Thesis (M.S. in computer science)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 26, 2009). "Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science." Includes bibliographical references (p. 66-68).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed May 28, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-93).

The goal of the study was to identify masculine and feminine prototypes of effective leadership in military population. Data included 262 individuals, 69,5% (n = 182) male and 30,5% (n = 80) female (age average = 25,62 years). 66% of the participants directed other persons and 34% were subordinates. Data collection was carried out administering a survey designed ad-hoc. Participants were requested to name two effective leaders (man and woman) and to justify their election. They mainly identified male leaders with military people belonging not only to current military population but also those recognized because of their heroic feats. In relation with female leaders, subjects identified religious people, militaries belonging to current military population and politicians. We found differences in assigned characteristics to both prototypes. / El objetivo fue identificar prototipos masculinos y femeninos de liderazgo efectivo en población militar. Participaron 262 sujetos, 69,5% (n = 182) varones y 30,5% (n = 80) mujeres, con edad media de 25,62 años. El 66% tenía personal a cargo y el 34% eran subordinados. Se utilizó una encuesta diseñada ad-hoc donde se solicitaba identificar dos líderes efectivos (un hombre y una mujer) y justificar la elección. Los sujetos identificaron mayormente como líderes varones a militares, tanto de población general como específicos por sus haza-ñas militares. Se observó variabilidad en el resto de categorías. Con relación a líderes mujeres se identificaron líderes religiosas, militares de población general y políticas. Además se hallaron diferencias en las características asignadas a ambos prototipos. Palabras clave: prototipos, liderazgo, género, militar.

abstract: Legislative changes and discussions about the United States falling further and further behind other nations in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) achievement are growing. As they grow, STEM instruction in elementary school has earned its place as a national area of interest in education. In the case of Ivory School District, teachers are being asked to radically change their daily practices by consistently implementing inquiry-based STEM experiences in their classrooms. As such, teachers are being asked to scale a divide between the district expectations and their knowledge and experience. Many fourth grade educators are teachers who have been trained as generalists and typically do not have specific background or experience in the philosophy, instructional strategies, or content associated with STEM. Using a prototype approach, this study aims to understand how such teachers conceptualize STEM instruction and the relationship between their experience and conceptions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2013

M.Ing. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Sc. / The technique known as "Rapid Prototyping" constitutes a technology that is already saving large corporations time and money in respect of prototyping. Currently, Rapid Prototyping machines are, however, still expensive to purchase and maintain. In order to allow more people to make use of Rapid Prototyping machines, certain businesses are specialising in rendering a Rapid Prototyping service. Rapid Prototyping service bureaux render such service by selling machine time. To allow people to make use of the service, designs are submitted across a distance by means of telemanufacturing. To enable a wide variety of users to avail themselves of this service, certain checks and balances must, however, be put into place. These checks and balances must test whether or not a valid job has been submitted, and if so, the submitter has to be assisted in deciding upon settings. In order to submit a job from anywhere in the world, the Internet is harnassed for telemanufacturing. Once remote submission has been made safe and convenient, more businesses and individuals could derive benefit from Rapid Prototyping. This dissertation has, therefore, been undertaken to identify the prerequisites for Rapid Prototyping. Once a job has been submitted, it has to be checked for errors and the user has to be advised on building types and recommendations. For this, an agent is used. In this way, problems are prevented, should faulty jobs be sent to a Rapid Prototyping machine. Once a job has been submitted, it is scheduled by a queue manager in order to maximise machine usage. Rapid Prototyping has the potential in future to become as commonplace as printers. In terms of this technology, a design would, therefore, be printed in three dimensions for instant verification by the user. The very advantage of being able to hold a new product in one's hands is self-evident. The technology that is being developed today will, therefore, be successfully used in future scenarios.

The analysis of gaining, retaining and maintaining customer trust is a highly topical issue in the e-commerce industry to mitigate the challenges of increased competition and volatile customer relationships as an effect of the increasing use of the internet to purchase goods. This study is conducted at the Swedish online fashion retailer NA-KD with the aim of gaining better insight into customer behavior that determines purchases, returns and churn. Therefore, the objectives for this study are to identify the group of loyal customers as well as construct models to predict customer loyalty, frequent returns and customer churn. Two separate approaches are used for solving the problem where a clustering model is constructed to divide the data into different customer segments that can explain customer behaviour. Then a classification model is constructed to classify the customers into the classes of churners, returners and loyal customers based on the exploratory data analysis and previous insights and knowledge from the company. By using the unsupervised machine learning method K-prototypes clustering for mixed data, six clusters are identified and defined as churned, potential, loyal customers and Brand Champions, indecisive shoppers, and high-risky churners. The supervised classification method of bias reduced binary Logistic Regression is used to classify customers into the classes of loyal customers, customers of frequent returns and churners. The final models had an accuracy of 0.68, 0.75 and 0.98 for the three separate binary classification models classifying Churners, Returners and Loyalists respectively.

