Leadership Studies Commons^™

Surrealism Is Not Dead: A Look At Surrealism In Contemporary Mass Communication Via Analysis Of Modern Popular Films, Joi Deanne Chadwick

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study examined three modern films - Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, and Iron Man 2 - to understand the place of Surrealism in contemporary communication. The thesis began with a review of literature regarding Surrealism's revolutionary propensities and its flow into the mainstream. The review's basis was postmodernist philosophy rooted in Roland Barthes's and Umberto Eco's semiotics and Stuart Hall's cultural studies. This underlying philosophy asserted the complexity and mutability of signs and styles, a media role in acceptance and mutation of signs/styles, and endurance of ideas through cultural shifts. Semiotic analysis was crucial methodology in this study …

Interpretations And Anxiety During Initial Encounters In A Formal Business Networking Setting, Justin Hunter

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Many business professionals explore opportunities to develop relationships with others in their industry during coordinated business networking functions to potentially increase their clientele and strengthen their presence in their respective industry. This study analyzes initial interactions among business professionals during a business networking function utilizing symbolic interactionism and the theory of anxiety/uncertainty management. Both theories have been separately implemented in an abundance of theses over several decades to analyze the nature and implications with interpersonal communication among strangers; however, there is a significant lack of research dedicated to how strangers engage during initial business interactions at networking functions. This study …

Buenos Aires Cultural Exchange, Ernesto Seman

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

En algún momento pareció que todas las noches tiraban gente de los trenes. Otras veces, que violaban chicas en los parques. O asaltaban kioscos. Y remataban a alguien randomly en algún lugar público. O robaban restaurantes en los que, siempre, mataban algún comensal. O secuestraban al azar a quien tuviera un auto bueno, o una ropa cara o una cara bonita. ¿Qué pasa con todas esas historias? ¿Dejan de existir cuando desaparecen de los diarios? ¿O nunca existieron?

Calatrava Reverie, Ernesto Seman

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

Puerto Madero, lado sur. Caminaba desde Independencia hacia el no rte cerca de las tres de la tarde. Llevaba en el bolsillo del saco el pasaporte recien salido de la Polida Federal, y aún me quedaba un rato para volver al trabajo. Delante mío, a unas cuadras, tenía al Puente de la Mujer, un adefesio del arquitecto español Santiago Calatrava. No puedo dejar de mirarlo por lo desubicado que está, por su escasa comunicación con el contexto, por su profunda inutilidad, por la enorme simbología que encierra su construcción, simbologfa de lo banal por encima de toda otra consideración, signo …

The Enduring And Elusive Quest For A General Theory Of Leadership: Initial Efforts And New Horizons, Georgia J. Sorenson, George R. Goethals, Paige Haber

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

When the idea of convening a group of scholars to formulate a general theory of leadership was first proposed, one of those who eventually became a key member remarked that the idea of such a project was 'quixotic'. Professor Joanne Ciulla used the term exactly as it is defined - as the American Heritage Dictionary (2009) has it, 'idealistic or romantic without regard to practicality.' What a charming, silly idea. And in the end, the quest and idealism endures but the goal of a general theory remains elusive. However, as Ciulla herself documents, we went far, and learned a great …

What Makes Leadership Necessary, Possible And Effective: The Psychological Dimensions, George R. Goethals, Crystal L. Hoyt

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

In this chapter we explore leadership from a psychological perspective. We consider the three questions raised by the examples discussed above. What about the human condition makes leadership necessary, what makes leadership possible, and what makes leadership effective? Considering leadership from these vantage points will allow us to organize a wealth of psychological knowledge about leading and following, and about doing them both well or not well.

