Leadership is a broad topic that can be studied from a vast amount of angles and perspectives. The same fact is true for communication. This study combines these two concepts as it directs attention towards discursive analysis of business leaders. With this focus, the purpose is to describe the essence of rhetoric as an essential part of business communication, analyze how business leaders perform leadership through communication and to contribute to further understanding of this subject, by explaining the communication of business leaders through rhetorical analysis. To reach as far as possible within this research a theoretical framework, that will be the support for the analysis, is established as a basis on which an analysis is possible. This framework reviews the important concepts that are essential for understanding the means of the following rhetorical analysis. To analyze the textual communication of business leaders extracted from real life cases, narratives from situations where leadership is practiced have been selected based on certain criteria. The findings of this study are in unity with the direction in which this research aims. The way business leaders communicate in situations where leadership is practiced have an immense impact on how they are perceived as leaders. Therefore it is argued that business leaders should put more emphasis on increasing their understanding of how they are perceived by others, based on the way they communicate through verbal communication.

This study of CEOs in Nigeria sought to discover the practices that CEOs engaged in as relevant and effective in an emerging economy. Twenty eight CEOs of national and expatriate extraction running national and multi-national companies were interviewed to understand their experiences of the contextual influences of an emerging economy and how this impacted what they did, ie. their practices. In support of contingency theories that seek to explain how effective leadership is the result of appropriateness of fit between particular behaviours and particular situations , CEO practices in an emerging economy were found to be attributable to the macro influences of an emerging economy, discovered in the Nigerian environment to include: - undue government influence, unwholesome competitor practices, short supply of skills and talent, inadequate social and physical infrastructure, a large untapped market and poor government capacity to implement policies and laws. The inclusion of previously unresearched but potentially relevant meso and micro influences of company type and CEO nationality status led to the discovery of additional CEO practices that were perceived to be relevant in an emerging economy context and the attribution of differences in CEO practices to the individual or combined influence of these contexts. A conceptual model derived from the findings of this study provided a new understanding of the relationship between the macro influences of an emerging economy, the meso influence of company type and the micro influence of CEO nationality status on CEO practices and the intended outcomes of those practices. Practical knowledge about the development of business leaders in an emerging economy has been extended as a result of deeper insights into the contextually influenced and relevant CEO practices in an emerging economy.

Ineffective marketing strategies can negatively impact business competitive advantage. Small business owners who struggle to maintain a competitive advantage are at high risk of failure. Grounded in the technology acceptance model, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore social media marketing strategies small business leaders in the wine industry use to promote brand awareness and maximize competitive advantage. The population comprised 5 small business leaders employed with 4 wineries in the wine industry in Michigan, who effectively used social media marketing strategies to promote brand awareness and maximize competitive advantage. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, company documents, and company social media platforms. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Three themes emerged: customer engagement strategy, social media platform strategy, and targeted market strategy. The implications for positive social change include the potential for small business leaders in the wine industry to create jobs and support the economic development of the regional communities.

This study of CEOs in Nigeria sought to discover the practices that CEOs engaged in as relevant and effective in an emerging economy. Twenty eight CEOs of national and expatriate extraction running national and multi-national companies were interviewed to understand their experiences of the contextual influences of an emerging economy and how this impacted what they did, ie. their practices. In support of contingency theories that seek to explain how effective leadership is the result of appropriateness of fit between particular behaviours and particular situations , CEO practices in an emerging economy were found to be attributable to the macro influences of an emerging economy, discovered in the Nigerian environment to include: - undue government influence, unwholesome competitor practices, short supply of skills and talent, inadequate social and physical infrastructure, a large untapped market and poor government capacity to implement policies and laws. The inclusion of previously unresearched but potentially relevant meso and micro influences of company type and CEO nationality status led to the discovery of additional CEO practices that were perceived to be relevant in an emerging economy context and the attribution of differences in CEO practices to the individual or combined influence of these contexts. A conceptual model derived from the findings of this study provided a new understanding of the relationship between the macro influences of an emerging economy, the meso influence of company type and the micro influence of CEO nationality status on CEO practices and the intended outcomes of those practices. Practical knowledge about the development of business leaders in an emerging economy has been extended as a result of deeper insights into the contextually influenced and relevant CEO practices in an emerging economy.

The increasing commercial and social pressure for business leaders to act in a socially responsible manner is undermined by the lack of standards in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) legislation, auditing, indexing, and reporting. Moreover, CSR research is fragmentary and often missing empirical corroboration. It lacks synthesis, uses CSR concepts and terms ambiguously, and is inconsistent in the identification of CSR practices, its formulation and institutionalisation. This study addresses these gaps and discontinuities by first synthesising a range of theories into an explanatory framework. This framework provides the pre-understanding for the collection and analysis of qualitative data drawn from the UK oil and gas industry. The findings highlight the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of CSR operationalisation. The analysis emphasises the dependence of CSR strategy formulation on business leaders’ personal beliefs and biases. These beliefs are tempered by balancing shareholders’ interests and stakeholders’ expectations, and are affected by the global (in the case of corporations) or the local (in the case of corporate subsidiaries and small-medium size enterprises) contexts. These appear to be the main factors influencing leaders’ CSR decisions. The findings also demonstrate a number of challenges that business leaders face when reconciling personal, organisational, industry, global, and societal values and ethical beliefs; and balancing traditional organisational goals, such as profit maximisation, with increased stakeholder empowerment in granting social legitimacy. In addition, the exploration of CSR institutionalisation reveals different approaches in corporate subsidiaries, which fluctuate between the CSR practices of corporate headquarters and those of SMEs. The analysis of these findings results in a proposed hybrid model of CSR Institutionalisation in the oil and gas industry, with a breakdown of identified factors affecting corporate, SMEs’, and subsidiaries’ leaders’ CSR decisions. This thesis contributes to the literature by proposing a number of concepts, including: CSR Nexus and CSR Dynamics models as conceptual syntheses of the theoretical framework; an empirically corroborated CSR Operationalisation model within the studied organisations suggesting a nonconformance with extant CSR research; an observed matrix of business leaders’ CSR Motivations highlighting their diversity in corporations, SMEs, and corporate subsidiaries. Finally, a conceptual CSR Convergence model is proposed, which outlines a comprehensive approach to CSR education and implementation. In a weak and ambiguous CSR regulation and legislation environment, this study endeavours to bridge the gap between CSR research, business organisations, and stakeholders by contributing to the enhancement of CSR understanding, education, and implementation.

