Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

How To Conduct A Mini-Ethnographic Case Study: A Guide For Novice Researchers, Patricia I. Fusch Ph.D., Gene E. Fusch, Lawrence R. Ness

The Qualitative Report

The authors present how to construct a mini-ethnographic case study design with the benefit of an ethnographic approach bounded within a case study protocol that is more feasible for a student researcher with limited time and finances. The novice researcher should choose a design that enables one to best answer the research question. Secondly, one should choose the design that assists the researcher in reaching data saturation. Finally, the novice researcher must choose the design in which one can complete the study within a reasonable time frame with minimal cost. This is particularly important for student researchers. One can blend …

Cultural Impact Of International Financial Reporting Standards On The Comparability Of Financial Statements, Cassandra L. Ward, S. Keith Lowe

Research, Publications & Creative Work

Due to globalization and expanding international business, it has become necessary for companies in various countries to communicate through a universal language of accounting. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were developed and issued to serve as a uniform set of accounting standards. A proposed advantage of global implementation is the improved comparability of financial statements. However, due to variations among cultures, it is unrealistic for a single set of standards to be accepted and implemented in a wholly uniform manner to produce innately comparable financial statements. Because of cultural differences, there are varying degrees of IFRS acceptance: some countries adopt …

Being Native American In Business: Culture, Identity, And Authentic Leadership In Modern American Indian Enterprises, Daniel Daniel Stewart, Amy K. Verbos, Carolyn Birmingham, Stephanie L. Black, Joseph Gladstone

Management Faculty Publications (Archived)

Tribally-owned American Indian enterprises provide a unique cross-cultural setting for emerging Native American business leaders. This paper examines the manner in which American Indian leaders negotiate the boundaries between their indigenous organizations and the non-indigenous communities in which they do business. Through a series of qualitative interviews, we find that American Indian business leaders fall back on a strong sense of “self”, which allows them to maintain effective leadership across boundaries. This is highly consistent with theories of authentic leadership. Furthermore, we find that leaders define self through their collective identity, which is heavily influenced by tribal affiliation and tribal …

How Does Organizational Culture Impact Rn Engagement, Veronica Anntionette Ruffin-Ellis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Lack of RN engagement in the acute care setting can result in poor staffing, nursing shortages, increased stress levels for nurses and decreased morale. When nurses are not engaged in their work setting, quality of care suffers. A wide range of literature focuses on the importance of RN engagement; however, few health care organizations have taken the initiative to implement programs that foster RN engagement, demonstrating a gap in practice. This study examined the relationship between the levels of RN engagement and their perceptions of their organizational culture. Kolcaba's humanistic approach to meeting the needs of RN staff was used …

Culture: For Small To Medium Sized Enterprises It Enhances Entrprenurial Orientation, Donald G. Chambers

Student Scholarship

Small to medium sized firms are an important yet understudied context of business in the US. Most research on smaller firms centers on the entrepreneurial aspects of such firms and ignore other possible explanation for small firm success. Organizational culture has been shown in separate studies to positively impact firm outcomes but the combination of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm culture has rarely been tested. We conducted an inquiry into the effects of both EO and cultural attributes of small firms by surveying 220 individuals working in small firms in a variety of capacities. What we found was that while …

Why Culture Matters In Business Research, Gene E. Fusch Ph.D., Christina J. Fusch, Janet M. Booker Dr., Patricia I. Fusch Ph.D.

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Organizations today are changing rapidly due to technology, globalization, and cutting-edge production, subsequently morphing into new structures and workflow processes. Organizations are becoming more diverse in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. The business workplace is not the melting pot that many were taught about, but that of the ethnic salad, blended yet distinct. The core of organizational composition worldwide still remains within the human resource realm for a shared and cohesive culture is behind the success of every company. The study of workplace culture is important for business research to ascertain the construct of the successful …

The Importance Of Cross-Cultural Management In International Business: China And The United States, Natalie (Tilly) Barnett

Scripps Senior Theses

Attention to cross-cultural management in today’s globalized workplace and marketplace is paramount to professional success. In this exploration I examine the nuances of Chinese business practices and organizational culture as well as their likely points of divergence from American traditions. The variance between organizational culture across national borders is often significant and, as demonstrated by the cases herein, can prove to be either an opportunity to succeed beyond expectation or fail to the same extent.

