Digital Commons Network^™

Future-Oriented Strategies That Small 501(C)(3) Nonprofit Organizations May Use To Support Financial Sustainability, Justine Lownsbury

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The age of mortality for a nonprofit organization is between 6-15 years. The problem is that leaders of nonprofit organizations face challenges in financially sustaining nonprofit operations, which directly affects the ability to achieve and maintain the organizational mission. The purpose of this qualitative classical Delphi study was to explore how an expert panel of nine purposively selected U.S.-based stakeholders from small U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations viewed the desirability, feasibility, and importance of future-oriented strategies to support financial sustainability. The research questions addressed this purpose. The conceptual framework was rooted in effective leadership, innovation, sustainability, and positive social change, as …

Perceptions Of Women Of Color Improving Patient Outcomes Through Hospital Leadership Advancement, Benita A. Mclarin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Women of color have been underrepresented in hospital leadership positions and face challenges in advancing their careers. The benefit to hospitals providing women of color with training and support to move into leadership positions may be improved patient outcomes. Grounded in the interactional model of cultural diversity framework, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of women of color advancing in leadership roles in hospitals and their impact on patient outcomes. The study participants included 16 women of color in leadership positions from hospitals in a western U.S. state. Data were collected through semi structured …

Leadership Strategies To Prevent Unethical Employee Behavior, Gregory O'Donnell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Preventing unethical employee behavior in the workplace is a key concern of business leaders. Business leaders are concerned that their businesses cannot prevent employee unethical behavior in the workplace. Grounded in the transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore leadership strategies that business leaders use to prevent unethical employee behavior in the workplace. Participants in this study comprised three business leaders from private sector organizations in the surrounding areas of San Antonio, Texas, who used strategies to prevent unethical behavior in the workplace. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and company documents. Thematic analysis …

Strategies For Promoting Inclusion And Employee Engagement To Improve Remote Teams’ Performance, Bruce Edward Richardson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

External factors such as the pandemic have forced organizational leaders to embrace flexible work structures. Differences in remote versus collocated workplaces escalate the importance for company leaders to uncover strategies to maintain employee engagement and performance. Grounded in the organizational support theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies leaders of remote, diverse teams with high engagement and inclusion use to achieve high team performance. Data were collected using semistructured interviews from a purposeful sampling of five nationally distributed managers. A thematic analysis uncovered three themes: flexible leadership behavior, fair execution of human resource policy and …

An Implementation And Evaulation Of Leadlab: A Change-Leadership Development Program Of Executive Leaders In The Inter-European Division, Barna Magyarosi

Doctor of Leadership Projects

This study is an evaluation of the implementation of an executive leadership development program called LeadLab. The program was offered in the territory of the Inter- European Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in collaboration with the Global Leadership Institute of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists at Andrews University, a part of the Leadership Development Program.

The motivation for offering such a program was based on the need for executive leaders to be change leaders in their positions in order to effectively respond to the increasing phenomenon of secularism in Europe. Persons elected in executive leadership positions at …

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 …

Transformational Leadership Strategies In U.S. Public Universities, Jason C. Hardman

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explores the transformational leadership strategies used by university leaders to transform their respective institutions of higher education in the post-pandemic era. The study builds on Bass's (1985a) transformational leadership model, and the guiding research question is, "What transformational leadership strategies do university leaders use to transform university environments?" The study utilizes a narrative inquiry approach to collect and analyze data from publicly available and accessible sources. The data analysis highlights four themes of transformational leadership practices, including idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. The findings reveal that transformational leaders exhibit high moral standards, personal …

Leadership Development Of Physician-Trainees, Julie Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

Physicians frequently occupy leadership roles, yet training in leadership development in the medical education continuum is scarce (Angood, 2015; Dhaliwali & Sehgal, 2014; Rotenstein et al., 2018; Varkey et al., 2009). Effective leadership training can guide physician-trainees on a journey toward self- and others- awareness and management utilizing emotional intelligence (Goleman, 2006), integrity, authenticity (Erhard et al., 2010; George, 2003; Snook et al., 2012), communication, teamwork (Hackman, 2012; Larson & LaFasto, 1989), change management (Kotter, 1995; 2012), and systems thinking (Senge, 2006). The call to enhance leadership development of physicians across their education continuum is unmistakable (Blumenthal et al., 2012, …

