Gaining information about competency within hiring practices is critical for hiring managers seeking to hire skilled workers, improve employee fit, and lower hiring cost. Employee replacement cost ranges from 30% of an entry-level engineering or aeronautical employee's salary to 400% for a high-level employee in those fields. Guided by the transformational leadership theory and the decision-making theory, the purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore the hiring strategies used by 4 hiring managers to hire employees for organizational fit. The managers work within the aeronautics and engineering fields within the Southeast region of the United States, which included metro Atlanta, Georgia, and South Carolina. Data came from semistructured interviews with the hiring managers and company documents. Member checking was employed as a means of reinforcing credibility and trustworthiness. The data were analyzed and coded and 5 themes emerged: job descriptions and job requirements, resume review and interview matrices, practical demonstrations, leadership training, and compensation and benefits. By implementing practices that management supports, hiring managers can succeed in hiring employees for organizational fit. The findings may influence social change in that if hiring managers select the right workers, the business may sustain operations in the community and thus contribute to the prosperity of the employees, their families, the community, and the economy.

No / After reviewing the literature on leadership that culminated in what has been described as the `New Paradigm¿, this article discusses the research which has led to the development of what might be regarded as a `New New Paradigm¿ model. The research was based on a gender-inclusive and black and minority ethnic-inclusive sample of over 3,500 managers and professionals, at different levels (chief executives, top, senior and middle managers), working in the UK National Health Service and local government. The model that emerged, which led to the development of a diagnostic 360-degree feedback instrument, the Transformational Leadership Questionnaire, has been found to be sufficiently robust as to generalize to private sector and other public sector organizations. Apart from having been inclusive at all stages of its development, the model is new in that it is based on a `nearby¿ rather than `distant¿ or `heroic¿ approach to leadership, using a Grounded Theory methodology. It leads to an understanding of leadership that goes beyond transformational models and, recognizing the significance of Greenleaf¿s concept of `servant leadership¿, focuses on the development of the individual, in an organizational context.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are differences in the perceptions of the importance of identified servant leadership characteristics for high school principals held by teachers in schools located in two diverse communities. Servant leadership is a practical philosophy supporting people who serve first in their life and work (Frick, 2004, p. 8). Like other leadership philosophies, the practice of servant leadership may be influenced by variables that are particular to the environment in which it is employed (Howard, 2005; Kelly & Williamson, 2006; Lambert, 2004). This research is a case study involving two purposively chosen communities. Participants in the study were teachers from high schools in two diverse communities, one located in urban coastal Virginia and the other located in rural southwestern Virginia. A similar number of participants were obtained from the two communities to assure appropriate representation for data analysis. A 48-item questionnaire using a Likert-type scale was used as the research instrument. The questionnaire was constructed using the servant leadership characteristics and behaviors identified by Abel (2000). The questionnaire was offered to all teachers in both communities. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to group the 48 items into 12 factors. The data secured were compiled and analyzed to determine differences in teachers’ perceptions of the importance of identified characteristics of servant leadership in principals in the two communities. While all the identified characteristics were found to be important, the analysis indicated statistically significant (p< .01) differences did exist for the factor represented the servant leadership characteristics of building community, communicating vision, and empowering people. For this factor, the population from the urban community had a higher mean score (3.78 compared to 3.49) and smaller standard deviation (.29 compared to .49) than the population from the rural community. The implications of the study are that current school leaders might be able to better manage and lead their school communities if they adapted their practice of servant leadership to the particular characteristics of their communities. Similarly, principal preparation programs might incorporate the findings into their curricula. / Ed. D.

