This study explores the details of knowledge creating process in an organization. Knowledge-creating theory and the data of our research reveal that leader and Ba play important role in the process of knowledge-creating. The purpose of this study is to discover the practice of leader of an educational enterprise and the very detail running in the ba. Organizing the story about development of BS cultural & educational enterprise, we use narrative inquiry as our method to illustrate the details of knowledge creating. Ikujiro Nonaka¡¦s knowledge creating theory is the main knowledge framework of this study. By analyzing the data and literatures, we sorted out the findings of this research¡G 1. Three types of knowledge in the educational enterprise (1) Knowledge about running an business. (2) Teaching¡¦s knowledge. (3) Knowledge about editing teaching materials and content. 2. The features of knowledge in the educational enterprise (1) There is no unified principle. (2) But there should have principles. (3) Knowledge comes from personal experiences, instead of teaching manuals or management guideline. 3. Leadership practice (1) Leader must communicate knowledge vision. (2) Answer is not necessary. (3) Leader has to share. (4) Leader has to ¡§jump in¡¨ in the right time 4. Ba (1) The ba where teachers sharing teaching knowledge. (2) The ba sharing knowledge about running an business. (3) The ba sharing knowledge about editing teaching materials and content.

This thesis examines leaders‘ behaviours differential effects on the work/home balance of their followers through a leader/follower fit perspective. The study explores perceived effects of leader‘s actions on followers‘ work/home balance in a Lebanese context. At the individual/dyad level, this research attempts to integrate these two areas of study. It aims to better understand, Lebanese employees‘ perspectives on the Lebanese leaders‘ practice of leadership in the banking industry and the perceived effect of this practice on the followers‘ work and home boundary management. Based on the adoption of a qualitative exploratory approach, the author conducts thirty semi-structured interviews with five leaders and twenty-five followers in different regions and divisions of the XYZ bank. The dissertation makes several theoretical and empirical contributions. First, boundary theory is empirically extended through the identification of one of the antecedents, i.e., polychronicity, of an individual‘s work/home segmentation/integration preference. Second, boundary theory is developed through the exploration of the Lebanese leaders‘ actions‘ impact on the followers‘ management of their work/home boundaries. Third, the literature on fit between the leader and the follower along different dimensions of interest to them is extended and developed. Fourth, the literature on the Middle East and in Lebanon on specific is enhanced. The implications of the Lebanese context, subject of this study, on the leadership and work/home literature are meaningful. In addition to these contributions, this study helps to surface ―actionable knowledge‖ on how to facilitate an employee‘s struggle to reach a harmony between his work and home life. This search for balance is increasingly sought nowadays as a result of the increase in work-related pressures especially for dual-earners.

The purpose of this study was to explore and delineate leadership practices, which could facilitate the transition of Catholic religious institutes into the world of the third millennium, within groups facing the diminishment, and even death, of current forms of religious life. Hermeneutical phenomenology, particularly as developed by Ricoeur, provided the philosophical base for an analysis of the multiple hermeneutical dimensions of culture, human sciences, spirituality and religion. Elements of postmodernism and feminism were also found to be useful starting points. Qualitative research provided the mechanisms out of which meaningful data was elicited and text and context explored. An extensive literature review and individual interviews with thirty women and men in leadership positions in religious institutes formed the basis of the research. Initial findings were tested against the insights of a focus group of religious involved and interested in the future of religious life and its leadership. Additionally, the responses of the leaders of religious congregations in NSW at their annual conference provided a valuable sounding board for the research findings. Core to the study, respondents believed, was a changing concept of God, described in the interviews as ‘the larger God’, and named as the foundation of contemporary religious commitment. A second fundamental call was pinpointed as that of radical commitment to ‘the other’. ‘Commitment to, and relationship with, the other’ was seen as a critical focus for religious organisations in an increasingly divided and polarised world. For women and men currently in the midst of religious life transition, identity, mission and community were identified as specific orientations from which unfamiliar and emerging forms of ‘the larger God’ and ‘relationship with the other’ were examined. Authenticating leadership was used to describe the form of leadership believed to be necessary during this time of transition to endorse and authenticate the tentative sparks of new life. This leadership was depicted as stimulated by a sense of spiritual dynamism and an outward focus, activating the motivation of the congregation towards ‘the larger God’ and ‘the other’. Energising, empowering and challenging the group were described as intrinsic to these orientations. Demonstrating authenticity, embracing diversity, accepting suffering as the inevitable price of effective contemporary leadership, and ‘holding leadership lightly’, were also highlighted as essential elements for a leadership aimed at authenticating diverse expressions of new forms of religious life. Two clear leadership practices were named as essential for effective transition during this period of decisive transformation. Consciously managing the disintegration and death of current expressions of religious life, while simultaneously mobilising the energies of small emergent groups to explore and attempt new and diverse forms, were seen as the most difficult, but probably the most critical, challenges for leadership at this time.

