This study focuses on aspects of cult experiences, given by deconverted former members of closed religious movements. Their testimonies were published in books or interviews. The aims of the study were to understand the interaction between the religious group and its members, living in high tension towards mainstream society and their testimonies of altered self-esteem during attraction, membership, deconversion and defection. The purpose was to understand how a person´s self-esteem is affected by inner mechanisms of closed religious movements and how these experiences affects a persons identity. Another aspect was whether there might be differences in altered self-esteem, between those who enlisted as adults, and those who were born into the closed religious contexts. Social Identity Theory, Sigmund Freud´s and Carl Rogers models of personal ego were used as models of interpretations. Qualitative methods have been used for analysis of data. The defectors´ testimonies could be interpretated in terms of altered social identity. During attraction and membership, the members perceived him or herself as an in-group member, which boosted their self-esteem. Their perceived selves existed in congruence with group norms. Being a former member lead to a reversed process of socialisation and self perception, during which the out-group became a new in-group in order to enhance self-esteem. Those, who enlisted as adults, reformed back to their former identity and thereby enhanced their self-esteem by integrating their cult experiences with their former self. Those, who were born into the religious movements, had troubles to adapt to mainstream society, as they did not have any alternative personal identity outside the group, and therefore experienced difficulties to enhance self-esteem.

In times where acts of extremism are becoming increasingly evident an interest for the individuals who perform such acts has begun to take shape. Most people who engage in extreme organizations tend to eventually leave them, yet there is still uncertainty about why and how people manage to do so. The purpose of this study was to add to the understanding of defection processes from the White Power movement by studying how emotions and relationships contribute to such processes. Using Herbert Blumer's symbolic interactionism as my springboard, and through interviews with nine former White Power activists, the study shows that leaving a White Power organization is divided into a differentiation between why and how activists leave. While disillusionment, guilt and fear tend to be reasons why activists eventually want to leave it is through their interaction with people in the outside community, for instance their children or a police officer, they manage to leave. Meeting with people with immigrant backgrounds was also crucial for the process of leaving the White Power movement, for seven of the respondents such meetings contributed to their deradicalization processes.

Det här arbetet ägnas åt att närmare studera vad som händer med människans sociala och psykiska välbefinnande när de av olika anledningar väljer att lämna sin frikyrka på en liten ort. Vi har gjort narrativa intervjuer av tio olika respondenter som alla valt av olika anledningar att lämna sin frikyrkliga församling. Transkribering har sedan skett med fokus på att hitta gemensamma nämnare och tolka våra respondenters upplevelser. I den analys vi har gjort av empirin har vi dragit slutsatsen att de sociala och psykiska konsekvenserna är att det lilla samhället påverkar ex-medlemmarnas välbefinnande, framförallt genom starka skuld och skamkänslor och hotar de sociala band som funnits i så många år.  Naturligtvis finns det inte ett skäl till att en individ väljer att lämna men en stor bidragande orsak är lång tids ytagerande och frihetskänslan från församlingen och frihet till något annat. Men, vad ska folk säga? / This project pays particular attention to the effects on the social and psychological well-being of people, who for different reasons choose to leave their church in a small community. We have performed narrative interviews with ten respondents who all had different reasons for leaving their congregations. The obtained data has then been transcribed with focus on finding common denominators, as well as interpreting our respondents' experiences. In our analysis of the collected data, we conclude that the social and psychological consequences are that the small community will have an influence on the ex member's well-being, above all through strong feelings of guilt and shame and threats to long-standing social ties.There is, of course, more than one single reason why a person decides to leave, but a major contributing reason is long term surface acting and a sense of freedom from the congregation, as well as freedom to do other things. But what will people say?

In order for firms to be able to compete on the market, it is of importance for them to create value for their customers. Value is not only the outcome from providing the customer with a product of high quality, since value co-creation can occur when firms interact with their customers and create strong relationships with them. Therefore, relationship quality is of interest for any firm that want to succeed with their sales proposals. However, although firms work with value creation for their customers, there is always a risk for the defection of customers. Firms need to gain knowledge about the reasons why customers decide to switch to another supplier. The aim of this study is to investigate why Swedish firms that operate in the industrial business-to-business (B2B) sector’s customers switch to another supplier, despite the supplying firms’ efforts in working with value creation. This is a qualitative study, where in-depth interviews have been conducted with employees at two different industrial, manufacturing companies. It was found that the aspects that have been stated as valuable for customers in business relationships; product quality, delivery, service, price, communication and distance, are also reasons why customers decide to leave a cooperation. Meaning that these aspects can create value for customers, however, when it is not managed properly there is a high risk that customers will switch suppliers since the value the firm created for the customer is not enough. In addition to this, factors that can be hard for firms to control, such as distance, time differences and language can have a great impact on customer value and retention.

