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Transforming large organisations; towards a theory of management for business agility
Get PDFLarge, established firms, whose hierarchical structures and predict-plan-control management systems are optimised for the industrial era, often struggle to adopt the more collaborative ways of working that provide business agility. Managers are crucial for introducing the socio-technical practices needed, but without the assurance of reliable theory, the risk of failure is greater than any desire for improvement.
Based on my professional experience of many digital transformations, I wanted to understand how managers perceived and overcame the barriers to improving the effectiveness of their organisations. I analysed 27 research conversations with managers at all levels and found that those with agency were able to describe how they managed tensions, whilst others accepted, or were defeated, by organisational tensions. Although the successful approaches that emerged are well-known (create a caring context, explain why, develop eco not ego, walk the talk) the question remains, why the role of the manager does not explicitly include such behaviours?
I show how the literature of organizational ambidexterity actually describes six categories of tension that must be managed and propose appropriate ways for managers to resolve those tensions. I compare those tensions and methods with the empirical evidence from my conversations with managers. I propose a theoretical way for managers to actively improve the effectiveness of their organisations using five principles; Adaptable efficiency, ‘Both/and’ thinking, Manage tensions not people, Love to learn, Be eco-friendly.
The thesis contributes to knowledge in the area of transformation in organisations, in addition to making contributions in the areas of organisational management practice
A theology of persecution and Christian endurance: Cain, Abel, and a ‘Black Book of Acts’ among the St. Thomas Moravians, 1732-1740
Get PDFThis project contributes to the discipline of theological ethics. It examines the theology, priorities, and practices of the eighteenth-century St. Thomas Island Moravians, one of the first African-led, multicultural churches in the Americas. Enslaved African Christians have been overlooked among the historical narratives of those who endure faithfully under anti-Christian persecution, as scholarly focus on their ethnic suffering has often overshadowed the abuses committed against their faith. This research brings forth a fresh articulation of Christian endurance under hostility, with the community’s Christian identity at the forefront rather than their ethnic identity.
This project built on a foundation of traditional covenantal theology, with nods to early narrative theology and Moravian missiology, to create an operational lens that explores the doctrine (epistemology) and habits (ethics) of the population in the context of a singular, covenantal story. This approach gives primacy to the nature of Christians as a ‘storied’ people, while simultaneously highlighting different historical aspects of the people of God. The covenantal tradition grounds the thesis in a coherent telling of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, while postliberal narrative and Moravian aspects bring forward the community’s everyday expressions of the life of Jesus (ethics) and their response to persecution (Christan endurance).
By interpreting the community’s historical records and context through an Augustinian-styled premise of Cain and Abel, this theological approach to ethnohistory introduces a story-based premise to help parse the ongoing historical persecution of Christians and their ability to endure. It regards the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper as key elements in the community’s ability to endure marginalisation, discrimination, and violence for their Christian faith, and in doing innovates toward a Theology of Persecution and Christian Endurance Studies
Live the Vision church culture: an ethnographic case study and theological inquiry
Get PDFThis thesis is about congregational cultures of money and their impact on religious giving, focusing specifically on Live the Vision church culture (LTVCC) as an ideal type of church culture related to financial giving. LTVCC has been identified by sociologists as a promising approach to address the problem of the decline in giving among American Christians and its underlying problem—a separation of faith and practice in the area of money. Two hallmarks of LTVCC are its appeals for congregants to give to accomplish an outward-focused mission and its primary emphasis on strengthening members’ spiritual lives, but a deeper understanding of the social forces through which LTVCC works, and how LTVCC exerts its influence, are needed. This case study contributes the desired knowledge through an in-depth, ethnographic investigation of a single Southern, evangelical church with strong LTVCC characteristics. The thesis describes what LTVCC can look like in a congregation through an exploration of its leadership, discourse, and practices. Insights from this exploration also contribute to a more exact definition of LTVCC and demonstrate the potential for LTVCC to positively influence church-wide giving. This thesis also employs biblical theology, which validates LTVCC as scripturally sound, to provide insights that affirm and amplify sociological findings, and to suggest possible additions to LTVCC for churches. Finally, this thesis identifies several factors that help explain LTVCC’s influence, including its engagement with the whole person (i.e., mind, body, and emotion), leading to a theory of sacred connection. This theory partially explains LTVCC’s influence among some congregants and suggests a spiritual function of giving beyond functions associated with recognized rational choice and altruism theories – sacred connection and communion with God
