Digital Commons Network^™

The Potential Relationship Between The Traits Associated With Left Brain Or Right Brain Dominant Tendencies And The Characteristics Of Leaders Or Managers, Alex Keto

Theses and Graduate Projects

The debate over whether the characteristics of leadership and management are unique characteristics or whether they are one-in-the-same characteristics continues today. In the past, traditionally, the best managers within a company were promoted to roles of leadership and many times these new leaders failed. There is growing support for the concept that the characteristics of highly effective leaders and managers are unique. A review of these characteristics reveals a potential relationship between the characteristics of exceptional managers and the traits that have been associated with left brain dominant tendencies. The characteristics of exceptional leaders relate to the traits that have …

Faith Based Environmental Stewardship: Practices And Attitudes Of Christian Churches On Virginia’S Northern Neck And Eastern Shore, Paoula Sehannie

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the relationship between religion and the environment. The purpose of this project is to explore the environmental practices and attitudes of Christian churches in two Virginia Communities. The two communities; the Northern Neck and Eastern Shore are located on the Chesapeake Bay and have a shared history of dependence on the Bay. The results of the dissertation demonstrate the prevalence of environmental programs in the population, the nature of these programs and the respondents’ attitudes towards a host of environmental issues. These results can be used by environmental professionals and …

Residential Broadband Access For Students At Walters State Community College., Mark A. Hurst

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the availability of internet access for students attending Walters State Community College during the spring semester 2010. In particular, it is unknown to what degree broadband internet access is available in the counties that Walters State considers the service area of the college.

The research was conducted during the spring semester 2010 including the months February, March, and April of 2010. Data were gathered by surveying currently enrolled students of the college. Twelve percent of the population responded to the study. The survey instrument covered the areas of demographics, Internet connection type …

A Study Of The Effects Of The Length Of Student-Teaching Experiences On New Teacher Efficacy., Alan Wayne Addison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between the length of student-teaching experiences and new teacher efficacy. Each year thousands of prospective new teachers endure the interview processes to be hired, complete induction programs, and begin their careers only to determine that the teaching profession is not what they assumed it would be. Local school districts spend thousands of dollars each year on orientation for these new teachers only to find them resigning within the first 5 years of service. Increasing new teacher efficacy is imperative to reducing new teacher attrition rates. The more student-teaching experiences an individual collects before entering the …

Vital Collaboratives, Alliances, And Partnerships: A Search For Key Elements Of An Effective Public-Private Partnership., Charles Keith Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Owing to the significant structural changes that have occurred in the global marketplace over the past 2 decades, a corresponding increase of public-private partnerships have been established among the business sector, local governments, and public community colleges. This qualitative project sought to identify and substantiate key elements that may be common to the formation, implementation, and maintenance stages of public-private partnerships. Who or what minimum conditions are necessary to the successful navigation of each stage? What obstacles typically arise during each stage, and how are they managed or circumvented? What sorts of benefits are generated through these partnerships and what …

Educational Interventions For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Perceptions Of Parents And Teachers In A Northeast Tennessee School System., Paula Anderson Nickels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study investigated the perceptions of parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), special education teachers, and general education teachers in a Northeast Tennessee public school system regarding educational interventions for children with ASD including what interventions they have found effective, the barriers and challenges they have faced, and how they view their relationships with one another.

Data were collected through interviews with a purposeful sample of 7 parents of 6 children with autism spectrum disorders, 8 special education teachers, and 6 general education teachers and a review of documents. Parent and teacher participants represented children at …

On The Outside Looking In: A Qualitative Study Of Southern Appalachian First-Generation Students' Perceptions Of Higher Education., Michael Steven Briggs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate Southern Appalachian, first-generation students' expectations of higher education. Research indicates that many first-generation students drop out of college after only 1 semester; however, little research exists concerning the expectations and experiences of first-generation college students from Southern Appalachia.

The study employs a qualitative methodology based in the tradition of grounded theory to highlight students' experiences while encouraging the emergence of data-driven theory based on what the researcher heard. Thus, the entire study is couched in the interpretivist philosophy of research.

Eleven full-time university students were interviewed for the study. They were asked to identify …

Freshman Academies: A Study Of Student Outcomes., Karen Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The transition to high school has been identified by researchers as a pivotal point in students' lives. The addition of a Freshman Academy in some schools has targeted the 9th grade year to ease students' transition to high school and increase the likelihood of academic success.

