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Schulz, Axel. "Intellectual Property Rights in Software : A Critical Investigation from an Ethical Perspective." Thesis, Linköping University, Centre for Applied Ethics, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-2434.
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The development of software was considered until the beginning of the 1990th as a cathedral like product development in closed companies. This way of development changed in the last decade. Open source software (OSS) development challenged this consideration significantly. OSS is produced in co-operation by skilled people, distributed and used by many moral agents. The result, the software itself, can be studied and modified. Herein is the main incentive for people to develop the software. In such a mode of production the freedom to access knowledge and information (=source code) is a necessity to produce the artifact (software).
Software is a digital entity. The main difference in comparison to natural resources like oil, land, minerals is that it can be used and reproduced without losses. It lacks the capacity of getting naturally scarce. Contemporary intellectual property rights assume implicitly that goods might getting scarce one day. Imbedded in the term intellectual property is also an idea of "fencing" objects. In this thesis I will argue that anartificial"encing"of digital objects might cause unintentional bad consequences for the society. An other quality intellectual property rights are claimed to have is that they serve as an incentive for inventors/authors to produce new inventions and ideas. The practice of OSS development works without such an incentive provided by intellectual property rights.
The moral conflict, which I attempt to unravel in this work deals with the question to what extend the application of intellectual property rights in software is necessary and how restrictive particular property rights in digital objects should be - if there should be any at all. Knowledge as the factor of production is of the same value in knowledge societies as land was for agrarian societies. The difference is in the mode of production and the un-limitless availability of digitalized knowledge. I argue that the"protection"of knowledge, and software is knowledge, has to be carefully revised in so called knowledge societies.
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Klemets, Emelie, Azra Blazevic, and Agevall Anna Svensson. "Internal Branding : Understanding Brand Values." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Ekonomihögskolan, ELNU, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-19242.
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Purpose- The purpose of the study was to investigate how employees perceive and understand their company brand values. The aim was to show the importance of internal branding when communicating brand values in an organization to employees. Design/methodology/approach- The methodology used in this research was a quantitative survey study. Three warehouses were chosen for the study, in Älmhult, Helsingborg and Malmö. The sample was 129 employees and questionnaires were handed out to them. The data from the questionnaires were analyzed in the data program SPSS. Findings- Result from the study shows that the employees have a good understanding and share a mutual perception about the brand values. Although the employees have good knowledge the study shows that they are not committed on a personal level to the brand values. Since internal branding is about implementing the brand values with the employees the result shows that the internal branding is not as embedded as it should be in the organization. Research limitations and implications- Due to the timeframe given, the research was a cross- sectional study. A suggestion for future research is to do a longitudinal design in order to see changes over time. A theoretical implication is given to the two concepts of brand citizenship behavior and brand commitment since the results in this research are different from other studies. For the managerial implications, the commitment to the brand should be taken into consideration in the internal branding process. Originality/ value- The value that this study brings is to the internal branding process by showing the lack of brand commitment even though the knowledge about the brand values are high.
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Anvar, Meysam Maleki. "Supply chain integration model: practices and customer values." Doctoral thesis, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/10688.
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Dissertation to obtain PhD in Industrial EngineeringIn order to increase partnership efficiency and truly meet the customers' demands, in today's business environment companies are operating in supply chains. Integration of supply chains facilitates minimizing diferent types of wastes and satisfying needs of the end customer. The first step toward supply chain integration is to understandand the customer values, and to reconfigure supply chain to support those values. The current research addresses supply chain integration through quantifying relations between supply chain practice and customer values. It employs Bayesian network and analytic network process as tools to quantify comparative relations among entities. The proposed approach starts with identifying trade-offs along customer values using Bayesian network. In parallel supply chain practices are comparatively analyzed through interviews with experts which is technically quantified using analytic network process. Thereafter, these two parallel phases join together to form a network of customer values and supply chain practices. The network is able to quantitatively identify relations among nodes; in addition, it can be used to plan scenarios and handle senstitivity analyses. This model is expected to be used by supply chain decision makers to have a quantitative measure for monitoring the influence of practices on preferences of the end customer. A survey and two case studies are discussed which go through aforementioned phases. The survey identifies and analyzes six customer values namely quality, cost, customization, time, know-how and respect for the environment. It makes input for the two cases which develop supply chain integration model for fashion and food industry. Supply chain practices are categorized into two groups of manufacturing and logistics practices. The two case studies include five manufacturing practices as cross functional operations, decrease work in process, implement standards, mixed production planning, and use recyclable materials as well as four logistics practices namely visibility to upstream /downstream inventories, information sharing with customer, implement logistics standards, and just in time.
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - (MIT Project: MIT-Pt/EDAM-IASC/0022/2008)
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Gracewski, Travis E. "Identifying internal best practices and propagating standard work." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61866.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-60).
Standard work is commonly used in manufacturing and assembly operations to minimize process variation by providing detailed instruction to operators. Internal best practices are processes within the firm that achieve a more beneficial result when compared to alternative existing methods. Standard work is one approach to share best practices, and the challenge is in identifying their existence and effectively capturing the information in written documentation. Best practices are often tacit in nature, being difficult to codify and to put into writing. Effectively finding internal best practices and transferring them from tacit to explicit form as standard work is a desirable objective, improving knowledge transfer and operational efficiency within the company. There are techniques that can be applied to the standard work development process that increase the likelihood of successful best practice capture and organizational adoption. These techniques are developed and implemented through application at Sikorsky Aircraft, in creating and deploying a system of standard work titled, the "Assembly and Flight Operations Franchise Book." Major process steps in developing and sustaining standard work include an initial planning phase characterized by an upfront analysis, organizational structuring, and content framework development; and a sustaining phase characterized by a repeating cycle of best practice discovery, documentation, and sharing.
by Travis E. Gracewski.
M.B.A.
S.M.
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Al, Mutawa Tariq I. M. S. "Adoption of internal performance values for measurement of customer satisfaction." Thesis, Brunel University, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.436485.
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Pascoe, Robert. "Measuring small values of internal optical mode loss in laser diodes." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2016. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/94006/.
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Improvements in fabrication processes have yielded a steady reduction in the Internal Optical Mode Loss, αᵢ , of semiconductor laser devices in recent decades. Hence, uncertainty in the determination of αᵢ (roughly ±1.0 cm⁻¹) has become insufficient. The aim of this work is to reduce the uncertainty within this method to ±0.1 cm⁻¹. The modulated multisection method - in which the absorbing length within a device is alternated rapidly compared with the timescales of systemic drift - was introduced to combat errors associated with such drifts in the standard method. Experimental data demonstrated that systemic drift correlates with substantial systematic errors and that these errors are made negligible by application of this modulated method. A systematic error - due to divergence within the waveguide of broad area devices - of 3.2 cm⁻¹ was identified and a method for its correction was developed. Error associated with injection efficiency of the multisection contact geometry was identified. This error is sufficiently small for drive currents greater than 22 mA at device temperatures of 300 Kelvin and greater. By characterising measurement precision, experimental conditions were established in which drift-associated error and imprecision were small with respect to the project uncertainty aim. In optimised conditions, repeated measurements of optical loss below the absorption edge had an associated average deviation of ±0.017 cm⁻¹. This low uncertainty was applied to a systematic investigation of optical loss spectra in an InP Quantum Dot device as a function of device temperature. The temperature dependence of αᵢ was characterised with an uncertainty (approximately ±0.05 cm⁻¹) that would be impossible using conventional methods. A feature with a peak magnitude of 0.2 cm⁻¹ was identifi�ed and associated with the occurrence of very large quantum dots. The improved uncertainty demonstrated in this project presents an opportunity for more detailed study of αᵢ .
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Deering, John Graham. "Attitudes, values, beliefs and practices in probation : continuity or change?" Thesis, Cardiff University, 2008. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/55801/.
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In recent decades theories of late modernity place the criminal justice system in a time of change and perceive amongst the general population growing levels of insecurity and intolerance of crime and offenders. Along with government policy and practice, these developments are seen as contributing to an increasingly punitive system that imprisons more than ever before and seeks to punish and manage offenders in the community, rather than to attempt their rehabilitation. For these reasons, along with a loss of faith in rehabilitation, the probation service is described by many as becoming a law enforcement agency, charged by government with the assessment and management of risk, the protection of the public and the management and punishment of offenders, rather than their transformation into pro-social citizens. This study seeks to discover the extent to which a sample of practitioners within the National Probation Service for England and Wales and the National Offender Management Service ascribe to the values, attitudes and beliefs associated with these macro and mezzo level changes and how much their practice has changed accordingly. It examines offender assessment, case management and supervision and the enforcement of community sentences and post-custody licences, concluding that whilst this group of practitioners do not reject these new approaches outright, they interpret them in ways that may be seen to differ somewhat from those of government, mainly around the aims and purposes of probation practice, the enforcement of orders and especially the invasive influence of managerialism. Based on these data, it would appear that successive governments have not succeeded in completely transforming the culture of the service, nor in recruiting and training a 'new breed' of technicians concerned only to manage and punish offenders and protect the public. As a result, 'real practice' may not be developing in quite the way intended by government and may have more links to 'traditional' modes of practice than has sometimes been assumed.
