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Title: Employee Perceptions of Diversity Management in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry: Scale Development and Model Testing.
Creator: Mistry, Trishna, Okumus, Fevzi, Torres Areizaga, Edwin, Orlowski, Marissa, Madera, Juan, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The purpose of this dissertation is to create a holistic diversity management measurement scale and to analyze the impact of diversity management on employees' attitudes and behavior in the hospitality and tourism industry. Effective diversity management can have a multitude of positive outcomes in the hospitality and tourism industry. However, there is little research conducted regarding the direct and indirect impacts of diversity management on the attitudes and behavior of hospitality and...
Show moreThe purpose of this dissertation is to create a holistic diversity management measurement scale and to analyze the impact of diversity management on employees' attitudes and behavior in the hospitality and tourism industry. Effective diversity management can have a multitude of positive outcomes in the hospitality and tourism industry. However, there is little research conducted regarding the direct and indirect impacts of diversity management on the attitudes and behavior of hospitality and tourism industry employees. This dissertation used a mixed-method approach to create a measurement scale to evaluate diversity management practices for the hospitality and tourism field. The first study of this dissertation included a scale development process using a qualitative and then a quantitative phase. Literature review and semi-structured interviews were conducted for developing the items for the diversity management scale. These items were then refined to finalize the diversity management measurement scale through a quantitative phase using exploratory factor analyses. The impact of diversity management on hospitality and tourism industry employees' job performance, service innovation behavior, and engagement were analyzed through a quantitative study using this measurement instrument. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized research model. The present research is the first of its kind in the hospitality and tourism field. The measurement scale developed in this study will expand the boundaries of diversity management research in the hospitality and tourism industry. This current research further establishes a link between diversity management and positive employee-related outcomes in the hospitality and tourism industry. The assessment of these relationships should extend the literature and open new models of academic research with additional organizational outcomes. Leaders in the hospitality and tourism industry can gain vital insight regarding the importance of effective diversity management through the study results.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFE0007688, ucf:52468
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007688

Title: Development of Decision Support System for Active Traffic Management Systems Considering Travel Time Reliability.
Creator: Chung, Whoibin, Abdel-Aty, Mohamed, Eluru, Naveen, Hasan, Samiul, Cai, Qing, Huang, Hsin-Hsiung, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: As traffic problems on roadways have been increasing, active traffic management systems (ATM) using proactive traffic management concept have been deployed on freeways and arterials. The ATM aims to integrate and automate various traffic control strategies such as variable speed limits, queue warning, and ramp metering through a decision support system (DSS). Over the past decade, there have been many efforts to integrate freeways and arterials for the efficient operation of roadway networks....
Show moreAs traffic problems on roadways have been increasing, active traffic management systems (ATM) using proactive traffic management concept have been deployed on freeways and arterials. The ATM aims to integrate and automate various traffic control strategies such as variable speed limits, queue warning, and ramp metering through a decision support system (DSS). Over the past decade, there have been many efforts to integrate freeways and arterials for the efficient operation of roadway networks. It has been required that these systems should prove their effectiveness in terms of travel time reliability. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new concept of a decision support system integrating variable speed limits, queue warning, and ramp metering on the basis of travel time reliability of freeways and arterials.Regarding the data preparation, in addition to collecting multiple data sources such as traffic data, crash data and so on, the types of traffic data sources that can be applied for the analysis of travel time reliability were investigated. Although there are many kinds of real-time traffic data from third-party traffic data providers, it was confirmed that these data cannot represent true travel time reliability through the comparative analysis of measures of travel time reliability. Related to weather data, it was proven that nationwide land-based weather stations could be applicable.Since travel time reliability can be measured by using long-term periods for more than six months, it is necessary to develop models to estimate travel time reliability through real-time traffic data and event-related data. Among various matrix to measure travel time reliability, the standard deviation of travel time rate [minute/mile] representing travel time variability was chosen because it can represent travel time variability of both link and network level. Several models were developed to estimate the standard deviation of travel time rate through average travel time rate, the number of lanes, speed limits, and the amount of rainfall.Finally, a DSS using a model predictive control method to integrate multiple traffic control measures was developed and evaluated. As a representative model predictive control, METANET model was chosen, which can include variable speed limit, queue warning, and ramp metering, separately or combined. The developed DSS identified a proper response plan by comparing travel time reliability among multiple combinations of current and new response values of strategies. In the end, it was found that the DSS provided the reduction of travel time and improvement of its reliability for travelers through the recommended response plans.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFE0007615, ucf:52542
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007615

Title: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT DETERMINANTS OF CONTINUANCE BEHAVIOR: EVALUATING THE AIR FORCE KNOWLEDGE NOW KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.
Creator: Tucker, Eric, Kotnour, Timothy, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Knowledge management (KM) encompasses the set of capabilities, processes, tools, and techniques for the most effective use of knowledge by an organization. The goal of KM is to improve the organizationÃ‚Â's ability to create, transfer, retain, and apply knowledge. Knowledge management is a goal that many organizations seek to achieve. Organizations apply their strategies, plans, and implementation to achieve KM. Organizations use technology to implement their KM strategy...
Show moreKnowledge management (KM) encompasses the set of capabilities, processes, tools, and techniques for the most effective use of knowledge by an organization. The goal of KM is to improve the organizationÃ‚Â's ability to create, transfer, retain, and apply knowledge. Knowledge management is a goal that many organizations seek to achieve. Organizations apply their strategies, plans, and implementation to achieve KM. Organizations use technology to implement their KM strategy. For some, this approach has worked well; however, for others, the results have fallen short. KM shortcomings revolve around employeesÃ‚Â' infrequent use of the technology. This research seeks to understand what influences a userÃ‚Â's behavior to use a KM system and why a user becomes a routine user. This research provides a model of KM continuance behavior and post-acceptance usage behavior. Post-acceptance usage behavior is how an individual decides to use a system after its initial acceptance. The KM continuance model incorporates technology, community, individual, and organizational elements that influence a userÃ‚Â's intentions and actual use of a KM system. The specific context of this research is a KM system known as the Air Force Knowledge Now (AFKN) system. AFKN emphasizes KM through expertise-sharing activities in Communities of Practice (CoPs). The AFKN KM system facilitates and enhances the relationships in the community. The data for this study were obtained by using an online questionnaire. The results are analyzed using Partial Least Squares structural equation modeling with a two-step data analysis approach. The first step assessed the properties of the measurement model. The second step assessed the path model. Path coefficients and t-values are generated to evaluate the 14 proposed hypotheses. The results of the investigation show that community and technology KM both positively influence a userÃ‚Â's evaluation of the KM environment. The results produced a coefficient of determination of 60% for KM continued-use intention and 31% for KM continued-use behavior. The outcome of this research is a model that allows organizations to tailor their KM systems efforts to the organizational environment in order to maximize their resources. This investigation serves as a foundation for further research and development in areas of KM, KM systems, and post-acceptance usage.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003328, ucf:48484
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003328

