<p> Transformational leadership (TL) has been found popular in many industries in the United States and abroad for the perceived transformational leaders' effectiveness in improving occupational safety. There is a lack of empirical evidence to confirm these claims for safe occupational driving. This phenomenological study attempted to fill this knowledge gap in the electric utility industry where employees must drive in all weather conditions to restore power to customers. The conceptual framework for the study was based on leadership and motivation theories of Burns and Maslow. The research questions explored the influence of (a) TL on safe driving performance improvement in organizations and (b) emotional intelligence (EI) on leaders' efficiency to improve safe driving performance in organizations. These questions were addressed using a 14-item in-depth, open-ended interview questionnaire by a convenience sample of 18 management and 12 union-represented personnel drawn from 5 U.S. electric utility companies using the snowball method. Data were analyzed using NVivo 10 software and were interpreted using the methodological framework of Leedy and Ormrod, and Maxwell. The findings suggested that (a) TL influenced safe driving performance through these leaders' idealized influence, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation; and (b) EI ineffectively and unreliably influenced safe driving improvement, but it improved organizational trust through the leaders' empathy and drivers' empowerment. Individualized consideration, while acknowledged as desirable, was least important and was widely lacking. The implications for positive social change include promoting TL style in other industries, raising employees' commitment and contribution to safe driving performance improvement, and improving organizational trust as well as public safety.</p>

<p>This study examined executives&rsquo; subjective experiences playing golf to identify what they have learned about being leaders from playing the game. Twenty executives were interviewed. Participants reported that golf strongly enhanced their leadership. They reported developing approaches, attitudes, and skills that enhanced their ability to manage themselves, manage others, and react to changing conditions. Participants noted that golf had transformative aspects and that it could be adapted for leader development, team building, and relationship building purposes. Based on these results, it can be concluded that golf is an effective tool for leader development. Leaders are advised to begin playing golf as a means for cultivating their own leadership abilities, and organizations are advised to support their efforts in doing so. Organization development professionals and the golf industry are advised to design innovative offerings using golf as a leader development tool. Additional studies are recommended to confirm these findings. </p>

<p> This hermeneutic study starts with a critical review of three formal approaches to group visioning: future search, appreciative inquiry (AI), and scenario planning. It then establishes a foundation for an archetypal psychological approach to such visioning. The research reviews future search, AI, and scenario planning from a depth psychological perspective and against two sets of vital considerations. The first set considers the participants' psychological relationship to the future and the second their psychological relationship to their groups. </p><p> Future search and AI arose in the field of organizational development; scenario planning first as a military strategy. All three currently appear as interventions for both organizations and communities. However, only future search and scenario planning explicitly recognize the unconscious, and none account for the participants' temporal biases. Zimbardo and Boyd (2008) would describe these approaches as made by futures for futures. They work best when participants already have a future orientation. Furthermore, the approaches vary in the ways they account for Bion's (1961) observation that humans are group animals who are not only in conflict with the group, but also with themselves for being group animals. </p><p> The second part of this study establishes a foundation for an approach to group visioning based on archetypal psychology. The approach begins by identifying the group's dominant archetypes, the archetypes' goals, and the archetypal field present in the external environment. It then links the group's vision to the aims of the group's dominant archetypes. </p><p> This study contributes to the fields of depth psychology, liberation psychology, and organizational and community development. Despite Freud's (1922/1955) and Jung's (1935/1966) negative opinions of groups and organizations, individuals are always involved with a group. This research addresses this fact and its relationship to liberation psychology, which aims to empower the excluded voices on the social margins (Watkins &amp; Shulman, 2008). Some organizational researchers already view organizations from a depth psychological perspective (Corlett &amp; Pearson, 2003). However, none ties the archetypes to the vision of the organization. This work clearly identifies and examines this vital link.</p>

<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 author evaluated employee involvement in decision making at an organization where employee turnover is high and employee morale is low. The goal was to persuade senior management to implement ISO 10018:2012, Quality Management &ndash; Guidelines on People Involvement and Competence. A voluntary survey was utilized to obtain information from employees throughout the organization. Results from data analysis supported the need for implementation of ISO 10018:2012. The author learned that, while some employee involvement was already in place, the organization would benefit from employee involvement programs. The author recommended that the organization continue to improve collaborative communication, employee involvement in decision making, and leadership. </p><p> The author contributed to employee involvement in decision-making literature by addressing 1) what employee involvement, empowering, and engagement are for employees in a large organization, 2) how the level of employee involvement can be assessed, and 3) employee involvement benefits for employees and the organization.</p>

