1,720,965 research outputs found
The role of leadership traits in driving organizational life cycle decisions
No full textOf the many decisions a leader makes, none has more impact than the strategic
decision made during the final phase of the organizational life cycle. The leader can
discontinue the original organization through merger, acquisition, or closure, or the leader
can reinvent the organization and begin its life cycle anew. During this complex
decision-making process, with so many internal and environmental factors in play, the
impact of the traits of the resident leadership is significant and often underestimated.
The conceptual model used in this study is an adaptation of Greiner’s (1998)
organizational life cycle construct, a construct operationalized by overlaying
combinations of seven transformational and transactional leadership traits (Burns, 1978;
Bass, 1985) and two environmental factors onto the five life cycle phases. This construct
depicts variations in the resident leadership traits by life cycle phase, shows how
leadership traits process the surrounding environmental input during decision making,
and indicates that decisions will vary by phase as a result of the resident leadership traits.
The model is evaluated using a qualitative research methodology that analyzes
and compares primary data from nine case studies. The cases encompass global
organizations headquartered in the U.S. that had 2009 revenues greater than 5 billion
and that faced a strategic crisis in its final life cycle phase. Further, the nine
organizations fell into one of three industries: food, electronics, and consumer products.
Each case was analyzed using three of seven life cycle phase differentiators (i.e. focus,
communication, and systems); two environmental factors (i.e. customer and
communication); and seven leadership traits. The study compared the firms company-to-company
and within industry, looking for patterns linking leadership traits and the
strategic decision to reinvent or discontinue.
The results of the research support the conceptual model and central thesis that
the leadership traits possessed by the decision maker have a significant influence on
organizational decisions. In all nine cases, the expressed leadership traits predicted the
strategic decision to reinvent or discontinue. The research also found that while
customers and competition serve as critical factors in motivating change, the degree of
influence varied by case with no discernable pattern.
THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP TRAITS IN DRIVING ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE
CYCLE DECISIONS
By
Martha Crawford Reider
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, University College, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Management
2011
Advisory Committee:
Dr. Thomas Mierzwa, Chair
Dr. Yung-Chi Sung
© Copyright by
Martha Crawford Reider
2011
ii
DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated to James Patrick Miller.
Thank you for your unwavering support, intellectual challenging, and never
ending encouragement, without which this journey would not have happened. You never
doubted me for a minute.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This dissertation represents the culmination of more than 3 decades of experience
with the effects of leadership on decision making from within global organizations and
those based in the United States, from start-ups to multibillion dollar enterprises. It has
long been my belief that the practical effects of leadership—positive and negative—have
been misunderstood and underestimated. This research has enabled me to structure my
thoughts and has given me the opportunity to develop a tool that industry and academics
could use beyond the scope of this study.
I would like to thank Dr. Claudine SchWeber for providing the initial spark and
support for the concept that lead to the exploration of the intersection of leadership and
organizational life cycle. Special thanks to Dr. Yung-Chi Sung, Dr. Michael Evanchik,
and Dr. Malcolm Odell for the time and effort they invested in helping to mold and
mature this study and for ensuring the high quality of the result. Further, I extend my
thanks to Jim Miller for providing the graphics and to the subject matter experts whose
observations, feedback, and invaluable guidance helped to direct this work.
Finally, I offer my sincere thanks to Dr. Thomas Mierzwa for his invaluable
support, guidance, and assistance throughout this journey. Without his patience and
persistence, this endeavor could not have been achieved.
