Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Organization and administration'

The study of leadership in wide range of organizational settings has demonstrated the advantage the Full Range Leadership (FRL) of transformational leadership approach over other leadership styles in predicting organizational performance and other outcomes. Research has found that leadership is one of the most significant contributors to organizational performance. However, very little research has been completed on the link between FRL and organizational performance at American Muslim Organizations (AMOs). This lack of empirical research, the increase use of FRL in assessing pastoral leadership (Rowold, 2008), and its positive and strong association with effective organizations as shown in literature were the primary motivators for this study. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X), a proven leadership assessment test, was administered to 320 congregants at 12 AMOs in the greater Dallas area, TX, USA to determine preferred leadership styles and whether there is a significant correlation relationship between senior leadership styles and organization performance. Created and updated by Bass and Avolio (2004), the questionnaire measure three objective indicators of organizational performance: congregants’ satisfaction with leadership, motivation toward extra effort, and perceived leadership effectiveness. Results of descriptive analysis showed that senior leaders at AMOs scored relatively high in the average of all responses and in six of the nine leadership factors, suggesting that Full Range Transformational Leadership Model (FRLM) was the style practiced by senior leaders at targeted organizations.

The results of multiple regression analysis of aggregated leadership factors scores revealed that blended specific elements of the (FRLM) led to higher satisfaction, motivation toward extra effort and perceived leadership effectiveness among congregants.

Multiple regression analysis for separate leadership factors scores revealed the following findings: (1) Contingent Reward leadership style (CR), which requires performance measurements to reward achievement beyond meeting standards, is inextricably linked with the Transformational leadership style. (2) FRLM consisted of nine hierarchal factors on a continuum basis and strongly proffered as the most effective leadership approach at the studied context. (3) Idealized influence, attribute and behavior, did not reach significance, suggesting that AMOs are shifting from religious leadership to secular one. (4) Intellectual stimulation did not reach significance either, suggesting that leadership at AMOs does not empower followers nor facilitate creativity and independent thinking among them.

Factor analysis findings (PCA) suggested that the nine factors of FRLM can be represented by three main factors to explain 75.4 of the variability in the original data. The findings of this study provided strong support for FRLM to work well with the senior leadership at AMOs. Discussion of the implications and recommendations was provided.

Learning Ambidexterity in Organization As organizational exploitation drives out exploration, companies must reach beyond traditional organizational learning practices to become learning organizations, learning in action as they also perform. As traditional companies tip the balance between entropy and negative entropy, they ultimately begin to focus almost exclusively on evolutionary learning and refining more of what they already know. High-Tech Optics avoided this success trap of focusing on past performance by routinely assessing and perturbing its cultural and structural inertia and continually reaffirming that performance and learning should be integrally linked objectives. Exploitation was kept from crowding out exploration by several factors, namely the company CEO and the ambidextrous organizational culture. When learning was emphasized, it was in the context of ambidextrous learning, not simply a reference to incremental learning associated with the refinement of existing products and processes. Instead, this company?s learning fell across a spectrum, from learning within a specially created structurally ambidextrous space to research projects, customer problem solving, perturbing its own processes, and helping others. This qualitative single-case study, with its nine findings and four conclusions, strongly suggests not only that it is possible for organizations to learn ambidexterity, but that such learning most likely happens in all organizations. This study discovered that High-Tech Optics naturally converged on all three kinds of ambidexterity: contextual, structural, and temporal. What might not be possible, or natural, for most organizations, however, is the sustainment of ambidexterity, learning how to make an ambidextrous culture permanent. Remarkably, High-Tech Optics, a manufacturing company, emerged as an ambidextrous organization naturally over time, but then deliberately set mechanisms, structures, and processes in place to continue these behaviors indefinitely. The main implication for practitioners is to consider an ambidextrous plan for their own organizations. As exploitation tends to drive out exploration as organizations mature, favoring what is already known over what is new, organizations should not forget their early explorative learning behaviors.

This qualitative research study explored the characteristics, emergence, and engagement of people who occupy the role of the family champion in family-enterprise systems. The family champion is a next-generation leader who emerges from within the ownership group of a family-enterprise system and who works to develop the ownership, governance, and relational capabilities of the family-owners to support their goals of success. This study investigated the interdependent exchanges between individual family champions, the family-ownership group, and their family-enterprise systems. Much of the existing research on leadership within family-enterprises has focused on leadership for the business entity. This study focused specifically on leadership within the family-ownership group. Ownership of an enterprise by a family has long been cited as a strategic asset. A need exists for further understanding of the role and function of leadership within the family-owners.

