Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)
Date of Award
12-2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Business Administration
Committee Chair
Craig L. Pearce, Ph.D.
Advisor(s)
Ronald W. Eastburn, Ph.D., Joseph Hair, Ph.D., Christina Wassenaar, Ph.D.
Abstract
A typical wildland firefighting organization is structured hierarchically, much like the military. Thus, it follows that one would expect to see strong evidence of command and control (i.e., directive and transactional) when studying leadership behaviors in this kind of organization. However, a successful, yet paradoxical type of leadership was found at the Alabama Forestry Commission. In this study, we argue that the managerial mindset that drives excellence in team performance is driven by sharing (delegating) responsibility to those who have the knowledge, skills, and abilities; thereby allowing the authority to migrate down the chain of command. Adopting “Mindful Leadership” that incorporates a higher level of collective mindfulness and shared leadership positively influences a firm’s performance and reliability to manage the unexpected. The goal of this study was to gain insights into how the successful leadership effort is continuously adaptive with higher levels of organizational mindfulness—the mechanism used to positively influence team performance. In contrast to the accepted assumptions about top down leadership, where the leader is making the decisions and followers follow, this study shows that in this hierarchical organization, organizational mindfulness drives positive leadership behaviors (shared, empowering, transformational). The leadership behaviors in turn direct team dynamics and generate trust in and loyalty to the leaders, thus enhancing Team Potency that leads to achieving positive Team Performance. We demonstrated this paradoxical type of leadership as the individual’s perception of shared leadership working in a high reliability organization. It is referred to as Mindful Leadership. This study advances the empirical validation of the construct and related measures. Several directions for future studies are proposed.
Recommended Citation
Gapud, Stephanie D., "Leadership on Fire: Mindfully Shared" (2019). Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present). 232.
https://jagworks.southalabama.edu/theses_diss/232
Included in
Leadership Commons, Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons, Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons, Other Business Commons