Digital Commons Network^™

Personal And Professional Spirituality: Muslim Social Workers' Perspectives, Cheryl W. El-Amin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research in the area of religion and spirituality in social work practice is lacking minority practitioner representation. This phenomenological study explored the questions of how American Muslim social workers define and experience the religious/spiritual, and perceive the propriety of integrating either, in practice. Ibn Khaldun and Durkheim, early social theorists, suggested that group feeling and affiliation impact personal and professional perception and decision making. American societal views of Muslims are often negative and uninformed. A group of 15 Muslim practitioners with bachelor's or more advanced degrees in social work were recruited through a survey administered via an Internet survey site. …

The Lived Experience Of Hiv-Positive Tanzanian Orphans, Carol A. Parker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this investigation was to generate a context- specific model of the lived experience of HIV positive Tanzanian orphans. With the advent of anti-retroviral drugs, Sub-Saharan African populations with high burdens of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) face annually accumulating increases in the number of HIV positive children, and ultimately adults. Perinatally infected, these children often become orphans while still young. Extended interviews were performed with a purposive sample of 12 HIV infected orphaned children between 9 and 12 years of age. Half of the research participants lived in an orphanage and half were children living with guardians in …

The Intersection Of Punctuated Equilibrium And Leadership Emergence Within The Framework Of Naturalistic Decision Making, Linda Moerschell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Punctuated equilibrium, a theory of unexpected and sudden change arising out of evolutionary biology and paleontology, has been applied to decision sciences, physics, organizational theory, and group behavior but never to leadership emergence theories. The purpose of the study was to discover how leadership emerges during a period of punctuated equilibrium, a sudden and unexpected change event, using a naturalistic decision making framework. Thus, the research question probed how leadership emergence could be theoretically modeled in a critical event. This grounded theory study was particularly unique because it drew from, and helped unify the four scientific foundations of complexity science, …

Public Policy, Social Change, And The Ethics Triangle: Undocumented Immigrants And Higher Education In The United States, Matthew Collins, Giselle Reid

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

The institutions of higher education in the United States face the dilemma of deciding whether to admit and matriculate students without legal immigration status. This public policy question involves careful interpretation of federal and state law, general public sentiment, the effects on the individual institutions, as well as the plight of undocumented immigrant students and their parents. The purpose of this research was to analyze the ethical dilemma facing colleges and universities concerning whether to allow or deny admission to undocumented immigrant students, utilizing the ethics triangle. This research argued that the benefits of facilitating higher education for undocumented students …

The Ability Of Firefighting Personnel To Cope With Stress, David Milen

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

The purpose of this study was to identify the effectiveness of the coping strategies and resources that firefighters use to deal with personal and workplace stressors. One hundred and fifteen firefighting personnel from 4 fire departments in Illinois and Indiana participated. The Coping Resources Inventory for Stress (CRIS) Scale measured stress levels and coping strategies. The results showed that firefighters who were not physically fit, who lacked social support, and who were unable to control tension and structure daily activities experienced feelings of low confidence. The findings from this study can provide fire department administrators and company officers with ways …

Bridging The Divide: Principles For Healthy Corporate Social Responsibility Partnerships, Mark Gordon, Donna Daniels

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

In its infancy, corporate social responsibility (CSR) focused on environmental issues rather than the provision of a wider array of support to local communities. Today, CSR includes strong partnerships between multinational corporations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Previous research has demonstrated that corporations that partner with NGOs are more visible to their key stakeholders. Through a longitudinal, in-depth study of Merck Thailand and the Raks Thai Foundation in Bangkok, Thailand, this case study identified best practices for a multinational company interested in partnering with a local NGO. From those practices, the research identified the key principles that sustain the partnership: leadership, …

Changing The Negative Behavioral And Development Outcomes To A Toxic Prenatal Environment Through Maternal Education, Angela Eileen Laughlin Lebedev

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of current education materials on changing maternal smoking attitudes. Children are affected by prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke. Although there are educational efforts to discourage pregnant women from smoking, the practice continues in a significant number of pregnancies. New materials, based on current research, were also evaluated for effectiveness. The theoretical framework for this study was adult learning theory presented by Knowles which made the assumption that an individual is shaped by environmental systems, that adult learning is affected by previous knowledge they bring to the learning and that adults …

E-Commerce Sourcing Models, Anne Fulcher Nelson

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Electronic commerce (EC) involves business transactions, marketing efforts, information gathering, and other functional activities with respect to information technology (IT) both within and without an organization. It provides various opportunities to a firm to adopt different business sourcing models and allows new opportunities to configure organizational structure for both private and public companies within the New Economy. Critical factors for EC success dictate that the firm must re-evaluate its business sourcing model from with complexity theory and the New Economy, thereby emphasizing the need for the firm to effectively coordinate its EC initiatives and consider all sourcing opportunities in this …

