This research examines the role of customer behavior in Internet service deliveries. A nomological network of customer behaviors and its antecedents is developed and tested in two studies. In the first study, two hundred individuals were surveyed about their customer satisfaction, socialization, coproduction, and citizenship behaviors in their most recent online service experience. Results show that customers distinguish between two types of behavior: required customer coproduction behaviors and voluntary customer citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, these two behaviors were predicted by differential antecedents. Customer coproduction was more strongly predicted by customer socialization than by customer satisfaction. Customer citizenship behaviors, on the other hand, were more strongly predicted by customer satisfaction than by customer socialization. In the second study, three hundred twenty-eight participants acted as customers in a simulated Internet service delivery. In a 2 x 2 factorial design, perceptions about customer satisfaction and perceptions about organizational citizenship behavior were manipulated prior to the service experience. Subsequently, measures of self-reported customer citizenship intentions as well as actual citizenship behaviors towards the organization were assessed. Results showed an effect on customer citizenship behaviors and intentions for customer satisfaction but not for organizational citizenship behavior. Participants in the condition with perceptions of high-customer-satisfaction engaged in more citizenship behaviors and reported greater intentions to do so in the future than those in the condition with perceptions of low-customer-satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed from the perspective of organizational citizenship behavior and social exchange theory.

While there is a large amount of research on positive social relationships and their potential benefits and opportunities (social capital), negative social relationships and their potential social liabilities have been virtually ignored in the sociological and organizational literatures. Several researchers have identified this gap and made the call for research to examine both sides of social relationships to balance the "social ledger" (e.g., Brass & Labianca, 1999). This dissertation was designed as a first step into the investigation of negative social ties. Two studies were conducted to examine characteristics that might affect the valence of social relationships as well as the influence of these types of social ties on various outcomes. Homophily, or interactions with similar individuals, has been shown to positively influence social relationships in a variety of areas (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook, 2001) and heterophily, or interactions with dissimilar others, has been proposed to influence negative social relationships (Brass & Labianca. 1999; Labianca & Brass, 1997). Furthermore, Brass and Labianca theorized that there would be an asymmetric effect between these two types of social ties and that negative ties would have more of an impact on outcomes than positive ties. I test hypotheses about heterophily and negative asymmetry, yet go beyond Brass and Labianca to also test for differences between forms of negative ties. Data from three samples of undergraduate students in a male-dominated field of study were examined. Dissimilarities in age and differences in leadership preferences between dyad members were significantly related to negative ties. Older participants were more likely to have negative ties than younger participants, as older participants rated others negatively more often and were rated negatively more often. Participants who preferred to be leaders in their small groups did not want to work again with others who did not care who led the small group or others who definitely preferred someone else lead. There was little evidence to support Brass and Labianca's negative asymmetry theory. An expansion of this theory that includes distinguishing between self-directed and other-directed outcomes, as well as when to apply the different forms of negative ties is presented.

Overabundance of information has been well documented as a drag on human performance. Theoretical constructs such as visual dominance have led to visualization systems as a palliative, integrating cumbersome amounts of incoming data into more tractable forms. Most such systems have accepted only numerical inputs. I designed, developed, and evaluated a time-based visualization system for textual information, using situation awareness theory to evaluate the system. The system analyzes texts, such as emails and instant messages, as they arrive on the desktop and presents a labeled display, using suffix tree clustering and multidimensional scaling, of similarity between texts, updated as the mix of incoming texts changes. The system aids decision makers subject to information overload. I evaluated the system's performance under a simulated crisis in which groups of 30 students played the role of advisors to the University president during a recreation of an actual campus shooting. Half of the students used the visualization system to receive input, while half used a competing text-based system. Subjects were evaluated using an instrument drawn from situation awareness theory and found to achieve higher levels of situation awareness using the visualization system. Additional measures collected provide some guidelines for design of text-oriented, time-based visualization systems.

This dissertation develops a local-global theoretical perspective based on principles from cultural-cognitive institutional theory. Within this framework, the primary focus is the social construction of institutional logics and organizational forms in Sichuan, China's broader global environment. Institutional logics are defined as the taken-for-granted organizing principles that shape strategic action. It is asserted that these logics interact and become embedded in organizational forms centered on ownership structure and core technologies. During the fall of 2002, over one hundred interviews were conducted at the furniture, food processing, and pharmaceutical trade fairs in Chengdu. This data was used to examine China's societal logics in the context of the furniture industry and Chinese firms' diversification strategy. In addition, a case study of a textile firm is used to explore how China's societal logics have changed since the economic reforms began in the 1970s. Finally, correspondence analysis is used to map out the relationships between the institutional logics and the organizational forms.

The prevailing wisdom in current intercultural research is that people in collectivistic societies such as Hong Kong have low levels of conflict and competition. This view is challenged, however, based on three arguments: cultural values are too often equated with actual practice, the multiple goals of actions are ignored, and the in-group/out-group distinction is not adequately addressed in theory and research. Data drawn from an ethnographic study of organizational relationships in Hong Kong indicate that a reexamination is in order. While the surface harmony reported in many studies was acknowledged, informants also consistently pointed to underlying currents of competition and conflict within the organization. Two models are proposed based on a reanalysis of the literature. The Classical Confucian Collectivist model represents the received view that Confucianism and collectivism lead to suppression of personal goals in favor of group goals. The Pragmatic Collectivist model, on the other hand, argues that instrumental goals still are the primary drivers of human interaction. While the Classical Confucian Collectivist might represent an idealized model that influences actors' accounts, the Pragmatic Collectivist model is a better representation of everyday action. Analysis of results in an experimental study lends support to these challenges.

