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Tayo Glenn Switzer is a 2013 graduate of the PhD Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University.

Keywords

anomie, workplace, Durkheim, higher education, sociology, business management, organization theory, surveys, associate professors, normlessness, organizational cohesion, norms, leadership, organizational change, academic anomie, organizational anomie, organizational behavior

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

The dissertation explores leadership and change by examining normlessness in the workplace through a multi-layered study of anomie theory, anomie research in the workplace, and organizational and business management theory. The research validates a quantitative survey designed to measure the level of normlessness experienced by workgroups within an organizational context. The survey reflects a set of six normative aspects that when disrupted produce organizational anomie—a state of normlessness that leads to an increase in worker resistance and a reduction in worker consent. The audience studied in this dissertation is associate professors at a large Midwestern research university. Data were gathered using a 57-item electronic survey that was administered to 1,211 associate professors. The results of the research show the transferability of organizational anomie in the academic setting and also provide evidence for a variation of organizational anomie specific to the academic setting labeled academic anomie. The dissertation provides new ways for leaders and change agents to look at the organizational state of transition when old ways of operating are no longer relevant and new ways of engaging are not yet in place. The electronic version of the Dissertation is accessible in the open-access Ohiolink ETD Center, http://etd.ohiolink.edu/.

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Dr. Tayo Glenn Switzer is an Organization Development Consultant in the Human Resources' Department of Organizational Leadership Effectiveness at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

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