Leadership Studies Commons^™

Unleashing Excellence: Strengthening It Leaders Through Executive Coaching, Tonya S. Rivers

Dissertations

This paper explores the impact of executive coaching on Information Technology (IT) leaders. Many organizations across different industries lack strong leadership, as exposed by COVID-19. Companies aim to keep exceptional leaders and establish upbeat workplaces to achieve success. Although previous research has examined leadership effectiveness, it is still unclear how best to manage employees' perceptions of effective leadership. The goal of this research is to provide new insights into what can improve perceptions of leadership effectiveness. I explored the role executive leadership coaching has on managers working in the Information Technology (IT) field. Current literature often mentions the need for …

Emotional Intelligence And Effective Leadership In Times Of Global Crisis: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Managers At Multilateral Development Institutions During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Bukola Ogunyemi

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify and describe the perceptions of managers at multilateral development institutions regarding the impact of emotional intelligence methods in their approaches to leading during the COVID-19 pandemic. A secondary purpose was to examine how the experiences of leading during the COVID-19 crisis influenced managers' understanding, development, and application of emotional intelligence skills as part of their leadership practices.

Methodology: This study employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design to examine the role of emotional intelligence in crisis leadership at multilateral development institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Goleman's emotional intelligence framework as …

Adaptive Leadership: Strategies Used By U.S. Navy Command Senior Enlisted Leaders To Build Adaptive Capacity In Times Of Great Change, Derek Wayne King

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify and describe strategies used by U.S. Navy command senior enlisted leaders (CSELs) to build an adaptive capacity based on the five key characteristics of adaptive leadership identified by Heifetz et al. (2009).Methodology: This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of U.S. Navy CSELs. Purposeful, convenience sampling was used to identify 10 participants who met the study’s criteria. The semistructured, open-ended interview protocol was developed by a thematic research team of nine peer researchers and three faculty advisors. Data collected from the interviews and artifacts were analyzed to identify themes related …

Primal Leadership In Healthcare: A Phenomenological Study Of Emergency Medicine Physicians And Their Perspective On Effective Leadership, Zoe Zaidi

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and describe how emergency medicine (EM) physicians in leadership roles use the six EI leadership competencies related to relationship management (inspiration, influence, developing others, change catalyst, conflict management, and teamwork and collaboration) to lead teams and accomplish effective results. Methodology: This phenomenological study described the lived experiences of emergency medicine (EM) physician leaders in San Bernadino, Riverside, and Orange counties in Southern California. The participants were selected through nonprobability purposeful sampling and met the criteria “as leaders” for achieving effective results. Data were collected through semistructured interview questions and analysis …

Leadership Practices For High-Performing Teams: Insights From Senior Military General Officers And Flag Officers, Kimberly Mitchell

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify and describe how senior military general officers and flag officers (GOFOs) used the three competencies of high-performance teams (HPTs; clarity, connection, and communication) to achieve objectives in their organizations. The second purpose of this study was to determine the degree of importance that senior military GOFOs perceived the three high-performance team effect (HPTE) core competencies impacted their leadership for creating HPTs.

Methodology: This mixed methods study identified and described nine senior military officers’ perceptions of strategies to lead HPTs while focusing on the three core competencies: clarity, connection, and …

Examining The Creative Process Of Visual Artists: A Phenomenological Study, Filiberto Vargas

Dissertations

Creativity fuels problem solving and innovation, driving both economic growth and individual success. Yet, many schools and organizations fail to nurture it. Today, there is a decline in creativity scores among U.S. students. This is concerning since many of these students will be the future leaders of organizations and communities. For this reason, this dissertation explores the creative process of visual artists to better understand how creativity can be cultivated. Visual artists' perspectives and sense-and-meaning-making processes offer a unique view of innovation and creativity. However, there is limited research on the creative processes of contemporary visual artists from culturally diverse …

