- 2015-03-09 (x)
- Kumar, Ganesh (x)
- 2004-12 (x)
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Show moreWith departments of human resource (HR) struggling over the past ten years to establish an equal strategic role with operating managers and other functional specialties, there is ongoing debate regarding the strategic alignment and practical impact of human resource management (HRM) practices. A manageable domain for studying the impact of HR in supporting organization strategy is that of formal career system (CS) programs. Investments in CS programs are made with the expectation that there will be a return in the form of internally developed and strategically deployed managerial talent. However, do these systems actually influence internal labor market decisions, such as managers’ filling of vacancies? Beyond the direct costs associated with CS programs, are the indirect costs of poorly conceived or poorly implemented programs, including loss of valued employees due to lack of career advancement opportunities and inappropriately promoted managers failing in new roles. The question that this study seeks to answer is whether or not the substantial investment in CS practices, which most large firms undertake, provides a reasonable return on investment. The return will be measured by the extent to which the firm can develop and source key managerial vacancies through the use of internal labor markets. Another important indicator of impact will be the extent to which managers believe that the practices contribute to their career progression. A qualitative research study is proposed to explore the relationship between the corporate strategic-planning process and decisions regarding implementation of CS practices, and then to evaluate the linkage of these practices to utilization of internal and external labor markets. Guided by the strategic linkage theory of Sonnenfeld and Peiperl (1988) and its empirical assessment by Baruch and Peiperl (2003), the study also seeks to identify combinations of CS practices that have the greatest impact on the choice of internal labor market strategies actually used by managers.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreDynamic capabilities and associated shifts in learning make firm’s capabilities hard to imitate, and are critical in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Consequently, strategic management literature has recognized that the presence of causal ambiguity plays a pivotal role in generating inter-firm differences in obtained rents. At the same time, causal ambiguity may hamper internal diffusion of capabilities within the firm negatively affecting its performance (Szulanki, 1996). Overall, the relationship between dynamic capabilities, causal ambiguity and firm performance has remained poorly understood. In this study, we seek to address this gap by developing a causal model that depicts how management perceptions of causal ambiguity mediate the effects of the firm’s competencies on firm performance. Using data from collected from 401 Chilean managers we analyze the managers’ perceptions of causal ambiguity on firms’ performance by controlling for market turbulence and the company size. Our findings confirm the critical role of manager’s perceptions of causal ambiguity as a mediator between organizational competencies and performance. Surprisingly, we found a weak influence of perception’s of causal ambiguity among rivals as a mechanism to protect inter-firm imitation.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreKristina recently inherited the business of her late father. In his 18 years of business experience at this location he was never able to grow the business past the subsistence stage. How she will eventually fare is dependent on the same factors faced by her late father. They include her ability to overcome the opposition of local residents, raise capital to build a larger stand and move the current location of her newspaper stand. Since her father was unable to do this in more than 18 years of business in this location, the odds do not seem promising. And yet, she seems determined, despite her inexperience, to grow the business. Will she succeed? Erik has been working at a location near Kristina for more than 18 years. In this time his business has undergone changes, but one thing has remained constant: the small size of the business. Erik began operating a shoeshine cart at this location when he was a young man. His ability to grow his business, according to him, is hampered by the fact that he does not have anyone to assist him and there are few remaining available locations. Despite his desire to expand his business he lacks the access to capital and the help to make this dream possible. Can he advance? In stark contrast, Carlos has been operating a micro-enterprise for the past 20 years. He, like Erik, began by selling in front of a large office building. However, unlike Erik, his business has grown during the past 20 years and now includes three locations and employs four workers. His largest newspaper and candy stand is in a prime location fronting to the serpentine beltway that encircles Mexico City (the periferico). Carlos is also the younger brother of Kristina's late father. They both operated similar businesses for a comparable period of time. And yet, Carlos was able to develop and expand his business to a point where it thrived and permitted Carlos to purchase a house in the suburbs of Mexico City, a stage Kristina's father never reached. His business has made the leap from subsistence stage to longer-range sustainability. What accounts for the differences between these different vendors? And what is likely to happen to Kristina in her efforts to grow her father's business. The central question I seek to answer is why some micro-entrepreneurs remain at subsistence level whereas others progress? I address this question in this ethnography by examining the work of three street vendors in Mexico City. I find that the ability to accurately assess and manage risk in an environment filled with complex legal and financial uncertainty is an important factor in micro-entrepreneur growth. The uncertainty faced by micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries is significant because in addition to the financial uncertainty surrounding their businesses they have only quasi- legal status. The activity is at best tolerated and this lack of defined legal status adds to the existing financial risk of their business because it exposes them to additional threats to their subsistence income. These threats take the form of veto events that can quickly plunge them into financial distress. I label these veto events because the y can prevent a micro-entrepreneur from assuming the risks that can lead to growth. These events mark difference between being able to chambear, as one of the vendors describes his work, and not being able to earn a living. Once micro-entrepreneurs have reached the subsistence stage their ability to progress to the next level of enterprise depends in large measure on their ability to assess and manage risk. And this risk involves a complex assessment. My interest in studying this topic stems from the fact that I manage a large organization in Latin America and had observed the vendors in this area of Mexico City for several years. I eventually became curious about their work and their lives and I wondered if there were parallels between their work and mine. As I researched theories of micro-enterprise I saw that these micro-entrepreneurs efforts could not be categorized in any uniform way. Some were obviously struggling to eke out a meager living while other seemed to be thriving. I was curious why this occurred. I am hopeful that this study can shed light on how to improve the ability to serve this group.