Megan Douglas, Sarah Holtzen, Sinéad G. Ruane, Kim Sherman and Aimee Williamson
Organizational Justice Theory serves as a useful frame for discussion of this case, focusing on perceptions of fairness in the workplace. Such perceptions are shaped by outcomes…
Abstract
Theoretical basis
Organizational Justice Theory serves as a useful frame for discussion of this case, focusing on perceptions of fairness in the workplace. Such perceptions are shaped by outcomes, procedures, information and interpersonal treatment. Perceptions of justice in these four dimensions are associated with job performance, citizenship behaviors and some mental health outcomes. The Exit, Voice, Loyalty, Neglect (EVLN) Model outlines four potential responses (exit, voice, loyalty and neglect) to perceived job dissatisfaction, serving as a useful framework for students to discuss potential employee reactions to Starbucks’ decisions.
Research methodology
This case was developed from secondary sources, including news reports, company annual reports and websites. The case has been classroom tested with undergraduate students in Principles of Management (online and face-to-face) Human Resource Management (online asynchronous) and Labor/Management Relations (online synchronous).
Case overview/synopsis
In June 2020, Starbucks became immersed in controversy when its dress code policy conflicted with its public support for national protests over police brutality against Black Americans, including the death of George Floyd while in police custody. While publicly supporting the protests in a series of tweets, an internal memo forbidding employees from wearing Black Lives Matter attire was leaked to the press, generating national outcry, threats of a boycott and forcing Starbucks to reverse course immediately. This case examines the benefits and challenges of a corporate dress/uniform policy, and the implications of corporate involvement in social justice issues.
Complexity academic level
This case can be used in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses, but particularly in Principles of Management and Human Resources courses.
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Sarah Holtzen, Sinéad G. Ruane, Aimee Williamson, Megan Douglas and Kimberly Sherman
The case was written using publicly available information from library databases, news articles and other print and video sources. Where possible, direct quotes were obtained from…
Abstract
Research methodology
The case was written using publicly available information from library databases, news articles and other print and video sources. Where possible, direct quotes were obtained from recorded interviews, official announcements and other primary sources of data.
Case overview/synopsis
The case follows Fran Drescher (she), president of the actors’ union Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, as she navigates the historic labor strike that brought Hollywood to a standstill over the summer and fall of 2023. As film and TV productions continued to be delayed and actors remained out of work, Drescher’s leadership style faced criticism, not only from the opposing side in the negotiation process but from her own constituents as well. Through the case, students explore the interplay between gender, leadership and power in the labor negotiation context.
Complexity academic level
The case is designed for a course in organizational behavior and may be taught to either an upper-level undergraduate and/or graduate audience. The instructor’s manual has been thoughtfully designed to guide instructors through the available options in terms of learning objectives, discussion questions and suggested teaching activities. Broadly speaking, the case may be integrated into any course after the topics of power and/or women in leadership have been taught.
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Sarah Holtzen, Aimee Williamson, Kimberly Sherman, Megan Douglas and Sinéad G. Ruane
The case and supporting teaching note were developed through the use of secondary sources such as company documents and archives, news articles and academic publications.
Abstract
Research methodology
The case and supporting teaching note were developed through the use of secondary sources such as company documents and archives, news articles and academic publications.
Case overview/synopsis
Jane Fraser, Citigroup CEO and the first woman to lead a major Wall Street bank, found herself at a crossroads. Weeks prior to the company’s 2022 annual shareholder meeting, Citigroup announced it would provide reproductive health-care benefits to employees traveling out of state for an abortion. Prompted by legal developments that hinted at the potential for a widespread ban on abortions, the announcement resulted in threats from Republican lawmakers to change course or suffer financial consequences. Through the case, students explore the role of business and corporate leadership in response to controversial political issues, including the potential opportunities and threats.
Complexity academic level
The case is best-suited for management or other business students at the undergraduate or graduate/MBA level. The learning objectives of the case would fit well within any of the following courses: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)/Business and Society; Business Ethics and Decision-Making; and Strategic Management. Instructors should position the case after students have been introduced to the topic of corporate social responsibility, ethical decision-making and/or CEO activism.
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Colette Dumas, Susan Foley, Pat Hunt, Miriam Weismann and Aimee Williamson
This is a field-researched case about a nonprofit organization, the Accelerated Cure Project (ACP), dedicated to accelerating advances toward a cure for multiple sclerosis (MS)…
Abstract
Synopsis
This is a field-researched case about a nonprofit organization, the Accelerated Cure Project (ACP), dedicated to accelerating advances toward a cure for multiple sclerosis (MS). Inspired by the successful open source software development platform, ACP brings the strengths of that platform into the medical research and development environment. At the opening of the case, Robert McBurney, an Australian scientist with extensive experience in the biotech world, has been named CEO. McBurney and his team want to use ACP's bio-sample and data Repository to drive innovation in the search for the cure for MS by fostering collaborative research and development across research institutions, pharmaceutical and bio-tech companies. To encourage such collaboration ACP waives its rights to potentially lucrative Intellectual Property. This decision to foster collaboration at the expense of revenue sources appears problematic, since ACP does not have the staff or resources to undertake fundraising at the scale needed to fund current projects. ACP chooses to serve instead as an open access research accelerator making an impact on the field by functioning as an innovation driver rather than a profit maker. Is this an innovative recipe for success in finding a cure for MS or a recipe for financial disaster for ACP?
Research methodology
Interviews provided the primary source of data for this case. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with the CEO of ACP, the Vice President of Scientific Operations, and a member of the organization's Board of Trustees, a collaborating university researcher, and the President of a bio-tech company working with ACP. Interview data was supplemented with additional information from ACP's web site, news reports, McBurney's comments at Suffolk University's Global Leadership in Innovation and Collaboration Award event, and follow-up conversations.
Relevant courses and levels
This case is intended for use in an undergraduate course examining strategic management issues midway through the term. The case discussion can center on issues relating to: first, the development of the business model; second, revenue resources and fundraising. Students are expected to spend two to three hours of outside preparation reviewing concepts of change leadership and the collaborative enterprise business model. They should read the case materials and brainstorm options for improved change leadership. The case can be taught in one two-hour class period.
Theoretical basis
The purpose of this case is to introduce students to the strategic management and funding challenges faced by an organization that is using a non-traditional business model in an increasingly complex environment. As a result of discussing this case, students should be able to: first, examine strategic organizational strengths, analyze opportunities created by business, market and environmental factors, and strategize to minimize weaknesses and to address threats identify an organization's strategic focus; recognize and recommend options at crucial decision making junctures in a business situation; second, assess an organization's revenue model; analyze how this model can be improved; third, analyze the functionality and sustainability of an organization's business model.
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Jacqueline Leigh, Grant Cairncross and Matthew Lamont
Managing special events which utilise volunteer labour presents unique challenges due to the time-bound and infrequent nature of events, coupled with the non-traditional…
Abstract
Purpose
Managing special events which utilise volunteer labour presents unique challenges due to the time-bound and infrequent nature of events, coupled with the non-traditional employment contractual basis associated with volunteers. Having committed, well-trained volunteers can sometimes be the difference between success and failure for an event. This paper explores factors shaping event managers' decision-making in relation to allocating organisational resources towards training for event volunteers.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilising qualitative methods, a sample of senior event managers practicing within Australia were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Their attitudes towards, and factors shaping, their decision-making in relation to allocating organisational resources towards training for event volunteers were analysed and discussed through an interpretive lens.
Findings
Six intervening variables which shaped event managers' decisions to resource volunteer training were identified. These six variables both shaped and constrained event managers' decisions to resource and implement volunteer training.
Originality/value
The study highlights factors that need to be considered when considering attaining festival attendance satisfaction with volunteers’ service provision through training. This work also contributes to future discussions about the value of volunteer training to event success.
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Gang Zhou, Bolun Zhang and Aimee Pasricha
The indentation behaviour of sandwich panels is significant to incipient damage and is known to be affected by a number of dominant parameters. However, it is challenging not only…
Abstract
Purpose
The indentation behaviour of sandwich panels is significant to incipient damage and is known to be affected by a number of dominant parameters. However, it is challenging not only to demonstrate how those few dominant parameters influence the indentation behaviour but also to ascertain that such influence was coupled to the variation of the other dominant parameters. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In this work, the authors adopted a controllable quasi-static testing to carry out a diagnostic interrogation on the nature of incipient damage in laminate-skinned sandwich panels using hemispherical indenter and used photographs taken from the cross-sections of all the cut-up tested specimens, which were stopped both just before and after the initial critical loads, respectively, to confirm the mechanism of the incipient damage. Sandwich panels with aluminium honeycomb core had carbon/epoxy skins of two different thicknesses and lay-ups and hemispherical nosed indenter had three different diameters.
Findings
The authors found that: the incipient damage mechanism in all the panels was combined delamination in the skin and core crushing without debonding; doubling the skin thickness had the significant enhancement on critical load and indentation and this enhancement became greater for the larger indenter diameters; the indenter diameter had the moderate effect on critical load in the thick panels from 8 to 14 mm but had the negligible effect on thin panels and no effect on the thick panels from 14 to 20 mm; varying the skin lay-up or support had little effect on the indentation behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
These findings were limited to the constant core density and core thickness. Varying the former significantly could alter the findings accordingly.
Practical implications
The results of this work should be tremendously useful to design and analysis in industrial applications of sandwich structures in aircraft, vehicles, marine vessels and transport carriages for situations involving localised loading and deformation.
Originality/value
The results of this research work is one of the very few that demonstrated a systematic understanding of the indentation behaviour characteristics of sandwich construction, which is vital to the establishment of indentation law for sandwich structures in future.
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Elizabeth A. Cooper, Aimee DuVall Phelps and Sean Edmund Rogers
This paper systematically reviews the past four years of research on human resource management (HRM) in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to better understand: (1) recent theoretical…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper systematically reviews the past four years of research on human resource management (HRM) in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to better understand: (1) recent theoretical and empirical developments and where scholarship in the field is headed (i.e. trends); (2) what topics and findings are especially important to understanding how the thought and practice of nonprofit HRM differs from that in public and for-profit organizations (i.e. insights); and (3) what gaps exist in current knowledge and scholarship and some real-world, practice-driven developments in people management that illuminate promising future research directions (i.e. opportunities).
Design/methodology/approach
Sixty-seven peer-reviewed journal articles covering the period 2015–2018 were identified using a university library database search, as well as by-hand searches through every issue of 22 nonprofit and 36 human resources-related journals during the four-year period.
Findings
The findings highlight strong continued interest by scholars in a wide range of nonprofit HRM issues, coverage of these issues by a worldwide network of researchers who bring global perspectives and contexts to the study of nonprofit HRM, and rich theoretical and methodological diversity. Yet, compared with the universe of possible human resource topics and several leading-edge developments in organizations and societies that might affect the way people are managed in nonprofits, the paper uncovers gaps in the most recent knowledge base.
Originality/value
The paper creates a compilation of the most recent nonprofit human resource research to be used as a tool for scholars, students, and practitioners for many years to come.