Thesis: M.B.A., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2019, In conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT / Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2019, In conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-66). / The principle driver of maintenance costs for commercial jet engines is the replacement of components that, upon inspection, are determined to be damaged beyond their repairable limits. In order to better predict the lifetime cost of maintaining engines through its flight hour agreement program, Pratt & Whitney aims to predict the probability of needing to replace these parts using information about how an engine has been used. Using historical repair records, we study a suite of statistical models and evaluate their performance in predicting part replacement rates. Despite a preference for interpretable models, we conclude that a random forest approach provides drastically more accurate predictions. We also consider the wider business implications of improved part replacement predictions, particularly as they pertain to forecasting material requirements and reducing volatility upstream in the supply chain. / by Eamonn Samuel Shirey. / M.B.A. / S.M. / M.B.A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management / S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Thesis: M.B.A., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2018 / Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2018 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 61-64). / The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) operates and maintains 48,000 miles of natural gas pipeline, serving over 4.3 million customer accounts. Along with water, electric power, and transportation services, these lifelines serve critical functions throughout multiple communities. Considering PG&E provides services in both densely populated and seismically active areas, the organization has invested extensively in modeling technology to help estimate resource needs and develop resiliency plans in the event of an earthquake. This thesis aimed to develop a damage prediction model to improve emergency response time and restoration efficiency. The machine-learning based model built upon currently used predictive algorithms, while adding features necessary to account for distribution branch lines and above-ground meter sets. Research and analysis showed factors beyond ground-motion prediction equations could be used to estimate pipeline damage and were consequently included. / Furthermore, the model incorporated real-time data acquired throughout repair and restoration efforts in order to improve the predictive performance. Historical incidents were examined in the data aggregation phase in order to develop the training set. For this paper, damage was defined as the number of leaks predicted in a given plat, as defined by PG&E's mapping services. Leaks were categorized in three separate bins, ranging from 0 leaks, 1 to 5 leaks, and 6 or greater leaks. Multiple classification algorithms were chosen and evaluated against a custom scoring metric designed to discriminate and penalize false negatives. The best results were achieved using a series of five logistic regression algorithms, executed at 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 hours following event occurrence. Results were designed to accompany currently used seismic hazard reports in a ranked table, displaying areas with the highest to lowest probability of experiencing damage. / An additional web application was designed to query specific plats for prediction results. / by Steven B. Link. / M.B.A. / S.M. / M.B.A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management / S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Lack of employee commitment affects the overall practice in healthcare organizations and can cause a disruption in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities who are receiving care. Researchers have demonstrated that increasing employee commitment and decreasing employee turnover are related to employee commitment in healthcare organizations. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies that leaders of an intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities in the northwestern United States used to enhance employee commitment. Meyer and Herchovitch's model of employee commitment was the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collecting from semistructured interviews with 2 home managers and 1 area supervisor of a healthcare facility with experience in employee commitment. Data were transcribed, analyzed, and coded for themes and subthemes; data validity was established using member checking of the findings for accuracy and credibility. Three main themes emerged from the data analysis: organizations' healthcare insurance, bonuses, and teamwork. Healthcare leaders might implement the findings of this study to increase and develop employee commitment, improve profitability and sustainability, improve patient care, and improve safety to bring about a positive and effective social change to benefit patients, families, and communities.

The purpose of this research was to understand the contexts that support the barriers to women’s advancement and to identify the conditions under which women leaders overcome the barriers to attain top corporate leadership positions. I have identified and discussed three distinct approaches for understanding how we can increase women’s representation and influence in the executive and director ranks within top U.S. corporations. The first approach investigates the complexities of leveraging the social and cultural capital attained through post-secondary education in order gain entry into the corporate elite. The second approach examines gendered stereotypes of risk-taking versus the organizational risk-taking realities that are inherent in women corporate leaders’ climb to the top. The final approach considers the impact of external pressures in increasing the prevalence, power and influence of women corporate directors. Findings reveal some of the complexity in both the antecedents and consequences of gender diversity within top leadership of large U.S. firms. Taken together, the results convey the organizational and societal contexts that lead to more diverse corporate leadership.

