A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Commerce. / Information Systems (IS) project management is fundamental to organlzations who are involved in the development of information systems, yet IS projects can fail for any number of reasons, and insome cases can result in consi derable financial losses for the organisations that undertake them. One pattern of failure is .hat the IS project takes on a life of its own, continuing to absorb valuable resources without reaching its cbjective. A significant number of these projects will ultimately fail, potentially weakening an organisation's competitive position while siphoning off resources that could be spent developing and implementing successful systems. Earned value performance measurement (EVPM) is a management technique that relates resource planning to schedules and to technical performance requirements. It is formed on a platform of fundamental project management, but with earned value performance measurement, with its focus being the continuous measurement of actual achievement against a detailed performance plan, thus providing a basis for problem identification, corrective actions, and management replanning, whilst providing the information necessary to be able to predict the final costs and fmal schedule forecasts for the project. The purpose of this study is to highlight the earned value performance measurement system, and propose it as an alternative approach that can be used for controlling the IS software development effort. / AC 2018

This dissertation hypothesizes the effects of membership change within teams on team coordination and effectiveness. When member change occurs, teams are likely to make attributions relating to how unexpected is the member change, based on the predictability and controllability of that change. The impact of the change (i.e., based on the unexpected nature of that change) on team coordination can be described in terms of flux (i.e., the amount of disruption caused by member change in coordination), and thus, team effectiveness. The membership change and flux-in-coordination relationship is then moderated by the importance of the member leaving the team, referred to as role criticality. The contributions and limitations of these results are discussed, as are directions for future research and practical implications. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2009. / Date of Defense: February 27, 2009. / Teams, Coordination, Effectiveness, Member Change / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Stephen E. Humphrey, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Michael Brady, Outside Committee Member; Mark J. Martinko, Committee Member; Chad Van Iddekinge, Committee Member; Timothy Holcomb, Committee Member.

Beginning as an area of popular and business press interest, emotional intelligence is fast becoming a legitimate area of research for organizational science theorists. The many potential benefits of emotional intelligence have yet to be evaluated within the realm of legitimate academic research, and there are many areas of organizational concern that may be beneficially influenced by this empowering attribute. Emotional labor is one such area, and it has grown as a legitimate concern for organizational participants involved in the practice of using their emotions for organizational purposes. Furthermore, it is a concern for the organizations these individuals serve. The purpose of this dissertation is to review and analyze the literature on emotional intelligence and emotional labor and to discover how emotional intelligence moderates relationships within the emotional labor process. It is hypothesized that this investigation will reveal evidence supporting the general hypothesis that emotionally intelligent organizational members enjoy more effective participation in the emotional labor process, and that emotional intelligence, as a moderator, will alleviate detrimental individual and organizational outcomes of this process. Data were collected using questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed to 29 stores of an 87 year-old retail chain with over 200 stores centralized in the Southeastern United States. A sample of 210 usable employee responses having matching supervisor evaluations was obtained from these efforts. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses. Results were found to support a number of the hypotheses set forth, including affirmative findings for the moderating influence of emotional intelligence on the relationship between various emotional labor performance efforts and outcomes of the emotional labor process. In addition, further analyses of unsupported hypotheses revealed direct main effects of emotional intelligence on some outcomes. A discussion of the results includes an evaluation of research limitations, practical limitations, and directions for future research. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: August 18, 2004. / Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction, Performance, Customer Service, Strain, Non-Acting, Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Labor, Emotion, Surface Acting, Deep Acting, Turnover, Physical Strain, Psychological Strain / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Pamela Perrewé, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Brymer, Outside Committee Member; Larry Giunipero, Outside Committee Member; Ceasar Douglas, Committee Member; Wayne Hochwarter, Committee Member.

The over-arching purpose of this research is to broaden the study of trust as it applies to developing stable relationships in electronic environments. Previous research has investigated many aspects of trust, but has not looked at the incremental development of it. This may be because methods are difficult to develop that study process models and concepts are difficult to operationalize that influence the incremental progression of variables. Previous empirical research identifies antecedents that emerge to enhance initial perceptions of trust. These may possibly influence the progression of trust to deeper levels. More conceptual work identifies antecedents that swiftly cultivate trust, allowing for stable relationships to develop more quickly. The antecedents investigated in this study are the use of security symbols, trustworthy brand names, and personalization techniques. Developing and testing a process model using antecedents of trust offers one method to study trust development. This dissertation documents a longitudinal experiment that tested hypotheses of the process model, producing data sets that were analyzed using regression and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study indicate that the use of security symbols and trustworthy brand names have a positive and lasting effect on trusting beliefs. The results also show that personalization has a decreasing and lasting effect on trusting beliefs. There was no support for the hypothesis that trust develops over time in electronic environments. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: December 3, 2004. / Electronic Commerce, Disclosure, Trust / Includes bibliographical references. / David B. Paradice, Professor Directing Dissertation; Charles F. Hofacker, Outside Committee Member; Robert M. Mason, Committee Member; Ashley A. Bush, Committee Member.

