Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Introduction To Reviews And Research Of Note, Devi Akella

Organization Management Journal

No abstract provided.

Organizational Behavior And Work: A Critical Introduction Fiona M. Wilson Oxford University Press, Oxford, 3rd Edn, 2010, 390pp., Paperback, Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan

Organization Management Journal

No abstract provided.

Summer Issue Intro: New Ideas On Survey Question Point Of View, Competitive Strategies, Leadership Education, And Non-Profit Certification, William P. Ferris

Organization Management Journal

No abstract provided.

Interpreting Organizational Survey Results: A Critical Application Of The Self-Serving Bias, Peter A. Hausdorf, Stephen D. Risavy, David J. Stanley

Organization Management Journal

Surveys are used extensively by researchers and practitioners in organizations to measure employee attitudes and assess organizational health. Survey items can reflect a wide range of topics including employee attitudes, perceptions of management, and organizational culture. Surprisingly, the issue of whether employee focused items produce more positive employee responses (vis-a`-vis manager or organization focused items) has received little attention. Specifically, there may be self-serving biases in organizational survey responses that may lead to inaccurate diagnosing of organizational problems. We assess the impact of self-serving biases on the pattern of employee responses to organizational surveys. Results from two studies suggest that …

Introduction To Linking Theory & Practice Section, Alvin Hwang

Organization Management Journal

No abstract provided.

Images Of Leadership: A New Exercise To Teach Leadership From A Social Constructionist Perspective, Christopher I. Maxwell, Anne M. Greenhalgh

Organization Management Journal

Adopting a social constructionist approach to the teaching of leadership, we asked students in a required course in management to find or create and submit a digital image that captures leadership as they see it. Our intention was to help students understand their own perceptions of leadership and to see how their perceptions compare to those of others. We have run this exercise for the last 10 years (2000–2009), and to date we have collected 5037 digital images. These images are used throughout the course to demonstrate the relevance of the subject, to enrich the discussion of leadership theories, to …

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, And Other Powerful Web Tools For Classrooms Will Richardson, Corwin, Thousand Oaks, Ca, 2010, 171pp., Keith W. Hamon

Organization Management Journal

No abstract provided.

Knots Of Knowledge: How Community-Based Organizations Advance Social Change, Jennifer Cohen

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Building on existing literature and research that identify nonprofits as agents of democracy, this research explores how community-based organizations (CBOs) advance social change. Strategically placed to improve social and economic security for individuals, families, and communities, CBOs have unique characteristics, successes, and challenges. The study seeks to understand, document, and apply these in building theories for use by practitioners, academics, public officials, and people living the experiences that public policies address. The research articulates a new model of social change, wherein individual transformation, organizational growth, community strengthening, and public policy work together in dynamic and complementary spheres.

The methodology is …

A Macro Perspective To Micro Issues, Devasheesh P. Bhave, Stephane Brutus

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Comments on an article by Elaine D. Pulakos and Ryan S. O'Leary. The authors argue that bringing the focus on the relationship between the manager and the employee will mend performance management. We concur with the broad assessment that an excessive focus on technical improvements in performance management systems is misplaced and that implementation issues plague performance management. But we believe that poor implementation is an operational challenge not because of the practice itself but rather on account of misalignment. They also allude to a consideration of alignment. They also glosses over the issue of internal alignment or the fact …

Embeddedness And New Idea Discussion In Professional Networks: The Mediating Role Of Affect-Based Trust, Roy Y. J. Chua, Michael W. Morris, Paul Ingram

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article examines how managers' tendency to discuss new ideas with others in their professional networks depends on the density of shared ties surrounding a given relationship. Consistent with prior research which found that embeddedness enhances information flow, an egocentric network survey of mid-level executives shows that managers tend to discuss new ideas with those who are densely embedded in their professional networks. More specifically, embeddedness increases the likelihood to discuss new ideas by engendering affect-based trust, as opposed to cognition-based trust. Implications for network and creativity research are discussed.

Relation-Specific Creative Performance In Voluntary Collaborations: A Micro-Foundation For Competitive Advantage?, Terence Ping Ching Fan, Duncan Robertson

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A fundamental question in the strategy literature is how sustainable competitive advantage can be generated within one firm and yet difficult to copy by another. We offer one solution to this conundrum by way of relation-specific performance that is developed in creative projects – where the individuals involved have significant latitude on the intended objectives as well as their collaborators on these projects. Because higher-level cognition is involved in navigating such projects from conception to implementation, there is heightened relation-specificity in their performance – as measured by how widely they are adopted by third-party users. This relationspecificity means that any …

Situational Judgment Tests As A New Tool For Dental Student Selection, Tine Buyse, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Cognitive tests are used to select students into dental school, yet cognitive predictors explain only part of the variance in academic performance. Therefore, interviews and personality tests are often used to measure noncognitive (e.g., interpersonal) characteristics. Recently, situational judgment tests (SJTs) have drawn attention since there is evidence that SJTs can be valid predictors in medical admission contexts. This study examines the validity of an SJT measuring interpersonal skills for predicting academic performance of dental students. Incremental validity over cognitive tests is also examined. In this study, 796 dental students who passed the admission exam for medical and dental students …

