Preferences and decision making in large-scale communities

Understanding the formation of preferences as they relate to decision making is a crucial task in identifying aspects of major projects; however, current literature has a deficit of this focus in regards to large-scale projects and large communities. This study aims to bolster the understanding of these large community preferences as they relate to large-scale projects. The study was conducted at two American Astronomical Society (AAS) conferences to gain information from the astrophysics community regarding NASA Decadal missions. Community preferences for Decadal missions are assessed through the Decadal Survey to summarize the opinions of the astronomical community regarding which missions should be prioritized in the next decade of NASA research. Data were collected using an online survey intended to measure community preferences. Researchers hypothesized that community preferences for engineering attributes of large-scale projects would differ, such as preferences for attributes such as the profitability of the mission, efficiency, reliability, resilience, etc. Conditions were derived from actual responses, and participants were sorted into four existing conditions: industry, academia, undergraduate/graduate students, and other communities. Most results were insignificant, but support was found that community preferences differed, particularly preferences of industry and academia versus students. Implications of this research suggest that project leaders of Decadal missions should take into consideration the preferences of each community separately. When predicting the decisions that agencies and communities will made, understanding the differences in the type of preferences formed will provide a valuable tool

The Individual Differences of Adopters of Technology in a Challenging Labor Market

Digital technology can attract talent that aligns with an organization’s goals by displaying to potential hires that the organization values innovation and growth. Despite this fact, these technologies have proven difficult to implement because they are not always accepted or adopted. Businesses often have a difficult time implementing a new digital technology because of a lack of acceptance from its employees, and a lack of adoption from instructors can cause educational settings to lack the proper technological education, which may discourage potential teachers from working in those settings. Because of the importance and potential usefulness of digital technology, it is important for organizations to understand what factors affect someone’s likelihood of adopting and using a technology. One way in which research has examined the acceptance of technology is through individual differences (IDs) in the groups that the technology is targeting. The current poster comes from a literature review examining studies researching IDs’ influence on the acceptance of technology. Some of the IDs frequently examined in the research include personality traits, gender, social influence, socio-economic status, self-efficacy, trust, personality, and experience. Different circumstances will also affect how these IDs influence the acceptance of a technology. Banking applications, for example, rely on trust from the consumers using them, while educational institutions often need their teachers to have self-efficacy with using technology to effectively implement it. While IDs may affect acceptance differently in different circumstances, the findings from the literature review did allow for the creation of acceptance and adoption model by considering these various IDs. The results of this review can help businesses understand how to implement technologies to signal to potential hires that they value innovation and growth. When effectively integrated, this technology can attract tech-savvy candidates by displaying the organization’s ability to create a modern work environment. When a business is successfully able to demonstrate a commitment to leveraging new technology for the success of the organization, this can attract talent that aligns with the organization’s goals

Identifying and Analyzing Astronomers\u27 Preferences for the Next Decade of NASA

In our research, we investigated the preferences of students and professionals in the astronomy and astrophysics communities to better understand what space-based missions and research activities the scientific community would most likely prioritize for the NASA Decadal Survey. The decadal is conducted by the United States National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to address past and present research as well as changes in civil policy, new programs, and how the community may respond to the results, among other topics of interest. The aim of the current research is to survey preferences in the astronomy and astrophysics community to better understand individual and community factors and present results on mission concepts, mission capabilities, and primary science. Understanding individual and group preferences can help researchers project likely outcomes for the coming decade to better inform industry and academia stakeholders on what mission concepts the community will be most likely to support. Every project is multi-faceted; therefore, knowing the community’s interests provides the ability to show how a mission concept meets the needs of the group while simultaneously protecting their values as well. We aim to contribute knowledge about the nature of the preferences held by individuals in the community and the amount of consensus between subgroups in the astronomy and astrophysics community. The study was performed using a survey methodology to collect a total of 796 responses. Participants were a convenience sample of members from the astronomy and astrophysics community who attended the June 2018 AAS conference in Denver or the January 2019 AAS conference in Seattle. The researchers described two contextual community subgroups by their direct involvement in space-based missions and found that most did not have any prior experience. From the responses, topics were then classified into similar subthemes generating 9 overarching themes. We implemented thematic analysis to identify patterns across the qualitative open-ended responses and evaluated preferences by their prioritized astrophysics missions and research activities. Our results revealed strong community preferences for observational astronomy and science versatility, capability, and scientific return for the upcoming decadal period. Furthermore, our findings show degrees of consensus among subgroups of the scientific community. We present results on mission concepts, mission capabilities, and primary science that NASA should consider strategically investing in for the future of astrophysics and astronomy research

