Organizational Culture and Communication Competence Workshop: Masters Plan B

This project began as an attempt to understand how events, such as the “Great Resignation” (i.e., an unprecedented mass exit of employees from the U.S. workforce), have impacted the way in which organizations are attempting to mitigate employee turnover. In addition, this project examined what role managers might play in promoting a positive organizational culture. A review of literature identified Schein’s (1990) model of organizational culture and Spitzberg and Cupach’s (1984) conceptualization of communication competence as useful frameworks for helping managers understand and promote positive organizational culture and employee mental health and well-being. In addition, the review of literature pointed to key skills that could be developed to increase the communication competency of managers. Those skills were identified as, but are not limited to, perception checking, cognitive complexity, empathy, and role-taking. These four skills were the focus of a proposed workshop that is aimed at promoting positive organizational culture and improving managers communication competences

Consumers Continue to Load Up on Prepaid Cards

The general purpose reloadable prepaid card is a relatively new consumer financial product that is growing in popularity. This report finds that prepaid cards became increasingly accessible in 2013, and in many instances are now more affordable than basic checking accounts. But, while prepaid cards offer many benefits, consumer protections lag far behind other banking products

Methods to Model-Check Parallel Systems Software

We report on an effort to develop methodologies for formal verification of parts of the Multi-Purpose Daemon (MPD) parallel process management system. MPD is a distributed collection of communicating processes. While the individual components of the collection execute simple algorithms, their interaction leads to unexpected errors that are difficult to uncover by conventional means. Two verification approaches are discussed here: the standard model checking approach using the software model checker SPIN and the nonstandard use of a general-purpose first-order resolution-style theorem prover OTTER to conduct the traditional state space exploration. We compare modeling methodology and analyze performance and scalability of the two methods with respect to verification of MPD.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Protocols for Integrity Constraint Checking in Federated Databases

A federated database is comprised of multiple interconnected database systems that primarily operate independently but cooperate to a certain extent. Global integrity constraints can be very useful in federated databases, but the lack of global queries, global transaction mechanisms, and global concurrency control renders traditional constraint management techniques inapplicable. This paper presents a threefold contribution to integrity constraint checking in federated databases: (1) The problem of constraint checking in a federated database environment is clearly formulated. (2) A family of protocols for constraint checking is presented. (3) The differences across protocols in the family are analyzed with respect to system requirements, properties guaranteed by the protocols, and processing and communication costs. Thus, our work yields a suite of options from which a protocol can be chosen to suit the system capabilities and integrity requirements of a particular federated database environment

Методика експериментальної перевірки моделі системи розвитку інноваційної культури майбутнього керівника закладу загальної середньої освіти

The article is devoted to the description of individual parts of the experimental work, the general purpose of which was to determine the effectiveness of implementation of the developed structural and functional model of the system of the innovative culture development of the future manager of general secondary educational institution in the master training process. Defining the pedagogical experiment was the task of checking the effectiveness of pedagogical conditions for the mplementation of the specified structural and functional model, the ability to ensure the integrity of the process of development of the phenomenon under study.Стаття присвячена опису окремих частин експериментальної роботи, загальна мета якої передбачала визначення ефективності реалізації розробленої структурно-функціональної моделі системи розвитку інноваційної культури майбутнього керівника установи загальної середньої освіти в процесі магістерської підготовки. Визначальним у педагогічному експерименті стала задача по перевірці ефективності педагогічних умов реалізації зазначеної структурно-функціональної моделі, можливостей забезпечення цілісності процесу розвитку досліджуваного феномена

Effects of the Interactions Between LPS and BIM on Workflow in Two Building Design Projects

Variability in design workflow causes delays and undermines the performance of building projects. As lean processes, the Last Planner System (LPS) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) can improve workflow in building projects through features that reduce waste. Since its introduction, BIM has had significant positive influence on workflow in building design projects, but these have been rarely considered in combination with LPS. This paper is part of a postgraduate research focusing on the implementation of LPS weekly work plans in two BIM-based building design projects to achieve better workflow. It reports on the interactions between lean principles of LPS and BIM functionalities in two building design projects that, from the perspective of an interaction matrix developed by Sacks et al. (2010a), promote workflow

The interaction of lean and building information modeling in construction

Lean construction and Building Information Modeling are quite different initiatives, but both are having profound impacts on the construction industry. A rigorous analysis of the myriad specific interactions between them indicates that a synergy exists which, if properly understood in theoretical terms, can be exploited to improve construction processes beyond the degree to which it might be improved by application of either of these paradigms independently. Using a matrix that juxtaposes BIM functionalities with prescriptive lean construction principles, fifty-six interactions have been identified, all but four of which represent constructive interaction. Although evidence for the majority of these has been found, the matrix is not considered complete, but rather a framework for research to explore the degree of validity of the interactions. Construction executives, managers, designers and developers of IT systems for construction can also benefit from the framework as an aid to recognizing the potential synergies when planning their lean and BIM adoption strategies