Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2017, Management

According to Gallup (Adkins, 2015), less than 33% of the U.S. workforce feel engaged at work. Much of the traditional research on engagement as well as commitment has been on external drivers that are not personal, e.g. compensation, training, sharing of the company's vision and strategy. This study joins the growing body of work on antecedents that are personal by exploring the impact of purpose. One of the key findings is that senior leaders can identify with their personal purpose and recognize how it aligns with their company's higher purpose, albeit in two distinctly different ways. This alignment is either through a task focused or socio-emotional lens, affecting how they make decisions around engagement, commitment and life satisfaction. This study also empirically demonstrates that companies can increase engagement and commitment by not only creating and sharing a company higher purpose vision - one that is about more than profits, but by helping employees identify their personal purpose. Employees with a personal purpose are even more engaged than when they perceive their company to have a higher purpose - with the greatest impact being when both exist. The future focused and altruistic elements of purpose are also components of a transformational leadership style. Transformational and transactional orientation indices demonstrate that individuals and companies tend to have an orientation towards either being transformational or transactional in nature. This research demonstrates that purpose does matter as well as contributing to the extant literature on motivation, self-determination and the relational climate around sharing a company vision.

BA, Kent State University, 2016, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

Within the general field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) has gained much attention in recent years due to its emphasis on language training for job performance. This thesis is a creative project of designing EOP lessons for an elastomer technician training institute in the Middle Eastern region—where English is taught as a foreign language. The EOP lessons in this thesis highlight the key features of EOP design as well as academic and technical knowledge in the elastomer industry.

PHD, Kent State University, 2015, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies

In this study, I addressed a gap in literature about purposes for social studies teacher education concerning how experiences contribute to the development of pre-service social studies teachers' purposes for teaching. I undertook an instrumental case study of four pre-service social studies teachers and two social studies teacher educators in a social studies teacher education program at a mid-sized, Midwestern state university. The participants' position in the program enabled them to speak to all three of the research questions. I approached the data through a social constructivist lens, which viewed the construction of individualized meaning and beliefs as occurring through a process of experiences in a social context. I collected data from three face-to-face semi-structured interviews with each of the participants, participants' reflective writing and journaling, written artifacts created by the participants, observations of the participants' teacher education classes and student teaching, and detailed information about their teacher education programs. I analyzed the data using narrative analysis and compared across cases in an effort to identify how experiences contributed to the development of their purposes for teaching social studies. The findings of the study center on pre-service teachers' experiences of teacher education, the unique incorporation of ideas from their teacher education, the negotiation of tension in student teaching, and the confluence of these experiences as part of a “purpose formation process.” These findings have implications for improving teacher education programs, in terms of both program structure and curriculum, and improving classroom practice.

Doctor of Ministry , Ashland University, 2025, Doctor of Ministry Program

The purpose of this project was to create a resource for church leaders that described how the church can exhibit the Christ-like love for others that humanity was created to express. Fifteen pastors, church staff, and denominational leaders from the Brethren Church read the resource and evaluated its content by responding to a quantitative and qualitative survey. The panelists' responses suggested the resource effectively connected the church's primary purpose with God's relational nature, humanity's creation in God's image, and Christ's work of restoring the love and oneness lost in the Fall.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Psychology/Industrial-Organizational

Work motivation and meaningful work are important organizational constructs, both predicting an array of individual and organizational outcomes and operating as a fundamental human need. The complication is that both constructs are suffering from disorganization and construct proliferation. Motivation has many frameworks and measures without an overarching framework. Meaningful work has an overarching conceptualization without standard frameworks or measures. Construct proliferation is problematic because it creates a fragmented research landscape, broadly contributing to the theory and replication crisis in psychological science. The purpose of this dissertation, therefore, is to refine the construct space of motivation and meaningful work through the introduction of an integrated, hierarchical model of motivation and meaningful work. This integrated model aims to organize the conceptual and psychometric content of the targets of motivational processes, desired end-state representations (i.e., meaningful work experiences, self-determination theory's basic psychological needs, human values at work, and goal representations including implicit motives and explicit goals), along two fundamental dimensions of psychological experience (i.e., relational and motivational orientations). This dissertation introduces the integrated model, establishes criteria for successful conceptual integration, and tests the integration with theoretical and exploratory empirical (i.e., multidimensional scaling, variable-centric, and person-centric) analyses across two independent data collections. The findings indicate that motivational end-states and meaningful work experiences may be more conceptually and empirically similar than previously thought. Specifically, results suggest that there may be conceptual and perceptual similarities across the end-state representations, but that the lived experiences of the end-states are more differentiated. Overall, it may be the cases that people ma (open full item for complete abstract)

