<p>Abstract Many secondary administrators, coaches, and security personnel have advocated for an intervention method to curtail the swell of referrals, ejections, and violence from the spectator sections in attendance at these events. The spirit of Olympism and sportsmanship is considered a core element of these events. The problem was that many of the events have seen a rise in these incidents. There is a correlation of the infusion of these elements, and the atmosphere at these events. The purpose of this experimental study was to explore whether a spectator covenant of behavior, would help to bind the parties to adherence to upholding these standards in a Central Arizona high school, located in the East Valley of Phoenix. This could help the administrators, coaches, and school personnel as an ancillary benefit, to the obvious decrease of these referrals. The analysis of archival against real-time data were based on the increase or decrease of said incidents, before the covenant was in place and while the covenant was in effect. These records are kept every year, and in each event. The implications of this study are that use of this type of intervention may be successful in similar situations and events. Recommendations for practice are for covenants to become a standard practice at sporting events. Recommendations for future study include conducting subsequent studies in several different areas of the country with varying crowd sizes. A future case study could be designed using parents who volunteer to sign an agreement and stay true to the binding covenant.

<p> There are three hypotheses for this research: 1. High school mathematics students in urban public schools, who are provided interactive technology resources during normal course work, will experience a multiplier effect of enhanced learning in mathematics. They will have an increase in positive dispositions indicative of their identity development as competent doers of math. 2. Through focusing on solving problems that relate to the life-world of students, students will experience an increase in the levels of solidarity with participants of the course. This will have a positive impact of the learning experiences and achievement of students. 3. Students will develop increased value of using their developing competencies in math to model and analyze issues relevant to their communities.</p><p> The purpose of this research is to study effective utilization of interactive technologies and math computer programs in public high school mathematics classes. The interactive technologies used in classes are to support graphical, tabluar, verbal and analytical representations of the mathematics in hopes of increasing the learning potential and math fluency of students. The research will serve as a basis for ongoing development of teaching practices that improve student achievement in mathematics. </p><p> The research design is an interpretive / phenomenological study of evolving attitudes and practices of students as they are engaged with math problem solving. Students will not be asked to produce any data solely for the purposes of the research. All activities that students do, and all data that will inform the research, will emerge from best teaching practices, which are supported by the school principal and have been formally approved by the school board. All methods and strategies employed in this study are ones I have used, over the past six years, in my role as a highly qualified math teacher in Newark public schools. No changes in what happens will occur because of this dissertation study. </p><p> The research design is an interpretive / phenomenological study of evolving attitudes and practices of students as they are engaged with math problem solving. Students will not be asked to produce any data solely for the purposes of the research. All activities that students do, and all data that will inform the research, will emerge from best teaching practices, which are supported by the school principal and have been formally approved by the school board. All methods and strategies employed in this study are ones I have used, over the past six years, in my role as a highly qualified math teacher in Newark public schools. No changes in what happens will occur because of this dissertation study. </p><p> Not all teachers are implementing the best practices that this study focuses on. I want to shed light on these practices and show how they can become more common and done in a more collaborative way. Students can opt not to use technologies at all, but it is not likely they would want to since doing so would slow down their progress. Teachers, however, are required to teach math with using various technologies, such as in an advanced graphing calculator or an interactive smart board. This is a case of, students are using technology in classes, gaining advantages with this technology use, and I would just like to analyze it write about my findings in my dissertation. Please see the school issued student calculator contract included with this application. It shows that math teachers are required to teach with school approved technologies, in this case a newer handheld graphing calculator), but that students may opt not to use it. Furthermore, many teachers don't yet know how to use these newer school approved technologies and must be shown the methods and benefits.</p>

