This study explores the role of managers and manager-owners in decisions to engage the community and select particular social causes. This exploratory study aims to investigate why and how individuals impact on corporate community involvement (CCI) in their organisations. This is of significance in New Zealand as corporate philanthropic funding to the non-profit sector accounts for only three percent, which is low by international comparisons (Tennant, O’Brien & Sanders, 2008). The role of managers and their influence on CCI has been vociferously debated, with some arguing that personal impact should be limited and CCI decisions should be made solely according to profit maximisation. This perspective has used a rational and cognitive model of decision making paired with the Expectancy or reward/reinforcement theory in motivation to argue that management rationally considers the firm and then selects the best strategic option. This study turns to contemporary psychology to propose that managers may use ‘hot’ mental processing, including making CCI decisions based on values, emotions, ideologies and their own sense of identity. This study utilises a two-stage mixed method approach. The first stage investigated six respondents utilising a phenomenology approach to give a detailed description of each manager’s frame of reference and how this frame of reference impacted CCI outcomes. The second stage of this study progressed from a description to offering a theoretical explanation of the phenomenon, investigating the variables influencing how managers expressed their personal frame of reference in behaviour and the consequential impact on CCI decision making. This study found that managers and manager-owners held a strong sense of values, well defined ideologies, emotions, preferences and opinions regarding social issues which constructed the frame of reference surrounding their organisations community involvement. However, the existence of the personal frame of reference did not consistently impact the visible behaviour of individuals or their organisation’s corporate community involvement. Cold or rational thinking was shown to mitigate the impact of hot processing or alternatively post-justify decisions based on hot mental processing to validate the initial decision or alter how it was communicated within the organisation. Whether the personal frame of reference impacted CCI decision-making was influenced by the depth of the frame of reference, the internal mental dialogue regarding the acceptability of effectiveness of hot or cold decision making and task, organisational, and personal variables. This study offers a critique of extant research based on rational cognitive models and offers an alternative explanation for why and how managers champion CCI in their organisations. Further, through providing a deeper understanding of the roles of managers this thesis provides recommendations for non-profit organisations strategising to target the corporate sector for funding and provides some insights into how to mitigate or encourages the use of hot mental processing within CCI decision making.

The underlying context of this work is the mismatch between the systems that we need to comply with and what our spirit and intuition wants and needs. The thesis questions the relevance of spiritless corporate systems set up to serve the ‘best interest’ of human beings and other living things. Corporate systems have been established to comply with governing laws, to facilitate transaction of money and provide financial accountability to stakeholders and clients – spiritless matters. Corporate systems are ill equipped to protect our emotional and spiritual boundaries, our tangible and intangible links to the past and to the future. Spirit, which is the essence of life, is often not understood, discussed or included in the planning, development and implementation of the very systems that govern and impact on our lives and our communities. If spirit is included it is often well intended but rhetorical. Spirit needs to be revived and provided time, place and purpose, not only in our broader lives but also in our work cultures. Without spirit, facts have no meaning or relevance to life. This thesis searches for solutions to fill this spiritual gap in corporate systems, drawing on the experiences and lessons gained through engaging with communities and corporate systems in Australian and international contexts. The search covers a study of oral tradition(spirit),the impact of the lack of credibility afforded to oral tradition, developing and trialling common-ground terminology and frameworks befitting both corporate and spiritual systems across different industry sectors, the isolation of arts and culture from other sectors, the role of community development arts practices, and aspects of social science and urban development theories. The research traces the development and implementation of a cultural planning program for Western Australia through policy development at State government level and then framework development undertaken through Community Arts Network WA. The development of this cultural planning program draws on the contribution of diverse industry sector partners and this thesis research explains how their perspectives can contribute to the revival of spirit in corporate systems. The partnerships involved are business planning, town planning, community psychology, vocation, education and training, and sustainability. Having contributed to the development of the broader frameworks for the implementation of cultural planning across the State and beyond, this research delves further into addressing the issue of reviving spirit in corporate systems through refining the First (spirit) and Third Person (corporate) approach to cultural planning. This method is based on a key Spirit Catalyst called The First and Third Person Systems. This key Spirit Catalyst provides a guide for balance between spirit and corporate systems. There are a total of seven secondary Spirit Catalysts cited. Comparisons and contrasts between First and Third Person cultural planning process and strategic planning are provided. Principles and protocols and tools for evaluating spirit have been developed as part of the process. In keeping with the first person nature of spirit, personal narrative is used wherever possible to give life and meaning to facts and other planning and management processes.

