Leadership is a challenging task. Vibrant enduring leadership over time is a greater challenge. Cultivating "leaders that lasts" is the desire of this study. The purpose of this research was to determine the resiliency of leaders in Central Florida. Additionally, this study examined the resilience of educational leaders in Central Florida along with leaders from the business community. The analysis and comparison of the results revealed beneficial information regarding the factors that are substantial in resilient leaders and how these factors might be further cultivated. Educational leaders were randomly selected from school administrators in the Central Florida region, as well as department leaders at two primary local universities. Participants from business were selected from a list of business leaders from the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business MBA Alumni, as well as participants in the Palm Beach Atlantic University Executive Leadership series. The study utilized the Resilience Factor Inventory (RFI) from Adaptive Learning Systems. The RFI is a valid 60-question on-line questionnaire that evaluates the four resilience factors identified in the Review of Literature: (a) realistic optimism, (b) emotional intelligence, (c) relational abilities, and (d) problem-solving abilities. Participants were invited to complete the RFI through a series of four emails explaining the study and the Resilience Factor Inventory with a sufficient response rate (83 leaders). Analysis of the data revealed the following findings: (a) all three of the sampled leader populations were significantly above the national norm in resilience, with those in education the highest; (b) educational leaders, both Pre K - 12 and university leaders, were statistically higher in several resilience components, with emotional intelligence being a strong component in both educational groups; (c) leaders from the business realm were significantly higher in several resilience factors with their distinguish component being problem-solving; (d) while education leaders were strong in emotional intelligence, this population could develop their problem-solving capabilities; (e) in direct contrast, the business were strong in problem-solving, but could enhance their emotional competence; and (f) an examination of leaders who have served the longest have a statistically significantly higher relational abilities and realistic optimism suggesting that these two resilience factors would be important for longevity.

At California State University, Los Angeles and California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, a longitudinal survey was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for students within their respective engineering departments. A combination of nonparametric and longitudinal analysis is performed to evaluate the impacts of the transition to a virtual educational environment and the stressors brought on by the global pandemic. Additional qualitative evaluation is performed to gain insight and make program recommendations to enhance the resilience of individuals in the academic systems. Results demonstrate a large shift in circumstances immediately at the start of the pandemic, with a variety of significant trends across the survey cycles and topics. A comparison of the two institutions both qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrate how different institutional responses and student bodies impacted the overall student experience.

Resilience and solar energy are separately growing in popularity for urban planners and similar professionals. This project links the two discrete terms together and examines the extent to which solar energy can improve local government resilience efforts. It includes a detailed literature review of both topics, as well as the methodology and findings related to a survey and interviews of local government officials and key stakeholders across the country related to hazard mitigation and energy assurance planning. This research finds that integrating the use of solar energy can improve local government resilience efforts related to mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery activities in the following ways: by being incorporated into hazard mitigation strategies as a means to maintain critical operations, thereby reducing loss of life and property; by being utilized in comprehensive planning efforts to increase capacity and decrease reliance and stress upon the grid, thereby reducing the likelihood of blackout events; by being used in tandem with backup storage systems as an integral part of energy assurance planning, which can help ensure critical functions continue in times of grid outage; by being used to provide power for response activities such as water purification, medicine storage and device charging; and by being used as an integral part of rebuilding communities in a more environmentally-conscious manner. The result of the research is a document entitled Solar Energy & Resilience Planning: a practical guide for local governments, a guidebook for local government officials wishing to have more information about incorporating solar energy into current resilience initiatives; it is included at the end of the report as Appendix C.

Natural hazards are a growing risk across the globe. As regions have urbanized, single events impact greater proportions of the population, and the populations within those regions have become more dependent on infrastructure systems. Regional resilience has become closely tied to the performance of infrastructure. For a comprehensive risk assessment losses caused by lifeline outage must be considered alongside structural and nonstructural risks. Many well developed techniques quantify structural and nonstructural risk; however, there are insufficient procedures to determine the likelihood of lifeline outages. Including lifelines in seismic assessments will provide a comprehensive risk, improving a decision maker’s capacity to efficiently balance mitigation against the full spectrum of risks. An ideal lifeline risk assessment is infeasible due to the large geographic scale of lifeline systems and their system structure; these same characteristics also make them vulnerable to disruption in hazard events. Probabilistic methods provide solutions for their analysis, but many of the necessary analysis variables remain unknown. Continued research and increased collection of infrastructure data may improve the ability of advanced probabilistic methods to study and forecast performance of lifelines, but many inputs for a complete probabilistic model are likely to remain unknown. This thesis recognizes these barriers to assessment and proposes a methodology that uses consequences to simplify analysis of lifeline systems. Risk is often defined as the product of probability of failure and consequence. Many assessments study the probability of failure and then consider the consequence. This thesis proposes the opposite, studying consequence first. In a theoretical model where all information is available the difference in approach is irrelevant; the results are the same regardless of order. In the real world however, studying consequence first provides an opportunity to simplify the system assessment. The proposed methodology starts with stakeholders defining consequences that constitute ruin, and then the lifeline system is examined and simplified to components that can produce such consequences. Previously large and expansive systems can be greatly simplified and made more approachable systems to study. The simplified methodology does not result in a comprehensive risk assessment, rather it provides an abbreviated risk profile of catastrophic risk; risk that constitutes ruin. By providing an assessment of only catastrophic lifeline risk, the risk of greatest importance is measured, while smaller recoverable risk remains unknown. This methodology aligns itself with the principle of resilience, the ability to withstand shocks and rebound. Assessments can be used directly to consider mitigation options that directly address stakeholder resilience. Many of the same probabilistic issues remain, but by simplifying the process, abbreviated lifelines assessments are more feasible providing stakeholders with information to make decisions in an environment that currently is largely unknown.

