<p> Case study research was conducted to explore the existence of shared leadership in a social enterprise board of directors to identify the common characteristics and traits of board members, and the factors that facilitated or inhibited the development of the board as a shared leadership team. Creating and sustaining a committed and involved board of directors that works as a team were key challenges for the social enterprise board. Current research on shared leadership and the governance of social enterprises and nonprofits provided the conceptual framework for the researcher to develop and test two proposed models in a case study situated in a social enterprise. </p><p> Purposive sampling bounded the study to one social enterprise board of directors located in Southwestern region of the United States. The first model, <i> Developing Shared Leadership in a Nonprofit Board</i>, elucidated the researcher&rsquo;s postulation of the elements necessary for shared leadership to exist in a board of directors. The second model, <i>Best Practices of Nonprofit Boards and the Process of Developing Shared Leadership</i>, was constructed from the benchmarks found in the current literature for board structure and composition by which the researcher measured the readiness of the social enterprise board to act as a team and share leadership. </p><p> Using a case study design, data were collected from triangulated sources that included interviews, observations, a focus group, and archival documents. Two iterations of coding comprised of first and second cycles were conducted utilizing established coding methods. The constant comparison process was applied, the resulting codes were categorized and subcategorized, and the quantities of occurrences were calculated to make inferences about the emerging themes. The results of the case study and the use of shared leadership in a social enterprise board of directors were presented using a linear-analytic approach. </p><p> The findings from the thematic analysis showed that the important antecedents of shared leadership were present in the social enterprise board. The data collected from the case study were compared to the best practices found in the literature review and the findings indicated the social enterprise board had achieved many of them. Important qualities and characteristics of shared leadership were present in the board members such as trust and transparency. Impediments to shared leadership were identified as the infrequency of board meetings and unfamiliarity with other board members which impacted board member relationships, group cohesion, and the board&rsquo;s ability to act as a team. </p><p> Two models were created by the researcher in response to the findings: <i> Dynamic Elements of Shared Leadership in a Social Enterprise Board</i>, and <i>Fundamental Building Blocks for Successful Boards</i>. These models have practical implications for social enterprises and nonprofit organizations that can be replicated and tested in future research. This case study research identified the key factors contributing to the social enterprise&rsquo;s board performance, that may enable social enterprises and other nonprofit boards to derive the benefits of cultivating and sustaining shared leadership. </p><p>

<p> This study examined the possible relationship between leader emotional intelligence (EI) and employee engagement within a small digital media company. The study identified the level of employee engagement within the organization and the level of emotional intelligence of its leaders using Q12 engagement and Schutte self-report emotional intelligence (SSEIT) surveys respectively. These two constructs were then related to each other using the survey data as well as a focus group of company employees. The findings revealed that while there is no direct correlation within the data obtained form the surveys, employees do understand the effect of leader emotional intelligence in the workplace and do think that it is important for their leaders to have high emotional intelligence. Findings suggested the organization should focus on the development of their leaders. Communication and recognition of employees from leadership were indicated as areas to further improve engagement. Further leadership development could help with these areas and positively impact. Future research could obtain more data using a larger sample group and different surveys to further determine the influence of leaders emotional intelligence on employee engagement.</p><p>

