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Articles 481 - 510 of 1196

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

Where Potential Leads, Stephen S. Brand May 2004

Where Potential Leads, Stephen S. Brand

Student Scholarship

This study explores the influence of the personal characteristics of engineers and the nature of their work environment on innovation, characterized as generating revenue from innovative outputs. Using the paradigm of multiple intelligences developed by Gardner and its related literature, in concert with academic achievement in high school and the presence of a mentor, we empirically tested these relationships with over 250 engineers from one Fortune 500 corporation. The results show that although theory suggested direct positive influences of musical, spatial, logical and physical intelligences on revenue, only two of these intelligences had any direct effect and the effect was …

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Training And Coping Strategies: Reducing Expectation Gaps To Improve Perception Of Job Performance, Job Satisfaction And Decrease Intent To Turnover In Nursing Work, Lori A. Holtzworth-Brohm Apr 2004

Training And Coping Strategies: Reducing Expectation Gaps To Improve Perception Of Job Performance, Job Satisfaction And Decrease Intent To Turnover In Nursing Work, Lori A. Holtzworth-Brohm

Student Scholarship

A sample of 89 hospital-based registered nurses with at least one year of experience were surveyed to ascertain their expectations and actual experiences in nursing work and determine if gaps between expectations and experiences exist. The nurses were also asked to specify the frequency of formal and informal training they participated in and what coping strategies they used to deal with these gaps. Lastly, the nurses were asked to assess their perception of job performance compared to peers, their level of job satisfaction, and their intention to turnover. The data collected was cleaned and coded for quality then analyzed using …

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Social Capital, Organizational Legitimacy, And Transformational Leadership: Implications For Nonprofit Fundraising And Board Relations, Nancy Koury King Apr 2004

Social Capital, Organizational Legitimacy, And Transformational Leadership: Implications For Nonprofit Fundraising And Board Relations, Nancy Koury King

Student Scholarship

Do a leader’s social capital building activities influence outcomes in their organization? A web- based survey of leaders of nonprofit aging services organizations was conducted to determine the relationship between social capital investing activities, transformational leadership style, organizational legitimacy and organizational performance indicators. The study looked specifically at leaders’ internal and external social capital building activities and their impact on two different organizational outcomes--donations and the leader’s relationship with the board. In addition, the roles of organizational legitimacy and transformational leadership in moderating these relationships were studied. The research found that external social capital investing activities predicted an effective relationship …

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Accounting For Differences In Factory Performance When Adopting Flow Based Production Techniques: A General Purpose Conceptualization, Michael R. Lopez Apr 2004

Accounting For Differences In Factory Performance When Adopting Flow Based Production Techniques: A General Purpose Conceptualization, Michael R. Lopez

Student Scholarship

Despite abundant information describing the advantages that accrue from successful implementation of world class manufacturing (WCM) best practices, previous research provides little insight as to why the same techniques are able to foster competitiveness at one site yet fail to do so in another. Practitioners maintain that such discrepancies are due to contextual factors that preclude even immanently rational improvements from manifesting themselves in their operations. General purpose technology (GPT) theory suggests that heterogeneity results from innovational complementarities needed to fully benefit from the routine use of WCM practices. This exploratory study provides empirical support for complementary organizational changes, whereas …

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Leadership In The Context Of A Corporate Restructuring, Howard S. Steinberg Jun 2003

Leadership In The Context Of A Corporate Restructuring, Howard S. Steinberg

Student Scholarship

Examination of leadership characteristics in the context of a corporate restructuring proved to be surprising. Observations and reviewed documentation revealed that no single characteristic of leadership differentiated leaders from managers but rather it is a combination of qualities that make the difference. Emerging themes, together with those theorized in literature, illustrate that although terminology has changed the basic understanding of leadership has not. The ability to challenge oneself personally and professionally remains at the heart of those that lead. The finest leaders of our time--the Jack Welches, and the Lou Gerstners--are all highly energetic individuals that continually challenge the status …

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Cooperation And Defection In The Commons Certified Local Governments And Historic Preservation Commissions, Brian W. Kenny Jun 2003

Cooperation And Defection In The Commons Certified Local Governments And Historic Preservation Commissions, Brian W. Kenny

Student Scholarship

Public activities were observed at a Phoenix historic preservation meeting. Subsequent research involved interviewing 4 individuals who told personal stories, recounted opinions, and compared themselves with others in the preservation commons. These actors accept duty because they believe grass roots social and economic activism improves their community's quality of life. Their symbolic interaction at the local scale validates the essential Protestant creation myth of American democracy. Issues of cooperation and defection have applicability to situations where volunteers advise the cultural, environmental, and science sectors of the economy. This ethnography establishes knowledge that helps explain and predict patterns of human behavior, …

