Leadership Studies Commons^™

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 …

Professional Hurt: The Untold Stories, Ruby Macksine Brown

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine professional hurt across the public services of the Commonwealth Caribbean with a view toward creating what could probably be the first body of knowledge that will offer insights into its nature and relationship with the practice of leadership. The study also sought to explore an understanding of professional hurt that could inform the design of leadership development programs to help develop leaders who can navigate or avoid hurt. I utilized the biographical research approach to access the lived experiences of 20 public sector leaders across 9 independent Commonwealth Caribbean islands. Narrative thematic …

Effective Networked Nonprofit Organizations: Defining The Behavior And Creating An Instrument For Measurement, Andrea Leigh Hernandez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This correlational research design, which included a convenience sample of 157 nonprofit staff and board member responses to a Likert-type survey, was used to conduct a principle components analysis (PCA) to develop subscales related to networked nonprofits. As defined in the study, a networked nonprofit has a set of intentionally built trusting relationships and has systems and strategies that engage various stakeholders in meaningful conversations. They achieve their missions by developing strong partnerships where they invest in the goals of other organizations to mobilize resources for a common shared mission and values. While there were correlations between the level respondents …

From Bonding To Bridging: Using The Immunity To Change (Itc) Process To Build Social Capital And Create Change, Froswa' Booker-Drew

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

A group of diverse women from various ethnic, religious, socio-economic and generations were brought together over the course of four months to determine if the Immunity to Change (ITC) process (Kegan & Lahey, 2009) would create bridging social capital as well as individual change. The group sessions included a process of assigned readings, discussions, and completion of ITC maps allowing women to reveal their identities and journeys through the sharing of their personal narratives. As a result, many experienced perception transformation regarding issues of gender, leadership, race, and class. The dissertation explores topics of power and privilege, relational leadership, and …

To Transform A Culture: The Rise And Fall Of The U.S. Army Organizational Effectiveness Program, 1970–1985, James Michael Young

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In the early 1970s, following a decade of social upheaval in the US and a traumatizing military defeat in Vietnam, a group of progressive army officers, armed with recent graduate degrees in the social and behavioral sciences, created a grass roots movement that soon led to the implementation of the largest organizational development program ever conducted. Wartime atrocities and chronic careerism in the Army officer corps, along with President Richard Nixon’s promise to create an All-Volunteer Force (AVF), opened up a window of opportunity for these progressives to promote transformational leadership theories grounded in humanistic psychology. In institutionalizing OD across …

Addressing Global Threat: Exploring The Relationship Between Common Purpose And Leadership, Charles R.H. Powell

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

While the mention of common purpose is prevalent in leadership studies, there are few attempts to explore the relationship between common purpose and leadership. This study delves into the questions of if and how common purpose and leadership inform one another. How leaders adapt purpose and leadership approaches in response to evolving and turbulent conditions may foster the depth and sustainment of immediate and subsequent accomplishments. Through phenomenological research in the venue of nuclear weapons reduction, a common purpose that is both globally pervasive and imbued with a sense of urgency, the lived essence of those engaged in common purpose …

The Relationship Between Perceived Servant Leadership Constructs And Collective Self-Esteem, Leann D. Howell

Dissertations

Following Greenleaf’s (1977) seminal work in servant leadership, much has been written on the definition of servant leadership, but very little written on what it does. At the center of this research is a focus on how followers perceive servant leadership constructs/attributes, and the relationship between that perception and collective selfesteem as it relates to organizational membership. The central question guiding this research is: “Is there a relationship between perceived servant leadership constructs and collective self-esteem?” Followers’ perceptions of servant leadership constructs as defined by Patterson (2003) were investigated utilizing the Servant Leadership Assessment Instrument (SLAI) developed by Dennis (2004). …

Reflections On The Metamorphosis At Robben Island: The Role Of Institutional Work And Positive Psychological Capital, Wayne F. Cascio, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners from South Africa were imprisoned on notorious Robben Island from the mid-1960s until the end of the apartheid regime in 1991. The stark conditions and abusive treatment of these prisoners has been widely publicized. However, upon reflection and in retrospect, over the years, a type of metamorphosis occurred. Primarily drawing from firsthand accounts of the former prisoners and guards, it seems that Robben Island morphed from the traditional oppressive prison paradigm to one where the positively oriented prisoners disrupted the institution with a resulting climate of learning and transformation that eventually led to freedom …

