Purpose: This study assesses the Catholic University of Eastern Africa University (CUEA) Graduate Business School MBA contribution to developing and enhancing Emotional Intelligence skills among its MBA students.Methodology: Data was collected using various instruments: A survey with structured questionnaires administered to a target population of 40 second-year MBA students; in-depth interviews with 8 second-year MBA students, and 8 CUEA MBA lecturers; and a review of CUEA curriculum in relation to a benchmark of 10 MBA Programs in the best Business Schools of international and regional universities. A concurrent mixed method was used to achieve information with construct validity and chain of evidence from the multiple sources of data. The analysis technique was explanation based on the qualitative data, and some descriptive analysis was carried out for the quantitative data.Results: The findings show that the CUEA MBA program does not have EI (emotional intelligence) as one of its core skills development, while most of the best Business Schools do. CUEA MBA Program does not have specific EI objectives, and as a result, its lecturers have never focused on it and the students’ EI awareness, knowledge, and skills are low.Contribution to policy and practice: The study recommends that CUEA MBA program needs to be incorporated with EI skills development and make it a primary skill to be developed to the students irrespective of their area of specialization. The study further recommends that EI skills should be developed not only at the MBA level but also among undergraduate students, as suggested by some of the lecturers who participated in this study.

Change is inevitable and is seen as a practice for organizations seeking to continuously provide quality services that meet stakeholder needs. Efficient and effective public service delivery has forced state corporations to adopt organizational culture change management to accommodate changes in the environment. However, government parastatals and state corporations such as Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) often oppose transformation and change because they have uncertain outcomes and come with a lot of challenges. This study determined the effect of culture change on organizational performance at Kenya Wildlife Service Nairobi National Park. The study was guided by Geert Hofstede’s theory as the framework for cross-cultural communication, Edgar Schein’s model as the cultural inventions by a specific group, and the Denison dimension model theory. Using descriptive survey research design, on a target population of 100 employees drawn from various departments at Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Nairobi National Park, a structured questionnaire was used for data collection to effectively respond to the research problem. The study revealed that majority (35.9%) of the respondents were convinced that management ensures that old habits that are not effective are dropped and at the same time the management at KWS encourages employees to adapt to changes and be flexible, especially when the work environment is changing. Results revealed that KWS management ensures the organizational culture supports vision, goal and strategies. The respondents (40.5%) also agreed that managers encourage employees to adapt to changes and to care (35.9%) about fellow employees, customers, and stakeholders. The findings also revealed that 28.9% of the respondents agreed that managers are role models for employees in the organization and set standards for ethics. Correlation analyses show that culture affects performance directly and indirectly. The study concludes that organizational culture aligned with vision, goals, and company strategies guides employees towards a shared purpose and improves an organization’s capacity to perform excellently. We also conclude that KWS management encourages work ethics through consistency, and effective communication that improves work commitment that ultimately leads to better performance. The study recommends that there is need for more to be done on culture change as an approach to change management to improve performance. The mission, vision, and strategies are key to organizational performance and need to be reviewed from time to time to ensure that the organization lives its mission and moves towards its vision while applying its strategies. The study further recommends a replica of the same trial in other Kenya Wildlife Service branches in order to authenticate the findings and enable the generalization of the results.

Several churches around the world have experienced performance challenges because of factors such as lack of good leadership, lack of resources, poor vision, poor communication, and difficultly to access to the youth which have made it difficult for churches to grow their membership. The general objective of this research was to assess the influence of leadership styles on church performance in Protestant churches in Ongata Rongai. The study specifically focused on studying the influence of the transformational and transactional leadership styles on church performance by viewing church performance from the angle of church membership retention and church membership growth. This study is a survey that used the correlational research design to collect data from 256 respondents who were church members from five selected Protestant churches in Ongata Rongai. The data collected was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social sciences (SPSS) version 23 and the research results revealed that church leaders in Protestant churches in Ongata Rongai use both the transformational and the transactional leadership style. The research results also indicated that the transformational leadership style has a positive but weak influence on church performance while the transactional leadership style has a positive and strong influence on church performance. The study recommended that church leaders incorporate more transactional practices in their leadership and that churches invest in capacity building of their leaders. Keywords: Transformational leadership, Transactional leadership style, Performance & Churches

