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Corporate Governance Implementation In The Nigerian Banking Industry, David Nkata Bassey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The increasing level of fraud, the collapse of banks, and the loss of confidence in the Nigerian banking industry have been attributed to poor corporate governance. The problem of this study was effective implementation of corporate governance in Nigeria where multiple regulations are in place. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to understand how corporate governance is implemented in the Nigerian banking industry in the face of a multiplicity of regulations. The research question investigated how Nigerian bank managers implement corporate governance regulations in the face of a multiplicity of regulations. The conceptual framework was grounded in …

Nursing Self-Efficacy In The Acute Care Setting With The Neighborhood Staffing Model, Laurie Swaney Berghoff

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Due to changes in health care, along with increasing technological demands, nurse's experiences increased stress. Nurses who are asked to staff another area other than their own have increased stress that can lead to increased nurse turnover, absences, and nursing dissatisfaction scores. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to assess whether limiting what units a nurse works on can reduce nurse stress, improve self-efficacy, and improve nurse job satisfaction. The design of this pilot placed like nursing units within a neighborhood staffing model for floating. The plan-do-check-act model was used as a framework to implement a change in …

Career Challenges Faced By Professional Black Women In Sweden, Herta Boakye-Yiadom Dahl

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Academically and professionally qualified Black women who immigrated to Sweden from the United States and the continent of Africa encounter barriers that may hinder their career opportunities. The unstable labor market position of foreigners required efforts by the Swedish government to address the problem. Little is known about the unique and specific challenges that qualified Black immigrant women experience when integrating into the Swedish labor market with foreign qualifications and professional experience. Guided by Durkheim's social integration theory, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to evaluate the lived experiences of Black immigrant women as they integrated into the Swedish …

Association Of Dietary Intake With Suicidal Ideation Or Suicide Attempts In Adolescents, Zenobia J. Bryant

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Suicide is among the leading cause of adolescent deaths worldwide and thus a significant public health concern. Risk factors for suicidal behavior include drinking alcohol, smoking, and engaging in risky sexual behaviors. One area of concern is dietary patterns and their association with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Bandura's social cognitive theory emphasizes the assumption that one can perform specific actions to bring about desired outcomes. The primary research questions for this quantitative, retrospective, cross-sectional study concerned whether there is a statistically significant interaction between fruit and vegetable intake and suicidal ideation or suicide attempts. Data from 71,776 adolescents in …

Executive Succession In Community Action Agencies In A Southern State, Johnnie Faye Campbell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Without adequate succession planning (SP) for executive directors, nonprofit organizations risk losing their mission and direction and their ability to sustain the quality of program and services and maintain superior leadership. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which SP was being developed and implemented in community action agencies (CAAs) in a southern state. This study also focused on the challenges that these organizations experienced from not implementing SP. This single case study design was based on the theoretical framework of organizational change, using Lewin's 3-stage model. Identified through purposive and snowball sampling, 17 participants from …

Phenomenological Dynamic Of How Adhd Student Recidivism Affects Alternative Education Teacher Services, Lisa A. Charette

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The research problem in this study involved the student cycling, or recidivism, problem associated with specialized education environments. In particular, alternative education students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are cycling in and out of alternative and regular education at a concerning frequency. This student recidivism problem affects the services of teachers who are trying to transform them into permanent regular education learners. The purpose of this study was to obtain specific information from these teachers, via the research questions, as it applies to the theoretical foundation of Bandura's self-efficacy construct, and methodological design of the study. The qualitative method of …

The Underrepresentation Of Low Socioeconomic Status Children In Gifted And Talented Programs, Teresa Clark-Massey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem is children from low socioeconomic status households are often underrepresented in gifted and talented programs. Only a small percentage of these students is selected to participate in the district's gifted program. The purpose of the study was to help appropriately identify and include low SES children in the district's gifted program. The social constructivist foundation was applied for a better understanding of how the environment affects a child's learning and how social factors contribute to cognitive development, which could possibly alter the perceptions of how successful children can be. The guiding questions revolved around the teachers' perceptions of …

