Education Commons^™

A Case Study Exploring Organizational Development And Performance Management In The Operational Infrastructure Of A Professional Working Organization, Using Academic Constructs, Wm. Casey Crear

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Curriculum, as a concept, has been historically associated with traditional schooling, but the reality is that its application extends to many arenas beyond academia. Through the case study lens, this dissertation utilized the ideologies of curricular theorists John Dewey, John Franklin Bobbitt, and Ralph Tyler to explore how intended, enacted, and assessed curricula phases can integrate into a professional working organization’s comprehensive functionality and materialize into the planning and implementation of its operational infrastructure. Following content analysis of a selected institution’s operational system, using closed codes, a descriptive comprehensive curriculum was designed to address the research purpose of understanding …

Organizational Communication: Perceptions Of Staff Members’ Level Of Communication Satisfaction And Job Satisfaction, Priti R. Sharma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore the topic of organizational communication in higher education and examine staff members’ perceptions about their level of communication and job satisfaction in their workplaces. This study was also designed to test the relationship between communication satisfaction and job satisfaction by analyzing the significance of different dimensions of Communication Satisfaction with the view that satisfaction is multifaceted.

A total of 463 non-faculty staff members from different units of a single higher education institution participated in this study. This study included non-teaching staff, including student workers and both full-time and part-time staff members. …

Conditions Associated With Increased Risk Of Fraud: A Model For Publicly Traded Restaurant Companies, Elizabeth Yost

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The central focus of this dissertation study is to understand the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the factors that contribute to increased risk of fraud in order to determine why fraud may occur despite the imposed regulation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The main premise of the study tests the application of the fraud triangle framework constructs to publicly traded restaurant companies during the time period of 2002-2014, using proxy variables defined through literature. Essentially, the study seeks to identify the factors that may provide the optimal criteria to engage in fraudulent or opportunistic behavior. The fraud triangle theoretical framework …

The Landwarnet School, The Army Learning Model, And Appreciative Inquiry: How Is A Centralized Training Organization Improved By Introducing Decentralization?, Lisa Jayne Stamper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory, qualitative case study describes how a centralized training organization (LandWarNet School) was improved by introducing decentralization (Army Learning Model) toward “the best competitive position” or "sweet spot," defined by Brafman and Beckstrom (2006) as “enough decentralization for creativity, but sufficient structure and controls to ensure consistency” (pp. 189, 191). Any presence of the six chaordic elements of a decentralized organization, as described by Hock (1999), was also considered.

LandWarNet School (LWNS) trains approximately 6000 US Army Soldiers annually and is centrally organized. The new Army Learning Model (ALM) is a vision for a more decentralized training approach where …

Stakeholder Perceptions Of A University Response To Crisis, Katherine M. Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to contribute to current theory-driven research in crisis communication by examining the perceptions of multiple stakeholder groups to a university crisis response strategy. Two main questions were examined in this dissertation. The first question attempted to determine if a significant difference existed between stakeholder groups and their perception of university reputation, responsibility for the crisis, and potential supportive behaviors toward the university following the university’s response to a crisis. The second asked if Coombs’s Situational Crisis Communication Theory is a practical application for universities.

The participants were from 4 stakeholder groups associated with a …

Managerial Process Of Discount Decision-Making In The Lodging Industry: The Role Of Human Agency, Seung Hyun Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Management faces a paradox in managing discrepancies between actual demand and expected demand in daily operations, thereby requiring constant adjustments in pricing under the supervision of management in the short term. The purpose of this study is to determine how discount choices are created and to understand information processing related to the pricing and discounting decision-making process as well as narrating the events, stages, and cycles of choices made by hotel managers. This study also determines the role of human judgment based on contextual factors in the decision-making process. This mixed methods research design consists of three steps: observation, classification, …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Customer Experience In Beverage Establishments, Milos Bujisic

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated that there are approximately 42,000 beverage establishments in the U.S. whose annual revenue surpasses $20 billion (First Research, 2014). To facilitate discussion of beverage establishments, it is essential to recognize beverage establishments as businesses whose majority of sales come from alcoholic drinks (Moss, 2010a). In this research, beverage establishments are divided into beverage-only bars, bar/entertainment combinations, and food and beverage combinations. Even though they are a well-established industry, beverage establishments have received little academic attention (Moss, 2010b). For example, previous studies have given little attention to the development of the model that examines the relationships between quality …

