Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

All Of The Above?: An Examination Of Overlapping Organizational Climates, Alice M. Brawley Newlin, Cynthia L.S. Pury

Management Faculty Publications

We examined the largely unexplored issue of strong associations between multiple specific climates (e.g., for safety and for service). Given that workplaces are likely to have more than one specific climate present, it is important to understand how and why these perceptions overlap. Individual ratings (i.e., at the psychological climate level) for seven specific climates and a general positive climate were obtained from 353 MTurk Workers employed in various industries. We first observed strong correlations among a larger set of specific climates than typically studied: climates for collaboration, communication, fair treatment, fear, safety, service, and work-life balance were all strongly …

Virtual Leadership In Organizations: Potential Competitive Advantage?, Thomas Kohntopp, J Mccann

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

The present and future of virtual leadership is connected to the rise and direction of the digital economy, as new technologies and applications will change the way business connects internally and externally with stakeholders. Data are at the heart of the digital economy and its protection is critical. The digital economy is of great interest both domestically and internationally. Its development and future are at the heart of every country’s economic competitiveness (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2017).

The Importance Of Leadership Motivational Activities In Encouraging International Students To Return To Their Tier 1 Universities, Eric Hall

Dissertations

Abstract

The problem is international students are not returning to their undergraduate Tier 1 institutions during a period when quality student enrollment is essential, and there is scant research on academic advising strategies that can be used to combat international student attrition at these universities (O’Keefe, 2013). Studies have often lumped all international students together and made efforts to attract more international students, but the reasons why international students chose research universities, and returned, were not being investigated in this manner (Hegarty, 2014).

The purpose of this proposed study was to gain an understanding of the decision-making and reasoning processes …

Family As A Source Of Inequality Reproduction In Organizations: The Role Of Family Impact On Work In Explaining The Class Ceiling, Pooja Mishra

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Being born into a poorer family is associated with lower socioeconomic attainment even when people are provided with identical educational and job opportunities, a pattern known as the “class ceiling.” The class ceiling is generated within organizations, but specific reasons causing this effect are not well understood. I propose that one important explanation why employees from poorer families do not fare as well as their more fortunate co-workers concerns differences in families themselves. I integrate research from sociology and psychology explaining challenges faced by families with scarce resources with organizational research on specific pathways through which families can interfere with …

Toward A Typology Of Organizational Creativity, Gilbert Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Both researchers and practitioners realize the importance of organizational creativity as a source of competitive advantage and long-term organizational success. Although, research on organizational creativity abounds, many researchers and practitioners view organizational creativity as a unidimensional construct. This narrow view of creativity limit our understanding on how organizations generate creative ideas to compete in the market. This paper examines organizational creativity using a two-by-two matrix along 2 dimensions: Thinking Approach (Analytical versus Intuitive) and Problem Type (Bounded versus Unbounded). According to the framework, there are four types of organizational creativity: (1) Imaginative Creativity (application of intuitive approach to unbounded problem); …

Socioeconomic Mobility And Talent Utilization Of Workers From Poorer Backgrounds: The Overlooked Importance Of Within-Organization Dynamics, Marko Pitesa, Madan M. Pillutla

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Socioeconomic mobility, or the ability of individuals to improve their socioeconomicstanding through merit-based contributions, is a fundamental ideal of modern societies.The key focus of societal efforts to ensure socioeconomic mobility has been on the provision of educational opportunities. We review evidence that even with the same education and job opportunities, being born into a poorer family undermines socioeconomicmobility because of processes occurring within organizations. The burden of poorerbackground might, ceteris paribus, be economically comparable to the gender gap. Weargue that in the societal and scientific effort to promote socioeconomic mobility, the keycontext in which mobility is supposed to happen—organizations—and the …

Organizations And Societal Economic Inequality: A Review And Way Forward, Hari Bapuji, Gokhan Ertug, Jason D. Shaw

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We review research on the organizational causes (how do organizations contribute?) and consequences (how are organizations affected?) of economic inequality. Our review of 151 conceptual and empirical articles indicates that organizational research on economic inequality encompasses a wide range of topics at multiple levels of analysis, but also that this broad-scope literature exhibits conceptual ambiguities and lacks overarching organizing frameworks. To address these two issues, we develop an organizational perspective on economic inequality and clarify it as uneven distribution in the endowment and/or access to resources in a society, which manifests in differential abilities and opportunities to engage in value …

A Case Study Of Participant Responses To Organizational Change Involving Technology In The National Security Domain: How Informal Processes Iterate Structure And Outcomes, Brian E. Martinez

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Nuanced differences between organizations and the pace of change within the national security domain have routinely produced equivocal results involving information and communication technology (ICT) development. These results are characterized by unpredictable costs, unrealistic delivery schedules, and dubious ICT performance in-use. This research is a case study exploration of organizational change involving technology (also referred to as ICT) in the national security domain of the public sector.

