<p> One challenge facing organizations using virtual teams is the inability to detect, identify, select, and develop emergent leaders working in the virtual team environment, which might increase the organizational risk of a shortage in leadership resources. The purpose of the qualitative, grounded theory research study was to define a theory about the emergent leader detection and identification process in a virtual team environment, using data systematically obtained and analyzed through the constant comparative method. Twenty-four virtual team members, virtual team leaders, and virtual team managers participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. The data analysis produced 74 themes and subthemes to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomena. Five common themes emerged to group 69 subthemes: responsibility, characteristics, constraints, facilitation, and outcomes. The theory provided information about the individuals responsible for the detection and identification of emergent leaders in a virtual team environment, characteristics useful to help detect and identify emergent leaders, areas of constraint in identification, areas facilitating identification, and risks and opportunities resulting from the organizational ability or inability to detect emergent leaders in a virtual team environment. Future research could provide support for the findings of this study by replicating the study using traditional teams, larger teams, or teams with more diverse backgrounds and compositions.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to identify a group of twenty-something adults to help guide and develop a sermon series to transition a congregation through the grief of losing a primary staff member. The study was originally focused on using the advisory group to develop a preaching style effective for the age group from which the advisory committee emerged. During the course of the study, the church experienced traumatic loss. The study shifted focus to support the collective grief of the congregation and transition to a new person to replace the absent staff member. The advisory group met face-to-face as well as through video conferencing, which was a new experience for the advisory group. The congregation overall successfully transitioned to a new staff member, yet a small though significant group of leaders could not adequately deal with loss, causing additional trauma in the context of the congregation, that, by the end of the project, continued unresolved.</p>

<p>As a result of scandals in the workplace, scholars and practitioners are increasingly focused on how to develop authentic leaders, high in trust, transparency, and clear moral standards. Additionally, with the flattening of organizations and the increasing numbers of workers in nonsupervisory roles, it is increasingly important for organizations to focus on developing followers as well as leaders. </p><p> The purpose of this study was to describe how leader modeling of authentic behaviors influences follower authenticity and how follower modeling of authentic behaviors influences the development of leader authenticity. This study primarily used Gardner&rsquo;s conceptual framework of authentic leadership and follower development and Bandura&rsquo;s observational learning theory as theoretical lenses. This qualitative, multisite case study examined two local chapters of a national nonprofit, the YMCA of the USA. The research sought to describe the role modeling played in the development of leader and follower authenticity in the workplace. Data were collected at two different research sites and included 16 interviews, participant observations, and an analysis of supporting documents. The analysis was conducted by coding the data, developing a summary for each site, and then conducting a cross-case analysis. </p><p> Findings from this study indicate that both leader and follower modeling influenced authenticity development, including both positive and negative models of authentic behaviors. Organizational culture and situational context were also factors that emerged in the development of authenticity in both leaders and followers. </p>

<p> Abstract This study explored the lived experience of subordinates in interracial supervisor-subordinate dyadic working relationships in nonprofit social welfare organizations. Although contemporary leadership theories explore leaders' traits, characteristics, skills, competencies of, and the relationship between leaders and followers, there is a dearth of empirical research that explores how followers experience racial differences with their leaders in hierarchical vertical dyadic working relationships in nonprofit social welfare organizations. This study provides insights toward improving the social capital generated from these dyadic working relationships, in the context of the organization and the community it serves. </p><p> The essence of subordinates' lived working relationship experience that emerged from the findings of this study indicates that subordinates will experience their racially-dissimilar supervisor based on the perceived influence that the supervisor's race has on the relationship. In other words, racial dissimilarity between subordinates and their supervisor influences the subordinate's perception of his or her working relationship with the supervisor, when the racial difference is perceived by the subordinate as an influence on the supervisor's behavior toward the subordinate. </p><p> The following four aspects of the lived interracial working relationship experience characterize the essence of the subordinates' experience: (1) subordinates make meaning of race differently, (2) the organization, or job, and/or peers influence the interracial working relationship between the supervisors and subordinates, (3) the salience of racial dissimilarity is determined by subordinates' perception of its impact on the supervisor's relational behaviors, and (4) subordinates assess the quality of the working relationship based on perceptions of his or her supervisor's relational behaviors in light of the subordinate's expectations. </p><p> The understanding of the essence of the lived interracial working relationship has significant implications for practice that include implementing new, or enhancing existing approaches and strategies aimed to ensure effective and efficient interracial supervisor-subordinate dyadic working relationships that will allow for positive relational and organizational outcomes. The implications for research extend the existing body of knowledge with regard to influencers on interracial supervisor-subordinate working relationships by conducting an in-depth exploration of interracial hierarchical dyadic relationships that has not been sufficiently examined before.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study which evolved into a collective case study was to gain a deeper understanding of knowledge retention and transfer practices within an information technology (IT) interorganizational community of practice. The study involved analyzing structured interview responses from six trainee, seven leaders and two government leader participants in the Bermuda-based program who had experienced knowledge retention and transfer within the social environment, as well as an analysis of relevant documentation to identify emergent themes. Eight themes identified through the data were learner, role model, relevance, learning environment, communication, opportunity, networking, and modeling. The research revealed many elements in the interorganizational IT community of practice contributed to knowledge retention and transfer, including the environment, differing perspectives of those involved, personal development of participants, the career boost perceived by participants, and the complexity of the IT industry. The findings include suggestions for expanding and strengthening the community of practice through partnerships with educational institutions, IT organizations, and alumni of the program, in addition to program enhancements and the replication of the program in other jurisdictions, which might lead to enhancing the value of participation in the IT interorganizational community of practice to the constituent groups involved.</p>

