Digital Commons Network^™

2016 Nebraska Water Leaders Academy - Final Report, Mark E. Burbach, Connie Reimers-Hild

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The effective management of Nebraska’s water resources is evermore challenged by variations in weather, climate, technology, socioeconomic policies, and regulation. Anthropogenic climate change, declining water tables and stream flows, increasing demands on freshwater, aging water infrastructure, fiscal constraints, and impacts on aquatic organisms are particularly imminent challenges in Nebraska and around the world (Pahl-Wostl et al., 2013; Pittock et al., 2008; USACE, 2010). Sustaining freshwater ecosystem services in the face of emerging environmental threats presents an immense societal dilemma worldwide (Pittock et al., 2013; Rockström et al., 2009, Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). The rapidly changing conditions of water resources in …

Communication Styles: Increasing Awareness Between Genders In The Workforce, Tammie Bellephant

All Capstone Projects

Communication differences between males and females that exist often leads to miscommunication. Miscommunication, especially in the workplace, can create negative behavior resulting in low productivity. Identifying problems and implementing solutions learned through research to improve relationships and create mindful interpersonal communication. This research will analyze how different communication styles can interfere or hinder the message sent and evaluate how this information is perceived. Training on this topic will not only educate people on how to improve workplace relationships, but it will also identify a clear path for effective communication to travel. Through effective communication skills and clear expectations, individuals will …

A Mixed Methods Investigation Of Caregiver Coaching In An Early Intervention Model: Differences In Providers For Children With Hearing Loss, Alison R. King

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between early intervention providers’ backgrounds, and their perceptions of caregiver coaching and auditory skill development, to develop professional development programs. An explanatory sequential design was used with participants of varying backgrounds and experience. In the first phase of the study, participants responded to a survey regarding their educational background, and their comfort with caregiver coaching and auditory skill development. Survey results were analyzed

using Spearman’s Ranked Correlational Coefficient (Spearman’s r_s) to form groups of participants from extreme cases. The second phase of the study consisted of participant interviews …

Faculty Senate Yearbook, 2017-18, Wmu Faculty Senate

WMU Faculty Senate Yearbooks

No abstract provided.

Security Readiness Evaluation Framework For Tonga E-Government Initiatives, Raymond Lutui, Semisi Hopoi, Siaosi Maeakafa

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The rapid expansion of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the Pacific have reached the Kingdom of Tonga. The submarine fibre-optic cable which connects Tonga to Fiji and onward to a hub in Sydney went live 2013. Now the people of Tonga experience the high-speed impact of digital communication, fast international access, and social changes such as the government is implementing a digital society through e-government services. This study focuses on identifying the factors that will later become a vulnerability and a risk to the security of Tonga government e-government initiatives. Data was collected through interviews with three government …

University Of Central Florida Libraries, Annual Report 2016-2017, University Libraries

Libraries' Documents

No abstract provided.

Aging Injunctions And The Legacy Of Institutional Reform Litigation, Jason Parkin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Institutional reform litigation has been an enduring feature of the American legal system since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The resulting injunctions have transformed countless bureaucracies notorious for resisting change, including public school systems, housing authorities, social services agencies, correctional facilities, and police departments. But these injunctions face an uncertain future. The Supreme Court has held that institutional reform injunctions must be easier to terminate than all other injunctions issued by the federal courts. Some institutional reform injunctions go unenforced or are forgotten entirely. Others expire due to sunset provisions. At the same time, doctrinal …

Sustainability Of Our Planet And All Species As The Organizing Principle For Slce, Kevin Kecskes, Jennifer Joyalle, Erin Elliott, Jacob D. B. Sherman

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

We may define and prioritize them differently, but few would deny that our human community is facing intractable problems at local, national, and global scales. We call on higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world to work collectively and with strategic intent and action to use sustainability as an organizing principle to focus service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) activities on the flourishing of our planet and its diverse species.

