Leadership Studies Commons^™

Best Practices For Loinc Mapping And Maintenance, Tawni M. Reller

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this action research project was to assess the current clinical laboratory industry perception of Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) and if best practices exist for the mapping and maintenance of them. A literature review was conducted, beginning with the creation of the LOINC nomenclature in 1994 through the current studies detailing recommended best practices and standards that are necessary to ensure success of clinical laboratory result interoperability. An original, qualitative survey was created emailed to 7,303 Iaboratorians, of whom 206 responded. The results of the survey reinforce the researcher's perception of the implementation and maintenance …

Transformational Leadership And Profitability In A Retail Setting, Barbara Koziol

Theses and Graduate Projects

Creative Kidstuff, a privately owned company with five retail locations in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and a sixth location in West Des Moines, Iowa, experienced rapid growth in its first 15 years of business, Sales started to decline due to vendor mergers, consolidations, and bankruptcies along with increased competition from other toy retailers and the advent of on-line shopping. Transformational leadership has been shown to be effective in organizations undergoing change. My hypothesis was that there are significant leadership differences between stores which are highly profitable and those that are not. The Creative Kidstuff Employee Survey was designed with questions …

Perceived Needs: Small Nonprofit Boards And Leadership Development Efforts, Luisa K. Gerasimo

Theses and Graduate Projects

Nonprofits have become more important in recent decades: almost two million American charities provide important and diverse services. How they function under the leadership of nonprofit boards of directors has not been studied to the extent that corporate boards have. Some nonprofit boards do not offer new member training or an orientation to board service, which may leave some board members underprepared to lead. Do nonprofit boards that get training improve themselves and the functioning of their associated nonprofit agency? Using a review of academic literafure, personal experience working for nonprofits and serving on nonprofit boards, interviews with a board …

Leadership Strategies That Foster Innovation And Creattvity In 21st Century Organizations, Patricia Dianne Carlson

Theses and Graduate Projects

In an increasingly change-driven world, leaders are called upon to evolve their mindsets and skill-sets to reflect and serve the demands for innovation that characterize the 2Ist century. In this research, I examined the leadership strategies that foster innovation and creativity as a stimulus for sustained competitive advantage in organizations. Creativity without innovation in an organization is a wasted effort. However, without creative ideas there is nothing to promote, feed and develop the innovation process. I focus on three critical questions: What type of organizational climate fosters innovation and creativity? What is leadership's role in fostering innovation and creativity? What …

Communication Satisfaction And Part-Time Employees In A Park And Recreation Organization, Debra Lynn Derosa

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate levels of communication satisfaction depending on work status (whether employees work on a full-time or part-time basis) in a single municipal park and recreation organization. Part-time and full-time employees were surveyed using the Down and Hazen's Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire, resulting in 40 usable responses. The results showed that both part-time and full-time employees surveyed had low levels of communication satisfaction in the researched organization. Part-time employees had slightly higher levels of communication satisfaction than the full-time employees in each of the eight communication dimensions researched. This study draws attention for organizational need …

Relationship Between Leader Behavior And Subordinate Organizational Commitment In Higher Education Administrators, Christy L. Leduc

Theses and Graduate Projects

Organizational commitment (OC) is the psychological link betrveen employees and their organizations that reduces the likelihood that ernployees rvill voluntarily leave. OC is an important dimension of organization effectiveness; it has been shown to impact productivity, work performance. and rurnover. It is instructive to recognize how a leader's behavior impacts the overall stress and the organizational commitment of employees. Fifty-five administrators at a private college in the Midwest completed a 56-question electlonic survey to explore the relationship arnong leaders' behavioral scores for (1a) structure-initiation and (1b) consideration as assigned by their employees and the (2) self-reported organizational commitment levels of …

Our Shared Table: The Emerging Future Of Food, Seed And Biodiversity, Marita Bujold

