<p> This exploratory study examined the relationship between communities of practice and professional identity. The purpose of the study was to quantitatively examine the extent to which there were relationships between Wenger's dimensions of community of practice (domain, community, and practice) and professional identity among veterinarians. This was accomplished by conducting a survey study using correlation analysis. The research question was as follows: To what extent are there relationships between Wenger's dimensions of community of practice (domain, community, and practice) and professional identity among veterinarians? </p><p> A combined survey consisting of items from the Community of Practice Measure and the Professional Identity Survey was used to collect data. Snowball sampling techniques were used to recruit 125 veterinarians to participate in the study. To explore the research question, three sets of null and alternative hypotheses were developed and tested. Overall, the results showed that the dimensions of communities of practice had positive statistically significant relationships with the professional identity. Domain, community and practice all had moderate to low positive relationships with professional identity. </p><p> The significance of this study is that it expanded Brown's (1997; 2007) conceptual framework of professional identity development. It also contributed to the body of knowledge on social science research conducted on veterinarians. Finally, it offered quantitative findings to the existing literature on communities of practice and professional identity&mdash;that is, as domain, community, and practice are enhanced, so is professional identity.</p>

<p>This qualitative ethnographic study addresses the phenomenon of rapid social media expansion, which creates organizational challenges. Ongoing development of advanced technology products means that effective organizations must be more adaptive and receptive to new approaches and changes in their environment. In a hyper connected society, one where workers are linked through social media&mdash;at work, home, vacation, in a restaurant, or anywhere else&mdash;organizations need to unify their communication systems to leverage the potential that enhanced and collaborative communication can yield (Meister &amp; Willyerd, 2010). </p><p> The research undertaken is directed at obtaining data on levels of social media penetration into organizational learning to analyze how social media use correlates with performance. In addition to identifying types of social media tools being utilized by organizations with formal learning structures, the research focuses on showing the importance of planning and goal-directed structuring in successful leveraging of social media tools in organizational learning. This provides a basis for recommendations for future research on social media use in this area to permit development of techniques for measuring the impact of the technology on learning and learner productivity and refinement of best practices for adoption and implementation of specific social media tools. </p>

<p> Improvisational Leadership: A Descriptive Case Study of the Complex Problem-Solving Experiences of a High-Functioning Federal Government Interdisciplinary Team This study described the symbiotic relationship between shared leadership, organizational improvisation, and symbolic interactionism in generating improvisational leadership vis a vis the complex problem-solving experiences of a high-functioning federal government interdisciplinary team of six veterinarians. The study had a dual goal orientation: (a) to describe members' experiences of complex problem-solving; and (b) to describe how members shared leadership during these experiences. The grand tour question for this study was: What is the nature of improvisational leadership via the complex problem-solving experiences of a high-functioning federal government interdisciplinary team? </p><p> The purpose of this study was to describe the nature of improvisational leadership in the complex problem-solving experiences of a high-functioning federal government interdisciplinary team. This study observed that by virtue of their interdisciplinary-interdependent expertise, members were perpetually engaged in interactive knowledge exchange. The research revealed that the medium for these exchanges was polylogue or concurrent, multidirectional, ongoing conversations among the members. The study determined that through this level of discourse and interactivity in real-time, the foci remained on the situation specific needs and in turn placed the needed expertise in the leadership position/role. </p><p> The study was designed to broaden understanding concerning the nature of improvisational leadership via the complex problem-solving experiences of a high-functioning federal government interdisciplinary team through describing leadership as an emergent consequence of the needs of the moment, the actions and interactions among members, and the available material, cognitive, affective, and social resources brought to bear in process.</p>

<p> As new employees come into their new workplaces, they engage in behaviors that make it easy for them to fit in with the already-established environment. Spanning across various industries, both Federal and private sector, 10 participants indicated that they believed their childhood experiences were the source of their socialization process development. Despite previous research, this research concluded that organizational socialization tactics had no real bearing on whether or not a newcomer perceived themselves to be successful in their socialization process. Results indicated that the two most important factors of a successful socialization was that the newcomers understood their jobs, were able to reduce their level of uncertainty through asking questions and seeking feedback, and establishing relationships with their co-workers.</p>

<p> Retaining experienced and qualified volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians is a concern throughout the volunteer fire service. Significant research has been conducted on the retention of volunteers in rural settings, but there has been limited research on retention of volunteers in suburban volunteer fire departments. In this case study of three suburban volunteer fire departments in Nebraska, 17 participants were interviewed about their reasons for joining and continuing to volunteer with their local fire departments. The participants also were asked about reasons they would consider resigning from their departments. The study found that the participants joined their departments and continued to volunteer because of a desire to serve their communities and help people and because they enjoyed the relationships on their departments. The participants considered resigning from their departments because of interpersonal conflicts within their departments and because of concerns about not meeting their departments' minimum response and training requirements. Although this study is not generalizable to all volunteer fire departments, the departments in this study can use the results to consider ways to improve retention of their volunteers. Activities which may improve retention include providing supportive and appreciative environments for the volunteers, limiting the conflict and disrespect on the departments, providing mentoring and leadership training, adapting the training and response requirement to reflect the availability of volunteers, and providing non-financial incentives to support the volunteers in their departmental activities.</p>