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreA qualitative study of eleven male and eleven female directors was undertaken to investigate gender differences relating to championing tough issues at the board. This study demonstrated that men and women at the board share common mechanisms in the championing process. Correspondingly, they also evidenced notable differences. A championing model is presented to examine the gendered differences of the “tough issues” championing process. The model incorporates (1) the preconditions to championing, (2) the board environment that impacts the choice to champion (3) the influencing factors that impact the engagement process (4) the engagement style of the champions and (5) the collateral benefits (or not) of having championed the issue. Consistent with Kramer, Konrad and Ekrut (2006), women championed twice the number of issues as men in this sample. Both male and female directors championed very difficult issues; the majority of which related to the CEO including leadership ability, performance, management style and compensation. Directors agreed that the benefits to the board and the individual champion did outweigh the difficulties of the champion process. As a result, champions of tough issues have a unique role to play in improving the decision-making quality of boards.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThis paper describes how in absence of strong sponsorship and often regardless of project outcome, leaders of high impact corporate change initiatives must simultaneously develop bonding social capital to become sustainable members of the enterprise’s leadership team. This particularly holds for executives brought in from outside the firm to lead change. We present the findings of a qualitative research study of 42 projects led by 30 executive leaders from a diverse portfolio of primarily manufacturing companies, leaders who were either Insiders (those established within their firms) or Outsiders (leaders brought in as fulltime employees from outside the firm specifically to lead the project). The basis of this study was a conceptual model of the extent to which change leaders are embedded in and leverage internal and external social networks to contribute to favorable project outcome, influencing their career development upon completion of the change initiative. The grounded theory analysis has revealed a topology of traits characterizing change leader identity and presents the interplay of social capital (relationships, trust and shared norms in addition to the leveraging of social networks internal and external to the firm), sponsorship, and in the case of several change leaders, a shift in self identity that unfolds in the course of leading planned organizational change. Leading change can change leaders.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThis research studies the extent to which a change leader is embedded in and leverages internal and external social networks to contribute to favorable project outcome, influencing his or her career development upon completion of the change initiative. A conceptual framework will be presented to explore the premise that the effectiveness of the leader in implementing planned change is based on successful access to, development and leveraging of social networks- the often informal structure of relationships among organizational members that provide invaluable resources such as information, power, and trust between individuals and groups. These resources are often critical for a change leader to access in order to pull or enable change vs. push or command change. Relationships in the form of networks are often the locus of change acceptance or resistance, fundamental for leaders to leverage to effectively deliver project results, sustain the new process, and contribute to the leader being accepted as an integral, value-added long term member of the organization. Research questions are presented in order to proceed with the qualitative survey phase which will involve interviewing middle and executive level change leaders in new product development manufacturing companies, to enable further development and validation of the conceptual framework prior to quantitative data gathering and analysis.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreOrganizations are challenged to attract and retain executives who can lead successful and sustainable organizational change. This study aims to: (1) explore the role of bonding social capital in affecting the turnover intention of executive leaders of large scale radical and continuous improvement change projects in organizations, and (2) identify mechanisms which may influence whether change leaders can balance the potentially competing commitment to a career of leading change with a commitment to an organization, therein affecting the organization’s ability to retain them longer term. This study of over 600 change leaders from for-profit, non-profit and civil service organizations draws distinctions between Insiders and Outsiders, and develops an instrument for bonding social capital that is generalizable to contexts with the individual as the unit of analysis. Our findings indicate that bonding social capital and perceived organizational support appear to play primary roles in the turnover intention of Outsiders. This differs from Insiders who appear to be affected by their identification with the organization and perceived organizational support, influencing organizational commitment, leading to mitigation of turnover intention. Unlike for Insiders, we found the extent to which an Outsider is committed to a career of leading change can negatively influence his intention to remain with the firm. We caution organizations who hire Outsiders to lead change projects to continue to “use them, love them or lose them” as leaders of challenging change initiatives, and not assume that Outsiders will become committed to the organization and become Insiders.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThis research attempts to correlate outcomes of the change process as changes in work behaviors, the individual response to change on the frontlines of an organization, in terms of change content and process attributes. A goal of the research was to use existing research to develop an integrated understanding of what happens when change is implemented by understanding potential mechanisms that may be involved in influencing successful change. A causal model of organizational change is developed, based upon the theory of planned behavior, with attitude as a precursor to changes in work routines, and causal linkages are hypothesized via three influence mechanisms; structural, efficacy, and social. The model is tested in two different settings, and the results suggest that the three mechanisms play a different role during formation of behavioral intention and manifestation of behaviors. The study reinforces the use of traditional intervention strategies like participation, leadership and communication but highlights the role of supervisors of frontline staff, the importance of consistency of organizational change interventions, and the role of affective response during change.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library
Cleveland Play House Collection, Kelvin Smith Library