This comparative study of the corporate public relations strategies of the nuclear industry in the U.S. and Britain, specifically of Florida Power & Light (FP&L) in Florida and Scottish Nuclear Limited (SNL) in Scotland, examines the use of visitor centres and environmental messages as key components of advocational campaigns designed to influence public opinion and shape public policy in favour of a pro-nuclear agenda. The study would seem to confirm other research that draws a direct relationship between the function of public relations in an organisation and the degree of input by public relations into corporate policy-making. Moreover, the data also suggest that, given a prominent role within an organisation, public relations can and does develop strategies and programmes to pro-actively manage emerging strategic public policy issues in direct support of organisational objectives Such programmes, as the study reveals, have been designed specifically around visitor centres as communication vehicles for corporate pronuclear messages, carried directly to key publics without gatekeeping by the mass media. Moreover, it would appear that the nuclear industry has been intentionally 'greening' its corporate messages so as to capitalise upon the public's growing concern about the environment. The study also suggests that the nuclear industry is using such centres, as well as newer, emerging advocational initiatives, in a fully promotional sense to circulate and thereby enhance the reputation of the industry. A comparative analysis of corporate nuclear public relations in the U.S. and Britain suggests a 'cross-national' exchange of intelligence, and in some respects, an outright collusion of efforts. Moreover, it would seem that there exists a further government-industry alliance both within the U.S. and Britain as well as trans-Atlantically. This alliance represents a convergence of government and industry interests in the development of nuclear energy for military and civilian purposes, and further illustrates earlier research of collusion among politicaleconomic elites and the over representation of corporate interests at the expense of unorganised public interests in the government decision-making process. Finally, the study argues that upcoming public policy decisions on the future of nuclear power in each country will be a measure of the effectiveness of pro-nuclear campaigning in achieving its objectives. The public debate on nuclear power will represent a genuine test of the relative health of democracy in both the U.S. and Britain, nation-states in which, military-industry-government interests mostly have had their way as it has concerned nuclear energy.

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Anchored on the "uncertainty reduction by learning" perspective, most research on organizational socialization has emphasized the role of information acquisition in newcomers' socialization, stressing that the more information newcomers acquire, the more effective the socialization process will be. However, not all of the new information is compatible with the newcomers' previous experience. The learning approach fails to explain and predict the whole story of organizational socialization because the approach does not substantively address the different natures characterizing the information that newcomers receive in work settings: namely, the compatibility and the incompatibility with the newcomers' previous experience. As a result, research on the mechanisms of organizational socialization has not sufficiently explained the aspect of newcomers' adaptation in socialization. / Keywords: socialization, primary control, secondary control, p-o fit / To fill in this void, this dissertation has proposed and tested a model examining the consequences and antecedents of three parallel mechanisms of socialization processes from both the socialization-learning perspective and the control perspective. On top of previous socialization-content mechanisms deriving from the socialization-learning approach, the control perspective explains how newcomers deal with incompatible information during their early organizational experiences by introducing two coping mechanisms: primary control and secondary control. Moreover, this dissertation examines the different effects of learning, primary control, and secondary control on different adaptation outcomes, such as performance, person-organization fit, job stress, and turnover intention. To further investigate certain organizational factors through which the three socialization mechanisms, especially primary and secondary control, are activated, I have introduced a new concept: organizational secure base. I have argued that an organization's secure base can help newcomers develop a secure attachment to their organization and can, in tum, lead to different usages of the primary and secondary control strategies. / To test the hypothesized relationships in the model, I conducted two studies. In study one, I developed and validated two scales for primary control and secondary control in an organizational context. In study two, I conducted a time-lag study with a sample of 150 newcomers from three organizations. Results of study two support my argument that there are several parallel socialization-process mechanisms, which function together to affect adaptation outcomes. Most ofthe hypotheses concerning the distinct consequences of each of the three parallel mechanisms were supported. Organizational secure base was also found to be an important organizational factor for newcomers' adaptation. Implications for theory and managerial practices, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed. / Jiang, Yan. / Adviser: Kenneth S. Law. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-113). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract and appendix B also in Chinese; appendix C in Chinese only.

Virtual collaboration-the act of working together across boundaries of space, time, and organization, aided by technology-has become increasingly commonplace in recent years. Doing so, however, presents a number of challenges to those involved. One of these is that because of a lack of experience in collaborating through computer-based collaboration systems, there is little knowledge on how to carry out collaboration virtually. Another is that it is not easy for those not directly involved in the collaboration to know what is, and has been, 'going on' during virtual collaboration. This thesis suggests that both of these challenges can be addressed with the same approach, namely by referring to observations of virtual collaboration. The problem then is how such observations of virtual collaboration can be obtained without requiring those involved in it to document their own actions. To address this problem is the objective of this thesis. The approach proposed here involves three elements: firstly, the collection of data about virtual collaboration; secondly, the modeling of this data; and thirdly, the derivation of increasingly abstract, larger-scale representations of virtual collaboration from this data. These representations are termed patterns of virtual collaboration, which are abstract descriptions of activities of virtual collaboration. A multi-layered conceptual model of information, the Information Pyramid of Virtual Collaboration, is proposed, providing different views of information related to virtual collaboration, at different levels of abstraction. The thesis then suggests how from a given body of data, patterns of virtual collaboration at a corresponding level of the Information Pyramid can be extracted, and how from collections of such patterns more abstract patterns of larger-scale activity can be derived, providing the observations of virtual collaboration sought. In considering how the extraction of patterns of virtual collaboration fits into the larger context of the conception, design, and use of collaboration systems, a Framework for Pattern Extraction and Feedback is proposed. This framework introduces the notion of collaboration memory, a type of organizational memory that contains records of collaborative activity. Moreover, the framework suggests how extracted patterns of virtual collaboration feed back into both ongoing development and use of collaboration systems. Finally, the modeling and extraction of patterns of virtual collaboration is illustrated in a case study involving the LIVENET collaboration system.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Michael Bruner, committee chair; Shirlene Holmes, David Cheshier, committee members. Electronic text (106 p. : ill. (some col.)). Description based on contents viewed Apr. 25, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-86).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-242). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-61).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Sirkka Jarvenpaa. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

Thesis (M.S.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2004. / Thesis advisor: Glynis Fitzgerald. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Department of Communication. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-92). Also available via the World Wide Web.