To better understand the impact of task conflict in work teams, an incremental, multi-level model is developed, which distinguishes individual-level perceptions of conflict from more overt group-level manifestations of conflict. Task conflict is conceptualized as being detrimental for teams only to the extent that it positively predicts relationship conflict. The positive relationship between task conflict and relationship conflict is referred to as conflict spillover. The composition of team members’ underlying beliefs concerning the functional value of task conflict (referred to as conflict values) is examined as a moderator of conflict spillover. It is proposed that perceptual conflict spillover is smaller among team members who hold positive conflict values, and that manifest conflict spillover is smaller among teams composed primarily of members who hold positive conflict values. Hypotheses were tested in a longitudinal study of 59 student teams (294 individuals). At the team level, the diversity of team members’ conflict values was found to moderate manifest conflict spillover, such that the association between task and relationship conflict was significantly positive for teams composed of members who held more diverse conflict values. For teams composed of members who had less diverse conflict values, there was no significant association between manifest task conflict and manifest relationship conflict. As a result of these significant differences in conflict spillover, manifest task conflict indirectly and negatively predicted the task performance and viability of teams containing more diverse conflict values, but did not significantly impact the effectiveness of teams with less diverse conflict values. At the individual level, the significant positive association between perceived task conflict and perceived relationship conflict was not moderated by individual conflict values. However, because of this perceptual conflict spillover, task conflict perceptions also indirectly and negatively predicted team members’ personal willingness to continue working in the team. Results of this dissertation highlight important differences in the ways that conflict operates at the individual and group levels. Having identified the diversity of conflict values as a moderator of manifest conflict spillover, this dissertation outlines areas for further academic and practical knowledge development concerning the prevention of dysfunctional team dynamics.

Religious coping and spiritual well-being were found to be culturally important resilience factors for African American women suffering from abuse and depressive symptoms. This investigation aimed to investigate whether: (1) spiritual well-being and its two components of existential and religious well-being mediate the Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)-Depressive Symptoms (DS) link; (2) positive and negative religious coping moderate the IPV-DS association; and (3) the mediating effect of spiritual well-being in the IPV-DS link is moderated by level of religious coping (i.e., moderated mediation). The study utilized data from 208 low income, suicidal and abused African American women, ages 18-55. Only the existential component of spiritual well-being was found to fully mediate the IPV-DS link. This indirect effect weakened at higher levels of negative religious coping. As predicted, higher levels of negative religious coping were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Surprisingly, higher levels of negative religious coping were also associated with increases in existential well-being which, in turn, led to decrease in depressive symptoms. The findings underscore the importance of addressing existential well-being and religious coping in clinical interventions and in training for mental health professionals. Clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed and future directions recommended.

Tendencies such as the increasing spread of market globalisation, new technological developments, the reduction of product life cycles and aggressive competition, are generating high levels of environmental changes and uncertainty for organisations of all types (Volberda, 1996; Sanchez, 1997). These circumstances require rapid responses through adaptations of organisational attitudes and capabilities, which lead to innovative management approaches and organisational methods (Bueno, 1996: 262). Traditional sources of competitive advantages are changing and it is imperative to deploy new strategies to successfully compete under changing external conditions. For example, flexibility is emerging as a competitive weapon that allows organisations to counteract current market evolution and competitive levels (Ahmed et al., 1996; Volberda, 1996). Flexibility is a broad concept that can refer to operational issues such as manufacturing flexibility, or to strategic decisions such as alterations in the organisation's product-market combinations. All these factors are associated with the organisation's efforts to adjust available means to external challenges. Regardless of the specific response adopted by organisations, it is broadly believed that environmental dynamism forces managers to pay increasing attention to the management of the organisation's social issues (Wright and Snell, 1998). From a managerial point of view, human resource management activities used by organisations in the new competitive landscape are changing. This can be seen, for example, in job descriptions. Nowadays individual contributions to organisational goals are being substituted by team accomplishments. Furthermore, technological advances (e.g. the introduction of Internet in companies) are making it difficult to assess and manage employee performance in the workplace. As a result High Commitment Management (HCM) is emerging as the optimal system to manage the employment relationships in modern organisations. HCM is a particular approach to human resources management characterised by certain features such as the emphasis on the development of employee skills, job enrichment and the provision of equitable incentives. A number of authors in recent decades have demonstrated the impact of HCM on organisational outcomes. From an employee-based perspective, organisations require a new type and level of contribution from their workforce. In order to successfully compete under dynamic conditions, people's performance of a fixed set of prescribed tasks is no longer considered adequate. Instead, competitive advantage comes from employees who are engaged in broad open-ended and interdependent roles (Campbell, 2000; Parker, 2000). In sum, from an individual perspective, human resource flexibility is a key success factor in current competitive environments. However, to date no accepted definition of human resource flexibility has been put forward; attempts should be made to provide this concept with a more solid theoretical background (Looise et al., 1998). In this study, I propose a conceptualisation of HR flexibility based on the premises of the Resource-Based View of the firm (RBV) (Wernerfelt, 1984; Barney, 1991; Amit and Shoemaker, 1993). Similarly to the role that value, rareness, inimitability and non-substitutability play in the consideration of resources as strategic assets (Barney, 1991), flexible resources are characterised by certain features, such as their applicability to a variety of uses or the ease with which they can be modified (Sanchez, 1995). One of the aims of this research is to apply these concepts to the conceptualisation of human resource flexibility.All things considered, social factors are essential to the successful deployment of organisational flexibility, as are the activities used to manage employees (Dyer and Shafer, 1999). Not only are individual responsibilities different in dynamic environments, but also the human resource activities used by organisations to manage their workforce will alter. The present study focuses on these two questions and analyses their interrelationships.The general purpose of this research is to examine the contribution of HCM to organisational performance by considering the role that human resource flexibility plays in this relationship. That is, I question whether a high commitment approach is important to determine the workforce's flexibility and to what extent a flexible workforce enhances organisational outcomes.

