Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Measuring Work Preferences: A Multidimensional Tool To Enhance Career Self Management, G. Ronald Gilbert, Ravipreet S. Sohi, Adriana G. Mceachern

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a multidimensional work preference research instrument, and to relate scores on these dimensions with subjects' real world work choices.

Design/methodology/approach: Repeated samples of 1,002 and 975 adult subjects were used to identify 17 empirically derived constructs, using both EFA and CFA statistical applications. The CFA revealed measurement invariance among the predicted and measured constructs. The 17 validated constructs were culled from career development-related psychology that has variously been identified with learning styles, work interests, work values, and temperament. Using a third sample of 590 subjects, MANOVA analyses of work preference scores …

Court Of Public Opinion In And For The State Of Uncertainty, Kevin Farmer, Kathleen Kane, Steven Meisel, Joseph Seltzer

Organization, Leadership, and Communication

Our session has two goals. First, we aim to stimulate debate over a ubiquitous, yet largely unchallenged, instrument that purports to operationalize Jungian personality theory (the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). Second, we suggest a platform for teaching management theories, the mock-trial, which manifests active learning as well as critical thinking and has been successfully utilized in other disciplines. With contributors playing key roles in the trial and volunteers from the audience serving as potential prosecution and defense witnesses as well as the jury, we hope the discourse on substantive theory and teaching process will provide the jolt OBTC 2008 envisions.

Cheating With Honor, Christian A. Pfeiffer

Business and Economics Honors Papers

The intent of this paper is to understand what leads a student to cheat within the context of a small (enrollment below 2,000 students) liberal arts college. The development of a model will examine cheating from three categories highlighted in the literature: demographics, college culture, and the perception of cheating. Demographics capture relevant personal attributes of a student such as gender, GPA, and major. Cultural variables include variables for the presence of an honor code and participation in a sport or social organization, which provide that student with a unique cultural experience. Perception variables deal with the perceptions the students …

Organizational Conflict Within The Department Of Homeland Security, M. Katherine Manderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to explain why the Department of Homeland Security had difficulty fulfilling its roles when it was formed, specifically its role as grant administrator. Role theory surmises that conflict arises from unclear expectations, conflicting expectations, and too many roles. This study utilized various public testimonies, legislation, and other government documents to examine how the missions of the twenty-two agencies that were merged together to make up DHS changed. Even though DHS has changed continually over the five years since its existence most employees seem to be clear on the mission of the organization in which they work. However, …

Organizational Culture In A Terminally Ill Hospital, Alberto Coustasse, Douglas A. Mains, Kristine Lykens, Sue G. Lurie, Fernando Trevino

Management Faculty Research

This study analyzed an organizational culture in a community hospital in Texas to measure organizational culture change and its impact on Patient Satisfaction (PS). The study employed primary and secondary data, combining quantitative and qualitative methods for a case study. Participant observation was used and archival data were collected to provide a better understanding of the organizational culture and the context in which change was taking place. This study also applied a “Shared Vision” of the organization as the central process in bringing forth the knowledge shared by members of the community hospital who were both subjects and research participants. …

Sex Differences On Elementary Cognitive Tasks Despite No Differences On The Wonderlic Personnel Test, Bryan Pesta, S. Bertsch, Peter J. Poznanski, W.H. Bommer

Business Faculty Publications

Whether males and females differ in general mental ability (GMA) remains an open question. Complicating the issue is that standardized IQ tests are constructed to minimize sex differences. We propose a potential solution whereby GMA is measured via performance on elementary cognitive tasks (ECTs). ECTs assess basic information-processing ability, yet correlate moderately highly with GMA. Toward this end, we had male (n = 218) and female (n = 226) undergraduates complete the Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT), and two ECTs: inspection time (IT) and reaction time (RT). The sex difference on the WPT was non-significant (d = .17), but small differences …

Values, Ideologies, And Frames Of Reference In Employment Relations, John W. Budd, Devasheesh P. Bhave

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Employment relations—which form most of the 20th century was called industrial relations, and what some now call human resources and industrial relations—is a multidisciplinary field studying all aspects of work and the employment relationship (Ackers and Wilkinson, 2003; Budd, 2004; Kaufm an, 2004). A multidisciplinary approach means that competing values and assumptions underlie the analyses, policies, and practices of employment relations scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. Unfortunately, these underlying beliefs are often implicit rather than explicit, or, with the longstanding focus on how industrial relations processes work, sometimes ignored altogether. But understanding the employment relationship, corporate human resource management practices, labor …

Situational Judgment Tests: A Review Of Recent Research, Filip Lievens, Helga Peeters, Eveline Schollaert