In this paper we explore what role business schools play when it comes to shifting the paradigm towards sustainability and generating responsible decision-makers. It has been suggested that certain mainstream management models and theories has had some significant and negative influence on the conduct of business or even at times contradict sustainable development. Thus the aim of the paper is to explore the views and experiences of academics as well as the challenges they face when working with integrating sustainability into the education. Seven business schools and universities in Sweden have recently signed the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative and therefore made a commitment to implement sustainability into their education as well as engage in a platform for responsible management education. This study is based on semi- structured interviews with people responsible for working with the schools’ commitment. Our main findings are that signing PRME is a logic of legitimacy and that most schools are in the beginning of implementing sustainability. The main challenges that the schools face in the process are related to the complexity of bringing a new concept into an academic organisation initially from the top management in a bottom up environment. In addition to this, there seem to be a detachment of how the respondents express the role of business education and the more general role of business in society, in relation to responsibility.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Stanley Ikenberry. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-205) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p>U.S. companies continue to grow and expand overseas. They also outsource business processes. There were approximately 350,000 call center employees in India in 2009 (Lundby, Parthasarthy, &amp; Kowske, 2009) and another 350,000 in the Philippines by 2010 (Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, 2010). The success of employees who are not U.S. citizens, yet work for American companies, has become critical. These individuals are, many times, hired by and work for organizations located in the U.S. yet are native to, stationed in, and supervise operations in countries around the world. The leadership and cross-cultural acumen of individuals in these positions can be critical to their success or failure as employees of American organizations as well as to their ability to successfully lead members within their own organizations to achieve successful results. </p><p> This research project was conducted by a third party to preclude any bias as the researcher is also the owner of the organization under study. The research examined leadership behaviors as well as cross-cultural sensitivities of individuals in these positions in order to ascertain whether there were differences between these self-reported attributes and the results generated by particular organizational units. Qualitatively, the researcher interviewed senior executives at a number of firms (not associated with his own organization) with respect to leadership and cross-cultural sensitivities of mid-level managers to ascertain if, from the perspective of these senior executives, common threads could be identified that would lead to a greater understanding of the issues of leadership and cross-cultural sensitivities in these mid-level positions as well as efforts that could impact organizational results. </p><p> The resulting data indicated that there was not a significant statistical relationship between any of the leadership acumens or cultural identifiers and managerial performance. In the qualitative data, senior leaders overwhelmingly indicated that Focused Drive, Trusted Influence, and Conceptual Thinking were defining leadership behaviors between higher and lower performers. </p>

<p> This qualitative, phenomenological study provides a detailed look at corporate social responsibility (CSR) among selected U.S. Fortune 500 global corporations that show evidence of advanced stages of CSR development, herein referred to as <i>it</i>CSR. While CSR broadly conveys business' role in society, <i>it</i>CSR is a construct meant to indicate business' ideal contribution in society that epitomizes meaningful triple bottom line (TBL) impact. Using the Global Leadership Network Framework of business strategy, leadership, operational excellence, and engaged learning, this research explored what motivates executives to develop <i>it</i>CSR and the success strategies for instituting <i>it</i>CSR practices at America's largest publicly-traded multinational corporations (MNCs). The findings are particularly relevant in comparing the values, practices, initiatives, and drivers of <i> it</i>CSR development among the leading American global companies. Consequently, this study identified 10 U.S. Fortune 500 global corporations that met the <i> it</i>CSR criteria for this study from an analysis that included (a) cross-referencing five indices/lists that measure various parameters of the <i> it</i>CSR criteria, and (b) evaluating total trailing financial returns for 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year periods compared to the S&amp;P 500 Index results. Overarching themes from the study include: a) a strong presence of core ideologies has been in place from the origin of each company and represent the essence of the corporate character, and thus its soul; b) the core ideologies are centered on improving life and communities and are grounded in circular wisdom, eudaemonics, and virtuousness, all tied to ethical governance and a moral consciousness; c) there is purposeful connectivity cultivated by leadership for all levels of employees to engage in a shared responsibility; d) executive efficacy in <i>it</i>CSR efforts and undertaking cannot be underscored enough, even though leadership may manifest in different ways; e) it is necessary to embrace and promote <i>it</i>CSR development as a continuous, never-ending, imperfect journey; f) it is necessary to activate all aspects of the business' operations, and at the same time, recognize that the process is more of an art than a science; g) including the customer on the <i> it</i>CSR journey is predicated on authenticity, vulnerability, and risk-taking; h) developing multi-stakeholder partnerships is proactive, strategic, selective, action-oriented, focused on collaborative learning, and absolutely designed for meaningful and sustainable triple bottom line impact; and i) <i> it</i>CSR development operates from a platform of innovation.</p>

