Digital Commons Network^™

Effective Decision-Making Strategies That Support Long-Term Sustainability In Nondenominational Churches, Andre Paul Davis Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ineffective financial decision-making has frequently led to nondenominational church failures and contributes to 4,000 to 8,000 churches closing each year in North America. Grounded in stewardship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore effective financial decision-making strategies in nondenominational churches that support long term sustainability. Participants were 10 church leaders who successfully used financial decision-making strategies to support long-term sustainability in Central North Carolina was used for this study. Data were collected from semi structured interviews and internal church documents relating to church leadership's financial decision-making and analyzed using thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: budgeting …

Treatment Providers’ Perspectives On Restraints And Seclusion For Children In Psychiatric Facilities, Calpurnia Chudi Adamma Okwuone

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The use of restraints and seclusions in psychiatric treatment facilities for children and adolescents has caused major disputes in the healthcare field. Treatment providers determine the need to implement a restraint or seclusion depending on their perceptions of the situation and their responsibility to abide by the rules and regulations of the facility. The purpose of this research was to gain a deep understanding of how treatment providers are affected prior to, during, and following the use of a restraint or seclusion with a child or adolescent patient. Attribution theory was the theoretical framework used to examine this phenomenon. Data …

Exploring The Value Of Technology Within Cross-Departmental Communications, Brian J. Luckey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

While many midsized businesses have invested in technology to support business operations, most have not realized the potential value of using technology to collaborate cross-departmentally. There is a lack of knowledge concerning strategies for using technology to facilitate effective organizational communications, which has resulted in operating technology investments being made without corresponding investments in communication technologies. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to fill the knowledge gap concerning the impact of technology for cross-departmental communications. The theoretical foundation for this study was based on systems theory, organizational theory, and stakeholder theory. The key research question involved the impact …

Strategies Information Technology Managers Use To Motivate Remote Employees, Jennifer Leonard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some managers are experiencing challenges keeping remote workers motivated. Managers are concerned with motivating remote employees to ensure production levels are met or exceeded. Grounded in Vroom’s expectancy theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies information technology (IT) managers from five organizations in the Southeastern United States used to motivate remote employees. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 5 business leaders, company website information, and other documentation provided by the IT leader. Data analysis involved recognizing frequent phenomena and coding meaningful and common themes, phrases, or key words. Four themes were evident: transformation …

A Case Study Of Cutback Management And The Great Recession In A Rural Municipality, Diana L. Menhennick

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Municipalities in Michigan get their power from the state of Michigan who responded to the Great Recession with austerity policies impacting the relationship between local and state government. Evidence points toward the use of cutback management as a long-term coping tool when addressing fiscal shortages. A single case study design documented a rural city manager’s experience in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan using a semistructured interview and 10 years of archived public documents (2006 2016). The participant was selected using random sampling from 11 counties. Cutback management asserts that policymakers will address budget deficits by using initiatives in the short …

Retention Of Case Managers Within The Metro District, Gabrielle Evette Jack

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States has issues involving child abuse/neglect with children being abused and neglected every 47 seconds. In 2018, approximately 443,000 children in the country were in foster care. The purpose of this administrative study was to identify measures for reducing turnover and improving retention among case managers within a GA agency. Qualitative data were collected from 10 case managers through virtual interviews and analyzed using NVivo to identify key themes. The three key themes emerged from the data collected: case managers need support from leaders and supervisors to perform their daily obligations, second, the leaders’ unrealistic expectations make case …

Will It Be Ok Boomers?: Effects Of Precarious Work On Older Job-Insecure Workers, Alissa (Gebben) Neal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The changing nature of work, in conjunction with union power decline, has resulted in increasing levels of job insecurity and precarious work among the global workforce (Benach et al., 2014; Hoffman et al., 2020). Additionally, research has shown that older workers experience work differently than younger workers (Ng & Feldman, 2012), and represent 44% of the workforce in the United States (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). The present study explores the extent to which the confluence of precarious work and age creates a scenario where these workers respond to job insecurity in ways which differ from what is typically depicted …

