Digital Commons Network^™

Affective Commitment, Mentoring, And Anticipated Turnover Among Millennials, Keiasha Hypolite

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Millennials comprise the largest group of individuals in the workforce, yet organizations struggle to keep millennials engaged in the workplace. Millennials move from job to job, with an average stay at one employer between 12 and 18 months (Hechl, 2017). Researchers have reported that millennials cause the majority of turnover in the workplace. Globally, human resources practitioners experience difficulties retaining millennials (Sahraee et al., 2021). Previous studies have researched millennials, affective commitment, mentoring, and turnover. However, no known research has used all four factors to solve a global problem. In their discussion of the highly competitive labor market, Ramírez …

¿Cómo Se Dice...? The Spanish Use Of Hispanic College Students, Christopher Castaneda

Honors Theses

The Spanish language is very prominent in the United States. Millions of Spanishspeakers live there, and the use of the language in their day to day lives has augmented the presence of it in an otherwise Anglophone country. However, there are certain factors that may influence how often Spanish speakers actually use their language in this country. This study sought to analyze two: the existing anti-Hispanic attitudes in the United States and the parental/caretaker level of education of Spanish-speaking people. This study aimed to conduct an analysis of college-aged Hispanic students in order to conclude the extent to which those …

Relationship Among Department Satisfaction, Training, And Police Behavior, Matthew Garvin

Master's Theses

The call for police reform has been sparked by incidents involving the shooting and killing of individuals by the police. Public and political scrutiny of police behavior and procedures has created a social identity of “Us Versus Them” mentality among police officers. Proactive policing strategies have diminished in response to the heightened scrutiny of police procedures and behavior, in turn, initiating a reduction in police protection and an increase in crime. While research has identified the importance of police presence, the literature does not yet answer questions regarding factors which influence police proactivity. To address the gap in understanding, this …

Predictors Of Engagement In Nursing Professional Practice: Transforming Organizational Culture In The Post-Covid Healthcare Environment, Jennifer Garnand

Dissertations

Cultivating the shared belief that individuals matter within an organization enhances the empowerment of staff and supports enthusiastic engagement in organizational efforts aimed toward a common mission, vision, and goals (McShane & Von Glinow, 2019). The nursing profession has been plagued by an unprecedented decrease in engagement and diminished job satisfaction, particularly following the prolonged tenure of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to subsequent attrition amidst a staffing crisis. This quantitative predictive correlational study seeks to determine whether proactive and persevering characteristics, professional identity, and passion of nurses are predictors of engagement in a post-COVID healthcare environment. The research was based …

Transformers: The Relationship Between Instructor And Course Persistence Among Community College Students, Jairus L. Johnson

Dissertations

U.S. community colleges play a unique role in providing higher education opportunities for members of society and are often viewed as the gateway to a post-secondary education (Savi, 2011). Two-year colleges foster a robust mission that is supported by a variety of curricular functions that tailor to a diverse student population. Furthermore, through an open-door policy, admittance only requires a high school diploma or equivalent. The aforementioned factors have created inherent challenges associated with student persistence, institutional retention, program completion, and graduation rates among community colleges. As compared to universities, community colleges have lower graduation and retention rates.

Researchers suggest …

Moderating Effect Of Homeschooling On Retention And Academic Achievement Of Stem Majors At A Private, Faith-Based, Liberal Arts College, Aresia Watson

Dissertations

Previous research has indicated that homeschooling is a growing trend within the U.S. Previous research has also indicated that less than one half of students who begin a STEM major at postsecondary institutions will complete their degree. This study sought to look at the possible moderating effect homeschooling has on the academic achievement and retention of STEM majors at a private, faith-based liberal arts college using a modified version of Tinto’s Model of Student Departure.

Independent sample t-tests were used to compare means and intercorrelations of homeschooled students and traditionally schooled students in unmatched and matched samples for several academic …

Impressions Of Viability: How Current Enrollment Management Personnel And Former Students Perceive The Implementation Of A Chatbot Focused On Student Financial Communication, Courtney Robinson

School of Education Doctoral Projects - Higher Education

The increasingly competitive modern higher educational environment has forced student services professionals to increase focus on recruitment and retention, which corresponds with an expanding body of scholarly literature and research on retention practices (Moore, Hossler, Ziskin, & Wakhungu, 2008). These large-scale recruitment and retention goals coincide with significant declines in state and federal funding, leaving many financially-limited institutions struggling to balance higher expectations and declining resources. Oftentimes, institutions seek out technological platforms that streamline the workload, while remaining cognizant that selected platforms must appeal to the current student population, the technologically-savvy Generation Z (Castillo, 2018; Stillman & Stillman, 2017).

