Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Work Breaks, Employee Morale, And Satisfaction In The Restaurant Industry, Laura A. Oliver

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Work breaks during an individual's shift can be a powerful motivational tool for management; however, not all individuals receive breaks during their shifts. The purpose of this phenomenological, qualitative study was to explore how work breaks affect employee morale and satisfaction in the casual and fine dining restaurant industry. The questions explored in this study were related to the breaks effect employee satisfaction and morale in the casual and fine dining restaurant industry. Thirteen participants with a minimum of 5 years' experience as wait staff who worked more than 6 hours per day were interviewed using semi structured interviews. The …

Strategies Functional Managers Use To Control Cyberloafing Behaviors, Emilsen Salazar Holguin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Computer technologies have increased the opportunities for employees to engage in cyberloafing by using the Internet at work for personal purposes. Uncontrolled cyberloafing is a threat to organizational effectiveness because it affects organizational productivity. The purpose of this single case study was to explore successful strategies functional managers use to control cyberloafing behaviors of their employees at an e-learning organization located in the northeastern United States. The theory of planned behavior, which emphasized behavioral, normative, and control beliefs as key elements to predict individuals' intentions to behave was the conceptual framework. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews with 11 functional …

Transforming Christian Schools Using Sustainable Model Of Organizational Change And Performance Improvement, Abraham Adhanom

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational failure in Christian schools is a common phenomenon affecting millions of families in the United States. In the past 2 decades alone, more than 200 Christian schools closed each year; and many continued to struggle for survival. This trend presented significant challenge for the sustainability of faith-based schools that serve over 10% of grade-level students in the country. The purpose of this study was to examine internal and external factors impacting the performance of Christian schools and analyze existing theories of institutional effectiveness leading to the development of a sustainable framework. The research question addressed what type of organizational …

Absenteeism In An International Custom Software Engineering Company, Jennifer M. Mudek

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Absenteeism has a negative impact on organizational output in the form of lost productivity and profit reduction for software engineering companies. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to explore the strategies that software engineering managers utilize for reducing absenteeism. The theory of planned behavior formed the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews from a purposeful sample of 11 managers at an international custom software engineering company. Data collection also included organizational data on employee absences for the past 5 years (2011-2015), e-mail memos, newsletters, employee handbook, and employee performance reviews. Based on …

The Impact Of Organizational Culture On Corporate Performance, Tewodros Bayeh Tedla

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Lack of effective organizational culture and poor cultural integration in the corporate group affect organizational performance and decrease shareholders return. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore successful strategies that one corporate group used to establish an effective organizational culture to improve performance. The Denison organizational culture model served as the conceptual framework for the study. A purposive sample of 20 senior managers from a corporate group in Ethiopia participated in semistructured face-to-face interviews. The selected participant met the criteria of a minimum 5 years of experience with successful strategies in establishing an effective organizational culture in …

The Effects Of Participative Leadership Practices On Job Satisfaction For Highly Skilled Virtual Teams, Funda Sinani

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Virtual-team professionals have reported experiencing low job satisfaction due to lack of face-to-face interaction leading to stress, miscommunication, and role-confusion. Dissatisfaction among virtual teams has increased turnover and management costs for organizations. Despite these known associations, there was a gap in the literature investigating efficient leadership practices to improve job satisfaction for highly skilled virtual teams. Participative leadership offers an effective approach to increase job satisfaction among face-to-face teams and innovative teams. This study explored the relationship between participative leadership and job satisfaction among highly skilled virtual teams within the global software industry. A quantitative study with a correlational design …

An Exploration Of Leadership Styles And Motivation In Egyptian Business Organizations, Nady Ahmed El-Zayaty

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leadership styles can have a profound impact on employee motivation and performance. The changing global business landscape has drawn much attention to transformational leadership as an approach that addresses the demands of organizations in this complex environment. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to understand the nature of employee motivation with regard to leadership styles and the role of transformational leadership in Egyptian business organizations. Seventeen Egyptian professionals were recruited through a combination of e-mail and telephone procedures and were interviewed regarding their experiences with organizational leaders; their perception of the ideal organizational leader; their feelings about …

Examining How Supervisor/Employee Communication Affects Employee Intentions To Leave An Organization, Courtney R. Malengo

