I have this thing called a Master’s Thesis.

Shared Leadership as a Function of Role Assignment and Task Difficulty in a Distributed Computer Game

Abstract:

The use of computer game-based architectures provides a safe, controlled environment in which geographically dispersed military units can develop leadership skills while rehearsing a specific task such as building clearing, search and rescue, or navigation.  The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship among task difficulty, team task performance and emergent leadership during a team search task using a modified version of the popular video game, Half Life 2 ™.  The shared leadership model predicts that multiple individuals often share responsibility for the outcome of a task.  Using gaming experience and efficacy as covariates in a within-subjects ANCOVA, I will assess if role assignment and task difficulty will interact to have an effect on whether an individual emerges as a leader.  There are two levels of difficulty: easy and difficult.  There are two types of roles: the individual with the map and the individual who is immersed in the game.  This experiment may indicate that the leader emerges based on task context or role he takes during the task.  Such results would lend support for a more contextual theoretical basis for emergent leadership than a personality-driven theoretical leadership model.  The Army can implement this leadership model in the creation of new video game-based leadership training modules.

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Are you still with me? You can read more about the pilot study for my thesis that I completed last year here.  I included some of my pilot study results in a conference submission and hope to have it published in September.  I also hope to combine the leadership findings from the pilot study with my thesis to write a journal article in the Fall.

I was supposed to finish data collection in April because the research participant pool drastically decreases in the summer. I propose in April. So I’m a semester behind. Why? Because I have tough classes,  a challenging job outside of school, an apartment and car I need to maintain, a blog, a cat, a family and friends. Because I applied to PhD programs last semester.  Because I’m active in multiple student organizations.  Because I like to play on the Internet, watch TV and movies, sleep, eat and exercise a little. Mostly because I like to sleep.

My advisor is not exactly pleased about all of this, but I am OK with being behind.  I am OK with prioritizing my life the way I did this semester.  At the end of the day, I finish what I need to finish.  One cannot be a perfectionist in grad school and survive.  One must pick his or her battles and I picked mine.

I have a lot to do the rest of this semester. It makes me want to freak out just a little bit.  To be honest, I have thoroughly freaked out multiple times already.

This summer will be interesting.

For my thesis, I will (with the help a lovely undergrad assistant):

• Run 30 teams through my two hour experiment
• Transcribe 30 teams’ conversations (Four fifteen-minute conversations)
• Content code 30 x 4 conversations
• Analyze my data
• Write my Results and Discussion sections
• Defend my Thesis by July 30th
• Submit my final Thesis to the Registrar on August 20th

If all the above goes as planned, I will graduate on August 27th so I can hit the ground running when I start the PhD program.

I will also work full time between May 1st and September 1st.  Yes, that’s right.  40 hours a week, baby.  Gotta make that cash monies so I can go to the strip clubs in Vegas.  😉

I plan to exercise regularly again beginning NOW because this is something that completely went by the wayside this semester.  My hip, my pants and my scale are starting to scream at me for missing yoga so much.

I will most likely move closer to campus in July or August.  I absolutely adore living in Virginia Beach, but the commute is killing me.  I need to move to Norfolk or at least somewhere in Virginia Beach that is closer to campus.  Sometimes I spend over two hours commuting in a day between school and work and home.  A long commute is fine for some people because it is just for one job, they make enough money that it does not create a financial burden and they have a family who can take care of things at home when they are driving.  For me, that two hours I sometimes lose on the road could be used more efficiently in a number of ways.  For example, I could exercise every day in the amount of time I am normally driving.

I also have six trips planned right now between May and September:

• Vegas/Boulder/(debating on the 3rd destination) for 10 days
• A week in Glasgow for work
• A week in DC for work and fun times
• Huntsville for a long weekend
• Boston for a long weekend
• Portland for a long weekend

Right.

So as you can see, I have to re-prioritize things in my life until June.

The plan to get ‘er done between now and September

I think it’s time I step away from the blog.  I have some blog posts lined up to tide you over until June, but I will probably not be very swift with replies to comments.  My Google Reader is filled with all of your blogs, so I will keep up with them.  I may not be able to comment as often on the amazing posts you all have lined up.  I have challenged myself to drastically reduce my use of Twitter or TweetDeck in April.  That is code for: I am not allowed to open TweetDeck during the week.  I know, right?!  You know where to find me in the meantime.  If you have still not added me as a Facebook friend, why the hell not?!  I know where to find all of you lovelies, too.

The point is… I have to be a full-time grad student and full time government employee until I see (some of) you in Vegas for Bloggers in Sin City.  While some people can juggle many clementines, some of us cannot do it successfully.  Something’s gotta give now for me.  And that something is social media.