Title: GENERAL MANAGERS‟ PERCEPTIONS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN FLORIDA HOTELS.
Creator: Holcomb, Judith, Pizam, Abraham, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The objective of the study was to identify and measure the magnitude of the gap that may exist between the corporate level Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) culture and its ensuing policies and their equivalent at the property level. This gap was hypothesized to be a function of a number of personal characteristics of the General Managers (GMs) coupled with the organizational profile of the hotel. The data were collected via an online survey based on a CSR scale developed by Turker (2009)...
Show moreThe objective of the study was to identify and measure the magnitude of the gap that may exist between the corporate level Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) culture and its ensuing policies and their equivalent at the property level. This gap was hypothesized to be a function of a number of personal characteristics of the General Managers (GMs) coupled with the organizational profile of the hotel. The data were collected via an online survey based on a CSR scale developed by Turker (2009) in combination with other original and previously used smaller scales. The study‟s population consisted of general managers of hotels that were managed by a corporate office and were members of the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association and the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. In total, 564 hotel GMs were contacted by email by their perspective associations and invited to participate in the study. A total of 123 surveys were returned which equated to a 22% response rate. The results indicated that the gaps for all factors were very small. This suggested that based on the GMs‟ perceptions, there was not much variation between their corporations‟ CSR policies and their properties‟ CSR policies. Hence, because of this small variation, it can be speculated that, in this study, hotel GMs were committed to follow precisely the corporate CSR policies and initiatives at their property levels. Notwithstanding the above, the results supported three hypotheses as follows: (a) the more GMs were involved in the community, the less they were committed to CSR policies relating to the government; (b) the more hours per week GMs spent in community volunteerism, the higher was their commitment to overall CSR policies; and c) the higher was the demonstrated commitment of GMs to their corporation‟s CSR policy regarding responsibility to employees, the more they were rewarded through non-monetary perceived personal success. This study and its ensuing results were of significant importance to the general CSR body of knowledge and unique in terms of their contribution to CSR in the hotel industry. The practical implication from this study was that it sets a number of benchmarks relating to CSR corporate and property level policies and initiatives in a given sector of the hotel industry. In addition, due to the fact that few, if any, gaps were found between the corporate and property level cultures, corporate officers can at least feel fairly comfortable that from the GMs‟ perspectives, CSR initiatives are being implemented at the property level in accordance with corporate policy.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003466, ucf:48960
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003466

Title: IMPROVING THROUGHPUT AND PREDICTABILITY OF HIGH-VOLUME BUSINESS PROCESSES THROUGH EMBEDDED MODELING.
Creator: DeKeyrel, Joseph, Malone, Linda, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Being faster is good. Being predictable is better. A faithful model of a system, loaded to reflect the system's current state, can then be used to look into the future and predict performance. Building faithful models of processes with high degrees of uncertainty can be very challenging, especially where this uncertainty exists in terms of processing times, queuing behavior and re-work rates. Within the context of an electronic, multi-tiered workflow management system (WFMS) the author builds...
Show moreBeing faster is good. Being predictable is better. A faithful model of a system, loaded to reflect the system's current state, can then be used to look into the future and predict performance. Building faithful models of processes with high degrees of uncertainty can be very challenging, especially where this uncertainty exists in terms of processing times, queuing behavior and re-work rates. Within the context of an electronic, multi-tiered workflow management system (WFMS) the author builds such a model to endogenously quote due dates. A WFMS that manages business objects can be recast as a flexible flow shop in which the stations that a job (representing the business object) passes through are known and the jobs in the stations queues at any point are known. All of the other parameters associated with the flow shop, including job processing times per station, and station queuing behavior are uncertain though there is a significant body of past performance data that might be brought to bear. The objective, in this environment, is to meet the delivery date promised when the job is accepted. To attack the problem the author develops a novel heuristic algorithm for decomposing the WFMS's event logs exposing non-standard queuing behavior, develops a new simulation component to implement that behavior, and assembles a prototypical system to automate the required historical analysis and allow for on-demand due date quoting through the use of embedded discrete event simulation modeling. The developed software components are flexible enough to allow for both the analysis of past performance in conjunction with the WFMS's event logs, and on-demand analysis of new jobs entering the system. Using the proportion of jobs completed within the predicted interval as the measure of effectiveness, the author validates the performance of the system over six months of historical data and during live operations with both samples achieving the 90% service level targeted.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0003580, ucf:48913
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003580

Title: EMOTIONAL REGULATION AT WALT DISNEY WORLD: DEEP ACTING VS. SURFACE ACTING.
Creator: Reyers, Anne, Matusitz, Jonathan, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The objective of this study is to examine the emotional regulation strategies used by Walt Disney World on-stage employees as a way to fulfill requirements set forth by the company. Ten Disney on-stage employees were interviewed off-property in Orlando. The emotional regulation framework was divided into several categories: (1) a distinction between deep acting and surface acting, (2) emotional deviance, and (3) emotional exhaustion. "Surface acting" is a strategy by which employees display...
Show moreThe objective of this study is to examine the emotional regulation strategies used by Walt Disney World on-stage employees as a way to fulfill requirements set forth by the company. Ten Disney on-stage employees were interviewed off-property in Orlando. The emotional regulation framework was divided into several categories: (1) a distinction between deep acting and surface acting, (2) emotional deviance, and (3) emotional exhaustion. "Surface acting" is a strategy by which employees display company-imposed emotions not genuinely felt, whereas "deep acting" occurs when employees do feel the emotions that they are required to express (Hochschild, 1983). Throughout the data reduction process, five key themes surfaced as the most relevant to the initial research questions: (1) Self-Motivated Deep Acting, (2) Organizational Expectations for Surface Acting, (3) "Back-Stage" vs. "Front-Stage" Dichotomy, (4) Benefits of Emotional Training, and (5) Negative Effects of Emotional Regulation. Overall, the researcher found that a key strategy of emotional regulation that Disney employees use frequently is surface acting, although deep acting was found to be more successful. In addition, while emotional exhaustion was a common problem among employees, very few of them will actually engage in emotional deviance in order to avoid the negative consequences of surface acting. Lastly, it was found that highly skilled Walt Disney World employees will have already internalized emotional regulation training and display rules that manage emotional behavior. Therefore, it becomes less essential for the Disney Company to formally monitor its employees' facial expressions and emotional behavior in the future.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0003684, ucf:48815
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003684

