Thesis (M.S. in Computer Science)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2006. / Thesis Advisor(s): Neil C. Rowe. "March 2006." Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-56). Also available online.

Robert G. Gallager. / "January 1982" / "ONR/N00014-75-C-1183" "NSF/ECS 79-20834"

Robert I. Benjamin, Charles Dickinson, Jr., John F. Rockart. / "March 1984." / Bibliography: p. 23.

Thomas W. Malone. / "August 1985." / Bibliography: p. 36-40.

<p> The leadership styles and behaviors of African American women executives across multiple economic sectors were studied using an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach. Senior leaders from six of the following sectors Academia, Business, Government, Law, Military, and Nonprofit were surveyed using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to quantitatively assess their leadership styles and behaviors. A subset of survey respondents from each sector were interviewed one-on-one to provide contextual details regarding their MLQ results, and to elicit additional perspectives on leadership styles in general and the development of their individual style in particular. </p><p> The preponderance of the relatively limited published studies on the leadership attributes of African American women have involved one or more of the following design methodologies: (a) use of qualitative methods, (b) focus on a single sector of the economy, (c) inclusion of a range of leadership positions from middle to senior management within their sample size, and (d) exploration of the obstacles and barriers encountered by the women during their journey to leadership. </p><p> The purpose of the present research augmented the scope and results of the previous work. MLQ data from a numerically significant sample of executives, coupled with the interview narratives, potentially provided the necessary quantitative and qualitative underpinnings to support and/or reshape findings from the past studies. Expanding the scope to include leaders from different sectors furnished insight into potential sector-specific influences on leadership styles; and tightening of the sampling process to include only senior-level leaders in organizations reduced experimental variability and insured a pool of participants with extensive leadership experience. The obstacles and barriers facing African American women leaders received the most attention in prior studies and therefore is not a key focus of this work. However, salient information gleaned from interviews concerning their impact on leadership styles have been reported.</p><p> It is expected that the data and information from this study has yielded a more comprehensive evaluation of the leadership styles and behaviors of these African American women executives in particular, and potentially enabled meaningful comparisons with previously published findings on such leadership characteristics in general.</p>

<p> The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the work experiences of foreign-born, first-generation Latino immigrants with regard to cultural diversity and inclusion initiatives to obtain a holistic understanding of their experiences and facilitate their achievements in the organization. Based upon the review of the existing literature regarding Latinos and the outcomes of interviewing 24 participants (13 females and 11 males) in this research study, there are ample opportunities to conduct future empirical studies. The results of this study show the challenges first-generation Latino immigrants faced in the workplace and the importance for organizations with a diverse workforce to foster a more inclusive work environment for Latino immigrants. There is growing evidence that diversity and inclusion initiatives are critical for multicultural organizations. However, the results organizations have achieved and their efforts to create an inclusive workplace for Latino immigrants have been dissatisfactory thus far (Cox Jr., 2011). The methodology applied in this study was a qualitative approach to reflect the essence of the phenomenon studied. Results from this research found 14 family units and four major themes. These themes described how first-generation Latino immigrants understood and defined diversity and inclusion, their positive and negatives perceptions in the work environment, workplace challenges they faced, and their insights on organizational development. Additionally, this research discovered how interviewed participants were excluded by others and by themselves in the workplace. Lastly, this research study contributes to the literature and to the field by offering information that would eventually promote a better understanding of Latino immigrants and a more inclusive environment that encourages belongingness, uniqueness, and a constructive work experience for Latino immigrants. </p>

<p>Rapid global urbanization over the last few decades has intensified the challenge of providing adequate water and sanitation services to urban residents. Meeting this challenge has been the focus of domestic and international development efforts, including Millennium Development Goal 7.C. This research studies three institutional and governance attributes theorized to improve government service outcomes, testing hypotheses that the attributes are associated with greater country progress on providing urban water and sanitation access. The attributes are: a) decentralized services; b) sector-wide strategy and investment coordination; and c) civil society engagement. Country-level experience is analyzed using a series of ordered logistic regression models for a sample of 75 low- and middle-income countries. UN GLAAS survey data is used to derive country-specific variables for the three attributes. These, along with control variables representing country background conditions, are analyzed relative to four country progress outcome variables, two each for water and sanitation. The outcome variables, (covering the 2000 to 2012 time period), are derived from the UN JMP dataset that tracks urban access rates by country. Based on results from these models, four country case studies look in-depth at implementation of the attributes and highlight aspects that can help or impede country progress. Overall, findings show that decentralization is helpful to sanitation progress, but not water progress, likely due limitations of capacity and funding faced by sub-national levels of government. Three explanations are proposed for why decentralization may impact water and sanitation differently. Results for sector planning were mostly inconclusive, except that it was shown helpful to water progress over the 12-year period. Study of this attribute would benefit from additional wide-scale data collection. Civil society engagement was consistently shown to help country progress in both water and sanitation, and several examples of engagement are profiled to demonstrate how it can improve service outcomes. The last chapter relates findings to theories about government provision of public goods. The extent to which the three attributes help achieve efficiency, supply, equity, and social welfare goals is discussed. Finally, practical recommendations for strengthening sector institutions and governance are presented with application to governments and international aid donors.

No description available.

<p> Water quality perception is borne out of various factors, which include taste, risk perception, water chemical and microbial parameters, trust in supplier, among others. This study addressed some of the factors that influence drinking water quality perception in the SIUE community for tap and bottled water. This was done through a survey that was delivered to the students, faculty, administration, staff, and alumni members of the university; a link to the online survey was provided via the school email, and a total number of 779 respondents participated in the survey. Some of the variables used in this study are based on general concern for taste, cost, water-chemicals (such as lead), drinking water behavior as well as demographic variables such as age, knowledge level and ethnicity. This study is based on data received from the survey conducted of the SIUE population for undergraduates, graduates, faculty, staff, administration, and alumni. Data were analyzed using several statistical methods including Spearman rank correlation coefficient and Kruskal-Wallis test. The results indicated that age and ethnicity have a significant impact on water quality perception. Drinking water behavior, age, and knowledge are well correlated in this study; therefore, they were not able to be separated.</p><p>

The principal aim of this study was to obtain an understanding of the relative importance of emotion management for the Swiss private higher education sector, and for the lecturing profession in general. Extant literature has focused on the emotion management of teachers and lecturers working in the public sector but has somewhat overlooked the private higher education sector. A single case study design was selected for this research, which consisted of a well-established and highly regarded Swiss private higher education institute. Focus groups were conducted with three groups of faculty staff at the case institute. This was followed up by eleven individual interviews. Thematic analysis was then used to analyse the data, resulting in the identification of several core themes. The findings show that emotion management is an essential element of the lecturing profession within the Swiss private higher education sector. There was evidence of emotional labour in action, with participants enacting the various emotion regulation strategies as espoused throughout the literature. This study identified that ‘naturally felt emotions’ and ‘deep acting’ were the preferred emotion regulation strategies. The prescriptive and philanthropic categories of the typology of workplace emotion were found to be the primary motivators behind the faculty performance. This thesis has made strides in expanding the field by providing new insights into the relevance of emotion management for professional occupations, specifically those of faculty staff. Overall, participants reported more positive than negative outcomes associated with emotion management, suggesting less of a dichotomy of outcomes in comparison to previous studies. The findings show that a number of contextual factors also have an influence on the emotion management of individual lecturers. Backstage areas and humour were found to be the most common coping strategies which participants used to detach from the job. Unexpectedly, cultural diversity was considered as having implications for the emotion management of lecturers. The research findings represent a further step towards developing an understanding of emotions and their management in a private higher education setting.