Business Commons^™

Outsourcing In Western Australian Hospitals: Management Considerations, Geraldine M. Martin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines Health Care Managers' considerations with and experiences of outsourcing services in Western Australian hospitals. Support services such as cleaning and maintenance are some of the areas which have been targeted for outsourcing (contracting out) by the state government. These services have traditionally been delivered by permanently employed staff either on a full or part- time basis, usually with active union involvement. Core services such as nursing and medical care which involve direct patient care delivery are not included in the outsourcing debate. Firstly, this thesis reviews the literature on outsourcing and its application to the health care …

The Tacit Dimension Of Organizational Learning, Thomas Reeder Robinson

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research was conducted to observe the self-reflections of an organizational participant group to further understand the organizational learning phenomenon. The participant group consisted of the 15 managers, spanning three levels of management, of a large engineering group in the southeastern United States.

The intent of the research was to generate theory, rather than to test theory. To accomplish this objective, a qualitative research methodology in a participatory action framework was modeled from Keating's (1993) Organizational Learning Process (OLP) to co-construct participants' organizational reflections. The methodology included individual interviews designed to elicit spontaneity that co-generated organizational perspectives. These perspectives were …

Jungle Travel, Jorge Ameglio

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The following is a study prepared so that I, Jorge Ameglio, can open a full service travel agency in Miami named Jungle Travel (Jungle) focusing on tourism to Panama. I will show here that it can be profitable, not only for investors and myself, but also for my country, Panama. I plan to demonstrate the feasibility and the need for a business such as this one.

Now, I ask, can Jungle become operational with a fair-sized initial investment of $150,000.00? Likewise, the problem that lies herein, is whether there is an economic and business viability in establishing a travel agency …

Value Measurement For New Product Category: A Conjoint Approach To Eliciting Value Structure, Roland Helmut Heger

Dissertations and Theses

Ability to measure value from the customer's point of view is central to the determination of market offerings: Customers will only buy the equivalent of perceived value, and companies can only offer benefits that cost less to provide than customers are willing to pay. Conjoint analysis is the most popular individual-level value measurement method to determine relative impact of product or service attributes on preferences and other dependent variables. This research focuses on how value measurement can be made more accurate and more reliable by measuring the relative influence of selected methodological variations on performance in prediction and on stability …

Will There Be A Free Trade Area Of The Americas (Ftaa) By The Year 2005?, Tara Mccaffrey

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Last December's Summit of the Americas consolidated the new convergence of values between the U.S. and Latin Americas and set out an ambitious action plan. The commitment to negotiate a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by the year 2005 was not only because it will bring its participants higher economic growth, but also because it symbolizes the common philosophy of the hemisphere -- of free trade enterprise, competition, and efficiency; of decision making by markets not governments; of growth and opportunity, rather than centralized government planning. It is also the philosophy which most powerfully supports the profound democratic …

Cruise Lines Or The Islands: Who Is Getting The Top Dollars Out Of World Travelers In The Caribbean?, Daniel Jerusalmi

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

This paper will discuss the current tourism situation in the Caribbean. The two main topics of analyses are the cruise lines and different islands in the Caribbean. The two areas will be presented separately and at the end they will be linked for analyses and conclusion with the help of graphs, charts and surveys.

Puerto Rico, Curacao, Jamaica, and Barbados are the Caribbean islands chosen for this project.

Within the cruise lines section, the paper will review the history of the industry, the reasons behind today's great success, and possible outlooks for the future.

The Caribbean Islands section in this …

Is Iso 9000 Required For Global Competitiveness?, Coreen F. Panusky

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Global competition has become of an issue of survival , companies have been forced into re-evaluating how they do business . Quality is a focal point of IS09000 certification as well as global standardization . This project examines and assesses the impact of IS09000 and if it will be a viable means of entry into the European market in the 21st century . The paper will examine other quality standards and if they alone will be adequate to compete globally.

