Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Impact Of Work-Related Electronic Communications Behavior Outside Of Normal Working Hours, Beulah Lavell Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employers' reliance on asynchronous electronic communications, connective technology devices, and remote work arrangements has led employees to feel preoccupied with staying connected after-hours to be responsive to work-related demands. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of professional workers who coped with constant pressure to monitor and immediately respond to work-related electronic communications during nonwork hours. The conceptual framework was supported by boundary and border theory and the constructs of work-life balance, flexible work arrangements, information and communication technology. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 16 professional workers near Washington, DC. Moustakas's modified …

Relationship Between Socialization Tactics, Military Cultural Competence, And Self-Efficacy Of Service Providers Serving Veterans, Dorothy Ann Seabrook

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Military cultural competence has gained attention due to the past 15 years of military conflict and ongoing deployment of troops around the globe. Returning veterans, particularly those who go on to experience homelessness, have reported negative experiences and adverse treatment from programs that were designed to support them. Those experiences have resulted in perceived barriers to access or use of such services. Researchers have established the need for increased levels of military cultural competence to develop rapport with veterans and their families when delivering community-based social and healthcare services. Bandura's self-efficacy theory was the theoretical framework of this study. This …

Revenue Diversification To Improve And Maintain Service Offerings Of Nonprofit Organizations, Ganga Kosala Bandara Heengama

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of nonprofits businesses adopt revenue diversification strategies to create innovative program services, creative ways to source materials, utilize volunteers and community partnerships, and identify business solutions related to solving societal problems. To continue providing services, it is crucial for nonprofit leaders to maintain adequate financial resources. The purpose of this single-case study was to explore revenue diversification strategies used by 3 leaders of a nonprofit organization in western California of the United States using Markowitz's modern portfolio theory as the conceptual lens. Data were collected through in-depth semistructured interviews and examination of organizational documents, internal archival data, and online …

The Influence Of Leadership Engagement Strategies On Employee Engagement, Elyssa Green

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The influence of leadership engagement strategies on employee engagement affects the retail distribution industry in the form of lower productivity, decreased profitability, and reduced sustainability. In 2017, the retail distribution industry lost more than $50 billion annually due to leader's inability to develop and implement robust leadership strategies to engage employees. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the influence of leadership strategies on employee engagement used by leaders in the retail distribution industry in Florida. Transformational leadership was the conceptual framework for this study. Participants were purposefully selected because of their experience implementing leadership engagement strategies …

Workplace Isolation Occurring In Remote Workers, Adam Hickman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational leaders and managers may not have the management acumen, organizational awareness, or leadership expertise to construct and implement effective strategies, policies, and procedures to help reduce the frequency of the phenomenon of workplace isolation. The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory, multiple case study was to gain a common understanding about how workplace isolation may influence a remote employee'€™s performance in a customer service organization in the United States. Emerson'€™s social exchange theory was used as the conceptual framework. A series of semistructured interviews with 21 remote workers that consisted of four different divisions at the same organization was conducted …

Relationship Between Perceived Contribution, Professional Respect, And Employee Engagement, Rafael Eustacio Guarin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Disengaged employees are a threat to a company's survival in a highly competitive world. Despite employee engagement benefits, the mediation of interactions between leaders and followers and the specific drivers of engagement remain poorly understood. This correlational study was grounded on leader member exchange (LMX) theory and examined the relationship between 2 dimensions of LMX (perceived contribution and professional respect) and employee engagement. In this study, 68 manufacturing employees from the southern region of the United States responded to 2 surveys to measure the LMX dimensions and the level of employee engagement. Using multiple regression analysis, the existence of a …

Middle School Teachers' And Administrators' Experiences When Students Transition, Thomas L. Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Student discipline and subsequent placements are a common problem in education. This qualitative phenomenological study addressed a gap in the literature by discovering the experiences of middle school teachers and administrators regarding student discipline, classroom removal, and assignment of students to alternative education. This research describes the development of an interview protocol based on critical incident theory and demonstrates its usage in drawing out thick, rich descriptions which help increase the trustworthiness of qualitative research. Initial interview data are presented to highlight the utilization of critical incident theory to elicit specific information about how participants experienced various critical interactions that …

Training Program Effectiveness In Building Workforce Agility And Resilience, Olya Taran

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Decades of qualitative case studies suggest that organizations must be able to deal with change effectively to compete and survive. Many researchers have linked higher workforce levels of agility and resilience to organizations' abilities to deal with change more successfully; however, there is a scarcity of empirical research addressing the efficacy of agility and resilience development in the workplace. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively examine the development of workforce resilience and agility, as measured by FIT for Change assessment. The theory of planned behavior was the study's theoretical framework, theorizing that changing attitudes and beliefs about change …

