Business Commons^™

Severe Weather In Nebraska: Impacts On Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans. 2020 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel, Bradley Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer, Steve Schulz, Jason L. Weigle

Rural Futures Institute: Publications

In March 2019, a bomb cyclone produced a historic blizzard as well as flooding that impacted many counties in Nebraska. Given that, did rural Nebraskans experience extreme weather events or natural disasters in 2019? To what extent were they harmed by these weather events? What personal impacts did they experience? How concerned are they about weather events? This paper provides a detailed analysis of these questions. This report details 1,979 responses to the 2020 Nebraska Rural Poll, the 25th annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions about weather events. Comparisons are made among …

Metacritiques Of Upper Echelons Theory: Verdicts And Recommendations For Future Research, Brett H. Neely Jr., Jeffrey B. Lovelace, Amanda P. Cowen, Nathan J. Hiller

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

After more than 35 years, Hambrick and Mason’s upper echelons theory (UET) stands as one of the most influential perspectives in management research. However, as the literature and its attendant reviews have become more numerous and specialized, discussion of the fundamental conceptual and methodological critiques leveled against research utilizing the UET perspective has grown fragmented. As such, the first aim of the present review is to identify and synthesize a set of common critiques levied against UET research. In doing so, we unpack important nuance within each critique while establishing a common vocabulary to facilitate greater consistency in how these …

What We Know About Pandemics And The Stress They Cause, Anita Barbee

Other QIC-WD Products

Pandemics are not new, but they significantly impact how we work, socialize, and manage our health. This can be especially difficult for those in the helping professions for whom face-to-face contact and travel are part of their daily routine. This blog post explains what a pandemic is and the stress that it causes. What is a Pandemic? When the spread of a disease escalates, it can become a pandemic, affecting a wide geographical area and a significant portion of the population. Pandemics are marked by uncertainty, confusion, and a sense of urgency which may be exacerbated by the inundation of …

Managing Stress While Working From Home During The Pandemic: Strategies For Self-Care, Andrew Winters

Other QIC-WD Products

Stress is often driven by feeling a lack of control over things you once had control over. This lack of control can create feelings of anxiety, depression, and even anger. This blog post highlights some elements of self-care that can help you stay present and regain a sense of control where you can. Manage your newsfeed How much information are you consuming about the pandemic? Too much news can add to your stress. Try to minimize your consumption of news about the outbreak to once a day, preferably in print format (e.g. magazines, newspapers) and limit your exposure to media …

Mindfulness, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is described as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 22). Instead of being on autopilot and reacting in reflexive and mindless ways, perhaps with a focus on the past or the future, it is about being fully aware of and present in the moments of our lives. The nonjudgmental aspect is about not leaping to “likes and dislikes, opinions and prejudices, projections and expectations” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 23) and instead observing without evaluating. Mindfulness is considered both a trait and a state. Trait mindfulness refers …

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: June 24, 2020, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The LEI-N rose by 2.45% during May of 2020. The May increase followed sharp declines in March and April. The May results indicate that the Nebraska economy will grow over the next 6 months, allowing the state to begin to recover from economic losses in March and April. Four of the five components of the leading indicator improved during May. There was a significant decline in initial claims for unemployment insurance. The slow rebound in airline passenger enplanements also began. In addition, building permits for single-family homes rebounded in May after an April drop. The value of the U.S. dollar …

Introduction To The R-Package: Usdampr, Elliott James Dennis, Bowen Chen

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

Why the Need for the Package? In the 1990’s, concern over growing packer concentration and a hog industry market shock resulted in discontent among producers and packers. As a result, the United States Congress passed the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 (1999 Act) [Pub. L. 106-78, Title IX] which is required to be reauthorized every five years. See here for a full history of the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Background.

Market reports were publicly issued in the form of .txt files with varying frequency from April 2000 to April 2020. Current and historical data were also housed in a USDA-AMS …

Business Powers Of Attorney For Nebraska Farm And Ranch Business Owners, J. David Aiken

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

This publication introduces the POA concept and discusses the Nebraska statutory form POA and its limitations. The purpose is to familiarize the reader with POAs, including their use and misuse, so that they can interact more effectively with their attorney in developing a POA, should they need one.