Non-Financial Aspects of Perceived Affordability Improvement

Affordability within industry has grown in interest over the years as organizations strive to balance performance and cost effectiveness in projects. The desire to produce high quality outputs while adhering to budgetary and schedule limitations has led to a shift in focus that emphasizes improving affordability through organizational changes and practices. There are often variations in perceptions of applications and best practices in regards to affordability improvement. These variations may lead to misunderstandings between individuals, teams, and organizations when implementing a strategy to improve affordability. The purpose of the current study is to ascertain how individuals within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Marshall Space Flight Center perceive non-financial aspects of improving affordability. Participants (N=173) were asked to respond to a survey regarding their approaches to the concept of affordability. Both financial and non-financial aspects were mentioned in participant responses, however, this poster presents the results of the thematic analysis performed on the perceived approaches to improving affordability through non-financial aspects. The responses were categorized into 5 non-financial themes of Process (including design and technology), People, External Environments, Attributes, and Other. The majority of respondents (45%) believed affordability could be improved through Process-related methodologies. Results revealed Process and People categories to be the predominant industrial-organizational facets. Process was further broken down into Technology, Design, Requirements & Specifications, Documentation, Risk, Planning, Organization, and Schedule with Technology being the most frequent category mentioned by participants. The second most common response theme was People (31%) which was further broken down into sub themes of Workforce, Management, Communication, Customer & Stakeholders, Training, and Culture & Climate. For those participants who suggested People-related improvements to affordability, Workforce was the most frequent response. Responses were limited to categorization within a single category and subcategory by researchers. Additional investigation will analyze responses from a number of industries, including but not limited to the aerospace industry. The findings from this survey may help researchers understand perceptions of affordability improvement through non-financial aspects within the aerospace industry

Organizational Alignment through Leadership Proficiency and Human System Interventions

Across many organizations, agencies and programs have been tasked with building, training, and retaining the workforce needed. Yet, only few organizations have succeeded in their efforts by creating a culture in which workforce preferences align and overarching leadership support is provided. Such a cultural transformation requires not only a behavioral shift from employees, but especially from those in leadership positions, in order to break from the typical way that organizations have long encouraged them to behave. Although the importance of leadership has been emphasized in previous literature, no consistent description of leadership attributes or promising application of human system interventions currently exist to tackle those challenges. To understand leadership attributes and its accompanied behaviors within organizational settings, we hypothesized certain leader attributes in form of personality and communication behaviors to have a greater effect on organizational alignment and overall performance. Further, we hypothesized human system interventions in the form of leadership or group coaching to have a greater effect on leadership proficiency and ultimately on organizational alignment. The foundation of this research, here the conceptual model of leadership traits is based on a comprehensive literature review to specify leadership attributes into high-level categories of leadership communication and behaviors to align with employee preferences, thus improving cultural growth, and retention. Through a simulation-based platform the leadership proficiency attributes will be observed during a dynamic design team task. Students from the University of Alabama in Huntsville will be recruited to participate in this study. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be gathered about leader proficiency, efficiency and efficacy during the simulation. Leader qualities may be inevitable in fostering organizational alignment and cultural growth resulting in higher retention and lesser turnover rates. The data obtained will be analyzed to identify a) leadership attributes that support aligning employee preferences and b) the effect of potentially fruitful human system interventions as means for leadership, cultural and performance growth. Moreover, obtained results will be used to develop agent-based models with a focus on the representation of personality dependent attributes in models of agent interactions to display emergent agent behavior. The proposed research will identify attributes of leadership proficiency through experimental design as well as demonstrate how leadership interactions and attributes can be simulated in agent-based modeling. The goal of this research is to provide a state of the art overview of identified leadership attributes supportive towards organizational alignment and cultural growth. This is performed to advance leadership and cultural growth within organizations; and using results of the empirical and theoretical groundwork to develop in the field applications

