Digital Commons Network^™

The Use Of Mindfulness In Dealing With Ambiguity During Transformational Organizational Change, Avonlie Wylson

Theses and Dissertations

The present mixed-methods study examined how 19 experienced change leaders cope with ambiguity during transformational organizational change and whether mindfulness helps them do that. Study findings indicated that practitioners react in varying ways to ambiguity and employees generally react negatively. Change leaders rely on personal coping and project initiation strategies, ongoing guidance and support, agile and action-oriented approaches, courageous and bold leadership, and trust in their process to manage ambiguity for themselves. To help others deal with ambiguity, change leaders repeatedly articulate the change vision and direction and demonstrate confident, strong change leadership. Mindfulness appears to enhance leaders’ abilities to …

Teacher Perception Of Principal Leadership Practices: Impacting Teachers' Sense Of Self-Efficacy In Rural Appalachia Kentucky, Brandon Lee Hibbard

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if a significant relationship existed between principal leadership practices, as perceived by teachers, and teacher’s sense of self-efficacy. The target population was rural Appalachian teachers that worked for a principal that had been in administration for at least three consecutive years. This study utilized teacher responses from a survey consisting of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES, Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2001) and the Leadership Practice Inventory – observer (LPI, Kouzes & Posner, 2003).

Results from the survey categorized levels of self-efficacy for teachers based on the works of Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy …

Latina Principals In Southern California: A Phenomenological Look Into Their Journey Towards Leadership, Fabiola Bagula

Dissertations

California is home to almost 15 million Latinos, however, according to the 2015 State of Higher Education Report for California, only 12% of the Latino population between the ages of 25 and 64 has a baccalaureate degree or higher, compared with 42% of the White population. Latina students have some of the lowest levels of educational attainment at every point in their K-12 journey and in general, very low occupational attainment. Given these troubling findings, this research sought to understand and tell the stories of Latinas in k-12 leadership positions in Southern California. In this study, Latinas describe how they …

Curricular Instruction Of Global Leadership At Colleges And Universities In The United States, Tara L. Edberg

Dissertations

Colleges and universities in the United States have made leadership education a priority as they prepare students to confront adaptive challenges in the 21st century; “wicked problems” such as poverty, uneven opportunities for education, homelessness, and illnesses worldwide. In addition, with the increased globalization of our world, the need to teach students how to lead in a complicated, multicultural context intensifies. Global leadership is an emergent concept in the leadership field combining leadership practices with those of global cultural competency while highlighting the significance of a dynamic and complex context in the leadership process.

While there has been a significant …

Exploring Leadership Strategy Influence On Nursing Personnel Retention Within Safety-Net Hospitals, Carl Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Frequent turnover among a hospital's nursing staff can profoundly impact organizational operating costs. With a national turnover rate of 17% in 2015, understanding the impact of management approaches on nurse attrition is vital to business success. Guided by Homan's social exchange theory, the purpose of this single case study was to explore leadership strategies used by safety-net hospital leaders to increase nursing personnel retention. Data collection consisted of semistructured interviews from a purposive snowball sampling of 8 senior directors working at a safety-net hospital in southern Maryland. Additional information collected involved documents and artifacts related to human resources management policies …

A Pilot Study Of High-Stakes Decision-Making For Crisis Leadership, Terry Lynn Oroszi

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

High-stakes decision-making represents a critical component of crisis leadership. This study examined the decision-making processes practiced by global, national, and local crisis leaders to identify common decision-making process traits and propose a useful model to guide crisis leaders high-stakes decision-making. This research suggested the hypothesis is correct and inexperienced crisis leaders may benefit from a potential new decision-making model better aligned with the experiences of a panel of national and global crisis decision-making experts. Crises have distinct factors: they are time sensitive, pose significant risks, and require consequential decisions. A sample group of fifteen national and international expert crisis leaders …

Leadership Education: A Pilot Study Investigating Employer And Student Perceptions Of Value, Jason Scott Farkas

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This study examined employer and student perceptions of leadership education, specifically as these perceptions relate to value, or usefulness. As post-baccalaureate leadership certification programs are increasingly added to college and university curricula, it is important to understand if these programs are imparting knowledge and skills that are observable and valuable in the workplace. Employer and student perceptions were collected through pilot focus groups and qualitatively evaluated against Kouzes and Posner's Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, a framework that is both teachable and measurable. Suggestions for future graduate-level leadership certification programs will be discussed.

