Organization Development Commons^™

Mission Adrift: The Impact Of Managerialism On Graduate Social Work Education, Carolyn Hanesworth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Neoliberal policies have led to the installation of managerialism, or the application of business practices and principles in institutions of higher education. Although much is known about the impact of managerialism on faculty in the overall academy, very little is known about its impact in specific disciplines, particularly in the United States. Using semi-structured interviews, this dissertation investigates how social work faculty experience and negotiate managerialism in the traditional pillars of teaching, service, and scholarship.

This study found that managerialism leads universities to place new and increased demands for productivity, efficiency, and accountability on social work faculty. Respondents report major …

Communication Competence Training Within Minority-Owned Small Businesses, Shirleena Racine Baggett

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Business ownership is imperative in correcting economic issues for demographic groups subjugated to discrimination, inequality, poverty, and other harmful disadvantages. This project supports the idea that building communication competence within minority-owned small businesses and nonprofit organizations, will significantly increase achievement of long-term sustainability and success. The solution is not only creating communication training tailored for minority entrepreneurs, but to allow access in feasible and tangible ways. This study begins by defining communication and explaining its function to assist in moving past the narrative of communication interaction as “talking and listening,” but instead a concept rooted in logic, theoretical analysis, and …

Identifying Key Constructs And Measurements To Assess The Situation Analysis Reports, Subrato K. Kuri, Karen A. Vines, Michael Lambur

Journal of Extension

Every five years, unit offices of Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) must submit a situation analysis (SA) report. The purpose of the SA report is to identify the current issues at the local level to develop future educational programs. The primary objective of this study was to develop a methodology that could be used to assess the quality of SA reports in Virginia. We have evaluated 196 SA reports from VCE to begin development of an assessment. Results of testing of the tool identify areas for continued development.

The Lived Experience Of African American Juvenile Parole And Probation Officers In The Pacific Northwest, Andre J. Lockett

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and better understand the lived experiences of African American juvenile parole and probation officers in the Pacific Northwest. I conducted semistructured interviews with four African American juvenile parole and probation officers using a transcendental phenomenological framework. This framework was further supported and guided by social identity theory, critical race theory, and person‒organization fit theory. Through detailed semistructured interviews, field notes, and artifacts; honest and thought-provoking insight was gathered about the experiences of African American juvenile parole and probation officers. Furthermore, interview data was coded and analyzed using ATLAS.ti (2020) and during …

The Most Important Cog In The System: A Case For Legislative Change To Drive Professionalisation, Stacey Webb, Brett A. Best

Journal of Interpretation

System theory (ST) explains how signal jamming (SJ) may impede or even reverse processes of professionalization, thereby having a detrimental impact on the quality of services clients receive. In the U.K., there are various metaphorical “cogs” in the Sign Language Interpreting (SLI) system. By applying ST to the profession, we can achieve a better understanding of the current landscape and identify ineffective cogs which potentially disrupt the smooth functioning of other cogs within the system. Improving system operations will result in improved services. We argue that an instigating and mandatory force—legislation—is the central cog that will drive more consistent signaling …

Goals, Power, And Culture: The Effects Of School Organizational Features On Parental Involvement, Vandeen A. Campbell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Drawing on organizational theory and the school effectiveness literature, this project incorporates new methodological approaches to the analysis of a national longitudinal data set (ECLS-K: 2011) in order to investigate ways in which school goals around parental involvement, distribution of power, and culture affect parental involvement in children’s education, especially in schools serving large proportions of lower socioeconomic status families.

Parental involvement is widely accepted among researchers and policymakers to be essential for students’ academic success; however, parents with lower socioeconomic status exhibit less participation in both home-based and school-based activities compared to those of higher socioeconomic backgrounds.

