Business Commons^™

Gender Differences In Graduate Student Views On The Professional Climate In Economics, Ann Mari May, Mary G. Mcgarvey, Muazzam Toshmatova

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

This research examines graduate student's views on the professional climate in economics using a comprehensive survey of students enrolled in economics Ph.D. programs in the United States. Topics discussed include stress and work/life balance, disciplinary climate in the profession, departmental climate, and the prevalence of sexual harassment. We find significant gender differences in views on all four topics—particularly in views on departmental climate and disciplinary climate in the profession. We analyze the results based on gender, rank of the institution, public versus private institutional status, and representation of women faculty in departments.

U.S. Trade And Investment Restrictions: Laudable But Costly Goals, Christine Mcdaniel

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo’s recent visit to China resulted in the announcement of a new “export control enforcement information exchange” between the United States and China. The laudable goal is to prevent China from using U.S. technology for military purposes against the United States or our allies. An information exchange may be a way to explain things to each other, but the fact remains that the export controls are indeed in place. China represents large revenue streams for three of the largest US chip producers—about 20% for Nvidia, 60% for Qualcomm, and 20-30% for Intel. If these U.S. companies cannot …

Remote Work Is Not Going Away: How Can Rural Communities Take Advantage Of This Opportunity?, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

Since the COVID-19 pandemic as of 2020, are we looking at a national remote work “new normal” with a hybrid office and remote work combination as an additional option? This is an important question for rural areas. Discusses remote work trends and steps needed to leverage remote work in the rural context.

Stronger Together: Building Nonprofit Resilience Through A Network With A Shared Mission And Organizational Humility, Haley M. Woznyj, Oscar J. Stewart, Tammy E. Beck

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Nonprofit organizations increasingly face surprising and disruptive shocks, beyond financial setbacks, that challenge an organization's operations, long-term survival, and success. To continue to execute their mission, nonprofits must be resilient. Despite the importance of resilience in nonprofits, more research is needed to understand the factors that build organizational resilience and how leaders can help promote resilience. We conducted a qualitative case study, consisting of 23 interviews with organizational members and key partners, fieldwork, and archival information, of a documented resilient nonprofit organization. Our findings suggest that leaders can enhance resilience by gaining access to resources through collaboration, which is in …

Perceptions Of Well-Being And The Economy In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska, Rebecca J. Vogt, Heather Akin, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bradley D. Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer, Steven A. Schulz

Nebraska Rural Poll

This year, rural Nebraskans are more pessimistic about their current situation than they’ve been in the past ten years. The proportion believing they are worse off than they were five years ago was 27 percent, up from the 21 percent last year and 11 percent in 2021. This is the highest level since both 2003 and 2009, when 28 percent believed they were worse off. This increase in pessimism was matched with a decrease in optimism. This year, less than onehalf (45%) of rural Nebraskans believe they are better off compared to five years ago, down from 50 percent last …

Higher Education Exports Before And After Covid, John C. Beghin, Byungyul Park

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

Historically, the higher education system in countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developing (OECD), a grouping of advanced economies, and especially in the United States, has been a magnet for foreign students, both graduate and undergraduates. Graduate students tend to be supported by teaching and research assistantships from the hosting university and do not generate direct revenues for the hosting institution. They do contribute to the economy with their productivity in research projects and with their private consumption. In contrast, most undergraduate foreign students pay fees and tuition which are often higher than those paid by local …

Job Crafting, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is job crafting?

Job crafting is defined as “the physical and cognitive changes individuals make in the task and relational boundaries of their work” (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001, p. 179). Job crafting is a proactive work behavior by which individuals adapt their job or their perceptions of their job in order to change their identity, shape their job tasks to their liking, and alter the meaning of their work (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001).

Job crafting is most often conceptualized along four categories of increasing structural job resources (i.e., expanding one’s autonomy or variety of resources), increasing social job resources …

Job Design, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is job design?

Every job has an inherent design—the collection of duties, responsibilities, required competencies, environment, relationships, and resources involved in the job. This design may be intentional or unintentional. The concept of job design, however, is a more purposeful process of shaping a job’s characteristics with the goal to increase employee motivation, performance, and job satisfaction as well as lower turnover and absenteeism in the workplace (Hackman & Oldham, 1976). According to Job Characteristics Theory, this is done through enhancing the five core job dimensions of skill variety, task identity, task significance, job autonomy, and feedback from the …

Meaningful Work, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is meaningful work?