The Social Role Theory Of Unethical Leadership, Crystal L. Hoyt, Terry L. Price, Laura Poatsy

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Challenging the standard reasoning regarding leaders’ ethical failures, we argue that a potent contributor to these failures is the social role expectations of leaders. We maintain that leaders’ central role expectation of goal achievement contributes to the over-valuing of group goals and greater moral permissibility of the means used to achieve these goals. In studies 1 and 2 we demonstrated that the role of leader, relative to group member, is associated with an increased appraisal of group goals which is predicted by the leaders’ role expectations and not driven by the psychological effects of power. Next, we experimentally demonstrated the …

Ethical Decision Making And Leadership: Merging Social Role And Self-Construal Perspectives, Crystal L. Hoyt, Terry L. Price

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This research extends our understanding of ethical decision making on the part of leaders by merging social role and self-construal perspectives. Interdependent self-construal is generally seen as enhancing concern for justice and moral values. Across two studies we tested the prediction that non-leading group members’ interdependent self-construal would be associated with lower levels of unethical decision making on behalf of their group but that, in contrast, this relationship would be weaker for leaders, given their social role. These predictions were experimentally tested by assigning participants to the role of leader or non-leading group member and assessing the association between their …

Gender Bias In Leader Evaluations: Merging Implicit Theories And Role Congruity Perspectives, Crystal L. Hoyt, Jeni L. Burnette

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This research extends our understanding of gender bias in leader evaluations by merging role congruity and implicit theory perspectives. We tested and found support for the prediction that the link between people’s attitudes regarding women in authority and their subsequent gender-biased leader evaluations is significantly stronger for entity theorists (those who believe attributes are fixed) relative to incremental theorists (those who believe attributes are malleable). In Study 1, 147 participants evaluated male and female gubernatorial candidates. Results supported predictions, demonstrating that traditional attitudes toward women in authority significantly predicted a pro-male gender bias in leader evaluations (and progressive attitudes predicted …

An Open Letter To The Class Of 2013, Center For Public Service

SURGE

Upon graduation I will have received no honors. After four years of college, thirty-seven courses, ten labs, two sets of major requirements and several almost complete minors, I have won the ultimate consolation prize: a diploma. I know that not everyone has the privilege of going to college and I also know that those who start college do not always make it to the end, some not even through the first week. However, in the world of academia, students are pushed to strive for the best grades. Even at Gettysburg College where global awareness, critical thinking and an integration of …

[Introduction To] Heroic Leadership: An Influence Taxonomy Of 100 Exceptional Individuals, Scott T. Allison, George R. Goethals

Bookshelf

Heroic Leadership is a celebration of our greatest heroes, from legends such as Mahatma Gandhi to the legions of unsung heroes who transform our world quietly behind the scenes. The authors argue that all great heroes are also great leaders. The term ‘heroic leadership’ is coined to describe how heroism and leadership are intertwined, and how our most cherished heroes are also our most transforming leaders.

This book offers a new conceptual framework for understanding heroism and heroic leadership, drawing from theories of great leadership and heroic action. Ten categories of heroism are described: Trending Heroes, Transitory Heroes, Transparent Heroes, …

Actions, Practices, And Workplace Conditions That Characterize High-Engagement Workgroups In A Hospital Environment, Barbette Weimer-Elder

Dissertations

In the United States a large number of people are not engaged at work. The lack of engagement affects the service outcomes as well as financial bottom line of organizations. The cost of actively disengaged employees in the U.S. is about $300 billion a year. Research cites the importance of examining business units that scored high on employee engagement to learn about actions and practices that drive business outcomes.

Between 2005-2010 The Community Hospital (TCH), part of a Healthcare Corporation in Valley Town, USA (pseudonym), assessed employee engagement using Gallup’s Q12 survey. Some groups scored in the top quartile and …

Communication In Crisis, Blair Veloz

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Many people today continually search for their identity in the world. In order for someone to effectively communicate, they must understand how they would communicate when they least want to, such as in a crisis situation. A crisis or multiple crises can affect how people see the world, themselves and ultimately how they will communicate in a time of trouble. With the use of Martin Buber and his view on I-Thou, this thesis assists in understanding the encounter with God and that He is what helps makes us complete. Helping others to reach this goal of communicating well, this thesis …

