Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

Tqm In Small And Medium Scale Manufacturers: Development Of Measurement Instruments, Deepak Subedi, Uday S. Tate, Suneel K. Maheshwari

Management Faculty Research

The objective of our paper is to identify factors and develop constructs that could be used to develop a conceptual Total Quality Management (TQM) model that is applicable to small and medium scale manufacturers in the United States. The data for this study was collected from a mail survey targeted to managers in the manufacturing plants. Responses were analyzed and factor analysis was used to develop measurement instruments.

How To Make Unethical Decisions, Andrew Sikula Sr., John Sikula

Management Faculty Research

People make decisions and solve problems in a variety of ways. Oftentimes, little if any thought goes into choice selection. Sometimes, even very important decisions are made without serious contemplation of potential alternatives and their consequences. Many different tools/techniques and rationales are utilized in problem solving and decision making with little or no regard to ethical judgment and/ or aftermaths. Some ways of making choices are worse than others when using pity parameters. This article discusses commonly used but ethically unsound methods of making selections. Later in the writing, appropriate standards and benchmarks for determining ethical action will be presented.

The Balanced Scorecard Framework-A Case Study Of Patient And Employee Satisfaction: What Happens When It Does Not Work As Planned?, Andrea Lorden, Alberto Coustasse, Karan P. Singh

Management Faculty Research

Background: The successful utilization of the balanced scorecard (BSC) framework in health care has been demonstrated in the literature. Given these successes, a financially struggling hospital implemented a BSC framework intervention which attempted a culture change centered upon patient satisfaction which it hoped would translate to improved financial stability. Despite the evidence of BSC successes, the intervention, entitled Route 99, did not succeed in this hospital.

Purpose: This case study was conducted to identify learnable lessons and confounding factors associated with the successes and failures of Route 99. Metrics for patient satisfaction and employee satisfaction were examined as reflections of …

Organizational Culture In A Terminally Ill Hospital, Alberto Coustasse, Douglas A. Mains, Kristine Lykens, Sue G. Lurie, Fernando Trevino

Management Faculty Research

This study analyzed an organizational culture in a community hospital in Texas to measure organizational culture change and its impact on Patient Satisfaction (PS). The study employed primary and secondary data, combining quantitative and qualitative methods for a case study. Participant observation was used and archival data were collected to provide a better understanding of the organizational culture and the context in which change was taking place. This study also applied a “Shared Vision” of the organization as the central process in bringing forth the knowledge shared by members of the community hospital who were both subjects and research participants. …

Hospital Costs And Clinical Characteristics Of Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Patients: A Continuous Ethical Dilemma, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

This study describes the clinical characteristics and examines hospital costs involved in the care of 117 patients undergoing Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) between January 1999 and August 2002. The majority (70.9%) of the patients undergoing CRRT expired in the hospital. Statistically significant differences were found with respect to the length of stay for discharge status and gender; and with respect to costs for surgery versus no surgery and gender. Significant differences were also found between discharge status and gender, age, and cardiovascular surgery. The results of this study raise economic and ethical questions related to the cost/benefit of CRRT …

Management By Interruptions (Mbi): Mini Not Micro Management, Andrew Sikula Sr., John Sikula

Management Faculty Research

Do you want to affirmatively continue your and Tom Peters's Search for Excellence? Then practice MBI. A corollary to Ken Blanchard's idea of the One Minute Manager is the concept of Management by Interruptions (MBI). Although we do not want to overly manage the details of work, usually called micro management, we are often called upon as leaders and managers to supply frequent small segments of data and information. Mini management is good; micro management is not.

