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The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the Psychological Capital (PsyCap) of second-career teachers (SCTs) and their perceptions of what affects their PsyCap in the workplace by surveying and interviewing second-career teachers in public school districts in central eastern and northern Virginia. The research questions were: What is the PsyCap of a second-career teacher? What are the factors that second-career teachers perceive to contribute to their PsyCap? Participants were located in rural and suburban school districts in central eastern and northern Virginia. Data collection consisted of demographic surveys, the Psychological Capital Questionnaire survey (PCQ-24), and semi-structured interviews. Eighteen second-career teachers were purposefully selected from 34 who completed the demographic survey data and PsyCap-24 to participate in semi-structured interviews using the interview questions protocol. Common themes from the interviews were determined using deductive and inductive coding. Major findings were that second-career teachers exhibited a high average workplace positive PsyCapof 4.8; mentorship and strong peer support significantly influence second-career teachers' positive PsyCap; and a teacher's relationships with colleagues and their team's impact second-career teachers' positive PsyCap. Additional findings also showed that positive relationships with administration and prior-life experiences in other fields contributed to an increase in positive PsyCap. Whereas extra duties assigned to second-career teachers negatively impact their overall PsyCap. These results underscored the significance of nurturing positive PsyCap among second-career teachers, adding to the broader research on educators' PsyCap and its impact on teacher retention and job satisfaction in education. / Doctor of Education / The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the psychological capital (PsyCap) of current teachers who held a career prior to teaching (second-career teachers) and what affects second-career teachers' PsyCap scores at the school level. The research questions were: What is the PsyCap of a second-career teacher? What are the factors that second-career teachers perceive to contribute to their PsyCap? SCTs who participated were located in rural and suburban school districts in central eastern and northern Virginia. Data collection methods involved demographic surveys, the Psychological Capital Questionnaire survey (PCQ-24), and semi-structured interviews. From a pool of 34 participants who completed the surveys, 18 second-career teachers were purposefully selected for one-on-one interviews. Analysis of the interviews highlighted several key themes, including the high average positive PsyCap score of 4.8 among second-career teachers, the significant influence of mentorship and peer support on their PsyCap, and the impact of relationships with colleagues and teams. Additionally, positive relationships with administration and prior experiences in other professional fields were found to add to positive PsyCap, while extra duties assigned to second-career teachers had a negative effect on their PsyCap. These findings emphasize the importance of fostering positive PsyCap among second-career teachers and contribute to understanding its importance for teacher retention and job satisfaction in education.

This cumulative dissertation, which consists of three empirical papers, one book chapter and an introductory framework paper, aims to enhance the understanding of the common good concept within an organisational context, focusing specifically on the employee level. Making use of Meynhardt’s public value approach (2009, 2015), the main objective is to identify the relationship between public value orientation and positive psychology, and to examine the relationship’s effects on individual, organisational and societal outcomes. Incorporating multiple studies, the dissertation theoretically discusses and empirically analyses to examine how employees and society perceive the organisational public value orientation and how these perceptions affects different facets of their behaviour. By leveraging psychologically established models, the relationship between organisational public value and relevant psychological constructs is explored and substantiated. In addition, this dissertation utilises the empirical results to elaborate the practical relevance for managers and organisations.