La presente investigación pretende contribuir al fortalecimiento de una cultura de paz, proponiendo implementar estrategias de resolución pacífica de conflictos como la mediación, considerándola como política social que incida en la transformación positiva de los conflictos. La herramienta idónea, el diálogo y los valores: tolerancia, cooperación, participación activa de la sociedad, solidaridad y el acercamiento de la justicia a la ciudadanía, serán los elementos indispensables para solucionar de manera efectiva, pronta, económica y equitativa los conflictos de la sociedad del siglo XXI. / This research aims to contribute to strengthening a culture of peace, proposing to implement strategies of peaceful conflict resolution such as mediation, considering it as a social policy that affects the positive transformation of conflicts. The right tool, dialogue and values: tolerance, cooperation, active participation of society, solidarity and justice closer to citizens, will be indispensable to solve effectively, timely, and equitable economic conflicts of the XXI century.

There are elevated rates of childhood maltreatment and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology in low-income, abused, suicidal African American women. This investigation aimed to: (1) identify the components of childhood maltreatment in this sample; (2) ascertain whether or not the constructs of childhood maltreatment and PTSD symptomatology were associated in this sample; and (3) examine if maladaptive coping mediated the childhood maltreatment-PTSD symptomatology link and if the magnitude of the mediated relationship was influenced by level of social support (i.e., moderated mediation). Specific types of childhood maltreatment generally loaded onto three components according to a principal components analysis (PCA) of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire: physical-emotional abuse, sexual-emotional abuse, and neglect. Women who endorsed experiencing higher levels of two of the childhood maltreatment components (physical-emotional abuse and sexual-emotional abuse) reported higher levels of current PTSD symptomatology. However, contrary to the study hypotheses, current level of maladaptive coping did not mediate the relationship between child maltreatment and current PTSD symptomatology. Further, the addition of social support did not change this finding. Results are discussed, clinical implications are explored, and recommendations for future studies are offered.

Since the mid 90s, an increasing number of researchers have adopted a sociocultural theory (SCT) of mind to investigate the social and cognitive functions of language during learner-learner interaction (Lantolf & Thorne, 2007). Researchers from an SCT perspective have identified that first languages (L1s) serve important cognitive functions (Alegría de la Colina & García Mayo, 2009; Storch & Aldosari, 2010). Swain and colleagues (Swain, 1995; Swain & Lapkin, 1995, 1998) have also illustrated that languaging, a form of verbalization, facilitates the completion of complex linguistic tasks which leads to second language (L2) development (Swain, Brooks, & Tocalli-Beller, 2002). Moreover, researchers have found that task type impacts language development (Storch & Aldosari, 2010; Storch & Wigglesworth, 2003; Swain & Lapkin, 2001). Due to the growing number of multilingual learners in the world today (Hammarberg, 2010), researchers need to expand the scope of the research to include the role(s) of native and nonnative languages on third language (L3) development. Thus, the purpose of the current multiple case study was to investigate the specific mediating functions of multilingual learners’ languages during four types of collaborative tasks and to explore the relationship between languaging and L3 development. A 16-week classroom-based study was conducted in a university French as a foreign language classroom in Mexico with four focal participants. The language produced during learner-learner interaction was examined using three types of analysis: (1) each turn was coded for language and for their specific functions; (2) each Language-Related Episode (LRE) was coded for type and for resolution; and (3) accuracy on individual tailor-made posttest items. Findings uncovered a complex picture of task type effects on the specific mediating functions of language as well as complementary functions of L1 and L3 mediation. Results from the analysis of LREs show that task type impacts the occurrence and resolution of LREs. Accuracy scores from the posttests suggest that L1 and L3 mediation promotes L3 development. Findings are in line with the focal participants’ beliefs. The findings that languages serve various social and cognitive functions during task completion are discussed in light of current ideas from an SCT perspective.

