Barriers to Employment: A Substance Abuse Story

Whilst prior research is available on substance abuse and resources have been allocated from various governmental agencies and private organizations, the effects of substance abuse issues continue to persist within Appalachia. A constant variable in mitigating recidivism in substance abuse is employment. Moreover, the economy and culture of Appalachia is distinctly different with limited research in the field having focused on these issues. The purpose of this study is to identify barriers (e.g., criminal convictions, financial resources, and jobseeker KSAO (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other Characteristics)) in obtaining sustainable employment that individuals may experience as a result of an association with substance abuse

Making hiring decisions:a grounded theory approach to a practise-based study of filtering in selection

This thesis objective is to discover “How are informal decisions reached by screeners when filtering out undesirable job applications?” Grounded theory techniques were employed in the field to observe and analyse informal decisions at the source by screeners in three distinct empirical studies. Whilst grounded theory provided the method for case and cross-case analysis, literature from academic and non-academic sources was evaluated and integrated to strengthen this research and create a foundation for understanding informal decisions. As informal decisions in early hiring processes have been under researched, this thesis contributes to current knowledge in several ways. First, it locates the Cycle of Employment which enhances Robertson and Smith’s (1993) Selection Paradigm through the integration of stages that individuals occupy whilst seeking employment. Secondly, a general depiction of the Workflow of General Hiring Processes provides a template for practitioners to map and further develop their organisational processes. Finally, it highlights the emergence of the Locality Effect, which is a geographically driven heuristic and bias that can significantly impact recruitment and informal decisions. Although screeners make informal decisions using multiple variables, informal decisions are made in stages as evidence in the Cycle of Employment. Moreover, informal decisions can be erroneous as a result of a majority and minority influence, the weighting of information, the injection of inappropriate information and criteria, and the influence of an assessor. This thesis considers these faults and develops a basic framework of understanding informal decisions to which future research can be launched

Enhanced Expense Practices for Higher Education: Enduring Continuous Reductions in State Appropriation

The way forward for higher education to survive and to endure reductions in state appropriations is the enrichment of practices associated with traditional expenses. Because consistent reductions in state appropriations threaten to cause major changes to educational services within Higher Education, this paper advocates enhancement to program management and changes to teaching practices without sacrificing students\u27 expectations. In fact, these practices strengthen learning through practical and team teaching environments while promoting unity of colleges and integration of courses. Module learning and transition programs encourage students to complete degrees faster and step up to the next advance degree. Flexibility can be obtained in a traditionally rigid environment without surrendering core programs

Indigent criminal defense: Qualitative review on economic value

This article reviews indigent criminal defense programs on an international level and generally concludes that societies want to protect legitimate society members\u27, within the respective society\u27s jurisdiction, fundamental property rights concerning criminal prosecution. While this conclusion was as the researchers expected, several unexpected and contrary observations were noted. Society wealth and a greater return on investments of public funds can dramatically shift a society\u27s value of basic shared rights

The evolution of gift cards in secondary markets and money services

This paper reviews gift cards and the regulations associated with these instruments in financial transactions. One important consideration of gift cards involves secondary markets and money services business. While the accounting of gift cards by retailers is easy when they are redeemed, gift cards become problematic when breakage (non-redemption) occurs. In addition to large organized exchanges for gift cards, many prospective sellers and buyers have turned to non-mainstream dealers to handle situations relating to the non-redemption of the gift card. This has caused gift cards to become an increasingly important player in the secondary market. Another important observation with these instruments involves the true cost to buyers. Most consumers fail to consider opportunity costs and alternatives. Since gift cards are perceived differently than cash, opportunity cost consideration should be viewed differently to determine the effective price value

Quantitative evaluation on indigent criminal defense funding

This article takes a quantitative approach to build upon McKinney and Shao\u27s (2008) qualitative contribution concerning resource a/location of indigent criminal defense programs. By compating public funds of multiple societies over time, we are able to add important knowledge surrounding property rights valuations using a new concept called GDP Indexed Purchasing Power Parity. The findings of this study show that GDP-PPP provides for better indigent criminal defense analysis than per capita figures

Rapid Experimentation: The Silicon Valley Method of Success

The methodology of rapid experimentation focuses on discovering a problem’s solutions through leap-offaith assumptions that will delight the end users. Rapid experimentation has been used by Silicon Valley in developing products and services that have excited consumers and changed business expectations. Developers need to have high functioning team members that are open to new experiences and that can deliver experiences to customers from products and services that not only exceed customer expectations, but delight them. In this paper, we present a case using this Silicon Valley methodology of rapid experimentation in solving the problem of substance abuse. We reflect on two team’s efforts in finding a solution to the problem of substance abuse. Starting at the same time, using the same resources, and having access to the same information, each team found a different solution. Both solutions are valid as both exceeded and delighted the users. Furthermore, this case illustrates that the application of rapid experimentation can be injected into classrooms to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills

Partnering with Corporate Entrepreneurs on an Experiential Design Thinking Project

This article offers faculty an innovative teaching approach for an experiential class project centered around design thinking. The basic processes of the project are detailed using a running example where the entrepreneurship instructor partners with corporate entrepreneurs from a leading financial technology firm to develop, teach, and team with student groups to design think solutions for three of the community’s greatest challenges: substance abuse, youth education, and technology. Learning objectives are identified and measures of the program’s effectiveness at achieving the learning objectives are collected, assessed, and reported. Analysis of the data suggests the program is effective at enhancing student empathy, complex problem-solving skills, felt-responsibility, and community self-efficacy. Further, students perceive that the corporate entrepreneurs properly supported them in the project and they were quite satisfied with working with real customers, the corporate entrepreneurs, and the program overall

The Impact of Intervention Measures on Sexual Harassment in the Film and Television Industry

Since 2017, increased sexual harassment incidents have been reported in Hollywood; yet, little guidance has been offered on how organizations, which are informally governed by their network members, can effectively reduce sexual harassment. Building upon the theory of network governance, this paper suggests social mechanisms, which are used to coordinate and safeguard exchanges between Hollywood organizations, are more effective at reducing incidents of workplace sexual harassment than traditional strategies. These social mechanisms direct change to the macroculture through collective sanctions that damage the perpetrators reputation and restrict access to network opportunities. In essence, perpetrators become toxic assets that Hollywood avoids and this avoidance is similar to economic sanctions that can deter sexual harassment