Leadership Studies Commons^™

The Virtue Of Profit (Seattle), C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In this speech at Seattle Pacific University, Pollard contends that profit can be considered virtuous when it allows servant leaders to invest in employees, thereby contributing to the moral and spiritual formation of human beings.

Contextualising Csr: Multi-Stakeholder Approaches To Development Initiatives In Southeast Asia, Christine Davis, Stephanie Soderborg

Social Space

As the focus on CSR expands throughout Asia, discussion prevails about the form it needs to take to be germane to the needs of each respective country. The authors discuss Kenan Institute Asia’s efforts in developing a responsible management education (or CSR curriculum and training) for future managers and business leaders in Vietnam.

The Glass Ceiling Women Face: An Examination And Proposals For Development Of Future Women Entrepreneurs, Janet Nixdorff, Theodore H. Rosen

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

As of 2007, there were an estimated 10.4 million businesses in the United States that were owned and operated by women. The number of women-owned firms has continued to grow at around twice the rate of all firms for the past two decades (Center for Women’s Business Research, 2008). On the other hand, women comprise only 15.4 percent of corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies (Catalyst, 2007b) and, in 2003, held only 14.8 percent of board seats in the Fortune 500 (Catalyst, 2007a).To better understand the glass ceiling faced by both female entrepreneurs and women leaders, the research on women’s …

Citizen Professionals: The Effective Practices Of Experts Helping Community Organizations, Sarah Hippensteel Hall

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Although numerous local, state, and federal laws and policies address water pollution, many problems remain. To address these problems thousands of groups of citizens, who are concerned with their water resources - rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and groundwater - organized around the U.S. over the past several decades. To succeed, these community organizations need the resources and capacity to reach their goals. To gain capacity, some community organizations turn to people outside the organization for assistance. Citizen professionals are helpers who work jointly with an organization to help develop an organization's adaptive capacity to deal with challenges and achieve goals. …

Expanding Leader Capability: An Exploratory Study Of The Effect Of Daily Practices For Leader Development, Simon Rakoff

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Leadership is, at its essence, an influence relationship between people. Leaders are often thought of as those who are able to influence people to take actions oriented toward achieving specific goals and objectives. While many books have been written, and myriad scholarly research studies conducted enumerating countless personal characteristics, qualities, and skills of the exemplary leader, little has been done to understand and convey the ways in which an individual might go about cultivating these virtues; which are often said to include charisma, empathy, communication skills, and others. Through a multiple single-subject design, this research examines the individual-level effect of …

What Is It Like To Be Funny? The Spontaneous Humor Producer’S Subjective Experience, Lisa Goldstein Graham

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of the individual who spontaneously produces humor during conversation. Although a broad humor literature exists, very little research addresses the experience of the spontaneous humor producer. This study represents an early step toward filling this gap in the literature. I gathered data by videotaping organizational meetings and conducting subsequent Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) interviews with individuals who produced humor during the course of the meetings. I analyzed data from the IPR interviews using an emergent thematic analysis. Most humor producers in this sample were consciously aware of specific external cues, …

Not So Black And White: The Color Of Perception In Corporate Layoffs, Carole A. Isom

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research addressed the question of whether or not the perception exists that African Americans are disproportionately impacted during layoff periods within corporations. Portraiture was the selected method of inquiry for this research as it captures the experience of the participants and enables storytelling which is based upon perception as opposed to hard, quantitative data. Additionally, portraiture’s autobiographical roots supported my autoethnographic position, encouraging the artistic process while including aesthetic aspects. Portraiture allowed for the voice of the researcher everywhere: in the assumptions, preoccupations, and frameworks brought to the inquiry; in the questions asked; in the data gathered; in the …

An Analysis Of Factors That Influence The Success Of Women Engineering Leaders In Corporate America, Letha Joye Jepson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

"One in 4 women entering the engineering profession leaves after age 30, while only 1 in 10 of their male counterparts does" (Perusek, 2008, p. 20). I was interested in analyzing the factors supporting women engineers’ leadership development and success. My particular focus was on women engineers in corporate environments—the personal characteristics needed for a successful career and the impacts of social support, career development, and the corporate culture on their career progression. The aspects of social support included the factors of family, friends, and significant others and the levels of supports during the woman’s career. The features of corporation …

Edge Leadership: Using Senior Leadership Perceptions To Explore Organizational Turnarounds, Lynn William Olsen

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The researcher developed the concept of an edge leader—that is, one who can mindfully turn around a troubled business to sustain it for the future. In an increasingly turbulent and competitive climate, more edge leaders must be developed to sustain their organizations for the benefit of shareholders, employees, communities, and society. The researcher's review of the classic and contemporary leadership and change literatures suggested that four elements are necessary to develop leaders capable of leading even basic beneficial change. They include: having broad, successful experience; being emotionally and socially aware; having the ability to think differently about priorities and paradoxes …