Outside …

Exploring Churn And Alignment Between Retention And Occupational Culture As Perceived By Professional Truck Drivers, Catherine M. Cole

Dissertations

Despite advances in logistics software and increased driver pay, the trucking industry continues a historic wave of human capital risks in the form of driver turnover and driver shortages. Previous efforts to understand the phenomenon of driver turnover rely heavily on supply chain, transportation, and logistics based disciplines. The current study provides a human capital ontology towards understanding professional truck driver perceptions. Within the interpretive framework of pragmatism, the study applied a simultaneous ethnographic and phenomenological research design to explore the phenomenon of churn and professional truck driver perceptions of environmental alignment between trucking industry retention strategies and the occupational …

The Efficacy Of A Goal-Based Study Skills Course For Academically At-Risk, First-Generation, African American, Female Students, Sarah Beth Garrison

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to identify effective intervention strategies used in a goal-based study skills course for academically at-risk, first-generation, African-American, female students. Based on the theoretical framework from goal, motivation and achievement theories (Covington, 2000; Kuh, 2007; Nicholls, 1984), this study provided an analysis of research regarding the academic success and persistence of at-risk students. An explanatory mixed-method design was employed that consisted of two phases. The first phase of the study used quantitative data to test for difference in GPA and academic status between the control and treatment group. Quantitative data was also used to identify …

Strategies For Increasing Female Navy Officer Retention: Deploying Mothers’ Perspectives, Angela Holcombe Walker

Dissertations

The complexity of the global environment, driven by rapid and profound change, requires a globally dominant fighting force. To adequately protect and defend the security of the United States, the Department of Defense must maintain warfighting superiority through innovation and diversity of thought (SECNAV, 2016; Scoppio, 2012). More than five years have passed since the 2011 Military Leadership Diversity Commission reported to President Obama and members of Congress that “top military leaders are representative neither of the population they serve nor of the forces they lead” (p. xvi). Females are underrepresented among senior military leadership. Increasing the number of female …

Social Media Transformation Of Human Resource Management, Lavita A. Williams

Honors Theses

Social media is rapidly transforming the way individuals interact in the real world day by day in the workforce. This research focuses on how social media effects human resource management (HRM) in areas of recruitment, selection, retention, and termination. Through a SurveyMonkey information was gathered from human resource professionals primarily in the southeastern region and throughout the United States. Human resource managers where asked about the advantages and disadvantages of using social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter in areas of recruitment, selection, and termination. The results, illustrated that there were many advantages when using social media sites in …

Profiles Of Academic Commitment, Anna Jill Womack

Dissertations

Tinto (1993) found that only 15-25% of students who dropped out of college did so due to academic failure, while the reasons for leaving among the remaining group of students who dropped out were unknown. This suggests that the majority of students who drop out of college are likely doing so for reasons other than academic struggles. Researchers have suggested that individuals who are committed to their major are more likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree (Bowling, Beehr, & Lepisto, 2006; Den Hartog & Belschak, 2007; Duffy, Dik, & Steger, 2011; Goulet & Singh, 2002; Landrum & Mulcock, 2007), indicating …

The Relationship Between Professional Preparedness And Long Term Teacher Retention, Deborah Ann Smith

Dissertations

In an effort to identify relationships between certain demographic variables (i.e. age, years of experience, type of certification) and long-term retention, a group of public school teachers from a South-Central district of Mississippi were surveyed and asked to provide both demographic and opinion data that was compared to their response to a question asking how long they expected to remain in the teaching profession.

One purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a relationship between certain demographic factors and the amount of time teachers spend in the profession. Another purpose of this study was to examine the …

Identifying Characteristics That Influence First-Time, Full-Time Freshmen Persistence And Exploring Effective And Strategic Retention Initiatives For An At-Risk Student Population, Erin Lambert Dornan

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to understand background and behavioral characteristics that influenced student persistence of first-time, full-time, freshmen at a four-year public institution, The University of Southern Mississippi (USM). This study provided an outline for institutions of higher learning to create a profile assessment on their campus and identify students that were more likely to need additional support in order to be successful. Research has shown that understanding students’ needs can increase student retention on campus (Gerdes & Mallinckrodt, 1994; Briceño-Perriott & Mianzo, 2006; O’Keefe, 2013). Coll and Stewart (2008), explained that research in this field was more …

Implementation Of The Transition To Practice Regulatory Model For Nurse Preceptors In A Rural Setting, Donna Renee Honour

Doctoral Projects

Registered nurse turnover is a recurring problem for healthcare organizations. The inability of hospitals to retain registered nurses threatens the adequacy of healthcare delivery and increases personnel and patient care cost. The purpose of this capstone project was to take a leadership role in translating evidence into practice by successfully preparing preceptors to help new graduates transition successfully from the role of student to that of a profession nurse.

