A significant number of positions in the Norwegian Armed Forces that are open for assignment are not filled because they do not receive any qualified applicants. Over the last five years, over 30 percent of the announced job vacancies have been unfilled. This thesis explores two different areas of research to help remedy this / auction theory and assignment market mechanisms. Auction and assignment market theory and practice are examined to reveal how these mechanisms might provide incentives and improve the quality of military assignments. This research finds that both of these mechanisms fall short when used independently. Auction theory is problematic when both sides of the market have preferences over the outcome / assignment models are problematic when there are system level concerns about which jobs remain unfilled. This thesis introduces a hybrid solution, containing elements of both auction theory and assignment markets, which has the potential to improve the current matching process. This research improves our knowledge and understanding about both of these research areas, and their interactions.

The focus of this study was to investigate the attitude of teachers toward female administrators and the differences in male and female teachers' perceptions of their effectiveness. The study also investigated the influence of demographic characteristics (age, education, experience, sex) on teachers' attitudes and perceptions of effectiveness and the correlation between attitudes and perceived effectiveness. The population of this study consisted of teachers from a large urban school system in northwestern Georgia. The study looked at forty randomly chosen elementary schools, half headed by female administrators and half by males. Eight hundred twenty seven teachers participated. The instruments used to gather data were the Women As School District Administrators: A Measure of Attitudes Toward Women In Administrative Positions (WASDA), used to assess attitudes toward women as administrators, and the Profile for Assessment of Leadership (PAL), used to assess administrators' competencies. A personal Data Sheet was used to collect demographic data. This study utilized the descriptive survey method. With the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), a Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test for differences between male and female teachers on their attitudes toward female administrators as well as on their perceived effectiveness of male and female administrators. A Pearson's correlation was used to assess the relationship between teachers' demographic characteristics and their attitudes toward female administrators. This statistical technique was also used to measure the strength of association between attitudes and perceived effectiveness. Correlations between gender and attitude were statistically significant for Factors 2 (stereotypic barriers) and 3 (stereotypic traits) on the WASDA. The results of the PAL indicated that male principals were perceived to be significantly more competent in (1) supervision and evaluation and (2) protecting time on task. The perceived difference between male and female administrators on these two factors were about 8 and 6 percentage points respectively. Implications and findings were discussed and recommendations were presented.

Ridership in the New Orleans region is down, and transit agencies are challenged to increase transit performance. Transit professionals expect many benefits from cooperation between transit systems in the region including an increase in efficiency and effectiveness. The question is "do these cooperative initiatives between transit agencies improve transit performance?" To answer this question a survey has been held to collect data regarding regional initiatives implemented by transit agencies. In addition data were collected from the transit agencies websites. The analysis focused on the comparison between agencies that implemented regional initiatives versus agencies that did not implement any regional initiative. From the analysis it appears that although agencies have implemented cooperative initiatives they are not very convinced that it had a significant impact on transit performance. Further, results show that cooperation might have some positive impact on transit performance, but are not as convincing as literature and transit professionals expect

Finding the most cost-effective and environmental friendly way to treat and disinfect wastewater has been raising concerns around the world. Failure in performing disinfection of wastewater before returning it to the environment could have terrible consequences to human health and the ecosystem. The risks associated to continue with current practices have led to the creation of stringent regulations. In this research the HYDROPATH technology is tested while attaching a HydroFlow 60i unit to a reactor that works as a closed recirculation system. To determine the feasibility of the HydroFlow 60i unit as an alternative method to chlorine, the EPA method 1306 is used being Escherichia coli the unit of quantification. After performing several experiments modifying parameters such as conductivity and detention time, it was concluded that the HydroFlow 60i unit by itself would not able to replace current disinfection technologies, to meet EPA standards of E. coli removal.

Many authors have argued that social capital is positively related to economic prosperity, regional development, collective action, and democratic governance. But it alone can not explain all of these phenomena in societies. The concept of trust can not be neglected in the social capital literature. Considerable confusion exists concerning the relationship between social capital and trust, namely whether trust is a precondition of social capital or a product of it. This paper begins to explore their relationships by tracing the origins and development of the concept of social capital. It then discusses the relationship between social capital and trust by comparing their origins or sources. Finally, these two ideas are placed in organizational context to develop an analytical distinction between trust and social capital while clarifying and exploring the implications of these two primary perspectives on organizational effectiveness. The paper concludes that trust and social capital are mutually reinforcing -- social capital generates trusting relationships that in turn produce social capital. / Master of Public and International Affairs

