Civic life in its healthiest state is a dynamic, open, and reflective system that serves the needs of the public and improves the quality of life for all its members. A vibrant civic sphere helps citizens become less vulnerable to exploitation, hardship, harm, and allows everyday voices access to the powers that influence their lives.Yet most citizens today feel that the political arena has become too hostile, irrational, and polarized to expend their energy trying to affect it. Texas in particular is experiencing some of the lowest levels of civic engagement in the nation. The framework of this report holds on to both the notion that a healthy civic sphere is vital to the social fabric of our nation and to idea that citizens have legitimate reasons why they do not currently engage more in the process. These new dynamics in the landscape of political life warrant a moment of reflection which this retrospective seeks to offer. This paper uses Current Population Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau to explore whether we are we asking the right questions, if we have enough information, and outlines what the data we do have is telling us about civic life in Texas. / text

The gender gap in American college attendance has grown over four decades (see for example, Sax, 2008). The National Center for Educational Statistics noted that women received 57 percent of all bachelor's degrees conferred in 2009-2010. Furthermore, women engage in college opportunities inside and outside the classroom at greater rates than men. Engagement opportunities connect students to their college environment, support student learning, and contribute to student persistence (see for example, Astin, 1993). However, little research is available that focuses on which specific co-curricular opportunities men and women choose and any gender differences in engagement that exist within those programs (Sax, 2008). Many colleges offer interdisciplinary programs as a co-curricular student engagement option. Interdisciplinary studies allow students to study broad topics from many disciplinary perspectives and synthesize the various methods and theories for an often better understanding of the topic at hand (Newell, 1992). However, there is a paucity of research regarding gender differences in students who choose to pursue interdisciplinary programs. The purpose of the study was to investigate why male students choose or choose not to get involved in a specific interdisciplinary program at a large research institution in the southwestern United States. Moreover, the study examined the perceptions of administrators regarding male student involvement and their strategies to recruit male students. The study design was qualitative, and interviews of students and program administrators were the primary data source. The researcher employed two conceptual frameworks in the study: Terenzini and Reason's (2005) college experience model and Harris' (2010) model of the meanings college men make of masculinities. Key findings of the study indicated that there was a gender imbalance in student engagement in the interdisciplinary program. Furthermore, male students interested in the interdisciplinary program eschewed masculine norms both in their co-curricular pursuits and their academic interests. The study contributes to the field of student affairs by focusing on a research gap in male student engagement in interdisciplinary programs. By examining engagement experiences through the lens of male gender identity, the study provides rich data and offers strategies to student affairs practitioners. / text

Online education’s potential to “scale-up” the traditional lecture-based, face-to-face course while maintaining or improving the quality of instruction attracts the attention of university administrators, faculty, and policymakers interested in opening access to higher education and expanding access to faculty experts. However, previous research has focused on distance education and not online education offered through campus-based institutions. As such, this dissertation used a qualitative, phenomenological approach to examine the lived experiences of students enrolled in online courses offered through a major research university (MRU). This study employed student engagement and developmental ecology theories to present the perspectives of 11 students through the analysis of student interviews, journals, and questionnaires; course syllabi; and faculty interviews. The significance of this study lies in its capacity to capture student perceptions and behaviors to better understand how online courses, and specific components of such courses, promote or discourage undergraduate student engagement in the modern research university. The interview and journal data indicated that online courses have the capacity to promote active and collaborative learning, academically challenge students, and contribute to a supportive campus environment at an MRU. Students related an enhanced sense of being independent and responsible for their own learning to online courses’ physical and transactional distance. Further, they considered anonymity as crucial to honest interactions with peers and teaching assistants and strengthened their commitment to one another. With regard to student-faculty interactions, students in the synchronous courses tended to form meaningful connections with faculty through intimate, face-to-face interactions rather than through online activities. The study also found that the perception held by some students that online courses equate to an “easy ‘A’” and mandated course enrollment negatively influenced participants’ investment of time and effort in their online courses. Given these findings, this dissertation calls for instructors and policymakers at major research universities to integrate key online and face-to-face components into online course designs and dedicate the necessary resources to engage students across the physical and transactional gap. For their part, students may consider how settings beget certain behaviors in their selection of physical workspaces and strategically utilize in- and out-of-class activities as active and collaborative learners. / text

