The maintenance of tracking: The role of organizational culture

Modern comprehensive high schools do not formally track students into different programs, but schools offer different curricular sequences with important and stratified consequences for students' post-secondary education. This study used qualitative methodology to examine how schools' organizational cultures influence the maintenance of tracking practices in four comprehensive high schools in Miami. The methodology included long-term participant observation in each of the four schools, unstructured and semi-structured interviews and the collection of written documents produced by the district. A framework based on the concepts of environment, mission, information, strategy, and leadership was used to analyze the data. ^ It was found that school cultures shared deeply held beliefs that regard ability as a fixed trait. This prevented schools from providing access to information about the consequences of course selection to the majority of the student body, with the exception of those students defined as “college bound.” State and County level policies that reward achievement in standardized tests combined with school overcrowding, resulted in organizational cultures that favored the adoption of strategies stressing efficiency, as opposed to a challenging education for all students. Only one of the four schools in the study had a policy requiring students to attempt courses that were more challenging. The practice was resented by both teachers and counselors, since it was perceived as interfering with other goals of the institution, i.e.: graduating students in four years. ^ The culture of the schools stressed college as the only legitimate post-secondary option; consequently, the majority of counselors did not encourage students—even those already defined as “not college material”—to consider other alternatives, such as vocational education. The elimination of formal tracks in these comprehensive high schools resulted in the school culture lacking a clear mission in regards to non-college bound students. Findings are discussed in relation to current theoretical explanations for educational policy and equality of opportunity. ^

Leadership power bases related to satisfaction, compliance, and program quality

The dissertation examined prekindergarten teachers' perceptions of their supervisory relationship with their educational specialist, and the effect of the prekindergarten teachers' perceptions on the quality of the High/Scope prekindergarten program. The High/Scope educational specialists use their leader power bases (reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, expert and informational) to influence teachers' perceptions of satisfaction and compliance, as well as teachers' actual compliance with the High/Scope prekindergarten program standards. The correlational relationships between the variables were examined using Analysis of Variance and Multivariate Analysis of Variance. Path Analysis was utilized to analyze variables to determine the validity of the correlational model. Expert, legitimate, referent, and informational power bases of the High/Scope educational specialist were found to be the most influential on attitudinal and behavioral compliance of teachers. ^

Left behind: A farmer's fate in the age of sustainable development

Globalization is eroding the livelihoods of small farmers, a significant and vulnerable class, particularly in the developing world. The cost-price squeeze stemming from trade liberalization places farmers in a race to the bottom that leads to displacement, poverty, and environmental degradation. Scholars and activists have proposed that alternative trade initiatives offer a unique opportunity to reverse this trend by harnessing the power of the markets to reward producers of goods with embedded superior cultural, environmental, and social values. Alternative trade via certification schemes have become a de facto prescription for any location where there is a need to conciliate economic interest with conservation imperatives. Partnerships among commodity production farmers, elite manufacturers and wealthy northern consumers/activists do not necessarily have win-win outcomes. Paradoxically, the partnerships of farmers with external agencies have unexpected results. These partnerships develop into dependent relationships that become unsustainable in the absence of further transfers of capital. The institutions born of these partnerships are fragile. When these fledging institutions fail, farmers are left in the same situation that they were before the partnership, with only minor improvements to show after spending considerable amounts of social and financial capital. I hypothesize that these failures are born out of a belief in a universal understanding of sustainability. A discursive emphasis on consensus, equity and mutual benefit hides the fact that what for consumers it is a matter of choice, for producers is a matter of survival. The growth in consumers’ demand for certified products creates a race for farmers to meet these standards. My findings suggest that this race generates economically perverse effects. First, producers enter into a certification treadmill. Second, the local need for economic sustainability is ignored. Third, commodity based alternative trade schemes increase the exposure of communities to global shocks. I conclude by calling for a careful reassessment of sustainable development projects that promote certification schemes. The designers and implementers of these programs must include farmers’ agenda in the planning of these programs.