A Phenomenological Study Exploring Superintendent’S Perceptions On Four Servant Leadership Characteristics For Developing High-Performing Teams, Katie Chin-Berry

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and describe public school superintendents’ perceived impact of four servant leadership characteristics established by Spears (2010) on developing and maintaining high-performing teams. Methodology: This phenomenological research study explored and detailed how superintendents perceived the influence of four servant leadership characteristics on developing and maintaining high-performing teams. Eight participants were chosen using nonprobability purposeful and convenience sampling based on specific criteria, which required at least 4 years of experience in their district, a minimum of 10 years of experience in the K–12 public school system, and employed in a K–12 district …

Adaptive Leadership: Strategies Used By U.S. Navy Command Senior Enlisted Leaders To Build Adaptive Capacity In Times Of Great Change, Derek Wayne King

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify and describe strategies used by U.S. Navy command senior enlisted leaders (CSELs) to build an adaptive capacity based on the five key characteristics of adaptive leadership identified by Heifetz et al. (2009).Methodology: This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of U.S. Navy CSELs. Purposeful, convenience sampling was used to identify 10 participants who met the study’s criteria. The semistructured, open-ended interview protocol was developed by a thematic research team of nine peer researchers and three faculty advisors. Data collected from the interviews and artifacts were analyzed to identify themes related …

How Supervisors Can Help Their Subordinates Manage Stress Post-Covid-19: A Phenomenological Qualitative Research Approach Focused On The Lived Experiences Of Police Sergeants And Their Role In Helping Mitigate Stress Among Police Officers, Elvis Nti

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative research was to explore how police sergeants effectively lead their police officers in managing stress post-COVID-19 using the leadership traits of collective interest, moral purpose, personal temperament, and resilience (Fast, 2021).

Methodology: This phenomenological qualitative research approach focused on the lived experiences of police sergeants and aimed to explain how they reduce stress among police officers. Participants were selected using purposive and convenience sampling. Semistructured interviews were conducted with police sergeants from the Los Angeles Police Department. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded. Themes naturally emerged and were compared across participants to identify …

They Do Not See What I Carry: A Phenomenological Study Of Black Male Educational Leaders And The Quiet Weight Of Imposter Syndrome, Malik A. Richard

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how Black male educational leaders experience and cope with Impostor Syndrome (IS) as defined by Zorn’s (2005) nine elements—anxiety, lack of self-confidence, depression, perfectionism, procrastination, self-presentation, emotional exhaustion, fear of failure, and fear of success, within their organizational, social, and cultural contexts. Methodology: Guided by Moustakas’s (1994) phenomenological approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews and reflective journals from Black male leaders in K–12 educational settings in the Boston region. Purposeful sampling (Patton, 2014) ensured participants had significant leadership experience. Data were thematically coded, aligned with Zorn’s nine elements, and …

A Phenomenological Study: Implicit Bias In The Hiring Practices Of Health Care Organizations (Perception, Impact On Workforce Diversity, Mitigation Methods, And Implementation Assessment), Mohamed Boubrik

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how implicit bias influences hiring practices within health care organizations. Specifically, it investigated the perceptions of hiring professionals regarding implicit bias, its impact on workforce diversity, the strategies used to mitigate it, and the effectiveness of those strategies in real-world implementation.

Methodology: This qualitative study employed a phenomenological approach to capture the lived experiences of hiring professionals in Southern California health care organizations. A random sampling method was used to select participants across various health care facilities. Data collection was conducted through semistructured interviews, using a validated interview protocol as …

Breaking Barriers: A Delphi Study On Strategies Military Women Of Color Use To Advance Into Senior Leadership In The California Air National Guard, Michelle Leon Carrasco

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to determine what strategies military women of color (in ranks of E–8 and above or O–4 and above) used to overcome workplace barriers to advancement in the California Air National Guard (CAANG), to rate the importance of the strategies identified in Research Question 1, and to determine the methods by which they employed the top five most important strategies.Methodology: This study used a three-round Delphi method to collect data from women of color senior leaders in the CAANG. In Round 1, the expert panel identified strategies to overcome workplace barriers to advance …

