Delhi Secondary School is a public school with approximately 6,000 students; 300 teachers, 6 administrators, and countless headmistresses and support staff. It claims that its admissions policy is non-discriminatory, boasting that it admits students from all castes, religions and genders. Ethnographic tools, participant observation, and interview were used to discover how Delhi Secondary School supports religious plurality within their educational community as advertised on their web site, specifically how the music specialist teachers in Delhi Secondary School recognize students' religious diversity in their music curriculum. Analysis of my field notes, interviews, transcripts, photographs and other documents revealed that Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Catholic religions were represented in the devotional music that was studied and performed by the students. These findings suggest that the school supports religious plurality through participation and acceptance of spiritual acts during lessons, morning assemblies, concert performances and other daily activities. I conclude that the study and performance of diverse devotional music has important social and musical functions in Delhi Secondary School.

The bulk of research on teacher knowledge has taken place in elementary and secondary school settings. The goal of this study was to examine teacher knowledge in higher education by asking: (1) what types of knowledge are drawn upon in teaching in higher education and (2) Are there differences in the knowledge drawn upon by inexperienced (M = 5.77, SD = 2.8 years teaching), experienced (M = 18.79, SD = 7.36 years teaching), and professors who have won teaching awards (M = 19,50, SD = 7.60 years teaching)? Participants were selected at random from published lists of university faculty. Questionnaires were mailed to 500 potential respondents asking them to recall and describe two memorable teaching incidents and then rate their response, using a Likert-type scale, to a series of items based on descriptions of teacher knowledge found in the literature. They indicated the extent to which they considered each item, and the extent to which they felt they had been influenced by knowledge of the item at the time of the incident. Finally, respondents answered questions about their teaching background. A total of 102 completed questionnaires were returned. Principal components analysis (PCA) resulted in a four factor solution describing the knowledge drawn upon. Factors were (1) pedagogical content knowledge, (2) current knowledge of learners, (3) knowledge of content, and (4) knowledge of learners' background and appropriate pedagogy. Definitions of the four factors were generated using PCA results and descriptions of the incidents selected based on factor coefficient scores. Stepwise multiple regression was used to determine variables that best predict factor scores. Overall, no differences were found between the factor scores of inexperienced, experienced, and award-winning professors. Results indicated differences in the definitions of particular types of teacher knowledge in higher education that broaden the definitions found in the literature. Results also indicated

This dissertation studies the dynamics behind sudden, negative shifts in the corporate reputations of business firms, through three independent but related papers, a phenomenon that we refer to as a reputational crisis. This issue is of critical importance because the corporate reputation of a firm is one of its most valuable but potentially volatile intangible resources. Therefore, a better understanding of the situations where business firms suffer significant reputational losses within relatively short periods of time can contribute to both strategic management and business and society. From a strategic management perspective, the examination of sudden major losses in corporate reputation is an examination of the loss of what is potentially one of the most important intangible firm resources, if not the most important intangible resource of the firm. While, from a business and society perspective, an examination of sudden drops in corporate reputation could reveal the reputational impact that such sudden events have in the network of stakeholders (Freeman, 1984) who surround the firm and are, in a sense, the 'evaluators' of its reputation. / The first paper of this dissertation consists of a theoretical exploration of the management of reputational crises caused by sudden and unexpected incidents like industrial accidents, scandals, and product failures. Drawing on the stakeholder and crisis management literatures, a model useful in providing a better understanding of reputational crises is developed. The second paper is an empirical investigation into the impact that accidents can have on the corporate reputation of business firms. More specifically the impact that a number of accident characteristics have on the reputational re-evaluations of two particular stakeholder groups, industry executives and financial analysts, is investigated with data drawn from Lexis-Nexis and the America's Most Admired Corporations (AMAC) survey of FORTUNE magazine. Finally, the third paper of the dissertation examines the Brent Spar controversy to investigate two issues of importance in the management of reputational crises: the reasons behind a company's decisions to buffer or bridge when faced with a reputational crisis; and, the role of stakeholder salience in this decision.

This case study examines adult participation in learning. Ethnographic methods were employed to document classroom processes and participant perceptions in an adult basic education class. Classroom observations showed that learner participation was for the most part initiated by the teacher rather than by the students. Analysis of the data indicated a close link between the defined teacher and learner roles and the participants' shared perceptions of the teacher as the expert. Analysis also showed that teacher-student interaction was influenced by the teacher's past teaching experience and by her perceptions of the students and their needs. The results of this study demonstrate a need for teacher preparation designed both to increase awareness of appropriate adult education methods, and to provide experience in active learner participation. The study also highlights the importance of dialogue between teachers and learners as a means of involving learners in the learning process.

