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How Do Defense Companies Understand And Measure Human Capital, Alexander Eksir Jan 2008

How Do Defense Companies Understand And Measure Human Capital, Alexander Eksir

Student Scholarship

How do we reliably sustain performance of the US defense assets over their expected life cycles in an industry where the legacy skills of employees at an average age of 49 will soon be lost to attrition? While the defense industry has illustrated reliable results in the past, we now must pay serious attention to the Human Capital if we are to continue to sustain performance. This study examines the ways that HC is understood and monitored by upper echelon who work in high-tech defense companies, government as well as individuals in academia who are familiar with the defense industry.

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Managing With Foresight And Insight, Christine G. Springer Jan 2008

Managing With Foresight And Insight, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

The article shares the author's views on managing with foresight. According to her, strategically managing with foresight has always required with informed understanding. She stresses that one of the most effective disciplines for learning from experience is After Action Review (AAR). She expresses that AARs are examples of tools for foresight because it seeks to learn more from what have happened and apply the learning to an organization's understanding of the future.

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Student Satisfaction With Online Learning Effectiveness At A Connecticut Community College, Alina R. Payne Jan 2008

Student Satisfaction With Online Learning Effectiveness At A Connecticut Community College, Alina R. Payne

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In recent years, institutions of higher education have dramatically increased the number of online courses and degree programs offered to students, and yet it remains unclear what factors determine student satisfaction with online course and instructor effectiveness. Accordingly, the purpose of this exploratory correlation study was to examine how factors related to courses and instructors contributed to student perceptions of course quality (CQ) and instructor effectiveness (IE). Six stepwise regression procedures assessed the effects of specific course and instructor characteristics on perceptions of CQ and IE across one year of course evaluation data collected in a northeastern 2-year college. Results …

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The Impact Of A Marketing Information System: A Case Study Of Smart-Baltimore, Tanvi Kothari, D. R. Fesenmaier, Z. Xiang Jan 2008

The Impact Of A Marketing Information System: A Case Study Of Smart-Baltimore, Tanvi Kothari, D. R. Fesenmaier, Z. Xiang

Faculty Publications, School of Management

The purpose of this study is to use existing theories of technology and organizational change to assess the impact of technology implementation within the context of the tourism industry. The framework is applied as a case study to analyze the perceived implications of implementing a destination marketing information system by the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. The results of the study indicate that the most important value of the system is the richness and timeliness of information. The key informants perceive that this system will not only impact the marketing activities at the organization but will not influence the …

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How Scientist/Founders Lead Successful Biopharmaceutical Organizations: A Study Of Three Companies, Lynn Johnson Langer Jan 2008

How Scientist/Founders Lead Successful Biopharmaceutical Organizations: A Study Of Three Companies, Lynn Johnson Langer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine how the leadership of scientist/founders of biopharmaceutical companies affects the success of their organization. Over half of all biotechnology firms are founded by scientists, yet for every start-up biotech firm that succeeds, 15-20 fail and eight out of 10 drugs fail in clinical trials (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 2007; Stanford Graduate School of Business, n.d.; Zhang & Patel, 2005). To bring a biopharmaceutical product from the research bench to the consumer costs more than $800 million (Tufts, 2007). This dissertation research explored the leadership practices of three successful scientist/founders and how …

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How Are Nasa Engineers Motivated? An Analysis Of Factors That Influence Nasa Goddard Engineers’ Level Of Motivation, Howard Eric Kea Jan 2008

How Are Nasa Engineers Motivated? An Analysis Of Factors That Influence Nasa Goddard Engineers’ Level Of Motivation, Howard Eric Kea

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

NASA is an organization known for pushing the envelope of engineering and scientific achievement. It can be argued that engineers working for NASA are intrinsically highly motivated due to the nature of the work and the mission of NASA. This study explores how supervisor behaviors, both intrinsic and extrinsic and demographic factors influence motivation of NASA Goddard engineers in their current environment. Recent Congressional and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policies, such as full cost accounting, levy strict oversight of project spending. As a result of these policies, NASA engineers must now focus their attention on getting assigned work …