One purpose of this study is to compare student outcomes of schools that have implemented a Freshman Academy with schools that have not. Student outcomes are defined for this study to include graduation rates, attendance rates, instances of out-of-school suspensions, and instances of expulsions. The second purpose of this study is to compare student …

Automation And Its Effects On The Workforce., Daniel L. Lawson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Companies are constantly involved in automating processes to make them more efficient. Project details concentrate on corporate details. Little, if any, information is released about employees and how they are affected. This study is designed to determine if employees affected by the automation of a manufacturing or business process have a better life and consider themselves to be successful from their own perspective 5 years after the automation was completed. The study also established the things that helped and barriers that hindered their success. A survey was developed and sent to 63 individuals who have participated in a project to …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Implementing Response To Intervention In Meeting Academic Needs Of At-Risk Students In Kindergarten Through Second Grade., Tammy Conchita Valentine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) increased educators' awareness of Response to Intervention (RTI) as a means of providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student needs. The challenges that came with RTI were meeting every student's need, implementing scientific research-based interventions, and expecting mastery of grade-level standards.

The purpose of this study was to create a foundation of knowledge through exploratory case study interviews in 4 rural school districts in East Tennessee. All participants were certified teachers of kindergarten, 1st grade, or 2nd grade students. The guided interview approach was used to identify teachers' …

A Tumultuous Tenure: The Presidency Of Lyndon Baines Johnson., Michael Paul Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a work that focuses on how significant the press was to the success and failure of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. In the thesis, three aspects of the Johnson years are analyzed. The first chapter discusses the media's portrayal of Lyndon Johnson during the presidential campaign of 1964. The second chapter is an analysis of how the press reported on President Johnson concerning the issue of civil rights. The third chapter dissects the media's perception of Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam conflict. The primary research used in the thesis is a culmination of polls, editorials, personal letters, and …

A Comparison Prior To And After Implementation Of A Ninth Grade Academy In East Tennessee High Schools., Judy Alisa Teffeteller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify student progress during the 9th grade year by evaluating student data prior to and after the implementation of a 9th grade academy in 2 east Tennessee high schools. The testing variables included the number of core credits earned, the number of elective credits earned, number of absences, and grade point average. Grouping variables included all 9th grade students and 9th grade students by gender prior to and after implementation of the 9th grade academy. Data were collected over 5 years (2005-2010). Paired-samples t-tests were used to make comparisons prior to and after …

Why Violence Is Not The Answer: A Comparison Of Opposition Groups From The Us Civil Rights And Anti-Apartheid Movements, Rebekah Crossman

Honors Projects and Presentations: Undergraduate

Political discontent is present within all societies. Although the circumstances surrounding the formation of a specific movement and its principles may differ, the goals of various political movements are the same. In order to bring about a favorable response in policy from the government, these resistance organizations may choose tactics of violence or non-violence as a means to lobby the government in control. Ability to manipulate the media, gain a strong base of membership within society and produce change from the government serves as a composite measure of effectiveness for each individual resistance group. Using qualitative evidence from organizations from …

Strict Isolation Compliance: A Quality Improvement Initiative Implementation Process, Debra Apenhorst

Theses and Graduate Projects

This is a retrospective description and evaluation of an implementation process for a quality improvement initiative. The intent of the quality improvement initiative was to improve compliance with isolation as a means of reducing healthcare associated infections. The project evaluates the effectiveness of the implementation strategies through the lens of the Health Belief Modal and Watson's theoretical framework. This evaluation considers the health beliefs of healthcare workers and the impact on behavior and implications of nurse as vigilant guardian, protecting the patients by decreasing the risk of acquiring an infection while receiving medical care. Integral to Watson's theory is the …

The Game Of Unity?: The 2007 Cricket World Cup As A Catalyst Toward Caribbean Identity Construction, Peta-Gaye J. Wiggan

Communication Theses

It was paramount for the English-speaking Caribbean to host a successful 2007 Cricket World Cup and field an outstanding West Indian cricket team for the international sporting mega-event. For CARICOM and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), there were two principle goals – first, to exhibit regional Caribbean identity, and second, to be triumphant under the leadership of the West Indian cricket team’s captain, Trinidadian Brian Lara. Identities are multifaceted and intricate, negotiated and renegotiated, based on a history of economic, political and cultural forces. This thesis interrogates Caribbean identity through textual analysis of the broadcast of the opening ceremony …

The Revolving Door: How Leaders Push Teacher Turnover, Suzanne B. Miller

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

THE REVOLVING DOOR: HOW LEADERS PUSH TEACHER TURNOVER

by

Suzanne Kay Bryant Miller

In today’s age of accountability leaders of schools cannot afford to lose quality teachers. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requiring schools to staff all classrooms with “highly qualified teachers” creates a major challenge. Today, more than ever, school systems need to retain their experienced and effective teachers.

