<p> Most companies lack the ability to implement organizational change; over 70% of Organization Change Initiatives (OCIs) fail. This inability has negative economic and survival implications for companies. OCIs must be effective and rapid to match the high pace of change in the business environment. Transformational leadership (TL) has been linked to successful OCIs through its positive influence on employee commitment and reduced resistance to change, yet little research has been done to identify its association with OCI implementation speed. This study tested TL and change theory and their association with change implementation. It sought to determine if a relationship exists between TL behavior and OCI implementation time. Archival survey and change data from 98 domestic and international manufacturing plants were used to examine relationships between employees' perceptions of leadership communication and trustworthiness and the speed of change. Hierarchical linear regression was used to determine if these behaviors could predict the change speed of an OCI. The study confirmed the association between effective leadership communication and employee trust in leadership, but it found no significant relationship between TL behavior and the speed of change. This finding is inconsistent with the majority of TL literature; however, companies may still benefit from exploring the potential of the study's theoretical concepts to help them improve the speed of organizational change. The limitations of the study were also noted as a potential contributor to the lack of significant findings, and recommendations are offered to reduce validity risk for similar studies in the future.</p>

<p> If a successful organization is one where internal strife is minimized, then it stands to reason that a successful leader is an individual who knows how to handle conflict. Handling conflict, though, should not be approached intuitively, as the field of mediation has developed numerous techniques to understand and address conflict. To date, though, these techniques have not been categorized by leadership styles. The purpose of this study was to develop such a framework to understand how conflict resolution relates to the disciplines of mediation, organizational behavior, and organizational leadership. To further this endeavor, four themes were developed. These themes drew upon a quadrant categorization methodology proposed by Leonard L. Riskin, which was then compared to four leadership styles: situational leadership, transformational leadership, leader-member exchange theory, and servant leadership. A phenomenological methodology was used and eight leaders were interviewed to understand how they approach conflict within their respective organizations. Utilizing a story provided by each leader about a conflict each encountered on a frequent basis, the researcher asked a series of randomized questions based on the themes mentioned. By categorizing each leader's response, the study found that a relationship worthy of further research existed between the position of the individual within the organization and how societal norms dictated the methodology the leader used to resolve his/her stated conflict. This relationship supported the use of specific tools developed in mediation that the leader and the organization could embrace to transcend conflict, allowing the organization and hence the leader to be more efficient.</p>

<p> This study examined how aesthetic leadership behaviors relate to or express leaders&rsquo; personal cohesion of inner self. The hypothesis asserted that (a) leaders who were exposed to prolonged/profound trauma and did not work through this trauma may retreat their identity into their leadership role, attempting to epitomize the ideals of their movement to escape from the pain; (b) once their identity is confined to the pursuit of embodying their movement&rsquo;s values, these leaders may feel compelled to sacrifice everything including intimacy, rest, and health, for the prototypical ideals, and live in a constant state of hyper-arousal (fight or flight) and social constriction (Schick, 2011); (c) in this state, leaders may be capable of abnormally high performance outputs with expansive, lasting impact&mdash;but this performance may be indicative of brokenness and disintegration from oneself; and (d) leaders&rsquo; personal coherence will be observable in their aesthetic actions. For disintegrated traumatized leaders, the fracture was hypothesized to be aesthetically expressed in hyper-prototypicality as a leader, with simultaneously observable difficulty in maintaining healthy self. In a companion study, a hybrid hermeneutical personal narrative approach was utilized to analyze the parallel texts of <i>Testament</i> (Francis, 1226) and the <i> Life of St. Francis</i> (Thomas of Celano, 1246) to examine the inner cohesion of Saint Francis of Assisi, as well as the parallel texts of <i> This is That</i> (Semple McPherson, 1923) and <i>Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America</i> (Sutton, 2007) in the examination of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson&rsquo;s cohesion of self. The study demonstrated that research of a leader&rsquo;s inner person requires study of multidimensional aesthetic exchanges rather than aesthetic action alone. Role development in the family also shaped leaders&rsquo; understanding of calling and expectations. Additionally, aesthetically expressed disintegration of core identity appears to have triggered the embrace of ministry lifestyles that sustained hyper-arousal. Finally, four variables emerged as the primary causal factors in the disintegration of both leaders&rsquo; personhood: (a) intense/overbearing parental influence, (b) overwhelming desire to have widespread impact, (c) skewed understanding of God or personal application of the gospel, and (d) lack of capacity to process trauma&mdash;variables that leaders in numerous contexts may experience. </p>

