Business Commons^™

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Fostering Change And Fresh Voices: Vancouver Foundation’S Youth Engagement Journey, Trilby Smith

The Foundation Review

Since 2011, Vancouver Foundation has invested significant time, energy, ideas, and money in bringing together immigrant and refugee youth and young people with lived experience of the foster care system in British Columbia.

Through its Fostering Change and Fresh Voices initiatives, the foundation has listened and worked in partnership with these young people to address the issues that affect their lives, and important progress has been made in the forms of meaningful policy changes and improved political engagement. The foundation is now in the process of returning these initiatives to the communities that inspired them.

This article describes the roles …

A New Tool For New Times? Using Geographic Information Systems In Foundations And Other Nonprofit Organizations, Jeffrey L. Brudney, Christopher R. Prentice

The Foundation Review

The literature on nonprofit organizations exhorts them to understand and develop their communities’ strengths and capacities. Yet, identifying those communities, appreciating the conditions that affect them, and integrating organizational stakeholders can pose difficulties for any nonprofit, including foundations.

This article examines how a tool relatively new to nonprofits — geographic information systems — can be used to support community building by bringing together different stakeholders. A geographic information system is designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographic data, thus allowing an organization to map its community and share that visualization with its stakeholders.

This article …

Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

An End To Business As Usual: Nurturing Authentic Partnerships To Create Lasting Community Change, Jeffrey Sunshine, Bernadette Sangalang

The Foundation Review

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation created Starting Smart and Strong, a 10-year place-based initiative in three California communities, to develop and test solutions that support parents, caregivers, and educators as they prepare young children to be healthy and ready for school. The initiative brings together public and private partners to create comprehensive early-learning systems and ultimately scale what works.

This article offers key insights into the foundation’s experience, three years into implementation, with managing this complex initiative and how program officers were compelled to think differently about the best roles staff can play to support grantee communities and amplify …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Creating Habits For Inclusive Change, Pennie Foster-Fishman, Erin Watson

The Foundation Review

The act of transforming community outcomes requires diverse stakeholders across an array of settings to become actors of change. While this movement to action lies at the heart of effective community change, it also remains one of the most challenging aspects of collective work.

Drawing from the ABLe Change Framework systems-change model, this article presents four processes used in numerous communities across the United States to effectively engage diverse stakeholders in taking actions to improve local systems. These processes prioritize the voices of the most disadvantaged within communities and engage them as key actors in the change process.

This article …

Book Review: Decolonizing Wealth, Juan Olivarez

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Equity For All: Building The Infrastructure For Change Through Community-First Funder Collaboratives, Ellen Braff-Guajardo, Kaying Hang, Leslie Cooksy, Monica Braughton, Fontane Lo

The Foundation Review

Foundations increasingly recognize that improving conditions in many communities requires addressing inequities in access to rights and resources. Yet there are challenges to effective investment in underresourced regions, especially when foundations have limited familiarity with the region and may assume limited local capacity to leverage philanthropic investments.

This article discusses how Sierra Health Foundation partnered with other California and national foundations to establish the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, a collaborative whose grants focus on strengthening the capacity of communities and organizations in the Valley to advance policy and systems changes that promote health and racial equity.

This article highlights …

Community Navigation As A Field Of Practice: Reframing Service Delivery To Meet The Needs Of Communities’ Marginalized Populations, Joby Schaffer, M. Julie Patiño, P. Barclay Jones, Ladawn Sullivan

The Foundation Review

Community navigators help individuals and families access local services and assistance through a combination of referrals and interpersonal support. The Denver Foundation launched the Basic Human Needs Navigator Learning Community in February 2014 to help navigators working with local organizations and community members practicing navigation independently improve their practice and identify similarities and differences in their approaches.

This article discusses the multiyear, peer-learning project, including the general lessons the foundation learned about both navigation and the use of a learning-community approach to reach its field-building goals.

Reports from participating organizations and community members over four years suggest the efficacy of …

A Partnered Approach To School Change In A Rural Community: Reflections And Recommendations, Sara Rimm-Kaufman, Mary Fant Donnan, Dianne Garcia, Melinda Snead-Johnson, Eugene Kotulka, Lia Sandilos

The Foundation Review

With so many education policies and practices made at the local level, community-based foundations are in a unique position to support their local school districts in taking a comprehensive, systematic approach to improving the lives of young people. This article describes a research–practice partnership designed to produce school improvement in a rural community in western Virginia and reflects on a three-year collaboration among The Alleghany Foundation, two school districts, and the University of Virginia.