Title: EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PGA's PROFESSIONAL GOLF MANAGEMENT (PGM) PROGRAM.
Creator: Smiley, David, Wang, Youcheng, Fjelstul, Jill, Hua, Nan, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This study explored the relationships between knowledge, skills, ability, self-efficacy, and experiential learning and performance expectations and satisfaction. The purpose of this study was threefold. First, the study attempted to understand the motivators for student motivation to recommend the program. Second, the study looked at the contribution of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for retention and positive word-of-mouth. Further, the research evaluated the relationship of the...
Show moreThis study explored the relationships between knowledge, skills, ability, self-efficacy, and experiential learning and performance expectations and satisfaction. The purpose of this study was threefold. First, the study attempted to understand the motivators for student motivation to recommend the program. Second, the study looked at the contribution of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for retention and positive word-of-mouth. Further, the research evaluated the relationship of the curriculum in influencing the student's performance and satisfaction. The study sample consisted of 676 undergraduate students attending one of six PGA Professional Golf management programs in the spring of 2011. The survey instrument was developed specifically for this study after an extensive literature review of higher education analysis, performance, satisfaction and word-of-mouth. The instrument was constructed in eight content areas: knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA); self-efficacy; experiential learning; performance; satisfaction, and word-of-mouth. The findings indicated that experiential learning and to a lesser degree ability made the strongest contribution to the student's performance and satisfaction. Focus of degree was a predictor of performance while not a predictor of satisfaction. Satisfaction and to a lesser degree performance were strong contributors to the student's word-of-mouth. Finally, self-efficacy was found to have little relationship to satisfaction or performance contrary to findings in previous research.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004443, ucf:49338
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004443

Title: An Index to Measure Efficiency of Hospital Networks for Mass Casualty Disasters.
Creator: Bull Torres, Maria, Sepulveda, Jose, Sala-Diakanda, Serge, Geiger, Christopher, Kapucu, Naim, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Disaster events have emphasized the importance of healthcare response activities due to the large number of victims. For instance, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, in 2005, and the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, left thousands of wounded people. In those disasters, although hospitals had disaster plans established for more than a decade, their plans were not efficient enough to handle the chaos produced by the hurricane and terrorist attacks....
Show moreDisaster events have emphasized the importance of healthcare response activities due to the large number of victims. For instance, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, in 2005, and the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, left thousands of wounded people. In those disasters, although hospitals had disaster plans established for more than a decade, their plans were not efficient enough to handle the chaos produced by the hurricane and terrorist attacks. Thus, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) suggested collaborative planning among hospitals that provide services to a contiguous geographic area during mass casualty disasters. However, the JCAHO does not specify a methodology to determine which hospitals should be included into these cooperative plans. As a result, the problem of selecting the right hospitals to include in exercises and drills at the county level is a common topic in the current preparedness stages. This study proposes an efficiency index to determine the efficient response of cooperative-networks among hospitals before an occurrence of mass casualty disaster. The index built in this research combines operations research techniques, and the prediction of this index used statistical analysis. The consecutive application of three different techniques: network optimization, data envelopment analysis (DEA), and regression analysis allowed to obtain a regression equation to predict efficiency in predefined hospital networks for mass casualty disasters. In order to apply the proposed methodology for creating an efficiency index, we selected the Orlando area, and we defined three disaster sizes. Then, we designed networks considering two perspectives, hub-hospital and hub-disaster networks. In both optimization network models the objective function pursued to: reduce the travel distance and the emergency department (ED) waiting time in hospitals, increase the number of services offered by hospitals in the network, and offer specialized assistance to children. The hospital network optimization generated information for 75 hospital networks in Orlando. The DEA analyzed these 75 hospital networks, or decision making units (DMU's), to estimate their comparative efficiency. Two DEAs were performed in this study. As an output variable for each DMU, the DEA-1 considered the number of survivors allocated in less than a 40 miles range. As the input variables, the DEA-1 included: (i) The number of beds available in the network; (ii) The number of hospitals available in the network; and (iii) The number of services offered by hospitals in the network. This DEA-1 allowed the assignment of an efficiency value to each of the 75 hospital networks. As output variables for each DMU, the DEA-2 considered the number of survivors allocated in less than a 40 miles range and an index for ED waiting time in the network. The input variables included in DEA-2 are (i) The number of beds available in the network; (ii) The number of hospitals available in the network; and (iii) The number of services offered by hospitals in the network. These DEA allowed the assignment of an efficiency value to each of the 75 hospital networks. This efficiency index should allow emergency planners and hospital managers to assess which hospitals should be associated in a cooperative network in order to transfer survivors. Furthermore, JCAHO could use this index to evaluate the cooperating emergency hospitals' plans.However, DEA is a complex methodology that requires significant data gathering and handling. Thus, we studied whether a simpler regression analysis would substantially yield the same results. DEA-1 can be predicted using two regression analyses, which concluded that the average distances between hospitals and the disaster locations, and the size of the disaster explain the efficiency of the hospital network. DEA-2 can be predicted using three regressions, which included size of the disaster, number of hospitals, average distance, and average ED waiting time, as predictors of hospital network efficiency. The models generated for DEA-1 and DEA-2 had a mean absolute percent error (MAPE) around 10%. Thus, the indexes developed through the regression analysis make easier the estimation of the efficiency in predefined hospital networks, generating suitable predictors of the efficiency as determined by the DEA analysis. In conclusion, network optimization, DEA, and regressions analyses can be combined to create an index of efficiency to measure the performance of predefined-hospital networks in a mass casualty disaster, validating the hypothesis of this research.Although the methodology can be applied to any county or city, the regressions proposed for predicting the efficiency of hospital network estimated by DEA can be applied only if the city studied has the same characteristics of the Orlando area. These conditions include the following: (i) networks must have a rate of services lager than 0.76; (ii) the number of survivors must be less than 47% of the bed capacity EDs of the area studied; (iii) all hospitals in the network must have ED and they must be located in less than 48 miles range from the disaster sites, and (iv) EDs should not have more than 60 minutes of waiting time.The proposed methodology, in special the efficiency index, support the operational objectives of the 2012 ESF#8 for Florida State to handle risk and response capabilities conducting and participating in training and exercises to test and improve plans and procedures in the health response.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004524, ucf:49290
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004524

