Digital Commons Network^™

Change Power Is In The Process: Leading In A Time Of Social Justice Unrest ( A Narration), Judy Rashid

Faculty Publications

This narrative article by Dr. Judy Rashid explores the vital role of leadership in navigating conflict during periods of racial and social justice unrest. Drawing from theories of intergroup conflict and principles of conflict management, Rashid argues that effective leadership must move beyond symbolic gestures to embrace structured, inclusive processes like mediation and truth-telling. She highlights how historical symbols of racism—such as statues, street names, and slave-era landmarks—perpetuate division and obstruct reconciliation. Leaders, she asserts, must learn to use conflict as a catalyst for dialogue, growth, and systemic change. The article presents core principles of conflict management and offers practical …

Mindfulness: A Personal Resource In Organizational Change, Mona Farid-Nejad

CGU Theses & Dissertations

As the world of work becomes increasingly uncertain, organizations and their employees must adapt and change to survive and remain solvent in light of market and social changes. Most organizational-level change management approaches, however, fail to consider the repercussions of change on employees and often do not consider the psychological resources employees need to weather the storms of change. Guided by previous research concerning the benefits of mindfulness, the current dissertation seeks to understand the benefits of trait mindfulness as a personal resource for employee well-being, motivation, and retention during organizational change. In the initial pilot study, organizational change vignettes …

Generation Z’S Perception Of Leadership Effectiveness, Lauren Seamon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The newest generation entering the workforce, Generation Z, has unique characteristics and workplace preferences that distinguish this generation from previous generations. The specific management problem is that current organizational leaders lack knowledge regarding which leadership style Generation Z employees perceive as most effective and risk not providing a productive and supportive workplace climate. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine leadership style preferences as perceived among Generation Z office employees as most effective for providing a productive and supportive workplace climate. Generational theory and social exchange theory comprised the theoretical framework. The research questions were designed to …

High Potential Programs In Professional Service Firms, Charlene Robison

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined whether a mixed-cohort of billable and non-billable (e.g., marketing, human resources, accounting, technology) participants in a high-potential development program is beneficial to the organizations that utilize this development approach and to the participants in such programs. This research focused on professional service firms with time-defined and structured high-potential programs. This study utilized a mixed-method design and gathered data in two phases: a survey and a focus group. These methods were used to obtain participant sentiments of participating in their respective high-potential programs. Twenty-five high-potential professionals completed the survey and six participated in the focus group. The study …

Challenges For Hospital Leadership In Obtaining Urology And Otolaryngology Community Preceptors, Donna Orsatti

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Healthcare organizations are becoming more complex and medical education is constantly evolving in response to healthcare needs. These changes have an impact on community preceptors that supervise and train medical residents. Physicians willing to engage in community-based precepting are decreasing, thereby making it difficult for students to complete medical specializations. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the challenges healthcare leaders face when attempting to secure practicums or residencies in urology and otolaryngology. This case study used the Baldrige Excellence Framework as a lens to understand the organization’s functioning within the educational healthcare sector. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were …

Participant Reactions To A Leadership Development Program In A High Growth Firm: A Preliminary Study, Malika Begin

Theses and Dissertations

High growth firms (HGF), which report more than 20% annual growth for at least 3 consecutive years, have limited time and resources to support their success. Transformative leadership development interventions, which strive to create marked changes through shifting leaders’ ways of perceiving and operating, may be highly effective for rapidly expanding the firms’ leadership capacities. This study examined the perceived nature and impacts of a leadership development program that was intended to be transformative in one HGF.

