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<p> <b>Purpose:</b> The purpose of this thematic, mixed-methods case study was to identify and describe the behaviors used by exemplary chief executive officers of engineering technology organizations to create personal and organizational meaning for themselves and their followers through the five variables of character, inspiration, relationships, vision, and wisdom. Additionally, followers were surveyed to determine the degree to which they perceive the behaviors related to character, inspiration, relationships, vision, and wisdom help to create personal and organizational meaning.</p><p> <b>Methodology:</b> Exemplary chief executive officers of engineering technology organizations were interviewed to determine their perception of which behaviors they utilize to employ character, inspiration, relationships, vision, and wisdom to bring meaning to their lives, their followers, and the organization. Followers completed electronic surveys delivered to them by email.</p><p> <b>Findings:</b> There has been significant research done on leadership skills, traits, and behaviors, as well as on meaning; however, there is a gap in the literature describing the behaviors used by exemplary chief executive officers of engineering technology organizations when employing the five variables to bring meaning to themselves, their followers, and the organization. The review of literature revealed the importance of character, inspiration, relationships, vision, and wisdom as leadership skills and in building personal and organizational meaning. The study revealed that exemplary leaders create meaning for themselves, their organizations, and their followers through behaviors that exhibit positive character, inspiration, relationships, vision, and wisdom. Of these five variables, relationships, vision, and character were the most-cited behaviors in creating meaning.</p><p> <b>Recommendations:</b> Further research is advised by replicating the study in other engineering technology organizations. Further research is advised by researching female chief executive officers in engineering technology organizations.</p><p> <b>Conclusions:</b> By identifying and describing the behaviors associated with character, inspiration, relationships, vision, and wisdom by exemplary chief executive officers of engineering technology organizations, researchers can provide information to leaders, trainers, and organizations so that best practices may be developed to benefit all leaders, their followers, and the organizations in which they work.</p>

<p> The purpose of writing <i>The Role of Resistance to Change in Church Sustainability</i> in Harlem, New York is to determine the role that resistance to change plays in ensuring that a church continues to survive in the face of the gentrification of the Harlem community. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>

<p>This qualitative case study was used to examine the Request for Proposal (RFP) evaluation process used by airports for selecting concessions business operators, including retail and duty-free gift shops, restaurants, newsstands, and public parking. The case consisted of 42 purposefully selected RFPs from 35 airports representing 92% of all U.S. commercial airline passenger traffic compared against guidelines found in Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 54. A problem occurs when evaluation outcomes are challenged because of perceptions of bias, and formal protests and legal claims create delays that disproportionately affect small and minority-owned businesses. The purpose of this study was to compare RFP documents for congruence and influences of concessionaire evaluation ratings. Qualitative data analysis, qualitative content analysis, and interpretive coding were used to explain socioeconomic factors inferred from the documents. Gaps existed in available literature for the effect of airport size, governance type, and evaluator motivation on the RFP process. Study findings showed weighted evaluation criteria inconsistencies with the guidelines, evidence of innate governance system influences, government-operated airport RFP preference of revenue generation measures and socioeconomic attachments, independent authority operated preferences for command and control measures, and potential for the use of standardized core evaluation criteria. By challenging the premise of a bias-free government procurement process, positive social change was achievable through this study?s reinforcement of federally qualified small and minority business expansion initiatives promoting open participation and fair competition in concessions opportunities at U.S. commercial passenger airports.

<p> Algorithms, scripts for sequences of mathematical calculations or procedural steps, are powerful. Even though algorithms often outperform human judgment, people appear resistant to allowing a numerical formula to make decisions for them (Dawes, 1979). Nevertheless, people are increasingly dependent on algorithms to inform their decisions on a day-to-day basis. In eight experiments, I tested whether aversion to algorithms is as straightforward a story as past work suggests. The results shed light on the important questions of when people rely on algorithmic advice over advice from people and have implications for the use of algorithms within organizations.</p>