Meaningful work is defined as “work experienced as particularly significant and holding more positive meaning for individuals” (Rosso et al., 2010, p. 95). In general, meaningful work is considered to be work and work accomplishments that are viewed as valuable, worthwhile, and aligning with one’s values (Allan et al., 2018). Current theory suggests that meaningful work tends to result from self-actualization or from working towards a higher purpose (Lepisto & Pratt, 2016). More specifically, meaningful work may come from feeling a sense of unity with other people, serving others, from developing oneself, or from working towards …

Personality Tests, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are personality tests?

In an employment context, personality tests are tools that assess candidates’ or employees’ enduring dispositional traits, for the purpose of hiring, training, or employee development. Personality is generally thought to reflect one’s authentic personal disposition and lasting mental structure (Allport & Odbert, 1936). Although individuals may behave differently in different conditions and environments and may experience passing moods, personality is thought to be displayed through broad patterns of behavioral tendencies over time in each individual (Allport & Odbert, 1936). Though there are hundreds of individual personality traits and measures in existence, the majority of those that …

Meaningful Work, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul, Danielle Crawford

Umbrella Summaries

What is meaningful work?

Meaningful work is defined as “work experienced as particularly significant and holding more positive meaning for individuals” (Rosso et al., 2010, p. 95). In general, meaningful work is considered to be work and work accomplishments that are viewed as valuable, worthwhile, and aligning with one’s values (Allan et al., 2018). Current theory suggests that meaningful work tends to result from self-actualization or from working towards a higher purpose (Lepisto & Pratt, 2016). More specifically, meaningful work may come from feeling a sense of unity with other people, serving others, from developing oneself, or from working towards …

Exploring The Presence Of Nonlinear Deterministic Dynamics In Commodity Prices, Sagar Dahal

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Determining whether commodity prices (and volatility) are driven by linear stochastic processes or low-dimensional nonlinear deterministic dynamics (“chaos”) is crucial for policymaking, forecasting, production, storage, investment, risk management, and hedging decisions. Previous studies that used Lyapunov exponents and correlation dimensions to identify chaotic structures in price series may be unreliable in practical applications because these methods rely on asymptotic properties that require large, noiseless data which is often not available. We applied nonlinear time series analysis approaches to empirically detect the underlying market dynamics using the daily futures prices of ten agricultural commodities. We used phase space reconstruction to reconstruct …

On The Economics Of The Transition To A Circular Economy, Ahmed Chennak, Konstantinos Giannakas, Tala Awada

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Humanity is facing complex challenges posed by population growth, climate change, and the need to increase food, feed, fiber, and bioenergy production while confronting the scarcity of natural resources. The transition to a circular economy, characterized by reduced resource use and waste, is being increasingly recognized in academic, business, and policy making circles as essential to meeting these challenges, with the emphasis being on the development of methods and processes that enable and facilitate the transition from a linear to a circular economy. This paper argues the need for an increased emphasis on the economics of the circular economy and …

Crop-Livestock Diversification And Efficiency In Agriculture, Jay Parsons, Maroua Afi

Cornhusker Economics

Diversification is a familiar strategy for managing risk in agriculture. It can take several forms including growing more than one crop or operating a farm with both crop and livestock enterprises. As with other strategies for managing risk, diversification comes with a unique set of costs. Managing a farm with multiple enterprises creates additional overhead as well as additional demands on management, labor, land, capital, and other resources. Diversification adds complexity to an operation and too much complexity can lead to inefficiencies.

Competency-Based Personnel Selection Oklahoma - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background

The QIC-WD began working with Oklahoma Human Services (OKDHS) in 2017. At that time OKDHS had an average turnover rate of 25% among Child Welfare Specialist (CWS) I and IIs. Agency leaders expressed a desire to better understand turnover rates with an eye toward increasing the retention of more competent performers. A thorough needs assessment led to the decision to design and implement a competency-based personnel selection intervention to address inconsistencies in hiring and better identify candidates with the desired competencies to be hired as a CWS. The evaluation was designed to include an implementation evaluation; a validation …

Addressing Work-Related Traumatic Stress Nebraska - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background

Nebraska’s Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) started working with the QIC-WD in 2017 to better understand its turnover problem and found that, among workers who left the agency in 2017, it typically happened within the first two years and the turnover rate in 2017 was about 30%. The team examined many contributing factors through a needs assessment and designed CFS Strong to improve employee retention by addressing work-related traumatic stress among the child welfare workforce.