This thesis traces the mechanisms and sources responsible for the generation of civic social capital (a set of shared norms and values that promote cooperation between groups, enabling them to participate in the political process) by black churches in West Perrine, Florida. Data for this thesis includes over fifty interviews and participant observations, archival records, newspaper articles, and scholarly journals. Despite the institutional racism of the first half of the twentieth century, many blacks and whites in Perrine developed levels of trust significant enough to form an integrated local governing body, evidence of high levels of csc. At mid-century, when black and white interactions ceased, Perrine's csc decreased, leading to the deterioration of Perrine's social and physical conditions. Perrine's csc increased in the1980s by way of broad-based coalitions as Perrine's churches invested their csc in an effort to eradicate crime, clean up its neighborhood, and win back its youth.

abstract: This dissertation sought to understand how leaders in a public-private strategic alliance collaboratively address complex community problems. The study responded to the gap in academic research of leadership and public relations in alliances to solve complex social issues, as well as the scant scholarly attention to alliance leaders' communications with stakeholders. Its findings corresponded to framing theory, stakeholder theory, SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) theory, complexity theory, and the subtopic of complex leadership -- all through the lens of public relations. This investigation culminated in the introduction of the C.A.L.L. to Action Model of Community Engagement, which demonstrates the confluence of factors that were integral to the alliance's success in eliminating chronic homelessness among veterans in Maricopa County, Arizona -- Communication, Alliance, Leadership, and Leverage. This qualitative case study used the method of elite or in-depth interviews and grounded theory to investigate the factors present in a community engagement that achieved its purpose. It served as a foundation for future inquiry and contributions to the base of knowledge, including 1) additional qualitative case studies of homeless alliances in other communities or of other social issues addressed by a similar public-private alliance; 2) quantitative methods, such as a survey of the participants in this alliance to provide triangulation of the results and establish a platform for generalization of the results to a larger population. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Journalism and Mass Communication 2015

This thesis seeks to explain, via four key reasons, the shifting role that women have played in the self-determination movement in Kashmir over time. It focuses on the rise of young women in stone-pelting protests, analyzed through the lens of recent events that have triggered protests, the role of Islamism with regards to women in Kashmir, and the role of young women in the conflict generation. More importantly, the author analyzes the protests of women who have lost family members to enforced disappearances at the hands of the state. It is found that these women use a political strategy that upholds the politics of respectability and relies on the visual, which young women in stone pelting protests also rely on to highlight their cause.

This study examines Sustainable Community Development (SCD) in the context of the Baltic Sea Region. The research focuses on understanding a model for SCD piloted in Robertsfors, Sweden. The model is said to be transferable to any community around the world. This study seeks to understand the concepts and tools used in the Robertsfors Model. It also examines whether the model is strategic with regards to sustainability and whether it is successful in engaging the local community around these issues. Considerations for transferability are also addressed, focusing specifically on the Eastern Baltic Sea Region. Opportunities for improving the model are also studied. A combination of secondary research, in the form of literature review and primary research (structured interviews and questionnaires) was used to explore these questions. Propositions about SCD and questions for further research emerged from this study.

This paper describes a community coalition-university partnership to address health needs in an underserved US-Mexico border, community. For approximately 15 years, this coalition engaged in community-based participatory research with community organizations, state/local health departments, and the state's only accredited college of public health. Notable efforts include the systematic collection of health-relevant data 12 years apart and data that spawned numerous health promotion activities. The latter includes specific evidence-based chronic disease-preventive interventions, including one that is now disseminated and replicated in Latino communities in the US and Mexico, and policy-level changes. Survey data to evaluate changes in a range of health problems and needs, with a specific focus on those related to diabetes and access to healthcare issues-identified early on in the coalition as critical health problems affecting the community-are presented. Next steps for this community and lessons learned that may be applicable to other communities are discussed.

