Digital Commons Network^™

A Phenomenological Study Of Success Despite Barriers: How Leaders With Disabilities Experience Supervisory Leadership Through The Lens Of Adaptive Leadership, Ashley Oberlander Townsend

Dissertations

People with disabilities experience unemployment and underemployment more frequently than those without disabilities and encounter obstacles to becoming supervisory leaders (Harlan & Robert, 1998; Krzeminska et al., 2019; Roberson et al., 2021). The American workforce is significantly impacted by this problem, as more than one in four people have a disability (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024). This hermeneutic phenomenological research utilized interviews to collect data from three participants to answer the research question to explore the problem: what are leaders with disabilities’ lived experiences in overcoming barriers to achieving supervisory roles using an adaptive leadership lens? The research …

Patient Violence In The Emergency Department : The Potential Role Of Endogenous And Exogenous Factors, Laura Baker Graham

Dissertations

Patient Violence against nurses is a widespread problem resulting in both emotional and physical injury to the nurse. Emergency Department (ED) nurses are at an increased risk due to the volume and variety of the patients they serve, and the general chaotic environment of the ED; however, little research has been done examining the characteristics of patients who offend and the physical environment of the ED where the event happened. The aim of this three-article dissertation was to develop a more thorough understanding of the personal attributes (endogenous) of the individual patient and external (exogenous) factors of the emergency department …

A Dissertation To Explore Entrepreneurial Decision-Making In High-Risk Uncertainty Using Ethical Leadership, Janice Patrick Honeycytt Hering

Dissertations

Entrepreneurs regularly face high-risk, uncertain situations. Until this study, no research had examined how entrepreneurs approach these situations. Although studies have identified the construct of courage and suggested ways for employees to take courageous action in the workplace, no study has examined how entrepreneurs approach situations perceived as high-risk and with uncertain outcomes until now. This study was based on ethical leadership, one of the major components of courage: acting for the higher good. This study conducted qualitative grounded theory research to determine what process entrepreneurs use when faced with the need for courageous actions. Participants were entrepreneurs in the …

The Ingroup-Outgroup Effect: Effects On Open And Closed-Minded Cognitive Style, Ava Jackson Dempsey

Dissertations

Prior research provides evidence of an Ingroup-Outgroup effect on open-mindedness, specifically, that group membership (ingroup or outgroup) influences Situation-Specific Open-Minded Cognition (SOMC), the intention to be open-minded. Researchers have found that group members were more open-minded towards critics of their ingroup when criticism came from ingroup, as opposed to outgroup members, and that this effect was mediated by normative entitlement (SNORM), that is, how open-minded participants feel they “should be”. The present study aimed to extend these findings, examining actual manifestations of open-minded cognition, as opposed to how open-minded participants say they would be. The present study tested whether political …

How Tax Code Complexity Impacts Small Business Decisions In Alabama: A Mixed Method Study, George Nkosi

Dissertations

This study investigates how federal tax code complexity influences small business decision-making in Alabama using a mixed-methods approach. Tax complexity is defined by ambiguity in tax provisions, frequent regulatory changes, and recordkeeping burdens, all of which affect decision-making and investment behavior. Survey data from small business owners were analyzed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify the primary dimensions of tax complexity. Regression analysis then assessed the relationship between these dimensions and business decision-making. The findings indicate that ambiguity, frequency of change, and administrative requirements are negatively associated with long-term planning and capital investment decisions. Two complementary case studies involving …

Skip-Level Meetings: Perspectives Of Skipped First-Tier U.S. Tech Leaders, Samuel Blacher

Dissertations

Although significant research exists on numerous intersecting theories, such as adaptive leadership, leadership communication, and employee voice, and although they are discussed in business publications and widely yet inconsistently implemented in industry, skip-level meetings are little scholarly studied. Such meetings offer benefits for employees, direct (skipped) managers, and skip-level leaders, and through them, to organizations, yet they also hold risks and pitfalls, and are influenced by various contextual factors, such as stakeholders’ national culture and age. This exploratory qualitative study employed elements of interpretive phenomenology, followed by thematic analysis, to examine the experiences, perceptions, and emotions of a diverse set …