Many recent …

Holistic Student Development In Higher Education: Perspectives And Practices Of Holistic Student Development At A Public California University, Francisca Ann Crutchfield

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Within traditional American public colleges and universities, there is an emphasis on academic student success within the structures and values of educational programs, and the lack of a holistic approach to higher education may be negatively impacting college student development and well-being. By balancing academic knowledge with other areas of knowledge, including a heightened sense of community and mental and emotional well-being, higher education can cultivate students who apply their skills with reduced stress, a sense of belonging, and freedom of expression. This qualitative phenomenological study seeks to identify characteristics, educational priorities, and programming approaches of university student service programs …

Rising Above The Adobe Ceiling: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of Mentoring And Social Capital Influences Among California Latina Nonprofit Leaders, Belinda Hernandez

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Empirical research studies that focus on the experiences of Latinas in executive leadership are limited. In its entirety, workforce research has overlooked how social and cultural experiences influence this group’s leadership development. This gap in research has failed to uplift the Latina executive voice and their achievements. Addressing this gap has the potential to influence distinctive workforce practices and future scholarship. Utilizing an asset-based perspective, this study presents counter narratives that intentionally focus on exploring Latina leaders’ voices. The importance of intersectional experience and social identities illustrate non-monolithic, yet aligned, experiences among study participants.

This foundational dissertation explored mentoring phenomena …

Career Funneling, Perceptions Of Success, And Their Impact On College Students At Scripps, Pitzer, And Claremont Mckenna Colleges, Carina A. Schick

Scripps Senior Theses

The U.S. News top college ranking lists have created a narrowing definition of collegiate and career success. Students are told an elite education is the ticket to a successful life, one filled with a high achieving career, meaning, and happiness. Through peer, familial, and media interfaces students are inundated with societal definitions of success such as fame, wealth, and status. Socialization primes adolescents to work towards these goals. This idealized type of success is only accessible to a select few, leading to dissatisfaction and creating pressures on students to work towards their college admission at early ages. This thesis examines …

Managing The Affective Responses Of Employees During Organizational Change In Higher Education, Brad Kennington

Theses and Dissertations

Higher education is facing a period of continual change driven by numerous external and internal forces. Consequently, higher education leaders are faced with the frequent and daunting task of planning and managing organizational change in higher education institutions, which are both complex and dynamic in nature. Adding difficulty to this task is the fact that employees often react to change with emotional responses that are both challenging to understand and complicated and to manage. Managing affective dimensions of change can be overwhelming to leaders, which can lead to failed organizational change efforts. This study explored and answered (a) how a …

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 …

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 …

Open University Of Nepal Initiative Lessons Learned From Designing An Institution Of Higher Learning, Pramod Dhakal, Drona P. Rasali, Ambika P. Adhikari, Raju Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

A group of Nepali diaspora members, represented by the Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA), started a campaign in 2009 to establish the Open University of Nepal (OUN) in partnership with the government of Nepal. Their motivation was to develop a quality university for the masses by mobilizing local, diaspora, and international collaborators for producing and disseminating knowledge in the public domain. The university was subsequently established in 2017 but it drifted away from many of the original objectives. Most critically, it embraced distance education as its central function while setting aside the aspiration of producing and sharing knowledge under the public …

Designing Leadership: Using Design Thinking To Create, Practices, And Implement A Formal Leadership Development Program, Jon Samuel Wedding

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine what happens when design thinking is used to create a leadership development program, increase leadership competencies, and participants perceptions of design thinking. This study uses action research to examine the experiences and design thinking to create a leadership program in a formal hierarchical. This study collected data during a two-cycle action research process. The findings from this study revealed that design thinking can be used to create a formal leadership development program. The ability to use design thinking’s human centered design can also help increase the leadership competencies of trust and collaborations. …

Mandatory Busing And Desegregation: Wichita, 1954 – 1999, Pilar Pedraza-Bailey

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Wichita opened its first officially integrated school in 1954. Yet, by 1965, approximately 85% of schools in Wichita were predominantly white. After a 1966 complaint to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) and a protracted legal battle, a federal administrative judge ordered the district to come up with a plan for integration or lose federal funding in 1971. The resulting mandatory busing plan remained in effect in Wichita for more than 40 years. Yet, in 2016, nine years after the official end of mandatory busing in Wichita, 25% of the city’s schools had already returned to what the …

Social Media In Baptist Churches, Robin Rogers

Dissertations

The integration of social media into Chicago Baptist Churches congregants recently increased over the last few years. This research study allowed church leaders to determine if social media was an effective media outlet in Baptist churches on the Southside of Chicago. The evaluation research approach was to assess the effectiveness of social media, in particular Facebook and Instagram. Within this conceptual framework, the researcher was able to produced flexible, fixed, and multi-design strategies to abstract a full spectrum of evaluation. The subsequent methodology focused on the dual use of social media and themes that coincide, specifically, marketing, politics, communication awareness, …

