Special Issue on ‘Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education: In the Classroom & Beyond’

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102659/1/dsji12026.pd

What Makes Women-Friendly Public Accounting Firms Tick? The Diffusion of Human Resource Management Knowledge Through Institutional and Resource Pressures

Through the analysis of qualitative data, this research applies institutional theory and the resource-based perspective to examine why public accounting firms adopt women-friendly human resource management policies. The study reveals that 5 types of institutional pressures explain why women-friendly policies have proliferated in the public accounting industry. In addition to these institutional pressures, the proliferation of women-friendly policies in accounting firms has occurred because these firms are motivated to optimize available economic choices. Firms view women-friendly policies as a means to acquire, develop, and accumulate resources that will give them a competitive advantage in the marketplace. However, these women-friendly policies only provide competitive advantage when they are both valuable and difficult for competitors to imitate because of social complexity, knowledge management, and tacitness.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45626/1/11199_2004_Article_366654.pd

Strategic Leadership in Healthcare: The Role of Collective Change Agents in Closing the Gap of Healthcare Disparities

Healthcare management research overlooks the role of collective leadership actions in alleviating health disparities. However, exploring the strategic actions of collective leaders can provide the field with a different viewpoint of how individuals and organizations partner to solve complex problems such as health disparities. To examine this issue, this paper uses prenatal health disparities as a backdrop. We present our analysis of multiple case study data of nonprofit and healthcare organizations. Through our analysis of this case study data, we develop an understanding of collective leadership and strategies they employ as change agents. In addition, the case studies highlight the importance of collective leadership as of process of learning, the diffusion of knowledge across organizational boundaries, and the empowerment of stakeholders.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49241/1/1060-Wooten.pd

Special Issue on ‘Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education: In the Classroom & Beyond’

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106909/1/dsji12034.pd

Challenges of organizational learning: perpetuation of discrimination against employees with disabilities

This article examines why organizations struggle with learning how to prevent discrimination against their employees with disabilities. To explore this issue, qualitative archival data were collected and analyzed from 53 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuits filed against 44 organizations. Theoretical analysis of the qualitative data suggests that several organizationally based learning theories explain the difficulty organizations have with creating a disability-friendly work environment. These barriers to learning are embedded in complex defense mechanisms and discriminatory organizational routines. Furthermore, organizations have difficulties engaging in higher-order and vicarious learning. We conclude the article with examples of successful learning practices as they relate to barriers identified in the qualitative analysis. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34916/1/630_ftp.pd

Building the Bridge for Diversity and Inclusion: Testing a Regional Strategy

· Transforming Michigan Philanthropy Through Diversity & Inclusion (TMP) is a six-year research and development effort of the Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF). A unique experiment, TMP is the only statewide, comprehensive effort to promote diversity and inclusiveness among foundations in the country. · Organizational excellence through diversity and inclusion requires an organization to find a goal that resonates with its stakeholders and then create collaborative communities that focus on achieving that goal. This strategy positions an organization to use the full diversity of those stakeholders for tasks such as problem-solving, innovation, quality initiatives, and the acquisition of resources. · Diversity and inclusion work is hard, and it’s not enough to have a vision. The real challenge for organizational members is translating the vision into action. This requires a change in practices and policies to support a shift in the mindset and behavior of organizational members. · A build-through-doing approach on diversity and inclusion entails learning, doing and reflecting as practices are implemented. For this approach to work, organizations have to be willing to experiment and create psychologically safe spaces for the learning to occur. · Thus far, for the Council of Michigan Foundations bridge-building work for diversity and inclusion has involved recognizing the inherent risks; engaging champions, experts, allies, and colleagues as partners and supporters; and having the monetary resources and dedicated staff needed to carry the work forward

Strategic management of professional service firms: Balancing the demands of human resource management, client service, and financial performance.

Even though professional service firms (PSFs) play a significant role in the United States' economy, management scholars understand little about their strategic behavior. This dissertation addresses this research vacuum by integrating literature from organizational theory, strategic management, and sociology to develop and empirically test a model that explains a resource-based view of control and coordination mechanisms in PSFs. This model hypothesizes that in PSFs certain types of control and coordination mechanisms will develop socially complex organizational resources which result in high performance of professional service firms--the ability to maintain a balance between client demands, human resource needs, and the economic goals of the firm. To test the hypothesized model, data were collected from 515 local offices of public accounting firms and analyzed using causal modeling. Results of the data analysis indicate that because bureaucratic control mechanisms conflict with the attitudinal attributes of professional employees, they are non-valuable to PSFs and have negative performance consequences. However, since clan and intrapreneurial control mechanisms are aligned with the values of professional employees and tacit, thus difficult for competitors to imitate, they create organizational resources that lead to high levels of human resource management and financial performance. In addition, the data analysis provides empirical support that integrative coordination mechanisms and external networks are significant determinants of a PSF's ability to develop socially complex organizational resources which result in high levels of client service and financial performance. Interestingly, the data analysis also suggests that since differentiation and adhocracies are easily imitated, and hence common in the public accounting industry, these forms of coordination mechanisms only result in competitive parity. Future research should extend this study with a new sample and the inclusion of control variables.Ph.D.AccountingManagementSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129742/2/9610270.pd