In the United Nations report, Our Common Future, sustainable development (the future-oriented view of “sustainability”) was defined by World Commission on the Environment and Development members as “the kind of development …

Middle School Teacher Collaboration: The Intersection Of Teacher Domain And Administrative Purview, Jessica Rintoul

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study examined the experiences and perspectives of twelve urban public middle school teachers and one focused instructional coach in one district in a New England state involved in a district-mandated change to professional learning communities as their form of teacher collaboration. It explored teachers’ reasons for engaging in collaboration, their understanding of the administration’s expectations for their collaboration, the factors and conditions that influenced their collaborative work, and the perceived effects of collaboration on their teaching practices and professional identity. This qualitative phenomenological study employed a purposeful sampling strategy and both interviews and field observations to uncover teachers’ perceptions …

Team Member Selection Strategies, Robert Carl Stewart

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Business teams have been losing millions of dollars every year in cost and schedule over-runs from incomplete or failed projects. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the strategies that business managers use to determine team fit when selecting employees for assignment to cross-functional project teams. The participants for this study were 3 senior management personnel and a 6-member employee focus group, all from midsized, nonprofit organizations located within 200 miles of the tri-state region of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The conceptual framework for this study was Werbel and Gilliland's theory of person-group fit, McCrae's and John's …

Pre-Employment Polygraphs And Ohio Law Enforcement Officers' Perceptions Of Police Misconduct, Peter Thomas Piraino

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite convincing evidence of the polygraph instrument's lack of scientific validity and reliability in assessing deceptiveness in individuals, public-sector organizations in the United States continue to use the polygraph examination as a pre-employment screening tool. In addition to its lack of acceptance in the scientific community, little is known about the effectiveness of polygraph examinations, given as part of pre-employment screening, in predicting future misconduct in law enforcement officers. Two theoretical frameworks, Baumgartner and Jones' punctuated equilibrium model of policy change and Alvesson and Spicer's theory of functional stupidity, provided the theoretical foundation for this study. The purpose of this …

The Use Of A Patient Mobility Sensor To Decrease Hospital-Acquired Pressure Ulcers, Monica Vassallo Shallow

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Pressure ulcers are a serious health condition that have negative consequences for patients and organizations. The primary cause of pressure ulcers is intense and/or prolonged pressure or pressure in combination with shear that results in damage to the skin and underlying soft tissue. Early identification of patients at risk for pressure ulcers and 2-hour repositioning to off-load pressure are key components in reducing pressure ulcer development. Despite ongoing efforts to prevent pressure ulcers, the incidence and prevalence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs) at the practicum site exceeded the benchmark for Magnet hospitals and the health system's goal of 1%. Patient …

Strategies To Improve Engagement Among Public Sector Information Technology Employees, Michelle Dawn Benham

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Disengaged employees decrease organizations' efficiencies and profitability. Engaged employees provide greater productivity and performance while being less likely to incur job burnout and exhaustion. However, public sector organizational leaders still struggle to engage their information technology (IT) employees. Partnering with a large public sector organization in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area, in a case study design, this study explored the strategies that public sector business leaders use to increase productivity through engaging IT employees. The conceptual framework for this study was the job demands-resources framework. Four participants were selected through purposeful sampling from a population of 7 IT leaders who …

Healthcare Executive Leadership Development And Succession Planning, Robin Ford Dillard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Business leaders face leadership crises as executives from the baby boomer generation retire, creating a shortage of experienced and knowledgeable leaders. Some business leaders are unprepared for the replacement of retiring senior-level executives and lack strategies for succession planning. The findings of this study indicate succession planning and leadership development play a significant role in preparing future healthcare leaders in their ability to improve the quality of patient care and improve the strategic and financial health of the organization. Guided by the human capital theory the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by healthcare …

Retention Strategies For Reducing Voluntary Turnover In A Higher Education Institution, Susan K. Walker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employees who choose to leave employment cause significant challenges for organizations. Compounded challenges exist when employee retention strategies are not effective, affecting job satisfaction and personnel replacement costs as the organization continues to lose qualified and valuable staff. This single case study, built on a psychological contract theory framework, was focused on effective employee retention strategies to reduce voluntary turnover in a for-profit, higher education institution located in the Midwestern United States. The population consisted of 12 employees, 6 Student Success employees and 6 Student Success managers, who shared their unique perspectives. Methodological triangulation was achieved through semistructured interviews with …

Relationships Between White Privilege, Organizational Belongingness, Racial Stereotypes, And Motivation To Lead, Scott Alexander Vaughan-Bonterre

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite changes in the law and efforts by organizational diversity practitioners to expand leadership opportunities for people of color, there is still a sharp contrast in the ratio of white leaders to leaders of color. While much research exists regarding the diversity disparity in leadership, there is little research on factors that influence the motivation to lead. The purpose of this correlational study was to test critical race and leader categorization theories by comparing how the independent variables of white privilege, organizational belongingness, and racial stereotypes affected the dependent variable of motivation to lead of black American versus white American …