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2024, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

Objectives: The 65 and older population is a growing population in the US. In this population there can be marked increases in isolation, loneliness, and depression. Polyvagal Theory holds that a greater sense of safety, security, and sense of engagement improves well-being. A key hypothesis stated that participation will lower self-report ratings of loneliness. Additional hypotheses included improving self-reported purpose in life and feelings of psychological safety. Methods/Design: The present dissertation is a quasi-experimental design, utilizing pre- and post-test measures comparing degree of loneliness, depression, purpose in life (PIL), and Neuroception of Psychological Safety Scale (NPSS) in a 6-week novel somatic-based intervention. Results: Sample consisted of 13 community-dwelling older adults (aged <65). Paired t-tests were used to determine significance of changes from pre- to post-intervention. Although no changes were statistically significant, results show small improvements in loneliness, no change in social engagement and compassion, and decrease in bodily sensations and purpose in life. Thematic analysis of participants'' weekly feedback was also conducted. Conclusion: This novel intervention contributes to an overall body of research in Polyvagal Theory practice and development of polyvagal interventions targeted at the specific community of adults 65 and older.

Doctor of Organization Development & Change (D.O.D.C.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Organization Development

This grounded theory research explores how individuals nominated by followers and peers as demonstrating exemplary leadership during adversity, specifically the COVID19 pandemic, experienced their leadership as a process. Of particular interest was understanding enabling and inhibiting factors and supports that would be helpful in future adversity contexts. The ability to adapt, grow and thrive in difficult circumstances has been discussed in prior literature including Post Traumatic Growth, Crucible Moments, and Growth Mindset. However, there is a paucity of research that looks at leaders specifically and what combinations of factors are enabling and inhibiting. Additionally, there is a lack of research regarding how leadership manifests as a process. A total of 17 interviews were conducted across industries ranging from hospitals to manufacturing to media to professional services. The narratives from these interviews were analyzed to develop a theoretical framework of exemplary leadership in adversity which shows the importance of three elements coming together to enable this experience in the form of an interdependent and regenerative system. These elements are Pre-adversity Preparedness, Disruptive Change Process and Post Adversity Growth, Learning and Adaption. An emergent model is presented as a Regenerative System of leadership defined by the concept of “Taking Care” of both business concerns and people concerns. The system existed as both restorative and regenerative in that it produced outcomes that exceeded conditions prior to the crisis and was described as transformative. Enabling subthemes of the system included previous experiences of the leader, pre-existing trusting relationships, adaptive human-centric and business-focused leader behaviors, leader-endorsed experimentation, defining moments of service, purpose, and change, leader supports, and personal and organizational growth, learning, and adaptation. These sub-themes demonstrated interdepend (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2023, Educational Administration

Within secondary education, there has been an increase in online enrollment of students who are at risk of dropping out of high school and being economically disadvantaged. This qualitative study analyzed ten participants' interviews based on what motivates them in the educational setting. Within the findings, themes of engagement in the classroom, a need for purpose within the educational process, and togetherness of being a part of the online community of their educational program set the educational plan for this educational institution. Proposed actions of this dissertation recommend a refocus on the Three E's of the educational setting (Engage, Educate, and Enrich) with the inclusion of the whole student approach and approaches based around Velez-Ibanez and Greenberg's Funds of Knowledge of understanding and engaging the student.

