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This study aims to analyze the relationships between leader resilience, leadership style, stress and life satisfaction. It reflects an emerging theoretical framework that positions resilience as a capacity that can be developed vs a response mechanism driven by innate traits.

To test three research hypotheses, online survey data were collected from 101 E.M.B.A. alumni of a US-based university using a cross-sectional, correlational research design. The results were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The authors assessed resilience, leadership style, stress and satisfaction/well-being using standardized inventories.

The results support previous research that has identified a significant relationship between resilience and positive leadership. Unique to this study, however, is the finding that work process behaviors (e.g. time management, cooperation, receptiveness) rather than traits (e.g. optimism, self-esteem, locus of control) are the resilience factors most associated with a positive leadership style. Work process skills significantly interacted with stress level to moderate leadership style. Additionally, a positive leadership style moderated the impact of stressful life events on leader satisfaction/well-being.

Key limitations are sample size and the risk of common method variance. Though numerous procedural steps were taken to control for these issues, future research with a larger and more diverse sample is needed.

Organizational stress is pervasive, and resilience is increasingly recognized as a foundational leadership skill. This study provides empirical data documenting positive relationships between resilience, constructive leadership and leader satisfaction/well-being. This research also identifies work process behaviors (e.g. time management, cooperation and receptiveness) as the primary resiliency factors associated with sustaining positive leadership behaviors in times of stress. These results support previous research findings that have positioned resiliency as a capacity that can be developed, providing further support for investing in resiliency training for leaders.

This research contributes to the literature by analyzing resilience more comprehensively than previous studies. It extends the theoretical understanding of resilience beyond traits using an 160-item inventory that assesses four discrete domains of resilience. The results provide support for the importance of developing process skills in leaders to increase resiliency; thus, increasing the probability, they will model constructive leadership behaviors in times of significant stress.

The past two decades have been characterized as a time of merger mania. Unprecedented numbers of consolidations have occurred. Paradoxically these mergers have typically failed to achieve the targeted results. From a general point of view, the financial track record of recent mergers is, in fact, abysmal. It appears that the proposed efficiencies of scale often do not materialize. Yet, the merger frenzy continues. Globalization is a contributing factor. However, the cultural, political, psychological and geographical hurdles of cross‐cultural integration are enormous. This article explores the challenge of global integration by examining the much‐publicized DaimlerChrysler merger. The authors discuss innovative integration strategies and present a set of quantum skills that can be used to neutralize cross‐cultural barriers, thus enabling global leaders to create high performance organizations.

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to explore the relationships between spirituality, leader resiliency and life satisfaction/well-being.

Using an explanatory sequential design, the authors tested three research hypotheses to explore the relationships between the participants’ spiritual practices and level of resiliency, life satisfaction and sense of well-being. Data were collected from 101 executive MBA alumni of a US-based university. Following the quantitative analysis of the survey results, interviews were conducted with 25 executives who scored high in the frequency of spiritual practice to further explore how they applied their spirituality in stressful work situations.

The results found positive relationships between spirituality, resilience and overall life satisfaction. Participants who engaged in meditative practices had a significantly higher overall resilience score than non-meditators.

Key limitations are sample size and the risk of common method variance. Though numerous procedural steps were taken to control for these issues, future research with a larger and more diverse sample is needed.

Organizational stress is pervasive and executive burnout is a risk factor for leaders and their organizations. This research offers practical suggestions for ways that human resource managers and organization development practitioners can provide prevention resources to their executives.

This research contributes to the literature by providing support for mindfulness/meditation training for executives. It also demonstrates the value of mixed methods research for a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of the participants.

This study aims to identify the specific challenges that North American female professionals of Asian descent face in building executive presence and make recommendations for mitigating those challenges.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 female executives of Asian descent in diverse U.S. and Canadian organizations. The goal was to explore their perceptions of Asian organizational stereotypes and identify how these perceptions, shaped by their cultural and gender identities, have created unique challenges relating to executive presence. Interviewees provided in-depth examples of their challenges and detailed recommendations for neutralizing them. Interview data were coded and analyzed using the Gioia methodology.

Results revealed that deferential, reserved and hardworking are the top three perceptions attributed to female professionals of Asian descent working in North America. These perceptions are not commendatory or derogatory by themself. They can be associated with either positive or negative leadership qualities, depending on the specific behaviors exhibited and how those behaviors are interpreted. The authors’ analysis maps the relationship between these perceptions and behaviors associated with the executive presence literature. The respondents’ three key recommendations for neutralizing the negative connotations of these perceptions are discussed.

The results of this study reinforce the need to develop influence, communication and relational skills (e.g. executive presence) in women of Asian ethnicity. The study respondents’ recommendations provide a foundational curriculum guide for doing so. The results also support the need to train hiring managers to become ever more aware of their cultural biases, focusing on how these biases impact their hiring, performance evaluation and promotion practices.

