916 research outputs found
Building Talent and Excellence Within Foundations
Despite high profile of foundation funding for capacity building within the organisations and communities they support, little comprehensive data exists about capacity building needs within foundations or about action taken to address them:How can a single capacity building agenda apply when foundations are so diverse -- in organisation and purpose, background and culture, methods of work?There is ambivalence within many foundation Boards about the value of investment in the capacity of own organisation.This report is based on the conviction that: "building a knowledgeable, skilful and confident staff and Board are pre-requisites for creating and maintaining a foundation that is able to operate in practice to high standards, that gets the best from its own staff and Board, that provides an excellent service to those organisations and communities with which it works, that reflects on and learns from its own work and those of its partners, and that has good prospects of achieving the changes and outcomes to which it aspires." The report aims to show how the EFC can help make that happen
Finite elements with h -adaptation for momentum, heat and mass transport with application to environmental flow
Self-adaptive algorithms for 2 and 3-dimensional unstructured finite element grids are recent to the solution of partial differential equations, particularly those equations describing environmental transport. An h-adaptive grid embedding method is developed to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for fluid flow and scalar transport. An application to atmospheric mass transport is presented; This h-adaptive algorithm, in combination with the finite element method, has been designed to solve 2 and 3-dimensional problems on Pentium PC\u27s, including problems involving complex geometry on high end PC\u27s, workstations and mainframes. The Galerkin finite element solver is a 2 point Gauss-Legendre integration scheme which employs mass lumping, Cholesky skyline L-U decomposition, and Petrov-Galerkin upwinding; This dissertation introduces and explains the application of the Galerkin weighted residual finite element method. Development of the weak statements for the non-dimensional primitive variable Navier-Stokes equations is presented along with a Poisson formulation for resolving pressure. The semi-implicit solution process of this Poisson formulation is described in detail. Various adaptive methods are presented with emphasis on grid embedDing Finally the application of the adaptive process coupled with the finite element solver is applied to the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations along with the species transport equation; Adaptive methods are becoming common place in the solution of partial differential equations. In this thesis, an algorithm employing h-adaptation is developed for the solution of the non-linear Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible flow and its application to environmental fluid dynamics. Improvements in computational requirements are discussed including comparison with solutions on globally refined domains. Comparison of solutions is provided by using benchmark problems that provide a means for assuring the verification and validation of the computer code. Implementation of the algorithm for environmental species transport is an effective method to improve the accuracy of transport prediction
A 3-dimensional h-adaptive algorithm for species transport prediction
Development of 3-dimensional self-adaptive algorithms for unstructured finite element grids is recent to the solution of partial differential equations. An h-adaptive grid embedding method is employed to help solve the Navier-Stokes equations for fluid flow and scalar transport; This h-adaptive algorithm, in combination with the finite element solver, has been designed to solve simple to moderately complex 3-dimensional problems on high-end PC\u27s with at least 16 megabytes of ram, and more complex geometries on workstations and mainframes. The finite element solver is a one point Gauss-Legendre integration scheme which employs mass lumping, Cholesky skyline L-U decomposition, and Petrov-Galerkin upwinding; This thesis introduces and explains the Galerkin weighted residual finite element solution process with the use of the Laplace heat conduction equation. Development of the weak statements for the non-dimensional primitive variable Navier-Stokes equations is presented with a Poisson formulation for pressure. The explicit solution process of this Poisson formulation is described in detail. Various adaptive methods are presented with emphasis on grid embedDing Single element division or grid embedding allows for the use of the one point quadrature integration scheme used in the solution process. Finally the application of the adaptive process coupled with the finite element solver is applied to the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations along with the species transport equations
Analysis of the use of video tape in the assessment center method
This study examined the feasibility of employing video-taping procedures in the operation of assessment centers. Six trained assessors observed 23 participants in four separate assessment centers. While one group of three assessors observed the assessment proceedings in person, the other group of three saw only the video-tape playbacks of the performances. A high degree of reliability was found between the ratings given by the two teams of assessors. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation computed on the total scores of all 23 participants yielded a reliability of r = . 86. The Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient was r = . 85. Videotaping procedures did indeed convey the essential behavioral information necessary to evaluate an individual\u27s management potential. Positive and negative factors of video taping are discussed in the paper
The dynamic nature of strategic consensus:a longitudinal study of multi-level cognitive shifts during a crisis
