The smart mobile device market penetration reached 50% and has been increasing an average of 39% per year in the United States. More than 70% of the smart mobile device owners use such devices for personal and work activities. The problem was the lack of management's understanding of the effect smart mobile device use has on how employees work when they are in the office, while traveling, or during the off-hours to improve productivity and customer service. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand why, when, and how employees used smart mobile devices. The transformational technology conceptual framework was based on Charan's and Welch's theory that new technologies and how people work is critical to productivity. The sample consisted of 21 anonymous participants from randomly selected mid-level and senior management working for Fortune 1000 companies within the U.S. An open-ended questionnaire was designed for collecting lived experiences from the participants. Data were coded using open and axial techniques to identify themes and patterns to understand the way employees use smart mobile devices. Findings showed that smart mobile devices became an inseparable part of employees' life and created the always on culture erasing the boundaries between professional and personal life. Employees perform work and personal activities in the office, while traveling for business or leisure, and during time-off. Implications for social change include helping companies improve the workplace and for employees to improve their productivity through mobile technologies thus potentially developing better products and services for the public.

Nonprofit leadership attributes exert a significant effect on the nonprofit volunteer workforce to provide optimal service delivery to communities. Meeting the local community demands challenges nonprofit leadership to model inspirational behavior and attitudes that may motivate workers to transcend personal aspirations to support organizational goals more effectively. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to determine whether transformational leadership influences the level of commitment and engagement of volunteer workers in nonprofit organizations. A theoretical framework based on transformational leadership guided the research. The research questions addressed the relationships between transformational leadership and nonprofit volunteer engagement and commitment. A sample of 111 U.S. volunteers provided the data by completing an online survey containing questions from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X Short, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. Simple linear regression was used to test the relationship between the independent variable, transformational leadership, and the dependent variables, engagement and commitment and their subscales. The results indicated a significant positive relationship between transformational leadership and nonprofit volunteer engagement and commitment, and transformational leadership and 8 of 9 subscales of the dependent variables. Transformational leadership positively impacts social change by effectively motivating the nonprofit volunteer workforce, thereby enhancing service delivery to local communities.

Healthcare spending in the United States has continued to rise with annual healthcare cost of $3.8 trillion in 2014. While costs and the population continue to rise, resources continue to dwindle. Consequently, Congress has imposed various price controls and healthcare reform measures over the past 20 years, including the recent Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which aims to decrease spending while enhancing quality and safety of care delivery. As a result of the implementation of the PPACA, 34 million additional Americans may be eligible for healthcare in a system already needing additional resources, increased access to care, and strategies to offset increasing operational and fiscal challenges. The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore what strategies and changes 10 executive leaders of the nonprofit hospitals in Maryland used to address the operational and fiscal challenges of the PPACA. The conceptual framework for this study was built upon the general systems theory. The data were collected through semistructured interviews, cataloged and coded, analyzed using a modified van Kaam method, and reviewed by participants as part of member checking process. The findings revealed 3 emergent themes: investment in IT resources to support an EMR system, strategies to address healthcare workforce challenges, and strategies for sustainability for managed care outpatient services and patient safety and quality of care. The findings impact social change by presenting policies and processes that medical professionals can use to support local and national health care reform.

Telehealth and remote medical treatments have begun to be more commonly used in healthcare systems. Researchers have theorized that providers' abilities to treat patients are not directly tied to the proximity of the patient to the doctor, but by the identification and treatment of the patient's symptoms. Although the treatment and cure rates are being established within individual health systems and professional medical associations, empirical research is lacking regarding patient satisfaction with this remote treatment situation. The purpose of this quantitative study was to address this gap by examining satisfaction ratings of patients between virtual provider visits and face-to-face provider visits. The Clinician & Group Survey developed by the Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (CAHPS), through the United States government department, Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, measured patient satisfaction. Data from health care patients in the United States (N=8854) were randomly selected from the CAHPS data set containing 457,418 encounters. Of this number, 4,427 unique patient encounters were with face-to-face health care visits and 4,427 unique patient encounters were with telehealth providers. The ANOVA results showed no significant differences in patient satisfaction management between the availability of providers to meet face-to-face with patients who met with providers in a telehealth setting. Possible social change implications are a shift from face-to-face visits to virtual visits structured in the need to shift all patients from the standard office visit system to the on-demand network opportunity that virtual telehealth and mobile commerce health care offers to allow the benefit of technology to assist these patients.

The high rates of voluntary employee turnover in software sales organizations have forced business leaders to search for strategies that reduce voluntary employee turnover. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies of a small group of sales managers who had demonstrated reduced voluntary employee turnover in their software manufacturing companies. Ten managers from 5 software manufacturing companies who had a minimum of 5 years of management experience were recruited and participated in semistructured, face-to-face interviews. The conceptual framework included Herzberg's 2-factor theory for exploring the relationship between job satisfaction and voluntary employee turnover. Open and frequent communications, constant performance feedback, and transparency align appropriately with the tenets of Herzberg's 2-factor theory. The Yin method for analyzing data through the process of data grouping, scrubbing, and organizing resulted in the emergence of themes including communications, recognition, and the work environment. All 10 sales managers spoke extensively about the importance of these themes in reducing voluntary employee turnover. These managers 'noticed the little things,' they gladly celebrated team successes, and they visibly supported their teams through actions. Findings from this study will provide a positive influence on social change through productivity improvements resulting in lower cost products and services, improving community prosperity. Additionally, consumers may benefit from these successful managers, as they facilitate a more expedited process of new products and services to the market.

