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Background: Increasing the persistence of engineering transfer students can help meet the US national priority of increasing the number of engineering graduates. Many transfer students experience a decrease in their grade point average (GPA) at their receiving institution, known as transfer shock, which can lead to them leaving the institution. This GPA decrease is found to be more prevalent in engineering transfer students. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study is to analyze a single institutional dataset to determine when transfer shock occurs, how it differs among engineering transfer student subgroups, and if transfer shock is a predictor of graduation within 4 years in engineering. Design/Method: A 10-year dataset with 789 engineering transfer students was used in this study, and the engineering transfer students were split into four subgroups. Multiple statistical analyses were conducted, including Welch's F-test, chi-square, and logistic regression, to understand differences in transfer shock during the first three terms of enrollment as well as 4-year graduation rates among each subgroup. Results: Transfer shock extends through the first three post-transfer terms, resulting in transfer norming. The engineering transfer student subgroups experience different levels of transfer norming; however, the subgroups were not predictors of graduation. The predictors were the transfer GPA and the transfer norming in the first three post-transfer terms of enrollment. Conclusions: Engineering transfer students are not a homogeneous population; there are key differences between lateral and vertical transfer students. More strategic, longitudinal programming and decision-making should be considered by institutions.

Background: Increasing the number of engineering graduates continues to be a national priority and influences the need to understand persistence of all student pathways. Few studies have focused on engineering transfer student pathways and their success post-transfer, suggesting a need for a more comprehensive analysis of existing research to advance this area. Purpose: A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the factors found in the literature that most significantly affect engineering transfer student persistence, discuss themes that span the factors, and identify the frameworks used in the literature to understand engineering transfer student persistence. Scope/Method: A systematic literature review method was used to capture a broad range of publications. A thematic synthesis approach was used to analyze the results of the final publication set. Results: The systematic review identified 76 publications in this research area, and analysis of these publications resulted in 33 unique factors and 3 overarching themes. Additionally, 13 persistence frameworks were identified as being used to understand engineering transfer student persistence. Conclusions: Findings from this work suggest that the primary methods institutions can use to increase persistence in engineering of this population are increasing pre-transfer academic requirements, increasing student integration, and providing an inclusive institutional culture. This review also supports the need for an updated persistence framework that considers the characteristics of engineering transfer students. Gaps in the literature were also identified and indicate a need to differentiate vertical and lateral transfer students as well as extend the review of post-transfer academics beyond the first post-transfer year.

This study presents a structural equation model for understanding the determinants of front-line supervisor effectiveness in engineering team-based organizations. The study uses partial least squares to evaluate and quantify the interrelationships between the front-line supervisor effectiveness determinants. Nine hypotheses are proposed and tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that the organizational context has a direct and positive influence on skill variety, which in turn, has a direct and positive influence on front-line supervisor effectiveness. Similarly, adaptive performance has a direct and positive influence on front-line supervisor effectiveness. The study provides useful insights for refocusing front-line supervisors' development initiatives, improving front-line effectiveness, and selecting candidates for front-line supervisor roles in engineering team-based organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last ten years have seen a plethora of organisational studies related to nonprofit organisations (NPOs). Regarding performance measures, the initial approach of NPOs is to adapt models and processes developed in a for-profit context. The NPO performance measurement literature suggests that these models fail in addressing the unique characteristics of NPOs relating to their dynamic and complex environments. The research presented in this paper focus is on organisational performance related studies, and it covers private companies' foundations, technological and professional institutes, and public or government agencies and departments. Ten cases were studied, and the results could not be generalised for NPOs but could be understood in the three different contexts and organisations studied. Foundations are strongly connected to their private supporter, and they are responsible for actions in terms of social responsibility and accountability. Independent institutes are project-oriented organisations that serve specific purposes that are defined by multiple stakeholders, and strongly influenced by the context in which they operate. Public service and government institutions have their operations ruled by an office term period institutional planning framework that deploys government programs and produces performance reports as they have high demands for transparency and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of how Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied to generate objective cross-project comparisons of project duration within an engineering department of the Belgian Armed Forces. To date, DEA has been applied to study projects within certain domains (e.g., software and R&D); however, DEA has not been proposed as a general project evaluation tool within the project management literature. In this case study, we demonstrate how DEA fills a gap not addressed by commonly applied project evaluation methods (such as earned value management) by allowing the objective comparison of projects on actual measures, such as duration and cost, by explicitly considering differences in key input characteristics across these projects. Thus, DEA can overcome the paradigm of project uniqueness and facilitate cross-project learning. We describe how DEA allowed the department to gain new insight about the impact of changes to its engineering design process (redesigned based on ISO 15288), creating a performance index that simultaneously considers project duration and key input variables that determine project duration. We conclude with directions for future research on the application of DEA as a project evaluation tool for project managers, program office managers, and other decision-makers in project-based organizations. Index Terms--Concurrent engineering, ISO 15288, military organizations, performance measurement, project management.