Regulatory Competition And State Capacity, Martin W. Sybblis

Faculty Articles

This Article explores an underlying tension in the regulatory competition literature regarding why some jurisdictions are more attractive to firms than others. It pays special attention to offshore financial centers (OFCs). OFCs court the business of nonresidents, offer business friendly regulatory environments, and provide for minimal, if any, taxation on their customers. On the one extreme, OFCs are theorized as merely products of legislative capture— thereby lacking any meaningful agency of their own. On the other hand, OFCs are conceptualized as well-governed jurisdictions that attract investment because of the high quality of their laws and legal institutions—indicating some ability to …

Body-Worn Cameras And Organizational Stress In Canadian Policing: A Qualitative Study, Chelsea Doiron

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Body-worn camera (BWC) technology has gained traction in North American police services as a tool to enhance police transparency and accountability. To date, the research available on BWCs has focused on the impact BWCs have on police services, investigations, officer and citizen behaviour, and, police officers’ and community members’ attitudes towards BWCs (Lum et al., 2019). The vast majority of this existing research has been quantitative in nature and has been conducted in the United States, where police practices and policies differ from those in Canada. While there have been a number of pilot projects and research evaluations conducted on …

The Impact Of U.S. Refugee Policy Change & Political Rhetoric On Nonprofit Service Providers’ Emotional Well-Being, Maria V. Wathen, Patrick L.F. Decker, Charity N. Weishar

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

This study examines how U.S. refugee policy changes from 2014 to 2018 affected the emotional well-being of nonprofit service providers. Elements identified by participants as emotionally significant were funding cuts, the “bans”, the unpredictable nature of policy change, and most impactful, negative political rhetoric. Emotional wellbeing was negatively affected and included an increase in stress, anger, sadness, despair, depression, helplessness, frustration, and caution. Negative impacts were also felt with regard to professional identities and to relationships with family, friends, and strangers. Importantly, impact on emotional wellbeing differed by level of organization at which the participant worked and by organizational characteristics.

Effects Of Mediation On Employee Efficiency In Human Services Centers And In Other Organizations That Serve Vulnerable Populations, Mariya Mironova

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Social workers and other professionals who offer caring services to vulnerable populations are oftentimes exposed to stressful environments. Employee burnout, vicarious traumas, and other stressors jeopardize worker’s efficiency. According to previously conducted research studies, organizational and interpersonal conflicts may be effectively addressed through mediation. However, the studies do not address the use of mediation for the resolution of workplace disputes in centers of human services. This study explores effects of mediation on worker’s efficiency in such centers, and this study proposes that mediation positively affects worker’s efficiency. The proposed methodology for testing this proposition involves a single case study with …

A Systems Thinking Approach To Formulating The Problem Of Military Sexual Trauma Among Black Female Veterans, Paula Smith-Benson

Full-Text Theses & Dissertations

Minority veterans are one of the fastest growing veteran populations (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2020b). Research over the last fifty years has documented that minority veterans, especially Black female veterans, are at a disproportionate risk for many problems, such as suicide and military sexual trauma (MST) (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2020b). In order to adequately address problems faced by the Black female veteran population, I argue that the problem must first be adequately formulated by the veteran community and veteran leadership. In this dissertation, I review the current body of literature on military sexual trauma with a systems view, using …

The Onslaught Of Crisis Leadership Advice: Sifting Through Popular Leadership Sources In The Covid-19 Era, R. Tyler Spradley

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

This study critiques COVID-19 crisis leadership discourse in authoritative sources for leadership advice including Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School’s COVID-19 Business Impact Center, and Real Leaders. Two central lines of inquiry drive this study: First, what are the pervasive practice-based recommendations typified in COVID-19 crisis leadership discourse? Second, whose interest does the COVID-19 crisis leadership discourse serve? Conclusions question the widespread practicality of advice and argue that advice functions to reassert the power dynamic of authoritative texts and super leaders over popular crisis leadership press. Furthermore, advice tends to promote command-and-control leadership with implications for taking …

University Libraries 2020-2022 Strategic Plan

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: White Papers

The 2020 Strategic Planning Team: Kelly Connor, Karin Dalziel, Lorna Dawes, Zach Eden, Regina Flowers, Ana Gomez, Lori Harvey, Andrew Jewell (chair), Charlene Maxey-Harris, Tom McFarland, Catherine Fraser Riehle, Claire Stewart