An earlier informal experiment by Hudson (1950) in which rats learned to avoid a bundle of pipe cleaners presented only following shock is replica.ted and extended. Five groups of 20 Ss each received a single shock each while taking a sucrose pellet from a novel striped panel, A black-out period ranging from 1 to 40 sec. began with the onset of the 3/4 sec. shock. During the black-out the striped panel (forward-order CS) was removed; immediately following the black-out, a rubber toy hedgehog descended into the apparatus, Following a short exposure to the toy hedgehog and an intervening 24 hr. in the home cage, S was observed in the apparatus with the toy hedgehog at one end and the striped panel at the other. Control groups received either shock without the toy hedgehog or the toy hedgehog without the shock. All behavior was video recorded. Significant differential avoidance of the toy hedgehog occurred in the short inter stimulus interval groups (1, 5, and 10 sec.), but not in the 40 seCc group or in the control groups. In further analyses, individual’s were classified as differentially avoiding either the toy hedgehog, the striped panel, the shock location, the opposite end of the apparatus or no identifiable stimulus, according to two schemes. In the first, the basis of classification was differences in time spent in a normal posture at the two ends of the apparatus relative to a distribution of such differences in the unshocked control group. In the other, a combined score derived from differences in four other classes of behavior was the basis of classification. In both analyses, significant numbers of Ss from the 1, 5, and 10 sec. groups were identified as avoiding the toy hedgehog, while insignificant numbers of Ss from the 40 sec. and control groups did so. Only insignificant numbers of Ss avoided the striped panel. The results demonstrate that the "backward" association of the toy hedgehog with the shock is a reliable and robust phenomenon that can occur despite a 10 sec. UCS-CS delay, a single trial procedure, a 24-hr. delay between shock and testing, and the availability of a potential forward - order CS. The results cannot readily be explained either in terms of an unconditioned response to the toy hedgehog or simple sensitization. Both logical considerations and experimental results in backward conditioning preclude describing these results in terms of stimulus cuing. The results are interpreted as a. demonstration of the ability of rats to perceive causal agent-effect relationships in certain specific situations. Support for conclusions drawn from the inference that rats can make causal agent-effect connections is taken from the areas of belongingness, stimulus selection in avoidance learning, delayed taste -avoidance learning, novelty, reflexive aggression, and species-specific defense reactions. Theoretical literature relevant to this inference and the broader question of what is learned is discussed. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

The first experiment sought specifically to determine whether variations in rats' overall run time in the alleyway reflect variations in the vigor of a single response, running (Hullian S-R view), or variations in the frequency of running relative to other, competing, behaviors, and not in the vigor of running ("response-competition" view). More broadly, the goal was a detailed descriptive account of the alleyway behavior of individual rats under a variety of typical experimental conditions. Six 23-hr. hungry rats were run for 75 trials in an alleyway to various amounts of reward, and the amount was shifted at several stages of training. Also, an environmental stimulus change was introduced during training. Six 23-hr. thirsty rats were run under comparable conditions. Overall run time was recorded and each trial was video-taped. Each run was then classified as a competing behavior trial (subject ceases forward progress after entering alleyway), an accessory behavior trial(subject shows some additional behavior while running forward, but no full competing behavior), or a direct run trial (only running occurs). The primary results were: (1) the decrease in run time in acquisition for each subject was due mainly to an orderly decrease in the amount of competing and accessory behavior, but the vigor of running also increased; (2) large changes in run time with other manipulations (differences in amount of reward in acquisition, shifts in amount of reward, extra stimulus, and proximity to reward) also reflected changes in amount of competing and accessory behavior, and smaller changes in the vigor of running; (3) the behavior of the thirsty rats was qualitatively the same as the behavior of the hungry rats, but was less affected by reward. The thirsty rats ran slower and showed more overall variability and more competing and accessory behavior than the hungry ones. The main implication of these results is that the alleyway is a multiple-response, selective-learning situation in which running both increases in vigor and gradually replaces other behaviors. The second experiment examined the structure of behavior in extinction to determine whether the increase in run time with non-reward reflects a return of competing and accessory behavior in the absence of selection for running. Secondary questions, not critical to a selective-learning view of the alleyway, were: (1) Would the addition of extra stimuli in acquisition which encourages competing behavior delay the return of high levels of competing behavior in extinction? (2) Does partial reinforcement in acquisition, which does retard extinction, do so through an increase in competing behavior in acquisition? Ten 23-hr, hungry rats were run in the alleyway to continuous reward (CRF), continuous reward with extra stimuli (CRF-S), or partial reward (PRF), for 59 trials. All were then run for at least 18 non-rewarded trials in extinction. The primary results were: (1) extinction following continuously rewarded acquisition did reflect a great return of competing and accessory behavior, of the same form as early in acquisition, consistent with the view of the alleyway as a selective-learning situation; (2) CRF-S rats showed slightly greater resistance to extinction than CRF rats; (3) the great resistance to extinction of the PRF rats was not a function of high levels of competing and accessory behavior in acquisition; (4) the PRF subjects showed much competing and accessory behavior and slow running in latter parts of the alleyway, and some continuously rewarded subjects showed similar behavior. This, plus observations in both experiments of recurrent behavior sequences across subjects and periods of atypically long run times for several subjects, suggests that an individual rat's behavior is not entirely independent of the behavior of other subjects run concurrently, though the mechanism underlying these interactions is not understood. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

<p> Research has clearly defined the issue of nursing student incivility, with evidence that uncivil encounters are on the rise and occurring on a routine basis. The rise in incivility among nursing students is causing great concern for nurse educators and administrators alike. For this reason, it is necessary to determine the reason why the issue persists, despite efforts to manage it. This mixed-methods convergent parallel design study examines the relationship between the coping responses and perceptions about nursing student incivility among nurse educators in the southern region of the United States. The Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (Lazarus &amp; Folkman, 1984) forms the foundation of the study, which seeks to determine whether there is a correlation between the appraisals of stressful situations, like incivility, and the activation of coping responses. The model posits that individuals conduct a primary appraisal of the threat associated with a stressful encounter. If the encounter is deemed to be threatening, a secondary appraisal takes place to determine which coping response would best alleviate the stress. When no coping response is activated, no action is taken. Nurses are known to use negative coping responses like conflict avoidance when faced with stressful encounters; therefore, the chosen coping responses of nurse educators could be propagating the issue of nursing student incivility.</p>

<p> Diffusion of innovation across cultures is a broad field of study, especially when considering the adaptation of organizational development (OD) innovations into multicultural environments. Although OD interventions are often adapted to fit unique circumstances of each organization&rsquo;s culture, this study explored whether there were specific adaptations that occur when OD interventions are applied to Indian organizations by Indian practitioners. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover how appreciative inquiry (AI) as an OD intervention was received and adapted by OD practitioners in India with particular focus on for-profit organizations.</p><p> A thematic analysis of 17 implementations shared by Indian practitioners was conducted to examine the fidelity and extensiveness of AI adaptation. Toward this end, the study was tailored to ensure the intervention was localized and situated more specifically in the organizational and leadership contexts. Results revealed that AI, when applied to India-based for-profit organizations, exhibited a level of adaptation that could be applied on a global scale. It is anticipated that understanding the factors that drive AI adaptation in India will assist scholars and practitioners to establish guidelines for successfully transferring organizational innovations.</p>

<p> The academic and corporate pursuit of many programs is to understand the implications of leadership styles on organizations. Countless research hours have been spent examining the leadership construct in the hope of developing programs that impact performance. Furthermore, there has been a recent surge in the study of Psychological Capital and the potential implications for human performance and development.</p><p> The purpose of this quantitative study was to understand the intersection of leadership styles, Psychological Capital, and productivity.</p><p> The study examined two research questions. The first research question examined what correlation exists between the styles of leadership as measured by the MLQ 5X, and psychological capital attributes (hope, efficacy, resiliency, and optimism) as measured by the PCQ of the field sales associates. The second research question strived to understand if there was a correlation between productivity, as measured by the average sales per person, and either psychological capital of the field associates, the styles of leadership, or both.</p><p> The leadership styles were measured using the MLQ 5X to determine if the leaders were transformational, transactional, or passive/avoidant. The MLQ 5X also measured the subscores of transformational leadership to see what relationship, if any, exists between the subscore and sales productivity. A total of 59 leaders in 28 districts completed the MLQ 5X.</p><p> The Psychological Capital of the sales team was measured using the PCQ to determine the overall PCQ score, as well as the subscores of hope, optimism, resiliency, and self-efficacy. A total of 151 sales associates in 28 districts completed the PCQ assessment.</p><p> The results of the study found that there was a positive correlation between leaders that coach and develop their sales team and teams that have higher sales. The research found that leaders that were more transformational and generate satisfaction had higher sales performance. The analysis also indicated that leaders that were transformational had sales teams with higher self-efficacy. There was not a correlation between Psychological Capital and sales performance.</p>