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Weatherhead Doctor of Management Programs
Show moreResearch on experiences of gays and lesbians in the executive suite is almost nonexistent. We conducted, to our knowledge, the first empirical study specifically focused on gay and lesbian senior executives who came out in their organizations at late career stages. Phenomenological interviews with 25 executives revealed prioritization of professional vs. personal identity both before and after coming out, emphasized the recursive nature of coming out in the executive suite and showed positive organizational outcomes of personal intentional change when gay and lesbian executives leverage their status to promote policy and culture reforms.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreOrganizations increasingly face competitive and security threats that require better intelligence to guide action. National policy makers face an especially pressing need for intelligence, and rely on complex, diverse information from many sources in monitoring their environment. The primary formal information system for conveying knowledge to government leaders is the system of national intelligence briefings, which collects data from a global network of analysts that is presented by a briefer to individual government leaders, in a short daily session. The quantity of information created by intelligence analysts far exceeds the capacity of a policy maker to assimilate, and the briefer has severe time restrictions for assembling and communicating the daily briefing. In this important, yet highly constrained setting, our exploratory research question is: ?How does the briefer experience communication with policy makers, and how does the briefer act to ensure that the information produced by intelligence analysts is useful to and understood by policy makers?? We conducted a qualitative study of boundary spanning dyad chains reaching from field analysts to policy makers at high levels in the United States federal government, and found: (1) a low degree of shared context between significantly different social and professional worlds; (2) a four-phase communication pattern crossing multiple boundaries, multiple times; and (3) a common 3-step embedded structure within the communication pattern in which the briefer tried to create shared meaning. Despite the extreme setting, we propose that the 3-step embedded structure our subjects enacted can be applied to improving communication for any manager across a wide range of thick boundaries in profit, non-profit and government boundary spanning contexts.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThis study focuses on the shifting role of the designer as change agent in the 21st century. The investigation includes four case studies in which designers are addressing human needs linked to large-scale social, cultural and economic challenges. These cases underscore how designers contribute to and experience complex projects in which their expertise is deployed among multidisciplinary teams with a transdisciplinary focus across a variety of organizational structures. Key aims were to uncover 1) what the distinct methods to inquiry put forth by the various design groups are, and in turn, what critical implications arise for organizational practice as a result of its broader engagement with the public sector; 2) how these evolving design roles shape human dynamics and performance between project stakeholders and accelerate innovation processes; and 3) why the value of design as a strategic tool in the social innovation context remains an emergent phenomenon.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreOn-the-job experiences are emphasized as powerful developers of leadership talent in leadership and family business literature. Our qualitative study of 37 family business leaders from mid-market privately held family firms found that it is not just having experiences but the nature of those experiences that determines whether or not authentic leadership talent is actually developed, particularly in next-generation family enterprise leaders. The ?family effect,? the extent to which actors in a family firm embrace risk in the development of nextgeneration leaders, is identified as central to the development of leadership competencies. We propose a conceptual framework with four factors that promote and four factors that impede the development of leadership talent in family enterprises. Early leadership learning experiences, emotional and social intelligence, job assignments with real responsibility and accountability, and personal reflection promote the development of authentic leadership talent in family firms. Obligatory or entitled motivations for joining the family business, being shielded from risk and/or the consequences of failure, a family business environment characterized by unresolved conflict, and being promoted to positions without necessary qualifications impede the development of leadership talent, and are associated with family business leaders who are likely to hold what we have labeled ?pseudo leadership positions.?
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreWe examine learning outcomes in intelligence analysts ? the likelihood to shift intelligence analyst?s mental models ? within policy-making dyads of analysts and decision-makers operating in complex, high-stake contexts. We ask to what extent do properties of information present in the environment ? information overload and equivocality ? and two behavioral dispositions present in the dyad ? one possessed by the decision maker (feedback) and another by the analyst (perspective taking) ? influence analyst?s learning outcomes. In particular, we focus on the combined impact of three analyst?s behavioral responses ? filtering, dialogue and networking ? to either mitigate the negative effects of overload and equivocality, and/or improve the potential positive effects of feedback and perspective taking. We find that some behaviors such as filtering and networking significantly improve the analyst?s ability to learn by reducing the negative effects of information overload. On the other hand, dialogue amplifies the knowledge gained through perspective taking to aid in learning. But we also found evidence of confounding and suppressive effects. The use of filtering and networking has a downside of suppressing the analyst?s use of feedback but we also found that dialogue had an emergent property of increasing analyst?s use of feedback. A key finding is that as equivocality of intelligence data increases, dialogue with decision makers actually reduces analyst learning.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreFracture and fracture toughness behavior of Zr-based metallic glass composites were investigated while varying test temperature. Samples were tested in tension and three-point bending to determine the effect of temperature change on the tensile strength, ductility, fracture toughness and fracture surface appearance. Significant effects of changes in the test temperature were observed. Fracture surface observations showed ductile and brittle features which were characterized using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy techniques.