Considerable research has been conducted over time on possible gender differences, with varying results regarding the existence and/or degree of differences. In particular, research on differences in leadership practices of men and women have abounded since the 1970s as women began to make their way into management and supervisory positions. In todays work force, several generations can be found working together within a single work setting. Possibly, differences in leadership may be more generational than gender related; however, little research has considered both gender and generation as variables. This study adds to literature relating to the existence of gender and/or generational differences in leadership through a quantitative study enhanced with follow-up interviews conducted within four Florida counties. Quantitative results revealed no statistically significant gender or generational differences in perceived leadership practices of elementary school administrators. However, interviews revealed that perception of both gender and generational differences exists among practicing school administrators. The results suggest that school districts have succeeded in "teaching old dogs new tricks." This implication is supported in the interview responses whereby all of the participants indicated that in-service training and professional development were key factors that influenced their leadership practices, possibly minimizing gender and/or generational differences in leadership practices. The differing results from the interview responses imply that school districts may need to provide more opportunities for school leaders to engage in dialogue about their practices, thus providing peer administrators with a more accurate picture of their colleagues practices. Further research on the opportunities school leaders are afforded to engage dialogue with their peers about their practices may provide further insight into the interview responses in this study. The size of the school district should be a variable of interest in further research on this topic. Continued research on gender and generational leadership differences may include a larger sample population, secondary school leaders, peer perceptions, and subordinate perceptions.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2019 / Thesis: M.B.A., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 122-123). / Boeing is the prime contractor for building the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Launch System (SLS) core stage for upcoming exploration missions beyond low earth orbit. Due to the rigorous demands of safety on crew-rated spacecraft, the entire vehicle undergoes captive hot-fire testing before being delivered to NASA for actual flight operations. The hot-fire test is controlled by a suite of computers used to control the rocket segment and critical infrastructure interactions during the test. The complexity of the software and hardware used to control the test makes it difficult for traditional safety approaches to identify potentially unsafe system interactions by focusing only on component failures rather than overall system interactions. Traditional chain-of-failure safety analyses and reviews take significant resources and time to conduct while leaving possible gaps. This thesis discusses a method for analyzing safety of rocket test controllers by characterizing key indicators and developing a systems-based approach for hazard analysis using Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA). A resulting case study is applied for examination of a portion of the rocket testing controller system for comparison to traditional chain-of-failure events analyses. Appling STPA in the case-study resulted in 83% of the total work time needed to complete a comparable "ascent phase" analysis using FMEA. The STPA results are the same or meet a similar intent to those resolved in the FMEA with not gaps between the two methods. The recommended mitigation and constraints resulting from STPA are arguably more intuitive than those of the FMEA. / by Jeremy Paquin. / S.M. / M.B.A. / S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics / M.B.A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

The enactment of teacher leadership can be challenged by both policy initiatives and school contexts (Anderson & Cohen, 2015; Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). However, teachers can have a positive influence on each other and their broader school community by building capacity for leadership, innovation, and student achievement through the relationships, or networks, they develop and maintain (Baker-Doyle, 2015; Hovardas, 2016; Hunzicker, 2012; Moolenaar, Sleegers, & Daly, 2012). This single exploratory case study takes place in a Title I elementary school and uses a combination of Social Network Analysis and content analysis to uncover patterns in teacher professional networks, the context in which they exist, and teachers’ perceptions of the influence of these networks on their sense of themselves as teacher leaders. The study focuses on four constructs: teacher leadership, teacher efficacy, instructional innovation, and professional networks. The concept of social capital is used to explore the connection between networks and teacher leadership. Symbolic interactionism frames the analysis of the nature of relationships that emerge within these networks. Findings indicate that teachers linked their identities as leaders with a culture of leadership, exchange of advice, shared values, and high expectations for themselves and their students. Interview responses demonstrated they believed in their collective capacity to accomplish a shared mission of student achievement; they trusted in and supported each other through their professional networks.