Phase coded waveforms for integrated sensing and communication systems
Get PDFNowadays, especially with the developments in the automotive industry, it has become a highly popular topic for radar and communication systems to operate on the same platform and perform joint tasks to increase situational awareness. Sharing the hardware of the radar and communication systems and using a joint waveform for both functions eliminate interference problems between the systems, increasing the effectiveness of the joint task. In studies where radar signals are utilised for communication functions, continuous wave frequency modulation or intra-pulse frequency modulation is generally employed to transmit communication signals. There are a few studies in the literature on joint radar and communication waveforms using phase modulation. In these studies, phase modulation is not employed directly for both functions. As a contribution to the literature, this study evaluates the usage of joint radar and communications waveforms, such as Barker sequences and Zadoff–Chu sequences as opposed to linear frequency modulation. We compare these waveforms terms of range-speed detection and symbol error rate
Forming form: how movement shapes psychotherapists’ practical knowledge
Get PDFHow do psychotherapists discern when and how to act in relation to the moment-to-moment unfolding situation, in order to optimally support the therapeutic process for each client? In this dissertation, I explore this often-elusive and unspoken aspect of knowing.
This research project investigates the role that kinesthesia, movement and the lived body play in shaping experience and knowledge. The specific aim is to examine, make visible and verbalise how movement shapes the practical knowledge of psychotherapists. The Aristotelian concept of phronesis is highlighted, referring to practical wisdom and the capacity to relate to situational specifics.
The study is positioned within the theory of practical knowledge, employing a method that weaves together three threads: 1) Focus groups and individual interviews with psychotherapists, 2) Autoethnographic writing from my psychotherapy practice, 3) Theoretical concepts. Central to the dissertation are the following: Edmund
Husserl’s longitudinal and transversal intentionality, the speaking and the spoken speech as defined by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Nicholas of Cusa’s descriptions of two aspects of reason, ratio and intellectus. I also elaborate on Jonna Bornemark’s concepts of pactivity and arches of paradoxical values. Through a dialogue between empirical material and theory, questions are posed and responses are formulated.
I describe the psychotherapists’ capacity to create holding of the therapeutic situation as a bodily knowing and a pivotal professional skill that can be cultivated through practice. Holding is characterised as a pactive movement, indicating the capacity to be receptive to situational specifics and based on these, judge how to act to progress the therapeutic process. Verbalisation of lived bodily experience is a central theme throughout the study. I conclude that clearly defined concepts that are anchored in a thought system are needed in order to give ontological weight to phronesis and bodily knowing
Evaluating the effectiveness of a collaborative framework on student learning
No full textStudents rely on search engines to increase their knowledge about a topic or to complete a given assignment. Online information retrieval consists of web sessions where students submit keyphrases as queries to search engines. In addition, search engines will surface Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) containing suggestions pertinent to the queried domain. Some studies show that to build effective queries, one should have some knowledge about the topic being searched, this might pose a challenge for newly enrolled students who are not familiar with the domain. This research aims to measure the effect on learning of a framework designed to lessen such challenges. The proposed framework includes four key tabs to enhance student search experience by providing relevant keyphrases. The Last Searched Keyphrases tab helps students navigate through their research history, offering easy access to previously searched terms. The Auto-Generated Keyphrases tab dynamically creates new keyphrases using a keyphrase extraction function based on HTML content and Part of Speech (POS) tagging. The Similar Keyphrases tab promotes collaboration by displaying keyphrases searched by peers, utilising algorithms like Euclidean distance, Cosine similarity, and Jaccard similarity to identify the most relevant matches. Lastly, the Similar Study Group Keyphrases tab presents predefined terminologies identified by lecturers to aid students in expanding their domain-specific vocabulary. An evaluation methodology involving students and techniques to aggregate results are discussed to determine if such a framework increases the student’s knowledge of a particular subject. The results obtained show that students using the proposed framework, performed better, their overall marks improved and the framework assisted students in solving theoretical and problem solving questions. In addition, the evaluation methodology can be adopted by other researchers to assess the effectiveness of their proposed frameworks or interventions in enhancing student learning outcomes in various domains
A conceptual framework for a proposed intervention: interdisciplinary academic advising and mentoring through personal tutor groups