Taking A Turn Toward The Masculine: The Impact Of Mortality Salience On Implicit Leadership Theories, Crystal L. Hoyt, Stefanie Simon, Audrey N. Innella

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

The present research investigates the influence of subtle death-related thoughts (i.e., mortality salience), on people’s images of effective leaders (i.e., their implicit leadership theories). We test the prediction that mortality salience will change the content of these implicit theories to be more gender stereotypical such that individuals will conceive of effective leaders in a significantly more masculine, or agentic, manner. To test this prediction, we assessed participants’ communal and agentic implicit leadership theories after they were presented with a mortality salience or control manipulation. Results show that priming individuals to think about their mortality with two open-ended questions resulted in …

The Jepson School: Liberal Arts As Leadership Studies, Joanne B. Ciulla

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

Around twenty years ago, I joined the faculty of the University of Richmond to help design the Jepson School of Leadership Studies.The easiest way to understand Jepson is as a liberal arts school with an explicit focus on the study of leadership. Our students take courses in history, philosophy, psychology, political science, and so on. These courses draw on the methodology and content of a discipline to understand leadership as a phenomenon and a practice. So as a school, we are multidisciplinary and some of our classes are interdisciplinary. By taking a liberal art approach to leadership studies, the Jepson …

Leadership Ethics, Joanne B. Ciulla, Donelson R. Forsyth

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

A CEO bankrupts the company he is supposed to be leading. A retiree donates thousands of hours to her community. A company's leadership decides not to relocate a factory overseas, for the sake of the residents of an economically challenged town. A president of a club on a college campus encourages members to cheat on their examinations so that the group's members can earn academic honors. An elected public official arranges a tryst with a lover and abandons his duties for days on end.

These behaviors raise questions about motivation, rationality, and intent, but with a difference; these actions cannot …

The Mountain Within: Leadership Lessons And Inspiration For Your Climb To The Top [Review] / Von Stiegel, Herta, Erhard Gallos

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

The Servant-Leader As Healer, Shann Ray Ferch

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

When the phone call from my mother came it made everything seem far away. She told me my cousin, Jacine, a beautiful and intelligent young woman, had been killed in a drug shootout in the streets of Billings, Montana. Jade's life had been marred for some time by the hardened culture that haunts drug use everywhere, but of late she had emerged, married, and begun a new purchase on the kind of life she wanted. We all hoped so much for her, the shock of her death came like a cold dark undertow. But in the days ahead there would …

Life Of Justice And Forgiveness, Greg Smith

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

As an only child, I grew up in a home where love, compassion, forgiveness, and understanding were frequently observed and practiced, but very rarely put into words. Despite the fact that their marriage ended after several years of consistent arguing, my parents made a very concerted effort to raise me in an environment that embraced these unspoken truths. It was not uncommon for a disagreement between me and my parents to be resolved with nothing more than a subtle nod of the head, few brief words, and a hug. To me, growing up in the midst of these intangible notions …

Leadership Development For Today’S Ktunaxa Youth: Command Structure Versus The Crazy Dog Society, Christopher Horsethief

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Block (2008) opens his book on the structure of belonging with the statement, "[S]ocial fabric of community is formed from an expanding shared sense of belonging...shaped by the idea that only when we are connected and care for the well-being of the whole that a civil and democratic society is created" (p. 9). The concept of belonging has been addressed directly in servant-leadership studies, including belonging to community or organization (Ba Banutu-Gomez, 2004 ), belonging and resiliency (Wheatley & Kellner-Rogers, 1998), belonging through a sharing of humanity with followership (Birkenmeier, Carson, & Carson, 2003). It can also be argued that …

The Connection Between Servant-Leadership And Service-Learning In The Context Of Higher Education, Heather L. Veeder

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

In Vaill's (1998) forward to The Power of Servant Leadership, a challenge is offered to educational institutions: to increase the "sheer number of younger men and women who will be helped to develop as servant-leaders" (p. xiii). Vaill furthers this challenge by pointing out, "We in higher education know that only by accident are we producing visionary young men and women who aspire to leadership, to the extent we are producing them at all. We don't like to admit it. Greenleaf has found us out" (p. xiii). In response, one avenue that may assist in the intentional development of servant-leaders …

Little Dry Creek, Shann Ray

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

A poem by Shann Ray.

