Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

The Offense-Defense Balance And The Modern System In Ukraine, Daniel Hogestyn

Master in Public Policy Theses

This thesis evaluates whether the Russo Ukrainian war represents a revolution in military affairs (RMA) by testing Stephen Biddle’s "modern system" theory of battlefield outcomes against recent combat operations. Applying Biddle’s formal model to the 2023 Ukrainian offensive in Zaporizhia, the thesis finds that the offensive's failure conforms closely to Biddle’s causal logic, with force employment variables drawn from 20th century combat sufficient to account for the outcome. Biddle's model in military power argues that force employment has explained victory and defeat since World War I, rather than technology or numerical preponderance alone. Many commentators claim that proliferation of small …

Merger Crisis Role-Play: Organizational Behavior In Action, Jyro B. Triviño

Leadership and Strategy Faculty Publications

To advance professionally, students must be prepared to navigate dynamic and contentious organizational environments by articulating their varied views, protecting their personal and professional intentions, anticipating challenges, and then fostering consensus. This paper addresses a high-stakes, multi-round immersive role-play simulation of a company merger in an undergraduate Organizational Behavior course. Grounded in the core pillars of experiential learning, adaptive leadership, and organizational sensemaking, this classroom exercise places students in a pre-set, realistic post-merger leadership team facing immediate business challenges. Compared to traditional case studies, this method requires students to demonstrate real-time organizational behavior competencies, providing a powerful platform for negotiation …

Organizational Pitfalls Of The Dual-Identity Leader, Yvonne Randolph, Asa Wilson

Journal of the North American Management Society

The dual-identity leader (D-IL) is an individual assigned to one job description yet is, in practice, fulfilling an additional position’s role. This secondary role is self-determined; has not been assigned yet is being allowed by those with governance and/or executive authority. Three case examples of the D-IL are presented and discussed as a problematic leadership configuration for an organization. The personal characteristics driving this approach are identified as a foundation for clarifying the organizational consequences of such an executive leader. Preventative and corrective tactics are discussed that eliminate or minimize the adverse impact of the D-IL’s organizational behavior.

Ally With Ai: An Icebreaker To Unlock Career Aspirations For Online Or Hybrid Organizational Behavior Cohorts, Jyro B. Triviño

Leadership and Strategy Faculty Publications

Modern organizational behavior classroom, which are increasing in size, diversity, and complexity, are shifting to online and hybrid learning environments, challenging the use of traditional icebreaker activities. This paper introduces a 15-minute icebreaker designed to address these issues while integrating the principles of Kolb's experiential learning theory and fostering social capital through peerr engagement in an online setting. By leveraging the availability of generative AI, students prompt a template code to unlock their career aspirations and stimulate social connections among their classmates. This provides an innovative teaching model for meeting the foundational icebreaker goal while serving a suitable tool for …

Exploring Coworker Perceptions Of And Reactions To Quiet Quitting, Andrew A. Bennett, Rhett T. Epler, Veronica L. Thomas, Daroon Jalil

Management Faculty Publications

Quiet quitting is a relatively new phenomenon that has quickly caught the attention of both practitioners and academics. With the world of work becoming increasingly interconnected, we contribute to the discourse by approaching quiet quitting from the novel perspective of understanding how others in the workplace perceive those who engage in quiet quitting. To do so, we first provide a formalized definition of quiet quitting and differentiate coworkers' perceptions of quiet quitting from similar psychological constructs (Studies 1–3). We then examine employee responses to coworkers engaging in quiet quitting with a qualitative study (Study 4) and vignette design (Study 5), …

Corporate Soft Power Strategy In Shaping Global Influence: A Case Study Of Microsoft, Qiang Qiang

Theses and Dissertations

Soft power, defined as the ability to attract and persuade through appeal and influence rather than coercion, has emerged as a critical component in the arsenal of global corporations navigating the complexities of the interconnected world. This study, using Microsoft as a case, delves into the realm of soft power in global corporations. Drawing upon qualitative methodology, this study aims to uncover the nuanced factors contributing to global corporation soft power prowess. Key areas of investigation include organizational culture and communication, corporate branding, corporate social responsibility, emerging technological applications, global branding strategies, and leadership approaches. Through an analysis of these …

What Happens When Grit Goes Bad? Conceptualizing “Dark” Grit Among Sport Employees, Brent D. Oja, Samantha L. Jordan