The purpose of this dissertation was to expand current knowledge about control of software development projects by examining the effects that institutional influences have on the use of control mechanisms by software project teams, and how the different institutional influences affect each other. The findings provide support for an important relationship between institutional profiles and the adoption of formal control mechanisms by software project teams. First, different institutional profiles will support different types of adoption of formal control mechanisms. Second, when the enacted profile of a software project team is consistent with a dominant institutional profile, the use of formal control mechanisms will be faithful to this profile. Third, when the enacted profile is conflicted, the use of formal control mechanisms will be mixed with both ceremonial and faithful appropriations. Fourth, the higher the tenure of the software project team, the more likely the enacted profile will be consistent with the older institutional context. Finally, the level of congruence of software project managers with a particular institutional profile will be positively related to the adoption of formal control mechanisms consistent with that profile. The study also found that when institutional elements are complementary to each other in the form of an institutional profile, they have a much greater influence on social actors than when the elements are independent of each other. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2003. / Date of Defense: October 31, 2003. / Institutional theory, Control theory, Project management, Software project teams / Includes bibliographical references. / Joey F. George, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Robert W. Zmud, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; William P. Anthony, Outside Committee Member; David Paradice, Committee Member.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Despite near saturation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations in both Fortune 500 and medium-to-large organizations, little is known about issues related to ERP in the phase subsequent to implementation and stabilization, hereafter referred to as post-implementation. This research proposes that exploiting the significant investment in ERP requires developing organizational capabilities to enhance fit between system functionality and business needs. Achieving this capability is predicated on effectively leveraging multiple knowledge sources from throughout the organization. Using the knowledge-based view of the firm as a theoretical lens, this research suggests that post-implementation customizations are the result of integrating specialized knowledge held by ERP-technical and functional business subject matter experts, and that achieving fit between the ERP and the functional business units that utilize the system represents an organizational capability. Survey data from 69 organizations that have implemented SAP and are in the post-implementation phase of the ERP lifecycle are examined to determine the effects of specialized common knowledge, liaison mechanisms and work unit structure on ERP post-implementation customizations, and the resulting effects of customizations on ERP – business fit. Results indicate that specialized common knowledge and liaison mechanism play a more pronounced role in ERP post-implementation customizations than do work unit structure, and that customizations aimed at achieving operational and strategic improvements have greater impacts on ERP – business fit than do those aimed at managerial or IT infrastructure improvements. The findings suggest that common knowledge and liaison mechanisms are more critical to knowledge integration than are structural arrangements, and that knowledge integration is more important for organizational capabilities aimed at achieving change and innovation, rather than compliance and control. For practitioners, the findings suggest that creating an environment where ERP-technical and functional business resources can communicate increases the scope and magnitude of ERP post-implementation customizations that have the greatest impact on achieving ERP – business fit. Moreover, given limited resources, managers should focus on those ERP post-implementation customizations that are aimed at achieving operational and strategic improvements, as these customizations have the greatest impact on ERP – business fit. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: June 26, 2008. / Alignment, Knowledge Based View, Enterprise Systems, Knowledge Integration / Includes bibliographical references. / Molly M. Wasko, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; David Paradice, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Gregory J. Gerard, Outside Committee Member; Deborah J. Armstrong, Committee Member.

Organizational interest in user-generated content (UGC) websites is growing, as organizations face highly competitive markets, uncertain economic environments, and a growing user base accustomed to active engagement rather than passive acceptance of products and services. Organizations are now exploring ways to provide a platform (website) through which users generate and contribute content, resulting in a co-created experience between users and organizations. However, organizations interested in leveraging UGC websites are facing a new challenge – getting users to actively engage through content contribution, retrieval, and exploration. Thus, the research questions guiding this dissertation are: what factors influence an individual's user experience in UGC websites and to what extent does a positive user experience impact individual engagement behavior? This manuscript develops a theory of co-created value to examine how social interactions, operationalized as perceived dialogue, transparency, social accessibility, and risk, and technical features, operationalized as the perceived granularity, extensibility, integration, and evolvability, of a UGC website influence an individual's user experience and subsequent engagement behaviors. Results suggest initial support for a socio-technical perspective of user engagement. The social interactions, critical mass and transparency, had a direct impact on a user's engagement within a UGC website, while critical mass also had a direct impact on a user's experience. The technical features, granularity and evolvability, had direct impacts on a user's experience within a UGC website. Surprisingly, extensibility had a negative impact on a user's experience. Lastly, a positive user experience positively influenced a user's engagement behavior. Based on the results of this study, implications for research and practice are discussed and future directions for researchers are outlined. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: April 30, 2010. / Socio-technical System, Co-created Value, User-generated Content Websites / Includes bibliographical references. / Molly Wasko, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gerald Ferris, University Representative; Deborah Armstrong, Committee Member; David Paradice, Committee Member.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (viewed Feb. 8, 2007). PDF text: 85 p. : ill. UMI publication number: AAT 3216340. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche format.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Arlington, 2009.