Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Organizational Metamorphosis: When Artificial Intelligence Transforms Companies Into New Economic Life Forms, Allan M. Glass

All Dissertations

Traditional theories of organizational change fall short in explaining how artificial intelligence (AI) transforms organizations. This grounded theory study, based on interviews with 34 organizational leaders, identifies a novel phenomenon: organizational metamorphosis - the irreversible transformation of organizations into fundamentally new entities through deep integration with AI as a cognitive partner.

The metamorphosis process unfolds in three phases. Individual Awakening occurs when leaders experience powerful interactions with AI, prompting a rapid shift from skepticism to advocacy. Once a critical mass of leaders undergo this shift, it initiates Organizational Restructuring, characterized by reimagined work design, boundary dissolution, and altered temporal rhythms. …

Like Footprints In The Sand: How Founders Imprint Organizational Culture Through Nonverbal Cue Signaling, Dirk M. Roskam

All Dissertations

Despite growing recognition of the significance of founders’ behaviors in shaping organizational culture, limited research has explored how founders’ non-verbal cues (NVCs) imprint culture during a venture’s formative stages. This qualitative case study examines how a founder’s NVCs, ranging from physical environment design to gestures and demeanor, are interpreted by employees and contribute to the imprinting of organizational culture. Drawing on imprinting theory, signaling theory, and the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP), the study triangulates data from semi-structured interviews, a focus group, and a literature review. Findings reveal that employees interpret 24 salient NVCs, grouped into themes of environmental values, people-centric …

The Dark Side Of Great Lmx Relationships: Why Your Best Employees Might Be Burning Out, Ryan Toole

All Dissertations

While workplace relationships are widely considered beneficial for employee well-being, a paradox emerges when employees with the strongest leader relationships experience burnout despite receiving excellent support. This contradiction suggests that these very same relationships may create psychological pressure to reciprocate support and result in employee burnout. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory and Conservation of Resources theory, I examine whether felt obligation resulting from Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) relationships contributes to employee burnout across the full spectrum of LMX quality relationships. I argue that LMX quality creates felt obligation to reciprocate leader support. This obligation, in turn, depletes emotional resources and leads …

Editorial Note, Heather S. Mcmillan

Journal of the North American Management Society

No abstract provided.

Engaging For A Sustainable Manufacturing: The Power Of Adaptive Leadership In Industry 5.0, Rizwana Rasheed, Aamir Rashid, Abdul Hafaz, Rashid Hashmi

Publications and Research

In today’s highly competitive and rapidly evolving business environment, organizations must continuously adapt to technological advancements and market volatility. This study examines how adaptive leadership influences sustainable manufacturing through employee engagement, with employee wellbeing as a mediator and mindfulness as a moderator. Using data from 1,388 U.S. manufacturers and PLS-SEM analysis, the research confirms that adaptive leadership positively impacts sustainable manufacturing through engaged employees and enhanced wellbeing. Additionally, employee mindfulness significantly strengthens the relationship between adaptive leadership and engagement. These findings highlight the importance of leadership styles that foster employee participation and mental wellbeing in achieving long-term manufacturing sustainability. The …

Development And Validation Of The Informal Safety Leadership Measure, Ashley L. Gill

Dissertations

This research develops and validates a measure of the emerging concept of informal safety leadership (ISL), which integrates elements of safety leadership and informal leadership to address a significant gap in organizational safety literature. Despite extensive research on formal safety leadership, there remains limited understanding of how non-managerial employees influence safety practices and culture within organizations. This dissertation develops and validates a comprehensive measure of informal safety leadership through a sequential mixed-methods approach incorporating a pilot study and two additional studies. First, a pilot study employed focus groups with health, safety, and environmental professionals to identify key dimensions of ISL. …

Impactful Programs And Initiatives For Employee Resource Groups That Promote And Sustain Positive Social Determinants Of Health, Lisa Kangas, Maureen Hall, Julie James, Gladys Peters

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leaders’ lack of interest in employee resource groups (ERGs) and related programs can negatively impact an organization’s culture, operational excellence, and employee retention and have detrimental implications for social determinants of health (SDOH). Prioritizing ERG programs and initiatives is essential for organizational success and can positively affect SDOH. This qualitative pragmatic inquiry study identified and explored ERG programs and initiatives that support organizational culture, operational excellence, and employee retention.The research question for this study was: What ERG programs and initiatives support organizational culture, operational excellence, and employee retention? The study included eight DEI leaders …

Book Review: Building A God, Carl Lee Tolbert

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

No abstract provided.

