Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

The Cio: Defining A Career For The Future, Mark Askren

Information Technology Services: Publications

Those of us who are IT professionals in higher education spend a lot of our time focused on the “new normal” of accelerating demand, flat resources, and constant change. But we often invest little time in assessing and advancing our careers. As a community, we are typically self-motivated to reach our potential and, in many cases, to extend the boundaries of our potential. However, if we are laissez-faire in our approach to career growth—in other words, if we are “too busy” to focus on ourselves—reaching our potential becomes much less likely.

In 2013, information technology matters . . . a …

The Comprehensive Soldier And Family Fitness Program Evaluation. Report #4: Evaluation Of Resilience Training And Mental And Behavioral Health Outcomes, Peter D. Harms, Mitchel Herian, Dina V. Krasikova, Adam J. Vanhove, Paul B. Lester

P. D. Harms Publications

The purpose of this evaluation is to examine the effectiveness of Master Resilience Training, which is a pillar of the Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness (CSF2) program. The report evaluates the relationship between resilience training and diagnoses for mental health or substance abuse problems and whether this relationship was mediated by Soldiers’ self-reported resilience/ psychological health (R/PH). In other words, we tested whether Soldiers with MRT trainers in their units experienced increases in self-reported R/PH, and whether increases in self-reported R/PH were associated with reduced odds of Soldiers receiving diagnoses for mental health or substance abuse problems.

The results revealed …

A Closer Look At The Assistant (To The) Regional Manager: Personality Differences Between First And Second In Command Leaders In Organizations, Ross Benes

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Although a great deal of research has established personality differences between leaders and their followers (Lord, de Vader, & Alliger, 1986) there has been little research on how leaders at different levels of organizations may differ from one another. In particular, no research to date has examined whether or not there are personality differences between those who are first in command of their organizations and those second in command. The present study attempts to explore whether or not these differences exist in terms of both lay perceptions and in reality. The researchers in this study asked 401 individuals to contrast …

Modeling Social Transmission Dynamics Of Unhealthy Behaviors For Evaluating Prevention And Treatment Interventions On Childhood Obesity, Leah M. Frerichs, Ozgur M. Araz, Terry T.-K. Huang

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty Publications

Research evidence indicates that obesity has spread through social networks, but lever points for interventions based on overlapping networks are not well studied. The objective of our research was to construct and parameterize a system dynamics model of the social transmission of behaviors through adult and youth influence in order to explore hypotheses and identify plausible lever points for future childhood obesity intervention research. Our objectives were: (1) to assess the sensitivity of childhood overweight and obesity prevalence to peer and adult social transmission rates, and (2) to test the effect of combinations of prevention and treatment interventions on the …

Coordinating A Supply Chain With A Manufacturer-Owned Online Channel: A Dual Channel Model Under Price Competition, Jennifer K. Ryan, Daewon Sun, Xuying Zhao

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty Publications

We consider a dual channel supply chain in which a manufacturer sells a single product to end-users through both a traditional retail channel and a manufacturer-owned direct online channel. We adopt a commonly used linear demand substitution model in which the mean demand in each channel is a function of the prices in each channel.We model each channel as a news vendor problem, with price and order quantity as decision variables. In addition, the manufacturer must choose the wholesale price to charge to the independent retailer. We analyze the optimal decisions for each channel and prove the existence of a …

Participation In Decision Making As A Property Of Complex Adaptive Systems: Developing And Testing A Measure, Ruth A. Anderson, Donde Plowman, Kirsten Corazzini, Pi-Ching Hsieh, Hui Fang Su, Lawrence R. Landerman, Reuben R. Mcdaniel

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Objectives. To (1) describe participation in decision-making as a systems-level property of complex adaptive systems and (2) present empirical evidence of reliability and validity of a corresponding measure. Method. Study 1 was a mail survey of a single respondent (administrators or directors of nursing) in each of 197 nursing homes. Study 2 was a field study using random, proportionally stratified sampling procedure that included 195 organizations with 3,968 respondents. Analysis. In Study 1, we analyzed the data to reduce the number of scale items and establish initial reliability and validity. In Study 2, we strengthened the psychometric test using a …

Reclaiming “Anthropology: The Forgotten Behavioral Science In Management History” – Commentaries, Fred Luthans, Ivana Milosevic, Beth A. Bechky, Edgar H. Schein, Susan Wright, Davydd J. Greenwood

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Purpose – This collection of commentaries on the reprinted 1987 article by Nancy C. Morey and Fred Luthans, “Anthropology: the forgotten behavioral science in management history”, aims to reflect on the treatment of the history of anthropological work in organizational studies presented in the original article.

Design/methodology/approach – The essays are invited and peer-reviewed contributions from scholars in organizational studies and anthropology.