Strategic Asymmetric Multicultural Alliances In Business, Anthony James Scriffignano

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Global economics and other factors make it increasingly difficult for organizations to operate within the boundaries of one country in a rational way (e.g., leveraging best practices, profitable, achieving goals). In this study, I looked at strategic business alliances, transcending simple quid pro quo relationships to deliver ongoing partner value. I refined my study to multicultural relationships, having differing cultural identities (i.e., ideas, heritage, language, or demographics from differing geographies). Finally, I considered asymmetry (i.e., inequity in working relationship). Using a mixed-methodology design, I surveyed alliance participants and interviewed participants from selected alliances. A multi-case study addresses emergent themes of …

Responsible Leadership - An Ethic Of Right Behavior, C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

No abstract provided.

Connecting Informal Workgroup Interactions And Organizational Creative Climate, Cheryl B. Nee-Gieringer

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Creative imagination is required to comprehend complex challenges, solve business problems and develop the solutions that organizations need to adapt, and prosper in a dynamic and increasingly global environment. Multiple factors influence an organization’s ability to tap that imagination. For more than a half of century, research in cognitive and organizational sciences has investigated those influences and identified dimensions of creative climate, characteristics of creative people and processes for improving innovation. However, research explicitly linking organizational communication and organizational creativity has been limited. With a theoretical framework based in small group theory, this study explores the connection between intra-workgroup communication …

Learning Important Lessons Of Life And Work From Peter Drucker, C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In this essay, Pollard reflects upon key lessons he has learned from management theorist Peter Drucker.

2009 Applied Projects Organizational Impact Report, Heather Carpenter, Paula Krist

USD Evaluation of Applied Learning Model in Nonprofit Leadership and Management Master's Program

Student learning outcomes and student satisfaction of nonprofit management graduate degree programs have received much attention recently from researchers. However, little research examines the community impact of such programs.

This paper reports findings from a community impact study of the Masters of Arts in Nonprofit Leadership and Management at the University of San Diego. An extensive qualitative study was conducted to determine whether student-led applied projects conducted for nonprofit organizations had an impact on those organizations, and if so, to assess the type and duration of that impact. A key finding was that all organizations that were interviewed for the …

The Virtue Of Profit (Wheaton, Il - Second Revision), C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In this second revision of a speech delivered at Wheaton College's Hastert Center (now the Center for Economy, Government, and Public Policy), Pollard contends that profit can be considered virtuous when it allows servant leaders to invest in employees, thereby contributing to the moral and spiritual formation of human beings.

The Virtue Of Profit (Wheaton, Il - First Revision), C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In this speech -- a revised version of one delivered at Wheaton College's Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy -- Pollard contends that profit can be considered virtuous when it allows servant leaders to invest in employees, thereby contributing to the moral and spiritual formation of human beings.

Giving Circles, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

A giving circle is a group of members pool their funds and information in collective or joint donations to organizations, causes or individuals. The article reviews some of the research on giving circles in the first decade of the 21st century.

The Virtue Of Profit (Mclean, Va), C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In this speech delivered to the Workforce Ministry Group of McLean Presbyterian Church (McLean, VA), Pollard contends that profit can be considered virtuous when it allows servant leaders to invest in employees, thereby contributing to the moral and spiritual formation of human beings.

Ethical Leadership, C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

Pollard based this speech on an afterword he had written for Scott A. Quatro and Ronald R. Sims, Eds., Executive Ethics: Ethical Dilemmas and Challenges for the C-Suite (Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2008). In it Pollard contends that businesses can be moral communities if leaders understand themselves as moral entities, dedicated to the well-being of their employees.

Management As A Liberal Art: Putting People At The Center, C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

This article was published in the December 2008/January 2009 issue of the Christian Leadership Alliance's journal Outcomes. In it Pollard provides the broad contours of people-centered leadership, noting in particular how such leadership requires interaction with the humanities and social sciences as well as the ability to recognize the spiritual aspect of the human condition.

