Ph.D., Antioch University, 2022, Leadership and Change

This qualitative research aimed to study the experiences of Kenyan female leaders and explore Kenyan maternal influence in their lived experiences. It examined how maternal influence shapes female leadership in Kenya by embodying relational and transformational leadership qualities and proves that maternal influence makes women congruent with leadership roles. Despite global advances recognizing the principle of women's political, economic, and social equality, Kenyan women continue to be marginalized in many areas of society, especially in leadership and decision making. Kenyan women also continue to rank very low in their communities' social hierarchy, yet they play a critical role in their homes and societies and deserve attention as leaders beyond the nurture and childbearing topics. One-on-one interviews were used in a narrative inquiry approach and a constructivist worldview; this research developed an understanding of Kenyan maternal influence and constructed the meaning of its role within female leadership in Kenya. The analysis of the interview transcriptions revealed 12 significant traits in the participants' perceptions of their early leadership development, as observed from their mothers. Mothers are indirect leadership scholars in a patriarchal institution that is oppressive to women. Central to this research is recognizing that mothers and daughters benefit when the mother lives her life and practices mothering from a position of authority, authenticity, and autonomy. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Lize Booysen DBL (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Member); Faith Ngunjiri PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Studies; Personality; Social Research; Sub Saharan Africa Studies; Womens Studies

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Ohio University, 2021, Business Administration

Strong leadership plays a pivotal role in organizational success. Leaders influence and guide members of an organization to achieve business outcomes and drive the business forward. Although building and maintaining a strong internal talent pipeline is critical to the success of organizations, it is also one of the most difficult tasks corporations face today. Organizations often have a particularly difficult time hiring for potential, especially when hiring early career professionals who lack experience in industry. Companies try to identify high-potential employees early as candidates for future leadership roles and subsequently invest disproportionate resources to accelerate their development and ready them for future roles. However, often times people who emerge as leaders and rise in the ranks of an organization are not guaranteed to be the most effective leaders of organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to measure leadership potential in younger professionals (i.e college students). Specifically, the study compared ratings of potential between two groups and examined if behaviors of leadership emergence translate to leadership effectiveness at the collegiate level.

Committee: Tim Reynolds (Advisor); Jasmin Martinez (Other) Subjects: Business Administration; Management; Organizational Behavior

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

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are the engines of growth and innovation in many parts of the world, including the United States—yet they face continual challenges to adapt and survive. We designed three sequential explanatory mixed-methods inquiries that consisted of both qualitative and quantitative research projects to explore what adaptive practices, strategies, and decisions are associated with SMEs' successful adaptation. The three phases of research comprised, first, a series of qualitative semi-structured interviews with 32 CEOs and managers; second, a quantitative online survey of 356 entrepreneurs, CEOs, and managers; and finally, a comparative qualitative case study of four SMEs from the U.S. and Canada. The first phase of the study provided five leadership practices that collectively increase a firm's ability to survive difficult periods. The second phase examined the effect of adaptive strategic leadership, adaptive capabilities, and empowerment towards a collective vision on adaptive performance. The results indicate that adaptive capabilities and empowerment have a strong positive effect on adaptive performance. Strategic leadership shows a negative direct effect, but also a positive indirect effect on adaptive performance, mediated by employees' empowerment and adaptive capabilities. The third phase of the dissertation research provided five dimensions of a firm's adaptive practices that operate in combination to produce adaptive change. However, for adaptive success, these practices manifest in various ways in different organizations depending on their particular organizational markets and features. The combination of these three studies provides comprehensive insights into adaptive leadership, adaptive practices, and adaptive strategies associated with SMEs' strategic adaptation. For SMEs, the dissertation provides empirical support for a knowledge-based view of adaptation, and for the theories of dynamic capabilities, emergent s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Paul Salipante (Committee Chair); Kalle Lyytinen (Committee Member); Christopher Laszlo (Committee Member); Ted Ladd (Committee Member) Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Management; Sustainability

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2016, Leadership and Change

Leadership scholar-practitioners must create a more sustainable, diverse, and equitable future, fostering emergence and development of resilient, competent leaders, including those who may have been previously overlooked. Leadership studies, particularly those situated in early trait and behavior paradigms, have long privileged extraverted leaders as ideal. The scholarly conversation is limited on introverted leaders; moreover, most of that literature depicts introversion as either a pathological construct associated with shyness and social anxiety, or includes introversion only by omission, as a state of deficit-of-extraversion. This study instead began with positive inquiry, framing introversion as a positive individual difference, and explored the lived experiences of introverted leaders. This research coalesced perspectives from positive psychology, positive identity at work, and positive organizational scholarship to inquire into introversion as a positive leadership construct. In this constructivist grounded theory study, leaders who identified as introverts and who reported introversion typology on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) were asked to reflect on their experiences of introversion, leadership identity development, and professional and personal pursuits. From the amassed data emerged three theoretical propositions. First, enacting leadership has significant costs for an introverted leader's energy and identity. Second, an introverted leader must adopt a conscious learning orientation to leadership development, including experimentation with possible leader identities. Third, effective introverted leadership is dependent on understanding the powerful intersectionality of introversion, relationship, and identity. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLink ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/etd

