Cyprus Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 3.3 (2003)

List of Abstracts

Antonis Papaioannou

“Children’s Perceptions of their Life in the Kindergarten in Contexts of Structured and Emergent Quality”

Quality, in our view, is not an entity out there to be reached. We do not believe in models of quality because, if there were, quality would be reached and done with and every individual would be in a position to possess it. Also, quality after a model is no more than a prescription and, as long as you operate within the ken of a prescription, change and development pass you by. In this case you have to wait for an outside redirection for a deemed quality.

We consider that quality is embedded in a proactive process and, as such, it constitutes an emergent manifestation of a satisfying way of life. This does not mean that such manifestations in the past do not have their impact in the process of human development.

In this piece of research, we tried to find out what children considered satisfying in the kindergarten, what they wanted and the way they wanted it. The results are simply informative and their use can be viewed in the context of one’s theory of education.

From the information collected, we were able to glean five areas of concern - Attitudes towards school; Authority and power at school; Participation in decision making; Socialising and Aversion to school - which constitute a background for the educator to consider and provide children with opportunities to engage in proactive processes enabling them to seek experiences for a satisfying style of life.

Ioannis Mylonakis

“Mass Customisation. The Prospects and the Limits of a Useful Marketing Tool, as Evaluated by Two Opposite Business Endeavours”

The shift from mass production to mass customisation is a fact in the global business world, in services as well as in manufacturing industries. During the 90’s an important number of mass producing companies were seen transforming their business and gradually embracing the innovative ideas and techniques of mass customisation (Levi’s). Moreover, an equally relevant number constituted the firms specially created to implement the mass customisation model (Dell), thus gaining considerable competitive advantage by pioneering the shift towards the new frontier in business competition. The different cases of the above companies are examined by presenting and explaining the marketing strategy followed by the management of Levi’s and Dell, as well as by carrying out a desk research to test the main theoretical propositions and consumer attitudes.

N. Paleologou, E. Papanis

“Internal and External Attributions of Greek University Students According to Their Academic Performance: Empirical Research in Greece”

A study was conducted to examine internal and external attributions of university students according to their academic performance. One hundred thirty six (136) university students were randomly selected from various private and public university departments in Greece and a self-rating questionnaire was given in order to record their perception of their academic achievement (poor, average, good, very good, excellent). A second questionnaire rated their attributions (in a five value scale, from “extremely external” to “extremely internal”) about their performance.

Results suggest that students formulate different sets of explanation in failure and success (α=0,000). Students with high academic performance tend to attribute their success to personal and controllable factors such as ability and effort. Failure is attributed to external uncontrollable factors, such as luck, task difficulty and inadequate teaching methods. No gender differences were observed (α=0,715).

K.Giziakis, E. Giziaki

“Manpower Planning of Deck Officers in Greek Merchant Fleet”

When we consider the manpower planning for deck officers, we have to answer questions like how many deck officers we need today and how many it is likely to be needed in future. This kind of planning is very important, since deck officers belong to a professional group where education and training periods may be prolonged and therefore individuals entering training in response to current market signals will become available on the market after a number of years. The World maritime services can be severely affected by a shortage of specialized deck officers, which will increase the cost of their operations.

The Greek shipowners control 16% of the World merchant fleet. To run this fleet manpower planning must be taken into consideration.

This paper examines the pattern of supply for Greek deck officers in an attempt to give answers to problems of manpower planning. To this end it gives a brief description of the statistical technique and the necessary assumptions for its use are emphasised. Probabilities of wastage and tenure are calculated to model the pattern of movements from the lower level of deck officer C to the upper level of deck officer A.

A. Pardali, Y. Michalopoulos

“A Proposed Procedure to Calculate the Future Demand for Transshipped Containers: The Case of Greek Terminals”

Estimation of demand for transshipped containers is characterized by factors: a) quite different from those of exported or imported containers, b) difficult to be measured and c ) mainly qualitative. Consequently, the existing methods of forecasting are sometimes inaccurate and unreliable. This often leads to irrational port planning and to ineffective investment policies (high costs, waste of resources etc.) on the part of the port industry.

The aim of this study is to create a simple, flexible, computerized procedure suitable for immediate applications, which will allow to calculate future demand for transshipped container traffic at ports. This computerized application is based on a methodology which can estimate future demand for container traffic and more specifically the demand for transshipped containers at the ports; it relies on the probability theory introduced for the first time in the port industry, that is testing the randomness of factors affecting the transport of containers, the study of phenomena and the establishment of laws and axioms of a more general use. In the application of the methodology actual statistical data from the Piraeus Port Authority and the Salonica Port Authority, were used.