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Philanthropy Ventures With Social Entrepreneurs: An Ethnographic Inquiry Into Progressive Grantee-Grantor Collaborations, Kwardua Vanderpuye Jun 2003

Philanthropy Ventures With Social Entrepreneurs: An Ethnographic Inquiry Into Progressive Grantee-Grantor Collaborations, Kwardua Vanderpuye

Student Scholarship

To effectively support the empowerment of marginalized and resource-poor communities, the nonprofit sector must not only anticipate, but embrace and support transition of their programs with community partners towards greater autonomy. The aim of this ethnographic inquiry is to create opportunities for social change grantees to reflect on their interactions with their grantors, social change philanthropists, which fund their movement oriented goals of social justice and systemic change. Social change philanthropists turn the traditional, donor-controlled approach to philanthropy on its head by transferring grant-making decisions from the donors to community activist boards selected to reflect the make-up of prospective grant …

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What's Really Going On? The Jamaican Policy Environment And Small Exporting Firms, Beverley J. Morgan Jun 2003

What's Really Going On? The Jamaican Policy Environment And Small Exporting Firms, Beverley J. Morgan

Student Scholarship

In the context of a policy framework to which there has been long-term political commitment, and having economic growth as its goal, but which has not yielded successful outcomes, this ethnographic study presents the multiple perspectives of a variety of actors in the Jamaican policy space. The participants in the study reflect on the reasons for economic failure, the relationships between the public and private sectors, and what they view as the distance between the articulation of policy and its practice. In the course of these reflections, they consider instability and its role in their decision- making, risk, capital- flight, …

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A Collective Action To Protect The Great Lakes St. Lawrence River Basin By Building A Multijurisdictional Governing Regime, Bruce C. Gockerman Jun 2003

A Collective Action To Protect The Great Lakes St. Lawrence River Basin By Building A Multijurisdictional Governing Regime, Bruce C. Gockerman

Student Scholarship

Great Lakes Compact 2005: A Collective Action to Protect the Great Lakes St. Lawrence River Basin By Building a Multijurisdictional Governing Regime Based on Cooperative Horizontal Federalism: Overcoming Barriers to Collective Action Through Governance\, Leadership and Social Learning as Negotiated Order and Decision-Making Processes. The five Great Lakes (Superior\, Michigan\, Huron\, Erie and Ontario) and St. Lawrence River Basin hold twenty 20% of the World’s fresh water supply and 96% of the fresh water in the United States. It is a vast\, complex ecosystem supporting 43 million people\, industries and cities that are along and near its shorelines. The invasion …

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The Nursing Debut: The Work Entry Transition, Lori Brohm May 2003

The Nursing Debut: The Work Entry Transition, Lori Brohm

Student Scholarship

This research proposes that the congruence between an individual's expectations and their perceptions of the experiences upon entering a career affect the adaptation/coping strategies used to achieve a sense of organizational "fit." Interviews conducted with newly graduated nurses and nursing students identified a variety of coping strategies used to deal with the stress of career transition. These adaptation strategies include personal, professional and social coping strategies. Congruence of expectations and experience, the presence of external stressors (long hours, nurse vacancies, high patient volumes), and the quality of orientation experiences and peer relationships require an individual to employ different adjustment strategies. …

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Deconstructing The Pervasive Adequate Disclosure Debate, Gary A. Walker May 2003

Deconstructing The Pervasive Adequate Disclosure Debate, Gary A. Walker

Student Scholarship

Examination of mutual fund selection and evaluation practices revealed post revision disclosure ineffectiveness rooted in deficient transparency. Observations of and interviews with investment club members evidenced that disclosure failed to warn participants of detrimental costs and adverse consequences. Emergent topics, together with those theorized in the literature, included prospectus transparency, terminology comprehension, cost awareness, and consequential effects. Topical data conflation created a composite picture of fee awareness and implication familiarity. Contrived terminology contributed to erroneous interpretations. Members underestimated costs in all examined periods and found fee tables exceptionally confusing. Unrealistically low return assumptions and limited reporting periods did more to …

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Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley As Engines Of Cultural Change In A Theory Of Movement, Teresa Schmid May 2003

Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley As Engines Of Cultural Change In A Theory Of Movement, Teresa Schmid

