The purposes of this qualitative multiple case study were to determine the catalysts and pathways that caused principals to move from managers to effective leaders. Data were collected through a series of interviews with 4 principals who were selected through a purposeful sampling procedure. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using inductive coding to determine themes. Findings were presented for each theme within the context of reviewed literature. National polls indicate that 6 out of every 10 of the nation’s schools need major changes or an overhaul. Can improving the skills of their leaders make a difference in the performance of these schools? Research repeatedly supports the importance of a principal’s leadership to the overall success of a school. It also tells us that effective leadership is in short supply and that there is a need to initiate leadership development. The underlying task in this study was to determine how to help those who want or need to become better principals or how they can help themselves. Several themes emerged from data analysis, and each is important to consider when working on improving principals’ leadership abilities: the impact of mentors; university administrative certification programs; on the job experience; personal motivation; tacit knowledge; state, local, and private leadership development programs; and pathways to improvement. Specific recommendations for practices to improve principals’ overall effectiveness included incorporating more and lengthier mentoring in the early part of principals’ careers or as part of performance improvement plans; increasing study of cultural and instructional leadership in administrative certification programs; providing more field experiences in administrative certification programs; and developing individualized leadership improvement plans based on needs, interests, and learning styles of principals. The need for additional quantitative and qualitative research was also suggested.

No

No description available.

Switched reluctance machines are becoming more prevalent in various motor drive applications due to their simple construction, robust design, fault tolerant operation, and relatively low-cost construction. There are nonetheless some drawbacks to the switched reluctance machines operational behavior which limit its potential market penetration. The electromagnetic torque ripple is one of those limitations. However, unlike most four-quadrant variable speed electric motors, switched reluctance machines need additional control considerations to operate in generating mode to maximize power returned while minimizing torque ripple. The goal of this thesis is to explore different control schemes which are used in motoring mode and compare their performance in generating mode for different operational points. Using the lessons learned from the comparisons in generating mode, key optimizations objectives are established to improve the switched reluctance machines performance for generating applications. A multi-objective optimizer is used to select conduction angles using established objectives of maximizing torque and minimizing torque ripple. The proposed generating-specific objectives are compared to the motoring-specific objectives to validate the generating performance improvement for a wide torque-speed range. Finally, a setup is constructed to validate the generating performance of a 3-phase 12/8 SRM using the new optimization objectives and it is compared with conventional objectives. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Blind equalization schemes are used to cancel the effects of a channel on the received signal when the transmission of a training sequence in a predefined time slot is not possible. In the absence of a training sequence, blind equalization schemes can also increase the throughput of the overall system. A general problem with blind adaptation techniques is that they have poor convergence properties compared to the traditional techniques using training sequences. Having a multi-modal cost surface, blind adaptation techniques may force the equalizer to converge to a false minimum, depending on the initialization. The most commonly used blind adaptation algorithm is the Constant Modulus Algorithm (CMA). It is shown by simulation that a logarithmic error equation can make CMA converge to a global minimum, if a differential encoding scheme is used. The performance of CMA with different error equations is also investigated for different channel conditions. For a time varying channel, the performance of an equalizer not only depends on the convergence behavior but also on the tracking property, which indicates the ability of an equalizer to track changes in the channel. The tracking property of a blind equalizer with CMA has been investigated under different channel conditions. It is also shown that the tracking property of a blind equalizer can be improved by using a recursive linear predictor at the output of the equalizer to predict the amplitude of the equalizer output. The predicted value of the amplitude is then used to adjust the instantaneous gain of the overall system. A recursive linear predictor is designed to predict a colored signal without having a priori knowledge about the correlation function of the input sequence. The performance of the designed predictor is also investigated by predicting the envelope of a flat fading channel under constant mobile velocity and constant acceleration conditions. / Master of Science

For over 70 years, researchers have been attempting to unravel the complexities associated with enhancing student success in higher education (Berger & Lyon, 2005). This research has resulted in a better understanding of why some students decide to leave while others persist on to graduation. Despite a sizable body of knowledge that has identified the various factors associated with student success in higher education, little work has been devoted to translating the various theoretical findings into specific strategies that will guide institutions in improving student success outcomes (Tinto, 2005; Tinto & Pusser, 2006). This study, therefore, represents a unique attempt to bridge the gap between research and practice. Specifically, it integrates relevant findings on student success with a growing body of knowledge on system design and performance improvement in order to address the following pressing need: How can institutional leaders in higher education translate theoretical concepts into actionable solutions that will facilitate student success? In order to provide a concrete course of action for institutional leaders to design practices that meaningfully impact student success, this dissertation describes the development, application, and evaluation of a Student Success-Oriented System Design (S2OSD) methodology. The proposed methodology shifts the focus from trying to understand why students leave or stay, which is a well-researched topic in the literature, to examining how to satisfy student needs in ways that will improve student success outcomes. By doing so, this study focuses on assessing, understanding, and satisfying student needs within the context of student success theoretical perspectives. Moreover, this research proposes a methodology that institutions can use to tailor their practices to fit the unique needs of their students (Berger & Lyon, 2005). In summary, this research study was devised to achieve the following goals: • Develop a research process that combines empirical and design methods in order to create, apply, and evaluate a system design methodology; • Develop a guiding framework that provides practitioners with a set of mutually reinforcing principles, which is supported by a methodology designed to meet student needs; • Develop a participatory design method and supporting tools to execute each phase of the methodology; • Develop a performance-based evaluation framework to evaluate the usability of the S2OSD methodology; and • Develop a validated questionnaire to assess engineering student success needs. / Ph. D.

