Humanitarian interventions increasingly use safe spaces as part of their work on SGBV prevention, mitigation and response. Therefore, this thesis examines how safe spaces have affected refugee women in the regional response to the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. The method is a literature review analysing reports, news articles and guidelines. The analysis uses the concepts of empowerment and gendered conflict theory for a deeper understanding of what consequences safe spaces have on refugee women in terms of empowerment and strengthened role in society. The analysis shows that safe spaces are integrated with other sectors and have enabled creation of regional standardization and cross-border protection. Response plans incorporate empowerment as a central aspect with awareness-raising, community outreach, economic empowerment, social support and community resilience key components. It also showed an increased need of safe spaces at unofficial border crossings and that gender stereotypes continue to place women at risk in Venezuela and countries of destination.

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This dissertation presents an extension of the warlord competition models found in Skaperdas (2002) and Konrad and Skaperdas (2012). I consider two non-parasitic warlords located on a line. Each warlord allocates resources for the extraction of natural resources, the production of goods and services, and conflict with the opposing warlord. Within the symmetric rates of seizure model, I use three different forms of the contest success function, a primary tool in the conflict theory literature, in my analysis. I show that the warlord closer to the point of conflict will invest less into the hiring of warriors and more into the production of goods and services, yet wins a larger proportion of total goods and services produced within the economy. Under certain conditions, the placement of the point of conflict at the midpoint between the two warlords maximizes the total resources toward war and minimizes total production. Under the asymmetric rates of seizure model, I find that the warlord closer to the point of conflict invests more in warfare and less in production; that is, results that counter what is found in the symmetric model. / Economics

Research has established that national homeland security policy requires a whole community or all-of-nation approach to national security preparedness. What is less clear is whether all stakeholders are integrated into or benefit from this collective effort. This narrative policy analysis examined the relationship between a federally-recognized group of Native American tribal nations and homeland security national preparedness to explore whether tribal nations are effectively integrated with the collective effort for national preparedness. The theoretical framework stemmed from a convergence of social contract theory and conflict theory. Interviews (n = 21) were conducted with preparedness authorities from government agencies, and from tribal nations and nongovernmental organizations that advocate on behalf of tribal nations. Data were analyzed using Roe's narrative policy analysis technique. Results revealed areas of convergence of the government and tribal narratives on the historical disenfranchisement of tribal nations; findings also showed areas of divergence on how to better integrate tribal nations in homeland security national preparedness. The study concludes with a number of recommendations highlighting the manner in which national interests and tribal nation preparedness interests are intertwined. This study suggests that the nation's homeland security may be better served by greater inclusion of tribal nations in national preparedness efforts. The results of this study contribute to positive social change by giving voice to a heretofore disenfranchised social group, Native Americans, and by allowing them to strengthen the metanarrative of homeland security national preparedness.

<p>This paper aims to examine how employee motivation is affected during the operational combination stage of a merger between two relatively small Swedish professional service firms. This is done through a quantitative study conducted by examining the relationship between employee motivation and three approaches; social identity, role conflict and acculturation. Those approaches were first by themselves tested in order to examine the relationship between their respective indicators that represent respective approach. The main result of this study is that the three approaches have a positive significant impact on employee motivation. Therefore, it is important for the professional service firm to take those variables into consideration when formulating future strategies and when trying to improve the organizational climate.</p>

This paper aims to examine how employee motivation is affected during the operational combination stage of a merger between two relatively small Swedish professional service firms. This is done through a quantitative study conducted by examining the relationship between employee motivation and three approaches; social identity, role conflict and acculturation. Those approaches were first by themselves tested in order to examine the relationship between their respective indicators that represent respective approach. The main result of this study is that the three approaches have a positive significant impact on employee motivation. Therefore, it is important for the professional service firm to take those variables into consideration when formulating future strategies and when trying to improve the organizational climate.