There is a dearth of research regarding the career experiences of Asian women working in North American corporations. This qualitative study provides insight into relationships between cultural identity, executive presence and career success and lays the groundwork for future quantitative studies that deepen a theoretical understanding of the relationship of executive presence to impression management and cross-cultural theories.

Organizations benefit from workforce diversity and also benefit from cultural cohesion. Individuals benefit from job/person fit. However, not only do individuals with diverse behavioral styles often have differing values and interests, they also tend to prefer different types of job assignments and work cultures. Thus, the simultaneous optimization of behavioral style diversity, job/person fit and cultural cohesion would seem to be impossible. This article explores this leadership dilemma and suggests that the skill of quantum thinking can be used to create quantum organizations where seemingly opposite conditions co‐exist. Contemporary organizational development practices such as Future Search, Appreciative Inquiry and Dialogue provide concrete methodologies for embracing paradox and, thus, creating quantum organizations.

For the past ten years the management literature has increasingly discussed the concept of learning organizations. Yet, more that a decade later, few organizations have figured out how to create the structures and processes necessary to assure continuous learning. This article purports that this problem can be attributed to the mental models of those leading contemporary organizations. Learning organizations quite simply cannot be created by those who either consciously or unconsciously operate under the traditional, mechanistic organizational paradigm. If leaders are to create authentic learning organizations, they must adapt a new way of viewing reality – a new paradigm or mental model. The authors suggest that the new science theories of chaos, complexity, and quantum mechanics provide the foundation for a new way of thinking about organizations. They demonstrate the relevance of these theories for those who wish to create learning organizations and present a new‐science‐based skill set that enables twenty‐first‐century leaders to move beyond organizational adaptation to proactive change and continuous learning.

Reviews the historical origins of behavioral style and overviews the most commonly used behavioral style assessment instruments. The perceived benefits of behavioral style assessments and their similarities to and differences from personality instruments are discussed. Suggests that research is needed to validate the perceived organizational benefits of using style assessments in the workplace. Research is also needed to validate the perceived impact of work style diversity among members of an organization on the organization’s performance. Also recommends additional research to examine the relationships among behavioral style, job fit, and work environment, as well as the impact these variables have on individual, team and organizational effectiveness.

The purpose of this study was to examine the experience of strategic-level leaders whose spiritual beliefs or practices inform their organizational decision making.

Using a phenomenological methodology, 25 executives were interviewed to understand their lived experience. All participants held executive level positions, engaged in spiritual practices at least once a week and described spirituality as important in their lives.

Thematic analysis revealed themes that pointed to the locus of spirituality in the lives of the executives (innate but not overt) and the types of decisions for which they turned to their spirituality (decisions concerning people). When facing these types of decisions, leaders described an additional step we named “executive discernment.” This additional step sought to establish a connection with the transcendent and was described as heightening their decision-making abilities, serving as a model or “North Star,” or guiding them to a decision.

This study builds on prior theoretical work and gives insight into a process not usually visible: executives' reliance on spirituality during organizational decision making. These insights highlight the potential benefits and provide specificity to the potential risks for leaders who turn to spirituality when making organizational decisions. These risks include an overconfidence in one's decision-making abilities, reliance on an authority inconsistent with organizational aims or failing to convince others of the wisdom of the chosen direction.

For work organizations and their members, establishing and maintaining mutually satisfying employment relationships is a fundamental concern. The importance that scholars attach to employment relationships is reflected in research streams that explore the optimal design of strategic human resource management systems, the nature of psychological contract fulfillment and violation, and the factors associated with achieving person-environment fit, among others. Generally missing from theory and research pertaining to employment relationships is the perspective of individuals who reside at the employee-employer interface – managerial leaders. We argue that, for managerial leaders, a pervasive concern involves the tangible and intangible resource requirements of specific employees. We then provide the groundwork for study of the leader’s perspective on employment relationships by proposing a model that identifies how employees come to be perceived as low versus high maintenance and how these perceptions, in turn, influence leader cognition, affect, and behavior.

Prior to the spring 2020, education in the United States looked very similar to how it had always looked … students attended brick-and-mortar schools, used technology in their classrooms and homes to supplement their learning, and relied on the support of teachers as needed or wanted. Parents, for their part, were involved in the traditional supportive roles of checking over homework, monitoring attendance, and providing encouragement as warranted, and worked to balance this role with professional and community obligations and responsibilities. The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, and parents as well as teachers were suddenly thrust into different and less familiar roles, as teaching and learning transitioned to a virtual experience. In examining this transition, a team consisting of researchers from Florida and North Carolina sought to determine the effectiveness of the parent roles in schooling from the educator perspective. In this chapter, the findings of this study are explored and analyzed, with recommendations made for research moving forward in this area.