Effective Strategies To Reduce Employee Turnover In The Retail Industry, Robert Clayton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover negatively affects retail organizations and can lead to poor financial performance, a decrease in competitive advantage, loss of productivity, deficiencies in retaining external customers, and economic failures. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies that retail store leaders from the Illinois area of the United States use to reduce frontline employee turnover. Herzberg's 2-factor theory provided the framework for the study. Data were collected from documents pertaining to retention methods and through face-to-face semistructured interviews with 7 leaders of a retail company in the Illinois area who had experience with effective employee retention strategies. …

Improving Outcomes For Congestive Heart Failure Patients, Diana Lee Collins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Managing patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure (CHF) requires coordination with subspecialties and frequent outpatient monitoring. The lack of communication among health care providers and patients can result in a gap in practice when managing patients with CHF in the outpatient setting. Guided by the chronic care model, this quality improvement project was an initiative to develop and implement a 6-week self-care management program provided by nurse practitioners in an outpatient primary care practice. The goal of the project was to improve the day-to-day self-care management of patients with CHF and addressed the practice-focused question of whether a 6-week CHF …

The Survival Of Healthcare In Rural Texas, Destin Cook

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

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

Examining New Teachers' Perceptions Of Preparedness, Allison Cugini

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Attrition rate is high for beginning teachers in an urban school district in the Northeast United States. Without a proper support system in place, new teachers struggled transitioning from their preparation programs into the classroom. This study focused on recent graduates from a teacher preparation program at a large local university. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of preparedness of recent graduates from the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) accredited preparation program. The TEAC standards provided the conceptual framework which informed the interview guides. The research questions focused on the perceived readiness of new teachers, the …

The Impact Of Interprofessional Collaboration On Diabetes Outcomes In Primary Care Settings, Charette Coleman Deloach

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Inadequate interprofessional collaboration (IPC) and communication among health care professionals are associated with medical errors and mortality. Guided by the theory of goal attainment and the chronic care model, a systematic review was conducted to explore the evidence related to whether interprofessional collaborative primary care can have a positive effect on health outcomes for patients living with diabetes (PLWD). The systematic review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute method for systematic reviews and results were complied with the PRISMA evidence-based minimum set for reporting. Data were analyzed to identify if IPC positively impacted the health outcomes of PLWD, as evidenced by …

No-Zero Policy In Middle School: A Comparison Of High School Student Achievement, Janelle Dennis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Local middle schools have begun implementing a no-zero policy, which compels teachers to assign grades no lower than 50% even if a student did not turn in assignments for grading. In the study setting, high school teachers are struggling to motivate students who have attended a middle school with a no-zero policy in place. High school students who have attended a middle school with a no-zero policy show signs of learned helplessness. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in core course grades between high school students who attended a middle school with a no-zero policy (NZPMS) …

Teaching On The Prairie: First-Year Teachers In Rural Schools, Mary Leonora Eldredge-Sandbo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The North Dakota Teacher Support System (NDTSS) mentoring program is available to 1st-year teachers employed in the state public schools. Because there has been limited research on the topic, the purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of how participation in the mentoring program affects the experiences and developing effectiveness of 1st-year teachers in rural schools, which is important because teacher retention and recruitment are a concern in rural schools. This study was set within a conceptual framework of andragogy and constructivism and guided by 2 research questions that inquired about the experiences of teaching in a rural …

Effect Of Administrative Practices On Law Enforcement Officers' Emotional Intelligence Performance, Iberkis Faltas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Between 2001 and 2017, the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) received 295,616 allegations of police misconduct involving New York Police Department (NYPD) officers' use of force, abuse of authority, discourtesy, and offensive language (FADO). The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of administrative disciplinary actions on officers' emotional intelligence and performance in relation to citizen complaints of police misconduct. The central research question addressed how administrative practices influence law enforcement officers' behavior in relation to emotional intelligence-based performance. The theoretical construct for this study is based on the emotional intelligence theories of Bar-On, Goleman, and Mayer, DiPaolo …