This research used machine learning and manual content analysis to compare the results of three experiments on interview transcripts. The first experiment investigated linkages between empirical and interpretive elements of organizational change. Empirical …

"The James Gang": Keys To The Success Of Tobin James Cellars, Natalie A. Fink

Communication Studies

This study looks at what motivates people to join and sustain membership with a particular wine club in the Paso Robles area. The four flows of organizational communication were applied to discover what allows wineries to be successful in the direct-to-consumer wine market. The study will uncover the research question: Using the four flows of organizational communication, why do individuals join and sustain membership with Tobin James Cellars as part of the “James Gang” wine club? Interviews were conducted with both wine club members and employees in order to collect data to answer the research question. Strong relations amongst employees …

Understanding The Consequences Of Newcomer Proactive Behaviors: The Moderating Contextual Role Of Servant Leadership, Talya N. Bauer, Serge Perrot, Robert C. Liden, Berrin Erdogan

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Proactive newcomers are more successful in terms of integration and job satisfaction, than newcomers who are less proactive. However, it is unclear whether contextual factors, such as the leadership style experienced by newcomers, matter. To address this gap in the literature, we gathered data at three times from 247 new employees across their first six months after joining a company in France. Given that past research has found that newcomers play an active role in their own adjustment process, in the current study we investigate how newcomer proactive behaviors relate to the key outcomes of job satisfaction, person-job fit, and …

The Center Of Success: A Case Study On Hilton's Company Culture, Elsie G. Lamo

Experience Industry Management

Company culture is an essential element to the success of any organization. This is especially true in the hospitality industry where positive employee experiences are vital to customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to examine the company culture of Hilton. Data were sourced primarily from Hilton websites, third-party websites, and academic articles. This study found that Hilton’s culture is shaped by compelling mission, vision, and value statements that drive every organizational aspect. Additionally, award-winning reward, recognition, and training programs sustain and reinforce a culture that grants Hilton a unique competitive advantage. To maintain market leadership, Hilton must continually …

Exploratory Analysis Of Individuals' Mobility Patterns And Experienced Conflicts In Workgroup, Nur Camellia Binte Zakaria, Kenneth T. Goh, Youngki Lee, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Much research argues the importance of supporting social interactions in teams and communities. The field of mobile sensing alone offers significant advances in recording and understanding human and group behaviours. However, little is known about behavioural changes as a consequence of in-group phenomena. One prominent example is intra-group conflict, which naturally arises between diverse groups of people. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach to extract mobility patterns of individual's group behaviours sensed from a WiFi indoor localisation system and explore how these patterns relate to their team processes. 62 students enrolled in a project-intensive module, Software Engineering, were tracked …

Overcoming The Race-Sex Barrier: What Matters Most In The Executive Sponsorship Of Black Women, Stephanie B. Smith

College of Business Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the factors that are common, different and most important in the executive sponsorship of Black female protégés in comparison to the executive sponsorship of White male protégés. Drawing on social capital and social exchange theory, I propose a model that examines specific protégé and sponsor attributes relevant to career mobility and sponsorship for White male and Black female protégés. A sample of existing sponsors (n=72), comprised of C-suite executives (CEO, President, Managing Directors), and their protégés (n=59) who were senior level professionals (Division Presidents, General Managers, and Vice Presidents) participated in the study. Notwithstanding …

Building Trust For A Positive Employee Experience, Richard Raymond Smith

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

How do we create the right environment of trust at workplace and avoid surprises?

Can Algorithms Help Us Decide Who To Trust?, David De Cremer, Jack Mcguire, Yorck Hesselbarth, Ke M Mai

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms is increasing within organizations to manage business processes, hire employees, and automate routine organizational decision making. This comes as no surprise, since the application of simple linear algorithms have been shown to outperform human judgment in the accuracy of many administrative tasks. A 2017 Accenture survey also revealed that 85% of executives want to invest more extensively in AI-related technologies over the next three years.