Rejected From Pastoral Leadership: A Phenomenological Study Of The Voice And Lived Experiences Of African American Pentecostal Women In Clergy, Cynthia Ann Hurns

Dissertations

The study explored the lived experiences of 10 African American Holiness-Pentecostal clergywomen who faced rejection in a predominantly male-led church system. These women shared detailed stories of their experiences in leadership as pastors, apostles, and co-pastors. A qualitative phenomenological methodology was employed, using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) because it allows for in-depth exploration of how people make sense of their experiences, aligning with the study’s focus on leadership journeys. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through descriptive and iterative coding. Codes were grouped into broader categories, resulting in five emerging themes: voiceless calling, bound to tradition, call from …

An Exploration Of The Clinical Senior Nursing Student Preceptor Relationship, Kimberly Nicole Dunker

Dissertations

Problem

The use of clinical preceptors for training is well documented in the literature as an effective strategy for helping students, new graduates, and RNs orient to their roles in healthcare facilities. The need to ensure that the preceptor is adequately trained and then matched to a preceptee for a successful relationship is a challenge. The healthcare facility does its best to identify a preceptor and ensure adequate training is completed and there is a willingness to facilitate the experience. The academic institution is required to ensure that preceptors are chosen based on criteria outlined by the board of nursing …

Stories Of Seventh-Day Adventist Teachers Of Color And Their Voluntary Job Mobility During Their Early Years Of Teaching, Dollene Trott-Smith

Dissertations

Problem

Teachers of Color in the Seventh-day Adventist school system experience voluntary job mobility and attrition, contributing to increasing teacher turnover rates in the U.S. Since the 1954 federal mandate to desegregate U.S. public schools, this phenomenon has become more pressing. Despite racial and ethnic diversification in school staffing, the White teacher population remains around 80%, with Teachers of Color making up only 20%. While extensive research exists on public school teacher turnover, limited studies focus on private school educators, including those in the Seventh-day Adventist school system.

Method

This transcendental phenomenological qualitative study explored the voluntary job mobility of …

Predictors Of General Education Teachers' Self-Efficacy For Educating Autistic Students: Enactive Mastery Experiences, Vicarious Experiences, Verbal/Social Persuasions, And Physiological And Affective States, Renette Portecop-Prentice

Dissertations

Problem

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that presents challenges not only for autistic individuals, but also for their families, healthcare providers and school professionals. A significant number of children with autism spend most of their school day in general education classrooms with teachers who may lack autism-specific training and are unfamiliar with evidence-based practices for supporting autistic students. This lack of training or relevant resources specific to autism may impact teacher self-efficacy for educating autistic students, which in turn may affect instructional decisions and student outcomes. Guided by Bandura’s theoretical framework, this study examined the relationships among autism-specific training …

Staying In The Game: A Study On Mentorship And Persistence Of Women Ncaa Division Iii Athletics Directors, Myranda Hope Nash

Dissertations

Mentorship and persistence among women NCAA Division III Athletics Directors (ADs) remain underexamined despite their significance for leadership continuity. With women comprising only 33% of Division III ADs, intentional mentorship is essential to advancing gender equity in collegiate athletics. This qualitative study analyzes interviews with ten women ADs to examine mentorship structures, professional trajectories, and psychosocial outcomes. Seven themes emerged: institutional culture and alignment; supervisors as mentors; queen bee syndrome; career pathways; influential leadership; Clutterbuck’s mentorship phases; and psychosocial support. Informal mentorship proved most effective, frequently developing into sustained professional relationships. Participants reported increased confidence, validation, and emotional support, particularly …

The Impact On General Education Students’ Perceptions Of Their Peers With Special Needs When Implementing An Inclusive Buddy Club Program, Katherine Coker

Dissertations

The aim of this study is to explore the impact on general education students’ perceptions of their classmates with special needs after participating in a buddy club. By fostering peer interactions in structured, inclusive settings, the buddy club creates opportunities for students to interact and better understand the experiences of their peers with special needs. There is a lack of research regarding the positive or negative impact of partnering elementary-aged general education students with their special needs peers. Therefore, this study is framed by the following research questions: (1) What are general education students’ perceptions towards their classmates with special …