Ant Colony Optimization For Multilevel Assembly Job Shop Scheduling, M. Omkumar, P. Shahabudeen

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Job shop scheduling is one of the most explored areas in the last few decades. Although it is very commonly witnessed in real-life situations, very less investigation has been carried out in scheduling operations of multi-level jobs, which undergo serial, parallel, and assembly operations in an assembly job shop. In this work, some of the dispatch rules, which have best performances in scheduling multilevel jobs in dynamic assembly job shop, are tested in static assembly job shop environment. A new optimization heuristic based on Ant Colony Algorithm is proposed and its performance is compared with the dispatch rules.

The Antecedents And Consequences Of Rfid Technology Adoption For China’S Logistics Companies, Chieh-Yu Lin, Yi-Hui Ho

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

With the fast growth in China’s economy, the logistics industry in China is set to take off, and more and more logistics companies begin to adopt innovative logistics technologies. RFID technology has been regarded as an important innovative application in logistics operations and supply chain management. This paper aims to study the antecedents and consequences of RFID technology adoption from the perspective of technological innovation by conducting a questionnaire survey on China’s logistics companies. The factors influencing RFID technology adoption consist of organizational and environmental dimensions. Research findings reveal that organizational encouragement for innovation, quality of human capital, organizational accumulation …

A Study On Attitude And Intention Towards Internet Banking With Reference To Malaysian Consumers In Klang Valley Region, S. Arunkumar

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The development of online banking technology revolution in recent years, and speed of this development is extremely rapid. Online banking technology also spreads widely and influences deeply not only economic activities of business, households and governments but also various areas of people’s daily life. With the liberalization and internalization of financial markets, in terms of the entrance of the World Trade Organization, banks in Malaysia face pressures in service quality and administrative efficiency. Predicting customers' intention towards Internet banking is an important issue. Internet banking is a new type of information system that uses the innovative resources of the Internet …

Strategic Themes For Balanced Scorecard Construction Based On Fuzzy Logic, Adolfo Alberto Vanti, Rafael Espin, Alonso Perez-Soltero, Denise Ciotta

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Balanced Scorecard is a methodology for strategic management with emphasis in strategic, tactic, and operational control. If you don’t measure something, you don’t manage it. Last statement is a way to emphasizes one of the most important assumptions of this methodology that is very well implemented by it. However, BSC can’t express strategy in actions, nor translate verbalization of strategic planning, important topics to build an effective Balance Scorecard. This paper defines priorities of topics about strategic planning considering the SWOT analysis - strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats – (Andrews, 1971). SWOT analysis is completed considering actions and objectives through Fuzzy …

The Adoption And Diffusion Of Computing And Internet Technologies In Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Lawrence Joseph

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The rapid growth of technologies is providing the opportunity for innovative design and delivery of curriculum and instructional materials to college students; yet many college faculty members, especially in historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), are not using this technology. With a widening gap in access to technologies for minorities, this is a significant issue. In this study, specific research questions focused on HBCU faculty’s current use of technology, desire to incorporate new technology, view of organizational support, and potential gender or age differences. Surveys were conducted at five HBCU with established records of leadership in education. Using quantitative statistics, …

Performance Comparison Of New Heuristic With Genetic Algorithm In Parallel Flow Line Set Up, K. Balasubramanian, A. Noorul Haq, N. Rajeswari

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

A new heuristic has been developed to solve the problem in parallel flow line scheduling. It involves the minimization of the makespan by the optimal allocation of a finite number of jobs to finite number of lines in the first phase and the optimal sequencing of allocated jobs in each line in the second phase. Here new heuristic and genetic algorithm for analyzing the parallel flow line scheduling are discussed and executed on a set of randomly generated problems. The results obtained for the test problems suggest that the developed new heuristic can be used successfully to solve large scale …

Supply Chain Collaborations Changing The Face Of Indian Automobile, Arpita Khare

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The emphasis given on improving supply chains in organizations both by companies and academia in past two decades shows the growing importance of integrating manufacturing and marketing processes of organizations. In the recent years supply networks are being recognized as strategic tools that enable companies to fight global competitive battles.

The paper studies the nature of supplier collaborations and technology’s role in improving coordination across the supplier networks. The paper provides an insight into supplier networks of Indian automobile companies and presents some cases to demonstrate this.

