Organization Development Commons^™

Frontline Focus: A Nurse Manager's Employee Engagement Toolkit, Christen Straw

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Abstract

Average hospital turnover rates in the US reached 18.2% in 2017. Turnover rates for registered nurses (RNs) were also at an all-time high of 16.8%. RN turnover can cost up to $61,100 per nurse resulting in the average hospital loss of $5.7 million per year (NSI, 2018). Employee engagement and job satisfaction levels are predictors of nursing turnover and patient outcomes and should be a top priority for nurse leaders. A disengaged workforce not only affects team morale and organizational spending, but it also impacts the quality of patient care. Multiple studies suggest that employee engagement is the number …

Root Cause Analysis To Improve Incident Reporting In An Ambulatory Care Setting, Lisa Ann Duncan

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Problem: The subject organization (SO) is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) with an internally developed incident reporting system. The SO wanted to improve patient and employee safety using data from incident reports, but the incident reporting system did not give enough information to recognize patterns and develop countermeasures.

Context: Supervisors welcomed the opportunity to learn more about incident report follow-up and conducting root cause analysis (RCA). Members of the Safety Committee were eager for data to use to develop countermeasures to improve patient and employee safety. Decreases in employee injuries can save the SO from increases in the …

The Spirit Is Willing, But The Flesh Is Weak: Contemporary Pan-Africanism And The Challenges To A United States Of Africa, Adesola Adeyemo

Master's Theses

Establishing a ‘United States of Africa’ to the average individual is deemed as a mythical idea in contemporary Africa, irrespective of the popularity of this idea several years ago. Today, the idea is idealized as overambitious – considering the balkanized state of the continent post-colonialization. Because of this, attempts made since then have favored enforcing regional integration over continental integration. Undeniably, this idea would not have come into being if it wasn’t for the concept of Pan-Africanism - which has for long guided the political and socio-economic policies created on the continent. The goal of this research is …

A Discourse Analysis Of Diversity And Inclusion Terminology In The High-Tech Industry, Michelle Nader

Master's Theses

The field of Diversity and Inclusion is a growing interest within the High-Tech industry, particularly within the San Francisco Bay Area of California. To combat misconceptions of Diversity and Inclusion, this thesis aims to define and analyze the language used at 20 companies in the High-Tech sector. The trends, nuances, and practices of how companies use language in their programming and data dictates the direction of the company. This thesis investigates the underlying complexities of where Diversity and Inclusion is within the industry today and goals for the future. Findings from this research suggest that companies can strengthen their Diversity …

Conflict Management And Team Building As Competencies For Nurse Managers To Improve Retention, Jeanette Black

DNP Qualifying Manuscripts

Abstract

Aim(s): To critically review and summarize evidence related to coaching and training nurse managers in conflict management and team building skills and to determine the relationship of these skills to retention.

Background: Retention of nurse managers is a significant challenge to healthcare organizations.

Evaluation: The databases searched were CINAHL, PubMed, evidence-based journals, JANE, Cochrane, SCOPUS and Joanna Briggs. The keywords searched were conflict management, team building, nurse manager retention, retention, teamwork, healthy work environment, conflict management theory, organizational culture, coaching nurse managers, and nursing. Articles with the strongest evidence were critically appraised using the Johns Hopkins Research and …

Road To Change: A Community’S Story On Strengthening Law Enforcement-Community Relations, Corina Mejia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Youth Violence Prevention Task Force, YVPT, is a branch of the United Way that strives to reduce and prevent violence among youth in the county. The task force functions using a public health approach that emphasizes prevention, intervention, and suppression. In response to the high violence rates among youth, the task force organized dialogue sessions in the community. During the dialogue process, there was a growing need to create a resource for community partners involved in the process. Consequently, a web page that includes; information, updates, and supplemental documents was created to educate partner organizations, the community, and others …

Wellness And Prevention Program Sustainability Design For Clark University Athletics Department, Emily Corbett

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The purpose of this work is to design a wellness based prevention program that is tailored to fit the campus community within Clark University, Worcester, MA, called the Peer Athletes Advocating for Wellness (PAAW) initiative. This paper first presents the current research on wellness related issues within a college campus, specifically surrounding sexual violence. It then outlines the current sexual violence prevention programming that takes place yearly for incoming first year students at Clark University, as well as a one-time initiative during which student athletes participated in the sexual violence prevention programming. There is a review of the current most …

Is The Sum Greater Than The Parts? A Qualitative Case Study Of Cross-Functional Team Creativity., Tracy J. Richardson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Creativity is an important capability for organizations to develop solutions for complex challenges. Cross-functional teams are often used within organizations in the hope of leveraging diverse perspectives to develop creative ideas. However, the process by which cross-functional teams generate new ideas is often elusive in practice and poorly understood in research. A case-study design was used to explore the complex nature of the creative process within a services industry organization, which is an understudied context for creativity. The study focused on the knowledge sharing and knowledge integration processes for cross-functional teams as well as overall team effectiveness. The results of …

