In this thesis I describe Khmers negotiations of circumstances surrounding the disassembly, reconstruction, and redefinition of Khmer identity from their homeland in Cambodia to a traditional Khmer village recreated in the United States. Using a framework derived from a constructivist perspective, I have placed processes of negotiation and identity transformation within the lived context of Khmers lives. Thus, a holistic understanding of the interrelatedness of multiple changes in Khmerness is made possible. Ethnographic data collected between 1997 and 1999, through participant-observation and interviews, inform this study. Findings from this study reveal three levels of identity transformation as told by members of a small Khmer village established along the U. S. Gulf of Mexico. However, these three levels of transformation are not mutually exclusive nor are they necessarily sequential. Each transformation of Khmers identities constitutes permeable aggregates of other past and continuing disassemblies, reconstructions and redefinitions of Khmerness. Findings from this study demonstrate that Khmer identity shifts and is transformed by past and present experiences and with their changing circumstances, from endangered Cambodian, to refugees, to re-established Khmers in America.

The social exchange research tradition has examined the effects of structural factors on behavioral and psychological outcomes. Emerson's power-dependence perspective has driven many of these projects, and I follow this line of work. In spite of Emerson's suggestion that changes in the structure of networks should be a focus of investigation, power-dependence research to date has focused exclusively on networks as static, unchanging entities. I extend social exchange theory to consider the effects of structural change on actors within social exchange networks. I predict that dynamic networks and static networks produce different effects on behavioral commitment and on the psychological variables of trust, pleasure and interest. I test these hypotheses using a factorial experimental design. Support for the hypotheses is mixed, and examination of empirical results uncovers some unexpected findings with respect to the exchange behavior of actors in equal-power versus unequal-power networks. Actors in equal-power networks show indifference between potential exchange partners, while actors in unequal-power networks demonstrate unexpectedly high levels of behavioral commitment. Drawing on power-dependence theory, I also generate and test positionally-specific predictions for the psychological variables.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014. / The business literature has long heralded franchising as an economically efficient business strategy for sustainable job, wealth and value creation, economic transformation and small business development. However, opportunism, being the tendency of the parties involved in the franchise relationship to act in their self-interest at each other’s expense resulting in misaligned incentives, may undermine the long-term efficacy of the franchising system. Such opportunism may be enacted at different times by either the franchisor or the franchisee. For the above reasons, this thesis focuses on the role of opportunism, a key aspect of Transactions Cost Economics theory, within the franchising system. Following an extensive review of the franchising, opportunism and related literatures, the thesis goes on to theorising and investigating a two-dimensional conceptualisation of opportunism, namely ‘opportunistic orientations’ and ‘opportunistic actions’. Secondly, the thesis theorises and investigates various key antecedents and consequences of opportunistic orientations (OO) and opportunistic actions (OA) from the perspectives of both franchisors and franchisees. Ultimately, this thesis proposes an integrated model combining structural, contextual and strategic factors as antecedents affecting OO which, in turn, leads to OA. The model further proposes that OA impact the growth, competitiveness and survival of franchise systems. In order to test this model, this thesis used a mixed methods strategy to undertake empirical fieldwork conducted separately among x franchisors and franchisees. The franchisor study was based on questionnaire data gathered from 111 purposefully sampled franchisors analysed principally through multivariate correlational techniques including structural equation modelling and canonical correlations. The franchisee study involved gathering semi-structured interview data from a purposeful sample of 30 Johannesburg-based franchisees, analysed through content analysis. To a large extent, while the results of the empirical fieldwork supports the proposed model as outlined above, the results of the franchisor study produced some unexpected outcomes. These relate mainly to the findings that structural and strategic factors directly affected the competitiveness of franchise systems and that contextual and strategic factors also directly affected the growth and survival of franchise systems and not through the intervening variables, that is, OO and OA. These findings suggest that structural, contextual and strategic factors may create entrepreneurial orientations (EO) and not OO within franchise systems. Nevertheless, this thesis makes several important and unique contributions to the study of franchising in South Africa, possibly with broader applications elsewhere, which include the following: - extending the opportunism construct by conceptualising the OO notion which helps to increase understanding of the manifestation of opportunism as a central problem within franchise relationships; xi - examining the antecedents and consequences of OO and OA in the same model to test the opportunism-performance hypothesis probably as the first study to do so among franchisors and franchisees in general and particularly in this country and continent; - applying TCE and RET theories to explain OO and OA and strategies to curb or minimise it within franchise relationships; and - incorporating some aspects of the country’s marriage laws into the franchise relationship to provide for secured tenure among franchisees by expunging the expiry clauses from franchise contractsWithin the context of Relational Exchange Theory, this thesis mainly and uniquely suggests the use of: - psychological contracts between franchisors and franchisees to help align the incentives of these parties largely through mutually agreed norms of acceptable behaviour, role expectations and objectives; - independent and statutory bodies such as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), law societies and medical or nursing councils as dispute resolution mechanisms to help mediate or resolve franchising disputes fairly, quickly and cheaply; and xii - “evergreen” franchise contracts which make no provision for expiry clauses to attenuate opportunism among franchisees through secured tenure. On the whole, this thesis recommends the use of the above interventions as governance mechanisms to help improve franchisor-franchisee relationships and the reputation of franchising in South Africa by aligning the incentives of the parties and creating an environment in which franchise relationships can flourish. Finally, the thesis also implores future researchers to investigate the impact of existing legislation such as the Consumer Protection Act and the measures suggested above on franchising in this country and the rest of the continent; and the relationship between EO and the growth, competitiveness and survival of franchise systems.

