School-aged children's nutritional needs have changed from a 1946 underweight and undernourished population to rapidly increasing numbers of overweight and obese children with associated health complications. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore leadership practices of state and system school nutrition professionals. By obtaining information regarding the past and present practices of school nutrition professionals, this researcher strove to provide insight into best practices for future leaders. Electronic mail messages linked to Kouzes and Posner's (1995) self-reporting leadership practices survey were sent to 194 Tennessee school nutrition professionals (53 state directors and 141 system supervisors). The survey had a response rate of 40.7%. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyze responses from the survey's participants. Findings of the study provided a reflection of current school nutrition professionals' leadership practices and a demographic profile of school nutrition professionals. School nutrition professionals tend to have exemplary leadership skills as measured by the LPI compared to Kouzes-Posner mean scores. Of the nutrition professionals, 68% reported plans to retire in 10 or fewer years. Current school nutrition professionals primarily come from the ranks of existing school instructional personnel. A majority of the school supervisors held associate or bachelor degrees. State directors tended to have degrees at masters or doctorate level. A small number had postsecondary professional training in nutrition and disease. Over half had some type of training in nutrition. The findings of the study resulted in several suggestions for the school nutrition professional of the future including creation of specialized degree programs and internships at the post secondary level to train future candidates for the job as school nutrition professionals. Today's school nutrition professionals' postsecondary curriculum content could be lacking essential nutrition content area and might not be reflective of the current school population's nutritional risks, needs, and best practices of preventions and/or treatments.

The use of the Internet has grown substantially, especially since the late 1990s. Businesses are relying increasingly on the Internet and intranet as tools to promote productivity. Use of the Internet has several implications for institutions of higher education. Some of the issues institutions are faced with include legal liability for defamatory postings and sexually explicit materials, monitoring versus privacy, motivations to abuse Internet privileges, and use of the Internet to create a corporate culture. Institutions of higher education need to consider how the Internet is being used and how it should be used when acceptable use policies are being formulated. The purpose of this quantitative study was to gain an understanding of perceptions about acceptable use of the Internet by employees at work, attitudes about personal use of the Internet during working hours, and the knowledge and effectiveness of an acceptable use policy within the context of institutions of higher education. The data gathered could be used as a foundation for an effective, progressive acceptable use policy for higher education. The data for the research were gathered from December, 2005 through January of 2006. Six 4-year institutions were surveyed. The study revealed older employees responded that the use of the Internet at work as not acceptable, while younger employees, faculty members and respondents with more Internet experience or more hours of overtime indicated that personal use was acceptable. The study identified significant differences in self-reported use of the Internet, both at home and at work. Additionally, a general lack of knowledge existed regarding an institutional Internet acceptable use policy. The results of the study were applicable to the formulation of policy for institutions of higher education.

The purpose of this research was to examine the role of instructional technology resource teachers (ITRTs) within Virginia's public school divisions focusing on how ITRTs used their time throughout the school year to integrate technology into the curriculum. Based on data from surveys of current ITRTs, the researcher investigated further to find relationships, if any, among the professional and educational backgrounds and work calendar of these teachers and their responses to their actual role. The study also addressed training that the ITRTs have received to assist them in their job duties and explored the participants' perceptions of their roles as ITRTs. Data were collected through the administration of an online survey sent to 1,199 ITRTs in 133 school divisions (districts) in Virginia. The response rate was 82% or 983 returns. The data were analyzed and presented using a tabular format along with a brief description. Based on the findings, 40.9% of the respondents listed Instructional Technology Resource Teacher as their official job title. The majority of respondents held master's degrees and teacher's licenses. Respondents reported that 95% were full-time ITRTs. Most worked on a 10- or 11-month work calendar. The findings showed that instructional technology resource teachers were assisting teachers somewhat with technology integration, but the time spent on solving software (64.8%) and hardware (53.3%) problems remains a concern. The majority stated that they had received training from their school divisions. The analysis showed that only 1.6% of the respondents had no training. Respondents overwhelmingly agreed that the most effective way to meet each school's instructional technology needs is to have one full-time instructional technology resource teacher in each school. Respondents stated there was not enough time allotted for teachers to plan for technology in the classroom and that there were insufficient funds for hardware and software needed for implementing technology into the classroom. Most agreed that support from school division administrators are assisting teachers in successfully integrating technology into the classroom and the majority of respondents disagreed that Standards of Learning (SOL) prompt teachers to use technology as a daily instructional tool.

The purpose of this study was to determine if East Tennessee State University provides its employees appropriate financial planning services. In particular, it is unknown to what degree employees of East Tennessee State University have actively engaged in financial planning. The research was conducted during June and July, 2005. Data were gathered by surveying faculty, staff, and retirees of the university. Ten percent of the population responded to the study. The survey instrument covered the areas of retirement, other financial planning services, and attitudes toward financial planning. The results of the data analysis gave insight into what degree employees of East Tennessee State University have actively engaged in financial planning. For example, over 20% of the respondents encouraged employees to start early in order to achieve the benefit of time value of money. Fifteen percent of the respondents suggested financial planning workshops be offered on a more frequent basis. Approximately 10% of the respondents preferred an instructor to be independent, instead of a financial salesperson. The study provided an increase in the body of knowledge on financial planning for the ETSU employee and established a historical database for the various programs offered within the ETSU system.

