DTheses (Athabasca University)
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SUCCESSION PLANNING IN LEADERSHIP IN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTES: FOR STABILITY AND OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE
Get PDFThis grounded theory study examined succession planning for senior leadership positions within polytechnic institutes. Sixteen senior leaders from three polytechnic institutes in Canada were interviewed about their institutes’ existing senior leadership recruitment, retention, and training practices and any alignment between strategic planning and succession planning efforts. Additional data were collected from institutional websites and strategic documents shared by the interviewed leaders. This study explored the role of strategic planning, organizational leadership, and the overall talent management framework in addressing internal and external challenges faced by higher education institutions due to changes in technological; student demographic; and socio-political and economic influences. The findings revealed a desire among senior leaders for succession planning to be a strategic and an ongoing conversation at all levels. Six themes emerged: institutional strategy, accountability, leadership development, talent management, essential leadership skills, and informal succession planning. Through examination of these themes, this study proposed the 4P Model for Succession Planning in Polytechnic Institutes, centered on Purpose, Progression, Performance, and Persistence.2020-0
AUTOMATIC TEST ITEM GENERATION FROM KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURE
Get PDFThis research designs and implements an item generation engine that can automatically create higher order thinking multiple-choice items for online tests based on knowledge maps developed by teachers. Furthermore, this study leveraged questionnaire to collect data from teachers to analyze the agreement between system and participants classification of the cognitive items generated by the algorithms designed and implemented for this study. Results indicated that there are areas where the participants agreed with the systems classification of the cognitive items and in some areas they disagree. However, the system implemented for this research might go a long way to help teachers save the time they need to spend on preparing tests and assessing their students’ understandings of the concepts they have learnt. Moreover, students will benefit from the online test system in terms of having opportunity to self-assess their knowledge at any time and getting rapid test results.2019-0
Web of WisCom: An ethnographic case study of older adult learners online
Get PDFThis differentiated replication examined the WisCom instructional design model when used in an online course for persons over 55 years of age. In total, 23 older adult men and women participated in a non-formal course that ran twice within two consecutive six-week semesters. I describe several key findings of this ethnographic case study. First, the older adult participants were ill prepared for a course with a constructivist ethos. As a result, course forum participation was low. Group collaboration and knowledge building was evident only during case studies. Second, the participants identified good listening skills, experience, and a reflective nature as the three most prevalent characteristics of those who are wise. Listening skills were in evidence among many participants; they seemed to have anticipated a course where they would simply apprehend an abundance of direct instruction. Third, the forum comments of the first cohort of participants was made available to the cohort that followed. This appeared to have had a positive effect upon the second cohort of participants, who were able to access the previous store of knowledge. Fourth, there was no evidence of transformative learning among participants who took this course. This was contrary to the previously reported results by the WisCom developers. Among conclusions is that evidence of perspective transformation may have been misapplied to ordinary instances of learning in earlier uses of WisCom.2020-0
Capstone electronic portfolios of master's students: An online ethnography
Get PDFMy exploratory ethnographic study examined the development of reflection among master’s students as they completed a capstone electronic portfolio, or eportfolio, project in an online post-secondary institution in western Canada. These eportfolios were developed by the students both individually, and also in collaboration with their peers, while they engaged in feedback-giving and feedback-receiving interactions at various stages of the eportfolio development process. My study considers, through the lens of an Internet subculture, aspects of eportfolios related to pedagogy, technology, interaction, and reflection within a community of learners. The methodology for this study was an ethnography, in which the eportfolio interactions, and student presentations were observed. Triangulation of data collection was established through surveying six students in a written questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions, and interviewing the same six students in semi-structured interviews of open-ended questions. Data were also collected from twenty-one archived student eportfolio presentations. The eportfolio pages became the focal point for the community of learners to gather, which resulted in increased student engagement, further interaction (with peers, instructor, and course resources), and gradually led to the development of reflection. As a form of both affirmation and reassurance, students sought the opinions of one another on the pages of their eportfolios. Since each course provided access to examples of eportfolios from previous cohorts, there was an evolution in the responses of the students who participated in the courses. The rich data rendered findings that elucidate the experiences of master’s level students in the three iterations of this course.2019 07 1