Future-Oriented Strategies That Small 501(C)(3) Nonprofit Organizations May Use To Support Financial Sustainability, Justine Lownsbury

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The age of mortality for a nonprofit organization is between 6-15 years. The problem is that leaders of nonprofit organizations face challenges in financially sustaining nonprofit operations, which directly affects the ability to achieve and maintain the organizational mission. The purpose of this qualitative classical Delphi study was to explore how an expert panel of nine purposively selected U.S.-based stakeholders from small U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations viewed the desirability, feasibility, and importance of future-oriented strategies to support financial sustainability. The research questions addressed this purpose. The conceptual framework was rooted in effective leadership, innovation, sustainability, and positive social change, as …

Perceptions Of Women Of Color Improving Patient Outcomes Through Hospital Leadership Advancement, Benita A. Mclarin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Women of color have been underrepresented in hospital leadership positions and face challenges in advancing their careers. The benefit to hospitals providing women of color with training and support to move into leadership positions may be improved patient outcomes. Grounded in the interactional model of cultural diversity framework, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of women of color advancing in leadership roles in hospitals and their impact on patient outcomes. The study participants included 16 women of color in leadership positions from hospitals in a western U.S. state. Data were collected through semi structured …

Strategies For Improving Performance Through Diversity And Inclusion In The Workplace, Satari Kay Durrah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A lack of diversity and inclusion policies can lead to the perception of exclusion in the workplace and cause some employee groups to underperform. Some hospital leaders lack strategies for developing and implementing effective diversity and inclusion policies to improve business performance. Grounded in transformation leadership theory, the purpose of this multiple case qualitative study was to explore strategies for improving performance through diversity and inclusion in the healthcare field. The participants included four leaders from hospitals located in the southeastern region of the United States. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and review of company documents. Data were analyzed …

A Leadership Perspective On Preventing Counselor Burnout In A Behavioral Health Setting During Covid-19, Claudia P. De La Torre

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a high need for mental health services, which resulted in a shortage of mental health clinicians. This shortage of mental health clinicians then resulted in a high burnout rate due to client intake. This doctoral case study was grounded in the Baldrige Excellence Framework and focused on how a behavioral health organization in South Texas managed burnout in clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to help behavioral health leaders find a solution to preventing burnout during a high demand pandemic. This doctoral study had several data sources, including semistructured interviews with three …

Strategies For Promoting Inclusion And Employee Engagement To Improve Remote Teams’ Performance, Bruce Edward Richardson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

External factors such as the pandemic have forced organizational leaders to embrace flexible work structures. Differences in remote versus collocated workplaces escalate the importance for company leaders to uncover strategies to maintain employee engagement and performance. Grounded in the organizational support theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies leaders of remote, diverse teams with high engagement and inclusion use to achieve high team performance. Data were collected using semistructured interviews from a purposeful sampling of five nationally distributed managers. A thematic analysis uncovered three themes: flexible leadership behavior, fair execution of human resource policy and …

The Effectiveness Of The Ethics Officer’S Influence: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Exploration, Cheryl K. Douthitt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The position of ethics officer was created to watch over corporate behavior. However, scandals have continued to demonstrate unethical leadership involving government officials, sports heroes, religious organizations, and corporate leaders. The research problem was that despite the adoption of corporate ethics programs and government oversight, there is a lack of understanding of ethics officers’ experiences, perceptions of effectiveness, and whether they effectively influence executive-level ethical conduct. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of ethics officers regarding their interactions with executives. Shaped by Brown and Treviño’s ethical leadership theory, the research question concerned the …

Exploring Leadership Skills Needed To Implement Mergers And Acquisitions In Ghana, Akwasi Effah-Adu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There has been consideration of increased investment in the banking industry in Ghana through mergers and acquisitions. Data shows that the financial performance of the merged banks does not support the investment in the industry, at least within the first 3 years after the merger or acquisition. Grounded in Burn’s transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the leadership skills used to implement the successful merger of two commercial banks in Ghana. Data were collected from eight senior officers using semistructured interviews, a review of relevant publications, and a reflective journal. The data …

Experiencing Workplace Inclusion: Critical Incidents That Create A Sense Of Inclusion For Professional Staff In Higher Education, Katherine Penn Lampley