Informed by archival data and oral history interviews, this dissertation explored stories of the lived experiences of the stakeholders of Mercer University’s Beloved Community. The goal was to gain insight into how higher educational institutions (HEIs) engaged community partners to address long-term racial injury through the process of racial reconciliation. This study included the insights of 18 participants in a racial reconciliation project named the Beloved Community; which began in 2005 and was sponsored by Mercer University, a private higher educational institution; formerly affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention. An aim of the project was to sustain a frank discourse within a safe, public forum, that would address the present and past injuries of racial segregation at the local church level and include the injured in problem solving. Mercer is one of few formerly segregated southern universities engaged in such an endeavor. The research questions were: 1) What do Mercer University’s Beloved Community stakeholders perceive as the primary goals of higher educational institutions in addressing racial reconciliation? 2) What are Mercer University’s Beloved Community stakeholders’ perceptions and lived experiences of racial reconciliation, through this project? 3) What patterns and contradictions are there in the stakeholders’ stories about their perceptions and lived experiences of racial reconciliation? The findings validate the research of Androff (2012) that reconciliation is a slow process, occurring at multiple levels, and provides insights into such an endeavor at a local level. Further, this study found that enactment of the project is influenced by social identity, collective memory, and intergroup interaction. A culture of social reconciliation, in the form of building interpersonal relationships and creating forums for racial dialogue, was the dominant form of reconciliation found within Mercer’s Beloved Community. This study is significant in examining the role of HEIs who include community partners to extend sustained scholarship, learning, and civic engagement.

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe parents' and caregivers' retrospective experiences of a higher education-rural school partnership providing educational psychology services. The study aimed to inform knowledge on community engagement with schools and forms part of the broad FLY (Flourishing Learning Youth) community engagement initiative that has been ongoing since 2006. The current study utilised interpretivism as metatheory and qualitative research as methodological paradigm. An instrumental case study design was utilised, with a specific higher education-rural school partnership conveniently sampled. Subsequently twelve parents or caregivers to a child/ren who participated in the relevant community engagement initiative at any time since 2006, were purposefully selected. Two field visits were taken for data collection purposes; the first included Participatory Reflection and Action (PRA) discussions between participants, whilst the second visit entailed member checking. I relied on written recording of the participants' dialogue on PRA posters, audio recordings of their poster presentations, observations throughout the process, photographs taken and a reflective journal as data collection and documentation strategies. From thematic data analysis two main themes emerged. Firstly, participants identified the partnership as a platform of educational opportunity, which allowed for children's development on a cognitive and socio-emotional level. Secondly, participants emphasised their hope for the continuation and growth of the partnership in the future. Participants expect the partnership to broaden in multiple ways, such as involving parents and caregivers, providing them with a safe space to voice their opinions, and incorporating a parental guidance element. Based on the findings of the study I can conclude that according to parents and caregivers, community engagement with schools provides an opportunity for the mobilisation of children assets to result in their positive development. Furthermore, when additionally activating the assets of the parents, community engagement can be strengthened. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

In contrast with mainstream Canadian youth, First Nations youth experience many health disparities. Researchers recommended that interventions designed to promote First Nations youth development use a strengths-based lens that recognizes contextual challenges. Furthermore, leadership programming for First Nations youth has begun to show promising outcomes. The overall purpose of this research was to examine the Youth Leadership Program (YLP) program to gain an understanding of program implementation and perceived outcomes related to both individual and community development. Two studies were conducted to fulfil the research purpose. The first study applied a qualitative approach that examined contextual dynamics, implementation issues (Article 1) and perceived impacts (Article 2). Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. Overall, 12 program staff (5 females), one Elder (male) and 10 youth (8 females) participated in semi-structured interviews. In addition, 11 youth (7 females) participated in two focus groups. The data from the youth and staff were included in the first study. The focus group data was included in the second study. In Article 1, findings were categorized into strategies for success and challenges. The following six themes were identified within the strategies for success: (a) designing youth engagement strategies, (b) being creative and adaptable, (c) being a positive presence, (d) applying experiential learning techniques, (e) balancing the integration of culture with youth voice and (f) identifying partnerships and developing relationships with the community. The three themes relating to challenges were (a) community diversity, (b) social issues and (c) staff burn-out. In Article 2, data analysis resulted in three themes that describe the perceived program effects at the participant, staff and community levels. The three major themes include: a) progressive leadership development, b) enhanced relationships and c) increased community participation. Within the second study (Article 3), methods were based on youth participatory evaluation and Photovoice and the design included capacity building, stakeholder analysis, photo exploration and utilization-focused activities. Using a thematic analysis, five themes were identified: (a) fun and fulfilling to engage the children, (b) positive outcomes for youth leaders, (c) community impacts, (d) challenges and (e) opportunities for improvement. Findings for each study are discussed in relation to current theory and practice, and recommendations are provided for future research and programming. This research makes contributions to applied positive youth development programming, community-based research with First Nations youth, youth-led participatory research and developmental systems theory.