Leadership in the Pandemic Times (Covid-19) - Pandemic Style Leadership: Proposed Practices to be Embodied by the Leaders

COVID-19 has proven to be a humanitarian crisis. The global economy has come near about a standstill with the spread of coronavirus, as restrictions are imposed to impact the spread of virus. The problem is a terrific problem, which has many unforeseen consequences. And we require a commander or a leader who can steadily see us through this. Leadership is very important element for crisis management. Leadership is the key component factor in shaping the crisis management. This paper provides a view and understanding of pandemic style of leadership. It is realized that COVID-19 is a complex problem, which represents varied challenges, and with challenges comes opportunities and strategies for the leaders. In this paper, researcher has proposed practices to be exemplified by the leaders (with the perspective of COVID-19 pandemic). The aim of this paper is to provide insights on the aspects of leadership in context of COVID-19 pandemic.

Principal Component Factor Analysis of Some Development Factors in Southern Nigeria and Its Extension to Regression Analysis

This study was conducted to evaluate some development factors in Southern Nigeria in order to ascertain common factors that explained the interrelationships among them and identify best cities for recommendation. A total sample of 250 cities from different states in three geopolitical zones in Southern Nigeria was used in this study and 11 development factors were considered. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) of (> 0.5) was computed to test the sampling adequacy; Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (Significant at 0.001) was conducted to test whether the correlation between the variables are sufficiently large for factor analysis; correlation matrix was computed to confirm the inter-item correlation. In this analysis, principal component factor analysis was the factor extraction method. Varimax rotation technique was used for factor rotation. The result showed that three new factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 were successfully constructed. The three new factors accounted for 71.63% of total variance in the dataset and assigned as the common factors influencing sustainable development in Southern Nigeria. The communalities results ranging from 0.32-0.88 depicted that factor model was adequate. The results of factor analysis were extended to multiple regression analysis. The multiple regression model was fitted using development scores as dependent variable and rotated factors as independent variables. The coefficient of determination,, for the regression model was 99% and this shows that the model is adequate to evaluate the Southern Nigerian cities. The higher the estimated development scores, the better a city. Tolerance and VIF values showed that there was no multicollinearity in the regression model.

Some results about component factors in graphs

For a set ℋ of connected graphs, a spanning subgraph H of a graph G is called an ℋ-factor of G if every component of H is isomorphic to a member ofℋ. An H-factor is also referred as a component factor. If each component of H is a star (resp. path), H is called a star (resp. path) factor. By a P≥ k-factor (k positive integer) we mean a path factor in which each component path has at least k vertices (i.e. it has length at least k − 1). A graph G is called a P≥ k-factor covered graph, if for each edge e of G, there is a P≥ k-factor covering e. In this paper, we prove that (1) a graph G has a {K1,1,K1,2, … ,K1,k}-factor if and only if bind(G) ≥ 1/k, where k ≥ 2 is an integer; (2) a connected graph G is a P≥ 2-factor covered graph if bind(G) > 2/3; (3) a connected graph G is a P≥ 3-factor covered graph if bind(G) ≥ 3/2. Furthermore, it is shown that the results in this paper are best possible in some sense.

Factor Analysis of the Challenges and Strategies for Effective Work-Based Learning in Nigerian Technical and Vocational Education

This study investigated challenges and strategies for effective work-based learning in Nigerian technical and vocational education (TVE) using a factor analysis approach. Through the use of structured questionnaire, the opinions of 385 respondents consisting of 227 TVE lecturers and 158 supervisors of technical and vocational firms were sought. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and varimax rotated principal component factor analysis with factor loading of 0.40. The result showed that about 25% of the TVE firms in Northwest Nigeria are industrial technical firms, 22% are computer/ICT, 19% are business/distributive trade, 18 % are home economics while about 16% are agricultural based. Using principal component factor analysis, the study identified: policy, funding, attitudinal and linkage as challenging factors undermining effectiveness of work-based learning in Nigerian TVE. On the other hand, training, administrative, institutional and facility/curriculum are strategic factors for effectiveness of work-based learning in Nigerian TVE. Based on the findings, the study among others recommended strong technical and vocational education linkage with industry for skills training of students through work-based learning framework and approach