A lack of alignment between police performance evaluation policy purposes and officer performance evaluation perceptions has implications for the organizations' resource management, officer morale, and public safety. A literature review points towards a gap existing between policy purpose statements and employee perceptions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the policy purposes of police performance evaluations and the officers' perceptions of those evaluation experiences in 4 Ontario municipal police services. DiMaggio and Powell's (1983) Institutional theory was the foundation for this study. Data for this study were collected from 4 police services in Ontario, Canada. The data consisted of police performance evaluation policies and in-person interviews with 12 officers. Data were inductively coded, and then the coded data were subjected to content analysis. Three policy purpose themes and 13 officer perception themes emerged that indicate that: 1) there seems to be a lack of alignment between the policy purpose theme of assessing work performance and eight of the perception themes; 2) officers perceived performance evaluations as negatively impacting their morale: and, 3) healthy relationships with supervisors were more useful to officers than performance evaluations in terms of performance and career outcomes and progression. Consistent with Institutional theory, officers perceived performance evaluations to be necessary even with limited utility. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations to police executives to consider alternative processes in tandem with performance evaluations to improve morale, in turn creating better opportunities for improved public and officer safety.

In the last 10 years, the number of remote workers has increased by 80%. Remote workers are more productive than their traditional in-office colleagues, cheaper to maintain for the organization because of the major decrease in overheard costs, and drastically increase organizational leaders' hiring options. The problem was that over half of the nation's disengaged employees work remotely, contributing significantly to associated annual costs of employee disengagement to businesses of upwards of $550 billion. The purpose of this exploratory case study, using a critical incident technique, was to create a taxonomy of responses to the incidents that are critical for maintaining, strengthening, or eroding the workplace engagement of 14 remote workers nationwide. The data collection method included in-depth interview questions, open and selective coding, and thematic analysis from the data provided by the 14 participants. The 9-step analysis process, triangulation, and member checking consisted of structure and credibility of the findings. The taxonomy derived from this study that strengthens and maintains the engagement of remote workers is directly related to the primary theme of connectedness and organizational culture; the taxonomy derived from this study that erodes workplace engagement is directly related to the secondary themes of organizational fit and disconnectedness. The findings suggested that remote workers experience strengthened and sustained levels of workplace engagement more when working environments where they have a personal connection to the organization's mission and vision and where they feel the work culture is familial. The taxonomy derived from this research could provide organizational leaders with techniques to engage and inspire the talent of remote workers to create positive and sustainable social change

Leader mentoring in the military has not been well researched, especially that involving cross-gender pairings. A phenomenological study was conducted to gain insight into the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of military officers regarding their decision to engage in mentoring, to include with members of the opposite gender. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 male and 20 female U.S. Army senior commissioned officers to collect information regarding mentoring selection perspectives and decisions and to examine emerging themes, concepts, and patterns, using NVivo 11 Pro Plus. Negative themes that emerged among both male and female participants concerned adverse perceptions of members within the organization, including perceptions of inappropriate relationships, sexual contact, unprofessionalism, rumors, mal-intent, and concern for impact on spouses. Positive themes among both male and female participants included feelings regarding success, career progression, promotions, opportunities, sharing, leadership, developing, and increased potential. Participants also expressed their amenability to mentoring officers of the opposite gender, with varying degrees of expectation for success. Understanding how military officers perceive, think, and feel regarding mentor selection will provide U.S. Army leadership with useful information that can promote positive social change among the officer ranks and will help leaders better understand the mentor and mentee relationship. This will have a positive impact on the U.S. military's efforts to ensure that all female officers receive effective mentoring and socialization.

The influence of leadership engagement strategies on employee engagement affects the retail distribution industry in the form of lower productivity, decreased profitability, and reduced sustainability. In 2017, the retail distribution industry lost more than $50 billion annually due to leader's inability to develop and implement robust leadership strategies to engage employees. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the influence of leadership strategies on employee engagement used by leaders in the retail distribution industry in Florida. Transformational leadership was the conceptual framework for this study. Participants were purposefully selected because of their experience implementing leadership engagement strategies that engaged employees. Data were collected from face-to-face semistructured interviews with 8 leaders in the retail distribution industry with 2 of years leadership experience and the review of organizational documents on employee engagement and productivity. Data analysis comprised coding archival documents, reassembling journal notes, and interpreting semistructured interviews. Three themes emerged from the analysis of data: adopting a supportive leadership style, encouraging employee ownership of task, and continuous knowledge sharing. The findings of this study might contribute to social change by providing retail distribution leaders with fact-based insights that can lead to increased productivity, enhanced sustainability, and improved organizational growth, which might promote prosperity for local families and the community.

Abstract Researchers have found that the Big Five personality trait of conscientiousness correlated consistently with high performance across industries. However, previous research was limited to self-reported data collected based on the opinions of the participants and did not include the subtraits of conscientiousness (achievement and dependability). Previous studies also did not provide data specific to entrepreneurs operating as small business owners and did not compare them to their peers. Thus, the purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to explore whether or not there was a relationship between the personality traits of achievement and dependability and the income of U.S. entrepreneurs who operate as small business owners. Maslow's hierarchy of needs was the theoretical framework for the study due to the correlation between the trait variables of the study and the basic needs of individuals outlined in the theory. Although the relationship between personality and the income of small business owners was not significant, small businesses have had an impact around the world and researchers have found that entrepreneurs can positively or negatively affect the employment rate. For this reason, my study supports the recommendation of other studies to continue research so that organization psychologists and individuals in the helping professions can gain a deeper understanding of how the relationship of personality motivation affects entrepreneurial success, in terms of income as a performance measure, by modeling small businesses.

