Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

Conventional forms of leadership that are prominent in organizational life today are seemingly antithetical to the landscape of our dynamic, global society. The continued focus on traditional hierarchies with leadership that functions in a “chain of command” manner begs the question of how organizations can reshape routines and relationships to reflect processes of inclusion and collaboration that have the capability of provoking progressive change in organizations. Diversity and Inclusion scholars have identified the newer construct of inclusive leadership as apt to advance climates and cultures of inclusion through social processes that encourage inclusive practices and behaviors. These fluid aspects of inclusive leadership strengthen how organizations foster the engagement of organizational members across groups, functions, and/or levels to stimulate change within work settings. While scholars have ascertained the necessity of expanding our knowledge of the inclusion construct by examining inclusion in more depth, inclusive leadership remains an anomaly as it positions leadership as a collective, social process. The complexities associated with research in this area were instrumental in my choice to pursue an exploratory critical (single) case study with grounded theory for this dissertation research to better understand the social processes associated with inclusive leadership within a contained work environment. This multiple method qualitative study utilized intensive interviewing, field observations, and document reviews to explore inclusive leadership in a K-12 school district. Thematic, content, and dimensional analyses elicited findings associated with human connection, change, and evolving contexts associated with inclusive systems. The overlapping case study and grounded theory findings served as the basis for the development of an inclusive leadership model. The research provided empirical evidence of inclusive leadership's effect on organizational clim (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lize Booysen DBL (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D. (Committee Member); Harriet Schwartz Ph.D. (Committee Member); Placida Gallegos Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration; Cognitive Psychology; Communication; Education; Educational Leadership; Ethics; Multilingual Education; Organizational Behavior; Psychology; School Administration

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2009, Organizational Behavior

The main purpose of this research is to understand how and what people are learning from an innovative business model that enjoins social and economic good. This study highlights an organization widely recognized as the most successful cooperative in history, Mondragon Corporacion Cooperativa (MCC) located in Basque Country. I present seven characteristics that define what I have entitled a socio-business innovation (SBI) based on the MCC model and as one way to understand how organizing at the intersection of business and society is actualized. A cases-within-a-case study approach has been utilized to understand two important aspects: 1) attributes of MCC that define it as an SBI and 2) the diffusion process of an SBI. Nine secondary cases demonstrate how such a model has been adapted culminating in an emergent Theory of Socio-business Diffusion reflected in a three-phase process: Phase I - Precursors to an SBI draws on participants' personal experiences to uncover the motivations leading them to embark on the innovation journey and to humanize the diffusion process making it more readily understandable and relatable; Phase II - Discovering and Experiencing an SBI addresses how and what people learned from engaging with the primary site; and Phase III - Actualizing an SBI focuses on showcasing how various adaptations of the MCC model is manifested worldwide. Spin-offs are noted at three distinct levels of impact to include: organization, local/regional and country. Key findings from the study point to the critical role of values throughout the process including linking the social business divide. This research also demonstrates that SBIs are generative in nature, having offspring that bear similar hallmarks but are contextually distinct. Further, unlike most technical innovations that rely on a high level of replication, SBIs are extremely mutable toward meeting the needs of a specific context thus ensuring a positive fit within the locale. This research offers the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Cooperrider (Committee Chair); David Kolb (Committee Member); Ronald Fry (Committee Member); Peter Whitehouse (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2023, Organizational Behavior

“What is the process by which individuals transcend their lifeworld to create transformative change in their field?” This dissertation proposes a dynamic model outlining the phenomenological pathways that enabled nineteen individuals to transcend their lifeworld, step away from the status quo, and socially construct a new paradigm within their field. To isolate the phenomenon, I explore in detail the distinctions between excellence – doing what everyone else does, but doing it better, and extraordinary (my phenomenon of interest) – deviating from the norm and creating new paradigms which change the way we view the world or what we think is possible. In doing so, I contribute a new level of conceptual precision about excellence and the extraordinary to bring to Positive Organizational Scholarship, and research on positive deviance. I applied a descriptive phenomenological lens to a grounded theory approach, with an additional iterative layer of thematic narrative analysis. My participants' stories revealed a dynamic model, beginning with a generative ground of outsider independence, alienation and/or a prospective mindset, usually passing through some kind of dissonance, whether intellectual, emotional or existential, which triggered them to enter discovery mode – openness to discovery, releasing assumptions, transformational learning, and seeing new possibilities, at which point they were compelled to find a new way. They got on with it, pathfinding, slogging it out, resisting naysayers, and attracted others, sharing the exploration, and co-creating to establish a new paradigm in their field. This model contributes to our understanding of the outer edge of radical innovation: paradigm creation. The turn into the 21st century has seen an upsurge of scholarship of the positive and the good. The field of organizational scholarship is ripe for the next surge – In Search of Extraordinary. This dissertation aims to operationalize what a new Science of the Extraordin (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Cooperrider (Committee Chair); Melvin Smith (Committee Member); John Paul Stephens (Committee Member); Youngjin Yoo (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior

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

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

Climate change is one of the most significant dynamics of our time. The predominant contributor to climate change is combustion of fossil fuels by humans. This study deepened understanding of organizational leaders' role in enacting one approach to addressing climate change: institutional fossil fuel divestment. The study used a qualitative research design to explore U.S.-based foundation leaders' readiness to pursue fossil fuel divestment by their institutions. The study examined leaders' motivations and actions in pursuing divestment, while simultaneously exercising their fiduciary duty to steward institutional assets. Research questions focused on the divestment behavior change process and the outcomes of divestment on leaders and their organizations. Data collection and analysis were derived from two datasets: 34 foundation divestment commitment statements and semi-structured interviews with 18 foundation leaders. The study highlighted leaders' intentional actions, outside the norms of the philanthropic sector and corporate governance, to enact their values and beliefs through divestment, as a form of socially responsible investing. Leaders' pursuit of divestment constituted mission-aligned positive deviance. Findings suggested that leaders of mission-driven institutions can benefit by taking more direct responsibility for institutional investing in ways that are consistent with institutional mission. Doing so, they may unleash new energy that enhances the well-being of the organization and its members and sparks innovation in the financial services sector. They may also experience higher levels of satisfaction, pride, happiness, and engagement with their organizational roles. This study extends scholarship on divestment, foundations as change agents, leadership and positive deviance, psychology of climate change, pro-environmental behavior (PEB), socially responsible investing, and the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (TTM). Implications fo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Laura Morgan Roberts Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Carol Baron Ph.D. (Committee Member); Niki Harre Ph.D. (Committee Member); James Prochaska Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Alternative Energy; Behavioral Psychology; Behavioral Sciences; Climate Change; Environmental Studies; Ethics; Petroleum Production; Social Research

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2015, Organizational Behavior

Insights from Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) were used as a lens through which to examine the language used by campus sustainability programs. The use of positive, negative, and neutral language was explored in ten college and university sustainability programs and these findings were compared to the performance ranking of each sustainability program. Directed content analysis was used to analyze one-on-one interviews, campus sustainability staff meetings, and campus sustainability programs websites. Taking all sources of data together, high performing sustainability programs demonstrate a 4:1 positive to negative (P/N) ratio, where moderate performers possessed a 2:1 P/N ratio and base performers a 1:1 P/N ratio. These findings, associating higher incidence of positive language with high performing programs joins other scholarship, which connects higher levels of positive language with higher functioning individuals, higher team performance, high relational satisfaction, and increased longevity of teams and dyads. Heretofore, few links between the sustainability domain and POS literature exist. This study serves as one of the first such bridges.

Committee: Ronal Fry PhD (Committee Chair); David Cooperrider PhD (Committee Member); Mark Chupp PhD (Committee Member); Peter Whitehouse MD PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2004, Organizational Behavior

This dissertation is an invitation for dialogue and change. It introduces a generative, grounded theory of noble organizing; a dynamic process linking noble intentions and the translation of those intentions into social action through processes that defy traditional norms. This inquiry explores four social entrepreneurship organizations in their commitment to the common good and high purpose of developing human communities. Two for profit companies employ a multi pronged holistic approach to economic community development by 1) using the business of finance and credit to stimulate growth in disinvested areas and 2) providing quality service and care for a constituency that includes its low-income minority workforce, clients and ultimately the industry through public policy advocacy and reform. Two nonprofit entities cultivate and maintain communities of the highest quality by 1) providing social justice organizations with alternative funding sources to promote community-based advocacy work and 2) serving recovering drug and alcohol abusers by promoting personal development and collective learning. Interviews with strategic persons, published materials and subsequent consensual validation from each of the organizations were used to develop narratives that provide the framework for this study. A discourse analysis of the narratives revealed six universalistic principles characterizing the ethos of social entrepreneurship. Exploration into the Principles of Intentionality, Serendipity, Values-Led Governance, Unconventional Wisdom, Reinvention and Reverberation offer ways of approaching ideas for developing new directions for organizing in the interest of human beings with the intent to engage persons who desire change for the future and wish to participate in that future by contributing and influencing its own transformation. The term noble is used as a verb qualifier to understand and describe organizing processes that focus on conduct in the service of others and exp (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Cooperrider (Advisor) Subjects: