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Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

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Articles 1081 - 1110 of 1131

Full-Text Articles in Public Policy

The Effect Of Pay Banding On Generational Cohort Perceptions Of Job Satisfaction, Charles Terence Polk Jan 2015

The Effect Of Pay Banding On Generational Cohort Perceptions Of Job Satisfaction, Charles Terence Polk

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

For over 3 decades, the federal government has attempted to introduce pay-for-performance into the federal workforce. It is important for federal agencies to understand the impact of pay-for-performance, specifically pay banding, on job satisfaction and retention of frontline managers as agencies face the exodus of the retiring Baby Boomer generation. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of pay banding on job satisfaction and intention of frontline managers to leave the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The theoretical foundation for this study was Adams's equity theory as viewed through the lens of Mannheim's generational theory. The overarching research …


Relief Aid Dependency Syndromes: A Case For Disaster-Prone Moroto District In Uganda, Richard Acaye Jan 2015

Relief Aid Dependency Syndromes: A Case For Disaster-Prone Moroto District In Uganda, Richard Acaye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Humanitarian aid, while useful in the short run, sometimes has the effect of contributing to poverty and poor economic conditions in the long run. This occurs when recipients of relief aid lose their initiative to fend for themselves and become reliant on external aid. The purpose of this mixed method study was to evaluate the degree to which dependency on long term aid has contributed to chronic poverty in the Moroto district of Uganda. This study was grounded on Harvey & Lind's conceptualization of the dependency syndrome. The research questions addressed the relationship between household production and investment pattern with …


Forced Truancy And Its Impact On Youth Delinquency In Southeastern Nigeria, Bouyant Eleazer Enyiorji Jan 2015

Forced Truancy And Its Impact On Youth Delinquency In Southeastern Nigeria, Bouyant Eleazer Enyiorji

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Forced truancy is a risk factor that influences juvenile behavior, requiring the joint efforts of school authorities, parents, and courts to address. It is a phenomenon where students desire attending school, but for reasons beyond their control, they are prohibited from attending classes. Some of these reasons are teachers' strike action, students' poverty, lack of educational infrastructures, and unsafe educational environment. Teachers' strike is a frequent occurrence in southeastern Nigeria caused by irregular payment of teachers' wages, benefits, and other remunerations. This case study of 3 secondary schools in southeastern Nigeria sought to understand the impact of forced truancy by …


Influences Of Csi Effect, Daubert Ruling, And Nas Report On Forensic Science Practices, Timothy Patrick Scanlan Jan 2015

Influences Of Csi Effect, Daubert Ruling, And Nas Report On Forensic Science Practices, Timothy Patrick Scanlan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The media exaggerates the capabilities of crime laboratories while it publicizes the wrongdoings of individual forensic scientists. Such portrayals skew the perspectives of jurors and hinder expert witness testimony. Complicating the problem are separate, but related, phenomena that influence how forensic laboratories conduct casework. These phenomena are Cole and Dioso-Villa's conceptualization of the unrealistic expectations of forensic science created by fictional television, known as the CSI Effect; the Daubert ruling on the admissibility of expert testimony; and some federal policy changes as a result of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report that impacted requirements for the daily operation of …


The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act And High School Obesity, Derek Grills Jan 2015

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act And High School Obesity, Derek Grills

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

United States high school student obesity rates have doubled in the past 30 years to 13%, threatening the health of millions of adolescents. To mitigate the epidemic, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) in 2010, which mandated significant changes to school nutrition and physical education. From a public policy perspective, the HHFKA changed school nutrition and exercise policy to affect obesity rates by changing intake and energy expenditure at school, though no study using national-level data examined this relationship. As such, the purpose of the study was to examine whether HHFKA policy compliance had a statistically significant effect …


County Demographic Influence On Toxic Chemical Activities Of Chemical-Related Industry In Michigan, Lisa Helen Perricane Jan 2015

County Demographic Influence On Toxic Chemical Activities Of Chemical-Related Industry In Michigan, Lisa Helen Perricane

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There are a large number of chemical facilities that emit toxic chemicals in Michigan, and there is a concern regarding toxic chemical exposure to the residents of Michigan counties. However, it is uncertain whether chemical companies that emit toxic chemicals in Michigan are influenced by county demographic factors in deciding whether to engage in voluntary pollution prevention (P2) activities and whether this decision influences U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (U.S. EPA) Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) scores. Using Bullard's theory of environmental justice, the purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there was a correlation between chemical-related industry's voluntary P2 …