Journal of Applied Sport Management

This paper details the complexities of the construct known as “grit” and specifically examines the potential for the positive effects of grit to turn maladaptive or “dark.” Although grit is commonly viewed as a generative construct that helps individuals achieve success and experience well-being, past scholars have suggested there could be a “too much of a good thing” effect whereby the helpful outcomes of grit reach a turning point and become detrimental. We propose that the sport industry is an ideal environment for this phenomenon to occur because the industry has high labor demands, and its employees have a strong …

Exploring The Influence Of Company Sport Club Involvement On Employee Outcomes, Paul Yuseung Doh, Chanwook Do, Minjung Kim

Journal of Applied Sport Management

This study investigates the influence of company sport club involvement on employee outcomes, including cultural intelligence (CQ), organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and task performance. Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of self-determination theory and spillover theory, the research examines how participation in company sport clubs enhances intrinsic motivation and promotes positive workplace attitudes and behaviors. Data were collected from 320 employees in Korea who were involved in various company sport clubs. Structural equation modeling analysis confirms significant positive relationships between company sport club involvement and CQ, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and task performance. The findings underscore the significance of integrating company …

Salary Disparity And Team Performance: An Empirical Analysis Of The English Premier League, Alexander Traugutt, Jarid Morton

Journal of Applied Sport Management

The English Premier League (EPL) is the top-tier English soccer system, becoming one of the most popular sports leagues in the world. One topic within the EPL that has garnered significant attention is player compensation and roster construction. Given the varied outputs of players and the spending power of each club, the question becomes whether a specific type of pay structure maximizes on-field performance. Thus, this study aimed to understand the effect of intra-team salary disparity on performance. Results indicated that while rosters tend to be organized in a more compressed manner, salary disparity was not a significant predictor of …

Developing More Equitable And Critically Conscious Organizations: Testimonios And Critical Platicas With Black And Latino/X Lgbtq+ Male Chrd Leaders, Mario Burton

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation connects the recent DEIB movement within organizations to larger social justice movements, specifically those that impact workers and the workplace. Critical human resource development (CHRD) professionals, who serve as “insider activists”, are highlighted due to their work to continue movement objectives within organizations. Through testimonios and critical platicas, this study explores how Black and Latino/x LGBTQ+ CHRD professionals, in particular, are experiencing the workplace, especially as it relates to their engagement with how DEIB is practiced within organizations. Through this study, these professionals provide insights into the ways that workplaces can be redesigned and reimagined to be …

Team Overall Relationship Quality: Examining Factor Structure And Predictive Precision Among Relationship-Based Team Emergent States, Cody Bradley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Given that work teams are defined partly in terms of relationships (e.g., members interact socially, maintain and manage boundaries, exhibit interdependencies; Kozlowski & Bell, 2013), it is not surprising that many work team constructs (e.g., team trust, team cohesion, team satisfaction, and team commitment) focus, to some extent, on capturing the “health” or “quality” of relationships among team members. While these relational team constructs reliably correlate with important outcomes such as team performance (e.g., Breuer et al., 2016; Castaño et al., 2013; Thatcher & Patel, 2011), they tend to be studied in isolation, as if they are entirely separate variables. …

A Guide To The Advancement Of Leadership Post Covid, Kelly Grace Dolan

School of Professional Studies

No abstract provided.

Marshall, Il Community Foundation Project, Nathan Myers

2022 Fall Reports (Marshall, IL)

This class will examine the behavior of public and non-profit agencies, and how various internal and external factors affect the performance of these organizations. The course will consider such factors as they are discussed in classic and current scholarship in the field of organizational behavior, as well as examples from the media.

Marshall, Il Communication Plan Project, Nathan Myers

2022 Fall Reports (Marshall, IL)

This class will examine the behavior of public and non-profit agencies, and how various internal and external factors affect the performance of these organizations. The course will consider such factors as they are discussed in classic and current scholarship in the field of organizational behavior, as well as examples from the media.

Psychological Safety In Startup Organizations, Jessica Barhydt

Theses and Dissertations

Psychological safety is an individually held belief that a group is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. Scholars have studied the concept primarily as a team-level construct. However, recent studies suggest that climates of psychological safety exist at the organizational level. An examination of the dynamism of the construct at the organizational level is needed: how it grows, changes, and declines. Startups, which grow and change quickly, are an excellent context to study organizational psychological safety. Through interviews, this study explored psychological safety as an organizational-level construct in startup organizations. Specifically, it examined potential commonalities between high and low psychological safety as …

Theoretical Modeling For Curious Leadership And Instrument Development And Validation For Measuring Curious Leader Capacity, Lisa M. Gick