Learning Statistics Through Guided Block Play: A Pre-Curriculum In Statistical Literacy, Robert P. Giebitz

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

Learning to use data to investigate the world and make decisions has become an essential skill for all citizens. Play and curiosity are powerful motivators for learning. Inquiry – the process of asking questions and seeking answers – can engage the natural curiosity of young learners and motivate early learning. Recent research in statistics education has shown that children as young as 4 and 5 years old can learn to collect, organize, and interpret data they acquire through observation, counting, and measuring in a process of guided inquiry. Guided block play has been used for over 100 years to enable …

The Relationship Between The High-Impact Practice Of Communication-Intensive Courses And Undergraduate Degree Completion At A Research University (Ru/Vh), Rebecca Acosta Burdette

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With a critical public lens on quality student learning inclusive of 21^st century communication skills, and organizational effectiveness à la retention and graduation rates, all amidst budget constraints and increasing enrollments, postsecondary institutions must adopt practices that are both efficient and effective. This study examined the educational practice of Communication‑Intensive (C-I) courses and its influence on the institutional outcome of undergraduate degree completion at a large, public research university.

In this longitudinal study, the researcher applied a quantitative ex post facto research design to analyze six years of official university data on undergraduates who entered the selected university as …

Intercultural Coworker Relationships (Icors) In The Global Workplace: A Grounded Theory Study, Jennifer L. Morton

Dissertations

Previous research supports what employees intuitively sense: peers make the place (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008; Schneider, 1987). Extant research suggests coworker relationships have critical influence on outcomes ranging from turnover (Felps, Mitchell, Hekman, Lee, Holtom, & Harman, 2009) to creativity (Homan, Buengeler, Eckhoff, van Ginkel, & Voelpel, 2015) to organizational commitment (Viswesvaran & Ones, 2002) to employee health and well-being (Heaphy & Dutton, 2008). Despite the increase of Intercultural COworker Relationships (ICORs), particularly in multinational firms in the technology industry, research has yet to examine what defines coworker relationship quality in the presence of national cultural differences. In other words, …

A Case Study Of Strategic Governance In The Implementation Of Guided Pathways At Scale At California Community Colleges, Hayley Ashby

Dissertations

Purpose: Community colleges across the United States are implementing systemic change models such as guided pathways to increase student success. The purpose of this multiple case study was to describe the role of strategic governance in the implementation of guided pathways at scale at California community colleges.

Methodology: This phenomenological qualitative study used a multiple-case embedded case study methodology to collect data aligned with the four imperatives of strategic governance theory. Semistructured interviews were conducted with campus leaders involved in guided pathways implementation at three California community colleges. Archival records and documentation were used to triangulate the data.

Findings: Colleges …

Career Coaching: A Study Of Veterans Health Administration (Vha) Leaders', Jerelyn Dugas

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore and describe the impact of career coaching on the career performance growth and retention as perceived by healthcare’s emerging leaders who participated in selected coaching program institutes for a minimum of 1 year at VHA hospitals in Southern California.

Methodology: The researcher selected a qualitative multiple case study to explore and describe VHA leaders’ perceived impact of coaching on their career performance growth and retention. Further, the researcher conducted semi-structured, interviews with 15 participants to gain a better understanding of the lived experiences of the participants at the …

The Initial Planning Process Of An International Service-Learning Pilot Initiative Under Development, Denise P. Krohn

Theses & Dissertations

This research explored the initial planning process of an international service-learning (ISL) initiative under development that involved a collaboration among a south-central Texas private university, a ministry of Catholic Sisters in Peru, a U.S. non-profit organization, and a Peruvian optometry school. Three collaborators were founded by the same religious order. An overlapping in mission and values influenced the context. By delving into the expectations of higher education and its pedagogical practices, ISL’s history and conceptualizations, and concepts of program planning and designing related to the fields of ISL and adult learning, this study presented significant program development aspects. Furthermore, the …

Mitigating Risk: A Delphi Study Identifying Competencies In Sport And Event Security Management, Elizabeth Voorhees

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify core competencies for supervisory-level security management professionals working in the sports and entertainment industry. Qualified and trained sport and event security-management professionals are essential to support the U.S. homeland security objectives outlined in Presidential Policy Directive-21. Providing effective safety and security for sports and entertainment events requires specialized knowledge and skill on the behalf of security-management practitioners who detect, deter, prevent, and respond to potential risks and threats. This qualitative research study employed a Delphi research design to elicit expertise from a purposefully selected panel of experts (N = 36). The …

Dragon Ambassador Manual: A Guide For Dragon Ambassadors And Supervisors, Jamie Wepking

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This Action Plan B Project is the creation of the Dragon Ambassador Manual. This comprehensive manual was created to aid in the supervision of the Dragon Ambassadors and to provide information and resources to Dragon Ambassadors as they participate in the student leadership program.