Student Scholarship

Cultural change is a stubborn thing. The womens suffrage movement began with in 1792 with the publication of Mary Wolstonecrafts book, Vindication of the Rights of Women, and did not achieve its political goal until the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, 128 years later. The Civil Rights Movement traces its origins to the abolitionist movement of the mid 19th century, but while slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, the principle of social equality did become law until nearly 100 years later, upon the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As the continuing womens and civil …

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The Role Social Capital Plays In Building Effective Nonprofit Boards, Susan Williams May 2003

The Role Social Capital Plays In Building Effective Nonprofit Boards, Susan Williams

Student Scholarship

There is widespread concern over the effectiveness of nonprofit boards of trustees. Scholars and practitioners have continued to address the phenomenon of board ineffectiveness by continuing to clarify roles and responsibilities for individuals rather than focusing on the impact of the cohesive ties amongst board members and the ability of the board to work as a unit with shared values and trust resulting in value creation for the institution. In this paper I seek to contribute to the body of knowledge by developing the following arguments: (1) the appropriate ties amongst board members are integral to the ability to discuss …

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Motion Without Movement: The Struggle For Workforce Outcomes That Matter, Adekunle O. Solaru May 2003

Motion Without Movement: The Struggle For Workforce Outcomes That Matter, Adekunle O. Solaru

Student Scholarship

This study seeks to better define the processes by which poor African Americans on welfare can achieve employment success. Beginning with a conceptual model inspired by the stated goals of workforce programs, the study uses interviews of unemployed and employed African Americans to contest the thrust of workforce efforts by contrasting program goals with the respondents' realities. Hypotheses, stated in terms that can be agreed on by workforce practitioners and their clients, are developed to propose a reconciliation of objectives. These hypotheses therefore form a basis for testing of the relationships by quantitative means in a subsequent research phase.

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Parish Vibrancy, Terry Brizz May 2003

Parish Vibrancy, Terry Brizz

Student Scholarship

This qualitative research study was designed to examine eight Roman Catholic parishes to determine both from a pastor's and a parishioner's viewpoint what makes a parish vibrant. The study was able to formulate, test and modify a conceptual model for a vibrant parish. The model demonstrates how the pastoral leadership style interacts with the parish organizational factors to influence parish vibrancy. However, certain parish characteristics can modify parish vibrancy. Parish vibrancy was determined to be a parish where there is a sense of community, in which parishioners give freely of their time, talents and treasure, experience spiritual growth, reach out …

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Social Networks And Information Technology, James L. Hill May 2003

Social Networks And Information Technology, James L. Hill

Student Scholarship

That so many large-scale or enterprise – level Information Technology (IT) projects are said to fail is a puzzle. According to the Standish Group and individual practitioners, as many as four out of five of them do. They don’t deliver the planned functionality, cost much more than budgeted, take longer than expected, or are cancelled before they are completed. (Chaos, 1995) Yet, businesses and governments continue to invest heavily in IT, expecting significant improvements in productivity and level of service. (Stiglitz, Orszag, & Orszag, 2000). As much as half of annual capital spending in certain sectors of the economy is …

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A Reflection Of Trust: Analyzing The Role Of Customers And Sales Manager On Salesperson Trust-Building Behaviors, Daniel Cohen May 2003

A Reflection Of Trust: Analyzing The Role Of Customers And Sales Manager On Salesperson Trust-Building Behaviors, Daniel Cohen

Student Scholarship

Trust has received a great deal of attention in the marketing literature over the past ten years especially in regard to relationship marketing. In fact, “the development and maintenance of marketing relationships has been the focus of extensive conceptual and empirical work, and trust has been established as a key component in the development of buyer-seller relationships” (Brashear, Boles, Bellenger & Brooks, 2003, p.189). Previous studies, however, have generally focused on how salespeople build trust with customers (Doney & Cannon, 1997; Ganesan, 1994) without considering other components of the relationship such as the behaviors of customers engaged in long-term sales …

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Risk Management Effectiveness (Rme): How Does A British Multi-National Company Go About Achieving Rme In Its Us Subsidiary?, Richard R. Clune May 2003

Risk Management Effectiveness (Rme): How Does A British Multi-National Company Go About Achieving Rme In Its Us Subsidiary?, Richard R. Clune

Student Scholarship

This study was designed to get at the perceptions concerning risk management effectiveness (RME) of executives serving on and interacting with a risk management committee. And to explore the cultural context, the setting selected was a US subsidiary of a British multi-national company. As will be described below, this study included direct observation by the researcher of a risk management committee meeting as well as pre-committee meeting interviews of executives, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, and post-meeting informal discussions with certain executive participants.

