Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Inside Story: An Arts-Based Exploration Of The Creative Process Of The Storyteller As Leader, Heather Forest

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Storytelling is one of humanity's oldest art forms and an enduring educational method. Stories can spark social change. Although storytelling is tacitly recognized in diverse social science domains as a communication medium used to powerfully transmit leadership vision and ideas, little empirical research has been reported about how a teller constructs and tells a story. Through qualitative, arts-based methods, this heuristic study examines and describes the lived experience of a storyteller composing and performing a tale on issues of peace, justice, and social change. It reflects on the teller as leader and identifies a palette of arts-based skills for change …

Organizational Trauma: A Phenomenological Study Of Leaders In Traumatized Organizations, Shana D. Lynn Hormann

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

While some organizations die when trauma erupts, others do not succumb. They live and even thrive. The purpose of this study was two-fold: 1. To learn from leaders their perspectives about key conditions that allow organizations to withstand and heal from organizational trauma; and, 2. To inform practice about building and strengthening these conditions in organizations. Participants were leaders who led their organizations during an organizational trauma or who came into programs after the trauma occurred to facilitate recovery. Nine executive directors for sexual assault programs participated in this hermeneutic phenomenological study, sharing their experiences and reflections. Two composite depictions …

Utilizing Focus Groups To Evaluate An Information Literacy Program In A General Biology Course, Betsy S. Hopkins

Faculty Publications

The Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University (BYU) recently implemented a number of information literacy strategies to help students in Biology 100, a large general education class, find resources for their term assignment. The library's services for Biology 100 students were evaluated using focus groups composed of both teaching assistants and students. This paper will describe the class and the assignment, discuss the impact the class had on library staff, detail the efforts of the staff to meet the needs of Biology 100 students, and present results of focus groups used to evaluate the library's outreach and teaching …

A Communicative Theory Of Leadership Practice, Kathryn Ann Gaines

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Addressing three problems in the field of leadership studies - fragmentation across disciplines; emphasis on individual leaders in titled positions; failure to identify a coherent set of actions for performing leadership - this study develops a framework of core communicative leadership practices. It is premised on a philosophical analysis of leadership as a social strategy for securing action in service of interests claimed by or for a community - an action performed intentionally via symbolic behavior accessible to any and all members of a community. This definition serves as a heuristic for the development of a systematic theory of leadership …

A Theory Of Curriculum Development In The Professions: An Integration Of Mezirow's Transformative Learning Theory With Schwab's Deliberative Curriculum Theory, Shelley Ann Chapman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

A hundred years ago, the problem with professional education was that it lacked a sound scientific foundation and opportunities for clinical practice. Throughout the past three decades, discussions on graduate professional education have focused on how to improve the theory/practice continuum, either through new formats or strategies, or by emphasizing one over the other. However, with the new century, new problems have emerged within the professional education arena. This dissertation has focused on two main problems in graduate professional education in the early 21st century: students are focusing too much on technical expertise and not enough on becoming transformed into …

A Community-Based Social Marketing Campaign To Green The Offices At Pacific University: Recycling, Paper Reduction, And Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, Elaine Janet Cole

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study describes a community-based social marketing (CBSM) research project to bring awareness and behavior change around paper reduction, recycling, and purchasing of environmentally preferred products (EPP) at a small liberal arts university in the Pacific Northwest. A university-wide green office campaign was designed and implemented over a semester. Components of the multiple methods research study were pre-post surveys, purchasing reports, a recycling study, and a waste audit. The results provide examples and insights into specific community-based social marketing tools that helped foster environmental behavior change. The paper also presents suggestions for future CBSM sustainability efforts at other universities. The …

Finding George Bailey: Wonderful Leaders, Wonderful Lives, Mark Light

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

He is underpaid and overworked, his organization lives from payroll to payroll with an overtaxed and underpowered staff and a contentious board of directors. He sacrifices for the mission, but is frustrated about forgone personal dreams. He is George Bailey, the central character in Frank Capra's film It's a Wonderful Life and he practices Leadership for Good by being a mission centered, visionary, results driven, and adaptive difference maker. Through a construct-building non-generalizable mixed methods study with two concurrent, but independent phases—instrumental case study and Delphi—this study searched for real-life Baileys, to test whether or not Leadership for Good extends …

Inside Outsourcing: A Grounded Theory Of Relationship Formation Within A Nascent Service System, Lisa Dell Kreeger

