Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-152). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-234). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-234). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Paul Stockton. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-72). Also available online.

The research problem in this study was to identify best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. To achieve this goal, the following actions were taken: A literature study was conducted to identify the scope and impact of health-related absenteeism on organisations and the legal parameters within which health-related absenteeism should be managed. A literature study was also conducted to identify strategies to prevent and reduce health-related absenteeism and strategies to ensure the continuous provision of products and services in periods of high absenteeism. The theoretical study focused on the management of absenteeism, wellness, ill-health/mental problems and HIV/AIDS, as well as contingency strategies aimed at maintaining production and service provision. iii The findings from the literature study were integrated into a model of best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. This model was used as a basis for the development of a survey questionnaire to determine whether senior human resources practitioners, occupational health practitioners or line managers, who were responsible for the management of health-related absenteeism in organisations, agreed with the best practice guidelines developed in the study. The survey was conducted in the motor and motor component industry in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality and Buffalo City Metropole. The empirical results from the study showed a strong concurrence with the best practices guidelines developed in the study, with the exception of the strategies aimed at maintaining undisrupted production and service provision during periods of high absenteeism. In particular, disagreement was shown with regard to alternative work arrangements such as flexible work-hours, a compressed workweek, telecommuting and job-sharing. Absenteeism, in general, is an issue that organisations are challenged with on a daily basis. The proliferation of various diseases, specifically HIV/AIDS, is contributing to this problem. An integrated and strategic approach is required to deal effectively and constructively with the immediate and expected future impact of health-related issues on absenteeism. Organisations could use the best practices guidelines, identified in this study, as a mechanism to benchmark how well they manage health-related absenteeism

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / A capabilities-based approach to contingency planning offers important opportunities to strengthen both Homeland Defense and Homeland Security. The Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have already begun moving beyond traditional threat-based and scenario-based planning methodologies toward a more capabilities-based approach, but require embracing this concept more in order to counter challenges in developing contingency plans against current threats to the US Homeland. Additionally, given the critical responsibilities of state and local governments in Homeland Security, this planning approach might be applied far beyond the Federal government. This thesis examines ways that a specialized capabilities-based planning process might be applied to Homeland Defense and Homeland Security, and applies the proposed methodology to two case studies: the US Navy Component of US Northern Command and the New York City Fire Department. / Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:33:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Walter_Antonio_Moraes_Voss_pt1.pdf: 5075650 bytes, checksum: 36e13ce2a81ac66da4d15cbe934a3358 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-07 / Researchers on the topic business budget believe that criticisms of this managerial accountancy tool are derived from the situational context which companies are subject to and the way they use this tool. This dependence can lead to budget settings, in which critical perception may differ from one to another. The aim of this research is to develop a theoretical model of a survey, which shall indicate whether the managers of organizations realize the relationship between contingency factors and the criticism of the budget as considerable. Moreover, whether the types of budgets used may moderate these relationships, this is, make them more or less considerable. The modeling process was based on the conceptual approach of Bunge (1974), along with the application of the structural equation Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (SEM-PLS) model. / Estudiosos sobre o tema or??amento empresarial acreditam que as cr??ticas feitas a esse artefato de contabilidade gerencial sejam oriundas do contexto situacional ao qual as empresas est??o sujeitas, al??m da forma como utilizam o or??amento. Essa depend??ncia pode levar a configura????es de or??amento, cuja percep????o cr??tica pode diferir uma da outra. O objetivo deste trabalho ?? desenvolver um modelo te??rico de uma survey, para constatar se os gestores das organiza????es percebem as rela????es entre os fatores contingenciais e as cr??ticas ao or??amento como consider??veis. Ademais, se os tipos de or??amentos utilizados podem moderar essas rela????es, isto ??, torn??