Understanding Women Leaders in a Male-Dominated Profession: A Study of the United States Marine Corps\u27 Women Generals

Contemporary organizations are increasingly realizing that future success requires a significant shift in leadership due to globalization, flattened organizational command and control structures, rapid technology growth, and the shift from manufacturing to service industries. Specifically, current leaders and scholars have begun to recognize the importance of employee diversity within organizations, and in particular the critical need to tap into the underutilized half of the population—women. Yet, the efforts to recruit, develop or retain women has been minimal, leading to metaphors such as glass ceiling and labyrinth, which characterize the institutional, social and personal barriers women encounter when seeking high-level leadership positions. While many women have pushed past these barriers, the current body of literature tends to focus more on the challenges that serve to hold women back. As a result, there are few studies of highly successful women in high-level leadership positions, and even fewer of those that have examined successful women in male-dominated career fields such as the United States Marine Corps. Although the organization is noted for rigid institutional barriers and pervasive gender bias, women have been able to achieve the highest positions of responsibility within the the Corps’ general-level ranks. This exploratory case study/cross-case analysis examined the career trajectories of eight of the ten women Marines who achieved the rank of general, revealing the complexity of navigating success in the male-dominated context of the Marine Corps. An exploration of personal, organizational, and cultural influences revealed three themes consistent across the women generals: a willingness to settle for short-term career goals, the privileging of their Marine identity, and a strong affinity with the core values of the Corps’ culture. Beyond this, the women generals attributed their success to an array of differing strategies, motivations, and decisions. As Brigadier General Reals concluded, “There is no magical path or yellow brick road” leading to success of women in the Marine Corps. This inquiry not only offers a rare glimpse into the careers of successful military women, but also provides greater understanding of some of the factors that support and challenge leadership achievement for women more generally

Operationally Efficient Propulsion System Study (OEPSS) data book. Volume 2: Ground operations problems

Operations problems and cost drivers were identified for current propulsion systems and design and technology approaches were identified to increase the operational efficiency and to reduce operations costs for future propulsion systems. To provide readily usable data for the ALS program, the results of the OEPSS study were organized into a series of OEPSS Data Books. This volume presents a detailed description of 25 major problems encountered during launch processing of current expendable and reusable launch vehicles. A concise description of each problem and its operational impact on launch processing is presented, along with potential solutions and technology recommendation

Transforming AdaPT to Ada

This paper describes how the main features of the proposed Ada language extensions intended to support distribution, and offered as possible solutions for Ada9X can be implemented by transformation into standard Ada83. We start by summarizing the features proposed in a paper (Gargaro et al, 1990) which constitutes the definition of the extensions. For convenience we have called the language in its modified form AdaPT which might be interpreted as Ada with partitions. These features were carefully chosen to provide support for the construction of executable modules for execution in nodes of a network of loosely coupled computers, but flexibly configurable for different network architectures and for recovery following failure, or adapting to mode changes. The intention in their design was to provide extensions which would not impact adversely on the normal use of Ada, and would fit well in style and feel with the existing standard. We begin by summarizing the features introduced in AdaPT

Programming in a proposed 9X distributed Ada

The studies of the proposed Ada 9X constructs for distribution, now referred to as AdaPT are reported. The goals for this time period were to revise the chosen example scenario and to begin studying about how the proposed constructs might be implemented. The example scenario chosen is the Submarine Combat Information Center (CIC) developed by IBM for the Navy. The specification provided by IBM was preliminary and had several deficiencies. To address these problems, some changes to the scenario specification were made. Some of the more important changes include: (1) addition of a system database management function; (2) addition of a fourth processing unit to the standard resources; (3) addition of an operator console interface function; and (4) removal of the time synchronization function. To implement the CIC scenario in AdaPT, the decided strategy were publics, partitions, and nodes. The principle purpose for implementing the CIC scenario was to demonstrate how the AdaPT constructs interact with the program structure. While considering ways that the AdaPt constructs might be translated to Ada 83, it was observed that the partition construct could reasonably be modeled as an abstract data type. Although this gives a useful method of modeling partitions, it does not at all address the configuration aspects on the node construct