The Empirical Verification Of Becker's Theory Of Discrimination: What Have We Learned?, Harlan M. Smith Ii

Economics Faculty Research

For over 30 years now empirical research on racial discrimination in the workplace has been defined by, and focused on, Becker's insight The literature is now extensive, highly technical, and to some extent fragmented-as groups of analysts have concentrated on different aspects of the problem. This paper is intended to be a "primer" on this work for the nonspecialist who wants to get up to speed on, or possibly begin contributing to, this line of research. In what follows, therefore, I highlight some of the important articles, key methodological advances, and central results that have been obtained to date. More …

Measures Of Perceived Credibility Of Blogs: Construct Validation By Lisrel, Uday S. Tate, Elizabeth Alexander, Suneel K. Maheshwari

Management Faculty Research

Predictions are that blogs will be the promotional tool of the future, if not now. The question remains: how credible are blogs as a source of consumer information? How do consumers perceive the credibility of blogs from different sources when making purchase decisions and product evaluations? The primary objective of the present study is to assess validity and reliability of a set of Semantic Differential scales purported to measure perceived credibility of different types of blogs. Confirmatory factor analysis via LISREL8.5 package was used to obtain appropriate statistics for convergent validity, discriminant validity, and composite reliability. In general, the scales …

Perceptions Of The Characteristics Of Good, Bad And Ordinary Workers On The Job: The Influence Of Work Experience And Culture, Chong W. Kim, Andrew Sikula Sr., Harlan M. Smith Ii

Management Faculty Research

As noted in Kim & Sikula (2003; 2004), there are three types of people in the workplace: people of Necessity, Common people, and Parasites. A person of Necessity is irreplaceable, crucial to the functioning of an organization. The Common person is a worker of average ability and talent who makes no significant difference to the success of an organization. Parasites are detrimental freeloaders, harmful to the functioning of an organization.

In the 2004 paper we analyzed the survey responses of 25 students in an MBA Organizational Behavior class, and of 13 working managers, all in the United States. In this …

The Characteristics Of “Necessity” In A Work Place: A Replication Study, Chong W. Kim, Andrew Sikula Sr.

Management Faculty Research

As defined in our previous paper (Kim and Sikula, 2003), there could be three types of person and roles they play in the workplace: Necessity, Common and Parasite. A Necessity is the one who is an irreplaceable person. A Common is a worker of average ability and talent, and a Parasite is an employee free-loader who is a moocher more than a contributor.

The purpose of this paper is to replicate the first paper, and compare the results of two data sets. The data for the first paper collected from 34 undergraduate senior students in an Organizational Behavior (OB) class, …

Behavioral Factors In Strategic Alliances, Purnendu Mandal, Dale H. Shao, Chong W. Kim

Management Faculty Research

Recently, there has been a growing trend among information technology (IT) organizations to form strategic alliances to increase competitive advantages in the marketplace. For an organization to exploit the benefits of alliances, human factors and IT factors must be among the basic components of any strategic plan (Kemeny & Yanowitz, 2000). Despite the obvious need to consider human and IT factors when developing a long-term plan, many strategic plans developed in the past that led to alliances have failed to consider human aspects. Examples of failure in the implementation of IT systems due to the lack of consideration of human …

Comparative Cost Analysis Of Crrt In Icu/Ccu Patients Undergoing Cardiovascular Surgery Vs. Other Procedures At A Texas Hospital, Tejaswi Belavadi, Alberto Coustasse, Douglas Mains, Antonio A. Rene

Management Faculty Research

The purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of hospital costs incurred by patients undergoing Cardiovascular Surgery (CVS) and patients undergoing other medical procedures who received Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) in a teaching hospital. A total of 117 patients were identified through review of medical charts for the period of January 1999 to August 2002. Twenty one percent of them were identified having CVS. Eighty-eight percent of the CVS patients admitted to the ICU for CRRT died compared to 67% for non-CVS patients (p=0.047). Average actual costs of hospitalization were $47,225 for CVS patients and $51,724 …

Reinventing Leadership: Blended Dualism, Andrew Sikula Sr., Chong W. Kim

Management Faculty Research

Leadership needs to be redefined and explained differently in terms of what we have learned about organizational directorship during the last few decades. In addition to a new definition, a post twentieth century model of leadership needs created with steps and parameters opposite from pre-2000 thinking and philosophy. This article presents a new leadership definition and model, plus it identifies leadership parameters, steps, and lessons. Furthermore, it introduces a new concept into management/leadership/organization literature called Blended Dualism which incorporates the very latest supervisory thinking into a holistic, integrated amalgam of what initially appears to be contradictory or at least paradoxical …

Physician Incentives: Managed Care And Ethics, Douglas A. Mains, Alberto Coustasse, Kristine Lykens