Manufacturing cells consisting of an empowered team of workers and the resources required to produce a family of related products have become popular in recent years. Such cells require significant changes in organizational policies for personnel, wage administration, accounting and scheduling. For example, there are usually fewer workers than machines and as a result cells are staffed by cross-trained workers. However, little is known about operating these cells since much of the research in this area has concentrated on the cell formation problem. This thesis discusses the issue of determining good operating policies for manufacturing cells. Operating policy refers to a protocol for setting lot sizes, transfer batch sizes, cell Work-In-Process limits and machine queue dispatching as well as worker assignment rules. Specific components of operating policies have been examined in isolation previously in different contexts. However, cell performance is determined not only by the individual components of policies but also by the nature of the interactions between them. Thus, it is imperative to study policies in an integrated manner in order to determine how best to utilize the limited resources of the cell. The initial part of the thesis is devoted to discussing a general framework which has been developed to parameterize operating policies. Specific policies can be recovered by assigning values to the parameters of the framework. A few examples illustrate the use of the framework. The remainder of the thesis focuses on the various ways in which the framework representation of policies can be used. This includes the development of a general purpose simulator using the Object-Oriented paradigm and analytical models for some policies. A comparison of various operating strategies using simulation and analytical models is also presented. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the insights gleaned from this work as well as directions for future work.

Advances in networking and database technologies have made the concept of global information sharing possible. A rapidly growing number of applications require access to and manipulation of the data residing in multiple pre-existing database systems, which are usually autonomous and heterogeneous. A promising approach to the problems of interoperating multiple heterogeneous database systems is the construction of multidatabase systems. Among all of the research issues concerning multidatabase systems, schema management which involves with the management of various schemas at different levels in a dynamic environment has been largely overlooked in the previous research. Two most important research in schema management have been identified: schema translation and schema integration. The need for declarative and extensible approach to schema translation and the support for schema integration are accentuated in a large-scale environment. This dissertation presents a construct-equivalence-based methodology based on the implications of semantics characteristics of data models for schema translation and schema integration. The research was undertaken for the purposes of (1) overcoming the methodological inadequacies of existing schema translation approaches and the conventional schema integration process for large-scale MDBSs, (2) providing an integrated methodology for schema translation and schema normalization whose similarities of problem formulation has not been previously recognized, (3) inductively learning model schemas that provide a basis for declaratively specifying construct equivalences for schema translation and schema normalization. The methodology is based on a metamodel (Synthesized Object-Oriented Entity-Relationship (SOOER) model), an inductive metamodeling approach (Abstraction Induction Technique), a declarative construct equivalence representation (Construct Equivalence Assertion Language, CEAL), and its associated transformation and reasoning methods. The results of evaluation studies showed that Abstraction Induction Technique inductively learned satisfactory model schemas. CEAL's expressiveness and adequacy in meeting its design principles, well-defined construct equivalence transformation and reasoning methods, as well as the advantages realized by the construct-equivalence-based schema translation and schema normalization suggested that the construct-equivalence-based methodology be a promising approach for large-scale MDBSs.

A comparative study was performed to identify personal characteristics and motivation of volunteer leaders from two youth groups; 4-H and Campfire. Criteria under study were appraised using questionnaires. Data analysis based on the responses obtained from 64 volunteer leaders. The personal characteristics investigated included expected period of service, support and encouragement, time spent on volunteer activities, satisfaction from service rendered, enrollment of volunteer leaders children, place of residence, length of residence, educational level, employment status, age, gender, and ethnicity. Affiliation, achievement, and power motivation factors were assessed. Most of the personal characteristics investigated were determined to be similar in the two groups. Major differences were found in the place of residence and tenure period. Youth leaders in both groups responded to the motivation inventory in a similar manner, although the two groups originated in rural and urban environments. The 4-H and Campfire volunteer leaders were highly achievement and affiliation motivated.

Interpersonal influence between peers is marked by the need to (1) maintain a positive image, (2) achieve instrumental or task goals, and (3) maintain interpersonal relations with one's partner. This investigation examined the process of balancing these three objectives or needs, and further examined the consequences associated with failure to balance all objectives. Peers were videotaped during an influence interaction, and their verbal strategies were coded by trained coders along a 5-dimensional scale. Verbal evaluations made by coders were correlated with self-report measures of (1) issue importance, (2) stress, (3) communication satisfaction, and (4) relational message interpretations. Correlation results indicate that while unsupported, there is a trend between stress and self-defense strategies, and between issue importance and other-accusation strategies. Results of hypotheses testing the correlation between communication satisfaction and relational message interpretations, and strategy usage were unsupported. Post-hoc analyses are offered.

Throughout much of the past century, manufacturing efficiencies were gained by constructing systems from independently designed and optimized tasks. Recent theories and practice have extolled the virtues of team-based practices that rely on human flexibility and empowerment to improve integrated system performance. The formation of teams requires consideration of innate tendencies and interpersonal skills as well as technical skills. In this project we develop and test mathematical models for formation of effective human teams. Team membership is selected to ensure sufficient breadth and depth of technical skills. In addition, measures of worker conative tendencies are used along with empirical results on desirable team mix to form maximally effective teams.