This dissertation provides an overview of the history of intercollegiate athletics through the lens of escalation of commitment theory, a framework that has been used primarily in business and public policy literature. The dissertation is comprised of three case studies that reflect the direction that different college or universities have chosen to take regarding their athletic programs. This dissertation explores the literature regarding escalation of commitment and its impact on college athletics. Contributing to the paper is a focus on the financial contributions colleges and universities continue to make in their athletic programs despite evidence that these resources are not being rewarded. The papers hypothesizes that both external and internal pressures play a key role in the investments that college and universities are making in their Division I athletic programs.

In 2012, the CIA World Fact Book showed that the service sector contributed about 76.6% and 51.4% of the 2010 gross national product of both the United States and Ghana, respectively. Research in the services area shows that a firm's success in today's competitive business environment is dependent upon its ability to deliver superior service quality. However, these studies have yet to address factors that influence customers to remain committed to a mass service in economically diverse countries. In addition, there is little research on established service quality measures pertaining to the mass service domain. This dissertation applies Rusbult's investment model of relationship commitment and examines its psychological impact on the commitment level of a customer towards a service in two economically diverse countries. In addition, service quality is conceptualized as a hierarchical construct in the mass service (banking) and specific dimensions are developed on which customers assess their quality evaluations. Using, PLS path modeling, a structural equation modeling approach to data analysis, service quality as a hierarchical third-order construct was found to have three primary dimensions and six sub-dimensions. The results also established that a country's national economy has a moderating effect on the relationship between service quality and investment size, and service satisfaction on investment size. This study is the first to conceptualize and use the hierarchical approach to service quality in mass services. Not only does this study build upon the investment model to provide a comprehensive decision model for service organizations to increase their return on investment but also, provides a congruence of work between service quality and the investment model in the management and decision sciences discipline.

U.S.-based Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) face significant competitive forces including market-based pressures in the form of new and increased competition, an escalating cost base and reduced financial aid sources. The practice of customer loyalty development and the study of the loyalty phenomena are prevalent in the marketing literature. Despite the prevalence of studies focusing on relationship marketing concepts and loyalty as drivers of customer retention, little progress has been made in conceptualizing and testing frameworks that can explain the impact of relationship marketing on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty in an IHE setting. This study proposed a relationship marketing approach towards the challenge of increasing student loyalty and thus ultimately student retention. Both offensive (relationship marketing concepts aimed at increasing trust, commitment and perceived value) and defensive (subjective norms and switching costs) strategies were proposed as antecedents of student loyalty. Several existing marketing and organizational behavior scales were modified for use in an IHE environment. Research into the dynamics of relationship marketing in a real-world setting was conducted to (1) confirm the scales for use in the IHE environment , (2) to broaden the settings in which the selected scales have been deployed, and (3) to offer depth to the relationship marketing and loyalty field of study. A survey was administered in three South Florida IHEs and 549 responses were collected. The use of structural equation modeling permitted the researcher to establish the measurement validity of the relationship marketing survey instrument and the statistical reliability and validity of the of the proposed variables. There were significant relationships noted between: trust and perceived value; perceived value and commitment; commitment and loyalty; front line employee behaviors and trust; and management policies and procedures and trust; confirming past studies. However, counter to past research, results showed no significant relationship between subjective norms and commitment. Some of the limitations from previous research were addressed by proposing a more integrated model that combined both offensive and defensive marketing constructs. Future research is needed to determine the causes for the lack of statistical significance for the proposed defensive marketing strategies.

Existing research on the Millennial generation has focused on identifying the workplace attributions and stereotypes between generations, and the relationship between those attributions and stereotypes, as related to organizational commitment. However, research has not addressed which workplace characteristics influence organizational commitment of the Millennial generation. Herzberg's 2-factor theory was used to investigate the relationship between workplace characteristics and organizational commitment of the Millennial generation. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether workplace characteristics influence organizational commitment in the Millennial generation. This quantitative study used the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. A convenience sample of 215 individuals born between 1984 and 1998 were surveyed. The key research questions investigated which workplace characteristics had the greatest impact on organizational commitment. The results indicated that self-management of career paths, combined with opportunities for employee development provided the best predictors for organizational commitment of the Millennial generation. These 2 variables accounted for 21% of the variance of the OCQ (R = .463, R²=.21).By understanding which workplace characteristics impact organizational commitment, organizations will be able to reduce turnover, employees will become more committed to the organization, which may provide employers with a greater opportunity to develop future leaders of their organizations and thereby initiate positive social change at the level of the individual employee and the organization.

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Tidigare forskning inom detta område har fokuserat på barns vård, däremot har barns upplevelser utifrån ett aktivitetsperspektiv under sjukhusvistelse inte uppmärksammats. Författarnas uppfattning var att aktiviteter som erbjuds på barn- och ungdomskliniker oftast passar yngre barn och därför ansågs det relevant att tillfråga äldre barn om deras upplevelser av att kunna vara delaktiga i aktiviteter på sjukhus. Syftet var att beskriva barns upplevelser av möjlighet till delaktighet i meningsfulla aktiviteter under sjukhusvistelse. Kvalitativ metod användes med semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Ett bekvämlighetsurval användes och respondenterna var 12 barn i åldrarna 8-15 som befann sig på två barn- och ungdomskliniker i södra Sverige. Datamaterialet bearbetades med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Tolkningen av datamaterialet resulterade i det övergripande temat “Upplevelse av möjlighet till delaktighet i meningsfulla aktiviteter”. Resultatet delades in i tre kategorier; delaktighet, meningsfull aktivitet och aktiviteter på sjukhus. Slutsatsen var att barnen upplevde både möjligheter och begränsningar i att kunna vara delaktiga i aktiviteter under sin sjukhusvistelse. Majoriteten av barnen upplevde sig ha goda möjligheter till att kunna vara delaktiga i meningsfulla aktiviteter såsom att vistas på lekterapi, spela tv-spel och umgås med familj och vänner. / Previous science has focused on children’s clinical care and the children’s experience from an activity perspective during their hospital stay has not been focused on. The author’s opinion was that the activities in children’s and youth clinics often are suited for younger children. Therefor it seemed relevant to ask older children about their experience of participation in activities at the hospital. The aim was to describe children’s experiences of the possibility to participate in meaningful activities during their hospital stay. A qualitative method were used with semi-structured interviews. A convenience sample were used and the study included 12 children aged 8-15 in two children and youth clinics in southern Sweden. For data analysis a qualitative content analysis was used. The analysis resulted in the overall theme “Experience of possibility to participation in meaningful activities”. The result ended up in the three categories; participation, meaningful activities and activities at the hospital. The conclusion were that the children experienced both possibilities and limitations in order to participate in activities. The majority of the children experienced good possibilities to participate in meaningful activities as the play therapy, play video-games and spend time with family and friends.

The purpose of this study was to examine and make explicit the relationships between commitment, rituals, and initiator tendency. Past research and theory suggests that these ideas are related. Two research questions guided the study: (1) How are initiator tendency and the number of rituals a couple participates in related to the commitment style?, and (2) How are initiator tendency and the meaningfulness of rituals related to commitment style? Data were obtained from 55 couples who completed a questionnaire to measure participation and meaningfulness of rituals, initiator tendency, and commitment. Final analyses were performed with only 39 of these couples as 16 newlywed couples were removed from the sample. Results suggested a significant relationship for meaningfulness of connection rituals with both personal commitment and moral commitment for the husbands in the study. A relationship was also found between initiator tendency and personal commitment for both husbands and wives, while only the wives showed a negative relationship between initiator tendency and constraint commitment. Implications for marriage and family therapy were presented and the limitations of the study were also discussed.

This study was an investigation of the relationship between subordinates' perceptions of the quality of the leader-member exchange (LMX) relationship and their willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and organizational commitment (OC). Differences in subordinates' perceptions of the quality of the LMX with their supervisor according to the gender of the supervisor compared to the employee (same sex vs. different sex) and dyadic duration of the LMX were also investigated. The possible moderation of dyadic duration on the relationship between subordinates' perception of the quality of the LMX and their willingness to engage in OCB and OC were also investigated. Lastly, the possible moderation of gender on the relationship between subordinates' perception of the quality of the LMX and their willingness to engage in OCB and OC were also investigated. This study surveyed direct service subordinate staff currently employed at a large rehabilitation organization in the Midwest. Results of research questions (RQ) one through eight are as follows: No significant correlation, r = .15, p = .35 for RQ1, significant correlation for RQ2, r = .38, p =.01, no significant correlation, r = .14, p = .38, for RQ3, no significant correlation, r = .30, p = .05 for RQ4, RQ5 model one was not significant, R2 = .10, F (2,38) = 2.21, p = .12, model two was significant, R2 = .19, F (3, 37) = 2.86, p = .05, RQ6 model one was significant, R2 = .26, F (2, 38) = 7.59, p = .002, model two was significant, R2 = .34, F (3, 37) = 6.34, p = .001, RQ7 model one was not significant, R2 = .10, F (2, 38) = 2.21, p = .12, model two was not significant, R2= .16, F (3, 37) = 2.31, p = .09, and RQ8 model one was significant, R2 = .26, F (2, 38) = 7.59, p = .002, model two was significant, R2 = .32, F (3, 37) = 5.98, p = .002. A summary of results and limitations and delimitations of the study are discussed, as well as implications and directions for future research.

MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Ruth Anne Rehfeldt The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a defusion exercise in combination with perspective- taking interactions as a brief protocol based on the Relational Frame Theory (RFT). The protocol was designed to alter verbal statements about the self through the implementation of training on deictic frames (I-YOU, HERE-THERE, AND NOW-THEN) in conjunction with an exercise of defusion. A pre-post design with a control group was implemented to evaluate the effects of the protocol on the frequency rate of self-as-context and self-as-content statements. Adolescents with disabilities were selected and assigned to each group based on the frequency rate of self-as-content statements. After the assignment of the participants to each group, each participant was interviewed individually through a structured interview aimed at identifying deictic frames and negative statements. Then, participants in the treatment group received the protocol of defusion and deictic frames individually, and participants in the control group received a social skills session on an individual basis. Finally, participants were interviewed individually through an interview based on the identification of deictic relationships and negative statements about the self. Results showed a significant effect in reducing the number of self-as-content statements and increasing the number of self-as-context statements for participants in the treatment group; however, changes did not reach the statistical significance when comparing the post-tests scores between the treatment and control group. Limitations of this study are discussed and future research is recommended.

Police supervisors who enjoy membership in their subordinates' police union may contribute to organizational discord by failing to enforce organizational policy among their subordinates. The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the perceptions of 9 municipal chiefs from a west coast state in the United States regarding how supervisors' membership in their subordinates' police union affects policy enforcement and how supervisor enforcement of policy may impact police officer discipline. The conceptual framework was based on dual-commitment conflict theory. Data were collected using semi structured interviews and e-mail questionnaires. Data were member checked and cross-interpreted through coded analysis. Findings indicated that supervisors' membership in their subordinates' police union affected disciplinary outcomes. Participants' recommendations to address dual-commitment conflict included removal of supervisors from their subordinates' union, removal of supervisors' investigative duties, and outsourcing of critical investigations involving subordinates. The implications for social change can be observed in increased organizational transparency and police accountability, which may assist in enhancing police-community relationships.