<p> This study examined factors that lead to retention of engineers who joined Microsoft in Silicon Valley as part of an acquisition. The study findings surfaced two set of factors that are important in retaining acquired engineers. The factors are broken up by pre- and post-acquisition. Recommendations of this study include the importance of comprehensive communication plans, community and belonging, and personal and professional growth in retaining acquired engineers. Recommendations for further research include expanding the study beyond Microsoft Silicon Valley, and mapping to motivational theories. This study concludes that organizational development practitioners should understand the strategic intention of an acquisition and augment employee engagement and retention plans accordingly. This study can aide practitioners by presenting the factors that lead to retention of acquired engineers at Microsoft in Silicon Valley.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative single-case study was to understand how transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership behaviors and practices of high-performing air transport pilots in the United States were perceived to have optimized team functions during crisis situations in the cockpit. Four research questions provided the framework for this study and focused on understanding what the perceived transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership behaviors and practices were of pilots and how these high-performing pilots optimized team functions during crisis situations inside the cockpit. The sample was a purposive sample of six expert air transport pilots and six high-performing pilots. The theoretical foundation for this research was Bernard Bass&rsquo;s transformational leadership theory. The researcher collected data using the Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire, interviews, and researcher field notes. The analysis of data collected included coding, categorizing, thematic analysis, and triangulation. The results from the research identified the following themes: being professional, ensuring the team is committed to the same goal, aviating the aircraft and maintaining safety, maintaining a communicative attitude, displaying confidence and being decisive in priority of duties, following standard operating procedures, following checklists, and practicing through training. The findings of this study determined that high-performing pilots who effectively handled crisis situations displayed more transformational than transactional leadership behaviors and that crew resource management training prepares pilots.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of the quantitative correlational study was to research the relationship between leadership styles of higher education administrators and their faculty and staff&rsquo;s perceived psychological empowerment. The theoretical foundations are based around the Full Range Leadership model and Psychological Empowerment models. The Full Range Leadership model includes three specific leadership styles of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire. The study was comprised of three research questions, which were designed to determine the relationship of each of the leadership styles with perceived psychological empowerment. The research was undertaken at a public higher education institution in upstate New York. The sample for the study included 72 faculty and staff participants. Individual leadership styles were correlated with individual faculty and staff&rsquo;s psychological empowerment using a Spearman&rsquo;s rank-order correlation. The findings indicated that transformational leadership style has the greatest positive influence on faculty and staff&rsquo;s psychological empowerment (<i>r_s</i> = .38, <i> p</i> = .001). However, for this study there was not a significant correlation between transactional leadership and perceived psychological empowerment (<i> r_s</i> = .15, <i>p</i> = .10). There was a negative correlation between laissez-faire leadership and perceived psychological empowerment (<i>r_s</i> = -.36, <i>p</i> = .001). It can be stated that this research further supports that transformational leadership of administrators results in the highest levels of faculty and staff psychological empowerment.</p><p>

<p> This study answered the call of Luthans and Avolio (2003) to focus on leadership training approaches that facilitate the development of authentic leadership and followership. Further, it answered the call of Gardner, Cogliaer, Davis, and Dickens (2011) for more &ldquo;evaluations of the host of &hellip; programs currently offered that promise to enhance the development of leaders, including their authenticity, integrity, and effectiveness&rdquo; (p. 1141). Researchers or curriculum designers are interested in authentic leadership development. However, it is not yet clear which developmental approaches may have the most effect on PsyCap or Authentic Leadership behaviors. Positive Organizational Behavior theorists recommend trying different approaches to determine which have an effect (Luthans and Avolio, 2006). To that end, this study sought to generate new knowledge about the type of intervention approaches that effect PsyCap and Authentic Leadership Development. The two-part purpose of this study was to a) measure the relationship between psychological capital (PsyCap) and authentic leadership (AL) and the extent to which these variables are modified by professional development and gender and b) to explore the perceptions of leaders regarding their experiences in professional development programs, the emotions that contributed to their professional development, and the differences in their perceptions of men and women. The study hypothesized that there is a relationship between these two variables and that they are moderated by gender and professional development. Quantitative results suggested a correlation exists between PsyCap and AL and that the relationship is stronger among those who completed graduate school, those who attended two or three of the corporate training programs, and those who participated in the mentoring program. Findings showed that the relationship was stronger among females. Qualitative findings explained that women are more passionate about growth and development than men. Qualitative findings suggested that participants believed that mentoring is an important component of leadership development and that the success of leadership development depends heavily on experiential learning, the supportiveness of the environment, and trust in leadership. Qualitative findings also showed that attitudes and emotions such as confidence, hope, optimism, resilience, patience, compassion, empathy, and positivity may contribute to an individual&rsquo;s leadership development.</p><p>

