Ph.D., Antioch University, 2012, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to develop an understanding of what board members experience during a time of organizational crisis. Major corporate and nonprofit failures of previously successful organizations in recent years have raised questions and led to speculation about the role of boards of directors through the crises. In this study twenty board members of nonprofit organizations who had experienced an organizational crisis during their board service were interviewed. Participants were asked to share their perceptions and explore how they identified and made meaning of the events and board processes that went on as the crisis became apparent and progressed. The overall research design was grounded theory guided by Schatzman's and Charmaz' methodological contributions. A dimensional analysis was employed to create explanatory matrices that focused on theory development. From dimensional analysis the core dimension, the Tangled Web, and primary dimensions Recognizing, Responding, and Stepping Up emerged. The model of a Tangled Web depicts the processes that obstruct a board's ability to recognize and respond to signs of crisis. Complexity theory, governance, crisis and turnaround, and group process all contribute to the understanding of the research question. The electronic version of this dissertation is available through the OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Chair); Laurien Alexandre PhD (Committee Member); Shah Hasan PhD (Committee Member); Judith Millesen PhD (Other) Subjects: Business Community; Organizational Behavior; Social Structure

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.), Franklin University, 2024, Business Administration

Cultural competency has gained significant attention in the past two decades, particularly within human services nonprofits. These nonprofits often operate under the governance of white, affluent, college-educated individuals while providing services to minority populations with limited financial resources and education. These differences may create cultural understanding challenges. This study endeavored to shed light on the effective cultural competency approaches employed by these organizations in serving a diverse population. Using qualitative comparative analysis, this research examined the disparities among human services agencies in terms of successful strategies for fostering cultural competency within their board of directors. The study involved conducting semi-structured interviews with 28 directors from human services agencies categorized into two groups based on their annual revenue: agencies with an annual revenue between $100,000 and $999,999 and those agencies with $1 million and higher. The findings showed that 25 of the 28 agencies described themselves as successful and implemented cultural competency building efforts among their board members. Of the 25 successful agencies, 13 directly linked their success to their cultural competency building efforts. The other 12 successful agencies stated they could not directly link their success to their cultural competency efforts. These results implicate the need for additional research that looks at a larger sample with broader demographics and other approaches that allow for deeper probing of cultural competency training efforts.

Committee: Lewis Chongwony (Committee Chair); Christopher Washington (Committee Member); Bora Pajo (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration; Management; Organization Theory

Doctor of Management, Case Western Reserve University, 2010, Weatherhead School of Management

When tough issues, defined as problems that remain uncomfortably unspoken, are championed at the board or in the executive suite, the question is: who does it, why and with what results? Three separate studies were carried out to investigate the championing phenomenon. First, an initial conceptual framework was built using grounded theory from five senior female director interviews and a review of the literature. I learned that certain conditions prompted the championing and determined the positive outcomes for the team and the champion. These initial findings supported the design of the next qualitative study involving 22 directors - 11 men and 11 women. The study identified similarities and differences among men and women relating to the preconditions to champion and the engagement tactics employed by each group. Consistent with the literature, women championed twice the tough issues as the men, but both men and women championed very tough issues, mostly relating to problems with the CEO. The benefits to the board and the champion did outweigh the difficulties of the championing process. The third study included a quantitative study involving over 400 senior executives and it investigated tough issues from the opposite side of the board table – the senior management team. The study identified the effects of six key antecedents increasing the propensity to tackle the tough issue and four mediating tactics that were used to engage the team on the issue. The results confirm some qualitative findings – women were the more likely champion and used different championing tactics. Payoffs from the championing process were consistent with previous findings.

Committee: Diana Bilimoria, Ph.D. (Advisor); Paul Salipante, Ph.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Management; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2019, Management

The personal sustainability of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) influences their effectiveness and thus, their organization's performance. Leaders whose personal mission is too closely intertwined with their organization's professional mission are at the most risk of experiencing diminished sustainability; defined as personal wellbeing and professional effectiveness over time. Suggestions have been made on combatting the issue, but the phenomenon of low sustainability persists among nonprofit leaders. Through studying nonprofit organization leaders, the purpose of this research is to elevate and preserve the personal wellbeing of nonprofit organization leaders while contributing to a growing body of knowledge on professional effectiveness. Using mixed methods, a qualitative study was followed by a quantitative study at two time periods. Critical incident interviews for the qualitative study were conducted with twenty "sustainable" and ten "unsustainable" CEOs of diverse nonprofit organizations, as identified by trusted third party raters. Interviews were also conducted with fifteen spouses. A true focus on the organization's mission, mastery over relationships, and self-care significantly differentiated the sustainable and unsustainable CEOs. Building off those findings, 107 nonprofit executive directors and CEOs were administered a survey in the quantitative study combining the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Avolio, Bass, & Jung, 1999), Personal Sustainability Index (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2013), Relational Climate Survey (Boyatzis & Rochford, 2015), Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, 1984), and Reputational Effectiveness Survey (Tsui, 1994). Portions were administered to the spouse and a direct report for validation. Personal sustainability practices, both the intensity and variety of renewal activities engaged in by leaders in relation to stressful activities, had a positive impact on leadership effectiveness. The qualitative survey was also take (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Boyatzis Ph.D. (Committee Chair); David Aron MD, MS (Committee Member); Christopher Burant Ph.D., MACTM (Committee Member); Melvin Smith Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Business Administration; Health; Management

