No description available.

Divorce is a significant event in children's lives. The ability of school personnel to be helpful with children of divorce can be influenced by their attitudes and by other factors. This study described the attitudes towards divorce of elementary school personnel and examined the relationships among the personnel's attitudes, personality factors, and selected personal and professional variables. The sample was comprised of 212 elementary school personnel from a large metropolitan school district in Western Canada. Data were derived from subjects' responses to the Sixteen Personality Factor Scale and two instruments developed by the author to assess subjects' attitudes towards divorce and their personal and professional characteristics. Findings indicated that teachers perceive divorce as a socially acceptable phenomenon. They perceived that it is better for children to live in happy homes, divorced or intact, than in conflict-ridden intact homes, and that children of divorce benefit when their fathers are active in parenting. Nearly all respondents perceived the school as fulfilling an important role for children of divorce. Significant differences were found between high and low scoring groups on each attitudinal sub-scale when personality factors, personal variables, and professional variables were considered. The results of this study suggest that certain personal variables (age, marital status, religion, and years of teaching experience) were related to differences in attitudes. Most of the professional variables (perceptions of children's motivation and homework completion and perceptions of parents' concerns) accounted for differences in attitudes. Several personality factors (warmth, ego-strength, rebelliousness, self-sufficiency, and imagination for example) also were indicated to have particular relevance for the attitudes of elementary school personnel towards divorce.

Graduation date: 1996

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Keywords. Work-Family interface, Work interference to Family, Family interference to Work, Work withdrawal intention. / There is a rising preference among working women in China to "return home". The present study explored how the four aspects of Work-Family Interface including Work Enhancement to Family, Family Enhancement to Work, Work Interference to Family and Family Interference to Work affected the work withdrawal intention of young parents who were employees and who had at least one child under 6 years old. At the same time, we explored the antecedences to all facets of Work-Family Interface, which included work/family load, work/family support, work/family involvement, gender concepts as well as personality traits. Furthermore, we examined whether there were gender differences in work withdrawal intention, as well as in its pattern of relationship with the Work-Family Interface. Around 420 couples with diverse professional background from two cities of China, Shanghai and Jinan, completed the questionnaire. We also conducted in-depth interviews with five men and eight women from those two cities to understand the dynamics of these considerations. Results showed that women had a higher work withdrawal intention than men. Moreover women might have a stronger work withdrawal intention when they experienced more Family Interference to Work. Men, on the other hand, might have a higher intention to "return home" only when they confronted more Work Interference to Family. Additionally, we found that women scoring high on family load or traditional gender concepts reported higher Family Interference to Work, while men scoring high on work load or low on the personality scale of Family Orientation reported higher Work Interference to Family. Noting the limitations of the present study, we suggest further research on the relationship between work withdrawal intention and work withdrawal behavior for men and women across different age groups and across different cultures. / 陳雪飛. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2007. / 參考文獻(p. 153-176). / Adviser: Fanny M. Cheung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-07, Section: A, page: 2906. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2007. / Can kao wen xian (p. 153-176). / Chen Xuefei.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Japanese Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

Bakgrund: Hållbarhet handlar om att minska eller undvika negativ påverkan på människoroch ekosystem samt förbättra såväl mänskliga resurser som naturresurser, för att ävenframtida generationer ska kunna uppfylla sina behov. Hållbar utveckling består av tredimensioner: ekologisk hållbarhet, social hållbarhet och ekonomisk hållbarhet. För att mötanya utmaningar såsom klimatförändringar, förstörelse av ekosystem och brist på naturresursermåste företag vara aktivt engagerade och en del av lösningen. Dessa företagsaktiviteter kallasCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Anställda måste vara involverade i CSR-arbetet föratt det ska bli ett äkta CSR-engagemang. Tidigare forskning och studier visar att individersattityder till CSR och hållbarhet kan variera beroende på kön, ålder och utbildningsnivå. Syfte: Att erhålla en förståelse för anställdas attityder till ekologisk hållbarhet på ett energibolagsom har ett uttalat hållbarhetsarbete samt hur deras attityder kan variera beroende påvariablerna ålder, kön och utbildningsnivå. Metod: Utifrån studiens syfte att undersöka anställdas attityder gentemot ekologisk hållbarhetpå ett energibolag, har en kvantitativ forskningsmetod bedömts som passande och en deduktivhypotesprövning. Studiedesignen är fallstudie med en totalundersökning genomfördes påSkövde Energi med en webbaserad enkätundersökning som bestod av en Likertskala med19 påståenden. Studien har även en komparativ design då en jämförelse görs mellan SkövdeEnergi och Sveriges befolknings riksgenomsnitt. Slutsats: Resultatet i studien visar att anställda på energibolaget Skövde Energi generellt haren positiv attityd till ekologisk hållbarhet och att kvinnorna har en positivare attityd änmännen. Det framgick inte att de anställda med en högre utbildningsnivå har en mer positivattityd till ekologisk hållbarhet samt att den yngre åldersgruppen inte heller hade en merpositiv attityd till ekologisk hållbarhet än den äldre åldersgruppen. / Background: Sustainability is about reducing or avoiding negative impact on people andecosystems. Furthermore, it is about improving both human and natural resources, in order tolet coming generations meet their needs. Sustainable development consists of threedimensions: ecological sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability. Tomeet new challenges such as climate change, destruction of ecosystems and lack of resources,companies must be actively involved and part of the solution. These corporate activities arecalled Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Employees must be involved in CSR work inorder for a genuine CSR commitment. Previous research and studies show that individuals'attitudes towards CSR and sustainability may vary depending on gender, age, and educationallevel. Purpose: To get an understanding of employees' attitudes towards ecological sustainability inan energy company which has a pronounced sustainability work, and how attitudes can varydepending on age, gender and educational level. Methods: Based on the study's purpose of examining employees' attitudes towards ecologicalsustainability at an energy company, a quantitative research method has been assessed asappropriate including a deductive hypothesis test. A comprehensive survey was conducted atSkövde Energi with a web-based survey consisting of a Likerts scale with 19 claims. Thestudy also have a comparative design when a comparison is made between Skövde Energi andthe Swedish population national average. Conclusion: The results of the study show that employees at the energy company SkövdeEnergi generally have a positive attitude towards ecological sustainability and that womenhave a more positive attitude than men. It was not known that employees with a higher levelof education have a more positive attitude to ecological sustainability and that the youngerage group also did not have a more positive attitude to ecological sustainability than the olderage group.

