Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / There is a well-documented shortage of competent leaders in American corporations today due in part to the fact that leadership has been traditionally conceptualized as an individual-level skill. Accordingly, development is believed to occur primarily through training to improve individual skills and abilities (Day, 2000). These approaches have failed to see that leadership is at its essence a complex interaction between the designated leader and the social and organizational environment (Fiedler, 1996). Corporate educators need to recognize this interaction and begin to focus on holistic training and development models that address the interpersonal and social leadership behaviors required for future success.
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between a relatively new kind of leadership training based on the Health Realization/State of Mind understanding and organizational performance. It was a mixed methods design incorporating interviews with a number of leaders from a particular business area in the organization, work environment surveys, employee opinion surveys, and organizational performance measures.
An analysis of the results showed that the behavior of the leaders did indeed change, but the leaders attributed those positive changes to a combination of the leadership training, the influence of a transformational leader, and a shift in the cultural norms that improved the work environment. A comparison of the employee opinion and work environment surveys showed a noticeable difference in the quality of the work environment and overall job satisfaction between the subject business area and the rest of the organization. The organizational performance indicators, sales, income, and cost of poor quality indicated improvements as well. / 2031-01-02
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/31961 |
Date | January 2007 |
Creators | Bond, Cheryl A. |
Publisher | Boston University |
Source Sets | Boston University |
Language | en_US |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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