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The theory of relationship formation developed in this study tells a coherent story about the relational work of service initiation in technology outsourcing. The study is focused on the contractually defined period of time at the beginning of outsourcing service delivery. As with a play-within-a-play, this work goes on primarily behind the scenes, away from the concurrent task of launching the inter-firm relationship between the client and the provider that will extend for the term of the full contract. This grounded theory study was completed over an eight-month period. The findings are grounded in interviews with 25 individuals who were …

Gathering Around The Organizational Campfire: Storytelling As A Way Of Maintaining And Changing For-Profit Organizational Cultures, Steven Austin Stovall

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Stories abound in the business world. They may be called "success stories," "best practices sharing," or even simply "stories," but however they are referred to, these tales not only become part of the organizational culture, but they also help define it. This study examines storytelling among for-profit organizations to demonstrate how stories are selected, told, and related to employees for the purposes of either changing the organizational culture or helping to maintain the existing one. Four companies have been chosen to capture the nature of storytelling as it relates to the sharing of cultural information within these firms. Using the …

Gvsu Undergraduate And Graduate Catalog, 2007-2008, Grand Valley State University

Course Catalogs, 1963 - Current

Grand Valley State University 2007-2008 undergraduate and/or graduate course catalog published annually to provide students with information and guidance for enrollment.

World Economic Prospects [Book Review], Leticia Camacho

Faculty Publications

Companies are entering the world market knowing that current global economic conditions are pivotal to their future success. Understanding internal conditions and existing challenges in a target country are as important as knowing whether a product has export potential. This publication explores global economic performance, major challenges, and other issues that could play a vital role in the success or failure of a company’s efforts at globalization.

Population Outlook For The Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Region, George C. Hough Jr., Amy Koski

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

While many people both inside and outside Oregon envision the state as a place of picturesque coastal bluffs, mountain ranges, the Columbia River Gorge, and oldgrowth forests, the population is primarily urban. It has been for many decades. In 2000, three-quarters of Oregon’s 3.4 million residents lived in towns and cities. Almost one-half of Oregon’s population lived in the metropolitan Portland area. This paper offers an overview of population dynamics in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area, which includes five of Oregon’s thirty-six counties–Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill–and Clark County in the state of Washington. It refers to the “metropolitan Portland-Vancouver …

Ecological Landscapes : Connecting Neighborhood To City And City To Region, Michael C. Houck, Jim M. Labbe

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

While many factors are unique to communities on both sides of the Columbia River, our local and regional landscapes unite us and provide a shared sense of place. Bald eagles from the headwaters of the Tualatin basin are just as likely to forage in the Vancouver Lake lowlands as on Sauvie Island. Proximity to the Columbia Gorge, coast, high desert, and the Cascades adds to the region’s mystique and quality of life. But it’s the more proximate landscapes, those within our immediate radius of reach, that we treasure most. What matters most to the region’s residents are their streetscapes, neighborhood …

Microclimates In The Portland-Vancouver Regional Economy, Sheila A. Martin

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Portland-Vancouver operates as a regional market for labor, housing, entertainment, and a broad range of goods and services. The 2006 Regional Business Plan was developed with the understanding that each part of our region is linked economically and that the economic performance of each community depends on the success of its neighbors. Nevertheless, the region is not economically homogeneous. Each community demonstrates specific industry concentrations. These concentrations are driven by factors that encourage similar or linked businesses to locate near one another. And population demographics vary, affecting each sub-region's economic performance as our workforce travels throughout the region to find …

City Of Longview Cultural Assessment: Employee Survey Report, Masami Nishishiba, Jun Suzuki, Pachida Lo

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

This report summarizes the result of the cultural assessment employee survey administered in April 2007 to all City of Longview employees. Responses were obtained from 235 people (response rate 67%).

The survey results include the following key findings:

* Average scores indicate that employees generally support diversity and understand the importance of diversity in the workplace.

* On average, employees rated departmental support and understanding toward diversity lower than their personal support.

