Digital Commons Network^™

Learning The Ropes: General Experience, Task-Specific Experience, And The Output Of Police Officers, Gregory Deangelo, Emily Owens

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We estimate the role that law enforcement officer experience has on the probability of punishment, using a unique data set of tickets issued by the Idaho State Police linked to human resource records. All else equal, officers issue fewer tickets earlier in their career than later in their career. Quasi-exogenous shocks to an officer’s task-specific experience, generated by law changes, cause a temporary reduction in the frequency with which a subset of troopers “use” those laws, creating disparities in the likelihood that individual citizens are cited for law violations. The reduction in ticketing in response to a law change is …

Home Healthcare And Performance: Development And Application Of A Typology For Home Health Agencies, Ronique Nechelle Evans

All ETDs from UAB

This three-paper dissertation sought to examine the existence of strategic groups in the home health industry, the application of Porter’s generic strategies (cost leader, differentiator, “stuck-in-the-middle” and both cost leader/differentiator) in identifying these groups, and the association of group membership with agency performance. The findings of this study will provide researchers and managers with a highlight of the current strategic makeup of the home health industry and its relationship with quality and financial performance. The results of this dissertation provide some evidence that strategic groups do exist in the home health industry and can be described along the basis of …

Finding Access And Digital Preservation Solutions For A Digitized Oral History Project: A Case Study, Krystyna K. Matusiak, Allison Tyler, Catherine Newton, Padma Polepeddi

Library and Information Science: Faculty Scholarship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine affordable access and digital preservation solutions for digital collections developed by under-resourced small and mid-size cultural heritage organizations.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a case study of Jeffco Stories, a collection of digitized oral histories created by the Jefferson County Public Library in Colorado.

Findings – This paper describes how the Jefferson County Public Library undertook a migration project of its oral history digital collection into an open access platform, Omeka and selected DuraCloud as a hosted digital preservation service.

Research limitations/implications – As a case study, this paper …

Interprofessional Education: Theoretical And Practical Considerations For Occupational Therapy Educators, Mary K. Arvin, Lorrie A. George-Paschal, Jennifer S. Pitonyak, Sandee M. Dunbar

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Interprofessional education (IPE) is an integral part of occupational therapy education as programs across the United States incorporate IPE into existing courses and develop new, innovative curricula. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Commission on Education (COE) proposed in its 2015 position paper on IPE in occupational therapy curricula, that IPE is imperative for effective and ethical practice in today’s healthcare environment. Through participation in a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning program focusing on IPE, the authors examined broad constructs and practical implementation of IPE in occupational therapy education. As occupational therapy educators explore opportunities to collaborate with a diverse …

Driving Strategies In Performance Excellence, Nathan Lawrence

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Only a small number of U.S. businesses have implemented the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence to improve their performance. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that executive business leaders use to implement the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The study population consisted of 6 business executives and 2 organizations in the U.S. state of Texas, all with experience in implementing the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The theory of high performance work systems provided the conceptual framework for the study. Data were gathered from interviews and record reviews that were conducted within the organizations. Inductive …

Leadership Styles And Leadership Effectiveness Of Outpatient Physical Therapy Clinic Managers, Adedolapo Ibiyemi Oyefeso

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Outpatient physical therapy clinics (OPTC), like many other healthcare organizations, face an array of challenges in meeting the needs of the growing elderly population. The leadership behavior of OPTC managers is a key component to secure employee loyalty, accommodate increased patient demand, and implement positive organizational change. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative survey designed study was to investigate the relationship between the leadership styles perceived by OPTC healthcare managers and nonmanagerial employees, as measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Short. The primary research question examined the difference between the OPTC managers' self-perceived leadership style and the nonmanagerial subordinates' perceptions …

Barriers To Transition Of Care For Heart Failure Patients, Catherine Mary Murray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Heart failure (HF) is an escalating chronic disorder that impacts patients, families, and society. HF necessitates efficient transition of care and complex self-care knowledge in a population often burdened with low health literacy and high readmission rates. The purpose of this project was to improve transition of discharged HF patients from a Level 1 trauma system in a mostly rural area of South Carolina to its affiliated nurse-led HF clinic. The no-show rate for initial visits to the health care system's outpatient HF clinic by postdischarge patients was 59%. Using Henderson's need theory and Stevens's knowledge transformation model for theoretical …

Role Of Middle Managers In Mitigating Employee Cyberloafing In The Workplace, Anizizo Aku