The goal of this plan is to push the University Libraries forward toward a more fully realized achievement of its mission, to enact our commitment to ethical and equitable practices and policies, and to ambitiously grow as a 21st century academic library. This plan is not inclusive of everything that we do; there are many valuable activities and services that are not mentioned, and that is not meant to …

Job Satisfaction And Burnout Among Hospice Nurses Working On Interdisciplinary Teams: A Multimethod Study, Hillary Hamilton

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This multimethod study examined three hypotheses and two research questions: (H1a) Interdisciplinary collaborative communication is positively related to hospice nurses’ experience of job satisfaction in the context of team-based care, (H1b) Interdisciplinary collaborative communication is negatively related to nurses’ experience of burnout in the context of team-based care, (H2) Interdisciplinary collaborative communication is negatively related to nurses’ intent to leave their organization, (RQ1) How does interdisciplinary collaborative communication influence hospice nurses’ experience of job satisfaction and burnout in the context of team-based care?, (RQ2) How does work site influence hospice nurses’ experience of job satisfaction and burnout in the context …

Analysis: Internal Controls Impact On The Mitigation Of Risk And Fraud In Public Finance, Brian Stephens

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Internal controls involve every process that assess or mitigates risks within an organization. From an organizational level, internal control objectives relate to the reliability of financial reporting, measurements on the status of achieving operational or strategic goals, and compliance with laws and regulations. Over the years internal controls have gained the misconception of being merely an accounting or auditing function. However, poor or lapsed internal controls can have devastating effects on an organization. Conversely, an organization that places heavy emphasis on internal controls and leads with an ethical culture are more likely to be successful in meeting their organization’s mission …

Transforming Outcomes To Increase Participation In The Independent Living Program Sponsored By Sunrise Children’S Services, Richard R. Burslem

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

Research demonstrates the transition for aging-out foster youth evidences they are not equipped with the necessary tools to live a self-sufficient adult life. Many children who age-out of the foster system have encountered trauma at multiple levels. Sunrise Children’s Services is an agency in Kentucky committed to changing negative outcomes for this population of individuals.

The optimum goal for children and youth is for them to grow up within their biological family where they receive guidance and support as they mature. For some individuals that is not an option, and the government along with agencies like Sunrise are focused on …

The Effects Of A Strengths Based Faculty Coaching Intervention On First-Year Undergraduate Student Academic Confidence: A Mixed Methods Action Research Study, Conrad Alfred Davies Sr.

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

Deficiency remediation models of education imply that students may enter the university with deficiencies, problems, or needs that imply the student needs to be “fixed” before they can proceed in their academic studies. In contrast, strengths-based education models infer that students come to the university with inherent talents, natural propensities, and behaviors that can be leveraged to overcome their challenges. These differing perspectives can influence the effectiveness of university policies designed to improve student retention. This mixed methods action research study, undergirded by student development theories, examined the effects of a strengths-based, faculty-led coaching intervention on first-year undergraduate students’ academic …

การศึกษาความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างบรรยากาศองค์การและความพร้อมต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงองค์การ โดยมีความคล่องตัวของพนักงานเป็นตัวแปรกำกับ, รุ้งรัชนี ลีวงศ์เจริญ

