Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Leadership and Change

The persistent tension and power struggle between healthcare executives and physicians is a prevalent issue in healthcare organizations, often leading to a culture of organizational mistrust. This dynamic stems from perceived conflicting goals: executives are frequently seen as primarily focused on financial outcomes, while physicians are viewed as resistant to change. This study explored how physician fulfillment is experienced at work, with the ultimate goal of identifying potential interventions to bridge the gap between these groups. There is vast research and literature available regarding burnout in healthcare; this research focused on understanding what physicians find fulfilling in their work and identifying actionable factors healthcare system leaders can address to enhance their fulfillment. Key factors identified from the literature include meaningful patient contact, quality of professional relationships, and organizational decision-making input. At the same time, challenges such as administrative burden and loss of autonomy were noted as detriments to fulfillment. After conducting and transcribing semi-structured phenomenological interviews with physicians, the data were coded for meaning, resulting in 169 codes. The prevalence of these broad themes varied concerning each research question, reflecting the complex and multifaceted nature of physician fulfillment. By identifying patterns and connections in the physicians' experiences, this study highlighted the importance of addressing both systemic and individual factors to enhance professional fulfillment. Key findings of the study include the importance of humanizing healthcare goals and several directions for iv healthcare organizations: addressing moral injury, improving patient outcomes, obtaining and utilizing physician input consistently, fostering a supportive culture, and creating time and space for peer support. Targeted interventions to enhance physi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mitch Kusy PhD (Committee Chair); Beth Mabry PhD (Committee Member); Alan Rosenstein MD (Committee Member) Subjects: Ethics; Health Care; Health Care Management; Health Sciences; Management; Medicine; Public Health

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2016, Leadership and Change

The study was conducted in a global, for-profit, advertising firm, which initiated a culture change effort focused culture change. The objective of the effort was to manage the negative impact of implicit bias (IB) in the workplace. This type of bias is known to influence behaviors and judgements (Amodio & Mendoza, 2010). It is hypothesized that if employees shift behavior to better understand and manage these biases in the basic work activities that are typical in any organization—like working on a team, making decisions related hiring, developing and promoting talent, and the numerous creative decisions that are typical of designing advertising campaigns—more inclusive practices will result. The case study utilizes Participatory Action Research to understand how leaders and individuals perceive and act on the need to change behavior in the context of the change effort to develop inclusive behaviors. Additionally, the study examined what influences an organizational member to act or resist acting on awareness created by learning event, in this case an implicit bias workshop. Accordingly, the study focused on the path to behavior change. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/, and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Chair); Mitch Kusy PhD (Committee Member); Ashley Lackovich-Van Gorp PhD (Committee Member); Stephen A. Stumpf PhD (Other) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Behavioral Sciences; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2024, Psychology-Industrial/Organizational

This dissertation evaluates an intervention designed to improve the Supervisor Feedback Environment (SFE) within the technology department of a Fortune 100 company, emphasizing its critical role in employee development and organizational outcomes. The intervention, grounded in a behavior change framework, enhanced SFE to positively influence employee experience, retention, and performance. The study utilized a comprehensive archival dataset to examine the intervention's impact on SFE and important employee outcomes. The central hypothesis posits that the intervention would significantly enhance SFE, subsequently improving employee performance, retention, and experience. Analytically, the research employed Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) to address the data's nested structure and supplemental non-parametric tests to account for the non-normality of SFE within this dataset. Results supported the intervention's efficacy in improving SFE and demonstrated that enhancing SFE positively affected key employee outcomes. The implications of these findings are discussed, highlighting the necessity of multi-level methods in SFE research and advocating for more synergistic collaboration between academics and practitioners in the field of I/O Psychology. The dissertation underscores the methodological insights gained from the study. It suggests future research directions, mainly focusing on generalizability across different organizational contexts and feedback environments (including co-worker), demographic moderators, and other employee-level variables like feedback orientation play in perceptions of SFE. This research advances the theoretical understanding of SFE and offers practical insights for organizations striving to cultivate more effective feedback climates, cultures, and environments.

