<p> Homelessness is a form of detachment from society, characterized by a lack of policy and deficiency of managed programs and community awareness that provides enough housing. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate situational homelessness from the perspective of 20 situationally homeless military veterans in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Interviews of 20 homeless veterans living in the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training (MCVET) transitional housing facility revealed 4 themes that represented homeless veterans&rsquo; perceptions of homeless prevention programs. The emerging themes consisted of the lack of effective veteran education, oppressiveness of system, the lack of effective transitional housing facilities for homeless veterans with families, and a need for compassion. After serving in the military, veterans returning to civilian life who find themselves in a situationally homeless condition felt they should be guaranteed access to effective homelessness services, effective community of care and support systems, and on the job training programs that link to professional jobs that provide benefits to enable economic sustainability. The effect of returning to civilian life after serving in the military represented a unique perspective in how homeless veterans react to homelessness services and the lack of support systems. The study findings add insight to homelessness from the viewpoint of those affected, offer prevention strategies in addressing veteran homelessness, and suggest the need for changes in policy.</p>

<p> This investigative study demonstrated the benefits of addressing human considerations during the system development life cycle in order to have had long-term benefits to program managers and systems engineers. The approach was to use a retrospective content analysis of documents from weapon system acquisition programs, namely Major Defense Acquisition Programs, in order to seek the presence of terminology relating to Human Systems Integration. There is only a small amount of published research to date on the relationship between program documents that included terminology relating to Human Systems Integration and any eventual cost change or schedule change for Department of Defense weapon systems. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the effect of the presence of words relating to Human Systems Integration on the success of programs. The presence of terminology about human factors engineering, habitability, and survivability in a weapon system acquisition program&rsquo;s documents was a good indicator that schedule slippages and cost overruns would be avoided. Furthermore, the presence of terminology about human factors engineering, habitability, and survivability in a program&rsquo;s documents prior to the Milestone B decision point was a good indicator that schedule slippages and cost overruns would be avoided.</p>

<p> Within the Air Force&rsquo;s performance evaluation systems, there is a lack of standardization resulting in Air Force personnel spending extraneous hours generating, editing, and reediting performance evaluations. The amount of man-hours required to complete a single evaluation has never been quantified. The purpose of this quantitative, ex post facto study was to identify the variables: Rank of the Reviewer, Rank of the Ratee, the Organization, Method of Review, and Time contributing to the man-hours associated with completing performance reviews, and to provide leadership with data to support the need for change in order to reduce personnel costs by eliminating unnecessary manhours. Archival data consisted of 79 evaluations from six organizations. The most important finding suggested that organizations differ greatly in how they spend time, ranging from 10 to 24 hours to process a single evaluation, with a majority of the time spent correcting previous iterations due to lack of standardization. A recommendation of this study is to serve as a benchmark for replication and to encourage other organizations to streamline and standardize evaluations.</p>

<p> The United States Air Force (USAF) organization has a hierarchical leadership structure and multi-generation work force. The problem addressed in this study is the absence of USAF Millennial generation (born between 1982 and 2005) officer voices to inform USAF senior leaders about Millennials&rsquo; formal and informal leadership development perspectives. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how USAF Millennial officers describe their lived leadership development experiences. During indepth interviews six male and five female USAF Millennial officer respondents discussed their experiences of being led and learning to lead. Thematic analysis of interview responses and USAF doctrine revealed Millennial respondents supported sustaining the USAF Core Values, cultural heritage, and hierarchical leadership structure. This perspective aligns with the Millennial civic generation type that values community and loyalty in relationships. Recommendations emerged for USAF senior leaders to meet Millennial officer leadership development needs, increasing retention, and enhancing recruitment strategies. Findings indicated minimizing hierarchical position power when developing USAF leaders will meet Millennial officer needs and increasing the importance of valuing generation diversity and Millennial generation cohort contributions will influence USAF Millennial officers to continue their USAF employment. Modifying USAF mentoring using a systems thinking approach will increase USAF Millennial officer interest to help USAF senior leaders plan for change. Leveraging USAF Millennial generation cohort characteristics that align with those of the G.I. Generation cohort (born between 1901 and 1924) provides USAF senior leaders with options to accommodate current and future USAF generation employees.</p>

