It has been argued (Greer, 2013) that supervisors are a critical component in organizational effectiveness. Supervisors are required to hold many roles within the organization (Evans, 1965). Specifically, employees often see supervisors as representatives of the organization, while the organization depends on supervisors to maintain production (Greer, 2013). Many supervisors also fill a variety of other organizational roles such as mentor, trainer, motivator, disciplinarian, evaluator, and leader (Evans, 1965). For these reasons, effective supervisors are crucial to organizational success. The present study developed a behaviorally based training program for supervisors for a poultry processing organization. The training program content included displaying supervisor citizenship behavior and providing effective feedback. Examples of actual situations in the form of critical incidents were collected from incumbents serving as subject matter experts (SMEs). The critical incidents were then edited, retranslated, calibrated, and used to provide specific behavioral examples in the training program.

In recent times, situational judgment tests (SJTs) have emerged as an instrument of choice in organizations. This emergence is partly due to the high costs associated with developing and conducting high fidelity simulations such as assessment centers, coupled with the recent economic downturn affecting many organizations. The current study sought to validate an SJT as a low cost, alternate form of assessing leadership within an organizational context. A content validation study was carried out by retranslating items into eight dimensions and calibrating item responses. This study resulted in a content valid measure of leadership knowledge. Future studies should focus on further evaluating the psychometric properties of this new leadership assessment. Alternate forms reliability, convergent validity, and divergent validity studies, in particular, should be conducted to evaluate the new test.

Geoscience attracts few African American and Hispanic/Latino students to the major and has historically not retained women at the same rate as men. Many factors have been proposed to explain these disparities but no quantitative study addressed geoscience diversity at the undergraduate level. To examine potential barriers to recruitment and retention, we interviewed geoscience majors from two large public universities in the U.S. and gathered 'critical incidents,' or life experiences that affected choice of a geoscience major. Critical incidents were classified by time period (when they occurred), grouped by outcome, sorted into categories, and compared by race/ethnicity and gender. Three manuscripts -- each involving different analyses of the critical incident dataset -- comprise this dissertation. Among many findings, our study showed that that white, Hispanic/Latino, and African American students reported different types of experiences affecting major choice while growing up. For instance, 81% of white students reported outdoor experiences (e.g., camping, hiking) as children, whereas Hispanics (33%) and African Americans (22%) reported significantly fewer outdoor experiences from the same time period. Men and women geoscience majors also reported differences. In one example, men (92%) reported at least one positive experience involving career and economics factors; far fewer women (50%) reported the same. Our results can inform recruiting and retention practices. Geoscience programs can provide field trips for all prospective majors, target on-campus advertising towards diverse student groups, meet with academic advisors of incoming freshmen to encourage African American and Hispanic students to enroll in introductory geology courses, and provide major and career information to parents of prospective majors. To better recruit and retain women, geoscience programs can emphasize other, non-economic factors when advertising the degree, promoting internships, and developing field and academic experiences.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Within the modern and globally connected business landscape, the information assets of organizations are constantly under attack. As a consequence, protection of these assets is a major challenge. The complexities and vulnerabilities of information systems (ISs) and the increasing risks of failure combined with a growing number of security incidents, prompts these entities to seek guidance from information security management standards. The International Organization of Standardization (ISO) Information Security Management System (ISMS) standard specifies the requirements for establishing, operating, monitoring, and improving an information security management system within the context of an organization's overall business risks. Importantly, this standard is designed to ensure the selection of adequate information security controls for the protection of an organization's information assets and is the only auditable international standard for information security management. The adoption of, and certification against the ISO ISMS standard is a complex process which impacts many different security aspects of organizations and requires significant investments in information security. Although many benefits are associated with the adoption of an information security management standard, organizations are increasingly employing economic measures to evaluate and justify their information security investments. With the growing emphasis on the importance of understanding the economic aspects of information security, this study investigated the economic value of the ISO ISMS standard adoption and certification. The principles of the efficient market hypothesis and the event study methodology were employed to establish whether organizations realized economic gains from obtaining certification against the ISO ISMS standard. The results of this research showed that capital markets did not react to the ISO ISMS certification announcements. Furthermore, the capital market reaction to information security breaches was not different between ISO ISMS certified and non-certified firms. It was concluded that the ISO ISMS certification did not create economic value for the certified firms

