Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Business administration|Educational leadership|Business education'

Due to funding diminishment from traditional sources, many insurance and risk management undergraduate degree programs have turned to alternative funding resources in order to survive. This qualitative multi-case study interviewed key participants (college faculty, department chairs, and deans) in three insurance and risk management programs in order to identify the effects of systemic budget constraints and alternative public and/or private funding strategies and resources that were being utilized. Additionally, the collected data were analyzed to evaluate the appropriateness of Bess and Dee's Models of Organization - Environment Relations to an undergraduate insurance and risk management degree program. Their model incorporates organizational theories (resource dependency theory, contingency theory, institutional theory, population ecology theory, niche theory, and the random transformation model) to explicate policies and practices in higher education institutional organizations. Interview participants confirmed the effects of the funding decline, with the most significant impact being on faculty engagement. Alternative funding strategies were identified and categorized by the source of funds. An analysis of the majority of collected data indicated an alignment with contingency theory in all three programs. In exploring the efficacy of Bess and Dee's Models of Organization - Environment Relations (2012), this theoretical construct was evaluated for contextual appropriateness. This study proposed that this theoretical model may have value for consideration in evaluating an undergraduate insurance and risk management program's relationship with its external insurance stakeholders and donors. Keywords: insurance and risk management undergraduate degree programs; alternative funding; Models of Organization - Environment Relations; organizational theories

This study examined leaders’ roles in fostering collective genius innovation within one private elementary school, including managing the paradoxes of innovation. Based on content analysis of eleven participants, this study found that teamwork, clear student learning outcomes emphasizing individualized learning, design thinking, and a growth mindset, all impacted willingness to innovate. To develop conditions for collective genius, leaders again focus on teamwork as well as being relational. In terms of their management of the six innovative paradoxes, the school leaders tend to balance their affirmation of the individual and the group, support staff and parents, focus on experimentation and learning, improvisation, patience, and bottom-up initiatives.

Leadership as organizational practice and its study as a phenomenon have been traced to the beginning of civilization. In the landscape of the 21st century, executives who lead their companies to thrive in the global economy are challenged to have and effectively apply a broad range of leadership skills in their daily work in a constantly changing environment. They have to continuously adapt their behaviors and those of their organizations in order to develop a corporate culture and sustain their competitive edge. Change once was episodic; deliberate, planned, and executed. But in today’s turbulent environment, change is constant and the role of senior executives in leading organizational change is to provide leadership that fosters a shared mindset, new behaviors, and culture. This phenomenological study will examine the best leadership practices of turnaround K–12 public school administrators in LA County who have led a major change effort in their respective organizations. The need for change usually induces a high degree of stress (Kets de Vries & Balazs, 1998; Lichtenstein, 2000), thus the best executives who lead positive change efforts embrace change as their real job and need more than one approach for leading it, ensuring its institutionalization in the organization’s daily practices, hence transforming the organization through an innovation-driven culture. Data were collected from 15 turnaround public school administrators and superintendents in the form of a 12–question, semi-structured interview scheme, which focused on their past cognizance of leading such efforts in their organizations. The key findings of this study generated 94 themes among which 80 answered 4 research questions. Conspicuously, communication, collaboration, situational leadership, and transformational leadership emerged as the best leadership practices of these turnaround K–12 public school administrators. Similarly, participants indicated that having a clear understanding of the school improvement model, involving parents early, understanding the why, empowering others, being one’s own brand, being proactive, improving teacher recruitment and selection, and changing the culture increase the chances of success of a turnaround effort. As a result of the study findings, a framework of recommendations emerged for endeavoring and current turnaround administrators who embark onto similar efforts.

With changing funding models and increased competition, academic institutions are increasingly looking for new ways to finance their missions. Business schools are turning to revenue diversification through new venturing to offset declining MBA enrollment, high business faculty salaries, and changes in accreditation standards that require more engagement with industry. Diversifying revenue streams is an important challenge for business schools in California, which has experienced significant cuts in public funding since 2000. With thousands of business students across 23 campuses representing the largest concentration of future business professionals in the country, the California State University (CSU) is on the frontlines of needing to innovate for new revenue and funding sources. Despite not having the expertise or infrastructure needed to successfully launch new ventures, CSU business schools recognize the need for revenue diversification strategies and are finding ways to implement these initiatives. The purpose of this study was to examine how business schools in the CSU system diversify revenue streams. Qualitative methods were used for this study in order to uncover the stories behind the success or failure of revenue diversification strategies intended to lead to new sources of revenue and increased investment for these institutions. The research questions addressed by this study included examining what CSU business schools have done to diversify revenue streams, who were the entrepreneurs in this context (i.e., who were the drivers and implementers of these initiatives), what organizational and financial structures were used for launching these ventures, how have these schools measured success, and what have they learned. The study findings are presented as descriptive case studies of four CSU business schools that represent new venturing lessons learned that ideally could be extended to other contexts and other institutions. These institutions are finding ways to be entrepreneurial despite the lack of resources, infrastructure, or support. They are launching new initiatives designed to generate revenue; throwing mud at the walls, and seeing what sticks!