The use of performance appraisal systems for employees is far from new. It has been recognised that performance has to be managed in order for the organisation or government department to meet its goal effectively. The main objective of this system is to ensure that all employees or jobholders know and understand what is expected of them. It also includes managing poor or unacceptable performance by giving guidance where needed, while still recognising and awarding outstanding performance. However, do employees have a clear understanding of and information about the system and do they real benefit from the system? The researcher conducted this study in order to explore the perceptions of employees with regard to the effectiveness of the performance appraisal system within the Department of Social Development in two districts. Its aim was to make recommendations for improving the system in relation to the most important themes or aspects that the employees (appraisers and appraisees) have highlighted. The proposed research project adopted a qualitative research approach and was exploratory in nature. A multiple case study research design was used. Participants consisted of employees of the Department of Social Development from two districts in the Free State who are appraisers and appraisees. Purposive sampling, which is a type of non-probability sampling, was used to select appraisers, while convenience sampling was used to select appraisees. A semi-structured interview schedule was used in one-to-one interviews to explore issues and gather information. The main findings of the study are that Social Development employees understand the importance of implementing a performance appraisal system in the workplace. They revealed that they still want the system to continue in the Department. However, their main concern is the practical implementation of the system, and they reported that it needs to be improved. They have suggested many areas that need to be improved in order for the system to be more effective and to achieve its main purpose within the Department.

Medication errors during drug administration are an issue in the nursing profession. The errors that occur due to intravenous vein infusions pose threats to patients due to the mode of administration and the risk of occurrence. Strategies such as guardrails have been implemented to reduce the rate of such errors. Despite these guardrails, facilities record mixed results on the effectiveness of infusion pumps in reducing medication errors. The project was designed as a quantitative study to evaluate the effectiveness of guardrails in reducing medication errors at the facility. Data analysis included error reports from the facility before and after the implementation of the guardrails, as well as reports from the software used to monitor the effectiveness of the infusion pumps. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the frequency distribution, percentages, and mean, while t-tests were conducted on the two paired samples. Results showed errors reduced to 7% after the intervention, with a steady decline over the years. The p-value of 0.001 showed that there was a significant difference (α -?¤ 0.05) after the use of guardrails and prior to their usage, indicating that the intervention was effective in reducing the occurrence of medication errors. These findings can be used to promote positive social change at the facility to reduce the occurrence of medication errors during drug administration. The data will be useful to hospital administrators, nursing managers, and nursing staff to encourage compliance in the use of guardrails to help reduce medication errors.

Trust between individuals and groups has been identified as an important factor in determining organisational success, organisational stability and the well-being of employees. The present research contributes to the growing literature on trust by developing measures and models of how employees trust senior management. Drawing from the literature and the results of pilot studies, a six dimensional model of trust in senior management - consisting of dispositional, cognitive, affective, social and behavioural intent dimensions - was tested using confirmatory factor analysis (n = 416). The results clearly supported the convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement model. For example, all model fit indices were above minimum recommended values and all items loaded at significant levels on their specified factor.The measures were successfully cross- validated in a sample from a different organization (n = 249). Next, models portraying alternative structural relations between the dimensions were examined, before deriving a model which successfully summarized the data in a theoretically plausible way. The model showed trust in senior management, defined in terms of behavioural intentions, to be directly influenced by affective reactions and perceived social norms. Cognitive assessments about the overall effectiveness of senior management were shown to have an indirect influence on trust. This structural model was successfully cross- validated on an independent sample. The attitudinal dimensions of the model were shown to hold, longitudinally, over a twelve month period (n = 257).In contrast to previous cross-sectional research, disposition did not influence trust in senior management over time. In terms of determining the organizational consequences of trust in senior management, the results showed that trust in senior management influenced cynicism toward change ++ / over a twelve month time period. Theoretical implications and the practical implications for the diagnosis and management of trust in senior management are discussed.

The relatively new science of complex emergent processes is being applied to many fields including the study of organizations. There are many different models of the organization in current use, each with its own benefits. However, the science of complex emergent processes is able to deal with situations that conventional models have not been able to adequately describe. Wolfram's A New Kind of Science describes a comprehensive conceptual framework and scientific methodology which enables the study of organizations from a new perspective. These techniques create new ways of thinking about organizations and provide new insights into organizational behaviour. A particular class of complex emergent models are the cellular automata (CA). This thesis makes use of very basic cellular automata models described in Wolfram's A New Kind of Science to examine organizational behaviour. These models produce a variety of interesting patterns which can be easily interpreted and which graphically describe various characteristics of organizational behaviour. A variety of common types of organizational behaviour are examined and the organizational cultures which bring these behaviours about are investigated. The usefulness of using this method is considered. These techniques are then used to examine the reconstructing of Iraq in the period from the US led Coalition invasion in 2003 through to mid 2004. Several types of organizational behaviour are examined and the models are then used to examine various potential scenarios concerning the Iraq reconstruction process. The modelling outcomes about the Iraq reconstruction process are found to be comparable with the opinions of subject matter experts. Although limited in scope and only making use of a very limited class of models from all of those available in Wolfram's A New Kind of Science, this thesis demonstrated the usefulness of using such an approach in the understanding of organizational behaviour. The techniques used in this thesis, were able to demonstrate: the complex emergent properties of organizations; how organizational behaviour can be viewed as resulting from the interaction of individuals; the 'phase transitions' between different major classes of organizational behaviour; how different types of organizational behaviour are robust or otherwise to change; and how organizational behaviour forms naturally into certain common types. / Master of Science (Hons)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 114 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.