Preferred Leadership Style, Cognitive Operator Competencies, and Senior Leader Competencies Exhibited by United States Marine Corps Special Operations Officers: A Quantitative Non-Experimental Study

Research identifies existing commonalities between leadership style and conceptual, technical, and interpersonal competencies. Marine Forces Special Operations Command has not explored leadership style and leader competencies and how they relate to the cognitive operator concept described in Marine Special Operations Forces 2030: A Strategic Vision for the Future. By not thoroughly exploring how they relate, Marine Forces Special Operations Command may not understand the level of interdependence between leadership style and senior leader competencies and the mastery of cognitive operator competencies. This quantitative non-experimental study explores the relationship between preferred leadership style, cognitive operator competencies, and senior leader competencies exhibited by United States Marine Corps Special Operations Officers. Sixty United States Marine Corps Special Operations Officers completed a survey comprised of demographic data, a Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire subset, a cognitive operator competencies questionnaire, and a senior leader competencies questionnaire. A series of t-tests determined significant relationships between transformational, transactional, and passive avoidant leadership characteristics and cognitive operator competencies; transactional and passive avoidant leadership characteristics and senior leader competencies; and cognitive operator competencies and senior leader competencies. The relationship between transformational leadership characteristics and senior leader competencies was insignificant. Additionally, several ancillary findings resulted from stratifying survey responses according to participant characteristics. The information generated by this study can be used to compare against Marine Forces Special Operations Command’s officer training continuum and determine where to best incorporate training on preferred leadership style, cognitive operator competencies, and senior leader competencies

A Hybrid Analytic Hierarchy Process and Likert Scale Approach for the Quality Assessment of Medical Education Programs

The quality assessment of training courses is of utmost importance in the medical education field to improve the quality of the training. This work proposes a hybrid multicriteria decision-making approach based on two methodologies, a Likert scale (LS) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), for the quality assessment of medical education programs. On one hand, the qualitative LS method was adopted to estimate the degree of consensus on specific topics; on the other hand, the quantitative AHP technique was employed to prioritize parameters involved in complex decision-making problems. The approach was validated in a real scenario for evaluating healthcare training activities carried out at the Centre of Biotechnology of the National Hospital A.O.R.N. “A. Cardarelli” of Naples (Italy). The rational combination of the two methodologies proved to be a promising decision-making tool for decision makers to identify those aspects of a medical education program characterized by a lower user satisfaction degree (revealed by the LS) and a higher priority degree (revealed by the AHP), potentially suggesting strategies to increase the quality of the service provided and to reduce the waste of resources. The results show how this hybrid approach can provide decision makers with helpful information to select the most important characteristics of the delivered education program and to possibly improve the weakest ones, thus enhancing the whole quality of the training courses

Validation of the Academic Self-Concept Scale in the Spanish University Context

The aims of this study were: (i) to provide evidence of reliability and validity regarding the dimensionality of the Spanish version of two correlated subscales measuring Academic Self-Concept (ASC); (ii) to analyze factorial invariance according to sex and the educational level; (iii) to analyze a higher-order model from the two ASC subscales; and (iv) to study the predictive relationship of the ASC to academic engagement. An observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was designed in which 681 undergraduate university students (Mage = 24.55; SDage = 5.35) (58% girls) and students of the Master’s in Teacher Education participated. The scale’s psychometric properties were analyzed using different exploratory and confirmatory analyses demonstrating that this instrument with two correlated factors (academic confidence and academic effort) is valid, reliable, and invariant in terms of gender and academic level. Higher-order factors from the two correlated factors showed an excellent goodness-of-fit. A regression model with latent variables was conducted showing a higher and positive prediction of academic self-concept for the two factors of academic engagement (willingness to study and satisfaction with studies). The ASC has shown itself to be a valid and reliable instrument for use with Spanish university students and may be of special interest, both to teachers and to the students themselves, as it allows us to reflect on the importance of developing confidence and effort during the students’ academic lives.Research Plan and Transfer of the University of Almeria - Ref. PPUENTE2021/00

