Browsing by Subject "Organizational behavior"
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Item A comparative study of task domain analysis to enhance organizational knowledge management: systems thinking and Goldratt's thinking processes(Texas Tech University, 2000-12) Musa, Philip FatingandaThe focus in this research is the evaluation of the effectiveness of two problem solving or task analysis methodologies in order to enhance of knowledge management in organizations. The two methodologies are systems thinking and Goldratt's thinking processes. One of the goals of the research is to investigate the effectiveness of the two theories in managing task domains when controlling for individual differences. The effectiveness of each methodology relative to task domain is investigated. The synergies between the two theories are also investigated. In this research, knowledge management centers more on humans rather than on computers. As a leadoff, a background overview of knowledge and knowledge management is first presented. Within the context of knowledge management, the subject of task analysis or problem solving is then presented. The literature on problem solving is surveyed and a research model using the two methodologies of interest is developed and validated. Fundamentally, knowledge management has to do with the creation of explicit processes that enhance knowledge and learning throughout the organization. Knowledge could be defined more generally as "any text, fact, example, event, rule, hypothesis, or model that increases understanding or performance in a domain or discipline" (Liebowitz and Beckman, 1998, p.49). Maintaining this perspective, knowledge management is defined as "the systematic, explicit, and deliberate building, renewal, and application of knowledge to maximize the enterprise's knowledge-related effectiveness and returns from its knowledge asset" (Liebowitz and Beckman, 1998, p.51). According to Liebowitz and Beckman, knowledge asset refers to the organizational knowledge imbedded in the human resources that make up given organization. Knowledge management requires systematic attention to learning processes, culture, technology infrastructure and measurement (Brown and Massey, 1999). Since organizations are often made of workgroups or teams, and the workgroups are, in turn, made up of individuals, when we speak of organizational learning or knowledge management, aggregation should be preceded by analysis at the individual level. Ten major hypotheses are generated and tested using laboratory experiments. The results of the study would help managers gain a better understanding of how to evaluate programs in general, and the dynamics of the two investigated task analysis methods in particular. Other theoretical contributions and future research plans are discussed.Item A comparison of the performance of structured and unstructured groups in three levels of time pressure(Texas Tech University, 1999-12) Sprague, Vicki L.Few comparisons of structured and unstructured group performance in various stressfiil situations exist (e.g., Sprague, 1997; Worchel & Shackelford, 1991; Urban, Bowers, Monday, & Morgan, 1995). Given that time pressure Is the most common stressor in organizations. Experiment 1 compared the performance of three-member structured and unstructured groups in three time-pressure condhions. Structured and unstructured group performance was also compared to the performance of nominal groups. A 3 (no, low, and high levels of time pressure) x 5 (structured and unstructured groups and the best, middle, and worst members of nominal groups) ANOVA using the quaUty of group performance as the dependent variable revealed that structured and unstructured group performance did not differ significantly. The quality of structured and unstructiued group performance was significantly lower than the best nominal groupmember, indicating that structured and unstructured groups experienced a process loss when working on the logic problem task. Although performance quaUty differed significantly between all three time-pressure condhions, the predicted curvilinear relationship between time pressure and performance did not occur. Finally, the rate of group performance did not differ significantly across the three time-pressure conditions. Experiment 2, in a test of the social entrainment hypothesis proposed by Kelly, McGrath, and colleagues (e.g., Kelly & Karau, 1993; Kelly & McGrath, 1985; McGrath & Kelly, 1986), compared the performance of structured, unstructured, and nominal groups in two consecutive high time-pressure conditions. A 5 (structured and unstructured groups and the best, middle, and worst nominal group members) x 2 (costume and skiing versions of the logic problem task) mixed subjects ANOVA revealed that groups and Individuals worked at a lower rate in the second consecutive high timepressure condhion than in the first condhion. This unpredicted finding was attributed to the fact that groups and individuals faced a problem of capability when working on the logic problem task (i.e., the demands of the task exceeded available processing resources; Kelly, Futoran, & McGrath, 1990). Possible explanations for the lack of significant differences between structured and unstructured group performance and the failure to find the predicted curvilinear relationship between time pressure and performance quality are explored.Item Communication in collaborative interorganizational relationships: a field study of leadership and stakeholder participation(2008-05) Koschmann, Matthew Alan, 1977-; Browning, Larry D.; Lewis, Laurie K.The purpose of this study is to further our understanding of organizational communication in collaborative interorganizational relationships (IORs) in the nonprofit sector. The specific communication practices of leadership and stakeholder participation were investigated during a 10-month ethnographic field study, which included meeting observations, in-depth interviews, and document analysis. Results indicate that collaborative IORs demonstrate a form of leadership that is distributed throughout the collaborative partners that mediates between common and competing interests and is sustained through communicative practices of casting vision, translating, asking, & listening. This enables collaborative IORs to foster collective action, despite the absence of formal authority structures. Additionally, this study demonstrates the reciprocal process of stakeholder participation needed to sustain collective action in collaborative IORs. Authentic participation is both provided to collaboration members through voice and opportunity, and provided to collaborative structures by collaboration members through contribution and commitment. Furthermore, the participation of multiple stakeholders in collaborative IORs gives rise to three communicative tensions: focus/inclusion, talk/action, and sector discourse/collaborative discourse. These tensions are balance through interaction between collaboration members as the continually negotiate the social order that constitutes collaborative IORs. Overall, these findings help us better understand the practices of human interaction that foster collaborative relationships among organizations, particularly health and human service organizations. This gives much-needed attention to the process of interorganizational collaboration, which complements the literature's dominant focus on antecedent conditions and outcomes. This research also draws more attention to the important social issues of communication and interaction in interorganizational collaboration, beyond the economic and resource-based theories so prevalent in past research. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are also discussed.Item Creating the server experience: an ethnographic study in the construction of organizational culture(Texas Tech University, 2001-12) Nelson, Jessica M.A small-scale version of politics becomes a central aspect of a server's job. While communicating with a guest in the "front of the house" (FOH), a server must be acquiescent, positive, and knowledgeable. As soon as the server enters the "back of the house" (BOH), or kitchen area, s/he becomes his/her true self. A work ethic, crisis management style, personality, and leadership trait are all observed only within the confines of the BOH. If, for whatever reason, a guest wanders to the BOH, all servers immediately put forth the persona that is created in the FOH. The shifts in attitude are a part of the industry mottos that a guest is always right and a server should always make a guest happy. This is a fundamental aspect of the server job that is instilled in trainees from the first day. Therefore, ethnography of participant observation provides the least amount of subject manipulation within the data. The goal of this research is to ascertain how servers communicate with one another and the kitchen employees in order to facilitate guests' needs. Also, servers are highly exclusive in their communication and relational rituals. This communication and these rituals may contribute to the success of the restauraunt. How a server is admitted entree to the culture and initiated in the practices becomes a focal point of the research.Item Effects of human needs, group influence, and management style on change-related behavioral intentions in information systems(Texas Tech University, 1986-08) Mann, Gary JNot availableItem The effects of interests and institutional influences on organizational adoptions over time and across practices(2006) Chng, Han Ming Daniel; Haunschild, Pamela R.; Davis-Blake, AlisonThe purpose of my dissertation is to examine the effects of interests and carriers of institutional influences on the adoption of three organizational practices that have become varyingly diffused and socially accepted over time. Drawing on theories of agency, power, social networks, and institutions, I argue that the effects of actors’ interests and carriers of institutional influences on adoption will be moderated by evolving degrees of social acceptance of a practice. This is because as social acceptance for a practice changes over time, it will not only influence actors’ interests and their ability to enact them but also determine the effectiveness of different carriers of social influences, and consequently, determine how these factors will affect adoption. For actors’ interests, I examine the effects of managerial power, managerial incentives, and institutional shareholders’ influence on adoption over time. For carriers of institutional influences, I examine the effects of social ties and prestigious endorsement on adoption over time. To test my hypotheses, I examine the adoptions of tender offer takeovers, poison pill takeover defenses, and executive stock option repricing using separate samples of companies listed on the Fortune 500 Largest U.S. Industrials (F500) between 1980 and 2004. I