Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Influence Of Context On Resistance To Organizational Change Within A Virtual Faculty Workforce, David Starnes Starnes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Managers must know how to operationalize change, as well as manage the attitudes and emotions associated with transforming the organization. Managing the culture involved with organizational change is a challenge in any environment, and perhaps even more so when managing a virtual workforce. The problem addressed in this study was that while there is considerable research on organizational change, there is little research concerning the influence of trust in leadership, frequency of change, and history of change on virtual faculty resistance to change in higher education. As a result, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding regarding how context …

Transformational Leadership As A Means Of Improving Patient Care And Nursing Retention, Carla D. Thomas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Joint Commission (TJC) sets standards to assist healthcare organizations in improving performance. The hospital for which this project was developed did not meet national TJC benchmarks for patient satisfaction and nurse retention. Based on direct observation, discussion with staff, and results of the Multifactorial Leadership Questionnaire given to 39 staff nurses before this project was chosen, evidence suggested that the leadership style of the charge nurses was transactional, which is less effective than transformational leadership (TFL). Framed within the Plan, Do, Study, Act model, the purpose of this quality improvement project was to design an educational curriculum including didactic …

Female Circumcision: A Phenomenological Study Of Somalian Immigrant To The United States, Emmanuel Fai Tatah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Female circumcision (FC) is the partial or total removal of the female genitalia for nonmedical reasons. This study was designed to examine the lived experiences of Somali women who underwent FC before coming to the United States. FC is widely carried out in Somalia with a prevalence of 98%, making Somalia the country with the highest percentage of circumcised women. There are short- and long-term consequences associated with FC such as bleeding, infection, and death. Therefore, it is important to understand how Somali women who underwent FC think and feel about circumcision, why they would continue the practice, and whether …

Marketing Strategies Restaurant Leaders Use To Develop Their Customer Base, Carrie Weinreich

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Surviving past the first year of operation is a growing concern for independent, full-service restaurants. Some restaurant leaders lack the marketing strategies necessary to develop a loyal customer base and survive beyond the first year of operation. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the marketing strategies that independent, family-oriented, full-service restaurant leaders located in the Pittsburgh, PA, metro area in business for at least 5 years have used to develop their customer base during the first year of operation. This study was guided by the 7Ps of marketing theory, which emphasizes how people, including customers and …

Marketing Strategies Used By Specialty Photo Retailers To Grow Revenues, Robert Michael Banasik

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The advent of digital cameras, including those in smartphones, has caused an upheaval in

the photo industry that led to the bankruptcy of Kodak and the closure of most

independent photo stores. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore

marketing strategies that specialty photo retailers in the United States have used to grow

revenues after the shift to digital imaging technologies. The conceptual framework of this

study was Rogers's diffusion of innovations model specifying typical movement of

information through communications channels in a social system over time. Data sources

included semistructured interviews with 5 photo retailers, photos …

A Needs Assessment Of African American Women's Risk For Cardiovascular Disease, Chikaodi Priscilla Eziaha Banor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Suboptimal cardiovascular health among African American (AA) women contributes to high costs of care related to acute illness, chronic illness, and disability. Using the health promotion model, this needs assessment project examined risk factors that predispose adult AA women between the ages of 21 to 64 years of age to higher incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Seventy of the 300 charts that met the inclusion criteria (female AA patients, 21 to 64 years of age, receiving care in a community clinic in an urban city of Texas) were audited for this project. Descriptive analysis showed that 66% of the women …

Perceived Best Practices Of Small Business Executives In War Zones, Eric Wayne Barton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The ability to sustain small businesses operating in war-torn areas is important not only to the business owners, but also to foreign communities receiving United States contract services for recovery from widespread decimation. While all small businesses address a wide range of issues, businesses operating in war-torn areas also face cultural diversity, local regulations, and potential threats to employee safety. The conceptual framework for this exploratory multiple case study was transformational-transactional leadership theory, guiding the research to discover traits and strategies of successful leaders in the population of small businesses that were profitable beyond 5 years while operating in the …

Military Child Care Providers And Challenging Behaviors Of Early Childhood Students, Donna J. Blackburn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Job satisfaction of early childhood teachers in military programs and satisfaction changes as teachers deal with challenging behaviors in the workplace was the focus of this study. The goal of The National Association for the Education of Young Children is to ensure quality programming that promotes positive child development experiences. Child development experiences are impacted by teaching staff, partnerships, administration, and the children's' environment. This case study examined the specific environment and behaviors that military childcare providers experience at a small military installation and explored how working with children with challenging behaviors impacts the job satisfaction of early childhood teachers. …

