Background: The European Union’s (EU) food and drink industry has faced declining competitiveness over the past two decades. Methodologies associated with the quality improvement has been recognized as a possible solution to increase competitiveness of the industry. However, there are uncertainties among researchers and practitioners of how to implement these quality improvement methodologies and researchers of today requests further understanding in why some firms perform better than others when applying the same practices. Objectives: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the concept of ‘individual readiness for organizational change’ can be used as a measurement to better understand why some firms perform better than others when applying the same quality improvement initiations within the EU food and drink industry. Methods: The researcher of this thesis uses secondary data from existing literature on quality improvement imitations, according to Luning and Marcelis (2009) definition of quality improvement as a part of the food quality management system (FQMS), to justify the need for ‘individual readiness for organizational change’ measurements, defined by Holt et al. (2007), and uses primary data from the conduction of a single-case study, of an Swedish fruit and vegetable operating organization that were about to embark a Lean manufacturing piecemeal approach implementation, to validate the need for assuring individual readiness for change before any food and drink industry invests in quality improvement implementations. Results: The findings of the primary data collection are accordant with existing literature where individual employees were found to display lower levels of ‘individual readiness for organizational change’ perceived the organization to have lack of proper communication or were more resistant towards the implementation. Employees whose daily activities were more orientated around other FQMS practices such as quality assurance and quality control, displayed lower levels of individual readiness than employees whose activities are less associated with these systems. Furthermore, trust in management was identified as a key determinant of the employees’ individual readiness for the Lean manufacturing implementation. Conclusions: The findings of this thesis indicate that the usage the concept of ‘individual readiness for change’ as a measurement before a quality improvement implementation within the EU food and drink industry could increase researches’ and practitioners’ understanding why some firms perform better than others when applying the same practices.

Athletes' effort is widely accepted to be a fundamental component of both their individual performance and the team's success (Giacobbi, Roper, Whitney, & Butryn, 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceptions of psychological climate and self-reported effort. A modified version of the Psychological Climate Questionnaire (Spink, Wilson, Brawley, & Odnokon, 2013) and a self-report measure of effort was distributed to head coaches at 25 Division I athletic programs to share with their student-athletes. Data from 318 student-athletes, participating in 20 different sports, supported five of the six hypotheses in this study. An Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed five dimensions of psychological climate, which where then correlated with a composite score of individual effort. Specifically, perceptions of supportive management (r = .282), role clarity (r = .434), self-expression (r = .287), contribution (r = .428), and challenge (r = .338) were significantly related (p < .01) to self-reported effort. Furthermore, contribution (b = .53, p < .01), role clarity (b = .47, p &lt; .01), challenge (b = .38, p &lt; .01), and self-expression (b = .148, p < .05) were significant in the regression equation while holding all other independent variables constant. Overall, 30% of the variance in individual effort was accounted for by climate. These findings are in line with those of Spink et al. (2013) and further support the idea that how athletes perceive various aspects of their psychological climate is linked to the effort they put forth in practice and competition. / Kinesiology