Innovating from the War Economy: Formal, Informal, and Illicit Economic Activities of the Military in Colombia

Over the last decade, the Colombian military has successfully rolled back insurgent groups, cleared and secured conflict zones, and enabled the extraction of oil and other key commodity exports. As a result, official policies of both the Uribe and Santos governments have promoted the armed forces to participate to an unprecedented extent in economic activities intended to consolidate the gains of the 2000s. These include formal involvement in the economy, streamlined in a consortium of military enterprises and social foundations that are intended to put the Colombian defense sector “on the map” nationally and internationally, and informal involvement expanded mainly through new civic action development projects intended to consolidate the security gains of the 2000s. However, failure to roll back paramilitary groups other than through the voluntary amnesty program of 2005 has facilitated the persistence of illicit collusion by military forces with reconstituted “neoparamilitary” drug trafficking groups. It is therefore crucially important to enhance oversight mechanisms and create substantial penalties for collusion with illegal armed groups. This is particularly important if Colombia intends to continue its new practice of exporting its security model to other countries in the region. The Santos government has initiated several promising reforms to enhance state capacity, institutional transparence, and accountability of public officials to the rule of law, which are crucial to locking in security gains and revitalizing democratic politics. Efforts to diminish opportunities for illicit association between the armed forces and criminal groups should complement that agenda, including the following: Champion breaking existing ties between the military and paramilitary successor groups through creative policies involving a mixture of punishments and rewards directed at the military; Investigation and extradition proceedings of drug traffickers, probe all possible ties, including as a matter of course the possibility of Colombian military collaboration. Doing so rigorously may have an important effect deterring military collusion with criminal groups. Establish and enforce zero-tolerance policies at all military ranks regarding collusion with criminal groups; Reward military units that are effective and also avoid corruption and criminal ties by providing them with enhanced resources and recognition; Rely on the military for civic action and development assistance as minimally as possible in order to build long-term civilian public sector capacity and to reduce opportunities for routine exposure of military forces to criminal groups circulating in local populations.

Strategic Human Resources Management Performance Metrics for Unit-Level Managers: An Exploratory Study of U.S Casual Restaurants

Many restaurant organizations have committed a substantial amount of effort to studying the relationship between a firm’s performance and its effort to develop an effective human resources management reward-and-retention system. These studies have produced various metrics for determining the efficacy of restaurant management and human resources management systems. This paper explores the best metrics to use when calculating the overall unit performance of casual restaurant managers. These metrics were identified through an exploratory qualitative case study method that included interviews with executives and a Delphi study. Experts proposed several diverse metrics for measuring management value and performance. These factors seem to represent all stakeholders’interest.

Appraising Work Group Performance: New Productivity Opportunities in Hospitality Management

In - Appraising Work Group Performance: New Productivity Opportunities in Hospitality Management – a discussion by Mark R. Edwards, Associate Professor, College of Engineering, Arizona State University and Leslie Edwards Cummings, Assistant Professor, College of Hotel Administration University of Nevada, Las Vegas; the authors initially provide: “Employee group performance variation accounts for a significant portion of the degree of productivity in the hotel, motel, and food service sectors of the hospitality industry. The authors discuss TEAMSG, a microcomputer based approach to appraising and interpreting group performance. TEAMSG appraisal allows an organization to profile and to evaluate groups, facilitating the targeting of training and development decisions and interventions, as well as the more equitable distribution of organizational rewards.” “The caliber of employee group performance is a major determinant in an organization's productivity and success within the hotel and food service industries,” Edwards and Cummings say. “Gaining accurate information about the quality of performance of such groups as organizational divisions, individual functional departments, or work groups can be as enlightening...” the authors further reveal. This perspective is especially important not only for strategic human resources planning purposes, but also for diagnosing development needs and for differentially distributing organizational rewards.” The authors will have you know, employee requirements in an unpredictable environment, which is what the hospitality industry largely is, are difficult to quantify. In an effort to measure elements of performance Edwards and Cummings look to TEAMSG, which is an acronym for Team Evaluation and Management System for Groups. They develop the concept. In discussing background for employees, Edwards and Cummings point-out that employees - at the individual level - must often possess and exercise varied skills. In group circumstances employees often work at locations outside of, or move from corporate unit-to-unit, as in the case of a project team. Being able to transcend individual-to-group mentality is imperative. “A solution which addresses the frustration and lack of motivation on the part of the employee is to coach, develop, appraise, and reward employees on the basis of group achievement,” say the authors. “An appraisal, effectively developed and interpreted, has at least three functions,” Edwards and Cummings suggest, and go on to define them. The authors do place a great emphasis on rewards and interventions to bolster the assertion set forth in their thesis statement. Edwards and Cummings warn that individual agendas can threaten, erode, and undermine group performance; there is no - I - in TEAM.

