The major objective has been to create tools for analyzing the reasoning regarding the school the different actors involved - pupils, teachers, school and politicians show. A subordinate aim was to explore relevance in this connection of eight studies carried out by the author 1979 – 1999 concerning three basic areas: the pedagogical processes at the school level, at the teacher education level and at the level of school change. I conclude that a recurring question is that of the relevance and the sense of meaningfulness experienced by those involved in different educational processes. In one of the eight empirical studies, termed the compulsory-school teacher study (1997), an approach to analyzing what teacher trainees find relevant in their work in schools is presented, involving two basic concepts, those of the event space and the relational space. In considering these concepts in terms of Alfred Schutz' theory of the lifeworld, I rename the relational space the space of contemporaries. A new study is also reported in this thesis – Teachers and schoolpoliticians in the pedagogical process of school change, the LoP-study. In considering the earlier eight studies in conjunction with the LoP-study, I find the studies to have dealt with personal processes and societal processes as well as pedagogical processes in how the parties involved reason in talking about the school. Three different aspects of the processes are distinguished: meta-aspects, connected with the aims a given process has; core aspects, connected with what one concretely does; and approach aspects, pertaining to how the persons involved relate to each other and to the process. In analyzing the LoP- interviews carried out with use of the tools developed – enabling different processes and aspects of these to be analyzed – I find marked individual differences in the patterns of different aspects of the processes involved. The width of the event space and of the space of contemporaries on the part both of the teachers and of the politicians were found to vary considerably. A conclusion drawn is that further development of the tools created would be worthwhile. It also seems possible to apply these tools to other areas, such as those of the scientific community with its research processes and of the political community with its steering processes.

This research explores the relationship between sense of coherence, work engagement and organisational commitment in an automotive development institution in South Africa. The study was conducted through quantitative research. The study used the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) to measure sense of coherence, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) to measure work engagement and the Organisational Commitment Scale (OCS) to measure organisational commitment. A biographical questionnaire was also used. The questionnaires were administered to a sample of 46 employees, 37 of whom were based in the company’s Pretoria office and nine at their Eastern Cape office. In view of the fact that the sample was small, 100 % of the population was included in the study. A theoretical relationship between the constructs was determined and an empirical study provided evidence of the degree of relationship that existed between them. The results reveal significant relationships to exist between some sub-scales, however, statistical significance could not be reached for some correlations. / Psychology / M. Admin. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This philosophical, anthropological study within a fundamental agogic perspective, employed an existential phenomenological approach to find out what adulthood is, fundamentally. Adulthood as being-ethical, is a more adequate description than chronological, biological, psychological and sociological descriptions of adulthood. Finding out what being-ethical is, required investigating what it means to be human. Only humans exist, and must participate effectively in agogic-dialogic relationships to alleviate existential yearning and experience dignifiedness. A code of effective agogy is presented. This code is the basis for a universal, fundamental code of ethics which transcends particular moral codes and professional codes of ethics. The words "ethicals", "ethicalness" and "ethicality" are employed to name, respectively, individual requirements in the code; acting according to the code; and the inescapable interrelatedness of experiencing dignifiedness and adhering to ethicals. Detailed explanations are given of what it means to respond fundamentally ethically. Adultness, humanness and ethicalness are different perceptions of the same continuum. All humans, whether aware of it or not, have an unattainable ideal of perfect humanness, to which they must perennially progress in order to experience dignifiedness, and humanness entails perennially becoming more human. Since no human can become perfectly human, the ideal of perfect humanness can be called "God". This means that the code of humanness is also the code of Godliness and the word "spiritual" is used to distinguish fundamental God from religious Gods. Spiritual responsibility is the interrelatedness of being-questioning and being-questioned. Ultimately, a person's humanness is assessed against the ideal of perfect humanness, by his or her own spiritual conscience. Humanity is the interrelatedness of the realities of existentiality, agogicality, ethicality, and spirituality and humanness is the inseparability of the continua of existentialness, ethicalness, agogicalness and spiritualness. A detailed existential-ethical description of education is given. The thesis ends with a post-scientific view of what essentially agogic orientated (educative) teaching is, and four recommendations are offered to enhance the effectiveness of agogy in teaching and learning institutions. Despite an extensive and radical study, it is acknowledged that the mystery that is humanity, can never be totally revealed. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

