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Management can be considered a combination of art, science and craft. The art of management involves inspiration and creativity. The science is experiment and analysis. The craft relies on experience and practice. Each perspective is important, however frequently management courses are taught in ways that give emphasis to one or two perspectives at the expense of the other(s). Even if all three perspectives are present in a course, they may not be taught at the same level of depth and development. To help course designer's deal with these problems we propose aligning course content with management perspective using Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. In this paper we will first briefly review the art, science and craft perspectives of management and Bloom's taxonomy. We will then examine how each perspective can be addressed at different levels in the taxonomy. Specific examples of course elements (activities, assessments, exercises and so on) will be matched with perspective and level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Americans with Disabilties Act (ADA) is 25 years old. The act requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for disabled employees. The requirement for reasonable accommodations has remained the same and the law has not been changed significantly over the years. However the interpretation of the law, specifically what constitutes reasonable accommodations, has evolved. The requirements for small business were initially confusing and difficult to implement. Despite, or maybe because of, many lawsuits and state and local requirements, the requirements remain more muddled than ever. In this paper we will examine the relationship between small business and the ADA. We take a position that taking a proactive stance can give a small business a competitive advantage in two ways. It can open up a new labor pool and it can create a new customer base. The paper ends with some recommendations for practitioners and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critics of modern MBA programs maintain that the programs are not adequately preparing candidates to enter the workforce and start a career. Many programs have a capstone where students integrate the materials from their other courses to solve a business problem. We propose a capstone course where an integrated experiential project is only part of the course. During the experiential action learning component, the students will not only solve a business problem, they will learn the problem solving process. The other parts of the course are used to build a professional identity and establish career goals. Activities and techniques include reflective writing, self-assessments, goal setting and planning techniques. When the course is successfully completed, the student will know who they are, what they 'bring to the table', have a timeline for their careers, and have some experience in solving real world problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance of individuals is central to the success of organizations. Researchers looked to individual personality differences to explain differences in individual performance, but this resulted in a long history of disappointing results and conceptual confusion. Of late, however, the emergence and success of the 'Big Five' personality trait typology has caused a reversal of fortune in explaining differences in individual performance and other organizationally relevant outcomes. This presentation will be a review of past current research using personality psychology and the 'Big Five', and speculate on the future of the 'Big Five' in organizational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to work in teams is a key critical skill that potential employers value in our graduates. In teaching about teamwork, we frequently present Tuckman's stages of group development. This experiential exercise uses the tossing of tennis balls to bring the student through the model's stages -forming, storming, norming, performing - in a fun and active fashion. In the debriefing, the students describe what happened. Their observations are then used to introduce and illustrate Tuckman's intuitively appealing and useful process model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students studying social science methodology have difficulty understanding the concept of validity beyond the face validity. Several generations of psychology students have taken the 'Forer Test' and learned not to rely on face validity. In the 'Forer Test' every participant gets the same personality profile after taking a personality test. Under the impression that it is a personalized profile, most participants consider the 'results' to be fairly accurate. In this exercise, the Forer Test is used as a catalyst for examining additional validity concepts. We use social science analytical methods on the data collected from the 'personality test' to see if indeed they reveal patterns that indicate latent constructs. In this paper we describe the basic exercise, and illustrate how it was successfully used in undergraduate and graduate management and marketing courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employers emphasize that proficiency in business writing is a critical skill that they seek in job applicants. They also point out that recent college graduates are frequently deficient in this area. In this presentation we will briefly outline our recent initiative to diagnose problematic areas, develop assessment rubrics, and design procedures and protocols for improving student writing. Then we will facilitate a workshop style discussion of ways to improve student business writing, drawing on the experiences and ideas of session attendees. Finally we will explore possible designs for writing centers located in a college of business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational efforts often are based on the 'hunches' or intuition of decision makers, and success is frequently attributed to luck. However successful individuals and organizations that are more prone to using intuition are also disproportionately lucky in having things work out well. In this paper we maintain that intuitive processes allows decision makers to avoid being overly risk averse and actually reduces risk by allowing implicit processes to tacit knowledge and to positively influence both decisions and their implementation. As such, the subsequent outcomes are more by design than due to luck. In this paper we examine how luck is attributed in various models of decision making. Included are intuitive decision making and four other models - rational, behavioral, political and 'garbage can'. We conclude with suggestions of how intuition and luck can be used for better decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational decisions often involve leaps of faith. Frequently the most successful individuals and organizations are those that take a risk that pays off. However organizations use a variety of decision processes, some of which avoid leaps of faith and take a measured approach to minimizing risk. In this paper we maintain that intuitive decision processes allow decision makers to avoid being overly risk averse and actually reduces risk by allowing tacit knowledge and implicit processes to positively influence both decisions and their implementation. We examine how faith fits into models of decision making. Included are intuitive decision making and four other models - rational, behavioral, political and 'garbage can'. We conclude with suggestions of how faith and intuition can be used for better decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability and ethics are two popular topics in organization and business studies, as well as in other social sciences. The meanings of sustainability and ethics, and related relevant decisions and implications vary greatly depending on the context and discipline. However there is an intuitive notion that sustainability and ethics are interdependent. Sustainability