Digital Commons Network^™

Silent Suffering: A Phenomenological Study Of African American Women Facing Infertility & Lessons Learned For Work-Life Balance, Kimberley Faye Williams

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although African American women represent the largest female demographic in the workforce (NABCP, 2014) and have the highest rates of infertility (Chandra, Copen & Stephen, 2013), their career and life experiences remain underrepresented in scholarship. Framed through the critical lens of Intersectionality, this phenomenological qualitative study explored the lived experiences of 11 African American women as they struggled with infertility and the competing demands of work and family life. The two major themes that emerged were: (1) silent suffering, and (2) lack of sensitivity and support in the workplace. The subthemes that supported silent suffering included: (1) emotional distress and …

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 …

The Major Supporting Mechanisms For Successful Single Working Mothers, Toia Thompson Mengesha

Theses and Dissertations

Single mothers are commonly characterized as low-income welfare recipients. In 2010, close to 30% of single mother households were below the poverty line (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010a) conversely leaving 70% of single mothers above the poverty line. Being a married working mother is challenging and comes with the need of several supports. With the growing divorce rate and the introduction of women choosing to become single mothers, the numbers of single working mothers are growing rapidly. In order to be a successful single mother certain factors need to be accounted for. This study focused on single mothers who are in …

Engaging Diversity: Best Practices To Create An Inclusive Work Environment, Britta M. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

It is believed that the commitment to diversity in the workplace is rooted in the civil rights movement. Six decades later, many companies have achieved a demographically diverse workforce, while others have not. Some organizations assumed that diversity would automatically result in inclusion. Seemingly, it has been more elusive to create and sustain an inclusive workplace. Within large global organizations, the task of creating such a workplace rests with the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO). Inclusion, as related to engaging diverse employees in the workplace, is an emerging concept. This study explored the perceptions and experiences of Chief Diversity Officers in …

Leaders' Roles In Creating And Sustaining Collective Genius, Tanya L. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined leaders’ roles in fostering collective genius innovation within one private elementary school, including managing the paradoxes of innovation. Based on content analysis of eleven participants, this study found that teamwork, clear student learning outcomes emphasizing individualized learning, design thinking, and a growth mindset, all impacted willingness to innovate. To develop conditions for collective genius, leaders again focus on teamwork as well as being relational. In terms of their management of the six innovative paradoxes, the school leaders tend to balance their affirmation of the individual and the group, support staff and parents, focus on experimentation and learning, …

Exemplary Change Management Practices Used During Corporate Outsourcing Specifically Related To Integrated Facility Management, Jay Higdon

Theses and Dissertations

Too many outsourcing models fail to deliver expected results in Integrated Facility Management (IFM) models. IFM is a type of outsourcing model that transfers in-house work to an outside company that performs it onsite as if it were part of the client’s organization. This process requires collaboration, coordination, and communication, merging 2 corporate cultures into 1 cohesive business model. Managing the change process related to an IFM outsourcing arrangement is crucial because changing an organizational culture can heighten risk and potentially produce unsatisfactory results. Creating, changing, and managing an IFM outsourcing model require acceptance, coordination, and a clear understanding of …

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 …

Forty-Three African American Women Executives' Perceptions Of Challenges And Required Capabilities To Become A Leader, Lysa Liggins-Moore

Theses and Dissertations

The percentage of African American women in leadership roles has not increased as significantly as women in general. This exploratory qualitative study examined African American leaders’ perceptions of their common challenges as they advance to executive leadership and their personal capabilities required to attain leadership. The intent was to understand the factors that contribute to their rise to executive leadership. Forty-three African American leaders secured through universities, sorority, church, and work in greater Los Angeles met the study’s criteria to be at the senior management level for more than two years, have over five direct reports, and born in the …

Active Engagement In Professional Trade Associations And Career Outcomes: An Exploratory Study Of Latina Career Women, Elena Einstein