The Use Of Role-Player Prompts In Assessment Center Exercises, Eveline Schollaert, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

So far, a substantial amount of assessment center (AC) studies have aimed to improve the quality of the AC method by focusing on the assessors. However, systematic studies about the role-player in AC exercises are nonexistent. This is surprising as the role-player might serve as a key figure for consistently evoking job-relevant behavior across candidates. Therefore, this study focused on the 'role' of role-players in ACs. We examined the effects of instructing role-players to use prompts among 233 candidates. Results suggest that role-players are able to use prompts and that their negative impact on candidates' reactions is negligible. In addition, …

Leadership & Organizational Change, Terri A. Scandura Phd, Monica Sharif

Management Faculty Articles and Papers

In recent years, change has occurred within almost all organizations. Downsizing, relocations, restructuring, technological changes, mergers, process-oriented changes and people-oriented changes are happening on a daily basis. Therefore it is necessary to study the influence organizational change has on important organizational variables. We conducted a study examining reactions to different types of organizational change. We specifically looked at the extent to which employees trust their organization during different types of organizational change.

A Multilevel Examination Of Proactive Work Behaviors: Contextual And Individual Differences As Antecedents, Travis P. Searle

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this study, the process through which individual differences (i.e., proactive personality, psychological empowerment, and servant leader characteristics at level-1) and contextual differences (i.e., servant leadership characteristics at level-2) are antecedents to proactive work behaviors (i.e., problem prevention, individual innovation, voice, and taking charge) was tested. Results indicated that psychological empowerment partially mediated the relationship between proactive personality and individual innovation. Psychological empowerment fully mediated the relationship between proactive personality and taking charge. Proactive personality was indirectly related to problem prevention, via psychological empowerment. Psychological empowerment was directly related to voice. In addition, servant leader characteristics at level-1 were positively …

The Organizational Creativity Actualization Model: A Book Proposal, Russell Schneck

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project consists of a book proposal, including two sample chapters, that provides a vision for how organizations can effectively use creativity and creative thinking to address the rapid escalation of complexity. The working title for the book is: The Creativity Organization: Responding to the Challenges and Opportunities of Complexity. The book will explore the organizational development requirements and programs necessary to transform an organizational culture so that it will consistently and sustainably develop and support creativity. At the foundation of this discussion is the Organizational Creativity Actualization Model (OCAM). This model considers organizational creativity as a system of …

Conflict Management Education In Medicine: Considerations For Curriculum Designers, Jeffery Kaufman

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

It is important to address conflict in the medical field for a variety of reasons ranging from reducing turnover to increasing the quality of care received by patients. One way to assist with the management of medical conflict is by teaching resolution techniques to medical personnel. There is an opportunity for conflict management curriculum to address many of the issues facing physicians, administrators, staff and patients, however, it is also necessary for those developing that curriculum to understand the nature of the environment and appropriate conflict management tools to be used in that environment as part of the design process. …

Uncovering Hidden Profiles; Managerial Interventions For Discovering Superior Decision Alternatives, Brian D. Waddell

Honors Projects in Management

A common reason for the use of teams in organizations is the idea that each individual can bring a unique perspective to the decision task; however, research shows that teams often fail to surface and use unique information to evaluate decision alternatives. Under a condition known as the hidden profile, each member uniquely possesses a critical clue needed to uncover the superior solution. Failure to share and adequately evaluate this information will result in poor decision quality. In order to mitigate this team decision-making bias, the present study utilizes experimental research to examine the impact of the devil’s advocacy technique …

The Importance Of Course Offerings On The Topic Of Environmental Sustainability At The University Of Rhode Island, Sarah Kane

Senior Honors Projects

For my project, I created a survey for University of Rhode Island students’ exploring their experiences and interest in course offerings on sustainability.  I am distributing it to students through different mediums such as email, Facebook and in person. Through my analysis of the results, I am seeking some evidence about whether or not students at this institute feel that our school offers enough courses on this topic and whether or not students are interested in taking courses on this topic.

As a business major, I have taken several courses where we learned about surveying and analysis of the results. …

The Creative Coach: Exploring The Synergies Between Creative Problem Solving: Thinking Skills Model And Non-Directive Coaching, Trevor J. Mcalpine

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project looks at the similarities and differences between the most recent version of Creative Problem Solving called Creative Problem Solving: Thinking Skills Model and the approach to coaching known as Non-Directive Coaching. Creativity practitioners are challenged to find opportunities of engaging in formal full-blown, group-based Creative Problem Solving sessions. There is a need to find other, less formal ways of helping people use their creativity. The Thinking Skills Model’s design allows it to mesh with the creative process in other content areas by making the basic concepts of Creative Problem Solving transferable to those other contexts. Non-Directive Coaching …