<p> National security depends on having skilled professionals leading their organizations through the preparation, mitigation, response and recovery phases of an emergent situation. The Certified Protection Professional (CPP) credential is the current yardstick that attempts to codify and measure the knowledge and competencies required for security leadership. Does the attainment of this industry credential provide adequate proof (or evidence) of proficiency of the required security leadership knowledge and competencies? During an adverse situation, it is too late to learn that the security leader does not possess the knowledge and competencies required for success. </p><p> This mixed-methods research explored the required knowledge and competency expectations of security leadership and the claims made by the leading security industry credential. The research included an extensive literature review, an evaluative study of recent security leader job descriptions, and the development and validation of a novel survey instrument designed to capture the perceptions of security leaders regarding the knowledge and competencies required for success. The survey instrument also identified the type of proof (or evidence) preferred to adequately demonstrate proficiency of the knowledge and competencies. </p><p> This research validated the CPP knowledge requirements and identified 19 key competencies necessary for security leadership. The results indicated that security leaders agree that proof of proficiency is required, and that they would prefer a certification assessment scheme with a higher level of job fidelity than the current multiple-choice test format within the CPP framework. The survey instrument provided quantitative information in support of the findings. Opportunities for improvement to security industry policy and practice are suggested along with recommendations for future research agendas.</p>

<p> This case study examines response to organizational change and the structuring interactions between knowledgeable agents and organizational context. The conceptual framework for this study combines Piderit&rsquo;s (2000) concept of multidimensional resistance to change and Stones&rsquo; (2005) strong structuration theory in order to investigate external and internal structures and active agency. The research site was a small regional hospital within a large mid-Atlantic health system. The health system introduced a new online reporting system (ORS) in February 2014. This empirical study examined the file manager&rsquo;s response to ORS change within the organization. Data was collected through observations, documents and interviews with the health system leadership, ORS change agents, and file managers. Stones&rsquo; (2005) methodological bracketing approach guided the data collection and analysis. </p><p> The study identified the organizational contextual features that shaped the file managers response to organizational change. The findings present the structuring interactions between the internal and external structures as displayed through the active agency of the file managers. By examining the active agency between structures, five primary structuring interactions were identified as shaping the file managers&rsquo; response to the ORS change: (1) alignment of values, (2) prioritization, (3) influence, (4) engagement, and (5) managing tension. This study demonstrated that structuring interactions influence the active agency of the file managers related to the ORS change, and shaped file managers multidimensional response to the ORS change across cognitive, emotional, intentional and behavioral dimensions.</p>

<p> This qualitative study on fun in the workplace explored the phenomenon from a new vantage point, the individual&rsquo;s experience of a management-sponsored fun event across a time horizon. The research in the field has sought understanding of fun by identifying different ways employees have fun at work, categorizing the sources of fun at work, and progressing toward a more unified definition of what fun in the workplace encompasses. This study accepted the existing research linking fun in the workplace to improved engagement, improved retention rates, applicant attraction, and many other beneficial organizational outcomes. Notwithstanding all these benefits, the qualitative research has issued warnings about management-sponsored fun in the workplace, proposing that it can foster cynicism and negativity at the same time it is creating more positive outcomes. This study aimed to add to the body of research by exploring the individual experience of fun in the workplace across a time horizon. To do this, this study gathered descriptions from employees about their thoughts and feelings before, during, and after the experience of a management-sponsored fun event. The data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews of 28 individuals at four different mid-sized companies. Through a thematic analysis of these data four findings are presented: participants experience an anticipatory period before fun events; they articulate the importance of breaking with the mundane and deeper connections with coworkers; they perceive a manifestation of organization values at these events; and they exhibit very minimal evidence of cynicism or negativity related to these events. Implications for organizations and future researchers are proposed.</p><p>

<p> This study explored how middle managers experienced and responded to role ambiguity after they transitioned from previous roles well understood by the individuals and their role sets to new or redefined middle manager roles in high knowledge-based organizations (HKBO) that had undergone planned organizational changes. The study found that even in HKBOs where knowledge workers are the predominant workforce and change is constant, organizational change had significant negative impacts on middle managers. Their role transitions were found to be difficult and of negative valence when their preferred work role identities were challenged when in-role expectations were changed or by their new role requirements, which were often unclear, conflicting, or overlapping with other roles, leading to role ambiguity. Actions taken to resolve the sources of ambiguity such as the exercise of autonomy and working closely with their bosses to clarify expectations were ineffective without the support of the greater organization. Individuals found these impacts to be unsettling and to require significant identity work to redefine their work role identities. The key finding was that while externally they presented a work role identity that was accepted by their role set as consistent with the new role, internally they rejected that identity and maintained their preferred work role identity. This dual condition was seen to be persistent, indicating that these alternative identities can co-exist through construction of a coherent identity narrative that reconciles the differences and justifies the maintenance of the preferred work role identity while exercising a different role. Future longitudinal studies could explore how HKBO knowledge workers and middle managers are able to maintain this duality of work role identity and for how long. Also, for those who have successfully transitioned to new preferred work role identities, studies could assess how new learning was involved and how identity narrative was employed.</p><p>