collect longitudinal data and conduct event history analysis to test my hypotheses. The results of this study offer some support for changing effects of actors’ interests and carriers of institutional influences on adoption as the degree of social acceptance for a practice evolves. In sum, this study provides a more nuanced understanding of the relative roles of interests and institutional influences on adoption as the social environment changes.Item Evidence-Based Policing: Reducing Crime and Disorder with Informed Strategy(Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT), 2017) Smith, BobbyPolice leaders all over the world are charged with identifying and effectively addressing crime and disorder problems so that the quality of life for constituents is maximized. If leaders are to realize success, they should look to the latest scientific research to determine what activities produce the best outcomes and then implement effective strategies. These strategies include hot spots policing with a strong problem-oriented and community-oriented policing component. If implemented correctly, the leader will realize positive outcomes such as a reduction in crime and disorder, as well as an increase in perceived police legitimacy. Additionally, evidence-based strategies increase efficiency, and this is particularly important in an environment where resources are scarce. There are some potential impediments such as police organizational culture and the resistance to change, but with the right implementation strategy, success is attainable. Police leaders should also realize that the displacement of crime and disorder to other sections of the community is generally not backed by research and so this issue should not be considered when implementing hot spots policing strategies (Weisburd et al., 2010). Properly implemented evidence-based policing strategies will reduce crime, improve police legitimacy, and increase efficiency in the use of resources, all without displacing crime to other locations in the community.Item A network perspective of multiple social exchange relationships(2008-05) Gillis, Lynette Rylander, 1976-; Dukerich, Janet M.; Lewis, Kyle, 1961-Members of organizations form relationships with many different people in their organization. Exchange theory provides a basis for analyzing how these organizational relationships function in two different ways. Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory describes how an employee's relationship with his/her leader influences his/her attitudes and behaviors, while coworker exchange theory (CWX) focuses on the attitudes and behaviors that result from relationships between coworkers. Few researchers have investigated how leader-member exchange theory and co-worker exchange theory work together to affect employee level attitudes and behaviors. In this dissertation, I use a social network framework to synthesize and articulate the confluence of leader-member exchange and coworker exchange theories. Based on a review of the literature on leader-member exchange and coworker exchange, I argue that these co-occurring social exchange processes combine to affect attitudes and behaviors. Using outcome measures of performance and affective commitment, I develop hypotheses testing how employees' social networks of coworkers affect these employees' behaviors and attitudes in the leader-member relationship. This study uses employees in a large USA-based retail organization. I gather data from multiple sources including the employees and their leaders. Using the computer program UCINET, I calculate social network matrix manipulations. I also use SPSS to calculate regressions to test my hypotheses. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of 1) joint effects of various social exchange relationships in the context of specific leader member relationships and 2) the different aspects of a social network framework that differentially influence organizational outcomes.Item Opening of the black box: the administrative strategies beneath principal-agent theory(Texas Tech University, 2001-08) Ellers, Steven LThis study examines how agency heads execute organizational change within the context of principal-agent theory. Previous studies, B. Dan Wood (1990), in this area have been examinations of changes in agency output. However, the actual activity of the agency, i.e., the "black box", has not been addressed or accounted for in previous analyses. This research presents a conceptual framework whereby the managerial actions and strategies employed to effect the desired changes can be determined. The agency examined in this study is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Previous research (Wood, 1990) reported evidence that suggested principal-agent activity was in play in the agency. The central question examined is: how do agency executives effect changes desired by the principals? To answer the question, this research extends previous principal-agent based studies because it employs a dual method of examining managerial techniques and strategies, heretofore not examined. To investigate the management techniques employed by the agency, the goals, roles, interpersonal relations, and procedures—collectively known as the GRIP Model—were employed. Congruent with the GRIP model, a complimentary model designed to explicate the strategies employed by management was also adopted. The CARL—capacity, accessibility, readiness, and leverage—model is largely the planning strategy involved, at all levels, for achieving desired outcomes. This eight-part typology sufficiently captures the four commonly recognized domains of management techniques and four strategies customarily occurring during any period of organizational change. The research shows differences in the management style and strategies employed by Elanor Holmes Norton and Clarence Thomas to respond to the demands of their respective principals during their tenure at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Norton administration employed a strong top-down management style and was shown to set aside internal strategic methodologies to accomplish their tasking by the Carter administration. In contrast, the Thomas administration analysis demonstrated a more bottom-up managerial style with stronger strategic management tactics employed than shown for the Norton era. The major contribution of this research is to put forth a felicitous methodology with which to explicate actual management behavior within an agency or organization.Item Organizational identity and sensemaking in collaborative development of technology: an ethnographic case study of "building the box"(2004) Güney, Senem; Browning, Larry D.This study explores collaborative development of technology among distinct internal organizations of a high-technology corporation. Four research questions guided this ethnographic case study: (1) How do organizational members participate in collaborative actions in the context of a corporate strategy to collaborate? (2) How does the organizational discourse frame participants’ collaborative actions? (3) How do participants pursue their collaborative goals when they are members of previously distinct organizations? (4) How do participants’ communicative actions influence their collective sensemaking during their collaboration? Participant-observation, interviewing, and document analysis were used as methods in this study. The theory of complex adaptive systems and a sensemaking perspective of organizational action guided the interpretation of ethnographic data. Organizational identity emerged as an interpretive framework during fieldwork and was used to analyze routine events and non-routine episodic instances during one year in the collaborative development across different locations of distinct organizations within a corporate structure. Findings indicated that collaboration was influenced by participants’ sense of organizational identity and by the ambiguity of this sense of identity when participants from distinct organizations engaged in collaboration. Images of organizational others in the corporate structure, formal patterns of connections among participants, and official organizational discourse imposed constraints on participants’ collective sensemaking. The communicative function of the program manager role became one of facilitating collective sensemaking. Findings indicated that construction of a shared sense of organizational identity and the ability to facilitate this shared sense are significant aspects of collaborative development. This study contributes to the theories of organizational communication and behavior by examining the centrality of representing and negotiating identity for the process of organizing. Findings of this research suggest a synthesis among the concepts of identity, sensemaking, and complexity of social action. This study makes a methodological contribution by using complexity theory as an interpretive framework for ethnographic analysis and by exploring the epistemological parallelism between interpretive research and studies of complex adaptive systems. This work describes communicative dynamics of collaboration and has implications for organizations collaborating for the development of technological innovation.Item Strategy and structure configurations: an examination of fit and performance(Texas Tech University, 2001-08) Payne, Gregory TygeOrganizational configurations are groupings of firms that are connected by a common theme or profile (Miller & Mintzberg, 1984; Miller, 1996a). These themes are found within or across different categories of organizations and have led to debates as to their specific relationship to organizational performance. While Ketchen, Combs, Russell, Shook, Dean, Runge, Lohrke, Naumann, Haptonstahl, Baker, Beckstein, Handler, Honig and Lamoureux (1997) demonstrate that the configuration-performance relationship does exist, previous studies on configurations have been criticized (Barney & Hoskisson, 1990). In addition to other criticisms, configuration research typically fails to account for both strategic and structural elements of organizations (Miller, 1996a) and often lacks acceptable statistical power (Ferguson & Ketchen, 1999). Therefore, the actual relationship between organizational configurations and performance may still not be adequately shown. This study tests this relationship by following Miller's (1996a) and Miller and Chen's (1996) argument for researching configuration properties by placing specific focus on competitive activities and the complementary structural elements involved. In addition, equifinality and strategy-structure fit arguments are theoretically expanded upon and empirically tested as components of organizational configurations. Specifically, this study examines explicit configurations that place emphasis on two types of strategy dimensions—differentiation-cost and broad-narrow scope—based on