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Companies in the United States are concerned about the indeterminate effectiveness of corporate cyberloafing mitigation efforts leading to the persistence of employee cyberloafing behavior. Although middle managers are the driving force behind the transformational influences that guide employee productivity and could proffer practical solutions, a lack of clarity surrounds the middle manager's role in the overall cyberloafing mitigation efforts within organizations. The central research question for this transcendental phenomenological research study explored the lived experiences of middle managers regarding their roles in mitigating employee cyberloafing at higher education institutions in Florida. This study used a social constructivist-interpretive framework that draws …

Social Change Initiatives For African-American And Latino Males In Los Angeles County, Kay Ramsey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the 21st Century, many Americans continue to fight battles for men of color who are at the forefront of criminal injustice, unemployment, and low matriculation. With great dominion and urgency, our Nation must ensure all men, regardless of the adversity can succeed and build legacies in their families, communities, and the economy. In this action research study, an ecological system theory was used to analyze the stakeholders who have implemented the following public polices under the Obama Administration: 21st Century Policing, My Brother's Keeper, and Race to the Top. This research answers the question how stakeholders are able to …

Manufacturing Managers' Leadership Efficacy In The Context Of Reduced Union Influence, James Richard Wright

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore whether manufacturing managers had the skills needed to lead union members whose unions have less influence than in the past. Leaders of manufacturing firms can strengthen the relationship between manufacturing managers and union members through positive and effective leadership. Providing union members with leadership can improve cooperation, reduce problem-solving time, and increase productivity through efficiency. The conceptual framework for this study was transformational leadership theory. Data collection involved conducting 20 semi structured interviews with participants affiliated with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the Toledo, Ohio, area. The participants (9 manufacturing …

Evaluation Of A Gender-Relevant Physical Activity After-School Program, Vianay Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Physical activity rates have decreased in the past 30 years. Physical activity rates decline further among girls as they reach adolescence, yet studies suggest girls are more inclined to participate in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) while among peers. When in close social networks, girls who have more physically active friends report being more active themselves. Several mentor-based programs throughout the United States have increased physical activity among preadolescent girls, indicating that gender-relevant physical activity programs may reverse their declining rates of physical activity.

Purpose: To evaluate if participation in a gender-relevant physical activity after-school program influenced participants' aerobic fitness, …

Social Psychological Approaches To Women And Leadership Theory, Crystal L. Hoyt, Stefanie Simon

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

In this chapter, we take a social psychological approach to understanding gender and leadership. In doing so, we explain how both the social context and people’s perceptions influence leadership processes involving gender. The theoretical approaches taken by social psychologists are often focused on one of these two questions: (1) Are there gender differences in leadership style and effectiveness? and, (2) What barriers do women face in the leadership domain? We begin our chapter by reviewing the literature surrounding these two questions. We then discuss in detail one of the greatest barriers to women in leadership: the prejudice and discrimination that …

Teacher Perceptions Of The Implementation Of The Common Core State Standards In The Schools Of The Florida Conference Of Seventh-Day Adventists: A Qualitative Case Study, Rose J. Thomas

Dissertations

Problem

This qualitative case study focused on educators who teach in the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and their perceptions regarding the adequacy of the Professional Development to support the implementation of the CCSS; how they are implementing the CCSS in the classroom in terms of planning, teaching, and assessing; and their perceptions regarding the impact of the CCSS on student learning.

Method

The study included six participants who taught in six different schools from the various regions where the Florida Conference schools are located. The participants varied in age, ethnicity, number of years in the classroom, and the size …

Applying Krumbolt's Theory Of Career Decision Making (Cdm) To The Longevity Of Principals In The North American Division Of Seventh-Day Adventists, Sadrail Saint-Ulysse

Dissertations

Problem

Ledesma (2011) reports that principals’ average tenure in Adventist schools in North America “ranges from 2.5-4.0 years. Elementary principals remain in leadership for 2.5 years, day academy principals stay for 3.6 years, and boarding academy principals leave after 4.0 years” (p, 8). Ledesma also noted that the length of tenure of a school principal in the Adventist school system mirrors that of other school systems. In an attempt to understand more about the possible factors related to this seemingly high voluntary turnover, this research sought to explore the association between the four factors of Krumboltz’s career decision making model …

Exploring The Lives Of Women Who Lead, Susan Cloninger

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Scholars have identified various reasons for the underrepresentation of women in the upper echelons of organizations.This study used grounded theory methodology enhanced by situational analysis to explore how American women at senior levels in large organizational contexts engage and negotiate the totality of their situation.Utilizing a predominately White, married, middle to upper class, heterosexual sample, this study sought to understand how women create and consign meaning around their experiences; how they experience the fluidity and boundaries of multiple identities; and how they experience the entanglement of macro, meso, and micro societal forces.It explores relationships among factors participants named as influential …

