When organizational leaders create cultures that foster employee engagement, the leaders experience multiple benefits such as enhanced organizational performance, increased profitability, and improved retention rates. Although small business leaders must create and sustain atmospheres that nurture employee engagement to experience maximized success, 85% of organizational leaders struggle with executing strategies that increase engagement. The purpose of this qualitative, single case study was to explore strategies that small business leaders use to increase employee engagement. Servant leadership theory was the conceptual framework chosen for this study. The population included 3 small business leaders of a coffee shop located in Birmingham, AL. A review of company documents, as well as member checking of initial interview transcripts, helped to strengthen the credibility and trustworthiness of the interpretations. The final interpretations consisted of 2 main themes: creating a culture that enhances and sustains employee engagement and demonstrating leadership characteristics that increase employee engagement. Employee engagement increases when leaders use strategies that include effective employee development strategies, incentives and rewards, deliberate hiring practices, effective communication, leading by example, and leveraging employee innovation and ownership. These findings influence positive social change by uncovering strategies necessary to increase employee engagement, because employees who engage in the workplace display stronger forms of attachment to businesses, develop a significant bond within the community, and experience improved family interactions.

Healthcare administrators can improve patient care and safety by stimulating nurse engagement as a means of improving internal relationships. The purpose of this case study was to explore engagement strategies that healthcare administrators use to stimulate nurse engagement. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 4 healthcare administrators in a Missouri hospital setting. The engagement theory informed the conceptual framework of the study. Data were analyzed using Yin's 5-step process that included compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding. Analysis revealed 4 major themes: teamwork, nurse and administrator communication, nurse recognition, and nurse empowerment. Strategies were identified through the exploration and analysis of the 4 themes, and the major findings included healthcare administrators increase trust with nurses by forming teams, and administrators who increase communication are more likely to stimulate nurse engagement. The social change implication for this study was that findings of nurse engagement may lead to improved patient care and contribute to a positive patient experience, which benefit patients and their families. Improved patient care may lead to greater faith and credence in medical care benefiting citizens, practitioners, and healthcare administrators.

In the higher education industry, employee engagement is crucial to the survival of organizations because engaged employees increase profits, productivity, and sustainability. The purpose of this single case study was to explore leadership strategies that leaders of higher education organizations used to promote employee engagement. Expectancy theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Four leaders of a higher education organization in the southeastern United States were purposefully selected for the study based upon their experience implementing effective leadership strategies to promote employee engagement. Data were collected through face-to-face semistructured interviews, direct observation, and review of publicly available organizational documents. Data were transcribed and coded for common patterns and themes, then member-checked to reinforce the validity of the interpretations. Three themes emerged from the data analysis: engaging through communication, developing engagement strategies, and engaging through recognition and rewards. The findings from this study might contribute to social change by providing higher education leaders with strategies to promote a sustainable workforce, competitive edge, and increase productivity and profitability.

This study focuses on exploring the personal perspectives and understanding of youth engagement within the Canadian context according to youth engagement researchers, practitioners and funders. This study applied a qualitative research strategy and employed phenomenological methods of interviews and focus groups. This study seeks to highlight the key characteristics and trends from the participant’s perspective within the Canadian youth engagement landscape. Building on the tenants of Transformational Learning Theory and the historical understandings of youth engagement, this study explores how youth engagement is both conceptualized and perceived across three key sectors: researchers, practitioners and funders. Finally, reflecting on the key characteristics identified by the participants this study also discusses the further understanding of the complexity of youth-adult partnerships, the civic role of young people and the potential of developing a collective and shared understanding of youth engagement by practitioners, funders and researchers. / Graduate

Appealing participants' engagement drives collaborative systems to enhance it through system's use or through system's design. However, engaging participants in collaborative systems to create digital resources is not trivial to achieve as the majority of contributions are provided by a very small percentage of engaged participants. In the literature, different approaches, such as human-in-the-loop and co-design, investigate engagement in these lines. This thesis aims to study how reflexivity can help designers to investigate participants' engagement in co-design of collaborative systems. Based on a qualitative approach, the thesis is positioned in the field of Human Computer Interaction and grounded on two studies. The retrospective analysis of the two studies was guided through a framework composed of three phases. In the first phase, supported by the literature review, several qualitative methods were investigated to identify the communities to be involved in the research; in the second phase, different co-design sessions were conducted with participants; and in the third phase, participants evaluated the solutions co-designed. The two studies followed different but intertwined approaches. Study 1 followed a user-centric approach and supported the identification and consolidation of a set of factors that hindered or facilitated engagement. The factors were articulated as barriers, drivers, and workarounds, and were validated in Study 2, which followed a participative approach. These factors constitute the first contribution of this thesis. Moreover, the literature review and the empirical data supported the identification of three dimensions to facilitate the adoption of a reflexive approach in co-design. These dimensions correspond to the second contribution of this thesis. Finally, the set of barriers, drivers, and workarounds was merged with the dimensions to propose a framework to investigate engagement in co-design of collaborative systems, constituting the third contribution of this thesis.

