2001 research outputs found
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Meeting 5: French Symbolist Lyric
No full textThe final seminar in the Lyric Poetry series, featuring Dr. Robert Scott Dupree of the University of Dallas. See the link below under "additional files" for the handout of poems which was distributed at this seminar
“An Illustration in…Every Corner of the Room”: Ekphrasis in Jane Austen’s Novels
No full textThe purpose of this dissertation is to fill a curious lacuna in Austen Studies: a thorough investigation and analysis of ekphrasis in Jane Austen’s work. The fact that every single one of her six completed novels, as well as her juvenilia and the unfinished Sanditon, contains ekphrasis speaks volumes about her strong reliance on this device to enrich her work. But for Austen the visual arts do not function as superfluous ornaments—there is no l’art pour l’art or beauty for beauty’s sake. Rather, they are epistemological forces for both characters and readers situated at critical junctures in her work. We are meant to gain knowledge from them. Before turning to the novels, I first deflate the critical magnitude of Austen’s famous “two inches” of ivory quotation, wherein she compares her work to that of a miniaturist, by conducting a thorough investigation of her own words about the visual arts collectively from her letters. Not only does my research establish the wide ken of Austen’s visual arts knowledge in both the domestic and public spheres, but more importantly, it demonstrates that Austen understood just how expedient the visual arts could be as metaphors or illustrations of meaning. Stepping back from the ivory quotation gives us permission to appreciate the way that Austen’s ekphrastic moments are opportunities for knowledge—and growth. Accordingly, I offer another statement from her letters that unluckily attracts little notice: “I begin already to weigh my words & sentences more than I did, & am looking about for a sentiment, an illustration or a metaphor in every corner of the room” (L66, p. 177). Illustration is an extraordinary word that attests to the indelible relationship between pictorial elucidation and clarity of mind; and while it is impossible to say exactly in what capacity Austen was “looking about for” an illustration for her writing, every single one of her novels does, in fact, contain a pictorial illustration “in every corner of the room.” Visual art in Jane Austen’s work elucidates and engages with the highest parts of the rational soul, resulting in moral growth
Optimizing Enterprise Cybersecurity risk Management: A Business and IT Alignment Approach
No full textThis dissertation outlines a holistic perspective for enterprise cybersecurity risk management and examines multiple interconnected dimensions for improving cyber resiliency within the organizational perspective
THE INFLUENCE OF COGNITIVE ABILITY AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
No full textA primary objective of higher education is to assist students in the area of cognitive development. When cognitive ability is developed and maintained at an optimal level, students can effectively manage and use pieces of information to solve complex problems. Research provides evidence that cognitive ability plays a critical role in predicting academic achievement. Research also notes that emotions play an essential role in cognitive ability, and cognitive ability may be easier or more difficult because of the emotional state. This study, one of the few to investigate the relationship between cognitive ability and academic performance within various outputs of upper-level accounting courses at a major US university, finds that students in accounting courses can leverage their cognitive ability to achieve higher performance in the classroom. This study found that cognitive ability is positively related to data analytics assignment grades and shows the importance of cognitive ability in helping to elevate one’s ability to use data analytics effectively. However, emotional intelligence (EI) was not found to moderate the relationship between a student’s cognitive ability and academic performance. This study is significant because it is one of the few studies on cognitive ability using a measurement that can separate the structure of a performance (indicative of a cognitive-developmental level) from the base content of a performance
The Dirty Workers Among Us: The Intervening Role of Job Crafting and the Moderating Role of Leader Member Exchange in The Evaluation of Self Determination & Work Engagement
No full textThis study evaluates job crafting as a strategy the hospital may utilize with guest services personnel to reduce turnover, increase work engagement, and improve the quality of patient care. Employee turnover is costly for organizations, as measured in dollars; however, turnover costs associated with guest services in a healthcare setting are problematic as they could go beyond financial implications. Since these workers ensure cleanliness standards are met and take care of dietary needs, patient care could be negatively impacted, leading to significant life and monetary cost. This study hypothesizes that individuals who job craft do so proactively, which leads to work engagement. Though job crafting is a self-initiated action taken by employees, this study postulates that leader involvement impacts employee self-determination, job crafting activity, and work engagement. The study is a non-experimental, quantitative, correlational field study, and the conceptual framework is grounded in Job Demand Resources Theory. The sample consists of hospital cleaners and food and nutrition specialists in a North Texas regional hospital. Participants were surveyed using a 40-item questionnaire comprised of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), the Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS), the Job Crafting Questionnaire Scale (JCQ), and the Leader-Member Exchange Multi Dimensional Measurement Scale. Moderating and mediating effects were assessed using the statistical software package PROCESS macro for SPSS®. Each job crafting factor was assessed individually to understand the uniqueness and interactions of each with self-determination, work engagement, and LMX. The results suggest a significant positive relationship between self-determination, relational and cognitive job crafting, and work engagement for dirty workers. Subsequently, only cognitive job crafting was found to be a full mediator of self-determination and work engagement, while relational job crafting was not. No support was found for LMX as a moderator; however, its inclusion covers a gap in the literature. In conclusion, the results of this study reflect that an individual's ability to reframe their work environment is paramount to achieving work engagement
Understanding the Effects of Perceived Financial Benefits and Status on Customer-Company Identification and Its Effects on Positive Word-of-Mouth in a Loyalty Program Context
No full textCustomer loyalty and its associated behavioral outcomes have become focal points for firms looking to drive a deeper, identity-based relationship with their customers. Yet, few studies have examined how loyalty program mechanics can be used to create these relationships and whether they can result in the outcomes firms seek, such as positive word-of-mouth (PWOM). The purpose of this research is to better understand whether the financial benefits of a loyalty program and the feelings of status a program can invoke lead to the formation of customer-company identification (CCI), defined as a “consumer’s psychological attachment to a company based on a substantial overlap between their perceptions of themselves and their perceptions of the company” (Du et al., 2007, p. 227). Further, most studies focused on CCI examine identification primarily from a cognitive perspective (Wolter & Cronin, 2016), however this study explored how both cognitive CCI and affective CCI are influenced by loyalty program mechanics and whether each of these types of CCI lead to PWOM behaviors. The findings support that perceptions of financial benefits and feelings of status are strongly related to affective CCI in loyalty program members, which in turn, is related strongly to PWOM. Feelings of status had a positive effect on cognitive CCI, and cognitive CCI had a significant, positive effect on PWOM. Perceptions of financial benefits had no significant effect on cognitive CCI. An additional discussion of these findings is provided that includes the theoretical and practical implications of the model for those who study and execute customer loyalty programs as well as study limitations and avenues for further research
Increasing the success rate of capital projects: Servant leadership to the Rescue?
No full textGiven the demand for capital projects, such as the need to replace the aging infrastructure in the US, there will be an increase in the number of capital projects in the near future. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the project manager's use of servant leadership principles in the capital project setting