Melungeon Portraits: Lived Experience And Identity, Tamara L. Stachowicz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The desire to claim an ethnicity may be in response to an institutional and systemic political movement towards multiculturalism where ethnic difference is something to be recognized and celebrated (Jimenez, 2010; Tatum, 1997). Those who were a member of a dominant or advantaged group took that element of their identity for granted (Tatum, 1997). Identity work has included reflections and congruence between how individuals see themselves and how they perceive others to see them, including Optimal Distinctiveness Theory where one determines the optimal amount of individual distinctiveness needed to feel a healthy group and personal identity (Brewer, 2012). When most …

A Women's Talking Circle: A Narrative Study Of Positive Intergenerational Communication, Pamela Ferris-Olson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Narrative inquiry was used to understand how women’s experiences with their mothers, grandmothers, and daughters and as mothers, grandmothers, and daughters contribute to their meaning making of communication and connectedness with unrelated women. A purposeful sample of nine women aged 31-69 from a small Midwestern city was studied. Six African American and three white women were chosen for their membership in a group that has regularly engaged in positive intergenerational communication for nearly two years. The women’s narratives of personal communicative experiences within their families and with the other women were recorded and interpreted to gain a deeper understanding of …

Emerging Forms Of Awareness About Forgiveness: An Analysis Of What High Profile Leaders Think, Stephen Bauman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Over the last several decades forgiveness research has exploded across a wide array of scholarly disciplines from psychology and sociology to political theory, medicine and the arts, but it has not yet captured the full attention of researchers concerned specifically with leadership. This situation is further complicated by the lack of an agreed-upon definition/understanding of forgiveness both within and across disciplines. This study explores what high profile leaders think about forgiveness and begins to fill the gap in leadership studies concerning the meanings and applications of forgiveness among leaders. Data was gathered through responsive interviewing of 13 high profile leaders …

Freedom, Immigration, And Adequate Options, Javier S. Hidalgo

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

According to the freedom argument for open borders, immigration restrictions are generally unjust because these restrictions infringe on important freedoms, such as freedom of association and the economic liberties. Some authors have objected to the freedom argument by claiming that potential immigrants only have rights to sufficient options to live decent or autonomous lives and, consequently, states can permissibly prevent people from immigrating when potential immigrants have adequate options. This paper shows that this objection to the freedom argument for open borders is unsound and that restrictions on international freedom of movement can be morally impermissible even when potential immigrants …

The Political Personality Of 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Willard Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate in the 2008 U.S. presidential election and Republican presidential nominee in 2012.

The study was conducted in 2007–2008 and 2012, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon. Information concerning Romney was collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of …

Making Heroes: The Construction Of Courage, Competence, And Virtue, George R. Goethals, Scott T. Allison

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

People use the term hero frequently in our culture, and most people can easily name several heroes. Our research explores how people think about heroes as well as the determinants of heroic behavior. People's heroes may be real-world figures or fictional characters. They are thought to be competent enough to achieve at a high level, moral enough to do the right thing in difficult situations, or both. People's conceptions of heroes reflect both schemas about what heroes are like and narrative structures about how they act. We consider the possibility that images of heroes and common hero narratives reflect evolutionarily …

Presidential Decision Making: Comparing The Personality Profiles Of Barack Obama And Franklin D. Roosevelt, Andrew Obritsch, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of indirect assessments of the personalities of U.S. presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack H. Obama, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon. Information concerning Roosevelt and Obama was collected from biographical sources and published reports and synthesized into personality profiles using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profiles yielded by the MIDC were analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC manual. Roosevelt’s primary personality pattern was found …

I Can Do That: The Impact Of Implicit Theories On Leadership Role Model Effectiveness, Crystal L. Hoyt, Jeni L. Burnette, Audrey N. Innella

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This research investigates the role of implicit theories in influencing the effectiveness of successful role models in the leadership domain. Across two studies, we test the prediction that incremental theorists (‘leaders are made’) compared to entity theorists (‘leaders are born’) will respond more positively to being presented with a role model before undertaking a leadership task. In Study 1, measuring people’s naturally occurring implicit theories of leadership, we showed that after being primed with a role model, incremental theorists reported greater leadership confidence and less anxious-depressed affect than entity theorists following the leadership task. In Study 2, we demonstrated the …

The Roles Of Flourishing And Spirituality In Millenials’ Leadership Development Activity, Allison L. O'Malley, Denise E, Williams

