Project uncertainty, project risk and project leadership : a policy capturing study of New Zealand project managers : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Cooperation between project practice and project research could help reduce failure rates for projects in New Zealand and globally. The current research used a “policy capturing” method - systematically varying sources of project uncertainty (policy cues) to explore project leadership responses. A contingency model proposed that project uncertainty (low path-goal clarity, low team cohesion, and high technical complexity) would lead to greater perceptions of project risk (scope/quality, budget, schedule, and project team satisfaction) that would negatively predict the (rated) effectiveness of transactional leadership style and positively predict ratings for transformational style. In total, n=131 experienced project managers rated the effectiveness of leadership styles from ‘not effective’ to ‘extremely effective’. Greater uncertainty produced higher perceived risks that reduced the rated effectiveness of transactional leadership. Path-goal clarity was of particular importance as a policy cue, directly predicting transactional leadership ratings (R=-0.189). These results are consistent with the task-orientation of traditional project management. However, the results for transformational style were unexpected - only team cohesion predicted transformational leadership ratings (negatively) (R= -0.119) and no link between risk and transformational leadership was found. Possible reasons for the ‘disconnect between transformational leadership, uncertainty and risk are discussed and further research suggested

Material Difficulties: Matter and the Metaphysics of Resurrection in Early Modern Natural Philosophy

When Bruno was burned at the stake in 1600, philosophers were still inclined to offer natural explanations in Aristotelian terms. Neither the physical proposals of Bruno himself, nor those of other prominent non-Aristotelians like Paracelsus had diminished the power of the explanatory model offered by the scholastics. For those philosophers watching the demise of Bruno in the Campo dei Fiori in Rome, the burning of the wood and its subsequent effects would have been explained adequately in terms of matter and substantial form. For such Aristotelian philosophers, all natural objects are constituted of matter and form, and natural events are explained in terms of the actualization of the potency of these two “principles of nature.” By the time Kenelm Digby composed his Two Treatises of 1644 and Thomas Hobbes his De Corpore in 1655, there was a new explanatory model available to explain such events, one that had greatly diminished the power of the scholastic model. According to the mechanical philosophy, nature is composed of matter—whether the res extensa of Descartes, the atoms of Gassendi, or one of the many less popular accounts of corporeity—whose actions and interactions cause and explain all the phenomena of nature. For the mechanist, therefore, all physical phenomena are to be explained in terms of some kind of matter and motion. Although these thinkers disagreed about how to define the material component in nature, they all took it to be entirely devoid of substantial forms. For our purposes here, it will be helpful to distinguish between first wave and second wave mechanists. A first wave mechanist is someone like Descartes, Galileo, Hobbes, or Gassendi who proposed a version of the mechanical explanatory model before 1650. A second wave mechanist is a philosopher working in the second half of the seventeenth century who accepts the mechanical explanatory model. For our purposes, it is important that many second wave mechanists were prepared to reject the scholastic explanatory model, replace it with the mechanical one, and yet were not content to accept the metaphysical grounding of the mechanical physics offered by the first wave mechanists

Typothesis: A Study of Warde\u27s Crystal Goblet, Leeuwen\u27s Typographic Meaning and How it Relates to the Bible

The way readers interpret the written word is changing. We look for information almost as much in between the lines as we do in the words themselves. The internet and its tools offer ways for readers to engage the text like never before — can the printed word keep up? This thesis will look at the history of print through the eyes of typography and decide if multimodal methods of arranging type are appropriate or even possible in the modern book. Specifically, it will look at the Christian Bible and it’s already present use of multimodalism. This study will bring awareness to the possibility for a new method of meaning in Biblical typography

Running Economy while Running in Extreme Cushioning and Normal Cushioning Running Shoes

The purpose of the study was to determine if running economy was influenced by wearing maximal cushioning shoes vs. control (neutral cushioning) shoes. (Please see Abstract in text

Performance Practice and Compositional Structure in Relation to Recital Preparation

Master's Project (M.Mu.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017This paper examines the author's graduate percussion recital program; ?Corporel(1985) by Vinko Globokar (b. 1934), Child of Tree (1975) by John Cage (1912-1992) Rebonds b. (1989) by Iannis Xenakis (1992-2001) Ilijas (1996) by Nebojša Jovan Živković (b. 1962), Mourning Dove Sonnet (1983) by Christopher Deane (b. 1957) and e-home (2015/2017) by Elisabet Curbelo (b. 1984). The author offers an examination of performance practice and compositional structure as it relates to the author's performance of the material.Chapter One: ?Corporel (1985) -- Chapter Two: Child of Tree (1975) -- Chapter Three: Rebonds b. (1989) -- Chapter Four: Ilijas (1996) -- Chapter Five: Mourning Dove Sonnet (1983) -- Chapter Six: e-home (2015/2017) -- Work Cited

Analysis of Thermal Interconnectivity of Utilities in Rural Alaska

Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCEThroughout the arctic there are two primary community utilities with dramatically contrary thermodynamic concerns. These are the intensely exothermic diesel electric power generation, and the strongly endothermic water and sewer utility. In this context exothermic processes must expel excess heat while endothermic process requires heat input. Failure of engineers, community planners, funding agencies, and interest groups to recognize the full social, economic, and environmental impact to the sustainability of utilities has come at tremendous cost. This is exemplified in many remote Alaskan communities such as Toksook Bay, Minto, Deering, and Kotlik

Growing oganic cereals in Northern Ireland - disease and weed problems

The small organic arable sector in N. Ireland could be expanded to provide winter feed for cattle. Spring barley or wheat are likely to be the most suitable crops as they are reported to have fewer weed and disease problems than winter cereals. Trials from 2003 –05 on weed control showed no consistent effect of cultivar, although higher seed rates reduced weed biomass and tended to increase yield, albeit marginally. Trials on disease control showed no synergistic effects of two- or three-way cultivar mixtures over single cultivars, although disease levels were generally low. Particularly in spring barley, results from mixtures tended to be averages of those of individual components. It is suggested that it may be more advantageous and practical to use the most highly-disease resistant or tolerant cultivars rather than concentrate on mixtures

The Nurturing Nature of Nature

This piece of creative non-fiction describes my relationship with National Parks and the way their beauty and power has shaped my life