Customer Evaluation Of Managers' Responses To Online Complaints, Eric Olson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Managers have begun to respond to customers' online reviews of services on online review websites. However, it is not known how viewers evaluate company-initiated service recovery in the form of manager responses to online reviews. This research has three objectives: (1) to explore how managers are currently responding to electronic word of mouth; (2) to investigate whether a manager's response to electronic negative word of mouth (eNWOM) positively influences viewers' behavioral intentions; (3) to examine which elements in a manager's responses increases viewers' evaluations of trust and behavioral intentions towards the company. Three studies were conducted, one for each objective. …

The Role Of Freedom In Assessing The Relationship Between Tourism Competitiveness And Quality Of Life: The Case Of Central America, Marketa Kubickova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation study is to investigate the relationship among tourism competitiveness, quality of life, and freedom. The main premise is that the degree of freedom shapes the relationship between tourism development and quality of life. The study hypothesized that the greater the degree of freedom is, the greater impact tourism development will have on quality of life of residents of a destination. The theoretical framework of this study is based on combining Sen's capability approach with the tourism competitiveness theory. Tourism competitiveness aims at enhancing the quality of life, while Sen's capability approach provides the ingredients for …

An Examination Of Job Analysis: Developing Interdisciplinary Strategies In Human Resource Management Facilitative Of Mitigating Propensities Of Teacher Attrition, Julio Devere

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite repeated attempts by school administrators, policymakers and researchers to diagnose and correct rising occurrences of teacher turnover, there has been little change in the actual efforts to retain teachers in academy organizations. In response, this study was conducted to describe process constraints within the academy organization that are responsible for managing teacher turnover. To provide a description of current teacher retention efforts by school administrators, a survey instrument was administered to school teachers in the State of Florida. The population sample was dispersed throughout the entire state and closely reflected the demographics of Florida school teachers. The survey addressed …

Website Interactivity As A Branding Tool For Hotel Websites, Albert Barred Davila

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation explored the relationships among Website interactivity, brand knowledge, consumer-based brand equity and behavioral intentions in the context of hotel Websites. Based on an in-depth literature review, a theory-driven model was proposed and ten hypotheses were developed. The dissertation employed an empirical study based on a survey design, and collected data via a marketing company. Respondents who booked a hotel room online using hotel branded Websites in the last 12 months were approached to complete the online questionnaire. Four hundred ninety six (496) respondents completed the online questionnaire by answering to questions related to their last hotel booking experience. …

Broadband Access For Students At East Tennessee State University, Thomas Scott Sawyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the availability of Internet access for students attending East Tennessee State University during the fall semester 2013. It has been unknown to what degree broadband access is available in the East Tennessee State University service area that includes counties in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Western North Carolina.

The research was conducted during the fall semester 2013 including the months of August, September, and October of 2011. Data were gathered by surveying currently enrolled students of the university. Seven hundred eighty-four students responded to the survey. The survey instrument covered areas of …

A Sustainability "Green" Certification Audit Of Food Service Operations And The Development Of A Restaurant Sustainability Instrument, Hans Hagglund

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates current green restaurant certifications as well as developing a new more user certification. First, a fact finding investigation to find the most established and commonly utilized green restaurant certifications were compared. Second, a new green certification was developed. Third, chosen green restaurant certifications were compared. Lastly, the new green certification analyzed whether restaurants in the central Florida area utilized green practices. Data were collected in face to face sessions with restaurant managers during nonpeak hours of operation. There were numerous surveys utilized in this research study. The statistical methodology utilized in this study was average means and …

The Development Of An Eco-Gastronomic Tourism (Egt) Supply Chain-Analyzing Linkages Between Farmer, Restaurants, And Tourists In Aruba., Marcelino Kock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose of this study is to holistically analyze existing linkages between Aruba’s tourism industry, restaurants and local farmers, by examining strategies that constrain the development of linkages between these stakeholders. Previous research indicated that tourism development is often accompanied with increased demand for imported food, which results in foreign exchange leakages, inflation and competition with local production. This phenomenon is very common in the Caribbean, where Aruba, with its heavy reliance on imported goods and services, is no exception to this occurrence. To comprehend potential problems associated with linking both sectors, these in-depth case study addresses three fundamental questions: a) …

An Exploratory Study Of Customer Vulnerability: A Cross-Segment Approach, Taryn Aiello

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of customer vulnerability across varying service industries. While the concept of customer vulnerability has been debated in business, marketing, sociology, and psychology scholarly literature, there has been little research conducted that specifically investigates consumers’ perceptions of vulnerability during the service exchange. Specific to this research, customer vulnerability is defined as experiences in which consumers participate in a service exchange with a firm during a time of individual or shared medical, physical, emotional, or spiritual necessity, whether the vulnerability is experienced during the course of the transaction or whether consumers arrive …

