Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Organizational Change: Evaluating The Effect Of Motivational Interviewing On Readiness To Change, Conrado Joaquin Grimolizzi-Jensen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Failure accompanies most organizational change efforts. Change agents' efforts focus on employee resistance or readiness to change without considering employee ambivalence. Motivational interviewing (MI) may reduce ambivalence and improve the success rate of organizational change initiatives. The purpose of this experimental research was to evaluate the effectiveness of MI to increase readiness to organizational change, to assess the influence of MI on change-related beliefs, and to investigate the relationship between beliefs and readiness to change. The theoretical framework was the transtheoretical model of change, the theory of planned behavior, and social cognitive theory. Through random assignment, 56 employees of a …

Exploring Recruiting Challenges Of The Insurance Industry, Hema Chaurasia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Insurance companies provide financial protection to the general population, but their workforce challenges may destabilize the companies to the point of financial distress. Senior insurance company leaders lack effective strategies to recruit skilled professionals. With contingency theory and resource-based view theory as the framework, the focus in this multicase study was the exploration of the recruiting strategies of human resources (HR) managers in New York City area insurance companies. Four insurance company HR managers were recruited via a purposeful and snowball sampling method for semistructured interviews. These interviews were analyzed through a reflective interpretation process, which was guided by the …

A Quantitative Model Studying The Effects Of Transformational Leadership On Job Satisfaction, Kenneth Uzoma Chukwuba

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Hotels have lost $3.4 billion over the last 5 years because of high rates of employee turnover. Leaders must use the tools necessary to increase job satisfaction and retain professional employees. The problem was that insufficient data described the relationships between transformational leadership, gender, education, and job satisfaction for hotel professionals. The purpose of this survey study was to understand the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction for the hotel professionals in the United States. A total of 248 hotel professionals from the Colorado Lodging and Hotel Association were surveyed using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and the Job Satisfaction …

Transformational Leadership For Virtual Teams In An Information Technology Organization, Russell Thomas Hogue

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research has shown that transformational leadership behavior impacts team performance in a traditional work environment; however, no research has evaluated the relationship between transformational leadership and team performance in a virtual setting. Building on the theoretical foundation of Bass' 1990 work, this study examined the relationship between transformational leadership behavior and 3 measures linked to team success: work effort, perceived leader effectiveness, and job satisfaction for virtual teams. The present research focused on the transformational leadership behaviors of 41 senior executives in an information technology (IT) organization and over 300 direct report employees. Employees used the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5x …

The Triple Bottom Line And Social Responsibility Framework In Public Sector Management, Matthew Ajiake

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of public sector agencies must incorporate the voices of diversified stakeholders into planning and decision-making processes. With aging infrastructures around the world, public agencies are challenged to move public benefit projects forward when citizens are not engaged or empowered to participate in the process. The purpose of this triple bottom line (social, ecological, and financial) and social responsibility study was to explore whether public sector organizations are socially responsible by law. A case study was developed using data from publicly available documents and interviews that explored how the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) implemented a social responsibility framework …

A Delphi Study Of The Potential Influence Of Women In Stem Careers, Sharyn Elizabeth Mlinar

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

American businesses are working with educational institutions to attract women into technical and scientific professions. However, less than one quarter of the people working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are women. The educational system as-a-pipeline model is not supplying business with skilled workers, specifically female STEM employees. Organizational change must occur and this process begins with the organization's leadership. Guided by the the conceptual frameworks of Kotter & Rathgeber and Kouzes & Posner, this Delphi study asked 54 female professionals, in various locations across the United States, about what influenced them in their education and career choices. Responses …

Employee Perception Of The Value Of Customer Focus Training In Public Transportation, Michael L. Dawkins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of service-oriented jobs has increased locally and nationally, and organizations are spending millions of dollars to train front-line employees to maintain customer satisfaction and compete in the service industry. Despite the financial investments of these training programs, little research has investigated the holistic effectiveness of customer-focused training (CFT) programs. Researchers found positive relationships between the constructs under investigation and reported that when CFT programs are delivered on a consistent basis with leadership support, they help build a service-oriented culture. The purpose of this case study was to investigate employee perceptions of CFT and relationships between performance, engagement, and …

Transformational Leadership And Safe Driving Performance In The U.S. Electric Utility Industry, Mackington Joseph

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Transformational leadership (TL) has been found popular in many industries in the United States and abroad for the perceived transformational leaders' effectiveness in improving occupational safety. There is a lack of empirical evidence to confirm these claims for safe occupational driving. This phenomenological study attempted to fill this knowledge gap in the electric utility industry where employees must drive in all weather conditions to restore power to customers. The conceptual framework for the study was based on leadership and motivation theories of Burns and Maslow. The research questions explored the influence of (a) TL on safe driving performance improvement in …

