Digital Commons Network^™

Original Curriculum For Encouraging Meaningful Community Service In High School Students, Elizabeth H. Naylor

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

In this paper I have explored the importance of community service experiences and ultimately created a guide for implementing a high quality and meaningful community service program at the high school level. This paper begins with an initial discussion of my personal experiences in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, when I discovered firsthand the importance of personal reflection and sharing. I have defined community as a group of people with common place and common interest. Community service is an action within the community that betters the community in some way. The reader will find examples of communities coming together to …

A Qualitative Study Of The Interaction Between Maritime Pilots And Vessel Traffic Service Operators, Andreas Bach

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Winter Commencement: December 19, 2008, University Of North Dakota

UND Commencement Programs

UND Winter Commencement program from December 19, 2008.

Social Capital Determinants Of Environmentalism In Spatial Context, Kim Marie Steil

Theses and Dissertations

Sociological studies of society-environment interactions are based on a premise that population well-being is dependent on the environment. Here, I argue that not only are people innately connected to the environment, but the environment also bonds people to one another. That is, people have a mutual obligation to one another to care for the environment. An often ignored factor is that individual participation toward protecting and improving the quality of the environment rests upon the local social and spatial context in which the individual is situated. The ability of individuals in a local environment to come together to identify issues, …

The Prospects For Cyberocracy (Revisited), David Ronfeldt, Danielle Varda

Working Papers

The deepening of the information age will alter the nature of the state so thoroughly that something new emerges: "cyberocracy." While it is too early to say precisely what a cyberocracy will look like, the outcomes will include new kinds of democratic, totalitarian, and hybrid governments, along with new kinds of state-society relations. Thus, optimism about the information revolution should be tempered by an anticipation of its potential dark side. This paper reiterates the view of the cyberocracy concept as first stated in 1992, and then offers a postscript for 2008. It speculates that information-age societies will develop new sensory …

An Assurance Of Learning Success Model: Toward Closing The Feedback Loop, Bonita L. Betters-Reed, Mindell Reiss Nitkins, Susan D. Sampson

Organization Management Journal

This paper provides a systemic approach to building and sustaining a solid assurance of learning program using the framework of Kotter’s (1995) Strategic Model for Transforming Organizations. A comprehensive model for launching and sustaining a systemic approach to program review that ‘‘closes the loop’’ is shared step by step. Particular attention is paid to the organizational behaviors and processes that accompany each step, and to sharing important lessons that were learned. A review of the assessment literature in higher education and recent Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) contributions to this body of knowledge identifies a critical gap …

Team On Teams: A Collaborative Inquiry, Jennifer Sa Leigh, Joy E. Beatty, Paul S. Szwed

Organization Management Journal

Over the course of an academic year, we collaborated to adopt a new instructional design for teams in our classes. We recount the story of our collaboration, outlining our process of inquiry, reflection, and support. Our simple search for better techniques shifted as our colleagues helped us reveal hidden assumptions about our roles as teachers. Our critical reflection allowed us to increase our self-awareness, specifically considering the following: how power influences our classroom interactions, how we contribute to and reinforce elements of the system that are not in our best interest, and the evolving stages of our own development as …

Developing A Virtual Community Of Practice Framework For A Dispersed Group Of Innovation Practitioners, Ami S. Henriques

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project lays the groundwork for establishing a virtual community of practice (VCoP) for innovation professionals within my organization across 8 countries and multiple business units. The literature review includes definitions of communities of practice, how they vary from other types of groups and teams, the benefits they provide to the organization and to the individual, as well best practices and considerations for building and launching a VCoP. The deliverable is a proposal that will be submitted to the global leadership of the organization for review and approval.

