abstract: This study was conducted to (a) explore high achieving high school students' perceptions of the teaching profession, (b) examine the influence of these perceptions on intentions to teach, and (c) test a recruitment suite of tools to determine the effectiveness of recruitment messaging and strategies. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) served as the theoretical framework for this study. Using the TPB allowed examination of students' behavioral, normative, and control beliefs as well as their attitudes, subjective norms, and efficacy and how those components affected intentions to teach. Participants included high school seniors in the top 20% of their class. A mixed methods approach was employed to identify how the characteristics that students value when considering a profession were aligned with those they believed to be true about the teaching profession. Additionally mixing methods allowed for a more thorough exploration of the matter and an in-depth depiction of perceptions and intentions to teach. Results from a confirmatory path analysis showed students' perceived behavioral control, a measure of efficacy, and attitudes toward teaching were predictive of intention to teach and accounted for 25% of the variation in intention to teach scores. A series of exploratory structural equation models was developed to examine additional paths that might be useful in understanding students' intention to teach. Three additional, important paths were found among TPB variables that accounted for an additional 14% of the variation in intention scores. Additionally, these paths had implications for recruitment practice. Five themes emerged from the qualitative data--status, societal importance, influences of important others, teaching as a backup option, and barriers. The discussion focused on implications for recruitment practice and research, limitations, and conclusions. The following conclusions were drawn: (a) students must be provided with knowledge about the teaching profession to overcome stereotypical beliefs, (b) recruitment must begin much earlier, (c) parents must be better informed about teaching, (d) use of a longer recruitment process with multiple touch points must be used to inform and inspire students, and (e) students must be provided with practice teaching opportunities and systematic observational opportunities, which can foster increased efficacy for teaching. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2013

O problema do Desaparecimento do Agente é uma objeção que tem assolado a Teoria Causal da Ação ao longo da maior parte da sua história contemporânea, mesmo tendo essa teoria se tornado a ortodoxia da explicação de ações. A objeção questiona qual seria o papel do agente, se é que ele teria algum, se apenas seus estados mentais parecem ter um papel causal relevante na produção de ações, como afirma a Teoria Causal da Ação. Essa questão permanece sem resposta satisfatória e recentemente tem originado até mesmo versões recentes do problema do Desaparecimento do Agente que levam o Livre Arbítrio e a consciência em consideração como sendo centrais para o debate. Assim, aceitar a Teoria Causal da Ação requer lidar com o problema em questão. Esse debate se beneficiará do diálogo com a psicologia e a neurociência e, com base nessa troca, eu argumentarei que o problema do Desaparecimento do Agente surge de uma concepção equivocada do que seria um agente humano e qual seria o seu papel na produção de suas ações. Isso se torna claro quando percebemos que essa concepção não corresponde ao nosso conhecimento científico atual a respeito da produção das ações humanas. Aceito isso, eu proponho então uma concepção diferente de agentes que não permite o surgimento do problema do Desaparecimento do Agente. / The problem of the Disappearing Agent is an objection that has haunted the Causal Theory of Action for most of its contemporary history, even if this theory has become the orthodoxy of action explanation. The objection questions what role, if any, is reserved for the agent, if only her mental states seem to have a relevant causal role in the production of action, as the Causal Theory of Action would have it. This question remains unsatisfactorily answered, and has even originated recent versions of the Disappearing Agent issue, which take Free Will and consciousness as being at the center of the debate. Therefore, acceptance of the Causal Theory of Action requires dealing with such problem. This debate will benefit from a dialog with psychology and neuroscience, and based on this exchange I will argue that the issue of the Disappearing Agent springs from a misguided conception of what is a human agent and what is the agents role in the production of her action. This becomes clear when we realize that this conception does not correspond to our current scientific knowledge about the production of human action. Accepting this, I then propose a different conception of agents that does not allow for the Disappearing Agent problem to rise.