Committee: Paul Levy (Advisor); Andrea Snell (Committee Co-Chair); Erin Makarius (Committee Member); Joelle Elicker (Committee Member); James Diefendorff (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Leadership Studies

The quantitative study tested the reliability and validity of the Organizational Traction (OT) Survey, an original instrument created to operationalize the Spinning Wheels Model. The OT Survey used three factors—Change, Culture, and Continuity--that contribute to organizational performance, from organizational decline (Spinning Wheels) to peak organizational performance (maximum traction). A separate three-item factor was utilized to measure Organizational Performance. The Spinning Wheels Model was developed by categorizing nearly forty causes of organizational decline into three internal factors—Resistance to Change, Dysfunctional Culture, and Assumed Continuity. Spinning Wheels purports that an organization is in decline if the factors exist inside the firm. The Model is the first known to simplify and categorize the extensive literature on organizational decline into something useful for practitioners and researchers. The OT Survey was administered to independent insurance agencies, a segment of small business in the United States. As such, it is the first known survey that examines factors related to the organizational performance of small businesses. Participants who completed the survey received an Organizational Traction score, which ranked their responses on a spectrum from Spinning Wheels to Maximum Traction. Study results indicated that the factors significantly predicted Organizational Performance and the OT Survey was reliable. More research is needed for a reliable measure of Organizational Performance. Factor analysis suggested a two-factor model of Culture and the combined factor of Continuity & Change. Additionally, the study indicated that leaders and employees view change differently (leaders positively and employees negatively). Unfortunately, generalizability is limited due to the low response rate that generated a sample of 88.

Committee: Rachel Vannatta Ph.D (Committee Chair); Mihai Staic Ph.D (Other); Judy Jackson-May Ph.D (Committee Member); Michael Zickar Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration; Finance; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.), Franklin University, 2024, Business Administration

This research study explores how employee resource groups (ERGs) impact individual employee voice behaviors. The study is grounded in the spiral of silence theoretical framework (Codington-Lacerte, 2020; Noelle-Neumann, 1974), with the concepts of psychological safety, social identity, social exchange, and self-efficacy explored as mediating factors. The study consists of a qualitative, single case study at an organization that recently established ERGs. Seventeen employees were interviewed, representing eleven of the organization's twelve ERGs. Results from the study support the application of the spiral of silence theoretical framework at the individual employee level. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes in the data, which demonstrate that ERGs impact individual voice behaviors through building relationships, creating cultural change, and empowering individuals.

Committee: Michelle Geiman (Committee Chair); Susan Campbell (Committee Member); David McCurry (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration; Business Education; Communication; Labor Relations; Management; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior

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

The pivotal role Ed-Tech facilitates as an industry is increasing in education. As education evolves, the emergence of Ed-Tech in the classroom, data collection, curriculum, assessment, and student information continues to drive new initiatives, projects, and solutions in the school. The cross-sectional relationship between education and organizational culture during the COVID pandemic identified emerging themes of the increasing reliance on education and the emphasis society and education place on technology. This study analyzes and developed an action plan to address the disconnect between educational stakeholders and client organizational engagement. This qualitative study focuses on the role of the organizational culture of Ed-Tech organizations in improving practices of engagement, user experience, and internal client success practices.

Committee: Corinne Brion (Committee Chair); Darren Akerman (Committee Member); Elizabeth Essex (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Software; Educational Technology; Instructional Design; Organizational Behavior

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

Student enrollment is one of the key elements of leading schools. Now more than ever, there is an asserted effort to increase representation on college campuses across America. Many predominantly white institutions are strategizing ways to increase the number of Black students on their campuses. While enrollment decisions are ultimately subjective in nature; there are themes across Black student decision processes that can lead school administrators to understanding how they can increase representation. The purpose of this study is to understand the reasons why Black students ultimately decide to not enroll at higher education institutions despite being admitted. The findings reveal the key factors contributing to their decision to not enroll, and how they arrived at their final decision.

Committee: Davin Carr-Chellman (Committee Chair); Thomas Easley (Committee Member); Elizabeth Essex (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Education; Educational Leadership; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Organization Theory