Crafting Ethical Problem-Solving Cultures: A Leader’S Role In Complex Adaptive Systems, Elizabeth A. Luckman

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

In today’s complex and interconnected world, leaders play a critical role in fostering ethical problem-solving cultures within organizations. To enable leaders to succeed in this evolving landscape, this paper advocates for a necessary paradigm shift: a transition in mental models about how organizations function. Historically, organizations have been viewed as mechanistic systems, but there is a substantial opportunity to improve our work by viewing organizations as complex adaptive systems. This shift alters fundamental assumptions about organizational operations and redefines leadership as the creation of conditions for effective and ethical problem-solving. In this paper, I examine the changing mental models that …

Fostering Innovation At Work: Leadership Strategies For Motivating Innovative Work Behavior Across Generations Within The Christian Higher Education Environment, Sarah Clark

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

Project Type

Organizational Consulting Project, Organizational Design or Change, Seminar or Workshop

Project Overview

This capstone project involved the design, facilitation, and evaluation of a strategic leadership workshop developed for mid to senior-level enrollment leaders at Southeastern University. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), Innovative Work Behavior (IWB), and Transformational Leadership, the workshop offered a diagnostic and developmental experience designed to motivate innovation across generational teams within a Christian higher education setting. The workshop was structured to transition from research-based theory to data-informed strategy, helping leaders translate organizational insights into actionable plans.

Project Themes

Core themes included intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, …

Toward The Professionalization Of Executive Coaching: A Delphi Study Of The Requisite Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities For Coaching Executives To Behave Ethically, Richard R. Fletcher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The problem explored through this research involved the lack of consensus on executive coaching knowledge, skills, and abilities for facilitating ethical behaviors on the part of business executives. This problem led the researcher to employ a mixed-method Delphi study to explore professional executive coach perceptions concerning the establishment of a governing body overseeing the activity of executive coach consulting and to assess the knowledge, skills, and abilities perceived as fundamental to executive coaching. The researcher focused the research approach through a systematic, iterative research design where a panel of six experts in the field of professional executive coaching located in …

Does The Organization–Employee Relationship Matter? Linking The Organization–Employee Relationship With Employee Well-Being And Performance, Deepti Pathak, Gaurav Joshi

Economic and Business Review

The study examines the relationship between the organization–employee relationship (OER), well-being, and work performance of remote workers who were mandated to work from home because of the uncertainties and health risks brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study focuses on the work performance of the employees contributed through positive psychological well-being and positive OERs. A comprehensive nationwide survey was undertaken, involving a sample size of 1289 full-time IT employees in India, with the objective of determining the impact of well-being on individual work performance. Results from the analyses indicate that though the employees with limited experience of work from …

Orchestrating Complexity: The Art Of Virtual Leadership In System Modelling, Vijay Kumar Sonawane, Bipllab Roy, Purnendu Bikash Acharjee, Indu Pv

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

This paper explores the dynamics of virtual leadership within global remote work environments, focusing on the application of complex system modelling to understand and enhance leadership efficacy. The application of computational modelling has been a regular feature in economics, science and technology fields, however its application in virtual leadership with linkage to sport leadership appears to be a novel concept. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this paper incorporates Game Theory as a conceptual framework to make the leadership model more relevant and applicable that can offer simpler understanding of complex play of leadership drivers. The model incorporates five key leadership dimensional …

Leveraging Usage Of Ai In Education: Knowledge, Attitude And Behavioral Analysis On Students, Bipllab Roy, Purnendu Bikash Acharjee, Rohit Kumar Sharma, Ruptaheen Kramsapi, Shruti P

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

The paper explores the possible advantages and drawbacks of artificial intelligence (AI) on sustainability, with an emphasis on using AI to positively achieve SDGs. The study finds a significant vacuum in the literature on the association between knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards the use of AI tools and techniques in education and demographic characteristics (sex, age, education level, area of study, and city of origin). The purpose of this research is to close this knowledge gap and advance our understanding of how these demographic factors affect the integration of AI in educational environments. The study specifically aims to comprehend how …

Organizational Change, Servant Leadership, And Christian Perspective, David Macauley, Randall Trent Stevenson, Helen Mitchell, David S. Fowler

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

In today’s dynamic business environment, organizational change is inevitable, yet with a failure rate of more than 70%, successfully navigating change remains elusive for the majority of business leaders. Effective change management requires more than just strategy, it demands a leadership approach that fosters trust, engagement, and resilience among employees. Servant leadership, with its focus on humility, empathy, and support, offers a powerful framework for guiding leaders and the organizations they serve through transformative periods, and can increase the effectiveness of organizational change efforts. By putting the needs of others first, and aligning leadership actions with values such as patience, …

Using Multiculturalism To Combat The Negative Creativity Effect Of Cultural Tightness: How It Is Done Matters, Jung Kiu Choi

