Thesis (MTech (Entrepreneurship))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2020 / Entrepreneurship is widely acknowledged as an effective means of reducing poverty, creating employment, and promoting economic empowerment at the individual, family, and community levels. Although the country is endowed with abundant natural resources, rates of unemployment among the youth of Chad remain alarmingly high. The main objective of this study was to determine the factors which militate against the youth engaging in entrepreneurial activities in N’Djamena, the capital city of Chad. A random sample 150 young Chadian entrepreneurs was selected from a research population which comprised all of the young entrepreneurs in N’Djamena who were registered on the databases of the FONAJ, a national fund which provides financial support to young entrepreneurs in Chad, and the Trade and Personal Property Credit Register (TPPCR) of Chad. The sample size was calculated according to a formula which is widely acknowledged as being appropriate for quantitative studies and 110 potential respondents to the survey questionnaire from which the data were obtained were selected from the former database and 40 from the latter. A letter of consent was obtained from the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports to collect data in N’Djamena and the researcher provided an assurance that all of the information which the participants provided would be treated as strictly confidential and that the participants would remain anonymous. The findings of the study revealed that young entrepreneurs in Chad were faced with obstacles such as a lack of funding, a lack of support from the government for SMEs, and lack of encouragement and financial support from their families. Although there are programmes to assist young entrepreneurs, it was evident from the findings that many experience great difficulty in ensuring the success and sustainability of their businesses. Consequently, they still require additional support with respect to funding, equipment, and assistance and encouragement from their families, financial institutions, and the government, in order to achieve success in their businesses. The thesis concludes with appropriate recommendations for both the government and the young entrepreneurs of N’Djamena to provide relevant insights into how the youth can best be integrated into the entrepreneurial sector in the interests of combating unemployment and enabling them to make a meaningful contribution to the growth of the national economy.

Based upon previous research and statistics surrounding the topic of female superintendents, which indicated that women moved into the position at a disproportionate rate when compared to men, this study sought to understand the experiences of female public-school superintendents. Further, the research provided a means for women to discuss their preparation, educational background, barriers, and characteristics needed for success within the superintendency. This study gathered additional information and data, from the perspective of female superintendents, in an effort increase awareness and representation. This qualitative study utilized a variety of methodology. Specifically, surveys were distributed to all female superintendents in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Following the initial survey, seven women participated in a one-one-one interview. All responses were transcribed, classified, and coded for themes. From the research, nine findings emerged, which ranged from women often move into superintendent positions from within their present school division to female superintendents indicated they have to exert more effort than their male counterparts. In addition to the findings, seven implications were developed. These included recommendations such as, the Department of Education should consider training and rubrics for school boards and school division leaders regarding gender bias in an effort to ensure equitable treatment and evaluation, and school divisions should contemplate providing mentoring opportunities to women in educational leadership positions and those exhibiting potential for these roles. The documented experiences of the women studied add to existing research related to female superintendents. This information will be useful to those interested in pursuing the superintendency. Further, the women featured in this study chose to share their experiences, educational journey, and barriers in an effort to educate, encourage, and assist others. / Doctor of Education / Based upon previous research and statistics surrounding the topic of female superintendents, which indicated that women moved into the position at an unequal rate when compared to men, this study sought to understand the experiences of female public-school superintendents. Further, the research provided a means for women to discuss their preparation, educational background, barriers, and characteristics needed for success within the superintendency. This study gathered additional information and data, from the perspective of female superintendents, in an effort increase awareness and representation. The researcher utilized a variety of methodology. Specifically, surveys were distributed to all female superintendents in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Following the initial survey, seven women participated in a one-one-one interview. All responses were recorded, documented, and analyzed for themes. From the research, nine findings emerged, which ranged from women often move into superintendent positions from within their present school division to female superintendents indicated they have to exert more effort than their male counterparts. In addition to the findings, seven implications were developed. These included recommendations such as, the Department of Education should consider training and rubrics for school boards and school division leaders regarding gender prejudice in an effort to ensure impartial treatment and evaluation, and school divisions should contemplate providing mentoring opportunities to women in educational leadership positions and those exhibiting potential for these roles. The documented experiences of the women studied add to existing research related to female superintendents. This information will be useful to those interested in pursuing the superintendency. Further, the women featured in this study chose to share their experiences, educational journey, and barriers in an effort to educate, encourage, and assist others.