All shortcomings of this document are mine alone.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................. vi
LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii
Chapter 1: Introduction and Management Problem.............................................................1
Introduction..............................................................................................................1
Management Problem................................................................................. 2
Research Question ...................................................................................... 4
Scope........................................................................................................... 6
Definition of Terms .................................................................................... 7
Significance of the Study.........................................................................................8
Flow of Dissertation Chapters ...............................................................................11
Chapter 2: Literature Review.............................................................................................13
Introduction............................................................................................................13
The Utility of Organizational Life Cycles .............................................................15
The Design of an Organizational Life Cycle and Phase Characteristics ...............18
Environmental Factors Affecting Customers and Competition.............................23
The Application of the Life Cycle Model Using the Five-Phase Life Cycle
Differentiators........................................................................................................27
The Initial Input Phase of Market Need and Solution Innovation............ 28
Phase 1: Create (Start-up) ......................................................................... 28
Phase 2: Direction (Growth) ..................................................................... 29
Phase 3: Delegate (Mature)....................................................................... 30
Phase 4: Coordinate (Sustain)................................................................... 31
Phase 5: Decline or Reinvent.................................................................... 33
The Role of Leadership Traits in a Life Cycle Model...........................................34
CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTUAL MODEL ..........................................................................44
Overview................................................................................................................44
The Framework Components of an Organizational Life Cycle.............................44
Components of Environmental Factors .................................................................48
The Leadership Trait Component ..........................................................................50
The Phase Dynamics of an Organizational Life Cycle..........................................55
Thesis Statement ....................................................................................................58
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...............................................................59
The Research Design .............................................................................................59
The Study Set-up ...................................................................................................60
Set-Up ....................................................................................................... 60
Case Selection........................................................................................... 61
Evaluation Framework.............................................................................. 67
Case Study Analysis ..............................................................................................69
Data Collection ......................................................................................... 69
v
Data Analysis............................................................................................ 70
Concept Integration................................................................................................70
Shaping Findings ...................................................................................... 70
Threats to Validity .................................................................................... 71
CHAPTER 5: DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS, AND DISCUSSION..............................73
Individual Case Analyses and Results ...................................................................73
Starbucks Corporation .............................................................................. 73
Corn Products International, Inc............................................................... 76
Yum! Brands, Inc...................................................................................... 78
Kraft Foods, Inc. ....................................................................................... 81
Hewlett-Packard........................................................................................ 82
Motorola.................................................................................................... 84
Xerox Corporation .................................................................................... 87
Proctor and Gamble .................................................................................. 89
Nike Corporation ...................................................................................... 91
Summary Analysis.................................................................................................94
Phase Differentiators in a Life Cycle........................................................ 94
Customer and Competitor Environmental Factors ................................... 96
Leadership Traits ...................................................................................... 98
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK...............................................101
Conclusions..........................................................................................................101
Implications to Theory.........................................................................................102
Implications to the Leadership Theory ................................................... 102
Implications to the Theory of an Organizational Life Cycle .................. 105
Implications for Practice of Management............................................................106
Recommendations for Future Research...............................................................109
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................113
CURRICULUM VITAE..................................................................................................127
vi
LIST OF TABLES
1 Phase Differentiators of an Organizational Life Cycle ..............................................46
2 The Influence of Customer and Competition on the Phases of an Organizational
Life Cycle ...................................................................................................................50
3 Life Cycle Phases and the Blended Sets of Corresponding Leadership Traits ..........52
4 The Research Methodology........................................................................................60
5 The Case Studies ........................................................................................................66
6 Postcrisis Response of Starbucks ...............................................................................76
7 Postcrisis Leadership Response of Corn Products International................................78
8 Postcrisis Leadership Response of Yum! Brands.......................................................80
9 Postcrisis Leadership Response of Kraft Foods.........................................................82
10 Postcrisis Response of Hewlett-Packard ....................................................................84
11 Postcrisis Leadership Response of Motorola .............................................................87
12 Postcrisis Leadership Response of Xerox ..................................................................89
13 Postcrisis Leadership Response of Proctor and Gamble ............................................91
14 Postcrisis Leadership Response of Nike ....................................................................94
15 Summary Analysis of the Phase Differentiators of a Life Cycle ...............................96
16 Summary Analysis of Environmental Influence ........................................................97
17 Summary Analysis of Leadership Traits Expressed Postcrisis ................................100
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
1 The Framework of an Organizational Life Cycle.....................................................45
2 The Framework of an Organizational Life Cycle With Dynamic Movement. .........48
3 Influence of Environmental Factors on the Framework An Organizational Life
Cycle. ........................................................................................................................49
4 The Role of Leadership Traits in the Decision Process of an Organizational
Life Cycle. ................................................................................................................54