<p>The purpose of this research was to explore the subjective lived experiences of women leaders to understand how they experience courage. Women remain disproportionately represented in leadership roles within most areas of organizations and society. Researchers indicate that women ideally rise to successful leadership roles once they have served, or possess the potential to serve, in leadership. Additionally, previous narrative research suggests a rather significant interrelationship between women who have more frequently advanced past barriers into leadership roles and their remarkable attribute of courage. A heuristic phenomenological approach was used to collect and analyze the described lived experiences of eight courageous women leaders. The themes from the study reveal that women who experience courageous leadership (a) inhabit their authentic voices; (b) experience moral courage; and (c) experience vulnerability. Additional insights provided by the co-researchers in this study revealed some individual distinctions necessary for strong, courageous leadership; these included a strong sense of personal agency, an inner need to express autonomous identity and convictions, and the ability to build connections to followers for collaborative results. Unanimously, the women in this study reported that their experiences with courageous leadership had transformative effects on themselves and within their environment. Further research related to specific evidenced-based coaching interventions are recommended to explore how women grow toward courageous leadership. These outcomes related to authentic, morally courageous, and yet vulnerable leadership may help to establish a new paradigm for how power and leadership can be experienced in a new century for both courageous men and women. </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> Digital cultural resource information systems affect the stewardship of archaeological, cultural, and historic resources throughout the country. These information systems, however, are maintained and updated throughout many different agencies, such as State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs) and the National Park Service (NPS), United States Forest Service (USFS), and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This thesis applies ethnographic methods, including interviews and social network analysis, to explore the communication and collaboration efforts within SHPOs, between SHPOs, and among SHPOs and multiple federal agencies. The research topic originated from an information system assessment conducted during an internship at the History Colorado Center, Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation in Denver, Colorado. Throughout the research, I noticed trends in collaboration that emerged from interviews with SHPO participants. As a result, I developed a research design to further examine these concerns, highlighting the major issues in current collaboration and communication systems. This analysis serves as an organizational study of the SHPO and contributes to the larger conversation about cultural resource information system needs throughout America. Through creating a space for and facilitating communication between SHPOs &#8195; and between the SHPO and federal agencies, organizations and cultural resource stakeholders can build positive relationships that will benefit the overall protection, preservation, and stewardship of historic, archaeological, and cultural resources in America. </p>

<p> Hurricanes have the potential to damage critical infrastructure systems, disrupt workforce and commodity flows, and can cause adverse socioeconomic impacts on the affected regions. Workforce disruptions in the aftermath of a hurricane can degrade regional productivity because the majority of business operations are labor-dependent. Furthermore, the recovery process is further exacerbated by the inherent interdependencies among economic sectors, which give rise to direct and indirect economic losses in the affected regional economy. This dissertation research extends the economic input-output (I-O) model to formulate a disaster recovery model for assessing the economic losses triggered by workforce disruptions. The research develops a risk-based framework that can guide the process of assessing and managing hurricane impacts on regional interdependent systems. Furthermore, this research presents an impact analysis model to assess the uncertainties associated with workforce recovery. The uncertainty in workforce disruptions is linked to hurricane intensity levels inducing a statistical dependence relationship between hurricane intensity and the recovery period estimates for each workforce sector. This research, to the best of our knowledge, demonstrates the first attempt to integrate such a statistical dependence relationship with an economic I-O modeling approach. Additionally, the resulting methodology is capable of identifying and prioritizing the most critical workforce sectors on the basis of economic loss and sector inoperability metrics. The identification of such critical sectors supports the decision-making process by narrowing the focus on sectors that incur the greatest production losses due to workforce unavailability.</p>

<p> Researchers have found that minorities suffering from traumatic stress report increased levels of stress in the absence of supportive and committed work environments; however, a paucity of empirical research exists for First Nations Peoples (FNP). The purpose of this quantitative correlation study was to examine the nature of the relationship between FNP's associated symptoms of historical loss, assessed by the Historical Loss and Associated Symptoms Scale, and organizational commitment, as measured by the Three Component Employee Commitment Survey. A total of 118 residential school survivors completed surveys. Correlation analysis was used to determine the significance of historical loss in relation to organizational commitment among survivors. Results showed an inverse relationship between affective commitment and associated symptoms of historical loss and between continuance commitment and associated symptoms. No statistically significant correlation was found between normative commitment and historical loss or associated symptoms. Findings can help inform targeted engagement, recruitment, and retention initiatives designed to accommodate FNP perspectives and experiences into organizational culture and systems. Implications for positive social change include better understanding of factors impacting career progression among FNP, such as organizational commitment. Results may also inform culturally safe interventions that help FNP to be successful.</p>