Esta dissertação, construída a partir da teoria multidimensional da confiança com dimensões cognitivas, afetivas e comportamentais (ROSENBERG & HOVLAND, 1960; CUMMINGS & BROMILEY, 1996; MCALLISTER 1995; JOHNSON & GRAYSON, 2000) tem como objetivo desenvolver e validar uma escala que mensure os componentes afetivos, cognitivos e comportamentais da confiança. Aplicou-se a escala em uma amostra de 480 estudantes. O desenvolvimento da escala utilizou Churchill (1979) como base teórica seguindo os seguintes passos: a) Geração dos itens - através de escalas existentes e entrevistas em profundidade; b) purificação - utilizando análise fatorial exploratória e c) validação - através da análise fatorial confirmatória. Para fins de análise, a primeira metade dos respondentes foi utilizada na etapa exploratória e a outra metade, na etapa confirmatória. Para o teste do impacto das confianças cognitiva, afetiva e comportamental nas intenções de lealdade, foi utilizada a amostra completa. Os resultados mostraram que as confianças afetiva, cognitiva e comportamental são empiricamente distintas e podem ser mensuradas. Conforme esperado, as confianças afetiva e cognitiva tiveram um impacto positivo nas intenções de lealdade, contudo a confiança comportamental não teve impacto significativo. A análise multigrupos mostrou que, em relacionamentos mais longos, as confianças afetiva e cognitiva possuem um impacto maior quando comparadas com relacionamentos menos longos. / This dissertation, based on multidimensional trust theory, aims to develop and test a trust scale that considers affective, cognitive and behavioral aspects. In order to do that, the scale was applied in 480 students. The scale development was based on Churchill (1979) steps: a) Items Generation - using the literature and in-depth interview, b) Purification - using Factorial Exploratory Analysis and c) Validation - using Factorial Confirmatory Analysis. For the development and test of the scale, the sample was divided in two parts: one for the exploratory analysis and the other for confirmatory analysis. For the investigation of the impact of trust dimensions on loyalty intentions the whole sample was used. The results show that cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of trust can be empirically distinguished and measured. As expected, the cognitive and affective trusts have significant and positive impact on loyalty intentions, while behavioral trust does not have impact on that. The multigroup analyses show that when the relationship between client and company is longer, the affective and cognitive trusts have higher impact than when the relationship is sorter.

Influencer marketing has arguably emerged as one of the most effective forms of marketing, and it’s here to stay. That has made influencer marketing just as compelling of a research subject as it is useful for marketing professionals. This thesis aims to put an answer to how high school students experience influencer marketing across social media and how they feel it affect their buying intentions. The data that this study relies on is extracted from an opinion poll, the results of that survey are discussed through various theories and peer reviewed papers. Despite the students adolescence and lack of access to online payment methods, we found that numerous students were not only affected by influencer marketing in their consumer behavior but also went through with a purchase inspired by an influencer on social media. Additional findings indicated that Youtube was perceived to be the most effective platform for influencer marketing according to the questionnaire. The analysis from the survey data also indicated that men were affected by influencer marketing to a lesser extent than women, to confirm this however a bigger sample is needed.

In the face of competition and competing demands on organizations, employees are taxed to exert more effort with fewer resources. The type of environment can create the recipe for increased levels of occupational stress and an environment of increased workplace incivility.Therefore, it is not surprising that research has begun to look at the interaction between occupational stress and workplace incivility. The current work environment requires employees to exert more effort or face negative consequences from supervisors and peers. All too often, the salary increases, bonus structure, career progression, job security and mobility that might be reasonably expected from producing such extra effort do not align with organizational reality. The vexing situation creates workplace settings in which employees would be more likely to release their frustrations generated by unmet expectations through engaging in uncivil behaviors. Andersson and Pearson (1999) define workplace incivility as a “low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target, in violation of workplace norms for mutual respect” (p. 457). The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the relationship between occupational stress and instigator workplace incivility, as moderated by personality, to select organizational outcomes (i.e., perceived physical health and intent to turnover). Data were collected from 206 fulltime working adults in the healthcare industry utilizing Amazon MTurk. Moderated hierarchical regressions were conducted to test the possible moderating role of personality on the stress-incivility relationship; the results demonstrated partial support for H1-H4. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted also to explore the degree stress and incivility predicted the outcome variables of perceived physical health and intentions to turnover; the data indicated support for the notion that greater stress and incivility positively predicted turnover intent. The findings suggest that personality did play a role in the stress-incivility relationship. Conscientiousness and agreeableness dampened the relationship, while neuroticism and extraversion strengthened the relationship. Further, this study found that intent to turnover increased as workplace incivility also increased, even after controlling for stress. Future research was proposed to test the models examined in this study in different settings, with additional moderators, and longitudinally. The practical findings suggest the possible utility of stress reduction training to reduce the likelihood of uncivil behavior.