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Complex Unfamiliar Entries In The Airport Context, Bill Brunger May 2003

Complex Unfamiliar Entries In The Airport Context, Bill Brunger

Student Scholarship

Airport managers tend to view airport efficiency through the lens of their own experience based on measurements of travelers' interactions with the airline after the traveler has entered the airport process. They ignore the times when the traveler is not empirically measurable, for example, the period between arrival at the airport and checks-in with the airline, and therefore miss important insight into how travelers cope with uncertainty and anxiety of the airport experience. In this paper, the author, an Airline Executive, suggests that ethnographic studies based on the techniques of rich observation, note-taking, coding, and inductive analysis will be a …

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Internet Adoption In The Public Sector, Demo Solaru May 2003

Internet Adoption In The Public Sector, Demo Solaru

Student Scholarship

In recent years, corporations, government, academia and individuals have devised different ways to use the Internet as a messaging, transaction and service delivery mechanism. In the public sector, the applications designed to serve the public has come to be known collectively as "e-Government", an acronym for electronic government. The applications of e-Government vary according to the focus of the federal, state or local entities that invest in them. While much information is available about the potential for e-Government and "success stories" from early attempts, very little is available in significant detail about the technology adoption process itself. Professionals involved in …

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Out Of The Mouths Of Leaders...A Comparative Study Of Nonprofit And For-Profit Leadership Approaches As Manifested In Annual Management Letters, Susan Mctiernan Gillen May 2003

Out Of The Mouths Of Leaders...A Comparative Study Of Nonprofit And For-Profit Leadership Approaches As Manifested In Annual Management Letters, Susan Mctiernan Gillen

Student Scholarship

Understanding the varied approaches to leadership remains an ongoing challenge, especially as it relates to different sorts of organizations. Of particular interest are the specific considerations to which leaders pay attention. The managment letter, contained in the annual reports of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, reveal the nature of many of these considerations. This paper examines the management letters contained in the annual reports of for-profit and nonprofit organizations in order to discern the major differences and similarities between the approaches for for-profit and nonprofit leaders. Through this research a number of themes emerge that lead to general conclusions regarding …

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The Role Of Residual Income Management Systems (Eva) In Shaping The Outcome Of Businesses In Cyclic Markets €“ Part 2 Quantitative Research, Gregory F. Milzcik May 2003

The Role Of Residual Income Management Systems (Eva) In Shaping The Outcome Of Businesses In Cyclic Markets €“ Part 2 Quantitative Research, Gregory F. Milzcik

Student Scholarship

A variety of research (Wallace, 1997; Biddle, 1998; Glassman, 1999) shows the commonly held belief that management incentive systems influence the business decisions of company managers. However, given the wide-ranging business models in use today, as well as the changing economic conditions over time, it is entirely possible and likely that there will be differences in the effectiveness of incentive systems on company performance. More specifically, what is the role of incentive systems based on residual income (RI) in shaping business performance in companies operating in cyclic markets? Using quantitative research techniques, this study compares traditional and RI based incentive …

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Balancing The Dynamic Tension Between Traditional Nonprofit Management And Social Entrepreneurship, Michael G. Stull May 2003

Balancing The Dynamic Tension Between Traditional Nonprofit Management And Social Entrepreneurship, Michael G. Stull

Student Scholarship

With the challenges facing the nonprofit sector in the United States--increasing competition, decreased funding sources, and rising demand for services--nonprofit organizations must make significant adaptations to continue playing an effective role in society. One of those adaptations--social entrepreneurship--has emerged as a creative response to the new demands facing nonprofits. This ethnographic study of a nonprofit family services organization investigated how both traditional and social entrepreneurship approaches were used and how the dynamic tension between these differing approaches is balanced. The data presented suggest that traditional management and social entrepreneurship approaches can be blended through a "continuum of practice," and the …

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Inter-Cultural Service Encounters: The Mechanism Underlying The Effect Of Cultural Distance On Customer Service Satisfaction, C. Fritz Reichert Apr 2003

Inter-Cultural Service Encounters: The Mechanism Underlying The Effect Of Cultural Distance On Customer Service Satisfaction, C. Fritz Reichert

