Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item VALUE IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF MANAGERS’ SOCIAL NETWORKS ON THEIR IDEA VALUATION AND IMPLEMENTATION DECISION-MAKING(2019) Lu, Shuye; Bartol, Kathryn M; Venkataramani, Vijaya; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Many of employees’ novel ideas often cannot get appreciated or valued by their managers, thus precluding the opportunity for innovation. Drawing on the social-information-processing theory and the situated evaluation perspective, this paper investigates the moderating roles of managers’ social networks in the innovation process of idea evaluation and implementation decision-making. Through a field study with 85 managers in a ceramic company, I found that when managers evaluated product ideas proposed by employees, they manifested a disfavor to novelty. That is, idea novelty had a negative relationship with managers’ perceived value of the focal idea regarding the idea’s potential operational efficiency, likelihood of social support, and strategic fit. However, I also found that both managers’ advice network diversity and friendship network centrality mitigated the negative effect of idea novelty on their perceived value of the proposed product ideas. In addition, I found managers’ perceived value of the idea mediated the relationship between idea novelty and their decisions to implement the idea. Theoretical contributions and empirical strategies are discussed.Item Fostering Creativity in Engineering Students Using Psychological Theory(2018) Leonard, Jared; Schmidt, Linda C.; Mechanical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Four experiments were conducted exploring the application of modern psychological theory to improving creative performance in engineering students, as measured by the divergent thinking test the Alternative Uses Task [AUT] and the graphical data analysis method linkography. Evidence was found for the presence of the serial order effect, but not for the efficacy of incubation or direct instruction in the psychology of creativity. A more practical test and instruction may be required. Making a meaningful improvement in the creativity of engineering students may require broad, systemic change in the way engineering is taught.Item CONNECTING SCHOOL AND WORK: DESIGNING A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT TO ENHANCE CURIOSITY AND WONDER(2013) Myers, Paul Richard; Eisenbach, Ronit; Rockcastle, Garth; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The overall trajectory of school design from the Industrial Revolution to today has been an evolution and expansion of the types of connections that a school is expected to enable. This thesis argues that by using the idea of making connections the goal of school design, one can design an environment that proffers curiosity and wonder as the most important part of learning. By allowing for a mixing student and worker environments, there exists an opportunity for a cross-pollination of ideas that will create a constantly evolving educational environment.Item SIMULTANEITY: On Urges and Origins(2014) Evans, Lauren Frances; Collis, Shannon; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)All creative acts can be seen as intermediary attempts to bridge the gap between the known and the unknowable. In this thesis, I discuss a number of material and immaterial interfaces (e.g., the body, holes, desire, mankind, sacred sites) - all of which concern humanity and the divided nature of our existence in space, time, and matter. Prompted by urges and the allure of origins, my creative work addresses the body as a site of irresistible paradox. Inverting the boundaries between what is and what is not, it continually draws attention to the void of longing.Item How does creativity occur in teams? An empirical test(2010) Jin, Sirkwoo; Shapiro, Debra L; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Organizations benefit when workteams produce more rather than less creativity. What actions in organizations help this to occur - on the part of team leaders and team members? This is the primary question that my dissertation aims to answer. More specifically, I hypothesize that team leaders' behaviors (e.g., transformational, empowering, and boundary-working behaviors) lead to team members' affective and cognitive experiences (e.g., positive group affective tone, team empowerment) that in turn lead to teamwork processes (e.g., information sharing and boundary-spanning among team members) that ultimately lead to team creativity. Thus, my dissertation attempts to explain how and why team creativity occurs. Results from 52 organizational R&D teams suggest support for these hypothesized relationships and for the theoretical model overall. I conclude by discussing my findings' implications for managers and management scholars interested in enhancing team creativity.Item Albert Camus and the Political Philosophy of the Absurd(2008-05-12) Bowker, Matthew Hamilton; Alford, Charles F; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Compared to the unmistakable impact of absurd theatre, literature, and art on contemporary European and American cultures, the philosophy, morality, and politics of the absurd have remained relatively obscure. Few interpretations of Albert Camus' philosophic contribution have successfully defined the meaning of absurdity, its components and dynamics, or its moral and political consequences. This dissertation attempts to clarify these areas of absurd thought by applying the logic of ambivalence to Camus' philosophy of the absurd, revealing its compelling diagnosis of extremism and indifference, its experiential grounding for post-traditional values, and its unique appeal for moral and political maturity. After reviewing the recent history of the concept of absurdity in Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Nagel, and elsewhere (Chapter 2), I offer detailed analyses of Camus' absurd and the contributions of his scholarly critics (Chapter 3). I introduce the concept of ambivalence in the work of Eugen Bleuler, Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Otto Kernberg, and relevant sociological and political researchers (Chapter 4) to argue that the absurd is best understood not in skeptical or existential terms, but as an ambivalent 'position' with respect to countervailing desires, primarily a desire for unity and a kind of principium individuationis (Chapter 5). These ambivalent desires are implicated in the moral and political tensions between self and others, absolutes and limits, creation and destruction, even good and evil. Applying this interpretation to Camus' The Stranger and its main character, Meursault (Chapter 6), and to The Myth of Sisyphus, The Rebel, The Plague, and other works (Chapters 7 and 8), I argue that the destructive ideologies Camus decried may be understood as defenses against the ambivalence of the absurd, while an absurd morality demands mature and creative resolutions of contradiction, resistance against defensive reactions, and deliberate moral and emotional identifications with others and enemies. Analyses of two controversial cases, Camus' defense of Kaliayev and the 'fastidious' Russian assassins of 1905 and Camus' unpopular stance on the Algerian War (1954-1962), are offered as miniature case-studies to ground conclusions about the meaning of absurd morality and politics (Chapter 9).