Die Dissertation greift zwei neuere Ansätze der Platonforschung (P. Stemmer, N. Blößner) auf. Demnach ist Platons ''Politeia'' keine Lehrschrift, sondern eine kohärente Argumentation, die zudem den im ''Phaidros'' entfalteten Kommunikationsregeln folgt, also auf konkrete Situationen, Beweisziele und Personen bezogen ist. Der Autor konzentriert sich besonders auf den letzten Aspekt und hier vor allem auf die jugendlichen Gesprächspartner des Sokrates, die Brüder Glaukon und Adeimantos. Er zeigt, dass deren Analyse, die öffentliche Meinung der Zeit impliziere eine starke Tendenz zum Egoismus, und das bei ihnen daraus erwachsene, im Dialog drängend artikulierte Bedürfnis nach Gewinnung einer fundierten Gegenposition, die sie von Sokrates erwarten, Anlage und Durchführung von dessen Argumentation in der Tat wesentlich beeinflussen. Weil eine allen Einwänden standhaltende Begründung stets den Nachweis erfordert, dass gerecht zu sein ein intrinsisch notwendiger Bestandteil der Eudaimonie, d.h. eines gelingenden Lebens ist, erweist sich die reflektierte Lebenswahl somit als das zentrale Thema der ''Politeia'', das den Dialog zusammenhält und seinen Aufbau sowie den Zusammenhang seiner vielen unterschiedlichen Sachthemen letztlich erklärt. Behandelt wird dieses Thema aber nicht abstrakt, sondern mit Bezug auf die konkrete Situation der Brüder, von denen Glaukon (so der Autor) die initiative Rolle zuzuschreiben sei. Trotzdem gelinge es Platon, das Gespräch nicht um die Entscheidung einzelner Personen für ihre individuelle Lebensführung kreisen zu lassen, sondern um die grundsätzliche – und sich somit auch auf den Leser des Textes beziehende – Frage, auf welcher Erkenntnisbasis, auf welcher methodischen Grundlage und mit welchem Grad an Gewissheit man solche Entscheidungen überhaupt treffen kann. Diese Sicht macht auch die methodischen und erkenntnistheoretischen Explikationen, die Platons Dialog in beträchtlichem Maße enthält, zu essentiellen Bestandteilen der Argumentation. / This dissertation picks up on two recent approaches in Platonic scholarship (P. Stemmer, N. Bloessner), which view Plato’s ''Politeia'' not as a doctrinal work, but rather a coherent argumentation, which, moreover, applies the rules of communication as laid out in the ''Phaedrus'' and is thus related to the argumentative goals of concrete persons in a specific situation. The author primarily focuses on the second aspect, particularly on Socrates’ young interlocutors, the brothers Glaucon and Adeimantus. He shows how their analysis, according to which the public opinion of their time implies a strong tendency towards egoism, and their consequent desire for a well-founded counterargument, for which they turn to Socrates, in fact determines the structure and development of the latter’s argumentation. Since a justification which can withstand all objections requires the demonstration that being just is an intrinsically necessary component of eudaimonia, i.e. of true happiness, a rational life choice thus emerges as the central theme of the ''Politeia'', which gives the dialogue its inner coherence and ultimately explains its structure as well as the connection between the various topics it deals with. This theme is not, however, developed abstractly, but in connection with the concrete situation of the brothers, with Glaucon (according to the author of the dissertation) taking the initiative. However, Plato nonetheless succeeds at not letting the discussion revolve around the particular decisions of an individual regarding a particular way of life, but rather around the fundamental question – which thus also relates to the reader of the text – as to the epistemological and methodological basis for such decisions and the degree of certainty with which they can be reached. According to this interpretation, the methodological and epistemological explications, which figure prominently throughout the dialogue, should be viewed as essential elements of the argumentation.

There has been to date no attempt at a detailed examination of Aleksandr Grin’s philosophical views interpreted on the basis of his literary work. Whilst some critics have noted interesting links between the writer’s oeuvre and a few popular philosophers, this has usually been done in passing and on an ad hoc basis. This thesis aims to fill this gap by reconstructing Grin’s views in relation to the European philosophical tradition. The main body of the thesis consists of three parts built on and named after three essential themes in philosophy: External World, Happiness and Morality. Part One delineates Grin’s views on nature and civilisation: I argue first that his cult of nature makes it possible to conceive of Grin as a pantheistic thinker close to Rousseau and Bergson, and then I reconstruct the author’s criticism of urbanisation and industrialisation. In the second part I assess the place of happiness in Grin’s world-view, indicating its similarities to the philosophy of various thinkers from the Ancients to Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. After sketching a general picture of the concept of happiness in Grin’s works, I discuss the place of material and immaterial factors in the writer’s outlook. I also gather maxims expressed by the protagonists in his fiction that can be taken as recommendations concerning ways of achieving and defending happiness. Finally, I link happiness with the problem of morality in Grin’s oeuvre. In the final part I examine modes of moral behaviour as displayed by the author’s protagonists. Firstly, I argue that in Grin’s works we find numerous examples and themes that allow us to perceive him as an existentialist. Secondly, I indicate Grin’s adherence to rules of conduct commonly associated with chivalric literature. Thirdly, I emphasise the importance of Promethean-like characters in the moral hierarchy of Grin’s protagonists.