This study explored the characteristics, emergence, and engagement of 14 primary family champions through semi-structured qualitative interviews. An additional eight supporting interviews were conducted with another family member who was familiar with the primary interviewee to provide a complimentary perspective. The research was discovery based and designed to explore the experiences of family champions. The extensive interviews were transcribed and analyzed utilizing grounded theory principles with the assistance of NVivo 10 qualitative analysis software.

This research revealed a rich interaction between the context of family-enterprise systems, the characteristics of family champions, and systemic shift points that created the awareness of the need for leadership. The family champions worked to develop the family-ownership group through a cycle of engagement, to produce an advanced family-enterprise system. Four main themes linked to issues in family-enterprises emerged: The systemic context of family-enterprises, the process of leadership emergence, how family champions operate as catalysts for change, and governance of both family and enterprise. The family champion is a visionary catalyst who brings new energy into the family system to support and develop the family-ownership advantage. This research makes a contribution to our understanding of the vital role of leadership within family-enterprises, and has significance for individual leaders, families who own a business, and professionals who work with these systems.

In an era of continuing economic uncertainty public sector organizations face unprecedented challenges in resourcing increasingly complex missions. To meet these challenges public sector managers must look for innovative ways to resource essential missions and define public sector outcomes. The use of collaboration to create public value represents one way to provide effective and efficient service in this environment.

This study informs the subject of collaboration as a mechanism for creating public value by considering these concepts as a practical matter against actual events or programs involving the California Highway Patrol, a large State police agency with multiple missions and complex inter-agency relationships. The results of the study demonstrate a correlation between the strength of the collaborative effort and the results obtained, as well as the effect of circumstances on results. In identifying a common formula for evaluating these concepts, other public programs can be evaluated based on these contexts.

This study was conducted independently, but in collaboration with a team of peer-researchers who came together to study the lived experience of exemplar leaders in diverse organizations as they transformed conflict to reach common ground. This study contributed to the collective work by looking at K-12 Human Resource Officers (HROs) as the population of interest. HROs are often at the center of resolving conflict, yet only a few emerge as exemplar leaders. These exemplar leaders were the target population situated in the phenomena under investigations. The team selected a qualitative phenomenological approach, in an attempt to uncover what strategies exemplar leaders used to transform conflict to find common ground using the six domains of conflict transformation behaviors: collaboration, communication, emotional intelligence, ethics, processes, and problem-solving. Evidence showed that exemplar leaders tended to integrate these domains, rather than using them separately, for a more powerful impact in transforming conflict and finding common ground. Interviews, observations, and artifact data identified shared practices and behaviors to represent a more powerful repertoire of conflict transformational skills.

The concept of implementing organizational learning principles in an organization to help individuals and groups ?learn to learn? (Schein, 2017), thereby making the ongoing adaptation and change that inevitably occurs in organizations more successful, is an interesting problem to explore. While interesting, there are very few studies that examine the sustainability of change in any context. Several theoretical models incorporate the idea of sustaining, or institutionalizing, change. But, very few empirical studies actually explore that concept. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive, embedded case study was to explore how a government agency developed and sustained organizational learning, using the Organizational Learning Systems Model (OLSM) as a lens. To fulfill the purpose of this study, the following research question was addressed: How did a government agency introduce and sustain organizational learning during and after a planned change? The results from this study contributed to the literature and to the practitioner community by showing that (1) the organization introduced and implemented organizational learning by centrally managing the learning subsystems during the change itself; (2) the organization introduced and sustained organizational learning by involving, encouraging, and empowering employees and middle managers during the change; (3) the organization introduced and implemented organizational learning by aligning all messaging from senior leadership to front-line employees during the change; (4) the organization implemented and sustained organizational learning by encouraging practice to learn the new behaviors and to iterate the change plan based on lessons learned; (5) the organization sustained organizational learning by counting on middle managers to sustain sensemaking and organizational learning post-change; and, (6) the organization was challenged in sustaining organizational learning because the specific change to a dispersed work environment has several unintended consequences that make it a tricky change. A conceptual model to augment the OLSM was proposed. Future studies could: (1) test the conceptual model proposed; (2) explore the impacts of a dispersed work environment using OLSM or social network analysis; and, (3) examine the relationship between open office design and a dispersed work environment.

This qualitative research study examined detailed reports by senior organizational leaders linking mindfulness to improved leadership effectiveness. Extensive research supports the existence of a relationship between mindfulness and cognitive, physiological, and psychological benefits that may also have a positive impact on leadership effectiveness. Currently, however, little is known about the processes potentially enabling mindfulness to directly influence leadership effectiveness, and as a result this study was designed to explore this gap in the literature. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with forty-two organizational leaders in North and South America and Europe, many with a history of leadership roles at multiple global organizations. Participants credited mindfulness for contributing to enduring improvements to leadership capabilities, and data analysis revealed new findings clarifying the perceived relationship between mindfulness and tangible results for organizational leaders. Specifically, the results indicate that mindfulness is perceived to contribute to the development of behaviors and changes to awareness associated with improved leadership effectiveness. A potential relationship between mindfulness and the development of emotional intelligence competencies linked to increased leadership performance was revealed as well. The contribution of this study to current literature is also discussed, as are recommendations for future research.

