Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

An Epistemological Inquiry Into The Incorporation Of Emergency Management Concept In The Homeland Security With A Post-Disaster Security Centric Focus, Mehmet Secilmis

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The historical roots of the Emergency Management concept in the U.S. date back to 19th century. As disasters occurred, policies relating to disaster response have been developed, and many statuary provisions, including several Federal Disaster Relief Acts, conceptually established the framework of Emergency Management. In 1979, with the foundation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), disaster relief efforts were finally institutionalized, and the federal government acknowledged that Emergency Management included mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery activities as abbreviated 'MPRR.'

However, after 2000, the U.S. experienced two milestone events - the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and Hurricane Katrina …

Ky. Voices: In Disasters, Shared Responsibility Is Government's Role, Aaron W. Hughey

Counseling & Student Affairs Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Subordinate-Supervisor Communication: Junior Naval Officer Feelings And Obstacles When Communicating Up The Chain Of Command, Neva R. Fuentes

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Research on subordinate-supervisor communication has revealed that employees in civilian organizations often stay silent about workplace problems. Comfort levels between subordinates and supervisors, was a major factor to this silence. Currently, there exists very little literature on upward communication from subordinate to supervisor amongst U.S. Naval Officers. The purpose of this thesis was to explore Junior Officer (JO) feelings and perceived obstacles about communicating up the chain of command with senior officers. Interview questions from a previous study (Milliken, Morrison, & Hewlin, 2003) on subordinate-supervisor communication were adapted for an electronic survey and used to explore JO feelings and perceived …

The Organisational Climate Of Sustainability: A Survey, Anke Arnaud, Janet K. Tinoco, Dawna L. Rhoades

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

This study describes three dimensions of the climate of sustainability and the development of a survey for assessing these dimensions. The authors report the results of two studies conducted to measure the climate of sustainability dimensions of sensitivity to sustainability (six items), motivation for sustainability (six items), and responsibility for sustainability (five items). Results support that the climate of sustainability is a reliable instrument and demonstrate the convergent and discriminant validity of each survey dimension. Furthermore, results show the criterion-related validity of the climate of sustainability with respect to innovation strategy and employee attitudes including satisfaction and turnover intentions. Implications …

The Transfer Of Military Culture To Private Sector Organizations: A Sense Of Duty Emerges, Janet K. Tinoco, Anke Arnaud Ph.D.

Publications

As a government institution, the United States (US) Department of Defense (DOD) wields powerful influence on private sector organizations in the defense industry beyond the implications of public policy. In our conceptual research, we study the DOD as a key customer stakeholder in these organizations and investigate the influence of its military culture on these private sector organizations. By analyzing the culture of the DOD, we uncover a new dimension, sense of duty, not previously studied in mainstream organization literature. We propose that this dimension transfers from the DOD to its private sector suppliers in the defense industry via interorganizational …

Managing The Polarities Of Democracy: A Theoretical Framework For Positive Social Change, William J. Benet

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

People around the globe have embraced democracy to bring about positive social change to address our environmental, economic, and militaristic challenges. Yet, there is no agreement on a definition of democracy that can guide social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model is a unifying theory of democracy to guide healthy, sustainable, and just social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model consists of ten elements, organized as five polarity pairs: freedom & authority, justice & due process, diversity & equality, human-rights & communal-obligations, and participation & representation. In this model each element has positive aspects and negative aspects and …

Family Policies And Institutional Satisfaction: An Intersectional Analysis Of Tenure-Track Faculty, Heather Lee Schneller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gender and faculty career advancement have been examined with a focus on academic work environment, including faculty workloads, mentoring relationships, access to research networks, and work-life balance. Previous studies concerned with gender, employment, and care work only have considered child care. Additionally, the exploration of faculty and care work focused specifically on gender instead of examining the interaction of race and gender. To date, no study on academic work-life policies includes faculty perceptions of their importance and effectiveness nor has the faculty assessment of eldercare policy been examined in relation to career success.