Findings – The scholars invited to comment on the original article have seen its value, and their contributions ground its content in contemporary issues and debates.

Originality/value – The original article was deemed “original” for its time (1987), …

Positive Global Leadership, Carolyn M. Youssef, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In the wake of increasing globalization, today’s organizational leaders are faced with unprecedented complexity. To help meeting the challenge, this article proposes a new positive approach to global leadership. After first providing the background on positivity, positive global leadership is carefully defined and its similarities and differences with both the established and contemporary leadership theories are noted. The discussion then turns to how positive global leadership addresses three major challenges in the global context of distance, cultural differences and cross-cultural barriers. The article concludes that this new positive approach can help global leaders to leverage diverse strengths in themselves and …

Ownership Structure, Absorptive Capacity, And Innovation: Planting Vs Harvesting Innovation, Seung Hoon Jang

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation investigates the main research question: Which classification of innovation explains the heterogeneous timing of revenue realization? Given the significance of financial gain, researchers are recommended to pay attention to whether innovation outcomes result in commercial gains in the short term. Following this notion, a new category of innovation, planting and harvesting, is presented. While harvesting innovation seeks new resources in the expectation of commercial performance in the short term, planting innovation pursues potential resources creating value over a long time period. The interest in the determinants and financial contribution of these types of innovation leads to the second …

An Empirical Understanding Of The Dialectic Relationship Between A Central Governing Body And The Individual Sites In A Multisite Enterprise Resource Planning (Erp) System Implementation, Tedde J. Taege

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Multisite enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementations are a challenge faced by organizations. One of the facets of this challenge is to balance the central control of the multisite implementation with the unique requirements desired by each of the sites. The competing interests of the individual sites against the other sites as well as the total organization are forces at work with respect to the collective interest of the organization’s ERP. The study seeks to gain insights into the dynamics of a multisite organizational ERP implementation by analyzing the motivations and challenges in the interactive relationship. The grounded theory approach …

Impact Of Business Intelligence And It Infrastructure Flexibility On Competitive Advantage: An Organizational Agility Perspective, Xiaofeng Chen

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is growing use of business intelligence (BI) for better management decisions in industry. However, empirical studies on BI are still scarce in academic research. This research investigates BI from an organizational agility perspective. Organizational agility is the ability to sense and respond to market opportunities and threats with speed, and BI can help in the sensing role of organizational agility. Drawing on the systems theory, dynamic capabilities framework, and literature on competitive advantage, organizational agility, business intelligence, and IT infrastructure flexibility, we hypothesize that BI use and IT infrastructure flexibility are major sources of organizational agility. We developed a …

Emergent Organizational Capacity For Compassion, Laura T. Madden, Dennis Duchon, Timothy M. Madden, Donde Ashmos Plowman

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Our model of emergent organizational capacity for compassion proposes that organizations can develop the capacity for compassion without formal direction. Relying on a framework from complexity science, we describe how the system conditions of agent diversity, interdependent roles, and social interactions enhance the likelihood of self-organizing around an individual response to a pain trigger. When agents then modify their roles to incorporate compassionate responding, their interactions amplify responses, changing the system, and a new order emerges: organizational capacity for compassion. In this new order the organization's structure, culture, routines, and scanning mechanisms incorporate compassionate responding and can influence future responses …

Simulating School Closure Policies For Cost Effective Pandemic Decision Making, Ozgur M. Araz, Paul Damien, David A. Paltiel, Sean Burke, Bryce Van De Geijn, Alison Galvani, Lauren Ancel Meyers

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty Publications

Background: Around the globe, school closures were used sporadically to mitigate the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. However, such closures can detrimentally impact economic and social life.

Methods: Here, we couple a decision analytic approach with a mathematical model of influenza transmission to estimate the impact of school closures in terms of epidemiological and cost effectiveness. Our method assumes that the transmissibility and the severity of the disease are uncertain, and evaluates several closure and reopening strategies that cover a range of thresholds in school-aged prevalence (SAP) and closure durations.

Results: Assuming a willingness to pay per quality adjusted life-year (QALY) …

Boots On The Ground: A First-Hand Account Of Conducting Psychological Research In Combat, Peter D. Harms, Paul B. Lester

P. D. Harms Publications

At the height of the surge in Iraq, Captain Paul Lester, an Army research psychologist, embedded himself with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment in order to study leadership and psychological resilience in combat. Few researchers are ever presented with the opportunities and responsibilities inherent for a psychologist in this situation or with the decisions he faced when agreeing to take on this mission. In his own words, Captain Lester explains the nature of this mission, what makes research in this context so unique, and what lessons he learned.

