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Thesis advisor: Michael G. Pratt / In spite of an undeniably vast and multidisciplinary body of research on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) spanning more than 50 years, extant scholarship provides little insight into how two organizations that have struggled to integrate rebound from failure in their relationship. This dissertation examines two organizations—AMC Hospital and Community Hospital—that achieved this outcome nearly 16 years after they legally merged. To understand this phenomenon, I conducted an inductive, longitudinal qualitative study of these two organizations and their members using interviews, archival data, and observations as my data sources and grounded theory techniques to analyze the data and build theory. Extending prior research on M&As, multiple organizational identity management, and identities as resources in organizations, I advance the notion of multiple identity resourcing by examining how the negotiation of multiple organizational identities fostered greater resource sharing and generation during post-merger integration. Additionally, I elaborate prior research on meaning construction during strategic change by examining how managers’ interpretations of the power and intimacy dynamics in the merger relationship influenced their strategizing, which affected organizational-level episodes of success and failure during the integration process. More broadly, I demonstrate how practices at both the level of the merger relationship and the level of strategy implementation enable successful performance during post-merger integration. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Management and Organization.

O presente trabalho estuda os impactos na constituição subjetiva de seis auxiliares de educação infantis (ADIs) que trabalhavam em Centros de Educação Infantil da rede municipal de ensino de São Paulo e que passaram por formação docente em Curso Normal, em nível médio, que foi denominado Programa ADI-Magistério, promovido pela Secretaria Municipal de Educação de São Paulo e que atendeu cerca de 3700 profissionais em exercício. Ele apoiou-se em estudos protagonizados por Vigotsky, e retomados por Bruner, Leme, Grandesso, dentre outros, e utilizou a perpectiva teórico-metodológica da Rede de Significações (Rossetti-Ferreira et allii.) para a análise dos dados. Através do exame das narrativas produzidas em entrevistas abertas, a análise buscou identificar os contextos formativos da subjetividade de cada ADI, o que incluiu os acontecimentos históricos, os princípios e métodos de ensino do Programa ADI-Magistério, as relações sociais e as experiências relatadas, e a apreciação de cada uma sobre o novo papel social que assumiram em decorrência da formação - ser professor, avaliando as circunstâncias favorecedoras ou não de mudanças. A partir da configuração dessa rede, verificou como o discurso de cada entrevistada apontava mudanças no olhar para si mesma, ampliação na visão do próprio mundo e dos acontecimentos, alterações na prática profissional, e modificações na concepção de educação infantil. Por último, analisou as conseqüências das experiências provocadas pelo Programa ADI-Magistério para o processo de constituição subjetiva de cada ADI-aluna. Este trabalho poderá contribuir para o planejamento de outros processos formativos, como suporte e estruturação curricular de novos cursos, além de realçar a função social dos processos de formação. / The current study analyses the impact of the subjective development of six Assistant of Child Development, who underwent a teacher preparation programme, named Programa ADI-Magistério, promoted by the Municipal Secretary of Education of the City of Sao Paulo, which enrolled around 3700 professionals working in the Child Education Centers of its educational system. Starting from a hypothesis that the teacher´s way of being and thinking plays an active role in the teaching-learning interface, the objective of this study is to analyze the subjective developmental changes that appear in the subjects\' narratives and to evaluate the favorable and unfavorable circumstances for these changes, based on Vygotsky, Bruner, Leme, Grandesso, and the theoretical-methodological perspective elaborated by Rossetti-Ferreira and allii. and called Network of Meanings. In their interwiews, the subjects were stimulated to reflect about some contexts of their development as their life history, their social relationships and experiences, the principles and methods of the Teaching Preparation Program, and their appreciation of the new social role which they were formally assuming: to be a teacher. From the configuration of this network, the narratives elaborated by the interviewed persons have pointed out changes in their self-image, enlargement in their world vision, changes in their professional practice, and the modification in their concept of early childhood education. A final analysis discussed the mediation of the Teaching Preparation Program in the process of subjective development of each ADI student. In future, this study can contribute for planning other formation processes, and can be used as a support in the formulation of new formative curricula, besides enhancing the social vision of the graduation courses.

