Digital Commons Network^™

Special Education Department Organizational Change: A Case Study, Christina Castellane Cloidt

All Theses And Dissertations

Special Education compliance is an area governed by mandates and assurance reviews by government agencies, both state and federal. This study presents the current state of the District Z’s Exceptional Learner Department prior to an organizational leadership change which demonstrated the need for improvement in the current system of functioning. The study continued to monitor and explore the changes the district made in personnel, protocols, procedures and how accountability was maintained in order to achieve improvement in a timely manner. Research is presented in the area of leadership and special education that exemplifies the need to enact change through prescriptive …

Correlates And Effects Of Data-Informed Decision-Making: An Empirical Examination Of The Loose Coupling Theory Using A National Data Set, Xingyuan Gao

Dissertations

The notion of schools as “loosely-coupled” organizations has been widely discussed in the research literature. Many argue that the loose coupling is either a protective mechanism for schools to buffer external pressure or a barrier to implementing new reforms. Against the backdrop of standards-based reform and accountability policies in the last 15 years, which focus on tightening the system as the way to improve K-12 schools, I conducted three related studies to empirically test the loose coupling theory by applying two-level hierarchical linear models to nationally representative data in the US.

In the first study I evaluated the loose coupling …

Strategic Predisposition In Communication Management: Understanding Organizational Propensity Towards Bridging Strategy, Soojin Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify factors influencing an organization’s predisposition to bridging strategy, and tests relationships between those factors and bridging strategy. Design/methodology/approach – Online survey was conducted in South Korea. Hierarchical regression was used. Findings – Identified factors are environmental complexity, top management attitude toward stakeholders, analysis orientation, and authoritarian culture. Research limitations/implications – By adopting the concept and measures of bridging as an organization’s public-engagement strategy, this study was able to capture an organization’s strategic approach for problem-solving in communication management. Practical implications – Strong analysis orientation allows organizations to look into problems …

Sustainable Enrollment Management: A Dynamic Network Analysis, Forrest Murray Stuart

All Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate higher education enrollment management (EM) as a complex adaptive system (CAS) and to provide colleges and universities a foundational understanding of what a sustainable EM system looks like from a Dynamic Network Analysis (DNA) perspective. Additionally, I aimed to describe how formal network structures either promote or inhibit sustainable EM. To this end, the following research questions guided this study: 1. To what extent is the research site organized to enable effective and efficient information flow? 2. Which combinations of independent network measures (adaptive leadership, social capital, and clique structure) produce …

A Qualitative Descriptive Study Examining The Current State Of The New York 4-H Program From A Leader’S Perspective, Megan E. Tifft

Education Doctoral

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) represent a fast-growing industry with significant value in today’s society. NPOs are filling gaps in providing services the government can no longer deliver and are considered an economic industry worth billions of dollars. As evidenced in research, NPOs are facing a multitude of challenges. Still, most of these challenges are addressed as standalone issues. Research has provided tools and suggestions for how leadership can address singular challenges; however, few researchers have examined challenges broadly. It has been confirmed that organizational leadership needs to understand, from a leader’s perspective, the challenges of the organization so that efforts can …

A Taxonomy Of Effective Leader Behaviors In The Construction Industry, Enrique Leonardo Cabrera-Caban

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The construction industry is a major part of the United States economy, but it is also one of the most dangerous and high-risk industries. The industry is currently facing a shortage of effective leadership, and leaders face unique challenges in coordinating multiple teams of subcontractors on projects. The first step in remedying this shortage is to identify the behaviors of an effective construction leader. To address this need, a taxonomy of effective leader behaviors in construction was developed using grounded theory methodology and rated by construction industry subject matter experts. Archival focus group data from 10 focus groups in three …

Misfit And Milestones: Structural Elaboration And Capability Reinforcement In The Evolution Of Entrepreneurial Top Management Teams, Amanda J. Ferguson, Cohen. Lisa E., M. Diane Burton, Christine M. Beckman

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

We examine how "top management team (TMT) misfit," or discrepancies between the TMT's functional roles and the qualifications of the managers who fill those roles, affects the evolution of TMT composition and structure in a longitudinal study of entrepreneurial ventures. We distinguish two types of misfit--overqualification and underqualification-- and study how each is associated with TMT changes. We further consider the moderating effect of firm development. Results reveal that underqualified TMTs hire new managers to reinforce existing capabilities whereas overqualified TMTs elaborate their role structures. However, achieving developmental milestones (i.e., obtaining venture capital funding and staging an initial public offering) …

Southern American University Undergraduates' Attitudes Toward Intrauterine Insemination Undertaken By Women Of Differing Age, Marital Status And Sexual Orientation, Sara L. Sohr-Preston, Ashley K. Rohner, Bryce H. Lott

