Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons^™

Hotel Manager Strategies To Reduce Voluntary Employee Turnover, Christl Arwen Kroeten

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The voluntary turnover rate in the United States hotel industry is among the highest of all industries, resulting in lost revenue. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies hotel managers use to reduce voluntary employee turnover. The targeted population consisted of 6 managers from hotel businesses operating in the MidAtlantic region of the United States who successfully used strategies to reduce voluntary employee turnover. Job embeddedness theory, this study's theoretical framework, was used to describe reasons employees remained in organizations. Data were gathered via semistructured interviews, observational notes, and public business records regarding turnover or retention …

Transformational Leadership And Job Satisfaction In The Federal Government, Dorothy Marquitia Thomas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since 2002, the federal government has disseminated surveys to all of its federal agencies

to obtain employees' views on the federal agencies' work environments. This study examined the relationship between employees' perception of their leaders' transformational leadership skills and employee job satisfaction. This study was conducted in a metropolitan area in the midwestern United States using 12 federal agencies, totaling approximately 33,000 employees. The theoretical framework for this study was transformational leadership theory. The 5 constructs published by House and Burns were used in multifactor leadership questionnaire surveys by scholarly and peer-reviewed studies and represent the primary leadership skills. The …

Effective Strategies To Reduce Employee Turnover In The Retail Industry, Robert Clayton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover negatively affects retail organizations and can lead to poor financial performance, a decrease in competitive advantage, loss of productivity, deficiencies in retaining external customers, and economic failures. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies that retail store leaders from the Illinois area of the United States use to reduce frontline employee turnover. Herzberg's 2-factor theory provided the framework for the study. Data were collected from documents pertaining to retention methods and through face-to-face semistructured interviews with 7 leaders of a retail company in the Illinois area who had experience with effective employee retention strategies. …

The Survival Of Healthcare In Rural Texas, Destin Cook

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Over 80 rural hospitals have closed in the United States since 2010, representing about half of all hospital closures during this period, and another 600-700 rural hospitals are at risk of closing shortly. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study, which was based on transformational leadership and diffusion of innovation theories, was to gain a common understanding of financial problems and operational inefficiencies that may be impacting rural hospital leaders in the state of Texas. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with 4 senior healthcare leaders from 3 separate regions in Texas. Data analysis included compiling, sorting, fragmenting, and …

Crop Insurance Strategies For Mitigating Net Underwriting Losses, Kennedy K. Kitur

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Crop insurance is an essential risk management tool for America's agricultural producers because a single crop failure or disastrous year can eliminate the results of multiple years of profitability. Crop insurance is designed to provide financial protection to farmers; however, insurance managers who lack managerial underwriting strategies disrupt companies to the point of financial distress. Self-insurance and self-protection theory were the conceptual frameworks for this single-case study to explore successful strategies that insurance managers used to mitigate net underwriting losses. Four insurance and senior strategic managers from an insurance company in the midwestern United States were recruited through a purposeful …

Strategies For Reducing Corporate Accountants' Turnover Through Implementing Workplace Flexibility, Elizabeth Nwoseh-Streeter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Flexibility in the workplace is no longer perceived as a benefit to employees but as a requirement for organizations to remain competitive. Financial compensation alone may be insufficient to encourage employee retention. The purpose of this qualitative, single case study was to explore the strategies that corporate accounting and finance leaders implement to promote workplace flexibility for increasing accountants' retention. The conceptual framework for this study was Karasek's demand control support framework. The research sample consisted of 6 corporate accounting and finance leaders who had a history of successfully implementing a workplace flexibility program. Data analysis consisted of compiling the …

Strategies To Reduce Maquiladora Employee Absenteeism In Mexico, Antonio Jose Cachazo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee absenteeism is a costly problem, affecting organizations' ability to deliver products and services. Finding strategies managers use to help reduce employee absenteeism is critical to sustain operational capacity, control labor costs, and to achieve organizational success. Drawing from the Herzberg 2-factors theory, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore strategies implemented by six business organizations to reduce employee absenteeism in the maquiladora industry in Mexico. Through semistructured interviews, 11 management participants shared strategies implemented to reduce absenteeism. In addition, other data sources, such as organizational policies, management graphs, and meeting minutes were used. Data were coded …

