No description available.

Corporate turnaround, in comparison to financial distress, is not substantially researched either internationally or locally in South Africa. This study attempts to explore this area of research by developing models that identify financially distressed companies with a potential for turnaround. This analysis examines listed companies on both the JSE Securities Exchange ('JSE') and Alternative Exchange ('AltX') for the period 2007 to 2014 by using available data from iNet BFA. The financial distress model, Taffler's Z-score, is used to identify companies that fall within the sample. Multiple linear discriminant models with interaction variables are used as part of the process to derive the turnaround models. The first model shows that efficiency is a key driver for a successful turnaround. The second model reveals that JSE-listed companies are more likely to survive than AltX companies. This study contributes to the existing research by identifying significant factors for corporate turnaround and summarizing its findings in a practical manner.

How do market and nonmarket environmental factors affect firm investment decisions and subsequent performance? Economic Institutional Change Theory is extended to the product market-firm level of analysis to develop a model of dynamic strategic fit to nonmarket and market factors. The co-evolution of market and institutional factors creates four basic opportunity sets comprised of low to high market opportunities and low to high political opportunities. Contingency models are estimated using generalized least squares regression for three of the four opportunity sets. Deviation from the contingency models is used to measure strategic fit and used to test the relationship between fit and economic performance. Empirical evidence did not support the assertion that fit is related to performance in the first two opportunity contexts. Empirical support was found in the third study for strategic fit to political factors. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Date Awarded: Spring Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: February 8, 2008. / Strategic Fit, Corporate Political Activity, Nonmarket Strategy, Economic Institutional Change / Includes bibliographical references. / Bruce T. Lamont, Professor Directing Dissertation; Michael D. Hartline, Outside Committee Member; Annette L. Ranft, Committee Member; Gerald R. Ferris, Committee Member.

Social power balances within supervisor-subordinate work relationships were investigated. Supervisor power, subordinate power, and supervisor-subordinate power differentials were shown to account for subordinate expectations regarding relationships with supervisors. Furthermore, relationship expectations were shown to relate to important subordinate outcomes (i.e., perceptions of relationship quality and job tension). Exploratory analyses also suggested that how supervisors were perceived to use their power (e.g., for good or evil) was a more influential predictor of subordinate relationship expectations than the perceived quantity of supervisor power. In addition, the perceived use of power moderated the relationships between the power variables and relationship expectations. Contributions of this study, practical implications, strengths and limitations, and directions for future research were discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2011. / January 7, 2011. / Power, Supervisor-Subordinate Dyad / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Directing Dissertation; Charles F. Hofacker, University Representative; Pamela L. Perrewé, Committee Member; Jack Fiorito, Committee Member.

The 1990s included a renewed emphasis on board independence. Allegedly, the greater the proportion of independent outside directors, the more effective the board is at monitoring CEOs. I assert in this dissertation that there are limits to board independence. Specifically, when a chief executive officer (CEO) is the only inside board member, which I call a lone-insider board, a critical source of information and mutual monitoring by other inside directors is lost. Increased information asymmetry and loss of mutual monitoring gives CEOs more freedom to influence organizational outcomes toward their personal preferences and in conflict with shareholders' interests. Contrary to expectations, results indicate lone-insider boards are fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities in the area of executive compensation. However, lone-insider boards need to limit CEO duality as well as encourage long-term strategies such as research and development investment. This study also found that blockholders are somewhat detrimental in lone-insider boards, because they increase total CEO compensation and compensation differentials on the top management team. Duality is also more common when blockholders are present. Finally, as lone-insider boards increase in size, they generally lose their effectiveness. Duality is more common in larger lone-insider boards, and two of the three measures of executive compensation are greater. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2008. / June 13, 2008. / Corporate Governance Financial Controls, Board Composition, Duality, Executive Compensation, Agency Theory / Includes bibliographical references. / James G. Combs, Professor Directing Dissertation; Michael K. Brady, Outside Committee Member; Bruce T. Lamont, Committee Member; Jack T. Fiorito, Committee Member; Timothy R. Holcomb, Committee Member.

The primary purpose of this dissertation is to provide an empirical test of the proposed theoretical link between the construct of celebrity, in an organizational context, and firm performance. The model proposed in this dissertation tests this link at both the individual- and firm-levels. As an exploratory study, this research showed evidence of initial, direct linkages between the socially constructed resource of celebrity and firm performance. The results also found firm celebrity to mediate the relationship between CEO celebrity and firm performance. A secondary purpose of this dissertation was to advance work on celebrity, in the organizational sciences, by providing a means for preliminary measurement of the construct in this context. In this dissertation, celebrity at the CEO and firm levels were measured using both archival and survey methodology. The findings of this dissertation suggest that celebrity CEOs may aid in building firm celebrity, but that the firm, as a celebrity, carries the focal weight in the minds of media audiences. In turn, the focal weight on firm celebrity carries a greater impact on firm performance. Moreover, the findings provide support for future work to examine the "black box" between this specific strategic resource and firm performance. Lastly, this dissertation concludes with a discussion of the paper's limitations, contributions, and practical implications. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Management in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2008. / March 26, 2008. / Celebrity, Firm Performance, Multi-Level / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Directing Dissertation; Annette L. Ranft, Committee Member; Susan Fiorito, Outside Committee Member; James G. Combs, Committee Member; Bruce T. Lamont, Committee Member.