Significant research exists that student leadership programs provide great service to our student leaders, faculty, staff, and campus communities. Implementing this manual to Dragon Ambassador program will allow the involved student leaders to work with prospective students and their peers more effectively while creating meaningful experiences and interactions.

Prospective students of MSU Moorhead will benefit from …

Transformative Reminiscence Training For Older Adults: Increasing Self-Positive Reminiscence During Self-Directed Life Reviews, Deena Gayle Hitzke

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

For this dissertation, I tested whether Transformative Reminiscence Training is a viable alternative to facilitated life reviews for older adults. Facilitated life reviews involve structured reminiscence, which is designed to enhance the self-positive functions of identity consolidation, problem solving, and meaning-making death preparation (Korte, 2012). Transformative Reminiscence Training combines life review methods with consciousness raising. It is based on Paulo Freire’s critical theory (2000) and includes psychosocial, perspective transformation, and narrative identity life review education. Using a pre-posttest, randomized experimental design, I explored whether Transformative Reminiscence Training would result in (a) the completion of a self-directed life review, (b) increased …

Effect Of Undergraduate Research Programs On Retention Of Hispanic Students, Kiyoko N. Simmons

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

The Hispanic population in the United States has been increasing, which is affecting the number of Hispanic student population in the higher education. In spite of the rapid increase of Hispanic student population, little empirical research has been conducted on the Hispanic student’s college success. This study investigated the effect of participating in holistic undergraduate research programs on retention outcome of Hispanic students at The University of New Mexico. UNM is a public Hispanic-Serving Institution where 47.3 percent of undergraduate students are Hispanic in 2016.

The Vincent Tinto’s theory of student departure and the five critical factors of retention developed …

Pre-Boomer Students On Campus: An Exploratory Study Of How Students Born Before 1946 Experience The Youth-Oriented Campus Culture At Unm, Elinor Sue Coates Phd

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

Older learners have been studied thoroughly, except for those born before 1946, preceding the post-war "population bulge" (Carlson, 2008; Laditka, Fischer, Laditka, & Segal, 2004; Verstynen, 2011). Most such studies define "older" as over 25 or over 40, and fail to separate the subject group from those who came later. Defining a group by numerical age is problematic because it changes every year and soon omits the group's defining life experiences (Pilcher, 1994), which for this group include the Great Depression, World War II, the polio epidemic, and life before television. To address that gap this critical ethnography explored the …

Building A Call To Action: Social Action In Networks Of Practice, Damien M. Sánchez

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

The three research papers completed as part of this dissertation explore how people contributing to #BlackLivesMatter build knowledge, using social construction of knowledge (SCK), and what they are building knowledge about, using critical consciousness, because understanding how these processes play out on Twitter provides a way for others to understand this social movement. Paper 1 describes a new methodological approach to combining social network analysis (SNA) and social learning analytics to assess SCK. The sequential mixed method design begins by conducting a content analysis according to the Interaction Analysis Model (IAM). The results of the content analysis yield descriptive data …

Challenges Faced By Non-Profit Associations In Laos: A Case Study Of Huam Jai Asasamak, Raminder Kaur

Major Papers

This paper looks at the case study of Huam Jai Asasamak, a Non-Profit Association operating in Laos in order to understand various challenges faced by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the socialist regime of the Laos. It uses participant observation as a research method based on time spent living in Laos as well as other qualitative research methods including document analysis, observation, and interviews. The paper gives a contextual overview of Laos and shows that civil society is a new phenomenon in Laos linked to social and political consequences of opening up of the Laos economy in 1980s. Furthermore, the …

Child Abuse Prevention In Rural Southern California: A Participatory Action Research Project, Nelly Zambrano

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research project examines resources and services to prevent families and children from entering the child welfare system in a rural town in Southern California. There is constant struggle to get the adequate services, resources and trained staff in this rural area because it is isolated and it takes about two hours’ travel time to get to the metropolitan cities. The literature review discusses child welfare services challenges, strengths and social capital to support families and children as well as the child welfare system itself in rural areas. Constructivism is the appropriate framework for this research project, because the goal …

The Impact Of Low Retention Of Nonprofit Organizations, Yolanda Phillips, Jessica M. Hernandez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study explored the impact of low retention rates in nonprofit organizations and review factors that are associated with this low rate. Nonprofit organizations are a crucial and integral part of our community, there are many factors that are influential in the retention of employees which impact the service that is available to those in need. The need for this study emerged from the researcher’s desire to raise awareness of the factors that lead to low retention rates in social service non-profit organizations and its effects on service provision This study allowed for administration to implement strategies that address the …

Understanding The Decline In Participation In Fraternal Organizations: A Mixed Methods Approach, John Hinck

Dissertations

Once considered the schools of democracy and cornerstones for advancing society, many of the 100,800 fraternal organizations in the U.S. have experienced a decline in participation over the past 60 years and their perceived relevance in contemporary society questioned. To date, existing literature has identified several conflicting explanations for this decline. Numerous scholars disagree as to whether external forces such as markets or the government, or internal factors such as member relations or the inability or refusal of organizational leadership to change, or the interrelatedness of these factors account for the decline. Only a few fraternal organizations have studied this …

A Study Of Transformational Leadership Practices To Police Officers' Job Satisfaction And Organizational Commitment, John P. Decker

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study is based upon Bass and Riggio’s (2006) Augmentation Model on Transactional and Transformational Leadership, in which this quantitative study sought to identify the amount of variance in police officer job satisfaction and organizational commitment that can be explained by police chiefs’ transformational leadership behaviors above and beyond the influence of transactional behaviors. A total of 166 police officers were surveyed in five central New Jersey police departments in relation to their job satisfaction and organizational commitment, as well as the leadership behaviors in which their police chiefs engaged, utilizing Bass and Avolio’s (2004) Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X). This …

Military Leaders’ Perceived Importance Of Emotional Intelligence Characteristics When Leading Organizational Change, Wayne Roseberry

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative case study was to identify and describe exemplary military senior leaders’ perceived importance of emotional intelligence (EI) characteristics when leading organizational change. The study explicitly addressed the behavioral characteristics of U.S. Marine leaders associated with the EI framework for emotional competencies using Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee’s (2002) four EI components: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management competencies.

Methodology: A qualitative multiple-case study method was appropriate for this research due to its focus on analyzing the 12 exemplary senior leaders’ perceived importance of EI characteristics to lead change. The qualitative instrument included an …

Tracing The Change Process: Fostering And Sustaining Student Affairs Cultures Of Assessment, Margaret Leary

Dissertations

Student affairs professionals have long been strong contributors to college student learning and development and supporters of the perspective that holistic postsecondary learning is critical for not only the individual but society as well. With more attention focused on the value of this learning, student affairs has taken steps to foster and establish cultures of assessment by creating positions for individuals to coordinate assessment efforts across the division – a student affairs assessment leader. Most of the literature focusing on student affairs is informed by valuable practitioner experience and can be strengthened by empirical study. This explanatory single case study …

The Impacts Of Green Spaces On Crime In New York City, Matthew Edward Iannone Jr.

Student Theses 2015-Present

From the early 1960s through the mid-1990s, crime in New York City ran rampant. With a gradually dwindling police during this time, a high unemployment rate, and an rapidly increasing metropolitan population, crime peaked in the early 1990s, with the murder rate hitting a record-high of 2,245 in 1990. When Mayor Rudy Giuliani took office in 1994 and appoint Bill Bratton as the NYPD police commissioner, these rates immediately plunged. Numerous factors may have contributed to this sudden decline in crime: the police force grew significantly through the 1990s, more criminals were placed and held in prison, and the economic …

A Computational Model Of Team-Based Dynamics In The Workplace: Assessing The Impact Of Incentive-Based Motivation On Productivity, Josef Di Pietrantonio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large organizations often divide workers into small teams for the completion of essential tasks. In an effort to maximize the number of tasks completed over time, it is common practice for organizations to hire workers with the highest level of education and experience. However, despite capable workers being hired, the ability of teams to complete tasks may suffer if the workers' individual motivational needs are not satisfied.

To explore the impact of incentive-based motivation on the success of team-based organizations, we developed an agent-based model that stochastically simulates the proficiency of 100 workers with varying abilities and motive profiles to …

A Case Study Of Congregational And Search Committee Desired Leadership Qualities In A Senior Pastor, David Fowler

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study that utilized an inductive qualitative research approach was to uncover desired leadership qualities in a senior pastor. Membership numbers are dwindling for religious organizations as the landscape of the United States becomes more secular. Studies reveal that negative issues with ineffective leadership within these organizations impact congregational health and membership decline. Within the context of leadership’s futility, studies need to be conducted to identify qualifiers of effective leadership in religious organizations, as a lack of research has been conducted concerning religious organizational leaders. Specifically, churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, a conservative conglomerate of …