COMPARISON OF HIRING STRATEGIES OF ORTHODONTIC PRIVATE PRACTITIONERS By Steven C. Petritz, D.D.S. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Dentistry at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2018 Thesis Director: Bhavna Shroff, D.D.S., M.Dent.Sc., M.P.A. Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Orthodontics Program Director Purpose: Evaluate factors that influence hiring outcomes of clinical and non-clinical staff in orthodontic private practices. Methods: Orthodontists (n=1968) were surveyed regarding their hiring methods and outcomes. Responses were summarized using descriptive statistics. Chi-square tests were used to compare between hiring strategies and outcomes. Results: Survey response rate was 23% (n = 452 responses). 65% received 1-10 applicants and 54% utilized online job sites. Online job sites was associated with increased number of applicants (p<0.0001) and number of days to fill the position (p<0.0001). Forty-seven percent of respondents used the internet to screen candidates. Sixty-two percent of respondents hired based on personality. Fifty-seven percent of respondents plan to use employee referrals for future hiring needs. Conclusion: Online job sites accounted for the majority of the most recent hires. Orthodontists indicated that their future preference to be employee referrals. Social and professional relationships may lead to a more efficient hiring process.

Leaders of third-party logistics companies face a critical talent shortage because of the global deficiency of supply-chain professionals. The lack of trained supply-chain professionals negatively affects business and market performance. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by third-party logistics hiring managers to recruit supply-chain talent to meet industry demands. The resource-based view theory was used as a lens for this study. Data were collected from 5 Pennsylvania third-party logistics hiring managers from interviews, organizational documents, and company websites. Member checking occurred after transcription and summarization of the interview data. Data analysis occurred using Yin's 5-step process of compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding data. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) strategies for recruitment resourcing, (b) strategies to address market drivers, (c) interview method strategies, and (d) strategies for determining skill requirements. The findings and recommendations resulting from this study might be valuable to senior management, human resource leaders, and hiring managers for creating strategic plans to address recruitment to alleviate supply-chain talent shortages. The implications for positive social change include the potential for business leaders to decrease unemployment, produce greater local economic stability, and improve the standard of living of community residents.

Employees who demean and degrade coworkers cost organizations billions of dollars every year. Workplace bullying is a business problem that affects up to 15% of employees, and little empirical research is available to establish the extent of bullying in academia. Bullies flourish in decentralized structures, and universities can be particularly susceptible to bullying behavior because of their decentralized structures of teaching and research that promote the growth of microclimates in segregated silos, from laboratories to small departments. The purpose of this multiple-case, census sample study was to explore the cost-reduction strategies that university human resource (HR) leaders use to manage the consequences of workplace bullying across the 7 universities in Ireland. The conceptual framework focused on power, culture, and leadership, which are central to the discourse on workplace bullying. Data analysis involved using the interpreted interview data that all participants verified for accuracy through the member checking process. Seven themes emerged as the most important to reduce the cost of workplace bullying. Participants identified policy, informal versus formal procedures, and cost as the most important themes pertaining to workplace bullying in their organization. The findings of this study will be a source of valuable information to HR leaders in all Irish universities. In addition, the findings have implications for theory and practice that may help Irish university HR leaders promote positive social change by enabling them to manage the financial and human cost of workplace bullying in Irish universities.

The collapse of construction companies in the Nigerian housing sector continues unabated, even in the face of 17 million housing deficits. Many construction company leaders believe that lack of business opportunities and the recent world economic decline have been responsible for the collapse. This situation has resulted in limited business activities for 80% of the Nigerian construction companies. This multiple case study explored the strategies used by leaders to maximize profitability in the Nigerian housing sector. The RBV and Porter's model of competition provided the conceptual framework for the study. Findings were based on detailed reviews of the policies and procedures of the companies, coupled with semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 5 leaders of construction companies that have successfully completed and currently involved in several housing projects in 2 southwestern states in Nigeria. The research question examined the strategies construction company leaders used to maximize profitability in the Nigerian housing sector. Four themes representing strategy categories emerged from thematic analysis: planning, human capital development, leadership factor, and organizational location. The key outcomes from the findings include the need to plan with the available resources, employ and invest in competent staff, increase leadership influence, and improve knowledge of the business environment. The implication for social change includes a potential reduction in unemployment in Nigeria. Profitable organizations will construct more affordable housing through collaboration with public authority, and more low-income earners will be able to afford to live in a decent environment, thus reducing the populations of slum dwellers in the country.

