Matching Items (4)
Description
As global competition continues to grow more disruptive, organizational change is an ever-present reality that affects companies in all industries at both the operational and strategic level. Organizational change capabilities have become a necessary aspect of existence for organizations in all industries worldwide. Research suggests that more than half of all organizational change efforts fail to achieve their original intended results, with some studies quoting failure rates as high as 70 percent. Exasperating this problem is the fact that no single change methodology has been universally accepted. This thesis examines two aspect of organizational change: the implementation of tactical and strategic initiatives, primarily focusing on successful tactical implementation techniques. This research proposed that tactical issues typically dominate the focus of change agents and recipients alike, often to the detriment of strategic level initiatives that are vital to the overall value and success of the organizational change effort. The Delphi method was employed to develop a tool to facilitate the initial implementation of organizational change such that tactical barriers were minimized and available resources for strategic initiatives were maximized. Feedback from two expert groups of change agents and change facilitators was solicited to develop the tool and evaluate its impact. Preliminary pilot testing of the tool confirmed the proposal and successfully served to minimize tactical barriers to organizational change.
ContributorsLines, Brian (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth T. (Thesis advisor) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP systems) are business systems that combine data from across a company into one streamlined database (Bradford, 2015). ERP systems are intended to make people’s lives easier and more convenient in the workplace, but they can be cumbersome to deal with for employees, even those with experience. This thesis aims to understand and offer solutions to three key problems in using and implementing ERP systems, incorrect implementation, a lack of proper resources, and low motivation. It offers a framework of three solutions that are easy to implement and maintain. The first is to offer proper change management because “Change management is the body of knowledge that addresses change within the context of an organization,” (Bradford, 2015). The second is to understand employees as individuals with unique backgrounds and learning styles. Finally, the third is to implement an easily searchable database of common questions and issues that arise when using the ERP system, but for each individual department. These are then applied to the transition of Blackboard to Canvas at Arizona State University with a short informal survey that was sent out to faculty members. Lastly, this thesis describes how to motivate employees to want to use these solutions and changes.
ContributorsMeyer, Alexa (Author) / Matthew, Sopha (Thesis director) / Edgard, Luque (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role a peer-driven technology acceptance model (PDTAM) in the form of a Community of Practice (CoP) played in assisting users in the acceptance of Trellis technologies at the University of Arizona. Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) technologies are becoming more common in higher education, helping to track interactions, streamline processes, and support customized experiences for students. Unfortunately, not all users are receptive to new technologies, and subsequent adoption can be slow. While the study of technology adoption literature provides insight into what motivates individuals to accept or reject new technologies, used herein was the most prevalent technology adoption theory – the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM; Davis, 1986). I used TAM to explore technology acceptance more spec user’s Perceived Ease of Use (PEU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU). In this MMAR study, I used TAM (Davis, 1986) as well as Everett Roger’s (1983) Diffusion Innovation Theory (DOI) to evaluate the impact of the CoP mentioned above on user adoption. Additionally, I added Perceived Value (PV) as a third construct to the TAM. Using pre-and post-intervention surveys, observation, and interviews, to both collect and analyze data on the impacts of my CoP intervention, I determined that the CoPs did assist in more thoroughly diffusing knowledge share, which reportedly led to improved PEU, PU, and PV in the treatment group. Specifically, the peer-to-peer mentoring that occurred in the CoPs helped users feel empowered to use the capabilities. Additionally, while the CoPs reportedly improved PEU, PU, and PV, the peer-to-peer model and the Trellis technologies still have not matured enough to realize their total value to campus.
ContributorsHodge, Nikolas (Author) / Beardsley, Audrey (Thesis advisor) / Neumann, William (Committee member) / Wolf, Leigh (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The function and purpose of higher education has changed over the last decade. COVID-19 exacerbated that change, but well before Coronavirus exploded on the world stage, standard operations at most colleges and universities were in flux. In 2013, a New York Times article predicted many colleges and universities would shutter their doors or merge with another institution. A new paradigm for post-secondary education is emerging akin to what American community colleges have been doing since their inception; they work closely with industry and the community in which they are situated to ensure they teach skills students need to receive a living wage job upon graduation. Change and disruption have engendered problems at times tantamount to chaos in the higher education space. To make meaningful modifications in higher education, the chaos of change should be harnessed to devise a better system, as transformative chaos works its power to create a more cohesive model. Moreover, if change is not managed with expertise, it has the potential to run amok, leaving organizations in ruins. The purpose of this study was to examine how a nine-week workshop based in mindfulness and gentle movement affected College of Eastern Idaho staff members’ ability to manage constant change to see if it might augment their coping, competence, self-efficacy, resiliency and reframe the chaos of change to opportunity for their careers, their department, and the college. Mixed methods of inquiry were utilized; data sources included two pre- and post-intervention staff surveys, a focus group interview with four participants, participant journals they kept throughout the nine-weeks, and the researcher’s field notes from individual one-on-one check-ins with participants. This study demonstrated that staff members at College of Eastern Idaho had difficulty efficaciously performing their jobs because of the constant change and initiative fatigue. The study found that a nine-week Mindfulness from the Mat workshop positively impacted staff members coping, competence, self-efficacy, resiliency, and their attitudes about change. Moreover, the workshop had unexpected benefits of positively impacting participants personal lives, too. The discussion includes implications for future practice and research and potential explanations for the findings.
ContributorsBarber, Lori D. (Author) / Ott, Molly (Thesis advisor) / Henriksen, Danah (Committee member) / Redington, Lyn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023