Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

Understanding The Workplace Belonging Puzzle: An Ecosystem Approach To A Better Future Of Work, Surabhi Lal

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The need to belong is deeply human. Today’s workplaces advertise “cultures of belonging,” but what is workplace belonging? Could remote and hybrid workplaces provide an opportunity for connection and belonging? How are employees experiencing belonging at work, and what are the people around them doing to contribute to their experience of workplace belonging? Weaving together concepts from humanistic management, positive organizational scholarship, and critical theory, this phenomenological study examines how middle managers at B Corp organizations who are working in hybrid and remote arrangements experience belonging, and the actions and behaviors that contribute to workplace belonging. Belonging has been studied …

Discovering The Power Of Invention Education Workshops: An Examination Of Entrepreneurial Mindset And Self-Efficacy Among Rio Hondo College Students., Marissa Young

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

A profound symbiotic relationship exists between innovation and entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs have changed the world through dynamic innovations and inventions that drive economic success. Two factors central to this development are entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), or confidence in one’s entrepreneurial abilities, and entrepreneurial mindset (EM), the thinking and attitudes that support entrepreneurial action. Both are linked to entrepreneurial success. Invention Education (IvE) is a pedagogical approach that enables students to develop creative solutions to complex problems. IvE remains more common in K-12 settings, with a limited presence in postsecondary institutions. Rio Hondo College, a community college in Whittier, California, has been developing …

Return To Work Mandates And Employee Engagement: The Moderating Role Of Generational Cohorts, Emily Widen

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between return-to-office (RTO) mandate intensity and employee engagement and to determine whether generational cohort moderated this relationship. Grounded in Kahn’s (1990) theory of employee engagement, the study examined total employee engagement as well as the three dimensions of engagement as defined by Shuck et al. (2017): cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. Data were collected through an online SurveyMonkey survey administered to employed adults in the United States, yielding 482 eligible responses. Employee engagement was measured using the Employee Engagement Scale (Shuck et al., 2017), while RTO mandate intensity was operationalized …

Enhancing Military Health System Organizational Efficiency And Quality Of Care Through A Social-Ecological Framework, Eric L. Peipelman

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Timely and fair adjudication of incivility-related actions within the Department of Defense (DoD) and Military Health System (MHS) is increasingly crucial for maintaining accountability, mission readiness, and quality of care. Ongoing delays in resolving workplace complaints and inefficiencies in resource-heavy adjudications highlight the need to shift from reactive complaint handling toward proactive civility promotion and transparent decision-making. This Integrated Learning Experience (ILE) introduces the Peipelman Civility Discussion and Assessment Toolkit (PCDAT)—a comprehensive, evidence-based framework designed to improve civility, optimize resources, and enhance communication, even in the MHS. Based on the Social-Ecological Model (SEM) and adapted from the Workplace Power and …

Urban Megaregions In The United States: A Gis-Based Approach To Defining A New Regional Geography, Jonas Rugys

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This study investigates urban megaregions in the United States. The regional concept is examined from its origins in the geographic tradition as well as its transformation in the twentieth century to its current state. A GIS-based methodology for defining urban megaregions is presented and discussed. The results challenge existing assumptions of population and employment growth in the United States.

Motivation System Evoked By High Performance Work System In Chinese Universities And Colleges - An Examination Of The Relationship Between Human Resource Practices, Basic Psychological Needs, And Job Performance, Juan Chen

Doctoral

High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) are strategic, integrated Human Resource Practices (HRPS) designed to enhance employee abilities, motivation, and opportunities for participation, driving sustained organisational performance. While early research emphasized commitment HRPS, recent studies recognise that control and commitment HRPS are complementary rather than mutually exclusive, with neither holding an absolute advantage. Their success depends on contextual factors such as country, industry,organisation, economic environment, and workforce. In Chinese higher education institutions, transitioning from a high-commitment “iron rice bowl” system to a more control-oriented HR model has created tensions between efficiency and academic freedom. Based on the resource-based view, social exchange …

The Impact Of Corporate Mergers And Acquisitions On Performance From The Perspective Of Growth Pressure, Jiandong Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Against the backdrop of economic volatility and intensified industry competition, firms generally face multidimensional growth pressures, including historical growth pressure, social growth pressure, and market competition pressure. Growth pressure is not only related to firms’ operational stability, but also profoundly influences their strategic choices, particularly merger and acquisition (M&A) behaviour.Grounded in performance feedback theory, this study constructs an integrated analytical framework encompassing growth pressure, M&A strategic decisions, and M&A performance, and systematically examines how different types of growth pressure affect firms’ M&A decisions, as well as how M&A performance varies across different firm characteristics and different types of M&A.

