Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of Epic Panel Presentations On The Attitudes Of Emu Students Toward Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Individuals, Silvana Alfaro-Bordon

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals are affected by stigma in the workplace, health-care settings, their families, and their communities. Some people believe that being LGB or Tis unnatural. LGBT individuals are commonly stigmatized, which makes them feel rejected and disrespected for who they are. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Eastern Pride & Identity Coalition (EPIC) panels on the LGBT-related attitudes of students at EMU. EPIC is a group of students, faculty, staff, and community members who serve as a panel of individuals and go into classrooms to talk about their own experiences …

Welcome Address, Society Of Georgia Archivists Annual Meeting, 2014, Rich Mendola

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

No abstract provided.

Mythologizing Change: Examining Rhetorical Myth As A Strategic Change Management Discourse, Jacob D. Rawlins

Faculty Publications

This article explores how rhetorical myth can be used as a tool for persuading employees to accept change and to maintain consensus during the process. It defines rhetorical myth using three concepts: chronographia (a rhetorical interpretation of history), epideictic prediction (defining a present action by assigning praise and blame to both past and future), and communal markers (using Burkean identification and rhetorically defined boundary objects to define a community). The article reports on a 3-year ethnographic study that documents the development of a rhetorical myth at Iowa State University’s Printing Services department as it underwent changes to its central software …

Clearing The Smoke: Understanding Organizational Change Communication And Misalignment In High-Risk Contexts, Laura Elizabeth Young

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Recent economic turbulence in the United States has resulted in budget cuts for many city-funded organizations, including high-risk organizations such as local fire departments. Budget cuts trigger organizational change and create uncertainty among employees, which is a major concern for high-risk organizations. This dissertation examined internal communication practices used during organizational change in an urban fire department and the influence of organizational structure and culture on communication satisfaction. This robust case study used a multi-method approach including interviews with middle managers (i.e., district majors), and focus groups and channel preference surveys with full-time firefighters from lower level ranks (i.e., firefighters, …

How The Narrative Paradigm Affects Military Stories, Richard Irving Mcnamara

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This project defines how the narrative paradigm can be used with military storytelling to improve the credibility of the U.S. military. Furthermore, it outlines how the American Forces Network (AFN) can model its training with the narrative paradigm to become an innovative organization. The literature review examines the rules that the military has to follow with their stories, the narrative paradigm, transformational leadership and the path to innovation with the intent of creating a path for military Public Affairs leaders to follow while leading an AFN, or any story producing unit. The primary purpose of this project is a completed …

Surviving The Digital Age, David Franklin Meland

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This project provides a look at educational studies, theories, and principles to help people understand the enhancing and diminishing characteristics of contemporary communication technologies. The project uses the theoretical framework of media ecology to show that through an understanding of today’s media environments, society can better grasp just how media technology has been, and continues to be, an influential part of everyday life. The primary feature of the project is a comprehensive website – titled Surviving the Digital Age (http://melandd.wix.com/survivingdigitalage) – which also serves as a way to show how media plays an enormous role in shaping who we are …

Using General Systems Theory To Evaluate Channels Of Feedback In A Law Enforcement Agency, Trent Aaron Gerbers

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

The principles of General Systems Theory and Management Cybernetics have been used, not only to analyze and evaluate organizational communication, but also to help improve communicative efficiency through the strengthening of message sending/receiving channels. This thesis continues the exploration of channel efficiency and feedback by examining the principles of General Systems Theory and Management Cybernetics through the daily interactions that occur at a municipal police department. The unique ranking structure and paramilitary nature of the law enforcement agency dictates policy that regulates the means of vertical communication between employees, but measuring the department’s current communication system against the principles of …

Performance = Ability X Motivation : Exploring Untested Moderators Of A Popular Model, Christopher Patrick Cerasoli

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

It seems a self-evident truism to many that performance at school and work is determined by the extent to which one "can do" and one "will do" the task effectively. Grounded in this logic, research, practice, and textbooks in industrial-organizational psychology over the past 60 years have supported the notion that performance is a multiplicative function of ability and motivation, such that P = f(AXM) (where P = performance, A = ability, and M = motivation). In this study, I addressed four issues surrounding this multiplicative model. First, I began by exploring whether and when multiplicative (versus simpler additive) models …