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Brodbeck, Heinz [Verfasser]. "Values in Internal Marketing : Living the Brand in Sustainable Banking / Heinz Brodbeck." Baden-Baden : Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2013. http://d-nb.info/1108819362/34.
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Goldberg, Rachel Miriam. "How our values shape our practices exploding the myth of neutrality /." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/syr/main.
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Lucas, Sandy. "Walking Two Worlds: Integrating Lumbee Indian Values and Practices in Education." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193899.
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This study investigates how Lumbee values and practices are integrated in a formal schooling system. A qualitative study was conducted to determine how Lumbee school administrators experience their work, and how Lumbee values and practices are integrated in formal education, and what they thought these values and practices were. The main instruments used to collect data were in-depth interviews and a survey designed by the researcher. The data was collected in Pembroke, North Carolina at the School District's Indian Education Office during 2004 and 2005.The four participants in the study are all Lumbee education administrators, employed with a school district in southeastern North Carolina. Ironically, all four administrators received their undergraduate degrees from the tribe's university, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, UNCP. The research study focused on the Lumbee tribe, the largest tribe east of the Mississippi river, which has organized the largest Indian education program of any public school district in the United States, with approximately 11,500 Indian students.This is the researcher's personal synthesis of stories and "shared metaphors" that Lumbee Indians hold in common with regard to Tribal education and Indigenous education. This research examines the creative possibilities inherent in the introduction of an Indigenous frame of reference toward the development of a contemporary philosophy of American Indian education. Also, this study explores a "culturally-informed alternative" in education that advocates the development of a contemporary community-based education process, which is founded upon traditional Tribal values, orientations, and principles, but simultaneously utilizes the most appropriate concepts and technologies of modern education. This study offers a creative option for thinking about the evolving expressions of American Indian values and the education of Native American students as they attempt to walk in two worlds, their own and the Non Native.
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Younis, Khalid M. "The impact of moral values on ethical practices in environmental management." Thesis, University of Phoenix, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3583330.
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The Harbormaster Command and Control Center (HCCC) project provides mobile platforms intended to control harbor operations. The main component of the HCCC is a double-expandable shelter mounted on a 5 ton military flatbed truck. Kentucky Trailer Corporation manufactured a baseline shelter using standard materials (aluminum, steel, plywood, etc.) and also considered alternate designs using composite materials (carbon fiber laminates, glass fiber laminates, composite sandwich configurations, etc.).
Two faculty members and several graduate students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Louisville participated in this effort, primarily in terms of material selection, structural analysis, and design approaches. This thesis presents one portion of that work. This consists of a finite element model (FEM) of the HCCC using standard materials. This model was constructed to match the design proposed and later built and delivered by Kentucky Trailer. The thesis also presents two structural analysis simulations performed using the HCCC FEM.
The HCCC FEM was built using ANSY Mechanical APDL. This software utilizes text-based “input files” to build, analyze and post-process the HCCC FEM entirely without user assistance. The author generated these input files to create the HCCC FEM structure using 3D beam elements, layered shell elements, and point mass elements. This approach represented a simplification to eliminate the need for more computationally intensive 3D solid elements; it also provides a simpler approach for changing the model as design changes occur. For example, the thickness of an aluminum plate in the HCCC FEM model is represented as a number that can be easily changed; for a 3D solid element model, revisions would involve changing solid model entities such as volumes and areas followed by remeshing. This is feasible in a small model but impractical in a large complex model such as the HCCC FEM.
The HCCC FEM is constructed in a modular manner, with different models representing the roof, sides, rear and front, floor and both expandable sections. These various submodels are joined together using constraint equations to cause identical displacements and rotations along common boundaries between models. This also permitted scenarios such as analysis with the expandables retracted or expanded. Contact elements are used to simulate support of the HCCC FEM along is bottom by a rigid boundary simulating the truck bed carrying the HCCC. The HCCC FEM is a nonlinear model due to both the contact elements and the ability to solve in cases of arbitrarily large displacement needed for dynamic analysis.
Two analyses using the HCCC FEM are presented. The first is a static analysis under various constant inertial (acceleration) loads to demonstrate that the structure is worthy for air transport using a C-17 aircraft. The second is a dynamic analysis simulating the structural response during a rail impact; this occurs when the HCCC is mounted on a rail car which then collides with another rail car. Both analyses were beneficial in demonstrating that the HCCC design performs sufficiently well in service.
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Stump, Carrie Anne. "Communicating relational values in organizational practices: A study of workplace discourse." Connect to online resource, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1460194.
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Lee, Stacy Hyun-Nam. "Exploring Sustainability VALS: Sustainability Value, Lifestyle Practices and Stewardship." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2011. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc103352/.
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Living sustainability is a set of behaviors for the long-term functioning of society. Sustainability VALS provides the clothing and textiles industry distinctive insight into comprehending the phenomenon through the application of the appropriate theoretical platform. The objectives are to identify the dimensionality of sustainability value, sustainability practices and sustainability stewardship in consumers’ perceptive, and to examine the impacts of sustainability value and stewardship on sustainability practices. Analyzing data (n = 239) from a southwestern university reveals the critical dimensions of sustainability lifestyle practices, sustainability value and sustainability stewardship. 62 out of 64 hypotheses were confirmed the significant impacts of sustainability values and stewardship on sustainability lifestyle practices. The findings revealed that the altruistic, openness to change, anthropocentrism, and ecocentrism values are influential sustainability values affecting on sustainability lifestyle practices. Given the theoretical perspective of sustainability VALS, sustainability stewardships can facilitate the holistic idea to incur consumer’s sustainability lifestyle practices.
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Axelsson, Markus, and Yasha Åkesson. "The internal brand implementation : a study about which factors that affect the internal brand within organizations." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för marknadsföring (MF), 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-34859.
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Research Questions: Which factors affect the internal brand implementation? Which factors regarding the perception of internal branding are shared and differ between two geographical locations within an organization? Purpose: The aim of this study is to mark and analyze internal factors within an organization in order to get an understanding of how there can sustain and develop the internal brand. Further, the purpose is to describe and analyze the differences in how aspects of internal branding are perceived by two geographical locations. Method: The study has primarily a quantitative research method and a deductive approach where the results from the collected data was analyzed through various tests in the statistic program SPSS. Conclusions: Through various analysis methods, the authors were able to find out which factors that had the strongest effect on internal branding. The conclusion further on reveals that there are two specific factors with a positive effect on the internal branding implementation as a whole. These factors consist of internal marketing and internal communication. Lastly the results also culminate in the shared and divergent perceptions of internal branding among employees within an organization.
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Hay, Aletha Adell. "The mediating influence of internal accountability systems on teachers' assessment practices." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/29219.
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This collective case study explores the nature of internal accountability systems in two elementary schools situated within a provincial-level accountability agenda using large-scale performance testing to ensure both school accountability and professional learning. The purpose of this mixed model study was threefold: first, to explore the components and strength of internal accountability systems and the interactive dynamics with the external system; second, to identify key environmental factors that impacted the school-based systems; and third, to reveal the influence these internal forums had on teachers' assessment practices. Multiple theoretical lenses informed the conceptual framework used to analyze the policy to practice connections in the restructuring educational system.
The study findings reveal several observations. First, internal accountability systems should possess five components including aims, information on school performance, a standard of achievement, person(s) who judge school performance, and mechanisms to guide and monitor teachers' practices. The presence of all five components suggests that strong internal accountability systems were in place in the two schools. Second, two environmental factors impacting these systems were large-scale performance tests and professional leadership. There is indication that the design of the testing program minimized unintended negative effects linked with public reports and that school leadership was instrumental in mobilizing support for school improvement and professional learning. Third, the study also describes the relationship between the internal and external systems nested within the province's standards-based reform initiative. The findings unpack the compatibility between the instruments and strategies of the school-level systems and those of the state-level system, lending support for the proposition that external oversight contributes to school-based ownership for proactive change. Finally, the study findings illuminate how internal accountability systems mediated teachers' practices and supported the development of collegial assessment practices. The findings lend support for the position that the dual aims of accountability and professional learning are enabled when internal accountability systems are facilitated by a professionally oriented external policy environment.