This thesis examines leaders‘ behaviours differential effects on the work/home balance of their followers through a leader/follower fit perspective. The study explores perceived effects of leader‘s actions on followers‘ work/home balance in a Lebanese context. At the individual/dyad level, this research attempts to integrate these two areas of study. It aims to better understand, Lebanese employees‘ perspectives on the Lebanese leaders‘ practice of leadership in the banking industry and the perceived effect of this practice on the followers‘ work and home boundary management. Based on the adoption of a qualitative exploratory approach, the author conducts thirty semi-structured interviews with five leaders and twenty-five followers in different regions and divisions of the XYZ bank. The dissertation makes several theoretical and empirical contributions. First, boundary theory is empirically extended through the identification of one of the antecedents, i.e., polychronicity, of an individual‘s work/home segmentation/integration preference. Second, boundary theory is developed through the exploration of the Lebanese leaders‘ actions‘ impact on the followers‘ management of their work/home boundaries. Third, the literature on fit between the leader and the follower along different dimensions of interest to them is extended and developed. Fourth, the literature on the Middle East and in Lebanon on specific is enhanced. The implications of the Lebanese context, subject of this study, on the leadership and work/home literature are meaningful. In addition to these contributions, this study helps to surface ―actionable knowledge‖ on how to facilitate an employee‘s struggle to reach a harmony between his work and home life. This search for balance is increasingly sought nowadays as a result of the increase in work-related pressures especially for dual-earners.

This dissertation is located within debates around post heroic leadership. It takes as axiomatic the argument that we need to rethink leadership in ways that are not irredeemably bound to ideals of instrumental rationality, hegemonic masculinity and competitive individualism but are, instead, informed by the ‘feminine’ principles of mutuality, care and what Deborah Kerfoot (1999) terms ‘emotional intimacy’. I call this alternative construct ‘relational leading’ in order to underline my position that leading is about connecting (in an authentic, empathic and ethical way) with others and across functions. This alternative understanding of leadership draws on Joyce Fletcher's (1999) model of a relational practice grounded in the ‘disappeared’ feminine. While positing relational leading as a feminist alternative to dominant masculinist conceptions of leadership, this dissertation attempts to avoid reinvoking dualistic representations. It does this by thinking leadership as a practice undertaken by complex, embodied subjects whose capacity to creatively transcend binaries of masculine/feminine, reason/emotion, and power/powerlessness opens up possibilities for, in the words of Amanda Sinclair (1998), ‘doing leadership differently’. There is, however, a cautionary note in the recognition that identities and practices are discursively regulated or culturally patterned, so that men and women who ‘do’ leadership face constant pressures to masculinise or feminise their identities. Such processes perpetuate both gender stereotypes and the privileging of a masculinised notion of leadership that Sinclair (1998) calls the heroic archetype. Nonetheless, the dissertation ends on an optimistic note, proposing reflexive practice as the agent of change and the condition for being/becoming a practitioner of relational leading, against the grain of masculine heroism and rational instrumentalism.