Research has extensively documented the mental health disparities that exist for ethnic and racial minorities living in the United States. With respect to Latinos, such disparities are marked by less access to care and poorer quality of mental health treatment. Studies on Latino mental health have found differences in mental health service utilization among ethnic subgroups and among different generations of Latinos. However, empirical data examining specific attitudes and barriers to mental health treatment among different generations of Latinos are limited. This study explored the relationships between Latino generational status, mental health service utilization, psychological distress, and barriers to mental health treatment. An online survey (N = 218) included samples of first-generation (n = 67), second-generation (n = 86), and third-generation or beyond Latinos (n = 65). Results indicated first-generation Latinos had the lowest rate of mental health service utilization and reported greater linguistic and structural knowledge barriers, however, they had lower perceived social stigma of mental health services when age at migration was considered. Implications of these findings for research, mental health service providers and mental health policy are discussed.

No / This paper presents an overview of generic database of sustainability criteria values for a range of noise reducing devices (NRDs) for surface transport developed as part of the research carried out in the EU project "Quietening the Environment for a Sustainable Surface Transport" (QUIESST) (1) and how these criteria can be used for sustainability assessment of noise barriers standards. The NRD Industry has been involved in this research and NRD's manufacturers have always shown a great interest in sustainability assessment. This is coupled with the new Construction Product Regulation (305/2011/EU -CPR) (2) that came into force in July 2013 that promotes a new approach in products qualification based on the declaration of performance against seven essential requirements. Sustainability has been specifically addressed with the new 7th basic requirement, 'sustainable usage of natural resources'. The method developed within this research is used to define evaluation procedures to meet sustainability as the 7th basic requirement as part of new standards. / EU 7th Framework Programme

No description available.

This research project aims to explore the perceptions of professional service needs from county social workers and parents seeking reunification at Walden Family Services in San Bernardino. This research study gathers the professional perspective and personal opinions of social workers that work closely with parents who are attempting to reunify with their children and the perspective of parents going through the process of attempting to reunify. This research project explores the positive and negative themes that were found from the feedback given from social workers and parents. The following study provides important insight into areas that can be improved from social workers and parents working together. The findings can help social workers understand the perspectives of parents going through the reunification process and provide insight into the barriers that might be hindering them from being successful. The findings can be of assistance to social workers working with parents in the social welfare system as they may assist in prioritizing attention to drop-out rates of services, poverty, social work expectation towards parents and the quality of social workers in general. Vise-versa, these findings can be a help to parents understand the viewpoints of social workers and their expectations social workers have on them. Ultimately, the research aims to provide insights on barriers that are impeding social workers and parents from working together effectively and working as a team. The following study is an exploratory research project that explores the discrepancies in perspectives from these two different groups. This qualitative study utilizes face to face interviews with open-ended questions as the tool to collect data from participants. The two central themes that emerged during the study were the emphasis both groups placed on the importance of communication and recognition of systemic barriers that prevent parents and social workers to be successful. Based on the qualitative responses of the eight participants in this study, the researcher has concluded that there is a discrepancy between perception of professional service needs from social workers and parents.

Many countries are dependent upon capital flows for their balance of payments accounts. Sources of expenditures include foreign direct investment (FDI), portfolio investment (PI) and remittances. While the determinants of FDI and PI have been extensively analyzed, the analyses of remittance flows from host to home countries are largely lacking and wide-ranging. Factors predominantly not considered are domestic institutions which support or encourage international remittance exchange. Nations routinely desire to control international immigration and capital movement. Consequently they adopt domestic policies which create and enforce institutions that manage both capital and labor mobility across borders. Additionally, researchers commonly neglect to consider the impact of both the supply and demand factors simultaneously, or in other words, the domestic condition (home and host) which both push and pull migrants to migrate and remit. Further, given the non-dyadic nature of the data, there arises a need to "regionalize" the data. To test the effects of variations in immigration institutional attributes, I employ a pooled data set of approximately 104 nations from 1990 to 2004. Controlling for existing explanations and regional influences, I find that domestic institutions have a significant impact on the ability of an individual to migrate to a host country and to eventually remit back to their country of origin.

The present paper provides further evidence on the importance of sunk costs as determinant of the turnover, entry, and exit of firms by studying the Austrian manufacturing industry using a 14-year panel. This study explicitly considers sunk costs related to investment in dedicated intangible assets such as investment relating to organizational and goodwill capital. The empirical results confirm the relevance of sunk costs as mobility barriers, their symmetry in respect to entry and exit and suggest that the influence of sunk costs is robust to aggregation. Sunk costs relating to capital expenditure and to organizational capital are found to be symmetric. Sunk costs relating to advertising expenditures seem to be only barriers to entry but not mobility barriers. Industry growth and profitability growth are found to be asymmetric, having a positive influence on entry and a negative on exit. Export growth is found to reduce the turnover of firms and to have a negative effect on exit suggesting that the decision to export may be associated with substantial sunk costs. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers Series "Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness"

