<p> Organizational perception and conception of interactions and relationships vary over time and space. This study focused on the capacity within and between healthcare organizations to collectively make sense of ambivalent and ambiguous environments in the context of social structuring actions (Czarniawska, 2008; Johnson, 2009; Weick, 1995). The purpose was to develop narrative frames from which a deeper understanding could be developed of how collective sensemaking is enacted through reciprocal and reflective interorganizational relationships during the final phases of an intended multiorganizational integration endeavor (Barki &amp; Pinsonneault, 2005; Oliver, 1990). This study explored and described collective sensemaking as recognizable patterned social structuring actions that surfaced during integration efforts within the Military Health System's Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. </p><p> A narrative approach illustrated emergent social processes. In the process of collaboration, ongoing generative conversations (Taylor &amp; Van Every, 2000; Hardy, Lawrence, &amp; Grant, 2005; Weick, 2004) affected the relationships between collective sensemaking and social structuring. An interpretive constructionist perspective revealed practices involving the interplay of assignment of <i>meaning</i> (signification), reducing equivocality and integration; formation of a sense of community, establishing structures and <i>norms </i> (legitimation); and the effects of collaboration and <i>power </i> (domination) distribution (Giddens, 1984; Weick, Sutcliffe, &amp; Obstfeld, 2005). </p><p> More than 24 months of embedded observation aided the researcher's awareness of ongoing narrative dynamics of collaborative actions setting the conditions for the emergence of interorganizational relationships (Harquail &amp; King, 2010; Hatch, 1997; Hatch &amp; Schultz, 2002) and embodied practices (Varela, Thompson, &amp; Rosch, 1991). Throughout experiences of collective sensemaking, organizations interpose mini-narratives as evidence of reciprocal patterns of social structuring revealing cooperative behaviors interweaving coordinated actions and setting conditions for the structuring of collaborative integrating nets of collective action. This supports both Carniawska's (2008) and Weick's (1995) theory of organizing during collective sensemaking as enacted processes within relational conceptualizations and perceptions. These findings contribute to understanding the dynamics of collective sensemaking and social structuring; moreover, they incorporate the new paradigm of enaction (Kuhn, 1996; Stewart, Gapenne, &amp; Di Paolo, 2010) as embodied sensemaking into organizational theory.</p>

<p> This dissertation describes the process by which community messaging obligates members to perform work behaviors in order to achieve full membership status&mdash;labeled here the <i>Obligation-based Culturing of Work</i> (<i>OCW</i>). The investigation supports and extends theory regarding the sources and influences of adult meaning attributions about work, and how those meaning attributions can function as a mechanism of cultural maintenance. Constant comparative analysis of 31, face-to-face interviews with members of a Lebanese-American community revealed how anticipatory work socialization emanates from sources other than organizations and is an interpretive process through which influential community members inculcate new generations with memorable messaging. Participants' reported that their community's messaging encouraged them to make sense of work in ways that invited shared mental models about the meaning of work behaviors; then, the community's messaging connected those meanings to the idealized performance of authentic cultural membership. Therefore, memorable community messages constructed cultural identity as at least partially performed in work behaviors. Analysis revealed how the seemingly mundane communication of everyday community and family life is linked to enduring patterns of meaning attributions and work behaviors. OCW supports and extends organizational communication theories like anticipatory organizational socialization, work socialization, and the meaning of work (MOW) as well as intercultural communication theories like cross-cultural adaptation, intercultural fusion, hybridity, and critical cultural transculturation. The dissertation discusses how these findings contribute to knowledge about the interrelationships among messaging about work, cultural maintenance, and community identity.</p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental descriptive study was to examine the relationship between servant leadership and job within a multicultural hospitality organization. The theoretical foundation of the study, servant leadership, was supported by the premise that servant leaders within multicultural organizations value the job satisfaction of their employees. Thirty-nine employees completed the Organizational Leadership Assessment (OLA) survey instrument, and the data were analyzed through the utility of SPSS v. 20. The results revealed that a statistically significant relationship existed between servant leadership and job satisfaction as perceived by culturally diverse employees within a hospitality organization (<i>r</i> = 0.635; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.0005). Thus, the discovery of this new knowledge contributed to the fields of cross-cultural leadership, servant leadership, and hotel management regarding the potential utility of servant leadership principles within a multicultural hospitality organization.</p>

