The purpose of the study was to explore a needs assessment method for suggesting target-based training interventions for managing conflict between the resource user/interest groups in Oregon's riparian zones. An instrument was developed and then validated by an expert panel. The questionnaire addressed three potential conflict management factors: multiple-use orientation, abundance philosophy, and conflict management styles. The instrument was distributed to members of the Oregon Water Improvement Coalition (OWIC) and to samples of its members' constituencies. Responses from the environmental, business, and professional groups were then compared to the OWIC responses as well as to each other's. Usable information was provided by 95% of the subjects (n=19) from OWIC and 55% of the subjects (n=158) from the constituencies. The OWIC and environmental group members were relatively less multiple resource use oriented than business and professional groups. The OWIC group was relatively more abundance philosophy oriented than professional and business groups. The professional and business groups in turn were significantly different than the environmentalist members. Both OWIC and professional groups were relatively more solution oriented than business and environmentalist under the riparian zones' resource use conflict situation. The instrument appeared to be sufficiently reliable and valid for its purpose. Future research should employ an interdisciplinary approach for improving the instrument by adding questions on facilitating communication between and among the interest groups. The utility of gathering information on the nonconfrontation and control conflict management styles and philosophy of land management factors deserves further study. / Graduation date: 1994

The climate in which communication occurs is a result of how employees in an organization perceive and react to such factors as rewards, support, trust, openness, decision making, and leadership. The purpose of this case study is to identify and describe communication climate factors in a health care organization which are negatively influencing employee productivity and morale. A literature review provides information which describes research in areas of health care communication, communication climate, and leadership. A multi-method approach is used to gather information from the twelve employees and the manager of this organization. / Graduation date: 1992

There are quite a number of researches on the risk management review in public projects especially so called megaprojects, public project with high investment. Such effort, however, usually tends to offer the lessons in certain condition rather than generalize to others. Our research aims to bridge the gap by exploring the relation between the public feature of Megaproject and its risk management policy option. Under the project risk management framework, the case study of Scottish Parliament Building project focuses on the stakeholder intervenes during the whole process. In the analysis, the risks are first outlined according to the report ex post, then we go back to examine the risk assessment and risk control policy during the project to identify the reasons leading to the deviation. The finding demonstrates the politics intervene has generated high transaction cost for project manager to implement risk reduction and mitigation policy, and the optimum way under such condition to accept or avoid the risks at all, but not handle them. Accordingly, the thesis suggests that the appropriate risk transfer and contingency allowance will be the key success factors in the megaproject.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / abstract / Japanese Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

The purpose of this project is to conduct a detailed evaluation of the Vancouver Planned Parenthood clinic volunteer program. The primary focus of this study is volunteer recruitment and retention. The simplicity of individual perspectives commonly employed in volunteer theories and research is rejected in this research project. A multi-leveled sociological analysis stemming from an organizational behaviour framework is used as an alternative approach to broaden the scope of this case study. The five levels of analysis used to examine the volunteer program in this study are: 1) individual level of analysis, 2) group behaviour, 3) interpersonal and organizational processes, 4) organizational structure and job design, and 5) organizational environment. Multiple factors are discussed under each level of analysis. A triangulation of methods, comprised of interviews with volunteers, observational analysis, and document analysis, is used to provide a rich analysis of the volunteer program. Interpretations of the findings demonstrate that many factors beyond the individual level influence volunteer recruitment and retention. Results show that this particular volunteer program is operating below its maximum effectiveness, and that high volunteer turnover results in this atmosphere. Practical and theoretical implications of this case study are explored and recommendations are offered.

Though turnover researchers have called for a deeper understanding of the temporal and contextualized process of individual voluntary turnover, little empirical progress in this direction has been made. Adopting Price's (1977) dynamic conceptualization of turnover as moving from one social system to another, and drawing upon knowledge across organizational, social psychological and psychological domains, this exploratory thesis uses in-depth topical life histories to examine individual experiences with stay/leave decision processes in their construed context. / Findings challenge longstanding assumptions of linearity and continuity in turnover decision processes, as well as the conventional wisdom that utility-maximizing logic underlies these decisions. The data suggest that the pursuit of context-self congruence is a driving force in stay/leave decision processes, and that self-concept, emotions and psychological states may be under-studied influencers of these decisions. Results further uncover decision process characteristics previously rendered inaccessible to researchers, due to the predominant use of correlational studies in turnover research. These characteristics include: a) pivotal points of transition; b) the story lines that underlie influencing factors; c) the nature and role of context; and d) the consequences of engaging in these decision processes, for participants and for their workplaces, regardless of the outcome. / This idiographic study, using a purposive sample from a single population of Quebec physicians, is intended to provide turnover researchers with a starting point for cross-group retrospective and longitudinal comparisons. It also aims to stimulate hypothesis generation that accounts for time and the contextual conditions under which particular factors are likely to affect the turnover decision. From a practical viewpoint, this thesis begins to answer the call from Canadian and Quebec Health Care Human Resource specialists for a deeper understanding of the psychosocial aspects of Canadian healthcare worker turnover and retention (British Columbia Office of the Auditor General, 2004; Dubois & Dussault, 2002).

There has been limited research on the characteristics inside the nonprofit (NP) boardroom. Much of the prescriptive NP governance literature is based on for-profit (FP) assumptions. Following a contingency approach, this multiple case-study of two Alberta organizations looks into the NP boardroom to observe the board characteristics alongside organizational and environmental contexts as proposed in a framework by Bradshaw (2009). To build on the proposed framework, this study also explored the combination of internal and external social capital. Using a pattern-matching analysis, support was found for the theorized board characteristic and social capital propositions. While limited by the cross-sectional and exploratory nature, the findings support future research. Future studies can explore the implications of such characteristics and contingencies on board effectiveness and organizational performance. / ix, 95 leaves ; 29 cm

There have been a number of studies that examine how public relations professionals respond during a crisis including use of traditional legal response and traditional public relations response strategies. The degree of use of either can be influenced by the relationship between legal and public relations professionals. Thus, a pre-crisis relationship between the two groups is important for successful crisis communications. The purpose of this study was to examine media coverage of the Missouri drug dilution case to determine how many of Eli Lilly and Company's public relations messages were carried by the three major media outlets covering the crisis, if there was a difference among the outlets, and whether there was a significant difference in response strategy messages were reported.A content analysis of articles during the crisis period from the Indianapolis Star, the Kansas City Star, and The Associated Press were obtained through a Factiva search and were used to gather responses made by spokespersons. The search yielded 64 usable articles and 254 sentences from company spokespersons.Coders were trained to identify the response strategies defined as traditional public relations strategy, traditional legal strategy, mixed strategy and diversionary strategy. A chi-square test was used to test the hypotheses.The first hypothesis which stated "the number of sentences attributed to Lilly spokespersons in The Indianapolis Star, The Kansas City Star, and the Associated Press in the Missouri drug dilution case will differ significantly" was supported. The second hypothesis which stated "there will be a significant difference in response strategy sentences as defined by Fitzpatrick and Rubin and attributed to Lilly spokespersons in The Indianapolis Star, The Kansas City Star, and the Associated Press during different time periods of the case" was also supported. / Department of Journalism