Support Needs Of Agrarian Women To Build Household Livelihood Resilience: A Case Study Of The Mekong River Delta, Tran Thi Ngoc Tran

Dissertations

Problem

Rural livelihood faces significant challenges due to the increasing frequency and severity of climate change impacts. However, the development of women’s livelihood resilience remains constrained by gender-blind policies, limited sex-disaggregated data, and a lack of integration of gender-specific needs and priorities in resilience-building interventions. This study aims to address these critical gaps. This study aims at exploring the perceived support needs of rural agrarian women in building household livelihood resilience to climate change. Specifically, it seeks to (1) understand how household livelihood resilience is perceived by rural agrarian women, and (2) identify the support they require to effectively adapt …

Developing The Leadership Competency Of Critical Thinking In College Students: A Quasi-Experimental Mixed Methods Study At A Small Christian College, Norberto Restrepo

Dissertations

Our world of constant change and complex challenges requires citizens who know how to exercise higher-order thinking skills, and individuals who have developed their metacognitive abilities to a higher extent are better prepared to perform effectively as leaders. This quasi-experimental mixed methods study employed a pre and posttest design to determine whether the critical thinking skills of students at Hartland College could be improved over the course of a one quarter ten week term through the use of biblical worldview instructional approaches such as biblical worldview development, faith learning integration, and deep Bible study that had critical thinking activities embedded …

An Exploration Of The Clinical Senior Nursing Student Preceptor Relationship, Kimberly Nicole Dunker

Dissertations

Problem

The use of clinical preceptors for training is well documented in the literature as an effective strategy for helping students, new graduates, and RNs orient to their roles in healthcare facilities. The need to ensure that the preceptor is adequately trained and then matched to a preceptee for a successful relationship is a challenge. The healthcare facility does its best to identify a preceptor and ensure adequate training is completed and there is a willingness to facilitate the experience. The academic institution is required to ensure that preceptors are chosen based on criteria outlined by the board of nursing …

Becoming A Leader “On The Job”: An Exploratory Study Examining How Internal Interim Leaders Build Their Leadership Capacity While Nonprofit Executive Directors Are On Sabbatical, Michelle Schneider

Dissertations

Nonprofit organizations have long underinvested in leadership development, potentially hindering their ability to fulfill their missions effectively. This study examined the use of nonprofit organization sabbaticals that give executive directors time away while building the leadership capabilities of the interim leader. This research explored the on-the-job leadership development of six individuals who served as interim leaders in southern California nonprofit organizations during their executive directors' participation in a 3-month, foundation-funded sabbatical program.

In this study, data were collected through in-depth interviews with interim leaders. A formative influences timeline technique was employed to center the participant's voice rather than the interviewer's …

Exploring Educator Burnout: Experiences And Perceptions Of Teachers And Principals In Canadian K-12 Seventh-Day Adventist Schools, David Anthony Elias

Dissertations

Problem

Burnout among educators is a growing concern, particularly within faith-based school systems where teachers often balance high professional expectations with spiritual commitments. In K-12 Canadian Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) schools, limited research has explored how burnout manifests, the factors contributing to it, and its impact on teacher retention. This study aimed to examine the levels and causes of burnout among SDA educators, as well as the systemic factors influencing their experiences.