Graduation date: 1980

An individual who is diagnosed with an inherited bleeding disorder is expected to manage his or her condition on a daily basis. This chronic situation can totally disrupt psychosocial functioning and make it more difficult to adjust to the illness. Other researchers have studied this phenomenon in various other chronic illnesses; however, not in individuals with inherited bleeding disorders (Akkasilpa, et al, 2000, Pollack, 1989a, 1989b). Psychosocial problems are not restricted to individuals with one chronic illness and clinically, it is noted that some individuals adjust to chronic diseases better than others. Individuals living with inherited bleeding disorders may also have other chronic illnesses such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes mellitus (DM), congestive heart failure (CHF), arthritis, and hepatitis A, B, C and/or HN. The aims of this study are to describe health stressors, health related hardiness, perception of illness impact, self perception of health status and psychosocial adjustment to illness in individuals living with an inherited bleeding disorder; to determine relationships between demographic and illness variables, health stressors, health related hardiness, perception of illness impact, self­ perception of health status and psychosocial adjustment to illness; and to determine if perception of illness impact has a direct and/or mediating effect on the relationship between health stressors, health related hardiness, and self-perception ofhealth status and psychosocial adjustment to illness. A cross sectional survey design was used in this study. Sixty individuals of predominantly Asian Pacific Islander ethnicity diagnosed with hemophilia, von Willebrand's Disease, Factor V or as hemophilia carriers comprised the sample which was drawn from the Hemophilia Treatment Center of Hawaii. All participants were asked to complete five questionnaires: Demographic form and illness information, health related hardiness scale (Pollock, 1990), perception of illness impact scale, self-perception of health status and psychosocial adjustment to illness scale (Derogatis, 1990). Higher health stressors were associated with higher perception of illness impact, lower perception of health status and poorer psychosocial adjustment to illness. Individuals with higher hardiness were better adjusted to their illness. Higher perception of illness impact was associated with lower self-perception of health status and poorer psychosocial adjustment to illness. Higher self-perception of health status was associated with better psychosocial adjustment to illness. Perception of illness impact did mediate the relationship between health related hardiness and psychosocial adjustment to illness. Perception of illness impact did not mediate the relationship between health stressors and psychosocial adjustment to illness, between health stressors and self-perception of health status, and between health related hardiness and self-perception of health status. The knowledge generated from this study has the potential to impact the existing practices in improving evidence-based nursing practice in caring for individuals with inherited bleeding disorders. Future research is indicated with a large sample to determine differences between diagnosed individuals and carriers, between various Asian Pacific Islander cultural groups, and to determine replicability of the findings from this smaller study sample.

Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a potentially lethal form of child abuse. Primary prevention efforts have been targeted towards educating the general population, especially pregnant women and new parents, about the dangers of shaking. It is hypothesized that there are identifiable perinatal risk fadors for children that make them more at risk for injury from SBS than other forms of Abusive Head Trauma (AHT). All hospitalized children with suspected AHT (n=206) over a 14-year period who were referred to a multidisciplinary child protection center, were identified. The records of 24 children were not included in the study because they were not available for review, the child did not have a primary head injury, or the child was adopted and birth records were not available. Nonaccidental injury was confirmed in 116 of the remaining children. These included 72 (62%) children fitting SBS criteria, and 44 (38%) children identified as having other AHT. Case analysis included review of hospital and multidisciplinary child protection center records. The SBS and AHT groups were compared to separate perinatal risk fadors that might assist in identifying children at increased risk for SBS. Results of the analysis demonstrated that there was no significant difference between groups evident in the perinatal history. These preliminary findings support the follOWing conclusion that in contrast to many published reports, the perinatal information on the child did not provide significant pre-injury risk identifiers. It was concluded that changes in early educational programs and media campaigns are needed to reduce the sequalae of head trauma in infants and children. Programs must focus on AHT in general, rather than only SBS.

