Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Pivoting At The Midpoint: How Midpoint Course Adjustments Influence Student Engagement, Alexander C. Romney, Mitchell Pound

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

In higher education, instructors must often pivot to new methods, approaches, and exercises to help students achieve learning objectives in a particular course. These course pivots can be challenging to navigate; however, they are often the difference between a successful course and an unsuccessful one. Research on the punctuated equilibrium model of group development provides important insights for instructors on managing and navigating course pivots. This article reviews research on midpoint transitions and discusses the benefits of implementing midpoint pivots. It then introduces an example of a midpoint course pivot: The Stop-Start-Continue exercise. It concludes with a discussion of the …

Flocc: From Agent-Based Models To Interactive Simulations On The Web, Scott Donaldson

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

Agent-based modeling (ABM) is a computational technique wherein systems are represented through the actions and interactions of many individual entities (‘agents’) over time. ABM often attempts to elucidate the unpredictable, high-level behavior of systems through the predictable, low-level behavior of actors within the system. There are currently few software or frameworks for ABM that allow modelers to design and build interactive models on the web, for a wide audience as well as a scientifically literate audience well-versed in complexity, models, and simulations. Flocc is a novel framework for agent-based modeling written in JavaScript, the lingua franca programming language of the …

Emergent Hierarchy Through Conductance-Based Degree Constraints, Christopher Tyler Diggans, Jeremie Fish, Erik M. Bollt

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

The presence of hierarchy in many real-world networks is not yet fully understood. We observe that complex interaction networks are often coarse-grain models of vast modular networks, where tightly connected subgraphs are agglomerated into nodes for simplicity of representation and computational feasibility. The emergence of hierarchy in such growing complex networks may stem from one particular property of these ignored subgraphs: their graph conductance. Being a quantification of the main bottleneck of flow through the coarse-grain node, this scalar quantity implies a structural limitation and supports the consideration of heterogeneous degree constraints. The internal conductance values of the subgraphs are …

Network-Based Analysis Of Early Pandemic Mitigation Strategies: Solutions, And Future Directions, Pegah Hozhabrierdi, Raymond Zhu, Maduakolam Onyewu, Sucheta Soundarajan

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

Despite the large amount of literature on mitigation strategies for pandemic spread, in practice, we are still limited by naive strategies, such as lockdowns, that are not effective in controlling the spread of the disease in long term. One major reason behind adopting basic strategies in real-world settings is that, in the early stages of a pandemic, we lack knowledge of the behavior of a disease, and so cannot tailor a more sophisticated response. In this study, we design different mitigation strategies for early stages of a pandemic and perform a comprehensive analysis among them. We then propose a novel …

Value Creation By Private Equity Firms: A Resource-Based View, Kei Pang

Dissertations

Despite the growing importance of the private equity (PE) industry in the United States, it is unclear how PE firms create value. This study contributes to the PE literature and strategic management research by examining PE firm resources and competencies that drive the success of equity-backed management buyout deals. Specifically, my work proposes a framework to describe the key value creation drivers and sub-drivers that position PE firms for success in all four stages of the PE value chain: Fund Raising, Deal Sourcing, Governing/Managing, and Exiting. I utilize Porter’s (1985) value chain analysis (VCA) and the resource-based view (RBV) to …

Leading Change: A Case Study Of A Transparent, Scaffolded Process For Rebalancing Workloads Across Liaisons, Carolyn Schubert

Libraries

Campus and internal position reorganizations changes had created significant imbalances across workloads of liaison librarians. Some people were experiencing burnout, some were feeling unengaged due to underutilization. To build buy-in for the change process and ultimate change decisions, the interim Director developed a multi-step process for scaffolding change and creating transparency across the decision points. Working within the constraints of existing personnel, we had to be creative. The presentation will describe the techniques the interim Director used to identify the problem, facilitate open communication, and engage shared leadership to resolve the imbalances.

