Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all of society, and businesses are faced by having to close or adapt to the new regulations and laws by pursuing digital transformation. As companies are transitioning to remote work, leaders are now met with the obstacle of taking in-person, face-to-face leadership and putting it through digital transformation. Due to all these unforeseen changes employee motivation is at risk as employees are working remotely in isolation with leaders adopting new leadership styles.    Purpose: This research aims to investigate the change in leadership styles resulting from remote work and investigate if it has affected employee motivation.   Method: This research is an exploratory qualitative study conducted, focusing on multiple cases where semi-structured, and in-depth interviews were held with nine participants from three companies, with one leader and two employees from each company. A thematic analysis was used to investigate the primary data. Conclusion: The empirical findings and the analysis provide two areas that have been found during this conducted research: 1) Leaders realized that instead of focusing on performances-oriented approaches with heavy monitoring and supervision, it was more important to tend to human-centric care and being more open and nurturing to alleviate stress for employees. 2) Employee motivation has generally been negatively impacted due to employees and leaders experiencing communication difficulties, loneliness, lack of support and easily accessible distractions. With a few exceptions of employees coping better with a more balanced supervision and higher level of isolation acceptance.

Background: Companies are assuming a vital role in shaping the future for the coming generations through the development of sustainable innovations. Previous studies have stressed the importance of leadership as fundamental in the innovation process and when creating more sustainable businesses. Leaders behaving responsibly are assumed to have a positive impact on the outcome of the innovation process, as the employees are likely to apply the same behaviour. Even so, exactly how leaders behave to combine innovation and sustainability has not yet been theorised, hence, the integration of leadership, sustainability, and innovation is inadequate in the realm of literature. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how leaders behave when fostering an innovation process that leads to sustainable products, services, and/or technologies. Method: The research uses a qualitative method with an inductive approach conducted through semi- structured interviews at three Swedish business-to-business (B2B) multinational enterprises (MNEs) with three leaders working with sustainability, three innovation managers, and one environment manager. Conclusion: The findings suggest three important behavioural dimensions of leaders when promoting an innovation process that leads to sustainable outcomes. In the analysis section, these dimensions are synchronised into a framework; the first one, Reinforcing Positive Psychological State, influences both Making Future-Oriented Strategic Decisions and Modelling the Opportunities and Importance, while the two latter are interrelated. By applying the behaviours illustrated in the framework, leaders behave in a way that fosters the innovation of sustainable outcomes.

Applying the theoretical perspective of organisational identification (OI), in this thesis I explore how rising individualistic cultural values (ICVs) of employees affect their work performance in service industry of South China. I consider leader-member exchange (LMX) and its moderating effect on the association between rising ICVs and OI of employees, which may affect their performance. The hypotheses are tested using data collected from a large Hong Kong owned organisation in the hospitality industry in South China. The data show that ICV has a negative relationship with OI, which in turn can cause poorer employee performance of young generation workforce. The data also show that a relationship approach such as LMX can moderate the negative association between ICV and OI. From the empirical findings, there are practical implications for people management in South China business operations.

Leaders and the strategies they employ to enhance employee performance are essential to retaining an organization's competitive advantage. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by supply chain management managers to improve employee performance in the workplace. The conceptual framework for this study combined elements from Vroom's expectancy theory of motivation, Adams's equity theory of motivation and leadership, and transformational leadership theories. Participants were selected via the purposeful sampling of 6 successful supply chain managers in the District of Columbia's metropolitan area. Data were obtained using semistructured face-to-face interviews, interview notes, transcripts, and a thorough review and analysis of organizational documents. Data were analyzed using Yin's 5-step approach to data analysis. Four themes were identified: strategies associated with enhancing employee performance with an emphasis on training, barriers that prevented leadership from achieving performance improvement objectives, tools leaders used to measure employee performance and the leadership style of the manager with an emphasis on the use of the participative leadership style. The findings of this study may contribute to social change by providing supply chain managers with resources required to enhance overall employee performance in the workplace, which in turn may lead to increased overall organizational productivity, helping to ensure the prosperity of the organizational leaders, employees, their families, the surrounding communities, and the local economy.

This ethnographic and phenomenological study examined the relationship between the benefits and compensation afforded to emergency responders; their perceptions of work equity, equality, justice, and risk management; and the effect of perceived equity, equality, justice, and risk management on the execution of an emergency responder's duties. The data was collected through interviews with members of the culture group, including law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical responder's (n = 24). The interviews were audio recorded, then manually transcribed by the researcher. The raw data was coded for reoccurring themes and commonalities. The reoccurring themes were organized and displayed in tables based on subcategory of the culture group. The results of the study indicate that the benefits and compensation afforded to professionals working in this field have an impact on their perception of work equity, justice, and risk management. It was further found that these benefits do not have an impact on the perception of work equality among members of this culture group. Understanding how to effectively motivate these professionals can have many positive effects regarding social change. These effects could be seen at the local and individual level for these responder's, at the community level for those that they serve, and at the policy level.