Assessing Student Leadership Competencies And Adequacy Of Preparation In Seminary Training, Valerie Miles-Tribble

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As more seminary student-practitioners seek non-pastoral leadership roles in faith-based

and secular organizations, the complexities of the roles demand leadership competencies beyond traditional religious study. Limited research assessing leadership competencies in seminary contexts raises uncertainty about whether leadership preparation needs are addressed adequately in seminary. This quantitative study focused on whether or not student self-assessed adequacy of preparation is related to, affected by, or influenced by self-assessed leadership competencies, individually or in the aggregate. The theoretical foundation joined Evers, Rush, and Berdrow's learner-centered theory that urges student input on competency development needs and Boyatzis's leadership competency theory that frames a …

Assessing Organizational Data Culture To Create An Ideal Data Ecosystem, Lauren M. Leary

Capstone Collection

The year 2015 marks a critical turning point in the global development arena. The Millennium Development Goals galvanized support and collaboration across sectors and now the world is recalibrating focus to prepare for the final push with the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goal Framework. We are also in the midst of a data revolution that aims to hold governments and organizations accountable to these goals and to ultimately create synergy between systems and processes in an ever-globalizing world. This paper intends to prompt discussion and learning around organizational readiness and preparedness for these imminent changes. Drawing from best practices within the …

Technological Change And Employee Motivation In A Telecom Operations Team, Samuel Ogbonnaya Ude

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some managers view innovative product development and convenient service delivery as necessary to business survival. However, unmotivated employees might negate any gains from the use of innovation. The purpose of this correlational study, grounded in diffusion of innovation theory, was to assess the relationship between creativity and support for innovation, resistance to change, and organizational commitment and employee motivation. A random sample of 81 information technology (IT) professionals from telecom service centers completed an online survey. Simultaneous multiple linear regression was the statistical technique used to analyze these data. The results indicated a poor model with low R2 to significantly …

Relationships Between Job Design, Job Crafting, Idiosyncratic Deals, And Psychological Empowerment, Marsha Miller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although much is known about employee empowerment and work designs, numerous companies and management practitioners struggle to implement empowerment initiatives effectively because it is not known which approach best facilitates individual levels of psychological empowerment. Traditional job design theory focuses on the role of managers and portrays employees as passive grantees of empowerment. Employees may influence their own empowerment by taking an active role in work design. The primary purpose of this correlational study was to examine whether job crafting or idiosyncratic deals are more or less empowering than job design and how work locus of control influences these relationships. …

Productivity Standards, Marriage And Family Therapist Job Satisfaction, And Turnover Intent, Gilbert Ernest Franco

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Turnover among mental health professionals is high, which can have a direct impact on access to services and continuity of care. Informed by goal-setting theory, social-cognitive theory, and self-efficacy, this quantitative study investigated how California community mental health agency productivity standards were related to self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and marriage and family therapist (MFT) turnover intent among 141 MFTs. Participants completed a Demographic and Productivity Questionnaire, Job Self-Efficacy Scale, Job Satisfaction Scale, and Turnover Intention Scale. The relationship between participant age, gender, experience, number of work hours, licensure status, and job site with job satisfaction and turnover intent were assessed using …

Exploring Antecedents To Work Engagement And Psychological Well-Being Within A Canadian Provincial Ministry, Kris Ellis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A gap exists in organizational development strategies on why some individuals remain disengaged with their work. This study addressed whether a combination of specific contextual factors could support individuals, teams, and leaders to demonstrate the attitudes and behaviors consistent with work engagement. The theoretical frameworks of social constructivism, the conceptual framework of symbolic interactionism, and a hermeneutic inquiry approach were used to address how individual psychological traits/abilities of employees support work engagement. Nineteen employees of a Canadian provincial government ministry completed an engagement survey, MSCEIT, MBTI, and SDI assessments. They also participated in focus groups. Survey results showed high engagement …

Debt Collectors Exposed: A Phenomenological Study Of Job Requirements And Job Satisfaction, Christina Michelle Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to allow debt collectors to share their views about their work and to give more insight to collection leaders into lived experiences of debt collectors and the social stigma associated with collection work. This study explores potential reasons for the negative stereotypes, high turnover, performance outcomes, and stress experienced by the participants of this study. Additionally, this study adds new data to the limited amount of existing data on debt collectors by exploring emotional labor within the collections industry and determining collectors' levels of job satisfaction. Guided by Maslow's hierarchy of needs model, this …