The integration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) into contemporary society and business operations is observed as a clear reality in Namibia. While Namibia faces one of the typical hurdles of developing nations, lack of a skilled knowledge workforce, literature presents a contrasting face of ICT investment in the country, in particular the financial services sector. This sector is considered a critical sector in the Namibian economy, embracing global trends while boasting world class ICT infrastructure. This is despite the sector struggling with a shortage of expertise. The situation in Namibia’s financial sector thus warrants a critical review of knowledge development practices as research shows. As literature explains, the financial institutions in Namibia are dependent on expertise from parent companies in the South African financial sector. The result is a need to identify means to develop the knowledge of Namibia’s workforce in the banking sector. Although there is evidence from literature to suggest that ICT can be used to create a skilled and knowledge based workforce mainly due to the promise of cost savings, and convenience, there exists a critical gap in literature on the adoption of ICT for knowledge development in the Namibian financial sector. This gap in knowledge as well as the high investment in ICTs in the banking sector pose a problem that the research aimed to address. This study explored the adoption of ICTs for knowledge development activities in the banking sector of Namibia identifying the perceptions and factors influencing its adoption for knowledge development purposes. Although adoption of ICT is influenced by various factors, this study focused on a specific factor, namely the impact of perceptions on ICT adoption. ICT adoption models such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) or the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) and more recently the Unified Theory of Adoption and Use of Technology (UTAUT) argue that the perceptions of users are fundamental determinants for the adoption of the ICT. Driving, thus, the need to understand the views of users of the ICTs in banks in order to understand the potential it may yield in knowledge development. The study adopts the Activity Theory (AT) as the means to uncover and clearly interpret the perceptions of banking staff, through its theoretic underpinnings of naturalistic investigation and beliefs of “intentional human-action”. This study thus set out to explore the perceptions of banking staff on the use of ICTs in knowledge development and identify the critical factors in their adoption of ICTs in the process. Drawing from the Activity Theory the investigation used a multi-case qualitative study that used semi-structured interviews that were administered on twenty-three respondents from three of the biggest banks in Namibia (cases). The respondents comprised of managerial and nonmanagerial staff with the three cases chosen based on their ties with South African banks. The findings show that all three Namibian banks have advanced ICT infrastructure which they have managed to adopt for knowledge development purposes. The Management of the banks in all three cases were of the belief that the use of ICT supports knowledge development. Nonmanagerial bank staff in all three cases likewise have a positive perception about the use of ICT for knowledge development purposes. However, key concerns about the development of ICT driven knowledge development initiatives which could affect adoption of the ICTs were expressed by the non-managerial staff. These included, management support, consultation in the development phase of the knowledge development initiatives, integration of knowledge development strategies into the staff processes and increasing awareness activities among the staff. The recommendations indicate a need for the institutions to drive knowledge management in general in the institution, which will in turn help foster knowledge development initiatives fully. Another recommendation concerning the design of knowledge development initiatives is the need to involve the targeted staff more fully. Yet another strong recommendation was the need to blend knowledge development initiatives into the work processes of staff and ensure active support by management. / Computing / M.A. (Computing)