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Guan, Shanshan. "Social enterprise working with internal migrant children in China : values, challenges and constraints." Thesis, University of York, 2017. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/18392/.
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This is an exploratory research study which examines the role of social enterprise in delivering services to children who migrate within China. Under the current Hukou policy framework, migrant children face a variety of challenges due to differences in the level and accessibility of welfare support available for migrant people and migrant children. Social enterprise, as one form of non-institutional welfare service provision, has become an increasingly important vehicle for addressing a variety of social problems. However, very little empirical research has been conducted regarding the contributions and constraints of these social enterprises, especially social enterprises working with internal migrant children in China. In this study, an ethnographic approach was employed to examine the nature of social enterprises working with migrant children. Two community-based social enterprises which aimed to promote social inclusion and improve unmet child well-being by providing community centre services were intensively studied. The researcher was immersed in each social enterprise for six weeks. Data from these observations were triangulated with data from interviews, focus group meetings and document analysis. The key finding of this thesis is twofold. First, it developed a multi-layered social enterprise ecosystem to explain the operation of social enterprises by looking at the macro-, meso- and micro-level environments and at the stakeholders who operate within the different layers. This framework highlights the constraints of the institutional context in China and the powerlessness of the researched community-based social enterprises to respond to the uncertain policy environment. The researched social enterprises had limited ability to respond to the substantial challenges of migrant children, but even so they each made a great contribution to migrant children’s subjective well-being. Second, the findings highlight the crucial role of the co-production process during the identification of needs and the development of an appropriate service. By looking at their daily practice, it was also possible to discuss the ‘need-driven’ mission drift, which had not been considered in previous studies. The conclusion of this study is that the social enterprise approach is an emerging mechanism for supporting migrant children but that social enterprises have great space for improving their operations.
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Hollows, Victoria Linden Claire. "Trust in the Museum : aligning the internal and external values of the organisation." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/40638.
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Little is known about the impact of undertaking social justice work on museums and their staff. The consideration of staff is central to my research, as current scholarship positions social justice in museums as an outward-facing concern, something to be done with communities ‘out there’ rather than ‘in here’. Museums are social places and catalysts for interaction with other humans across time and space and culture. The research therefore critiques the ethics of, and the value we place on, relationships with ourselves as well as our communities, and whether we recognise staff as a community. If not, this thesis argues that we diminish trust in the museum. Using the frame of critical community practice, the thesis explores how social justice values intersect between organisational and staff group constructs, and the individuals that comprise them, and their connection to trust as a critically conscious practice. The thesis encompasses many elements of key change management theories, and attributes of the learning organisation, within a social justice frame. In the museum specific context of this research, citizens and communities are conceived as employees and organisations. Is trust actively and consciously considered as a workplace practice, and do we fully understand the role trust has in organisational learning to support social change? The research examines the lived experiences of practitioners in two organisations: St Fagans at National Museums Wales and the Social Enterprise Academy, Scotland. The qualitative research is supported by a background survey identifying differences in how values are perceived across organisations. The research contributes an understanding of the collective actions that foreground people, human qualities and behaviours across internal and external relationships. Its findings endorse the concept of systems thinking, enabling museums to actively work with staff as a community and so build trust in the museum.
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Blackman, Alan John, and n/a. "Entrepreneurs: Interrelationships Between Their Characteristics, Values, Expectations, Management Practices and SME Performance." Griffith University. School of Marketing and Management, 2004. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20040615.154732.
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This original research seeks to identify unique predictive relationships between the characteristics, values and expectations of entrepreneurs in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the management practices they choose; and then, the relationships between those practices and business performance. It adds to the current understanding of the impact of entrepreneurs on the performance of their businesses and has also led to the development of two new tools for assessing the performance of SMEs. Growth of the SME sector is important to the public policy agendas of governments, like those in Australia, that are seeking to optimise the employment opportunities associated with an SME sector in which "success" is the norm because SME failure, or underperformance, is associated with many social costs; costs that include reduced earnings for proprietors, potential job loss for staff and financial hardship for suppliers, as well as a reduction in the average per capita spending power of the community in which the failed or under performing business is based. For the SME, business strategy development and implementation is often the role of the entrepreneur owner-manager. The characteristics, values and expectations of entrepreneurs in SMEs may thus influence their choice of management practices and thereby the performance of their businesses. As Cooper (1998) argued: "the primary motivations of the entrepreneur bear upon not only the decision to start but also upon the decisions about how to manage, including whether or not to grow the firm aggressively" (p. 247). Johnson (1990) suggested that there is a strong need to focus future research on the motivation mechanisms of entrepreneurs as drivers of the entrepreneurial process. Johnson's view supports the entrepreneurial trait school of thought that development of an understanding of the individual entrepreneur's characteristics, values and expectations might provide worthwhile insight into her or his behaviour and its relationship to SME success and failure. The purposes of this research, therefore, were, first, to determine the importance of the attributed and attained characteristics of the entrepreneur on the formation of his or her values and expectations; second, to determine the influence of those values and expectations on the choice of management practices; third, to determine the degree to which those management practices influence business performance; and last, to develop a scale of measurement for entrepreneur characteristics, values and expectations that can be used to predict business performance. To enable limited comparison with Kotey's and Meredith's (1997) findings and to control for between industry and between state influences, the chosen context for the research was the furniture industry in Queensland. To add to current knowledge in SME management practices and performance, two new measurement tools were developed for this research. The first quantifies the positiveness of the business intentions of the entrepreneur. The second is a scaled index of perceived performance that takes account of the importance given by an entrepreneur to eight common business objectives and the degree to which he or she is satisfied with the performance of the business for each objective. Both tools are important additions to the limited existing armoury of tools available to researchers seeking to understand and predict SME performance. For the first time, the findings of this research indicate negative relationships between parent occupation skill levels and the importance given by entrepreneurs to the values of responsibility, honesty and competence and the negative role of the entrepreneur's achieved highest qualification on the importance given to values of affection, compassion, religion and national security. The findings thereby highlight the important role played by an entrepreneur's attained characteristics on the formation of his or her values. As well, the results show the important role played by values such as power and responsibility, as well as by high internal locus of control, on an entrepreneur's selection of planning, marketing and future management practices. In turn, the impact of those practices on business performance, as measured by the overall satisfaction of the entrepreneur and the newly created Scaled Index of Perceived Performance, is demonstrated. In so doing, the results shed more light on the complex relationships between entrepreneurs, the management practices they choose, and business performance. For the furniture industry in Queensland, the findings confirm Cooper's (1998) view that there is an empirical relationship between business founding processes and the performance of the business. Also supported is Kotey's and Meredith's (1997) broad finding for the furniture industry in New South Wales that "personal values of owner/managers, the strategies they adopt in operating their firms, and the performance outcomes of their businesses are empirically related" (1997, p. 59). Future research is needed to develop a causal model for those relationships in a variety of SME and other contexts.
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Mueller, Tadzio. "Other worlds, other values : alternative value practices in the European anticapitalist movement." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.436234.
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Mato, Veiga Javier. "The Spanish media and the Internet : new practices built on traditional values." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/45914/.
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This research explores the convergence of journalism, an influential and well established profession, and the Internet, a technology that alters the communication experience. It focuses on how the Net and its associated practices intersects with deep rooted journalistic cultures; asking how this collision affects traditional values, how it influences new practices appearing in newsrooms, how the involved agents re-define their roles and how new media logics are emerging from this contact. This investigation has been developed through the prism of Bourdieu's theory of practice, which considers the journalistic profession as a field, where there are shared values, practices and routines, a sense of a group, a common identity, built on each actor's daily experiences. The latter, accumulated as a bodily habitus, operates in relation to the environment. The ethnography, a tool reckoned as well suited to capture and describe behaviours in newsrooms, is the methodology employed in this work, which combines participant observation and interviews. The studied media are four Spanish journalistic institutions; Diario de Mallorca, a regional print paper; Efe, a news agency, El País and El Mundo, the two biggest national newspapers and its online sites. This thesis argues that, in the negotiation of their adapted new role, journalists tend to align themselves with their traditional values and habitus. Well aware of the Internet related trends, they claim to keep an open mind to technological features, while filtering them through the sieve of their most cherished tenets. They see the gatekeeping role of journalism –as a profession with particular values– as something that can help save the public sphere from powerful and biased agents; the identification of sources and traceability of stories to guarantee its trustfulness, framing news in wider scenarios or a declared attachment to 'the truth' –all of these ‘news values' and the practical activities designed to underpin them shape their professional ideology. Negotiating new media, and taking a view on journalistic transformation, they mostly stick to what they do not see as nostalgia (an attachment to values now rendered redundant in a new media environment), but as values related with, and indeed helping to enable, democracy, fairness, equality and a healthy public sphere.