Although there are thousands of new spinal cord injury cases each year, length of stay in rehabilitation has significantly decreased, leaving individuals with SCI returning to the community unprepared. Empower SCI is a non-profit organization that aims to fix this gap by providing rehabilitation services to community-dwelling adolescents and adults with SCI. The outcome measures currently used at Empower SCI were assessed to determine if they were a good fit for the program based on their items, scoring system, psychometric properties, and effectiveness at capturing change. In addition, a new assessment measure, the SCI-QOL Resilience SF, was piloted with two participants in a case study format to capture an additional important change, resilience, at Empower SCI. The SCI-QOL Resilience Short Form captured significant change in resilience for one out of two participants. However, both participants shared that Empower SCI provided them with new resources to overcome obstacles to occupational participation and a more positive outlook on life after SCI. Recommendations for the continuation, discontinuation, or altered use of all assessment measures were made based on if they fit the needs of Empower SCI participants and the environment. With an improved data collection system, Empower SCI can demonstrate its positive outcomes to key stakeholders and continue expanding its program to new states and countries. / 2022-10-09T00:00:00Z

Nonprofits are primarily dependent upon external sources for funding and other critical resources; therefore during recessionary periods the nonprofit sector faces a crisis of its own as crucial resources become scarce. The Great Recession of 2007-2009 had widespread adverse impact on the nonprofit sector yet, some nonprofit organizations managed to not only restore their finances and operations to their pre-recession state, but also capitalize on the economic conditions and emerge stronger and more prosperous than before the recession began. Specifically, these organizations embody resiliency by realizing positive outcomes or exhibiting optimal performance during and after tough economic times. In the face of increasing demands, shifting funding streams, and operational challenges, organizational resilience is more important than ever for the sector. The purpose of this research was to develop a better understanding of the nature of organizational resiliency as it relates to nonprofits impacted by economic recession. The primary research question that directed this research was: What attributes are exhibited by resilient nonprofit organizations? Using a multiple case study approach, this study explored the essence and meaning of resilience through the experiences of seven nonprofit organizations in Virginia during and after the recession. Data were collected from pertinent organizational documents and semi-structured interviews with the executive director of each organization. Nine themes emerged from the data. Conclusions drawn from the findings suggest that resilient nonprofit organizations exhibit: positive disposition toward change; flexibility; timely and responsive decision making; deep social capital; intra and inter-organizational relationships; effective leadership; diverse revenue streams; sufficient assets, systems and infrastructure; and shared mission, goals and strategy. / Ph. D.

The core aim of this research is to explore the communication processes of the Transition movement, a community-led global social movement as it adapted in a local context. The Transition movement facilitates community-led responses to the current global financial and climate crisis via the Transition Network, an online network that began in 2006, and is comprised of more than 2000 initiatives in 35 countries that have used the Transition model to start projects that use small-scale solutions to achieve greater sustainability. This research uses qualitative ethnographic methods and a theoretical framework based on actor network theory to better understand how the movement’s grand narratives of “climate change” and “peak oil” are communicated into local community-based stories, responses, and actions toward sustainability, and secondly, to analyze the multilayered communication processes that facilitate these actions toward sustainable social change. Transition projects address a wide range of issues, including reducing dependency on peak-oil, creating community-based-local economies, supporting sustainable food production and consumption, building efficient transportation, housing, and more diverse and inclusive education. The Transition model provides a participatory communication framework laid out in specific stages for communities to begin this process. The popularity of the model coincides with an increase in the interest in and use of the term “sustainability” by media, academics and policymakers around the world, and an increase in the global use of digital technology as a resource for information gathering and sharing. Thus this study situates itself at the intersections of a global environmental and economic crisis, the popularization of the term “sustainability,” and an increasingly digitized and networked global society in order to better understand how social change is contextualized and facilitated in a local community via a global network. From the findings, I argue that although the model’s rapid growth can be attributed, in part, to an appealing narrative that reframes more traditional environmental movement discourse into solutions-based community-focused actions, the movement would do well to develop more organized communication processes around connecting with and recognizing other people and groups who share similar values and goals, and around defining and creating the space for consistent and efficient leaders. This study also reveals that members of Transition Amherst had mixed feelings about the group’s success and this was attributed to a wide range of interpretations of the model and the purpose it serves, particularly in towns where the ideology of Transition has already, to some extent, been adopted.