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study investigates the multifaceted influence of cultural tightness and multiculturalism on the global commercial success of pop music. Addressing an under-explored moderating effect of multicultural factors on creative output under tight culture, this research analyzes Billboard Global 200 and Spotify Top 50 chart data from 2013-2021. The empirical analysis reveals that cultural tightness negatively impacts pop song’s success. Conversely, multiculturalism, specifically through diverse languages and performance teams, generally enhances global success. A key finding is that while multicultural production teams do not directly correlate with success, they critically moderate the detrimental effects of cultural tightness, a buffering effect unique …

Becoming A Bridge Of Collaboration: How Being Supports Doing Within The Help Model Of Leadership, Andrea Burgess

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This synthesis project introduces the HELP Model—Humility, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership Service, and Psychological Safety—as a developmental framework for sustainable leadership rooted in character formation and relational trust. It asserts that credible and effective leadership begins with inner orientation before it can be embodied as consistent, ethical action in the world. Through integration of leadership theory, developmental psychology, and theology, the project critiques conventional, strategy-driven paradigms of organizational well-being. HELP extends Robert Kegan’s framework to include relational and spiritual dimensions of the leader’s individual growth as necessary conditions for fostering organizational collaboration. Drawing on reflective inquiry and practice-based insight, the project …

Letter From The Editor, Jay Nathan

Journal of Global Awareness

No abstract provided.

Operational Endings, Emotional Impacts: Ethical Considerations When Project Teams Form Attachments To Ai Collaborators, Tom Wise, Sarah M. Dyson, Stephen Onu, John Clark, Joseph Zagerman, Jennifer Williams

Beyond the Project Horizon: Journal of the Center for Project Management Innovation

The project investigated responses to an AI displaying emotional qualities, such as fear, through a mixed-methods approach. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two scenarios—one featuring an AI coworker and the other a human coworker and evaluated for emotional attachment and loss. Results revealed that professionals exhibited significant emotional responses to the potential "termination" of an AI team member. Qualitative analysis identified eight themes, including emotional responses and termination. Findings suggest that emotionally expressive AI activates psychological processes akin to human relationships, with implications for AI design, workplace dynamics, and ethical considerations surrounding AI termination.

Exploring A Holistic Conceptualization Of Destructive Leadership: Perspectives From The Lived Experiences Of Latino Law Enforcement Command Staff Officers, Carmelin Rivera

Dissertations

Recently, there has been an increased interest in destructive leadership or what is characterized as the dark side of leadership. There is, in fact, no consensus in the literature about the definition of destructive leadership, and this murkiness has led to two somewhat different approaches to understanding this phenomenon: 1) a leader-centric approach that emphasizes the bad behaviors and traits of so-called toxic leaders and 2) a much broader, holistic approach, often discussed as the toxic triangle (Padilla et al., 2007), that focuses on how destructive leadership is co-created by a toxic system of bad leaders and susceptible followers …

From Answering Questions To Replacing Staff: Analyzing The Effect And Possibilities Of Artificial Intelligence On The Structure Of Organizations, Caleb J. Cissna

Honors Projects

Over the last several years artificial intelligence has risen in commonality, availability, knowledge and usage across multiple industries, including business firms and organizations. Terming the multitude of tasks that are completed by these machines “artificial intelligence” is somewhat dismissive – the broadness of the tasks is unmatched by most any other innovation within the 21^st century. The widespread nature of artificial intelligence today have advanced many organizations, with many using the technology to create competitive advantage for themselves in certain industries, while others have seen it level the competitive field between firms in a given industry. Following this research …

Creating A Regenerative Organizational Culture, Sukanya Nagfernandes, Jennifer Mowery

Beyond the Project Horizon: Journal of the Center for Project Management Innovation

Abstract

The review article aims to explore the concept of creating a regenerative organizational culture through the application of transformational practices. The study investigates the potential benefits of integrating regenerative practices within an organization's cultural framework to foster adaptability, innovation, and sustainability. By examining the literature on regenerative culture and digital transformation, this study provides an overview of the key components and strategies necessary for building a regenerative organizational culture in the digital era and proposes an innovative approach to predicting regenerative cultural practices required within stages of a project’s life cycle.

Organizational culture works as a lifeline. It is …

Colaboración Interdisciplinaria: Tablero De Control Para Una Institución Politécnica R01 En Los Ee. Uu. [Libro], Cristo Leon Ph.D., Victor Hugo Guzmán Zarate Ph.D.