The partners identified challenges and strengths within the school districts and the community; gathered and analyzed existing district data and new findings from interviews and surveys …

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Goldilocks Challenge: Right-Fit Evidence For The Social Sector, Veena Pankaj

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

By Us And For Us: A Story Of Early Childhood Development Systems Change And Results In A Rural Context, Lisa Payne Simon, Kirsten Scobie, Phoebe Backler, Catherine Mcdowell, Charles Cotton, Susan Cloutier, Clare Nolan

The Foundation Review

Since 2007, the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund — a donor-advised fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation — has invested in early childhood development in Coös County — New Hampshire’s largest and most rural and economically disadvantaged county. Community providers from a range of disciplines formed strong professional relationships and agreed on common goals and evidence-based strategies to improve services for children and families.

This article describes how local community members joined forces with the fund to create an integrated early childhood development system for Coös’ children and families. It provides background on the investment and initiative strategy, summarizes …

Thriving Communities: A Model For Community-Engaged Grantmaking, Mary Francis, Colleen Desmond, Jeffrey Williams, Jennifer Chubinski, Jennifer Zimmerman, Ashlee Young

The Foundation Review

Interact for Health is a health conversion foundation serving the three-state region of Greater Cincinnati, Ohio. Its current community change initiative, Thriving Communities, is a community-learning model that helps embed health promotion and advocacy work in communities while those communities build an equitable infrastructure with stakeholders to more rapidly spread evidence-based practices.

This article explores the three tools developed for the Thriving Communities initiative: Success Markers, the Developmental Pathway, and Relationship Mapping. Interact for Health has found that these tools build core competencies and confidence among grantees as well as a process for community engagement that produces results at the …

Understanding Department Of Defense Employee Perceptions Of Performance Appraisals: Making A Connection Between Performance Appraisals And Motivation, Kenneth Dewayne Welch

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine employee perceptions of performance appraisals in the Department of Defense (DoD) and to examine potential connections between the performance appraisal process, employee motivation and ultimately turnover intent. There is a paucity of qualitative, interview-based research focused on DoD employee perceptions of DoD performance appraisal processes and potential impacts on their motivation and turnover intent. The research study findings revealed a potential gap between the DoD performance appraisal process as outlined in DoD regulatory guidance and the lived experiences of the performance appraisal process by DoD employees. The study did not find significant …

The Role Of Human Capital And Innovative Entrepreneurship In Developing Countries, José Rolando Torrech Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Human capital, innovation and entrepreneurship have long been associated with economic development in different contexts. However, in the recent past, several research studies carried out show that the complexity and technical nature of the everchanging business environment necessitated by technology have superseded the current human capital required to address innovative strategies in developing countries. Several scholars assert that although inadequate skills are a great challenge for entrepreneurs, more research needs to be done to break down the varying units affecting the impact of human capital on entrepreneurial development and economic growth. The purpose of the study was to investigate the …

The Impact Of Enterprise Information Management Capability On Sustainable Competitive Advantage, Hayfa Mohamed Ali Mohamed Bu Hazzaa

Business Administration Dissertations

In today’s economic environment, intense competition in the corporate world has prompted organizations to focus on creating and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of enterprise information management capability (EIMC) on SCA. This study focuses on EIMC as

An essential organizational dynamic capability and empirically examines the relationship between EIMC and SCA, both directly and indirectly, via two mediators: knowledge management (KM) and total quality management (TQM).

This study used the theory of dynamic capability (DC) as the theoretical framework. Four constructs (EIMC, KM, TQM, and SCA) were developed and …

A Field Study: An Examination Of Managers’ Situational Leadership Styles, Thomas G. Henkel, Debra T. Bourdeau

Publications

The present study explored the applicable situational leadership styles of experienced military managers attending an advanced leadership educational program. While attending this program, these managers were requested to reveal the results of their situational leadership self-assessment in which they participated. A total of 620 managers agreed to reveal their results, and descriptive statistics were conducted to determine the findings of their situational leadership self-assessments. The study research results revealed two situational leadership styles were predominating: (Telling and Participating). The findings of research study have significant implications for managers when leading individuals and teams for organizational success. These findings also may …

Onward To Opportunity: A Case For Patient Philanthropy, Supporting Jobs And Careers For Military-Connected Americans, Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This paper details an exemplar case of partnership and philanthropic engagement, positioned to fundamentally transform the means and expectations associated with the employment transition experience for veterans. The vehicle for this transformation is an innovative transition initiative called Onward to Opportunity (O2O). The design, development, and evolution of the O2O program has been supported by early investment and prolonged commitment on the part of philanthropic partners—led by the Schultz Family Foundation—alongside close collaboration with JPMorgan Chase & Co. as well as other public sector and employer partners. These partnerships have, in turn, mobilized and empowered otherwise disparate stakeholders to come …

Enhancing Veterans' Access To Stem Education And Careers: A Labor Market Analysis Of Veterans In The Stem Workforce, Rosalinda V. Maury, Brice M. Stone, Nicholas Armstrong

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This research brief presents key highlights on recent veteran participation in the STEM workforce drawing upon an analysis of the American Community Survey (2012-2016), led by the U.S. Census Bureau. From this data, the research team examined veteran participation across 49 distinct STEM occupations, which are grouped into the following five occupational clusters: Engineering, Information Technology and Computer Science, Life and Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Supervisor/ Management of STEM occupations. Among other analyses, the research team identified year-over-year trends in veteran participation, geographic distribution, and comparisons to non-veterans across all STEM occupations.