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Blackford, Jennifer Louise. "Increasing Collaboration, Shared Values, and Authentic Teaching Practices Through Technological Professional Development." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5828.
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The purpose of this outcome-based program evaluation project study was to investigate how professional development (PD) influenced the shared values of 25 district teachers regarding instructional technology and their collaboration and instructional practices using instructional technology. Inclusion criteria included (a) participants had to be 18 years or older and (b) participants had to be a certified teacher. Guided by Mishra and Koehler's TPACK theory and Guskey's model for PD evaluation, the research was designed to determine (a) how teachers demonstrate collaboration using instructional technology as a result of PD, (b) what shared values teachers have adopted regarding instructional technology as a result of PD, and (c) how the authentic teaching practices of participants have changed because of the technology PD. Data were collected through Likert surveys, interviews, and classroom observations. Data analysis included descriptive statistics for the quantitative portion, and identification of emerging themes for the qualitative portion. The results reflected ways technology is being implemented into instructional strategies. The implication of this study for social change includes support for including collaboration and shared values in professional development to improve instructional strategies incorporating technology, which can lead to improved learning environments. Teachers and the school can benefit by having the knowledge of how technology and PD provided by the OETT grant enhanced instruction. Social changes that may occur due to the findings of this study include the school gaining a better understanding of the influence of technology in instruction on student learning and identifying tools that potentially increased teacher uses of the technologies purchased as well as teacher application of the knowledge gained in the PD provided through the grant.
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Vétillart, Guillaume. "Creativity & Leadership : The introduction of creative internal communication practices in organizations." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för organisation och entreprenörskap (OE), 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-38654.
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This thesis investigates the impacts of introducing creative experiences in a rigid organization. Based on the methodology suggested by Strauss and Corbin (1998) I have conducted a qualitative study through 8 semi-structured interviews of heterogeneous profiles in an organization where I worked for two years as an apprentice. Specific creative experiences were introduced in order to improve the internal communication, facilitate an organizational change transition and sustain a better social climate. I aimed at understanding the impacts resulting from experiencing such activities both at an individual and organizational level. My findings reveal three positive categories (well-being, corporate affiliation and organizational change facilitation) and three negative categories (individual irritations and a lack of coherence with the corporate identity). I conclude my work with the possible reasons justifying unexpected negative results, stating that trustworthy leadership and the corporate culture are essential when introducing such collaborative activities. My thesis might contribute to the discussions of creative problem solving for the sake of communication and values-added resulting from creative interventions in organizations.
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Huang, Jing. "Second generation internal immigrants' bilingual practices and identity construction in Guangzhou, China." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2018. http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/125702/.
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Since China’s Economic Reform in 1978, there has been huge internal population mobility. The setting of this research, Guangzhou, is one of the cities that host the largest number of immigrants, and the dominant local speech, Cantonese, is unintelligible to immigrants who speak other language varieties, including China’s official language Putonghua. Since 2010 debates have arisen on the relationship between the state language policy of Putonghua Promotion which has been launched and implemented for sixty years and the narrower space for Cantonese use. A major discourse employed in the debates is concerned with immigrants associated with a Putonghua identity as a threat to Cantonese. There is little research on how the interaction between local language beliefs and the state language ideologies underlying Putonghua Promotion may influence immigrants’ life experiences and identities. This study investigates second generation immigrants’ bilingual practices and identity construction in individual and small-group interviews conducted in restaurants or cafes. I drew on critical discourse studies (Reisigl and Wodak, 2016) to examine participants’ use of discursive strategies in narratives of language-use-related life stories to construct social identities. I also use a framework integrating a sequential approach to conversation analysis (Auer, 1995) and membership categorisation analysis (Sacks, 1986b) to explore the role of code choices in accomplishing linguistic identities in interview conversations and naturally occurring service encounters. Adopting Jenkins’s (2008) notion of internal-external dialectics of identification, I found that immigrant participants’ identities can be understood as constantly negotiating categories imposed or assigned by others and managing diverse self-identifications in interactions. They resisted, challenged or re-defined an imposed derogatory category, laau, which was connected to their use of Putonghua in schools, workplaces, and other situations and to discrimination against them. They claimed their competence in using Cantonese for the negotiation of the categorization. They aligned with hybrid and complex social groups, and celebrated the seemingly contradictory but unique self-identifications. Meanwhile, they used Cantonese to align themselves with Cantonese speakers and distanced themselves from Putonghua speakers in group interview conversations, while in individual interviews they used Putonghua to highlight the most important information and Cantonese was used for less important topics. And in service encounters they used code-switching for ‘doing being’ Cantonese speakers or bilinguals. The discourse analysis and conversation analysis show the consistency in their assigning value to Cantonese as well as acknowledging the prestigious status and the practicality of Putonghua. In summary, this thesis is a contribution to studies of bilingualism and de facto language policies in urban China. It reveals that individuals and social groups of a language community can negotiate the Putonghua Policy through imposing the use of Cantonese and Cantonese-related categories to others in mundane talk and institutional interactions. It also contributes to studies of China’s internal immigrants in terms of exploring how immigrants’ life experiences are affected by conflicting language ideologies, and how immigrants can employ bilingual repertoires to negotiate problematic but taken-for-granted discrimination and manage to be at ease with their unique self-identifications.
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Bostander, D. E. "Operational risk events in banks and practices for collecting internal loss data." Thesis, University of South Africa, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/137.
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This research study had two distinct objectives. The first objective was to determine in which areas in South African banks the most severe operational risk losses are likely to occur (based on the Basel II seven loss event types and eight business lines). Severity was assessed based on single operational risk events that might have significant monetary values attached to them. The likely frequency of single operational risk events was also assessed.
The investigation of the aforementioned research problem was explorative and quantitative of nature, as the researcher made extensive use of survey research in the form of a questionnaire to all registered banks.
The second part of the research study’s objective was to assess the range of practices in collecting internal loss data for operational risk purposes as required by Basel II. This part was approached from a qualitative perspective, by benchmarking the research findings against the Basel II text, the researcher’s experience in risk management in banks, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s Sound Practices for the Management and Supervision of Operational Risk, and related literature.
The literature review, including reference to certain surveys and studies, focuses on the main concepts of operational risk within banks that are pertinent to the research problem. The literature review also includes several references to the Basel II text and other relevant publications and papers issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
The research results revealed that respondents in South African banks believed that ‘business disruption and system failures’ is the loss event type that is likely to result in the most severe single operational risk loss. ‘Trading and sales’ scored the same high average rating as ‘business disruption and system failures’ as the business line where the most severe single operational risk loss is likely to occur in South African banks.
‘External fraud’ and ‘execution, delivery and process management’ scored the highest average ratings as the loss event types where the most frequent operational risk losses are likely to occur. Respondents indicated that ‘retail banking’ is the business line where the most frequent single operational risk losses are likely to occur in South African banks. Based on the above-mentioned findings the researcher recommends that these high-risk areas be highlighted to the Bank Supervision Department of the South African Reserve Bank, the boards of directors and senior management of banks in order for them to strengthen banks’ internal controls.
The researcher recommends the inclusion of near misses and opportunity cost in operational risk loss databases. Banks should at least capture the date of the discovery of an operational risk event as this represents acceptable practice among the majority of banks. Operational risk losses should be assigned to the multiple business activities in which it occurred on a pro-rata basis. All recoveries of operational risk losses should be processed separately, but associated with the original loss event. Replacement cost is seen as the most appropriate way to capture gross loss amounts for the damage to fixed assets. The researcher encourages the recording of overtime cost for fixing systems failures. Market risk losses due to operational risk events should be treated as market risk losses, while loan-related losses due to operational risk failures should be treated as credit risk losses by banks.
The researcher’s view is that banks should set different thresholds for the collection of operational risk losses for its various business units based on each business unit’s operations and nature of business. Banks should, as a starting point, map operational risk events to the Basel II 8x7 matrix. Operational risk losses should be assessed by both legal entity and on a consolidated basis.
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Wang, Chen-Yun. "What Parents Value Matters: Examining the Association Between Cultural Values, Parenting Styles/Practices, and Child Outcomes." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2019. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/8591.
