<p> This research examines the collaboration that took place between the American Red Cross and the City of New York in the development and dissemination prior to Hurricane Sandy, and looks at how that plan was implemented during the storm. It examines how the responsibility of government to care for its people influences response plans and how the government collaborates with non-profit agencies to care for those citizens in planning for and responding to disasters. The data for this research was collected through an online survey tool that was distributed to employees and volunteers of the American Red Cross, then compiled and analyzed. The results from the survey were utilized to understand how the disaster response plan was utilized and make recommendations for future responses.</p>

<p> Researchers who specialize in the area of self-transcendence and servant leadership behavior have concluded that the presence of servant leadership behavior and spirituality may be essential in creating adaptive and successful organizations. Given the demand and concern for ethical, moral, and spiritual leaders&rsquo; conscious of others and the greater world community, interest in self-transcendence and servant leadership behavior has grown substantially. A limited body of evidence exists regarding the ways in which self-identified spiritual leaders implement servant leadership behavior in the spiritual, organizational setting. Gaining additional information on the ways in which self-identified servant leaders and spirituality apply in organizations is valuable to enable organizations to meet the challenges of the 21st century. In this research, the purpose of this study was to examine whether a relationship existed between the variables of self-transcendence and perceived servant leader behaviors among senior leaders and their followers at New Thought Spiritual Centers in the United States. This study sought to examine whether a leaders&rsquo; selftranscendence as measured by the Assessment of Spirituality of Religious Sentiments Scale (ASPIRES), correlates with being recognized as a servant leader among one&rsquo;s followers as measured by the Servant Leadership Behavior Scale (SLBS). The conclusions extrapolated from research question 1 suggested there was a significant positive correlation between selftranscendence and servant leadership behavior. The findings for research question 2 suggested partial support for leaders&rsquo; self-assessed self-transcendence and self-assessed servant leadership behavior. The highest scores for leaders&rsquo; reported from the ASPIRES scale was the subscales of <i>Prayer Fulfillment,</i> and less high among the subscales <i>Universality</i> and <i> Connectedness.</i></p>

<p> The study suggests that causation of workplace injury, specific to construction projects, include human factors that are not routinely discovered through empirical analysis. Although this is likely an intuitive conclusion it suggests that prevention must in part confront human factors and the role of leadership to respond. Construction continues to be one of the most dangerous industry segments in the United States injuring tens of thousands of construction workers annually. This qualitative phenomenological study investigated a directed sample of 15 construction workers working at 5 different projects for the participating organization. The five projects selected were determined by the leadership traits of operational leadership such that the worker sample population was exposed to the full spectrum of leadership behaviors. The objective of this qualitative phenomenological study was to gain a better understanding of the influence that specific leadership traits had in building a positive and proactive safety culture. The study used NVivo8 software to categorize the collected data. The results of the study identified the emergence of four main themes: (a) characteristics of the operational leader in the construction industry, (b) leadership approaches that influence safe behavior, (c) followersleadership reflective behavior, and (d) process of followership. Through one-on-one interviews the participants revealed their interpretation of leadership behaviors and how that interpretation drives their behavior. The study reveals potential gaps between the intent of leadership action and the constructed meaning by the participant. The study offers practical considerations for both the leader and the organization that may make a positive contribution to the prevention of incident and injury at the construction workplace.</p>

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Market orientation has been proposed as a major source of achieving sustainable competitive advantage, and also one of marketing's greatest contributions to business strategy. At the same time it is believed that internal marketing is part of the wider concept of market orientation and implies applying marketing-like techniques internally to the organisation in order to foster customer orientation among employees. Empirical evidence for the interconnectedness of internal marketing and market orientation is scant within the literature. Additionally, the impact of both market orientation and internal marketing on the company performance is subject of debate. This study sought to investigate the interconnectedness of internal marketing and market orientation and their impact on company performance. This was done in Egypt as studies of both concepts in Egypt, as in other emerging economies are rare, and provides some interesting results. A questionnaire was designed and after pilot testing, a quantitative survey of 222 Egyptian and western companies in Egypt was carried out. A number of hypotheses were tested and also a number of correlation analyses were carried out. This was followed by 12 qualitative interviews with senior management of Egyptian and western companies. Among the findings of the study were that in general western firms were both more market oriented and internal marketing oriented than Egyptian firms and performed better. Also that there was a positive relationship between market orientation and company performance, as there was between internal marketing and performance and that the two concepts are related. Among the original contributions to knowledge by this study is the finding that the strongest relationship between dimensions of market orientation and overall internal marketing is in terms of inter-functional co-ordination (a dimension of market orientation). The study concludes with a set of recommendations to Egyptian companies to improve their market orientation stances.

