The main research question pertains to the relationship between time-based manufacturing competence and business performance: Is there a positive relationship between time-based manufacturing competence and business performance. The objective of the study, therefore, is to examine the relationship between time -based manufacturing competence and business performance.

The research question addressed by the study asks, "Is international integration strategic and departmental structural fit a predictor of performance in U.S.-based, single-business multinational organizations?" The study is designed to extend existing research in international integration strategy, which is often called "global strategy," "globalization," or "internationalization" in the popular press and academic research literature.

The purpose of this study was to determine the criteria used by foundation directors in assessing the effectiveness of contribution programs in company sponsored foundations. Quinn and Rohrbaugh's Competing Values Approach of organizational effectiveness was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The Competing Values Approach is an integrative effectiveness model which clusters eight criteria of effectiveness into four theoretical models of organizational effectiveness.

How firms facing environmental uncertainty should organize their activities remains an important and challenging question for today's managers and organizational researchers. Proponents of contingency theory have argued that organizations must adjust their activities to fit the level of environmental uncertainty to ensure long-term survival. Although much work has been done on contingency theory, it is clear that our understanding of uncertainty is far from complete. One important aspect of today's organizations is their focus on service, mass customization, and continuous innovation. This focus often results in the customer being brought either into the organization or at least into closer contact with it. Even though the literature provides numerous evidences of the increasing customer focus, it is yet to empirically explain how the complications of customer-organizational interactions might create uncertainty for contemporary organizations. The traditional measure of uncertainty still considers customers as an environmental factor causing demand uncertainty while ignoring the complex nature of customer and organizational encounters. Seeking to further refine the concept of uncertainty and focusing on the contemporary business phenomena, this study develops measures aspects of customer induced uncertainty and examines their relationships with three organizational design variables. Specifically, this study explains the complicated nature of customer - …

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the challenges and benefits associated with cultural diversity within groups. The research hypotheses were proposed to test the effects of cultural diversity on group performance and group processes by comparing culturally diverse and culturally homogeneous groups under conditions of intergroup competition and noncompetition. This experiment was conducted using 500 upper-level undergraduates enrolled in the principles of management course for the fall semester.

Insufficient literature exists in the area of incremental and revolutionary change to explain and predict the convergence and reorientation phenomena happening in organizations. The process of strategic reorientation involves the internal organizational complexities of fast-paced (within two years) changes in competitive strategy as a necessary condition coupled with changes in at least two of organization structure, power distribution, and control systems. Antecedent forces believed to influence the discontinuous change process include industry sales turbulence, structural inertia/firm size, firm past financial performance, CEO turnover, top management team turnover, management team heterogeneity, management environmental awareness, and external attributions for negative financial performance. Punctuated equilibrium was the foundational theory for this study in which a strategic reorientation model published in Strategic Management Journal was reconstructed. The research question was: What seem to be the significant time-based antecedent forces or conditions that lead to strategic reorientation? The study used two hierarchical logit regression models to analyze data gathered from COMPUSTAT PC Industrial Data Base and Compact Disclosure (CD-ROM) over the years 1987-1993 from the turbulent computer software and stable furniture industries. Qualitative data were found in 10-K reports and President's Letters in Annual Reports filed with the SEC and available on Laserdisclosure. The sample, …

Business ethics is a much debated issue in contemporary America. As many ethical improprieties gained widespread attention, organizations tried to control the damage by institutionalizing ethics through a variety of structures, policies, and procedures. Although the institutionalization of ethics has become popular in corporate America, there is a lack of research in this area. The relationship between the cultural dimensions of individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/femininity and the perceptions of managers regarding the institutionalization of ethics is investigated in this study. This research also examined whether managers' level of cognitive moral development and locus of control influenced their perceptions. Data collection was performed through a mail survey of managers in the U.S. and India. Out of the 174 managers of American multinationals who responded to the survey, 86 were Americans and 88 were Indians. Results revealed that managers' perceptions were influenced by the four cultural dimensions. Managerial perceptions regarding the effectiveness of codes of ethics and the influence of referent groups varied according to their nationality. But, managers from both countries found implicit forms of institutionalizing ethics, such as organizational systems, culture, and leadership to be more effective in raising the ethical climate of organizations than explicit forms …

U.S. companies have implemented just-in-time purchasing (JITP) and total quality management (TQM) techniques to improve their global competitive position. The lack of empirical research on these techniques with firm's performance is the reason to explain further their strategic values as management innovations in different types and sizes of organizations. From a theoretical foundation on the relations between innovation, strategy and performance, the following research questions were generated: (1) Are JITP and TQM positively related to the firm's performance?, (2) Do the combination/sequence of implementing JITP and TQM have a relation with the firm's performance?, and (3) Is the relationship between JITP and TQM to the firm's performance moderated by any of industry type, firm size,firm type and/or duration of JITP and TQM techniques? A model is developed and hypotheses are proposed. A survey is mailed to firms operating in the U.S. that have implemented one or both techniques. Questionnaire items measuring JITP, TQM, performance, and moderating variables - industry type, firm size,firm type, and duration of JIT purchasing and TQM techniques— are either developed or borrowed from other studies. From rosters of the American Society for Quality Control and the National Association of Purchasing Management, 1884 target respondents result in …

This study is an empirical evaluation of the relationship between perceptions of the elements of the remote environment of business and the mode of transfer utilized by 90 United States companies transferring technology to Mexico. Characteristics of the technology, the company, and the industry were found, from a thorough search of the literature, to be the key aspects of technology transfer. The primary hypothesis predicted that a significant relationship would exist between perceptions of barriers and choice of transfer mode.