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Professional staff make up the majority of employees at colleges and universities in the United States but are rarely the focus of research in higher education. As a result, little is known about how these employees experience the workplace, creating a challenge for educational institutions working to attract, develop, and retain this essential resource. Employees who feel included in the workplace have higher performance levels and are more likely to remain with their organizations, but workplace inclusion is a complex and undertheorized psychological phenomenon. This exploratory study provides insight into the psychological experience of inclusion by examining the experiences, interactions, …

Navigating Conflict During Periods Of Change In Higher Education: Deconstructing Academic Leaders’ Construction Of Meaning, Tyler Guy Olson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Navigating departmental and organizational conflict is an essential function and responsibility of an academic unit leader (dean, associate dean, director, or chair) in higher education institutions (HEIs). During periods of organizational change, conflict tends to increase in complexity and difficulty—in part due to resistance to change—making it more difficult to manage in a constructive manner (Marcus, 2014). Much of the literature that looks at the academic unit leader and conflict focuses on personal conflict styles (or modes), types of conflicts encountered, and training on techniques and skills for conflict resolution and management. Missing from the literature is research that examines …

Empowered Presence: Theorizing An Afrocentric Performance Of Leadership By African American Women, Sharon Wamble-King

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

There is a paucity of theorizing concerning leadership enactments performed by African American women. The performances have been marginalized and obscured within the Western leadership canon as they fall outside its epistemological boundaries; they have also been sidelined within Critical Leadership Studies. This study employed Afrocentricity as a decolonizing paradigm and Africology as the research methodology to describe and define a leadership phenomenon enacted by African American women. Setting aside Western conceptions of leadership, focus groups of African American women examined video excerpts of Africana women’s oral performances through an Africological lens. Participants’ Afrocentric-oriented perceptions sparked collective storytelling and Meaning-Making …

Leadership Skill Development In Master’S-Level Counselor Education, Charity A. Godfrey, Richard J. Cicchetti, Craig R. Blum, Gary Michael Szirony, Tamara Harris

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Student leadership identity is fast becoming one of the most critical challenges educational institutions face today. However, mental health counselors may be limited in the amount of education and training received as they become leaders in the field. There is currently no known mandate at the master’s level for leadership embedded within the counseling curriculum in the educational environment, although research suggests otherwise. The purpose of this correlational predictive empirical study was to investigate leadership identity characteristics as measured by the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale, Revision 2 (SLRS-R2), moderated by demographic factors. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine outcome …

Leadership And Instructional Coaching: A Synthesis Of Approaches And Practices That Promote Change, Katie L. Perkins

Essays in Education

The aim of this educational essay is to provide a literature-based synthesis of the leadership approaches and practices of instructional coaches that best support teacher development. The essay is grounded in transformational leadership theory (Bass & Avolio, 1990) and synthesizes three main constructs for effective instructional coaching. These constructs include: andragogical practices (Knowles, 2015), the ethics of care (Beck, 1994), and organizational change (Burke, 2014). Incorporating these leadership practices may encourage effective teacher-coach relationships, promote teacher development and retention, and ultimately increase student success.

Deliberately Developmental Leadership In Organizational Settings, Glenn Allen Nixon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate leadership development strategies in organizations in North Texas needed to create prepared, competent leaders who can become and help create deliberately developmental leaders. Open-ended and semistructured interviews were used to collect data, with questions centered on effective leadership development strategies for creating competent leaders and effective leadership strategies for creating deliberately developmental leaders. The idea was to understand if organization’s leadership focused on the need for leadership development, if organizational members were being identified for leadership, and if systems exist to address future organizational leadership needs. Three types of organizations were …

Leadership Curriculum In Physical Therapy Education: A Case Study, Christina M. Kalata

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Physical therapists must demonstrate leadership skills to provide quality patient care and to facilitate healthcare reform. The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to understand core physical therapy faculty’s implementation of leadership development curriculum in entry-level physical therapy programs at graduate colleges and universities. The theory guiding this study was transformational leadership theory, proposed by Burns (1978), as it informs leadership skills and attributes, which may cultivate the change necessary for health care reform. The central research question for this study explores how physical therapy faculty incorporate leadership development into their graduate physical therapy programs to prepare students …

Leadership Behavior, Stress, And Presenteeism: A Cross-Cultural Comparison, Jan Philipp Czakert, Julia A. M. Reif, Rita Berger