Sustainability Leader Competencies: A Grounded Theory Study, Pamela G. Schwalb

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this critical qualitative study was to develop a theory of the competencies of a sustainability leader, grounded in research. A sustainability leader is generally described as an individual who creates profit for his/her stakeholders, while protecting the environment and improving the lives of those for whom he/she impacts as a result of his/her leadership. Nearly 60 individuals familiar with sustainability were asked to characterize an effective leader of a sustainability initiative or a sustainability organization.

The study revealed there is more than one way to be a sustainability leader—different paths can result in decisions and actions that …

Developing A Sustainable Business Plan At The Shopping Center Of Southpointe Mall In Lincoln, Nebraska, Jessica Marie Hanson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

This project consists of creating sustainable business plans for a group of diverse retail stores at the mall of SouthPointe Pavilions in Lincoln, Nebraska. A series of interviews took place with five managers at the businesses including: Scheels, Old Chicago, Bed Bath and Beyond, Von Maur, and Barnes and Noble. The questions were based around five different topics including: Technological, Environment, Socio-Cultural, Economic, and Public Policy. The Technological area includes processes with the product (or service) that occur before it arrives, during, and after it is sold. The Public Policy area includes if the business has an environmental policy, how …

Meta-Analysis Of The Impact Of Positive Psychological Capital On Employee Attitudes, Behaviors, And Performance, James B. Avey, Rebecca J. Reichard, Fred Luthans, Ketan H. Mhatre

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The positive core construct of psychological capital (or simply PsyCap), consisting of the psychological resources of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, has recently been demonstrated to be open to human resource development (HRD) and performance management. The research stream on PsyCap has now grown to the point that a quantitative summary analysis of its impact on employee attitudes, behaviors, and especially performance is needed. The present meta-analysis included 51 independent samples (representing a total of N = 12,567 employees) that met the inclusion criteria. The results indicated the expected significant positive relationships between PsyCap and desirable employee attitudes (job satisfaction, …

Psychological Capital And Employee Performance: A Latent Growth Modeling Approach, Suzanne J. Peterson, Fred Luthans, Bruce J. Avolio, Fred Walumbwa, Zhen Zhang

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The positive core construct of psychological capital (consisting of efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience) has been conceptually and empirically demonstrated to be related to employee performance. However, much of this work has relied on cross-sectional designs to examine these relationships. This study utilizes longitudinal data from a large financial service organization (N = 179 financial advisory-type employees) to examine withinindividual change in psychological capital over time and if this change relates to their change in performance. Latent growth modeling analyses revealed statistically significant within-individual change in psychological capital over time, and that this change in psychological capital was related to …

Becoming A Firm: An Investigation Of How One-Person Enterprises Construct The Problem Of Becoming An Employer, Ronda M. Smith Nelson

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study draws on Coase’s (1937) Theory of the Firm, that suggests a firm exists only after it has employees and Penrose’s (1959) Theory of the Growth of the Firm which suggests human resources are a critical asset to the firm as a means to better   understand the issue of job creation in the United States especially among one-person enterprises (OPEs).  From the perspective of entrepreneurial cognition, and in the context of ill-defined problems (Abelson & Levi.1985) a survey was conducted to better understand the Becoming an Employer Problem (BEP) as it is perceived by OPEs.  A measure of the …

A Tale Of Two Paradigms: The Impact Of Psychological Capital And Reinforcing Feedback On Problem Solving And Innovation, Fred Luthans, Carolyn M. Youssef, Shannon L. Rawski

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This study drew from two distinct paradigms: the social cognitively based emerging field of positive organizational behavior or POB and the more established behaviorally based area of organizational behavior modification or OB Mod. The intent was to show that both can contribute to complex challenges facing today’s organizations. Using a quasi-experimental research design (N = 1,526 working adults), in general both the recently recognized core construct of psychological capital (representing POB) and reinforcing feedback (representing OB Mod), especially when partially mediated through a mastery-oriented mindset, were positively related to problem solving performance, reported innovation, and subsequent psychological capital. The implications …

Developing A Capacity For Organizational Resilience Through Strategic Human Resource Management, Cynthia A. Lengnick-Hall, Tammy E. Beck, Mark L. Lengnick-Hall

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Resilient organizations thrive despite experiencing conditions that are surprising, uncertain, often adverse, and usually unstable. We propose that an organization's capacity for resilience is developed through strategically managing human resources to create competencies among core employees, that when aggregated at the organizational level, make it possible for organizations to achieve the ability to respond in a resilient manner when they experience severe shocks. We begin by reviewing three elements central to developing an organization's capacity for resilience (specific cognitive abilities, behavioral characteristics, and contextual conditions). Next we identify the individual level employee contributions needed to achieve each of these elements. …

The Prevalence And Influence Of The Combination Of Humor And Violence In Super Bowl Commercials, Benjamin J. Blackford, James W. Gentry, Robert L. Harrison, Les Carlson