Are Terrorist Networks Just Glorified Criminal Cells?, Elie Alhajjar, Ryan Fameli, Shane Warren

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

The notions of organized crime and terrorism have an old and rich history around the globe. Researchers and practitioners have been studying events and phenomena related to these notions for a long time. There are pointers in the literature in which it is misleading to see the unfair comparison between terrorist and criminal networks with the argument that all actors involved in these networks are simply evil individuals. In this paper, we conduct a systematic study of the operational structure of such networks from a network science perspective. We highlight some of the major differences between them and support our …

Resilient Leadership In Chicago Hotels: Case Study In A Global Pandemic, Deborah Popely Dba, Michael Krause Cha, Chia, Msed

Kendall College Research

The impact of COVID-19 on the hotel industry has been catastrophic and like elsewhere, the Chicago hotel market has faced steep declines in occupancy, revenues and profitability, resulting in severe staff cuts and drastic operating changes. Yet many hotels continued operating, albeit at a reduced level. What factors made it possible for hotels to adapt to these conditions? To answer this question, a case study was developed from in-depth surveys with 16 Chicago hotels combined with interviews with 7 leaders from these hotels, providing a snapshot of resilient leadership in the Chicago hotel market before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. …

Examining Military Cargo Pilots' Eco-Friendly Flying Intention, Ioan A. Gaitan

Theses and Dissertations

The US Air Force is the largest operational energy consumer within the Department of Defense primarily due to aviation fuel use. Military pilots can play important roles in saving aviation fuel by flying aircraft in an eco-friendly manner. According to the theory of planned behavior (TPB), intention is the major predictor of behavior. This study tests two models based on TPB for understanding cargo pilots’ eco-friendly intentions when they conduct channel or logistics missions. The study found that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavior control were significant antecedents to intention in a multiple regression with aggregated scales.

Analyzing Student Experience On Group Work With The Application Of Different Group Allocation Approaches, An Yee Tan

Management and HR

Working as a group can be as challenging as working by oneself. Common issues like ineffective group work, unequal work contribution, and poor communication are believed to be the reasons why many students preferred to work individually. The purpose of this study is to understand if there is a disparity in student experience on group work by implementing different methods of group formation, which are, intentional group formation and random assignment. Topics around team well-being, team communication, and team effectiveness are the main focus of this study. The second emphasis of this study is students’ opinions on whether or not …

Introduction To The Special Issue On “Grassroots And Inclusive Innovations: Conceptualizing Synergies And Complementarities”, Wee Liang Tan, Partha Gangopadhyay, Oscar Hauptman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This special issue was initiated in 2016 by the three co-editors with a “Call for Papers” (Gangopadhyay et al., 2016). After significant delays starting with co-editors’ health and other personal issues, and ending with the COVID-19 Pandemic, the task of finalizing the special issue is reaching conclusion and it is time to take stock of the intellectual content. The objective of this introduction is to enable the audience to make easier sense when perusing the papers selected in a broader context, guided by conceptual framing.

The Effect Of Leader-Member Exchange, Co-Worker Cooperation And Locus Of Control On Employee Outcomes In Lebanese Smes: Perceptions Of Politics As A Mediator, Sakina El Jisr, Abdul Rahman Beydoun, Nehale Mostapha

BAU Journal - Society, Culture and Human Behavior

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the nature of the relationships between three variables (leader-member exchange, locus of control and co-worker cooperation) and two employee outcomes (job satisfaction and turnover intention). It also examines whether these relationships are mediated by perceptions of politics.

Design/methodology/approach – Survey data was obtained from 300 employees from Lebanese SMEs located between Tripoli and Beirut. Mediation was tested using Baron and Kenny (1986)’s framework.

Findings – Results revealed that leader-member exchange and co-worker cooperation are positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to turnover intention. Locus of control, on the other hand, is …

Leading Organizational Learning, Jessica C. Wells

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Leadership is hard to define but easy to recognize and is found in every facet of life. Leaders themselves range from good to bad, the extremities of which are determined by their character, actions, perception of self, how they are perceived by others and their worldviews. An individual’s values provide the basis for ethical decisions, which makes self-awareness a critical element in the development of one’s leader identity. This article provides an overview of leader identity development and offers ways for leaders to apply ethics in their everyday lives.