5 The Dynamic of a Life Cycle Phase. ........................Error! Bookmark not defined.
6 The Conceptual Model of Life Cycle-Leadership Trait Relationship. .....................57
1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT PROBLEM
Introduction
Leadership is one of the most researched concentrations within the field of
management. This is due to its broad and varied influence across all aspects of business,
social, and personal life. Having a working understanding of the many aspects that make
up leadership is of value to business leaders (Masood, Dani, & Backhouse, 2006).
Leaders operate within a complex business milieu, simultaneously influencing and being
influenced by the corporation, the staff, the industry, the community, the customer, and
the competitive environment within which they work. Their decisions directly affect the
business lives of many by establishing corporate culture and setting the direction of an
organization. Leaders are looked upon to provide a measure of stability, yet at the same
time remain flexible, such that they can enable the organization to adapt to the unstable,
diverse, and rapidly changing technologies and global marketplace (Bass & Avolio,
1992).
Of the many roles and responsibilities assigned to a leader, decision-making is
arguably one of the most complex and broad reaching in its impact. The outcome of a
single decision can set the course and determine the fate of an organization. Decision-making
is intertwined with a variety of contextual factors, resulting in an infinite number
of unique combinations. A multiplicity of internal and external environmental factors
influences the process in a myriad of ways. Proximal context such as corporate culture
and leadership, and distal context such as competition, industry, and regulatory influences
2
go to creating a decision-making scenario that is unique; therefore, it is difficult to predict
(Avolio, 2007). The type, roll, and degree to which any one environmental factor
influences the decision-making process are specific to the circumstance. The result is that
no two decision-making events are the same.
One proximal factor that affects decision-making is the executive’s set of
leadership traits. Each leader comprises a set of traits, characteristics, experience, and
knowledge exclusive to the individual. The executive decision maker processes
environmental inputs through his or her leadership trait filter. The leadership traits
embodied by the organization’s decision makers, made more or less effective because of
the complex, fluid, and dynamic nature of the surrounding proximal and distal
environmental factors, directly shapes the leader’s abilities to implement successful,
meaningful, and sustainable change. That processing is always unique, as the
combination of leader, circumstance, and influencing factors are singularly distinct. It is
unlikely that any one leader possesses and expresses all possible leadership traits; thus, it
is equally doubtful that any two leaders will process the same facts in the same manner
under the same circumstances. In addition to trait differences between leaders, certain
leadership traits become more dominant and effective depending upon the circumstance.
When combining the three variables of circumstance, variation in leader’s traits, and
variation in trait expression, it is reasonable to conclude that it is unlikely that any
individual leader will be ideally positioned to maximize success under all decision-making
situations.
Management Problem
When it comes to the overall fate of an organization, no decision is more
important than that made at the end of the organization’s life cycle. Should the
3
organization continue the current path—eventually ending by being acquired, merging, or
becoming stagnant and declining in financial performance as market share erodes and
market size shrinks—or should it reinvent, innovate, and start the life cycle anew?
The flexible and adaptable nature of the life cycle model has provided scholars
with a structure upon which to explore the decisions, strategy, and evolution of an
organization. The multiphase model of the life cycle depicts organizations progressing
through a series of predefined phases that proceed forward in a unidirectional and
sequential manner (Greiner, 1998; O’Rand & Krecker, 1990). The individual phases are
each described by a distinct set of characteristics, expectations, deliverables, and
challenges related to the phenomenon being explored. This organizational exploration
exposes the relationships between the organization and influencing environmental
factors, providing a map of the dynamics that occur throughout an organization’s life
(Jawahar & McLaughlin, 2001; Kimberly & Miles, 1980).
As long as market and business needs are being met, an organization will likely
continue to reside within a particular phase. However, nothing remains stationary. Market
dynamics are fluid. Proximal and distal environmental influences
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
- …