Introduction: Unhealthy diets are significant contributors to chronic diseases. Variations in CVD rates across ethnicities in Canada could be attributable to diverse dietary habits and nutrition environmental influences. The extent to which individuals’ food environment perceptions influence dietary intake is also understudied. Methods: This cross-sectional study, utilizing data from 7,077 of the 10,100 adults in the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds (CAHHM) cohort, assessed associations of elements of the nutrition environment (food prices, advertisements, and availability) and ethnicity with dietary intakes. Results: Self-reported intakes of carbohydrates, junk foods, meat, and cholesterol varied significantly across Asians and White Europeans (p<0.0001). Rural/urban differences were also observed in carbohydrate, fat, protein, cholesterol, vegetable, meat, and sweet drink intakes (p<0.0001), excluding junk foods, and fruits. Interestingly, while individuals' perceptions of their food environment did not correlate with objective measures of the same environment, a 1$ increase in vegetable prices was significantly associated with a decrease in vegetable consumption by 0.0078 In(servings/day) (p= 0.0233), after adjusting for rural/urban living, ethnicity and BMI. No associations were found between fruits, meat, bread, eggs, cola, chocolate, poultry, rice, and milk prices and respective intakes. No association was also found between fruit/vegetable availability and consumption; nor between junk foods, sweet drinks and fruit/vegetable ads and consumption. Notably, alcohol advertisement was associated with alcohol intake. Discussion/Conclusion: The price-inelastic nature of foods like milk and eggs due to their perceived essentiality, implies the superimposing effects of other factors on consumption aside, price. While food advertisements undoubtedly impact eating behaviours, their influence might be subtle considering factors like price which could pose barriers to healthy eating. These findings emphasize the intricate interplay between prices, availability, advertisement, and other factors and dietary choices. Policymakers, food industries, and health advocates can leverage these insights to create healthier food environments for improved health. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Unhealthy diets are significant contributors to chronic diseases. Diverse influences from the nutrition environment also impact consumption. To better inform public health strategies promoting healthy eating, it is imperative to ascertain whether modifying the food environment of individuals would be more effective in transforming their eating behaviours. This cross-sectional study, utilizing data from 7,077 adults from the CAHHM cohort, assessed the influence of elements of the nutrition environment and ethnicity on dietary intake. Differences in carbohydrate, junk food, meat, and cholesterol intake were found among Asians and White Europeans. Carbohydrate, fat, protein, vegetable, meat, and sweet drink intakes varied between rural and urban settings. Increased vegetable prices were associated with reduced consumption, while food advertisements were not associated with dietary intake. This study shows that the costs of healthy foods impact dietary choices more than advertisements. Policymakers can utilize these findings to promote healthy food environments in Canada.

The use of virtual teams (VTs) in the workplace has increased rapidly as companies seek to coordinate the collaboration of geographically dispersed employees effectively. This study involved an experimental comparison of VTs and face-to-face teams engaged in coopetition. Coopetition occurs when a relationship is characterized by simultaneous cooperation and competition. This study differed from previous research because many previous studies of team coopetition place their focus on traditional face-to-face teams and fail to touch upon the intricacies of VT coopetition. Because of this, investigating the intricacies of coopetition among VT members is an essential addition to the large body of research on face-to-face teams. This study examined team coopetition through separate measures of competitiveness and cooperativeness. The constructs competitiveness and cooperativeness were measured separately instead of together on a single continuum. This method determined team members’ coopetitive proclivities, the balance between one’s tendency to perform behaviors directed toward achieving a self-serving goal or goals and one’s tendency to perform behaviors directed toward achieving a group-serving goal or goals within the context of a coopetitive relationship. Team members’ coopetitive proclivities were examined through a combination of videogame play and electronic surveys. All participants in this experiment were female. No significant differences between the coopetitive proclivities of virtual and face-to-face teams were found. We found that the ratings of competence that participants received from their partners tended to be lower under the virtual condition. We found that extroverted team members were more likely to cooperate. We also found that the ratings of competitiveness that participants received from their partners were negatively correlated with the ratings of desirability for future collaboration (i.e., team viability) that participants received from their partners. Further, it was determined that the ratings of cooperativeness that participants received from their partners were positively correlated with the ratings of team viability that participants received from their partners. Additional results indicated a positive relationship between team members’ self-reported levels of agreeableness and the ratings of competence that participants received from their partners. Results also indicated a positive relationship between team members’ self-reported levels of openness and the ratings of competence that participants received from their partners. This paper discusses the implications of these results and possible directions for future study.

Consumption is a major contributor to environmental harm, and also one area where the Swedish performance is in urgent need of improvement. While it is well known that changes are needed on all societal levels for sustainability to be realized, it is unclear whether the population is aware of which changes that refers to, since the impacts from individual consumption remain high. Previous research has identified psychological, cultural, social, and economic determinants as barriers to change, however, removing those barriers will not be sufficient if it results in changes entailing only marginal environmental benefits. The question that initiated this research is whether common people in Sweden can identify which changes are efficient enough to provide visible results, or if the current environmental discourse generates misperceptions, hindering concrete change. Meeting the objective to contribute to the identification of obstacles to sustainability by studying the perception of pro-environmental consumption among potential adopters, a qualitative interview-based case study was conducted on students at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden. The research followed an abductive approach, whereby primarily the Diffusion of Innovations theory was used for structure and interpretation. The findings reveal several barriers to sustainability associated with individual perceptions, including perceptions of the concept of pro-environmental consumption as complex, a perceived lack of trustworthy information from authorities, a perceived abundance of misleading information from profit-driven actors, as well as some controversy on where to place responsibility. Alongside this, misperceptions of environmental impacts from consumption were revealed, whereby accurate perceptions and environmental education were somewhat correlated. While highlighting an unrecognized but concrete issue, this research involves a small sample, suggesting that further research is required.