An Examination Of Tribal Nation Integration In Homeland Security National Preparedness, Donald J. Reed Jan 2015

An Examination Of Tribal Nation Integration In Homeland Security National Preparedness, Donald J. Reed

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research has established that national homeland security policy requires a whole community or all-of-nation approach to national security preparedness. What is less clear is whether all stakeholders are integrated into or benefit from this collective effort. This narrative policy analysis examined the relationship between a federally-recognized group of Native American tribal nations and homeland security national preparedness to explore whether tribal nations are effectively integrated with the collective effort for national preparedness. The theoretical framework stemmed from a convergence of social contract theory and conflict theory. Interviews (n = 21) were conducted with preparedness authorities from government agencies, and from …


Determinants Of Usage Of Age-Appropriate Child Safety Seats In Connecticut, Giuseppina Mendillo Violano Jan 2015

Determinants Of Usage Of Age-Appropriate Child Safety Seats In Connecticut, Giuseppina Mendillo Violano

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of unintentional injury death and disability for children ages 1'15 years. Despite local, state, and federal legislative and educational efforts, children continue to be restrained improperly and thus face harm. Identifying behaviors and barriers that place child occupants at risk is crucial for implementing focused, injury-prevention programs and policies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Connecticut's child passenger safety law that was strengthened in 2005. This study involved a multifactorial approach to predicting child seat use, guided by Roger's diffusion of innovations …


Port Security: The Terrorist Naval Mine/Underwater Improvised Explosive Device Threat, Peter Von Bleichert Jan 2015

Port Security: The Terrorist Naval Mine/Underwater Improvised Explosive Device Threat, Peter Von Bleichert

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Terrorist naval mines/underwater improvised explosive devices (M/UWIEDs) are a threat to U.S. maritime ports, and could cause economic damage, panic, and mass casualties. The purpose of this case study was to examine this threat and propose reforms that improve port security management. The study aligned with the mission area analysis objective of identifying and assessing potential terrorist threats in order to preempt and prevent attacks. Von Bertalanffy's general systems theory was the framework for research questions, which focused on improvements in port security management to mitigate the threat of terrorist M/UWIEDs. Data collection included a document content analysis of open …


Understanding Presidential Voting Motivation By Factors Of Agency, Sharlene Wilson Jan 2015

Understanding Presidential Voting Motivation By Factors Of Agency, Sharlene Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The President of the United States sets the tone for policy and has significant power in adopting and implementing policy. Despite this acknowledged power, prior studies, have not examined whether or not agency theory is predictive of voting in U.S. presidential elections. Agency theory is important in the scope of voting behavior as it identifies the relationships which support significance in practicing the activity. This correlational study examined the statistical impact of personal agency, social agency, and sociocultural agency on predictive voting behavior. This study used secondary data originally collected between 1956 and 2008 by the American National Election Study …


Attitudes Of Returning Citizens In Government-Managed Post-Release Programming, Zachary D'Jon Weaver Jan 2015

Attitudes Of Returning Citizens In Government-Managed Post-Release Programming, Zachary D'Jon Weaver

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nearly 700,000 prisoners return to communities annually, and approximately two-thirds are rearrested within 3 years of release. The cyclic pattern of recidivism presents risks to both returning offenders and the communities that accept them. Reentry research tends to include the voice and experiences of juveniles, community members, and service providers, and narrowly focuses on the socioeconomic conditions of adult ex-offender populations pre- and post-release. Few researchers have explored the attitudes of those returning citizens or the perceived impact on treatment success, as related to employment-based, post-release reintegration programs. This study investigated the attitudes of 32 participants of Project Empowerment, the …


Lived Experiences Of Attorneys Who Represent Transgender Clients In Prison Placement, Heidi Jo Green Jan 2015

Lived Experiences Of Attorneys Who Represent Transgender Clients In Prison Placement, Heidi Jo Green

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have indicated that there are no formal guidelines for placing convicted transgender felons in the United States in correctional facilities and addressing their post-placement medical care and treatment. The problem is that inappropriate placement may lead to the discrimination of transgender offenders; it may also put them in situations that threaten their safety. Attorneys are legal advocates assigned to defend and protect the rights of their clients during the trial and sentencing phase when correctional placement is determined. The purpose of this hermeneutic, phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of attorneys who represent transgender clients during the …