A Comparison Of Faculty And Administrator Perceptions Of The Merger Of Kentucky's Community Colleges And Vocational/Technical Institutes., Jason Douglas Warren

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the most nationally-recognized, two-year legislative reform initiatives in the U.S. began in Kentucky with the passage of the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 (HB1). This exploratory, cross-sectional, correlational study was administered at the 10-year anniversary of the HB1-legislated formation of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), which originally combined 13 community colleges formerly governed by the University of Kentucky and 25 vocational/technical institutes previously governed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development. This dissertation examined faculty and administrator perceptions of the merger of Kentucky's community colleges and vocational/technical institutes that resulted from HB1. Two …

Rethinking Social Work's Role In Public Assistance, Julie Cooper Altman, Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article presents an argument for revisiting social work's relationship to public assistance in the wake of 10 years of welfare reform. Three case studies drawn from a mixed-method study of the quality of life of former TANF recipients illustrate the range, depth and complexity of the needs of persons while they are on the welfare rolls, transitioning off and living without cash relief. The article briefly traces the history of social work's commitment to and provision of social services for this population and argues that it may be time to revisit the profession's role in public assistance. In light …

Visualisation Of Critical Infrastructure Failure, W D. Wilde, M J. Warren

Australian Information Warfare and Security Conference

The paper explores the complexity of critical infrastructure and critical infrastructure failure (CIF), real life examples are used to discuss the complexity involved. The paper then discusses what Visualisation is and how Visualisation can be applied to a security situation, in particular critical infrastructure. The paper concludes by discussing the future direction of the research.

Organizational Culture And Job Satisfaction In Korean Professional Baseball Organizations, Yun Seok Choi, Jeffrey J. Martin, Meungguk Park

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

The purpose of this study was to identify the pattern of organizational culture and investigate a link between organizational culture and job satisfaction in the Korean Professional Baseball League (KPBL). The findings of the present study revealed that the baseball clubs in the KPBL tended to emphasize a market culture. The results of this study also suggest that the clan culture has a significant influence on overall employee job satisfaction and satisfaction with co-workers, supervision and personal growth. Given the importance of a conceptual relation between organizational culture and job satisfaction in effectively managing sport organizations, implications and suggestions for …

Case Study Of An Urban Elementary School's Transition From Failing To Distinguished School Status, Carla Brice Ross

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study seeks to understand how the multidimensional functioning of an urban high-poverty high-minority elementary school changed as it moved from failing school status to distinguished school status and to determine how school change promoted the organizational well-being of the school using a case study methodology. The multidimensional lenses used to view changes at Eagle included school purpose, culture, structure, leadership, organizational and professional learning, and teacher emotions. Using these lenses to view changes provides an explanation of not only how Eagle transitioned from failing school status to distinguished school status, but more importantly, how it has been able …

Temporary Organizational Change And Uncertainty: Applying Uncertainty Reduction Theory And Style Analyses To Email, Vicki Rhodes

All Theses

This study explores how employees express uncertainty and enact uncertainty reduction techniques through electronic communication, specifically email, during temporary inter-organizational change. The context of the study is within the work environment of a nonprofit entity in the Southern region of the United States that employs just under 20 staff members and coordinates with approximately 135 partner staff affiliates on a daily basis. The Executive Director's medical leave of about three months requires that job responsibilities and organizational roles be temporarily restructured. Because email is the preferred and primary method of communication in this organization, such communications were chosen as the …

December 2008 Commencement Program, Bowling Green State University

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Taxonomy Of Knowedge Management Research In Hospitality And Tourism, Henner Nehles

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The hospitality industry is operating in an ever increasing knowledge-based economy, where hotels have to increase customer satisfaction and retention levels, lower employees turnover rates and operating expenses, maximize profits and strive to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. “Knowledge management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival, and competence in the face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combinations of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings” (Civi, 2000, p.166). Knowledge Management (KM) is not a new concept. It has its …

Nurturing Spirituality And Vocation: A Catholic Approach To New Teacher Induction, Richard Shields

Journal of Catholic Education

The Catholic school system in Ontario, Canada, is fully funded by the government. Recently Ontario’s Ministry of Education mandated an induction year, the New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP), for all new teachers. This legislation provides an opportunity for Catholic school boards to take the lead and shape creative and effective programs for new teacher induction. The mission of the Catholic school and the vocation of a Catholic teacher give meaning and direction to the new teacher’s professional educational practice. This article first explores some of the pastoral theological concerns that those charged with developing a Catholic approach to NTIP need …