The …

Board Attributes, Firm Performance, And The Moderating Role Of National Culture: A Meta-Analysis, Matthew Farrell, Chris H. Willis, Nathapon Siangchokyoo, Ryan L. Klinger, Jamil Kreugel, Hami Usta, Timiry R. Tian, Ying Thaviphoke, Samuel Wilson

Management Faculty Publications

Research Question/Issue

The impact of board structures on firm performance remains a contentious governance topic with competing theoretical paradigms and inconclusive empirical support. Scholars propose that national culture could reconcile contradictory evidence; yet, argumentation is fragmented and direct tests are rare. We meta‐analyzed 513 samples across 54 countries to examine relationships between board structures (i.e., board size, board independence, and CEO duality) and firm performance. We model national culture, using Hofstede's six cultural dimensions, as moderators to test whether these relationships align with agency or stewardship theory across different cultural settings.

Research findings/insights

Findings indicate a substantial moderating role of …

90-Day Consulting Engagement Grounded In Authentic And Servant Leadership Approaches–Building Capacity For Small Business, Michon Hicks

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

This doctoral capstone project examined a 90-day consulting engagement designed to strengthen organizational capacity in a small, M/WBE-certified professional services firm operating in a government contracting environment. Grounded in authentic and servant leadership frameworks, the engagement used a structured 30-60-90-day intervention model to assess leadership alignment, administrative infrastructure, human resources capacity, data management practices, and marketing readiness. The project employed an organizational health check-up approach to diagnose systemic gaps, co-create solutions with organizational leadership, and implement practical tools to improve operational consistency, compliance readiness, and leadership effectiveness. Outcomes of the engagement included improved leadership alignment, standardized administrative and operational workflows, …

Ai In The Workplace: Understanding The Path Between Ai Adoption Intensity And Ai-Induced Job Insecurity, Joanna J. Frieske

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more embedded in organizational workflows and is reshaping work environments, changing how we work, make decisions, stay engaged, perform, and learn. While AI adoption is associated with a wide range of benefits, it also presents negative aspects that may affect employee experiences and influence the future of work. Drawing on extant literature and on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, and the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework, this research proposes a model in which psychological safety mediates the relationship between AI adoption intensity and job insecurity, while procedural justice and AI self-efficacy act …

Back To The Office Or Out The Door: The Impact Of Return-To-Office Mandates On Employee Well-Being And Turnover Intention, Charlotte Renee Nelson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The widespread adoption of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered traditional workplace arrangements. As organizations increasingly implement RTO mandates, questions have emerged about how these changes affect employee well-being and turnover intentions. Guided by the Job Demands–Resources framework, this study examined the relationship between RTO mandates and two employee outcomes: employee well-being and turnover intention. The study also tested whether work engagement mediated these relationships and whether perceived organizational support and work stressors moderated the relationship between RTO mandates and work engagement.

A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design was employed. Data were collected from 229 U.S. employees working …

Agentic Ai As A System Within Systems: A Process Model Of Organizational Embedding., Aravindh Sekar, Deb Tech

Research & Publications

The emergence of Agentic AI systems is reshaping organizational processes through continuous adaptation, autonomous coordination, and real-time operational execution. Unlike traditional artificial intelligence applications focused on discrete decision-making tasks, Agentic AI systems operate continuously and interact dynamically with organizational environments. Existing AI ethics literature has primarily emphasized issues such as fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability within static or decision-centric AI contexts. Similarly, traditional AI alignment research has largely focused on ensuring that AI systems pursue intended goals and remain controllable under specified operational conditions. However, these approaches may be insufficient for explaining how ethical risks evolve with continuously operating autonomous …

Exploring Shared Experiences As Citizen Sport Diplomats: A Collaborative Self-Ethnography, Randall J. Griffiths, Jacob K. Tingle, Angela Breidenstein

School of Business Faculty Research

Research purpose: This study was a critical analysis of the lived experiences of three American university professors who served as volunteer citizen diplomats in a bi-lateral U.S. State Department sport exchange program with North Macedonian volleyball coaches.

