<p> Toxic leadership harms people and, eventually, the company as well through the poisoning of enthusiasm, creativity, autonomy, and innovative expression. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to investigate the decisions made by employees who were exposed to the actions of a toxic leader, and to explore the lived experiences of employees who were affected by toxic leadership within their organizations. The study explored the lived experiences of 13 participants who experienced and were affected by toxic leadership. This study used the modified Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen phenomenological method of data analysis to examine the participants&rsquo; transcripts. Analysis of the data gathered during the interviews developed five themes: 1) Flight: Leave the toxic environment; 2) Hope: Stay within the toxic environment; 3) Damage: Physical &amp; psychological health issues; 4) Trust: Lack of trust at the workplace; and 5) Development: A positive outlook after experiencing toxic leadership. Findings from the study recommended that obtaining the employees&rsquo; perspectives whenever conducting research on the after effects of toxic leadership was significant. The results of this study suggested that the adverse effects of toxic leadership may continue past the immediate and adverse physiological and psychological responses. This study was intended to add value to the existing body of knowledge concerning toxic leadership for both the practitioner and scholar communities.</p><p>

<p> Innovative and enduring solutions to the myriad of complex social and environmental challenges facing the world today require the shared resources and combined talents of government, nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Interactions between these sectors are called cross sector partnerships (CSPs). As an example of CSPs, nonprofit patient advocacy organizations (PAOs) are increasingly entering relationships and collaborations with for-profit pharmaceutical companies (FPPCs). Using a phenomenological approach, this study sought to contribute to the body of knowledge on PAO/FPPC partnerships, as well as the broader CSP phenomenon, by exploring how leaders in the field of PAO/FPPC alliances experience collaboration with one another. Three research questions were used as the basis of semi-structured interviews with 11 patient advocacy leaders. Five of the participants were nonprofit leaders (NPLs) and six were for-profit leaders (FPLs). Results from this study include several important new contributions that add to the body of knowledge related to PAO/FPPC cross sector alliances. First, the data describe disparities in decision-making authority between the NPLs and FPLs and the data illustrate the complex, variable and challenging decision-making context that exists in PAO/FPPC partnerships. Second, these results confirm that strategic analysis skills, marketing skills and facilitation skills are important leadership competencies that impact productive PAO/FPPC partnerships. Finally, this research describes similarities and differences in leadership competencies that are important to NPLs and FPLs. This study is significant because an increased understanding of collaborations between patient advocacy organizations and drug development companies may allow for more positive and beneficial future collaborations. In addition, this research provides insight into the general phenomena of cross sector alliances, which may prove beneficial to a wide range of social challenges.</p><p>

<p> The goal of this study was to explore the connection between authentic leadership, spirituality, and human development theory to determine if spirituality contributes to the emergence or formation of an authentic leadership identity. An interdisciplinary research approach was conducted by reviewing literature on authentic leadership, spirituality, and human development. A sequential explanatory mixed method design was used to collect and analyze the personal beliefs and life experiences of individuals who were nominated as authentic leaders. Sixty-one participants completed a questionnaire and a subset of eleven participants completed semi-structured interviews. </p><p> Quantitative findings identified that nearly 94% of participants considered themselves to be spiritual (<i>n</i> = 57). Most participants (90%) believe that spirituality influences their beliefs about leadership and their behaviors as leaders (<i>n</i> = 55). Similarly, most participants (90%) affirmed that their spirituality influences their authenticity and self-awareness as a leader (<i>n</i> = 55). Qualitative findings from semi-structured interviews identified that spirituality, or spiritual influences, experienced during the formative years, influenced participants&rsquo; values and beliefs, defined their principles and ethics, and provided a framework for how to live and behave. For most participants, these values and beliefs were informed by religious parents and/or a religious upbringing. When a participant did not reference a religious parent or religious upbringing, a sense of God, or higher power, or a strong sense of service was acknowledged instead. Findings also credit spirituality, or the belief in a higher power or God with having encouraged a participants&rsquo; journey or purpose. Participants acknowledged that spirituality has helped and continues to help define who they are, who they want to be, and how they want to live and work. Based on these findings, this study offers evidence that values and beliefs link spirituality to the emergence of an authentic leadership identity. While an individual&rsquo;s identity continues to be shaped and influenced across a person&rsquo;s lifespan, core values which influenced their emergence as an authentic leader were established during the early formative years, informed by parental and spiritual (religious) influences. As such, spirituality may be a mediating variable which influences the emergence of authentic leadership identity, as well as, encourages a sense of purpose, life-direction, and/or self-actualization.</p><p>

