The purpose of this research was to study the effect of the conflict settlement process on the degree of expressed organizational commitment of employees in a collective bargaining setting. The research was done in a basic industry in northern Alabama. The instrument included the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) developed by Mowday, Porter, and Steers. Demographic variables measured were education, age, and sex. Main effects variables were tenure; union membership; and self-described experience with and feeling toward grievance/arbitration as a category 1 grievant, category 2 grievant, witness, and supervisor. Data were analyzed with hierarchical multiple regression. No statistically significant results were found. Limitations included the economic climate of the region and the industrial relations climate of the company.

This study examines the problem of operationally defining "hostile environment" sexual harassment, ruled a type of disparate treatment actionable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by the United States Supreme Court on June 19, 1986. Although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines a hostile environment as an "intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment," there is no consensus as to what is "offensive" behavior. An extensive review of the literature yielded various attempts to define and ascertain the magnitude of sexual harassment, but the fact that the actual percentages varied indicates that this is a difficult issue to measure. As perception by the victim is the key, this study surveyed 125 working women from all over the United States to determine their perceptions of behaviors that constitute sexual harassment. Discriminant analysis was then used to correctly classify 95% of the women according to their perceptions of having experienced sexual harassment. Using tests for proportions, three hypotheses were found significant. Women who have been sexually harassed are more likely to view sexual harassment as a major problem. Older men are more likely to have their behavior perceived as sexual harassment. In addition, women who have experienced acts such as staring, …

This dissertation examines the effect that the introduction of an advanced manufacturing technology, specifically robotics, has on the work force of an aerospace defense company. In this endeavor, there are two main objectives. First, this study determines whether workers feel that their jobs are threatened by the introduction of robotic technology. Secondly, the research compares the degree to which workers from different labor types feel this threat. A review of the literature reveals that the technical factors involving manufacturing technology have been thoroughly examined and discussed, but the effect that they have on the work force has been somewhat neglected. This dissertation develops ten hypotheses to ascertain the perceived threat to job security for workers within an aerospace defense company. This study is based on an employee survey that examined the employee's perceived threat to job security by the introduction of robotics. The primary research was obtained from employees within an aerospace defense company through the use of questionnaires in a three phase approach. The first phase utilized a pretest that sampled the questionnaire prior to the company-wide solicitation. The second phase administered the questionnaire to the three labor types within the work force. Phase three consisted of data reduction …

Two contrasting notions have been put forward on how social capital may influence individual effectiveness in organizations. Burt (1992) sets forth the informational and control advantages that are possible by building an open network characterized by large numbers of structural holes. In contrast, Coleman (1990) and Simmel (1950) have suggested that network closure, exemplified by large numbers of Simmelian ties, enables actors to develop trust, cohesiveness, and norms which contribute to effectiveness. Simmelian ties are strong, reciprocal ties shared by three actors. It is proposed that an actor's network cannot be dominated by both structural holes and Simmelian ties. Thus, this study examines whether a moderating variable is at work. It is proposed that the actor's task interdependence in the workplace influences the relationship between network closure and individual effectiveness. Actors in less task interdependent environments will benefit especially from the information and control benefits afforded by a network characterized by structural holes. Conversely, actors in highly interdependent environments will benefit especially from the creation of trust and cooperation that result from large numbers of Simmelian ties. Data was collected on 113 subjects in three organizations. Subjects were asked to rate the strength of their relationship with all organization members …

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 - …

Team-based management is a popular contemporary method of redesigning jobs in order to more effectively utilize the human potential of employees. The use of such management techniques should result in increased satisfaction and team commitment; however, many research studies have failed to demonstrate increases in affective outcomes on the part of the employee. The research question examined in this study is, "What specific job dimensions and situational factors result in higher levels of satisfaction and team commitment?" The Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham, 1975) provided a basis for this study. The model was designed for individual contributors and has not been extensively used in team research. As expected it was found that within a team-based environment higher levels of the five core job dimensions of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and job feedback were associated with increased satisfaction and team commitment. Organization-based self-esteem was found to mediate the relationship between the five core job dimensions and the affective outcome variables. Contrary to expectations, however, it was found that consultative team members experienced higher levels of satisfaction and commitment than substantive team members. In addition, consultative team members reported higher levels of two core job dimensions, skill variety …

