Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Dysfunctional Audit Behaviour: An Exploratory Study In Malaysia, Halil Paino, Zubaidah Ismail, Malcolm Smith

Research outputs pre 2011

The quality of the opinion provided by audit firms is an important determinant of their long-term survival, but audit quality is difficult to gauge, which makes it particularly sensitive to the behaviour of the individuals who carry on audit work. This paper seeks to identify the incidence of dysfunctional audit behaviours and audit quality reduction behaviours, actions taken by an auditor during engagement that reduce evidence-gathering effectiveness. The paper is based on a survey of 244 auditors working in small/medium and big audit firms in Malaysia. The paper identifies key variables leading to dysfunctional audit behaviour. The paper is subject …

The Effects Of Self-Directed Teams In An Automotive Manufacturing Environment, David Wayne Shall

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE EFFECTS OF SELF DIRECTED TEAMS IN AN AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT

by

DAVID W. SHALL

December 2010

Advisor: James L. Moseley, EdD, LPC, CHES, CPT

Major: Instructional Technology

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

This study compares self-directed work structures to more traditional supervised work structures in order to determine if the expenditures and efforts required to implement self-directed work teams are warranted. Multiple internal performance metrics are examined in comparing plant work structures in various degrees of implementation between traditional work structures and self-directed work teams. The researcher collected data from multiple organizations within Ford Motor Company and four participating …

The Effect Of Initial Entry Training On The Moral And Character Development Of Military Police Soldiers, Kenneth R. Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The U.S. Army conducts extensive training on its core values beginning with initial entry training (IET), commonly referred to as basic training, in order to shape soldiers' behavior and decision making in combat and noncombat situations. This mixed methods study addressed the problem of limited empirical research on the effects of U.S. Army IET on soldiers' moral and character development. The purpose was to explore the effects of Military Police (MP) IET on soldiers in training through a mixed methods quantitative and qualitative model. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Rest's four component model (FCM) of moral …

Organizational Slack, International Expansion And Firm Profitability, Anran Liu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

International expansion is a viable growth strategy for firms operating in an increasingly competitive business environment. Understanding the relationship between international expansion and firm performance has been a significant concern for theory development in the strategy and international business literature. The extant literature, however, has paid insufficient attention to the tradeoff between firm growth and profitability that may imply the existence of an optimal rate of growth. Drawing from the Penrosian perspective that emphasizes the role of resources in firm growth, this study investigates whether and how firm slack resources affect the tradeoff between international expansion and profitability. Specifically, this …

The Impact Of Employees' Perception Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Job Attitudes And Behaviors: A Study In China, Dan Zheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is regarded as voluntary bahaviors that contribute to the soceity welfare. Based on the concept of sustainable development, corporations should not only stress on their economic and business outcomes, but also pay attention to their effect on the society and environment. Corporations are expected to engage in the improvement of their employees' quality of life, as well as the well-being of employees' families, local communities, and the overall society. With the acceleration of global integration, CSR has become a main concern by the public, and is considered as an essential part of the business strategy. It …

New Media: A New Medium In Escalating Crises?, Joanna Ann Mei Siah, Namrata Bansal, Augustine Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose– The use of new media in crisis is a double‐edged sword. On one hand, its pivotal role in online monitoring and dissemination of information can help an organisation manage crisis. On the other hand, it can also create organisational crisis. The purpose of this paper is to examine how new media can be used to escalate crisis.Design/methodology/approach– Four crises were examined: the 2008 Edison Chen sex scandal in Hong Kong; and in the USA, New York Taco Bell‐KFC rats infestation crisis in 2007; JetBlue Airways crisis in 2007, and the Kryptonite locks crisis in 2004.Findings– The very characteristics that …

Does Organizational Culture Affect Employee's Readiness To Implementation Of Evidence-Based Practices?, Joseph Waller

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The emergent trend toward the use of evidence-based practices in children’s mental health services has been gaining recognition (Barwick et al., 2005). The motivation for implementing evidence-based practices is to build quality and accountability in the delivery of mental health services. Children with emotional and behavioral disorders should be able to rely on receiving services that can accommodate their personal needs based on the best scientific evidence available. Most children who receive evidence-based treatment display significant progress and do so much more quickly than children that receive other non evidence-based treatment or no treatment at all.

