Thesis (Ed. Spec.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2005. / Field study. Includes bibliographical references.

Universities in Libya and in other North African and Middle Easter countries have experienced massive expansion in terms of quantitative growth and geographic distribution in recent years (Al-Badri, 2006; El-Hawat, 2007; Mogassbi, 1984). The labour markets in these countries, on the other hand, traditionally suffer from a shortage of skilled manpower (ILO, 2007). Thus, the main questions of this research are formulated as: In what ways could higher education (HE) skills and changing labour market (LM) needs in Libya be better aligned? The research was conducted by collecting and analysing primary and secondary sources of documented material on the case study of Libya, in particular the second city of Benghazi. The secondary data collection largely focused on the generation of continuous datasets on students and graduate numbers in Libya, a country in which the state controls such sectors as HE, but does not make data on the sectors easily available in the public domain. The empirical data collection comprised semi-structured interviews and the application of the Delphi Technique (DT) to develop future scenarios using a panel of experts. The latter activity generated a final key research question: How can the DT be adapted and applied to the understanding of the relationship between HE skills and LM needs in the context of Libya? This research focused specifically on the graduate skills and attributes of job commitment, competitiveness, desire for excellence and teamwork and problem-solving, due to factors relating to the internal and external environment. The DT has been applied effectively on this topic and has developed the analysis from primary data collection research resulting in four potential strategies for both HE and LM, as follows: 1. Survival strategy: to reduce negative effects of external threats. 2. Defensive strategy: to face threats and strengths as a support. 3. Reorientation strategy: to take advantage of opportunities to decrease weaknesses. 4. Radical strategy: to benefit from opportunities by exploiting strengths. In the light of all that has been said about the strategies for Libyan HE and Libyan LM, three kinds of scenarios - optimistic, possible and pessimistic - have been built for HE and three others for LM.

The purpose of this research study is to evaluate what leadership and followership means in a Post-1992 University Business School. The focus of the research study is in the areas of transformational leadership, followership and distributed leadership within three English post-1992 university business schools. The research proceeds from the perspective of exploring leadership through qualitative methodology and constructivist analysis. The majority of respondents’ reported the perception that they did not experience transformational leadership. Furthermore, the respondents reported a propensity by those in management posts to approach complex leadership and followership situations with more controls and reporting systems, and /or as critical events requiring major staff restructuring and redundancies. Whereby the cases study managers perceived themselves unable to resist what the system required and/or were compelled to impose control measures. On the basis of the findings, what is required is a more inclusive academic community. Within a complex knowledge based environment, such as a business school, individuals might be both leaders and followers at different times. The research indicates that blended leadership, which is consultative and distributed, will encourage more collegiate engagement and thereby promote a climate within which each person can contribute to the effective leadership of the institutions concerned.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate the quality of higher education (HE) in the business colleges of the Sultanate of Oman. The need for this investigation is rooted in the necessity to upgrade the level of knowledge and skills among the graduates so that they can provide better opportunities for the prosperity of the Omani economy. The thesis takes stakeholder perspective on the quality of HE. Initially, the thesis addresses and analyses the role and impact of stakeholders and culture on the quality of HE based on a comprehensive literature review. The overall idea about the quality of HE has been integrated in a comprehensive conceptual framework to study the role and impact of stakeholders and culture. Qualitative and quantitative studies have been integrated and applied using a mixed method of research to provide an insightful understanding of the issues related to the quality of HE in Oman. To clarify the contextual specifics a chapter on Oman is presented.

This is an empirical study of leaders and how they affect organizational performance. Its context is the research university as a knowledge intensive organization. It appears to be the first of its kind. The thesis explores whether the characteristics of a leader in position today can tell us about the future success of their institution. It asks the question: Should research universities be led by top scholars? One reason why universities are an interesting case is that, unusually for knowledge-intensive organizations, their leaders' technical expertise can arguably be measured reasonably objectively. Using cross-sectional analysis, the first approach adopted in this thesis is to identify whether accomplished scholars are currently leading the world's top universities and business schools. It demonstrates -- using a variety of data sets, and in a variety of settings, including a check on the role of outliers -- that better universities and business schools are led by presidents and deans with systematically higher numbers of life-time scholarly citations. Next the dissertation attempts to go beyond simple cross-sectional patterns to address the question of causality. It does so in a longitudinal study that follows the performance of a panel of 55 universities over a nine-year period from 1992 to 2001. Using regression analysis, this thesis uncovers some evidence that is consistent with the existence of a causal relationship between the research ability of a leader and the future achievement of their institution. The results suggest that a university tends to improve in the UK Research Assessment Exercise if its leader has been a successful scholar. Qualitative evidence in the form of interviews with university leaders then motivates a theory of strategic leadership that might explain the statistical patterns. It is argued in the thesis that scholars may make effective leaders for reasons that are both internal and external to the individual. A scholar-leader, it is suggested, influences performance because of an inherent knowledge of the core business of a research university, and also through the extension of powers acquired by being viewed as credible by followers. Finally, the thesis concludes by asking whether university governing bodies appoint the right people. The central argument being made in this thesis is that where expert knowledge is the key factor that characterises an organization it is expert knowledge that should also be key in the selection of its leader.

