Organizational aspects of landscape enterprises: The case of Istanbul

ABSTRACT: As a management function, organizing deals with activities designed to support the realization of institutional goals and plans, performed within an organizational structure that serves to connect, direct, manage, and control the activities associated with these plans and goals. Considering the extensive scope of landscape architecture, it is necessary for organizations operating in this field to focus on management and organization issues (which have ecological, architectural, economic, and social dimensions), and their integration with administrative functions to achieve success. In this context, the present study examined the organizing processes of private enterprises operating in the landscape sector, investigated the differences among them, and analyzed the interaction of organization-related aspects. Within this scope, the research focused on evaluating stages of organizing, principles and effects of organizing, organizational relations, and organizational authorities and responsibilities. The province of Istanbul was selected as a case study to consider the specified objectives. Data were collected through questionnaires and then sent through ANOVA and Spearman correlation analyses. The results showed that the main problems affecting these enterprises in terms of organizing were delegation, participative management, and inter-departmental relations. Organizational aims and customer groups were also shown to have an impact on these issues, and the components of the organizing function distinct relationships with one another. This study concluded that adopting a holistic approach in organizational processes and related applications is essential.

Music Education and Postgraduate Study: The Case of Dokuz Eylül University

The purposes of this study are to shed light on postgraduate education in Music Teaching and draw inferences about the future by evaluating the Music Teaching Postgraduate Program in Dokuz Eylul University Institute of Educational Sciences. The research is a qualitative study modelled with a single-case embedded study. In accordance with the interlocking single case pattern, the Music Education graduate program was examined by focusing on student, graduate, faculty member, theses. The opinions of 10 students, 23 graduates and 6 faculty members were taken to evaluate the program, and 57 master’s and 20 doctoral theses were examined. As a result of the content analysis,opinions were collected under four main categories. These categories are defined as “institutional goals”, “content”, “program outputs” and “updates”. In the category of program outcomes, the theses were evaluated according to various categories and the professional orientations of the graduates were statistically shared. According to the results of the research, the following conclusions were made: students should be informed at the beginning of the program in order to understand the vision and mission of the institution and to make the process they spent in the education process meaningful; A “scientific research in music education” course should be added to the program in order to conduct qualified research in the field of music education; subjects and research groups in theses should be diversified; faculty members should be role models in preparing thesis and academic studies for their advisors; graduate programs should be updated according to the needs of the time and society.

Beyond the Gates: Teaching Race and Politics in Brazil in a Prison Education Program

The project of liberatory education is fraught with complications in a Small Liberal Arts College or SLAC environment. Authors bell hooks and Paulo Freire look to an ethics of care, love, and mutual restoration of humanity through teaching openly and freely. My initial teaching experiences as an assistant professor revealed that this liberatory aim could not be fulfilled at the college campus, so I taught in a prison college education program. The goals of this article are: 1) to elucidate the complicated relationship that a woman faculty of color at the intersections of multiple identities has in adjusting to the SLAC environment; 2) to expound upon my weekly exit from campus and entry into prison education as a vehicle to advance institutional goals for outreach and social justice; 3) to interrogate prison education epistemologies and describe the counternarratives and practical strategies developed in a course on Race and Politics in Brazil to decolonize the curriculum; and 4) to express the realities of teaching a Black-centered, intersectional course in an all-male maximum security prison setting. It was through this practical prison teaching experience that I stretched the limits of my practice of education and found a temporary home in which to do so.

Publishing more than reviewing? Some ethical musings on the sustainability of the peer review process

Based on our editorial experience, and acknowledging the regular editor grievances about reviewer disengagement at professional meeting and conferences, in this article we argue that the review system is in need of significant repair. We argue that this has emerged because an audit culture in academia and individual incentives (like reduced teaching loads or publication bonuses) have eroded the willingness of individuals to engage in the collective enterprise of peer-reviewing each others’ work on a quid pro quo basis. In response to this, we emphasise why it is unethical for potential reviewers to disengage from the review process, and outline the implications for our profession if colleagues publish more than they review. Designed as a political intervention in response to reviewer disengagement, we aim to ‘politicise’ the review process and its consequences for the sustainability of the scholarly community. We propose three pathways towards greater reviewer engagement: (i) senior scholars setting the right kind of ‘reviewer’ example; (ii) journals introducing recognition awards to foster a healthy reviewer progression path and (iii) universities and accreditation bodies moving to explicitly recognise reviewing in workload models and evaluations. While all three proposals have merit, the latter point is especially powerful in fostering reviewer engagement as it aligns individual and institutional goals in ‘measurable’ ways. In this way, ironically, the audit culture can be subverted to address the imbalance between individual and collective goals.

