Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2016, Management

Organizations often struggle to achieve success when implementing complex enterprise systems despite the use of traditional governance structures such as project management methods and risk assessments. While this challenge is certainly multi-level, our motivation for this study stems from the lack of research that connects executive IT governance to implementation outcomes. Steering committees are in a unique position to influence implementation outcomes, yet the literature offers sparse perspectives with no insight into the internal dynamics of steering committees and their effects on implementation outcomes. We ask: What factors contribute to steering committee performance and influence implementation outcomes? In this dissertation, we develop a theoretical model of steering committee performance based on information processing capabilities. We surmise that the model offers greater explanatory power and depth than previous explanations of steering committee performance. The dissertation covers the motivation, detailed research questions, methods, research design, and key findings. We also review the implications of the findings for academia and practice. The study follows a sequential mixed-method approach that combines qualitative and quantitative inquiry. Using a grounded theory approach, we first conduct semi-structured ethnographic interviews among a theoretical sample of experienced steering committee team members. Based on the findings, we articulate a theoretical model founded on the information processing view that synthesizes the factors that influence steering committee performance. The information processing view offers us a lens to understand why steering committees struggle, and how steering committees contribute to their performance by building information processing capabilities. To validate our model, we conduct a survey among 164 steering committees and analyze the results using structured equation modeling (PLS). We find that implementation unce (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kalle Lyytinen (Committee Chair) Subjects: Information Systems; Information Technology; Management

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Business: Business Administration

Business connections, including firms connected through the same investors and audit committee chairs connected via professional social network, play vital roles in the quality of firms' financial statements and tax related decision-making. Business connections can facilitate the flow of information and the sharing of knowledge, enabling firms to make accounting and tax decisions more efficiently and to better serve their stakeholders. This dissertation comprises two essays that investigate how business connections affect firms' financial accounting quality and tax avoidance decisions. In Essay I, I examine the effect of common ownership on tax avoidance. Common ownership can lead to reductions in agency costs, implementation costs, and outcome costs. These reductions, in turn, facilitate tax avoidance strategies within commonly owned firms, ultimately benefiting their investors. Additionally, due to the presence of a stronger corporate governance system, commonly owned firms are better equipped to enhance their internal information environment, enabling more accurate and efficient processing tax-related information. The empirical findings are consistent with these hypotheses, revealing a positive correlation between common ownership and tax avoidance, as well as a positive association between common ownership and the internal information quality. These results suggest that common ownership fosters tax avoidance practices and benefits shareholders, and the improved internal information environment serves as a conduit for managers to implement their tax avoidance strategies. A falsification test and a difference-in-differences analysis are conducted to address potential self-selection biases and path analysis is employed to reinforce the mediating role of internal information environment. In Essay II, we examine how audit committee professional networks impact firm audit quality and audit committee social networks. Specifically, we exam an audi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Nan Zhou Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Alexander Borisov (Committee Member); Adam Olson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Linna Shi Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Accounting

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

Faculty are critical players to advance institutional mission in higher education (Clark, 1972). Hiring faculty who have an affinity for mission and who understand and support Catholicism in the spirit of an institution's founding charism can be a significant challenge for academic leaders and for the longevity of institutional mission in Catholic higher education (Heft, 2021). Faculty across disciplines may find it challenging to grasp or apply the mission of their Catholic university because mission-related criteria are not always understood or prioritized in faculty hiring processes (Breslin, 2000; Briele, 2012; Heft, 2021; Steele, 2008). Currently, there is no standard mission focused guide for faculty hiring at the University of Dayton (UD), a Catholic Marianist University. Given that hiring priorities and practical knowledge of Catholic Marianist principles of education differ among faculty across the university, hiring for mission criteria may not be well defined among search committees. This practical action research study used qualitative methods to explore how affinity for the University of Dayton's Catholic Marianist mission is assessed in faculty searches. Results showed that search committee members consider mission principles at least moderately important, but these have not been consistently identified in candidate assessment criteria. Still, participants discussed six mission-based criteria with twenty component elements that have been operative in some way in recent faculty searches. This knowledge, coupled with the principles of Marianist education, informed Hiring Faculty to Engage Catholic Marianist Mission, a practical intervention plan to strengthen hiring for mission practices through articulating the purpose of hiring for mission; developing criteria and assessment rubrics; standardizing the hiring for mission search process; and fostering faculty stakeholder participation. Anticipated results of the action plan and challenges in project lead (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Matthew Witenstein (Committee Chair); Carolyn Roecker Phelps (Committee Member); Laura Leming FMI (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Leadership; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Organization Theory; Religious Congregations; Religious Education