Analysis Of Examples Of Servant-Leadership In The Grapes Of Wrath, Susan Dunfield

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

The award-winning film The Grapes of Wrath, obviously based on John Steinbeck's Dust Bowl-era novel, follows the Joad family in their travels from their homeland to the "Promised Land" of California, only to discover that their destination is not "flowing with milk and honey" but, instead, leaves them facing severe poverty, injustice, illness, and death.

How Leaders Think: Measuring Cognitive Complexity In Leading Organizational Change, Iva Vurdelja

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The ability to lead complex organizational change is considered the most difficult leadership responsibility. Habitual linear thinking based on sequential procedural decision making is insufficient when responding to ambiguous and unpredictable challenges and interpreting systemic variables in the context of unforeseen problems, risks, and invisible interrelationships. The purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to expand our understanding of the structure of the thinking employed by executive leaders as initiators and enablers of complex, large-scale organizational change. The researcher integrated knowledge of adult cognitive development and organizational leadership to examine the higher forms of reasoning abilities required for dealing …

The Myth Of Endless Accumulation: A Feminist Inquiry Into Globalization, Growth, And Social Change, Martha Freymann Miser

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This theoretical dissertation examines the concept of growth and its core assumption—that the continual accumulation of wealth is both socially wise and ecologically sustainable. The study challenges and offers alternatives to the myth of endless accumulation, suggesting new directions for leadership and social change. The central question posed in this inquiry: Can we craft a more ethical form of capitalism? To answer this question, the study examines conventional and critical globalization studies; feminist scholarship on standpoint, political economy, and power; and the Enlightenment notions of progress and modernism, drawing on a number of works, including Aristotle on the three intelligences, …

Enough Hope To Spare: The Transformative Experience Of Birth Parents As Leaders In Child Welfare, Nicole R. Bossard

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explores the transformative experience from client and service recipient to collaborative leader and partner in child welfare. Rather than expanding on existing literature that examines the nature and quality of the client experience from a service or customer satisfaction perspective, this study reflects the lived experiences of "real, bonafide" birth parent leaders in child welfare systems in the State of Kansas, several counties in Washington state, and Contra Costa County, California. The goal of the study is to illuminate the journey from clienthood to leadership as experienced by the nine birth parent leaders in the study through research …

Influencing Attitudes Toward People With Developmental Disabilities Using Arts Based Research, Marti Sue Goetz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study was conducted given as an inquiry about influencing attitudes toward people with developmental disabilities. Because resistance to homes for people with developmental disabilities situated in typical neighborhoods is still a problem, I seek a way to better assimilate people with "different abilities" into communities. For an historical foundation, I researched literature on the marginalization of this ethnographic group-people with developmental disabilities-and defined quality of life. In establishing groundwork for choice of methodology, I elaborate on arts used for social change. Arts based research methods were used to conduct the research. I created an exhibit using objects and photographs …

Collaboration And Climate Action At The Local Scale, Linda Lyshall

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation encompasses a case study and a Participatory Action Research project. The case study focuses on climate change mitigation activities within King County, Washington and its 39 cities and towns and discusses progress and challenges related to transportation issues, efficiency measures, and sustainability planning. The findings indicate there is a high level of activity in waste reduction, environmental outreach and education, bicycle and pedestrian promotion, tree canopy protection, sustainability policies, and green building. Other categories, such as energy efficiency, electric vehicle infrastructure, and greenhouse gas emission inventories and goal setting are on the rise. Twelve of the cities were …

Socio-Economic Stability And Independence Of Appalachian Women, Michele Dawn Kegley

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study researched Appalachian women who were in emotional, social, or economic reliant relationships with male spouses and became socio-economically stable and independent. This effort is to give Appalachian women voice and learn from their accounts of how they led change by financially, physically, and socially providing for themselves and their dependent children. Research is limited to a particular group of white middle class Appalachian women in the North-Central sub-region of Appalachia. This group was chosen because they have been largely overlooked in the literature. However, this study does not answer questions of all women‘s experiences and barriers in Appalachia. …

Stories Of Resistance: Black Women Corporate Executives Opposing Gendered (Everyday) Racism, Cheryl D. Jordan