A critical aspect of the non-native students' academic adjustment in English-speaking countries is their English language ability, including their reading fluency and comprehension. Even when these students are considered proficient readers of English at an advanced level, they display different reading processes when dealing with the complex input of a second language (L2) text, as compared with their native English reading classmates. Despite the importance of comprehending highly sophisticated academic reading in international education, there is a lack of research in the field as to how advanced L2 readers cope with the texts with which the highly educated native speakers engage. This study, therefore, examined meaning construction processes of highly proficient L2 readers during reading the texts that vary in degree of cohesion. To describe readers' approaches to text cohesion and also recognize readers' perceptions of their own process, the study used a close observation of reading processes of nine highly proficient graduate students at a U.S. university with the use of qualitative research methods. The students participated in two interviews - pre-reading interview and post-reading cognitive interview - and two think-aloud verbal protocol sessions. Participants read one high-cohesive and one low-cohesive text during the think-aloud sessions, and then shared the meaning they constructed from the texts and also their thinking about the texts. The data from the instruments were analyzed qualitatively using a grounded theory approach. The results of the study reveal that the readers' meaning representation processes emerging as the result of reader and text interaction display differences at the local and global levels of processing of the high- and low-cohesive text. The processing differences between the readers are most apparent in texts with low text cohesion. The low cohesive text allowed the readers, especially, the creators of meaning, to conduct more elaborative processing compared to their performance with the high-cohesive one, in which all readers attempted to create a catalogue of facts trusting the explicitly provided text cohesion features. These results have implications for theories of text processing as well as the design of materials and instruction used for advanced L2 readers and lower level L2 readers.

Adequate assessment of the needs of HIV-positive individuals in the South African context is essential, as it may provide insight concerning limitations in healthcare. This study focuses on the subjective experience of nine HIV-positive individuals, in order (a) to investigate their needs; (b) to gain knowledge and understanding of the strengths available to them; (c) to investigate their coping strategies; and (d) to generate a set of guidelines for the development of a secondary prevention programme to improve their psychological well-being and immune functioning. This article employs a qualitative research method, utilising hermeneutic thematic analysis to gain a greater understanding of the subjective psychological functioning of HIV-positive individuals in the South African multicultural context. To a great extent, this research focuses on the salutogenic/fortigenic perspective, where the focus is on strengths, capacities and emotional/psychological well-being. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine asymptomatic HIV-positive individuals. The needs identified during this study involved the psychological, economical, informational and social categories. The strengths available to HIV-positive individuals in order to make sense or construct meaning in their lives, consisted of four themes, namely internal, social, self-regulative and spiritual strengths. The study further indicates that the psychological strengths utilised by HIV-positive individuals are closely related to the concept of meaningfulness, the mechanisms of coping and psychological resilience. A broad range of coping strategies was identified that participants employed in the management of the disease and in dealing with the negative emotions associated with an HIV-positive diagnosis. These strategies could be conceptually grouped into five categories based on the functions these strategies served, namely self-management coping strategies, cognitive coping strategies, social support coping strategies, religious coping strategies, and avoidance coping strategies. The implications of this study are that the various identified concepts related to needs, strengths and coping strategies, may contribute to the development of a secondary prevention programme, in order to improve HIV-positive individuals' psychological well-being and immune functioning. The concept of "Sense of Coherence" which consists of three elements, namely Comprehensibility, Manageability and Meaningfulness, could be successfully incorporated into an intervention programme in order to achieve a positive redefinition of participants' subjective feeling that life is meaningful, as well as to improve their comprehensibility and manageability of their illness. / Thesis (M.Sc.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Adequate assessment of the needs of HIV-positive individuals in the South African context is essential, as it may provide insight concerning limitations in healthcare. This study focuses on the subjective experience of nine HIV-positive individuals, in order (a) to investigate their needs; (b) to gain knowledge and understanding of the strengths available to them; (c) to investigate their coping strategies; and (d) to generate a set of guidelines for the development of a secondary prevention programme to improve their psychological well-being and immune functioning. This article employs a qualitative research method, utilising hermeneutic thematic analysis to gain a greater understanding of the subjective psychological functioning of HIV-positive individuals in the South African multicultural context. To a great extent, this research focuses on the salutogenic/fortigenic perspective, where the focus is on strengths, capacities and emotional/psychological well-being. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine asymptomatic HIV-positive individuals. The needs identified during this study involved the psychological, economical, informational and social categories. The strengths available to HIV-positive individuals in order to make sense or construct meaning in their lives, consisted of four themes, namely internal, social, self-regulative and spiritual strengths. The study further indicates that the psychological strengths utilised by HIV-positive individuals are closely related to the concept of meaningfulness, the mechanisms of coping and psychological resilience. A broad range of coping strategies was identified that participants employed in the management of the disease and in dealing with the negative emotions associated with an HIV-positive diagnosis. These strategies could be conceptually grouped into five categories based on the functions these strategies served, namely self-management coping strategies, cognitive coping strategies, social support coping strategies, religious coping strategies, and avoidance coping strategies. The implications of this study are that the various identified concepts related to needs, strengths and coping strategies, may contribute to the development of a secondary prevention programme, in order to improve HIV-positive individuals' psychological well-being and immune functioning. The concept of "Sense of Coherence" which consists of three elements, namely Comprehensibility, Manageability and Meaningfulness, could be successfully incorporated into an intervention programme in order to achieve a positive redefinition of participants' subjective feeling that life is meaningful, as well as to improve their comprehensibility and manageability of their illness. / Thesis (M.Sc.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

O presente trabalho estuda os impactos na constituição subjetiva de seis auxiliares de educação infantis (ADIs) que trabalhavam em Centros de Educação Infantil da rede municipal de ensino de São Paulo e que passaram por formação docente em Curso Normal, em nível médio, que foi denominado Programa ADI-Magistério, promovido pela Secretaria Municipal de Educação de São Paulo e que atendeu cerca de 3700 profissionais em exercício. Ele apoiou-se em estudos protagonizados por Vigotsky, e retomados por Bruner, Leme, Grandesso, dentre outros, e utilizou a perpectiva teórico-metodológica da Rede de Significações (Rossetti-Ferreira et allii.) para a análise dos dados. Através do exame das narrativas produzidas em entrevistas abertas, a análise buscou identificar os contextos formativos da subjetividade de cada ADI, o que incluiu os acontecimentos históricos, os princípios e métodos de ensino do Programa ADI-Magistério, as relações sociais e as experiências relatadas, e a apreciação de cada uma sobre o novo papel social que assumiram em decorrência da formação - ser professor, avaliando as circunstâncias favorecedoras ou não de mudanças. A partir da configuração dessa rede, verificou como o discurso de cada entrevistada apontava mudanças no olhar para si mesma, ampliação na visão do próprio mundo e dos acontecimentos, alterações na prática profissional, e modificações na concepção de educação infantil. Por último, analisou as conseqüências das experiências provocadas pelo Programa ADI-Magistério para o processo de constituição subjetiva de cada ADI-aluna. Este trabalho poderá contribuir para o planejamento de outros processos formativos, como suporte e estruturação curricular de novos cursos, além de realçar a função social dos processos de formação. / The current study analyses the impact of the subjective development of six Assistant of Child Development, who underwent a teacher preparation programme, named Programa ADI-Magistério, promoted by the Municipal Secretary of Education of the City of Sao Paulo, which enrolled around 3700 professionals working in the Child Education Centers of its educational system. Starting from a hypothesis that the teacher´s way of being and thinking plays an active role in the teaching-learning interface, the objective of this study is to analyze the subjective developmental changes that appear in the subjects\' narratives and to evaluate the favorable and unfavorable circumstances for these changes, based on Vygotsky, Bruner, Leme, Grandesso, and the theoretical-methodological perspective elaborated by Rossetti-Ferreira and allii. and called Network of Meanings. In their interwiews, the subjects were stimulated to reflect about some contexts of their development as their life history, their social relationships and experiences, the principles and methods of the Teaching Preparation Program, and their appreciation of the new social role which they were formally assuming: to be a teacher. From the configuration of this network, the narratives elaborated by the interviewed persons have pointed out changes in their self-image, enlargement in their world vision, changes in their professional practice, and the modification in their concept of early childhood education. A final analysis discussed the mediation of the Teaching Preparation Program in the process of subjective development of each ADI student. In future, this study can contribute for planning other formation processes, and can be used as a support in the formulation of new formative curricula, besides enhancing the social vision of the graduation courses.