<p>This dissertation investigates the effects of ethnic resources generated by an immigrant group’s concentration in self-employment and a geographic area, and class resources—education in particular—on the self-employment outcomes of immigrant business, which has been a lasting interest from the early days of immigrant entrepreneurship research. To examine the effects of immigrants’ concentration and education, ordinary least squares regression and hierarchical linear regression for cross-classified random effects models are fit to each of the 26 minority and white immigrant groups in the 33 Canadian CMA’s (Census Metropolitan Areas). Using the 2006 Census, the dissertation examines (1) the effects of immigrants’ REC (Residential and Entrepreneurial Concentration) in CMA’s; (2) the interactions between REC and reactive ethnicity—an enhanced awareness of one’s ethnicity due to disadvantage in the host society; and (3) the effects of education on self-employment propensity and income. Unlike previous studies which examined one or a few immigrant or minority groups in one or a few locales, the dissertation provides empirical evidence on the effects of REC and education on self-employment outcomes, based on a wide range of immigrant groups in Canadian CMA’s. The findings indicate that positive effects of REC as well as education on self-employment outcomes exist, but are limited to increasing the self-employment propensity of some immigrant groups. The effects of REC and education on self-employment income, however, are found to be generally insignificant. The study also provides the first empirical evidence that the positive effects of some types of REC become more positive as the reactive ethnicity of an immigrant group increases, as reactive ethnicity theory predicts.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

While several U. S. firms have invested in Knowledge Management (KM) tools and software, it has become apparent that investments must be made in additional facets of KM, such as knowledge sharing (KS), thought by many researchers to be the most important component of KM. Of the two types of KS, explicit and tacit, the sharing of tacit knowledge has been shown to contribute the most to an organization’s performance. However, since tacit knowledge is difficult to both convey and acquire, this unshared tacit knowledge may ultimately harm an organization when, without the appropriate knowledge, individuals cannot effectively perform their professional responsibility. Although research has been conducted on the motivators that contribute to the sharing of tacit knowledge, the research has been conflicting. These inconsistencies could conceivably stem from measuring KS as a single factor rather than as separate components. The purpose of this study was two-fold, first to discover what motivators contributed to the sharing of tacit knowledge and second, to discover whether the sharing of knowledge when solicited differed from the sharing of knowledge when not solicited. Utilizing the Theory of Reasoned Action and Self-determination Theory as well as measuring the transfer of knowledge through externalization, as expressed by the SECI model, three research questions and 14 different hypotheses contributed to a survey instrument resulting in 370 usable survey responses. Employing confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, analysis of the data confirmed that a significant difference existed between the solicited and unsolicited sharing of tacit knowledge. This study found that measures for external, integrated, and intrinsic motivation differed among the two situational constructs of knowledge sharing. In addition, the study confirmed that a difference occurred between motivators and the two types of sharing when the sharing was mediated by a favorable attitude toward sharing.

This thesis examines wage differentials between male and female faculty salaries at Western Kentucky University. A human capital model of salary determination is examined by using regression analysis on relevant personal and job characteristics of faculty members. A large portion of the wage gap between men and women is explained through differences in the personal and job characteristics. A portion of the wage gap remains unexplained, however, the probability of discrimination playing a substantial role in salary is very small.

The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico awakened communities to the increased risk of large-scale damage along their coastlines presented by new technology in deep water drilling. Normal accident theory and high reliability theory offer a framework through which to view the 2010 spill that features predictive criteria linked to a qualitative assessment of risk presented by technology and organizations. The 2010 spill took place in a sociotechnical system that can be described as complex and tightly coupled, and therefore prone to normal accidents. However, the entities in charge of managing this technology lacked the organizational capacity to safely operate within this sociotechnical system.

In the hospitality industry, women with children are in a unique position. Government deregulation of corporate labor practices, the exit of manufacturing overseas, and the rise of the service sector economy in the United States has contributed to the development of a surplus, low-wage labor force. Tourism is one subset of this labor force that deserves further attention. Although there is substantial literature on the structure of low-wage labor in tourism economies (Herod and Aguiar, 2006), as well as the impacts on work-family balance (Liladrie, 2009), a less explored topic is the impacts hospitality labor has on mothering. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of women with children who 1) work in the hospitality industry and 2) whose work is located in the tourism districts of Seattle, Washington and New Orleans, Louisiana. The investigator used semi-structured, qualitative interviews that asked women about the decisions they make for their children, how their work in hospitality influences their parenting decisions, and how they assign meaning to their roles as mothers. The investigator found that women in the hospitality industry do not separate work and motherhood as two separate spheres. Work is a mothering strategy. The decisions they make for their children are characterized by mobility, particularly through relocation. Finally, this study found that women who work in the hospitality industry navigate various “markers” that stigmatize them in the workplace. The investigator calls this “motherhood markers;” forms of stigma that intensify emotional labor in their workplaces, can create tension with employers and co-workers and, in some cases, termination of their employment.

The rapid growth of Louisiana's coastal restoration science and technology assets is paralleled by the growth of business resources to fulfill myriad project needs. Many institutions and organizations in Louisiana seek to further develop the state's research, education, engineering and related restoration assets into a globally competitive set of industries with exportable expertise and products that help the state capitalize on its water challenges. Globally, similar efforts are identified (and often branded) as water technology innovation clusters (or more simply water clusters). This paper explores the phenomenon of the development of water clusters by public-private partnerships and initiatives, nationally and internationally, in a comparative analysis with Louisiana.