Business Commons^™

Examining Career-Related Mentoring And Managerial Performance Across Cultures: A Multilevel Analysis, William A. Gentry, Todd J. Weber, Golnaz Sadri

Leadership Institute: Faculty Publications

The benefits of the mentoring relationship for protégés have been a primary focus in the mentoring literature. Researchers have recently begun to examine how mentoring can benefit the mentor. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether direct report-ratings of a manager’s career-related mentoring behaviors are related to boss-ratings of that manager’s performance. In addition, this study assesses whether the cultural background of the manager moderates the career-related mentoring–performance relationship via multilevel methodology. Results reveal that managers who are rated by their direct reports as engaging in career-related mentoring behaviors are perceived as better performers by their bosses. …

Documentary Film Presentation Local Colors: Natural Dyeing In A Milas Carpet Weaving Village, Ulara Tamura, John Wells

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This documentary, filmed in 2006, examines the process of naturally dyed carpet production in a village in the Milas region of Muğla Prefecture in southwest Turkey, a region well known as a traditional Turkish carpet production area. In large numbers of villages of this region, carpet weaving is the household based work of every woman who lives there.

In this paper, I aim to add more detailed information and discussion specifically on the colors and dyes of the carpets shown in this film. First I will introduce the varieties of the natural dye materials the villagers use one by one. …

The Business Of Academic Publishing: A Strategic Analysis Of The Academic Journal Publishing Industry And Its Impact On The Future Of Scholarly Publishing, Glenn S. Mcguigan, Robert D. Russell

E-JASL: Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (1999-2009, Volumes 1-10)

Abstract

Academic libraries cannot pay the regularly escalating subscription prices for scholarly journals. These libraries face a crisis that has continued for many years revealing a commercial system that supports a business model that has become unsustainable. This paper examines the “serials crisis,” as it has come to be known, and the economics of the academic journal publishing industry. By identifying trends within the industry, an analysis of the industry is undertaken using elements of the five forces framework developed by Michael Porter. Prescriptions are offered concerning what can be done and what should be done to address this problem.

2008 Nebraska Business

College of Business: Trade Publications

2008 Nebraska Business

How Transformational Leadership Weaves Its Influence On Individual Job Performance: The Role Of Identification And Efficacy Beliefs, Fred O. Walumbwa, Bruce Avolio, Weichun Zhu

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This study examined how transformational leadership directly and indirectly relates to supervisory-rated performance collected over time including 437 participants employed by 6 U.S. banking organizations in the midwest. Results revealed that one’s identification with his or her work unit, self-efficacy, and means efficacy were related to supervisor-rated performance. The effect of transformational leadership on rated performance was also mediated by the interaction of identification and means efficacy, as well as partially mediated by the interaction of self-efficacy and means efficacy. Implications for research, theory, and practice are discussed.

On The Same Page: The Value Of Paid And Volunteer Leaders Sharing Mental Models In Churches, Stephanie T. Solansky, Dennis Duchon, Donde Ashmos Plowman, Patricia G. Martínez

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We examine the idea that mental models shared among paid and volunteer leaders are associated with improved financial performance in nonprofit organizations. Our empirical analysis of thirty-seven churches yields evidence that organizations are more effective if paid and volunteer leaders have a shared task mental model—that is, if they report similar conceptualizations of organizational goals and decision-making processes. These findings suggest that the extent of leaders’ agreement on organizational goals and the processes of how decisions are made matter for organizational performance. We argue that it is as important to ensure that everyone is on the same page with regard …

The Additive Value Of Positive Psychological Capital In Predicting Work Attitudes And Behaviors, James B. Avey, Fred Luthans, Carolyn M. Youssef