Journal of International Women's Studies

Undergraduate college students in the southern U.S. were presented with vignettes about a fictional woman seeking to become pregnant via intrauterine insemination (IUI). Participants were randomly assigned to conditions in which the woman described was 26 or 41 years old, and single, married to a man, or married to a woman. After reading the vignettes, participants rated their expectations of the prospective mother’s preparedness for parenting, ability to provide quality of life for a child, risk for pregnancy complications and achieving a healthy pregnancy. Results yielded marginally significantly (p = .05) lower expectations of achieving a healthy pregnancy when …

Perceived Effectiveness Of E-Learning For Technology Instruction In Public Library Staff Development Programs: A Survey Based On The Technology Acceptance Model, Julia Huprich

Master of Science in Information Technology Theses

The purpose of this research study was to determine the perceived effectiveness of e-learning for staff members in public libraries. In addition, the effects of user demographics - including a user’s age and gender - were analyzed to determine if these factors impacted the perceived effectiveness of e-learning as a training delivery model.

Davis’s Technology Acceptance Model (1989) was used to develop a questionnaire related to the perceived effectiveness and value of e-learning, and a survey of public library staff members across the United States was conducted. Results of the survey showed the impact that previous e-learning experience and the …

Threat Of Technological Unemployment: Are Hiring Managers Discounted For Using Standardized Employee Selection Practices?, Kevin P. Nolan, Nathan T. Carter, Dev K. Dalal

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Two studies were conducted to examine the tenability of Meehl’s (1986) “threat of technological unemployment” explanation for why practitioners of employee selection resist using standardized decision-making practices. The results of Study 1 support the existence of this threat by demonstrating that practitioners received less credit for the outcomes of employment decisions when structured rather than unstructured interviews were used to evaluate candidates and analytical rather than holistic data combination was used to determine candidates’ overall evaluations. The results of Study 2 support the influence of this threat on employee selection by demonstrating that practitioners recognized the effects using the standardized …

Mixed Methods Research: A Comprehensive Approach For Study Into The New Zealand Voluntary Carbon Market, S Jeff Birchall, Maya Murphy, Markus Milne

The Qualitative Report

Climate change and solutions to solving this wicked problem require a mixed methods research approach that draws on quantitative and qualitative inquiry together. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the applicability (and effectiveness) of a mixed methods approach applied to research into the voluntary carbon market (VCM), a key path available for organisations electing to offset their carbon emissions, in New Zealand. The mixed methods approach included three unique data sets (quantitative documents, quantitative surveys, qualitative in-depth interviews), and was both explanatory (qualitative interviews built upon and contextualized the document analysis and survey results) and convergent (data sets …

Small Firm Adaptive Capability, Competitive Strategy, And Performance Outcomes: Competing Mediation Vs. Moderation Perspectives, George Chryssochoidis, Dimitrios Dousios, Nikolaos Tzokas

Plymouth Business School

In small firms, adaptive capability exercises a handling grip on competitive strategy for superior performance (primarily acting as a mediator) and may offset, through attenuation, the adverse impact of limited availability of resources.

Am I A Good Leader? How Variations In Introversion/Extraversion Impact Leaders’ Core Self-Evaluations, Marisa N. Bossen

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Leaders across the introversion/extraversion (I/E) spectrum may comparatively view themselves at a disadvantage when it comes to developing effective developmental relationships with their direct reports. This study investigated how a leader’s I/E typology, the number of direct reports (NoDR), and learning goal orientation (LGO) were related to their core self-evaluation (CSE) rating of their talent development role, through the lens of implicit leadership theory. An online survey was administered to 146 U.S. leaders (50% female) with an average age of 40 (SD = 11.5) who self-reported they had at least one direct report. The first hypothesis, that leaders would …

Infusion Of Teamstepps, Kendra Bonin

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Infusion of TeamSTEPPS studied the transformational change within a surgical department at a military treatment facility. TeamSTEPPS has been implemented in many hospitals to help with team development, communication, and patient safety. Infusion of TeamSTEPPS maintains the integrity of the program and gains additional buy-in from the team members by involving them in the infusion process. The process involved a gap analysis in understanding the team's integrated components of TeamSTEPPS and looked at infusing the unobserved components. The project revealed a significate change in team satisfaction and an increase in operating room utilization rates. Patient safety reporting increased during this …

Transformers: African American Women Leaders In The Pharmaceutical Industry, Yvette Lynne Bonaparte

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

This qualitative study documents the experiences of African American women leaders in the pharmaceutical industry in the context of the transformative leadership model. Transformative leadership is a theory that recognizes that the success of individuals and organizations (including pharmaceutical companies) may be impacted by material realities and disparities that exist in a larger societal context. Consequently, transformative leaders seek to promote change (Shields, 2011). Eight African American leaders were interviewed regarding their leadership experiences in the pharmaceutical industry. The interview text was then coded based on the seven tenets of transformative leadership. The results indicated that, collectively, all participants exhibited …

