Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-134). Also available in electronic version.

M.Com. / The study was conducted with the express purpose of finding thorough understanding, within the framework of bus i ness management, of the concept "corporate culture" and its function as a dimension of the management process. Substantial consensus has been reached by researchers that each enterprise has its own identifiable culture and that this culture ,has a very powerful infiuence on the management process and performance of the enterprise. Uncertainty however still exists regarding the manner in which this phenomenon succeeds to influence and how it can be manipulated to the benefit of a particular concern. A fact worth noting is that few researchers followed a systems approach in their studies of "corporate culture" and its extensive influence on the management process. Many researchers see "corporate culture" only as one isolated component of business management and therefore fail to explain the exact nature and influences of this phenomenon. In order to describe and analyse the concept "corporate culture" from the perspective of business management, a holistic approach forms the basis of this study. The findings hereof confirms the importance of "corporate culture" as an essential element of the process of business management. The concept of "corporate culture" cannot be separated from the business management process. Management thinking and corporate activities are influenced by cultural values and norms. Managers therefore have to take note of this phenomenon, gain knowledge thereof and strive to integrate the proactive managing of corporate culture into overall business management, in order to enhance the performance of their enterprise.

As organizations struggle to become and remain competitive, the engagement of employees may be a critical enabler in achieving organizational goals, enhancing organizational competitiveness, and improving employee well-being. To this end, scholars have identified a continuing need for research focused on organizational factors within the purview of managers to improve the engagement of employees (Alagaraja & Shuck, 2015; Coyle-Shapiro & Shore, 2007; Eldor & Vigoda-Gadot, 2017; Oswick, 2015; Whittington et al., 2017; Whittington & Galpin, 2010). Using the employee engagement framework proposed by Shuck and Reio (2011), this research examined the relation among employee alignment, perceived organizational support, and employee engagement in an organizational context. The research site was the human resources department of a not-for-profit health care organization located in the southern region of the United States. Census sampling was used to identify the actual sample (Fritz & Morgan, 2010) of 109 full-time nonsupervisory employees whose data was used in the analysis. Three self-report survey instruments were used: (a) the Employee Engagement Scale (Shuck, Adelson, et al., 2017), (b) the Stringer Strategic Alignment Scale (Stringer, 2007), and (c) the Survey of Perceived Organizational Support (Eisenberger et al., 1986). Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to test the research hypotheses. The results provided evidence of partial support for the researcher’s hypotheses, with four of the seven hypotheses supported. Evidence was found for a positive relation among employee alignment, perceived organizational support, and employee engagement, as well as the statistically significant contribution of employee alignment in explaining unique variance in employee engagement (i.e., 23.4%). Contrary to expectations, the results did not provide evidence that perceived organizational support had a statistically significant direct effect on employee engagement. Additionally, the results did not provide statistically significant evidence of either a moderation or mediation effect of perceived organizational support on the relation between employee alignment and employee engagement. This study provides preliminary evidence that suggests that employee alignment, and to a lesser extent perceived organizational support, are two factors within the purview of managers that can be useful in creating the requisite organizational environment in which engagement may thrive.

Estimates of the number of U.S. deaths each year resulting from medical errors range from 44,000 (Institute of Medicine, 1999) to 195,000 (HealthGrades, 2004). Additionally, instances of medical harm are estimated to occur at a rate of approximately 15 million per year in the U.S., or about 40,000 per day (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2007). Although several organizational behavior management (OBM) intervention techniques have been used to improve particular behaviors related to patient safety, there remains a lack of patient-safety-focused behavioral interventions among healthcare workers. OBM interventions are often applied to needs already identified within an organization, and the means by which these needs are determined vary across applications. The current research addresses gaps in the literature by applying a broad needs-assessment methodology to identify patient-safety intervention targets in a hospital and then translating OBM intervention techniques to identify and improve the prevention potential of responses to reported medical errors. A content analysis of 17 months of descriptions of follow-up actions to error reports for nine types of the most-frequently-occurring errors was conducted. Follow-up actions were coded according to a taxonomy of behavioral intervention components, with accompanying prevention scores based on criteria developed by Geller et al. (1990). Two error types were selected for intervention; based on the highest frequency of reporting and lowest average follow-up prevention score. Over a three-month intervention period, managers were instructed to respond to these two error types with active communication, group feedback, and positive reinforcement strategies. Results indicate improved prevention potential as a consequence of improved corrective action for targeted errors. Future implications for identifying and classifying responses to medical error are discussed. / Ph. D.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a behaviorally-based intervention that emphasizes psychological processes related to mindfulness, values, committed actions towards values, defusion from troubling thoughts, and acceptance. ACT is often used with populations who experience psychological inflexibility or stress, but not much research has been done understanding how ACT processes may affect everyday tasks within the common public or within business practices. The present study used a randomized controlled trial to determine the effect that statements related to ACT processes given while receiving a bar tending service altered the outcome tipping percentage from guests. The current research also discussed how each statement used relates back to the various components of ACT. The current study suggests a potential way to increase tips that a bartender or server can receive by providing a simple ACT-based statement to their customers while still maintaining an inviting and friendly environment for entertainment. Results of this study indicated that the use of mindfulness statements was statistically significant, t(53) = 1.68, p < .098. While one of the six prepared and randomized mindfulness statements, “It’s it a nice night for a drink?” used was statistically significant in increasing tip revenue when compared to all other mindfulness statements used and the low-quality control statements used in a one-way ANOVA analysis, F(6, 48) = 1.799, p = .11. Results of this study were not significant for a t-test comparing statements and total tip value received compared to total bill amount t(5) = 0.887, p < .378. Additionally, results of a two-way ANOVA comparing male and female and tip value also displayed no statistical significance F(1, 51) = 0.051, p = .82, F(1, 51) = 1.106, p = .29, with no significant interaction, F(1, 51) = 2.467, p = .12. Lastly, a two-way ANOVA comparing male and female and total tip value received compared to total bill amount displayed no significance as well F(1, 51) = 0.448, p = .50, F(1, 51) = 1.439, p = .23, with no significant interaction F(1, 51) = 0.693, p = .40. Organizational behavior management (OBM) is an area of behavior intervention ripe for ACT research. Future OBM research could extend upon by incorporating the use of ACT, or ACT related processes into everyday business models and behaviors.

ABSTRAKT Titel: Ledarskap och motivation inom bemanningsbranschen - Konsultchefers uppfattning av motivationsbehovet hos konsulter Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Christoffer Rönnqvist och Alice Schmuck Handledare: Maria Fregidou Malama Datum: 2012-06-14 Syfte: Genom att vara anställd hos bemanningsföretag befinner man sig i en trepartsrelation som består av en själv, konsultchefen och kundföretaget. Detta innebär att konsultchefer kan ha det svårt att motivera sina konsulter, eftersom de utför sitt arbete på olika platser. Syftet med detta arbete är att identifiera och analysera konsultchefers uppfattning av motivationsbehovet hos sina anställda i bemanningsföretag. Två forskningsfrågor har undersökts: Forskningsfråga #1: Hur uppfattar konsultchefer vikten av inre motivation hos konsulter inom bemanningsbranschen? Forskningsfråga #2: Vilka verktyg använder sig konsultchefer av för att motivera sina konsulter? Metod: Vi genomförde intervjuer med öppna svarsalternativ som kvalitativ metod med en induktiv utgångspunkt för att uppfylla syftet. Efter att empirisk data samlats in, transkriberats och kategoriserats. Empirin redovisades i de identifierade temana: yttre motivation, inre motivation, feedback, leda på distans och gemensamma aktiviteter. Resultat &amp; slutsats: Konsultchefer inser vikten av inre motivation samtidigt som de ser svårigheten att kunna påverka den. De försöker påverka konsulternas inre motivation genom yttre motivationsfaktorer som personliga möten, gemensamma aktiviteter, materiella belöningar och informativa belöningar i form av feedback. Förslag till fortsattforskning: Vi valde att begränsa oss till att undersöka ledarskapets perspektiv i auktoriserade bemanningsföretag med kontor i Uppsala. För att få klarhet i vad som motiverar konsulterna föreslår vi att undersöka både ledarskapets och de anställdas perspektiv. Forskningsområdet kan utökas och frågan kan undersökas om förbättrad feedback leder till bättre resultat för konsulterna. Uppsatsens bidrag: Arbetet sammanfattar viktiga teorier och framför vikten av inre motivation. Det kan vara till nytta till blivande konsulter för att förstå vikten av deras egna inre motivation och drivkraft. Dessutom ger vi en empirisk definition av konsultmässighet vilket underlättar för samhället att förstå vad som krävs av en konsult. Nyckelord: Yttre motivation, Inre motivation, Ledarskap, Feedback, Organizational Behavior Management, Bemanningsföretag.     ABSTRACT Title: Leadership and motivation within Swedish staffing agencies - consultant managers’ perception of the motivational needs of consultants Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Christoffer Rönnqvist and Alice Schmuck Supervisor: Maria Fregidou Malama Date: 2012-06-14 Aim: Being employed by a staffing agency involves a trilateral relationship, consisting of one self, the consultant manager and the client company. Hence, it can be difficult for the consultant manager to motivate its consultants as they conduct their work in different places. Aim of this research paper is to identify and analyze the consultant manager’s perception of motivational needs of their consultants. Two research questions were investigated: Research Question #1: How does the consultant manager perceive the importance of internal motivation of consultants within the staffing industry? Research Question #2: What tools does consultant managers make use of to motivate their consultants? Method: Open-ended interviews as a qualitative method with an inductive basis were carried out for meeting the aim of this paper. The analysis of data followed Bruce L. Berg’s model and the empirical data is reported in the identified themes. Result &amp; Conclusions: Consulting managers recognize the importance of intrinsic motivation and at the same time see the difficulty to affect it. They are thus seeking to influence consultants’ intrinsic motivation by external motivation factors. Suggestions for future research: This research paper is limited to investigate the leadership perspective of authorized staffing agencies with offices in Uppsala. In order to clarify factors that motivate consultants, we propose to investigate both the leadership and employees perspective. The research can be extended and the question if improved feedback leads to better results for the consultants can be investigated. Contribution of the thesis: Key theories concerning motivation are summarized and the importance of internal motivation is emphasized. This study may help prospective consultants to understand the importance of their own intrinsic motivation and drive. Key words: External motivation, internal motivation, leadership, feedback, organizational behavior management, staffing agency

Thesis (M.B.A. (Rhodes Investec Business School)) - Rhodes University, 2009. / A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Functional analysis is considered best practice for behavior analysts who work with people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and engage in problem behavior. Unfortunately, a majority of practitioners do not complete functional analyses. The purpose of the present study was to train 10 practitioners to implement a practical functional assessment (PFA) decision making model and to evaluate the ecological validity of the model. Pre- and Post-training overall test scores increased, on average, by 38.18%. Testing subsections increased by 60.0% for foundations and concepts, 5.0% for graphical interpretations, and 40.0% for decision making. A job needs survey showed the greatest gains in reports of antecedent environmental supports, behavior supports in the environment, and antecedents related to the behavior repertoire. A post-training survey indicated that 8 of 8 trainees would recommend the training to others. Finally, at the conclusion of follow-up progress data collection, 3 of the 5 locations were progressing through the PFA model in their regular job duties whereas the other 2 locations experienced professional staffing issues that interfered with their workloads. These results indicate that the training was effective at increasing testing responses related to foundations and concepts as well as decision making. Additionally, when professional staffing was stable, participants reported using the PFA model effectively, suggesting that the model had ecological fit under these conditions.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:17:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 OBM_Moreira.pdf: 2195631 bytes, checksum: f5f7679fe6497d3a52c19b30a571bcba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-10-14 / nenhum / Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) is considered to be an extension of the Experimental Analysis of the Behavior and has Applied Analysis of the Behavior as its technological root. Part of research conducted in the area of OBM has been published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM), a periodical aimed at publishing the researches in OBM and, therefore, in applied behavior analysis in the organizational context. On the other hand, authors like Ghezzi (2001), Hayes (1999), Mawhinney (2000, 2001) and Hyten (2002) have questioned whether published material in this area, and therefore in JOBM, can be considered as a research in applied analysis of the behavior. Due to this controversy the present work was planned to try and analyse it. To be evaluated as a publication in Applied Analysis of Behavior a research report should meet dimensions proposed by Baer, Wolf and Rilsey (1968 and 1987). Two basic reasons justified this choice: 1. they are recognized by behavior analysts as criteria which applied analyst behavior should satisfy 2) JOBM defines itself as being a periodical on applied research in analysis behavior based on those dimensions. Data gathering included: 1) JOBM´s editorials and two historical articles based on this topic were read; relevant information was also obtained from Dickinson s (2000) and Mawhinney s (2000). 2) In addition, data from Balcazar, Shupert, Daniels, Mawhinney, Hopkins (1989); Poling, Smith and Braatz (1993); Nolan, Jarema, Austin (1999) and Norman, Bucklin, Austin (1999) were also analyzed. Results showed that along the time considered JOBM satisfied consistently only one of the criteria (delineating an only subject). Hence, it was not possible to state that JOBM is a periodical aimed to publishing the applied research in behavior analysis in the organizational context. Along the history of the OBM and JOBM area it was possible to notice some changes in the behavior of the editors and in the type of the articles which were submitted to the Editorial Council throughout the twenty years which were analysed, as well / A área de Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) é definida como uma extensão da Análise Experimental do Comportamento no mundo das organizações e tem como raiz tecnológica as pesquisas em análise aplicada do comportamento. Parte das pesquisas realizadas na área de OBM vem sendo publicada no Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM). Se, por um lado, o JOBM é definido como um periódico voltado para a publicação de pesquisas em OBM e, conseqüentemente, em análise aplicada do comportamento no contexto organizacional, por outro, há autores (Ghezzi, 2001, Hayes, 1999, Mawhinney, 2000 e 2001 e Hyten, 2002) que questionam se o que vem sendo produzido e divulgado nesta área, e conseqüentemente no JOBM pode ser considerado como pesquisa em análise aplicada do comportamento. Diante destas afirmações, o objetivo do presente trabalho foi analisar se o JOBM poderia ser considerado um periódico voltado para a publicação de pesquisa aplicada em análise do comportamento no contexto organizacional. Os critérios empregados para esta análise foram levantados a partir das dimensões de Baer, Wolf e Rilsey (1968 e 1987). Duas razões básicas justificaram estas escolhas: 1) os critérios empregados por Baer, Wolf e Risley (1968) são reconhecidos pela análise do comportamento como definidores do modo de trabalhar do analista do comportamento aplicado e 2) o próprio JOBM se autodenomina um periódico de pesquisa aplicada em análise do comportamento nos moldes definidos por Baer, Wolf e Risley (1968). Para a coleta de dados foi realizado: 1) o levantamento da política editorial do periódico e, para complementar as informações obtidas através dos editoriais, foram lidos dois artigos históricos sobre a área: o artigo de Dickinson (2000) e o de Mawhinney (2000); 2) foram selecionadas também as pesquisas publicadas no próprio JOBM que tiveram como propósito a análise das publicações do periódico em suas duas primeiras décadas de existência (Balcazar, Shupert, Daniels, Mawhinney, Hopkins,1989; Poling, Smith e Braatz, 1993; Nolan, Jarema, Austin, 1999; e Norman, Bucklin, Austin, 1999). Os resultados indicaram que o periódico atendeu consistentemente, ao longo do tempo, apenas a um dos critérios (delineamento de sujeito único). A partir da análise dos resultados não foi possível sustentar que o JOBM seja um periódico voltado para publicação de pesquisa aplicada em análise do comportamento no contexto organizacional. Ao se compreender a história da área de OBM e do JOBM foi possível evidenciar mudanças tanto no comportamento dos editores, quanto no caráter dos artigos submetidos ao Conselho Editorial ao longo dos 20 anos analisados