An Examination of Academic Advising: How Satisfaction and Frequency of Advising Predict Degree Commitment Among Hispanic/Latino Students in Online Bachelor’s Degree Programs

Hispanic/Latino student enrollment in higher education has increased in recent years. However, persistence and dropout rates in higher education for Hispanic/Latino students are still an issue of great concern. Online degree programs are also on the rise, allowing some Hispanic/Latino students to attend college where there was no opportunity before. Although online programs are an excellent option for Hispanic/Latino students, their persistence and dropping out are also a concern, because Hispanic/Latino students are more likely to drop out of online courses than face-to-face. One of the resources that college students have access to is academic advisors, who serve as a source of support and encouragement. Therefore, it was essential to understand how interactions between Hispanic/Latino students and academic advisors influence persistence decisions when attending online undergraduate degree programs. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if satisfaction with advising and frequency of advising appointments predict degree commitment among Hispanic/Latino students enrolled in online bachelor’s degree programs at four-year higher education institutions in Texas. A purposive sample of 87 participants completed online surveys. The results indicated that satisfaction with advising and frequency of advising appointments statistically significantly predicted degree commitment. These findings are significant to the field of academic advising and provide a greater understanding of how valuable academic advising services are in higher education

Toward a Systematic Evidence-Base for Science in Out-of-School Time: The Role of Assessment

Analyzes the tools used in assessments of afterschool and summer science programs, explores the need for comprehensive tools for comparisons across programs, and discusses the most effective structure and format for such a tool. Includes recommendations

Organizational change and change readiness : employees’ attitudes during times of proposed merger

The objective in this thesis is to investigate the effects of organizational change. This is done through the review of literature and empirical analysis. An important part of this process involves developing measurements of the main constructs of interest; job satisfaction, uncertainty, commitment and change readiness. The relationship between the main constructs and change readiness is then investigated with special emphasis on testing hypotheses introduced under the first of three propositions. Further analysis then investigates two more propositions, one testing the assimilation of attitudes of Executive Managers and employees’ to organizational change, and one testing the relationship between the rate of change and change readiness. The study is based on two types of primary data. One is a questionnaire survey administered among employees of three Icelandic governmental organizations, all considered applicable for a merger. Another type of data was gathered by conducting interviews with Executive Managers of all three organizations. Findings suggest that change readiness increases as measured levels of job satisfaction increases. Findings also suggest that change readiness increases as uncertainty decreases, but the relationship between change readiness and commitment is not determined by the findings. Two of the three organizations surveyed had significantly different levels of change readiness. Findings suggest that employees’ change readiness is reflected in the attitudes of Executive Managers. Findings also suggest that employees and Executive Managers in organizations facing discontinuous or radical change do not report lower levels of change readiness, than those facing incremental organizational change

Leadership Patterns in Improving the Quality of State Civil Apparatus (ASN) Training in the Human Resources Development Agency (BPSDM) of Riau Islands Province

Training is one of the competency development pathways for the State Civil Apparatus. To realize the implementation of quality, quality and standardized training for State Civil Apparatus in a sustainable manner, Human Resources Development Agency of Riau Islands Province implements training quality assurance through accreditation of training institutions. One of the elements assessment is the role of leaders in improving the quality of training through their contribution to building a quality culture, improving quality and building a positive work culture to improve performance. This study aims to analyze the role of the leader of the Human Resources Development Agency of Riau Islands Province in building a quality culture in the organization. The research method used is a mixed method (mix-method). The results showed that in most indicators of the assessment of the leader's role, respondents gave a very good assessment of the role of the leader Human Resources Development Agency of Riau Islands Province in building a quality culture. Leadership in the Human Resources Development Agency of Riau Islands Province is considered capable of being the main key to realizing the best quality of performance produced by the organization. The efforts of the Head of the Human Resources Development Agency of Riau Islands Province to create collaboration and coordination in achieving performance must continue to have the support and involvement of all employees