Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Organizational Culture On Individuals' Decisions To Join, Stay, Or Leave An Organization, Maryam Marzara

Theses and Dissertations

Organizational culture has been a topic of interest throughout all industries and has become a phrase studied in business and academic literature. With the Millennial generation now in the workforce, organizations employ workers of various age groups and generations. With increased scrutiny on organizational culture, the widely varying age ranges of employees, and a competitive workforce, it is not surprising that organizations are considering the role their organizational cultures play in both recruitment and retention. This case study examined the impact of organizational culture on workers’ decisions to join, stay, or leave an organization. This study included an examination of …

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 …

Embracing Discursive Paradox: Consultants Navigating The Constitutive Tensions Of Diversity Work, Jennifer Mease (Also Peeksmease)

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This article addresses how diversity consultants manage the dual demands of social justice and organizational goals or priorities. I suggest that navigating this “discursive paradox” is one of—if not the—defining feature of diversity work. To investigate this discursive paradox, I analyze diversity work as a process (rather than a collection of products) as evidenced in interviews with 19 diversity consultants. The results offer two derivative discursive paradoxes that emerged in consultants’ talk about diversity work: the tension between broad and narrow constructions of human differences and the tension between emphasizing change at the organizational and individual levels. Rather than …

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 …

Accountability In Mixed-Generation Teams, Angela D. Martin

Theses and Dissertations

In 2014, more than 1.6 million patients received services across the U.S. from hospice care agencies. The teams within these agencies are supporting each other to play a vital role in assisting a person’s transition from this life to the next comfortably, as well as catering to the family. Hospice care companies are comprised of a variety of roles that are divided into teams. Staff members vary in age from 21 to 70 years, indicating the presence of mixed-generation teams. Generational diversity can create challenges in understanding different points of view, learning styles, and communication. Generational differences are one of …

Transformational Leadership Among Producers In The Entertainment Industry, Michael Weaver

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined the use of transformational leadership among producers in one production company in the entertainment industry. A sample of 16 producers who led shows at the organization from 2012 to 2016 completed an interview about their self-described and ideal leadership styles, their current and desired use of transformational leadership, and attitudes and openness to executive coaching. Producers’ self-described current leadership style is empowering, and they want to become more results-oriented and highly respected in the future. Participants reported they are and want to continue to be transformational. Almost all participants expressed interest in coaching. Although additional research …

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 …

Negotiations As Part Of Managing Organizational Changes: Methodological Concept & Case Study, Andrzej Kozina

European Management Studies

The accomplishment of the ventures focused on the increase in organizational performance effectiveness requires the coordination of tasks of the executors of those ventures. Many arrangements concerning the scopes, deadlines, or the methods of performing the activities are required. Different groups of interest appear having both common and contradictory objectives. In effect it is necessary to conduct numerous negotiations in order to make common decisions and resolve conflicts. The objective of the paper is to characterize such negotiations and point out their place and significance within the processes of implementing organizational changes. The introduction contains the general concepts of organizational …

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.

Pathways To Student Success: A Multiple Case Study On Four-Year Colleges’ Organizational Change In Performance Funding States, Lindsay K. Wayt

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Federal and state policies have recently moved the higher education accountability focus from access to completion. As completion and other student success accountability measures are put in place, institutions are going through organizational change to accommodate these new policies and to adjust their focus onto student success measures such as retention and graduation rates. This multiple case study’s purpose was to describe the institutional efforts and changes at small- to medium-sized, four-year public institutions in states where at least 20% or more of state funds are or are planned to soon be allocated based on performance metrics. The findings of …

A Structurational Approach To Organizational Change: Exploring Idaho’S Students Come First Initiative, Matthew Aaron Mccarter

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study embraces a structuration approach to explore how the staff at the Idaho State Education Agency (SEA) reacted to implementing a unique and sweeping K-12 education reform package commonly known as “Students Come First.” By embracing a communicative perspective to studying change in public education, this study provides insights to how public sector employees at an SEA who work in a field governed by a unique set of features (politically-driven policies from elected officials and outcome expectations from the electorate), and who are driven by a passion to serve children engaged in changes that challenged their everyday understandings of …

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 …

A Case Study: Effects Of Operational Model Changes On Firm Performance, Jennifer Leanne Cowles

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project follows the implementation of a new supply fulfillment model for a service organization. Research findings provide evidence that a change in operating model can result in an increase in firm performance. The purpose of this project is to study a real-life example of an organization experiencing an increase in firm performance based on a change in operating model. The project utilizes historical data of growth and average costs to determine the environment for the current year experiencing the change in operating model. It is determined that this study reveals a decrease of order costs, increase in data integrity …

Organizational Values In Ohio State University Extension: Employee Perceptions Of Value And Evidence In Practice, Karen J. Argabright, Graham R. Cochran, Jeff King

Journal of Extension

As Extension's leaders prepare to move Extension into the future, they are obliged to take stock of the underlying internal forces that have the power to alter the manner and extent to which the mission is accomplished. Individually and organizationally held values are primary factors driving these forces. Acknowledging and understanding these values helps Extension leaders better understand tendencies toward resistance to change and aid in assessing the alignment of what exists with what could be. This article shares results from an Extension organizational values assessment and examine implications for the Extension system.

