<p> The purpose of the present quantitative descriptive, correlational study was to determine whether and to what degree a relationship existed between generational shifting at the workplace and the level of work engagement. Generations included in the study were Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. The study also served to determine the relationship, between the employee motivations towards work and generational cohort, and the relationship between motivation sources and employee engagement. The study findings revealed that work engagement levels did not relate to generational cohorts. Similarly, the most prevalent motivation sources did not differ among the three generations. In terms of the relationship between motivation sources and employee engagement, the study added to the body of knowledge about employee engagement and work motivation. Positive correlations were found between work engagement and the following motivation sources: intrinsic process, internal self-concept, external self-concept, and goal internalization. These findings imply that individuals are motivated by the work itself, not necessarily by the rewards expected for the job. Individuals prefer jobs that allow them to have fun and provide a sense of achievement. Individuals will be motivated by tasks that help them to maintain or increase their reputation, and jobs that match their internal values. By focusing on addressing workforce motivation sources, employers will probably increase work engagement. Future research could expand on the suggestions and findings of the present study.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to uncover the lived to experiences of registered nurses who have experienced burnout during their careers, yet chose to remain in the profession, and to uncover the leadership and individual strategies that address nursing burnout. The study included the phenomenological method to explore the research questions. Fifteen registered nurses who identified an episode of burnout in their nursing career, and were still working in the nursing profession, participated in an in-depth interview. Five themes that emerged from the data were (a) burnout affects the whole person, (b) social support helps cope with burnout, (c) a healthy lifestyle is paramount to prevention and coping, (d) nurse leaders play a pivotal role in preventing and managing burnout, and (e) caring is an essential element of nursing. Recommendations for future research include an exploration of lived experiences of nurse leaders; use of the burnout scale to identify nurses with burnout with subsequent in-depth interviews; research to determine if preventive measures actually prevent burnout or merely lessen the unpleasant affects; exploration of sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and burnout; and the implementation of Watson&rsquo;s Attending Nurse Caring Model.</p>

<p>When a crisis captures the attention of a nation and the world community, the questions are always Why did it happen and How did it happen. Such an event was revealed on April 28, 2004 with a report on CBS's 60 Minute II and in an article by Seymour Hersh posted online in the New Yorker magazine April 30, 2004. The event was the detainee abuse by U.S. Army soldiers at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. The abuse occurred between late 2003 and early 2004, and the story shook the U.S. government and the coalition partners who helped the United States bring down the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. This case study examined how the detainee abuse occurred and why the detainee abuse occurred by applying the theory of practical drift to the events in Iraq. However, the study revealed that while the abuse was conducted in Iraq the forces and causes were not confined to Iraq. The forces that contributed to the breakdown in soldier discipline in Iraq were the result of leadership and doctrinal decisions made decades earlier and governmental decisions made to fight the War on Terror. The study also identified stages of practical drift that illustrate how practical drift occurs in organizations. The case study avoided dealing with the actual events of the detainee abuse but concentrated on the elements that contributed to setting the conditions for the abuse. Practical drift in the war fighting doctrine development of the U.S. Army and the policies adopted by the U.S. administration to fight the War on Terror were causes of the detainee abuse identified in the case study. Individual behavioral traits of dismissive responsibility and deflected responsibility also contributed to practical drift and ultimately the detainee abuse.

<p> For global companies to continue to grow, members must work and/or lead virtually. The purpose of my research was based on a two-dimensional model for measuring successful projects among virtual team members: effective communication and cultural intelligence (CQ) for team members working in a global pharmaceutical company. The main focus was on project management team members who work on global virtual teams and their team managers who lead global virtual teams. Currently, there is very limited empirical research that focuses on the relationship between cultural intelligence, effective communication within virtual teams, and successful projects. The researcher used triangulation mixed methods to explore the interrelationship among all three elements. It was hypothesized that all three elements are interrelated. Surveys on all three elements were used to assess both global leaders and project management team members who manage and lead projects virtually, working in collaboration with their global counterparts. Based on both the quantitative and qualitative results of the data, as well as the result of this interrelationship, further training on openness and global identity, adjustment to the current strategy, and education of all project management team members could then be recommended. If no difference in the collaboration level is found based on a high level of CQ, then additional opportunities for CQ would be recommended to the organization leadership. </p>