The Effects Of Training On Women's And Men's Perceptions Of Sexual Harassment, Isabel M. Rivera Ledoux

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual harassment is a continual problem in the workplace; however, most sexual harassment research focuses on problems associated with sexual harassment rather than evaluating the potential for training programs to resolve such problems. This study examined two training programs to evaluate the potential effects of training on the differences between the perspectives of women and men on sexually harassing behaviors. The first training program served as a control group, and the second emphasized the discrepancies between female and male experiences of sexually harassing behaviors. It was predicted that women and men who become aware of the psychological pain experienced by …

The Relationship Between Environmental Attitudes And Environmental Behaviors Among Air Force Members, Daniel T. Holt

Theses and Dissertations

A questionnaire was distributed to nearly 2,000 randomly selected active duty Air Force members assigned to locations throughout the continental United States. The survey was designed to determine the extent to which Air Force members expressed support for environmental issues. In addition, the survey measured how frequently Air Force members engaged in specific behaviors that were deemed environmentally protective. Although the Air Force members expressed relatively strong support for environmental issues, they only occasionally engaged in activities that contribute to the preservation or protection of the environment. Correlation analysis revealed that the pro-environmental attitudes were positively linked to the environmentally …

The Comparative Effectiveness Of Computer-Mediated Communication Supplemented Satellite Distance Education And Traditional Face-To-Face Education, Megan C. Block

Theses and Dissertations

Satellite distance education delivery typically has one main drawback -- limited student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction. Telecommunications technology, more specifically computer-mediated communication (CMC), has made it possible for educational institutions to overcome this drawback. This research examines the comparative effectiveness of CMC supplemented satellite distance education delivery and traditional face-to-face education delivery. The three dependent variables that were measured to compare the two educational delivery methods included: performance, interaction, and attitude outcomes. Pre- and post-course instruments were administered in a non-equivalent quasi-experimental design to students enrolled in an Air Force Institute of Technology's School of Systems and Logistics software engineering Professional …

The Warehouse Information System (Wins): An Architectural Design For An Information System Employing The World Wide Web To Enhance Foreign Military Sales (Fms) Excess Inventory Management, Chad E. Lemaire

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Government has long provided security assistance to foreign countries. Each year, billions of dollars of military hardware and equipment are sold through a process known as Foreign Military Sales (FMS). Unfortunately, most countries are now reporting that they are holding many items, sometimes billions of dollars worth, that are excess for their needs. At the same time, there are many countries in need of these items. Countries currently have two options for getting rid of the items they can write them off or try to return them. Countries encounter problems with both of these choices. Naturally, if …

Development Of A Metric Evaluation Instrument For Use In Measuring Organizational Effectiveness, John J. Dunks

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has resulted in the development of instruments to measure organizational effectiveness. This thesis attempts to develop an instrument to measure how effective the organization's metrics are in relation to their organization effectiveness model, specifically, to the Competing Values Model of organization effectiveness developed by Quinn and Rohrbaugh. This should aid managers in determining whether or not they are measuring what they think they are measuring and how effective they are at measuring organizational effectiveness. The instrument developed can help determine the specific aspects of organizational effectiveness which metrics are measuring according to the Competing Values Model.

An Examination Of Business Process Reengineering Techniques And Their Contribution To Process Improvement, Thomas M. Mcdonnell

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense's Corporate Information Management Initiative is part of an effort to achieve savings through specified programs focused on business process improvement A major process improvement methodology being used by the DoD is Business Process Reengineering (BPR). BPR offers the possibility for a fundamental rethinking and radical redesigning of DoD business processes, but there has been little systematic study of the effectiveness of the various techniques used in BPR projects. This study evaluates whether organizations conducting BPR efforts using five specific techniques (strategic planning, activity modeling, activity based costing, benchmarking, and simulation) achieve improvement in critical process performance …

The Effects Of Risk Management Program Implementation On Worker Safety Knowledge, John C. Donnelly

Community & Environmental Health Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the effect of the implementation of a risk management program tool on worker safety knowledge in a composite building material fabrication facility whose workers suffered from an increasingly high injury (incidence) rate in recent years. Risk assessment codes (RACs) and job safety analyses (JSAs) were the primary tools used to introduce workers to the concept of risk. Because employee involvement is a crucial element in JSA development. employee input was frequently solicited throughout JSA development.

