Business Commons^™

The Leader As Coach: How To Coach A Winning Team (2nd Ed.) (Book Review), Dori Taylor Sullivan

Nursing Faculty Publications

Book review by Dorrie Taylor Sullivan:

Huseman, Richard. The Leader as Coach: How to Coach a Winning Team (2nd ed.) Oviedo, FL: Equity Press, 2007.

Awakening The Entrepreneurial Spirit: Exploring The Relationship Between Organizational Factors And Perceptions Of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy And Desirability In A Corporate Setting, Deborah V. Brazeal, Mark T. Schenkel, Jay A. Azriel

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

While efforts at understanding how the entrepreneurial spirit is awakened (e.g., unwrapping the cognitive “black box”) have been productive in the new venture context, it remains largely unexplored in a corporate setting.This study extends previous research by investigating the relationship between organizational antecedents and perceptions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and desirability of entrepreneurial activity. In a field study of organizations consistent with a corporate entrepreneurial archetype typology, we found that (1) individual work discretion and time availability impacted entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and (2) individual interest in work innovation influenced perceived desirability of innovative behaviors.

Ethical And Managerial Implications Of Internet Monitoring, Andra Gumbus, Frances Grodzinsky

WCBT Faculty Publications

As Internet use pervades our personal and professional lives, organizations have become increasingly concerned about employee use of the Internet for personal reasons while at work. This has prompted the restriction of the Internet or the limitation of the Internet during work hours. Monitoring of employee Internet and email is another result of this trend. Legitimate business functions such as employee performance appraisal and progress toward goals are served by monitoring. However, poorly designed and communicated monitoring practices can be negative and have perverse effects on employee morale and productivity. Monitoring of employees erodes trust and may be considered an …

From Workout To Winning, Bridget Lyons, Robert Hardy

WCBT Faculty Publications

Over the past three years, executives at General Electric (GE) have taught administrators at Sacred Heart University, located in Fairfield, CT, how to use the workout technique to identify and improve inefficient institutional processes and practices. This article will explain how Sacred Heart implemented the workout process, with a particular emphasis on factors contributing to successful workouts and the issues nonprofits encounter. GE has credited the workout with both improving processes and empowering the workforce. The workout, which has led to accelerated change and enhanced Six Sigma efforts, begins with identifying a problem. Many at GE note that the workout …

Leadership And Recruitment: What Leaders Can Learn From Coach Robert Montgomery Knight, Peter A. Maresco

WCBT Faculty Publications

The article discusses the leadership style of coach Robert Knight that can be adapted by business leaders in recruiting and managing their employees. Background information about Knight is presented. It is said that Knight believes that coaching is motivation and leadership and understanding human nature. According to the author, Knight is concerned with creating an environment where helping co-workers work to their fullest is the norm. Some additional insights into the leadership philosophy of Knight are presented.

Is Support For Top Managers' Dynamic Capabilities, Environmental Dynamism, And Firm Performance: An Empirical Investigation, Michael J. Zhang

WCBT Faculty Publications

Despite a continual interest in developing information systems (IS) to support the work of top managers, assessing the impact of IS support for top managers and their capabilities on the bottom-line performance of firms has received little attention in existing literature. Drawing upon the resource based view of competitive advantage, this paper argues that firms that provide IS support for their top managers’ dynamic capabilities may enjoy competitive advantage and superior firm performance. The performance impact of IS support for two key dynamic capabilities of top managers (fast response and mental model building) under different (dynamic vs. stable) external environments …

On The Importance Of Coping: A Model And New Directions For Research On Work And Family, Cynthia A. Thompson, Steven A. Y. Poelmans, Tammy D. Allen, Jeanine K. Andreassi

WCBT Faculty Publications

In this chapter, we review empirical research evidence regarding coping and work–family conflict. Limitations and gaps associated with the existing literature are discussed. Of special note is the finding that there is little systematic research that examines the process of coping with work– family conflict. Building on the general stress and coping literature, we present a theoretical model that is specifically focused on the process of coping with work–family conflict, and highlight presumed personal and situational antecedents. Finally, the chapter concludes with an agenda for future research.