A fundamental assertion of the resource-based view (RBV) is that a firm gains competitive advantage through the exploitation of developed or acquired resources that are valuable, rare, in-imitable, and non-substitutable (VRIN). The purpose of this study is to examine the micro-foundations of the individual level precursor process in resource development prior to gaining competitive advantage. The study does not claim to explain a causal link between resource and competitive advantage. The study explores the process of embedding individual level managerial attributes or capabilities of competency and confidence in human capital resource in the knowledge intensive Canadian medical healthcare sector. The medical healthcare setting provided a unique and important setting to investigate and empirically test the micro-foundations of RBV. The study investigated the impact of management training and education of Canadian medical professionals’ self-reported confidence and competency on various clinical and management tasks. The results of the study indicated that, first, for a number of management tasks; there is a statistically significant increase in self-reported competency if the medical professionals had some form of formal management education and/or training. Second, a high degree of competency and confidence in clinical tasks was observed and was not affected by management education. Third, different types of management training can produce small but statistically significant differences in the level of self-rated competency in management tasks. The primary conclusion of the study was first, in the micro-foundation investigation, that individual level attributes or managerial capabilities of confidence and competency can be embedded in the development of the human capital resource through management training and education. Second, the individual level attributes or managerial capabilities of medical professionals, once embedded through management training in the medical healthcare setting, fulfill the VRIN criteria as set by the RBV for a firm to gain competitive advantage. The study further offers a mixed methods approach template to study the micro-foundation of the RBV. Finally, the study, through empirical findings, makes a mid-level theoretical contribution supporting the underpinnings of the resource-based view concepts related to human capital resource development.

<p> Transitions are defined as "any event or non-event that results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions, and roles" (Goodman, Schlossberg, &amp; Anderson, 2006, p. 33). A particular transition unique to student-athletes in comparison to other college students is the end of their collegiate athletic eligibility. The purpose of this study is to understand how female student-athletes competing in NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic programs perceive their preparedness for post-collegiate careers as they undergo transitions. Using basic interpretive qualitative research methods and interview protocol developed from Schlossberg's theory of transition, 20 female participants in NCAA Division I intercollegiate sports were asked to describe the situation surrounding the end of their collegiate sports career and their post-competition plans, the support they received to prepare for careers, the strategies they used to prepare, and their own self-assessment of their transition (Schlossberg, 1981; Goodman, Schlossberg and Anderson, 2006). </p><p> The words and descriptions the participants attributed to their own experiences of transition and career development provided insight into this phenomenon. Participants reported having sufficient resources at their institutions to be prepared for their lives post-competition, but because of their schedule demands, lacked experience they felt necessary to gain entry into their chosen professions. The lack of experiential learning opportunities and unfamiliarity with student services outside of athletic contributed to their feelings of inadequate preparation. Implications for this research are to help student affairs practitioners, athletic administrators, faculty, and coaches better understand the areas that impede student-athlete career development. </p>

Due to crisis events that have shocked several college and university campuses, many of these institutions have begun to look for ways to respond effectively to those events. However, higher education is generally not equipped or prepared to respond to crisis events. Thus, crisis management research in higher education should be explored. Principles of organizational learning and organizational development from corporate management America were used in this qualitative study to explain how leaders in higher education institutions prepare for crises and learn from their crisis experiences. Chaos theory provided the theoretical lens for the study. Purposeful sampling was utilized to select two institutions and purposely identified administrators at those sites. Interviews gleaned the lived experiences of the participants. Data analysis revealed five themes: conflicting definitions, institutional response to crisis, continuous learning, institutional issues related to a crisis, and leadership roles during a crises. The findings support the importance of developing a crisis management plan, disseminating the plan to all stakeholders, and application of continuous learning principles to evaluate the plan and actual crises responses before, during, and after a crisis event.

An investigation into top management team action in the practice of strategy was conducted within three UK universities. This study examined strategic practices from a top team perspective in each institution over a seven year period. The aim was to understand the processes by which top teams put strategy into practice within the context of organisational structures that may both constrain and enable strategic action. A theory of practice was developed with which to guide the investigation. This theory, and interrogation of a diverse body of organisation studies and strategic management literature indicated a longitudinal, processual research design as appropriate, accessing rich contextual data over embedded levels of analysis. To this end, 49 interviews, 51 meetings observations, shadowing of key participants, and extensive documentary and archival searches were conducted. Analysis of such data led to the identification of three levels of analysis which are pertinent to an understanding of top management team engagement in strategy as practice. First, the top team process of strategic thinking and acting. Secondly, the structuring characteristics of organisational context. Thirdly, the strategy processes which form the interplay between top team actors and organisational context in the practice of strategy. These levels of analysis were arranged in an explanatory framework. This framework shows how top management teams engage in strategy as practice through the use of situated and distributed practices which mediate between their behaviour, the organisational contexts in which they act, and the strategic activities which are pursued. To better model the dynamic nature of these relationships, strategy as practice was conceptualised as occurring within an activity system. The activity system comprised three domains, top team actors, organisational structures, and strategic activity, mediated by practices which are situated and distributed across the domains. This research is underpinned by the theoretical approaches of structuration and social becoming, which interpellate the tendency to both recursiveness and transformation in social order. These tendencies are conceptualised as the capacity for continuity and change in the process of putting strategy into practice. The activity system model developed was used to explain how practices are implicated in the mediation of continuity and change.

Diss. Uppsala : Univ., 2004.