Method

This study employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. Quantitative data were collected using the Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educators Survey (MBI-ES) to measure emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced …

Inner Life, Spiritual Leadership, And Spiritual Well-Being As Predictors Of The Organizational Performance Of Employees At A Seventh-Day Adventist University In Latin America, Patricio Ordoñez

Dissertations

Problem

While traditional leadership models, such as transactional and transformational leadership, have shown success, recent research highlights the need for leadership approaches that address the spiritual and ethical dimensions of individuals in the workplace. Leaders who fail to integrate spiritual leadership risk negatively impacting employee satisfaction, creativity, and overall organizational performance. Despite the well-established concepts of inner life and spiritual well-being, more research is needed to understand their effects on employee performance in faith-based institutions. This study sought to fill that gap by examining the relationship among inner life, spiritual leadership, and spiritual well-being as predictors of organizational performance among …

Leadership Ways Of The Three Fires Anishinaabek, Grace Boda

Dissertations

Leadership has often been viewed through a narrow lens that primarily reflects Western perspectives, while Indigenous knowledge has been overlooked, marginalized, or excluded, perpetuating colonial systems. This study aims to restore Indigenous knowledge within the Three Fires Anishinaabek community and to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of leadership. Employing an Indigenous research methodology, the study centers relational and wholistic ways of knowing. This approach adheres to Indigenous ethics of relational accountability and utilizes a collaborative strategy for knowledge gathering (data collection) through conversational interviews.

As knowledge contributors (participants), members of the Three Fires Anishinaabek community engaged in discussions that …

Mothering, Leadership, And Career: A Narrative Analysis, Joanne Susan Roehm

Dissertations

In March 2020, much of the world was “sent home” from work and periods of lockdown began. In West Michigan, Friday, March 13 was the day that most workplaces closed their doors and employees began working from home for what was assumed to be a period of weeks. In the spring of 2020 between March and April, some million mothers living with school-age children left active work—either shifting into paid or unpaid leave, losing their job, or exiting the labor market all together.

The stories of mothers who experienced the “balancing act” of mothering and working at home during the …

The Unconscious At Work: A Psychosocial Study Of Leaders' Unconscious Processes Impacting Participatory Change Leadership, Vanessa Hills

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the varied dynamics impacting how organizational leaders conceptualize and enact their roles in participatory change processes. To that end, a multiple-case study informed by a psycho-social approach and using Free Association Narrative Interview (FANI) methods was conducted. Each case was comprised of a single business leader. The findings, presented through individual case analyses and cross-case comparisons, reveal a discrepancy between leaders’ rhetoric and the reality of their change leadership behaviors. While leaders express support for collaborative change, factors such as a desire for control, fear of failure, and bias toward their own capabilities lead them to adopt …

How Do Lgbt Employees Assess Their Firm’S Organizational Culture Regarding Lgbt Leadership?, Philippe Honore

Dissertations

This study explored Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans (LGBT) employees’ perceptions and assessments of their firms’ organizational cultures and, in particular, the opportunities within the culture that can lead to upper management positions for those who identify as LGBT. The research sought to understand the extent to which inclusivity efforts are reflected in real career progression opportunities for openly LGBT employees working in San Diego County. Employing a convergent parallel mixed-methods research design, the study incorporated quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to achieve a comprehensive understanding of participant’s perspectives and experiences. The decision to use both methods allowed the research …

Differences Are Not Deficits: Women Introverting While Black Through The Ascent To Executive Leadership In Higher Education, Jeri A. Bingham

Dissertations

Diversity of personality type in the workplace can lead to improved morale and productivity when organizations acknowledge and support the attributes and differences of employee behaviors and characteristics. Black women executives identifying as introverted who lead with their authentic personas and intersected marginalized identities, benefit employers, employees, students, and the institution’s brand and bottom line. Introversion and extroversion, ways to describe diversity of personality type, and each having different connotations in office culture, are relevant to this exploration as literature suggests that the population of both personality types is almost evenly distributed. The implications of judgement and the association to …

Factors Influencing Teacher Retention In K-12 Public Schools In Rural Hawai’I As Perceived By K-12 Public School Teachers, Celeste Akiu

Dissertations

Purpose. This qualitative study aimed to identify and describe the factors influencing teacher retention in K-12 public schools in rural Hawai’i, as perceived by K-12 public school teachers examined within the framework of Mason and Matas’ (2015) conceptualization of four capital factors: human, social, structural, and positive psychological. Methodology. This qualitative study intended to identify factors that influenced teachers in rural Hawai’ian communities to remain in the profession. Convenience purposeful sampling was used to identify the nine teachers who participated in this study. The Four Capital Framework for Teacher Retention was used to guide the questions used in the interviews, …