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2023, Honors Theses

Business is a vital part of American society, and the decisions made by businesses affect more than just the economy. Conscious Capitalism (CC) recognizes this important role, and it challenges businesses to operate in a responsible manner. That being said, CC understands the need to make a profit in order to succeed in a competitive market. This practice claims that by following four tenets of conscious business—conscious leadership, conscious culture, stakeholder orientation, and higher purpose—businesses attract customers and will experience increased profits over time. This study found that, while the gross profit margins of companies who practice CC were similar to those of their non-conscious counterparts on a year-to-year basis, CC companies did experience a greater increase in their gross profit margins over time.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Educational Studies

Civic purpose involves both students' attitudinal and behavioral commitments to social causes and is critical for our young generation to flourish as human beings and to withhold a healthy democracy in the current social climate. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relations among elementary students' social-, moral- self-concepts, civic competencies, and civic purpose in the context of a social studies curriculum. Digital Civic Learning (DCL), where students were immersed into virtual historical/social situations and discussed civic topics collaboratively, served as a learning context for students to demonstrate their civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions. The sample included 149 4th and 5th graders from two school districts in central Ohio. I developed a civic competencies coding scheme to examine students' levels of civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions demonstrated in their DCL participation, including argumentative writing, collaborative discussions, and self-recordings of civic discourse. The findings showed that students' social-, moral-, self-concepts were associated with civic purpose; students' civic competencies (knowledge, skills, dispositions) during DCL did not predict civic purpose and did not mediate the relations between self-concepts and civic purpose. However, students' moral self-concept mediated the association between civic knowledge and civic purpose, as well as between civic skills and civic purpose. The findings speak to the importance of nourishing early adolescents' moral self-concept in order for their civic competencies to be manifested as a form of civic purpose.

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2022, Educational Leadership

A mutually-collaborative phenomenological action research study, rooted in the organizational values of the Catholic Marianist tradition, which engages empowerment concepts and positive organization theories to create a framework for the evaluation and iterative improvement of student-employing organizations. This study addresses a lack of intentional connectivity within student-employing organizations at the University of Dayton, which results in an organization's inability to capitalize on the successes of their peers. Student employees participated in a series of surveys, focus groups, and interviews, by which qualitative and quantitative data was gathered and reviewed. The results provided insights into the construction of empowering spaces for student employees. Through the student voice, these insights were distilled to create a series of best practices, which have been formatted into documents which will allow organizations to leverage University-wide high performing elements to construct policy and procedures that most fully empower student employees. These documents are customized to the needs of the organization in such a way that they will facilitate the planning and development of next steps, allowing for inherently flexible, iterative, process change.

Doctor of Education, Miami University, 2022, Educational Leadership

Teachers are often more than just instructors of content material. They act as mentors to their students in classrooms, coaches to players on the field, and advisors to clubs. Teachers are community liaisons to local businesses, advocates for their schools' needs in times of crisis, and campaigners for school levies. Teachers frequently operate in many distinct roles, which allows them to interact with their students, school, and community to develop unique relationships. However, when teachers become parents and enroll their school-aged children in the district where they work, they add an additional role: parent-teacher. They become Little League coaches, scout leaders, and attend elementary school classroom parties. My work explored the relationships a parent-teacher develops and navigates as they become more enmeshed in the school community through raising their children in the school district where they work. I learned that the parent-teachers I studied create a multifaceted identity that coalesces so fully it becomes nearly impossible to tease out distinct roles. This occurs because their lived experiences are so deeply rooted in the context of their school community relationships.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, City and Regional Planning