There is an abundance of scholarly literature examining the Millennial generation's characteristics and their uniqueness in the workforce, but few studies have examined the lived experiences of Millennials and what motivates them in the public sector workplace. Given the size of the Millennial cohort, the largest and most educated in history, this generation of public servants merits more research. This phenomenological study sought to determine what factors motivate Millennial public sector workers through a criterion sample of 20 District of Columbia government employees. Data obtained from interviews were analyzed through use of NVivo10 allowing for the identification of themes, findings and recommendations for further studies. Findings revealed that these 20 workers were motivated by the same factors that impact other generations, as Herzberg delineated in his 2-factor theory. Despite these similarities, participants felt they were unique and not understood by the generations of workers that precede them. The themes obtained from this study can inform public administrators seeking to increase workforce collaboration and productivity and underscores the need for further scholarly attention. Millennial public servants need to feel engaged through increased responsibility, recognition, and the nature of work, as they will soon comprise 1/3rd of the workforce. These findings have implications for social change by educating public administrators and Millennials' coworkers to capitalize on the younger workers' ability to contribute to the overall productivity and competitiveness of government.

Many senior project managers (PMs) and other business leaders lack effective strategies for enhancing communication among their team members, thereby reducing profitability and organizational cohesion. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore communication strategies used by 22 PMs who were members of a project manager professional (PMP) association in Colorado, with 5 or more years of relevant experience and who worked at a leading technology company recognized for its effective PM communication strategy for enhancing business-team communication. The conceptual framework for this study was built on interpersonal, mass communication and profound leadership theories. PMs were interviewed, and those interviews were audio taped and transcribed. Transcripts were then analyzed based on a process of theory development and emergent themes comparison and combination. Member checking and review of interview transcripts strengthened the dependability and reliability of the final interpretations. Several emergent themes were identified, relating to standardized project communication strategy, project team building, and emotional intelligence (EI). The findings from this study may influence positive social change by helping managers promote more efficient communication strategies within their business organizations. Implications may include an increase in jobs, capital investments, vibrant economic sustainability, and new business opportunities. By implementing a standardized project communication strategy, team building, and EI, PMs can enhance project communication.

Managers in direct contact with employees in operational and organizational settings have a profound effect on employee satisfaction and performance. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicated distinctly different levels of occupational stress between blue- and white-collar workers. A quasi-experimental design tested if the levels of emotional intelligence and transformational leadership style of managers had different effects on employee job satisfaction between blue- and white-collar workers. The theories of emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, and employee job satisfaction grounded the framework of the study. Data was collected using the Multifactor Factor Leadership (MLQ) questionnaire, the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), and the Emotional Judgement Inventory (EJI) from 35 managers and 120 workers from a single organization located in the State of Texas. Chi-square tests measured the association between the independent variables of blue- and white-collar workers' job satisfaction and the independent variables of the level of managers' emotional intelligence and their transformational leadership style. Data from the EJI and JSS revealed that the managers' level of emotional intelligence had a moderate influence on the blue- and white-collar employees' job satisfaction. Findings also indicated no associations between managerial leaders' transformational leadership style measured by the MLQ and job satisfaction of blue- and white-collar employees measured by the JSS. These findings may indicate that managers should focus on emotional intelligence to improve the level of job satisfaction among blue- and white-collar employees.

For every standard deviation of increase in employee turnover, organizations could suffer a roughly 27% decline in financial performance. Current voluntary employee turnover rates hover between 15% - 40% and the associated unquantifiable indirect costs affecting customer loyalty and creating reputational risks for business leaders. Furthermore, when employees leave an organization for another, a minimum of 95% leave with trade secrets, strategic skills, and acquired knowledge. As a result, turnover has evolved into a significant concern for organizational leaders. Using the transformational leadership concept, the purpose of this single case study was to explore the leadership strategies that bank leaders in southwestern Nigeria use to reduce voluntary employee turnover. The participants included bank leaders in southwestern Nigeria who had demonstrated experience in developing and implementing strategies for reducing voluntary employee turnover. The data collection was through person-to-person interviews with 10 bank leaders and review of the company's documents on employee turnover. The process for analyzing data was supported by word frequency analysis, coding of related phrases, and creating of themes around the codes. The themes from the study revealed that transformational leaders use the following to reduce voluntary employee turnover: remunerations and benefits, career growth and development opportunities, and roles of leadership. Reduction in voluntary employee turnover may contribute to social change by empowering business leaders with requisite strategies for employee engagement and business profitability, enhancing job creation opportunities, and improving the social and general wellbeing of families and communities.

The Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Justice reported cases of government contracting employees accepting bribes totaling over $540 million within a 6-year period. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of government contracting managers regarding the knowledge needed to mitigate employees' unethical behaviors when administering government contracts. Previous studies on government contracting employees' unethical behaviors focused on employees' behaviors, but lacked data concerning managers' roles in mitigating employees' unethical behaviors. The study's conceptual framework was stakeholder theory. The data were gathered through semistructured interviews conducted with 21 government contracting managers in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States and from company documents. Data from the semistructured interviews and company documents were analyzed, coded, and then grouped into categories using a modified content analysis technique. Key themes suggested that to mitigate government contracting employees' unethical behaviors, these government contracting managers required continued training. These managers also found trust to be vital to dissiminating ethical requirements to employees, and they also reported benefits to conducting ethical government contracting. Member checking of participants' responses strengthened credibility and trustworthiness of these interpretations. Findings and recommendations from this study may contribute to positive social change by improving training and ethical standards in government contracting, which could lead to enhancing societal trust in government contracting organizations.