...FUN IN THE WORKPLACE: TOWARD AN ENVIRONMENT-BEHAVIOR FRAMEWORK RELATING OFFICE DESIGN, EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY, AND JOB SATISFACTION By ALEXANDRA M. MILLER A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF INTERIOR DESIGN UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2005 Copyright 2005 by Alexandra M. Miller ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Margaret Portillo, for her direction and guidance throughout the entire research process. I would also like to thank Dr. M. Joyce Hasell for her support and valuable expertise. Additional thanks go to Dr. Larry Winner for his indispensable assistance as a statistical consultant. I would also like to thank PUSH for providing an excellent example of a fun workplace. In particular, I would like to thank partners John Ludwig, Chris Robb, and Rich Wahl for allowing me to conduct a case study of their business. Additional thanks go to Ron Boucher, Jourdan Crumpler, and Gordon Weller for taking the time to participate in interviews. I would also like to express my gratitude to Kathryn Voorhees for her help, humor, and friendship as she accompanied me throughout the research process. Finally, I would like to thank all of my friends and family for their support. In particular, I would like to thank to my parents for their constant support and for helping me to achieve my dreams. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..........
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...Influence of time pressure on aircraft maintenance errors TAKAHIRO SUZUKI, TERRY L. VON THADEN, WILLIAM D. GEIBEL University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Introduction Even though proper maintenance is crucial for aviation safety, tracing the effect that human error in maintenance operations has on accidents and incidents remains a difficult task. According to a UK Civil Aviation Authority study (2003), maintenance and inspection deficiencies ranked fourth (12%) as a factor in aviation accidents overall. Other studies have described that as technology has improved, aviation accidents attributed to mechanical failures alone have decreased, yet those attributed to human error have not shown the same reduction (Wiegmann & Shappell, 2003). Aircraft maintenance requires high reliability and is an important concern in the human factors realm for several reasons. On the one hand, automation, which has reduced flight crew workload, does not apply in maintenance operations (Reason & Hobbs, 2003). On the other hand, maintenance tasks generally access critical areas where human errors lead to serious consequences (Reason, 1997). From a human factors perspective, in the current competitive environment of commercial aviation, occupational opportunities relating to aircraft maintenance technicians (AMTs) are declining. While oil prices soar, fares remain low due to competition (Bond, 2008). Employing fewer technicians and making turnaround at the airport gate shorter are...
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...Men In Nervous Conditions: An Ignored Matter The men of Zimbabwe struggled to assert the independence of their people against political, cultural and religious colonial pressure (Vembe), but reduced women to silent supporters (Stone 113). This dynamic still holds true on the literary front, where male writers of Zimbabwe, and Africa in general, present to the west male-centered, idealized pictures of traditional women and culture. Women, however, uncertain that men will revalue them, concern themselves with the pressures within the culture (McLeod). For this reason, the men of Africa generally discourage female authors from revealing their gritty perspectives. Further, E. Kim Stone writes, “Under colonialism, female storytellers were excluded from the few powerful positions the British system of colonization allowed in Rhodesia,” suggesting the traditional place of women as storytellers, somewhat ironically, was also suppressed by the colonizers. Only women are interested in revealing the internal pressures of postcolonial Zimbabwe. But these hidden pressures are just the ones that cause the “nervous conditions” in the book titled as such. A female character narrates this text about women, bearing to light women's struggles to be themselves within a constraining environment. But even as critics revel in this rare, realistic portrayal of Zimbabwean women, they seldom explore the significance of Tsitsi Dangarembga's representation of men, too often passing them off as flat characters...
