Digital Commons Network^™

Increasing Universities' Tuition Fee Revenues From International Undergraduate Students, Marc Jan Ledermann

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Universities are losing expected tuition revenues due to attrition of international undergraduate students. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that university leaders use to increase tuition fee revenues from international undergraduate students. The participants in this study were 3 former leaders of the European division of Laureate International Universities, a global university group with university locations in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Cyprus. The conceptual framework of this study was institutional theory as part of the change management of universities. Data collection included semistructured interviews of 3 former leaders of the …

An Exploration Of Knowledge Transfer And Career College Executive Succession Planning, Cyndie Feaster Shadow

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The career college sector of the post secondary education industry contributes more than $20 billion to the U.S. economy annually, but turnover in executive leader roles at career colleges is extremely high. Usually, such turnover occurs without succession planning or knowledge transfer for the new executive. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore the need for knowledge transfer when executive turnover occurs in career colleges. This single case study was framed on theories of knowledge addressing concepts such as knowledge stickiness, transfers, and gaps. The overarching research question concerned how lack of knowledge transfer during executive leadership …

Improving Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Rates Through Evidence-Based Interventions, Deidra Thompson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Cervical cancer is the most common human papilloma virus (HPV) -associated cancer and is the second leading cause of death in the world. Vaccination against HPV is essential to reduce the incidence of HPV and subsequent morbidity and mortality. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 79 million Americans are currently infected with HPV. The site for this DNP project was a 163-bed facility with inpatient and outpatient services in the southern United States. The vaccination rate at the site was 48%. The facility lacked educational interventions to prepare and remind providers to offer HPV vaccine. …

Case Study Of Inclusive Environments For Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Employees, Darin Dale Stephens

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite the positive changes occurring regarding American attitudes toward members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, empirical evidence indicates that LGBT individuals do not believe inclusive environments exist, as 48% of the population remains closeted at work. A gap exists in the literature relating to the formulation of practical solutions that establish and sustain inclusive environments. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify the possible influence of cultural lag on the workplace engagement of LGBT employees. Ogburn's cultural lag theory served as the conceptual framework. The following research questions guided the study: (a) The …

Leadership Development Strategies To Build Leaders Through Mentorship Programs, Devin Bradley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Developing employees to assume leadership positions has never been more critical for organizational leaders given the competitive climate and the shortage of executive leaders. Organizations must develop future leaders at unprecedented rates to assume roles and responsibilities of the current executive leaders who will leave the organization due to retirement and other forms of attrition. Using mentorship theory, the purpose of this multicase study was to explore strategies that business leaders use to successfully improve their mentoring programs for employee leadership development. The target population consisted of 3 business leaders located in central Florida with successful experience in improving their …

Hotel Manager Strategies To Reduce Voluntary Employee Turnover, Christl Arwen Kroeten

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The voluntary turnover rate in the United States hotel industry is among the highest of all industries, resulting in lost revenue. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies hotel managers use to reduce voluntary employee turnover. The targeted population consisted of 6 managers from hotel businesses operating in the MidAtlantic region of the United States who successfully used strategies to reduce voluntary employee turnover. Job embeddedness theory, this study's theoretical framework, was used to describe reasons employees remained in organizations. Data were gathered via semistructured interviews, observational notes, and public business records regarding turnover or retention …

Social Security Administration Employee Lived Experiences Of Job Satisfaction And Employee Turnover, Lafaun Cain

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover continues to be an issue in federal organizations, including the Social Security Administration (SSA). While issues such as retiring baby boomers and budget constraints are beyond the control of any agency, retaining employees is critical to maintain essential services. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore SSA employee's lived experiences of job satisfaction and employee turnover to uncover motivators and satisfaction strategies. The conceptual framework for the study was based on Maslow's human needs and Herzberg's two-factor theory. Data were collected from 20 SSA frontline employees using 6 open-ended interview questions. The data were analyzed …

Increasing Employee Retention Within The Georgia Division Of Family And Children Services, Santoria Lushell Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Walden University

College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation by

Santoria Lushell Williams

has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects,

and that any and all revisions required by

the review committee have been made.

Review Committee

Dr. Hilda Shepeard, Committee Chairperson,

Public Policy and Administration Faculty

Dr. Clarence Williamson, Committee Member,

Public Policy and Administration Faculty

Dr. Anne Hacker, University Reviewer,

Public Policy and Administration Faculty

Chief Academic Officer

Eric Riedel, Ph.D.

