Business Commons^™

Mutual Accountability And Its Impacts On Cross-Functional Teams, Lori E. Simms

Theses and Dissertations

The intent of cross-functional teams is to bring together diverse individuals of relevant functional expertise from across an organization to solve problems rapidly and efficiently. The difficulty with cross-functional teams is in establishing and maintaining mutual accountability because individuals come with their respective individual accountabilities and the methods for which those accountabilities were established. This qualitative study explored mutual accountability, how it is established, and its impact on cross-functional teams. Nine individuals participated in semi-structured interviews to explore how mutual accountability is established, barriers to establishing and maintaining it, and the impact of its presence or lack thereof on the …

What Works Where?, Edmond Davis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For this project my goal is to examine the management styles of three workplace environments and the relationships those styles create between the employees and their managers. I will endeavor to explore areas that can be improved from the management perspective of the work force so that employees will have more input in their workplace setting. The environments that this project will look into are the office setting, retail setting, and labor setting. Information for this project was collected via questionnaires that I constructed. There were two surveys distributed for this project. One survey was for employees and the others …

Coerced Regimes: Management Challenges In The Anthropocene, David G. Angeler, Brian C. Chaffin, Shana M. Sundstrom, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Kevin L. Pope, Daniel R. Uden, Dirac Twidwell, Craig R. Allen

Department of Finance: Faculty Publications

Management frequently creates system conditions that poorly mimic the conditions of a desirable self-organizing regime. Such management is ubiquitous across complex systems of people and nature and will likely intensify as these systems face rapid change. However, it is highly uncertain whether the costs (unintended consequences, including negative side effects) of management but also social dynamics can eventually outweigh benefits in the long term. We introduce the term “coerced regime” to conceptualize this management form and tie it into resilience theory. The concept encompasses proactive and reactive management to maintain desirable and mitigate undesirable regime conditions, respectively. A coerced regime …

Leading The Way: Investing In Management Development For Sme Productivity And Growth: Report By The Expert Group On Future Skills Needs, Expert Group On Future Skill Needs, Deirdre Mcquillan, Thomas M. Cooney, Ciara Nolan, Osa Godwin Osaghae, Lorraine Sweeney, Wael Rashwan

Reports

The vision set out for this project is to support and enable a fresh approach to growth for SMEs in Ireland where management development is a key strategic priority for SMEs to drive productivity, sustainability, competitiveness and growth, and prepare for the future of work. This research, carried out between October 2019 and March 2020, identifies 7 key findings outlined in the report.

The Impact Of Small Business Leadership On Employee Turnover, Zanlandria M. Crosby-Hardin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover creates a skill loss and negatively affects productivity, reducing organizational effectiveness as well as increasing costs for recruitment and training of new employees. This important to business owners who want to sustain employees, prevent loss of profit, and productivity. Herzberg’s two-factor theory was the conceptual lens for this qualitative multiple case study which explored hair salon owners’ strategies to reduce employee turnover. The participants were 5 hair salon owners in the state of South Carolina. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and an analysis of company documents. Data were analyzed using Yin’s 5 phase process to identify patterns …

Successful Strategies To Lead Change Initiatives, Lorice S. Edwards Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As financial systems, global trade, and the regulatory environment integrate, business leaders are often ill equipped to develop and implement strategies to lead changes in organizations. Business leaders who lead change initiatives without proven sustainability strategies are highly susceptible to business closure. Grounded in Lewin's theory of change, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore successful strategies some business leaders used to develop and manage change initiatives to remain operable beyond 5 years. The participants included 4 industry business leaders with a minimum of 5 years of successful change leadership experience. The data collection included semistructured …

Public Service Employee Perceptions Of Leadership Behaviors That Engage Or Disengage, Beverlyn A. Banks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A high percentage of U.S. employees do not engage in their work, resulting in lower productivity. U.S. corporations are losing more than $400–$500 billion per year because of low productivity at work. This phenomenological study involved an examination of leadership behaviors that engage or disengage employees in public service organizations. Kahn’s conceptual frame of engagement and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs motivation theory guided this study. The purpose was to determine why disengagement behavior continues despite extensive literature on the benefits of engagement and what organizations can do to encourage leadership behaviors that engage employees and discourage leadership behaviors that disengage …

