Applying Diversity-Intelligent Organizational Strategies for Competitive Advantage

Competitive advantage is attained through talent development and leadership. Talented employees seek career advancement, change, and success. Organization leaders must integrate all employees into their strategic plans and can no longer exclude talented, diverse individuals. Key diversity improvement themes are revealed in this chapter to help leaders focus on areas within the organization to apply diversity intelligent strategies and eliminate institutional barriers that limit the success of diverse employees. Sustaining competitive advantage requires dedicated efforts of executive leaders in organizations.

Big Data Analytics in Higher Education

This chapter reviews the literature on the use of business analytics in higher education. Universities have large datasets available to predict future direction and generate actionable information. An important type of analytics used to improve management processes and to make informed decisions is big data business analytics. State university executive leaders may improve the effectiveness of their decisions by integrating business analytics in the decision-making models. However, there is a need to examine the use of big data business analytics in the decision-making process at the executive leadership level of the selected state universities. Especially in the context of how descriptive, predictive, prescriptive, decisive and basic analytics, and data collection influence the decision-making process at the executive leadership level of the state universities in terms of student retention and graduation rates.

Is It Because You Don’t Want to? A Content Analysis of Police Executive Leaders’ Perceptions of Policewomen’s Careers in Europe

The impediments and barriers that women face in entering and developing a police career have received relatively little attention from researchers. As of today in Europe, despite the slow progress, the 25% barrier to female representation has already been overcome in several countries. However, many areas remain closed to women within police organizations. In this context, research was conducted based on a content analysis of the perceptions of 56 police officers, 28 men and 28 women with considerable police experience, occupying executive leadership positions from a total of 26 European countries. Data was collected through a questionnaire composed of 23 open questions. The results show a considerable gap between the perceptions of male and female police executive leaders with regard to access, career development and workplace conditions faced by policepersons. According to the results, the mirage of equality, dominant in the view of male police officers, is a major barrier to achieving real equality, both horizontally and vertically. What implications these results have on the strategies that police organizations should follow to achieve the challenge of inclusion are discussed, and new ways of analysis are proposed.

Black Male Executives in Higher Education: The Experience of Ascending the Academic Leadership Ladder

The Problem The current pipeline supplying qualified and competent leaders to the upper ranks of higher education appears to prelimit the number of Black males who reach executive status. Even though many universities and colleges remain resolute in increasing diversity, social, and structural barriers block access and restrict executive development. This study focuses on the leadership and career advancement of Black male executive leaders in predominantly White institutions (PWI’s) of higher education. The Solution This qualitative, phenomenological examination of the lived experiences of 10 Black male, executive leaders in predominantly White institutions of higher education describes what it is like for them to persist in their leadership roles despite negative experiences that are related to their social identity. The findings reveal how their existence in racialized environments has impacted their leadership approach and the trajectory of their careers. The Stakeholders The stakeholders are Black academics seeking or holding executive leadership roles in higher education; HRD scholars and practitioners.

Rwandan Women in Higher Education: Progress, Successes, and Challenges

In nearly three decades since Rwanda’s genocide and civil war, its education sector has undergone reconstruction to an unprecedented degree within higher education. While greater numbers of girls are attending university, and more women are becoming university faculty members, their status in educational leadership roles remains unclear. This qualitative investigation sought to present insight into four women who serve as professors and executive leaders within the higher education system by examining their progress, successes, and challenges. Four of the many insights that have emerged include women’s smaller acceptance rate into higher education as undergraduates; the country’s lack of Ph.D. programs, thereby requiring women to leave the country in order to obtain the terminal degree; disproportionate service expectations placed on women academics as compared to men that affect scholarly output; and society’s expectation for women’s responsibilities as wives and mothers regardless of career responsibilities or status. To remedy these findings, further investigation can shed light on the reasons for low acceptance of women into the university; may lead to development of a strategic plan to address the lack of opportunities for students to enter graduate level education leading to the Ph.D.; and may address broader national policies that support women academics such as attention to child care and mentoring for promotion.

Implementation Factors Related to Improving the Food Environment Within Health Care Institutions: A Multiple Case Study

