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Case Western Reserve University

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Articles 241 - 270 of 1196

Full-Text Articles in Business Administration, Management, and Operations

Leader And Employee Influence On The Development Of Organizational Climate In The Long-Term Care Sector, Alice A. Obermiller May 2009

Leader And Employee Influence On The Development Of Organizational Climate In The Long-Term Care Sector, Alice A. Obermiller

Student Scholarship

The long-term care sector is challenged with retention issues that impact the quality of elder care. Annual turnover rates in excess of 50% at some staff levels combined with a growing senior population illuminates an issue where worker supply may not meet demand. Despite empirical evidence that staffing is a critical factor in the provision of high quality care and that facilities with higher staff to resident ratios have better quality ratings and more positive resident outcomes, twenty years of research underscores a persistent retention dilemma. Previous research has substantiated a correlation between retention and the work environment and called …

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The Global Financial Meltdown: Is It A Recipe For Disaster To Employee Engagement?, Glen Weaver May 2009

The Global Financial Meltdown: Is It A Recipe For Disaster To Employee Engagement?, Glen Weaver

Student Scholarship

The global financial crisis of 2007-2009 was particularly devastating to the financial services industry. Poor performance, mergers/acquisitions, and massive layoffs were characteristics of the crisis. For example, Citigroup lost almost $19 billion in 2008 and market capitalization for the top three U.S. banks for the period January 1, 2007 through January 15, 2009 fell $514 billion or 75%. It was reported that since the beginning of the financial crisis in July 2007, banks had shed over 186,000 positions and thousands more remained tenuously employed as banks struggled to sustain themselves in an increasingly volatile environment. Studies during this period reflected …

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Making Sense Of Surprise Outcomes: Implications For Managing The Unexpected, Ronald W. Eastburn May 2009

Making Sense Of Surprise Outcomes: Implications For Managing The Unexpected, Ronald W. Eastburn

Student Scholarship

We propose qualitative research to understand how financial institution management makes sense of decision outcomes that do not meet expectations, under what circumstances these experiences are likely to occur, and to what extent they lead to mindful management of the unexpected. This research will facilitate greater understanding of the factors that make some organizations far more capable and function far more reliably than others in coping with the unexpected, the unknowable and the Black Swan (Taleb, 2007), with resultant positive influence on firm performance. The conceptual framework for this research focuses on individuals engaging in managing for high performance in …

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An Application And Extension Of The Technology Acceptance Model To Nonprofit Certification, Lise Anne Slatten May 2009

An Application And Extension Of The Technology Acceptance Model To Nonprofit Certification, Lise Anne Slatten

Student Scholarship

Several federated nonprofit associations have implemented assessment and certification programs intending to produce institutional improvement for member organizations. Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a foundation, this study develops and tests a theoretical extension of TAM to organizations that chose to participate in one such program (the Louisiana Standards for Excellence organizational assessment) and those that did not. The results largely validate TAM and indicate that usefulness, access barriers related to resources, attitudes, executive director proactivity and behavioral intent all influence the decision to pursue voluntary certification. These findings advance current theory and contribute to the foundation for future …

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Board Member Behavioral And Cognitive Biases: The Impact On Board Level Strategic Decision-Making Processes, Bernard C. Bailey May 2009

Board Member Behavioral And Cognitive Biases: The Impact On Board Level Strategic Decision-Making Processes, Bernard C. Bailey

Student Scholarship

Prior studies of board effectiveness have primarily focused on the relationships between board structure and composition relative to the performance of the firm. To better understand the role of board members in strategic decision-making it may be helpful to gain deeper insights into the processes and behaviors that are actually utilized during strategic decision-making both within and outside the board room. Of particular interest to scholars are the specific processes that boards use to generate quality strategic decisions. We propose research to examine the conditions under which diverse board members' individual biases, backgrounds and behaviors impact the collective strategic decision-making …