All 10 leadership development trainees were interviewed about the effects of the program and the program features that contributed to those effects. Participants …

Facilitating Equitable Access And Retention For Underrepresented Students At The University Of Mary Washington, Michael K. Abelson, Alvin R. Bryant, Marra Hvozdovic

Doctor of Education Capstones

Higher education institutions are facing increasing pressure to find new ways to attract, retain, and graduate the diverse populations of college students. As a result, colleges and universities need to adapt to the changing demographics of students who benefit from more sustained and engaged forms of support that are responsive to their specific social, cultural, and economic backgrounds. This sequential mixed methods study seeks to understand the ways in which the University of Mary Washington serves its underrepresented students in order to develop strategies to enhance the recruitment and retention of Black, Hispanic/Latinx, low-income, and first-generation college students. Building on …

Change Readiness And The Mediating Role Of General-Dispositional Internal Structures, Genevieve Joy Clark

Theses and Dissertations

This case study offers insight toward the impact of the general-dispositional, internal structures on a planned organizational change in the field of education. The process used and the findings of this may be applicable to a variety of fields. Stones’ strong structuration (2005) served as the theoretical framework guiding this study, though Chater and Loewenstein’s (2016) model of sensemaking offers supplementary consideration.

The context for study was the shift to virtual learning because of the COVID-19 global pandemic and subsequent closure of schools beginning in March 2020. This empirical study examined agents-in-situ’s response to the change, including the structuring interactions …

In Re The Walt Disney Co. Derivative Litigation Rewritten, Hillary A. Sale

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In re The Walt Disney Co. Derivative Litigation is notable for upholding the broad latitude courts afford to boards through the business judgment rule. The case addressed a $130 million termination package delivered to former Disney CEO, Michael Ovitz, after fourteen months of underperformance at the company. This rewritten opinion, to be published in “Feminist Judgements: Rewritten Corporate Law,” (Kelli Alces Williams, Anne Choike, & Usha R. Rodrigues, eds.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, forthcoming 2022), follows the style of the Delaware Supreme Court and reaches the same outcome with a different approach. The opinion expounds on the corporate governance practices in …

Exploring The Leadership-As-Practice Of Middle Managers Engaged In Organizational Changes In An Asia Pacific Multinational Setting, Eric Kung

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

There has been a great need for leadership studies on middle management, particularly in the Asia Pacific context. This study explored the leadership practices of middle managers engaged in leading organizational changes of multinational corporations (MNCs), within the Asia Pacific context. Organization ethnography was used as the research method. The ethnographer observed and analyzed the actual practice of middle managers of a multinational manufacturing company located in China for six months. The findings showed that middle managers played significant roles in communication and execution in leading organizational changes. The study also showed that change management could be a dynamic process …

The Diffusion Of A Discipline: Examining Social Marketing's Institutionalization Within Environmental Contexts, Liz Foote

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

As a social change discipline, social marketing has demonstrated its effectiveness in addressing many types of wicked problems. However, despite its utility in environmental contexts, it is neither well known nor widespread in its uptake in these settings. This study’s purpose is to reveal opportunities to drive the adoption, implementation, and diffusion (“institutionalization”) of social marketing within the domains of environmental sustainability and natural resource conservation. This research considers the use of social marketing as an innovative practice within a diffusion of innovations framework and uses a systems lens to examine early adopter social marketing professionals and the institutional contexts …

Building The Plane While It’S Flying: Implementation Lessons From Integrating A Co-Located Exercise Clinic Into Oncology Care, Mary A. Kennedy, Sara Bayes, Robert U. Newton, Yvonne Zissiadis, Nigel A. Spry, Dennis R. Taaffe, Nicolas H. Hart, Daniel A. Galvão

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background:

Despite its therapeutic role during cancer treatment, exercise is not routinely integrated into care and implementation efforts are largely absent from the literature. The aim of this study was to evaluate a strategy to integrate the workflow of a co-located exercise clinic into routine care within a private oncology setting in two clinics in the metropolitan region of Western Australia.

