Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

An Examination Of Middle Manager Innovation Behaviors And Institutional Factors Impact On Organizational Innovation In The Usa And Mexico, J. Lee Brown Iii

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Several scholars have suggested mid-level management is an important factor that explains strategic outcomes (Wooldridge, Schmidt, & Floyd, 2008), but little research has investigated how this relationship actually works in multiple institutional environments. The resource-based view of the firm argues that competitive advantage is a function of resource heterogeneity and immobility (Barney, 1991) and the discretionary decisions made by managers about resource creation, development, and allocation (Amit & Shoemaker, 1993). These boundedly-rational managers (Simon, 1957) make these decisions facing an uncertain and complex internal and external environment. Thus, this dissertation extends the current research by developing and testing a new …

A Study Of Risk-Taking Behavior In Investment Banking, Elzotbek Rustambekov

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This dissertation examines corporate risk-taking behavior by investment banks in the United States. This study was sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, one of the largest bankruptcy filings in U.S. history. This dissertation examines the specific factors that drove investment banks such as Lehman Brothers to take excessive risks, and how the deregulation of the US financial services industry towards the end of the 1990s contributed to risk-taking behavior.

I use four theoretical perspectives to examine corporate risk-taking behavior among investment banks. These perspectives include: institutional theory, behavioral theory of the firm, knowledge based view (KBV) of the firm, …

A Study Of Failures In The Us Banking Industry, Joseph Trendowski

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This dissertation studies failures in the U.S. banking industry following the 2008 financial crisis. The dissertation offers an exhaustive review of the organizational failure literature, and changes in the banking industry environment over the past century. It takes three theoretical perspectives - institutional, industrial organization and resource-based view- to analyze failures in the banking industry.

The review and analysis allows me to trace the roots of recent bank failures to external (institutional, competitive) and internal (resource structure, strategy, risk) factors, and propose several hypotheses linking such factors with failures. The hypotheses are tested using a data-set that included all bank …

A Conversation With Incoming Ala President, Maureen Sullivan, Leo S. Lo

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

The article focuses on a telephone conversation with American Library Association (ALA) President-Elect Maureen Sullivan. She discusses her previous work as president of the Library Leadership & Management Association (LLAMA). Sullivan emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence in library leaders. Sullivan describes her projects as ALA president, including a civic engagement initiative and an ALA-wide leadership development program. She also her plan to work with the Sister Libraries program.

Effects That Previous Employment Experiences Had On Organizational Commitment Of An Hourly Workforce, Charles August Bartocci

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

A committed workforce is critical to the success of any organization. While there was a great deal of debate on how to best describe commitment, one model that attracted a significant following is the Three Component Model (TCM) developed by Meyer and Allen (1988). While it may be argued that the model is a mixed model combining attitudinal and behavioral measures, researchers have largely agreed that the scale that measures affective commitment is both valid and reliable. How commitment is developed in a workforce is of considerable interest. A minority of researchers have considered a variety of antecedents that contribute …

An Investigation Into The Relationship Between An Engineering Manager's Purpose-Seeking Beliefs And Behaviors And The Engineering Manager's Perception Of Employee Creativity, Initiative And Purpose-Seeking Behavior, Charles Burton Daniels

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Organizations have placed an overwhelming emphasis on extrinsic motivation of its workforce, normally in the form of financial incentives, in an attempt to assure individual and organizational high performance. While a significant level of financial resources is expended in this attempt to predict and influence employee behavior, no objective evidence exists of a favorable return of investment. In fact, the primary impact of most extrinsic motivation might actually be demotivation – the opposite of the intended use.

In this research the prevailing literature was examined and a conclusion about the power of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation was synthesized to …

More Than A One-Trick Pony: Exploring The Contours Of A Multi-Sector Covener, Madeleine W. Mcnamara, John C. Morris

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Today's managers must find ways to identify and sustain productive relationships within multi-sector collaborative arrangements. This paper explores empirically the activities of a convener based on tasks identified by Agranoff and McGuire (2001) and applies this framework to the case of Virginia's Coastal Zone Management Program (VCZMP). We find that the convener displays characteristics described by Agranoff and McGuire, as well as characteristics of traditional hierarchical managers. This research suggests that both sets of skills are necessary for effective multi-sector collaborative governance.

Three Essays On Strategic Risk Taking, Krista Burrill Lewellyn

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The three essays that comprise this dissertation collectively explore strategic risk taking. The dissertation is underpinned by the notion that corporate executives take strategic risks not randomly, but based on the expectation that outcomes are more likely to be positive rather than negative. Each essay examines how and why decision makers come to vary in their cognitive evaluation of the acceptability of strategic risk taking.

Essay 1 draws from the approach/inhibition theory of power, to explore how power not only provides the means for CEOs to exert their risk preferences, but actually affects what the risk preferences are. Power is …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Experiences Of Women In Leadership And Community At Old Dominion University From 1970 To 1990, Ann E. Wendle Barnes

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

During the 1970s college campuses in the United States were often the venue through which change occurred. Female faculty and students were assertive in their efforts to influence equality between men and women across the country (Morris, 1984). This historical phenomenological study examined the oral history of several women who advocated for women's rights at Old Dominion University (ODU) by establishing the Women's Caucus, Women's Studies Program, and Women's Center during the late 1970s through the 1990s.

Participants selected for this study took part in semi-structured interviews, and the results of the interviews were triangulated with archived documents available at …