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Board Member Behavioral And Cognitive Biases: The Impact On Board Level Strategic Decision-Making Processes, Bernard C. Bailey May 2009

Board Member Behavioral And Cognitive Biases: The Impact On Board Level Strategic Decision-Making Processes, Bernard C. Bailey

Student Scholarship

Prior studies of board effectiveness have primarily focused on the relationships between board structure and composition relative to the performance of the firm. To better understand the role of board members in strategic decision-making it may be helpful to gain deeper insights into the processes and behaviors that are actually utilized during strategic decision-making both within and outside the board room. Of particular interest to scholars are the specific processes that boards use to generate quality strategic decisions. We propose research to examine the conditions under which diverse board members' individual biases, backgrounds and behaviors impact the collective strategic decision-making …

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Close Encounters Of A Meaningful Intercultural Kind: Enhancing Deep-Level Diversity In Voluntary Organizations On College Campuses, Ruth Sessler Bernstein May 2009

Close Encounters Of A Meaningful Intercultural Kind: Enhancing Deep-Level Diversity In Voluntary Organizations On College Campuses, Ruth Sessler Bernstein

Student Scholarship

We propose qualitative research to understand how majority and minority undergraduate college students construe meaningful intercultural experiences (MIEs)\, under what circumstances these experiences are likely to occur\, and to what extent they lead to deep-level diversity in voluntary organizations. This research will facilitate greater understanding of the enabling and constraining factors that affect MIEs. The conceptual framework for this research focuses on individuals engaging in sustained interactions of favorable contact with diverse group members who are willing to move outside of their “comfort zones” and develop cross-cultural skills. The interview sample will focus on undergraduate student members and alumni of …

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Managing The Mission Through Times Of Adversity: What Leads To Highly Reliable Performance?, Kathleen Roche May 2009

Managing The Mission Through Times Of Adversity: What Leads To Highly Reliable Performance?, Kathleen Roche

Student Scholarship

During times of severe economic adversity, nonprofit managers must lead their organizations and carry out their charitable missions to ever-growing and needier constituencies despite unpredictable endowment erosion, fewer contributions, less staff, and the most severe funding cuts most of them have ever experienced, or are prepared for. We propose research to explore which leadership skills and styles are most helpful and if reliance upon traditionality is a good indicator of endurance. By capturing the experiences of nonprofit leaders as they manage under conditions of duress, we will relate these factors to research about high reliability organizations, which have been found …

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The Ngo Strategic Dilemma: An Examination Of Factors Enabling Or Constraining Corporate Engagement Strategy, David Graham Hyatt May 2009

The Ngo Strategic Dilemma: An Examination Of Factors Enabling Or Constraining Corporate Engagement Strategy, David Graham Hyatt

Student Scholarship

Social movements focused on sustainable development represent a significant force for change in business practices and governmental regulation. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) arise from social movements as mobilizing structures and framing mechanisms for collective action to fill governance and social needs that remain unmet by the governmental and market sectors. This study focuses on environmental NGOs and their strategies for engaging the business sector. Although cross-sector collaborations increasingly seem instrumental to effecting environmental change, NGOs face a strategic dilemma: to confront or collaborate with businesses, or both. This research explores how the NGO mission, purpose, and ideology; core competencies and repertoire …

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The Role Of Local Cluster Agents As Key Determinants In Knowledge Creation, Absorption And Retention In Regional Biotechnology Industrial Clusters, Francisco Montalvo May 2009

The Role Of Local Cluster Agents As Key Determinants In Knowledge Creation, Absorption And Retention In Regional Biotechnology Industrial Clusters, Francisco Montalvo

Student Scholarship

Industrial clusters and innovation systems have been the focus of considerable academic research. Similarly, general research on knowledge creation is abundant, but the literature on knowledge absorption, transfer and retention on a regional level is limited. A better appreciation of knowledge creation, absorption and retention as determinants of industrial cluster success may be of value to industry decision makers, policy makers, and researchers seeking mechanisms for promoting innovation and preventing the flight of locally generated knowledge. Knowledge retention is assumed to be a source of innovation and a key determinant of knowledge diffusion and exploitation, local and multinational firm performance, …

