The importance of designing and delivering comprehensive induction programmes for newly qualified school teachers (e.g. Draper and O’Brien, 2006) is widely accepted. In China, ongoing curriculum reform and teacher professionalization require such programmes to address issues such as teacher turnover, teacher performance and student learning outcomes.This thesis reports on the findings of a PhD project exploring induction of newly qualified teachers in Yinchuan city, China. The project centred on a qualitative case study involving new teachers, mentoring teachers, school principals and local education officials. Against a background review of the relevant induction policies and provision, topic-focussed interviews were conducted in 2009-10 on two separate occasions in their first year of teaching with 23 new secondary school teachers from different subject departments across 7 schools of various type, and with 6 local education officials, and 17 school principals and mentoring teachers. Drawing on an autobiographical approach, personal accounts from the participating teachers were subject to narrative analysis to explore the extent to which teachers’ perspectives changed during the first year of teaching. The conditions under which perspectives were more likely to change were also considered and three main themes emerged: job motivation, self-image and subjective educational theory. Within each of these themes, sub-themes with respect to the relational context in which teachers’ worked were identified as contributing to developing teachers’ professional identity. By using a voice-centred relational analytical method to allow flexibility in taking advantage of different types of narrative analysis methods, the data revealed interesting issues concerning new teachers’ expectations and perceptions of the teaching profession and the induction programme offered. The narratives were further explored based on the theoretical considerations of teacher’s professional identity, early professional learning (McNally, 2004) and various factors influencing teachers’ professional identity (Day and Gu, 2007). This study aims to deepen and further the emerging studies on teacher induction in China which mainly focused on large-size cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, and to identify some of the key characteristics of induction programmes by locating the study in the unique context and essential conditions of Yinchuan city, a medium-size city in China. It also attempts to benefit from a narrative approach and innovative analytical methods which give voice to the participants which hopefully would contribute to a more humanistic approach in looking at the phenomenon of new teacher induction in China.

To date, research delving into the narratives of living with dementia during mealtimes is limited. The methodology used is thematic narrative analysis, following the elements of a 3D narrative inquiry space proposed by Clandinin and Connelly (2000). The purpose was to develop stories by reconstructing participants’ experiences to capture insight into how mealtimes change overtime and how adaptations reflect resilience. Two themes and several subthemes were revealed. The first major theme is ‘Developing strategies for positive adaptation’, with four subthemes including reminiscing, incorporating humour, establishing social support, and having hope and optimism. The second major theme is ‘Continuing to learn and adapt’, with three subthemes including focusing on the positive gains and personal growth, balancing past pleasures while adapting to the new normal, and accumulating life experiences. This work serves as a basis for future studies examining into the concept of resilience among families living with dementia in greater depth. / SSHRC

Literature on recovery from anorexia nervosa indicates that research studies often exclude the experience of recovery from a subjective point of view. As a result there seems to be a lack of understanding as to what the process of recovery entails. The aim of this study is to explore the process of recovery from the participants’ perspective. The focus of this study is on the narratives of young women who consider themselves recovered from anorexia nervosa with or without formal treatment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine young women who reported recovery from adolescent-onset anorexia nervosa. The resulting interview transcripts were subsequently analysed qualitatively using a narrative analytic perspective in order to explore the ways in which participants narrated their recovery experiences. Particular attention was paid to the subjective perspective of the perceived causes of anorexia nervosa, how participants narrated what it was like to be anorexic, how treatment was experienced and various aspects of the recovery process. The narratives of recovery suggest that recovery has diverse meanings, creates different expectations and has different manifestations for different individuals. The narratives suggest that, rather than a dichotomy within recovery, there are shades of recovery through which traces of anorexia emerge. Experiences of treatment too are not clear cut with a tension existing between resistance to treatment and dissatisfaction with treatment. By presenting these narratives, this study aims to explore the contradictions and difficulties within recovery experiences in order to extend that which is already known about recovery from anorexia nervosa.

