Digital Commons Network^™

Police Officers’ Perspectives On The Death Of George Floyd By Minneapolis Police Officers: A Descriptive Study, Janet Henderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On May 25, 2020, four Minneapolis police officers reported to the location where an African American man had been accused of trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill in a convenience store. After being taken outside of the store, the man, George Floyd, was eventually placed in the back of a police patrol car, after he was handcuffed. Saying he was claustrophobic and resisting arrest, Mr. Floyd was removed from the patrol car, and placed on the ground on his stomach. One of the patrol officers, the most senior officer present, and a field training officer, placed his knee on …

The Paradoxical Effect Of National Diversity And Inclusion Management On Organizational Commitment, Clara Iyabo Stephens

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The United States demographic and workforce are increasingly becoming more diverse. However, the question remains of how the leaders within diverse organizations can consistently manage workforce interaction to attain employee commitment. This quantitative study examines the relational effect of diversity and inclusion management on organizational commitment. Data for this study was collected using the SurveyMonkey online identity anonymity survey weblink. Voluntary participants entered the online survey through an invitation link to the consent page, explained the study's purpose focus on Nigerian American Immigrants and relevant inclusion and exclusion criteria. Initial one hundred thirty-five responses, whereas one hundred and twenty met …

Shared Governance And Transition Into Practice: Impact On Work Engagement, Gudrun M. Reiter-Hiltebrand

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: High turnover rates, particularly in new graduate nurses, and poor organizational commitment and engagement negatively affect staffing, operational performance, and patient outcomes. A negative trend for nurse engagement indicators was noted in previous staff engagement surveys of this organization.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: In transition-into-practice (TIP) nurses (P), how does the implementation of shared governance (I) compared with no shared governance participation (C), affect their engagement with the hospital (O) within eight weeks (T)?

Evidence: Literature has shown that nurse engagement is one of the nurse indicators positively affected by shared governance …

Leadership, Service, And Wicked Problems: Impact Of War, Lack Of Funding, And Covid-19 In Service Of Those With Fewer Opportunities, Ruth V. Akumbu

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

As the world and organizations struggled to overcome the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, I, the Founder and CEO of Plant A Seed, also known as Plant a Seed Africa, used this chaotic period to assess and address issues facing the organization. Multiple challenges are addressed, including the pandemic, financial, political, and leadership. I created a new leadership strategy that switches between pacesetting, visionary, and transformational leadership styles. The new organizational change model will use the 5-F or Plant A Seed 5-F model.

A Comparative Analysis Of Values-Based Leadership Theories: A Review And Future Research Agenda, Simon Tareke Abay, Jorge F. S. Gomes, Abeba Beyene Mengistu

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

This paper systematically reviews the literature on values-based leadership (VBL) theories by analyzing 161 studies published in different peer-review journals from 2000 to 2022. The study first identified the literature on VBL and found that terms “values-oriented, values-centered, or value-based” leadership are used interchangeably as a roof term for various theories focusing on the moral, authentic, principled, and ethical dimension of leadership. The literature on leadership offers different types of leadership theories that constitute VBL, but we focused on six leadership theories that are widely cited as forms of VBL and have a strong theoretical background. This was followed by …

Power Of Attachment Styles In Servant Leadership: A Conceptual Paper, Stacy Menezes

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

The paper aims to advance an understanding of the relationship between servant leadership and attachment styles. This paper provides a review of servant leadership and attachment styles to explain how this understanding can be used to confront challenges faced by leaders due to a crisis. A proposed conceptual model is posited to investigate the moderating effect of followers' attachment styles on the relationship between servant leadership and desired follower outcomes. Additionally, this study adds support to the criticism of the leader-centric approach of research by investigating the moderating role of followers' characteristics, such as followers' attachment styles. The practical implications …

A Framework For Introducing And Sustaining Play At Work, Hans A. Helgeson

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This paper presents a framework for introducing and sustaining play at work, focusing on its impact on creativity, problem solving, team performance, psychological safety, and organizational change. The author explores the concept of playfulness in a work setting and its potential to foster divergent thinking. Drawing on a real-life scenario involving a team of high school students participating in a Destination Imagination challenge, the paper highlights the role of play and risk-taking in problem-solving processes. The study emphasizes the importance of creating an environment that encourages play and experimentation while maintaining a sense of safety and support. The findings suggest …

Succession Planning In The Federal Government, Christine Noel Roberts

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Succession planning is a term that refers to the systematic and methodological efforts an organization uses to plan for organizational stability and proficiency. Organizations must provide employees the training, experiences, and knowledge required to assume positions of increased responsibility when those jobs are vacated. Agencies should strive to create a diversified pool of qualified candidates to avoid a talent gap, workforce shortages, or a loss of agency knowledge. Over the past fifteen years, the Federal Government has continued to highlight the need to take a proactive approach to succession planning by first identifying the skill sets needed for critical positions …

How Exemplary Chief Nurse Executives Utilize The Six Domains Of Conflict Transformational Strategies To Establish Common Ground And Produce Breakthrough Results, Michael Thompson

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological method study was to identify and describe strategies that exemplary chief nurse executive leaders use to identify and establish common grounds to produce breakthrough results in healthcare by using the six domains of transformational conflict strategies: collaboration, communication, emotional intelligence, ethical behaviors, problem solving, and shared interest.