[pt] Este trabalho propõe contribuir para a compreensão da cena política brasileira contemporânea e, para tanto, articula Análise da Narrativa de viés sócio-interacional com discurso político visando oferecer uma visão do lingüista sobre o fenômeno da popularidade do presidente Lula. O corpus da análise são narrativas pessoais encaixadas em seis discursos pronunciados pelo presidente entre abril de 2006 e março de 2007. Baseada de modo flexível no modelo de narrativa laboviano e na noção de história de vida de Linde, e recorrendo ainda às noções de enquadre, conforme Bateson e Goffman, e de alinhamento, de Goffman, a análise dos dados identifica as várias identidades que o presidente Lula constrói naquelas narrativas: de migrante nordestino, de operário, de líder sindical, de pai, de presidente. Ao mostrar como essas identidades são narrativamente construídas, a análise ressalta as qualidades de caráter e nuances de sentido projetadas e indica, em relação aos variados públicos dos discursos do presidente, como esses sentidos e identidades podem promover a obtenção de alinhamentos e funcionar como pré-condição para o atingimento do objetivo básico de persuasão que define o discurso político. / [en] This work is intended as a contribution to the understanding of the contemporary Brazilian political scene: it integrates Socio-interactional Narrative Analysis with political discourse aiming to offer a linguist`s perspective on president Lula`s continued popularity. Personal stories embedded in six speeches delivered by the president between April 2006 and March 2007 form the corpus of this analysis. Freely based on Labov`s narrative model and on Linde´s notion of life story, and also resorting to the notion of frame as per Bateson and Goffman, and to Goffman`s footing, the analysis identifies several self- presentations constructed and displayed by president Lula through those personal stories: Northeastern migrant, blue collar worker, union leader, father and president. By showing how these identities are narratively constructed, the analysis emphasizes projected character traits and singularities of meaning and indicates, in relation to the different audiences of the president´s speeches, how these meanings and identities can obtain alignments and function as a pre-condition for achieving persuasion, the basic objective of political discourse in general.

Social constructionism offers a framework that acknowledges the predominance of language in the construction of meaning. Society at large has begun to question the assumptions that are made by empirical paradigms of science. Rather than looking for so-called “truth” social constructionism is interested in the values that underlie specific constructions of meaning. In this dissertation, reminiscence in older individuals is studied from the perspective of social constructionism. In social constructionism the unheard voices and the hidden subtexts are revealed. Most research up to now focuses on the meaning that reminiscence has for the teller of personal stories. Very little emphasis is placed in the current literature on the listener and even less acknowledgement is given to reminiscence as an activity that takes place in relationship. The emphasis in this study is therefore to include the listener in the ongoing conversation about reminiscence. Different voices are juxtaposed, with three participants writing about their experiences as listeners. The question of how reminiscence contributes to both meaning and identity is posed. A holistic content analysis conducted from a narrative perspective follows. To conclude, the author not only makes her own values explicit throughout the study, but invites the reader to become a participant and to add another voice to those voices included in the study. The reading of the study thus becomes an interactive process. Copyright 2005, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Beneke, M 2005, The way it was, the way it is : reminiscence as intergenerational construction of identity, MA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02242006-125424 / > / Dissertation (MA (Clinical Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

nÃo hà / A EducaÃÃo a DistÃncia tem surgido como uma alternativa de modalidade de ensino para atender a uma nova demanda sÃcio-polÃtica-econÃmica (BRENNAND, 2002). Consequentemente, essa nova modalidade tambÃm tem exigido a produÃÃo de material didÃtico virtual. Para tanto, esta pesquisa propÃe realizar um diagnÃstico dos recursos multimodais usados em materiais didÃticos virtuais, tentando compreender de que maneira tal uso tem contribuÃdo na elaboraÃÃo de materiais didÃticos virtuais. Para subsidiar teoricamente a pesquisa, este trabalho procurou respaldo na SemiÃtica Social, cujo foco incide sobre os principais modos de representaÃÃo e funÃÃo por meio de um texto, como tambÃm tenta investigar e compreender os fatores sociais, histÃricos e culturais utilizados para produzirem o significado de qualquer modo semiÃtico; (HODGE e KRESS, 1998; KRESS e VAN LEEUWEN, 1996; HALLIDAY, 1978). Essa teoria encontra subsÃdio no Funcionalismo, que em uma situaÃÃo comunicativa, considera o propÃsito do evento da fala, seus participantes e o contexto discursivo, ou seja; o uso da linguagem (HALLIDAY, 1994). Tanto a SemiÃtica Social quanto o Funcionalismo estabeleceram a base para a elaboraÃÃo da GramÃtica do Design Visual, produzido por Kress e van Leeuwen (1996), cujas metafunÃÃes sÃo baseadas nos princÃpios da GramÃtica SistÃmico-Funcional. E por vez, nortearam os estudos sobre a multimodalidade que serviram de base para a anÃlise dos recursos multimodais no material didÃtico virtual. Em consonÃncia com os objetivos deste trabalho, esta pesquisa foi conduzida por uma metodologia exploratÃrio-descritiva, do tipo survey, em que houve a seleÃÃo de duas disciplinas, uma