Thesis (M.A.)--Villanova University, 2009. / Communication Dept. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis aims to provide a subjectivist account of women and people of colour's leadership experiences within a specific social context, in order to offer a contribution to the largely acontextual leadership literature. A multi-level, intersectional analytical framework was used to explore the experiences of people who are marginalised in their attempt to access and practice leadership. The study used the South African private sector as a social context with unique and interesting gender and race dynamics to conduct this case study. The experiences of significantly underrepresented groups in organisational leadership were explored by means of 60 in-depth, face-to-face interviews with women and people of colour in strategic leadership positions, aspiring leaders in leadership development programmes and key informants, all from the South African private sector. Interviewees were grouped according to their intersectional identities and responses were analysed considering individual-level challenges and enablers, organisational-level challenges and enablers and also by considering responses within the socio-historic and socio-legal context. Key findings include evidence of the problematic nature of theorising leadership as an element of the leader; support for theoretical frameworks of occupational segregation and embodied social identities; evidence of the internalisation and rationalisation of institutionalised discrimination; evidence of social identities being mutually constituting, reinforcing and naturalising; evidence of the conflation of gender, race and merit in the equality debate; as well as a strong aversion among research participants towards positive discrimnination initiatives. The findings also suggest several areas of possible further research. This study addressed the limitations of leadership research, which is characterised by leader-centricism, romanticism, objectivism, gendered and racialised norms and additive theorising. Findings make theoretical and policy contributions by problematising merit, exposing leadership in the South African private sector organisations as a site of intersectional identity salience, disrupting key assumptions underpinning leader-follower relations, highlighting the potential for leveraging adversity and also by demonstrating the importance of leadership language in either disrupting or reinforcing inequality.

An exploratory investigation using a survey study approach was undertaken in two organisations in retailing, to explore whether there is any connection between HOD leadership style and the effectiveness of marketing concept in the organisation. Findings emerged on several levels. Despite the agreement on the importance of leadership in IM, little integration of leadership and IM research is found in the literature. Traditionally, leadership studies relate to job satisfaction, motivation, performance, productivity and communication. The term leadership means different things to different people (De Jong 2006). Although no ultimate definition of leadership exists (Yukl 2002) the majority of definitions reflect some basic elements including influence, motivation, intention, and change. Despite the importance of acknowledging the concept of leadership and its implications on internal marketing, it emerges that empirical studies of the relationship between leadership and internal marketing are unduly under-represented. Looking at the results, the achievement oriented and participative styles are positively associated with internal marketing. The achievement oriented is somewhat a better predictor than participative style in predicting variability in internal marketing. Conversely, the directive style is negatively associated with the internal marketing variable. The only leadership style that has no significant effect on internal marketing is the supportive style. The results also show that staff job satisfaction levels are positively predicted by leadership style. Further analysis shows that only 2 out of 4 leadership styles have positive significant effects on internal marketing; these are: achievement oriented and participative styles. The other two are not significant in predicting the variability in job satisfaction. The regression results show that leadership style has a significant effect on the HOD performance variable. All leadership styles, except supportive style, have significant effects on HOD performance. The achievement oriented and participative styles have positive significant effects, but the directive style has a negative effect on HOD performance. The overall results show that achievement oriented and participative styles have positive significant effects directly and are mediated by internal marketing effects on job satisfaction and HOD performance. But the directive style of leadership has a significant direct negative effect and is mediated by internal marketing on HOD performance only and not on job satisfaction. Survey data at the individual level was aggregated across the two organisations and analysed. While these results cannot be statistically generalisable because of the small and unrepresentative sample used, the findings suggest that the link between individual organisation members’ perceptions of Internal Marketing and HOD leadership would be worthy of a larger study.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Antioch University, 2008. / "A dissertation submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership & Change Program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2008."--from the title page. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed July 30, 2008). Advisor: Alan Guskin, Ph.D.. Keywords: biotechnology, biopharmaceutical, leadership, founder, success, management, case study Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-218).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Antioch University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed August 5, 2008). Advisor: Carolyn Kenny. "A dissertation submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2007."--from the title page. storytelling, stories, portraiture, organizational culture, corporate culture, organizational behavior, narrative Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-198).

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Crawford, Alice ; Roberts, Benjamin. "December 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on March 31, 2010. DTIC Identifier(s): Leadership Training, Management Planning And Control, Officer Personnel, Naval Personnel, Naval Warfare, Quality Control, TQM (Total Quality Management), Quality Management, TQM, Total Quality Management, Theses. Author(s) subject terms: Total Quality Leadership, Leadership, Management and Education Training, Command Excellence Program. Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-95). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Bruce T. Lamont, Florida State University, College of Business, Dept. of Management. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 22, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2008. / Advisor(s): Powley, Edward H. ; King, Cynthia L. "September 2008." "MBA professional report." "Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration from the Naval Postgraduate School, September 2008." "AD-A488 800." Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-54). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Université de Neuchatel, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 174-177).

Literature on performance management (PM) indicates that the concept has gained momentum in its use by organisations, with the ultimate goal of improving business performance. It is argued that PM makes significant contributions to individual employees and organisational performance by enabling expectations to be defined and agreed in terms of the role, responsibilities and accountabilities, and providing opportunities for individuals to identify their own goals and to develop their skills and competencies. However, there has been much debate as to whether PM optimises or leads to improved overall business performance as other factors other than human resources policies, such as personality, job role experiences, and structural factors, may have a detrimental influence on job performance. Moreover, several studies have shown that PM, and performance management systems (PMS) has resulted in unintended impacts, both positive and negative, in addition to those sought by organisations. This research is an investigation into the perception of managers and care assistants in private care of the elderly in care homes in Scotland on the impact of performance management systems. Use is made of both PM literature and empirical research to understand the perceived impact of the PMS with the ultimate aim of developing an enhanced PMS framework. In addition to documents review, twenty-four in-depth interviews were conducted, comprising of eight managers and sixteen care assistants drawn from eight different private care homes. The interviews focused on eight key PM elements, the PM concept, goal-setting, performance reviews, performance measurement, supporting performance, rewards system, training and development, and managing underperformance. The interview results from managers and care assistants were compared with the normative/ideal PM practice from the PM literature to determine how PMS is being implemented in the private care homes. The research findings reveal an overall positive perception towards PMS implementation by managers. However, the care assistants raised many of concerns which influenced a negative perception towards the PMS implementation. This was used as the basis for developing recommendations for an enhanced PMS framework. Therecommendations are centred around the identified two main problem areas: management/leadership style and the communication process. In addition to staff involvement in performance planning, and a fair underperformance management process, three other theories: power distance, vertical and horizontal trust, and the principal-agent problem were recommended to private care homes. This would help change the negative perception towards PMS implementation by care assistants.