Research methods: With the aim of capturing the experience of serving as citizen sport diplomats and making sense of it to inform future practice, this research utilized a collaborative self-ethnography approach. This reflexive approach brings together: (a) analytic autoethnography as individuals themselves are engaged in the ethnography and study, and (b) collective ethnography as a team collects and makes sense of shared data …

Project Management For Blockchain: Strategic Guidance And Lessons From Practice., Cherie Noteboom, Aravindh Sekar, Deb Tech

Research & Publications

Blockchain technology (BCT) offers powerful solutions to long-standing enterprise challenges such as inefficiencies, lack of transparency, and low stakeholder trust. By enabling secure transaction tracking and real-time data sharing, BCT can improve operational accuracy, streamline workflows, and build confidence across organizational ecosystems. However, the implementation of BCT significantly transforms conventional project management strategies and practices. We propose practical recommendations for each stage of the process group of the project life cycle- Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing to meet the demands of decentralization, interoperability, and continuous ecosystem coordination inherent in the implementation of BCT projects. Grounded in practitioner …

Empathy And Human-Centered Leadership In Community Health Center Dental Clinics, Pamela S. Alston Dds, Mpp, Facd

Journal of the American College of Dentists

A person-centered approach, with empathy toward patients, can improve satisfaction among both patients and dental health professionals. A dental director with a human-centered leadership style can improve the well-being of oral health team members. This article describes the role that empathy, a core value of humanism and professionalism, plays in accomplishing these improvements in community health center dental clinics. This article also describes the risks of empathy, as experienced by the author in her role as a dental director and practitioner, as well as documented in the literature. It further focuses on dental directors’ human-centered approaches to supporting oral health …

How Dentists Can Remain Advisors Of Merit To Their Patients, Daniel L. Orr Ii, Dds, Ms (Anesth), Phd, Jd, Md, Facd (Nevada Section Chair)

Journal of the American College of Dentists

This article examines how members of the dental profession can sustain their longstanding reputation as trusted advisors amid declining public confidence in major institutions. Grounded in ethical principles, informed consent, and professional self-regulation, dentistry has historically ranked among the most trusted professions. The discussion explores challenges to credibility, including media scrutiny, concerns about anesthesia safety, controversial treatment hesitancy, and debates over community water fluoridation. Emphasizing the concept of the “advisor of merit,” the author argues that continued trust depends on truthful communication, transparency about risks, respect for patient autonomy, and freedom from conflicts of interest in clinical and public health …

J Am Coll Dent 2026 92 4

Journal of the American College of Dentists

The Journal of the American College of Dentists (JACD) publishes scholarly articles, editorials, essays, and reflections addressing the ethical, professional, and social dimensions of dentistry. The Journal serves as a forum for advancing ethics, professionalism, leadership, and excellence within the dental community. By fostering dialogue across disciplines and perspectives, JACD provides readers with insights that encourage ethical, professional practice, lifelong learning, and service to the public, reinforcing dentistry’s commitment to advancing oral healthcare and the common good.

Humanizing The Base Of The Pyramid: Exploring The Influence Of Resource (Dis)Advantages On Value Creation, Ted London, Lisa Jones Christensen, Tyson Mackey, Alison Mackey, Heather Esper, Andrew Grogan-Kaylor

Faculty Publications

Base of the pyramid (BoP) scholarship emphasizes the potential for enterprises to generate profits by enhancing the wellbeing of the impoverished, often by selling socially-beneficial products (SBPs). Yet, many such BoP enterprises have experienced mixed results. We argue that this may stem from insufficient attention to how BoP consumers value SBPs and other products. We frame SBPs as a type of human capital investment and thus use human capital theory to study how the consumption of SBPs does or does not create value for consumers. Specifically, we use a novel data set from rural India to measure value creation in …