Consumer Engagement In Travel-Related Social Media, Xu Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term of "consumer engagement" is extensively used in the digital era. It is believed that engaged consumers play an important role in products/services referral and recommendation, new product/service development and experience/value co-creation. Although the notion of consumer engagement sounds compelling, it is not fully developed in theory. Different interpretations coexist, resulting in confusion and misuse of the concept. This study attempts to define consumer engagement and develop a conceptual framework of consumer engagement, addressing antecedents of consumer engagement in online context. Moreover, some situational and social media usage-related factors are incorporated into the framework. A set of propositions are …

Nonprofit Marketing Education In The United States: An Examination And Interpretation Of The Prevalance And Nature Of Curriculum, Theresa Meier Conley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The nonprofit sector is a large, growing, and essential part of the United States economy. There is a history of inspired ideas and complex change in the nonprofit sector that marketing educators and business school administrators must understand if they are to be leaders in the continuing evolution of nonprofit marketing education.

This manuscript includes a summarized historical perspective, a selective review of literature from existing nonprofit management and marketing education, a discussion of relevant contemporary issues for consideration, and mixed-method research results regarding the prevalence and nature of nonprofit marketing education. The mixed-method research strategy includes three phases; the …

The Relationship Between Perceived Personal Fairness, Social Fairness, Hotel Cancellation Policies And Consumer Patronage, Scott J. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the study was to examine the relationships between the concepts of personal fairness and social fairness and hotel cancellation policies. These relationships will be explored using the framework of Prospect Theory in terms of consumer patronage (willingnessto-purchase and word-of-mouth). This study begins with a brief history of the development of the lodging industry in the United States from inns and taverns to the modern hotel industry that is a critical sector of the hospitality and tourism economy. Current statistics are provided regarding the U.S. and Central Florida hotel industry in order to provide both a national and …

The Role Of Flow In Creating E-Loyalty: The Case Of Online Hotel Booking Websites, Anil Bilgihan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to examine the concept of ―online customer experience‖, ―flow‖, and its role in influencing online customers‘ loyalty to a hotel booking website. To achieve this aim, a model was developed, which proposed that online flow is generated by both hedonic and utilitarian website features. A model was developed based on literature review to measure the relationships between the constructs. To initiate this research, a survey approach was taken. After conducting a pilot study, a marketing company was contacted to distribute the link for the online questionnaire. Five hundred and eleven (511) questionnaires were completed by guests who …

The Influence Of An Annual Meeting On The Sense Of Community Of Association Members, Their Satisfaction, And Future Intentions, Jee Yeon Hahm

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, many studies have provided some understanding on what influences association members‟ decision to attend a meeting; however, more systematic and theoretical research is necessary. The decision making process of attendees is a complicated human behavior practice. The major contribution of this study is adopting the sense of community (SOC) model from psychology to gain a better understanding of the attendee behavior. By doing so, this study will add a theoretical foundation to the existing research in the meeting industry. Also, this study will contribute to the SOC research in psychology by applying the concept to a …

The Synergies Between Tourism Expansion And Development An Analysis Of Economic Growth, Poverty And Human Development In Ecuador, Manuel Antonio Rivera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation attempts to answer the question of what has been the effect of tourism expansion and development in Ecuador. We attempt to analyze, both theoretically and empirically, the relationship between tourism and development. There have been an enormous number of studies explaining how tourism can affect the various dimensions of development. However, no research has been undertaken to simultaneously empirically examine the impact that changes in tourism expansion has on poverty, human development, and economic growth. To this end, we propose a cointergation methodology with an error correction model to estimate the impact of tourism expansion on poverty, human …

Customer Relationship Marketing By Destination Marketing Organizations Does It Lead To Favorable Behavioral Intentions To Meeting Planners?, Jumyong Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In convention market, one of the fastest growing sectors in hospitality industry, meeting planners play an important role to select a destination for their event. Therefore, a good relationship with them can be a competitive advantage for a convention destination considering a fierce competition among the destinations. The objective of this study is to develop an empirically valid relationship marketing (RM) model that would verify the antecedents, mediators, and consequence of the relationship between the destination marketing organization (DMO) and meeting planners. This study found three antecedents (i.e., customer orientation, familiarity, and reputation) of the RM mediating constructs that consist …