Research Showcase 2013
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Show moreThis paper examines the nature, evolution, and effects of potential and realized economic and industrial knowledge sharing through the comparison and contrast of two bioscience industrial regional clusters at different stages of development. The paper draws conclusions on research related to effects of knowledge spillover, regional innovation systems, knowledge management, and social network theory. Building on previous qualitative research, we argue that knowledge absorption and spillovers comprise a critical factor in the evolution of specialized knowledge in regional industrial clusters in biotech industries. Although bioscience industrial clusters have been widely researched in the last decade, the nature of knowledge creation and dissemination as a driving force for industrial cluster competitiveness remains unclear. A better appreciation of specialized knowledge creation and spillover as determinants of industrial cluster success, and the role of foreign direct investment may be of value to industry decision makers, policy makers, and researchers. Our research reveals that contrary to extant research, spatial structure is not a significant factor in knowledge creation and dissemination process in the two clusters studied here. Firm-level knowledge absorption capabilities, social networks, and knowledge spillovers mechanisms, in contrast, are significantly correlated to the formation of specialized knowledge in both the clusters.
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Show moreIn the current work environment, younger workers in leadership positions are overseeing workers much older than themselves. Few empirical studies have focused on the emerging patterns of leadership associated with the relationship between young managers and older workers. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted a qualitative study based on semistructured interviews with thirteen managers under the age of thirty six and thirteen employees at least twenty years older. The goal of our study is to generate grounded theory about the ?lived experiences? of contemporary young managers leading older subordinates. Our exploratory findings show that the task focused nature of younger leaders is causing management to overtake leadership and that the nature of work relationships is changing to become more broad and instrumental. Finally we propose an emergent pattern of leadership taking into account a new concept of work-life balance.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreBoard performance research focused on individual director?s economically-motivated behaviors and outcomes has generated inconsistent and disappointing results. Most research does not consider the board as a team, despite recent calls for a focus on collective board processes and behaviors. As 90% of directors rate their individual performance at very effective but only 30% rate overall board performance at an equivalent level, it is obvious that this gap needs to be addressed. The discrepancy between individual and team performance effectiveness was the focus of this research, based on original data from 182 directors and their assessment of their board?s dynamic, team task performance efficacy, team potency and the impact of their activities as a board on firm profitability. Our findings show that director experience, social network and cultural intelligence quotient as well as their ability to achieve high levels of team interaction, thereby lowering information asymmetry, have a significant impact on profitability. We found that this dynamic as well as team potency had a positive impact on profitability, while the focus on task performance compliance quality had a significantly negative effect on profitability. The insights of this study should help boards and their advisors better focus their efforts to improve team dynamic, optimize board interactions and refocus their attention on value-creating activities. We also believe improving board team dynamics will have an unintended consequence of bring a level of individual and team satisfaction back to the boardroom.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreWe examined the nexus of entrepreneurial illegality and firm performance in an emerging market by investigating the extent to which antecedent conditions such as economic constraints, bureaucratic demands, institutional pressures and entrepreneurial agency increase the supply of illegal opportunities exploited by entrepreneurs for private gains. Using 2009 World Bank Enterprise Survey data of 2599 small and medium-sized entrepreneurial enterprises (SMEEs) in Nigeria, we demonstrate that illegal entrepreneurial behaviors in developing markets ? specifically bribery and tax evasion - affect firm performance measured by sales and employment growth. Results show that illegal opportunities significantly increase with bureaucratic and regulatory intervention in entrepreneurial activities, suggesting current policies in developing countries that seek to deter bribery and tax evasion through enlargement of government oversight may exacerbate illegal entrepreneurial behavior. Our findings also suggest that in Nigeria, where probability of detection and severity of punishment are low, the benefits of illegal business behavior outweigh potential costs and, in fact, accrue cost-free to the entrepreneur, thus normalizing illegality as an entrepreneurial ?best practice.?