Kunskapsöverföring har ansetts vara av vikt inom företag och organisationer för att bevara kunskapen, informationen och för att kunna förmedla den vidare till andra medlemmar. Studiens primära syfte var att genom forskningsteorier och intervjuer effektivisera Rädda barnens Ellen och Allan projekt i deras kunskapsöverföring. 5 aktiva medlemmar inom Ellen och Allan projektet intervjuades samt 1 kontrollintervju genomfördes med en rutinerad projektledare från Svenska kyrkan, för att få fram dennes syn på projektets nuvarande situation gällande kunskapsöverföring.      Resultatet visade att det finns en viss otrygghet i rollerna och framförallt hos projektledarna, som inte har någon specifik roll- eller uppdragsbeskrivning. Genom resultatet kunde vi även se att kunskapsöverföringen bör vara ett ingående moment i organisationens projektbeskrivning för att det ska fungera på bästa sätt. Fysiska möten och god kommunikation mellan deltagarna bör även prioriteras för att effektivisera kunskapsöverföringen inom projektet.

Research motive and aims: The leadership theories usually focu on efficiency of leaders, and a little of related theory discuss the issues of organization behavior, work satisfaction, commitment of organization, equity perceptions, especially attribution of leadership. Researcher will search for several problems form the view of confliction of attributions in this report. First, what do leaders use when they attributed? And what will influence the outcome of leaders¡¦ attribution. Finally, does confliction of attributions influence pressure of employee. And do they have any related relationship? Conclusion: The most of null hypothesis are rejected in this report. Finally, this research did provide evidence to prove that conflict of attributions and employee pressure have related relationship.

