Volatile crude oil prices significantly affect the profitability of crude oil firms. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies some crude oil and gas business leaders used to remain profitable during periods of crude oil price volatility. The target population comprised 8 crude oil and gas business leaders located in Calgary, Canada, whose company remained profitable despite crude oil price volatility. The transformational leadership theory formed the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected through the use of semistructured face-to-face interviews, company reports, and field notes. Data analysis involved a modified Van Kamm method, which included descriptive coding, a sequential review of the interview transcripts, and member checking. Based on methodological triangulation and thematic analysis, 5 themes emerged from the study, including communication and engagement; motivation and empowerment; measurement, monitoring, and control; self-awareness and humility; and efficiency and optimization. The implications for social change include the potential for crude oil and gas companies in Calgary, Canada to manage production costs, ensure earnings and profitability, and thus improve the socioeconomic well-being of Calgary indigenes through improved employment opportunities.

Nonprofit leadership attributes exert a significant effect on the nonprofit volunteer workforce to provide optimal service delivery to communities. Meeting the local community demands challenges nonprofit leadership to model inspirational behavior and attitudes that may motivate workers to transcend personal aspirations to support organizational goals more effectively. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to determine whether transformational leadership influences the level of commitment and engagement of volunteer workers in nonprofit organizations. A theoretical framework based on transformational leadership guided the research. The research questions addressed the relationships between transformational leadership and nonprofit volunteer engagement and commitment. A sample of 111 U.S. volunteers provided the data by completing an online survey containing questions from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X Short, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. Simple linear regression was used to test the relationship between the independent variable, transformational leadership, and the dependent variables, engagement and commitment and their subscales. The results indicated a significant positive relationship between transformational leadership and nonprofit volunteer engagement and commitment, and transformational leadership and 8 of 9 subscales of the dependent variables. Transformational leadership positively impacts social change by effectively motivating the nonprofit volunteer workforce, thereby enhancing service delivery to local communities.

For every standard deviation of increase in employee turnover, organizations could suffer a roughly 27% decline in financial performance. Current voluntary employee turnover rates hover between 15% - 40% and the associated unquantifiable indirect costs affecting customer loyalty and creating reputational risks for business leaders. Furthermore, when employees leave an organization for another, a minimum of 95% leave with trade secrets, strategic skills, and acquired knowledge. As a result, turnover has evolved into a significant concern for organizational leaders. Using the transformational leadership concept, the purpose of this single case study was to explore the leadership strategies that bank leaders in southwestern Nigeria use to reduce voluntary employee turnover. The participants included bank leaders in southwestern Nigeria who had demonstrated experience in developing and implementing strategies for reducing voluntary employee turnover. The data collection was through person-to-person interviews with 10 bank leaders and review of the company's documents on employee turnover. The process for analyzing data was supported by word frequency analysis, coding of related phrases, and creating of themes around the codes. The themes from the study revealed that transformational leaders use the following to reduce voluntary employee turnover: remunerations and benefits, career growth and development opportunities, and roles of leadership. Reduction in voluntary employee turnover may contribute to social change by empowering business leaders with requisite strategies for employee engagement and business profitability, enhancing job creation opportunities, and improving the social and general wellbeing of families and communities.

The problem addressed in the study was the ineffectiveness of professional learning community (PLC) implementation at some secondary campuses in an urban school district despite extensive professional development (PD) provided for principals. The purpose was to investigate perceptions of principals and teachers regarding principal leadership behaviors that contributed to implementing and leading effective PLCs. Researchers have established that effectively managed PLCs positively affect student achievement. The guiding research questions examined the leadership styles, behaviors, and characteristics of principals leading effective PLCs. The conceptual framework was Hord's 5 characteristics of an effective PLC. Using an exploratory case study design, perceptions of 9 teachers and 2 principals were investigated through open-ended surveys and interviews, respectively. Participant inclusion criteria were membership in and presence during the implementation of 2 secondary PLCs which were selected based on evidence of Hord's 5 characteristics. Emergent coding was used to analyze the data and find themes relevant to leading effective PLCs, including participating in and developing PLC expectations and structures, effective 2-way communication with teachers, and teacher empowerment. All themes emerging from the results were components of a transformational leadership style found to be effective in leading PLCs. The resulting project was a PD program for principals to develop implementation plans and intentional behaviors for themselves that will enable them to implement and sustain effective PLCs. This study has the potential to promote positive social change by providing structures for principals to promote teacher growth through PLCs that enhance the quality of education for students which minimizes the effects of cultural and circumstantial differences.

