Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What It Takes For A Woman To Start Her Own Business: My Personal Quest, Kristi Rinehart

Theses and Graduate Projects

Today women in the United States are more visibly involved in the ownership of a range of enterprises - from home-based proprietorships to women-established corporations with employees. Women are achieving new goals in business; increased educational levels and work experience have opened the entrepreneurial floodgates. This study will discuss what factors influence and motivate women in corporate America to "go it alone" while also detailing what it takes for a women to start her own business. The author will also discuss her aspirations to open a small business.

Health Start School-Based Clinic Staff And Hmong Adolescents: Does The Servant Leadership Theory Apply?, Tie H. Oei

Theses and Graduate Projects

This pilot study investigated whether the staff at Health Start's school-based clinics and the Hmong adolescents they serve are in agreement as to what health services Hmong adolescents want from the clinic and staff. In investigating this issue, servant leadership theory also was applied to answer the question: Does using servant leadership theory assist the staff in delivering culturally congruent healthcare to Hmong adolescents?

According to Servant Leadership Theory, leaders first want to serve for the purpose of developing a healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous follower. This theory, manifested by Robert K. Greenleaf through his work experiences and thinking about …

Female Marketing And Communications Professionals: Challenges And Opportunities For Corporate Leadership, Wendy Celaine Wehr

Theses and Graduate Projects

This study examines three distinct trends in the literature on women and leadership: advocacy for feminine leadership styles, support of gender-neutral leadership theory, and focus on factors beyond gender, such as issues of power and organizational structure. The study continues with an in-depth examination of the leadership experiences of five middle management women who work at publicly held companies and who specialize in marketing and corporate communications, fields that are of increasing importance in today's fast-paced, competitive economy. Results and discussion indicate five themes for further exploration: (a) the importance of competence to leadership success, (b) the value of communication …

Leadership In The Continuous Improvement Process, Jim L. Kline

Theses and Graduate Projects

Companies are formed for many reasons, but without profitability, they will not survive. Therefore, it remains the focus of the company's employees to maintain profitability. New ideas and improvements must be implemented continuously for the company to maintain and increase their profitability.

The employees responsible for continuously implementing these new ideas and improvements will significantly contribute to the success of the company and its profitability. The key to their success is the use of positive leadership and a continuous improvement process. This study presents two theories that support this claim: Masaaki lmai's continuous improvement process, and James MacGregor Burns' theory …

Mission, Vision, Values, And Spirituality: A Case Study, Jean Kelly

Theses and Graduate Projects

Almost every organization has published mission, vision, and values statements. Corporations, volunteer organizations, foundations, and even some families have formulated their own unique mission statements to proclaim their purpose, their reason for being, what they stand for, believe in, and aspire to be. Mission, vision, and values are an attempt to identify, in the simplest terms possible, what is at the heart of the organization--what it is about, what it values, and what it hopes to accomplish. It is within the mission statement that the spirituality of the organization is centered.

This is a case study of one organization--a non-profit, …

A Content Analysis Of The Leadership Themes Portrayed In The Dilbert Comic Strip, Stephanie L. Mccollum

Theses and Graduate Projects

Comic strips provide a graphic glimpse into the collective consciousness of a culture and its time in history. Scott Adams' popular Dilbert comic strip provides not only humor to its large audience but a social commentary on today's corporate work culture. Through the imaginative world of Dilbert, Scott Adams exposes the contradictory underlying values, attitudes and feelings of today's corporate work culture and its leadership. This paper compares the leadership themes portrayed in the Dilbert comic strip to the Augsburg Leadership Development model. One hundred Dilbert comic strips were analyzed, categorized and compared to the key leadership attributes and …

Public Schools And Islam: Accommodating The Needs Of Muslim Students In The Public Schools, Ethan Bleifuss

Theses and Graduate Projects

This project provides an overview of Islam in America, in particular the issues confronting educators in public schools with Muslim students. The primary emphasis is an examination of issues faced by Muslim and non-Muslim students and staff in the public schools. Examples of successful methods of addressing these issues are provided. Organizations, speakers, and publications that can help educators are also described. Additional background information is provided on the following topics: basic tenets of Islam, the current situation concerning Islam in the United States, problems faced by Muslims in American society at large, issues in the workplace, and examples of …

Leadership: Understanding And Adapting To Generational Differences And Core Work Values, Denise Gordon

Theses and Graduate Projects

Today's workforce is generationally diverse. It is comprised of 21% Mature Workers, 52% Baby Boomers, 26% Generation X and 1% Generation Y (Farren, Maurer, 1999). This diversity challenges traditional leadership assumptions and strategies.

This paper explores the core work values among the generations and how leaders can adapt to their diverse needs. It examines the workplace needs and expectations of people specifically within the Boomer and 13th generations. It will answer the following question:

• How do generations differ in regards to their core work values?

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the values within each of the …

A Case Study Of Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton's Leadership, Jim L. Kline

Theses and Graduate Projects

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Antarctica explorer who was not a well known person in the United States until the past two or three years. The reason for his recent rise back into prominence is because of the leadership example he displayed while leading the famous Endurance expedition from 1914 to 1916. The expedition did not achieve its objective of being the first to walk across Antarctica. The interest in Shackleton by students of management and leadership is because he rescued and led this expedition for almost two years, while they lived on the ice and a small island, …

Reweaving The Web Of Life: A Case Study Of A Feminist Leader In A Feminist Organization, Kathryn Ringham

Theses and Graduate Projects

The cultural context of the late twentieth century has given voice to new ways of thinking, knowing, being. Emerging out of the history and traditions of feminism is a style that is on the cutting edge in leadership studies. With emphasis on connection, humanity, interdependence, caring and empowerment of people, feminist leadership also echoes chaos theory. The reinvention of nature has allowed space within science for feminist values in the public realm. The mutual reinforcement of these two leadership theories has led to a simpler way to organize human endeavors.