Strategies For Business Management Innovations To Improve Competitiveness, Roger George Denousse

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some African business leaders were, in 2019, less competitive because they continue to use traditional business management practices and have failed to incorporate advanced technology. Taking advantage of new management strategies and innovative technology to increase their global competitiveness will benefit African businesses. The purpose of this multiple case study, grounded in Burns’ transformational leadership theory, was to explore strategies that business leaders in Seychelles have used to implement management innovations to improve competitiveness. The participants consisted of 5 business leaders from 5 large innovative business organizations operating successfully and based in Mahe, Seychelles. The data were collected through semistructured …

Strategies For Implementing E-Learning Solutions In Ghana’S Public Universities: A Delphi Study, Joyce Manu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Thousands of qualified university applicants are denied admission into mainstream public universities in Ghana each year mainly due to lack of physical space on campuses, but e-learning has been identified as a way of increasing admissions. However, there have been no strategies for implementing solutions to e-learning, and so this study was conducted to identify these strategies. The conceptual framework comprised of status quo bias, culture, and resistance to change. A qualitative modified Delphi approach was used for the study with three rounds of surveys. The 11 panelists were administrators and/or professors who had been in their positions for 2 …

Leadership Strategies To Manage Workplace Conflict, Omari Asante

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Workplace conflict can be counterproductive to organizational goal attainment and can cause dysfunction and unhealthy competition among organizational members. When left unchecked, workplace conflict can negatively impact teams’ performance and result in substantial financial losses to organizations. However, when properly managed, workplace conflict can lead to positive relationship building, peer learning, enhanced communication, innovation, and high motivation. Grounded in transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore leadership strategies senior account managers use to manage workplace conflict. Participants were 8 senior account managers who had successfully implemented leadership strategies for managing workplace conflict in …

Strategies To Improve Millennial Employees’ Engagement Within The Hospitality Industry, Duane Stephens

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, engagement levels of the multigenerational workforce are negatively affecting the overall business value. Employee engagement is important to hospitality industry leaders as an indicator of job performance, turnover, employee intentions, and organizational commitment. Grounded in Kahn’s employee engagement theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore effective strategies used by leaders in the hospitality industry to improve Millennial employee engagement. The participants were 5 hotel leaders in Virginia who successfully engaged their Millennial workforce. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, company documents, and note-taking. Data were analyzed using Yin’s 5-step data analysis, …

Effective Strategies For Sustaining Small Retail Businesses, Eddie Dean Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business owners have major issues in sustaining their businesses. Small business owners who do not use successful strategies to sustain their businesses are destined to fail. Grounded by the systems theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore effective strategies for sustaining small retail businesses beyond 5 years. The participants comprised 6 small business owners who successfully sustained their business beyond 5 years in Memphis, Tennessee. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and reviewing company documents and analyzed using Yin's 5-step process. The 4 themes that emerged from this study were: be adaptive to external …

Rethinking The Role Of Business School In Creating Corporate Managers, Khurram Parvez Raja, Muhammad Anowar Zahid

All Works

Distinguished from the traditional forms of business, namely proprietorship and partnership, a corporation emerged as a new type of business organization in the middle of the nineteenth century in American society, which accepted it only on the understanding that the corporate managers should be professionally well trained and socially beneficial (Khurana, 2010). In order to prepare these new professionals, the business schools came into being in America and elsewhere (Khurana, 2010). However, corporate scandals and financial crises of the late 20th and early 21st centuries posed a valid question about the originally expected role of corporate managers and, in turn, …

Strategic Success: The Ansoff Matrix Vs. The Balanced Scorecard, Christian Cleberg

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Academic and professional research has proven that strategic planning and management frameworks have tremendous impact on an organization’s success. However, these studies do not opine on the usability and fit of strategic frameworks within an organization. This paper examines the composition of two popular frameworks, the Ansoff matrix and the balanced scorecard, and illustrates the various ways that these frameworks have found success in the corporate world. It also compares and contrasts the frameworks’ differing structures and offers recommendations for how these frameworks may be applied to companies with diverse goals and missions.

