Digital Commons Network^™

An Examination Of The Role Relationship Marketing Plays In The B2b Model Between Chinese Manufacturers And American Distributors, Ran An

Masters Theses

Relationship marketing has been a heated topic in the communication paradigm. The primary relationship is the one between a supplier or provider of goods or services and buyers and users of those goods or services. In order to facilitate it, other stakeholders in the network of relationships may have to be involved. This thesis examined the relationship between Chinese manufacturers and American distributors by a pilot qualitative study. Social exchange theory was used as a scope to analyze the relationship. Nine participants from both sides answered computer-mediated interview questions. Business ethics and worldviews are important factors that businessmen look for …

Adverse Impacts Of Furlough Programs On Employee Work Rate And Organizational Productivity, Adedeji B. Badiru

Faculty Publications

This article is primarily a research-provoking exposition against the management approach used in the 2013 government furlough program. It is intended to prompt potentially productive research investigations on the impact of personnel furloughs, particularly on defense acquisition programs. Defense acquisition programs are time-sensitive and systems oriented. What appears as a minor delay in one unit of an acquisition life cycle can lead to long-term encumbrances within the entire defense system, resulting in enormous cost escalation. Pertinent analytical techniques/methodologies are provided to illustrate potential pathways for further research studies of furloughs and how they adversely impact organizational productivity. The author’s intent …

Identification And Identity Building In/By The Christian Church (Disciples Of Christ), David H. Torres

Master's Theses (2009 -)

This study explored the identification process of employees within the national offices of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). This research explored identification as an attachment process to particular identity structures (e.g., individual, work group, occupational, and organizational). Findings illustrated particular tensions that emerged during the identification process. The role of faith-based organization, as well as, non-traditional organizational structures was accounted for in the identification process. Results of this study provided some immediate and practical implications for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in their identity building efforts. Most notable, was the relevance of uncovering the identity resources in the …

Organizational Culture, Knowledge Structures, And Relational Messages In Organizational Negotiation: A Systems Approach, Vincent P. Cavataio, Robert S. Hinck

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This study examines a recent bargaining process between the Faculty Association and Central Michigan University. Taking a systems approach, we began with the assumption that a healthy organizational culture produces negative feedback which can help keep participants at the bargaining table despite disagreement. However, if organizational members’ relationships are threatened, organizational culture unravels as destructive messages provide positive feedback to disrupt the system and make impasse more likely. To understand how an university’s culture is impacted during contract negotiations we examined messages published in a university student newspaper, transcripts from the local NPR station, CMU’s press releases, a Facebook page, …

Improving Professional Skills Through Adversity: A Phenomenological Study Of Mergers And Acquisitions, Randy Anita Rutledge

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Company mergers and acquisitions often create tremendous conflict for employees because they force them into a spiral of organizational change. In this environment, employees are challenged with redefining themselves within a new organization. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover and explain the particular conflict experiences of professional employees who experienced the merger and acquisition of their company. A phenomenological research study was conducted to discover and describe the shared conflict experiences of professional employees during the merger and acquisition of their consulting firm. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 self-identified professional employees. It was found through …

Complete Issue, Volume 33, Issue 1

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the complete issue for Volume 33, Issue 1 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

Clearing The Smoke: Understanding Organizational Change Communication And Misalignment In High-Risk Contexts, Laura Elizabeth Young

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Recent economic turbulence in the United States has resulted in budget cuts for many city-funded organizations, including high-risk organizations such as local fire departments. Budget cuts trigger organizational change and create uncertainty among employees, which is a major concern for high-risk organizations. This dissertation examined internal communication practices used during organizational change in an urban fire department and the influence of organizational structure and culture on communication satisfaction. This robust case study used a multi-method approach including interviews with middle managers (i.e., district majors), and focus groups and channel preference surveys with full-time firefighters from lower level ranks (i.e., firefighters, …

Strategies For Easing Faculty-Management At Institutions Of Higher Education, Sarah H. Vanslette, Zachary A. Schaefer, Kathy Hagedorn

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

With calls across the discipline of communication to use our research to enhance the lived experience of organizational members and employees of all industries, this essay focuses on the often tense communication between university faculty and university leaders. Using communication and business scholarship as our foundation, we recommend communication strategies that should facilitate better communication between university faculty and management. These strategies will not only help faculty and staff overcome disagreements and avoid uncivil discourse, but the strategies can also be applied to uncivil non-academic workplace environments. The authors will also outline how these incivilities and recommended communication strategies play …

Developing A Method For Measuring "Working Out Loud", Dennis E. Pearce

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

Enterprise social network software platforms (ESNs) are increasingly being deployed in firms across almost every industry as a means of fostering employee collaboration. Although benefits in increased productivity, innovation, and employee engagement are highly touted, there is a high failure rate of these deployments. This often occurs because (1) there is a misapplied focus on technology adoption rather than adoption of the employee behaviors that are ultimately required to obtain those benefits, and (2) it is unclear what those behaviors are and how to measure them.