Faculty/Student Perceptions Of Their Relationship In A Cross-Cultural Academic Mentoring Dyad, Amber J.S. Daniel

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Diversity and mentoring are becoming important areas of study in leadership and educational disciplines. While some steps have been taken to conceptualize or delineate how these disparate elements function in higher education, there has been little research into how and where they intersect, namely, when mentoring dyads are comprised of individuals from diverse cultures. In this paper, the researcher shares her discoveries on how a cross-cultural academic dyad works in contemporary settings. She discusses the role of perceptions, expectations and actions-some of the essential ingredients of effective cross-cultural mentoring- which could be utilized as a guide for further study and/or …

Change Management For Small Business Leaders, Lora Elizabeth Higdon

Theses and Dissertations

Small business owners face challenges associated with leading change, and many times lack the necessary resources to manage it properly. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to determine what challenges leaders of small businesses face in managing change, what strategies and practices those leaders employ, and how the leaders of small businesses measure success in managing change. This study also determined what advice leaders of small businesses would suggest for managing change. Four research questions were created to assist with this process, and 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted in various cities throughout the state of Michigan. The participants …

Servant Leadership And Non Servant Leadership Organization Triple Bottom Line Reporting Outcomes, Lydia M. Daniels

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The competitive environment of the 21st century, failure of U.S. companies, and the financial crisis of 2008 have moved leadership expectations to the forefront of research. However, there is a lack of empirical research about organizational reporting outcomes of self-identified servant leadership (SL) organizations compared to self-identified nonservant (non-SL) organizations. Guided by Greenleaf's SL theory, the purpose of this study was to compare information on organizational data for triple bottom line (TBL) reporting outcomes in SL organizations and non-SL organizations. Using causal comparative research design and global reporting initiative data with a sample of 12 organization reports, reporting outcomes were …

Leader Strategies To Reduce Sales Personnel Attrition, Nicole Lea Hawkins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Because sales are the primary revenue generators for insurance companies, reducing attrition of sales agents is essential to organizational success. The purpose of this single descriptive case study was to explore strategies that 6 Nebraskan sales leaders within the insurance industry used to reduce attrition. Participants had experience in sales leadership and the attrition of sales personnel and were able to provide insight into the unique perspectives on attrition in the insurance industry. Participants met the following criteria: (a) manage an insurance sales office or organization or (b) held an insurance sales leadership position for at least 1 year and …

Staff Perceptions Of The Effect Of The Leader In Me On Student Motivation And Peer Relationships In Elementary School, Charlene Tidd

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Staff and student surveys at Lane Elementary School (pseudonym) confirm that students lack motivation to complete class work and often struggle to interact appropriately with one another. Similar concerns are reported across the United States as indicated by national Gallup Poll results on student motivation, peer relationships, and feelings of connectedness in schools. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to determine if elementary school personnel believe than an initiative called The Leader In Me has had a positive impact on student motivation and peer relationships. Underpinning this study were Perrin's student motivation theory and research on social and …

Women Working In Leadership Roles Who Were Raised In Father-Absent Families, Lauren Huff

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Girls from father-absent families tend to form low levels of trust that may dictate relationships throughout life, including progression into leadership roles. There is evidence to suggest that girls raised in father-absent families fail to reach their potential, and therefore public programs that address the development of strong interpersonal and leadership skills would enhance these capacities. Unfortunately, public programming gaps exist for girls raised in father-absent families that would provide the skills needed to be effective leaders in their schools, communities, and careers. Using House's path-goal leadership theory as the framework, this phenomenological study explored how girls from father-absent families …

The Influence Of Nursing Academic Leadership On Faculty Retention, Carol Turrin Turrin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The critical nursing faculty shortage in the United States affects the ability of nursing schools to train an adequate number of nurses to meet increasing health care demands. Researchers have focused on the nursing faculty shortage; however, insufficient information exists on the relational influence leadership has on faculty retention. The research problem addressed in this study was the lack of information identifying how and in what ways leadership influences retention and intent to stay in academia. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perceptual views of current faculty, using the leader-member exchange theory. Focusing on baccalaureate nursing …

The Relationship Between Nigerian Local Government Administrative Leadership Styles And Organization Outcomes, Adebayo A. Adanri

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite the multitude of existing studies of leadership and organizational outcome, there are few empirical studies of these phenomena in Africa. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between Nigerian local government administrative leadership and organizational outcome and between perceived leadership effectiveness and transformational leadership factors, based on Bass's full range leadership theory (FRLT). Data were collected through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaires administered to a randomly selected sample of 240 department heads in 30 local governments in Osun State, Nigeria. Regression result shows a statistically significant correlation between the local public administrators' leadership practices and organizational …

