Digital Commons Network^™

Social Workers' Perception On The Needs And Services For Foster Children With Special Needs, Jessica Joanna Jimenez, Winnie Wing Yang Lee

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Foster children are already at a disadvantage given that they tend to live in a home without their parents. Social workers have direct interactions working with children with special needs, and through interviews with the workers, we aimed to understand whether or not the services available are able to meet foster children’s special needs. The research on special needs children in foster care is quite limited. The purpose of the study was to identify social workers’ perceptions of the needs of special needs foster children and their access to services.

This study used qualitative interviews with open-ended questions to gather …

Exploring A New Determinant Of Task Technology Fit: Content Characteristics, Chongwoo Park

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Although task technology fit has received academic attention as a measure of information systems success, compared to other popular information systems success models it has received less empirical testing in the information systems field. One reason might be a relatively low explanatory power for the main construct, i.e., task technology fit, in the model. In this study, we suggest content characteristics as a new determinant of fit, and empirically test it along with the two existing determinants, task and technology characteristics with 105 users of a web-based learning management system. In order to verify the contribution of content characteristics to …

The Relationship Between Organizational Resources And Green It/S Adoption: A Rbv Approach, Lutfus Sayeed, Alberto Onetti

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

ABSTRACT

The objective of the present study was to empirically explore the impact of the implementation of Green IT/S measures on organizational resources in the US and European firms. The study examined the influence of reconfiguration of resources within a firm while adopting various Green IT/S practices and technologies. Green IT/S implementation requires resource commitment from organizations (Bose and Luo, 2011). What are these resources and how do they affect the extent of Green IT/S measures adopted by businesses? Resource Based View (RBV) of the firm was used as the theoretical framework of the study. The relationship between the adoption …

Utilization Of Information Technology As Instructional Support In Higher Education – A Case Study, Linda C. Gordon, Erin Gratz, David Kung, Leeshawn Moore, Shelley G. Urbizagastegui

Communications of the IIMA

Despite significant increases in the growth of online education, a review of research reveals few studies of faculty perceptions of the use of technology in classrooms in higher education. Research can explore and illuminate how to bridge the gap between faculty perceptions and institutional goals and objectives for online programs. The study at hand presents the views of full-time and adjunct faculty across the colleges, both on- and off-campus, and the online community, at the University of La Verne, a private Tier II doctoral degree-granting institution located in Southern California.

Barriers To Recruiting Native American Foster Homes In Urban Areas, Shirley Mae Begay, Jennifer Lynn Wilczynski

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the current practice of and barriers specific to recruiting Native American foster homes in urban areas. The literature review suggested that historical, cultural, and bureaucratic barriers to recruitment existed. The study used a qualitative, exploratory design. The data was obtained from in-depth interviews with 10 individuals whose job it is or has been to recruit Native American foster homes. The participants were employed with either a foster family agency, county child welfare agency, or a supporting organization servicing Los Angeles County and/or the San Francisco Bay Area. The …

The Effects Of A Blind Selection Process On Gender Discrimination In Applicant Selection, Stephanie Ann Ingalls

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of a blind selection process on gender discrimination. Due to persistent gender discrimination in selection processes, the intention of the current study was to investigate a blind selection process as a means to decrease gender discrimination against women. A total of 391 individuals were recruited through SONA and convenience sampling to participate in the current study. Materials included a selection scenario, three applicant résumés with applicant names and three with applicant ID numbers, a rank order form, and measures for procedural justice and fairness, modern sexism inventory, and the …

Managing Employee Attitude For A Successful Information System Implementation: A Change Management Perspective, Smita Chaudhry

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

In the last three decades, there has been considerable advancement in the design of information systems used in organizations. Information systems facilitate critical organizational activities like recording and processing of business transactions, analyzing complex and large sets of data and generating management and executive level reports. However, their adoption is generally fraught with challenges because of the negative attitude of employees to the impending change in their work life. Taking into account the enormous investment of cost, time and effort in information system implementation, it is imperative for organizations to recognize and influence employee attitude from the very beginning to …

Predicting Law Enforcement Officer Turnover And Use Of Force From Variables Measured By The 2013 Law Enforcement Management And Administrative Statistics (Lemas) Survey, Ryan Lee Radmall

