Digital Commons Network^™

A Case Study On Social Media As An Effective Management Tool, Appolloh Omolloh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In small businesses in the United States, specifically those with fewer than 10 employees,

leaders may be skeptical of and resistant to the use of social media in their management

operations. Management literature does not indicate clear and effective guidelines and

policies detailing small marketing firms use of social media. The purpose of this

qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of small marketing firm leaders

about the resources and knowledge needed for effective use of social media as a

management tool. Emerson's social exchange theory grounded the study. The study

targeted owners and managers of small marketing firms …

Logistical Resource Capability During A Mass Casualty Event In Washington State, Todd Devin Brauckmiller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The need for increasing efficiencies for medical resource delivery during a mass casualty incident/event is a paramount logistical planning factor that could mean life or death to the citizens affected by a disaster. As such, Washington State has prioritized emergency management and preparedness. Using the just-in-time system by way of Baghbanian' s complex adaptive decision-making theory as the foundation, gave purpose to this qualitative study. This was accomplished by analysis of emergency management professional responses, and to what degree, improvements can be made to the medical resource delivery system during a mass casualty incident/event. Data were collected through semi structured …

Mathematics Teacher Perceptions Of Lesson Design, Data Reflection, And Achievement In Professional Learning Communities, Vicki Mashelle Bridges

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In a north Texas school district, district administrators were concerned that mathematics scores at the target middle school have fallen below the state average since 2010. Despite professional development (PD) provided by the district, administrators believed that teachers were not using professional learning community (PLC) data reflection practices to improve mathematics performance. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore middle school teachers' as well as the administrative dean's perceptions of the levels of depth regarding teacher dialogue and collaboration related to mathematics instruction, classroom delivery strategies, data analysis of student performance, and lesson design within PLCs. The …

Military Wife Participation In The Family Readiness Group During The Deployment Cycle, Donetta Doris Quinones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A comparative review of statistical summary results of the Survey of Army Families demonstrated that there is a gap in the research on the emotional experiences of civilian military wives who do not participate in the Family Readiness Group (FRG). The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to supplement the limited amount of scholarly research on the emotional experiences of civilian military wives and their lack of participation in the FRG during the deployment cycle. The theoretical framework of this study explored the military family syndrome through application of the double ABCX model in examining this phenomenon. The foundational …

Relationship Between Enterprise Resource Planning System And Organizational Productivity In Local Government, Tambei Chiawah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizations experience challenges despite efforts to increase productivity through implementing large-scale enterprise systems. Leaders of local government institutions do not understand how to achieve expected and desired benefits from the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Lack of alignment between social and technical elements in ERP implementation depresses organizational productivity. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine whether social and technical elements increase use and productivity in ERP implementation. The research questions addressed the relationship between ERP and organizational efficiency, cross-functional communication, information sharing, ease of ERP use, and ERP usefulness. Sociotechnical systems theory provided the …

Blood Lead Testing Guideline Development For A Public Health Department, Becky Sue Johnson Himes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A lack of consistent, evidence-based practices for blood lead testing of children existed in a local public health department (LHD). No known blood lead level is safe, and toxicity can result in behavioral and cognitive impairments. The purpose of this project was to develop and analyze a clinical practice guideline to establish blood lead testing procedures in the LHD to improve testing procedures and enhance future testing within the jurisdiction. The RE-AIM framework was used to address the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of the clinical practice guideline. Five experts evaluated the guideline using the Appraisal of Guidelines for …

Relationship Between Hospital Size, Staff Communication, Physician Communication, And Patient Experience Scores, Cheryl Marie Layton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Healthcare leaders who struggle to understand the importance of interactions between patients, staff, and physicians can result in poor patient experience. Healthcare care leaders who understand the importance of patient experience can develop customer service training modules and tutorials to improve organizational outcomes. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between staff communication, physician communication, size of the hospital, and patient experience. House's path-goal theory was used to frame the study. Secondary data were collected from hospitals in Northeastern Ohio, that reported patient experience scores through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid's Hospital Consumer Assessment of …