Employee Turnover In Frontline Hospital Staff, Jeanne Lynn Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover is costly in service-intensive organizations where employee-customer interactions directly affect the organization's success. The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify strategies community hospital leaders use to reduce frontline support employee turnover. The study population consisted of leaders of a community hospital in southeast Louisiana. The conceptual framework for this study is Kahn's model of employee engagement. Semistructured interviews were conducted with eight hospital leaders in southeast Louisiana who were selected through census sampling. Interview transcripts were analyzed and coded following Yin's case study analysis process. Methodological triangulation allowed for a comparison of the findings of …

Strategies To Retain Employees In The Insurance Industry, Marilyn Martin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover costs can be 100%-200% of the total compensation package of an employee who leaves the organization, depending upon their position and experience. Leaders in the highly competitive insurance industry should emphasize the importance to retain talented employees with managers in an effort to minimize costs and diminish productivity levels associated with employee turnover. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies to retain employees used by insurance managers in the Charlotte, NC metropolitan area. The conceptual framework included Herzberg's motivator-hygiene theory to explore motivator factors that encourage employee retention. Seminstructured interviews were conducted with …

Application Of The Green House Model To The U.S. Geriatric Veteran Population, Lydia Alicia Cristobal

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

U.S. Veterans have sacrificed to serve the nation and deserve excellence in care. The Green House concept is a culture change model, with a goal to change not only the physical setting for residents, but to also create an environment to improve holistic outcomes. There are only three states in the Veterans Affairs (VA) Administration that have adopted the Green House model for the geriatric Veteran population: Illinois, Alabama, and Wisconsin. This paper presents a synthesis of recent studies on Green House model implementation. This synthesis was then compared with the experience of three state VA Medical Centers’ adoption of …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of Leader Development And Mindfulness Meditation, Denise A. Frizzell, Stephanie Hoon, David K. Banner

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Regardless of the gap between the demands of the global work environment and the maturity of leaders, minimal research exists on the trend of the practice of mindfulness meditation and the developmental experiences of leaders. Consequently, scholars have little understanding of how an increasing number of leaders experience mindfulness meditation. The purpose of this study was to understand the perceived impact mindfulness meditation had on leader development for 20 manager-leaders who had a regular (at least 3 days a week) mindfulness meditation practice. The primary recruitment strategy included outreach to potential participants affiliated with professionally oriented mindfulness groups on LinkedIn. …

Exploring The Transition Experience For The First Time Local Conference Presidents In The North American Division Of Seventh-Day Adventists: Narratives From Conference Presidents' Career Transitions, David E. Weigley

Dissertations

The position of the president of a conference in the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists (a senior leadership role) has currently no policy stipulating leadership training prerequisites. Leaders transitioning into the president’s position typically are selected from a pool of successful pastors, departmental directors, and executive secretaries by a constituency meeting of delegates from local churches and conference institutions.

This qualitative study probed the transition of 12 first-time local conference presidents. The information was gathered by recording in-depth interviews. Eight themes surfaced from the exploration. Leaders experienced the transition as overwhelming, challenging their spirituality, involving new constellations of relationships, …

Symbolic Centers In The Background Or Units At The Forefront Of Change? Race Specific Cultural Centers And Student Support Programs And Their Potential Impact On Students Of Color, William Rodriguez

Dissertations

This study examined the potential impact race specific cultural centers and student support programs (CCSSPs) have on the leadership development of students of color. Data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership was used to answer two primary questions. The two primary questions focused on the potential impact of CCSSPs on leadership outcomes and the rates of participation in high-impact leadership practices. The analytic approach utilized “effect size” methodology while also conducting sample t-tests to compare means between CCSSP users and non-users and chi-square analysis for relationships between dependent categorical variables.

No findings emerged for leadership outcomes for the sample as …

Influencing Behavior During Planned Culture Change: A Participatory Action Research Case Study, Michael Valentine

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The study was conducted in a global, for-profit, advertising firm, which initiated a culture change effort focused culture change.The objective of the effort was to manage the negative impact of implicit bias (IB) in the workplace.This type of bias is known to influence behaviors and judgements (Amodio & Mendoza, 2010).It is hypothesized that if employees shift behavior to better understand and manage these biases in the basic work activities that are typical in any organization—like working on a team, making decisions related hiring, developing and promoting talent, and the numerous creative decisions that are typical of designing advertising campaigns—more inclusive …

What Are The Key Qualities And Skills Of Effective Team Coaches?, William Jacox

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this dissertation was to identify and understand the key qualities and skills of effective team coaches. The results serve to educate and inform those aspiring to be organizational team coaches, those presently serving as team coaches, those developing curriculum to train team coaches, and those responsible for choosing and hiring team coaches for their organizations. Study participants were all experienced professional team coaches representing several states and a few different countries. The Delphi method was used, resulting in the emergence of consensus judgements of 15 qualities and 15 skills based on anonymous responses during multiple iterations. While …