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Presenteeism is the behavior of working with ill-health. Due to associated productivity losses and substantial transmission risks during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, presenteeism is gaining increased attention in occupational psychological research. To understand the complexity of this phenomenon, research on contextual influences is needed. Our study investigated positive leadership behavior (transformational leadership, TFL) and negative leadership behavior (passive-avoidant leadership, PAL) as social-contextual predictors, next to stress. We hypothesized that in countries with high masculine values, presenteeism is more likely to occur. Our study involved 979 employees from the different cultural contexts of Germany, Ireland, Latvia and Spain that answered an …

Grant Us Wisdom, Grant Us Courage For The Facing Of Change Leadership: A Case Study Of The Change Leadership Of J. Gresham Machen, Peter Raymond Sniffin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Ministry leaders are ill-prepared to execute the inevitable requirement of change leadership. As a result of this leadership shortcoming, necessary change efforts are either avoided or fail. During the Fundamentalist and Modernist Controversy of the early 20th Century, J. Gresham Machen provided change leadership in response to doctrinal error in the church that transformed his ministry context and Presbyterianism in the United States as it was then structured. In Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, Paul also exercised leadership to drive change away from doctrinal error in the church. A case study examining Machen’s change leadership in light of Paul’s example …

Leading Law Schools: Relationships, Influence, And Negotiation, Michael T. Colatrella Jr.

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Descriptive Analysis Of Remote Work Adoption In The United States, Paul A. Hill, Amanda D. Ali, Lendel K. Narine, Debra M. Spielmaker

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Advances in information and communications technology have enabled organizations to shift traditional work functions away from place or where work is accomplished to how work is accomplished (i.e., task facilitation). With the rise in remote work, there was a need to describe the adoption process by organizations in the United States. Given that the practice of remote work is considered an innovation, this quantitative study was guided by the theory of Diffusion of Innovations and followed a nonexperimental design with a correlational analysis, collecting cross-sectional data from a sample of organizational leaders in the United States (N = 1,259). Results …

Organic Leadership—Implicit Followership Interaction: Relations Among Trust In Supervisor, Active Followership And Ocb, Sheng-Wen Liu, Ming-Tsang Hsieh, Ralph Norcio, Harika Rao

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

Due to the impact of COVID-19, a large number of employees of organizations around the world have been forced to work remotely from home starting in 2020. As a result, leaders and followers face new communication and interaction challenges. If an enterprise is to be successful in the new wave of economic development, it must embrace the role of employee followers. However, there is currently no relevant research. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the interaction between organic leadership and implicit followers from the perspective of followers who are working remotely and further analyze their relationship with …

The Salvation Of The Africana Child: Via The Role Of The Black Woman In Educational Leadership, Tamara S. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Black Women principals have unique experiences that they have lived that influence the way they lead schools. Strong and committed leadership creates school environments where children can thrive.

This study illuminated the connectivity of race, class, and gender to the lived experiences of Black Women principals according to the Africana Womanism paradigm set forth by Dr. Clenora Hudson-Weems (2020). The question my research sought to answer was: How do the lived experiences, as they relate to race, class, and gender, of Black Women principals impact the way they lead? The sub-question for the study was: How do the lived experiences …

Competency-Based Social Work Education: 25 Years Of Innovation & Leadership, Zoë Breen Wood, Marjorie N. Edguer, David L. Hussey, Mark Chupp, Grover C. Gilmore, Paul M. Kubek

Faculty Scholarship

The white paper chronicles the 25-year history of one graduate school of social work’s efforts in competency-based curriculum innovation. The authors argue that curriculum change is organizational change and share their experiences with a variety of curriculum assessment, design, and delivery efforts. Beginning with the development of the first social work competencies (labeled Abilities), pioneering efforts in assessment and holistic curricular design and delivery are reviewed. A new, one-semester, social work generalist curriculum is introduced. Emphasis is placed on the importance of developing a competency-based curriculum that is integrated both horizontally and vertically and that engages the social work student …

The Soft Stuff Doesn’T Have To Be Hard: Foundation Investments In Grantee Workers Are Necessary, Valuable, And Measurable, Rusty Stahl

The Foundation Review

There is an urgent need for funder investments in the ability of grantee nonprofit organizations to support their staff. Such investments, when done well, can yield significant value for individuals, organizations, and fields of work or movements. Furthermore, the value of these investments can be evaluated and communicated.

This article explores the reasons for and implications of the inadequate response by funders, offers a path forward for designing investments in grantee staff, and documents how funders can capture and communicate the value of these “talent investments.”

Powerful myths serve as barriers to widespread funder investment in grantee staff, and the …