Coaching For Change: Amount Of Instructional Coaching Support To Transfer Science Inquiry Skills From Professional Development To Classroom Practice, James A. Houston

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Instructional coaching as a follow-up component to high-quality professional development experiences is being used to improve classroom instruction to meet the requirements of NCLB and promote organizational change. The purpose of this study was to determine the minimum number of coaching sessions necessary to translate new strategies and skills learned during a summer institute into classroom practice.

Teachers attended a 2-week summer institute focusing on the development of guided science inquiry as both an instructional strategy as well as a content. Teachers implemented a unit lasting approximately 6–8 weeks focusing on the newly learned guided inquiry strategies and skills, video-recorded …

The Role Of Organizational Change To Achieve Strategic Success: A Field Research In The Petroleum Research & Development Center-Ministry Of Oil, Ali H. Altaee, Mustafa Natiq Naje

Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences

This current research deals with the "The role of organizational change in the achievement of strategic success" Who are getting increased attention to being one of the important topics and relatively new, And which have a significant impact on the future of the organization So there is a need for this research, which aims to identify the role of organizational change across dimensions (technology, organizational structure, human resources, organizational culture) in the strategic success through its components (a specific strategy, effective implementation, innovation, customer satisfaction)، And that by two main hypotheses, branched about eight hypotheses subset to study the relationship …

Integrated Academic Planning: Developing An Intentional Path Forward, Marilyn J. Wells, Lynn D. Akey

Academic Affairs Publications

This presentation will focus on successful completion of Phases 1–3 of an integrated academic planning process, with engagement of 180+ degree programs and four extraordinary education task forces. Presenters will discuss successful and provocative elements, including consensus building, community involvement, data utilization, shared governance, and transparency.

Does Social Information Matter? The Moderating Effect On Port Reform Trust, Cheng-Hsing Yang, Rong-Her Chiu, Kung-Don Ye, Heng-Chih Chou

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Trust is important for assuring the success of organizational change. This paper investigates the influence of social information sources and communication on trust in organizational change, and also tests the moderating effect of the credibility of social information. Taking port reform as an example, this research discovers the following results: (1) communication is significantly related to employee's trust in organizational change; (2) social information from supervisors is positively associated with employee trust in organizational change; but information from unions does not exert a significant influence; and (3) social information credibility from supervisors and unions partially moderates the relationship between social …

The 'Free Purposing' Organization: Beyond Empowerment...Towards 'Engaged Commitment', Hani N. Boulos

Student Scholarship

Wide ranges of organizations are explicitly rejecting the norms of rational bureaucracy in designing and running their organizations. Grounded in a qualitative study of those organizations, this paper seeks first to identify some common structural commonalities, and differentiate them from the traditional hierarchies, and second to develop a theoretical framework for understanding them and assess the way they foster internal commitment for desired purpose. We interviewed 61 individuals from 12 organizations in diverse sectors and different geographic locations. We discovered emergent novel forms and practices. We developed a conceptual framework to capture the main discoveries, not as models of perfection, …

Downsizing The United States Air Force Security Forces: A Phenomenological Investigation, Winell De Mesa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States Air Force (USAF) has downsized an average of 10,000 active duty personnel each year from 1990 to 2010. Despite this downsizing, the mission remains the same, which increases the workload on the remaining airmen, lowers morale, decreases specialization, changes the mindset/culture, accelerates promotion rates, and shifts the dependence on technology in the Security Forces career field. The USAF needs adequately sized and proficient members to meet its mission. This phenomenological study examined the effects of USAF downsizing on the USAF Security Forces career field. The great man theory, social learning theory, theory of expertise, and Maslow's hierarchy …

The Influence Of Face-To-Face Interactions On Virtual Team Performance, Matthew J. Frazier

Theses

Technological advancements have provided organizations the ability to operate on a national and international scale. These businesses may utilize virtual teams to bring employees together from around the country or world to work together to complete an assignment. Virtual teams consist of individuals with different cultures, goals, and styles of interaction who work across time, space, or organizational boundaries via communication technology. By improving the quality of communication between geographically dispersed team members, teams may experience improved productivity and decreased timescales for completing projects. The objective of this study was to investigate how interactions between team members prior to a …

The Depth And Complexity Program Evaluation Tool: A New Method For Conducting Internal Evaluations Of Gifted Education Programs, Jason Scott Mcintosh

Open Access Dissertations

Few program evaluation models unique to gifted education currently exist. The Depth and Complexity Program Evaluation Tool (DC-PET) is a new method for conducting an evaluation of a gifted program that combines the Kaplan Depth and Complexity Model with tools and techniques from the fields of program evaluation and organizational change. The tool was designed to assist local school district personnel in generating data for gifted program improvement by requiring a close examination of critical issues in the field (e.g., defensible differentiation, underserved populations, twice-exceptional learners). The DC-PET is meant to provide a framework for guiding those who have little …