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...array of tutoring arrangements, but most of the research on its success refers to students working in pairs to help one another learn material or practice an academic task. Peer tutoring works best when students of different ability levels work together (Kunsch, Jitendra, & Sood, 2007). During a peer tutoring assignment it is common for the teacher to have students switch roles partway through so that the tutor becomes the one being tutored. Since explaining a concept to another helps extend one’s own learning, this practice gives students the opportunity to understand better the material being studied. What does the research say about peer tutoring? In reviews of peer tutoring programs, researchers found: * When students participated in the role of reading tutor, improvements in reading achievement occurred * When tutors were explicitly trained in the tutoring process, they were far more effective and the students they were tutoring experienced significant gains in achievement * Most of the students benefited from peer tutoring in some way, but same-age tutors were as effective as cross-age tutors (Burnish, Fuchs & Fuchs, 2005; Topping, 2008) Some benefits of peer tutoring for students include higher academic achievement, improved relationships with peers, improved personal and social development as well as increased motivation. In turn, the teacher benefits from this model of instruction by an increased opportunity to individualize instruction, increased facilitation...
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... Forlizzi Submitted to the Department of Design, College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Design in Interaction Design Abstract My thesis attempts to understand experience as it is relevant to interaction design. Based on the work of John Dewey, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, and Richard Carlson, I identify two types of experience in user–product interactions: satisfying experiences and rich experiences. A satisfying experience is a process–driven act that is performed in a successful manner. A rich experience has a sense of immersive continuity and interaction, which may be made up of a series of satisfying experiences. Based on this definition, I identify a set of design principles with which to create products that evoke rich experiences. These principles are intended to encourage designers to think about how to create user–product interactions that suggest values and communicate meanings that enrich the quality of life. Narrative plays a key role in these design principles. Our series of life experiences form a narrative; the values that designers impart in an object form a narrative which is elaborated...
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...Clinically, Kelly developed a psychotherapy technique called fixed-role therapy. In fixed-role therapy, the therapist asks the client to adopt a different identity for a two-week period. The client is asked to act the part of someone whose constructions and behaviors are significantly different from the client’s. Because the client is only playing a role, any threat that might occur as a result of violating one’s own personal identity are minimized. After all, the client is simply playing a part. However, in so doing the client experiments with alternative ways of construing and behaving that may produce personal growth. Personal construct psychology has become associated with theories of constructivism, which emphasize that people know the world indirectly through constructed understandings. Radical constructivism views the person as a closed system, one in which a person’s internal psychological structure determines experiential reality. One’s structure is only sensitive to specific kinds of stimulation from the external world. People do not experience the world as it is, but rather experience it only in the ways their internal structure allows. On the other hand, social constructionism deemphasizes individual knowledge construction and instead stresses that human understandings spring from ongoing relationships. Through discussion and interaction with each other, people negotiate and reach consensus about what is real and true. Discourses, defined as ways of talking about...
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...Introduction to Flextime Flextime is defined by businessdictionary.com as the non-traditional work scheduling practice which allows full-time employees to choose their individual starting and ending times within certain limits (such as 'not earlier than 5 a.m.' and 'not later than 9 p.m.'). Flextime periods usually precede or follow a core time during which all employees must be present. According to history records, flextime was first suggested by Christel Kaemmerevback back in the year 1956 and was first implemented in West German businesses in 1967. Flextime was introduced as an intervention to reduce tardiness and absenteeism which resulted in 40% reduction in absenteeism, along with decreased overtime expense, decreased turnover rates, decreased tardiness, and increased morale. The practice of flextime spread quickly through Western Europe due to a high demand from workers and less governmental restrictions on work schedules. At the present time, due to the advancement of information technology and information system, this has further maximize the flexibility of work during the core hours to be stretched to working during non-core time like the weekends by enabling employees to work remotely from home instead of being physically present at the office. Flextime is no longer just considered as a benefit or privilege for the employees, but is able to provide competitive advantage for the organization over its rivals by being more flexible as a whole by providing quicker and...