Disclaimer

This information is intended for educational purposes only; it must not be taken as legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. If you have legal questions about developing and implementing a power of attorney for operating your business should you be unable to do so yourself, contact an …

How Does Your Garden Grow? The Interface Of Employee And Sales Growth Post Ipo, Varkey K. Titus Jr., Jenna R. Pieper, Matthew Josefy, Theresa M. Welbourne

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Research Summary: Firms often succumb to a growth imperative, yet little is known about how congruence between various forms of growth affects firm value. We argue that the (in)congruence between net hiring rates (e.g., growth in the number of employees) and sales growth has significant implications for firm value, assessed via Tobin's Q. We further contend that R&D expenditures and industry dynamism—factors that influence a firm's ability to realize value creation—moderate the relationship between growth pattern and firm value. We use a sample of 1,181 firms that conducted their initial public offerings from 1996 to 2006 to test our conceptual …

Employment Interviews, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are employment interviews?

Employment interviews are defined as “a personally interactive process of one or more people asking questions orally to another person and evaluating the answers for the purpose of determining the qualifications of that person in order to make employment decisions” (Levashina, Hartwell, Morgeson, & Campion, 2014, p. 243). Interviews are often loosely described as being either structured or unstructured, varying in the extent to which interviewers have freedom and flexibility in carrying out the interview (Huffcutt & Arthur, 1994). Within this broad dichotomy, there are many structural aspects on which interviews can differ (Campion, Palmer, & …

Utilizing Annual Forage Crops In Rotations, John Hewlett, Jay Parsons, Jeff Tranel

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

First paragraph

Approximately 60 million acres of forage are harvested annually in the United States, according to the National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS). With lower commodity grain and oilseed prices along with high pasture rental rates and/or difficulty finding range and pasture to rent, some producers are considering ways to incorporate more forages into their crop rotations.

The Challenge Of Consumer Diversity In Servicescapes: An Investigation Of Consumer And Service Provider Experiences, Abigail Nappier Cherup

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While consumer diversity continues to grow in importance, evidence suggests that firms have yet to align their thoughts and activities with diverse consumers’ needs. This is especially true for consumers who have a hidden stigmatized identity. On the one hand, consumers with such concealable stigmatized identities must make the decision to reveal or conceal their identity in a variety of situations, including service environments. On the other hand, many service providers are working to offer inclusive service environments yet struggle to do so. Therefore, this ethnographic dissertation has two objectives: to 1) conceptualize practices unique to consumers with a concealable …

My Experience With Resilience Alliance In Ohio, Heather Murphy

Other QIC-WD Products

I am a caseworker at Summit County Children Services. I have been doing this work for 12 years and am currently part of the Family Preservation Unit. Our intent is to work with families on a voluntary, short-term, intensive basis. Our main goal is to ensure child safety while providing the family with services that can improve stability and enhance their overall functioning. My unit was developed in May 2018 to work with families on a voluntarily basis. Family Preservation consists of seven direct staff workers and one supervisor. Our unit is very supportive of one another and relies on …

Job Involvement, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is job involvement?

Job involvement refers to an individual’s psychological identification with their job (Kanungo, 1982). The preferred measure is the 10-item Job Involvement Questionnaire, which includes questions such as, “Most of my interests are centered around my job,” “I consider my job to be very central to my existence,” and “Most of my personal life goals are job oriented” (Kanungo, 1982).

Why is job involvement important?

Job involvement is important because it is associated with several important work outcomes. Specifically, it is strongly related to job satisfaction (Brown, 1996), organizational commitment, and career commitment (Cooper-Hakim & Viswesvaran, 2005). …

Changing Grid Premiums And Discounts Due To Underlying Changes In The Fed Cattle Industry, Elliott James Dennis

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

First paragraph:

In recent weeks there has been increased attention given to the role of Alternative Marketing Arrangements, commonly referred to as AMA's, in the fed cattle market. The use of these AMA’s varies greatly by region and some of the more common AMA’s used include grid and formula pricing. AMA’s pay producers premiums and discounts from a ‘base price’ based on a combination of the yield grade, quality grade, and weight of dressed cattle. It is common for the negotiated cash price to serve as the ‘base price’ for AMA’s using the either the geographical region or the 5-market …