Pedagogical Readiness And Adaptability In Higher Education In Egypt: An Exploration Of Generational Disparities In Ai Adoption., Maha Ahmed Zaki Dajani, Israa Lewaa, Hadia Fakhreldin

Business Administration

ABSTRACT

Dajani, M., LewaaElhamd, I., & FakhrEldin, H. (2025). Pedagogical readiness and adaptability in higher education in Egypt: An exploration of generational disparities in AI adoption. In Conference proceedings for the Annual Conference of Business, Economics and Politics in the Middle East (BEP-ME) 2025 (pp. 96,116). The British University in Egypt.

This study investigates generational differences in the adoption of AI tools in Egyptian higher education, examining how pedagogical readiness and adaptability influence engagement among students and educators. It addresses a key gap in the literature—the lack of an integrated pedagogical framework combining Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and Constructivist …

Developing A System Dynamics Framework For Sustained Digital Transformation, Quintal Battle

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Despite significant organizational investments, more than 70% (Ellmer et al., 2025) of digital transformation initiatives fail. The existing literature evaluates transformation mechanisms as separate factors rather than as interacting, evolving feedback systems. This dissertation addresses this gap by developing and validating a system dynamics framework for sustained digital transformation. Guided by three research questions, the study examined the mechanisms that enable or constrain transformation, identified mechanisms distinctive to digital transformation contexts, and evaluated how existing change management frameworks guide transformation efforts. The study followed a six-phase methodology that combined a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed studies, empirical cases, causal loop …

Cultivating Workplace Happiness In Technology Workers, Cherie A. Herrin

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Technology workers are central to the innovation and performance of modern organizations and retaining them is a persistent challenge for modern organizations. One important aspect of retention in many contexts is Workplace Happiness, which has been argued to improve worker performance and reduce turnover; however, there is little empirical evidence of the effectiveness of these interventions for technology workers. This dissertation develops a model in which two affective states, Workplace Happiness and Workplace Distress, mediate the relationships between six socio-technical work conditions and two behavioral outcomes: Turnover Intent and Work Execution (i.e., self-rated work performance and quality). A systematic literature …

Did They Think I Was Rude? The Emotional And Relational Consequences Of (In)Congruence Between Perpetrators’ Self- And Meta-Perceptions Of Workplace Rudeness, Nicholas C. Andriese

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Workplace rudeness negatively impacts employees and costs organizations millions of dollars each year. Although much is known about the consequences of workplace rudeness, little is known about how perpetrators make sense of and respond to their (potentially) rude behavior. In this dissertation, I propose that perpetrators consider not only their self-perceptions of rudeness, or how rude they believe their actions were, but also their meta-perceptions of rudeness, or their beliefs about how rude another person perceived them to be. Because rudeness is subjective and people vary in their perceptual accuracy, self- and meta-perceptions of rudeness are unlikely to consistently …

Sensory And Emotional Impacts On Modern Consumer Experiences, Winter E. Bland

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation comprises two essays examining how environmental and psychological stimuli shape consumer experience, attitudes, and cognition. The first essay investigates the joint influence of scent temperature (warm versus cool) and scent arousal (stimulating versus relaxing) on experiential attitudes and cognitive performance in digitally mediated consumption environments. Across multiple lab experiments with biometric validation, findings reveal that these two scent dimensions interact to shape downstream outcomes. Warm, low-arousal scents (e.g., vanilla) enhance consumers' experiential evaluations of digital interactions but do not improve task performance, whereas cool, high-arousal scents (e.g., peppermint) boost cognitive efficiency and accuracy but do not elevate experiential …

Strategic Signaling Or Structural Friction?: How Ai Disclosure Moderates Resource-Performance Dynamics In Hotels And Restaurants, Jaewan Heo

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly important strategic issue in the hospitality industry. While prior research has primarily examined AI as an operational technology that improves efficiency and service delivery, less attention has been paid to how AI-related disclosures influence investor evaluations of firm resources. This dissertation investigates whether AI-related disclosures moderate the relationship between organizational resources and financial performance in publicly traded hospitality firms.

