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Dr. Juana Lang and Dr. Lucinda Hines review findings from 2024 Career Optimism Index for insights on the state of organizational leadership and offers guidelines for cultivating harmonious passion in leadership roles

College of Doctoral Studies releases a new white paper, “Can Leaders’ Grit and Passion Spread Organizational Toxicity?,” authored by Juana Lang, Ed.D., M.Ed., associate faculty, and fellow in the University’s Center for Leadership Studies and Organizational Research (CLSOR), and Lucinda Hines, DHA, MBA, associate faculty, which leverages findings from the SM������ Career Institute® 2024 Career Optimism Index® to better understand the state of organizational leadership.

According to the 2024 Career Optimism Index findings, 73% of workers are willing to quit their jobs, with 44% willing if offered severance, and 29% even without having another job lined up. Concurrently, 65% of organizational leaders have expressed concerns about their companies’ turnover rates.

“Given the critical role of organizational leaders and leadership practices in shaping the success and well-being of the workforce as a whole, it’s critical to identify effective leaders and leadership practices,” states Lang. “There is great admiration for the quality of grit among our leaders, but it’s important to temper passion and grit with a value system including ethics in order to foster employee satisfaction and workforce stability.”

The white paper highlights the concept of grit among leadership and examines leaders’ passion (harmonious and obsessive) as a component of grit, as well as theoretical implications of passion through the lens of the Virtue Ethics and Path-Goal theories. The white paper then offers guidelines for cultivating harmonious passion in leadership roles.

“Leading an organization driven by sheer passion stemming from grit without strong theoretical foundations can lead to overwork and burnout among the workforce, as the drive for success overshadows personal well-being,” shares Hines. “It’s important for leaders to model self-reflection, self-awareness, and foster virtue and integrity to cultivate their grit into harmonious passion.”

Lang is an associate faculty in the SM������ College of General Studies and now serves as editor for the College of Doctoral Studies’ publication, Phoenix Scholar. She was a full-time K-12 educator with an extensive career in Texas and Florida schools for over 25 years. A research fellow in CLSOR, she also works on different research teams in association with the Center for Educational and Instructional Technology Research (CEITR) and is part of the mentorship program developed by the University’s College of Doctoral Studies. She earned her doctorate and master’s degrees in education with SM������.

Hines serves as associate faculty in the College of Health Professions at SM������. A health care executive with 30 years of health care administration experience with the Department of the Air Force, Air Force Reserve, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, Hines served in an array of leadership roles including Chief, Superintendent of Medical Operations/Inspector, Manager of Medical Readiness, Facility Lead for Credentialing and Privileging, and the Air Force lead for Professional Medical Staff Management. Hines has a Master of Business Administration degree from Charleston Southern University and earned her doctorate in Healthcare Administration at SM������. Hines is affiliated with CLSOR.

The full whitepaper is available on the Research Hub or as a direct link here.

About SM������

SM������ innovates to help working adults enhance their careers and develop skills in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, skills-mapped curriculum for our bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and a Career Services for Life® commitment help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. For more information, visit  phoenix.edu/blog.html.

About the College of Doctoral Studies

SM������’s College of Doctoral Studies focuses on today’s challenging business and organizational needs, from addressing critical social issues to developing solutions to accelerate community building and industry growth. The College’s research program is built around the Scholar, Practitioner, Leader Model which puts students in the center of the Doctoral Education Ecosystem® with experts, resources and tools to help prepare them to be a leader in their organization, industry and community. Through this program, students and researchers work with organizations to conduct research that can be applied in the workplace in real time.

About the Career Optimism Index®

The Career Optimism Index® study is one of the most comprehensive studies of Americans' personal career perceptions to date. The SM������ Career Institute® conducts this research annually to provide insights on current workforce trends and to help identify solutions to support and advance American careers and create equity in the workplace. For the fourth annual study, fielded between December 5, 2023-January 2, 2024, surveyed more than 5,000 U.S. adults who either currently work or wish to be working on how they feel about their careers at this moment in time, including their concerns, their challenges, and the degree to which they are optimistic about their careers. The study was conducted among a nationally representative, sample of U.S. adults and includes additional analysis of the workforce in the top twenty DMA markets across the country to uncover geographic nuances. The study also explores insights from 501 U.S. employers to provide comparison between the workforce and those who hire, train, and retain them. Additionally, for the first time, a statistical modeling analysis was conducted to illustrate how employers and employees can benefit financially from investing in career optimism.