AbstractA large number of leadership theories focus on understanding the concept of leadership from an ontological perspective by focusing on the leader, the leader/follower relationship, or the concept of leadership itself. Others focus on axiological premises, referring to the moral values of the leader/manager under which he or she leads and makes decisions. However, one may argue that they tend to be too focused on finding intricacies that they forgo a comprehensive perspective. This paper focuses on the nature of the leader by considering his/her worldviews as driven by four philosophical dimensions: epistemological, ontological, teleological, and axiological. It is argued that these dimensions need to be considered simultaneously in order to present a holistic perspective of the nature of leaders. The proper balance of these dimensions are also contingent on the situation faced by the leader/manager at a given moment, which may make his or her leadership style appropriate or inappropriate given a situation. This appropriateness is also addressed in the paper and the concepts of wicked problems and complex situations are presented to establish a context. These arguments lead to the formulation of five propositions that provide an understanding on the underlying foundations of leaders.
This paper develops a systems engineering-based framework to assist in the design of an online engineering course. Specifically, the purpose of the framework is to provide a structured meth odology for the design, development and delivery of a fully online course, either brand new or modified from an existing face-to-face course. The main strength Systems Engineering provides to online course design and delivery is the holistic worldview and the life-cycle approach. Adopting the life-cycle approach ensures a smooth transition for faculty members who are in the process of modifying their curriculum to meet student and industry demands. The effectiveness and function of the framework is discussed with respect to results from a brand new fully online course that was designed and developed for the Engineering Management Program at University of Houston Clear Lake, including a survey of students on Blackboard efficiency. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications of the framework for online education and future research.
Purpose: Research that focuses on the emotional, mental, behavioral and cognitive capabilities of individuals has been abundant within disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology, among others. However, when facing complex problems, a new perspective to understand individuals is necessary. The main purpose of this paper is to develop an agent-based model and simulation to gain understanding on the decision-making and problem-solving abilities of individuals. Design/Methodology/approach: The micro-level analysis modeling and simulation paradigm Agent-Based Modeling Through the use of Agent-Based Modeling, insight is gained on how different individuals with different profiles deal with complex problems. Using previous literature from different bodies of knowledge, established theories and certain assumptions as input parameters, a model is built and executed through a computer simulation. Findings: The results indicate that individuals with certain profiles have better capabilities to deal with complex problems. Moderate profiles could solve the entire complex problem, whereas profiles within extreme conditions could not. This indicates that having a strong predisposition is not the ideal way when approaching complex problems, and there should always be a component from the other perspective. The probability that an individual may use these capabilities provided by the opposite predisposition provides to be a useful option. Originality/value: The originality of the present research stems from how individuals are profiled, and the model and simulation that is built to understand how they solve complex problems. The development of the agent-based model adds value to the existing body of knowledge within both social sciences, and modeling and simulation.
Systems engineering is a discipline that has increasingly been part of both industry and academia. The number of both undergraduate and graduate programs that offer a systems engineering degree has multiplied throughout the years. The purpose of this research is to analyzed the curricula of graduate-level systems engineering programs to identify main patterns and concepts that are being taught. This analysis will lead to possible strengths and weaknesses of graduate programs with respect to topics that systems engineering, as a discipline, covers.
This research is an evaluation of a single-player, project management simulation training exercise. Our objective is to gain understanding about the extent to which it contributes to participants’ project management knowledge and skills. Results from pre- and post-simulation exercise questionnaires indicate that overall the simulation exercise significantly improves a participant’s conceptual knowledge about project management. It also indicates that participants with less experience achieve more knowledge improvement than those with more experience. Results further indicate that the actual performance of the exercise, which represents the educational value of the exercise, is primarily dependent on the post-project management knowledge of the participant established throughout the exercise, prior knowledge brought to the exercise, and the experience of the participant. We believe that these results indicate that the simulation training exercise is a valuable training tool, which both engineering and project managers can use.
Online teaching and online learning has been an invaluable component of education in the past decade. Demand for fully online or hybrid courses have been steadily increasing. Similar to any system or project, online education has stakeholders that have a major say in the direction online education takes. These stakeholders are identified as the faculty, the students, the academic institutions, and the industry. Each of these stakeholders will have different needs. This paper identifies these needs and demands and provides a holistic perspective within the context of online education that is intended to be used as support when looking at issues relating to online education.
Modeling and Simulation (M&S) has been used to solve problems, make decisions, and understand complex phenomena. Scholars have tried to understand and formulate the epistemic value of gained insights through models and simulations. Questions such as how insights are considered knowledge, what the tradeoff between perspectives and objectivity is, what kind of purpose models and simulations fulfill, and how M&S is used within a research methodology paradigm are a starting point of discussing the philosophical underpinnings. The epistemological, ontological, teleological and methodological (E/O/T/M) considerations of M&S is the main motivation of this paper. A comprehensive literature review on E/O/T/M considerations provides an initial roadmap to study the nature of M&S leading to the following questions: How can the authors define canons of research for M&S based on E/O/T/M? How can they define an E/O/T/M-based meta-model to characterize models and simulations? And how can the authors study validation of models and simulations based on E/O/T/M considerations?
