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A Leadership Laboratory: Exploring The Use Of Case-In-Point Pedagogy To Develop Complex Thinking In Leaders, Erica Corley Jackson

Dissertations

Leadership scholars have identified a growing gap between the complexity of 21^st century organizations and the capabilities of individuals in positions of leadership to adequately address these challenges. This gap has contributed to a so-called complexity crisis—a situation in which the demands placed on those in leadership positions increases “at a rate that significantly outstrips the rate at which” leaders are cognitively developing (Rich-Tolsma & Oliver, 2016, p. 1). One way to respond to this growing need for complex adult thinking is through metacognitive development initiatives. However, finding educational methods to promote metacognitive development has proven to be …

An Exploration Of Groups Dynamics And The Impact Of Unconscious Processes, Phil Hanlon

Level 3

Despite extensive research on groups, organisations continue to experience problems with them. Is this an inherent feature of the nature of groups? This article aims to provide a practical understanding of the unconscious processes in groups and how these impact on group functioning. It further elaborates some guidelines for managers on optimising team / group performance.

The article interrogates the work of Sigmund Freud regarding his views on how groups function, drawing mainly on his work Group Psychology and Analysis of the Ego (1921).

It asks if a study of Freud’s work can help organisations reconsider the nature of groups, …

Texas Sport Leadership Consultants, Llc: A Case Of Cases, Emily S. Sparvero, Randall J. Griffiths, Jacob K. Tingle

School of Business Faculty Research

This immersive, multi-case experience consists of four distinct cases and one meta-case that require students to engage with several organizational behavior topics. First, the meta-case takes the form of Texas Sport Leadership Consultants (TSLC), a fictitious company which consults with local sport management professionals in a variety of contexts. Students participate as temporary members of the company to analyze the issues and challenges associated with working as a member of TSLC. TSLC work groups are hired by four different clients, each of whom has a unique organizational behavior challenge. These clients include: (1) a combat-oriented sport company; (2) a company …

05. Leadership And Communication, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

CORE

This module covers several topics in communication beyond public speaking. It emphasizes the importance of communication in general and how it relates to leadership. First, students will explore the ideas and applications of negotiation in leadership. To give students the skills to effectively speak and negotiate, the module also allows students to practice concepts of nonverbal communication such as subconscious body language. The module also demonstrates how a leader can use manipulation and persuasion, as well as the distinction between the two topics. Finally, the module has students critically analyze the ethics and necessity of political correctness.

Virtual Collaboration With Mobile Social Media In Multiple-Organization Projects, Zhaojun Yang, Jun Sun, Yali Zhang, Ying Wang

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study investigates the use of mobile social media as emerging collaboration tools by virtual teams. Based on the construal level theory, it develops a research model hypothesizes that collaboration tool effectiveness influence contextual performance and task performance through the mediation of procedure agreeability. In addition, geographic dispersion, team size and project duration serve as moderators as they reflect virtual collaboration complexity. Empirical findings support most hypothesized relationships. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Power Of Percipience: Consequences Of Self-Awareness In Teams On Team-Level Functioning And Performance, Erich C. Dierdorff, David M. Fisher, Robert S. Rubin

Robert S. Rubin

Leadership And Performance In Various Group Dynamics, Jonathan Fedczuk

Business/Business Administration

This thesis will begin by providing a summary of the differences between flat and tall organizations. The bulk of the research will aim to explore leadership styles and demands that are effective in flatter organizations. More specifically, it will examine several aspects of autocratic and participative leadership in relation to managerial success. It will also assess certain need satisfactions of managers in flat organizations and the extent to which they have achieved success. The second portion of this thesis is intended to explore whether structural differences influence performance. A number of laboratory studies are evaluated to measure performance in tall …

Violent Splits Or Healthy Divides? Coping With Injustice Through Faultlines, Katerina Bezrukova, Chester S. Spell, Jamie L. Perry

Jamie Perry

In 2 studies, we investigated how groups with strong divisions may, paradoxically, help members to cope with injustice. We tested our theoretical predictions using a survey methodology and data from 57 (Study 1) and 36 (Study 2) workgroups across different industries. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that group faultlines weakened the positive relationship between perceived interpersonal injustice and psychological distress. Cooperative behaviors within subgroups mediated the interactive effect of faultlines and injustice with psychological distress.

