Business Commons^™

The Impact Of Leadership Turnover On Child Welfare Workforce Initiatives, Courtney Harrison, Megan Paul

QIC-Takes

Turnover among public child welfare leaders is prevalent. Across the eight QIC-WD intervention sites, leadership turnover was one of the most common implementation challenges observed by the QIC-WD team. Leadership changes can disrupt the implementation of a workforce initiative by shifting agency-level priorities, the organizational climate, or key staff.

Child welfare leaders may be appointed or hired in many different ways in different jurisdictions. In some states, the Governor appoints a cabinet-level child welfare director who oversees a stand-alone agency. This means that child welfare leadership changes follow the political election cycle with new governors appointing new agency leaders every …

Transformational Leadership, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is transformational leadership? Transformational leadership refers to leadership behaviors that transcend the basic employment contract and help motivate followers to achieve beyond expectations (Antonakis et al., 2003; Bass, 1999). Transformational leaders seek to “uplift the morale, motivation, and morals of their followers” (Bass, 1999, p. 9). Through the four facets of transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration), transformational leaders help followers create meaning, selfactualize, feel part of a collective, find greater self-worth, and achieve great things (Bass, 1999). The dimensions of transformational leadership are further detailed below. ► Idealized influence: This dimension of transformational …

Improving The Child Welfare Workforce Through Training: Common Questions And Evidence-Informed Answers From The Qic-Wd, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

QIC-Tips

Training is often the first intervention child welfare agencies use to address critical workforce development issues. This QIC-Tip aims to answer child welfare agency leaders’ questions about effective training strategies to increase knowledge, enhance skills, and improve job performance. Answers are drawn from the QIC-WD Umbrella Summaries which present a synopsis of the published meta-analyses of specific workforce topics.

What broad-based training approaches can improve employee learning outcomes and job performance?

Coaching uses a structured learning process, over time, to help the learner reach specific goals. Meta-analytic research on the use of professional coaches (not managers or experienced coworkers) …

Leadership Training, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is leadership training? Leadership training is a broad term with no universal definition. For the purposes of this review, it refers to “programs that have been systematically designed to enhance leader knowledge, skills, abilities, and other components” and it includes “all forms of leader, managerial, and supervisory training/development programs and/or workshops” (Lacerenza et al., 2017, p. 1687). As with all training, leadership training can vary in many ways. Below are some of the more common aspects that have been empirically evaluated:  Needs analysis: whether a systematic process was used to identify training needs and design the training accordingly …

Leadership Challenges Facing The Uae Academic Libraries During Covid-19: A Dyadic Perspective, Sophia Johnson, Rajasekhara Potluri

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Purpose – The purpose of the research is to explore library patrons' and leaders' perspectives regarding the key challenges facing during COVID-19 and issues to be addressed in managing libraries in the UAE.

Design/methodology/approach– The researchers collected 300 patrons' and 50 library leaders' opinions by administering two types of questionnaires that tested its reliability and validity by implementing Cronbach Alpha and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) tests. The collected data were analyzed using the R language in R Studio Software. The selected hypotheses were tested by employing the Kruskal-Wallis (K-W) hypotheses technique.

Findings – The researchers identified innumerable challenges the library leaders …

Metacritiques Of Upper Echelons Theory: Verdicts And Recommendations For Future Research, Brett H. Neely Jr., Jeffrey B. Lovelace, Amanda P. Cowen, Nathan J. Hiller

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

After more than 35 years, Hambrick and Mason’s upper echelons theory (UET) stands as one of the most influential perspectives in management research. However, as the literature and its attendant reviews have become more numerous and specialized, discussion of the fundamental conceptual and methodological critiques leveled against research utilizing the UET perspective has grown fragmented. As such, the first aim of the present review is to identify and synthesize a set of common critiques levied against UET research. In doing so, we unpack important nuance within each critique while establishing a common vocabulary to facilitate greater consistency in how these …

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Strategic Audit, Jessica Salzar

Honors Theses

Berkshire Hathaway is an extremely successful, well-known company. With Warren Buffett approaching retirement, it is important that the company prepares its stakeholders and is strategically prepared. What must be determined is whether or not Berkshire Hathaway needs to implement a new strategy or continue doing what it is already doing. This strategic audit analyzes Berkshire Hathaway's company history, internal and external environment, competitive advantages, and organizational structure. After the analysis of Berkshire Hathaway, several strategy alternatives are considered, ending with a strategic recommendation, implementation plan, and contingency plan.