When risks are too great for any one organization, and the opportunity cost for not trying is far greater, Strategic alliances between public and private sector organizations present collaborative opportunities to achieve success. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to understand how executives perceive the nature of their involvement in strategic alliances between public and private sector organizations in the United States. The central research question was, “How do executive leaders perceive their involvement in forming and sustaining cross-sector strategic alliances between public organizations and private entities?” This question and its associated sub-questions were explored using a survey and executive interviews as the sources of data for in-depth phenomenological analysis to determine themes perceived critical to successful cross-sector strategic alliances. Executives in this study suggested their role was to ensure the Strategic Alignment, Mutual Benefit, effective Communication, and a clear Vision were present in their organization’s collaborative activities. Conversely, lack of establishing the aforementioned themes was perceived to be detrimental to strategic alliances. The application of this research spans from senior leaders in the public and private sectors to leadership scholars that are interested in better understanding cross-sector collaborations. Respondents asserted that executive leaders are responsible for ensuring that these themes are evaluated in the formative and sustaining phase of a strategic alliance. Additionally, executive leaders may use this research to inform their decision-making about how to avoid failure of their Cross-Sector Strategic Alliance; and for those that were successfully formed, how to affect sustainability.

Ascending into the executive level of an organization can be considered a crowning achievement in one’s profession. It is usually a position in which those most qualified could ultimately arrive. Yet, some organizations, particularly within the U.S. federal government, claim that coveted executive positions are remaining vacant or are not being filled as readily as has traditionally occurred. Even with programs available for a person to become more qualified for advancement, the positions remain unfilled. The level at which employees traditionally qualify for executive positions is the level at which fewer seem to be applying for those positions. In other words, it appears that potential executive candidates are refusing to advance into executive vacancies, which is often referred to as the progression paradox. An organization unable to promote employee advancement into executive vacancies could potentially inhibit its own progression.

The ideas of position qualification and position refusal are two concepts that have not been studied collectively nor received the level of scrutiny that is perhaps needed to answer the fundamental question: Why are gaps in executive-level positions not being filled as expected? Therefore, the researcher utilized grounded-theory analysis to develop a theory into whether adequately defined capabilities freely and clearly enable employee advancement into executive leadership levels. This study delved into the literature and reviewed several inquiries made into the personal perspectives of employees at various levels throughout a Department of Defense agency regarding constructs that could affect ascension into executive leadership ranks. The researcher then built on the findings from these inquiries to create a model of alignment with an organization’s core purpose. Essentially, this research offers an increased understanding into the mask of ambiguity that inhibits progression and identifies the elements needed to assist qualified employees who are refusing to advance into executive vacancies.

There is a common phrase used in India, Na Stree Swathantrayam Arhati, which translates into women not deserving independence. This ideology gives women a disadvantage at an early age in life. This study strives to strengthen the ability of women that are enduring disabilities, gender issues, and inequality in the home and work place. There has been increased research on the topic in India especially due to the increased discrimination against women in the country. Women’s empowerment can be viewed as women gaining control or power over their lives and this study strived to gain that.

This particular study is based on the 4 questions discussed in Giele’s (2008) life course research. The 4 questions cover topics of early adulthood, childhood and adolescence, current and future adulthood. An additional question was added to focus on strategies that women use for work-life balance. The 20 interviews that were administered and completed online were from a wide array of women in the field of finance. Throughout all the interviews one could feel the frustration of how difficult it was to create a work-life balance because of their identity and culture. There were 3 forms of criteria that needed to be met to participate in this study and they included: (a) have to be an Indian woman, (b) living in India, and (c) worked or working in finance.

The findings from this study has brought forth 56 strategies for work-life balance and within the 56 strategies nine themes emerged. From the 20 women interviewed 20 of them lived in India. They all had a finance background and were between the ages of 28-54. Overall 15 were Hindu, 2 Muslim, 2 Buddhist, and 1 Jainist. A majority of them were married with at least one child. There were 3 divorcees and 1 widow that participated as well. According to the demographic data 17 out of the 20 women had some college degree or more with one who attended technical school and 2 that graduated high school.