Leadership Institute: Faculty Publications

Conventional wisdom over the years and recent research findings have supported the importance of positivity in the workplace. However, to date, empirical analysis has not demonstrated potential added value of recently emerging positive state-like constructs such as psychological capital over the more established positive traits in predicting work attitudes and behaviors. This study of a sample of employees (N=336) from a broad cross section of organizations and jobs found that their state-like psychological capital is positively related to desired extra-role organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and negatively with undesired organizational cynicism, intentions to quit and counterproductive workplace behaviors. Except for individual …

A Call For Longitudinal Research In Positive Organizational Behavior, James B. Avey, Fred Luthans, Ketan H. Mhatre

Leadership Institute: Faculty Publications

After defining and providing the current status of psychological capital (PsyCap), we address the need to better understand its stability (i.e., state vs. trait). Specifically, we issue a call for longitudinal research. The balance of this ‘‘incubator’’ article examines the relevance, potential obstacles, and advantages of this design in meeting PsyCap’s future research needs.

The Mediating Role Of Psychological Capital In The Supportive Organizational Climate–Employee Performance Relationship, Fred Luthans, Steven M. Norman, Bruce J. Avolio, James B. Avey

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Although the value of a supportive organizational climate has been recognized over the years, there is a need for better understanding of its relationship with employee outcomes. This study investigates whether the recently emerging core construct of positive psychological capital (consisting of hope, resilience, optimism, and efficacy) plays a role in mediating the effects of a supportive organizational climate with employee outcomes. Utilizing three diverse samples, results show that employees’ psychological capital is positively related to their performance, satisfaction, and commitment and a supportive climate is related to employees’ satisfaction and commitment. The study’s major hypothesis that employees’ psychological capital …

Anomie And The Marketing Function: The Role Of Control Mechanisms, Amit Saini, Mike Krush, Jean L. Johnson

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

The theoretical notion of anomie is used to examine the impact of top management’s control mechanisms on the environment of the marketing function. Based on a literature review and in-depth field interviews with marketing managers in diverse industries, a conceptual model is proposed that incorporates the two managerial control mechanisms, viz. output and process control, and relates their distinctive influence to anomie in the marketing function. Three contingency variables, i.e., resource scarcity, power, and ethics codification, are proposed to moderate the relationship between control mechanisms and anomie. The authors also argue for the link between anomic environments and the propensity …

Environmental Context, Managerial Cognition, And Strategic Action: An Integrated View, Sucheta Nadkarni, Pamela S. Barr

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This study addresses an apparent disconnect between two views of strategic action: the “economic view,” which contends that industry structure is the primary influence on strategic action, and the “cognitive view,” which suggests that managerial cognition drives strategic action. We argue that this disconnect has created artificial boundaries between the two perspectives and has limited our ability to develop holistic explanations of strategic action. In response, we develop an integrated model that answers two questions: 1) Does industry context affect managerial cognition? 2) Does managerial cognition mediate the relationship between industry context and strategic responses to environmental changes? To examine …

Getting Past Conflict Resolution: A Complexity View Of Conflict, Leticia Andrade, Donde Ashmos Plowman, Dennis Duchon

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The traditional view of conflict, as a problematic condition always requiring reduction or elimination and whose conditions or outcomes can be predicted, is incompatible with a complex adaptive systems view of organizations. Thus, conventional approaches to reducing conflict are often futile because the fundamental properties of complex adaptive systems are the source of much organizational ‘conflict.’ In this paper we offer an alternative view of conflict as pattern fluctuations in complex adaptive systems. Rather than needing reduction or elimination, conflict is the fuel that drives system growth and enables learning and adaptive behaviors, making innovation possible. Instead of focusing on …

The Utility Of Transactional And Transformational Leadership For Predicting Performance And Satisfaction Within A Path-Goal Theory Framework, Robert P. Vecchio, Joseph E. Justin, Craig L. Pearce

