Leadership Studies Commons^™

The Role Of The Black Church In Addressing Collateral Damage From The U.S. War On Drugs, Donald L. Perryman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research is a qualitative examination of African American pastors from urban communities who address the needs of congregants and/or local communities affected directly, or indirectly by mass incarceration. The Black Church, because of its unique sociocultural location and historic role as resource for Black social and economic problems, must help supply the answers to the devastating collateral damage of mass incarceration that primarily affect children and families. The study sets out to understand urban pastors’ perceptions of the role of the Church in the post mass incarceration era. Specifically, the study examines the unique contributions of the African American …

Mayors And Chief Administrative Officers Relationships: Aspects Of Functional Relationships, Robert Arni Long

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study attempts to understand how the functionality of the mayor-chief administrator officer (CAO) relationship impacts the ongoing operation of these two local government positions. Looking at the structural and interpersonal aspects of the lived experience of this relationship enlightens us as to the manner in which the relationship functions. A review is made of literature on local government, generally, and on the separate roles of mayors and CAOs as well as the limited research on how their relationships operate. General relationship and leadership scholarship is used to better understand this specific relationship and its nuanced social processes. Qualitative research …

Glocalizing Community Heritage Tourism In Two African American Communities In Miami, Graylyn Swilley-Woods

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine significant elements and aspects of community heritage tourism development activities using a scholar activist approach in two African American communities located in Miami-Dade Florida. Community heritage tourism was investigated to understand its relevance and to assess multiple factors that may influence its direction in relationship to economic sustainability, leadership, and change. This collaborative research included community involvement with key relevant stakeholders. The aim of the study was to achieve better knowledge of heritage tourism and understanding of growth and/or hindrance to the community’s capacity to change and economically sustain itself. The study …

Centuries Of Navigating Resistance And Change: Exploring The Persistence Of Mongolian Women Leaders, Holly D. Diaz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The country of Mongolia has an ancient culture with a 28-year-old democracy that emerged out of communism. Over the course of several centuries, the Mongolian people have adapted to severe climates and brutal occupations but have managed to preserve cultural practices and the Mongolian way of life. Women leaders have made significant historical and contemporary contributions in Mongolia, from holding important leadership positions as heirs of Chinggis Khan, to ensuring the future of the country by sending their children abroad for graduate education. The impact of their leadership is evident with high percentages of women in leadership positions across several …

United I Stand: An Investigation Of Power Distance Value And Endorsement Of The Great Man Theory Through American Social Identities, Jeffrey M. Girton

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Four decades of research on power distance have been applied to cross-cultural leadership studies on an inter-national level. A quantitative investigation was conducted to analyze a uniquely American narrative of power distance, which was developed through a post-structural epistemology. Using ANTi-History theory, endorsement of the Great Man Theory was argued to be a leadership ethos that is related to American power distance value. The GLOBE project’s Power Distance Subscale, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s Achievement Versus Ascription Scale, and an author-developed scale for self-reported endorsement of the Great Man Theory was deployed to investigate culturally contingent leadership ethos on an intra-national level …

The Impact Of Racism On The Personal And Professional Lives Of Student Affairs Professionals: A Mixed Methods Study, Trent A. Pinto

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The phenomenon of racism in our world is deeply tragic, with historical roots that pervade college campuses and the work of student affairs professionals no less than elsewhere in society. In fact, a premise of this research is that the American university as an institution was founded on White dominance and privilege. Today the effects of racism still trickle into the personal and professional lives of those working in student affairs. This study was aimed at understanding the problem through the eyes and experiences of student affairs professionals. The overarching research question was how do incidents of racism on campus …

Journeys Through Rough Country: An Ethnographic Study Of Blind Adults Successfully Employed In American Corporations, Kirk Adams

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Blind and visually impaired people in the United States face a dire employment situation within professional careers and corporate employment. The purpose of this research study was to gain insights into the phenomenon of employment of blind people through analyzing the lived experience of successfully employed blind adults through ethnographic interviews. Previous research has shown that seven out of ten blind adults are not in the workforce, that a large percentage of those who are employed consider themselves underemployed, and that these numbers have not improved over time. Missing from previous research were insights into the conditions leading to successful …

Developing And Sustaining Political Citizenship For Poor And Marginalized People: The Evelyn T. Butts Story, Kenneth Cooper Alexander

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study tells the deep, rich story of Evelyn T. Butts, a grassroots civil rights champion in Norfolk, Virginia, whose bridge leadership style can teach and inspire new generations about political, community, and social change. Butts used neighbor-to-neighbor skills to keep her community connected with the national civil rights movement, which had heavily relied on grassroots leaders—especially women—for much of its success in overthrowing America’s Jim Crow system of segregation and suppression. She is best-known for her 1963 lawsuit that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1966 decision to ban poll taxes for state and local elections, a democratizing event …

