Standardized processes for training and accountability, for an Environmental Services department within a healthcare system, were implemented to see the impact they would have on key performance indicators (KPIs). The KPIs involved infection rate for hospital acquired Clostridium Difficile (CDI), cleaning verification compliance, patient satisfaction, concerning the cleaning of their environment, and employee turnover. The results show that standardizing training and an accountability measure can have a significant impact on turnover, contribute to the reduction in CDI cases, ensure cleaning is performed at a high level and that the patient perception requires additional tools to meet their expectations on a consistent basis.

The higher education sector is always changing and seeks for robust methodologies to make education more effective and produce higher quality products which are the future professionals. While each student has different preference in learning, numerous forms of instructional strategies are adopted to engage students in varied ways. Existing literature has studied the impacts of various teaching strategies on students’ performance. Previous studies did not figure out if personal characteristics such as honestly, emotionality, etc. have any impacts on the students’ academic performance. This master thesis uses the detailed information gathered through surveying construction students and analyses such data to determine the relationship between various personal factors and understand if there is any relation between students’ academic performance and personal characteristics. This work has used HEXACO factor scales and Emotional Intelligence (EI) as a basis of its analysis. Results of this analysis indicated that there is no significant correlation between students’ academic performance and HEXACO and EI criteria. Although the analysis process tried to provide the most accurate and robust results, but findings could potentially be affected by a number of factors such as excluding some survey responses from data analysis due to confusing responses or being outlier.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study on the application of the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) quality improvement methodology and tools to study the analysis and improvement of facilities management (FM) services at a healthcare organization. Research literature was reviewed concerning whether or not LSS has been applied in healthcare-based FM, but no such studies have been published. This paper aims to address the lack of an applicable methodology for LSS intervention within the context of healthcare-based FM. The Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) framework was followed to test the hypothesis that LSS can improve the service provided by an FM department responsible for the maintenance and repair of furniture and finishes at a large healthcare organization in the southwest United States of America. Quality improvement curricula and resources offered by the case study organization equipped the FM department to apply LSS over the course of a five-month period. Qualitative data were gathered from pre- and post-intervention surveys while quantitative data were gathered with the Organization’s computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software. Overall, LSS application proved to be useful for the intended purpose. The author proposes that application of LSS by other FM departments to improve their services could also be successful, which is noteworthy and deserving of continued research.

To present the importance of understanding American commercial influence through the utilization of geopolitics while referencing the economic viability and public policy in Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries nations, relative to oil production, consumption and the price per barrel. For the purpose, of successfully completing western led hydrocarbon construction activities Internationally. Additionally, this thesis will theorize several non-traditional strategies that will allow western led construction contractors and managers to effectively maintain and foster relationships with international trade labor. Allowing for more insight and project planning to complete successful and safe projects.

Owner organizations in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry are presented with a wide variety of project delivery approaches. Implementation of these approaches, while enticing due to their potential to save money, reduce schedule delays, or improve quality, is extremely difficult to accomplish and requires a concerted change management effort. Research in the field of organizational behavior cautions that perhaps more than half of all organizational change efforts fail to accomplish their intended objectives. This study utilizes an action research approach to analyze change message delivery within owner organizations, model owner project team readiness and adoption of change, and identify the most frequently encountered types of resistance from lead project members. The analysis methodology included Spearman's rank order correlation, variable selection testing via three methods of hierarchical linear regression, relative weight analysis, and one-way ANOVA. Key findings from this study include recommendations for communicating the change message within owner organizations, empirical validation of critical predictors for change readiness and change adoption among project teams, and identification of the most frequently encountered resistive behaviors within change implementation in the AEC industry. A key contribution of this research is the recommendation of change management strategies for use by change practitioners.

As global competition continues to grow more disruptive, organizational change is an ever-present reality that affects companies in all industries at both the operational and strategic level. Organizational change capabilities have become a necessary aspect of existence for organizations in all industries worldwide. Research suggests that more than half of all organizational change efforts fail to achieve their original intended results, with some studies quoting failure rates as high as 70 percent. Exasperating this problem is the fact that no single change methodology has been universally accepted. This thesis examines two aspect of organizational change: the implementation of tactical and strategic initiatives, primarily focusing on successful tactical implementation techniques. This research proposed that tactical issues typically dominate the focus of change agents and recipients alike, often to the detriment of strategic level initiatives that are vital to the overall value and success of the organizational change effort. The Delphi method was employed to develop a tool to facilitate the initial implementation of organizational change such that tactical barriers were minimized and available resources for strategic initiatives were maximized. Feedback from two expert groups of change agents and change facilitators was solicited to develop the tool and evaluate its impact. Preliminary pilot testing of the tool confirmed the proposal and successfully served to minimize tactical barriers to organizational change.