A Multifoci Model Of Workplace Incivility And Deviance : Examining The Moderating Role Of Prosocial Orientation, Wisanupong Potipiroon

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Despite the scholarly interest in workplace incivility in the field of organizational behavior, public administration (PA) scholars have paid much less attention to this timely and relevant topic. Based on a unique sample of 401 individuals (nested in 83 work units) employed in a public organization in Thailand, the present study seeks to address this void by examining whether different sources of workplace incivility (i.e., supervisors, coworkers and customers) will have differential effects on different types of employee deviant behaviors (i.e., deviance directed towards the organization, supervisors, coworkers and customers). Based on a multifoci and target-specificity framework, the present study …

Trust-Based Relational Intervention (Tbri) For Adopted Children Receiving Therapy In An Outpatient Setting, Lauren E. Nielsen

Honors Projects

We explored the relationship between Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) and treatment outcomes for adopted children participating in treatment services through the Adoption Preservation Program at a Midwest child welfare organization. Adopted children who have trauma histories may have their adoptions disrupted if they do not receive the proper therapy to improve their overall functioning (Purvis, Cross, & Pennings, 2009; Davis, 1 999). We investigated a new intervention, TBRI, and its potential impact on children with trauma histories who are receiving outpatient therapy at a local child welfare center. Specifically, we examined whether family functioning and child functioning are improved after …

From An Autonomous To A Collaborative Website Redesign Process: The University Of Denver Libraries Experience, Shea-Tinn Yeh, Christopher C. Brown

Collaborative Librarianship

Librarians traditionally have insisted on designing and developing the library’s website in-house. An inhouse developed website allows librarians full control of its design, content, and delivery. The library website is also distinguished by its research orientation compared to the university’s marketing-driven purposes. However, in the age of gaining competitive advantage by promoting campus branding, shared services, and collaborative initiatives by various administrative units, libraries could be a stronger partner with other campus departments. This article describes the University of Denver Libraries’ transformation from an autonomous information silo to an integrated Web portal within the University’s Marketing & Communication division. In …

Practicing Philanthropy In American Higher Education: Cultivating Engaged Citizens And Nonprofit Sector Professionals, David A. Campbell

Public Administration Faculty Scholarship

Recent scholarship has documented a growing interest in teaching philanthropy at the undergraduate and graduate level. This study is an overview of the nature and extent of one approach, experiential philanthropy, in which students learn philanthropy by making grants to nonprofit organizations. The study reviewed syllabi and support material for 88 experiential philanthropy courses. The analysis identified four course models offered in a variety of academic settings. These findings suggest a broader range of course options for advancing civic engagement goals that instructors might typically consider. Faculty who teach these courses pursue multiple goals, including preparing students for citizenship and …

Service Provider Promising Practice - Work Inc. (Massachusetts): Using Data To Track Job Development Activities During Organizational Change, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Work Inc. is a medium-sized CRP in Massachusetts that has served people with IDD for the last 32 years. Over the last 15 years, since Work Inc. began tracking employment services data, its approach to employment supports in the community has evolved. The agency’s data-tracking methods have both guided and developed alongside this change process.

Factors That Relate To Registered Nurses' Readiness For Interprofessional Learning In The Context Of Continuing Professional Development, Collette Williams

Dissertations

Today’s health-care professionals practice in a highly technological, multidisciplinary environment. In order to provide safe, effective, and high-quality patient care, collaboration is required among all professionals. Traditionally each profession has operated independently in regard to continued professional development. The purpose of this study was to assess practicing registered nurses’ readiness toward interprofessional learning in order to align learning with current practice.

Method. An ex post facto study design was used to gather data to examine if there is a relationship between variables of demographics and readiness for interprofessional learning. The Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) assesses the readiness for …

Examining The Intersection Of The Cognitive Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Bilingual Brain, Irina Rabkina

Scripps Senior Theses

Two conflicting findings characterize cognitive processing accompanying bilingualism. The “bilingual advantage” refers to improved cognitive performance for bilingual compared to monolingual participants. Most bilingual advantages fall under the umbrella of cognitive control mechanisms, most frequently demonstrated using the Stroop task and the Simon task (e.g., Bialystok, 2008; Coderre, Van Heuven, & Conklin, 2013). The “bilingual disadvantage,” on the other hand, refers to bilinguals’ diminished performance on tasks that require word retrieval or switching between languages. This study examined the intersection of the bilingual advantage and the bilingual disadvantage to investigate whether they stem from a single cognitive control process. The …

