Management & Organization

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    THE ROLE OF GENDER, ANDROGYNY AND ATTRACTION IN PREDICTING THE IDENTITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF EMERGENT LEADERS
    (1986-05) Goktepe, Janet R.; Schneier, Craig Eric
    This field study used groups performing "sex-neutral" tasks over a six- to fifteen-week period to examine determinants of emergent leadership and leadership effectiveness. The study included 149 subjects in 35 task groups (28 mixed-sex groups, 4 all-male groups, and 3 all-female groups) working in conjunction with personnel management or business policy courses. Data were collected twice during the period for all measures used in predicting the identity and effectiveness of emergent leaders (based on follower perceptions of their sex, physical and interpersonal attractiveness, and the leader's selfdescribed sex-role identity, i.e., masculine, feminine, undifferentiated, or androgynous). The results showed that the leader chosen by group members did not change from Time 1 to Time 2 except in one group (an all-male group). Most of the results were similar between Time 1 and Time 2, and were consistent with predictions made based upon theoretical considerations and previous research. The hypotheses in this study were tested using a combination of statistical techniques. The results supported the major hypotheses of the study. In general, within the total sample, sex did not influence perceptions of an emergent leader. However, within groups, the probability of a female gaining leadership status was dependent upon the relative proportion of females in the group, i.e., at least half or more members had to be female. Female leaders were rated more physically attractive than male leaders. Male leaders received the lowest ratings of physical attractiveness, even lower than male nonleaders. Leaders were rated more interpersonally attractive than nonleaders. Emergent leaders with high ratings of physical and interpersonal attractiveness were also rated higher on effectiveness. Individuals with a self-described "masculine" sex role identity emer.ged as leaders more than undifferentiated, feminine, or androgynous types. There were no differences in leader effectiveness ratings among the four leader types.
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    MBO Program Characteristics, Type A Personality and Individual Performance
    (1984) Lee, Cynthia; Carroll, Stephen J.; Business and Management; University of Maryland (College Park, Md); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland
    This study sought to explain some of the inconsistent results in the Management By Objectives research by examining the moderating role of the motivational individual difference variable, Type A Behavior Patter, and the mediating role of the cognitive individual difference variable, perceived self-efficacy. Specifically, individuals low in Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP) were hypothesized to respond more positively to various components of Management By Objectives (MBO) programs than individuals high in TABP. This is based on the assumption that Type A individuals generally set higher performance goals, seek performance feedback, and in general, attempt to control their performance situation more than their Type B counterparts. On the other hand, the mediating role of self-efficacy is based on the assumption that certain external environment variables, such as MBO programs, affect performance primarily through influencing an individual's percept of self-efficacy. The results did not support the above hypotheses. The findings, however, provide further support for Bandura's (1977) assertion that self-efficacy has a positive effect on performance. Moreover, the results also supported previous research on the positive effect of quality MBO attributes on performance.
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    The Backhaul Problem and Related Topics in Vehicle Routing
    (1991) Casco, Daniel Orlando; Golden, Bruce L.; Business and Management; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    The problem studied in this dissertation is a variation of the classical vehicle routing problem (VRP) that has received limited research attention, and concerns the routing of vehicles over a set of mixed customers; that is, some customers are delivery or linehaul points but others are pickup or backhaul points. In contrast to deliveries, when a vehicle services a pickup point, product, bound for the distribution center, is loaded on the truck. Practical considerations usually dictate that the number of backhauls per route is small and they are serviced near the end of a route. The vehicle routing problem with backahuls (VRPB) can be stated as follows: Find a set of vehicle routes that service the delivery and backhaul customers such that vehicle capacity is not violated and the total distance traveled is minimized. In this dissertation, we examine three real-world routing applications with backhauls and several first-generation algorithms designed to solve VRPBs. The key dissertation research objective is to develop new heuristics to solve the VRPB that redress the shortcomings of existing solution methods in dealing with real-world considerations. The four new heuristics developed allow common carrier or supplier deliveries, dedicated backhaul routes, and mixed routes. In order to evaluate their performance, the heuristics were coded in Pascal and a series of computation experiments were performed on a Macintosh platform. The experiments consisted of generating twenty seven hundred random problems covering a range of possible combinations of critical problem parameters. These problems were solved by the heuristics and the main findings are as follows: 1) on average, the new heuristics outperformed heuristics which allow only pure delivery and mixed routes, 2) the effectiveness of the new procedures was found to vary with changes in problem size, the percentage of backhaul nodes, and the delivery node concentration region, 3) the effective of the new procedures was found not to vary with changes in the cost to insert backhaul location in mixed routes, or with changes in common carrier costs, and 4) the execution times to solve 40-node and 100-node problems was found to be less than a minute.
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    The Effects of Appropriately Participative Leadership on the Core Dimensionis of Climate
    (1990) Kidder, Pamela J.; Schneider, Benjamin; Psychology & Business and Management; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    A field experiment was conducted to determine some effects of the appropriateness of participative leadership styles on the core dimensions of climate. Climate is a construct that has received considerable attention in organizational research. The research on Climate has revealed a core set of issues or dimensions that appear to be useful for capturing employees' perceptions across all or most organizations. Proposed core dimensions of climate have included role stress or harmony in the work environment, job challenge and autonomy, leadership facilitation and support, and workgroup warmth, empathy and cooperation. I hypothesized that leadership style would affect employees' perceptions of these core dimensions of climate. The literature in psychology and organizational behavior shows significant agreement regarding the potential effect of leadership style on climate, but little empirical work has been conducted in this area. The particular leadership style I studied concerned the appropriateness of participativeness of leaders' decision making styles. I carried out a field experiment, using a two group pre- and post- experimental design. The experimental manipulation was a training program in appropriate participative decision making, with supervisors randomly assigned to a training or no training control group. Pre- and post- measures of the core dimensions of climate and decision making style were collected prior to and following the training. Appropriate participativeness in decision making (Vroom & Jago, 1988) was found to predict the three core dimensions of role stress, leadership facilitation and support, and workgroup cooperation, friendliness, and warmth. The quality of the supervisor-subordinate relationship, based on vertical dyad linkage theory, was found to contribute to the prediction of the core climate dimension of role stress. It was concluded that leadership style has an effect on employees' perception of some, but not all of the core dimensions of climate. Implications of these results for research and practice regarding climate and leadership were explored.
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    Decomposing Charismatic Leadership: The Effects of Leader Content and Process on Follower Performance, Attitudes, and Perceptions
    (1992) Kirkpatrick, Shelley Ann; Locke, Edwin; Business and Management; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    Leadership entails both content and process elements, e.g., what the leader says and how the leader says it. For example, charismatic leaders are theorized to communicate and implement a vision (content) with an enthusiastic communication sty l e (process). In a laboratory experiment with manipulated independent variables and a simulated task, this dissertation separately examined the content and process components of charismatic leadership on performance and attitudes. The content aspect was separated into two parts, vision (versus no vision) and implementation of the vision through task strategies (versus no task strategies). Process was manipulated as enthusiasm level (low versus high). Thus, a 2 x 2 x 2 design was employed. Two trained actors, one male and one female, played the role of leader, a CEO/President of a local printing company. Upper-level business students served as participants and performed a binder assembly task. Students completed questionnaires before each session and at the end of the experiment to assess how they are influenced by the leader. Results indicated that content affected performance and many attitudes and perceptions. Process did not affect performance and affected only a few attitudes and perceptions. Exploratory analyses showed that self-set goals and self-efficacy served as mediators between the content variables and performance. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.
