This study investigated the manager's use of information in performance appraisal in making decisions about employees. The main research question addressed by the study was whether or not managers weighted the information in the performance appraisal differently when faced with different types of decisions. Associated research questions were: (1) the identification of the personal variables (experience, seniority, education, etc.) with which this differential weighting was associated, if any; and (2) whether or not an analytical tool could be devised for: (a) identifying and clarifying the actual policies for ranking, judging, and making decisions about personnel; (b) developing or expanding a manager's awareness of their decision making processes; and (c) facilitating training of managers in making decisions using the multiattribute information of the performance appraisal. / The sample subjects were 80 managers of both sexes from a large state university. Their organizational levels ranged from first line supervisors to vice presidents, deans and directors of institutes; their educational levels ranged from high school completion to Ph.D.s; and their backgrounds included education, behavioral sciences, engineering, business and humanities. All of them had experience in evaluating personnel. / The model employed was linear multiple regression. The experimental design was fractional factorial (after Addleman). Managers were provided with two sets of sixteen performance evaluations each representing respectively sixteen candidates for a promotion, and sixteen candidates for a merit money allocation. The managers were asked to rank the candidates according to their preference for the above purposes. Each performance evaluation had five factors: initiative, dependability, job knowledge, quality of work, and quantity of work. Each factor had three levels: satisfactory, above satisfactory and outstanding. Both series of sixteen candidates included exactly the same cells, differing only in the names of the "candidates." / The results of the study indicated that the managers of this sample weighted quality and quantity of work more heavily when ranking for merit money distribution, and weighted job knowledge more heavily when ranking for promotion purposes. The differential weighting of the factors of dependability and initiative was not statistically significant ((alpha) = 0.05), though the lack of significant results for initiative may have been due to insufficient test power. / The experiment failed to show a significant association between preference for weighting differentially and the personal variables considered: sex, educational background, educational level, experience in management, and experience in evaluation. This analysis used oneway ANOVA, with t contrasts between means of weight coefficients (betas). The results were sparse and did not present an interpretable pattern, probably due to insufficient cell sizes (five to seven subjects per cell in some cases). Nevertheless, some results indicated that for both promotion and merit money, males emphasize more quantity of work than females (p = .008) and the reverse was true for quality of work, where females emphasized more quality than males for both promotion and for merit money distribution purposes (p = .05). Another unexpected result was the low weight attributed to quantity of work for both decisions ((mu)(,promotion) = -.022 and (mu)(,merit money) = .095) which was interpreted as due to the minimum level of "satisfactory" used for each of the factors in the performance evaluation. / Recommendations focused on the importance of having a better model of judgment when using performance evaluation information for decisions, on the necessity of having stronger construct validity on the side of the criterion variables of the performance evaluation, and, finally, on the convenience of having separate performance evaluations for different purposes. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-10, Section: A, page: 4480. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

This research was meant to fill a gap in the matrix organization conflict literature. First, a model of conflict which established a taxonomy of conflict and integrated the conceptual matrix literature was developed. This model included the antecedent, latent, and manifest variables identified in previous literature. Additionally, the affective and substantive variables were integrated into the taxonomy. Thus, a model which meshed the interpersonal and strategic nature of conflict was detailed. Second, a measure of conflict which approached an appropriate level of scaling was found which equated product manager-functional executive strategy variances. This measure represented the revised plans of managers operating in a stable growth setting which emphasized incremental decision making. Third, a set of individual, organizational, and environmental constructs were proposed as explanatory variables of the strategy variances. Conflict was said to function in relation to risk, the environment, goal/reward system, role orientation, motivation and power balance. Fourth, three industries consisting of matrix organizations were created through the use of the Systems Analysis Research Paradigm. Business policy students were employed as surrogate managers in the simulated setting. / The research met with varying degrees of success. First, it was found that risk plays a major role in the conflict between product manager and the functional executive. As such, the innovation that occurs as a result of the vertical and horizontal information flows represents a positive aspect of the matrix structure. Second, the task-environment relationship may provide mixed strategies within the matrix. The various interfaces experienced increasing and decreasing amounts of conflict depending on the nature of the task and the direction of environmental change. Third, the use of an integrative reward system may decrease the degree of conflict in a matrix. Fourth, the type of individuals and their various motivations may affect the amount of conflict in a matrix. Fifth, the locus of decision may interact with the task to produce more or less conflict. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-10, Section: A, page: 4561. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