Methodology: As a part of the thematic phenomenological study, the research identified and described the lived experiences of eight exemplary chief nurse executive leaders in health care who used conflict transformational strategies to find common ground to produce breakthrough results. The target population for the study included …

The Right People In The Wrong System: Examining The Tension Between Nonprofit Individuals And Organizational Structure, Erin Vong

Master's Theses

Nonprofit organizations pursue missions of social good while still operating within the confines of systems of oppression, creating a tension between organizational values and operational success. Previous research focuses on the micro-level role of individuals and the macro-level role of ideologies that create these tensions for nonprofit workers in these spaces. Through a qualitative case study, this thesis seeks to uncover the meso-level role of organizational structures in the experiences of nonprofit workers. The research questions that guided this case study were (a) How does one organization present equitable working conditions for its staff? (b) How do staff at this …

Recovering A Missional Ecclesiology: A Framework For Reviving Congregational Mission Within The Baptist Union Of Victoria, Gayle Hill

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT This project is an intervention to develop a theological and theoretical framework

that will become the foundation for a future curriculum for recovering a missional ecclesiology for the pastors of the Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV). Despite mission being central to the overall vision of the BUV, declining numbers, the post-COVID context in Victoria, and an overarching post-Christian and pluralistic context have significantly challenged the centrality and functioning of mission across our denomination. The impetus of this project was the observation that our churches were floundering rather than flourishing in the missional space. Many chronic and acute provocations were …

Searching For Nonbinary And Trans Inclusion: A Call To Action For Leadership Studies, Jody Condit Fagan, Ari Emilia Short

Libraries

Academic studies of leadership have historically taken a binary view of gender. A literature review was conducted to search for any scholarly work inclusive of trans and nonbinary identities. Across three academic databases and five leadership journals, only 11 such sources were found. These results were reviewed to explore themes across their findings as well as suggestions for future research. The analysis of the 11 sources’ findings and recommendations offer guidance for expanding conceptions of gender in leadership; for enhancing leadership education; and for developing a more complete research agenda for gender and leadership studies. Suggestions are also offered for …

Decisions Athletic Directors Face When Allocating Funds In An Athletic Department, Joseph Mueller

Leadership Education Capstones

The purpose of this study is to understand the decision-making process athletic directors use when allocating funds within an athletic department. The research is intended to identify the decision-making process athletic directors use when dealing with finances in their department. Athletic directors have a large role in an athletic department and are the driving force for their institution’s athletics, especially regarding the finances related to athletics. Using a qualitative research method using interviews, surveys, and document review, themes of budgeting plans, fundraising, and benchmark analysis emerged.

The Role Of Gender And Curiosity On Transformational Leadership: A Mixed-Methods Study, Brooke Colleen Mott

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Environmental leaders are tasked with finding innovative solutions to dynamic environmental challenges. Leaders must gain and use new knowledge and experiences that motivate resolving gaps in one’s knowledge (i.e., curiosity) and thereby find forward-thinking solutions. Although curiosity is an integral part of human existence, it may be experienced in various ways. Studies have shown that men and women may possess different leadership styles. Nevertheless, the influence of curiosity on leadership between genders has not been as readily explored. Women exhibit unique characteristics for successful leadership in many contexts, but they are often underrepresented in natural resource management overall. Characteristics of …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Underrepresentation Of Blacks In Leadership Roles In Professional Services Organizations, Marcia E. Stokes

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutical phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of Blacks in professional services organizations who were promoted into leadership positions. The theories which guided this study were Spence’s theory on signaling and the Critical Race Theory (CRT). They provided lenses that were used to view the problem of access to advancements and promotions for Blacks in professional services organizations. The research design used for this study was qualitative, and the approach was hermeneutical phenomenological. The qualitative design provided an opportunity to gather the data by hearing the lived experiences of the participants and by capturing …

A Phenomenological Study Of Pastors Leaving Employment Due To Experienced Poor Person-Organization Fit, Stephen T. Buys