An Evaluation Of Individuals' Construction Of Personal Trust In Organizations, Colin Edward Armour

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Trust is in decline within organizations resulting from poor management and ethical indifference. Failing to address trust perceptions has led to stress between management and employees. Researchers have studied organizational trust as a constant quality within groups but have neglected the uniquely individual constructs of trust that inhibit trust-building efforts. The purpose of this quantitative study was to evaluate how personal constructs of trust may affect outcomes at the organizational level among workers and managers in hierarchal structured organizations. The topics of the research questions addressed the extent which cultural values and the relative trust situation affected individuals' perceptions of …

Examining How Knowledge Managers Facilitate The Process Of Knowledge Creation In Organizations, Dean Allen Call

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study was how knowledge managers facilitated the process of knowledge creation. Researchers identified this area as important because it begins to fill the literature gap in the dynamics surrounding knowledge creation. Using 4 research questions developed from the theory of dynamic organizational knowledge creation, the study investigated how knowledge managers facilitated and supported knowledge creation, promoted knowledge formation, and accounted for knowledge gaps. The theory was selected to provide a framework and an analytical perspective on the process of knowledge creation. A qualitative research design was used to learn from a sample of 12 Chief …

For Small To Medium Sized Enterprises Entrepreneurial Orientation Is Not A Necessary Attribute For Success, Donald Chambers

Student Scholarship

Research on Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has mostly focused on the underlying entrepreneurial behavior of the owner but ignores related organization-wide business culture attributes that may account for the firm's success. In fact, numerous SMEs will survive without explicit entrepreneurial orientation. To understand this phenomenon we interviewed 29 owners and senior leaders of SMEs and examined the interrelatedness of the firm's cultural traits to business performance. We found that while many SMEs manifest entrepreneurial style of leadership, it is often other cultural traits such as employee empowerment, playfulness, and situated learning that contribute to innovation and firm performance. This …

The Effect Of Nationality Differences On The Emotional Intelligence Of Leaders, Hossein Reza Nikoui

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous studies related to manager effectiveness and organizational culture have determined that emotional intelligence (EI) is a critical predictor of intercultural adjustment and business success. However, few investigators have examined the relationship between EI and nationality differences. In today's globalized business environment, such understanding is crucial to the development of more effective leadership programs for international workers. This quantitative study explored the degrees to which the EI of organizational managers varied across nationalities. A theoretical framework, provided by several theories related to personality, leadership, and types of intelligence, created a lens through which to analyze study results. The Trait Emotional …

Modelling The Reporting Culture Within A Modern Organisation, Ewan Douglas, Samuel Cromie, Maria Chiara Leva, Nora Balfe

Articles

Research shows that there are many factors that can influence the operation of a “Reporting Culture” within organisations, ranging from the attitudes to the workers, to the methodology implemented, to the managerial attitudes within the organisation (Reason, 1998). Understanding and modelling these factors may help develop an optimum reporting system. Historically, research has focused on the concept of “Near Miss Reporting” which is based on the idea of identifying the “bottom” of the safety triangle concept put forward in Heinrich (1941) which suggests that for each accident there are dozens of near misses, and identifying these near misses will hopefully …

Ironman And The American Dream, Laney Harden

Whittier Scholars Program

This project compares Ironman triathletes with the idea of the American Dream and through research and analysis finds the connection between the two. This project is developed by examining the notion of “culture” through a wide lens and focusing on Ironman part and designicipants. The connection between the two stems from the theory that American culture is part and designicularly individualistic and this individualistic culture is what attracts triathletes to the Ironman.

The Erm Process: Evidence From Interviews Of Erm Champions, Therese R. Viscelli

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

This paper investigates the processes that comprise enterprise-wide risk management (ERM) programs implemented by organizations. ERM is a holistic approach of risk management that looks at organization-level risks on a portfolio basis, unlike traditional risk management that looks at silos of individual risks within an organization. The practitioner and academic literatures provide many insights into different frameworks that could be used to implement ERM, but there is little written about the processes and activities that represent actual organizations’ ERM approaches. By looking at the way an organization accomplishes its mission through its management style and communication methods, the role corporate …

Examining The Influence Of National And Organizational Culture On Performance Evaluation And Recognition Structures In A Multinational Organization, Katie Bliven