This Thesis discusses issues surrounding the conduct of business in a global environment. The focus of this paper involved a major manufacturer and its business model (Deutsches Auto AG) to supply vehicles to markets in New Zealand, South Korea, Nepal, and Mongolia. Analysis was made from previously collected survey data taken in each region focused on the dealership and end-user level. Not surprisingly, it was discovered that language and cultural barriers had a significant impact on each locations operations. Observations showed that language seemed to have created a problem in every day operations in regards to management and dealership tasks. English as the lingua franca – common language of trade, was often a second or third language of the individuals conducting day to day business. Not only did everybody have their own native language but also regional dialects that affected communication, but cultural perspectives also complicated communication. This paper does not address all issues surrounding global business, but focuses its attention to personal observations and data collected to identify break downs in communications across the regions of New Zealand, South Korea, Nepal, and Mongolia. This research identified and confirmed the problems to be a lack of English skills (comprehension and speech), which is expected to be the common language between all. With this expectation, there is little emphasis given to teaching English, nor the cultural contexts and hierarchical understandings that enhances effective communication.

Since its inception, the Mining Industry was reserved for males. Females were allowed to perform the so-called 'soft jobs', but only started working underground in 1996. As a result the Mining Charter was introduced and one of its objectives was to force employment of women in the core function of the Mining Industry. The target of 10% women in mining is only a starting point for organisations to comply with each and every individual’s constitutional right. It is clear from the legislation that changes in the Mining Industry should take place and therefore the Mining Charter was introduced to have clear targets with set time frames for meeting these targets. There are several challenges or barriers that organisations are faced with once they introduce women into a Mining Industry. These barriers typically include: competent, qualified females, physical differences between males and females, the mining environment, standards of Personal Protective Equipment, high turnover of women, specifically professional and middle management women, cultural differences and lastly the cost implications for organisations. Mining Houses are profit-orientated organisations and reserve the right to review the cost implications of employing women in mining and to consider the advantages and disadvantages of doing so. Ultimately it affects the bottom line of the organisation and whether the cost implication is direct or indirect, it is crucial for organisations to manage the changes of introducing women into a Mining Industry. In general the Mining Environment is known to be a harsh environment not only because of the physical strain that is required to complete the tasks under noisy, cold or warm conditions, but also the necessity of employees working shifts and the risks related to working shifts. Other conditions associated with the Mining Environment are, fatigue, design of mining machines and ergonomics. It is clear that physical strain is present in the Mining Industry, although technology has been incorporated to improve olden days mining techniques compared to the mechanised mining techniques of today. The problems that shift workers experience relate to both the phase-displacement of their work-sleep periods and adverse negative working conditions that may be combined with shift work. Work-related fatigue may arise in situations requiring concentration for extended periods during work hours, performing strenuous physical work, working in temperature extremes, working in noisy environments or being exposed to vibration. The mining workplace is a very dynamic work environment. Although machine design and ergonomics in the Mining Industry affects women as well as men, a smaller built person will be more likely to experience problems in enduring these conditions. Infrastructure forms part of the barriers that exist when women are introduced in the Mining Industry as well as ablution facilities and change rooms, housing facilities, work-life balance and personal safety and security. Mines are reluctant to train and place women in artisan and engineering positions, due to the physical nature of this work as well as the female employees’ unwillingness to establish themselves in these careers. Due to cultural differences and different thinking patterns, little or limited support from the male employees will be given to female employees when needed. This implies that not only should the infrastructure be changed due to the introduction of women into the Mining Industry but also change in team structures, interpersonal relationships and the sense of acceptability by fellow male employees and supervisory level. The purpose of this study was to develop a model which an organisation can use to overcome and manage the barriers that were identified when women are introduced in core positions of the Mining Industry. As the problem statement is threefold, the model considers the three primary parties involved in the process of introducing women into the Mining Industry, namely the Organisation, Men and Women. In the model it is illustrated that these three parties function interdependently of each other. The primary concern of each of the parties is: The Organisation – cost implication; Men – paradigm shift; and Women – several barriers identified. The suggested solutions and focus areas for each of the parties are considered and/or implemented. The communication channels between these parties are a vast contributor to the success of this model. This is only the groundwork phase, phase one, of the process. Phase Two of this model is that this snapshot of the threefold system, at any given time, should be monitored and re-evaluated in order for this change intervention to progress. After monitoring and re-evaluation took place a decision can be made with regards to continuing with the system or adapting the system. The role of the Human Resources department in this process will mainly be limited to that of a facilitating and advisory role. To achieve the targets set by the Mining Charter and legislation it is vital for Mining Houses to overcome and manage these barriers that exist when introducing women in the Mining Industry. Therefore applying and implementing the basic principles set out in the model of managing the barriers of introducing women in the Mining Industry is a practical way to ensure that Mining Houses deal effectively with these changes brought forward by legislation. Copyright 2008, 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: Heine, A 2008, A model for managing the barriers of introducing women into a mining industry, MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02132012-110815 / > C12/4/73/gm / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted