Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

The Quest For The Entrepreneurial Spirit, C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

Drawing from his years of experience leading The ServiceMaster Company, Pollard outlines for the Entrepreneurial Leader's Organization (ELO) Conference (Vancouver, B.C.) the main tenets of what he considers the entrepreneurial spirit.

Leadership Isn't Easy, Clarke Price

Leadership Hour at Otterbein University

How often have you heard "leaders are made not born," but what goes into "making" a leader? Leadership isn't easy, but with a personal commitment & perseverance, you can start down the road to being an effective leader. This session will present ideas to help you improve as a leader or begin the journey toward developing effective leadership skills.

Business As A Calling / Profit As A Virtue, C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

This speech was delivered at a Symposium on Corporations, Capitalism, and Christianity sponsored by The Center for Lifelong Learning at Windsor Park Retirement Community in Carol Stream, IL. In it Pollard considers the integration of business and faith, focusing primarily on how leaders must cultivate the humanity of their employees while simultaneously maximizing profit.

An Interpretivist Case Study Of Leadership Transition In The Context Of A Southern Baptist Church, Ronald Tuck

Dissertations

This ethnographic study examined the experiences of key individuals involved in a senior leadership transition in the context of the church. Leader transition constitutes a significant aspect of organizational leadership theory, yet succession planning is often neglected in the context of churches. This study revealed that leadership transition is not a single event in the history of a church organization, but rather an evolution of events involving a multiplicity of factors and individuals. Narratives from five individuals directly involved in the pastoral leadership transition process informed the study: the search committee chair, the outgoing and incoming pastors, and two differently-located …

Q&A Meta Braymer On Leadership, Melina Downs

Administrative / Professional Faculty Articles

Meta Braymer has always believed that more women need to be in leadership positions. And that conviction was exemplified throughout her career as she made decisions to help women succeed. One of her lasting legacies is the Leadership Colloquium @ UMW, which she founded in 1994. In the following interview, Braymer discusses leadership with me and how women can be inspired to have a more active role in leadership positions.

Management As A Liberal Art: A Response To The Challenges Of Our Age, C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In these notes from the IPA Session in New York, Pollard outlines the main contours of Peter Drucker's theory of management as a liberal art.

The Dark Side Of Leadership: Dealing With A Narcissistic Boss, Thomas W. Camm

Mining Engineering

Some of the defining characteristics of narcissists include a grandiose sense of self-importance, preoccupation with success and power, a sense of infallibility, and a supreme confidence in their ability and intelligence. Ironically, many of these characteristics are rewarded in business organizations, which may explain why there seems to be so many narcissists in management positions. Assuming we will be dealing with narcissists throughout our career, it makes sense for us to understand what makes them tick, and more importantly what we can do to work with them in a constructive manner.

Achieving A Competitive Advantage Through Ethical Business Practices An Ethnographical Case Study, Valarie Denney

Publications

Ethical leadership can be a key driver of corporate behavior but it is an individual’s sense of ethics that has an impact on business success. The specific problem was that despite the plethora of academic, government, and industry studies, it remained unclear whether investing in ethics provided a competitive advantage for businesses. The purpose of this qualitative, ethnographic case study was to examine how the internal stakeholders in a single business defined and applied ethics and what elements of the business culture and competitive environment affected decision-making. The research was a practical application of the stakeholder theory, normative ethics and …

The Impact Of Gender, Ethnicity, School Setting, And Experience On Student Leadership: Does It Really Matter?, Barry Z. Posner

Management & Entrepreneurship

This research examined how gender, ethnicity, school setting, and experience influenced students' leadership practices. Significant differences were found in how student leaders behaved on the basis of these variables. However, further analyses suggested that these differences did not significantly influence the effectiveness of student leaders. That is, the most effective student leaders engaged in the five leadership practices more than the less effective leaders, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or school setting. The impact of these findings for both assessing student leaders as well as for developing their leadership capabilities is discussed, along with ideas for future studies.

Understanding Relational Agility: Exploring Constructs Of Relational Leadership Through Story, David M.I. Mclean

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Organizational storytelling was used within Tri Fit, a Canadian health promotion and fitness company, to explore relational leadership practices. Through 27 confidential one-on-one interviews and an interview of the four-person leadership team, the research attempted to examine how relational agility, a new leadership construct, exists, how it is defined, and to describe its organizational impacts. Two hundred and forty unique stories were shared through this process, out of which nine storylines emerged. The distillation of these revealed three cultural themes: a culture of relational connection; a culture of nice and a culture that values positivity. Demonstrations of transformational leadership, authentic …

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. …

Influential Leadership In A Diverse Retail Environment: Implications For Reducing Voluntary Employee Turnover, Stuart Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many investigators have documented the impact of high attrition rates on an organization's ability to deliver its expected results. However, limited information is available regarding the efficacy of a specific bundle of variables, which would support a leader's ability to influence voluntary employee turnover. This quantitative study investigated the effectiveness of a 60-day treatment implemented to address the problem of voluntary employee turnover in a diverse retail environment. The research questions examined the effectiveness of an increase in communication, answering, recognition, and training on voluntary employee turnover and job satisfaction in a diverse retail environment. The theoretical foundation of the …

The Role Of Followership During Periods Of Absent Leadership, Robert Alan Leonard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

With a culture focused on leadership, the purpose in this study was to explore untested assumptions about followers and their being ignored as independent productive actors in the workplace. The lived experience of followers and their impact on the success or failure of organizations during periods of absent leadership was explored via 4 independent situations. A qualitative, phenomenological research design based primarily on the theoretical framework of Moustakas and the research design of Patton guided the study. The 3 key research questions were explored with regard to followers during periods of absent leadership: how they respond, what actions they take …

Individualized Consideration: Poverty Countermeasure, Lawrence Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite more than $1 trillion spent annually on poverty remediation, impoverishment in the United States persists unabated. With a U.S. poverty rate greater than 10% for more than 4 decades, economics are neither poverty's cause nor cure. As such, non-economic poverty remedies require exploration and expansion. Linking greater leadership and poverty theories, this non-experimental, cross sectional, quantitative, survey-based research effort correlated individualized consideration's (IC) practice with collegiate athlete graduation rates in order to identify and isolate possible leadership based social poverty remediation measures. Leveraging a two-stage random sample, this research effort correlated student athlete Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire (form 5X) responses …

Follow Me! Followership, Leadership And The Multigenerational Workforce, Ronald M. Johnson

HCBE Theses and Dissertations

This research was designed to develop an understanding of today's multigenerational workforce with respect to a preferred styles or characteristics of followership and leadership. Specifically this research sought to determine if there was a relationship between an individual's generational cohort and the preferred styles of leadership and followership, as measured by implicit theories of leadership and followership. Therefore, this study draws upon generational theory (Mannheim, 1952), implicit theories of leadership (Epitropaki & Martin, 2004) and implicit theories of followership (Sy, 2010). The changes in the composition of the US workforce which have occurred, and which will continue to occur in …

The Awesome Responsibility Of Leadership (Chicago), C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In this address at the University of Chicago's Booth Graduate School of Business, Pollard reflects on the need for servant leadership among corporate managers. Such leadership, he contends, will be rooted in faith and oriented to the holistic development of those the organization employs.

Role Of Business Leaders In The Integrality Of The Working Indivual, Ms. Cristine Atienza, Prof. Maria Andreas Santiago

Center for Business Research and Development

In a world where the benefit to the common good has been overshadowed by the need to spur demand to increase profitability, one begins to wonder if business has turned a blind eye and if the workforce has grown so detached that who they are at work is different from who they are outside the workplace. Fragmentation (Alford and Naughton 2001) and compartmentalization (McIntyre as cited in Martin 2011, Rozuel 2011) at varying degrees and across different arenas have become possible traps for every worker.

Bridge Over Troubled Strategies, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

If strategy is the future of an organisation, implementation is its bridge. And successful implementation should be straightforward. But it isn’t. A new website has the answers...

The Conscious Alignment Of Strategy And Culture And Its Affect On Project Work: A Case Study Of Three It Departments Following A Transition In Leadership, Alan P. Hyatt, Dr. Michael P. Thompson, Dr. Ernest J. Nielsen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My study provided the research for my honors thesis. The thesis discusses and develops the Theory of Conscious Alignment (TCA). The theory states that leaders and managers who consciously mold the strategy and culture of their organizations, and align the two intangible elements, will be much more effective. By aligning these two critical elements, the ongoing project work of the organization will also be aligned with them both, and the espoused strategic objectives and initiatives will be accomplished.

Closing The Leadership Gap In Asia, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Emerging Asian markets – which are expected by the International Monetary Fund to grow by 8.5 percent in 2014 – are indispensable for any large firm with aggressive growth commitments. Although such projections may prove optimistic, companies still rely on Asia to compensate for under-performing mature markets. CEOs in Asia report that their targets for regional business units average 5 percent above the rate of regional economic growth — a target that can only be reached by capturing significant market share from the competition. Over-performing in hypercompetitive

Asian markets depends, in large part, on the quantity and quality of Asia …

Management As A Liberal Art (Seattle), C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In these opening remarks recorded for a fall seminar at Seattle Pacific University, Pollard outlines Peter Drucker's theory of management as a liberal art and details the ways in which it was implemented in the ServiceMaster organization. He also notes why such a vision is important for contemporary management education.

