Utbytesstudier utomlands sägs öka studenters kreativitet. Kreativitet och innovation, framför allt kreativa medarbetare är en viktig faktor för att företag ska vara framgångsrika i dagens allt hårdare konkurrens. Studenter inom företagsekonomi är framtida anställda och företagsledare, därför är det viktigt att undersöka om utlandsstudier verkligen ökar kreativiteten. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka utlandsstudiernas påverkan på företagsekonomistudenters personliga egenskaper med koppling till kreativitet. Vi undersöker påverkan på kreativitet med hjälp av Big Five Inventory kategorierna noggrannhet och öppenhet då dessa personegenskaper anses påverka kreativiteten.  Resultat från genomförd internetenkät (N=111, svarsfrekvens=15,5%) visar på en ökning av noggrannhet men inte av öppenhet. Slutsatsen är att företagsekonomistudenters kreativitet förblir opåverkad till följd av utlandsstudierna.

Empati uppstår av flera anledningar och individen kan försöka reglera graden. Engagemang är ett positivt uppfyllande arbetsrelaterat tillstånd medan utbrändhet är en förlängd respons på interpersonella och kroniska emotionella stressorer i arbetet. Polismannens arbetsdag kantas av interpersonella stressorer som kan leda till utbrändhet, där engagemang och empati kan ha betydelse. Studiens syfte var att undersöka om hög empati tillsammans med högt engagemang kan relateras till utvecklande av utbrändhet hos poliser. Studien var kvantitativ med tillgänglighetsurval; 55 poliser deltog från en polismyndighet i Mellansverige. Resultatet visade att poliserna var empatiska och engagerade men inte påtagligt utbrända. Därav slutsatsen att empati och engagemang inte har en interaktiv effekt på förekomst av utbrändhet snarare att dessa faktorer kanske fungerar skyddande mot utbrändhet.

The role of trust in traditional face-to-face mentoring has already been investigated in several research studies. However, to our knowledge, very few studies have examined how trust is established in electronic-mentoring relationships. The purpose of the current study is to examine by means of the Mayer et al. (1995) model how e-mentees perceive a prospective e-mentor's trustworthiness and how these perceptions influence the decision to be mentored by a particular e-mentor. A sample comprised of 253 undergraduate and graduate students from the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa participated as potential mentees by completing a survey after having reviewed the selected e-mentor’s profile. The survey employed quantitative and qualitative measurements to assess the mentee's perception of the prospective e-mentor’s level of trustworthiness. In the quantitative section, both the Behavioural Trust Inventory (Gillespie, 2003) and the Factors of Perceived Trustworthiness (Mayer et al., 1999) were measured. The Behavioural Trust Inventory was designed to measure the extent to which a mentee is willing to be vulnerable in e-mentoring relationships. The Factors of Perceived Trustworthiness (ability, benevolence and integrity) were designed to measure these three attributes’ contributions to the extent to which the mentees perceived the e-mentor as being trustworthy. The factorial structure (confirmatory factor analysis) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) of the constructs were examined. Structural equation modeling was conducted to test the fit of the models (Behavioural Trust Inventory and Mayer et al.) to an e-mentoring context. In the qualitative section, the indicators of trustworthiness were collected by means of an open-ended question and were analyzed by means of content analysis. The results of the quantitative analysis revealed that the models (the Behavioural Trust Inventory and the Factors of Perceived Trustworthiness) have an adequate fit with the e-mentoring model after accounting for some correlated error terms. The results of the qualitative analysis identified some other attributes (apart from ability, benevolence and integrity groups) have an influence on the extent to which the mentees perceived the e-mentor as being trustworthy. The main finding is that the Mayer et al. (1995) model appears to be a suitable device for the measurement of trust in e-mentoring relationships at the initiation phase.

