Objective: In this dissertation the differences between NCAA athletes and other college students who participate in sports at various levels (i.e., club sports and intramural) were examined. The effects of different types of academic socialization received and the primary source of these messages on grade point average and professional sport expectations were also studied. The weekly hours spent on school and sports during the season and offseason were tested as potential mediators of the relationship between professional sport expectations and grade point average. Method: The sample consisted of 448 college students (NCAA = 122, Club = 104, Intramural = 119, No Sport = 103) ranging from age 18-25. Participants self-reported GPA, professional sport expectations, athletic identity, weekly time spent on school/sports during the season/offseason, academic attainment aspirations/expectations, academic involvement, educational encouragement, the value of education, and most influential socializer of academic messages. Results: NCAA athletes reported greater academic involvement by others, but had lower GPAs than the other students. They also reported academic counselors/mentors and parents/family as their two primary socializers, while students from the other groups indicated parents/family as their only primary source of socialization, as they relied on themselves second most. Also, weekly time spent on sports during the offseason was found to significantly mediate the negative relationship between professional sport expectations and grade point average. Conclusions: The academic experience of NCAA athletes is different from all other students on campus. Collaborating with others on campus to help athletes explore other avenues for future success can lead to less emphasis on playing a professional sport and more academic success. This would be beneficial considering so few NCAA athletes end up having successful pro sport careers. / text

This thesis consists of two parts: the first examines the Expectations Hypothesis of the Term Structure for New Zealand, and the latter examines the predictive power of the term spread on future economic activity in New Zealand. For both parts, I divide the sample period into two sub-sample periods – the pre-OCR period and the OCR period. Using Mankiw & Miron’s (1986) approach for testing the expectations hypothesis, the findings in this paper suggest that the theory is consistent with New Zealand data during the OCR period. I attribute the success of the theory to the introduction of the Official Cash Rate system in March 1999. The change from targeting the settlement cash balance to targeting an interest rate variable has substantially improved the predictability of short-term interest rates. In regards to the predictive power of the spread, the findings in this paper support the conventional view that the spread is positively related to future economic activity. Using Hamilton & Kim’s (2002) approach, I decomposed the term spread into an expectation component and a term premium in an attempt to find out whether these two variables have distinctly separate effect on future economic activity. My findings are in contrast to that reported by Hamilton & Kim. In particular, I find that the term premium in some cases is significant and negatively related to future economic activity in New Zealand. I attribute the negative relationship to lower long-term interest rates and a fallen term premium in New Zealand.

Due to globalisation and resulting work mobility, organisations are forced to compete for talented people. As a result organisations are starting to realise the importance of their human capital, human capital is viewed as the greatest contributor to organisational success. This is evident through the war for talent throughout the world. All organisations are fighting to have the best people as it is believed that talented people add value to the bottom line of the business and give the business a competitive edge. In an attempt to retain talented people, the needs and expectations of these people must be taken seriously. The main research objective of the study was to investigate leadership expectations (what employees expect from their leaders), to what extent their expectations are met and the impact of these leadership expectations on work engagement and intention to leave. In the study, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilised to achieve the objectives. Focus groups in each department of the factory were utilised to gather information on what employees expect from their leaders. Employees were interviewed and open ended questions were utilised to give employees an opportunity to express themselves. The information gathered from the focus groups was utilised to design a new leadership expectations checklist. The aim of this checklist is to measure leadership expectations and the extent to which those expectations are met. A total sample of 156 (n =156) employees took part in the research. The result of the study indicated that employees consider the following expectations as important: Relationship with supervisor (ranked as first); Appreciation of good work and Regular feedback (both ranked second); Support from supervisor (ranked third); 2 Communication (ranked fourth) ; Studying further (ranked fifth) ; Independence (ranked sixth); and Coaching (ranked seventh). Results further indicate that leadership expectation met does predict engagement, the more the leadership expectations are met the more the engaged the employees become. Regarding turnover there was a negative relationship between leadership expectation and turnover. Recommendation to the organisation and for future research were made. / MA, Industrial Psychology, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

