Archives-May 2025

Abstract In the health care industry today, failed programs cost organizations a loss of revenues on daily basis. Therefore, management strategies in these organizations need a balance (equilibrium) between program implementation control and the relationships that goes along. These relationships exist between the organization and defined individuals or groups who are directly or indirectly part of the organization’s hierarchy. These groups or individuals comprise the so-called stakeholders and they do have a stake in the organization. A major factor for a program success with any organization is the proactive involvement and management of its strategies with its component staff, including the stakeholders (Thomas, Delisle & Jugdev, 2002). The argument is organizations should look at their stakeholders as part of core management objectives for maximum return of investment. Many organizational programs have failed due to lack of direct top management involvement and support (Jiang and Klein, 1999). The importance of this problem therefore, requires that every organization examine its relationships with its stakeholders constantly since its success or failure revolves around these relationships. Findings: Findings from this study were of great economic importance. The identification, prioritization, and engagement strategies of evaluation of the key stakeholders in Mission Hospital, USA, was an effective tool that could help any organization to know the individuals or groups with power within their organization and how such powers are used. The second importance was the power of teamwork; how individuals or groups may collaborate for a common good; here both the executive management of Mission Hospital, USA, collaborating with the stakeholder management to affect the objectives and goals of the hospital. Third, it showed improved relationships between two former unaligned managers with informal power structures and possible outcome. The conclusion here was that collaboration, involvement, negotiations with the use of inducements; all play major roles in straightening relationships, be it personal or corporate. Statement of the problem: The specific statement of the problem of this study examined management and program implications when upper management and related management (stakeholder management) do not collaborate and involve in pursuing the strategic objectives and goals of the corporation. Many projects, and indeed corporations, have failed for lack of management involvement of component staff in management strategies. Description of design method: The design methodology was in three phases. Phase1 involved the interaction process of identifying, prioritizing, and engaging the key stakeholders of the hospital. Phase2 involved the data gathering techniques, including workshops exercises with the participants. Survey questionnaires were designed separately for the hospital’s management and the identified key stakeholders. The exercises were open-ended and interactive processes with the participants. The outcome was important in that it provided the necessary factors for effective stakeholder management. From the collection and analysis of data, phase 3 was a descriptive case study designed to effect phase 2, through the process of planning, implementing, and monitoring – used in the incremental process improvement management (Carroll & Swatman, 2000). The investigator went further with fact-finding interviews with employees of the hospital. The results findings were spectacular. Design of the study: The purpose of this study was to examine and encourage upper management strategy of Mission Hospital, USA, in order to improve its stakeholder relationships. The study used rationale to establish and analyze outcomes, allowed prediction, and aim for generalization. In order to articulate the stakeholder’s perception of values to the organization pertinent questions were designed to affect the study. The main research question of the study was directed to the hospital’s executive management, challenging them to commitment to teamwork for the overall benefits of the hospital’s objectives and goals attainment. A stakeholder management methodology workshops exercises were designed to assist them in this process. The subject sample group was small. The criteria for the small group were to use a phenomenological approach to find out how a few groups or individuals of important status in an organization feel as a sub-set; making it a qualitative descriptive case study. Significance of conclusions: The implications of notice in this case study on stakeholder management in Mission Hospital, USA, was exploratory yet unique, and based on the combination of qualitative and quantitative designs with limited results. The study is unique in that no similar study exits presently with direct involvements of inside power brokers. Nevertheless, the analysis should be viewed as suggestive, and not one hundred percent definitive. Certain unresolved issues still remains, the resolution of which should challenge practicing health care managers on how to manage their stakeholders to attain the objectives and goals of their organization. However, this investigator presented many suggestions to the management of Mission Hospital, USA, to any promising manager of health care, and to future researchers of health care management in general. Recommendations: The confirmation of the “Pilot study” of this case study should encourage a more detailed research study of economic benefits with stakeholder management collaborations. Such study should be broadened and without any restrictions, as was witnessed in this case study.

In this study we investigated the determinants of executive compensation in some selected quoted banks in Nigeria. The study used eight (8) banks which were drawn from the quoted banks in Nigeria that disclosed executive compensation from 2005 to 2010 in their annual financial report. In identifying the determinants of banks executive compensation in Nigeria using our sampled banks, we conducted pooled OLS and panel data fixed and random effect regression analysis. In all, our results based on the Hausman test shows that the panel regression model best explains bank executive compensation in the selected quoted banks in Nigeria and that bank size (total asset) and profitability are two key factors that determine positively, the compensation of banks executives in Nigeria. This study recommends that further studies be conducted in this area using SEC filling to increase the data on executive compensation.

Leadership is in fact a process of influencing followers. Characteristics of leadership are functions of time and situation and differ in different cultures and countries. Managers of international organizations should obtain enough knowledge of these cultural characteristics and differences and should have the utmost versatility while executing their leadership tasks. In this paper we have conducted a survey of the relation between cultures and styles of leadership in different countries. At first characteristics of leadership are discussed in work oriented leadership paradigm and management regimes, in a number of different regions, including China, Japan, U.S.A, Europe, and Arab countries. We also discuss about cross-cultural leadership concept and its challenges. At the end, a comparative analysis is made over the various leadership styles.