Cherio!

If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGt9jAkWie4]

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I recently alluded to some drama at school,  but I didn’t want to get into it in too much detail in public.

The gist: I don’t associate with some people in my program because I prefer to surround myself with positive, honest, helpful, kind, enabling individuals.  I do not like to sit down at a table at dinner with someone and have him or her immediately talk negatively about someone I know or try to pull negative words from me.  If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.  Or at least, don’t be two faced.  If you hang around someone all the time, don’t come to me and start talking smack.  I will immediately lose some respect and trust for you.  That doesn’t mean I’m perfect.  I am far from perfect.  I say things I should not say about people, but I try to limit it to things I would say to that person’s face.  Or I limit intimate conversations about others to my closest friends.

I thought I would post something general about the interpersonal politics of {insert any competitive professional work environment}.

I treat grad school as a professional work environment. We are adults and colleagues.  The line between student and faculty is blurred such that we are all on a first name basis.  I do not like drama and avoid it at all costs for my personal well-being.  I am friends with my boss outside of work, but we are able to compartmentalize our professional and personal lives because we are on the same page.  That is a special circumstance that I do not share with many of my fellow students.  A few of my close friends in my program also treat grad school as a job.  That’s right, I only have a few close friends in school.

Why I am not close with most of my cohort

Competitiveness + high intelligence + psychology background + neuroticism + poor coping skills + long distance relationships + insecurity + extreme stress mediated by a small, cohesive cohort predicts interpersonal disaster.  (That was my awful attempt at a regression equation to predict grad school drama. But you get the idea.)

There are very few of us in the program.

My business, if I talk about it, will become everyone’s business.  Everyone knows everyone in any small graduate program.  My classes range from four to twenty students, so we all know each other.  Word spreads fast.  I prefer not to share the most intimate details of my life with anyone in the program outside of the few people whom I consider real friends.

There is some separation based on age.

Some students come straight out of undergrad and are still going through their party phase in life.  Their “getting to know themselves” phase.  Their “experimental” phase.  Been there, done that, over it.  That is not to say I don’t know how to have a good time. I can drink wine and dance all night with the best of them.  But I’m 27.  I’m not 23.  Others, like myself, worked for a few years before going back to school, we have established healthy relationships and we don’t want to mix work with personal life too much.  When you are 23, you think you are an adult.  And then you turn 27 and realize that you are always growing, changing, discovering new things, and re-evaluating your priorities.

I tend to socialize more with older students because I find that our interests and priorities are similar.  It doesn’t mean those students who want to go out to the clubs every night, to come to class hungover, or to be promiscuous with one another are necessarily doing something wrong.  They are just doing some things I do not want to do personally.  Life is too short not to live it up a little.  I also believe life is too short to be cruel to anyone or to hurt oneself.

Then there is the issue of PhD versus Master’s students.

Some PhD students are a little “judgey” about the Master’s students, despite the fact we are taking the same classes..  In my program, the first year requirements are the same regardless of one’s concentration.  The Applied Experimental Master’s students, Clinical PsyDs, Human Factors PhDs, Applied Experimental PhDs and Industrial/Organizational PhDs take some of the same core courses.  It is not until the second year that we split into concentration areas.    In general, we mingle and see each other regularly. But there are a group of PhD students who think they are better, smarter, more capable than the Master’s students.  It is like high school all over again for some.  Or the PhD Jets versus the MS Sharks, if you’re into musicals.  In my opinion, at this level in our education, we are all equal.  Everyone has a different set of skills, knowledge, abilities and interests.  The Master’s students in my program, including myself, began their graduate education with a terminal Master’s degree because our GRE scores were not great, we had been out of school for awhile and we did not know exactly what our research focus was going to be.  We needed a Master’s program to help guide us in the right direction and better prepare us for a PhD program.  Fortunately, there are PhDs who believe we are all colleagues.  And I hope to be a good role model by being inclusive once I enter the PhD program in August.

Then there is the issue of competition between students.

This is, after all, academia.  The Ivory Tower of Academia can be a pretty dark cave in which to reside.  Julie at Escape the Ivory Tower, one of my favorite blogs about grad school, definitely touches on this aspect of interpersonal relationship in academia.  Fortunately for me, my fellow Human Factors students are very cohesive and supportive of one another.  We give each other notes, discuss research ideas, work together on projects and papers, and are always there for the other in times of need.  Such cohesion does not always exist in grad school because everyone is vying for a chance at being the best of the best.  Law school and business school come to mind, based on what my friends have told me.

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Why do you think there is always drama in a traditional workplace or in academia?  Why do you think the academic world breeds such negative behavior?  What do you do to remove yourself from drama in professional environments?