The Influence of Selected Antecedents of Frontline Employee's Perceptions of Service Recovery Performance

The purpose of this study is to determine the potential impact of selected organizational factors on boundary-spanning-role employees’ perceptions of service recovery performance. This study also aims to assess the impact of service recovery performance on the intention to leave the job and extrinsic job satisfaction. This study uses a sample of frontline employees in Belek, Antalya, Turkey. The empirical findings revealed that education, team work and role ambiguity as frontline job perceptions were found to exert positive influences on the service recovery performance, but, empowerment, reward, and organizational commitment were found to have negative effects on the service recovery performance.

Pirates, exiles, and empire: English seamen, Atlantic expansion, and Jamaican settlement, 1558–1658

A life of piracy offered marginal men a profession with a degree of autonomy, despite the brand of "outlaw" and the fear of prosecution. At various times throughout history, governments and crowned heads suspended much of their piracy prosecution, licensing men to work as "privateers" for the state, supplementing naval forces. This practice has a long history, but in sixteenth-century England, Elizabeth I (1558-1603) significantly altered this tradition. Recognizing her own weakness in effectively prosecuting these men and the profit they could contribute to the government, Elizabeth began incorporating pirates into the English naval corps in peacetime—not just in war. This practice increased English naval resources, income, and presence in the emerging Atlantic World, but also increased conflict with the powerful Spanish empire. By 1605, making peace with Spain, James VI/I (1603-1625) retracted Elizabeth's privateering promotion, prompting an emigration of English seamen to the American outposts they had developed in the previous century. Now exiles, no longer beholden to the Crown, seamen reverted back to piracy. The Carolinas and Jamaica served as bases for these rover communities. In 1650, the revolutionary leader Oliver Cromwell (1649-1658) once again recognized the merits of such policies. Determined to demonstrate his authority and solidify his rule, Cromwell offered citizenship and state support to Caribbean exiles in exchange for their aiding of his navy in the taking of Spanish Jamaica. Official chartering of Port Royal, Jamaica served as reward for these men's efforts and as the culmination of a century-long cycle of piracy legislation, creating one of England's most lucrative colonies in the middle of a traditionally Spanish Caribbean empire. Through legal and diplomatic records, correspondence, and naval and demographic records from England and Spain, this dissertation explores early modern piracy/privateering policy and its impact on the development of the Atlantic World. European disputes and imperial competition converged in these piracy debates with significant consequences for the definitions of criminality and citizenship and for the development of Atlantic empire.

The Influence of Social Responsibility Image Relative to Product and Service Quality on Brand Loyalty: An Exploratory Study of Quick-service Restaurants

Social responsibility (SR) is becoming an increasingly significant component of many firms’ strategic planning decisions. Research has shown that consumers tend to reward socially responsible behavior. However, there has been little testing of the construct in the hospitality industry. Additionally, when other important variables that influence consumer brand loyalty are considered, will brand social responsibility image (BSRI) still play a significant role? This study investigates the importance of SR and its impact on brand loyalty, relative to product quality and service quality in the quick-service restaurant industry. The authors were also interested to learn whether BSRI impacted consumers' image of product and service quality. It was found that BSRI had a positive impact on brand loyalty, product quality, and service quality. However, product quality was a significantly stronger predictor of brand loyalty than BSRI. Where the vast majority of studies of SR have utilized scenario analysis of hypothetical firms, this study utilizes consumers' perceptions of a real-world firm.