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

For this research, I explored contemporary resistance strategies that Black women executives in the corporate world use to oppose negative behaviors by others associated with their race and gender. The dissertation reviews scholarship about the major role the convergence of race and gender play in the day-to-day existence of Black women. Historically, negative images and beliefs have influenced the treatment of Black women in society. These same thoughts and images affect Black women executives in today’s workplace. African-American women continue to see limited advancement to senior levels within the corporate organization, even though diversity programs abound. As leaders in the …

Communication Channels Utilized By Emirati Females To Enact Leadership, K. Kathleen O'Neill

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify the communication channels six Emirati females concurrently employed in organizations in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in which they had supervisory responsibilities; formal, legitimate authority; and positional leadership roles recalled using with their direct reports to enact leadership. In particular, the study attempted to ascertain the reasons for the selection of communication channels when engaged in downward communication with organizational subordinates. Data were collected via three interviews with each participant over a four week period. Interviews were conducted both face-to-face and via telephone. Data were analyzed via thematic content analysis to …

Dual Consciousness: Identity Construction Among Appalachian Professional Women In Southern Ohio, Rebecca Nicole Roades

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study examined identity construction among a purposeful sample of professional women of Appalachian origin with particular regard to the blending of their cultural heritage in a society in which they are often marginalized. The questions guiding the research were grounded in a conceptual framework encompassing elements of culture, gender, leadership, and identity theories specifically using internal colonization, social cognitive, and social identity theories. They included the following: How do these women identify with their Appalachian heritage? How has their Appalachian heritage influenced real or perceived feelings of marginalization and how has that shaped their identity? Do they perceive themselves …

The Shift In Coaching Dynamics During Long-Term Business Coaching Relationships, Axel Meierhoefer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The focus of this dissertation was on the changes in long-term external business coaching relationships (defined as more than 4 months). The current study intended to answer two questions: (a) how does the relationship between a coach and a coachee change in long-term coaching engagements? and (b) how do these changes impact the coaching process dynamics and results? The phenomenon that was discovered through this research is called the shift moment. It exemplifies the transition from skill or problem oriented issues, which often represent the original cause of the coaching relationship, to the holistic transformation of the coachee. A qualitative …

Leadership Development In Financial Institutions In South Dakota: A Slow Growth State, Stan Wayne Vinson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation asks the question, “What are the challenges of developing a leadership program in community banks in South Dakota, a slow growth environment?” The research looks at the intersection of leadership development, transformational leadership, and context—against a backdrop of community banking, corporate social responsibility, and demographic trends in South Dakota. The objective of the study is to provide theoretical and practical understanding of leadership development activities in South Dakota community banks. Using quantitative methods, seven hypotheses were created and tested using insights gained from reviewed literature and informational interviews that framed the study. The hypotheses were built looking to …

The Meaning Making That Leads To Social Entrepreneurial Action, Kathleen Roberts

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation is an exploratory study of the meaning making that leads to social entrepreneurial action; specifically, action that has either moved beyond the local or at the local level has impacted several different systems. Recent leadership research suggests that to meet today's complex challenges and create sustainable change, leadership must possess bigger minds, meaning advanced and mature ways of understanding the world (Cook-Greuter, 1999; Torbert, 1999). By challenging and changing established equilibriums with new structures, new systems, and new relationships, social entrepreneurs reflect a capacity to understand the world in complex ways. Through the lens of constructive-developmental theory (Kegan, …

From Nominal To Radical Discipleship: One Church’S Approach To Disciple Making, Wayne Berk Walters

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The majority of mainline denomination churches in America have experienced decline in membership, worship attendance, and vitality for over fifty years. As well, church members’ lifestyles, commitments, and habits tend to be not all that unlike Americans who do not attend church. Many church members live relatively nominal Christian lives when compared to the nature of the Christian life and discipleship described by Jesus in the gospels of the New Testament. This nominal understanding and adoption of the Christian life makes church membership and involvement unnecessary or secondary to the many other demands in modern life. Denominational officials, church pastors, …

Leading God's People: Wisdom From The Early Church For Today [Review] / Beeley, Christopher A., Stanley E. Patterson

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.