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Full-Text Articles in Business

The Leader's Role In Motivating Public Sector Workers, James B. Meeks Jr Oct 2020

The Leader's Role In Motivating Public Sector Workers, James B. Meeks Jr

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In municipalities throughout the United States, there exists a belief that many public sector workers are unmotivated, disengaged from their work and disinterested in serving the public (Lavigna, 2014). This qualitative case study sought to understand the central phenomenon of the perceptions of public sector leaders in South Carolina for motivating their workers. Herzberg’s theory regarding the efficacy of leaders to understand the intrinsic motivational factors influencing worker performance, along with the four aspects of transformational leadership served as the theoretical framework for this study. Franklin (2016) explored the impact of leadership styles using Herzberg’s two-factor theory and a variety …


Evaluating Ethical Technology Leadership: Organizational Culture, Leader Behavior, And A Cyberspace Ethic Of Business, Mark Lee Pickel Oct 2020

Evaluating Ethical Technology Leadership: Organizational Culture, Leader Behavior, And A Cyberspace Ethic Of Business, Mark Lee Pickel

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Evaluating ethical technology leadership at a financial services firm in North Carolina requires discovering interactions amongst organizational culture, leadership approaches, and ethical decision-making practices. This study provides insight into how the participating firm’s organizational culture creates a leadership climate accommodative of an applied cyberspace business ethic. A cyberspace business ethic provides guidance to technology leaders addressing ethical challenges arising from emergent digital technologies. The identification of four key influencers that support ethical decision-making and provide protection against reputational risk exposures create an understanding of the collective nature of core values, relational, reputational, and technological influences on ethical behaviors. Self-determination theory …


Leadership Behaviors And Their Impact On Employee Retention, Shaun Patrick Nichols Sep 2020

Leadership Behaviors And Their Impact On Employee Retention, Shaun Patrick Nichols

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study analyzed the impact leadership behaviors had on employee retention in the Houston, Texas manufacturing sector. Many authors’ work was reviewed with literature pertaining to leadership behaviors and employee retention. Multiple interviews were conducted with current leadership at Houston, Texas manufacturing organizations to gain a better understanding of the experience of these employees. The results of the leadership study have a profoundly positive impact on employee retention. Three emergent themes were developed based on data analysis, which included empathy, listening, and employee development.


Assessing Whether The Regional Differences Between Countries Influence Business Strategies Of Multinational Companies, Christopher Scott Powell Aug 2020

Assessing Whether The Regional Differences Between Countries Influence Business Strategies Of Multinational Companies, Christopher Scott Powell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of the qualitative multi-case study design study is to add to the body of knowledge by exploring how MNCs in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland (a) employ global approaches in their foreign market operations and (b) differ in their outcomes in international activities compared with their corresponding domestic operations. Findings from the study have shown that cultural differences between the home and host companies have a profound effect on the internationalization strategy. Most of the managers included in the study reported that their organizations encourage diversity and cultural competencies. They also recommended conducting a …


Effective Strategic Decision-Making Strategies For Plant Managers In Pharmaceutical And Medical Device Manufacturing In Modern Day Puerto Rico: A Qualitative Case Study, Cherisa Irene Jerez Jun 2020

Effective Strategic Decision-Making Strategies For Plant Managers In Pharmaceutical And Medical Device Manufacturing In Modern Day Puerto Rico: A Qualitative Case Study, Cherisa Irene Jerez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative, collective case study covers the experience of strategic decision making in a pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing environment in Puerto Rico during the current economic crisis. The medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in Puerto Rico was selected because of the tax expirations targeting this specific industry and the predominance on the island this industry represents in the manufacturing environment. Despite Puerto Rico’s dominance in medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing over the past 60 years, the current financial and government crisis poses a significant threat to executive level commitment toward maintaining operations on the island. Research questions focused …


Healthcare Facilities Management Leadership Style Compared To Traditional Healthcare Business And Clinical Leaders, Joshua Paul Ashlock May 2020

Healthcare Facilities Management Leadership Style Compared To Traditional Healthcare Business And Clinical Leaders, Joshua Paul Ashlock

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The healthcare environment presents constant challenges related to the provision of safe and quality care to patients. Interactions between traditional business and clinical healthcare leaders and healthcare facilities management leaders are increasing to meet the environment of care needs for healthcare organizations. This study examined the leadership style differences between two healthcare leadership groups, represented by the American College of Healthcare Executive members as well as members of the American Society of Healthcare Engineers and provides insight into the leadership trait differences between these groups. Transformational leadership traits and self-perception of outcomes for leadership showed higher within the ACHE group, …