Theses and Graduate Projects

Until recent decades, food was produced entirely by organic methods by farming communities who depended on adapting seeds within specific ecosystems and local ecological knowledge. This traditional approach to agriculture generated a wealth of vital genetically diverse seeds and plants. Since 1960, peasant communities have contributed 1.9 million varieties of plants to the world's seed banks. In today's food economy, one and half billion peasant farmers continue to rely on seed saving, local ecological knowledge and produce 70% of the world's food. The remaining thirty per cent of food produced by the agribusiness approach to farming that emerged in the …

Put Me In Coach, I’M Ready To Serve: The Servant-Leader As High School Coach, Brian L. Davenport

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

The term servant-leadership was first coined in the seventies by Robert Greenleaf (Spears 2004) to describe a leadership theory that placed the emphasis on the led. Since that time it has slowly gained traction (ibid.). However, it is clear that, as a leadership theory, servant-leadership is not yet mainstream in thought and practice. Western (2008) described servant-leadership as an emerging leadership theory, nearly thirty years after it was introduced by Greenleaf. The idea received only passing reference in other overviews of various leadership theories (Jackson and Parry 2008; Northouse 2007; Rost 1991), until Northouse's (2013) sixth edition of Leadership Theory …

The Servant-Mentor: Raising Up The Next Generation Of Servant-Leaders, Nathaniel Pearson

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

As a generation nears retirement age, a new generation of leaders prepares to fill the previous generation's place in organizations across the globe. Organizations, both for-profit and not, face the challenge of raising up leaders that possess both the skills and loyalty needed to move forward while maintaining the organization's core values. Contemporaneously, leaders in the twilights of their careers face new questions regarding their lives and legacies. This article begins by providing a brief history of organizational mentoring from both a formal and an informal standpoint. It will then move to thoughts on servant-leadership, creating the foundation for the …

Servant-Leadership... To Teach Or To Awaken?, Paul Nakai

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

For the past thirty years, my professional life has focused on better understanding the principles of organizational culture change and the development of leadership capacity within that organization to achieve that change. I have had the good fortune during that time to work with a cadre of highly competent culture change professionals. As a company, we have been able to work in many challenging situations as well as with some of the premier organizations at the time. As satisfied as our clients have been, many of them have partnered with us to make the endeavor even more meaningful. As a …

The Promised Land: Robert Greenleaf, Bruce Springsteen, And Servant-Leadership, Joe Albert, Larry C. Spears

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Bruce Springsteen and Robert K. Greenleaf. Two very different men, born into different ages, different environments, different careers. Yet, despite all of their differences, these two men share much in common. Beyond certain superficial similarities-during the 1950s and '60s they lived a short distance from one another in New Jersey-we contend that Springsteen and Greenleaf share a commitment to what has come to be called "servant-leadership," and to a set of characteristics that exemplify servant-leaders. We live in an age of deepening cynicism-a time where a lack of integrity and mistrust abound. Yet, we see in the writings of Robert …

Flight, Ketema Ross

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

A poem by Ketema Ross.

An Inward Journey, Robert K. Greenleaf

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

It was my privilege to see a bit of Robert Frost in his last years and, having a feeling for the man as a person, his poetry has a special meaning for me. Philip Booth, in a review, said: "Poems like 'The Demiurge's Laugh,' 'The Road Not Taken,' 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,' 'On a Tree Fallen Across the Road,' 'Desert Places,' 'Come In,' and 'Directive' map, in sequence, the road Robert Frost took into the dark woods, and record the serial ordeal he survived by surrendering himself to the conflicts such poems dramatize." Earlier in Chapter IX, …

Servant-Leadership Applied To Balance World Inequalities And Enhance Global Forgiveness And Restoration, Christian B. Cabezas

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Many years have passed since the end of World War II. In this war that stemmed from hate, unhealthy ambition, and a sense of superiority from within different cultures, millions of lives were lost. Some authors, including a number that were survivors of that war, have documented and described the horrors and atrocities committed. Wiesenthal (1998) raised the dilemma of the possibility of forgiveness to the perpetrators of the massacres committed in this war. Mandela and Tutu (1999), with their experience in South Africa and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, have shown the world that it is possible to forgive …

Narratives Of The Leadership Development Of Adults Who Served As Summer Camp Staff In The Mennonite Setting : A Multiple Case Study, Jason Harrison