This thesis seeks to examine why the Lavalas elite faction and its oppositions have failed to make and implement mutual agreements, to resolve regime crises and to create an environment conducive to democratic norms. The study derives explanations stemming from three alternative models: modernization, rational choice and misperception. Three periods of consensus-building attempt between the Lavalas elite and its oppositions (1991-1995: Consensus-Building attempt I; 1996-2000: Consensus-Building attempt II; 2000-2004: Consensus-Building attempt III) are considered. By using interpreted models a la Graham Allison, the thesis applies the criteria produced by each model to help interpret the failure of consensus-building in these three historical periods. The thesis' conclusion then assesses the models' strengths and weaknesses, prompting interesting questions for further research in the near future.

The object of this study was to meet with offenders and victims of crime who recently participated in victim-offender-mediation, in order to explore their experiences and feelings about it. The method of research was individual qualitative interviews with two offenders and two crime victims. The main questions aimed to find out how the participants felt about the mediation process, what experiences they had about the person they had to face during the meeting, and finally what thoughts they had about the crime and its consequences. In helping to analyze the results of the interviews, Reintegrative Shaming Theory and Theories of attribution were used. The former was used to try to explain the feelings resembling shame that emerged during the meeting, while the latter was helpful in order to understand the descriptions the participants used when they talked about the other person. The results showed that both offenders and victims found the mediation to be helpful, mostly because it made them understand the other person better. Most of them also shared the feeling that they had been able to move on and not think about the crime as much as before.

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediators' views on their work; mediation by reason of the breach. The starting point was to find out the mediator's approach and attitude in relation to the perpetrator and victim, and the prevailing regulatory framework. After review of the literature, we came to the realization that knowledge of this area was very limited and thus presents an unexplored topic. It emerged from the results that the mediators emphasize the importance of maintaining impartiality and neutrality in the process of mediation and that it is important to create a good relationship with both parties. The methods used by the mediators is not so different much about, but the mediators apply Crime Prevention Council handbook. Since mediation is a rather lonely profession when they are not very many, are the mediators to network with other municipalities to exchange experiences and knowledge and through this develop their professional role and mediation activities.

Human beings live and work in large and complex environments. It is often difficult for individuals to perceive and understand the structure of these environments. However, the formation of an accurate and reliable cognitive map, a mental model of the environment, is vital for optimal navigation and coordination. The need to develop a reliable cognitive map is common to the average individual as well as workers with more specialized tasks, for example, law enforcement or military personnel who must quickly learn to operate in a new area. In this dissertation, I propose the use of a wearable computer as a platform for a spatial cognition aid. This spatial cognition aid uses terrain visualization software, GPS positioning, orientation sensors, and an eyeglass mounted display to provide an overview of the surrounding environment. While there are a number of similar mobile or wearable computer systems that function as tourist guides, navigation aids, and surveying tools, there are few examples of spatial cognition aids. I present an architecture for the wearable computer based spatial cognition aid using a relationship mediation model for wearable computer applications. The relationship mediation model identifies and describes the user relationships in which a wearable computer can participate and mediate. The dissertation focuses on how the wearable computer mediates the users perception of the environment. Other components such as interaction techniques and a scalable system of servers for distributing spatial information are also discussed. Several user studies were performed to determine an effective presentation for the spatial cognition aid. Participants were led through an outdoor environment while using different presentations on a wearable computer. The spatial learning of the participants was compared. These studies demonstrated that a wearable computer can be an effective spatial cognition aid. However, factors such as such as mental rotation, cognitive load, distraction, and divided attention must be taken into account when presenting spatial information to a wearable computer user.