Improving Interdisciplinary Relationships In Primary Care With The Implementation Of Teamstepps, Nicole M. Siddons

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Session presented on Thursday, July 21, 2016:

Healthcare organizations face many diverse challenges, perhaps one of the most problematic of these is the lack of interdisciplinary collaboration plaguing healthcare. This issue results in serious complications with the safety and quality of care (IOM, 1999). One example depicting ineffective collaboration among healthcare teams occurred in an urban Midwest United States city, where a Native American community clinic recently transformed their care model by adding registered nurses to their team. As a result, issues with interprofessional collaboration and teamwork arose threatening healthcare outcomes and employee engagement. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, …

Translating The Evidence: Analyzing Dnp Capstones As Exemplars Of Excellence In Clinical Outcomes, Barbara Anderson

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Session presented on Monday, July 25, 2016: Purpose: The purpose of this presentation is to enable the participant to identify and use creative strategies in doctoral education in analyzing clinical outcomes through using exemplars: completed DNP capstone projects. Methods: The method used is content analysis of selected exemplars of excellence in completed DNP projects that addressed quality improvement in clinical outcomes, using the American Association of Colleges of Nursing DNP Essentials as the benchmark. Results: Eight completed DNP capstones are analyzed using the 8 DNP Essentials as defined by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Key components of the …

Hiv Task Shifting From Physicians To Nurses In Nigeria: Correlates Of Self-Efficacy And Job Satisfaction, Emilia Ngozi Iwu, William L. Holzemer

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Session presented on Sunday, July 24, 2016:

Purpose: With 25% of the global disease burden and 3% of the world's health workforce, the African region has the worst health worker shortage. According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV & AIDS (UNAIDS), Sub-Sahara Africa accounted for 24.7 out of 35 Million people living with HIV globally and 70% of all new HIV infections in 2013. Task shifting (or sharing), a human resource strategy to maximize contributions of available health workers has improved access to HIV treatment in sub-Sahara Africa. However, it also led to nurses acquiring roles previously performed …

A Dynamic Water Supply Portfolio Optimisation Approach, Michael G. Porter, Oz Sahin

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper examines the future water supply situation in Adelaide, a relatively dry city in South Australia, in the driest populated continent on earth. Using the Systems Approach, we analyse a diversified strategy with a new portfolio mix of core bulk water: (i) rainfall independent desalinated water from the ocean and (ii) rainfall dependent water from catchments including the Mount Lofty Ranges (MLR) and water piped from the Murray‐Darling Basin (MDB) including via the Mannum‐Adelaide Pipeline. Our focus is on the quantity, indicative costs and risks of water supply, and associated augmentation choices and trade‐offs, over the next century to …

Inequality, Position, And Perception: Understanding And Addressing Workplace Harassment In Oregon's Construction Trades, Sasha Mae Bassett

Dissertations and Theses

Does our status impact the way we interpret change? This study proposes that one's level of power within their workplace, as granted by their role within the organization, shapes the way in which people interpret adjustments to the norms of that organization. Drawing on qualitative focus groups with forty-four members of Oregon's construction trades, this study examines the relationship between participants' position within the industry's structure and their opinions about the changing job site norms brought on by recent waves of diversification in the workforce. Findings suggest that within Oregon's construction trades, hierarchical distribution of power via industry position serves …

The Role Of Cultural Discontinuity In The Academic Outcomes Of Latina/O High School Students, Amanda Taggart

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This study examined the impact of cultural discontinuity on the academic outcomes of Latina/o high school students. Hierarchical multiple regression was utilized to (a) investigate the significant differences between the characteristics and academic outcomes of high school students who do and do not experience cultural discontinuity between their home- and school-based learning and social experiences based on Eurocentric cultural values, and (b) examine the contribution of demographic variables, socio-cultural variables, academic experiences, and cultural discontinuity to students' cumulative grade point average (GPA) and standardized test scores. Data were collected from two high schools in South Central Texas. Findings revealed that …

My News

My News (2014-2020)

• Georgia Southern University welcomes Jaimie Hebert, Ph.D., as 13th president
• Wherever life takes you
• Georgia Southern Multimedia Development Center wins Emmy® Award for Best Live Audio
• Daniel J. Cox, Ph.D., to serve as founding chair of the Department of Manufacturing Engineering
• Georgia Southern faculty continue excellence in 2016
• Georgia Southern student films featured at Cannes

Profit-Shifting Structures: Making Ethical Judgments Objectively, Part 2, Jeffrey M. Kadet, David Koontz