<p> The exploratory qualitative research study explored management education business school offerings in comparison to employer expectations. Through the lens of alumni and human-resources personnel participants, the research examined the skills deemed as transferrable to the workplace and competencies that undergraduate-management education alumni lack upon entry into the workplace. This research study used interviewing as the data-collection method to explore the experiences of undergraduate business-school alumni from two universities, which from here on out will be referred to as University A and University B, as well as human-resources personnel from the states where these universities are located. Existing literature relating to the effectiveness of management education programs did not fully address the problem at the undergraduate level. The findings of this study reaffirmed the need for employers, business school administrators, and faculty to increase collaborative efforts to ensure that undergraduate business-school program competencies are aligned with employer expectations.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to examine HR executives' perspectives on employability enhancement for employees and how it is operationalized in their workplace. The exploratory questions that guided the study were, What are the perspectives of HR executives regarding employability enhancement for employees, and In what ways and under what conditions is organizational support of employability enhancement demonstrated through workplace learning initiatives? The conceptual framework for this study is based on Clarke and Patrickson's (2008) list of assumptions concerning employability as the premise for the new employment contract. </p><p> Data collected consisted of background questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, organizational documents, and researcher reflective journal notes. Cross case analysis yielded four major themes of "Shared Responsibility," "The Power of Learning Attitude," "Assessment for Growth," and "Resource Availability." These four themes include discussions of the roles and responsibilities for employability, desired employee learning attitudes, recommended assessment activities, and conditions affecting development opportunities provided by organizations. Implications for organizations, their employees, and HRD professionals are described. This study contributes empirical research on today's employment contract based on an employability model from the organization's perspective. It also adds to the body of literature on employability rarely focused on, employability enhancement for employees.</p>

<p> The primary purpose of this quantitative study was to examine if simulation training correlated with the decision-making abilities of firefighters from two departments (one in a mountain state and one in a southwest state). The other purposes were to determine if firefighter demographics were correlated with the completion of the simulation training and/or predicted decision-making abilities. The independent variables of this study were the completion simulation-training program and selected firefighter demographics with the naturalistic decision-making abilities of these firefighters as the dependent variable. Using purposive sampling, the participants selected were members of the two sample fire departments. The survey contained three categories: demographic information, simulation-based training program overview, and simulation-training assessment. The study produced some statistically significant findings which provided empirical evidence regarding the effective use of simulation training to the decision-making ability of firefighters. It also addresses the void in the existing knowledge base on the effectiveness in using simulation training on the decision-making ability on the fire ground, which firefighters need particularly.</p>

<p> This Delphi Study was designed to explore job-knowledge and practitioner expertise needed by bachelor-level graduates in meeting employer expectations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) health care industry. An initial supposition was that bachelor-level graduates were not meeting employer expectations because of insufficient jobknowledge, creating a need to align preparation of undergraduate business school graduates with workplace demands in management and finance. Process steps, based on Total Quality Management (TQM) Quality Function Deployment (QFD) House of Quality Principles, involved translating employer job-knowledge requirements into academic knowledge components useful to business school curriculum decision-makers. Combined levels of triangulation were employed to study expectations of UAE employers. Purposive sampling was applied to identify the participants. Data collection methods included 10 semi-structured in-depth interviews and two Responsive e-Delphi rounds. Data analysis involved translating employer job-knowledge requirements into academic knowledge components that contribute to curriculum development to improve learning process quality within UAE undergraduate schools of business. Findings indicated a need to provide students the opportunity to gain understanding and experience in applying theory to solve business problems within a work environment. Specific, accurate academic knowledge specifications embedded in the curriculum during curriculum design are recommended. Findings of this research may be useful to curriculum developers, curriculum revisers, and classroom instructors within UAE schools of business.</p>