Faculty Senates And College Presidents: Perspectives On Collaborations, Daniel P. Nadler, Michael T. Miller, Eid Abo Hamza, G. David Gearhart

Journal of Research on the College President

Colleges and universities have historically provided faculty members access to sharing authority, and this has been manifest in recent decades through the creation and use of a formal body called a faculty senate. These formal bodies have at times been highly effective at articulating faculty member interests, yet there are few formal definitions or boundaries concerning what areas senates are most appropriately engaged. College presidents similarly recognize that senates have a role in institutional decision-making, yet often lack a clear understanding of where and how they should be engaged. The current study explored faculty senate leader and college president perceptions …

Enablers And Barriers Influencing African American Administrators’ Career Advancement At Predominantly White Institutions Of Higher Learning, Larry Webster

Dissertations

Many Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) of higher learning do not have enough African Americans to lead their institutions in curriculum development, mentoring, recruitment, and governance (Reyes & Rios, 2005). Previous studies have attributed the modest representation of African American administrators to systemic barriers impeding the recruitment and advancement of African Americans at PWIs of higher learning (Jones, 2007; Perna, Gerald, Baum, & Milem, 2007). Ideally, the administrative leadership at PWIs of higher learning would adequately represent—ethnically and racially—its student population (Higgs, 2014). Levin, Walker, Haberler, and Jackson–Boothby (2013) suggest minimal progress in hiring African American administrators at PWIs of higher …

Sensemaking In The Process Of Inquiry: A Qualitative Case Study Of A Networked Improvement Community, Bethany Fillers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There are persistent and pervasive issues plaguing American education, and almost seventy years of educational reform efforts have failed to adequately improve educational outcomes for many of America’s children. Networked improvement communities (or NICs) are a type of social organization created to address such problems and are proposed as an effective and efficient way to organize improvement efforts. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the sensemaking experience of a newly-formed networked improvement community as members engaged in inquiry around a chosen problem of practice. During network initiation, NIC members engage in experiences to collaboratively identify and …

The Importance Of Leadership Motivational Activities In Encouraging International Students To Return To Their Tier 1 Universities, Eric Hall

Dissertations

Abstract

The problem is international students are not returning to their undergraduate Tier 1 institutions during a period when quality student enrollment is essential, and there is scant research on academic advising strategies that can be used to combat international student attrition at these universities (O’Keefe, 2013). Studies have often lumped all international students together and made efforts to attract more international students, but the reasons why international students chose research universities, and returned, were not being investigated in this manner (Hegarty, 2014).

The purpose of this proposed study was to gain an understanding of the decision-making and reasoning processes …

Bridging The Gender Gap: Women In Stem Management, Kathryn Skeeters

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to study the current effects of training and accommodations on women in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields. Currently, there is a lack of women at the senior levels in the STEM field. This study evaluates the current literature as well as the personal experiences of 14 subjects. This information was collected through interviews. No personal data besides gender and age is communicated in the paper, with company names and signifiers removed. With the information gleaned from this research, the study evaluates the current programs and assesses a path forward. The assumption from …

Teacher Perceptions Of Environmental Science In Rural Northwestern New Mexico Public Schools, Marie Quiahuitl Julienne

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

In this study, I explored what teachers perceive as the factors that impact their teaching of environmental science in rural secondary level schools in northwestern New Mexico. I adapted Bronfenbrenner’s (1994) ecological systems model, based on four environmental subsystem levels (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem), as the conceptual framework to address the major research question of this study, and developed 18 interview questions to explore teachers’ perceptions of factors that influence their teaching of environmental science. I investigated the perspectives science teachers have about environmental science topics and the influences they perceive that affect how they teach environmental science, and …

The Impact Organizational Factors Have On Role Ambiguity Amongst School Social Workers, Melissa Kichura

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore what organizational factors increase or decrease role ambiguity amongst school social workers. This study attempted to provide practical information for schools on the influence of specific organizational factors on role ambiguity so that they can provide a supportive work environment for school social workers and students. A cross-sectional survey design was used to provide a snapshot of the current organizational factors impacting the ambiguity of school social work roles from a sample of 73 members of the School Social Work Association of America. Some findings were not congruent with the literature. The …

How Professional Physical Therapist Education Programs Develop Cultural Competence Within Their Students: An Exploratory Concurrent Mixed Methods Study, Dustin E. Domingo

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory concurrent mixed methods study was to describe experiences that shape the factors of cultural intelligence (CQ) as perceived by students of professional physical therapist education programs. In addition, it was the purpose of this study to determine whether any particular factor of cultural intelligence influenced one’s overall cultural competence according to the cultural competence continuum by Cross et al. (1989).