Keywords: mindfulness, organizational leadership, emotional intelligence, leadership effectiveness, leadership development, mindful leadership, leader empathy, leader emotional self-awareness, leader emotional self-management, leader social awareness, leader relationship management

The purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to describe the Washington, District of Columbia and metropolitan (DMV) area-based federal government employee perspectives on the adoption of enterprise information technologies. The sample size of this study consisted of 132 participants. The inability to accept or reject the hypothesis in this research was determined by descriptive statistics (means and standard deviation). Drawing from theoretical frameworks involving leadership, culture, human and organizational behavior, and decision-making, this study involves the introduction of an integrated model to describe the complexities of technology adoption in a single, comprehensive view. The comprehensive model attempted to emphasize interrelationships between key elements involved in organizational technology adoption, including how innovation spreads from various sources to influence organizational perceptions for both members and leaders. Additionally, this study also introduced a new survey tool (Employee Perceptions on Adoption of Enterprise Information Technology), and attempted to determine to what extent different factors affected enterprise information technology adoption. Data collected from this research effort suggested that government employees believe leadership represents the main factor influencing technology adoption in government organizations, with cost as the second leading factor. Government employees, however, did not believe that culture represented a key influence on technology adoption. Findings from this study may offer new insights on how to conduct technology adoption more effectively, and provide the foundation for recommending ways to create a successful enterprise system implementation. The main recommendation for future study is exploration of the Integrated Technology Adoption Model (ITAM) and the Employee Perceptions on Adoption of Enterprise Technology Survey.

This study explores the impact of virtuous positive practices on organization identity, specifically it addresses the question of how organizations use virtuous positive practices to construct a positive organization identity. I use an inductive approach to conduct a case study of two organizations that have a reputation of outstanding culture, employee engagement, customer orientation, and have contributed to their respective communities. The study presents a model with a set of five propositions describing how the two organizations use virtuous positive practices to construct a positive organization identity. Key findings suggest that when virtuous thoughts, inspiring words, and empowering deeds are aligned in the construction process, the resultant identity characteristics are imbued with positivity.

Employee job satisfaction and reasons for employee turnover have been studied for years; however, they continue to be critical issues for organizations. Various researchers have found that the turnover rate of knowledge workers appears relatively high compared to that of workers in the past. Studies have further indicated that a constructive approach to conflict is essential to increased employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity. The specific business problem was the low job satisfaction and retention levels of employees because of organizational climate preference for a particular conflict management style among peers. The purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental correlational study was to examine whether a relationship exists between job satisfaction and intent to leave based on organizational conflict management style practiced among peers at a South Central Texas management consulting organization. Data was gathered from 109 knowledge workers who were selected through convenience sampling. The predictor variable of job satisfaction was measured with the Abridged Job Descriptive Index and Abridged Job in General (AJDI/AJIG) survey. The criterion variable was intent to leave, which was measured using the Staying or Leaving Index (SLI). The moderating variables of organizational conflict management styles: (a) avoiding; (b) obliging; (c) dominating; (d) integrating; and (e) compromising were measured with the Organizational Conflict Climate Assessment Instrument (OCCAI). The survey incorporated information regarding demographical information including age, gender, race, level of education, length of time with current organization, and length of time in the career field was also used. Hierarchical multiple regression results suggested that organizational climate preference for avoiding, integrating, and compromising conflict management styles did not significantly moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to leave the organization. Organizational climate preference for obliging and dominating styles did significantly moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to leave the organization. While the dominating, integrating, and compromising styles were consistent with the literature, the avoiding style was mixed, and the obliging style was not consistent. Further research in this area is necessary, using different moderators to further analyze this phenomenon in different states, cultures, and countries to determine whether the same or similar findings will be discovered.

The study was designed to understand the role that the school leadership team (SLT) plays in fostering practices consistent with organizational learning. The study population included five administrators and eight teacher leaders in a large, comprehensive high school in a mid-Atlantic school district. A qualitative case study approach was employed, purposively selecting a site where the SLT members were intentionally involved in distributed leadership based on expertise. The findings indicated that SLT members engaged in four practices associated with improved teaching, all of which, past research suggests, are also aligned with organizational learning: providing feedback, engaging in collaborative decision-making, building positive relationships, and focusing on student results. Collaborative roles facilitated collegial discourse about teaching practices and built a culture of trust among members of the SLT. Collaborative structures supported common goals, values, and norms. Further, fostering a collaborative environment supported knowledge building and the development of shared ideas about teaching and learning. The school’s administration, including a strong collaborative principal, provided leadership and support for the work of the SLT throughout the study.