According to the Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) scale administered in December 2017, the overall presence of STS symptoms in DCFS staff was …

Frontline Job Redesign Louisiana - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background

In 2017, the QIC-WD began working with the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). At that time DCFS had an average turnover rate of 24% across the state with one region having a rate of 51% and another with a low of 8%. A thorough needs assessment identified that high caseloads and a large number of administrative tasks were barriers to caseworkers’ ability to effectively engage in the clinical aspects of their work and led to the decision to redesign the frontline caseworker job.

The intervention created a new job, the Child Welfare Team Specialist (CWTS), …

Supportive Supervision And Resiliency Ohio - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) started working with the QIC-WD in October 2017 to better understand its turnover problem. Eight counties volunteered to be part of the entire study. They participated in a thorough needs assessment process which led to creation of Coach Ohio, a multi-level blend of two interventions that addressed key needs across the counties regarding work-related traumatic stress and supportive supervision. Four counties and half of the largest county participated in the intervention while three counties and the other half of the largest county participated as comparison counties. Among these counties the …

Organizational Change Process Milwaukee - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background

The QIC-WD team engaged with the Department of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) in 2017 to conduct a thorough needs assessment to understand the root causes underlying a high turnover rate among Initial Assessment Specialists. In 2016, the overall turnover rate, including both external turnover and internal movement, was just under 49%, with a little over 11% due to internal movement and 37% due external turnover. The Organizational Social Context (OSC) baseline survey showed that there were several aspects of both culture and climate that were in need of improvement, including: 1) a hierarchical decision-making structure, 2) high …

Onboarding Program Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background

The QIC-WD worked with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Family Safety Program (FSP) to address workforce challenges. FSP is a relatively new agency, established in 2015, and when they began working with the QIC-WD in 2017, FSP employed approximately 20 social workers, who provided direct service to children and families. Persistent vacancies were of greater concern than turnover. The QIC-WD partnered with FSP to conduct a needs assessment and identify areas of need that could be addressed through a workforce intervention. Three areas of need were identified as offering the strongest opportunities for intervention through the QIC-WD …

Mattel Strategic Audit, Ellie Anderson, Samuel Gertner, Logan Connealy, Julia Michner, Chris Payant

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This case study focuses on Mattel, Inc., a prominent company in the toy industry. To complete the case study, we conducted a strategic audit utilizing different theories and principles used in management. We conducted significant research using publicly available information, including the company’s website, SEC filings, news articles, industry analysis, and more. The goal of the report is to analyze data and use a real-world company to apply management concepts.

We looked at many factors for Mattel, including industry analysis, external analysis, internal analysis, performance analysis, competitive dynamics, business level strategy, and corporate level strategy to complete the case study. …

General Electric Renewable Energy Strategic Audit, Jarod Fox

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

General Electric (GE) is a large multinational conglomerate in various industrial machinery industries. Currently, GE operates through four main sectors - Aviation, Power, Healthcare, and Renewable Energy. This report specifically focuses on the Renewable Energy sector and analyzes General Electric’s ability to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in this complex industry. The paper provides a background on GE, information on the industry and rivals within the industry, and how GE has a competitive advantage. To demonstrate this sustainable competitive advantage, an external and internal analysis has been created through the frameworks of Porter’s Five Forces and PESTEL Analysis. Additionally, strategic …

Could Information About Honey Fraud Increase Consumers’ Valuation Of Domestic Honey In The Face Of Rising Honey Imports In The U.S. And Eu?, Christopher Gustafson, Antoine Champetier

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

The consumption of honey, which has been sought out by humans for use as food and medicine for thousands of years, has been increasing in recent decades with rising incomes and attention paid to food choices and health. In two decades, honey consumption in the U.S. has risen from 1.2 pound per capita per year to 1.9 in 2021. In the European Union, per capita consumption rose from 1.5 to 2.1 pounds per capita over the same period. While this might appear to be a boon for U.S. and EU beekeepers, honey is a heavily traded product, and imports from …