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Rethinking The Role Of Management Consultants As Disseminators Of Business Knowledge: Knowledge Flows, Directions, And Conditions In Consulting Projects, Andrew Sturdy, Karen Handley, Timothy Adrian Robert Clark, Robin Fincham Jan 2008

Rethinking The Role Of Management Consultants As Disseminators Of Business Knowledge: Knowledge Flows, Directions, And Conditions In Consulting Projects, Andrew Sturdy, Karen Handley, Timothy Adrian Robert Clark, Robin Fincham

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Consultants are seen as core agents in the dissemination of business knowledgethrough their relative expertise and/or rhetorical and knowledge management practices.However, relatively few studies focus specifically on their role in projects with clientorganisations. This paper examines knowledge flow in consultancy projects fromlongitudinal observation and interview research as well as a survey of clients andconsultants working together. Our analysis suggests that the conventional view ofconsultants as disseminators of new management ideas to clients is, at best,exaggerated and certainly misrepresents their role in project work. Firstly, it tends tooccur by default rather than by design. More importantly however, learning is oftenconcerned with …

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Employing Adaptive Structuring As A Cognitive Decision Aid In High Reliability Organizations, Karlene H. Roberts, Kuo Frank Yu, Vinit M. Desai, Peter Madsen Jan 2008

Employing Adaptive Structuring As A Cognitive Decision Aid In High Reliability Organizations, Karlene H. Roberts, Kuo Frank Yu, Vinit M. Desai, Peter Madsen

Faculty Publications

The article begins by discussing processes contributing to high and low reliability decision making. It then discusses three cases, covering similar processes used in the three situations and notes what managers can take from this. Finally, the article argues for research that does not concentrate on a single organization but examines interactions among geographically distributed units addressing the same problem.

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The Mental Universe Of Success, Radhashyam Giridharadas Dec 2007

The Mental Universe Of Success, Radhashyam Giridharadas

Student Scholarship

Adaptive, transformative changes are not just a luxury for the chosen few but a vital necessity for all organizations. The brutality of market forces, the ephemeral qualities of customer needs, the revolutionary powers of technology and the ravages caused by the passage of time make the need to constantly adapt and renew competitive advantages an undeniable high priority for organizations. Most adaptive changes begin with learning. That learning often inspires a new vision and mindset, and the actions that ensue could result in new cultures, skills, systems and processes. We have collectively referred to all these elements as the mental …

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Sales Opportunity Crafting: Explaining How Salespeople Craft Value Propositions In Business-To-Business Selling, Ganesh Kumar Dec 2007

Sales Opportunity Crafting: Explaining How Salespeople Craft Value Propositions In Business-To-Business Selling, Ganesh Kumar

Student Scholarship

This paper examines the spontaneous, situational, adaptive capabilities in successful business-to-business salespeople. Salespeople craft appropriate sales value propositions that resonate with buyers to achieve a sale. Findings indicate sales value propositions occur in four distinct patterns, as a combination of a salespeople’s choice in emphasizing the value of their relationship and/or the solution itself. This paper combines contingency selling approaches with job crafting to suggest a new construct—“sales opportunity crafting (SOC)”—to explain how salespeople frame a sales opportunity and then decide on a sales value positioning response. The suggested model highlights the role of antecedents— such as influence over customers’ …

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Sensemaking And Meaning-Arbitrage In Loosely-Coupled Healthcare Organizations, Sridhar Belavadi Seshadri Dec 2007

Sensemaking And Meaning-Arbitrage In Loosely-Coupled Healthcare Organizations, Sridhar Belavadi Seshadri

Student Scholarship

Academic Medical Centers (AMC), despite their research and educational prowess, are in a financial crisis. Increasing costs, stiffer competition, and anticipated tightening of budgets have created new levels of urgency among medical school deans and hospital CEOs to increase the efficiency of the clinical enterprise. This study models an AMC as a loosely coupled system and examines why interdisciplinary teams—comprising administrators, physicians, and nurses—struggle to successfully reengineer healthcare processes. Semi- structured interviews in an U.S. AMC were the basis for the development of a grounded theory framework. The findings suggest that: (a) the ambivalent culture of an AMC alternately supports …

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Appreciative Inquiry-Based Intervention: A Network View Of Organizational Renewal, Thomas H. Carlson Dec 2007

