Organization Development Commons^™

Kila Wakati Ni Wakati Wa Chai: Mapping The Regional Commodity Chain Of Tea In The Village Of Sagara, Rebecca Gourlay

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Tracing the commodity chain of tea from leaf to cup is a complex process that involves many actors at the production, distribution, processing and consumption levels. This study focuses on the regional tea commodity chain in the village of Sagara in the West Usambara Mountains of Tanzania in order to help explain the change in livelihood of tea as a cash crop. Semi-structured interviews with tea farmers were used to gain perspective on the nuances of the regional tea commodity chain at the production level. Several external actors, including Tanzania Smallholder Tea Development Agency (TSHTDA) and the Tea Research Institute …

Escaping The Concrete Jungle: An Exploration Of Ecotourism Development In Dzongu, North Sikkim, Katrina Kniss

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The state of Sikkim in northeastern India is a place imbued with a sense of mystery. It is partially this spirit, as well as its pristine Himalayan landscapes and vibrant cultural diversity, that has established Sikkim as a major tourist destination in the region. In the Northern district of the state, the Dzongu reserve is inhabited by the indigenous Lepcha group, who hold the status of “Most Primitive Tribe”. Over the past decade, however, this primitive tribe has shown their strength in staging large-scale protests and hunger strikes in a movement against mega-hydropower development along the Teesta River. Employing their …

Inter-Organizational Knowledge Transfer: A Case Study Of Peace Corps Macedonia And Ymca Bitola, Dave Warren

Student Research – Stevenson Center

This article presents a case study on inter-organizational knowledge transfer. The organizations involved are Peace Corps Macedonia and YMCA Bitola. The specific knowledge being transferred is project knowledge of youth leadership camps. Literature regarding factors that affect inter-organizational knowledge transfer is reviewed and a model of inter-organizational project knowledge transfer proposed by Easterby-Smith et al. (2008) is adopted. An analysis of the case finds factors that may have a negative impact on successful knowledge transfer include motivation discrepancies of key actor groups. The analysis also finds unique methods being employed as part of the knowledge transfer design may have a …

Management And Telework, Arlene J. Nicholas

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

This chapter discusses telework as a desirable option for workers and a valuable tool for employers to attract and retain employees. Telework's many benefits are appealing to technologically competent and confident workers. Managers may be concerned with employee accessibility, productivity and possible loss of management roles (Arnold, 2006). When Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer banned working from home, it was described as a step backward that countered studies of increased productivity, retention and job satisfaction that could demoralize the workers (Cohan, 2013; Gaudreau, 2013). An overview of benefits, incentives, organizational examples as well as possible deterrents and management resistance are identified.

A Holistic Process For Leading Organizational Change, Robert John Eschlemann

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

Ed.D. dissertation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Full Text of the Dissertation

With over two million resources available for organizational change, and an emphasis on church revitalization by organizations as such as NaMB, is it possible the disconnected variations of organizational change have created so much confusion that it prevents a simple, comprehensive, and comprehensible understanding? In order to explore this question, and to advance a preferred method, case studies of organizational change within the Bible were conducted, and secular organizational change studies were evaluated. context analysis was used to review current change theory literature. Six functions of change were …

Knowledge Cluster Development Through Connectivity: Examples From Southeast Asia, Hans-Dieter Evers, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Whereas since the 1990s national and regional planners saw the creation of knowledge clusters as a panacea for gaining a competitive advantage to propel a region or country into a higher stage of industrial development, recent research suggests that connectivity (e.g. through broadband penetration or joint research connections with collaborators elsewhere) is one of the enablers for socio-economic development. This paper will draw on the results of studies on knowledge clusters in Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore) as well as the relevant current literature to ask the question, whether knowledge clusters really contribute to regional development and if yes, …

Bullying At The Fire Station? Perceptions Based On Gender, Race And Sexual Orientation, John C. Griffith, Donna L. Roberts, Ronald T. Wakeham

Publications

Discrimination and strained co-worker relationships based on gender, race or sexual orientation are forms of bullying in the workplace. This research examined firefighter perceptions with regard to bullying. The web based survey was distributed through the National Fire Academy Training, Resources and Data Exchange Network, (TRADENET). Findings from 113 surveys indicated that most firefighters did not perceive bullying issues were pervasive in the fire service. However, there were large differences in perception between female and male firefighters. Significantly more female firefighters indicated they were treated differently due to gender, felt their supervisors did not address complaints concerning gender or sexual …

Emotional Intelligence And Self-Efficacy In Military Leaders, Kelly A. Hudson

Dissertations

\Purpose: This quantitative study was conducted for the purpose of determining the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in military leaders.