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Researchers have identified significant relationships between parenting styles and child outcomes. However, these associations might vary in different cultures because parenting behaviors could link to cultural values. Additionally, understanding the cultural values of parents would help researchers better understand the reasons of parents’ behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between parental Asian values, parenting styles, parenting practices, and child outcomes. Parents of preschool-age children (N = 273) from Taiwan completed a series of parenting values and parenting behaviors questionnaires. Teachers rated child prosocial behaviors, modesty, sociability, and impulse control. Results revealed that some domains of parents’ cultural values were associated with parenting behaviors, and in turn, associated with child outcomes. Maternal and paternal effects varied. These findings suggest that researchers or practitioners should not simply assume the relationship between certain parenting behaviors and child outcomes are the same across cultures.
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Alsahlawi, Abdulaziz. "Risk management practices in Saudi listed companies : an institutional perspective." Thesis, University of Dundee, 2014. https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/6fe4be50-2a5a-4b79-bf91-451ca20a3dca.
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This thesis uses a new institutional sociology perspective to examine financial risk management practices adopted by Saudi listed companies and identify the factors that influence these practices. In Islamic shariah law, using conventional derivatives is prohibited and so this thesis aims to determine if there is an institutional logic within the organisational field and a community of practice that results from networks of actors. The study also, examines the effect of different types of coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphic pressures on the adoption of risk management practices by Saudi listed companies. For this purpose, two pieces of empirical work are employed, (i) semi- structured interviews; and (ii) statistical tests. The interviews were held with 22 treasury managers of Saudi listed companies in 2011 to explore their perspectives of financial risk management practices. The second empirical work uses binary logistic regression to test the factors that might affect the adoption of financial risk management practices of 132 listed companies using publicly available data in 2011. Most of the previous studies relating to financial risk management practices have been undertaken in developing countries Therefore, there is a need to expand the scope of existing research by investigating such practices in Islamic countries to test the relevance of existing theory there and to enrich the risk financial management literature. This thesis investigate 12 factors: (the influence of political factors, cultural factors, and the competitive environment in Saudi society as well as nine institutional characteristics, comprising: firm size; profitability; leverage; being an Islamic company; auditor type; industrial sector; ownership structure; number of subsidiaries and exports) to identify to what extent they affect the financial risk management practices in the organisational field. The main findings indicate that Saudi listed companies hedge more interest rate risk than other financial risks, using conventional derivatives contracts which are prohibited in Islam. This finding is surprising in a country such as Saudi Arabia that is regulated and dominated by Shariah law. The political, cultural and competitive environments also affect the financial risk management practices in the organisational field. In addition, firm size in Saudi Arabia is related to interest rate risk and foreign exchange rate risk; also more leveraged companies and companies audited by Big-4 firms hedge interest rate risk. In addition, Islamic companies depend on Islamic derivatives that are available to hedge financial risk. Furthermore, the profitability of companies, industrial sector and their ownership structure has little influence on the risk management practices in Saudi listed companies. Finally, having subsidiaries and exports also affects hedging practices. It seems that actors are involved in similar networks and that considerable boundary-spanning takes place across these networks especially by treasury managers. This results in several different communities of practice with different organisational logics.
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Johansson-Fua, Seu'ula Falelalava. "Values and leadership practices of secondary school principals in the Kingdom of Tonga." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ58713.pdf.
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Bäckström, Ingela. "Quality management for sustainable health : methodologies, values and practices taken from Swedish organizations /." Luleå : Luleå University of Technology, 2006. http://epubl.ltu.se/1402-1757/2006/49/LTU-LIC-0649-SE.pdf.
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Warner-Soderholm, Gillian. "Understanding Perceptions of Cultural and Intracultural Societal Practices and Values of Norwegian Managers." Thesis, University of Reading, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.528227.
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Harps-Logan, Yvette. "Clothing values and clothing buying practices of black and white middle income women." Diss., Virginia Tech, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/39907.
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The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in clothing values between Black and White middle-income women patronizing the primary and second-order markets, and to determine if there were differences in the clothing buying practices between these groups in the two markets. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a purposive sample of 250 Black and White women residing in three metropolitan areas. The clothing values measured were economic, political, religious, and conformity. Eighteen clothing buying practices were included in this study. N1ne practices were speclfical1y directed toward the second-order market shoppers. Variations were found in the rank order of clothing values within the two groups. Blacks ranked the religious value higher and conform1ty lower than the Whites.
Blacks scored higher on the economic and re1igous clothing values while Whites scored higher on conformity.
Significant differences between Black and White middle-income women in their clothing buying practices were found in: (1) the method used to acquire the majority of clothing; (2) the percentage of personal clothing items purchased in primary stores; and (3) buying pattern for a dress costing more than $50.00.
Significant differences between Black and White middle-income women who used the second-order market were found in: (1) length of time respondents had purchased used-clothing; (2) satisfaction with price when making used-clothing purchases; (3) shopping the Salvation Army, Goodwill, and thrift stores; purchasing of (4) pants; and buying used-clothing to wear for (5) work and (6) school.
Middle-income women who used the primary market exclusively scored higher on the conformity clothing value than did those who used the second-order market.
Black consumers who used the second-order market held higher religious clothing values and lower conformity values than did the White women.Ph. D.
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Bäckström, Ingela. "Quality management for sustainable health: methodologies, values and practices taken from Swedish organizations." Licentiate thesis, Luleå tekniska universitet, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-26632.
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In many Western countries today, not least in Sweden, there are a lot of organizations that have great problems with sickness absence. The costs connected to the high rates of sickness absence have also risen to alarming levels. Healthy co-workers and healthy organizations are obvious goals for many leaders, but this is not always so easy to establish. Work practices and leadership that are beneficial to co-worker health are thus vital to identify. Studies have shown relationships between company-wide implementation of quality programs and improved co-worker satisfaction along with low co-worker turn over; in other words, co-worker health along with improved customer satisfaction and financial results. Despite the great problems concerning sickness absence, there are organizations that have been awarded prizes for excellence in leadership, internal partnership, working environment, and profitability. The overall purposes of the research described in this thesis are to examine and describe how management and leadership can establish sustainable health among the co-workers and examine how the leadership for sustainable health is related to Quality Management. The in-depth purpose is to examine which aspects within the values derived from the quality movement are those that primarily influence the co-workers' perceived health. The results presented can be described in three parts and are results from four case studies carried out in five different organizations. Three of the organizations have received awards for establishing good working environment, good financial results, and low sick leaves among their co- workers; the fourth received an award for the successful implementation of quality programs. The first part consists of results from case studies in three different organizations and describes how organizations can work to achieve sustainable health among their co-workers, with practical examples. The results are methodologies, values and organizational structure, which it is considered possible for other organizations to adopt in their efforts to achieve good working conditions resulting in fewer sick leaves. The second part is an attempt to investigate if leadership for sustainable health is related to Quality Management. Methodologies, leadership values, organizational structure, and general values found in organizations which have achieved sustainable health are analyzed in the light of Deming's 14 points, and a correlation is indicated. There is also correlation found between the TQM values and the co-workers' perception of their health. The third part examines which of the aspects within the values grown from the quality movement are those that influence the co-workers perceived health. The results show significant correlation between the values and the co-workers' perception of their health. Aspects found within the value "Top management commitment" were named; Empathy, Presence and Communication, Integrity, and Continuity. Within the value "Let everybody be committed" the aspects; Development, Influence and Being informed were found. These aspects are described in more detail and also in one model per value. The result implies that the TQM values; "Top management commitment", "Improve continuously" "Let everybody be Committed" and "Focus on customers" are important for achieving healthy organizations and sustainable health among co-workers.Godkänd; 2006; 20061206 (pafi)
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Barnes, Jon I. "Wildlife economics : a study of direct use values in Botswana's wildlife sector." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.287216.
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Passos, Maria Carolina Mello. "Understanding the Belief Systems behind Software Engineering Practices: Studies on Evidence-Based Practices in an Industrial Setting." Instituto de Matemática, 2014. http://repositorio.ufba.br/ri/handle/ri/22825.