* Average scores on the level of comfort discussing diversity-related issues was somewhat lower than other scores. Some people expressed that they do not feel comfortable speaking up …

The Latino Caregiver Experience Among Dementia And Non-Dementia Caregivers : Can Community Based Care Management Improve Caregiver Health?, Catherine Oliveros

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Purpose: This study provides an analysis of the Latino caregiving community in Southeast Texas and the role community based care management plays in influencing caregiver physical and emotional well-being. Design and Methods: A non-random sample of 63 Latino caregivers was interviewed by phone. Caregiver physical and emotional well-being was studied through burden, depression, perceived health status, and resourcefulness. Regression, correlation, and comparison analysis was performed with key variables. Results: Acculturation was positively correlated with care management use. In comparing dementia and non-dementia caregivers both groups had similar levels of depression and burden, however, the dementia group had significantly lower levels …

Effect Of The Consumption Of Farm Animals On The Diet And Hemoglobin Levels Of School Age Children In The Rural Communities Of Topo, Imbabura, Gualabi, Calpaqui, And Compania Of The Imbabura Province, Alexandra Echeverría

Theses and Dissertations

This research addressed malnutrition in the villages of Topo, Imbabura, Gualabí, Calpaquí and Compañía in the city Otavalo, which is in the Province of Imbaura, Ecuador. The research determined the effects of consumption of small-animals on the diet and hemoglobin levels in school aged boys and girls. This study involved 311 indigenous children between 6 and 12 years of age. Following parental authorization, blood tests and fecal samples were taken from each child to analyze hemoglobin and parasites. Additional information gathered from this study group included a socio-economic survey, frequency of food consumption, 24 hour inventory, animal production, and basic …

Jumpstart Inc: Economic Impact On Northeast Ohio, Ziona Austrian

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This research note estimates the economic impact resulting from JumpStart Inc. investment in start-up companies in Northeast Ohio. JumpStart is a business development organization or, more specifically a venture-development organization that funds high-growth businesses and ideas, works with their founders to develop the businesses into venture-ready entities, and celebrates Northeast Ohio's early-stage company successes.

Reemployment And Earnings Recovery Among Older Unemployment Insurance Claimants, Christopher J. O'Leary, Randall W. Eberts

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The rate of involuntary job loss among older workers has increased in recent years. Previous research has found that after job separation older workers take longer to get back in jobs, and experience bigger earnings declines than younger prime age workers. These studies were based on surveys targeted at older and dislocated workers, which rely on retrospective interviews of strategic samples from the general labor force. Previous studies have not explicitly accounted for the availability of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits between jobs. This paper compares the adjustment to involuntary unemployment of older and younger prime age UI claimants, using a …

Ownership And Wages: Estimating Public-Private And Foreign-Domestic Differentials With Leed From Hungary, 1986-2003, John S. Earle, Álmos Telegdy

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

How do state, domestic, private, and foreign ownership of firms differ in average wages? We address these questions using linked employer-employee panel data containing 1.35mln worker-year observations for 21,238 firms from 1986 to 2003 in Hungary. Our econometric methods exploit the long panel together with the presence of 3,700 switches of ownership type in the postsocialist Hungarian transition to estimate these wage differentials.

The Use Of Context-Free Grammars In Isolated Word Recognition, Chaiyaporn Chirathamjaree

Research outputs pre 2011

A method using nonrecursive context-free grammars is presented for the recognition of isolated words. Some form of 'training' is required to combat problems of variations in speech. In the training mode, one grammar for each word in the vocabulary is constructed directly from a set of sample strings of 'features' represented by symbols. In the recognition mode, an incoming string is analyzed to determine which grammar, if any, could have generated it. The word corresponding to such grammar is then said to have been recognized.

A Monetary Union In East Asia: What Does The Common Cycles Approach Tell?, K Sato, David E. Allen, Zhaoyong Zhang

Research outputs pre 2011

There is controversy about whether a monetary union is feasible in the East Asian region. Amongst the criteria for establishing a monetary union, most of the existing studies focus on the symmetric issue of fundamental shocks and the extent of correlations by applying the Blanchard and Quah (1989) structural vector autoregression (VAR) technique, which includes the firstdifferenced variables in the model and examines only bilateral relationships. When forming a monetary union, the member countries need to renounce their monetary policy autonomy. If shocks to respective economies are symmetric, the cost of relinquishing the discretionary monetary policy is likely to be …

Istart 2: Improvements For Efficiency And Effectiveness, Irwin B. Levinstein, Chutima Boonthum, Srinivasa P. Pillarisetti, Courtney Bell, Danielle S. Mcnamara

