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This study explored how formally assigned, organizational leaders perceive their employees using an explanatory sequential mixed-method approach. Applying the tropes associated with labeling theory (i.e., the perceptual frame within the labeling process) and positive organizational elements (i.e., positive deviance and positive leadership), the research determined what potential labels leaders assign to employees they supervise, examined the degree to which self-assessed positive leaders assign more positive descriptors, and identified contextual factors that influence the leaders’ labeling process. As part of an eligibility process for the study, leaders completed a positive leader self-assessment (n = 62), of which a sample (n = 46) participated in a diary study throughout one workweek. As a group, the leaders assigned positive descriptors to their employees 78% of the time during the study. Leaders who assessed themselves as effective positive leaders (M = 20.42, SD = 4.010) used more positive descriptors than those who did not (M = 15.24, SD = 5.533). Of the descriptors that were considered potential labels, 34% were positive and only 4% were negative. Leader labeling of person-related deviances (rather than job-related) was more likely used to describe extreme traits, behaviors, and emotions that the leader did or did not value. A more meaningful understanding of what labels leaders apply to employees, why they apply them, and whether they relate to self-assessed positivity can improve leadership within organizations. Empowered with this understanding, leaders can improve self-awareness and more positively influence employees.

Leader identity development happens over a lifespan, and long-term identity change is unusual. The way individual’s view their identity as a leader is built upon and reinforced over time. However, there are events such as crucible moments or transformative experiences that do alter an individual’s leader identity. This study aimed to identify what factors influence the way people describe transformative experiences that lead to perceived leader identity change. The correlational research design employed the data collection of transformative experiences narratives, which were coded into a quantitative content analysis, and four assessments to measure the following concepts: affect, identity processing styles, learning goal orientation, and leader development psychological capital. The study analyzed 93 participants responses to understand the degree of relationship between the four mentioned concepts and the affect, or emotion, participants used to describe a transformative experience. Five out of the ten tested hypotheses were supported to indicate several factors that influence the way people describe transformative experiences that lead to perceived leader identity change. Additional exploratory multiple regression analyses were performed to further understand the role of these influence factors. The results from the present study advance transformative experience and leader identity research and literature through the provided insight gained through the findings. Advisor: L.J. McElravy

How do local government leaders perceive the development of their leadership competencies and the methods they have used to acquire competencies to meet on-the-job challenges in a city context? There have been few attempts to document leaders’ perceptions of the competencies they need or how they get developed; however, the critical and ubiquitous role of city government demands that we increase understanding of these crucial issues. Not only does a majority of the world’s population already live in urban areas (i.e., areas in which competent local governmental activity is required), but this percentage is forecasted to increase from 55% to 68% by 2050. Also, the nature of local government is evolving and, as a result, there has been renewed attention on local governments and the practices of local governmental leaders. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to generate knowledge about (a) what specific competencies support leadership practice in one city government, and (b) how competencies are developed. More specifically, this study explored city government leaders’ perceptions of (a) the challenges faced and the competencies needed to address contemporary on-the-job issues, and (b) the methods that have been employed to acquire the required competencies by leaders in one city government. This study employed a case study/cross case analysis research design and included 12 participants in senior administrative positions in a large, metropolitan city in California. The cases were developed through semi-structured interviews and narrative analysis. A cross-case analysis procedure was employed in the second phase of the analysis to generate aggregate answers to the research questions driving the study. The findings suggest that the local government leaders who participated in the study relied on competencies related to relationships, knowledge, and strategic processes acquired largely through informal methods. Also, in some cases, participants reported that they relied on unique competencies or methods that they perceived as important for their practice. This research is significant because no previous study of this sort focused directly on the perceptions of local government leaders. The study generated recommendations about developing competencies when formal training may not be effective.

According to the International Leadership Association, more than 2,000 academic and co-curricular programs exist at universities across the nation (Guthrie, Teig, & Hu, 2018). Evaluation of programs is largely piecemeal—meaning that the additive effects of these programs are not examined. The purpose of this study is to address the current gap in the literature by holistically assessing the impact that these leadership experiences have on the participating students rather than looking at the consequences of these experiences individually. The current study uses 99 students’ data from a five- year, multi-institutional, longitudinal study to examine the pathways that these undergraduate students take to develop their leadership skills through all academic, co-curricular leadership development programs and formal leadership positions throughout all four years of their undergraduate career. Eight pathways were identified by a research team based on participatory experiences of students (e.g., a formal leadership position, no participation and mixed participation path). Antecedents to and consequences of these pathways were examined using Chi-square and regression analyses with highly involved participants having higher school engagement and psychosocial development their senior years compared to less involved students. The results of this study have large implications for the leadership development field, both to those working in institutions and leadership practioners, helping to inform who is in these programs and the longitudinal impact of these developmental programs on students.