Picking Up The Pieces: Managing People During And After A Reorganization, Catherine B. Soehner

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Libraries need to change rapidly in response to advances in technology, expectations of users, funding, and other pressures from both inside and outside the library. Often library administration/management reorganizes personnel, duties, and departments to accomplish new goals and to shift focus of library services. Both during and after a reorganization, employees respond to the changes in a wide variety of ways, ranging from acceptance and positivity to anger and resistance. Fortunately, administrators and managers have a variety of tools available to help employees deal with change and to move them toward success. There are many books and articles on the …

Education Leadership Perspectives: Positve Ways, Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Are outdated traditional education, information technological infrastructure, problematic issues in providing quality leadership education in many of our instittutions today? With this into considerations, are these issues vital in order to stabilize the political and economic embroidery of our institutions or organizations, and its psychological and sociological awareness? What are really to be taught in our institutions to educate the present and the future leaders in the society? It is found that education may be the training of the mind to perform desire functions or to perpetuate the modality of obtaining an end or result. Actually, the accessibility of leadership …

Blue The Bee Learns To Be Happy, Connie Reimers-Hild, Deborah J. Weitzenkamp, Connie Reimers-Hild, Kim Wellsandt

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Do you sometimes feel sad or blue and don't know what to do? If so, this book was written just for you!

Join Blue the Bee as she travels through Happy Orchard meeting her friends (Flutter, Buzz, Bonita and Ernie) to learn the 7 Happiness Habits. When happiness is a habit, it comes without thinking. You can choose how to spend your day and use your time. You choose how to live your life and what is on your mind.

Each page was designed to enjoy at any age. People can become pollinators of happiness in any life stage!

This …

7 Tips To Grow Your Rural Business With Purpose And Meaning, Connie I. Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative Collections

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. The purpose of this article is to help rural entrepreneurs discover ways to grow their businesses with Living with Purpose and Meaning Megatrend.

Become A Future-Focused Leader: Use Three Megatrends To Grow Your Rural Business, Connie Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative Collections

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. This article discusses three megatrends shaping the future of rural businesses:

1) The Rise of the #GigEconomy

2) Living with Purpose and Meaning

3) The Decentralized Marketplace

The article also provides coaching tips for rural entrepreneurs on how to use megatrends to grow their businesses.

While many companies are struggling to keep up with the rapid rate of change, …

Future-Focused Leadership: Three Mega-Trends Influencing Distance Learning, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

While many continue to question the skyrocketing costs and value of a college education, future-focused leaders are recreating learning experiences by blending technology with the human experience. What does the future of distance learning look like, taste like and feel like? It can be difficult to predict the future of education as the world continues to evolve at an increasingly rapid pace; however, distance learning administrators can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to plan for the future. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. The purpose of this paper is to …

A Sociogenomic Perspective On Neuroscience In Organizational Behavior, Seth M. Spain, Peter D. Harms

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We critically examine the current biological models of individual organizational behavior, with particular emphasis on the roles of genetics and the brain. We demonstrate how approaches to biology in the organizational sciences assume that biological systems are simultaneously causal and essentially static; that genotypes exert constant effects. In contrast, we present a sociogenomic approach to organizational research, which could provide a meta-theoretical framework for understanding organizational behavior. Sociogenomics is an interactionist approach that derives power from its ability to explain how genes and environment operate. The key insight is that both genes and the environment operate by modifying gene expression. …

Authentic, Transformational Leadership: A Phenomenological Study Of The Experiences Of Black/White Biracial Leaders, Carmen R. Zafft

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

This phenomenological study described the racial identity and leadership experiences of eight community, education, and business Black/White biracial leaders. Four central themes emerged relating to the participants’ racial identity choices: (a) family discourse, (b) social networks, (c) appearance, and (d) identity work. Three central themes emerged relating to the participants’ leadership experiences: (a) cultural agility: “Blessed to be flexible”, (b) perceived representation: “I look like them”, and (c) transformational leadership: “I lead so others can grow.” Because the participants were conscious of their identity development experience, all demonstrated a strong sense of self which influenced how they experienced leadership. As …

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. …

Coaching As A Catalyst: Distance Learning For Personal Innovation (Revised Presentation), Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Abstract of the paper and basis of the presentation:

Coaching is emerging as a tool that can be used to achieve sustainable personal and organizational innovation, and distance education technologies have made coaching more accessible, affordable and available. Distance learning professionals are in a unique position to help technology-based coaching evolve in an effective and sustainable manner. The expertise and experience of distance learning professionals has the potential to advance the interrelationships between teaching, learning and coaching in an effort to help individuals and organizations achieve sustainable and meaningful innovation. A coaching case study utilizing the Inner Leader Coaching Ecosystem …

Coaching As A Catalyst: Distance Learning For Personal Innovation, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Abstract of the paper and basis of the presentation:

