Business Commons^™

Behind The Student Loan Debt Crisis, New Benefits Solutions, Sarah Min

Capstones

Two years ago, when Scott Thompson took over tech startup Tuition.io as chief executive officer in 2016, he felt as though he had to educate his clients about his product — a new benefit, managed by his software company that allows employers to help their employees repay their student loans.

Today, he doesn’t feel that need. When he recently walked into a Fortune 20 company with a stack of documents, his prospective clients said they understood his pitch and hardly required the introductory material. “I don’t evangelize anymore. We very rarely educate any longer,” Thompson said.

When Tuition.io was founded …

Examining The Relationships Between Employee Engagement, Job Satisfaction, Job Burnout, And Turnover Intention Of Student Services Employees In Higher Education, Susan Grove

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between engagement, job satisfaction, job burnout, and turnover intention as provided by higher education student services employees. This study addressed the gap in the literature: the lack of information regarding the experiences, attitudes, and perceptions of student services employees and examined the relationships among employee engagement, job satisfaction, job burnout, turnover intention by analyzing the responses received from members of the electronically mailed (e-mail) survey that contains a combination of three main survey instruments to review employee engagement, job burnout, job satisfaction, and turnover intention.

Six research hypotheses for the …

Testing The Structural Invariance Of Affective Commitment On Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior Across Clan And Hierarchy Organizational Culture Types, Julia A. Fulmore

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

Unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) is concerned with employees’ engagement in unethical conduct for the benefit of the organization that is immoral and/or illegal. Research findings on motivators of UPB show some contradictory findings that need to be resolved. Considering the empirical findings that clan culture discourages unethical behavior while hierarchy culture encourages unethical behavior along with the contradicting empirical findings between affective commitment and UPB based on samples with different cultures, this study sought to empirically assess the contradictory findings in the literature by testing the structural invariance of affective organizational commitment on UPB based on the two organizational of …

Project Renew Worcester, Danni Yue, Amy Zhang, Jing Han, Omid Ashrafi, Yiming Xu

School of Professional Studies

n The client for this capstone project is RENEW Worcester which is a fledgling solar power project whose main goals are to bring renewable energy in the form of solar power into local, primarily low-income communities and are committed to the mission of making the transition off of fossil fuels to clean, renewable power. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts, they are a local chapter of Co-op Power which is a consumer-owned sustainable energy cooperative (co-op) made up of numerous different local chapters all over the New England area as well as the state of New York. The problem that we will …

Did Hollywood Take Theatre "By Hook Or By Crook?", Catherine S. Wright

MSU Graduate Theses

Hollywood and Theatre have been partners in producing entertainment for over 100 years. The relationship was fruitful for both parties, but Hollywood moguls and playwrights battled over ownership of the work and crafting of its creative nucleus, story and character. Theatre was the dominant entertainment right before the rise of motion pictures. Once Hollywood’s talkies closed the curtain on silent films, playwrights had a high creative worth to movie makers. In the cinema, story and dialogue were essential for its survival and growth. Playwrights were courted by the Hollywood studio heads but were not offered equal partnership as they were …

Workplace Mental Health: Toolkit Usability Study Of Midwestern Business Leaders, Julie Kiehne

Leadership Education Capstones

The purpose of this research study was to gather Midwest business leader’s feedback on usability of a Workplace Mental Health Toolkit.

In the Workplace Mental Health Toolkit Usability Study, the researcher used a mixed methods approach to gather data using a digital survey. Business leaders were asked to rate the likelihood they would use the following tools in the workplace: Psychologically Safe Workplace Checklist, Mental Health Policy Template , Well-being Checklist, Mental Health First Aid at Work Training Program.

Testing The Measurement Invariance And Latent Mean Differences Of Data From The Employee Perceptions Of Supervisor/Line Manager Coaching Behavior Measure Between Virtual And Traditional Employees From Generation X And Y, Bryn Hammack-Brown

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

Currently, the workforce is comprised of multiple generations, of which Generation X and Y are the largest, working in a variety of arrangements. These include working from home, satellite centers, on the road, collaboration offices, and brick and mortar locations. As information and communication technology advances, more opportunities for individuals to supplement or change their working environments are available. Along with these different modes of work comes occasions and challenges for managers to demonstrate coaching behaviors toward employees who work alongside them on an on-going basis, and simultaneously to those who are removed from the face-to-face interactions and instead rely …

Examining Work-Life Balance Of Female Faculty In Chair Roles At Medical Academic Institutions: A Phenomenological Study, Stephanie N. Dunn

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore the work-life balance of women in Chair positions within medical academic institutions and to research their ability to balance roles at work and home. The study wanted to investigate the impact of a prestigious leadership position on their lives. The study explored the reason for their success in such a male-dominated position and how they obtained such a position. The women who participated in this study gave accounts for their triumphs and disappointments during the data collection phase of the study.