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

When curious, we admit we do not know. With the contemporary workplace emerging through increased complexity, leaders are compelled to shift mindsets and practices from more traditional methods to those more in service to the uncertainty of the day. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to generate an integrated theoretical framework for curious leadership, a validated scale for its measurement, and practical methods for engaging differently in the context and practice of leading. Drawing from the literature review of relational leadership, adaptive leadership, complexity leadership, growth mindsets, and curious behavior, and from my practice, 12 sub-constructs were identified as …

Predictors Of Email Response: Determinants Of The Intention Of Not Following Security Recommendations, Miguel Angel Toro-Jarrin

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Organizations and government leaders are concerned about cyber incidents. For some time, researchers have studied what motivates people to act in ways that put the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information in organizations at risk. Still, several areas remained unexplored, including the role of employees’ evaluation of the organizational systems and the role of value orientation at work as precursors of secure and insecure actions in relation to information technologies (information security [IS] action). The objective of this research project was to examine how the evaluations of formal and informal security norms are associated with the intention to follow them …

The Museum Professionals’ Experiences Survey: Assessing Motivational Processes In Museums Through The Context Of The Organizing Framework, Devin E. Geraci

Museum Studies Theses

Through the development and evaluation of the Museum Professionals’ Experiences Survey, this research blends Museum Studies and Organizational Behavior to understand managers’ perceptions regarding employee motivation, key drivers of motivation, trends in professional experiences’, and the different experiences of management and non-management personnel in the context of museum workplaces. With responses from 276 museum professionals in the United States, the application of this knowledge can be used to develop a workplace climate that encourages job satisfaction, high performance, and organizational commitment, and thus more positive outcomes for the museum. Recent controversies and public testimonies are evidence of negative professional experiences …

Clarifying And Measuring Inclusive Leadership, Kelly Mason Hamilton

Dissertations and Theses

Many organizations view diversity as a strategic business priority that provides important benefits such as increased creativity and innovation. Research indicates, however, that the potential benefits of diversity cannot be realized without employees feeling a sense of inclusion, which involves feeling like one belongs and can be themselves at work. Although scholars acknowledge the important role managers play in fostering inclusion, there remains limited research on specific behaviors they can enact to foster inclusion perceptions in their work groups. Additionally, there is a lack of agreement in the literature about the scope of "inclusive leadership." Historically, scholars viewed inclusive leadership …

Employee Engagement, Brain-Based Psychological Safety, And The Sales Professional, Cheri Sherman

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this correlational study was to determine what relationship, if any, existed between employee engagement and psychological safety as measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) and the Academy of Brain-based Leadership’s S.A.F.E.T.Y.™ Assessment and Pulse Survey domains of security, autonomy, fairness, esteem, and trust.

Methodology: A quantitative, correlational methodology was used for this study. The post-hoc sample comprised of 61 high-performing sales professionals working in California. Participants completed the three assessments online via SurveyMonkey. The data were analyzed using a Spearman correlation.

Findings: This study resulted in multiple findings, including a statistically significant relationship between …

Culinary Employees’ Lived Experiences Of Abusive Leadership And Perspectives Of Its Impact On Individual And Organizational Performance, Louise Elizabeth Black

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

More than half of U.S. employees will have an abusive manager at some point in their careers. Although the adverse impacts of an abusive leader on organizations have been well established, much less is known about the phenomenon in the culinary industry specifically and how experiences of abusive leadership affect employees in the sector. The purpose of this qualitative interpretative phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of culinary employees who are affected by abusive leadership relationships and the impact of such leadership on individual and organizational performance. The conceptual framework used in this study included those pertaining to …

Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Compassion Organizing And The University Advancement Workplace, Christina Marie Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Compassion organizing has been described within positive organizational scholarship as an organization’s response to pain and suffering in organizational behavior and also the ability for organizations to flourish and promote joy and fulfillment in the workplace. Compassion organizing has been examined in organizational life through the four areas of noticing, feeling, acting, and sense-making. Previous research has focused on business and healthcare workplaces and has shown that compassion organizing is both an organizational and interpersonal social process. Because of the limited existing research on compassion organizing in the higher education workplace (and none with respect to the university advancement workplace), …

The Longitudinal Effects Of A Family And Sleep Supportive Intervention On Service Member Anger And Resilience, Shalene Joyce Allen

Dissertations and Theses

The vast majority of workplace intervention research on employee anger and resilience primarily focuses on individual-level strategies for mitigating employee anger and resilience outcomes in the workplace, with no studies having examined these outcomes with tangible occupational health interventions utilizing organizational-level techniques. Thus, the current study extends the literature on how to provide improvements in employee anger and resilience using higher system and organizational change mechanisms by providing evidence-based support for the effectiveness of a Total Worker Health® intervention, referred to as the Family and Sleep Supportive Intervention Training (FaSST). This approach employs both health protection and health promotion strategies …