The importance of implementing …

Understanding Performance Ratings: Dynamic Performance, Attributions, And Rating Purpose, Jochen Reb, Gary J. Greguras

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The present two studies integrate and extend the literatures on dynamic performance, performance attributions, and rating purpose, making several important contributions. First, examining attributions of dynamic performance, Study 1 predicted that performance mean and trend would affect judged ratee ability and effort and that performance variation would affect locus of causality; both predictions were supported by the results. Second, investigating the interaction between dynamic performance and rating purpose. Study 2 predicted that performance mean would have a stronger impact on administrative than on developmental ratings, whereas performance trend and variation would have a stranger impact on developmental than on administrative …

Work-Family Conflict In Work Groups: Social Information Processing, Support, And Demographic Dissimilarity, Devasheesh P. Bhave, Amit Kramer, Theresa G. Glomb

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We used social information processing theory to examine the effect of work-family conflict (WFC) at the work group level on individuals' experience of WFC. Consistent with hypotheses, results suggest that WFC at the work group level influences individual WFC over and above the shared work environment and job demands. It was also observed that work group support and demographic dissimilarity moderate this relationship. Moderator analyses suggest that work group social support buffers WFC for individuals but is also associated with a stronger effect of work group WFC on individuals' WFC. Moreover, the work group effect on individuals' WFC was shown …

Exploring The Antecedents Of New Knowledge Creation In Organizational Settings: An Empirical Study, Thomas Menkhoff, Yue Wah Chay, Benjamin Loh, Hans-Dieter Evers

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study aims to understand the antecedents of new knowledge creation in knowledge-intensive organizations. A model of knowledge management and new knowledge creation inspired by the works of Nonaka, Nahapiet and Ghoshal and others was used to develop a questionnaire. 213 individuals responded from a knowledge-based organization in Singapore. The results of the study indicated that knowledge tools and technologies interact with the modus of knowledge combination to influence knowledge outcomes in terms of worker skills, competencies, market knowledge and client relationships. The key ingredients for creating new knowledge as well as synergistic collaborations between various knowledge players are also …

Expanding Leader Capability: An Exploratory Study Of The Effect Of Daily Practices For Leader Development, Simon Rakoff

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Leadership is, at its essence, an influence relationship between people. Leaders are often thought of as those who are able to influence people to take actions oriented toward achieving specific goals and objectives. While many books have been written, and myriad scholarly research studies conducted enumerating countless personal characteristics, qualities, and skills of the exemplary leader, little has been done to understand and convey the ways in which an individual might go about cultivating these virtues; which are often said to include charisma, empathy, communication skills, and others. Through a multiple single-subject design, this research examines the individual-level effect of …

Not So Black And White: The Color Of Perception In Corporate Layoffs, Carole A. Isom

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research addressed the question of whether or not the perception exists that African Americans are disproportionately impacted during layoff periods within corporations. Portraiture was the selected method of inquiry for this research as it captures the experience of the participants and enables storytelling which is based upon perception as opposed to hard, quantitative data. Additionally, portraiture’s autobiographical roots supported my autoethnographic position, encouraging the artistic process while including aesthetic aspects. Portraiture allowed for the voice of the researcher everywhere: in the assumptions, preoccupations, and frameworks brought to the inquiry; in the questions asked; in the data gathered; in the …

Citizen Professionals: The Effective Practices Of Experts Helping Community Organizations, Sarah Hippensteel Hall

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Although numerous local, state, and federal laws and policies address water pollution, many problems remain. To address these problems thousands of groups of citizens, who are concerned with their water resources - rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and groundwater - organized around the U.S. over the past several decades. To succeed, these community organizations need the resources and capacity to reach their goals. To gain capacity, some community organizations turn to people outside the organization for assistance. Citizen professionals are helpers who work jointly with an organization to help develop an organization's adaptive capacity to deal with challenges and achieve goals. …

Strategic Asymmetric Multicultural Alliances In Business, Anthony James Scriffignano

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Global economics and other factors make it increasingly difficult for organizations to operate within the boundaries of one country in a rational way (e.g., leveraging best practices, profitable, achieving goals). In this study, I looked at strategic business alliances, transcending simple quid pro quo relationships to deliver ongoing partner value. I refined my study to multicultural relationships, having differing cultural identities (i.e., ideas, heritage, language, or demographics from differing geographies). Finally, I considered asymmetry (i.e., inequity in working relationship). Using a mixed-methodology design, I surveyed alliance participants and interviewed participants from selected alliances. A multi-case study addresses emergent themes of …

Trust Differences Across National-Societal Cultures: Much To Do, Or Much Ado About Nothing?, Don Ferrin, Nicole Gillespie