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In a test of hypotheses derived from the integration of principles of path-goal theory (House, 1996) and transformational leadership theory (Bass, 1985), data collected from 179 high school teachers and their principals were examined with hierarchical regression analysis. Augmentation analysis indicated that transactional leadership had a stronger role in explaining unique criterion variance beyond the contribution of transformational leadership, than did transformational leadership relative to transactional leadership. In addition, both the transactional and transformational leadership had a negative interactive relationship for predicting the outcome of performance, such that leader vision and leader intellectual stimulation were more positively correlated with employee …

Ex–Dividend Day Price And Volume: The Case Of 2003 Dividend Tax Cut, Yi Zhang, Kathleen A. Farrell, Todd A. Brown

Department of Finance: Faculty Publications

We examine the impact of the 2003 dividend tax cut, which removes the differential taxation between dividends and capital gains for individual investors, on the ex–dividend day price and trading volume. We find the ex–dividend day price and volume are affected by taxes, risk, and transaction costs. The ex–dividend day price drop ratio (excess return) increases (decreases) and dividend clienteles weaken after the tax cut. Ex–dividend day abnormal volume among high dividend yield stocks decreases after the tax cut consistent with a diminished motivation for tax–induced trading. Our results suggest that individual investors have a measurable effect on the ex–dividend …

How Do Firms Adjust Director Compensation?, Kathleen A. Farrell, Geoffrey C. Friesen, Philip L. Hersch

Department of Finance: Faculty Publications

This paper examines outside director compensation for a sample of 237 Fortune 500 firms over the 1998-2004 period. We document a trend towards fixed-value equity compensation and away from cash only and fixed-number equity compensation. Adjustments to director compensation are consistent with firms targeting a market level of compensation, and firms that deviate from their market wage symmetrically adjust compensation back toward the market level. We also document the relation between changes in compensation and changes in equity values, and find that upward adjustments begin sooner than downward adjustments. When equity values rise, we find virtually no immediate offset to …

Impact Of Behavioral Performance Management In A Korean Application, Fred Luthans, Shanggeun Rhee, Brett C. Luthans, James B. Avey

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine whether the use of money, social recognition, and feedback have a similar impact on employee performance in the context of a modern Korean broadband internet service firm.

Design/methodology/approach – The study design was a quasi-field experiment (with control group). First, the leaders of this Korean firm were trained in behavioral performance management. Following the steps of organisational behavior modification (O.B. Mod.) they identified, measured, and analyzed critical performance behaviors and then intervened with the following reward incentives: money (n = 38), social recognition and caring attention (n = 41), and …

Causes And Consequences Of Grudge-Holding In Service Relationships, Matthew P. Bunker, Dwayne Ball

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to place grudge-holding as a theoretical construct, measure it, and empirically place it in a nomological net and, additionally to discuss the consequences of grudge-holding in this research.

Design/methodology/approach – A 2 × 2 scenario-based experiment was performed using 320 subjects, approximately 80 people per condition. The size of the exit barrier (high/low) and the effectiveness of the service recovery (good/poor) were varied between each scenario to determine changes in grudge-holding.

Findings – Some consequences of grudge-holding are retaliation desire and communication avoidance. Although trust was tested in this research, and is …

Risk And Recovery, John Austin, Chris Decker, Tom Doering, Ernie Gross, Bruce Johnson, Lisa Johnson, Ken Lemke, Franz Schwarz, Scott Strain, Eric Thompson, Keith Turner

Business in Nebraska

The crisis in the housing and financial sectors has led to a dramatic slowdown in U.S. economic growth. Fourth quarter GDP growth and job growth are expected to be anemic and the economy may fall into recession in 2008. Indeed, several of the dozen members of the Nebraska Business Forecast Council do believe that the U.S. economy will likely slip into recession during 2008. However, the overall consensus of the Council is that the U.S. economy will avoid a recession. Economic growth will be slow in the first three quarters of 2008 before recovering in late 2008 and 2009.

