Thesis advisor: Rebecca Schendel / Organizational culture was originally addressed in the management literature in the late 1970s (e.g. Pettigrew, 1979; Deal & Kennedy, 1982). Scholars have later on extended the discussion to include higher education institutions (e.g. Tierney, 2008). However, the majority of the literature on organizational culture in higher education is based on institutions that follow and are placed within the Western model. Despite the lack of direct evidence, it is fair to suspect that there is a relationship between the culture of an organization and its national/regional context. This study investigates the nature of that relationship and provide real world examples through an in-depth case study on the American University of Madaba (AUM). In evaluating AUM’s organizational culture, this study explores the institution’s organizational identity and its organizational design (the sum of the two, in this study, constitutes the culture of the organization). The data suggests that AUM’s organizational identity holographically (Albert & Whetten, 2004) brings together four different identity pieces: American, Catholic, Jordanian, and not-for-profit. The study concludes that the institution’s focus on its American identity and partial neglect in incorporating its other identity pieces into its organizational design with equal weight lead to a misalignment between its espoused, attributed, shared and aspirational organizational values (Broune & Jenkins, 2013), which ultimately leads to a misalignment between its organizational identity and its organizational design, resulting in what would be generally considered an unhealthy organizational culture (Gulua, 2018). In AUM’s case, this misalignment causes an amended combination of what the literature presents as an expectation gap and a dislocation gap in organizational values (Broune & Jenkins, 2013). However, context-relativity (a crucial concept in this study), with its historical, economic, political, socio-cultural and colonial components, is highly impactful in studying the relationship between AUM’s organizational culture and its national/regional context and impacts our understanding of the initial findings. This study reveals that there is a strong conception in the Middle East that American higher education = good quality (but good quality does not necessarily equal American). Therefore, in the light of context-relativity, AUM’s organizational gaps and the misalignment between its identity and design is not a matter of unauthenticity, but rather lack of options. Being an American institution in the Middle East comes with a market advantage; therefore, such an approach is a way for AUM to survive in a world where global power dynamics carry strong preconceptions about the quality of American higher education. By being American “enough” to maintain its market advantage and being Jordanian “enough” to keep the peace with their students and staff and the surrounding community, AUM, as a young higher education institution, is finding a way to survive and advance its quality in the process. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

This study explores the subject of providing personalized services to mobile users, by exploiting relevant domain knowledge (i.e. contextual information). Although the process of gathering, modelling and processing of context has been extensively researched, there are only a few studies in the literature showing how such context can be effectively utilized to provide services valuable to the general public. Instead, there exist a multitude of examples of services targeted towards specialized audiences, either because the scope of each service is not of broad interest, or because of custom software and/or hardware requirements. Part of the reason why the scope of such services is so narrow can also be attributed to short service life cycle. While all such services offer relative value to interested audiences, we support that contemporary mainstream mobile devices are now more than ever capable of running large-scale context-aware applications as the required combination of hardware and software is available. This licentiate thesis challenges the current state-of-the art in context aware services by proposing an alternative perspective, driven from the appreciation of the user rather than from the ideas of a system designer. The potential impact of this work lies in the set of diverse applications which have been implemented using existing mainstream technology, targeting large and diverse sets of audiences. In order to realize the vision, we have implemented a context-aware system featuring a flexible architecture that is able to scale to the requirements of different services. In order to demonstrate the flexibility of this architecture as well as to prove the aforementioned claims, we have implemented support for two context aware services which have demonstratively had a large appeal to users. These scenarios not only include full implementation and exposure to public use, but they also differ from each other in terms of their functionality: A printing service where the printing resources are scattered within a workspace environment. The system selects the most appropriate printer for a mobile user to print his or her document on, based on the user's location and nature of the document relative to the capabilities of each of the printers. A recommender system service where mobile users are forwarded Web feeds of related interest, based on each user's social signature on the web (i.e. social context). The reader should note the tangible nature of context used in the services above, as context is not only associated - by tradition - with knowledge relative to physical stimuli (e.g. location), but is also related to information present on contemporary media such as the World Wide Web. / QC 20110516