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When Practice And Theory Conflict: Do Financial Incentives Influence Championing Behaviors In Mergers And Acquisitions?, Byron C. Clayton Apr 2009

When Practice And Theory Conflict: Do Financial Incentives Influence Championing Behaviors In Mergers And Acquisitions?, Byron C. Clayton

Student Scholarship

Successful mergers and acquisitions require its managers to achieve substantial performance improvements in order to sufficiently cover acquisition premiums, the expected return of debt and equity investors, and the additional resources needed to capture synergies and accelerate growth. Acquirers understand that achieving the performance improvements necessary to cover these costs and create value for investors will most likely require an incredible effort from M&A management teams. This understanding drives the common and longstanding practice of offering hefty performance incentive packages to key managers, assuming that incentives will induce behaviors that champion organizational change and growth. This practice is in direct …

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Ethical Ideologies And Decision Making Among College Athletes, Mary-Beth A. Cooper Apr 2009

Ethical Ideologies And Decision Making Among College Athletes, Mary-Beth A. Cooper

Student Scholarship

Ethical decision making is a complex, yet timely topic for managers and consumers alike. In a collegiate setting, student athletes are scrutinized on and off the field not only for their athletic success but also for the ethical decisions they make that could change the course of their lives and the reputation of their institution. This research includes a survey covering over one thousand collegiate student athlete from the northeast who participated in a study determining the impact of ethical ideologies and social norms on their decision making. Specific constructs in the analysis include locus of control, ethical ideologies (idealism/relativism) …

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Reconceptualizing Social Influence Mechanisms For Buyer-Seller Relationships, Stuart Strolin Apr 2009

Reconceptualizing Social Influence Mechanisms For Buyer-Seller Relationships, Stuart Strolin

Student Scholarship

Selling is a social activity in which bilateral influence is exchanged but ultimately where the seller seeks to influence the buyer. Previous work has investigated social influence in many forms and settings but has been of limited, practical use in B2B sales. This paper introduces new measures, derived from French and Ravens bases of power, which integrate ideas from social psychology and ideas grounded in business practice. These measures are tested in a theoretical model linking B2B social influence to trust and sales performance. This paper contributes to the existing understanding of B2B buyer-seller relationships in two ways. First, it …

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Harnessing Opposing Forces To Achieve Organizational Ambidexterity, Radhashyam Giridharadas Apr 2009

Harnessing Opposing Forces To Achieve Organizational Ambidexterity, Radhashyam Giridharadas

Student Scholarship

Generating sustainable competitive advantage, a perennial challenge for managers, requires organizational ambidexterity--the ability to simultaneously align business units towards unified, corporate strategic goals and adapt to the challenges of the external environment. Prior research on the antecedents of ambidexterity has identified cohesive but distinct independent variables and posited inanimate organizational mediating mechanisms. This research contributes to the field in three ways. First, we examine how harnessing opposing forces can yield important synergistic benefits, by modeling the interaction of management practices of exploration and exploitation on the input side and of adapting and aligning on the output dimension. Second, we propose …

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Deconstructing Discovery: Diversity And Knowledge Sharing In Research Teams, Rebecca Minnillo Apr 2009

Deconstructing Discovery: Diversity And Knowledge Sharing In Research Teams, Rebecca Minnillo

Student Scholarship

The purpose of this research is to shed light on aspects of knowledge sharing that are productive in advancing innovation in scientific research. We report on a quantitative study of scientific research teams who presented their work at an international conference. We explore how internal and external knowledge sharing practices and structural diversity are associated with the production of innovative medical research. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a model for use by knowledge generating organizations that will help accelerate the process of innovative discoveries.