The problem addressed observed the lack of succession planning at two-year colleges in Georgia in identifying future leaders in higher education. Due to escalating impending retirements, resignation, and discharge, it is vital that succession plans are implemented within the college for promotions. Leadership succession planning has seldom been incorporated into community college’s strategic planning. The emphasis of this research study was to examine how leadership succession planning can be developed and implemented in the community college arena in Georgia. Challenged by increased enrollments, diminishing state funding, accountability for student success, and increased public oversight, this study intended to provide awareness into the leadership challenges facing community colleges. This study focused on the lived experiences of individuals and groups’ data collected by means of interviews and observation. With the use of existing literature on succession planning, higher education and other organizational settings are used to check the emerging patterns and recommendations for the necessary process, strategies, and methods required to establish a successful succession plan within the executive leadership at community colleges. Succession planning is nothing new as one great example is described in the Bible with the story of Moses and his successor Joshua. Moses became a mentor to Joshua and provided him the opportunity to complete various leadership tasks to further his development. The same principles of succession planning that were used in the transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua are still applicable to today’s transitions in leadership.

As organizations contend with how to prepare the next generation of leaders amidst all the discourse about the challenges associated with the multigenerational workplace, important dynamics related to developing female leaders are being lost. The advancement of women presents a compelling opportunity for organizations. Women have been progressing their education and participation in the U.S. workforce, yet the number of women in leadership positions has been modest. Addressing the low rates of women in leadership roles is particularly important today as the millions of Baby Boomers retire and organizations contemplate how to prepare Generation X and Generation Y professionals to fill the leadership ranks. A mixed methods study of 691 U.S. professionals shows that generation affiliation does limit career commitment and reveals that mentorship provides Gen X and Gen Y women with specific leader development guidance that is different than their male peers in relation to building leader traits, growth areas, self-awareness, management style, and ownership. The results of this study can contribute to the development of more robust mentorship and succession planning programs.

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how female military officers describe their personal experiences and perceive their professional development in a male dominated organization. A phenomenological research method was most appropriate for this research study to capture the lived experiences of female leaders from their individual perspectives based on their service in the military. Nine female commissioned officers were interviewed from the Minnesota Army National Guard in the military ranks of captain, major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel. Three themes emerged from the study that expand and enrich the understanding of the lived experience of female commissioned officers in the Minnesota Army National Guard. Within the three major themes there were several sub-themes. The three major themes: (1) personal and professional relationships, (2) leadership strategies, and (3) operational experience and assignments. The themes revealed the multifaceted dimensions of female officers and their experience with leader development. The findings suggest a stronger need for leader development programs in the military. The study confirmed mentoring future leaders and providing a leader development program is important to the development of leaders in today's military. These findings provide a baseline for future research in the area of leader development for women in the military.

This case study examined the leadership development experience of employees who participated in a high-potential leadership development program within a major professional services firm in the Midwest United States. Leadership development is a top priority for many organizations and a critical driver of success. Effective leadership is also recognized as a source of sustainable competitive advantage and greater market value. Despite these compelling factors, the need for developing leaders has been listed among organizations' top concerns for more than a decade. These factors create challenges in developing the talent needed for organizations to remain competitive. As these challenges converge they intensify the need for well-planned, consistent, and rigorous development of high-potential talent. These needs support the call for a greater understanding of how participation in a cohort-based leadership development program contributes to high-potentials' development as leaders.

Members of Generation Y in the training and development industry will be required to assume leadership roles as Baby Boomers retire, yet little empirical research exists regarding how best to prepare them for leadership. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in leader developmental readiness between generational cohorts in the training industry, specifically Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Leader developmental readiness provided a definition of developmental readiness for leaders using the five constructs (learning goal orientation, developmental efficacy, self-awareness, leader complexity, and metacognitive ability). A volunteer sample was compiled from members of the ASTD National LinkedIN group (n = 636). Results were analyzed using structured means analysis with maximum likelihood (ML) estimation. Generational cohorts demonstrated differences in leader developmental readiness. Baby Boomers indicated statistically and practically higher metacognitive ability and developmental efficacy than Generation Y. Results demonstrated statistically and practically higher leader complexity in Generation Y and both Generation X and Baby Boomers. These results should inform leader development practitioners as they continue to use existing methods in preparing the different generations for leader development interventions while pointing to possible needs to increase the metacognitive ability and developmental efficacy in Generation Y and ensure accurate perception of leader complexity in those individuals. Further research would be helpful to confirm or refute findings and expand on the target population for enhanced generalizability.

