Business Commons^™

A Multi-Level Longitudinal Investigation Of Transformational Leadership Influence On Team Members Development In Engineering Project Teams, Nathapon Siangchokyoo

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to contribute to the existing Transformational Leadership literature. Despite the overwhelming support that Transformational Leadership theory has garnered over the recent years, the underlying mechanisms and processes by which these leaders exert influence on their followers have yet to be adequately examined. More importantly, while the majority of advances in leadership research can largely be attributed to traditional areas of management and social sciences, studies of leadership in the context of engineering still remain relatively unexplored. Drawing on previous empirical research as well as the concept of Core Self-Evaluations, this study sets out …

Strategic Sourcing Via Category Management: Helping Air Force Installation Contracting Agency Eat One Piece Of The Elephant, Theodore S. Holliger

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force can dramatically reduce resource consumption through strategic sourcing initiatives that leverage sensibly-bound pockets of spend via category management. However, category creation is a particularly daunting task due to the sheer magnitude of purchasing data in large organizations. Text mining is one way to identify categories. Specifically, term frequency analysis, term frequency-inverse document frequency analysis, and topic modeling can identify category membership, unique characteristics of categories, and thematic natures of the categories. This thesis developed an empirical, generalizable, reproducible methodology to analyze historical contract text descriptions to uncover the data’s hidden structure. A sample case was …

Handling Spiritual Resources At Work: An Autoethnographic Inquiry, Anselmo Ferreira Vasconcelos

The Qualitative Report

This study draws upon some particular dimensions of spirituality in the workplace such as insight, intuition, wisdom, respect, love, humility, courage, ethics, optimism, the other, and sense of purpose. Through an autoethnographic inquiry it describes my personal spiritual journey at work, that is, my own experiences, reflections, understanding, viewpoints, and memories regarding those constructs as a framework. In hindsight, I explore a certain period of my professional life when I was very young and working for a multinational company, which was under permanent change in order to adapt and survive in the hypercompetitive and turbulent Brazilian market. By drawing on …

An Examination Of The Influences Of Organizational, Supervisor, And Coworker Support On The Relationship Between Flexible Work Arrangements And Turnover Intention Of Civilian Federal Employees, Marvin Bontrager

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

Technological advancements and a rapidly changing workforce have created the need for researchers and practitioners to continually examine how work is designed, managed, and accomplished. As increased work demands have blurred the lines between work and family domains, stressors can create conflict between these environments. Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) represent one of the work-family benefit programs offered by employers to alleviate work-family conflict and provide flexibility to workers.

This study examined the relationships between multiple support measures (organizational, supervisor, and coworker) and turnover intention in the context of FWAs. The study’s hypotheses predicted negative relationships between the support measures and …

Liminal Entrepreneuring: The Creative Practices Of Nascent Necessity Entrepreneurs, Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo, Paul Donnelly, Lucia Sell-Trujillo, J. Miguel Imas

Articles

This paper contributes to creative entrepreneurship studies through exploring ‘liminal entrepreneuring’, i.e., the organization-creation entrepreneurial practices and narratives of individuals living in precarious conditions. Drawing on a processual approach to entrepreneurship and Turner’s liminality concept, we study the transition from un(der)employment to entrepreneurship of 50 nascent necessity entrepreneurs (NNEs) in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. The paper asks how these agents develop creative entrepreneuring practices in their efforts to overcome their condition of ‘necessity’. The analysis shows how, in their everyday liminal entrepreneuring, NNEs disassemble their identities and social positions, experiment with new relationships and alternative visions of themselves, …

Sexual Harassment, Jessica Gagnier, Kara Kocmick, Stepanie Voegele

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

According to a Star Tribune MN Poll, nearly 2 out of 3 women in the state of Minnesota have personally experienced sexual harassment. “It is estimated that over half of all women will experience some form of sexual harassment during college and/or their work lives” (Buchanan, 2008, p. 2). It is very difficult to track the true prevalence of sexual harassment because many women do not report. There are several reasons that victims do not report, some include “…the fear of retaliation or because they do not always recognize the offending behaviors as such” (Champion, 2010, p.3). In her Ted …