<p> In both academic and management literature it has been often stated that 70% of change efforts are not successful (Kotter, 1995; Smith, 2002). And while this failure rate may not be empirically tested, it points to a reality that most change efforts are not only difficult, but they are often unsuccessful (Hughes, 2011). When an organization undergoes a major organizational change process, the expected impacts include increased employee stress and overall productivity dips in the midst of the change (Dahl, 2011; Elrod II &amp; Tippett, 2002). Measuring the impacts of change on employees and on organizational effectiveness during the change can add value and help increase the chances for change initiative success by allowing necessary adjustments and identifying and leveraging additional business improvement predictors along the way.</p><p> In this dissertation, I answer the question &ldquo;What is the impact of going through a major organizational change on business outcomes and employee and organizational health?&rdquo; My results suggest that an organization can transform the expected negative effects of a major change effort to positive effects by focusing on three things: 1) Improving employee mental health; 2) Increasing positive practices, including leadership&rsquo;s impact on the organization; and 3) Improving employee involvement, communication, and teamwork. Finally, the results also show that improved employee mental health and improved positive practices are significantly related to improved business outcomes. Organizational change outcomes can be successfully informed by linking business outcomes with change impact measures.</p>

<p> This study examined the state of organization development (OD) and the possibilities for collaboration within it. Thirteen leading OD professionals were interviewed. Study findings indicated that the field of OD is struggling and needs to demonstrate its unique value. Collaboration in the field was determined to be limited and participants expressed little interest, time, and energy for initiating collaboration, although they believed collaboration could help enhance the credibility and relevance of the field. Several barriers to collaboration were identified, such as divergence in the field and "turf" issues. Several success factors for collaboration also were identified, such as having a compelling and clear purpose. Recommendations for advancing the field are offered, such as identifying the unique properties of OD that distinguish its professionals from other professionals operating in the same space. Continued research should recruit participants from across the OD field to help confirm and extend the present study's findings.</p>

<p>This study examined the relationships between affective commitment to change (desire), normative commitment to change (obligation), and continuance commitment to change (cost), as predictors of behavioral support for change. Affective commitment to change and normative commitment to change both demonstrated curvilinear relationships with behavioral support. Continuance commitment to change did not. This study also used residualized relative importance analyses, techniques for a full decomposition of the variance in nonlinear regression models. The nonlinear models accounted for more of a change in variance than did the linear regression models. The discussion section includes a scatterplot diagram intended to bridge the gap between scholars and practitioners in that the figure illustrates a range of resistant to commitment behaviors that cause organizational change initiatives to fail. The conclusion provides recommendations for researchers regarding the inclusion of a nonlinear frame when designing organizational change studies, and recommendations for practitioners regarding the damage that compliance is responsible for in organizational change initiatives. </p><p> <i>Keywords</i>: commitment to change, resistance to change, organizational change </p>

<p> The purpose of this two-phase, sequential mixed methods study was to examine and explain factors relating to leadership in diversity-oriented churches in the United States by obtaining quantitative results from a sample of 65 senior pastors and 92 top-management team members, then follow-up with a multiple case study to explain the results in more depth. The instruments used for quantitative data collection were the 20-item four-factor Cultural Intelligence Scale, the adapted 8-item Openness to Diversity Scale, and the Leadership Practices Inventory. The study's sixteen findings establish significant relationships between leader cultural intelligence, top-management team openness to diversity, and leadership practices, and elucidate how those relationships contribute to a positive organizational diversity climate. In addition, openness to diversity and church polity were discovered to influence TMT perceptions of the senior pastor's leadership practices. Therefore, the findings support the conclusion that investigating intercultural leadership in a domestic organization could reveal new theoretical insights while having implications for leadership practice and organizational effectiveness.</p>