Healthcare organizations require a stable, highly proficient and totally engaged nursing staff to provide effective and efficient levels of patient care. The first year of practice for a nurse graduate, the …

Predictors Of Major Commitment, Anna Jill Womack

Master's Theses

Contextual (e.g. job fit, job involvement), individual (e.g. job satisfaction, need for achievement), and demographic (e.g. gender, educational level) factors have been related to forms of career commitment (i.e. affective, continuance, and normative commitment), highlighting that the commitment one feels toward his or her career is a complex variable. Furthermore, commitment has been associated with intent to remain within a profession or organization (Bowling, Beehr, & Lepisto, 2006; Den Hartog & Belschak, 2007; Duffy, Dik, & Steger, 2011; Goulet & Singh, 2002), suggesting that commitment is an important component of retention within a career. Correspondingly, commitment to one's academic major …

Persistence Among African-American Males In The Honors College, Johnell Roxann Anderson Goins

Dissertations

Retaining African American students, specifically African American males, is an issue that plagues the American higher education system. Research shows that African American male students are the lowest represented group in the gifted studies programs (Ford, 2010). Lockie and Burke (1999); Chen and DeJardins (2010) and Bell (2010a) found that barriers to African American male retention in higher education include but are not limited to the following: financial assistance, the battle of the two-self concept, lack of mentoring/advising, low expectations from faculty, and alienation. In an effort to remove these barriers, institutions have implemented retention strategies such as more faculty …

The Influence Of Classroom Management, Administrative Support, Parental Involvement, And Economic Factors On The Retention Of Novice Teachers, Katrina Moody Dwyer

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of selected factors upon the intent of novice teachers to remain in the classroom. Teachers are leaving the profession in numbers that have prompted significant concern among policymakers and administrators. Many qualified college students are not considering the field of education as a potential career (Petty, 2007). Given that attrition rates among teachers are higher in their earliest years within the profession, it is essential to identify factors that contribute to the satisfaction and retention of novice teachers (Stockard & Lehman, 2004).

The primary data for this study were obtained …

Advisor Knowledge Of Disability-Related Needs, Laws, And Accomodation Requirements In Postsecondary Academic Advisement Practices, Rebekah Elizabeth Young

Dissertations

Since the passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, enrollment of students with disabilities in higher education has risen. In 2007-2008, approximately 11% of undergraduate students reported having some type of disability (U.S. NCES, 2012). Since disability disclosure is optional for students in higher education, it is possible that reported enrollment figures are underestimates.

Despite increasingly equitable access to postsecondary education and demonstration of the academic capability necessary for gaining collegiate admission, students with disabilities are less likely to remain enrolled and successfully earn a degree than students without disabilities. Efforts to …

Professional Learning Communities, Self Efficacy, And Collaborative Learning In The Elementary School, Diana Provancha Sweigart

Dissertations

The United States of America used to have the best high school graduation rate in the world. However, by 2006, the U. S. was ranked 18 out of 26 among industrialized nations (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010) with three out of every ten public school students failing to complete high school with a diploma (DuFour and Marzano, 2011). This urgent, pressing issue warrants continuing research to discover what does and does not work in educating our children. Numerous empirical and scientifically-based research studies continue to show the validity of several teaching methods; one such strategy is cooperative learning, …

The Effect Of Teacher Retention On Student Achievement In Third Grade Reading/Language Arts, Kathy Bang Sellers

Dissertations

The United States government has placed emphasis on the placement of highly qualified teachers within each classroom through the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This becomes more difficult when teachers become frustrated for various reasons and leave the profession of teaching before gaining the necessary experience to positively impact student achievement.

The purpose of the study was to examine the possible relationship between teacher retention, teachers staying within the teaching profession, and the effect it has on student achievement. The study is based on individual teachers' class summary reports from the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010 …

Emotional Intelligence As A Non-Traditional Predictor Of College Student Retention And Graduation, Larry Austin Sparkman

Dissertations

Universities are looking for new predictors of student retention and graduation. Based on the findings of this study, emotional intelligence is a predictor of student retention and performance over time. A survey of 783 traditional college students was conducted using the Bar-On EQ-i:125 prior to initial enrollment for the fall semester 2002 at a particular university in the southeastern United States. At the conclusion of spring semester 2007, data were collected which included enrollment status, graduation status, and cumulative college grade point average. Relationships between the 15 subscales of emotional intelligence as defined by the Bar-On EQ-i:125 (self-regard, emotional self-awareness, …