<p> PURPOSE. The purpose of this study was to identify the career benefits and calculate the return on investment (ROI) of unpaid volunteer leadership as perceived by chapter leaders in a professional talent development industry association. The definition of career benefits was adapted from Hirschi&rsquo;s Career Resources Model, which includes: social capital, human capital, career identity and psychological resources (2012). Additionally, this study used the ROI Institute&rsquo;s ROI MethodologyTM to identify and calculate the costs and benefits of volunteer leadership to determine the ROI of time served as an unpaid volunteer leader (2013).</p><p> METHODS. This descriptive mixed-method study gathered quantitative and qualitative data via an online survey and semi-structured telephone interviews from 40 volunteer chapter leaders of the Association for Talent Development (ATD). </p><p> FINDINGS. There were multiple positive findings and several levels of ROI data documenting the strong value of volunteer leadership in a professional talent development association, and also demonstrating that there is very positive return from giving back to the profession. By giving their time and sometimes their money, volunteer leaders reaped multiple career benefits such as skill development, deeper relationships, publishing, contracts, speaking opportunities, new jobs and promotions. These specific career benefits resulted in a very significant positive financial ROI of 246%. </p><p> CONCLUSIONS. This study proved the paradox of volunteer leadership &mdash; often the main motivator is to give back, however what volunteer leaders receive is so much more. There is a strong tangible return on investment, as well as numerous intangible career benefits for serving as a volunteer leader in a professional talent development association. RECOMMENDATIONS. This study provides ideas for leveraging the value of volunteer leadership for individuals, associations and organizations. Individuals can improve or enhance their social capital, human capital, psychological resources and career identity. Associations can use this data to provide clear evidence of the value of volunteer leadership. Finally, corporations can encourage volunteer leadership as a tool to enhance or accelerate the leadership development of employees while also supporting professional industry associations.</p>

<p> This descriptive study examines the relationship between job expectations and job satisfaction in the context of adventure education (AE) field staff. An electronic survey distributed to field instructors of the Recreational Equipment Incorporated (REI) Outdoor School assessed the level to which their job expectations had been met as well as their reported job satisfaction based on the short form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. Quantitative analysis of the results indicates a significant correlation between job expectations and job satisfaction. Extrinsic job satisfaction showed a stronger correlation with employee expectations than did intrinsic job satisfaction, although the difference in correlation strengths was not statistically significant. Expectations about both basic job attributes and career development opportunities correlated with job satisfaction significantly more strongly than expectations about curriculum. Factor analysis reveals that amongst other job expectations, manager communication and career development opportunities correlate strongest with job satisfaction, and represent key focus areas for AE administrators. Increasing the visibility of organizational mission statements as well as reviewing staff training models with these results in mind could help align employee expectations with reality. These results suggest that the AE industry should continue to develop its human resource savvy and monitor the evolving profile of their employees to safeguard their job satisfaction.</p>

<p>Occupational stress for school administrators is a phenomenon that cannot be avoided. The negative impacts of occupational stressors have been associated with physical and psychological consequences. Directors of special education are not exempt from the negative impacts of occupational stress. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate sources of occupational stress for directors of special education within the state of Indiana. Additionally, this study sought to identify effective coping strategies that may be utilized to reduce the negative impacts of occupational stress. This study explored the strength of the relationship between sources of occupational stress and professional performance, sources of occupational stress and professional longevity, and the relationship between types of coping strategies and perceived levels of occupational stress. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were utilized to examine these relationships. The results of this study identified that the linear combination of occupational stressors predict a significant proportion of variance in professional performance but not in professional longevity. Additionally, this study identified that the linear combination of various types of coping strategies predict a significant proportion of variance in perceived levels of occupational stress. This study adds to the existing body of research by bringing a renewed level of awareness to the importance of reducing or preventing high levels of occupational stressors for school administrators. </p>

<p> The efficacy of a staff training procedure comprised of video review, role play, and verbal feedback to train three paraprofessionals who worked with adults with intellectual disabilities at an adult day center was evaluated. The paraprofessionals were trained to conduct a brief 5-min free operant preference assessment following a 10-step task analysis within the context of the staff training procedure. Results showed that all three paraprofessionals were able to accurately implement a free operant preference assessment with clients at the adult day center following training. Training was also shown to be time efficient, only requiring 3 to 7 training sessions, with each session lasting approximately 10 minutes in length, including set up of materials. </p>

<p> With a fast paced hectic environment, extensive work loads and decisions to make that affect countless lives, health administrators often experience high levels of stress. High stress levels can lead to burn out, negative work environment, poor inter-office relationships, reduced productivity and probable mental and emotional unease which can result in dismissal or quitting. </p><p> As employers are becoming increasingly aware that their businesses depend on the quality, efficiency and happiness of their employees, considerable efforts have been put into aiding them in reducing their stress and improving their well-being. Health-Hardiness Training Institute aims to utilize an all-encompassing approach that combines cognitive, behavioral and biophysical processes and change management training. With the tools taught by the Health-Hardiness Training Institute, healthcare managers will be better equipped to turn stressful circumstances into opportunities to thrive in.</p>