-las mais ou menos consider??veis. O processo de modelagem ocorreu a partir da abordagem conceitual de Bunge (1974), juntamente com a aplica????o do modelo de equa????es estruturais Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:35:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Edna_Yayoi_Hirakawa_Goto.pdf: 1328958 bytes, checksum: c06d679ea677ec5c4c70093c003e5a41 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-31 / The contingency approach states that something is true only under specific conditions . The Controllership acts to measure, control and integrate efforts to ensure optimization of the economic result at organizations. This research aimed to outline the characteristics of contingency factors: size, strategy, technology, structure and environment present in subsidiaries of a multinational organization. We sought to identify how these aspects influenced the Controllership area in different organizational contexts in terms of activities, functions, organizational structure and informational support . Therefore we carried out a descriptive study with a qualitative approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interview and structured questionnair in the American and Mexican subsidiaries of a multinational company based in Germany. Regarding to the size of the subsidiaries there were found positive associations with the subordination of the controller and the number of employees connected to the Controllership department , but there were no significant differences in the functions and activities in the Controllership area, and in both subsidiaries were not observed segregation between the functions of the Controllership and Treasury. Concerning strategy, it was identified differences between the subsidiaries, since the Mexican presented as prospective and American as analyzer, this variable determined the influence of the Controllership in terms of supporting informational to the business management, but no impact on the organizational structure. Regarding technology, it was observed that the American subsidiary values information technology, fator that provides the standardization of processes, contributing to operational management and risks of the Controllership. On the structure issue, it is emphasized that, as the degree of authority in relation to strategic decisions, both has limitations due to the centralization driven from the headquarters, however , it was found that the American subsidiary tends towards to a mechanistic nature , there are more division of work and authority reinforced, whereas the Mexican has mainly organic character traits: more decentralized, and with greater autonomy, this difference impacts the Controllership in terms of informational support . Finally, with regard to the environment, it was found that, compared with the American Mexican subsidiary operates in the most hostile dynamics environments showing that, in such environments are required control and management systems aimed more for performance and business results. It is concluded that for the specific situation of this study , the role of the divisional Controllership is is partially impacted by a combination of contingent variables and also found the effect of coercive isomorphism in divisional Controllership, minimizing the effect of the contingency variables in divisional Controllership / A abordagem contingencial estabelece que algo ?? verdadeiro somente sob condi????es espec??ficas. A Controladoria atua no sentido de mensurar, controlar e integrar os esfor??os para assegurar a otimiza????o do resultado econ??mico das organiza????es. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo delinear as caracter??sticas dos fatores contingenciais: tamanho, estrat??gia, tecnologia, estrutura e ambiente presentes nas subsidi??rias de uma organiza????o multinacional. Procurou-se identificar de que modo estes aspectos influenciaram a ??rea de Controladoria nos diferentes contextos organizacionais em termos de atividades, fun????es, suporte informacional e estrutura organizacional. Para tanto, realizou-se uma pesquisa descritiva com abordagem qualitativa. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevista semiestruturada e question??rio estruturado nas subsidi??rias americana e mexicana de uma empresa multinacional sediada na Alemanha. Com rela????o ao tamanho das subsidi??rias houve associa????es positivas quanto ?? subordina????o do controller e o n??mero de colaboradores ligados ?? Controladoria, por??m n??o foram verificadas diferen??as nas fun????es e atividades na ??rea de Controladoria, sendo que em ambas n??o foi observada a segrega????o entre as fun????es de Controladoria e Tesouraria.Quanto a estrat??gia, identificou-se diferen??as entre as subsidi??rias, uma vez que a mexicana apresentou-se como prospectiva e a americana analisadora, vari??vel que determinou influ??ncia quanto ao suporte da Controladoria ?? gest??o do neg??cio, mas sem impactos quanto ?? estrutura organizacional. No que tange ?? tecnologia, observou-se que a subsidi??ria americana valoriza a tecnologia da informa????o, disposi????o que propicia a padroniza????o de processos, contribuindo na gest??o operacional e de riscos da Controladoria. No quesito estrutura, destaca-se que, quanto ao grau de autoridade de ambas em rela????o ??s decis??es estrat??gicas h?? limita????es em fun????o da centraliza????o orientada pela matriz da organiza????o; entretanto, constatou-se que a subsidi??ria americana tende para uma natureza mecanicista, isto ??, com maior divis??o dos trabalhos e autoridade refor??ada; j?? a mexicana possui caracter??sticas de car??ter mormente org??nico: mais descentralizada, e com maior autonomia; tal diferen??a impacta na Controladoria em termos de suporte informacional. Por fim, no que diz respeito ao ambiente, verificou-se que, em compara????o com a americana, a subsidi??ria mexicana atua em ambiente mais hostil e din??mico, evidenciando-se que, em ambientes dessa natureza, s??o necess??rios controles e sistemas gerenciais mais voltados para a performance e resultados dos neg??cios. Conclui-se que, para a situa????o espec??fica deste estudo, a atua????o da Controladoria divisional ?? impactada parcialmente por uma combina????o de vari??veis contingenciais e tamb??m se apurou o efeito do isomorfismo coercitivo na Controladoria divisional, minimizando o efeito das vari??veis contingenciais na Controladoria divisional