Retention issues have been a challenge for human resources (HR) leaders for years. Organization HR leaders face employee retention challenges that lead to the loss of talented employees and a decline in the organization's quality of service, which negatively affects profitability. Based on Schultz's human capital theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies HR leaders used to retain employees. Data collection included company archival documentation review and face-to-face semistructured interviews with 11 purposefully selected HR leaders from 3 banks in the northern region of St. Lucia. Data analysis included using Yin's 5-step method, coding the transcribed interviews to identify relevant themes, member checking to strengthen the reliability and validity of the interpretations of participants' responses, and review of company documents. The 5 main themes revealed were strategies of employee retention, human capital development, culture of engagement, succession planning, and leader-member exchange, which affects employees' commitment and organizational profitability. Human resources leaders in organizations may use the findings of this study to develop effective strategies to retain employees, which could lead to individual achievement. Social change implications include the importance of investing in human capital that may lead to succession planning to promote business sustainability and economic growth in St. Lucia and other countries.

Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing segments of information technology. The Commonwealth of Virginia has 30,000 cyber-related jobs open because of the lack of skilled candidates. The study is necessary because some business managers lack strategies for hiring cybersecurity professionals for U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contracts. The purpose of this case study was to explore strategies business managers in DoD contracting companies used to fill cybersecurity positions. The conceptual framework used for this study was the organizational learning theory. A purposeful sample of 8 successful business managers with cybersecurity responsibilities working for U.S. DoD contracting companies that successfully hired cybersecurity professionals in Hampton Roads, VA participated in the study. Data collection included semistructured interviews and a review of job postings from the companies represented by the participants. Coding, content, and thematic analysis were the methods used to analyze data. Within-methods triangulation was used to add accuracy to the analysis. At the conclusion of the data analysis, two main themes emerged: maintaining contractual requirements and a strong recruiting process. Contractual requirements guided how hiring managers hired cybersecurity personnel and executed the contract. A strong hiring process added efficiency to the hiring process. The findings of the study may contribute to positive social change by encouraging the recruitment and retention of cybersecurity professionals. Skilled cybersecurity professionals may safeguard businesses and society from Internet crime, thereby encouraging the safe exchange and containment of data.

Nurse recruitment is a challenge for long-term care (LTC) leaders. Some owners of LTC businesses lack knowledge of how to attract, market, and hire qualified nurses to help ensure success. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the methods and strategies LTC leaders used to recruit nurses. The target population consisted of leaders of 3 LTC facilities who were responsible for recruiting nurses. This selection was based on findings that organization leaders experienced a downsizing of more than 20% of their personnel. The conceptual framework was the motivation-hygiene theory. Working conditions were influenced by Herzberg's 2-factor principles of job dissatisfaction. I focused on analyzing the participant data, public documents, and performance outcomes that demonstrated the effectiveness of participant recruitment strategies. Data were collected from semistructured interviews. I compared the motivational hygiene theory factors that influenced employee job satisfaction and dissatisfaction identified with the conceptual framework and any new studies published since beginning my study. Results of data coding and analysis revealed 3 major themes: communicating job descriptions to new LTC recruits, hiring for nurse–position fit to address turnover, and making the position attractive by offering competitive wages and benefits. Successful recruiting strategies included ensuring nurse position fit, contacting qualified candidates, and work conditions designed to meet candidates' needs, expectations, and requirements. Results of this study might contribute to social change by providing recruitment strategies to ensure quality nursing services in LTC and strategies necessary to sustain business operations.

The telephone-banking channel, delivered through call centres, has become an integral part of the distribution mix of retail financial institutions. To get the greatest competitive advantage from this channel, the strategic orientation, structural and behavioural aspects of the call centre must be aligned with its operational-service and sales-performance objectives. Unfortunately, while considerable managerial effort is expended developing call centres, often their performance results remain uncertain or uncommunicated. There are indications also that financial institutions should not underestimate active market orientation benefits; innovative, strategic-thinking and progressive structures; flexible, empathic leadership, and, valuing supportive human resource strategies. Our survey of Australian deposit-taking institutions investigates the extent to which strategic and behavioural aspects are aligned with its operational-service and sales-performance objectives. Specifically, managerial approaches to IT development, competitive positioning, leadership delegation, market research attitudes and product orientation were considered. Approaches to trust, conflict, morale and reward, and, key performance indicator (KPI) choices were sought also. Results show sales performance is positively related to more externally focussed strategic orientations. Reinforcing the importance of innovative human resource practices, performance is also related positively to psychosocial climate in general and employee reward and morale, in particular. This extension of management theory urges financial service leaders to actively contemplate one of its most important resources, people. Further, the survey itself indicated that while the majority of institutions continue to use operationally based key performance indicators, such as minimum call duration, the ability of the call centre to generate sales revenue is also being recognised. In summary, given the size and potential of the telephone-banking channel, this research encourages further, urgent exploration of strategic relationships among the channel, its market, performance measures and comprehensive people-centred HR strategies aimed at developing high employee trust, and satisfaction.