The main objective of this research is to minimize delay in collaborative applications by setting tight bounds. Examples of collaborative applications include video-conferencing, distributed database replication, and online games. The efficiency of this project is analyzed and shown to be superior to its counterparts in the execution time. To provide an efficient heuristic to obtain a multicast sub network on an overlay network, given a source and a set of destinations that is within a specified maximum delay and a specified maximum variation in the delays from a source to the destinations.

The purpose of regression testing is to ensure that bug fixes and new functionality introduced in a new version of a software do not adversely affect the correct functionality inherited from the previous version. Regression testing is an expensive and frequently executed maintenance process used to revalidate modified software. It is costly but crucial problem in software development. The paper try to do the survey of current research on regression testing and current practice in industry and also try to find out whether there are gaps between them.

Most developing countries embarked on trade liberalisation at the prescription of Bretton Wood institutions. Zambia abandoned planned economy with strong interventionist and developmental objectives in the tourism sector. The country delved deeper into neoclassical, neoliberal economic policies such as Mercantilism, Absolute Advantage, Comparative Advantage, Heckscher-Ohlin Factor Endowment, and Porter’ s Diamond when formulating the Tourism Development Policies. The key beneficiaries of this new public management approach to development, remains multi- national corporations within the hospitality sector in particular and tourism in general at the expense of local lodge owners. The key findings in this paper highlight poor real growth in the sector, inadequate occupancy rate of lodges, reduces break even and expansion of the sector, increase in foreign investors, lack of expansion of locally owned lodges, dwindling market share and fewer and fewer new lodges being established since the liberalisation of the sector. This paper argues that new public management approach to development drawn from neoclassical and neoliberal theories of trade are responsible for poor policy choices.

In-service training of teaches is a systematic process and wide infrastructure that requires extensive communication to execute any program in order to ensure maximum involvement of all those who are associated with educational enterprise, one or the other way like teachers, administrators, curriculum-developers, research workers, teacher trainers, specialists, etc. In-service training programs actually provide an opportunity to those who are trained but in experienced. This type of training facilitates professional learning and helps teachers to abreast themselves with the upcoming knowledge, educational developments and innovations but unfortunately there are numerous problems that interrupt when these programs are intended to commence. So in order to overcome expected problem, a model has been suggested in this article that will conducive for resolving problems of in-service teacher training and it will provide an insight in order to certify successful and more beneficial planning of such programs. Improvement in any education system can only be made when teachers are given upmost priority and their in-service training is considered mandatory in order to meet new challenges. In brief to deal with modern challenges, teachers’ professional development or in service training is imperative, as said by John Cotton Dana: “Who dares to teach must never cease to learn”.

The increased demand for the development of certain materials to be used in aerospace, military and medical industries justifies the execution of an extensive investigation to enhance the properties of such materials, especially the shape memory alloys (SMAs). Copper based SMAs are constantly receiving wide attention due to their low cost and important applications. This work is an attempt to enhance the fatigue life of CuZnAl shape memory alloys. A powder metallurgy technique was adopted to prepare samples. Alloying elements such as vanadium, nickel and germanium were used to improve the mechanical properties. Porosity, SEM, EDS, microhardness, compression and fatigue tests were conducted. Alloying with (0.4%wt.V) results in a significant increase in ultimate compressive strength of (33.6 %) in comparison with the reference sample. The reference (control) sample in this work has a substantial increase in ultimate compressive strength (100%) in comparison with a previously reported value in the literature. A microhardness test supports the ultimate compressive strength result and yields an improvement of (39%). These improvements are reflected positively on the fatigue behavior. The endurance limit of alloyed sample was improved by a factor of (23.3 %) in comparison with the reference sample.

The important issue concerning claims management is that the question of claims in contract agreements is an inevitable one and , hence, under present circumstances , where many faults are found in the process of signing contract agreements and in questions relating to the execution phase of contracts, the idea of their elimination does not appear to be a reasonable one. From among the problems faced in eliminating these claims, reference can be made to the present shortcomings in the general conditions of contracts and to the very noticeably slow progress made in the study and design phases of contracts. The purpose in writing this article was to offer strategies for selecting the win – win approach by parties to contracts for the whole duration of the projects from the start of the study phase to the end of the utilization period. It was necessary to conduct this research because many projects run into crises due to inappropriate management of claims laid and only result in wasting national resources.

A child with ADHD, (Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder), can derive great benefits from playing checkers during therapy. The therapist can assess the child’s ability to stay seated, wait his turn, pay attention to detail, sustain that attention, as well as how the child reacts to victory or defeat, (getting what they want or not getting what they want). When starting therapy, to talk about what is bothering him or her. The child is in a strange place, meeting with a therapist who is a stranger. The combination of these two factors can be overwhelming and intimidating to a child. Play therapy can be the best method for building rapport with any child. Play therapy can train a child to take what he learns in counseling and use the acquired skills in other areas of life. A game as simple as checkers can accomplish this. The results obtained from a study done on the children of 4-12 years old with ADHD indicated that game therapy method based on concentration-kinesthetic practices which is a combination of puzzle, riddle, story-telling in the form of feeling expression, game lines table design and application of distance reinforcement in these games, along with medication therapy can be helpful to modify and control behavior afflicted with ADHD, and although medication therapy can have less effects on treatment process, it cannot by itself play successful roles in treatment, modification and control of such behavior in this group of children.