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้มีจุดประสงค์ในการศึกษาวิจัยเพื่อศึกษาความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างบรรยากาศองค์การและความพร้อมต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงองค์การ โดยมีความคล่องตัวของพนักงานเป็นตัวแปรกำกับ ผู้เข้าร่วมการวิจัยในครั้งนี้คือ พนักงานปฎิบัติงานในกลุ่มธุรกิจธนาคารพาณิชย์ของไทยสาขาต่าง ๆ ในกรุงเทพมหานครทั้งหมด 5 องค์การ โดยมีผู้เข้าร่วมการวิจัยทั้งสิ้น 306 คน เก็บรวบรวมข้อมูลผ่านแบบสอบถามออนไลน์ และทำการวิเคราะห์สมมติฐานด้วยการทดสอบตัวแปรกำกับ ผ่านการวิเคราะห์การถดถอยพหุเชิงชั้นในโปรแกรม SPSS ซึ่งผลการวิจัยในครั้งนี้พบว่า บรรยากาศองค์การด้านมนุษยสัมพันธ์ และด้านระบบเปิดมีความสัมพันธ์ทางบวกกับความพร้อมต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงองค์การในบางด้าน ในขณะที่ด้านกระบวนการภายในมีความสัมพันธ์ทางลบกับความพร้อมต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงองค์การบางด้าน ส่วนด้านการกำหนดเป้าหมายอย่างมีเหตุผลพบว่าไม่มีความสัมพันธ์กับความพร้อมต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงองค์การแต่อย่างใด นอกจากนี้สำหรับบทบาทการเป็นตัวแปรกำกับของความคล่องตัวของพนักงานพบว่า ความสามารถเชิงรุกเป็นตัวแปรกำกับทางบวกในความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างบรรยากาศองค์การด้านมนุษยสัมพันธ์และความพร้อมต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงองค์การในบางด้าน ส่วนความยืดหยุ่นเป็นตัวแปรกำกับทางบวกในความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างบรรยากาศองค์การด้านระบบเปิดและความพร้อมต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงองค์การในบางด้าน และความคล่องตัวของพนักงานทั้งด้านความสามารถเชิงรุก การปรับตัว และความยืดหยุ่นก็ยังเป็นตัวแปรกำกับที่ช่วยลดความสัมพันธ์ทางลบระหว่างบรรยากาศองค์การด้านกระบวนการภายในและความพร้อมต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงองค์การในบางด้านอย่างมีนัยสำคัญทางสถิติอีกด้วย กล่าวคือพนักงานที่มีความคล่องตัวในระดับสูง มีแนวโน้มที่จะมีความพร้อมต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงองค์การสูงกว่าพนักงานที่มีความคล่องตัวในระดับต่ำ ดังนั้นความคล่องตัวของพนักงานจึงถือเป็นปัจจัยที่มีความสำคัญต่อความพร้อมต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงองค์การเช่นกัน

Junior Managers’ Perceptions Of Executives Leadership Styles And Communication Practices, Kaprina Townsend

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ineffective communication and leadership practices continue to be an ongoing problem within organizations due to executives’ inability to effectively lead and communicate. The primary concern in this study was how junior managers perceive the effectiveness of executives’ communication practices as well as how executives’ leadership styles influence the junior managers. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of junior managers. The leader-member exchange theory provides the framework for this study on exploring junior managers lived experiences and their perceptions on how executives’ leadership styles influence them and their perception of executive’s ability to disseminate top …

After The Protests: A Campus Racial Climate Case Study Of The Perception And Curricular Responses For Institutional Reforms, Following The Black Students’ Demands For Interventions At The University Of Missouri-Columbia, Bruce E. Mitchell Ii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This qualitative method single case study explores the phenomenon of a racially tense campus climate at the University of Missouri Columbia, a Predominantly White Midwestern Institution. At the forefront of the media regarding student and athlete protests, leading to the resignation of senior level administrators, African American students put forth eight demands to their administrators. Included, was the creation and implementation of a required racial awareness and inclusion curriculum. The study explores the perceptions of the institutional response to an exceptional campus racial climate issue and the process of formulating and participating in a diversity training course and a semester …

Perceptions Of Integrated Mental And Behavioral Health In Pediatric Specialty Care Settings: A Mixed-Methods Study, Desireé Nicole Williford

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Pediatric patients are at an increased risk of experiencing mental and behavioral health concerns, which have direct associations with HRQOL, physiological health, and likelihood that youth will engage in health promoting behavior. Researchers and practitioners have increased their awareness of these concerns and identified strategies for improving the mental and behavioral health of these youth, specifically via implementing organizational efforts (i.e., task forces) and guidelines around integrating psychosocial screening and other services into routine practice. Despite this, there are several identified barriers to families receiving mental/behavioral health care in these settings. These barriers exist at all levels, including at the …

Exploring Student Parent Experiences With University Policies And Practices, Chelsea Baddley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the experiences of student parents from the University of Mississippi and examines their perceptions of university policies and practices. In addition, this study gathers the perceptions from university staff members that occupy student support roles across the university on the types of issues they think student parents at this university face and the support that is available to student parents through policies and practices. I focus on one case study, the University of Mississippi. A total of 10 semi-structed, in-depth interviews were conducted with one current student parent, four recently graduated student parents, and five university staff …

Organizational And Financial Considerations Of Inter-District School Of Choice On One Small District In The Detroit Metropolitan Area, Lori Lucas

