Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Development Of A Resilience-Oriented Stress Management Group Intervention For Mothers Experiencing Homelessness, Lily Danielle Rowland

Theses and Dissertations

Family homelessness, particularly of mothers and their children, continues to remain an unfortunate epidemic throughout the United States. Personal, relational, and systemic adversity and trauma leave this population at high risk for instability, physical and mental health challenges, and impaired wellbeing. However, despite these difficulties, research strongly suggests that positive functioning can remain in families experiencing homelessness and that many go on to leave shelters and maintain stability, particularly when mothers have effective strategies to manage stress in contexts of adversity. In addition to identifying the needs of mothers experiencing homelessness, the literature also has highlighted factors of individual and …

Multi-Generation Family Business Succession At Mondial Printing Services In Nigeria: A Case Study, Titus Oyeladun

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative single case study examined the factors that contributed to the successful transition of Mondial Printing Services (MPS)—a family business in Nigeria—to the second generation. Secondly, this study investigated to what extent, if any, did formal succession planning impact the transfer of Mondial Printing Services from founder to second generation in Nigeria. And lastly this study investigated to what extent, if any, does succession experience of a second-generation family business leaders at MPS influence their approach to continuity and succession planning. This study analyzed qualitative data in the form of interviews from a sample population of five employees at …

An Evaluation Of A Transorganizational Development Process Promoting Positive Social Change, Erin Hall

Theses and Dissertations

Humanity's largest and most complex social problems are not going to be adequately addressed by one organization working alone. This study addressed two research questions: (1) what ingredients enable successful transorganization collaboration seeking positive social change? and (2) what roles does trust play? Using a case study methodology, participants and observers were interviewed. The data was analyzed using Ainsworth and Feyerhem's diagnostic model of transorganzational systems and Vangen and Huxham's trust-building and trust-sustaining theory. The findings emphasize the interdependence of transorganizational system (TS) design components and, in particular, of trust with each of the components.

Talent Investment And Nonprofit Pay: A Study In The Arts Community, Sally E. Loftis

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore employee perceptions of pay as part of a talent investment strategy at Penland School of Craft, the largest non-academic craft school in the United States. The study outlines action research completed when funds from a transformational endowment gift were used for employee needs. Study data reflected that structural and pay changes increased employee engagement. Study findings also informed recommendations for a nonprofit strategy to pay living wages connected to costs of living and a pay raise framework that supports different levels of employee development.

Assessing Best Practices For The Virtual Onboarding Of New Hires In The Technology Industry, Kaitlyn Pavlina

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the recent virtual onboarding experiences of new hires at companies in the technology industry. The present study sought to answer two research questions: to identify the current practices of technology companies for virtually onboarding new hires and to understanding the self-identified needs of recent new hires in this industry around virtual onboarding. The study found that tech companies focus most heavily on formal orientation sessions, one-on-one meetings, and group meetings when virtually onboarding new hires. Additionally, four key themes emerged when exploring what new hires find most important during virtual onboarding. This study details each of …

Developing Ei: Leadership Journeys In Emotional Intelligence, Erin Bric

Theses and Dissertations

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been deemed a critical competency for leaders in today's world. However, there is little information to help OD practitioners, leaders, and organizations understand how leaders can develop these skills in ways that meaningfully and positively impact their teams and organizations. This study examined the journeys of senior leaders as they developed their emotional intelligence. The study addressed two research questions: how leaders perceive they have developed their emotional intelligence throughout their lifetimes and how leaders are continuing to develop their emotional intelligence in their lives and careers. Key themes emerged out of leader interviews and were …

What Goes Into Successful Diversity And Inclusion Initiatives In Entertainment? Lessons From Advocates Of Creative Talent, Lindsey Sands

Theses and Dissertations

Entertainment offers a powerful medium in reducing bias and prejudice. Therefore, its critical role in shaping bias through on-screen representation needs to be explored through people who work directly with writers, directors, and actors. This qualitative study aimed to determine the impact of diversity and inclusion approaches by interviewing 14 advocates of creative talent in the entertainment industry. The study explored the types of Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) initiatives prevalent in entertainment, the correlation between bias and prejudice reduction, and the perceived impact of these initiatives in improving environments. The study found that six themes emerged: access to relationships, highlighting …

Love As An Organizational Norm: An Exploration At A Values-Centered Organization, Vangie Marie Bogaty-Rodríguez

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated to what extent, if any, developing a norm of love might be accepted, incorporated, sustained, and beneficial to an organization. Participants included 18 directors, manager, and supervisors of a 24-year-old telecommunications company located in Puerto Rico. Data were collected through individual interviews where interviewees shared their perspectives on the possibility of adopting the norm of love, their acceptance of it, and how they would implement it. Findings indicated that a majority (83.33%) of the participants acknowledged that love is part of the human essence and whole selves, and that such a norm would be beneficial to employees …

A Quantitative Descriptive Study Of The Self-Perception Of Southern Oregon Entrepreneurial Leaders, Rebecca Williams

Theses and Dissertations

The study helped to identify what are the leadership styles of adult entrepreneurs, and what if any factors contribute to an entrepreneurs' leadership style. The study focused on entrepreneurial leaders, over the age of 18, who own and started their own business. These entrepreneurs are a member of one of the following Southern Oregon-based business networking groups: Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc. (SOREDI), and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) of Southern Oregon. The study explored the self-perceived leadership styles of entrepreneurs in Southern Oregon through a quantitative descriptive survey method that utilized a 45-question, Likert scale from the …

Harry Potter And The Shy College Classroom Student: A Perceived Sense Of Belonging Through Social Identity And A Hogwarts House, Mickey D. Harrison Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines self-identifying shy college classroom students. Using social identity theory, identified shy students are studied based on their inclusion in a Hogwarts House from the Harry Potter book series. The purpose of this research is to examine how group identity can cultivate and create a sense of belonging for these students and lead them to academic and personal success. The stories shared by these shy learners reinforce the need and importance of belonging to a social identity group to strengthen an individual's sense of self and personal growth. This study encourages the use of a fictional social group—like …

Climate Change, Social Media, And Generation Z, Melanie Morris

Theses and Dissertations

Recent publications report that adults known as Generation Z, between the ages of 18 to 23, increasingly rely upon social media to gain knowledge of social issues. Given social media's embeddedness in Generation Z's life, this study sought to understand if or how social media has influenced and possibly empowered Generation Z to act on social issues, particularly global climate change. This study used a phenomenological research method, which focused on the commonality of Generation Z's lived experience. Emerging themes collected through a literature review and data portray Generation Z as maturing into adulthood as tech-savvy, diverse, and inclusive self-starters. …

Mutual Accountability And Its Impacts On Cross-Functional Teams, Lori E. Simms

Theses and Dissertations

The intent of cross-functional teams is to bring together diverse individuals of relevant functional expertise from across an organization to solve problems rapidly and efficiently. The difficulty with cross-functional teams is in establishing and maintaining mutual accountability because individuals come with their respective individual accountabilities and the methods for which those accountabilities were established. This qualitative study explored mutual accountability, how it is established, and its impact on cross-functional teams. Nine individuals participated in semi-structured interviews to explore how mutual accountability is established, barriers to establishing and maintaining it, and the impact of its presence or lack thereof on the …

Leading, Coaching, & Mentoring: A Study Of Coach-Athlete Relationships As Associated Factors In Performance, Katie D. Kamachi

Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on global leadership and change and competitive athletics. Servant leadership, including the five servant leadership variables; altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping, and organizational stewardship, as well coach athlete relationships, including the three coach-athlete relationship variables; closeness, commitment, and complementarity, were used to analyze athlete perceptions. This study then found correlations of the associated factors to outcome, at team and individual levels. Findings from this study include recognizing the commitment of the head coach as a factor in team mins; individual athlete perception of closeness as related to games started; the emotional healing aspects from the …

An Investigation Into Educational Employee Practices For Finding And Maintaining A Sense Of Meaning In Their Work, Elizabeth P. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed method study examined how educational employees in 3 public school districts in southeast Michigan make and/or create a sense of meaning in their work and sought to understand how relationships influence employee's sense of meaningfulness. Quantitative data collection came from a survey combining the Job Crafting Questionnaire (JCQ) and the Work and Meaning Index (WAMI). 266 employees completed the survey. Qualitative data collection included interviewing 17 employees with representation from each role category and each school district. This study found personnel working in the field of education in southeast Michigan find their work highly meaningful; and that relationships …

"Thanks For The Free Products! #Ad": The Effects Of The Number Of Followers And Sponsorship Disclosures On The Credibility Of Instagram Influencers, Allison Renee Cox

Theses and Dissertations

Instagram influencers regularly promote products for brands. Some influencers follow Federal Trade Commission rules on advertising disclosures, such as putting "ad" or "sponsored" in a visible line of text, whereas others do not. Disclosures alert users that they are viewing an ad. Many social media users view influencers as authentic, trusted information sources, so it is important they are aware when viewing paid ads. How disclosures affect source credibility remains unclear. This study used 2 x 2 factorial design to evaluate the roles of two possible credibility enhancing factors: number of followers and advertising disclosures. Instagram users (N = …

Homeless With Breast Cancer On Skid Row, Los Angeles: A Review Of Services For Women, Eva Dittrich