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...detailed observations, and producing thousands of pages of notes on those observations and his ideas for explaining them. It's inconceivable that his breakthrough would have occurred if he'd tried to rush it. In business, too, there are striking examples ofthe value of having relatively unstructured, unpressured time to create and develop new ideas. Scientists working at AT&T's legendary Bell Labs, operating under its corporate philosophy that big ideas take time, produced world-changing innovations including the transistor and the laser beam. Their ingenuity earned the researchers several Nobel prizes. They, like Darwin, had the time to think creatively. But we can all point to examples where creativity seemed to be sparked by extreme time pressure. In 1970, during Apollo 13's flight to the moon, a crippling explosion occurred on board, damaging the air filtration system and leading to a dangerous buildup of carbon dioxide in the cabin. If the system could not be fixed or replaced, the astronauts would be dead within a few hours. Back at NASA mission control in Houston, virtually all engineers, scientists, and technicians immediately focused their attention on the problem. Working with a set of materials identical to those on board the spacecraft, they desperately tried to build a filtration system that the astronauts might be able to replicate. Every conceivable...
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...Examine what changes I want to make in own leadership style, and give reasons why. Give examples of how this will affect my work going forward. Examine what changes I want to make in own leadership style, and give reasons why. Give examples of how this will affect my work going forward. Plagiarism Declaration I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and pretend that it is one’s own. Allowing another to copy my work and use it as their own is also plagiarism. This assignment is my own work. I have not allowed and will not allow anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as his or her own work. I acknowledge that working with someone on my assignment is allowed, but only if a mutual effort is made and different examples and, where necessary, wording is used. Signature: ....868.... Plagiarism Declaration I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and pretend that it is one’s own. Allowing another to copy my work and use it as their own is also plagiarism. This assignment is my own work. I have not allowed and will not allow anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as his or her own work. I acknowledge that working with someone on my assignment is allowed, but only if a mutual effort is made and different examples and, where necessary, wording is used. Signature: ....868.... Introduction If someone asked me before I started my MBA what changes...
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...TERM PAPER ON Theory of Leadership Style Submitted To Md. Sahidur Rahman Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies University of Chittagong Submitted by Session: 2005-2006 Department of Management Studies University of Chittagong 07 June, 2011 University of Chittagong Letter of submission Date: 07 June, 2011 Mr. Md. Sahidur Rahman Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies University of Chittagong. Subject: Prayer for obliging the ‘TERM PAPER’. Sir, With due respect, beg to focus your kind attention with the following fact that as biased requirement of the BBA Programmed. I had studied many feature, journal, research material, reports, and professional papers to collect the information regarding Theories of Leadership. And I have tried my best to build and maintain follower ship by earning the respect of those they lead. I hope that you will accept my TERM PAPER considering its distinctiveness. Yours truly, ………………… Department of Management Studies University of Chittagong Acknowledgement At first I want to give thanks to the Almighty Allah who is our creator and has given us life to live on the earth. That’s why, I like to pray to Him and want His blessings to lead our life properly. The Term paper could not have been prepared without the generous contribution...
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...College Student Performance and Adjustment Martin M. Chemers, Li-tze Hu, and Ben F. Garcia University of California, Santa Cruz A longitudinal study of lst-year university student adjustment examined the effects of academic self-efficacy and optimism on students' academic performance, stress, health, and commitment to remain in school. Predictor variables (high school grade-point average, academic self-efficacy, and optimism) and moderator variables (academic expectations and self-perceived coping ability) were measured at the end of the first academic quarter and were related to classroom performance, personal adjustment, stress, and health, measured at the end of the school year. Academic self-efficacy and optimism were strongly related to performance and adjustment, both directly on academic performance and indirectly through expectations and coping perceptions (challenge-threat evaluations) on classroom performance, stress, health, and overall satisfaction and commitment to remain in school. Observed relationships corresponded closely to the hypothesized model. Change can be unsettling. The transition from high school to college can place significant demands on young adults (Tinto, 1982,1993). College life can be demanding and stressful for a new student (Noel, Levitz, & Saluri, 1985) and requires higher levels of independence, initiative, and self-regulation (Bryde & Milburn, 1990). It is the thesis of this article that confidence in one's relevant abilities...