Ambidexterity And Innovation In Chief Nursing Officers In The Healthcare Setting, Jennifer Wasilewski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders in the healthcare setting are challenged with competing responsibilities as they seek to provide high-quality services, ensure the implementation of safety measures, and engage in workforce maintenance. Many researchers have described innovation as a strategic approach to organizational concerns and have noted a failure to implement innovative measures in healthcare. This study was an investigation of the impact of ambidexterity in healthcare leaders on innovation. The purpose of this quantitative study, guided by the ambidexterity theory of leadership for innovation, was to analyze the extent to which ambidextrous leadership characteristics of healthcare executives and chief nursing officers (CNOs) influence …

Career Pathway And Leadership Attributes Of Academic Administrators At Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Dyanne Mitchell-Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Academic administrators at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are faced with multiple challenges regarding retention of students, funding, and maintaining status as an HBCU, yet little is understood about how and why leaders choose a particular career pathway. This lack of understanding creates opportunities for failure related to turnover in leadership, funding discrepancies, and lower rates of retention and persistence for students. Using Maslow's needs theory as the foundation, the purpose of this descriptive study was to better understand the career pathways of established executive level leaders atin HBCUs in order to determine attributes of success among leaders with …

Strerss On Educators At A Discipline Alternative Education Program, Anthony G. Murray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Interaction with their students during classroom instruction is often a source of stress among many teachers. The academic setting of Disciplinary Alternative Educational Programs (DAEP) poses a risk factor for teachers to experience stress, given that student disruptive behavior has been associated with higher stress levels among teachers. The problem underlying this study was that most studies on DAEP have focused on the experiences of students, with limited information available about the experiences of teachers in this type of academic setting. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the role of job-related stress and coping on the …

Employee Absenteeism And Service Delivery At A Zambian Government Agency, Japhet Mwanamwalye Lishomwa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee absenteeism is a global management problem that affects organizational productivity, profits, justice, and employee motivation. A Zambian government agency has little knowledge about absenteeism and the lived experiences of clients regarding staff absenteeism and service delivery. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore employee absenteeism and service delivery through the lens of McGregor's theory x. The research question was about the lived experiences of the agency's clients regarding absenteeism and service delivery. The data were collected through semistructured interviews of 22 purposefully selected clients of the Zambian government agency and were analyzed using the van Kaam …

Knowledge Sharing And Customer Relations In Mobility, Katie Dyretha Moore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

After the events of September 11, 2001, inadequacies in how government organizations and agencies shared knowledge and communication with defense mission partners became readily apparent. A reasonable U.S. government information technology expectation is the integrated use of mobile phones across organizations and agencies. Yet, it is difficult to meet this expectation, as the provisioning process for mobile devices can be different for each government organization or agency. The Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology does not set provisioning standards, and organizations and agencies determine policies tailored to their particular needs. Using Schein's theory on organizational culture, the …

Community Health Worker's Perceptions Of Integration Into The Behavioral Health Care System, Juliette Swanston Jenkins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mental illness in the United States is a major public health problem. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2017, 18.9% of adults in the United States had a mental illness. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the perceptions held by community health workers (CHWs) regarding their integration into the behavioral health care system in Maryland. Using a social constructivism paradigm and phenomenological approach, a purposive sample of 11 CHWs who supported patients with behavioral health conditions in 17 counties in the state were interviewed. Howlett, McConnell, and Perl'€™s five stream confluence …

Noncompliance With Follow-Up Visits In Primary Care, Amanda Michelle Northern

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No-show appointments, also referred to as missed appointments, occur 23% to 34% annually in general practice care settings. Missed appointments can lead to reduction in appointment availability, decrease in provider/staff productivity, patient/provider discordance, disruption in continuity of care, and reduced quality of care. There is a gap in the nursing literature regarding effective interventions to reduce missed appointments. The purpose of this quality improvement, secondary analysis project was to determine whether implementation of an evidence-based no-show, nurse-led intervention would reduce missed appointment rates in a family medicine practice. The health belief model and the plan, do, study, act model guided …

Employee Engagement Strategies That Healthcare Managers Use To Increase Organizational Performance, Eric Makoni