STEM for Success Showcase

Introducción
En el ámbito académico, la colaboración interdisciplinaria emerge como un imperativo estratégico y un desafío multifacético. Este estudio tiene un enfoque eminentemente práctico y busca diseñar y aplicar una herramienta específica —un tablero de control interactivo— para facilitar y mejorar la colaboración interdisciplinaria en un entorno académico real. La complejidad inherente a este desafío se refleja tanto en el dinamismo del ambiente investigativo como en la falta de definiciones operacionales cohesivas que faciliten la evaluación y visualización de la colaboración interdisciplinaria. Para abordar estos desafíos, el presente estudio se llevó a cabo en la Facultad de Ciencias y Artes …

Assessing Leadership In Business: A Critical Investigation Of Ray Dalio, Johan Gomez Hernandez

Honors Scholar Theses

Understanding what makes an effective leader remains a key point in the study of business leadership and company success. This paper offers a critical assessment of Ray Dalio's leadership at Bridgewater Associates, diving into both his strengths and shortcomings of his unconventional approach. Examining his leadership through established frameworks, Dalio’s success can be attributed to his clear vision-setting, culture of intellectual rigor, and rooted transparency. At the same time, it highlights points where his leadership style can be improved, especially in aspects such as employee recognition and the balance between high performance expectations and emotional intelligence.

Bridging The Gap: Management Vs. Leadership And The Path To Mastering Both, Wesley A. Key

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Management and leadership, though often conflated, represent distinct but complementary skills that are critical for organizational success. This thesis aims to explore the fundamental differences between management and leadership, highlighting how these roles interact and the necessity for individuals to master both to excel in today’s dynamic business environment. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from psychology, organizational behavior, and case studies, this research synthesizes academic literature to address key questions: What core competencies distinguish leaders from managers? How do these competencies align or conflict with one another in real-world settings? And what practical steps can individuals take to develop proficiency in …

The Future Of Work: Examining New Graduate Sentiment On Remote Work And Return To Office Mandates, Ishani Adidam

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic dwindles, companies that had leveraged Work from Home (WFH) flexibility are now implementing Return to Office (RTO) mandates. While 70% of employees prefer a hybrid work model, 61.4% are expected to work full-time in-office due to these mandates, leading to widespread employee discontent. This study investigates whether such dissatisfaction extends to new graduates entering the workforce. A pilot survey revealed that 68% of new graduates prefer a hybrid work modality, yet 52% stated that work modality would not significantly impact their job decision-making process, and 46% said they would be unlikely to leave …

Planting The Seed: Rumors And Ceo Dismissal, Diego Villalpando

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Researchers have investigated the short-term performance implications of CEO dismissals as assessed through investor reactions to CEO dismissal announcements. While the corporate governance mechanism of dismissal that boards orchestrate when CEOs underperform could be positively perceived by investors, empirical evidence suggests that a positive association between CEO dismissals and investor reactions is equivocal. Thus, in my dissertation, I examine investor reactions to S&P 500 dismissal announcements and further understanding about this intriguing relationship through the development of theory that incorporates the important theoretical mechanism of information uncertainty. Since it is increasingly hard for boards to reduce the information uncertainty surrounding …

Exploration, Exploitation, And Financial Performance: The Long-Term Advantages Of Ambidextrous Companies, Georgi Aleksandrov Kirov

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have advanced ambidexterity as an effective organizational strategy to cope with environmental and technological change. The use of divergent and incompatible core construct conceptualizations, overreliance on cross-sectional and perceptual performance measures, and persistent scarcity of longitudinal examinations have undermined empirical conclusions that ambidexterity works. This study seeks to ascertain whether ambidexterity enhances long-term financial performance under environmental conditions of munificence, dynamism, and external potential slack.

The study deploys a novel operationalization of the ambidexterity concept and develops company portfolios to compare the financial results of ambidextrous firms and their rivals. Based on a 25-year data set, the research finds …

Prescription For Progress: A Retention Plan To Heal The Dying Nurse Workforce, Margaret Curd

Senior Honors Theses

The United States is currently facing an unprecedented nursing shortage which stems from many variables, including a lack of clinical rotation sites for students, increased burnout among current nurses, and a growing retiring workforce. Rising nurse turnover rates negatively impact patient outcomes, which should concern all levels of management. One specific hospital facing such an impact is Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois. This thesis seeks to address their substandard staffing ratios in an extensive, holistic strategic retention plan. Metrics for proving the plan’s success are provided alongside a discussion of proper calculations for each.

An Exploration Of The Influence Of Occupational Mentorship On The Success Of Black Female Executive Leaders In Educational Sales, Bashelia H. Ward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dearth of Black women in executive-level leadership roles within U.S. business organizations persists due to numerous barriers such as tokenism; racial fatigue; stereotypes; a lack of identity; and the intersection of race, gender, and social injustices impeding their upward mobility in the educational sales industry. Despite recognizing the potential for change through tools and programs, the absence of robust occupational mentorship emerges as a pivotal barrier hindering the transformation of Black women’s roles in these educational sales environments. The sample size for this hermeneutical qualitative study was seven Black women in the K–12 educational sales industry. Data collection methods …