abstract: In spite of the existence of successful humble CEOs, the current strategic leadership literature has little understanding regarding what humility is and how humble CEOs influence organizational effectiveness by creating a context to motivate managers. After applying the self-concept framework to integrate the humility literature, I proposed four mechanisms through which CEO humility were related to middle manager ambidextrous behaviors and job performance: CEO empowering leadership, empowering organizational climate, top management team integration and heterogeneity. After developing and validating a humility scale in China, I collected survey data from a sample of 63 organizations with 63 CEOs, 327 top management team members and 645 middle managers to test the research model. Except for top management team heterogeneity, the other three CEO-middle manager mediating mechanisms received moderate support. Specifically, I found that humble CEOs were empowering leaders; their empowering leadership behaviors were positively associated with top management team integration and empowering organizational climate, which in turn correlated positively with middle manager ambidexterity and job performance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2011

This study investigates the personal experience of newly appointed chief executives in transitioning into the CEO role. Adopting an exploratory qualitative design, data was obtained from two semi-structured interviews with 19 newly appointed chief executives, for a total of 38 interviews. The main contribution of this thesis to the extant literature is to show the ways in which CEOs go through an identity construction process when transitioning into the role, which is characterized in two ways. First, there exists a bi-directionality of influence between the personal identity of the CEO and the organizational identity. Second, this process comprises strong identity demands (lack of specificity of the role and weak situation) and identity tensions (personal identity intrusion and identity transparency) that dispose new CEOs towards an unbalance that promotes individuality. This disequilibrium might hinder the integration of new chief executives into the organization, since the data suggests that new CEOs are responsible for fostering their own integration by connecting aspects of their personal identity with the identity and culture of the organization. The thesis offers a theoretical model of the CEO identity construction process and concludes with a series of propositions that address the ramifications of these findings to our understanding of CEO succession.

In the global economy of the 21st century, competition is complex, challenging and fraught with competitive opportunities and threats. Strategic leadership is increasingly becoming the main focus for business and academics alike and is the key issue facing contemporary organisations. Without effective strategic leadership, the capability of a company to achieve or sustain a competitive advantage is greatly constrained. More than 30 years of Harvard Business School research have shown that aligned and integrated companies outperform their nearest competitors by every major financial measure. The organisational effectiveness emanating from alignment is a significant competitive advantage. Alignment is that optimal state in which strategy, employees, customers and key processes work in concert to propel growth and profits. Aligned organisations enjoy greater customer and employee satisfaction and produce superior results. Can leadership make a difference? Some leaders do, some do not - and many more could. Effective strategic leadership can thus help organisations enhance performance while competing in turbulent and unpredictable environments. However, there has been little empirical evidence of the effects of strategic level leadership on organisational processes that have distinctive strategic significance. A greater understanding of the criteria that influence success in organisations will enable organisations to take positive action to become more successful. iv This study examines the importance of critical leadership criteria and the degree of alignment in high-performing organisations. A quantitative research design was used in this study to assess the impact of strategic leadership on strategic alignment of business organisations in South Africa. The research instruments to test the research questions comprised two questionnaires. The first was used to establish the value top leadership place on selected critical leadership criteria, and the second to establish the level of alignment in the organisations under investigation. The population selected for this study consisted of the companies included in the 200 top-performing organisations which appeared in the 2007 Financial Mail. Six companies participated in the research. The data was electronically collated into a database and the results were then analysed using the statistical inferential techniques of correlation and linear regression analysis. The study proposes that strategic leadership will positively influence strategic alignment which, in turn, will have a beneficial effect on organisational performance. / Graduate School for Business Leadership / (D. B. L.)