Methodology: This quantitative, correlational study measured emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in military leaders to determine the relationship between them. The study involved differentiating between non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers in order to determine if a difference exists between the types of leaders in the military.

Findings: The findings from this research illustrate that there is a relationship between the leaders’ emotional intelligence and self-efficacy.

Conclusions: The study supported the hypothesis that the higher a leader’s emotional intelligence, the higher …

Symptomatic Leadership: The Impact Of Changing Demographics On Global Business, Linda L. Ridley

Publications and Research

The past several decades have displayed a focus on diversity in the workplace throughout the corporate environment. Questions remain: has the effort been at all impactful – or, due to its symbolic nature, has it only been a distraction? What behaviors would have been better emphasized to achieve full participation and opportunity by all actors in a firm?

Considerable research has revealed that attempts at diversity are clumsy at best; and spurious at worst. [i] The challenge for firms has been to develop a “business case” for why those contributing groups represented by women and people of color should be …

Recruiting Best Practices In Prospecting: Developing The Skills Necessary To Recruit An All-Volunteer Army—A Delphi Study., Jeremy E. Mcmullen Dr.

Dissertations

Purpose. It was the purpose of this Delphi study to discover what the best practices are for implementing telephone, virtual, face-to-face, and referral prospecting, as reported by an expert panel of Army Recruiters when targeting 17-24 year olds.

Methodology. This Policy Delphi study was accomplished in three sequential rounds, with 19 homogeneous expert participants whose mode of operation is remote, anonymous, and computerized. The rounds explored a complex recruiting process through the lens of expert Army Recruiters. The process of discovery, consensus, and implementation identified: (a) planning practices, (b) lead sources, (c) establishing rapport, (d) identify goals/needs/interests, (e) overcome …

The Global Rise Of Megacities, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

By 2050, two out of three people on Earth will live in cities, many in megacities with over 10 million residents. Planning must be done today to manage inevitable infrastructural and social tensions

"Do Not Engage Y'All!" Training And Preparing Our Black Students For Battle, Michael J. Seaberry

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

Students' Critical Reflections on Racial (in)justice

A State-Level Analysis Of Maternal And Child Health Partnerships Among Indiana Local Health Departments, Priscilla A. Barnes, Laura T. Haderxhanaj, Gulzar H. Shah

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Background: As one of many organizations within a system of networks, numerous U.S. local health departments (LHDs) use partnerships as a structural intervention to address physical, mental, social concerns of women and infants.

Purpose: This state level study examines current levels of maternal and child partnerships among Indiana LHDs and sectors in the public health system. Geography and organizational readiness (infant mortality listed as a goal in the strategic plan) were used as proxy measures to examine how likely LHDs work with these sectors.

Methods: An eighteen-item online survey was administered to 93 LHDs collected between March and June 2014. …

Innovation In Organisations, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Inter-team competition activates information coordination and innovative performance of teams; implication of team members’ narcissism

Building Community: Synergy And Empowerment Through Staff Development And Marketing In A Small Rural Academic Library, Bethany Anne Wilkes

Research Collection Library

This paper presents two collaborative programs at a small academic library that leverage the insights, engagement, and interests of our most important asset: our staff. Two new library committees, the Staff Training Advisory Group and the Marketing Team, extended planning, accountability, and partnerships to paraprofessional staff members. The onset and associated activities of these two committees yielded not only direct results in terms of staff training programs and marketing initiatives, but also resulted in creating a more collaborative culture and shared purpose in our library. This paper examines how the overlap of these two committees created a convergence that fostered …

Supporting Sustainability Through Developing A Learning Network Among Traditional Food Producers: Applications Of Action Learning, Paul Coughlan, David Coghlan, Denise O'Leary, Clare Rigg, Doireann Barrett

Articles

Purpose: The chapter describes and reflects upon an EU-funded research initiative, TRADEIT, which has attempted to develop a learning network among European traditional food producers as one way of contributing to the economic sustainability of the ventures, the social sustainability of the food’s regional character, and the environmental sustainability of food production through the use of traditional methods.

