Thesis (Ph. D.)--Johns Hopkins University, 1915. / "Vita."--P. 191. Published also as Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science, Ser. XXXIV, No. 2. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Johns Hopkins University, 1915. / Vita. Published also as Johns Hopkins university studies in historical and political science, ser. XXXIV, no. 2.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1929. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 139-148.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2006. / "Spring 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-67).

The "global marketplace" has been a driving force for change, resulting in a dramatic increase in competition and expectations of consumers. With more mailing options available, consumers are scrutinizing service and cost performance at a level never-before experienced by the United States Postal Service. For an organization that has operated as a relatively stable government agency for 224 years, the environmental changes are severe, and necessitating the need for change. This thesis studied the impact of a management intervention on performance at a USPS processing and distribution center. The intervention installed a performance measurement system. A quasi-experimental methodology utilizing a nonequivalent comparison group was utilized to evaluate the impact of this intervention on both management process variables and operational performance indicators. The framework for the management process variables originated from the sociotechnical literature. There was evidence to support that operational performance improved and several process management variables changed following the intervention. / Graduation date: 1999

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

The layout of the U.S. Postal Service General Mail Facility (GMF) workroom operation is an essential factor to the overall productivity of the mail processing activities. An efficient workroom layout will minimize the cost of transporting containerized mail between the various distribution operations. Any changes in distribution methods, increases or decreases in mail volumes, or the addition of mechanization must be analyzed by the GMF industrial engineer to determine what effect these changes have on the existing workroom layout. He must also be able to evaluate layout changes recommended by management and floor supervisors. The present methods available to the engineer consist primarily of manual analytical techniques and intuitive flow layout analyses. These methods do not: 1. Quickly provide a rating for the layout that can be compared to other alternate layouts 2. Provide a means to produce an optimal layout 3. Provide analysis of layout change requests 4. Include the cost of relocating departments. The objectives of this paper are to evaluate several computerized plant layout techniques along with two existing methods available to the industrial engineer on the basis of a typical GMF workroom layout, and then to make a recommendation on the feasibility of implementing those computerized techniques that appear to have the capability of further assisting the industrial engineer in his GMF facilities layout assignment. There are two categories of problems which the computer-aided layout techniques typically address: improvement changes and new construction. The improvement routines are designed to evaluate existing layouts and generate new solutions by interchanging operations within a fixed boundary until a final improved layout is created. The CRAFT and CRAFT-M programs are two popular improvement routines that will be discussed and evaluated. Construction routines, which develop new layouts "from scratch", first will determine the order in which the process operations will enter the layout and then the physical position where each operation should be placed to generate the best layout. CORELAP, Interactive CORELAP, ALDEP, and PLANET programs will be discussed and evaluated; however, more emphasis will be placed on CRAFT and CORELAP since the other routines are improvements of these two basic systems.

High-profile instances of workplace violence and increased pressure from competitors have threatened the viability of one of the nation's largest employers, the United States Postal Service (USPS). As a result, the USPS began a massive change effort in the early 1990's. One of the initiatives implemented to improve labor-management relations was a derivative of the self-managed work team known as the crew chief program. This study provides a mixed-methods and multi-level approach to understand the impact this unique program had on organizational attitudes. The first aim of this study was to investigate whether the crew chief program reduced employees' stress and strain and improved job and supervisory satisfaction and company and union commitment, while controlling for the nesting of employees within sites and employee demographic characteristics. The second aim was to replicate and extend the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) model of stress and to determine whether employee perceptions of crew chief support moderated the relationships between stressors, strain, and outcomes. I evaluated Aim 1 using data from 177 mail processors from 27 units matched from baseline to one-year follow-up with hierarchical linear modeling. This was followed up with an implementation analysis of qualitative data to determine the extent to which the program was implemented compared to the original design. I evaluated Aim 2 using structural equation modeling from 538 mail processors who participated at follow-up. There was little quantitative support for Aim 1. However, the results of the implementation analysis suggested that the crew chief program was not functioning as conceived. Aim 2 received strong support, with almost all of the main effects of the SSO model replicated. However, there was no support for the moderator effects. Additionally, I found role ambiguity to have direct relationships with other organizational outcomes beyond the indirect effects via strain and that crew chief support was strongly related to stressors and outcomes. These findings reinforce the notion that employing both quantitative and qualitative methods can dramatically improve the quality of organizational research. Based on these findings, I describe several suggestions for improvements to this specific program and for improving future initiatives aimed at enhancing labor-management relations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-162).