Dissertations

Problem. Leaders today need a new set of knowledge and skills to be effective in collaborative environments. The focus of this study was to investigate how collaborative environments can contribute to leadership development. The purpose of this study was to describe how the collaborative environment of summer camp helped shape emerging adults as leaders. The summer camp setting is inherently collaborative and, therefore, can inform and develop leaders for future collaborative settings. The research question in focus for this study was, How do adults who served at a summer camp as emerging adults describe the experiences that helped shape them …

A Study Of Rural Police Leadership Behaviors In Kentucky: A Full Range Perspective, Frank P. Kubala Jr.

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership behaviors of rural police chief's in Kentucky through their self-perceptions and the perceptions of their subordinate officers utilizing the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) Form 5X Short. The author assessed differences in the leadership factors of the Full Range Leadership Model and leadership outcomes between rural police chiefs and their subordinate officers. The sample included 47 rural police chiefs from 4 different regions of Kentucky and 94 of their subordinate officers.

The results indicate that 8 out of the 9 leadership factors differed between the self-reported ratings by the rural police …

Forgiveness: A Humble Path For Police To Servant-Leadership, Mark Whitson

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

In an attempt to make sense ofthe often difficult task of being called to "protect and serve" society, I begin this article by setting the stage for servant-leadership as vital to the police endeavor. The world is ever-changing. It is becoming more complex and diverse. In an effort to better manage in a multicultural environment, leadership styles are evolving. Researchers Mayer, Bardes, and Piccolo indicated "a growing interest in ethical styles of leadership" (Mayer, Bardes, and Piccolo 2008, 180), and one such leadership style is servant-leadership. I have found in my thirty-two years as a public servant that servant-leadership is …

Servant-Leadership: Creating A Context For Collaboration, Daniel Van Brugge

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Successful educators are chameleons. As chameleons alter their appearance to suit their environment, so too must educators change their strategies and mind-sets to adapt to changes in education (Laymon 2010). While chameleons adapt in order to blend in, educators must adapt to new surroundings to ensure that students are prepared for full entry into society. This entry must result in benefit to student and society. Schools that lack creative and collaborative leadership cannot move their schools forward to adapt as needed (Ozar 2010). There is a high correlation between collaborative school cultures and schools that are able to adapt (Meirink …

Finding The Way Home: The Emergence Of A Servant-Leader Through The Power Of Forgiveness, Mark T. Mccord

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Sitting at a corner table in a small cafe in the Plaka neighborhood of Athens, Greece...Afghanistan seemed to be a million miles away and yet it had followed me there. Like an unseen vapor Afghanistan permeated my every thought, causing words to catch in my throat and my body to be in constant motion. Even then, more than three months after I completed an almost-four year-posting, I could not seem to shake Afghanistan. The result was an awkward silence, and fractured thoughts. My wife sat across from me, the look on her face belying her frustration. She did not know …

Organizational Dissent And Servant-Leadership, Robert F. Sprague

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Dissent is the choice to disagree and challenge the majority view of those holding positional power (Gordon 2008, 20; Martin 2008, 22). In some organizations, dissenting banter may be part of the process of healthy decision making and innovation. Dissenting conversations may initiate perturbations through the complex interactions of organizational life. With these unexpected interactions, the potential exists for discovering innovative notions that may benefit the organization (Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky 2009, 145). Within other organizations, dissenting conversation may expose individual organizational members to the risk of being labeled as "out of step," "not a team player," or, worse, "a …

Enhancing Servant-Leadership’S Practice Through Utilization Of Authentic Dialogue, Russell Horton

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

While the concept of servant-leadership dates back to biblical times more than two thousand years ago (Sendjaya and Sarros 2002, 57), it is only since the 1970s that the ideas of servant-leadership came into modern leadership scholarship through Robert Greenleaf's writings (ibid.). Several authors, including Gergen and Zelleke (2008), Heineman (2006), Russell and Stone (2002), and Tierney (2006) have commented on a societal leadership deficit. Wong and Davey noted that in some cases this manifests itself as a lack of interested or available leaders for a given organizational or community leadership position (Wong and Davey 2007, 1 ). The lack …