Wayne State University Dissertations

The research study investigated the organizational and financial structure of a school district that participated in inter-district school of choice. The goal was to see if choice, resident and non-resident, had any influence on these structures. The literature that I reviewed highlighted the various organizational and funding mechanisms that school districts need to account for when considering options such as school of choice. This research study was conducted on a smaller scale compared to studies that have been completed on a grander scale. The goal of this study was to review the organizational and financial changes that districts make to …

Support For Students With Disabilities: How Awareness And Accommodations Differ Across Faculty Members Within The Postsecondary Context, Toby Tomlinson Baker

Theses and Dissertations

This case study sought to determine the most salient needs of higher education faculty who instruct and accommodate students with disabilities (SWDs). Therefore, the faculty were analyzed as a community in a university setting. Currently, the accommodations that faculty provide for SWDs vary from institution to institution. Additionally, certain variables, such as faculty’s years with the university, budget, size, and location of the institution impact the level of support provided and what specific accommodations SWDs receive.The purpose of this qualitative case study was to develop an in-depth understanding of the current level of knowledge that faculty obtain for accommodating SWDs. …

Forward Solutions In Digital Learning Transformation: A Study In Navigating 21st-Century Organizational Learning For Learning & Development Professionals, Malika Afiya Viltz-Emerson

Theses and Dissertations

While there is a substantial volume of information on digital transformation in companies and basic knowledge of the learning functions in organizations, there is little academic research on the skilling required of Learning and Development Practitioners or Professionals (LDPs) and the impact 21st century digital transformation has on their role. This mixed methods study shares lived experiences and the perceptions of LDPs and identifies challenges with which they are faced. Overall, the study explores transformation of LDPs within the construct of organizations and the digital evolution. The study reviews how LDPs are adapting to the rapid changes and the evolution …

Impact Of Workplace Environment On Performance In University Libraries Of Lahore, Pakistan, Muhammad Shahzad Shahzad Chaudhry Dr., Muhammad Ubaid Ullah Mr., Khurram Shahzad Mr., Imran Ghaffar Sulehri Mr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Goals of this study were to know the effect of library’s work environment for job performance of librarians and existence of any relationship between work environment and job performance of librarians. A quantitative study design was carried out to explore phenomenon through the librarian’s perceptions, delights and choices about their administrative center surroundings. Survey method was used in this study. The target population of this study was Librarians of HEC recognized Public and Private Universities of Lahore City. The structured questionnaire was used for data collection from respondents. There had been a hundred and twenty questionnaires dispensed among librarians, the …

Confidence In Organizational Science Procedures: Development And Measurement Of A Novel Construct, Alice Pyclik

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Adopting organizational science recommendations can lead to beneficial outcomes, but there is a gap between what scientists recommend and what managers do. This research introduced the construct of confidence in organizational science procedures (COSP), which refers to an individual’s belief that organizational science findings a) are accurate, b) are important, and c) should be applied in organizations. In addition to introducing COSP, the purposes of this research were to develop a measure of COSP and test hypotheses related to the nomological network of this construct. First, 29 participants completed an item sorting task, providing content validity information for the COSP …

Double-Loop Learning And Productive Reasoning: Chris Argyris’S Contributions To A Framework For Lifelong Learning And Inquiry, Kevin M. Clark

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This article reviews social scientist and organizational researcher Chris Argyris’s publications from the 1970s through the 2000s about organizational learning. In his role as an action scientist and consultant, working to facilitate learning in organizational contexts and drawing on earlier work in psychology from John Dewey and Kurt Lewin, Argyris developed his “theory of action” perspective on learning and interpersonal inquiry. According to Argyris, learning involves increasing the effectiveness of our actions so as to produce the intended results. He argued, however, that we are often unaware of the extent to which our actions inhibit learning in social contexts. Argyris …

Exploring The Perceptions Of Produce Processors Operating In Non-Profit Commercial Kitchens In West Virginia, Megan Christine Govindan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die each year from foodborne illness. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) shifted the focus of the Food and Drug Administration from response, to prevention of foodborne illness. The FSMA identified seven rules related to food safety prevention measures, including inspection and compliance, response and enhanced partnerships to ensure food safety along the food system, and employee-training compliance measures. Increasing access to healthy, local foods has economic, public health, and environmental benefits. Farm to Institution policies are becoming more popular nationally, …