Business Commons^™

Organizational Development And Learning Technology In The Workplace: The Migration Of University Reporting Tools, Anne C. Pinder

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study focused on organizational development (OD) as it related to implementing a new technology, the Cognos reporting tool, within working groups at a mid-sized University, in southern New Jersey. In this study, I intended to understand how these two work groups accomplished this change on an individual, team, and organizational level, while they achieved success through dealing with stressors associated with the software implementation. I was especially interested in how individuals in the two workgroups dealt with a major change within their organization. I was also interested in evaluating my personal leadership skills as a contributor to the …

Management And Telework, Arlene J. Nicholas

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

This chapter discusses telework as a desirable option for workers and a valuable tool for employers to attract and retain employees. Telework's many benefits are appealing to technologically competent and confident workers. Managers may be concerned with employee accessibility, productivity and possible loss of management roles (Arnold, 2006). When Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer banned working from home, it was described as a step backward that countered studies of increased productivity, retention and job satisfaction that could demoralize the workers (Cohan, 2013; Gaudreau, 2013). An overview of benefits, incentives, organizational examples as well as possible deterrents and management resistance are identified.

Innovation As Everyday Action: A Case Study Of Organizational Discourse And The Local Meaning Of Innovation, Jennifer C. Batra

Open Access Theses

This study describes and explicates the nuanced nature of commonly adopted buzzwords such as innovation by analyzing how innovation is defined and embedded structurally within a single organization. Working to uncover how the individual construction of a local definition of innovation within the global context of a quasi-academic organization changes as organizational priorities and practices evolve over time, I present the varied framings of innovation at the micro, meso, and macro levels, through two research phases (a) the definition phase and (b) the practice phase over the course of one year.

This thesis project is situated within a single Mid-Western …

Investigating U.S. Resident Perceptions Of Corporate Social Responsibility In Food And Agriculture, Carissa Jae Morgan

Open Access Theses

Corporations are prioritizing corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities by investing in and actively promoting their social practices. In the U.S. of the modern food supply chain creates a unique challenge for corporations to address concerns about social issues of consumers and non-consumers alike. This study is motivated by the need to better understand individuals’ perceptions of CSR as it pertains to the food supply chain. In April 2015 an online survey collected information from 1,201 U.S. residents with the objective of investigating individuals’ perceptions of relative importance of eight prominent CSR areas relevant to food and agriculture. Demographic, household consumption, …

A Framework For Organizational Performance Assessment In The Construction Industry, Zenith Rathore

Open Access Theses

Organizations have been trying to increase their efficiency and improve their performance in order to achieve their goals. Organizational success is determined by various factors that impact organizational performance. Construction industry is a project based industry which is extremely dynamic in nature. The need to identify the weak points and search solutions to improve performance of construction organization is extremely crucial. Previous research works have primarily focused on the measurement of financial or tangible assets. Industry has always focused on measure of project success. However, previous studies lack the understanding of qualitative factors and their combine effect on organizational performance. …

Examining Law Enforcement Officer Job Satisfaction And Burnout Through The Lens Of Empowerment Theory, Bruce A. Biggs

Open Access Dissertations

This exploratory cross-sectional study examined the organizational factors that influence law enforcement officers’ perception of job stress and perception of job satisfaction. The extant literature is replete with the finding that organizational factors (job context) rather than the aspects of providing police service (job content) cause law enforcement officers the largest amount of stress and job dissatisfaction. However, the literature also shows that the exact organizational factors that wield these deleterious effects are enigmatic.

This situation is further confounded by the lack of a guiding and encompassing theoretical construct through which the myriad of organizational influences and consequences may be …

Creativity In Organizations: Antecedents And Outcomes Of Individual Creativity, Goran Calic

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation I set out to expand our collective understanding of creativity in organizations. I accomplish this through three related studies, each organized into independent chapters of this dissertation.

The first study explores how demands of organizations, particularly strategic contradictions faced by decision makers, affect creative processes and products. In this chapter I develop the theory of paradoxical creativity, which posits that creative discovery is a function of how strategic contradictions are perceived by decision-makers. The key insight of the theory of paradoxical creativity is that strategic contradictions have independent effects on the two stages of creative discovery (generation …

Spiritual Leadership In Religious Organizations: A Grounded Theory Study, Kenyon S. Washington

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

Dissertation Notice:

Psy.D. dissertation, The University of the Rockies, 2016

Full Text available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global

The results of this study suggested the presence of five themes related to pastoral effectiveness in non-denominational Christian churches: communication, personal development, business acumen, religious practices, and relationships. A key finding pointed to the integration of spiritual leadership theory and transformational leadership theory for use in religious organizations. The integration of the components of the two leadership theories may provide pastors with a means and common framework for understanding the process of leadership effectiveness.

