Running head: ENHANCING LEADERSHIP CULTURE
Enhancing Leadership Culture for Financial Sustainability at the BC Scrap-It Program Society
By
Leonard Bruno
BCom, University of British Columbia, 1982
An Organizational Leadership Project in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
In
LEADERSHIP
We accept this Report as conforming
to the required standard
Dennis Rogoza, MA, Sponsor
David Reagan, EdD, Academic Supervisor
Catherine Etmanski, PhD, Acting Director
ROYAL ROADS UNIVERSITY
February 22, 2019
© Leonard Bruno, 2019
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ENHANCING LEADERSHIP CULTURE
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Executive Summary
The BC Scrap-It Program Society (Scrap-It, n.d.) is a small not-for-profit organization dedicated
to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to lowering vehicle exhaust pollutants across British
Columbia (BC). The mission of the organization is realized primarily through a voluntary
accelerated retirement vehicle (VARV) program.
Scrap-It’s mission is partly achieved by providing access to a wide range of incentives
(D. Rogoza, personal communication, May 26, 2016). The range of incentives attracts and
appeals to the owners of older, higher polluting vehicles from all income classes, thereby
ensuring the VARV program is relevant to a broader segment of the population. The VARV
program also increases awareness of the environmental impact of older vehicles. By providing
awareness of the environmental impact of older vehicles, the general public and owners of older,
higher polluting vehicles might consider the well-being of the environment when considering
alternative forms of transportation. Lastly, the VARV program permanently destroys and
recycles old vehicles in an environmentally safe manner. By permanently destroying and
recycling older vehicles (recycling means crushing, shredding, and sorting materials for
repurposing), vehicle parts are not added to the supply of parts for the repair or maintenance of
other older, higher polluting vehicles in the BC fleet.
Scrap-It’s leadership acknowledges its critical role in achieving financial sustainability. This
inquiry focused on the need to understand how the functions of Scrap-It’s leaders and leadership
culture are influenced by systemic internal and external variables and clarified the significance,
connection, and motivation to achieve financial sustainability. Ferdig (2007) described
sustainability leadership as creating “opportunities for people to come together and generate their
own answers – to explore, learn, and devise a realistic course of action to address sustainability
challenges” (p. 31). I chose to lead a process of inquiry to address the following question: How
might Scrap-It enhance its leadership culture for financial sustainability? I also explored the
following subquestions:
1. What does leadership culture for financial sustainability look like?
2. Which systemic leadership practices and requirements contribute to enhancing a
leadership culture in the context of financial sustainability?
3. Which attributes and capabilities do leaders require to enhance financial
sustainability?
4. What changes might Scrap-It adopt to overcome the challenges to achieving and
maintaining the highest level of leadership culture for financial sustainability?
The approach I employed for this inquiry was consistent with Coughlan and Coghlan’s (2002)
description of an action research approach “that aims both at taking action and creating
knowledge or theory about that action” (p. 220). Specifically, using Senge’s (2006) five
disciplines of a learning organization, I facilitated and participated in the process of developing
organization-wide intelligence capacity by addressing the inquiry question with key
stakeholders.
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For this inquiry, I reviewed the available literature that provided current knowledge, findings,
theories, and methods used and related to the inquiry question. I utilized the concepts of
organizational culture and leadership to define a leadership culture with the potential to influence
an organization’s financial sustainability. The review presented how leaders shape leadership
culture to align desired behaviours with expected outcomes. I defined financial sustainability and
then explored the connection to leadership culture to help identify methods of enhancing
leadership culture to serve this desired outcome.
Figure ES1. Leadership culture for financial stability: Integration model.
