Increasing demands for accountability in educational programming have resulted in more frequent calls for program evaluation activity in educational organizations. Many organizations include conducting program evaluations as part of the job responsibilities of program staff. Cooperative Extension is a national system offering non-formal educational programs through land grant universities. Many Extension services require non-formal educational program evaluations be conducted by its locally-based educators. Research on evaluation practice has focused primarily on the evaluation efforts of professional, external evaluators. The evaluation work of program staff that have many responsibilities including program evaluation has received little attention. This study examined how non-formal educators in Cooperative Extension use the results of their program evaluation efforts and what factors influence that use. A conceptual framework adapted from the evaluation use literature guides the examination of how evaluation characteristics, organizational characteristics and stakeholder involvement influence four types of evaluation use; instrumental use, conceptual use, persuasive use and process use. Factor analysis indicates ten types of evaluation use practiced by non-formal educators. Of the variables examined, stakeholder involvement is most influential followed by evaluation characteristics and organizational characteristics. The research implications from the study include empirical confirmation of the framework developed by previous researchers as well as the need for further exploration of potentially influencing factors. Practical implications include delineating accountability and program improvement tasks within Extension in order to improve the results of both. There is some evidence that evaluation capacity building efforts may be increasing instrumental use by educators evaluating their own programs. Non-formal educational organizations are encouraged to involve stakeholders in all levels of evaluation work as one means to increase use of evaluation findings. / Ph. D.

The steady increase of racial and ethnic diversity in public universities has provided student leaders with many challenges. However, little is known about the effects of racial and ethnic diversity on the development of these student leaders. This study aims to evaluate the effects of racial and ethnic diversity in college student organizations on the development of student leaders and the perceived value of such diversity on their development. The sample consists of 833 student leaders from Florida's ten public universities who completed online surveys. The questions asked were designed to evaluate their past and present leadership roles and skills, exposure to ethnic and racial diversity on their campus (specifically in student organizations), and the perceived influence of racial and ethnic diversity on their leadership skills and career preparation. The results of the study show there is a positive relationship between membership in a diverse student organization and the development of leadership skills. The findings also reveal that the leadership skills learned from this exposure are expected to better prepare students for their careers upon graduation.

Ces dernières années, le Vietnam a rejoint de nombreuses associations économiques de commerce international, en particulier l’organisation mondiale du commerce en 2007. Cela a permis à un grand nombre d’entreprises multinationales de s’implanter dans ce pays. Ce développement s’est traduit par une augmentation de la concurrence dans les ressources humaines. En conséquence, la question de la fidélité des salariés devient une problématique importante pour les responsables des ressources humaines.Il est impossible de réussir au Vietnam sans comprendre le contexte social, historique et culturel dans lequel les entreprises agissent. Une bonne connaissance de la culture nationale et organisationnelle pourrait fournir une meilleure compréhension de leurs influences sur l’intention de rester des salariés dans leur entreprise. La problématique de cette recherche est « Quelles sont les dimensions culturelles organisationnelles qui interviennent sur l’intention de rester des salariés dans leur entreprise vietnamienne ?». L’objectif est donc de mesurer l’influence de la culture organisationnelle sur l’intention de rester des salariés. Une enquête par questionnaires a été réalisée en 2014 auprès de 2000 salariés travaillant dans 30 entreprises informatiques vietnamiennes. 734 questionnaires complets ont été retournés.Les données analysées par les logiciels SPSS et AMOS ont permis de tester les relations entre les variables de notre modèle.Les résultats confirment que (1) la culture du clan est la valeur culturelle dominante dans les entreprises vietnamiennes ; (2) la culture du clan, la culture de l’adhocratie, la culture de la hiérarchie, l’identification au groupe et l’identification organisationnelle constituent les principaux motifs de l’intention de rester des salariés ; (3) la satisfaction au travail et l’implication affective jouent un rôle médiateur dans la relation entre la culture organisationnelle et l’intention de rester dans l’entreprise. / In recent years, Vietnam has joined many international trade associations, particularly the Word Trade Organization in 2007. This has allowed a large number of multinational companies to set up operations in this country. This development leads to a high competition in terms of human resources. As a result, the employees’ loyalty becomes an important issue for human resources managers.It is impossible to succeed in Vietnam without understanding the culture and the social, historical, political context in which the enterprises operate. A good knowledge of national and organizational culture could provide a better understanding of their influence on the employees’ intention to stay in the company.The main question of this research is “What are the organizational culture’s dimensions that impact the employees’ intention to stay in Vietnamese companies?”. The aim is to measure the influence of organizational culture on the employees’ intention to stay. A survey with 2000 employees working in 30 Vietnamese high-technology enterprises was carried out in 2014. 734 complete questionnaires were returned.The data analyzed by the SPSS and AMOS software allowed us to test the relationships between the variables of our model. The results confirm that (1) the clan culture is the dominant cultural value in Vietnamese enterprises; (2) the clan culture, the adhocracy culture, the culture hierarchy, the identification with group and organizational identification are the main reasons for the employees’ intention to stay; (3) job satisfaction and affective involvement play a mediating role in the relationship between organizational culture and the intention to stay in their enterprise.