The need for more effective engagement between universities and business has been receiving more attention in recent years. Government policy aspirations are placing growing expectations that the higher education sector will play its part in economic growth. At the same time, funding restrictions are imposing more pressure on universities to find different income streams, including funding from industry. However, the relationship between universities and business is often problematic, and engagement between the two is frequently not done well. Meanwhile, the role that business schools are expected to play in that engagement is contentious, which appears to put them squarely on the fault-line of these policy shifts. This study explores employer/HE provider engagement within the context of the recent policy landscape, responding with a proposed conceptual model of engagement. A business school relationship with three employer organisations forms the basis of an embedded case study, which employs an interpretive stance to help better understand the relationship between employer and HE provider. The study found that a demand-led provision of skills with employers is a more nuanced context than the narrow demand-led focus of the Leitch Review, which primarily frames the issue as a problem of supply. This study confirms that employers needs are indeed complex and often unclear, and that employers expect providers to help identify their needs. Therefore the study questions the assumption, implicit in recent policy, that it is possible to generate generic needs from employers. From the evidence addressed, it proposes that employers are seeking HE providers who can both identify their needs, and help address them with the challenge implicit in latest thinking. The study thus proposes a distinctive, dual-role for business schools, namely, a responsiveness to demand balanced by the creation and dissemination of a latest thinking which leads demand. In order to do this, the study proposes a conceptual model of relationship engagement, where the quality and importance of relationships were found to be critical for effective engagement. Therefore the study concludes that a distinctive, mutually beneficial relationship between business schools and business is unlikely to be realized without understanding and fostering effective relational engagement.

The global shortage of registered nursing practitioners is widely reported in the literature. This shortage can be attributed to a decrease in enrolments for nursing studies, fewer students graduating from nursing education programmes, more nurses leaving the profession shortly after completion of their studies, and other factors. Burnout amongst registered nurses may contribute to the above and can also serve as an indication of the reason these shortages in the nursing profession occur. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is also affected by the shortage of registered nurses. This shortage is increased by the involvement of the SANDF in peacekeeping missions outside South Africa. A need therefore exists for sufficient numbers of registered nursing personnel to qualify from the South African Military Health Services (SAMHS) Nursing College. In order to increase the number of students qualifying from this college and, to retain them after qualifying, research is needed regarding the occurrence of non-completion of studies at the college and the tendency to leave the SANDF shortly after qualifying. The objective of this study was to identify possible stressors (job demands and/or job resources) in the military nursing-student environment, to investigate their effects on students (burnout or engagement), and to assess whether it has any influence on their academic performance. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A sample of 167 nursing students (completing the four-year integrated nursing diploma) at second, third and fourth-year levels was obtained. The Clinical Environmental Characteristics Scale (CECS), developed by the authors, and the Wellness Survey (WS), together with a biographical questionnaire, were administered. The Wellness Survey (WS) include scales from three inventories, namely the Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS - Maslach, Jackson & Leiter, 1996), Cognitive vii Weariness Scale (CWS - Van Horn, Taris, Schaufeli & Schreurs, in press) and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES - Shaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez-Romh, & Bakker, 2002). Descriptive statistics, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson correlations and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the results. The results showed that job demands (consisting of overload, organisational influences and work-life balance) had a strong relationship with burnout (consisting of exhaustion, cynicism and cognitive weariness). A negative relationship was found between burnout and academic performance. Job resources (consisting of social support, growth and advancement, contact with others and organisational support) had a strong relationship with work engagement (consisting of vigour and dedication) and a significant negative relationship with performance (academic results). A negative relationship was also shown to exist between work engagement and academic performance. Recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

The global shortage of registered nursing practitioners is widely reported in the literature. This shortage can be attributed to a decrease in enrolments for nursing studies, fewer students graduating from nursing education programmes, more nurses leaving the profession shortly after completion of their studies, and other factors. Burnout amongst registered nurses may contribute to the above and can also serve as an indication of the reason these shortages in the nursing profession occur. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is also affected by the shortage of registered nurses. This shortage is increased by the involvement of the SANDF in peacekeeping missions outside South Africa. A need therefore exists for sufficient numbers of registered nursing personnel to qualify from the South African Military Health Services (SAMHS) Nursing College. In order to increase the number of students qualifying from this college and, to retain them after qualifying, research is needed regarding the occurrence of non-completion of studies at the college and the tendency to leave the SANDF shortly after qualifying. The objective of this study was to identify possible stressors (job demands and/or job resources) in the military nursing-student environment, to investigate their effects on students (burnout or engagement), and to assess whether it has any influence on their academic performance. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A sample of 167 nursing students (completing the four-year integrated nursing diploma) at second, third and fourth-year levels was obtained. The Clinical Environmental Characteristics Scale (CECS), developed by the authors, and the Wellness Survey (WS), together with a biographical questionnaire, were administered. The Wellness Survey (WS) include scales from three inventories, namely the Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS - Maslach, Jackson & Leiter, 1996), Cognitive vii Weariness Scale (CWS - Van Horn, Taris, Schaufeli & Schreurs, in press) and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES - Shaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez-Romh, & Bakker, 2002). Descriptive statistics, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson correlations and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the results. The results showed that job demands (consisting of overload, organisational influences and work-life balance) had a strong relationship with burnout (consisting of exhaustion, cynicism and cognitive weariness). A negative relationship was found between burnout and academic performance. Job resources (consisting of social support, growth and advancement, contact with others and organisational support) had a strong relationship with work engagement (consisting of vigour and dedication) and a significant negative relationship with performance (academic results). A negative relationship was also shown to exist between work engagement and academic performance. Recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

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