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The annual cost of low employee engagement in Australian workplaces was $18.7 billion in 2015. Healthcare managers who adopt employee engagement strategies have the potential to achieve robust clinical, operational, and financial results that benefit both the organization and the community as a whole. The purpose of this single case study was to explore effective employee engagement strategies that some healthcare managers used to increase organizational performance. Social exchange theory was the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected through semi structured interviews with 8 healthcare managers in Queensland, Australia. Participants who implemented successful employee engagement strategies were selected …

Elementary Teachers' Perceived Professional Learning Needs For The Inclusive Classroom, Laurel Taylor Ellis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As a result of U.S. federal policy directives mandating inclusion, general education teachers in a rural elementary school in southern Maine were expected to be effective in working in inclusive classrooms with learners with diverse needs; however, teachers were meeting the mandates for inclusion but their students were not meeting the state's annual progress targets. The purpose of this project study was to explore teachers' perceptions of their readiness and needs for professional learning to work with diverse learners in the inclusive classroom. The research questions centered on teachers' beliefs, specific to their preparation and their needs and preferred mode …

Strategies For Not-For-Profit Sustainability, Latesha Slappy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of not-for-profit organizations could benefit from learning how to build a sustainable organization to help ensure that their organizations could continue to provide valuable services to the community for the future. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the fundraising strategies and donor development skills that leaders used to create a sustainable organization. Five purposefully selected leaders of a not-for-profit organization in Michigan, with experience in implementing effective fundraising strategies and fostering donor development skills for a sustainable business, participated in the study. Transformational leadership was the conceptual framework. The data collection process entailed face-to-face semistructured …

Relationship Between Transformational Leadership And Organizational Change Effectiveness, Nomahlathi Norma Mgqibi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational change effectiveness. The theoretical framework for the study was transformational leadership. Midlevel managers who successfully implemented 1 or more organizational change initiatives in any large organization in the United States (n = 107) were conveniently selected to participate in the study. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) Form 5X-Short was used to measure transformational leadership and the Project Implementation Profile (PIP) was used to measure organizational change effectiveness. The overall model, multiple linear regression, revealed a statistically significant relationship between transformational leadership and organizational …

Small Business Restaurant Owners' Financing Strategies For Sustainability, Cecilia Tobias Vasquez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Owners of small business restaurants experience a high failure rate. Many small business restaurants fail within 5 years of inception because of inadequate business plans, ineffective strategies for changing markets, and a lack of financial capital to achieve profitability, growth, and long-term survivability. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the financial strategies that some owners of small business restaurants used to sustain operations for longer than 5 years. The resource-based view was the conceptual framework for this study. Participants in this study consisted of 5 owners of small business restaurants in northern California who implemented successful …

Strategies To Obtain Loans For Black-Owned Small Businesses, Trenessa Baker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Less than 30% of Black business owners successfully obtain small business loans to sustain their businesses longer than 5 years when compared to evidence that shows that more than 65% of White small business owners obtain small business loans to sustain their businesses longer than 5 years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the experiences of 3 Black owners of small businesses who successfully obtained small business loans and maintained operations longer than 5 years in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. The conceptual framework for this study was systems theory and contingency theory. …

Strategies For Increasing Employee Morale And Mitigating Turnover In The Banking Industry, Deniqua Arshay Ladson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Bank leaders who fail to implement effective leadership strategies experience low employee morale and high employee turnover. The estimated failure rate of bank industry leadership to attain some organizational targets such as desired levels of employee morale, employee retention, and profitability is as high as 60%. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies bank leaders implemented to improve employee morale and mitigate employee turnover. The population for this study included 4 bank leaders in the United States who successfully applied effective leadership to improve morale and mitigate employee turnover for more than 5 years. Data were …

Relationship Between Senior Leadership Style And Patient Satisfaction In The Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Amy Elder

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Patient satisfaction has a significant role in the healthcare industry, as high patient satisfaction can improve quality outcomes. Hospital leadership is responsible for the culture, outcomes, and patient experience, which can involve different leadership styles. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between leadership style of senior leaders and patient satisfaction in inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs). Through the theoretical framework of transformational and transactional leadership theories, the research questions were designed to determine whether a statistically significant relationship existed between leadership style (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership) and patient satisfaction. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was administered …

