Exploring the Career Experiences and Leadership Perceptions of Nonprofit Executives in Central Florida: A Mixed-Methods Study. JahKiya S. Bell, 2016: Applied Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, Abraham S. Fischler College of Education. Key Words: nonprofit organizations, leadership effectiveness, leadership qualities, administrator characteristics. This applied dissertation was designed to explore the professional and leadership development thoughts and experiences of nonprofit administrators in the Central Florida region. Administrators play a significant role for in ensuring the sustainability and success of nonprofit organizations. Administrators must possess the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will allow them to lead their organization to accomplish goals while securing necessary funding from diversified sources. In Central Florida—defined in this study as Orange, Osceola, and Seminole Counties—as of 2012 there were 1,485 health and human services nonprofit organizations in the region, which is 42% increase in the number of nonprofit organizations in the past ten years. An increase in the number of nonprofit organizations is indicative of an increase in competition for available funds. The problem addressed by this research was that while research is available about general leadership practices and the knowledge and skills necessary to become a leader, there was a lack of knowledge regarding the specific experiences of nonprofit administrators in Central Florida. This study collected and discussed the academic and professional credentials held by participating nonprofit administrators and leaders in the Central Florida, as well as reviewed these leaders’ perspectives on the knowledge, skills, and leadership practices required to lead a nonprofit organization.

This thesis documents and examines Occupy Portland's organizational structure and the impact of this structure on the leadership roles of participants. Interviews with key activists and participant observation reveal that the ideologically influenced horizontal organization employed by the movement disrupts the emergence of centralized authority and charismatic leadership. This, in turn, encourages the rise of a "distributed leadership" comprised of multiple, task driven leaders. It finds that these task-oriented leaders within Occupy Portland tend to fulfill three specific leadership roles; the facilitation of process, the construction of movement structures, and the organization of actions. This study provides an exploration of conceptualizing leaders in a non-hierarchical, decentralized, consensus-based decision-making social movement and works to give needed expansion to the literature on social movement leadership.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Through an analysis of the depiction of female protagonists in young adult dystopian and speculative works of fiction, this thesis establishes leadership studies as a theoretical framework for literary study. Leadership studies is a relatively young branch of academic inquiry, using interdisciplinary approaches to investigate the phenomenon of leadership. From psychology, sociology, and philosophy, to education, business, and history, leadership studies has both drawn from and provided insight into a variety of disciplines; however, these theories have not yet found their way into conversations about literature. My thesis pulls leadership studies away from its corporate connotations to establish it as a valid and valuable addition to our literary analysis repertoire through a demonstration of its potential to further conversations about texts. This analysis is positioned within the contexts of children’s literature, feminist theory, and practices of reading for ideology, anchoring leadership studies in already-established modes of inquiry while demonstrating how this field offers valuable insight into them. My focus on dystopian and speculative young adult novels reflects the recent surge in dystopic/postapocalyptic texts that feature strong female protagonists, presenting potential leadership strategies for young girl readers during an important stage of development. Thus, this thesis uses leadership studies to further our analysis of how agency, power, and gender are represented within children’s literature.

The purpose of this study was to determine the counseling role of the seminary teacher. Answers to the following were sought: 1. Are there significant differences in the counseling role of the seminary teacher as seen by members of stake presidencies and bishops, and as seen by seminary teachers themselves? 2. Is there a consensus among teachers and Church leaders concerning the counseling role of the seminary teacher? 3. What is the counseling role of the seminary teacher? The following conclusions were drawn: 1. There were significant differences on six of the twenty-five items. No pattern of difference was shown. 2. There was a consensus on nineteen of the twenty-five tems on the questionnaire. 3. Church leaders expect much of the seminary teacher in doing student counseling. They expressed approval of his past counseling work.

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No / There is widespread debate within critical management studies (CMS) as to the possibility of introducing CMS principles and ideas into organizational life. There is similarly a critique of its potential to replace the hegemony of `mainstream' business school thinking with an alternative hegemonic practice. In this article we use a reflexive analysis of our involvement as critical thinkers within the delivery of leadership-development programmes to consider these debates and explore CMS perspectives with participants. Our initial attempts were naive, but a more nuanced understanding given by theorizing our own practices offers some ways of avoiding the substitution of one hegemony with another. Although working as critical thinkers within mainstream programmes will always be problematic, we suggest that using a dialogical approach in leadership training programmes is one way of struggling with the inherent difficulties, while introducing participants to different ways of theorizing their worlds.

No / Leadership has proved impossible to define, despite decades of research and a huge number of publications. This article explores managers’ accounts of leadership, and shows that they find it difficult to talk about the topic, offering brief definitions but very little narrative. That which was said/sayable provides insights into what was unsaid/ unsayable. Queer theory facilitates exploration of that which is difficult to talk about, and applying it to the managers’ talk allows articulation of their lay theory of leadership. This is that leaders evoke a homoerotic desire in followers such that followers are seduced into achieving organizational goals. The leader’s body, however, is absent from the scene of seduction, so organizational heteronormativity remains unchallenged. The article concludes by arguing that queer and critical leadership theorists together could turn leadership into a reverse discourse and towards a politics of pleasure at work.

No / Drawing on recent critical debates concerning the ontology of leadership, this article outlines a radical rethinking of the concept – not as the study of heroic individuals, skilled practitioners, collaborators or discursive actors – but as the marker of a fundamental and productive lack; a space of absent presence through which individual and collective desires for leadership are given expression. Where current critical debates tend to oscillate between variants of the physical and the social in their analyses, this article considers the potential for a negative ontology of leadership; one in which absence, ideological practices and the operation of empty signifiers form the basis for empirical investigation and critical reflection.

yes / This article introduces a critical approach to follower/ship studies through exploring the unarticulated but highly influential implicit academic theory of follower/ship that informs dominant paradigms of leadership. Research into follower/ship is developing apace but the field lacks a critical account. Such an absence of critical voice renders researchers unaware of the performative effect of their studies, that is, how their studies actively constitute that of which they speak. So, do studies of followers (and leaders, it follows) constitute that very actuality they are studying? Analysis of seminal papers in three major categories of leadership, leader-centric, multiple leadership and leader-centred, shows that leadership theory is underpinned by the desire for power and control over the potentially dangerous masses, now labelled ‘followers’. The etiolated perspective of the people called ‘followers’ undermines leadership theory, and we recommend the wisdom of leaving follower/ship unexplored.

Often we see examples of what makes a great leader, yet overlook examples of dark leaders. This thesis explores how dark leaders don’t necessarily draw in blind followers, but rather abuse their power in order to build their vision. In my study of Jonestown I show that followers were genuine in their feelings about Jones as a person and the Peoples Temple’s mission. They should not be dismissed just because they “drank the Kool-Aid.” This thesis explores and evaluates various religious studies theories and their interpretation of the events, popular perceptions, and personal statements from the deceased or surviving members. I conclude that Jones was a revolutionary leader during his time. He tried to achieve equality in the U.S. on multiple platforms, but was ultimately too attracted by power and control. In the end, this matters because given the state of the world today and the rise of dark leaders both through political offices, terrorist groups and other places, we need to have a way to not only protect ourselves from joining them, but also preventing them.