Porter's (1985) generic strategies and on two structure dimensions covering expansiveness and interorganizational relationships (lORs). Specific hypotheses are developed and multiple empirical tests follow the conceptual arguments made for the existence of configurations that reside in the orchestrating themes and interactive mechanisms surrounding both strategy and structure. Results support the existence and importance of strategy and structure configurations in relation to financial performance. Additionally, all of the independent dimensions of strategy and structure demonstrate statistical significance in relation to financial performance. As anticipated, the strategy dimension of differentiation was positively related to financial performance, the strategy dimension of scope was inversely related. The structural dimensions of expansiveness and level of interorganizational relationships also showed a significant inverse relationship. Hypotheses regarding the fit between each of these dimensions are not entirely supported however. Only the fit between target scope and expansiveness demonstrated statistical significance. Conclusions drawn from these results suggest that within a specified segment of a dynamic and uncertain industry, fit between strategy and structure is not important to overall financial performance. Implications are that true equifinality is non-existent in such controlled industry contexts. In other words, perhaps only one or a very few organizational configurations are successful in any given environment—failure to take that configurational form will result in diminished financial returns. This "successful" form is characterized by highly differentiated services, narrow target scope, and small physical and organization size with little geographical dispersion.Item Structural & social integration : help or hindrance to bottom-up innovation?(2008-05) Hendron, Michael Greg, 1971-; Davis-Blake, Alison; Haunschild, Pamela R.This dissertation investigates factors that influence efforts by lower-level employees to initiate organizational change and innovation from the bottom up. Specifically, I attempt to reconcile competing theories regarding the effects of structural and social integration on individual innovation efforts. One theoretical view posits that integration provides information, ideas, and motivation necessary for innovation. An alternative view is that integration constrains individuals and routines, and thereby hinders innovation efforts. Drawing on both theoretical perspectives, I predict the effects of distinct types of structural integration (e.g., centralization, cross-unit integration, boundary spanning) and social integration determinants (e.g., geographic dispersion, decision process involvement, workplace network size) on the likelihood of individual innovation efforts among lower-level employees. I also consider the effects of interactions of social and structural integration with individual characteristics (i.e., personality, and experience) on innovation efforts. I test these predictions using survey data collected from interns and supervisors in the context of MBA and undergraduate internships. Analyses demonstrate that several aspects of structural integration do influence the levels of individual innovation efforts. For example, centralization and boundary spanning levels of the work unit have inverse U-shapedItem Structured-interview questions for superintendent hiring process(Texas Tech University, 2004-05) Mills, G. SteveThis study contains two distinct parts. The first part of the study is an original study dealing with the development of interview questions that school board members can ask in the superintendent/school board members candidate interview. There is continual superintendent turnover, and school board members choose superintendents based on personal characteristics rather than on a candidate's abilities to lead a district to exemplary status on the Texas Education Agency's accountability system. Therefore, there is a need for interview questions to be used by school board members to help them select a superintendent who will help lead the district to exemplary status on the Texas Education Agency's accountability system. Action Research using the Delphi Method for data collection is used to guide experts in the creation of interview questions to be used by school board members in the superintendent/school board members candidate interview. This part of the study is qualitative in nature. The second part of this study is a replication for generalizability of the characteristics and career paths of national superintendents (Glass et al., 2000) and state superintendents (Largent, 2001; Zemlicka, 2001) as compared to superintendents whose districts reached exemplary status on the Texas Education Agency's accountability system Spring, 2002. This part of the stijdy is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. A survey approach is used to collect data from the 149 superintendents whose districts reached exemplary status on the Texas Education Agency's accountability system Spring, 2002. Open-ended survey questions are presented in a qualitative manner, and closed survey questions are presented in a quantitative manner. The purpose of replicating these prior studies is to emphasize, first, that school board members across all three groups of superintendents hire superintendents based on their personalities, and second, that superintendents