DBL SUbmissions
DBL Submissions
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A sample of DBL final submissions from successful graduates who have requested publication of their Leadership Critique.
Dion Accoto (2020)
This doctoral critique argues that the legal profession’s autocratic, exclusionary leadership culture must be replaced with a people-centred, ethical, and modernised leadership paradigm that restores wellbeing, inclusivity, and sustainability to legal practice.
In this doctoral critique, Dion Accoto delivers a powerful and deeply reflective examination of leadership within the Australian legal profession, grounded in more than 27 years of practice as both solicitor and barrister. Accoto argues that the profession has, over recent decades, drifted toward autocratic leadership models reinforced by elitism, corporatisation, and an oversupply of graduates. Through an integration of personal narrative, leadership theory, and qualitative interview data, he exposes the systemic issues that compromise lawyer wellbeing, including discrimination, bullying, toxic firm cultures, and the commodification of legal work. Central to the critique is the development of Accoto’s Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm—an adaptive, people-centred approach aimed at dismantling outdated hierarchies, prioritising staff as the profession’s most vital stakeholders, and embracing modern, technology-enabled workplace models such as virtual legal teams. His work challenges long-held assumptions about what constitutes effective leadership in law and provides a compelling roadmap for a more ethical, inclusive, and sustainable profession. Accoto’s critique stands as both a scholarly contribution and a call to action for leaders seeking to restore humanity and purpose to legal practice.
Mohammad Al-Otaibi (2024)
This doctoral research presents a Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm that blends ethical integrity, cultural intelligence, and adaptive practice to guide senior leaders in navigating complex, culturally diverse organisational environments with trust, accountability, and courage.
This doctoral research, Adaptive Ethical Leadership in Culturally Complex Organisations: Insights from the Researcher’s Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm, charts a journey to redefine ethical leadership for an increasingly complex and interconnected world. Through the creation of the Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm (PCLP), the study integrates ethical integrity, cultural intelligence, and situational adaptability into a transformative framework for senior leaders. Rooted in the researcher’s leadership experiences across industries and continents, the PCLP moves beyond theory to offer practical, actionable strategies for navigating dilemmas in diverse organisational settings. Using a rigorous mixed methods approach, the study reveals how the PCLP fosters trust, accountability, and resilient decision-making while inspiring leaders to act with integrity even under pressure. Its contribution is both personal and universal: demonstrating that ethical leadership must evolve with cultural and global realities, empowering leaders to embrace diversity, uphold justice, and lead with courage.
David Ayad (2024)
This doctoral thesis proposes a Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm that uses AI-driven dialogue and analysis to overcome the limits of traditional transformational leadership, enabling more flexible, ethical, and adaptive decision-making in complex organisational environments.
In this doctoral thesis, David Ayad presents a groundbreaking critique of transformational leadership through the lens of artificial intelligence (AI), addressing the model’s declining adaptability in increasingly complex organisational contexts. Employing a mixed-methods approach that integrates autoethnography, narrative hermeneutic interpretivism, interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), and quantitative validation, Ayad explores how AI can serve as a corrective tool for the limitations of conventional leadership paradigms. The study introduces the Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm (PCLP), a dynamic model designed to enhance leadership flexibility, ethical decision-making, and contextual resilience. Central to the framework is Leadership-Centric AI Dialogue Enhancement (LC-AIDE), a pioneering mechanism that optimises leader–AI interaction to improve strategic outcomes. Through global case studies and reflective analysis, Ayad demonstrates how AI can augment human leadership capacity, enabling leaders to navigate uncertainty, innovate ethically, and sustain organisational relevance in the digital era. This research significantly advances leadership theory, offering an empirically grounded model for integrating deep technology into human-centric leadership practice.
Chris Barlow (2024)
This doctoral critique shows that a clear, service-oriented organisational purpose significantly strengthens frontline leadership, mitigates workplace bias, and enhances performance, offering practical tools to align strategy, behaviour, and purpose through the Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm.
This doctoral critique by Chris Barlow explores the evolution of the Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm (PCLP) through an applied case study within Dahlsens, a major Australian building supply organisation. The research investigates how clarity of purpose—particularly a customer-obsessed purpose—acts as the primary success factor in shaping effective leadership, team performance, and alignment within the organisation. Through mixed methods including qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys of frontline managers, Barlow identifies that ambiguous or profit-driven missions hinder adaptability, inclusiveness, and mutual accountability, whereas clear, service-oriented purpose fosters engagement, autonomy, and sustained high performance.
The study contributes to leadership practice by offering diagnostic tools such as the Customer Obsession Meter and Purpose Assessment Framework, aimed at helping comparable organisations assess and enhance alignment between strategy, purpose, and behaviour. Barlow’s findings affirm that leadership effectiveness extends beyond positional authority to enabling environments where every individual can lead within a shared sense of purpose. This work advances practical leadership theory within complex adaptive systems and provides actionable insights for developing ethical, purpose-driven leaders in similar environments.
Dale Blyth (2018)
This doctoral research demonstrates how adaptive leadership—captured in his Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm—enables mining leaders to navigate the complex organisational, technological, and systemic disruptions created by automation and industry transformation.
