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Weatherhead Doctor of Management Programs
Show moreThe work presented here actually had its genesis in the fall of 2000 when I began regular observations of the local school board as it attempted to resolve a major conflict that involved not just the board, but a variety of its stakeholder groups. My interest in this board’s dilemma was informed by previous personal service on various boards and the challenges that were faced by my colleagues and me in dealing with various stakeholders. I sought to sort out questions associated with the involvement of stakeholders and the board and to answer those that went to whether there was a way that boards could manage stakeholder relationships better in order to reduce conflict and enhance effectiveness and decisionmaking within nonprofit organizations. The practical problem that was inhibiting the more effective practice of my subject board emerged as its inability to recognize the significance of what I identify as the group’s ethical capital asset to the management of important relationships with its stakeholders. These relationships were critical to achieving the board’s objectives and, as the board’s ethical capital eroded over time, so, too, did its ability to engage its stakeholders. This project evolved in part into a sorting out of questions that were certainly associated with the involvement of stakeholders and their role in board proceedings. However, this work, placed in the context of my own previous experience, led me down a somewhat different path. The direction that it took enabled me to consider the work of this representative board and even leadership more generally in the specific context of the qualities necessary to influence and effect change. In so doing, I began to unpack what I have identified as the complexities of the ethical capital of this and similar boards and leaders that are entrusted with decisionmaking responsibilities for diverse groups of stakeholders. My observations of this group and their interactions with those who have a vested interest in the decisions that they make enabled me to identify the concept of ethical capital and its component parts as I proceeded through several months of attendance at the board meetings. My observations, ethnographic analysis and result of this study have proven to be very informative and instructive in enabling construction of this different theory, or at least a different framework, which nonprofit and even, perhaps, for-profit organization boards and leaders may use to assess their work and, in particular, the valuation of an important asset that they generally hold in trust for their organizations: their ethical capital. I define ethical capital to be that combination of trust, legitimacy, accountability, transparency; character, truthfulness, moral reliability and stakeholder focus that enable a board, or even an individual, to most effectively lead an organization. It may be important for the purposes of this discussion to emphasize that ethical capital does not equal ethics; nor does it equal social capital, although ethical capital may be more likely to exist under circumstances that might also favor the existence of social capital. Ethical capital has, however, an important component of morality embedded within it, in addition to the previously mentioned traits. This concept will be further expounded upon within this work.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreAs an undergraduate in 1966, I studied the Fortran and Cobol programming languages on a mainframe computer. At that time, I could not have predicted the personal computer on the desktop. In 1982, we took the plunge and bought an Apple IIe personal computer for use in our home and for the development of my mathematics teaching materials. I was amazed by the power and ability of 64K of memory in that first Apple computer. Over the past eighteen years, the development of powerful personal computers has changed the daily lives of many people in their home and in their workplace. Today we are all being challenged to find ways to interact and contend with technology. In education, students at all levels (preschool to adult learners) face these challenges.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThis paper addresses the effect on customer service satisfaction of primary language differences between service personnel and customers in retail store environments. This study was conducted using ethnographic research methods in five different retail store environments where service personnel were Spanish-speaking and customers English- speaking. The results of the study suggest that primary language differences in the service dyad can result in impaired service and customer dissatisfaction. The results of the study also indicate that store management can control some factors to increase customer satisfaction.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThis applied research project focused on workforce development in a small manufacturing organization. Specifically, this study offers a CEO perspective regarding the work environment or setting in contributing to worker attitudes toward acquiring skills and knowledge, commitment to the organization, and performance of hard-to-pace workers. The conceptual framework that underpins this inquiry draws on the concept of communities of practice as development by Etienne Wenger and the theory of situated learning by Jean Lave as applied to learning and communication in the workplace. The study offers insight into limitations on workforce development and the role of the relationships and race in the work setting.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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