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreWe surveyed 172 technology entrepreneurs to explore links between learning style and learning flexibility and decision making behaviors hypothesized to produce entrepreneurial innovation and success. Our findings reveal a system of entrepreneurial learning and innovation with subtle and surprising interactions between learning processes and behavioral mediators.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThis study addresses Puerto Rico?s unexplained stagnant entrepreneurial environment despite average or above average entrepreneurial potential, capabilities, and intentions when compared to other high-income countries (2007 GEM report; Bosma, Jones, Autio, & Levie, 2008). In our previous qualitative research, we argue that a pervasive lack of support for entrepreneurs from entrepreneurial advocates and the failure of entrepreneurs to develop networks could be partly responsible for the slow-moving entrepreneurial environment (De Hoyos, Romaguera, Carlsson, & Perelli, 2011). Building on that qualitative research, a quantitative study using PLS was conducted to determine the following: How and to what extent do systemic and individual factors as well as firm and entrepreneur characteristics impact the likelihood of entrepreneurial success mediated by inter-organizational and individual social networking activities? Findings reveal that systemic factors as a whole are not working as suitable sources for the complementary relationships needed to create an environment conducive to successful entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are not using networks efficiently to overcome the inadequate institutional structure. Therefore, to nurture a successful entrepreneurial environment, policy makers must design a better interconnected entrepreneurial system that will work in harmony with entrepreneurs; while entrepreneurs in turn must be taught to use effectively their individual social networks.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThe integration of an entrepreneur into another organization is considered by many to be a difficult or even impossible task. At the same time entrepreneurs are potentially valuable resources for any organization seeking to gain competitive advantage, enter new markets, or to find effective means to resolve standing managerial issues. One method of successful integration demands smooth meshing of the entrepreneur?s company and its employees into the new organization. We examine conditions for such smooth transition. Two significant findings emerge. First specific entrepreneurial skills and capabilities, which allow entrepreneurs to be successful in their new role, are similar to those that apply to any successful manager. Second the acquisition process and selected governance structure impacts the success of the post entrepreneurs in the new organization. The research suggests that by taking a few important steps a new organization may be able to integrate the entrepreneurs and their organizations into a new acquiring firm.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreWe conducted, to our knowledge, the first empirical study of mindfulness with respect to financial advisors and their post 2008 financial crisis behavior. Our hypotheses were derived from semi-structured interviews with financial advisors, the results of which provided the framework for modeling advisor behavior in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Survey responses from 346 U.S. financial advisors revealed surprising insights about the effects of individual and organizational mindfulness on actual and perceived performance levels during the turbulent 2008-2012 period. Results suggest that mindful advisors affiliated with mindful firms deliver better client performance in dynamic markets. Less mindful advisors rate their own client management performance more favorably than do more mindful peers ? but the more favorable an advisor?s self-evaluation of his/her performance on behalf of clients, the lower are actual results. Findings should be of interest to financial firms and staffs ? but also to the millions of investors whose portfolios are managed ? mindfully or not ? by the nation?s more than 300,000 thousand licensed financial advisors
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThirty North Korean defectors were interviewed and asked to share happy memories from across their lifetimes. A ?disintegrative? photo-album technique was used to facilitate rich descriptions while reducing pressure for narrative consistency. Eight narrative voices were identified: four master cultural narratives and four personal narrative constructions. Nineteen respondents initially reported life segments devoid of happy memories but each discovered ?hidden happinesses? in response to simple reconsideration prompts from the interviewer. Hidden happinesses were primarily narrated in personal voice, with positive correlation found between hidden happiness discovery and time interval between leaving North Korea and arriving in South Korea. A grounded theory is proposed that exposure to relationships outside the dominant master cultural narrative correlates positively with propensity for the discovery of durable ?broaden and build? narrative resources (Fredrickson, 1998:307) for respondents? ?going on? (Wittgenstein, 1953), and that such resources may be actuated through disintegrative narrative inquiry. A new framework for refugee management is discussed that replaces assimilative approaches with exposure to third culture perspectives and discovery of happy memories from all segments of a defector?s life. Proposal is made to redefine McAdam?s (2006) generativity as a predicate of relationships rather than individuals.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show morePrevious research indicates that stakeholder pressures can drive proactive environmental firm strategies?that is, strategies that reflect an internalized, voluntary commitment to the natural environment and typically involve dedication to environmental leadership by the firm. An institutional perspective highlights how legitimizing strategies can mediate the effect of stakeholder pressures on proactive environmental strategies. Furthermore, by distinguishing between "internal" and "external" normative pressures, this chapter theoretically accounts for the institutionally plural contexts of organizations and their environments. The findings suggest that though internal pressures directly drive environmental proactivity, external pressures drive legitimating responses and then indirectly affect environmental proactivity