Theses and Dissertations

Of the research on work-life balance and on the challenges facing women in the workplace, few studies have focused on the impacts of professional business trade associations on career outcomes and the development of work-life balance strategies with a Latina population. This phenomenological study explores the life experiences of Latinas to understand the challenges they encounter in their careers and in their aspirations for career advancement. The study applied the life-story framework (Giele, 2008), which offered questions from the four life course dimensions: identify, relational style, motivation and adaptive style. A question was added to this framework for this study …

Understanding The Impact Of Radical Innovation On Innovator Attitudes, Attributes, And Innovation-Decision Process: A Case Study Of The Pulaski Academy Football Program's Adoption Of Radical Innovations, Lyall J. Swim

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the attitudes and attributes of innovators is crucial given the gatekeeper roles these individuals or organizations play in enabling innovation diffusion to occur. But what do innovators look like, and are their characteristics the same regardless of the type of innovation being adopted? This case study of sought to understand the experience of the Pulaski Academy football program during the 2003 season as it acted as an innovator in adopting several radical innovations. The study provides a detailed case narrative that relies upon 25 existing text, audio, and video artifacts as well as 12 semi-structured interviews with program participants …

Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And The Ability To Influence, Tammy Hong

Theses and Dissertations

Much attention has been paid to the study of leaders and their ability to influence followers. A comprehensive study by Humphrey (2002) found that leadership is a process of social interaction by which the leader’s ability to influence the behavior of his or her employees can strongly influence the employees’ performance outcome. Mayer, Caruso, and Salovey (2000) hypothesized that leaders who rate high in the ability to accurately perceive, understand, and appraise others’ emotions were better able to influence and motivate their employees. Taking the lead of prior research, this dissertation investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and the …

How To Cultivate Compassion As A Tool For Everyday Leadership, Paula Webster

Mindfulness Studies Theses

In this two-party thesis study, the need for compassion in our world is presented up front. Upon this foundation of the need for compassion, the building blocks that together comprise compassionate everyday leader are placed: leaders and leadership, mindful leadership, defining the everyday leader, mindfulness, compassion, and how to cultivate compassion. The evolution of broad concepts of leadership are reviewed, from a control-based approach to a more mindful leadership, social-intelligence based approach. In a mindful leadership approach, qualities of self-awareness are cultivated within and then manifest in relation to the leadership process. Everyday leadership is a more expansive and inclusive …

“How Do You Define Yourself?” Mobilizing Leadership In The Graduate Employee Union Movement, Kathleen Ragon

Master's Theses

Social movement scholars agree that leadership plays a crucial role in the emergence, structure, and outcomes of social movement organizations (SMOs) and is thus an indispensable area of research. The vast majority of theories of leadership to date have been developed in contexts where participants’ movement identities are relatively stable (e.g., gender, sexual, or occupational) and engagement in the site of contestation will be long-term (e.g., workplace or nation state). However, the recent proliferation of graduate student employee unions poses a challenge to this literature because graduate students’ employment is by its very nature temporary and variable; graduate assistantship appointments …

Fearless Friday: Samantha Lee, Samantha R. Lee

SURGE

Samantha Lee ’16 is SURGE’s Fearless Friday leader for this week!

Sam is a Psychology Major with a minor in Religion. Her home is not too far from Gettysburg, just up the way on route 15 in Mechanicsburg. Her graduation is right around the corner, as she’s a senior graduating early in December. [excerpt]

The Pathway To A Senior Housing Officer, A Latino Man’S Journey, Javier Gutierrez

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This study presents my experience as a Latino male entering the field of residential life and working my way to a senior level housing officer position. My personal account is situated in the context of the greater societal issues of how identity and mentorship are significant in a successful path into residential life. The significance of this study results from the low number of Latinos obtaining and moving up the ranks in residential life. The number of Latinos in the United States is increasing and the number of Latino students entering higher education is growing. Staffs working in student affairs …

The Challenges Of Leading Change In Health-Care Delivery From The Frontline, Vivienne Byers

Articles

Aim: The public sector is facing turbulent times and this challenges nurses, who are expected to serve both patient interests and the efficiency drives of their organisations. In the context of implementing person-centred health policy, this paper explores the evolving role of front-line nurses as leaders and champions of change.

