No description available.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Major gaps exist in the understanding of career development across diverse population groups and cultures, a lacuna that postmodern career counselling approaches aim to address. Career choices have been historically constrained for many South Africans by the Apartheid system, indicating the prescribing effects that socio-political and economic factors exert on the field of career psychology. Because disadvantaged adolescents are such an under-researched group, research is needed to provide cogent accounts of their experiences. The Systems Theory Framework of career development (STF) was chosen to contextualise the multitude of career influences present in facing a key life transition in Makupula High School learners in the Kayamandi township. The present research examined the complex interplay of contextual influences that impacts this sample of Grade 12 learners in making career decisions, to provide insight into perceived career opportunities, enablers and unique contextual constraints. The research aimed to identify individual, social and environmental-societal level influences present in career decision-making, using the qualitative career measure My Systems of Career Influences (MSCI) as well as individual interviews and a focus group. Respondents‟ accounts of self-awareness, surrounding environmental resources, influences of significant others (parents, teachers and peers), and past, present and future effects were analysed. At an individual level, a scarcity of opportunities for self-reflection and critical thinking was observed, which culminated in limited insight into personal abilities and poor integration of personal information in occupational choices. High self-efficacy beliefs and expectations were noted, with a sense of responsibility assumed for constructing successful career paths. However, high order cognitive processes, such as future planning, were absent, showing the need for career counselling to build career adaptability and resilience. Social level influences were the most prominent influences, indicating the importance attached to family support, although a lack of parental involvement in career planning was voiced due to the low occupational status of parents. The school context provided examples of subject mastery and career information from teachers; in contrast, friends were described as dual entities, being supportive and providing negative influences. A lack of visible local role models and success pathways resulted in career choices being based on media depictions of careers as well as media role models, in the absence of additional accessible career information. The theme of career myths illustrated the need for accurate career information, and the theme of cultural identity emerged. Africentric narratives of overcoming suffering formed resilient mechanisms that were linked to a black racial identity, yet constrained movements away from extended family structures and the township. The reconciliation of “western” career aspirations with rural roots in forming a coherent self-concept may be the greatest challenge in vocational identity development for disadvantaged adolescents. At the environmental-societal level, Kayamandi was discussed as an enabling and disadvantageous environment, and reference was made to the resources and language barriers that were inherent in Stellenbosch town. Lastly, MSCI feedback indicated the necessity of reflection processes, and criticisms were also discussed. Themes that emerged from the learners‟ career stories can assist in providing insight that would aid future career development, counselling processes and the creation of context-specific interventions. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Daar bestaan groot leemtes in die verstaan van loopbaan-ontwikkeling by verskillende bevolkingsgroepe en kulture, „n gaping wat postmoderne beroepsberaders poog om aan te spreek. In die verlede is beroepskeuses vir vele Suid-Afrikaners beperk deur die Apartheidstelsel, wat dui op die voorskriftelike impak van sosio-politiese en ekonomiese faktore op die gebied van beroepsielkunde. Gegewe dat daar min navorsing gedoen is aangaande benadeelde adolessente, is navorsing nodig om koherente weergawes van hul ervarings te verskaf. Die Sisteemteorieraamwerk van loopbaan-ontwikkeling (Systems Theory Framework, STF) is gebruik om die menigte van beroeps-invloede te kontekstualiseer wat gepaard gaan met „n belangrike lewensverandering by leerders verbonde aan die Hoërskool Makupula in die Kayamandi-dorpsgebied. Die huidige navorsing het die komplekse wisselwerking van kontekstuele invloede ondersoek wat hierdie steekproef van graad 12-leerders beïnvloed het rakende loopbaankeuses, en poog om die nodige insig te verskaf van waargenome loopbaangeleenthede, ondersteuningsnetwerke (“enablers”) en spesifieke kontekstuele beperkings. Die navorsingsdoelwitte behels die identifisering van individuele-, sosiale- asook omgewings-en-samelewingsvlakke wat loopbaankeuses beïnvloed. Die kwalitatiewe loopbaanmeetinstrument “My Systems of Career Influences” (MSCI), individuele onderhoude en „n fokusgroep is gebruik. Die respondente se weergawes van “self,” beskikbare omgewings-hulpbronne, invloede van betekenisvolle ander (ouers, opvoeders en portuurgroepe) asook die impak van die verlede, hede en die toekoms is ontleed. Die individuele vlak van ontleding het gebreke rakende self-refleksie en kritiese denke aangedui, wat gelei het tot die beperkte insig van persoonlike vermoëns en die gebrekkige integrasie van persoonlike inligting aangaande loopbaankeuses. Die respondente het sterk oortuigings van self-doeltreffendheid getoon, en „n sin van die nodige verantwoordelikheid vir die daarstelling van suksesvolle loopbaanrigtings. Hierteenoor egter het hoë-orde kognitiewe prosesse, soos toekomsbeplanning ontbreek, wat die behoefte aan loopbaanberading getoon het sodat loopbaan aanpasbaarheid en veerkragtigheid ontwikkel kan word. Die sosiale vlak van ontleding het die mees prominente invloede getoon wat die belangrikheid van familie-ondersteuning aandui, alhoewel die gebrekkige betrokkenheid van ouers rakende loopbaanbeplanning geblyk het as gevolg van die die lae beroepstatus van die ouers. Die skoolkonteks het voorbeelde gebied van die vakke wat die respondente bemeester het asook loopbaan-inligting soos verskaf deur die onderwysers; hierteenoor is die vriende beskryf as tweevoudige entiteite wat aan die eenkant ondersteuning bied, maar aan die anderkant ook die negatiewe invloede. „n Gebrek aan sigbare plaaslike rolmodelle en suksesvolle loopbaanrigtings het gelei tot loopbaankeuses wat gebaseer word op die voorstellings van beroepe soos in die media, asook media-rolmodelle in die afwesigheid van aanvullende en toeganklike loopbaan-inligting. The tema van loopbaan-mites het die behoefte aan akkurate loopbaan-inligting ge-illustreer; en die tema rakende kulturele-identiteit het na vore gekom. Afri-sentriese narratiewe van die oorkoming van swaarkry wat gelei het tot veerkragtige hanteringsmeganismes, is gekoppel aan „n swart rasse-identiteit, alhoewel dit ook die bewegings weg van die uitgebreide familie-strukture en die dorpsgebied belemmer. Die versoening van “westerse” loopbaan-verwagtings met die landelike verbondenheit om „n koherente selfkonsep te vorm, kan die grootste uitdaging wees in die ontwikkeling van „n loopbaan-identiteit vir benadeelde adolessente. Op die omgewings-samelewingsvlak van ontleding is die volgende bespreek: Kayamandi as „n bemagtigende én „n nadelige omgewing; die hulpbronne; en probleme aangaande taalkwessies wat deel is van die Stellenbosse gemeenskap. Ten slotte, die MSCI terugvoering het die behoefte aan refleksie-prosesse aangedui en kritiekpunte is ook bespreek. Temas wat geïdentifiseer is in die leerders se loopbaan-stories kan bydra tot die verkryging van insig vir toekomstige loopbaan-ontwikkeling, beradingsprosesse, en vir die ontwikkeling van konteks-spesifieke intervensies.