The following thesis examines factors that affect children’s imitation, and presents evidence that imitation is a composite ability which involves multiple mechanisms developing throughout childhood. In Chapter 1 previous findings are reviewed to highlight the mechanisms underlying the ability to reproduce other people’s actions. The evidence suggests that imitation, whilst based on basic action control mechanisms in infancy, is also affected by higher-order cognitive processes in later childhood. Previous literature is still unclear on how the influence of such processes changes at different ages. Chapter 2 used a successive-models task with children aged 2 to 12 years to reveal how children’s imitation changes with age. Results showed that whilst children under the age of 5 years did not imitate deviant models as much as the first model, children above the age of 6 years begin to copy multiple models faithfully, particularly after the age of 10 years. Chapter 3 investigated the role of multiple factors that may have made children under the age of 5 years imitate deviant models less than the original model. In particular, it was found that model evaluations, object associations, and motor inhibitory skills all affect children’s imitation of multiple models. These findings support the interpretation that imitation requires different abilities depending on the type of action that is being imitated. Chapter 4 shows that children’s imitation also depends on the type of goal that they associate with the action. By pre-school age children will imitate actions faithfully if they believe that the goal of the action was the movement itself. The results of the thesis support the idea that imitation, while involving general processes of action control, is also affected in a top-down manner by higher-order cognitive abilities after infancy.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management & Dietetics / Carol W. Shanklin / Ki-Joon Back / This study proposed and tested a theoretical model of service recovery consisting of antecedents and consequences of service recovery satisfaction. This study further tested recovery paradox effects and investigated the effects of situational and attributional factors in the evaluation of service recovery efforts and consequent overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The study employed scenario experimentation with three dimensions of justice manipulated at two levels each (2x2x2 between-groups factorial design). Postage paid, self-addressed envelopes and questionnaires (600 copies) were distributed. Participants represented 15 religious and community service groups. All respondents were regular casual restaurant customers. Of 308 surveys returned, 286 cases were used for data analysis. In study 1, the proposed relationships were tested using the structural equation modeling. In study 2, multivariate analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of covariance tests were employed to test proposed hypotheses. The three dimensions of justice had positive effects on recovery satisfaction. Recovery satisfaction had a significant positive effect on customers’ trust. Trust in service providers had positive effect on commitment and overall satisfaction. Commitment had positive effects on overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions. This study indicated that, although a service failure might negatively affect customers’ relationship with the service provider, effective service recovery reinforced attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The results of this study emphasized that service recovery efforts should be viewed not only as a strategy to recover customers’ immediate satisfaction but also as a relationship tool to provide customers confidence that ongoing relationships are beneficial to them. This study did not find recovery paradox in the experimental scenarios. The magnitude of service failure had significant negative effects on perceived justice and recovery satisfaction. Customers’ rating of stability causation had significant negative effects on overall satisfaction, revisit intention, and word-of-mouth intention. The study findings indicated that positive recovery efforts could reinstate customers’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions up to those of pre-failure. Restaurant managers and their employees need to provide extra efforts to restore the customers’ perceived losses in serious failure situations. Service providers should reduce systematic occurrences of service failure so customer will not develop stability perception.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / In many parts of the world and in South Africa in particular, there is a growing body of literature supporting the opinion that intentions play a crucial role in the decision to become an entrepreneur. Models of entrepreneurial intentions around the world have been developed, but in South Africa studies in this regard are still inconclusive, especially among the youth. This research study primarily aimed at investigating how social, cultural and socio-economic factors of entrepreneurship students in the universities of the Western Cape Province shape their entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurial intentions, social factors, cultural values, as well as socioeconomic factors, were reviewed in the literature and are presented in this dissertation. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach through the amalgamation of both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. A survey questionnaire was administered to the respondents — entrepreneurship students from the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of Stellenbosch (US), the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Data collected was coded by means of the Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22. Six variables out of nine of the instrument had a coefficient Alpha (Cronbach) of more than 0.7, while the remaining three had a coefficient Alpha of between 0.5 and 0.7; this extended its reliability. The study discovered that most of the items of the instrument had a positive relationship with their variables, leading to the variables being considered as having an influence on entrepreneurial intentions. In fact, the study found that social factors, as well as cultural values and socio-economic values, impact on self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions. The result of the research is that the study suggests a model of entrepreneurial intentions among university students, and in the final chapter concludes with recommendations and suggestions for future research.

