<p> To be successful, a business must ensure proper staff training of their team. Video modeling has proven to be an effective method to train staff, but the effect of a time delay with this method has not been analyzed. In Applied Behavior Analysis, team members are tasked to implement different programming depending on their client. In the current study, a time delay when watching a video model then performing discrete trial teaching was analyzed. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups. One group watched the video model then two minutes later performed discrete trial teaching. The other group watched the same video model, then 24 hours later performed discrete trial teaching. Both groups increased their percentage accuracy from baseline to treatment. The results of this study indicated no statistical significance between the groups.</p>

<p> A grounded theory study explored the elements of thriving among small business owners. Fifteen interviews were conducted and analyzed, resulting in the identification of personal investment as the core concept which explains thriving for small business owners. Personal investment is defined in terms of time, effort and money. This core concept is supported by the four subcategories of mastery, motivators, personal characteristics, and the role of others. These four categories are further explained through seventeen practical elements which drive thriving for small business owners. A model of thriving for small business owners is proposed, showing alternating periods of personal investment and capitalization on opportunities, leading to brief periods of intense thriving and subsequently higher levels of sustained thriving.</p>

<p> Employee volunteering and service learning programs both enable large numbers of individuals to work together to address some of the most challenging problems in our world today. A large volume of academic research exists on service learning and much less academic research has been done on employee volunteering; there is very little research that connects these two fields. Student volunteers report developing skills in areas such as problem solving and decision making, the same skills employees require to be successful on their jobs. This inquiry combines lessons from volunteer narratives, input from volunteer professionals, and existing volunteer and service learning theories to create recommendations for improving employee volunteer experiences. </p><p> Narrative method was chosen for this study to capture the lived experiences of the two types of volunteers and their impact on the nonprofits they serve. Three case studies were created from narrative interviews with selected student and employee volunteers, and triangulated by interviews with nonprofit staff. Knowledge gained was crafted into case level and then cross case recommendations. Once developed, these recommendations were validated through a process of progressive analysis. The ultimate objective is to increase participation and improve outcomes for employee volunteers. When employee volunteering is well designed and well managed, the experiences can be beneficial to volunteers, their companies, and their communities.</p>

The predominant traditional method of teaching case material in graduate business education may have a number of inherent limitations such as an intrinsically hierarchical approach, an overdependence on the discussion-leading skills of the instructor, and the possible promotion of the incomplete or "non-real world" positions of observer, critic and strategic advisor. Inspired by the use of a reflecting model in the family therapy movement in clinical and counseling psychology, psychiatry and social work, the reflecting team model presented here addresses these issues in a novel, unique and flexible manner. Over the last three years, the author has developed, applied and refined a Reflecting Team Model, based theoretically on a number of concepts drawn from diverse disciplines. The context of the model's application was in case-oriented Management Information Systems (MIS) and MIS-related classroom instruction with approximately 300 graduate students. After establishing the theoretical grounding of the model and explicating a number of operational refinements in four qualitatively oriented phases, a recent group of students (N = 39) participated in an application of the model and rated its efficacy on 21 scales derived from the model's grounding assumptions and assumed to have face validity. These results were analyzed with respect to age, gender, major area of undergraduate study and years of professional work experience. Next, another group of students who had experienced the enhanced model were interviewed. The resulting enhanced model was again employed in classroom use with still another group of students (N = 34). Following that, the model was again used with a small group (N = 15) and evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively to gain further insight into its workings and the best modes of application. The results strongly suggest that the Reflecting Team Model does, in fact, address the issues outlined above and that it has wide and even applicability. There is evidence, however, that gender plays a role in the model's acceptance and efficacy, with women apparently more attuned to the assumptions and operation of the model. More post-dissertation analyses need to be done to confirm and replicate these results and to extend the analysis into areas not previously studied.

The problem that was addressed in this study were differences in job expectations, rewards, perceived criteria for promotion, and relations with supervisors and staff among black and white middle-level managers in health care. Assessments on the influences of perceived expectations on job satisfaction, satisfaction with rewards, and self-perceived job performance were conducted. The sample included 153 middle-level managers from hospitals and health agencies in the United States. The sample consisted of 104 (68.0%) females and 49 (32.0%) males. Ninety-one (59.5%) respondents were white, 51 (33.3%) were African-American, and 11 (7.2%) were of other racial or ethnic origins. The hypotheses of the study were: (1) The variables of expectation of rewards, perceived criteria for promotion, and relations with supervisors and staff, will differentiate between black and white middle managers. (2) The greater perceived expectations the greater the job satisfaction. (3) The greater the perceived expectations the greater the satisfaction with rewards. (4) The greater the perceived expectations the greater the self-perceived job performance. The four hypotheses were confirmed by the data. Black managers tended to view management's behavior relative to perceived expectations as less inclusive of staff, less fair, less concerned, and less competent than did white managers. Job satisfaction, extrinsic, intrinsic, social, and influence reward satisfactions were all related to perceived job-related expectations, with the sole variable of reward expectations being constant in each instance. The similarities among extrinsic, intrinsic, and influence reward satisfactions were their relationship to management allowance of staff involvement. Extrinsic and social rewards were related to management fairness; intrinsic and influence rewards were related to the perception that promotion was based on performance, and social and influence rewards were related to staff productivity. Social reward satisfactions were related to staff problem solving and staff concern. Job satisfaction was related to staff competence and staff problem solving behavior. Intrinsic reward satisfactions were related to staff participation, staff competence, management competence, management control and management orientation. Quality of work as perceived by the respondent was not strongly related to the perceived job-related expectation variables. However, it was related to the perception that promotion was based on performance.