Capital and technology-intensive semiconductor industry have attracted a lot of fund and talent's input. It also demonstrated the admirable high growing rate in the past. The semiconductor industry becomes so attractive and more competitors come to get involved. At the result, the environment of competition becomes severe. The chip makers in such industry's environment, in order to strengthen one's own competitiveness, must take every care to improve the good yield and reduce the manufacturing cost. In order to avoid the loss of small line width products during production, that is caused by unexpected conditions. Chip makers must put into suitable resources, including manpower and software and hardware equipment for having high yield and yield stability. The complexity of technology for chip making is getting worse when the process in going to nanometer era. How to utilize knowledge to transfer effectively in organization and facilitate the use of knowledge, become one of the most important thing that managers should do. A case study of a semiconductor company reveals the problem of transferring knowledge between engineers who are working for process defect reduction. The main result of this thesis is as follows: 1.It is easy for members to form a cross-department lateral linkage in a simple organization. The organization creates a openness environment for knowledge transfer and provide technical training for new comers. 2.As the semiconductor thchnique changed so fast that suitable mentor-apprentice operation can strengthen the technical knowledge of new members. But they are not able to transfer the important tacit knowledge which is embedded in person. The knowledge is the key element for achieving the goal of organization. 3.Establish trans-departmental and cooperative partnership, even in the institutional framework of high organization; make members to break through the boundary of organization with linking all members together. That can make whole organization move through success circle for goal. At the last paragraph, I come out with my opinions on how to build cross-functional partnership, which need start from individual social skill and establish operational procedures, to develop the network among functional groups and achieve organizational goal effectively.

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The academic study of how people respond to adverse life experiences has been dominated by Western conceptualisations of distress, resilience and growth. The current literature base regarding responses to adversity has been criticised for focusing on one response trajectory (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; PTSD). This criticism stems from the privileging of Western understandings of the self and for negating to consider sufficiently the role of context (the available social, cultural and political discourses). The significance of this void in the literature is that it has led to the development of models and theories which could be considered culturally insensitive, if applied outside of the context from which they have derived. This research addresses the highlighted gap in the literature by exploring how the context of Sierra Leone influences how people respond to the experience of Civil War and continuing adversity. Nine in-depth interviews were carried out within two ‘mental health’ organisations in Sierra Leone. The participants were nine individuals and one group, consisting of both ‘patients’ and staff members. The qualitative methodology of Narrative Analysis was used to analyse both the stories people told and the stories which may have remained unexpressed. A focus was placed during analysis on the role of context and the dialogic process. The main findings of the research indicated that the cultural resources within Sierra Leone both influenced and constrained the narratives which individuals were able to tell. ‘Stories of Survival’ seemed to be told through two dominant social narratives of ‘Bear it, and Forget’ and ‘Because of Almighty God, we Forgive’. ‘Stories of Resistance’ however, demonstrate what was implied but often left unsaid, this is characterised by two main unexpressed stories; ‘We Cannot Forget’ and ‘Why God?’. Furthermore, findings suggest that it is the relationship between the dominant social narratives and individual meaning-making which influences the trajectory of stories told. The implications of this research request a commitment to valuing the role of social context in conceptualisations of distress, resilience and growth following adversity. Finally, the need to establish ways of offering support to individuals and communities, which fully considers the role of social context, is emphasised. This paper concludes by exploring the relevance of social content for the planning of services, training programmes and continuing clinical practice.