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and current treatment status of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) in Taiwan.Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted using claim data collected from the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) of Taiwan from 2003 to 2007. ITP patients were identified using the ICD-9 code, 287.3 (primary thrombocytopenia), with two diagnoses separated by at least 14 days for diagnostic specificity. In addition, sensitivity analysis was based on 28 (ITP-28) and 84 (ITP-84) days.Results: ITP prevalence ranged from 10.35 to 11.02 (per 100,000 individuals) with an annual number of 2,300 to 2,500 patients, and sensitivity analyses using ITP-28 and ITP-84 criteria showed that the prevalence were "9.52 to 10.35" and "6.87 to 8.14" in 5,445 ITP patients, respectively. The median age of ITP-14 patients was 46.5 years. In children, the female-to-male ratio was nearly equal (0.93), whereas in adults, it was 1.91. About 3.9% received splenectomy, of which 64.3% were responsive to splenectomy. Further, 92.6% were responsive to steroids. The average costs per visit were US$ 36 and US$ 1,700 for outpatients and inpatients, respectively. For steroid-responsive patients, the mean costs for clinic visits and hospitalization were US$ 35 and US$ 1,415, respectively. In contrast, the medical expense for steroid-refractory patients was approximately one and a half times the costs for responsive patients (inpatient: US$ 54; outpatient: US$ 2,349). For splenectomy-responsive inpatients, the average expenses prior to, at, and after splenectomy were US$ 1,877, 5,476, and 2,061, respectively. For splenectomy-refractory inpatients, the costs were comparable to those of responsive patients (P> 0.05). On the contrary, there were significant differences between the expenditure for splenectomy-responsive and -refractory outpatients. Among ITP patients in Taiwan, 7.4% and 6.4% had hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, respectively, and 1.5% had both HBV and HCV infections. Patients with HBV were significantly high in the splenectomy group (splenectomy vs. non-splenectomy 11.7% vs. 7.2%, P = 0.01), and those who were more responsive to splenectomy had a low HCV infection rate, i.e., 14.5% had HCV infection in splenectomy-refractory group vs. 4.38% in splenectomy-responsive group (P = 0.02). Conclusions:The epidemiology of ITP in Taiwan, including the age and sex, was comparable with that in western countries, except with lower incidence of splenectomy in our patients. The status of HBV and HCV infection in splenectomized patients should be closely monitored. The medical expenditure in Taiwan was much lower than that in western countries. We suggest that novel agents or more aggressive treatment strategies should be further explored or considered in Taiwan.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of product innovation on performance of printing SMEs in Kampala Central District Methodology: The study used the explanatory design. The study conducted a census on a target population of 125printing SMEs operating in Kampala Central district. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires that were self- administered to managers of printing SMEs. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS software program v 25.0 where both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were done. In particular, frequencies, percentages, mean scores, standard deviation and correlation analyses were used and the resultant presentation was done using figures and tables. Results: The study established that product innovation positively affected performance of printing SMEs. The study also revealed that use of graphic designs, digital printing and polymer sheets were among the major product innovations that were used which was represented by mean scores of 4.17, 3.95 and 3.81 respectively. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommends that printing firms should constantly endeavor to invest in different new product designs and improve on the existing products so as to attain a competitive advantage against competitors. For example, holographic and scratch off foils are some of the new products that firms can take advantage of. Holographic foil adds a thrilling effect that provides a high-tech look while scratch-off foil covers things that can be revealed by just a scratch creating an interactive print. Such products can bring more traffic and sales to the business as they are attractive and are perceived to have higher value. Additionally, the new products should be designed in a way that meets customer needs in the dynamic market environment.