<p>The purpose of this study was to investigate the consumers’ behaviours towards the</p><p>distributors’ brands. The aim was to find out what were the most important criteria of the</p><p>marketing mix for a consumer in his buying process that make him choose between a</p><p>distributor’s brand and a leader’s brand.</p><p>In order to achieve that, a theoretical framework has been established about the distributors’</p><p>brands, their different types, their management compared to the one of the leaders’ brands,</p><p>then about the consumers, their relation towards the distributors’ brands, their personal</p><p>implication in the brand, and their role, and also the theory of the marketing mix has been</p><p>exposed.</p><p>A quantitative research was applied. The questionnaire focused on every customer leaving,</p><p>after purchases, from Carrefour and Casino in Montpellier. All economic and social status and</p><p>lifestyles were interesting to study.</p><p>12 questions were asked to each customer, and 100 of them fully answered.</p><p>The results of the study were that the price still is the most important criterion for the</p><p>consumers in their buying decisions. The attractive price is the reason.</p><p>But it was discovered that the quality became a real significant element for the consumers.</p><p>The principal conclusion was that consumers still didn’t trust enough the products from the</p><p>distributors’ brands, and that the price wasn’t anymore the only criterion to take into account.</p><p>It was suggested that the distributors’ brands could reinforce their performances if they give</p><p>more priority to the quality.</p>

The purpose of this study was to assess the self-perceptions of leadership skill development and attitudes of experienced collegiate sophomore student leaders who elected to take an undergraduate collegiate leadership course. Leadership attitude, for the purpose of this study, consisted of one's group or leader orientation. The five leadership skills studied were working in groups, positional leadership, communication, decision-making, and understanding self. A post-then methodology was utilized with self-reporting as the process by which data was collected following completion of an academic leadership course. The major findings of this study were as follows: After the semester course, there were no significant differences among sophomore student leaders regarding their attitude toward the construct leadership orientation and their attitude toward the construct group orientation. In addition, the sophomore student leaders who completed the academic leadership course displayed a self-perceived increase in their ability to work in groups, work in positions of leadership, communicate, make decisions, and in their awareness of self. No relationship was found between the self-reported attitudes on leader or group orientation of sophomore student leaders with the amount of high school leadership courses that were completed. No statistically significant relationship was found between the self-reported attitudes on group orientation of sophomore student leaders and the amount of leadership activities in which the subjects participated in high school. A statistically significant positive relationship was found between the self-reported attitudes on leader orientation of sophomore student leaders and the amount of leadership activity participation in high school. No statistically significant relationship was found between the post-class self-perceptions of the leadership skills of sophomore student leaders and their high school leadership education. A statistically significant relationship was found between the self-perceived communication skills of sophomore student leaders and the amount of leadership activities completed in high school. The more high school leadership activities in which students participated, the less confidence the students perceived in their communication skills. Statistical analysis failed to reveal a relationship between an attitude of group orientation and any one type of leadership skill.

Abstract Problem: Leadership studies have mostly concerned top management. However, as many researchers suggest, middle management has a great impact on the success of an organization, especially in change when they need to take on the role as a leader. Successful leaders motivate employees, and within the public sector they need to use non-financial means. In addition, the publicsector’s management is perceived to be insufficient. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe the middle managers role in a public sector organization and how they motivate their employees. Method: In order to answer our purpose, we have chosen to use a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews with six middle managers and six employees at three different local offices of Arbetsförmedlingen, in Jönköping County. Interviewing about leadership may cause discomfort providing honest answers, why full anonymity to all respondents has been applied. Result: In this thesis we have come to the conclusions that the middle management at AF should be named middle leaders as they use their leadership skills rather than management skills to achieve the organization’s goals. They motivate their employees by providing continuous feedback and recognition, and providing autonomy and a sense of importance through empowerment. We have further found that middle leaders are a vital resource for any organization, especially during change.