How Effective Leaders Learn From Life: A Grounded Theory Study Of The Impact Of Significant Life Experiences Upon Leadership Development, Ryan P. Meers

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

Fifteen effective leaders from diverse organizational backgrounds described their significant life experiences and the impact upon their development as leaders. Using grounded theory methodology, a theoretical model emerged for assisting leaders absorb greater learning from their various life experiences. Related to the central phenomenon of how effective leaders learn from significant life experiences, four causal conditions of types of experiences were identified as influencing how leaders learn: (1) experiences of adversity or loss; (2) experiences of “stretch assignments”; (3) inspirational experiences; and (4) experiences with conflict. Strategies used by the leaders to absorb learning from their significant experiences were active …

Holographic Leadership: Leading As A Way Of Being, Janet L. Byars

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Holographic Leadership integrates values-based leadership into an understanding of an energetic holographic world. It is a world where the unseen is the primary influencer, where the smaller is more powerful (Bohm, 1994). I will synthesize many diverse ideas into an exploratory theory that will suggest new insights into sustainable leadership. I will propose a new model of practice from which to work. I suggest that it is through an internal state of physiological coherence and psychological balance that a leader can truly learn to “hold steady” (Heifetz, 1994), creating an intentional holding environment, a coherent group dynamic, which draws forth …

Making The Value Of Development Visible: A Sequential Mixed Methodology Study Of The Integral Impact Of Post-Classroom Leader And Leadership Development, Laura Curnutt Santana

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In a time of increasing complexity, many organizations invest in leadership development programs to prepare those who will assume the role of leader. Although many studies have evaluated programs’ impact, the questions remain: does development happen in leadership development program? If so, what kind of development? And what is the participant’s experience of personal or organizational impact? The purpose of this sequential mixed methodology study is to address these three questions utilizing an online follow-through platform as a lens on 248 participants in the Center for Creative Leadership’s Leadership Development Program (LDP) who reported completing their LDP goals. Those who …

Making The Leap To Management: Tips For The Aspiring And New Manager, Femi Cadmus

Faculty Scholarship

As the result of innate ability, a fortunate few are able to effortlessly transition from line positions. However, most of us need to plot the path to management astutely and with deliberation. Library professionals might also become "accidental" managers, finding themselves thrust into an unplanned and perhaps unwanted managerial position for which they were not prepared. This is particularly true in the current climate of constrained budgets characterized by restructuring, job freezes, and layoffs.

Employeer And Recruiter Use Of Social Networking Websites As A Candidate Screening Tool, Janelle L. Harrison

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

In today’s changing job market, employers and recruiters are looking to new technological methods of evaluating potential job candidates. One of these technologies is the use of social networking websites. This thesis examines the frequency to which this practice is used and also the specific behaviors looked for when checking candidate profiles. It also investigates the awareness and opinions of job seekers who have social networking profiles. Data analysis of the employer/recruiter questionnaire revealed that most employers and recruiters admit to using social networking websites as a candidate evaluation tool at least some of the time. Behaviors examined were varied …

Young Professionals And Philanthropy, Patricia Neilson

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

Seven teams of young professionals presented what they learned from their projects with 7 organizations from the nonprofit and donor sector over the past year. Their experiences and insights address two related questions:

• What is the role of philanthropy in retaining young professionals in the Boston region?

• How can young professionals leverage their leadership skills, and their organization’s resources, to create successful partnerships in philanthropy to serve the Boston region?

Research Project / Management As A Liberal Art / The Virtue Of Profit, C. William Pollard, Peter F. Drucker

C. William Pollard Papers

In this memo sent to his grandson, Pollard provides a summary of the concept of "Management as a Liberal Art" in addition to a letter from Peter Drucker and several documents with Drucker quotations. The latter are taking from the following sources:

Drucker, P. (1942) The Freedom of Industrial Man. Virginia Quarterly Review 18 (4),481-499. The citation comes from pp. 482-483.

Drucker, P.F. (1988). Teaching the Work of Management. New Management 6 (2), 2-5. The citation comes from p. 5. Drucker, P.F. (1989). The New Realities: In government and politics, in economics and business, in society and worldview. New York: …

Faith In The Workplace, C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

Speaking at the Samaritan Interfaith Focus on Faith Breakfast (Cress Creek Country Club - Naperville, IL), Pollard addresses the question of faith in the workplace. In particular, he posits that servant leadership is the primary means by which one actualizes religious faith in everyday life.

Senior Team Attributes And Organizational Ambidexterity: The Moderating Role Of Transformational Leadership, Justin J. P. Jansen, Gerard George, Frans A. J. Van Den Bosch, Henk W. Volberda

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Organizations capable of pursuing exploration and exploitation simultaneously have been suggested to obtain superior performance. Combining both types of activities and achieving organizational ambidexterity, however, leads to the presence of multiple and often conflicting goals, and poses considerable challenges to senior teams in ambidextrous organizations. This study explores the role of senior team attributes and leadership behaviour in reconciling conflicting interests among senior team members and achieving organizational ambidexterity. Findings indicate that a senior team shared vision and contingency rewards are associated with a firm's ability to combine high levels of exploratory and exploitative innovations. In addition, our study shows …

What Is Your Business? (Chicago), C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In this speech at the 2008 Chicago Executive Forum Breakfast (Naperville, IL), Pollard posits that Christian businesses (i.e., corporations in which, among other things, managers see themselves as servant leaders) should understand profit as a means for the development of human character.