The role of coaching and mentoring in transformational change, focusing on housing association mergers

Coaching and mentoring have grown rapidly in the last twenty years, reflecting increased level of interest in these fields. The widespread popularity, however, has been largely attributed to the anecdotal feedback about their effectiveness due to considerable gaps in the empirical research base. The aim of this study was to explore the role of coaching and mentoring in relation to transformational changes with particular reference to housing association mergers in the UK. As a result of constant merger activity, the largest twenty housing associations own 30% of the market share and the trend is likely to continue, making the research outcomes useful for future strategic planning of housing association mergers. This thesis includes empirical work through data gathered by semi-structured interviews and analysed by constructivist grounded theory methodology. The study found that coaching and mentoring play an important role in housing association mergers and transformational changes especially in creating a new shared identity and staff integration after housing association mergers. Integration can keep the merged housing associations together, thus reducing the merger failures in the housing associations. This study makes an original contribution to knowledge by presenting a conceptual framework. The framework incorporates different forms of coaching and mentoring, such as, one to one coaching, team coaching, executive mentoring and peer mentoring used in housing associations for the transformative learning of the housing officials

Exploring Strategies for Successful Implementation of Electronic Health Records

Adoption of electronic health records (EHR) systems in nonfederal acute care hospitals has increased, with adoption rates across the United States reaching as high as 94%. Of the 330 plus acute care hospital EHR implementations in Texas, only 31% have completed attestation to Stage 2 of the meaningful use (MU) criteria. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that hospital chief information officers (CIOs) used for the successful implementation of EHR. The target population consists of 3 hospitals CIOs from a multi-county region in North Central Texas who successfully implemented EHRs meeting Stage 2 MU criteria. The conceptual framework, for this research, was the technology acceptance model theory. The data were collected through semistructured interviews, member checking, review of the literature on the topic, and publicly available documents on the respective hospital websites. Using methodological triangulation of the data, 4 themes emerged from data analysis: EHR implementation strategies, overcoming resistance to technology acceptance, strategic alignment, and patient wellbeing. Participants identified implementation teams and informatics teams as a primary strategy for obtaining user engagement, ownership, and establishing a culture of acceptance to the technological changes. The application of the findings may contribute to social change by identifying the strategies hospital CIOs used for successful implementation of EHRs. Successful EHR implementation might provide positive social change by improving the quality of patient care, patient safety, security of personal health information, lowering health care cost, and improvements in the overall health of the general population

Human resource management : a study of two English district health authorities

The thesis is primarily about personnel management in the National Health Service (NHS). It uses managerial strategy theory to examine the arguments about the changing style of personnel management and the emergence of human resource management (HRN). Some scholars have argued that the adoption of HRM results in an increasing role of line managers in the formulation and implementation of personnel issues. It is further argued that HIM results in increased ambiguity in personnel issues, and consequently poses a threat to personnel management. Using a case study qualitative approach involving the analysis of documents and in-depth, semi-structured interviews, the thesis examined the implications of the integration of the personnel strategy of quality circles into the organizational strategy of quality assurance in two English district health authorities in the Post-Griffiths period. The research revealed that both quality assurance and quality circles initiatives are responses to the potential deterioration in health service delivery as a result of the cuts in health care expenditure. They are, thus, opportunistic and reactive approaches for managing under financial constraints and as such cannot be considered as HRK The empirical evidence indicates that personnel managers did not play any significant role in the quality initiative programmes; as such both programmes did not pose any major threat to personnel management although they encourage line management involvement in personnel issues. This heightens the ambiguity between line and staff functions and relationships in personnel. This research is significant in showing how higher level managerial decisions, a response to environmental pressures provide a link between organizational policies and the employment practices at the lower levels within an organization. It has shed some light also on the supposed effects of employees commitment programmes on personnel management thus contributing to the debate on the supposed 'transformation' of personnel management into HRM

Insurance Professionals\u27 Use of Best Practices in Enterprise Risk Management

The enterprise risk management framework might be a holistic response to strategic and operational risk management. However, a lack of integrity and silo-based traditions prevent the holistic approach to risk management practices. The problem was that although researchers had investigated this issue, there is a limited understanding of insurance professionals\u27 use of best practices in enterprise risk management. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to investigate the insurance professionals\u27 use of best practices like: (a) fit and proper regulatory requirements, (b) three lines of defense model, (c) risk culture, (d) link to strategy, and (e) risk appetite statements to manage enterprise risk. The theories undergirding this study included the general systems theory, the expected utility theory, the prospect theory, stakeholder theory, culture theory, groupthink, and agency theory. The study provided a system-based framework of risk management practices for better decision-making. This study collected data from 18 semistructured interviews with insurance professionals, triangulating the results with external and internal artifacts. Data analysis used pattern-matching logic. The study’s results confirmed the lack of a holistic approach to risk management where insurers use traditional procedures to comply with regulatory requirements. The prevalence of the compliance-based culture over the risk-aware culture might lead to potential issues. The study’s positive social change implication might be effective risk management practices in insurance organizations and the industry