Title: THE ECONOMICS OF A YOUNG AUDIENCE.
Creator: Bosley, Cicely, Weaver, Earl, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: As a theatre for young audiencesÃ‚Â' (TYA) teacher, artist, and administrator, I seek to explore where and how TYA fits into business and economic models to open a dialogue between TYA practitioners and business administration professionals. Through this qualitative study, I endeavor to foster a new language for TYA practitioners to enhance fundraising and audience development. By its own definition, TYA is a hybrid field that strives for both artistic form and educative...
Show moreAs a theatre for young audiencesÃ‚Â' (TYA) teacher, artist, and administrator, I seek to explore where and how TYA fits into business and economic models to open a dialogue between TYA practitioners and business administration professionals. Through this qualitative study, I endeavor to foster a new language for TYA practitioners to enhance fundraising and audience development. By its own definition, TYA is a hybrid field that strives for both artistic form and educative function. With a dual focus of form and function, administrators struggle to advocate for TYA organizations within existing models. To move through this challenge, I look to analyze select extant models in an effort to address a new hybrid model that better suits a hybrid field. This project arises from the persistent challenges found within the TYA field of defining and valuing our work for and with young people, so I approach this research as a TYA practitioner seeking tools for advocacy. Through my work as a teacher and artist moving into a business office, I observed marketing and development directors from the non-TYA fields challenged by the nature of our work. Paralleling that challenge, I struggle to articulate the necessity of my work with young people as equal to the importance of artistic excellence. My research leads me to believe that TYA does not neatly affix to any business model, but an analysis and marriage of several models may create a working model which TYA practitioners can employ.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003003, ucf:48372
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003003

Title: THE EFFECTS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIPON EMPLOYEESÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚ÂƒÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â' PERCEIVED LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESSIN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS: FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY CASE.
Creator: KARACA, HASAN, KAPUCU, NAIM, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: As the capacity of public leaders to bring about change is increasingly questioned, public agencies have come under pressure to transform and innovate. More research is needed to identify how leaders who promote innovation, creativity, and adaptability affect the performance of public organizations. Constant improvement of organizations and individuals encourages leaders to innovate, evaluate risks as opportunities, and tackle the status quo. This raises the significance of how...
Show moreAs the capacity of public leaders to bring about change is increasingly questioned, public agencies have come under pressure to transform and innovate. More research is needed to identify how leaders who promote innovation, creativity, and adaptability affect the performance of public organizations. Constant improvement of organizations and individuals encourages leaders to innovate, evaluate risks as opportunities, and tackle the status quo. This raises the significance of how transformational leadership contributes to organizational performance and reacts to public agenciesÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚ÂƒÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â' environment, and how it might reorganize them. The present study examines the relationship between transformational leadership behaviors and perceived leadership effectiveness in public organizations, particularly Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The study specifically focuses on FEMA as an independent agency and as an agency under the Department of Homeland Security. It also measures transformational leadership behaviors and explores how they relate to public employeesÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚ÂƒÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â' perceptions of leadership effectiveness as reported by the 2002, 2006, and 2008 Federal Human Capital Surveys (FHCS). Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the construct validity for the perceived leadership effectiveness measurement model. Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the study hypotheses. This study has found that transformational leadership behaviorsÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚ÂƒÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â--idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivationÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚ÂƒÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â-- all have a significant relationship with perceived leadership effectiveness. Each dimension of transformational leadership has a positive effect on employeesÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚ÂƒÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â' perceptions of leadership effectiveness, with intellectual stimulation having the highest effect. The standardized regression weights of exogenous variables are: .24 for idealized influence, .48 for intellectual stimulation, and .29 for inspirational motivation. Overall, these predictor variables accounted for 86% of the variance in perceived leadership effectiveness. Findings of the study reveals several organizational, managerial, and policy implications relating to increasing the effects of transformational leadership behaviors on employeesÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚ÂƒÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â' perceived leadership effectiveness and organizational performance. The study points out the significance of communication and information sharing, and providing sufficient opportunities to do a better job in public organizations. The findings also confirm that the leaders are required to obtain inspirational motivation behaviors and use them to give a feeling of personal empowerment to the employees.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003397, ucf:48421
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003397