The purpose of this study is to (a) explore the relationship of student cognitive skill indicators (predictor variables) to student performance in online and face-to-face MBA courses (criterion variables) at a Midwestern United States University (University) conferring undergraduate and graduate degrees in a variety of academic fields; (b) determine if there is a statistically significant correlation between the predictor and criterion variables; and, (c) determine if there is any statistically significant difference between any statistically significant correlations of predictor and criterion variables. A sample of 322 students were studied using seven-years of pre-existing data (Fall 2006 – Fall 2013) from the Center for Scholarship Teaching and Learning (CSTL) online course database, the student module of Ellusian database used by the University Registrar’s office, and the Institutional Research department at the University. Statistical correlation and regression procedures were used to analyze the data.

Contrary to existing online education research, this study did not conclusively indicate that students’ ability to write effectively had any significant relationship to students’ performance in online versus face-to-face courses in the MBA program at the University. This finding, combined with the foundational learning theory research, suggests that online course design, pedagogy, and assessment may be mitigating the affect differences in student writing skills and learning has on student performance in online versus face-to-face courses.

This study also found significant differences in the relationship of student GMAT-Verbal score, GMAT-Analytical Writing score and GMAT-Total score, and student performance in online versus face-to-face MBA courses. Student GMAT-Verbal score and GMAT-Total score significantly correlated with student performance in face-to-face MBA courses at p < .01, but did not significantly correlate with online MBA courses. Student GMAT-Analytical Writing score significantly correlated with student performance in face-to-face MBA courses at p < .01, but only correlated with student performance in online MBA courses at p < .05. These findings suggest that the use of GMAT scores in making MBA program admission decisions may not be appropriate. This study indicated that GMAT scores were not valid predictors of student performance in online MBA courses at the University.

Finally, this study indicated that students with undergraduate grade point averages less than 3.0, and students with combined undergraduate grade point averages and GMAT scores outside the threshold of the requirements for regular MBA program admittance, performed successfully. Comparing this finding with the findings that student Writing Proficiency Exam scores and EN140 Grades of students were also valid predictors of student success in Online MBA program courses; and, the finding that GMAT scores were not valid predictors of student performance in Online MBA program courses; suggest that the use of Undergraduate Grade Point Average and GMAT scores for MBA program admission requirements should be reviewed and possibly revised.

The United States of America is a country of immigrants, where people and groups representing different nationalities have immigrated in search of a better life and opportunities. Among those immigrants are the Armenian people, who immigrated to the United States fleeing wars and Genocide. This study explores the first-generation foreign-born leaders of Armenian descent who came to the United States in search of opportunities, education, happiness, and success. The study examines the success strategies employed by first-generation, foreign-born leaders. This phenomenological study concentrates on the common experiences of the selected 15 participants. To answer the four research questions, 15 foreign-born, first-generation Armenian leaders were interviewed and asked 10 interview question. Additionally, themes were formed to describe the common experiences of the interviewees. Through the interview process, it was discovered that the heritage and the strong cultural presence had shaped the leaders and determined their path to success, affected their decisions and prepared them for the challenges. It was also discovered that (a) hard work, (b) perseverance, (c) discipline, and (d) honesty were the main determinant factors for their success. The notable challenges described by the participants were (a) difficulty to assimilate, (b) the language barrier, and (c) discrimination. In addition, the participants made recommendations for the future generations of foreign-born leaders who are yet to move to the United States in search of new opportunities and success.

The rising demand for suitable housing for low- and middle-income Saudi residents in the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia metropolitan area exceeds the supply. This study explored the possibilities and obstacles facing private sector real estate developers in the development of suitable housing in the Jeddah metropolitan area. The study identified and described developers’ perspectives relative to supply and demand trends, obstacles that inhibited the development of suitable housing, incentives that might help build suitable housing, and possible long-term solutions to address the ongoing mismatch between supply and demand. The study employed a qualitative case study design, and the case was private sector real estate development in Jeddah. The researcher conducted semi structured, open-ended interviews with 16 private sector, residential real estate developers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Case study findings revealed four major obstacles: bureaucratic frustrations with the Ministry of Housing and the Municipality of Jeddah; lack of financing options for potential homeowners and private sector developers; lack of land with the necessary infrastructure to create communities; and potential homeowners’ culture-based desire, or housing norm, for large, expensive villas. Future research could investigate the efficacy of the solutions recommended by the study’s participants; how other nations’ housing solutions could be adapted to the Saudi context; and best practices for integrating the study’s findings, conclusions, and recommendations with the Kingdom’s National Transformation Program 2020 and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 .

