonprofit leaders navigating staff engagement, organizational complexity, and long-term sustainability. Drawing on lived experience, scholarly literature, and graduate coursework in the Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) program, the project challenges traditional leadership models that treat employee buy-in as a binary status or compliance metric. Instead, it reframes buy-in as a dynamic spectrum shaped by trust, clarity, psychological safety, and reciprocal accountability. The work critiques unsustainable leadership practices common in mission-driven organizations and offers an actionable alternative grounded in reflection, systems awareness, and dialogic …

Becoming A Bridge Of Collaboration: How Being Supports Doing Within The Help Model Of Leadership, Andrea Burgess

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This synthesis project introduces the HELP Model—Humility, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership Service, and Psychological Safety—as a developmental framework for sustainable leadership rooted in character formation and relational trust. It asserts that credible and effective leadership begins with inner orientation before it can be embodied as consistent, ethical action in the world. Through integration of leadership theory, developmental psychology, and theology, the project critiques conventional, strategy-driven paradigms of organizational well-being. HELP extends Robert Kegan’s framework to include relational and spiritual dimensions of the leader’s individual growth as necessary conditions for fostering organizational collaboration. Drawing on reflective inquiry and practice-based insight, the project …

The Risk Of Marginal Inclusion In The Fortune 500: A Quasi-Replication Of Lewis & Carlos (2023), W. Chad Carlos, Yasir Dewan, Ben W. Lewis, Brian P. Reschke, S. Isaac St. Clair

Faculty Publications

Conventional wisdom suggests that being included in an exclusive ranking leads to positive external evaluations. However, Lewis and Carlos (2023) found that firms situated near the threshold for inclusion on the 100 Best Corporate Citizen ranking were devalued by investors. To assess the generalizability of this surprising finding, we quasi-replicate and extend this finding by applying the same regression discontinuity design to the Fortune 500 ranking. We find corroborating evidence: firms near the bottom of the Fortune 500 receive lower external evaluations, not only from investors but also from industry peers. Our findings therefore quasi-replicate and extend Lewis and Carlos’ …