Promoting walking trips improves public health and supports sustainable development. Researchers in public health and transportation fields have successfully tested several hypotheses on various determinants and benefits of walking trips. Recently, the research attention has shifted from such hypothesis tests to specific estimations on inherent characteristics of main predictors of interest. This dissertation conducts an in-depth inquiry into intrinsic walking characteristics, their relationships to health, and two essential confounding variables that control individuals' daily routines: i.e., work status and the built environment. This dissertation includes three interrelated essays, focusing on the value of walking to improve public health. It relies on the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data sets. I use various categorical analysis methods to relate variables of interest to health status. This dissertation uses the same data and analogous methods to attain a consistent research design. The first essay examines the inherent walking characteristics and walking benefits on health outcomes. Previous studies have revealed that walking trips for different purposes have different patterns. The present study categorizes walking trip records with five trip purposes (working, shopping, recreational, other, and non-home-based walking) and examines their relations to self-assessed health outcomes. The results show that walking trips with different trip purposes have various effects on health outcomes, and the health benefits mainly come from home-based walking trips. This suggests that interventions for walkable environments should be targeted to home-based commute and recreational trips and encourage people within, to, and from their neighborhoods with a purpose. The second essay explores another intrinsic characteristic and determinant of walking trips: walking bouts and built environment densities. Previous studies argue that health outcomes can be i (open full item for complete abstract)

MFIS, Kent State University, 2021, College of the Arts / School of Fashion

Fashion businesses today are progressively challenged by consumers to provide value beyond the latest design trends. With a multitude of brand choices available to them, consumers seek a narrative that makes them feel satisfied about their purchase. Consumers are searching for brands that help them live out their own social purpose through purchases that share aligning values of sustainability. The three overarching dimensions of sustainability are social, environmental and economic viability. However, without a leading purpose-driven narrative within a business, there is sometimes an inconsistency in aligning all three of these dimensions of sustainability. Small businesses are often the most flexible and innovative. They tend to come up with creative solutions to problems via novel business products, services, and practices. This thesis aims to investigate the strategies that small businesses use to balance the tensions in achieving the three types of sustainability goals. Data was collected through a critical literature review followed by a website content analysis. This data allows common attributes of these narrative-driven businesses to be determined within the quadruple bottom line theory. Of particular interest are “American Made” companies which address environmental concerns with practices such as up-cycling or recycling, and social concerns such as veterans' health and well-being. The Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) businesses analyzed, which have incorporated purpose-driven strategies, are Anne Cate, Sword and Plough, Alabama Chanin, Zero Waste Daniel, and United by Blue. These businesses were selected because they are United States-based fashion companies that incorporate practices that drive sustainability in their business model. From this information, a list of common attributes, best practices and tools was determined from the companies reviewed. The outcome produced a suggested business model for narrative-driven small businesses.

Doctor of Ministry , Ashland University, 2020, Doctor of Ministry Program

The purpose of this project was to impact the participants' commitment to obeying God's voice through a Marysville, OH based small group blended learning study of Israel's wilderness journey, conducted across seven sessions between February 23rd and June 7th, 2019. To measure its impact, participants completed pre and post-tests. This study most prominently impacted participants' understanding of how God's loving formation fuels our obedience to his voice.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2018, Psychology

Temporal distancing, the act of thinking about events or experiences from a broader time perspective, has been shown to improve well-being through reduced distress and avoidance as well as increased positive affect (Bruehlman-Senecal & Ayduk, 2015). The effect of temporal distancing on reduced avoidance suggests that it may be a useful strategy to adopt for goal pursuit, especially for students at risk for attrition (e.g., women in STEM). Participants were asked to identify a stressor and randomly assigned to detail the impact of it on their lives in either the near or distant future. Thinking about their stressor from the distant future increased major commitment only for women in STEM as revealed by post hoc contrasts. For these participants, the distant future perspective increased a focus on the transience of the stressor/stress reaction (impermanence) and their reasons for pursuing a degree in their major (purpose). However, purpose emerged as a unique mechanism through which temporal distancing affects major commitment for female STEM majors.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2018, Management