Appreciative Inquiry-Based Intervention: A Network View Of Organizational Renewal, Thomas H. Carlson

Student Scholarship

This paper describes the design, conduct and outcomes of an Appreciative Inquiry-based intervention. The subject group was a newly formed unit of a health care organization. The unit was formed by merging elements of two preexisting groups, and was guided by inexperienced managers. Previous interaction between those groups had been characterized by distrust and competition. Appreciative Inquiry provided the foundation for the intervention. Members of the unit galvanized around identified strengths, shared values and beliefs, shared perspectives, and a positive vision of their future; the normative-relational aspect of the intervention. On that foundation, members of the unit developed generative skills …

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Top Salespeople Don't Sell: Managing Frame Incongruence Through Network Partitioning, Stuart R. Strolin Dec 2007

Top Salespeople Don't Sell: Managing Frame Incongruence Through Network Partitioning, Stuart R. Strolin

Student Scholarship

Buying decisions surrounding complex, transformational software are not made by individuals but instead by buying teams. Existing research on sales behavior and salesperson traits focuses on one-to-one selling and gives little insight into the training and selection required of a successful sales force. This paper describes the selling style and personal traits of twelve successful salespeople engaged in complex computer software sales to buying teams. What do successful salespeople do and what is it about him/her that distinguishes the most successful? Technology Frames of Reference and Actor Network Theory were used to interpret the methods used in successfully selling to …

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What Are They Thinking About R&D? A Strategic Core Competence, Or An Operational Business Decision?, Beth Fitz Gibbon Dec 2007

What Are They Thinking About R&D? A Strategic Core Competence, Or An Operational Business Decision?, Beth Fitz Gibbon

Student Scholarship

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nineteen senior North American business practitioners in multinational corporations to understand their experiences with strategic planning and resource allocation for R&D. In particular, we sought to elicit insight about where planning and allocation overlap, and how they are executed today, vs. five to ten years ago. Findings indicate the outsourcing of R&D is rapidly increasing. R&D is becoming an operational business function as opposed to an internal investment in key knowledge for future firm sustainability. R&D also appears to no longer be a major focus of the strategic planning effort at the highest management levels. …

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From Workout To Winning, Bridget Lyons, Robert Hardy Nov 2007

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 …

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Knowledge Integration: The Iaims Experience At Lvh., Donald L. Levick Md, Linda M. Schwartz Mde, Ahip, Cm, Bryan G. Kane Md Oct 2007

Knowledge Integration: The Iaims Experience At Lvh., Donald L. Levick Md, Linda M. Schwartz Mde, Ahip, Cm, Bryan G. Kane Md

Administration & Leadership

No abstract provided.

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The Impact Of Operations Capability On Firm Performance, K. C. Tan, Vijay R. Kannan, R. Narasimhan Sep 2007

The Impact Of Operations Capability On Firm Performance, K. C. Tan, Vijay R. Kannan, R. Narasimhan

Management Faculty Publications

We propose that a firm's operations capability is manifested through its new product design and development, just-in-time, and quality-management efforts. Moreover, we propose that operations capability, so defined, directly and positively impacts firm performance. Survey data were used to independently calibrate and validate a structural equation model linking operations capability, a second-order construct, to firm performance. Results provide support for the model and demonstrate a positive relationship between operations capability and firm performance.

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2007-09-06 Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate. Sep 2007

2007-09-06 Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes for September 6, 2007.

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From Learned To Learning: Why Addiction To Learning Is Vital To Renewing Competitive Advantage, Radhashyam Giridharadas Jun 2007

From Learned To Learning: Why Addiction To Learning Is Vital To Renewing Competitive Advantage, Radhashyam Giridharadas

Student Scholarship

Business strategists seek to create a sustainable competitive advantage so that their organizations thrive. Yet in industry after industry the corporate graveyards are lined with companies that once led an industry and were subsequently ousted by smaller, nimbler competitors or new entrants. The long list of failed organizations underscores the challenge to the notion of sustainability. Clearly competitive advantage is subject to constant erosion, and companies seeking a sustainable competitive advantage may be chasing an illusory goal. To thrive, companies must learn to adapt their skills, resources and experience and transform them into renewable competitive advantages that are commensurate with …

