Youth Entrepreneurship Among University Graduates in Anambra State, Nigeria

Nigerian policy is inconsistent with regard to the promotion of entrepreneurship among young adults in Anambra State that would serve as a guide to becoming self-employed. Most young adults in Anambra State lack information on entrepreneurial characteristics to become self-employed. The issues confronting Anambra State as a result of youth unemployment include increase in crime rate, drug abuse, kidnapping, and suicide rate. Guided by the human capital theory, the purpose of this case study was to explore the entrepreneurship strategies that young adults in Anambra State needed to become self-employed after graduating from universities. Twenty youth entrepreneurs participated in the individual interviews, 5 participated in a focus group, and 5 policymakers participated in another individual interview. Data were coded and analyzed using Yin\u27s 5 step procedure involving compiling, assembling, analysing, dissembling and repeating the entire process three times until the themes emerged. The emerging themes were mentorship, vocational training, and ad-hoc programs. These findings revealed that youth who participated in these programs (mentorship, vocational training and ad-hoc) obtained entrepreneurial strategies and consequently ran more profitable enterprises than those who did not. The implications for positive social change include recommendations to policymakers to expand the mentoring program among young adults and introduce vocational education that could enhance employment rate, thereby improving the standard of living, and create educational programs for university students with the expectation that upon graduation they may be able to develop businesses that may lead to the creation of employment and empower young entrepreneurs towards national growth and development

Investigating Communication Patterns as Proxy Indicators of Team Cohesion in Ad Hoc Teams

Team cohesion is a well-known facilitator of effective team functioning. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence identifying predictors of cohesion due to limitations in measurement methods. To address this issue, I propose that teams in digital games can be used as an alternative naturalistic environment to investigate team cohesion. In this thesis, I present three studies that use a variety of experimental and analysis techniques to identify behavioural indicators of cohesion and show the value of digital games as alternative paradigms for investigating team dynamics. Chapter 3 describes a qualitative study on identifying potential predictors of cohesion. The study is conducted from the perspective of an intention to be on the same team in the future. The findings from Chapter 3 suggest that team communication may be a key factor that influences intention for repeated play between strangers in ad hoc teams. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 explores team communication as a proxy indicator of cohesion to identify precisely what and how communication influences or indicates cohesion. In these studies, we first establish the relationship between cohesion and performance (Chapter 4 and 5), and between cohesion and satisfaction (Chapter 5). This ensures that the findings on cohesion in digital game teams are comparable to the wider cohesion literature. Once these relationships are established, we investigate how different communication metrics are related to cohesion and team outcomes (e.g., performance and satisfaction). Performance and satisfaction were chosen as outcome measures as these represent well-known outcomes that are generated by cohesive teams as they develop. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 provide insight into the relationships between cohesion and team outcomes, and the relationship between communication and cohesion, in different team contexts. Chapter 6 closes with a discussion of the observations, findings, and new knowledge gained from this research expedition on identifying a potential unobtrusive behavioural indicator of team cohesion

A Case Study of Participant Responses to Organizational Change Involving Technology in the National Security Domain: How Informal Processes Iterate Structure and Outcomes

Nuanced differences between organizations and the pace of change within the national security domain have routinely produced equivocal results involving information and communication technology (ICT) development. These results are characterized by unpredictable costs, unrealistic delivery schedules, and dubious ICT performance in-use. This research is a case study exploration of organizational change involving technology (also referred to as ICT) in the national security domain of the public sector. This research used machine learning and manual content analysis to compare the results of three experiments on interview transcripts. The first experiment investigated linkages between empirical and interpretive elements of organizational change. Empirical elements are defined as the a priori formal structure of organizational processes and outcomes. Interpretive elements are defined as informal process actions taken by organizational actors to coordinate organizational change involving ICT. The second experiment investigated linkages between formal a priori organizational context and outcomes, and informal process actions defined as individual (i.e., performative) and group (i.e., ostensive) practices. The third experiment parsed the interview transcripts into three episodes of organizational change. Manual content analysis was used to code formal a priori organizational structures and outcomes, and informal processes. Case study results are conceived in four categories of process actions that link a priori organizational processes and outcomes. The process action categories are conceived as, iterating, adjudicating, coordinating, and processes in-use. These categories offer explanations for how organizational change and stability involving ICT is impacted by informal coordinating process actions of organizational actors. The case study findings implicate a type of organizational change involving ICT as an evolving and dynamic endeavor. The findings contrast with formulaic phases and stages prescriptions for organizational change that dominate the extant literature. Organizational context in the national security domain is characterized by porous networked arrangements of multi-sector, dynamic and complex public jurisdictions. Enactment of public administration programs and policies is dependent upon ICT as tools of governance. Informal coordinating processes that link the fulfillment of organizational change involving technology to a priori structured processes and outcomes need to be better understood in theory and practice to ensure effective execution of aspirational policies and programs