An organization's ability to achieve its goals depends on the quality of its leaders and their ability to produce a highly engaged workforce. High levels of employee and managerial turnover and burnout can impede an organization's workforce engagement and ability to grow and be successful. To minimize the impact of these 2 constructs (turnover and burnout), this study examined the link between leadership behavior practice patterns' and employee work engagement in a nonprofit that supports the homeless. Responses from 48 non-managerial employees were used for this study. To investigate this study data were collected using 2 survey instruments: the Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Both surveys were completed by the same population on the same day. The combination of cross-sectional survey designs using quantitative and descriptive correlational research methods helped the researcher analyze the data to identify relationships between the variables under investigation. According to the respondents' ratings, a positive correlation was found to exist between leaders' behavior practice patterns and employee work engagement. Moreover, the results found no negative correlations between the LPI scores and the UWES scores. High employee engagement in a nonprofit organization leads to better economic outcomes for the community and a better workplace for employees who feel their organization cares about their health and well-being, which leads to a more tenured workforce and effective group of leaders. Future directions for research include exploring other variables (leader responses and gender) to potentially predict different work engagement levels and leadership behaviors that could impede employee burnout and turnover.

The workplace is in a transition with age demographics (Mann, 2006). The baby boomers, once a large and dominating force in the workplace are now in their initial years of a decade?s move into retirement. And with such a large demographic change, there is a vacuum that is created and then filled. Many industry analysts have deemed this transition as the "Great shift change." In the workplace, vacancies are being created en mass at the managerial and executive levels. Due to the recession of 2008-2012, the baby boomers remained in the marketplace for an extended period of time, some say to rebound with their depleted retirements. As the economy made its way back to normalcy, an intersection of market forces hit. This collision of market forces is the emergence of an economy out of recession and an age demographic beginning an advanced pace of retirements that analysts say will last up to 20 years. Due to a high turnover of the baby boomer generation with the Millennial generation in the market, succession planning is key to maintain productivity and smooth the transition in demographics while providing services to increasing student populations. This dissertation will utilize case studies to analyze this market event and see how private higher education institutions located in Los Angeles, California are handling succession planning in an aggressive employment demographic change.

The traditional, full-time MBA program environment has become increasingly tumultuous. The many pressures facing business schools, from declining interest of applicants to the burgeoning number of schools and degree formats, have led many to predict that the model cannot continue as is and is ripe for change. Many believe consolidation in the business school marketplace is inevitable and survival is not guaranteed.

Business schools instruct students that, in today’s competitive environment, companies must be able to adapt and quickly respond to changes in the business environment. However, business schools do not seem to have practiced what they preached. Although most business schools would say that they are continuously improving the degree, they likely would agree that most of the changes have been incremental and that the traditional MBA program has remained largely unchanged since its inception. The primary purpose of this study is to explore how the full-time MBA program might be transformed by seeing how four highly ranked business schools would view innovations developed by two leading business schools and whether reengineering the educational model also transforms the business model.

There is a strongly held belief that the traditional two-year, in-person MBA will continue to be relevant but may be sustained only by the top-20 schools. The hundreds of other business schools will be forced to adapt, but the degree and urgency to which they do may vary based on their perception of the school’s standing and their willingness to challenge existing beliefs around their brand image, pride of creation, and entrenched incentives.

Change and adopting innovation do not guarantee success. Likewise, doing nothing does not guarantee failure. Change, however, is inevitable and might happen quicker than business schools anticipate because of market forces. Business schools that have the most to lose already have begun experimenting with innovation outside their reputation-based full-time program. Should the expertise built and lessons learned from this experimentation be incorporated into their full-time programs, the established schools may witness a new pecking order.

Educational leaders across the United States face changes affecting the educational system related to federal and state mandates. The stress of those changes may be related to superintendents’ longevity. The superintendent position has a mobility rate that is quite high. Every superintendent is different and may have a different leadership style than their predecessor. The district culture, goals, and expectations may change depending on the superintendents’ leadership style. If superintendents’ leadership style affects principals’ performance, it may affect the principals’ success or failure. The purpose of this quantitative correlational research study was to identify if correlations existed linking 126 principals’ perception of superintendents’ leadership style and principals’ performance as reflected by student achievement data. The goal was to obtain principals’ perception of the superintendents’ leadership style as measured by the MLQ and principals’ performance as measured by AIMS reading and math data from the 2011- 2012 to 2012-2013 school years. The results indicated that superintendents’ transformational, passive avoidant and transactional leadership styles did not correlate positively to math difference scores. However, the results indicated that the passive avoidant leadership style was positively, correlated to reading difference scores. The results also indicated that there was a positive correlation between reading and math difference scores. Educational leaders should be aware that the analysis of data indicates that it is plausible that passive avoidant leadership may be more complex than nonleadership as labeled in previous research.