When Bad Genes Ruin A Perfectly Good Outlook: Psychological Implications Of Hereditary Breast And Ovarian Cancer Via Narrative Inquiry Methodology, Cammi Clark

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Scientists debunked the belief that breast cancer is always viral with the mid-90s discovery of the first hereditary genetic mutation linked to a significantly higher-than average chance of breast and ovarian cancer. This genetic condition, called Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC), passes the mutation from generation to generation in a family. Thousands of variations of such mutations exist, and carriers account for 10 to 15% of all breast cancer, and up to 20% of ovarian (Childers et al., 2017). In addition, genetic testing uncovered a rapidly rising number of healthy people (never had breast/ovarian cancer) who are also carriers, …

The Good Bloke In Contemporary Australian Workplaces: Origins, Qualities And Impacts Of A National Cultural Archetype In Small For-Profit Businesses, Christopher George Taylor

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explored the nature and significance of a common but widely misunderstood phrase encountered in Australia: The Good Bloke. Underlying this enquiry was awareness, based on the researcher’s personal and professional experience, that the idea of a Good Bloke powerfully influences individual perceptions of leaders in Australian small-to-mid sized for-profit firms. The study commenced with an exploration of the origins and history of the phrase, tracing it to the 1788 arrival of a disproportionately male Anglo-Celtic population was composed significantly of transported convicts. The language and mores of this unique settler population evolved for two centuries based on relationships, …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of Social And Digital Media Communications On Organization-Public Relationship Building With Employees, Iris Cumberbatch

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

More than a decade after the emergence of social and digital media, professional communicators increasingly use these channels to interact with a wide array of stakeholders. Simultaneously, public relations (PR) and communications leaders seek to understand whether their efforts to communicate and engage with stakeholders through these channels are effective in establishing and building relationships, as well as to measure “effectiveness” in the new technology-driven communications landscape. With this study, I addressed a gap in the academic research with regard to understanding the effectiveness of social and digital media as a communications tool by assessing employees’ perceptions of their organization …

Servant Leadership Characteristics And Empathic Care: Developing A Culture Of Empathy In The Healthcare Setting, Mark Anthony Martin

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to assess the degree to which servant leadership characteristics are exhibited in medical group practices, and the degree to which servant leadership characteristics correlated with measures of empathic care. This study featured an explanatory mixed methods research design embedded in appreciative inquiry. A total of 189 mid-level practitioners consisting of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and practice mangers responded to a 32-item scale survey that featured a six-point Likert scale to measure servant leadership items and a 10-point continuous scale to assess measures of empathic care. The servant leadership items were based on the seven …

The Trust Decoder™: An Examination Of An Individual's Developmental Readiness To Trust In The Workplace, Molly Breysse Cox

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research explores an individual's self-perception of their own ability, motivation, and propensity to trust others for the purpose of validating a new construct: developmental readiness to trust others in the workplace. This construct expands research on developmental readiness to change and to lead by building a scale to measure an individual's motivation and ability to trust others in the workplace. A previously validated scale developed by Frazier, Johnson, and Fainshmidt 2013 measuring propensity to trust was included the scale building process. All items measuring motivation to trust were newly developed for this study, items measuring trust ability were adapted …

The Relationship Between Mindfulness And Leadership: How Mindfulness Practices Affect Leadership Practices, James Van Auken

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The aim of this study was to explore and understand the relationship between mindfulness practices and actual leadership practices. This qualitative study utilized narrative inquiry with phenomenological interviewing techniques to explore selective leaders who use mindfulness practices, and see how they used mindfulness in their leadership practice. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted and thematic analysis was utilized. Eleven themes were identified with multiple sub- and sub-sub-themes, including: “Personal, Internal Mindfulness Practice,” “Being Mindful Toward Self,” “Being Present with Others,” “Being Present with a Group,” “Mindful Shift of Focus/Attention,” “Emotional Intelligence,” “Buffering of Reactivity,” “Resilience and Recovery,” “Alignment,” “Improved Job Performance,” …

Is It Who Am I Or Who Do You Think I Am? Identity Development Of Adolescents With Substance Use Disorders, Danielle N. Treiber

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to unearth how adolescents with substance use disorders achieve the task of identity formation and the construction of self-concept in the midst of the drug culture and society that exists. It sought to uncover the social constructs designed to ignore and/or remove human complexities and allow an intersectional approach to be brought to a study on this population. Historically, there has been a failure to investigate the underlying social attitudes and behaviors that impact the very delicate and vulnerable process of finding self. Psychosocial and relational adjustment are strongly influenced by the extent to …