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The Influence Of Team Health On Business Outcomes, Alexander Eksir Mar 2009

The Influence Of Team Health On Business Outcomes, Alexander Eksir

Student Scholarship

This study provides quantitative evidence for the feasibility of predicting business results by measuring the concept of Team Health and establishing a relationship with measures of team performance and business outcomes. Dimensions of Team Health are identified and evidence from the research literature on organization behavior and performance is presented to support the validity of the constructs. Mediated relationships among the outcome variables, also derived from research in organizational behavior, are hypothesized and tested. The measurement of Team Health is based on the responses to eleven of fifteen statements collected quarterly in a multi-national defense industry firm from all members …

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Generative Characteristics As Antecedents Of Engagement, Thomas H. Carlson Mar 2009

Generative Characteristics As Antecedents Of Engagement, Thomas H. Carlson

Student Scholarship

Organizations and their members at all levels are increasingly expected to perform, adapt, and to do 'more with less'. Positive psychology and appreciative inquiry inform us that as organizations strive to become more productive, innovative, and agile their interests and objectives are well-served by understanding that they have at-hand greater capacity for performance and learning than perhaps they had realized. Positive psychology emphasizes the role of character strengths and virtues suggesting that individual characteristics, whether dispositional or acquired, differentiate between those who are better able to contribute to organizational performance and learning and those who are less so. Appreciative inquiry …

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A Study Of The Impact Of Informational Complexity, Transparency And Stewardship On Decision Usefulness: The Users' Perspective, Chester H. Brearey Mar 2009

A Study Of The Impact Of Informational Complexity, Transparency And Stewardship On Decision Usefulness: The Users' Perspective, Chester H. Brearey

Student Scholarship

Calls for the reformation of financial reporting have exacerbated in recent years in light of a rapidly changing global investment climate and in the wake of a battered financial system. This study explored the interrelationships between informational complexity, transparency and stewardship on the usefulness of financial reporting. Empirical analyses was based on a survey of more than 650 executives to test hypotheses that informational complexity impairs judgment through decision-makers' strategy selection; that transparency captures the timeliness, interpretation, and dissemination of financial reporting that leads to a more informed market; and that there is a stewardship demand to report on the …

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Unraveling Adaptive Selling: An Empirical Analysis Of Underlying Relational Behaviors, Ganesh Kumar Jan 2009

Unraveling Adaptive Selling: An Empirical Analysis Of Underlying Relational Behaviors, Ganesh Kumar

Student Scholarship

Adaptive selling capabilities enable salespeople achieve success with their customers. Despite numerous studies, there is very little understanding on the mechanisms salespeople use to adapt to various selling situations. Current sales management practices overlook a salesperson's capability to craft customer specific sales strategies, relying excessively on end-results and activities based controls. This paper aims to increase knowledge by conceptualizing relational behaviors as trust building and value creating efforts, and measuring adaptive selling as a salesperson's capacity to vary these behaviors depending on customer relationships. Our empirical analysis establishes a positive link between trust building behaviors and sales effectiveness and performance …

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Committing To Engagement? Chinese Protestant Churches In The United States, Cecilia C. Chan Dec 2008

Committing To Engagement? Chinese Protestant Churches In The United States, Cecilia C. Chan

Student Scholarship

How do leaders of non-profit (volunteer-based) faith-based organizations deal with the lack of active engagement on the part of their members? How do Chinese church attendees’ satisfaction with the church and their perception of problems within the church affect their long-term commitment and engagement in the church? This paper focuses on (a) how social influences and perceived church problems influence satisfaction with commitment to the church and (b) how the mediating influences of satisfaction\, commitment\, and affective perception influence the personal engagement of individuals. This study has given insight leading to an understanding of managerial issues relating to the nurture …

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Toeing, Blurring Or Crossing The Line? How Highly Regulated Organizations View Compliance And Innovation, Marilyn A. Hosea Dec 2008