In the development of knowledge economy, knowledge is recognized as the most important resource for enhancing or sustaining competition advantage. It is also a key factor for maintaining the long-term success of organizations. The beginning and an important stage of knowledge management is knowledge sharing which is the key to organization creation, learning, performance, and the prediction of successful knowledge management. It will increase the accumulation of organizational knowledge and advance the organizational ability. Knowledge management is traditionally dominated by the viewpoint of information technology. Researchers have emphasized the importance of information technology infrastructure and application in knowledge delivery. However, while explicit knowledge sharing is depended on the utilization of information technology, studies also indicated that tacit knowledge sharing is mainly depended on informal interaction between co-workers¡¦ emotional and the degree of trust. Drawing on the perspective of social exchange theory, this research considers knowledge sharing as a social activity which is an exchange relationship between knowledge contributors and knowledge recipients¡]refer to team-member exchange, TMX¡^. In addition, the interaction between knowledge contributors and knowledge recipients is affected by the relationship between organization-member exchange¡]OMX¡^and leader-member exchange¡]LMX¡^. Therefore, this article investigates the factors which affect the willingness of knowledge sharing by considering the interaction and exchange relationship among individuals and organizations, managers, and other members in organizations. The individual and organization exchange relationship includes the challenging job characteristic and incentive system which provide by the organizations to motivate employees¡¦ knowledge sharing. Moreover, the inter-personal social exchange includes the interaction between co-workers and the interaction between individuals and managers. Employees would share their knowledge if they perceived the benefit of the interaction (either intrinsic or extrinsic) exceeded the cost (losing the power of holding the critical knowledge) of sharing the knowledge. This research investigated how organizational factors (including job characteristics and incentive system), inter-personal factors (including trust and social support between co-workers and leader-member interaction), and team commitment effect the willingness of knowledge sharing. Further, the article also took the team commitment as the mediator and the account of the knowledge characteristics (both importance and taciturnity) into consideration as the moderators. The hypotheses were tested using a sample of R&D team members who work at Hsinchu Science Park or Southern Taiwan Science Park. The twenty-eight technology firms were selected using convenience sampling. Out of the 1,220 questionnaires had been sent, the 650 of them were completed. The data were tested using one way ANOVA, correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression. The results indicated that organizational factors, inter-personal factors, and team commitment have positively related to the willingness of knowledge sharing. The team commitment fully mediated the relationship between willingness of knowledge sharing and incentive system, and leader-member interaction. The team commitment partially mediated the relationship between willingness of knowledge sharing and job characteristics, and co-worker interaction. In addition, the article also found that job characteristics, co-worker interaction, leader-member interaction, and team commitment were more strongly, positively related to the willingness of knowledge sharing when knowledge importance and taciturnity were being driven.

Research on the Factors Influencing an Incumbent County Commissioner or City Mayor Considering the Promotion of a Female Chief ¡V the Application of Exchange Theory Summary In the past the research on the topics related with the promotions of female employees was primarily conducted from the viewpoints of administrative management, psychology, physiology, social psychology, and feminism. There is no evidence that the exchange theory was used to explain the factors of such promotion. Since the Taiwan province was reorganized and trimmed down, county and city governments have de facto become the new power centers of Taiwan¡¦s political society. The personnel authority of county commissioners and city mayors has accordingly augmented. This study, the first in trying to use the exchange theory as the framework for research and analysis, observed whether such variables as the degree of urbanization, the commissioner¡¦ or mayor¡¦s political party affiliation, gender, age, and education had any impact on his/her choosing the exchange resources (exchange objects) when he/she was promoting a female chief. The 13th incumbent county commissioners and city mayors of the Taiwan province were selected as the subjects of this study, and the Likert five-point scale was used to administer questionnaire investigation. The gathered data were treated with such statistical methods as frequency distribution, the ratio in terms of percentage, the mean, and Pearson¡¦s cumulative differential analysis. Based on an empirical analysis, the study has found: in promoting a female chief that has a firm sense of gender egalitarianism, the county commissioner or city mayor is more likely to consider her chief¡¦s ability to achieve a stated level of administrative effectiveness than the factor of sex. In order to avoid boycotting by different factions, the county commissioner or city mayor usually appoints the promoted female chief to a less conspicuous position instead of a position that requires administrative performance. When the county commissioner or city mayor receives recommendations for such an appointment, he/she usually gives the favor to an important vote solicitor that he/she is indebted to so as to alleviate his/her sense of indebtedness. The county commissioner or city mayor is also likely to appoint a female that has applauded his/her administrative merits in public as a way to return the favor. Moreover, the county commissioner or city mayor of a more urbanized territory is more likely to attach importance to modern compensation and modern resources; that of a less urbanized territory is more likely to depend on traditional compensation and traditional resources. County commissioners and city mayors affiliated with the Kuomingtan are most likely to use traditional compensations and resources, followed by those without political affiliation, then by those affiliated with the Democratic Progressive Party. County commissioners and city mayors without any political affiliation are most likely to use modern compensations and resources, followed by those affiliated with the Democratic Progressive Party, then by those affiliated with the Kuomingtang. In comparison with their male counterpart, female commissioners and mayors are more likely to use modern compensations and resources. In contrast, male commissioners and mayors are more likely to use traditional compensations and resources. There is no significant correlation between ages and the selection of compensation and expected resources. The commissioners or mayors with better education are more likely to use modern compensation and resources. As the study has gained the support of empirical evidence, it is believed that the analytical framework of this study can be used to investigate the exchange behavior in personnel promotions in other agencies in Taiwan so as to accumulate more factual findings and hypotheses that can be applied in the future. A step further, such data can help construct empirical theories that can explain social exchange behavior changes. Keyword: county commissioner and city mayor, promotion, female chief, exchange theory