The proliferation of crises facing organisations is challenging how individuals make sense and respond to their new environments. This research investigates cognitive shifts in both leaders and followers in response to a cumulative crisis to ascertain the fluctuations in achieving cognitive consensus within a single case study firm. Cognitive vision formation theory and followership theory are integrated to account for the role of both leaders and followers throughout the crisis. 91 cognitive maps of leaders and followers were elicited during three phases of data collection over a four year period and analysed following a standardised procedure to explain how and where consensus was formed. Distance ratios are calculated to measure within and between group consensus and cognitive shifts. This research makes several key and original contributions to knowledge. First, during the initial stages of responding to a crisis it is the followers that are the locus of consensus rather than leaders and subsequently the cognitively diverse leadership teams converges towards follower teams which builds consensus as the crisis first unfolds. Second, following the initial stages, a bottom-up diffusion of consensus process is observed with middle-managers emerging as the locus of consensus between the middle and latter stages. Third, the inclusion of a midpoint in data collection provides fresh empirical evidence that the scope of cognitive consensus fluctuates rather than builds over a sustained period of time. Fourth, this fluctuation requires cognitive shifts in individuals which are detected as being initially higher in leaders than followers during responses to the crisis. Fifth, preliminary empirical evidence demonstrates that degree of cognitive shifts are also greater over a longer period of time than in the initial response to the crisis. Finally, a theoretical framework is developed to map the four different types of cognitive shifts individuals experience during a cumulative crisis. The thesis concludes with a call for future longitudinal multi-level research to further investigate the antecedents of cognitive shifts and empirically test the theoretical framework. Additionally, more attention is now required into the strategic role of followers and middle managers during a crisis
A Formal Metamodeling Approach to a Transformation between Visual and Formal Modeling Techniques
Formal modeling notations and visual modeling notations can complement each other when developing software models. The most frequently adopted approach is to define transformations between the visual and formal models. However, a significant problem with the currently suggested approaches is that the transformation itself is often described imprecisely, with the result that the overall transformation task may be imprecise, incomplete and inconsistent. This paper presents a formal metamodeling approach to transform between UML and Object-Z. In the paper, the two languages are defined in terms of their formal metamodels, and a systematic transformation between the models is provided at the meta-level in terms of formal mapping functions. As a consequence, we can provide a precise, consistent and complete transformation between a visual model in UML and a formal model in Object-Z
Systematic Operational Profile Development for Software Components
An operational profile is a quantification of the expected use of a system. Determining an operational profile for software is a crucial and difficult part of software reliability assessment in general and it can be even more difficult for software components. This paper presents a systematic method for deriving an operational profile for software components. The method uses both actual usage data and intended usage assumptions to derive a usage structure, usage distribution and characteristics of parameters (including relationships between parameters). A usage structure represents the flow and interaction of operation calls. Statecharts are used to model the usage structures. A usage distribution represents probabilities of the operations. The method is illustrated on two Java classes but can be applied to any software component that is accessed through an Application Program Interface (API)
Market oriented cognitive subcultures in a multiple stakeholder environment
The importance of an organisation wide market oriented culture revolves around the performance implications of a focus on customers. However, in contemporary multiple stakeholder environments different notions of ‘the customer’ can exist adding complexity and introducing the possibility of different market oriented subcultures. An analysis of managers’ cognitive maps within a single case study highlight different beliefs and values associated with two alternative market oriented subcultures externally driven by a focus on two different customer groups. The lack of management consensus was further emphasised by two other alternative internally driven subcultures within the same firm. The implications are briefly discussed
An MDA approach towards integrating formal and informal modeling languages
This paper shows how formal and informal modeling languages can be cooperatively used in the MDA framework, and how transformations between models in these languages can be achieved using an MDA development environment. The integrated approach also provides an effective V&V technique for the MDA
Cognitive shifts within leader and follower teams:Where consensus develops in mental models during an organizational crisis
This empirical study investigates cognitive shifts in both leader and follower teams when developing consensus or agreement in how to resolve a slowly emerging organizational crisis over time. The cognitive maps of leaders and followers are analyzed in team settings to explain where consensus is formed. The findings indicate that consensus, or the agreement on the causal beliefs held to be critical to organizational adaptation and success, builds over time within both leader and follower teams. However, when comparing the development of consensus longitudinally, the findings confirm that the mental models of leadership teams converge towards follower teams, and not the other way around, during the crisis. The study provides new insights into the importance of the causal beliefs of follower teams when developing a vision to coordinate action to resolve a crisis
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