Syftet med studien är att belysa hur tidigare kriminella har gått tillväga för att ta sig vidare från kriminalitet. En kvalitativ metod har tillämpats för att studera detta och sex före detta kriminella har intervjuats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Stämplingsteorin och sociala kontrollteori är teorierna som använts för att analysera och förstå empirin. Tidigare forskning avsnittet är indelat i tre delar och avhandlar riskfaktorer, processen ut ur kriminalitet samt konsekvenserna som medföljer vid avhopp. Det som konstaterats efter intervjuerna är att den vanligaste anledningen till avhopp är föräldraskap och mognad. Resultatet visar även på att ekonomi var ett hinder i processen ut ur kriminalitet. Pengar var en central prioritet i intervjupersonernas tidigare kriminella livsstil och att överge den snabba inkomsten för att anpassa sig till ett konventionellt ekonomiskt system uppgavs vara en utmaning. / The purpose of the study is to shed light on how former criminals have gone about moving on from crime. To study this a qualitative method has been applied, six ex-criminals have been interviewed through semi-structured interviews. The labeling and social control theory are theories that have been used to analyze and understand empirical data. The Previous research section is divided into three parts and discusses risk factors, the process of transitioning out of crime, and the consequences that come with leaving criminal activity. The result shows that the most common reason for leaving criminal activities is due to parenthood and maturity. Respondents also stated that finance was an obstacle in the process our of criminality. Money was a central priority in the respondents' previous criminal lifestyle, and abandoning the fast income to adapt to a conventional economic system was reported as a challenge.

Syftet med studien är att belysa hur tidigare kriminella har gått tillväga för att ta sig vidare från kriminalitet. En kvalitativ metod har tillämpats för att studera detta och sex före detta kriminella har intervjuats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Stämplingsteorin och sociala kontrollteori är teorierna som använts för att analysera och förstå empirin. Tidigare forskning avsnittet är indelat i tre delar och avhandlar riskfaktorer, processen ut ur kriminalitet samt konsekvenserna som medföljer vid avhopp. Det som konstaterats efter intervjuerna är att den vanligaste anledningen till avhopp är föräldraskap och mognad. Resultatet visar även på att ekonomi var ett hinder i processen ut ur kriminalitet. Pengar var en central prioritet i intervjupersonernas tidigare kriminella livsstil och att överge den snabba inkomsten för att anpassa sig till ett konventionellt ekonomiskt system uppgavs vara en utmaning. / The purpose of the study is to shed light on how former criminals have gone about moving on from crime. To study this a qualitative method has been applied, six ex-criminals have been interviewed through semi-structured interviews. The labeling and social control theory are theories that have been used to analyze and understand empirical data. The Previous research section is divided into three parts and discusses risk factors, the process of transitioning out of crime, and the consequences that come with leaving criminal activity. The result shows that the most common reason for leaving criminal activities is due to parenthood and maturity. Respondents also stated that finance was an obstacle in the process our of criminality. Money was a central priority in the respondents' previous criminal lifestyle, and abandoning the fast income to adapt to a conventional economic system was reported as a challenge.

Despite considerable research that has focused on the attributes associated with evaluating and selecting advertising agencies, and an emerging body of literature emphasizing customer loyalty and retention, advertising agency-client investigations have often analysed these attributes in isolation. This created the need for models that represent the interrelated effects that engender retention and loyalty, especially for services, whereby evaluative as well as relational factors can influence buyer responses. Addressing this gap, this research developed and described the construct of buyer consideration sets to gain a better understanding of business relationships. This is with specific reference to advertising agency replacement considerations in the South African environment. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a more complete, integrated view of customer retention and its determinants. A heuristic model was developed with consideration of theories that originate from the transactional cost theory, social exchange theory and economic and relational contract theories. This model was empirically tested using a mixed method approach. Data obtained from 116 respondents were subjected to factor and correlation analysis to explore the dimensionality of the retention construct. An important contribution of this study is the use of multi-item scales to measure and test retention. This research supports that retention is multidimensional and highlights the limitations of research that measure single factors related to retention. What started as a complex set of relationships has been defensibly and systematically simplified into a parsimonious model. This model postulates that retention is the result of a good working relationship between an advertiser and agency; service satisfaction; respect and support; clear terms of engagement; and conflict resolution. This work also offers insight into the nuances of each of these antecedents and offer new reliable scales for measurement of the items. In management practice, this model will provide advertisers with insights with regards to procurement decisions and supplier management. It can also provide valuable insight to agencies with regard to customer retention management. Findings of this study may also be extended to other high value professional service industries. / Business Management and Entrepreneurship / D. Com. (Business Management)