This study aims to explain the relationship between FET policy origination and management practices at college level in Gauteng. Empirical evidence shows that there exist a gap between policy and practice. Literature points out that since 1994 South Africa has passed laws that created favorable conditions for policy development. The success or failure of government FET policies can be judged at college level. According to research some managers in former technical colleges lack skills and knowledge to successfully implement government transformation initiatives. Lack of management capacity at college level is cited as the reason for the non-implementation of policy. Policy makers derive policy from political, social and economic imperatives and infuse this with theoretical sources that describe how the policy process works and are often less sensitive to the practical conditions in which the policy is to be implemented. Conversely, policy implementers are primarily guided by contextual and systemic considerations as they implement policy. In this thesis it is argued that understanding the processes of policy development and implementation can assist in explaining the relationship between government policy and management practices at college level. The study interrogates policy intentions by analyzing the original meaning of FET policy from the originators’ perspective and juxtaposes this with the understanding of policy implementation from the implementers’ perspective and describe the relationship between intended and implemented policy. A qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews to gather data from participants was used. Purposive sampling was used to select participants from policy originators and college managers. Six main themes were distilled from the data collected: centralization vis-a vis decentralization; resources; structures; curriculum; governance, and strategic planning. Findings revealed how issues of power and authority affect policy development and implementation. The study establishes that policy implementers need capacity, power and authority to plan and make decisions on policy implementation, but decision-makers at higher levels of the system often subjugate these powers. For policy implementation to match policy intentions policy implementers need capacity and authority to understand, plan and make policy implementation decisions. / Thesis (PhD (Education Management, Law and Policy))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / unrestricted

This paper’s objective is to examine the social media influence on students’ self-efficacy with regards to their entrepreneurial intentions. This thesis explores a topic which has received little to no attention at all, and the investigation sheds light on social media in an aspect different from marketing. The paper examines the social media influence on self-efficacy among future graduates with regards to their entrepreneurial intentions, as they are facing their immediate career choice. Moreover, the study fills several literature gaps in the field of graduate entrepreneurship, pointed out by previous studies and serves as a foundation for future research on the topic how social media can influence self-efficacy. The research was handled in a quantitative manner, following previous studies on entrepreneurial intentions and applying existing questionnaire scales regarding self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions in combination with self-administered social media scale. The target population consisted of last year Bulgarian undergraduate students with a smaller reference group of international students, currently in their last year of business studies at Sweden for the sake of comparison. The findings displayed that there are clear cause-and-effect relationships between social media usage frequency and self-efficacy of the students, as well as between their feeling of connectedness associated with their social networks and their level of self-efficacy. The results also indicate that social media activity frequency is negatively correlated with the level of self-efficacy among Bulgarian, whereas this relationship is statistically insignificant for the  reference group. A main limitation of this study is the fact that the psychological impact of social media usage amongst students on their perceived level of self-efficacy can hardly be investigated within the borders of a Bachelor’s thesis, since there are many factors that affect the individual’s self concept and they also vary among different individuals. Moreover, the desired number of observations was not reached, which could have implications on the results’ representativity.