Delaying Change: Examining How Industry And Managerial Turbulence Impact Structural Realignment, Samina Karim, Tim N. Carroll, Chris P. Long

Eberhardt School of Business Faculty Articles

This paper examines when firms pursue structural realignment through business unit reconfiguration, specifically by recombining business units. Our results refine and extend contingency theory and studies of organization design by drawing on theories of decision avoidance and delay to describe environmental conditions when firms pursue or postpone structural realignment. Our empirical analysis of 46 firms from 1978 to 1997, operating within the U.S. medical device and pharmaceutical sectors, demonstrates that while decision makers initiate structural recombination during periods of industry growth (i.e., munificence), they reduce their recombination efforts during periods of industry turbulence (i.e., dynamism), and managerial turbulence (i.e., growth …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Conversational Dynamics: Decision Making As Discourse, Zackary R. Edens

Theses and Dissertations--Management

This dissertation examines decision making as discourse to capture subtle characteristics and processes within top management team discussions and examines their influence on decision outcomes. Additionally, this approach allows for exploration of decision making processes in real time by utilizing audio analysis techniques that can provide a more dynamic and integrative view of conversations and discussions as they relate to the dialogue and debate that goes on within top management teams, as well as providing an alternate pathway of study for top management team and group research, decision making studies, and the fields of communication and conversational analysis.

Emotional Intelligence, Diversity, And Group Performance: The Effect Of Team Composition On Executive Education Program Outcomes, Michael P. Lillis

Journal of Executive Education

Group dynamics play a crucial role in group performance and effectiveness. The notion that people prefer to work with similar others in homogeneous groups is a common observation. Yet studies have revealed that homogeneity doesn’t necessarily translate into optimal group performance. In fact, research on group diversity has been fairly inconsistent; suggest the potential for some kind of underlying moderator variable. Using a sample of executive MBA students, this paper examines how group diversity and emotional intelligence are associated with group performance. We develop an integrative model that posits that the association between group heterogeneity and group performance becomes more …

From A Mirage To An Oasis: Narcissism, Perceived Creativity, And Creative Performance, Jack Goncalo, Francis J. Flynn, Sharon H. Kim

Jack Goncalo

We examine the link between narcissism and creativity at the individual, relational, and group levels of analysis. We find that narcissists are not necessarily more creative than others but they think they are, and they are adept at convincing others to agree with them. In the first study, narcissism was positively associated with self-rated creativity, despite the fact that blind coders saw no difference between the creative products offered by those low and high on narcissism. In a second study, more narcissistic individuals asked to pitch creative ideas to a target person were judged by the targets as being more …

Individual Incentives Versus Team Performance: Lessons From A Game Of Charades, Shawn E. Peacock, Patricia Denise Lopez, Marlon F. Sukal

Organization Management Journal

In this article, we describe a modified game of Charades that was developed to facilitate a discussion on the basic principles of effective reward system design. Students are organized into small groups. Incentive schemes are then manipulated so that one player within the group strives for an individual incentive, while the rest of the team play for a group reward. Through this simple and “fun” activity, students learn firsthand what happens when individual and team interests and incentives are not aligned. This experiential learning activity also offers excellent opportunities to discuss group dynamics, communication and coordination, and the importance of …

Individual Incentives Versus Team Performance: Lessons From A Game Of Charades, Shawn E. Peacock, Patricia Denise Lopez, Marlon F. Sukal

Organization Management Journal

In this article, we describe a modified game of Charades that was developed to facilitate a discussion on the basic principles of effective reward system design. Students are organized into small groups. Incentive schemes are then manipulated so that one player within the group strives for an individual incentive, while the rest of the team play for a group reward. Through this simple and “fun” activity, students learn firsthand what happens when individual and team interests and incentives are not aligned. This experiential learning activity also offers excellent opportunities to discuss group dynamics, communication and coordination, and the importance of …

Knowledge Creation: Revisiting The 'Ba' Humbug: People And 'Latent' Knowledge In Organizational Learning, Donald Nordberg

Donald Nordberg

This paper is a draft of an article that appeared in the Icfai Journal of Knowledge Management in 2007. Knowledge management theory has struggled with the concept of knowledge creation. Since the seminal article of Nonaka in 1991, an industry has grown up seeking to capture the knowledge in the heads and hearts of individuals so as to leverage them for organizational learning and growth. But the SECI process of socialization, externalization, combination and internalization outlined by Nonaka and his colleagues has dealt essentially with knowledge transfer rather than creation. This paper looks at attempts to fill the gap in …