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2022, Leadership and Change

Leaders planning strategic change face significant ambiguity and uncertainty due to the complex, fast-paced, and volatile nature of organizational life. What one leader sees as an opportunity, another may view as a threat depending on their past experiences, their existing mental models, and their perceptions of uncertainty. Sensemaking and sensegiving theories provide a framework for how leaders retrospectively make sense of new and disorienting information through recursive cycles of interpretation, action, and learning, and seek to influence the meaning-making of others towards a shared vision of the strategic change. Despite decades of research using these theories, studies have yet to examine leaders' perceptions of the locations of uncertainty (i.e., environmental, organizational, or individual) and how they impact leader sensemaking and sensegiving processes. Through a case study of a Vermont hospital, I reviewed documents and artifacts, observed meetings, interviewed leaders (i.e., trustees, executives, and directors) and developed an understanding of the hospital's social/political/historical/cultural context. The study revealed that leaders perceived uncertainty around five trigger situations. Leaders varied in their perceived locations of uncertainty by their level of leadership with all leaders perceiving moderate to high environmental uncertainty, executives and directors perceiving significant organizational uncertainty, and directors most likely to identify individually located uncertainty. Similarly, the specific qualities of uncertainty and leader sensemaking processes varied by perceived location of uncertainty and level of leadership. Of note, leaders were not always able to recognize their own perceptions of uncertainty. The case revealed an unexpected finding in the hospital's positive and relationally-oriented culture which served a protective effect in leader sensemaking of organizational change. Together, the study's findings highlight the ne (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Donna Ladkin PhD (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Member); Lisa Day PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cartography; Cognitive Psychology; Educational Leadership; Epistemology; Health Care; Health Care Management; Medicine; Organizational Behavior; Psychology

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.), Franklin University, 2022, Business Administration

The practical sense of business in female entrepreneurship as it relates to the concept of intrinsic and extrinsic creative behaviors of female entrepreneurs working in the United States is the main focus of this study. The field of female entrepreneurship is growing with the participation of women with or without full-time jobs in standard employment, with or without formal business education, and with or without equal access to financial resources compared to their male counterparts. This study aims to capture the definition of success and how female entrepreneurs perceive success. Utilizing convenience sampling, this qualitative study conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 successful female entrepreneurs in a major Midwest metropolitan area. With dual roles in work and family, the female entrepreneurs engage in a role of chaotic business management and self-branding with a quest for work/life balance. Their pursuit of a lifestyle business brings about a direction of working within an area of great interest, commonly called a passion. This passion allows for exploring what the female entrepreneur enjoys and a quest to produce a profit from that inspiration. Emergent themes resulting from this study are definitions of success, pandemic challenges, entrepreneurial credibility, social networking, business investment, brand management, creativity, innovation, profit design, and authentic leadership. One core result of this qualitative study is a theory called female entrepreneurial design. The female entrepreneur creates an organizational life unique to her personal style and business brand through personal self-care and professional investment.

Committee: Kenneth Knox (Committee Chair); Bora Pajo (Committee Member); Timothy Reymann (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration; Business Community; Business Education; Communication; Design; Educational Leadership; Entrepreneurship; Management; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Social Research; Systems Design; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2022, Educational Leadership

Programming for study abroad returnees is ripe for improvements, since most college students participating in education abroad programs return to their home campuses without strong support in processing their experiences. This study develops an understanding of how study abroad returnees two to three years later make sense of their experience. The Social Change Model for Leadership Development is used as a theoretical lens to analyze the data. Combining the Social Change Model and education abroad is a novel approach to strengthening different offices commonly found on U.S. college campuses. Though usually separate, education abroad and leadership development share common goals of aiding the college student in preparation for career and life. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants, the data from which were collected and analyzed. The participants, all alumni of a mid-west public university, had participated on a semester long study abroad program within three years of being invited to participate. All of them had recently graduated or had begun their careers. The interviews were conducted and transcribed over the summer of 2020, and the data were analyzed through the lens of the Social Change Model. This study found that the data fit best with four of the seven values of the SCM—Common Purpose, Consciousness of Self, Congruence, and Citizenship. These important values can be used to help support on-campus programming for post-education abroad activities that may help students recognize their extracurricular gains from an abroad experience, while building a bridge between education abroad and leadership development programming.

Committee: Kathleen Knight Abowitz (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education

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

Metamotivation—the monitoring and modulation of the quantity and quality of motivational states to achieve desired ends—is a novel approach in motivation science (Fujita et al., 2019; Miele et al., 2021; Scholer et al., 2018). This approach builds on previous work that demonstrates the performance benefits of matching the right motivational state to the task—i.e., task-motivation fit. Whereas previous research has experimentally manipulated task-motivation fit, the metamotivational approach examines whether and to what extent people can create task-motivation fit on their own. To regulate motivation, this approach suggests that people must have metamotivational knowledge (i.e., understand what kind of motivational state is beneficial for a given task and how to instantiate that motivational state). Taking a metamotivational approach, recent research examined whether people recognize the benefits of engaging in high-level and low-level construal. Whereas high-level construal is a representational process that captures the abstract, essential features of an event, low-level construal is a representational process that captures the concrete, idiosyncratic features of an event (e.g., Liberman & Trope, 2008; Trope et al., 2021). Metamotivation research demonstrates that people understand that high-level construal promotes self-control—a type of self-regulatory challenge that involves prioritizing one's global (often long-term) goals over local (often short-term) desires—and that low-level construal promotes behavioral precision—a type of self-regulatory challenge that involves tailoring one's responses to a particular set of local contingencies and contextual cues (e.g., MacGregor et al., 2017; Nguyen et al., 2019). That is, on average, people appear to have metamotivational knowledge that aligns with empirical research on construal level and self-regulation. Research also suggests that there is important variability in such knowledge that is associated with meaningf (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kentaro Fujita PhD (Advisor); Lisa K. Libby PhD (Advisor); Steven J. Spencer PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology; Social Psychology