Additionally, I focused on discourse in leadership development topics that describe various
processes as strategic initiatives. The review also included how strategic initiatives are rooted in
a set of leadership theories, beliefs, values, and practices to guide people in organizations and to
provide opportunities, training, and experience for them to understand the leader–follower
relationship and thereby learn to be effective leaders (Bolman & Deal, 2013; Hersey &
Blanchard, 1982; McGuire & Rhodes, 2009; Schein, 2010; Senge, 2006). The discourse in
sustainability described leadership strategies, practices, and behaviours as values-based linkages
and the potential disadvantages or limiting factors in the integration of multidimensional aspects
of external and internal environments (Bowman, 2011; Kuhlman & Farrington, 2010; León,
2001; Morrison-Saunders & Therivel, 2006; Sontag-Padilla, Staplefoote, & Gonzalez Morganti,
2012). This included an examination of the relationships between key components of leadership
culture: organizational strategies, financial strategies, and how they work together (Bowman,
2011; León, 2001; Morrison-Saunders & Therivel, 2006; Sontag-Padilla et al., 2012). The degree
ENHANCING LEADERSHIP CULTURE
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of alignment of these key components influences financial sustainability over time (see Figure
ES1).
In conducting this inquiry, I relied on the Royal Roads School of Leadership action research
engagement (ARE) model, which is a two-cycle, multistep, iterative process (Rowe, Graf,
Agger-Gupta, Piggot-Irvine, & Harris, 2013). The first cycle of the ARE process considers the
readiness of the organization to transition to the cycle of change intervention (Rowe et al., 2013).
While this inquiry project was limited to the ARE model’s cycle of organizational readiness, I
considered aspects of the change intervention cycle to ensure findings and recommendations
could be transitioned across to the change intervention cycle (Rowe et al., 2013).
I framed this inquiry using an appreciative stance because the engagement process acknowledges
the best of what has been achieved while asking participants to consider what could be, in a more
structured context beyond mere faith. Engel and Schutt (2014) advised that, when analyzing the
social world, research is enriched by applying different research methods and approaches. As
such, I employed a multimethod research approach for this inquiry.
I conducted a survey in this inquiry; I chose to utilize this quantitative approach because,
according to Glesne (2011), this method yields an objective interpretation of findings. I also
conducted a focus group session; I chose to apply this qualitative approach to analyze the data
because, according to Glesne, this method recognizes the subjectivity of interpreting and
understanding the complex and valuable experiences and opinions of focus group participants.
After I had received ethical approval for this research, I designed a survey questionnaire to
identify and consider what factors enhance financial sustainability by relying on a combination
of attributes and capabilities related to leaders and their organization. After pilot testing, I offered
the final questionnaire to a select leadership group of professionals, senior managers, and
directors of registered charitable organizations in BC, including several past and current funding
donors, on an anonymous and voluntary basis.
Through the survey, I asked participants to evaluate a number of leadership and organizational
attributes and capabilities and to rate the importance of each of these on a 5-point Likert scale. I
had organized the attributes and capabilities into a number of categories based on Humentum’s
(n.d.) indicators of financial sustainability and what a leader and organization needs to be, know,
and do, based on leadership practices as noted in Hesselbein and Shinseki’s (2004) work. Using
basic statistical techniques, I analyzed the data collected from the survey to summarize the
opinions, beliefs, and attitudes of the surveyed participants.
I then used the summarized results of the survey to develop the focus group session. The inquiry
project team invited all six members of the Scrap-It board of directors to participate in the focus
group session because this group had the authority to act on any subsequent steps in the change
process or implement the inquiry project recommendations. Two members of the board directly
participated in the focus group session. The goal for the focus group session was to analyze and
reflect on the survey findings, identify and review assumptions, build excitement from the
exchange of participants’ input and comments, and provide an opportunity to learn more about
challenges and options related to building leadership culture with an aim to endure from a
financial sustainability perspective.
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A Master of Arts in Leadership cohort member conducted the focus group session on my behalf
using an appreciative stance to guide the process of reviewing five questions with the focus
group participants. I arranged for the session to be recorded and then transcribed by a third-party
transcriptionist to protect participant anonymity and confidentiality. Following Glesne’s (2011)
thematic analysis approach (p. 184), I studied the transcripts using a template analysis process
(King, 2004), which relied on preset themes and subthemes to help identify, organize, and
analyze the focus group data and to guide the tabulation of coded themes.
