Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Are The Housing Staff Alright? A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Examination Of The Experiences Of On-Campus Student Housing Professionals Through The Covid-19 Pandemic, Megan J. Chibanga

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

College and university housing professionals served a role they were generally underprepared for as long-term crisis managers during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted and shifted higher education operating structures on a grand scale, and housing staff were asked to continue operating on-campus housing facilities throughout the ever-changing response to COVID-19. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of housing professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the collective experiences of 21 participants three major threads emerged: comfort in the unknown, a need for connection and community, and relentless resilience. Each of these …

Catholicism Online: How The Church Is Communicating In The Visual Field, Alexandra Barfield

Honors Theses

ABSTRACT

Given the rise and importance of social media in the last two decades, religious institutions, especially the Roman Catholic Church, have an important place online to fulfill their mission and belief of spreading the Gospel message. Communicating this message on social media and with contemporary marketing practices is an opportunity and a challenge for churches, Catholics, and apostolates alike. In this study, I analyze a variety of Catholic-related Instagram accounts and interview individuals involved in Church management and content creation. This primary research is prefaced with secondary research exploring the status of the Catholic Church in the United States, …

The Paycheck Protection Program's Effect On Real Estate Prices, Someswar Amujala

CMC Senior Theses

This paper investigates the relationship between the Paycheck Protec- tion Program (PPP) and real estate price increases. The Paycheck Protection Program was established by the Small Business Association in 2020 to pro- vide forgivable loans to businesses to aid with potential losses from COVID- 19 impacts. I leverage zip code level data across the United States and a fixed effects panel data model to quantitatively measure the PPP’s influence on housing and rental prices. I find a positive and significant relationship between the number of PPP loans disbursed and housing and rental rates. Specifically, a 1% change in the number …

Twitter Sentiment Analysis: Applications In Healthcare And Finance, Jiali Wang

Dissertations

This research explores the influence of Twitter sentiment on healthcare and finance industries. It assesses how Twitter sentiment and culture measure influence COVID-19 statistics, and it investigates the impact of Twitter sentiment on S&P 1500 stock mispricing. Furthermore, it examines how tweet sentiment predicts major industry returns.

The first part examines how Hofstede’s Culture Dimensions (HCD) and Twitter economic uncertainty index (TEU) relate to COVID-19 infection rate and death rate. The results show certain aspects in HCD, such as power distance index (PDI) and masculinity (MAS) both are negatively and significantly associated with the infection rate, while indulgence (IVR) and …

A Comparison Of M&T Bank And Citizens Bank Net Income Changes During The Coronavirus Pandemic, Alex R. Glasier

Applied Economics Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic had a tremendous impact on every aspect of life, particularly within the world of banking & finance. All banks saw sharp drops in their stock prices and net income, but my hypothesis is that larger, more established banks maintained more stability during 2020 than smaller banks. This paper analyzes the income statements and balance sheets of M&T Bank (an older, more well-established bank) and Citizens Bank (a less-established bank) during this difficult time.

The first part of my thesis describes similarities and differences between M&T Bank and Citizens Bank. I explain how these similarities and differences may …

What Is The Meaning In This? Teachers' Propensity To Search For Meaning In Life During Covid-19 And The Role Of Meaningful Work, Seterra D. Burleson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The global COVID-19 pandemic has presented notable challenges in teachers’ career paths. In the present study, Super’s life-span, life-space theory was applied to examine the interplay between K-12 teachers’ propensity to search for meaning in life and meaningfulness attributed to their work role (i.e., meaningful work) in predicting career-relevant outcomes in the face of challenging circumstances over the course of a semester. A model was proposed in which propensity to search for meaning in life led to better work and career outcomes, an effect moderated by meaningful work. Longitudinal data from a sample of 617 teachers over eight outcome measurement …

Digital Equity: Difficulties Of Implementing The 1:1 Computing Initiative In Low-Income Areas, Demetric D. Williams

Dissertations

Successful One-to-One Computing Initiative implementation requires educators to communicate and collaborate effectively with everyone in the learning community. However, other factors such as teacher’s professional development, student’s perception, and parent’s perception often affect the implementation of the One-to-One Computing Initiative. School districts, which serve low-income areas in Mississippi, have difficulties ensuring students and communities have access to the information technology they need to participate outside the school setting. The concept is often called digital equity. However, when officials do not address the capacity, there is a vital threat to the participants’ civic, cultural, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential …

Coronavirus Disability Survey: Assessing The Impact Of Covid-19 On Young Adults With Disabilities, Hena Rashid