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2020, Leadership and Change

The world of women in law enforcement is a thought-provoking one that has received increasing attention both in academia as well as in practice over the past few decades. Even more intriguing, and despite advances in the profession, is the low number of women in executive leadership positions in law enforcement. There is a vast underrepresentation of women in top executive leadership positions across the 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the complex journey of women to top executive policing leadership positions. Embracing a positive psychology approach, the study used grounded theory in combination with situational analysis to answer one overarching question: What have been the experiences of women leaders in policing as they have progressed in the profession to executive rank? This allowed for a comprehensive exploration of the micro, or individual level factors, alongside the meso or macro factors, encompassing larger group interactions, social structures, and institutions, that from the women's perception had been critical in their leadership experiences. The study offers a theoretical model—A Web of Intersections—as a framework for understanding the complex journey of women, and the social processes and multiple intersections they have learned to navigate that can in combination, help them to advance to top executive policing leadership positions. The women in this study are agentic and not simply following the lead. They are active, deliberate, and intentional participants in their own journeys, making critical and strategic decisions that can gain entry to policy decision-making that can result in sustainable change. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway (Committee Chair); Lize Booysen (Committee Member); Dorothy Schulz (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Criminology; Gender; Gender Studies; Management; Organizational Behavior; Social Research; Sociology; Womens Studies

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2020, Leadership and Change

This single, exemplar case study explored the context and social processes that shape person- and family-centered culture in a long-term care (LTC) home, using grounded theory and situational analysis for the data collection and analysis. Findings revealed one core dimension: needing to be heard, valued, and understood, and five key roles: personal support workers (PSWs), executive director (ED), senior leadership, nurse managers, and residents and families, which informed five dimensions, each focused on enhancing care for residents: (a) attending to residents' daily care needs (PSWs), (b) advocating strategically (ED), (c) translating vision into programs and policies (senior leadership), (d) ensuring quality of care on the unit (nurse managers), and (e) seeking social connection and meaningful stimulation (residents and families). These interactions left PSWs with little autonomy, feeling rushed, focused on tasks, and prevented from building relationships with residents. The PSW perspective was often missed in decision-making, as decisions were made for this group rather than with them. A complex theoretical model of the interactions and the systemic blind spot they have unintentionally created is presented in the discussion. The results suggest that empowering PSWs is pivotal to improving quality of care in the LTC sector. Further research is needed to determine which methods of empowerment are most meaningful and effective. Future studies could also explore LTC homes of different sizes and with different types of governance, the competencies required by the different roles to foster a person- and family-centered LTC culture, and the criteria for relational practice and leadership in LTC. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/, and is accompanied by one supplemental file.

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Chair); Donna Ladkin PhD (Committee Member); Madelyn Law PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Gerontology; Health Care; Health Care Management; Organizational Behavior

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2019, Arts and Sciences: Communication

This study analyzes the discourse of community participation within a multi-stakeholder bureaucratic model of public health intervention in West Bengal, India, and highlights the role that vulnerable populations play in the well-meaning participatory health interventions designed for them. A total of 13 individuals (including 5 in-depth interviews and one focus group discussion with 3 community health worker s and 5 affected individuals) were interviewed for the project. Two research questions guide this thesis including: RQ1: How do stakeholders across various agencies construct the discourse of the nature of arsenic problem in West Bengal? and RQ 2: What roles do members from the affected communities play in the current well-meaning participatory processes and with what implications? The dataset revealed stakeholders depended on specific discourses (technical, economic, bureaucratic and moralistic) to discuss the nature of the problem of groundwater arsenic. It also highlighted how marginalization and gender inequalities are played out in the participatory health discourses.