A student’s ability to achieve his or her goal in an online course depends on the quality of the material presented by the instructor, and the motivational aspect of the student before committing to an online course. However, neither of these can be reached to their maximum if the dominant learning styles of students are not uncovered prior to enrolling in an online course. With the quick expansion of online learning in higher education, proper protocol has not been taken in order to help millennials reach their full potential, by allowing instructors to help identify methods to communicate with the students through an online platform. To maximize the impact of these two aspects, the dominant learning styles of millennials must be uncovered. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the dominant learning styles of millennials enrolled in an online business course, on order to provide instructors with insight of how to present course material to students in an online platform. The population consisted of 37 millennials enrolled in three separate online business courses at a California State University. Data were collected using one research instrument, the Building Excellence (BE) Learning Style Survey, consisting of approximately 120 questions. The survey instrument was used to measure the dominant learning styles of the participants among 28 different elements among six categories (perceptual, psychological, environmental, physiological, emotional, and sociological). The study looked into the perceptual category to reveal a strong necessity of millennials preferring to learn material by having it presented using visual images, and/or visual text. By improving the method of instruction in an online business course to incorporate with these learning styles, instructors can maximize their ability to teach students.

The purpose of this study was to develop a methodological approach using secondary data that researchers, faculty, and staff can utilize to assess student course performance and to identify the input and course environment factors that best predict student course success in an undergraduate lecture capture quantitative methods course. Using the Astin and Antonio (2012) Input Environment and Outcome (IEO) Model as a framework, this quantitative study examined both input variables that students bring to a course as well as the course environment factors that students experience in the course. Three secondary data sources were utilized and analyzed using descriptive and multi-variate statistics.

The findings revealed that students with higher levels of student course engagement and academic self-concept were more likely to achieve student course success in this lecture capture quantitative methods course. In addition, prior University GPA along with live-class attendance, discussion board posts, and course quiz and exam scores were the strongest predictors of student course success.

The largest implication from this study was the methodological approach developed to identify factors that predicted student course success. This approach can be used to help faculty identify course-embedded measures for assessment as well as develop Keys for Success to help future students succeed in difficult courses. While this study added significantly to the limited research on lecture capture courses, future research should further explore qualitative aspects of the course, such as motivation and student video-viewing behaviors, as well as additional impacts on physical attendance in lecture capture courses.

Corporations seek Master of Business Administration (MBA) students who are ready to perform upon hiring. Business schools need to align instructional practices and technology with student, accreditation, and marketplace demands. Complex simulation use has increased exponentially to provide MBA students with business experience in the classroom. Methods to assess the effectiveness of complex simulations to achieve learning outcomes is limited to student perceptions of learning, satisfaction, and direct assessment separately. The purpose of this quantitative ex post facto comparative study was to examine MBA students’ perception of learning to real performance in integrative courses with complex simulation. Archival MBA student Peregrine COMP™ pretest, posttest, and SIRII™ scores were analyzed using independent t-test, paired sample t-test, and Pearson r coefficient. MBA students perceived higher levels of learning in courses with complex simulation based on the statistically significant increase in SIRII™ scores over courses without simulation. Another key finding from the quantitative study was the statistically significant negative correlation of students’ perception of learning to actual performance. Positive student perceptions of learning could hide a complex simulation’s inability to meet student learning outcomes, according to the statistically significant decrease between pretest, and posttest Peregrine COMP™ scores. Based on the quantitative correlation analysis of student perceptions of learning to actual performance, MBA administrators and faculty need to evaluate the use of instructional technology from multiple data points to avoid applications that offer minimal value to achieving learning outcomes. Future research opportunities could include a larger MBA population from multiple regions of the United States. Additional studies could investigate undergraduate perceptions of learning to actual performance to assess any benefit from complex simulations.

The existing literature indicates that the U.S. workforce is challenged in two significant ways: low college attainment rates and college graduates lacking the skills necessary to be successful in their careers (Wilkerson, 2012). Studies show that both of these factors are necessary to provide the innovation needed for companies to grow (Galagan, 2010; Morrison et al., 2011). Research indicates that faculty members have a fundamental impact on student success and persistence (Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges & Hayek, 2007; Taylor & Haynes, 2008) and are also responsible for developing and reforming the curriculum.

Business education faculty are an especially important subset of higher education faculty due to the fact that business related majors have been the most popular majors for undergraduate students since 1980 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012).

The research examined experiences with curriculum reform to address the skill gaps. Faculty experiences with curriculum reform efforts related to nontraditional students were also examined.

Since the late 1980s, a different way to do business began to achieve more widespread support. The intention of this form of business—sustainable business—is to conduct itself in a way that does not jeopardize the basic needs of present and future generations by unnecessarily sacrificing environmental, social, and economic resources. This is in contrast to traditional Western business practices that focus on maximizing short-term financial profit without much consideration of the impact on environmental and social resources. It appears that any change in business from the single bottom line of monetary profit to a triple bottom line of "people, planet, and profit" requires a different type of leadership. Research indicates that some practices that are meant to cultivate attention (e.g., meditation) contribute positively to leadership behavior, yet there is very little empirical evidence on the specific impact of attention cultivation practices on leadership capacities that may enhance sustainability in business.