Small Business Sustainability Strategies, Wayne A. Fillingim

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small businesses provide 48% of private-sector jobs in the United States and play a vital role in the country's economic growth and development. Only half of U.S. small businesses survive for longer than 5 years. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore sustainability strategies managers of small oilfield service companies used to sustain their business for longer than 5 years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 10 managers--one manager from each of 10 different oilfield service companies located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States and from review of publicly available documents and archived …

Human Resources Strategies For Retaining Employees In St. Lucian Banks, Thecla Fitz-Lewis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Retention issues have been a challenge for human resources (HR) leaders for years. Organization HR leaders face employee retention challenges that lead to the loss of talented employees and a decline in the organization's quality of service, which negatively affects profitability. Based on Schultz's human capital theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies HR leaders used to retain employees. Data collection included company archival documentation review and face-to-face semistructured interviews with 11 purposefully selected HR leaders from 3 banks in the northern region of St. Lucia. Data analysis included using Yin's 5-step method, coding the …

Assessing The Effects Of Career Exploration Among African-American Urban Adolescents, Mia Flowers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Deficits in career decision making self-efficacy, career decidedness, and academic motivation have contributed to prolonged cycles of poverty, an increase in the number of years it takes to complete an undergraduate degree, and an upsurge in the amount of financial debt incurred. Recurrently, students are saddled with large amounts of debt for a degree that was never attained. One group heavily affected by this phenomenon is African American urban adolescents (AAUA). This quantitative study used a social cognitive career theory framework and a repeated-measures research design to examine whether a significant change in scores occurred from Time 1 to Time …

Increasing Organ Donations In Maryland: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis, Laura A. Gerlach

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The state of Maryland has been unsuccessful in achieving its goal of registering all of its population as organ donors. The purpose of this correlational study was to understand if allowing registered donors to remain anonymous would increase donor registration rates.

The theoretical foundation of this study was the theory of planned behavior. Data were collected from the Motor Vehicle Administration of Maryland and the Division of Motor Vehicle of Virginia. The data were analyzed using regression displacement, interrupted time series analysis, auto correlation analysis, and Arima Box Jenkins methodology. According to the study findings, offering the option to remain …

Employee Engagement From The Viewpoint Of Employees In Academia, Stephanie Giles-Merrick

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research does not address how staff in the United States perceive employee engagement in the university system. Leadership training and communication for managers are essential processes that help staff become highly engaged in universities. The purpose of phenomenological study was to explore the views of employees in a selected university within the state of Georgia in an attempt to address positive employee engagement in the academic environment. The engagement theory and social exchange theory were used as the conceptual frameworks to explore how employees engaged in their department working with their managers. To address this question, a purposeful sample of …

Staff Education And Training For The Maternal Cardiac Arrest, Kimberly Sue Gililland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Maternal cardiac arrest is among the most frightening events that can happen on the labor and delivery unit. A maternal arrest can have catastrophic results. Staff must be vigilant, competent, and ready to handle the maternal arrest emergency at all times. A maternal cardiac arrest requires coordination among multiple disciplines and precise performance is paramount in saving not one life, but two. The purpose of the project was to establish a clinical training course for maternal arrest intended for education to improve staff knowledge during a maternal cardiac arrest. Evaluation of the knowledge and skills were through an exam, participation …

Examination Of All Cause 30 Day Hospital Readmissions, Marianne Goodrow

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Each year in the United States, thousands of people are readmitted within 30 days of being discharged from a hospital. Current research indicates that at least one-third of these rehospitalizations are preventable. The purpose of this project was to examine patient and environmental characteristics of those who were readmitted within 30 days of discharge for commonalities that may explain the gap in practice for a specific health care organization. The project was undertaken in response to the organization's need to improve a 50th-percentile ranking with the goal of reaching the top 10th percentile. A plan-do study-act framework was used as …