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Chair); Laura Morgan Roberts PhD (Committee Member); Harriet Schwartz PhD (Committee Member); Sandie Turner PhD (Other) Subjects: Higher Education Administration; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Personality; Personality Psychology; Social Research

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2016, Educational Administration (Education)

The purpose of this study was to explore the organizational culture of two high schools in Ghana, examine the unique influence of cultural components on the schools' outcomes, identify the exceptional contributions of the schools' subcultures, investigate the emergent leadership styles of the schools' leaders, and determine how these approaches promoted their work. This qualitative dissertation examined the various ways that the schools defined culture; how the schools' subcultures participated in school governance; and how school leaders approached school governance. The description of the cultural components focused on the physical structures, symbols, behavior patterns, and verbal expressions, beliefs and values; and expectations. These descriptions were based on Edgar Schein's diagnosis of the levels of culture. Efforts to improve school outcomes have not considered school culture, as a strategy in Ghana, neither has any educational research focused on the organizational culture of schools. This study was based on the premise that the inclusion of the cultural approach to school reform produces more sustainable results than the technical or political approaches, used in isolation. The sample size for this study was 26 and comprised two school leaders, six teachers, two PTA chairpersons, two alumni, and 14 students. The study employed the case study tradition and garnered data through one-on- one interviews, focus group interviews; observation at morning devotions/assembly, Sunday church services, classrooms, dining halls, orientation, sports festival, staff and academic board meetings, and the physical environment; and review of relevant documents. Results indicated that although the Ghana Education Service managed both schools, and the schools were similar in some ways, they each demonstrated some unique characteristics. The major factors that influenced the achievement of school outcomes included the tangible and intangible cultural components; the in (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Moore (Committee Chair) Subjects: Educational Leadership; Organization Theory; School Administration; Secondary Education; Sub Saharan Africa Studies

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

This dissertation explores the various ways in which the multiple leaders portrayed in the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009) navigate extreme conditions of continual change. In addition, the dissertation contains a discussion of the larger narrative themes of love, forgiveness, redemption, and embracing the Other as principles effective leaders must cultivate. Through an interpretation of this specific popular media text, a deeper emotional sensitivity to and understanding of leadership, positive and negative, during extreme crises is gained. Furthermore, the series serves as a vehicle through which viewers can reflect on and engage in their own self-awareness about issues surrounding leadership and reconsider personal paradigms based on the depiction presented in the narrative. The choice for using an interpretive hermeneutic method for this dissertation comes from the specific desire to understand the visual text of Battlestar Galactica in relation to leadership studies. The goal is neither to predict behaviors nor to examine an individual case against theory. My intent is to develop our further and deeper understanding of leadership in extremis, while questioning how the visual text may influence our perceptions of leadership theory and practice. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd

Committee: Carolyn Kenny PhD (Committee Chair); Lize Booysen DBL (Committee Member); Holly Baumgartner PhD (Committee Member); Kristin Bezio PhD (Other) Subjects: Management; Mass Media; Motion Pictures; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Personal Relationships; Religion; Social Structure; Spirituality

Doctor of Management, Case Western Reserve University, 2023, Weatherhead School of Management

We examine business transformation projects and ask why their success rate continues to be low. Past research suggests that business transformation is enabled by the level of alignment between the business unit-information technology (BU-IT) department and related novel orchestration of capabilities. We conduct a mixed-methods study to understand the role and impact of BU-IT alignment in affecting the success of business transformation projects. The complexity of the problem and the lack of improvement in business transformation (BT) success rates suggest that a mixed-methods approach is appropriate to study this problem. We focus on identifying to what extent organizational unit and project-level activities converge and to what extent project managers can flexibly respond to external events. Additionally, we look at the impact of centralized IT decision making and the importance of unit-level organizational change management activities in affecting BT project success.

Committee: Kalle Lyytinen Ph.D. (Advisor); James Gaskin Ph.D. (Advisor); Philip Cola Ph.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Information Technology

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Ohio University, 2022, Business Administration

The authors examine a potential model to evaluate early-career leadership potential and discuss reflection processes that can provide emergent leaders with the skillset to make them more effective leaders throughout their careers. A potential model developed by Vantage Leadership Consulting and tested by members of a Midwestern University can affect how organizations understand, evaluate, and develop early-career leadership potential. The research identifies four key areas to evaluate leadership potential and discusses resilience as a critical component of leadership effectiveness and tests for this component. Environmental workplace shifts have changed many team dynamics; this paper also suggests how resilience can differ individually and in teams. This research can aid organizations in identifying leaders that emerge at the collegiate level and are predicted to have effective leadership styles at the early career level.

Committee: Amy Taylor-Bianco Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Business Administration