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The United States has a troubled history with race relations. African Americans have immeasurably experienced racism and racial oppression in various forms and in many sectors of the American society. One of the sectors that the racial inequalities of our past have affected is the employment sector. Many Americans experience the workplace on a daily basis and therefore experience the inequities that persist in such environments. This study explores African American experiences with race in the workplace and the way that race shapes today's workplace. Specifically, this study analyzes the experiences of African American professionals working at for-profit organizations and their perceptions of the way that race shapes their organization's culture. This study employs a constant comparative analysis of qualitative interviews using Critical Race Theory as a guide. The interviews explored the manner in which race, Diversity and Inclusion (DandI) programs, and communication affect organizational culture. The thesis further questions if and how organizations are working to create and sustain a more equitable workplace for all employees. The findings suggest that African American professionals perceive that their organizations are welcoming and inclusive of all minority groups. They also perceive the organizational culture to be friendly and family-oriented where open, positive, and encouraging communication exists. The professionals feel that their organizations are generally interested in diversity, however they feel the organization's engagement with diversity practices is not sufficient. The findings of this study could be used as a tool for organizations to reevaluate their diversity practices and to ensure that they are creating an equitable workplace. / Master of Arts / The inequalities caused by racism and the systematic oppression of African Americans in the United States are present in many areas of contemporary American life. African Americans are still faced with problems that stem from the country’s past with race and are affected by these problems in many ways. One area that African Americans must deal with race is the workplace. The inequalities that were created in the past have caused race to play a significant role in the way that African Americans experience the workplace. This study explored the experiences of African American professionals in the workplace and the way they perceive race to play a role in shaping their organization’s culture. The findings of the study explain that African American professionals perceive that race has a definite effect on their organization’s culture. The professionals believe that their organizations have a general interest for diversity, but they have not adequately addressed the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the workplace. They reported that the organizations are inclusive and provide an environment where they can be productive and develop professionally. Today’s organizations have made a step in the right direction of diversity, but there is much work left to do.

The purpose of this project was to establish whether a relationship exists between parenting and leadership among public administration professionals. Although there has been considerable research in both fields as independent disciplines, there is minimal information on potential relationships between the two subjects. This is surprising because parents are the first leaders each of us are introduced to in childhood. Similar to leaders, parents must use their experiences as a guide for leading their children, inspire and lead by example, and set clear goals to maintain order within the household. These similarities caused me to ponder the value of parenting in leadership. However, the paucity of published research on this subject leads one to conclude that the role of parenting is historically undervalued as a leadership skill that could be used within the workplace. This study was designed to explore the gap between these two subjects by focusing on the following research question. "Does a relationship exist between parenting and leadership, especially in a public administration setting?" In order to answer this question, the study followed a qualitative research model where semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine public administration professionals who were parents. These individuals were selected from the fields of criminal justice, education and social services. Such diverse agencies were chosen in order to include a broad a range of views and perspectives about leadership and parenting while eliminating possible biases which may have occurred if only agencies with similar missions (i.e., all law enforcement) had been selected. In addition, document analysis from questionnaires and other books and web sources were referenced in this research in order to broaden its scope. Interestingly, the above approach resulted in some very intriguing findings. Female participants were more likely to see a relationship between leadership and parenting than their male counterparts. The culture of an organization weighed heavily in the participant's perspectives about parenting and leadership. Those from the Virginia Department of Education (a more female dominated organization) felt parenting did influence their leadership styles while the majority of subjects from the Bureau of Prisons (a more male dominated agency) did not see a relationship. Stage in life and experience were found to influence competence and clarity in leadership style as well as in recognizing relationships between parenting and leadership. Finally, several of the participants were found to have adopted a situational leadership approach in both their parenting and/or their leadership styles. The above noted findings have provided some useful information that could be a first step in improving the fields of leadership and parenting by opening new possibilities for understanding the interconnectedness of work and family life. Currently, most researchers study leadership as something that occurs at work and parenting as it takes place in the home. Integrating the two disciplines could be useful in the development of leadership and parenting training courses. It could also help experts in the field of leadership to understand the developmental aspects of how relationships between good leaders and followers grow. Having a leader that could motivate and empower others may create a more desirable workplace that emphasizes mutual trust and respect. In addition, the heightened sensitivity that attenuates in parents could evolve into a similar instinct in leaders. Just as parents give of themselves to create a child who is a responsible member of society, the leader could learn to give of himself or herself to develop the human capital that are his/her followers. This could create an employee who would mature into a valuable component of an organization. Gaining insight into public administrator's perceptions regarding possible connections between parenting and leadership may contribute to future research on this subject. / Master of Science