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Show moreAlthough home to 8% of the world?s population (Guarda 2002), only 1.7% of the scholarly knowledge about Latin America is produced domestically (UNESCO 2010). The limited voice of Latin American scholars in Latin American studies constitutes a loss of a valuable and unique cultural perspective which is aggravated by the fact that the research object is Latin America itself. The failure of Latin American intellectuals to claim a prominent place on the international academic stage has not been explained and cannot be attributed simply to lack of academic knowledge exposure (Alperin, Fischman et al. 2008). To address this gap in the literature, we interviewed Latin American studies scholars residing in Latin America as well those residing in the US and UK to reveal how and to what extent these scholars participate in the international academic community. Our findings show that the groups differ markedly in terms of personal vision, motivation, research agenda, scholarship focus and preferred outlets for their knowledge production. In particular, Latin American scholars identify as agents of change, motivated by a desire to solve problems and fulfill social needs in the region while scholars residing in the US and UK see themselves as experts in the field, driven by a desire to impact the knowledge about the region. Our results should be of interest to governments, universities and professional associations, hoping to facilitate the production, and dissemination of knowledge about the Latin American region.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreTax professionals are required to serve two masters equally: their client and the tax law. Often, serving these two masters creates conflicts that put the tax professional in a tension filled environment. We interviewed 29 tax professionals to generate a grounded theory about how tax professionals use their experiences, tools, training, judgment and decision-making processes to manage the tension they feel. Research is scant about how adherence to professional requirements and responsibilities weigh on tax professionals? advocacy attitudes and behaviors and about how tax professionals understand or define client loyalty and its relationship to regulatory and professional standards. Our data revealed that tax professionals in the Big 4 CPA firms dealt with their professional responsibilities and client loyalties differently than tax professionals who were sole practitioners. Also, we found that tax advice is produced and reproduced in an evolutionary decision ?making process that often produces inconsistent and different results.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreScholars and institutions alike are concerned with academic productivity. Scholars not only further knowledge in their professional fields, they also bring visibility and prestige to themselves and their institutions, which in turn attracts research grants and more qualified faculty and graduate students. Many studies have been done on scholar productivity; however, most of them focus on individual factors such as gender, marital status, and psychological characteristics rather than intrinsic academic factors such as scholars? academic values, institutional expectations and academic alignment between the scholar and the institution. In this study, we developed measures for the different kinds of scholarship based on Boyer?s work and extended it by adding Engaged Scholarship in Van de Ven?s work. This research focuses on how these academic factors have an effect on not just academic productivity but also the scholar?s well-being. Our results suggest that scholarship identity, academic work focus, and perceived institutional expectations significantly impact knowledge production and well-being and that this relationship is mediated by the recognition and support provided by the institution. These results have important implications for university administrators who develop, and faculty who work under policies designed to foster professional development and scholarship.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThere is a paucity of literature on Information Technology (IT) professionals that specifically emphasizes how either behavioral competencies and/or the organizational environment influence employee engagement. Employee engagement is described as a positive, work-related state of mind exhibited by high levels of energy, dedication, persistence, and happy absorption (Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez-Roma, & Bakker, 2002) manifested, when coupled with customer loyalty, in business growth and profitability (McEwen, 1998). Half of all U.S. workers are not fully engaged in their work and some are totally disengaged (Balogun & Johnson, 2004). When compared to the general employee population, lack of engagement is more of an issue for IT employees, (Treadwell & Alexander, 2011), and that IT employees are less engaged than employees in customer facing roles and/or employees closer to strategic decision making. They found only 26 percent of IT employees reported full engagement and 22 percent admitted to outright disengagement (Treadwell & Alexander, 2011). We examined the behavioral competencies of IT professionals and their relationships and interactions with the organizational environment and employee engagement. We collected survey data from 795 IT professionals (individual contributors and managers) in the United States and Canada. We used validated instruments to measure the IT professional?s motives and traits, examined organizational environment, and evaluated employee engagement. Our results indicate that specific behavioral competencies and role confidence are affected differently by distinguishing factors within the organization environment. We also reveal how these unique attributes of an organization environment affects how one engages in the organization. We also discovered that particular controls such as age and gender do have not influence, while other controls such as role type and years of experience do influence engagement.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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