Crisis Preparedness Of Leadership Behaviors Among Elected Leaders During Hurricanes, Fredric Marc Francis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Crisis preparedness is the responsibility of every person, business, and leader, and leadership behavioral skills are an essential characteristic of crisis preparedness. The purpose of this case study was to explore the decisions of elected leaders along the Gulf Coast during Hurricanes Katrina and Ike in order to understand their leadership behaviors in crisis preparedness. The conceptual framework was based on the emergency management theory presented by McEntire in 2004, which helped to define the necessary components for leaders' successful crisis preparedness. Data were collected through interviews with 5 members from the National Emergency Management Agency along with a document …

Assessing The Significance Of Modularizing Contract Manufacturing Organizations, Christian Sampson Yorgure

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizations are under constant threat from global competition, socioeconomic factors,

and political forces that are often unforeseen and dynamic. Consequently, decision

makers adopt strategies, some including the principles of modularity, as a

countermeasure. The problem addressed in this study was the lack of knowledge about

the significance of modularizing contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs). The

purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to assess the significance of modularizing

CMOs by statistically analyzing capacity utilization, efficiency, and profit margin

between modular and nonmodular departments in a focal CMO. This study was grounded

in the theory of modularity and the research question addressed what …

Attachment Style, Leadership Behavior, And Perceptions Of Leader Effectiveness In Academic Management, Rehema Underwood

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational effectiveness is related to both effective leadership styles and to having leaders with secure attachment styles. Transformational and charismatic leaders often have secure attachment styles. However, the relationships between insecure attachment styles and leadership styles remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine whether insecure attachment in leaders (fearful, preoccupied, and dismissing attachment styles) is related to transformational, charismatic, transactional, and laissez faire leadership. A quantitative, non experimental approach was taken in this study. Participants included those in leadership positions (college deans, chairpersons, and provosts) (n = 18) and instructors (subordinates) (n = 36) from local community …

A Client-Vendor Relationship Perspective Of Cultural Differences On Cross-Border Information Technology Outsourcing, John Kennedy Bosire

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Cross-border information technology (IT) outsourcing continues to rise due to the demand for business process outsourcing. Issues such as miscommunication and management problems have emerged because of cross-cultural disparities between clients and vendors across national borders. The theoretical framework of this study was based on the organizational culture model studies of Meek, Spradley, Smith, and Draft for examining and understanding complex organizational practices. The purpose of this mixed-methods explanatory sequential case study was to qualitatively identify and quantitatively determine the management approaches that are effective in managing cross-cultural differences and the constitution of the elements of global adjustment, motivation, mindset, …

A Mixed Methods Perspective: How Integral Leaders Can Contribute To The Growth Of Emerging Leaders, Susan M. Hayes

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Given that organizational complexity continues to increase, leaders are looking for credible information, and a process that helps them become a better leader. Emerging leaders are faced with trying to be the best leader they can be while leading teams of people who think and act differently from them. To assist emerging leaders with their leadership, this study explores the literature and looks to highly respected and admired leaders for how they became the leader they are today. The purpose of this study was fourfold: first, to identify and describe first and second tier integral theory leaders from a sample …

Market Reactions To Businesses' Actions Towards People With Disabilities: Making The Business Case In The International Context, Claudia Araceli Hernández González

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

From the business point of view, people with disabilities still suffer discrimination in employment and lack of accessibility as customers. Opposing, as recipients of philanthropic efforts many individuals and firms donate resources to improve the life of people with disabilities. These actions demonstrate how the majority of the population is still fixed in a medical model of disability by trying to repair the person to conform to the social norm, instead of accepting that many disabilities do not undermine other abilities. However, there is little evidence of how these actions impact the financial performance of the organization. This study attempts …

A Mixed Methods Study: Dimensions Of Cross-Cultural Professional Success: Experiences Of Western Women Living And Working In Eastern Cultures, Tami J. France

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In this world of global interconnectedness women continue to develop cross-cultural careers and their experiences impact and influence global scholarship and practice. Through this study, the relationships, resources, and characteristics that support female expatriate success were explored, with additional focus on the role of mentor and coach relationships. The mixed-methods study was conducted using a sequential approach to research that began with one-on-one semi structured interviews with ten professional women from the United States and Canada working or formerly working in China and Hong Kong. A survey was designed based on the interview findings. Professional women from western countries working …

Assessing Organizational Effectiveness Through The Competing Values Framework A Data Envelopment Approach, Raghavender Macherla

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This study proposes a model to diagnose organizations using the mathematical principles of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to the variables generated using competing values framework (CVF) in order to evaluate overall organizational effectiveness. The notion of organizational effectiveness is abstract and difficult to measure due to its complexity and multi-functional nature. Over the years, measurement of organizational effectiveness has remained a challenge due to the lack of agreement on the factors that should be assessed to determine effectiveness. This research is aimed at shedding some light into this topic by using data envelopment analysis as a tool to measure relative …