Firms adopting an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) can be described as firms that take risks, are proactive in pursuing opportunities, compete aggressively with their industry rivals, launch products that change market boundaries and market behaviour, and grant employees autonomy to facilitate the generation of such radical innovation. Although an EO has been widely investigated in entrepreneurship research, only a few attempts have been undertaken to refine and broaden the EO construct since its development in the early 1980s. The two characteristics competitive aggressiveness and autonomy have only recently been added to an EO. This thesis argues that more components should be incorporated to achieve a more comprehensive EO construct: opportunity recognition, growth commitment and organisational learning. The current thesis suggests that an EO, as it is currently acknowledged in the literature, is in need of further refinement. More specifically, a detailed examination of the construct reveals several inconsistencies such as equivocal EO definitions (actual entrepreneurial behaviours and practices vs. propensities to act entrepreneurially), ambiguous EO components and poorly operationalised scales. Furthermore, the psychometric properties of an EO have not been clearly specified (unidimensional vs. multidimensional, formative vs. reflexive). Due to these discrepancies, this thesis calls for a clearer and more comprehensive discussion of an EO along with a more valid EO scale. One of the consequences of an EO as presented in this thesis is that of driving markets. A firm�s ability to drive markets is considered a vital means with which to achieve firm success and long-term survival. Firms that drive markets engage in radical innovation, shape the needs of current and future customers, and change the market structure they are operating in. Unfortunately, however, firms often focus too closely on current customers and their needs, competitors and market conditions - that is, are market-driven. Instead of altering the composition of a market and/or the behaviours of market players, market-driven firms work within the confines of their markets, promoting incremental innovation rather than radical innovation. Despite the importance of driving markets behaviours for firm success, there is little theoretical and empirical evidence to support how driving markets behaviours can be achieved. In order to address this gap, this thesis calls upon an EO as one possible antecedent of driving markets behaviours. Thus, following the development of an improved EO construct, this thesis then moves to establish a theoretical framework that describes an EO and its impact on driving markets/market-driven behaviours. To help establish an EO�s predictive validity, the framework is further enriched by adding a market orientation (MO), thereby comparing and contrasting both an EO and a MO in relation to driving markets and market-driven behaviours The data used for this research is based upon a study of 836 New Zealand firms. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to test for unidimensionality and to set up stable measurement models for all constructs in question. Structural equation modeling is then applied to examine an EO�s psychometric properties and the relationship between an EO, a MO and driving markets/market-driven behaviours. The findings indicate that an EO is a multidimensional and formative construct, yet with only four contributing dimensions (R&D, proactiveness, autonomy, and growth commitment). It is further shown that an EO has a very strong direct impact on driving markets behaviours and also influences such behaviours considerably more than a MO. The same can be said about an EO�s effect on market-driven behaviours. A MO�s direct impact on driving markets/market-driven behaviours is somewhat diminished by the suppressive negative effects of the responsiveness dimension of the MO construct, particularly on driving markets behaviours. Subsequent analysis shows that unlike an EO, a MO does not lead to driving markets behaviours, but rather to market-driven behaviours. In contrast, an EO is found to represent a more balanced approach, since it triggers both driving markets and market-driven behaviours.

The Theory of Disruptive Technologies put forward by Clayton Christensen in 1997 has attracted significant attention. This case study tests the hypothesis that the theory is generalisable to new situations. It uses datasource triangulation by using document, statistical and interview analyses (including investigator triangulation) to apply the Theory to Australian Digital Theses Program (ADT) and finds that the Program may indeed be a disruptive technology in relation to academic libraries, universities and to the publishing industry. However, it has greater potential to be disruptive in the latter, and to be a sustaining technology, as defined by the Theory, in relation to libraries and universities.

Recent international regulatory reforms have put more responsibility on auditors for detecting financial statement fraud. The recent changes to international auditing standards make it compulsory for members of the audit team to discuss the susceptibility of an entity to fraudulent misstatements at the audit planning stage. These standards do not stipulate the format of these group discussions, nor provide any explicit guidelines on how to carry out effective discussions. This dissertation reports on two studies that examine different discussion techniques which could lead to a better identification of audit fraud risks at the audit planning stage, and may in turn help in fraud detection. Study One tests whether two enhanced forms of interacting group processes (brainstorming guidelines and premortem instructions) have advantages over an interacting group (without brainstorming guidelines). The brainstorming group is provided with Osborn???s (1957) original brainstorming guidelines. Premortem is a variation of the mental simulation idea developed by Klein (1999) invoking a scenario where participants actively search for a flaw in their plans. The auditors in both the brainstorming group treatment and the premortem group treatment generated a larger number of potential frauds than the interacting group treatment. These results were robust across a range of dependent variables used to measure quantity and quality of fraud items. The results also show that more premortem groups listed rare frauds compared to the other two group structures. There was a negative relationship between the number of items listed and the assessed likelihood of fraud. Participants who estimated a higher likelihood of fraud provided a more complete mental simulation of how a fraud could be perpetrated. Study Two focuses on the individual brainstorming phase which may occur before the group brainstorming session. It examines whether giving additional brainstorming guidelines and task decomposing (in addition to the original brainstorming guidelines), improve performance compared to having only the original brainstorming guidelines. Both the additional brainstorming guidelines and the task decomposition treatments generated a larger number of potential frauds than the brainstorming guidelines treatment. Task decomposition helps participants focus equally on all task subcategories leading to a more diverse set of ideas.