21st century schools have great expectations of generating individuals with refined knowledge, skills and values to make a positive impact on human existence. Paradoxically, the report of the Annual National Assessments paints a bleak picture of the quality of learner attainment in South African primary schools where basic skills in communication, problem solving and analytical thinking should take root. Fortunately, however, sporadic pockets of successful schools do exist. There appears to be an inextricable link between leadership and learner outputs, and learner attainment seems to fall squarely on the shoulders of the school principal. The purpose of this study was to investigate and unravel the leadership practices of principals of successful public primary school as they led in accountability- and standards-driven environments. The framework that guided this study was the four core leadership practices: setting direction; developing people; aligning the organisation for success; and leading and managing the instructional programme. Valuable insights and a rich understanding of how successful primary school principals create, nurture and sustain the conditions and processes necessary for high levels of learner attainment and instructional improvement were generated via an inductive, qualitative study. Three successful schools in the Uthukela district of KwaZulu-Natal formed the purposive sample and data was gathered from each principal via direct interviews. Two focus group interviews and participant observation triangulated the data. The findings revealed that in setting the direction for their school, principals focused on aligning and motivating their people towards a common vision that strongly correlated to personal aspirations. Principals engaged their staff in continuous professional development and were particular about the working milieus of teachers. They ensured that relationships were characterised by open communication, collaboration, democratic decision making and trust. Leadership was distributed and instruction was effectively led by principals working in close consultation with their management team. Due to extensive monitoring and evaluation, the status quo was often challenged and the curriculum adapted. The successful school principals adopted an inside-out approach to their leadership practices, and they resorted to match-fit and hierarchical breakdown. The study recommends that all principals should align their personal vision with the organisational vision, teach human resource management to all line managers, and establish and foster professional learning communities. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

The thesis concerns how leadership and gender are constructed in organisations, through the management language, interactions and context. A particular focus is placed on the relations between men, masculinity and leadership. The theoretical starting point is a doing gender perspective, where the terms leadership and gender are understood as processes; that gender and leadership is done in an organisational situation. Through a processual perspective different levels are linked in the analysis of construction of gender and leadership; society, organisational and individual levels, expressed in terms of structure, symbols, interactions and individual sense making. Masculinity research is also a theoretical area of importance for the thesis, with analysis matrices for the understanding of construction of masculinity between men, as well relationships between masculinity and technology and masculinity and leadership respectively. The empirical data consists of interviews and observations of managers at three different organisational levels at the factory of an industrial engineering firm. Leadership stands out in the empirical data as an extended and male, dedicated as well as uniform story. In discussions of gender the differences between women and men are preferentially described, where above all opinions about women’s gender-typical characteristics are expressed. The opinions are to a greater extent gender-stereotypic. These dominating patterns are however challenged in different ways, through the managers different ways of positioning themselves towards respectively leadership and gender, expressed through their desire to limit the work and reasoning that distances itself from gender aspects being a deciding factor for leadership; through policies on fundamental values and equality as well as through a younger, female manager. From a starting point in the dominating pattern the term leadership masculinities is developed: locally confirmed discourses and practices where leadership and masculinity meet in reciprocal interactions. These leadership masculinities are represented in the empirical material by The Son of the District, The Father, The Dedicated and The Feminine. The last leadership masculinity captures something of the variation and contrast to the dominating pattern which is also found in the material, for example as family and relationship orientation at both a policy and practice level. In the thesis it is discussed in conclusion how reproduction and change, uniformity of pattern and variation appear in parallel in the data – there are gaps in the pattern that can be perceived as opportunities for change of gender relationships and leadership practice.