Courts As Institutional Reformers: Bankruptcy And Public Law Litigation, Kathleen G. Noonan, Jonathan C. Lipson, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

This article compares two spheres in which courts induce and oversee the restructuring of organizations that fail systematically to comply with their legal obligations: bankruptcy reorganization and public law litigation (civil rights or regulatory suits seeking structural remedies). The analogies between bankruptcy and public law litigation (PLL) have grown stronger in recent years as structural decrees have evolved away from highly specific directives to “framework” decrees designed to induce engagement with stakeholders and make performance transparent. We use the comparison with bankruptcy, where the value and legitimacy of judicial intervention are better understood and more accepted, to address prominent criticisms …

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

Scholarly Works

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 contracting terms specific to …

Principals As Instructional Leaders As Opposed To School Managers, Lolita Annette Rockette

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the Denver metropolitan area, many elementary school principals have been focused more on management than on instructional leadership issues, even though school administrators have been charged with overseeing academic achievement based on state and federal standards. According to research, participating in these 2 disconnected roles hinders principals' ability to achieve the academic and social success of their students. Guided by Bandura's self-efficacy theory and Hallinger's distributed leadership theories, this qualitative study explored factors that influenced 6 principals' adoption of the instructional leadership role to learn how principals might shift from managing the school to becoming its instructional leader. The …

The Utility Of A Theoretical Framework Of A Culture Of Leadership, James E. Wortman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the utility of a Culture of Leadership Framework for both evaluating and contributing to the formation of a dynamic school culture that infuses leadership up, down, and throughout the membership of the school learning community with students as a central figure. The Culture of Leadership Framework emerged from an extensive review of the literature and includes four distinct dimensions (indicators) that become critical to analyzing the data: Leadership Orientation, Leveraging Leadership, Leadership for Learning, and Leadership Growth. The researcher used a general interpretive process of close reading to develop themes from extant …

Workplace Bullying In Certified Rehabilitation Counselors And Levels Of Depression As Measured With The Bdi®-Ii And Wpvb, Mary R. Shuma Rudberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Certified rehabilitation counselors (CRCs) are required to work with one of the nation’s most vulnerable populations—people with disabilities. In order for CRCs to deliver optimum services and stay mentally nourished, a healthy working environment is essential. Workplace bullying is defined by WBI (2014) as “repeated, health harming mistreatment of one or more persons.” Workplace bullying can take many forms, such as threats, humiliation, intimidation, sabotaging a target’s work, and verbal and physical abuse.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a prevalence in CRCs’ experiencing workplace bullying and their levels of depression. The dependent variables included …

Behavioral Deficits Across Development In A Novel Mouse Model Of Fetal Ethanol Effects, Andrew B. Hawkey

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are a spectrum of anatomical, developmental and neurobehavioral impairments resulting from ethanol (ETOH) exposure during fetal development. Efforts to develop and screen novel pharmacotherapies against fetal ETOH effects depend heavily upon rodent models to provide indicators of the safety and efficacy of such compounds, in addition to helping better understand the underlying mechanisms to develop and test these pharmacotherapies. The following experiments describe the development of a novel mouse model of FASD using behavioral batteries to assess behavioral or cognitive deficits in juvenile and adolescent offspring (Experiment 1, Experiment 2) and whether deficits with this …

A Systems Approach To Moral Distress In Long Term Care, Margaret Lemley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract: The question that this dissertation seeks to answer is whether or not a Systems Approach to Moral Distress can serve to positively address issues of moral distress within the Long-Term Care setting. Because moral distress has largely been understood as a phenomenon of the individual, efforts to address and reduce incidents of moral distress have focused almost entirely on the individual and his or her reaction to specific triggers. Building upon the existing literature this dissertation argues that previous efforts to understand moral distress within the healthcare setting have been limiting in two very important aspects. The first …

The Sustainability Of Evaluation Capacity Building Interventions: An Exploratory Study, James Wade

Dissertations

Evaluation capacity building (ECB) is a practice that can help organizations conduct and use evaluations; however, there is little research on the sustainable impact of ECB interventions. This study provides an empirical inquiry into the sustainability of multiple ECB interventions. Ten ECB practitioners, identified through snowball sampling, were interviewed. They identified 16 organizational leaders from non-profits, higher education institutions, and foundations that "bought in" to ECB and were at least six months removed from an ECB contract. Analysis of these interviews resulted in a blended empirical and theoretical model that highlights the developmental process of ECB sustainability. This model highlights …

