<p> For racial minority faculty, racism is associated with adverse outcomes, including poor job satisfaction and less motivation, which may lead faculty to leave the teaching profession. It is unknown what relationships, if any, exist among perceived racial microaggression, job satisfaction, and employee motivation among African American (AA) faculty and other faculty of color in colleges and universities in the southeastern United States. Critical race theory provided a framework to investigate the relationship of perceived racial microaggressions toward AA faculty and other faculty of color with motivation and job satisfaction. This study involved a correlational design using multiple linear regressions to determine the relationships between the variables in a sample of 42 AA faculty and other faculty of color. In the multiple linear regression analysis, the predictor variables were 6 microaggression subscales (assumptions of inferiority, second-class citizen and assumption of criminality, microinvalidations, exoticization/assumptions of similarity, environmental microaggressions, and workplace and school micro-aggressions). The outcome variables were employee motivation and job satisfaction. The results of the analysis indicated no significant relationships between perceived level of microaggressions and job satisfaction or between perceived level of microaggressions and employee motivation. To determine possible bivariate relationships, Pearson&rsquo;s correlations were performed. Assumptions of inferiority and microinvalidations were negatively correlated with job satisfaction, which suggests that when examined in isolation, higher assumptions of inferiority and microinvalidations were associated with lower levels of job satisfaction. Implications for positive social change pertain to ways that oppression and racism can be eliminated in colleges and universities.</p><p>

In this master thesis two different worldviews are compared: a mechanistic, and an organic worldview. The way we think the world and the nature work reflects on how we think organizations work, or how they ought to work. The mechanistic worldview has dominated our way of thinking since the seventeenth century, and it compares the world with a machine. The organic worldview could use a number of different metaphors, but the one addressed in this thesis is complexity theory. Complexity theory is related to chaos theory and is concerned with complex adaptive systems (cas). Complex adaptive systems exist everywhere and are systems such as the human immune system, economies, and ecosystems. What complexity theory tries to do is to understand these systems—how they arise, how they function and how order emerge in them. When looking at complex adaptive systems you can’t just look at the different parts. You must take a more holistic view and look at the whole and the interaction of the parts. If you just look at the parts you will miss the emergent properties that have emerged as the system has self-organized. One prominent aspect of these systems is that they don’t have any central authority, but somehow order do arise. In relation to organizations, complexity theory has something to say about almost all aspects of organizations: from what kind of leadership is needed, and how teams should be organized to the physical structure of the organization. To understand what complexity theory is and how to relate that to (software developing) organizations is the main focus of this thesis. Scrum is an agile and lightweight process which can be applied on development projects in general, but have been used in such diverse examples as software development projects, marketing programs, and business process reengineering (BPR) initiatives. In this thesis Scrum is used as an example of how to apply complexity theory to organizations. The result of the thesis showed that Scrum is highly influenced and compatible with complexity theory, which implies that complexity theory is of some use in software development. However, there are more work to be done to determine how effective it is, how to introduce it into organizations, and to explore more specific implementations. This master thesis should give the reader a good understanding of what complexity theory is, some specific issues to consider when applying complexity theory on organizations, and some specific examples of how to apply complexity theory on organizations.

L'étude des processus de création de connaissances souligne la complexité des interactions individuelles au sein des organisations productives. Cette complexité est telle que les théories de l'entreprise basées sur les incitations, focalisées sur les problèmes de traitement de l'information, peuvent ignorer une part substantielle des facteurs de décision individuels intervenant dans le contexte de l'apprentissage organisationnel, et plus largement dans les processus de production collectifs. Nous utilisons dans cette thèse la méthode expérimentale pour étudier les déterminants de la coopération, afin d'affiner les hypothèses comportementales sur lesquelles sont basées les théories économiques de la production collective. Nous montrons que les deux visions de la coopération portées par les théories de l'entreprise - un comportement devant être extrait d'intérêts divergents et une propriété émergente découlant des interactions sociales entre agents – sont étayées par les résultats expérimentaux. Par conséquent, nous concluons que les deux approches devraient être retenues et éventuellement intégrées dans un cadre d'analyse plus large. / The study of knowledge creation processes has pointed to the complexity of individual interactions within productive organizations. This complexity appears to be such that incentive-based theories of the firm, which focus on information processing issues, may fail to grasp a substantial part of the individual decision-making involved in the context of organizational learning, and more broadly in collective production processes. In this thesis we use experimental methods to study the determinants of cooperation, in order to refine the behavioral assumptions on which economic theories of collective production are based. We show that the two visions of cooperation embodied in competing theories of the firm - a behavior to be elicited from diverging interests and an emergent property stemming from social interactions among agents - find support from the laboratory experiments. Accordingly, we conclude that both approaches should be upheld and possibly combined in a broader, integrative, analytical framework.