Methods:

This prospective evaluation utilised a mixed methods approach to summarise lessons learned during the implementation of an integrated exercise workflow and supporting implementation plan. Data collection was informed by the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework. Reports …

God's Story, Our Story: Telling, Re-Telling, Re-Storying, Kara Carter

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Shifting trends within and beyond the walls of the church are reshaping Christianity in our present context. Many Christian denominations are in the midst of a paradigm shift as great as or greater than the 16th century Reformation. Because the way forward looks nothing like the path the church has journeyed, church leaders, theologians, and scholars recognize the need for innovative and adaptive leadership expertise to meet the opportunities and challenges of the present time. For more than two decades, Mennonite Church Canada congregations have been on a journey of development, learning, and growth, transitioning theologically and experientially to a …

Implementation Barriers To Integrating Exercise As Medicine In Oncology: An Ecological Scoping Review, Mary A. Kennedy, Sara Bayes, Robert U. Newton, Yvonne Zissiadis, Nigel Spry, Dennis Taaffe, Nicolas H. Hart, Daniel A. Galvao

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose

While calls have been made for exercise to become standard practice in oncology, barriers to implementation in real-world settings are not well described. This systematic scoping review aimed to comprehensively describe barriers impeding integration of exercise into routine oncology care within healthcare systems.

Methods

A systematic literature search was conducted across six electronic databases (since 2010) to identify barriers to implementing exercise into real-world settings. An ecological framework was used to classify barriers according to their respective level within the healthcare system.

Results

A total of 1,376 results were retrieved; 50 articles describing implementation barriers in real-world exercise oncology …

When Are The Bigger Fish In The Small Pond Better Citizens? A Multilevel Examination Of Relative Overqualification In Workgroups, Farid Jahantab, Prajya R. Vidyarthi, Smriti Anand, Berrin Erdogan

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, we extend overqualification research to employees' social context of workgroup membership. Drawing upon social comparison theory and integrating with social exchange theory, we contend that employees' relative overqualification (ROQ, defined as individual overqualification relative to other group members' overqualification perceptions) is associated with their relative standing with their leader (measured as LMXSC, leader–member exchange social comparison), which in turn relates to employees' organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). Furthermore, we assert that workgroup structural attributes and individual values (leader span of control and power distance orientation) influence the ROQ–LMXSC–OCB relationship. Multilevel modeling using data from 243 employees nested in …

Supporting Effective School Board Governance, Dwayne Michael Zarichny

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Abstract

The contextual landscape for superintendents in Alberta is changing. Managing the board was once the main responsibility of the superintendent. With the implementation of the superintendent leadership quality standard, superintendents are now expected to demonstrate a number of competencies as part of their role. One major competency is supporting effective governance practices of the board they serve. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses the Problem of Practice (PoP) focused on building superintendent and trustee efficacy in moving towards more effective governance practices. The objective of this OIP is to introduce a new approach to governing which will result in …

Leveraging Centers For Teaching And Learning In Accreditation Review And Quality Assurance Processes, David Sacks, Patty Payette, Donna Ellis, Cassandra Volpe Horii

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Accreditation and quality assurance are high stakes processes that require wide-ranging input through self and peer review, with the goal of ensuring a high-quality education for students. This essay, part of the POD Speaks series, advises senior academic leaders to involve campus-based educational developers due to their unique expertise in working with faculty, assessing and improving curricula, and guiding organizational change.

Systems Thinking: The Organisation As A Living System, Kate Mills

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Systems thinking is a paradigm that challenges the dominant paradigm of linear, or mechanistic thinking. It is a paradigm based on the perspective that everything in a system is inter-connected and interrelated and that the interplay of components in the system creates an emergent quality with its own behaviour and characteristics. Systems thinking as such is suited to be used for analysis of organisations, as organisations can be seen as a system where the interplay of its components create emergent qualities such as the culture of the organisation. Within systems thinking there are living and non-living systems. Living systems, such …

Pernet Family Health Service, Inc.: Organizational Restructuring & Change Management Best Practices, Carly Massino