Although there are many organizational culture studies that have been conducted, very few have been conducted in the context of a human service organization (Jaskyte, 2010). Organizational culture has been described as a neglected area of exploration as it relates to the enhancement of quality of life for persons with disabilities (Gillet & Stenfert-Kroese, 2003).

This research took the form of a qualitative case study of the culture of one human service organization. This study may make three specific contributions to the organizational culture literature. These include: (a) providing an empirical study of a human service organization's culture, (b) attempting to describe and understand specific mechanisms that may contribute to culture formation and maintenance, and (c) identifying aspects of a human service organizations culture that may help or hinder their effectiveness. Fourteen participants were be engaged in the research. The participants were associated with three different position levels.

The participating organization presented a strong and unified culture. The espoused theories and the theories-in-use of the organization's founders were highly congruent. The founders of the organization conveyed a sense of mission that was readily adopted by initial hires. The mission of the organization was formulated around principles of highly individualized support, community inclusion, quality of life, and a consistent regard for the dignity and respect of the individuals supported by the organization. Potential contributions of this research include: (a) being one of the few qualitative studies related to the culture of an organization that provides services for persons with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD); (b) a research design that provides a relatively comprehensive approach to the study of a single organizational culture; (c) a rich account of how human service workers, from multiple position levels, experience their culture; (d) a preliminary analysis of how leadership may influence culture in the context of a human service environment, and (e) an exploratory investigation as it relates to discovering additional approaches that may assist in evaluating the relationship between culture and organizational effectiveness. The following is a listing of potential future directions for research related to this type of study: (a) a replication of this study, or an approximation thereof, with one or more human service organizations; (b) additional research related to the congruence of, or lack thereof, between espoused theories and theories-in-use held by staff members of human service organizations; (c) the development of mixed methods approaches (quantitative/qualitative) to assessing and measuring congruence between espoused theories and theories-in-use; (d) the relationship between specific types of organizational cultures and effectiveness as it relates to supporting persons intellectual/developmental disabilities and perhaps more specifically, challenging behavior; and (e) research related to various leadership models and behavior as it relates to culture formation in human service organizations.

In this study the researcher provides a behavioral framework for managing massive airline flight disruptions (MAFD) in the United States. Under conditions of MAFD, multiple flights are disrupted throughout the airline's route network, customer service is negatively affected, additional costs are created for airlines, and governments intervene. This study is different from other studies relating to MAFD that have focused on the operational, technical, economic, financial, and customer service impacts. The researcher argues that airlines could improve the management of events that led to MAFD by applying the principles of crisis management where the entire organization is mobilized, rather than one department, adapting organization development (OD) interventions to implement change and organization learning (OL) processes to create culture of innovation, resulting in sustainable improvement in customer service, cost reductions, and mitigation of government intervention. At the intersection of crisis management, OD, and OL, the researcher has developed a new conceptual framework that enhances the resiliency of individuals and organizations in responding to unexpected-yet-recurring crises (e.g., MAFD) that impact operations. The researcher has adapted and augmented Lalonde's framework for managing crises through OD interventions by including OL processes. The OD interventions, coupled with OL, provide a framework for airline leaders to manage more effectively events that result in MAFD with the goal of improving passenger satisfaction, reducing costs, and preventing further government intervention. Further research is warranted to apply this conceptual framework to unexpected-yet-recurring crises that affect operations in other industries.

This study is important for individuals to investigate the actions that entrepreneurs take to facilitate successful business results that meet its goals and objectives. This research identifies the importance of leadership skills on the effectiveness of business and society overall. The purpose of this study is to describe the actions effective leaders take to articulate a successful vision, establish an industry through financial support, understand different cultures, deal with global industries, and make employees more efficient. The research questions addressed in this study are focused on issues that entrepreneurs face while building an organization and the implications of the actions and decisions of leaders in entrepreneurial companies. Data were gathered through interviews with successful entrepreneurial leaders. The outcome of the study showed that there were several ways to build and improve a business and help entrepreneurs to obtain financial support through many resources.