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to give an empirically-based review of the strengths and weaknesses of situational judgment tests (SJTs).Design/methodology/approach - The features, history, and development of SJTs are discussed. Next, a computerized search (from 1990-2007) is conducted to retrieve empirical studies related to SJTs. The effectiveness of SJTs is discussed in terms of reliability, criterion-related validity, incremental validity, construct-related validity, utility, adverse impact, applicant perceptions, fakability, and susceptibility to practice and coaching effects.Findings - Strengths of SJTs are that they show criterion-related validity and incremental validity above cognitive ability and personality tests. SJTs have also less …

Technological Change Management Strategies In Asian Small-Scale Businesses: Trends In Singapore, Thomas Menkhoff, Yue Wah Chay

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Based on survey data on the change management behavior of Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore, the paper explores how small entrepreneurs are coping with the city-state's turbulent business environment, processes of technological advancement and accelerated change. Differences between so-called opportunistic entrepreneurs and small business ventures are examined. Conceptually, the paper is informed by theories of change management, strategic choice, entrepreneurship and Chinese business. Special emphasis is put on the identification of demographic characteristics of "technological change masters" in Singapore's small business sector so as to gain an understanding of both the dynamism and relative passivity of …

Actor-Network Theory And Organizational Forming: An Amodern Path Dependence Perspective, Paul Donnelly

Conference papers

The organizational theory literature has identified the emergence and evolution of organizational forms as a critical issue to be addressed, yet new ways of looking at organizational form have yet to be addressed and there are concerns about the largely ahistorical and aprocessual character of much organizational theorizing. While path dependence, as conventionally conceived, presents an avenue for overcoming the lack of historical contingency in mainstream organizational theories, it does not maintain an opening for forming. Here is where actor-network theory comes in to not only argue that organizational forming is ongoing, but also show how it is made unrecognizable …

How To Escape Modernity?: An Actor-Network Theory Take On Organizational Forming, Paul Donnelly

Conference papers

The topic of organizational form has been gaining increased attention. Often portrayed as ‘new times’ driving the need for new forms, what is more evident in the literature is that the need for new ways of looking at form has yet to be addressed. The problem that “new organizational form” presents is precisely located in the inability of the field to think in other than “form” itself. By problematizing the focus on “form,” I take issue with the largely ahistorical and aprocessual character of much organizational theorizing and with the privilege obtained by modernist paradigmatic approaches in such theorizing. With …

International Growth Strategies Of Service And Manufacturing Firms: The Case Of Banking And Chemical Industries, Ravi Kathuria, Maheshkumar P. Joshi, Stephanie Dellande

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in growth strategies – domestic and international – of manufacturing and service firms. Hardly any literature exists that empirically investigates the differences on account of the distinctive characteristics of goods and services, and such studies rarely draw from the operations management field.

Design/methodology/approach

– Multiple analysis of variance is used to analyze longitudinal data from multiple secondary sources.

Findings

– Mixed services, such as banks, focus more on domestic growth and less on international growth. Manufacturers, such as chemical firms, focus more on international activities as compared to …

Corporate Citizenship And Community Stakeholders, Robert A. Phillips, R. Edward Freeman

Management Faculty Publications

Stipulating that work on corporate citizenship is intended to add to the conversation around the role of business in society, it is reasonable to assume that scholars adopting (and adapting) the language of corporate citizenship find something there that allows for better description, analysis and synthesis of this role. Though what 'better' may mean here remains an open question, a sensible place to begin considering the question is to compare and contrast corporate citizenship with more established ways of conceiving business's role in society such as, in the case of this chapter, stakeholder theory.

Can Leaders Step Outside Of The Gender Box? An Examination Of Leadership And Gender Role Stereotypes, Margaret Y. Padgett, Craig B. Caldwell, Andrew Embry

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This study examined gender stereotypes for leaders using a more indirect method than is typical in stereotype research. Rather than reveal the leader's gender, this study used vignettes in which the leader's gender was unknown. Consistent with their hypothesis, the authors found that participants were more likely to infer a male (female) gender identity than a female (male) gender identity when presented with a leader using a masculine (feminine) style. They also hypothesized that a leader using a gender-consistent leadership style would be viewed more positively than a leader using a gender-inconsistent style. Contrary to this hypothesis, results revealed that …

Humility In Leadership: Abandoning The Pursuit Of Unattainable Perfection, Erik Hoekstra, Antony Bell, Scott R. Peterson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Chapter on humility and leadership by Hoekstra, Bell, and Peterson in S.A. Quatro & R. R. Sims (Eds.), Executive Ethics: Ethical Dilemmas and Challenges for the C-Suite. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, 2008.