Preventing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections With Education On Using The Catheter Bundle, Diana Elizabeth Carlson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Joint Commission, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recognized the importance of reducing health-care-associated infections (HAIs) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) for the safety of all patients. The U.S Department of Health and Human Services has focused on approving a plan to address HAIs in the health care setting with an emphasis on CAUTIs. The purpose of this project was to decrease CAUTI rates on a long-term care and rehab unit by educating staff about using the CAUTI bundle and CAUTI maintenance tool kit. The theoretical framework that guided …

The Relationship Of Nurse Manager’S Leadership Styles In Maintaining A Just Culture, Aida Solomon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Healthcare leaders must establish a just culture to mitigate preventable medical deaths that occur at 250,000 per year, making medical errors the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States. However, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the attributes of nurse manager leadership styles that contribute to promoting a just culture at the unit level. Guided by the full range leadership theory and the just culture model, the purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to determine the relationship between nurse manager transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles and unit level just culture perceptions and the differences between …

Career Pathway And Leadership Attributes Of Academic Administrators At Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Dyanne Mitchell-Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Academic administrators at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are faced with multiple challenges regarding retention of students, funding, and maintaining status as an HBCU, yet little is understood about how and why leaders choose a particular career pathway. This lack of understanding creates opportunities for failure related to turnover in leadership, funding discrepancies, and lower rates of retention and persistence for students. Using Maslow's needs theory as the foundation, the purpose of this descriptive study was to better understand the career pathways of established executive level leaders atin HBCUs in order to determine attributes of success among leaders with …

Telecommunication Organization Employee Development Program's Role In Employee Engagement, Cynthia Jenkins Shuler

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The risk of losing the most talented workers due to limited career opportunities had become an issue for telecommunication organizations. Talented workers became disengaged when there were limited opportunities for growth and development. To address this issue, human resource practitioners created employee development programs aimed at increasing employee engagement to help retain talented workers. However, data to determine the link between employee development programs, engagement, and retention were limited. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore managers' and employees' perceptions of how a telecommunication organization's employee development program contributes to employee engagement and to explore employees' experiences resulting …

The Challenges Of Virtual Leadership Affecting Project Delivery In The Public Sector, Verna-Kay Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of the U.S. government and U.S. organizations continue to seek information to mitigate risk and improve project deliverables in virtual environments. The problem addressed in this study was the rapid growth of technology in virtual workplaces that causes organizational leaders to concentrate on infrastructure and technology. The purpose of the exploratory case study was to understand the challenges virtual leaders encounter in the government environment that affect project delivery. The research questions were designed to examine the challenges virtual team leaders encounter while maintaining their roles and responsibilities to complete a project successfully in a timely manner. The theory …

Exploring Public Sector Leadership Through Appreciative Inquiry, Wendy L. Morton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leadership is an important part of creating effective public organizations. Effective leaders have the potential to produce social change through positive follower and organizational outcomes, the development of important policies, and efficiently implementing public policy. The scholarly literature lacks research concerning how leadership styles translate to the public sector. The theoretical framework used to guide and support this study was Cooperrider and Whitney's appreciative inquiry. The research question explored in what ways public sector leaders affect how followers perceive themselves as social change agents in a local city-county health department. For this phenomenological study, 10 followers employed by a local …

Strategies For Succession Planning And Leadership Training Development For Nonprofit Organizations, Isaac C. Theus

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many leaders of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) lack strategies to replace leaders who leave the organization. An organization is in jeopardy of survival without an effective leadership development and succession planning strategy. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies NPO leaders use to develop future generations for leadership roles within the organization. Data were collected from face-to face semistructured interviews with 4 executives and 2 directors of a NPO in Texas and a review of documents including organization manuals, organizational charts, the employee handbook, and a management-in-training course. The human capital theory and succession theory were used …

Strategies To Implement Efficient Closing Cycles, Mary Christine Scott

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many financial leaders lack strategies to make the timely fiscal reporting needed for business to obtain profitability, competitive advantage, and sustainability. The purpose of this single case study was to explore successful strategies used to complete efficient closing cycles to evaluate performance and support business decisions. The conceptual framework for this study was process improvement and the theory of constraints. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 5 purposively selected leaders; data were supplemented with information from the organization's website and print materials. Financial leaders who had developed successful strategies to complete timely financial statements were selected to participate in …