Title: RESEARCH IN HIGH PERFORMANCE AND LOW POWER COMPUTER SYSTEMS FOR DATA-INTENSIVE ENVIRONMENT.
Creator: Shang, pengju, Wang, Jun, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The evolution of computer science and engineering is always motivated by the requirements for better performance, power efficiency, security, user interface (UI), etc. The first two factors are potential tradeoffs: better performance usually requires better hardware, e.g., the CPUs with larger number of transistors, the disks with higher rotation speed; however, the increasing number of transistors on the single die or chip reveals super-linear growth in CPU power consumption, and the change...
Show moreThe evolution of computer science and engineering is always motivated by the requirements for better performance, power efficiency, security, user interface (UI), etc. The first two factors are potential tradeoffs: better performance usually requires better hardware, e.g., the CPUs with larger number of transistors, the disks with higher rotation speed; however, the increasing number of transistors on the single die or chip reveals super-linear growth in CPU power consumption, and the change in disk rotation speed has a quadratic effect on disk power consumption. We propose three new systematic approaches, Transactional RAID, data-affinity-aware data placement DAFA and Modeless power management, to tackle the performance problem in Database systems, large scale clusters or cloud platforms, and the power management problem in Chip Multi Processors, respectively. The first design, Transactional RAID (TRAID), is motivated by the fact that in recent years, more storage system applications have employed transaction processing techniques to ensure data integrity and consistency. In transaction processing systems(TPS), log is a kind of redundancy to ensure transaction ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) properties and data recoverability. Furthermore, high reliable storage systems, such as redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID), are widely used as the underlying storage system for Databases to guarantee system reliability and availability with high I/O performance. However, the Databases and storage systems tend to implement their independent fault tolerant mechanisms from their own perspectives and thereby leading to potential high overhead. We observe the overlapped redundancies between the TPS and RAID systems, and propose a novel reliable storage architecture called Transactional RAID (TRAID). TRAID deduplicates this overlap by only logging one compact version (XOR results) of recovery references for the updating data. It minimizes the amount of log content as well as the log flushing overhead, thereby boosts the overall transaction processing performance. At the same time, TRAID guarantees comparable RAID reliability, the same recovery correctness and ACID semantics of traditional transactional processing systems. On the other hand, the emerging myriad data intensive applications place a demand for high-performance computing resources with massive storage. Academia and industry pioneers have been developing big data parallel computing frameworks and large-scale distributed file systems (DFS) widely used to facilitate the high-performance runs of data-intensive applications, such as bio-informatics, astronomy, and high-energy physics. Our recent work reported that data distribution in DFS can significantly affect the efficiency of data processing and hence the overall application performance. This is especially true for those with sophisticated access patterns. For example, Yahoo's Hadoop clusters employs a random data placement strategy for load balance and simplicity. This allows the MapReduce programs to access all the data (without or not distinguishing interest locality) at full parallelism. Our work focuses on Hadoop systems. We observed that the data distribution is one of the most important factors that affect the parallel programming performance. However, the default Hadoop adopts random data distribution strategy, which does not consider the data semantics, specifically, data affinity. We propose a Data-Affinity-Aware (DAFA) data placement scheme to address the above problem. DAFA builds a history data access graph to exploit the data affinity. According to the data affinity, DAFA re-organizes data to maximize the parallelism of the affinitive data, and also subjective to the overall load balance. This enables DAFA to realize the maximum number of map tasks with data-locality. Besides the system performance, power consumption is another important concern of current computer systems. In the U.S. alone, the energy used by servers which could be saved comes to 3.17 million tons of carbon dioxide, or 580,678 cars. However, the goals of high performance and low energy consumption are at odds with each other. An ideal power management strategy should be able to dynamically respond to the change (either linear or nonlinear, or non-model) of workloads and system configuration without violating the performance requirement. We propose a novel power management scheme called MAR (modeless, adaptive, rule-based) in multiprocessor systems to minimize the CPU power consumption under performance constraints. By using richer feedback factors, e.g. the I/O wait, MAR is able to accurately describe the relationships among core frequencies, performance and power consumption. We adopt a modeless control model to reduce the complexity of system modeling. MAR is designed for CMP (Chip Multi Processor) systems by employing multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) theory and per-core level DVFS (Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling).
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0003910, ucf:48749
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003910

Title: Use of Performance Information by Local Government Administrators: Evidence from Florida.
Creator: Dimitrijevska-Markoski, Tamara, Kapucu, Naim, Martin, Lawrence, Hu, Qian, Wang, Xiaohu, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This study examines the factors that facilitate and hinder the use of performance information by public administrators in local governments in Florida. Acknowledging the incompleteness of many theoretical and conceptual models in previous performance management studies and the absence of theory on the use of performance information; this study utilizes a grounded theory approach to develop and test a model analyzing the use of performance information. The research focuses on cities and...
Show moreThis study examines the factors that facilitate and hinder the use of performance information by public administrators in local governments in Florida. Acknowledging the incompleteness of many theoretical and conceptual models in previous performance management studies and the absence of theory on the use of performance information; this study utilizes a grounded theory approach to develop and test a model analyzing the use of performance information. The research focuses on cities and counties, members of the Florida Benchmarking Consortium (FBC), and surveys public administrators whose tasks are related with the collection and/or reporting of performance information. The study examines three research questions: First, to what extent and in what capacity do local government administrators use performance information? Second, what are the predictors of the use of performance information among local government administrators? Finally, to what extent does the design adequacy of a performance measurement system (PMS), institutionalization of performance measurement (IPM), organizational support (OS), individual factors (IF) and external influences (EI) impact the use of performance information among local government administrators? To collect data on the above questions, an online survey was administrated to public administrators involved in the 2015-2016 FBC data collection cycle. The data were analyzed with structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of the study demonstrate that institutionalization of performance measurement has the strongest statistically significant positive association with the use of performance information followed by the influence of the design adequacy of the performance measurement system. Organizational support, through institutionalization of performance measurement, has an indirect influence on the use of performance information. Interestingly, in this study individual factors were not found to be significantly associated with the use of performance information.
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: CFE0006586, ucf:51261
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006586

Title: Nurse Managers, Work Environment Factors and Workplace Bullying.
Creator: Parchment, Joy, Andrews, Diane, Neff, Donna, Conner, Norma, Yan, Xin, Saunders, Carol, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The purpose of this dissertation is to explore relationships between authentic leadership style, global social power, job demand, job control, and workplace bullying of nurse managers in acute care settings across the United States.Over 30 years of workplace bullying research exists. Consequences are linked to intent to leave, turnover, and harmful emotional and physical effects. Published studies identifying nurse managers as targets of workplace bullying and work environment factors that...
Show moreThe purpose of this dissertation is to explore relationships between authentic leadership style, global social power, job demand, job control, and workplace bullying of nurse managers in acute care settings across the United States.Over 30 years of workplace bullying research exists. Consequences are linked to intent to leave, turnover, and harmful emotional and physical effects. Published studies identifying nurse managers as targets of workplace bullying and work environment factors that contribute to nurse managers being recipients of workplace bullying either, downward from their leaders, horizontally from their nurse manager peers, and upwards from their clinical nurses were not identified.A descriptive, cross-sectional design using an online survey was utilized. Descriptive, inferential, and multivariate analyses were used to identify relationships and the likelihood of workplace bullying occurring. Thirty-five percent (n = 80) of nurse managers reported being a target of workplace bullying. Managers sustained occasional (56%, n = 45) and severe (44%, n = 35) levels of workplace bullying, 65% (n = 43) identified their executive nurse leader as the predominate perpetrator. Authentic leadership, job demand, job control correlated significantly (p = (<).01) with workplace bullying and job demand demonstrated the strongest likelihood (OR = 3.9) for predicting workplace bullying. Nurse Managers are four times more likely to be a recipient of workplace bullying when their job responsibilities are classified as demanding. This study expanded the science and demonstrated that nurse managers, the backbone of organizations, are recipients of workplace bullying emanating predominately from executive nurse leaders, but also from clinical nurses and their nurse manager peers. Given the harmful consequences of workplace bullying, as 'guardians' of and 'advocates' for their teams, executive nursing leaders, have an ethical and operational responsibility to ensure nurse managers are able to practice in a safe environment.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005986, ucf:50771
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005986