This research was a phenomenological study based on three theoretical …

Testing An Adapted And Integrated Model Of Motivation To Lead And Intention To Apply, Mandolen Mull

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

Leader development is a growing field of study within the leadership and human resource development (HRD) fields. As such, various studies have evaluated the traits, skills, and situational influences that contribute to an individual’s likelihood of becoming a leader. However, often researchers fail to examine an individual’s intention to apply for a leadership position within their examination of an individual’s leadership potential. Although prior research has examined the motivation to lead (MTL), very little research has examined the relationship between an individual’s MTL and their intention to apply for a leadership position. Furthermore, no research to date has evaluated the …

Intercultural Coworker Relationships (Icors) In The Global Workplace: A Grounded Theory Study, Jennifer L. Morton

Dissertations

Previous research supports what employees intuitively sense: peers make the place (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008; Schneider, 1987). Extant research suggests coworker relationships have critical influence on outcomes ranging from turnover (Felps, Mitchell, Hekman, Lee, Holtom, & Harman, 2009) to creativity (Homan, Buengeler, Eckhoff, van Ginkel, & Voelpel, 2015) to organizational commitment (Viswesvaran & Ones, 2002) to employee health and well-being (Heaphy & Dutton, 2008). Despite the increase of Intercultural COworker Relationships (ICORs), particularly in multinational firms in the technology industry, research has yet to examine what defines coworker relationship quality in the presence of national cultural differences. In other words, …

Breaking Down The Barriers To Operator Workload Estimation: Advancing Algorithmic Handling Of Temporal Non-Stationarity And Cross-Participant Differences For Eeg Analysis Using Deep Learning, Ryan G. Hefron

Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on two barriers to using EEG data for workload assessment: day-to-day variability, and cross- participant applicability. Several signal processing techniques and deep learning approaches are evaluated in multi-task environments. These methods account for temporal, spatial, and frequential data dependencies. Variance of frequency- domain power distributions for cross-day workload classification is statistically significant. Skewness and kurtosis are not significant in an environment absent workload transitions, but are salient with transitions present. LSTMs improve day- to-day feature stationarity, decreasing error by 59% compared to previous best results. A multi-path convolutional recurrent model using bi-directional, residual recurrent layers significantly increases …

Career Coaching: A Study Of Veterans Health Administration (Vha) Leaders', Jerelyn Dugas

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore and describe the impact of career coaching on the career performance growth and retention as perceived by healthcare’s emerging leaders who participated in selected coaching program institutes for a minimum of 1 year at VHA hospitals in Southern California.

Methodology: The researcher selected a qualitative multiple case study to explore and describe VHA leaders’ perceived impact of coaching on their career performance growth and retention. Further, the researcher conducted semi-structured, interviews with 15 participants to gain a better understanding of the lived experiences of the participants at the …

Exploring Spirituality And Affective Commitment As Antecedents To Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Elva A. Resendez

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of my study is to investigate the relationships between workplace spirituality, individual spirituality, affective commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior. My literature review resulted in the following research question: If workplace spirituality and individual spirituality are inherent in organizations and individuals, what is their relationship to employees’ workplace behavior? Three testable hypotheses are examined in hopes of identifying and developing practical and scholarly applications of OCB’s and developing the roles of individual spirituality and workplace spirituality as distinct assets in the general business culture: (1) the moderating effect of workplace spirituality in the relationship between individual spirituality and …

The Industry And Occupation Incidence Of State Mandated Maternity Benefits, Adam Bahr

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Government mandates are often used to promote equality in the workplace, often imposing additional costs upon employers. Economic theory suggest that these additional costs will be shifted onto the employees through a reduction in wages. However, when wage shifting is not an option due to anti-discrimination laws, how will employers respond to the additional costs imposed? Gruber (1994) found that wage shifting occurs when the groups benefiting from a government mandate are easily identifiable to the employer, despite the existence of anti-discrimination laws.