This thesis studies a single item periodic review inventory problem with stochastic demand, random price and quotation cost. It differs from the traditional inventory model in that at the beginning of each period, a decision is made whether to pay the quotation cost to get the price information. If it is decided to request a price quote then the next decision is on how many units to order; otherwise, there will be no order. An (r, S1, S2) policy with r < S2, S1 <= S2 is proposed for the problem with two prices. It prescribes that when the inventory is less than or equal to r, the price quotation is requested; if the higher price is quoted, then order up to S1, otherwise to S2. There are two cases, r < S1 or S1 <= r. In the first case, every time the price is quoted, an order is placed. It is a single reorder point two order-up-to levels policy that can be considered as an extension of the (s, S) policy. In the second case, S1 <= r, it is possible to “request a quote but not buy” if the quoted price is not favorable when the inventory is between S1 and r. Two total cost functions are derived for the cases r < S1 <= S2 and S1 <= r < S2 respectively. Then optimization algorithms are devised based on the properties of the cost functions and tested in numerical study. The algorithms successfully find the optimal policies in all of the 135 test cases. Compared to the exhaustive search, the running time of the optimization algorithm is reduced significantly. The numerical study shows that the optimal (r, S1, S2) policy can save up to 50% by ordering up to different levels for different prices, compared to the optimal (s, S) policy. It also reveals that in some cases it is optimal to search price speculatively, that is with S1 < r, to request a quote but only place an order when the lower price is realized, when the inventory level is between S1 and r.

Previous investigations of the Level of Service Inventory Ontario Revision (LSI-OR) have examined individual subgroups of offenders (e.g., women, Aboriginal offenders), which has made comparisons of its predictive validity between specific offender groups suspect. This study was conducted on a complete cohort of 26,450 offenders who were released from Ontario provincial correctional facilities, sentenced to a conditional sentence, or who began a term of probation in 2004. Participants were followed up for at least four years to collect recidivism information on numerous subgroups of offenders including males (81.7%), females (18.3%), Aboriginal (6.4%), Black (7.3%) and Caucasian offenders (59.2%). Analyses revealed that the LSI-OR scores are positively correlated with recidivism (r = .441, p < .001), and similar correlations were found for all offenders regardless of gender or race, (Aboriginal r = .377, p < .001; Black, r = .420, p < .001; Caucasian, r = .417, p < .001; Male, r = .439, p < .001; Female, r = .426, p < .001). LSI-OR scores are also correlated with severity of the recidivism offence, (r = .098, p <.001) indicating that higher LSI-OR scores are related to higher offence severity for all ethnicities, sentence types, and genders. These findings indicate that the LSI-OR is an effective risk assessment tool for use among different ethnicities, sentence types and genders for provincially sentenced offenders in Ontario.

The legitimacy of classifying female offenders in the correctional system has been disputed (especially the application of male-normed risk assessment tools), and yet, there is a need to accurately determine the risk of re-offending and the criminogenic needs of the offender along with general and specific issues (i.e., responsivity) that will encourage successful program delivery. The Level of Service Inventory Ontario Revision (LSI-OR; Andrews, Bonta & Wormith, 1995) is an assessment tool used throughout Ontarios probation services and provincial institutions. Although the first edition of the LSI was based primarily on a male sample, later revisions included norms for female offenders based on samples spanning three continents (Blanchette & Brown, 2006). Although its reliability and predictive validity has been demonstrated across many field settings and offender populations, few studies (e.g., Rettinger, 1998) have addressed the question of predictive validity on a sufficiently large sample of female offenders to convince the skeptics of the LSI-ORs applicability to women (Blanchette & Brown).<p> The current study examined internal consistency, the ability to discriminate recidivists from non-recidivists with t-tests, and the capacity to predict recidivism with correlation and receiver operating characteristic analysis. The sample consisted of 2831 female offenders who were either released from a provincial correctional facility, completed a conditional sentence in the community, or completed a sentence of probation in Ontario during a one year period (2002/2003). Special consideration was given to female offenders from different disposition groups, with different racial backgrounds, with mental health issues and with prior victimization. The LSI-OR had very strong internal consistency and was able to distinguish offenders who committed a re-offence from those who did not commit a re-offence; both when considering the scale as a whole and when considering individual subscales. The LSI OR was also found to predict recidivism for all female offenders. It also predicted recidivism for all subgroups with the exception of female offenders released on a conditional sentence and who had been previously victimized. While the use of the LSI-OR to assess provincial female offenders is supported, however, new risk levels are suggested to increase the predictive ability and reduce the potential for over-classification.

