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Improving The Process Of Anatomical Specimen Transportation Over Long Distances Using Lean Methodologies: A Case Study, Michael E. Mazzotta

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Industry experts agree the health care industry in the United States has been fraught with rising costs and wastes for many years. The purpose of this study was to investigate and examine the potential benefits of applying Lean methods to improve specimen transportation over long distances. Lean processing has been used in manufacturing for decades and has recently been adapted for use in health care. Lean addresses waste, efficiency, process flow, and bottleneck issues. Lean was selected over Six Sigma because Lean based projects are more straightforward, less costly to implement and increase the efficiency to reduce waste that may …

Virtual Worker Perceptions Of Retention In The Financial Services Industry, Shelly Zaldivar

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As the need for cost-efficient, talented teams continues to grow, leaders often consider the use of globally dispersed teams, also defined as virtual teams. Despite the apparent benefits, the unique needs of virtual team members are often overlooked in general leadership, change management, and retention discussions. Leaders need to understand contributing factors to the attrition of virtual workers. The foundation for this research included theories of employee retention and change management. The research question for this qualitative phenomenological study focused on the lived experiences of current or former virtual financial services workers regarding job retention. Participants were chosen using purposeful …

Leadership Strategies To Improve Volunteer Retention, Rudene Pauline Glass

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nonprofit leaders face challenges retaining volunteers to support their organizations' human resources. The shortage of volunteers threatens nonprofit sustainability with increasing personnel cost for maintaining quality services. Grounded by Burns's transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies nonprofit leaders from southeastern Michigan used to improve volunteer retention. Data were collected through face-to-face semistructured interviews with 3 nonprofit leaders and a review of organizational documents such as volunteer implementation plans, strategic plans, and volunteer committee notes. Data were analyzed using a methodological triangulation process of sorting comments, which involved a chronological review of the …

A Model For Spurring Organizational Change Based On Faculty Experiences Working Together To Implement Problem-Based Learning, Shannon Chance, Gavin Duffy

Conference papers

This research paper provides a case study of experiences of engineering faculty members at a large public university in Ireland working together to transform their teaching methods. We investigate eight teachers’ experiences of a faculty-led learning community designed to help individuals transform their courses. This small collection of faculty met regularly to discuss ways to facilitate and assess students working in groups. Outside the group’s meetings, participants brought important issues to the forefront of formal and informal discussion with colleagues. Participation in the learning group encouraged, supported, and helped sustain change. This case study seeks to provide insight and a …

Addressing Uncertainty During Workplace Change: Communication And Sense-Making, Rich Parsells

Administrative Issues Journal

Change is a commonplace occurrence in today’s organizations. A number of scholars suggest that communication strategies during organizational change are an important element to the success of a change initiative, yet such strategies are not given primacy in the research literature. The purpose of this paper is to add to the discourse on communication and workplace change initiatives by reporting on a research project that explored communication actions which were employed and viewed as useful by those experiencing a change in the workplace. This paper presents the findings that emanated from the study and explore their meaning in relation to …

Appreciative Inquiry As A Resource For Positive Change In A Church Ministry, David Blenko

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research study was to understand the contribution of an appreciative inquiry (AI) intervention to a church ministry. Twenty-three ministry stakeholders participated in a 9-hour, 2-day AI process. Immediate post-event survey results indicated participant agreement that the AI intervention created a shared vision for the ministry. Survey data were analyzed using content analysis to identify four areas of opportunity for ministry growth and development. All participants reported interest in supporting these opportunities in the ensuring 3 months. Participants rated seven potential factors to support the implementation of opportunities. Recommendations are offered for the study organization and …

Leadership Strategies For Managing Change In The Nigerian Banking Industry, Jude Ememe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Nigerian banking system is experiencing changes brought about by globalization. Operating in a changing business environment requires that bank leaders evolve strategies to manage and adapt to change. There are direct and indirect costs associated when banks are unable to adapt to change such as bank closures, and loss of economic and business opportunities. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of Nigerian bank leaders regarding strategies they used to manage change in the banking industry. The conceptual framework was based on transformational leadership theory and change management theory. Data were collected from document …

Qualitative Examination Of Strategies To Overcome Resistance To Change In Lean Manufacturing, Elizabeth Burmester