Title: Transforming the Aquatic Urban Landscape: Nutrient Status and Management of Stormwater Basins.
Creator: Skovira, Lindsay, Bohlen, Patrick, Fauth, John, Wang, Dingbao, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Urbanization is a largely irreversible anthropogenic change that degrades environmental quality, including aquatic ecosystems. Stormwater ponds are a popular best management practice (BMP) to mitigate the effects of urban land use on downstream water bodies and contribute significantly to the total area of aquatic ecosystems in some urban watersheds. My research investigated the distribution of stormwater ponds and examined how different urban land uses influenced biophysicochemical...
Show moreUrbanization is a largely irreversible anthropogenic change that degrades environmental quality, including aquatic ecosystems. Stormwater ponds are a popular best management practice (BMP) to mitigate the effects of urban land use on downstream water bodies and contribute significantly to the total area of aquatic ecosystems in some urban watersheds. My research investigated the distribution of stormwater ponds and examined how different urban land uses influenced biophysicochemical conditions and management of those ponds in a rapidly developing suburban watershed in the Econlockhatchee River basin in Florida, USA. I evaluated limnological and ecological parameters in randomly-selected ponds distributed among three urban land-use classes: high-density residential, institutional, and roadways. Ecological measures included characterizing percentage cover and composition of littoral zone plant community and the extent of any algal mats. Limnological measures included physical parameters (pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and clarity), and nutrient concentrations (nitrate, ammonium, total nitrogen, dissolved reactive phosphorus, total phosphorus, and chlorophyll a). I used a subjective management intensity index to compare pond management among land-use classes. Stormwater ponds represented 40.2% of the total area of non-forested freshwater systems in the watershed, and were dominated by residential land uses (43.7%), followed by roadways (14.7%), industrial (2.7%) and institutional (2.3%). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed that ponds with higher total nitrogen (TN) and chlorophyll a (chla) concentrations had lower water clarity, and that both. TN and TP were positively correlated with chla. PCA scores for school ponds, which had the highest water clarity, differed significantly from those of expressway and residential ponds, along the first PCA axis. Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed that TN concentrations differed significantly between expressway and school ponds, with expressway ponds having TN concentrations 51.7% higher than schools. Both TP and TN varied differently through time in the different lands uses. Management intensity for removal of aquatic vegetation and algae was lower in school ponds than in expressway and residential ponds, and school ponds contained the highest abundance and diversity of vegetation. Different urban land uses had varying impacts on water quality, and more intense chemical use to control vegetation and algae was related to greater nutrient and chla concentrations and lower water clarity.
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Date Issued: 2016
Identifier: CFE0006845, ucf:51781
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006845

Title: Towards High-Efficiency Data Management In the Next-Generation Persistent Memory System.
Creator: Chen, Xunchao, Wang, Jun, Fan, Deliang, Lin, Mingjie, Ewetz, Rickard, Zhang, Shaojie, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: For the sake of higher cell density while achieving near-zero standby power, recent research progress in Magnetic Tunneling Junction (MTJ) devices has leveraged Multi-Level Cell (MLC) configurations of Spin-Transfer Torque Random Access Memory (STT-RAM). However, in order to mitigate the write disturbance in an MLC strategy, data stored in the soft bit must be restored back immediately after the hard bit switching is completed. Furthermore, as the result of MTJ feature size scaling, the soft...
Show moreFor the sake of higher cell density while achieving near-zero standby power, recent research progress in Magnetic Tunneling Junction (MTJ) devices has leveraged Multi-Level Cell (MLC) configurations of Spin-Transfer Torque Random Access Memory (STT-RAM). However, in order to mitigate the write disturbance in an MLC strategy, data stored in the soft bit must be restored back immediately after the hard bit switching is completed. Furthermore, as the result of MTJ feature size scaling, the soft bit can be expected to become disturbed by the read sensing current, thus requiring an immediate restore operation to ensure the data reliability. In this paper, we design and analyze a novel Adaptive Restore Scheme for Write Disturbance (ARS-WD) and Read Disturbance (ARS-RD), respectively. ARS-WD alleviates restoration overhead by intentionally overwriting soft bit lines which are less likely to be read. ARS-RD, on the other hand, aggregates the potential writes and restore the soft bit line at the time of its eviction from higher level cache. Both of these two schemes are based on a lightweight forecasting approach for the future read behavior of the cache block. Our experimental results show substantial reduction in soft bit line restore operations. Moreover, ARS promotes advantages of MLC to provide a preferable L2 design alternative in terms of energy, area and latency product compared to SLC STT-RAM alternatives. Whereas the popular Cell Split Mapping (CSM) for MLC STT-RAM leverages the inter-block nonuniform access frequency, the intra-block data access features remain untapped in the MLC design. Aiming to minimize the energy-hungry write request to Hard-Bit Line (HBL) and maximize the dynamic range in the advantageous Soft-Bit Line (SBL), an hybrid mapping strategy for MLC STT-RAM cache (Double-S) is advocated in the paper. Double-S couples the contemporary Cell-Split-Mapping with the novel Word-Split-Mapping (WSM). Sparse cache block detector and read depth based data allocation/ migration policy are proposed to release the full potential of Double-S.
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: CFE0006865, ucf:51751
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006865