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Americans who are full-time employees spend more hours at work than they do with family and loved ones. Management articles and research lament organizational communication woes, specifically amongst employees and their supervisors. This study explores supervisor/employee communication and the affect it has on employees’ decisions to stay or leave an organization. Specifically, the study examines how satisfied employees are with their respective supervisor and their organization, correlating findings to Deetz’s organizational communication theory and Graen & Uhl-Bien’s leader-member exchange theory. Respondents included 132 adults, 18 years and older, 58.4% were female and 41.6% were male, largely spanning the nonprofit/association and …

The Transformational Leadership Communication Of Socially Close And Distant Leaders On Vision Integration, Bethany Weaver

Wayne State University Dissertations

Applying the theories of transformational leadership and distributive leadership and drawing from diffusion of innovations, this work posits that transformational leaders are successful in transferring vision and subsequently transforming the organization by enacting their communication both systematically and interpersonally. From a system level perspective, transformational leaders in executive leadership roles direct their communicative attention to the key influencers in the organization. They expend their time and effort on an interpersonal level ensuring these individuals are infused with the vision of the organization, understand it, develop the skills necessary to contribute to its achievement, and are equipped and motivated to transfer …

Leadership Styles And Learning For Performance Within Commercial Banks In Kenya, Teckie Michelle Karoki

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The literature indicates that leaders influence the establishment of organizational learning culture (OLC) by the application of transformational (TFO), transactional (TAC), and passive-avoidant (PAV) styles. Further, the literature links OLC to the financial performance of organizations by leadership involvement in establishing learning organizations. However, the manner in which the practice of OLC occurs and the relationship of OLC with TFO, TAC, and PAV is unclear, as is the link between OLC and financial performance (ROA); especially for growing economies outside North America. The purpose of this study was to address this gap in the literature through a quantitative study of …

Evaluating Key Predictors Of Employee Response To Change In The Pharmaceutical Industry, Otis S. Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study addressed the factors that predict employee response to large-scale change in the United States pharmaceutical industry. When poorly executed, major organizational changes such as mergers and acquisitions are often disruptive and costly to organizations and demoralizing to employees. Although employee responses to change have been studied in several industries, employee responses during change execution in the pharmaceutical industry have not been subject to study. The purpose of this correlational study was to reduce the knowledge gap related to organizational change in the pharmaceutical industry by evaluating key predictors of employee response to large-scale change. The theoretical framework consisted …

Ethnic Diversity Of Boards Of U.S. Companies: Business Sustainability And Group Dynamics, Saajan Sappal

UROP Posters

Ethnic minorities are significantly underrepresented on the Board of Directors of large US firms. White males comprise nearly twice the proportion of directorships of Fortune 1000 companies as they do the total US population. Ethnic diversity in corporate governance is valued as an asset per two prominent theories: Resource Dependence theory and Agency theory. However, Ethnic diversity on the Board of Directors can also impair the group process per Status theory and constraints such as tokenism and marginalization. This paper is aimed at developing both a theoretical and empirical understanding of the value of ethnic minorities on the Board of …

A Social Capital Perspective On Projects: Measuring The Unobservable Using Structural Equation Modeling, Sandra Sjoberg

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Project leadership requires a diverse blend of technical and behavioral skills. Researchers have focused on the technical aspects of project management, leaving a void in understanding the behavioral skills of project leadership. The purpose of this correlational study was to gain insights into the behavioral aspects of projects by understanding the social capital and knowledge integration abilities of project leaders. Nahapiet and Ghoshal's social capital definition and its structural, relational, and cognitive attributes form the basis for the social capital theory constructs used in this study. The focus of the research questions was on the relationship of social capital to …

Strategies To Influence A Quality And Compliance Culture, Betsy Jean Macht

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In drug, medical, and consumer products businesses, leaders should establish strategies that ensure production of quality products and drive profitability. Sales of defective or substandard products carry a potential risk of unintended effects on the consumer. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the strategies used by leaders to influence a culture of quality and compliance, leading to production of saleable products, and business profitability. The conceptual framework of the theory of constraints served to guide the scope and data analysis for this study. Participants included ten individuals with a minimum of 5 years of experience at …

Servant Leadership And Non Servant Leadership Organization Triple Bottom Line Reporting Outcomes, Lydia M. Daniels

