Business Commons^™

Innovation Culture Assessment: An Exploratory Diagnosis Of A Taiwanese Manufacturing Company, Yong Keong Tay

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The purpose of this research study is to better understand how manufacturing firms in Asia are trying to make innovation work and the challenges they are facing in creating and capturing new value. Based on a real-life case study of a medium-sized OEM lock manufacturer in Taiwan (“3ST”), the study sheds light on key building blocks of a robust corporate innovation culture with focus on ‘Values’, ‘Behaviours’, ‘Climate’, ‘Resources’, ‘Processes’, and ‘Success’, using a valid and reliable diagnostic innovation culture framework developed by Rao & Weintraub (2013).

Besides the identification of critical gaps in 3ST’s innovation culture based on Rao …

From Me To We: A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Group Beingness, Stacey K. Guenther

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

To be human is to be a member of myriad groups. The universality of groups in our lives poses an important area of study for social scientists investigating human flourishing. Additionally, inquiring into the evolutionary potential of groups may begin to inform new ways of addressing the intractable issues we face as a human species. While most empirical studies of groups focus on group performance, or group doingness, this study explored group beingness and the experience of manifesting deep union and oneness, which is an intersubjective phenomenon that has been called coherence. Intersubjective coherence is often written about from a …

How Should Bosses Lead? New Revelations From Frontline Managers, Bonnie A. Curtis

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Strategic business change in the 21st century has been fraught with issues, resulting in failure for more than half of all attempted efforts to transform companies. Frontline managers (FLMs) are key to successful corporate change, transforming a company’s direction into action and results and the COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique business challenge for every Consumer Products Group (CPG) company and FLM by interrupting supply chains. The aim of this grounded theory study was to create theory by conducting open-ended interviews with 20 frontline managers to determine how they viewed themselves and their roles, teams, and bosses during change. Results …

Successful Leadership Through Rapid, Unplanned Change, Robert "Darin" Grimm

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The studies of leadership and leadership models are voluminous, as is the work onchange within organizations. While scores of information can be found on each of these topics, the combination of the two is less ubiquitous. The grouping of specific leadership models related to corporate changes, be it structural or operational, provides an opportunity for new knowledge. Notably, the literature is scant when the added variable of rapid unplanned change is included in the combination of leadership and change. This study sought to better understand the impact of specific leadership behaviors and the impact on an organization during rapid, unplanned …

Exploring The Perceptions Of Leaders In Investor-Owned Utilities In California On Managing Organizational Change Initiatives, Maria Liza Legaspi

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study employing in-depth interviews was to identify the strategies and practices executive leaders and midlevel managers of investor-owned utilities (IOUs) perceive are effective in creating employee acceptance and support of organizational change and to identify the supports and barriers executive leaders and midlevel managers perceive as affecting employee acceptance or resistance to organizational change in IOUs.

Methodology: A qualitative research design enabled the capture of deeper thoughts and insights of executive leaders and midlevel managers of 4 IOUs in California. The study delved into the strategies and practices used by IOUs that are perceived …

The Trust Decoder™: An Examination Of An Individual's Developmental Readiness To Trust In The Workplace, Molly Breysse Cox

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This research explores an individual's self-perception of their own ability, motivation, and propensity to trust others for the purpose of validating a new construct: developmental readiness to trust others in the workplace. This construct expands research on developmental readiness to change and to lead by building a scale to measure an individual's motivation and ability to trust others in the workplace. A previously validated scale developed by Frazier, Johnson, and Fainshmidt 2013 measuring propensity to trust was included the scale building process. All items measuring motivation to trust were newly developed for this study, items measuring trust ability were adapted …

Training Program Effectiveness In Building Workforce Agility And Resilience, Olya Taran

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Decades of qualitative case studies suggest that organizations must be able to deal with change effectively to compete and survive. Many researchers have linked higher workforce levels of agility and resilience to organizations' abilities to deal with change more successfully; however, there is a scarcity of empirical research addressing the efficacy of agility and resilience development in the workplace. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively examine the development of workforce resilience and agility, as measured by FIT for Change assessment. The theory of planned behavior was the study's theoretical framework, theorizing that changing attitudes and beliefs about change …

Inclusive Leadership's Evolving Context: Organizational Climate And Culture Connect, Maria E. Dezenberg