Mitigating Denial-Of-Service Attacks On Voip Environment, Igor Jouravlev

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

IP telephony refers to the use of Internet protocols to provide voice, video, and data in one integrated service over LANs, BNs, MANs, not WANs. VoIP provides three key benefits compared to traditional voice telephone services. First, it minimizes the need fro extra wiring in new buildings. Second, it provides easy movement of telephones and the ability of phone numbers to move with the individual. Finally, VoIP is generally cheaper to operate because it requires less network capacity to transmit the same voice telephone call over an increasingly digital telephone network (FitzGerald & Dennis, 2007 p. 519). Unfortunately, benefits of …

The Attitudes Of Regular Education Teachers Regarding Inclusion For Students With Autism, Kimberly Showalter-Barnes

Frank Dilley Award for Outstanding Doctoral Study

This study addressed the problem of students with autism being placed in regular education classrooms and the lack of support of regular educators toward this practice. This research study was based upon the theoretical construct of attitude. Attitude is an important concept related to inclusion as teacher expectations and attitude affect student performance. This research study examined teacher attitude toward inclusion of students with autism based upon years of teaching experience, current teaching placement, gender, previous experience with inclusion, and amount of training regarding autism. The study sample consisted of 178 regular educators selected by cluster and random sampling within …

Bridging The Gap: Home-School Partnerships In Kindergarten, Keenjal Pattni-Shah

Frank Dilley Award for Outstanding Doctoral Study

Although home-school partnerships support Kindergarten children's development of vocabulary, the alphabetic principle, and phonological awareness, the mechanisms through which these partnerships are established and facilitated with immigrant parents from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds are largely unknown. Therefore, the major research questions that guided this qualitative, grounded theory study focused on exploring how successful Kindergarten teachers defined home-school partnerships with parents, the strategies the teachers used to communicate with parents, the ways these teachers reached out to parents to create and sustain partnerships, and how the teachers used these partnerships to support children's learning. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory served as the …

Changing The Negative Behavioral And Developmental Outcomes To A Toxic Prenatal Environment Through Parent Education, Angela Elieen Laughlin Lebedev

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of current education materials on changing maternal smoking attitudes. Children are affected by prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke. Although there are educational efforts to discourage pregnant women from smoking, the practice continues in a significant number of pregnancies. New materials, based on current research, were also evaluated for effectiveness. The theoretical framework for this study was adult learning theory presented by Knowles which makes the assumption that an individual is shaped by environmental systems, that adult learning is affected by previous knowledge they bring to the learning and that adults …

Family Message Journals: A Tool For Writing Instruction Combined With Parent Involvement, Sandi Michele Mccann

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mandates on reading and math achievement in elementary education in rural Georgia have led to a decline in writing proficiency as the subject becomes increasingly neglected. At the same time, schools strive to increase parental involvement programs. Consequently, there is a need for more research on the impact of parental involvement on student writing proficiency. Accordingly, this qualitative case study examined the impact of Family Message Journals (FMJ) and parent participation on teaching writing across the curriculum. Participants included 6 third-graders and their parents. Students wrote in journals 4 days per week across the 4 months of the study, and …

Portfolio Construction: The Efficient Diversification Of Marketing Investments, Michael P. Haydock

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Efforts in the marketing sciences can be distinguished between the analysis of individual customers and the examination of portfolios of customers, giving scarce theoretical guidance concerning the strategic allocation of promotional investments. Yet, strategic asset allocation is considered in financial economics theory to be the most important set of investment decisions. The problem addressed in this study was the application of strategic asset allocation theory from financial economics to marketing science with the aim of improving the financial results of investment in direct marketing promotions. This research investigated the components of efficient marketing portfolio construction which include multiattribute numerical optimization, …

The Impact Of Professional Development On Assessment And Grading Practices For Secondary Teachers, Nicole Lynn Roorda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Studies suggest that a potential misalignment between assessment and grading practices in reporting secondary student academic achievement has negatively impacted students since grades may not truly reflect actual achievement. Accordingly, the purpose of the current study was to compare secondary teachers' use of academic and nonacademic factors when reporting student achievement before and after professional development on assessment and grading practices. Following change theory, the study investigated the efficacy of employing professional development as a means of influencing more standard and appropriate practices among secondary teachers with regard to using academic and nonacademic factors when employing standards-based reporting to determine …

The Impact Of Visual Art Instruction On Student Creativity, Jeanie S. Parker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This researcher examined the relationship between visual arts programs and creative thinking skills of high school students taking a foundations of music course and an introductory visual art course. A gap existed in the current literature concerning visual art experience and creativity among high school students. This study was based upon the theories of Eisner, Gardner, and Csikszentmihalyi concerning creativity and art experiences. This researcher used a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design. A convenience sample of 2 high school fine arts classes was comprised of 1 visual art class and 1 foundations of music class, giving a sample of 50 …