While many reasons have been attributed to the revolving-door phenomenon known as teacher turnover, this research suggests that school leaders’ behaviors play a major role in the issue. This qualitative inquiry focused on the perceptions of veteran …

An Examination Of The Impact Of Social Influences On Followers' Assessments Of Male And Female Leadership Behaviors, Mary L. Brown

Theses and Graduate Projects

The idea that people generally may want or expect male and female leaders to lead in similar ways, which appears as an underlying assumption in much of the literature on leadership, should be refined to delineate differences between leadership competence and leadership style. The findings in this qualitative survey suggest that male and female followers expect male and female leaders to demonstrate similar levels of competence based on their having similar skill sets, experience, education levels, and technical training and aptitude; however, people generally believe that male and female leaders exhibit different leadership styles based upon a number of personal …

Rounding Of The Administrative Supervisor And The Engagement Of Charge Nurses In An Acute Hospital Setting, Kellie J. Geiger

Theses and Graduate Projects

Hospitals that generate positive employee engagement can retain employees and produce positive effects on the hospital budget, employee morale, and high quality patient care. The purpose of this research will be to study the relationship of Administrative Supervisor rounding and the employee engagement of unit charge nurses. Understanding the significance regarding hospital leadership presence during off shifts, weekends and holidays can have an impact on employee satisfaction, retention, ill calls, and hospital morale and produce better patient care. The hypothesis for this research focuses on the physical presence of the Administrative Supervisor which leads to greater perceived leadership support and …

Coordinating Code In Virginia’S Historic Districts, Drew Gruber

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the evolution and limitations of regulatory and historic district overlay zones and the inherent conflicts between the two as applied in Virginia. Historic district overlay zoning and the establishment of local historic districts and design review boards has developed in response to the failures of traditional zoning techniques to adequately protect the architectural character of Virginia’s historic urban landscapes. After almost fifty years of practice and improvement in the fields of urban planning and historic preservation, synchronizing regulatory and historic district overlay zones still presents difficulties for municipal administrators. Several Virginia jurisdictions are highlighted in the thesis …

African Water: An Experience With Project Management In Bulima, Tanzania, Robert Sharp

Honors Theses

Details the author's experiences researching, designing, and implementing a water system for a boarding school in Africa.

Bullying Trends And Reporting Preferences Among An Urban, Suburban, And Rural School, Noemi E. Olsen

Theses and Dissertations

Every student has the right to a safe learning environment, yet so many students have been targets of or witnesses of bullying incidents. In spite of school administration efforts to create effective reporting systems and to implement anti-bullying programs, many students remain silent victims. The present study analyzes data collected from a School Safety Survey through SchoolTipline. This data was used to determine the bullying trends, reporting trends, and reporting preferences of 562 7th and 8th grade students at an urban, suburban, and rural school. The results of this study indicate that bullying continues to be a prevalent issue that …

News Credibility And Blogs: Exploring The Effect Of Blog Use On Perceptions Of News Credibility, Daniel Spencer Duerden

Theses and Dissertations

News credibility studies have been around since radio and television began competing with the newspaper industry for consumers' attention. However, at this time, the news industry is experiencing a shift in medium as the Internet is quickly becoming the predominant source by which many get their news. Due to the free and independent nature of the Internet and the rise of blogging as a source by which people get news and information, audience perception of what constitutes a credible source needed to be examined. This study took the dimensions of news credibility that have been set in previous studies and …

A Case Study Of The Impact Of Filmmaker Decisions In The Construction Of A Documentary: Helen Whitney's (2007) The Mormons, Elizabeth Joy Mott

Theses and Dissertations

Informed by theories of media framing, exemplification, and non-fiction film production, this case study used as its sample for textual analysis the typed transcripts from the final cut of Helen Whitney's (2007) documentary film, The Mormons, and the interview transcripts of the 15 key commentators interviewed for the documentary. These theories suggest that (a) media producers condense topics in the media by selecting information that connects news stories to a larger context and imbues them with symbolic value; (b) verbal and visual examples have been shown to be more easily retrieved in memory than abstract ideas and are consequently …