Supports And Services Helpful To Working Adult Nursing Students, Cheryl Green

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States has experienced historically low graduation rates in public and private 2-year, degree-granting institutions. Many of these institutions are community colleges, which account for 60% of all student enrollment. This study was conducted to explore supports and services that may be helpful to working adult students over the age of 25 enrolled in a 2-year associate degree nursing program in a community college. Tinto's interactionalist theory of student persistence and retention and constructivist theory were the conceptual frameworks for this qualitative case study. The two guiding questions were focused on the types of support that would be helpful …

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

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract

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

Gender Effects Of Robotics Programs On Stem-Related Self-Efficacy Of High School Students, Sandra Hall-Lay

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Lack of STEM-related self-efficacy has impeded the growth of women in STEM fields. Out of school (OST) robotics programs and other STEM-related OST programs provide secondary students with opportunities to work in groups, brainstorm, and formulate ideas that require communication and teamwork. The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to compare STEM-related self-efficacy scores among male and female students who participated in OST robotics programs or other OST STEM-related programming. Independent variables were type of OST STEM program and gender. The dependent variable was students' STEM-related self-efficacy as measured by the Coping Self-Efficacy Scale. Responses from 149 students in …

Predictors Of African American Attitudes Toward Mental Health Services: An Ecological, Lawanda Harmon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

While several studies examining African Americans' mental health rates appeared in the past, existing research does not describe internal and external factor influences on positive ethnic identity development and their mediating effects on mental health help-seeking attitudes for this population. This quantitative study used structural equation modeling to examine the relationships between 3 ecological levels (the individual level/level of bicultural identity, the family level/family ethnic socialization, and the social context level/self-concealment) and examine their collective influence on ethnic identity development and mental health help-seeking attitudes of African Americans. The choice of variables for this study was grounded in Stokols' social …

Knowledge And Attitudes Of Emergency Room Nurses Regarding Palliative Care Patients, Pearl Alethea Harrison

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Palliative care (PC) is the comprehensive management of patients diagnosed with terminal illness. Care for PC patients focuses on relieving symptoms. The purpose of this study was to determine the difference between pretest and posttest scores on the Frommelt Attitude towards the Care of the Dying (FATCOD) and the Palliative Care Quiz for Nurses (PCQN) after an educational intervention to emergency department (ED) nurses. The framework for this project was Bandura's social cognitive theory. The FATCOD was used to assess ED nurses' attitudes toward PC, and the PCQN was used to assess ED nurses' knowledge about PC prior to the …

Parental Choice And Perceived Benefits Of Reggio Emilia Inspired Programs, Heidi Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite credible research to support a constructivist-based approach in early childhood programs, policymakers continued to push for a more academic-based philosophy in an effort to reach standardized testing goals. Reggio Emilia, a constructivist-based early childhood philosophy that originated in Northern Italy, has been shown to be an excellent model to facilitate optimum learning in young children. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate parental experiences when choosing the constructivist-based early childhood program, Reggio Emilia, for their children and to explore parents' perceived benefits after their children attended. A constructivist conceptual framework was used to provide context for the …

Validating A Home Health Care Staff Educational Module For Wound Treatment And Documentation, Kimberly Sanders Hebert

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although guidelines and minimal standards for the care and documentation of wounds in home health care settings in the United States are available, there is a lack of compliance among many home health care agencies (HHAs) with regard to the accuracy of wound documentation and care of wounds. Failure to follow guidelines for wound care according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Home Health Outcome and Assessment Information System standards could result in loss of revenue for HHAs, improper treatment of wounds, and legal ramifications. The purpose of this doctoral project was to develop and validate a staff …

Resiliency Factors In African American Female Students In Single-Gender Educational Settings, Phyllis Lynette Hill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Resiliency is a critical factor in educational success; the gap exists in the research regarding the effect of resiliency in the educational success of African American female students. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological research (IPR) study was to explore and describe the lived experience of single-gender education through African American female student alumnae to capture and distill their shared experience of educational resilience and competence. Framework drew on gender-relevant education, social capital, racial identity and socialization. Research perspective that participants were viewed consisted of critical race feminism theory and competency versus deficit or risk perspective. Research questions focused on …