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Approximately 80% of lean manufacturing program initiatives are abandoned in the first year of implementation. Only 2% of organizations that embark on the lean journey complete it with the results and the sustainability they expected. There is a gap in past research regarding, the leadership strategies organizations can use to overcome resistance to change during lean manufacturing program implementations. The problem in this study was that leaders have limited information to overcome resistance to change when implementing these programs. The purpose of this study was to explore how leaders within manufacturing organizations may overcome resistance to change through leadership strategy. …

Effects Of Change Valence And Informational Assessments On Organizational Readiness For Change, James Edward Phillips

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nearly two-thirds of organizational change initiatives are unsuccessful due to a lack of high levels of change readiness prior to implementation of the change. A review of the literature supported the importance of establishing organizational readiness for change (ORC), but a gap remained in the empirical data and extant literature about whether presumed antecedents identified in ORC theory contribute to increased levels of ORC. The purpose of this study was to gather empirical data to address this question of whether change valence and informational assessment scores are associated with increased levels of organizational readiness for implementing change. The research design …

Leading Organizational Change: A Phenomenological Study Of The Nonlinear Strategies Used By Female Leaders In Global Companies, Rachel Faoutas Shafran

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of female leaders and their role in using nonlinear models of change to influence organizational change. This study was designed to determine how approaches to change leadership deployed by female leaders contribute new information and principles to the field of organizational change. A phenomenological research method was the best approach to capture the insights, perspectives, and experiences of female leaders. This study examined the nonlinear change approaches of fourteen senior female leaders in large corporations. While female leaders are increasing in the executive suite, research around their …

Strategies Hospital Leaders Use In Implementing Electronic Medical Record Systems, Shaunette Miller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some hospital leaders lacked strategies for implementing electronic medical record (EMR) systems. The purpose of this case study was to explore successful strategies that hospital leaders used in implementing EMR systems. The target population consisted of hospital leaders who succeeded in implementing EMR systems in a single healthcare organization located in the Los Angeles, California region. The conceptual framework used was Kotter's (1996) eight-step process for leading change, and data were collected from face-to-face recorded interviews with 5 participants and from company documents related to EMR design and development. Data were analyzed through methodological triangulation of data types, and exploring …

Servant Leadership And Affective Commitment To Change In Manufacturing Organizations, Jeffrey Schulkers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational change initiatives in the United States frequently fail with estimated failure rates as high as 90%. Change failure rates resulting from underused and poorly trained front-line managers (FLMs) remained high, with no signs of improvement in the past 2 decades. The purpose of the correlational study, grounded in servant leadership theory, was to examine the relationship between employee perceptions of their FLM's servant leadership dimensions and employee affective commitment to change. A purposive, nonprobability sample of 107 employees of a U.S. manufacturing organization that had recently undergone organizational change completed a questionnaire for the study. Results of the multiple …

How To Select Change Agents In Organizations? A Comparison Of The Classical And Network Approaches, Anita Zbieg, Dominik Batorski, Błażej Żak

European Management Studies

The dynamic business environment forces companies to change and adapt constantly. The process can be organized with help of change agents. We develop a simple network approach to spreading information and delivering feedback in organizations. We suggest selecting employees with a role of change agents, focusing on the coverage they can obtain in the network – minimize the number of involved agents and maximize the size of their overall communication area. To explore and pre-verify the proposed approach, we compared and examined several network and classical methods of selection. Data includes networks of collaboration from three medium-sized companies. Agents selected …

Comparison Of Stakeholder Management And Change Management Factors In Managing Successful Versus Unsuccessful It Projects, Ishita Viren Shah

Open Access Theses

The purpose of this study is to conduct a meta-analysis of published case studies of projects, which are driven by information technology (IT) and are using a formal organizational change management method to manage those changes. It also identifies the common factors that influence the success or failure of a project. Change impacts people directly or indirectly and much of the research proves that people tend to resist change. The study reviews recent research and discusses the evolution of change management and current practices. The study focuses on finding the case studies published in well-known journals. It also analysis the …

Implementing Calendar Reform In A Suburban Catholic Elementary School: A Case Study, Catherine Cichocki Muzzy

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Time-based reform proposals are founded on the assumption that more time in school will produce great learning outcomes. Research shows that when schools adopt time-based reform initiatives, there are certain considerations that they should make and methods they should follow to ensure the change produces the outcomes intended. This was not the case in a local Archdiocese where a calendar extension was adopted by several elementary schools.