Context information is information that describes the user's context. The goal of the Adaptive Context Aware Services (ACAS) project is to enable applications to use context information in order to adapt their behaviour to the user and his environment without requiring the user to manually change/manage parameters. While the concept of linking context aware entities together to form a logical "context network" was introduced earlier in the project, some questions regarding context information discovery and the discovery of context aware entities were previously unanswered. The goal of this thesis was to design and evaluate such a context network allowing entities todiscover each other and exchange information regarding their services and context information. For this purpose, a "Context Entity Registrar" has been developed allowing entities to register, thus they can easily be found by other entities who can query this registrar. During the design of this proposed solution, a special focus has been given to the performance of the registrar, especially how it scales when answering a large number of requests, in order to validate the design's potential as a solution to context aware entity discovery. Measurements have shown that this proposed solution scales well, making it a key element of a context network. Discovery of other entities and of context information play an important role to determine the performances of a context aware implementation. This masters thesis addresses first the issue of the architecture of the context network and then some tests to measure the performances of the proposed solution. / Context information är information som beskriver användarens omgivning. Adaptive Context Aware Services (ACAS) projektet har som mål att möjliggöra applikationer att använda kontext information för att anpassa sitt beteende till användaren och dess miljö, utan att kräva att användaren ska sätta eller hantera alla parametrar manuellt. ACAS projektet har tidigare infört konceptet "context network" som förbinder context aware enheter. Det finns dock kvar några obesvarade frågor angående upptäckt av context information och av context aware enheter.Trots att sättet att länka ihop kontextmedvetna enheter för att forma ett logiskt 'kontext nätverk' introducerades tidigare i projektet, finns det kvar några obesvarade frågor angående upptäckt av kontext information och upptäckt av kontextmedvetna enheter. Examensarbetets mål är att utforma och utvärdera ett sådant kontextnätverk som ger enheterna möjlighet att upptäcka varandra och utbyta information om tjänster och context information. Därför utvecklades "Context Entity Registrar" så att enheterna kan registrera sig för att kunna bli upptäckta av andra enheter som kan göra förfrågningar till detta register. Under designen av denna föreslagna lösning har särskild fokus lagts på registrens prestanda, speciellt avseende skalbarhet med avseende på antalet förfrågningar for att validera designens potential som lösning för kontextmedveten upptäckt av enheter. Mätningar har visat att lösningen skalar bra vilket gör kontext registret till ett nyckelelement i ett kontextnätverk. Upptäkten av andra enheter och av kontextinformation har en viktig roll i att bestämma en kontextmedveten implementations prestanda. Detta examensarbete kommer först att behandla kontextnätverkets arkitektur och därefter några testerna för att mäta prestanda i den föreslagna lösningen.

Context-aware applications are applications that exploit knowledge of the situation of the user (i.e. the user’s context) to adapt their behavior, thus helping the user achieve his or her daily tasks. Today, the transfer of context information needs to take place over unreliable and dynamically changing networks. Moreover context information may be produced in different devices connected to different networks. These difficulties have limited the development of context-aware applications. This thesis presents a context distribution method exploiting the event notification mechanisms of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), aiming to provide access to context information regardless of where it is produced. The context distribution component presented in this thesis uses SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) to enable context sharing by using a SIP presence server, specifically the SIP Express Router (SER) and its presence module. This context distribution component allows distribution of context information in both synchronous and asynchronous mode. The distribution mode depends on the application requirements for context distribution, as well as the nature and characteristics of the contextinformation. In this thesis, based on system scalability, the user’s mobility, and latency - recommendations are given about in which situations each mode is more suitable for distributing context information. The system was evaluated using a load generator. The evaluation revealed that the server is highly scalable. The response time for synchronous retrieval of context information is nearly constant, while in asynchronous mode the time to process a subscription increases with the amount of information in the database regarding previous subscriptions. Notifications are sent at a regular rate (≈2800 notifications per second); however there is a purposely random delay (0 to 1 second), between an update of context information (i.e. receipt of a publish message) and the start of notifications to subscribed users. The requirements of the context-aware applications using the distribution component, such as response time, have to be taken into account when deciding upon the mode of context distribution for each application. This thesis provides some empirical data to help an application developer make this selection. / Kontext-medvetna (eng. Context-aware) applikationer är applikationer som utnyttjar information om användarens situation (d.v.s. användarens kontext) och förändrar applikationens beteende i syfte att hjälpa användaren i dennes vardagliga arbetsuppgiften. Idag överförs kontextuell-information (eng. context information) i nätverk som är opålitliga och dynamiskt föränderliga. Därtill tillkommer komplexiteten att kontextuell-information är ibland producerad i olika noder anslutna till olika nätverk.Utvecklingen av kontext-medvetna applikationer har hittills begränsats av ovannämnda svårigheter. Denna avhandling presenterar en metod för att distribuera kontextuell-information genom användning av mekanismer för händelsemeddelande (eng. event notification mechanisms) inbyggda i Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Målet är att undersöka hur metoden kan användas för att möjliggöra tillgång till kontextuell-information oavsett vart den är producerad. Komponenten för distribution av kontextuell data, som presenteras i denna uppsats, använder SIP för direktmeddelanden (eng. Instant Messaging) och tekniken “Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE)” för datadelning av kontextuell data (eng. Context sharing). För detta ändamål används SIP närvaroserver (eng. SIP presence server), mer specifikt modulen för närvaroinformation tillhörande SIP Expressroutrar (SER). Komponenten för distribution av kontextuell information möjliggör både synkront och asynkront distribution. Valet mellan de två beror delvist på applikationens kravspecifikation för distribution av kontextuell information, delvist på typen av den kontextuella informationen. Baserat på systemet skalbarhet (eng. Scalability), användarens rörlighet och latens (eng. latency) kan man ge rekommendationer vilken av de två distributionssätten, synkront eller asynkront, som är lämpligast för distributionen av kontextuell information. Systemet utvärderades med hjälp av ett program som genererar belastning (eng. load generator). Resultaten visar att systemet är mycket skalbart. Responstiden för synkront åtkomst av kontextuell information är nästan konstant, medan responstiden för asynkront åtkomst ökar med informationsmängden i databasen, i respekt till den föregående prenumerationen av kontextändringar. Händelsemeddelande skickas regelbundet ( 2800 meddelande per sekund). Vi har dock medvetet valt att skapa en slumpmässigt dröjsmål (0 till 1 sekund) mellan varje uppdatering av kontextuell information (t.ex. en kvitto på en Publish-meddelande) och den tidpunkten då händelsemeddelande skickas till de användare som prenumererar på ändringarna. För utvecklingen av varje kontext-medveten applikation, som distribuerar kontextuell information måste man ta hänsyn till responstid vid beslut huruvida man ska välja synkront eller asynkront sätt för distribution. Denna uppsats ger empirisk data som hjälper applikationsutvecklare i detta val.

