<p> Ethical leadership can be a key driver of corporate behavior but it is an individual's sense of ethics that has an impact on business success. The specific problem was that despite the plethora of academic, government, and industry studies, it remained unclear whether investing in ethics provided a competitive advantage for businesses. The purpose of this qualitative, ethnographic case study was to examine how the internal stakeholders in a single business defined and applied ethics and what elements of the business culture and competitive environment affected decision-making. The research was a practical application of the stakeholder theory, normative ethics and competitive analysis theory. The dissertation research was conducted using JWD Technologies (pseudonym) which is a for profit engineering and manufacturing business located in the southeastern United States. Through this research, the business values and culture were demonstrated through a focus on pride in the quality of the delivered product through a disciplined, continuous improvement, cooperation and teamwork with the customer and the worksite team, and leadership excellence. Key leadership characteristics included being engaged, accessible, credible, trustworthy, stable, and able to relate to the people. The keys for optimizing the culture were moral fortitude including a strong ethical tone, voicing opinions, transparent communications, and individual accountability, consistent with prior literature. The informants demonstrated that effective ethical behavior includes going beyond the practices required by law, consistent with prior literature. Finally, the informants identified ethical values used to achieve future business to deliver a differential value. Recommendations for practice include the practical application of the stakeholder theory, normative ethics, and competitive analysis theory and recommendations on the use of ethnography in a business ethics environment. Recommendations on future research include broadening research applicability with a focus on a broader stakeholder set, competition, and competitive advantage to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and ethics theory application with a focus on reputation and ethical leadership flow down.</p>

<p> Small business owners face challenges associated with leading change, and many times lack the necessary resources to manage it properly. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to determine what challenges leaders of small businesses face in managing change, what strategies and practices those leaders employ, and how the leaders of small businesses measure success in managing change. This study also determined what advice leaders of small businesses would suggest for managing change. Four research questions were created to assist with this process, and 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted in various cities throughout the state of Michigan. The participants were small business owners of privately held American companies that had been in business for a minimum of 5 years. Twelve interview questions were asked to answer the 4 research questions. Many themes emerged. Some of the challenges that participants face while managing change are resistance to change, communication issues, lack of confidence, lack of resources, lack of knowledge/experience, absence of strategy, conflicts of interest, and lack of emotional intelligence. The participants shared many different strategies for successful management of change and also offered their lessons learned over the years. The main overall theme presented by all of the participants in this study was the importance of knowledge and experience for management of change in small businesses.</p>

<p> Strategic sourcing has long been utilized by organizations to maximize budget and supply chain efficiency, usually through leveraged buying, but also through the formation of strategic partnerships with suppliers. When considering leveraged buys, the strategic sourcing process begins with a spend analysis, and the data obtained during the analysis is used by stakeholders to begin defining requirements. Traditional spend analysis restricts the data used in the spend analysis process to basic transactional information, and does not considered corporate social responsibility objectives as part of the strategic sourcing process. This research modifies an existing spend analysis process framework, and applies the framework in a case study that uses additional data points to identify opportunities to allow an organization to simultaneously achieve both strategic purchasing and social responsibility objectives. The study also examines strategic healthcare purchasing in a single source environment, and combines best practices developed using decentralized purchasing strategies by healthcare facilities and successful buyer-supplier relationships from multiple industries to create a process map for hospital systems transitioning to strategic centralized purchasing models. Systems engineering frameworks, process modeling, regression analysis, and cross functional process maps are used in this study&rsquo;s analysis. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.) </p>

Discretionary behaviors such as counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) exist outside of the job description, but these behaviors nevertheless have profound influence on the organization and its members. Using Spector and Fox’s (2002) General OCB-CWB emotion centered model as the conceptual framework, I tested a specific model with personality, perceptions of the workplace, and emotional processes as antecedents of both OCB and CWB. The proposed model fit the data well and the results indicated that the emotional processes of burnout and engagement partially mediate the individual and organizational antecedents.

The impetus for the current study was to provide empirical verification for the supposition that firms which exhibit high levels of market-orientation are the better performing firms. Prior to this study only one investigation empirically supported the relationship (Narver and Slater 1990). The current study also uses a broad sample of both consumer and industrial goods companies. Previous works have mostly emphasized a single firm or industry (c.f. Chaganti and Sambharya 1987, Narver and Slater 1990). The current study finds that market-orientation is significantly and positively related to business performance, thus providing empirical verification for the long-standing theory. / Additionally, the current study advances previous works by controlling for the major strategic variables (structure, strategy, and environment) both as predictors of performance and as moderators of the market-orientation and performance relationship. Regarding any moderating effects of the strategic variables, none were evident in the current study. Also, of the strategic variable main effects, only organizational structure (formalization/integration) significantly impacted performance, with the relationship positive in nature. / Finally, the current study investigates the relationship between market-orientation and organizational structure, an area which is not precisely defined in the literature (c.f. Drazen and Van de Ven 1985, Kohli and Jaworski 1990). As mentioned previously, no interactive effects are evident in the relationship with performance. Also, the true directionality of the relationship was not addressed in the current study. However, the empirical findings indicate a significant and positive relationship between organizational structure (formalization/integration) and market-orientation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2649. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a multimethod study of the dynamics of Learned Helplessness (LH) in an organization. Models of LH which exist in the literature were reviewed, and comparisons and contrasts among the models were made, leading to suggestions for a number of variables from these models which were examined. Interview and questionnaire data were gathered to examine a number of issues including the validity of LH as a construct in organizations, the occurrence, dimensionality and consistency of attributions made by organizational members, and the convergence of various measures of LH, with special attention given to the validity of the Organizational Attributional Style Questionnaire (OASQ). To analyze the data, content analysis, correlations, profile analysis and multivariate multiple regression were used. / Results indicated that LH is a construct deserving of further attention by organizational researchers. Specifically, results showed that there are differences between helpless and empowered respondents, that attributions are consistent in similar situations, that the results of using various measures to examine LH are convergent, and that the OASQ is a valid measure of LH in organizations. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-10, Section: A, page: 3590. / Major Professor: Mark J. Martinko. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