Islamic Finance For Financial Inclusion, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Talks, Speeches, & Discourse

Let me first of all take this opportunity to address the young men and women who are present here. I would like to repeat what I have said on many occasions in the past and won’t hesitate repeating this in the future unless it gets hammered in. Please do not shortchange yourselves by chasing degrees, certificates and grades , by memorizing selective material that is likely to be included in question papers and then spit it out at the examinations and then forget about it. You would repent it throughout your adult life if you do not pay heed to …

Change Management Can Be Simple And Complex, Lalit Jagtiani

Asian Management Insights

The success of any intervention is achieved by winning over the support of staff and aligning team members who are driven by different professional agendas.

Law Library Blog (November 2019): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Bridging The Data Divide Between Practitioners And Academics: Approaches To Collaborating Better To Leverage Each Other's Resources, Sabine Benoit, Sonja Klose, Jochen Wirtz, Tor Wallin Andreassen, Timothy L. Keininghas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose: Organizations (data gatherers in the context) drown in data while at the same time seeking managerially relevant insights. Academics (data hunters) have to deal with decreasing respondent participation and escalating costs of data collection while at the same time seeking to increase the managerial relevance of their research. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework on how, managers and academics can collaborate better to leverage each other's resources. Design/methodology/approach: This research synthesizes the academic and the managerial literature on the realities and priorities of practitioners and academics with regard to data. Based on the literature, reflections …

The Impact Of Effective Management On Economic Growth, Ylber Limani, Florentina Musliu, Blerina Hoxha

UBT International Conference

Effective management implies truthful and satisfactory performance of management activities. A high performing productive management typically perform activities effectively and efficiently. Accordingly, companies and countries can be economically viable when the available human, physical, and financial resources are effectively and efficiently managed to ensure the economic growth and well-being. Growth is most powerful organisational device to compete and to sustain by creating profits and by providing prosperity. Nevertheless, the essential management principles alone, could not provide sufficient support to achieve and sustain the ultimate goal of growth and affluence. Therefore, deep focusing on management effectiveness is needed to achieve higher …

Controlling Turnover In An Inside Sales Organization: What Are The Contributing Factors, Dennis H. Kimerer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The turnover rate for inside sales team, particularly in Central Florida, is exceedingly high. I have experienced this negative scenario managing inside sales teams for two major Telecom companies over the past 11 years, having as many as 40% of the salesforce resign within 30 days. Organizational costs to hire a new salesperson can be as high as 300% of the replaced employee’s salary and take as long as eight months to reach full productivity. The purpose of this research is to determine the internal and external factors that impact a salesperson’s propensity to leave a company. This qualitative research …

A Competency Analysis Of Waterpark Aquatic Professionals, Christopher A. Crume, William D. Ramos

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

The purpose of this study was to further the knowledge base in the aquatics field and assist in the development of universal standards to ensure that competent managers are employed at waterpark type venues. Until recently, thanks in part to the establishment of the Model Aquatic Health Code (MAHC 2014), universal standards did not exist in aquatics. The development of standards in the field will help to ensure continuity in policies among all facility types, properly trained professionals, and ultimately safer environments for participants. Using a pair of five-point Likert scales to sample 600 aquatic professionals, this study sought to …

The Impact Of Burnout On Organizational Commitment: A Study Of Public Sector Employees In Turkey, Mehmet Sarisik, Erhan Bogan, Burhanettin Zengin, Bekir Bora Dedeoglu

Journal of Global Business Insights

This study investigates the relationship between burnout and organizational commitment. It tests the relationship using a sample of 700 public officers in Istanbul by using structural equation modeling. The model tested via partial least squares method via SmartPls software. Results have shown that employees’ burnout are negatively related to organizational commitment. Specifically, while emotional exhaustion is negatively related to commitment, personal accomplishment contributes positively to commitment. The experience of depersonalization has no significant relationship with all three dimensions of commitment. Findings discussed and some practical implications offered to practitioners as well as some future directions to researchers.

Tourism Taxes In Italy: A Sustainable Perspective, Lucia Rotaris, Marta Carrozzo

Journal of Global Business Insights

In Italy, a tourism tax was introduced in 2011, since then it has been adopted in most of the Italian provincial capitals and tourist cities. This tax can mitigate the negative externalities caused by tourists; however, it should be carefully planned both in terms of the amount of money to be levied and in terms of the uses to be financed with the tax revenues, it could, otherwise, negatively impact the tourism sector, decreasing—rather than increasing— the social welfare. The aim of this paper is to assess the acceptability of such a tax and to examine how the tax should …

The Impact Of Campus Facilities On The Recruitment Of Students In Higher Education, Lucinnda Sue Mcdonald

Dissertations

The statement often has been made over the years that university recruitment efforts are strongly impacted by campus facilities. The subject has been a topic of research over the past several decades. This study indicates that as generations change and times change, the significance of various aspects of the university to the prospective student change as well.