Theses and Dissertations

This study reviews the literature on breast cancer in general and narrows to within the context of the homeless population of Skid Row, Los Angeles, positing that the experience of breast cancer while homeless is a compounded traumatic experience with complex and numerous practical challenges. It poses the following question: What services are available to homeless women on Skid Row, Los Angeles, the information about which can be found online? Which and how many services are dedicated to breast cancer screenings and treatment? Are other types of cancer screening and treatment services advertised on the included service organizations' websites? A …

Systemic Barriers And Facilitators Of Help-Seeking And Highly Performing Individuals In Business And Sports, Jonathan N. Weller

Theses and Dissertations

The mental health and wellbeing of highly performing individuals in business and sport demands attention due to the high costs (personal and financial) that disruptions can create for these individuals and their organizations or teams. Utilizing 13 interviews with support professionals (e.g., executive coaches, psychologists), this study explored factors affecting help-seeking and wellbeing amongst high-performing athletes and executives, consequences of not seeking help, and similarities present in business and elite sports environments. Themes including stigma, career consequences, logistics, culture, and isolation of leadership were identified as factors inhibiting help-seeking and wellbeing. Service delivery factors, organizational resources and policies, and leadership …

Next Evolution Of Workforce Experiential Learning For 21st Century Global Access Learners, Jasmine D. Darnell

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid pace of technological innovations has created opportunities, but also made it difficult for higher education institutions to keep up with 21st Century workplace readiness skills for students. By the time students graduate from college and enter the workforce, many are lacking the skills and capabilities needed to be proficient in their job functions. These skill and capability gaps are even wider for global access learners, or online learners. Due to new entrants possessing skill and capability gaps, leaders in workforce development, typically housed in learning and development, talent management, or other human resources arm, have taken ownership of …

Advancing Leadership Consciousness: Integrity From The Inside Out, Jessica Plancich Shinners

Theses and Dissertations

A poll conducted by the World Economic Forum (2015) found that 86% of respondents perceive that we are facing a global leadership crisis. At the time of this study, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the global ecology in dramatic and widespread ways. In light of this uncertain political, economic, sociological, and ecological climate, humanity is in need of consistent and reliable ways of developing exemplary leaders. As society enters into massive technological advancement, leaders and collaborators are at risk of obsolescence if we do not find innovative ways to harness innate human capacities to advance consciousness and co-evolve with technology. …

Aviation Education Impacts On Cockpit Culture Of Chinese Student Pilots, Xiaoyu Wu, Yujia Liu, Terrence Kelly

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

The safety of the aviation industry heavily depends on the performance of pilots. A pilot with a good cockpit culture improves safety performance. However, a lack of understanding of how a well-established aviation program impacts student pilots’ cockpit culture regarding power distance, masculinity, individualism, and uncertainty avoidance. This study aimed to investigate the training effect on Chinese student perceptions regarding power distance, masculinity, individualism, and uncertainty avoidance, and its related variables. The study collected 726 Chinese student pilots and analyzed their cockpit culture based on the survey data. The study examined the academic tenure influences on cockpit culture variables within …

What Type Of Collegiate Pilot Is Likely To Experience Imposter Phenomenon?, Rian Mehta, Stephen Rice, Tianhua Li, Sadie Cooke, Ryan Lange, Morgan Black, Cynthia Smith, Mattie Milner, Scott R. Winter, Nadine Ragbir, Austin Vaughn

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Background: Imposter Syndrome (IS), also called Imposter Phenomenon (IP), has been studied in a variety of paradigms over the past few decades. However, IP is not a well-researched concept in the field of aviation, and no studies that we know of have examined this phenomenon with student pilots.

Method: Two hundred and forty-one student pilots were interviewed from two southeastern universities with flight schools. Participants were asked a series of questions about demographics, flight training, personality measures, self-efficacy, self-handicapping, and perceived organizational support. In addition, they responded to the Clance IP scale.

Results: A regression equation was …

Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms In Sexual And Non-Sexual Trauma: Comparisons On Symptom Severity, Disgust, And Contamination Concerns., Jaime Murtagh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A number of emotions have been identified as contributing to the experience of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), including fear and disgust. Given the high rates of comorbidity between PTSD and OCD, research has suggested that disgust may be a likely link between these disorders. The current study examined the relation between contamination disgust, trauma symptom severity, and contamination related-OCD (C-OCD) symptoms in a sample of sexual and non-sexual trauma survivors (N = 206). Specifically, it was proposed that sexual trauma survivors would endorse more severe PTSD symptoms, higher levels of disgust, and more C-OCD symptoms. …

Biography And Sociology: Berger On Religion As Choice Rather Than Fate, Samuel Heilman

Publications and Research

Is there a connection between biography and sociology for Peter Berger? The short answer, as demonstrated by his own memoir, Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist, is “yes.” But in his book, he traces this connection to his own arrival and training at the Graduate Faculty of the New School. I would like to suggest that the process begins earlier in his life. Known for his work on the sociology of knowledge, the examination of how “society influences thought,” I suggest an examination of how one’s biography influences thought, the environment in which Berger grew played a major role in his …