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Does trust and its development, functions and meaning, differ between people from different national–societal cultures? There is considerable anecdotal evidence and some theoretical argumentation to suggest it does, but are these supported by empirical research? This chapter reviews the available empirical evidence on the effects of national–societal culture on interpersonal trust. It focuses largely on quantitative empirical evidence to consider the extent to which, and the ways in which, interpersonal trust differs across national–societal cultures. In every category of our review we found evidence of cross-cultural differences, particularly on generalized trust, and also evidence of trust universals across cultures. In …

Contingency Theory Of Strategic Conflict Management: Directions For The Practice Of Crisis Communication From A Decade Of Theory Development, Discovery And Dialogue, Augustine Pang, Yan Jin, Glen. T. Cameron

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The dilemma facing crisis scholars could not be more paradoxical: How does one explain and predict the outcome of a phenomenon – characteristics which Chaffee and Berger (1987) argued to be the foundation of a theory – that is so contextual-dependent, where the twists and turns of unfolding events often frus-trate the natural ebb of what one could reasonably surmise as logical trajectory? Admittedly, the bête noire for many in the field is that our powers of deductive reasoning, often woven from threads of foraged facts surrounding the unpredictability of crises, are often tragically compromised and encumbered by myriad complex-ities …

The Situated Production Of Stories, David Greatbatch, Timothy Adrian Robert Clark

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

At a general level storytelling is a pervasive feature of everyday discourse both within and outside organisations. Existing research on organisational stories indicates that they are not simply frivolous diversions that seek to amaze and entertain the recipients. Rather they may serve a number of important functions for organisations, which include socialising new organisational members by articulating the culture of an organisation; assisting with the development and verbalisation of visions and strategies; helping develop points of similarity within disparate and dispersed organisational groups; sustaining and legitimating existing power relationships as well as providing opportunities for resistance against them; and acting …

Examining The Relationship Between Trust And Culture In The Consultant-Client Relationship, Stephanos Avakian, Timothy Clark, Joanne Roberts

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This chapter examines the dimensions of inter-organizational and interpersonal trust as they are manifested in the consultant–client interaction, viewed within the ‘cultural spheres’ framework (Schneider and Barsoux, 2003). The chapter argues that the alignment or misalignment of culture(s) helps foster or hinder the presence of trust in the consultant–client relationship. We support our argument by demonstrating how culture becomes an important informative resource from which consultants and clients manage their expectations and risk taking. In inter-organizational contexts, trust is developed through artifacts and formal procedures that are shared by both parties. In interpersonal contexts, trust is developed through the mutual …

Antecedents Of Supervisor Trust In Collectivist Cultures: Evidence From Turkey And China, S. Arzu Wasti, Hwee Hoon Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The premise of much research on dyadic trust building within organizations has been framed around the relationship as it emerges in the work context. Such models, including the seminal Mayer et al. (1995) model of dyadic trust, have been applied to contexts outside North America without a careful understanding of the distribution of social practices and everyday situations in such contexts. This chapter examines culture-specific workways as a starting point for understanding subordinates’ trust in their supervisors in collectivist cultures. Workways refer to the pattern of workplace beliefs, mental models and practices about what is true, good and efficient within …

The Employment Relationship, John W. Budd, Devasheesh P. Bhave

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The employment relationship is the connection between employees and employers through which individuals sell their labor. This might consist of an immigrant day laborer paid by the bushel to pick fruit in the hot sun, a salaried manager who has been working in an air-conditioned office for the same company for 40 years, or innumerable other situations. Irrespective of situation, all employees and employers have fundamental interests they pursue through the employment relationship, all forms of this relationship are mediated by labor markets and states, and each instance of this relationship is governed by some form of a contract, ranging …

The Burdens Of Ownership: Reasons For Preferring Renting, Sabine Moeller, Kristina Wittkowshi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and assess the importance of proposed determinants of the growing consumer preference for renting consumer goods, as opposed to the actual transfer of ownership. Design/methodology/approach: Following a qualitative preliminary study and a literature review, six factors are identified as possible determinants of a preference for non-ownership modes of consumption. These are examined in a quantitative study using a sample of 461 members of a German online peer-to-peer sharing network. Hypotheses regarding the proposed determinants are tested using factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Findings: The results show that the demand for …

The Role Of Political Skill In The Stressor–Outcome Relationship: Differential Predictions For Self- And Other-Reports Of Political Skill, James A. Meurs, Vickie C. Gallagher, Pamela L. Perrewé