<p> With nearly 2.9 million work related injuries in the United States each year and nearly 5,000 work related deaths, opportunities exist to build on existing safety management interventions to improve workplace safety. In addition to the impact on worker&rsquo;s lives related to workplace safety accidents, workplace related injuries and deaths account for nearly $200 billion in direct costs to U.S. organizations. Current research in the application of workplace mindfulness offers the potential for a leading edge intervention that can lead to increased attention and situational awareness, which could greatly enhance workplace safety. The current study explored the relationship that low-dose mindfulness practice has on workplace safety. </p><p> Included in the current study was an examination of current and historical interventions for managing safety as well as a review of mindfulness research, with an emphasis on workplace mindfulness, and finally a review of the limited research that has begun to explore the relationship between mindfulness and workplace safety. A case study was conducted with a lab in a large bio-tech company in Southern California. 16 participants engaged in daily mindfulness training for six weeks. After the six-week trial, participants were interviewed, results were analyzed and organized into results, theoretical implications, and practical implications. The case study concluded with summarizing key themes, surfacing limitations of the study and recommendations for further study were identified. The findings of this study suggest there are great opportunities for low-dose mindfulness to positively impact workplace safety, potentially saving individuals from harm and organizations from costly accidents. </p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine the size (small, medium, or large), type (traditional vs. teamwork-based), and state (chaotic vs. organized) of organizations that are most attractive to corporate psychopaths. By identifying the specific types of organizations which are most attractive to a psychopathic candidate, it becomes easier to know where and when screening methods specifically for psychopathy should be applied during the hiring process. Using Amazon&rsquo;s Mechanical Turk, 188 participants responded to items measuring corporate psychopathy, organizational structure of their current workplace, and several demographic questions. Only one of the three hypotheses was confirmed, suggesting that people higher in psychopathic traits are more attracted to organizations with chaotic environments. No significant relationships were found between psychopathic traits and size or type of the organization. </p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine stereotype-driven discrimination as an explanation for veteran unemployment. Specifically, the study hypothesized that veteran job applicants would be rated lower in warmth, competence, and hirability than nonveteran job applicants. It was also hypothesized that application materials with warmth and competence manipulations would be rated higher in warmth, competence, and hirability. The third hypothesis posited that there would be a three-way interaction between veteran status, application materials, and hiring managers&rsquo; implicit person theories such that the difference between veterans and nonveterans in ratings of warmth, competence, and hirability would be attenuated when participants were presented with manipulated application materials and when they were incremental theorists. All three hypotheses were unsupported when tested with a 2 X 2 X 2 MANOVA. Exploratory analyses using a 2 X 2 X 3 design, however, found partial support for hypothesis three. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.</p><p>

The objective of this research is to study how to successfully implement organizational change in a large organization. The study deals with an approach for implementation that incorporates both efficiency and flexibility. Within the domain of organizational change, this research focuses on business process change, more specifically the Human Resources Information systems planning and implementation and evaluation. The research question is approached by first studying how to carry out planning, implementation and evaluation according to the relevant existing theories of organizational change. Then, an ERP change implementation program is reflected with the existing implementation approaches and finally characteristics of a successful approach for change implementation are concluded. This study follows the logic of inductive theory building and qualitative case study. The research is designed as an embedded case study, the primary research object being an extensive change program that focuses on SAP implementation at Johannesburg Water. The case data is mainly qualitative in nature and is collected through participant observation, archives and numerous and diverse documents created within the program. The focal terms and the scope of the study are defined based on relevant theory of organizational change. For understanding the existing body of knowledge on change planning, implementation, a multidisciplinary review is carried out including the theories of organization development, organization transformation, business process reengineering, project management and organizational learning. As a conclusion of the review, four research constructs are elaborated for guiding the case study. The constructs define essential elements of change implementation: initiation, management structure, and process and change advancement. Using the elaborated constructs, two generic implementation approaches are conceptualized, planned and emergent. The former represents centrally managed, sequentially proceeding holistic change, whereas the latter is about locally managed, continuous and incremental change. / Dr. R. Huysamen