Leadership Styles in Male Dominated Organizations: A Mixed-Methods Study
Get PDFWomen continue to be under-represented in senior leadership positions, particularly in male dominated organizations. Despite this gap, popular literature including the New York Times and the Harvard Business Review have espoused the benefits of hiring female leaders. Women, more so than men, are thought to exhibit the nurturing and empowering characteristics of the transformational leadership style that is the popular method of leadership sought by today’s organizations. Academic researchers have tended to argue against gender differences in leadership style. However, some scholars have found that women tend to be more transformational than men, except in the presence of moderators such as a predominately-male sex composition of the organizational hierarchy. Using the constructs of transformational and transactional leadership, this mixed-methods study employed the Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to explore the leadership practices of male and female leaders in a male dominated organization. The theoretical paradigms of role congruity theory and social identity theory allowed for the examination of stereotypes and prejudices against female leaders that influenced their leadership styles and provided insight into the evaluative differences between male and female leaders. The quantitative results reveal that both male and female leaders rated themselves as more transformational than transactional, with men just as likely as women to use a transformational leadership style. A thematic analysis of qualitative data reveled two overarching themes, which were applied to the research questions. The results indicate that some women alter their leadership behaviours when leading in a male dominated environment and perceive they are evaluated differently when leading in a transformational manner in male dominated roles.2019-0
ALONE IN PARADISE: EXPLORING INTERSECTIONALITY WITH SINGLE, IMMIGRANT MOTHERS IN CANADA
Get PDFResearchers have traditionally examined and explored immigration and single motherhood in isolation from one another. In the research reported in this thesis, I adopted intersectionality theory as the framework to examine the lived experiences of single, immigrant mothers in Canada. This includes investigating single motherhood and immigration in relation to the intersections of gender, ethnicity, social class within the context of cross-cultural transitioning, diverse mothering ideologies, and shifting social locations. The aim of the study was to gain insight into the challenges that single, immigrant mothers face and thereby to inform the
provision of counselling services for them. The findings indicate that the single, immigrant mother participants’ lived experiences and acculturation processes were influenced by discourses
related to gender, ethnicity, and mothering, from both their former world and their new world. Findings also revealed that single, immigrant mothers’ relationships with their children were
affected by the intersectionality of their cultural identities. Service providers play an important role in supporting these mothers through their cross-cultural transitions; this study provides insights into how they can better address the specific and complex needs of this population.2019-1
BIO-INSPIRED CLUSTERING APPROACH BASED ON STUDENTS’ ANNOTATION ON ONLINE READING MATERIALS
Get PDFWhen students read a book, they usually annotate important words in the text. Students may perhaps miss some important information while reading the book. Students can perform better academically and score well in written exams, quizzes, and other learning activities if they know about the potentially important annotations in advance. With an annotation system’s help, teachers can create online reading activities for students and review students’ annotations on the e-text. This research aims to design and implement a bio-inspired clustering method. The proposed method can cluster students into groups according to their annotations on the online reading materials. The annotation system uses the clustering results to find content that might be important for student. This research implements an Online Annotation System that can let students annotate on the reading activities in different ways and give students annotation reminders base on the clustering results.2019-0
Values, Rationality, and Power: Developing Organizational Wisdom
Get PDFHow do we develop organizational wisdom? The literature highlighted three themes of wisdom: values guide wise action; knowledge is required, but insufficient; wisdom is action-oriented, requiring acts of power. Focusing, therefore, on the constructs of values, rationality, and power, I applied a phronetic research approach, including a narrative analysis of texts and interviews, to an embedded, single case study of the development of the Seniors Program within a Canadian health authority. Phronetic research seeks to develop value-rationality and argues that wisdom is doing the ethically practical in a social context. Thus, I used the values of the Canada Health Act as a litmus for wise action and assessed whether individuals acted consistently with those values and, if not, why.