Walden University

2018

In Fulton County, Georgia, the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) child-welfare workers …

Perspectives Of Primary Care Physicians On Adopting Electronic Medical Records In The Atlanta, Georgia Area, Chris U. Okoro

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Slow adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) by primary care physicians in medical office practices has not facilitated the EMR adoption process. The problem is the slow pace of EMR adoption by primary care physicians in the Atlanta, Georgia area has become a public health concern. Research regarding the lived experiences of these physicians with EMR implementation and utilization may identify reasons for the slow adoption. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of primary care physicians, who practice in the Atlanta area, regarding their perception, successes, barriers, and urgency of adoption of EMR in …

Successful Strategies For Implementing An Enterprise Resource Planning System, Arrogah Adade-Boafo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation success rate is as low as 30%. Researchers have shown that ERP system implementation could cause both system and organization failures, affecting operations and stakeholders, alike. The technology-organization-environment conceptual framework was used to ground this qualitative single-case study. The purpose of the study was to explore strategies that a manufacturing firm in Ghana used to implement ERP systems successfully. The population of this case study comprised 5 stakeholders from a manufacturing firm in Ghana who had success in implementing an ERP system. Data were collected using face-to-face semistructured interviews and review of various corporate …

Mentoring Elements That Influence Employee Engagement, Lee Thornton Fountain

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee disengagement is a significant issue for leaders and managers in many organizations. The general problem is the workforce in many American organizations includes disengaged employees. In 2016, only 33% of the workforce in the United States was engaged. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the independent variables of mentoring, which include role modeling, acceptance and confirmation, and mentoring friendship functions with a dependent variable of employee engagement. The moderating variable of perceived organizational support was measured to test the strength or weakness of the effects that mentoring has on employee engagement. The theoretical …

Southwest Border Patrol Agent Perceptions Of Job-Related Threats And Dangers, Heidi Hamburger

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The U.S. Southwest Border is associated with highly politicized topics, yet the lived experience of Border Patrol agents is not one of them. Border Patrol agents face risks to their personal safety and security as they attempt to safeguard the national security of the United States while implementing the policies of their organization, which are sometimes at odds with the beliefs and expectations of agents in the field. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore perceptions and lived experiences related to the threats and dangers that Border Patrol agents face as they protect the U.S. Southwest Border. The …

Strategies For Shipping Temperature-Sensitive Medical Devices Using Cognitive Mapping, Eric C. Guynes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Supply chain management (SCM) practitioners who ship temperature-sensitive diagnostic medical devices (DMDs) to clinicians must use effective cold chain management (CCM) strategies to avoid temperature excursions that contribute to medical device errors. Such errors have caused patient harm and death, which costs the U.S. health care system billions of dollars per year. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies for selecting and managing cold chain shipping solutions (CCSSs) requiring SCM executives to trade cost for regulatory compliance and predictability when mitigating temperature variations that occur during shipping. The conceptual framework for the study was the …

Challenges For Providers Working In Assertive Community Treatment, Ngozi Nkechi Orabueze

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This project explored the challenges confronting clinicians who work with the Assertive Community Treatment Program (ACT), a government-sponsored clinic-based program providing services for individuals with persistent and recurrent mental health challenges in a large metropolitan city in the southern United States. The project involved semi-structured interviews with 15 health care clinicians to explore what they perceived as challenges and their recommendations for addressing them. Themes were organized around the 6 dimensions of the the relationship-based care model: leadership, teamwork, professional nursing, care delivery, resources, and outcomes. Identified patient challenges included transportation, lack of health insurance, housing, acceptance of certified peer …

Hospital Executive Succession Planning Strategies, Janet Tingling

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Approximately 50% of New York City hospitals lack succession planning as baby boomers transition out of the workforce into retirement. The potential loss of knowledge capital could affect leadership development and corporate stability. Guided by the transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this single site case study was to explore successful strategies executive-level leaders used to facilitate succession planning within their hospital. Three hospital executive-level leaders from a single site location participated in a semistructured face-to-face interview and provided data that assisted the analysis. Four themes emerged from the data analysis through a word cloud format that showed the most …

