Regardless of the leadership traits and strengths of an organizational or program leader, he or she is expected to visualize beyond the current state of his or her organization or program in order to remain relevant and competitive. The leader's ability to understand the organizational environment and constituents is vital for the organization to retain key components of its history as well as competing in the present and preparing the organization for the future. As the environment continues to change, organization and program leaders must ensure that their organizations and programs are converting relevant studies and theories into practice to ensure that their organizations and programs are adjusting to change. This study explored how urban college and university freshman-year experience program leaders were incorporating studies on African American cultural influences in the development and implementation of culturally competent freshman-year experience programs. This study collected data from urban college and universities who are members of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities and the Coalition for Urban Serving Universities. Using the systematic design of the grounded theory methodology, the study explored data from leaders of freshman-year experience programs at various urban colleges and universities to conceptualize the process employed in the development and implementation of freshman-year experience programs at their institutions. The main finding for the study was that using shared responsibilities, leaders of freshman-year experience programs were utilizing auxiliary programs developed for their institutions' disadvantage populations to complement freshman-year experience programs designed for the general student population as retention tools for their African American students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]