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Infections In The Eight Service Planning Areas Of Los Angeles County, Ildiko Roxane Bocskay

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become resistant to antibiotics. The purpose of this quantitative, retrospective cohort study was to examine the relationship between length of hospitalization and invasive MRSA infection rates among different racial and ethnic groups in the 8 service planning areas (SPAs) of Los Angeles County. Cane, O'Connor, and Michie's theoretical domain framework was used. Secondary data from the Healthcare-Associated (HA) Infections Program of the California Department of Public Health were analyzed. For the first research question, a Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to assess the relationships between length of hospitalization and invasive HA-MRSA infection rates and counts. …

Factors That Impact African American High School Equivalency (Hse) Students' Pursuit Of Higher Education, Jamiyla Chandler-Melton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African Americans account for a disproportionate percentage of students who pursue college education in comparison to European Americans. Indeed, a considerable number of African American High School Equivalency (HSE) students are not enrolling in college once they earn their HSE diploma. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine 3 African American HSE students' perceptions about factors that influenced their pursuit of higher education at the selected HSE study site. These 3 students were selected for their inclusion because of their ethnicity, enrollment in the HSE program, academic underpreparedness and lack of pursuit of higher education, and strong …

Stereotype Threat And Work Attitudes Of Older Workers, Cheryl A. Countryman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract

Despite an aging U. S. workforce, age discrimination at work remains an issue. Researchers have found that beliefs about the aging process affect workers' performance and attitudes. There is little research available examining this phenomenon from the perception of older workers. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of 7 workers aged 55 and older regarding ageism through the theoretical framework of stereotype threat theory. Research questions focused on identifying age-related stereotypes held by the participants, the influence of those stereotypes on perceptions of aging, perception of the impact of aging on job …

Globalization, Mobile Technology, And Social Media's Influence On Leadership Communication Involving Millennials, Rasheedah Dunston

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Current research identifies effective leadership communication, which includes frequent direct conversational communication from company leaders, influences worker performance during organizational change. Social media, mobile technology, and the Millennial workforce have shifted leader communication style from purely top-down, town hall style communication to incorporate more collaborative and engaging forums. The case study addressed how globalization, social media, and mobile technology affects leadership communication and then subsequently effects worker performance as Millennials join the workforce. Qualitative data were collected from observations and interviews from a purposeful selection of 9 Millennial employees, including 2 Millennial leaders, and 8 non-Millennial leaders of a Fortune …

Promoting Social Change By Increasing Oral Reading Fluency By Second Grade, Ella D. Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teaching students to read fluently has always been a national problem. At an elementary school in Louisiana, over 50% of second grade students earned at risk or at some risk ratings on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) test in reading fluency from 2007 to 2009. The purpose of this project study was to determine the professional learning needs of educators for teaching oral reading fluency by investigating 2 aspects of reading proficiency: educators' perceptions of additional skills needed to increase students' fluency by second grade, and the types of professional development educators believed would assist them …

Performance Factors That Influence Marketing Measurement In Successful Small Businesses, Tareion M. Fluker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

During the 2009 economic recession, United States business leaders cut marketing expenditures between 33% and 50% more than they did for any other business expenditure to mitigate financial loss because business leaders often regard marketing as an expense and not an investment. Since there is not a widely applied marketing measurement standard, this multiple-case study focused on finding key performance indicators that healthcare and sales small business leaders in eastern United States with less than 500 employees, and marketing evaluation practices in place, used to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing. Institutional theory was used as the conceptual framework to …

Sustaining Dental Practices Longer Than 5 Years, David Gagner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Dentists graduate dental school ready to practice dentistry, but 85% do not feel prepared by the dental school to open and manage the operations of a general dental practice. General systems theory grounded this multisite case study. The research provides information on 3 solo practitioner dental practices that sustained beyond 5 years in the Washington, DC suburbs. At each operating practice, the dentist who owned the practice and 1 employee that also worked at the practice during the first 5 years were interviewed. The dentist provided marketing documents used during the first 5 years of the practice operations. Data triangulation …