In recent years, new regulatory guidance has spurred organizations to replace hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives. The factors and influences that shape decisions to transition to safer chemicals are of interest to decision scientists. Previous studies have examined the role that various factors, such as regulation, health impacts, and environmental impacts, have played in shaping such decisions. However, two key research gaps have been identified. First, existing semi-quantitative-based studies do not adequately capture the complexity of decision-making. Second, no in-depth qualitative study of a current substitution process, elucidating decision-making mechanisms at various stages of the design process, has yet been performed. The current research addresses these gaps. The first component of the study is an extensive survey of product and chemical manufacturers to elicit potential tradeoffs concerning final product design and redesign decisions. Such tradeoffs are characterized by a set of six factors affecting product design, which are further disaggregated into thirty-three attributes distributed across these factors. Statistical methods including Bayesian Dirichlet modeling and Principal Component Analysis were used to show: 1) two factors were statistically significantly different than other factors, 2) how features such as company size and time of decision affected factor weighting, and 3) that nine principal components explain 79% of the variance in the attribute scores. The second component of the study was a phenomenological assessment of a current substitution process: replacement of cadmium with Zn-Ni for aircraft components, undertaken by the U.S. Navy and Air Force. This study synthesized existing research in cognition, decision-making, and knowledge management. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants representing engineering, environmental, safety, and management disciplines. Qualitative analysis was used to identify and characterize the underlying mechanisms guiding the decision process, including external/internal influences, organizational structure and inertia, and innovative team problem solving. The results from this research contribute to theoretical knowledge in decision-making and cognition, as well as practical knowledge for organizations and policymakers. The broader implications of this research study include a realization that decision tradeoffs vary based on decision contexts, indicating that sector-specific future policy and guidance efforts are needed.

abstract: The Luminosity Lab, located at Arizona State University, is a prototype for a novel model of interdisciplinary, student-led innovation. The model’s design was informed by the following desired outcomes: i) the model would be well-suited for the 21st century, ii) it would attract, motivate, and retain the university’s strongest student talent, iii) it would operate without the oversight of faculty, and iv) it would work towards the conceptualization, design, development, and deployment of solutions that would positively impact society. This model of interdisciplinary research was tested at Arizona State University across four academic years with participation of over 200 students, who represented more than 20 academic disciplines. The results have shown successful integration of interdisciplinary expertise to identify unmet needs, design innovative concepts, and develop research-informed solutions. This dissertation analyzes Luminosity’s model to determine the following: i) Can a collegiate, student-driven interdisciplinary model of innovation designed for the 21st century perform without faculty management? ii) What are the motivators and culture that enable student success within this model? and iii) How does Luminosity differ from traditional research opportunities and learning experiences? Through a qualitative, grounded theory analysis, this dissertation examines the phenomena of the students engaging in Luminosity’s model, who have demonstrated their ability to serve as the principal investigators and innovators in conducting substantial discovery, research, and innovation work through full project life cycles. This study supports a theory that highly talented students often feel limited by the pace and scope of their college educations, and yearn for experiences that motivate them with agency, achievement, mastery, affinity for colleagues, and a desire to impact society. Through the cumulative effect of these motivators and an organizational design that facilitates a bottom-up approach to student-driven innovation, Luminosity has established itself as a novel model of research and development in the collegiate space. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Systems Engineering 2020

abstract: Governance of complex social-ecological systems is partly characterized by processes of autonomous decision making and voluntary mutual adjustment by multiple authorities with overlapping jurisdictions. From a policy perspective, understanding these polycentric processes could provide valuable insight for solving environmental problems. Paradoxically, however, polycentric governance theory seems to proscribe conventional policy applications: the logic of polycentricity cautions against prescriptive, top-down interventions. Water resources governance, and large-scale water infrastructure systems in particular, offer a paradigm for interpretation of what Vincent Ostrom called the “counterintentional and counterintuitive patterns” of polycentricity. Nearly a century of philosophical inquiry and a generation of governance research into polycentricity, and the overarching institutional frameworks within which polycentric processes operate, provide context for this study. Based on a historically- and theoretically-grounded understanding of water systems as a polycentric paradigm, I argue for a realist approach to operationalizing principles of polycentricity for contribution to policy discourses. Specifically, this requires an actor-centered approach that mobilizes subjective experiences, knowledge, and narratives about contingent decision making. I use the case of large-scale water infrastructure in Arizona to explore a novel approach to measurement of polycentric decision making contexts. Through semi-structured interviews with water operators in the Arizona water system, this research explores how qualitative and quantitative comparisons can be made between polycentric governance constructs as they are understood by institutional scholars, experienced by actors in polycentric systems, and represented in public policy discourses. I introduce several measures of conditions of polycentricity at a subjective level, including the extents to which actors: experience variety in the work assigned to them; define strong operational priorities; perceive their priorities to be shared by others; identify discrete, critical decisions in the course of their work responsibilities; recall information and action dependencies in their decision making processes; relate communicating their decisions to other dependent decision makers; describe constraints in their process; and evaluate their own independence to make decisions. I use configurational analysis and narrative analysis to show how decision making and governance are understood by operators within the Arizona water system. These results contribute to practical approaches for diagnosis of polycentric systems and theory-building in self governance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Environmental Social Science 2020

Objective: In this thesis, we assume that the organizations' interests are governing their behavior/positions. It seems possible to draw conclusions about organizations'interests on the basis of the behavior / positions that will appear in the givenopinions on Swedish Public Investigations. The purpose of this thesis is toidentify self-interests of the studied organizations as they appear in their givenopinions. Method: The authors have made a qualitative and quantitative study of the opinions. Theoretical perspective: The basis of the study is the organization theories that focus the self-interest oforganizations. Empiric: Information is taken from four Swedish Public Investigations: the New Company Act, International Accounting for Swedish companies, Abolition of the audit requirement for small and medium sized enterprise and Simplified accounting. Altogether 310 opinions have been given on these, out of which we have studied 59. Furthermore, we have collected information on tasks, activities and objectives from the websites of the opinion giving organizations. Conclusions: In the literature, we found, as mentioned, that organizations havet hree self- interests which we define as general self-interests. They are the interest in survival, resources and power. We have found - what we believe – an additional general self-interest of organizations, namely the interest to avoid accountability and transparency. It was possible to divide the organizations intogroups with high community of interest within each group while the community between the groups was low. This provides an empirical support to Dimaggio’s and Powell’s theory which says that organizations in specific areas are similar. This means that it is possible to study the interest of organizations, without studying the individuals in an organization. We found that the owner's interests expressed in tasks, activities and objectives of the organization are important factors affecting the organization's interest structure. We also found indications - however unclear - that the public interest has an impact on the organizations' self interests. We also found an interest to protect its own market which can be related to the general interest of resource influx under Pfeffers and Salanciks theories of resource dependence.

abstract: In this study, I used critical, qualitative methods to explore how the material and symbolic dynamics of milk banking complicate expectations of organizing and (in)effective lactation. Guided by theories of alternative organizing, in/voluntary membership, the structuration of d/Discourse, and corporeal commodification, I conducted document analysis, fieldwork, and interviews with hospital and milk bank staff and maternal donors and recipients. Results trace the (her)story and protocols of the milk banking industry and examine the circumstances of donation and receipt; the d/Discourses of filth, suspicion, and inadequacy that circulate the lactating, maternal body; and the presence or resistance of commodification within each organization. Milk banking occurs when mothers provide excess breastmilk to parents with low supply or compromising medical conditions. “Milk banking” is used as an umbrella term for different ways of organizing donor milk; organizing evolved from wet-nursing to a continuum of in/formal markets. Formal markets include for-profit and non-profit milk banks that pasteurize and/or sterilize breastmilk for Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Informal markets involve self-organized exchanges online that are driven by monetary ads or donation. Both formal and informal markets elicit questions regarding flows of capital, labor, reproductive choice, and exploitation. However, current research resides in medicine, law, and popular press, so we know little about how milk banking happens in real time or how participation affects maternal identity. My analysis makes four contributions to organizational communication theory: (1) alternative organizing punctuates the construction of and conflicts between in/formal markets and shows why such theories should be represented as cyclical, rather than linear; (2) membership in milk banking is unintentional and distinct from in/voluntary membership; (3) the obscured organization is a necessary alternative to Scott’s (2013) hidden organizations; and (4) d/Discourses of “safety” are used to discipline and indict, not just represent operational differences. Social-rhetorical implications reveal how milk banking operates as an affective economy (Ahmed, 2004) and mark where privileges and inequalities are present in the absence of data; practical implications suggest consideration of policy changes. Methodologically, this study also offers insight into crystallization (Ellingson, 2009) and participant witnessing (Tracy, forthcoming) and challenges the hegemonic underpinnings of fieldwork. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication Studies 2019

Latino immigrants are the fastest growing foreign group and appear to be suffering from disproportionate risks of involvement in the child welfare system. Yet, there is limited knowledge in regards to this population when involved in the child welfare system and the day-to-day complexity of issues, stressors, and barriers they face. This qualitative study aims to understand the day-to-day reality of being a Latino immigrant in this system as well as the organizations that work with this population. Street-level bureaucracy theory is used to explore how private non-profit child welfare agencies work to assist their Latino immigrant clients on a day-to-day basis. It also examines the perceptions and experiences of non-profit child welfare staff members in regards to accountability and discretion toward both the organization and their Latino immigrant clients. Qualitative methodology was used to gain in-depth knowledge of how these agencies are working with this population. Three private non-profit child welfare agencies located in Los Angeles County were selected. Each agency has a foster care and adoptions component as well as various other programs such as Project Fatherhood, Family Preservation, and Unaccompanied Child program. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 19 staff members. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings from this study found that the complex issues that exist with this population in the child welfare system are not discussed at a detailed or formal level. Also, there are gaps between policies and practices, in that the universal policies in place are not meeting all the needs of these families and creating barriers in servicing these families. At the organizational level, it was found that these agencies have more time and availability for their immigrant clients due to a lower caseload and agency flexibility. They were able to be more accountable to their clients and used their discretion to spend more time with these clients, advocate more for them, provide more quality work, and have more creativity in filling the gaps these families are experiencing in regards to access to services and service use.

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