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This Global Studies honors thesis addresses how managers and leaders of global firms manage innovation across multiple markets. Current research on multinational corporations provides an understanding of different kinds of innovation and the ways to attend to multiple markets. However, there is less documentation of how these innovation strategies are actually implemented on the ground and the tensions that these efforts might produce. Therefore, my research focuses in particular on the challenges and tensions faced by leaders of global firms as they implement transnational innovation strategies. This study is based upon in-depth interviews with 20 participants who held positions in global companies in the pharmaceutical and technology industries as well as academics whose work addresses organizational management and innovation. Results from an analysis of these interviews across and within these two industries provide insights into the literature on multinational corporation global innovation and leadership across international borders.

This paper addresses the wicked problem of toxic leadership in the U.S. Army. The paper begins by defining toxic leadership, explaining the scope of the challenge, describing its effects on subordinates and units, and examining current barriers to identification of toxic leaders. The paper explores methods to identify toxic leaders within the U.S. Army. Finally, the paper describes tools available to remove toxic leaders from military service. Taming this wicked problem requires positive and effective leadership at all levels. Leaders must first help establish a military culture that encourages Soldiers to report toxic behavior without fear of reprisal. Leaders must also make the hard choices necessary to document and remove toxic leaders from military service. The Army is moving in the right direction with several new initiatives including revamping the Officer Evaluation Report system and implementing the Commander 360 evaluations. The Army must continue to monitor and expand upon these initiatives to demonstrate its commitment to rid toxic leaders from its ranks and to protect the integrity of the military profession.

This study recognises that both metrics and innovation lead to superior performance. It explores the marketing activities and processes followed by innovative companies, in particular those involving customers, and proposes the key metrics aligned to these; thereby formalising marketing's role in the innovation process. Qualitative expert-interviews were done using the Critical Incident Technique; 11 professionals from a South African company, recognised for its innovation, were asked to share their personal experiences of a recent company innovation. The findings highlight the value of a strong corporate culture of collaboration and inclusion, as well as an unwavering focus on creating value for the client, and conclude by proposing a finite marketing dashboard of 12 metrics that align people and processes as key indicators of success to guide the marketer during the innovation process.

Organisation faced with competitive market pressures and those that are looking at sustaining their market position may adopt collaborative product design as a strategy to improve quality, increase market share, increase efficiencies and reduce the time to market for their products. Conversely, in a design environment engineering changes are unavoidable and need to be effectively coordinated because they may become costly for a company in product recalls and reputational damage. They can however be viewed as a cost benefit as contributors to optimisation of product quality. In this study, engineering changes were examined as enablers to collaborative product design where the study was undertaken in the land systems sector of defence in South Africa. The sector is faced with defence cuts resulting in direct and indirect job losses across the supply chain. An exploratory study was conducted where the constraints to design performance were evaluated. The applicability of the data and process orientated information exchange models were explored on the extent they influence the speed of engineering changes. The outcome was a model that can be used as an evaluation and decision making tool for companies conducting collaborative strategy with emphasis on engineering changes and information flow.

"As the Air Force matures as a service we must choose a culture for our continued long-term success. The zero-defect approach practiced by the Strategic Air Command (SAC) during the service's infancy offers short-term success, but the resulting culture of fear and reprisal is not conducive to sustained excellence. Conversely, the tolerant approach of Quality Air Force (QAF) adopted during our adolescence provides short-term morale benefits, but its culture of ambivalence lacks the discipline required to achieve Excellence in All We Do. Ultimately, long-term, high performance is possible by adopting a fail-safe approach which paradoxically embraces failure through a mindful approach to building a resilient enterprise. This fail-safe culture occurs when leaders clearly articulate the boundaries of acceptable behavior and enforce them through just rewards and just discipline. It is from inside the security of these clearly-defined boundaries that our fail-safe culture will thrive."--Abstract.

The "View now" link directs to the finding aid only. Please email wvrhcref@mail.wvu.edu or call 304-293-3536 for more information about accessing collection A&M 4443 Glen H. Hiner, Jr. Papers, ca. 1910-2016. Papers of Glen H. Hiner, Jr., Senior Vice President and Group Executive of General Electric Plastics (1983-1991) and CEO of Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation (1992-2002). These papers document both his personal life and professional career with an emphasis on the latter. Materials found in the collection include but are not limited to business publications, financial reports, correspondence, and photographs of various personal and business events. The collection also contains a large amount of publications and audio/visual material relating to Glen Hiner and the companies with which he was associated. Also included in the collection are a few personal belongings of Glen Hiner such as a high school letterman jacket, cuff links, and an assortment of awards, among other items. Record series include: Series 1. Personal and Business Papers (Box 1) Series 2. Family Papers (Boxes 1-2) Series 3. Correspondence (Box 3) Series 4. Books and Publications (Boxes 4-5) Series 5. Media (Box 5) Series 6. Photographs (Boxes 6-8) Series 7. Artifacts and Awards (Boxes 9-13) Series 8. Oversize (Box 14-23 and unboxed)