The purpose of this three-essay dissertation is to synthesize and extend the effects of decentralization in decision-making and supply chain complexity in the context of supply chain resilience (SCRES).First essay contributes to theory and practice by expanding resilience thinking into including supply chain orientation and organizational structure and their implications and also responds to prior research arguing for the importance of identifying organizational factors that improve supply chain resilience. Second essay contributes to the supply chain organizational structure and SCRES literature by not just providing empirical support for decentralization of decision making in times of disruptions but more precisely by showing the factors that either impede or facilitate decentralization at the organizational level. Understanding the interplay among these factors is critical to explaining the lack of success for decentralization in the context of SCRES. Third essay contributes to practice by reviewing some of the major complexity drivers present in the supply chains and providing strategies along with a four-step process that practitioners can use to manage complexity.

This study explored the experiences of Hausa young people in the Jos ethno-religious crisis. It sought to answer the following research question: is there evidence of trauma resilience among the Hausa young people in Jos? If established, further enquiry into the methods employed by the social organisation to make its young people resilient was made. A qualitative study of 32 young people (16 females and 16 males) drawn from the social organisation discussed their experiences during the crisis in a focus group forum. In addition, 16 parents (consisting of 8 males and 8 females) discussed their experiences and observations of the young people¿s behaviours during and after the crisis. Furthermore, focus group discussions were held with some hospital workers (comprising 2 male and 4 female staff) to gain insight into their experiences of working with the young people during the crisis. Five traditional/religious leaders in Jos were also interviewed to share their experiences during and after the crisis. Focus groups, picture drawings and individual interviews were used to capture and illuminate on the young people¿s experiences. The results revealed that there is high level of resilience among the young people. The young people through their discussions and pictures demonstrated that they had faced many difficulties during the crisis, and presented symptoms of trauma, but these symptoms were not severe enough to attract a diagnosis of PTSD and did not require treatment. All the young people reported a great deal of anxiety and fear (100%), and avoiding some parts of Jos (100%); however, none reported increased irritability (0%) and none reported symptoms of hypervigilance or insomnia (0%). However, the pictures drawn by the young people revealed lots of trauma, some dealing directly with crisis and others in different areas of their lives. Girls reported more traumatic incidents than boys. Likewise, the younger age group (7-12 years) reported more traumatic incidents than the older age group (13-18years). Furthermore, all the young people reported engagement with religiosity/spirituality; social support; cultural factors such as the socialisation process; and individual resources to contain the effects of the conflict and to remain healthy. The young people also gave reasons why they used religion/spirituality; most mentioned it gave them confidence, independence and hope. Gender and age differences were revealed. Girls used more emotion-focused channels to cope with the difficulties in addition to religion/spirituality. Boys used problem-solving channels in addition to religion/spirituality. The younger age group also used more of an emotion focus in addition to religiosity, while the older age group used more problem-solving techniques. The results from the parents, hospital workers and traditional/religious leaders further corroborate the findings from the young people. The findings were discussed alongside the literature (Millwood, 1995, Koenig, King, & Carson, 2012, Bracey, 2010). It is recommended that in times of recovery of a post-conflict society, religion and the indigenous methods should be explored and employed to get the young people out of their emotional difficulties. / Yobe State Government

Informal caregiving is growing in demand and is far from a uniform experience. Some caregivers report burdensome effects, while others attest to a wide range of benefits associated with their role. In the context of informal caregivers of persons affected by chronic neurological conditions (CNCs), psychological resilience is increasingly being explored as a protective factor that may account for variability in the caregiver experience; however, multiple sclerosis (MS) caregivers are noticeably absent from this body of work. To synthesize current evidence concerning resilience conceptualizations, assessments, and health correlates within this population, this thesis included a systematic review of resilience in CNC informal caregivers in which MS caregivers were unrepresented. Following this review, a qualitative study was conducted in informal MS caregivers to ascertain MS caregivers’ conceptualizations and unique lived experiences of resilience. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews of Canadian MS informal caregivers were conducted. Informed by the socioecological model of resilience in caring relationships, transcripts were analyzed using flexible thematic analysis. In support of the conceptual ambiguity of resilience, caregivers did not concur on a single resilience conceptualization. Emergent themes contributed to the creation of a cyclical model of resilience that incorporates adversity in the form of continuous loss and obstructed health-related self-care, individual and community resources, and multilevel adaptive pathways. We use our model to prompt future research directions and inform the development of effective resilience-enhancing interventions for MS caregivers.