Thesis(Ph.D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2009 / Title from PDF (viewed on 2009-11-23) Department of Management Includes abstract Includes bibliographical references and appendices Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center

Thesis (PhD) -- Swinburne University of Technology, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, 2009. / Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology, 2009. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 348-365)

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--Rhodes University, 2003.

<p> Salons have a long and rich history. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of salon owners, employees, and independent booth renters (IBRs) regarding mass employee walkouts (gaggles). The central problem for the study is salon owners fear gaggles because they can bankrupt salons. Prior to the current study, research had not been conducted to examine why salon walkouts occur. This study is unique because the research was conducted from the perspective that salon personnel and owners are knowledge workers (KWs). Unlike most KWs, stylists who walk out often take their clients with them. The overarching research question was the following: What are the lived experiences and perceptions of salon owners, employees, and IBRs before, during, and after a salon employee gaggle? The purposeful sample for the study consisted of salon owners, employees, and IBRs in the Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, metropolitan area who had experienced gaggle walkouts in salons. Ten stylists, who had experienced a total of 26 gaggles, completed telephone interviews. Using an iterative four-step analysis method with NVivo 10 software, 17 themes and seven subthemes were identified. The overall lived experience was pain. The findings regarding the gaggle phenomenon were discussed in terms of chaos and systems complexity theory. Leaders may use the findings of the study to better understand the lived experiences of salon owners, employees and IBRs during walkouts throughout the salon industry. Additional research is needed to determine whether the findings are applicable to KWs in other service industries..</p>

Closure of many mainstream media outlets in towns across the United States have left many neighborhoods bereft of any news about their community. In a number of such areas, former journalists and/or community members have started online news sites that provide news and information to the community. As these outlets focus on a small geographic location, ranging from a neighborhood to a city, they are called hyperlocal news sites. The questions that logically arise then are how are these outlets reporting the news? Are they similar to their mainstream media counterparts or is their approach to news and information different? Most importantly, how do the people who start, or work at these sites, adopt the new all-in-one roles, where they are not only the reporter but also the ad sales manager and the publisher? This dissertation, through a two-method approach, examines these questions and tries to provide answers. An online survey of the people who started and or work for hyperlocal sites, provides data that those working for hyperlocal media have the same demographics as those who work in American mainstream media. The survey results also showed that most of respondents follow the same journalistic behaviors and gatekeeping practices as their mainstream counterparts. From a role identity perspective, the study shows that in the absence of role-models, the journalists-turned-entrepreneurs are in the process of carving a niche for themselves within journalism. In-depth interviews with the respondents reveal that while they identify themselves as journalists, their active role in revenue generation requires them to frame their work identity and present a holistic, positive image of their work. What this study does is capture the dynamism of the journalists’ changing roles. It explains why journalists who start news media sites are unable to monetize their product; they lack role models/exemplars/prototypes that can provide them a blueprint for modeling their behaviors in these new roles as well as the direction in which they take their sites. This research and more in the area can be seen as building blocks towards the creation of a roadmap for them. / text

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Social enterprise is an emerging concept in Hong Kong that bridges the continuum between profit oriented private companies and non-profit charity organizations by adding the elements of service and trade to social services. Despite the fact that the social enterprise is already a well-developed discipline in western societies, the academic research that relates to the said topic is scarce in Hong Kong. Existing literature that studies social enterprise in OECD countries tends to perceive the social enterprise as a functional institution adapting to the surging local unemployment and inequalities arising from the process of globalization. A publicly held general assumption behind this functional institution is that social objective and business goal can be easily and conveniently integrated within the structure of social enterprise in a capitalist economy system. Literature review indicates that the integrative common sense view of the social enterprise has been far too optimistic and failed to demonstrate that the social enterprise is situated within the tensional force between the civil society and the state, between the state and the market, and between the market and the civil society, and thus naturally and constantly experiencing internal and external conflict. Building on our macro tensional model we critically assess the current condition of social enterprises in Hong Kong. Based on well established literature we also draw up an assessment grid to examine the effectiveness of several selected local social enterprises. Assessment criteria include the level of attainment of both financial and social objectives, whether social innovation is the driving force behind social enterprise, how the selected social enterprises enrich social capital as well as creating other positive social impact on the community. Policy implications are also discussed. / published_or_final_version / Social Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

Not available / text

<p> An Exploratory Study of Problem Solving for Leaders Drawing on the researcher's experience as an artist, art therapist, and Art Therapy educator, this exploratory study used Art Based Research to closely observe how (if at all) engagement in the process of the creation of a painting enhances leaders' problem solving in complex situations.</p><p> This study found that the Art Based procedure did, in this case, facilitate problem solving in a complex situation by allowing the leader to get in touch with a wider range of conscious and tacit or unconscious knowledge, capture experiential information, and look at the wide picture in one glance, with the art work mirroring the thinking process, serving as documentation, and reflecting changes in perspective.</p><p> Furthermore, the use of an introspective, systematic, Art Based approach to closely observe the creative process revealed that while in theory verbal metaphors differ from visual metaphors, and rational, logical thinking differs from intuition and imagination, in practice they were interwoven and constantly evolved and reconstructed each other, often resulting in what the researcher came to think about as idiosyncratic metaphors.</p><p> Besides its contribution to the field of leadership, by offering a new method for leaders who need new tools for dealing with the growing complexity of this world, this study offers a systematic method to look into the process of problem solving while creating a painting. It demonstrates the value of Art Based Research for closely observing individual thinking processes, and contributes a model for a systematic Art Based Research method.</p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> leaders, problem solving, creative process, art, painting, nonverbal, Art Based Research, Art Therapy, tacit knowledge, idiosyncratic, metaphor.</p>