For some considerable time, client satisfaction has been a problematic issue in the UK construction industry with many projects failing to satisfy the client needs and meet or exceed the client expectations. Client satisfaction is, however, a key performance measure and a major determinant of project success. There is a common belief that strategic decisions made by clients have a significant impact on the levels of client satisfaction. Strategic decisions in the context of construction projects are often associated with project stages including pre-design, design, tender, construction, occupancy & maintenance and disposal and vary in nature. Consequently the impact of strategic decisions on client satisfaction depends as much on timing as on the subjects of the decisions. While such findings are useful to facilitate the industry’s focus on addressing the failure in achieving client satisfaction, and point to the route for improvement, they are arbitrary and do not provide a systematic basis for investigating the real impact on client satisfaction. The nature of strategic decisions and the significance of its impact on client satisfaction have not been clearly identified and client satisfaction has remained an elusive issue for a majority of construction professionals. This research was hence undertaken to seek empirical evidence of an interrelationship between strategic decisions and client satisfaction. Defining strategic decisions, often associated with project stages, as ones that are complex and made under uncertainty and have a long-term impact on project success, a quantitative research methodology combined with qualitative approaches, was adopted in investigating the interrelationship between strategic decisions and client satisfaction. Findings of a detailed literature review revealed that client satisfaction at any stage depends as much on the service quality attributes of service providers including overall service delivery, people of service providers and communications with clients as on the influence of strategic decisions and the client itself. These performance attributes and the groups of strategic decisions, referred as strategic decision cluster (SDC), were further assessed and the relationships between these measures and strategic decisions were examined using factor analysis and multiple regression modelling techniques. Analyses revealed SDCs including Design Approach, Procurement and Implementation predict better the outcomes of service quality and hence higher levels of client satisfaction. Service delivery and communications with clients have a positively significant correlation with the levels of client satisfaction. Of these two attributes, communications with clients makes the largest unique contribution to the variance and is considered the better predictor for client satisfaction. The developed models is validated via external and internal validation and the findings support the thesis that strategic decisions have a impact on client satisfaction by strongly influencing the performance of service quality although causality cannot be assumed. It is recommended that service providers including contractors and consultants devote more efforts to improve their performance on the attributes of service quality identified as having significant association with client satisfaction, particularly service delivery and communications with clients. Further research efforts focusing on providing a practical tool or expert system so as to address the practical issues for a wider range of clients and service providers are also recommended.

The late 1990's was a time of great wealth and prosperity in the United States. With this economic fervor came a new era of deregulation of the financial services industry. During this time, Congress passed the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, otherwise referred to as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GBLA). This law removed the final barrier (contained in Depression-era Glass-Steagall legislation) between mixing investment banking and commercial banking in the United States. The purpose of this report is to explain the intentions of the law's supporters and detractors, to discuss why this period was a particularly ripe time for such a policy, to examine the leadership decisions that contributed to the passage of GLBA, and to understand the motives behind a "new Glass-Steagall" bill today. This paper focuses only on the deregulatory parts of GLBA relevant to Glass-Steagall's repeal. It does not examine the privacy protections, et al. of GLBA at any length. Also contained in the analysis is a brief discussion of whether GLBA's stated intentions have been violated through the mixing of banking and commerce that has emerged in the present day. Finally, this report ends with a discussion on the fidelity of our national debate on banking regulation, and what it means for the federal government to manage risk in American financial markets in support of the public interest. / text

本研究定義運用技術指標建構投資決策之步驟，明確描述各步驟細節，投資人根據此流程定義，可利用技術指標逐步運算出投資標的之投資價值，作為最終投資決策之依據。同時，本研究建立技術指標、偵測機制等分類架構，讓投資人主觀的投資需求對應（map）到技術指標，建立個人化的投資決策。 / This paper defines the stages that how to build an investment decision with technical indicators and describes the details of each stage definitely. According to the process definition, investors can calculate the investment value of the investment target with technical indicators step by step. The investment value can be the foundation of the final investment decision. This paper also establishs both classificaton models of technical indicators and detect mechanisms. It makes investors map their subjective demand for investment information to technical indicators, personlize their investment descions.