Student Scholarship

In our global economy where companies are often required to serve customers of many different cultures, there is a need to understand how culture affects service satisfaction. In this paper the author presents a model and hypotheses for understanding the mechanism underlying the effect of cultural distance between the customer and the service provider on service satisfaction when a service failure is encountered. The model synthesizes the type of service failure, the context in which the service is provided, the customer's cultural disposition, and the customer's attribution processes. The model and hypotheses are tested using a quasiexperimental, web-based research design …

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Emotional Intelligence Competencies In Physician Leaders: An Exploratory Study, Michael J. Deegan Jan 2003

Emotional Intelligence Competencies In Physician Leaders: An Exploratory Study, Michael J. Deegan

Student Scholarship

A theory of behavioral competencies associated with emotional intelligence that influence job performance, was tested in physicians who hold leadership positions in their organization. An emotional intelligence competency ( EIC ) survey ( the ECI-2 ) that measured eighteen competencies distributed among four cluster groups ( self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship management ) was administered to physician leaders and their supervisors, peers and direct reports. The resulting 360 degree assessment permitted a comparison of the physician leaders self assessment scores with one another and those working closely with them. In addition, independent objective and subjective measures of physician …

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Painting The Canvas Of Silence: Vision Enriched Through Voice, Karie Willyerd Oct 2002

Painting The Canvas Of Silence: Vision Enriched Through Voice, Karie Willyerd

Student Scholarship

“Leaders are like conductors.” Peruse a half dozen management journals, and it is likely that the analogy “leaders are like conductors” will show up at least once, frequently citing the same Peter Drucker quote. Correspondingly, music journals are as likely to proclaim “conductors are like great leaders” (Armstrong, 1996). As intuitively true as this may seem, little research has been done to study the leadership characteristics of conductors. Instead, the study of conductors has focused primarily on their artistic abilities. This study was aimed at filling that gap. Most conductors perform globally, and thus the analogy of conductor to leader …

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How Nonprofit Organizations Develop And Leverage Social Capital, Nancy K. King Aug 2002

How Nonprofit Organizations Develop And Leverage Social Capital, Nancy K. King

Student Scholarship

Acquiring sufficient resources is a continual struggle for many nonprofit organizations. "Nonprofit organizations that have often needed to accomplish the ir mission with limited resources find themselves stretched to the breaking point," (Peter Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, 2001). The struggle is not limited to financial resources, but includes human resources--board, staff, and volunteer--as well. The concept of social capital may be an important one for nonprofit managers to understand and apply as a means of addressing this problem. Social capital encompasses building networks of relationships, which enhance cooperation, trust, shared vision and resource exchange in creating organizational value (Tsai …

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Between Labor And Art: Service Industry Craftsmanship Defined, Bernard John Brunsman Jul 2002

Between Labor And Art: Service Industry Craftsmanship Defined, Bernard John Brunsman

Student Scholarship

This paper presents, in ethnographic fashion, observations of service industry craftsmanship in a familiar setting--a barbershop. It then relates these observations to a definition of service industry craftsmanship that is largely constructed from the works of Helms, Becker, and Barley and Orr. The meaning of service industry craftsmanship is then used to highlight implications of this concept to the worlds of practice and scholarship.

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Vojvodina, Serbia: Cornerstone Of Democratization And Multi-Ethnic Collaboration, John N. Lauer Jul 2002

Vojvodina, Serbia: Cornerstone Of Democratization And Multi-Ethnic Collaboration, John N. Lauer

Student Scholarship

On a cool sunny afternoon in February 2002, accompanied by my wife and an interpreter-guide, I drove south from Budapest toward the southern town of Szeged and the border with Serbia just beyond. While driving, I pondered what I would see and discover in Vojvodina, the former autonomous and still northern province of Serbia, and the place I had chosen to do fieldwork for my ethnographic research project. My research purpose was to study multiethnic cooperation within the context of Vojvodina autonomy in order to understand the circumstances of how and why such collaborative relationships between different ethnic groups work. …

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An Investigation Of The Direct And Ripple Effect Of An Environmental Jolt On The Airline Industry, Leonard Lane May 2002

An Investigation Of The Direct And Ripple Effect Of An Environmental Jolt On The Airline Industry, Leonard Lane

Student Scholarship

The events of September 11, 2001 significantly affected the operations of the U.S. domestic airline industry. The unprecedented two and one-half day, government mandated shut-down of the airline industry was followed by individual company actions that varied from large decreases in their operational capacity to little or no change. This unstable environment provided a unique opportunity to conduct an exploratory study to address the question of how firms and their customers in the airline industry reacted to the direct and ripple effect of an external environmental jolt that affected the entire industry and what accounted for the different firm responses …

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