Trust In Organization As A Moderator Of The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy And Workplace Outcomes: A Social Cognitive Theory-Based Examination, Adnan Ozyilmaz, Berrin Erdogan, Aysegul Karaeminogullari

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drawing on a social cognitive theory perspective, we contend that an employee's trust in oneself, or self‐efficacy, will interact with the individual's trust in the system, or trust in organization, to predict job attitudes and behaviours. Specifically, we expected that self‐efficacy would have stronger effects on job attitudes (job satisfaction and turnover intentions) and behaviours (task performance and organizational citizenship behaviours) to the degree to which employees perceive high levels of trust in organization. Using data collected from 300 employees and their respective supervisors at a manufacturing organization in Turkey across three waves, we found that self‐efficacy had more positive …

A Phenomenological Exploration Of Women Entrepreneurs' Attitudes And Views On Establishing A Mentoring Relationship, John Rollins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the attitudes and views of women entrepreneurs on establishing a mentoring relationship. Despite the stated advantages of establishing a mentoring relationship, including improving entrepreneurs’ chances of business success, organizational growth, and leadership development, over 50% of novice women entrepreneurs do not establish a mentoring relationship. The researcher conducted 22 face-to-face semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs in the wedding industry. All participants had a positive attitude towards establishing a mentoring relationship and stated that mentoring would increase novice women entrepreneurs’ chance of business success, organizational growth, and leadership development. Most participants believed a mentor would enhance …

Innovating At Cultural Crossroads: How Multicultural Social Networks Promote Ideas Flow And Creativity, Roy Y. J. Chua

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Diversity in social networks is often linked to enhanced creativity. Emerging research on exposure to diverse informational resources (e.g., ideas and knowledge) however has painted a more complex picture regarding its effect on individuals’ creative performance. This research examines the effects of culturally diverse networks on the flow of ideas and individuals’ creativity. Combining social network analysis with experimental methods, two studies using different samples found that a culturally diverse network increases the likelihood of receiving culture-related novel ideas (but not other types of novel ideas) from network contacts, whether or not these contacts share one’s own culture of origin. …

Perceived Entitlement Causes Discrimination Against Attractive Job Candidates In The Domain Of Relatively Less Desirable Jobs, Margaret Lee, Marko Pitesa, Madan M. Pillutla, Stefan Thau

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

People generally hold positive stereotypes of physically attractive people and because of those stereotypes often treat them more favorably. However, we propose that some beliefs about attractive people, specifically, the perception that attractive individuals have a greater sense of entitlement than less attractive individuals, can result in negative treatment of attractive people. We examine this in the context of job selection and propose that for relatively less desirable jobs, attractive candidates will be discriminated against. We argue that the ascribed sense of entitlement to good outcomes leads to perceptions that attractive individuals are more likely to be dissatisfied working in …

Decoy Effect, Anticipated Regret, And Preferences For Work-Family Benefits, Jochen Reb, Andrew Li, Jessica Bagger

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Attracting talent is one of the key challenges for organizations, and offering attractive work-family benefits plays an increasingly important role in succeeding at this challenge. However, behavioural decision theory suggests that when choosing among job offers with different work-family benefits, individuals may fall prey to a decoy effect and this effect may be mediated through anticipated regret. This effect occurs when preferences are influenced by a normatively irrelevant decoy option that is clearly inferior to one of the other options in the choice set, but not the other (i.e., ‘asymmetrically dominated’). Across two studies, we investigated preferences for two important …

What Goes Up Must ... Keep Going Up? Cultural Differences In Cognitive Styles Influence Evaluations Of Dynamic Performance, D. Lance Ferris, Jochen Reb, Huiwen Lian, Samantha Sim, Dionysius Ang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Past research on dynamic workplace performance evaluation has taken as axiomatic that temporal performance trends produce naïve extrapolation effects on performance ratings. That is, we naïvely assume that an individual whose performance has trended upward over time will continue to improve, and rate that individual more positively than an individual whose performance has trended downward over time—even if, on average, the 2 individuals have performed at an equivalent level. However, we argue that such naïve extrapolation effects are more pronounced in Western countries than Eastern countries, owing to Eastern countries having a more holistic cognitive style. To test our hypotheses, …