“Working Out Loud” is one possible framework for understanding and measuring the behaviors necessary …

Jour 4802/7100: Entrepreneurial Journalism (Syllabus), Carrie Brown-Smith

Journalism and Strategic Media Syllabi Archive

Course Description: Meeman 901 Strategies, a student run public relations firm, will gain hands-on experience by developing creative projects for campus and community clients at UM Crews Center for Entrepreneurship.

Jour 7100/8100: Entrepreneurial Journalism (Syllabus), Carrie Brown-Smith

Journalism and Strategic Media Syllabi Archive

Course Description: This course will examine business models and new media tools that can encourage entrepreneurial thinking and planning in various fields of mass communication, as well as the theory and practices of traditional media management. Subjects will include environment assessment, organization and strategy, budgeting, decision-making, and other functions in advertising, news, and public relations.

Jour 7100: Entrepreneurial Journalism (Syllabus), Carrie Brown-Smith

Journalism and Strategic Media Syllabi Archive

Course Description: This course will examine business models and new media tools that can encourage entrepreneurial thinking and planning in various fields of mass communication, as well as the theory and practices of traditional media management. Subjects will include environment assessment, organization and strategy, budgeting, decision-making, and other functions in advertising, news, and public relations.

How The Narrative Paradigm Affects Military Stories, Richard Irving Mcnamara

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This project defines how the narrative paradigm can be used with military storytelling to improve the credibility of the U.S. military. Furthermore, it outlines how the American Forces Network (AFN) can model its training with the narrative paradigm to become an innovative organization. The literature review examines the rules that the military has to follow with their stories, the narrative paradigm, transformational leadership and the path to innovation with the intent of creating a path for military Public Affairs leaders to follow while leading an AFN, or any story producing unit. The primary purpose of this project is a completed …

Surviving The Digital Age, David Franklin Meland

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This project provides a look at educational studies, theories, and principles to help people understand the enhancing and diminishing characteristics of contemporary communication technologies. The project uses the theoretical framework of media ecology to show that through an understanding of today’s media environments, society can better grasp just how media technology has been, and continues to be, an influential part of everyday life. The primary feature of the project is a comprehensive website – titled Surviving the Digital Age (http://melandd.wix.com/survivingdigitalage) – which also serves as a way to show how media plays an enormous role in shaping who we are …

Using General Systems Theory To Evaluate Channels Of Feedback In A Law Enforcement Agency, Trent Aaron Gerbers

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

The principles of General Systems Theory and Management Cybernetics have been used, not only to analyze and evaluate organizational communication, but also to help improve communicative efficiency through the strengthening of message sending/receiving channels. This thesis continues the exploration of channel efficiency and feedback by examining the principles of General Systems Theory and Management Cybernetics through the daily interactions that occur at a municipal police department. The unique ranking structure and paramilitary nature of the law enforcement agency dictates policy that regulates the means of vertical communication between employees, but measuring the department’s current communication system against the principles of …

Professionalising Organisational Communication Discourses, Materialities, And Trends, Jeremy P. Fyke

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Information And Communication Technology In The Acculturation Of Vietnamese Refugees, Khanh A. Tran

Master's Theses

One of the most significant refugee populations in the United States is the Vietnamese. This group initially fled their native country to escape political oppression at the conclusion of the Vietnam War in 1975 and continued to flee in a series of separate waves that continued for more than three decades. As a relatively new immigrant group in the U.S., the Vietnamese still face a variety of challenges as they try to reestablish their lives and adapt in a new cultural environment. Acculturation is a complex process that is influenced by a number of factors. Throughout history, U.S. immigration policy …

From Endogenization To Justification: Strategic Responses To Legitimacy Challenges In Contentious Organizational Fields, Paul-Brian Mcinerney

Organization Management Journal

Fields are contested social arenas. By examining the case of a single organization, in this case a social enterprise, the author shows how organizations respond to legitimacy challenges from members of the field and how such responses shape the organization’s form and practices. At times, organizations endogenize, that is, incorporate practices from the field. Findings indicate that responses reflect strategies under constraint. Endogenizing institutionalized practices constrains managers’ ability to exercise agency. Endogenizing contested practices afford agency by allowing managers to translate those practices to accord with local exigencies. This article extends literature on impression management and institutional theory by showing …

Integrating Corporate Sustainability And Organizational Strategy Within The Undergraduate Business Curriculum, Jamie R. Wieland, Dale E. Fitzgibbons

Organization Management Journal

Corporate sustainability (CS) requires organizations to shift focus from short-term financial goals to further consider the long-term social, environmental, and economic implications of their operations. Despite a lack of regulations in the United States requiring companies to disclose social and environmental measures, more than 80% of U.S. corporations voluntarily release corporate responsibility reports. The increased focus of CS in practice has impacted many business curricula to adapt CS-related courses (such as business ethics); however, we present results that indicate that such means may have limited influence on students’ views concerning the legitimacy of social and environmental issues in regard to …