This paper is based on feminist and chaos theories of …

Blinded By Vision, Craig A. Dowd

Theses and Graduate Projects

Conventional wisdom states vision is a requirement of husiness leadership, but the husiness community suffers from confusion and inconsistent application of the concept. A critical analysis of the concept reveals its popularity is based on rhetoric rather than a clear conceptualization of the term. (The term's literal meaning is the "experience of seeing God".) Without an academically useful definition, "vision" collapses under the weight of disparate and conflicting ideas. This thesis proposes that the problems with "vision" may be resolved by discarding the term completely and then separating the structure and function of leadership from the behavior of leaders and …

Florence Nightingale As Servant-Leader, Theresa Duffy

Theses and Graduate Projects

Florence Nightingale directed her adult life to serving God as a nurse, teacher and author. Through her creation of a school for nursing and her writings, Nightingale set the path for developing standard practices for nursing care along with founding the evolution of nursing as a professional career for women. As a leader Nightingale demonstrated courage in her ability to take great risks in order to create change, wisdom in her ability to communicate needed reforms, and her dedication to the ethical treatment of women and children by way of providing improved healthcare and education. This case study will examine …

Heroic Leadership: A Native American Legend, Sitting Bull 1831 - 1890, Charley Price

Theses and Graduate Projects

This research paper reviews and assesses the heroic leadership of the legendary Native America Sitting Bull. A significant leader of the Oceti Sakowin Nation, or commonly referred to as the Sioux Nation Sitting Bull demonstrates great charisma and courage in his efforts to save and maintain his people's traditional way of life. The Sioux way of life was gradually affected by the westward advancement of settlers and disrupted by the U.S. government's use of military force, in its quest to control Native American lands and expand the United States. Sitting Bull emerged as a heroic leader by gaining the support …

An Exploratory Study Of Patient Satisfaction And Servant Leadership, Carol L. Watson Saunders

Theses and Graduate Projects

Servant Leadership is a theory of leadership in which the Servant Leader is motivated primarily by an intuitive desire to serve his/her followers. The leadership aspect is secondary. In this study, the concept of Servant Leadership was applied to the physician-patient relationship in a healthcare setting. The purpose of the research was to determine the satisfaction level of patients with their physicians. Questionnaires were mailed to one hundred randomly selected patients at a large mid-western outpatient clinic. Following are several of the questions included in the questionnaire. On the average, how long do you have to wait to see your …

Transformational Leadership: A Case Study Of Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner For Human Rights, Denise Cleveland

Theses and Graduate Projects

This case study will explore the leadership of Mary Robinson and demonstrate that she exemplifies transformational leadership as developed by Bemard Bass using his leadership factors of charisma, inspirational leadership, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. Mary Robinson was the President of Ireland from 1990-1997 and currently serves as L)nited Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This leader contributes toward the study of leadership through our ability to apply multiple models of effective leadership. A comparison to cultural competency theory and women centered theories of leadership are assessed in relation to this leader. Just as this case study demonstrates Robinson's effective …

Implications Of Early Brain Development On Child Care, Troy Dunkley

Theses and Graduate Projects

The goal of my research is to put together a paper that goes into enough detail about early brain research to convince the reader that child care centers must improve their quality and then to give an assessment of how the public can support the necessary changes. This is a Literature Review of writings and research on early brain development early childhood education and the suggestions to improve child care center quality. These changes are intended to get child care quality moving in the right direction.

The new research suggests that early childhood is critical to a child's healthy development …

Nurse Manager As Leader: Creating Community Within A Healthcare Organization, Theresa Marie Duffy

Theses and Graduate Projects

Healthcare organizations are searching for mechanisms that will encourage the employ and retention of skilled registered nurses. Traditional management styles have done little to create a nurturing and supportive workplace that encourages staff nurses to work in an inpatient setting. A non-traditional nurse manager as a leader, who exhibits relational and servant-leadership characteristics can facilitate a process of creating a workplace community with registered nurses that will not only provide a supportive environment, but will perform better as well. This paper explores the attributes of a non-traditional nurse manager that will promote the development of a workplace cornrnunity.

Establishing A 'Place Of Hope' In A Homeless Shelter For Families And Children, Annette E. Rodriguez

Theses and Graduate Projects

This project analyzes the critical leadership style of the management team, including this writer, in establishing "A Place of Hope' at a homeless shelter (The Shelter) for families and children located in a major city in the Upper Midwest Region. This project will assess the author's use of the following characteristics found in critical leadership: critical in nature, transformative in style, educative in form, and ethical in character (Foster, 1986, p.52). This project took place from 1999 to 2001.

Followership: Why Leadership Works, Gordon Thomas

Theses and Graduate Projects

Using the theory of followership developed by Robert Kelley, this case study will examine the role of the follower, the various types of followers present in organizations and their importance to the study of leadership. lt will examine an alternative theory by lra Chaleff and discuss current literature on the follower-leader relationship. This case study will then examine the followership skills of Agnes Anderson (name changed), through analysis of her followership self-assessment and the followership assessments completed by leaders she has worked with in both professional and volunteer situations and conclude with general observations on the topic.

Winning By Serving: A Case Study In Servant Leadership, Denise D. Gordon

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose for this case study was to apply a leadership theory to a leader. It was to discover what and who impacted the leader's leadership style. Conclusions indicate that the leader was operating with a core sense of ethical values, practices, and experience along with practicing good leaciership skills that model the Servant Leadership Theory. Evidence provided substantiates that this Ieader has had a significant impact not only on the organization but the followers as well.