<p> The effects of non-routine work on the planned goals of an organization were examined through a qualitative case study. The purpose of the study was to identify the distinguishing features of routine and non-routine operational situations from the perspective of employees from three different organizational levels: executives, managers, and staff. The findings contribute to the understanding of how organizational leaders can meet their planned goals in the face of disruptions resulting from unplanned operational situations. Twenty employees of this organization were interviewed on how they perceived their routine work was affected by non-routine operational situations. System theory was the ontology of the research for an integrative study of how routine and non-routine operational situations affected the employees in terms of their job performance, job satisfaction, and effectiveness of response. Based on the findings, non-routine operations were perceived by the employees as departures from their routine work. Employees also indicated that they routinized the work they expected to perform as part of their job, both for efficiency and to ensure completeness. Employees expressed anxiety about non-routine work since it was unplanned and caught them unprepared. However, employees also indicated having a sense of accomplishment from completing non-routine work, when their routine work was also completed. Two sources of job satisfaction were reported by the employees: (a) contributing to organizational performance through completing the routine work; and (b) overcoming the challenges of dealing with the task uncertainties that non-routine work entails. Further distinctions between routine and non-routine work were indicated by employees in terms of quality control and quality assurance measures.</p>

<p> There are currently 4 different generations in the workplace, and the newest generation, Generation Y, has caused leaders within organizations to rethink their management and workplace cultural approach to leading this emerging generation. This qualitative phenomenological dissertation examines the work environment preferences of Generation Y contract managers who work in the Los Angeles area in the defense and aerospace industry by interviewing 11 participants from both the public and private sectors. The research indicates that this new generation, Generation Y or Millennials, prefer to have autonomy over their workload and schedule, but prefer to have their direct manager active in a mentoring and coaching role, rather than acting as a task-master. In addition, the participants in this study preferred a healthy amount of pressure, but not too much of a workload that would cause them to fail. Lastly, this dissertation found that Millennials have a high preference for innovation and using innovative technology in the workplace to increase efficiency.</p>

<p> Although evidence-based practices (EBPs) have been identified in the literature, insufficient information exists about how to successfully implement them. As a result, implementation efforts have been met with failures. Little is currently known about what affects the success of implementation efforts for best practices such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy for adolescents (DBT-A) in an acute inpatient psychiatric setting (AIPS). A longitudinal multiphase mixed methods case study examined an implementation effort to provide DBT-A in an AIPS over a 24-month period. The process of implementation was investigated through in-depth interviews, a focus group, and field observations. Six categories were identified that affected the DBT-A implementation in an AIPS: appeal of DBT as a treatment modality, impact on patients, implementer characteristics, the implementation process, organizational dynamics and structure, and staff support. Implications for implementing EBPs within organizational environments are discussed. This study represents the first attempt to use qualitative and mixed methodology to examine the process of DBT implementation in an AIPS. </p>