The following research question motivated the study: "How can education management effectively address factors influencing teachers to migrate from the teaching profession?" To answer this research question, one school was selected in Limpopo Province, which is not affected by the migration of teachers from the teaching profession; this was demonstrated by the school retaining expert and veteran teachers and its excellent grade 12 results. Factors influencing the migration of teachers from the teaching profession were researched by means of qualitative approach. Focus group interviews, phenomenological interviews and unstructured (in-depth) interviews were conducted, transcribed and analysed. The research findings indicated that education management team needs to urge the government to pay teachers attractive salaries, introduce performance bonus scheme, deal with overcrowding and lack of resources, curb violence in schools, deal effectively with corruption, improve poor learners' discipline and do away with corporal punishment. / Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Education Management)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T19:31:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 A GUARDA NACIONAL NA PROVINCIA PARAENSE.pdf: 1836307 bytes, checksum: 3926f2f0bda433321af2e60ab790d4c9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-05-31 / The dissertation "the National Guard in the Paraense Province: representations of a paramilitary army (1831/1840)" intend to reflect some thematics that helped to promote tensions in the Paraense Province. The City the Genesis of the National Guard Legislation Constitution Insubordination and the Defection are thematics that made this dissertation and the object in question. The three chapters that are part of this work have as ultimate object to argue the axles above cited which had provoked debates and fidgets in the Paraense Province of the first half of century XIX.thus to stablish the creation and the development of the corporation in the Province.The National Guard - had turned into a desert and "joyed together" in the Cabano Movement? In compliance with this the present dissertation does not intend to trace a profile concerning the reasons of turning into a desert in this period much less to make a study on the Cabano Movement. The real intend was to perceive tensions and forces formed in the Paraense Province when it s placed in the main thematic ounce displayed. These subjects had been located in the core of an intense society that lived deeply a period of substructure transformations that the Regeny itself tried to put into work / A dissertação A Guarda Nacional na Província Paraense: representações de uma milícia para-militar (1831/1840) procurou refletir sobre algumas temáticas que ajudaram a revelar tensões na Província Paraense. A Cidade a Gênese da Guarda Nacional a Legislação a Constituição a Insubordinação e a Deserção são temáticas que compõem esta dissertação e o objeto em questão. Os três capítulos que fazem parte deste trabalho procuram discutir os eixos acima citados os quais provocaram debates e inquietações na Província Paraense da primeira metade do século XIX de forma a estabelece-se como foi percebida a criação e o desenvolvimento da corporação na Província. Deste modo a problematização se contém em compreender como determinados sujeitos sociais Guardas Nacionais desertaram e adentraram juntos no Movimento Cabano. Em conformidade com isso a presente dissertação não pretende traçar um perfil acerca dos porquês de se desertar neste período muito menos fazer um estudo sobre o Movimento Cabano. Procurou-se antes perceber tensões e relações de força que se formaram na Província Paraense quando se colocava em pauta as temáticas acima expostas. Estes assuntos não se pode esquecer estiveram localizados no seio de uma sociedade que vivenciou um período de intensas transformações infra-estruturais que a própria Regência tentou operacionalizar

The following research question motivated the study: "How can education management effectively address factors influencing teachers to migrate from the teaching profession?" To answer this research question, one school was selected in Limpopo Province, which is not affected by the migration of teachers from the teaching profession; this was demonstrated by the school retaining expert and veteran teachers and its excellent grade 12 results. Factors influencing the migration of teachers from the teaching profession were researched by means of qualitative approach. Focus group interviews, phenomenological interviews and unstructured (in-depth) interviews were conducted, transcribed and analysed. The research findings indicated that education management team needs to urge the government to pay teachers attractive salaries, introduce performance bonus scheme, deal with overcrowding and lack of resources, curb violence in schools, deal effectively with corruption, improve poor learners' discipline and do away with corporal punishment. / Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Education Management)