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

The growing concern over violence in the media has led to vast amounts of research examining the effects of violent media on viewers. An important subset of this research looks at how humor affects this relationship. While research has considered this subset in television programming, almost no research has explored this in the context of advertising. This paper builds on the little research that exists by examining the effects of combining humor and violence, as well as the theoretical approaches that underlie these effects. A content analysis is conducted to identify the prevalence of violence, humor, and the combination of …

Dialogue, Asghar Zardkoohi, Leonard Bierman, Daria Panina, Subrata Chakrabarty

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In a recent Academy of Management Review article, Professor Andrew von Nordenflycht (2010) focused on defining professional service firms (PSFs). In the article von Nordenflycht argues that past research leaves the term professional service firms either undefined or at best provides only examples, such as law firms, accounting firms, "etc." In addition, he argues that while most scholars agree that law firms and accounting firms fit the "definition" of PSFs, there is "little consensus on what the 'etc.' refers to. Does it include ad agencies? Physician practices? Software firms? Why or why not?" (2010: 155). The author's contributions include …

Experimentally Analyzing The Impact Of Leader Positivity On Follower Positivity And Performance, James Avey, Bruce J. Avolio, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This field experimental study examined the role that positive leadership plays in producing effective leader and follower outcomes. Specifically, a sample of engineers (N = 106) from a very large aerospace firm were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions. Two conditions involved assigning these engineers to a low and high problem complexity condition. The other two conditions represented high versus low conveyed leader positivity. The results indicated a positive relationship between the leaders’ positivity and the followers’ positivity and performance, as well as a negative relationship between problem complexity and follower positivity. The study limitations, needed future research, and practical …

The Value Of The Integrated Business Core Experience: Perceptions Of Recent Graduates From Brigham Young University–Idaho, Craig D. Bell

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The effectiveness of business education has come under intense scrutiny—with many questioning its overall value. Main criticisms center on the lack of integration across the curriculum, too much emphasis on quantitative analysis, and the absence of relevant application. Most critics call for business education to become more hands-on and to create opportunities for students to practice the discipline of management. The purpose of this mixed method explanatory study was to explore the perceived influence of the Integrated Business Core (IBC) experience at Brigham Young University – Idaho on career success. The study sought to capture the perceptions of recent graduates …

Recent Legislation To Promote Wind Energy In Nebraska, Ryan Lemke

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Nebraska is currently ranked 4th in the nation for wind energy potential, but ranks low in actual wind power production. The lack of wind energy production could be the result of Nebraska’s unique public power districts that have eminent domain of distribution and retail sales of electricity in the State. Public Power districts are prohibited from receiving benefits of state and federal tax incentives for the development of wind farms, however some Nebraska power districts still pursue wind energy as a renewable source of energy.

Recent legislation changes, including the passing of laws LB629 and LB1048, have provided the State …

Coaching Leaders: Co-Creating Purpose Based Innovation, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

The purpose of the presentation was to demonstrate the importance and effectiveness of coaching leaders in today's global economy. Leadership coaching has the potential to co-create innovation in organizations of all sizes. Three case studies were shared. In each example, Dr. Connie presented the effectiveness of her coaching program. Each case study demonstrated the power of leadership and innovation on the economy, society and individual.

Towards A Model Of Information Systems User Competency, Brenda Eschenbrenner

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The ability to utilize information systems (IS) effectively is becoming a necessity for business professionals. However, individuals differ in their abilities to use IS effectively, with some achieving exceptional performance in IS use and others being unable to do so. Therefore, developing a set of skills and attributes to achieve IS user competency, or the ability to realize the fullest potential and the greatest performance from IS use, is important. Various constructs have been identified in the literature to describe IS users with regard to their intentions to use IS and their frequency of IS usage, but studies to describe …

The Impact Of Green Supply Chain Practices On Supply Chain Performance, Jin Sung Rha

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has become a critical factor to sustain organization’s competitive advantages. In this regard, many firms and researchers have attempted to find out factors that affect either positively or negatively on SCM. Recently, Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) has been receiving the spotlight in many studies. Social and political concerns about the environment in Korea emerged in the early 1990s when Korean government established new environmental regulations in order to implement environmental management throughout the entire supply chain. The Korean government established national GSCM strategies. However, there has been minimal research on measuring GSCM performance among Korean …

Antecedents Of Servant Leadership: A Mixed Methods Study, Curtis D. Beck

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the antecedents of servant leadership. The sequential explanatory research design consisted of two distinct phases: quantitative followed by qualitative. The Phase One quantitative survey collected data from 499 leaders and 630 raters from community leadership programs in the United States using the Servant Leadership Questionnaire (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006). During Phase Two, selected leaders from phase one (N = 12) were interviewed to explain those results in more depth. The data were coded and analyzed for possible themes. Triangulation was used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data to validate …