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Law enforcement requires comprehensive hiring and training practices in order to curb misconduct and turnover. Some of the available data suggests a shift in the dynamics of law enforcement toward a more objective approach that favors education, cognitive ability testing, a community policing orientation, and technological advances, such as body cameras, that hold enforcers of the law and the American public, accountable for misconduct and violations of the law. The utilization of various technological advances requires assessment and dynamic, comprehensive analysis. The present study examined the influence of education and the professionalization of policing hiring requirements, cognitive ability tests and …

Impact Of Job Characteristics And Resources On Person-Job Fit, Andrew Ross Montgomery

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Certain job characteristics have been shown to be important for improving employee job fit. In particular, the degree of autonomy and feedback employees are afforded could allow them to more effectively manage job stressors, and acquire and/or uphold the requisite skills to maintain satisfactory work performance. These job characteristics may also lead to greater job satisfaction by supporting employees’ need for continuous growth, desire for social connectedness, and fulfillment of basic psychological needs. Accordingly, a model was proposed wherein the facets of person-job fit (demands-abilities fit and needs-supplies fit) are expected to mediate the relationship between both autonomy and feedback …

Social Workers' Perceptions On Factors Influencing The Underutilization Of Mental Health Services Among Latino Men, Brenda Barajas, Iris Monzerrat Espinoza

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study ­is to identify social workers’ perspectives on the barriers and motivating factors impacting Latino men in seeking mental health services, and to seek ways to overcome the barriers. Research has established that Latino men suffer from mental health problems at a similar rate compared to other populations, yet they underutilize mental health services. Given the rapid growth of the Latino population that continues to need mental health services, the findings of this study may influence the social work field to develop programs and interventions that are geared towards encouraging Latino men to seek services. They …

Environmental Ingredients For Disaster: Developing And Validating The Alvarado Work Environment Scale Of Toxicity, Claudia Alvarado

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Leadership has been a much studied area within industrial and organizational psychology. Recently, scholars have begun to focus on the negative side of leadership; however, a lack of research has limited our understanding of toxic leadership. One step forward in this domain has been the development of the toxic triangle, which posits that toxic leaders are aided by toxic followers with a toxic environment. Although the leader has been studied within this triangle, relatively little has been researched regarding the follower or the environment. Specifically, that there has been a lack of research in the organizational environment that allows the …

An Empirical Investigation On Ceo Turnover In It Firms And Firm Performance, Peiqin Zhang, David Wierschem, Francis A. Mendez Mediavilla, Keejae P. Hong

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Drawn upon upper echelon theory and organizational theory, this research proposes to examine the impact of CEO turnover in IT firms on firm performance in terms of both sustainable accounting performance and market performance. We find that CEO turnover is a significant determinant of firm performance, especially in IT firms. This paper contributes to the IS literature by investigating the CEO turnover impact in IT firms compared to other industries. This study also has practical implications by providing the guideline for IT firms on the CEO turnover policy. Such firms should place additional emphasis on their succession planning efforts.

Implications Of State Policy Changes On Mental Health Service Models For Students With Disabilities, Janelle E. Lawson, Jennifer L. Cmar

The Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship

For over 25 years, students with disabilities in California received educationally related mental health services through interagency collaboration between school districts and county mental health agencies. After a major change in state policy that eliminated state-mandated interagency collaboration, school districts in California are now solely responsible for providing all mental health services entitled to students with disabilities. This collective case study included three school districts, and examined mental health service provision immediately following the elimination of legally mandated coordination with county mental health professionals. Interviews were conducted with three district representatives from each of three school districts in California. Participant …

Treatment Of Mental Illness Co-Occurring With Intellectual Disabilities, Natalie Nevarez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Past literature has showed that there have been several misdiagnosis of mental illness due to client’s delays in speech or introspection caused by an intellectual disability. It is believed that the intellectual disability is either interfering with the proper mental health diagnosis or a mental health diagnosis is unnecessarily being added to an intellectual disability. The study used a qualitative design that asked four psychiatrists on how they are treating their clients with an intellectual disability in addition to their mental illness. The interview guide asks about the difficulty in diagnosing individuals with a mental illness and a co-occurring intellectual …

Understanding Inclusion-Exclusion In Social Service Organizations, Eva Andrea Rizzo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to explore the effects inclusion-exclusion on the job-related attitudes of the organizational workforce. These attitudes included job satisfaction, organizational commitment, burnout, and turnover intention. A quantitative survey was conducted using a sample of employees of a social service organization in San Bernardino County. Participants include employees from all levels and program areas of the social service organization. Study data was collected through the use of a self-report questionnaire. Measures were used to explore commitment to the organization, diversity perception, job satisfaction, turnover intention and burnout, the dependent variables. Using SPSS software to …