The Atlas Copco group is an industrial group of companies that are making sales with customers located all around the world. This thesis is done at the ACTA-GI division (Atlas Copco Tools and Assembly Systems GI Division), where the sales process stretches through four main players; the Atlas Copco headquarter in Stockholm, local customer centers, distributors and end customers.   When having several different players in the sales process, the communication between these may sometimes be deficient. When news and information from the headquarter is released, it has to travel through several instances before reaching the distributors or the end customers. This leads to a deficient flow of communication where information is often delayed or misinterpreted before reaching its target. The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how ACTA-GI can improve the flow of information in the sales channel and to develop a plan of action for increasing the engagement of the distribution partners by developing an online distributor portal. In order to investigate the best ways of handling distribution partners, this study contains both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study contain a theory review on distribution and communication strategies, an analysis of the existing sales channels and current markets, an analysis of the content of the online portal, and a benchmarking study with a similar industrial company. The result is a plan of action for industry best practice and proposals for improvement areas.

The purpose of this study was to examine how nurses' critical reflective practice, education level, and moral distress related to their work engagement. This is an area of study relevant to nursing, given documented United States Registered Nurse (RN) experiences of job related distress and work dissatisfaction, and the nursing shortage crisis. Nurses are central players in the provision of quality health care. There is need for better understanding of RNs' work engagement and factors that may enhance their work experience. A theoretical framework of critical reflective practice was developed and examined in this study.A non-experimental, descriptive, correlational design was used to examine the relationships among four study variables: critical reflective practice, education level, moral distress, and work engagement. The purposive sample consisted of 28 intensive care unit RNs (ICU-RNs) from three separate ICUs (medical, neonatal, and pediatric) in a 355-bed Southwest magnet-designated hospital. Measures of the key variables were as follows: (1) Critical Reflective Practice Questionnaire (CRPQ) developed for this study; (2) a subscale of Mary C. Corley's Moral Distress Scale; (3) Education level measured as the highest nursing degree earned to practice as a RN; and (4) the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. All instruments demonstrated adequate reliability and validity.Pearson correlation and multiple regression analyses indicated support for the theoretical framework: There was a negative direct relationship between moral distress and work engagement, a positive direct relationship between critical reflective practice and work engagement, and moral distress and critical reflective practice, together, explained 47% of the variance in work engagement. Additionally, in the NICU, results indicated a positive direct relationship between increased educational level and critical reflective practice. Results also indicated that moral distress was a clinically significant issue for ICU-RNs in this sample.Strategies to promote critical reflective practice and reduce moral distress are recommended. Additionally, the findings support continued study of critical reflective practice and moral distress, and the role of education level, in nurses' work engagement. Research goals include continued study of the theoretical framework in larger study samples and in reference to additional explanatory factors.

The ways that young people learn to engage in democratic and other mechanisms for community involvement is a product of how they are socialized into the institutions they inhabit and how they incorporate this socialization into their ongoing construction of identity. In order to become active and agentive members of their society, young people must learn to view themselves as able to productively engage in social practices and social change. Conventional schools are structured in ways that limit opportunities for marginalized students to develop agentive and active social identities. This study suggests that students may construct more agentive identities if they have opportunities to frame their life circumstances and actions in political and historical terms.This project has studied how high school students may construct expanded subject positions as a result of participating in a culturally relevant and explicitly political youth development program. The Project for Conscious Education and Activism (PCEA) incorporates critical and culturally relevant pedagogy with participatory action research. Embedded in a required senior year social studies course, the PCEA provides students a chance to perceive their roles as sociohistorical actors. This two-year ethnographic case study examined shifts in students' academic identities and social agency. Increasing identification with school subject matter fostered intellectual empowerment that often extends beyond the context of school to effect broader social identities. Findings detail the ways that participants can come to see their actions as socially and historically grounded, eventually coming to think of themselves as social actors.Conventional typologies of civic engagement tend to leave out ways that youth of color and those from poor communities resist and address debilitative social disinvestment. But neither do young people tend to think of their actions as constituting social or civic action. Many shifts in subjectivity were apparent as PCEA participants began to frame their actions as intentional intervention in social injustice, becoming "civic" attempts to improve conditions in their communities. As young people learn to see their actions in relation to political and institutional patterns, they may both expand their social agency and increasingly frame their actions as contributing to social justice.

