Approximately 40% of American workers report their jobs are extremely stressful. Business leaders who fail to address workplace stress increase employee propensity for poor performance, resulting in diminished profits. Grounded in the person-environment fit framework, the purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies 9 insurance industry leaders in Franklin County, Ohio used to mitigate workplace stress. The 9 insurance leaders who participated in the study work closely with staff, have experience working in stressful work environments, and utilize various tools to reduce stress. Data collected from face-to-face interviews and reviews of organizational documentation were useful for the completion of this study. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, where 5 themes emerged: supportive work environment, improved communications, optimal leadership, increased resources and training, and work-life balance. The study findings exposed strategies insurance leaders could use to mitigate stress, fuel training development, and assist supervisors to recognize stress symptoms, and most importantly, offer or direct employees to services to address symptoms of workplace stress. The findings may prompt business owners to investigate strategies to address their unique situations leading to stress. Business owners might choose initiatives in this study to identify and respond to employees' needs, provide support, and foster environments of tolerance for all employees, thus reducing stress. The implications for positive social change include the potential for business leaders to minimize workplace stress, thereby increasing the propensity for healthier employees, positive career outcomes, and business sustainability.

Employee turnover in healthcare negatively affects patient care. The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify the strategies that managers used to increase employee retention in healthcare organizations. The study population was healthcare managers and human resources personnel in 3 healthcare organizations in the southeastern region of the United States who had successfully implemented strategies to increase employee retention. The conceptual framework was the job-embeddedness theory. The data collection process included semistructured interviews and the review of organizational documents. Data analysis included identifying patterns and developing themes. Three key themes emerged from the data: increased, effective communication; praise and recognition; and options of flexibility to improve the work environment, career development, and work-life balance. These findings might contribute to social change by supporting leaders of healthcare organizations in maintaining sufficient workforce capacity to provide patient care and a healthy work environment for the employees.

There has been a rise in the last decade of documented unethical business behavior by information technology (IT) employees. Over the last several years, business managers have tried to address this area of concern to find a solution to this growing problem, but they have struggled with the metrics to identify unethical behavior in IT employees. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of 3 employee constructs-ethics training (ET), education level (EL), and employee's perception of their organizations' ethical leadership (EP)-on whether an IT employee would behave in an unethical manner. The theoretical framework for the study was Kohlberg's moral development model. Seventy IT personnel within the Maryland metropolitan area who work for businesses with DOD contracts completed the Defining Issues Test and the Ethical IT survey. Multiple regression analysis with Pearson's r was used to examine the relationship between ET, EL and EP, moral development, and ethical decision making. No constructs were significant. The study multiple regression model with F (3, 66) = .570, p = .637, R-² = .028 failed to demonstrate a significant correlation between moral development and ethical decision making and ET, EL, and EP. Given these findings, business leaders should consider other IT employee variables that may lead to unethical business behavior. When so identified, DOD business managers will be able to promote the positive social change that arises from ethical business behavior, such as continued contractual profits, increased employee morale, sustained productivity, and a decreased unemployment rate.

Leaders of small trucking businesses who fail to reduce operational cost and increase profitability can experience reduced profits and sustainability challenges. During the first 2 years of operation, 75% of small trucking businesses in the United States fail. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the strategies that successful leaders of small trucking businesses implemented to retain talented employees after downsizing. Transformational leadership was the conceptual framework for the study. The population for the study included 3 business leaders in a small trucking business in the southeastern region of the United States who had successfully reduced operational costs and increased profitability. Data was collected from semistructured interviews with leaders of the small trucking business and from reviewing artifacts such as the company's documents. Yin's 5 steps of data analysis, the tenets of transformational leadership, and member checking were used in identifying key themes. These 5 themes emerged from the analysis of data: applying transformational leadership, finding dependable drivers, establishing trust, rewarding and recognizing employees, and competing with trucking industries that seek to gain competitive advantage. The application of findings from this study might contribute to social change by enlightening leaders of small trucking companies about what strategies reduce operational costs and increase profitability in the small trucking industry.

Ethical dilemmas in banks have resulted in financial losses. A bank manager's ethical leadership strategy can affect the direction, success, operations, and profits of banks. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the ethical leadership strategies of bank managers that promoted profitability. This study's conceptual framework was Bandura's social learning theory. Data were collected from semistructured, face-to-face interviews with a sample of 2 bank managers from different Maryland banks and a review of these banks' documents. Member checking was conducted to verify the trustworthiness of the findings. Data were analyzed using Yin's 5-step approach. Themes that emerged from the data analysis included: business relationships, communities, ethics, leadership, and strategies. Bank managers who use these ethical leadership strategies might improve the profits and success of banks. Applying the findings of this study might benefit the banking industry and promote positive social change by providing an understanding of how ethical leadership strategies of bank managers can promote profitability while mitigating ethical dilemmas.

During 2000-2008, subprime mortgage loans were a profitable and popular commodity for banks and lenders alike. The majority of banks that offered this type of mortgage eventually suffered grave financial consequences, largely due to the lack of risk-mitigating processes within their mortgage portfolio. Guided by the stewardship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the risk-mitigation protocols that 4 bank CEOs employed in Northern California used to mitigate the offering of this risky product. Semistructured interviews were used to elicit detailed narratives from these purposively selected bank CEOs on their experiences in risk mitigation. A review of company documents, core value policies, and member checking of initial interview transcripts aided in the overall reliability and validity of the final interpretations. After using Robert Yin's five steps of data analysis, six themes were derived from the final interpretations: risk management as a culture; leaders making prudent, calculated risks on their mortgage lending platform; risk committees set in place to oversee risk strategies; a fiduciary responsibility to grow responsibly; consistent guardrails implemented within the loan portfolio; and leaders using discipline, execution, and correct judgment. By implementing these risk-mitigation strategies, these specific banks were able to survive the mortgage recession with very little financial repercussion. These findings may influence social change by uncovering risk-mitigation strategies in an effort to alleviate this risky product being offered to consumers.

Small business owners represent 99.7% of all U.S. employer firms, employ half of the private sector employees, and provide 43% of the total U.S. private payroll. However, 50% of new small business startups fail within the first 5 years of operation. The purpose for this multiple case study was to explore what skills, knowledge, and strategies small business coffee shop owners use to succeed in business beyond 5 years. Systems theory, chaos theory, and complexity theory provided the conceptual framework for exploring the research question of this multiple case study. To identify and explore the factors for maintaining small business-operations, the population for this study was 3 small business owners of 3 coffee shops in Duval County, Florida who sustained their businesses for a minimum of 5 years. The data sources were semistructured interviews, the business-websites, social media information, and site visit observations. Based on methodological triangulation of the data sources, analytical coding, and analyzing the data using mind mapping and software, 3 themes emerged: owner networking and the business as a customer to customer networking venue, business plans' initial challenges and addressing subsequent changes, and a need for marketing differentiation. Potential implications for effecting positive social change include increasing the rate of small business success, and increasing the financial security for owners, employeees, employees-families, and their communities.

The purpose of this single case study was to explore the recruiting and hiring practices used by human resources (HR) and recruitment managers to support organizational goals for performance improvement. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 4 HR and recruitment managers from a vegetation management company in Pennsylvania and review of organizational documents. Bertalanffy's general systems theory (GST) and Thelen and Smith's dynamic systems theory (DST) were the basis for the study's conceptual framework. Data reliability and validity were achieved through an interview protocol, member checks, interview transcriptions, and methodological triangulation. The study included an inductive analysis of interviewees' responses to identify patterns and themes. Four themes emerged from data analysis: improved strategies, practices, and processes to strengthen performance; methods for adhering to contractor and federal compliance requirements; sound measurement of HR performance and evaluation of candidates' needs; and incorporation of recruitment process outsourcing. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to improve HR strategies used to attract candidates through social media applications, competitive compensation packages, and streamlined onboarding processes. These practices and new workers may lead to increased productivity and a competitive advantage for businesses, which may result in enhanced employment opportunities in Pennsylvania communities.

This dissertation examines the information content of implied volatility with regard to future asset returns and future earnings announcements. By definition, implied volatility is the market's best guess of the future volatility over the term of the option. Thus, the objective of my first essay is to investigate whether expected idiosyncratic risk (i.e. firm-specific risk as opposed to market risk), as measured from implied volatility, is related to future returns. I find a strong positive link between implied idiosyncratic volatility and future returns. It is also clear that historical realized idiosyncratic volatility is unimportant in the presence of implied idiosyncratic volatility. The robust results of my first essay motivate the idea that implied volatility might also contain information about future earnings. Therefore, in my second essay I examine whether information about earnings announcement surprises is imbedded in option prices (via implied volatility and the implied volatility skew) prior to the announcement. I find some limited support for this idea. In particular, the results of my second essay suggest that investors might profit by buying put options in low volatility skew firms 3, 10, 20, or even 30 days before the earnings announcement. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Finance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: April 3, 2008. / Implied Volatility, Idiosyncratic Volatility, Portfolio Returns / Includes bibliographical references. / David Peterson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Thomas W. Zuehlke, Outside Committee Member; James Doran, Committee Member; Gary Benesh, Committee Member; Bruce Billings, Committee Member.

As fast-growth economies, such as China and India are dominating export markets, innovation in the manufacturing industries of slower, developed economies, such as Australia is a survival issue. Particularly small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs) with limited internal innovation resources and capabilities are suffering. Corresponding with this development, academic interest in analysing the relationship between innovative performance of small firms and their recourse to external resources, especially through interorganisational relationships (IORs) has been growing over the last ten to fifteen years. To date the emerging literature has given limited attention to the systematic empirical assessment of the relationship and innovation inputs and outputs of cooperative product innovation. Furthermore, most of the literature focuses on cooperative innovation IORs with customer stakeholders, ignoring the potential role played by other external stakeholder groups, such as suppliers, industry partners and research/advisory organisations. To this end, this thesis investigated the following research question: What are the relationships between IOR- and innovation-oriented antecedents and consequences of cooperative product innovation and how effective for overall firm performance is product innovation cooperation with multiple stakeholders? A six-factor multi-stakeholder model of cooperative IORs in product innovation for Australian manufacturers was developed from a strategy-structure-performance-based model of marketing channel relationship structure. It synthesised and built upon prior models of cooperative product innovation and incorporated concepts and measures drawn from the IOR and product innovation literatures. The central, structure-based construct (measurement model) developed was stakeholder involvement in product innovation (SIPI). Two factors were used to predict SIPI: Stakeholder orientation (SO) and Product innovation orientation (PIO). A further two factors represented outcomes of SIPI: Relationship quality (RQ) and Product innovation performance (PIP). A sixth factor - Overall firm performance (OFP) - was also measured to assess the broader implications of the model. Two objective, single-item variables were also included in the model – relative Product innovation spending (associated with PIO) and Sales growth (associated with OFP).To address the multi-stakeholder perspective, four external stakeholder groups most likely to be involved in a manufacturer’s product innovation (customers, suppliers, industry partners (competitors) and research/advisory organisations) were assessed. Eight hypotheses positing associations between the six constructs were developed. As strategic data was required, the research method for primary data collection was a survey of CEOs/General Managers of Australian machinery and equipment manufacturers, predominately SMMEs. A questionnaire was designed to measure their opinions about the firm’s relationships with each of the four stakeholder groups in product innovation as well as their views on the firm’s product innovation orientation and performance. Following extensive pre-testing of the questionnaire, it was distributed by mail and online to the senior managers. Data obtained from 120 respondents was used in the research.Using a two-step structural equation modelling (SEM): confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach, examinations of parameter estimates, fit and residuals were used to test the individual constructs for validity. Composite reliability and average variance extracted were used to test for construct reliability. An overall (multi-stakeholder) structural model, as well as four single-stakeholder models, of key relationship- and innovation-oriented antecedents and consequences of cooperative product innovation were then tested using SEM AMOS software. Meaningful modifications of the hypothesised model were undertaken to improve model fit. The four modified single-stakeholder models and the overall (multistakeholder) model were found to provide a satisfactory fit. Statistically significant standard coefficients for each of the latent constructs provided evidence of the importance of each element as an input or outcome of cooperative innovation. The results indicated that, as posited, a firm’s Product innovation orientation (PIO) was positively associated with its Stakeholder orientation (SO). SO, in turn, was a valid antecedent of cooperative product innovation (SIPI). The hypothesised direct path from SIPI to RQ was, however, not supported. Instead, SIPI was found to partially mediate the SO-RQ association, further strengthening that positive link. Surprisingly, PIO did not appear to significantly influence cooperative innovation SIPI. Instead, PIO was found to be a strong and direct antecedent of market- and technical-oriented PIP, whereby the cooperative innovation construct SIPI did not materially impact Product innovation performance PIP. Product innovation spending directly influenced technical-oriented PIP only. RQ was a valid predictor of Sales growth, but not of Overall firm performance OFP. While market-oriented PIP was found to lead to stronger assessments of OFP, increased technical-oriented PIP negatively impacted on OFP. Consequently, seven of the eight hypotheses relating to the research model were accepted in part or full, and one hypothesis was rejected.Overall, qualified support was found for the central proposition: Higher (sales) growth manufacturers tend to pay more attention to their relationships with the top firms in each of four stakeholders groups (customers, suppliers, industry partners and advisory/research firms), involve these firms more in product innovation activities and perceive their relationships to be of higher ‘quality’. Firms with sound overall firm performance (return on investment, net profit, market share and overall business performance) tend to be more product innovation focused (in terms of strategy and spending) and achieve product innovations, which are successful both technologically and market-wise. However, stakeholder involvement in product innovation is not as good a predictor of product innovation outcomes as is the firm’s product innovation orientation (strategy).