Get PDFStudents’ engagement and interactions within higher education are limited to domains of sports, cultural events, and extracurricular activities. However, it is important to cultivate an all-rounded enriching experience for them within their university life. Furthermore, due to limited classroom communication with both their classmates and lecturers, it becomes more restrictive to share academic experiences and thus wholly enjoy classroom learning. As a resolve, interdisciplinary interactions have proven to be effective in helping students truly appreciate their university life, particularly academia. We propose an intervention based on a unique approach by adopting interdisciplinary academic advising through personal tutor groups. To propose this as a university-wide initiative, this paper adopts a conceptual framework to recommend the gaps in existing systems in higher education related to the approach and its benefits to the culture and community of a university – its staff, lecturers, and importantly the students within The United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Application of artificial intelligence in rehabilitation science: a scientometric investigation utilizing Citespace
Get PDFThis study presents a scientometric analysis of the intersection between rehabilitation science and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, using data from the Web of Science (WOS) database from 2002 to 2022. The analysis employed a comprehensive search query with key AI-related terms, focusing on a wide range of publications in rehabilitation science. Utilizing the Citespace tool, the study visualizes and quantifies the relationships between key terms, identifies research trends, and assesses the impact of AI technologies in rehabilitation science. Findings reveal a significant increase in AI-related research in this field, particularly from 2017 onwards, peaking in 2021. The United States has been a leading contributor, followed by countries like England, Australia, Germany, and Canada. Major institutional contributions come from Harvard University and the Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education, among others. A keyword co-occurrence network constructed through Citespace identifies nine distinct hot topics and various research frontiers, highlighting evolving focus areas within the field. Burst analysis of keywords indicates a shift from performance and injury-related research to an increasing emphasis on AI and deep learning in recent years. The study also predicts the potential impact of papers, spotlighting works by Kunze KN and others as significantly influencing future research directions. Additionally, it examines the evolution of knowledge bases in AI-related rehabilitation science research, revealing a multidisciplinary core that includes neurology, rehabilitation, and ophthalmology, extending to complementary fields such as medicine and social sciences. This scientometric analysis provides a comprehensive overview of AI's application in rehabilitation science, offering insights into its evolution, impact, and emerging trends over the past two decades. The findings suggest strategic directions for future research, policy-making, and interdisciplinary collaboration in rehabilitation science and AI. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.
The governance, leadership and management of complementary schools: the case of Greek Cypriot schools in England
Get PDFThe article explores the governance, leadership and management of complementary schools through the case of Greek Cypriot complementary schools in England with a view to developing a research agenda for this under-researched yet significant sector of education for children and young people. Drawing on stakeholder and bottom-up theories of governance that aim to uncover the intricate networks of groups that surround organisations and the systems in which they exist, we highlight the multiple and sometimes conflicting stakes held. This exploratory research involves interviews with five practitioners in positions of responsibility. The governance, leadership and management of these schools matters because there are concerns about their sustainability requiring a greater appreciation of their contribution, the issues they face and how they make decisions with limited resources. We call for further research to increase the understanding of the sector and to improve the support for practitioners, organisations and communities
Cyber resilience in autonomous vehicles: defending against emerging threats
Get PDFAutonomous vehicles (AVs) represent a transformative shift in transportation, promising faster transit, enhanced safety, and reduced accidents. Leveraging the Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network (VANET) for communication among vehicles and roadside units, AVs exchange critical information to optimize driving conditions. However, the constant communication necessitates robust security measures to safeguard both the network and the vehicles themselves. This paper delves into the various cyber threats facing AVs and proposes countermeasures to mitigate them. A comparative analysis identifies prevalent attacks such as Denial of Service (DoS), Sybil, Spoofing, Replay, and Blackhole attacks as the most prominent in AV environments. Subsequently, protocols aimed at thwarting these common attacks are examined. However, it is noted that these protocols may fall short in cases where physical tampering compromises the vehicle’s systems. To address this vulnerability, a novel countermeasure involving cryptographic key management for system access control is proposed and discussed. Additionally, the reliability of each countermeasure is evaluated to ensure robust protection against evolving threats