A 2002 congressional mandate initiated the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Centers of Excellence programs with a requirement to conduct cross-organizational research and development. The resulting complex multiorganizational programs required more effective virtual leadership and management strategies. Fifteen years later, the presidential budget showed that 61% of the DHS budget was targeted for such research and development. The complex management strategies and virtual leadership skills required to lead the programs were lacking, as top scientific researchers are drawn upon to manage programs. The purpose of this study was to understand followers' perspectives regarding virtual leadership and collaboration within complex multiorganizational DHS Centers of Excellence programs. Complex-systems and leader-member exchange theories formed the conceptual framework. Fifteen individuals, representing 10 Centers of Excellence programs, were interviewed about virtual leadership strategies used to motivate highly educated scientists across program organizations. A case study analysis of participants' perspectives revealed 4 key findings. The first finding was that programs employed shared leadership where project subteams were self-managed. The second finding was that the programs focused on applied research, resulting in subteam structures segmented by discipline. The third finding showed that collaboration occurred within collocated subteams and coordination was most common between virtual partners. The final finding was that highly educated participants were primarily self-motivated. Targeted training can lead to positive social change through influencing the existing paradigm of leadership for these programs.

Implementing innovations is a challenging, high-risk task for many organizations. Dr Sawang examines the implementation of various innovations in manufacturing and non-manufacturing contexts. This thesis used the current best practice in structural equation modelling techniques to empirically test the model of implementation effectiveness in both Australian and Thai firms. Commitment from top managers, provision of implementation policies and practices, positive climate and skilful and talented staff enhanced successful implementation. Dr Sawang’s research contributes to a more rigorously tested and comprehensive model of implementation effectiveness.

When disasters occur, new or informal groups often emerge to assist with the response or have resources that can aid professional disaster managers involved in the crisis. Historically, incorporating these groups into the formal disaster response system under conditions of urgency and uncertainty has been difficult. This mixed-methods, three-article dissertation explores two cases of interorganizational collaboration in which public administrators working to manage the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated and integrated emergent actor participation in the response. The findings of the study point to the potential for disaster managers to routinize the anticipation of emergence by considering those organizations that may be best positioned to facilitate different emergent actors, ways of engaging them before crises occur, and mechanisms that might break down barriers to formal/informal responder collaboration during an acute response. The results of this study have implications for public administration, interorganizational collaboration, and disaster management. / Doctor of Philosophy / Large-scale disasters involve acute dangers to human and environmental health, and often property, creating significant disruption to society. This disruption may challenge public administrators' abilities to manage the size and scope of the impacts, creating an opportunity to work with groups not normally involved in managing disasters but that have unexpected but needed resources. As these new groups may not have the background or knowledge of formal disaster response systems and processes, they may not know how to identify or work with the officials managing the disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic, a complex and relatively uncommon disaster, provides an opportunity to explore the ways in which disaster managers incorporated novel resources and groups as they reacted to the ever-changing demands of the crisis. This dissertation explored two examples of groups of organizations working together in the state of Virginia to manage aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to understand the ways in which disaster managers may be better able to plan for, facilitate, and incorporate new groups into disaster management efforts. The results of this study indicate several ways in which new groups might be integrated into disaster management efforts, including differential implementation of disaster policy, the use of community liaisons to external groups, and technological innovations that reduce barriers to collaboration. Though we can never predict where the next major disaster will strike or what type of hazard it might involve, we can predict that first, it will happen and second, it will bring new groups into the response effort, as well as the need for disaster managers to collaborate with those new groups. As the findings from this project suggest, by considering the ways in which new groups might be better integrated during a disaster, it might be possible to better leverage critical resources to help communities better respond to a disaster.