Ethical Leadership And Moral Foundations Congruence, Sarah Willey

Dissertations

Research has examined follower perceptions of ethical leadership, but rarely accounts for the (mis)alignment between a follower’s sense of ethics and morality and that of a leader. This research examined the effects of a leader’s expression of each of the five Moral Foundations dimensions on ethical leadership perceptions, moderated by the respondent’s preferences for each of these foundations. To address this question, a policy capturing design was used to manipulate leaders’ high and low levels of each of the five foundations. The results of multilevel analyses indicate that at least for some dimensions of Moral Foundations, a follower’s evaluation of …

Shattering The Mask: Unveiling The Destructive Force Of Misogynoir, Ledominique Hubbard

Dissertations

As a Black woman, my professional journey has been consistently marred by encounters with racism and gender bias. In this research, I employed autoethnography to shed light on my experiences and meticulously examine the challenges of misogynoir I faced while holding pivotal positions, including that of a detested team leader, an ingenious instructional teacher, and an anti-racist assistant principal across three distinct school campuses in two states. My narrative unfolds in various contexts, notably as the sole Black female teacher and team leader within nine elementary schools in a predominantly white, female-staffed rural district. Furthermore, I underscore my role as …

Building Agency Through Sensemaking: The Transformational Journey And Identity Development Process Of Working Mother Leaders During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lynn Levis

Dissertations

Working mothers in America have long juggled a multitude of responsibilities while navigating several systemic barriers in the very society that claims to support them. The COVID-19 pandemic had an outsized impact on mothers when children were sent home from daycares and schools to reduce the spread of the virus. This study sought to address an important gap in the literature by using a mixed methods constructivist grounded theory approach to examine how working mothers in leadership positions navigated their various roles and systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection consisted of a survey with 105 respondents, followed by individual, …

Navigating The Bow Wave Of Change: The Felt Experience Of Belonging To The United States Naval Academy's First Gender-Integrated Class, Peter Shaner

Dissertations

On July 6, 1976 the United States Naval Academy (USNA) admitted its first-ever gender-integrated class. I was a member of that class, along with 81 female classmates who entered USNA with the class of 1980 (USNA ‘80). Those classmates were pioneers, though few of them realized at the time just how long and how hard their journey would be. The numerous challenges faced by USNA ‘80 on their journey through the Academy have been well documented (Gelfand, 2008). But there has been far less research on the lived experience of that pioneering class. This study fills a gap between historical …

Who We Are Is How We Lead: Storytelling As An Intervention In A Manager Development Program, Brittany Grieb

Dissertations

Leadership development programs (LDPs) have long been recognized as a means for organizations to develop their leaders, yet studies on their efficacy or use of creative interventions are limited. Despite the plethora of leadership studies that exist today, research is still seeking to answer the question: what is the best way to develop leaders? This qualitative study sought to investigate how storytelling can be used as an intervention for leadership development in a manager development program (MDP), an LDP for entry-level to midlevel managers at a biotechnology corporation. Using storytelling as an Indigenous model for knowledge cocreation as a framework, …

The Cultural Dimension Of Structural School Reforms: The Case Of Schedule Changes, Maylen Sullivan

Dissertations

The four-by-four (4x4) schedule—a type of high school block schedule—presents promising prospects for improving teaching and learning. Using a qualitative, single case study methodology, I investigated a school transitioning from a traditional six-period schedule to a 4x4 schedule during its 2nd and 3rd year of implementation. The study aimed to understand the factors that influenced the transition, the stakeholders’ responses to the decision, and the factors that influenced their responses. Some of the main considerations that motivated the decision included the desire to provide more opportunities within the school day for students to meet A/G college eligibility requirements, allow students …