This research effort is a mixed-methods study to provide insight on the facilities current students deem most important when determining which college or university they will attend. The research for this study was conducted through an online survey asking students to:

• Choose …

Platforms As Entrepreneurial Incubators? How Online Labor Markets Shape Work Identity, Francesca Bellesia, Elisa Mattarelli, Fabiola Bertolotti, Maurizio Sobrero

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the process of work identity construction unfolds for gig workers experiencing unstable working relationships in online labor markets. In particular, it investigates how digital platforms, intended both as providers of technological features and online environments, affect this process.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an exploratory field study and collected data from 46 interviews with freelancers working on one of the most popular online labor markets and from online documents such as public profiles, job applications and archival data.

Findings
The findings reveal that the online environment constrains the action of workers …

Barriers Women Face At Work: A Cursory Review Of The Literature, Jessica Curran

Honors Program Theses and Projects

“Whether there are female leadership styles…is not really the right question. It is more important to ask why there has been so little attention paid to women leaders over the years as well as why the styles of leading more often exhibited by women are particularly useful at this critical moment in history” ~Charlotte Bunch

In the United States, women have been making steady gains in the workforce for more than 40 years (Ho, 2018).Despite this fact, women continue to face discrimination when it comes to leadership roles in the upper ranks of organizations (Ho, 2018). Noting these challenges, this …

The Opportunity Zones Program Provides High Returns On Investments, Kane Moran

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The Opportunity Zones Program is a new tax incentive established in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The program aims to direct investors towards low-income communities in the United States by providing more attractive investment prospects. The end goal of the program is to disrupt the unhealthy trend of geographic inequality caused by a disproportionate number of investments being funneled to a select few areas of the U.S. On a large scale, the benefits include a more balanced economy across the entire nation, while also providing tax benefits for investors, which can contribute to a higher return on …

The Lebron Effect: Is A Superstar Worth The Money?, Colin Josselyn

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Every industry has superstars. Whether it’s the entertainment industry, the music industry, or the sports industry, superstars are everywhere. Sports are perhaps where we most commonly see and pay superstar athletes the most. Some athletes drive fans to come and flood the area near the arena. These “superstar” athletes cause a buzz and can bring in more and more fans to spend money both inside and outside the arena. In this paper using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies we research NBA superstar LeBron James and his possible impact on the franchises he plays for in the cities he …

Collaboration And Identity Formation In Strategic Interorganizational Partnerships: An Exploration Of Swift Identity Processes, Paula Ungureanu, Fabiola Bertolotti, Elisa Mattarelli, Francesca Bellesia

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

We investigate how collective identity formation processes interplay with collaboration practices in an inter-organizational partnership promoting regional innovation. We found that initial collaboration challenges are dealt with by setting up an early “swift identity” which is associated with material artifacts to increase its strength and stability (“swift identity reification”). However, as the partnership evolves, the reified identity becomes misaligned with partners’ underdeveloped collaboration practices. To ensure realignment, new attempts at reification are performed, as partners buy time for learning how to collaborate. Our findings contribute to extant identity research by proposing alternative (i.e. “swift” and “reified”) mechanisms of identity formation …

Challenges To Effective Monitoring And Evaluation Systems: Lessons From Afghanistan, Qudratullah Jahid

Sustainability and Social Justice

How can monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems better support improving the aid effectiveness? What are the existing challenges to the M&E systems in Afghanistan? I try to answer these questions by briefly looking at the development aid in Afghanistan since 2001. I provide summary of attempts made at improving aid effectiveness through mutual accountability frameworks. I then try to briefly discuss the principles of Paris Declaration and provide brief insights from Afghanistan. I then discuss the status of monitoring and evaluation in Afghanistan by providing a picture functional M&E system and then discussing the existing challenges in Afghanistan. Finally, I …