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1963, History

Committee: Virginia Platt (Advisor) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This dissertation examines the rehabilitation and education of Polish Jewish children after the Holocaust. It argues that schools, summer camps, and children's homes in Poland were national and international sites for the rehabilitation of child survivors; therefore, they served as laboratories and arenas for debates regarding Polish Jewry's future. By comparing Zionist and non-Zionist institutions of child care, I illustrate how educators and caregivers engaged with competing ideologies to create normalcy in the best interests of the children. Rehabilitation was not just physical or mental; it required Jewish children to develop skills that would make them independent and good citizens. What did they study? What did they read? Did they learn Yiddish or Hebrew in school? Did they speak Polish in the classroom? The answers to these questions have broader implications regarding the reconstruction of Jewish communities in Poland after the Holocaust. While Jewish communists and Bundists in the Central Committee of Jews in Poland (Centralny Komitet Zydow w Polsce, CKZP) desperately fought to keep Jewish children in Poland, Zionist organizations saw no future for Jews in Poland. Through an analysis of correspondences, meeting minutes, educator conference programs, lesson plans, children's own writing, memoirs, and interviews gathered through multi-sited archival research, this dissertation exposes tension between organizations and traces how the educational and ideological goals of the CKZP Department of Education drastically evolved under the growing influence of Poland's communist government. Ultimately, studying education as a form of rehabilitation and nation-building enhances our understanding of the delicate nature of rebuilding Jewish life after war and genocide.

Committee: Robin Judd (Advisor); Theodora Dragostinova (Committee Member); Birgitte Soland (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; History; Holocaust Studies

PHD, Kent State University, 2022, College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Ambassador Crawford / Department of Finance

This dissertation consists of two chapters that aim to understand the effect of borrower political connections on lenders, borrowers, and borrowers' top executives. In the first chapter, I study the effect of borrower political connections on the loan syndication activity of the lead arrangers. Using passive political influence from a geography-based measure and active political connections from lobbying activities and election contributions, I find that, for loans to politically connected borrowers, the lead arrangers sell a larger proportion of the loan to participating lenders, are more likely to syndicate loans, and attract more participant lenders to the loan syndicate. The results are robust to matched sample and instrumental variable approach as well as to various robustness tests. Additional tests reveal that political connections are particularly valuable for opaque borrowers. And, politically connected firms experience improved creditworthiness, performance, capital expenditure, and cash flow in the next two years following loan origination. My findings are consistent with the literature on the value of political connections. In the second chapter, I examine the effect of borrower political connections on connected firms and their CEOs following poor performance related to financial covenant violations. I find that firms with political connections have less strict covenants at loan origination, are less likely to violate financial covenants over the life of the loan even controlling for original covenant strictness, and lenders are less likely to enforce a material covenant violation following the breach of a financial covenant. In terms of the effect of political connections on a firm's executives, I find that CEOs in politically connected firms are less likely to experience turnover or forced turnover following financial covenant violations. In addition, after firms have financial covenant violations, politically connected CEOs receive less reduc (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lindsay Baran (Committee Chair); Dandan Liu (Committee Member); Steven Dennis (Committee Member); Saiying Deng (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration; Finance