<p> Scholars have used studies of &ldquo;street-level organizations&rdquo; to examine how policy is implemented, adapted, and changed through the practices of workers in real-world contexts. This dissertation follows in that tradition, tracing the ways in which Medicaid reforms work their way down to the street-level in a community mental health center with its origins in the clubhouse model of treatment. Based on twelve months of direct observation of street-level practices, interviews with workers, and analysis of agency documents and reports, I examine how new managerial reforms shape the strategies that workers use to provide access to community mental health services and to advance the clubhouse logic of recovery. These findings have implications for scholarship across the domains of community mental health practice, organizational studies, and policy research, suggesting the need for further investigation into how policy reform is produced through the everyday practices of street-level organizations.</p><p> This dissertation uses organizational ethnographic methods to study workers&rsquo; practices at Community Club, a community mental health center located in Chicago, Illinois. The clubhouse is based on the idea that individuals whose lives have been adversely affected by severe mental illness can benefit from treatment in a setting that functions as a social club, where members experience themselves as valued and needed. At the same time, community mental health reforms have been advanced largely by new managerial arrangements that emphasize accountability and performance measurement. These reforms in governance and management produced considerable uncertainty for workers in how Community Club would adapt to changes in policy. This site provides an opportunity to examine how reforms &ldquo;worked&rdquo; in this particular setting and what became of the clubhouse model under new managerial arrangements.</p><p> Data were collected from November 2009 until November 2010. I directly observed therapeutic interactions at Community Club and attended weekly team and managers meetings. Interviews were recorded with frontline workers, team leaders, and program administrators as questions emerged from my day-to-day observations of direct practices. I had access to multiple sources of organizational documentation, including corrective actions, internal notices, and training materials. I attended meetings, webinars, and teleconferences at the Illinois Division of Mental Health for a year. I also attended monthly meetings at the largest community behavioral health trade association in Illinois for two years. Interviews were conducted with key informants at the state and trade levels to better understand how community mental health policy reforms took shape in Illinois. Data were analyzed in an ongoing and iterative fashion for thematic connections. Multiple data sources allowed for triangulation and fact-checking as hypotheses emerged over the course of this study.</p><p> This study finds that workers adjusted to reforms in governance and management in ways that were not reducible to formal statutes alone. First, new managerial reforms restructured the tensions that played out at the street-level as workers negotiated the competing demands of access to care. This study suggests that reforms may place pressure on workers to limit flexibility and openness, may produce both direct and indirect forms of rationing, and may introduce barriers that unevenly affect individuals who are &ldquo;harder to serve.&rdquo; Second, reforms in governance and management restructured three key logics of the clubhouse. Street-level practices that advanced community participation, informal group arrangements, and client self-determination were reshaped by organizational incentives and penalties that increased the costs for workers of providing these services. These changes had observable implications for individuals&rsquo; access to&nbsp;services and for workers&rsquo; ability to act in consonance with manifest principles of the clubhouse and recovery models of treatment. </p><p> This dissertation supports the assertion that formal policy is changed through its implementation in real-world contexts of practice. By revealing the structures that shape most decisively what policy becomes in practice, this study enhances the visibility of social welfare reforms that may otherwise obfuscate how reforms &ldquo;work&rdquo; in practice. This study suggests that social policies should focus not only on accountability and performance measurement, but also on supplying workers with adequate resources to do their jobs well. If, as advocates and researchers have long suggested, there remains significant need for services that support social connection among people with severe mental illness, then it is important for scholars and policymakers to think about how to better equip organizations with the resources they need to facilitate this dimension of care. This dissertation is based on a single case study, which limits the generalizability of its findings. Street-level organizational studies build validity over multiple iterations of case selection, using a comparative perspective to distinguish particular from systematic features of organizational practice. More studies are needed that examine how community mental health policies are produced in the everyday life of organizations, in order to better understand how polices give shape to the nature and distribution of care.</p>