Understanding Coping Strategies And Behaviors Of Employees Affected By Toxic Leadership, Jerry A. Morris, Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Toxic leaders affect nearly half of the U.S. employee base and create environments in which followers, peers, and staff might be less effective due to stress, devaluation, and potential job loss. A multiple case study approach was used to understand what coping strategies employees use to reduce the negative effects of toxic leadership on themselves, other employees, and the overall workplace; and to understand the behaviors that result from these strategies. The purposeful and snowball sample consisted of 29 participants within the United States, ages 30 to 65, who worked within two or more organizations and who either directly experienced …

Relationship Between Enterprise Resource Planning System And Organizational Productivity In Local Government, Tambei Chiawah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizations experience challenges despite efforts to increase productivity through implementing large-scale enterprise systems. Leaders of local government institutions do not understand how to achieve expected and desired benefits from the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Lack of alignment between social and technical elements in ERP implementation depresses organizational productivity. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine whether social and technical elements increase use and productivity in ERP implementation. The research questions addressed the relationship between ERP and organizational efficiency, cross-functional communication, information sharing, ease of ERP use, and ERP usefulness. Sociotechnical systems theory provided the …

Ambidexterity And Innovation In Chief Nursing Officers In The Healthcare Setting, Jennifer Wasilewski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders in the healthcare setting are challenged with competing responsibilities as they seek to provide high-quality services, ensure the implementation of safety measures, and engage in workforce maintenance. Many researchers have described innovation as a strategic approach to organizational concerns and have noted a failure to implement innovative measures in healthcare. This study was an investigation of the impact of ambidexterity in healthcare leaders on innovation. The purpose of this quantitative study, guided by the ambidexterity theory of leadership for innovation, was to analyze the extent to which ambidextrous leadership characteristics of healthcare executives and chief nursing officers (CNOs) influence …

Emotional And Spiritual Enablers For Building Trust Within Churches For Organizational Effectiveness, Carl D. Wamble

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Over the last 3 decades, religious organizations have been embroiled in scandals that

have diminished public trust in the ecclesiastic community.The purpose of this study was

to examine church leaders and members emotional intelligence and spiritual leadership

behavioral characteristics that cultivate trust, and enhance organizational effectiveness,

and establish a baseline database to facilitate perpetuating positive social change. The

theoretical framework for this study used three models: Chathoth Trust Model; the Wei,

Liu and Allen Emotional Intelligence (EI) model, and the Fry Spiritual Leadership

Theory (SL) model. Survey instruments for each model were used to determine

perspectives within the church that …

Effective Strategies To Increase Employee Commitment And Reduce Employee Turnover, Jonathan Paz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational leaders know that employee turnover negatively impacts an organization's finances and can be a result of a lack of employee commitment. Guided by Yukl's flexible leadership theory, this single case study was used to explore strategies that senior leaders have used to increase employee commitment and reduce employee turnover. Vice presidents and directors from a U.S. Fortune 500 financial firm in New Jersey participated in semistructured interviews. The 5 participants have implemented effective strategies to increase employee commitment and reduce employee turnover. Data collection comprised face-to-face interviews, review of company documentation, external website content, and member checking to explore …

Virtual Proximity To Promote Expatriate Cultural Adjustment, Innovation, And The Reduction Of Stress Levels, Tom Coughlan, David J. Fogarty, Sara R. Fogarty

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Given the dramatic increase in the number of expatriates living and working abroad, there is a need to advance the research into how to make sure these employees achieve success on their assignments. Often, these expatriates assume managerial roles and are intended to be the gatekeepers of information. Typically, this information is necessary for the success of their colleagues, in both their home country and their host country. The expatriate’s role is to facilitate the integration of organizational knowledge from both their home and host countries, as well as key sources in their host country’s local environment. However, historically, there …

A Structural Equation Model Of Leader–Member Exchange, Employee–Supervisor Relationship, Performance Appraisal, And Career Development, William Joseph Henkel, Al C. Endres

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Some employees perceive that supervisors do not accurately reflect employees’ performance or effectively differentiate among employees’ performances during performance appraisals (PAs). Other employees believe the performance feedback they receive is not valuable for supporting their career development (CD). Leader–member exchange (LMX) and the distributive and interactional justice dimensions of organizational justice theories comprised the theoretical frameworks in this study for examining the significance of the relationships among LMX and employee–supervisor relationships (ESRs) and those relationships’ potential influence on employees’ CD through the PA process. Participants consisted of 44 defense contractor employees in the United States. Results from partial least squares …