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Conventional forms of leadership that are prominent in organizational life today are seemingly antithetical to the landscape of our dynamic, global society. The continued focus on traditional hierarchies with leadership that functions in a “chain of command” manner begs the question of how organizations can reshape routines and relationships to reflect processes of inclusion and collaboration that have the capability of provoking progressive change in organizations. Diversity and Inclusion scholars have identified the newer construct of inclusive leadership as apt to advance climates and cultures of inclusion through social processes that encourage inclusive practices and behaviors. These fluid aspects of …

Exploring The Influence Of Context On Resistance To Organizational Change Within A Virtual Faculty Workforce, David Starnes Starnes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Managers must know how to operationalize change, as well as manage the attitudes and emotions associated with transforming the organization. Managing the culture involved with organizational change is a challenge in any environment, and perhaps even more so when managing a virtual workforce. The problem addressed in this study was that while there is considerable research on organizational change, there is little research concerning the influence of trust in leadership, frequency of change, and history of change on virtual faculty resistance to change in higher education. As a result, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding regarding how context …

Change As A Catalyst Leading To Corporate Social Innovation: Reflections On The Canadian Society’S Efforts To Promote Csi, Zeinab Shawky Younis

Business Administration

The only constant fact of life is change; whether leaders accept it or not, organizations practice it or not it is there. It will be always a transition that any institution passes through during its process of development. The paradigm shift of management and the rise of new concepts and directions in its processes and practices acted as a catalyst of change during our century. This transition from one state to the other or what we call “Change” due to internal as well as external factors and complexities of our Management environment acted by its turn as a catalyst boosting …

Acceptance Of Change: Exploring The Relationship Among Psychometric Constructs And Employee Resistance, Brian Dunican

Dissertations

Change is inevitable and can influence numerous events inside and outside an organization. The contrasting attitudes of acceptance and resistance to change are an increasingly interesting topic in today’s global, ever-changing, and competitive environment. Discovering the behavioral origins of employees’ reactions to change is an integral part of understanding the way in which individual mindset may play a role in coping with organizational change and resistance. This body of knowledge may give organizations insight for creating a competitive advantage over their counterparts. Conceivably, it can be argued that some researchers view change as a process of gradual adaptation that is …

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.

Change Required: Chinese Businesses In Singapore, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Today, Chinese businesses play an important role in Singapore’s economy. They make up 99.3 per cent of all small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and employ 51 per cent of workers in the country, contributing 40 per cent of value add to the economy. However, the world economy has become more competitive and Chinese businesses in Singapore have been forced to look at modernizing and changing the way they do business.

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.

The Leadership Of Sustainable Cities: A Multiple-Case Study Of Two Oregon Cities, Kenneth L. Weaver

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

In order for cities to become more sustainable it is necessary for the leaders of the efforts to change the organizations and governments so that they understand and embrace what it means to be more sustainable. This study examined the change processes of two Oregon Cities, Corvallis and Eugene, that had made the choice to become more sustainable as a community. The approaches that the participant leaders used demonstrated the use of different ways of thinking about the leadership of change. The ways of thinking of the community leaders were formed by their unique personal backgrounds, knowledge, skills, and abilities. …

Trust Development In Distributed Teams: A Latent Change Score Model, Evgeniya Pavlova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Advances in collaborative work tools and communication technologies have made computer-mediated teams a part of virtually every organization. One of the challenges for members of virtual teams is the development of trust. This study examined the reciprocal relationship between trust and effectiveness in virtual teams, employing an input-process-output-input approach. Data were collected from 183 individuals comprising 61 teams. Teams participated in a computer-simulated search and rescue mission. Three alternative latent change score structural equation models were fit to the data to examine the bidirectional relationships between trust and effectiveness. Results revealed that the two

factors of trust, cognition-based trust and …

Facilitating Emergence: Complex, Adaptive Systems Theory And The Shape Of Change, Peter Martin Dickens

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This study used Principal Component Analysis to examine factors that facilitate emergent change in an organization. As organizational life becomes more complex, today’s dominant management paradigms no longer suffice. This is particularly true in a health care setting where multiple sources of disease interacting with each other meet with often-competing organizational priorities and accountabilities in a highly complex world. This study identifies new ways of approaching complexity by embracing the capacity of complex systems to find their own form of order and coherence. Based on a review of the literature, interviews with hospital CEOs, and my organization development practice experience …

Measuring Entrepreneurship In The Academic Heartland, Jonathan Gagliardi

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT

Role Of Foundations In The Changing World Of Philanthropy: A Houston Perspective, Ronnie Hagerty