A lack of competence in crisis management has been shown to be a causal factor in a number of recent maritime accidents. In safety critical industries other than commercial shipping, such as civil aviation, nuclear and petrochemical, research is being undertaken to identify behavioural markers that can be used to assess competence in crisis management. Although there is now a general acceptance of the core concepts for the non-technical or resource management skills required for competence in crisis management, there is also an acceptance that the behaviours associated with these skills are context specific. This research programme improves the understanding of how a behavioural marker system can be used to assess the competence in crisis management of merchant marine engineering officers within the context of a merchant vessel engine control room. This research reviews the current practice in using behavioural markers for the assessment of competence in crisis management within safety critical industries and the military. The differences between the assessment frameworks and environments in which behavioural markers are currently being used for this assessment of competence are discussed. The influences of these differences on the use of behavioural markers for the assessment of competence in crisis management within the context of a merchant vessel engine room control room are investigated. Through the use of ethnographic study, the research presents a set of behavioural markers that can be used to assess competence in crisis management within the context of a simulated merchant vessel's engine room control room. The research concludes that these behavioural markers can be used as a valid objective assessment framework for the assessment of ocompetence in crisis management of merchant navy engineering officers.

Considering current trends and developments in, the European economical-political structures, the study of transition and its immediate implications on cases such as inward foreign direct investment (FDI) under the conditions of a post-communist environment gains particular research interest. Central-Eastern European (CEE) transition economies including the case of Bulgaria that is the focus of research within this Thesis, become a pole of attraction for new economic activity, and render the investigation and understanding of related research areas as of immense significance in contributing to the update of theoretical conceptualizations and further providing a basis of information for real life practices of investment orientation and strategy. The existing literature on inward FDI in the case of CEE transition countries is characterized by broad generalizations that are unable to capture the specifications and interesting differentiations that exist across these countries, and only country-specific research can reveal. The primary aim of this research is to take into consideration the existing generic framework of transition 'theorization and explore the extent of applicability in a single country approach. For this purpose, this research focuses on the country of Bulgaria and the study of inward Greek FDI activity. The central aim is to examine inward FDI activity in Bulgaria in terms of strategy and decision-making, and furthermore to provide a parallel assessment of the dominant conditions and characteristics of the host investment environment. The ultimate purpose of this study is to identify 'which aspects of the host investment environment have an effect, and to what extent, on FDI decisions'. Accordingly, a theoretically grounded model has been constructed in order to test the relationships between different aspects of the host investment environment in Bulgaria and FDI decisions relevant to forms, patters and strategy of the activities established in Bulgaria. The research contribution of this study comprises of three elements referring to the proposed research model, the relevant theoretical contributions and the emerging policy implications. The importance of the research model lies on the proposition that it can be applied in other transition countries in order to explore inward FDI patterns and processes, and accordingly provide a common platform upon which to base comparative research on the theorization of FDI in transition economies. In terms of theoretical substance, this study confirms the existing literature on the importance of parameters relevant to: the institutional environment; the principles advocated in Dunning's Eclectic Paradigm; and, CEE-specific FDI determinants referring to unit labour costs, host market size, the progress in transition reformations, and European Union accession. Research findings further align to the importance of market¬related advantages that are increasingly replacing factor costs as the prime determinant of FDI activity, but extend to highlight the importance of low market competition. Additionally, the study confirms the significant relationship between the timing of investment decisions and changes in the business environment. Respectively, research findings indicate a crucial deviation from the traditional FDI theorisation on the issue of country risk, and further raise concerns on the importance placed on low costs and the relevant implications on FDI operations. Therefore, the findings of this research consist an important contribution in providing a guideline of policy implications that can be used by: a) Potential new foreign investors considering to establish activities in Bulgaria b) Existing investors so as to reflect on the current dominant FDI patterns and conditions, the respective elements of concern or the rise of new opportunities that surface from this research; c) Governments in identifying measures that can constitute propositions for formulating policy under the objective of improving host investment conditions, and subsequently create a more attractive environment for FDI activity.