The submitted thesis deals with the issue of the meaning in life in the elderly. The meaningfulness of life, which was as a deep human need listed among the evaluated items in the WHOQOL assessments, is considered to be an important salutogenic factor. The thesis briefly introduces logotherapy, a method focused on the revelation and renewal of the meaning in life and the orientation towards values. It also mentions the possibilities of logotherapeutic approach in the communication with seniors being in a difficult life situation. The theoretical part specifies the fundamental terms regarding the ageing, the elderly, the demographic evolution of the contemporary society, health and psychosocial aspects of ageing and the seniors' needs. Further, this part summarizes the theoretical knowledge about the issue of quality of life and its meaning, the methods of their examination and the results of research. The last chapter of the theoretical part summarizes the existing knowledge regarding the depression in the elderly. The course of the research is described in the empirical part of the thesis. The aim of the research was to find out to what extent the seniors over 75 years of age in the Czech Republic live their lives as meaningful, to compare the measure of meaningfulness of life of older and younger...

The thesis deals with meaningfulness of life and acceptance of an affliction by people with visual disability. The work has been divided into two parts. In the review section, the author deals with a psychological approach to meaningfulness of life, with an issue of acceptance of visual impairment, and with specifics of meaningfulness of life over the course of a lifetime. The aim of the empirical part has been to test hypotheses regarding relationship between the meaningfulness of life and the acceptance of vision impairment. Key concepts have been operationalized by scores according to both inventories; the Meaningfulness of Life Scale (MLC) (Halama, 2002, 2009), and the Acceptance of Disability Scale - Revised (ADS-R) (Linkowski, Groomes, 2007). Data obtained from a sample of persons with visual disability (N = 84) has been used to test the hypotheses. For the first time a Czech translation of the ADS-R inventory has been put to practice and the author suggests a further use of the inventory titled Škála akceptace disability. In the empirical part of the study, the author also deals with possibilities of online administration of psychological test methods for people with a visual disability. These possibilities have been verified and confirmed in practice by the author. Of all the monitored...

在高工時的社會下，工作對於生活的比重愈來愈高，工作意義感對個人的重要性也與日俱增，因此，如何提升員工的工作意義感便成為了企業組織需面對的課題。過往探討工作意義感的研究顯示，除了工作特徵外，人際互動亦會對工作意義感有所影響，其中又以領導行為對於部屬工作意義感的型塑具有關鍵的重要地位。然而，對於領導行為的影響歷程，目前卻較少有量化的實徵研究出現，尤其是作為普遍於華人文化中的領導風格，家長式領導如何影響部屬的工作意義感，對華人企業主管在管理上更是格外重要。有鑑於此，本研究立基於社會訊息處理理論，探究家長式領導對於部屬工作意義感的影響，並探討工作目的與正向自我的中介效果。透過兩階段問卷施測，共收集190份有效問卷。研究結果發現仁慈領導能顯著預測工作意義感，而正向自我與工作目的在其中的中介作用則獲得部分支持。最後針對研究結果進行討論，說明理論貢獻、管理意涵、研究限制及未來研究方向。 / In modern society, employees are working longer hours than ever before. Therefore, finding meaning of work is important to employee today, and how to contribute to the perceived meaningfulness of work become a critical issue for every enterprise to face. This research model based on social information processing theory offers a theoretical approach for examining the causal effects of paternalistic leadership, a prevalent leadership style in Chinese business organizations, and the mediating role of work purpose and positive self-perceptions on subordinate meaningfulness of work. Using data form Taiwanese firms including 190 employees, results from structured equation modeling techniques supported partly our hypothesized model. Overall, this study supports and adds to the range of positive self-perceptions effects associated with paternalistic leadership and are suggestive of interventions that organizations can make to improve work meaningfulness of workers. Implications for the theory and practice of leadership are discussed.

