University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2014 A Holistic Framework for Transitional Management Ahmed Elattar University of Central Florida Part of the Industrial Engineering Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Elattar, Ahmed, "A Holistic Framework for Transitional Management" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 4618. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/4618 A HOLISTIC FRAMEWORK FOR TRANSITIONAL MANAGEMENT by AHMED ASHRAF ELATTAR B.S. The George Washington University, 2005 M.S. The George Washington University, 2010 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2014 Major Professor: Luis Rabelo ABSTRACT For all business organizations, there comes a time when a change must take place within their eco-system. It consumes a great deal of thought and planning to ensure that the right decision is made as it could alter the entire course of their business for a number of years to come. This change may appear in the form of a brilliant CEO reaching the age of retirement, or an unsuccessful Managing Director being asked to leave before fulfilling the term of her contract. Regardless of the cause, a transition must occur in which a suitable successor is chosen and put into place while minimizing costs, satisfying stakeholders, ensuring that the successor has been adequately prepared for their new position, and minimizing work place gossip, among other things. It is also important to understand how the nature of the business, as well as its financial standing, effects such a transition. Engineering and management principles come together in this study to ensure that organizations going through such a change are on the right course. As the problem of transitional management is not one of concrete values and contains many ambiguous concepts, one way to tackle the problem is by utilizing various industrial engineering methodologies that allow these companies to systematically begin preparing for such a change. By default, organizational strategy has to change, technology is continually being renewed and it becomes very hard for the same leader to constantly implement new and innovative developments. Organizations today have a very poor understanding of where they currently stand and as a result the cause for a company’s lack of profitability is often overlooked with time and money being wasted in an attempt to fix something that is not broken. To be able to look at the bigger ii picture of an organization and from there begin to close in on the main problems causing a negative impact, the Matrix of Change is used and takes in many factors to layout an accurate representation of the direction in which an organization should be headed and how it can continue to grow and remain successful. The Theory of Constraints on the other hand is used here as a step-by-step guide allowing companies to be better organized during times of change. And System Dynamics modeling is where these companies can begin to simulate and solve the dilemma of transitional management using causal loop diagrams and stock and flow diagrams. Through such tools a framework can begin to be developed, one that is valued by corporations and continually reviewed. Several case studies, simulation modeling, and a panel of experts were used in order to demonstrate and validate this framework. iii To my wife, Nerine, for all of her support, love, and encouragement. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A special thanks to my advisor Dr. Luis Rabelo for his guidance Thank you to: Dr. Waldemar Karwowski Dr. Ahmad Elshennawy Dr. Jennifer Pazour Dr. Richard Ajayi Dr. Mansooreh Mollaghasemi Mr. Mark Calabrese Mr. Jeff Bryson Mr. Atef Iskander Mr. Darius Ferdows Mr. Sherif Afifi Mr. Javier Guzman Mr. Sunil Padture Ms. Wilawan Onkham Mr. William Mejia Ms. Liliana Cruz And finally, my parents-in-Law Dr. Yasser and Dr. Djehane Hosni And my parents Dr. Ashraf and Mrs. Hala Elattar v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... xiv CHAPTER 1 ....................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 1.2 Problem Definition.........................................................................................................6 1.3 Research Objectives .......................................................................................................7 1.4 Contributions..................................................................................................................8 1.5 Dissertation Synopsis .....................................................................................................9 CHAPTER 2 ..................................................................................................................................10 2.1 Literature Review.........................................................................................................10 2.1.1 Impact of the Current Leader ........................................................................11 2.1.2 Impact of the Upcoming Leader ...................................................................21 2.1.3 The state of the Business...............................................................................40 2.1.4 Hewlett-Packard Case Study.........................................................................57 2.2 Literature Gaps.............................................................................................................60 vi CHAPTER 3 ..................................................................................................................................65 3.1 Research Methodology ................................................................................................65 3.2 Research Idea ...............................................................................................................68 3.3 Modified Idea and Research Objectives ......................................................................68 3.4 Overview of Literature Review ...................................................................................69 3.5 Research Gap ...............................................................................................................70 3.6 Development of a Framework .....................................................................................71 3.7 Applying and Improving the Framework ....................................................................73 3.7.1 Applying the Framework to Yahoo ..............................................................74 3.7.2 Applying the Framework to HP ....................................................................75 3.7.3 Applying the Framework to Virtual Leader..................................................76 3.8 Presentation of Material at Academic/Industry Conferences ......................................76 3.9 Validation of the Framework .......................................................................................77 3.10 Application and Analysis ...........................................................................................79 3.11 Research Contributions and Future Research ............................................................82 CHAPTER 4 ..................................................................................................................................83 4.1 The Framework ............................................................................................................84 vii 4.1.1 The Matrix of Change ...................................................................................87 4.1.2 The Theory of Constraints ............................................................................97 4.1.3 System Dynamics Modeling .........................................................................99 4.2 Summary of Framework ............................................................................................108 CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................................................109 5.1 Framework applied to Yahoo.....................................................................................110 5.1.1 Yahoo Case Study Description ...................................................................110 5.1.2 Preliminary Analysis ...................................................................................112 5.1.3 Yahoo’s Matrix of Change ..........................................................................117 5.1.4 Case Study Findings