<p> Workplace flexibility is becoming more and more common in American workplaces. However, most of these policies are created for professional and white-collar workers. Scholars have argued that the &ldquo;missing middle,&rdquo; that is, workers who are neither in the professional class nor low-wage workers, are often ignored in formal policies. Scholars have argued that workers experience a stigma for using these policies; however, little is known about how this stigmatization process occurs. This dissertation employs a grounded theory methodology to analyze 29 semi-structured interviews with missing middle workers to understand how they communicatively construct workplace flexibility and its attending stigma. Analysis of the data suggested the missing middle constructed workplace flexibility by drawing upon macro, meso, and micro-level D/discourses. In doing so, my participants communicated a fine line between use and abuse of workplace flexibility policies based on a) the perception of a worker as lazy, b) the perception of a worker using flexibility too frequently, and c) the perception of a worker having a non-acceptable rationale for using flexibility. Thus, workers become stigmatized for being perceived to abuse, not use, the policies. Based on the data, I offer a ground theory of this flexibility stigmatization process, that includes: a) organizational norms surrounding flexibility, b) the use of workplace flexibility, c) talk surrounding flexibility, and d) stigma perceptions. I then offer potential ways this communicative process can be reconstituted and transformed by human resource personnel, managers, and workers to disrupt the cycle of workplace flexibility stigma.</p><p>

<p> Ministerial advisers encounter challenges in communicating change to support sustainability in economic growth and capacity building in security missions between Afghan and United States leaders. The problem rooted in the differences among the Afghan leaders and the ministerial advisers would stabilize the Afghan economy and building capacity within security missions. The qualitative exploratory case study examined how communication challenges impede the progress of successfully advising Afghan senior leaders in support of sustaining economic growth and capacity building within security missions. Ten Ministry of Defense (MoDA) advisers were interviewed. During the analysis, two main groups, six themes, and 13 sub-themes emerged. Results corroborated the official government reporting, which found a misalignment with Afghan counterparts and in communicating and sharing information often limited the MoDA program's ability to assess advisory effectiveness. The results discovered that leaders should develop long-lasting and trusting relationships to be able to effectively communicate change. Results exposed that the training programs for these leaders who will communicate change should include more role-playing exercises and on the ground training, prior to placement into the adviser role. Peacekeeping advising efforts in Afghanistan will be successful by allowing time to overcome change-related learning curves. The recommendation for future training must include an evaluation of training programs, and the effectiveness in preparing the adviser with the necessary knowledge and skills to perform their assigned duties.</p><p>

The evidence linking self-monitoring(Snyder, 1974) and leadership suggests that it is better to be high than low in self-monitoring regarding leader effectiveness (Day et al., 2002); however, social responsiveness could be a double-edged sword when it comes to leading organization change. It was hypothesized that high self-monitoring (HSM) leaders would launch change in a participative manner and create positive conditions for change, but they would lack strength of purpose for leading the effort in the face of resistance. Grit (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews & Kelly, 2007), an individual characteristic introduced recently by positive psychologists, is potentially a positive characteristic of change leaders. It was also predicted that grit would be a positive predictor of leader strength of purpose for leading change. Drawing on these literatures, a theoretical model was developed and tested to examine the interaction effect of these two characteristics and a change leader's situation (resistance or support) on strength of purpose (commitment to change goals and intentions to stay with the organization). Two surveys, one scenario-based and one experience-based, were administered to senior leaders (mean age = 43) from across the globe representing a wide range of industries and job functions. The results provided some support that self-monitoring interacted with the leader situation to predict leader approach to change in the scenario survey group, but not in the experience survey group. The findings also demonstrated support for self-monitoring theory in that cultural context moderated the relationship between self-monitoring and leader approach to change, such that HSMs' approach varied significantly depending on whether they were leading change inside or outside their own country of origin (i.e., nationality) whereas LSMs did not vary their approach across these different contexts. The prediction that grit would predict leader strength of purpose was unsupported. It was also found that cultural context moderated the relationship between leader situation and intentions to stay with the organization such that, in conditions of less support (i.e., resistance) from one's established in-group (nationality or societal culture match between the leader and change recipients), leaders expressed higher intentions to leave than when unsupported in out-group conditions. These results and the implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Recently economists have shown that people who graduate during recessions earn less money and hold less prestigious jobs, even decades after entering the workforce. This dissertation argues that despite these suboptimal outcomes, these graduates are likely to be happier with their jobs, even long after these economic conditions have changed. Four studies found that people who entered the workforce when the economy was sputtering and jobs were difficult to secure were more satisfied with their jobs than their peers who entered during better economic times, even decades after these early workforce experiences. Study 1 utilized a large cross-sectional national survey of working adults in the United States and found that college graduates who first looked for work during difficult economic times were more satisfied with their jobs well into their careers. Study 2 found that people who graduated from both college and graduate school during times of higher unemployment were happier with their jobs both early in their careers and years later, even when they earned less money. Study 3 replicated this effect in a different country, the United Kingdom, and among a more diverse educational population. Study 3 found that economic conditions at workforce entry predicted life satisfaction as well. Finally, Study 4 explored potential mediators of this effect and suggested that people who entered the workforce during economic downturns were less likely to entertain upward counterfactual thoughts about how they might have done better. This tendency fully mediated the relationship between workforce economic conditions and job satisfaction. While past research on job satisfaction has focused on dispositional and situational antecedents, these findings suggest that strong experiential factors also may have an enduring effect on how satisfied people are with their jobs.