Given the rapid changes that 21st century museums must manage, flexible thinking about leadership forms and purposes is needed. Today's complex leadership landscape necessitates that staff engage in enacting leadership with positional leaders. Limited empirical literature exists that describes how the next generation of museum leaders is being nurtured and developed. The purpose of this study was to: describe museum professionals' perceptions of leadership practices; investigate museums as sites of organizational and leadership learning; and consider the experiences of museum professionals who have participated in leader development programs. The study involved an on-line survey with 310 professionals working in U.S. museums and follow-up interviews with a subset of 13 survey participants. Bolman and Deal's (1990) Leadership Orientations Inventory (BDLO) was used to assess museum leadership practices; Marsick and Watkins (1999) 21-item version Dimensions of a Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ-A) was used to assess supports for learning in the museum. Findings based on bivariate correlation and multiple regression analysis show a significant relationship between ratings for leadership effectiveness at the department and organization levels and scores on the BDLO and the DLOQ-A. While leadership effectiveness at both levels tended to be positive, over 60% of middle and non-managers did not perceive their museum’s leadership as mastering any of the BDLO Leadership Orientations Inventory frames. Statistically significant differences in the perception of museums as learning organizations were found with decreasing support from senior managers to middle managers to non-managers. With regard to learning leadership, findings indicate that the DLOQ-A Strategic Leadership for Learning dimension, Organization Support, and Peer Support are important for facilitating continued learning and application of new knowledge and skills derived from leader development programs. Finally, most leader development program participants indicated that they were immediately able to apply some skills learned; however sustaining incorporation of new knowledge was difficult. Implications for museum professionals, leader development program providers, museum studies programs, leadership and change, and future research are discussed. A digital introduction accompanies this dissertation. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd.

Based on Astin’s (1993) theory of involvement and Astin’s (1991) college impact model a model of college student leader development was developed to examine the process of leader development among students who participated in sport during college. In addition, the differences between students who participated in different levels of sport with respect to leadership self-efficacy (LSE) and socially responsible leadership (SRL) values (HERI, 1996) were explored. Other factors such as involvement, positional leadership, and participation in mentoring were evaluated as college environment variables. This ex post facto study was a secondary analysis of data collected through the 2009 administration of the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL). The MSL provided a national sample of senior undergraduate students. From this random samples of students who participated in intercollegiate (n = 349), club (n = 312), intramural (n = 348), and recreational sports (n = 347), non-athletes (n = 349), and students who participated in multiple levels of sport (n = 347) were created for analysis. Two other samples were created to compare students who participated in any level of athletics (n = 995) to those that did not (n = 999). Single and multi-group structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to interpret the results and determine the fit of the model. The results indicate college students who participated in any level of athletics scored higher than other college students in LSE at a statistically significant level after controlling for background, pre-college variables, and involvement during college. Differences also were also found between the levels of athletic participation with respect to leadership outcomes, with multiple-level and recreational sport participants scoring higher than club sport and non-athletes in positional leadership, LSE, and SRL. A small but significant difference was found in SRL based on gender, with women scoring slightly higher than men. No statistically significant differences in leadership outcomes were found based on race or National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division. The model of college student leadership development proposed in this study had acceptable fit across groups and explained 36% of the variance in LSE and 32% in SRL for the overall sample. The results indicated that mentoring, positional leadership, and pre-college LSE had direct effect on the development of LSE. While mentoring, involvement, and pre-college SRL predicted SRL. Mentoring was the strongest during college variable to predict both LSE and SRL across samples, indicating the importance of mentoring to college student-athlete leader development. Several differences between paths emerged between the groups. The study provided support for LSE and SRL as outcomes for students who participated in athletics during college, and the use of socially responsible leadership as a means to understand leadership development for college student who participate in athletics. The discussion includes practical applications of the results for universities, college sport programs, and students as well as recommendations for future research.

The researcher developed the concept of an edge leader—that is, one who can mindfully turn around a troubled business to sustain it for the future. In an increasingly turbulent and competitive climate, more edge leaders must be developed to sustain their organizations for the benefit of shareholders, employees, communities, and society. The researcher's review of the classic and contemporary leadership and change literatures suggested that four elements are necessary to develop leaders capable of leading even basic beneficial change. They include: having broad, successful experience; being emotionally and socially aware; having the ability to think differently about priorities and paradoxes when progressing through organizational levels; and having the competencies to fill a role. However, the researcher asserted that those elements, while necessary, are not sufficient to develop edge leaders. Specifically, two additional elements are required to fill the gap between basic change leader development and turnaround leader development: instilling a zest for continuous learning and developing the ability to mindfully apply a balance of transactional and transformational leadership practices. The researcher's review of the classic, contemporary, and empirical leadership literature, along with several preparatory studies, suggested that the edge leadership concept merited further study. The dissertation research further substantiated the concept in three ways within a turnaround case study. The researcher used additional analysis of the literature along with Q methodology, a constructivist approach combining qualitative interview data gathering, researcher interpretation to define the range of participants' perspectives, and quantitative factor analysis to develop conclusions. Based on interview data from a company leader and eight cross-functional senior staff members, the researcher first found that the leader's development profile compared well to the six conceptual elements of edge leadership. Second, the researcher‘s literature-based top-25 turnaround leader action items list matched 23 of those actually taken by the leader within the case. Third, the researcher examined the quantum relationships among the participants and their perceptions of the leader‘s actions, concluding that four factors represented the actions seen by the participants as the most important to the turnaround. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd.