Organizational trust is an important element of an organization’s success, as it is a central component of effective work relationships. This mixed-methods study examined the relationships between the perceived levels of trust that pastors have in a religious organization in the Midwestern region of the United States and for their current male regional bishops as the organizational leaders. Additionally, this research examined the difference between organizational trust and interpersonal trust based on gender. This study used the Organizational Trust Inventory (OTI) developed by Nyhan and Marlowe (1997) and qualitative interviews to measure trust. Results from the sample of 25 pastors revealed that there was a high level of organizational trust and interpersonal trust. When factoring in gender, the triangulation of data implied that the gender does not have a significant effect on the perceived level of organizational trust or interpersonal trust.

This study empirically explores operational practices and archetypes of design thinking in various organizational constructs. The emphasis is on examining the common operational practices applied in design thinking initiatives, to determine whether there are variations in the patterns of applications of these operational practices across different design thinking initiatives, and to identify what may explain such variations if they indeed do exist. The extant literature on design thinking distributed across many disciplines was assessed to determine the common operational practices underlying design thinking initiatives. These practices were then tested in the real-work context of 41 design thinking initiatives.

Two hypotheses were central to this study. First, the many operational practices of design thinking can be reduced to certain core elements or factors that are consistent across various contexts of design thinking initiatives. This hypothesis is tested through factor analysis of 32 operational practices of design thinking across 41 design thinking initiatives. Second, there will be specific archetypes or clusters of design thinking across various contexts where emphasis on core operational practices will vary depending on the context of the design thinking initiative. This hypothesis is tested through cluster analysis of the results of the factor analysis of the 32 operational practices of design thinking derived from the data cross the 41 design thinking initiatives. The cluster analysis assesses whether there are, indeed, archetypal differences in terms of these core operational practices. Then, using qualitative data derived from interviews of 10 design thinking initiatives, case exemplars highlight each of the four archetypes of design thinking initiatives and further speculate on the assumptive domain or the guiding principles that undergird these different archetypes of design thinking operational practices.

This study shows seven factors of operational practices of design thinking emerging from the data, identifying empirical categories that are present across various contexts of design thinking initiatives. These empirical categories highlight the consistency and importance of concepts in design thinking, including cooperative understanding; aspirational visioning; truth seeking; comprehensive solutioning; optimistic collaborating; analytical prototyping; and personal reflecting. Further analysis of the data revealed four archetypes of design thinking initiatives that differed by operational practices of design thinking as well as other key organizational characteristics. A metaphorical construct was applied to the archetypes to symbolize the similarities of the design thinking initiatives to four sports races: training, emphasizing learning by doing and more novice design thinking initiatives; marathons, capturing personal reflection in long timeframe change initiatives; relays, highlighting team collaboration and codesign in complex initiatives; and sprints, emphasizing fast-paced product innovation initiatives. Case studies of the four archetypes were used to provide context to the archetypes. Speculation on the underlying assumptive domains of the archetypes is captured in a model differentiating designer-led versus team-driven design thinking initiatives and low versus high sense of urgency.

Ideally, the results of this study may provide diagnostic insight into the patterns of design thinking initiatives, thus helping managers recognize aspects of design thinking that may already be present in their organization. The archetypes may also be used predictively, aiding organizations pursuing design thinking by utilizing the model as a way of identifying characteristics similar to their own design thinking considerations and goals.

This qualitative phenomenological study explored and identified patterns and types of workplace bullying through the witnesses’ perception. The lack of relevant organizational policies and controls makes it difficult for employees in the United States to report workplace bullying for fear of ridicule, being viewed as weak, or being terminated. There is a need for a richer and more detailed understanding of bullied leaders and employees as they witness the experience of workplace bullying. This study explored and identified actions that were perceived as bullying; explored the impacts, perspectives, and experiences of the witnesses; and developed a model that may assist organizations in mitigating bullying. This study examined 24 organizational leaders and employees from various organizations primarily living in Charlottesville, Virginia area. The results revealed the perception that the responsibility lies not only with the bully, victim, or witness, but with the entire organization. In addition the study exposed that bullying was prevalent within the workplaces and included actions of job intimidation and verbal abuse, which included, yelling, screaming, cursing, and name calling, as well as causing employees to feel stressed, uncomfortable, overwhelmed and not want to work in this type of environment. All of the participants acknowledged that they had witnessed bullying by a supervisor or manager and the most bullying action was job intimidation, the threat of losing a job. A model based on the findings was developed to help transform the organizational culture where the total organization is involved in mitigating bullying in the workplace. The outcomes of this study provide an opportunity for an organization to take a realistic stance against bullying in the workplace.

This mixed-methods case study examined the impact of leadership on practices to organizational agility. Leaders and employees from three organizations (two universities, one financial institution) participated in surveys and interviews to generate data related to the organizational and personal leadership orientations and styles exhibited, the degree of agility in the organization, and the impact of organizational and personal leadership orientations and styles on organizational agility. Study findings suggested that leadership varies based on industry- and organization-specific demands, organizational agility can exist across industries and organization types, and that adopting a long-term focus and practicing agile leadership behaviors throughout the organization may promote higher organizational agility. Organizations are encouraged to promote agile leadership through their hiring, learning and development, and performance review processes. Future research should utilize larger samples, improved data collection instruments, and focus on examining the critical few agile leadership behaviors that may most strongly predict organizational agility.

As noted by research journalists, ‘t Hart, Stern & Sundelius (1997), foreign policy decisions “…are shaped in relatively small groups and informal face-to-face interaction” (p 4). This study explores the influence of small groups on the effectiveness of decision-making techniques and examines how to counter the new forms of groupthink such as an inner-circle of influence.

This project utilizes an experimental design study to test the relative efficiency of two decision-making models in a pre-scripted scenario in countering this new inner-circle form of groupthink. Using a cross-over research design, participants responded to each scenario with random assignment into one of two decision-making models: the Delphi model and an iterative feedback technique referred to in this paper as the Continuous Group Problem Solving (CGPS) model. After completing two decision-making scenarios, participants identified the most effective decision-making model overall and potential for this method to counter dominance by an inner-circle of influence.

The results from this study are significant since the findings reconceptualize the term groupthink as a simpler term implying inner-circle influence that preempts thorough decision-making. The findings also provide insight for future application in countering the deleterious control of an “inner-circle.” These exploratory research results are ripe for replication in large corporate or Government organizations, The desire to have a voice in the decision process and to overcome inner-circle influence will be of value to those conducting future research.

This study utilized a qualitative phenomenological design to examine the experiences of former Accomopharm (a pseudonym) executive managers that implemented innovative management to achieve sustainable profitability. Understanding innovation in the field of organizational management as it pertained to recognizing opportunities for innovation through managerial change was foundational to this research. The study examined participants’ perspectives on organizational innovation as revealed by an analysis of organizational vision, participative safety, task orientation, and support for innovation. The factors were found to provide significant predictions of perceived team effectiveness that determined the extent to which management teams were able to think of new ways and methods for developing and implementing innovative products, managerial methods, and services. The researcher analyzed data obtained from personal interviews conducted telephonically with 10 former executive managers with Accomopharm that volunteered for the interviews. The participants spoke openly and explicitly regarding their experiences with innovative management and in implementing managerial change in achieving sustained organizational profitability. Additional insights into organizational change advanced by an enhanced knowledge of innovation may provide leadership with better strategies that will improve the rates of successful change initiatives.

This multi-case study examined interorganizational relations of co-coordinated volunteer program partnerships between select U.S. National Park Service (NPS) sites and their nonprofit partners. National parks face ongoing funding challenges, resulting in staff reductions and the inability to address many park and visitor needs. Cutbacks and more park visitors translate to greater need for volunteers. Many national parks have nonprofit partners that traditionally focused on fundraising. In 14 cases, these nonprofits expanded their activity to include co-coordination of volunteer programming with NPS partners.

Six partnerships were selected for in-depth study based on a quantitative survey. The study's research questions focus on how the partners collaborate, structures of their co-managed volunteer programs, the programs' adherence to research-based tenets of volunteer program management and interorganizational collaboration, and similarities and differences among the cases. In each case, the partnerships resulted in substantial growth of volunteer programming.

As predicted by Interorganizational Relations and New Institutionalism theories as well as research on volunteer programs managed by a single organization, the volunteer program partnerships have many similar structures, face comparable challenges, and employ many of the same strategies to address challenges. However, the partnerships developed additional practices related to their volunteer programs being co-managed, including staff co-location, daily partner communication, creating a shared volunteer program mission, use of technology for communication, longevity of key staff, and innovative ways to multiply the number of their volunteer coordination positions. The partnerships employ a combination of ad hoc, decentralized, and centralized structures for their volunteer programs as well as a combination of universal, contingent, and configurational practices for volunteer program management. The largest volunteer partnerships also use more agreements, structures, and strategies.

Despite partially adhering to New Institutional theories that suggest structures within organizational fields become more similar over time, these volunteer programs also remain distinctive based on the partners' responses to unique features, challenges, and opportunities at their parks as well as due to different management practices. The most impactful programs take greater advantage of features of their locations, surrounding populations, and available staff. Finally, 'love' for certain parks emerged as a factor that both helps ameliorate conflict among partners and serves as the primary motivator for many volunteers. Overall, these partnerships resulted in expanded volunteer programs, enhanced partner relationships, and greater ability to adapt to changing conditions and opportunities.