Research report presented to SBL, Unisa, Midrand. / This thesis addresses the transformational barriers against women’s advancement in South African Platinum mining companies. The four key objectives of the study were derived to answer the research questions, that is: if South African Platinum mining companies recognize such advancement as a business imperative, if women can advance in such companies, if women need support to advance in these companies and lastly if the leadership of the said companies is embracing women’s advancement and talent. A literature review on the knowledge base of transformation was conducted to determine global, South African, industry and sector perspectives on the issues of the study and to contextualise the latter. The central research tool utilised was a questionnaire using a Likert-5 type rating scale and open-ended questions to elaborate on the objectives. Employees, on C3 level and higher in terms of the Patterson Grading System as traditionally used in the given industry, hailing from various companies of this kind were selected to respond to the questionnaire which was mailed to them. Open-ended questions were used in the development of themes and the data was analysed on the basis of tables and graphs. The findings were that transformational barriers against women’s advancement in these mines are rife. Most women were not afforded opportunities to grow, and were not given sufficient support. The study also found that leadership focuses more on economic benefits in terms of the bottom-line exclusively to human capital interventions, thus failing to strike the balance. The study concluded with recommendations as to what can be done to improve the situation with which women in these firms are faced.

Leadership has attracted a significant amount of scholarly attention in the past few decades. However, most research and theory contributions are to a great extent limited to accounting for leadership practices in the West (Littrell, 2002). This study is designed to develop an effective leadership model that works in the Chinese context. Paternalistic leadership, a dominant leadership style in an Eastern business environment, is compared with transformational leadership, a dominant leadership style in a Western business environment. The notion of transformational leadership was developed under the tutelage of Bernard Bass (1998). Transformational leadership is found to be compatible with collectivistic values (Walumbwa & Lwwler, 2003) and is believed to be appealing and generalizable to Chinese leadership situations (Chen & Farh, 1999). Other researchers have found that within Chinese organizations, leader behaviors are quite distinct from transformational leadership, referring to this leader style as paternalistic leadership (Redding, 1990; Cheng, 1995). The questions are asked, “Transformational or paternalistic leadership, which one is more effective in Chinese organizations? Is one type of leadership superior to the other one in the Chinese culture?” To answer these questions, a model is proposed to clarify the mediating effects of trust and harmony on the relationship between leadership style and its effectiveness, and to interpret the moderating effects of generation on the relationships between both paternalistic and transformational leadership with trust and harmony. Most theories of leadership in organizational behavior originated in the United States and Western Europe and are hypothesized to be universally applicable to non-Western contexts. Departing from this tradition, the current study proposes a Chinese culture-specific leadership theory, built on traditional Confucianism. The principle aim is to examine and articulate a culturally informed and warranted ground for a leadership model in the Chinese context. The results of the study provide a new perspective on leadership in the Chinese context by focusing on three dimensions of paternalistic leadership (authoritative, benevolent, and moral leadership) that are ignored in the Western leadership literature. The results also suggest that trust in the leader and harmonious relationships in an organization are key mechanisms for explaining effective leadership in Chinese organizations regardless of whether paternalistic or transformational leadership is used. What’s more, as the younger generation is becoming the dominant workforce, a successful leader in China should use Western practices and integrate them to fit in Chinese organizations in a way that also acknowledges Chinese traditions.

This study investigated the relationship between belief in coaching abilities (coaching efficacy beliefs, CEB), transformational leadership behaviors (TLB), and motivational climate development of current strength and conditioning coaches working with high school level athletes. The measures used were the coaching efficacy scale for high school teams (CES II-HST, Myers et al.,2000), the differentiated transformational leadership inventory (DTLI, Callow et al., 2009), and the patterns of adaptive learning scales (PALS, Midgley et al., 2000). It was hypothesized that CEB and TLB would influence motivational climate development, while coaches' background characteristics would correlate with CEB, TLB, and motivational climate development. The 60 coaches who participated reported an average of thirteen (SD=8) years of experience and 51 were Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists. Coaches reported high efficacy, frequent use of TLB, and development of a moderately high task- and somewhat ego-involving motivational climate. Correlations between demographic variables and CEB, TLB, and motivational climate development revealed three significant relationships: years of experience with CEB, and professional development activities and athlete to coach ratio with ego-involving climate development. CEB and TLB had a strong positive correlation. Two regression analyses were conducted to determine if the outcomes of the CEB and TLB measures predicted motivational climate development. The only significant predictor was TLB positively predicting development of a task-involving motivational climate. Strength coaches can utilize the findings of this study help shape their leadership behaviors and develop a task-involving motivational climate that emphasizes effort, improvement, and cooperative learning and is optimal for athlete development and performance.