Background: Nurses can be seen to have some autonomy in health-care delivery. However, they are subject to systems of social control. In implementing person- centred policy, nurses can be seen to be doing the best they can within a constrained environment.

Method: A survey of nursing practice in person-centred health-policy …

How Attachment Style Correlates To Symptoms Of Burnout For Direct Care Staff In A Company That Serves People With Developmental And/Or Intellectual Disabilities, Shantel Lee Pickar

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to find if adult attachment style is correlated to depersonalization, lowered sense of accomplishment, and/or emotional exhaustion for direct-care employees and supervisors in one company that serves people with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities. A thorough review of literature was completed on this topic as well as a voluntary, unpaid employee survey which determined propensity for burnout as well as attachment style. Data was gathered and analyzed and results are shared in the context of this study.

The Experience Of Influence Among Youth Leaders, Kelly Moguel

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While the term “leadership” can be difficult to define, one term that is commonly seen in its association is “influence”. While the field of leadership has empirically identified several outcomes associated with adult influence (i.e., greater organizational performance, higher subordinate satisfaction, higher subordinate engagement), little is known about influence in youth leaders. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain a better understanding of how youth leaders experience influence. Twenty-nine in-depth, semi-structured interviews from fifth- 12^th-grade students in a leadership mentoring program called Nebraska Human Resources Institute (NHRI) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were conducted to ascertain …

The Impact Of Employee Engagement On Job Performance And Organisational Commitment In The Egyptian Banking Sector, Dr. Maha Ahmed Zaki Dajani

Business Administration

During the past two decades, employee engagement became a very popular managerial construct. Organisations use different engagement building tools in order to stay competitive and improve performance. Though there is an increasing contribution in human resource consulting agencies on the concept of employee engagement, yet there is a shortage of academic studies on that construct, especially in emerging economies countries. This engagement gap grew more in importance amidst the waves of ongoing recession and resource scarcity battles prevailing in the Middle Eastern Region, in general, and in Egypt in particular. This is an exploratory study that aims to identify the …

Tomorrow's Leading Ladies: How Core Self-Evaluations, Leadership Perceptions, And Social Support Influence Young Women's Leadership Aspirations, Lauren Ellis

All Dissertations

Given that women are an underrepresented population in organizational leadership, the purpose of this dissertation was to understand the forces driving college-aged women’s leadership aspirations. Using a two-study design, the current research sought to understand the influence that internal (psychological) and external (social) factors can have on a young woman’s desire to lead. In Study One, which included 228 college-aged female participants, results indicated there was a significant, positive between Core Self Evaluations (CSE) and leadership aspirations and provided partial support for the mediating effects of leadership fit on the CSE-aspiration relationship. Results from Study One failed to support the …

Transformational Leadership Increases Self-Determination And Positively Impacts Hospitality Frontline Employees, Xiao Zhang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This professional paper presents literature by exploring the role of self-determination theory between the relationship of transformational leadership and hospitality employees’ well-being. It integrates the present research on leadership style, needs theory and well-being and provides useful and meaningful information for executives and organizations who are dedicated to improve employees’ well-being.

Servant Leadership And Related Issues In Chinese Hotel Industry, Yiqing Wang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Because of the economy growth and the Open Door Policy, Chinese hotel industry was under a huge expansion. Since more and more western customers are visiting and Chinese customers are having more hotel experience abroad, the service Chinese hotels used to provide dose not meet the standard anymore. So the managers and leaders need to find an appropriate approach to encourage their employees to improve the service to their customers. This research went through over 40 articles about Chinese hotel industry and Chinese culture and found out that servant leadership style should be the best approach to engage the employees.