On-line replacement of program modules using AdaPT

One purpose of our research is the investigation of the effectiveness and expressiveness of AdaPT(1), a set of language extensions to Ada 83, for distributed systems. As a part of that effort, we are now investigating the subject of replacing, e.g., upgrading, software modules while the software system remains in operation. The AdaPT language extension provide a good basis for this investigation for several reasons: (1) they include the concept of specific, self-contained program modules which can be manipulated; (2) support for program configuration is included in the language; and (3) although the discussion will be in terms of the AdaPT language, the AdaPT to Ada 83 conversion methodology being developed as another part of this project will provide a basis for the application of our findings to Ada 83 systems. The purpose of this investigation is to explore the basic mechanisms to the replacement process. Thus, while replacement in the presence of real-time deadlines, heterogeneous systems, and unreliable networks is certainly a topic of interest, we will first gain an understanding of the basic processes in the absence of such concerns. The extension of the replacement process to more complex situations can be made later. This report will establish an overview of the on-line upgrade problem, and present a taxonomy of the various aspects of the replacement process

Programming in a proposed 9X distributed Ada

The proposed Ada 9X constructs for distribution was studied. The goal was to select suitable test cases to help in the evaluation of the proposed constructs. The examples were to be considered according to the following requirements: real time operation; fault tolerance at several different levels; demonstration of both distributed and massively parallel operation; reflection of realistic NASA programs; illustration of the issues of configuration, compilation, linking, and loading; indications of the consequences of using the proposed revisions for large scale programs; and coverage of the spectrum of communication patterns such as predictable, bursty, small and large messages. The first month was spent identifying possible examples and judging their suitability for the project

Curvilinear grids for sinuous river channels

In order to effectively analyze the flow in sinuous river channels, a curvilinear grid system was developed for use in the appropriate hydrodynamic code. The CENTERLINE program was designed to generate a two dimensional grid for this purpose. The Cartesian coordinates of a series of points along the boundaries of the sinuous channel represent the primary input to CENTERLINE. The program calculates the location of the river centerline, the distance downstream along the centerline, and both radius of curvature and channel width as a function of such distance downstream. These parameters form the basis for the generation of the curvilinear grid. Based on input values for longitudinal and lateral grid spacing, the corresponding grid system is generated and a file is created containing the appropriate parameters for use in the associated explicit finite difference hydrodynamic programs. Because of the option for a nonuniform grid, grid spacing can be concentrated in areas containing the largest flow gradients

Breaking bad news and the importance of compassionate palliative care of the infant

Bad news to parents regarding their infant is information that negatively impacts the parent’s feelings and view of the present and/or future. It is implemented in situations with feelings of no hope or those that induce a threat to a parent’s mental and physical well-being. The term is difficult to define as it is based on parent’s subjective feelings. However, it is important to be aware of the impact of bad news as it can cause severe anguish and stress on the parent’s emotional stability. The style of delivering bad news has a significant impact on the physician/parent relationship and the satisfaction of the family upon the healthcare team and palliative care system. In the case of an inevitable death of an infant, the implementation of palliative care follows the delivery of bad news. The strategy of palliative care and the philosophy of communication between the healthcare provider and family unit leave a lasting impression on the parents regarding the care of their infant. Clinicians should strive to educate themselves regarding the art of breaking bad news as well as the approach to palliative care to minimize the suffering and grief of the family in their time of sorrow

Just enough structure at the edge of chaos: Agile information system development in practice

Agile information systems development is not well understood and suffers from a lack of sustainable theories, which are based on empirical research of practice. We use a framework that focuses on the ‘edge of chaos’ as the area, where agile information systems development takes place to fill in this gap. Our study identifies for a concrete project under investigation, where the beneficial balance between stability and instability lies. It discusses the circumstances, which influence this balance and the relationships of the elements, which constitute it