Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2004. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-69)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: Laura Starks. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (May 2, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The present set of experiments investigated three potential means of regulating mind-wandering and sustained attention: goals, feedback, and incentives. The experiments drew up goal-setting theory from industrial/organizational psychology, theories of vigilance and sustained attention, and recent experimental work examining mind-wandering and sustained attention. Experiment 1 investigated the role of goal-difficulty and goal-specificity. Providing a difficult goal for participants only improved sustained attention compared to a condition with no specific goal. Experiment 2 investigated the role of feedback in isolation and in combination with goals. Feedback improved sustained attention and reduced mind-wandering, but it did so regardless of whether or not the feedback was tied to a specific goal. Experiment 3 investigated how two different incentives – money and early release from the experiment – affected sustained attention and mind-wandering. The incentives had no effect on task performance, but participants in the early release condition reported being more motivated, more alert, and mind-wandered less throughout the task. I discuss the results of the experiments in light of predictions made by goal-setting theory as well as theories of vigilance and sustained attention.

abstract: The traditional newspaper industry has been under tremendous pressure in recent years due to the emergence and growth of new media. Experiencing of a fast-shrinking market share, many traditional newspaper companies are either pushed out of business or are forced to innovate and reform. In this thesis, I investigate the organizational changes at one of the largest newspaper groups in China, particularly regarding its incentive systems as the group adjusts its business scopes under both internal and external institutional constraints. Publishers of newspapers were traditionally considered non-profit organizations or social institutions in China. Because of their focus on social goals, their activities were not market driven, including the incentive systems for editorial staff members who were central to the content of the newspapers. As the competition from market-driven new media companies increased, many traditional newspaper organizations started to transform themselves into profit-seeking companies. To survive and grow stronger in the new environment, the traditional newspaper industry needs to effectively motivate its workforce by implementing an effective incentive system for the editorial staff. In this study I first explain the difficulities the traditional newspaper organizations face to implement an incentive system that both satisfies media’s social responsibility and creates sufficient incentive for for editorial staff. Next, I provides a brief history of the reforms occurred in the Chinese newspaper industry in general and the reforms in Shanghai in particular. I then conduct in-depth case analyses of the incentive systems adopted by four successful companies, including one U.S. media company, two Chinese media groups, and one private non-media company in China. Based on the findings from these case analyses and a demographic analysis of the challenges in motivating editorial staff, a new incentive system is designed and implemented in a major newspaper/media group in Shanghai, followed by a survey of its effects on the editorial staff months later. According to the survey, I find that editorial staff members are generally positive about the reforms that have been carried out at this media group, reinforcing the confidence of the group’s leaders in continuing to push the reforms forward. This study concludes by proposing a framework that can be used to guide the transformation of the traditional newspaper organizations to market-driven new media companies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2016

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-29T11:13:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_7929_Dissertação Isaac Final-PDF.pdf: 1685206 bytes, checksum: cd0df1926926f53e9e7e4d8b252da08a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-24 / O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar a relação existente entre remuneração executiva e desempenho em companhias brasileiras de capital aberto listadas na BM&FBOVESPA. A linha teórica parte do pressuposto que o contrato de incentivos corrobora com o alinhamento de interesses entre acionistas e executivos e atua como um mecanismo de governança corporativa a fim de direcionar os esforços dos executivos para maximização de valor da companhia. A amostra foi composta pelas 100 companhias mais líquidas listadas em quantidade de negociações de ações na BM&FBOVESPA durante o período 2010-2012, totalizando 296 observações. Os dados foram extraídos dos Formulários de Referência disponibilizados pela CVM e a partir dos softwares Economática® e Thomson Reuters ®. Foram estabelecidas oito hipóteses de pesquisa e estimados modelos de regressão linear múltipla com a técnica de dados em painel desbalanceado, empregando como variável dependente a remuneração total e a remuneração média individual e como regressores variáveis concernentes ao desempenho operacional, valor de mercado, tamanho, estrutura de propriedade, governança corporativa, além de variáveis de controle. Para verificar os fatores que explicam a utilização de stock options, programa de bônus e maior percentual de remuneração variável foram estimados modelos de regressão logit. Os resultados demonstram que, na amostra selecionada, existe relação positiva entre remuneração executiva e valor de mercado. Verificou-se também que os setores de mineração, química, petróleo e gás exercem influência positiva na remuneração executiva. Não obstante, exerce relação inversa com a remuneração total à concentração acionária, o controle acionário público e o fato da companhia pertencer ao nível 2 ou novo mercado conforme classificação da BMF&BOVESPA. O maior valor de mercado influencia na utilização de stock options, assim como no emprego de bônus, sendo que este também é impactado pelo maior desempenho contábil. Foram empregados também testes de robustez com estimações por efeitos aleatórios, regressões com erros-padrão robustos clusterizados, modelos dinâmicos e os resultados foram similares. Desse modo, conclui-se que há indícios de que a remuneração executiva e os planos de incentivos estão relacionados com a maximização de valor da companhia, a despeito o desempenho operacional apresentou associação negativa com a remuneração executiva.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Introduction to the study Short-term incentives for managers generate interest among employees and executives in South Africa. In the health care industry competency-based performance systems for enhancing both individual and organisational performance have been growing in popularity in the last decade, as they are linked to the quality of diagnosis-specific services. Objectives of the study The objective of the study is to identify the nature of the main components of an appropriate short-term incentive scheme for private hospital managers. Are these schemes in place? If so, how do they work? The study seeks to delve into the experiences of hospital managers regarding their awareness of short-term incentive strategies by researching their views, attitudes and feelings regarding short-term incentives. Literature review The review of the literature indicates that the health care industry faces pressure to balance the quality of health care, on the one hand, with the escalating costs of health care and efforts to motivate hospital managers, on the other. Done correct ly short - term incent ive schemes are a powerful mot ivat ion tool if the intr insic and ext rinsic mot ivators are balanced adequately especially in a hospital set t ing where incor rect implementat ion can lead to unintended consequences. Research methodology The study utilises a qualitative strategy to provide an in-depth description of hospital managers‟ perceptions, understanding, and experiences of short-term incentives. The participatory approach reduces mistrust between subjects and researchers. Main findings The study found that the hospital managers are sharply aware and have a well developed understanding of the short-term incentives practiced in the private hospital sector. Short-term incentives may not be the major motivator but they are critical in ensuring that hospital managers stay motivated. Conclusion Providing a proper balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivators is crucial in designing a framework that will keep hospital managers motivated and performing their work better.