Research report presented to SBL, Unisa, Midrand. / This thesis addresses the transformational barriers against women’s advancement in South African Platinum mining companies. The four key objectives of the study were derived to answer the research questions, that is: if South African Platinum mining companies recognize such advancement as a business imperative, if women can advance in such companies, if women need support to advance in these companies and lastly if the leadership of the said companies is embracing women’s advancement and talent. A literature review on the knowledge base of transformation was conducted to determine global, South African, industry and sector perspectives on the issues of the study and to contextualise the latter. The central research tool utilised was a questionnaire using a Likert-5 type rating scale and open-ended questions to elaborate on the objectives. Employees, on C3 level and higher in terms of the Patterson Grading System as traditionally used in the given industry, hailing from various companies of this kind were selected to respond to the questionnaire which was mailed to them. Open-ended questions were used in the development of themes and the data was analysed on the basis of tables and graphs. The findings were that transformational barriers against women’s advancement in these mines are rife. Most women were not afforded opportunities to grow, and were not given sufficient support. The study also found that leadership focuses more on economic benefits in terms of the bottom-line exclusively to human capital interventions, thus failing to strike the balance. The study concluded with recommendations as to what can be done to improve the situation with which women in these firms are faced.

Disasters triggered by hazards, such as floods, earthquakes, droughts, and cyclones, pose significant impediments to sustainable development efforts in the most vulnerable and exposed countries. Mainstreaming disaster risk is hence seen as an important global agenda as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015-2030. Yet, conventional development indicators remain largely negligent of the potential setbacks that may be posed by disaster risk. This article discusses the need to reflect disaster risk in development indicators and proposes a concept disaster risk-adjusted human development index (RHDI) as an example. Globally available national-level datasets of disaster risk to public and private assets (including health, educational facilities, and private housing) is combined with an estimate of expenditure on health, education, and capital formation to construct an RHDI. The RHDI is then analyzed across various regions and HDI groups, and contrasted with other HDI variants including inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) and the gender-specific female HDI (FHDI) to identify groups of countries where transformational disaster risk reduction (DRR) approaches may be necessary.

Small business leaders continually face challenges due to limited resources and lack of employees' engagement. Only 78% of new small businesses survive 1 year after establishment, and half of those fail within the next 4 years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies small business leaders used to increase employees' overall job satisfaction in Alberta, Canada. The conceptual framework for the study was transformational leadership theory. The targeted population was 10 purposefully sampled leaders of small businesses from different industries located in Alberta. Member checking and methodological triangulation were used to validate the data gathered through face-to-face semistructured interviews, a review of organizational policy documents, yearly reports, websites, and company marketing brochures. Data were analyzed using inductive coding of phrases and word frequency searches. Using thematic analysis, 3 themes emerged: the importance of supportive leadership that addressed individualized needs, necessity of financial rewards, and prominence of nonfinancial rewards to improve job satisfaction. The implications of this study for positive social change include providing leaders of small businesses with strategies that might enforce the sense of social responsibility and induce them to give back to the community by training new and existing employees and supporting communities through fostering self-development and self-support along with engendering pride in creativity.

Leaders of nonprofit organizations and researchers who focus on organizational performance affirm that improved youth programs are a crucial component of performance excellence and organizational sustainability. As seen through the lens of transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this single-case study was to explore the strategies used by 3 executive-level leaders/managers of a nonprofit organization in the southwestern region of the United States to equip families to overcome poverty, conquer homelessness, and achieve self-sufficiency. Data collected from semistructured interviews, organizational documents, and publicly available resources were manually coded and then analyzed. The 2 key themes that emerged were effective collaboration for strategy development and leveraging core competencies. Strategy development could help leaders of nonprofit organizations that serve children and families (a) increase enrollment and improve skills of program participants, (b) improve children's behavior and engagement in the community, and (c) improve action plan completion. The implication of this study for positive social change includes the potential to help leaders of nonprofit organizations equip youth with job skills to decrease the cycle of homelessness.