Ethical And Managerial Implications Of Internet Monitoring, Andra Gumbus, Frances Grodzinsky

WCBT Faculty Publications

As Internet use pervades our personal and professional lives, organizations have become increasingly concerned about employee use of the Internet for personal reasons while at work. This has prompted the restriction of the Internet or the limitation of the Internet during work hours. Monitoring of employee Internet and email is another result of this trend. Legitimate business functions such as employee performance appraisal and progress toward goals are served by monitoring. However, poorly designed and communicated monitoring practices can be negative and have perverse effects on employee morale and productivity. Monitoring of employees erodes trust and may be considered an …

A Double-Edged Sword: Organizational Culture In Multicultural Organizations, Mary G. Trefry

WCBT Faculty Publications

The primary premise explored in this paper is that organizational culture has the potentialfor even greater impact in multicultural organizations than mono-cultural ones because an organization's culture can intensify both the benefits and the challenges of employee cultural diversity, and thus indirectly, affect organizational performance, organizational learning and competitive advantage. The assumptions underlying this contention and relationships among variables that contribute to the impact are explored in this paper, along with practical organizational implications.

This study analyzes the dimensions of the 'vitality of development' of banking systems. Fuzzy synthetic decision analysis was used to construct and evaluate an index of …

Does My Business Need A Human Resources Function? A Decision-Making Model For Small And Medium-Sized Firms, Golbou Ghassemieh, Elizabeth "Liz" Thach, Armand Gilinsky Jr.

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

The questions of when and what types of human resource (HR) support are needed tend to be unanswerable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This article addresses this gap in the strategic HR literature. Hiring, training, employee retention/satisfaction, wages and benefits programs, and worker’s compensation insurance are important to SMEs seeking to build strong capabilities and resources and to increase their competitive advantage. This article presents an analysis of the existing HR literature for SMEs. It introduces a decision model to help SMEs choose a cost-effective HR strategy, listing a range of options from hiring the HR function to electronic …

The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing The Way Work Works, By Ricardo Semler (Book Review), Peter A. Maresco

WCBT Faculty Publications

According to Semler: We have to find a better way for work to work.

Employee Equity, Incentive Compensation, And Growth In Entrepreneurial Firms, Ben Arbaugh, Larry W. Cox, S. Michael Camp

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

We examined the relationship between employee equity compensation, incentive compensation, and firm growth using a sample of 480 privately held firms from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s database of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year (EOY) winners. Using frameworks from agency and motivation theories, we argued that larger percentages of both equity- and incentive-based compensation allocated to top managers and employees would be associated with firm growth. After controlling for firm and industry effects, the results of the study showed that while the firms in the sample preferred providing incentive compensation, providing equity compensation for employees was a positively …

Julia's Dilemma, Andra Gumbus, Jill Woodilla

WCBT Faculty Publications

Julia, a professional woman in her mid-thirties, has had relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis as a part of her life for the last five years. Now she must decide whether to disclose her hidden illness at work. Julia disclosed her illness to her manager in a prior employment, when her MS was first diagnosed, and experienced a supportive response. But she was always mindful that her performance would likely be carefully scrutinized since she was in a job that required strict deadlines. Julia made a career change about a year ago, and did not tell anyone in her new organization that she …

Gender Bias In Internet Employment: A Study Of The Effects Of Career Advancement Opportunities For Women In The Field Of Itc, Andra Gumbus, Frances Grodzinsky

WCBT Faculty Publications

Women as individuals experience subtle discrimination regarding career development opportunities as evidenced by research on the Glass Ceiling. This paper looks at the ramifications of technology, specifically the Internet, and how it affects women's career opportunities.