Engaging The Nonprofits In Louisville Housing Market For Low-Income Households, Joshua Omoniyi Odetunde Jan 2015

Engaging The Nonprofits In Louisville Housing Market For Low-Income Households, Joshua Omoniyi Odetunde

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nonprofit organizations often work in partnership with government agencies to empower low income people in the housing market through government subsidized mortgage loans. In spite of this assistance, homelessness and substandard housing is pervasive among low income households because this population primarily relies on the rental housing market, leaving a gap in practice and knowledge related to how nonprofits provide assistance to the overwhelming majority of low income consumers in need of housing. The purpose of this case study was to use social justice theory to explore how the nonprofit sector, as an economic force, provides assistance to and empowers …


Animas-La Plata Project Stakeholder Narratives: A Case Study Using Kingdon's Three Streams Theory, Denise Renee Rue-Pastin Jan 2015

Animas-La Plata Project Stakeholder Narratives: A Case Study Using Kingdon's Three Streams Theory, Denise Renee Rue-Pastin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Population growth, coupled with changing weather patterns, is straining water supplies, especially in the American Southwest. A multitude of tools, including additional storage, will be needed to meet water demand and supply gaps. The Animas-La Plata Project, a reservoir in southwest Colorado, provides a case study of how groups worked for nearly 70 years to solve a water problem: insufficient irrigation for agriculture. This qualitative case study addressed a lack of first-person narratives from those most involved. Its purpose was to gather stakeholder narratives and analyze them using Kingdon's three streams theory to address the extent to which the problem, …


Improving High School Service-Learning To Increase Long-Term Impact On Volunteerism, Tracey Boldemann Tatkin Jan 2015

Improving High School Service-Learning To Increase Long-Term Impact On Volunteerism, Tracey Boldemann Tatkin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Passage of the Kennedy Serve America Act in 2009 led to wide support for service-learning programs in high schools. The effectiveness of these programs on future volunteerism in college, however, has not been established. In the absence of research clarifying the variables that might influence programming effectiveness, it is difficult to design and adapt such programs to increase their impact. This study explored how high school service-learning programs could be improved to encourage greater student participation and to motivate continued volunteerism in college. A multiple case study methodology was used that included face-to-face interviews with 7 teachers and service-learning coordinators …


Public-Police Relations: Officers' Interpretations Of Citizen Contacts, Donal Alfred Hardin Jan 2015

Public-Police Relations: Officers' Interpretations Of Citizen Contacts, Donal Alfred Hardin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Perceptual differences in how citizens and police view police-initiated contacts can result in individual and communal tension, mistrust, and social strife, which complicate the relationships needed in order to thrive and promote safe environments. To examine how police officers interpret these contacts, this case study sought to explore the nature of citizen-police relations from the perspective of police officers in a city in the northwest part of the United States. Social contract and procedural justice theories were used to examine the circumstances that officers cited for taking enforcement actions, including operational definitions of police fairness and legitimacy from the Queensland …


Stigmas Associated With Black American Incarceration Through An Afrocentric Lens, Wylie Jason Tidwell Jan 2015

Stigmas Associated With Black American Incarceration Through An Afrocentric Lens, Wylie Jason Tidwell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although extensive quantitative research has been conducted on Black American incarceration rates, to date, there has not been a study from an Afrocentric (Black American) perspective in the field of public policy. Using Dillard's conceptualization of Afrocentric theory, this study added to the field of public policy by examining how the stigmas associated with mass incarceration have reduced political and economic opportunities for Black Americans born 1965 - 1984. The purpose of this ethnographic study was to provide an Afrocentric voice by which the members of the Black American community are the center of the data collection on the stigmas …


Independent Retail Business Owners' Perceptions Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act., Bradley A. Hall Jan 2015

Independent Retail Business Owners' Perceptions Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act., Bradley A. Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2010 prompted the question of how independent businesses may react to the employer mandate in the PPACA. The law is based on the theory of managed competition and it is more likely to affect businesses with fewer employees than to affect larger businesses that already offer health insurance. The purpose of this quantitative, pre-experimental study was to examine the strategic responses of independent retail business owners in Hillsborough County, Florida, regarding their perceptions of the employer mandate in the PPACA. Before 2014, there was a great deal of non-peer-reviewed …


Relationships Between A Prenatal Nutrition Education Intervention And Maternal Nutrition In Ethiopia, Divya Lakshmi Selvakumar Jan 2015