Resource Scarcity, Effort, And Performance In Physically Demanding Jobs: An Evolutionary Explanation, Marko Pitesa, Stefan Thau

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Based on evolutionary theory, we predicted that cues of resource scarcity in the environment (e.g., news of droughts or food shortages) lead people to reduce their effort and performance in physically demanding work. We tested this prediction in a 2-wave field survey among employees and replicated it experimentally in the lab. In Study 1, employees who perceived resources in the environment to be scarce reported exerting less effort when their jobs involved much (but not little) physical work. In Study 2, participants who read that resources in the environment were scarce performed worse on a task demanding more (carrying books) …

The Relevance Of Sleep And Circadian Misalignment For Procrastination Among Shift Workers, Jana Kuhnel, Sabine Sonnentag, Ronald Bledow, Klaus G. Melchers

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This daily diary study contributes to current research uncovering the role of sleep for employees' effective self-regulation at work. We focus on shift workers' effective self-regulation in terms of their general and day-specific inclination to procrastinate, that is, their tendency to delay the initiation or completion of work activities. We hypothesized that transitory sleep characteristics (day-specific sleep quality and sleep duration) and chronic sleep characteristics in terms of circadian misalignment are relevant for procrastination. Sixty-six shift workers completed two daily questionnaires over the course of one work week, resulting in 332 days ofanalysis. Results of multilevel regression analyses showed that …

Finding Meaning At Work: The Role Of Inspiring And Funny Youtube Videos On Work-Related Well-Being, Sophie Janicke-Bowles, Diana Rieger, Winston Connor Iii

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Watching online videos on social media is a common activity in today’s digital age, but its’ impact on employee well-being at work has not been investigated yet. The current study tried to fill this gap by investigating the role hedonic and eudaimonic online videos play on employee’s stress levels and well-being at work. An online experiment with 200 full time employees in the US was conducted exploring the role of inspiring affect and positive affect on three distinct well-being outcomes: subjective well-being, psychological well-being and social well-being at the workplace. A path model suggests unique effects for inspiring videos on …

Differences In Work Values By Gender And Generation: Evidence From Egypt, Dr. Maha Ahmed Zaki Dajani

Business Administration

This research was built on the previous research titled “The Mediating Role of Work Values in the Relationship between Islamic Religiosity and Job Performance: Empirical Evidence from Egyptian Public Health Sector” (2017) and continued to examine work values differences based on gender and generation. A quota sampling procedure was used to survey (400) participants in (10) public Egyptian hospitals. The positive response rate of the target population was (83.75%). Work values were measured using Lyon Work Values Survey (LWVS) revised 25-item scale to assess four types of work values, namely, instrumental values, cognitive values, social/altruistic values, and prestige values. It …

The Other Side: Occupational Interactional Requirements And Work-Home Enrichment, Devasheesh P. Bhave, Alexandru M. Leftner

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of Business

We examine how occupational interactional requirements influence work-home enrichment. We identify two manifestations of work-home enrichment: through objective indicators of how employees allocate their time at home, and through perceptual reflections of employees on their work-home enrichment. We conceptualize occupational interactional requirements as restorative properties of jobs that provide employees with resources that they transfer to the home domain. In terms of objective indicators, our results indicate that employees transfer these resources by spending more time in resource depleting activities such as caring for household members, and less time in resource replenishing activities such as socializing and relaxing. This suggests …

The Mixed Blessing Of Leader Sense Of Humor: Examining Costs And Benefits, Kai Chi Yam, Michael S. Christian, Wu Wei, Zhenyu Liao, Jared Nai

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Workplace humor is ubiquitous, yet scholars know little about how it affects employees' behaviors in organizations. We draw on an emerging psychological theory of humor—benign violation theory—to suggest that a leader's sense of humor often conveys counter-normative social information in organizations. We integrate this theory with social information processing theory to develop hypotheses about the effects of a leader's sense of humor on follower behavior. We suggest that although a leader's sense of humor is positively associated with leader member exchange and ultimately work engagement, it can also signal to followers the acceptability of norm violation at work. These perceptions …