Virtualness And Knowledge In Teams: Managing The Love Triangle Of Organizations, Individuals, And Information Technology, Terri L. Griffith, John E. Sawyer, Margaret A. Neale

Management & Entrepreneurship

Information technology can facilitate the dissemination of knowledge across the organization- even to the point of making virtual teams a viable alternative to face-to-face work. However, unless managed, the combination of information technology and virtual work may serve to change the distribution of different types of knowledge across individuals, teams, and the organization. Implications include the possibility that information technology plays the role of a jealous mistress when it comes to the development and ownership of valuable knowledge in organizations; that is. information technology may destabilize the relationship between organizations and their employees when it comes to the transfer of …

Impact Of Facilitator Co-Location And Alignment On The Efficacy Of Group Support Systems Employed In A Distributed Setting, Jeffrey A. Lea

Theses and Dissertations

Group Support Systems (GSSs) are a combination of hardware, software, and human facilitation designed and employed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of decision making groups. Engineers at the Sustainment Logistics Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory have recently proposed employing the technology in a distributed setting to conjoin geographically separated members of decision making groups in order to facilitate the reengineering of logistics processes in an any place/any time environment To date GSSs have been studied and employed primarily in the same time/same place setting. Consequently, little is known or understood of the effects that use of these …

An Evaluation Of Characteristics And Practices Associated With Effective Mentoring Within The United States Air Force, Sharon Gibson

Theses and Dissertations

The US Air Force has recently implemented a policy of assigning supervisors as the mentors of company grade officers. This study investigated the differences in mentoring effectiveness and perceived barriers to mentoring reported by Air Force company grade officers (CGOs), their organizationally assigned mentors (assigned), and CGO selected mentors (voluntary). Results indicated that junior officers believed they had effective mentoring relationships from both assigned and voluntary mentors, but as officers progressed to the rank of captain, they were more likely to seek out mentors outside of their chains of command. Junior officers indicated work related contact time spent on career …

A Pilot Study Of Space/Missile Crews And Crew Resource Management, John E. Varljen

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a first step in formalizing CRM training as part of Undergraduate Space and Missile Training (USMT) and individual Unit Training thereby capitalizing on techniques already developed and in place for pilots. We evaluated the usefulness of two modified versions of existing CRM measures. Because an attitude measure is easier to implement, this study analyzes the use of an established flight crew attitude measure, the Cockpit Management Attitudes Questionnaire (CMAQ), and a modified version of the Air Force Mobility Command AMC Form 128, March 1995. We conducted the study in two phases. Phase 1 dealt only with Space …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Perception Levels Of Prime Beef Training And Readiness Task Confidence, D. Wade Lawrence

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined the readiness training perception levels and task self-confidence of CE Prime BEEF personnel, and investigated the relationships between these two constructs. A heuristic model was developed which hypothesized that since previous research has shown that perception of training affects self-efficacy, and that self-efficacy affects performance, it may be inferred that training perception ultimately affects task performance. Surveys were sent to the target population to gather demographic data, perceptions of Prime BEEF readiness training and task confidence in both self and unit. Despite an improvement in perceptions over the past 12 years, results showed somewhat mediocre perception levels …

A Comparison Of The Decision Quality Of Group Decisions Made In A Face-To-Face Environment With Decisions Made Using A Distributed Group Decision Support System, Hope D. Cullen

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force is increasingly turning to a team approach for decision making. When team members are geographically separated it can be expensive for them to meet in a traditional face to face setting. Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS), designed to help groups make decisions, may be able to support these groups in a distributed mode. The assertion of this thesis is that a GDSS can indeed support such distributed processes and that these processes will be of higher quality than decisions made in a face to face environment. This study explores decision quality in terms of quality of the …

Group Decision Support Systems (Gdss) And Influence Modes: A Comparative Field Study Between Gdss Mediated Groups And Non-Gdss Mediated Groups, L. Grant Bridgewater

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effect of Group Decision Support System (GDSS) technology on perceived influence modes. The researcher measured perceived influence modes in two group treatments: GDSS groups and non-GDSS (N-GDSS) mediated groups. Actual groups in both treatments performed judgmental tasks of their own choosing. Group members then completed a survey which measured their perceptions regarding five influence sources: expert influence, influence from legitimate authority, referent influence, reward influence, and coercive influence. The survey also measured the extent to which members perceived an "opportunity to influence" other group members. For each variable measured in both treatment groups, mean scores were …

Group Dynamics In A Task Oriented Work Group, Virginia H. Foster

Theses

Unavailable.