Using Ecommerce To Improve Product Marketing And Profitability In Nigeria, Olayinka Thomas-Ogboja

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small and medium enterprises in Nigeria rarely use eCommerce, which has led to lagging market shares and profitability compared to firms in other countries that use eCommerce. Approximately 90% of boutique fashion businesses shut down their businesses due to the inability to operate outside their business location. The social exchange theory was used in this multiple case study to explore how some small business owners in the boutique fashion industry use eCommerce to improve product marketing and profitability in Nigeria. The target population for this study was 5 fashion boutique owners based in Lagos State, Nigeria with a significant record …

Social Security Administration Employee Lived Experiences Of Job Satisfaction And Employee Turnover, Lafaun Cain

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover continues to be an issue in federal organizations, including the Social Security Administration (SSA). While issues such as retiring baby boomers and budget constraints are beyond the control of any agency, retaining employees is critical to maintain essential services. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore SSA employee's lived experiences of job satisfaction and employee turnover to uncover motivators and satisfaction strategies. The conceptual framework for the study was based on Maslow's human needs and Herzberg's two-factor theory. Data were collected from 20 SSA frontline employees using 6 open-ended interview questions. The data were analyzed …

Private Sector Defense Contractor Management Strategies For Contract Fulfillment, Rachel Stallworth

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Private sector U.S. defense contractors failing to meet contract objectives experience lower profitability, pay costly penalties, and risk survivability. Using the theory of contracts, the purpose of this multiple case study was to the explore strategies that some leaders of U.S. defense contracting businesses use to meet all the contract terms with the U.S. Department of Defense. Data were collected from 5 leaders of private sector defense contracting companies in northwest Florida through face-to-face, semistructured interviews and through a review of operations manuals, quality assurance policy manuals, and archived U.S. Department of Defense contracts. During data analysis using Yin's 5-step …

Effective Strategies For Managing The Outsourcing Of Information Technology, Marsha N. Hopwood

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

More than half of information technology (IT) outsourced projects fail, primarily due to a lack of effective management practices surrounding the outsourcing end-to-end process. Ineffective management of the IT outsourcing (ITO) process affects organizations in the form of higher than expected project costs, including greater vendor switching or reintegration costs, poor quality, and loss of profits. These effects indicate that some business leaders lack the strategies to effectively manage the ITO process. The purpose of this single-case study was to apply the transaction cost economics (TCE) theory to explore strategies 5 business professionals use to manage an ITO project in …

Increasing Employee Retention Within The Georgia Division Of Family And Children Services, Santoria Lushell Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Walden University

College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation by

Santoria Lushell Williams

has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects,

and that any and all revisions required by

the review committee have been made.

Review Committee

Dr. Hilda Shepeard, Committee Chairperson,

Public Policy and Administration Faculty

Dr. Clarence Williamson, Committee Member,

Public Policy and Administration Faculty

Dr. Anne Hacker, University Reviewer,

Public Policy and Administration Faculty

Chief Academic Officer

Eric Riedel, Ph.D.

Walden University

2018

In Fulton County, Georgia, the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) child-welfare workers …

Projecting Lower Competence To Maintain Moral Warmth In The Avoidance Of Prosocial Requests, Peggy J. Liu, Stephanie C. Lin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

When faced with prosocial requests, consumers face a difficult decision between taking on the request’s burden or appearing unwarm (unkind, uncaring). We propose that the desire to refuse such requests while protecting a morally warm image leads consumers to under-represent their competence. Although consumers care strongly about being viewed as competent, five studies showed that they downplayed their competence to sidestep a prosocial request. This effect occurred across both self-reported and behavioral displays of competence. Further, the downplaying competence effect only occurred when facing an undesirable prosocial request, not a similarly undesirable proself request. The final studies showed that people …