In the last decade, companies have been faced with a turbulent business environment. There have been dramatic technological shifts, deregulations, economic uncertainty, rapid growth, increased global competition, and major shifts in demography and values. Managing organizational performance and success is becoming increasingly challenging and difficult. Organizations are realizing that in order to succeed, or even to merely exist, they must change the way they do business on a grand scale. Large scale organizational change is risky, hard, complex, unpredictable, and emotionally intense. On the other side of the coin, not changing in this turbulent day and age can even be riskier. National Grocers Company Limited is currently going through a large scale organizational change effort. Their effort started with a pilot test in their Peterborough, Canada food distribution warehouse. This thesis is a summative evaluation of the change effort within the Peterborough warehouse. This research: Documents the Peterborough GSS implementation Documents warehouse performance results Evaluates the effectiveness of the PDSOF project Evaluates the effectiveness of the GSS framework in the PDSOF project Documents expert advice on GSS implementation By organizing and presenting a variety of data in a format that is easy to understand and learn from, I have created a reference document that organizations can use in their large scale organizational change efforts to take theory to practice. More specifically, I provided National Grocers with a document of the change effort at the Peterborough warehouse so that other National Grocers’ warehouses can benefit from the wisdom gained and lessons learned at Peterborough. Therefore, my results and conclusions have “meaning” for real world managers. / Master of Science

Managing organisational knowledge is crucial to increase business performance and competitiveness. However, given the complexity and dynamic nature of knowledge management practices, multinational organisations experience difficulties in identifying business opportunities and often fail to make necessary investments. This thesis develops an alternative perspective on knowledge management through the creation of a model based on socio-technical characteristics and organisational ignorance, and argues that managing nescience, i.e. knowing what needs to be known and also acknowledging the power of understanding the unknown, could facilitate employees' knowledge sharing behaviour and could improve both short-term opportunistic value capture and longer term business sustainability. It also creates a novel technique for managing dysfunctional knowledge management scenarios and improving knowledge management practices in the workplace by definition of the concept of KM anti-patterns, while discussing practices that reduce the risk of making the wrong decision when using uncertain information. The philosophy of this study is based on an interpretative approach with inductive reasoning. Both qualitative and quantitative methods, based mainly on workshop style discussions, questionnaires and semi-structured interview data, were implemented using various departments of one multinational organisation within the Aerospace and Defence industry as units of the analysis. Managing organisational ignorance is seldom and insufficiently discussed by the current KM literature and no previous attempt has been made to detect, analyse and categorise KM dysfunctional situations using a systematic KM anti-pattern template. It is argued that the issues addressed in this study could lead to inefficient or otherwise inappropriate KM practices; therefore it is important, particularly for managers and senior executives, to acknowledge, verify and act upon such matters in order to increase performance within their business, and optimise the level of knowledge for an individual employee or group in knowledge intensive settings.

Improvement of performance has become ever more critical to construction project success and has been subject to a considerable amount of research and attention over the past two decades. In this regard, the Saudi Ministry of Interior (SMoI) has adopted a new approach - Standard Design Model (SDM) - for the development of its construction programme to successfully manage its complex project portfolio and improve project performance. The SMoI-SDM approach is based on the standardisation of design, material specifications, contract documents and processes. It is anticipated that many lessons will be learnt due to the re-use of SDMs for future projects as well as sharing learning between on-going projects, thus leading to continuous project performance improvement. The aim of this research is to develop a framework for improving the performance of SDMs in SMoI projects. A qualitative case study approach was adopted to provide an in-depth insight into the current performance of SDM projects and identify critical success factors (CSFs) affecting the process of improvement of SDMs project performance. Four case studies were selected involving two on-going and two completed projects. Three key themes were identified from the case studies analysis; these are: adaptability of SDMs to context; contract management; and construction management. Consequently, a framework was developed to improve SDM projects performance as well as the expected performance improvement curve that results from the cumulative learning and experience. The framework validation was conducted through a workshop involving the same stakeholders who participated in the case studies, in which the feedback on possible improvements to the framework was obtained. The framework demonstrated its practicality, clarity and appropriateness for use across the SDM projects.Significantly, this research has the potential to direct standardisation of design and process in construction projects in particular in the public sector and could help achieve a sustained project performance improvement in the Saudi construction industry.

This work focuses on how to improve medical services for veterans in a manner that will result in high levels of satisfaction and attainment of needed services. This research assess how veterans access healthcare and receive service. The problem to be addressed relates to reports by veteran healthcare organizations regarding the presence of gaps in coverage and customer service disparities in healthcare. Common concerns involve the gaps between veterans’ expectations for services and the provided services. This study created a survey instrument that contextualized components of established scales along with demographics and constructs specific to the current study. This study assessed the relationships among a variety of constructs and dimensions with healthcare expectations and service quality using a series of simple regressions. The results showed a statistically significant relationship between quality and the use or intention to use technology. The study supports the contention that respondents are willing to use self-service technologies. Technology that incorporates digital devices into healthcare services offers an opportunity to bridge service gaps and holds a promise for giving veterans faster access to service and care in a beneficial manner.