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The competitive environment of the 21st century, failure of U.S. companies, and the financial crisis of 2008 have moved leadership expectations to the forefront of research. However, there is a lack of empirical research about organizational reporting outcomes of self-identified servant leadership (SL) organizations compared to self-identified nonservant (non-SL) organizations. Guided by Greenleaf's SL theory, the purpose of this study was to compare information on organizational data for triple bottom line (TBL) reporting outcomes in SL organizations and non-SL organizations. Using causal comparative research design and global reporting initiative data with a sample of 12 organization reports, reporting outcomes were …

Community-Based Tourism: An Exploratory Study Of Barbados, Bertram O'Brian Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Tourism, Barbados's primary industry, declined substantially from the outset of the 2008 global recession, triggering an economic slump in the local economy. The purpose of this exploratory study was to explore the views of 20 Barbadian tourism executives regarding the ability of community-based tourism (CBT) to resuscitate Barbados's tourism industry. The participants included 10 from the government and 10 from the business sector; all possessed knowledge of CBT and worked with tourism for at least 10 years. Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation constituted the conceptual framework of this study. Participants were recruited by snowball and purposive sampling. Data were collected …

Book Review: Reinventing Organizations: A Guide To Creating Organizations Inspired By The Next Stage In Human Consciousness By Frederic Laloux, David K. Banner

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness is a terrific book for anyone interesting in learning about democratizing and debureaucratizing organizations while increasing profits and employee satisfaction, engagement, and well-being. Though this sounds unrealistic and perhaps a bit Utopian, author Frederic Laloux’s thorough research and in-depth reportage of various exemplar organizations around the world, demonstrate that it can be done—but not by anybody. Like any evolutionary system, the forefront of enlightened organizational change begins with a few who become the models and create the systems and conditions for others to follow—when they …

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.

What Are The Key Qualities And Skills Of Effective Team Coaches?, William Jacox

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this dissertation was to identify and understand the key qualities and skills of effective team coaches. The results serve to educate and inform those aspiring to be organizational team coaches, those presently serving as team coaches, those developing curriculum to train team coaches, and those responsible for choosing and hiring team coaches for their organizations. Study participants were all experienced professional team coaches representing several states and a few different countries. The Delphi method was used, resulting in the emergence of consensus judgements of 15 qualities and 15 skills based on anonymous responses during multiple iterations. While …

The Development Of The Creative Synergy Scale, Amy E. Climer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study developed a scale for teams to assess their behaviors related to creative synergy. Creative synergy is the interactions among team members where the collective creative results are greater than the sum of their individual efforts. When a team achieves creative synergy they have the potential to solve difficult problems with innovative solutions leading to positive impacts on our communities, societies, and even our world. This study looked at the internal-process variables of teams to determine what factors impact creative synergy. The research process involved two phases.In Phase 1, a survey was taken by 830 adults who were members …

The Efficacy Of Psychosocial Services In Comprehensive Cancer Care: A Program Evaluation, Nicola B. Mucci

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

On average, regardless of other factors, persons affected by cancer will experience some level of distress associated with the disease and its sequelae. Left untreated, psychosocial problems can, and often do, adversely affect a person's health and healthcare treatment. As a result, national initiatives have been implemented to recognize and treat psychosocial stressors to optimize a person's functioning and facilitate successful movement through the medical system. A program evaluation was conducted to examine how Providence Regional Cancer Partnership has addressed the psychosocial needs of its patient population. Specifically, the psychosocial services department, Patient Support Services, was evaluated to understand how …

The Impact Of Employee Engagement On Job Performance And Organisational Commitment In The Egyptian Banking Sector, Dr. Maha Ahmed Zaki Dajani

Business Administration

During the past two decades, employee engagement became a very popular managerial construct. Organisations use different engagement building tools in order to stay competitive and improve performance. Though there is an increasing contribution in human resource consulting agencies on the concept of employee engagement, yet there is a shortage of academic studies on that construct, especially in emerging economies countries. This engagement gap grew more in importance amidst the waves of ongoing recession and resource scarcity battles prevailing in the Middle Eastern Region, in general, and in Egypt in particular. This is an exploratory study that aims to identify the …

Examining The Interplay Of Supervisor And Subordinate Leadership Style In The Performance Evaluation Process, Victoria A. Neuhauser