Inspired, motivated employees are essential to organizational success. Research findings indicate a strong relationship between vision, leader charisma, organizational factors, and the extent to which employees feel motivated to achieve organizational goals based on the vision, known as employee vision inspiration (EVI). However, little is known about how employees personalize organizational visions and why this affects their performance. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore in-depth the organizational and employee-related factors that affect EVI using the constant comparative method and grounded theory methodology, and how EVI manifests itself in employee behaviors directed toward the achievement of a company's vision. Interviews with a purposeful sample of 14 employees, chosen because they were inspired by their organization's vision, provided the data needed to answer the research questions and enable the development of a grounded theory of EVI. According to this theory, having an organization with a strong culture of two-way communication and a positive work environment fostered by a leader committed to an achievable vision positively affects EVI. The theory further indicates that such an organization acts as a motivator that enhances employee satisfaction and commitment, and elevates pride in the organization, thus positively affecting EVI. The significance to social change of this study is that it may enable leaders to understand how to inspire employees to be more creative and more committed to the success of the organization, thereby fostering a more fulfilling and satisfying organizational environment.

Employee turnover is detrimental to organizational performance and profitability, leading to loss of diverse financial and intellectual resources and assets. Grounded in the motivation-hygiene theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between employee turnover intention and job satisfaction, employee compensation, employee engagement, employee motivation, and work environment. The population consisted of low- to mid-level hospitality employees residing in Western Georgia, Central Mississippi, and North Central Texas, over the age of 18, and employed in the hospitality industry. A convenience sample of 156 participants completed the Compensation Scale, Job Satisfaction Scale, Utrecht Work Employee Engagement Scale, Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale, Work Environment Scale, and Turnover Intention Scale via an online survey. Multiple linear regression analyses and Pearson-product correlation coefficients were used to predict employee turnover. The 5 predictors accounted for approximately 36% of the variance in turnover intention and the result was statistically significant, (R-² =.36, F (5, 105) = 11.57, p < .001). The correlation between motivation and turnover intention was not significant. The findings may contribute to positive social change by increasing the potential to provide hospitality leaders with a foundation for future research on job satisfaction, employee compensation, employee engagement, employee motivation, work environment, and turnover intentions. These improvements may lead to the formulation of strategies and policies of business practices to reduce turnover intentions.

Two theories of work motivation taken from the field of Industrial/Organizational Psychology were compared in a six-week field experiment at a Fortune 500 company. A Job Enrichment Model (Hackman & Oldham, 1975) was used and the Motivating Potential Score (MPS) of three groups of machine operators was obtained before and after a six-week productivity study. Three goal conditions based on Goal Theory (Locke, 1968) were assigned one to each of three groups of machine operators and comparisons were made between the treatment groups. Production increases resulted from providing goals and feedback to subjects, but these increases were not statistically significant. The hourly goal condition with feedback had the largest increase over baseline, greater than either daily goals with feedback or the "do your best" goal condition with no feedback. A weak correlation exists (r =.17) between the change in worker's MPS and the worker's change in production.

The research conceptualizes how visionary leaders have the ability to develop a vision for an organization, make it a shared one among its stakeholders and lead them towards the realization of the vision. The type of leadership within marketing agencies has a great impact on performance due to the level of creativity needed in the industry. A visionary leadership style possesses skills to motivate people which is necessary to be creative. The purpose of the study is to investigate how visionary leadership impacts business strategies focusing on organizational cultures from the viewpoint of marketing agencies. In the research, a qualitative study has been applied where data has been collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with respondents working in marketing agencies providing the empirical findings. It is found through the research that leadership traits of visionary leaders are beneficial and have a great impact on organizational cultures. Visionary leaders possess the ability to communicate and implement visions within companies and guide organizations through action steps to realize the visions.

As organizations increasingly embrace digitalization, they encounter both benefits and threats that necessitate a keen focus on cybersecurity and organizational management. The rapidly evolving technological landscape demands continuous research to address the challenges and uncertainties faced by organizations. This thesis aims to investigate the motivation behind employee adherence to cybersecurity directives and the factors influencing management's implementation of such directives. The theoretical framework used as influence in this thesis is the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, with a specific focus on a case study of an IT-infrastructure and consultant firm. Through a qualitative approach utilizing semi-structured interviews, this thesis provides insights into the motivating factors that drive employee compliance and the key considerations guiding management's cybersecurity practices. By illuminating these factors, this thesis offers valuable guidance for organizations seeking to enhance their cybersecurity and overall performance. This thesis also applied the TOE framework on a new context, further expanding its applicability.