Investigating The Relationship Between Leadership Style And Job Performance And Employee Self-Esteem, Marzena Mieczkowska, Joanna Zioło

Studia i Materiały Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytet Warszawski

The purpose of the studies was to answer the question concerning the adjustment of a line manager’s leadership style to an employee’s preferences and its consequences, as well as trying to establish the underlying reasons. The study comprised 80 respondents working on a commission contract, whose gross annual remuneration (defined using the self-report method) provided objective information about their work effectiveness. The respondents were asked to remotely complete the Hersey-Blanchard Leadership Styles Questionnaire with regard to their current line manager and the ideal (indicating how they would like their line manager to behave in defined situations). The comparison of these …

Appreciative Inquiry: A Path To Change In Education, Pamela L. Buchanan

Journal of Critical Issues in Educational Practice

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) introduces a new approach to educational change. Most state and federal initiatives for educational change grow out of a deficit model determined to fix problems. The emphasis of AI is upon what is right with the organization and forms the basis for new initiatives and further change. This model proposes a cycle of inquiry used by leaders who distribute leadership across their constituents. Organizational learning is a process of individual and collective inquiry that modifies or constructs organizational theories-in-use and changes practice.

The study explored the relationship of AI, distributed leadership, and organizational learning qualities that exist …

The "It" Factor, Ann Gallagher

Leadership Hour at Otterbein University

Gaining the Competitive Edge by Boosting Your Executive Presence

Have you ever known a leader or top executive who has got “it?” Well “it” is executive presence, and having “it” is the difference between moving up the ladder to leadership and being stuck on the middle rung. So have you got “it?”

"You Wouldn't Like Me When I'M Sleepy": Leader Sleep, Daily Abusive Supervision, And Work Unit Engagement, Christopher M. Barnes, Lorenzo Lucianetti, Devasheesh P. Bhave, Michael S. Christian

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine daily leader sleep as an antecedent to daily abusive supervisory behavior and work unit engagement. Drawing from ego depletion theory, our theoretical extension includes a serial mediation model of nightly sleep quantity and quality as predictors of abusive supervision. We argue that poor nightly sleep influences leaders to enact daily abusive behaviors via ego depletion, and these abusive behaviors ultimately result in decreased daily subordinate unit work engagement. We test this model through an experience sampling study spread over ten work days with data from both supervisors and their subordinates. Our study supports the role of the indirect …

President’S Newsletter, Jean E. Bartels

President's Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Impediments To The Advancement Of Women Leaders In Community Colleges, Teresa Alley Yearout

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

As community college presidents, chief operating officers (CEOs), and other senior level administrators plan to retire, the critical demand for qualified leaders brings greater focus on previous trends and current statistics in community colleges leadership. These findings provide evidence of the continuing underrepresentation of women in senior level leadership positions. Further investigation examines women leaders’ perceptions of the barriers or impediments to their advancement into these leadership positions. The purpose of the current study was to examine the perceptions of impediments of women community college leaders in a variety of institutional settings (rural, suburban, urban).

The literature provided an inventory …

The Role Of Critical Thinking In Reader Perceptions Of Leadership In Comic Books, Renee Krusemark Edd

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

This study qualitatively explored how readers use critical thinking to perceive leadership in The Walking Dead comic books. Sixty-nine participants gave responses regarding their thoughts about leadership in the comic via an online survey. A majority of the participants indicated a wide range of values for comics as a learning experience. Most participants perceived leadership in the comic books as an individual who protects others and makes decisions. After completing the online survey, 22 participants gave acceptable and relevant responses about their perceptions of leadership and how they form these perceptions. Information was collected through email interviewing. The study concluded …

Fearless Friday: Rebecca Borovsky, Christina L. Bassler

SURGE

Rebecca Borovsky is a shining example of what it means to be a fearless leader. A member of the Class of 2016, she has made her mark on the Gettysburg campus and inspires not just students but her professors and coworkers as well. Rebecca found herself eager to make the most of her time here at Gettysburg College when she arrived just three years ago. An Organization and Management Studies Major (with a Business Minor), Rebecca is a fiercely loyal community member who embodies the definition of leadership. When asked what made her want to study OMS she stated that …