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Colleges and universities across the USA have seen data breaches and intellectual property theft rise at a heightened rate over the past several years. An integral step in the first line of defense against various forms of attacks are (written) security policies designed to prescribe the construction and function of a technical system, while simultaneously guiding the actions of individuals operating within said system. Unfortunately, policy analysis is an insufficiently discussed topic in many academic communities with very little research being conducted in this space.

This work aims to assess the current state of information security policies by analyzing in-use policies from 200 universities and colleges in the USA with the goal of identifying important features and general attributes of these documents. The authors accomplish this through a series of analyzes designed to examine the language and construction of these policies.

To summarize high-level results, the authors found that only 54 per cent of the top 200 universities had publicly accessible information security policies, and the policies that were examined lacked consistency with little shared source material. The authors also found that the tonal makeup of these policies lacked a great deal of emotion, but contained a high amount of tentative or ambiguous language leading toward policies that could be viewed as “unclear.”

This work is an extension of a paper that was presented at ECIS 2018. The authors have added additional analyzes including a cross-policy content and tonal analysis to strengthen the findings and implications of this work for the wider research audience.

The purpose of this study is to examine how doctoral students in the biological sciences understand their research skill development and explore potential racial/ethnic and gender inequalities in the scientific learning process.

Based on interviews with 87 doctoral students in the biological sciences, this study explores how doctoral students describe development of their research skills. More specifically, a constructivist grounded theory approach is employed to understand how doctoral students make meaning of their research skill development process and how that may vary by gender and race/ethnicity.

The findings reveal two emergent groups, “technicians” who focus on discrete tasks and data collection, and “interpreters” who combine technical expertise with attention to the larger scientific field. Although both groups are developing important skills, “interpreters” have a broader range of skills that support successful scholarly careers in science. Notably, white men are overrepresented among the “interpreters,” whereas white women and students from minoritized racial/ethnic groups are concentrated among the “technicians.”

While prior literature provides valuable insights into the inequalities across various aspects of doctoral socialization, scholars have rarely attended to examining inequalities in research skill development. This study provides new insights into the process of scientific learning in graduate school. Findings reveal that research skill development is not a uniform experience, and that doctoral education fosters different kinds of learning that vary by gender and race/ethnicity.

The construction industry is facing worker shortages, and the resulting competition for skilled workers has increased employee turnover in the sector. Consequently, construction and engineering firms are struggling to attract and retain employees to meet current demands for construction projects. The regular inflow of new employees, who likely need training, may affect organizational and project performance. Construction firms can boost performance by assessing and then honing workers’ skills, including soft skills.

One way to assess individuals’ soft skills is to use personality assessments. This study used three personality assessments— – the HEXACO Personality Inventory, Emotional Intelligence Diagnostic and Q-DiSC 101 Behavioral Assessment – to identify the traits of general contractor project managers; sheet metal and air conditioning field leaders (specialty field leaders) and sheet metal, air conditioning and electrical project managers (specialty project managers) in the United States for job role transition purposes. The groups’ mean scores for each assessment component were analyzed using ANOVA and independent t-test to identify statistically significant differences in the personality traits of the three groups – specifically between specialty field leaders and general contractor project managers as well as between specialty field leaders and specialty project managers.

This study found that the personality characteristics of workers in these job roles varied. One-way ANOVA revealed that there were significant differences in mean personality factor scores among specialty field leaders, specialty project managers and general contractor project managers. Independent t-tests showed significant differences in patience, forgiveness, fearfulness, etc. identifying the differences between specialty field leaders and general contractor project managers. Similarly, results highlighted significant differences in modesty, inquisitiveness and sociability, among others, for specialty field leaders and specialty project managers.

Understanding the personality traits associated with skills needed for leadership across construction roles empowers companies to refine human resource strategies. Personality assessments can complement recruitment, identifying strong candidates for leadership positions. Additionally, these insights can optimize leadership development programs and facilitate career transitions for specialty field leaders by pinpointing suitable candidates and tailoring training programs for successful role changes.

This study contributes to the field in two ways. First, it focuses on personality traits within the specific context of construction leadership, providing valuable insights for companies seeking to optimize their leadership teams. Second, by exploring the personality differences between these roles, the study goes beyond individual job requirements and examines the potential challenges and opportunities for career transitions within construction. This information can be used to inform training programs and career development pathways for construction professionals.