Thought Leaders: Faculty Who Shape Business Theory And Practice Through Research

Business Exchange

Profiles of seven DePaul professors and the research they are conducting in areas as diverse as work-life balance and investor behavior: James D. Shilling, Real Estate Studies; R. David McLean, Investment Management; Kelly Richmond Pope, Accountancy; Andrew Gallen, Marketing; Alyssa J. Westring, Management; William Sander, Economics; and Misty Johanson, Hospitality Leadership.

2016 Ijbe Front Matter, Tamra Connor

International Journal for Business Education

1. Editorial Board
2. President's Letter
3. SIEC-ISBE International

The Benefits Of Bad Economies: Business Cycles And Time-Based Work-Life Conflict, Christopher M. Barnes, Alexandru Lefter, Devasheesh P. Bhave, David Turley Wagner

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Recent management research has indicated the importance of family, sleep, and recreation as nonwork activities of employees. Drawing from entrainment theory, we develop an expanded model of work-life conflict to contend that macrolevel business cycles influence the amount of time employees spend on both work and nonwork activities. Focusing solely on working adults, we test this model in a large nationally representative dataset from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that spans an 8-year period, which includes the “Great Recession” from 2007 through 2009. We find that during economic booms, employees work more and therefore spend less time with family, sleeping, …

A Cross-Cultural Examination Of Preferences For Work Attributes, Melissa S. Woodard, Jane K. Miller, Daniel Miller, Kirk D. Silvernail, Chun Guo, Sudhir Nair, Mehmet Devrim Aydin, Ana Helosia Da Costa Lemos, Paul Donnelly, Vilmante Kumpikaite, Robert Marx, Linda M. Peters

Articles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between individual- and country-level values and preferences for job/organizational attributes. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were collected from 475 full-time employees (average of nine years work experience, and three years in a managerial position) enrolled in part-time MBA programs in seven countries. Findings – Preference for a harmonious workplace is positively related to horizontal collectivism, whereas preference for remuneration/advancement is positively related to vertical individualism. The authors also find a positive relationship between preference for meaningful work and horizontal individualism, and between preference for employer prestige and social adjustment …

How Do We Adopt Multiple Cultural Identities? A Multidimensional Operationalization Of The Sources Of Culture, Badri Zolfaghari, Guido Mollering, Timothy Adrian Robert Clark, Graham Dietz

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Given the shortcomings of unidimensional accounts of culture that are based on nationality, this paper builds on and steps beyond current multidimensional conceptualizations of culture in order to provide first empirical evidence for a multidimensional operationalization of culture. It shows the multiple and simultaneous sources of cultural values (i.e., Family, Nationality, Urban/Rural Background, etc.) that individuals draw from in order to behave in accordance with their social setting. This contributes to our understanding of how and when individuals adopt multiple cultural identities. As the first attempt to operationalize the 'mosaic' framework of culture proposed by Chao and Moon (2005), this …

Knowledge Cluster Development Through Connectivity: Examples From Southeast Asia, Hans-Dieter Evers, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Whereas since the 1990s national and regional planners saw the creation of knowledge clusters as a panacea for gaining a competitive advantage to propel a region or country into a higher stage of industrial development, recent research suggests that connectivity (e.g. through broadband penetration or joint research connections with collaborators elsewhere) is one of the enablers for socio-economic development. This paper will draw on the results of studies on knowledge clusters in Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore) as well as the relevant current literature to ask the question, whether knowledge clusters really contribute to regional development and if yes, …

Understanding Millennial, Generation X, And Baby Boomer Preferred Leadership Characteristics: Informing Today’S Leaders And Followers, Lee-Volker Cox

Dissertations

Purpose. This quantitative study’s purpose was to describe and determine the degree of difference and importance of leadership characteristics as perceived by Baby Boom, Generation X, and Millennial generational cohort followers in STEM-related U.S.-based or headquartered aerospace and computer organizations as measured by the Multigenerational Leadership Characteristics Questionnaire (MLCQ).

Methodology. This was a cross-sectional, nonexperimental, comparative and correlational quantitative, ex post facto study. A web-based MLCQ was developed after conducting an academic literature review. Participants used a 6-point Likert scale identifying the importance of 30 characteristics with 2 aggregation questions identifying the most and least important characteristics; 408 members of …

From Inclusion For Some To Inclusion For All: A Case Study Of The Inclusion Program At One Catholic Elementary School, Emily Marie Paz

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Catholic schools in the United States have grappled with how to serve students with disabilities without the funding sources available to public schools. This mixed methods case study examines the driving forces, restraining forces, and social justice issues that influenced the development of an inclusion program at one Catholic elementary school.

