Mission studies are checkpoints in the lifecycle of many Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations yet these curricula of transition need an overhaul to ensure their efficacy and to identify potential improvements. By evaluating several behavioral models (including Quinn’s Advanced Change Theory, and leadership models by Fluker and Olsen), the author constructs a curriculum centered around a congregational study of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper that fulfills the function of a mission study. In so doing, he provides an alternative for churches seeking to achieve the requirements of such a study while equipping them to discern God’s call in the ever-changing world.

Globally the construction industry struggles to prevent injurious and fatal safety incidents. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies used by construction business managers that had significantly reduced the occurance of safety incidents in a Northwest Ohio construction company. Data were collected from organizational records and interviews with 6 construction managers. The conceptual framework for this research was the concept of safety management systems. Data were compiled and organized, disassembled into fragments, grouped, and then interpreted for meaning. Methodological triangulation and member checking were used to enhance reliability and validity. Four themes emerged from the data: senior management's commitment to a culture of safety, comprehensive safety training, safety accountability, and the importance of engaged employees. These findings indicate that senior managers established a safety-oriented culture by systematically implementing the safety management systems principles and practices in every organizational process and procedure. Safety training ensured that workers have the necessary skills to perform safely. All leaders, at every level of the organization, were held accountability for monitoring and measuring safety performance. Engaged workers were receptive to and compliant with safety rules. The positive social implications of these findings include the potential of contributing to the efforts to establish safer and healthier workplaces that protect workers from injuries and fatalities, thereby contributing to overall safety and health of communities.

Existing research on the Millennial generation has focused on identifying the workplace attributions and stereotypes between generations, and the relationship between those attributions and stereotypes, as related to organizational commitment. However, research has not addressed which workplace characteristics influence organizational commitment of the Millennial generation. Herzberg's 2-factor theory was used to investigate the relationship between workplace characteristics and organizational commitment of the Millennial generation. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether workplace characteristics influence organizational commitment in the Millennial generation. This quantitative study used the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. A convenience sample of 215 individuals born between 1984 and 1998 were surveyed. The key research questions investigated which workplace characteristics had the greatest impact on organizational commitment. The results indicated that self-management of career paths, combined with opportunities for employee development provided the best predictors for organizational commitment of the Millennial generation. These 2 variables accounted for 21% of the variance of the OCQ (R = .463, R²=.21).By understanding which workplace characteristics impact organizational commitment, organizations will be able to reduce turnover, employees will become more committed to the organization, which may provide employers with a greater opportunity to develop future leaders of their organizations and thereby initiate positive social change at the level of the individual employee and the organization.

Teacher turnover has been a problem in U.S. public schools, especially among math teachers, and is more prevalent in schools that have a majority of students from low-income families. Teacher turnover has been shown to have a negative effect on student performance. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to investigate on-the job and off-the job embeddedness and its dimensions of links, fit, and sacrifice to determine effects on math teacher turnover intention. The theory of job embeddedness provided the framework for the study. Data were collected from 152 high school math teachers from 17 counties in a western U.S. state using the Job Embeddedness Questionnaire and a demographic survey. Findings from multiple linear regression analysis indicated statistically significant relationships between turnover intention and the sacrifice/job (on-the-job embeddedness) and turnover intention and links/community (off-the-job embeddedness). Findings may be used by administrators and policymakers to develop programs geared toward promoting math teacher retention

As required by the Government Performance Results Act of 1993, the use of performance measurements in social service organizations to measure outcome data has increased expectations of efficient outcomes in service delivery. This study addressed the problem of inefficient service delivery in nonprofit human service organizations from the perspective of direct service staff responsible for service provision. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how direct service staff in nonprofit organizations perceive their individual contributions to the overall goal of providing efficient quality service. Principal agent theory framed the inquiry regarding how direct service staff working in nonprofit human service organizations perceive the nature and value of using performance measurements as required by law. Data were collected from 5 direct service workers through semi-structured interviews and analyzed for content themes using Ethnograph software. The results of this study indicated direct service workers perceive organizational efficiency related to how well they do their jobs and not overall at the organizational level. In addition, participants identified job training and more open communication with management to understand how organizational level goals would be valued to do their jobs effectively. This study contributes to social change by informing those who develop nonprofit human services policy and practice of the potential for further staff training curriculum and improvements to the organizational accountability culture.

The nonprofit sector is increasingly engaged in social enterprise, which involves a combination and balancing of social mission and business goals which can cause mission drift or mission tension. A work integrated social enterprise (WISE) is a specific type of social enterprise that focuses on integrating hard-to-employ individuals, such as ex offenders, back into the workforce, usually through producing goods or offering services. Little is known about how WISE organizations manage mission drift, particularly given the unique characteristics of this type of organization. Using institutional values theory and resource dependence theory as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore how a WISE in Indiana experience and manage mission drift and mission tension. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 4 board members and 4 staff persons, and from organizational documents. All data were inductively coded and subjected to a constant, comparative analysis between empirical and predictive themes. The study revealed the organization has not experienced mission drift or mission tension because, (a) there was a strong mission and a commitment by the board and staff to the mission, (b) there was a constant balancing act between mission and income, (c) business goals aligned with mission, and (d) operating systems were in place for mission sustainability. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include providing beneficial information about best practices and strategies to other organizations seeking to develop WISE programs that provide opportunities and training for difficult to employ populations.