School of Professional Studies

Research exhibits that between 70-75% of change initiatives fail and a major contributor to this trend is employee resistance. Although change can bring exciting growth and innovation, it can cause employees heightened stress and worsened physical and mental health outcomes. These effects are often amplified when organizations enact multiple change initiatives at once. These worsened outcomes are often a result of feelings of distress, anxiety, powerlessness, and apprehension and unknowns such as how one’s position will be affected, how operations will change, or how one fits into the change. This topic is incredibly relevant for Pernet Family Health Service, Inc., …

The Weight Of Scope, Pace, And Practices Of Organizational Change During Evaluations Of Acceptance Of Organizational Change, Lewis Schneider

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Understanding organizational change and the factors associated with it has become paramount as organizations face an increased need to adapt to stay competitive. Because of this necessity of organizational change, employee acceptance of this change is even more important to garner than ever before. The negative effects of organizational change, however, make this task difficult to accomplish. Although the literature points to scope of change, pace of change, and organizational practices as factors that can affect acceptance of organizational change, until this study, it was unknown which of these variables held the most weight in affecting attitudes towards change. In …

From Product Centricity To Services: Design Workshops And Maps As Tools In Strategy Articulation, Olivia Harre, Lene Nielsen

ServDes Conference Series

This paper explores how an IT company wants to change from product- centricity to servitization. A cross-functional customer journey workshop mapped the current state from the customer’s point of view, and by identifying opportunities, it identifies gaps in becoming a service organization. Activities in the workshop focused on mapping a current customer journey and a proposition of a customer journey. The case explores how a service design workshop and tools can be used in strategic work, to support and facilitate a discussion on changes needed to be customer-centric, going beyond technology and features. The workshop and maps proved useful in …

Family And Consumer Sciences Extension Agent Receptiveness To Innovative Caregiving Programming, Kristopher M. Struckmeyer, Gina Peek, Paula J. Tripp, Alex J. Bishop, Sarah R. Gordon

Journal of Extension

Communities can adapt to residents' needs through innovative citizen-led initiatives. Extension can facilitate these innovation initiatives, but are Extension agents always receptive to such change? We conducted a study to examine the association between organizational change and personal factors and Extension family and consumer sciences agents' innovativeness regarding caregiving programming. Respondents rated their receptiveness to change and answered questions regarding psychosocial health factors. We found that years in current position, leadership self-efficacy, interoffice support, and social support were significant predictors of innovativeness. Results suggest that personal factors rather than organizational change factors may be the more crucial mechanisms for driving …

An Interrupted Times Series Of The Personnel Security Section's Method To Address The Periodic Reinvestigation Case Backlog, Lathaniel F. Mills

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem of periodic reinvestigation case backlogs faced by the personnel security section of the Transportation Security Administration was explored in this study. Specifically, a quantitative, quasi-experimental, interrupted time series methodology was employed to examine the effectiveness of the periodic reinvestigation team creation by the personnel security section to mitigate the case backlog. The administrative study was needed because the case backlog prevents the organization from following government guidance on periodic reinvestigation case processing. Organizational change theory was the conceptual framework that guided this study. Data gathered from the Integrated Security Management System helped answer the central research question regarding …

Equity, Social Justice, And Ethical Responsibility In Higher Education: Voices Of Business Students At A Pervasivley Sectarian University, Van Brooks Poole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This proposed study explores the perceptions and experiences of business students who attend a pervasively sectarian university in the South (MPSU) regarding their perceptions of equity, social justice, and ethical responsibility through their experiences on campus and in their academic program. This study will discuss socio-political influences at the national, state, and local levels and examine existing university policies and practices to identify recommendations for organizational change using Lewin’s unfreezing model as a theoretical framework.