Understanding SE Growth: The Case of Bangladesh

This thesis seeks to explore the hybrid nature of Social Enterprises (SEs) by investigating how they incorporate co-existence of social and economic goals and embed in multiple institutional domains. By synthesising insights from three literature domains - hybrid organisations, institutional views and strategic management - this thesis advances the understanding about the hybrid nature of SEs mainly in two ways. First, it examines the extent to which managerial tensions may result in hybrid SEs due to co-existence of values and influences from pluralistic institutional domains. Second, it explores how such organisations mobilise resources and capabilities in order to respond to internal tensions. The three research questions addressed in the thesis are: i) What is the nature of SE growth in Bangladesh?; ii) How does the institutional context influence SE growth in Bangladesh? and iii) What role do SEs’ resources and capabilities play in responding to the institutional influences? The study adopts a multiple case study approach, collecting data from eleven Bangladeshi SEs. With rapid rise of hybrid forms of SEs in Bangladesh, the findings of the study have both practical and policy implications. The insights on SEs’ internal tensions can enable Bangladeshi policy makers to realise the needs and challenges of hybrid SEs in the country. This may aid the development of customised policies, incentives and support systems that are required to facilitate the growth of such organisations. The insights on the management of tensions can aid the leaders and managers in hybrid SEs to respond to their internal tensions more appropriately.The study identifies six operational models through analysis of the social goal, economic mission, income source, governance structure and institutional setting of the studied cases. These models are: SEs that are fully reliant on grant, NGOs with trading elements, NGOs with full reliance on trading, social business es, public and private limited corporations, and NGOs with conventional subsidiary enterprise. The findings further showed that the studied SEs have pursued social and economic goals simultaneously through adoption of four growth strategies: expansion, diversification, autonomous growth and partnership. The study identifies a number of competing pressures originating from multiple institutional domains which have affected the way they accomplished their social and economic goals. This interplay between SEs’ dual goals and institutional influences led to ten different tensions inside the studied cases. The management of these tensions, at the functional level, involved orchestration of SEs’ resources and capabilities in a particular way. The specific ways of mobilisation of resources and capabilities ultimately led the SEs towards five different growth paths: i) forced adoption/coercive adoption, ii) proactive response, iii) adapt, iv) influence, and v) side-stepping

Strategies That Mitigate IT Infrastructure Demands Produced by Student BYOD Usa

The use of bring your own devices (BYOD) is a global phenomenon, and nowhere is it more evident than on a college campus. The use of BYOD on academic campuses has grown and evolved through time. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to identify the successful strategies used by chief information officers (CIOs) to mitigate information technology infrastructure demands produced by student BYOD usage. The diffusion of innovation model served as the conceptual framework. The population consisted of CIOs from community colleges within North Carolina. The data collection process included semistructured, in-depth face-to-face interviews with 9 CIOs and the analysis of 25 documents, all from participant case organizations. Member checking was used to increase the validity of the findings. During the data analysis phase, the data were coded, sorted, queried, and analyzed obtained from semistructured interviews and organizational documentation with NVivo, a qualitative data analysis computer software package. Through methodological triangulation, 3 major themes emerged from the study: the importance of technology management tools, the importance of security awareness training, and the importance of BYOD security policies and procedures. These themes highlight successful strategies employed by CIOs. The implications for positive social change as a result of this study include creating a more positive experience for students interacting with technology on campus. Effects on social change will also arise by increasing a student\u27s mindfulness through security awareness programs, which will empower the student to take more control of their online presence and as they pass that information along to family and friends

COMPLEXITY LEADERSHIP: THE ROLE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING CENTER LEADERS IN ONLINE LEARNING AT SMALL, PRIVATE COLLEGES

As online learning continues to grow and became an integral component of many higher education institutions (Allen & Seaman, 2017), the role of leadership in guiding those online learning initiatives differs from institution to institution. At small, private colleges and universities, where online learning is seeing greater enrollment and growth (Clinefelter & Magda, 2013), teaching and learning centers (TLC) often have involvement in guiding and shaping online learning initiatives. This study investigated the role of TLC leaders in leading online learning initiatives. The value of this study is an examination of leadership during a period of transformation and change that requires TLC leaders to manage administrative directives, work with a diverse faculty base, and balance these sometimes competing interests. This research study sought to explore the perceptions and lived experiences of TLC leaders in online learning leadership within small, private higher education institutions. Utilizing complexity leadership theory as a framework for exploring the various leadership functions of TLC leaders, the study employed a transcendental phenomenological methodology (Moustakas, 1994). Participants included seven TLC leaders or other TLC staff who were involved in online learning initiatives at their institutions. Data was collected through a series of three semi-structured interview sessions based on the qualitative interview design of Seidman (2005). Analysis of the data generated themes centered around the three leadership functions of complexity leadership theory: administrative, adaptive, and enabling leadership