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...ASSIGNMENT MODERNIST SHORT STORY Submitted By: Steffy Johnson 11/PELA/026 INTRODUCTION Modernist literature is the literary expression of the tendencies of Modernism, especially High modernism. Modernistic art and literature normally revolved around the idea of individualism, mistrust of institutions mainly government and religion, and the disbelief of any absolute truths. Modernism as a literary movement reached its height in Europe between 1900 and the middle 1920s. Modernist literature addressed to aesthetic problems and can be viewed largely in terms of its formal, stylistic and semantic movement away from Romanticism, examining subject matter that is traditionally mundane. It often features a marked pessimism, a clear rejection of the optimism apparent in Victorian literature. It attempted to move from the bonds of Realist literature and to introduce concepts such as disjointed timelines. Modernism as a literary movement is seen, in large part, as a reaction to the emergence of city life as a central force in society. Furthermore, an early attention to the object as freestanding became in later Modernism a preoccupation with form. Modernist writers were more acutely conscious of the objectivity of their surroundings. The most prominent modernist authors are: T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Conrad, Franz Kafka, Knut Hamsun, Gertrude Stein, Mikhail Bulgakov, MarcelProust, John Steinbeck...
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...ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION IN THE WORK PLACE PART I – SECTION I - REFERENCE LIST Search Strategy To facilitate my search criteria, I sought the use of various search engines such as Google scholars, Bing, ProQuest and Academic OneFile. In order to identify what I was meant to research and comprehend, I used certain keywords and certain phrases which are relevant to the topic I picked. The following are the keywords that I picked for search purpose • Causes of anxiety in workplace • Workplace depression • Effect of Alcohol and drug dependence on workplace • Anxiety and work environment • Boredom in job • Stress in workplace • organizational commitment & employee discontent • Physical fitness and work related issues • Dealing with Anxiety and Depression • Coping with Anxiety and Depression • Impact of anxiety and depression on organization and economy I had analyzed the various key words which are related to the topic and compared sourced information from other related sites for the topic. To find how organizations deal with anxiety and depression and how this affects other employees I initiated discussions with the human resource dept and the different chiefs of the company that I work, namely Gulf Cement Co. The Preliminary research question that I will be addressing in the literature review What are the effects of anxiety and depression in the work place and how organizations deal with it? A list of 6 – 8 Keywords and their definitions...
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...scored proficient on the math standardized test (NCESC, 2014). In the fourth grade at Apison, class sizes average about 19-21 students. Classes are semi-departmentalized, with each fourth grade teacher responsible for the subjects of reading and writing. The curriculum closely aligns with the Tennessee State Standards and students are expected to perform well on standardized state assessments. The subject of writing is taught for an average of 45 minutes every school day. The writing content being taught has shifted significantly over the past two years in response to new standards and assessment formats. There is more emphasis on informational text and informational writing than ever before. High-stakes testing and changing assessment formats have both teachers and students feeling the pressure to meet the demands of the newly adopted standards. Instructional Problem With the implementation of Common Core Standards in Tennessee, there has been a statewide push for elementary school-aged students to use text evidence in a variety of ways, including citing and making inferences from non-fiction texts. This push partly comes from the desire to remove the variable of student prior knowledge/experiences in standardized testing. However, many students are unaware of how or why to cite text evidence in their writing. Starting in grade 4, students are tested on their ability to integrate information from two informational texts and respond to a prompt with a 4-5 paragraph essay. In this...
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...unfavorable for the effective use of job descriptions. 3. Do you think job description support or hinder the goal of learning organization approach? Group Discussion 1. Contingency theory is a class of behavioral theory that claims that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions. Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent) upon the internal and external situation. Several contingency approaches were developed concurrently in the late 1960s. They suggested that previous theories such as Weber's bureaucracy and Taylor's scientific management had failed because they neglected that management style and organizational structure were influenced by various aspects of the environment: the contingency . CONTINGENCY THEORY (STRUCTURAL) Contingency theory states that the most effective organizational characteristics are those that fit the contingency variables. For instance, specialization in an organization produces highest performance when it fits the size of the organization, that is, the level of that contingency variable. Hence, highest performance results...
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