Research report, presented to the SBL, Unisa, Midrand / In the midst of a global recession, this study explored whether the act of obtaining motor vehicle finance has become more onerous since the implementation of the National Credit Act, 2005, (NCA), and to determine which variables are contributing to the phenomenon of declining motor finance figures. A quantitative research methodology was applied whereby a portion of the analysis was based on historical motor finance application data attained from a medium sized motor finance institution. Another portion considered survey data obtained from 152 South African consumers and 42 Credit Analysts collected by way of self administered questionnaires. Various statistical tools, including Independent Sample t-Tests and Pearson product-moment correlation tests were applied to the data. The results of the study indicate that the act of obtaining motor finance has indeed become more complex since the inception of the NCA. Of the variables tested, motor vehicle retail prices and general living costs were identified as the main impediments limiting the amount of motor finance granted in the South African motor finance sector.

Research report, presented to the SBL, Unisa, Midrand / In the midst of a global recession, this study explored whether the act of obtaining motor vehicle finance has become more onerous since the implementation of the National Credit Act, 2005, (NCA), and to determine which variables are contributing to the phenomenon of declining motor finance figures. A quantitative research methodology was applied whereby a portion of the analysis was based on historical motor finance application data attained from a medium sized motor finance institution. Another portion considered survey data obtained from 152 South African consumers and 42 Credit Analysts collected by way of self administered questionnaires. Various statistical tools, including Independent Sample t-Tests and Pearson product-moment correlation tests were applied to the data. The results of the study indicate that the act of obtaining motor finance has indeed become more complex since the inception of the NCA. Of the variables tested, motor vehicle retail prices and general living costs were identified as the main impediments limiting the amount of motor finance granted in the South African motor finance sector.

This study explores the conceptualisation of glass ceiling by Bahraini female managers in their bid to attain senior management position as a career advancement. It assesses their perception of the concept of the glass ceiling, and what coping mechanisms adopted in eliminating barriers and empowering women to attain senior executive positions in the finance sector. The study identifies gender discrimination as a cause that impedes female career progression to senior management levels in the banking industry which originate in multiple environmental levels: organisation barriers (i.e. meso level), societal barriers (i.e. macro level) and individual barriers (i.e. micro level). The study adopts a qualitative approach to uncover the research questions and conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 37 Bahraini female managers in the banks to extract their lived experiences on barriers that hamper their advancement to senior levels. The study captures barriers common to women within an Arabic-Islamic cultural context and seeks to explore its differences from the barriers experienced by western women in their career. The study found out that women’s career progression is affected by social, religious and cultural dogmas, gender stereotype, individual limitations, and organizational structures. This study finds that patriarchal societal pressures, cultural norms, and religious studies influence glass ceiling experienced by Bahraini women. The findings also revealed the limited ability of women to take decisions that affect their advancement. Furthermore, this study highlights the differences in experiences between the majority of women in Western countries where they have autonomy and freedom as their male counterparts in the society. The societal norms and culture appear to undermine women’s empowerment and result in stress, tension and losing valuable talent within the work milieu. The research also revealed the strive by women under the pressure of organisational, societal and individual barriers and the influence of the religious aspects impeding their career progression. The study has added a new insight by emphasising on the value of empowerment for women as a key to breaking the glass ceiling. The analysis shows barriers are varied by the level of empowerment of women, where empowered women can overcome the barriers they encounter while disenfranchised women believed that the barriers operate to their disadvantage and justification for not attaining senior executive positions by making it stiffer. The study concludes there is a need for the re-evaluation of the foundational rubric of the education system on gender equality at an early stage and empowering women in several aspects. These include building up women's capacity by training, mentorship, and networking, presenting inspiring female role models, temporary measures such as mandatory quota, and raising awareness regarding gender equality and emphasis on revising the educational curriculum at schools.