The purpose of the study was to ascertain the effect of an Applied Group Dynamic experience on the personal and professional lives of selected graduate students. A questionnaire addressing biographical background, the experience itself, and questions about leadership and course design was designed, pre-tested, and then utilized. One hundred persons were surveyed, 52 (16 men and 36 women) responded. Responses were examined within the context of four variable categories, age, gender, minority status, and quality of experience. The average age for both men and women in the sample is forty-one and the age range is from 28 to 57. There are 12 minority respondents (all women) of which 9 are Afro-American. Chi-square tests were conducted to determine the level of significance of apparent differences among groups. The responses to the various survey questions were, overall, positive, even from those who found the experience stressful. Almost all the learnings and skills acquired are reported as useful five years later. More than two thirds of the respondents gained confrontational skills, learned about power and control, and self-disclosure, became more self-aware, and felt that their perspective had been enlarged. Two-thirds have used their learnings in both personal and professional/work life. More than half of the respondents had learnings about race and learned new communication skills. The minority group, all women, differed significantly from the non-minority women rating the experience higher in reflection than the non-minority women, and reported significantly greater learnings about social issues, especially race, gender issues, and woman's issues. A significantly higher percentage acquired communication skills and learnings about power and control and experienced greater spiritual growth. A significant percentage of both the older respondents and the neutral/negative group were critical of leadership. (The neutral/negative group wanted more support.) A higher percentage of men than women reported positive experiences and experienced more learnings in every area surveyed. Those who had a very good experience in every area reported significantly greater learnings than those who had a neutral or negative experience. These results suggest that a positive group experience is important for acquired learning and learning transfer over time.

M.Phil. / The important role that research and development (R&D) plays in the economic well being of a nation, and by implication the profitability of a business enterprise, has long been recognized. In this era, in which the world live in turbulent times, technology advances at an ever-increasing pace and customers needs are constantly changing. Global competition has reached unprecedented levels. Globalisation brings new economic powers and opportunities constantly. The global marketplace has emerged as a battlefield of the world, were many competitors are fighting for a share. These factors urge the need more than ever for new products, processes and services to be able to enter this battlefield and emerge as a victorious. The way to these new products, processes and services is the adaptation of an effective program of R&D. It is therefore important to appreciate the many aspects of the R&D function, which is the subject of this work. This research stresses the benefits that R&D brings to the nation and what measures that nation can adopt to promote R&D programs. The work also stresses the importance of R&D to private firms, and how the performance of such firms is linked to their use of technology and to the intensity of their R&D programs. Firms sustain economic growth and secure a competitive position by creating new products and new services, and these are the natural results of the R&D process. In the course of executing their R&D programs, firms are faced with many barriers and constraints that impede successful R&D activities. Many barriers have been identified and classified into different categories. Firms function in different environments, have different sizes, and different affiliations, hence it is difficult to suggest that there is a fixed set of R&D management practices that will fit all kinds of firms. In this research many general R&D management practices are recommended, which if implemented may lead to a successful R&D results. R&D is one of the important functions of the business; hence its strategy should be a natural extension of the business and should support this strategy. The concept of business strategy and why firms need to develop business strategy are discussed. Also elements needed to develop a best R&D strategy are recommended.

