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Principals come to their current positions with their own beliefs about their role, about their practice, and about other educational issues related to the nature of education: schools, teachers, students, community, and professional growth. These and all other factors that influence how principals think about their job are what I refer to as "principals' professional beliefs." This study demonstrated that principals bring to change initiatives their professional beliefs and those beliefs influence how they interpret the language of the change initiative, how they conceptualize the change, and how they plan for enactment of the policy change. I used a multi-case study approach to examine how eight principals in a school district that was undergoing a district policy change, thought about their enactment of the change at the school level. I identified three groups of principals: (1) supporters of teacher decision making, (2) facilitators of shared values, and (3) promoters of mutual respect. These principals differed in their involvement in the negotiation of the way the change would be carried out in the school, how much and what kinds of support they offered to teachers, and the degree of autonomy they allowed teachers in determining how the change would be implemented. Three questions guided the study: (1) What factors influence principals' responses to a change in school district policy? More specifically, what are the professional and context-specific issues the principals consider as they interpret a school district policy change and plan for their own action in carrying out that change process? (2) How do principals enact the policy changes in their own schools? (3) What impact did the principals perceive that the policy change had on their enactment of their role? This study provides insights into how principals understand and interpret educational policy language, how they work toward the development of collaborative relationships and collegial cultures, and how their professional beliefs inform their practice. The policy change and the language of the policy is mediated through principals' professional belief systems as they determine how they will enact the policy change. This study disputes findings in existing literature and contributes to our understanding of change in schools by recognizing that principals play significant roles in change at the school level.

<p> The purpose of this mixed method study was to increase understanding of the essential elements that accelerate or decelerate <i>global hybrid team effectiveness,</i> building upon knowledge to date in this area. By starting with the qualitative phase and then moving into the quantitative phase, the study attempted to identify essential elements of global team effectiveness in a case study situation with global hybrid teams from a single organization. This was done by interviewing members from six teams; then gauging team effectiveness through use of an already validated and reliable survey; and, finally, testing key themes that emerged with a survey developed by the researcher to further validate global team effectiveness <i> accelerators</i> and <i>decelerators.</i> The study utilizes the <i>McKinsey 7-S Model</i> as part of its framework for capturing and analyzing data. Pulling together findings from the qualitative and quantitative phases, the study proposes that a global hybrid team may be the best choice for an organization to utilize when the following conditions exist: (a) the team has been tasked with a major deliverable which is critical to the future success of the organization and (b) the team will exist for a longer period of time, approximately 18 months to three years. The study also proposes a model for accelerating global hybrid team effectiveness through the use of <i> Global Working behaviors.</i> This study proposes that a new set of behaviors, Global Working behaviors, must be understood, utilized, and developed in global hybrid teams in order to accelerate effective team functioning. <i>Global Working,</i> while firmly rooted in cross-cultural understanding, moves beyond a focus on developing cross-cultural understanding skills into a more mature and widespread realm of behaviors, named in this study as Global Working behaviors. These behaviors are not simply exhibited by team members, but may fall to the team leader, the senior leadership team, or the functional manager in order to fully support global team effectiveness. The findings from this research indicate that organizations utilizing global hybrid teams must take care to accelerate effective team functioning by either minimizing or eliminating decelerators of global team effectiveness or accelerating global team effectiveness. </p>

<p> European and US companies, who desire to expand from a domestic-oriented focus to a more international mind-set, must undergo significant organizational transformation. Whether the transformation results in the company becoming internationally oriented, a complete transnational organization or anywhere in-between, one of the key components in the transformation process is developing a strategy that is outwardly focused from its natural domestic markets. To develop and execute said strategy, the utilization of human capital resources might be required that the company itself may not possess. Literature review has supported the concept that when European or US companies incorporate foreign nationals on the Board of Directors (BOD), the development and execution of international expansion strategies will increase the probability of reaching their respective strategic objectives. However, literature research is silent as to whether the inclusion of foreign nationals on the BOD of South American companies would result in the comparable results as experienced by European and US companies. This research study will begin to explore if a broader set of theoretical concepts could be applied to publicly traded Chilean companies and through future studies to publicly traded South American domiciled companies. Through an engaged scholarship approach, Resource Dependency Theory will be utilized as the lens through which to present the theoretical and practical applications for the BOD of publicly traded Chilean-domiciled companies to consider when developing international expansion strategies outside of Chile. </p>

<p> It has become increasingly more difficult for organizations to hire and retain qualified staff. In order to satisfy this need and meet the competition for talented staff, organizations will be required to develop effective employee attraction and retention strategies. The ability to compete for and retain talented staff will depend in part on the organizations ability to identify this need and successfully develop and implement a plan. Further intensifying this talent acquisition need is the current workforce demographics comprising a large number of baby boomers that are eligible to retire and will be leaving the workforce in the immediate future. Demand for talent will dramatically change the demographics of the workforce. This study identified and examined factors that positively influence the attraction and retention of quality staff for organizations. These factors include employee commitment, trust, communication, and support programs. Additionally, this study examined the practices of the Office of Personnel Management that provides guidance to the federal government agencies on talent acquisition and retention programs to determine the strategies they use to manage this staffing need crisis. This study identifies talent attraction and retention strategies organizations can develop to manage this talent sustainability issue. The findings of this study apply across organizations both public and private.</p>