Sammanfattning Inom de flesta företag finns möjligheter att påverka rörelsekapitalet genom Working Capital Management. Detta kan även förkortas WCM, vilket enligt Deloof (2003) kan definieras som arbetet med att styra företagets rörelsekapital. De flesta företag har dessutom avsevärda summor uppbundna i rörelsekapitalet, vilket medför att WCM har en betydande roll på företagets lönsamhet. I strävan efter att nå ett optimalt rörelsekapital finns det dock risk att företagen drabbas av negativa effekter. Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att undersöka effekterna av WCM och hur dessa effekter påverkas utifrån hanteringen av WCM. Metod: Studien består av en kvantitativ enkätundersökning riktad till svenska tillverkande företag. Analys: Att frigöra kapital beskrivs som det främsta motivet för att genomföra WCM. Det framgår också att initiativ till beslut om en minskning av rörelsekapitalet är centraliserade och det är sällsynt att initiativ startar i den operativa verksamheten. Det sker däremot en nära samverkan i processen av en minskning av rörelsekapitalet mellan de som initierar WCM och den operativa verksamheten. Studien visar att de flesta företag inte upplever några negativa effekter av WCM. De negativa effekter som uppmärksammas inträffar främst i produktionen och gentemot kunder. Slutsats: Svenska tillverkande företag anser att WCM är en högt prioriterad fråga. De beslut som fattas inom WCM medför att ju längre bort från verksamheten besluten tas desto fler negativa effekter medför detta. I arbetet med WCM förekommer en hög grad av samverkan. Det har även framkommit att ökad samverkan mellan ledning och den operativa verksamheten minskar negativa effekter i samband med WCM. Nyckelord: WCM, Working Capital Management, rörelsekapital, rörelsekapitalbindning, samverkan, beslut, negativa effekter / Abstract Most companies are able to influence the working capital through use of Working Capital Management (WCM). According to Deloof (2003), WCM can be defined as the process of controlling a company’s working capital. Since many companies have substantial sums tied up in the working capital, WCM can have a significant role in the company’s profitability. In the pursuit of finding an optimal working capital, there is a risk that companies will experience negative effects.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of WCM and how these effects are influenced by how the WCM is managed within the company. Methodology: The study consists of a quantitative survey directed to Swedish manufacturing companies. Analysis: Releasing capital is put forward as the main motive for WCM. It also appears that the initiative for decisions regarding reduction of working capital tend to be centralized, since these initiatives rarely start in the business operations. There is however a close interaction in the process of a reduction in working capital between those who initiate WCM and the operations. The majority of companies within this study do not experience any negative effects of WCM, but when it occurs it is mainly within the production processes or in customer relations. Conclusion: Swedish manufacturing companies believe that WCM is of high priority. This study indicates that negative effects will occur increasingly if decision-making is centralized. Working with WCM requires a high degree of collaboration as the results of this study also points out that through increased interaction between management and operations, negative effects associated with WCM can be reduced. Keywords: WCM, Working Capital Management, working capital, collaboration, decisions and negative effects

Communication between the patient and healthcare professional is pivotal in enabling effective self-care management to occur (Street et al., 2009) which in turn leads to improved health outcomes (Kravitz et al., 1993). However, there is little published data exploring the most effective tools for evaluating whether these communication skills occur and what particular attributes enhance the process (Goodchild, Skinner & Parkin, 2005; Heisler et al., 2003; Parkin & Skinner, 2003). This study aims to identify patient-centred communication skills occurring in consultations and to explore their link with a tool-recording agreement on reported decisions made. Quantitative analysis was conducted on 86 dietetic consultations across four outpatient diabetes services. Audio recordings from 20 of these were qualitatively analysed. Greater agreement on reported decisions correlated significantly with level of empathy demonstrated (t = .283, p = .0005). In consultations featuring agreement, dietitians expressed more empathy (p = .02), used more active listening skills, asked significantly more exploratory questions on self-care practices (U = 18.5, p = .007), provided significantly more supportive/collaborative information-giving exchanges (U = 11, p = .003) and were more likely to set an agreed agenda at the start of consultations. In contrast, consultations featuring disagreement had low levels of empathy, fewer active-listening skills and exploratory questions, significantly greater numbers of persuasive information-giving exchanges (U = 17, p = .007) and more recommending exchanges. Generally, agendas were not set. In conclusion, recording patient/healthcare professional agreement on reported decisions made during a consultation is a simple tool that can indicate the presence of patient-centred communication skills. Active-listening skills allow expressions of empathy that facilitate patient involvement and interactive dialogue. The measure of agreement should be used frequently as a marker of effective dietetic consultations and to provide further data on the relationship between patient-centred communication and implementation of behaviour change for improved health outcomes.