Management Faculty Research

The authors review the principle features of the managed care system in an effort to understand the ethical assumptions inherent in managed care. The interrelationships among physician incentives, responsibilities of patients and the physician-patient relationship are examined in light of the ethical concerns identified in the managed care system. The managed care system creates ethical tensions for those who influence the allocation of scare resources. Managed care's administrative controls have increasingly changed the doctor-patient relationship to the businessperson-consumer relationship. Managed care goals of quality and access demand that physicians be both patient advocate and organizational advocate, even though these roles …

Job Satisfaction As Related To Safe Performance: A Case For A Manufacturing Firm, Chong W. Kim, Marjorie L. Mcinerney, Robert P. Alexander

Management Faculty Research

Many companies have made significant improvements in safety records, but have eventually reached a plateau. This article examines employee safety performance in regards to their job satisfaction and its implications to managers for improving employees safety performance through job redesign.

Identification Of Linkage Between Strategic Group And Performance Of Indian Commercial Banks: A Combined Approach Using Dea And Co-Plot, Prithwiraj Nath, Avinandan Mukherjee, Manabendra Nath

Marketing Faculty Research

This paper explores the linkage between strategic grouping and performance of the Indian banking sector. Strategic grouping and performance were identified using published financial information for all public sector banks. Grouping of Indian public sector banks following comparable financial strategy – with similar asset quality, operational efficiency and profitability was operationalized using the graphical display method of Co-plot.

From their position in the two dimensional conceptual map, banks with identical financial performance formed strategic groups with significant positive linkage between better groups and their superior financial performance, which showed their inherent homogeneity in business policy decisions. Relative performance of the …

A "New" Theory Of Management, Andrew Sikula Sr., Kurt Olmosk, Chong W. Kim, Stephen Cupps

Management Faculty Research

This article presents a "new" theory of management for the new millennium: "new" not because singularly the ideas are recent, but because the combination of these older ideas collectively is novel. To some extent, this article represents the reestablishment of previously existing employment ethics that for various and sundry reasons lapsed into disuse in the past several decades. This article discusses employee relations ethics (ERE) in terms of an ERE credo and a set of assumptions. The modern millennium mission states that all organizations (public and private) should primarily be employee centered, not owner or administrator controlled, customer or client …

A Strategy For Rural Financial Market Reform: Applying The Financial Systems Approach In Ghana, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Abor Yeboah

Economics Faculty Research

We construct, using methods advocated in one strand of the Financial Systems Approach literature, a reform-and-renewal program for one of Ghana’s struggling Rural Banks--the Kaaseman Rural Bank. Questionnaire results, local informal financial practices, recent institutional innovations in Ghanaian finance, the experiences of successful “Nontraditional” rural finance institutions in developing countries, and the operating structure of the Rural Bank program indicate that this bank can implement a group-lending scheme that will reduce significantly its transaction costs and those of its customers. We thus demonstrate how the Financial Systems Approach can be employed to promote sustainable rural financial intermediation in a specific …

Korean Value Systems And Managerial Practices, Dong Ki Kim, Chong W. Kim

Management Faculty Research

Human beings are by nature sociocultural creatures. Our behavior is influenced not only by traditional value systems but also by contemporary education and training. In the same manner, the managerial practices of Korean managers are strongly influenced by the norms and value systems of the traditional Korean society. But, as the society changes from an agrarian society to an industrialized one, so does the behavior of Korean managers. This chapter focuses on the process of this change. More specifically, it will look at the effects of traditional value systems and those of industrialization on Korean managerial practices.

Selected Indicators Of West Virginia's Sensitivity To National Business Cycle Contractions, Darrell Edward Carr

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The study of regional business cycles and their effects in the United States, when compared with other areas of economic research, has been somewhat overlooked. Some attention has been given to the theoretical framework of regional cycles. However, empirical studies have been rare. Philip Neff and Annette Weifenbach, in their pioneering study on the subject, recognized this in 1949. George Borts, in a 1960 study, voiced sentiments similar to Neff and Weifenbach's on this point. More recent proof of the neglect of such studies can be obtained from another source, if not by statement then by implication. A current textbook …