<p>The thesis concerns how leadership and gender are constructed in organisations, through the management language, interactions and context. A particular focus is placed on the relations between men, masculinity and leadership. The theoretical starting point is a doing gender perspective, where the terms leadership and gender are understood as processes; that gender and leadership is done in an organisational situation. Through a processual perspective different levels are linked in the analysis of construction of gender and leadership; society, organisational and individual levels, expressed in terms of structure, symbols, interactions and individual sense making. Masculinity research is also a theoretical area of importance for the thesis, with analysis matrices for the understanding of construction of masculinity between men, as well relationships between masculinity and technology and masculinity and leadership respectively.</p><p>The empirical data consists of interviews and observations of managers at three different organisational levels at the factory of an industrial engineering firm.</p><p>Leadership stands out in the empirical data as an extended and male, dedicated as well as uniform story. In discussions of gender the differences between women and men are preferentially described, where above all opinions about women’s gender-typical characteristics are expressed. The opinions are to a greater extent gender-stereotypic. These dominating patterns are however challenged in different ways, through the managers different ways of positioning themselves towards respectively leadership and gender, expressed through their desire to limit the work and reasoning that distances itself from gender aspects being a deciding factor for leadership; through policies on fundamental values and equality as well as through a younger, female manager.</p><p>From a starting point in the dominating pattern the term leadership masculinities is developed: locally confirmed discourses and practices where leadership and masculinity meet in reciprocal interactions. These leadership masculinities are represented in the empirical material by The Son of the District, The Father, The Dedicated and The Feminine. The last leadership masculinity captures something of the variation and contrast to the dominating pattern which is also found in the material, for example as family and relationship orientation at both a policy and practice level.</p><p>In the thesis it is discussed in conclusion how reproduction and change, uniformity of pattern and variation appear in parallel in the data – there are gaps in the pattern that can be perceived as opportunities for change of gender relationships and leadership practice.</p>

Thesis advisor: Martin Scanlan / This qualitative single-site case study examined how district administrators in one racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse Massachusetts school district supported and strengthened principals’ culturally responsive leadership practice. Building coherent culture and structures that provide space to critically self-reflect and collaboratively learn are essential. Data collection included interviews with district administrators and principals, observations of leadership meetings, document review, and a survey. Findings revealed district administrators established collaborative relationships with principals by employing a coherent service-oriented approach. Participants perceived the intentionality of the superintendent’s efforts as foundational to building trust, however prior experiences with district leadership impeded these efforts. The superintendent controlled sensemaking to signal equity as a district priority, yet the lack of a shared understanding of culturally responsive practice led participants to conflate culturally responsive practice with other district endorsed equity practices. Attempts were made to align structures and tools to equity priorities, however culturally responsive practices were subsumed within other equity initiatives creating variance in the perception of the effectiveness of how structures and tools support principals’ culturally responsive leadership practice. Implications include developing a district definition of culturally responsive practice and using equity practices as a scaffold to support principals’ understanding and enactment of culturally responsive practices that bring critical self-reflection and conversations about racial and cultural bias to the forefront. Future research may extend this study to analyze sensegiving interactions and examine the impact of these interactions on principals’ culturally responsive leadership practice / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Leadership in choreographic processes have not received enough academic attention. An unwillingness and unfamiliarity to use the concept of leadership can be discerned in artistic contexts, despite the impact leadership has on, for example, learning and socialization into the roles of dancers, students, choreographers and teachers. The purpose of this study was therefore to contribute with knowledge about leadership practice in choreographic processes. The study was based on a process-ontological perspective on leadership practice. Such a perspective can encompass many of the desires of decentralizing approaches to leadership/artistry that have emerged through the reading of previous dance theoretical research. The perspective means that leadership is seen as a process, localized to the practice where it occurs through social interactions that, moment-by-moment, generate direction and clearing for action. Clearing for action is to be understood as an action (to clear for action) but also as a space (a clearing for action) from which certain actions becomes more or less possible and/or limited. The direction might be going in different trajectories, in relation to the moment-by-moment clearing for action. The study was based on a qualitative research approach. Four case studies were chosen for examination. Each case corresponded to a choreographic process in a project aimed at creating dance for the stage. Semi-structured interviews were the main method for compiling data. The interview guide was inspired by the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) because leadership, as defined from the chosen perspective, could be clearly studied during critical events. The interviews were conducted with a choreographer and at least one dancer for each case. A deconstruction was made of the critical events identified in the stories of the respective choreographic processes. The definition of leadership was operationalized by examining constructions of positions (constructions of persons or groups based on how they were supposed to be or what they were supposed do), positionings (how the positions related to each other), issues (constructions of issues that directed the attention of the group) and artifacts (constructions of concrete and/or abstract objects) created and adopted through the choreographic processes, as they were narrated. The result was then presented in the form of theoretically substantiated stories that highlighted how these constructions were created and changed through the critical events. One insight based on the results was that resources of different kinds affect the leadership practice that emerged through these choreographic processes.