Business Commons^™

Personal Reflections From A Grassroots Peacebuilding Journey, Mark Clark

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article presents the author’s personal reflections from experiences over the past thirty years, working at the intersection of leadership development, complexity, and conflict: a journey from corporate law, the British Army, and armed conflict, through the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the US-led coalition’s intervention in Iraq, emergency humanitarian response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and violence reduction and post-conflict reconciliation in Papua New Guinea, to a Jordan-based international peacebuilding organization that supports grassroots peacebuilding efforts in fifty-two countries, and finally a return home to Scotland. It is a journey of naïveté, hubris, curiosity, and an …

The Yin And Yang Of Equity-Centered Philanthropy, Douglas Easterling, Laura Mcduffee, Sabina Gesell

The Foundation Review

Foundations face two competing imperatives when they commit to advancing equity. On the one hand, they are counseled to support and follow the lead of community-based groups that are on the front lines of social change. On the other hand, they are also being challenged to use their power and influence to act boldly to change inequitable structures, policies, and institutions. These two orientations, yin and yang, can take a foundation in different directions and thus cause confusion and internal conflict.

The challenge for a foundation is to balance and integrate the two orientations into a comprehensive and effective approach …

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., …

A Case Study Of Participant Responses To Organizational Change Involving Technology In The National Security Domain: How Informal Processes Iterate Structure And Outcomes, Brian E. Martinez

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Nuanced differences between organizations and the pace of change within the national security domain have routinely produced equivocal results involving information and communication technology (ICT) development. These results are characterized by unpredictable costs, unrealistic delivery schedules, and dubious ICT performance in-use. This research is a case study exploration of organizational change involving technology (also referred to as ICT) in the national security domain of the public sector.

This research used machine learning and manual content analysis to compare the results of three experiments on interview transcripts. The first experiment investigated linkages between empirical and interpretive elements of organizational change. Empirical …

Evaluating A Chaplain Corps Change Initiative: Examining The Relationship Between Change Beliefs And Job Satisfaction, Steven Thomas Sill

Theses & Dissertations

The Air Force Chaplain Corps is experiencing a period of rapid change that challenges traditional approaches to providing ministry for Air Force personnel. The need for an effective chaplaincy has never been greater; the Air Force’s critical manning shortages and worldwide duty requirements are adding stress and uncertainty to the lives of Airmen (Losey, 2015). To better support these Airmen the Chief of Chaplains directed a change initiative aimed at increasing the effectiveness of unit-based ministry, including aggressive goals for the amount of time spent in direct unit engagement. This study utilized a survey to explore beliefs of Chaplain Corps …

Downsizing The United States Air Force Security Forces: A Phenomenological Investigation, Winell De Mesa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States Air Force (USAF) has downsized an average of 10,000 active duty personnel each year from 1990 to 2010. Despite this downsizing, the mission remains the same, which increases the workload on the remaining airmen, lowers morale, decreases specialization, changes the mindset/culture, accelerates promotion rates, and shifts the dependence on technology in the Security Forces career field. The USAF needs adequately sized and proficient members to meet its mission. This phenomenological study examined the effects of USAF downsizing on the USAF Security Forces career field. The great man theory, social learning theory, theory of expertise, and Maslow's hierarchy …

Paying Attention To White Culture And Privilege: A Missing Link To Advancing Racial Equity, Gita Gulati-Partee, Maggie Potapchuk

The Foundation Review

· Racial disparities are driven and maintained by public- and private-sector policies that not only disadvantage communities of color but also over-advantage whites. Foundation processes aimed at racial equity change often overlook the privileged side of inequity.

· Through our experience as racial equity practitioners, we have encountered at least three challenges to engaging foundations in exploring white privilege and white culture in their internal and external racial equity work.

· For foundations to work toward racial equity through their philanthropic investments and leadership, they must shine a light on white privilege and white culture both internally and externally.

· …

Helping Government Agencies Become More Effective And Efficient: Discovering ‘Catalytic Combinations’ In Public Child Welfare Reform, Dara Menashi, Christopher Behan, Kathleen Noonan

The Foundation Review

· This article describes work of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Casey Strategic Consulting Group (CSCG), a 10-year, multistate initiative that embeds outside experts – both public-system and traditional management consulting – in child and family services systems to improve system performance and outcomes.

· The article describes five types of levers that were influenced in different combinations to promote change in different state systems. We call these “catalytic combinations.”

· In numerous states, including Maine, Louisiana, Virginia, and Indiana, the CSCG initiative produced measurable improvements in key performance areas, including shortening stays in foster care, improving rates of permanent …

Organizational Change Theory And The Factors For Sustaining Change: A Case Study Of Three Public Sector Organizations Winners Of The Virginia Award For Continuing Excellence, Mary Redd-Clay

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors associated with organizational change and with sustaining change in public sector organizations recognized for their change efforts as recipients of the Virginia Award for Continuing Excellence.

This was a case study of three public sector organizations, located in and around urban settings in the state of Virginia. They include Air Combat Command located in Hampton; Hanover County Public Schools located outside Richmond; and Norfolk Naval Shipyard located in Portsmouth. Each of these organizations is notable as winners of the Virginia Senate Productivity and Quality Award for both the Medallion and …