Computer Science Faculty Publications

iSTART (interactive strategy training for active reading and thinking) is a Web-based reading strategy trainer that develops students' ability to self-explain difficult text as a means to improving reading comprehension. Its curriculum consists of modules presented interactively by pedagogical agents: an introduction to the basics of using reading strategies in the context of self-explanation, a demonstration of self-explanation, and a practice module in which the trainee generates self-explanations with feedback on the quality of reading strategies contained in the self-explanations. We discuss the objectives that guided the development of the second version of iSTART toward the goals of increased efficiency …

Assessing The Format Of The Presentation Of Text In Developing A Reading Strategy Assessment Tool (R-Sat), Sara Gilliam, Joseph P. Magliano, Keith K. Millis, Irwin Levinstein, Chutima Boonthum

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We are constructing a new computerized test of reading comprehension called the Reading Strategy Assessment Tool (R-SAT). R-SAT elicits and analyzes verbal protocols that readers generate in response to questions as they read texts. We examined whether the amount of information available to the reader when reading and answering questions influenced the extent to which R-SAT accounts for comprehension. We found that R-SAT was most predictive of comprehension when the readers did not have access to the text as they answered questions.

Great And Little Traditions: A Framework For Studying Cultural Interaction Through The Ages In Jordan, Oystein S. Labianca

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Validation Of The Suicide Resilience Inventory-25 (Sri-25) With African American High School Students, Stephanie Elizabeth Gantt

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Suicide is the cause of death for nearly 30,000 deaths per year in the United States (Henkel, 2005). Studies show that rates of suicide have increased dramatically among African Americans ages 10-19 years, yet the overall suicide rate of African American adolescents is still lower than that of their Caucasian counterparts (Gould & Kramer, 2001 ; Greening & Stoppelbein, 2002). Some researchers have begun to study protective factors, particularly resilience, as one of the factors that should be maximized to reduce the rate of adolescent suicidal thoughts and behaviors. In particular, resiliency is an adaptive, stress-resistant personal quality that allows …

Surviving Katrina: A Qualitative Narrative Inquiry, Farren Keith Clark

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Using ethnographic methodology, the experiences, opinions, emotions and interaction of 12 participants of different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds who survived Hurricane Katrina were explored through the analysis of their narratives. Narratives were analyzed through interactive interviews that were transcribed and organized by themes. Both family group and individual interviews were conducted and supported by field notes. Inquiry was focused upon the experiences of Katrina survivors before, during and after the storm made landfall in order to explore how survivors characterized their lives in the face of disaster. Participants described the powerful impact Katrina made upon their family's lives following an …

Hegemonic Masculinity Within Television Commercials, Jonathan A. Hutchins

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study examines the portrayal of masculinity and the socialization patterns that can be found within television commercials. Television commercials' depiction of social members and their roles act as guides for social members in which they desire to portray during day to day social interactions and situations. Social members are generally unaware of this social phenomenon because they take for granted their social world and the logistics within it. While television commercials aim to create and encourage consumption, the purchasing of a product, service or event, television commercials also create and encourage social members to believe that these advertised items …

The Effects Of Facial Attractiveness, Weight, And Immediacy On Social Influence: A Test Of Dynamic Social Impact, Melinda Bullock

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Social impact theory (Latane, 1981) explains social influence as a multiplicative function of strength, immediacy, and number. Dynamic social impact theory (Latane, 1996a) states that four phenomena occur as a result of social influence: a) clustering (those living close together have similar attitudes), b) correlation (once unrelated attitudes become associated), c) consolidation (reduction in overall attitude variance), and d) continuing diversity (in spite of social influence attitudes diversity persists). This study used these two theories to examine how facial attractiveness, weight, and immediacy affect social influence. It. was expected that clustering, correlation, and consolidation would occur to a greater extent …

Memory And Hypnotism In Wagner's Musical Discourse, Jonathan C. Gentry

Dissertations and Theses

A rich relationship unites the composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) and the history of psychology, especially if one considers his attempt to make music speak with the clarity of verbal language. Wagner's musical discourse participated in the development of psychology in the nineteenth century in three distinct areas. First, Wagner shared in the non-reductive materialist discourse on mind that characterized many of the thinkers who made psychology into an autonomous intellectual pursuit. Second, Wagner's theories and theatrical productions directly influenced two important psychologists - Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932). Finally, the experiences of music achieved by Wagner at …