There were 133 billion pounds of food that went to waste in the United States in 2014, leading to $161.6 billion in economic loss. Of this waste, 89 billion pounds occurred in restaurants and other food service facilities. A case study was used to explore the strategies small, independent, family-owned restaurants owners used to reduce food waste. Four small independent, family-owned restaurants owners located in the Washington, DC, metro area participated in the study. These owners were selected based on their revenue and years of survival. Stakeholders theory was the conceptual framework in which the study was grounded. Face-to-face interviews with participants and company financial documents comprised the data. Interview transcripts, member checking results, and financial documents were analyzed for emergent themes. The 3 themes that emerged from this study are employee training, communication among stakeholders, and customer loyalty. The implications for social change include the potential to provide new strategies that can help small, independent, family-owned restaurants reduce food waste, increase profits, and improve the economic conditions of communities in the Washington, DC metro area.

Nursing accreditation bodies have recommended that nursing education programs prepare graduates who display competence in leadership. However, the reality of how nursing leadership skillsets are acquired at the undergraduate level and transferred into practice remains debatable. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how nursing educators teach leadership in Louisiana baccalaureate programs contrasted with ideal policy expectations. The action learning and reflective practice theories provided the foundational theoretical influences for this study. Six face-to-face virtual interviews were conducted with nursing faculty who were currently teaching or had taught leadership in a baccalaureate nursing program for at least 1 year. Data collection and analysis using the constant comparative method of the Corbin and Strauss grounded theory approach was used. From the data analysis, 7 main themes were identified, including the purpose of the leadership course, the selected teaching strategies to meet the purpose of the course, teaching to support student learning styles and workplace expectations, the application of evidence-based practice principles for leadership, the measured effectiveness of selected teaching strategies, faculty perspectives of leadership efficacy at the undergraduate level, and faculty perspectives for future nursing leadership education. Research findings suggest that positive social change for undergraduate nursing education could be influenced by the employment of active learning and reflective practice allowing the student to experience leadership, reflect on leadership, and improve on developing leadership competence. The generalist would become receptive to leadership before entry into practice, impacting the changing healthcare environment.

Business owners and leaders have committed resources, time, and funding to understand and mitigate the phenomenon of employee turnover. The purpose of this study was to explore the strategies that managers used to mitigate employee turnover in the financial services industry in Nigeria. The transformational leadership model was the conceptual framework for this single case study. Semistructured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 10 middle-level managers who had experience and knowledge of employee turnover at an organization in the financial services industry in Nigeria. The company's policy documents and audited financial statements were also reviewed. Thematic coding was used for data analysis, and qualitative data analysis software was used to achieve accuracy in data classification and organization of the analysis. Data analysis led to the emergence of 8 themes: human resources, industry comparison and benchmarking, training, good relationship management and communication, conducive work environment, rewards and compensation, low employee turnover as a post strategy implementation benefit, and increased productivity and efficiency as a post strategy implementation benefit. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to reduce the unemployment rate, create financial independence, and reduce the poverty level in the financial services industry in Nigeria. Leaders and business owners may use the strategies from this study to promote satisfied employees who earn a satisfactory income, find fulfillment in their jobs, and support for their families and communities.

Marital distress has been shown to negatively affect child outcomes. John Gottman has claimed that he has developed a concept that can buffer children from the negative effects of marital distress. The concept is emotion coachin g (EC), which teaches children about emotions. emotion regulation. and effective problem-solving. Children who are emotion coached have better out comes regardless of level of marital di stress. Gottman also claims that emotion coaching parents report higher marital satisfaction and tend to score higher in positive conflict resolution styles and lower in negative conflict resolution styles. This study set out to test Gottman's concepts of EC and emotion dismissing (ED) and their relationships with marital satisfaction and marital conflict. In addition, this study explored the relationships between marital conflict and marital satisfaction. Lastly, this study set out to use a se lf- report instrument to measure EC and ED, the Maternal Emotional Style Questionnaire (MESQ: Legace-Seguin, 200 I). Unfortunately, the MESQ in this study d id not have adequate reliability to answer the questions of how EC and ED were related to marital satisfaction and marital conflict. However, results were reported for relationships between marital conflict, marital satisfaction. and demographic variables. Results suggest that when one uses one negative way o f resolving conflict, one is likely to use other negative strategies. Also, when one uses the positive way of resolving conflict, negative strategies are less likely to be used. Resu lts showed that frequency/severity of conflicts were related to the perceived seriousness of arguments and reports of conflicts being resolved. Also. number of times conflicts were resolved was related to decreased perceived seriousness of argument topics. Marital satisfaction was related to higher scores on· positive conflict strategies and conflict efficacy and lower scores of frequency/severity of conflicts and negative conflict strategies. Discussion includes implications for further research and family therapy.