Despite increased awareness of the link between teamwork and medical errors, and increased development of interventions aimed at improving team performance, the incidence of preventable errors in hospitals, and in the surgical environment particularly, remains high. Absent from interdisciplinary team development efforts is empirical evidence informed by the voices of surgical team members specific to their day- to- day experiences of teamwork. For this reason, a case study of interdisciplinary teamwork among Orthopedic Surgery team members was conducted from June to December 2013 to: (a) discover how teamwork behaviors are enacted in the surgical environment to affect the incidence of preventable surgical errors; and (b) understand the experience of teamwork from the perspective of surgical team members.

The case study data included 37 one-on-one interviews with Orthopedic Surgery team members (including two supervisors), and observations by the researcher guided by the Observational Teamwork Assessment for Surgery (OTAS) instrument. This study finds that while mindfulness is a prerequisite to safety behaviors that are found in the surgical setting, there is a dynamic interplay between processes of collective mindfulness and traditional teamwork behaviors wherein one continuously informs, shapes, and reinforces the other. Noting contributions of the this study to practice, the opportunity exists to expand the present inquiry beyond Orthopedic Surgery to include other surgical specialties as well as non-surgical practices within the hospital and clinic environments.

Complexity leadership theory (CLT) (Uhl-Bien, Marion and McKelvey , 2007; Uhl-Bien & Marion, 2009) represents a 21st century transcend and include theory of leadership. This study examined how seven senior managers and leaders working in complex environments engaged in CLT at work, and whether action-logics (Torbert and Associates, 2004) made a difference in how they did so. Participants spanned three action-logics: expert, achiever, and individualist.

Data collection for this qualitative study was based on a moderately structured interview protocol developed around the seven primary theoretical components (called "CLT Areas") of the adaptive leadership function presented in Uhl-Bien and Marion, 2009. The interview protocol embodied a language translation from the more abstract academic language of CLT to the idiolect of participants. Individual interviews lasted about two hours. Each participant also completed an action-logic instrument (Leadership Development Profile).

The primary study finding is a novel methodology for determining the degree to which participants were engaging in CLT. Existing definitions of CLT Areas as shown in Uhl-Bien, Marion, and McKelvey (2007) and Uhl-Bien and Marion (2009) were expanded via the development of elements comprising each CLT Area. Further, metrics were developed for each element that generated numerical scoring from interview text, providing a means for quantitative analysis to compare differences among participants. Data for three of the seven CLT Areas were analyzed.

In addition to the primary methodology finding, data findings guided by the CLT Scoring Framework showed evidence that all participants were engaged in CLT, but in different ways. Moreover, patterns of scoring differences emerged across action-logics, suggesting that action-logics were impacting the way these leaders engaged in CLT.

This study represents an early step in the integration of two theories - complexity leadership and action-logic - both of which appear to be related to 21st century environments. The study concludes with a recommendation for how to further integrate these theories in a way that could lead to considerable expansions of both. Of particular interest is the potential to deepen understanding of the role systems thinking plays in regards to action-logics.

This qualitative, exploratory case study addressed the research question: What is the interplay of executive group members' deep-level attributes in the process of high-stakes decision-making in one global organization? The study responded to Lawrence's (1997) call to explore the "black box of organizational demography" through the exploration of subjective concepts such as beliefs, cognitions, and values and their relationships within research models. As such, it sought to further the understanding of the influence of executive group members' surface- and deep-level (underlying) attributes while engaged in promotion and selection of internal candidates to higher levels of leadership within one regional business unit of a global organization. The research used executive groups, leadership, and decision-making literature as its basis, and its results inform practice related to executive groups, decision-making, and selection.

The study offered seven conclusions. (1) The definition of deep-level attributes requires revision. (2) Beliefs are not deep-level attributes, but result from the interplay between surface-level attributes and values. (3) Cognitions are generated from the interplay of beliefs and the decision-making context. (4) Executive groups appear to function best when both homogeneity and heterogeneity are present simultaneously. (5) The CEO has a more substantial and pervasive influence on the executive group decision-making process than any other member of the executive group. (6) The conceptual frame for this study required revision to fully understand "interplay." (7) Decision-making executive groups are flexible in structure. The study offered recommendations related to theory, practice, and future research.

The effects of non-routine work on the planned goals of an organization were examined through a qualitative case study. The purpose of the study was to identify the distinguishing features of routine and non-routine operational situations from the perspective of employees from three different organizational levels: executives, managers, and staff. The findings contribute to the understanding of how organizational leaders can meet their planned goals in the face of disruptions resulting from unplanned operational situations. Twenty employees of this organization were interviewed on how they perceived their routine work was affected by non-routine operational situations. System theory was the ontology of the research for an integrative study of how routine and non-routine operational situations affected the employees in terms of their job performance, job satisfaction, and effectiveness of response. Based on the findings, non-routine operations were perceived by the employees as departures from their routine work. Employees also indicated that they routinized the work they expected to perform as part of their job, both for efficiency and to ensure completeness. Employees expressed anxiety about non-routine work since it was unplanned and caught them unprepared. However, employees also indicated having a sense of accomplishment from completing non-routine work, when their routine work was also completed. Two sources of job satisfaction were reported by the employees: (a) contributing to organizational performance through completing the routine work; and (b) overcoming the challenges of dealing with the task uncertainties that non-routine work entails. Further distinctions between routine and non-routine work were indicated by employees in terms of quality control and quality assurance measures.