<p> The Department of Defense, at the time of this study, had over 38 combat Forward Operating Bases (FOB) with both U.S. military and non-military personnel residing and engaged in the mission. Also in these FOBs, are local nationals of the countries, who are employed to perform certain duties in these FOBs after having had certain security and medical background checks. However, while on military mission in Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries between 2009 and 2011, this researcher, observed and detected more than once, local nationals (LNs), Afghans, with certain infectious skin conditions working in the DIFACs (dining facilities) at major FOBs, serving food to soldiers inside the base. These LNs reside outside the FOB facility and gain entrance into the FOB daily, passing through already set security parameters put in place by the Department of Defense (DoD). There are Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP) to prevent or mitigate Person-borne Improvised Explosive Device (PBIED), Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED), and to also respond to, or recover from, Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, and Nuclear (CBRN) attacks on FOBs. Researcher is unaware of any TTP specific for HB-BA terrorist, capable of detecting, deterring or destroying a terrorist with bioagents breaching a combat post ECP; nor the training of soldiers of how to conduct a search on a bio-agent (BA) &ndash; or even what a bio-agent would look like if they found one. The purpose of this research was to determine whether there are current military counter bioterrorism measures in place to combat a human-borne with a bioagent (HB-BA) terrorist attempting to breach a combat FOB at the ECP, and how effective they are. </p><p> To accomplish this, a survey tool had to be developed and employed to determine the perceptions about the effectiveness of current ECP TTPs in detecting, deterring preventing, and mitigating a HBBA terrorist at the ECP, from military personnel. A survey tool (questionnaire) was developed, validated, and subjected to a reliability testing using Cronbach&rsquo;s Alpha on a mix-method cross sectional survey, a pretest. Results showed a Cronbach&rsquo;s Alpha of 0.82 and 0.89 for the survey&rsquo;s two constructs. Also, 92.3% of respondents had recently been in combat deployment. All of them claimed that bioterrorism is very possible, but 61.5% believe it is either very possible or possible for a terrorist with a bioagent (BA) to successfully breach a FOB ECP. Only 3.8% felt that it would be impossible to breach the FOB ECP with a bioagent. Similarly, only 28% of respondents surveyed believe that current ECP TTPs are effective against a BA, 48% believe that current CBRN TTPs are either not effective, or somewhat effective, against BA at the ECP. In conclusion, the preliminary study, indicated that combat FOBs are vulnerable to breach by human-borne with BA terrorist at the ECP, as there exists no currently effective ECP TTP that could detect, deter or destroy a terrorist with a biological agent at a combat FOB ECP.</p>

<p> In the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the role of the local police has undergone a continual expansion process that has become a vital component in safeguarding our national security. Despite numerous technological advancements in intelligence operations, the local police remains the only 24/7 emergency operations entity that is capable of gathering intelligence, investigating, mobilizing operations, and apprehending threats to our nation. With this expanded role in national security, police leadership and management is faced with increased levels of accountability, including the safeguarding of critical infrastructure in their respective jurisdictions, often without financial commitments and resources acquisitions. This qualitative study served to address the local police as a component of national security through five police chiefs&rsquo;/directors&rsquo; perceptions of their roles in safeguarding critical infrastructure, examining their perceptions as they pertain to their current delivery mission model, through interviews and the development of pervasive themes. Themes from the data were well-saturated, as well as overarching, and emerged as follows: (a) critical infrastructure (CI) identification, (b) policy and patrol practice, (c) police officer knowledge, (d) technology impacts on critical infrastructure, and (e) budget. Identification regarding the relationships between local police and civil/national security, leadership/management and policy were made that suggest changes and sweeping support for future frameworks. The paper concludes with a discussion of the research, along with recommendations for policy, practice and future research.</p>

<p> From classic to contemporary leadership theory, scholars stress the need for leaders to achieve success through the productivity of their subordinates. The police executive position choice is arguably more important because of the constitutional powers that police officers possess on a daily basis. Officers have the ability to restrict one&rsquo;s liberty and even use deadly force if necessary. </p><p> The critical first step in the selection process is to identify competencies necessary for effectiveness at the executive level. Similar studies have addressed this question, yet the competencies measured are often validated by scholars and police executives themselves. The purpose of this study was to increase this criterion validity further, comparing those competencies with perceptions from both executives and the subordinates they seek to lead as well as to create a more comprehensive competency model that is in accordance with the tenets of contemporary leadership theory, by examining the traits that police subordinates consider imperative for sustained success. </p><p> Participants for this study consisted of 28 police executives and 145 subordinates (approximately a 5:1 ratio, subordinates to executives, respectively). An independent samples t test was utilized to compare the means between the two samples and a Cronbach&rsquo;s alpha test was performed to ascertain construct validity and internal consistency. </p><p> The findings indicate some competency perception rating disparities between the two sample populations. While there was a reliable relationship for most of the competencies measured, these statistically significant disparities could prove essential in the construction of a more comprehensive, police executive competency paradigm. Implications of these findings, as well as recommendations for policy, practice, and future research are all discussed in this study.</p>

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