Search results

The study of succession effects on organizational performance has resulted in findings ambiguous at best. Succession has been found to have positive, negative and neutral impacts on a variety of outcome measures. While most studies have focused on performance outcomes, an alternative research approach is to examine the sense making experience of members of the organization during succession to better understand the process and its impact on participants. The paper reports the personal sense making experience of a successor to the principalship, adding to the literature exploring other participants' views. The successor found that the validation of her legitimacy as a new leader led to actions on the part of organizational members and the attribution of positive observed results to her principalship. Further exploration of attribution as a causal factor rather than as rationalization for unexplained outcomes is proposed. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

It is often assumed that administrators exert an influence on the performance of their organizational units. While there is mounting evidence regarding the influence exerted by principals on the academic performance of schools, little attention has been paid to examining the influence exerted by superintendents on the academic performance of school districts. In this study, a sample of California school districts was employed to estimate the influence of superintendents, controlling for environmental and district factors, on the performance of sixth and twelfth grade students on the mathematics and reading sections of the standardized achievement test of the California Assessment Program. An analysis of the components of variation was conducted to determine the relative percent of variance attributable to environmental and district factors and to superintendents. It was found that superintendents exerted a small influence on the academic performance of school districts. Further, it was found that superintendents had a relatively greater influence on sixth grade test scores than they had on twelfth grade test scores.

A sample of elementary schools and a sample of high schools were employed in a replication of a study conducted on corporations to determine the influence exerted by principals on the instructional performance of schools. An analysis of the components of variation was conducted to estimate principals' effects while controlling for environmental and organizational factors. It was found that principals exert a small but important influence on school performance, as measured by standardized achievement tests.

Understanding one’s personal journey provides for effective learning, growth, and development (Madsen, 2010). Reflection on the influences and experiences of successful women leaders is essential to understanding the factors that have enabled them to obtain and sustain leadership positions in nontraditional career fields. The purpose of this qualitative study was to conceptualize and describe the personal journeys of women who became deans of agriculture. The central research question was, “Describe your personal journey to becoming a dean of agriculture?” Six women deans of agriculture were interviewed and observed in an attempt to recognize the impact their personal journeys have had in developing their leadership styles and sustaining their leadership role. Conclusions were (a) they were first born children, (b) influenced by parental qualities and spousal support, and (c) mentors recognized their gifts and talents and encouraged them to pursue advanced degrees and leadership positions.

Many banks and financial institutions have resisted the opportunity to model customer profiles because of the cost of developing and maintaining customer profitability information based on the capture and storage of individual transactions. This paper describes the development of such a model to calculate customer profitability, by putting into place systems which allow the capture and analysis of accurate, up‐to‐date information regarding the transactions of individual customers. The implementation of the model within one regional Australian bank is detailed, together with an indication of its potential for operational and strategic decision making. We speculate that such a model might be more widely adopted to allow banks to focus effectively on the most profitable segments of their business.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of a specialty collection implementation: lesbian fiction, in the Barnard College Library.

The study employs a multistep approach to implement the development of a lesbian fiction collection. First, a collection profile was created to assess the current state of collection, and then a checklist was developed to serve as a collection development tool.

The collection profile provides important information for the collection development process. Consistent subject heading access control is essential for collection assessment and maintenance.

The collection proposal and the suggestions drawn by the study were adopted by Barnard Library for collection development and maintenance. The methodology applied and the resources consulted in the study can serve as references for academic librarians with similar collection development goals.

Very few studies have been done to discuss issues related to the collection development of GLBT themed fiction, particularly lesbian fiction in an academic library. This paper provides a concrete example of how Barnard Library carried out the selection of lesbian novels.

The paper's purpose is to outline the potential competitive advantage firms can create through the creation of a sustainable supply chain, and to describe potential measures for managers to use.

Arguing that firms can increase their competitive advantage as a result of a stronger triple bottom line, propositions are created from a natural‐resource‐based view of the firm perspective that is supported using accounting theory, management strategy, green logistics and supply chain literatures. Secondary data resources that could be used for testing by managers and academicians are identified.

The paper finds that, as sources of competitive advantage for firm become scarcer, potential new areas of advantage must be explored.

This research will serve to help managers in the exploration of these possible outlets.

This paper is the first to explore the impact of a sustainable supply chain on the triple‐bottom line of a firm. Not only does this fill a necessary gap, it also serves to bring together the supply chain, sustainability and triple‐bottom‐line literatures to create a potential advantage for future organizations.

The study developed and tested a model that attempts to describe the influence of ownership structure, diversification strategy, firm size and firm performance on CEO compensation. Results based on data from a cross‐sectional set of 216 Fortune 500 firms suggested that firm size, ownership structure and diversification strategy affect CEO compensation through the mediating effects of firm performance.

The presentation of in-vehicle warnings information at risky driving scenarios is aimed to improve the collision avoidance ability of drivers. Existing studies have found that driver’s collision avoidance performance is affected by both warning information and driver’s workload. However, whether moderation and mediation effects exist among warning information, driver’s cognition, behavior and risky avoidance performance is unclear.

This purpose of this study is to examine whether the warning information type modifies the relationship between the forward collision risk and collision avoidance behavior. A driving simulator experiment was conducted with waring and command information.

Results of 30 participants indicated that command information improves collision avoidance behavior more than notification warning under the forward collision risky driving scenario. The primary reason for this is that collision avoidance behavior can be negatively affected by the forward collision risk. At the same time, command information can weaken this negative effect. Moreover, improved collision avoidance behavior can be achieved through increasing drivers’ mental workload.

The proposed model provides a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing collision avoidance behavior, thus contributing to improved in-vehicle information system design.

The significant moderation effects evoke the fact that information types and mental workloads are critical in improving drivers’ collision avoidance ability. Through further calibration with larger sample size, the proposed structural model can be used to predict the effect of in-vehicle warnings in different risky driving scenarios.

In the current highly competitive market, most organizations are moving away from reactive and compliance-based to proactive environmental management. This proactive approach to environmental management calls for taking a strategic approach to adoption of green practices beyond an organization’s internal borders. In this respect, incorporating green practices into a firm’s supply chain has attracted interest of operations management scholar and practitioners. The influence of external pressures on the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices has been established in the literature. This research posits that the adoption of GSCM practices is also driven by a firm’s internal strategic factors including its key resources and competitive strategy. It also suggests that these direct effects are further mediated by the green strategies (GSs) adopted in companies. Theoretically, these relationships are supported by combining the institutional theory with the natural resource-based view. A structural equation modeling is applied to formulate and analyze the relationships and the mediating effect using a survey data collected from 139 ISO14001-certified manufacturers in Malaysia. The results verified the mediating effect of GS adoption on the relationship between internal and external strategic factors, and GSCM practices. This research has made an original contribution to knowledge by bridging the fields of strategic environmental management and GSCM.