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Many theories in health care and business administration seek answers to the fundamental question of why people behave the way they do. They aim to understand the beliefs underlying an intention or behavior. These theories are currently used to find out how people progress from intention to practice in business environments. In this dissertation, we focus our attention on understanding belief systems behind software engineering practice. Our work aims to characterize a belief system applying behavioral theories in software project teams in terms of the influence factors, such as beliefs, attitude, organizational culture and values, subjective norms, team confidence and autonomy, that actually impact on software practices in industrial settings. Our research went through two cycles, comprising three years of study in Brazilian software companies. A long-term ethnographic case study was conducted, employing participant observation, interviews, and document analysis. A set of interviews on origins and impacts of beliefs was performed with professionals from different project teams and companies. Conceptual frameworks were built based on behavioral theories models to focus and bound the collection of data and guide the synthesis of the results on the research questions posed. The results showed the strong influence of past experiences and organizational contexts on the software development practices of project teams. Based on the findings of the research, it became clear that beliefs alone do not lead project teams to action and behavior. Factors such as attitude toward behavior have a significant influence on practice. New information about something contribute to shape an opinion or predisposition to act and have the potential to affect the attitude depending on the strength of related beliefs, which leads to behavior intention. Another important issue is how consonant are the beliefs of a project team. Common strong beliefs are reflected into practices that project teams actually adopt. However there are beliefs without attitude that do not result in action, as well as team conflicts that hinder the adoption of new practices. All these findings motivated a search for behavioral theories that could explain and conceptualize human behavior. The study showed that it is possible to characterize belief systems in software project contexts within a behavioral perspective. We were able to provide rich narrative accounts for software engineering research and our approach has led to practical and useful recommendations for companies. The main contribution of this dissertation is to deepen relevant knowledge and experience on the characterization of beliefs in organizational contexts and how they and other influence factors actually impact practices, processes and decisions in software industry projects.
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Beidas, Manal Yassin. "Can adherence to religious teachings, principles, values, and traditions affect HRM practices? : HRM practices in Saudi Arabia as a case study." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/9925.
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In its search for the sources of “ethics from within”, this thesis concurs with many researchers who believe that religions, or any belief systems, are the main sources of ethics, which found their way into the work place, and are still greatly affecting the cultures and economies of today’s world. The research aimed at discussing how religious principles, values and traditions have had, and will always have, a great impact on the ethics of the work place, provided that a certain level of adherence is observed. Culture, religion and economy are tied up in an inseparable matrix that has always been called upon whenever an answer to a problem is sought. The unique impact and influence that the belief of a Divine Omni-power exerts upon cultures and economies are unlike any other forces of change, leadership or otherwise. The research argues that its uniqueness lies in the fact that religious conviction is a power that stems from within people, and would need occasional stimulation rather than external supervision to produce a “self-monitoring” employee. The research is structured to zoom in from general idea towards a deeper analysis of a chosen case study. Chapter One discussed how culture and religion are interwoven notions that cannot be separated in any discussion of social characteristics, group behaviour, and national identity. Chapter Two investigated potential, relationships between economy and religion within the understanding that the sciences of economy and management cannot alone explain every aspect of human behaviour. Chapter Three attempted to answer whether ethics and morality rest on religion or not, and if so, how much influence do religions cast on the evolution of ethics and codes of proper conduct. Chapter Four took a closer look at professionalism - as a source of today’s ethics and work values - and its effect on the moral life of societies, aiming at exploring the role of ethical norms in the institutional life, and the way the structure and norms affect individuals and entire nations. Chapter Five shed more light on the necessity and importance of concepts like “Unsupervised Honesty”, “Quality from Within”, “Self- Discipline”, “Man as God’s Vicegerent”, and “Self-Appraisal” as driving forces behind “good” performance and as powerful regulators of human behaviour. Chapter Six discusses the methodology used in this study to attain quality data to support the research. Chapter Seven presents the results of the analysis of the quantitative and quantitative data gathered in the city of Jeddah, the international business centre of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where major businesses established their headquarters, where the desired sample types existed, and where international HRM practices are observed. Chapter Eight presents the qualitative data selected from interviews with professional from the educational and business sectors. It also contains the opinions of specialised HR specialists. The aim of this chapter is to gather some point of views regarding the concept of Unsupervised Honesty, direct and indirect supervision, and religion as a regulator for human behaviour. The thesis concluded that Western HRM practices should be modified and adapted to the national context in which it operates, and that time-old religious tradition must be promoted and admitted to the work place in congruence with the newly adopted Western HRM practices. The concept of Unsupervised Honesty represents a general agreement among professionals. Most respondents confirmed that religion is a major source of ethics, while others supported the Unsupervised Honesty concept, but did not necessarily attribute it fully to religion, rather to morality and professional ethics. All managerial levels agreed that the self-monitoring employee is the ultimately sought personnel, regardless of their source of ethics and moral values.
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Low, Tiffany Anne. "Influence of consumer values and sustainable business practices on brand loyalty within luxury hotels." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/323658.
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Despite the recent recession, the economic growth of recent decades has created a group of so-called ‘Global-Elites’ (CeMoRe, 2010). Small in number, but high in net worth and influence they are influential in the creation of, and desire for consumption, often portrayed as luxury, privilege, prestige, and 'class'. The tourism industry has also benefited from growth, with demand predicted to double by the year 2020, reaching an estimated $14.95 billion (World Tourism & Travel Council, 2010). Much of this growth has been at the top end, as Keissling et. al. (2009) note an unprecedented rise in demand for the luxury hotel sector over the past decade. The global elite’s leisure consumption practices require considerable research attention, and yet research into luxury services, such as hotels and associated hospitality services, is greatly undeveloped. Atwal and Williams (2008) note the ability of consumption as a means for consumers to make statements about themselves, and nowhere is this more true than in the world of the Global-Elite, who seemingly having no desire to curb current travel activities (Elliott & Urry, 2009). This may be due to the uncertainty that is felt about future travel opportunities, with environmental decline of natural and heritage attractions paralleled by numerous threats to travel such as peak oil and political instability. However, in recent years, there has been increased interest in the study of ethical consumption in the tourism arena (e.g. Novelli, 2005; Sharpley, 2006; Lansing & Vries, 2006; Yeoman et. al., 2006). Although there appears to be incompatibility between the concepts of luxury and concerns around ethical consumption and sustainability, this research posits that while current transitions (around travel and tourism) continue towards further unsustainability (Cohen, 2010), ethical consumption may provide an avenue for social distinction and status differentiation in the world of the Global-Elites. In order to adequately understand the behavioural intentions of the Global-Elites, the synergy between consumer values, luxury dimensions and ethical consumption needs to be explored. This research examines the influence of consumer values, as a more universal measure of intent, in relation to ethical consumption in luxury hotels. This research argues that by reducing the uncertainty related to the degree to which consumers (Global-Elites) value ethical consumption, deeper insights into these apparently incompatible spaces and places for ethical consumption will be obtained. Furthermore, luxury hotels will be able to assess the suitability of marketing and communicating such strategies to their customers.
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Hartman, William M. "A Study to Define Current Practices, Attitudes and Values in the Software Development Community." NSUWorks, 1998. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/gscis_etd/569.
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The objective of this study was to secure information from a wide distribution of software development practitioners about their development processes, their views about related processes and methods and their perceived and actual software process maturity. Research questions answered in this study were: (a) what are the current software development practices in industry? (b) Are there significant differences between the practitioner's perceived and actual development process maturity; (c) Is there correlation between professional and/or organizational demographics and perceived and actual development processes?; and (d) What do practitioners believe are significant success and failure factors as they relate to job performance? These questions and others were answered by this study.
A self-administered, mailed survey, the Software Development Process Survey, was developed for this study as the data gathering instrument. The survey experienced a return rate of 49.2% and 95.6% of the questions were answered by the 203 respondents. Due to the size, distribution and response to validity-check questions, the results of the survey were considered fairly representative of the targeted population.
Two metrics were also developed. The Perceived Process Maturity Level was the result of the subject's stated perceived, estimated, process maturity level. The Calculated Process Maturity Level resulted from calculating responses to 25 process-related questions. The two metrics were then compared to each other and to the actual distribution of the Capability Maturity Model developed by the Software Engineering Institute.
The data show that the subjects have defined a 0.3 level difference between their perceived and actual process maturity level. Additionally, the subjects generally felt that their present position, company and product quality were not as good as experienced in previous positions. The study also revealed that metrics and metric processes had low priority, neither helped or hindered the development process, could be minimized in today's competitive environment, and increased development costs. A fully annotated version of the survey is included.
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Falzon, Mark-Anthony. "Commerce and diaspora : locating the business practices of Hindu Sindhis." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.248707.
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Justins, Charles Francis Roy, and res cand@acu edu au. "Christian Parent Controlled Schools in Australia - a Study of the relationship between foundational values and prevailing practices." Australian Catholic University. School of Educational Leadership, 2002. http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/digitaltheses/public/adt-acuvp20.16082005.