Design/methodology/approach: The chapter describes TRADEIT before moving on to an exploration of learning in organizations and networks. It outlines the action learning research methodology developed and implemented to explore the development of a learning network in TRADEIT. A single case history …

Turning To Case Studies As A Mechanism For Learning In Action Learning, Denise O'Leary, Paul Coughlan, Clare Rigg, David Coghlan

Articles

Case studies are a useful means of capturing and sharing experiential knowledge by allowing researchers to explore the social, organisational and political contexts of a specific case. Although accounts of action learning are often reported using a case study approach, it is not common to see individual case studies being used as a learning practice within action learning sets. Drawing on a network action learning (NAL) project, this paper explores how the process of coaching, articulating, authoring, sharing and editing case studies provided a vehicle for learning and research within a NAL set. The intended contribution of this paper to …

It’S A Relationship: A Qualitative Exploration Of The Challenges To Interorganizational Collaborative Relationships, Morgan E. Braganza

Luther Faculty Publications

Interorganizational collaboration is increasingly used to address social issues, but it can fail when the underlying relationships become damaged. This study explores the qualities, characteristics, and processes that can fracture collaborative relationships and the consequences of failing to correct these fractures. Using a qualitative design, interview data were collected from 19 executive directors of Canadian human service organizations. The findings highlight several challenges to collaboration and show the importance of exploring negative outcomes of inaction. An additional aim of this study is to provide strategies for building and nurturing collaborative relationships.

Aftermath Of The Hobby Lobby Decision: Implications For Women In The Workforce, Hirsh Shah

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

Hobby Lobby is a chain of 640 arts and crafts stores owned by the Green family, based in Oklahoma City. This company is required to follow the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which mandates that larger employers—those with more than 50 employees—have to include coverage for the full range of preventative care, including contraceptives, in their female employees’ health insurance plans. However, the Green family holds deeply religious views and did not want to include four of the twenty contraceptives covered by the ACA, including long acting reversible contraception and emergency contraception, in their female employee coverage. The family believed that …

Complex Adaptive Behavior: Pragmatic Idealism, Mustafa Canan, Andres Sousa-Poza

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The introduction of new concepts is a driver of organizational evolution and transformation. A newly introduced concept can introduce new meaning that is disparate to existing understanding. A new concept may also be interpreted in multiple ways, thereby introducing several disparate meanings. The disparity is resolved through adaptation. The disparity introduces complex adaptive behavior to the organization, requiring suitable changes to its management and design. The development of corresponding doctrine for new concepts, and training for the organization's constituents become indispensable. In so doing, constituents can be involved in the adaptation process through direct participation, and thereby include the cognitive …

Leadership And Decision-Making Styles, Oluremi Alapo

Publications and Research

Generation X: The Role of Culture on the Leadership Styles of Women in Leadership Positions' goal is to assist organizational leaders to view Generation X women in positions of power from a different perspective. Women leaders are capable of leading a 21st century organization because of their scope of knowledge about growing businesses, and their ability to blend and incorporate new technologies and innovations in the business environment. Generation X: The Role of Culture on the Leadership Styles of Women in Leadership Positions is relevant to the fields of business, cultural, human relations, leadership, management, and cross-cultural leadership and women …

"Intonations Of Their Own Language": An Analysis Of Leadership And Resonance In Two Progressive Young-Adult-Filled Congregations In The Pacific Northwest., D. Bethan Theunissen

Dissertations

Christendom in Canada and the United States is in decline, and young adults are leaving the church in considerable numbers. This exodus is especially noticeable in mainstream religious denominations, although evangelical groups are beginning to experience a similar waning. The fastest-growing “religious” group consists of those who identify with no religion.