In the 1960s and 1970s, changes from rigid 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. work scheduling to a more flexible form of work scheduling began to occur. Flexible work scheduling was also known as "flextime." / This investigation attempted to identify the factors related to the use of flextime in a computer operations office of a large governmental agency. The subjects were 92 of the 117 employees of the Florida Department of Labor and Employment Security Data Center. Each responded to the Flextime Inventory, the research apparatus used in this study. It contained demographic items, questions concerning preferences, opinions, and uses of flextime, as well as two previously designed instruments. These were the Life Quality Inventory and the Budner Tolerance-Intolerance of Ambiguity Scale. / Frequency counts, percentages, means, Pearson Product Moment Correlations, and other descriptive statistics were analyzed to provide answers to six research questions. It was found from these that the vast majority of employees were satisfied with and preferred to remain on their flextime program. They practiced a very flexible form of flextime and felt it had a positive impact on their environment, work quality, and their personal attitudes. Clerical, professional, and supervisory employees used flextime to about the same extent. It was also found that supervisees' perceptions of supervisors' attitudes about employee flexibility were as important to the use of flextime as were the supervisors' actual attitudes. / Those who had responsibilities for dependents such as ill parents and children, used flextime very frequently for many different activities. Also, independent travelers were found to use flextime much more than car poolers and users of public transportation. / It was concluded from this investigation that the subjects considered flextime an extremely advantageous work system, with benefits for both employees and employers. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-11, Section: A, page: 4817. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

The general scarcity of resources within the overall environment forces government contractors to strategically plan for resource acquisitions. This study used a dynamic systems approach to analyze the resource-acquisition process of government contractors. / Two research questions were raised to guide this research: (1) What is the strategic policy structure that captures and reflects the behavior of the resource acquisition decision-making process by government aerospace contractors? (2) What are the key effects (or impacts) on the system from the strategic policy alternatives in the resource acquisition decision-making process of a government aerospace contractor? / The general research plan was implemented in two phases: field study (Phase I) and modeling and experimentation (Phase II). The field study was conducted to gain a better overall understanding of productive systems that operate within the government marketplace. In Phase II, a System Dynamics model of a government aerospace contractor was constructed based on earlier System Dynamics models and refined from interviews with key management personnel of one government aerospace contractor. The System Dynamics model was subjected to a verification procedure to establish confidence in the model, and the model was also utilized to evaluate alternative expansion policies for a government contractor. An aggressive expansion policy allows higher growth at the expense of increased instability. On the other hand, a conservative expansion policy provides a lower growth rate with more stability. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-06, Section: A, page: 2829. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

This research reports the results of a policy modeling study in which a system dynamics simulation model of the United States weapon acquisition system was developed. The model integrates the impacts of the arms race, fiscal constraints, national budget priorities, the Department of Defense acquisition process, competing defense budget priorities, and the structure of the defense industrial base into a single model. The research presents the theoretical bases for the simulation model in the form of a graphical conceptual model. The conceptual model was developed after a review of the pertinent literature and in conjunction with interviews with senior analysts and executives representing the Congress, the executive branch, the Department of Defense, academia, and defense industry. The validation process for the simulation model and a demonstration of the policy evaluation capabilities of the model are presented. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-07, Section: A, page: 1873. / Major Professor: Thomas Dillard Clark, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

This dissertation applied a schematic view of dispositional attribution to the employment selection process. The study examined the process by which employment interviewers utilize various informational cues when forming impressions of job applicants. Although most existing research suggests that negative informational cues have a significantly greater influence on impression formation than do positive informational cues, this study examined differences among schemas used by potential employers which may lead to differences in the rules of inference utilized when making causal attributions about applicants. / Theory and research in the areas of the employment interview, attribution theory, and schema offer insights into how employment interviewers utilize positive and negative informational cues about job applicants in the selection process. Based on these insights, a schema model of dispositional attribution in the employment selection process was developed and tested. The model suggested that it is the particular trait dimension being judged--not the negativity of the cue--that influences which informational cues are considered to be the most diagnostic about an applicant. / The sample used to examine the proposed model consisted of 100 employment interviewers from both the public and private sector. The results provided empirical evidence which suggests that positive informational cues may, under certain conditions, be more influential in impression formation than negative informational cues. Specifically, employment interviewers appear to be more influenced by positive information which attests to an applicant's ability rather than negative information. Although interviewers appear to be more tolerant of negative information concerning an applicant's ability-related traits, they are less tolerant of negative information concerning an applicant's morality-related traits. As such, positive-ability and negative-morality information about a job applicant are more influential in impression formation. / Moreover, the results suggest that positive-ability and negative-morality information about an applicant are more likely to be utilized by the employment interviewer in the selection decision than are negative-ability and positive-morality information. Both theoretical and practical implications of the current research findings are presented. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 1031. / Major Professor: Pamela L. Perrewe. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

