Tesis sobre el tema "Business leader"

The concept of shepherding others goes back thousands of years, yet the shepherding metaphor received limited review in academic circles. A study transpired in order to better understand what shepherding entails. It was not known how self-declared leaders from the ecclesiastic, business, and education fields, perceived, described, and practiced shepherd leadership in the greater New York metropolitan area. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how 30 self-declared leaders from the ecclesiastic, business, and education fields, perceived, described, and practiced shepherd leadership. The researcher conducted a qualitative case study involving 30 experienced leaders from three Abrahamic faiths (Jewish, Christian, Islamic) and three fields (ecclesiastic, business, education). All 30 participants completed the Shepherd Leader Inventory and the Brodie Ranking of Shepherd Leadership Skills. Combining 13 open-ended interviews with the two surveys enabled the researcher to triangulate the data. When participants were asked to describe practices unique to shepherding, the leaders in the study mentioned that the shepherd leader cares about others, behaves in a professional manner, builds up others, thinks through actions, builds relationships, shares authority, develops others, shows flexibility, and provides guidance. The researcher discovered that shepherding consists of similar constructs as several positive leadership models. Shepherding proceeds from Theory Z where the leader maintains authority in times of crisis and shares authority in times of ease.

Keywords: Leadership, Shepherd leadership, Shepherding, Servant leadership, Spiritual leadership, Positive leadership, Transformational leadership, Leader-member exchange, Agapao love, Ecclesiastic, Business, Education, Leadership theory, Spirituality

This study was in partnership with the Maine International Trade Center. The Maine International Trade Center was formed to help Maine businesses develop trade internationally and successfully network with international businesses, and connect with governmental and business professionals globally. Maine’s leaders have added resources to the Maine International Trade Center, feeling that it is crucial to Maine’s economic recovery. Maine’s International Trade Center and the Maine Legislature commissioned an extensive research study in 2013. The outcome from this study was the need for further research on global competencies, citizenship and leadership.

The global economies are more connected than any other time in history, consequently so is business. Businesses are competing globally; cost and performance pressures are relentless. Our societies are changing, some having more, and some having less. This study researched the phenomenon of the global citizen leader, and what the cognitive, metacognitive, attitudes and behaviors are for successful executive level business professionals, who are engaged in international trade and global assignments. By studying the dimensions of cultural intelligence, social responsibility, global competence and global civic engagement rich schemas of the complex construct of a global citizen leader came from the experience and stories of thirteen Maine leaders.

Servant leadership as envisioned by Robert Greenleaf (1970) is a philosophy whereby leaders put the interests and growth of the follower ahead of themselves. Though the concept has been around since antiquity, scholars and practitioners in organizations began to embrace and expand the idea since the early 1990s. There are currently 20 models of servant leadership with 16 associated survey instruments. Colleges and universities may want to instill servant leadership in their students. This study used Wong and Page’s (2003) model and their Revised Servant Leadership Profile instrument along with interviews to conduct a mixed-method, concurrent triangulation phenomenology consisting of both qualitative and quantitative analysis. It proposed eight research questions to see if there are any relationships between eight independent variables and the seven dimensions of servant leadership in Wong and Page’s model: (a) developing and empowering others; (b) vulnerability and humility; (c) authentic leadership; (d) open, participatory leadership; (e) inspiring leadership; (f) visionary leadership; and (g) courageous leadership. Specifically, the study examined whether exposure to servant leadership concepts at Southeastern University (SEU) make a difference in students’ self-perception of servant leadership. The eight independent variables are (a) gender, (b) ethnicity and nationality, (c) age, (d) academic college, (e) leadership-related courses taken at SEU, (f) SEU Leadership Forum attendance, (g) leadership positions held at SEU, and (h) number of years at SEU. The findings showed that gender, ethnicity, attending the SEU Leadership Forum, and taking leadership-related courses at SEU were not statistically significantly related to any of the seven servant leadership dimensions. A student’s college was related to vulnerability and humility. Years at SEU was related to developing and empowering others. Age was related to developing and empowering others, inspiring leadership, visionary leadership, and courageous leadership. Holding a student leadership position at SEU was related to developing and empowering others, inspiring leadership, and visionary leadership. The study concluded with the implication of the findings, areas for future research, and advice on encouraging servant leadership development.