Evaluation of a school-based participatory intervention to improve school environments using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research

Background Participatory research offers a promising approach to addressing health inequities and improving the social determinants of health for diverse populations of adolescents. However, little research has systematically explored factors influencing the implementation of participatory health interventions targeting health disparities. Objective This study examined the utility of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) in identifying and comparing barriers and facilitators influencing implementation of participatory research trials by employing an adaptation of the CFIR to assess the implementation of a multi-component, urban public school-based participatory health intervention. Methods We collected qualitative data over a one-year period through weekly team meeting observational field notes and regular semi-structured interviews with five community-based participatory researchers, one school-based partner, and four school principals involved in implementing a participatory intervention in five schools. Adapted CFIR constructs guided our largely deductive approach to thematic data analysis. We ranked each of the three intervention components as high or low implementation to create an overall implementation effectiveness score for all five schools. Cross-case comparison of constructs across high and low implementation schools identified constructs that most strongly influenced implementation. Results Ten of 30 assessed constructs consistently distinguished between high and low implementation schools in this participatory intervention, with five strongly distinguishing. Three additional constructs played influential, though non-distinguishing, roles within this participatory intervention implementation. Influential constructs spanned all five domains and fit within three broad themes: 1) leadership engagement, 2) alignment between the intervention and institutional goals, priorities, demographics, and existing systems, and 3) tensions between adaptability and complexity within participatory interventions. However, the dynamic and collaborative nature of participatory intervention implementation underscores the artificial distinction between inner and outer settings in participatory research and the individual behavior change focus does not consider how relationships between stakeholders at multiple levels of participatory interventions shape the implementation process. Conclusions The CFIR is a useful framework for the assessment of participatory research trial implementation. Our findings underscore how the framework can be readily adapted to further strengthen its fit as a tool to examine project implementation in this context.

EMPIRICAL REVIEW OF FACTORS AFFECTING BUYING BEHAVIOR IN HEI’S OF KHYBER PAKHTOONKHWA PROVINCE (PAKISTAN)

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study was to highlight factors that affect buying practices in higher education institutions. Methodology: A questionnaire was used to collect primary data from respondents of higher education institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan). Correlation & Regression tests were applied with the help of SPSS for checking association and cause and effect relationship between predictors and criterion variables. Main findings: Findings of the study reveal that institutional goals, objectives, policies & procedures regarding the purchase, relationship with the suppliers & their credibility, product knowledge, and intangibility are some key factors that affect the buying behavior of individuals in institutions. Applications of the study: Study will help institutional buyers in particular and others in general to reduce brand sensitivity & risk associated with the purchase by following established procedures and policies. The study will help marketers in devising corporate and marketing strategies in different environments to overcome competition. Novelty/Originality of this study: The area of institutional buying in terms of branding has been largely ignored by researchers and academicians previously due to which this area remained underdeveloped theoretically. The study reveals the importance of various factors in institutional buying context and knowledge of these factors will help institutional buyers in particular and others in general, in reducing risk and uncertainty, by overcoming the complexity involved in institutional buying patterns.

The Transformational Paradigm of The Pesantren Curriculum Innovation

This research begins from the problems faced in pesantren. They include curriculum management and learning, such as the implementation of teacher-centered learning and poorly planned learning evaluation. Thus, the researcher is interested in studying Pesantren Nurul Iman Garum Blitar, which applies an innovative curriculum using a transformative paradigm. The research method was qualitative research - a phenomenological approach. The findings were; first, there were three curriculum objectives: national goals, institutional goals, and learning objectives. Second, the learning material was reconstructing several books in the pesantren, such as the nahwu, shorof, and fiqh books. Third, the learning method was student-centred which encourage students to be active. In addition, it was also supported by some learning programs, including takror sughro, takror kubro, and syawir. Fourth, the learning evaluation employed formative and summative evaluation. Abstrak: Penelitian ini berawal dari kegelisahan akademik peneliti melihat beberapa problematika yang terjadi di pondok pesantren, diantaranya problem pengelolaan kurikulum dan pembelajaran, seperti metode pembelajaran yang cenderung teacher centered dan juga evaluasi pembelajaran yang tidak terencana dengan baik. Dari situ peneliti tertarik meneliti Pondok Pesantren Nurul Iman Garum Blitar yang membuat inovasi dalam kurikulumnya dengan menggunakan paradigma transformatif. Metode penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan fenomenologis dan jenis penelitian kualitatif. Diantara hasil penelitiannya sebagai berikut: pertama, desain tujuan kurikulumnya terdiri dari tiga macam; yaitu tujuan nasional, tujuan institusional dan tujuan pembelajaran. Kedua, desain materi pembelajarannya berupa rekonstruksi ulang beberapa kitab di pesantren, seperti kitab nahwu, shorof dan fikih. Ketiga, desain metode pembelajarannya menggunakan paradigma student centered dengan metode yang mendorong siswa aktif. Selain itu didukung dengan beberapa program pembelajaran, diantaranya takror sughro, takror kubro dan syawir. Keempat, bentuk evaluasi pembelajarannya menggunakan evaluasi formatif dan sumatif.