Since this inquiry project involved people, an ethical review was required by the Royal Roads
University Research Ethics Board, under the auspices of the Tri-Council Policy Statement on
ethical conduct for research involving humans (Canadian Institutes of Health Research [CIHR],
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, & Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2014). The Tri-Council Policy Statement, based
primarily on the value for human dignity, serves to protect participants in the service of
legitimate requirements for research (CIHR et al., 2014). The framework of the Tri-Council
Policy Statement is based on three principles, namely respect for persons, concern for welfare,
and a concern for justice. I ensured all project participants and inquiry team members received an
informed consent form based on the Tri-Council Policy Statement.
Four themes emerged from my multimethod research approach to support the key findings and
the key aspects of leadership culture: financial sustainability, financial strategies, operational
strategies, and value propositions. Four key findings represent the principal outcomes of this
research approach, as follows:
1. Relationships between and among the concepts of leadership culture, financial
strategies, value proposition, and operational strategies influence financial
sustainability.
2. Participants indicated skilled and engaged staff and board members are important
elements of leadership culture.
3. In a supporting leadership culture, forward-thinking, skilled leaders work to enhance
financial sustainability by crafting and executing operational strategies that are
adaptable over time and consistent with changing opportunities, risks, and scale of
operations.
4. Maintaining and increasing financial reserves are key aspects in support of financial
sustainability.
The four themes and four findings that emerged from the analysis of the study data support the
following four conclusions that help answer the project inquiry question of how Scrap-It might
enhance leadership culture for financial sustainability:
1. Enhancing financial sustainability requires an emphasis on awareness and
understanding of the systemic nature of leadership culture, financial and operational
strategies, and value propositions.
2. Financial sustainability is achievable by enhancing a leadership culture that promotes
engagement and focuses on competencies.
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3. Enhancing leadership culture for financial sustainability includes strong support for a
robust business-modelling process of exploration, experimentation, discovery, and
collaboration.
4. An enhanced leadership culture for financial sustainability includes empowered
leaders who are supported in their efforts to secure stable and multiple sources of
funding.
Coghlan and Brannick (2014) stated, “Action research has been traditionally defined as an
approach to research that is based on a collaborative problem-solving relationship between
researcher and client which aims both to solve a problem and to generate new knowledge”
(p. 42). Inspired by this characterization of action research, and after reflecting on the findings
and conclusions, I crafted four recommendations, as follows:
1. Define the organizational leadership culture to guide a leadership development
strategy in support of financial sustainability.
2. Define the organizational leadership development strategy by type of the desired
behaviour that will positively influence interactions and connections between leaders
and stakeholders, and promote alignment with strategic organizational initiatives,
such as financial sustainability.
3. Create a set of value propositions and supporting strategies to serve mission goals,
specifically financial sustainability.
4. Enhance collaboration and engagement with stakeholders so to ensure value
propositions align with scalable long-term financial sustainability.
McGuire and Rhodes (2009) described the transformation of leadership culture as a function of a
leadership strategy, which is an “organization’s implicit and explicit choices about the leadership
culture, practices, and people systems needed to ensure enduring organizational success” (p. 30).
Scrap-It’s leadership culture comprises a small group of leaders, leadership practices and
philosophy, strategies, operational processes, and stakeholders. I developed the
recommendations presented in this study to enhance Scrap-It’s leadership culture while
remaining cognizant that the current leadership team is stable, capable, and leading a functional
organization, albeit with an ever-present financial sustainability challenge. Regardless of the
current state, at some point a change in leadership will occur due to unpredictable,
uncontrollable, or desired attrition of its leaders. In this inquiry, I considered how a change in
key leaders will impact the leadership culture and thereby influence the direction of the
organization, the alignment of operations with mission goals, and the commitment to the
organization’s purpose and sustainability; as such, these elements formed the underlying
foundation of the recommendations.
In the event Scrap-It elects not to implement the inquiry recommendations, the consequences are
unknown and not predictable because a leader change would need to occur in order to fully
realize the repercussions; without knowing the significance of a change or changes to the
leadership group, the implications to the desired leadership culture and the goal for financial
sustainability cannot be measured until sufficient time has elapsed. Nevertheless, Scrap-It has a
small group of highly skilled leaders, and the consequences of the departure of one leader can be
managed effectively by the collective efforts of the remaining leaders. However, the unexpected
ENHANCING LEADERSHIP CULTURE
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departure of two or more key leaders would likely have a significant but unknown impact on the
leadership culture. I developed the recommendations with the intent to create a clear awareness
and understanding of how to enhance leadership culture and foster a level of readiness for the
existing leadership culture to respond to any changes in the key leadership team.
