Abstract not available.

The recent economic and political developments in China, as a result of the open-door policy and commitment by Chinese leaders to attaining the national goals, have made it inevitable for Western theories of management to be introduced to Chinese managers. Transferability of these theories has become an important concern of the managers and scholars in management. The current study was thus intended to serve as a preliminary attempt to look into the applicability of some management theories in China's industries. The focal attention has been given to evaluation of theories in the areas of motivatoin and leadership. The selected theories of motivation include Maslow's need hierarchy theory, equity theory, and expectancy theory. Vroom and Yetton decision tree and Hollander's idiosyncracy credit theory of leadership have been chosen to provide discussion on leader behaviors. The basic assumptions and boundary conditions have been identified and examined in the context of Chinese cultural, social, and political systems. It was found that most theories evaluated are not applicable in China their preconditions for application are not met to the extent that managerial implications derived from them can create effects intended to enhance managerial effectiveness. Such inapplicability is the result of a wide range of differences in perception of man's role in society, value systems, and the corresponding organizational processes between Western and Chinese cultures. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

A frequently used safety device is the safety sign. Despite its frequent use, it is often found to be ineffective in modifying consumer behavior. Those areas of research that are related to safety sign compliance are described in this dissertation using an information processing model of the consumer. One important area, identified as impacting consumer safety sign compliance, is how the consumer perceives the safety risk associated with the product. Research in the area of risk severity has found that there are at least two underlying risk dimensions used by consumers, with each of these dimensions being composed of several variables. However, research done in the area of risk severity has focused on risk as defined in terms of the number of people that may die from accidents rather than the extent of injuries that a person might experience. While it may be appropriate to apply these research findings to a large-scale project, such as a nuclear power plant, it may not be appropriate to apply these findings to consumer products. This is due to the fact that the most likely injury mode for a consumer product is not death. This dissertation describes a series of four experiments designed to examine those factors that impact consumer perception of risk for consumer products. Experiment 1 found that risk factors obtained when risk is defined as death were the same as when risk was defined as injury. Experiment 2 found that the risk factors obtained for both a broad and narrow class of product were the same. Experiment 3 found that a subject's perception of a product's risk could be modified through manipulation of risk variables. Experiment 4 explored the possibility of using risk perception variables to modify risk taking behavior through the use of product labels that described a product in terms of risk variables. A discussion follows regarding the impact of these findings on the area of risk perception research as well as the applied areas of Marketing and Safety Engineering.

No description available.

No description available.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / Patrick A. Knight / The current study uses structural equation modeling to simultaneously test the relationships between cultural knowledge, rapport building, and counterpart receptiveness in a cross-cultural setting using military-advisors. Five-hundred-eighty-three Army soldiers and Marines deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan as advisors to host-national soldiers were asked to complete a questionnaire about their job-tasks. Results indicate that advisors who use cultural knowledge are more effective building relationships, and as a result have counterparts who are more receptive to their advice. Limitations and implications of the model are discussed, as well as potential directions for future research.

This is a conceptual dissertation which addresses itself to the criticism that the social systems framework is highly abstract and theoretical, and as such relevant only to academics and specialists. The primary purpose of this paper is to operationalise the social system framework, to illustrate its application and to highlight its unique potential. It represents an attempt to enlarge, even redefine, the frameworks used for studying and transforming organisations. In order to best highlight the differences between the social systems framework and other models implicit in traditional approaches, a specific component of organisation reality is focused on, namely the performance appraisal. After discussing and illustrating the models behind most research on the topic, an alternative holistic framework for performance appraisal is sketched. Following this, an actual performance improvement intervention is described in a case study. This provides a practical illustration of the points made in the paper. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial Psychology)