Principal leadership is crucial to improving school effectiveness and positively affecting organizational culture in the midst of expectations from education reform mandates. Principals who provide direction and exercise influence can inspire commitment from organizational members to attain shared goals. Rural school principals face unique obstacles and situations as documented in the research and literature. This qualitative research study aimed to provide insight as to the perceived impact of transformational leadership behaviors and characteristics on organizational culture. This study also provided insight as to the transformational leadership behaviors and characteristics perceived to positively affect organizational culture. The protocols, which included interviews, were administered by the researcher to principals and certificated teachers at four rural elementary schools (two elementary schools not in Program Improvement [PI] and two elementary schools in PI) in Fresno County that met specific student demographic criteria. The data from the interviews provided insight regarding increased individual and collective stress in rural elementary schools due to the unprecedented expectations of NCLB. The organizational response to this increased stress was found to be contingent on the behaviors and characteristics by the rural elementary principal. The findings indicated a difference in perceptions between certificated teachers at the rural elementary schools not in PI and in PI. The rural principals in non-PI schools utilized communication to define clear expectation, and a collaborative decision making process to develop a shared vision which cultivated trust among certificated teachers to improve organizational culture and student academic achievement. The rural principals in PI schools were found to have utilized bureaucratic leadership approaches. The bureaucratic leadership approaches led to increased stress and frustration among certificated teachers. Frustration was found to have negatively affected organizational culture and no improvement in student academic achievement. This study validated the need for rural school principals to be aware of effective leadership approaches to positively affect organizational culture.

This study aims to investigate how internal communication and organizational culture impact creativity within an advertising agency. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study at a successful advertising agency in the heart of Copenhagen. The theoretical framework encompasses aspects of organizational creativity, including theories related to creative organizations, internal communication, creative work teams, and creative processes. A combination of ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews was used for data collection. The ethnographic observations were carried out over a week at the advertising agency, allowing for the identification of the agency's culture, interactions, structures, and dynamics. The qualitative interviews were conducted with six individuals from the agency, representing different roles within the creative teams. The empirical data and analysis lead to conclusions that highlight how internal culture and communication influence creativity. The conclusions clearly summarize three aspects that affect creativity: culture,communication, and leadership. The findings include reflections and discussions on theory and empirical data, as well as practical advice for professionals in the advertising industry. This study contributes to the scientific community by providing relevant insights into how communication and culture can be leveraged to enhance creativity within work teams. These conclusions also hold societal significance for curious students, advertising agency leaders, or industry professionals seeking to understand how to foster creativity.

The corporate culture present within any organization has a significant effect on the decisions the organization makes in regards to its daily operations, goals, the environment that its employees work in and customers interact with when doing business with the company. There are various factors beyond the control of the organization that. have an effect on the culture, one of them being the economic environment. The decisions that corporations make during times of economic expansion and how they cope with times of economic contraction is a reflection of the culture that is present. The insurance industry and its participants are especially sensitive to these economic movements and make their decisions to grow and create products on their perception of economic movement. The cultures of AXA, a French insurance company, and Prudential, a British insurance company will be compared alongside the culture of the formerly prominent AIG to discover what aspects of corporate culture a corporation within the life insurance industry should have present in order to have sustainable growth during times of economic expansion and remain viable during times of economic contraction.