I submit the recommendations for consideration with the intent to increase the level of rigour
applicable to the current leadership culture in the inevitable event of a change in key leaders. I
strongly encourage Scrap-It to consider the contributions by my inquiry project team and
implement the four recommendations I presented in this executive summary as well as in the
final report.
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References
BC Scrap-It Program Society. (n.d.). Scrap-it. Retrieved from https://scrapit.ca/
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice and leadership
(6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Bowman, W. (2011). Financial capacity and sustainability of ordinary nonprofits. Nonprofit
Management and Leadership, 22(1), 37–51. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.20039
Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada, & Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. (2014). Tricouncil policy statement: Ethical conduct for research involving humans (2nd ed.).
Retrieved from http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/pdf/eng/tcps2-2014/TCPS_2_FINAL
_Web.pdf
Coghlan, D., & Brannick, T. (2014). Doing action research in your own organization (4th ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Coughlan, P., & Coghlan, D. (2002). Action research for operations management. International
Journal of Operations & Production Management, 22(2), 220–240. https://dx.doi.org
/10.1108/01443570210417515
Engel, R. J., & Schutt, R. K. (2014). Fundamentals of social work research (2nd ed.). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Ferdig, M. A. (2007). Sustainability leadership: Co-creating a sustainable future. Journal of
Change Management, 7(1), 25–35.
Glesne, C. (2011). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction (4th ed.). New York, NY:
Longman.
Hersey, P., & Blanchard, H. K. (1982). Blanchard management of organizational behavior:
Utilizing human resources (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Hesselbein, F., & Shinseki, E. K. (2004). Be-know-do: Leadership the army way (Adapted from
the Official Army Leadership Manual). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Humentum. (n.d.). Financial sustainability. Retrieved from https://humentum.org/freeresources/guide/financial-sustainability?
King, N. (2004). Using templates in the thematic analysis of text. In C. Cassels & G. Symon
(Eds.), Essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research (pp. 256–270).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kuhlman, T., & Farrington, J. (2010). What is sustainability? Sustainability, 2(11), 3436–3448.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su2113436
León, P. (2001). Four pillars of financial sustainability. Arlington, VA: Nature Conservancy.
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McGuire, J. B., & Rhodes, G. (2009). Transforming your leadership culture. San Francisco, CA:
John Wiley & Sons.
Morrison-Saunders, A., & Therivel, R. (2006). Sustainability integration and assessment.
Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, 8(3), 281–298.
https://doi.org/10.1142/S1464333206002529
Rowe, W. E. A., Graf, M., Agger-Gupta, N., Piggot-Irvine, E., & Harris, B. (2013). Action
research engagement: Creating the foundations for organizational change (ALARA
Monograph Series No. 5). Retrieved from https://www.alarassociation.org/sites
/default/files/docs/monographs/ALARA_MonographNo5Rowe_et_al2013.pdf
Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (4th ed.). New York, NY: John
Wiley & Sons.
Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New
York, NY: Random House.
Sontag-Padilla, L. M., Staplefoote, B. L., & Gonzalez Morganti, K. (2012). Financial
sustainability for nonprofit organizations. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org
/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR100/RR121/RAND_RR121.pdf
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Dedication
To my loving father, Angelo Bruno (1918–2008), a gentle, kind, hard-working soul who
encouraged me at an early age to believe in myself, and who inspired me to live every minute
with curiosity, love, grace, and gratitude.
He had a curious and fearful way of encouraging me to pursue an education. He often told me,
“Get an education because no one can ever take it away from you.”
In my early and less wise days, I did not know, nor could I comprehend, the hardship and
suffering he endured in his youth when he experienced poverty and loss of freedom. Many years
later, I interpreted his message to me.
He wanted me to have what he was denied.
I want him to have what I have achieved.
