Executives in Science, Business and Society 3

RECENT PHD DISSERTATIONS
PAGE
48
LUC GLASBEEK
Department of
Management & Organisation
SOCIAL ENTERPRISES
WITH EXCEEDINGLY
TIGHT RESOURCES:
IMPLICATIONS FOR
WORK AND LEADERSHIP
This dissertation examines how
social enterprises and their
leaders function when they have
extremely limited resources and
the contextual circumstances
are changing rapidly and radically.
Greece was selected as the
source of empirical data because
this country was in a protracted
economic recession during this
research and, therefore, offered
meaningful opportunities for
studying social entrepreneurship
under resource constraints.
This study first investigates the
academic foundations of social
entrepreneurship and subsequently
considers how social
enterprises function with scarce
resources. Next, it examines the
way in which social entrepreneurs,
i.e., individuals, manage
their businesses. It subsequently
investigates the theme
of uncertainty, focusing on tacit
unknowns. Finally, this study
produces practical advice for social
entrepreneurs on such topics
as building symbiotic relationships
with regular businesses.
MARILIEKE ENGBERS
Department of
Management & Organisation
HOW THE UNSAID
SHAPES DECISION-
MAKING IN BOARDS:
A REFLEXIVE EXPLO-
RATION OF PARADIGMS
IN THE BOARDROOM
Despite board of directors are of
institutional importance, scholars
still have a limited understanding
of boardroom processes. Uncovering
the black box of board
decision-making requires direct
observation of what goes on in
the boardroom and overcoming
many methodological challenges.
This abductive subjective account
reflexively explored board’s
decision-making, not through
what is said, but through the
unsaid. The author observed 37
board meetings of 17 boards and
interviewed 119 board members
about what happened during
those meetings. The author more
specifically explored how board
members responded ‘in action’,
what they had not said and why
and when they consciously or
‘preconsciously’ chose to silence
their thoughts and feelings.
Putting the unsaid, instead of
the said, front and center, meant
exploring the difference between
what is said and thought, and
thus how blind spots, incongruities
and perceived incongruities,
shape board decision-making.
This dissertation offers an emerging
explanation of 1) how taken
for granted and automatic, sociocognitive
processes between
board members shape board
decision-making; 2) how board
members who consider their
governance paradigm objective
- and therefore, are considered
paradigm-attached - enact a
spiral of unsaid when they try to
manage silent conflicts through
informal decision-making 3) how
four silence climates shape four
different levels of cohesiveness
and cognitive conflict towards
board effectiveness and 4) how
being aware of different levels of
consciousness and perspective is
required to investigate ‘taken for
granted assumptions’ as well as
automatic behavior in boards.
EMILIA BUNEA
Department of
Management & Organisation
LEADING AND LEISURE:
HOW SERIOUS LEISURE
INFLUENCES LEADERS’
DEVELOPMENT AND
EFFECTIVENESS
Being a leader can be central to
one’s sense of self. Yet one is never
only a leader, but also maybe
a parent, a spouse, a friend.
These nonwork selves, especially
when one identifies with them
strongly, influence the leader
one. But what happens when one
of the leader’s strongest nonwork
identities is moonlighting as
a DJ, volunteering as a running
guide, being an amateur but passionate
painter? This dissertation
explores how such “serious
leisure” pursuits can influence
leaders’ development and their
effectiveness in the leader role.
Its findings reveal that serious
leisure can not only provide important
resources to the leader
role, such as stress management
and valuable skills, but is also a
source of “diversification” from
the overpowering leader identity
that threatens to engulf how
one defines oneself. Moreover,
leaders with serious leisure
create numerous connections
between the values, qualities
and “philosophy” expressed by
their nonwork passion and those
desirable in their leadership role,
making their leader identity not
just richer, but also more layered
and interesting. This thesis
also examines when serious
leisure can negatively impact the
leader identity, such as when it
is practiced at obsessive levels.
For leaders and HR departments,
this is a message that passion