Nursing Leadership Influence On Evidence-Based Practice Culture And Integration, Natalie Kay Lenhart

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Translating research to practice takes 10-20 years or more and evidence-based practice (EBP) integration remains at 10%-20%, despite recommendations requiring EBP-guided decisions. EBP integration has been associated with up to 30% decreases in healthcare system spending, improved quality outcomes, and increased staff satisfaction. Nurse leaders are accountable for EBP enculturation, yet rate quality and safety as the highest priority and EBP as the lowest. This knowledge gap perpetuates low EBP integration rates and hinders EBP enculturation. Asking whether EBP facilitative interventions for nurse leaders increase scores on organizational culture and readiness, beliefs, and EBP use scales addressed the knowledge gap …

Improving The Quality Of Nursing Documentation In Home Health Care Setting, Chidiadi Obioma

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Poor nursing documentation of patient care was identified in daily nurse visit notes in a health care setting. This problem affects effective communication of patient status with other clinicians, thereby jeopardizing clinical decision-making. The purpose of this evidence-based project was to determine the impact of a retraining program on the quality of documentation of patient care in nurses' notes in a home health agency in central Texas. A retrospective audit of quality of nursing documentation using the Nurse and Midwifery Content Audit Tool (NMCAT) was done. A pre- and posttest design was used. A convenience sample of de-identified nurses' notes …

Stakeholders' Perceptions Of Ethical Leadership: Implications For Organizational Success, Adejobi Sunday Odeneye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders focus on the attainment of personal and organizational goals without consideration for the needs of stakeholders, especially those of followers. Ethical leadership (EL) studies' focus on leaders' perspectives represented a research gap that necessitated this study. Followers are the least researched among stakeholders; thus, this study explored EL from their viewpoints. Stakeholder theory, social learning theory, eudaimonia, and utilitarianism were the conceptual frameworks that guided this study. Twenty participants drawn from followers in a public organization in New Jersey were questioned about their experiences and expectations of EL using open-ended interview questions. Participants with shared experiences were selected based …

The Chief Learning Officer: A Model Role For Integrating Hr And Strategic Planning Functions In Libraries, Robert Farrell

Publications and Research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to put forward the position of chief learning officer (CLO) as a potential new role or models for new roles in libraries wishing to integrate human resources, strategic planning, and budgeting.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the history and present functions of the CLO role in the corporate world, correlating work within the library field with key aspects of the position as way by which to conceptualize the integration of disparate library operations.

Findings – The position of CLO has not yet entered the library and information science (LIS) discourse.

Practical implications …

The Desires To Work For An Organizational Culture Type Based On Personality Characteristics And Gender, Emily Lauth

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Finding a company to work for is a two-way street in that a job applicant must like the company and the company must like the applicant. Job applicants and hiring companies both want to find a mutual fit. This fit can potentially be observed through the personality characteristics and gender of the applicant as well as the organizational culture type of the company. The purpose of this study is to understand how individuals view an organizational culture and have the desire to work for an organizational culture type based on individuals’ personality characteristics and gender.

The Relationship Between Building Teacher Leadership Capacity And Campus Culture, Dawn R. Harris, Kriss Kemp-Graham

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods research study was to explore the relationship between building teacher leadership capacity and campus culture in a suburban East Texas school district. Developing teacher leaders by building leadership capacity depends on administrators’ abilities to develop leaders from within the existing staff and to shape campus culture. Results of this mixed methods study yielded findings that identified a statistically significant relationship between teacher leadership capacity and campus culture. Leaders play a role in the culture of corporate and academic organizations, and culture is at the forefront of exemplary performance of both entities. Therefore, …

Organizational Information Dissemination Within Collaborative Networks Using Digital Communication Tools, Cristelia Hinojosa

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

While knowledge is one of an organization’s greatest assets, it remains a challenge to facilitate knowledge transfer between people within an organization. Social influence has been studied in its role of facilitating information diffusion, which is necessary for knowledge transfer to occur. Among this research, tie strength, a quantifiable characteristic of a social network that determines the link between two nodes, has been measured to determine the impact of social influence on knowledge transfer and information dissemination within a social network. Current research that explores the impact of social influence on information diffusion has been conducted within public social networks …

Creating An Inclusive School Environment And Experience For Minority Students In A Faith-Based University: A Case Study Of Undergraduate Programs, Caroline O. Abiaziem