<p> Many social change groups employ formalized multiparty collaborative efforts to create sustainable social change around today's complex public issues. This study investigates the role and perspective of foundations in these interorganizational collaboratives, specifically collective impact initiatives. It highlights a disconnect between the traditional culture of philanthropy that provides only short-term funding and the long-term nature of systems change. This paradox hinders the impact that foundations and nonprofits alike can make toward addressing complex issues. The study recommends that nonprofits and foundations take active roles in changing the narrative of separatism between philanthropy and nonprofits and begin seeing themselves as part of one interconnected system. This will require foundations to become more active participants and make longer term investments in interorganizational change efforts. Social change groups in turn must consider foundations as more than a funding stream and include them in the cocreation of the collective impact effort and evaluation.</p>

<p> This mixed quantitative/qualitative study explored the role that Emotional Intelligence (EI) plays in the leadership of church planters in Restoration Movement Churches in the U.S. (specifically Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ) and the relationship between the EI profiles of lead church planters and healthy church growth patterns, according to attendance and financial data 3 years after being planted. This study found that EI plays both a causal role and correlates strongly with healthy church growth within the first 3 years of a new church plant's life. As the first study of its kind among a Restoration Movement sample of church planters, this study assists church planting organizations in identifying and training new church leaders, as well as ongoing leadership development and coaching of individuals who have been called to be church planters.</p>

<p> This qualitative, phenomenological research study addressed the research question: What is the experience of leaders when they think strategically in a VUCA environment? The study explored what happens when leaders think strategically in a VUCA environment and how such thinking occurs. Of specific interest were the triggers of strategic thinking, the strategic questions being asked, and the methods used to develop insight. The term VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity and is used interchangeably in this study with the term "complex" to represent the Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition program management environment (Army, 1998). </p><p> Ten acquisition program managers and deputy program managers for major DoD acquisition programs were selected as referred by naval aviation acquisition program executive officers. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and transcribed to capture the program managers' lived experience and the meaning they made (Seidman, 2006). Data were analyzed and themes developed using Moustakas's (1994) modification of the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method as a guide. </p><p> The study had four findings: (1) strategic thinking utilizes an extensive range of knowledge, abilities, and conditions that enable clarity of thought; (2) strategic thinking occurs deliberately as both a high-level creative and a tactically grounded process; (3) strategic thinking is fueled by iterative individual and group analytical and dialogical activities to address the knowledge needed to create strategic-to-tactical linkages and frameworks; and (4) strategic thinking is a deeply personal experience that evokes a wide range of positive and negative emotions. The study concluded that strategic thinking is a cognitive, emotional, and behavioral phenomenon that is both high-level and tactically grounded and is fueled by individual and group analytical and dialogical activities to address needed knowledge, enable clarity of thought, and create strategic-to-tactical linkages and mental models to develop enabling strategies. Further, the characterization of the VUCA environment needs to include the structural elements that may impede the ability to adapt and respond, and the triggers for strategic thinking need to include having the explicit responsibility to think strategically. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are offered.</p>

<p> Job performance aids (JPAs) have been studied for many decades in a variety of disciplines and for many different types of tasks, yet this is the first known research experiment using JPAs in a quality assurance (QA) context. The objective of this thesis was to assess whether a JPA has an effect on the performance of a QA observer performing the concurrent dual verification technique for a basic assembly task. The JPA used in this study was a simple checklist, and the design borrows heavily from prior research on task analysis and other human factors principles. The assembly task and QA construct of concurrent dual verification are consistent with those of a high consequence manufacturing environment. Results showed that the JPA had only a limited effect on QA performance in the context of this experiment. However, there were three important and unexpected findings that may draw interest from a variety of practitioners. First, a novel testing methodology sensitive enough to measure the effects of a JPA on performance was created. Second, the discovery that there are different probabilities of detection for different types of error in a QA context may be the most far-reaching results. Third, these results highlight the limitations of concurrent dual verification as a control against defects. It is hoped that both the methodology and results of this study are an effective baseline from which to launch future research activities.</p>

<p> As healthcare becomes more complex, patients need nurses who can advocate for their safety. This quantitative study on patient advocacy sought to understand if significant relationships existed amongst factors contributing to nurses' willingness to report wrongdoing. Factors measured were management support, knowledge of the reporting process, and experiencing and witnessing retaliation after reporting wrongdoing. Three hundred and forty one nurses from the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN) were surveyed using a 45 question survey consisting of closed ended questions, as well as Likert-type statement questions. Inferential statistical data analysis was performed and confirmed that significant relationships do exist amongst the factors measured. Due to these findings this study may be used to further explore empirical evidence linking those factors to nurses' willingness to report wrongdoing. The outcomes of this study also confirm that healthcare leadership must focus on increasing emotional intelligence as well as the communication strategies of their healthcare leadership teams. This is evident in the data showing that nurses know how to report wrongdoing, yet fear doing so due to lack of confidence on the part of their management team as well as fears of retaliation. Further studies may be warranted in the area of patient advocacy to determine if this data can be replicated across a multi-cultural and multi-generational workforce.</p>