Status, Power, And Apologies: How Status And Power Shape The Willingness To Apologize And The Perception Of Victims, Louis Lipani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Apologies are interpersonal tools that individuals employ to repair damaged relationships. Management scholars have largely ignored the role that power and status play in the apology process. Across three studies I experimentally manipulate power and status and examine the apology process via a workplace scenario. In Study 1 I propose that power and status have different implications with respect to one’s willingness to apologize. I orthogonally manipulate power and status and examine their effect on people’s willingness to apologize. I find that status, but not power, impacts one’s willingness to apologize. In Study 2 I posit and find that apologies …

Understanding How Transformational Leaders Inspire Employee Engagement In Rapidly Changing Environments, Michael Coleman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Over the past five years, North Carolina community colleges have experienced a plethora of rapid changes, which can have a negative impact on employee engagement. Individuals who possess a transformational style of leadership typically inspire employees to engage in their work despite a rapidly changing environment. The specific business problem in this research study was a lack of understanding of how transformational leaders in North Carolina community colleges were inspiring employees to engage in their jobs during a rapidly changing environment. To address this significant issue, the researcher interviewed a group of senior transformational leaders from various community colleges within …

Optimizing The Validity Of Situational Judgment Tests: The Importance Of Scoring Methods, Qingxiong Weng, Hui Yang, Filip Lievens, Michael A. Mcdaniel

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In recent years, situational judgment tests (SJTs) have made strong inroads in assessment practices. Despite the importance of scoring for the validity of SJTs, little attention has been paid to different SJT scoring methods. This study investigated the influence of scoring methods on the criterion-related validity of SJTs. We examined five different consensus scoring methods (i.e., raw, standardized, dichotomous, mode, and proportion scoring) and several integrated scoring methods for scoring the same SJT. Results showed that one of the most popular scoring approaches (raw consensus scoring) is associated with an extreme response tendency and yields the lowest scale validity of …

Contextual Leadership: A Systematic Review Of How Contextual Factors Shape Leadership And Its Outcomes, Burak Oc

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

With roots dating back to Fiedler’s (1978) contingency model, contextual leadership has been one of the most trending topics in leadership research over the last decade. However, although roughly 500 studies have examined the impact of context on leadership and its outcomes, there is neither a systematic approach to nor agreement regarding what constitutes the context for leadership. This is surprising, considering the central role that context plays in leadership: Leadership does not occur in a vacuum, but rather exists in a context where leaders function. This review article uses Johns’s (2006) categorical framework to fully portray the leadership context …

Identification Of Individuals For Directorship Roles: Evaluation Of A University’S Succession Management, Nana Yaw Oppong, Nancy Oduro-Asabere

The Qualitative Report

Identification of potential individuals for leadership roles is a critical aspect of a succession management programme, as other aspects of the programme depend on an effective identification. This study evaluates how the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana identifies potential non-academic senior members for directorship roles. We collected qualitative data through in-depth interviewing of nine directors at the university. We analysed the data using constant comparison analysis by developing three themes, under each of which we presented similar categories of data. We found that the criteria for identification of potential directors include seniority; both internal and external sources; and …

How Team-Level And Individual-Level Conflict Influences Team Commitment: A Multilevel Investigation, Sanghyun Lee, Seungwoo Kwon, Shung Jae Shin, Minsoo Kim, In-Jo Park

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

We investigate how two different types of conflict (task conflict and relationship conflict) at two different levels (individual-level and team-level) influence individual team commitment. The analysis was conducted using data we collected from 193 employees in 31 branch offices of a Korean commercial bank. The relationships at multiple levels were tested using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The results showed that individual-level relationship conflict was negatively related to team commitment while individual-level task conflict was not. In addition, both team-level task and relationship conflict were negatively associated with team commitment. Finally, only team-level relationship conflict significantly moderated the relationship between individual-level …