Drawing on signaling theory and the resource-based view, this study conceptualizes AI disclosures as strategic signals that shape investor perceptions of firm capabilities and future value creation. Firm-level financial data were obtained from Compustat …

Two Studies Exploring Signal-Environment Fit In Ai-Assisted Managerial Decision-Making Under Uncertainty, Oleksandr Kondrachuk

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation examines how the fit between the characteristics of artificial intelligence systems and the uncertainty environment shapes managerial reliance on AI advice. Organizations increasingly deploy different AI systems, such as predictive and generative, to support management accounting decisions. However, the accounting literature has mainly treated AI as a single undifferentiated entity. This dissertation addresses this gap through two related studies. In the first study, drawing on signaling theory and ecological rationality, I develop a signal-environment fit framework proposing that the reliance on a certain AI system depends on the match between system characteristics (input, process, output) and uncertainty characteristics. …

Well, If You Put It That Way Three Studies On Contract Framing In Incomplete Contract Environments, Garrison L. Nuttall

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation contains three studies examining contract framing, with implications for how organizations structure and frame performance-based compensation systems. Across all studies, I compare penalty contracts to bonus contracts with gain framing and bonus contracts with loss framing. My first study examines how managers prefer to frame performance-based compensation systems on average and identifies how the traits trust propensity, empathy, personal norm of reciprocity, loss aversion, Machiavellianism, and critical thinking disposition are associated with certain preferences. I find that mangers prefer bonus contracts to penalty contracts on average and that empathy is positively associated with this preference. My second study …

Cracking The Code Of Ai Autonomy: Examining The Role Of Challenge And Hindrance Appraisals And Ai Literacy In Task Satisfaction, Rujuta Parekar

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

AI is constantly evolving and being rapidly integrated into the workplace. Limited research has examined how this integration is affecting employee outcomes, and particularly the impacts of whether employees are expected or mandated to use AI for their work. The present study utilized the challenge-hindrance framework to examine the effect of autonomy in using AI on task satisfaction through challenge and hindrance appraisal among working adults. Since the ability to understand and use AI can influence how individuals perceive it, the moderating effect of AI literacy on the hypothesized research model is also examined. A multi-wave research design was used …

Revisiting The Foundation Of Strategic Core Theory: Informal Roles And Teamwork Roles In Work Team Centrality, Allen Thomas Shorey

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Strategic core theory makes a distinction between roles within a team that are central to the team’s workflow (i.e., core roles) and those that are not central (i.e., non-core roles) (Humphrey et al., 2009). This line of work has shown that attributes, such as job-related skill of core team members, were more predictive of team performance than those of non-core members. However, this line of work has primarily examined core and non-core roles as defined by formal taskwork roles. In this thesis, I examine patient care teams and management simulation teams with the principal conviction that (a) informal roles and …

Overcoming The Glass Wall: Self-Employment As A Career Strategy For Immigrant Professionals, Barbara Silva

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Skilled immigrant professionals frequently experience barriers that limit their ability to secure employment opportunities aligned with their qualifications in host-country labor markets. Although prior research has documented some of the challenges these professionals face, such as credential devaluation and discrimination, less is known about why recruiters perceive immigrant candidates with similar qualifications differently and why some immigrants navigate the labor market more successfully than others. Drawing on Status Characteristics Theory, this dissertation examines how the location and type of immigrant professionals’ prior work experience shape hiring-related outcomes by influencing recruiters’ perceptions of competence and acculturation. First, I review the literature …

Two Papers Exploring Cognitive Fit Theory And Data Visualization In Accounting, Kelly Wellman

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation examines how data visualization design influences judgment and decision making in accounting using cognitive fit theory as a unifying framework. As visualization tools such as dashboards, Excel, Tableau, and Power BI become increasingly prevalent, understanding which design choices improve performance has become critical. The first paper provides a structured literature review of cognitive fit theory from 1991 through 2025, synthesizing research across accounting and related disciplines and tracing its evolution from early graph vs tables comparisons to mor recent work incorporating task complexity, individual differences, and design-specific features. The review identifies key gaps, including limited attention to difference …