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It Starts with Trust: How Mid-Level Student Affairs Supervisor Trust Behaviors Impact Entry-Level Staff Leave Intention
No full textThis dissertation examines the impact of how higher education student affairs mid-level managers (supervisors) develop and maintain trust with directly supervised entry-level staff (employees). Intervention in complex student development-oriented activities, student crises, and political protests has increased since the 1930s at higher education institutions throughout the United States. Entry-level or frontline student affairs staff manage these challenges most frequently. Yet these professionals often leave their positions within 3 years. Studies have highlighted inconsistent supervision as one of three reasons entry-level staff vacated their roles. Although many researchers have investigated why these staff members exited the field, less knowledge exists about working relationships between entry-level staff and their mid-level direct supervisors. This quantitative conceptually replicated correlational study examined trust dynamics between higher education student affairs managers and employees by seeking the impact of the perception of the trust relationship between mid-level student affairs professionals and their entry-level direct reports. I explored perceived supervisor behavioral trust factors of competence, benevolence, and integrity from both the leader and employee perspectives. The study included 74 student affairs managers and employees from 171 four-year public institutions in the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Region III states. Mid-level participants completed 17 Likert scale self-reflection questions about how they built trust with their supervisees. Entry-level participants completed similar reflection questions on trust behavior perceptions of their supervisor and 10 additional self-reflection questions about work performance and intentions to leave their roles. The study showed that although demographic factors did not yield significant trust perception differences, competence positively correlated with staff leave intention among the identified trust factors. Although correlation does not equal causation, further opportunities exist to explore trust behaviors between mid-level and entry-level professionals. Additionally, student affairs leaders can focus beyond well-established research on the rationale behind entry-level professional turnover or attrition rates and accept that employees transition through positions faster than in the past. Instead, leaders can examine how these faster cycles impact broader teams and develop more systemic strategies that prepare their student affairs departments or divisions to become more nimble organizations while experiencing vacancies
A Qualitative Study Exploring Senior Leaders’ Experiences and Perceptions in Addressing Workplace Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Federal Government: A Systems Perspective
No full textSexual harassment (SH) is a prevalent, costly, and often unreported problem in the U.S. Federal Government. Despite decades of research from multiple perspectives and recommendations to address SH, the problem persists and remains complex. While some researchers and U.S. Government agencies have called upon leaders to commit to eliminating workplace SH, others have suggested using an integrated conflict management system (ICMS) to manage the complexity, nuances, and conflicts. Even though there is a call for leadership to address SH, there is limited documentation in the literature about leaders’ experiences and perceptions in addressing the problem. Therefore, this qualitative study was designed to explore leaders’ experiences and perceptions of addressing workplace SH and identify whether organizational approaches used to address workplace SH in the Executive Branch aligned with an ICMS. Using a constructivist paradigm, 90-minute individual interviews were conducted with nine participants, current and former U.S. Federal Government Executive Branch in various senior leadership positions. Conducting semistructured interviews was not intended to evaluate individual leader effectiveness; rather, participants were encouraged to provide candid responses to open-ended questions to elicit leadership experiences and perceptions about organizational approaches such as policies, processes, and practices to inform a systems approach. The key findings indicate that senior leaders recognize the complexity of SH and are frustrated with the barriers and challenges that hinder disclosing, reporting, and addressing workplace SH. Additionally, the findings showed that the organizational approaches used to address workplace SH in the Executive Branch at the of the study were not aligned with an ICMS and instead were heavily focused on mitigating agency liability, which is antithetical to managing the nuances of workplace SH and associated conflicts. The findings suggest that any goal aimed to eliminate workplace SH in the Executive Branch should be shifted to a more realistic and obtainable objective consistent with addressing complex problems such as designing a holistic system that can help leaders manage the complexity of the problem, the nuances, and associated conflicts while simultaneously balancing individual needs and organizational interests
Refugee Student Perspectives on Educators’ Role in Fostering Resilience in U.S. Schools
No full textThis qualitative study focused on five individuals who arrived in the United States either as refugees from conflict areas or as asylum seekers already residing in the country. The refugees were from Afghanistan, and the asylum seekers were from Iran. The researchers employed a phenomenological approach to conduct in-depth interviews with refugees, asylum seekers, and parents of such students, all of whom had experienced attending school after their arrival in the United States. The research question explored the role of teachers, instructors, and professors in fostering resilience among refugee students. Consistent with existing literature, the findings indicated that the teachers\u27 role in supporting resilience was mixed: Some teachers were supportive, while others were not. Given the impact teachers on refugee students\u27 resilience, the study provided multiple recommendations for teachers and school administrators to better support refugee students
Book Review: Invisible Jesus: A Book about Leaving the Church and Looking for Christ
No full textInvisible Jesus: A Book about Leaving the Church and Looking for Christ, by Scot McKnight and Tommy Preson Phillips. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2024. 224 pages, $1
