Business Commons^™

Dispersed Leadership, Power And Change: An Empirical Study Using A Critical Management Framework, Ray Gordon

Ray Gordon

Using a critical management framework I provide a genealogical account of a police organization's attempt to implement what senior officers in its behavioural change division described as a dispersed leadership (Bryman, 1996; Gordon, 2002) strategy. I describe the organization and provide a detailed account of the dynamics that emerge as groups and individuals who historically held positions of power found themselves reporting to one of many designated leaders. The account depicts how the organization's dispersion of leadership, while on the surface represents a new and successful endeavour, is rendered problematic by the organization's historical constitution of power.

An Ethnographic Account Of Leadership, Power And Change, Ray Gordon

Ray Gordon

The paper provides a genealogical account of a police organization’s attempt to implement what senior officers in its behavioural change division described as a dispersed leadership (Bryman, 1996; Gordon, 2002) strategy. I describe the organization and provide a detailed account of the dynamics that emerge as groups and individuals who historically held positions of power found themselves reporting to one of many designated leaders. The account depicts how the organization’s dispersion of leadership, while on the surface represents a new and successful endeavour, is rendered problematic by the organization’s historical constitution of power.

Dispersed Leadership: Exploring The Impact Of Antecedent Forms Of Power Using A Communicative Framework, Ray Gordon

Ray Gordon

This article presents an account of a police organization's attempt to implement what senior officers described as a dispersed leadership initiative. A communicative framework is used to show how a particular historically constituted discourse is embedded in the communicative actions of those officers who participated in the study. Analysis of the effects of this discourse reveals how the organization's dispersion of leadership, although on the surface representing a new and successful endeavor, is rendered problematic by what the article terms antecedent forms of power.

Leading Large-Scale Social Change: Women And Higher Education In Utah, Susan R. Madsen, Cheryl Hanewicz, Doug Gardner

Susan R. Madsen

One of the most challenging types of leadership today involves influencing societies toward social change. The purpose of this session is to present the details of one complex, large-scale project created to lead efforts within Utah to understand and then motivate more young women to attend and graduate from college.

Managing Organizational Change: Leadership, Tesco, And Leahy's Resignatio, Uzoechi Nwagbara

Dr Uzoechi Nwagbara

The central issues here are the consequences and the impacts of the announcement of the resignation of Sir Terry Leahy, the CEO of Tesco, from the organisation in March 2011. The announcement on the 8 th of June 2010 that Leahy, Tesco’s chief executive officer and one of Britain’s most respected businessmen, would be retiring after transforming the organisation into the world’s third biggest retailer, has generated a groundswell of reactions. The impact of this change, as well as how to manage the change resulting from his resignation is part of the concern of this report. Another concern of this …

Book Review 6 Stop Whining, Start Living By Laura Schlessinger, William C. Mcpeck

William C. McPeck

This is my personal review of Stop Whining, Start Living by Laura Schlessinger and published by Harper in 2008.

Preparing Faculty And Staff For Change, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

It appears that our most pressing challenges in higher education require individual, departmental, and institutional change initiatives and interventions. Yet, institutional administrators, faculty, and staff, as well as business leaders, legislators, and community members often complain (and sometimes joke) about the insurmountable odds of successfully implementing and maintaining change of any type in higher education. In fact, administrators and staff often blame faculty and legislators for change problems; while faculty members pretty much blame everyone but themselves (I am a faculty member so I can get away with saying this!). However, as many would agree, dwelling on whomever or whatever …

Readiness For Change: Implications On Employees' Relationship With Management, Job Knowledge And Skills, And Job Demands, Duane Miller, Susan R. Madsen, Cameron John

Susan R. Madsen

This article addresses how employees' readiness/willingness to change is influenced by three workplace factors-management/leader relationship, job knowledge and skills, and job demands. Statistical analyses were completed based on a two-part survey given to 464 employees from four companies. The research findings indicated that all three of these workplace factors had an influence on employees' readiness for change. But employees' relationship with their managers was the strongest predictor of readiness for change. This paper reports the results of a new study that used Hanpachern's framework but made extensive changes in the test instrument, sample size, and other methodology techniques to increase …

Work-Family Conflict And Health: A Study Of The Workplace, Psychological, And Behavioral Correlates, Susan R. Madsen, Cameron John, Duane Miller

Susan R. Madsen

Quantitative methods are used to shed light on the relationships among work-family conflict, health, and other workplace, psychological, and behavioral constructs, i.e., organizational commitment, management/leadership relations, job knowledge and skills, job demands, workplace social relations, and readiness for change. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data regarding the perceptions of 464 employees in four organizations. Negative correlations were found between work-family conflict and all variables except job knowledge and skills. Significant relationships were also discovered between health and all study variables. Multiple regressions were used to explore the relationships between the demographic variables and work-family conflict and health.

Readiness For Organizational Change, Susan R. Madsen, Duane Miller, Cameron John

Susan R. Madsen

Today’s businesses are confronting continuous and unparalleled changes. For organizations to assist employees in being motivated and prepared for change, it is essential that managers, leaders, and organization development professionals understand factors that may influence individual change readiness. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the relationship between readiness for change and two of these possible factors: organizational commitment and social relationships in the workplace. Four hundred and sixty-four usable surveys were returned from full-time employees in four companies within two northern Utah counties. The findings indicate that there are significant relationships between readiness for change, organizational commitment, …

A Conversation With John H. Zenger: Leadership And Change, Susan R. Madsen, Janice Gygi

Susan R. Madsen

In an interview, John H. Zenger, CEO of Zenger-Folkman, talked about leadership and change setting. He discussed the background of organizational development (OD), his early and continued involvement in the field, specific OD interests and passions, and the link between OD and leadership. He described his work and presented a model of leadership that was illustrated as a tent with five poles representing the competencies that separate extraordinary leaders from others. In addition, he stressed the importance of results as well as attributes. He also emphasized the value of change in an organization and said that extraordinary leaders must not …

The Relationships Between An Individual's Margin In Life And Readiness For Change, Susan R. Madsen, Duane Miller, Cameron John, Emily Warren

Susan R. Madsen

Effectively managing change is one of the most critical challenges organizations today face. Increasing the readiness for change (RFC) of employees may be one of the most important interventions an organization can initiate. This study investigated the relationship of employee RFC and margin in life (MIL). It studied the relationship of various demographics to employees' MIL. Results suggest there is a significant correlation between MIL and RFC, age, educational level, and length of employment.

An Evaluation Of The Transtheoretical Model Of Individual Change And Its Implications For Human Resource Development, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

Change is the basis for improving and expanding individual, group, and organizational effectiveness, performance, and learning. However, HRD has utilized and developed few empirically validated individual change models or theories. Because HRD is a multidisciplinary in nature, it is important for researchers and practitioners to consider what models or theories others have to offer. One influential model from the health and medical field that has promising utility in HRD is the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of individual change. The purpose of this article is to introduce this model and explore its application to HRD. This article uses Dubin’s criteria for theory-building …

Ready To Change? Social Networks And Sustainable Organizations, Scott C. Hammond, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

Sustained work life is a property of an organization and not a single individual or profession. Traditional organizational theory has focused change models for individuals or organizations, not on the organizational continuum. Change is a property of the organizational continuum. Our project is to redefining change theory for the organizational continuum and direct theory towards a more sustainable view of change.

Theology For The Beach, Vaughan S. Roberts

Vaughan S Roberts

The Sea Of Faith: After Dover Beach?, Vaughan S. Roberts

Vaughan S Roberts