do primeiro semestre, denominada de Teoria de LÃngua e Segunda LÃngua, e outra do terceiro, denominada de LÃngua Inglesa 3B, e de seus respectivos materiais didÃticos virtuais, do curso de graduaÃÃo semipresencial em Letras InglÃs da Universidade Federal do Cearà â UFC. Para a obtenÃÃo dos dados, foram utilizados trÃs instrumentos de pesquisa, uma Lista de Checagem e dois questionÃrios, adaptados para cada um dos participantes, alunos e professores coordenadores das disciplinas. Com a anÃlise, foram observadas nos materiais didÃticos virtuais trÃs tipos de linguagens: verbal, com 83%; nÃo-verbal, com 15%; e verbo-visual 2%. Constatou-se tambÃm que a maioria dos recursos multimodais à expresso pelo tipo de linguagem verbal. TambÃm, um nÃmero considerÃvel de elementos multimodais estabelece uma relaÃÃo com o texto por especificaÃÃo (IlustraÃÃo) ou por similaridade e possuem uma funÃÃo de impessoalidade ou neutro. Ainda, alguns desses recursos multimodais inseridos pelo autor sÃo trocados ou retirados no momento da transiÃÃo do meio impresso para o meio virtual por uma equipe de transiÃÃo da instituiÃÃo, o que faz perder o efeito de sentido original do texto; tambÃm hà um percentual mÃnimo de recursos multimodais que nÃo estÃo inseridos dentro de um contexto social do leitor, dificultando a compreensÃo do conteÃdo do material didÃtico; e, por fim, os recursos multimodais sÃo bem distribuÃdos e organizados na tela do computador. ConcluÃmos que à fundamental que todos os envolvidos no processo de elaboraÃÃo do material didÃtico virtual, tenham o conhecimento linguÃstico, em especial, sobre a SemiÃtica Social; ao inserir os recursos multimodais, que seja observado o universo sÃcio-cultural do aluno para a construÃÃo de sentido eficiente; e vejam a possibilidade de inserir outros recursos multimodais no texto de forma consciente para auxiliar na construÃÃo de sentido. / Distance education has established itself as an alternative modality of learning which meets new socio-political-economic demands in the educational field (BRENNAND, 2002). A consequence of this new learning modality is the increased need for virtual learning materials. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of the multimodal resources employed in virtual learning materials, and a discussion of how such use has contributed in the development of virtual learning materials. The background for the study are the linguistic theories on multimodality, such as functionalism, which takes into consideration, for any given communicative situation, the purpose of speech events, as well as the participants and the discursive context involved, i.e., the use of language (Halliday, 1994). The principles of social semiotics were also considered, which focus on the main representational and functional modes expressed in a text, while also trying to investigate and understand the social, historical and cultural factors involved in the production of meaning in any semiotic mode ( HODGE and Kress, 1998; Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996; Halliday, 1978). Social semiotics and functionalism are among the bases upon which the Grammar of Visual Design (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996) was developed, and it proposes similar metafunctions to those found in systemic functional grammar theories. Kress and van Leeuwenâs work is, therefore, the main basis for the analysis of multimodal resources in virtual learning material presented in this paper. The study adopted exploratory-descriptive methods of survey type. Two English disciplines and their respective virtual learning materials were selected for investigation, namely Theories of Language and Second Language and English Language 3B. These disciplines are part, respectively, of the curriculums of the first and third semesters of the blended-modality BA Course in English Language Teaching at the Federal University of Cearà â UFC. In this course, students have both distance classes and regular in situ classes. Three research instruments were used for data collection, a checklist and two questionnaires, which were adapted to the different categories of participants: students, instructors and coordinators. The analysis revealed that three types of language are employed in the virtual learning materials under study: verbal language (83 %), non-verbal (15 %) and verbal-visual (2 %). Therefore, it was concluded that most multimodal resources are expressed by means of verbal language. In addition, it was found that a significant number of multimodal elements relate to the texts of origin through specification (illustration) or through similarity, and have impersonal or neutral functions. Furthermore, it was observed that the specialists from the University in charge of designing the virtual materials decide to change or withdraw from the text some of their multimodal resources, at the moment of their insertion in the virtual environment. This process results in the loss of some of the original meaning of the texts. There is also a small percentage of multimodal features which are not part of the social context of the readers, making it difficult to understand the content of the teaching material. Finally, it was found that the multimodal resources are well distributed and organized on the computer screen. From all that, it can be concluded that it is essential that all parties involved in the process virtual learning materials design have the necessary linguistic knowledge, especially concerning social semiotics. It is also important that material designers take the social and cultural background of the student into consideration in order to create efficient materials and that the possibility of purposeful insertion of other multimodal features in the text is considered as a way to contribute for the construction of textual meaning.