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and describe pastors’ experiences who have served full-time in a lead/senior pastor role in evangelical churches after having lost or left their employment as a result of experiencing poor person-organization fit. For this study, pastoral staff turnover was defined as the employment of full-time pastoral staff employed for at least one year who have resulted in voluntary or involuntary resignation from their place of employment because of value incongruence. In this phenomenology, the church is viewed as an educational institution, including similarities between pastoral roles and educator and administrator roles. As …

The Southern Baptist Convention’S Perception Of Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Compared To African American Pastors’ And Leaders’ Lived Experiences, Jeffrey J. Wallace

PhD in Organizational Leadership

The study of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is complex and multilayered. Similarly, the study of DEI within an ecclesiastical and ecumenical Christian movement like the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has its challenges. Challenges and tensions surrounding the SBC, relating to women's leadership issues, the infiltration of partisanship and politics in the pulpits, racial injustice flashpoint moments, and the lack of ethnic diversity in a crucial leadership position have impacted the overall lived experience of African American pastors and leaders. This phenomenological study explored the Southern Baptist Convention's perception of diversity, equity, and inclusion compared to African American pastors’ and …

Tearing Down And Building Up In The Contemporary Workplace: How Reflective Writing Inspires Workplace Learning And Well-Being, Gina R. Pell

PhD in Organizational Leadership

Continuous learning is critical for workers and organizations, but traditional learning strategies may be less effective as constantly changing business demands and individual needs among diverse and geographically dispersed workers may create barriers to performance and sustainability. Although alternative learning approaches such as experiential and double-loop learning may introduce risks by uncovering new challenges, they may also benefit workers and organizations when designed to bolster empathy and encourage a better understanding of pressures and stress. Reflective writing is an adaptable alternative learning approach that can be paired with existing workplace learning strategies or tailored to specific needs and learning outcomes. …

Elevating Followers: Confirmatory Factor Analysis On The Revised Kelley Followership Questionnaire, Sherrie A. Lynn

PhD in Organizational Leadership

Every person is a follower, and followers and leaders are both equally important to the leadership process, yet followership literature pales in comparison to leadership literature. One problem was that followership did not have a valid and reliable selfassessment. The purpose of this study was to advance the theory of followership by conducting confirmatory factor analysis on the revised Kelley Followership Questionnaire (KFQ-R; Ligon, 2016) with data collected from employees at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The KFQ-R and three additional instruments to assess convergent validity were administered in December 2022. Data analysis included seven iterations of factor analysis conducted …

A Quantitative Study Of Authentic Leadership, Authentic Followership, And Organizational Commitment Within Christian Higher Education, Daniel E. Mcdonald

PhD in Organizational Leadership

Organizational commitment is an important component within Christian higher education, impacted by the words and actions of authentic leaders and followers. In a time when more people left their jobs or looked for new employment than ever before, it was necessary to identify contributing factors that built and detracted from organizational commitment within this context. In this study, the researcher explored the relationships between organizational commitment and authentic leadership and authentic followership from the perspective of followers within five institutions in the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). The findings provided important context for current levels of connection between …

Public Service Motivation, Years Of Public Service, And Distributed Leadership In Government: A Moderation Analysis, James Punchard

PhD in Organizational Leadership

This dissertation was an exploration of the effect that public service motivation (PSM) has on leaders’ distributive leadership style (DLS). Years of service as a leader in government for more than 5 years managing five or more employees was considered as a moderating variable, with the expectation that as years of service increased, the moderating affect it has on the relationship between PSM and DLS would also increase. This was a cross-sectional, quantitative research project employing a moderation model to address the extent to which years of public service moderate the potential statistical relationship between the distributed leadership style and …

Credit Union Servant Leadership Encourages Financial Literacy, Darrell Jensen

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

Project Type

Organizational Change Initiative

Project Overview

January 1, 2023, Midflorida Credit Union rolled out an online financial literacy platform to 1300 employees. April 1, 2023, as part of Financial Literacy month, it will be rolled out to over 400,000 members. This project supports Midflorida’s mission statement, “To improve the well-being of our members.”