<p>Studiens övergripande syfte var att undersöka några chefers attityder till en personalsatsning ämnad för att uppnå bättre arbetsklimat och hälsa i en organisation, vidare var syftet att med utgångspunkt ur dessa chefers attityder till personalsatsningen undersöka möjligheter till hur personalsatsningen och dess verksamhet skulle kunna få ett starkare genomslag i den aktuella organisationen. Studien presenterar inledningsvis en forskningsöversikt över de delar som verksamheten skulle kunna beskrivas utifrån, där behandlas begreppen fritid, gemenskap, hälsofrämjande, engagemang, ledarens roll som förebild och normbildare i företaget liksom det för studien centrala begreppet attityder. Studien är en fallstudie i ett av Nordens ledande företag inom bygg och anläggning där kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med åtta chefer inom det aktuella företaget för att samla in det empiriska materialet. Resultatet visade att de intervjuade chefernas syn på personalsatsningen och dess verksamhet är positiv, dock skiljer sig deras syn på och deras faktiska engagemang i verksamheten och dess aktiviteter åt. Resultatet presenteras i form av fyra övergripande områden: perspektiv på personalsatsningen, engagemang och delaktighet, framtidsmöjligheter och attityder till verksamheten. De attityder till verksamheten som framkom bland cheferna under intervjuerna kan vidare delas in i tre kategorier: ”engagerade”, ”distanserade” och ”sansade”. Inga slutsatser har kunnat dras ur denna undersökning, men förslag till fortsatta tankeområden har lagts fram under slutsatser sist i uppsatsen.</p> / <p>The overall purpose with this paper was to examine attitudes towards a human resources investment among top managers. In other words, how did the managers look at the investment and what did they think about its activities. Moreover, the purpose of the paper was to attempt to find possible ways to get the investment into a higher level of success within the current company. By way of introduction, the paper begins with a research summary of conceivable ways to describe the investment containing four concepts; leisure, spirit of togetherness, health promotion and engagement. Then, the matter of the leader has been discussed in terms of normative and to be a person for someone to model themselves on within an organization. The theoretical framework of references has been finished with a review about attitudes, which represent another central concept in this paper. The empirical part derived from a case study where qualitative interviews were initiated with eight top managers within one of the largest Nordic building and construction companies. Research findings showed that attitudes towards the human resource investment were positive in general, but the level of engagement with the human resource investment did vary among the managers. The research findings have been introduced through four main headlines; perspectives on the investment, engagement and participation, future prospects and attitudes towards the activities. Moreover, the attitudes which emerged among the managers have been divided into three categories;”engaged”,”distanced” and”level-headed”. No conclusions have been drawn from this paper, but some proposals that could be considered have been suggested.</p>

<p>The increased attention to performance measurements is evident in both private and public sector organizations and among both academics and practitioners. Although there is a strong belief in the possibilities of using measurements for managing organizations, both academics and practitioners have questioned measurements potential. This thesis takes part in debating the potentiality of performance measurements by attending to the development, use and consequences of non-financial indicators that are considered a specific form of performance measurements.</p><p>When investigating the development of indicators, it became evident that several of the new indicators developed proved to be reformulations of non-financial measurements already used within the organizations before the development work. What had changed was primarily the meaning ascribed to the measurements. As a consequence of this ‘re-cycling’ of measurements, it is concluded that the meaning given to specific non-financial indicators change over time. The present investigation also reveals that three shifting rationales are informing the development of indicators. This finding contributes with insights into the construction of indicators and how the link between indicators and action are conceived and established in a development process.</p><p>A main finding of the investigation concerns how indicators are used. In contrast to previous studies, the results show that indicators can have a negative impact on performance unless the indicators are used in a sophisticated way. Based on these results it is argued that it is insufficient to attend solely to <i>if</i> indicators are used, i.e. greater attention needs to be paid to the question of <i>how</i> they are used. The investigation also presents evidence suggesting that the often used adage “what gets measured gets managed” needs to be revised. It is argued that measuring is not a means to activate the organization <i>per se</i>. Rather, measurements support those issues that are already mobilized within the organization.</p><p>In conclusion, this investigation suggests that the potentiality of indicators depends on the meaning ascribed to indicators, how indicators are assumed to link to action, how indicators are used and how indicators are related to other organizational activities.</p>