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine if differences in leadership behavior preferences in subordinates and supervisors can lead to quantitative differences in performance evaluation scores. Leadership behavior was considered on two dimensions: preference for person-oriented behaviors and preferences for task-oriented behaviors. Findings indicate that leaders with a preference for task-oriented behaviors tend to rate subordinates with the same preferences higher than subordinates with different preferences. No such relationship could be found for person-oriented leaders. Leaders with equal preference for task- and person-oriented behaviors produced, on average, equivalent scores for both types of subordinates. In a business context, the …

Transformational Leadership Increases Self-Determination And Positively Impacts Hospitality Frontline Employees, Xiao Zhang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This professional paper presents literature by exploring the role of self-determination theory between the relationship of transformational leadership and hospitality employees’ well-being. It integrates the present research on leadership style, needs theory and well-being and provides useful and meaningful information for executives and organizations who are dedicated to improve employees’ well-being.

Servant Leadership And Related Issues In Chinese Hotel Industry, Yiqing Wang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Because of the economy growth and the Open Door Policy, Chinese hotel industry was under a huge expansion. Since more and more western customers are visiting and Chinese customers are having more hotel experience abroad, the service Chinese hotels used to provide dose not meet the standard anymore. So the managers and leaders need to find an appropriate approach to encourage their employees to improve the service to their customers. This research went through over 40 articles about Chinese hotel industry and Chinese culture and found out that servant leadership style should be the best approach to engage the employees.

Perspective: Influencing Systemic Change, Lilliam Lowery, Ed. D.

Leadership Hour at Otterbein University

Dr. Lowery comes to FutureReady Columbus from the Maryland State Department of Education, where she served as state superintendent of schools. Under her leadership, Maryland has consistently finished among the nation’s top performing state school systems, according to Education Week’s Quality Counts, the most comprehensive assessment of the state of American education.

Organizational Lessons From Social Change Gone Awry, Raymond L. Forbes

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Do big organizations actually learn from their colossal social change mistakes and attempt to profit from them? This paper presents a massive strategic organizational change effort gone astray. It both describes and analyzes the change from the reflective perspective of an insider. Offering a non-traditional description of the various phases of the social change process, this work showcases the counter-cultural nature of the effort. It also discusses the Zeitgeist or situational context, the relevant history of the affected organization, and provides insights into the various parties impacted by the change. Additionally, this piece notes the limits of power, rationality and …

A Mixed-Methods (Quantitative-Qualitative) Study To Identify The Perceived Level Of, Zeky Zardo

Dissertations

Different approaches to developing leaders have been established through various forms of self-assessment, action learning, and education and training activities (Smither et al., 2005). The existing body of research on the impact and success of college and university leadership development programs focuses heavily on undergraduate leadership programs and not graduate-level programs such as the Master of Business Administration (MBA) or the doctorate. The purpose of this mixed-methods (quantitative–qualitative) study was to identify the perceived level of transformational leadership skill development by students enrolled in a doctoral program in organizational leadership. In addition, it was the purpose of this study to …

University Technology Transfer Information Processing From The Attention Based View, Clovia Hamilton

Winthrop Faculty and Staff Publications

Between 2005 and 2011, there was no substantial growth in licenses executed by university technology transfer offices. Since the passage of the Bayh Dole Act of 1980, universities have owned technological inventions afforded by federal research funding. There are still university technology transfer offices that struggle with increasing their licensing revenues. There is a persistent underperformance by university technology transfer offices. This paper makes the contribution of advocating the novel use of cognitive thinking’s attention based view to university technology transfer in order to resolve this problem. The attention based view teaches that human attention is limited and organizations are …

A Game Theory Analysis Of Team Based Incentivization In Retailing, Don Shemwell

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

The connection between incentives and outcomes has long found consistent support in management literature generally (Bartol and Hagmann 1992; Miller & Schuster 1993; Swinehart 1986) and retailing in particular (Banker et al. 1996; Team Pay Case Studies 1997). Later meta-studies strongly support this view. (Condly, Noe and Jackson 2002; Garbers and Konradt 2014). Yet, providing performance-based incentives, at least for rank and file retail employees, still is not common in U.S. retailing and team-based incentives are even rarer.

The next section of this manuscript describes some of the issues with individualized commissions, which though not prevalent in a many product …