The National University System Repository exists to increase public access to research and other materials created by students and faculty of the affiliate institutions of National University System. Most items in the repository are open access, freely available to everyone.
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Item The Impact of Alternative Work Schedules on Job Satisfaction in the Federal Sector: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study(2025-12)This study explored the impact of alternative work schedules on federal employees, aiming to understand how these arrangements affect employees' experiences and satisfaction within the federal sector. Its primary objective was to evaluate employees' perceptions of alternative work schedules in relation to job satisfaction following the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly with respect to return-to-work initiatives. Specifically, the study examined three key questions concerning alternative work schedule practices and their impact on federal employees' job satisfaction: (1) What alternative work schedule work factors enhance job satisfaction? (2) What alternative work schedule factors lead to employee dissatisfaction? and (3) What alternative work schedule factors influence job satisfaction during the return-to-work phase? Using a qualitative phenomenological approach rooted in H2FT, insights were gathered from 11 government employees in the North Atlantic region. The findings demonstrated the importance of balancing structure and flexibility: employees appreciate the autonomy provided by an alternative work schedule, yet they also expect organizations to establish well-defined objectives and a transparent framework for progress. Although this study's scope is limited due to its focus on participants from a single medium-sized government agency, this focus enabled a detailed exploration of alternative work schedules within that specific context. However, gaining a broader understanding would necessitate examining a wider variety of government departments with diverse missions and structures. Exploring how the cultures of federal agencies influence flexible work schedules provides a basis for future research aimed at developing more equitable alternative work schedule practices across sectors. The findings lay a foundation for further study of job satisfaction in the public sector.Item Adoption of Big Data Analytics for Strategic Decision Making in a Technology Organization: A Qualitative Study(2025-12)Big data analytics involves substantial data volumes and analysis of big datasets using statistical methods to uncover valuable insights. The problem addressed in this study was that organizational constraints create hurdles to the adoption of big data analytics for strategic decision-making, thereby decreasing the competitive edge and negatively impacting performance. Challenges exist across organizations, industry sectors, and countries in adopting big data analytics for strategic choices. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory study was to identify the organizational constraints that impact the adoption of big data analytics for strategic decision-making and to investigate how these impediments can be mitigated to achieve performance goals and gain a competitive advantage at a technology company. The theory of constraints framework was chosen to drive the research study. The research methodology that guided this study was a qualitative case study design. Snowball sampling was used to select 17 leaders at a technology company. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used to gather the data, followed by member checking. The instruments and participants in the study helped ensure triangulation and saturation. Thematic analysis was performed using manual coding and NVivo 14 software to generate themes. Results showed that various organizational constraints impede the adoption of big data analytics, including a lack of leadership support, organizational culture, data fragmentation created by internal groups and acquisitions, inadequate resource allocation, strategic prioritization, and regulatory and privacy challenges. Mitigation conditions included leadership commitment, data and tool consolidation, and strategic resource allocation. Competitive advantage can be achieved by optimizing product-market fit and leveraging insights from the customer journey. The study's primary contribution was to demonstrate that the constraints to big data analytics adoption identified by a product group at a technology company were fundamentally organizational rather than technical, with leadership support and cultural transformation representing the critical path to achieving a competitive advantage. The research offered recommendations that organizations require leadership support, cultural transformation, and skilled resources to drive data-driven decisions and achieve their performance goals. The study suggested that future research should examine quantitative approaches across broader populations, different geographical locations, and integration with artificial intelligence technologies.Item Bridging Language and Culture: Best Practices for Bilingual Counsellors Working with Immigrant Populations(2025-12-15)This capstone project explores best practices for bilingual counsellors working with immigrant populations through a qualitative literature review. Grounded in linguistic code-switching theory and multicultural counselling theory, the study synthesizes current research to examine how language, culture, and identity interact to shape the therapeutic process. Findings reveal that bilingual counselling enhances therapeutic alliance, emotional expression, and client trust by allowing communication in clients’ preferred languages. However, bilingual clinicians face ethical and professional challenges, including blurred boundaries, transference, countertransference, and risks of burnout. The review identifies significant gaps in training and supervision, particularly in the Canadian context, where bilingual counselling practices remain underdeveloped despite the country’s linguistic diversity. Clinical implications outlined emphasize the intentional use of code-switching as a therapeutic tool, ongoing cultural humility, and awareness of intersectionality. This project concludes with recommendations for developing structured training, supervision, and policy initiatives to support culturally and ethically competent bilingual counselling practices.Item How Meaning-Making Impacts Identity Formation within Posttraumatic Growth(2025-11)Meaning-making impacts identity formation within posttraumatic growth, yet the linkage is described unevenly across the literature. This project examines how meaning processes shape identity formation and clarifies the mechanisms, conditions, and boundaries under which identity repair is most credible. The methodology adopted is a critical literature review and analysis. Thirteen core studies were reviewed. The majority were quantitative studies. Due to most included designs being correlational, conclusions are framed as practice-relevant inferences rather than causal claims. Findings cluster into three areas. First, mechanisms, identity repair appears most credible when discrepancy between global and situational meaning narrows, reflective style shifts toward more deliberate processing, and clarified purposes are enacted in roles that others can recognize. Second, contextual conditions, belonging, routine, and realistic access to roles support enactment, while material strain and service limits require careful pacing. Third, boundaries, single-time self-report is not sufficient for durable claims, so monitoring pairs brief self-report with behaviour-adjacent indicators and applies cultural and ethical safeguards. Implications for Alberta practice include a brief, clinician-facing workflow that reads self-report alongside role-based indicators to keep change visible under session caps and documentation demands. Recommendations include integrating light, role-based monitoring into short-term services and strengthening cultural adaptation and longitudinal designs in future research so identity repair is assessed through both reflection and enacted change.Item Integrating Nature-Based Therapy Interventions in Schools: Supporting Students with Anxiety in a Post COVID-19 World(2025-10)This capstone explores the impact of heightened anxiety in children and adolescents in the post–COVID-19 era and examines nature-based therapy (NBT) as a complementary intervention to support student well-being. Drawing from recent research, this capstone highlights the prevalence and neurobiology of anxiety, the ways in which the pandemic intensified mental health challenges, and the potential of integrating natural environments into school counselling practice.
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