Can Business Leaders Learn From Leaders Of Today's Megachurches?, Peter A. Maresco

WCBT Faculty Publications

The author reflects on the similarities and differences of religious leaders and founders of megachurches or big churches and the business leaders. He differentiates these types of leaders according to their leadership tenancy. He emphasizes the three component of leadership: having a vision, communicating that vision to individuals inside and outside of the organization and making everyone a stakeholder in seeing the vision by its conclusion.

Managing With Foresight And Insight, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

As we begin the New Year, it is important to look at the trends that need to be considered in the future and how or if these driving forces will define what strategic management means in 2008. It is also important to understand that looking to the past alone for guidance may skew our view of present facts even when those facts are supported by sound data. Strategic managers make sense out of what is going on around them and what is possible in the future by looking and listening to forecasts for the future, to what is critical for …

Developing Collaborative Leadership: A Study Of Organizational Change Toward Greater Collaboration And Shared Leadership, Jonathan Tyler Clark

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Implicit in leadership behavior is the ability to work with others, to be in relationship, and to collaborate. Contemporary theories about leadership have shifted from a focus on the individual “leader” toward the collective act of “leadership.” A concrete understanding of collaborative leadership remains somewhat underdeveloped in the literature and theoretically. This dissertation is a case study of organization's efforts to change from autocratic organizational leadership to a more collaborative working environment. Taking the form of a literary portrait, the study analyzes an example of action learning about collaborative leadership. The portrait will be of the agency's change, with special …

A Trust-Based Consumer Decision-Making Model In Electronic Commerce: The Role Of Trust, Perceived Risk, And Their Antecedents, Dan J. Kim, Donald L. Ferrin, H. Raghav Rao

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Are trust and risk important in consumers' electronic commerce purchasing decisions? What are the antecedents of trust and risk in this context? How do trust and risk affect an Internet consumer's purchasing decision? To answer these questions, we i) develop a theoretical framework describing the trust-based decision-making process a consumer uses when making a purchase from a given site, ii) test the proposed model using a Structural Equation Modeling technique on Internet consumer purchasing behavior data collected via a Web survey, and iii) consider the implications of the model. The results of the study show that Internet consumers' trust and …

Interviewers' Sensitivity To Impression Management Tactics In Structured Interviews, Filip Lievens, Helga Peeters

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines interviewers' sensitivity to impression management in structured interviews by determining the relative importance that interviewers attach to ( verbal and nonverbal) impression management as compared to the relative importance that they attach to predetermined competencies. Two samples of interviewers ( 55 Master I/O psychology students and 18 professional interviewers) watched and evaluated videotaped interviewees who were instructed to put their best foot forward. Results of relative weight analyses showed that the importance of verbal and nonverbal impression management tactics was relatively small as compared to the importance attached to job-related competencies. The type of interview format had …

A Closer Look At The Relationship Between Justice Perceptions And Feedback Reactions: The Role Of The Quality Of The Relationship With The Supervisor, Marjolein Feys, Nele Libbrecht, Frederik Anseel, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Two field studies were undertaken to investigate the nature of the relationship between justice perceptions and feedback reactions. Previous work Suggests that the relationship between procedural justice and feedback reactions is mediated by the quality of the relationship with the supervisor. However, there are also good theoretical reasons to hypothesise that the relationship between justice perceptions and feedback reactions is moderated by relationship quality. Across two field studies, we found Support for both mediated and moderated relationships. Results of the moderator analyses showed that the positive relationship between justice perceptions and feedback reactions was more pronounced for subordinates in a …

Personnel Selection, Paul R. Sackett, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We review developments in personnel selection since the previous review by Hough & Oswald (2000) in the Annual Review of Psycholog. We organize the review around a taxonomic structure of possible bases for improved selection, which includes (a) better understanding of the criterion domain and criterion measurement, (b) improved measurement of existing predictor methods or constructs, (c) identification and measurement of new predictor methods or constructs, (d) improved identification of features that moderate or mediate predictor-criterion relationships, (e) clearer understanding of the relationship between predictors or between predictors and criteria (e.g., via meta-analytic synthesis), (f) identification and prediction of new …

Dimensions Of Mentoring Relationships In The Workplace: A Holistic Perspective, Miriam Grace-Rowland