Developing A Resilient Network Ambidexterity Scale, Edgar Perez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to develop a resilient network ambidexterity scale. While numerous research efforts have considered the dimensions of social capital, resilience, and adaptive capacity to evaluate organizations and communities, few have explored social network indicators within organizations that can be used to mobilize ambidextrous strategies during times of disruption. The emphasis here was to understand the tendencies and behaviors that networks possess to sustain or achieve success along the parallel strategies of optimization and exploration. This study progressed in three specific phases toward filling this void in organizational development literature, using a mixed-methods approach. Phase 1 …

Agency Theory And Corporate Governance In China: A Meta-Analysis, Canan C. Mutlu, Marc Van Essen, Mike W. Peng, Sabrina F. Saleh

Faculty Articles

Do agency theory-based “good corporate governance” principles indeed apply to China? A straightforward answer to this question is lacking, because evidence is inconclusive across studies. We endeavor to fill this gap by conducting the first meta-analysis on the China literature with two focuses. First, we assess the impact of (i) board independence, (ii) board leadership structure, and (iii) managerial incentives on firm performance, as these elements have been central to both agency theory as well as to Chinese corporate governance reforms. Second, we extend current theorizing by showing support for the temporal hypothesis, which states that over time, with the …

Testing The Measurement Invariance Of Data From The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale By Generational Cohort For Employees In The Leisure And Hospitality Industry, Greggory Keiffer

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

Group comparison in social science research is a common and informative practice. The establishment of measurement invariance between groups is a statistical prerequisite before making group mean comparisons; however, researchers often do not include measurement invariance assessments before making group comparisons. The current study assessed the measurement invariance for data from the short version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) for the generational cohort groups of Boomers and Millennials within the leisure and hospitality industry. Group equivalency was determined by utilizing propensity score matching before conducting measurement invariance assessments through the confirmatory factor analysis technique. Measurement invariance results between …

How Decision Makers Learn To Choose Organizational Performance Measures, Annemarie N. Hooge

Theses & Dissertations

This study, framed by decision making, program theory, and performance measurement theory, explored the knowledge and experience that enable decision makers to identify organizational performance measures. It used a mixed method, exploratory sequential research design to discover the experience, knowledge, and skills (EKS) senior decision makers felt were important in learning to choose organizational performance measures. From the analyzed interviews, a survey was designed to measure the importance of the EKS characteristics. Qualitative analysis identified 55 life, work, or educational experience; knowledge; or skill characteristics and 23 effective measure characteristics. Regression analysis and PCA were used to extract 6 components. …

Call Center Experience Optimization: A Case For A Virtual Predictive Queue, William Pugh

Theses & Dissertations

The evolution of the call center into contact centers and the growth of their use in providing customer-facing service by many companies has brought considerable capabilities in maintaining customer relationships but it also has brought challenges in providing quality service when call volumes are high. Limited in their ability to provide service at all times to all customers, companies are forced to balance the costs associated with hiring more customer service representatives and the quality of service provided by a fewer number. A primary challenge when there are not enough customer service representatives to engage the volume of callers in …

Emerging Research Institutions' Technology Transfer Supply Chain Networks' Sustainability Budget Resource Planning Tool Development, Clovia Hamilton

Winthrop Faculty and Staff Publications

Emerging Research Institution (ERls) can benefit from patent licensing revenues from the transfer f patented technologies into the commercial marketplace because these added revenues can help research institutions become more sustainable financially. However, many ERls struggle to succeed in technology transfer. This study describes the development of a university technology transfer supply chain network sustainability tool that private and public ERls can use to become more self-reliant financially. Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are ERls and are used as a case study. HBCUs lag behind their peer non-HBCUs because historically they have been under-served and were originally established largely …

Developing A Digital Contents Valuing Model: How Users Appreciate Their Values, Changsu Kim, Jongheon Kim

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The principal objective of this paper was to propose and verify a digital content valuing model, which is expected to perform a significant role in future research, and provide novel and practical implications. For the efficacy of a model for the evaluation of digital content value, this study reviewed digital content value and categorized it into intrinsic, interaction, and business value. Based on the research model, we attempted to identify and assess the effects of intrinsic digital content value on digital content interaction value, and to characterize the relationship between digital content interaction value and digital content business value. Consequently, …