Promises To Keep: Exploring Organizational Trust Repair From A Stakeholder Perspective, Rachel Y. Daniel

Student Scholarship

Organizational trust repair is a burgeoning field of inquiry, due in large part to the ethical and financial failures in U.S. corporations, churches, governments, media outlets, and nonprofit organizations. The subsequent financial, professional, and emotional damage to stakeholders has resulted in a crisis of trust in organizations and their leaders. We explore the trust repair process from a stakeholder's perspective in a qualitative study of executives, employees, and customers of three U.S. institutions: a Fortune 500 corporation, a nonprofit organization, and a government entity. Findings suggest trust repair is not a process-driven phenomenon. The provision of credible reparative information, evidence …

Promoting Hope: Suggestions For School Counselors, Jennifer Teramoto Pedrotti, Lisa M. Edwards, Shane J. Lopez

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

School counselors need multiple resources to assist today's students in developing to their fullest potential. This development might often be measured outwardly by academic success; however, psychological and emotional well-being of students is a large part of this success. The construct of hope is defined as a bidimensional characteristic consisting of an agency component (willpower to move toward one's goals) and a pathways component (ability to develop multiple routes to one's goals) and has been linked to academic success, athletic performance, psychological adjustment, and physical health in students (Snyder et al., 1991). Helping school counselors to enhance individual strengths through …

Bridging The Great Divide - Moving From Outsider To Insider: How For Profit Executives Become Effective Nonprofit Ceos, Antoinette E. La Belle

Student Scholarship

A leadership crisis in the nonprofit sector is portended by sector growth, turnover at the top and a smaller cohort of leaders coming up from behind. Crossovers from the corporate sector present an alternative source of CEO talent, but a dearth of empirical research about top executives who cross the boundaries of sector, organization, and, at times role, stymies our understanding of the transition process of for-profit to non-profit leaders. In depth interviews with U.S. nonprofit leaders--both crossover CEOs and CEOs hired from within the nonprofit sector--compared and contrasted transition experiences. Rather than significant differences between the two groups, our …

Organizational Change In A Higher Education Institution: The Impact Of Increasing International Student Enrollment On University Of Services, Glenda Kim Cousins

Theses and Dissertations

Using a grounded theory approach, this study explored organizational change in higher education, the research examined how direct service staff, directors, and administrators perceived and responded to changes created by increasing international student numbers, and how the organization of Academic and Student Affairs adapted to these changes. The data supported that every person perceived having a certain level of power to influence change but the amount of power depended on an individual's understanding of a situation, persuasiveness in motivating people, relational dynamics with others, and participation within the flow of communication. The study found two processes operating simultaneously as individuals …

Emergency Department Nurses' Experience Relating To Hospital Acquisition: A Phenomenological Study, Bernadette Deprez

Graduate Research Projects

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Study Of Seminary Principals For The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Eric W. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This qualitative study investigates how leadership is embodied within the role of seminary principals in released-time seminaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This study utilized a grounded theory approach and constant comparative analysis while triangulating the data obtained from personal interviews, participant observations, and analysis of documents. The primary sources of data came from the personal experiences and perspectives of four principals, eight teachers, and one area administrator that are analyzed through biographical interviews.