Penilaian Tingkat Kematangan Tata Kelola Sistem Informasi Sumber Daya Manusia dengan Cobit Domain Plan and Organize dan Acquire and Implement

Information technology is currently a technology that is widely adopted by almost all organizations and is believed to be able to help increase the efficiency of ongoing processes, including in educational institutions. IT Governance offers various solutions, innovations, and changes to the company's business, however, the application of information technology must be in accordance with the company's business objectives. The key to entering the world of global business is a qualification that includes skills, knowledge and experience combined with international certification for global recognition. The application of information technology must be tailored to the needs of the institution in order to achieve institutional goals. This research was conducted to conduct an assessment and evaluation of the governance of the Human Resources Information System (HRIS) at the Nurul Fikri Integrated Islamic School, Depok. Knowing this condition will make it easier to take action to improve HRIS governance, use the Cobit method and focus on the PO and AI domains. The implementation of HRIS governance at the Nurul Fikri Integrated Islamic School has been carried out even though it is still not running optimally because it has reached the expected level of maturity. The maturity level of the HRIS governance at the Nurul Fikri Integrated Islamic School is at level 2 (Managed Process) for both the PO and AI domains.

Lean Six Sigma and Assurance of Learning (AoL) in higher education: a case study

PurposeThis study aims to present a case study using a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) process to manage the Assurance of Learning (AoL) process in higher education. The case study highlights the value that LSS can bring to the higher education context in respect to making the AoL process more efficient and more effective. The article also illustrates lessons learned in relation to adopting LSS in higher education institutes (HEIs).Design/methodology/approachThe case study presented is part of a larger undertaking implemented by the Faculty of Economics and Administration (FEA) at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia to improve its curricula for all its programs as the graduate and undergraduate level in line with the 2013 Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business standards. The FEA project team implemented the AoL process using an LSS methodology – define–measure–analyze–improve–control (DMAIC).FindingsThe experience of the FEA as described in the case study suggests that the DMAIC framework can be very useful in managing the AoL process. Three aspects of LSS used in the AoL context are identified as critical in ensuring that the process achieves its stated institutional goals. Firstly, it is necessary to clearly identify which team members have which areas of responsibility in relation to, for example, sponsoring, implementing, managing and monitoring the project. Secondly, the common language provided by LSS is essential to fostering collaboration among members of a cross-disciplinary team. Lastly, quantifiable priorities should be identified.Research limitations/implicationsThe experience of the FEA as described in the case study suggests that the DMAIC framework can be very effective in advancing and managing the AoL process. For example, writing the project charter, mapping the process using the suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers model and using various LSS tools and techniques to measure and control the assessment were critical to improving the AoL process.Practical implicationsThis paper provides a guide to the range of practices cited in the literature on implementing LSS in relation to AoL as a comprehensive means of assessing, evaluating and improving curriculum design and delivery. The importance of this process to accreditation is explored and recommendations are offered focused on realizing both short- and long-term benefits through the initial assessments and subsequent iterations.Originality/valueThe defining contribution of this paper to the literature is its consideration of LSS implementation in the HEI context through the development and management of the AoL process.

Internal control: strengthening policy enging in non-profit organizations

The purpose of this research is to determine the strengthening that non-profit organizations obtain through the application of internal control policies, that is to say the internal control of the institutions will be analyzed, because it is an indispensable tool for the development of administrative management, financial and accounting, allowing reasonable security for the fulfillment of institutional goals. A research study was carried out using the descriptive methodology, so the reading of scientific articles and the bibliographic review was carried out, obtaining information on the strengthening and importance of internal control policies in non-profit organizations. On the basis of the research carried out, it was found that many of the organizations do not have a specific control policy, and this would result in inefficiency and inefficiency in the operations they carry out causing them weaknesses. With a good internal control system, it helps them to develop guidelines and compliance standards so that procedures and activities are carried out efficiently and effectively, allowing no errors and fraud to be reported.