This qualitative case study focused on the adoption of a calendar extension at one Catholic elementary school. The researcher gathered data from the pastor, principal, teachers, parents, and students to determine how these …

Strategies For Implementing A Successful Enterprise Resource Planning System, Wanda A. Swanier

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The U.S. Department of Defense executives consider enterprise resource planning systems as a critical technology because of increasingly global operations and audit compliance pressures, which may affect organizational performance and overall success. The estimated cost to implement enterprise resources systems to avoid failure and meet budget cost across the Department of Defense services and agencies has ranged from $530 million to $2.4 billion. Guided by the general systems theory, the purpose of this single-case study was to explore enterprise resource planning strategies developed and implemented by United States Marine Corps military leaders. Data collection consisted of a review of organizational …

Examination Of The Antecedents, Reactions, And Outcomes To A Major Technology-Driven Organizational Change, Ngoc Dinh Nguyen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The goal of this study was to test a multi-level model of organizational change that examined how various antecedents, employee reactions, and organizational and personal outcomes relate to one another. The research was conducted via online surveys and as a longitudinal study. Participants were employees at a large supply distribution company, and were a part of the Pilot implementation of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Results from the study revealed that job stress was closely related to organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and psychological well-being, while change commitment was associated with higher organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Positive training …

The Necessity For Communicative Engagement Capability In Corporate Mergers And Acquisitions, Elizabeth Ann Duwaldt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Frequent organizational change has become inescapable in postmodern organizations. While thousands of articles and texts have been written on the topic of organizational change offering models and strategies for accomplishing planned change, the majority of change initiatives fail to meet expectations (Burnes and Jackson; Keller and Aiken). What, then, is a business leader to do when change is an imperative in the postmodern business world, but the majority of change initiatives fail to succeed in the manner predicted?

Mergers and acquisitions are a common type of planned change organizations pursue to survive in the postmodern, hypercompetitive marketplace. Mergers and acquisitions …

Preparing Future Leaders In Higher Education: Excellence Practices From Staff To Mid-Level Management Role Transitions, Erica Sherese Little

Theses and Dissertations

Mid-level leadership is key to a functioning university and it is important that mid-level leaders feel they have the tools and resources they need in order to succeed. To be successful in a new mid-level leadership position, entering supervisors must clearly communicate a strong sense of vision, values, and principles to their staff and establish positive relationships to encourage inclusivity, support, and effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to determine what higher education institutions can do to prepare staff for a successful transition into mid-level management and leadership roles successfully. This purpose was achieved by identifying successes and challenges …

Needs Assessment As A Process For Change Management: Aligning Organizational Performance And Human Capital Investment With Strategic Planning And Change Creation, Abdulaziz Alshgeri

Wayne State University Dissertations

Research suggests that 70% of change management (CM) initiatives are considered unsuccessful. The most important reason for the dismal success rate of change initiatives is that they are driven by poor and invalid strategic decisions. Frameworks that businesses implement to secure sustainable long-term competitive advantages in the marketplace are often not effective. Therefore, decision-making related to improving results is critical, and must be based on an organization’s preset criteria. Creating and prioritizing key performance indicators direct leaders’ attention to effective change decisions. Prior research addresses several approaches to decide whether change is needed, such as statistical evidence, gut feelings, or …

The Use Of Mindfulness In Dealing With Ambiguity During Transformational Organizational Change, Avonlie Wylson

Theses and Dissertations

The present mixed-methods study examined how 19 experienced change leaders cope with ambiguity during transformational organizational change and whether mindfulness helps them do that. Study findings indicated that practitioners react in varying ways to ambiguity and employees generally react negatively. Change leaders rely on personal coping and project initiation strategies, ongoing guidance and support, agile and action-oriented approaches, courageous and bold leadership, and trust in their process to manage ambiguity for themselves. To help others deal with ambiguity, change leaders repeatedly articulate the change vision and direction and demonstrate confident, strong change leadership. Mindfulness appears to enhance leaders’ abilities to …

Measuring Effectiveness Of A Culture Change Through A Financial Model Perspective, Robert Lo

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to quantify and measure the success of a culture transformation. Using the Organization Cultural Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to determine the current and desired culture state, 272 employees responded to the survey. An executive focus group provided in-depth understanding of the culture and worked to align the culture to the mission and strategy as they drove the change process throughout the organization to the preferred culture state. The study showed that bringing cultural awareness to an organization is important, and that organization design is a key component to successful organizations. The Human Capital Return on …