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    THE EFFECTS OF SUPERLEADERSHIP TRAINING ON LEADER BEHAVIOR, SUBORDINATE SELF-LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR, AND SUBORDINATE CITIZENSHIP
    (1993) Cox, Jonathan F.; Sims, Henry P.; Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    A field experiment was conducted to assess the effects of SuperLeadership training on trainee leadership behavior, subordinate self-leadership behavior, and subordinate citizenship. The experiment involved approximately 70 focal training participants and 500 subordinates. Participants were assigned to two conditions: a) a training condition, in which participants received training immediately after baseline questionnaire data were collected; and b) a comparison condition, where participants did not receive training until after a second set of data had been collected to assess change. The lag between the first and second rounds of data collection was 10-weeks. Although data analysis confirmed the psychometric adequacy of the research questionnaires, the broad finding of the study was that the leadership behavior of participants in the training group did not change as a result of the training. Subordinate, self-leadership behavior and citizenship also did not appear to change as a result of the training. However, supervisors of the participants reported increased performance of the trainees as a result of the training. This suggested that supervisors may have seen early evidence of positive change as a result of the training. Subsequent investigation determined that although the training was perceived as effective by the participants, reductions-in-force in the host organization were perceived as inhibiting participants' ability to apply the training. Speculation concerning the apparent lack of change explored aspects of the experiment itself, the training, and the transfer setting in the host organization.
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    The Role of Gender, Androgyny and Attraction in Predicting the Identity and Effectiveness of Emergent Leaders
    (1986-04) Goktepe, Janet; Business Management and Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
    This field study used groups performing "sex-neutral" tasks over a six- to fifteen-week period to examine determinants of emergent leadership and leadership effectiveness. The study included 149 subjects in 35 task groups (28 mixed-sex groups, 4 all-male groups, and 3 all-female groups) working in conjunction with personnel management or business policy courses. Data were collected twice during the period for all measures used in predicting the identity and effectiveness of emergent leaders (based on follower perceptions of their sex, physical and interpersonal attractiveness, and the leader's self-described sex-role identity, i.e., masculine, feminine, undifferentiated, or androgynous). The results showed that the leader chosen by group members did not change from Time 1 to Time 2 except in one group (an all-male group). Most of the results were similar between Time 1 and Time 2, and were consistent with predictions made based upon theoretical considerations and previous research. The hypotheses in this study were tested using a combination of statistical techniques. The results supported the major hypotheses of the study. In general, within the total sample, sex did not influence perceptions of an emergent leader. However, within groups, the probability of a female gaining leadership status was dependent upon the relative proportion of females in the group, i.e., at least half or more members had to be female. Female leaders were rated more physically attractive than male leaders. Male leaders received the lowest ratings of physical attractiveness, even lower than male nonleaders. Leaders were rated more interpersonally attractive than nonleaders. Emergent leaders with high ratings of physical and interpersonal attractiveness were also rated higher on effectiveness. Individuals with a self-described "masculine" sex role identity emerged as leaders more than undifferentiated, feminine, or androgynous types. There were no differences in leader effectiveness ratings among the four leader types.
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    How Firm Resources and Behavior Impact Firm Performance: An examination of firm resources, competitive actions, and performance
    (2009) Major, David Lanier; Smith, Kenneth G; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    In this dissertation, I considered how firm resources, actions and performance may be interrelated. I tested the notion that resources both enable and interact with firm actions to impact performance. Drawing from resource-based and actions-based theory and empirical research, testable hypotheses were developed suggesting that a firm's resources may impact performance potentially in three ways - directly, mediated by actions, and in combination with actions. I examined 1) the extent to which firm resources and actions each directly predict variation in firm performance; 2) the extent to which firm resources predict variation in intervening actions and thereby predict variation in performance; and 3) the extent to which the product of resources and actions in combination predict variation in performance. With a combined dataset of 4,337 actions, gathered through the structured-content analysis of over 16,000 published news articles, and 980 model-years of resources and performance data collected from industry and government sources, 44 foreign and domestic automakers were analyzed over a study period from 1993 to 2000. I find empirical support for key components of their relationships. The analysis shows evidence that firm resources impact performance, both through and with firm actions.