Biomedcentral (Bmc) 2019 – 2020, Anqi Shi, Heather Morrison

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Key points

• Open access commercial publishing pioneer BMC is now wholly owned by a private company with a portfolio including lines of business that derive revenue from journal subscriptions, book sales, and textbook sales and rentals
• Two former BMC fully OA journals, listed in DOAJ from 2014 – 2018 as having CC-BY licenses, are now hybrid and listed on the Springer website and have disappeared from the BMC website
• 67% of BMC journals with APCs in 2019 and 2020 increased in price and 11% decreased in price.
• Journals with price increases had a higher average APC in 2019, i.e. more …

Psychological Capital, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is psychological capital?

Psychological capital (PsyCap) is a composite of four positive psychological resources—efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience. More specifically, PsyCap is an individual’s positive psychological state of development characterized by: (1) having confidence (efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success (Luthans, Youssef, …

Nebraska Progress Update– Addressing Secondary Traumatic Stress, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

In December 2017, 53% of Nebraska child welfare workforce respondents had recently experienced elevated levels of secondary traumatic stress (STS) symptoms, according to a survey of 40% of the workforce conducted by the QIC-WD. STS can mimic the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Bride, 2007) such as nightmares, avoidance, sleep disruption, and irritability. A recent study, conducted in another jurisdiction, found that 37% of CPS workers reported at least moderate symptoms of STS (Baugerud, Vangbaek and Melinder, 2018), indicating Nebraska’s rate of STS was high relative to other child welfare workers. Since STS has been linked to low rates …

Learning Together: Strategies Used By Child Welfare Supervisors To Manage A Virtual Workforce, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

In April 2020, the QIC-WD and National Child Welfare Workforce Institute co-hosted a webinar, Supporting the Virtual Workforce: Virtual Supervision, to provide guidance on virtual supervision and provide opportunities for participants to exchange information about their experiences. More than 1,500 child welfare supervisors, workers, and managers from across the U.S. participated in this event. They shared examples of what they’re doing to care for each other, care for themselves, stay safe, and stay connected. This summary highlights the common challenges and opportunities identified during the webinar and presents a variety of strategies to cope and supervise in a virtual work …

The Effects Of Computer And Information Technology On Education, Iwasan D. Kejawa

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

In the society of ours, is it true really that computers and information technology have contributed immensely to the way we learn? After observing and reading various educational paraphernalia and scanning the environment research has shown that the educational systems have greatly been impacted by computers and information technology. With the growth of technology, the ways we learn have been improved tremendously. Innovative technologies have contributed to the innovation of learning in the education arena and outside. The traditional ways of conveying instructions to learners have been augmented with the use of computers information technologies. The educational system of our …

Coronavirus Food Assistance Program For Livestock Producers, Bradley Lubben

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

United States Congress and the President have approved multiple phases of COVID-19 assistance to date including the $2.3 trillion CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act passed in March that provides financial support for agricultural producers as a small part of the overall relief.

While agricultural producers and agribusinesses are eligible for two programs administered through the Small Business Administration, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs), the primary support for agriculture is coming from USDA through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). The CARES Act provided $9.5 billion directly to the Secretary of …

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: May 28, 2020, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The LEI-N fell by 5.57% during April of 2020 as the COVID-19 Pandemic continued to impact Nebraska’s economy. The decline in April followed a large decline in March. Taken together, the two monthly drops suggest that the Nebraska economy will be smaller in the fall of 2020 than it was during January and February of this year. All components of the leading indicator worsened during April. There were few airline passenger enplanements during April. In addition, both building permits for single-family homes and manufacturing hours-worked declined while initial claims for unemployment insurance rose. There also was another increase in the …

Coronavirus Food Assistance Program For Crops Producers, Bradley Lubben

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

The United States Congress and the President have approved multiple phases of COVID-19 assistance to date including the $2.3 trillion CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act passed in March that provides financial support for agricultural producers as a small part of the overall relief.