The purpose of the present quantitative descriptive, correlational study was to determine whether and to what degree a relationship existed between generational shifting at the workplace and the level of work engagement. Generations included in the study were Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. The study also served to determine the relationship, between the employee motivations towards work and generational cohort, and the relationship between motivation sources and employee engagement. The study findings revealed that work engagement levels did not relate to generational cohorts. Similarly, the most prevalent motivation sources did not differ among the three generations. In terms of the relationship between motivation sources and employee engagement, the study added to the body of knowledge about employee engagement and work motivation. Positive correlations were found between work engagement and the following motivation sources: intrinsic process, internal self-concept, external self-concept, and goal internalization. These findings imply that individuals are motivated by the work itself, not necessarily by the rewards expected for the job. Individuals prefer jobs that allow them to have fun and provide a sense of achievement. Individuals will be motivated by tasks that help them to maintain or increase their reputation, and jobs that match their internal values. By focusing on addressing workforce motivation sources, employers will probably increase work engagement. Future research could expand on the suggestions and findings of the present study.

The administration's healthcare reform act of 2010 brings changes that are targeted to increase the quality of care, cut rising healthcare costs, and improve the health of the population, but the principle objectives of the law can only be met with the active involvement of physicians. However, leading in multidisciplinary healthcare organizations is difficult and physicians prepared for leadership are in short supply. Addressing this shortage first requires an understanding of the leadership practices of physicians in order to develop an effective leadership development program. To this end, the primary purpose of this study is to explore the practices of physician leaders.

This study used the qualitative phenomenological method to examine the experiences of physicians in their lives as leaders. The theoretical framework used to guide the research was the five practices of exemplary leaders (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Interviews were conducted with 8 participants and the data were coded and analyzed using HyperRESEARCH, a qualitative coding software package. The validity and reliability of the study were enhanced by presenting an in-depth, vivid analysis of the data, by conducting a peer review and by clarifying the researcher's bias at the outset of the study. The study found that all 5 of the practices in Kouzes and Posner's (2012) theoretical framework were present in physician leaders to varying degrees. Overall, the expressions which represented the practices of "enable others to act," "inspire a shared vision," and "challenge the process," were counted more often than "model the way" and "encourage the heart."

The study recommends that instructional designers develop a systematic curriculum with advanced leadership concepts. Additional recommendations include executive coaching and change leadership training. Recommendations for future research include increasing the number of participants, replicating the study using a different theoretical framework, including more physicians from small practices, expanding the study to collect demographics of the participants, and using a quantitative method or mixed method to enhance the transferability of the study results.

Historically, leadership research has concentrated on the charismatic and sometimes mythical qualities of a single, heroic leader. In a knowledge-oriented economy, theories of individual leaders are incomplete because they fail to capture the social nature of complex organizations. A distributed perspective of leadership frames leadership in terms of dynamic patterns of social interaction between people and aspects of their situation and considers the context or structure as important as the human agency.

This qualitative single case study, which involved a self-managed team of professionals in a mid-sized global financial services company, explored leadership as a social process in response to goals of organizational effectiveness and corporate organizational change over time. Specifically, this study described how leadership actions were enacted within the context of emerging social structuring, which enhances the understanding of leadership theory and moves us closer to being able to practically utilize a distributed perspective of leadership. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and document review.

The findings of strategic alignment with organizational goals and the utilization of advanced technology emerged as external conditions for leadership practice. The nature of interactions within the team was influenced by a combination of five distinct but interdependent elements: shared interest, routines, participation norms, language, and authority structures. The study shows the fluid nature of distributed leadership and the reciprocal dynamics of interactions that coevolve and change over time to best fit with specific circumstances.

The findings support three conclusions: (1) the role of context as an essential aspect of leadership practice; (2) the relational dynamics of social structuring and the influence of three fundamental elements of social interaction—meaning, power, and norms—on leadership action; and (3) the strengthening and sustaining ability of the norm of reciprocity on the dynamic interaction among team members. This study is important because it will help organizations better understand, identify, and apply the principles of a distributed perspective of leadership to future situations and will increase the credibility and viability of collective leadership theories.