“Remember, You Are Not A Superhuman”: The Lived Experience Of Rest, Unrest, And Leadership In Special Operations, Trey Zoda

Dissertations

U.S. special operations forces (SOF) operate in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments that demand cognitive clarity, emotional regulation, and relational presence. While previous research on SOF readiness has addressed physical fitness, resilience, and sleep, little attention has been given to the psychological dimensions of rest and their implications for leadership. The purpose of this qualitative, transcendental phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of psychological rest and unrest in U.S. government SOF and the perceived influence of these states on their leadership. Guided by Moustakas’s transcendental method, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with SOF personnel. They were …

Generalizing Coordination Threshold Graphical Games On Contagion And Secret Sharing Through Graph Features, Alexandra Fedrigo

Dissertations

Coordination graphical games depict interactions among a network of participants that must work together to achieve a desired outcome. Many sociological, economic, and political scenarios are modeled using these games. The flexible framework graphical games provide leaves a variety of parameters to be determined based on application, though the parameters that describe the network of participants are of central importance. There are several avenues previously unexplored in this area. In this work, a metric is introduced to describe graph fitness for a basic coordination graphical game and restrictions on the longterm behavior of the game are identified. Similarly, game outcome …

An Algorithm For Three-Dimensional Bubble Simulations And Analysis For Advanced Nuclear Propulsion, Pongkrit Darakorn Na Ayuthya

Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development of a predictive simulation framework for analyzing gas-liquid dynamics in Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (CNTP) systems, where hydrogen gas is injected into a rotating liquid uranium fuel core. Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), a fully Lagrangian mesh-free method, this research models multiphase flow behavior under extreme conditions, capturing critical phenomena such as bubble formation, surface deformation, void fraction evolution, and rotational confinement. A novel modification to the liquid equation of state is introduced to mitigate SPH artifacts, improving fluid stability and enabling surface recovery after deformation. The model is validated against experimental data from static …

Middle-Level Teachers’ Attitudes On Disciplinary Literacy Instruction In The Non-Ela Classroom, Katherine E. Bowers

Dissertations

The persistent gaps in student achievement, particularly in the context of discipline-specific literacy skills, across public schools in the United States continue to widen. With a focus on South Carolina, this study investigates how professional development efforts have sought to address these gaps and enhance literacy instruction. Despite many initiatives, testing scores and teacher perceptions reveal limited progress in literacy outcomes. The study discusses a key challenge: the lack of substantial literacy instruction beyond English language arts (ELA) classes, resulting in a growing disparity between literacy mastery and the current reality. The research acknowledges the existence of literacy-focused professional development …

Statistical Approaches In Evolutionary Biology: Using Threespine Stickleback Fish To Test Fisher's Geometric Model And Evaluate Methods For Handling Missing Data, Aaron Mathew Myrold

Dissertations

This thesis explores two distinct yet complementary aspects of evolutionary biology. The first chapter tests predictions from Fisher's geometric model of adaptation using a finely resolved fossil sequence of Gasterosteus doryssus spanning approximately 21,250 years. I analyze phenotypic changes in three armor traits during adaptation to a new environment and find that while step sizes follow the predicted exponential distribution—with many small steps and few large ones—they do not adhere to the model's temporal prediction that large-effect mutations should fix early in the adaptive walk. This discrepancy likely reflects adaptation from standing genetic variation rather than de novo mutation. The …

Leadership Communication And Symbolic Language In Organizational Change: A Study In Higher Education, Christine Fischer

Dissertations

Higher education institutions face growing pressures related to affordability, accessibility, and trust. In this environment, leadership communication, especially symbolic language that frames transformation as mission-aligned, plays a central role in shaping organizational change. This qualitative single-case study examined how leaders at a private Christian liberal arts college used metaphors, narratives, and values-based discourse to communicate an innovative tuition model and how this language influenced stakeholder perceptions, engagement, and resistance. Data included 26 leadership communication documents, a metaphor-based faculty and staff survey, and eight semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis and metaphorical analysis were used to interpret symbolic language, meaning-making processes, and …