This study was designed to explore maintenance strategies used by religiously affiliated married couples, links between religion and marital quality, and whether maintenance strategies serve a mediating pathway between religion and marital quality. The study included 80 married participants recruited from university courses. Most participants were Caucasian and identified as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Fetzer's religiosity survey assessed various dimensions of religious activity and belief. Marital quality was assessed via measures of commitment and conflict, and marital maintenance strategies included both cognitive and behavioral efforts to remain connected and positive with the spouse. Overall, the sample was highly religious and reported high levels of commitment to their marriages. Strong relationships were observed between religious variables and marital quality, and both religious variables and marital quality demonstrated some relationships with marital maintenance strategies. However, links between religiosity and martial quality were not mediated by the use of specific marital maintenance strategies.

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / Child-headed households (CHHs) are a recent development that has become progressively noticeable not only in South Africa but also internationally. This phenomenon arose as a result of the death of parents or abandonment of children by their primary caregivers. The Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic has taken away the lives particularly of many adults, leaving children orphaned and having to take on the adults’ responsibilities. In the past, relatives or the extended family would take the responsibility of caring and providing for orphaned children but, with current economic hardships, most families are unable to take the extra responsibility. As a result, older siblings become caregivers to their younger siblings. Unfortunately, when parents die, children often lose access to adequate food, social grants, education and health services. Despite the fact that it is the right of all South Africans, including children, to have access to sufficient food, many households, including CHHs, are living in poverty. As a result, they are vulnerable to food insecurity, leading to developmental, social and emotional challenges. The aim of the present study was to explore and describe the experiences, challenges and coping strategies of CHHs with food insecurity in Ingwavuma, from a bio-ecological perspective. Ingwavuma is a small rural town in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. The study makes recommendations for social work projects, education and future research regarding CHHs’ experiences of food insecurity. This is a qualitative study that utilised an explorative-descriptive methodological approach. Purposive sampling was used to select 20 children between the ages of 13 and 18 years old from CHHs in Ingwavuma. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants at their homes in the town.

This research investigates the ways in which firms in the cluster approach the process of internationalization through exploring the influence of business clustering and how it benefits firms in entering foreign markets. The purpose was to understand this process to enable firms to develop successful international strategies to expand in foreign markets. The focus of the study is on the Yarra Valley Wine Industry Cluster, the oldest wine growing region in Victoria, Australia. This research examined of Australian wineries to join together in order to achieve greater competitiveness in collaboration when entering foreign markets due to ever increasing global competition. This paper was an exploratory study that used qualitative information gathered from the case study firms to provide practical framework for the execution of the research using a multiple-case study design. The findings show the following: first, some of the wineries gain their perceptions of the foreign markets from their relationships with, as well as, by the input and suggestions of the distributors, agents, and partners in a particular market, while others seem to distance themselves from their international environments and only focus on serving domestic/local markets exclusively. Second, personal networks play an important role when it comes to the internationalization process of the wineries because they provide access to market knowledge. Third, cooperation among cluster firms plays a very limited role in assisting wineries in foreign market expansion; it has only been of benefit when it came to dealing with local issues. The cluster has played only a minor role, if any, when it comes to the internationalization of the cluster firms. Clustering has been identified as a place where wineries exchange knowledge, and techniques, in regards to wine production, or come together in a joint effort to sort out local issues. However, the cluster does not provide assistance to individual wineries entering international marketplaces. In conclusion there was a distinctive lack of active support and organization from the cluster with regard to the international expansion due to the lack of leadership and joint direction among cluster members. This is where local government could take more proactive role to facilitate better usage of geographical clusters. The findings could improve the company decision-making process. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of clustering as a means for the future international expansion can be useful in helping to develop international strategies for firms. This would be of great significance to business practitioners because this may have a crucial impact on the competitive advantage of firms in foreign markets. In addition to having significant implications for practice, the investigation has implications for international business research because it provides a better understanding of the role of a cluster in the internationalization.