The Effect Of Remote Working On Employees Wellbeing And Work-Life Integration During Pandemic In Egypt, Bassant Adel Mostafa

Business Administration

The study aims to enrich employers' understanding of how employees perceive remote working Post COVID-19's quarantine period and its effect on employees' psychological wellbeing and work-life integration in Egypt. A structured questionnaire was distributed post-COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period on a sample of 318 employees who are supposed to be working remotely in different sectors from home. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to test the research hypotheses. The results suggest a significant positive effect of employees' perception of remote working on psychological wellbeing and work-life integration. Simultaneously, there is a significant negative effect of employees' perception of remote working and …

Stakeholder Experiences With Arts-Based University-Community Partnerships In General Education, Veronica Leone Matthews

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

University-community partnerships (UCPs) have significant potential as a way for universities to connect with communities and provide students with High Impact Practices (HIPs). Despite over 20 years of literature calling for increased community engagement, institutions of higher education have been slow to integrate UCPs into the General Education curriculum. Certain components have been identified as necessary for the effectiveness and sustainability of UCPs. However, little is known about the experiences and perceptions of key stakeholders including students, faculty, and community partners who participate in arts-based UCPs. This study investigated these stakeholders’ perceptions regarding participating in arts-based UCPs as part of …

Safety Climate And The Use Of Personal Protective Equipment By Petroleum Refinery Workers, Mark Zapp

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the impact of peer and supervisor influences of task risks associated with refinery workers’ use of PPE while working in an industrial environment. The study focused on the safety climate model to discover the perceived value workers placed on safety and Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior’s roadmap for understanding their use of PPE.

Methodology: This study used phenomenological qualitative methodology to collect responses from 16 petroleum refinery contractor workers from Los Angeles, California, regarding the influences peers, supervisors, and task risk have on their use of PPE. Respondents …

Building Organizational Resilience Through Human Capital Management Strategy, Stephanie Douglas

Publications

Purpose

This paper examines the role of human capital management strategy in shaping organizational resilience. Resilient organizations thrive in uncertain and adverse conditions. The organization’s capacity for resilience can be developed through human capital management strategies that are focused on employee capabilities, training, and development. When individual capabilities and resilience are developed, those can be aggregated at an organizational level to develop the capacity in an organization for resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

A review of relevant studies and literature was conducted to develop strategies and insight into developing the human capital of an organization to support organizational resilience.

Findings

Supporting individual capability …

Transaction Cost Theory: Past Progress, Current Challenges, And Suggestions For The Future, Ilya Cuypers, Jean-Francois Hennart, Brian S. Silverman, Gokhan Ertug

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Transaction cost theory (TCT) has been fruitfully applied to a wide range of organizational phenomena, as reflected in a vast and evolving body of research. However, in part due to the theory’s broad success, important advances in some fields do not diffuse to other fields. In this essay, we lay out a path toward a pluralistic view of TCT that incorporates insights from multiple fields, primarily strategy and international business. In so doing, we critically assess the assumptions, key constructs, and evolving theoretical logic of TCT. We then propose an agenda for future research, highlighting opportunities for scholars to (1) …

Mind Your Language: The Effects Of Linguistic Ostracism On Interpersonal Work Behaviors, John Fiset, Devasheesh P. Bhave

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Business and demographic trends are conflating to bring language issues at work to the forefront. Although language has an inherent capacity for creating interpersonal bonds, it can also serve as a means of exclusion. The construct of linguistic ostracism encapsulates this phenomenon. Drawing on ethnolinguistic identity theory, we identify how linguistic ostracism influences two interpersonal work behaviors: interpersonal citizenship and interpersonal deviance. We conduct a set of studies that uses multisource data, data across time, and data from three countries. Our results reveal that linguistic ostracism was associated with the enactment of lower interpersonal citizenship behaviors and higher interpersonal deviance …

Transparency And Control In Email Communication: The More The Supervisor Is Put In Cc The Less Trust Is Felt, Tessa Haesevoets, David De Cremer, Leander De Schutter, Jack Mcguire, Yu Yang, Xie Jian, Alain Van Hiel

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The issue of trust has increasingly attracted attention in the business ethics literature. Our aim is to contribute further to this literature by examining how the use of the carbon copy (cc) function in email communication influences felt trust. We develop the argument that the use of cc enhances transparency—representing an important characteristic of workplace ethics—and hence promotes trust. We further argue that a downside of the cc option may be that it can also be experienced as a control mechanism, which may therefore negatively affect trust. The results of our first study showed that the use of cc indeed …