Can Sanctions End Wars?, E. Wesley F. Peterson

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to extensive economic, financial, trade, and other types of sanctions directed at individual Russians and the Russian economy. Most European and North American countries as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Korea have enacted sanctions and many of them are also supporting Ukraine with military and economic assistance. Many other countries including China, India, and Brazil do not support the sanctions although 141 countries belonging to the United Nations (out of a total membership of 193) voted to condemn the war. Although the use of economic sanctions to influence the behavior of foreign …

Addressing Secondary Traumatic Stress, Burnout, Resilience And Turnover In The Child Welfare Workforce: Results From A 6-Month, Cluster-Randomized Control Trial Of Resilience Alliance, Rebecca Orsi-Hunt, Courtney L. Harrison, Kayla E. Rockwell, Anita P. Barbee

QIC-WD Journal Articles

Introduction: US child welfare agencies have historically struggled with workforce retention and turnover. As part of the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development in Child Welfare, we tested an adaptation of the Resilience Alliance (RA) model in a large, Midwestern state to address workplace stress, burnout and actual workforce turnover. RA is a 24-week, facilitated program designed to mitigate the impact of secondary traumatic stress among child welfare professionals, and to therefore increase job satisfaction, resilience and optimism and to decrease turnover, stress reactivity and burnout.

Methods: Supervisory units of caseworkers and supervisors were randomized to the RA treatment …

Economic Impacts Of Investment Facilitation, Edward J. Balistreri, Zoryana Olekseyuk

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

After the successful adoption of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in 2014, investment facilitation is gaining importance as the next policy priority for a plurilateral agreement under the World Trade Organization (WTO). In fact, more than 110 WTO Members aim to conclude the negotiations on the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement by mid-2023 after only three years of formal negotiations. Investment facilitation refers to actions taken by governments designed to attract foreign investment and maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of its administration through all stages of the investment cycle. The IFD agreement focuses on allowing investment to flow efficiently …

The Impact Of Leadership Turnover On Child Welfare Workforce Initiatives, Courtney Harrison, Megan Paul

QIC-Takes

Turnover among public child welfare leaders is prevalent. Across the eight QIC-WD intervention sites, leadership turnover was one of the most common implementation challenges observed by the QIC-WD team. Leadership changes can disrupt the implementation of a workforce initiative by shifting agency-level priorities, the organizational climate, or key staff.

Child welfare leaders may be appointed or hired in many different ways in different jurisdictions. In some states, the Governor appoints a cabinet-level child welfare director who oversees a stand-alone agency. This means that child welfare leadership changes follow the political election cycle with new governors appointing new agency leaders every …

How’S It Going With The Cptpp?, Christine Mcdaniel

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

There is no doubt that the United States is losing out on market access. But one of the original goals of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was for a rules-based trading regime in the Pacific, namely rules not written by China. Thanks to Australia and Japan that seems to be happening even with the U.S. no longer at the helm.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership or the awkwardly nicknamed CPTPP is a Pacific trading bloc that consists of 11 countries, spanning the Pacific Rim, and includes Malaysia and Chile. The member countries represent 13% of world GDP. Once the UK …

Emotional Responses To Covid-19 Stressors Increase Information Avoidance About An Important Unrelated Health Threat, Christopher Gustafson, Kate Brooks, Syed Imran Ali Meerza, Amalia Yiannaka

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic, like other crises, has had direct and indirect impacts on individuals, many of which have been negative. While a large body of research has examined the impacts of COVID-19 on people’s lives, there is little evidence about how COVID-19 affects decision-making broadly. Emotional responses to COVID-19-related stressors, such as illness and income loss, provide a pathway for these stressors to affect decision-making. In this study, we examine linkages between exposure to COVID-19-related stressors—focusing on temporally specific local case counts and loss of income due to the pandemic—and decisions to access information about antimicrobial resistance (AMR), another critically …

Union Pacific Railroad Company Strategic Audit, Alison Steger

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Union Pacific Railroad Company (Union Pacific, UP, UPRR) is a freight railroad based in Omaha, Nebraska, servicing 23 states in America, with additional ports and country interchanges. The 160-year history of this railroad began with Abraham Lincoln and continues into 2023, with the recent announcement of CEO Lance Fritz’s departure. A PESTEL analysis provides an in-depth look at UP's external operating environment, and Porter’s Five Forces industry analysis assesses the industry's competitive environment. Analyses of Union Pacific's competitive advantages, essential resources, and projected roadblocks are followed by strategic recommendations for UP to remain a Class I freight railroad industry leader.