<p> This research contributes to the literature on evaluation practice, by reflecting on the role of internal evaluation within organizational communication systems as a whole. A systems theory approach is used to reflect upon the role of internal evaluation, as a means to provide and communicate feedback information. In particular, this study represents exploratory research on the topic of "organic evaluation". Organic evaluation activities are defined in this study as properties that emerge spontaneously within feedback communication systems. Evidence of its practice has been identified within nonprofit organizations operating in Los R&iacute;os, Chile. The findings suggest that organic evaluation is conducted to produce and/or communicate feedback information within nonprofit organizations. Findings are also shared regarding needs and constraints that nonprofit organizations face when internally attempting to access, process, and communicate feedback information. Finally, this research highlights the importance in recognizing organic evaluation being conducted within nonprofit organizations in order to formalize its practice and improve feedback communication systems.</p>

<p> This study explored the influence of supervisee intrapersonal and interpersonal regulatory characteristics on supervisor-rated evaluation of supervisee performance given within the context of a counseling supervision relationship. A sample of 60 counseling supervisee and supervisor dyads from University Counseling Centers were surveyed, both electronically and in paper form. By examining the most frequently studied correlates to performance within counselor trainee supervision, the study aimed to address a gap in the research literature understanding of the self-regulatory influences on performance evaluation. Regression analysis was used to address the hypothesis that the independent variables of emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, working alliance, and attachment orientation would account for a significant portion of the variance in total performance scores of the dependent variable of supervisee performance.</p><p> Results of this study indicated that the independent variables did not have a significant relationship with the outcome variable of performance evaluation. Post hoc analyses found that supervisor attractiveness did have a significant relationship with performance. Organizational literature has long advanced theories that attachment and emotional intelligence are integral to the supervisory relationship. Previous research has found independent relationships between emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and working alliance and performance; however, this was the first study that looked at their collective influence on performance with the additional influence of attachment orientation. The results of this study suggest that the strength of the relationship of emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, working alliance, and attachment orientation to performance is not as great as previously reported. Additionally, and more importantly, the data suggest that references to attachment and emotional intelligence in organizational theory may be misguided or at best optimistic. The supervisory relationship, while complicated, may not be as interpersonally influenced as hypothesized, but post hoc analyses confirm that attraction does influence performance evaluation. These results suggest a possible new direction for future research.</p>

<p> This study examined the propensity to engage in Organizational Retaliation Behaviors (ORBs) when perceiving organizational injustices in a group context. Situational scenarios were developed that incorporated distributive, procedural, and interactional justice and were administered to 211 individuals, along with a measure of the propensity to engage in ORBs directed towards group members and group leaders distinctly. Moreover, an individual's degree of narcissism was also assessed to explore its relationship to one's propensity to engage in ORBs. Analysis of Variance revealed a strong relationship between the condition exemplifying injustice and ORBs, in addition to a higher tendency of expressing ORBs towards group members when compared to group leaders. Furthermore, narcissism did not significantly impact the degree to which individuals expressed their propensity to engage in ORBs.</p>

<p> Academic performance of collegiate student-athletes compared to non-athletes has been studied extensively. Results of these studies have been mixed in their findings of student-athletes academic performance in comparison to the nonstudent-athlete population. These conflicting results may be due to differences in level of competition or demographic characteristics of the subpopulations examined. This indicates that there is more to the relationship between athletic participation and academic performance than participation in sport alone. Based on achievement goal theories' assertion that goal oriented behaviors remain relatively consistent between the sport context and the classroom, looking at how an athlete is involved in sport rather than just if they are involved in sport may provide further insight into this relationship. Being a team leader, rather than just a team member may be one of the delimitating variables involved in this relationship. This quantitative study examined the relationships between NAIA collegiate student-athlete's leadership role in the athletic setting and their level of academic success, their task goal orientation, and their use of organizational planning and time management skills. Participants included student-athletes participating on interactive sport teams at a private liberal arts university that competes in the NAIA Midwest Collegiate Conference. Results revealed no statistically significant relationship between leadership role and GPA, <i>p</i> = 0.27 or in the relationship between leadership role and organizational planning and time management skills <i>p</i> = 0.20. There was a statistically significant relationship found between leadership role and task goal orientation <i> p</i> = 0.02. Although the results of this research found no significant relationship between GPA and leadership role, the findings from this study provide insight into other variables that may affect a student-athlete's academic performance. The finding that task goal orientation is significantly related to leadership role in the athletic setting may provide an important link in academic performance of student-athletes in other school settings. Future research is recommended to replicate this study at other colleges and universities where the student-athletes might have different demographics to provide further insight into these relationships.</p>

<p> The quantitative, descriptive study examined workplace communication breakdowns by evaluating generational perceptions of supervisor leadership, communication and employee performance. Participants included members of the Baby Boomer generation, Generation X, and Millenials. Respondents completed an online survey that contained the Supervisor Leadership Communication Inventory. Additionally, respondents answered an open-ended question that asked about a supervisor&rsquo;s role in facilitating intergenerational communication. Data analysis indicated no significant differences among generational perceptions of supervisor leadership, communication or employee performance. Themes that emerged from responses to the open-ended question aligned with SLCI themes, including leadership, communication and teamwork. Limitations to the study included a lack of participation by members of the Silent Generation, possible misinterpretation of the survey questions and limiting the participants to only those who were employed full-time. Respondents indicated effective leadership was based upon treating employees as individuals and not based upon generational cohort. Recommendations included further research to determine the occurrence of workplace communication breakdowns based upon generational differences. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> generation, communication, leadership, teamwork. </p>