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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Maintaining And Regaining Organizational Legitimacy : The U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission, Karen R. Bryce Jan 2012

Maintaining And Regaining Organizational Legitimacy : The U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission, Karen R. Bryce

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Focusing on organizational legitimacy is an essential element to the survival of an organization. Suchman (1995) suggests that "Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions" (p. 574). Legitimacy must first be gained and then maintained. If lost, legitimacy must be regained or the organization is unlikely to survive. Organizations can use both symbolic and substantive means of gaining, maintaining or regaining legitimacy. This dissertation explores organizational legitimacy by examining the case of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission …


Disappearing Act? : An Analysis Of The Boundaries Between The Nonprofit & For-Profit Sectors, Simone Grant Jan 2012

Disappearing Act? : An Analysis Of The Boundaries Between The Nonprofit & For-Profit Sectors, Simone Grant

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation analyzes the boundaries between the nonprofit and for-profit sectors using network analysis on interlocking directorates. Drawing upon data that contains over 26,000 directors and 1000 organizations, it seeks to identify the nature of the network between the largest organizations in American society and addresses how it might explain recent marketization trends in the nonprofit sector. The “biznification” of the nonprofit sector has caused some alarm amongst nonprofit scholars and this dissertation adds another layer to the discussion by looking at the directors of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Seeking to identify any differences in the network brought on …


Beyond Coffee Plantations : Coffee Production, Emerging Economic And Social Spaces, And The Q'Eqchi' Maya In Senahú, Guatemala, Winston Kent Scott Jan 2012

Beyond Coffee Plantations : Coffee Production, Emerging Economic And Social Spaces, And The Q'Eqchi' Maya In Senahú, Guatemala, Winston Kent Scott

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines various aspects of economic and social consequences associated with the history of coffee production in the rural municipality of Senahú, a province located in the central Guatemalan province of Alta Verapaz that is home to one of the four major Mayan language groups in Guatemala; the Q'eqchi' Maya. In particular, the investigation is concerned with how German and other Anglo-European entrepreneurs initiated large-scale coffee production in the late 19th century and the social and economic disparities that arose with the early successes of large-scale coffee production. This examination also presents how the collective society in Senahú became …


Do It Because I Said So ... Please? : The Connection Between Supervisor Interpersonal Justice, Perceived Power, And Employee Reactions, Ellen Weissblum Jan 2012

Do It Because I Said So ... Please? : The Connection Between Supervisor Interpersonal Justice, Perceived Power, And Employee Reactions, Ellen Weissblum

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this set of studies was to investigate the linkage between interpersonally just or unjust behavior on the part of a supervisor and the perception of referent, coercive, and legitimate power as perceived by subordinates. It was proposed that lower levels of interpersonal justice on the part of a supervisor would result in the perception that the supervisor possessed a greater degree of coercive power and a lower degree of referent power. It was furthermore proposed that, consistent with prior research, referent power would be positively related to task commitment; coercive power would be positively related to reactance; …


Knowledge Creation In Distributed Group Collaborative Workplace Writing, Virginia Yonkers Jan 2012

Knowledge Creation In Distributed Group Collaborative Workplace Writing, Virginia Yonkers

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study looked at the knowledge creation by distributed groups in a knowledge based organization as they engaged in collaborative writing. A traditional model of knowledge creation assumes knowledge is located by the individual in the forms of content, competency, and expertise. A new model of knowledge creation identifies three ways to identify knowledge (tangible representation of knowledge, procedural and tacit knowledge, partaged knowledge) which can be found internally or externally to the individual, group, or organization. Knowledge creation is a complex process situated in the multiple environments within which a distributed group functions. Power structures create knowledge boundaries within …