The main question in this thesis is what kind of considerations political parties in the Swedish parliament have made between individual freedoms and state power in matters concerning information technology. Hence, it relates to a central and never ending debate about the proper relationship between the individual rights of citizens and protection of their personal integrity vis-à-vis state power and the interest of society in general, and in particular how this is affected by the rapid development of information technology. Four cases of legislative processes about information technology are analyzed. These cases concern parliamentary debates regarding the secrecy act (sekretesslagen) in 1980 (first debate), three debates concerning the personal data act (personuppgiftslagen) in 1998-99, three debates concerning the surveillance and crime prevention act (lag om hemlig rumsavlyssning & åtgärder för att förhindra vissa särskilt allvarliga brott med mera) in 2006-07 and three debates concerning the national defence radio establishment act (FRA & lag om signalspaning) in 2007-09. An analytical model is developed that includes two ideal types, individual freedom and state power, for the study and categorization of the parties and their positions in each debate. Thus, parties are categorized according to their proximity to the ideal types. The study illustrates that the majority of parties have a tendency to compromise between values constituting the two ideal types; they choose a so called hybrid position in between individual freedom and state power. The exception to this pattern is the Green Party and the Left Party that tend to choose a position close to individual freedom. Three hypotheses are tested. The first implies that parties tend to position themselves in-between the ideal type positions of individual freedom and state power (hybrid positions). This hypothesis gets strong support as hybrid positions are the most common outcome. The second hypothesis infers that a party has a tendency to support state power when in government, but individual freedom when in opposition. This hypothesis also gets empirical support, as parties, when in government, tend increasingly to support values related to state power, but support is somewhat weaker than for the first hypothesis. Finally, the third hypothesis implies that September 11 2001 was a critical moment in relation to how parties deal with values related to individual freedom and state power, i.e. parties were expected generally to be more disposed to support state power after than before September 11. This gets some support as most parties show this tendency. In parliamentary debates after September 11 the Social Democrats, the Moderate Party and the Liberal Party have been more disposed to position themselves close to the value of state power. On the other hand, the Green Party and the Left Party have not changed their positons. One reason could be that neither of these two parties were in government during the studied years

The starting point of the present thesis is nurses’ reported experiences of disagreements with physicians for pushing life sustaining treatment too far. The overall aim was to describe and compare nurses’ and physicians’ perspectives on the boundaries for life-sustaining treatment and to evaluate whether ethics rounds could promote mutual understanding and stimulate ethical reflection. A mixed methods design with qualitative and quantitative data was used, including interviews and questionnaires. The health professionals’ experiences/perceptions were based on known patients foremost from general wards, but also intensive care units, at four Swedish hospitals. The first two studies treated the perspective on boundaries for life-sustaining treatment and the last two evaluated philosopher- ethicist led ethics rounds. Analysis of data was performed using a phenomenological approach and content analysis as well as comparative and descriptive non-parametric statistics. In the first study, the essence of the physicians’ decision-making process to limit life-sustaining treatment for ICU patients, was a process of principally medical considerations in discussions with other physicians. In the second study, there were more similarities than differences between nurses’ and physicians’ opinions regarding the 714 patients studied. The physicians considered limited treatment as often as the nurses did. The ethics rounds studies generated mixed experiences/perceptions. It seemed that more progress was made toward the goal of promoting mutual understanding than toward the goal of stimulating ethical reflection. Above all, the rounds seemed to meet the need for a forum for crossing over professional boundaries. The most salient finding was the insight to enhance team collaboration, that the interprofessional dialogue was sure to continue. Predominating new insights after rounds were interpreted as corresponding to a hermeneutic approach. One of nurses’ negative experiences of the ethics rounds was associated with the lack of solutions. Based on the present findings, one suggestion for improvement of the model of ethics rounds is made with regard to achieving a balance between ethical analyses, conflict resolution and problem solving. In conclusion, the present thesis provides strong evidence that differences in opinions regarding boundaries for life-sustaining treatment are not associated with professional status. The findings support the notion of a collaborative team approach to end-of-life decision-making for patients with diminished decisionmaking capacity. There is an indication that stimulation of ethical reflection in relation to known patients may foremost yield psychosocial insights. This could imply that social conflicts may overshadow ethical analysis or that ethical conflicts and social conflicts are impossible to distinguish.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.