This study investigated the experience of involuntary membership in U.S. and Norwegian prisons. The purpose of the study was two-fold: 1) offer a comprehensive understanding of the construct of membership, and 2) develop a substantive, mid-range theory of involuntary membership (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Merton, 1968; Weick, 1974). The research questions posed were designed to clarify the experience of involuntary membership and included: What facets comprise involuntary membership?, In what ways do individuals describe the experience of involuntary membership?, and In what ways does Norwegian involuntary membership differ from U.S. involuntary membership in a prison setting? In order to answer these questions, I conducted 62 in-depth interviews in the United States and Norway with incarcerated individuals (n = 41), correctional officers (n = 10), wardens (n = 3), and prison teachers (n = 8). The interviews were dispersed across four separate prison facilities. I took a grounded theoretical approach to the data and used the constant comparative method in my analysis. Participants spoke about involuntary membership in relation to 10 distinct facets: Activities, Belongings, Body, Communication, Mind, Organizational Boundary Management, Space, Sound, Relationships, and Time. In addition, the participants in the study described their experience with involuntary membership in relation to their 1) responses to, and 2) outcomes of the phenomenon. Similarities and differences in the experience of involuntary membership between the United States and Norway were also discussed. The three-macro themes in this study came together to create a substantive, mid-range theory of involuntary membership in prisons. In order to explicate this theory, I offered a Process Model of Involuntary Membership and subsequently elucidated the theory using a structurational ontology (see Banks & Riley, 1993; Kirby & Krone, 2002) or worldview (Kilminster, 1991). This study contributes to communication research and theorizing by illuminating and addressing the limitations of previous scholarship. Theoretical implications and future research directions are also discussed. / text

<p>This thesis treats the normative power of the European Union and its affect on Macedonia. The main purpose has been to look closer with the use of the application of Ian Manners theory of normative power on the Macedonian case. The focus will be to answer the following questions: Does the European Union act as a normative power in relation to Macedonia, if so, how are these values diffused? Has there been any effect of the spreading of these values? Based on six interviews and the available material of European Union strategies for the Macedonian membership I have attempted to understand to what extent the European Union’s normative power has had an influence in Macedonia. The result of my analysis is confirmation of the European Union as a normative power in Macedonia and the understanding of the methods of application.</p>

Traditional (or commercial) CRM is a well-defined domain but there is currently no generally accepted definition of what constitutes CRM in the not for profit (NfP) sector. Not for profit organisations are organisations which exist for a social purpose, are independent of the State, and which re-invest all of their financial surpluses in the services they offer or in the organisation itself. This research aims to answer the question "What exactly is CRM as applied to the NfP sector, what are its boundaries and what functions should an NfP CRM information system perform?" Grounded Theory Method (GTM) within a Design Science framework was used to collect, analyse, categorise, generalise and structure data from a number of NfP organisations and NfP information systems suppliers. An NfP CRM model was constructed from this data in the form of three multi-level taxonomies. The main taxonomy relates to generic and reusable information system requirements both functional and non-functional. Within this taxonomy the high-level categorisations of commercial CRM, namely "Marketing, "Sales" and "Service", are greatly extended to reflect the special needs of the NfP sector and in particular a much broader definition of "customer". The two minor taxonomies relate to issues of CRM strategy and CRM systems architecture which need to be considered alongside the system requirements. In addition to and resulting from the taxonomies, an over-arching definition of NfP CRM was developed. NfP organisations now have a framework that will enable them to know what to expect of CRM systems and from which they can select requirements to build their own specification of information system needs. Using the requirements taxonomy for this task will make the process of requirements analysis and specification easier, quicker, cheaper and more complete than using traditional methods. The framework will also allow NfP system suppliers to know what NfP organisations expect of their systems and will assist them with the specification of new system features. The minor taxonomies will provide NfP organisations with a series of strategic issues and systems architecture options that should be considered when implementing a CRM system. This research also demonstrates how GTM can be utilised: as the development phase of Design Research, as a general method of domain analysis, and as a tool to develop a taxonomy of reusable information system requirements.

This study looks at Switzerland as an example of Western-European nation states` strategic efforts to create migrant `integration` agendas, which attempt the convergence of different, largely statist economic interests. According to the Swiss Federal Government`s overarching agenda, education is a key arena for advancement of the `integration` of migrants in Swiss systems and society. I explore whether this statist strategy conceals and contains pre-existing power relations in relation to definitions of the ‘political membership’ of migrants. This study understands public policy as a carrier of shared ideas and ideologies transgressing national borders. It attempts to map the socio-political dimensions of policy discourses. ‘Dominant` discourses of neo-liberalism and New Public Management in education policy reform in Switzerland in 2008 are examined. The examination connects arguments related to `soft` governance in processes of Europeanisation and the emergence of a European shared space of education - in which Switzerland positions itself in particular ways - as policy through governance. It explores how this policy is referenced in a national normative context. I investigate the use of education standards drawn from comparative studies, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and how these are related to the migrant `integration` mandate of the Swiss Federal government and the Canton of Zurich education authorities specifically for education agenda-setting. The study engages with the `problematisation` of migrants in Swiss education discourses, (re-) triggering a national response which constructs, diffuses and institutionalises shared ideas of European policies within the logic of pre-existing normative ideologies about `migrants`, nation-building, `national identity`, `culture` and norms of political membership. I examine discourses in policy texts, media texts and policy actors` narratives, in order to map the framing of a structural migrant `integration` policy reform and a loose policy `network` of `integration`. Moreover, I approach this discursive evidence in its relation to the historical and economic developments of migration within Europe in the last few decades; an account of Switzerland`s developing relationship to the EU; the integration and citizenship conceptions issuing from these developments and `political membership` as understood in this study. Methodologically, I use eclectically a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach to researching Europe through the social bases, which are to be found in the national sociopolitical policy contexts: in other words the `translation` of deterritorialised politics into national policy `solutions`. These deterritorialised policies frame and address socialdemocratic ideas such as `equality of opportunity`/`equity`/`inclusion` through standards introduced in education in what is termed an `integration` framework. Integration however is directly related to issues of `political membership`. This study deals with how the use of social-democratic education standards as ‘flags of convenience’ may serve the liberal state in maintaining power relations. Lastly, it highlights the potentially cosmetic instrumentalisation and misapplication of education and its role in perpetuating pre-existing normative exclusionary principles of political membership.

