Date of Award

Summer 5-29-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (PhD)

Department

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

First Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. Robert McKenna

Second Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. Paul Yost

Third Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. Jacob Redding

Keywords

Adaptive Performance, Developmental Experience, Support Network, Leadership Development, Performance, Experience

Abstract

In today’s dynamic work environment, the ability to adapt is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity. In order to contribute to the growing body of research surrounding adaptive performance, this study will seek to examine the power of a leader’s breadth and depth of experience on his or her adaptive performance. It is predicted that the more breadth and depth of experience that a leader has, the higher the leader’s adaptive performance will be. Additionally, in assessing the power of a leader’s breadth and depth of experience on adaptive performance, it is also predicted that the larger breadth and depth of experience that a leader has, the more growth in adaptive performance that leader will show through a leadership development program. Furthermore, it is predicted that the strength of a leader’s strategic network will moderate this relationship such that a leader who has a strong network of social support will be more adaptive compared to a leader with low social support, when combined with his or her breadth and depth of experiences and will strengthen the effect of a leader’s growth through a development program. The data used was archival data collected from leaders who have participated in a whole leader development program. To analyze the data, a series of multiple regressions were run. Findings indicated that the breadth and depth of a leader’s experiences does significantly predict his or her adaptive performance. Furthermore, a strong strategic network of support did not significantly moderate this relationship. Finally, significant evidence was not found indicating that past experiences were predictive of increased growth in his or her adaptive performance from time one to time two, regardless of the moderator of a strong strategic network of support.

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