Date of Award
Spring 2005
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Engineering Management & Systems Engineering
Committee Director
Andres Sousa-Poza
Committee Member
Resit Unal
Committee Member
Ghaith Rabadi
Committee Member
Guerry Grune
Abstract
Optimizing operational organizational effectiveness is the central, although often unstated, goal of engineering management and systems engineering research and applications. Two fundamental problems remain to be addressed in pursuit of this goal. First, despite over fifty years of research in various disciplines, there is still no universally accepted definition of organizational effectiveness. Second, no methodology exists to identify the domains, dimensions, and determinants of operational organizational effectiveness and dynamically model operational organizational effectiveness within a given population.
This research synthesizes a systems engineering methodology for identifying the domains, dimensions, and determinants of and dynamically modeling operational organizational effectiveness for an identified population. First, the methodology takes the concept of the niche from ecological theory as its definition of effectiveness. Specifically, an organization that is able to sustain a real nonnegative growth rate in its niche dimension under a set of competitive conditions is defined as being effective. Next, the methodology integrates organizational ecology and open systems theories, principles, and models into a unified systemic model of environmental and organizational domains and dimensions that provide the structure for research into the determinants of organizational effectiveness. Based on this model, the methodology gathers observable data on hypothesized determinants of effectiveness and applies event history survival and effectiveness analyses to identify the statistically significant determinants. The methodology's final two steps are to construct and validate a dynamic simulation model of organizational effectiveness based on the identified determinants and to perform sensitivity analyses.
DOI
10.25777/r1tk-er44
ISBN
9780542157387
Recommended Citation
Cotter, Teddy S..
"A Systems Methodology for Measuring Operational Organization Effectiveness: A Study of the Original Equipment Computer Manufacturing Industry, 1948 to 2001"
(2005). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dissertation, Engineering Management & Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/r1tk-er44
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/emse_etds/57
Included in
Computer Engineering Commons, Industrial Engineering Commons, Operational Research Commons, Systems Engineering Commons