This study seeks to further the work of Gruber (1994) and examine wage shifting at an industry …

Study On Recovery Of Bad Social Media Reviews In The Hospitality Industry Using Project Management Principles, Franck Legrand

Dissertations and Theses

This research is about hotel guest recovery on social media. Whenever a guest has a bad experience during their stay, they share their opinion on social media. Negative reviews can damage hotel’s performance. This research seeks to gather information on the expectations of guest based on their personal experiences. Answering guests’ complaints on social media is a difficult task, as it requires an understanding of each guest personality traits. This thesis develops a methodology in order to understand the personality of guests, provide a clear response to answer the guests feedback on social media, help hotel managers to regain trust …

Three Essays On Diversity-Performance Relationship From A Positive Psychology Lens, Manpreet Kaur

Theses and Dissertations

Workplace diversity is an incessant notion in today’s world. Scholars have examined different aspects of diversity (e.g. demographic, cultural, and informational) in context of varying processes and outcomes (e.g. satisfaction, innovation, creativity, and performance). Diversity has been proposed as a double-edged sword, but the overall effects of diversity have been inconclusive, necessitating the investigation of more contextual variables. Efforts have been made to focus on this paucity of diversity research, however, the emphasis has been on objective variables and the positive characteristics of an individual or a team are neglected.

Thus, the purpose of this three-essay dissertation is to address …

A Content Analysis Of Section 1983 Litigation Against Reserve Police Officers, Michael Ryan Broadus

Master's Theses

Police studies have well developed a demonstrative framework for detailing risks which generate financially-detrimental civil litigation – particularly regarding 42 U.S.C. §1983. Conversely, though, police studies have given little attention to the often-used but differentially-trained reserve police officer. Primarily replicating the methodologies of Kappeler, Kappeler, and del Carmen (1993) and Ross (2000), this descriptive study sought to fill this void via a manifest content approach to purposively select a sample of Section 1983 cases decided by U.S. District Courts over a 16-year period (2001-2016) to determine: (1) if significant liability was generated by reserve officers, (2) the main basis for …

Soft Skills Influence In Project Managers In The Cloud Space, Katherine Silva

Dissertations and Theses

In technology companies, Project Managers (PM) are being required to develop a set of soft skills, in addition to their technical expertise, in order to positively influence project’s outcomes and succeed in their professional careers. New technologies known as “Cloud”, “Cloud computing”, and “Cloud technology” are being adopted by companies to organize their projects with top technology, and their people with the skills required to work with them. The present work examines academic research and available literature associated to the soft skills related to project management and project managers in the Cloud space in order to identify the top soft …

Bim And Project Management In Aec Industry, Nazanin Kamyab

Dissertations and Theses

Building Information Modeling has altered project managers’ role in architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. In theory Building Information Modeling (BIM) has promised the project managers to enhance communication and collaboration aspect of managing their projects, thus increasing the efficiency and success rate of the AEC industry projects. However, in real world application, project managers had challenges and barriers with BIM implementation into their processes. This study intends to highlight the main characteristics of the BIM, its benefits, barriers and risk management capabilities to elaborate on why BIM adoption has been slower than anticipated. Based on quantitative data collection through …

Applying The Agile Mechanism In The Clinical Trails Domain For Drug Development, Jitendrakumar Narola

Dissertations and Theses

The current speed of economic growth has greatly affected the means of pharmaceutical organizational operations in the establishment of clinical trials. Pharmaceutical organizations are looking for ways to increase customer experience and reduce costs of production in the process. The customer experiences can be increased by creating a forum for active participation during the processes of the establishment. Equally, the costs of production and conducting research study can be ensured through the reduction of reworking chances. Through the creation of this experience, the effectiveness of the clinical trials needs to be properly created. Traditionally, organizations used waterfall methodology in the …

Internet Of Things (Iot) And Changing Face Of Project Management, Vikram Singh Prasher

Dissertations and Theses

Internet of Things (IoT) or Industrial Internet is a modern day catchword, which over the past few years has tremendously impacted numerous aspects of almost-all the advanced technology fields. IoT framework envisions transforming the everyday objects into intelligent systems, while working under a common infrastructure and by connecting the global network of devices and machines over the internet. Based on many underlying interdisciplinary ecosystems, like sensor network, embedded systems, big data platforms, cloud computing and service-oriented architecture; IoT projects are non-traditional in many ways. Such projects involve research and development phase, more technical work, are lengthy, require advanced skill sets …

Risk Management In Telemedicine Projects In Healthcare, Shalini Sakinala

Dissertations and Theses

Telemedicine could fundamentally change health care in the United States by delivering treatments using telecommunications platform. The primary purpose of the proposed study is to identify the various risks involved in Telemedicine projects in healthcare, find out their causes and explore the ways in which the risks can be mitigated. This approach has been a striking evolution in the current healthcare sector. Telemedicine is hugely successful in the operations of the organization. Inspite of the huge success ratio, there are certain risks associated with Telemedicine which needs to be managed. The Literature review on Telemedicine was conducted in three core …