Information Technology (IT) has become an ever-growing element of almost every large enterprise. IT Governance has emerged as a way to ensure effective and efficient use of IT to enable organizations to achieve their goals. The purpose of this study is to investigate how successful IT Governance is characterized to aid the research effort in determining Critical Success Factors for IT Governance. This is performed by a qualitative study researching IT Governance professionals in the finance sector. The study finds that companies take inspiration from ITIL, COBIT, and SAFe to construct their own instructions and guidelines for how to operate their IT organizations. IT Governance instructions and guidelines must be anchored in the business strategy and well distributed and communicated throughout the organization. Alignment between IT and business is an important aspect shown to bolster success. IT Governance is largely about finding a balance between developing and optimizing while having a formalized structure that ensures that the overall goals of the organization are supported in a way that is compliant and risk averse.

ABSTRACT A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY: THE EFFECTS OF THE NATURAL RESOURCE-FINANCIAL SECTORS ON THE FORMATION OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET Soltanov, Elnur MS, Department of International Relations Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fatih Tayfur January 2004, 114 pages This research aims to analyze Russian natural resource-finance sectors&rsquo / effects on Russian foreign policy from the collapse of the Soviet Union on. The main question it tries to answer is why they are successful to determine the main contours of a relatively peaceful foreign policy in a crises-laden Russia which have had so many reasons to switch to an aggressive behavior. In this regard, the military-industrial complex is the other crucial economic sector to be referred to frequently. Given the overwhelming nature of the international structure that Russia finds itself in, and given the general change in the worldview of the Russians, it becomes clear that the resource-finance sector on the one hand and the military-industrial complex on the other are much more than mere economic sectors, being organic material cores of alternative national and international identities. Such a holistic approach in turn makes it possible to draw on the explanatory power of the legitimacy factor and to go beyond different group preferences in accounting for Russian foreign policy. Analyzing different sectors&rsquo / and their commodities&rsquo / structural characteristics in the context of the international market helps to discard the &ldquo / politics of international trade&rdquo / as a too narrow conceptual framework to study Russian foreign policy and to understand different economic sectors&rsquo / true explanatory utility.

The topic of this thesis is the Specifity of bookkeeping and financing of kindergartens. The objective of the thesis is to determine and summarize the differences of bookkeeping and financing of allowance organisations by the entrepreneurial subjects and further to clarify the fundamental changes in bookkeeping of allowance organisations that brought the accounting reform in public finance sector that is effective from the 1st January 2010. In theoretical part I characterized allowance organisations and school corporate body, ways of its bookkeeping and financing before the reform and after. In practical part I described the selected kindergarten including the analyse of financing and bookkeeping in 2009. Further examples of bookkeeping of this kindergarten follow, regarding the accounting reform and summary of accomplishments and negatives of this reform.

(in English): The thesis describes the current economic crisis, to which the Government responded by a set of restrictive measures of public finance. The main attention is paid to the research whether the current financial crisis and government austerity measures influenced the activities of the regional libraries in the Czech Republic and whether they compromised the quality of services provided to the public. The introductory chapter briefly describes the activities of the regional libraries, the most important legislative documents, defines standards of public information services and the development concept. The next chapter is focused on the theoretical definition of the financial crisis and its typology, summarizes its reasons and its historical context. The third chapter briefly approaches the main cases of the current financial crisis in the United States and its impact on European markets, the course of the financial crisis in the United Kingdom and how it influenced the public library sector. The next chapter briefly describes the financing of the public sector in the Czech Republic with a focus on libraries, the current financial crisis in the Czech Republic and the political development in the country since 2006. The last chapter contains a survey conducted by the form of statistical...