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) evolved as alternative governance structures for firms seeking to combine resources with other firms, access larger markets, or acquire strategic assets. In spite of managers’ enthusiasm about the practice, studies show mixed results regarding post-acquisition performance of acquiring firms. The impact of acquisitions on the performance of acquiring firms has therefore remained inconclusive. A few reasons for this have been suggested and recent meta-analytic research efforts indicate that studies in M&A may have ignored variables that have significant effects on post-acquisition performance. In a bid to extend the literature on M&A and identify cogent variables that impact on acquisition performance, this dissertation draws on social network theory to advance a proposition for the value-of-ties. This was done by examining the impact of directorate interlocks on acquisitions specifically and organizational strategy in general. A non-experimental cross-sectional study of 98 interlocked directorate companies simultaneously involved in acquisitions was conducted. Several multiple regression analyses were conducted and the results obtained suggest that there is a positive linear relationship between director interlocks and post-acquisition performance and that to some extent this relationship is moderated by acquisition experience. The study also showed that director interlocks have a negative linear relationship with …

This study examines the recovery process of businesses in Homestead, Florida after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The goal of this study was to determine which organizational characteristics were useful in predicting the level of physical damage and the length of time to reopen for affected businesses. The organizational characteristics examined were age, size, pre-disaster gross sales, ownership of the business location, membership in the Chamber of Commerce, and property insurance. Three-hundred and fifty businesses in the area were surveyed. Because of the complexity of the recovery process, the disaster experiences of businesses were examined using three paradigms, organizational ecology, contingency theory, and configuration theory. Models were developed and tested for each paradigm. The models used the contextual variables to explain the outcome variables; level of physical damage and length of time to reopen. The SIC was modified so that it could form the framework for a taxonomic examination of the businesses. The organizations were examined at the level of division, class, subclass, and order. While the taxa and consistent levels of physical damage, the length of time needed to reopen varied greatly. The homogeneous level of damage within the groups is linked to similarity in assets and transformation processes. When …

The purpose of this study was to measure merger performance on a longitudinal basis using a micro perspective. Specifically, this study looked at the performance of a sample of mergers drawn from the food and kindred products industry, Standard Industrial Classification code 20, for a period of five years before and five years after the merger using two performance measures. The performance measures, namely market returns to stockholders and return on investment, have been used extensively in the literature to study the performance of mergers and acquisitions, albeit on macro samples. The study offered significant statistical support for the hypothesis that mergers benefit the acquiring firm and its stockholders, as well as for the hypothesis that merger performance in the latter time period of study (1977 to 1984) was better than in the former (1968 to 1977). However, no significant difference in performance was found across merger types. The study discussed the managerial implications of these findings and offered directions for future research in the area of merger performance.

Prior research has examined entrepreneurial businesses spatially located in the physical or offline context; however, recent radical information and technological breakthroughs allow entrepreneurs to launch their businesses completely online. The growth of the online business industry has been phenomenal. Predictions for worldwide online sales estimate it to reach $2 trillion in 2016. Virtual entrepreneurship refers to the pursuit and exploitation of opportunities via virtual platforms. Web 2.0 cybermediaries offer web-based platforms that function similarly to traditional intermediaries in a virtual setting and minimize barriers to entry for virtual entrepreneurial firms. The use of such cybermediaries with increasing success suggests an implicit shift in the dominant logic that typically underpins the functioning of entrepreneurial firms operating in the physical world. In this relatively uncharted territory, marked by a focus on profit, cooperation, collaboration and community, three ideal-type institutional logics i.e. Market, Corporation and Community, blend together. It is posited that a Virtual Entrepreneurial Logic guides the norms, behaviors, and practices of entrepreneurial firms operating via these virtual platforms. This raises the question whether the blending of three ideal-type logics leads to the existence of different antecedents of performance. A business model antecedent addressing the economic dimension, a community antecedent addressing the …

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 …

There is a growing awareness that information technology plays a critical role in helping determine organizational structure. Unfortunately, that role has not been adequately defined. This study provides a foundation for an increase in our understanding of the relationship between information technology and organizational structure by defining a new set of information technology variables and identifying differences in organizational structure based on these new variables.

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, …

This study is concerned with the impact of job insecurity on the vital social exchange relationship between employee and employer. Specifically, it explored the relationship between job insecurity and two important social exchange outcomes—organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. Moreover, it assessed the moderating effects of individual factors (communal orientation and powerlessness) and situational factors (trust in management, procedural fairness, and organizational support) on these relationships.

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 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.