DNP, Kent State University, 2021, College of Nursing

Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) are at the forefront of our current patient care systems. The APRN presence has brought questions involving the advanced practice community and their relationship to the medical staff, committees, and administration. Advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) includes the following practitioners: Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), Certified Nurse Practitioner (CNP), Certified Nurse Specialist (CNS), and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). In 2012, the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded the medical staff definition to include non-physician practitioners. This regulation change included advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants. The Code of Title 42 C.F.R 482.22 allows hospitals and their medical staffs to take advantage of the expertise and skills of all types of practitioners who practice at the hospital when making decisions concerning medical staff privileges and membership. In 2014, Title 42 C.F.R. 482.22 Medicare Conditions of Participation clarified state laws would determine the eligibility for appointments by the governing body. The document does state the membership to the governing body is not a requirement but optional. (CMS, 2012). The DNP project “APRNs and Medical Executive Committee Membership: A Quality Improvement Proposal” highlights an environmental scan and a validation group input. Is there value of the APRN beyond the bedside? Multiple advanced practitioner journals, professional practice organizations, and textbooks direct APRNs toward positions in leadership as part of our professional responsibilities. However, few hospitals have positioned the APRN within the medical executive committee (MEC). The APRN membership on a MEC would reflect the diversity of our healthcare provider climate and is a natural progression of our hospital leadership. The s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lynn Gaddis Dr (Committee Chair); Kimberly Cleveland Dr (Committee Member); Marilyn Nibling Dr (Committee Member) Subjects: Nursing

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, History

From 1919 to 1924, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), supplied over 5 million German children with food aid that came to be known as the Quakerspeisung. Following four years of fighting and the British Blockade, Germany lacked proper food reserves and production to supply its ailing population. Amidst a concern of revolution and food riots, the German government appealed to the Allied Nations to support the nation with food. However, the American public was not ready to support Germany with humanitarian relief due to the recent fighting and as such the American Relief Administration (ARA) was not able to help the German people. Herbert Hoover, the director of the ARA, reached out to the Quakers and tasked the American Friends Service Committee with helping Germans. The Quakerspeisung which officially started in February 1920, would, in the words of AFSC co-founder Rufus Jones, "Americanize" the German nation and return the former war enemy into the international community. This thesis will show the motivations of US humanitarian relief to Germany and the impact of the Quaker feeding. Furthermore, the project will highlight the Weimar government's response to the aid and their plans to support national reconstruction by focusing on children.

Committee: Erik Jensen PhD (Advisor); Amanda McVety PhD (Committee Member); Steven Conn PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; History

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2020, History

This study discusses a politically driven change in American women's public mourning customs over the fallen of World War I. During the war, government officials and politicians sought to transform women's grief over a fallen loved one into a celebration of an honorable military death. They actively discouraged the wearing of traditional black mourning and instead urged the wearing of a simple black armband with a gold star. This substituted glory for grief and thus made their loved one's death a mark of distinction by giving their life in the service of their country. The radical change in women's public mourning over a soldier's wartime death, initiated by the unlikely partnership of President Woodrow Wilson and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, demonstrates how two powerful political leaders used women's public grief to help expedite their own political agendas. This study also explores the political networking which resulted in the evolution of the gold star icon and the distinction between how women mourned a war related military death as opposed to a civilian death before and during the World War I period.

Committee: Nancy G. Garner Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Paul D. Lockhart Ph.D. (Committee Member); Opolot Okia Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jonathan R. Winkler Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2019, Educational Leadership

Research reveals that there is often a major disconnect between leaders and workers in organizational settings, especially when it comes to decision-making. Consequently, organizational decisions are often misunderstood by the employees who must implement top-down directives, which can lead to growing distrust, frustration, and needless resistance toward change initiatives. This kind of disconnect, resulting confusion, and resistance is also found in schools between principals and teachers. Having worked as a teacher and then as an administrator in three separate school districts, I have become overwhelmed by the bureaucratic nature of school committees. In my experience, school committees tend to be exclusive, administrator-driven, and lack authentic, rich discussion. This study seeks to narrow the focus of research on school committees by exploring how teachers experience the decision-making process for change initiatives in a school committee setting when inclusive deliberation (ID) is used as a framework for school committee design. Also, the study explores the impact of school committee design and operation on teacher resistance and feelings of morale. The methodology of this study is a single instrument, action research case study, expressed in a narrative. The case exists at the high school where I work as an assistant principal. During the second semester of the 2018-2019 school year, a committee known as the Building Leadership Team (BLT) altered its design and operation, using the framework of inclusive deliberation (ID). Teachers' experience with the BLT, along with other phenomena that took place during the case study with additional members of the staff, were collected as data. Data was collected through observational field notes, journaling of daily interactions, participant reflection prompts, staff surveys, a focus group reflection, and individual interviews. Inductive analysis was used to triangulate the data to understand the phenomena being resear (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Thomas Poetter (Committee Chair); Joel Malin (Committee Member); Molly Moorhead (Committee Member); Jim Shiveley (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Inservice Training; Management; Operations Research; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Personal Relationships; Public Administration; School Administration; Secondary Education; Systems Design; Systems Science; Teaching

