Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-151). / Microfiche. / xiii, 151 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-112). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-112). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-173).

Talent management has grown considerably in the last decade as organisations have made it a top priority issue around the world. A shortage of talent has emerged as one of the critical challenges that face organisations worldwide as they seek successful operations on a global scale. This has resulted in anxiety among organisations and thus created pressure on human resource management to maintain the competencies needed to achieve organisational goals. Thus, this challenge is motivating organisations to accurately identify and manage talents effectively to include them in the organisational talent pool. In order to address what influences the likelihood of an individual being labelled as ‘talent’, this research seeks to investigate the decision-making processes involved in the identification of talent. This study makes an important contribution to the conceptual and empirical understanding of the nature of decision-making within talent management, which has suffered from a dearth of research. Thus, the aim of this study is to determine and examine the contextual and cultural factors that influence and shape the perceptions and the experience of managerial decision-making and its effect on the fairness of talent decisions. To date, there are a number of factors that have largely been examined separately in the literature. This study is the first to attempt to investigate these factors collectively to develop a comprehensive model to address the nature of talent decision-making. Furthermore, this study is one of a handful of studies that responds to the well-established call to emphasise the importance of decision-making in talent management literature. A quantitative approach was deemed best suited to test the proposed model. A cross-sectional survey was conducted for primary data from diverse managerial levels. Data were collected from private organisations in the oil and banking sectors in Saudi Arabia. Because data collection is seriously challenging in Saudi Arabia, convenience and snowball sampling were believed to be the most appropriate in terms of satisfactory responses. Using an online and paper-based survey strategy, a total of 1960 questionnaires were distributed, 486 were returned, and 470 completed responses were used for final analysis. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were employed to validate the reliability and dimensionality of the integrated scales of the talent identification process. The results of a structural equation analysis supported the hypotheses. The findings of the empirical research identified three categorical variables that influence decision-making in talent identification processes; i.e., cultural, organisational, and societal factors. Further, decision-making style has a significant relationship with the fairness of talent decisions. The key theoretical contribution of this research is the development of a robust, multi-dimensional model that explains the promising phenomenon of the talent identification process, and demonstrates the factors that have a definite impact on talent decision-making. Unlike previous studies, this study measures the multi-dimensional model of the talent decision-making process, at the aggregate level which is considered as a methodological contribution in the area of talent management research. Pragmatically, the proposed model offers decision-makers a new perspective for adjusting and dealing with talent identification processes in order to ensure equity in talent decisions. This study extends the notion of talent decision-making in the talent identification process and creates avenues for further research.

No description available.