Outcomes Of The Sanctuary Model In An Education Setting, Brianna Matey

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

This study examines the short-term outcomes of implementing the Sanctuary Model in an emotional support educational setting over the 2011-2012 school year. The frequency of restraints, the therapeutic environment, and job satisfaction were evaluated pre and post implementation of the model. Study participants included teachers, teacher aides, and a licensed clinical social worker at a nonprofit behavioral health care organization in the mid-Atlantic region. Results indicated similar numbers of restraints employed in the 2010-2011 school year compared to the 2011-2012 school year. Three out of 10 domains in the therapeutic environment measured by the Community Oriented Program Environment Scale (COPES-R) …

Developing A Method For Measuring "Working Out Loud", Dennis E. Pearce

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

Enterprise social network software platforms (ESNs) are increasingly being deployed in firms across almost every industry as a means of fostering employee collaboration. Although benefits in increased productivity, innovation, and employee engagement are highly touted, there is a high failure rate of these deployments. This often occurs because (1) there is a misapplied focus on technology adoption rather than adoption of the employee behaviors that are ultimately required to obtain those benefits, and (2) it is unclear what those behaviors are and how to measure them.

“Working Out Loud” is one possible framework for understanding and measuring the behaviors necessary …

Obtaining Genuine Family Involvement: Unpacking The System Of Care Values And Principles, Deborah A. Cohen

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Despite the federal government’s $1.5 billion investment between 1993 and 2010 to fund 164 separate community-based systems of care, there has been an extremely limited attempt to measure the impact of system of care. The impetus for this research is the struggle for how the value based concept of system of care is communicated within a community. While child mental health services researchers have published a number of randomized control trials to explore individual level supports for youth served in a system of care community, researchers have struggled to devise a way to measure system of care philosophy diffusion.

While …

A Hope That’S Not So Hollow: How The Supreme Court’S Decisions In Windsor And Perry Alter The Political Environment In Which Marriage Equality Activism Operates, Emma Brillhart

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis looks at the state of marriage equality activism in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 26, 2013 decisions in United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry. Some scholars, such as Gerald Rosenberg, argue that Supreme Court decisions can never affect “significant social change,” either directly or indirectly, while others argue that such decisions can be hugely important in directly affecting policy. My focus is on how activist organizations, which have a substantial track record of directly affecting policy, are influenced by changes to the political environment stemming from major Court decisions regarding social issues. After …

"Sea Water Fish In A Freshwater Pond:" An Institutional Approach To Understanding Cooperative Scarcity In The United States, Caroline E. Malone

Scripps Senior Theses

There is remarkable cooperative organization scarcity in the United States. Particularly in the credit union and worker cooperative sectors, this scarcity is not satisfactorily explained by neo-classical economic models that assume competitive conditions and profit-maximizing organizations. This paper supplements the conventional economic understandings of credit union and worker cooperative scarcity with an institutional analysis. Mechanisms of coercive, mimetic, and normative institutional isomorphism developed in DiMaggio and Powell’s theory of organizational isomorphism are applied to provide greater understanding of credit union and worker cooperative scarcity in the US. It appears that these forces of isomorphism work in conjunction with one another, …

Seeking The Will Of God: The Information Seeking Experiences Of The Leaders Of Nova Scotia Churches In Transition, David H. Michels

PhD Dissertations

Christian Churches in Nova Scotia are facing economic, social, and theological stresses. In response many are engaged in processes of restructuring and renewal. Leaders are initiating and managing these change processes, and they are seeking information to make their decisions, and “God’s will for their churches.” Very little is known about how church leaders seek, gather, evaluate, and use information in their decision-making. In this study I asked the question: “Of the Nova Scotia churches in transition, what are the information seeking experiences of their leaders?” Using ethnographic methods at three church sites, I explored this particular context. I gathered …