This study uses the qualitative method of narrative inquiry in which six co-participants and I explore the role of attention cultivation in furthering sustainability in business. The six co-participants were clients in my leadership attention coaching practice who had received at least nine months of attention coaching, were employed at the time they received coaching, and were alumni of or currently enrolled in an MBA program geared towards sustainable business. Through a narrative analysis of interviews, narrative excerpts, and images of artwork, this study reveals three behavior patterns: Acquiring Equanimity, Nonjudgmental Attention, and Letting Go. Further examination of these patterns reveals that the impact of this specific attentional practice may support a leader's capacities for mindfulness, adaptive and authentic leadership, postconventional stages of mental complexity, and systems thinking, all of which have been suggested in the literature as capacities that contribute to furthering sustainability in business.

This study suggests that the primal faculty of the deployment of attention is foundational in a leader's capacity for movement that advances sustainability in business. Recommendations are offered for programs that train leaders in sustainable business, for leaders who are interested in advancing sustainability in business, and for further research.

This study attempted to identify the issues confronting athletic directors at the NCAA Division I FBS membership institutions from the following athletic conferences: American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and Sun Belt Conference. These conferences are considered to be non-BCS automatic qualifying conferences. Since the literature showed a lack of research on most of the issues that impact the university athletic director, this research attempted to present an enhanced perspective of the issues that the athletic director must confront in his or her career and daily life. The researcher utilized an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design to identify and explore the issues. Twenty-two of sixty-one athletic directors responded to a thirteen item electronic survey. Follow-up interviews were administered to six of the athletic directors who indicated a willingness to participate. Athletic directors identified fundraising, managing the budget and finance issues, and student-athlete welfare as the top three issues affecting his or her career. Athletic directors identified the following as those issues that consumed most of their time: fundraising, managing his or her department's budget, and staying current on NCAA regulations. Athletic directors identified the following as their most stressful issues: fundraising, budget, decision making, personnel, the pending autonomy of the high resource conferences, and general uncertainty. Warning signs identified by the athletic directors included: national lawsuits, declining attendance (both alumni/fans and students) at sporting events, and decreasing state support. In addition, individual athletic directors identified the following issues that may impact the future: negative impact on the United States Olympic movement due to significantly increased emphasis on football and men's basketball, impact of non-practioner perspective in governance of collegiate athletics, and possible significant change in the definition of amateurism.

Leaders of corporations existing in this global economy endure and face complexities of uncharted precedents and leadership is foundational to the success and sustainability of this navigational process. Transformational leadership and self-efficacy are primary constructs, which profile successful leadership, and executive coaching is instrumental in defining the development of these constructs. This research project added empirical data to the inventory of knowledge of these three constructs transformational leadership, self-efficacy, and executive coaching through a quantitative study with a descriptive correlational design. The relationship was studied between transformational leadership, self-efficacy, and the propensity to pursue executive coaching. One-hundred and eighty-six respondents were surveyed with 110 respondents completing the survey. The MLQ5x and the NGSES assessment tools were utilized to assess and have respondents self-rate their transformational leadership and self-efficacy. Four research questions and alternative hypotheses were formulated to ascertain the relationships and links between the independent variables, transformational leadership and self-efficacy, and the dependent variable, executive coaching. The results demonstrated relationships between transformational leadership and self-efficacy, and transformational leadership and executive coaching. Evidence was produced to support further research into these variables and their correlated relationships. Finally, the results produced original information and knowledge into understanding the variables on the propensity to pursue executive coaching. Recommendations for continued research based on this foundational study were provided.

Universities must retain satisfied employees to enhance productivity and reduce turnover. Leadership represents one of the fundamental factors in job satisfaction. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between perceived academic administrator leadership styles and the satisfaction of faculty members. The independent variables were the transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership styles of academic administrators as evaluated by faculty members. The dependent variable was job satisfaction of full-time faculty members. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to identify the leadership style of an administrator as perceived by faculty members. Spector's Job Satisfaction Survey was used to assess a faculty member's level of job satisfaction. One hundred four participants from a state university in Florida completed the online survey. A logistic regression model was developed, and the statistically significant correlations indicated that (a) faculty members who identified transformational leadership as dominant had increased job satisfaction, (b) faculty members who identified transactional leadership as dominant had increased job satisfaction, and (c) faculty members who identified passive/avoidant leadership as dominant had decreased job satisfaction. Based on a 95% significance level, there was a significant relationship between the 3 leadership styles and job satisfaction. Using this model, academic leaders can take further action by refining their leadership styles on the basis of their faculty members' indicated preferences. The study results may contribute to social change by making academic administrators aware of effective leadership models that promote higher job satisfaction among faculty in universities.