A Phenomenological Study Of Millennial Mothers' Decisions Regarding Childcare Choices, April Lynn Fatato Grundman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, over 10 million children under the age of 5, including half the infants and toddlers, spend time in the care of someone other than their parents. Changes in family roles and the need for dual-earner households make childcare decisions important for middle class millennial mothers. Research addressing middle class millennial mothers' experiences in choosing childcare for their infants and toddlers and their adjustment to family changes is limited. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover the lived experiences and decision-making processes of these mothers concerning childcare. The conceptual framework was informed by the theories …

A Study Of Collaborative Leadership In South Carolina Alcohol Enforcement Teams, Michael Dale George

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2007 South Carolina funded 15 regional coordinators to work with local law enforcement agencies and alcohol and drug commissions to create 16 community alcohol enforcement teams to improve enforcement of underage drinking laws. Previous researchers have suggested that collaborative leadership is needed for effective teams, yet little is known about the factors that serve as barriers to and facilitators of, collaborative leadership in alcohol enforcement teams. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of coordinators involved in leading the alcohol enforcement teams in South Carolina. The theoretical framework used was Cameron, Quinn, DeGraff, and …

Evaluation Of A College Of Medicine Peer-Mentoring Program, Myra Haney Singleton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Peer-mentoring experiences in higher education have been largely effective largely effective, however institutions implement them differently. The focus of this program evaluation was a peer-mentoring program at a medical school in the southeastern region of the United States, which had not previously been evaluated. Guided by Kolb's experiential learning theory, the purpose of the evaluation in this study was to examine whether the peer-mentoring experience was perceived as helpful to new students and how students thought the program could be improved. The sequential mixed-method design consisted of a survey of 179 students and interviews of 8 students. A thematic analysis …

Improving Self-Management In Patients With Chronic Conditions, Jeryl Yvette Horton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Care Coordination Home Telehealth (CCHT) maintains a positive impact on the delivery of patient care in the primary care clinic at the Department of Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC). This quality improvement initiative targets patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. These patient are frequently seen in the emergency room, and are often admitted to the hospital, where they saturate the outpatient clinics' waiting room with multiple walk-ins. CCHT has, to some extent, reduced walk-ins, emergency room visits, and hospitalization while minimizing the strain on access to care at the VAMC. Sustaining …

Relationship Building And Unethical Behavior In The Hospitality Industry, Sharron Lee Koch

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Relationship building is a fundamental component to develop successful businesses, although corrupt purchasing executives pay bribes in excess of $1.5 trillion dollars annually. The participants for this case study consisted of 10 national sales managers who have successfully implemented strategies to train suppliers in relationship building in a hotel in Greensville, South Carolina. The resource dependence theory grounded the study. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies a hotel owner in Greenville, South Carolina used to train managers on relationship building. Collection of data included 8 semi-structured telephone interviews and 2 video interviews that were audio …

An Exploration Of The Effectiveness Of Problem-Based Learning In Nursing Education, Yvette Marie Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Critical-thinking is an essential skill that graduate nurses need to make sound clinical decisions. While traditional lecturing is the method most commonly used in nursing education, incorporating problem-based learning (PBL) into nursing curricula has been suggested as a better option for students' learning of theory and practice. The purpose of this study was to explore the difference in critical-thinking and problem-solving skills between nursing students taught using PBL versus those taught with traditional classroom lectures. A quasi-experimental approach, with cognitive learning theory as the foundation, was used to compare the results of an Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI) Comprehensive Predictor posttest …

Transitions From Military Duty To College For United States Military Veterans, Velma Layne

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some veterans transitioning from military duty to the classroom are not obtaining college degrees. The purpose of this study was to investigate student veterans’ perceptions of the transition services and support systems at their college that might impact the challenges they face while pursuing a college degree. The theoretical framework for this study was Schlossberg’s Theory of Transition. The guiding research question asked how military veterans perceived the transition services and support systems at their university in the context of their decision to obtain their degrees. A purposeful sampling approach was used for selecting student veteran participants who had returned …

The Challenges Of Cultural Business Relationships Within Manufacturing, Delariah Katherlene Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Manufacturing leaders seek strategies to improve cross-cultural business relationships because of the increasing demand for outsourcing, which requires strong partnerships among manufacturing supply chain members. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore successful strategies that manufacturing business leaders use to improve cross-cultural business relationships within their manufacturing supply chain. The targeted population included business leaders, fluent in English, within 1 company located at 2 different manufacturing sites in the Midwest region of the United States and the Northeast region of Mexico. The capability-based view theory was used to support knowledge sharing, trust, and strategic management. Methodological …