Doctor of Business Administration, Cleveland State University, 2015, Monte Ahuja College of Business

This dissertation consists of three essays focusing on corporate governance. The main goal of these studies is to contribute to a better understanding of the effectiveness of different corporate governance mechanisms. The first study explores the relationship between director expertise and performance following seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). In the short run, firms with financial experts have smaller offer discounts. The cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) following the equity issues are less negative for firms with financial, legal and joint expert directors. In the long run, expert directors continue to have a positive impact on stock price performance. In the case of firm operating performance, it seems to be better for firms with legal experts and joint experts. Overall, having financial experts and legal experts on the board seems to be significantly beneficial for firms while the results for joint expertise lack significance due to the small number of firms with joint experts. The second study focuses on identifying the most effective corporate governance attributes. This study uses a cross-sectional regression analysis to investigate which attributes have a significant effect on the market's reaction to the SEO announcements. The results show that among other corporate governance characteristics, the percentage of directors on the audit committee, board size, number of board meetings, audit committee size, average board age and average director tenure seem to be significantly related to market reaction. In the case of director expertise, market reacts more positively to SEO announcements by firms with legal experts or joint experts on their boards. The third study focuses on the impact of blockholder characteristics on earnings quality. Most of the studies in literature make the intrinsic assumption that blockholders are a homogeneous group. This study is one of the very few studies to acknowledge the heterogeneity of blockholders and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Haigang Zhou PhD (Committee Chair); Alan Reichert PhD (Committee Member); Walter Rom PhD (Committee Member); Qingzhong Ma PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Finance

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2014, Urban Studies and Public Affairs

The purpose of this study was to explore the facet of external stakeholder representation in the regional planning process. Specifically, the intent was to determine best practices ensuring a high quality of the representation of external stakeholders within new regional planning entities – those created for the sole purpose of generating one long-term regional plan. To accomplish this, a qualitative study was performed analyzing the levels of involvement of the Board of Directors (internal stakeholders) of a regional planning consortium. The Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium, a product of the HUD Sustainable Communities Grant Program, is used as the case study. Four qualitative components evaluated the internal stakeholders and three of four showed that the quality of representation was low. The final component demonstrated underrepresentation by attendees of the focus groups. Overall, the quality of stakeholder representation was deemed medium to low, using this case study. The qualitative methods used produced baseline criteria for a new model for future regional planning consortia to attain a higher quality of representation of external stakeholders.

Committee: Raymond Cox III Dr. (Advisor); Sanda Kaufman Dr. (Committee Member); Ghazi Falah Dr. (Committee Member); Ray Gehani Dr. (Committee Member); Namkyung Oh Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Area Planning and Development; Environmental Management; Land Use Planning; Natural Resource Management; Public Administration; Regional Studies; Urban Planning

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2014, Management

For 150 years, scholars and practitioners have been studying the relationship between the leaders of an organization and the performance of their firm, but despite this extensive research, there are few sure prescriptions for success. A recent survey revealed that 90% of board directors believe their personal performance is exemplary, but only 30% of directors feel the performance of their board as a whole is exemplary (Heidrick & Struggles, 2010). Equally disturbing is that 85% of directors believe the biggest weakness of their CEO is the ability to effectively lead teams and generate results (Larcker & Miles, 2013). My dissertation research explored this gap between individual and team performance at the board and C-Suite levels and further explored the impact of team dynamic quality on financial performance. We focused on the upper echelons of the organization as this level is has been shown to have a significant impact on firm outcomes (Hambrick, 2007). The dissertation describes four phases of research. In the first study, we interviewed 23 directors of public companies and looked at governance data from a third-party source to explore the relationship between team dynamic quality in the boardroom and governance quality of the firm. The second and third studies were quantitative and attempted to assess the quality of team dynamic in the boardroom and C-Suite to understand the role of team dynamic in explaining an organization’s ability to out-perform its competitors. Our second study analyzed input from 182 board directors, the majority of whom served on publicly-traded companies. Our third study analyzed input from 123 C-Suite executives of publicly traded organizations. Our research showed that the quality of board team dynamic can explain 4% of corporate profitability, and the quality of C-Suite team dynamic can explain 20% of corporate profitability. We also found a leveraged effect of team outcomes on financial performance for both samples, with boa (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Tony Lingham PhD (Committee Chair); Kalle Lyytinen PhD (Committee Member); David Cooperrider PhD (Committee Member); Richard Leblanc PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Management