Corporate entrepreneurship, its correlates, and its impact on the global presence of firms were examined through 439 United States companies, represented in all geographic realms of the world. Executives responded to a lengthy survey of organizational characteristics which enabled corporate entrepreneurship and its dimensions--innovation, proactiveness, and risk taking--to be examined in firms with varying global presence. Risk factors were assigned to countries and realms from the averaged rankings of three published risk-forecasting services. Maximum risk country, maximum risk geographic realm, average risk of countries, average risk of geographic realms, number of countries, and number of geographic realms, were differentially weighted to equalize scales and combined into a composite global presence scale. Strategy-related variables--competitive aggressiveness and adaptiveness--dominated other organizational attributes in explaining corporate entrepreneurship, and corporate entrepreneurship dominated other variables in explaining global presence, according to correlation and multiple regression analysis. Although no variables correlated strongly with measures of global presence, corporate entrepreneurship consistently had significant positive correlations across all six measures of global presence and the composite global presence scale. In forward stepwise multiple regressions, corporate entrepreneurship was the first variable entered into the prediction equation for five of the six measures of global presence; only when the dependent variable …

In this study, a comparison was made between the various levels of group cognitive complexity and its relationship to task performance and task satisfaction. The goal of this research is to answer the general question, "Should decision-making groups consist of individuals who are similar in the way they differentiate and/or integrate various stimuli in order to increase performance and satisfaction?" The preceding research problem was analyzed in a laboratory setting using a 2 X 2 factorial design blocked on the variable, cognitive complexity. The Repertory Grid was used to measure the cognitive complexity of 228 student subjects. These subjects were stratified into groups of three based on their cognitive complexity score on the Repertory Grid (Kelly, 1955). Each group was treated randomly with one of two levels of task complexity (complex or not complex). Moreover, the groups received an imposedgroup structure that incorporated centralized or decentralized decision-making. Results indicated that groups consisting of cognitively complex members outperformed groups consisting of noncomplex members. No support was obtained for the two-way interaction between group cognitive complexity and either task complexity or group structure. Support was obtained for the interaction between task complexity and group structure on both task satisfaction measures. The highest …

Since their introduction to the United States from Japan in the 1980s, inter-organizational cooperation practices between buyers and suppliers have provided lower costs, shorter development and production cycles, and higher levels of quality and productivity. Many studies of interorganizational cooperation have relied on transaction cost economicsframeworks,which ignore cultural differences. Few studies have analyzed inter-organizational cooperation in Mexico, a less-developed country (LDC) with a cultural and industrial environment differentfromthe U.S. This study is concerned with the influence of interorganizational trust, individualism and collectivism (indcol), and the superordinate goal ofjust-in-time/total quality management (JIT/TQM) on inter-organizational cooperation.

The just-in-time purchasing literature resoundingly endorses long-term, cooperative buyer-supplier relationships. Significant anecdotal and descriptive evidence indicates that such relationships are rare in practice, raising questions as to the performance consequences of this gulf between theory and practice. Using an accepted theoretical model of the buyer-supplier relationship, transaction cost economics, this study examined the purchasing performance implications of the nature of the buyer-supplier relationship under just-in-time exchange. The focal purpose of the study was to examine the performance consequences of crafting long-term, cooperative relationships. The research design employed was a cross-sectional field study, involving a static-group comparison, implemented through the use of a mail survey. A dual-stage cluster sample of eight hundred purchasing managers and professionals employed in the two digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code 36, Electronic and Other Electrical Equipment and Components, was provided by the National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM). The questionnaire was pretested and the substantive validity of the measurement scales assessed. Scales were purified via correlational and reliability analyses. Criterion-related and construct validity were established via correlational, exploratory factor, and confirmatory factor analyses. The three hypotheses of the study, involving extant tests of the association between the nature of the buyer-supplier relationship and purchasing performance …

The purpose of this study was to test for a relationship between locus of control and participation in strategic decision making. The research model included the variables of gender, locus of control, job-work involvement and preference for participative environment as possible influences on team member participation in strategic decision making. Another feature of the model was the proposed three-way interaction effect on member participation. This interaction included member job-work involvement, member preference for participation and leader locus of control.

The perception of self-efficacy is a central cognitive construct in explaining motivation. Assigned goals are established in the literature as affecting self-efficacy, but only a few researchers investigated their effects in complex tasks. One stream of research revealed the positive effects of easy goals on performance in a complex task without regard to self-efficacy perceptions. In the present study, the focus was on the effects of assigned, easy goals on self-efficacy and personal goals in complex task performance. It was expected that easy goals would be superior to moderate or impossible goals because the complexity and uncertainty of the task distorts subjects' perceptions of goal difficulty.

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 …

Individuals with different personal demographics and job-based factors have different attitudes and behaviors, which can influence their levels of commitment to their organizations. These differences in organizational commitment increase as their cultural backgrounds differ significantly. Personal demographics and job-related factors are reliable predictors of employees' commitment to their employing organizations. The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate if there is a difference in the level of employees' commitment to Saudi petrochemical companies on the basis of differences in their personal demographics and job-related factors.