Optimizing Conservation Planning For Multiple Cohabiting Species, Yichen Wang, Qiaoling Fang, Sahan T.M. Dissanayake, Hayri Önal

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conservation planning often involves multiple species occupying large areas including habitat sites with varying characteristics. For a given amount of financial resources, designing a spatially coherent nature reserve system that provides the best possible protection to targeted species is an important ecological and economic problem. In this paper, we address this problem using optimization methods. Incorporating spatial criteria in an optimization framework considering spatial habitat needs of multiple species poses serious challenges because of modeling and computational complexities. We present a novel linear integer programming model to address this issue considering spatial contiguity and compactness of the reserved area. The …

Wage Differences Matter: An Experiment Of Social Comparison And Effort Provision When Wages Increase Or Decrease, Jose A. Rojas-Fallas, J. Forrest Williams

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wage rates, efficiency wages, and gift exchange in a labor market are all crucial aspects in regard to designing contracts to ensure high effort from workers. We extend this literature by discussing the relationship between known differences in wages (social comparison) and workers’ effort provision. We conduct an experiment in which subjects perform effort tasks for piece-rates. All subjects are paid the same wage rate in the first half of the experiment, but in the second half are paid different wage rates; the primary variable we study is the information about others’ wage rates given to a subset of subjects. …

Do Farmers Manage Weeds On Owned And Rented Land Differently? Evidence From U.S. Corn And Soybean Farms, George Frisvold, Joshua Albright, David Ervin, Micheal Owen, Jason Norsworthy, Katherine E. Dentzman, Terrance M. Hurley, Raymond A. Jussaume, Jeffrey Gunsolus, Wesley Everman

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

BACKGROUND

It has been frequently argued that growers have less incentive to manage the evolution and spread of herbicide‐resistant weeds on leased than on owned land. This is because resistance management provides long‐term rather than short‐term benefits that operators may be less assured of capturing on land they do not own. Yet, empirical evidence supporting this argument has been lacking.

RESULTS

This study reports on results from a large‐scale national survey of weed management and other crop production practices on US agricultural fields. Up to 11 weed management practices were compared across owner‐operated versus renter‐operated fields. Analysis of survey data …

Kenyan Media Trends And Predictions, Alex Awiti, Njoki Chege, Hesbon Owilla

Graduate School of Media and Communications

We asked some clever journalists and media practitioners to peer into their crystal balls and tell us what they think the future holds for the Kenyan media.

Our predictions are intended to highlight the views of thought leaders on the key challenges and opportunities in Kenya’s media industry. This report builds upon a deep introspection of 2019 while combining decades of journalistic experience to produce distilled predictions for this year. We interviewed 34 industry leaders who provided us with some forward-looking contributions on their expectations and predictions for Kenya’s media in 2020.

The media industry in Kenya has been struggling …

Ireland, Broadcasting And The Spectrum Wars, Kenneth W Murphy

Articles

This paper offers an overview and evaluation of Ireland’s changing media landscape through the prism of the recent policy contestation surrounding the future use of the UHF spectrum and it’s implications for the medium of television broadcasting. The article brings into focus current policy and governance developments and their interplay with market and technological change and how they are shaping a small open European state’s adaptation to the increasingly complex national/global hybrid media ecosystem. It examines the contexts surrounding the competition for spectrum resources and its implications for the role of free to air broadcasting and mobile broadband technologies in …

Re-Interpreting A Complex Maya Burial At Tutu Uitz Na, Justine Marie Bye

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

In 2017, John Walden led an excavation of the Tutu Uitz Na intermediate elite center, found in the Maya site of Lower Dover, Belize. He and his team uncovered two burials, designated SG1-BU2 and SG1-BU3. Their initial report claims that there were three individuals, all sacrificially bound and killed within an eastern triadic shrine. In 2019, Dr. Kirsten Green-Mink and Justine Bye, both of the University of Montana, re-analyzed the Tutu Uitz Na burials and performed a comprehensive bioarchaeological analysis. SG1-BU2 was found to contain three individuals – 2 adults and 1 subadult. SG1-BU3 contained one adult, likely of high …

Hiit-Ing The Books: University Student Time Allocation And Exercise, Teigan Nicole Avery

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

A growing body of economic literature examines irrational human behavior in a variety of contexts, including exercise habits (Duckworth and Milkman 2019). Based on this research, small interventions known as nudges have been introduced, sometimes significantly altering how individuals behave. This study focuses on a specific population’s behavior to nudge: university student’s exercise habits. Despite the benefits of physical exercise, such as a 40-50% reduction in all-cause mortality, only half of the students surveyed by this study met CDC suggested exercise requirement of 5 hours per week—5% responded that they do not exercise at all (Morris et al. 1953). This …