Guided by an intersectional perspective, this study …

Associations, Movements, Dialogues, Social Problems And News: Voluntary Action And The Life Cycles Of The Third Sector, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This is one of two summation papers presented at the conclusion of the 2012 Queensland University conference on the third sector, looking to the future. The focus initially is on the concept of the social imaginary as offered by the Canadian social philosopher, Charles Taylor. Much of the previous conceptual and theoretical work in third sector studies during the past few decades has been focused on questions of the best ways to imagine the community and national social configurations of increasingly large numbers of nonprofit, voluntary and nongovernmental organizations. The concepts of nonprofit organization and nonprofit sector have been most …

The Leadership Of Sustainable Cities: A Multiple-Case Study Of Two Oregon Cities, Kenneth L. Weaver

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

In order for cities to become more sustainable it is necessary for the leaders of the efforts to change the organizations and governments so that they understand and embrace what it means to be more sustainable. This study examined the change processes of two Oregon Cities, Corvallis and Eugene, that had made the choice to become more sustainable as a community. The approaches that the participant leaders used demonstrated the use of different ways of thinking about the leadership of change. The ways of thinking of the community leaders were formed by their unique personal backgrounds, knowledge, skills, and abilities. …

Making Sense Of Irish Health Care Management: The Street Level Public Organisation (Slpo)., Vivienne Byers

Conference papers

Public service reform in modern economies has placed an emphasis on effective planning and management of service delivery to the citizen-client. This paper draws on the concept of the Street Level Public Organization (SLPO) to examine the problem of government’s top down implementation of planning reform in the delivery of public services. It does so, by exploring the implementation of strategic planning in the health sector and drawing upon field work from such implementation in the health services in Ireland and Canada. The SLPO model (McKevitt 1998) is used as an explanatory tool to add to the public sector reform …

Tracing The Path To ‘Tiger Hood’: Ireland’S Move From Protectionism To Outward-Looking Economic Development, Paul Donnelly

Articles

Up to very recently, Ireland was spoken of in very adulatory terms, to the point of being dubbed the ‘Celtic Tiger.’ However, the tiger is no more, having been consumed by a property-led boom, the collapse of which was compounded by the global financial crisis. Taking path dependence as lens, this paper looks at an early sequence of events that shaped the country’s path to ‘tiger hood’, i.e., the policy shift from protectionism to outward-looking economic development. From relatively contingent and unpredictable beginnings evolved an institutional matrix, with a clear focus on the global, that, ex ante, could not have …

Maintaining And Regaining Organizational Legitimacy : The U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission, Karen R. Bryce

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Focusing on organizational legitimacy is an essential element to the survival of an organization. Suchman (1995) suggests that "Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions" (p. 574). Legitimacy must first be gained and then maintained. If lost, legitimacy must be regained or the organization is unlikely to survive. Organizations can use both symbolic and substantive means of gaining, maintaining or regaining legitimacy. This dissertation explores organizational legitimacy by examining the case of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission …

More Than A One-Trick Pony: Exploring The Contours Of A Multi-Sector Covener, Madeleine W. Mcnamara, John C. Morris

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Today's managers must find ways to identify and sustain productive relationships within multi-sector collaborative arrangements. This paper explores empirically the activities of a convener based on tasks identified by Agranoff and McGuire (2001) and applies this framework to the case of Virginia's Coastal Zone Management Program (VCZMP). We find that the convener displays characteristics described by Agranoff and McGuire, as well as characteristics of traditional hierarchical managers. This research suggests that both sets of skills are necessary for effective multi-sector collaborative governance.

Public Safety Networks – Examining Mimetic, Complexity, And Legacy Effects On Interorganizational Collaborations, Martin A. Dias

2012

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine information systems-enabled interorganizational collaborations called public safety networks – their proliferation, information systems architecture, and technology evolution. These networks face immense pressures from member organizations, external stakeholders, and environmental contingencies. This dissertation investigates the role of three effects on these networks - the effect of peers in network proliferation, the effect of environmental and organizational complexity on their information systems, and the effect of legacy systems on capability scale and scope. Better understanding the conditions associated with network proliferation will assist decision-makers in assessing appropriate partnering opportunities. Better understanding the nature of …

Securing Access To Lower-Cost Talent Globally: The Dynamics Of Active Embedding And Field Structuration, Stephan Manning, Joerg Sydow, Arnold Windeler

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

This article examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) shape institutional conditions in emerging economies to secure access to high-skilled, yet lower-cost science and engineering talent. Based on two in-depth case studies of engineering offshoring projects of German automotive suppliers in Romania and China we analyze how MNCs engage in ‘active embedding’ by aligning local institutional conditions with global offshoring strategies and operational needs. MNCs thereby contribute to the structuration of field relations and practices of sourcing knowledge-intensive work from globally dispersed locations.Our findings stress the importance of institutional processes across geographic boundaries that regulate and get shaped by MNC activities.

