Holding the Middle: A Case Study Exploring the Lived Experiences of Non-Academic, Mid-Level Women Leaders and Their Teams in Higher Education

Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Organization Development & Change (D.O.D.C.)

Department

Organization Development

First Advisor

Deborah O'Neil (Committee Chair)

Second Advisor

Jari Willing (Other)

Third Advisor

Margaret Brooks (Committee Member)

Fourth Advisor

Jeanelle Sears (Committee Member)

Abstract

This qualitative case study examines the lived experiences of non-academic, mid-level women leaders and their teams at a public university during macro-level (state and federal political interference) organizational disruption which led to meso-level concurrent leadership transitions (organizational board and president). As universities have faced increased political pressure across the nation, this case provides a unique opportunity to examine the effects of multi-level organizational change in real-time. The findings illuminate the cascading effect that polarized change has on an organizational culture and employee experience. Grounded in Dialogic Organization Development theory, this study demonstrates how a generative image of ‘sustaining the mission, preserving the culture’ becomes suppressed as a defensive organizational behavior, then re-emerges as a restorative generative image through which the organizational culture preserved in the micro-level (mid-level leaders and their teams). These findings contribute to understanding how mid-level women leaders navigate and mediate change amid turbulent environments. These findings extend Dialogic Organization Development theory by revealing how generative images not only generate new possibilities but also function as restorative and re-emergent forces in politicized organizations. This study challenges the traditional negative framing of defensive organizational behaviors by demonstrating how they can be positively enacted to preserve organizational culture and buffer teams from disruption. Through relational practices and defensive organizational behaviors, mid-level leaders functioned as institutional stabilizers who sustained the mission of the institution through day-to-day work and preserved the culture of the institution through co-created narratives with their teams.

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