Analyses of the data were completed to determine common themes of leadership that were embodied by principals in released-time seminaries for The …

Utah Middle-Level School Community Councils: An Evaluation Of Compliance, Processes, And Perceived Impact, Richard Jackson Nygaard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The historical perspective of schools in our democratic society provides a framework of tension between local parent and community control versus professional and state control of public school decisions. Today, federal and state requirements demand increased student achievement. The state of Utah requires each public school to have a school community council (SCC) that is responsible for the development of plans for school improvement. Limited funds are provided to each school community council through the School LAND Trust Program to assist in the implementation of the developed plans for the purpose of increased student achievement. Three Utah middlelevel school community …

Understanding Unfolding Change And The Value Of Strategic Unification In Recent Usu Information Technology Functional Realignment, Eric S. Hawley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This is a qualitative case study of the 2005-2008 Utah State University Information Technology reorganization from the perspective of key change advocates. The study identified and documented the unfolding change process involved in the reorganization in terms of dissatisfaction, executive changes, internal executive strategic planning, implementation and initial impacts, and continuous "in situ" strategic planning. The study also answered a set of supporting concluding questions indicating increased value to the institution in areas of customer service and confidence, organization, financial resources, planning and policy, security, and increased/improved services and service functions.

Institutional Culture, Performance, And Learning In A Two-Year Technical/Community College, Vicky Maloney

All Dissertations

The environments of higher education institutions have undergone significant changes in the past twenty years as a result of concerns expressed in prominent reports. These external concerns and initiatives reflect contemporary criticisms by the public about the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance of institutions. The response from research, legislatures, and the institutions has been to implement practices aimed at improvement and borrowed from business and industry. Research indicates that this performance orientation to change in higher education has largely failed, due in part to the lack of attention given to the culture of the institution.
Emerging research indicates a …

Strategizing Routines On The Cusp Of Multiple And Competing Institutional Logics Of Foreign Aid, Jaime Chua

Student Scholarship

Using critical realist research, we sought to understand how nonprofit organizations blend deliberate and emergent strategizing to cope with neoinstitutional dilemmas posed by donors' competing logics. To gain organizational legitimacy and access to resources, international nonprofits must conform to donors' normative processes and practices which tend to be ineffectual. An international nonprofit operating in the highly complex international development field provided an ideal setting for investigating how routines blend and moderate deliberate and emergent strategies. Consistent with the view that strategic insights come from different organizational levels, we examined key patterns of interactions and routines between middle and top-level managers. …

Bridging The Great Divide - Moving From Outsider To Insider: How For Profit Executives Become Effective Nonprofit Ceos, Antoinette E. La Belle

Student Scholarship

A leadership crisis in the nonprofit sector is portended by sector growth, turnover at the top and a smaller cohort of leaders coming up from behind. Crossovers from the corporate sector present an alternative source of CEO talent, but a dearth of empirical research about top executives who cross the boundaries of sector, organization, and, at times role, stymies our understanding of the transition process of for-profit to non-profit leaders. In depth interviews with U.S. nonprofit leaders--both crossover CEOs and CEOs hired from within the nonprofit sector--compared and contrasted transition experiences. Rather than significant differences between the two groups, our …

Ostensive And Performative Routines And Strategies For Institutional Adaptation And Innovation, Jaime Chua

Student Scholarship

Using critical realist research, we sought to understand how nonprofit organizations blend deliberate and emergent strategizing to cope with neoinstitutional dilemmas posed by donors’ competing logics. To gain organizational legitimacy and access to resources, international nonprofits must conform to donors’ normative processes and practices which tend to be ineffectual. An international nonprofit operating in the highly complex international development field provided an ideal setting for investigating how routines blend and moderate deliberate and emergent strategies. Consistent with the view that strategic insights come from different organizational levels, we examined key patterns of interactions and routines between middle and top-level managers. …

Outsider To Insider: Contrasting Routes And Transition Experiences Of New Nonprofit Leaders, Anotinette E. La Belle

Student Scholarship

A leadership crisis in the nonprofit sector is portended by sector growth, turnover at the top and a smaller cohort of leaders coming up from behind. Crossovers from the corporate sector present an alternative source of CEO talent, but a dearth of empirical research about top executives who cross the boundaries of sector, organization, and, at times role, stymies our understanding of the transition process of for-profit to non-profit leaders. In depth interviews with U.S. nonprofit leaders – both crossover CEOs and CEOs hired from within the nonprofit sector − compared and contrasted transition experiences. Rather than significant differences between …