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 …

A Phenomenological Study Of Millennial Generation Cooperative Extension Educators' Development Of Core Competencies, David L. Varner

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

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to describe the experiences that contribute to the development of core competencies among Millennial Generation, county-based Extension educators in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Division. Fourteen educators were randomly purposefully selected to participate in the study. Participants were born in 1977 or later as determined by Tapscott (2009). Educators’ tenure in Cooperative Extension ranged from two months to seven years. Three themes and associated sub-themes emerged from semi-structured interviews: (a) Blindfolded and Scared—educators were confused, overwhelmed and in need of support; (b) Developing the Big Skills: A Daunting Task—focused on discovering competencies …

Psychological Net Worth: Finding The Balance Between Psychological Capital And Psychological Debt, Michele L. Millard

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

This multi-level study examined a proposed framework of psychological net worth that builds on the current psychological capital conceptualization of positive psychological assets provided to an organization by articulating the construct of psychological debt or those psychological liabilities in an organization. By describing psychological debt as a collection of negative attributes that occur at the individual level for individuals that hamper productivity, morale, and effectiveness in organizations, this framework of psychological net worth proposes the need to create a psychological balance sheet of psychological capital and debt. Psychological debt is described using the dimension of emotional labor, job insecurity, job …

Knots Of Knowledge: How Community-Based Organizations Advance Social Change, Jennifer Cohen

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Building on existing literature and research that identify nonprofits as agents of democracy, this research explores how community-based organizations (CBOs) advance social change. Strategically placed to improve social and economic security for individuals, families, and communities, CBOs have unique characteristics, successes, and challenges. The study seeks to understand, document, and apply these in building theories for use by practitioners, academics, public officials, and people living the experiences that public policies address. The research articulates a new model of social change, wherein individual transformation, organizational growth, community strengthening, and public policy work together in dynamic and complementary spheres.

The methodology is …

A Multilevel Examination Of Proactive Work Behaviors: Contextual And Individual Differences As Antecedents, Travis P. Searle

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

In this study, the process through which individual differences (i.e., proactive personality, psychological empowerment, and servant leader characteristics at level-1) and contextual differences (i.e., servant leadership characteristics at level-2) are antecedents to proactive work behaviors (i.e., problem prevention, individual innovation, voice, and taking charge) was tested. Results indicated that psychological empowerment partially mediated the relationship between proactive personality and individual innovation. Psychological empowerment fully mediated the relationship between proactive personality and taking charge. Proactive personality was indirectly related to problem prevention, via psychological empowerment. Psychological empowerment was directly related to voice. In addition, servant leader characteristics at level-1 were positively …

Making Sense Of Health Care Planning In Ireland; The Street Level Public Organization (Slpo)., Vivienne Byers

Conference Papers

One of the central mechanisms of the Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) (Government of Ireland 1996) is the devolution of accountability and responsibility from the centre to executive agencies. Service planning was introduced in the Irish health care sector as part of this strategic planning ethos. This paper reports on a study that examined both the intent and the consequences of implementing legislatively mandated planning in the Irish health services, in the context of significant organizational change. In an effort to draw broader lessons, a comparison is drawn with the Canadian experience of service planning.

The choice was made to study …

Social Networking And Individual Performance: Examining Predictors Of Participation, Michael Anthony Brown Sr.

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation addresses relationships between social networking and individual performance. The "act" of social networking is a process and practice by which people and organizations are drawn together by family, work or hobby to interact via websites. The explosion of these new network connections in the workplace suggests the need for an exploration of the various ways organizations can affect and improve performance and productivity.

This dissertation suggests a social networking participation model that may help organizations predict and understand the value proposition that affects acceptance or rejection of participation. Innovation adoption, governing by network and social capital are important …

Library Sector Leadership: Bridging Theory And Practice, Melanie Mills, Charlotte Innerd

Western Libraries Presentations

Explore the issue of leadership in libraries with one current student and one graduate of The University of Victoria's Professional Graduate Certificate in Library Sector Leadership. Looking specifically at Kouzes and Posner's 'Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders' and Quinn et al.'s 'Competing Values Framework', we hope to share our own discoveries and insights and add to the important discussion of leadership in Libraries.