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study examines how well organizational culture functions as a mechanism to support diversity and respect for employees’ national culture in a multinational organization. Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions and Ting-Toomey’s face negotiation theory provide a framework for understanding the needs and expectations of individual employees regarding performance evaluation and recognition from leaders for culture-specific skill sets. The study was conducted at a multinational call center located in Ireland, where employees negotiate the collection of negative balances for online payment accounts belonging to customers in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and APAC (Asia Pacific) regions of the world. …

Voicing Across Cultures: The Role Of Communication Style And Relationships In Employee Voice And Subsequent Influence, Anna-Katherine Ward

Theses and Dissertations

Constructive input from a diverse workforce can enhance firm performance. However, cultural norms and differences in communication behavior expectations may prevent concerns and suggestions from being expressed, or from being implemented when they are expressed. The purpose of the current study is to bridge the Human Resources, Organizational Behavior, Communications, and International Management literatures in an attempt to understand how subordinates with different communicaton norms voice and how (or whether) managers use the content of the voiced messages. Two models are presented examining prohibitive and promotive voice as central variables in the relationship between subordinate communication style and subordinate influence …

A Study Of Effective Leadership In The Chinese Context, Wai Kwan (Elaine) Lau

Management Faculty Research

The study of leadership is one of the most often researched management topics. However, most research and theory contributions are to a great extent limited to accounting for leadership practice in the West. This study is designed to develop an effective leadership model that works in the Chinese context. Paternalistic leadership, a dominant leadership style in an Eastern business environment, is compared with transformational leadership, a dominant leadership style in a Western business environment. In addition, the cultural differences between China and the West relating to leader-follower relationships suggest different leadership behaviors may be more effective in one of these …

Expatriates' Acculturation Strategies: Going Beyond "How Adjusted Are You?" To "How Do You Adjust?", Matthew Lineberry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Expatriates' degree of adjustment to living and working in a foreign country is well-accepted as an important outcome variable in expatriate management research. However, measures of degree of adjustment do not capture the breadth of strategies expatriates may use to achieve such adjustment, which may be critical for understanding whether expatriates have achieved a healthy and productive orientation to life abroad. Borrowing from research on immigrant populations, this study examines the construct of expatriate acculturation strategies, which characterize expatriates' mode of adjustment along two independent dimensions reflecting maintenance of one's home culture and engagement of the host culture, respectively. One …

Cultural Context And Its Affect On Management Practices In Organizations - A Special Focus Of Compensation Practices, Shandana Shuaib

Business Review

Management practices are carried out in organizations which operate in some sort of environment. The environment is basically divided into two types: internal environment and external environment. In both these environments culture constitutes the main part. Thus, in order to fully comprehend the management practices in organizations it is utmost necessary to understand the cultural context of that society in which it operates. Many management practices if enforced without taking into consideration its cultural context may not yield the expected results. Similarly a management practice which might be very effective in one culture may not be so in another cultural …

Crossing The Valley Of Death: A Multi-Sited, Multi-Level Ethnographic Study Of Growth Startups And Entrepreneurial Communities In Post-Industrial Detroit, Marlo Rencher

Wayne State University Dissertations

The intention of this research is to reveal the humanity of the startup experience for American growth companies. What is it about the growth entrepreneurship experience that has been hidden from view? Can we begin to articulate a holistic view of entrepreneurship--including those human universals and culture-bound particulars that must be successfully navigated?

This study is an ethnographic account of three Detroit-based entrepreneurial communities and the people within them. This research examines the sociocultural features of entrepreneurship on three levels. The first level of context for growth businesses to be studied is that of their entrepreneurial community. These communities have …

Non-Financial Indicators Of Family Firm Performance: A Portfolio Model Approach, John E. Neff

Student Scholarship

This study sought to explore and understand the drivers of family firm performance from a non-financial perspective. The key research question underlying this research is whether certain organizational traits may compose a predictor of firm financial performance. This research extends the findings of an earlier inductive study on aspects of success in private family owned manufacturing firms. Organizational traits identified in the prior inductive study appeared to influence either or both the family and the business and ultimately the long term sustainability of family firms. Research findings suggest that certain organizational features combine to form an 'effective family business culture' …

The Role Of Organizational Climate And Culture In Service Encounters, Beth Ann Heyart

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study explored the link between culture and climate with respect to customer service ratings. Two hospital units, one with high customer service ratings and one with low customer service ratings, were identified for analysis. A mixed-method design was implemented to assess climate and culture on each unit. Climate was assessed with a survey that combined elements of Schneider, White, and Paul's (1998) Assessment of Service Climate Instrument and Litwin and Stringer's (1968) Organizational Climate Questionnaire. An ethnographic approach using observation, interviews and archival data analysis was completed to understand each unit's culture. Findings indicate high customer service environments rated …