Aktuella studier visar att risken för psykisk ohälsa är större för människor som inte fullföljer gymnasiestudier. I Sverige saknar en fjärdedel av högstadieeleverna betyg i något eller flera ämnen och är därmed inte behöriga till gymnasiet. Då skolor har dokumenterade svårigheter att erbjuda bra stöd för elever med olika funktionsnedsättningar finns ett starkt samhällsintresse av att synliggöra vilka faktorer i skolans lärandemiljö som är stödjande för dessa elever för att möjliggöra förbättringar. Utifrån en fenomenografisk ansats, med empiri baserad på tretton semistrukturerade intervjuer, undersöker aktuell studie vad ungdomar med erfarenhet av svårigheter i grundskolan utifrån funktionsvariation uppfattar som bra stöd. I den kollektiva beskrivningen av fenomenet bra stöd i skolan framträder erkännande, i betydelsen att skolans personal möter eleven som en unik person med förmågor, vilken vill utvecklas och lära men samtidigt erkännas vara i behov av stöd och anpassningar av olika karaktär. Härmed identifieras lärares förväntningar på sina elever som en viktig påverkansfaktor. Fem områden lyfts fram som betydelsefulla för att erkännande ska manifesteras: trygghet och trivsel, deltagande, autonomi, tillhörighet och meningsfullhet. Eftersom skolor anmodas arbeta förebyggande och hälsofrämjande med stöd av en samlad elevhälsa sätts studiens resultat slutligen i relation till ett salutogent förhållningssätt. / Recent studies show that the risk of mental illness is higher for people that don’t graduate from upper secondary school. In Sweden, a quarter of the primary school pupils have insufficient grades in one or more subjects which makes them ineligible for upper secondary school. Since schools have documented difficulties in offering good support for students with various disabilities, there is a strong public interest to make visible factors in learning environments that could improve the results. Based on a phenomenographic approach, with empirical data based on thirteen semi-structured interviews, the current study examines what young people perceive as good support, based on their experience of difficulties in primary school, due to various functional disabilities. In the collective description of the phenomenon good support at school, the word acknowledgement emerges, in the sense that the school needs to meet the student as a unique person with abilities, and who wants to develop and learn, but at the same time needs support and adaptations of various kinds. Herein teachers’ expectations of the students are identified as an important influential factor. Five areas are highlighted as important to manifest acknowledgement: security and well-being, involvement, autonomy, belonging, and meaningfulness. When schools are asked to work proactively to promote health supported by the school health team, the result is put in relation to a salutogenic approach.

This work is aimed to find out what are the motives of people to cross from for-profit to non- profit sector and what life experiences and opinions of those who work in both sectors are. The work examines whether the sectors are different (and how) and whether they can feel some change after being and working in both sectors. Conceptual section places the issue in a broader context, which presents key concepts related to the topic. This explained through the literature, while also bringing some research on work motivation. In the empirical part I analyze the testimony of five respondents, with analysis divided into four thematic blocks. I analyze here the start of their careers, how they feel about career as a word, what means to them. After that I analyze their motives to cross from for-profit to the nonprofit sector, as well as their own comparison between the two sectors. In the last part of my work I slightly analyze their philosophy of life and I also ask about the career and how they think their career could continue. In other chapters, I bring my research results and their comparison with the submitted literature.

Försvarsmakten står inför en spännande utmaning genom att för första gången på mycket länge öka sin förmåga, med tillväxt av såväl numerära förband som förmågebredd och effekt. För att lyckas med detta är personalen en viktig komponent, kanske till och med den allra viktigaste. Det finns en stark politisk vilja att Försvarsmakten skall stärkas för att med bredare kompetens stå bättre rustad i hanteringen av en komplex hotbild. För att lyckas med en omfattande tillväxt kommer det kräva att Försvarsmakten kan behålla erfarenhet som finns inom organisationen samtidigt som det rekryteras ny personal. Denna undersökning är kvalitativ till sin utformning och fokuserar på att försöka förstå varför officerare vid K 3 väljer att söka alternativa karriärvägar. Den bygger i huvudsak på empiri från officerare som har slutat vid förbandet de tre senaste åren. Undersökningen handlar om relationen mellan en organisation och de individer som är en del av den. Resultatet visar att de huvudsakliga faktorerna till att officerare väljer alternativa karriärvägar och slutar vid förbandet handlar om att de inte tydligt kan se sina karriär- och utvecklingsmöjligheter samt bristande kommunikation avseende dessa. Individen upplever vidare en minskad samhörighet inom förbandet och att deras erfarenhet och kompetens inte omhändertas i tillräcklig omfattning.

The submitted thesis deals with the issue of the meaning in life in the elderly. The meaningfulness of life, which was as a deep human need listed among the evaluated items in the WHOQOL assessments, is considered to be an important salutogenic factor. The thesis briefly introduces logotherapy, a method focused on the revelation and renewal of the meaning in life and the orientation towards values. It also mentions the possibilities of logotherapeutic approach in the communication with seniors being in a difficult life situation. The theoretical part specifies the fundamental terms regarding the ageing, the elderly, the demographic evolution of the contemporary society, health and psychosocial aspects of ageing and the seniors' needs. Further, this part summarizes the theoretical knowledge about the issue of quality of life and its meaning, the methods of their examination and the results of research. The last chapter of the theoretical part summarizes the existing knowledge regarding the depression in the elderly. The course of the research is described in the empirical part of the thesis. The aim of the research was to find out to what extent the seniors over 75 years of age in the Czech Republic live their lives as meaningful, to compare the measure of meaningfulness of life of older and younger...