Section 23(2) of the Constitution gives every worker the right to strike and the LRA gives effect to that right. Section 64 of the LRA, however, requires that the issue in dispute first be referred to a bargaining council or the CCMA before a strike can be called. A certificate declaring that the issue in dispute was not resolved or 30 days or, alternatively, any extension must lapse and notice must be given to the employer before a strike can commence. Generally, the issue in dispute referred to conciliation must be the same issue in dispute over which that the strike was called. The question that arises is what will happen to the status of the strike if the issue in dispute or the demand changes during the course of the strike. Reference was made to literature study in which the criteria were set out on how to determine the true issue in dispute. Suggestions were also made on how to declare strike action unprotected should an employer be of the view that its workers are striking over a different issue in dispute or demand than the one that was referred to conciliation. / LLM (Labour Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Section 23(2) of the Constitution gives every worker the right to strike and the LRA gives effect to that right. Section 64 of the LRA, however, requires that the issue in dispute first be referred to a bargaining council or the CCMA before a strike can be called. A certificate declaring that the issue in dispute was not resolved or 30 days or, alternatively, any extension must lapse and notice must be given to the employer before a strike can commence. Generally, the issue in dispute referred to conciliation must be the same issue in dispute over which that the strike was called. The question that arises is what will happen to the status of the strike if the issue in dispute or the demand changes during the course of the strike. Reference was made to literature study in which the criteria were set out on how to determine the true issue in dispute. Suggestions were also made on how to declare strike action unprotected should an employer be of the view that its workers are striking over a different issue in dispute or demand than the one that was referred to conciliation. / LLM (Labour Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Over recent years, there has been an intense and polarised debate about the extent of democratisation in Turkey, although this has tended to be defined in institutional terms (for example, in the supposed reduction in military tutelage of the political system and the institutional recognition of minority rights). This study seeks to widen the terms of reference by examining the current challenges confronted by the Turkish media within the media-democracy relationship and, using the Kurdish question as a case study, examines the extent to which mainstream Turkish Media are contributing to deliberative democracy. It also seeks to identify where the Turkish media should be most appropriately located within competing models of media and democracy. This analysis of the challenges confronted in achieving and protecting media freedoms in Turkey is based on three empirical exercises. Semi-structured elite interviews were conducted with representatives from most of the mainstream media organisations in the country. Interviews were also conducted with political party representatives, NGO members and academics to ascertain their opinions of the media s democratic performance and credentials and also explore the extent to which they engage with journalists and news organisations routinely in their work. Finally, a content analysis of the coverage/content of two specific events related to the Kurdish Issue (the launch of the Kurdish language TV Channel TRT6 and Uludere Airstrike) in five mainstream Turkish newspapers was conducted. The interviews reveal sharply contrasting views about the extent to which democratisation processes are progressing in Turkey, and identify a range of barriers that continue to inhibit the democratic performance of the mainstream media (e.g. commercialization, state censorship, and other forms of political pressure). The detrimental impact of these factors is to a large degree confirmed by the content analysis of coverage of the Kurdish issue, but the analysis also shows that news output does contain a degree of diversity and difference. For this reason, it is not appropriate to conceive of the Turkish media as acting entirely as a closed message system for political elites.

Master of Science / Department of Communications and Agricultural Education / Lauri M. Baker / The purpose of this study was to explore the frames and messages, issue salience, and communication preferences agricultural producers in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas use and accept related to climate change and the impacts of a changing climate. It was of additional interest to explore the climate-change beliefs and preferred agricultural media sources for climate and climate change information. Specific research objectives to guide the study were RO1: describe the level of issue salience agricultural producers have related to climate change; RO2: investigate frames and messages agricultural producers prefer in reference to the scientifically designated phenomena of climate change and impacts; and RO3: identify the agricultural media and information channels agricultural producers use for climate change. Based on findings in previous research, one hypothesis was developed: H1: agricultural producers in the Southern Plains Regional Climate Hub area will be located within the audience segment groups of the concerned and the cautious as identified in the Six America’s (2012) study. An Internet survey was distributed to producers in Kansas, which was open from March 3 to March 14, 2016, with 158 responses to the survey. Agenda-Setting Theory served as the basis for the study including the tenants of issue salience and framing in relation to climate change. The study found that the majority (n = 158, 64.92%) of producers believed that climate change was occurring, however, the causes were still contested. The study identified that higher levels of risk perception and education level were linked to belief in anthropogenic climate change (ACC). Primarily, the study found that loss framing was most effective in communicating the impacts of climate change. Terminology and distance framing were less important in message framing. Regional and university publications were cited most frequently by producers as sources of climate and climate-change information and overall use of agricultural media publications was linked to higher levels of belief in ACC. Users of business reports and TV had the highest mean climate-change belief; non-users had the lowest. Audience segments aligned with cautious and concerned Six America’s (2013) audience segment group, which indicated a shift towards accepting climate change among agricultural producers.