Millennial Retail Employees Experiences And Perceptions Of Leaders With Body Image Modifications, Jennifer Mcclure

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Millennials in retail account for a large portion of the U.S. workforce and have the highest number of body image modifications from tattoos, piercings, and/or gauges. Following Moustakas concept of perception, the purpose of this transcendental phenomenology study was to explore how Millennial-aged retail employees describe and experience leaders with body image modifications from tattoos, piercings, and/or gauges. Participants were sought from various retail locations and were required to be born between 1981 and 1996. Data were collected through interviews with 6 participants and the data were analyzed using Moustakas modification of the Van Kamm Method. The results showed that …

Stress And Burnout: Empathy, Engagement, And Retention In Healthcare Support Staff, Burnette Vidal

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research on stress and burnout and their influence on empathy, engagement, and retention, in healthcare support staff is scarce in the literature. The theoretical framework for this study was the conservation of resources (COR) theory which claims that when people are stressed, emotionally exhausted, and experiencing burnout, they protect and preserve their physical and mental resources from becoming depleted by reducing their effort and withdrawing from work. The key research question was: Does burnout mediate the relationship between stress and empathy, engagement, and turnover intentions in healthcare support staff working in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC)? This quantitative, non-experimental, …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Public Sector Interventions In Entrepreneurship Development In Nigeria, Michael Kalu Mba

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Entrepreneurship is significant to the production process for economic growth and development. The Nigerian government supports entrepreneurial development by providing business training for entrepreneurs across the country; however, the impact of such programs in current entrepreneurship in Nigeria has not been researched. This study was designed to examine the impact of the training on entrepreneurial outcomes such as profitability, revenue, and access to finance using the social construction framework and the theory of external control of organizations. Based on a quantitative quasi-experimental design involving a posttest comparison group, the impact of government support on randomly selected beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries with …

Employee Awareness Of Organizational Cultural And Climate Expectations, Venita M. Govan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational culture statements are established to pronounce and promote core values for employees to live while performing roles and responsibilities. It is essential for employees to be knowledgeable of cultural expectations. When considering organizational alignment, research has indicated there is deficient linkage when analyzing applied strategies versus envisioned strategies focusing on employees’ actual lived experiences. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to survey whether the corporate health care employees’ lived experiences mirrored the stated cultural values associated with the theoretical framework concerning artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions. Through an online survey, this phenomenological study analyzed cultural experiences of …

Reducing Reliance On Government Funding In The Nonprofit Sector, Bryan K. Kieler

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many leaders of nonprofit organizations are challenged by limited and declining financial resources from government grants, while being asked by funders and their constituent base to provide better quality services to a larger population. Nonprofit leaders are exploring strategies to reduce their reliance on government grants by diversifying and growing alternative funding sources. The purpose of this single case study was to explore, through the conceptual lens of the balanced scorecard theory, strategies used by 4 leaders of a nonprofit organization in southern California who have experience managing and growing alternative revenue sources by creating a social enterprise. Semistructured interviews …

Stakeholder Engagement Strategies For Nonprofit Organization Financial Sustainability, Orna Tricia Bradley-Swanson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Stakeholders are important to the financial sustainability of a nonprofit organization; however, heavy reliance on 1 stakeholder over another can place a nonprofit organization at financial risk. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies used by 3 senior leaders of a nonprofit organization in New York who have experience with stakeholder engagements efforts. The conceptual framework used for this study comprised general systems theory and transformational leadership theory. Data were collected using semistructured interviews, and review of organizational documents and online databases. Using thematic analysis, the 4 key themes that emerged from process and results strengths …

Spiritual Cognitive Dissonance In Lgbtqq People, Teresa O'Flynne

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Cognitive dissonance between learned spirituality and opposing behaviors is called spiritual cognitive dissonance (SCD). SCD has been successfully proven in former research; however, to date, it has yet to offer descriptions of specific incidents of SCD and/or how it effects the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQQ) individual. A qualitative phenomenological study in which eight participants were interviewed was employed to collect data. The study revealed how SCD manifested in their lives, specifically those who were raised within conservative, heteronormative spiritual homes. All participants were LGBTQQ and believed they had experienced SCD. The data collected during each interview …

Leveraging Internal Resources For Business Sustainability In Independent Quick-Service Restaurants, Mario De' Nell Wallace