Toeing, Blurring Or Crossing The Line? How Highly Regulated Organizations View Compliance And Innovation, Marilyn A. Hosea

Student Scholarship

Highly regulated government funded programs are often more rigidly scrutinized than corporate institutions—with rules, regulations and policies filling nearly every nook of nonprofit organizational life. A concern during this era of scarce financial resources and tight regulatory oversight is that the acceptance of public funds will impede the nonprofit’s ability to implement local innovations that build upon and support the expectations of a variety of key stakeholders (governing boards, service consumers, the public-at-large, and government/private funders). This paper examines ways in which federally funded nonprofit organizations continually strive to improve their organizational performance through innovation—employing practices that conceal, screen, or …

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Culture Clash - How Socio-Technical Factors Contribute To Enterprise Information Systems Interoperability, Alan Fisk Dec 2008

Culture Clash - How Socio-Technical Factors Contribute To Enterprise Information Systems Interoperability, Alan Fisk

Student Scholarship

Despite increasing need for interoperable enterprise-level information systems, achieving interoperability is persistently problematical. Our work highlights social factors as a major contributor to good design, development, and operating practices. The research was conducted at a technologically sophisticated Fortune 50 company where design artifacts suggested by the literature were found to be in place yet good interoperability between systems was not consistently achieved. The data suggest boundary spanners can facilitate interoperability by promoting shared meanings and mindsets that advance acculturation among cross-functional groups. Findings contrast with enterprise systems interoperability literature, which has focused mainly on technological factors to ensure good design …

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Employee Volunteerism: Social Benefits Trump Altruism, Donna E. Teeague Dec 2008

Employee Volunteerism: Social Benefits Trump Altruism, Donna E. Teeague

Student Scholarship

With over 153 million U.S. citizens in the labor force but only about a quarter of them engaged in community volunteer work (Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor, 2006), the workplace is clearly an under-tapped source of volunteer labor. As the need for volunteers accelerates and supply remains stagnant, it becomes imperative to understand how to recruit volunteers from the workplace. Interviews with twenty seven employees of six US corporations were conducted to probe how beliefs about outcomes and consequences of volunteerism, the influence of important social referent groups and self perceptions of relevant skills and …

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Environmentally Benign Technologies And Financial Performance: Evidence From The Pulp And Paper Industry In Nigeria, Joseph Akinkugbe Adelegan Dec 2008

Environmentally Benign Technologies And Financial Performance: Evidence From The Pulp And Paper Industry In Nigeria, Joseph Akinkugbe Adelegan

Student Scholarship

Addressing a paucity of research about industrial adoption of environmentally benign technologies in Africa and, more generally, in tropical developing countries, we examined the Nigerian pulp and paper industry as a case study. Qualitative interviews with twenty upper echelon executives representing five Nigerian firms challenge conventional expectations that energy intensive industries in developing markets operate amid highly pollution-intensive conditions, within weak or non-existent formal environmental regulatory frameworks, and with limited institutional capacity. Our findings suggest a strong positive relationship between cleaner technology use and corporate financial performance of African industrial firms. Our study also suggests the adoption of classical 'win-win' …

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Ingos & Ngos: Work And Workarounds In Rwanda, Cheryl A. Baldwin Dec 2008

Ingos & Ngos: Work And Workarounds In Rwanda, Cheryl A. Baldwin

Student Scholarship

As the number of International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs) operating in developing countries have burgeoned in recent decades, tension between these mainly Western agencies and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has accelerated. This paper examines, from the perspectives of nonprofit executives in Rwanda, how underlying tensions affect the ability of INGOs and NGOs to advance critical social goals. Qualitative research reveals how and to what extent the work is influenced top down by INGO and/or bottom up by local NGO management mindsets and practices and how inventive "workaround" strategies help both organizations manage tensions that challenge individual goals and collective work.

