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- Genre: Academic theses
Description
The purpose of the study is to explore the identity development and organizational culture of a student organization, the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations council (NALFO) by implementing a community of practice approach at a large, public university in southwestern United States. The objective is to construct a sustainable camaraderie among the existing Latino fraternal organizations at the university to influence leadership development, work toward a common vision, and a cohesive and systematic approach to collaboration, consequently transforming organizational culture. This study investigates the factors that contribute to and/or inhibit increased communication and collaboration and to describe the experiences of Latino fraternal members who are purposefully engaged in a community of practice. There are 57 fraternal organizations in five umbrella councils at the university, including predominately Caucasian, historically African American, Latino, and Multicultural groups, whose platforms are commonly leadership, scholarship, and philanthropy. This action research examines the experiences of six NALFO members individually and working as a community with the guidance of a mentor (the researcher). The researcher employs use of an anonymous initial and post electronic survey, a participant personal statement, an intentional and purposeful community of practice, a semi-structured individual interview, and focus groups to collect data. Findings suggest that length of membership and fraternal experience influence participant responses; however, the themes remain consistent. Building relationships, perception (by members and outsiders), identity development, organizational management, and challenging perspectives (from outside influences) are factors that influence the organizational culture of the organization. On the post electronic survey all participants indicate that the implementation of an intentional community of practice can benefit the organization by encouraging participation and increasing communication. While participants suggest activities for encouraging member engagement, they determine that actual participation would be dependent on individual motivation.
ContributorsHeredia, Anna-Maria (Author) / Rund, James (Thesis advisor) / Calleroz White, Mistalene (Thesis advisor) / Corey, Frederick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Despite the vast amount of research within the leadership and culture domains, a paucity of research has integrated the two literatures. This dissertation investigates leadership, organizational culture, and the dynamic interplay between them. It is composed of three papers with the objective to integrate leadership and culture research, theoretically and empirically, and generate novel insights about both phenomena. Paper 1 describes how leader-unit interactions foster culture emergence. I integrate insights from social learning theory, self-regulation theory, and event-structure theory to enumerate how leader-unit interactions create values, beliefs, and underlying assumptions that become shared among members in a nascent work unit. Paper 2 integrates team motivation theory with multilevel leadership theory to address CEO task leadership's paradoxical effect on firm performance through intervening social (i.e., organizational culture) and psychological (i.e., TMT engagement) mechanisms. Using data from 106 CEOs and 324 top management team members, structural equation modeling results revealed that CEO task leadership enhanced firm performance through its positive association with task culture, which in turn was positively related to TMT engagement, which positively contributed to firm performance. Conversely, CEO task leadership hindered firm performance through its negative, direct effect on TMT engagement. Paper 3 integrates various approaches to organizational culture bandwidth that have produced a fragmented view of culture and its effects on organizational outcomes. I draw upon organizational culture theory and bandwidth theory to examine the incremental predictive validity of culture configurations and culture dimensions on broad and narrow criteria. Hierarchical linear regression analyses, from data consisting of 567 employees in 130 bank branches, indicated that narrow culture dimensions predicted variance in narrow outcomes whereas configurations explained incremental variance in broad outcomes above and beyond culture dimensions. Through this dissertation, I take an initial step toward illuminating the interrelationship between leadership and culture by identifying mechanisms through which unit leaders foster culture emergence and by examining how organizational culture is a social normative lens through which followers filter leader behavior. Given culture's importance to leadership and organizational outcomes, the conditions in which culture should be examined as a broad or a narrow phenomenon are also enumerated.
ContributorsHartnell, Chad (Author) / Kinicki, Angelo J (Thesis advisor) / Walumbwa, Fred O (Committee member) / Hom, Peter W (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
ABSTRACT
The child welfare workforce is charged with the demanding work of ensuring the safety, well-being, and permanency of maltreated children. Although child welfare work can be rewarding, it is also associated with high levels of stress and burnout, causing challenges to retain staff. Developing organizational cultures and climates within child welfare agencies that are supportive of the workforce and strive to improve outcomes is essential. Applying the ecological systems theory to a child welfare agency provides for an understanding that the agency is comprised of different levels of systems with interactions between the systems. This study examined the association between the individual level factors of job satisfaction, coping skills, self-efficacy, burnout, job stress, and individual affect with organizational level factors including culture and climate. Child welfare workers from one regional area were invited to participate in an online survey utilizing the Comprehensive Organizational Health Assessment and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale. Results indicate that there is an association between each of the individual level factors and the organizational factors. The importance of the role of individual affect was highlighted in the results in that the level of affect reported was associated with corresponding ratings of the perception of the organizational culture and climate. These results provide implications for hiring, training, mentoring, and supervision. This study attempted to assess if the organizational culture and climate of individual child welfare units could be linked to permanency outcomes. This linkage was not possible in this study, however implications to conduct this type of research are made. Advancing the study of organizational culture and climate beyond the impact of such factors as job satisfaction and retention to linking to direct client outcomes is an emerging and important field of research.