Relationships Between A Prenatal Nutrition Education Intervention And Maternal Nutrition In Ethiopia, Divya Lakshmi Selvakumar

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In Ethiopia, 17% of pregnant women ages 18-49 are malnourished and have low awareness of prenatal nutrition, which may relate to increasingly high rates of maternal and infant mortality. The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to determine the effects of a community-based prenatal nutrition education intervention program on maternal nutrition knowledge and attitudes in the Alaje district of Ethiopia. The theoretical framework was Sen's capability theory of poverty, in which opportunities can lead to well-being and promote economic development. Research questions focused on the relationships among 8 independent variables-age, income source, degree of program implementation, marital status, …


Common Boundaries: Moving Toward Coordinated And Sustainable Planning On The Oneida Reservation, Rebecca M. Webster Aug 2014

Common Boundaries: Moving Toward Coordinated And Sustainable Planning On The Oneida Reservation, Rebecca M. Webster

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Comprehensive planning can help communities engage in purposeful and sustainable land use development. Previous research has indicated that Indian reservations in the United States often face unique roadblocks to these planning efforts: checkerboard patterns of tribal and nontribal ownership, and the presence of both tribal and local governments exercising land use authority within the same shared space. These roadblocks can lead to uncooperative, uncoordinated, or unsustainable development. Despite these noted problems, there remains an important gap in the current literature regarding solutions to overcome these roadblocks. The purpose of this study was to address that gap. Guided by Forester's critical …


Advanced Nurses' Perspectives On The Drug Addiction Treatment Act, 13 Years Later, Dorothy L. Were Jan 2014

Advanced Nurses' Perspectives On The Drug Addiction Treatment Act, 13 Years Later, Dorothy L. Were

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States experiences opioid addiction at epidemic levels. In 2012, the National Institute of Drug Abuse reported that 23.1 million Americans were in need of addiction treatment services, although only 2.5 million were enrolled in treatment. Following an amendment to the Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-310), advanced practice nurses were qualified as providers who could bridge the healthcare gap in treatment access. The purpose of this project was to determine the interest of advanced practice nurses in (a) prescribing buprenorphine and (b) establishing guidelines that would allow them to do so. This quantitative project used …


African American Women's Perception Of Subprime Lending Practices On Their Home Buying Knowledge And Behaviors, John Howard White Jan 2014

African American Women's Perception Of Subprime Lending Practices On Their Home Buying Knowledge And Behaviors, John Howard White

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The subprime mortgage lending practices from 1995 to 2007 were disproportionately concentrated on minority and low income neighborhoods of the United States. Despite the negative effects of subprime loans, these loans are regaining popularity. The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to bridge the gap in knowledge about their effect on African American women by exploring the home buying knowledge and behaviors of African American women between 2004 and 2007 in a southern state. Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of planned behavior served as the theoretical framework of this study, which explored factors that motivated African American women to buy …


Employee Locus Of Control And Engagement In Nonprofit Organizations, Jacqueline Myers Jan 2014

Employee Locus Of Control And Engagement In Nonprofit Organizations, Jacqueline Myers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Transformational leadership and employee engagement have been studied in the private sector, yet research in the nonprofit sector is scarce. Addressing this gap is important to improve nonprofit practices, as nonprofit organizations contribute to a myriad of social issues critical to positive social change. Using Burns's theory of transformational leadership, which places emphasis on motivating and inspiring performance through a shared vision and mission, the purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze the effects of transformational leadership on employee engagement in nonprofit organizations. The study also assessed whether locus of control acted as a mediating variable on employee engagement. …


Culture And Nongovernmental Organizations Performance, Ondo State, Nigeria, Oluwatoyin Akinkuotu Jan 2014

Culture And Nongovernmental Organizations Performance, Ondo State, Nigeria, Oluwatoyin Akinkuotu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Non-government organizations (NGOs) became strong forces in global affairs at the local, national, and international level, with the emergence of the United Nations Organization (UNO) in 1945. Many of these NGOs have failed to attain their goals, and research efforts have attributed their failure to socioeconomic and political factors. The situation is worse in developing countries, where there has been an alarming proliferation of NGOs since the 1980s. The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate the performance of community-based NGOs in Nigeria in relation to the cultural values of the people. The theoretical frameworks for the study were …


Collaborative Trust: A Case Study Of Trust Evolution In A Public/Nonprofit Partnership, Maria Stella Odumodu Jan 2014

Collaborative Trust: A Case Study Of Trust Evolution In A Public/Nonprofit Partnership, Maria Stella Odumodu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Lack of trust between nonprofit organizations and the communities in which they are located is a well-documented problem in the academic literature. The nature of this mistrust is far less understood, and little is known how community-nonprofit collaborations can overcome these gaps in trust. Guided by Simmel's theory of trust, this study examined the role of collaborative trust between public and non-profit organizations with a focus on better understanding how trust evolves. The research questions focused on how trust was defined and the factors that enhanced and inhibited trust evolution within the context of collaborations between nonprofit organizations and communities. …


Influences And Experiences Of City Council Members On Environmental Policy Decision Making, Bobbie Brown Jan 2014

Influences And Experiences Of City Council Members On Environmental Policy Decision Making, Bobbie Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ineffective environmental policies pose a problem for municipalities as they strive to create sustainable communities. Improving these policies may establish standard practices that assist municipalities in meeting related environmental goals. Statistics show the municipalities within this study operate at different levels of goal achievement. Little is known, however, about the influences that directly affect the development of environmental policies. The purpose of this study was to determine the ways in which public officials address environmental issues and the factors considered in policy discussions that lead to their decisions. The theoretical framework comprised Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith's advocacy coalition and Arrow's rational …


An Empirical Study Of Appointed Counsel Effectiveness In Jury Trials, James Patrick Hall Jan 2014

An Empirical Study Of Appointed Counsel Effectiveness In Jury Trials, James Patrick Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Anecdotal evidence supports the belief among indigent individuals who are assigned defense counsel that they would be better represented by privately retained counsel. This perspective jeopardizes attorney effectiveness by reducing communication and trust between the attorney and client. Research on the effectiveness of counsel is sparse. The purpose of this quantitative study was to bridge this gap in knowledge by comparing the effectiveness of privately retained and publicly appointed counsel between 2008 and 2013, both before and after the imposition of state-wide compensation limitations on publicly appointed defense counsel. The theoretical framework was Stuntz's theory, which stresses that one part …


Resource Control Or Terrorism: Competing Perspectives On The Conflict In The Niger Delta Region, Nigeria., Peter Ogoegbunem Opone Jan 2014

Resource Control Or Terrorism: Competing Perspectives On The Conflict In The Niger Delta Region, Nigeria., Peter Ogoegbunem Opone

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A state of conflict has existed in the Niger Delta for fifty years. The nature of the conflict, whether it is terrorism or civil insurrection, has not been resolved by the respective legislative entities. This qualitative case study was designed to explore the nature of the Niger Delta conflict from the perspective of several members of the Nigerian National Assembly and determine whether terrorism in Nigeria is related to the general conflict. Social conflict theory provided the basis for the exploration. An ancillary question explored whether antiterrorism legislation in 2006 alleviated the Niger Delta conflict. Interview data were collected from …


Propositional Analysis, Policy Creation, And Complex Environments In The United States' 2009 Afghanistan-Pakistan Policy, Cris Shackelford Jan 2014

Propositional Analysis, Policy Creation, And Complex Environments In The United States' 2009 Afghanistan-Pakistan Policy, Cris Shackelford

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Military conflicts have become nonlinear and the interrelated political and socio-economic changes within these conflicts have created new challenges for American policymakers. A tool called Wallis' Propositional Analysis (PA) suggests a new paradigm that includes thinking about complexity and robustness/systemicity in a policy. The purpose of this single case study was to determine how the PA paradigm adds heuristic value to complex policy decision-making. A backdrop of Wallerstein's complexity theory and complex adaptive systems (CAS) guided this study. This study examined policy statements from the Obama administration on the Afghanistan and Pakistan conflicts in late December 2009. Data were coded …


Emergency Management Standards For Ncaa Division I-A Football Stadia, Joshua R. Hoogstra Jan 2011

Emergency Management Standards For Ncaa Division I-A Football Stadia, Joshua R. Hoogstra

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the best of times, emergency managers of athletic event venues struggle with the responsibilities of venue security. The possibility of terrorist threats exacerbates the situation, especially when security threats can involve a critical mass of spectators at an event. Emergency managers at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic venues were the focus of this study. The overarching research question examined whether the minimum core competencies and qualifications for NCAA emergency managers were perceived by the same managers as being sufficient and in alignment with the work that is expected of the position. Research questions were designed to study …