Sammanfattning Titel: En kvantitativ studie om balans mellan arbete och privatliv i relation till självmedkänsla, utbrändhet, arbetstillfredsställelse och uppsägningsintention Nivå: Examensarbete på grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Sara Tosterud Lundin och Cornelia Widmark Handledare: Dr Jonas Kågström Datum: 2023 - juni Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur balansen mellan arbete och privatliv ser ut för anställda inom finanssektorn i kontrast till mer traditionella vårdyrken, samt vilken betydelse balansen har på organisatorisk nivå. Därtill ämnar studien undersöka hur faktorerna självmedkänsla, utbrändhet, arbetstillfredsställelse och uppsägningsintention förhåller sig tillbalans mellan arbete och privatliv. Metod: Kvantitativ metod av deduktiv art där det empiriska materialet samlats in med hjälpav två digitala enkäter som skickades ut till 7 104 bankanställda respektive publicerades somett inlägg i en Facebook-grupp för 22 600 socionomer. Totalt resulterade enkäterna i 531 svar som kunde användas. Den empiriskt insamlade datan har analyserats i statistikprogrammet JASP genom deskriptiva-, korrelations- och nätverksanalyser samt ett t-test. Resultat & slutsats: Studien visar att bankanställdas balans mellan arbete och privatliv är god, dock bör organisationerna ha en medvetenhet om att frågan om balans är komplex då det finns många faktorer som kan påverka nivån av balans. Samtliga av studiens hypoteser bekräftades, vilket var i enlighet med tidigare forskning. Bland annat visade studiens resultat att balans mellan arbete och privatliv har ett positivt samband med självmedkänsla och arbetstillfredsställelse, samt ett negativt samband med utbrändhet och uppsägningsintention. Utöver studiens hypoteser framkom två nya korrelationer. Dessa korrelationer visar att en högre självmedkänsla härleder en högre arbetstillfredsställelse och en lägre uppsägningsintention. Examensarbetets bidrag: Bidraget är ökad kunskap kring hur dessa fem ämnesområden påverkar varandra i en svensk kontext avseende finansbranschen. Detta då tidigare studier inom dessa ämnesområden framförallt är riktade till populationer inom sjuk- och hälsovården. Studien har även påvisat ytterligare två direkta samband mellan två ämnesområden: självmedkänsla och arbetstillfredsställelse samt självmedkänsla och uppsägningsintention. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: 1. Genomföra en liknande generaliserbar studie avseende finansbranschen; 2. Undersöka hur det ser ut för dem som varit utbrända men sedan kommer tillbaka till jobbet; 3. Undersöka om svaren skiljer sig mellan olika roller inom yrket; 4. Kombinera enkätundersökningen med intervjuer för att undersöka ämnet mer på djupet genom direkta interaktioner. Nyckelord: Balans mellan arbete och privatliv, självmedkänsla, utbrändhet, arbetstillfredsställelse, uppsägningsintention, finanssektorn, vårdyrken, bankanställda, socionomer / Abstract Title: A quantitative study of work-life balance in relation to self-compassion, burnout, jobsatisfaction, and turnover intention Level: Bachelor’s thesis in business administration Authors: Sara Tosterud Lundin and Cornelia Widmark Supervisor: Dr Jonas KågströmDate: 2023 - juni Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the work-life balance of employees in the finance sector compared to more traditional healthcare professions, and the balance impact at organizational level. Additionally, the study aims to investigate the relationships between self-compassion, burnout, job satisfaction and turnover intention with work-life balance. Method: A deductive quantitative approach was employed, and the empirical data was collected through two digital surveys distributed to 7 104 bank employees and posted in a Facebook group comprising 22 600 social workers. A total of 531 usable responses were obtained. The empirically collected data was analyzed in the statistics program JASP, employing descriptive, correlational, network, and t-test analyses. Results & conclusions: The study demonstrates that the work-life balance of bank employees is satisfactory; however, organizations should be aware that the issue of balance is complex, as there are numerous factors that can influence the level of balance. All of the study'shypotheses were confirmed, which aligns with previous research. Among other factors, the study's findings indicate that work-life balance is positively related to self-compassion and job satisfaction, while being negatively associated with burnout and turnover intention. In addition to the study's hypotheses, two new correlations emerged. These correlations reveal that higher levels of self-compassion are linked to increased job satisfaction and reduced turnover intention. Contribution of the thesis: This thesis contributes to increased understanding of how these five research areas interrelate within the Swedish context, specifically in the finance industry. Previous studies have primarily focused on populations within the healthcare sector. Furthermore, the study identified two direct relationships between two research areas: self-compassion and job satisfaction as well as self-compassion and turnover intention. Suggestions for future research: 1. Conduct a similar generalizable study regarding the financial industry; 2. Examine the experiences of individuals who have experienced burnout but returned to work; 3. Explore potential differences in responses among different job roles within the profession; 4. Combine the survey method with interviews to delve deeper into thetopic through direct interactions. Key words: Work-life balance, self-compassion, burnout, job satisfaction, turnover intention, finance sector, healthcare professions, bank employees, social workers.