Leading Through Awareness And Healing: A Servant-Leadership Model, Jiying Song

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Servant-leadership was not a leadership theory developed through empirical studies, but more a philosophy of life first articulated by Robert Greenleaf (1904-1990) (Beazley, 2003). Scholars and writers have been criticizing servantleadership as soft (Ebener, 2011; Nayab, 2011) and lacking a coherent conceptual framework (Eicher-Catt, 2005), an integrated theoretical development (van Dierendonck, 2011), and empirical support (Northouse, 2016). In response to these critiques and public interest, some scholars and writers have organized servant-leadership into a variety of elements: characteristics (Liden, Panaccio, Meuser, Hu, & Wayne, 2014; Spears, 2002), behaviors (Liden et al., 2014), pillars (Sipe & Frick, 2009), dimensions (van Dierendonck …

The Common Good And Servant-Leadership: Rocks Upon Which Good Societies, Organizations, And Leaders Are Built, Dung Q. Tran, Larry C. Spears

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

The humanistic concepts undergirding the common good and servant-leadership—“the protection of human dignity and the promotion of societal well-being” (Pirson, 2017, p. 2) —are ancient, aspirational, and enduring. These theories resonate with various wisdom traditions and have been associated with and/or examined by consequential thoughtleaders such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, John Rawls, Mother Teresa, and Desmond Tutu (Howell & Wanasika, 2018; Keith, 2015; Trompenaars & Voerman, 2009; Tutu, 1999; Velasquez et al., 2014). Among the many key contributors to the development of the common good and servant-leadership were Saint John XXIII and Robert Greenleaf, whose influential ideas in the …

Interview With Larry C. Spears, Ben Lichtenwalner

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Ben: Hi and welcome to ModernServantLeader.com. Today we have a real treat for you. I’m here with Larry Spears who’s really one of the Godfathers of servant-leadership, if you will. Larry has written a ton of books and knows a great deal about Greenleaf’s views on servant-leadership. In fact, he was the CEO and president of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership for almost two decades, and since 2008 he runs the Spears Center for Servant-Leadership. In fact, Larry, you recently received an award from the Greenleaf Centre in the United Kingdom for your contributions to servant-leadership over the years, …

Reducing The Impact Of Geographic Dispersion On The Practice Of Servant-Leadership: The Role Of Technology In Leading From Afar, Kevin J. Hurt, Daniel K. Kurber, Alexander M. Stodola

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Hermann Hesse’s (1956) novel, The Journey to the East, serves as Greenleaf’s (1970) inspiration for the concept of servant-leadership. In Hesse’s novel, he describes the adventures of the League, a secretive group of both real life and fictional characters. A small element of the League departs from Europe on an eastward pilgrimage. While the other travelers are focused on their own reasons for embarking on this trek, Leo, introduced as the group’s servant, happily embraces his role of carrying luggage, serving the travelers, performing menial tasks, and keeping the organization on track. Suddenly and without warning, Leo disappears from the …

Love And Servant-Leadership, Tom Buck

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Parker Palmer (2000) described the world as a mixture of both shadow and light. On a grand scale, the interplay of shadow and light can be witnessed both in wars and the giving of humanitarian aid across the globe. This exchange of shadow and light can also be experienced in local communities through the existence of poverty and depression, as well as volunteerism and charitable giving. While there are examples of famous leaders who inspired large movements towards great change, these leaders are famous and notable precisely because they are the exception, rather than the rule. Most leaders will not …

A Framework For Developing And Sustaining Effective Project Teams, Joe Goss

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

There are many obstacles that threaten success in a project—whether that work intends to build a bridge, develop a computer system, or move an office to another building. In my 40 years of experience implementing change through the design, development, and implementation of software, I find that one of the most significant barriers is ineffective team leadership. To be successful, a good leader of project teams listens to those who have a stake in the project outcome, formulates with the sponsor the project vision, grows the capabilities of team members, foresees trouble and addresses it, and helps stakeholders make a …

Hunger, Kelli Russell Agodon

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

If we never have enough love, we have more than most. We have lost dogs in our neighborhood and wild coyotes, and sometimes we can’t tell them apart. Sometimes we don’t want to. Once I brought home a coyote and told my lover we had a new pet. Until it ate our chickens. Until it ate our chickens, our ducks, and our cat. Sometimes we make mistakes and call them coincidences. We hold open the door then wonder how the stranger ended up in our home. There is a woman on our block who thinks she is feeding bunnies, but …

Academic Libraries And Toxic Leadership, Alma C. Ortega

Dissertations

Toxic leadership has yet to be officially recognized as an area of inquiry in the field of library and information studies. Indeed, the literature on academic libraries is only now beginning to address the topic. None of this should be surprising because leadership, in general, continues to be an under-discussed topic in the library and information studies literature.