This thesis examines the narratives of Black youth and their parents about their experiences in Winnipeg schools. The study looks at aspects of academic achievement and school engagement. The study explores similar research based in Eastern Canada and the United States. Youth and parents were interviewed individually as a way of cross referencing the lived experiences of the young people involved in the study. In the paper, it is argued that Black youth in Winnipeg may feel disconnected to school and schooling because they cannot attach to the curriculum, they cannot attach to their teachers, and/or they cannot attach to their peer groups. The author explores the factors that influence the engagement and achievement of Black youth. The paper concludes by pointing out the implications of these stories on the structure of schooling and the practice of educators.

Introduction: Work motivation (intrinsic & extrinsic) and employee engagement is the hot issues for today’s management. Employee’s motivation has been in discussion for years, different compensation plans and strategies were adopted over years to make employees more productive. Recently, the introduction of employee engagement as a new construct to business, management, and human resource management fields make it an imperative to adopt in organizational settings. Many studies made indirect link between work motivation (intrinsic & extrinsic) and employee engagement. Moreover, motivational factors (intrinsic & extrinsic) are often considered a useful tool for employee engagement. But very few studies investigated the direct relationship between work motivation (intrinsic & extrinsic) and employee engagement. Purpose: This study explored the relationship between work motivation (Intrinsic & Extrinsic) and employee engagement. Moreover, the study also examined the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on employee engagement.   Methodology: In order to fulfill the research purpose, quantitative study was adopted. Questionnaires were designed using Google survey tool. 187 questionnaires were collected from employees of Allied Bank of Pakistan. Later on, SPSS was used to perform the required test of descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, bivariate correlation, ANOVA test and multiple regression analysis.   Findings: The results of SPSS revealed strong agreement of respondents to positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and employee engagement, and extrinsic motivation and employee engagement. Four intrinsic factors namely interesting work, job appreciation, satisfaction and stress, and four extrinsic factors namely job security, good wages, promotion & growth and recognition were considered important by respondents for engagement.   Conclusion: From the findings it is concluded that there is positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and employee engagement, and extrinsic motivation and employee engagement. Furthermore, it is also accomplished that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation has strong positive impact on employee engagement. From the results it is also concluded that the relationship and impact of extrinsic motivation was stronger on employee engagement as compared to intrinsic motivation.      The study will enrich the current literature of work motivation and employee engagement. On practical level this study will not only help practitioners and consultants but also bank management will also be equipped with useful information regarding work motivation and employee engagement in organizational settings.

