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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.

This paper, via the use of management and entrepreneurial philosophies from Charles Clinton Spaulding, aims to advocate the integration of African-American Entrepreneurship and Management History into the business curriculum at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as well as predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Along with this curriculum update, the use of critical pedagogy as a form of critical thinking is also recommended to complement the learning process.

Articles from early and recent newspapers, magazines, journals and books were examined and synthesised to clarify how curriculum modification and critical pedagogy could aid in increased entrepreneurial success.

The paper concludes with a framework that demonstrates the curriculum interface, including Spaulding’s insights and critical pedagogy, to connect black students to entrepreneurial success.

Although African-Americans surpass Caucasian-Americans in entrepreneurial attempts, blacks lag behind whites in entrepreneurial success. A reason for their higher failure rate is a lack of exposure to positive images who are also black. Integrating African-American Entrepreneurship and Management History into the business curriculum will help ensure that these positive images are sufficiently introduced and explored as a source of learning. Critical pedagogy is also endorsed as a complementary strategy to aid learning, as it is associated with processes that deviate from traditional instruction that often ignores student diversity, to facilitate the expansion of the mind as well as social transformation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide advice on how organizations can facilitate a culture of sustainable innovation from a cooperative advantage perspective.

This paper is written for practitioners and academics focused on sustainable innovation. It includes specific advice for production & operations and accounting & finance functions and how they can contribute to sustainable innovation from a cooperative advantage perspective.

By emphasizing the importance of stakeholder wellbeing, creating opportunities for collaboration and empowering employees, human resources (HR) departments can help organizations cultivate a culture of sustainable innovation and navigate the complex challenges of addressing environmental concerns to build a more sustainable future.

This paper offers HR practitioners a unique approach to encourage a culture that promotes care and community, intentional dialogue and action-oriented consensus-building among employees in different departments to facilitate sustainable innovation from a cooperative advantage perspective within their respective organizations.

The article aims to explore the transformative journey of AcmeTech Manufacturing, a fictional company influenced by real-life events, from environmental negligence to adopting sustainable and responsible business practices. By examining AcmeTech's strategic communication and sustainability initiatives, the study seeks to highlight the importance of integrating sustainability within global supply chains and the role of strategic communication in building stakeholder trust and achieving corporate sustainability goals.

This research adopts a case study methodology, focusing on AcmeTech Manufacturing as a representative example. The case study approach allows for an in-depth exploration of AcmeTech's challenges, strategies and outcomes in its pursuit of corporate sustainability. Drawing from real-life events, the study delves into the company's transformation, its commitment to transparent communication and its efforts to incorporate sustainable practices within its global supply chains.

AcmeTech Manufacturing, once criticized for its environmental negligence, has embarked on a comprehensive sustainability journey. Recognizing the erosion of stakeholder trust due to past actions, the company has prioritized transparent and strategic communication of its sustainability efforts. AcmeTech's commitment extends beyond internal changes, emphasizing the importance of its global supply chains in its overall environmental impact. By adopting a Cooperative Advantage approach, rooted in the philosophy of ubuntu, AcmeTech not only addresses its environmental challenges but also strives to become a leader in sustainable manufacturing practices.

The article offers a unique perspective by combining the concepts of strategic communication and corporate sustainability within the context of global supply chains. Using the fictional case of AcmeTech Manufacturing, influenced by real-world scenarios, the study introduces the Cooperative Advantage approach, rooted in the African philosophy of ubuntu. This approach emphasizes the interconnectedness of all stakeholders, promoting a people-centered strategy to sustainability, making the article a novel contribution to the discourse on corporate sustainability.

Existing research has highlighted the need for influential leaders to respond to the evolving social, economic and environmental constraints on the construction industry. Studies on leadership in other sectors have shown that influential leaders tend to demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence. Little or no research examining relationships between leadership style and emotional intelligence has been conducted specific to construction project managers. This study aims to identify the prevalent leadership style adopted by construction project managers and investigate potential correlations between leadership style and emotional intelligence.

An online questionnaire including a mix of open and closed questions was adopted to address the research objectives. The group studied comprised project managers currently working in the construction industry in New Zealand and the UK.

The research found that transformational leadership style is prevalent among project managers examined in this study. Significant positive relationships were found between project managers’ emotional intelligence and their likelihood of adopting a transformational leadership style.

The research results provide the construction industry with a benchmark against which individuals with high emotional intelligence, and so most suited to the challenges of the project management role, can be identified and trained. Recommendations including suitable methods for identifying, recruiting and training project managers, as well as secondment and mentoring options, were suggested for improving leadership capabilities in the construction industry.

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 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.