دور الأنماط القيادية والمتغيرات الشخصية للأفراد في التغيير التنظيمي, برباوي كمال

Muthanna Journal of Administrative and Economics Sciences

يعد التغيير التنظيمي من سمات المؤسسات الحديثة وهذا التغيير لا يكون عفوي بل تفرضه الظروف المحيطة بالمؤسسة، فعليه فقباء المؤسسات يعتبر رهان والشغل الشاغل لدى القياديين الإداريين،فبهذا نقول بأن نجاح التغيير التنظيمي في المؤسسة لا يكون إلا بنمط قيادي فعال، فقد تتشابه أهداف المؤسسات في التغيير التنظيمي لكن نتائج التغيير تختلف باختلاف الأنماط القيادية في المؤسسات.فمن خلال هذا نهدف من المقال إلى إبراز دور النمط القيادي في عملية التغيير التنظيمي، بالإضافة إلى دور المتغيرات الشخصية( الجنس، العمر، المستوى التعليمي،الخبرة المهنية،المركز الوظيفي) لذا الأفراد في عملية التغيير التنظيمي.

An Analysis Of The Effects Of Formula Funding Project In The Korea Higher Education System, Kyungsoo Park

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

In 2008, the Korean government launched a funding project that used formulas to select which four-year universities received funding from the government. The aim of the project was to improve university performance and educational quality, particularly with respect to undergraduate student outcome. However, there were few empirical studies on the project's actual impact. This study is an examination of three effects of the project. First, I analyze whether the project itself, regardless of funding, can bring about change in five formula indicators of all universities: employment rate, enrollment rate, full-time faculty rate, educational expenses per student, and scholarship rate. Second, …

New Life, Shirley Freed

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

Leaders And Their Use Of Power In Facilitating Organizational Change, Randy Wollf

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

Leading Dangerously: A Case Study Of Military Teams And Shared Leadership In Dangerous Environments, Alex J Ramthun, Gina S. Matkin

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

In a qualitative case study, we described and explained shared leadership in dangerous contexts for military teams. We conducted eight semistructured interviews with shared, team, and military leadership subject matter experts in order to gain an improved understanding of the relationship between shared leadership and team performance in the presence of danger. We found the themes of mutual influence, leadership emergence, dangerous dynamism, and distributed knowledge, skills, and abilities provided rich description of the phenomenon. Specifically, our findings suggest military teams in dangerous situations use mutual influence and leadership emergence to share leadership and achieve high performance. Additionally, we found …

Evaluation Of The Jewish Community Housing For The Elderly Memory Support Initiative, Joan Hyde

Gerontology Institute Publications

Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE) is a large, multi-campus organization that houses and serves 1,500 residents (80 market rate and 1,420 low income). The average age is 80 years old, with one-third of residents 85 and older. Three quarters of the residents are not native English speakers. Through HUD and other funding, JCHE offers a range of supports to these residents, including translators, interpreters and staff with language and cultural competence, meals, transportation and, through their Service Coordinators, facilitation of resident access to government benefits, home care and other services.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2012 special report …

Wheel Of Innovation : How Leaders' Attitudes And Behaviors Drive Disruptive Technology In The U.S. Navy, Eddy Wayne Witzel

Dissertations

Problem and Purpose

Innovative solutions in national defense are needed to respond to national security threats in our uncertain environment. Leader attitudes and behaviors have a substantial impact on innovation. Unfortunately we did not completely understand the effect of leader attitudes and behaviors on innovation and the team dynamics that lead to innovation, especially in the military. The purpose of this study was to determine how leadership attitudes and behaviors contribute to product innovation within the U.S. Navy and how leadership emerges within this complex adaptive system of innovation.

Method

The research was a qualitative design based on a multiple …

Jour 4802/7100: Entrepreneurial Journalism (Syllabus), Carrie Brown-Smith

Journalism and Strategic Media Syllabi Archive

Course Description: Meeman 901 Strategies, a student run public relations firm, will gain hands-on experience by developing creative projects for campus and community clients at UM Crews Center for Entrepreneurship.

Jour 7100/8100: Entrepreneurial Journalism (Syllabus), Carrie Brown-Smith

Journalism and Strategic Media Syllabi Archive

Course Description: This course will examine business models and new media tools that can encourage entrepreneurial thinking and planning in various fields of mass communication, as well as the theory and practices of traditional media management. Subjects will include environment assessment, organization and strategy, budgeting, decision-making, and other functions in advertising, news, and public relations.