Student Research Submissions

This paper seeks to inform individuals of the importance of digital inclusivity, diminish the digital divide, and accessibility to technological services of college students who experience a form of disability. The United States has conducted minimal research on the digital disability rhetoric, promoted minimal disability-inclusive measures to protect the rights and well-being of college students, and minimal assistance to mitigate Coronavirus (COVID-19) impacts to this population subgroup. This subject can have a big impact on individuals who suffer from disability stigma, low accessibility issues, and who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Furthermore, this subject will benefit college students …

The Impact Of Virtual Learning Modalities On The Academic Success Of Students In One Arkansas School District, Diane F. Richards

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way Arkansas public schools’ offered students an education. While moving through this pandemic, many Arkansas schools implemented optional methods of delivery for their students. Some schools tried to maintain face-to-face classes, while others offered completely online classes. Still, others offered a hybrid format where students attended some face-to-face classes and online classes. One Arkansas school district offered all three options. School districts need guidance as to which teaching methods worked well. The long-term effects of the educational impact of COVID-19 are not known at this time. Schools could benefit from a guide with useful strategies …

The Great Resignation: A Content Analysis Of News Sources' Portrayals Of The Covid-19 Labor Shortage., Mackenzie Williams

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

When workers left the labor market in large numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, proclamations of a labor shortage emerged extensively throughout the news. In this study, I analyze the coverage of the worker shortage among three news sources with different political orientations. Several themes emerged from analyzing a total of 75 articles. The findings showed that the perspective shown in the article, the cause of the labor shortage, restaurant worker portrayal, support of solutions, and opinion of the labor shortage all differed based on the political identity of the news source. This research supports previous findings that show there is …

Communicating Through A Crisis: An Analysis Of The University Of Mississippi's Initial Covid-19 Crisis Communications, Sydney Waitley

Honors Theses

This thesis, in effort to examine modern-day crisis communications, focuses on the analysis of University of Mississippi’s initial crisis communications during the COVID-19 pandemic during March 2020. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the university’s communication efforts during this crisis in order to determine the effectiveness of the University of Mississippi’s initial COVID-19 crisis communications. First, the researcher analyzed historical case studies on three notable crisis communications (the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis of 1982, the United Airlines Crisis of 2017, and the Crock-Pot Crisis of 2018). From these case studies, qualities of good crisis communications were determined …

An Analysis Of The Suspect: The Impact Of Economic Conditions On Crime, Ryan Perez

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Every place in the world experiences a level of crime within its borders, but there is much contention as to which factors lead to crime. Economic conditions, due to their association with poverty, are frequently discussed as a possible contributors to crime rates. This analysis examines four macroeconomic variables (GDP per capita, unemployment rate, inflation rate, and interest rate) and their effect on crime rates (violent, property, and total). After thoroughly reviewing the philosophical nature of crime, the current economic conditions through the lens of the selected macroeconomic variables, and the present criminal landscape throughout the United States and the …

Exploring Commons Governance, Nonprofit Commons Governance, And Convening Leadership In Nonprofit Organizations To Solve Complex Societal And Global Issues: A Qualitative Study, Patricia A. Clary

PhD in Organizational Leadership

Nonprofit organizations that operate independently without knowledge of effective governance principles and convening leadership through collective-action collaboration have less shared resources and philanthropic value to fulfill their organization’s mission. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic accentuated awareness of the need for nonprofit organizations and voluntary action associations to collaborate, leading to increased shared resources and philanthropic value through governance and convening leadership. The purpose of this study was to examine four design principles of commons governance (Ostrom, 1990), five nonprofit commons governance principles and assumptions (Lohmann, 1992), and five convening leadership dimensions (Clary, 2021) to understand how governance and convening leadership contribute …

Three Papers On Sell-Side Financial Analysts, Zheng Liu

2022

This first paper (co-authored) tests the effect of Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II), which entered into force on 3 January 2018, on European-based sell-side financial analysts. We find that MiFID II, in part, unbundles brokers’ execution and research services. We assess the effectiveness of MiFID II in unbundling and find that the trading volume generated by the brokers that issued recommendation revisions declined significantly after the enactment of MiFID II. Further, in addition to a smaller price reaction to EU broker analysts’ recommendation revisions in the post period than in the pre period, these broker analysts appear …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Corporate Financial Fragility In The Vietnamese Manufacturing Industry, Trang Nguyen