Committee: Shaunak Sastry Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Zhuo Ban Ph.D. (Committee Member); Stephen Depoe Ph.D. (Committee Member); Heather Zoller Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Master of Gerontological Studies, Miami University, 2018, Gerontology

Culture change (CC) is an innovation that aims to improve resident quality of life while valuing staff. The implementation of CC in nursing homes has been occurring rapidly. Previous studies have found a relationship between nursing home characteristics and CC implementation. However, inconsistencies in how CC is measured make the interpretation of findings inconclusive. Using 2015 Ohio Biennial Survey of long-term care facilities (n=964), this cross-sectional study performed Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and identifies two underlying domains of CC: resident autonomy (RA) and staff empowerment (SE). Using weighted least squares regression, the study identifies the provider characteristics that are significantly associated with RA and SE in Ohio. Predictors of higher RA included: providers who are not a part of Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) (p<0.01), the lower Medicaid proportion (p<0.05), and greater CNA hours per resident/day (p<0.05). A multiple regression analysis determined that the higher occupancy rate (p<0.05), the lower Medicaid proportion (p<0.0001), providers who are not a part of CCRC (p<0.05), and a sense of competitiveness among providers (p<0.05) were significantly associated with higher staff empowerment. Overall, this study identifies two measures of CC that are valid and reliable and identifies provider characteristics that are significantly associated with CC implementation in Ohio nursing homes.

Committee: Katherine Abbott Ph.D (Committee Chair); J. Scott Brown Ph.D (Committee Member); Jane Straker Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Gerontology

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

Conventional forms of leadership that are prominent in organizational life today are seemingly antithetical to the landscape of our dynamic, global society. The continued focus on traditional hierarchies with leadership that functions in a “chain of command” manner begs the question of how organizations can reshape routines and relationships to reflect processes of inclusion and collaboration that have the capability of provoking progressive change in organizations. Diversity and Inclusion scholars have identified the newer construct of inclusive leadership as apt to advance climates and cultures of inclusion through social processes that encourage inclusive practices and behaviors. These fluid aspects of inclusive leadership strengthen how organizations foster the engagement of organizational members across groups, functions, and/or levels to stimulate change within work settings. While scholars have ascertained the necessity of expanding our knowledge of the inclusion construct by examining inclusion in more depth, inclusive leadership remains an anomaly as it positions leadership as a collective, social process. The complexities associated with research in this area were instrumental in my choice to pursue an exploratory critical (single) case study with grounded theory for this dissertation research to better understand the social processes associated with inclusive leadership within a contained work environment. This multiple method qualitative study utilized intensive interviewing, field observations, and document reviews to explore inclusive leadership in a K-12 school district. Thematic, content, and dimensional analyses elicited findings associated with human connection, change, and evolving contexts associated with inclusive systems. The overlapping case study and grounded theory findings served as the basis for the development of an inclusive leadership model. The research provided empirical evidence of inclusive leadership's effect on organizational clim (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lize Booysen DBL (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D. (Committee Member); Harriet Schwartz Ph.D. (Committee Member); Placida Gallegos Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration; Cognitive Psychology; Communication; Education; Educational Leadership; Ethics; Multilingual Education; Organizational Behavior; Psychology; School Administration

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 0, Music Ethnomusicology

U.S. environmental policy is currently amid rapid change during a time when overwhelming scientific evidence continues to assert the severity of climate crises as an inescapable part of everyday life on both a local and global scale. These pressing environmental issues, our heightened awareness of them, and changing legislation against them are shaping humanity's relationship with the environment. To better understand the social and political implications of these scientifically quantified crises, a cultural is needed. For such a dimension, this thesis situates popular music as one avenue through which changes in social and political relationships to the environment are being negotiated. Through investigation of sustainability-minded music festivals, analysis of recorded music with activist motivations, and diversification of environmental discourse via nonnormative hearing ecologies, the cases studied in this thesis all suggest that popular music has gained new significance within the country's current social and political climates. Engaging with fore-fronting ecomusicological literature like Mark Pedelty's A Song to Save the Salish Sea as well as a diverse range of other scholarly perspectives in sound studies, phenomenological experience, and disability studies, this thesis identifies music as site from which newly emerging paradigmatic forms of twenty-first century environmentalism are being produced in American popular culture.