Very high proportions of implementation projects for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are shown to result in failure. This is probably due, inter alia, to the neglect of the strategic dimensions that give rise to conflicting objectives amongst the stakeholders. Most ERP implementation efforts seem to rely too heavily on project management techniques alone for success. The strategic planning that ought to precede such far-reaching change programmes appear to be neglected whilst attention is focused on project-planning issues. Moreover, there is no tried, tested and widely adopted model for successful ERP implementation, and no known scientific approach exist for the evaluation and empirical testing of ugge- ted models. This research investigated these problems. It analysed efforts made so far to address the prevalent implementation failures, which include identification of issues or factors that impact the outcome of such projects as well a suggestions of implementation models. Key attributes of an effective implementation model were examined. Unlike other models reviewed, the Parr and Shanks (2000) "Project Phase Model ofERP Implementation (PPM)" was deemed to possess many of these attributes, and so was selected as the template for the study. The case study method was adopted as the most suitable strategy for the investigation in line with the views of Markus (1983), Benbasat et al. (1987) Lee (1989), Yin (1994, 2003a, 2003b) and Pare (2001). The implementation process, phase of focus, critical success factors, and basis of project outcome determination associated with the PPM were formulated into predicted patterns for successful ERP implementation. Suitable instances of successful and unsuccessful ERP implementation, two in each case, were studied; empirical pattens were extracted from their attributes similar to those of the PPM and the various patterns compared. This study devised a robust and scientific technique, based on the case study strategy, for the evaluation and empirical testing of suggested models for the implementation of ERP and other information systems. Applying this approach, the research showed that thorough strategic planning incorporating prior specification of objectives, together with adequate focus on the specific needs of an organisation in the prefatory and transformation activities relating to ERP implementation, appear to be key to success. A new model for successful ERP implementation was also developed from the study. This has been presented as "the Specific Business Needs (SBN) Model of ERP System Implementation" and proffered for further research and empirical test.

Word of mouth is generally agreed to be the foremost source of new business acquisition for small businesses and owners/managers often cite 'word of mouth' referrals as the main source of business generation (Carson, 1985; Curran and Blackburn, 1994; Stokes 2000). However, little is known about how small business owners know their firms gain word of mouth or, indeed, of the dynamics that influence the incidence of word of mouth. The objective of this study is to investigate the role of word of mouth in the operation of small firms in the service sector. The thesis draws upon extant theory and original empirical evidence. Specifically, the thesis seeks to examine how recommendation can be proactively managed, which is now a central element of contemporary marketing literature (Stokes 2002). The research has incorporated three sources of data for the purpose of triangulation of different perspectives, including interviews with owners/managers at key stages of the research, customer surveys and documentary evidence from the businesses. A Longitudinal case study approach is employed to achieve the research aims. This allows an exploration of the role and management of word of mouth within small firms and provides a theoretically informed insight into the triggers of referrals and recommendations. This approach is believed to have the potential of "systematically gathering enough information about a particular person, social setting, event or group to permit the researcher to effectively understand how it operates or functions" (Berg, 1998:212). The primary units of analysis are the owners/managers in the Leisure and Tourism sector, who have proactively managed word of mouth. However, the study also includes the customers' perspectives regarding their recommending and complaining tendencies. The study has produced an original investigation about the significance of word of mouth in service sector enterprises, which includes a conceptual model of the stimulants of recommendation in small businesses.

No description available.