When Do Domestic Alliances Help Ventures Abroad? Direct And Moderating Effects From A Learning Perspective, Hana Milanov, Stephanie A. Fernhaber

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

While the importance of strategic alliances for new venture internationalization is well acknowledged, the effect of domestic partners remains less understood. Building on organizational learning theory's vicarious learning arguments, we suggest that internationally experienced domestic partners positively influence new ventures' international intensity. Moreover, acknowledging that ventures may have multiple learning sources, we argue that the effect is more pronounced when substituting for the lack of new ventures' top management teams' international experience, or when complementing the insights about foreign markets received from foreign alliance partners. The analysis of 194 publicly held new ventures largely supports our hypotheses.

An Experimental Investigation Of Outsourcing Through Competition, Ehsan Elahi, Roger Blake

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

Our research uses laboratory experiments to examine the theoretical results of competition between suppliers in an outsourcing setup. We consider a supply chain in which a single buyer needs to outsource the manufacturing of a product among N potential suppliers. The buyer allocates demand to suppliers not on the basis of price, but rather on service. We analyze the levels of service suppliers will decide to provide when competing on three different criteria specified by the buyer. For the first, suppliers compete by providing the buyer a specific service level (fill-rate), and for the second by maintaining a specific quantity …

Uncovering The Nuances Of Referral Hiring: How Referrer Characteristics Affect Referral Hires’ Performance And Likelihood Of Voluntary Turnover, Jenna R. Pieper

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The literature on employee referral hiring gives little attention to referrers. Synthesizing two theories in the literature (the better match and social enrichment accounts), through the lens of social resources theory, I provide a conceptual and empirical breakdown of the effects of referrer quality (referrer performance at hire and referrer tenure at hire) and post-hire accessibility (referrer employment and referrer-referral hire job congruence) on referral hire performance and likelihood of voluntary turnover. I tested my hypotheses with longitudinal data from 386 referrer-referral hire pairs at the same job level in a U.S. call center over a 2-year period. Across analyses …

Developing A Method For Measuring "Working Out Loud", Dennis E. Pearce

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

Enterprise social network software platforms (ESNs) are increasingly being deployed in firms across almost every industry as a means of fostering employee collaboration. Although benefits in increased productivity, innovation, and employee engagement are highly touted, there is a high failure rate of these deployments. This often occurs because (1) there is a misapplied focus on technology adoption rather than adoption of the employee behaviors that are ultimately required to obtain those benefits, and (2) it is unclear what those behaviors are and how to measure them.

“Working Out Loud” is one possible framework for understanding and measuring the behaviors necessary …

Impact Of Authentic Leadership On Performance: Role Of Followers’ Positive Psychological Capital And Relational Processes, Hui Wang, Yang Sui, Fred Luthans, Danni Wang, Yanhong Wu

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Authentic leadership has received considerable attention and research support over the past decade. Now the time has come to refine and better understand how it impacts performance. This study investigates the moderating role followers’ positive psychological capital (PsyCap) and the mediating role that leader–member exchange (LMX) may play in influencing the relationship between authentic leadership and followers’ performance. Specifically, we tested this mediated moderation model with matched data from 794 followers and their immediate leaders. We found that authentic leadership is positively related to LMX and consequently followers’ performance, and to a larger degree, among followers who have low rather …

Generational Cohort Differences In Types Of Organizational Commitment, April Lavette Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In hospitals in the United States, the ratio of nurses to patients is declining, resulting in an increase in work demands for nurses. Consequently, organizations face challenges with nurses' organizational commitment. Studies have revealed generational differences, as determined by birth year, in employee levels of organizational commitment in a number of organizational settings. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the impact of generational cohorts on the organizational commitment of nurses. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental, cross-sectional design was to address whether generational cohorts of nurses differed in their levels of organizational commitment, and to investigate whether …

A Correlational Analysis Of Empowerment And Experience With Resistance To Change, Rita Elizabeth Burgess

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite more than 60 years of research about the nature of change, resistance to change remains a problem across industries. Health care leaders have limited knowledge of how health care managers' perceptions of empowerment, years of experience, and resistance to change (RTC) relate. The purpose for this nonexperimental correlational study was to examine the relationship between empowerment, years of experience, and RTC among managers via an online survey. The theoretical framework incorporated Kanter's structural empowerment theory and Kotter's change theory. The sample included 245 out of 1,181 health care managers from Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals in the New York metropolitan …