The …

The Future Of Leadership Development: The Importance Of Identity, Multi-Level Approaches, Self-Leadership, Physical Fitness, Shared Leadership, Networking, Creativity, Emotions, Spirituality And On-Boarding Processes, Craig L. Pearce

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Leadership and, consequently, leadership development have taken on far greater import in recent times. As organizations have steadily progressed into the knowledge economy we can no longer rely on simple notions of top–down, command-and-control leadership, based on the idea that workers are merely interchangeable drones. Accordingly, in this special issue you will find seven articles that provide a glimpse over the horizon, so to speak, of leadership development: Together the authors provide a rich research roadmap and a practical set of options for leadership development professionals regarding the next important steps for leadership development, which will carry us well into …

Illuminating A Cross-Cultural Leadership Challenge: When Identity Groups Collide, Donna Chrobot-Mason, Marian N. Ruderman, Todd J. Weber, Patricia J. Ohlott, Maxine A. Dalton

Leadership Institute: Faculty Publications

When societal conflicts between social identity groups spill over into organizations, leaders face the formidable challenge of attempting to bridge differences and manage the conflict in order to accomplish work. After reviewing the literature on intergroup conflict, workplace diversity and social identity theory, we examine four potential leadership strategies for managing identity-based conflicts. The four leadership strategies are decategorization, recategorization, subcategorization and crosscutting. Examples drawn from an interview-based study are used to illustrate theoretical constructs found in the literature. We then consider each of these strategies in cross-cultural contexts and generate propositions to reflect differences in the effectiveness of the …

Semester Project For Engineering Management, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

This is the semester-project for my IMSE 405/805 course on Engineering Management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This team-based project required students to develop an operational plan (facility layout, required staffing, company operating policies, company benefits program) for a specified product.

Tourists And Travelers Generate Dollars—And More: Results From A Survey Of Visitors To Western Nebraska, Randy Cantrell, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel

Business in Nebraska

According to statistics compiled by the Nebraska Division of Travel and Tourism (NDOTT), travelers spent over $3-billion in Nebraska in 2006, and that income supported over 42,000 Nebraska jobs and numerous new Nebraska businesses. In addition to these economic impacts, the potential benefits of tourism as a development strategy include contributions to the tax base, development of community facilities, increased pride in communities and cultures, expanded civic involvement, conservation of shared resources and infrastructure improvements.

Nebraska has the potential to expand its tourist economy. Pine and Gilmore (1999) have written of the emergence of an important "experience economy" in which …

Positive Organizational Behavior In The Workplace: The Impact Of Hope, Optimism, And Resilience, Carolyn M. Youssef, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Drawing from the foundation of positive psychology and the recently emerging positive organizational behavior, two studies (N = 1,032 and N = 232) test hypotheses on the impact that the selected positive psychological resource capacities of hope, optimism, and resilience have on desired work-related employee outcomes. These outcomes include performance (self-reported in Study 1 and organizational performance appraisals in Study 2), job satisfaction, work happiness, and organizational commitment. The findings generally support that employees’ positive psychological resource capacities relate to, and contribute unique variance to, the outcomes. However, hope, and, to a lesser extent, optimism and resilience, do differentially contribute …

An Empirical Examination Of Jump Risk In U.S. Equity And Bond Markets, Lee M. Durham, Geoffrey C. Friesen

Department of Finance: Faculty Publications

ABSTRACT
Actuaries manage risk, and asset price volatility is the most fundamental parameter in models of risk management. This study utilizes recent advances in econometric theory to decompose total asset price volatility into a smooth, continuous component and a discrete (jump) component. We analyze a data set that consists of high-frequency tick-by-tick data for all stocks in the S&P 100 Index, as well as similar futures contract data on three U.S. equity indexes and three U.S. Treasury securities during the period 1999–2005. We find that discrete jumps contribute between 15% and 25% of total asset risk for all equity index …

Bureau Of Business Research 2006-07 Annual Report, Eric Thompson

Bureau of Business Research Publications

The Bureau of Business Research (BBR) is pleased to publish its second annual report. The annual report is one of the important ways in which the Bureau fulfills its mission to monitor and analyze the Nebraska economy. The 2006-07 Annual Report contains articles that address many of the major economic trends and policy issues facing the state.