The study instrument consisted of a pre-test and post-test survey, to which an experimental and control group were subjected. The instrument was …

Job Competencies, Career Paths, And Educational Backgrounds Of "Fortune" 500 Training Directors, Rachael A. Shultz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the job competencies, career paths, and educational backgrounds of training directors and also compared the responses of male and female training directors in an attempt to identify possible sources of justification for reported male/female salary differences. Data for the study were gathered through the use of two questionnaires. The first was based on a part of the American Society for Training and Development's (ASTD) 1987-1989 Competency and Standards Study. Additionally, a demographic questionnaire dealing with biographical, educational, and professional characteristics was self-developed. Both were mailed to training directors in all Fortune 500 companies. Major findings include: (1) …

Feletti And The U.S., Cristina Sirianni

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

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Re-Engineering The Acquisition Process Of Manufactured On-Demand Only Spares, Mark E. Koesters

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore potential alternatives to the current Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition process for low demand, high dollar value, not commercially stocked, spare parts in order to better utilize diminishing resources, reduce cycle costs, and sustain the defense industrial base. Demand for these items is insufficient to justify maintaining inventory, while the buy on-demand alternative results in long lead- times and increased costs due to the labor intensiveness of the current process, lack of willing manufacturing sources, and higher prices paid for small quantities of material. An exploratory case study method was used to …

Building A Framework For Information Doctrine: A Significant Factor In Managing Air Force Information Resources, Kimberly C. Ullmann

Theses and Dissertations

The information revolution is sweeping through the mIlitary. At the same time, the Air Force has not fully addressed legal requirements to develop an agency-wide framework for managing information resources. This lack of foundation creates a void for Air Force information resources management practitioners. Since the Department of Defense and the Air Force are engaged in doctrinal revolution, the opportunity exists to consider developing Information Doctrine.This thesis explores the definition and role of doctrine in the Air Force, the doctrine development process, and practical examples of doctrine's use in the Air Force and Department of Defense. It also examines the …

Prediction Of Student Completion Of An Associate Degree Radiologic Technology Program, Donna R. Shehane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the admission/selection process of the Radiologic Technology Program at East Tennessee State University to ascertain predictive validity of the admission process and to identify specific indicators leading to program completion. The population for this investigation consisted of 510 students who had applied to East Tennessee State University and the Radiologic Technology Program from 1991 through 1993. Data were collected from institutional and program academic records. Correlation research was chosen to establish validity. One-way Analysis of Variance and t-test were applied to investigate different admission parameters and discriminate analysis was completed due …

Will A Women's Manufacturing Clothing Operation Be Feasible In La Paz, Bolivia?, Linda Mercado

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

More and more foreign companies have been looking to Bolivia, located in the heart of South America, as the ideal offshore production location to reduce operating costs. Investors are impressed to find very competitive labor rates, high productivity, low turnover and low absenteeism. The average wage for a factory worker is about 100 dollars per month.' Although the literacy rate is low, the work force has a tradition of manual dexterity, train ability and high work ethics.

The country's attractiveness as a manufacturing location is further increased because Bolivia does not have apparel quotas. In addition, special treaties and agreements …

A Feasibility Study On The Automation Of Domestic Airline Passenger Customer Service Check-In Procedures For Far Part 121 Carriers, Don Michael Trevor Bennett

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

This study was conducted in an attempt to determine whether airlines can benefit from a fully automated customer service system which will be used by major, Part 121, operators for domestic travel purposes only. The proposed system will be designed to alleviate airport terminals check-in counter congestion and improve customer service personnel effectiveness and efficiency.

Domestic traffic is expected to increase by 50 percent by the year 2004. An Automatic Ticketing and Baggage (ATB) system will allow passengers to process all flight related transactions only once. A self checking-in system allows a passenger to obtain boarding passes and destination bag …

Ibm's Os/2 Warp And Its International Strategy, Manuel A. Matienzo

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

It is my intention, through the research in this thesis to present problems and solutions to normal business and marketing decisions that take place on a day-to-day basis in IBM Corporation. Also, OS/2 new version named Warp will be studied to an extent. OS/2 version 3 is not only a multitasking, multiprocessing operating system, but is also is IBM's most recent and advance piece of software they have ever produce.