implies that the system, activity or resource is able to stay as it is or grow and develop without undesired changes or depletion. In this paper I will argue that any basis for ethical decision making must be one that has sustainability as one of its main explicit concerns or implicit outcomes. Using the 'tragedy of the commons' as an exemplar, I will examine several ethical philosophies, perspectives or frameworks, such as utilitarianism, rights and justice, and explore their relationship with the basic ideas of sustainability. The conclusion is that one ultimate purpose of business ethics is to 'protect the commons', in other words businesses must establish and maintain sustainable practices. The implications of such a stance, the difficulties in defining the relevant 'commons' and determining what needs to be sustained will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry and academe can successfully work together to advance learning and new technologies. However these potentially powerful linkages are dynamic with uncertain outcomes, requiring governance methods other than traditional hierarchies and contracts. This exploratory study examines the key determinants for establishing and sustaining these relationships along with the subsequent learning and technology outcomes generated. Results using structural equation modeling reveal that several determinants are particularly important for advancing learning and technology outcomes in the initial and continuing stages of the relationship. These determinants include: trust, flexible university policies for intellectual property rights, effective communication and the presence of champions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic downturns create challenges for all businesses. Smaller concerns are particularly threatened because of the potential disproportionate economic impact on their specific market segments. However, they also might have unique opportunities to positively respond to changing market conditions. In this paper we explore strategies for small businesses to survive and thrive during the downturn and drive the economic recovery. We propose that small businesses can survive threats by addressing key vulnerabilities. They can thrive by creatively modifying their product/service offerings or implementing innovative processes. Finally we argue that by responding to changing market conditions with new products, services and processes, small businesses will drive the economic recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guerrilla marketing techniques are increasingly popular among entrepreneurial startups and small businesses. These low cost, creative and unconventional promotional techniques are becoming more assessable due to rapid technological changes and decreasing costs. Although guerrilla campaigns are frequently successful, all techniques are not equally effective in every organization. In this paper we examine different characteristics of small and entrepreneurial businesses and assess the potential efficacy of specific forms of guerrilla marketing in achieving various marketing goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students enter undergraduate business curriculums with preconceived notions regarding key areas of management practice. Until concepts are formally introduced, and perhaps even afterwards, students will use their existent notions to color, filter and interpret the world and their studies. In this exploratory empirical study we attempt to identify students' preconceived notions or 'implicit theories' of leadership. We asked 270 students to list male and female leaders and indicate why they considered each person a leader. The leaders were then coded into several categories such as political, military, and entertainment. Analysis of the data revealed relationships between the categories and the reasons why a person is considered a leader. There were also gender effects, both on the part of the subjects (male vs. female subjects) and in their answers (male vs. female leaders). Several explanations for the resulting patterns of responses are proposed and suggestions are made for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graduate students expect to draw on their experience and expertise to participate in high level discussions and engage in advanced applications of the course material. However the varied backgrounds of the students frequently necessitate a review of the basic concepts in order for the class to have a common understanding and vocabulary. The instructor's challenge is to design a course that can progress from basic concepts to advanced applications within a single semester. In this paper, Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives is utilized to guide course design and assessment considerations. The development of a core MBA level organizational behavior course will serve as an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-Based Management (EBM) has emerged as an important perspective that emphasizes the use of available evidence to inform decisions and guide practice Management researchers and practitioners are developing ways of incorporating evidence-based management into organizational decision making processes. The central issues are 'when is evidence needed by managers?' and 'what form should it take?'. However most of the research and application of EBM has concentrated on issues found in medium to large organizations. Small business has been left out of the discussion. In this paper we explore areas where a small business can be helped by evidence based management. As a framework for this analysis, we use the familiar business plan, a common approach used by many successful small businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional poker player Phil Ivey, used a technique known as 'edge sorting' to gain advantage over the house in London in 2012 and again in Atlantic City in 2014. He won millions of dollars. Both casinos accused Ivey of cheating. Although not explicitly forbidden in the rules, they consider his technique cheating. Ivey and his supporters maintain that he did nothing wrong. They consider it legitimate 'advantage play'. In this presentation we will examine how the casino's and Ivey's respective reasoning hold up when viewed through various ethical lenses - utilitarianism, deontology, individual rights, and justice. We will then look at how this parallels corporate strategies and tactics that fall in grey areas of being possibly unfair but probably legal. Business organizations use strategic methods to try to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. Some techniques such as economies of scale or scope, first mover advantage or exploiting resources that are rare, non-substitutable, inimitable and valuable are considered legitimate legal strategies, whereas others such as accounting fraud, theft and extortion are illegitimate illegal strategies. However there are issues such as 'when does superior knowledge become insider trading?', 'when is a gift a bribe?' and 'when does your market share give you an unfair advantage?'. These grey areas are similar to advantage play where the actions are not against the rules, but still may be unfair and unethical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-Based Management has emerged as an important perspective that emphasizes the use of available evidence to inform decisions and guide practice. Management educations is finding ways of incorporating evidence-based management into the curriculum and classrooms. The central issues are 'when is evidence needed by managers?' and 'what form should it take?'. In this paper we adopt a philosophy that management is some combination of science, art and craft. Science depends on the development, analysis and application of theory, art is inspiration, creativity and innovation and craft is experience. We examine the need and uses of evidence for each of the three perspectives and how and where to incorporate it into classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]