This study considered the correlative value of servant leadership on admission team success at private universities in the Midwestern United States. The study examined university admission teams at several institutions. Participants completed questionnaires that helped to determine what, if any, servant leadership traits and attributes they display. These traits were cross-referenced with admissions individuals and team success ratios. As private universities in the Midwest strive to gain market position, an understanding of how servant leadership can enhance their admission teams is beneficial.

The nonprofit sector has historically faced a multitude of challenges that threaten sustainability. Such continues even today. Nonprofit organizations struggle to respond to changes imposed by external environmental influences. These changes revolve around accountability and resources. With all of this, the sector now faces yet another challenge of a significant executive leadership deficit. During the past ten years to the present, the sector has experienced a mass retirement of baby boomer executives. The nonprofit sector has warned of the leadership deficit. However, nonprofit organizations have failed to urgently respond to the developing leadership void. Nonprofit organizations tend to not address executive leadership needs of the organization until an occurrence of vacancy. While nonprofit organizations are encouraged to utilize successor planning, under utilizing is prevalent. This qualitative research explores nonprofit executive successor planning from a phenomenological approach. The research emphasizes perspectives of twelve nonprofit executives who experienced leadership transition during the years 2008–2012. The research approach is framed by theories of organizational management and human behavior. This research informs the issue of nonprofit successor planning utilization decisions in two areas. One area is the influence of incumbent executives in facilitating successor planning. A second area is consideration of ascribing resource value to the executive position. Such can encourage strategic assessment and planning for future leadership needs. Findings of the research indicate continued under utilization of successor planning characterized by the following: a reality of nonprofit executives facing operational distractions; governing boards avoiding the issue of leadership transition; and nonprofit organizations under utilizing strategic planning.

The purpose of this study was to empirically analyze the determinants of charitable giving rates generationally among alumni of a private business college in the northeastern United States, with a focus on three areas: the unique cultural component of giving as it relates to the college and its entrepreneurial focus; the level of connectedness and involvement of the students to the college through co-curricular and affinity activities; and the demographics of the college, including the high number of international students that are attracted to study at this business college. These are examined through Park and Smith’s (2007) framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which is an adaptation of Ajzen’s (1991) model of Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Background data for this study was provided by the Office of Alumni and Friends at Northeast College, which in April 2015 partnered with the Performance Enhancement Group Ltd. (PEG) to administer the Alumni Attitude Study. This survey instrument measures alumni perceptions and attitudes about their alma mater as well as their student and alumni experiences, and served as a basis for this study on alumni charitable giving. In addition, this particular study synthesizes literature related to affinity giving across a broad spectrum of colleges and universities.

Leaders are frequently required to lead change due to mergers, expansions into new markets, and new initiatives to enter global markets compounding the need for change leadership. Frequent change is more the rule rather than the exception. Change is more needed today yet a poor result from leading change can adversely impact a leader's influence. How does a leader know when to lead a change initiative or when to take the easier route and simply stay with the status quo?

An in depth study of what appeared to be a very risky and highly successful organizational change initiative was thought to possibly shed light on answering these difficult leadership questions. This inductive qualitative case study discovered a university that achieved a successful, sustainable organizational change. The leader overcame the organizational change odds of one-third to two-thirds of the outcomes are often unsuccessful (Beer & Nohria; Bibler; as cited in Gilley, Dixon, & Gilley, 2008). "The rate of failure to deliver sustainable change at times reaches 80–90%" (Cope as cited in Gilley, Dixon, & Gilley, 2008, p. 153).

The leader in the private university organization in the Midwest that led the successful organizational change was inspired by his personal vision. He did not lead change using a theoretical framework. He was successful in persuading the board to authorize implementation of his vision. The president established goals to lead the way for workers to help achieve the organizational change. He effectively communicated his vision and goals and met resistance due to the status quo. The president overcame the challenges of status quo, and the successful organizational change resulted in an effervescent campus environment with record breaking-fundraising. Regardless of the type or size of the major change, organizations that seek to make change may glean insights from this study of how leaders of one organization approached significant change.