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, History

This project deals with the Black struggle for civil and human rights in Chicago during the 1960s. Because much of the scholarship dealing with Black Chicago focuses on the Chicago Freedom Movement, an actual event led by King and SCLC between 1965 and 1967, this project places emphasis primarily on the years prior to its inception. There are two groups that emerged during the Chicago campaign that are the center of this project: The Chicago Area Friends of SNCC and the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations. The CAFOS, heavily influenced by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was founded in 1962 to raise money and collect resources for SNCC workers in the South. However, they would eventually go on to begin their own battle against racism and discrimination in Chicago. The Council on the other hand, was a coalition of influential civil rights organizations that established a strong united front against existing white power structures in the city, namely the administrations of Mayor Richard Daley and Superintendent Benjamin Willis. I argue that there was a strong local movement taking place in Chicago prior to the CFM; a movement that has frequently been overshadowed if not erased. By looking more closely at the early Chicago movement and organizations such as CAFOS and the Council, it is clear that Chicago was a place of complex racial and political insurgency. These organizations laid the ground work for the CFM. These instances of activism in Chicago during the early 1960s reveal how issues of race affected those in the Midwest while also demonstrating the various ways in which Midwesterners and urban, Black citizens reacted to and engaged in the ongoing struggle for freedom.

Committee: Nicole Jackson PhD (Advisor); Rebecca Mancuso PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Education History; Ethnic Studies; History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Accounting and Management Information Systems

This paper studies the effect that appointing financial experts to banks' audit committees has on banks' loan loss provision timeliness. The loan loss provision is the amount that banks set aside to cover losses on loans. Because the provision estimate affects banks' profits, credit risk management, and the overall economy, understanding banks' provisioning practice is a topical issue in the literature (Beatty and Liao 2011; Bushman and Williams 2012). I identify two regulatory shocks that implemented audit committee expertise provisions as quasi-natural experiments and investigate the effects on loan loss provision timeliness. Specifically, the two regulatory shocks I consider are the Federal Depository Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 (FDICIA) and a listing standard for NYSE and NASDAQ firms legislated in 1999. I classify treatment and control groups based on the regulatory asset threshold, and find that treatment group banks make more timely recognition of expected losses than control group banks. Building on these results, I examine the effects of appointing different types of financial experts on bank audit committees. Specifically, I consider former affiliated auditors, former unaffiliated auditors, former regulators, and those who are neither former auditors nor former regulators (Others). Using propensity score weighting, I find that appointing affiliated auditors is associated with less timely loan loss provisions relative to appointing unaffiliated auditors. Furthermore, I show that hiring former regulators is associated with less timely loan loss provisions relative to hiring Others or unaffiliated auditors. My findings suggest that audit committee financial expertise increases the timeliness of loan loss recognition; however, having audit committee members who are affiliated with the bank's auditors or regulators could result in delayed recognition of loan losses.

Committee: Anne Beatty (Committee Co-Chair); Xue Wang (Committee Co-Chair); Darren Roulstone (Committee Member); Tzachi Zach (Committee Member); Haiwen Zhang (Committee Member) Subjects: Accounting

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2017, History

This thesis examines the often-overlooked connection between the home front and battle front during World War II, specifically between Nebraska communities and the 134th Infantry Regiment, which was originally part of the Nebraska National Guard. The Allied Dry Forces of Nebraska petitioned to put a prohibition initiative on the state ballot during the election of 1944, while thousands of servicemen were overseas. This case study discusses the ways in which Nebraska residents and servicemen responded to it. Most significant was a petition from members of the 134th Infantry, which was sent to the Committee of Men and Women Against Prohibition to denounce the initiative due to the timing of its proposal. Already viewed as important figures in the war in Europe, their military service gave their voices more credence within the community. A vote against the initiative was portrayed by anti-prohibitionists as a way to support the troops, a resident's patriotic duty during World War II. The servicemen became an essential point of contention and their unexpected involvement in the election ultimately resulted in a bitter struggle between individuals and organizations on both sides. This case study examines how their petition, as well as the letters of other servicemen, impacted the outcome of the vote on the initiative during the election in November.