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 addressed the belief that weak analytic tradecraft had been an underlying cause of intelligence failures in the U.S. by requiring the Director of National Intelligence to establish and enforce tradecraft standards throughout the U.S. intelligence community (IC). However, analytic tradecraft-the innate abilities and learned skills of intelligence analysts, combined with the tools and technology needed to conduct analysis-is an understudied and poorly understood concept and a decade later, the frequency of intelligence failures has not improved. Using actor-network theory (ANT) as the foundation, the purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to gain greater clarity regarding the process of intelligence analysis and corresponding tradecraft. Data were collected through 7 semi-structured interviews from a purposely selected sample of U.S intelligence analysts to determine how they understood and navigated the analytic process. These data were inductively coded, and following the tenets of the ANT, the process and actors involved in transforming customer requirements and intelligence information into analytic products and refined collection requirements were identified and mapped. The central finding of this study is that current tradecraft standards address neither the full range of activities taking place nor the complete roster of actors involved in the analytic process. With this knowledge, the U.S. IC may be better positioned to identify specific training and equipment shortfalls, develop tailored reform efforts, and improve intelligence operations, resulting in potential positive social change.

This qualitative case study was used to examine the Request for Proposal (RFP) evaluation process used by airports for selecting concessions business operators, including retail and duty-free gift shops, restaurants, newsstands, and public parking. The case consisted of 42 purposefully selected RFPs from 35 airports representing 92% of all U.S. commercial airline passenger traffic compared against guidelines found in Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 54. A problem occurs when evaluation outcomes are challenged because of perceptions of bias, and formal protests and legal claims create delays that disproportionately affect small and minority-owned businesses. The purpose of this study was to compare RFP documents for congruence and influences of concessionaire evaluation ratings. Qualitative data analysis, qualitative content analysis, and interpretive coding were used to explain socioeconomic factors inferred from the documents. Gaps existed in available literature for the effect of airport size, governance type, and evaluator motivation on the RFP process. Study findings showed weighted evaluation criteria inconsistencies with the guidelines, evidence of innate governance system influences, government-operated airport RFP preference of revenue generation measures and socioeconomic attachments, independent authority operated preferences for command and control measures, and potential for the use of standardized core evaluation criteria. By challenging the premise of a bias-free government procurement process, positive social change was achievable through this study's reinforcement of federally qualified small and minority business expansion initiatives promoting open participation and fair competition in concessions opportunities at U.S. commercial passenger airports.

There is a considerable amount of research demonstrating important gender differences in job satisfaction and perceived leadership style. These critical relationships have not been sufficiently explored in correctional institutions, particularly as more women are entering corrections officer positions, and low job satisfaction can lead to risky and sometimes life-threatening consequences. The purpose of this ex post facto study was to investigate the relationship between correctional officers' job satisfaction and their perception of transformational leadership style in their supervisor and to explore how the interaction between leadership style and gender affects job satisfaction. The theoretical framework of transformational leadership was used to examine the hypothesis that transformational leadership would foster overall job satisfaction. Data were collected from 86 participants from a population of 180 county jail correctional officers using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire for leadership and the Job Diagnostic Survey for job satisfaction. A 2 x 2 ANOVA (male vs. female and transformational leadership vs. transactional leadership) was conducted. While the results were statistically non-significant, mean differences among the groups revealed an interaction effect, suggesting that women with a transformational leader have higher job satisfaction than do those with a transactional leader, while men with transactional leaders are more satisfied than are those with transformational leaders. It is suggested that future research utilize more rigorous sampling methods (e.g., stratified and cluster) to explore this potential interaction, and include qualitative interviews with officers to gain deeper insights into the meaning of leadership in the performance of these important, risk-filled jobs.

There is an increased use of downsizing across telecommunications in the northeast United States, and organizational leaders are challenged to motivate the productivity of the retained employees. Guided by systems theory, the purpose of this single case study was to explore successful downsizing strategies of a small group of organizational leaders and managers in the operations of telecommunications in the northeast United States. The study participants, chosen for their motivation success in motivation after downsizing, consisted of 2 purposefully selected business leaders who completed individual, face-to-face interviews and a focus group of 5 managers. The coding of data and word clusters from data obtained from the interviews and focus group led to 4 emergent themes of organizational communication, leadership, employee motivation, and work-life balance. The participant responses showed through topic saturation that communication and work-life balance were the most important major themes. The findings from this study suggest that communication during all phases of downsizing can add to the employees' motivation and employees understanding of what leadership expects from them. When organizational leaders communicate a message of a better work-life balance, positive social change may occur, creating a more productive and loyal employee. When employees have a healthy work-life balance, there are significant benefits to their work organizations, families, and home lives.