Employee disengagement is a significant issue for leaders and managers in many organizations. The general problem is the workforce in many American organizations includes disengaged employees. In 2016, only 33% of the workforce in the United States was engaged. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the independent variables of mentoring, which include role modeling, acceptance and confirmation, and mentoring friendship functions with a dependent variable of employee engagement. The moderating variable of perceived organizational support was measured to test the strength or weakness of the effects that mentoring has on employee engagement. The theoretical foundation for this study was social exchange theory. The researcher recruited a convenience sample of 307 technicians and technologists representing 7 industries. The participants completed surveys and questionnaires to provide their views of mentoring, perceived organizational support, and work engagement. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential analysis, including Pearson's correlations, linear, and stepwise regression analysis. The results of the inferential analyses indicated that each part of the mentoring variables (career support, psychosocial support, and role modeling) had an independent impact on work engagement. The interaction between psychosocial support and organizational support was also significant after accounting for the effects of mentoring and organizational support. The findings indicate that managers can achieve positive social change and improve employee well-bring within their organizations by being dutifully involved in their employees' work lives. Managers should also be available to apply resources such as mentoring for technicians and technologist when needed.

In 2016's global business landscape, the increase in workers moving across borders to find employment accentuates the language and cultural challenges for both employees and organizations. Employees working in a multinational environment need to have an understanding of language and culture to handle the complex nature of professional work in a multinational corporation (MNC). The purpose of this study was to explore what communication competencies employees in a small MNC needed to communicate across multicultural environments in the workplace. A dialectic approach of intercultural communication was used to explore these needs in one small MNC located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using English as the corporate language. Data were collected from 9 employees of one data security firm using semistructured interviewing, the data was then coded into NVivo. Using interpretative phenomenology analysis, the themes of understanding, cultural sensitivity, pace, and fitting in emerged. Results of the study indicated a disconnect in the cultural mentality of Americanness versus Arabness in the business environment where societal factors and national identity reflected in how the employees think and act in the workplace. Lack of cultural knowledge in an MNC can impact the financial health of an organization in lost opportunities, reduced productivity, and long-term relationship damage with clients and partners. The results of this study could contribute to positive social change by providing small MNCs with the insight to enhance intercultural communication and intercultural awareness among employees in building a global workforce.

The term “isolated find” has frequently been taken as a disposable artifact category in cultural resource management (CRM). Efforts were made to empirically demonstrate the fallacy of this concept and its use, using modified field sampling strategies, the inclusion of fine screen artifact analysis, and statistical analyses. Six sites containing prehistoric occupations on Camp McCain National Guard base in Grenada County, Mississippi were reinvestigated using these methods; their datasets were expanded in terms of site size, density, function, and temporal association, which may change their eligibility status for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Fieldwork and classification based solutions are offered to account for biases introduced by current standard methods of sampling and site delineation during Phase I archaeological survey.

This thesis examines the role of archaeology and its contribution to emergency relief work in areas struck by a disastrous event. At a time in our contemporary society where we may be extra vulnerable against disasters, archaeology can help us both prevent and reduce the risks of disasters. In areas where a disaster has struck it can instead help the survivors of the affected community to recover and to rebuild their society by using traditional archaeological methods and knowledge. Despite this, archaeology is not used to its full potential at disaster scenes.  Incorporating evidence from articles, personal correspondences and a survey, this thesis demonstrates that archaeology should be more involved in the initial phase of emergency rescue work due to the usefulness of archaeological excavation methods. Archaeology also shows great potential in regards to preventative measures and general research around disaster management.  This thesis argues for an increased involvement of archaeology and archaeologists in the initial phase of emergency relief in areas affected by a disastrous event. It also argues for more open discussions regarding the emotional difficulties that may arise from working at a disaster scene, allowing the workers to freely share their experiences with one another even in an academic setting.

Environmental conservation and natural resources management are critical global issues of the 21st century. The management of protected public lands emerges as a challenge particularly in developing countries because of the biophysical and socio-cultural importance of these lands. These lands are often referred to as 'working landscapes' where the natural systems and the collective actions of local residents have shaped one another in well-balanced interactions for generations. The working landscapes of the Köprülü Kanyon National Park (KKNP) in Turkey have provided the case study for this dissertation. Eleven villages exist within the park with a total of approximately 7,100 residents. The rich natural resources of the park have been contested by local communities, management and concessionaires. The objectives of the research were: first, to understand the fundamentals of the natural and socio-cultural dynamics within protected areas in general, and within the KKNP in particular; second, to examine the social conflicts which complicate the management of the KKNP; and third, to explore potential solutions whereby the stakeholders can cooperate in stabilizing the traditional dynamics of the park's working landscapes. Qualitative data was collected via 38 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with local residents, managers and concessionaires. The research found that an array of social disturbances and conflicts impact the social fabric and harm the land-human integrity of the site. These include shifting demographics, changing lifestyles of the villagers, pressures from tourism, multiple governmental authorities and instable management. Yaylacýlýk tradition, a semi-sedentary form of pastoralism, has played a significant role in both the traditional ecology and the social relations within the communities of the KKNP; and its abandonment has severely impacted both social and biophysical conditions. Through yaylacýlýk local residents had managed the lands as common property. The establishment of the national park, changing life styles and the pressures on the local agricultural economy brought an end to yaylacýlýk . Now the resources are treated in effect as open pool resources, thus leading to their demise. Throughout the eventful past of the KKNP the local residents have come from being integral elements of the 'working landscapes,' to being as antagonistic enemies of the park management. The three ideal characteristic elements of the 'working landscapes' of the KKNP (controlled access, coordination and communication) which once were maintained by the yaylacýlýk tradition, can be re-institutionalized within the region through contemporary applications by neutral third party initiatives. Restoration, conservation and efficient management of biophysical resources and the natural environment should be the outcomes of the resolutions of social conflicts which can be accomplished by the restoration of these three elements of the social structure.

The removal of New York Interstate- 81’s (I-81) 1.4 mile stretch of raised, four-lane highway in Syracuse will highlight the critical role of socioeconomics, accessibility, and community building in urban neighborhood reclamation. The removal of what had been previously deemed an urban renewal project, presents Syracuse with new opportunities for space restoration and place-making efforts, atoning for careless and traumatic historic divisions, all the while exploring more substantive design responses tailored to the realities of the City. This thesis explores these fundamental planning considerations through a design lens; by proposing a comprehensive and integrated vision of physical and spatial opportunities provided by the removal of the Viaduct. Through a series of demographic, socioeconomic and spatial analyses, this thesis begins by working to understand the effect of these proposed changes on the communities most directly affected both by I-81’s construction and now its destruction. Then, the thesis examines what it means to be a Sanctuary City in the United States and explores methods in which the vacancy of this land can be found to serve Syracuse’s most disadvantaged and at-risk populations. If Syracuse deems itself a home for everyone, what types of facilities could exist to serve that designation, both built and imagined? In this thesis I propose my own theories about the role of architecture in helping to create a true sense of sanctuary. Finally, the thesis explores the design and programming of a series of buildings, spaces, and urban interventions which serve as a means to this end. In so doing, the thesis critically examines the role of socially integrated urban renewal in Syracuse, NY, and offers design explorations that might mediate social inequities.

Access to water from San Antonio Creek was critical in Claremont’s growth from a small stop on the Santa Fe Railroad to an agricultural powerhouse and an elite college town. While Claremont has sought to distinguish itself from surrounding communities since its founding in 1882, the innovative Pomona Valley Protective Association (PVPA) aligned Claremont with the City of Pomona and its other neighbors in a scheme to conserve the Creek’s resources at the turn of the century. Organized around the discovery of local confined aquifers and the development of a strategy to recharge them with water from the San Antonio Creek, the Association was a contradictory moment of cooperation in an otherwise highly contentious zero-sum game of water rights politics. As conflicts wore on, the PVPA quietly orchestrated the purchase of large tracts of land in the San Antonio Creekbed, where the construction of diversion dams and spreading grounds served dual purposes of water conservation and flood control. As dam building in the Creekbed continued, large tracts of the previously undevelopable Wash were transferred to the aggregate mining institutions that gouged the area’s many gravel pits. This thesis uses the story of the PVPA and the contemporary example of the Claremont University Consortium Gravel Pit to explore the context of development in the San Antonio Creek Wash. Understanding the political and social contexts of the gravel quarry problem reveals possibilities for a more integrative, conscious, and sustainable approach to improving the former gravel quarries that currently occupy the Wash landscape.

To be submitted.

The study of social memory is not purely a historical or anthropological endeavor. Archaeology can provide a considerable amount of evidence about how and why people remembered. In this case study, the Colosseum will be studied in the broader sense of being a monument of damnatio memoriae and commemorative memory; the very act of building it can be seen as a form of “recutting” the landscape to fit the image Vespasian wanted to convey of his predecessor. The Colosseum will also be studied in an even larger historical context. This will involve analyzing the manner in which it was memorialized during the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and by British visitors during the Victorian era. I will end the case study with an analysis of Benito Mussolini’s use of antiquity and the Colosseum to propagate Fascism. Lastly, the concept of cultural heritage and the institutions that uphold it, particularly UNESCO, will be put into question. In illustrating the fluidity of interpretations of the past, in this case through material culture, I argue that the endeavor to codify them by establishing World Heritage sites is problematic because of their subjectivity to modern agendas. However, in order to understand changing attitudes and memories associated with a single monument, one must first explore the nature of social memory.

This senior thesis in environmental analysis explores the promise of sustainability of the sharing economy, its shortcomings from this positive potential, and possible policy solutions to help it reach its fullest, positive potential. At its core, the sharing economy enables shared access to goods and services that would otherwise sit in idle or underutilized capacity – popular platforms such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and craigslist all fall within the sharing economy. By enabling affordable and convenient access to goods that would otherwise sit idle, the sharing economy encourages maximal use of a good that already exists rather than seeking out the production of new goods to meet demand. Unfortunately, as it grows, the sharing economy moves away from this key environmental promise because of two central challenges: first, a shift away from maximal resource use, the central pillar of its promise of sustainability, and second, negative side effects that arise from a lack of regulation of the decentralized economy. Therefore, appropriate public policy is needed to both regulate the decentralized economy to minimize negative behaviors and to encourage the positive behaviors of the sharing economy.