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Antifragility: Disorder as the Wind That Energizes the Fire Within Us
Get PDFToday’s business world is more complex and uncertain than ever due to the unpredictable interdependencies caused by factors such as technology and globalization; accordingly, stress-inducing job demands have never been more prevalent. In order to cope with such demands, employees need to go beyond resilience and embrace disorder as a tool for growth. In this dissertation, I introduce the concept of antifragility to the workplace as a psychological resource that utilizes disorder to its advantage. In order to efficiently coincide with today’s complexity and uncertainty, an employee has to gain more than lose from disorder, simply put, s/he has to be antifragile. Furthermore, I distinguish among the constructs of adversity, growth, and adaptation by proposing a continuum and a circumplex on which antifragility, resilience, and fragility lie. In Study 1, I develop measures for antifragility, resilience, and fragility based on the conceptualization, assess their content validity, and conduct exploratory factor analysis to confirm their structure. In Study 2, I test the convergent and discriminant validity of the developed scales by comparing them to existing similar constructs. Furthermore, I test the incremental validity of antifragility in predicting relevant individual outcomes above and beyond similar psychological resources. In Study 3, I test the nomological network of antifragility to assess its criterion validity. In Study 4, based on the job demands-resources model, I test a hypothesized model involving the role of antifragility in the appraisal of stressors in the workplace. More specifically, I hypothesize an integrated moderated mediation model in which antifragility moderates the indirect relationship between challenge/hindrance stressors on approach role/resource crafting and avoidance role/resource crafting through challenge/hindrance appraisals
A Qualitative Analysis of Distributed Leadership in an Elementary School Setting
Get PDFThis qualitative case study investigated the processes by which an elementary school principal uses Distributed Leadership to accomplish leadership tasks and progress toward organizational goals. It aimed to provide a thick description of the practices, behaviors, perspectives, and experiences of the participants of Distributed Leadership. The research participants included one principal and eight teacher leaders in a prekindergarten through second grade school in the southeastern part of the United States, having been identified as having Distributed Leadership. The study used observations, interviews, and document analysis to collect qualitative data. The study\u27s finding revealed four themes: leaders’ abilities to pinpoint other leaders within the school, the importance of protected time to complete leadership tasks, leaders\u27 desire for proper planning and preparation, leaders\u27 reluctance to relinquish control, and leaders\u27 responsibilities to monitor progress once expectations have been established and communicated.The study revealed several essential processes of Distributed Leadership, including time management, the formulation of interpersonal relationships, selecting competent leaders and building the capacity of those leaders, and professional development throughout the Distributed Leadership model. Recommendations from this study suggests that principals invest specific and dedicated time into developing schedules that provide staff with opportunities to complete instructional and leadership tasks and that principals pinpoint areas of opportunity for staff professional development then provide rigorous and ongoing professional development opportunities for the leadership team members. Lastly, recommendations from this study encourage placing the most suitable people in the most suitable positions. The information provided from the current study will enable school leaders to model Distributed Leadership as they strive to accomplish leadership tasks and progress toward organizational goals. This study will encourage future research to explore claims of causality of Distributed Leadership
An Autoethnographic View from the Chair of a Higher Education Chief Information Officer
Get PDFThis autoethnographic study sought to answer the question: What is the impact of the chief information officer’s (CIO) organizational structure on his/her ability to impact his/her influence as a university leader? This study used semi-structured mind mapping, a Venn diagram, a cubic framework, and a qualitative, autoethnographic interview of the researcher. The chief data officer (CDO) framework was modified for this study. This study combines CIO experiences at three public southern universities. The findings of the study suggest that university leaders should (1) recognize the importance of information technology (IT) and, specifically, the CIO and ensure that both meet the university’s technology needs, (2) expand the reach of CIOs beyond their home departments, (3) recognize that the location of the CIO in the organization chart is flexible, (4) invest significant efforts to identify the appropriate skills and expertise needed by the university in its CIO, and (5) enable the CIO to be an institutional leader, not just a technology leader
What\u27s the Beef with Veg*ns: A Mixed Method Approach To Anti-Veg*n Stigma
Get PDFDespite veg*n scholarship within psychological science, much of this research examined anti-veg*n attitudes amongst non-veg*ns complemented with scarce research on the impact of anti-veg*n stigma and experiences of veg*ns. Underpinned by critical feminist framework with a phenomenological approach, the present study, a convergent mixed method design, examined the relationship between anti-veg*n stigma and multicultural awareness among 165 non-veg*ns and explored the experiences of 13 veg*ns in the context of stigma. Path analysis revealed that multicultural awareness and attitudes towards those with different dietary habits (e.g., veg*n diets, p. 19) was negatively associated with attitudes towards vegans. Additionally, path analysis revealed that attitudes towards vegetarians were negatively associated with attitudes towards different dietary habits and not with multicultural awareness and attitudes. Qualitative analysis revealed 5 salient themes: 1) The Veg*n Experience, 2) Contextual Concealment and Outness, 3) Anti-Veg*n Messages and Discrimination, 4) Navigation Strategies, and 5) Centrality of Nonhuman Consumption and Related-Inequalities. These themes characterized participants’ experience, perceptions, and navigation of anti-veg*n stigma at all levels of society as well as perceived benefits and costs related to veg*n identification. Integration of qualitative and quantitative revealed differences in perceptions of anti-veg*n attitudes towards veg*ns. Implications for clinical practice, training, and policy development are discussed
Longitudinal Measurement Invariance of Communication Apprehension Scores Among First-Year Undergraduates
Get PDFTesting measurement invariance (MI) is the most practical question to address in any analysis that involves multiple time points and/or groups. MI is a prerequisite to evaluate if an observed true change over time has occurred after an intervention. Communication Apprehension is one of the most widely studied constructs in the field of communication but has not been analyzed for MI. Leaders governing higher education institutions have implemented Quality Enhancement Plans (QEP) that strategically address workforce needs such intervention programs to improve student communication competency. Despite intervention efforts, industry still indicates a high demand for a workforce with communication competency. This study explores this issue by applying a tripartite model of change to assess the presence of alpha, beta, and gamma change in communication participants. The present study also conducted a secondary analysis using archival data from a communication intervention using college freshman. Factorial invariance was examined through the evaluation of three hierarchical levels of MI: configural, weak, and strong invariance. Results supported all three levels of MI; MI was upheld, and alpha change was determined to have occurred
Implementing a Key Exchange Protocol Using Isogenies on Elliptic Curves in Python
Get PDFThe study of Elliptic Curves continues to reveal more secure and efficient methods to encrypt information. For example, in De Feo, Jao, and Plˆut’s paper Towards Quantum- Resistant Cryptosystems From Supersingular Elliptic Curve Isogenies, they provide an abstract key exchange protocol using isogonies on supersingular elliptic curves. The main idea of this research is to present an accurate manifestation of the abstract protocol constructed by De Feo et al., which will be realized using Python. This protocol is founded in the Diffie-Hellman algorithm using isogenies on Elliptic Curves as its primary operation. Background on Elliptic Curve Cryptography will also be provided in order to fully understand the presented encryption process