The child welfare workforce is charged with the demanding work of ensuring the safety, well-being, and permanency of maltreated children. Although child welfare work can be rewarding, it is also associated with high levels of stress and burnout, causing challenges to retain staff. Developing organizational cultures and climates within child welfare agencies that are supportive of the workforce and strive to improve outcomes is essential. Applying the ecological systems theory to a child welfare agency provides for an understanding that the agency is comprised of different levels of systems with interactions between the systems. This study examined the association between the individual level factors of job satisfaction, coping skills, self-efficacy, burnout, job stress, and individual affect with organizational level factors including culture and climate. Child welfare workers from one regional area were invited to participate in an online survey utilizing the Comprehensive Organizational Health Assessment and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale. Results indicate that there is an association between each of the individual level factors and the organizational factors. The importance of the role of individual affect was highlighted in the results in that the level of affect reported was associated with corresponding ratings of the perception of the organizational culture and climate. These results provide implications for hiring, training, mentoring, and supervision. This study attempted to assess if the organizational culture and climate of individual child welfare units could be linked to permanency outcomes. This linkage was not possible in this study, however implications to conduct this type of research are made. Advancing the study of organizational culture and climate beyond the impact of such factors as job satisfaction and retention to linking to direct client outcomes is an emerging and important field of research.
ContributorsJulien-Chinn, Francie Jane (Author) / Lietz, Cynthia (Thesis advisor) / Lacasse, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Mendoza, Natasha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Corporations work to reduce their negative impacts on the environment and society by adopting Sustainable business (SB) practices. Businesses create competitive advantages via practices such as waste minimization, green product design, compliance with regulations, and stakeholder relations. Normative models indicate that businesses should adopt similar sustainability practices, however, contingency theory suggests that effectiveness of practices depends on the context of the business. The literature highlights the importance of organizational culture as a moderating variable between SB practices and outcomes, however this link has not been empirically examined. This thesis presents the development and testing of a theoretical model, using configuration theory, that links SB practices, organizational culture, and financial performance.
Published frameworks were utilized to identify SB practices in use, and the Competing Values Framework (CVF) to identify dimensions of culture. Data from 1021 Corporate Sustainability Reports from 212 companies worldwide was collected for computerized text analysis, which provided a measure of the occurrence of a specific SB practice and the four dimensions of the CVF. Hypotheses were analyzed using cluster, crosstab, and t-test statistical methods.
The findings contribute significant insights to the Business and Sustainability field. Firstly, clustering of SB practice bundles identified organizations at various levels of SB practice awareness. The spectrum runs from a compliance level of awareness, to a set of organizations aware of the importance of culture change for sustainability. Top performing clusters demonstrated different priorities with regards to SB practices; these were in many cases, related to contextual factors, such as location or sector. This implies that these organizations undertook varying sustainability strategies, but all arrived at some successful level of sustainability. Another key finding was the association between the highest performing SB practice clusters and a culture dominated by Adhocracy values, corroborating theories presented in the literature, but were not empirically tested before.
The results of this research offer insights into the use of text analysis to study SB practices and organizational culture. Further, this study presents a novel attempt at empirically testing the relationship between SB practices and culture, and tying this to financial performance. The goal is that this work serves as an initial step in redefining the way in which businesses adopt SB practices. A transformation of SB practice adoption will lead to major improvements in sustainability strategies, and subsequently drive change for improved corporate sustainability.
Published frameworks were utilized to identify SB practices in use, and the Competing Values Framework (CVF) to identify dimensions of culture. Data from 1021 Corporate Sustainability Reports from 212 companies worldwide was collected for computerized text analysis, which provided a measure of the occurrence of a specific SB practice and the four dimensions of the CVF. Hypotheses were analyzed using cluster, crosstab, and t-test statistical methods.
The findings contribute significant insights to the Business and Sustainability field. Firstly, clustering of SB practice bundles identified organizations at various levels of SB practice awareness. The spectrum runs from a compliance level of awareness, to a set of organizations aware of the importance of culture change for sustainability. Top performing clusters demonstrated different priorities with regards to SB practices; these were in many cases, related to contextual factors, such as location or sector. This implies that these organizations undertook varying sustainability strategies, but all arrived at some successful level of sustainability. Another key finding was the association between the highest performing SB practice clusters and a culture dominated by Adhocracy values, corroborating theories presented in the literature, but were not empirically tested before.
The results of this research offer insights into the use of text analysis to study SB practices and organizational culture. Further, this study presents a novel attempt at empirically testing the relationship between SB practices and culture, and tying this to financial performance. The goal is that this work serves as an initial step in redefining the way in which businesses adopt SB practices. A transformation of SB practice adoption will lead to major improvements in sustainability strategies, and subsequently drive change for improved corporate sustainability.
ContributorsBehravesh, Shirley-Ann (Author) / Dooley, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Basile, George (Thesis advisor) / Kinicki, Angelo (Committee member) / Shutters, Shade (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Academic advisors play a critical role in student success within United States institutions of higher education. Although uniquely positioned to contribute to important institutional and student outcomes, academic advising is identified in the literature as an emerging profession, often delegitimizing advisor authority and limiting their contribution to institutional objectives. A review of the literature explores the history academic advising, and the current state of professionalization of the field. Additionally, entrepreneurial mindset is introduced as a framework of practice for professional agency. As a field working to professionalize itself within the higher education context, academic advisors must be able to fully participate and contribute to the process of developing innovative practices within the contexts of their institutions. This mixed-methods study drew upon proactive work behavior as defined by Hackman and Oldham to understand how academic advisors demonstrate and perceive their professional agency and ability to make decisions when working with students in the context of their role. Findings suggest professional agency as a construct exists not as a stand-alone concept, but rather as part of an ecosystem within the institution that includes layered systems, structures, and cultures which influence advisor behaviors and how they navigate decision-making. Implications include considerations for academic advising leaders and administrators, specifically related to departmental structures and advisor perceptions of their professional agency. This study contributes to the advising literature in the area of professionalization, with implications for scholarship and practice that can address gaps in the current scholarship.
ContributorsRudd, Melissa (Author) / Basile, Carole (Thesis advisor) / Kim, Jeongeun (Committee member) / Mcintyre, Lisa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021