Business-To-Business Marketing Perceptions: Customer Knowledge Management And Customer Engagement, Lorraine Marzilli Lomas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract: Business-to-business (B2B) marketing involves several components including the marketing management decision-making process and the buying behaviors of the B2B clientele and the end users. Disregarding customer knowledge management (CKM) and inaccurate analysis of data cost companies billions of dollars per year. The objective of this exploratory single-case study was to develop an in-depth analysis of the problem that some marketing managers have limited knowledge of how to use CKM strategies to improve B2B customer engagement. The dynamic capabilities and technological opportunism theories comprised the study's conceptual framework. Data collection consisted of participant observations, member checking, and semistructured interviews with …

First-Generation Doctoral Male Students' Experiences Of Doctoral-Level Online Courses, Terry Richard Farris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Recent research suggests a lack of information about the experiences of first-generation doctoral men who have moved from ground-based education to online education, which can negatively impact program completion for this group. This collective case study investigated the experiences of a group of first-generation doctoral male students attempting doctoral-level online education for the first time, in particular, to identify and develop a deep understanding of their experiences in interacting, participating, communicating, and relating with colleagues and instructors. The conceptual frameworks of the study were connectivism, experiential learning, symbolic interactionism, and constructionism. Data were collected through participant questionnaires, Skype interviews, and …

Diagnosing Fibromyalgia: Using A Diagnostic Screening Tool In Primary Care, Lilo Fink

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Fibromyalgia (FMS) goes undiagnosed in as many as 3 out of 4 people who have the disease. Primary care providers (PCPs) are the first to evaluate patients; therefore, PCPs need to be able to recognize FMS, implement initial treatment, and refer for further consultation. The Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Screening Tool (FDST), a validated instrument to identify FMS, can improve the speed and accuracy of FMS diagnosis. The purpose of this project was to familiarize PCPS with the FDST, evaluate their receptiveness to the tool, and train them in its use. The Leventhal, Diefenbach, and Levanthal, common sense model of illness provided …

Strategies For Managing A Multigenerational Workforce, Ronald Lee Iden

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The multigenerational workforce presents a critical challenge for business managers, and each generation has different expectations. A human resource management study of organizations with more than 500 employees reported 58% of the managers experiencing conflict between younger and older workers. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the multigenerational strategies used by 3 managers from a Franklin County, Ohio manufacturing facility with a population size of 6 participants. The conceptual framework for this study was built upon generational theory and cohort group theory. The data were collected through face-to-face semistructured interviews, company documents, and a reflexive journal. …

Developing Policies And Guidelines To Prevent Medication Errors And Ades In Nursing Homes, Marion Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to the National Patient Safety Foundation, more than 1.5 million Americans are affected by medication errors because of varied factors including miscommunication, bad handwriting, name confusion, poor packaging, and metric or other dosing unit errors. This project addressed medication errors and adverse drug events by developing policy and practice guidelines to support and aid the utilization of health information technology (HIT) systems in addressing medication errors and adverse drug events at a local nursing home in Cincinnati, Ohio. The National Quality Strategy Framework was used by a team of interdisciplinary stakeholders as a guide for the development of policies …

The Effectiveness Of An Organizational Hospital-Acquired Pressure Ulcer Prevention Workshop On Pressure Ulcer Prevalence Rates, Stacey Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The goal of this project was to evaluate a hospital acquired pressure ulcer (HAPU) prevention program implemented in a New York City hospital in 2012. The program objective was to encourage collaboration of team members to prevent HAPUs in order to reduce prevalence rates to national target benchmarks. The program provided caregivers information about epidemiology, etiology, prevention, and treatment of HAPUs, and presented HAPU prevention as a collaborative process in order to foster greater awareness in each participant's role as an agent of change by emphasizing the importance of communication between members of the health care team. This project evaluated …

Assessing Knowledge Of Evidence-Basedpractice Among Nurses, Suja Merin John

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is used worldwide to improve the quality of patient care to provide cost-effective care. EBP is a mandate for nursing practice combining individual clinical judgment with available expertise to generate a positive outcome for the patient. Investigators have documented that nurses have varying degrees of confidence and knowledge about EBP. The purpose of this project was to improve knowledge of EBP among registered nurses (RNs). The ACE Star Model of Knowledge transformation was used as the conceptual model. The key project question was to assess the level of knowledge and confidence about EBP among RNs in a …