Committee: Rebecca Mancuso (Advisor); Amilcar Challu (Committee Member); Benjamin Greene (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Armed Forces; History; Military History; Modern History; Regional Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2016, History (Arts and Sciences)

In 1975, allegations by journalist Seymour Hersh in the New York Times of CIA domestic spying program launched a year of investigations into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The accusations led to the establishment of the Rockefeller Commission by President Gerald Ford, the Church committee by the Senate, and the Pike committee by the House. A great deal of scholarship has analyzed the impact of the congressional committees, however, the Rockefeller Commission has largely become a historical footnote to their investigations. Utilizing research conducted at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and the Rockefeller Family Archives, my work reconsiders the Rockefeller Commission and how the Ford administration utilized the Commission in an attempt to preempt the congressional investigations. Although the Commission, at first, failed to achieve Ford's goals, by the end of 1975 Ford used the Commission's work to legitimize his reforms to the U.S. intelligence community.

Committee: Chester Pach (Committee Chair); Paul Milazzo (Committee Member); Ingo Trauschweizer (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, Art

Before my graduate studies began I had already established myself as an artist of the remix, with dozens of albums and hundreds of performances worldwide. This was always in the context of a band: works were musical and usually performative. This changed during my graduate studies as I explored ways to remix my practice of remixing. Some works were musical but not exclusively performative, such as the Fruit Looper. Then musicality faded in later works such as the sonified Pillow Fight and ultimately went silent for the video-only installation Bird/Wings. Yet while the use of music and performance ebbed, the remix flowed: the flexibility of this strategy enabled the expansion of my artistic practice from one of remixing music to one of remixing sight, sound, interface, context, and even my dreams, culminating in my thesis exhibition installation Birdless / Wingless.

Committee: Kenneth Rinaldo (Committee Chair); Todd Slaughter (Committee Member); Marc Ainger (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Accounting and MIS

This paper investigates the effects of the requirement under the Dodd-Frank Act that all large bank holding companies create a stand-alone, board-level risk committee. In addressing this issue I focus on banks that had not voluntarily created such a committee prior to the legislation, as these are the banks that will be most affected by the new rule. I demonstrate an estimation method that makes it possible to draw inferences about the potential impact of a new rule before the rule is implemented. I find that requiring large banks to maintain a risk committee would have increased capital ratios during the global financial crisis, but would have decreased capital ratios during more stable economic conditions. The time varying nature of the results highlights the importance of estimating the effect of proposed policy changes over multiple states of the economy. This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the effects of a relatively understudied aspect of board structure, the presence of a risk committee, and by providing an identification strategy that can be used to investigate standard setting and regulatory changes before the changes are put in place.

Committee: Anne Beatty (Committee Chair); Darren Roulstone (Committee Member); Douglas Schroeder (Committee Member); Andrew Van Buskirk (Committee Member) Subjects: Accounting; Banking; Finance

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2012, Music

Beginning in 1935, Federal Project Number One of the Works Progress Administration supported the creation of government-funded arts projects that were directed from Washington. The Federal Music Project, one of Project One's constituent efforts, organized performing ensembles, concerts, and educational projects: its efficacy has been debated. Missing from the FMP record is a clear narrative regarding its relationship to folk music in America. This may be because the developments taking place in folk music during the 1930s were largely overlooked by the FMP and its administrators with the exception of one, Charles Seeger. The relatively small connection to folk music in the FMP was, however, taken up by the Federal Writers' Project and its director, Benjamin Botkin. In 1938 Botkin organized a committee, known as the Joint Committee on Folk Arts, which helped to unite folk music and folklore studies across all WPA agencies. It also worked with the Library of Congress toward the creation of the Archive of American Folk-Song, a repository of folk materials that continues to exist to the present day. The significance of the Joint Committee on Folk Arts was twofold. First, it encouraged the proliferation of American folk music in ways that the FMP did not. Second, it became the nexus of ideas in regard to folk materials within the WPA and supported the creation of a centrally located repository for folksong.