Bernie’S Truth: Introducing Servant-Leadership Through A Case Study Of Leadership’S Effect On Organizational Culture, Randall Miller, Peter J. Flanagan

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

The narrative case study presented in this article takes place in a Midwestern city with a population that exceeds one hundred thousand residents. The city has a long history of labor/management problems complicated by political corruption and professional inbreeding with regard to appointing city employees; from the lowest levels to the very top leadership positions. The resulting organizational culture has created a cadre of Good 01' Boys where politics rule over expertise, common sense, and ethical judgment. It is in this environment we introduce Bernie Russo, a fictitious character based on the real prototype of command and control leadership that …

Body, Body’S Torment, Body’S Reprieve, Mary Jane Nealon

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

A poem by Mary Jane Nealon.

Ua3/9/3 President's Office-Ransdell Reading File, Wku Archives, Virginia Brothers, Aaron Shuford

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Reading file of outgoing correspondence regarding the administration of WKU, fund raising, thank yous and letters of condolence.

Belonging, Believing, Being: A Journey Toward Social Justice, Stacey Lynn Williams

School of Leadership and Education Sciences Dissertations

Using Participatory Action Research, this study examined the student and staff’s experience of exploring social justice at the University of San Diego’s Women’s Center. Looking specifically at how the Center shaped the way that we understand and take up social justice, the inquiry examines our understanding and approach to our learning. Through artistic expression and dialogue, the research utilized a participatory approach that offers learning for both those interested justice and those committed to collaborative research models. I offer reflections about my own practice as an educator while sharing insights from participants in terms of the work of pursuing a …

A Descriptive Study Of The Leadership Role Of Community Health Ambassadors On Diabetes-Related Health Behaviors, Barbara Pullen-Smith

Dissertations

Diabetes is a chronic disease that bears a disproportionate burden among African American populations. The lack of access to affordable, culturally appropriate health care is a key barrier to effective diabetes prevention or disease management for racial/ethnic minority populations. Living in public housing communities, with concentrated poverty, exacerbates the burden of diabetes and reduces access to screening and early detection services to prevent the onset of diabetes. The purpose of the study was to describe the leadership role of lay health advisors, known as Community Health Ambassadors (CHAs), on diabetes-related health behaviors of African Americans living in a public housing …

The Impact Of Group Personality Characteristics On Group Decision-Making, Kevin Shawn Bottomley

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine (1) how group information sharing impact group decision effectiveness, (2) how group personality composition impact group information sharing, and (3) how group personality composition impact group decision effectiveness. The data collected was FIRO-B® scores on the expressed scale, group information sharing data as measured by the Process and Issues Questionnaire (PIQ), and group decision effectiveness data as measured by the PIQ. Correlation analysis were performed to analyze the group psychological characteristics (H₂, H₃, & H₄,) based on an index created for each group where the data …

Belonging, Believing, Being: A Journey Toward Social Justice, Stacey Lynn Williams

Theses

Using Participatory Action Research, this study examined the student and staff’s experience of exploring social justice at the University of San Diego’s Women’s Center. Looking specifically at how the Center shaped the way that we understand and take up social justice, the inquiry examines our understanding and approach to our learning. Through artistic expression and dialogue, the research utilized a participatory approach that offers learning for both those interested justice and those committed to collaborative research models. I offer reflections about my own practice as an educator while sharing insights from participants in terms of the work of pursuing a …

Virtual Teamwork In A Business School Master's Program: Do Team Charters Have An Impact?, Samuel Kyungjin Chung Phd

Dissertations

A virtual team is an organizationally and/or geographically distributed group whose members use synchronous and asynchronous technologies to work collaboratively. A team charter is a document that describes how group members intend to behave and interact while working collaboratively. Team charters have been used to facilitate virtual teamwork. This study, which took place in a graduate-level business program at a private university in California, was designed to fill the gap in the literature about team charter usage by virtual teams consisting of business students. The students were required to create a team charter in the first semester of the program …

[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, …