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Acknowledgements
I want to express my deep gratitude and appreciation for the wisdom, support, and
encouragement I received from a special group of people who helped me along my journey of
lifelong learning. Those of you who supported me, and I do not mention by name, to all of you, I
am truly grateful.
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know”
(Legrand, as cited in GoodReads, n.d., para. 5).
My most sincere thank you to Dr. David Reagan, for his encouragement, enthusiasm, and
knowledge. His support helped me set a productive and effective pace during the writing of my
report. I could not have imagined having a better academic supervisor. I would also like to
extend my thanks to Axel Hovbrender for his constructive suggestions during the planning and
preparation of this research project.
A special thank you to Shanaya Nelson who helped me craft this report and achieve a
higher level of quality than otherwise. She is an amazing academic editor with a gifted and kind
way of sharing her knowledge and skill.
Thank you to my sponsor, Dennis Rogoza of Scrap-It, for your valuable support and
constructive comments. I also want to thank my project team, my professors, and my cohort
colleagues at Royal Roads University for the stimulating conversations during all the fun and
hard work we shared. A special thank you to Carrie Kimberly and Jasmir Basi for your
willingness to give your time so generously and to help me achieve my goal.
Finally, I wish to thank my amazing wife and family for their support and encouragement
throughout my studies and project work.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary .........................................................................................................................2
Dedication ......................................................................................................................................10
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................11
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................14
List of Tables .................................................................................................................................15
Chapter One: Focus and Framing ..................................................................................................16
Significance of the Inquiry.................................................................................................18
Organizational Context ......................................................................................................20
Systems Analysis of the Inquiry ........................................................................................23
Chapter Summary ..............................................................................................................28
Chapter Two: Literature Review ...................................................................................................29
Leadership Culture .............................................................................................................29
Financial Sustainability ......................................................................................................41
Chapter Summary ..............................................................................................................46
Chapter Three: Inquiry Project Approach......................................................................................48
Inquiry Project Methodology .............................................................................................48
Project Participants ............................................................................................................51
Inquiry Project Methods ....................................................................................................53
Ethical Issues .....................................................................................................................59
Chapter Summary ..............................................................................................................61
Chapter Four: Action Research Inquiry Project Findings and Conclusions ..................................63
Study Findings ...................................................................................................................63
Study Conclusions .............................................................................................................73
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Scope and Limitations of the Inquiry.................................................................................79
Chapter Summary ..............................................................................................................80
Chapter Five: Inquiry Project Recommendations and Implications ..............................................82
Study Recommendations ...................................................................................................82
Organizational Implications ...............................................................................................90
Implications for Future Inquiry ..........................................................................................93
Report Summary ................................................................................................................94
References ......................................................................................................................................96
Appendix A: Incentive Options, Values and Costs Matrix: Program 8 (Effective April 2013) ..103
Appendix B: Framework for Mission Outcomes .........................................................................105
Appendix C: Action Research Engagement Model .....................................................................107
Appendix D: Informed Consent – Survey Preamble ...................................................................108
Appendix E: Inquiry Team Member Letter of Agreement ..........................................................110
Appendix F: Online Survey Questions ........................................................................................112
Appendix G: Email Letter of Invitation and Information for Online Survey ..............................118
Appendix H: Letter of Invitation and Information for Focus Group ...........................................120
Appendix I: Questions for Focus Group ......................................................................................123
Appendix J: Consent Form – Focus Group..................................................................................124
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List of Figures
Figure 1. Scrap-It stakeholder sustainability influence and support matrix. .................................24
Figure 2. BC Scrap-It Program Society systems evaluation map. .................................................26
Figure 3. Leadership culture components and linkages. ................................................................40
Figure 4. Leadership culture for financial stability: Integration model. ........................................46
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List of Tables
Table 1 Participant Ratings of Most Important Aspects of Leadership Culture .........................67
Table 2 Participant Ratings of Most Important Aspects of Financial Sustainability ..................68
Table 3 Participant Ratings Regarding the Importance of Generating Multiple Revenue
Streams from Donors Organized by Number of Full-Time Equivalent Staff ................72