In this doctoral submission, Dale Blyth investigates the leadership challenges arising from disruptive technological change in the mining industry, with a focus on the rapid adoption of autonomous machinery. Drawing on longitudinal case research across four major organisational transitions—ranging from acquisitions and restructures to the deployment of mining technology—Blyth highlights the limits of traditional, hierarchical management approaches in addressing complex adaptive challenges. Through qualitative analysis and survey data from industry practitioners, the study reveals how automation transforms mining operations into evolving adaptive systems, where technical fixes alone fail to deliver sustainable outcomes. The research applies and extends adaptive leadership theory, culminating in the development of a Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm (PCLP). This framework integrates experiential learning with self-adapting leadership practice guidelines to support leaders navigating uncertainty, complexity, and systemic disruption. Blyth’s contribution lies in demonstrating how adaptive leadership can guide technological transformation in mining while fostering organisational resilience, innovation, and ethical leadership practice in volatile environments.
Rawaa El Ayoubi (2025)
This doctoral thesis proposes a Strategic Foresight Model that equips leaders in the management consulting industry to anticipate disruption and build adaptive, future-ready organisations through foresight-informed, ethically grounded leadership practice.
In this doctoral thesis, Rawaa El Ayoubi investigates how strategic foresight can enhance leadership effectiveness and organisational resilience within the management consulting industry during periods of volatility and uncertainty. Drawing on longitudinal case studies and qualitative analysis, El Ayoubi develops and validates a Strategic Foresight Model (SFM) grounded in her Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm (PCLP), also referred to as the SEC model. The research demonstrates how foresight-driven leadership improves adaptability, strategic responsiveness, and innovation by enabling leaders to anticipate disruption and align strategy with emerging trends. Through the integration of foresight capabilities, leadership reflection, and scenario-based learning, the study identifies four aspirational leadership strategies: vision-driven transformation, trust-based decision-making, risk-taking through communication, and continuous renewal through learning. The thesis contributes to both theory and practice by linking foresight methodology with leadership development, offering a replicable model for leaders in consulting and similar complex environments to build adaptive, ethically grounded, and future-ready organisations.
Lisa Griffiths (2019)
This thesis validates Griffiths’ Leadership PASS framework by demonstrating how altruistic values, authentic leadership and evidence-based decision-making collectively enhance executive leadership effectiveness in the Australian Community Services Sector.
In this doctoral critique, Lisa J. Griffiths presents a comprehensive and deeply reflective examination of leadership effectiveness within the Australian Community Services Sector (CSS). Centred on her Personal Contingent Leadership (PCL) Paradigm and the Leadership PASS framework—People, Action, Systems and Self—Griffiths rigorously tests how leaders can optimise outcomes for vulnerable children, young people and families. Through an integrated methodology comprising a values-based leadership literature review, a systematic review of executive leadership in evidence-based program implementation, a longitudinal case study of her own leadership practice, and qualitative field research with acknowledged sector leaders, Griffiths illuminates the characteristics that underpin effective leadership in complex, high-stakes environments. Her findings emphasise the critical role of altruistic values, authentic leadership behaviours, relational practice, and evidence-based decision-making in driving sustainable organisational transformation. The work provides significant and original contributions to leadership practice, particularly in demonstrating how executive leaders can embed evidence-based models, navigate systemic complexity, and cultivate ethical, values-aligned cultures. Griffiths’ Leadership PASS emerges as a validated and adaptable framework that enhances leadership effectiveness across dynamic and uncertain contexts within the CSS.
Oludare Jeremiah (2023)
This doctoral research presents a resilience-focused Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm that equips oil and gas leaders to navigate crisis conditions through adaptive practice, ethical grounding, and strategic foresight to sustain organisational stability and performance.
In this doctoral submission, Oludare Jeremiah investigates how leadership resilience can be cultivated to navigate crises in the oil and gas industry, particularly during periods of economic, environmental, and operational disruption. Drawing on reflective practice, qualitative interviews, and case-based analysis, Jeremiah examines how adaptive and transformational leadership approaches can enhance organisational survival and long-term performance under pressure. His Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm (PCLP) integrates systems thinking, emotional intelligence, and strategic foresight to propose a framework for developing resilient leaders capable of balancing people, performance, and purpose during volatility. The study highlights the significance of ethical grounding, communication, and agility in crisis response, and advances a resilience-building model that connects leadership behaviour to cultural stability and operational sustainability. Jeremiah’s work contributes to leadership practice in high-risk industries by offering practical strategies for fostering adaptable, learning-oriented organisations that can endure and evolve through global shocks and sectoral uncertainty.
Charles Moschoudis (2020)
This doctoral research shows how a NSW barrister can shift from traditional autocratic practice to flexible, adaptive leadership through the Strategic Objective Analysis and Implementation Model, enabling more ethical, effective decision-making in complex legal environments.