The thesis describes a programme of research work to develop and apply knowledge mapping and knowledge management techniques to effectively assess and enhance sustainability within urban redevelopment projects. The research programme was initiated in collaboration with Dundee City Council to support sustainable development in a major programme of urban redevelopment. There is limited evidence that the body of knowledge arising from research in sustainable urban development is being holistically integrated within real life decision making practices to operationalise sustainability. Sustainability assessment has the potential to influence decision making and consequently by improving sustainability assessment practice project decision making should be enhanced. In addition, closer integration between assessment and decision making may not only lead to improve decisions, but also to the improved learning of those involved. This can be greatly facilitated by knowledge management, which can be used to understand and then facilitate greater learning amongst stakeholders. A theoretical framework for the assessment, monitoring and enhancement of sustainability was developed and applied in two parts to a case study, a monitoring component and an enhancement component. As a result of the case study a sustainability assessment and monitoring framework was successfully established for Dundee Waterfront in line with the assessment component of the theoretical framework. The indicators are now used by Dundee City Council at project and departmental level, providing the link across policies, programmes and projects. The key challenge addressed in developing the benchmark indicators was establishing robust governance for the monitoring framework. An enhancement framework was successfully established for Dundee Waterfront in line with the enhancement component of the theoretical framework. Decision mapping and knowledge elicitation techniques were successfully developed and applied to the case study to identify, key points in decision process, the information decision makers' need and which knowledge objects are being used in decision making. It is concluded that the knowledge elicitation and mapping approaches applied were effective at identifying both existing processes and knowledge objects used in infrastructure provision. This allowed a Knowledge Map for Sustainability to be developed to identify what information is currently used to influence sustainability and identify future opportunities to enhance practise. The map was effective in capturing the role of each stage in the process towards translating the sustainability vision as proved by user verification. The Map showed for the first time the aspects of sustainability in infrastructure provision and can be used to systematically operationalise sustainable development. However, the use of the map to embed sustainability into learning process could not be verified by practise in the currency of the thesis. A limitation of the case study application is that the integrated sustainability assessment and enhancement framework has been applied in a Scottish local authority context, to an organisation with a Quality Management System and outcome based indicators. These factors have been identified as contributing factors to the success of the sustainability assessment and enhancement framework as applied in the case study. This has the potential to limit the exportability of any findings. However, whilst considering the monitoring component it is recognised that similar outcome based indicators may exist at other local authorities and private organisations. In addition, the knowledge elicitation and mapping technique is an adaptive framework and as such is designed to respond to other organisation structures. Therefore by its nature it should be exportable to other applications. However three main questions remain to be addressed prior to the research question being answered in full. Firstly, uncertainty related to governance and long term use of the framework. Secondly, testing how the Knowledge Map for Sustainability is used in practice and thirdly the exportability of findings from the case study. It is recommended that these limitations be addressed in future work.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the Wits business school University of the Witwatersrand June 2016 / Despite the increased work on emotions in organizations, there is a lack of research on the impact of feeling bored in managerial decision-making contexts. Feeling bored was defined, and an expansion to the Hybrid Process Decision-Making Model was proposed. Using this revised definition of feeling bored and the Expanded Decision-Making Process Model, an empirical study with retail middle managers was conducted to examine the relationships between feeling bored and decision-making competence and the role of personality. Results found that feeling bored has a significant negative association with middle managers’ confidence levels, risk perception and decision rules. Results confirmed that personality plays a moderating role in the relationship between feeling bored and decision-making competence. Most notably, the personality trait learning neutralizes the negative effects of feeling bored on decision-making competence, whereas the personality trait sociability has a varied effect depending on which end of the valence/arousal continuum feeling bored is experienced. Limitations to the study, and practical implications for retail organizations, middle managers and for future research, are outlined / MB2016

It is a truism that the amount of information being generated in the modern digital world is increasing at an exponential rate. This is influencing engineering as it is in other forms of business, as well as everyday life. Engineering has a significant visual dimension to it: drawings, diagrams, sketches, photographs, graphs are the everyday language of the engineer. Despite the prevalence of such visual information, the role that such information plays and how it affects, for example, how documents can be reused is an under-researched area. This thesis thus proposes the important role of visual representations and images for supporting informed decisions, in particular for complex domains such as Engineering Design. The particular context for this research is associated with in-service design knowledge and information requirements. The increasing number of actual products in-service, the requirement to create safe design solutions quickly, the amassment of service data and the importance of product services to organisational competitiveness are all increasing the information pressures upon Design teams. The pervasive nature of visual representations in Engineering Design and prevalent document information suggests that they are an important asset within document information resources. This research focusses upon the purpose of Engineering Design image utilisation for information processing, and hence supporting efficient decision making. Some of the additional challenges identified throughout this research are the immaturity of current image recognition technologies and thus limitations of automated media extraction tools for supporting Design Engineers. This is significantly contributed to by the complexity of the information media and formats that constitute design engineering information and the current knowledge management trend to capture information without clear “reuse” purpose. The methods used to conduct this research demonstrate the merits of underused techniques in design engineering such as storyboarding. This storyboarding method is used for investigating the facets of tacit knowledge and the underpinning cognitive processing of document information resources for critical Design Engineering informative content. The innovative research method developed provides a useful framework for the collection of rich data using simulated tasks. The data collection is a rich multi-stream recording of design engineers in industry conducting work based scenarios. In particular the focus is upon conducting efficient research in industrial working practices with minimal facing research time with design engineers and the rich data that can be collected from them in situ. This thesis illustrates that there are a number of pressing difficulties in reusing image media, both technical process related in nature. This is currently limiting the usefulness of valuable information resources in practice, but also significantly raises the information burden for design engineer. This thesis has attributed the value of reusing visual representations due to their important role in design engineering decisions. It has provided evidence of the intuitive and important human need for visual information to provide mental stimulation in particular for making confident design decisions. The storyboard research method has outlined an industrial data collection and decision coding framework that is reproducible and can be used to better understand human information processing, and thus supports the development of document information systems. Additional rich information utilisation patterns for design engineering document information have also been evidenced in the empirical research results provided. This thesis also provides practical industrial examples to suggest techniques that could overcome the current technological shortfalls limiting the “reuse” of visual information in documents for Design Engineers.