Senior managers fail to control time and costs of construction projects despite available advanced project management tools. Based on project management theory, the objective of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies senior managers use to reduce cost overruns and schedule delays in construction projects. Primary data were obtained from semistructured interviews with 3 senior managers from different construction project management companies who have successfully managed construction projects in Qatar. Data analysis process included a modified Van Kaam method. The transcribed interviews were interpreted and coded to generate themes and were validated through member checking and archival documents. The most centralized themes included (a) master planning, (b) processes and procedures, (c) managing design stage, (d) procurement management, (e) use of proper software, (f) setting project cost and time, and (g) deciding clear scope. A construction project may not succeed without appropriate planning for all stages of the project lifecycle. Managing the approval of the project components during the design stage contributes to reducing changes during construction, which is helpful to control cost and time. The project processes and procedures are meaningful roadmaps for the managers and decision makers. The implications for positive social change include the potential to maintain a cleaner Earth by reducing design and construction wastes. Reducing wastes improves the cost of construction and provides opportunities for people to own property at more affordable costs.

Mining operations often cause environmental and social problems for communities. Efforts by major stakeholders in most developing countries to create and enforce an ethical framework for mining industry operations have been inconsistent. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study, which was based on stakeholder theory, was to explore stakeholders' perspectives on the implementation of environmental policies and mining operations in Zambia. Data collection involved semistructured interviews with a purposeful sample of 24 research participants from a copper mining company operating in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia, the government ministry for mining, energy, and water development, the environmental protection agency, an environmental nongovernmental organization, local media, and the residents of the mining town. Data analysis included compiling, examining, classifying, and searching the data for patterns. The findings indicate that unsustainable practices; enforcement and technological problems; and the lack of corporate social responsibility were the principal cause of environmental problems. The recommendations include increased community involvement, awareness, and government support; enforcement of environmental laws; adoption of corporate responsibility practices; and investment in new technology. Collaboration by stakeholder groups to adequately address environmental issues and enhance environmental sustainability is also imperative. The potential implications for positive social change include providing guidance for the environmental protection agency, mining organizational leaders, and the government to alleviate environmental problems associated with mining and improve the well-being of the people.

Within the last 25 years, Black males have experienced systematically devastating results in social, educational, and economic outcomes at a higher rate than any other racial or ethnic group; devastation that has led to Black males experiencing failure on educational, economic, and freedom levels. The purpose of this study was to identify and examine the leadership strategies used in a selected mentoring program in the southeastern United States to determine why these strategies have been effective in improving Black males' ability to navigate life's challenges. The conceptual framework for the study was House's path-goal theory of leadership. The research questions focused on the identification and characterization of successful leadership strategies in mentoring, the essential characteristics of successful mentor/mentee relationships, and the exploration of the factors critical for the implementation of successful leadership strategies for mentoring Black males. Interviews of purposeful samples of 12 mentors and 10 mentees provided the research data. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative method. In this qualitative case study, understanding the mentee population, honesty, and developing trust were strategies that participating mentors believed to be important to helping Black males navigate life's challenges. These strategies enlightened program participants to their possibility of success; an enlightenment that created an unyielding desire to improve themselves and their communities. The results of this study may contribute to social change by motivating society and scholars alike to move beyond simply identifying the existence and persistence of the problem to implementing strategies based on the study findings to correct the historical inequality Black males face in higher education, economic gains, and freedom retention in America.

Human errors are an expected result of operations performed by individuals and frequently lead to accidents and other catastrophic events. The problem is that the current process used to investigate and mitigate human errors in the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industries is not effective, as it does not include the effects of human factors found to be effective in aviation and nuclear power organizations. The human factors and classification system (HFACS) was created for the investigations of accidents using the Swiss cheese model of accident causation as a theoretical framework. The purpose of this quantitative, inter-rater reliability study was to demonstrate the utility of the HFACS for human error investigations in the biopharmaceutical industry. The research questions focused on the level of agreement between independent raters using HFACS, as well as the difference in the level of agreement across different areas of biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes. In a fully crossed design, raters evaluated a stratified sample of 161 incident records further analyzed using Cohen's kappa, percentage agreement, and a 1-way analysis of variance test with Scheffe post hoc tests. Study results indicated the reliability of the modified HFACS taxonomy, which included no statistical difference (p < .05) with substantial Cohen's kappa values of .66. The social benefit of this study may stem from biopharmaceutical manufacturers using these findings to decrease human errors, improve the safety and reliability of their processes, decrease manufacturing costs, and support the development of drugs to address the unmet medical needs of society.

Information Technology (IT) projects have become critical to business strategy. However, one major issue is that, historically, IT projects have high failure rates, with scholars asserting that ineffective stakeholder management strategies were a major factor for project failure. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies IT executives use for managing IT project stakeholders by exploring the experiences of 2 CIOs and 4 IT directors in two multinational companies, based in Switzerland. Stakeholder theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and company documentation, and analyzed using Yin's 5-step data analysis process to identify and code themes. Five main themes emerged from the data analysis: organizational culture, organizational maturity, leadership, competencies, and post-implementation reviews. The results of this study revealed the importance for leaders to articulate business strategies enabling stakeholders to have a common perspective on project objectives, and to act as a foundation upon which IT executives can create effective stakeholder management strategies. Results indicated that the deployment of effective stakeholder management strategies was dependent on several factors, including organizational culture, leadership style, competencies, and organizational maturity. Findings may contribute to positive social change by encouraging effective stakeholder management to improve knowledge sharing, individual and team motivation, management across cultural boundaries, and stimulate a culture of social responsibility and sustainability.