The role of implicit leadership theories within the framework of transformational and transactional leadership theory were examined. Two major issues were how implicit leadership theories (i.e., good, neutral, poor leader prototype) relate to specific leader behaviors (attributed charisma, idealized influence, individualized consideration, inspirational leadership, contingent reward, management-by-exception active/passive, laissez-faire leadership), and the combined influence of leader prototypes and behaviors on general job satisfaction, satisfaction with supervision, turnover intentions, and extra effort. Results were inconclusive with regard to the notion that leader prototypes and transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leader behaviors are exemplified by a nonrecursive relation. Leader prototypes and specific behaviors combined to influence work outcomes in either a full or partial mediation framework. Most often, the specific behaviors had a strong, direct influence on work outcomes. Leader prototypes indirectly influenced outcomes through the mediation of specific leader behaviors. The results are discussed in terms of the theoretical and practical benefits of actively incorporating implicit leadership theories into the transformational and transactional leadership framework, as well as the theoretical frameworks of other existing leadership models. It is argued that such an approach would result in a greater understanding of the leader-follower relationship and the overall leadership influence process. / Ph. D.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether personal attributes are consistently associated with the emergence of leaders in small groups. Past research on leadership emergence has frequently examined the relationships between individual personal attributes and perceptions of leadership by group members following completion of a single group exercise. The present study extends the literature by taking a multivariate approach to the study of leadership perceptions, by varying group tasks and group membership, and by implementing both perceptual methods of measurement and direct measurement of leadership behavior. One hundred seventy-three undergraduate students participated in small groups to complete two tasks. Participants worked with different group members during each task. The first task emphasized competition and persuasion among group members and the second task emphasized cooperation and information sharing among group members. Following each task, group members rated and ranked all group members on leadership attributes and abilities. Trained observers then coded each of the leader behaviors that occurred during the group interactions and assigned their own objective leadership ranks to the group members. Multiple regression, discriminant analysis, and bivariate correlations revealed that dominance and intelligence were consistently related to both perceptions of leadership by group members and objective observation and coding of leadership behaviors. In addition, perceptions of leadership by group members were found to be related to objective behavioral indices of leadership; thus, a link was created between perceptual and behavioral measures of leadership. In addition, group members who were perceived as possessing prototypical leader traits were consistently identified as the group leaders by group members and trained observers. Implications of the present Study’s results and suggestions for future research in the field of leadership are discussed. / Ph. D.

Leader prototypes are our expectations for attributes a leader should possess, and these prototypes guide our perceptions and judgments of others with regard to leadership. This dissertation uses a connectionist perspective of leadership to investigate differences in perceptions and judgments of male and female leaders, and provides the first empirical test of Hogue and Lord's (2007) model for gender bias in leadership. In Study 1, leader prototypes are investigated as the mediating process through which perceptions of male and female leaders differ. Furthermore, leader and perceiver gender as investigated as contextual and person factors which impact the accessibility of leader prototypes, thus consequently impacting perceptions and judgments of leaders. The use of leader prototypes in remembering a leader's past behaviors reflects the use of a semantic memory system, where the leader behaviors recalled are influenced by our expectations of the leader, rather than whether the leader actually demonstrated those behaviors. Thus, masculine leadership behaviors demonstrated by a female leader may be discounted, and the leader behaviors recalled may be influenced by gender roles. Study 2 investigates an episodic memory intervention to increase the memory accuracy of leader behaviors as a means to reduce biases in judgments of female leaders. Overall, Study 1 results suggest that activation of agentic attributes; specifically tyranny and masculinity are impacted by leader gender, such that the accessibility of those attributes was higher for male leaders. Contrary to predictions, female leaders did not result in greater accessibility of communal attributes in the leader prototype. No impact of perceiver gender was seen on this mediation process. Subsequently, accessibility of these attributes impacts participants' perceptions and judgments of leadership. Study 2 results indicate behavior recognition accuracy of communal behaviors drives participants' negative perceptions and judgments of the female leader. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed. / Ph. D. / Gender bias in leadership perceptions and judgments of leaders is pervasive, and the reasons for this gender bias have been studied from a variety of perspectives. Hogue and Lord (2007) propose that this gender bias can be explained through our leader prototypes, which are our expectations for attributes a leader should have. Various situational and person factors differentially impact the accessibility of attributes in the leader prototype, consequently impacting our perceptions and judgments of leaders. In Study 1, I investigate leader and perceiver gender as factors that impact accessibility of leader prototype attributes. In Study 2, I investigate a memory system intervention targeting the use of episodic memory instead of the default semantic memory, in an attempt to increase the recognition accuracy of a leader‟s behavior, and thus reduce biases in judgments of the leader. Results, limitations, and avenues for future research are discussed.