In May 2015, the Washington Post published an article titled: “Uncle Sam Had Better Start Treating His Employees Right.” The article’s title captures the essence of the status of human capital in the federal government. Currently, the federal bureaucracy is faced with the potential threat of losing talented workforce due to budget constraints (Wynen & Op de Beeck, 2014), work environments ( Choi, 2009; S.H. Kim, 2005; S.Y. Lee & Whitford, 2008; Lee & Jimenez, 2011), and human resource management practices ( S.H. Kim, 2005; Moyihan & Landuyt, 2008; Shaw, Delery, Jenkins, & Gupta, 1998; Lee & Jimenez, 2011). The potential exit of human capital poses a severe threat to recruiting and retaining the best and the brightest workers. Also, to make the federal government labor force situation worse, many federal workers are now eligible for retirement. Ertas (2015) refers to a report published in 2010 that states that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reported by 2015 that 48% of the federal workforce will be eligible for retirement (Partnership for Public Service & Booz Allen Hamilton, 2010, p. 5). With the aforementioned factors, federal agencies cannot afford to have employees exit. The departure of workers adversely impacts expertise in the organization and productivity, and costs agencies a substantial amount of money (Grissom, Nicolson-Crotty, & Keiser, 2012; Kellough & Osuna, 1995; Lambert & Hogan, 2009; Monnihan & Landuyt, 2008; Wynen & Op de Beeck, 2014). This study utilizes the personal viewpoint of current employees from the large federal agencies to develop a model that will assist federal agencies to identify factors that will encourage employees’ intent to stay with their organization and have long, lasting careers in the federal service. This study employs the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

Conflict is a component of interpersonal interactions, neither inevitable nor innately bad, but often commonplace (Deutsch & Coleman, 2000; Schellenberg, 1996). Conflict interactions that occur in the workplace can impact individuals, relationships, and the organization as a whole. This experimental study was framed from a contingency perspective to examine the extent to which specific contextual variables of a workplace conflict would influence participant responses in that interaction. During the study, 389 individuals responded to an online questionnaire containing a description of a hypothetical workplace conflict interaction with one level of three manipulated context variables (i.e., conflict type, verb abstraction level, and sex of parties). The context variables were hypothesized to influence participants' responses that included attitudes toward the interaction, subjective norms, appraisals of personal control and external control, and attributions of the locus of causality. This cognitive set of variables was hypothesized to explain respondents' behavioral intentions in that conflict. The four conflict behavioral intentions used in this study were control, nonconfrontation, compromise, and integrate. Analyses of the data included multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), canonical correlation analysis, and hierarchical multiple regression. The results of MANOVA were that context had modest effects on cognition and behavioral intention, examined in separate analyses. The conflict type, using a task versus relationship categorization, appeared to be the most salient of the context variables having effects on many of the cognitive measures in this study. Two other contextual variables, sex of conflict initiator and abstraction level of the verbs used to describe the conflict scenario had statistically significant results, but much lesser effects. The sex of the respondent played a minimal role in a statistically significant 3-way interaction with abstraction-level and sex of initiator. The cognitive variables together explained 29% of the variance in the set of conflict behavioral intentions using canonical correlation analysis. When the data were analyzed with hierarchical multiple regression, the context and cognitive variables explained statistically significant proportions of the variance in each behavioral intention that ranged from 7% (of control), 15% (of nonconfrontation), 19% (of compromise), to 20% (of integrate). Different patterns of context and cognitive variables influenced each of the conflict behavioral intentions. These findings present a challenge to hold two ideas together, the context and the individual, in future research and current practice. The results of this study lend support to a contingency perspective that aspects of the context, when salient to a party in the conflict, will have effects on participant responses in that interaction. / Ph. D.