Senior leaders who fail to implement work-life balance strategies may experience reduced profits and sustainability challenges. This single case study explored employers' strategies for improving employee work-life balance. The population for the study included 4 senior leaders of a hospice care agency in North Carolina who successfully implemented employee work-life balance strategies. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and from the review of company documents, website, and social media pages. The conceptual framework for the study was the transformational leadership theory. The trustworthiness of interpretations was supported by member checking. Four themes emerged from inductive analysis of the data: a supportive work environment promotes employee work-life balance, leadership trust is key to the success of employee work-life balance, work-life balance programs minimize stress and improve employee job satisfaction, and flexibility and remote work options increase employee work-life balance. Implementing work-life balance strategies in an organization may increase employee morale, employee productivity, and quality of work life. The application of the findings of this study may contribute to positive social change by providing insights for senior leaders on the implementation of strategies to achieve work-life balance to increase workplace sustainability and meet the physiological and psychological needs of employees as well as contribute positively to the communities and the organizations served.

Stakeholders are important to the financial sustainability of a nonprofit organization; however, heavy reliance on 1 stakeholder over another can place a nonprofit organization at financial risk. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies used by 3 senior leaders of a nonprofit organization in New York who have experience with stakeholder engagements efforts. The conceptual framework used for this study comprised general systems theory and transformational leadership theory. Data were collected using semistructured interviews, and review of organizational documents and online databases. Using thematic analysis, the 4 key themes that emerged from process and results strengths were leadership involvement in engaging stakeholders, persistent promotion of the organization's mission and vision, connection with the community, and workforce engagement activities. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to increase nonprofit leaders' understanding of practical approaches that may facilitate stakeholder engagement for improving financial sustainability, improve nonprofit leader–stakeholder relationships, and bolster philanthropic efforts to improve the economic stability of the nonprofit organization and the community.

Evidence suggests that principals' practices influence student achievement. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the beliefs elementary school principals in the mid-Atlantic United States had about which leadership practices have been instrumental in reducing the achievement gap between economically-disadvantaged students and all other students at their schools. The leadership model that Kouzes and Posner developed, which identified 5 practices of exemplary leaders, served as the conceptual framework for this study. Eleven principals who were leaders at schools where the achievement gap in reading had been reduced compared with the state average were interviewed. A combination of a priori and open coding was used to support thematic analysis. Six leadership practices, aligned with transformational and instructional leadership practices, were identified as influencing student achievement positively. The participants indicated the importance of leading by example and developing positive relationships with all stakeholders and communicating and inspiring all stakeholders with their vision for their schools, believed in shared decision making and developing teacher leaders, and understood the value of risk-taking and innovation along with a strong instructional focus. The results of this study add to the research supporting the influence that principals have on student achievement by identifying practices principals could implement at their schools to increase student achievement. It is recommended that school division personnel and principal preparation program personnel use these results to inform their training programs and school improvement initiatives. Positive social change may occur when principals implement these 6 practices at their own schools, thereby increasing the reading achievement of economically-disadvantaged students.