The Temporal Pattern Of Creativity And Implementation In Teams, Kathrin Rosing, Ronald Bledow, Michael Frese, Nataliya Baytalskaya, Johanna Johanna Johnson Lascano, James L. Farr

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Two broad sets of activities underlie team innovation: the creation and the implementation of new ideas. Despite the prevalence of this distinction, the temporal dynamics of creativity and implementation in teams and their relation to successful team innovation are not well understood. Building on and integrating linear phase models and complexity perspectives on the innovation process, we propose a temporal pattern of creativity and implementation that is linked to team innovation. We examine this temporal pattern in a longitudinal study of 76 project teams. Results show that teams engage in creativity throughout the entire life cycle of team projects; however, …

Mind Mapping: An Experiential Approach To Syllabus Review, Elizabeth A. Mccrea, Steven J. Lorenzet

Organization Management Journal

On the first day of class most management faculty review or “go over” the syllabus, typically through an instructor-led presentation. However, research indicates that students retain little, if any, of the syllabus material, leading to frustrating outcomes for both students and instructors. Here we report the results of a post hoc natural experiment, where we compared the effectiveness of the traditional, review-and-discuss method to the effectiveness of a mind map approach used in another undergraduate management course. Before we conceived of the natural experiment, each faculty member reviewed the syllabus using his or her preferred method. One week later, the …

A Multi-Theory Approach To Managing Knowledge Assets: The Case Of Complex Professional Human Service Organizations, Joel Harmon, Dennis J. Scotti, Eric H. Kessler

Organization Management Journal

A multi-theory framework is offered for guiding managerial decision making in complex professional human service organizations; a growing segment of the economy for which the ability to proactively and dynamically manage knowledge assets is naturally critical to performance. Following a call for greater theoretical integration, this framework synthesizes essential and complimentary elements of three theoretical domains. It combines Transaction Economics’ focus on the appropriate procurement of knowledge assets, with Knowledge Management’s focus on how to dynamically unleash the potential of those assets, and Contingency Thinking’s focus on how to structurally harness and direct that potential. Two key “bridging constructs” emerge …

A Dyadic Approach To Examining The Emotional Intelligence–Work Outcome Relationship: The Mediating Role Of Lmx, Minsu Lee, Clifton O. Mayfield, Amanda S. Hinojosa, Yooshin Im

Organization Management Journal

Adopting a dyadic approach, we examine the processes through which leader–member exchange (LMX) mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and work outcomes. Fitting the data from a survey of 204 unique pairs of leaders and followers to an actor–partner independence model (APIM), we found that follower EI positively affects LMX as perceived by both dyad members, whereas leader EI is positively related to only leader ratings of LMX. Using polynomial regression, we also found that EI similarity between the leader and follower has a positive relationship with both leader and follower ratings of LMX. Follower LMX partially mediates the …

Great Members, Great Churches: Adaptive Change And Missional Theology In The Local Church, Christopher Jacobsen

Doctor of Ministry Theses

An Action Research (AR) project focusing on congregational participation in ministries within the church and outside it. Theological lenses of Trinitarian theology, missional theology, and spiritual practices. Theoretical lenses of adaptive change theory, consumerism and social capital, and organizational theories of relationship, four-frame model, and open source model. Identifies adaptive challenges faced by a small Reformed Church in America church in northern New Jersey, with a strong emphasis on the tension between living busy lives and active participation in the ministry of the triune God. Reframes leadership through the lens of writing the church’s story.

Building Bridges To Connect With Stakeholders: A Template For Success, Kimberly A. Reed

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

The modern age of communication, with the 24x7 news cycle and "information overload," can impact our ability to connect with stakeholders. Kimberly Reed, a Washington professional who has built bridges for more than 20 years both across the aisle and around the globe with non-profits, trade associations, government officials, and risk and crisis communication professionals, presented a case study on Expo Milano 2015: "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" (the "World's Fair," which was the world's largest gathering and discussion on the topic of food). She shared best practices that featured Drs. Deanna and Tim Sellnow and provided practical resources …