Organizational Dissonance In The Context Of Organizational Decline And Turnaround Of A Security Printer: A Quantitative Case Study, Tina Marie Ramirez-Dominguez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this non-experimental, quantitative study was to examine organizational identity dissonance experienced by an organization's social actors in the context of organizational decline and turnaround utilizing factor structures from five years of pre-existing, employee surveys to determine whether differences in factor scores occurred over the 5-year time frame. Organizational identity dissonance is the psychological stress or discomfort experienced by an organization's social actors from holding two or more contradictory attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors (McLead, 2008) in relation to the organization's identity. A social actor is an individual participating in a communal environment (Whetten & Mackey, 2002). A communal …

Employee Perceptions Related To Specific Work Processes Within The Crime Control Model Known As The Stratified Model, Robert William Steinkraus

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure employee perceptions of satisfaction as they relate to specific work processes and products within the Stratified Model. The Stratified Model is a crime-reduction model that was developed and gradually implemented first within the Port St. Lucie Police Department between 2004-2011. The full implementation of this crime-reduction model occurred in 2012. The Port St. Lucie Police department has since achieved greater reductions of the overall crime rate than other cities in Florida consisting of similar populations. In 2019, Port St. Lucie had the 7th largest population in Florida.

Currently, it is unknown how …

Advancing Workplace Diversity: Weathering The Storm To Create A Path Toward Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion, Lisa T. Toler

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The inherent culture communicated within an organization influences and affects the practices the organization takes, and, in turn, employee performance (Ritchie, 2000). The purpose of this book chapter is to identify what characteristics can bring visibility to the career experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) through a critical examination of the literature on organizational culture, leadership, and organizational behavior in the context of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The resulting outcome of such an outlook on career experiences for the BIPOC community is important in creating and sustaining fair practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion in order …

How Leaders And Employees Experience, Make Sense Of, And Find Meaning In Humility, David Perryman

Theses & Dissertations

By just about any measure, organizations today are more dynamic, diverse, and interdependent than at any other time in history. This environment puts unprecedented pressure on the human capacity to lead. And still, we demand more from our leaders—even as employees experience rising stress levels, declining loyalty, and deteriorating trust in their employers, and organizations face historically high rates of employee turnover along with the resulting financial and emotional costs. Clinging to romanticized notions of the larger-than-life leader blinds us to the paradoxical promise of humility; namely, that a leader’s greatest strength may lie, ironically, in the ability …

Exploring The Role Of Transformational Leaders In The Mentorship Of Top-Level Administrators: A Case Study Of The Veterans Health Administration (Vha) Visn Lead Program, Frederick Giovanni White Jr.

Dissertations and Theses

Despite the proliferation of studies focused on transformational leadership, there is a lack of clarity related to how transformational leaders are developed in public organizations and the impact of mentors in this process. This is particularly troubling given a 2017 Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate that over 44% of the current U.S. workforce is 45 years or older.

In public and private settings, organizations are challenged to develop the competencies critical at higher levels of management in their future leaders, specifically advanced human and conceptual skills. These skills are most useful for emerging leaders that will have the responsibilities to …

Predicting Quality Outcome.S Of Privatized Services In Local Governments Utilizing The Scott And Bruce Measure, Kenneth L. Ward

Doctoral Dissertations

Privatization has been one of the main challenges in the reform of the public service. Privatization is often regarded as an essential means of achieving improved efficiency and quality of public services, and municipalities develop novel methods to privatize their services to cope up with the financial strain. Privatization of services, however, requires a well-formulated model of decision-making that leaders can utilize to realize the most positive outcomes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the type of decision-making style that could be used to predict a favorable outcome when making decisions to privatize government services or projects in …

Rising Above The Adobe Ceiling: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of Mentoring And Social Capital Influences Among California Latina Nonprofit Leaders, Belinda Hernandez

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Empirical research studies that focus on the experiences of Latinas in executive leadership are limited. In its entirety, workforce research has overlooked how social and cultural experiences influence this group’s leadership development. This gap in research has failed to uplift the Latina executive voice and their achievements. Addressing this gap has the potential to influence distinctive workforce practices and future scholarship. Utilizing an asset-based perspective, this study presents counter narratives that intentionally focus on exploring Latina leaders’ voices. The importance of intersectional experience and social identities illustrate non-monolithic, yet aligned, experiences among study participants.

This foundational dissertation explored mentoring phenomena …