UXS AUTHENTICATION AND KEY EXCHANGE REQUIREMENTS FOR MULTIDOMAIN OPERATION AND JOINT INTEROPERABILITY

Within the Joint All Domain Command and Control (C2) sensor network and the Navy’s Project Overmatch, unmanned systems (UxS) are a shared capability that extends reach and capacity of the military force to enhance tactics in contested spaces. This has increased research into interoperable network frameworks to securely and efficiently C2 distributed UxS forces. To date, antiquated technologies, stove-piped and proprietary business practices limit or obscure the pursuit of emerging industry techniques that provide security features required for today’s modernized force—leaving more questions than facts. Moreover, UxS power and processing limitations and constrained operating environments prohibit the use of existing modern communications protocols. However, developments in message layer security (MLS), a secure and efficient group communication protocol, could be the ideal choice for UxS teaming. This thesis documents results gathered from a qualitative study that finds MLS the best option for UxS group security and efficiency. It also documents the integration of MLS into the ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and Naval Information Warfare Pacific CASSMIR unmanned surface vehicle (USV). The implementation provides a concept of operation to demonstrate the use of MLS to provide secure and efficient C2 and exchange of data between the UAV and USV in a multi-domain ad-hoc network configuration. The experiments conducted are in a virtual environment and the physical UxS.Lieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Cycles of Engagement: how public sector clients and their consultants engage on IT projects

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how public sector clients engage with external clients on information technology projects. It does so by gathering documentary and interview information from clients and consultants on five public sector IT projects. The data were analysed using thematic and template analysis, resulting in a potential model of how project participants build engaged relationships. Little research has investigated the client-consultant relationship on IT projects and a literature review revealed little theoretical basis to model engagement between participants arriving new to a project with no pre-existing relationships. By drawing on related literature and qualitative research data, the thesis develops a conceptual model of engagement with components that explain engaged relationships in terms of interaction between conditions and behaviours. Emerging behaviours are identified as sharing, sense making and adapting and these behaviours arise from conditions of environment, participants and expertise. Sharing and sense making behaviours reinforce each other, and lead to adapting, and a consequence of adapting is the potential to change conditions. Adapting conditions alters behaviours, which in turn can alter conditions, thus implying that once started, engagement is a dynamic self-replicating phenomenon with cycles that a manager or consultant can identify and alter for the benefit of the project. The research contributes to theory by offering an understanding of the phenomenon of engagement between participants on projects, demonstrating the self-reinforcing role of conditions and behaviours and adding to theories of client-consultant relationships. The research findings offer consultants and their clients a means to identify how they can deliberately alter engagement to improve a project’s process

Complex designers and emergent design : reforming the investment treaty system

How do actors undertake institutional design in complex systems? Scholars recognize that many international regimes are becoming increasingly complex. Yet relatively little is known about how actors design or redesign institutions amid this complexity. As participant-observers in the UN negotiations on investment treaty reform, we have watched state officials and other participants grapple with this question for several years. To help explain what we have observed, we conceptualize these participants as complex designers – actors who seek to design and redesign institutions within complex adaptive systems. We then formulate three emergent design principles that seem to guide their approach as they aim to create: flexible structures, balanced content, and adaptive management processes. In a dynamic era marked by unpredictability, division, and complex transnational challenges, we believe these concepts may prove to be increasingly relevant in global governance.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Extending Two-Dimensional Knowledge Management System Theory with Organizational Activity Systems\u27 Workflow Dynamics