Articles

MNCs and their advisors have seemingly taken ethics out of the mix when considering the profit-shifting tax structures they have so prolifically and enthusiastically implemented over the past several decades. There may be a variety of reasons for this. First, U.S. tax law is a self-assessment system, meaning that in most cases taxpayers compute and pay tax without advance approval of their tax positions from the IRS. No third party technical test or propriety standard has to be passed on the front end for any tax strategy or structure. Second, direct personal benefits accrue to management and advisors from implementing …

A Case Study Of Turnaround Principal Identification And Selection In One Urban School District, Kondra T. Rattley

Education Dissertations and Projects

Through a case study approach, this qualitative study examined public school district leaders’ perspectives on turnaround principal competencies and actions. Furthermore, this study explored the strategies for identifying and selecting turnaround principals among district leaders in one district and their perceptions of the challenges associated with turnaround principal shortages. Participant responses were compared to existing, research-based turnaround principal competencies and led to direct reflections of the existing competencies. The research findings indicated that participant perspectives of the competencies associated with turnaround principals reflect existing, research-based competencies. The results also indicated that the participants placed more emphasis on certain competencies than …

Governing Through Malaria: Biopolitics, Health Discourses, And Mining/Border Communities In Post-Colonial Suriname, Javier Eli Astorga

Latin American Studies ETDs

This research work investigated how emerging health discourses on malaria are revamping colonial legacies and turning them into structural violence in contemporary Suriname. By critically surveying the colonial past and ongoing post-colonial transitioning in Suriname, using a biopolitics-theory approach and recent medical anthropology to depict health discourses and structural violence, and tapping on the field of Critical Discourse Analysis as ethnomethodology, thirteen medical reports--issued from 2010 to 2014--were examined in order to demonstrate how a discourse of exclusion, inequality, and 'social wrong' endures colonial violence in post-colonial Suriname. Throughout the examination of these contentious medical reports produced by operative medical …

Birth Of A Powerhouse: How One University Reimagined, Restructured, And Revived Outreach, Slone H. Cansler

Dissertations

Today’s modern higher education landscape presents myriad challenges to higher education leaders and administrators. Among those challenges is how universities respond to demands for accountability, growth of alternative models of postsecondary education delivery, the need to serve and increasingly diverse society, and reduced state and federal appropriations. Research suggests that the biggest changes for American higher education are imminent and will necessitate new business models, new forms of collaboration and partnerships, and innovative about the enterprise of higher education. This study sought to gain understanding about the development process and structural framework that allows a university’s outreach unit to be …

Action Items, Wku Graduate Council

Graduate School

Overview of action items handled by the Graduate Council.

An Empirical Investigation On Ceo Turnover In It Firms And Firm Performance, Peiqin Zhang, David Wierschem, Francis A. Mendez Mediavilla, Keejae P. Hong

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Drawn upon upper echelon theory and organizational theory, this research proposes to examine the impact of CEO turnover in IT firms on firm performance in terms of both sustainable accounting performance and market performance. We find that CEO turnover is a significant determinant of firm performance, especially in IT firms. This paper contributes to the IS literature by investigating the CEO turnover impact in IT firms compared to other industries. This study also has practical implications by providing the guideline for IT firms on the CEO turnover policy. Such firms should place additional emphasis on their succession planning efforts.

Effectuation, Not Being Pragmatic Or Process Theorizing, Remains Ineffectual: Responding To The Commentaries, Richard J. Arend, Hessam Sarooghi, Andrew C. Burkemper

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

We appreciate the opportunity to respond to the provocative Dialogue pieces of Read, Sarasvathy, Dew, and Wiltbank (2016; henceforth, “RSDW”); Reuber, Fischer, and Coviello (2016; henceforth, “RFC”); Gupta, Chiles, and McMullen (2016; henceforth, “GCM”); and Garud and Gehman (2016; henceforth, “GG”), each of which makes several claims in defense of effectuation, as well as describes several ways forward in entrepreneurship- and process-related theorizing. We respond in a manner consistent with the traditional perspective in management theorizing that “good theory is practical” (Lewin, 1945), where “theory is theory” (Simon, 1967; Van de Ven, 1989) based on our discipline’s collective commitment to …

Contract-Boundary-Spanning Governance Mechanisms: Conceptualizing Fragmented And Globalized Production As Collectively Governed Entities, Jaakko Salminen

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Conceptualizing how private actors can and should control their supply chains is a tricky question with both economic and legal dimensions. The topic is of extreme importance in today's global economy. On the one hand, this importance is highlighted by events such as the catastrophic and deadly collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Bangladesh and the economic fiasco of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant construction project in Finland, both arguably caused by the lack of effective supply chain governance. On the other hand, the potential benefits of successful supply chain governance, shown by examples such as open …