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    Do Investor Capabilities Influence the Interpretation of Entrepreneur Signals? Theory and Testing in the Private Equity Setting
    (2009) Gera, Azi; Kirsch, David A; Goldfarb, Brent; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Informing outsiders of the potential and quality of the organization in a way that will benefit the organization and avoid putting it at risk is a challenging task in competitive settings. Under conditions of uncertainty, in which external entities are imperfectly informed about the organization, outsiders will seek for alternative signals of quality. Current research of interfirm signaling has focused on the sender's ability to generate signals. In this dissertation, I propose that receivers of signals are heterogeneous in their ability to interpret signals and that this heterogeneity significantly influences the outcome of the interaction between signaler and interpreter. I apply this insight in an entrepreneurial setting to explain differences in signaling to venture capitalist and informal private equity investors (business angels) over the early stages of a firm's lifecycle. The findings have strong implications for entrepreneurial firms' strategy and, generally, to signaling theory. I argue that signals are multifaceted. Outsiders may base their decisions on two aspects of signal: the informative aspect, which relays direct information on the capabilities of the organization; and, the legitimizing aspect, which conveys legitimacy through actions of third-party entities. The use of each aspect is determined by the abilities of the sender to generate the signal and the receiver to interpret it. I posit that the informative aspect of the signal will be prominent when both the sender's and the receiver's abilities are high. When either the sender's ability to generate a signal, or the receiver's ability to interpret it, is limited, the legitimizing aspect of the signal will be prominent. When both the sender and the receiver possess low signaling abilities, the interpretation will be based on idiosyncratic data. This dissertation explores the differences between these two facets of signals, the relationships between the signal aspects at different stages of the organizational life cycle, and the usefulness of each signal aspect when considering the organization's target audience. The first essay explains the purpose of the two signal aspects for stakeholders and the interactive nature of the signals' facets. The two following essays test the theory by utilizing two large datasets of private equity investment solicitations. The second essay evaluates the effectiveness of the legitimizing aspect of the signal as a mechanism for screening startups' funding solicitations. The third essay compares the informative and legitimizing aspects of signals as decision making mechanisms for both angel and venture capital investors.
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    Employee Health: A Value Creating Organizational Resource
    (2009) Kiyatkin, Lori; Baum, J. Robert; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    U.S. businesses have overwhelmingly approached employee health from a cost management, rather than investment, perspective. This singular focus on costs is likely due to lack of clarity regarding the potential of employee health to be a value creating organizational resource and the underlying mechanisms by which health may be subject to organizational influence. In this dissertation, I outline the `resource potential' of employee health from an organizational perspective. First, I draw upon the resource-based view and past research on health promotion and health care cost management to outline the significant organizational performance implications of employee health as a source of value generation in organizations. In so doing, I propose a model that explains the process by which employees' health risks, health motivations, and healthy behaviors impact organizational outcomes. Next, I develop a model that explains how two distinct categories of healthy behaviors - `healthy consumption' and `physical/mental fitness' uniquely impact medical costs and organizational productivity. To test these models, I employ structural equation modeling to examine a dataset of 152 and 149 organizational level outcomes regarding models 1 and 2, respectively. I find support for my assertions that employee health is a value creating organizational resource and that health motivations are an important means by which this resource may be built. I also find that healthy consumption behaviors have a stronger relative impact on costs whereas physical/mental fitness behaviors strongly promote productivity. Based on these findings, I argue that minimalistic cost management approaches to employee health are unwise from both organizational social and financial performance perspectives. In particular, this research demonstrates the crucial importance, and potential, of employee health and its components as value creating resources from a strategic organizational management perspective. Further, this research suggests that employee healthcare may be `strategic' social performance as organizational health promotion can simultaneously address both financial and social performance interests. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.