Towards A Change Leadership Framework: Assessing Capabilities Within An It Service Organization, Richard Urquhart, Ian K. Allison

Communications of the IIMA

There are many change initiatives reported today that are failing to deliver the expected results. The reasons for failure include the lack of leadership, lack of direction, no clear strategy, employee resistance and an inability to sustain changes in the long term. This paper investigates IT leaders’ capabilities and the impact their role has within the change cycle. It explores what makes a successful change leader while uncovering some of the behavioral issues that people display during change. This paper argues that by adopting the right change approach as a team collective and developing strategies for managing resistance, communication, speed …

A Case Study: Effects Of Operational Model Changes On Firm Performance, Jennifer Leanne Cowles

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project follows the implementation of a new supply fulfillment model for a service organization. Research findings provide evidence that a change in operating model can result in an increase in firm performance. The purpose of this project is to study a real-life example of an organization experiencing an increase in firm performance based on a change in operating model. The project utilizes historical data of growth and average costs to determine the environment for the current year experiencing the change in operating model. It is determined that this study reveals a decrease of order costs, increase in data integrity …

Overcoming Barriers To Mental Health Service Utilization Among Justice Involved Youth, Susan Y. Vanallen

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify the barriers to and facilitators of mental health services utilization among youth in the justice setting, and to explore ways to overcome these barriers and expand these facilitators. This qualitative study utilized focus groups as a means to extract themes among the perceptions of social workers on this topic. Results were transcribed to written form. Qualitative analysis procedures were followed to identify and label themes. A total of 473 statements are organized into 26 major themes with 18 sub‑themes. Suggestions for change under the agency/organizational category of domain three received the most …

Organizational Culture And Telecommuters' Quality Of Work Life And Professional Isolation, Susan J. Harrington, Julie Santiago

Communications of the IIMA

While much has been studied and written about the adjustments managers must make when supervising remote workers in virtual work arrangements, little has been written about the potential change in the organizational culture and the effect the culture has on the virtual worker's quality of work life and professional isolation. Not only may culture affect the implementation and success of telecommuting arrangements, but the increased isolation and independence of a virtual worker may impact the culture surrounding remote workers and create an organizational subculture. This study examines the relationship between quality of work life, professional isolation, and an organization's cultural …

A Comprehensive Study On The Differences Between Mrp And Erp Implementation, Farshad Salimi, Ben Dankbaar, Reggie Davidrajuh

Communications of the IIMA

This paper presents a comprehensive study on the fundamental differences between Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. In order to reduce the complexity in undertaking such a comprehensive study, the study is performed in a number of steps such as 1) Comparative analysis of the differences in Key Critical Success Factors (KCSFs) in MRP implementation with those in ERP implementation in the period prior to the millennium change, 2) Comparative analysis of the differences in KCSFs in MRP implementation with those of ERP implementation in the post millennium-change period, and 3) How the perceptions of the …

Cio/Cto Job Roles: An Emerging Organizational Model, Robert C. Beatty, Kirk P. Arnett, Chang Liu

Communications of the IIMA

The position of Chief Information Systems Officer (CIO) has become a daunting job due to the myriad of business and technical responsibilities assigned to the organization's top information systems (IS) executive. CIOs are being asked to successfully ensure the firm's IS investments are continually aligned with its strategic business objectives, while also planning and maintaining an IT infrastructure that will meet the firm's current and future information processing needs. Many CIOs are finding it extremely difficult to balance the two key roles of technician and businessperson successfully. Many business experts that have analyzed this problem have concluded that the tasks …

Towards An Agile Approach To Software Process Improvement: Addressing The Changing Needs Of Software Products, Ian Allison

Communications of the IIMA

This paper highlights the need for greater agility and flexibility in the process improvement activity. The ideas presented here relate to aspects that have arisen from a case study of a global software product organisation. A model of how software process improvement can be agile in nature is proposed. This model is intended as indicative of the issues that need consideration by IS management. The model highlights the need to learn to improve through situated practice within an organisational framework that supports the needs of the business.