M.A. (Sociology) / Much has been written about Romans' exchange theory, but even though his publication Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms evoked much reaction and criticism, there has never been an attempt to make a systematic and integrated summary thereof. The objective of this study is to make an extensive study of Romans' view of exchange and his social exchange theory, in which he explains certain social phenomena in terms of exchange behavior. This thesis takes the form of a documentary study of Romans' exchange theory. Most of the books and articles written by various authors about Romans were consulted, with the emphasis falling on works highlighting his exchange theory. To gain perspective as to Romans' individualistic perspective of his exchange theory, a wide range of different perspectives relating to exchange theories were examined. A comprehensive and systematic exposition of Romans' biographical history, academical career and his methodological approach is given, which had a significant influence on: his sociology in general and his view of exchange in particular and can hardly be seen out of context with his exchange theory. Romans developed his propositions in the exchange perspective out of the behavioristic psychology and elementary economics and used the same propositions to explain social phenomena such as interaction and the elaboration of interaction; the group, conformity, cooperation and competition; power and authority; status and leadership; status, conformity and stratification as well as satisfaction and distributive justice in terms of exchange between at least two persons who reward or punish each others actions.

Cities and countries increasingly seek mega-events to boost tourism, update local infrastructure, and improve the international standing of the host community. Benefits are actively promoted by the organizing committees, but these large-scale events also create significant economic, environmental and social costs for the host community. Measuring resident support is necessary because their support is required to secure the rights to the event, and to provide the necessary economic and human resources needed for hosting the event. This study utilized existing data on the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games to investigate the impact of a mega-event on the host community, and to measure resident support for the event. Social exchange theory provided the theoretical background for this dissertation. The theory states that the costs and benefits of an exchange are continually re-evaluated by the actors in the exchange relationship. The primary contribution of this study is support for the notion that social exchanges are temporal in nature; residents continually monitored the positive and negative impacts of the event on themselves and on their community. To reach this conclusion, this study utilized four data points in the year leading up to the Olympics to assess the changes in residents’ perceptions of the impacts of the event over time. These changes were evaluated in light of residents’ support for the event. A factor analysis reduced the fifteen impact statements into three factors: Benefits, Local Problems, and External Problems. Residents were segmented according to their assessment of the event impacts, resulting in three clusters: Supporters, Cynics, and Realists. Proximity to the main event location also was evaluated since this variable has had mixed results in previous resident studies. Results showed that resident perceptions varied over time, thus providing support for monitoring residents over multiple time periods. In addition, residents’ support and residents’ plans to attend the event were contributing factors in the assessment of the Benefits and Local Problems. Supporters, Cynics, and Realists demonstrated significant differences over time in their assessment of External Problems, and proximity to the event was found to be a significant factor in residents’ assessment of Local Problems. / Ph. D.

The use of exchange theory as it applies to human relations has escalated dramatically in the past 20 years. The present study applies exchange theory as the basis of mate selection in contemporary society. Whereas an actual barter system was used in the past and families played a major role in choosing prospective mates, participants in the mate selection process are not virtually on their own and must rely upon their own bargaining skills to present their assets on the marriage market. A number of characteristics are thought to enhance or detract from a person's "worth" on the marriage market. Over 900 college students from nine universities across the united states were surveyed in order to ascertain what they considered valuable in a potential mate, and important variables in the mate selection process were determined. Comparisons were made among gender, race, marital status, family size and configuration, socioeconomic status, religious orientation, and geographical region of the United States. The results indicate that important differences exist among the various groups concerning what characteristics enhance or detract from an individual's worth on the marriage market in contemporary America. Finally, it was determined that marital worth of individuals can theoretically be measured.