This dissertation examines how and when, both powerfulness and powerlessness, can each lead to corrupt behavior. The first half of this dissertation (Chapters 2 to 5) focuses on the link between power and corrupt behavior. Building on previous work that expansive posture induces a state of power, four studies tested whether expansive posture incidentally imposed by our environment lead to increases in dishonest behavior. Chapters 2 to 4 present three experiments, which found that powerful individuals were more likely to steal money, cheat on a test, and commit traffic violations in a driving simulation. Results suggested that participants' self-reported sense of power mediated the link between postural expansiveness and dishonesty. In an observational field study, Chapter 5 revealed that automobiles with more expansive driver's seats were more likely to be illegally parked on New York City streets. The second part of the dissertation examines if powerlessness can lead to corrupt behavior. Chapters 6 to 10 present a new theoretical model that comprehensively integrates theories on power and regulatory focus. This model reveals that both powerfulness and powerlessness can each lead to corrupt behavior, but through different routes. Three experiments in Chapters 7 to 9 found that prevention-powerlessness and promotion-powerfulness produce more corrupt behavior than promotion-powerlessness and prevention-powerfulness, as evident in individuals' tendency to exploit others, aggression, and dishonest behavior. I also found evidence for the affective manifestations that accompany these effects. Indeed, a meta-analysis on the data suggests that prevention-powerlessness and promotion-powerfulness significantly produced more corrupt behavior than prevention-powerfulness and promotion-powerlessness. These findings have important theoretical implications for power and regulatory focus, and explicate how powerlessness can lead to taking action and even corruption.

This study proposed a moderated mediation model where social identity complexity was hypothesized to predict endorsement of identity safety behaviors intended to mitigate social identity threat for women in a male-dominated work context. Male awareness of systemic social identity threats for women was examined as a potential mediator of the proposed relationship between social identity complexity and identity safety endorsement. Finally, psychosocial safety climate was hypothesized to moderate the relationship between sensitivity to women's identity threat and identity safety endorsement. More than 400 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) male professors completed an online questionnaire measuring the study constructs. Ordinary least squares regression and bootstrapping methods were used to test the study hypotheses. Results showed that certain dimensions of social identity complexity predicted identity safety endorsement. While male sensitivity to women's identity threat predicted a particular type of identity safety endorsement, there was no support for the construct as a mediator. There was also no support found for psychosocial safety climate as a moderator in this study. Supplemental findings revealed that having academic tenure and increased contact with women colleagues positively predicted endorsement of identity safety. Theoretical implications, directions for future research, and practical implications are discussed.

This is the story of the slow evolution of Goldman Sachs - addressing why and how the firm changed from an ethical standard to a legal one as it grew to be a leading global corporation. In What Happened to Goldman Sachs, Steven G. Mandis uncovers the forces behind what he calls Goldman's "organizational drift." Drawing from his firsthand experience; sociological research; analysis of SEC, congressional, and other filings; and a wide array of interviews with former clients, detractors, and current and former partners, Mandis uncovers the pressures that forced Goldman to slowly drift away form the very principles on which its reputation was built. Mandis evaluates what made Goldman Sachs so successful in the first place, how it responded to pressures to grow, why it moved away from the values and partnership culture that sustained it for so many years, what forces accelerated this drift, and why insiders can't - or won't - recognize this crucial change. Combining insightful analysis with engaging storytelling, Mandis has written an insider's history that offers invaluable perspectives to business leaders interested in understanding and managing organizational drift in their own firms.