<p> Employers highly value college graduates who have strong teamwork and interpersonal skills. In studies focused on employer priorities for college learning sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 2008, 2010, and 2013, employers have stated that colleges should do more to prepare graduates to work effectively in a team-based work environment. Equally important is the empirical research which has demonstrated that cooperative learning has the ability to significantly enhance student learning. These benefits include higher academic achievement, better longterm retention of what is learned, enhanced ability to transfer learning from one situation to another and a more positive attitude toward the academic subject being studied. Lastly, the study of teamwork is important to the study of leadership, without a team of followers there is no leadership. Many college and university faculty have students work in cooperative groups and assign team projects in their courses. Unfortunately, most faculty do not realize that the development of effective teamwork knowledge, skills, and abilities takes time, education and training. Students need to be taught how to work cooperatively in teams; these skills do not naturally develop on their own. </p><p> The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the differences between what the research literature identifies as cooperative learning and teamwork instructional &ldquo;best practices&rdquo; and what postsecondary faculty in a variety of academic disciplines actually do when employing groups or teams in their courses. An additional research objective was to gain a better understanding of the factors that contribute to any differences discovered. In order to take a first step toward answering these questions a web-based survey of full-time faculty, both liberal arts and professional, employed at ten different Maryland colleges and universities was conducted.</p><p> An analysis of the data collected revealed that a preponderance of the faculty assigned cooperative work and team assignments for student centered reasons; they want their students to learn teamwork skills and course content. Yet the majority of the faculty implement very few of the cooperative learning and teamwork instructional &ldquo;best practices&rdquo; discussed in the academic literature. In other words, students were assigned to course teams with little forethought, preparation, or guidance from faculty and many of the assignments utilized were not properly designed for student group/team learning. The research suggests a majority of faculty harbor misconceptions about how students learn teamwork skills and do not realize that their own knowledge of cooperative learning and teamwork as well as of the best instructional practices was very limited. Lastly, the research uncovered several statistically significant relationships among the use of cooperative groups, team projects and instructional &ldquo;best practices&rdquo; and with faculty teamwork self-efficacy, collectivism values, motivation, attitude and to a lesser degree with faculty teamwork KSAs and demographics.</p><p> By gaining a better understanding of faculty confidence and competence to teach and coach effective cooperative learning and teamwork within their classrooms, colleges and universities will be able to develop meaningful instructional aids, mentoring programs and professional development opportunities which support faculty in the effective facilitation of meaningful group exercises and team projects in their courses. In so doing, the college student&rsquo;s attitude toward future team opportunities will be more positive and the likelihood increased that effective teamwork skills will be developed and more likely transferred to future professional situations.</p>

<p> Organizational Identity Formation Processes: A Case Study Examining the Relationship between the Emergence of Organizational Identity Labels and the Creation and Negotiation of their Meanings The social constructionist perspective of organizational identity (OI) is that it resides in collectively shared beliefs and understandings about central and relatively permanent features of an organization. Gioia, Schultz and Corley (2000) suggest that the content of an organization's identity consists of two tangled aspects: labels and the meanings associated with them. This qualitative case study explored the OI labels and their associated meanings of a newly established organization focused on diabetes. The research objective was to examine the relationship between the emergence of OI labels and the creation and negotiation of their meanings during the organizational identity formation processes (OIFP). Data were gathered from audio visual materials, documents, interviews, and observations. Findings demonstrated that four OI labels emerged and associated meanings were created during the OI formation processes. The OI label "not-for-profit" originated during the initial phase of development of the now-established organization and was predetermined by the State of New York and the IRS. The OI label "focused on diabetes" described the specific disease that the organization addressed. The OI label "healthcare practitioner driven" described the occupation of NEO members. The OI label "educators" described the community outreach activities NEO offered. The phrase "African American-based" and term "young," which were used at the intrasubjective level to describe the organization, did not move beyond the individual level; there was no "interchange or synthesis of two, or more, communicating selves" (Wiley, 1988, p. 258) related to these terms/phrases or their associated meanings. Conclusions offer refinements to OI theory, suggesting the utility of the two tangled aspects of the content of OIFP, the emergence of the labels and the creation and negotiation of their associated meanings, and provide a practical application to newly established organizations.</p>