<p> An employee&rsquo;s intent to leave an organization is the most common predictor of employee turnover. Employee turnover can cost an organization 150% to 250% of a worker&rsquo;s annual compensation to replace and train an employee. Understanding employee intent to leave is vital for federal agency leaders to help reduce turnover. Grounded in Herzberg&rsquo;s 2-factor model, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the likelihood of employee perceptions regarding work experience, leadership practices, and supervisor relationships with employees predicting employee intent to leave. Archival data were analyzed for 297 employees who completed the 2015 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. The results of the binary logistic regression analysis indicated the full model, containing the 3 predictor variables (employee perceptions regarding work experience, leadership practices, and supervisor relationships with employees), was useful in distinguishing between respondents who reported and did not report they intended to take another job outside the federal government within the next year, with <i>X</i>² (3, <i> N</i> = 297) = 111.27 and <i>p</i> &lt; .001. Two of the predictor variables--employee perceptions of work experience and leadership practices--made a statistically significant contribution to the model. Employee perceptions of supervisor relationships with employees were not significant. The implications of this study for positive social change include the opportunity for human resources professionals and organizational leaders to gain an understanding of employee intent to leave, its impact on the workplace, and the potential to contribute to higher employment levels.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation, Transformational Innovation (TI) in the U.S. Department of Defense (U.S. DoD) Acquisitions, is a qualitative case study. The topic is viewed through a social constructivist lens and designed to understand the contemporary real-life experiences of U.S. DoD acquisition professionals in meeting the challenge of the Better Buying Power initiative. This initiative, Better Buying Power, asks U.S. DoD acquisition professionals to create innovative business processes designed to increase the effectiveness and best value of U.S. DoD acquisition activities. The researcher examined observed illustrations of TI and the accompanying instances of transformational or transactional leadership. Transformational leadership (TL) can be characterized by idealized influence/charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual consideration and stimulation, and individualized consideration. In contrast, transactional leadership is a method whereby goals and tasks are assigned to employees who are motivated by rewards and punishments and must do as the manager says or face the consequences. The data gathered from this research effort are centered on two areas, transformational leadership in the U.S. DoD acquisitions workforce, and transformational innovation within the U.S. DoD acquisitions workforce. Several themes emerged from the study: there were few examples of transformational leadership; there were few examples of transformational innovation; there were many examples of transactional leadership, the U.S. DoD is still primarily transactional; and change in the U.S. DoD is directive. The results of the study add to the literature surrounding TL and TI and offer insight into the effects of transformational leadership on transformational innovation. </p><p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2549. Adviser: James A. Leach. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-167) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> The U.S. DoD budget has grown to over a half trillion dollars annually. Unfortunately, the majority of these acquisitions do not satisfy their initial performance objectives in terms of cost, schedule, and technical performance. The U.S. DoD attributes these shortfalls in part to the use of immature technologies within these programs. The U.S. DoD endorsed and later mandated the use of Technology Readiness Assessments (TRAs) and knowledge-based practices in the early 2000's to be used as a tool in the management of program acquisition risk. Unfortunately, the expense of implementing TRAs can be significant, especially when programs include knowledge-based practices such as prototyping, performance specifications, test plans, and technology maturity plans. What has been the economic impact of these TRA practices on the acquisition performance of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force? The conundrum that exists today is there is no commonly accepted approach used to determine the economic value of TRAs. This study provides a model for the valuation of TRAs in assessing the risk of technical maturity. It provides a framework to evaluate the economic benefits of performing Technology Readiness Assessments on acquisition performance using cost and technology maturity risks to derive economic benefits, which can then be input into valuation techniques such as benefit/cost ratio, return on investment percentage, net present value, and real options analysis. </p><p> (Keywords: TRA, Knowledge-Based Acquisition, B/CR, ROI%, NPV, ROA).</p>

<p> Few studies exist that explore the reintegration experience of female reservists who served in a combat environment. Consequently, reintegration programs are gender neutral and applied as a one size fit all approach. Female veterans are the fastest growing section of the veteran population reporting mental health problems during post deployments. Moreover, the new norm is a heavy reliance on Guard and reservists in national defense. In addition, women comprise a larger percentage of the Guard and reserve population than the active duty force. A qualitative, phenomenological study using the Moustakas modification of the van Kamm method of analysis was conducted to explore the lived experiences of a representative group of female reservists who participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) or Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and their return back to families and communities. The data from these female veterans was analyzed to highlight the experience from activation to deployment and participation in OIF/OEF and returning home, reintegrating in families and communities. Five themes emerged from the findings&mdash;i.e., propensity for military service, range of emotions, support, unique gender experiences, and social status. These themes may be of value to local, state, and federal leaders, as all public levels are associated with reservists at each stage of their active and inactive military experience.</p>