Healthcare Providers’ Lived Experiences During Pivotal Change, Lisa Raynelle Shelley

Dissertations

This phenomenological study examined healthcare providers’ lived experiences of psychological safety and administrative leader behaviors that influenced those experiences during pivotal change. While much research addressed psychological safety among frontline healthcare staff, a gap was noticed concerning providers. This study aimed to investigate the impact of psychological safety and administrative support on provider engagement, emotional response, and retention during periods of significant change. Data were collected via a survey containing multiple-choice and open-ended questions, followed by semi-structured interviews. Four findings emerged. First, the providers’ pivotal events generated themes of “workplace power dynamics,” “systemic and organizational change,” “transformational crisis,” and “physical …

Including Conscientiously: How Charter School Educators Experience Inclusion Education Implementation, Joe A. Petty

Dissertations

This narrative inquiry examined how charter school educators experience inclusive education implementation while confronting ableist systems that maintain exclusion through seemingly neutral practices. This research emerged from my lived experience of how educational structures systematically marginalize disabled students while appearing progressive. The study investigated two research questions: how support structures and leadership practices either perpetuate or dismantle ableist assumptions embedded in educational practice, and how educators negotiate tensions between implementing evidence-based inclusive strategies and addressing environmental factors that create the need for those strategies.

Data collection employed semistructured interviews with eight credentialed educators across two Southern California charter school sites, …

Assessing The Selection And Impact Of Completeness In Technical Measure Sets In Systems Engineering, Casey Eaton

Dissertations

Technical measurement is foundational in large-scale complex engineered systems (LSCES) design and contract awards due to the state of practice of systems engineering. Although technical measurement is ubiquitous in systems engineering practice, the selection and assessment of the impact of a set of technical measures is often heuristics-based, rather than based on empirical evidence or theory. Current technical measure set selection has been observed to be subject to many challenges which, in turn, can degrade system outcomes. Two main thrusts comprise the research: selection and impact. Motivated by the potential impacts of a poor set of technical measures, a significant …

A Rubber-Band System For Dynamic Incentivization Of Parallelized Gamified Objectives, Nicholas Diliberti

Dissertations

With the advent of videogames as the world's first mass-market interactive media, gamification has emerged as the premier way to harness powerful behavior-affecting gamified elements and place them in other contexts, such as education, fitness, and rehabilitation. This transposition, however, ignores a key tenant of user engagement: reward ought to be aligned with effort. Most, if not all, current gamification systems dispatch static reward allocations for their spread of gamified behaviors. In this paper, an alternative is presented: dynamic gamification. This dynamic gamification reads the user's current gamified state for indicators of aptitude, dynamically remaps rewards with a tuneable evaluation …

Understanding Pediatric Healthcare Access From A Black Parental Perspective : A Qualitative Study, Jessica A. Celestand

Dissertations

In the United States, healthcare access disparities have existed for several years in the African American/Black pediatric population. The District of Columbia ranks first nationally for health insurance coverage; however, African American/Black children have disproportionately experienced barriers to care compared to the District of Columbia’s pediatric population overall. There are current gaps in research that investigate African American/Black pediatric healthcare access from a parental perspective. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenology qualitative study was to explore research gaps by investigating barriers and facilitators to care, and the social determinants of health that impact pediatric healthcare access through the lens of …

Church Ministers' Perceptions On Burnout And How It Shapes Their Leadership Practices., Jason Young

Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study explored how large church ministry leaders experienced burnout and how that burnout shaped their leadership practices. The study was motivated by a research gap concerning the lived experiences of ministers in large churches. Framed by the job demands-resources theory and the conservation of resources theory, the study sought to understand how the demands of ministry leadership and the availability of personal and organizational resources influenced the experience of burnout. The research employed a qualitative phenomenological design, utilizing semi-structured interviews. A purposive and snowball sampling approach was used to recruit 13 large US church ministry leaders. The …