Africa, and Southern Africa in particular, has been identified by both South African and international retail chains as an area for growth. Because conflict on the continent has all but dissipated, economic growth naturally follows political stability. Africa, with its wealth of resources, provides attractive markets for international investors. This increased investment leads to a growing middle class, with growing needs for goods and services. The reason for the interest from organised retail is therefore obvious. The challenge, however, is that, given the size of the individual markets in Southern Africa, it is not financially viable to have an independent marketing strategy for each market. There is no cross-national empirical research that has measured customers’ expectations and perceptions, allowing marketers to develop financially viable marketing strategies. This research, which can be considered an exploratory study, attempted to fill that void. Quality is an elusive and indistinct construct, and as such, it is difficult to measure. A large body of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction literature acknowledges the importance of expectations in the customers’ evaluation (perception) of their service experience. Although there are several models which have been used to measure service quality, SERVQUAL remains the most popular. It has been successfully adapted to a range of service and retail environments, more especially in emerging markets. This study also employs an adapted SERVQUAL instrument to measure customer satisfaction levels in Southern Africa. The main objective of this study was to investigate the similarities in and differences between the perceptions and expectations regarding service quality of the customer groups of retail stores in different Southern African countries in order to develop financially viable retail strategies. In order to achieve this, the following secondary objectives were identified: *To determine the applicability of the adapted SERVQUAL model in Southern African countries. *To determine, by means of a cross-national study, whether other dimensions of service quality are relevant in the development of a service quality model in a Southern African context. The research population constituted all the existing and potential customers of Beares, Ellerines and FurnCity stores in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa. Six hundred questionnaires in total were distributed, one hundred being sent to different stores in each of the six countries. Stores were chosen from both rural and metropolitan areas. This was a convenience sample and an interviewer-administered survey. Existing and prospective customers were intercepted in the store and interviewed by store managers. The findings indicated that there were statistically significant differences between expectations and perceptions in two factors of the measuring scale. Although the measuring instrument SERVQUAL was found to be both valid and reliable, only two factors were loaded during the analysis stage, and, as a result, the adaptability of SERVQUAL is questionable. The effect of culture does not form part of the SERVQUAL measuring scale yet service quality literature indicates that national cultures affect both the perceptions and the expectations of service quality. / PhD (Business Management), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

As automation becomes increasing ubiquitous, it is important to know how differences in introducing automated systems will affect human-automation interactions. There are two main ways of introducing expected reliability of an automated system to users: explicitly telling operators what to expect or giving operators experience using the system. This study systematically investigated the effect of expectation format initially and over time on: 1) perceptions of reliability and system usage, and 2) human responses to automation (e.g., compliance, reliance, and overall dependence). Initially, there was an effect of expected level for explicit statement groups, whereas there was no effect of expected level for initial exposure groups. Over time, explicit statement groups had more stable perceptions of system reliability than the initial exposure groups. In general, perceived reliability did not converge to actual system reliability (75%) by the end of the study. Additionally, perceived reliability had a weak, but positive relationship with actual system use, whereas perceptions of system use (e.g., perceived dependence) had a strong, but negative relationship with actual system use. Outside of initial effects seen with perceived reliability, there were few initial differences between expectation formats. Almost all groups tended to initially comply more than rely, with the exception of the initial exposure – lower-than group. Over time, level of expectation for initial exposure groups influenced reliance. There were no differences between expectation groups on compliance and dependence over time. In general, dependence and compliance increased or stayed the same as time using the system increased. This pattern was also seen with reliance, with the exception of the initial exposure - higher-than group decreasing reliance over time. Results from this study have implications for both theory and practice. The research findings both support and augment the existing conceptual model of automation. A better understanding of the differential effects of expectation format and introduced level of expectations can lead to introductions of automated systems that are best suited to the system’s goals, ultimately improving system performance.

No description available.

The Swedish early childhood system is considered among the best in the world, however, in spite of this, we feel that there exists a conflict between educators’ and parents’ expectations of ‘a good preschool’. During our teacher education training we have observed many different preschools and almost in all of them we have listened to anecdotes about one or more conflicts arising between educators and parents and which we have been able to pinpoint toward differing expectations. After talking with a preschool director, who also perceives that expectations of the preschool aims sometimes differ, our idea brought us to conduct this investigation.In this study, we have investigated parents’ expectations of preschool and compared them with educators’ expectations. This is to see if the notion of having different expectations give rise to a conflict. The preschool in which we made our inquiry was randomly selected and is set in a small town in one of the Stockholm region. Our research issues in investigation were: How do parents and teachers’ expectations about preschool differ? Are there notable differences in the expectations and if so, how do these takes shape? In order to investigate whether different expectations in themselves potentially create conflicts, we applied Bronfenbrenner’s theory on ecological development. We have chosen to base our data collection by way of a survey in order to obtain a larger sample size and create comparable data. We have also evaluated our results with regards to previous research results in this area.Our results prove that there is no big of difference in the expectations between parents and teachers, at least not at the preschool in which we administered our survey. However, we found differences in expectations within the group of parents and within the group of educators. We see a possibility to a conflict on survey questions where parents have answered that, for exampel the time for playing is very important for the preschool to work on while some teachers have answered that is not at all important. We believe that if these people meet in this subject a conflict can start too grow. However, the differences in the responses were not significant enough to be able to see it as a general cause of conflict between teachers and parents at this particular preschool. We belivie that teatchers and parents on this preschool makes the enviorment for the children to a positive learning environment. Bronfenbrenners theory says that if these two enviorment can work together it would bring the most to childrens development.

No description available.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-79). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1995. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.