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Christian Parent Controlled (CPC) Schools, which commenced in the 1960s, are a relatively small, but growing component of the non-government schooling sector in Australia. In 2001, they enrolled over 22 000 students in 85 schools. Very little research has been conducted on the values and practices of CPC schools and while these schools frequently assert that they promote explicitly Christian values, their foundational values have not previously been identified or recorded. This research identifies the key foundational values which are characteristic of these schools and examines the extent to which these values continue to influence the prevailing practices of these schools. Consideration is given to the implications of the relationship between foundational values and prevailing practices for the identity, development and leadership of CPC schools in Australia. The ability of these schools to articulate their foundational values and consider their prevailing practices in the light of these values should enhance their ability to understand their heritage, assess their current situation and plan their future. The research found that in general, prevailing practices in these schools give faithful expression to the foundational values; however, the research also identified a number of areas where CPC schools struggle to engage consistently with these values. As a result of this study, recommendations are proposed to assist national and school-based leadership in their strategic planning for the maintenance of these values and the future of these schools.
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Briggs, Marion Christine Elizabeth. "Complexity and the practices of communities in healthcare : implications for an internal practice consultant." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/8969.
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Current literature regarding quality health services frequently identifies interprofessional collaboration (IPC) as essential to patient-centred care, sustainable health systems, and a productive workforce. The IPC literature tends to focus on interprofessionalism and collaboration and pays little attention to the concept of practice, which is thought to be a represented world of objects and processes that have pre-given characteristics practitioners can know cognitively and apply or manage correctly. Many strategies intended to support IPC simplify and codify the complex, contested, and unpredictable day-to-day interactions among interdependent agents that I argue constitute the practices of a community. These strategies are based in systems thinking, which understand the system as distinct from experience and subject to rational, linear logic. In this thinking, a leader can step outside of the system to develop an ideal plan, which is then implemented to unfold the predetermined ideal future. However, changes in health services and healthcare practices are often difficult to enact and sustain.This thesis problematises the concept of ‘practice’, and claims practices as thoroughly social and emergent phenomenon constituted by interdependent and iterative processes of representation (policies and practice guidelines), signification (sense making through negotiation and reflective and reflexive practices), and improvisation (acting into the circumstances that present at the point and in the moments of care). I argue that local and population-wide patterns are negotiated and iteratively co-expressed through relations of power, values, and identity. Moreover, practice (including the practice of leadership or consulting) is inherently concerned with ethics, which I also formulate as both normative and social/relational in nature. I argue that theory and practice are not separate but paradoxical phenomena that remain in generative tension, which in healthcare is often felt as tension between what we should do (best practice) and what we actually do (best possible practice in the contingent circumstances we find ourselves in). I articulate the implications this has for how knowledge and knowing are understood, how organisations change, and how the role of an internal practice consultant is understood. An important implication is that practice-based evidence and evidence-based practice are iterative and coexpressed(not sequential), and while practice is primordial, it is not privileged over theory.I propose that a practice consultant could usefully become a temporary participant in the practices of a particular community. Through a position of ‘involved detachment’, a consultant can more easily notice and articulate the practices of a community that for participants are most often implicit and taken for granted. Reflective and reflexive consideration of what is taken for granted may change conversations and thus be transformative.
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Pun, Dal Prasad. "Rural Landscape Change : Landscape Practices, Values and Meanings The Case of Jagatpur VDC, Chitwan Nepal." Thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Geography, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-937.
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In Nepal the nature conservation practices started during 1970s and the establishment of the Royal Chitwan National Park laid the foundation stone. Though the nature conservation practices in Nepal have undergone changes to date, from purely protective to participatory conservation at the landscape level, the rural people around the conservation areas in general have faced complicated problems due to the restriction on the use of natural resources and the encroachment and threat of wild animals on their agricultural fields, human lives and domestic animals. In this context the present study explores rural landscape change in Jagatpur VDC after the implementation of the Royal Chitwan National Park. The main focus of this study was to look at how the rural landscape practices and the landscape values and meanings have changed over time and space, changing the rural landscape. The subjects were the traditional people and the migrants who were purposively selected using snowball sampling. Data triangulation i.e. structured open ended interviews, informal conversational interviews, observation and photography, were applied to collect the qualitative information.
The study shows that rural landscape, as an objective as well as subjective expression of the human cultures on the surface of the earth, has undergone considerable changes after the implementation of the Royal Chitwan National Park. The majority of the farmers have negative attitudes towards these changes. The study reveals that rural landscape practices are interrelated and have undergone changes with varying intensity, which has resulted in changing relationships between human beings and landscape with changing resource utilization. The study shows changes in landscape values and meanings with varying sociospatial dimensions. It also reveals that landscape values and meanings are interrelated and have a close relationship with landscape practices determining the changes in rural landscape. The result emphasizes the importance of values and meanings to understand the intricate relationship between human beings and the landscape. Finally the study suggests the importance of the cultural landscape concept in the nature conservation practice in Nepal.
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Shillingford, Margaret. "The Contributions of Professional School Counselors' Values and Leadership Practices To Their Programmatic Service Delivery." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2009. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3641.
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Professional School Counselors (PSCs) have been called to be leaders for educational reform to support the academic, career, and personal/social development of all students through the coordination and facilitation of their comprehensive, developmental school counseling program (American School Counselor Association , 2005; National Model). The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the contributions of PSCs' values and leadership practices to their programmatic service delivery (counseling, coordinating, consulting, and curriculum). The three constructs and instruments investigated in this study were: (a) Schwartz Value Theory (the Schwartz Value Survey ; Schwartz, 1992), (b) the Leadership Challenge Theory (the Leadership Practices Inventory ; Posner & Kouzes, 1988), and (c) school counselors' programmatic service delivery (the School Counselors Activity Rating Scale ; Scarborough, 2005). The findings of this study contribute to the school counseling, counselor education, and leadership literature. The sample size for this study was 249 certified, practicing school counselors (elementary school, n = 83; middle school, n = 76; high school, n = 74; multi-level, n = 8) in the state of Florida (35% response rate). The participants completed an on-line surveys including a general demographic questionnaire, the SVS (Schwartz, 1992), the LPI (Posner & Kouzes, 1988), and the SCARS (Scarborough, 2005). The statistical procedures used to analyze the data included (a) structural equation modeling (path Analysis), (b) confirmatory factor analysis, (c) simultaneous multiple regression, (d) Pearson product-moment (2-tailed), and (e) Analysis of variance (ANOVA). The primary research hypothesis for the study was that practicing school counselors' values and leadership practice scores would contribute to their levels of programmatic service delivery. The statistical analyses of these data identified several significant findings. The path analysis models testing the contribution of school counselors' values and leadership practices on their service delivery did fit for these data. Specifically, the results indicated that values contributed minimally to the model fit (less than 1%); however, leadership practices made a significant contribution (39%) to the school counselors' service delivery. Additionally, 31% of the participants reported that their current school counseling program was consistent with how they perceive a successful school counseling program should be implemented, yet only 29% of the school counselors reported feeling comfortable in challenging their involvement in non-counseling related duties. Further, although these data indicated that the majority of the school counselors valued self-transcendence (accepting of rules and appreciating others); structural equation modification re-specification procedures revealed that the model fit supported the value type, self-enhancement (self-direction and personal success) as a more significant contributor in promoting leadership practices and effective service delivery. Implications for professional school counseling and counselor education are presented, along with areas for future investigation.Ph.D.
Department of Child, Family and Community Sciences
Education
Counselor Education MEd
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Shillingford, Margaret Ann. "The contributions of professional school counselors' values and leadership practices to their programmatic service delivery." Orlando, Fla. : University of Central Florida, 2009. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0002559.
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Van, den Berg Ruan. "An examination of Christian values and correlated concepts in small business practices in South Africa." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1021094.