Evaluating Key Predictors Of Employee Response To Change In The Pharmaceutical Industry, Otis S. Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study addressed the factors that predict employee response to large-scale change in the United States pharmaceutical industry. When poorly executed, major organizational changes such as mergers and acquisitions are often disruptive and costly to organizations and demoralizing to employees. Although employee responses to change have been studied in several industries, employee responses during change execution in the pharmaceutical industry have not been subject to study. The purpose of this correlational study was to reduce the knowledge gap related to organizational change in the pharmaceutical industry by evaluating key predictors of employee response to large-scale change. The theoretical framework consisted …

The Libraries They Are A-Changin’: How Libraries Reorganize, John Novak, Annette Day

Library Faculty Research

This paper will report on the results of a study of library reorganizations in the literature. The authors identified five steps common to all library reorganizations, and this paper describes those steps as well as two management change theories most mentioned in the literature--the eight-step process of change by John Kotter and Reframing Organizations by Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal. The paper will draw conclusions formed by a comparison of these theoretical models to the practice and real life experience of reorganizations as described by libraries in the literature.

The Challenge Of Organizational Change: Before, During, And After, Richard Parsells

Administrative Issues Journal

Aligning with the theme of this conference, this paper addresses actions, as reported in the literature, that are purported to assist organizations in successfully accomplishing change initiatives. This paper presents factors related to the development of a robust culture for the handling of change, actions to be taken during a change, and suggestions for action after a change. Implications for practice are explored.

Towards A Change Leadership Framework: Assessing Capabilities Within An It Service Organization, Richard Urquhart, Ian K. Allison

Communications of the IIMA

There are many change initiatives reported today that are failing to deliver the expected results. The reasons for failure include the lack of leadership, lack of direction, no clear strategy, employee resistance and an inability to sustain changes in the long term. This paper investigates IT leaders’ capabilities and the impact their role has within the change cycle. It explores what makes a successful change leader while uncovering some of the behavioral issues that people display during change. This paper argues that by adopting the right change approach as a team collective and developing strategies for managing resistance, communication, speed …

Enrollment Management: Structure And Decision Participation, Lauren Haddad Friedman

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Once a novel strategy adopted by a limited number of private colleges, enrollment management (EM) is now a standard practice for most institutions in American higher education. The units engaged in EM and strategic enrollment management (SEM) serve as change agents in support of student recruitment, retention and graduation. Over time, the units supporting EM have expanded from admissions to include financial aid, advising, the registrar and institutional research. As a result of this expansion, structural models developed in the 1980s provide little insight into the team organization that EM has become. Using data collected in a survey instrument administered …

Perceived Barriers And Solutions: Engineering Design Implementation, Ken L. Turner

Dissertations

Engineering Design, part of the practices dimension of the Next Generation Science Standards, NGSS, is widely recognized as the most challenging piece for teachers to implement. It involves practices that teachers are unfamiliar with, have not taught before, have not been taught, and have not experienced as a student. This manuscript documents a mixed-methods survey of over 200 K-12 teachers on their perceptions of both the greatest barriers to implementation of Engineering Design, and those items that will be of most value as a solution to those barriers. A systems approach to understanding Engineering Design was utilized; with data collection …

Strategic Priorities: A Roadmap Through Change For Library Leaders, Anne M. Casey

Publications

Twenty-first century academic libraries need to adapt on a regular basis because external forces such as increased pressures from the institution and accreditation organizations, emerging technologies, or budget reductions create new conditions. In a twenty-year period ending in 2008, academic library spending shifted substantially from physical to electronic resources and from staff and student salary lines to professionals, signaling profound changes in the way libraries do business. “Then just as academic … libraries were settling into these new behaviors, the worst recession in seventy-five years occurred, forcing many … to concern themselves with survival and making difficult decisions based on …

Lost (But Not Missing) At Work: Organizational Lostness As An Employee Response To Change, Lisa Jones Christensen, Scott C. Hammond

Faculty Publications

This article draws from the psychology of lost person behavior, established from wilderness search and rescue missions, to suggest that employees experience the condition of being lost within organizations. Data from wilderness searches, survivors, and organizational actors suggests that lessons from lost person behaviors apply in organizations. Reactions to being lost in an organization follow predictable patterns and include five specific stages: separation, isolation, deviation, deprivation, and realization. In defining the construct of organizational lostness and differentiating it from stress, coping, and resistance, we suggest an organizing framework to understand employee behaviors that would previously seem idiosyncratic. This article offers …