The happiness of managers is an important research theme for several reasons. Managers spend most of their working day with people, are constantly interacting with various social systems and are role models for happiness in organisations. Furthermore, happiness (in terms of feeling and functioning well) is associated with mental health and positive organisational outcomes. The prevalence of positive mental health is relatively low, with less than a third of the population experiencing high mental health. Research about happiness is necessary given that gains in mental health predict declines in mental illness. Two conceptualisations of happiness, namely authentic happiness (Seligman, 2002), and flourishing (Keyes, 2005) include dimensions of feeling and functioning well. No studies have been conducted regarding the happiness of managers in South Africa. Therefore, research is necessary to investigate the factors associated with happiness, as well as the pathways to managers’ happiness. Psychological need satisfaction is an important pathway through which social-contextual variables impact happiness of people. The aim of this research was to investigate the state of, antecedents and outcomes of happiness of managers in the agricultural sector in South Africa. A cross-sectional design with managers in the South African agricultural sector (N = 507) was used. The Orientations to Happiness Questionnaire, Satisfaction with Life Scale, Job Satisfaction Scale, Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale, Organisational Commitment Scale, Antecedents Scale, Work-related Basic Need Satisfaction Scale, Work Engagement Scale, Mental Health Continuum Short Form, Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Well-being, Work-role Fit Scale, Work-Life Questionnaire and Turnover Intention Scale were utilised. Cronbach alpha coefficients, exploratory factor analysis, Pearson correlations, multiple regression analysis, descriptive statistics and mediational analysis (Omnibus procedure) were applied. Structural equation modelling was used to test a structural model of orientations to happiness and its relation to various organisational outcomes. The results of study 1 showed that orientations to happiness (i.e. pleasure, meaning and engagement) had strong direct effects on subjective well-being, job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour. Orientations to happiness impacted job satisfaction indirectly through subjective well-being. Subjective well-being had a strong direct and positive effect on job satisfaction. Orientations to happiness and subjective well-being affected organisational commitment indirectly through their effects on job satisfaction. Concerning happiness as flourishing at work, the results of study 2 showed that 3% of the managers were languishing, 48.5% were moderately flourishing, while 48.5% were flourishing. Task characteristics, supervisor relations, availability of resources impacted job satisfaction, emotional and psychological well-being of managers. Remuneration was associated with job satisfaction, emotional and social well-being. Task characteristics, supervisor relations, personal resources and remuneration satisfied the psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, which impacted job satisfaction, work engagement and flourishing of managers positively. The results of study 3 showed that factors contributing to meaningful work (work role fit, good co-worker relations, meaningful tasks and work beliefs) had direct effects on psychological need satisfaction, purpose and meaning in life, organisational citizenship behaviour and turnover intention. Work role fit, co-worker relations, task characteristics and career orientation (as a work belief) impacted meaning and purpose in life indirectly through competence satisfaction. Purpose in life impacted turnover intention negatively via psychological need satisfaction, while meaning in life impacted organisational citizenship behaviour and turnover intention via competence and relatedness satisfaction. Recommendations for future research were made. / PhD, Industrial Psychology, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

Syfte Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka samband mellan utbildning, civilstånd och inkomst gentemot upplevd fysisk och psykisk hälsa. Metod Undersökningen är en kvantitativ enkätstudie där totalt 525 individer ingick framförallt från Lidingö, Täby, Haninge, Östermalm och Solna. Åldern på individerna varierade mellan 37 och 89 år och medelåldern var 70,3 år (± 6,6), där cirka en tredjedel var män och två tredjedelar kvinnor. Samtliga har fått besvara frågor med fasta svarsalternativ kring deras upplevda fysiska (kroppslig) samt psykiska (själslig) hälsa och faktorerna inkomst, civilstånd samt utbildningsnivå. Därefter analyserades resultaten för att finna eventuella samvariationer mellan den upplevda hälsan och de specifika faktorerna. Samtliga deltagare har själva ansökt om att få vara med i ett projekt kring hälsa i Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolans regi. Resultat Signifikanta samvariationer fanns mellan upplevd fysisk och psykisk hälsa samt civilstånd där hög hälsa korrelerade med att leva i ett förhållande. I förhållande till inkomstnivå fanns tendenser till samband (dock utan signifikans) där en viss ökning av den upplevda fysiska samt psykiska hälsan noterades för varje inkomstintervall (låg, medel och hög), i synnerhet gentemot den psykiska hälsan. Utbildningsfaktorn visade inga signifikanta samband med grad av upplevd hälsa bland deltagarna. Slutsats Studiens hypotes om en positiv samvariation mellan den upplevda hälsan och samtliga tre livsfaktorer visade sig inte stämma fullt ut för denna grupp med företrädesvis äldre. Den faktor som signifikant korrelerade med upplevd hälsa var civilstånd. Även inkomst visade sig ha tendensen (dock ej signifikant) till ett visst samband med de skattade hälsoparametrarna för den undersökta gruppen. Det är möjligt, med använda arbetsmetoder, att starkare samband skulle fås fram på ett mer slumpmässigt urval av befolkningen. Studien ställer jämväl nya frågor om huruvida sambandet för undersökta faktorer i förhållande till upplevd hälsa eventuellt skiljer sig för olika åldersgrupper.