Background Healthy food environment policies (HFEPs), such as sugar-sweetened beverage bans or nutritional standards for vending machines, can improve the healthfulness of retail food venues, particularly within health care institutions that have a health-focused mission. The degree to which operational managers’ and executive leaders’ perceptions of implementation challenges align or diverge, and the extent to which these perceptions affect HFEP implementation, is unknown.Methods We conducted ten semi-structured key informant interviews with managers and executive leaders who participated in HFEP development within five health care organizations. Interviews explored facilitators and barriers for HFEP adoption and maintenance. We transcribed, coded, and analyzed interviews and derived contextual facilitators and barriers.Results We identified 27 facilitators and 30 barriers, which were refined into six and five categories, respectively, and ultimately paired to create three overarching recommendations. Operational managers’ and executive leaders’ perceptions overlapped 44-75% when identifying facilitators but only 33-58% when identifying implementation barriers. Interpersonal issues such as over-delegation and mistrust were prominent among those organizations whose respondents’ perceptions diverged substantially.Conclusion As the obesity epidemic continues to increase, understanding key facilitators and barriers to HFEPs, as well as the influence on leaderships’ perceptions on the implementation process, will be key to addressing obesogenic food environments. Though leaders were generally aligned in perspectives regarding facilitators, there was greater divergence when barriers were discussed. Executive leaders are encouraged to familiarize themselves with operational barriers and refrain from over-delegating these challenges to their operational counterparts, who lack the institutional authority to override organizational or system-level decisions.

Systemic leadership development: impact on organizational effectiveness

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of leadership development programs on organizational outcomes and organizational effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach Using a grounded theory approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 executive leaders from aviation firms in Brazil with employees participating in a leadership development program. NVivo12 was used for coding and managing the data. Thematic analysis was performed to determine themes and categories. Findings The leadership development program was found to influence organizational level outcomes identified as themes of internal impact, external impact, skill development and capacity. The interviews also found that executive leaders perceived the leadership development program to impact organizational effectiveness. Connections to human capital, social capital and collective leadership were found as outcomes of the leadership development program contributing to organizational effectiveness. Research limitations/implications The findings are dependent upon the executive leaders’ interviews and are limited sample size. The protocol of subjective inter-coder reliability was followed supporting the credibility and dependability of the findings; however, researcher bias may still be present in qualitative studies. Generalizability outside of the Brazilian aviation context is cautioned until further studies in additional contexts and industries are completed. Practical implications The findings of this study support leadership development programs as impactful on organizational outcomes and effectiveness. Incorporating leadership development programs as part of human capital management strategies supports organizational effectiveness through increased collective leadership capacity, human capital development and social capital. Originality/value A large amount is known regarding the outcomes for individuals as a result of leadership development programs with less examination on the contribution to organizational level outcomes and organizational effectiveness. This study aids in bridging this gap.

Reconsidering Budgeting after the COVID-19 Outbreak

The financial field is experiencing unprecedented changes, as the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak are unraveling. One of the main challenges the managers have to face is the elaboration and implementation of the budgets. During 2020, companies worldwide had to continuously adjust the budgets which were already approved before the pandemic. But, as everyone understood that the world is not facing just a temporary situation, executive leaders had to also reconsider their budgeting process, taking into consideration the uncertainties of the future. It was clear that the traditional way of developing a budget, based on historical information, was no longer relevant and a new process should be implemented. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to put into discussion which would be the best alternative to the traditional budgeting process. Based on the thorough analysis of the reports published by relevant organisms and firms, the authors concluded that the best alternative would be the zero-based budgeting technique. The paper presents the benefits of this method, but also a guideline regarding the implementation of this process.

StateChurch: Bringing Religion to Public Higher Education

Religion undeniably impacts life in modern society in numerous ways. In the U.S., discussions about religion in public life often start at the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution as fundamental to the separation of church and state. Public higher education does not necessarily share established associations with any religion, but is not free from religious influence. Although Christian influences are undeniably present on public campuses, educators hesitate to discuss religion and spirituality due in part to a pedestrian understanding of the establishment clause and epistemologies that artificially equate secularism with intellectualism. This paper examines case studies conducted at five public U.S. institutions. Focus groups and interviews highlight what different public campuses are doing to address religious diversity, and how they are succeeding or failing to accommodate the needs of students. Findings indicate that executive leaders’ attitudes towards religious diversity on campus are essential for sustained interfaith efforts, but fell short without bottom-up buy-in. Faculty in particular served as key bottom-up leaders for interfaith motivation on campus with students often feeling most comfortable exploring different worldviews within the classroom. This study provides reasonable and responsible pathways toward helping locate religion within public education, and substantiating interfaith ideas as necessary for an informed and responsible global citizenry.

Populism and Environmental Performance

This article examines the impact of populism on environmental politics, focusing on countries’ outcome-level performance. I develop the argument that populist leadership likely undermines environmental quality. First, populist leaders tend to reject and refrain from implementing “green” policies, as these are usually promoted by “corrupt elites.” Second, populism erodes democratic institutions, thus offsetting a series of mechanisms that are related to better environmental outcomes. Empirically, I combine data from the Global Populism Database covering sixty-six countries and more than two hundred executive leaders with information on environmental performance at the outcome level. The findings suggest that populist leadership is strongly linked to lower environmental performance—also when controlling for a series of alternative influences and distinguishing between left- and right-wing populism. This research greatly adds to our understanding of the determinants of environmental policies, the role of regime type and ideology, and the literature on populism.