in all three groups have some generalizable personal characteristics and career paths. This researcher attempts to fill the gap between the reality of the way superintendents are currently hired and how they might be hired if, first, school board members have a reliable, valid, and legal set of interview questions to ask superintendent candidates and, second, if school board members apply the abundant research available in the area of structured-panel interviews.Item A study on Jack London’s The call of the wild : an application of organizational behavior theories(2011-08) Lee, Kwangjin; Meikle, Jeffrey L., 1949-; Barrish, Philip J.; Davis, Janet M.; Dukerich, Janet; Smith, Mark C.This dissertation examines Jack London’s The Call of the Wild (1903) from a business organization perspective. The novel has long been read as a Naturalistic work with primitiveness and virility at its core. However, this study focuses on London’s presentation of the environment of dog-sledding in the Klondike, into which the dog Buck, his main character, is thrown, as not only primitive but also distinguished by complex organizational characteristics. The novel traces Buck's experiences with several groups of masters, each exhibiting a different leadership style. Buck begins as a mere “hand” in his organization, but he fights for leadership and eventually proves his excellence by rising to the leader position among the team. Although Jack London was never an organization man, his experience as a literary businessman and his previous experience as a manual laborer helped him capture the zeitgeist of a time when Americans experienced the peak of industrialization and, as a result, the ever increasing influence of business and business organizations in American society. London is one of the originators of a genre that might be referred to as business fiction. Two theories of Organizational Behavior, which is a field in the academic discipline of Management, were used for this study: David C. McClelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory and Robert J. House’s Path-Goal Leader Effectiveness Theory. Using McClelland’s theory, this study found that Buck has a high need for Achievement, and his high achievement motivation is contrasted with that of the other characters—both human and canine. Buck’s character in the novel is close to that of an entrepreneur as defined by McClelland, and thus the novel can be read as a story of a businessman who rises to become CEO owing to exceptional abilities as a business leader. In addition, this study applies House’s theory in evaluating the impact of the various leadership styles of human masters on the behavior and performance of subordinate members of their dog teams. The results of this case study of The Call of the Wild suggest the possibility of applying Organizational Behavior theories to interpreting other late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century fictions.Item The effects of task relevant knowledge, goal level, goal commitment, and motivation on the participation-performance linkage: an empirical examination(Texas Tech University, 1993-05) Wier, Benson.Item The Greek manager: personal values and behavior(Texas Tech University, 1984-12) Nomikos, George EThe purpose of this study is to assess the personal value systems of Greek managers, and to compare them primarily with those of American managers, and secondarily with those of Australian, Indian, Japanese, and Korean managers. In all these countries the personal value systems of national samples of managers have been assessed using the same theoretical and measurement approach developed by G. W. England (1967). It is also the intention of this study to empirically test the hypothesis that values are significantly related to self-reported behavior (i.e., values influence problem-solving and decision-making behavior). In addition, the relationship between the personal values of managers and their managerial success is investigated (England and Lee, 1974). Related to organizational design considerations are possible differences anumg the values of managers of large, medium, and small organizations (Indik, 1963), and resulting differences in decision making processes and corporate strategy (e.g., attitudes toward such concepts as Industry Leadership, Organizational Stability, Organizational Growth, Labor Unions, Aggressiveness, Competition, and Risk) (Learned, Dooley and Katz, 1959; Guth and Tagiuri, 1965; England and Keaveny, 1969; England and Lee, 1971). Many theorists have attempted to integrate the man and the organization, suggesting that ". . . organizational theory needs an explicit model of man . . . and without such a model major difficulties arise in predicting important organizational events and processes" (Argyris, 1973, p. 141). The present study also addresses areas relevant to personality and organization theory: the existence of values that are induced in individuals by the organizational culture (i.e., adopted values), and the existence of values that are inhibited by the organizational culture (i.e., intended values) would indicate a potential mismatch between the individual and the organization. "To the extent that there is an incongruency between the needs of individuals and the requirements of a formal organization, the individuals will tend to experience (1) frustration, (2) psychological failure, (3) short time perspective, and (4) conflict" (Argyris, 1973, p.144). The existence