Community college faculty commitment to Florida performance -based funding indicators for academic programs

In 1996, the State of Florida implemented a performance-based funding program for the Associate in Arts degree offered by community colleges. Additional funds are allocated for distribution among public community colleges based on performance indicators. The indicators are comprised of 10 performance goals that refer to productivity indexed by overall degree completions as well as subgroups: special disadvantaged populations, transfers, job placements, and education acceleration. ^ This study examined the level of self-reported commitment of community college faculty to the 10 Florida performance-based funding indicators for academic programs. Also examined were the relationships between commitment and (a) self-efficacy in contributing to the achievement of the indicators and (b) personal financial reward expectation for contributing to the achievement of the indicators. The relationships between commitment and (a) gender, (b) academic rank, and (c) types of courses taught were analyzed based on secondary analyses. ^ The participants were 303 full-time faculty members of Miami-Dade Community College who taught courses taken by students pursuing the Associate in Arts degree. A questionnaire was developed to measure commitment, self-efficacy, and expectation of financial reward for each of the 10 indicators. ^ The mean composite commitment score for faculty members who responded to the survey was 4.07 in a scale of 1 to 5. Greater commitment was reported for indicators closely related to the traditional mission of community colleges (i.e., facilitating progress of special groups in earning the AA degree in preparation for transferring to a four-year university). Lower commitment was reported for indicators oriented to State priorities such as education acceleration mechanisms and job placements. Commitment was correlated with three variables: self-efficacy, expectation of financial reward, and types of courses taught. However, commitment was not related to gender and academic rank. Although a cause-effect relationship cannot be inferred from this study, the findings depict a positive relationship between faculty commitment to performance-based funding indicators and faculty self-efficacy to contribute to the achievement of the indicators. ^

The market value implications of pension asset allocation

Pension funds have been part of the private sector since the 1850's. Defined Benefit pension plans [DB], where a company promises to make regular contributions to investment accounts held for participating employees in order to pay a promised lifelong annuity, are significant capital markets participants, amounting to 2.3 trillion dollars in 2010 (Federal Reserve Board, 2013). In 2006, Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No.158 (SFAS 158), Employers' Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postemployment Plans, shifted information concerning funding status and pension asset/liability composition from disclosure in the footnotes to recognition in the financial statements. I add to the literature by being the first to examine the effect of recent pension reform during the financial crisis of 2008-09. This dissertation is comprised of three related essays. In my first essay, I investigate whether investors assign different pricing multiples to the various classes of pension assets when valuing firms. The pricing multiples on all classes of assets are significantly different from each other, but only investments in bonds and equities were value-relevant during the recent financial crisis. Consistent with investors viewing pension liabilities as liabilities of the firm, the pricing multiples on pension liabilities are significantly larger than those on non-pension liabilities. The only pension costs significantly associated with firm value are actual rate of return and interest expense. In my second essay, I investigate the role of accruals in predicting future cash flows, extending the Barth et al. (2001a) model of the accrual process. Using market value of equity as a proxy for cash flows, the results of this study suggest that aggregate accounting amounts mask how the components of earnings affect investors' ability to predict future cash flows. Disaggregating pension earnings components and accruals results in an increase in predictive power. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, however, investors placed a greater (and negative) weight on the incremental information contained in the individual components of accruals. The inferences are robust to alternative specifications of accruals. Finally, in my third essay I investigate how investors view under-funded plans. On average, investors: view deficits arising from under-funded plans as belonging to the firm; reward firms with fully or over-funded pension plans; and encourage those funds with unfunded pension plans to become funded. Investors also encourage conservative pension asset allocations to mitigate firm risk, and smaller firms are perceived as being better able to handle the risk associated with underfunded plans. During the financial crisis of 2008-2009 underfunded status had a lower negative association with market value. In all three models, there are significant differences in pre- and post- SFAS 158 periods. These results are robust to various scenarios of the timing of the financial crisis and an alternative measure of funding.