Living In The Hyphen: Creating Puentes Through Encuentros And Pláticas With Latinx Cross-Cultural Kids, Jennifer Jane Daby

Dissertations

Latinx cross-cultural kids, or children of immigrants, are often faced with a feeling of not belonging to mainstream American culture nor their parents’ home culture(s) of origin. As such, they are viewed through a deficit lens and forced to negotiate their sense of identity and belonging through language and culture to fit in. By embracing the concept of educación, using culturally responsive methods of encuentros and pláticas with cross-cultural kids and their families, this study intends to find ways to foster a sense of belonging for this population in schools through participants’ testimonies. It aims to find ways to bridge …

The Ethical Theory Of Enrique Dussel: An Investigation Of Violence And Coercion In His Three Foundational Principles, Eric Antonio Del Valle Cruz

Dissertations

Problem

Enrique Dussel's ethics proposes addressing global inequality through legitimate coercion as a means of liberating the poor, contrasting it with the violence of the current system. However, the inclusion of life-threatening acts, such as armed revolution, as coercion raises practical challenges for the Christian community, including ethical-political dialogue, inclusion of opposing parties, and potential dehumanization, which need further exploration in light of Dussel’s use of Scripture in support of his proposals.

Purpose

This dissertation aims to assess Dussel's philosophical principles and their connection to coercion and violence, ultimately establishing a framework for a conservative Christian proposal that combines the …

The Impact Of Professionalism Education And Formative Feedback In Doctor Of Physical Therapy Students Utilizing The Abbreviated Cpi Feedback Form In The On-Campus Clinic Environment, William L. Scott

Dissertations

Problem

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) developed the Clinical Performance Instrument (CPI) to assess the professional behaviors required for a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) student to be considered "entry level" in their clinical training. Feedback from our clinical partners has indicated that, historically, students from the Andrews University DPT program have scored lower than students from other programs in several areas of the CPI during their clinical experiences. According to subjective reports from our clinical partners, these areas included safety, professional behavior, accountability, communication, and critical thinking. These five areas have been the focus of our efforts in …

Moral Identity And Its Relationship To Higher Education Mentoring And Community Service Engagement, Maria O. Rodriguez

Dissertations

Problem

A moral action is a result of the engagement of multiple psychological processes set in motion when an individual faces a moral conflict. Research suggests that an individual's moral reasoning and moral identity strongly influence the psychological processes that precede a moral action. Recent studies have shown that higher education positively influences students' moral reasoning; however, there is a lack of understanding as to the degree to which higher education can influence the moral identity of students.

Method

This study performed a quantitative cross-sectional study to investigate the relationship between independent variables—mentoring experiences and community service engagement—and dependent variables—moral …

Support Needs Of Agrarian Women To Build Household Livelihood Resilience: A Case Study Of The Mekong River Delta, Tran Thi Ngoc Tran

Dissertations

Problem

Rural livelihood faces significant challenges due to the increasing frequency and severity of climate change impacts. However, the development of women’s livelihood resilience remains constrained by gender-blind policies, limited sex-disaggregated data, and a lack of integration of gender-specific needs and priorities in resilience-building interventions. This study aims to address these critical gaps. This study aims at exploring the perceived support needs of rural agrarian women in building household livelihood resilience to climate change. Specifically, it seeks to (1) understand how household livelihood resilience is perceived by rural agrarian women, and (2) identify the support they require to effectively adapt …

The Relationship Between Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, And Anxiety Levels Among College Students In Saudi Arabia, Tahani Aljuaid

Dissertations

Problem

Anxiety is one of the most common psychological issues affecting youth globally and is particularly prevalent among Saudi adolescents and college students. Studies in Saudi Arabia have reported anxiety rates ranging from 48.9% to 66.2% among adolescents and high levels of generalized anxiety among university students, especially females (Aldosary et al., 2023; Alhabeeb et al., 2023). Poor emotion regulation has been identified as a key factor associated with anxiety and other mental health difficulties. In recent years, mindfulness has gained attention as a protective factor that promotes better emotion regulation and reduces anxiety symptoms. Despite this growing recognition, there …