The Influence Of An Electronic Attendance Monitoring System On Undergraduate Academic Success, Charles Childress

Dissertations

Investing in human capital development increases education levels, workplace skills, and boost individual abilities. Undergraduate students who attend class and perform well are more likely to get jobs, due to their development of workplace skills. State governments, as the funding bodies for public universities, are finding it beneficial to increase the number of college graduates because a citizenry that is prepared for the job market is ultimately good for the state. States recognize that an increase in education can produce job opportunities for citizens. University administrators can employ tactics to increase graduation rates, one of which is monitoring students’ class …

Mitigating Risk: A Delphi Study Identifying Competencies In Sport And Event Security Management, Elizabeth Voorhees

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify core competencies for supervisory-level security management professionals working in the sports and entertainment industry. Qualified and trained sport and event security-management professionals are essential to support the U.S. homeland security objectives outlined in Presidential Policy Directive-21. Providing effective safety and security for sports and entertainment events requires specialized knowledge and skill on the behalf of security-management practitioners who detect, deter, prevent, and respond to potential risks and threats. This qualitative research study employed a Delphi research design to elicit expertise from a purposefully selected panel of experts (N = 36). The …

Employee Longevity In Difficult Environments, Loretta Tolliver

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

Worker tenure in this country averages 4.5 years (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Stressful work environments cause loss productivity and profitability to companies and a diminished well-being and ill health to employees. Why, then, do some employees remain working in difficult environments despite the dangers to health? This phenomenological study researches reasons employees continued to work for longer than five years in difficult environments. Discussed are impacts of difficult environments on employees and the negative health repercussions experienced. These negative effects are also experienced in organizations through turnover, lower productivity, and reduced profitability. This study incorporates factors of toxic environments on …

Toward A Model Of Strategic Human Capital Management Using The Balanced Scorecard - An Exploratory Case Study, Jeffrey A. Risinger

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

The issue of strategic human capital management has been studied and written about extensively over the last 20 years. Much of the focus of this work has addressed the need for internal human resources organizations to transition from transactional, processing organizations to more strategic partner functions addressing the key business needs of the organization. The vast majority of the research addressing this transition has focused on the professional characteristics of senior human resource executives. Whereas the literature presents anecdotal evidence of progress, there also exists consensus support for the idea that very little systemic movement has occurred at the organizational …

Examining Rating Source Differences In Narrative Performance Feedback, Kevin Doyle

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of the present study was to examine the narrative feedback quality and content of comments from supervisors, peers, and subordinates in a multisource performance feedback context. Research on performance management interventions tends to focus on issues such as rater training, scale development, scale formats, and reducing test and rater bias. However, other components in performance management interventions have received little attention, including narrative feedback. Narrative feedback takes the form of written comments describing the ratee’s performance on different dimensions. The narrative feedback quality variables included favorability, specificity, goal content, and feedback length. Predictor variables of narrative feedback quality …

Exploring Grit In The Experiences Of Higher Education Development Officers: A Phenomenological Study, Jessica A. Mccann

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study was designed to gain insight into experiences of grit by development officers in higher education as they pursued their goals and processed their disappointments in the course of soliciting major gifts. Three main domains of literature underpinned the research: (a) motivation theory, (b) goal-setting theory, and (c) the grit model. An extensive literature review revealed little is known about how individuals make sense and assign meaning to their experiences of passion and perseverance, and less is known about how development officers in higher education foundations and institutionally-related nonprofit organizations decide how to set and pursue goals …

The Role Of Project Management In Fostering Creativity: Towards Successful Architectural Design Projects, Angeliki Giannoulatou Destouni

Dissertations and Theses

The present study aims to identify best practices for project management, which can reinforce creativity in architectural design projects. Although creativity is a critical component of any successful design process, there is no existing literature or systematic documentation of what project management can do to cultivate it within an architecture work environment. Therefore, this research first explores existing theories and bibliography to define creativity and its conducive factors, and draw some hypotheses on the potential contributions of an architectural project manager. The validity of these hypotheses in practice is then tested through a survey, which mostly confirmed and expanded them. …

Key Competencies For Project Managers: An Empirical Study, Sahil Sandhu

Dissertations and Theses

Extant project management literature on the factors that impact the success of projects suggests that the traits, competencies and leadership style of project managers positively impact project success. Despite this understanding, the key competencies and personality traits of projects managers is an under-researched area. While some studies are available that examine whether a particular behavioural trait of the project manager improves his / her efficiency, few studies prepare a list of the key competencies/traits of successful project managers. Given this consideration, the present study aims to prepare a comprehensive list of the traits/qualities of a project manager crucial for project …