Title: The Hermeneutics of the Hard Drive: Using Narratology, Natural Language Processing, and Knowledge Management to Improve the Effectiveness of the Digital Forensic Process.
Creator: Pollitt, Mark, Applen, John, Bowdon, Melody, Dombrowski, Paul, Craiger, John, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: In order to protect the safety of our citizens and to ensure a civil society, we ask our law enforcement, judiciary and intelligence agencies, under the rule of law, to seek probative information which can be acted upon for the common good. This information may be used in court to prosecute criminals or it can be used to conduct offensive or defensive operations to protect our national security. As the citizens of the world store more and more information in digital form, and as they live an...
Show moreIn order to protect the safety of our citizens and to ensure a civil society, we ask our law enforcement, judiciary and intelligence agencies, under the rule of law, to seek probative information which can be acted upon for the common good. This information may be used in court to prosecute criminals or it can be used to conduct offensive or defensive operations to protect our national security. As the citizens of the world store more and more information in digital form, and as they live an ever-greater portion of their lives online, law enforcement, the judiciary and the Intelligence Community will continue to struggle with finding, extracting and understanding the data stored on computers. But this trend affords greater opportunity for law enforcement. This dissertation describes how several disparate approaches: knowledge management, content analysis, narratology, and natural language processing, can be combined in an interdisciplinary way to positively impact the growing difficulty of developing useful, actionable intelligence from the ever-increasing corpus of digital evidence. After exploring how these techniques might apply to the digital forensic process, I will suggest two new theoretical constructs, the Hermeneutic Theory of Digital Forensics and the Narrative Theory of Digital Forensics, linking existing theories of forensic science, knowledge management, content analysis, narratology, and natural language processing together in order to identify and extract narratives from digital evidence. An experimental approach will be described and prototyped. The results of these experiments demonstrate the potential of natural language processing techniques to digital forensics.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0005112, ucf:50749
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005112

Title: Knowledge Management: Style, Structure, and the Latent Potential of Documented Knowledge.
Creator: Mcmahon, Sean, Ford, Cameron, Schminke, Marshall, Ciuchta, Michael, Sivo, Stephen, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Despite the volume, growth, and accessibility of documented knowledge (-) the insights and experiences stored on paper and in electronic form - management research has yet to demonstrate the same usefulness for documented knowledge as for knowledge residing in human sources. This dissertation explores two areas of potential for documented knowledge, suggesting the efficacy of a piece of documented knowledge is contingent not only on content, but upon the style and structure associated with...
Show moreDespite the volume, growth, and accessibility of documented knowledge (-) the insights and experiences stored on paper and in electronic form - management research has yet to demonstrate the same usefulness for documented knowledge as for knowledge residing in human sources. This dissertation explores two areas of potential for documented knowledge, suggesting the efficacy of a piece of documented knowledge is contingent not only on content, but upon the style and structure associated with that content. Style, how cognitively 'concrete' and affectively 'memorable' documented knowledge is perceived to be, is hypothesized to affect how much attention it draws and, in turn, to impact its transfer to users. Structure, reflecting the level of parsimony and modularity in documented knowledge, is hypothesized to impact attention to and manipulation of knowledge such that it affects knowledge transfer and creation. Hypotheses were tested in two laboratory studies using scientific research as an exemplar of documented knowledge. Results indicated that style was associated with documented knowledge, but was not related to its transfer. Likewise, structuring documented knowledge for greater parsimony and modularity did not improve knowledge transfer or knowledge creation. Shortcomings of the empirical tests are evaluated and possibilities for future improvements are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004717, ucf:49812
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004717

Title: Examining multi-level and inter-organizational collaborative response to disasters: The case of Pakistan Floods in 2010.
Creator: Khosa, Sana, Kapucu, Naim, Wan, Thomas, Knox, Claire, Sadri, Houman, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Catastrophic disasters are different than routine disasters and managing them requires the mobilization of inter-organizational, inter-governmental, cross-sectoral and international humanitarian support. The role of the international community through International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs), and multi-lateral organizations such as the United Nations (UN) becomes imperative when the scale of the disaster is unprecedented and difficult for a country to manage on its own. The...
Show moreCatastrophic disasters are different than routine disasters and managing them requires the mobilization of inter-organizational, inter-governmental, cross-sectoral and international humanitarian support. The role of the international community through International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs), and multi-lateral organizations such as the United Nations (UN) becomes imperative when the scale of the disaster is unprecedented and difficult for a country to manage on its own. The initial response and relief phase of managing disasters is one in which many agencies with different expertise, capacities, working mandates, resources, skills, working cultures and norms come together to coordinate and collaborate to provide timely response and relief services. Thus, the terrain of managing catastrophic disasters is complex and requires a deeper study to understand and delineate the factors shaping and facilitating collaborative response and relief efforts.This study examines the multi-level and multi-layered collaborative response networks present at the national-international level, provincial and district/local level of disaster response and interactions. In this research the nature and effectiveness of collaboration is being studied through a relevant case study of a catastrophic natural disaster, the 2010 Pakistan Floods. The phase of immediate response is explored primarily through Network Theory perspectives including supportive theoretical perspectives such as Social Capital, Resource Dependency, and Institutional Collective Action Theory perspectives that help to explain collaborative interactions in disaster response networks. This study explores and describes factors that influence (either facilitate or hinder) collaboration is disaster response networks.The key research questions for this study are: What factors facilitate and impede collaborative response to catastrophic disasters at the local, provincial, national and international levels? What are the differences and similarities in response systems at different levels? Additional questions address how leadership support (attributed to government and political leaders and organizations), institutional support (in the form of plans, international appeals of response, and development of relief funds to manage aid), network capacity of different organizations (programmatic and relational), nature of resource dependencies between responding agencies, and structural configurations of response systems impact the collaborative response in disasters.A case study method has been applied in this research. The 2010 Pakistan Floods response network/system is identified through content analysis of various newspapers, situation reports and after-action reports using the Social Network Analysis (SNA) method via UCINET Software 6.1. The actual response network is analyzed and compared with existing national disaster response plans to examine the effectiveness of collaborative response through centrality measures, clique analysis and visual display. This approach is supplemented with semi-structured interviews of key institutional representatives that responded to the 2010 Floods. These organizations and institutions were primarily identified through the networks formulated via SNA.Findings and results from the analysis reflect that the response networks at each level of analysis differ both in structural aspects and also in functional aspects. The nature of the international-national response system is focused on mobilizing donor support and receiving and managing aid, both in-kind and cash. Also a major role at the international and national level is to mobilize the UN cluster approach and focus on broader aims of response such as providing shelter and food to affected areas. Some of the factors identified as facilitating collaborative response were leadership of both national and international leaders, and availability of donor support and funds.At the provincial level of analysis, the Chief Minister of Punjab is playing a central and influential role and is partnering closely with the Armed Forces and local district administration. Interviews conducted of provincial level officials help to support the hypotheses concerning leadership support's influence on collaborative response and also the role of institutional support in the form of creation of plans, and policies that help to mobilize quick funds and resources for relief. At the local level of response, networks are highly influenced by local conditions and local capacities of the district administration. Thus, there are diverse factors impacting each level of collaborative disaster response. All in all, leadership support, institutional support and network structural aspects are important variables that impact the effectiveness of collaborative response.Today policy makers are trying to figure out ways to collaborate successfully across sector boundaries for better and effective service delivery, both in the mundane operational tasks and in uncertain and complex situations such as disasters and catastrophic events. Thus, this research helps in expanding the literature on collaborative public management, collaborative emergency management, and network management. Also the frequency of natural disasters throughout the world demonstrate the need to study and examine factors that contribute to or hinder the effectiveness of inter-organizational response in disasters
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0005361, ucf:50496
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005361