Business networks exist in many different situations the question of interest is; what makes these networks sustainable over a long period of time? This is a multiple case study with four network projects from the Swedish rural area of Storsjöbygden in Jämtland.

The Swedish rural areas consist of a strong majority of micro companies and small companies. To develop some of these areas the European Rural Development Program, LEADER helps funding projects for entrepreneurs and organisations with good ideas for development, education and cooperation activities.

This paper investigates four LEADER funded projects with a focus on business cooperation and networking. The projects were done between years 1995 and 2000. Some of the networks are still active today and others are not.  The aim here is to see if the three factors during the start up of the networks; natural and spontaneous relationships, project leader’s attitude and the number of participants, have an impact on the long term sustainability of these networks.

The empirical findings lead to the following conclusions; within the relationship factor time and attitude variables had an increased effect on the survival of the networks. The project leader’s knowledge, attitude and commitment also affected the outcome of the network projects. The third factor, the number of active members during the project had a great impact of the survival since all the networks lost members over time.

Engaging and retaining high potential employees play a key role in enhancing an organization's competitive advantage. Although multiple factors affect engagement and retention, senior leaders play an important role. This study examined senior leaders' use of touch points (intentional interactions) with high potentials as a retention and engagement strategy within one organization. This mixed-method study gathered survey and interview data from high potentials and senior leaders. Study findings revealed that touch points yielded a range of benefits for the company, for leaders, for high potentials, and for talent management within the organization. The benefits appeared to be associated with the frequency and recency of touch points. Based on these findings, senior and executive leaders are advised to engage with high potentials at least quarterly. Organizations are advised to create processes to advocate for, facilitate, and monitor senior leaders' use of touch points to optimize organizational outcomes.

This study examined stakeholders’' perceptions of a leader identification process as a part of the launch of a leader development pool strategy within a large, U.S.-based corrections organization. Stakeholder perceptions included stakeholder expectations of, roles in, and contributions to the organization’'s leader identification strategy and process, which were aimed at addressing a sparse leadership bench.

This single, descriptive case study centered around a leader identification initiative involving leaders and emerging leaders who were nominated for or applied to an accelerated development program. Fourteen leaders participated in the study. Their average tenure with the organization was 14.3 years. This study examined stakeholder perceptions around three phases of the initiative: the kick-off and communication phase (Phase 1), the talent review phase (Phase 2), and the disposition and development phase (Phase 3).

The study’'s findings revealed agreement among stakeholder groups that (1) clearly defined roles and responsibilities were critical to building the leadership bench, (2) open and honest talent discussions were more important than the systems and processes designed to build leadership capacity, (3) the talent pool approach taken by the organization undermined true succession planning and targeted development, and (4) stakeholder expectations and involvement drove the need for planned changes in the leader identification and development strategy.

Manufacturers attempt to compete in the world economy and improve their business processes by implementing change management theory, often using Lean Six Sigma processes; however, these implementations are not always effective in manufacturing settings. Research was needed about leadership efficacy differences in Lean Six Sigma success to inform strategies aimed at augmenting success rates. The purpose of this causal comparative quantitative investigation was to determine the impact of perceived leadership efficacy differences on Lean Six Sigma success rates in a manufacturing setting. The population for the study is estimated at 20,000 supervisors with a sampling of 128 leaders from the manufacturing industry in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin, who have conducted a Lean Six Sigma implementation. The independent variable was perceived leader efficacy and was gathered from McCormick’s Leadership Efficacy Questionnaire (LEQ). The dependent variable was Lean Six Sigma implementation success rate and was gathered from a researcher-created checklist designed to measure overall equipment effectiveness of the respective leaders’ operation. Analysis of variance was performed to assess the difference between high and low efficacy leaders on Lean Six Sigma success rates. The findings demonstrated individuals with high leader efficacy were significantly more successful in implementing Lean Six Sigma initiatives than those with low leader efficacy. Recommendations to increase leadership efficacy in manufacturing in order to positively impact the success rates of change initiatives were offered.