Contemporary organizational leadership scholars classify the ancient, persisting need to find one's true self as the study of authentic leadership. Authentic leadership scholarship is still very much in its infancy. There have been many calls by leading researchers to study it further in both qualitative and quantitative realms (Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson, 2008). The current study explores authentic leadership factors qualitatively, as described by leaders and constituents working in a retail sales-based environment. The qualitative methodology of grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) is used in conceptualizing and implementing the research. In-depth interviews we conducted with individuals both in leadership and non-leadership roles. For the purposes of this study the terms "non-leadership role" are operationalized as non-supervisory positions. The data collected for the study center around participants' perceptions of authentic leadership relative to their personal experience within the retail sector. In accordance with grounded theory, these areas are subject to change as the interviews developed. Data was organized in two major themes, relational and instructional, with several sub themes. Data suggested that most behaviors associated with authenticity have to do with self-awareness and that most leaders exhibited a larger sense of awareness, or situational awareness. Further study in this area should be performed to include a more diverse population, detail suggestions are made.

Today’s complex global economy is often referred to as VUCA (volatile, unpredictable, complex, ambiguous) to express the rapid pace of disruptive change and the unreliability of long held structures, processes and beliefs. These unprecedented changes are impacting global leadership practice. Leaders can no longer rely solely on decisive and authoritative decision making to help their organizations remain competitive. The rapid pace of unpredictable change and ambiguity of clear solutions is demanding more collaborative decision-making for today’s toughest challenges. Executive coaches who support global leaders are increasingly in positions of trusted adviser to senior level executives. This qualitative study interviews a group of seasoned executive coaches to gain a deeper understanding of the best practices for supporting global executives, the challenges they face in implementing these practices, the ways in which they measure their success, and their recommendations to other executive coaches who wish to support global leaders. Findings, therefore, contribute to the growing scholarly field of executive coaching in a number of areas, including: (a) executive coaching scholarship, (b) executive coaching training programs, (c) graduate business school curriculum, and (d) leadership development programs.

U.S. companies continue to grow and expand overseas. They also outsource business processes. There were approximately 350,000 call center employees in India in 2009 (Lundby, Parthasarthy, & Kowske, 2009) and another 350,000 in the Philippines by 2010 (Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, 2010). The success of employees who are not U.S. citizens, yet work for American companies, has become critical. These individuals are, many times, hired by and work for organizations located in the U.S. yet are native to, stationed in, and supervise operations in countries around the world. The leadership and cross-cultural acumen of individuals in these positions can be critical to their success or failure as employees of American organizations as well as to their ability to successfully lead members within their own organizations to achieve successful results.

This research project was conducted by a third party to preclude any bias as the researcher is also the owner of the organization under study. The research examined leadership behaviors as well as cross-cultural sensitivities of individuals in these positions in order to ascertain whether there were differences between these self-reported attributes and the results generated by particular organizational units. Qualitatively, the researcher interviewed senior executives at a number of firms (not associated with his own organization) with respect to leadership and cross-cultural sensitivities of mid-level managers to ascertain if, from the perspective of these senior executives, common threads could be identified that would lead to a greater understanding of the issues of leadership and cross-cultural sensitivities in these mid-level positions as well as efforts that could impact organizational results.

The resulting data indicated that there was not a significant statistical relationship between any of the leadership acumens or cultural identifiers and managerial performance. In the qualitative data, senior leaders overwhelmingly indicated that Focused Drive, Trusted Influence, and Conceptual Thinking were defining leadership behaviors between higher and lower performers.

Studies show that improvisation in leadership decision making is on the rise, and it transpires in organizations 75-90% of the time, yet very little research has explored this skillset. No other leadership skillset that is applied two thirds of the time has ever been so underdeveloped. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a pilot workshop applying a Holistic Improvisational Leadership Model as developed by the researcher and based on the latest improvisation research. The study employed a mixed methods design to gather qualitative and quantitative data for a descriptive evaluation of the pilot training workshop. Nonproportional quota sampling and triangulation were used to maximize cross verification and validity of the data. This study explored the skills leaders acquired and applied during, immediately after, 1 month after the workshop, and in 3 months. The study was pilot-tested on 6 different groups and a total of 67 leaders from various regions, industries and organizations.

Primary findings revealed that participants gained the highest benefits in working with others and their ability to lead. Executive and educational leaders gained the awareness that 79% of their decisions at work were made spontaneously as opposed to 71% for all leaders. 100% of executives and senior leaders indicated acquiring more effective listening skills. Moreover, the concept of competent risks and celebrating failure appeared to have the most transformational impact on the participants' sense of self, willingness to take risks, and acquire new skills. The workshop seemed to bring participants' stress level down to an optimal level and enhance mindfulness. Ultimately, it was concluded the study's workshop was most effective as a continuous 3.5 hours.

Learning to improvise experientially includes a process of unlearning old routines of decision making and re-learning more effective skills. Hence, the researcher recommends follow-up learning sessions to complete the cycle of learning. Utilizing grounded theory, the findings from the study led to the revision of Tabaee's Holistic Improvisational Leadership Model. The researcher recommends following the model by teaching the competencies not only to leaders but to all employees for achieving OPTIMAL strategy and performance for the organization.