This study is directly concerned with the articulation of strategic choice in the public sector. Despite the considerable amount of literature dealing with strategic management, there has been little empirical study to support theoretical constructs. The parameters of the model are derived from previous research contending that there are fundamental differences between the public and private sectors. The study employs survey methods for data collection and adopts multiple regression for data analysis. Two hundred fifty surveys were mailed to five selected agencies in 50 state governments. 134 usable surveys were returned for a response rate of 53.6%. / The results of this study demonstrate that a number of the parameter variables are specifically related to particular strategies. Leadership, hierarchical control, organizational goals, and gubernatorial style were significantly related to a proactive strategy. Time orientation, legislative involvement, interest group involvement, and hierarchical control were found to be associated with political strategy. Leadership, information, budget, authority structure, and time orientation were related to a defensive strategy. Among these three different type of strategies, the proactive strategy was most strongly supported by the model, but the defensive strategy was also found to be useful in explaining strategic choice in the public sector. The results provide some valuable evidence regarding political strategy that was not specifically predicted by the model. Four of the parameters, time orientation, legislative involvement, interest group involvement, and hierarchical control were shown to have positive relations with political strategy. This research fosters a better understanding of strategic choice in the public sector. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-07, Section: A, page: 2541. / Major Professor: Bart Wechsler. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

This investigation compares three models of leadership style in police organizations by examining the Managerial Grid, the Reddin Three Dimensional (3D), and the Situational Leadership models in comparison with estimated measures of past managerial performance. All three of the cited managerial style models draw their basic structure from research conducted by Michigan and Ohio State Universities in the 1950's. The Ohio/Michigan State basic model deals with prescriptive reliance upon some combination of treatment of subordinates by superiors utilizing "task" or "structure" orientation (stemming from earlier notions of "scientific management") and "consideration" or "relationship" orientation (originating in the "human relations school"). Where the Managerial Grid model prescribes a single uniform managerial style, the 3D model implies that the most proper style would be grounded in expectations of subordinates, representated in large measure by occupational stereotypes. The Situational Leadership model prescribes that the most effective style varies, based upon a previous assessment of the maturity level of subordinate(s). / Although these prescriptive managerial style models call for differing behavior by managers toward subordinates for the achievement of effective managerial results, all three are widely used in the training of police managers in the United States. / This research draws inferences concerning possible recommendations for the future utilization of these models as prescriptive guides for leadership style in law enforcement as well as other occupations. These inferences are drawn from survey data involving nine municipal and county police departments where supervisory police managers were questioned concerning their personal leadership styles. The management style data was compared with estimated managerial effectiveness determined by ratings given the managers by their subordinates, superiors, and peers. This study of 211 police supervisors provides indications that police managers rated as more effective by their subordinates, peers, and superiors are those showing an inclination toward utilizing the Situational Leadership model as a disposition toward the treatment of subordinates. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-07, Section: A, page: 2750. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

This thesis investigates two issues. The first issue concerns the relation between executive effort, as measured by changes in a firm's market value of equity, and future wage revisions when the executive moves to a new firm of employment. If, as Fama (1980) contends, participants in the managerial labor market formulate compensation on the basis of prior performance, there is little need to design compensation contracts that are sensitive to firm performance. The second issue involves performance persistence in the management of real assets. Prior studies provide weak evidence that performance is persistent in the management of financial assets. Similar evidence is not available for the management of real assets. / The analyses provide two distinct conclusions. First, compensation revisions across firms bear a positive and significant relation to prior changes in shareholder wealth. The magnitude of this relation, however, does not preclude the continued existence of agency problems. Second, executives appear unable to repeat superior performance across firms. Surprisingly, there is evidence of declining performance at executives' second firm of employment. This result is robust to different performance relatives and time horizons. / Thus, the evidence presented suggests that prior performance is not the decisive determinant of the wage revision received by an executive. This seems warranted given that prior performance appears to offer no predictive power for future performance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-02, Section: A, page: 0793. / Major Professor: James S. Ang. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.

A decision process was examined in a laboratory setting under three levels of decision support: printed data support only, a computer based DSS, and a computer based Intelligent DSS. Half of the sample worked through a trained intermediary. Subjects were asked to describe in a questionnaire the attributes they desired in a consumer product, and use one of the decision methods to identify the specific product that best matched their answers. Each selection was rated for effectiveness (quality) against the questionnaire answers. The average time required to make a decision was the same for all groups. Both DSS groups outscored the control group, but the inclusion of knowledge based techniques did not significantly affect the scores of the IDSS group. The presence of an intermediary had little effect. Perceived confidence levels in the decision method used and the final decision reached were the same for all decision support levels. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: A, page: 2564. / Major Professor: Thomas D. Clark, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.