This qualitative case study described how community leaders in one East Texas community use storytelling as a leadership tool. Research questions included purpose, setting, mode, as well as possible distinctions between storytelling in for-profit and non-profit settings. The researcher interviewed six community leaders associated with an East Texas Chamber of Commerce and their direct reports, while also examining artifacts. Described purposes included education, relationship-building, and inspiration. Participants also described coaching and counseling as possible settings for stories and the importance of audience and time. Storytelling modes included oral, written, image-supported, and as a facilitation of followers’ stories. Distinctives related to for-profit or non-profit status included issues of fund-raising, concerns about manipulation, and the use of storytelling from for-profit leaders in non-profit settings. The researcher suggested the study implied the positive possibilities of storytelling as a leadership tool, but also raised ethical concerns. Another result was an observation of connections between story-facilitation and transformational leadership factors. Recommendations were made for both leadership practitioners and leadership researchers.

Sammandrag

EF är en erfaren språkresearrangör med verksamhet sedan 40 år tillbaka. Marknadsföringen har fokus på, direktreklam som skickas ut till målsman för ett stort antal av Sveriges tonåringar, och via EF: s officiella hemsida på Internet. Verksamheten kommer att expandera framöver i form av juniorresor för att locka yngre resenärer och därmed förlänga kundens livscykel för språkresor och EF: s övriga produkter.

I denna uppsats har vi genomfört en undersökning för att ta reda på vad föräldrar anser om EF och vilka faktorer som är viktiga vid valet av språkresearrangör. Ett frågeformulär delades ut till föräldrar som valt att gå på EF: s informationsmöten i Göteborg, Malmö och Stockholm.

Det viktigaste under en språkresa anser föräldrarna är inlärning, ledarens kompetens och en rolig upplevelse. EF lyckas i sin marknadsföring kommunicera detta bra till den aktuella målgruppen.

Vidare föreslår vi att ett sätt för EF att utveckla sin marknadsföring för att etablera ett föräldraförtroende i högre grad är att marknadsföra ledarna mer. Ledarna bör synas mer och statusen för arbetet höjas genom en högre lön. Genom en utvidgning av utbildningsperspektivet anser vi att EF ska satsa på simundervisning för yngre barn då detta är viktig kunskap.

Inlärningen av ett nytt språk ska bli mer kontinuerlig via webbaserad undervisning som kan erbjudas både före och efter en språkresa för att tillgodogöra sig språket på bästa sätt.

The meaning of the word leadership is changing over time, and so is the role of the leader. Organisational labour is today required to be more self-governing as organisational tasks are moving towards a more flexible and independent nature. This requires a leadership able to inspire and motivate independent performance by acting as an inspirational mentor or coach (Bass and Riggio (2005). Those leaders and that style of leadership have many names, but in our research they are titled as Transformational and Charismatic leaders, as well as Super Leaders. Perhaps they are best described by using Vardiman et al (2006:97) own words: “the most effective leaders teach others to be effective leaders of themselves and others."

Identifying, selecting and recruiting the right leader are a competitive advantage and an important success factor (Fernández-Aráoz et al, 2009). The objective of this thesis is therefore to gain knowledge in the manners present when charismatic and inspirational leaders with the ability to lead others to lead themselves are identified, recruited and selected. We judge gaining understanding in how to identify, attract, select, recruit and keep leaders with this special leadership style as a vital knowledge in today’s highly competitive business world.