Health care business professionals have been slow to implement electronic medical records (EMRs), although this is a federal requirement tied to reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid. Guided by the conceptual framework of the technology acceptance model (TAM), the purpose of this single-case study was to explore EMR strategies that health care business professionals use to increase productivity and revenue. The target population was comprised of health care business professionals with EMR strategies in Orange County, New York. Methodological triangulation included analysis of semistructured interviews with 7 health care business professionals and review of organizational documents consisting of emails, meeting minutes, and a handbook. The recruitment strategy used was random sampling and snowball sampling. Analysis included compiling data, coding the data by disassembling into categories, and reassembling the data into emergent themes. The findings of the study included 5 themes or strategies focused on EMR implementation, leaders' efforts to support and sustain the EMR, helping users accept the EMR, communication and efficiency for increasing productivity and revenue, and helping users improve health care safety. Health care business organizations can benefit by knowing where to focus their resources, maximizing return on investment. The findings could effect social change by enumerating strategies that businesses can use to improve performance, and productivity for health care business professionals and improve quality, care coordination, and management of population health and safety of health care for patients.

Despite more than $769 million in charitable gifts in 2013, U.S. nonprofit organizations lost $735 million in lapsed and reduced gifts. Donor attrition is a problem for most charitable organizations, and many are using the Internet to cultivate donors. Online communication has become an important part of fundraising for many charitable organizations. The online communication factors in the current study include trust, credibility, and satisfaction. These factors may affect donor loyalty. Donor loyalty may increase or decrease donor attrition. Reducing donor attrition is important to anyone who plays a role in the success of a nonprofit organization. The purpose of the current cross-sectional quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the communication factors and the loyalty among online donors. The theoretical foundation for this study includes Bandura's social cognitive theory and Luhmann's social systems theory. Data were collected online from a random sample of online donors aged 18 years or older in the United States. Spearman correlation was used to assess the correlation between the independent and dependent variables. The results indicated there is a correlation between communication factors and loyalty among online donors in the United States. This study may help organizations communicate better with donors in an online environment and reduce online donor attrition. Reducing attrition will increase funding to a charitable organization through repeat donations, thereby helping improve finances to support the organization's mission and positively influencing societal change.

Healthcare supervisors who lack effective employee retention strategies could negatively affect patient well-being, employee performance, and organizational functions. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies that healthcare supervisors used to improve employee retention in 1 health care organization in southeast Georgia. Vroom expectancy theory was the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 5 healthcare supervisors in a medium-sized healthcare organization who had hiring responsibilities and a history of implementing successful strategies to improve employee retention. Data were analyzed using coding and word frequency to discern patterns. Three significant themes emerged from analysis of the data: communication, job satisfaction, and compensation. The results of this study might contribute to social change by increasing healthcare supervisors' understanding of employee retention strategies that can improve human and social conditions by maintaining productive healthcare organizations.

Many investigators have documented the impact of high attrition rates on an organization's ability to deliver its expected results. However, limited information is available regarding the efficacy of a specific bundle of variables, which would support a leader's ability to influence voluntary employee turnover. This quantitative study investigated the effectiveness of a 60-day treatment implemented to address the problem of voluntary employee turnover in a diverse retail environment. The research questions examined the effectiveness of an increase in communication, answering, recognition, and training on voluntary employee turnover and job satisfaction in a diverse retail environment. The theoretical foundation of the study was the job embeddedness theory, advocating closer community ties, organizational fit, and sacrifice to support retention. A pretest-posttest control group design, in which a self-designed survey instrument, along with the short form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, were used to gather data from a diverse group of retail employees (N = 279). Pearson product-moment correlational analysis was used for both pretest and posttest measurements, which showed evidence of a moderate association between the independent and dependent variables, and lead to a rejection of the null hypothesis. Based on the observed increase in retention rates, the intervention of the 60-day treatment was deemed moderately successful. Positive social change will be evident not only within diverse organizations, but also within those which are increasingly becoming more diverse, as they seek to design platforms which would afford their influential leaders the ability to increase their current levels of communication, answering, recognition, and training.

Executives planning for an organizational merger often neglect or overlook the importance of creating a positive organizational culture. Researchers have demonstrated that organizational culture is important to the success of mergers. Workers' compensation industry executives who managed mergers successfully often includ organizational culture in their merger strategy. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the strategies that business executives used to unify organizational cultures during an organizational merger. The population for the study consisted of 3 CEOs with operations in northern Florida, who successfully merged companies within the workers' compensation managed care industry. For each of these participants, success was self-reported and measured by internal financial metrics. Semistructured interviews were used to collect information regarding successful strategies from experiences during past mergers. Interpretations from interview data were then triangulated with CEOs' emails, executive memoranda, and previously administered employee surveys. The results of this study reflect successful strategies that were used in previous mergers. The data analysis resulted in themes that indicate executives within the workers' compensation managed care industry need to ensure that organizational culture is included with financial metrics during mergers. The implications of these findings promote social change as employees become a part of newly combined organizations and may have a more positive and cooperative work effort to strive for organizational and individual success.