Effective Combat Leadership: How Do Individual, Social, And Organizational Factors In The U.S. Army Reserve Cultivate Effective Women's Leadership In Dangerous Contexts?, Diana Drita Ellerman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research centered on the experiences of a dozen women who served in U.S. Army Reserve leadership positions. Although they served in dangerous contexts the Army had an exclusionary policy at the time that formally excluded the women from direct combat. The impetus for the research was Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's announcement in January 2013 that the U.S. military would be eliminating the exclusionary policy. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into what individual, social, and organizational factors support women's effective leadership in dangerous contexts. The research utilized narrative inquiry in order to bring forth the …

Opportunities For Conversion To More Sustainable Practices By Houses Of Worship Through Team Performance Enhancing Strategies That Include Leadership With Facilitative Skills, Carolina Del Carmen Saiz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research focused on assessing the performance of teams of volunteers in Houses of Worship (HOWs) in the State of Massachusetts that are successfully planning, advancing and completing sustainable initiatives. The sustainable initiatives included solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, city public parks cleaning projects, efficient windows installations, efficient lighting fixtures installations, and building insulation improvements. The goal of this research was to assess the dynamics of a total of eight successful teams, including the relationships among team members and their leaders with facilitative skills that they perceived were instrumental to their effective and efficient performance. The role of team leadership was …

On Contemporary Leadership And Branded Organizations, Mark Bloemhard

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative study examined a leader’s enigmatic decision-making process guiding innovative and complex organizations—organizations that are not able to rely on market research or the precedence of industry emulators for making strategic decisions. Leaders of highly creative organizations regularly make catalytic decisions that have fateful outcomes; their ability to recognize and appropriately adjudicate complex and unpredictable market forces determine the consequences. Such influential choices often require a deep level of intuition with very little research and time to decide. The purpose of this dissertation has been to develop a framework that presents Brand Leadership as a distinct and viable leadership …

A Method To My Quietness: A Grounded Theory Study Of Living And Leading With Introversion, Leatrice Oram

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Leadership scholar-practitioners must create a more sustainable, diverse, and equitable future, fostering emergence and development of resilient, competent leaders, including those who may have been previously overlooked.Leadership studies, particularly those situated in early trait and behavior paradigms, have long privileged extraverted leaders as ideal.The scholarly conversation is limited on introverted leaders; moreover, most of that literature depicts introversion as either a pathological construct associated with shyness and social anxiety, or includes introversion only by omission, as a state of deficit-of-extraversion.This study instead began with positive inquiry, framing introversion as a positive individual difference, and explored the lived experiences of introverted …

Incarcerated Men And The Etiology Of Intimate Partner Violence, Roxanne Swogger

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explored the lived experiences of 15 incarcerated men with a history of intimate partner violence.This qualitative grounded theory study revealed the impact significant loss in childhood, the most critical being the loss of a parent, had on these men.The results showed a significant loss set in motion a series of adaptive and maladaptive interpersonal behaviors with significant others, primarily parents and intimate partners that continued through adulthood and incarceration.The grounded theory dimensional analysis revealed five primary dimensions that described the dominant social processes described by the participants.These processes were:seeking, overcoming, blaming, controlling, and disengaging behaviors.The consequences of these …

Racial Integration In One Cumberland Presbyterian Congregation: Intentionality And Reflection In Small Group, Carolyn Smith Goings

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Negative attitudes toward racial minorities and consequent maltreatment of non-Whites continue to be a crisis in America. The crisis of racism is still realized in phenomena such as residential segregation (Bonilla-Silva, 2014), health disparities (Chae, Nuru-Jeter, & Adler, 2012; Chae, Nuru-Jeter, Francis, & Lincoln, 2011), and in the not-so-uncommon unjust arrests and imprisonment of persons of color (Alexander, 2012). Improvement in race relations through the development of meaningful cross racial relationships in racially integrated settings is one avenue that may lead to reduction of racism (E. Anderson, 2010; Fischer, 2011; Massey & Denton, 1993). Christian congregations are common settings in …

Arab Management Practices From A Trust Perspective - The Case Of International Companies In Morocco, Imane El Hakimi

Plymouth Business School Theses

This research contributes to our understanding of trust in the international business environment, exploring the development of trust, and the influence of culture, structures and hierarchies, and international business communications. The focus is on the management of employees working in foreign-owned, international businesses operating in Morocco. With few notable and very valuable exceptions, there has been very little research exploring the Arab approach to management and even fewer pieces of research focus on the development of trust in this context. A qualitative research approach was employed, as so little is understood about the context and the phenomenon. A total of …