Date of Award

6-15-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Daniels College of Business

First Advisor

Aimee Hamilton

Keywords

Business, Leadership, Hospital leadership, Rural

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between leadership and extreme contexts through the lens of rural hospitals facing environmental jolts. Rural hospitals offer a unique setting for this research, given their inherent geographic isolation, lack of resources, and the critical role these facilities play in their communities. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with Chief Executive Officers of rural hospitals, this research takes a grounded approach to build theory surrounding how leadership not only shapes but is shaped by extreme contexts and environmental jolts. The research results in four primary contributions. Namely, this study extends existing typologies on leadership in extreme contexts, proposing an updated model based on real-world experiences of leaders operating in extreme contexts. The research also supports the existence of a recursive relationship between leader and context in extreme environments. Next, it successfully integrates the previously distinct bodies of literature on extreme contexts and environmental jolts. Lastly, it builds out the relationship between adaptive leadership and jolts within extreme contexts, highlighting leaders’ short and long-term responses. Collectively, these results extend leadership theory and emphasize the critical impact context has in influencing leader behavior while also considering how leadership, in turn, changes the context, particularly in extreme cases facing environmental jolts.

Copyright Date

6-2024

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Ashley Williams

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

129 pgs

File Size

1.2 MB

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