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Promises To Keep: Exploring Organizational Trust Repair From A Stakeholder Perspective, Rachel Y. Daniel Dec 2008

Promises To Keep: Exploring Organizational Trust Repair From A Stakeholder Perspective, Rachel Y. Daniel

Student Scholarship

Organizational trust repair is a burgeoning field of inquiry, due in large part to the ethical and financial failures in U.S. corporations, churches, governments, media outlets, and nonprofit organizations. The subsequent financial, professional, and emotional damage to stakeholders has resulted in a crisis of trust in organizations and their leaders. We explore the trust repair process from a stakeholder's perspective in a qualitative study of executives, employees, and customers of three U.S. institutions: a Fortune 500 corporation, a nonprofit organization, and a government entity. Findings suggest trust repair is not a process-driven phenomenon. The provision of credible reparative information, evidence …

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Bridging The Great Divide - Moving From Outsider To Insider: How For Profit Executives Become Effective Nonprofit Ceos, Antoinette E. La Belle Dec 2008

Bridging The Great Divide - Moving From Outsider To Insider: How For Profit Executives Become Effective Nonprofit Ceos, Antoinette E. La Belle

Student Scholarship

A leadership crisis in the nonprofit sector is portended by sector growth, turnover at the top and a smaller cohort of leaders coming up from behind. Crossovers from the corporate sector present an alternative source of CEO talent, but a dearth of empirical research about top executives who cross the boundaries of sector, organization, and, at times role, stymies our understanding of the transition process of for-profit to non-profit leaders. In depth interviews with U.S. nonprofit leaders--both crossover CEOs and CEOs hired from within the nonprofit sector--compared and contrasted transition experiences. Rather than significant differences between the two groups, our …

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Constructing A Definition Of And Portfolio Model Of Family Business Success, John E. Neff Dec 2008

Constructing A Definition Of And Portfolio Model Of Family Business Success, John E. Neff

Student Scholarship

Our qualitative study sought to understand the meaning of success within the context of the family owned firm. The study, designed to identify success factors that distinguished more successful firms from less successful firms, revealed four significant and three moderate differentiators. Significant among the findings was the role of trust not only within the owning family but also between the family and non-family members of the firm. Implications of the study suggest it may be possible to construct a multi-attribute model of family firm success.

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Reluctant Gatekeepers: Influencing Factors In A Small Business Owner's Decision To Not Sponsor A Retirement Plan For Employees, Jill Mccullough Dec 2008

Reluctant Gatekeepers: Influencing Factors In A Small Business Owner's Decision To Not Sponsor A Retirement Plan For Employees, Jill Mccullough

Student Scholarship

In a nation with the lowest savings rate in the industrialized world, nearly 60% of U.S. small business owners do not provide retirement plans for their more than 40 million workers. There is a dearth of formal inquiry about small business owners' perspectives of and attitudes toward retirement and the factors that motivate behavior related to it. Interviews with small business owners revealed that most are not concerned about their own retirements and are ambivalent about the retirement security of their employees. Those who have attempted to implement a plan find the process complex, intimidating and require the assistance of …

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Strategizing Routines On The Cusp Of Multiple And Competing Institutional Logics Of Foreign Aid, Jaime Chua Dec 2008

Strategizing Routines On The Cusp Of Multiple And Competing Institutional Logics Of Foreign Aid, Jaime Chua

Student Scholarship

Using critical realist research, we sought to understand how nonprofit organizations blend deliberate and emergent strategizing to cope with neoinstitutional dilemmas posed by donors' competing logics. To gain organizational legitimacy and access to resources, international nonprofits must conform to donors' normative processes and practices which tend to be ineffectual. An international nonprofit operating in the highly complex international development field provided an ideal setting for investigating how routines blend and moderate deliberate and emergent strategies. Consistent with the view that strategic insights come from different organizational levels, we examined key patterns of interactions and routines between middle and top-level managers. …

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