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

From the earliest days of the American nation, philanthropy has had a defining role in leading change. Philanthropy has provided vision and voice for nascent social movements ranging from civil rights and the women’s movement to AIDS research and environmentalism. As the 21st century has moved into its second decade, philanthropy finds itself facing significant pressures that threaten to compromise its ability to innovate and advocate for issues and individuals whose voices cannot be heard over the public rhetoric of the day. Once perceived as the purview of the rich and well connected, modern philanthropy cuts across social, economic, and …

Museums, Leadership, And Transfer: An Inquiry Into Organizational Supports For Learning Leadership, Julie I. Johnson

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Given the rapid changes that 21st century museums must manage, flexible thinking about leadership forms and purposes is needed. Today's complex leadership landscape necessitates that staff engage in enacting leadership with positional leaders. Limited empirical literature exists that describes how the next generation of museum leaders is being nurtured and developed. The purpose of this study was to: describe museum professionals' perceptions of leadership practices; investigate museums as sites of organizational and leadership learning; and consider the experiences of museum professionals who have participated in leader development programs. The study involved an on-line survey with 310 professionals working in U.S. …

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.

The Importance Of Leadership And Culture In Mergers, Aravind Swaminathan

CMC Senior Theses

The purpose of this paper is to show how leadership and culture are critical factors in organizational change. The vehicle through which this point is proved is by

analyzing the organizational change processes of mergers, as mergers involve

leadership and culture. Successful mergers are very rare, and it is hypothesized

that not enough attention is paid to leadership and culture during mergers. This

paper analyzes many of the factors that related to leadership and culture, such as

transparency, trust, communication, and vision. Not only does this paper analyze

these topics, but it also examines and applies a successful change strategy, …

Climatequal® And Thinklets: Using Climatequal® With Thinklets To Facilitate Discussion And Set Priorities For Organizational Change At Criss Library, Audrey Defrank, Nora Hillyer

Criss Library Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Criss Library conducted the ClimateQUAL survey during the 2009 fall semester. The library had been experiencing numerous changes due to a three year library renovation, several personnel resignations and library reorganizations. There was an over-riding perception of mistrust, fear and uncertainty that needed to be addressed. Our first step in addressing the negative perceptions was to run the ClimateQUAL survey to gather statistics for a better understanding of staff perceptions. Our next step was to report on the ClimateQUAL data to the library staff and start discussions on goals and solutions for addressing the organization climate. The third step was …

Doing More With Less At Ariens: A Leadership And Transformation Case Study, Jennifer K. Hartwell, George Roth

Organization Management Journal

Ariens is a family-owned manufacturer of lawn and snow equipment that designs, manufactures, sells, distributes, and supports its products in the United States, and more recently, internationally. Ariens faced and overcame a number of difficult challenges over the last decade by adopting and sustaining lean production principles throughout the organization, as well as with its suppliers and customers. This case study describes earlier business challenges, the changes that were made, how they were led, and the response of the workforce. The case study focuses on the period from 1998 to 2005, and a post-script updates what has happened up through …

Strategic Transformation Process: Toward Purpose, People, Process And Power, Elizabeth B. Davis, James Kee, Kathryn Newcomer

Organization Management Journal

Across the world, public and non-profit sector leaders face an extremely turbulent socio-political-economic environment. This environment creates additional risks and uncertainties for organizations and may hinder a leader’s ability to act strategically. Addressing these complex, constantly evolving conditions requires leaders to develop processes that involve the organization’s stakeholders and that create organizational conditions for self-generation, creativity, resilience and action planning. In this paper we provide an organizational-level, integrative framework for the strategic transformation of public and non-profit organizations to assist leaders who are committed to effective stewardship of their organizations. The Strategic Transformation Process involves an intense dialogue among organizational …

Edge Leadership: Using Senior Leadership Perceptions To Explore Organizational Turnarounds, Lynn William Olsen

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

The researcher developed the concept of an edge leader—that is, one who can mindfully turn around a troubled business to sustain it for the future. In an increasingly turbulent and competitive climate, more edge leaders must be developed to sustain their organizations for the benefit of shareholders, employees, communities, and society. The researcher's review of the classic and contemporary leadership and change literatures suggested that four elements are necessary to develop leaders capable of leading even basic beneficial change. They include: having broad, successful experience; being emotionally and socially aware; having the ability to think differently about priorities and paradoxes …

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 …