Coaching is emerging as a tool that can be used to achieve sustainable personal and organizational innovation, and distance education technologies have made coaching more accessible, affordable and available. Distance learning professionals are in a unique position to help technology-based coaching evolve in an effective and sustainable manner. The expertise and experience of distance learning professionals has the potential to advance the interrelationships between teaching, learning and coaching in an effort to help individuals and organizations achieve sustainable and meaningful innovation. A coaching case study utilizing the Inner Leader Coaching Ecosystem …

The Freedom To Create Your Destiny, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

We have a unique gift in the United States, and that gift is freedom. The Declaration of Independence guarantees all of us “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

This means we are free to pursue our lives and our vocations in any way that makes sense to us. Freedom is what makes America so great. What we do with our freedom is up to us. It is our choice. Freedom is our grandest opportunity and should be protected, especially in challenging times.

This radio update presents discusses the importance of freedom.

The Power Of Setting Smartr Goals, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Welcome to the Extension Update! My name is Connie Reimers-Hild, and I am an Extension Educator focused in leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship at the Kimmel Education and Research Center in Nebraska City. In today’s Extension Update, I will present the power of setting SMARTR Goals!

We all hear about how important it is to set goals, but very few of us to actually do it. What if we made the process of goal setting more personally fulfilling and more fun? As a Certified Professional Coach, I have used SMARTR goal setting with my clients. Establishing SMARTR goals can be powerful …

Smarter Intentions & Authentic Goals, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Intentions influence our actions and behaviors. If intentions are established with awareness, truth, and meaning, they can help us experience a life filled with passion and personal fulfillment. Lack of understanding around our true intentions often causes frustration and confusion, which is one reason people oftentimes do not achieve their goals. Many goals are written; however, they are not established with honest intent. It’s time to get brutally honest about your true intentions so you can achieve authentic goals.

Intentions have the power to strengthen your Inner Leader and move forward in a meaningful way as long as they represent …

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer And A Four-Year-Old: Lessons For Leadership & Life, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Last week while I was in the shower, my four-year-old daughter, Raquel, walked into the bathroom and asked me an interesting question. “Mom, why doesn’t anyone like Rudolph’s shiny red nose?” My daughter was supposed to be in bed sleeping. I am 99% sure she was lying in bed reflecting on her day.

Many nights I have quietly checked on her before going to bed myself only to find her talking to herself while she makes vivid hand gestures and motions. On this particular evening, her talk and gestures must have focused on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. After thinking about …

Coaching Leaders: Co-Creating Purpose Based Innovation, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Innovation always begins with people, and leading innovation at the individual and organizational levels can be a tricky process. This presentation focuses on Dr. Connie's Inner-Leader Coaching Ecosystem and the positive impact it has had in three different cases.

Sustainability Leader Competencies: A Grounded Theory Study, Pamela G. Schwalb

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

The purpose of this critical qualitative study was to develop a theory of the competencies of a sustainability leader, grounded in research. A sustainability leader is generally described as an individual who creates profit for his/her stakeholders, while protecting the environment and improving the lives of those for whom he/she impacts as a result of his/her leadership. Nearly 60 individuals familiar with sustainability were asked to characterize an effective leader of a sustainability initiative or a sustainability organization.

The study revealed there is more than one way to be a sustainability leader—different paths can result in decisions and actions that …

Leading Innovation: Creating A Culture Of Sustainability Presentation, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

This presentation focuses on elements of leading sustainable innovation in organizations by using Dr. Connie's 5 Rays of Innovation: Calibrate, Collaborate, Create, Communicate and Celebrate

What's Your Pitch? Explain Your Business In 30 Seconds (Or Less)!, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

This keynote presentation was designed to help entrepreneurs, small business owners and community leaders use the "High 5" Elevator Pitch developed by Connie Reimers-Hild, Ph.D. (creimers2@unl.edu) to better sell themselves, their businesses and communities.

Ready, Set...Pitch: Marketing Yourself With A High Five For The Nta Promarks Spring Meeting, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

A workshop presented at the NTA Promarks Spring Meeting designed to help them develop their elevator pitches using Dr. Connie's High 5 Elevator Pitch method

Leading Innovation: Creating A Culture Of Sustainability Workshop Presentation, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

A workshop designed to lead sustainable innovation with a focus on Dr. Connie's "5 Rays" of Innovation

Leading Innovation: Creating A Culture Of Sustainability Workbook, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

A workbook designed to compliment the workshop, "Leading Innovation: Creating a Culture of Sustainability" and focused on teaching Dr. Connie's 5 Rays of Innovation

Leading Innovation: Creating A Culture Of Sustainability For Communities, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Innovation is as essential to communities as it is to businesses and other organizations. This innovation workshop focused on core elements of leading innovation in communities.