Three Essays On Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Carole Louise Cangioni

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The association between entrepreneurial activity and economic growth appears to be robust: the source of half of job creation emanates from new ventures which, in addition, are a source of technical and market innovation as well as higher labor productivity (Gartner, Shaver, Carter, & Reynolds, 2004). Also, there is a growing percentage of ethnic entrepreneurship in immigrant receiving metropolitan areas, and marginal economic conditions, often experienced by immigrants, increase self-employment. According to the U.S. Census Bureau: "By 2010, Hispanics will be the largest minority group in the U.S with more than 20% of the nation's population" and "minorities, now roughly …

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 …

A Chinese Model Of Leadership Competence, Guo-Ming Chen, Ran An

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter aims to develop a model of leadership competence from the Chinese cultural perspective. In the introduction part, the impact of globalization on human society is discussed to lay down the foundation of the need for developing a model of global leadership competence. In order to examine the Chinese leadership competence, which can be integrated to a more comprehensive model of global leadership competence, the philosophical foundation of Chinese leadership competence is delineated in the second part. Based on the Chinese philosophical thinking, three dimensions of leadership competence, including self cultivation, context profundity, and action dexterity are proposed. Then …

Crm In Russia And U.S. -- Case Study From American Financial Service Industry, Tamilla Curtis, Tom Griffin, Donald Barrere

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

This paper discusses Customer Relationship Management in two sharply contrasting business cultures: the United States and Russia. Included in the present work is a case study of a midsized American financial services firm that illustrates a common path to the decision to have a CRM system: the planning, selection, and the implementation of the CRM program, including a discussion of the likelihood of success. The clients in this case are Financial Advisors, who in turn sell the investment products to the end user individual investors. CRM in Russia is yet in its infancy as the economy emerges from 200 years …

Perspectives On Leisure Of Lds Women Who Are Stay-At-Home Mothers, Patti A. Freeman, Alexis A. Palmer, Birgitta L. Baker

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to explore the meanings of leisure for women who belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lived in Utah, and were stay-at-home mothers. Particular attention was given to the religious, cultural, and role-determined forces that shaped their lives and leisure. A phenomenological approach was used. Thirteen women were identified through a criteria-based snowball sampling technique. Emerging theory indicated that cultural beliefs and values can contribute to feelings of entitlement to leisure because of the support for leisure and life roles given by one’s faith, family, and community.

Meanings Transferred Through The Consumption Of Jewelry In Romania, Meagan Call

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

In the past decade, there has been a vast expansion and globalization of markets. This "globalization demands that consumer researchers have experience and knowledge about individual countries and international conditions" (Arnould et al, 2002). The globalization of consumer research "demands that...researchers have experience and knowledge about individual countries and international conditions...meaningful synthesis and comparison demands not just proficiency in statistical methods and languages but insights into cultural differences" (Arnould et al, 2002). What is important for marketers to understand is the relationship between culture and product meanings. One important area of meanings involves personal meanings such as those high involvement …

Just Tell Me The Rules! Or When Did The Rules Change?, Valerie Christian

WCBT Faculty Publications

Anne is an experienced direct marketer. Just promoted to CEO, Anne proves to be naïve in managing The ABC Catalog Company, despite her twenty years of experience with the company. She prefers to set simple, straightforward rules for her direct reports to follow. Her management philosophy has been influenced by advice from her mentor and by her personal experiences working with her direct reports when they were her colleagues. According to Anne “The big picture is for her (and perhaps her newly-appointed and trusted CFO, Jeff) to worry about.” Anne feels that many of her direct reports are incapable or …

International Advertising And The Use Of The Sex Appeal: Acceptance Of Sex Appeal In China, Katie Hunt

Theses and Dissertations

China is the most populated country in the world. With a population of over a billion people, it is an attractive market to many companies. However, China has traditionally been a market that was difficult to access due to its communist government and strict regulations. In 1978, China began changing the economy from a centrally planned system to a more market-oriented economy. By 2001, "China stood as the second largest economy in the world after the U.S., measured on a purchasing power parity basis" (World Factbook, 2002). China is a strong business partner with the U.S.; 21% of China's exports …