The topic of leadership, of course, is the central theoretical construct of the leadership studies field, and, in this field, toxic leadership has been systematically studied and discussed. This literature reveals the negative consequences of having a toxic leader as the head …

Adaptive Leadership And The Maronite Church, Emily Michelle Fattouh

M.A. in Leadership Studies: Capstone Project Papers

An analysis of the Maronite Catholic Church in the United States and the adaptive challenges it faces, and how adaptive leadership will help strengthen and grow the community.

The Influence Of Engaging Centralized Student Support On The Academic Achievement Of Student Veterans, Paul Morgan

Dissertations, 2014-2019

As more veterans and service members enroll in higher education, institutions are investing greater resources in the establishment and enhancement of centers to support them. However, little is known about the outcomes associated with utilization of the centers. Furthermore, researchers have consistently aggregated veterans and service members under “student veterans” with little regard for potential differences. Using regression analyses and analysis of variance, this case study explored the effect of visits to a veterans center on grade point average (GPA), the effect of academic need on frequency of visits, and differences in academic achievement for different types of military-affiliated students. …

Frontline Focus: A Nurse Manager's Employee Engagement Toolkit, Christen Straw

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Abstract

Average hospital turnover rates in the US reached 18.2% in 2017. Turnover rates for registered nurses (RNs) were also at an all-time high of 16.8%. RN turnover can cost up to $61,100 per nurse resulting in the average hospital loss of $5.7 million per year (NSI, 2018). Employee engagement and job satisfaction levels are predictors of nursing turnover and patient outcomes and should be a top priority for nurse leaders. A disengaged workforce not only affects team morale and organizational spending, but it also impacts the quality of patient care. Multiple studies suggest that employee engagement is the number …

A Discourse Analysis Of Diversity And Inclusion Terminology In The High-Tech Industry, Michelle Nader

Master's Theses

The field of Diversity and Inclusion is a growing interest within the High-Tech industry, particularly within the San Francisco Bay Area of California. To combat misconceptions of Diversity and Inclusion, this thesis aims to define and analyze the language used at 20 companies in the High-Tech sector. The trends, nuances, and practices of how companies use language in their programming and data dictates the direction of the company. This thesis investigates the underlying complexities of where Diversity and Inclusion is within the industry today and goals for the future. Findings from this research suggest that companies can strengthen their Diversity …

How Leadership Improves Intercultural Negotiation, Xinrui Wang

M.A. in Leadership Studies: Capstone Project Papers

With the gradual deepening of economic integration, trade cooperation around the world has become more extensive, and the influence of cultural differences in international trade cooperation has become increasingly obvious. It is becoming important to recognize cultural differences, recognize cultural conflicts arising from different cultural backgrounds, and strengthen intercultural coordination and management of collaborators from different cultural backgrounds. This can facilitate the smooth development of intercultural negotiations despite being a challenging task.

This paper uses the case study method to study the Rumaila oilfield project of Jichai and BP, and it uses intercultural leadership theory to analyze and summarize the …

Culture As A System Of Shared Meaning: Exploring Intercultural Leadership Identity Through Practical Application, Emily Patrick

M.A. in Leadership Studies: Capstone Project Papers

This explorative, inductive, applied research study aims to examine the intersection of intercultural communication of values and leadership identities and capacities. Using existing and guiding cultural value theories, experiential learning techniques, meaning making ideologies, and adult learning principles, a two-and-a-half-hour intensive workshop was designed for a group of twenty-eight leadership and entrepreneurship students, predominantly Mexican nationals at the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, City. Specifically, the study demonstrates how culture affects leadership identities and capacities using the agreed-upon symbols, rituals, heroes and values that make up each culture’s perspectives, practices or applications of culture in everyday life. The expressed values …

Merger And Acquisition Integration: Exploring Uncertainty From The Perspective Of The Middle Manager, Joseph J. Pazmany

Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore middle managers’ perceptions about how organizations managed job-related, structural, and strategic uncertainty during a merger and acquisition (M&A) integration process. Furthermore, this research investigated what strategies middle managers perceived effective and ineffective for managing uncertainty and recommendations for managing uncertainty during future integrations.

Methodology. This qualitative study utilized a phenomenological research design that collected data through open-ended interviews. Fifteen middle managers participated in the study and were asked 12 questions that explored their perceptions about managing uncertainty during an M&A integration.

Findings. Overall, participants perceived strategic uncertainty …