Devant l'accroissement des problèmes environnementaux menaçant la vie humaine, la question de l'implication de toute l'humanité dans la protection de l'environnement est aujourd'hui fortement mise en avant. Sur le plan managérial, les recherches académiques insistent, ces dernières années, sur la nécessité du changement des visions, des valeurs, des attitudes, des intentions et des comportements menant vers une organisation écologique. En positionnant notre recherche dans le champ de la psychologie du développement durable, l'objet de cette thèse est de développer un modèle expliquant les antécédents de l'intention environnementale des dirigeants des PME industrielles. Ainsi, en se basant sur la théorie du comportement planifiée et sur l'orientation entrepreneuriale, nous proposons un modèle conceptuel présentant l'influence des variables contextuelles (politiques, socioculturels et économiques) et individuelles (caractéristiques personnelles) sur la formation de l'intention environnementale des dirigeants des PME. La démarche empirique s'apparente à une démarche de triangulation méthodologique. Elle consiste en une étude qualitative exploratoire au prés de vingt dirigeants de PME, suivie d'une deuxième étude qualitative au prés de dix experts en développement durable et en RSE. Enfin, une étude quantitative au prés de 226 dirigeants est destinée à valider le modèle de recherche. Les résultats obtenus sont très intéressants et originaux. Ils montrent que les intentions environnementales des dirigeants ne résultent pas des pressions des parties prenantes. Par contre, l'intention est le résultat des perceptions de la disponibilité des ressources financières et de l'accompagnement, des résultats espérés du comportement souhaité vis-à-vis du pouvoir public et des institutions financières et aussi des caractéristiques personnelles du dirigeant (son degré d'innovation et de prise de risque). / In front of the increasing environmental problems that threaten human life, the question of the involvement of all mankind in the protection of the environment is strongly emphasized. At the managerial level and in the recent years, academic researchers have emphasized the need to change perceptions, values, attitudes, intentions and behavior leading to an environmental organization.By placing our research in the field of psychology of sustainable development, the subject of this thesis is to develop a model explaining the history of environmental leadership for industrial SMEs. Thus, based on the theory of planned behavior and entrepreneurial orientation, we propose a conceptual model showing the impact of contextual (political, cultural and economic) and individual variables (personal characteristics) on the formation of the environmental intention of SMEs managers.The empirical approach is similar to a process of methodological triangulation. It consists in a qualitative exploratory study nearly twenty SME, followed by a second qualitative study almost ten experts in sustainable development and CSR. Finally, a quantitative study in nearly 226 leaders is used to validate the research model. The results are very interesting and original. They show that environmental intentions of leaders are not the result of pressure from stakeholders. By contrast, the intention is the result of perceptions of the availability of financial resources and support, the expected results of the desired behavior concerning the public and financial institutions as well as personal characteristics of the leader (his degree of innovation and risk-taking).

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This dissertation situates Chaucer's Retraction in the context of medieval thinking about authorial intention and the utility of literary texts. It culminates in a reading of Chaucer's Retraction that emphasizes the Retraction's rhetorical status as a request for prayer, calls into question the presence of a disavowal of Chaucer's literary works, and explores the demands the Retraction makes upon readers.Augustine provided the foundation for medieval thinking about authorial intention through the development of an interpretive system in which readers have the responsibility of seeking in scripture meanings that will build them up toward love for God and their neighbor. Although the first step of interpretation is to seek out the author's intention, God can be trusted to have foreseen all possible meanings useful to the reader, even those not intended by the historical author. Medieval commentators similarly emphasized spiritual utility, as evidenced by the tradition of accessus, or academic prologues, which show interest in the historical author's intentions yet situate discussion of authorial intention in a larger rhetorical context, including consideration of the text's utility. Vernacular authors such as Chaucer and Boccaccio appropriate these interpretive practices in apologies that imply a limited role for authorial intention and leave the task of determining the moral significance of the text to readers.Modern readers have tended to make sense of Chaucer's Retraction by appealing to the intentions and historical circumstances of its author or by describing the Retraction's place within the aesthetic or doctrinal structure of the <italic>Canterbury Tales</italic>. Yet these approaches do not sufficiently account for the rhetorical context of the Retraction. Chaucer explains and defends his intention for the Parson's Tale not to fix interpretation but to influence the reader's moral evaluation of its author. He lists his religious and secular works not to retract or disavow the latter, but to enlist the reader's help in praying for his sins and in giving thanks for his good works. Ultimately Chaucer's Retraction offers readers an opportunity to reflect on their own readings of the <italic>Canterbury Tales</italic>, to pray for the author's salvation, and to benefit from his example of self-examination.