This paper explores the political behavior process in information system implementation process. The organizational politics is the critical success/failure factor in the IS implementation process. We expect to understand, in different organizational contexts, what kind of political behavior will occur? What will be the events and processes of these political behaviors? Who's idea? At what time? In what setting? What will be the interaction among these dimensions? How will these political behaviors affect IS outcome and organization? This study will explain political behavior in IS implementation process from different interpretations and perspectives. This study relies on qualitative data collected from two cases--manufacturer Theta and government enterprise Delta--in the forms of interviews, documented data, archival data, and observation over eight month. The data are interpreted through five internally coherent theoretical perspectives: personal perspective, strategic contingency theory, conflict theory, social exchange theory, and structuration theory. Contributions include the following. In practice, we group 35 kind of political behavior into four types: aggression, defense, strengthen, withdrawal. Besides the adverse effects, some kinds of political behavior can lead to the success of the project. The detailed descriptions we use to describe the political behavior process in IS implementation process can help in similar cases to show how to reduce or prevent any negative consequences. Academically, we conduct contextual and process theory analyses of these processes, and use five theoretical perspectives to interpret these phenomena.

The economic dimension of conflicts has enjoyed increasing attention in research dealing with the dynamics of contemporary conflict. The nexus between natural resources, economics and conflict has played a defining role in a number of Africa’s most intractable conflicts during the 1990s and early 2000s. The underlying assumption of this study is that the economic dimension of conflict can be hugely informative in terms of an understanding as to why peace agreements fail and in that sense can contribute to the resolution of conflicts if taken into account during the formulation of peace agreements. This study explores the ways in which conflict theory has dealt with the conflict-economics nexus, analyzing the extent to which theory illuminates the conflict reality in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the period August 1998 to August 2004. It determines to what degree peace agreements in the DRC have taken the economic dimension and insights gained from the academic exploration of this topic into account during the negotiation and formulation of these agreements. In conclusion the study proposes a number of recommendations in terms of the peace process in the DRC with possible wider application for other peace agreements. / Dissertation (MA (International Relations))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

In 2016, over 47,000 youths in the state of Florida were served by the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) probation services. While on probation, these youths were exposed to 2 different, and potentially conflicting disciplinary management systems. Youth are under the authority of juvenile probation officers (JPOs), who are bound to a consequence-based management approach. This approach is guided by negative reinforcement. The youths are simultaneously engaged with staff from diversion programs, many of which are strengths-based and guided by positive reinforcement. According to the ecosystemic complexity theory of conflict, exposure to incongruent systems can have negative effects such as confusion and ineffectiveness. By applying a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, I explored the responses to this convergence point from the perspective of 9 strengths-based school counseling staff members who supervise the youth that navigate between these 2 different behavior modification systems. This sample of 9 staff members also work directly with JPOs. Data were collected using iterative versions of semistructured interviews and analyzed using content analysis. Findings revealed that conflict did exist at the convergence point, and that cohesion, on varying levels, also existed, and that solutions to the philosophical incompatibility have emerged. This research contributes to social change by illuminating the possible conflict inherent in implementing incongruent approaches to behavior management, which may inform policymakers regarding program management for juvenile justice.

Since conflict studies became its own independent field, it has developed rapidly. Some argue conflict researchers must demonstrate that while conflict occurs at different social levels (e.g., inter-personal to international), there must be sufficient common attributes to justify its existence as an independent field. This justification requires formal theory based on a multi-disciplinary approach. Since its introduction in 1964, the substantive Dual Concerns Model (DCM) and subsequent iterations, have provided the basis for instruments used to research conflict management, behavior, mode, and style outside the narrow scope of its original sample group of Caucasian male managers within a large American industrial plant. Instruments based on the DCM were used to represent conflict behavior within, between, and across cultures. An emic theory was expanded to etic theory and used in place of formal theory. Therefore, this theoretical dissertation fills this void and develops formal (etic) theory. This researcher used comparative analysis to examine 187 quantitative studies from a variety of disciplines, with a cumulative sample size from these studies of 63,619 individuals. These studies examined conflict resolution behavior individually or with 274 other variables to provide the framework for developing a formal theory. The finding of this research is the development of the Pierre-Louis Conflict Continuum Model (PCCM), which examines behavior through the dimensions of cultural values, as represented by individualism and collectivism, and legitimacy of power and ideology. This research contributes a new theoretical paradigm to the field of conflict studies.