Committee: Danielle Fosler-Lussier PhD (Advisor); Graeme Boone PhD (Committee Member); Ryan Skinner PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Music

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, History

This study examines Congress's role in defense policy-making between 1955 and 1968, with particular focus on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), its most prominent and influential members, and the evolving defense authorization process. The consensus view holds that, between World War II and the drawdown of the Vietnam War, the defense oversight committees showed acute deference to Defense Department legislative and budget requests. At the same time, they enforced closed oversight procedures that effectively blocked less "pro-defense" members from influencing the policy-making process. Although true at an aggregate level, this understanding is incomplete. It ignores the significant evolution to Armed Services Committee oversight practices that began in the latter half of 1950s, and it fails to adequately explore the motivations of the few members who decisively shaped the process. SASC chairman Richard Russell (D-GA) dominated Senate deliberations on defense policy. Relying only on input from a few key colleagues - particularly his protege and eventual successor, John Stennis (D-MS) - Russell for the better part of two decades decided almost in isolation how the Senate would act to oversee the nation's defense. Russell's oversight concept weighed multiple competing considerations: the reality that modern presidential power was an outgrowth of the Congress's acknowledged inability to manage the expanded scope of government; the requirement that the Executive Branch demonstrate wisdom and managerial competence; the duty to conduct thorough oversight as a prerequisite for congressional consent to presidential proposals; and the Cold War imperative to buttress presidential leadership with at least the appearance of a broad governing consensus. While initially hesitant to craft a substantive policy role, perceived shortcomings in presidential wisdom and managerial competence steadily prompted Russell to insert himself and his committee more directly into the poli (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Stebenne (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Educational Policy and Leadership

This research project involves three large churches in a particular Mid-Western Conference of the United Methodist Church, where the Senior Pastor experienced a failure in the appointment process, lasting for a period of three years or less in a specific large church setting before a move was initiated. In addition to interviewing the Senior Pastor in each of these three settings, interviews were conducted with a lay leader from within the church, a member of the Staff Parish Relations Committee, and the District Superintendent from the time of the move of the Senior Pastor from the church. An extensive overview of the research concerning the seminary preparation of clergy, the development of clergy professional identity, the fit between the pastor and the particular church setting, and the itinerant system in general is included. Results will provide an overview of the salient issues and important elements related to the stories from each of the three settings, with an emphasis on the issues, common patterns and themes, along with discrepant data. The conflict related themes and patterns that emerged in the three cases included a history of conflict, difficulties in transition, a conflict in style of worship, a conflict in direction or focus of ministry, a conflict in style and strength of leadership, and a conflict in ownership. Implications for both research and practice are discussed, including a number of recommendations for the leadership of the United Methodist Church. Recommendations related to practice include: relocation support, longer terms, District Superintendents, smaller districts, salary, confidentiality, de-briefing, profiles, the introduction, training churches and clergy, the guaranteed appointment, guidelines, mediation, interim appointments, recommendations for new pastors, supervision, and the cluster system and mentoring relationships.

Committee: Robert Rodgers (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2012, History (Arts and Sciences)

The Goldwater Nichols Act of 1986 was the most comprehensive defense reorganization legislation in a generation. It has governed the way the United States has organized, planned, and conducted military operations for the last twenty five years. It passed the Senate and House of Representatives with margins of victory reserved for birthday and holiday resolutions. It is praised throughout the U.S. defense establishment as a universal good. Despite this, it engendered a strong opposition movement organized primarily by Navy Secretary John F. Lehman but also included members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, prominent Senators and Congressman, and President Reagan's Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger. This essay will examine the forty year background of defense reform movements leading to the Goldwater Nichols Act, the fight from 1982 to 1986 by supporters and opponents of the proposed legislation and its twenty-five year legacy that may not be as positive as the claims made by the Department of Defense suggest.

Committee: Ingo Traushweizer (Committee Chair); John Brobst (Committee Member); Paul Milazzo (Committee Member) Subjects: Armed Forces; History; Military History; Military Studies; Modern History