Schotte and Clum (1982,1987) proposed a model of suicide ideation in which cognitive rigidity (in the presenc eof negative life stress) causes a reduction in problem solving capacity and subsequently leads to hopelessness, which in turn increases the risk for suicide ideation. The aim of the current study was to attempt to improve the model by the addition of a coping variable. The model was tested using a sample 05 85 undergraduate psychology students. the subjects were requested to complete a total of five questionnaires on a once only basis. A new model was developed in which a low level of problem solving confidence and a failure to express emotions combines with the presence of negative life stress to lead to a state of hopelessness, which in turn increases the risk of suicideideation. Results of the study are discussed in terms of the need for a more complex model of suicide ideation which more fully accounts for the effects of different coping strategies on the development of feelings of hopelessness. / Masters Thesis

Over the past 50 years, a great deal of research has conceptualised and modelled consumer decision-making as a single-or two-stage decision process. Today, the decision complexity has increased and consumers need to filter out a large amount of information prior to the final choice decision. This poses a challenge for marketing modellers to develop decision models that are more representative of real-world decision-making. An important rationale for the present study is to improve our understanding of consumer decision-making by providing empirical evidence that consumer decision-making may go beyond a single-or two-stage structure. This thesis aims to provide an insightful view of consumer decision-making, which may help marketers to develop and reinforce marketing programs to address consumer needs and hence increase profits, with knowledge of the types of decisions made and how decisions are made at different stages of the decision process. The literature review identified single-and two-stage decision models. Data analysis did not fully support this conceptualisation. An empirical exploration of consumer decision-making for a durable product revealed that the existing literature is limited in scope and predictability as they failed to capture multi-phase decision processes, which accounted for approximately one-half of consumer decisions. Empirical evidence was found suggesting that consumers seldom use a single strategy throughout the decision process. Consumer heterogeneity was also evident in this research as different consumers approached the same decision task with different processes and outcomes. Finally, this research identified those aspects of decision processes that have not been captured by the literature-based decision strategies. This research suggests that consumer decisions are more contingent than previously conceived in a single-and two-stage model. This research recommends that marketers should reconsider their understanding of consumer decision-making and bear in mind that one marketing strategy does not fit all customers. Marketers need to develop marketing strategies to address the entire decision process instead of focusing only on the decision outcome. By identifying different decision paths that are used by consumers, marketers can effectively segment the market; marketers can also benchmark consumers' perceptions of their performance on the important attributes against competitors to ensure that their product/brand is not eliminated prior to the selection from within the choice set. Future research requires us to understand how consumer differences interact with the decision environment to influence decision processes and outcomes. To do so, researchers must adopt a multi-phase perspective.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether using self-regulated learning strategies could promote college students’ learning and satisfaction in Physical Education. A quasi-experimental design, experimental group (N =49) and control group (N=51), was used to examine the effectiveness of a teaching intervention in achieving the goals of learning and satisfaction. Students undertaking the self-regulated learning intervention were compared with a group participating in standard curriculum instructional conditions. Three questionnaires were administered to identify 1) students’ entry characteristics, 2) their perceptions of their learning experiences, and 3) satisfaction. Students completed a students’ characteristics questionnaire in week 2. During the module, students responded to a learning experience questionnaire. At the conclusion of the module, students completed a tennis skills test and responded to a satisfaction questionnaire. The conceptual framework for this study included the independent variables of teaching strategy, mediating variables (students’ characteristics), and dependent variables (satisfaction and performance). The experimental study was conducted within this framework by use of an ANCOVA design. The main results were: 1. The experimental group scored significantly higher on measures reflecting self regulated learning processes in their learning experience than the control group (p=0.000).2. There was no difference between the groups on scores for global satisfaction (p=0.059).3. There was no difference between the groups on satisfaction through valuing (p=0.401). 4. The experimental group demonstrated significantly higher students' satisfaction through enjoyment than the control group (p=0.013).5. The experimental group had significantly higher performance in the tennis skills test than the control group (p=0.000). Several effects of self-regulated learning were indicated in this study. Analysis of the monitoring sheets provided evidence that students gained more interest and confidence in their involvement in the tennis class by the use of self-regulated learning strategies. However, it was expected that the self-regulated learning group would experience the greater satisfaction. As this did not occur, more research is needed to further examine the relationship of learning experiences to satisfaction and particularly the dimension of valuing. The importance of utilizing a conceptual framework that accounted for differences in student entry characteristics in a teaching intervention of this nature was demonstrated by the ANCOVA analysis. The individual factors of managing environmental change, problem solving, ability attributions, and task orientation were all shown to have some significant effects on student outcomes over and above those attributed to the learning experience. Finally, some interesting findings concerning the composition of the scales used in the study were reported. They were interpreted as providing evidence for the importance of verifying the cultural appropriateness of even well-known theoretical concepts that may have been developed in different contexts to those in which they are being used. The study concludes with some specific recommendations for future research.