Title: Influence of Personal and State Level Variables on Perception of State Emergency Management Network Resilience In 47 States.
Creator: Jennison, Victoria, Wan, Thomas, Zhang, Ning, Ramirez, Bernardo, Kapucu, Naim, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Emergency management coordination in the United States has fallen victim to over a century of strategies to organize, reorganize, consolidate, or decentralize disaster preparedness, planning and response. Regardless of the agency in charge at the federal level, individual citizens have been responsible for their own well-being immediately after any disaster or emergency event for more than 100 years because it takes time to mobilize and deliver aid. The system most often charged with managing...
Show moreEmergency management coordination in the United States has fallen victim to over a century of strategies to organize, reorganize, consolidate, or decentralize disaster preparedness, planning and response. Regardless of the agency in charge at the federal level, individual citizens have been responsible for their own well-being immediately after any disaster or emergency event for more than 100 years because it takes time to mobilize and deliver aid. The system most often charged with managing that mobilization during an emergency event that exceeds the response capacity of local public safety agencies is the state emergency management network. Many entities in a state emergency management network have different responsibilities during disaster states vs. non-disaster states. Regardless of their role and function, entities need to be able to exchange resources and information with each other, often under time, economic, or other constraints during disasters. This resource exchange generates trust, an essential element of a resilient network. Resilient networks suffer fewer negative impacts from disaster related loss and are more likely to retain collective capacity to respond and help communities recover.The purpose of this study is to explore the ability of individual and state level attributes to explain variability in perception of network resilience. One-hundred fifty one state emergency management agency employees were surveyed regarding their perception of 5 constructs of network resilience (rapidity, redundancy, relationships, resourcefulness, and robustness) and individual level attributes. State level indicators from FEMA, NEMA, American Human Development Index, and Social Vulnerability Index were also analyzed. Overall, it was found that the individual attribute of perception of network integrity had the most influence on perception of network resilience, followed by perception of community resilience and state level attributes including disaster experience, state well-being, and number of full time state emergency management agency employees. These findings can improve network resilience by informing state emergency management network development activity. Networks that increase member opportunities to develop relationships of resource and information exchange will increase their resilience. That increased network resilience impacts community resilience because, as Winston Churchill's wise words during World War II reconstruction advise, (")We shape our communities and then they shape us(").?
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005812, ucf:50040
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005812

Title: Strategic Improvement: A Systems Approach using the Balanced Scorecard Methodology to Increase Federally Financed Research at the University of Central Florida.
Creator: Walters, Joseph, Rabelo, Luis, Ajayi, Richard, Calabrese, Mark, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The University of Central Florida has many successful measures to reflect on as it celebrates its 50th year in 2013. It is the university with the 2nd largest student population in the U. S. and its overall ranking in the U.S. News (&) World Report has improved 4 years in a row. However, with respect to research, the federally funded research and development for the University of Central Florida (UCF) has remained flat. In addition, when compared to other schools, its portion of those federal...
Show moreThe University of Central Florida has many successful measures to reflect on as it celebrates its 50th year in 2013. It is the university with the 2nd largest student population in the U. S. and its overall ranking in the U.S. News (&) World Report has improved 4 years in a row. However, with respect to research, the federally funded research and development for the University of Central Florida (UCF) has remained flat. In addition, when compared to other schools, its portion of those federal research dollars is small. This thesis lays the groundwork for developing a model for improving the federally financed academic research and development. A systems approach using the balanced scorecard methodology was used to develop causal loop relationships between the many factors that influence the federal funding process. Measures are proposed that link back to the objectives and mission of the university. One particular measure found in the literature was refined to improve its integration into this model. The resulting work provides a framework with specific measures that can be incorporated at the university to improve their share of the federally financed research and development. Although developed for UCF this work could be applied to any university that desires to improve their standing in the federal financed academic research and development market.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0005069, ucf:49955
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005069

management (11)	+ -
Knowledge Management (5)	+ -
Management (5)	+ -
Stormwater management (5)	+ -
classroom management (5)	+ -

Resource Management (4)	+ -
Supply Chain Management (4)	+ -
System Dynamics (4)	+ -
stormwater management (4)	+ -
thermal management (4)	+ -
Change Management (3)	+ -
Education (3)	+ -
Emergency Management (3)	+ -
Florida (3)	+ -
Hospitality (3)	+ -
Industrial Engineering (3)	+ -
Leadership (3)	+ -
Phosphorus (3)	+ -
Project Management (3)	+ -
Twitter (3)	+ -
communication (3)	+ -
education (3)	+ -
facework (3)	+ -
gender (3)	+ -
impression management (3)	+ -
knowledge management (3)	+ -
pain management (3)	+ -
social media (3)	+ -
stress (3)	+ -
workplace (3)	+ -

ETD Collection (193)	+ -
Honors Collection (20)	+ -
PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements (1)	+ -

University of Central Florida (206)	+ -
Rabelo, Luis (11)	+ -
Wanielista, Martin (9)	+ -
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Kapucu, Naim (7)	+ -

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Chang, Ni-bin (6)	+ -
Allred, Kelly (5)	+ -
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Hastings, Sally (5)	+ -
Roberts, Robin (5)	+ -
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