How Kaizen Group Leader Selection Affects Group Participation, M. Joleen Byerline

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Organizational communication research indicates group member participation increases as the legitimate power differences among group members decreases. Lean principles and practices indicate Kaizen Event members will contribute regardless of legitimate power levels, due to member training, education, and the Lean team-oriented culture. Further study is needed to determine if Lean culture and training maximize group member contribution, or if legitimate power levels in Lean environments manipulate participation. The focus of this case study is a central Kentucky Lean manufacturing organization that practiced Lean principles for at least three years and completed a Kaizen Event within twelve months previous to the …

Interactive Empathy And Leader Effectiveness: An Evaluation Of How Sensing Emotion And Responding With Empathy Influence Corporate Leader Effectiveness, Gerald Burch

Theses and Dissertations

Empathy has been shown to be a very powerful social and work ability. This study surveyed 754 employees of a privately held eastern United States company, and incorporated annual performance evaluations to empirically link interactive empathy to leader performance of 102 leaders. Data was collected from the leader’s followers, peers, and supervisors and from self-report personality evaluations. The results of this study show that leaders that are willing to engage their followers with empathic displays are seen as better leaders from their supervisors and have more engaged employees. Other contributions of this study include validation of the interactive empathy scale …

Organizational Leadership In Times Of Uncertainty: Is Transformational Leadership The Answer?, Sophon Shadraconis

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

In a world that is rapidly changing, organizations are finding that they must adapt quickly to meet the needs of their changing environment. Organizations can only remain relevant and achieve long-term success and sustainability by adopting a model of leadership that addresses the needs of their fluctuating environment. However, many organizations have failed to adapt to their operating environment. Some examples of recent major organizational failures and bankruptcies include: Circuit City, Hollywood Video, and Mervyn's. To remain competitive, leaders must adopt a model that allows for rapid responses to the changing business environment. Transformational leadership can serve as this needed …

Contextual Support For Innovation In An Australian Financial Services Firm, Agung N. Fahrudi, Denise E. Gengatharen, Yuliani Suseno, Craig Standing

Research outputs 2013

Organizational learning can facilitate innovation and it is affected by internal and external contexts. Leaders can provide internal contextual support for learning to occur in the organization in order to respond to changes in external contexts. However, there are limited studies about how leaders affect innovation in financial services firms. This paper applies Crossan et al.’s (1999) 4I framework to examine the impact of internal and external factors on an organization’s learning process and the extent of its innovation. An on-going case study of a large Australian financial services firm is used to gain insights about contextual support for innovation. …

Empathy During Times Of Crisis And Corporate Reputation, Ann T. Gallagher

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

How an organization responds to victims is central to crisis communication management and protecting organizational reputation. While there is significant literature about best practices for crisis response, one area which has not been explored is the relationship of empathic communication and corporate reputation during times of conflict. This study examined this relationship through a study of the British Petroleum Gulf Oil crisis of 2010. The qualitative study used focus groups with working professionals and personal interviews with communication experts. The research is grounded in Coombs’ (1998) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), and Benoit’s (1977) image restoration theory, which is used …

Staying Hungry, Staying Foolish: Academic Reflections On The Life And Career Of Steve Jobs, Amy E. Hurley-Hanson, Cristina M. Giannantonio

Business Faculty Articles and Research

The 2011 death of Steve Jobs, Apple CEO and cofounder, generated a flood of articles in the popular press acknowledging his influence on the design and delivery of consumer products that changed the way multiple generations work and play. As one of the most visible, yet controversial CEOs in recent history, stories of his management style are likely to fuel a debate over his leadership effectiveness. It is expected that scholarly and academic articles will emerge in the next few years detailing the business lessons that can be learned from the way that Jobs ran Apple Computer, NeXT, Pixar, and …

Shared Leadership In Six Sigma Teams From The North Shore-Lij Health System, Brian J. Galli

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The main goal of the research was to identify the relationships that the internal research team environment and external coaching variables had with the degree of shared leadership in the context of Six Sigma teams from the North Shore LIJ Health System. Furthermore, the research ascertained the relationships that these variables had with two performance metrics: a team's ability to complete project deliverables and satisfy customer's requirements. This research also sought to understand additional factors that affected the five variables.

The research found that while shared leadership did not positively change as a team progressed through the phases of the …

The Relationship Of Servant Leadership Attributes To Sales Performance Of Salespersons In The Healthcare Industry In 2011, William R. Auxier

Dissertations

Problem. Servant leadership scholars have claimed that servant-led business organizations are more financially viable, but these claims are based on anecdotal evidence. This quantitative study examines the relationship of servant leadership to revenue generation in business organizations by analyzing the predictability of servant leadership attributes on sales performance. This was accomplished by studying salespersons in the healthcare industry.

Method. One hundred ninety-four study participants completed questionnaires providing quantitative measurements of the seven factors of servant leadership: (a) developing and empowering others, (b) humility, (c) authentic leadership, (d) open participatory leadership, (e) inspiring leadership, (f) visionary leadership, and (g) courageous leadership, …

Financial Services Innovation: Opportunities For Transformation Through Facial Recognition And Digital Wallet Patents, Debora S. Bartoo

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Bringing innovation to the marketplace for new products and services involves creativity, a culture in which change flourishes, and leadership that thrives on transformation and complexity. This study explored the potential for market disruption or change based on innovations involving patents granted to nonfinancial services organizations that could affect financial services, specifically consumer or retail bank products. It involved analyzing documents related to recently granted patents and completing a mixed methods survey integrating the Delphi research technique. This method required multiple iterations of a survey presented to expert panelists or industry thought leaders to attempt to gain consensus ("Consensus", 2011) …