Business Faculty Publications

The beneficial role of political skill in stress reactions and performance evaluations has been demonstrated in a substantial amount of empirical research. Most of the research, however, has focused on self-perceptions of political skill. This study examines the differential moderating effects of self- vs. other-rated political skill in the conflict – emotional burnout and performance relationships, using two samples including non-academic staff employees of a large university (N = 839) and a variety of office and retail employees from an automotive organization (N = 142). We argue that self-reported political skill moderates the relationship between conflict and a self-reported strain-related …

Improving Training Impact Through Effective Follow-Up: Techniques And Their Application, Harry J. Martin

Business Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: This paper aims to describe a variety of cost-effective methods that employers can use to support training activities and promote the transfer of skills and knowledge to the workplace. These techniques work to positively impact the workplace environment through peer and supervisory support. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The application of action plans, performance assessment, peer meetings, supervisory consultations, and technical support is illustrated in two case examples. Findings - Follow-up activities resulted in improved transfer and had positive quantitative and qualitative effects on operations and firm performance. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Billions of dollars are spent annually by organisations on employee training and management …

Faculty Inside A Changing University: Constructing Roles, Making Spaces, Leslie D. Gonzales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The notion of a multiversity was stamped into the higher education literature by Clark Kerr in 1963 when he spoke about the numerous purposes tied to U.S. higher education. Kerr highlighted how the University is often pulled in many directions at once, asked to fulfill promises of the cultural, educational, national, societal, and now, of the global kind. Yet it is imperative to remember that these multiversities are not empty spaces. They are occupied and brought to life by the people who work inside them, especially the faculty, who Gregorian (2005) names as the "heart and soul, the bone marrow …

An Analysis Of Factors That Influence The Success Of Women Engineering Leaders In Corporate America, Letha Joye Jepson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

"One in 4 women entering the engineering profession leaves after age 30, while only 1 in 10 of their male counterparts does" (Perusek, 2008, p. 20). I was interested in analyzing the factors supporting women engineers’ leadership development and success. My particular focus was on women engineers in corporate environments—the personal characteristics needed for a successful career and the impacts of social support, career development, and the corporate culture on their career progression. The aspects of social support included the factors of family, friends, and significant others and the levels of supports during the woman’s career. The features of corporation …

Edge Leadership: Using Senior Leadership Perceptions To Explore Organizational Turnarounds, Lynn William Olsen

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The researcher developed the concept of an edge leader—that is, one who can mindfully turn around a troubled business to sustain it for the future. In an increasingly turbulent and competitive climate, more edge leaders must be developed to sustain their organizations for the benefit of shareholders, employees, communities, and society. The researcher's review of the classic and contemporary leadership and change literatures suggested that four elements are necessary to develop leaders capable of leading even basic beneficial change. They include: having broad, successful experience; being emotionally and socially aware; having the ability to think differently about priorities and paradoxes …

Eutopiagraphies: Narratives Of Preferred Future Selves With Implications For Developmental Coaching, Florence Anne Diehl

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Eutopiagraphy is a narrative of a preferred future self that extends the research tradition of biography and autobiography. Taking place at the intersection of adult development, futures studies, and the practice of developmental coaching, this research asked the question, “what can eutopiagraphy reveal about a client’s meaning-making that may inform a coaching relationship, goals, and outcomes?” Using an adapted form of the subject-object interview, and subsequent thematic analysis, the eutopiagraphies of eight participants were collected and studied. Structures of constructive-developmental theory (values, view of others, range of perspective, control, and responsibility) were identified and constructive-developmental stages were estimated. This work …

Forming Ireland's Industrial Development Authority, Paul Donnelly

Books/Book Chapters

Tracing the creation and (re)production of Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority (IDA) through the lens of path dependence theory, the story charts the IDA’s creation within protectionism. In parallel with the gradual shift away from protection towards free trade, the story follows the IDA’s emergence as the state’s pre-eminent industrial development agency, its re-creation as a state-sponsored organisation and the growing political, institutional and monetary resources afforded it in return for delivery on objectives, largely in the shape of new job creation. However, the increasing reliance on foreign investment to meet targets, at the expense of indigenous industry, eventually surfaces as …

Institutionalizing Ireland’S Industrial Development Authority, Paul Donnelly

Conference papers

Actor-network theory is considered to have great potential for broadening and deepening our grasp of institutional work (Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006). Given its focus on process, ANT offers a means to breathe life into the practices associated with institutionalization. With Callon’s (1986) four moments of translation as analytical lens, and with Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority as empirical example, I seek to address the concerns in the call for papers to reconsider ‘the role of agency, power, persistence and change in the process of institutionalization.’