It is a world of choices. Just as IBM hopes OS/2 warp will fulfill users operating systems needs, I will try to fulfill the needs of IBM to release a …

A Computer-Aided Software Engineering (Case) Approach To Business Process Reengineering (Bpr), Faiza I. Khan

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

This thesis addresses the problem of lack of procedures by which managers can identify business processes that would benefit from reengineering and which could be used to guide the BPR activity to its successful conclusion. The purpose of this study is to analyze various Software Engineering (SE) principles to determine whether they could be used to support Business Process Reengineering (BPR) activities either directly or with some modification, and if so, whether available Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools might be applied to BPR in support of managers who wish to implement it. The principles of SE and BPR are discussed …

Administrative Problems In The Implementation Of The Privatization Program In Egypt, Ayman Dahroug

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Non-United States Firms' Exchange Rate Exposure And The Pricing Of Exchange Rate Risk In Foreign Stock Markets, Patricia Hill Hamlin Hall

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This two part dissertation is an in depth study of the measurement of foreign currency economic exposure faced by foreign firms and whether or not this exposure is associated with significant risk premia within these firms' national equity markets. Firms from four foreign countries; Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada are classified as purely domestic firms, exporters with low (20%-39%) percentages of foreign sales to total sales, exporters with high (over 40%) percentages of foreign sales to total sales, or multinational corporations.

Essay I focuses on the economic exposure of these non-US firms. Foreign exchange rate volatility can impact …

How The Rapid Changes In The International Telecommunications Industry Are Impacting The Market For Callback Systems, E.K. Morice

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

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Why Schedules Slip: Actual Reasons For Schedule Problems Across Large Air Force System Development Efforts, William M. Cashman

Theses and Dissertations

The three main objectives of this research were to identify the actual reasons for schedule problems across large Air Force system development efforts, to quantity the importance of each category of reasons in terms of frequency and severity, and to demonstrate that the reasons for schedule problems are not program unique, but are common across system development efforts. To this end, this thesis contains a categorization and analysis of 549 reasons for schedule difficulties on 22 large Air Force Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) programs from 1981 to 1994. These aircraft, missile, aircraft equipment, aircraft upgrade, and simulator programs had …

An Investigation Into Aircraft Availability, Michael S. Kapitzke

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force currently uses an expected value model in the Aircraft Availability Model (AAM) to calculate aircraft availability. However, even with the application of Lean Logistics, the failure-demand rate and the depot repair time are not fixed and the mean value is still used in the model. This research looks at the effect of the magnitude of the variance of the distributions of failure-demand rate and depot repair time. Also, this research evaluates the effect of variable mean failure-demand rates on the variability of aircraft availability. A simulation model was developed which applied the variable failure-demand rates and depot …

Assessing The Impacts Of Lean Logistics Infrastructures On Strategic Airlift Capability, Russ C. Major

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to compare two lean logistics infrastructures to See which one would provide better support for the C-5 aircraft. The level of support was defined as the average number of mission capable parts (MICAPs) created by system operation. One infrastructure had the central storage facility (CSF) located at the depot and the other had a geographically separate CSF. A computer simulation model developed by the Air Force Logistics Management Agency was run for a period of twelve years and the average number of MICAPs for each system was collected. The data was then analyzed using …

An Air Force Guide To Team Building, Roy M. Gozum

Theses and Dissertations

Team structures are used extensively in civilian, government, and military organizations to accomplish modem task demands that almost always exceed the capabilities of single individuals. As team structures became larger and more complex, managers realized the need for formal team building education. Team building programs serve to facilitate an environment for productive teamwork. However, despite the apparent importance of teams, most organizations overlook the implementation of formal team building programs. Therefore, the purpose of this research is two-fold. First, this thesis examines the evolution and importance of teams, and the subsequent need for the development of formal team building programs. …