Thesis (M.Com. (Research))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2015 / Amid the global drive to promote environmentally less threatening food production methods, marketers have been exposed to many opportunities as well as challenges, in their desire to profitably satisfy consumers‟ ever-changing needs and wants. In South Africa today, the organic food drive is budding, with key hypermarkets stocking an ever increasing collection of such foodstuffs. Of late, interest and consideration towards organically produced foodstuffs and purchasing intentions thereof have been augmenting in importance amongst many consumers, in their response to concerns about the effects of conventional farming practices on human health, environment, and food safety among others. As many consumers are increasingly becoming conscious about the positive benefits of non-conventional foodstuffs, marketers are now forced to devise new strategies that effectively incorporate these highly sought organic produces. For this reason, organic farming has been regarded as the best and most attractive alternative to inorganic farming and has led to the production of „new‟ foodstuffs. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to determine the antecedents of consumer purchase intentions for organic food in Johannesburg, South Africa. This study used a survey questionnaire for primary data collection and the gathered data was used to quantitatively test the hypotheses. Through Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) statistical software and by means of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the significance of the variables of this study was determined from a sample of 305 respondents across Johannesburg. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to check model fit, reliability and validity of the measurement instruments while Path Modeling checked model fit and was ultimately used for hypothesis testing. The findings revealed that attitude was the key antecedent that provided the highest level of explained variance in consumer purchase intention for organic food while Woolworths was the most popular retail outlet for organic food. The findings of this study are thought to have contributed immensely to both theory and correspondingly informed practice. Likewise, the same results will continue to provide meaningful theoretical along with practical ramifications to concerned stakeholders. Indeed, it is also anticipated that the findings of this study will go a long way in guiding future research endeavours.

This study adopts a two-stage structural equation modelling approach to demonstrate the nomological validity and utility of The Theory of Planned Behaviour to both predict and to explain the visiting intentions of middle-class residents to social history museums within the next 12 months. Working within an 'experience-based management approach' the present study provides both a descriptive contribution, in terms of identifying and providing significant improvements in the measurement of museum anticipated experiences and resource facilitators and constraints, as well as a predictive contribution, in terms of assessing the ability of The Theory of Planned Behaviour, and in particular, the relative contribution of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control modelled with complex summated- interactive antecedents, to explain museum visiting intentions. Particular attention is given to the neglected role of belief evaluation in previous museum and heritage studies in describing the structure and structural dynamics of anticipated museum experience opportunities. Furthermore, attention is given to the potential contribution of perceived behavioural control, and an understanding of an individual's resource constraints, to the experience-based management approach. A two-stage development of a summated interactive- complex model is shown to overcome methodological and conceptual deficiencies which have been noted in previous expectancy-value attitude studies. In addition, this study examines the impact of the anticipated interpretative environment (physical designed space) on the museum experiential opportunities, control and social influences perceived by individuals, and compares the interpretative orientation of The New Museology (idea-based museum) to traditional mixes of museum interpretative media (object-based museum) in this respect. A qualitative-quantitative research design was employed. Thirty extended qualitative interviews formed the basis of the study by providing a 'real lived' understanding of common consumption experiences at heritage attractions, the resource problems associated with museum visits and the influences of social referents. Four hundred quantitative interviews with respondents from middle-class households formed the main focus of the study. Interviews were conducted using a systematic random sampling method applied in two spatially and demographically contrasting electoral wards of Edinburgh, Scotland. Across the spatial wards, respondents were randomly divided in two sub-groups (n=200). In each sub-group respondents were asked to evaluate a pictorial collage designed to capture the interpretative orientation of either the New Museology or traditional approach to museum interpretative mixes. The study highlights the superiority of interpretative media mixes common to The New Museology in raising the instrumental and experiential-process value individuals anticipate from this style of museum attraction. In doing so, the study finds support for the continued application of The Manning-Haas Hierarchy of Demand, where the importance of 'setting' in managing the consumption experiences of consumers is explicitly recognised. However, due to the 'egalitarian' objective of The New Museology, and the expected 'levelling' or increasing homogeneity observed between visitors and non-visitors to idea-based (The New Museology) in terms of anticipated experiential benefits and costs perceived in this museum environment, the present study finds the predictive ability of attitudes in The Theory of Planned Behaviour is reduced. For the idea-based museum, these findings raise some questions regarding the ability of the Manning-Haas Hierarchy, which is based on expectancy-value theory, to operate as a predictive modd of motivation as it was intended. However, the present study does support the use of the Manning-Haas Hierarchy as a descriptive heuristic for product development alone. Subjective norms were not found to increase our understanding of museum visiting intentions, while the explanatory ability of perceived behavioural control was limited to idea-based museum attractions. Further, based on the significant contribution for past expereince to explain visiting intentions to the idea based museum, the present study calls for further research to identify potential 'deficiencies' in explanatory variables needed to more fully understand the motivations of individuals to visit idea-based museums associated with The New Museology. Finally, the present study demonstrates the importance of both sub-group analysis in the Theory of Planned Behaviour in order to identify the moderating impact of past experience and gender on the relative impact of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behaviour control on museum visiting intentions.