The thesis "Influence of experience with infidelity on setting the bottom limit of infidelity tolerance in a partner relationship" deals with the issue of determining the bottom limit of partner exclusivity and its possible association with a previous infidelity experience. The main thesis of this work is that setting the limits of infidelity tolerance between partners in a relationship is quite individual and each person may perceive these limits very differently. This work is divided in two parts. The theoretical part focuses on analyzing selected findings about infidelity that have been so far collected in research studies or therapeutic sessions, and methodological shortcomings that arise from these findings. The practical part is a description of the research itself, and its goal to find out if infidelity experience affects the setting of tolerance limit in a relationship. It was examined whether it was an experience with the person"s own infidelity or infidelity if its partner, if it was an experience from a former relationship or a current one and if there is a difference between men and women in being influenced by the experience. Semi-structured interviews with a total of 26 people were conducted for this purpose and then analyzed in a qualitative way. The final part presents results and...

No description available.

Le moustique Aedes albopictus, potentiellement vecteur de virus tels que la dengue, le Chikungunya ou le Zika est présent dans une quarantaine de départements français de métropole. L’expérience de cas et foyers autochtones de dengue et de Chikungunya enregistrés en Europe et en France métropolitaine depuis une dizaine d’années confirment l’intérêt des autorités d’anticiper le risque par l’adoption de stratégies collectives. Ce travail s’appuie sur une ethnographie des interactions entre les agents de la communauté d’agglomération Var-Esterel-Méditerranée et des riverains, ainsi que sur une série d’entretiens semi-directifs réalisés auprès d’acteurs institutionnels et d’administrés de la Ville de Nîmes. A partir d’analyses des discours et des pratiques, ce travail propose une réflexion sur les perceptions de la nuisance, des risques sanitaires associés à Aedes albopictus, ainsi que des mesures mises en œuvre à titre individuel et collectif. Cette thèse entend démontrer en quoi la lutte contre Aedes albopictus et la promotion de la mobilisation sociale à l’échelle institutionnelle locale relèvent moins d’enjeux strictement sanitaires que plus largement politiques et en particulier de priorisation de l’agenda politique local. L’enjeu plus général que nous discutons est de savoir si l’implication institutionnelle locale en matière de lutte contre le moustique tigre est révélatrice d’identités de territoire et préfigure des inégalités territoriales et plus largement sociales en termes d’accès à l’information, de prévention vis-à-vis des risques sanitaires et de qualité de vie des populations. / The mosquito Aedes albopictus, is the potential vector of different viruses, such as dengue, Chikungunya and Zika, and is present in about 40 departments of mainland France. The experience of the cases and the autochthonous clusters of dengue fever and Chikungunya recorded in Europe and in mainland France in the last 10 years confirm the authorities’ interest in anticipating this problem by adopting collective strategies. The work of this thesis is based on the ethnography of the interactions between the local authority agents of the communauté d’agglomération Var-Esterel-Méditerranée and the local residents, as well as on a series of semi-structured interviews with institutional players and citizens of the city of Nîmes. Starting from the analysis of the words and actions, this work proposes an investigation of the perceptions concerning the mosquito nuisance and health risks associated with Aedes albopictus, as well as of the individual and collective measures. This thesis work wants to show how the fight against Aedes albopictus and the promotion of social mobilization at the local scale are less related to strict health issues and more broadly to political issues, particularly the local political agenda priorities. The more general issue we discuss is to understand whether the local institution implication in the fight against tiger mosquitoes reveals local identities and foreshadow local and also more general social inequalities in terms of access to information and prevention of health risks and quality of life of the populations.