Mothers living with HIV (MLH) are the focus of this narrative study. HIV is increasingly seen as a chronic illness because of medical advances in its treatment. Much research with HIV positive mothers is situated within the dominant biomedical discourse focusing more on outcome rather than experience and, while valuable, it fails to provide insight into their subjective experiences. In Ireland, women represent a third of the newly diagnosed HIV population (O’Donnell, Moran and Igoe 2013), many of whom have children, and migrant African-origin women represent a significant percentage of these new diagnoses. However, no research has examined contemporary maternal HIV experiences within an Irish context. This is an important fact considering the changing nature of HIV and that most HIV positive women are prescribed Highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) during their pregnancies and so give birth to HIV negative babies. This study explores the HIV maternal experience as the psychosocial impact of being HIV positive persists even though it is increasingly seen as a chronic illness. The original contribution to knowledge of this thesis is to provide insight into the experiences of mothers living with HIV in Ireland. My study involved adopting a narrative approach to interviewing a purposive sample of eleven HIV positive mothers living in Ireland who were at different points on the motherhood trajectory, and were from both high and low HIV prevalence countries. The analysis of this study’s narratives drew on a combination of theoretical perspectives including HIV stigma frameworks (Campbell et al., 2007, Herek 2002), social capital theory (Putnam 1995), medicalisation and HIV normalisation. The interviews reveal the centrality of being a mother to the study participants and how being HIV positive affects mothering. Being an HIV positive mother means protecting children from HIV from the moment of diagnosis , during and after pregnancy; minimising the impact of HIV in everyday life; having an awareness of the persuasiveness of HIV stigma; and managing HIV disclosure. Peer support was a significant factor for these mothers and all were members of an HIV support organisation in Dublin. Linking the findings of this study to wider theoretical literature allows for a greater understanding of the lives of HIV positive mothers in the HIV normalisation era and accentuates the multidimensional impact of maternal HIV infection.

In this study, narrative analysis is applied to narrate and re-present how the main character of the story, I, as the owner of a dental clinic chain enterprise, in order to reopen one of the clinics as soon as possible, made decisions and solved a series of crises within the shortest time, thereby sustaining the league¡¦s operation and the employees¡¦ living. The study has a twofold purpose: to re-discover and develop myself through the re-presenting of my narrative and to share my experience for the interested readers and relevant researchers¡¦ reference. And the key conclusion drawn from the study is that anyone in fear of competitive pressure should bravely find out and objectively evaluate the origin of the anxiety so as to make proper decisions and win over more opportunities for the enterprise to pass the crisis.

Abstract Sales work is an occupation which constantly is available for people. Salespeople are always wanted, but only few of them can reach exquisite performance. For most people, selling is easy. However, it also brings the harshest challenge to human nature. Sales representatives could easily lose their resolution of achieving goals when they are encountered customers¡¦ endless problems and sales resistance. They always face tremendous achievement pressure, which could destroy their strong will in no time. In most people¡¦s impression, a professional sales manager has to be a person and a rich speaker. However, holding the same position, and having close observation toward numberless business chargers, I possess different opinion. A successful sales manager is usually prudent, self-disciplined, and achieves goals through effort of the whole team members. He learns humbly, and accumulates wisdom through his team group, as well as foster excellent ability, and great fortitude from failure experience. Thus, he becomes a top manager in his field. This paper discusses the resulted problems and their processing strategies when a sales manager confronts his customer. The author takes his past work experience as a sales manager in a British lubricant oil company as examples. Using the narrative analysis and participant observation method, this paper illustrates living challenges and work experiences on the managements of business and sales. Moreover, the great wisdom and excellent experience from above mentioned cases are respectively verified by the strategic problems solution models of Mckinsey and Company. Keywords: Qualitative Research¡BNarrative Analysis¡BParticipant Observation Method

Customers are very important to all companies. The study shows that organizations spent 6 to 9 times more obtaining new customers than keeping old customers. All companies try to figure out the customers who can bring them high profit and improve customer satisfaction through good customer management. Therefore many companies implement Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to reach the goals. However, Gartner Group presents that 32% companies abandon CRM system after completing implementation. It does not mean finish when CRM system rolls out. The company has to know it is a long journey when it decides to implement CRM system. The company A in this study implemented CRM system, Siebel, in 2003. The first phase focused on Sales Force Automation module. CRM team is responsible for adoption mission. In the beginning, the usage rate was very low and it took long time to get users adopt the system. A company did not give up. It tamed the users through many ways. This study displays the war between CRM team, IT people, and sales representatives who are the most important users to this system. CRM team and IT people play important roles during the process of CRM implementation. For that reason, their feelings and thoughts cannot be ignored. To explain the user behavior, the study introduces Unified theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), which was formulated with four core determinants of intention and usage. Although some phenomenon can be elaborated by this theory, the study discovers some points beyond it: the meaning of system to the users is more important than performance expectation and effort expectation in the theory, and adjusting the cooperation of all departments related to system is more effective than improving the system only .