Risk assessment and case management are two important aspects of young offender corrections and reintegration. Evaluating the extent to which case management practices are guided by risk assessment is important because the impact of the risk assessment instrument cannot be adequately assessed if the instrument is not being applied as fully intended. Unfortunately, little research has been devoted to examining the use of risk/need instruments in offender case management. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the link between risk assessment and community case management of young offenders in Saskatchewan and whether adherence to the principles of risk, need, and responsivity vis-à-vis the Level of Service Inventory Saskatchewan Youth Edition (LSI-SK; Andrews, Bonta, & Wormith, 2001) is related to recidivism. <p>Risk assessment and case management data were collected for a total sample of 193 young offenders who were supervised by youth workers from the Saskatoon and Regina probation offices. The sample was followed up for an average of 644 days. The overall recidivism rate was 62.2% with no significant difference in recidivism according to office of supervision, sex, or ethnicity.<p>The LSI-SK total and seven of the subscale scores were significantly, positively correlated with recidivism. Results also indicate that the LSI-SK was being used to guide supervision intensity as well as interventions. Moreover, the present study found that adherence to the need principle was associated with reductions in recidivism. Appropriateness (defined as the presence of interventions for identified needs or absence of interventions for areas that were not identified as needs) correlated significantly with recidivism (r = - .214). Appropriateness was found to be a significant predictor of recidivism after controlling for ethnicity and length of follow up. For every appropriate intervention listed on the case plan, the likelihood of recidivism was reduced by 24%. In terms of inappropriate treatment, under treatment was significantly correlated with recidivism (r = .283) but over treatment was not. Under treatment was a significant predictor of recidivism after controlling for ethnicity and length of follow up. For every identified need that did not have a corresponding intervention, the risk of recidivism increased by 91%. Implications for case management and direction for future research are discussed.

This thesis studies a single item periodic review inventory problem with stochastic demand, random price and quotation cost. It differs from the traditional inventory model in that at the beginning of each period, a decision is made whether to pay the quotation cost to get the price information. If it is decided to request a price quote then the next decision is on how many units to order; otherwise, there will be no order. An (r, S1, S2) policy with r < S2, S1 <= S2 is proposed for the problem with two prices. It prescribes that when the inventory is less than or equal to r, the price quotation is requested; if the higher price is quoted, then order up to S1, otherwise to S2. There are two cases, r < S1 or S1 <= r. In the first case, every time the price is quoted, an order is placed. It is a single reorder point two order-up-to levels policy that can be considered as an extension of the (s, S) policy. In the second case, S1 <= r, it is possible to “request a quote but not buy” if the quoted price is not favorable when the inventory is between S1 and r. Two total cost functions are derived for the cases r < S1 <= S2 and S1 <= r < S2 respectively. Then optimization algorithms are devised based on the properties of the cost functions and tested in numerical study. The algorithms successfully find the optimal policies in all of the 135 test cases. Compared to the exhaustive search, the running time of the optimization algorithm is reduced significantly. The numerical study shows that the optimal (r, S1, S2) policy can save up to 50% by ordering up to different levels for different prices, compared to the optimal (s, S) policy. It also reveals that in some cases it is optimal to search price speculatively, that is with S1 < r, to request a quote but only place an order when the lower price is realized, when the inventory level is between S1 and r.

Depression in adolescents if unrecognized, can interfere with every aspect of the individual’s life, increasing the risk for illness and interpersonal difficulties in the future. Therefore, it is imperative that significant levels of depressive symptoms be recognized, assessed, and treated. The usefulness and psychometric properties of new measures of depression are determined, in part, through comparison with existing measures. The current study investigated the concurrent validity of the Clinical Assessment of Depression (CAD; Bracken & Howell, 2004) with the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) for an adolescent population. The sample for this investigation consisted of 23 adolescents (13-18 years) with a primary diagnosis of unipolar depression and 98 adolescents that did not have a clinical diagnosis. Correlation coefficients were large and statistically significant between the CAD and BDI-II, ranging from .97 to .66. The CAD was able to distinguish between clinical and non-referred groups on the basis of mean group scores. Using the BDI-II classification as the criterion, a contingency table was computed and a classification consistency of 82% for the total sample was found. Findings of the current study indicate that the CAD appears to have adequate validity to support its use with adolescents.

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