of such a condition should necessitate adaptive activities by both the individual and the organization (e.g., greater and wider participation of individuals in the goal setting process, and restructuring of the organization).Item The management of rural development: the role of agricultural extension agents in the Yemen Arab Republic(Texas Tech University, 1989-05) Belhaj, MohammedThis study is an investigation of the delivery of extension services from a comparative perspective. The general goal was to examine job performance of extension agents in the Yemen Arab Republic. The ultimate objective is to address some of the issues related to service delivery in developing countries, and to examine the extent to which Western organization theory will assist in diagnosing and providing remedies for unique problems encountered by extension organizations in these countries. The study is based on a survey conducted by the author in the Yemen Arab Republic in 1987. The survey was conducted on a representative sample (n = 117) of field personnel working for Yemeni agricultural extension organizations. Job performance, the dependent variable, was measured by: (1) the degree of knowledge of the information the respondents are supposed to transmit. (2) the degree to which they are able to explain this knowledge to the client population, (3) visit effort, that is the amount of time devoted by the respondents to visiting individual farmers, and, (4) "equity' in the distribution of services to different categories of clients (poor, middle, and rich farmers). The variables hypothesized to have influence on job performance include: (1) supervision which reflects the effectiveness of the respondents' supervisors in monitoring the activities of their subordinates, (2) leadership style as measured by the frequency with which supervisors make use of their disciplinary powers, (3) the respondents' ability as reflected by their educational level and job classification, (4) their motivation as measured by their satisfaction with their job and their commitment to an extension career, and, (5) the size, cohesion and norms of their work groups. The findings suggest that performance is associated with group norms, close supervision, and discipline. Employee abilities seem to be related to performance through group norms. The influence of motivation on the dependent variable appears to be rather limited. The findings also provide support for the thesis that organization theory is broadly applicable rather than strictly bound by cultural constructs.Item The moderating effect of organizational control on the relationship between human characteristics and selected job-related outcomes of salespeople(Texas Tech University, 1991-12) Bartkus, Kenneth RDeveloping an understanding of factors that explain the job-related outcomes of salespeople is important to sales management. As such, considerable attention has been paid to expanding our knowledge of these phenomena. Although much progress has been made, the empirical evidence remains largely weak, inconsistent, and/or incomplete. In particular, models investigating the impact of human characteristics (i.e., leader, group, and person) on outcomes such as role stress, motivation, and performance have been problematic. This study helps clarify prior research by investigating the moderating effect of organizational control. Two basic systems were used in the analysis: Behavior- Based and Outcome-Based. Organizational theory maintains that behavior-based control systems are characterized by relatively high levels of formal direction, monitoring, and evaluation of sales behaviors. Conversely, outcome-based control systems are theorized to place less emphasis on controlling sales behaviors and more emphasis on controlling actual outcomes. Additionally, salespeople operating under a behavior-based control system are theorized to be rewarded with a higher proportion of salary to total compensation, while salespeople operating under an outcome-based control system are theorized to be rewarded with a higher proportion of incentives such as commissions and/or bonuses. The scale developed for this study suggests that reward orientation may be an independent dimension of organizational control. Subsequent analyses suggests that organizational control can have a moderating effect. For example, the Type A Behavior Pattern was found to be more strongly associated with motivation under behavior-based control than under outcome-based control. This suggests that the social comparisons implicit under a behavior-based control system may serve to trigger motivational arousal in Type A individuals. The results also suggest that role ambiguity and motivation are more strongly associated with performance under behavior-based control than under outcome-based control. Other relationships were found to be stronger under outcome-based control. For example, the impact of locus of control and experience on role ambiguity was found to be stronger under outcome-based control than under behavior-based control. In essence, role ambiguity increased under outcome-based control. Although contrary to expectations, the results suggest that organizational control does not moderate the relationship between initiating structure and any of the outcome variables. The lack of a significant moderating relationship is inconsistent with prior organizational control theory and associated theories in the area of substitutes for leadership.