Columbia Southern University

Rapid technological advancements and global competition have heightened the need for agility in organizations striving to meet evolving customer expectations. This study examined the experiences of software team leaders who adopted Agile methods to enhance future Agile adoption in organizations seeking to deliver timely customer value. It employed a qualitative phenomenological approach to describe the lived experiences of software team leaders throughout Agile adoption. The research question asked about the experiences of software team leaders when successfully adopting Agile methodologies for their software projects. The conceptual framework that guided this research was the Agile Software Solution Framework (ASSF). The objective of employing ASSF was to assess the level of agility demonstrated by software development teams and facilitate the identification of areas where Agile implementation could suggest organizational and procedural improvements within the development environment. Twenty-five software team leaders were interviewed who guided Agile teams through the adoption of Agile methodologies, chosen through purposeful sampling. This study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to examine participant data and gain insights into how individuals make sense of a specific phenomenon in their unique context. This study documented several valuable Agile adoption techniques in its summary and recommendations section, thereby enhancing knowledge of Agile methodologies among software development team leaders. In conclusion, this study examined the successful adoption of Agile methodologies by software team leaders, providing insights into the challenges, successes, and key factors. This study benefits organizations by providing valuable insights into how software team leaders successfully adopt Agile methodologies, helping them enhance their software development practices and increase adaptability in a rapidly changing market.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) account for nearly half of chronic kidney disease (CKD)-related deaths. Hypomagnesemia has been associated with various cardiovascular conditions and predicts a decline in renal function leading to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The objective of this review is to delve into and discuss the significance of magnesium (Mg) in cardiovascular and renal functions, the clinical consequences of hypomagnesemia on CVDand CKD, and the benefits of Mg supplementation in managing CVD and CKD. This review is the result of an extensive search for pertinent articles in databases like PubMed, Medline, PubMed Central, and Google Scholar. Based on the literature search conducted in this review, we concluded that Mg protects against various CVDs and delays the progression of CKD. Mg can regulate pathways associated with inflammation, oxidative stress, and fibrosis. Therefore, maintaining slightly elevated Mg levels and timely Mg supplementation may benefit patients with CVD and CKD. There is a need for additional prospective randomized controlled trials to fully comprehend the therapeutic effects of Mg on CVD and CKD along with setting individualized target levels for serum Mg in such patients.

Police officers face challenges from operational and organizational stressors. Officers often have access to stress relief programs offered by their employers, such as peer support programs, employee assistance programs, or chaplaincy programs. Using survey data from 247 police officers in a large metropolitan agency in CA, this exploratory study examines police officers’ likelihood to utilize stress relief programs (SRPs) based on prior utilization, perceived stigma, and confidentiality of the process. Additionally, officer selection of program is assessed. Findings illustrate that officer utilization of SRPs is negatively influenced by perceived coworker stigma, while supervisor stigma was not influential. Belief in the confidentiality of the program and prior utilization of an SRP is positively associated with SRP utilization. In terms of selecting a specific SRP, only prior utilization was found to be a factor. Suggestions for department policy to promote utilization and confidentiality and reduce stigma are discussed.

Earthquake-triggered landslides are known to exhibit unique regional characteristics that can cause extensive damage to the environment, resulting in a significant loss of life and property. This study aims to comprehensively investigate the role of ground motion time histories in shaping the unique distribution of coseismic landslides during the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake. Despite the similar geological and geomorphological conditions on the northern and southern sides of the epicenter, landslide density was notably higher on the northern side. In our workflow, we conducted nonlinear dynamic finite difference simulations of slope stability to reproduce the actual landslide distribution pattern using synthetic waveforms. We discuss the controlling role of ground motion time histories on these coseismic landslides. The study reveals that differences in phase components were responsible for the varying deformation processes of slopes under seismic loading, ultimately leading to the observed differences in landslide distribution. Moreover, the study emphasizes that energy-based seismic intensity measures carry greater significance than amplitude-based intensity measures because they consider the entire ground motion time histories rather than focusing solely on peak values at specific moments. The proposed method outlined in this study can be applied to regional landslide hazard analysis and risk assessment for future earthquakes.