Sustaining A Family Business Beyond The Second Generation, Donna Wells Austin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A significant number of funeral homes in the United States are family-owned businesses. These family-owned funeral businesses contribute to society throughout generations to create wealth, provide employment opportunities, and serve the communities that surround them. The purpose of this descriptive multiple case study was to explore strategies that leaders of family-owned funeral business owners in the eastern region of the United States used for intergenerational succession planning. Game theory was the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 3 family business owners and review of the family businesses' professional association websites and family historical documents. …

Instructional Behavior And Its Impact On Student Engagement, Debra Joan Crumpton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this quantitative study was to expand understanding of leadership behaviors and their influence on follower engagement. Researchers have shown that engagement is a predictor of retention and organizational performance. Leadership theory and the conceptual framework of worker engagement were the study's theoretical anchors. Despite a proliferation of leadership studies, engagement antecedents are largely unknown. The aim of this study was to narrow the gap in the literature by examining the extent to which there may be a relationship between college instructors' behaviors and student engagement. Although not traditionally regarded as frontline leaders, extant leadership literature affirmed college …

Generational Differences In The Level Of Commitment In The U.S. Marine Corps, Nadya Yvonee Yassa-Lopez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Generational differences directly impact the culture and discipline in the U.S. Marine Corps. Previous research suggests that Generation Y's characteristics do not align with traditional military service. The specific problem is that there is a gap in the research and scholarly literature on the level of commitment of Generation Y compared to Generation X Marines. The purpose of this nonexperimental, quantitative study was to examine the influence on Marine Corps culture due to the level of commitment of active duty, enlisted Generation Y Marines compared to active duty, enlisted Generation X Marines. The theoretical frameworks for this study were the …

How Naturalized African-Americans Experience Racial Microaggressions In U.S. Federal Agencies, Casimir Yem Bilong

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Civil Rights Act was enacted more than 5 decades ago, and its provisions forbade discrimination on the basis of race in hiring, promoting, and firing. Yet some researchers argue that racial discrimination issues are still prevalent in the United States. They contend that modern racial discrimination is more covert and takes the form of racial microaggressions, which are subtle conscious or unconscious insults and derogatory attitudes directed towards minorities. Researchers have not fully addressed the prevalence of racial microaggressions in U.S. workplaces, however. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of naturalized African-Americans …

Managing Employee Motivation Through The Process Of Government Furloughs, Kim Charisc Hill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Budget constraints will cause federal furloughs to continue through 2035. Federal furloughs such as the one in 2012-2013, affected 800,000 out of 2.7 million federal employees. This dramatic workforce reduction caused remaining employees to experience stress and morale issues in the workplace. The purpose of the research was to understand how managers comprehend and experience the impact of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on remaining employees' performance and attitudes during the furlough process. The theoretical foundation and conceptual framework were designed using both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation concepts and theories. Aspects of self-determination theory and hierarchy motivation theory were used to …

Testing Matching And Mirroring With Homophily In Onboarding Leadership Socialization, Manuel Almendarez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study was designed to test the relationship between matching and mirroring (MM) and homophilous perceptions (PHM) in leadership socialization. Elevated PHM levels were hypothesized to affect workplace acceptance levels. The need for testing leadership socialization skills was magnified with the current demographic shift known as the leadership succession crisis, creating problems with onboarding strategies. The theoretical foundations of the study were based on the social identity theory, the social presence theory, the leader-member exchange theory, and the similarity-attraction paradigm. The study conducted at Workforce Solutions North Texas in Wichita Falls, Texas was sampled based on the calculated strength of …

Urban High School Educators' Perceptions Of Pre-Service And In-Service Conflict Resolution And Violence Prevention Education, Sean M. Brooks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Studies have shown that conflict resolution and violence prevention education may be lacking within school-based environments. There is a gap in the literature regarding pre-service and in-service conflict resolution and violence prevention education for urban high school educators. The purpose of the study was to understand the experiences and perceptions of urban high school educators' pre-service and in-service conflict resolution and violence prevention education, and the student health-related antecedents that contribute to both. Utilizing a case study methodology, this study emphasized the diverse geographic locations of urban high school educators' pre-service institutions and the perceptions of their pre-service and in-service …