Not much research regarding burnout amongst clergy in South Africa has been done. Recently a shift in the direction of positive psychology or salutogenesis took place and which highlighted two relatively new constructs, namely sense of coherence and engagement. Previous research in the "Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk" (NG Church) found a correlation between sense of coherence and burnout. In the "Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika" (NH Church) however, no research regarding burnout within a salutogenic paradigm was ever done. The general objective of this research was to determine the levels and relationship of sense of coherence, coping, burnout and engagement amongst ministers of the NH Church. A cross-sectional research design was used. The Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ), COPE-Questionnaire (COPE), Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) were used as measuring instruments on a stratified random (proportional) sample (n = 200) of ministers of the NH Church and from which 87 useable responses were received. Structural equation modelling was applied on the MBI-HSS to confirm a three-factor model with best fit. Cronbach alpha coefficients, inter-item correlation coefficients and factor analysis were used to determine the reliability and validity of the measuring instruments. Descriptive statistics, Pearson-product correlation coefficients, canonical correlation coefficients, and analysis of variance were used to analyse the data. The results showed that high levels of sense of coherence, approach coping and high levels of engagement are related to low levels of burnout, while venting of emotions are related to high levels of burnout. It was also found that sense of coherence and coping predicted emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment. Furthermore, it was found that levels of emotional exhaustion for ministers in the age group 25-29, were consistently lower than that of any other age group in the sample, while levels for the age group 50-65 were also lower than that for ministers in the age groups 30-39 and 40-49, but still higher than levels for age group 25-29. Limitations of the study and recommendations regarding the organisation and future research were indicated. / Thesis (MA (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

The nursing profession in South Africa currently faces a climate of uncertainty and change as governments struggle to contain healthcare while improving access, equity and health outcomes. These factors are placing an extra burden on people in a profession that is already encapsulated by an above-average risk environment for burnout and occupational stress. This research emerges from the need to enhance the work wellness of employees in an already burdened profession. Enhancement of work wellness depends on the successful diagnosis of burnout, work engagement and occupational stress. To be able to measure these constructs, it is important to use reliable and valid instruments, taking into account the cultural diversity in a multicultural setting such as South Africa. No validated instruments in this regard exist for the nursing profession in South Africa. Furthermore, little information is available regarding these constructs and the relationship between them, including sense of coherence and coping strategies. The general aim of this study was to validate the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) and the Nursing Stress Indicator (NSI) for the nursing profession in South Africa; to analyse the differences between the levels of burnout and engagement of different biographical groups; to identify the major occupational stressors and to investigate the relationships between occupational stress, sense of coherence, coping, burnout and work engagement. A cross-sectional survey design was used, with stratified random samples (N = 818) taken of registered nurses in South Africa. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey. the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, the Nursing Stress Indicator, the Orientation to Life Questionnaire, the Coping Orientation for Problem Experienced Questionnaire, as well as a biographical questionnaire, was administered for the purpose of data collection. Cronbach alpha coefficients, exploratory factor analysis, Pearson product-moment correlations, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-tests, descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were employed to analyse the data. Exploratory factor analysis with target rotations resulted in a three-factor model of burnout, consisting of exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment, and a one-factor model of work engagement. The scales showed acceptable construct equivalence and internal consistencies for all three language groups, except for one item in the engagement scale, where a significant lower score was noticed for the African language speaking group. Practically significant differences were found in the burnout and engagement levels of registered nurses with regard to their age and rank, and in the case of work engagement, also regarding the years spent in nursing. T-tests revealed that burnout and engagement levels were influenced by the occurrence of a medical condition and a lack of specialised training, and in the case of burnout, also by longer working hours (full-time employment). Registered nurses reported significantly high levels of stress relating to staff shortage, inadequate salaries and excessive administrative duties. Lack of organisational support and job demands were the strongest predictors of burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation), together with a weak sense of coherence. Focus on and ventilation of emotions as a coping strategy was also related to emotional exhaustion. Low levels of burnout were found to be related to high levels of engagement. Multiple regression analysis revealed that occupational stress, a weak sense of coherence, approach coping, focus on and ventilation of emotions, and low seeking of emotional/social support predicted 33% of the variance in emotional exhaustion. Twenty-seven percent of the variance in depersonalisation was predicted by occupational stress, a weak sense of coherence, avoidance coping, focus on and ventilation of emotions, and a low turning to religion. Occupational stress because of job demands, a weak sense of coherence, approach coping strategies, focus on and ventilation of emotion, in the absence of avoidance as a coping strategy, predicted 17% of the variance in personal accomplishment, while low levels of occupational stress because of job demands, a weak sense of coherence, and approach coping strategies predicted 24% of the variance in engagement. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.