<p> My dissertation traces the genesis and growth of the Chinese emergency management organizational field over the ten-year period since the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak. I conducted my fieldwork in Beijing in 2012, using a multi-method approach that involved interviews, participant observation, and analysis of archival materials. </p><p> I found that governing elites and academic experts within the emerging field&mdash;what I call the "establishment"&mdash;relied upon insider cultural knowledge (e.g., myths) and party-state ideologies (e.g., communist folklore) to legitimize a new risk governance framework and create an emergency management policy domain separate from existing domains. The emergency management establishment enabled these legitimizing claims through its embedded position in government and academia. By using a strategy of <i>curation,</i> it carefully (re)assembled culturally-accepted accounts and ideas, both indigenous and adapted from afar, to create its claims. By becoming <i>institutional evangelists,</i> academic experts in particular entrenched the risk governance framework and propagated the ideas that helped form the field by advocating, advising, and training government officials through multiple field organizational entities. </p><p> By also incorporating Foucault's concept of governmentality, I found that the legitimacy project conducted by the establishment consisted of shaping the conduct of emergency management government officials according to its own risk governance framework. This expands current Foucauldian studies on governmentality by highlighting that not only the general population but also elites can be subjected to governmentalization. It also provides a more nuanced reading of the "hollowing of the state" thesis by highlighting how the Chinese party-state strengthened its role as the legitimate emergency manager by including the civil society and the private sector, albeit in lesser roles. </p><p> My findings draw attention to the foundational quality of cognitive legitimacy vis-&agrave;-vis pragmatic and moral legitimacy, an area which has received scant discussion in the neoinstitutional literature. It also informs the understudied topic of the interrelated influences of power relations, ideas, and experts on emerging organizational field formation within neoinstitutional theory, especially in a non-Western context. Finally, my research updates current understanding of national emergency management policies in the international arena, and especially in China.</p>

<p> An employee's trust in their leadership is an important antecedent to organizational commitment. It is commonly believed that committed employees will work harder to achieve organizational objectives, so organizations often try to foster commitment in their employees to achieve improved organizational performance. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the relationship between trust and organizational commitment. The population consisted of 31 employees from 3 high-technology organizations in the United States. The study consisted of 2 research instruments and 5 demographic questions that were administered to employees of 3 high-technology organizations. The survey instrument used to measure trust was Cummings and Brimley's Organizational Trust Inventory. This instrument separates trust into the 3 dimensions of keeping commitments, negotiating honestly, and not taking advantage. The survey instrument used to measure organizational commitment was Meyer and Allen's Three Component Model. This second instrument separates organizational commitment into the 3 dimensions of affective commitment, normative commitment, and continuance commitment. The study revealed a strong positive correlation (r =.38) between an employees' total trust and their total organizational commitment. The study revealed that 12 of the 16 possible correlations between trust and organizational commitment were positively correlated. The study findings indicate that leadership skills are critical to increasing trust levels that enable organizational commitment. By improving the leadership and organizational antecedents that promote a trustworthy environment, employees become more committed and organizational performance improves.</p>

<p> Organizational consolidation and restructuring is a long held public sector quick-fix solution to issues of limited congressional funding, ineffective structure, and/or the presumption of hierarchical failures of leadership, in hope of improving organizational performance. Such attempts at federal government reorganization are often criticized in terms of <i> dollars and sense</i>&mdash;attempting to save dollars, but not making much sense. While a plethora of literature exists on private sector reorganization (i.e., merger and acquisition) and their workforce, there is scarce research available on similar events for the public sector. </p><p> This case study sought to understand the impact of mandated federal consolidation on the public sector workforce. Leveraging Cheney's (1983) and Bergami and Bagazzi's (2000) theories and studies on organizational identification, the second order effect on identity and identification for the associated federal workforce was revealed as having significant negative impact&mdash;worthy of immediate leadership attention and future study. A key conclusion of this study provided insight into public sector individual identification as grounded in differing psychological contracts dependent on status (military versus civil service), but revealed a shared an incremental hierarchical default to patriotism as the final vestige for rationalizing identification. </p><p> Recommendations are offered for future public sector studies as a dichotomous evaluation of military versus civil service, expanding literature beyond the private sector, and offering practical insight for the world's largest employer, the Department of Defense, with likely benefit for the workforce and the taxpayer. The question remains whether the study leadership will leverage these lessons learned or just continue their journey <i>sailing on a sea of hope</i>. </p>