The Balanced Scorecard At Futura Industries, Andra Gumbus, Susan D. Johnson

WCBT Faculty Publications

Most companies use the balanced scorecard (BSC) to focus on the financial aspects or the operational metrics required by ISO quality certification. But that is not all one unique company uses the BSC for. At Futura Industries, President Susan Johnson built the enterprise's success over the past 3 years on the BSC's foundational level - the learning, innovation, and growth dimension. This dimension provides the building blocks that generate success in the remaining 3 quadrants: customer service, financial, and internal operations. And the results have followed: a 50% increase in revenue without adding personnel from 1996 to 1999. This organization …

Temporal Spans In Talk: Doing Consistency To Construct Fair Organization, Jeanie M. Forray, Jill Woodilla

WCBT Faculty Publications

It is generally understood that time, among its other aspects, is a resource in organizational life. In this paper, we take an interpretive perspective to this notion by considering temporality as a verbal resource in the work of organizing. We introduce the concept of 'temporal span' and discuss the ways in which temporal spans serve to establish consistency as an ongoing attribute of organizational reality. Empirical examples drawn from an ethnomethodological study of human resource managers demonstrate interactions during which these managers invoke temporal spans to construct 'fair organization'. We discuss the use of temporality as a verbal resource with …

Effective Communication In The Performance Appraisal Interview: Face-To-Face Communication For Public Managers In The Culturally Diverse Workplace, John F. Kikoski

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

A study restates and then extends a thesis about the performance appraisal process first published almost 15 years ago - that the public manager's performance in the face-to-face encounter of the appraisal interview itself is the Achilles' heel of the entire process. This 1983 article held that many public managers experience discomfort approaching the actual performance appraisal interview and difficulty in conducting it. They are usually untrained and may even be unaware of the scholarly work that has identified the skills that make for more effective face-to-face communication. The 1983 article also presented 6 specific microcommunication skills to help public …

Redefining Loyalty: Motivational Strategies And Employee Loyalty In An Era Of Downsizing, Sandra Obilade

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Retaining employee loyalty after restructuring is a problem for all types of businesses. The major issue concerns how management and employees can establish a new, mutually acceptable "psychological contract" which ensures employee loyalty but not lifelong employment. Eighteen small businesses in Fairfield County, Connecticut were surveyed to investigate loyalty and motivation after downsizing. A significant correlation was found between loyalty and motivation. Furthermore, several motivational techniques employed were inconsistent with employee needs. Suggestions are offered on how to retain employee loyalty.

The Changing Context Of Practice, Stephen M. Brown

WCBT Faculty Publications

Environmental and organizational changes are putting new demands on training. Training must change to support new organizational structures within a complex and changing business and social environment.

Evaluation of training must be multilevel, customer focused, and support continuous improvement of training.The challenge is to provide meaningful data that enables assessment of customer satisfaction, business impact, and return on investment.

The Organizational Action Research Model, Morton Elfenbein, Stephen M. Brown, Kim H. Knight

WCBT Faculty Publications

This chapter proposes a paradigm, which empowers practitioners to practice research to meet their needs and to advance the profession to which they belong. It proposes the integration of practitioner and researcher role as an alternative to the fragmented model that currently exists. In doing so, it draws much from the past tradition of the action researchers as well as the science approach espoused by others. In this way, the needs of individual managers to evaluate their espoused theories and their theories-in-use can be undertaken so that their organizations can function more realistically and can respond more effectively to the …

Effective Communication In The Intranational Workplace: Models For Public Sector Managers And Theorists, John F. Kikoski

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

This article discusses theoretical models for effective interpersonal communication in the intranational workplace for public sector managers in the U.S. Effective communication is complete when the message has been understood. A message has been understood when it has been both clearly sent and received. Effective communication is a requisite to every step in the organizational process--from the mutual recognition and understanding of a topic or problem that triggered the communication in the first place to its final resolution. The second classical model of interpersonal communication was published by David Berlo. Berlo elaborated upon the Shannon-Weaver model. He recognized that interpersonal …

Strategic Human Resource Management (Book Review), John Chalykoff

WCBT Faculty Publications

Book review by John B. Chalykoff.

Fombrun, Charles J., Noel M. Tichy, Mary Anne Devanna. Strategic Human Resource Management. New York: Wiley, 1984.

ISBN 9780471810797

Making Sense Of Wage And Salary Surveys, Leonard N. Persson

WCBT Faculty Publications

This article provides the reader with guidance on the effective selection and use of wage and salary surveys to assure the availability of accurate data to which the firm's rates of pay can be compared. This paper has concentrated on the need for and method of careful selection of survey data, with the intent of assuring the greatest possible degree of comparability and accuracy in the data, prior to statistical analysis. The method of selection is important because even the most careful analysis of bad data produces only more bad data.