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The purpose of this research project was to establish in what way Christian entrepreneurs, in this case owner-managers of small and medium-sized enterprises, drew on their Christian faith – as an identity-creating construct – in the day-to-day running of their businesses. Religion was identified as one of the significant contributing elements that form part of individuals’ underlying values that are used to make numerous value-based decisions. Because SME owner-managers that adhere to the Christian faith constitute a fairly large segment of society in the Western World, a study of this nature can be regarded as a worthwhile undertaking that provides valuable insights related to how and to what extent this particular group of economic actors merge religious convictions with business operations. The research was set up in such a way that SME owner-managers in South Africa, who were self-proclaimed Christians and broadly defined as members of the Protestant tradition, constituted the sample participants. The methodology regarded as most suitable was a qualitative, grounded-theory approach whereby interviews were conducted along the lines of a semi-structured interview schedule. An openended exploratory strategy was adopted that allowed respondents to convey their thoughts and ideas pertaining to the research phenomenon from their personal perspectives. A number of conceptual and linguistic frames offered by the respondents – that gave language to the way they rationalised their faith in the context of managing their businesses – were recorded. A total of sixteen major themes and an additional eight sub-themes emerged from the data. The themes recorded and analysed were: faith, grace, calling, stewardship, kingdom, holiness, discipleship, discernment, love, relationship, anointing, inseparable dimensions of life, the Christian life journey, money, cultural perspectives and biblical principles, including the centrality of the Bible, integrity and honesty, sowing and reaping, humility, forgiveness, power of the tongue, importance of prayer and the centrality of Christ. The research findings revealed that a correct understanding of the Christian identity as well as a correct application thereof is crucial in successfully incorporating Christian ideals in the market. Full integration of the Christian identity plus an internalisation of God’s purposes and principles create an inner sense of direction that is less focused on external moral guidelines and codes of conduct – the phrase living from the inside out’ seems appropriately fitting to describe a group of economic actors who pursue their business careers with a sense of calling coupled with a belief that their commercial whereabouts are distinctively linked to a transcendent objective. In addition, general business administration guidelines, where the issue of religious affiliation per se is of no particular consequence, allow for the integration of the value concepts uncovered through the study by way of the corporate governance framework as contained in the King III report – particularly with reference to business practice interventions related to the formulation and implementation of core organisational values and moral codes.
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Niklasson, Hanna, and Hanna Tholander. "The stories charities tell : An explorative study on the role of stories in charities' internal branding." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-202623.
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Charities struggle with scarce marketing and branding resources, as do many non-profits, but nevertheless they need to communicate a trustworthy external brand. A strong internal brand is suggested to enhance the external brand and storytelling is addressed as an established tool for internal branding. As charities seem to have a natural asset of corporate stories, we believe storytelling in terms of internal branding is of great use for the charity sector in order to create strong and competitive brands. The aim of this paper is hence to investigate what role storytelling could have on internal branding in the context of the charity industry. To do this, a qualitative case study with four different charities is conducted. A theoretical framework on internal branding and storytelling guides the data collection consisting of several interviews with managers, employees and volunteers. The findings indicate that both founder stories and recent stories play an important role for organizational culture, core values and internal communication. We conclude that storytelling can be strategically implemented in charities’ internal branding as stories have the possibility to embrace and include the entire organization, which is crucial for trustworthy and competitive brands.
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Weiss, Stephanie. "Internal Controls Possessed by Small Business Owners." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4691.
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On average, a small business could lose $150,000 a year due to employee fraud schemes. For most of the small businesses affected by employee fraud schemes, the average $150,000 loss could be detrimental to the small business, causing the business to close. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the internal controls small business owners apply to detect and prevent fraud from occurring in the business. The population for the study consisted of 3 small business owners located in Hartsville, South Carolina who implemented effective internal fraud controls in their business. The conceptual framework guiding the study was the fraud triangle theory. Data were collected and triangulated through semistructured interviews, company internal control policy and procedure documents, the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission internal control framework, and the Small Business Administration internal control good practices. Data were analyzed through coding. There were 3 themes which emerged in relation to addressing the central research question: cash collection, separation of duties, and attentiveness and awareness. The findings could contribute to positive social change by providing best practices for small business owners to mitigate the components of the fraud triangle and subsequently decrease, if not eliminate, fraud from occurring in small businesses.
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Juskiw, Peter. "Assessing the Implementation of Internal Branding Training in the Hotel Industry." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3689.
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Internal branding (IB) evolved from marketing to engage employees in a company's strategic planning. IB has been studied extensively in the hospitality industry, but not with human resource (HR) departments. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to assess the effectiveness of corporate training designs in instilling IB corporate values in global employees of a multinational hotel chain to determine whether European core values could be transferred across different cultural backgrounds. Structured interviews on IB were conducted with 22 HR practitioners of a luxury hotel chain to capture essential information through the lived experiences of the participants, all of whom were involved in how the design of such training programs can instill corporate core values in employees across national cultures. Transcribed interview responses were analyzed using the simplified Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method to generate textual and structured descriptions to capture IB from their perspectives. The analysis revealed (a) that the HR employees were sensitive to certain core values that did not readily translate to overall brand and employee loyalty, as well as good company-employee working relationships, and (b) the importance of designing effective yet standardized training materials that addressed cultural differences or could be adapted as needed. These findings can help to promote more effective global brand recognition and provide HR specialists with knowledge to educate trainers about better techniques to deliver training across different cultures and engage employees on core values. Employees will be happier performing their roles, have increased job satisfaction, and demonstrate improved levels of productivity.
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Aavik, Toivo. "Lexical analysis of Estonian personal values vocabulary and relation to socially desirable responding and parenting practices /." Tartu, Estonia : Tartu University Press, 2006. http://dspace.utlib.ee/dspace/bitstream/10062/1230/5/aaviktoivo.pdf.
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Larocque, Rachelle. "Penal practices, values and habits : humanitarian and/or punitive? A case study of five Ontario prisons." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.708089.
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Young, Flora Ann Mae. "School assemblies: The purposes, practices, and values as perceived by principals in California public high schools." Scholarly Commons, 1992. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2933.
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Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine the current practices and perceptions of public high school principals in California with regard to school assemblies. It also investigated the relationship between each school's frequency of assemblies and the variables: school enrollment, dropout rate, minority enrollment, and school performance. Procedure. Principals of all public comprehensive high schools in California with a student enrollment of 1,100 or greater were surveyed by mail. Data collected were statistically analyzed to yield frequency, rank, means, and standard deviation. The variables were analyzed by a Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Findings. Analysis of the data indicates that students in California public high schools, as reported by 88.3% of the respondents, are interested or enthusiastic about school assemblies. According to the respondents, an average of four assemblies per year and one pep/sports rally per month were held. Principals indicated that building school unity/enhancing student and faculty relationships was ranked first among the purposes of the assembly program, and the greatest benefits of school assemblies were to provide student recognition, build relationships, increase multicultural appreciation, and develop good audience behavior. The lack of money, time, and assembly facilities was reported to be the greatest obstacles in presenting assemblies. Principals confirmed that there has been a trend towards fewer assemblies. Conclusions and recommendations. School assemblies are a valuable administrative tool for promoting school unity, recognizing students, and extending classroom learning. The obstacles of time, assembly funding, and inadequate assembly facilities can be overcome with skillful planning and by the utilization of resources within the school and community. School assembly development should be an integral part of teacher and administrator training at the universities and in the school districts. Recommendations for future research include: development of a school assembly model for implementation, organization, presentation, and evaluation of a yearlong school assembly program; a comparison study between schools that have well-designed assembly programs and schools that do not; the replication of this study for elementary and middle schools; a similar survey of students' and teachers' perceptions of school assemblies.
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Okabe, Yasuhiro. "Managers' values, career and HR practices in Japan and UK plants : a new perspective of convergence." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.270527.
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The current research firstly explores the degree of organisation/market orientation of Japanese managers in Japanese plants in Japan - called "Japan plants" hereafter - and British managers in Japanese owned UK plants - called "UK plants" hereafter - in terms of values and attitudes related to the work place. Secondly, the research examines the degree of organisation/market orientation of Japan and UK plants with respect to organisational structures and practices implemented in them. Thirdly, the research investigates the gap between Japanese managers' and Japan plants' organisation/market orientation, and British managers' and UK plants' organisation/market orientation, since recent environmental changes observed in Japan and the UK may create a gap between them British managers showed slight market orientation. In general UK plants also showed slight market orientation. There was little discrepancy between managers' and firms' market orientation in the UK. In contrast, Japanese managers showed very slight organisation orientation whereas Japan plants generally showed high organisation orientation. There was therefore a large discrepancy between firms' and managers' organisation orientation in Japan. This indicated that the speed of change occurring in Japanese managers' attitudes towards their tasks and company was much faster than Japanese firms' attempts to modify organisational structures/practices as a result of environmental changes. The internal pressures for change are pervasive since they directly impact on a key asset of an organisation, namely its human resources. Accordingly, firms will have to more promptly modify their structures/practices in accordance with changes in managers' conceptions and values. In today's globalised economy we are being constantly exposed to, and influenced by the prevailing cultural values and lifestyles. As a result, cultural differences are gradually and almost imperceptibly absorbed and assimilated. Eventually managers' attitudes towards their tasks and companies may not much differ across societies. The universal approach claims that the driving force towards conversion to the same structures/practices is an economic rationale. The current research, instead, suggests that the driving force towards similar structures/practices is the assimilated conceptions and values of managers and other employees.