Honors Theses

In the past decades, under the government’s export-led growth strategy, the Vietnamese manufacturing sector – the backbone of the whole Vietnamese economy – has established a deep tie with the international market and the reliance on foreign buyers has fueled the growth of this sector before COVID-19. However, during the pandemic, when the global market contracted at -3.5 percent and demand slumped globally, this existing growth model and the manufacturing sector’s reliance on foreign buyers induced significant risks to this sector from both the demand and supply side. Using the firm-level data on 41 manufacturing exporting companies from the Vietstock …

Determining The Psychosocial Needs Of The Nurses Of Covid-19 Patients, Allison Stevens

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

Nurses are a vital element of the COVID-19 healthcare crisis and have been since the beginning of the COVID-19 response. The professional strain put on nurses included, but is not limited to: changing professional roles, rapidly changing policies and procedures, an influx of patients—particularly of high acuity, and change in workplace morale. However, nurses also had to carry the burdens of living as a member of society, family member, friend, community member, and above all, simply as a person surviving a pandemic themselves. With all of the stressors nurses have endured, it stands to reason that their psychosocial needs have …

Organizational Leadership In Funeral Homes During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lafonda L. Ehlers

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of this non-experimental, quantitative study was to describe the impact that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had on essential elements of organizational leadership in the funeral home industry. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey approach was utilized as this study was intended to be a stand-alone study to provide a snapshot of current organizational elements of funeral homes impacted after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. All the employees of a six-location, family-owned funeral home in the Midwest, with the exception of two employees the researcher had direct supervision over, were emailed a survey titled A Non-Experimental, Quantitative Study …

Covid-19: An Optimal Strategy To Resume Life With Safety And Economic Prosperity, Skyler Tate

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the world hard since the beginning of 2020, and the United States has certainly felt a negative impact. Many important aspects of life have been greatly altered by the pandemic, and this has resulted in a hindered economy. The purpose of this project was to determine if there is an optimal strategy with respect to policy and the economy that the United States could implement in order to mitigate the coronavirus. In order to determine this, I evaluated multiple aspects of the disease through a literature review. Upon review, I conducted a survey and performed …

Effects Of Covid: Non-Essential V Essential Industries, William Shipley

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

As the year 2020 has finally come to an end and the end of Covid is in near sight, it is important for us to look back at how it has shaped the world from an economic perspective. Ever since the closure of most of the U.S. and global economy in March 2020 it has made us deem which companies we consider essential and non-essential. This major decision came as all governments across the world had to close the operations of as many companies they could to limit the spread of the covid-19 virus. This major choice of determining what …

Covid-19: The Impact Of A Nation’S Political Economic Structure On Its Labor Market Spending Policies, Mary Margaret Baldy

Business and Economics Honors Papers

The onslaught of COVID-19 in March 2020 claimed the lives of millions and caused a global economic downturn marked by vast unemployment. Previous research has focused on how fiscal policy is utilized by advanced developed nations and their objectives with respect to fiscal policy. This paper aims to examine how a given nation’s labor market spending policies are impacted by its political economic structure. In order to delineate between and analyze the approaches of different political economic structures, this paper utilizes Nordic, Liberal, and Asian States constructs. In order to investigate the impact of political economic structure on labor market …

How Exemplary Industrial Production Managers Lead Successfully Through The Turbulence Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Wendi Fast

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover and describe behaviors that exemplary industrial production managers in organizations practice to lead their organizations through the turbulent times of COVID -19 using the leadership attributes of personal temperament, concern for the collective interest, resilience, and moral purpose.

Methodology: This qualitative study used a phenomenological research design. Data was collected from 10 interviews of industrial production managers and artifacts collected to discover and describe behaviors that industrial production managers in manufacturing organizations practice to lead their organizations through the turbulent times of the COVID-19 crisis.

Findings: The study revealed 27 …

How Exemplary Industrial Production Managers Lead Successfully Through The Turbulence Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Wendi Fast

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover and describe behaviors that exemplary industrial production managers in organizations practice to lead their organizations through the turbulent times of COVID -19 using the leadership attributes of personal temperament, concern for the collective interest, resilience, and moral purpose.

Methodology: This qualitative study used a phenomenological research design. Data was collected from 10 interviews of industrial production managers and artifacts collected to discover and describe behaviors that industrial production managers in manufacturing organizations practice to lead their organizations through the turbulent times of the COVID-19 crisis.