Simultaneously, young adults are experiencing a far longer entry process into adulthood after adolescence than those who went before them. They also experience the world as unstable and impermanent. Their needs and the church’s needs could converge but instead seem to be antithetical to each other in ways that …

An Investigation Of Socio-Technical Components Of Knowledge Management System (Kms) Usage, Noel Wint Jr.

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Existing literature indicates that although both academics and practitioners recognize knowledge management (KM) as a source of competitive advantage, users are not always willing to use a knowledge management system (KMS). Because of the social nature of knowledge transfer, a KMS can be considered a socio-technical system. Many explanations have been presented for this failure to utilize the KMS. These explanations include a number of the socio-technical factors relating to people, processes, and technologies. While these factors may have significant explanatory power when examined independently, existing studies have not sufficiently addressed the interactions among all three socio-technical factors or their …

Board Member Perceptions Of Small Nonprofit Organization Effectiveness, Laura L. Maurer

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

In contemporary American society, the nonprofit board is accountable for ensuring that an organization has sufficient resources to carry out its mission. Filling the gap between demands for services and the resources to meet them is often a struggle for small nonprofit organizations, a problem of nonprofit organization effectiveness. I conducted a hermeneutic phenomenological study that examined how board members of small local nonprofits in the focal community perceived nonprofit organization effectiveness. A review of the literature revealed that nonprofit organization effectiveness involved the action of contributing to the organization and the motivation behind the action, both of which were …

Got Inclusion? How Inclusive Is Your Organization? Assessing Inclusion Through The Icat: Inclusion Capacity Assessment Tool For Organizational Capacity, Charlotte Taylor Westfall

Capstone Collection

Inclusion is a popular buzzword in development, but how can organizations evaluate and learn from their internal practices to better meet the needs of a more diverse population? In order for organizations to assess their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for growth, organizational development and capacity tools, if conducted in a participatory way, are essential for revealing this information through the process of evaluation and learning. In this course-linked Capstone, social inclusion and capacity assessments are thematic focuses. The paper will begin by briefly tracing the origins and context of social inclusion and then establish the definitions, reasoning and practice behind …

Trust And Tithing: The Relationships Between Religious Social Capital And Church Financial Giving, Darin Freeburg

Faculty Publications

There are a number of motivations for Christians to give financially to a church. The current study looked at Social Capital—especially as it relates to the concept of trust in God and bonds with a church community—to see if relationships exist that suggest a possible motivation for financial giving. Participants from American Protestant churches in the Midwest completed an online survey intended to elicit responses about their church financial giving and their levels of a specific religious measurement of Social Capital (SC). Analysis showed that increased trust in God, as well as increased sense of bonding with others in the …

Widr Fm's Constitution: Restatement, Revision, And Analysis Of Genre, Joseph Silver

Honors Theses

I have been involved with WIDR FM for 18 months as its employed Music Director and a volunteer DJ. I am one of six part-time paid student directors who oversee the general management of the station. My tenure at WIDR has been especially exciting in that this is the first year of WIDR's affiliation with Student Media Group–a new organization funded by the University that collaborates WIDR FM with the Western Herald and the Young Broadcasters of Tomorrow. It is designed to guide these organizations toward greater interactivity, scholarship, and fiscal solvency. The Student Media Group brings many changes to …

How Healthy Is Your Library? Diagnosing Culture And Curing The Patient, Emily A. Hicks

Roesch Library Faculty Presentations

Every library has a distinctive organizational culture with norms, values, rules, beliefs, and basic assumptions that have developed over time and are shared by the people who make up the organization. This culture shapes the perceptions and assumptions of the library’s personnel. A healthy culture can evoke a passion for the work, a loyalty and commitment to the organization’s mission, and a deep-seated belief in the organization’s value.

Libraries with a healthy culture are resilient, responsive, and inclusive. The health of an organization is the responsibility of every member, not just the formal leadership.

Using a combination of graphics and …

Hr Of The Future, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Business-minded HR practitioners are needed to take the organisation forward

Picturing Development In Malawi, Norma Anderson

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.