Crossed Wires: Endorsement Signals And The Effects Of Ipo Firm Delistings On Venture Capitalists’ Reputations, David Gomulya, Kyuho Jin, Peggy M. Lee, Timothy G. Pollock

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Signaling theorists have paid a great deal of attention to the costs of acquiring characteristics that can serve as signals, such as endorsements from reputable third parties. However limited attention has been devoted to the penalty costs associated with providing inaccurate signals and the factors that can exacerbate or attenuate the penalties. In this study, we examine the effect of negative feedback loops on venture capital firms’ reputations that result from the failures (delistings) of the newly-public firms they once endorsed. Drawing on signaling and attribution theories, we argue that endorsements by reputable VC firms create high expectations that, when …

Leadership’S Influence On Environmental Sustainability, Stallar Lufrano-Jardine

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

A phenomenological study within the gaming industry is currently being conducted to determine influential indicators within business operations. Based on interviews of executive leadership at global companies, participants disclosed the environmental developments at their organization based on industry norms and the ability to develop/execute environmental initiatives. Four themes emerged: the leader’s ideology and the political climate; the company’s founding principles; support from the industry and/or within the company; and the ability to change industry dynamics. Each leader touched on these four points. Regardless of department type, level of leadership, and the desire to be globally conscious, all participants remarked on …

Job Transitioning Experiences Of Blue-Collar Employees After Federal Downsizing, Eduardo Hurtado

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

Downsizing, realignment, and closure of military bases have forced many low-skilled, blue-collar federal employees into involuntary job loss and job transition. The impact of involuntary job loss on blue-collar workers has been linked to stress and other adverse psychological effects. There is gap in the literature regarding the lived experiences of federal blue-collar employees following downsizing of military bases. The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive phenomenological study was to examine lived experiences of job loss and job transition for federal blue-collar employees following downsizing of military bases. Schlossberg’s transition theory provided a conceptual framework for the study. Ten ex-federal blue-collar …

Illness And The American Workplace: Issues And Implications For Employers And Employees, Victoria R. Dolan

Student Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to identify American employee experiences and existing workplace policies and cultures surrounding illness, disability, and sick leave. This approach was taken in order to closely examine what looks to be working well for companies and workers, and what could benefit from a more human centric approach in regards to workplace policy and employee support programs. The study of employee experiences in particular represents a gap in the current scholarly literature regarding illness and illness policy in the American workplace, and more accurately represents the experiences for both employees and employers. Furthermore, it assists with distinguishing the types …

Together Apart: Influences And Barriers To Engagement Among Remote Workers, Stacey-Robin H. Johnson

Student Theses and Dissertations

Organizations recognize the importance of having employees who do more than 'show up' for work. Rather, the goal is to have employees who will adapt to, embody, and promote the values, agenda, and strategic purposes of the organization beyond their work life. In the efforts around engagement, there are key influences in the organizational lifespan of an employee that can inspire or discourage engagement attitudes and behaviors.

Remote workers (defined here as those who work outside of a central, collective work setting) present unique challenges, the most pressing being maintaining a sense of connection and inclusion among the group in …

Closing Keynote, Theresa Coleman-Kaiser

Annual Copper Country Lean Conference

No abstract provided.

Track A: Building Your House Of Lean: Standard Work And Effective Communication - Active Learning Session, Laurie Stark, Annelise Doll

Annual Copper Country Lean Conference

This session will introduce the concept of standard work through a hands-on activity. Attendees will learn the importance of clear communication and language choices in growing a sustainable Lean environment. Presenters will share their experiences regarding how the Van Pelt and Opie Library has grown Lean through the use of standard work and effective communication.

Track B: Growing Continuous Improvement: An Example Of Pdca On Student Employee Visual Management Boards - Case Study, Dominique Aleo

Annual Copper Country Lean Conference

Visual Management and the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) Cycle are well known Lean methods. The Student Process Improvement Coordinators in the Office of Continuous Improvement at Michigan Technological University use white boards to track progress on recurring performance duties.These boards cover multiple areas of work and showcase how many students with different schedules keep track of their workload within the office. This case study examines how the Visual Management boards have changed through multiple cycles of PDCA, in pursuit of perfect visual communication between the students who work in the office, and also perfect performance. Specifically, this presentation will …

1st Annual Conference Program, Michigan Technological University

Annual Copper Country Lean Conference

Full conference program, including presenter bios and presentation descriptions.