Issues surrounding the contextual environment in which strategic decisions are made are difficult concepts to grasp, particularly for undergraduate students with little business experience. They are also problematic for graduate students that have not been called on to make such decisions within their career. The authors propose an exercise that blends many elements of decision making under uncertainty and risk. Students are placed in an environment in which their own choice may differ from that of the team, but in which the team's performance will have explicit implications on their individual performance and rewards. The exercise incorporates team dynamics and problem-solving capabilities in a temporally and competitively constrained environment.

No description available.

Alcohol addiction is a big public health issue and is the reason to why this study was made. Main focus of the study was a sociocultural perspective of learning. Results show that the way to handle an addiction is a lifelong learning process. To be able to recover from an alcohol addiction the addict must face a consequence that has an impact on the addict to make them want to change their ways, and is often health related or that the addict’s social environment is affected.  These consequences often contribute to an insight to the addict, that their behavior is untenable and a decision is gradually made by the addict with their social network, consisting of family and friends. To be able to maintain sober the addict is in great need of support and acceptance from their loved ones but also from society. The aim of the study was to evaluate which factors play an important role in the addict’s life when battling an addiction thru a sociocultural perspective of learning. The empirical data was collected through five interviews with people that had competence regarding addiction.

No description available.

The investigation examines the effects of three contexts (strong easily discriminable colors, shifting strong to weak colors, and a homogeneous white background) on cue selection in a paired associate study. Stimuli employed were high similarity consonant-consonant-consonant trigrams, and the responses were high imagery value nouns. Each S learned two lists.

Values and valuing behavior have many conceptualizations. Despite how they are defined, values have a significant impact on behavior and are idiosyncratic in nature. The present study reviewed values research and sought to explore values identification and successful valued living among an archived sample of university students. Specifically, in a convenience sample of 282 undergraduate students, variables that affect values identification and behavior such as ethnicity, gender, psychological distress, and psychological flexibility were identified. Results indicated that university students identified with more than one valued living domain (as measured by the PVQ) and that contextual factors such as ethnicity, gender, age, and religiosity/spirituality were associated with specific values endorsed. Furthermore, psychological distress, including depression and anxiety (as measured by the DASS) was negatively correlated with values purity – the extent to which values are freely chosen. Finally, psychological flexibility (low experiential avoidance as measured by the AAQ-2), predicted values purity and successful living in accordance with identified values, and the relationship between these two variables was mediated by psychological flexibility.