The Relative Influence Of Military Rank Versus Personality On Perceived Autonomy For United States Air Force Pararescuemen, Kevin A. Deibler

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Hierarchies within organizations like the military have often contributed to feelings of subordination and have contributed to lower employee autonomy and a decrease in job satisfaction, motivation, and performance. Other constructs, such as those relating to personality, have been eluded to explain the variance in the poor outcomes. However, despite the research on dominance, autonomy, and personality constructs, there has been little investigation to bridge together the structure and dynamics of personality and autonomy. By applying interpersonal, boundary, control, and contingency theories, this quantitative study bridged the gap between hierarchical levels of military rank, the personality construct of relative dominance, …

Business As Usual : The Nonprofit Sector In The U.S. National Elite Network, Scott Vincent Dolan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Research on the structure and distribution of power in the United States has focused mostly on the relative power of business, and has largely neglected the nonprofit sector. This is despite evidence that points to the emergence and growth of large-scale, bureaucratic, and elite-led nonprofit organizations. When the political role of the nonprofit sector has been examined, it has come predominantly from two sets of literature: the civic engagement/social capital tradition or the interest group tradition. I argue that both sets of literature, however, start with faulty assumptions about the nature of power and politics, and thereby fail to situate …

Greenleaf's 'Best Test' Of Servant Leadership: A Multilevel Analysis, Robert W. Hayden

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

This study empirically tests Robert Greenleaf’s (1970) seminal articulation of servant leadership. The four personal outcomes he theorized (health, wisdom, freedom-autonomy, and service orientation) were tested against established dimensions of servant leadership. All correlations were significant and positive. Using multilevel analysis, the predictive strength of these servant leadership dimensions were assessed at two levels within an organization, and explained. Implications and future direction of research were discussed.

Take Me Out Of The Ball Game: The Efficacy Of Public Subsidies In The Success Of Professional Sports Stadiums, Jonah Chodosh

CMC Senior Theses

This paper weights the relative advantages of multiple factors that lead to the success of professional sports stadiums in major markets, though a discussion of the arguments for and against public subsidies towards these projects. Using a logit statistical model, the paper determines that the two factors determining the highest likelihood of venue success include multiple tenants and access to mass transit. The analysis demonstrates that public subsidies towards stadiums don’t generate sufficient economic returns, and that successful stadiums can be created without using taxpayer funds.

The Perspectives Of African American Nonprofit Female Executives From The Northeastern Region Of The United States About The Work-Family Balance, Tammy Evans-Colquitt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although many studies have been conducted on the increased pressure and stress facing women who are trying to fulfill work and family demands, little is known about African American women in executive positions and their perspectives about work-life balance. A particular gap in the research literature exists on the lived experience of African American nonprofit executive women in maintaining work-life balance. The conceptual framework of this phenomenological study was the bidirectional frame of both work interfering with family and family interfering with work. Data were collected through semistructured telephone interviews of 12 African American women ages 30 to 45 and …

Administration Without Borders, Jonathan G.S. Koppell

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

To thrive in 2020, we must conceive of the field of public administration in the broadest possible terms. Phenomena that typically have been treated peripherally in our literature are emerging center stage in recent years, confirming that the “old” boundaries of our discipline do not reflect contemporary reality. After reviewing three key developments—the rise of mixed and nongovernmental institutions in public policy, the increasing importance of market mechanisms, and the assertion of meaningful global regulation—an argument is made for a broader reconception of “publicness” that goes hand in hand with the embrace of governance in lieu of administration.

Mobility And Permanence Of Local Ethics: The Case Of Young Adults Involved In The Banco Palmas Economic Solidarity Movement, Lillian Steponaitis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The global capitalist model produces economic centers and peripheries on many scales. In Fortaleza, Brazil this pattern is evident, with the majority of the wealth and capital concentrated in central neighborhoods. As one travels to the edge of the municipality, one encounters economically and socially marginalized communities. One of these communities, Conjunto Palmeira, has attempted to mollify this exclusion by imagining and exploring new modes of existing and finding economic growth outside of the capitalist model. In 1998, the residents created Banco Palmas, a community bank. Operating under the philosophies of economic solidarity, Banco Palmas offers microcredit loans, circulates a …