This doctoral submission by Charles Moschoudis explores the evolution of leadership practice within the unique professional context of a New South Wales barrister. Historically grounded in an autocratic leadership style shaped by policing and legal traditions, the author reflects on his transition toward a more flexible and adaptive approach suited to dynamic, project-oriented legal environments. Drawing on leadership theory, case-based qualitative research, and personal professional experience, Moschoudis develops the Strategic Objective Analysis and Implementation Model (SOAIM). This framework provides structure for issue analysis, ethical decision-making, and solution implementation in complex legal projects. The study contributes to leadership scholarship by identifying barristers as de facto leaders—despite the absence of formal leadership training in legal education—and by proposing a pragmatic model for professional practice. It highlights the broader implications of adaptive leadership in law, governance, and stakeholder engagement, offering insights into how legal practitioners can balance authority, ethics, and adaptability in turbulent environments.
Omair Mustafa (2024)
This doctoral research shows how emerging Saudi leaders can overcome the unique pressures of Vision 2030 by using a Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm and Leadership Vision Board to build resilience, contextual awareness, and the capabilities needed to lead transformative national change.
This thesis explores the challenges emerging leaders in Saudi Arabia face as they navigate the profound and transformative Vision 2030 agenda in the public sector. The research examines the skills, strategies, traits, behaviours, and mindsets required to overcome obstacles in the rapidly evolving socio-economic landscape. Using mixed-methods research, insights are drawn from emerging and incumbent senior leaders alongside subject matter experts. The study identifies the leaders’ struggle with experience gaps, limited professional networks, navigating political dynamics, congruence with governance mechanisms, and managing dissonance. This hinders their ability to influence change, deliver benefits, create value, and inspire their ecosystem, highlighting the unique pressures amidst significant and accelerated national reforms. Examining various leadership theories, the study recommends structured leadership guidance through the developed Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm (PCLP) and the Leadership Vision Board (LVB) frameworks to help emerging Vision 2030 leaders build contextual awareness, resilience, foster continuous learning, and cultivate leadership growth.
Leanne Ward (2020)
This doctoral research presents a servant-led Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm that equips business leaders to guide the ethical adoption of AI by fostering transparency, diversity, and courageous, values-driven decision-making.
In this doctoral submission, Leanne Ward examines how leadership practices can foster the ethical adoption of artificial intelligence in business contexts. Through a longitudinal exploration of her evolving Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm (PCLP), Ward applies case study research with twenty embedded units of analysis, complemented by surveys and semi-structured interviews, to investigate leadership responses to ethical dilemmas posed by AI. Her critique integrates contemporary ethical debates—such as algorithmic bias, privacy, and transparency—with historical examples of obedience and disobedience, including the Milgram and Stanford Prison experiments, to highlight why individuals sometimes choose unethical actions. Drawing on theories of transformational, servant, and authentic leadership, Ward proposes an aspirational PCLP grounded in servant leadership values, courageous followership, and intelligent disobedience. She develops a set of leadership practice guidelines designed to promote environments that prioritise ethics, diversity, and transparency in AI projects. Ward’s work contributes to leadership scholarship by offering a framework for guiding ethical AI integration while equipping leaders to confront persistent worries about organisational misuse of technology.
S. K. Salinda Watapuluwa (2019)
This doctoral research shows that while some leadership traits are universal, effective cross-cultural leadership between Sri Lanka and Australia requires leaders to adapt their behaviours to the socio-economic realities and cultural expectations of each context.
This doctoral research investigates how leadership characteristics differ across cultural contexts, with a focus on Sri Lanka and Australia. Using a case study research method with two embedded study units and interviews with 24 informants from six companies, the study identifies leadership traits common to both contexts while highlighting those unique to each. The analysis revealed three meta-orientations—employee, organisational, and personal character—which shaped the leadership expectations within each cultural setting. Findings confirmed that while universal leadership traits exist, context-specific attributes strongly influence leader effectiveness. The study proposes that successful cross-cultural leadership transitions require leaders to modify their behaviours in alignment with the socio-economic realities of the host culture, echoing Maslowian principles of contingent adaptation. By combining critical reflection with data triangulation, the research contributes original insights to leadership theory and practice in multicultural environments. Recommendations are made for broader population studies to deepen understanding of the transferability and adaptability of leadership traits across cultures.
Kristie White (2023)
This doctoral critique demonstrates how a Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm grounded in humility, integrity, and adaptive practice enables leaders to build trust, foster collaboration, and drive sustainable global innovation in complex organisational environments.
In this doctoral critique, Kristie White explores the intersection between transformational and adaptive leadership in driving global innovation. Drawing on over a decade of professional leadership experience, she examines how humility, integrity, and communication underpin effective leadership during organisational transformation. Using both qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys, White investigates how leadership approaches influence trust, engagement, and innovation outcomes across complex, cross-cultural environments. The study identifies key leadership principles—creating safe environments, fostering open communication, promoting inquiry, informed decision-making, and constructive feedback—as essential to implementing sustainable innovation globally. Central to her research is the evolution of her Personal Contingent Leadership Paradigm (PCLP), a model that integrates emotional intelligence, resilience, and ethical decision-making to support continuous leadership growth. White’s reflective and research-based insights contribute to the broader understanding of how leaders can inspire adaptability and collaboration in fast-changing global contexts, positioning leadership as a catalyst for both personal transformation and organisational advancement.