The Cambridge education system introduced after independence is mainly blamed for the high failure rate experienced in the Junior Secondary (Grade 10) and Senior Secondary (Grade 12) phases in Namibia. Although it is acknowledged that failure rate can be contributed to by many factors, the research wanted to establish whether the principal’s leadership can have any contribution to the academic achievement in a school. The researcher consulted different literature in an attempt to achieve the research objectives. The principal carries out a number of leadership job functions, hence, an instrument with the relevant job functions of a principal was selected to collect data. Three poorly performing schools were identified in the Omaheke Region. The research used questionnaires among teachers, inspectors and principals to collect data. The analysis shows that two principals were rated low in most leadership job functions. That implies that these principals are not engaged in instructional leadership, resulting in poor academic results. At the end recommendations and proposals for future research are highlighted. / Human Resource Management / M.Tech. (Human Resource Development )

The Cambridge education system introduced after independence is mainly blamed for the high failure rate experienced in the Junior Secondary (Grade 10) and Senior Secondary (Grade 12) phases in Namibia. Although it is acknowledged that failure rate can be contributed to by many factors, the research wanted to establish whether the principal’s leadership can have any contribution to the academic achievement in a school. The researcher consulted different literature in an attempt to achieve the research objectives. The principal carries out a number of leadership job functions, hence, an instrument with the relevant job functions of a principal was selected to collect data. Three poorly performing schools were identified in the Omaheke Region. The research used questionnaires among teachers, inspectors and principals to collect data. The analysis shows that two principals were rated low in most leadership job functions. That implies that these principals are not engaged in instructional leadership, resulting in poor academic results. At the end recommendations and proposals for future research are highlighted. / Human Resource Management / M.Tech. (Human Resource Development )

In Africa, most oil and gas megaprojects exceed their original budget and time deadlines despite advancement in project management processes and systems. This study explored strategies project managers used for megaprojects' success in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, from the perspectives of the owner and contractor organizations. Multiple case study design was utilized to collect data by asking open-ended questions in separate interviews with 4 project managers. Archival project data was also reviewed to eliminate information incongruences. The conceptual framework for the study is the contingency theory that there is no universal management structure for every project. The data analysis approach was thematic coding. Study findings from the data analysis were aggregated into 5 themes. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd themes include the project managers' view of measures of megaproject successes, project managers' strategies for managing the business environment, and the strategies for achieving megaproject execution excellence. The 4th and 5th themes are the strategies for facilitating employee performance and the typical social change development and social change performance initiatives to benefit neighboring communities because of a megaproject. The conclusion from the evidences gathered is that megaproject success is contingent on the ability of the project manager to unravel and address complexity leveraging strategic leadership and systems thinking. From these findings, project managers from the client and contractor organizations may use, adapt, learn, refresh, and improve their project management skills. The significance of the study to positive social change from improving the success rates of megaprojects includes improvement in human capacity development and infrastructural additions that can facilitate economic growth in the region.

This study aims at increasing knowledge about top managers' views on the climate of communication in an organizational context. The main question is "How do strategic managers describe the communication climate?" The study also concerns how the managers describe a communicative action that strives for voice and communicative action that strives for silence. The study also explore the influence of power on the communication climate. The study has a qualitative approach and builds on in-depth interviews with eleven experienced and senior executives. Through the sociologist Goffman's (2009) dramaturgic perspective and through theories of voice and silence, the study tries to interpret the respondents' views. The result shows that respondents describe the communication climate from opposition openness and silence. In an open climate there are open doors, creativity and focus on the business. In a quiet climate, the doors are closed. The focus is on tactics, policies and hidden personal agendas. Although the communication climate is not an established concept among the respondents, everyone strives for an open communication climate and they work differently to reach for it. The study's conclusions confirm previous research that the communication climate is a critical resource for the function and effectiveness of the workplace. The study's conclusions are also that managers should get support, for example from communication departments to learn to read the communication climate in their device and also get tools to develop the communication environment. Not least, managers need help to increase their self-awareness to understand how they personally contribute to an open or closed climate.