Project Zenith: A Case Study Of Electronic Data Interchange, Charles Frank, Jack T. Marchewka

Communications of the IIMA

This paper utilizes a case study approach to analyze the key decisions, stakeholders, and lessons learned from a project to develop an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) application conceived and developed by a consulting firm. Several individuals within the firm viewed this EDI service as an opportunity for generating new revenue. However, the new system was not embraced fully by several sales and account representatives who did not view this potential product as a service that could make an adequate profit margin and translate into larger commissions. In addition, the consulting firm's president supported the project to the extent that it …

Conceptual Model For Successful Implementation Of Big Data In Organizations, Mohanad Halaweh, Ahmed E. Massry

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The term ‘big data’ has gained huge popularity in recent years among IT professionals and academicians. Big data describes the massive amount of data that can be processed and analyzed using technology to gain business values that will help organizations to achieve competitive advantages. The current paper aims to develop a holistic model that includes the factors that would affect the success or failure of the implementation of big data in organizations. Furthermore, this research examines the opportunities that organizations would attain from implementing big data, as well as the challenges that could hinder this implementation. The proposed model provides …

Impact Of Organizational Culture And Technology On Firm Performance In The Service Sector, Nathaniel C. Ozigbo

Communications of the IIMA

This study focuses on the way organizational culture is adopted for exploring the relationship of firm performance. The primary objective is to explore the relationship between organizational culture and information technology effectiveness with reference to firm performance. The performance of the firm was measured using the dependent variables, return on assets (ROA) and Earning Per Share (EPS), obtained from the annual reports of the listed services industries in Nigeria. The random sample generated 200 usable responses. All the four cultural types adopted in the study had influence on the return on assets and earnings per share. The result of the …

Technological Innovation Capability And Firm’S Performance In New Product Development, Vera M.U. Azubuike

Communications of the IIMA

Technological innovation is one of the driving and fundamental instruments of growth strategies. The main objective of this study is to provide the understanding the way in which technological innovation capabilities affect the efficiency and potential of firm performance. The study attempted to draw on the theoretical literature and empirical studies on innovation, management and capabilities of technology in an effort to explore the role of technological innovation on new product development. The study posits the importance of technological innovation as an essential ingredient of competitive advantage for new product development. The study is different from previous research and focuses …

The Impact Of It Management Processes On Enterprise Agility, Maik Verbaan, A.J. Gilbert Silvius

Communications of the IIMA

In dynamic business environments, the ability to adapt is highly important for organizations in order to best their competition. This is necessary because throughout the years of doing business, organizations have experienced but one constant factor: change. The concept of enterprise agility is designed to counter this phenomenon. In this regard, IT is perceived to play a vital role in enterprise agility, most often viewed as an enabler. However, IT can be an inhibitor of enterprise agility as well because of its potentially restricting nature, structural thinking, bureaucracy, rigor, etc. This especially becomes apparent in information systems (IS) that have …

Explaining Attitudes Toward And Experiences With Social Media Among Public Information Officers Through Adaptive Structuration Theory, Astrid Shiel, Michelle T. Violanti, Kevin Slusarski

Communications of the IIMA

This study set out to explore similarities and differences between firefighting organizations using and not using social media for crisis/emergency situations. Using Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST), our exploratory survey results from 129 first responders suggest social media innovations are outpacing PIOs’ abilities to effectively adopt and utilize social media strategies. Of those who do not use social media, they have considered using it for information-dissemination purposes only; the main differences between those who do and don’t use social media is their perception of the obstacles to implementing it (training, time, resources) and whether they use it in their personal lives.

Sustainability In Is Projects: A Case Study, A.J. Gilbert Silvius, Snezana Nedeski

Communications of the IIMA

Sustainability is without doubt one of the most important challenges of our time. How can we develop prosperity, without compromising the life of future generations? Information systems (IS) provide organizations with the ability to change and improve business processes to better support sustainable practices. Therefore, IS can make a contribution to the sustainable development of organizations. However, the organizational change aspects of Green IS are covered only marginally in the emerging literature. This paper aims to contribute the debate on Green IS, by highlighting the role of sustainability in the projects developing or implementing IS. The paper therefore explores the …

The Relationship Between Information Systems Management And Organizational Culture, Jakobus Smit, Marielle Dellemijn

Communications of the IIMA

This paper essentially presents an exploration of the relationship between organizational culture and information systems management. Three contributions are offered namely the findings of a study of the organizational culture and information management competencies of five organizations in the Netherlands, with particular reference to the reliability of the measurements tool that was used, as well as an exploratory study of the relationship between organizational culture and the ability of an organization to manage its information systems. A brief review of the literature reveals that these two concepts in combination have been studied extensively, but that their conceptualization are somewhat fragmented …