This thesis approaches leader recruitment from both an external and internal perspective by conveying dialogues with recruitment consultants as well as with a HR-manager. The thesis further raises the question whether the inspirational and charismatic leadership style is appropriate in all type of organisations and here focus on organisational culture as a key determinant when recruiting leaders.

Sweden is one of the most feminine countries in the world (Hofstede, 2003) but still the gender division in the business world is unequal. Looking at the leaders in Sweden we noticed that the biggest differences between genders are in the private sector. Media is a forum where people can be seen and heard and what people see in media will affect their perceptions on the society (Jacobson et al, 2004). The study of this thesis is to describe how women and men holding top leading positions within the private sector in Sweden are being portrayed by print media. We have studied if there is any difference in how women and men are being mediated or if media is mediating a neutral picture. This study is performed through a text analysis method where we have studied twelve longer interview articles in two of the largest Swedish business journals, Dagens Industri and Veckans affärer. In addition, six interviews with the journalists were performed in order to learn about the background and creation of the articles. The results of this study shows that both women and men leaders are being mediated as masculine through the use of masculine leadership characteristics, and that the use of specific concepts and the overall content in the articles are different depending on if the leader is a man or a woman. The overall image of women leaders in this print media are being somewhat diminished through the use of specific concepts in the text and also by the use of pictures in connection to the articles.

There was need for additional research on humility leadership characteristics to provide clarity on employee charitable giving and volunteering at work in support of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. The dissertation study attempted to relate a theoretical framework of humility to leaders demonstrating humility characteristics within a company that provides charitable giving and volunteering opportunities for employees. The problem addressed was the lack of full understanding of the correlation between leaders demonstrating humility characteristics and employee charitable giving and volunteering. A predictive research model was used for this quantitative study. The validated scale of humility was provided to employees of a northwestern Wisconsin company to rate leader-demonstrated humility characteristics on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Participants agreed or strongly agreed supervisors demonstrated each of the humility characteristics. Multiple regression analysis was performed to test the null hypotheses. Pearson correlations were performed to test correlations between the independent and dependent variables. Findings showed significant correlations between each of the characteristics and employee charitable giving; however, a combination of the six dimensions showed a weak correlation to employee giving. Correlations between two of the six characteristics and employee charitable volunteering were significant; the other four characteristics were not significant in correlation. Multiple regression was conducted to examine to what extent the humility characteristic variables predicted employee giving and volunteering. In combination, the six dimensions provided a very weak statistical correlation and did not significantly predict employee volunteering, r² = .04, F(6, 226) = 1.35, p > .05. The combination of the six dimensions of the leadership humility characteristics did statistically significantly predict employee giving and it explained 9% of the variance of employee giving, r² = .09, F(6, 226) = 3.60, p = .002. However, no single predictor was statistically significant, so the model is limited in terms of practical significance. Recommendations for future research include surveying employees of companies of varying size, geographical location, and culture. Focused analyses on gender or age might show different correlations and predictive outcomes. Likewise, a qualitative study might allow for additional information to be discovered. For practitioners, the rationale for this study was to analyze data that might benefit leaders of companies with CSR missions or of social welfare agencies. For researchers, the rationale for this study was to build on existing theory since the review of available literature revealed inconclusive data as to what consistently motivates employees to participate in charitable giving and volunteering at work.