The thesis focuses on those factors which affect firm growth in the setting of the Chinese transition economy, such as size, age, entrepreneurship, resources, and environment. As regards the complexity of the business expansion mechanism, an interdisciplinary approach combining the fields of economics and management is adopted. Using fieldwork methods, new data were gathered in face-to-face interviews with 83 owner-managers of the Chinese privately owned firms in P. R. China in 2004, as well as in follow-up telephone interviews in 2006. The unique body of qualitative and quantitative data in terms of firm operation, human resources management, finance, technology and innovation, enterprise culture and competitive environment, were collected by a specially designed survey instrument, and enabled a number of new hypotheses to be tested in both economic and managerial aspects. With respect to the modern developments of Gibrat’s Law (1931) and Jovanovic’s Learning Theory (1982) in economics, the effects of two “stylized factors”, namely size and age, along with a vector of firm-specific, environmental and selection bias variables, on firm growth, were examined in Heckman’s (1979) two-step selection model with the correction for sample selection bias and heteroscedasticity. The results indicated that the “stylized facts” that smaller and younger firms grew faster were also valid in the setting of China. This thesis also explored managerial factors contributing to firm growth – viz. entrepreneurship theory, resource-based view in strategic management, and contingency theory in organizational behaviour. A variety of statistical methods were utilized to operationalize entrepreneurial orientation (EO), intangible assets (IA), and contingency factors (e.g. structure, environment, strategy, etc), and econometric models were estimated to examine their relationship with firm dynamics. The evidence suggested that IA might be more capable of facilitating firm growth than EO. However, when both were disaggregated into a lower level of attributes, the influences on growth may vary. Further, contingency theory, originally proposed for the case of larger firms in the west, was also validated in this study on the Chinese sampled firm. The combination of organizational forms and contingency configurations presented a higher power to explain business expansion. It implied that “the good fit” of contingency factors influenced firm dynamics only in a moderate way, whereas “the badness of fit” in configuration could engender either the highest or lowest firm growth, subject to their organizational structures.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:33:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo_Pereira_Alencar.pdf: 864195 bytes, checksum: 49414a0dda4258b4ba2907032c458c67 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-21 / The contingency theory is premised a better fit between the internal contingency factors to the company and its external environment. From this perspective the research sought to understand the influence of contingencies factors: external environment to the company's operations and size, about the intensity in the use of the financial indicators and financial and non-financial value drivers on the brazilian chemical sector. Data were obtained by applying the questionnaire, multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the influence of the environment and size in intensity of use of value drivers. The results show that the uncertainty of the environmental factor influenced the intensity of use forming a basic set which mostly has financial drivers and financial indicators, but non-financial drivers were also validated in the regression to a lesser extent, the size influenced financial indicators and non-financial drivers the basic set of drivers and indicators formed can be seen as the best fit to environmental uncertainty and the size of the sample companies / A teoria da conting??ncia tem por premissa um melhor ajuste entre os fatores contingenciais internos ?? empresa e seu ambiente externo. Sob essa perspectiva a pesquisa procurou compreender a influ??ncia dos fatores contingenciais: ambiente externo ??s opera????es da empresa e porte, sobre a intensidade de uso dos indicadores financeiros e direcionadores de valor financeiro e n??o financeiro no segmento qu??mico brasileiro. Os dados foram obtidos pela aplica????o de question??rio, a an??lise de regress??o m??ltipla foi utilizada para verificar a influ??ncia do ambiente e porte na intensidade de uso dos direcionadores de valor. Os resultados apontam que a incerteza do fator ambiental influenciou a intensidade de uso formando um conjunto b??sico que em sua maioria possui direcionadores e indicadores financeiros, por??m direcionadores n??o financeiros tamb??m foram validados na regress??o em menor quantidade, o porte influenciou indicadores financeiros e direcionadores n??o financeiros, um conjunto b??sico, de direcionadores e indicadores formado pode ser vista como a que melhor se ajusta ?? incerteza ambiental e ao porte das empresas da amostra