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Effect Of Strategy And Internet Business Adoption On Performance, Shu-Hung Hsu Jun 2007

Effect Of Strategy And Internet Business Adoption On Performance, Shu-Hung Hsu

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Organizations that implement competitive strategies and Internet business adoption in the market place can gain a competitive advantage and improved financial performance. The purposes of this explanatory and exploratory, mixed method study, were threefold: 1) to describe the relationship between competitive strategies and Internet business adoption, the relationship between competitive strategy and financial performance, and the relationship between Internet business adoption and financial performance; 2) to examine the effects of the different levels of Internet business adoption (prospecting, business integration and business transformation) and different strategic types (cost leadership and differentiation) on financial performance (profit margin, asset turnover, return on …

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Globalized Medicine: Panacea Or Bitter Pill?, Dinesh Shah Jun 2007

Globalized Medicine: Panacea Or Bitter Pill?, Dinesh Shah

Student Scholarship

Global mindset and openness to change by upper echelon healthcare executives are positioned in this research proposal as prerequisites for competitive responses to a paradigmatic shift in the provision of healthcare worldwide. The proposal addresses a gap in the health care management literature evidenced by a deficit of empirical research pertaining to the relationships among global trade, health and health services and responds to a call for more, and more specific, cross-cultural studies that provide practical implications for international management. Motivated by prior research indicating the pivotal role of top manager's world views and attitudes on institutional responses to globalization, …

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A Complexity Science Perspective On High Performance M&A Management Teams, Byron C. Clayton Jun 2007

A Complexity Science Perspective On High Performance M&A Management Teams, Byron C. Clayton

Student Scholarship

It has been well documented that over 50% of all mergers and acquisitions (M and A) fail. Despite a multitude of studies by M and A researchers, failure rates have not significantly changed for several decades. As such, the complex behavior of mergers, acquisitions, and their failure remains largely unexplained. Some researchers believe that the emerging field of complexity science may be the key to unlocking the secrets of M and A success. Complexity science, as applied to organizations, asserts that the simple interactions between managers can result in the complex behavior of the management team, specifically in its ability …

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Key Considerations For Developing Electronic Medical Records Systems: Quantitative Research Study, Edward W. Wright May 2007

Key Considerations For Developing Electronic Medical Records Systems: Quantitative Research Study, Edward W. Wright

Student Scholarship

Despite promotion as a national objective, information technology remains relatively underutilized in US healthcare. Building upon an earlier qualitative study investigating the slow adoption of electronic medical records by family practice physicians, I conducted a survey of 368 family practice physician users and found that system ease of use was the only variable that had significant and substantive effects upon medical practice productivity, quality, and satisfaction. We discuss implications for EMR design and a national healthcare record network.

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Location Advantages And Subsidiaries’ R&D Activities In Emerging Economies: Exploring The Effect Of Employee Mobility, Qin Yang, Crystal X. Jiang May 2007

Location Advantages And Subsidiaries’ R&D Activities In Emerging Economies: Exploring The Effect Of Employee Mobility, Qin Yang, Crystal X. Jiang

Management Department Faculty Journal Articles

With multinational corporations increasingly seeking subsidiaries’ specific advantages in foreign countries to develop their innovative capabilities, internationalization of research and development has been greatly emphasized. However, in emerging economies, managers are encountering the challenge of high employee mobility under the weak intellectual property protection regime. This article investigates subsidiaries’ employee mobility and proposes that it negatively moderates the relationship between location advantages and the level of subsidiaries’ R&D. This article extends R&D internationalization and enhances current understanding of subsidiaries’ R&D activities. Further, it provides managerial implications as to how managers can improve R&D outcome by mitigating obstacles in emerging economies.

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Distributed Sensemaking In Loosely Coupled Organizations, Sridhar Belavadi Seshadri May 2007

Distributed Sensemaking In Loosely Coupled Organizations, Sridhar Belavadi Seshadri

Student Scholarship

Academic Medical Centers\, despite their research and educational prowess\, are in a financial crisis. Increasing costs\, stiffer competition\, and anticipated tightening of budgets have created new levels of urgency and vibrancy among medical school deans and hospital CEOs about the need to increase the productivity of the clinical enterprise. To date\, most of these efforts have failed- this study attempts to understand why. The conceptual model sets up the relative advantage created by the organizational innovation and resulting organizational performance as the primary independent variable and dependent variables respectively. Organizational sensemaking among the sponsors\, designers\, and implementers of the change …

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Distributed Sensemaking In Loosely Coupled Organizations, Sridhar Belavadi Seshadar May 2007

Distributed Sensemaking In Loosely Coupled Organizations, Sridhar Belavadi Seshadar

Student Scholarship

Academic Medical Centers, despite their research and educational prowess, are in a financial crisis. Increasing costs, stiffer competition, and anticipated tightening of budgets have created new levels of urgency and vibrancy among medical school deans and hospital CEOs about the need to increase the productivity of the clinical enterprise. To date, most of these efforts have failed- this study attempts to understand why. The conceptual model sets up the relative advantage created by the organizational innovation and resulting organizational performance as the primary independent variable and dependent variables respectively. Organizational sensemaking among the sponsors, designers, and implementers of the change …

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Association In Associations: Network Dynamics In Dermatology Research, Rebecca M. Minnillo May 2007

Association In Associations: Network Dynamics In Dermatology Research, Rebecca M. Minnillo

Student Scholarship

The work of scientists is heterogeneous-a series of interactions within networks composed of individuals from diverse fields and disciplines (Star & Griesemer, 1989). Generation of new knowledge is essential in the organizations in which these individuals associate; the bridge that holds them together. Knowledge generation takes place at both the individual and collective levels (Brown and Duguid, 1998). Professional organizations attract individuals because they provide a unique forum, a space in which they converge to pursue common goals. Actor-network Theory (ANT) is concerned with how heterogeneous networks and the associations that comprise them come into existence and operate to construct …

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Sales Sense: Improving Communication Through A Network Of Frames, Stuart R. Strolin May 2007

Sales Sense: Improving Communication Through A Network Of Frames, Stuart R. Strolin

Student Scholarship

Why, when one business unit is successfully using an IT product, will another business unit reject or block its deployment when they have the same or similar business needs? Sales practitioners involved in making sense of these situations, centered on the assimilation of complex software innovations, lack the descriptive tools and language for methodically formulating approaches to overcome such obstacles. Insights have been offered by theories such as Diffusion of Innovation (Rogers, 1995), Technological Frames (Orlikowski & Gash, 1994), and Actor-Network Theory (Callon & Latour, 1981; Law, 1987). Various authors (Fichman, 1992; Lamb, 2003; Letch & Perth, 2001; Silver, Markus, …

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College And University Endowment Diversification: An Extension Of Institutional Theory, Mary (Mimi) E. Lord May 2007

College And University Endowment Diversification: An Extension Of Institutional Theory, Mary (Mimi) E. Lord

Student Scholarship

Today’s college and university endowments look dramatically different than they did 25 years ago. The quest for greater investment returns has been accompanied by an explosion in the number of asset classes in endowment portfolios\, particularly among large endowments. According to Modern Portfolio Theory\, greater diversification of holdings can help to improve the return/risk profile of a portfolio either by: a) enabling greater returns without adding to risk; or b) lowering risk without lowering returns. Transformation toward greater diversification has resembled to some extent the diffusion process described in institutional theory\, where new practices are initiated by large\, prestigious organizations …

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Employee Level Dynamics Within A Merger Or Acquisition. The "Me-I" Theory Of Organization Consolidations; Avoiding Merger-Encouraged-Individualism, Todd Creasy May 2007

Employee Level Dynamics Within A Merger Or Acquisition. The "Me-I" Theory Of Organization Consolidations; Avoiding Merger-Encouraged-Individualism, Todd Creasy

Student Scholarship

With the employee as the unit of analysis while studying mergers and acquisitions, our results suggested for merger consolidations, perceived organization support (POS) and identification with the new merged organization partially mediated the relationship between procedural justice and job satisfaction. Identity with the new organization fully mediated the relationship between cultural discontinuity and job satisfaction. For acquisition consolidations, we suggest identification with the new organization partially mediated the relationship between procedural justice and organization citizenship behavior (OCB). Further, POS fully mediated the relationships between procedural justice and job satisfaction and between trust in management and job satisfaction. Lastly, identification with …

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