The United States has been going through a road accident crisis for many years. The National Safety Council estimates 40,000 people were killed and 4.57 million injured on U.S. roads in 2017. Direct and indirect loss from tra c congestion only is more than $140 billion every year. Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) are envisioned as the future of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs). They have a great potential to enable all kinds of applications that will enhance road safety and transportation efficiency. In this dissertation, we have aggregated seven years of real-life tra c and incidents data, obtained from the Florida Department of Transportation District 4. We have studied and investigated the causes of road incidents by applying machine learning approaches to this aggregated big dataset. A scalable, reliable, and automatic system for predicting road incidents is an integral part of any e ective ITS. For this purpose, we propose a cloud-based system for VANET that aims at preventing or at least decreasing tra c congestions as well as crashes in real-time. We have created, tested, and validated a VANET traffic dataset by applying the connected vehicle behavioral changes to our aggregated dataset. To achieve the scalability, speed, and fault-tolerance in our developed system, we built our system in a lambda architecture fashion using Apache Spark and Spark Streaming with Kafka. We used our system in creating optimal and safe trajectories for autonomous vehicles based on the user preferences. We extended the use of our developed system in predicting the clearance time on the highway in real-time, as an important component of the traffic incident management system. We implemented the time series analysis and forecasting in our real-time system as a component for predicting traffic flow. Our system can be applied to use dedicated short communication (DSRC), cellular, or hybrid communication schema to receive streaming data and send back the safety messages. The performance of the proposed system has been extensively tested on the FAUs High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC), as well as on a single node virtual machine. Results and findings confirm the applicability of the proposed system in predicting traffic incidents with low processing latency. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Traumatic haemorrhage is a leading preventable cause of critical mortality in mass casualty events (MCEs). Treatment requires the rapid provision of high volumes of packed red blood cells (PRBC) to meet the surge in casualty demand these events generate. The increasing frequency of MCEs coupled with the threat of more violent mechanisms risks overwhelming hospital based transfusion systems. The overall objective of this research was to improve understanding of blood use in MCEs using a mathematical modelling approach. A computerised discrete event simulation model was designed, developed and validated using civilian and military transfusion databases, a review of historical MCEs and discussion with experts involved in all aspects of in-hospital MCE PRBC provision. The model was experimented with across increasing casualty loads to optimise event outcomes under varied conditions of: stock availability, laboratory processing procedures and individual PRBC supply. The model indicated even in events of limited size the standard on-shelf PRBC stock level was insufficient to adequately meet demand amongst bleeding casualties. Restocking during an event allowed for equivocal treatment results if performed early following an event and this would be most effective if activated by central suppliers. Modifications to transfusion laboratory processing procedures were found to be of limited benefit in improving outcomes due to the principally automated nature of the techniques they employ. Conversely, the use of restricting excessive individual provision of both overall PRBC and emergency type O PRBC to individual casualties did show potential for managing scenarios where only a finite supply of stock existed or an accurate estimation of expected casualties was available.

Recent research has shown an increase in cyber bullying acts against middle and high school students. The National Center of Education Statistics (2010) reported that cyberbullying incidents increased 73% between the years of 2007 and 2009. In 2011, 75% of cyberbullying victims were adolescents (National Center of Education Statistics, 2013). Using data collected from the Pew Research and American Life Project, the study examined the prevalence of cyber bullying acts against African American female adolescents compared to Caucasian male and female adolescents and African American male adolescents. Additionally, the study reported the cyber bullying incident that occurred most frequently as either directly using texting or indirectly using social media websites. Past research studies have shown a prevalence of cyber bullying acts against Caucasian females. The participants in this study were 737 adolescents 12-17 years old. The results suggested that a prevalence of cyber bullying acts against African American female students occurred at a significantly lower rate than Caucasian female and male students but a significantly higher rate than African American male students and Hispanic male and female students. Additionally, indirect cyberbullying incidents occurred significantly more frequently than direct cyberbullying incidents.

Mentorship and previous leadership experiences have been found to serve as factors that contributed to counseling professionals becoming leaders. Historical influences, life philosophy, identity, and resilience also shaped leaders and guided leadership practices. Critical incidents (e.g., difficulties or successes in organizational management or addressing ethical issues); however, are also significant experiences that are considered “a powerful source of counselor development.” To date, researchers have explored critical incidents in counseling graduate students’ training. However, there were no studies that have focused exclusively on the role of critical incident experiences of nationally appointed or elected counselor leaders. Thus, it was not necessarily clear how such incidents contribute to or impede the development of counselor leaders. Therefore, the aim of this grounded theory study was to qualitatively explore critical incidents using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT). The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews to explore experiences that have influenced the counselor leaders’ development, practices, and effectiveness. Findings from this study represent the experiences of fourteen national leaders in the counseling profession. The present study contributes to the growing literature on counseling leadership and counseling leadership development. Specifically, the Model of Counselor Leaders’ Development and Meaning Making of Significant Experiences (MCLD) seeks to explain counselor leaders’ experiences in leadership. The overall premise of this model is that the following five components are interconnected and ultimately lead to outcomes within the organization and with the leaders’ own growth and development: Personal Factors, Professional Factors, Culture and Climate of Organization, Leader’s Knowledge and Skills, and Decision-Making and Problem-Solving.

ABSTRACT This research study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of an Active Shooter Incident (ASI) training implemented at Southern California University (SCU). The purpose of this study was to assess students’ level of preparedness, anxiety, and knowledge about ASIs. Prior to collecting the data, an officer from the University Police Department (UPD) provided an ASI training for students where they were able to learn about safety procedures. Data was collected from a sample of Bachelor and Master level students within the SCU School of Social Work Department. Participants were given a questionnaire that consisted of questions regarding students’ level of anxiety toward the idea of an ASI occurring at their campus and internship placements. The questions also evaluated students’ knowledge and preparedness resulting from the ASI training. Data collection further determined whether certain aspects of the population such as ethnicity and gender contributed to their levels of anxiety.