While agricultural producers and agribusinesses are eligible for two programs administered through the Small Business Administration, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs), the primary support for agriculture is coming from USDA through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). The CARES Act provided $9.5 billion directly to the Secretary …

Psychological Safety, Rebecca Orsi, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is psychological safety?

Psychological safety is the belief that one’s workplace is safe for interpersonal risk taking (Edmondson, 1999; Kahn, 1990). It has been suggested that psychological safety is a condition necessary for people to feel attached to and engaged in their work, when people feel they can reveal themselves without fear of negative consequences to status or career (Kahn, 1990). Psychological safety is not only an individual perception; it can also be a group-level shared belief that a team or work group is safe for interpersonal risk taking (Edmondson, 1999). The most popular way to measure psychological safety …

Perceived Organizational Support, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is perceived organizational support?

Perceived organizational support (POS) refers to employee perceptions regarding the extent to which their employer “values their contributions and cares about their well-being” (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986, p. 501). In the social exchange between employees and employers, it is the organizational equivalent of employees’ commitment to the organization, though it is based on employees’ perceptions, rather than the organization’s perspective. In short, it represents “employees' inferences concerning the organization's commitment to them” (Eisenberger et al., 1986, p. 500). Beliefs about the organization’s commitment are thought to stem from employees’ interactions with other members …

Usda Meatpacking Inspectors Receive Hand Sanitizer Made At Nebraska U, Leslie Reed

Nebraska Innovation Campus Materials

Food safety inspectors employed by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service are receiving a supply of hand sanitizer thanks to an innovative partnership between Nebraska’s ethanol industry and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The hand sanitizer will be used by the men and women responsible for inspecting more than 6,500 meat-processing facilities across the country, ranging from “mom-and-pop” facilities that handle only a few animals at a time to the giant beef, poultry and pork plants that employ thousands of people. “Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors provide critical support to our food supply chain and also to the livestock …

Alternatives To High Nebraska Agricultural Land Real Estate Taxes, Part 2 Of 2: Like-Kind Exchange, Austin Duerfeldt

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

In part one of this series of articles, I touched on the idea that, when holding land as an investment, considering alternatives is important. We discussed the process of selling the ground, paying the capital gains and then investing in alternatives such as stocks. Here in part two, we will continue to consider the question of agricultural land being the correct investment for your portfolio but will take a different alternative approach. Now, we will look at like-kind exchanges.

1031 Like-Kind Exchange

With a 1031 like-kind exchange, we are taking a real property asset and exchanging it for another real …

Innovation Campus' Ppe Projects Benefit Hundreds Of Communities, Deann Gayman

Nebraska Innovation Campus Materials

In mid-March, when personal protective equipment and hand sanitizer were scarce, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Nebraska Innovation Campus helped address those needs. The efforts have rippled across Nebraska and the United States. To date, hundreds of communities and thousands of individuals have benefited from the expertise and innovation found at NIC. Staff and faculty affiliates of Nebraska Innovation Studio (https://innovationstudio.unl.edu/) designed and is manufacturing face shields in-house. NIS staff also designed a quick way to produce PPE gowns, and coordinated the army of volunteers to make the gowns. “This may be the reason Innovation Studio exists — for people to …

Strategies To Improve Child Welfare Worker Retention, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

High turnover among child welfare workers affects child welfare agencies and the families and children they serve. The challenges of high turnover rates are compounded by a lack of research on effective strategies to attract and retain child welfare workers. The primary goal of the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QICWD) is to build the evidence base regarding strategies to strengthen the child welfare workforce. We also strive to understand how improving an agency’s workforce impacts the children and families served. The QIC-WD is implementing various workforce strategies within eight sites across the country, carefully evaluating the impacts, and …

Advanced Health Care Directives In Nebraska: Health Care Power Of Attorney And Living Wills, J. David Aiken

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

First paragraph:

During this period of coronavirus pandemic, some Nebraskans may be concerned about how medical decisions will be made for them if they are unable to communicate their wishes to their health care providers themselves. In these circumstances, health care providers will normally consult with the patient’s family members who may be available (spouse, then adult children–consensus, then parents, etc.) If no family members are present, the health care providers will use their best medical judgment in making health care decisions for the patient.

Disclaimer

This information is intended for educational purposes only; it must not be taken as …