Teams are an integral part of many manufacturing organizations today. This paper explores the relationships between nine organizational context variables, team processes, and three measures of team effectiveness. The research was conducted within one business unit of a Fortune 50 high-technology company. Twenty-one intact production work teams were the focus of the study. Using path analysis, significant direct relationships between six organizational context factors and three measures of team effectiveness were found. The management processes associated with establishing a clear team purpose that is aligned with organizational goals and the allocation of critical resources were hath positively related to team member satisfaction. An organizational culture that supports communication and cooperation between teams and the integration of teams was found to have a significant and positive linear relationship with two different team leader ratings of effectiveness and with team member satisfaction. Organizational systems that provide teams with the necessary information were found to have a significant and positive linear relationship with both team leader ratings of effectiveness and team member satisfaction. Organizational systems that provide teams with the necessary training were found to have a significant and positive linear relationship with team member satisfaction. Index Terms--Mature work teams, organizational context, production management, production teams, work teams, work team effectiveness.

While rapid improvement efforts, e.g. Kaizen events, and continuous improvement efforts, i.e. kaizen, remain popular approaches to operational excellence, it is rare that organisations fully sustain change from these initiatives. The impact of both Kaizen events and kaizen may be substantially lower, if not entirely eliminated, after significant time has elapsed from initial implementation of changes. In this paper, we examine how having a continuous improvement culture can support rapid improvement sustainability via an examination of the impact of Kaizen events several months after implementation. Employing a dynamic capabilities perspective and using the institutionalisation of planned change framework, we empirically examine this relationship via a field study of 65 Kaizen events in eight manufacturing organisations. In short, we find that the extent to which work area employees exhibit peer learning, as well as awareness and responsibility both inside and outside of their work area, and the extent to which changes are accepted are significantly related to the perceived impact of Kaizen events several months after implementation. This research adds to current understanding of Kaizen events and kaizen, providing evidence to guide the use of Kaizen events and to inform areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In lean manufacturing environments, cross-training is often used to achieve multi-skilling in order to increase flexibility in meeting fluctuating demand, to create a shared sense of responsibility, and to balance workload between cross-trained workers. This paper presents a model that assigns workers to tasks within a lean manufacturing cell while minimizing net present cost. In determining how to assign workers to tasks, the model addresses production requirements to meet customer demand, skill depth requirements for tasks, varying quality levels based on skill depth, and job rotation to retain skills for a cross-trained workforce. The model generates an assignment of workers to tasks and determines the training necessary for workers to meet skill requirements for tasks and customer demand. While the model can be used in a number of ways, in this paper it is used to generate a worker assignment schedule for cross-trained workers in a dedicated lean manufacturing cell in an electronics assembly plant and to evaluate the effect of increased cross-training on the cell. The resulting worker assignment schedules for the current state and several alternative scenarios for the cell are evaluated using cost results from the optimization model and from a simulation model to assess additional performance metrics. These results demonstrate the usefulness of the worker assignment model and indicate that moderate increases from current cross-training levels are not beneficial for this cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]