Exploring Antecedents To Work Engagement And Psychological Well-Being Within A Canadian Provincial Ministry, Kris Ellis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A gap exists in organizational development strategies on why some individuals remain disengaged with their work. This study addressed whether a combination of specific contextual factors could support individuals, teams, and leaders to demonstrate the attitudes and behaviors consistent with work engagement. The theoretical frameworks of social constructivism, the conceptual framework of symbolic interactionism, and a hermeneutic inquiry approach were used to address how individual psychological traits/abilities of employees support work engagement. Nineteen employees of a Canadian provincial government ministry completed an engagement survey, MSCEIT, MBTI, and SDI assessments. They also participated in focus groups. Survey results showed high engagement …

The Moderating Effects Of Incentives And Informal Contracts On Post-Merger Executive Turnover And Engagement, David P. Grogan

Student Scholarship

This study contributes to a better understanding of voluntary executive turnover during the post-merger integration period by extending prior research on agency, stewardship, and psychological contracts. Within the context of a post-acquisition environment we propose four new predictors of engagement, measure the mediating role of a decision to leave, and examine the moderating effects of retention incentives and perceived implicit contract violations. This inquiry was inspired by the seemingly counter-intuitive industry practice of assigning retention incentives to key talent who are not actually committed to staying and the likelihood that subsequent agent engagement in the organizational change process required for …

The Robust Beauty Of “Little Ideas”: The Past And Future Of A Behavioral Theory Of The Firm, David Maslach, Chengwei Liu, Peter Madsen, Vinit Desai

Faculty Publications

This introductory and the following nine articles reflect comments made by panelists during a symposium honoring A Behavioral Theory of the Firm by Richard Cyert and James G. March at the 2013 Academy of Management meeting. Not surprisingly, what emerged from these comments is that the Behavioral Theory of the Firm (BTF) was enormously influential to the creation of many “little ideas” that have a big impact on a number of social sciences. More surprising is the potential for many new “little ideas” that build on the BTF. The panelists detail what these new “little ideas” may be in future …

Bridging Executive Succession Gaps: Organizational Factors That Most Accelerate Executive Readiness, Carolynn Cameron

Student Scholarship

Much has been written on the topic of leadership development however little on the development of top executives, and virtually nothing on the most efficient ways of developing executives. With succession pipelines to executive jobs weak across S&P 500 firms, executive succession weakness poses a real financial, continuity and governance risk to systems globally. To address this phenomenological gap, the authors conducted a qualitative inquiry involving semi-structured interviews with managers in a single S&P 50 global firm that operates across three industries. By probing into the "lived worlds" of these executive successors and high performing non-successors, new insight has been …

Bridging Executive Succession Gaps: Organizational Factors That Most Accelerate Executive Readiness, Carolynn Cameron

Student Scholarship

Much has been written on the topic of leadership development however little on the development of top executives, and virtually nothing on the most efficient ways of developing executives. With succession pipelines to executive jobs weak across S&P 500 firms, executive succession weakness poses a real financial, continuity and governance risk to systems globally. To address this phenomenological gap, the authors conducted a qualitative inquiry involving semi-structured interviews with managers in a single S&P 50 global firm that operates across three industries. By probing into the "lived worlds" of these executive successors and high performing non-successors, new insight has been …

Toward Transforming Health Systems: A Practice Study Of Organizing And Practical Inquiry In Academic Medicine, Thomas A. Ellison

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Transformation of health care systems will be grounded in new professional relations and collective, cross-disciplinary actions to impact care delivery. Organizing such relations and actions involves practical inquiry rather than applying professional knowledge. This dissertation presents an exploratory, performative study of the initial organizing of the Health Systems Innovation and Research (HSIR) Program in Health Sciences at the University of Utah. The HSIR program was conceived principally to catalyze cross-disciplinary innovation and health services research and enhance care delivery changes by documenting care improvements and publishing research. This study includes a composite narrative of the organizing and practical inquiry work …

Starting A Safety Management System Culture In Small Flight School Organizations, Gregory S. Woo

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Small flight school organizations have unique cultures and challenges which are very different from larger air carrier and air charter organizations. In the modern, increasingly complex aviation environment, the rapid rate of evolution and change in technology, regulations, and operational considerations is driving aviation service providers to adopt the use of Safety Management Systems (SMS). A strong safety-oriented culture is needed to support the implementation of an SMS, however. This article studies the prerequisite safety culture challenge for small flight school organizations and makes recommendations on effective first steps for getting started with an SMS implementation initiative.

Strengths In Action: Implementing A Learning Organization Model In A Human Service Setting, Barbara Ann Whitbeck

Dissertations and Theses

Although learning organization theory evolved in corporate settings, literature suggests that the theory has much to offer human service organizations. This dissertation examines the implementation of a modified learning organization model in three small field offices of a publicly-funded vocational rehabilitation organization in the Pacific Northwest, at a time when the organization was negotiating financial cutbacks and organizational changes. The model - known as Strengths in Action - was based on Senge's five learning organization disciplines, and informed by organizational culture theory. In each participating office, all staff worked together to set a goal, make a plan, and achieve the …