A Model For Managing Civil Construction Company Systems, Carlos Alberto Pereira Soares, Christine Kowal Chinelli

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

At the beginning of the 20th century, organizations in a globalized and highly competitive environment face two options—either they stagnate by keeping their traditional old fashioned procedures, or they make the decision to look forward and change their current procedure, as they attempt to survive competition and become new competitive organizations that can play a more active role in the future market. Organizational changes are naturally linked to risks, and risks mean opportunities, as well as losses. However, as companies try to modify their procedures and adapt their staff and routine to some novelty, they have a good chance to …

Measuring Agility Of Organizations – A Comprehensive Agility Measurement Tool (Camt), Ameya S. Erande, Alok K. Verma

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Since “Agility” is ability to respond to unpredictable changes with quick response and profitability, it is not industry specific. This “not industry specific” nature of agility makes it hard to assess and measure it on a fixed scale. Measurement of agility of an enterprise has been a major topic of research since inception of agility in 1991. Though some methods have been developed to measure agility, they mainly remain tied to manufacturing industry. As agility is present in all the industries, comprehensive tool to measure it is a necessity in order to determine responsiveness of an enterprise to external turbulences. …

Risk Visualization: A Mechanism For Supporting Unstructured Decision Making Processes, Akhilesh Chandra, Ravi Krovi, Balaji Rajagopalan

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The premise of this paper is that risk visualization has the potential to reduce the seemingly irrational behavior of decision makers. In this context, we present a model that enhances our understanding of visualization and how it can be used to support risk based decision making. The contribution of our research stems from the fact that decision making scenarios in business are characterized by uncertainty and a lack of structure. The complexity inherent in such scenarios is manifested in the form of unavailability of information, too many alternatives, inability to quantify alternatives, or lack of knowledge of the payoff matrix. …

A Literature Review For Identification Of Performance Measures For Establishing A Framework For Performance Measurement In Supply Chains, A. D. Sarode, V. K. Sunnapwar, P. M. Khodke

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has gained significance as one of the 21st century manufacturing paradigms for improving organizational competitiveness. Supply chain ensures improved efficiency and effectiveness of not only product transfer, but also information sharing between the complex hierarchies of all the tiers. The literature on SCM that deals with strategies and technologies for effectively managing a supply chain is quite vast. In recent years, organizational performance measurement (PM) and metrics have received much attention from researchers and practitioners. Performance measurement and metrics have an important role to play in setting objectives, evaluating performance, and determining future courses of actions. …

The Relationship Of Fear And Fatalism With Breast Cancer Screening Among A Selected Target Population Of African American Middle Class Women, Patricia Yvonne Talbert

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore whether fear and fatalism influence compliance with breast cancer screening among members of a selected target population of African American middle-class (AAMC) women. Using a cross-sectional analysis, a sample of 120 AAMC women, ages 35 and older, residing in Minnesota, was surveyed with an abridged version of the Champion Health Belief Model Scale (Champion, 1999), the Champion Breast Cancer Fear Scale (Champion et al, 2004), and an adapted version of the Powe Fatalism Model (Powe, 1995). Results indicated that fear and fatalism belief scores were statistically related to breast cancer compliance …

Smoking Attitudes Among Adolescents: Effect Of Messages Varying On Argument Quality And Source’S Expertise, Evdoxia Kosmidou, Yannis Theodorakis, Stiliani (Ani) Chroni

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

The present study examined the effectiveness of an anti-smoking message on processing and persuasion in young adolescents. Data were collected from 112 Greek adolescents 13 to 16 years of age, who were randomly assigned into a control and four experimental groups. All participants in experimental groups read a written anti-smoking message varying on the source’s expertise (expert or non expert) and on the quality of the arguments (12 weak/12 strong arguments). Before and after the experimental manipulation, participants completed questionnaires assessing attitudes towards smoking, intention to smoke, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, knowledge, and smoking behavior. Repeated measures analyses showed …

Treatment Practices Of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective, Deborah Watson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) occurs in up to 9.9 % of the general population. Clinical implications of CSA are lasting and warrant treatment utilizing suitable approaches. Although the developmental psychopathology model encourages clinicians to evaluate disorders in the context of risk/protective factors, cultural issues and development, there is a gap in current research regarding the utilization of developmental theory among clinicians working with this population. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine consistent patterns in treatment practices employed by therapists with CSA patients. The primary research question in this study was to determine how closely therapists' actual treatment …