On-Line Real-Time Service-Oriented Task Scheduling Using TUF

We present our approach to real-time service-oriented scheduling problems with the objective of maximizing the total system utility. Different from the traditional utility accrual scheduling problems that each task is associated with only a single time utility function (TUF), we associate two different TUFs—a profit TUF and a penalty TUF—with each task, to model the real-time services that not only need to reward the early completions but also need to penalize the abortions or deadline misses. The scheduling heuristics we proposed in this paper judiciously accept, schedule, and abort real-time services when necessary to maximize the accrued utility. Our extensive experimental results show that our proposed algorithms can significantly outperform the traditional scheduling algorithms such as the Earliest Deadline First (EDF), the traditional utility accrual (UA) scheduling algorithms, and an earlier scheduling approach based on a similar model.

A decision support framework for infrastructure maintenance investment decision-making

Infrastructure management agencies are facing multiple challenges, including aging infrastructure, reduction in capacity of existing infrastructure, and availability of limited funds. Therefore, decision makers are required to think innovatively and develop inventive ways of using available funds. Maintenance investment decisions are generally made based on physical condition only. It is important to understand that spending money on public infrastructure is synonymous with spending money on people themselves. This also requires consideration of decision parameters, in addition to physical condition, such as strategic importance, socioeconomic contribution and infrastructure utilization. Consideration of multiple decision parameters for infrastructure maintenance investments can be beneficial in case of limited funding. Given this motivation, this dissertation presents a prototype decision support framework to evaluate trade-off, among competing infrastructures, that are candidates for infrastructure maintenance, repair and rehabilitation investments. Decision parameters' performances measured through various factors are combined to determine the integrated state of an infrastructure using Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT). The integrated state, cost and benefit estimates of probable maintenance actions are utilized alongside expert opinion to develop transition probability and reward matrices for each probable maintenance action for a particular candidate infrastructure. These matrices are then used as an input to the Markov Decision Process (MDP) for the finite-stage dynamic programming model to perform project (candidate)-level analysis to determine optimized maintenance strategies based on reward maximization. The outcomes of project (candidate)-level analysis are then utilized to perform network-level analysis taking the portfolio management approach to determine a suitable portfolio under budgetary constraints. The major decision support outcomes of the prototype framework include performance trend curves, decision logic maps, and a network-level maintenance investment plan for the upcoming years. The framework has been implemented with a set of bridges considered as a network with the assistance of the Pima County DOT, AZ. It is expected that the concept of this prototype framework can help infrastructure management agencies better manage their available funds for maintenance.

The relationships between elementary school principals' emotional intelligence, leadership style and school culture

The role of the principal in school settings and the principal's perceived effect on student achievement have frequently been considered vital factors in school reform. The relationships between emotional intelligence, leadership style and school culture have been widely studied. The literature reveals agreement among scholars regarding the principal's vital role in developing and fostering a positive school culture. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between elementary school principals' emotional intelligence, leadership style and school culture. ^ The researcher implemented a non-experimental ex post facto research design to investigate four specific research hypotheses. Utilizing the Qualtrics Survey Software, 57 elementary school principals within a large urban school district in southeast Florida completed the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), and 850 of their faculty members completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ Form 5X). Faculty responses to the school district's School Climate Survey retrieved from the district's web site were used as the measure of school culture. ^ Linear regression analyses revealed significant positive associations between emotional intelligence and the following leadership measures: Idealized Influence-Attributes (β = .23, p = < .05), Idealized Influence-Behaviors (β = .34, p = < .01), Inspirational Motivation (β = .39, p = < .01) and Contingent Reward (β = .33, p = < .01). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed positive associations between school culture and both transformational and transactional leadership measures, and negative associations between school culture and passive-avoidant leadership measures. Significant positive associations were found between school culture and the principals' emotional intelligence over and above leadership style. Hierarchical linear regressions to test the statistical hypothesis developed to account for alternative explanations revealed significant associations between leadership style and school culture over and above school grade. ^ These results suggest that emotional intelligence merits consideration in the development of leadership theory. Practical implications include suggestions that principals employ both transformational and transactional leadership strategies, and focus on developing their level of emotional intelligence. The associations between emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, Contingent Reward and school culture found in this study validate the role of the principal as the leader of school reform.^