Strategies To Reduce Employee Turnover, Diane Krzan Merla

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Businesses that fail to retain knowledgeable employees risk remaining competitive in the marketplace. Approximately 25 million people quit their jobs in 2016, overall. This single case study explored strategies business managers use to reduce employee turnover. The population for this study was 5 business managers from a business and technical personnel support organization in the information and solutions industry in the state of New Jersey who had experience with strategies to improve employee retention. The conceptual framework used in this study was systems theory. Data were collected from company archival documents and semistructured face-to-face interviews with 5 business managers. Moustakas' …

Nurse Supervisors And Certified Nursing Assistants: Leadership Characteristics And Job Satisfaction, Jennifer Patterson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Significant costs are associated with the turnover rate of certified nursing assistants (CNAs) in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), and turnover impacts the quality of care for residents of the SNFs through disruption of care. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to identify the leadership characteristics of supervisors most associated with the job satisfaction (JS) of CNAs in SNFs. Herzberg's dual factor theory was used as the theoretical framework to explain the relationship between the leadership characteristics and the associated JS. The research question was used to examine the independent variables of trust, teamwork, supportive supervision, leader-follower relationships, and …

Police Culture And Decision-Making, Larry D. Anthony

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Decisions made by street-level police officers during encounters with the public have an immediate and long-lasting effect. Bad choices can cause a loss of trust, respect, and legitimacy for the police in a community and lay a foundation for violent confrontations between officers and citizens. Layers of culture that shape human decisions consist of social and institutional culture, including interactions that shape an individual's culture and beliefs and demographics and technology that affect cultural development. Police culture (which includes these layers of culture and factors like rank, units, and history) shapes attitudes and opinions about communities and people in a …

Organizational Policy Prohibiting Marriage Between Coworkers In The Nigerian Banking Sector, Pamela Obi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Human Resources (HR) policy prohibiting marriage between coworkers contributes to employee attrition and an unhappy, demoralized, and unengaged workforce in commercial banks in Nigeria. Marriage between coworkers has resulted in forced resignations in commercial banks in Nigeria and employees' perception of being unfairly treated in their organizations. The purpose of this qualitative case study, based on the conceptual framework of organizational justice, was to explore how bank employees whose spouses resigned due to the HR policy prohibiting marriage between coworkers respond to this policy. Fifteen such employees participated in semistructured, one-on-one interviews, and 5 other employees participated in a …

Teachers' Experiences With Web-Based Professional Development For Diffusing State Standards, Nadine Petrie-Waymyers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

School reform efforts ultimately affect the students, but what is seldom looked at is how they affect teachers. This phenomenological study examined the experiences of teachers with regards to web-based professional development during a systemic change. The purpose of this qualitative study was to generate an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of 6 teachers in a Southeastern state who had participated in the initial process of implementing organizational changes and the diffusion of the new state educational standards. Rogers's diffusion of innovation theory served as the study's conceptual framework. Research questions focused on the perspectives of teachers regarding the …

The Survival Of Healthcare In Rural Texas, Destin Cook

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Over 80 rural hospitals have closed in the United States since 2010, representing about half of all hospital closures during this period, and another 600-700 rural hospitals are at risk of closing shortly. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study, which was based on transformational leadership and diffusion of innovation theories, was to gain a common understanding of financial problems and operational inefficiencies that may be impacting rural hospital leaders in the state of Texas. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with 4 senior healthcare leaders from 3 separate regions in Texas. Data analysis included compiling, sorting, fragmenting, and …

Successful Strategies Of Small Business Owners To Recruit Veterans, Michelle Duncan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Approximately 300,000 highly skilled veterans leave military service every year, yet some small business owners lack strategies to recruit these skilled workers. The specific business problem addressed in this multiple case study was that some small information technology business leaders lack strategies to recruit military veterans. The research sample included 3 owners of small businesses serving the information technology industry in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States who developed and implemented successful strategies for recruiting veterans. Data were collected from interviews and review of documents. Data analysis resulted in the identification of 3 major themes: understanding of veterans as …

Traits And Management Strategies Attributed To The Success Of Virtual-Team Leaders, Roderick A. Haley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract

The rapid advances in technology and the globalization of the economy have led corporate leaders to invest heavily in virtual teams to increase their global coverage. The problem in this phenomenological study was that many organizational leaders do not understand the extent to which they need to manage virtual teams differently from traditional, face-to-face teams. This is significant, because due to geographical differences and possibly cultural differences, virtual teams require various modes of communication. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of effective virtual-team leaders and the operational strategies employed to lead them. …