This thesis is an investigation into the microeconomic mechanisms that govern some of the occupational choices faced by workers in Sub-Saharan Africa, and into the monetary and non-monetary returns to their decisions. Chapter 1 begins by exploring the decision process that leads workers to allocate themselves to different occupations within the economy. In particular, I investigate the role of risk-aversion in the allocation of workers between formal and informal jobs in Ghana, hence attempting to explain a fundamental dimension of duality through an investigation into workers' preferences. In my model of sectoral allocation risk-averse workers can opt between entering the free-entry informal sector and queuing for formal occupations. Conditional on identifying the riskier option, the model yields testable implications on the relationship between risk-aversion and workers' allocation. My testing strategy proceeds in two steps. First, using the first three waves of the Ghana Household Urban Panel Survey (GHUPS) dataset, I estimate expected income uncertainty and find it considerably higher in the informal sector than in formal employment. Second, using experimental data to elicit risk-attitudes I estimate the effect of risk-aversion on occupational choices and I find that, in line with the first result, more risk-averse workers are more likely to queue for formal jobs and less likely to be in the informal sector. The conclusion of the first chapter is that attitudes to risk should feature more prominently in models of sector allocation and in the design of labour market policies, in particular when those policies aim to impact workers' vulnerability to risk and uncertainty. Chapter 2 focuses on the largest occupational category in the Developing world, self-employed workers with small productive activities, and it tries to estimate the returns to different productive assets, namely physical capital, labour and human capital. These are the workers that form most of the informal sector analysed in chapter 1, which allows me to draw a direct link with the analysis so far. The chapter begins by specifying a model for the income-generating process grounded in the literature on firms' production and hence abridging the gap between the analysis of individual earnings and the study of firms' value added. Identification in the empirics is achieved by means of panel estimators that are suitable to address the endogeneity of input choices, which derives from both time-varying and time-invariant unobservable heterogeneity. The use of these estimators is made feasible by the length of the Ghanaian Household Urban Panel Survey dataset at CSAE. I also explore issues of endogeneity in the selection of different technologies, defined by their relative capital and labour intensity. Finally, I analyse the shape of returns to capital, with the aim to detect potential non-convexities in technology. The results show that capital and work-experience play the strongest role in income-generation, while the shares of value added attributed to labour and to formal schooling are low. Marginal returns to investment are high at low capital levels and they decrease very rapidly, pointing against the existence of non-convexities due to minimum scale requirements, but implying that real income gains resulting form micro-investment are modest. Chapter 3 returns to the issue of earnings uncertainty and risk-aversion explored in Chapter 1, but it now takes the allocation choice as given and explores the direct welfare implications of income uncertainty for worker's well-being. Namely, the chapter explores the relationship between income and welfare, with a particular attention on the link between income vulnerability and happiness. Using unique longitudinal data on life-satisfaction and labour market outcomes, I estimate an individual measure of vulnerability (defined as the probability of falling below a low-income threshold) and investigate its effect on well-being. After controlling for unobservable individual fixed effects, work-satisfaction, relative income and other relevant worker characteristics, I find a sizable impact of vulnerability, over and above the income effect. When I explore the mechanisms behind my results, I find that aspiration adaptation to current income may result in a transitory income effect. Moreover, using my direct measure of attitudes to risk from field-experiments (already used in chapter 1), I can test directly the hypothesis that more risk-averse agents suffer more heavily from a given increase in income vulnerability. Overall, my findings support policy interventions that aim to reduce vulnerability, as I expect such policies to have a 'direct' impact on agents' happiness given the prevailing attitudes to risk and uncertainty in the population. Finally, from the point of view of overall social welfare, my results suggest that non-Rawlsian growth models, whereby 'someone may be left behind', may fail to enhance general welfare, for high enough levels of risk-aversion in the population, if the risk of falling behind is sufficiently widespread.