Formation, Implementation, and Verification of Requirements for Human-Autonomy Teaming

A Quad, describing funded research.Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER

Student Perspectives of Affordability for Workforce Onboarding

Affordability is often a high priority within organizations as many organizations strive to maximize output capabilities while minimizing the cost of operations. In order to operate with affordability as an organizational goal, members must work together as a cohesive unit to ensure processes and behaviors reflect this goal. While those further along in their careers may be more familiar with organizational aspects such as organizational goals, organizational culture, and organizational climate, those with limited experience may not be aware of these fundamentally important concepts. The goal of the current study was to examine perceptions of affordability given by currently employed students in order to understand how those in the exploration stage of their career view affordability in organizations. Students from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (N = 143) responded to a survey featuring both free response and Likert-type questions regarding currently held beliefs surrounding affordability and organizational culture. Results from this study indicated that students are often unaware of the concept of organizational culture and climate, and this lack of familiarity may potentially lead to organization members distancing themselves from understanding their individual impact to organizational processes. In addition, students view affordability in terms of budgets and funding, often not taking into consideration organizational behaviors that may indirectly influence the overall affordability of a project or program. These perceptions may be used to inform organizations of how best to tailor onboarding processes in order to familiarize newly hired organization members with their individual impact to an organization as well as their role within a larger organizational unit

Ups and downs of applied psychology in the elevator industry

Organizations around the world are beginning to appreciate and desire the knowledge of students and employees with a background in psychology (especially industrial/organizational psychology). I recently secured a position as a junior consultant with an international lean management consulting firm (STAUFEN) through networking with my advisor/professor. As a junior consultant, I was placed in an elevator company that required assistance of consultants to reverse the internal status of the company. I along with other consultants were responsible for training employees on lean management, implementing office daily management, coaching employees up to executives on leadership behaviors and traits, and executing training workshops. Implementing office daily management consisted of pulling together data from each department of the company, and creating visibility and transparency with the data during a daily meeting with team members. The data was utilized in decision making, proactive planning, and problem solving. Coaching leaders of the company consisted of self-reflection from leaders, and assisting them on increasing self-awareness. My main focus with most leaders was on improving and developing leadership behaviors for themselves and their team members. I’ve gained a further understanding of leadership behaviors, and especially how to visibly convey data in an easier way for it to be analyzed and comprehended by team members of a company. Keywords: leadership, organization, management, coachin

Autonomous systems adoption challenges and requirements management solutions

CRUSER Funded ResearchFY19 Funded Research ProposalCRUSER has funding to support NPS Faculty research focused on any aspect of unmanned systems/robotics related research.  Researchers are selected based upon presentations at our spring Technical Continuum (TechCon) or our annual Call for Proposals.  Proposals that support concepts from our current innovation thread are encouraged, but all research related to unmanned systems or robotics will be considered.Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER

Trust in Systems: Identification of 17 Unresolved Research Questions and the Highlighting of Inconsistencies

Trust is perhaps one of the most important constructs when trying to understand human interactions with systems. As such, there has been a considerable amount of research done on factors such as individual differences in trust, environmental factors affecting trust, and even ‘contagion’ effects of trust. However, at times the literature presents results that are inconsistent with existing findings, definitions, and at times even logic, with no clear path towards reconciliation. This manuscript attempts to highlight some of these inconsistencies within individual differences (personality and gender), task and environment, and system-wide trust, while also attempting to identify outstanding questions. While this review and critique do not encompass the totality of the literature, it provides representative examples of some of the issues the study of trust is facing. For each section, we offer a series of research questions, which has resulted in 17 proposed questions that need answering. Finally, we propose 3 questions that researchers should ask in every study which may help mitigate some of these issues in the future