Organizational Downsizing During An Economic Crisis: Survivors’ And Victims’ Perspectives, Roselie Mcdevitt, Catherine Giapponi, Deborah M. Houston

Organization Management Journal

The recession that began in 2007 resulted in organizational retrenchment strategies focused on workforce reductions. In order to successfully emerge from this crisis and sustain long-term viability for their organizations, managers needed to reengage surviving employees and minimize the potential for retaliatory behavior by the victims of the downsizing activities. An understanding of the perceptions of both survivors and victims is critical when managers implement downsizing and recovery strategies. The psychological contract and attribution theory were used to examine employee perceptions post downsizing. The variables of interest in this study include employee perceptions related to organizational communication; understanding and agreement …

Conceptualizing Communication Capital For A Changing Environment, Leo Wayne Jeffres, Guowei Jian, Sukki Yoon

Communication Faculty Publications

With rapidly evolving technologies, boundaries between traditional modes of communication have blurred, creating an environment that scholars still describe from viewpoints as researchers in interpersonal, organizational or mass communication. This manuscript looks at the social capital literature and argues for conceptualizing “communication capital” to help understand the impact of communication phenomena in a changing environment. The literature has treated interpersonal communication variables as components of social capital and mass communication variables as factors affecting social capital, but scholars long ago recognized their reinforcing nature, leading us to develop a concept of communication capital merging symbolic activity across domains in its …

Spartan Daily, September 5, 2013, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 141, Issue 4

Some Highly Engaging Research Stories And A Great Exercise, William P. Ferris

Organization Management Journal

No abstract provided.

A Social Exchange Model Of Psychological Contract Fulfillment: Where Do Promises, Expectations, Lmx, And Pos Fit In?, Anjali Chaudhry, Amanuel G. Tekleab

Organization Management Journal

We investigated psychological contract (PC) fulfillment using the three building blocks of the social exchange theory: content of the exchange, parties to the exchange, and the process of the exchange. Results from two studies demonstrate that PC fulfillment is related to different outcomes depending on fulfillment conceptualized in terms of promises as opposed to expectations. Expectations fulfillment is a stronger predictor of affective commitment, whereas promises fulfillment is a stronger predictor of turnover. Additionally, we tested hypotheses to examine the multisource effects of PC fulfillment. PC fulfillment by the supervisor and by the organization highlighted the relationship between PC fulfillment, …

Middle Managers Of The Leadership Classroom: Realizing The Developmental Capacity Of Teaching Assistants, Lisa Rosh, Thimothy J. Tobin

Organization Management Journal

In this phenomenological study, the authors explore exemplar teaching assistants’ experiences and perceptions of their work in supporting leadership development for undergraduate business students. Findings demonstrate that successful, effective teaching assistants whose role is to cultivate students’ leadership competencies conceptualize their roles as middle managers in the classroom, acting independently and focusing on system stability. Forming professional networks and establishing physical and psychological boundaries support their developmental roles. Based on the findings, the authors present guidelines for universities that use teaching assistants in developmental roles, strategies for individuals who serve as assistants, and implications for future research.

Creating A Healthy Workplace Culture Using An Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Cycle, Raymond Calabrese, Erik Cohen, Dustin Miller

Organization Management Journal

This study describes the second year of an ongoing partnership between an urban drug court (UDC) and a research university with very high research activity. The purpose of the second year of our study was to engage an appreciative inquiry (AI) Learning Team in all stages of the AI 4-D Cycle to discover the positive core of their work history and work relationships to create a healthy UDC workplace culture. Nine purposively selected participants were engaged in all four stages of the AI 4-D Cycle. There were four findings. Participants (a) developed a strong sense of personal and collective empowerment; …

Has Safeer Improved Sacm's Work And Helped Saudi Students In The Usa Resolve Their Needs Quickly, Faisal M. Alzomily

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined efficiency of the Safeer by gathering and analyzing the perception of 131 Saudi students from Bowling Green, KY. The purpose of the study was to ensure that the system is able to perform its function as the bridge between different institutions and Saudi students studying in the US who require assistance in processing their academic requirements. A self-administered survey using five scale points was employed. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics at 95% confidence level. The result confirmed the hypothesis that the use of the Safeer program provides quality service delivery within SACM, which in turn benefits …

A Full Issue Including Two First Person Research Articles From Australia, William P. Ferris

Organization Management Journal

No abstract provided.

Building Bridges: What We Can Learn From Combining Otherwise Separated Debates, Kees Boersma

Organization Management Journal

No abstract provided.

The Emotions Of Change: A Case Study, Kerri S. Kearny, Kayla D. Siegman

Organization Management Journal

The purpose of this article is to report on a specific team intervention, a rapidly constructed response to a request for help with a situation that was believed by the chief executive officer (CEO) to have reached a crisis stage. The effort was, of necessity, “on the fly,” and the roles of consultant, participant, researcher, and collaborator were blurred and evolving as answers to the immediate problem were sought. This article presents and reflects on four tools used as a part of the intensive work with the emotional aspects of the team’s experiences of revolutionary organizational change. In extended follow-up …