隨著全球化的發展，貧富差距日益惡化所造成的貧窮及失業問題，對各國政府而言都是嚴峻且艱難的挑戰，街友問題更是存在於各國的普遍現象，街友的成因複雜，解決其貧窮問題，才是癥結所在。而近年來在台灣蔚為風潮的「社會企業」概念即是以尋求創新的商業模式，整合社會資源以協助解決社會問題。而大誌雜誌作為一個社會企業，正是以商業模式，提供街友一份穩定販售雜誌的工作機會，協助解決其失業所造成的社會問題。 本研究運用質性研究，並藉由文獻回顧及深度訪談方式，希望透過受訪者訪談問題回饋探討大誌雜誌營運模式，瞭解大誌雜誌對協助街友就業問題之成效及對街友產生之影響，並進一步瞭解大誌雜誌作為已經在台灣營運六年的社會企業，是否發揮如當時設立時所預期的目標，逐步協助街友自立，解決街友就業問題。 研究發現，大誌雜誌除協助街友就業外，在營運上仍為一個以營利為目的的公司，然近幾年因雜誌銷量無法有效成長，而影響公司營收及後續販售員召募，這與雜誌社未能適時調整目標讀者群及加強行銷策略不無關連，而受限資金及人力，雙週刊及成立基金會目標暫無具體進展。此外，大誌雜誌目前只解決街友就業問題，部分販售員若無政府補助，販售所得仍不足以租屋。但其正向影響為：販售員多將販售雜誌視為長久工作，有助街友重拾信心及回歸正常生活；販售雜誌工作亦有助年長及身體狀況不佳之街友就業。

published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Based on the assumption that security institutions are designed rationally, I study the variations in design schemes and their possible effects on institutional performance. Military alliances vary with respect to their membership size, level of security obligations undertaken by the allies, incorporation of non security clauses such as economic agreements, level of institutionalization, specified duration of existence, as well as the conditions under and reasons for which they are formed. This dissertation studies the effects of above mentioned design features on the probability of security alliances expanding their scope by addressing non-security agreements such as free trade agreements and conflict management clauses. I find support for the argument that states include economic agreements within a military alliance as a means to bolster the credibility of an otherwise weak security alliance. Results indicate that allies facing high levels of external threat and low levels of intra alliance cohesion are more likely to include conflict management provisions in the alliance. Finally, I conduct a systematic study of the possible effects of variation in structural design on the durability of an alliance. I find that design features that increase the costs of breaking the alliance increase the duration of an alliance.

The left-wing Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) began its violent insurgency campaign against the Turkish state in 1984, claiming that an independent Kurdistan should exist. However, the origins of this conflict can be traced back even further – to the inception of the Turkish Republic in 1923. This thesis begins by investigating the history of how the conflict between the Kurdish and Turkish political frameworks escalated, exploring the concept of “Turkishness” as an element of a homogeneous nation-state. The paper then assesses the effects of a range of exclusionary measures adopted by the Turkish state (beyond punitive military responses in southeastern Turkey and cultural discrimination policies). Ultimately, I argue that the ruling Justice and Development Party’s recent push for a more authoritarian style of leadership under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ostracized the Kurdish population and has created a climate for Kurdish terrorist organizations, such as the PKK and TAK, to prosper and expand recruitment.

Attention of top managers has an impact on future direction of an organization according to the attention-based view of the firm. In the context of multinational corporations, headquarters’ attention is likely to influence the actions and behavior of subsidiaries. Thus, in the thesis, I respond to calls for more research on this topic: enhancing the understanding about how a subsidiary’s perception of headquarters’ attention relates to its choice of communication moves when sharing business ideas with headquarters (also known as subsidiary voice). In recent research, subsidiary voice is viewed as a bottom-up tool for subsidiaries to attract headquarters’ attention to issues that they consider important for their local units and the entire organization. In line with the research purpose, the data were collected at the subsidiary level through a combination of both, survey and interviews. The findings based on empirical data point out that a subsidiary’s perception of headquarters’ attention engagement has a positive impact on its voice. This means that subsidiaries not having regular interaction with headquarters are unable to select communication moves that can attract headquarters’ attention and hence encounter challenges in adopting an initiative-taking approach to gain influence or a central position in the organization. As a result, contrary to the claims put forth in recent research, the thesis findings highlight that subsidiary voice alone is not enough to attract headquarters’ attention. Instead, subsidiaries can only use their voice when they have power (also called weight) to influence headquarters’ attention and decisions. This gives rise to an unequal playing field because subsidiaries that lack considerable weight are unable to contribute to strategy formulation and future planning done by the headquarters, with regard to their own units and the organization in general. On the contrary, subsidiaries with a considerable weight experience a high degree of attention engagement from the headquarters and thus find it easier to attract headquarters’ attention for their business ideas.