Leadership is, at its essence, an influence relationship between people. Leaders are often thought of as those who are able to influence people to take actions oriented toward achieving specific goals and objectives. While many books have been written, and myriad scholarly research studies conducted enumerating countless personal characteristics, qualities, and skills of the exemplary leader, little has been done to understand and convey the ways in which an individual might go about cultivating these virtues; which are often said to include charisma, empathy, communication skills, and others. Through a multiple single-subject design, this research examines the individual-level effect of a set of somatic daily practices for leader development—techniques integrated into everyday activities such as walking, sitting, and driving a car—based on the underlying principles of the Japanese art of aikido. The daily practices were designed to address 3 abilities at the individual level that are believed to be important to the leadership relationship: (a) focusing and sustaining the focus of attention, (b) establishing and maintaining genuine connections to other people, and (c) reducing and minimizing tension and stress. These 3 abilities function as facilitators of the individual skills, characteristics, and qualities that are thought to contribute to leader capability. Five study participants were taught the daily practices for leader development. Participants were asked to apply the practices as often as possible during the 12-week study period. They met with the researcher for 1 hour each week to review the practices and share their experiences implementing them. The Center for Creative Leadership’s Benchmarks 360-Degree Leader Assessment Inventory was used to measure leader ability before and after. Participants provided weekly self-assessments of attention, connection, and tension/stress. All 5 leaders made measurable improvements in one or more of the 3 ability areas of attention, connection, and tension/stress. Both the self-assessment data from the study participants and, in some cases, the external 360-degree assessment rating data from peers, superiors, and direct reports, showed meaningful improvement over the 12-week period. The findings indicated that, in a relatively short period of time, individual leaders can make dramatic changes in deeply habituated leadership-related behaviors. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd

In a time of increasing complexity, many organizations invest in leadership development programs to prepare those who will assume the role of leader. Although many studies have evaluated programs’ impact, the questions remain: does development happen in leadership development program? If so, what kind of development? And what is the participant’s experience of personal or organizational impact? The purpose of this sequential mixed methodology study is to address these three questions utilizing an online follow-through platform as a lens on 248 participants in the Center for Creative Leadership’s Leadership Development Program (LDP) who reported completing their LDP goals. Those who completed their development goals in the twelve weeks following the LDP face-to-face classroom phase were asked "What was the personal or organizational impact of completing this goal?" From thematic analysis of the participant’s experience of impact, a taxonomy of 82 content codes emerged; these were then clustered into eight domains of increasing interpersonal space. The codes and domains were utilized to generate frequency counts, revealing first-person accounts of impact that extended beyond the individual into interpersonal, team, and organizational domains; the reports of impact included both interior (subjective worldview and shared culture) and exterior (observable behavior, performance, structure, systems, and processes) realms highlighting the impact on individuals and collectives. Codes surfaced evidence of both horizontal and vertical development, with seven emergent hypotheses being investigated for their role in predicting inclusion in the vertical development codes.This research integrates the literature in various domains to discuss findings: leader development, leadership development, leadership development program design, postclassroom development, adult development, horizontal development, vertical development, integral theory, hierarchical complexity, and online follow-through technology. This study helps make visible the value of development in times of increasing complexity, adaptive challenges, and a diverse workforce; development builds an ability for individuals and collectives to catalyze new insights from reasoning that is more complex. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center,www.ohiolink.edu/etd.

The purpose of the research has been to investigate personality as a predictor for perceived performance change following a leader training program. A sample of 363 leaders attended a five day leader development training program at a centralized location. Approximately 90-120 days after returning to work in their organizations, participating leader received a 360-degree assessment in order to determine that amount of perceived performance change. Personality was measured using the CPI260, and results were mapped onto the Five Factor model of personality. Personality was investigated both as dimensions of the Five Factor model and as types. Personality types were determined via cluster analysis. Personality was further investigated as a moderating the relationship between self-other rating discrepancy and perceived performance change. Results suggest that personality, either by dimension or type, can be used as a predictor in determining perceived performance change following a leader development intervention. Personality was not found to moderate the relationship between self-other rating discrepancy and perceived performance change. Implications for theory and practice as well as recommendations for further research are presented.