JAD (Joint Application Development) is a meeting-centered methodology used to address the problem of getting users involved in the systems development process. Industry has used the JAD approach to develop systems for over a decade, predominantly for in-house software applications. Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS) are networked software systems that support meetings through a variety of software tools. The combination of the two--JAD and EMS--creates Electronic JAD (E-JAD). A field study was conducted to investigate whether applying EMS to JAD benefits the systems development process. The field study compared five traditional JAD sessions to six E-JAD sessions. All E-JAD sessions made use of the University of Arizona GroupSystems EMS. All sessions involved actual software development efforts conducted in a half dozen organizations and were all held in a face-to-face setting. There was some evidence that the E-JAD approach was beneficial as compared to traditional JAD techniques on the variables of efficiency and equalizing participation and influence. Traditional JAD sessions showed benefits over E-JAD in handling conflicts (particularly in resolving conflicts) and in enforcing a higher degree of structure. Neither of the approaches dominated on all criteria, hence an examination of E-JAD's weaknesses identifies two key areas for improvement: fit of GroupSystems tools to tasks (with discussion of divergence and convergence), and greater involvement of the session facilitator. Other constructs analyzed and discussed are: completeness, creativity, satisfaction, IS-user bonding, user expectations, users' mental models, JAD costs, group size, and planning activities.

Supervision is an increasingly important aspect of modern organizations and many organizations are struggling to change the old models of supervision to new models that will effectively meet the demands of the modern work environment. This study proposes a theory of supervision based on an interactional model of influence using a cognitive strategy of supervision. The supervisory strategy is made up of five tactics; (1) Administrator, (2) Parent, (3) Teacher, (4) Counselor, and (5) Peer. It is proposed that these tactics correspond to five basic needs that all persons in organizations have. By effectively facilitating the fulfillment of these needs through a supervisory strategy the supervisor is able to influence the supervisee's behavior and attitudes so that they are consistent with the needs of the organization. It was hypothesized that, as the incongruity increases between expected supervisory strategies and the perceived actual supervisory strategy, the level of satisfaction with the organization and with supervision would decrease. A study was conducted to determine the correlations between incongruity of supervisory strategy and (1) satisfaction with the organization and (2) satisfaction with supervision, at various levels in the organization. The results yielded significant correlations and that they are in the expected direction. It was concluded that those interested in organizational satisfaction need to take into account the supervisory process and its effects on employee attitudes, as satisfaction with supervision was found to be a moderator variable for satisfaction with the organization. In addition, the findings provide support for a theory of supervision based on the idea of a supervisory strategy composed of behavioral tactics that meet a supervisee's psychological needs within the context of an organization.

&lsquo / Human capital&rsquo / is the buzzword of the 21st century and is becoming the core value of organisations. In South Africa it is estimated that more than R500 million is lost annually through absenteeism and loss of productivity as a result of stress. Employees are key contributors to the bottom-line and should be selected, placed and applied in such a way that the company only benefits from their output. Therefore, if the human element is a crucial element it becomes essential for the organisation to nurture, protect and optimise individuals to their full potential.<br /> <br /> There is a fair degree of agreement on the variables that act as organizational stressors, however, studies on stress and salutogenic functioning in a state owned enterprise have not been found. According to the literature, salutogenic factors function as generalised resistance resources and a high score on sense of coherence, as well as an internal locus of control correlates with low scores on stress. The present research has a general aim of exploring the relationship between stress and salutogenic functioning, within a state owned enterprise. The levels of stress were correlated with the presence of high or low levels of sense of coherence and whether the individuals display an internal or an external locus of control. A sample of 240 employees (N=240) was used from the organisation.<br /> <br /> The following questionnaires were utilised to measure the range of variables. Levels of stress were measured by the Experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire (WLQ). Whereas the salutogenic construct, sense of coherence was measured by the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) and the second salutogenic construct, locus of control, was measured by the Locus of Control Inventory (LCI). The statistical analyses included inferential (correlation, t-test and analysis of variance) and descriptive statistics. The results demonstrated significant relationships between low stress levels, sense of coherence and internal locus of control. As such, salutogenic functioning in terms of sense of coherence and locus of control, had a significant correlation with levels of stress.