This research explores whether a firm's psychosocial stressors contribute to strains or outcomes important to the organization. The psychosocial stressors chosen for study include: role conflict and ambiguity, workload (qualitative and quantitative), participative decision making, autonomy, and security. Independent variables were the emotional strains of job satisfaction and job commitment. The independent variables for behavioral strains included injury, lost days, workers' compensation claims, and absenteeism. Three moderators: age, gender, and social support were evaluated for interaction effects. The study sampled 77 occupationally injured and 81 non-injured employees from one medium sized Army community hospital. This study uses multivariate hierarchical multiple set regression as its principal analytical method. The hierarchial procedure orders the sets into an a priori hierarchy and enters each set sequentially from the hierarchy, evaluating the increase in $\rm R\sp2.$ The results suggest that psychosocial stressors are significant variables to consider when investigating workers' emotional and behavioral strains. For example, age, participation, and satisfaction were found statistically significant in differentiating between the occupationally injured and the non-injured samples. The study also found that ambiguity, participation, and autonomy influenced emotional strains. Additionally, age and social support appear to moderate the relationship between some psychosocial factors and emotional and behavioral …

In order to remain competitive, firms must be able to merge diverse, differentiated people into teams. In comparison to solo ventures, venture teams not only offer a broader base of physical and financial resources and varying points of view, but also positively influence the profitability, growth, and survivability potential of new ventures. Despite the growing importance and potential benefits offered by venture teams, relatively little is known about assembling and maintaining effective venture teams in the field of entrepreneurship. More specifically, information is needed to understand what composition and combination of demographic characteristics of team members would contribute to the effectiveness and success of a venture team. In this study the relationship between venture team demographic characteristics and team effectiveness (which is defined in terms of the interpersonal process of venture team members in their group activities) is investigated. The demographic characteristics examined include average age, age heterogeneity, average level of education, educational background heterogeneity, gender heterogeneity, and functional background heterogeneity. A field study, involving face-to-face and telephone interviews with the venture teams is used to gather data from40 computer related venture teams in a large midwest U.S. city. The venture teams are identified through the local Chambers of Commerce, …

Employee selection research identifies and makes use of associations between individual differences, such as those measured by psychological testing, and individual differences in job performance. Artificial neural networks are computer simulations of biological nerve systems that can be used to model unspecified relationships between sets of numbers. Thirty-five neural networks were trained to estimate normalized annual revenue produced by telephone sales agents based on personality and biographic predictors using concurrent validation data (N=1085). Accuracy of the neural estimates was compared to OLS regression and a proprietary nonlinear model used by the participating company to select agents.

In Strategic International Human Resource Management (SIHRM), the human resource function is actively involved in the strategic activities of the firm. While the idea holds promise as a useful response to global competition, previous research has provided limited supporting empirical evidence. Specifically, few studies have sought to equate certain outcomes with the degree of SIHRM practiced across various types of international firms. By separating firms into categories such as multidomestic, global, and hybrid, and by classifying SIHRM according to the degree of integration with strategic planning, a clearer picture could emerge as to the relationship between firm and SIHRMtype. To that end, top strategic executives, such as CEOs, and top HRM executives from eighty four U.S. based firms were surveyed regarding their firm type, the degree of SIHRM practiced, and certain outcomes such as amount of expatriate training and expatriate failure. Additionally, financial results were obtained to determine performance of various firms. Results indicated that while many companies choose a highly integrated formof SIHRM, there is no significant relationship between firm type and SIHRMtype. Additionally, there was no association detected between SIHRMtype and expatriate training and expatriate failure. Finally, there was no significant difference infinancialperformance between firms with the most …

New entrepreneurial organizations emerge as a result of careful thought and action. Therefore, entrepreneurship may be considered an example of planned behavior. Previous research suggests that intentions are the single best predictor of planned behavior. Given the significance of intentions, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur and perceived environmental factors, and entrepreneurial intentions.

The purpose of this study is to explore empirically the correlation of quality practices and environmental performance and suggest its applicability as a model for integrating the two fields.

Major changes in organizational structural paradigms have been occurring. Recent journal articles propose that the older philosophies of expanding organizations and increasing internal specialization are no longer viable means to enhance competitiveness as espoused in earlier journal articles. Downsizing, rightsizing, and business process reengineering have all been used as methods of accomplishing organizational work force reduction (OWFR) and enhancing organizational posture. It has been established that as organizations grow, specialization increases. Causes for OWFR have not been established nor have effects upon structure been studied. Previous structural factor studies have focused upon organizations engaged in end-game strategies done during periods of internal and economic growth. This study evaluates the impacts of OWFR and its relationship to the structural factor of specialization during a non-munificent economic period. Three independent variables, dis-integration, change in the number of employees, and change in technology, were used as measures to determine whether specialization decreased when organizations downsized. The dependent variable, specialization, was obtained through a pre-tested questionnaire. The three independent variables were obtained using the Compustat data base as a secondary source of information. The Compustat data was verified using data from Compact Disclosure. Questionnaires were mailed to fifty-one fully integrated oil companies. Forty were …