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Quick-service restaurant owners who fail to apply effective business strategies could risk business closure within the first 5 years of operations. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore effective strategies that independent quick-service restaurant owners used to sustain business longer than the first 5 years. Resource-based theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected via semistructured interviews with 6 owners of independent quick-service restaurants in the southern region of the United States who sustained their businesses longer than the first 5 years, and from the review of business documents pertaining to sustainability. Data were …

Employer Strategies For Improving Employee Work-Life Balance, Vernessa Lashawn Johnson-Hoffman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Senior leaders who fail to implement work-life balance strategies may experience reduced profits and sustainability challenges. This single case study explored employers' strategies for improving employee work-life balance. The population for the study included 4 senior leaders of a hospice care agency in North Carolina who successfully implemented employee work-life balance strategies. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and from the review of company documents, website, and social media pages. The conceptual framework for the study was the transformational leadership theory. The trustworthiness of interpretations was supported by member checking. Four themes emerged from inductive analysis of the data: a …

The Experience Of Founder's Syndrome In Nonprofit Organizations Founded By Women, Coutanya Moultry Coombs

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Gaps exist in the literature on knowledge of how founder behavior affects volunteers and employees in nonprofit organizations. Through exploration of founder relationships with volunteers and employees, this study fills some of those gaps and adds to the body of knowledge of how those relationships are perceived by founders, volunteers, and employees. The purpose of this narrative study was to address the question of the impact of founder behavior on founders, employees and volunteers in nonprofit women's organizations founded by African American and Caucasian women. The theory of psychological ownership was used as the framework to understand founder behavior. The …

Job Transitioning Experiences Of Blue-Collar Employees After Federal Downsizing, Eduardo Hurtado

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Downsizing, realignment, and closure of military bases have forced many low-skilled, blue-collar federal employees into involuntary job loss and job transition. The impact of involuntary job loss on blue-collar workers has been linked to stress and other adverse psychological effects. There is gap in the literature regarding the lived experiences of federal blue-collar employees following downsizing of military bases. The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive phenomenological study was to examine lived experiences of job loss and job transition for federal blue-collar employees following downsizing of military bases. Schlossberg's transition theory provided a conceptual framework for the study. Ten ex-federal blue-collar …

Competency Development And Implementation Among Direct Support Professionals In New York State, Johanna Loporto

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Direct support professionals (DSPs) serve an important function in the daily supervision and care of clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) through standardization of technical, cognitive, and ethical competencies for all DSPs. It is not clear, however, how these DSPs and managers perceive the implementation process and utility of these competencies or whether implementation results in meeting the desired outcomes for clients. Using Donabedian's quality of care model as the foundation, the purpose of this qualitative case study in New York State to understand how DSPs perceived the implementation of the DSP core competencies under the direction of front-line …

The Effect Of Workplace Characteristics On Millennial Worker Organizational Commitment, Karen Elizabeth Heizman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Existing research on the Millennial generation has focused on identifying the workplace attributions and stereotypes between generations, and the relationship between those attributions and stereotypes, as related to organizational commitment. However, research has not addressed which workplace characteristics influence organizational commitment of the Millennial generation. Herzberg's 2-factor theory was used to investigate the relationship between workplace characteristics and organizational commitment of the Millennial generation. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether workplace characteristics influence organizational commitment in the Millennial generation. This quantitative study used the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. A convenience sample of …

Exploring How Managers Increase Employee Performance Within Organizational Supply Chains, Angela B. Freeman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders and the strategies they employ to enhance employee performance are essential to retaining an organization's competitive advantage. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by supply chain management managers to improve employee performance in the workplace. The conceptual framework for this study combined elements from Vroom's expectancy theory of motivation, Adams's equity theory of motivation and leadership, and transformational leadership theories. Participants were selected via the purposeful sampling of 6 successful supply chain managers in the District of Columbia's metropolitan area. Data were obtained using semistructured face-to-face interviews, interview notes, transcripts, and a …

Evaluating The Effects Of Counterterrorism Strategies On Insurgency In Nigeria, Bowie Sonnie Bowei

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

With the evolving problems of terrorism in Nigeria and the formation of numerous new terrorist groups, insurgency in Nigeria has escalated, making it one of the most terrorized countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This study looked critically at the effects of the strategies applied in the attempt to fight terrorism and how these strategies have affected insurgency in Nigeria. The background of the study gives an insight on the evolution of terrorist groups in Nigeria, their mode of operation, effects on citizens and the Nigerian economy, as well as the operations of counterterrorist agencies. The qualitative research method was used for …