The understanding of the role of the contracting authority in public procurement is important to understand the underused potential of public procurement to contribute to the sustainable development of society. In particular, the concept of public-private cooperation was suggested to increase this potential, but not enough is known about how the interaction has to take place in order to address the behavioural factors that cause the barriers to sustainable public procurement. The results of this research showed that the leading role of the contracting authority could facilitate sustainable procurement by increasing engagement, interaction and collaboration. A strategic planning approach to support the public-private cooperation in the procurement process is needed. Based on the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, a support for the contracting authority was designed to guide the strategic planning of the procurement process. The suggested design of Support for Strategic Sustainable Procurement was evaluated and found likely to support the contracting authority in strategically leading the public procurement process to leverage the potential of public procurement on the transition towards a sustainable society.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-16T14:48:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1278788 bytes, checksum: 2494c7277d124a760604e8ecb2547183 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The aim of this research was to understand the process of forming strategies at Embrapa Algodão from 1980 to 2010. Seeking to meet the general purpose from this work, it was tried to describe the main strategies actions adopted in the considered period, examine how these strategies have been shaped, the influence of the (internal and external) context changes in strategies over time and finally show the leadership role in the process of training and strategic change. It was used the qualitative approach, and the method, was a single case study. It is a retrospective study with historical features where have been studied different points in time. To achieve the data it was conducted 12 interviews with the staff company's current or former employees, belonging to various functional levels of the organization (operational, analysts, researchers, managers). The survey also used observation and document analysis as data collection instruments. The work of data analysis has shown that deliberate strategies, such as rational planning, is a predominance of emerging strategies. Among the key strategic actions taken by the company during the period, include: the inclusion of different cotton products to the research agenda, sending researchers to work in other states, the release of colored cotton cultivars and focus on research to family farming, agro-energy and sustainable development. In relation to strategic changes undertaken in the company they have reactively, to meet the environmental contingencies. These changes consisted of directing the company's performance for multi-product research, the adoption of a formal plan to be followed, the focus on agro-ecological and colored cotton and a change in the organizational chart. The role of leader in the training process and strategic change, this happened from a performance monitoring process, representing the company and managerial leadership characteristics. From this study, it is possible to conclude that Embrapa Algodão has some weaknesses that signal the need for reflection and analysis of its performance in order to promote changes in order to strengthen its future viability. / A intenção desta pesquisa foi compreender o processo de formação de estratégias na Embrapa Algodão no período de 1980 a 2010. Buscando atender ao propósito geral deste trabalho, procurou-se descrever as principais ações estratégias adotadas no período considerado, analisar o modo como estas estratégias foram moldadas, a influência exercida pelo contexto (interno e externo) nas mudanças ocorridas nas estratégias ao longo do tempo e, por fim, mostrar o papel da liderança no processo de formação e mudança estratégicas. Para tal, foi empregada a abordagem qualitativa, tendo como método o estudo de caso único. Trata-se de um estudo com características de retrospectiva histórica em que se estudaram pontos diferentes do tempo em um mesmo caso. Para consecução dos dados foram realizadas 12 entrevistas com colaboradores atuais da empresa ou ex-colaboradores, sendo os entrevistados pertencentes aos vários níveis funcionais da organização (operacional, analistas, pesquisadores, gestores). A pesquisa também utilizou a observação e a análise de documentos como instrumentos de coleta de dados. O trabalho de análise de dados demonstrou que estratégias deliberadas, do tipo planejamento racional, preponderaram sobre estratégias emergentes. Entre as principais ações estratégicas adotadas pela empresa no período, destacam-se: a inserção de produtos diferentes do algodão à pauta de pesquisa, o envio de pesquisadores para atuação em outros estados do país, lançamento das cultivares de algodão colorido e o foco nas pesquisas para a agricultura familiar, a agroenergia e o Desenvolvimento Sustentável. Em relação às mudanças estratégicas empreendidas na empresa estas se deram de forma reativa, visando atender às contingências ambientais. Tais mudanças consistiram em direcionar a atuação da empresa para pesquisas multi-produtos, a adoção de um plano formal a ser seguido, o foco no algodão colorido e agroecológico, além da mudança no organograma da empresa. Quanto ao papel do líder no processo de formação e mudança estratégica, este se deu a partir de uma atuação de acompanhamento do processo, representação da empresa e com características de liderança gerencial. A partir deste estudo, é possível concluir que a Embrapa Algodão apresenta algumas fragilidades que sinalizam a necessidade de reflexão e análise de sua atuação, a fim de promover mudanças de modo a fortalecer a sua viabilidade futura.

Communication in professional settings is essential to arriving at end results. Managers use speech acts to delegate, instruct, and in other ways get subordinates to perform everyday tasks. The present study aims to investigate how speech acts are performed using different politeness strategies, how these politeness strategies affect the motivation in subordinates, and how politeness can be used strategically in specific situations. The results indicate that politeness strategies used by managers are important for the motivation of subordinates and that different situations and different individuals call for different politeness strategies. Thus it is necessary for managers to make conscious and strategic linguistic choices adapted to specific situations and individuals.