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This was an exploratory study to understand the lived experience of those involved in mentoring relationships within a formal mentoring program in a corporate context. The researcher looked for rich detail about the nature of the relationship from the perspective of the mentor and mentee. To achieve a holistic perspective, the experience of organizational managers was deliberately included in the research. Exploration of this triadic relationship of mentor, mentee, and organizational manager has been neglected in the empirical literature. An exploration of where meaning intersected and diverged among the triad relationship members gave depth to the dimensional frame. Findings suggested …

Life-Affirming Leadership: An Inquiry Into The Culture Of Social Justice, Raquel Delores Gutierrez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

A new paradigm for leading social change is emerging; a worldview acknowledging the importance of leadership that is life-affirming and lasts over time. The current inquiry explored the ways in which the social reality of Life-Affirming Leadership is created and the implications those realities have for the current and future generations of social justice workers, their organizations, and the communities in which they work. The dominant paradigm for social justice work needs to be radically renovated (see Horwitz, 2002; James, 2005; Ohlson, 2006; Polansky, 2005; Utne, 2006; Wheatley, 2005; Williamson, 1997; Yáhzí, 2005); as such, a re-evolution is in progress, …

How Scientist/Founders Lead Successful Biopharmaceutical Organizations: A Study Of Three Companies, Lynn Johnson Langer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine how the leadership of scientist/founders of biopharmaceutical companies affects the success of their organization. Over half of all biotechnology firms are founded by scientists, yet for every start-up biotech firm that succeeds, 15-20 fail and eight out of 10 drugs fail in clinical trials (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 2007; Stanford Graduate School of Business, n.d.; Zhang & Patel, 2005). To bring a biopharmaceutical product from the research bench to the consumer costs more than $800 million (Tufts, 2007). This dissertation research explored the leadership practices of three successful scientist/founders and how …

Poetic Leadership, A Territory Of Aesthetic Consciousness And Change, R. Amrit Kasten-Daryanani

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Poetic leadership is a new theoretical construct that views leadership as an activity that unites a lyrical intellect with keenly felt emotion for the purpose of producing changes in the consciousness of self and others. This change begins within the interiority of self, moving surely to broader realms of one's surroundings and society, provoking movement that impacts the developing potential of the individual and the cultural milieu in which they exist. Emotion is the primary trace into consciousness used in this dissertation, which serves to unite experiences of the heart with experiences of the mind. The unification of these disparate …

How Are Nasa Engineers Motivated? An Analysis Of Factors That Influence Nasa Goddard Engineers’ Level Of Motivation, Howard Eric Kea

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

NASA is an organization known for pushing the envelope of engineering and scientific achievement. It can be argued that engineers working for NASA are intrinsically highly motivated due to the nature of the work and the mission of NASA. This study explores how supervisor behaviors, both intrinsic and extrinsic and demographic factors influence motivation of NASA Goddard engineers in their current environment. Recent Congressional and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policies, such as full cost accounting, levy strict oversight of project spending. As a result of these policies, NASA engineers must now focus their attention on getting assigned work …

Fostering Sustainability In Higher Education: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Transformative Leadership And Change Strategies, Kim H. Mcnamara

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

As evidence of the earth’s limited capacity to sustain human life mounts, institutions of higher education are being looked to for leadership in the effort to educate students about environmental concerns and support the development of sustainable innovations. Colleges and universities are responding to this call for leadership by starting and/or expanding environmental research programs, integrating sustainability issues throughout the curriculum, adopting sustainable operations, and building green facilities. Reflecting upon the sustainability efforts of these institutions, this research study explores the following questions: What factors are essential for initiating and leading a successful change effort to foster sustainability in higher …

On Being A Nonprofit Executive Director, Janet Elizabeth Rechtman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In describing the course of change in a dynamic field such as the nonprofit sector, neo-institutional theorists argue that isomorphic forces such as replication of best practices tend to increase the homogeneity of actors. This interplay of structure and agency creates what is known as the structuration of an institutional field. These theorists have little to say about the people who influence and are influenced by these dynamics. This study explores this personal experience at the micro level of the nonprofit field executive leadership. It focuses on their challenges related to the isomorphic pressures resulting from: (1) socio-economic roles, (2) …

Small School Leadership: A Q Method Study Of Elements Of Leadership Specific To A Small School Setting, Charis Eirene Sharp

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Smaller schools have become an extremely popular school reform model. Research that connects them to student achievement is being used to support and create autonomous small schools as well as schools-within-schools. While it would seem to be a logical application, the schools-within-schools model is not performing at the levels expected as indicated by the small schools research. Research on these two different school settings needs to be separated, examined, and applied independently. Areas lacking research include questions about which aspects of schools support the functioning of the school, such as leadership. This study used Q-methodology to study leadership in a …