Project Themes

The financial literacy project consisted of a three-phase rollout of planning, implementation, and future phases. Phase one established the teams, product review, and contract negotiations. Phase two was content review, modifications, security review, training, and employee surveys. Phase three is the servant leadership training …

Developing New Church Leaders In A Digital Age, Roy Gruber

Doctor of Leadership

Massive cultural and technological shifts usher in a new digital age, creating a leadership crisis in the American church. In a time of decline, how can the church thrive in the future? The answer to that question resides in future leadership in the church. The NPO for the Project states: The church needs to develop digital learners into new leaders for the next generation. The Project was developed to offer one tool to onboard new Christians toward future leadership. A few essential insights emerged from the research for the Project. First, in addition to significant cultural changes, there is emerging …

How And Why Is Context Important In Leadership?, Burak Oc, Joseph A. Carpini

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Leadership can be defined as a goal-influence process that occurs between a leader and a follower, groups of followers, or institutions that directs effort towards the achievement of a shared objective (Antonakis & Day, 2018, p. 5). From this definition, we can distil four key elements of leadership: a) leaders, b) followers, c) influence and d) goals, motivation and performance. While leaders and followers are the main actors of leadership processes, how they influence each other has implications for group goals. However, most leadership research focuses on leaders, largely treating them as the sole driver of organisation success or failure …

Imago Dei, Shalom, And Success In Christian Leadership, Alice A. Obare

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

The conversation regarding worldviews and Christian leadership is a significant one because these ideas can greatly influence social and organizational interactions, actions, and decision-making processes. Just because a leader identifies as a Christian does not necessarily mean that their leadership is Christian-based. Christian leadership is only considered to be so when it is anchored on biblical faith. Furthermore, faith must influence the leader’s actions and decisions on issues such as policy, organizational structure, or the development of programs and how they are implemented. The understanding of Imago Dei and Shalom can greatly impact one’s leadership by shaping their actions, behaviors, …

Disparities In Mental Health Technology Among African Americans: Breaking Cultural Inclusion Barriers, Nyoki Cosey-Brown

DSW Capstone Projects

Mental health technology is a healthcare delivery model of the future. The engagement in virtual healthcare was intensified when traditional healthcare methods were inaccessible during the federal restrictions implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing digital apparatuses for healthcare improved the convenience, efficiency, and accessibility of various mental health services that were inoperable in past healthcare models. However, the historical constructs of stigma, discrimination, inequity, exclusion, and structural racism in mental healthcare were prevalent problems that remained present in virtual mental health platforms concerning the experiences of African-American patients and professionals who utilized the spaces.

This research explored mental health …

Give And You May Receive: Examining Transparent Leadership Through The Lens Of Leader-Follower Relationships, Edward J. Piecek

Theses and Dissertations

Transparency is a term often used to describe a solution to many organizational problems and a fundamental quality that employees seek from their leaders, yet its definition and application to leadership theory remain unclear. This study adopted a grounded theory approach to examining transparent leadership, using semi-structured interviews to explore transparent leader behaviors across multiple contexts. The sample included 25 mid-level leaders working for six non-profit healthcare organizations in the western US. Based on analysis of interview responses, the results revealed a dynamic, reciprocal transparent leader-follower relationship distinct from existing leadership theories. As the first known empirical study of transparent …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Community Based-Organizations: A Case Study Of Jewish Organizations, Orit Zigmanlador

Theses and Dissertations

When COVID-19 started to spread in March 2020, no one could anticipate the impact it would have on the world. Social behavior is one key aspect that has changed dramatically as a result of the pandemic. Through restrictions that imposed social distancing, masks, and quarantines, feelings of loneliness, depression, and isolation increased. At the same time, there was also evidence of prosocial behavior, with the emergence of people helping those in need. As the pandemic turns endemic with restrictions lifting, the longstanding impact of the pandemic on people’s behavior is still unclear. One way to explore this phenomenon is through …

A Preliminary Exploration Of The Workplace Expectations Of Generation Z Amidst Covid-19, Elizabeth Robertson

Theses and Dissertations

For the first time in modern history, up to five generations are working side-by-side in the same organizations. The high number of generations working together can cause intergenerational conflict. Generation Z (Gen Z), born after 1995, is significantly different from previous generations due to the cultural realities that have shaped their development. Gen Z has their own attitudes, beliefs, and expectations about the workplace and the centrality of work. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the attitudes, beliefs, values, and expectations about work and toward leadership in the workplace and how those expectations may have been …

Against All Odds: The Successful Leadership Journey Of A Saudi Woman In A Male-Dominated Stem Corporation, Maha Aldaajani

Theses and Dissertations

Huda Al-Ghoson became the first Saudi woman in an executive leadership position at Saudi Aramco, defying gender discrimination in a male-dominated corporate. This dissertation examined Al-Ghoson's groundbreaking journey and its implications for Saudi women, addressing the scarcity of information on successful Saudi female leaders' strategies and experiences. The literature review explored gender-related theories, Transformational leadership theory, and Full-Range leadership theory. A qualitative exploratory single-case study design was employed, with Huda Al-Ghoson as the focal point. The research questions were: (a) as a Saudi woman in a top leadership role, how does Al-Ghoson perceive her ascension to leadership in a male-dominated …