Examining Inter-Relationships Between Supervisor Full-Range Leadership, Organizational Climate Strength, And Employee Job Satisfaction Using Multi-Level Modeling, Bharat Mohan

Dissertations

Employee job satisfaction, organizational climate, and supervisor leadership style have long been researched due to their influences on critical metrics for measuring organizational success. While the relationships between these three variables have been investigated, current research suffers from two major issues. First, no existing study has explored the inter-relationships between the aforementioned components within the same model. Second, existing studies are fraught with levels-of-analysis issues that yield findings that are either incomplete or inaccurate. This study addresses these issues by introducing organizational climate strength as a mediating variable (between supervisor leadership and employee satisfaction) and by employing multi-level modeling techniques. …

Truth Or Myth? Millennial Stereotypes, Self-Image, And Engagement In The Workplace, Stephanie Van Dellen

Dissertations

There are approximately 58 million Millennials working for corporations in the United States. Millennials generally born between the years 1980 to 1995 are said to have been shaped by events such as the invention of the Internet and cell phones. Given that Millennials make up a large percentage of the active workforce, it is important to understand the perceived stereotypes of Millennials and how these generalizations may impact their engagement and effectiveness at work.

This research aims to better understand how managers perceive Millennial employees, how Millennials self-identify with their generational stereotypes, and how they differ from other generations. The …

Employee Engagement And Burnout: A Quantitative Study Of Their Correlations With Job/Organizational Satisfaction, Sarah Burnett

Dissertations

Since Kahn introduced the concept of employee engagement in 1990, the focus on motivating employees has been en vogue in practitioner literature. The federal government as well now measures its agencies annually on how well they implement conditions conducive to engagement. Federal agencies are also ranked annually as “Best Places to Work” based on their aggregated score on three survey items deemed to represent job/organizational satisfaction. The concept of burnout, or the so-called “erosion of engagement”, however, has received significantly less attention. To begin to fill this void in the literature, secondary survey data from the 2017 Organizational Assessment Survey …

Feeling The Heat: Developing A Psychological Needs-Based Theory Of Performance Pressure At Work, Jacob Henry Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The concept of performance pressure has been prevalent in management research for decades. Ranging from the impact of time constraints on productivity to the influence of social evaluation on the performance of individuals and teams, pressure is a ubiquitous phenomenon that has generated significant interest in the social sciences. Despite its substantive footprint within management research, there is a lack of agreement among scholars regarding what performance pressure actually is (i.e., an internal or external phenomenon). Further, research on the subject has proliferated without a coherent theoretical understanding of why and how performance pressure arises as well as why and …

Collaboration And Identity Formation In Strategic Interorganizational Partnerships: An Exploration Of Swift Identity Processes, Paula Ungureanu, Fabiola Bertolotti, Elisa Mattarelli, Francesca Bellesia

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

We investigate how collective identity formation processes interplay with collaboration practices in an inter-organizational partnership promoting regional innovation. We found that initial collaboration challenges are dealt with by setting up an early “swift identity” which is associated with material artifacts to increase its strength and stability (“swift identity reification”). However, as the partnership evolves, the reified identity becomes misaligned with partners’ underdeveloped collaboration practices. To ensure realignment, new attempts at reification are performed, as partners buy time for learning how to collaborate. Our findings contribute to extant identity research by proposing alternative (i.e. “swift” and “reified”) mechanisms of identity formation …

Safety Culture Awareness In Aviation Maintenance: Foundations To Present, Tori Kobayashi

Student Works

Safety Culture awareness in aviation maintenance organizations is necessary for the performance of effective maintenance and the safe operation of aircraft. Maintenance organizations that promote a strong culture of safety encourage honesty and integrity within the workplace. The environment where maintenance is performed differs from other aviation related operations. The promotion of safety in maintenance operations has been proven over time in publications written by the earliest pioneer in aviation safety, Jerome Lederer. The awareness of safety culture in aviation maintenance has evolved with the industry to the present day.