An Investigation Of Scholar-Baller And Non Scholar-Baller Division I Football Student-Athletes' Academic, Athletic, Intrinsic Motivation And Athletic Identity, Janet Rasmussen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As less than 3 % of student-athletes go on to play sport professionally, it is important that they are prepared for careers outside of athletics (Susanj & Stewart, 2005). Many football student-athletes have low grade point averages and graduation rates. Universities incorporate academic motivational programs to help combat low academic performance. One unique program, Scholar-Baller, utilizes popular culture within its curriculum to bridge the gap between academics and athletics. This dissertation examined the differences between Scholar-Baller and Non Scholar-Baller Division I football student-athletes' motivation (academic, athletic, intrinsic) and athletic identity using expectancy-value theory and self-affirmation theory as its framework. In …

Characteristics Of Viable And Sustainable Workers For The Year 2015, Brenda P. Dean

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to forecast characteristics of valuable workers within Middle Eastern Tennessee for the year 2015. The following areas were studied as they related to the forecast: (1) the projected employment skill demands of business and industry; (2) the initiatives required and proposed by business and industry to meet their respective employment demands; and (3) the external support by education required for industry and business to meet their employment needs. The Delphi panel was composed of 22 business and industry leaders who were nominated by the county executive of the ten counties of the study, officials …

Factors Influencing Student-Athlete Choice Of Institution, Edward G. Howat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influenced prospective student-athletes to attend East Tennessee State University. Using a qualitative research design, interviews were conducted with 36 freshman scholarship student-athletes. Participants represented student-athletes from each sport. A literature review covered the history of intercollegiate athletics, the history of recruiting student-athletes, the process of recruiting student-athletes, and the decline of public perception towards intercollegiate athletics. Results from the interviews were analyzed using inductive analysis. Patterns, themes, and categories of analysis emerged from the data. The data from the interviews were then unitized and categorized. The categorized units were …

The Impact Of Cocurricular Experience On Leadership Development, Deborah H. White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the impact of cocurricular activities on leadership development. College graduates recognized as community leaders were selected from three communities in Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Through survey and interview techniques, the leaders were asked to reflect on high school and college experiences that led to their development as leaders. The study included a focus on differences in experiences of male and female leaders. Developmental influences such as family, mentors, global experience, and the cocurricular activities engaged in during high school and college were explored. Title IX had no impact on increased opportunities for women in this group of …

An Analysis Of Workplace Violence Incidents In Virginia Community Colleges And The Major Employers, Betsy E. Summerfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The media during the past ten years has given considerable attention to the workplace violence in factories, service organizations, and the public school systems throughout the United States. This study compared patterns of workplace violence in the 23 member institutions of the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) with the patterns of workplace violence in selected for-profit service and manufacturing employers in Virginia, to determine if workplace violence incidents occurring in the VCCS's member institutions reflect the workplace violence incidents experienced by business and industry within each member institution's service region. Chi-square analysis showed a significant difference in non-violent conflict training …

Assessment Of Discrepancies Between Residential Employees' Work Values And Program Directors Perceptions Of Residential Employees' Work Values, Trinetia L. Respress

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study assessed discrepancies between residential employees' work values and program directors' perceptions of the residential employees' work values. Additionally, work values of residential employees were analyzed to identify variations when considering gender, age, educational level, length of service, job classification, and current position. The study was undertaken to assist in developing a clearer understanding of the work values of residential employees for the purpose of enhancing administrator-associate relationships and to determine factors in the work setting that might contribute to longevity and more productive, satisfied, motivated employees. Data for the study were gathered from 172 program directors and residential …

Implementing Total Quality Management In Business And Academe: A Case Study, Nancy O. Bartell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Total quality management (TQM) is a philosophy and process that has been successfully implemented in many business firms. Other organizations, including institutions of higher education, have become increasingly interested in adopting it. It is likely that facilitators need to be cognizant of organizational differences and adjust facilitation methods and strategies accordingly. This dissertation is an exploratory study designed to examine the role of the TQM facilitator in diverse settings. Specifically, the study is an in-depth two-case research study of TQM implementation in an international manufacturing firm and a regional institution of higher education. The primary foci of this dissertation are …

The Relationships Among Leadership Behaviors Of Leaders In Training Organizations, Training Methods, And Organization Profitability, Joseph D. Keith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Business organizations are decreasing funding for training. The problem investigated in this study was to determine if there was a relationship among the leadership behavior of training leaders, the use of newer methods of training, and organizational profitability. A sample of 57 organizations from the Fortune 500 was surveyed to determine leadership behavior and the use of newer methods of training. The Leadership Practices Inventory was used to measure leadership and the Affective Communication Test was used to measure charisma. Profitability data were obtained from the literature. Return on assets, return on equity, the Moody's Corporate Bond Rating, and the …