Employee Perceptions Related To Specific Work Processes Within The Crime Control Model Known As The Stratified Model, Robert William Steinkraus

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure employee perceptions of satisfaction as they relate to specific work processes and products within the Stratified Model. The Stratified Model is a crime-reduction model that was developed and gradually implemented first within the Port St. Lucie Police Department between 2004-2011. The full implementation of this crime-reduction model occurred in 2012. The Port St. Lucie Police department has since achieved greater reductions of the overall crime rate than other cities in Florida consisting of similar populations. In 2019, Port St. Lucie had the 7th largest population in Florida.

Currently, it is unknown how …

A Case Study On The Medical Library Association’S 2019 Communities Transition Qualitative Data Set, Kathryn M. Houk, Kelsa Bartley, Jane Morgan-Daniel, Elaina Vitale

Library Faculty Datasets

In 2019, the Medical Library Association (MLA) adopted a new model of community governance and participation, referred to as the MLA Communities Transition. The Communities Transition was the culmination of long-ranging plans by MLA to support two of its strategic goals: Diversity and Inclusion, and Communities. The reorganization aimed to strengthen MLA member communities, better support programming, reduce administrative overhead, and attract new members. The 2019 - 2020 MLA Rising Stars cohort was tasked to study the Communities Transition and identify lessons that might be applicable to any major future change proposed for the organization.

A qualitative study was designed …

Intelligence Artificielle En Santé Et Sst, Marie Comeau

États de la question, rapports d’expertise et revues de littérature

L’intelligence artificielle (IA) est au cœur de nombreux débats et fait des progrès spectaculaires depuis quelques années. Plusieurs auteurs s’entendent sur le fait que l’IA participera à la transformation des milieux de travail :

• les gains économiques potentiels sont souvent évoqués et principalement en lien avec l’augmentation de la productivité;
• la création de nouveaux métiers liés au développement de l’IA, la transformation ou l’élimination de certains métiers;
• des transformations des conditions de travail sont anticipées, comme l’automatisation de tâches routinières et l’attribution de tâches complexes aux travailleurs.

Conséquemment, l’IA présente autant des avantages que des défis pour le monde du …

Perceived Effects Of Power Distance On Organizational Change In A Multicultural Organization, Magdaline Nkando

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational change researchers have reported an accelerated rate of change in modern organizations, with as many as 70% of them reportedly failing to deliver expected results. Change management scholars and practitioners have yet to reach consensus on the main contributors to this high rate of failure, despite having evaluated a variety of organizational change success factors. The purpose of this qualitative single case study of a multinational financial organization was to explore the concept of power distance with an aim to increase understanding and general awareness of its perceived effects on the process of an organizational change in a global …

Industrie 4.0 Dans Le Secteur Manufacturier, Marie Comeau

États de la question, rapports d’expertise et revues de littérature

La 4^e révolution industrielle modifiera considérablement le monde du travail. Ces transformations ont déjà débuté et sont plus rapides que lors des dernières révolutions industrielles.

L’épidémie de la COVID-19 ravive les discussions autour de l’automatisation intelligente des industries. Pendant des mesures de distanciation physique, l’industrie 4.0 pourrait participer à la réduction des risques de contamination au travail par la réduction du nombre de salariés requis en présentiel et la possibilité de faire fonctionner les chaînes de production à distance.

Pour soutenir ces réflexions, ce rapport de veille produit en 2018 a été mis à jour. Il présente l’industrie 4.0, …

Inhabited Ecosystems: Propelling Transformative Social Change Between And Through Organizations, Rich Dejordy, Maureen Scully, Marc J. Ventresca, W. E.Douglas Creed

College of Business Faculty Publications

Two research streams examine how social movements operate both “in and around” organizations. We probe the empirical spaces between these streams, asking how activism situated in multi-organizational contexts contributes to transformative social change. By exploring activities in the mid-1990s related to advocacy for domestic partner benefits at 24 organizations in Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota, we develop the concept of inhabited ecosystems to explore the relational processes by which employee activists advance change. These activists faced a variety of structural opportunities and restraints, and we identify five mechanisms that sustained their efforts during protracted contestation: learning even from thwarted activism, borrowing from …