Personnage central du néoconfucianisme contemporain, Mou Zongsan (1909-1995) a écrit un nombre impressionnant de livres philosophiques. Loin d’ignorer les penseurs d’autres courants, il les intègre à ses théories pour en utiliser les forces. Ainsi, il s’intéresse au concept d’enseignement parfait (yuanjiao圓教). Cette notion fut introduite par l’école bouddhique Tiantai (Tiantai天台). Après une classification de tous les enseignements bouddhiques, il fut conclu que l’enseignement parfait consiste en un enseignement complet reflétant parfaitement l’intention ultime du Bouddha. Mou considère quatre critères pour déterminer quelle doctrine est conforme à cette idée : la préservation de tout ce qui existe, la possibilité pour tous d’atteindre l’illumination, englober tout sans distinction et utiliser un langage qu’il qualifie de non analytique. Dans cette étude, nous allons examiner l’utilisation faite par Mou du concept d’enseignement parfait. Il démontre la nécessité pour l’être humain d’avoir un esprit qui saisit à la fois la sphère phénoménale et nouménale. De cette façon, tout ce qui compose la réalité, pur et impur, est conservé. Il emprunte ensuite le concept du summum bonum kantien, c’est-à-dire le ratio proportionnel entre la vertu et le bonheur, et le révise à l’aide de l’enseignement parfait. Le résultat est tout à fait étonnant : l’être humain possède l’intuition intellectuelle, normalement réservé à Dieu chez Kant, et est ainsi responsable de son propre bonheur grâce à l’accomplissement d’actions morales. Cependant, le bouddhisme ne fournirait pas le cadre théorique idéal pour la notion très importante du summum bonum puisque l’aspect moral n’y serait pas assez développé. Mou affirme que, malgré leur origine bouddhique, les critères qui définissent un enseignement parfait peuvent être appliqués à d’autres courants de pensée. Il propose donc le confucianiste Wang Longxi王龍溪 (Wang Ji王畿 1498- 1583), dont les théories correspondent aux caractéristiques de l’enseignement parfait, pour établir un concept du summum bonum novateur. / Mou Zongsan (1909-1995), a central figure in the emergence of New confucianist thought, wrote an impressive number of books on philosophy. One of the most interesting aspects of Mou’s writings is that he distilled and integrated concepts of other philosophical schools he considered relevant and valuable for his works. One example for this notion is his extensive use of the concept of the perfect teaching (yuanjiao圓教), which was originally introduced by the Buddhist school of Tiantai (Tiantai天台). They first classified all Buddhist teachings before concluding that only the doctrine of perfect teaching truly reflects the ultimate wisdom envisioned by the Buddha. Mou determines that this concept fulfill four necessary criteria: (1) the preservation of all that exists, (2) the possibility for all sentient beings to achieve illumination, (3) to encompass everything without distinction, and (4) to utilize a non-analytical language. In this study, we will analyse Mou’s use of the concept of perfect teaching. He argues that the human mind must be capable of perceiving both the phenomenal and the noumenal world. This postulate ensures the preservation of all realities, inclusive of both what is ‘pur’ and ‘impure’. Mou utilizes the summum bonum, a Kantian concept that postulates that virtue and happiness are proportionally linked, and modifies it with the help of the perfect teaching. As a result of this fusion of occidental and oriental thought, human beings are attributed intellectual intuition, which according to Kant is God’s privilege. As a consequence, humans ultimately determine their own happiness by their moral behavior. Although Mou uses the originally Buddhist doctrine of perfect teaching to revise the concept of summum bonum, he also concludes that the lack of a moral foundation renders Buddhism ultimately unfit to act as the theoretical framework of summum bonum. However, Mou claims that the four characteristics that define a perfect teaching can, irrespective of their origin, be applied to other schools of thought. Therefore, he proposes that the theories of the confucianist Wang Longxi王龍溪 (Wang Ji王畿 1498- 1583) fulfil these attributes, and uses them to establish a revised concept of summum bonum that preserves the proportionality of virtue and happiness but bypasses the requirement of God as the sole proprietor of intellectual intuition.