This dissertation explores and describes the role of meaningful purpose, mission, and future aspiration in effective and sustainable organizing. It examines Purposing-as-a-process: A collective, creative, inclusive and dynamic process that continuously gives life to collective meaning and aspirations. An initial study of twelve organizations led to the conceptualization of Purposing as encompassing five factors: competence development and recognition; autonomy support; relatedness and caring connections; meaning-making; and ability to tolerate uncertainty (CARMA model). The second study examined these five factors of Purposing, showing direct positive effects from each of the factors on innovative behaviors, organizational commitment, and passion for learning in the workplace. The third single-case study put texture to Purposing. Using a prospective theory building and future approach, phenomenological interviews resulted in six propositions and future aspirations that were consensually validated with participants. This is the first study—with empirical data from the real world—that studies and advances the concept not of Purpose, but Purposing. Organizations as living systems always need to be anticipating the future and thinking beyond the possible. Findings move beyond reifying and objectifying purpose as a “thing,” a “tool,” or a static event, and construe that Purposing is a relational experience—one that nurtures collective calling. The central contribution of this dissertation is a series of propositions for Purposing as a vehicle to foster intrinsic motivation that enables self-organizing capacities. Purposing, as a generative factor, has the potential to foster innovative behavior, organizational commitment, and a passion for learning.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2017, Management

What drives business leaders to pursue greater purpose in business? What motivates them to exercise compassion and caring in the workplace? Under what conditions do business leaders transform their organizations into “positive impact companies” committed to generating prosperity for all, achieving regenerative environmental outcomes, and improving human wellbeing? This exploratory research aims to uncover common elements of those business leaders who seek to create a positive impact through their work and through their organizations. It is based on a mixed-methods approach combining findings from three studies: an initial qualitative study based on interviews with 21 business owners and senior executives from a cross-section of industries; a survey-based quantitative study with 322 respondents consisting of business owners, senior executives and middle managers from a cross-section of industries; and a third qualitative study based on an additional 21 interviews across seven case study companies. It also incorporates inferences from interviews with 48 business owners and senior executives as part of the Quantum Leadership Project at the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. The overall findings suggest that the core of positive impact leadership resides in a shift in the mindset of leaders toward one of connectedness. Defined as a “consciousness of connectedness,” such a mindset and way of seeing the world begins with an awareness of how one's attitudes and actions impact all life on earth and future generations. The results of this study suggest that practices of connectedness - both personal and organizational – play an important role in the emergence of a consciousness of connectedness. The results also suggest a close correlation between several core indicators of a fundamental shift in consciousness about the role of business in society: shared values of human wellbeing, a common shared vision, an emphasis on collaboration and caring in (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2015, College of Sciences and Health Professions

Despite the fact that cervical cancer screening techniques have made this disease nearly 100% preventable, 4,100 women are expected to die as a result of cervical cancer in the United States this year (American Cancer Society, 2015). This dismal estimation is due to the many barriers that stand in the way of women participating in screening. Two barriers commonly studied separately are knowledge and anxiety. This study uniquely hypothesized that anxiety would negatively moderate the otherwise positive relationship between knowledge and attendance. An additional hypothesis was that viewing the test as a preventative health measure would be positively associated with screening attendance. Surveys containing demographic questions and measures of knowledge and anxiety were given to women at a reproductive clinic, a university campus, and via social media websites. A logistic regression indicated that knowledge and anxiety do predict screening attendance. However, the interaction between knowledge and anxiety was not significant. Additionally, a significant difference regarding view of the purpose of the Pap test was found between attenders and non-attenders via a chi-square. These findings indicate that knowledge and anxiety are independent barriers to screening attendance and will therefore likely require separate interventions in order to be eliminated. Additionally, the way a women views the purpose of the Pap test was uncovered as a new barrier to screening. This indicates the importance of framing Pap tests as preventative health measures in order to encourage screening attendance.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2014, Leadership and Change

While the mention of common purpose is prevalent in leadership studies, there are few attempts to explore the relationship between common purpose and leadership. This study delves into the questions of if and how common purpose and leadership inform one another. How leaders adapt purpose and leadership approaches in response to evolving and turbulent conditions may foster the depth and sustainment of immediate and subsequent accomplishments. Through phenomenological research in the venue of nuclear weapons reduction, a common purpose that is both globally pervasive and imbued with a sense of urgency, the lived essence of those engaged in common purpose can be illustrated. Exploring the symbiosis of the nuclear weapons reduction common purpose and associated leadership may have theoretical implications or provide lessons that can be utilized within other common purpose settings. The electronic version of this dissertation is available through the OhioLink ETD Center at http://ohiolink.edu/etd