[Preprint] The Practice Of Being A Student: Cops And Graduate Student Success, Aimee Dechambeau

Research, Publications, and Presentations

This report frames the major results of recent research into graduate student success using a community of practice model based on the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger as the organizational framework and lens for analyzing collected data. The goal was to determine if a community of practice developed among doctoral students and if so, whether it aided the students in their role and practice of becoming, and being, successful students. An examination of the first eight doctoral cohorts in a hybrid low-residency, self-directed graduate education program determined that student CoPs can develop to support students’ success in the …

Antecedents Of Low Carbon Emissions Supply Chains, Z Luo, A Gunasekaran, R Dubey, S Childe, T Papadopoulos

More Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Research

Purpose: The low carbon economy is the pressing need of the time. Despite several efforts taken by government and large corporations, there is still research to be conducted exploring the role of top management commitment in translating external pressures into responses that help to build low carbon emissions in supply chains. Design/methodology/approach: We have grounded our framework in institutional theory, agency theory and contingency theory. On the basis of existing literature, we have drawn four hypotheses. To test our hypotheses, we developed and pre-tested our questionnaire. Finally, we performed statistical analyses to test our research hypotheses using 176 samples gathered …

The Devil's In The Emails: A Sociological Examination Of Organizational Failure, William Howard Burr

Master's Theses

It is often argued that the market, with its "invisible hand," displays an inherent bent towards maximizing utility and delivering the "greatest good to the greatest number." Faith in the market to act as benevolent overlord is not only misguided but, as revealed during the Great Recession, a fantasy. Analyzing emails made public following the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, this paper considers the organizational culture within Lehman Brothers leading up to history's largest bankruptcy in order to emphasize the role of interaction within an outcome otherwise uncritically categorized as the unavoidable product of market fluctuations. Demonstrating how Lehman employees adopted the …

Organizational Learning From Failure: Present Theory And Future Inquiries, Vinit M. Desai, David Maslach, Peter Madsen

Faculty Publications

This chapter reviews past and present theoretical perspectives on organizational learning from failure. We begin by describing the organizational learning process and what it means to learn through failure. We outline and describe several challenges for future research: (1) Why do some organizations fail to learn from failures? (2) Why do some organizations fail again after learning from failures? (3) How do some organizations prevent other organizations from learning vicariously through their failures? (4) How can organizations learn from near failures? and (5) How can organizations learn from hypothetical failures? In sum, we hope this chapter motivates and inspires researchers …

More Than Standardisation: Teacher’S Professional Literacy Learning In Australia?, Veronica Gardiner, Wendy Cumming-Potvin, Christine Kay Glass

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Current policies guiding literacy and teacher professional learning in Australia, tend to foreground the importance of standardised practice and assessment in classrooms and schools. However, enactments of print-oriented literacy and professional learning in alignment with this emphasis stand in contradiction with contemporary approaches, which implicate consideration of diversity and contextual relevance. This paper positions teacher problematisation and negotiation of this contradiction as key for broadening literacy learning horizons. Incorporating multiliteracies, Cultural Historical Activity Theory and sociocritical perspectives on policy and professional learning, the authors propose a multidimensional framework for exploring and supporting dynamic and conflictually sensitive teacher learning processes. Such …

Unintended Pregnancies Among Married Women In Sindh Pakistan: Role Of Lady Health Workers, Sumera Aziz Ali, Unaib Rabbani

Community Health Sciences

Background: Unintended pregnancies, which pose substantial risks to both mothers and children, account for 24% of all pregnancies in Pakistan. Door to door visits and service provision by lady health workers (LHWs) may be related to the reduction of such pregnancies, particularly in rural areas. This study aimed to determine the association of knowledge about Lady Health Visitors (LHWs) and door to door visits by LHWs with unintended pregnancies among rural women.
Methods: We conducted a community-based, nested case-control study of 800 pregnant women, identified from the database of an active surveillance mechanism, which registers and follows all pregnant women …

Prevalence And Factors Associated With Sexual Activites Among High School Students In Kendal Regency, Indonesia, Ekha Rifki Fauzi

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Background: The risk of sexual activities among adolescents is high in globally. Unwanted pregnancy, sexual transmitted infections, and HIV are still the big problem in adolescents. This study was involved to exam the prevalence and factor associated with sexual activities among high school students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted around 145 male students and 315 female students. The total populations was 460 students with multistage random sampling technique. A self-reported questionnaire was used including Illustrative Questionnaire for Interview-Surveys with Young People, Sexual Activity Scale and Sex Education Inventory. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and multivariate logistic regression were used to …