The focus of the qualitative case study was to understand how innovative work behavior was affected by leaders’ relationship with their employees to enhance job commitment in the grocery retail industry. Specifically, the research involved exploring how the leader and employee relationship can affect employee engagement as a mediator for innovative work behavior. Innovative work behavior is when an employee is generating and implementing useful ideas. The general business problem was that organizations in the grocery retail industry lack innovative work behaviors to meet the market demand for innovation and remain competitive. The study involved triangulating three data sources: open-ended, semistructured interview questions used with one-on-one interviews; a focus group; and public documents from the participating organization headquartered in the western United States. The central research question was as follows: How do grocery retail industry knowledge workers’ relationships with their leaders affect their commitment and ability to generate and implement ideas? Triangulating the data sources helped to better describe the dominant themes that answered the overarching central research question and indicated leadership style is a significant antecedent to employee engagement that can promote the generation and implementation of useful ideas leading to continuous innovation. High-quality leader-member exchanges that promote mutual respect and trust can stimulate employee engagement that may help the employee generate useful ideas and ways to implement these ideas. The unexpected findings were the trends and preferences revealed within generational groupings from all 11 study participants. Understanding the unique generational differences provides insight into leadership practices to promote innovative work behavior. The needs and wants expressed by the millennial participants indicated their leaders should be more of a coach and mentor. The Generation X and baby boomer participants were seeking more autonomy and resources to explore ideas. Future researchers could consider exploring a deeper understanding of the multigenerational knowledge workers’ needs and wants to help leaders stimulate employee engagement and increase innovative work behavior.

One challenge facing organizations using virtual teams is the inability to detect, identify, select, and develop emergent leaders working in the virtual team environment, which might increase the organizational risk of a shortage in leadership resources. The purpose of the qualitative, grounded theory research study was to define a theory about the emergent leader detection and identification process in a virtual team environment, using data systematically obtained and analyzed through the constant comparative method. Twenty-four virtual team members, virtual team leaders, and virtual team managers participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. The data analysis produced 74 themes and subthemes to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomena. Five common themes emerged to group 69 subthemes: responsibility, characteristics, constraints, facilitation, and outcomes. The theory provided information about the individuals responsible for the detection and identification of emergent leaders in a virtual team environment, characteristics useful to help detect and identify emergent leaders, areas of constraint in identification, areas facilitating identification, and risks and opportunities resulting from the organizational ability or inability to detect emergent leaders in a virtual team environment. Future research could provide support for the findings of this study by replicating the study using traditional teams, larger teams, or teams with more diverse backgrounds and compositions.

This research investigated the correlation between leadership behavior and its impact upon, supervisors, coworkers, and organizational leaders in generating knowledge usage. A quantitative approach was utilized and correlational statistical analyses were performed to examine the relationships among the variables of interest. The sample frame was the population of local, state, and federal government workers within the United States. Data was collected using an existing validated survey instrument. The instrument was managed by the research service company SurveyMonkey and yielded 413 completed surveys. The Pearson correlation was selected to analyze the survey data. Other demographic and background information collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. This study confirmed that leader behaviors and actions are critical in eliciting knowledge within an organization.

Almost everything we as consumers buy in a store has a package. Packages have many functions – some, if not all, present marketers with the opportunity to gain competitive advantages. The packaging influences the usage behavior long after it has influenced the purchase, therefore it is an interesting empirical context to study within the field of marketing. Nevertheless, academic attention to packaging has been sparse over the last two decades even though the industry focus on packaging as a strategic tool has grown over that same period. Exceptions in the marketing literature are investigations of packaging and brand communication, advertisement-package coordination, and packaging size and shape. In contrast to the traditional approach that views packaging as a complimenting non-product-related attribute, it is suggested in this thesis that packaging is a product-related attribute that does affect the customers’ experiences of products.

The overall aim of this thesis is to develop and test theoretical models and provide empirical evidence of customer experiences in the context of packaging from a service perspective. To study packaging from a service perspective is relevant for several reasons. One reason is that packaging can have several functions, which include more than the physical package. Another reason is that packages are carriers of information that is interpreted by customers. The combination of function, information, the physical package, and its content creates the total customer experience.

The results of this thesis provide increased knowledge about packaging and customer experiences from a service perspective. On an attribute level, quality attributes such as protection and usability are categorized according to Kano’s theory of attractive quality. The results show that customers’ evaluations of packages are multi-dimensional. On a comprehensive or an overall level, structural equation modeling is used to investigate the consumption process. We conclude that the quality attributes of packages need to be designed to display quality both on the shelf in a store and during usage and consumption at both the attribute and comprehensive level.