Methodology: Students in a professional physical therapist education program completed a questionnaire, which included Likert scale questions, open ended questions, and a 37-item self-assessment based on the expanded cultural intelligence scale by Van Dyne …

Crisis Leadership And Management Of Superintendents During The 2017-18 California Wildfires, Dianna Kitamura

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods heuristic research study was to discover how school superintendents described their crisis leadership and management experiences during the 2017-2018 wildfires in California through the lens of the Five Critical Tasks of Strategic Crisis Leadership framework of sense making, meaning making, decision-making and coordination, learning, accounting (Boin, 't Hart, Stern, & Sundelius, 2017). Additionally, this study determined the extent to which school superintendents identify their use of the Five Critical Tasks of Strateby Dianna W. Kitamuragic Crisis Leadership framework.

Methodology: This explanatory, sequential mixed methods heuristic research study investigated a quantitative survey and qualitative …

Student Success And Retention From The Perspectives Of Engineering Students And Faculty, Amy Chan-Hilton

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

Student retention and success is a complex issue, with many factors that impact an individual student’s retention and these factors varying across all of our students. At the University of Southern Indiana (USI), efforts within engineering, as well as across the college and university, have included intentional academic support services (such as expanded advising and tutoring services) and student development programs and extracurricular activities to foster student communities and a student’s sense of belonging. In addition, evidence indicates that implementing curricular changes across an engineering program and within specific courses, such as implementing active learning, instructional innovations, and high-impact practices, …

Maximizing Nvivo Utilities To Analyze Open-Ended Responses, Xiaoying Feng, Linda Behar-Horenstein

The Qualitative Report

Open-ended responses are widely used to explore and understand participants’ experiences and perspectives in a variety of fields. As one of the most powerful computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, NVivo allows researchers to analyze open-ended responses to survey and/or interview questions, as well as other text data like reflective writing, image, and videos. The purpose of this paper is to describe and demonstrate how the NVivo word frequency, text search, and matrix coding features can be used to analyze qualitative data from a longitudinal evaluation project. The authors show how the matrix coding feature maximizes NVivo utilities in an analysis …

Design For Living Complexities, Peter J. Taylor

Working Papers in Critical, Creative and Reflective Practice

Lectures from a 12-session course that addresses the intersection of design with critical thinking. Design in this course means intentionality in construction, which involves a range of materials, a sequence of steps, and principles that inform the choice of materials and the steps. Design also always involves putting people, as well as materials, into place. This happens by working with the known properties of people, as well as the known properties of material, and trying out new arrangements to work around their constraints (at least temporarily). Critical thinking, as I define it, involves understanding ideas and practices better when we …

Exploring The Impact Of Diversity Training On The Development And Application Of Cultural Competence Skills In Higher Education Professionals, Kendra Cabler

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years the terms diversity and inclusion have become major buzzwords across industries and fields of study. Within the field of education broadly, and higher education in particular, a shifting student demographic can be seen across the country. Issues of equity and inclusion have become central complexities for present day educational strategists, and organizations committed to cultivating a culture of inclusion must do so with intentionality. In the context of higher education, this often requires the intentional development of professionals within a particular college or university. There has been a great deal of research concerning the development of cultural …

Global Aviation System: Towards Sustainable Development, Marina P. Bonser Dr.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Aviation around the world has integrated into a global system. As the integration process continues, more aspects and levels of it need to be lead towards the sustainable development of the whole system via advancing strategic management, global communication proficiency, and technological expertise. It becomes essential to enrich global language (English) proficiency with cross-cultural communication competence not only for communication in the air but also for airport security, passenger and cargo services, aircraft and equipage engineering, building, and maintenance. Nowadays lower levels of management need more advanced strategic thinking and problem solving skills, and higher levels of management need global …