<p> While there is a great deal of research on attorneys and law firms, the majority of it has focused solely on the attorney &ndash; very little exists regarding legal secretaries and other support staff, or the relationship between attorneys with legal secretaries and other support staff. The current research aimed to address this gap in the literature by examining the antecedents of high-quality attorney-secretary relationships through the framework of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX). Relationship quality was evaluated against values, cognitive styles, and self-identity. Legal assistants were asked to provide ratings for themselves and ratings for how they believed their attorneys would respond and similarity between the attorney and secretary ratings was calculated. Then, the moderating effects of core self-evaluations and emotional intelligence were analyzed. Although the results of this study did not support any of the hypotheses, there are several considerations which might have prevented significant relationships from emerging. Exploratory analyses were also conducted and benevolence was found to be a significant moderator. Implications and future research directions are discussed.</p>

<p> Leadership inequity and gender inequality continue to be a concern in society. While women move forward to achieve greater gender equality, a particular group of women, African Americans and Caribbeans, continue to experience significant challenges in the areas of leadership and gender equality in an organizational setting. For this dissertation research, the focus is on Caribbean women. The purpose of the study is to examine the lived experiences of Caribbean women in senior-level leadership positions. This researcher used Husserl&rsquo;s transcendental phenomenology approach to gain an understanding of each woman&rsquo;s individual experience as a Caribbean woman in her leadership position. The participants in the study were 10 Caribbean women in senior level leadership positions. The data were gathered using a conversational format and open-ended questions to help participants express their feelings on a deeper level. To analyze the data, a line-by-line approach was implemented to determine themes within the collected data. The results were that some of the Caribbean women faced challenges when making attempts to climb the leadership ladder. Those who faced challenges blamed the challenges they faced on the lack of support from family members, management, and their inability to find mentoring and networking services. They became frustrated with these challenges. Leadership theories&mdash;charismatic leadership theory, transformational leadership theory, transactional leadership theory and social identity theory&mdash;were used to guide the data analysis and findings of the study. Each participant reflected on an aspect of leadership and its application to themselves. The participants gained insight into how their social identities may have had an impact on their understanding of themselves in their leadership positions. </p>

<p> As bullying was eventually labeled an adult problem, research refocused from the child&rsquo;s playground to the adult playground&mdash;the workplace. Schoolyard bullies likely grow into workplace bullies when actions are encouraged or ignored. Though workplace bullying (WPB) research has been conducted in the field of general academia little has been done to study bullying in higher education. In addition to the lack of literature, bullying behaviors have been difficult to define and measure. As a result, narrow operational definitions of WPB have been commonplace. Therefore, WPB has gone largely underreported and targets have been fundamentally underrepresented.</p><p> The purpose of this convergent parallel mixed methods study focused on two areas. One focus was to determine whether faculty to faculty WPB across disciplines in higher education impacted organizational trust and commitment in one private, faith-based university in the southeastern United States. The second focus was on the faculty&rsquo;s perceptions of bullying behaviors.</p><p> From the findings it was concluded: (a) targets of WPB exhibited lower organizational trust following the bullying incident, (b) targets of WPB committed to the organization the same following the bullying incident, (c) targets of WPB exhibited lower job satisfaction, (d) targets of WPB perceived bullying behaviors that were grouped into five themes, and (e) targets experienced effects of WPB that were grouped into four themes.</p><p> Implications for practice include recommendations for researchers, leaders and faculty members in higher education, and policy-makers. The study concludes with specific recommendations for further research.</p>

<p>The Global War on Terror has routinely exposed military personnel to PTSD qualifying traumatic events. Scant research has included a military training and occupational context among combat Veteran populations who leave military service. This retrospective cohort study explored the influence of pre-exposure training on the relationship between combat exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and functioning impairments after discharge from military service. The results confirmed an occupational associated exposure risk for approximately 15% of the US military. Despite the combative specialty Veteran experiencing more combat in frequency and intensity, there were no differences in PTSS or functioning impairment any time after discharge or within the last thirty days between occupational cohorts. The study concluded that combative occupational training is protective against the effects of battle exposure experiences, but not post battle experiences. The study results suggest that military organizational resilience training is not effective in bolstering hardiness after discharge and transitioning into the civilian population. These findings support the creation of a military occupational mental health model for future PTSD diagnosis and treatment for combat Veteran populations.

<p> Secondary traumatic stress is the physiological reaction to vicarious traumatization. Public child welfare workers are exposed daily to the traumas of child maltreatment from neglect to death. Unlike other first responders, child welfare workers have continued exposure to the trauma of child maltreatment with every report, change in placement, and discussion. Rural child welfare workers have an added burden of issues common to both the children and families they serve, and to themselves as members of their communities: isolation, social proximity, dual relationships, remoteness, and fewer resources. In an effort to identify the experiences of secondary traumatic stress in rural child welfare workers in this study, eight child welfare workers were individually interviewed from two separate, remote, rural communities. Using semi-structured, open-ended questions, discussions of their experiences produced a wealth of data that was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings gave discovery that rural child welfare workers do experience secondary traumatic stress, and included symptoms such as: depression, frustration, exhaustion, sleeplessness, crying, hypervigilance, avoidance, guilt, loss of appetite, and more. Many of these symptoms were exacerbated by the characteristics of the remote, rural community as there were few outlets and venues for discussing and debriefing in privacy. Conclusions were rural child welfare agencies need to engage in providing trauma informed training and support to their workers, and include secondary trauma as part of their culture in supervision and management. Finally, several new resources are discussed which are available to agencies and staff from national child welfare institutes, agencies, and online publications.</p>