<p> Problem and Purpose </p><p> Innovative solutions in national defense are needed to respond to national security threats in our uncertain environment. Leader attitudes and behaviors have a substantial impact on innovation. Unfortunately we did not completely understand the effect of leader attitudes and behaviors on innovation and the team dynamics that lead to innovation, especially in the military. The purpose of this study was to determine how leadership attitudes and behaviors contribute to product innovation within the U.S. Navy and how leadership emerges within this complex adaptive system of innovation. </p><p> Method </p><p> The research was a qualitative design based on a multiple or comparative case study. A theoretical/conceptual framework of complexity leadership theory was used as a meso model to understand adaptive innovative processes at work in the context of bureaucratic forms of organizing. </p><p> Three teams based on three product innovations were selected because they demonstrated breakthrough innovation with disruptive technology and successfully fielded their capabilities within cost and schedule thresholds. </p><p> Data from three project teams were collected using interviews, focus groups, and program documentation. Eighteen individuals participated in interviews and focus groups. The attitudes and behaviors of nine formal leaders and several emerging leaders were analyzed and evaluated. The results were summarized in six different themes that were apparent across all three projects and multiple leaders. </p><p> Results </p><p> These six themes were a combination of leader attitudes and behaviors that contributed to the success of the three projects. These attitudes and behaviors were observed at all levels of the organization from the program manager, to the IPT leaders, to the engineers getting the job done. The first theme was urgency driven by a heartfelt need. The second theme was that these leaders would listen and were open to ideas. The third theme was to know the process and challenge the process while managing risk and ensuring it is good enough. The fourth theme was vision, passion, assertive, persistence, and moderating setbacks. The fifth theme was trusted leader with credibility, integrity, and was professional. The last theme was collaboration, teamwork, and recognition. Communication was apparent throughout all the themes and links them together. </p><p> Conclusions </p><p> The attitudes and behaviors of the leaders in this study contributed to the innovation by keeping the polarity within these themes in creative tension. The leaders established a strong sense of urgency based on a heartfelt need while also creating an atmosphere and practice of making sure everyone had a voice and their voice counted. The leaders were professional with credibility and integrity. They knew the process, but also challenged the process, managed risk, and encouraged a solution that was good enough. The leaders were passionate about the vision and were assertive and persistent in removing obstacles. But they also encouraged collaboration and teamwork. They moderated setbacks and prevented the team from getting discouraged and took opportunities to recognize the team both informally and formally. These leader attitudes and behaviors contributed toward leaders emerging in the organization. </p><p> A wheel of innovation is proposed that demonstrates the themes in a synergistic and balanced approach. While this improved our understanding of how leader attitudes and behaviors drive innovation, there are still significant areas for further study. Further case studies are needed to determine if this wheel of innovation is applicable outside of the U.S. Navy. Quantitative studies based on these findings are needed to expand the understanding and generalizability of the model.</p>

<p> The operating landscape for banks and other financial institutions continues to change as massive law is implemented. This, coupled with advances in technology, has greatly increased consumer power. To remain compliant and competitive, financial services organizations must adapt to these environmental variations and continually renew their strategic orientations. To gain competitive advantage, organizations must learn faster than their competitors. Interpreting the environment and charting a path for the future is a function of leadership. However, our understanding of leadership's role in developing an organizational learning capability is limited. </p><p> The purpose of this qualitative single-case study was to describe leadership's influence on the subsystems that support an organizational learning capability within a U.S. financial services firm. The case involved a 107-year old financial institution in the Northeastern region of the United States. Using Marquardt's (2011) Systems Learning Organization Model as an analytic frame, a descriptive model of influence emerged via document review, direct and participant observation, and 21 semistructured interviews. </p><p> Through analysis of influence on the subsystems of organization, people, learning, knowledge, and technology, 10 findings contributed to four study conclusions: (1) leadership perceptions of organizational learning are supported with congruent action, (2) leadership's ability to manage tensions contributes to a robust organizational learning capability, (3) leadership drives adaptive social structuring that enhances all five subsystems, and (4) leadership encourages relational dialogue that supports the interdependency of organizational subsystems. </p><p> Answering a call for greater understanding of leadership's role in organizational learning (Crossan, Maurer, &amp; White, 2011; von Krogh, Nonaka, &amp; Rechsteiner, 2012), this research highlights the nature of relational leadership. Additionally, the data suggest that Marquardt's (2011) Systems Learning Organization Model may be enhanced by adding dimensions of regulators and vicarious learning to the people and learning subsystems, respectively.</p>