Committee: Katherine Meizel (Advisor); Sidra Lawrence (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Philosophy; Music; Sustainability

Master of Arts in Gerontology, Youngstown State University, 2016, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology

Home is a place where our identity constantly develops through connections with the past and is defined by cultural, socio-demographic, psychological, political, and economic factors. Many older adults, near the end of their life, are calling long term care facilities their home. Long term care has experienced rapid growth over the past several decades. Currently, assisted living represents one of the most abundant institutional care settings for older adults. An estimated 36,000 assisted living facilities exist in the United States (National Center for Health Statistics, 2016) compared with an estimated 15,600 nursing homes (National Center for Health Statistics, 2016). With long term care facilities rapidly growing, there have been several different models composed, including medical model, person-centered care, Eden Alternative, and Green House model. These models were developed in order to improve one's quality of life as well as making these facilities appealing to older adults to move into. While making long term care facilities appealing to older adults, artifacts of culture change have regulated care practices, environment, family and community, and workplace practices. While this has influenced long term care facilities, there is still room for improvements in order to improve the quality of life in older adults.

Committee: Daniel Van Dussen PhD (Advisor); Tiffany Hughes PhD (Committee Member); Amy Weaver PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Aging; Gerontology; Health Care

PHD, Kent State University, 2015, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

LEWIS, JAMES R., Ph.D., December, 2015 Cultural Foundations in Education SPIRITUAL FITNESS AND RESILIENCE FORMATION THROUGH ARMY CHAPLAINS AND RELIGIOUS SUPPORT (237 pp.) Dissertation Advisor: Natasha Levinson, Ph.D. Catalyzed by my observations as a U.S. Army Chaplain dealing suicide in the military across the past decade, in this study, I explore and more clearly conceptualize social processes of spiritual fitness and resilience formation in a context of plurality. Guiding questions include: Why do some become suicidal through suffering, while others experience “post-traumatic growth” instead? And if this capacity is a product of resilience, how is such a resilience formed? My research through this interdisciplinary study of literatures of spiritual and social formation through education, has identified three facets of this formation process, entailing 1) socially formed 2) frameworks of meaning 3) that become resilient habitus and habits of mind only through habitual practice, often requiring broad social support, as opposed to being the individual processes often thought. I argue that the integrated components of religious and civic formation, once central to resilience formation through American public education, are now largely ineffective, and have yet to be effectively replaced. It is that process of formation, cultivation and reinforcement of a core of spiritual fitness in resilience which the research of this dissertation is intended to explore and develop. Potential legal ramifications when the language of spiritual fitness is used by public institutions such as the U.S. Army, are also addressed. Army Chaplains have effectively fostered pluralistic models of resilience formation and reinforcement through religious support since before the birth of the United States, uniquely equipping Chaplains as resources for intentional spiritual fitness and resilience formation in the pluralistic context.

Committee: Natasha Levinson (Advisor); McClelland Averil (Committee Member); Jeffrey Wattles (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Armed Forces; Behavioral Sciences; Clergy; Cognitive Psychology; Cognitive Therapy; Comparative; Continuing Education; Counseling Education; Curriculum Development; Education History; Education Philosophy; Educational Leadership; Educational Sociology; Ethics; Individual and Family Studies; Mental Health; Military Studies; Rehabilitation; Religion; Religious Education; Social Research; Spirituality

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2015, Leadership and Change

Transformation of health care systems will be grounded in new professional relations and collective, cross-disciplinary actions to impact care delivery. Organizing such relations and actions involves practical inquiry rather than applying professional knowledge. This dissertation presents an exploratory, performative study of the initial organizing of the Health Systems Innovation and Research (HSIR) Program in Health Sciences at the University of Utah. The HSIR program was conceived principally to catalyze cross-disciplinary innovation and health services research and enhance care delivery changes by documenting care improvements and publishing research. This study includes a composite narrative of the organizing and practical inquiry work of HSIR organizers, which highlights many questions, issues, possibilities, and priority shifts that would likely face those who would seek to transform care delivery and the cultures of academic medicine. The study identifies improvement, integration, and transformative strategies as pathways to effect change in health systems. The study includes a narrative-based analysis of cultural, dynamic, and narrative resources to enhance understanding of the HSIR story and the implications of cultural and dynamic influences for the Program's future and health systems transformation. This analysis emphasizes the cultural and dynamic influences of academic and clinical departments and other sources of dynamic influence that were operating to hinder or facilitate the larger objectives of HSIR organizers. The study also explores the significance of collective practical inquiry, exploratory inquiry, and culture change to the practice and theory of leadership and change. The HSIR study was conducted using a practice study methodology developed from practice and narrative theories, with contributions from complexity, process, learning, organizing, social construction, and relational theories and empirical studies of professionals undergoing cha (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alan Guskin Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Laura Roberts Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jon Wergin Ph.D. (Committee Member); William Plater Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Health Care Management; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Social Research