Implementation intentions are defined as "if-then" plans specifying when, where, and how to conduct a goal-directed behavior, and have been found to be influential in facilitating goal pursuit. The underlying mechanisms of implementation intention effects are the heightened activation of the situational cues and the association between these cues and the corresponding reactions. Implementation intentions automatize the detection of environmental cues and the initiation of the corresponding behavior. Whether such automaticity of implementation intentions causes rigid behavior is the central issue concerned in the present studies. / In the first part of the thesis, three experimental studies investigated whether implementation intentions would interfere with the detection of and responses to alternative goal-related cues, and whether such effects would be moderated by the ambiguity between the cues specified in implementation intentions and the unplanned cues. I found that implementation intentions interfered with the detection of the alternative cues. I also found an unexpected effect of cue ambiguity, which indicated that implementation intentions would hinder not only the performance on the unplanned cues, but also the performance on the specified cues when there was a high level of ambiguity between these two categories of cues. / In the second part of the thesis, two experimental and two field studies investigated the effects of implementation intentions in multiple-goal settings. Despite the vast differences in design, the four studies on the effects of implementation intentions in multiple-goal settings consistently support the hypothesis that implementation intentions would interact with goal conflict in influencing the performance on the alternative goal (i.e., the goal being pursued simultaneously with the focal goal which has been furnished with implementation intentions). Results consistently revealed that the pursuit of the alternative goal was hampered by implementation intentions on the focal goal when these goals were in conflict, but was unaffected or even facilitated when no goal conflicts were involved. Implications of the results from these two sets of studies for the use of alternative means to reach a goal and the pursuit of multiple goals are discussed. / Zhang, Hong. / Adviser: Darius Chan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-11, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-95). / 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, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Models are used widely within software engineering and have been studied from many perspectives. A perspective that has received little attention is the role of modeler intent in modeling. Knowing the intent of the modeler supports both model comprehension by providing the correct context for interpreting the model and model quality by clearly defining what information the model must contain. Furthermore, formal expressions of this intent allow automated support for this. Despite the value that the knowledge of modeler intent can provide, there are no adequate means in the current state of modeling practice for expressing this information. The focus of this thesis is to address this gap by providing mechanisms for expressing modeler intent both explicitly and formally. We approach this problem by recognizing the existence of a role level in modeling where the role each model plays defines what information it should contain and how this is related to the information in other models. The specification of these roles is what we refer to as the expression of modeler intent. We then present a framework that incorporates four aspects of modeler intent at the role level: the existential intent for a model that arises in response to the need for a set of information by stakeholders, the content criteria that express what information the model is intended to contain, model relationships that express how models are intended to constrain one another and the decomposition criteria that express the intent behind how a model is decomposed into a collection of models. A key contribution of this thesis is the specification of the macromodeling language as a new modeling language designed for the role level that supports the expression of all four aspects of modeler intent. We evaluate these techniques by applying them to two real-world modeling examples.

Models are used widely within software engineering and have been studied from many perspectives. A perspective that has received little attention is the role of modeler intent in modeling. Knowing the intent of the modeler supports both model comprehension by providing the correct context for interpreting the model and model quality by clearly defining what information the model must contain. Furthermore, formal expressions of this intent allow automated support for this. Despite the value that the knowledge of modeler intent can provide, there are no adequate means in the current state of modeling practice for expressing this information. The focus of this thesis is to address this gap by providing mechanisms for expressing modeler intent both explicitly and formally. We approach this problem by recognizing the existence of a role level in modeling where the role each model plays defines what information it should contain and how this is related to the information in other models. The specification of these roles is what we refer to as the expression of modeler intent. We then present a framework that incorporates four aspects of modeler intent at the role level: the existential intent for a model that arises in response to the need for a set of information by stakeholders, the content criteria that express what information the model is intended to contain, model relationships that express how models are intended to constrain one another and the decomposition criteria that express the intent behind how a model is decomposed into a collection of models. A key contribution of this thesis is the specification of the macromodeling language as a new modeling language designed for the role level that supports the expression of all four aspects of modeler intent. We evaluate these techniques by applying them to two real-world modeling examples.