The case analyzed is the inclusion program at “St. Ignatius” Elementary School. Fourteen interviews with individuals heavily involved in the program were triangulated with qualitative analyses of the content of artifacts from the inclusion program and quantitative data from a rating scale on ideal inclusive practices completed by ten …

Symptomatic Leadership: The Impact Of Changing Demographics On Global Business, Linda L. Ridley

Publications and Research

The past several decades have displayed a focus on diversity in the workplace throughout the corporate environment. Questions remain: has the effort been at all impactful – or, due to its symbolic nature, has it only been a distraction? What behaviors would have been better emphasized to achieve full participation and opportunity by all actors in a firm?

Considerable research has revealed that attempts at diversity are clumsy at best; and spurious at worst. [i] The challenge for firms has been to develop a “business case” for why those contributing groups represented by women and people of color should be …

Process Makes Perfect: Asking Your Target Audience What They Really Want To Know About You, Nichole M. Rustad

Roesch Library Staff Publications

Libraries often find themselves communicating programs and services to different audiences — students, faculty, donors and the community. So what happens when you are tasked with creating a marketing piece to pique donors’ interest? How do you know what they want to know about you, and what do they already know? Accurately assessing what your audience already understands about your library services can be a challenging aspect of your project. This column describes how an academic library in Ohio learned more about its target market to create a piece that could bring about the results it wanted.

Disability Visibility And Stigma Threat: Effects On The Performance, Stress, And Self-Control Of Disabled Workers, William Brice

Open Access Theses

Having a stigmatized disability is a depleting experience. For those with a disability, there are many factors that contribute to potential performance decrements in any given situation. Visibility of the disability, and the stigma connected to the disability are two such factors—which I argue based on research on motivation, regulation, and stress, contributes to the regulatory depletion experienced by disabled individuals. I conducted an experimental study where participants took part in a workplace simulation. Participants were given an artificially simulated disability and both the visibility of the disability and the stigmatizing nature of the disability were manipulated. I found a …

Secret Conversation Opportunities Facilitate Minority Influence In Virtual Groups: The Influence On Majority Power, Information Processing, And Decision Quality, Roderick I. Swaab, Katherine W. Phillips, Michael Schaerer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examined the impact of secret conversation opportunities during virtual team discussions on majority opinion holders’ motivation to attend to minority opinion holders. Studies 1a and b showed that majorities were more motivated to process others’ arguments when secret conversation opportunities were available (vs. not), provided these arguments contained unique (vs. shared) information and this information was offered by the minority (vs. majority). Study 2 demonstrated that this effect occurs because secret opportunities made majorities feel less powerful after being exposed to unique information from the minority (Study 2a), especially when majority members expected others to use these channels (Study …

Environmental Demands And The Emergence Of Social Structure: Technological Dynamism And Interorganizational Network Forms, Adam Tatarynowicz, Maxim Sytch, Ranjay Gulati

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study investigates the origins of variation in the structures of interorganizational networks across industries. We combine empirical analyses of existing interorganizational networks in six industries with an agent-based simulation model of network emergence. Using data on technology partnerships from 1983 to 1999 between firms in the automotive, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, microelectronics, new materials, and telecommunications industries, we find that differences in technological dynamism across industries and the concomitant demands for value creation engender variations in firms’ collaborative behaviors. On average, firms in technologically dynamic industries pursue more-open ego networks, which fosters access to new and diverse resources that …

Trust Building With Chinese Host Country Nationals, Fenny Ang, Hwee Hoon Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Integrating the literature on trust building and cultural intelligence, the purpose of this paper is to understand how expatriate managers build trust with their host country nationals (HCNs) in China. Qualitative data collected via extensive interviews with 12 expatriate managers and 34 HCNs from seven multinational companies in Shanghai. The authors find that expatriate managers and HCN managers build trust via competence/ability at the onset. The trust relationship becomes stronger over time with the development of affect-based trust via cultural intelligence of the expatriate managers. Implications for theory and practice following the results are discussed. This study used the cultural …

The Role Of Occupational Emotional Labor Requirements On The Surface Acting-Job Satisfaction Relationship, Devasheesh P. Bhave, Theresa M. Glomb