An entire technology, computer aided software engineering (CASE), has been developed, marketed, and installed to increase productivity and quality in systems development. CASE is broadly defined as the application of computer technology to systems development activities, techniques and methodologies. Despite the potential gains offered by CASE, the technology has not proven to be the "silver bullet" anticipated early in its development. So why has it not been successful? / Current literature suggests that the real power of CASE technology is derived from the repository, where developers can store diagrams, descriptions, specifications, application programs, reusable code, and other working byproducts of systems development. The repository has been described as the "heart" of CASE technology, providing the majority of benefits that can be achieved by the technology. When viewed as managing project team memory, it can be envisioned as playing an important role in key activities that pervade the work of systems development teams such as knowledge acquisition, sharing, and integration. / This dissertation evaluates the importance of the repository and, to a lessor extent, the usage of a methodology in the adoption of CASE technology. It is believed that the benefits offered by the functions of CASE are predicated on a critical mass of knowledge pertinent to information systems development residing within the repository. The greater the depth and breadth of the knowledge domains residing within the repository, the higher the diffusion (spread of CASE throughout an organization) and infusion (comprehensive usage) of CASE technology and subsequently the benefits that can be achieved through the technology. / The research design for the study utilized surveys at two levels of analysis. Regression analysis on responses from 176 organizations strongly supports the proposition that diffusion within an organization is related to the extent of knowledge embedded within the repository. It was also found that systems development methodology's were often changed to support the implementation of CASE within an organization. Responses on 69 projects from organizations using a particular CASE product did not support the relationship between knowledge embeddedness and the infusion of CASE. Discussion of the results are given. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: A, page: 0272. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

This dissertation entails investigation of the antecedents and performance consequences of two types of business portfolio restructuring, both of which involve change in the portfolio of businesses involved. These restructuring choices are termed refocusing and repositioning and they are distinguished by business core definition. Both restructuring efforts involve a careful reconsideration of product/market choice, business core definition, and typically involve the sale of lines of business of the firm which are seen as peripheral to the long-term strategy of the firm. / Two interrelated research questions guide this study: (1) When restructuring, why do managers of firms choose to refocus versus reposition? and (2) Why are some refocusing and repositioning efforts more performance enhancing than others? First, five hypotheses were developed to explore internal and external antecedents to these restructuring choices based on a review of theory--the resource-based view and the adaptation perspective--and relevant literature. Second, two propositions were developed to explore performance outcomes that reflected the impact of both antecedents and strategic choices upon firm performance. / The results of the hypotheses tests suggest that internal resource factors play a larger role than external environmental factors as antecedents to business portfolio restructuring decisions. These two types of restructuring choices were significantly related particularly to levels of intangible resources and financial resources. The results of the exploratory tests of the propositions revealed performance differences between refocusers and repositioners, with repositioners generally performing better. It was additionally shown that refocusers and repositioners could be grouped by internal and external factor configuration and that performance differences were observed between these groups. / The findings of this study provide partial support for the resource-based view of the firm, the adaptation perspective, and configurational theory and they provide richer insight into the complex undertaking of corporate restructuring. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1430. / Adviser: Bruce T. Lamont. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Strategic planning relies heavily on the processing and interpretation of information. One area that has received little attention to date is how information is used for strategic decision making in loosely coupled organizations that are dominated by powerful stakeholder groups. A longitudinal, exploratory case study approach was utilized to investigate how a planning team actually used information in attempting to reach consensus on a strategic plan. / Several exploratory hypotheses were advanced to guide the grounded research approach. Contrary to expectations, the planning group made very limited use of formal sources of information such as reports, presentations, articles, and so forth. Rather, they relied heavily on personal experience, stories, illustrations, and other types of informal information. The initial results led to a reexamination of the data in light of the growing body of literature on organizational cognition, specifically, tacit knowledge. The decision makers in this study used a combination of formal (explicit) and informal/implicit (tacit) information in their deliberations, although, as cited above, the references to formal information sources were unexpectedly low. / Even though the study was exploratory in nature, the results provide potentially important implications for managers. First, those who are responsible for strategic planning need to recognize the relevance of both explicit and tacit information and find more effective ways to utilize both. Secondly, the use of information by decision makers departs significantly from what a rational model would predict. Therefore, planning facilitators and managers must recognize these problems and through the skillful use of structure, models, training, and information systems, facilitate a more complete and effective use of information resources. / As is typical with a qualitative/case study approach, many questions have been answered and several new ones have been raised for future research. Fourteen new propositions are offered that build on the results of this research and the emerging literature on managerial and organizational cognition. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-11, Section: A, page: 4460. / Major Professor: William P. Anthony. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

This research represents a study of the effect of changes in the value of information used in decision making on overall organization performance. The value of information is defined in terms of its attributes or characteristics (accuracy, relevance, reliability, timeliness). The values of information attributes are varied within the framework of a system dynamics simulation model of a manufacturing organization. The parameters which define this model are based on actual financial and operating data from the metal cans and containers industry. / Information value is varied for individual information attributes, for all attributes at specific levels of managerial decision making, and for individual attributes at specific decision making levels. The effects of these changes in information value are examined in terms of the behavior of a set of variables which measure the performance of the organization in terms of profitability, cost, and the efficiency of resource utilization. / Results of the experimental simulation runs indicate that organizational performance (measured in terms of profitability, cost performance, and efficiency of resource utilization) is affected by changes in the value of information (expressed in terms of timeliness, accuracy, relevance and reliability). It was also discovered that the magnitude of these effects is dependent on the information attribute which is varied in its value and the level of managerial decision making at which the information is used. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: A, page: 3784. / Major Professor: Thomas D. Clark, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.