Since the establishment of the individual augmentee role within the U.S. Navy, little research has examined this nontraditional role associated with combat units. The majority of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) research has been dedicated to Army and Marine Corps personnel with little research conducted on the Navy population. The purpose of this nonexperimental study was to identify the prevalence of combat-related PTSD symptomology for Navy personnel returning from an augmentee tour. The link between component and tour length and the presence of individual resilience factors on PTSD were examined. The theoretical foundation of this research included the cognitive link between the single and multiple exposures to traumatic events and the automatic conditioned responses related to the combat-related trauma using a retrospective view of archival datasets. Data analysis included a chi square test of independence and factoral analysis of variance to identify the combat-related PTSD symptoms and its associated variables. The sample size was a stratified random sampling of 570 cases. The results of this analysis support an association between location of tours and PTSD symptomology as well as a small effect between number of deployments and PTSD symptomology irrespective of status. These results will benefit the U.S. Navy enlisted personnel by increasing the awareness of a trend in combat-related PTSD, identify protective factors in resilience, and showcase the need for greater focus of these issues within Navy policy and leadership.

Shared values and norms are at the core for unifying different cultures socializing or working to fulfill the goals and mission of organizations. Researchers have not examined how employees representing different cultures socialize via shared norms and values in human service companies. The purpose of this ethnography study was to explore the process of 8 culturally different employees working together at a human service organization. Using purposeful sampling, multicultural employees were selected from 4 departments within the human service company. Face-to-face interviews, field notes, questionnaire, and participant observation were the tools for collecting the data. Descriptive coding, value coding, and the Ethnograph software was used to identify themes from the data. The analysis of the data evolved from using the approach of the hermeneutic circle, which consisted of examining the parts, such as activities and the connection to the whole, such as core values. According to the study, most employees engaged in sharing the norms and values of the human service company, ultimately fulfilling the goals or core values. However, 2 out of 8 participants engaged in conflict and had a lack of knowledge about 1 out of 4 core values. Knowledge and compliance to the core values were fundamental ingredients for providing quality services. This study leads to positive social change by providing human service organizations information on compliance to the entire core values of the human service company and knowledge of the complete core values of the human service company.

Disengaged employees are a threat to a company's survival in a highly competitive world. Despite employee engagement benefits, the mediation of interactions between leaders and followers and the specific drivers of engagement remain poorly understood. This correlational study was grounded on leader member exchange (LMX) theory and examined the relationship between 2 dimensions of LMX (perceived contribution and professional respect) and employee engagement. In this study, 68 manufacturing employees from the southern region of the United States responded to 2 surveys to measure the LMX dimensions and the level of employee engagement. Using multiple regression analysis, the existence of a positive correlation, p < .001 and R2= .277, was demonstrated, which explained 28% of the variation in engagement. This research may serve as a roadmap for studying additional variables and providing workable tools for developing strategies to improve engagement in the workplace. The results of this study might contribute to positive social change by helping managers develop strategies to engage employees and reduce turnover, by improving the sense of stability for employees and their families, and by helping companies become more competitive and generate new jobs.

Internal branding (IB) evolved from marketing to engage employees in a company's strategic planning. IB has been studied extensively in the hospitality industry, but not with human resource (HR) departments. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to assess the effectiveness of corporate training designs in instilling IB corporate values in global employees of a multinational hotel chain to determine whether European core values could be transferred across different cultural backgrounds. Structured interviews on IB were conducted with 22 HR practitioners of a luxury hotel chain to capture essential information through the lived experiences of the participants, all of whom were involved in how the design of such training programs can instill corporate core values in employees across national cultures. Transcribed interview responses were analyzed using the simplified Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method to generate textual and structured descriptions to capture IB from their perspectives. The analysis revealed (a) that the HR employees were sensitive to certain core values that did not readily translate to overall brand and employee loyalty, as well as good company-employee working relationships, and (b) the importance of designing effective yet standardized training materials that addressed cultural differences or could be adapted as needed. These findings can help to promote more effective global brand recognition and provide HR specialists with knowledge to educate trainers about better techniques to deliver training across different cultures and engage employees on core values. Employees will be happier performing their roles, have increased job satisfaction, and demonstrate improved levels of productivity.

Oil and gas industry business leaders who fail to implement adequate talent retention strategies experience reduced profits and sustainability challenges. During the first 2 years following downsizing, 67% of organizations using excuse-based downsizing reflected reduced sales and profitability, and 11% of such organizations experienced financial losses. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that successful Calgary medium size oil and gas businesses implemented to retain talented employees after downsizing. The population for the study included business leaders of 3 medium oil and gas businesses in Calgary, Canada, who had successfully implemented talented employee retention strategies. Data were collected from interviews with the leaders and from artifacts such as the company websites and social media pages. Inductive analysis was guided by the transformational leadership theory and human capital theory, and trustworthiness of interpretations was bolstered by member checking. Five themes emerged: transformational leadership, training survivors, establishing trust, rewarding and recognizing surviving employees, and competing for survivor employees with other industries. The application of the findings from this study could contribute to positive social change by providing insights for medium oil and gas business leaders on the strategy implementation for talent retention that increases workplace stability and employees supporting their families as well as contributing positively to their communities.