Between 2005 and 2010 and across 48 countries, including the United States, an increasing positive correlation emerged between national intellectual capital and gross domestic product per capita. The problem remains organizations operating with increasingly complex knowledge networks often lose intellectual capital resulting from ineffective knowledge management practices. The purpose of this study was to provide management opportunities to reduce intellectual capital loss. The first research question addressed how an enhanced intelligent, complex, and adaptive system (ICAS) model could clarify management\u27s understanding of organizational knowledge transfer. The second research question addressed how interdisciplinary theory could become more meaningfully infused to enhance management practices of the organization\u27s knowledge ecosystem. The nature of this study was phenomenological to gain deeper understanding of individual experiences related to knowledge flow phenomena. Data were collected from a single historical research dataset containing 11 subject interviews and analyzed using Moustakas\u27 heuristic framework. Original interviews were collected in 2012 during research within a military unit, included in this study based on theme alignment. Organizational, knowledge management, emergent systems, and cognition theories were synthesized to enhance understandings of emergent ICAS forces. Individuals create unique ICAS flow emergent force dynamics in relation to micro- and macro-meso sensemaking and sensegiving. Findings indicated individual knowledge work significantly shapes emergent ICAS flow dynamics. Collectively enhancing knowledge stewardship over time could foster positive social change by improving national welfare

Investigating Roles of Information Security Strategy

A fundamental understanding of the complexities comprising an information security strategy (ISS) in an organization is lacking. Most ISS implementations in government organizations equate anti-virus or installing a firewall to that of an ISS. While use of hardware and software forms a good defense; neither comprises the essence of an ISS. The ISS best integrates with business and information system strategies from the start, forming and shaping the direction of overall strategy synergistically within large government organizations. The researcher used grounded theory and investigated what a large government organization’s choices were with the differing roles an information security professional (ISP) chooses to operate with and to develop an information security program. Analysis of the data collected from interviewing 32 chief information security officers (CISOs) revealed how CISOs viewed their programs, aligned their goals in the organization, and selected role(s) to execute strategy. Use of grounded theory coding practices of the interviews showed a deficit in complexities of an ISS and a lack of an ISS in the majority of organizations. The participants came from multiple organizations in the National Capital Region on the east coast of the United States. This study advances the body of knowledge in a qualitative understanding of actions taken by CISOs to select a direction towards ISS implementation, role selection, and development of information security programs. It provides a theory for further testing of strategy development and role maturity

Research Data Management Practices And Impacts on Long-term Data Sustainability: An Institutional Exploration

With the \u27data deluge\u27 leading to an institutionalized research environment for data management, U.S. academic faculty have increasingly faced pressure to deposit research data into open online data repositories, which, in turn, is engendering a new set of practices to adapt formal mandates to local circumstances. When these practices involve reorganizing workflows to align the goals of local and institutional stakeholders, we might call them \u27data articulations.\u27 This dissertation uses interviews to establish a grounded understanding of the data articulations behind deposit in 3 studies: (1) a phenomenological study of genomics faculty data management practices; (2) a grounded theory study developing a theory of data deposit as articulation work in genomics; and (3) a comparative case study of genomics and social science researchers to identify factors associated with the institutionalization of research data management (RDM). The findings of this research offer an in-depth understanding of the data management and deposit practices of academic research faculty, and surfaced institutional factors associated with data deposit. Additionally, the studies led to a theoretical framework of data deposit to open research data repositories. The empirical insights into the impacts of institutionalization of RDM and data deposit on long-term data sustainability update our knowledge of the impacts of increasing guidelines for RDM. The work also contributes to the body of data management literature through the development of the data articulation framework which can be applied and further validated by future work. In terms of practice, the studies offer recommendations for data policymakers, data repositories, and researchers on defining strategies and initiatives to leverage data reuse and employ computational approaches to support data management and deposit