Introduction: Statistics show that a large number of companies struggle for their survival.About 20 % of the EU companies in all the different industries that were born in 2015 couldnot survive till 2016. More specifically, only less than half of the companies that were born in2011 are still active in 2016 (Eurostat, 2018). Moreover, corporate bankruptcies in Swedenincreased by 20 % in the years 2017 to 2018 compared to 2016 (Tillvaxtanalys, 2019 ).Therefore, the main challenge for managers is to consolidate short-term and long-termthinking, encourage visions while remaining focused on execution within employees. Problem background: While the current literature acknowledges both the importance oforganizational ambidexterity for companies’ survival, and the role played by managers todevelop ambidexterity, research on how to achieve such ambidexterity is still narrow.Moreover, the influence of the different leadership styles on contextual ambidexterity and itseffects on individuals have hardly been attended in the literature. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to develop an understanding on how leaders, throughambidextrous leadership styles, create a context that enables individuals to achieve contextualambidexterity. More specifically, this master’s thesis aims to define a conceptual frameworkthat shows the influence of the leadership styles on contextual ambidexterity Methodology: In order to answer our research question, a qualitative research was conductedwith a deductive approach. Eight Interviews, four managers and four employees, wereconducted in four project-based organizations within the software industry in Sweden. Findings: The key findings are that transformational leadership style was found to foster “trustand support” in social support, and “stretch” in performance management, while thetransactional leadership style was only found in discipline in the organizational context. Conclusions: This study shows how developing adaptability in an organization requiresmanagers to apply transformational leadership style to the social support dimensions of theorganizational context. On the other hand, developing alignment in an organization requiresmanagers to apply both transformation and transactional styles rather than transactional. Mangers also need to balance the intensity of their leadership styles as both styles need to be emphasized equally well.

Transformational leaders inspire followers to perform beyond expectations and to become transformational leaders themselves. Research evidence shows that transformational leadership has positive effects on people, teams, organizations, and nations. In addition to producing higher levels of follower performance, transformational leadership results in increased follower satisfaction and commitment. However, there is still much to be learned about the complex set of antecedents that predict perceptions of transformational leader behaviors, and research is scarce regarding moderators that impact the relationship between leader behavior and follower outcomes. Most research regarding antecedents of transformational leadership has focused on leader personality and other individual differences, but there are other potential predictors not addressed in the literature, such as how the match between a leader and the situation influences transformational leadership. This study expanded upon previous research by examining the constructs of person-organization fit, person-job fit (demands-abilities and needs-supplies), and motivation to lead as predictors of transformational leader behavior. Because followers' fit with the situation may influence their receptiveness to transformational leadership, I also examined follower perceptions of person-supervisor fit and person-organization fit as moderators of the relationship between transformational leadership and follower outcomes. I hypothesized that these relationships would be stronger for those with higher levels of fit perceptions and recruited participants from multiple organizations to test the hypotheses. A sample of 215 leaders across 10 organizations provided self-report data regarding the proposed antecedents, as well as their personality characteristics, the need for change in their work unit, and the performance of their followers. Their supervisors provided ratings of leader effectiveness and assessed the need for change in the leader's work unit. A sample of 1,284 followers assessed the leaders' transformational leader behaviors and provided self-report data regarding the proposed fit moderators and their own work attitudes, which included job satisfaction and intentions to quit. Analytic strategies used to test the hypotheses were correlational analysis, multiple regression, hierarchical linear modeling, and moderated mediation. Initial regression results showed that both needs-supplies fit and demands-abilities fit were significantly related to transformational leadership. After control variables were taken into account, only demands-abilities fit remained significantly related to transformational leadership. Consistent with previous research, transformational leadership was related to boss ratings of leader effectiveness as well as to follower job satisfaction, intentions to quit (negative), and organizational citizenship behaviors (but not to task performance). Of the proposed moderators, support was found for the interaction of transformational leadership and person-supervisor fit influencing intentions to quit (intentions to quit was positively related to transformational leadership; the relationship was stronger for those with higher levels of person-supervisor fit), the interaction of transformational leadership and person-organization fit influencing intentions to quit (intentions to quit was negatively related to transformational leadership; the relationship was stronger for those with higher levels of person-organization fit), and also for the interaction of transformational leadership and person-organization fit influencing task performance (task performance was positively related to transformational leadership; the relationship was stronger for those with higher levels of person-organization fit). Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed, along with limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.

The overarching theme of this thesis is the establishment of a moral community in schools. Several areas of interest were identified as this theme developed. These included moral community building, school leadership, and the professional development needs of teachers. Each area is examined through documented research work, published articles and conference presentations. All areas are intertwined within the concept of moral community and the need for school leaders to engage community members in the establishment of a moral community. Three conceptual theories underpin the work of this thesis and form a significant part of the overarching theme. These are the interrelated theories of transformative learning, transformational leadership, and moral community. / Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)