Project cost and schedule forecasting accuracy in the defense industry has not significantly changed since the 1960s, making it difficult for defense business leaders to implement successful earned value management (EVM) strategies. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore EVM strategies that Washington, D.C. area defense contractor business leaders used to improve costs and schedule goal accomplishment. The conceptual framework for this study was the earned time theory. Data were collected from semistructured interviews from 5 defense contractor business leaders with demonstrated use of EVM strategy. The review of company documents focused on EVM use with reporting requirements, and archival EVM study analysis supplemented the data from the semistructured interviews. Data were triangulated and inductively analyzed for themes, and member checking was done to ensure credibility of the interpretations. Four themes emerged from the data: the use of EVM data to improve outcomes, the existence of essential strategies, the role of EVM as but a single tool, and the essential engagement of leadership. Findings may contribute to social change because defense business contractor leaders could help improve business performance and return resources for social improvement. Investment in social and environmental improvements can strengthen employee commitment and ultimately ties to the community at large, furthering social improvement.

The aim of this thesis is a CSR analysis in the scale of the Czech republic. It describes the application of the CSR in the focus of big multinational corporations, big companies and small and medium enterprises. It mentions the organizations that implement and develop the CSR and tackles/ deals with their methods and procedures. The thesis also evaluates the CSR and its aspects in a particular company (AVOS VYSKOV Measuring and Regulation Technology Ltd) and proposes concrete measures to clarify and improve the situation. Conclusions of this thesis will be used as a feedback for the company management and as a support for the annual report of the CSR.

Abstract: Interpersonal skills such as perception are an important topic within sustainability discourse. Additionally, businesses play a key role in the sustainable transition the world is currently undergoing. Through this study, we aimed to investigate how business leaders and decision makers perceive the sustainability performance of the firms they work for and explore how these perceptions align with real-world circumstances. In doing so, we will discover how such interpersonal skills are being utilised within a business context. 'The study was developed using theories such as inner development skills, the Dunning-Kruger effect and Brandlogic’s sustainability IQ Matrix. We followed an inductive interpretivistmethodology to gather qualitative data through a series of interviews. The findings show thatperceptions and their accuracy are quite varied, though participants who reported higher levels of communication from their firm often had more positive perceptions. Furthermore, despite the Dunning-Kruger effect suggesting that education would have an impact on accuracy, we did not find this to be the case, rather participants who demonstrated usage of a variety of inner development skills tended to be more accurate. These findings suggest businesses who wish to improve the perception of their firm should focus on how they communicate their efforts, and those seeking to improve accuracy should focus on development of inner development skills.

This research study measures the impact of academic engagement and operational engagement, the strategies that are used by business schools for sustainability integration. The effectiveness of these strategies is studied through their impact on business students’ sustainability perception, their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) attitude, and their current behavior regarding sustainability. It is a quantitative study in which Independent sample t-test is used based on sample of 158 business students from Jonkoping International Business School and Gothenburg School of Business, Economics, and Law. Our findings suggest that the impact of sustainability integration strategies used by business schools is significantly different, that is to say that business school that is using operational engagement in addition to academic engagement is more effective than the business school that is using academic engagement only for sustainability integration. More specifically we found that business students’ sustainability perception, their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) attitude and their current behavior regarding sustainability is better in school using operational engagement as compared to the business school that is not using operational engagement. This implies that for sustainability integration it is important to provide practical demonstration and opportunities to business students in order to make them responsible future business leaders.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that millennials will soon represent 46% of the workforce. The anticipated changes in the workforce are of great concern to business leaders who may manage individuals from different generations. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that administrative leaders in an advisory group of community-based organizations and educational institutions used to improve the productivity of a multigenerational workforce. The conceptual frameworks that grounded this study were the social constructivist perspective and generational theory. Data were collected from semistructured interviews to elicit narratives from 6 administrative leaders from 6 different nonprofit organizations selected via purposive sampling throughout the northeast region of the United States with experience improving the productivity of a multigenerational workforce. Data also came from a review of company documents and a reflexive journal. Data analysis entailed coding, identifying relevant themes, using Yin's 5 step analytic strategy approach, and member checking to strengthen the validity of the interpretations of participants' responses. Two principal themes emerged from the data: effective leadership strategies and essential retention strategies to improve productivity. The overall analysis of the 2 principal themes revealed the importance of communication, teamwork, training, work-life programs, recognition, knowledge sharing, and feedback in improving the productivity of a multigenerational workforce. Findings from this study may contribute to social change because chief executive officers (CEO) may use the strategies to implement corrective measures to positively influence the productivity of a multigenerational workforce.