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this study we employ two distinct lenses of emotional labor—EL as occupational requirements and EL as intrapsychic processes of surface acting—and examine their relationship with job satisfaction. In a large, occupationally diverse sample, results indicate that occupational EL requirements are positively related to job satisfaction, whereas surface acting is negatively related to job satisfaction. Additionally, occupational EL requirements have a cross-level moderation effect on the relationship between surface acting and job satisfaction. Nonlinear effects are also observed for surface acting: the initial negative relationship of surface acting with job satisfaction is exacerbated at high levels of surface acting. Overall, …

Situational Judgment Tests: From Measures Of Situational Judgment To Measures Of General Domain Knowledge, Filip Lievens, Stephan J. Motowidlo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Situational judgment tests (SJTs) are typically conceptualized as contextualized selection procedures that capture candidate responses to a set of relevant job situations as a basis for prediction. SJTs share their sample-based and contextualized approach with work samples and assessment center exercises, although they differ from these other simulations by presenting the situations in a low-fidelity (e.g., written) format. In addition, SJTs do not require candidates to respond through actual behavior because they capture candidates' situational judgment via a multiple-choice response format. Accordingly, SJTs have also been labeled low-fidelity simulations. This SJT paradigm has been very successful: In the last 2 …

Facilitating A Whole-Life Approach To Career Development: The Role Of Organizational Leadership, Michael L. Litano, Debra A. Major

Psychology Faculty Publications

This article focuses on the whole-life approach to career development. A review of the ways in which career paths have been conceptualized over time demonstrates that increasing consideration has been given to nonwork factors (i.e., personal life and family life) in defining careers. The whole-life perspective on career development acknowledges that employees are striving for opportunities for professional development as well as individualized work-life balance, which changes over the life course. Although the careers literature has emphasized interorganizational mobility as the primary mechanism for achieving these goals, whole-life career development can also be achieved within a single organization when organizational …

What Does Your Workplace Say About Your Company Culture?, Clarence Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Disengagementin the workplace can create toxic environments – research has linked suchdisengagement with decreased client interactions and reduced collaborativeperformance, increased absenteeism, and a rise in workplace harassment. Arecent State of the American Workplace study conducted byGallup estimated that active disengagement in the workplace costs the UnitedStates between US$450 billion and US$550 billion annually.

Reputation And Status: Expanding The Role Of Social Evaluations In Management Research: From The Editors, Gerard George, Linus Dahlander, Scott D. Graffin, Samantha Sim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Organizations, whether private or public, are subject to evaluations by their stakeholder community and society. These social evaluations form the basis of perceptions targeted at the organization, and influence the organization’s interactions with its stakeholders. “Reputation,” defined as beliefs or perceptions held about the quality of a focal actor, and “status,” defined as relative professional position or social standing, are both forms of social evaluation. Following works by Fombrun and Shanley (1990) and Merton (1968), reputation and status as theoretical constructs have become popularized in the literature, and management scholars have provided empirical evidence to provide a more complete view …

Capstone Course On Facilitating Business Brainstorming In A Global Workplace, Edison Jun Hao Lim, Benjamin Gan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper describes our capstone team’s experience toward building a IT system for business brainstorming at work. The Canvas project aims to facilitate the Business Model Canvas exercise between employees at NEC Corporation. Traditional brainstorming meetings require employees to be in the same location, are hard to organize and are hard to archive. Our team, Rokoo, developed a web application that resolves these challenges by allowing global employees to brainstorm together on the same platform.

When Friends’ And Society’S Expectations Collide: A Longitudinal Study Of Moral Decision-Making And Personality Across College, Kathryn L. Bollich, Patrick L. Hill, Peter D. Harms, Joshua Jackson

P. D. Harms Publications

Early adulthood is a developmentally important time period, with many novel life events needing to be traversed for the first time. Despite this important transition period, few studies examine the development of moral decision-making processes during this critical life stage. In the present study, college students completed moral decision-making measures during their freshman and senior years of college. Results indicate that, across four years, moral decision-making demonstrates considerable rank-order stability as well as change, such that people become more likely to help a friend relative to following societal rules. To help understand the mechanisms driving changes in moral decision-making processes, …

When Men Are Sexually Harassed: A Foundation For Studying Men’S Experiences As Targets Of Sexual Harassment, Leland Spencer, Joshua Trey Barnett

Speaker & Gavel

While much scholarly attention has been given to sexual harassment, scholarship about men’s experiences as targets of sexual harassment has been limited. This essay is a review of the literature about men’s experiences of sexual harassment; it explores the operational definitions and sources of sexual harassment, the inadequacy of the instruments used to study sexual harassment, and the implications of this research for organizations and the field of communication studies. It also examines sexual harassment at the intersections of gender and sexual orientation, finding that there are apparent differences in incidences that feature diversity in these areas. This review concludes …