In publishing this report, we draw on expertise from the College of Business Administration at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Rural Initiative, Creighton University, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the UNL Panhandle Research and Extension Center, and the Nebraska …

An Examination Of Interracial Contact: The Influence Of Cross-Race Interpersonal Efficacy And Affect Regulation, Gwendolyn Combs, Jakari Griffith

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The ability of employees to interact cooperatively and collaboratively is the fulcrum of competitive advantage for organizations operating in pluralistic environments. Contact theory suggests several conditions under which effective interpersonal relationships across racial, ethnic, and cultural groups may occur: Research examining the contact hypothesis has been mixed. The explanation of this inconsistency in the research generally centers on procedural rather than cognitive aspects of the interactions. This article discusses the contact hypothesis with respect to social cognitive functioning of interaction participants. We propose that positive outcomes from application of the contact hypothesis may be influenced by the individual employees’ level …

Predicting The Counterproductive Employee In A Child-To-Adult Prospective Study, Brent W. Roberts, Peter D. Harms, Avshalom Caspi, Terri E. Moffitt

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Abstract The present research tested the relations between a battery of background factors and counterproductive work behaviors in a 23-year longitudinal study of young adults (N = 930). Background information, such as diagnosed adolescent conduct disorder, criminal conviction records, intelligence, and personality traits, was assessed before participants entered the labor force. These background factors were combined with work conditions at age 26 to predict counterproductive work behaviors at age 26. The results showed that people diagnosed with childhood conduct disorder were more prone to commit counterproductive work behaviors in young adulthood and that these associations were partially mediated by …

Mutual Fund Flows And Investor Returns: An Empirical Examination Of Fund Investor Timing Ability, Geoffrey C. Friesen, Travis R. A. Sapp

College of Business: Faculty Publications

We examine the timing ability of mutual fund investors using cash flow data at the individual fund level. Over 1991–2004, equity fund investor timing decisions reduce fund investor average returns by 1.56% annually. Underperformance due to poor timing is greater in load funds and funds with relatively large risk-adjusted returns. In particular, the magnitude of investor underperformance due to poor timing largely offsets the risk-adjusted alpha gains offered by good-performing funds. Investors in both actively managed funds and index funds exhibit poor investment timing. We demonstrate that our empirical results are consistent with investor return-chasing behavior.

The Role Of Leadership In Emergent, Self-Organization, Donde Ashmos Plowman, Stephanie Solansky, Tammy E. Beck, Lakami Baker, Mukta Kulkarni, Deandra Villarreal Travis

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

As complex systems, organizations exist far from equilibrium where the ongoing interaction of system components leads to emergent and self-organizing behavior. What, then, is the role of leadership in systems where change often emerges in unexpected ways? In this paper, we build on the work of Marion and Uhl-Bien who suggest that in complex systems leaders enable rather than control the future. While traditional views of leadership focus on the leader’s responsibility for determining and directing the future through heavy reliance on control mechanisms, we offer empirical support for a different view of leadership based on a complexity perspective of …

Introduction To Leadership Quarterly Special Issue On Leadership And Complexity, Russ Marion, Mary Uhl-Bien

Leadership Institute: Faculty Publications

Eric Bonabeau & Christopher Meyer (2001) have devised a simple “cocktail party” game that they use to introduce complexity dynamics. Imagine a party in which everybody present is instructed to follow a simple rule: Silently select two people at random, A and B, and position yourself so that A is always between you and B. Under these conditions, the party-goers will wander around the room, forming small, transient groups and meeting a number of people. Then halfway through the party the rule changes: Instead of positioning A between yourself and B, position yourself in the middle between A and B. …