<p> Leaders of organizations continually experience challenges when attempting to implement new strategies by aligning staff at various organizational levels to the new strategies. The effectiveness of alignment to strategy is demonstrated especially in how strategy manifests on the front line as staff respond to the mandate of the strategic changes. Organizational dynamics analyzed through a psychodynamic "lens" further explain the challenges of alignment to strategy. The health care industry experiences pressure to adjust their strategies to ensure quality patient care, especially because hospitals are under scrutiny to reduce hospital readmissions and address health disparities for disadvantaged groups of patients in surrounding communities. One strategy adjustment that hospitals are implementing is improving culturally competent care, which requires transformational changes in practice, especially at the front line: nurses. This qualitative, single-case study at a hospital in the eastern United States focuses on exploring nurses' experiences as they respond to a hospital's mandate of changes related to providing culturally competent care. Data were collected through 25 semistructured interviews, two focus groups, and historical and archival data. The findings from this study support literature on the challenges and tensions related to this transformative change in how care is delivered. The findings also reveal the anxiety that these challenges and tensions trigger at the institutional and individual levels and the resulting behaviors, interpreted by psychodynamic theory of basic assumption, where nurses fluctuated between approach and avoidance of the work.</p>

<p> In both academic and management literature it has been often stated that 70% of change efforts are not successful (Kotter, 1995; Smith, 2002). And while this failure rate may not be empirically tested, it points to a reality that most change efforts are not only difficult, but they are often unsuccessful (Hughes, 2011). When an organization undergoes a major organizational change process, the expected impacts include increased employee stress and overall productivity dips in the midst of the change (Dahl, 2011; Elrod II &amp; Tippett, 2002). Measuring the impacts of change on employees and on organizational effectiveness during the change can add value and help increase the chances for change initiative success by allowing necessary adjustments and identifying and leveraging additional business improvement predictors along the way.</p><p> In this dissertation, I answer the question &ldquo;What is the impact of going through a major organizational change on business outcomes and employee and organizational health?&rdquo; My results suggest that an organization can transform the expected negative effects of a major change effort to positive effects by focusing on three things: 1) Improving employee mental health; 2) Increasing positive practices, including leadership&rsquo;s impact on the organization; and 3) Improving employee involvement, communication, and teamwork. Finally, the results also show that improved employee mental health and improved positive practices are significantly related to improved business outcomes. Organizational change outcomes can be successfully informed by linking business outcomes with change impact measures.</p>

<p> In the absence of state and national governments leadership addressing climate change, cities and academic institutions have been taking the initiative to provide direction toward low-carbon transitions. From the U.S. Mayor's Climate Agreement, to the American College and University President's Climate Commitment, voluntary agreements are the only U.S. initiatives to address climate change systematically over the last decade or more. These voluntary agreements constitute a social movement and innovation space, supported through networks of sustainability practice and research. The proliferation of these agreements, the increasing numbers of participating organizations, and a nascent market in businesses providing supporting resources to network members, points to an action space that is a form of transition niche, unusual in that it is not protected or supported at any higher level of governance. Using a combination of social constructivist methods of situational analysis and social network analysis, this dissertation describes and analyzes six purely voluntary university agreements and makes visible their complex interactions. It investigates these voluntary agreements and the universities that are working to transform their operations, practices and curriculums in a collaborative effort to mitigate and adapt to climate change and move toward sustainability. It demonstrates that these networks are part of a larger network of cognitive practice for sustainable low-carbon transitions.</p>

<p> This study examined the state of organization development (OD) and the possibilities for collaboration within it. Thirteen leading OD professionals were interviewed. Study findings indicated that the field of OD is struggling and needs to demonstrate its unique value. Collaboration in the field was determined to be limited and participants expressed little interest, time, and energy for initiating collaboration, although they believed collaboration could help enhance the credibility and relevance of the field. Several barriers to collaboration were identified, such as divergence in the field and "turf" issues. Several success factors for collaboration also were identified, such as having a compelling and clear purpose. Recommendations for advancing the field are offered, such as identifying the unique properties of OD that distinguish its professionals from other professionals operating in the same space. Continued research should recruit participants from across the OD field to help confirm and extend the present study's findings.</p>

<p>This study examined the relationships between affective commitment to change (desire), normative commitment to change (obligation), and continuance commitment to change (cost), as predictors of behavioral support for change. Affective commitment to change and normative commitment to change both demonstrated curvilinear relationships with behavioral support. Continuance commitment to change did not. This study also used residualized relative importance analyses, techniques for a full decomposition of the variance in nonlinear regression models. The nonlinear models accounted for more of a change in variance than did the linear regression models. The discussion section includes a scatterplot diagram intended to bridge the gap between scholars and practitioners in that the figure illustrates a range of resistant to commitment behaviors that cause organizational change initiatives to fail. The conclusion provides recommendations for researchers regarding the inclusion of a nonlinear frame when designing organizational change studies, and recommendations for practitioners regarding the damage that compliance is responsible for in organizational change initiatives. </p><p> <i>Keywords</i>: commitment to change, resistance to change, organizational change </p>