A Quantitative Examination Of The Relationship Between Leadership Style And Employee Job Satisfaction In Registered Nurses In The Pittsburgh Msa Region, Jeffrey Belsky

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Healthcare worker jobs, particularly in the nursing profession, are among the fastest growing occupations in the United States. However, the nursing field is overwhelmed with an aging workforce, low morale, ineffective leadership practices, employee dissatisfaction, and increased worker turnover. Healthcare organizations have witnessed an increase in employee job dissatisfaction amongst nurses, which ultimately has led to increased employment turnover among other negative consequences such as lack of organizational commitment, absenteeism, reduced patient care, and disgruntled employees. This quantitative, nonexperimental, correlational research examined the relationship between perceived Registered Nurse (RN) job satisfaction and leadership styles in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area …

A Quantitative Examination Of The Relationship Between Organizational Commitment, Work-Life Balance And Voluntary Turnover Intention Of Women Faculty In The Stem Disciplines Within The United States, Sherry Lynn Mathews

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Higher education institutions in the United States experience high levels of faculty turnover (Klein & Takeda-Tinker, 2009). Colleges and universities have allowed the phenomenon of high turnover of faculty to become a cultural norm (Figueroa, 2015). Colleges and universities within the United States are specifically facing challenges retaining women faculty in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines (Burnett, Bilen-Green, McGeorge, & Anicha, 2012; Carrigan, O’Leary, Riskin, Yen, & O’Donnell, 2017; Hill, Corbett, & St. Rose, 2010). In this quantitative, correlational study, the relationship of organizational commitment, work-life balance and voluntary turnover intention of women faculty in STEM disciplines …

Examining Emergent Systems Management Strategies In Overseas Operations, Kristofer Hawbaker

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Stadler, Mayer, and Hautz (2015) believed that most global companies did not possess the right management capabilities to make overseas movement profitable. Businesses must manage a bevy of internal and external organizational and process interdependencies to achieve success globally (Dynes, 2008), and these organizational processes have become increasingly more complex and adaptive (Anderson, 1999; McKelvey, 2001; Stacey, 1992; Wheatley, 1999). Today’s business leaders still develop reductionist solutions to solve complex problems despite this type of thinking's practical limitations (Menkes, 2011). Comstock (2016) foresaw emergent management as a necessity in the current era, which requires organizations to unify around information flows …

Student Perceptions Of The Online Customer Experience: A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Behavioral And Experiential Factors That Influence Online Student Retention, William Delaney

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The acquisition of the accounts blended and online students experienced formed the foundation for this phenomenological investigation. Emanating from the foundation, the findings of the phenomenological investigation suggested both experiential and behavioral factors influenced the blended and online students’ customer experience. The phenomenological investigation concluded that the mechanics of the blended and online students’ customer, experience effected the blended and online students’ persistence to complete the online program.

The Relationship Between Organizational Commitment And Transformational And Transactional Leadership Styles In Government Contract Employees, Alethia Gardner

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study sought to determine if a relationship exists between leadership styles and organizational commitment in government contract employees. The psychological contract theory, expectancy theory, and transactional and transformational leadership theories framed the study purpose. The quantitative research method using the Pearson correlational statistical design was used to assess variable relationships. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and the Three-Component Model (TCM) of Commitment were used to collect data from a sample of government contract employees. The results revealed weak but no statistically significant relationship between transformational and transactional leadership styles and organizational commitment. The study also found weak but no …

Faith-Based Organizational Values And International Business Transactions, David Ralph Pennington

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The general business problem is conflicting values between faith-based businesses and hosting countries can adversely affect business performance. The problem may be the gap between business leaders and organizational values and host country values. The specific business problem is some faith-based business leaders lack strategies to mitigate incongruousness between the core values of their organizations and the contrary values of foreign cultures to effectively conduct international business. The purpose of this qualitative case study research is to explore what strategies biblically based business leaders use to mitigate incongruousness between the core values of their business and contrary values of foreign …

Iron Man-Habit Heroes, Blue Cross And Blue Shield Of Florida, Inc.

Florida Blue Archives Printed Materials

A comic from Florida Blue to encourage good habits for children.

Blue Complements-Discounts And More For Plan Members, Blue Cross And Blue Shield Of Florida, Inc.

Florida Blue Archives Printed Materials

A brochure about Blue complements and discounts for plan members.