Policy Determinants And Medicaid Managed Care, Diane Elizabeth Brandt

Dissertations

The U.S. Medicaid program is increasingly challenged by reductions in federal entitlement spending, a faltering private sector health insurance base, escalating health care expenditures and an aging and increasingly diverse population. Converging pressures on state Medicaid programs have challenged state policy makers to find new approaches to enhance program efficiency. One of these policy tools is the adoption of Medicaid managed care programs for individuals with chronic illness and disability, particularly important as these enrollees incur the highest health care costs. The increasing prevalence of chronic illness combined with the growth of households in poverty creates significant implications for Medicaid …

Deadly Discourse: Negotiating Bureaucratic Consensus For The Final Solution Through Organizational And Technical Communication, Mark Ward Sr

All Dissertations

The Final Solution was largely accomplished in eleven months; its executors, the Nazi SS, faced the constant problem that as killing and plunder escalated so did internal competition and corruption; and the SS deliberately cultivated an intensely competitive and polycratic organizational culture that fit the Nazi worldview of life-as-struggle. By tying these three observations together—that the Final Solution was punctuated, entropic, and polycratic—the problem arises: How did SS organizational communications manage, just barely long enough, to create a temporary social reality that regulated the internal contradictions of its genocidal project and fragmented bureaucracy? This study contends that through its organizational …

Predictors And Outcomes Of Occupational Commitment Profiles Among Nurses, Lindsay Sears

All Dissertations

Occupational turnover is a costly problem afflicting much of the nursing industry, and occupational commitment is a strong predictor of withdrawal from one's profession. Traditional organizational research examines most commitment-behavior relationships from a variable-centered perspective, focusing on the relationships between constructs. The present study adopts a configural, or person-centered approach aimed at identifying and describing clusters of individuals who share a similar set of occupational commitment mindsets. The present study extends current literature by a) investigating the existence of several occupational commitment profiles and describing their characteristics; b) examining situational and demographic predictors of profile membership; and c) testing differences …

Racial Uplift And Self-Determination: The African Methodist Episcopal Church And Its Pursuit Of Higher Education, Shannon A. Butler-Mokoro

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

The African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, like many historically black denomination over the years, has been actively involved in social change and racial uplift. The concepts of racial uplift and self-determination dominated black social, political, and economic thought throughout the late-eighteenth into the nineteenth century. Having created many firsts for blacks in America, the A.M.E. Church is recognized as leading blacks in implementing the rhetoric of racial uplift and self-determination. Racial uplift was a broad concept that covered issues such as equal rights, moral, spiritual, and intellectual development, and institutional and organizational building. The rhetoric of racial uplift and self-determination …

Integrated Impression Management: How Ncaa Division I Athletics Directors Understand Public Relations, Angela N. Pratt

Doctoral Dissertations

The sport industry has become an enormous cultural and economic force across the globe. Yet it is one that is largely understudied in regards to public relations. In the United States, intercollegiate athletics—particularly football and men’s and women’s basketball—garners a tremendous amount of attention from media, the government, sports fan communities, merchandisers and scholars. However, there is scant research on public relations within intercollegiate athletics departments.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to learn how intercollegiate athletics directors (ADs) from National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I institutions with major basketball programs understand public relations, overall and in the …

Shock Rhetoric, David Robert Nelson

Dissertations

Social movements create a public perception of themselves through rhetorical messages and demonstrations. In order to gain the public's attention, some radical groups use any rhetorical means necessary, including offensive remarks and conduct. Groups, such as the Westboro Baptist Church and Bash Back!, rhetorically challenge the boundaries of prudence. The purpose of this study is to identify, depict, and provide insight regarding shock rhetoric. This study will compare protest methods, visual imagery, and language choices used by Bash Back! and the Westboro Baptist Church. This dissertation helps illuminate why and how groups or individuals use shock rhetoric.

Mainstreaming Evaluation: Four Case Studies Of Systematic Evaluation Integrated Into Organizational Culture And Practices, Amy M. Gullickson

Dissertations

Following a literature review, a researcher generated a descriptive theory of evaluation mainstreaming, the integration of systematic evaluation into the culture, systems, and job responsibilities of organizations. She then explored the validity and generalizability of the theory in the National Science Foundation’s grant-funded Advanced Technological Education Program using mixed methods research. Four centers were chosen based on quantitative survey responses which suggested that the organizations were likely to be mainstreaming evaluation. For each center, the researcher conducted a site visit, interviews, and document review to understand (i) the processes by and extent to which evaluation became part of everyday operations; …