<p> This study revealed leaders' experiences in fostering innovation. The study, a qualitative inquiry, used the psychological phenomenological approach to gain insights from the perspective of ten leaders from a small group of successful U.S. biopharmaceutical companies. The theoretical lens or basis for this research included elements of leadership theory, with focus on transformational leadership and the use of questions, organizational culture, participation, structuring, reflection, creativity and other points from the extant literature that related to leaders fostering innovation. The themes presented here emerged from the collecting of interview data, with the aid of the theoretical underpinnings. The data included coding from works in leadership (Sashkin &amp; Sashkin, 2005), leader use of questions (Marquardt, 2005) and organizational culture (Hatch, 1997). The study's overarching question was: What is the lived-experience of leaders in respect to fostering innovation within the smaller successful biotech companies they lead? The study offers three main conclusions developed from 12 insightful themes. The main findings included: (a) elements of visionary leadership (Sashkin &amp; Sashkin, 2003) and leaders' use of questions (Marquardt, 2005) operated concurrently in fostering innovation; (b) leadership elements vary in their relative importance depending on the circumstance; (c) leaders' Purposeful Involvement helps to drive innovation; and (d) a broader conceptualization of leading contributes to innovation. Leaders' purposeful involvement is further explained. Other points salient to leaders' fostering of innovation are also discussed. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> Fostering innovation, leadership, creativity, inquiry, question, organizational culture, problem solving, action learning, transformational, ambidextrous, biotechnology, biomedical, life science, pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical.</p>

<p> The problem addressed is the lack of empirical research describing the delivery of individualized learning material in a secure and mobile manner. The goal was to investigate the effectiveness of deploying training materials to National Football League (NFL) players during a recent NFL season. </p><p> Over the past few seasons, NFL teams have started to deliver player training material to mobile devices. The training material is sensitive and includes planning documents for upcoming games. An effort was made to survey a representative at each of the 32 NFL teams in order to gain insight on effectiveness, security, and process. Nearly half of the league responded with 14 of the 32 franchises reporting back. </p><p> The results demonstrate that mobile devices can be an effective means to distribute educational materials to individuals in secure manner. The iPad was identified as a suitable platform for delivery of instructional material. Security elements such as encryption and using mobile security products should be strongly considered. The results are discussed in detail. A set of standards and guidelines were created based on the responses provided by club employees. </p>

<p> Educational leaders across the United States face changes affecting the educational system related to federal and state mandates. The stress of those changes may be related to superintendents&rsquo; longevity. The superintendent position has a mobility rate that is quite high. Every superintendent is different and may have a different leadership style than their predecessor. The district culture, goals, and expectations may change depending on the superintendents&rsquo; leadership style. If superintendents&rsquo; leadership style affects principals&rsquo; performance, it may affect the principals&rsquo; success or failure. The purpose of this quantitative correlational research study was to identify if correlations existed linking 126 principals&rsquo; perception of superintendents&rsquo; leadership style and principals&rsquo; performance as reflected by student achievement data. The goal was to obtain principals&rsquo; perception of the superintendents&rsquo; leadership style as measured by the MLQ and principals&rsquo; performance as measured by AIMS reading and math data from the 2011- 2012 to 2012-2013 school years. The results indicated that superintendents&rsquo; transformational, passive avoidant and transactional leadership styles did not correlate positively to math difference scores. However, the results indicated that the passive avoidant leadership style was positively, correlated to reading difference scores. The results also indicated that there was a positive correlation between reading and math difference scores. Educational leaders should be aware that the analysis of data indicates that it is plausible that passive avoidant leadership may be more complex than nonleadership as labeled in previous research.</p>

<p> Hostile work environment, emotional mistreatment, workplace bullying, psychological harassment--these phrases only begin to describe a phenomenon that is seen as all too commonplace. This study focused on two major questions regarding a recommended policy to address workplace bullying that was adopted in certain school districts of a Western state. First, to determine how effective the policy is believed to be by those who implemented it at their school. Second, to determine what strategies were used to implement the policy and how effective they were perceived to be by those involved. The negative ramifications of a hostile workplace resulting from bullying necessitate a proactive role by employers across the country, and the public school system is not an exception. As laws undoubtedly get passed, employers will have no choice but to address workplace bullying&mdash;good human resources practice employs a model before a misfortunate event warrants the need. Superintendents from eight rural Western state school districts were interviewed and participation in an online survey was sought from certified staff at corresponding schools. Superintendents said that the policy is "working" as there were no reported incidents of bullying behavior since its adoption at their respective districts. They did not say nor did they appear to believe that there were incidents of bullying behavior prior to the adoption of the policy. Superintendents overwhelmingly said that they share or make self management strategies available to staff in dealing with coworkers; 63% of the responses to the staff survey supported this finding. Finally, both groups agreed that a policy is needed to address workplace bullying in the event legal protection is needed for either of involved parties.</p>

<p> An organization's ability to achieve its goals depends on the quality of its leaders and their ability to produce a highly engaged workforce. High levels of employee and managerial turnover and burnout can impede an organization's workforce engagement and ability to grow and be successful. To minimize the impact of these 2 constructs (turnover and burnout), this study examined the link between leadership behavior practice patterns' and employee work engagement in a nonprofit that supports the homeless. Responses from 48 non-managerial employees were used for this study. To investigate this study data were collected using 2 survey instruments: the Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Both surveys were completed by the same population on the same day. The combination of cross-sectional survey designs using quantitative and descriptive correlational research methods helped the researcher analyze the data to identify relationships between the variables under investigation. According to the respondents' ratings, a positive correlation was found to exist between leaders' behavior practice patterns and employee work engagement. Moreover, the results found no negative correlations between the LPI scores and the UWES scores. High employee engagement in a nonprofit organization leads to better economic outcomes for the community and a better workplace for employees who feel their organization cares about their health and well-being, which leads to a more tenured workforce and effective group of leaders. Future directions for research include exploring other variables (leader responses and gender) to potentially predict different work engagement levels and leadership behaviors that could impede employee burnout and turnover.</p>

<p> The three primary objectives of this project were: (1) to identify and codify a framework for best practices in developing a simulation; (2) to construct a prototype or test simulation based on these best practices, and (3) to create a methodology to assess pedagogical efficacy and economic fidelity.</p><p> While the current body of knowledge is rich in describing the virtues and pitfalls of computer simulation technology that has existed for close to 60 years, the literature nonetheless lacks a codified set of best practices for developers and objective assessment methods to judge a simulation quality for both the pedagogical effectiveness and economic fidelity. This study addresses both issues and offers a solution that is unique and effective. A General Framework for Effective Simulation Development that is derivative, and an extension of existing research in the business simulation domain. A simulation prototype, SimWrite!, has been developed that is consistent with the 12 elements identified in this framework. Each stage of the development of this test simulation is explicitly tied to the best practices that emerged from the literature. A second assessment tool, The Economic Theory Input-Output Matrix, is presented to enable a user to measure the economic fidelity of a simulation. This tool is based on microeconomic theory that is taught at business schools throughout the globe. Both assessment tools will be applied to the test simulation in a manner that will enable the user to replicate this research with other simulations they are interested in. The products of this dissertation are intended to aid current and future developers make better simulations and faculty users of simulations to better select simulations that will help them to achieve the goal of all involved in teaching business: To produce greater learning for students.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0554. Adviser: Braj B. Kachru. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-173) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 18, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-12, Section: A, page: 4387. Adviser: Ruth Stone.

Thèse (D.B.A.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2008. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, August, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.