UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
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Item Application and Implementation of the Supply Chain Reference (SCOR) Model at the United States Department of Defense (DoD)(2012) Arendt Jr., Michael James; Gansler, Jacques S.; Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)DoD's supply-chain supports over 1 million uniformed, civilian, and contract employees, manages over $90 billion in inventory, and maintains some 15,000 aircraft, 300 ships, and 30,000 combat vehicles. The supply-chain is undeniably the backbone of DoD operations, ultimately enabling it to achieve mission success under a variety of situations. In recent years, the DoD has pursued numerous initiatives for the purposes of improving its supply-chain. Motivations to seek improvements (such as asset tracking, reduced errors, etc.), decreased costs, and increased responsiveness for the warfighter have been plentiful; however, measured improvement thus far has been difficult to ascertain. It is the intent of this research to establish a framework to enable DoD to use industry best practices and process improvements from the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (SCOR) as a tool for Defense supply-chain modernization efforts. To accomplish this, the dissertation will address the following research questions: 1. How can the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model be adapted for use as an enterprise-level tool by the United States Department of Defense? 2. Once adapted, what barriers to the implementation of this new tool exist? 3. How can these barriers be overcome?Item "The Squadron Under Your Command:" Change and the Construction of Identity in the U.S. Navy's North Atlantic Squadron, 1874-1897(2012) Rentfrow, James Christopher; Sumida, Jon T.; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Abstract Title of Dissertation: "THE SQUADRON UNDER YOUR COMMAND": CHANGE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN THE U.S. NAVY'S NORTH ATLANTIC SQUADRON, 1874-1897 James C. Rentfrow Dissertation Directed by: Professor Jon T. Sumida Department of History This dissertation examines the transformation of the United States Navy as a fighting organization that took place on the North Atlantic Station between 1874 and 1897. At the beginning of this period, the warships assigned to this station were collectively administered by a rear-admiral, but were operationally deployed as individual units, each of whose actions were directed by their captains. By 1897 the North Atlantic, or "Home" Squadron as it was known, was a group of warships constituting a protean battle fleet - that is, an organized body moving and fighting in close-order, which meant that the actions of the captains were directed by a commanding admiral. The development of an American battle fleet resulted in the construction of a new organizational identity for the North Atlantic Squadron. This process was as critical as the eventual outcome. It was not linear, but one in which progress in critical areas was modulated by conflicting demands that caused distraction. From 1874-1888, exercises in fleet tactics under steam were carried out sporadically utilizing existing wooden cruising vessels. From 1889-1894, the last wooden cruisers were decommissioned and the Squadron consisted entirely of new steel warships. Ad-hoc concentrations of vessels for purposes besides exercise and training retarded the continued development of doctrine and tactics necessary for a multi-ship fighting capability during this time. However, much work was done to develop a concept of multi-ship operations. From 1895-1897, the identity of the North Atlantic Squadron as a combat unit solidified. Tactical exercises were held that had specific offensive and defensive wartime applications. These exercises were necessary to develop a combat capability. The results of this study demonstrate that the United States government had an interest in developing an offensive naval combat capability as early as the 1870's. Based on the record of the North Atlantic Squadron, it is argued that imperial aspirations, in the sense of possessing a capability to restrict the actions of other great powers in the Caribbean region, existed prior to the War of 1898. However, the process of change often resulted in the appearance of capability without the rigorous exercise necessary to possess it.Item An Integrated Change Model in Project Management(2010) Cheung, Man; Cable, John H; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Organizations need to change constantly for their survival and success, and project management has been extensively used to implement organizational change. However, studies show only less than 20 percent of organizational change projects actually succeed. This may indicate the lack of a valid model for project managers to successfully implement and manage organizational change projects since what is currently available is a wide range of organizational change models that neither are in a project management context nor pay adequate emphasis on the people-side of change. Under these circumstances, this paper has attempted to build an integrated change model in a project management context. To construct such a change model, we integrates widely cited change models in the organizational change field and the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) (Prochaska, DiClemente, 1984, 1994) in the individual behavior change field with the project management process groups (PMI, 2008).Item PUBLIC RELATIONS AND SENSEMAKING DURING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE IN MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN CHINA(2009) Luo, Yi; Toth, Elizabeth L.; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study explored the role public relations plays in the sensemaking process during planned organizational change within multinational organizations in China. Three areas were examined. First, this study examined the sensemaking process during change within the participating multinationals. Second, this study explored how the multinationals used public relations to communicate about change with their employees. Third, the influence of uncertainty avoidance upon sensemaking during change within the multinationals was probed. Weick's (1995) sensemaking framework was used to explain the individual differences in the way events are understood and how those differences are translated into sensible collective behaviors. A total of 60 face-to-face interviews were conducted with managerial and non-managerial employees from nine multinational corporations. Several significant findings emerged from the study. First, change management can be viewed as management of meanings. This view helped explain why some change programs are accepted over others. The acceptance of change is both facilitated and constrained by the extent to which management is able to impose a plausible sense of change on events. Second, power plays a major role in creating an environment ready for change as well as resolving disparities of meanings. Top management sort out information and highlight it to employees so that their mental frameworks are framed to see the environment in certain ways. Third, negative expressions or behaviors by employees need not be perceived as acts of rebellion against change. Rather, these negative expressions reflect the difficulty that organizational members have while switching rapidly their sense of the organization during change. This study also found that the public relations function can facilitate sensemaking during change. Poorly planned communication programs during change can result in confusions from employees regarding change as well as distrust of management. Findings also suggested that cultivating dialogic communication with employees during change can help managers develop a shared understanding with front-line employees about change. Findings also showed that when employees could not reduce their uncertainties, they stopped processing information from the organizations. This study demonstrated the value of public relations to change management. It illustrated how public relations can help members of an organization understand the meaning of change.