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Higher education institutions are experiencing the need to advance their understanding of diversity and inclusion on campus. Therefore, this study was to explore the experiences and challenges of minority students in the undergraduate programs of a Faith-based Private University. This case study utilized interviews and focus group methods to understand the challenges and experiences of Asians, Hispanics, Latinos, Africans/African Americans, Native Americans, and other Minority students currently in the undergraduate programs of a Faith-based higher education institution. Responses were collected through interviews from two alumni of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) programs of the institution. Historical records were …

In Pursuit Of Good & Gold: Data Observations Of Employee Ownership & Impact Investment, Christopher Geczy, Jessica S. Jeffers, David K. Musto, Anne M. Tucker

Faculty Publications By Year

A startup's path to self-sustaining profitability is risky and hard, and most do not make it. Venture capital (VC) investors try to improve these odds with contractual terms that focus and sharpen employees' incentives to pursue gold. If the employees and investors expect the startup to balance the goal of profitability with another goal - the goal of good - the risks are likely to both grow and multiply. They grow to the extent that profits are threatened, and they multiply to the extent that balancing competing goals adds a dimension to the incentive problem. In this Article, we explore …

The Effect Of Domain And Technical Expertise On The Training Outcomes For Case Management Systems In High Domain Expertise Fields, Steven L. Epstein

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The successful implementation of an enterprise system requires training and end users in the new systems and procedures. There has been no research reporting a relationship between Domain Expertise (DE) and the successful implementation of an enterprise system. This study sought to begin filling this knowledge gap by exploring the relationship between DE, technical proficiency, training outcomes, and perceived training effectiveness for a new enterprise system, specifically a Case Management System (CMS) in a small and medium enterprise (SME). The research examines different subjects of technical expertise including skills, abilities, and knowledge to increase professional acceptance in the high domain …

Assessing Factors Influencing Employees' Voice Behavior In Organizations, Nikita Agnihotri

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of the present study was threefold: (1) to investigate the relationship between organizational based self- esteem and voice behavior, (2) to examine whether or not organizational identification interacts with organizational based self-esteem in significantly predicting voice behavior, and (3) to test another moderation effect, interaction of perceived organizational support and organizational based self-esteem in predicting voice behavior. Based on data from 482 undergraduate students, results suggested organization based self-esteem is strongly positively related to voice behavior. Additionally, the interaction of organization based self-esteem with both perceived organizational support and organizational identification in predicting voice behavior was not significant. …

The Cost Of Inconsistent Supervisor Treatment On Psychological Detachment And Daily Home Affect : A Multilevel Mediation Study, Yi-Ren Wang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

With the assumption that the more justice the better, studies in the past have overlooked the implications of the consistency in daily justice experiences. Interpersonal justice especially tends to be associated with frequent fluctuations on the daily basis among the justice dimensions. Drawing on uncertainty management theory (Van den Bos & Lind, 2002; Van den Bos, 2001), the author argued that the uncertainty and the difficulty in consolidating a sense of justice from inconsistent fairness treatments can make people engage in sense-making or rumination after work. Hence, the purpose of the study was to investigate the potential negative spillover impact …

Queer Youth Activism : Generational Change In The Us Lgbtq Movement, Megan K. Murphy

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The past several decades have witnessed rapid social and cultural change around LGBTQ individuals and sexual politics in the United States. As a result, LGBTQ youth are coming of age in a socio-historical context characterized by increasing normalization and visibility of LGBTQ people and less overt homophobia where LGBTQ individuals live their lives largely beyond the closet. In this dissertation, the unique characteristics of this post-closet movement generation are explored. I identify three core tensions faced by the post-closet generation: navigating restrictive at risk/victim frames, negotiating identities in the context of growing ambivalence about traditional gay/lesbian categories, and carving out …

Acculturation, Enculturation, Stigma, And Attitudes Toward Seeking Psychological Help Among Eastern Europeans In The U.S, Andi Xhihani

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Although approximately 2.1 million Eastern European immigrants are presently living in the U.S (Migration Policy Institute [MPI], 2011), this population has received little attention in the mental health field. Eastern European immigrants face many challenges to adapting to a new a culture, yet their process of acculturating has received little attention in counseling research. Based on Berry’s (1980) bidirectional model of acculturation as a framework, the present study examined the relationships of acculturation, enculturation, gender, and stigma of mental illness on Eastern European immigrants’ attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. It was hypothesized that gender and stigma would moderate the …