The success of organizations rests largely on their ability to coordinate with the external environment. At the foundation of this external coordination are the interpersonal work relationships that enable organizations to gather critical information, resources, and engage in commerce with clients. Unfortunately, little research has been conducted on how firms may best leverage their employee-client relationships to enhance performance and other outcomes of interest. One factor influencing relationships is that of distance, which describes psychological and structural differences between two individuals in a dyad. Theory suggests that higher levels of distance may negatively influence both the quality of relationships and their outcomes. Yet, that same theory suggests that distance, like relationships, can be managed. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to better understand how distance and relationship quality influence employee and transaction outcomes. The successful management of employee-client relationships may also positively influence other interpersonal outcomes. For example, theory suggests that conflict between employees and clients may be reduced by lessening distance and enhancing the quality of work relationships. The successful management of dyadic work relationships should also reverberate to the employee's social network, enabling employees to experience higher levels of productivity and increasing the probability of retention. Finally, this dissertation tested how the interpersonal competency, political skill, acts as a boundary condition in mitigating the negative effects of distance on relationship quality. In particular, theory suggests that individuals who are politically skilled may more effectively accentuate similarities to others and reduce perceived differences, allowing these individuals to reduce the interpersonal distance that negatively affects relationship quality. These theoretical connections were quantified and explicated in this dissertation, with a complementary discussion of contributions, strengths and weaknesses, and directions for future research. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Management in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2009. / September 25, 2009. / Relationship Quality, Distance, Work Relationships / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Directing Dissertation; Michael K. Brady, University Representative; Wayne A. Hochwarter, Committee Member; Mark J. Martinko, Committee Member; Pamela L. Perrewé, Committee Member.

Since its introduction by Williamson (1975), transaction cost theory (TCT) has become one of the most influential theoretical perspectives used for explaining how economic activity is governed. TCT asserts that the nature of a transaction drives governance decisions such that asset specificity, uncertainty, and frequent transactions give rise to the threat of opportunism, which increases transaction costs, and leads firms towards more integration. Although three decades have passed since its introduction and over 100 empirical journal articles have been published, more recent theoretical developments as well as contradictory findings have called TCT's empirical validity into question. By aggregating findings via meta-analysis, I take a step toward resolving these contradictory findings. Specifically, I found minimal evidence supporting the relationships between asset specificity or frequency and governance choice, and no relationship between environmental or behavioral uncertainty and governance choice. Further, there was evidence supporting the notion that matching transactions to the appropriate degree of integration impacts firm performance. Thus, I conclude by suggesting that although TCT helps explain governance choice decisions, the inclusion of other theoretical perspectives is also needed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how firms govern economic activity. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2005. / June 14, 2005. / Governance Choice, Transaction Costs, Asset Specificity, Uncertainty, Frequency, Williamson / Includes bibliographical references. / David J. Ketchen, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; James G. Combs, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Larry C. Giunipero, Outside Committee Member; William Anthony, Committee Member.

The primary purpose of this research is to examine a model of leadership that includes leader political skill, leader-member-exchange (LMX), follower motivation, followers' trust in their leaders, follower organizational commitment, follower performance, follower organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and leader reputation. This model attempts to answer the call proffered by leadership scholars to broaden the scope of leadership research to include the leader, follower, and the relationship between the two. It was found that leader political skill was positively related to LMX quality. Further LMX quality was found to be significantly related to organizational commitment, follower trust in leader, and motivation. However, only follower trust in leader was related to follower performance. Whereas follower trust in leader and motivation were significantly related to OCBs. Last, no support was found for the hypothesis that follower performance would be related to leader reputation. Strengths, limitations, directions for future research, and implications for practice are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2007. / June 5, 2007. / Political Skill, Leader-Member Exchange, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, Leadership, Performance / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Paradice, Outside Committee Member; Pamela Perrewé, Committee Member; Ceasar Douglas, Committee Member.

This dissertation attempts to provide a better understanding of how employees develop a positive personal reputation in a work environment. Drawing from expectancy and social exchange theories, it is proposed that politically skilled individuals choose to display effective influence styles in order to develop a strong work relationship with their immediate supervisor. Supervisors should provide their favorite employees with additional resources, and reciprocally, these employees should then increase their job performance and perform organizational citizenship behaviors to benefit their supervisors. Ultimately, individuals who observe these politically skilled employees' job performance and citizenship behavior should assign them a positive personal reputation. Data were collected from employees, their immediate supervisors, and a randomly selected coworker at a promotional products manufacturer in the Midwestern United States. When cluster analysis failed to produce the expected influence styles, a model that included individual influence tactics was tested with structural equation modeling. Although political skill did not affect the use of influence tactics, it did demonstrate a direct, positive effect on personal reputation. In addition, political skill shared a positive relationship with work relationship quality, which shared a positive relationship with job performance. Because job performance exhibited a positive effect on personal reputation, these results suggest that politically skilled employees also develop their personal reputation by building a strong work relationship with their immediate supervisor. The strengths and limitations of this research as well as directions for future research and practical implications are provide / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2008. / March 26, 2008. / Relationships, Personal Reputation, Political Skill / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Paradice, Outside Committee Member; Pamela L. Perrewé, Committee Member; Wayne A. Hochwarter, Committee Member; Chad H. Van Iddekinge, Committee Member.