There has been an increased interest on small-scale pumped irrigation (SSPI) in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), however little is known on the adoption processes behind this technology. Moreover, the conditions for successful SSPI adoption remain largely unexplored. This research aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the present adoption processes to inform future policy. The thesis was framed around the diffusion of innovations model (Rogers 2003), using the systematic review methodology and field surveys. Interviews involving 212 farmers and 25 other stakeholders were conducted between 2013 and 2014 within 3 districts in Malawi. The responses were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The systematic review revealed that evidence relating to pump performance in SSA was limited, lacked standards and confined within particular regions. The field surveys identified that four different pumped systems have been adopted by farmers in Malawi; group treadle, individual treadle, group motorized and individual motorized. Farmers generally prefer individually managed pumps that are easy to operate and fit in with their existing farming practices. Adoption is driven either by the attributes of self-motivated farmers or by incentives such as free or subsidized pumps. While adoption by self-motivated farmers is consistent with Rogers (2003) model, adoption due to incentives shows differences. The research proposes a modification to the Rogers (2003) model and revised definition of success in SSPI adoption, leading to a new framework showing pathways of success. This framework identifies the routes taken by farmers who successfully adopt or discontinue using pumps. Incentive farmers are typically the poorer; these need continued external support to survive the learning curve. For self-motivated farmers, their higher socio-economic status supports successful adoption. To ensure sustainability, SSPI promoters need to offer continued support to incentive farmers and/or reduce barriers to accessing the pumps for self-motivated farmers.

This research focussed on the performance of individuals in work teams. The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of the team processes which could explain time-associated differences, in the performance outcomes of individuals within work teams, in teams whose members had moderately interdependent tasks and received hybrid pay incentives. The extant literature has a large body of work on teams in general; there also exists a large amount of work on currently understood relationships between task-interdependence, pay incentives, team processes, and performance. However, although task-interdependent work teams with hybrid pay incentives are common in many labour-intensive business environments, the current literature is thin on the identification of specific team processes which link long-term performance differences in comparable teams. Secondly, few studies on work-team performance, in the current literature, incorporate time as a predictor variable. This research investigated the effects of the introduction of performance-based hybrid pay incentives to members of work teams; the research also investigated the nature of explanatory, time-linked team processes which could be associated with performance variances between these work teams. A review of the literature on work team effectiveness, pay incentives and performance in work teams, resulted in hypothesised relationships between the interdependent tasks of work team members, hybrid pay incentives for supervisors, and overall team performance over time. The research focussed on variances between the team processes for good and poor teams to design a work team process and performance model, which could be used to predict performance variance between teams over time in the field. The study was conducted on bulk-cash deposit processing teller work teams. These work teams were located at geographically dispersed processing centres (18 cash centres), where each work team was composed of an average of 6 members, comprising a team supervisor, and a combination of permanently employed tellers (regular tellers) and tellers on renewable fixed term contracts (contract tellers), in a financial services firm. Using a longitudinal research design, the study used mixed methods, incorporating a control group time-series design. Quantitative performance data included the number and accuracy of deposits processed and attendance records; the data also included ratings on behavioural measures for professionalism. Individual and team-level performance related data was collected from over 480 individuals, in monthly buckets over a period of thirty four months (N=16,358 teller data months), during which a pay incentive for performance was introduced as the first intervention (IV1), followed - after eight months - by a second intervention (IV2), which was the allocation of tellers into teams, whose supervisors received hybrid pay incentives. Using a multiple case study approach, qualitative data was collected using semi-structured individual and group interviews incorporating rating scales, for individuals and focus groups, in two phases of data collection periods. The interviews were lagged to findings from analyses performed on the quantitative data collected. Using a combination of repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the quantitative component of the study, emerging-themes analysis for the qualitative component, and structural modelling techniques, 1) as expected, the introduction of pay incentives for regular tellers was associated with statistically significant increases in the volumes of deposits processed per unit time, with a large effect size; 2) the introduction of individual pay incentives for regular tellers was associated with statistically significant increases in overall individual performance, with a medium effect size; 3) the combination of the introduction of individual and hybrid incentives, and the allocation of supervisors to teams, was associated with statistically significant additional increases in the volumes of deposits processed per unit time and accuracy of deposit processing for both regular and contract tellers, within high performing teams; 4) internal team processes (intra-team communication, target-setting and coaching, progress monitoring and feedback) explained the variance in inter-team performance over time; 5) team coordination and target-setting were the intervening variables in the relationship between pay incentives and team performance. A predictive performance model for performance in interdependent work teams with a combination of individual and hybrid pay incentives was developed, based on the quantitative and qualitative findings from this study. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / pagibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted