This study was designed for the purpose of comparing the efforts at selected major universities which have relatively large international student populations, with a set set of characteristics extrapolated from the literature, and determining which of the characteristics are reflected in the programs of these institutions, which are superfluous to those reviewed international student programs, and what additional characteristics the selected schools exhibit which might account for their strength of performances and reputations. The study revealed that some of the created characteristics were successful, some were partially successful, and some were unsuccessful in evaluating the institutional international student programs. Recommendations for further research include the need to create a larger pool of characteristics with which to evaluate institutions, a larger pool of institutions of greater variety to be included for a greater diversity of results, and more time spent at each site in data collection for a more in-depth picture of the institutional characteristics at each university. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: A, page: 0046. / Major Professor: Joseph Beckham. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Purposes were (1) to identify all current adult community band activity in the states of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, and (2) to develop a profile of participants in community bands, to include educational level, personal and musical characteristics, other current musical activities, family influence on participation, and employment information. / Identification of community bands was accomplished primarily through mail response from members of professional music organizations. The study verified twelve community bands in Alabama, twenty-six in Georgia, and forty-four in Florida. / A 60-item questionnaire was developed and distributed to the membership of fourteen community bands selected as a sample of small, medium, and large cities. Five hundred twenty-eight surveys were completed for a return rate of 74.6%. / Responses revealed twice as many men as women playing in community bands, and a very low rate of participation by minorities. More than half of respondents held a college degree, and half had majored in music at some time during college. / High school band was the most active level of school music participation, and positive indicators of continued adult activity were solo and small ensemble activity, private lessons, keyboard lessons, choir, and honor bands. / Three-fourths of respondents were recently active in another instrumental ensemble. Most participants had played in the community band for five years or less. Family influence was not a positive indicator of continued activity. Half of respondents were employed in professional occupations, and one-third currently or had formerly taught music. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1172. / Major Professor: James E. Croft. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

This study investigated non-traditional adult college students' motives for attending college. The survey sample consisted of 202 students who were enrolled in one of two selected northwest Florida universities, and who were employed full-time either in the education profession or the Federal Civil Service. Questionnaires were designed to assess their personal and situational characteristics, their perceived motivating external factors and internal reasons for attending college, and their underlying life-needs as motivators for attending college. / Methods of analyses were as follows: frequency distribution, calculation of means, standard deviation, percentages, chi-square, and analysis of variance. / Results indicated significantly more females in the education group; significantly more graduate students in the education group; and most of the students in both groups were married. The overall motivating external factor for attending college for both groups was the necessity of having a degree. However, the Civil Service group was more motivated by job-dissatisfaction and the availability of funds than was the education group. Career advancement was chosen by both groups as the most influential internal reason for attending college. In terms of the underlying life-need motivators, the two occupational groups differed significantly on the life-needs of Social Stimulation and Community Service. There was also a significant difference by sex on the life-need of Cognitive Interest. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: A, page: 1081. / Major Professor: David W. Leslie. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The purpose of this dissertation was to describe the information needs and the information seeking behavior of rural physicians. The data were collected from a sample of twelve rural physicians in Central Florida from face-to-face interviews, and from observations of physicians' offices, the rural community, discussions with physicians' nurses, office personnel, and observations of hospital libraries when they existed. Multiple challenges face researchers attempting to interview rural physicians. / From a review of patient charts, 34% of the charts produced unique factual medical patient care questions. Seventy-five percent of the questions were on treatment, 14.7% on diagnosis, 8.3% on etiology, and 2.1% on the psychological aspects of disease. Rural physicians place similar emphasis on the use of information sources. All physicians rely on colleagues; 91.7% attend medical meetings; 75% subscribe to medical journals, and 75% own medical textbooks. Of the physicians with access to a hospital library that met certain criteria of eligibility imposed by the study, 16.7% use the library frequently and 50% never use the library. Physicians without access to a hospital library own more journals and textbooks than do those physicians with access to a hospital library; however, ownership is most likely due to individual differences rather than the existence of the library since half the physicians did not avail themselves of the opportunity to use the hospital library. / Lack of time due to long, hectic patient days and medical problems unique to rural practice were obstacles to information retrieval for patient care. Physicians need immediate access to high quality, synthesized answers to specific patient care questions at the time of patient contact. Information must be up-to-date, although not necessarily state-of-the-art. A database composed of concise, synthesized information, written by an honorary panel of physicians, designed to actually answer rural physicians' patient care questions would facilitate the information retrieval for rural physicians. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 3937. / Major Professor: Ronald Blazek. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

This "action research" examined a select portion of the "chain of results." Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to explore the possible relationships between organizational culture, training and job performance. The findings are: (1) When training is designed and does not purposefully incorporate the values, beliefs and norms of the organization, then the values, beliefs, and norms of an employee do not seem to be influenced. (2) There is not a significant relationship between all organizational culture factors and job performance; however, when "quality and teamwork" are important to an employee, then there is a significant relationship to job performance. (3) When an employee requires database management for the job and has no other mechanism for learning a database management program, training which has been designed using a modified "systems approach model" results in classroom performance which is better than someone who has not taken any training. The achievement scores are not considered mastery; consequently, suggestions are made for future course design and current course offerings. (4) With exception to "integrity" and "organization serving as a good neighbor" the values, and beliefs stated by the employee are espoused by the director of the organization. Recommendations are made to address the methodological and statistical issues of this study. Suggestions for how the results of this study can be applied to the organization are made. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 3995. / Major Professor: Roger Kaufman. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The purpose of this study was to determine variables which were associated with participation in continuing education by clergy in the Eleventh Episcopal District (Florida and the Bahamas) of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The specific objectives of this study were (1) to determine the nature and scope of African Methodist Episcopal ministers participation in continuing education and (2) to determine the association between selected demographic, dispositional, situational, and institutional variables and participation in continuing education. One hundred twenty-four ministers were requested to respond to a fifty item mail questionnaire; from the sample seventy-five usable instruments were returned. / Data collected for objective one were descriptive. The data provided information relevant to the nature and scope of ministers participation in continuing education. Objective two was operationalized through a series of four research questions. The four research questions were analyzed using Spearman's Rho, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and the Contingency Coefficient. / For research question one significant associations were found between income from ministerial sources and number of activities attended, providers used, and hours studied. For research question two significant associations were found between value of improved pastoring and the number of activities attended and providers used. For research question three significant associations were found between length of professional experience and hours studied, and between work obligations and size of church and the number of activities attended. In research question four significant associations were found between scheduling and number of providers; knowledge of educational offering from other ministers and number of hours studied; and fees--amount spent by ministers and number of activities attended, providers utilized and hours studied. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 3996. / Major Professor: Irwin Jahns. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

This study investigated the executive role, the executive personnel system, and executive development as they are understood in Saudi Arabia. The historical development of the concepts, the current situation, and forces in the field that both drive and inhibit executive development in Saudi Arabia were examined. / Data were collected from government documents and interviews with Saudi executives and authorities at the Institute for Public Administration and the General Bureau of the Civil Service. Also, a questionnaire was administered to 129 Saudi executives, including general administrators, assistant deputy ministers, and deputy ministers representing all the ministries in Saudi Arabia. / The executive population in Saudi Arabia is fairly young and highly educated, generally abroad. Most have moved very little among the government agencies and have had little training in administration. / The findings suggest that the three concepts of role, system, and development for executives have not been assigned much importance in the Saudi administrative system. Most executives reported that their work consists mainly of present, specific, internal, and routine administrative tasks. There was no executive personnel system. The executive development program was centered on seminars, symposia, and conferences offering little response to real leadership needs. / Based on the study findings, an executive development strategy was formulated; it proposes to build a consciousness of the executive role and to encourage more executives to participate in development programs specifically directed toward their needs. The strategy recommends that the Supreme Committee for Administrative Reform take leadership in creating an executive personnel system and initiating a redesigned, broadened executive development program. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-03, Section: A, page: 0617. / Major Professor: Frank P. Sherwood. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

This case study focuses on changes in the administrative structure for public extension education in Florida between 1947 and 1965. Structure is defined as centralized or decentralized according to the locus of organizational authority, power, and accountability. The analysis explores the relationship between centralization and decentralization and the internal determinants of organizational size, task complexity, and client size and the external determinants of socio-economic and political environments. / Post-war changes in the administration of public higher education in Florida followed a national trend, meeting increased public demand through decentralization as reflected in the expansion of existing institutions and creation of new ones. The concurrent demand for funding of this expansion produced a counter movement for centralized accountability through stronger statewide governance. / Following this trend, Florida's institutions agitated for shifting responsibility for extension education to the individual institutions and away from the historically centralized structure under the General Extension Division at the University of Florida. In 1961, however, strong demands from business and Florida's unique space technology industry led the Executive branch to further centralize extension in the Florida Institute for Continuing University Studies (FICUS) to attain a more immediate and accountable response to public need. Institutional and legislative branch acceptance of FICUS was low, and with a change in the Executive branch, extension was decentralized to the institutions in 1965. / This study emphasizes public higher education's dual existence in the academic and political worlds. It presents an excellent example of the impact of the political world on higher education when it is perceived that the academic community is unresponsive. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0689. / Major Professors: Allan Tucker; John S. Waggaman. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

Our society is in the midst of vast change which requires that we restructure our institutions and organizations to meet personal as well as organizational needs. Most organizational studies dealing with structural change investigate the degree to which organizations implement linear models of change. The validity of such an approach and the credibility of the models themselves are coming into question. This study sought instead to discover the process of organizational change by examining it as it occurred rather than by designing a model and imposing it upon an organization. The method of inquiry was a case study using ethnographic techniques. The study occurred in a K-12 university school in Florida. The school was seeking to restructure its organizational management and governance and the relationships between and among individuals internal and external to the school using the metaphor of School As Family. / This change focused upon individual and group development and involved individuals in changing themselves, their roles and relationships, and the organization. The study investigated the factors which influenced adults to participate in this change and the factors which hindered that participation. It also examined the impact of this participation upon the adults involved. It employed a qualitative paradigm using case studies and ethnographic techniques. / The study identified four themes which influenced participation. They were: Relating to Needs, Mutual Control, Potential for Change, and Sense of Unity. These influences were interrelated and interactive. There were four sources of barriers: Past History, Miscommunication, Program Nature, and Organizational Structures. These barriers functioned independently and were not interrelated with one another. The impact of participation upon adults centered around three themes: Creating Feelings, Changing Attitudes, and Improving Relationships. These were interrelated and sometimes appeared to be causal. / The results of this study suggest that although concepts of organizational change from traditional models were used in this setting, the linear approach from which they proceeded was not appropriate to the process implemented. Thirteen concepts and a theoretical model of organizational change were developed from the findings. Recommendations for further study are presented. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-06, Section: A, page: 1966. / Major Professor: Irwin R. Jahns. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Instructional Systems Technology, School of Education, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-03, Section: A, page: 0904. Adviser: Elizabeth Boling. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed March 16, 2007)."