Effective Leadership Practices Of Blue-Collar Workers In Manufacturing Organizations, Graham Wesley Howard May 2020

Effective Leadership Practices Of Blue-Collar Workers In Manufacturing Organizations, Graham Wesley Howard

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study investigated and analyzed leadership’s impact on the frontline, blue-collar workers in manufacturing industries in the Southeastern United States that were non-union companies. This study is a qualitative, multiple case study that investigated leadership practices at three different manufacturing facilities. The specific effects of leadership that this study focused on was how leaders affected employee outcomes such as turnover, satisfaction, and motivation. The results of this study identified a need for leadership training in blue-collar, manufacturing industries as well as the need to develop stronger leader-follower relations in order to improve employee turnover, satisfaction, and motivation within manufacturing industries.


Dead Men At War: The Ideological Battle Between Karl Marx And Adam Smith, Matthew Beals Apr 2020

Dead Men At War: The Ideological Battle Between Karl Marx And Adam Smith, Matthew Beals

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis’s foremost purpose is to illustrate the nature of the intellectual battle waged between Karl Marx and Adam Smith. A detailed summary of each philosopher’s respective ideology is given, as well as an explanation for how such ideologies arose. Furthermore, an illustration of how the writings of Marx and Smith impacted historical events is provided. Ultimately, this thesis seeks to explain the core differences between Marxism and the free market system, and why such differences exhibit a great need for the preservation of liberty.


Mentoring Relationships Among Women Leaders, Gayle Fauber Elliott Apr 2020

Mentoring Relationships Among Women Leaders, Gayle Fauber Elliott

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative research collective case study explored the mentoring relationships among veteran women leaders and novice women leaders in the nuclear vendor industry in Central Virginia. The general problem addressed in this study was the potential lack of mentoring relationships among women leaders despite the many advantages of mentoring. The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to add to the body of knowledge of the lack of mentoring relationships among women leaders in a technical industry by exploring the mentoring experiences, or lack thereof, and the perception of women on mentoring who are or have been in leadership …


A Qualitative Study On The Detrimental Impacts Of Attrition In Mid-Level Managers In The Marine Corps, Richard Lee Diddams Jr Mar 2020

A Qualitative Study On The Detrimental Impacts Of Attrition In Mid-Level Managers In The Marine Corps, Richard Lee Diddams Jr

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of the qualitative, case study research was to explore leadership and retention factors associated with Marine Corps officers the Marine Corps desired to retain until retirement eligible. The objective was to explore the views of Command and Staff students who were at the mid-point of their career and faced with retention decisions. The study incorporated a comprehensive document review focused on leadership and retention, Marine Corps precepts involving promotion and retention policies, Marine Corps leadership and retention archival documents, and participant interviews using semi-structured questions to obtain insight into the research questions. The study involved the dynamic relationship …


Exploring The Essence Of Participation Of The Female Puerto Rican Basketball Athlete, Roberto Medina Mar 2020

Exploring The Essence Of Participation Of The Female Puerto Rican Basketball Athlete, Roberto Medina

Masters Theses

In Puerto Rico, little is known regarding how female collegiate and professional basketball players perceive and experience their playing participation. The population of girls playing basketball has experienced recent increases. However, the culture in Puerto Rico has yet to embrace the participation of female basketball athletes. Attempting to address the void in scholarly literature, this study explored female athlete participation perceptions in competitive basketball within the Puerto Rican sport culture. The investigation implemented a qualitative approach using a phenomenological methodology to form descriptive themes. Data was obtained from 14 female basketball athletes, of which 10 were student-athletes, and four were …


Authentic Leadership's Ethical Influence On Retail Telecom Performance Management Systems, Arin S. Crandall Jan 2020

Authentic Leadership's Ethical Influence On Retail Telecom Performance Management Systems, Arin S. Crandall

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative study of retail telecommunication salespeople and their employers supported the existing literature about authentic leadership’s positive influence on organizational citizenship behavior, affective commitment, ethical climate, and employee motivation in balancing performance management systems. Through salesperson self-regulation, this study also supported goal setting and other task-based motivation theories. The study added to the paucity of research on the relationship of pressure to unethical behavior and found the time dimension of goals was less important than threatening pressure. Both ethical codes and personal values were found to motivate ethical behavior more than either one by itself. Also, the study found …