Since the late 1980s in most European countries the public sector has been characterized by ongoing privatization/liberalization strategies. Challenges related to this development are the merging of public institutions or units, the (re)creation of efficient processes, the increase in revenues, and the balancing between public service obligation and private sector competition. Approaching a case of a large Austrian company in the public health sector with a mixed methods design (narrative interviews, surveys), three major changes could be identified: a) breaking the bottleneck - development of processes, tools and awareness, b) reduction and regulation - ongoing business integration, and c) the good, the bad and the ugly - changing roles and status of clients, employees and managers. Organizational cultural subgroups relevant to the case are functional, occupational, geographical, political and structural subgroups. The political and the structural subgroups are fairly new dimensions in M&A research. The different subgroups identified show different resource dependencies, define perceptions about the ongoing changes and related approaches to change, face different organizational strategies and professional challenges. This explorative case study contributes to the understanding of developments of the public sector and related types of organisations. It provides practical recommendations for successful integration processes and managerial action. Approaching the case with the model of organizational culture challenges organisational cultural theory. New constructs relevant to change management are combined and a contribution to the field of mixed method M&A studies is made. (author's abstract)

The Master's Thesis is aimed to analyse the organizational culture of a manufacturing company in order to provide sufficient materials for the following decision making of the executive director of the company in terms of its future course. Each method was used while taking into consideration to cover both qualitative and quantitative research approach due to multidimensional character of the studied phenomena. The current state of the topic is included in the thesis. The combination of Denison Organizational Culture Survey and group interview based on Edgar H. Schein was newly applied during the research which may contribute to practitioners considering a similar analysis in their organizations. Main research findings and recommendations are discussed in the end of the thesis.

[pt] Entender como características culturais interferem no desempenho de uma empresa, é extremamente relevante em mercados cada vez mais competitivos e dinâmicos. Assim sendo, o objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a relação da Cultura e o Desempenho Organizacional. A partir da revisão da literatura foi realizado um estudo de caso em uma empresa privada do setor de seguros, que se destaca no mercado em que atua, estando entre as maiores seguradoras independentes do Brasil em Vida, Previdência e Capitalização e ao longo dos anos, recebeu prêmios e participou dos mais importantes rankings financeiros nacionais, reunindo certificações que reforçam a credibilidade, o desempenho e a excelência em sua gestão. A pesquisa coletou dados referentes ao resultado do desempenho organizacional, mais especificamente o resultado dos indicadores financeiros - Return on Sales (ROS), Return on Asset (ROA) e Retorno sobre Patrimônio Líquido (ROE) e, pela aplicação do questionário do modelo de Cultura Organizacional de Denison - DOCS (1990) no seu quadro gerencial, foi possível avaliar as características chaves da cultura organizacional, sob as dimensões de Missão, Consistência, Envolvimento e Adaptabilidade. A análise qualitativa dos dados coletados evidenciou que existe relação entre o resultado das dimensões culturais e os indicadores de rentabilidade, e sugere a importância do aprofundamento desta linha de pesquisa em outras organizações. / [en] Understanding how organizational cultures interfere with a company s performance, and what are the important cultural characteristics to leverage this performance, is extremely relevant in increasingly competitive and dynamic markets. Therefore, the objective of this work is to analyze the relationship between Culture and Organizational Performance. From the literature review, a case study was conducted in a private insurance company, which stands out in the market in which it operates, being among the largest independent insurers in Brazil in Life, Private Pension and Savings Bonds and over the years, received awards and participated in the most important national financial rankings, gathering certifications that reinforce the credibility, the performance and the excellence in its management. The survey collected data on the results of organizational performance, more specifically the result of the financial indicators - Return on Sales (ROS), Return on Asset (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) and, by applying the Denison Organizational Culture Model - DOCS questionnaire to managers, it was possible to evaluate the key characteristics of the organizational culture, under the dimensions of Mission, Consistency, Involvement and Adaptability. The qualitative analysis of the data collected showed that there is a relationship between the results of the cultural dimensions and the indicators of profitability and suggests the importance of future research on this subject in other organizations.

This master’s thesis treats about organizational culture in the company Disco Pizza pod Hradem Brumov – Bylnice. In the theoretical part defines terms related to organizational culture. In the practical part of this thesis you can find analysis organization culture of company trought the questionnaire surfy and observation. The target was to design necessary steps which should provide areas of organizational culture.