Findings: The study revealed 27 …

Analyzing Student Experience On Group Work With The Application Of Different Group Allocation Approaches, An Yee Tan

Management and HR

Working as a group can be as challenging as working by oneself. Common issues like ineffective group work, unequal work contribution, and poor communication are believed to be the reasons why many students preferred to work individually. The purpose of this study is to understand if there is a disparity in student experience on group work by implementing different methods of group formation, which are, intentional group formation and random assignment. Topics around team well-being, team communication, and team effectiveness are the main focus of this study. The second emphasis of this study is students’ opinions on whether or not …

Covid-19 And Work-Family Conflict: A Gendered Lens Required For Developing Organizational Benefits And Programs, Qendresa Isniqi

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted people's work and family lives. The work-family conflict has seen an increase with the onset of the pandemic as families have found themselves in complex roles such as family sustainers, teachers for their children, and family caregivers while quarantined with the same individuals for months. Concurrently there have been expectations grown from the employers to introduce effective programs or services to support employees so that an expected amount of productivity is maintained while also maintaining a sense of care for their employees. Some of the strategies suggested in the literature include flexible scheduling, leadership communication, …

Relationship Between Employee Perception Of Work Experience, Employee Perception Of Supervisors, And Intent To Leave, Kathryn F. Denning

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover can be costly; estimates for recruiting and training new hires are between 90% and 200% of the employee's annual salary. Understanding employee intent to leave is critical for managers to reduce turnover rates. Grounded in Herzberg’s two-factor model, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between federal government agency employees' perception of their work experience, employee perception of supervisors, and employee intent to leave. Secondary data from 359,120 completed surveys from the 2020 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) were analyzed. The results of the binary logistic regression were significant, X2 (359,120) = 17609.539, …

Relationship Between Employee Perception Of Work Experience, Employee Perception Of Supervisors, And Intent To Leave, Kathryn F. Denning

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover can be costly; estimates for recruiting and training new hires are between 90% and 200% of the employee's annual salary. Understanding employee intent to leave is critical for managers to reduce turnover rates. Grounded in Herzberg’s two-factor model, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between federal government agency employees' perception of their work experience, employee perception of supervisors, and employee intent to leave. Secondary data from 359,120 completed surveys from the 2020 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) were analyzed. The results of the binary logistic regression were significant, X2 (359,120) = 17609.539, …

Lived Experience Of Geographically Dispersed Employees In The Absence Of Shared-Air Organizational Interactions, Tommie Ann Saragas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of employees choosing an off-site employment option increased annually. During COVID-19-related work-life modifications, many organizations worldwide were required to transition to a geographically dispersed, off-site workforce. While some individuals may enjoy the flexibility, convenience, and work-life balance of a geographically dispersed position, there is a need for organizations and employees to explore how workers perceive social support, experience feeling valued by and connected with leaders and team members and are impacted by technology and virtual interactions for those who work wholly off-site or at such a distance that face-to-face organizational interactions are not …

Zoom In, Class Out: An Event Study On Publicly Traded Ed Tech Firm Valuations During Covid-19, Matiss Ozols

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines how publicly traded Ed Tech firms reacted to negative announcements regarding COVID-19. Using an event study method, I document how an international portfolio of Ed Tech firms react across multiple event windows. The results show that Ed Tech firms reacted positively to the announcement of the first US death and negatively to the World Health Organization’s declaration that COVID-19 was a pandemic. Additionally, differences in geographical location did not impact cumulative abnormal returns across event windows. Finally, firm-specific characteristics such as volatility and financial leverage had little or no significance on stock returns.

Market Structure And Quality Of Service: Investigating Oligopolies And The Quality Of Nursing Home Care In California During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Tessa Ireton

Senior Independent Study Theses

Quality-of-service outcomes in nursing homes are of great social and human importance. However, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, consistently maintaining markets with high quality care has been a pervading issue in the American nursing home industry. Furthermore, the industry is strongly characterized by oligopolies, a market structure that literature indicates may be less compatible with quality service than competitive markets. With this paper, I aim to investigate the possible intersection of oligopolist market structures and the quality of nursing home care during the COVID-19 pandemic. I start by describing quality of care in nursing homes, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, …

Small Business Risk In The Context Of A Pandemic: A Simulation, Ashlyn Sperry

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In this thesis, I consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small businesses, as they are acutely at risk due to the lack of implicit government insurance that would be available to larger corporations. I will discuss insurance's characteristics using the basic theory of insurance, analyze pandemic insurance's viability in the private market, and critique alternative solutions. While the theory suggests that pandemics are not insurable in the private market, I will perform specific analysis to determine if this is the case or not. Using a simulation of the economic landscape firms face, business owners with varying levels of …