Results demonstrated that values guided episodic uses of power. Values interacted in complex ways, and even when different stakeholders shared prime values, differences in instrumental values and operating timeframes led to resistance. Groups exercised power and made appeals to areas where values overlapped to overcome resistance. Program developers used rationality to determine how the program would operate. Different stakeholder groups, however, relied on different forms of rationality, and the rationalities that dominated were the ones supported by prevailing power structures. Groups that blended different rationalities discovered that bringing multiple rationalities into dialogue resulted in creative problem-solving. Rationality was also the means through which individuals reified power. It gave the means and structure that translated will into action.
This study demonstrated that organizational wisdom required individuals capable of managing the complex interplay of values, rationality, and power within their organization. These individuals were led by values that aligned with the organization’s, possessed keen insight into the values different stakeholder groups pursued, and negotiated differences to build supportive power networks. They understood the rationalities that dominated in their organization yet recognized that other stakeholders relied on different rationalities. They respected these differences and sought to blend rationalities to solve problems. Finally, these individuals understood how power worked in their organization. They knew how to make things happen in their environment, and they exercised their power to create action.2019-0
The Effectiveness of Variable Pay Plans in Canadian Colleges
No full textThis mixed methods study set out to examine whether variable pay plans for senior college executives are effective in motivating and retaining talented executives. Furthermore, it explored a variety of theories related to variable pay and assessed whether public service motivation theory applied to executives in public colleges in Canada. This study examined the breadth and depth of current practice through Phase 1 quantitative research, followed by a qualitative research phase that drew on the knowledge and opinions of seven college leaders to further explain the how and why of the quantitative results. The quantitative questionnaire was sent to 237 college executives across Canada, which resulted in 68 responses. The study offered some meaningful contributions to the literature surrounding theories pertaining to variable compensation—agency theory, reinforcement theory, expectancy theory, and public service motivation theory—concluding that the Canadian college system is most aligned with public service motivation theory.
Executives who receive variable pay scored slightly higher by mean in all motivation measures—extrinsic, intrinsic, total, and retention; however, on the combined variables, the differences between those who receive variable pay and those who do not was not statistically significant. Through the qualitative interviews, executives demonstrated that some are more motivated by variable pay than others, so the results likely vary from college to college. Since post-secondary education is governed provincially in Canada, inequities exist from province to province with varied levels of government involvement in executive compensation. Overall, the researcher concluded that the colleges with variable pay will likely realize some benefit, both in terms of more motivated executives and executives who are more likely to continue in their roles, but the benefit will not be significant and will vary based on the motivations of those in the executive positions. Few, if any, will consider variable pay a deciding factor for choosing jobs but instead will consider total pay and pay equity.2019-1
Investigating self-directed learning readiness, private tuition and organisational level among working adult Singaporeans
Get PDFCited in the literature as one of the more fundamental principles of andragogy, self-directed learning attributes to all adult learners an inclination towards assuming more responsibility for, and taking control of their own learning. A substantial body of research has examined the degree of self-directed learning readiness (SDLRS) in various national, cultural and institutional contexts but none has so far examined, as this study did, the extent of self-directed learning readiness among working adult Singaporeans and to further explore the correlations between their SDLRS score, prior exposure to private tuition and the organisational level that they occupy at work. Three main conclusions were reached. Firstly, when compared to other adults worldwide, working adult Singaporean learners were found to be below-average self-directed learners. Secondly, a prior exposure to private tuition in primary and secondary school was found to be negatively correlated to their readiness for learning self-direction. For private tuition attended during secondary school however, that relationship was found to be only marginally significant. Thirdly, the organisational level that working adult Singaporeans achieved at work was positively correlated to their self- directed learning readiness, but, again, that finding was only marginally significant. However, the SDLRS mean score difference between managers and non-managers was found to be significant. This research concludes with a number of recommendations pertaining to the identification and support of students with a low-level of learning self-direction.2019-0