This quantitative research investigated the correlation between employee motivation, job reengineering, and the perception of job satisfaction among the civilian employees of the Department of Defense located in Washington, D.C., United States. The theoretical foundation for the study was rooted in Deci and Ryan's (1985; 2000) self-determination theory of motivation. The researcher utilized a non-experimental correlational research design and an appropriate non-probability convenience sampling method to collect data from fifty-five (55) participants. The multidimensional work motivation, job diagnostic, and the job satisfaction scales were used to measure the variables. Non-parametric tests were used to measure the correlation between the variables and three hypotheses were tested. The results showed a strong and positive relationship exists between employee motivation, job reengineering, and the perception of job satisfaction. These findings suggest that business leaders and human capital managers of private and government enterprises may use the study as a focal point to understand a person-job fit, establish lean organizational efficiencies, and formulate strategies to improve motivation and reduce turnover.
 Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Employee Motivation, Job Design, Job Reengineering, Job Redesign, Job Satisfaction, Metacognitive Abilities, Perception, Perception of Job Satisfaction, And Self-Determination Theory

What makes an effective employee benefit program?Employee benefits are vitally important to an organization's recruitment and retention strategy.This article depicts lessons that can be extracted from three corporations espousing great employee benefits program-Starbucks, Amazon, and Walmart.These companies have become well-known for their success with employees and customers alike.

We present a cross-sectional study of ethical decision-making correlated with spirituality and utilizing moral intensity as a moderator for workers in the Southeastern United States (N = 117). This study presents spirituality as an individual variable and moral intensity as a situational variable along with ethical decision-making to examine the interaction of these factors in moral dilemmas. Utilizing previously validated instruments for ethical decision-making and individual spirituality, we find that workers with relatively high measured spirituality made less ethical decisions compared to workers with relatively lower measures of spirituality. Further, we find that the introduction of high moral intensity as a situational variable does not moderate the observed correlation between spirituality and ethical decision-making. This research supports the conceptual nature of the Interactionist Theory by presenting in a single study both individual and situational variables in ethical decision-making.

A consortium of 24 universities and their school partners engaged in a networked improvement community design to develop clinical experience models designed to build candidates' facility with the effective mathematics teaching practices and other equitable teaching strategies to promote secondary school students' success in achieving college- and career-ready standards. The authors discuss mechanisms to aid in the implementation of two alternative models: 1) the paired placement model, in which two prospective teachers are paired with a single mentor teacher, allowing the mentor teacher to provide purposeful coaching and mentoring and the two pre-service teachers to offer each other feedback, mentoring, and support; and 2) co-planning and co-teaching, which has been found to help teacher candidates gain greater pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge of students through collaboration and communication between teacher candidates and mentor teachers who plan, implement, and assess instruction together.

This systematic review examines the empirical literature on an emerging body of coping strategies (CS), both civilian readjustment and health-risk related, experienced by United States military veterans exposed to combat stress and other military lifestyle stressors. Studies that met inclusion criteria were selected among quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies published in peer-reviewed journals. Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) criteria and Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) were applied to all studies. Seventeen reports meeting a priori inclusion criteria were extracted from 107 studies accessed through 9 electronic databases. Data were synthesized to investigate two research questions informing evidence-based practice. What coping strategies do veterans use to deal with past military experience(s)? What are the health-risk coping strategies that veterans employ to adjust to past military life? There were five types of coping strategies (CS) that occurred most frequently including cognitive, religious/spiritual methods, drug and alcohol sedation, avoidance, and behavioral approaches. Veterans learn multiple coping strategies and techniques for overcoming and adapting to the demands of war during their military service. However, some behavioral coping strategies are associated with negative health-risks and some may not be as effective in the civilian world as they once were during active duty. Thus, these findings may assist social workers in collaborating with rurally located veterans in selecting optimal strategies to protect their health and advance their post-military service life goals.

A cross-sectional study of the Virgin Island’s public sector was conducted to ascertain whether its human resource management (HRM) practices were related to the employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and intentions to leave. A quantitative approach was taken to evaluate employees’ perception of the organization’s HRM practices. Multivariate analysis demonstrated the following demographics: residence, gender, human resource (HR) staff, and supervisory/managerial positions were determining factors in the relationship. Residence correlated to turnover intentions (TIs); gender and supervisor/manager correlated to OCB, while being an HR staff correlated to the HRM factor, employee skill/organizational structure. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that HRM practices did not predict OCB or TIs.