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Confronted by today’s epidemic of corporate meltdowns, broken institutional paradigms, unethical decision-making, and demand for innovative competencies in order to remain competitive, educators and researchers are challenged to examine how today’s future leaders develop the skill and will to be effective. Whether labeled GenY, Generation Next, Generation Tech or Millennials (i.e. individuals born between 1982 and 2003), this group of change agents differs in attitudes, behaviors, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivations from older generations (e.g. Taylor & Keeter, 2010; Twenge, Campbell & Freeman, 2012). The scholarly debate on the role of meaning making (Park, 2005) describes the Millennial on a …

Multi-Generational Differences: Bridging The Gap, Leigh Mcmaster Bowes

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Today's business market is experiencing several trends such as organizational restructuring, corporate takeovers, changes in technology, mid-life career changes becoming more common, older employees choosing partial retirement rather than full retirement and the aging oftoday's largest workforce. As a result, the business community is faced with a new dynamic environment comprised ofmulti-generational difference and it is imperative that managers understand the generational differences and use their knowledge as a tool to create more employee productivity, innovation and loyalty (Fogg. 2009). This thesis used Constructive-Development Theory and Generational Cohort Theory to guide this research. Survey results concluded that managers did observe …

Incorporating Aspects Of The 'Emotional Intelligence' Theory To Tactical Fundraising Strategies For Non-Profit Organizations (Npo's) In Recessive Economic Times "Vision Of Hope: Fundraising In Recessive Economic Times", Marc Knutson

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

The global economic picture over the past decade has created tough financial times for nations, individuals, and industry in general. With respect to organizations, there is no one single area more affected by devastating economic stress than non-profits. In economically prosperous times, philanthropists and other donors to non-profit organizations are open to, and regularly schedule, donations. However, as financial situations require belt-tightening and acute frugality, donations to non-profits are reconsidered. In light of the slumping economic times, I suggest that non-profit organizations, specifically those supporting laboratory research of debilitating diseases, review their fundraising strategies defining a differentiation strategy that sets …

The Impact Of Technology And Teachers' Perceptions Of Changes In Student Learning, Sandra Marie Aggen

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Today’s cell phones are small computers in their own right, many having the capability of Internet searching and downloading information, exchanging data, taking and storing pictures, and its most popular function with the current generation of young people: text messaging. While on the surface it appears that text messaging has brought users together and improved communication, its effects on learning and social relationships are cause for concern. Personal interviews and online surveys conducted with over 100 educators present a real and sometimes disturbing look at new challenges in teaching and communicating with today’s students. Reading and writing ability is declining, …

Gender Bias In Employment Contexts: A Closer Examination Of The Role Incongruity Principle, Crystal L. Hoyt

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This research extends the role incongruity analysis of employment-related gender bias by investigating the role of dispositional and situational antecedents, specifically political ideology and the salience of cues to the traditional female gender role. The prediction that conservatives would show an anti-female candidate bias and liberals would show a pro-female bias when the traditional female gender role is salient was tested across three experimental studies. In Study 1, 126 participants evaluated a male or a female job applicant with thoughts of the traditional female gender role activated or not. Results showed that when the gender role is salient, political ideology …

Role Of Foundations In The Changing World Of Philanthropy: A Houston Perspective, Ronnie Hagerty

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

From the earliest days of the American nation, philanthropy has had a defining role in leading change. Philanthropy has provided vision and voice for nascent social movements ranging from civil rights and the women’s movement to AIDS research and environmentalism. As the 21st century has moved into its second decade, philanthropy finds itself facing significant pressures that threaten to compromise its ability to innovate and advocate for issues and individuals whose voices cannot be heard over the public rhetoric of the day. Once perceived as the purview of the rich and well connected, modern philanthropy cuts across social, economic, and …

Downsized Survivors: Areas Of Loss And Work Behaviors, Cyndi J. Schaeffer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research design used factor analysis to develop subscales related to areas of loss, and subscales related to work behaviors of survivors following a downsizing. Five loss subscales were revealed as a result of factor analysis. They were loss of sense of justice and supervisory support; loss of security and support; loss of positive outlook; loss of territory; and loss of control and identity. There were two work behavior components identified through factor analysis. They were lack of productivity and sabotage; and intention for flight. The loss components, sense of justice and supervisory support; security and competence; and territory, were …