Churches in the twenty-first century experiences a crisis. According to Barna (1998:2) churches are: Holding fast to programs and goals established by their charter members years ago. Many of these ministries have mastered the art of denying the cataclysmic cultural changes around them, responding with cosmetic changes that make little difference. Subsequently the church is losing its influence in the world. One of the reasons is that the church is structured in such a way that it is unable to respond to its changing environment. Therefore, structural change in churches is continually debated and it remains a great challenge for churches to structure themselves in order to become relevant in the twenty-first century. As a result, the proposed study focuses on the re-engineering of the leadership structures of the local Apostolic Faith Mission(AFM) church. In the AFM church, this debate was going on for over two decades. Whereas historically, the larger denomination developed structures and introduced it in the local assembly, they reviewed this position. The purpose of this research is thus to investigate and describe how pastors experience their local church structures as well as to offer guidelines for effective structures to the Church. The researcher conducted semi-structured, phenomenological interviews with eight pastors. The research question was: “How do you personally experience your local church structures?” / Dr. L.P. Mare

Under the latest presidential election in the USA debates of the national identity was one of the central topics, which have made the polarization between the parties wider. Today we know that people choose the media that sympathies with their opinion and turn from the media that challenge their political believes. By studying newspapers one can examine what they say about national identity and membership, which in turn shows which groups are represented in society. By using membership as a theory, the study gives a new theoretical approach and see if membership theory can describe how the American identity is described in newspapers. The study will analyze six American newspapers and ten articles per paper, in total of 60 articles. The method is describing analysis of ideas, which will be used to clarify and analyze how the newspapers are describing membership. All the newspapers are analyzed separately and, in the end, a comparative analysis between the papers is made. There are three major conclusions to been drawn. The first one shows a divided identity in USA, but all the papers have the same solution, it is the governments task to fix and restore the national identity. The second conclusion shows how divided the newspapers are from their ideological undertone from different points of views of membership. The third conclusion shows that all newspapers describe membership in different ways.

This study employs conversation analysis (CA) and membership categorization analysis (MCA) in an exploration of the interactional organization of talk between doctors and the mothers (or the female guardians acting as “proxy mothers”) of HIV-positive child patients being treated at a paediatric hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa, in 2003. The analysis focuses on how the HIV paediatric consultation is co-constructed between the doctor and the mother/guardian, and how interactional choices on the part of the participants shape the course of the consultation. Specific attention is placed on how participants orient to, hear, respond to and coconstruct the category of “mother”, along with the emergent inferences of what constitutes “good mothering” in the context of pursuing the wellbeing of the HIV-positive child who - as it emerges in certain cases - has evidently been infected by the mother in the first instance. As its core focus, this study examines how orienting to “good mothering” is done - in a moment-bymoment, collaborative and co-constructed manner – in the immediate course of the doctor/mother/guardian consultation. This involves considering the interplay of shifts in orientations to “motherly responsibility” and “doctorly responsibility”, and how these shifts are collaboratively activated, negotiated and responded to, as the consultation proceeds.

This doctoral dissertation aimed to explore English language teachers’ construal of membership in English language teachers’ (ELTs’) associations. The study initially examined teachers’ perceptions of membership via an examination of their experience of it – why they become or do not become a member, and/or why they continue or forfeit membership. Thereafter, teachers’ perceptions on what membership says about professionalism were probed as well as what the meanings of membership are to them. Data were obtained using face-to-face semi-structured interviews with eight Japanese English language teachers working at universities in the Kanto and Hokuriku regions of Japan. The findings showed that, experience-wise, teachers become members because they either perceive membership as an occupational norm, a means to gain employment or a way to access CPD. Conversely, teachers do not become members for reasons of being occupied with work, avoiding unwanted responsibility, being able to access the same benefits and/or lacking confidence. Teachers who continue their membership(s) do so because of CPD, feeling unable to leave, and/or because of the financial support provided by their universities. In contrast, teachers who forfeit membership do so because membership fees are too high and/or because they are too busy with work. In terms of what membership says about professionalism, teachers perceived it as not only a marker of professionalism but also, paradoxically, a counter-collegial practice. As for the meanings of membership to participants, it was seen as something giving rise to a fragmented professional self and the feeling of one being either ‘an insider’ and/or ‘outsider’ within an association. These findings, it is argued, point to membership being more for professionalization rather than professionalism purposes, seemingly as a result of the emerging forces of managerialism and neo-liberalism which appear to have created an atmosphere of accountability and competition rather than camaraderie in Japan-based ELTs’ associations. This, in turn, has led the Japanese ELT practitioner, at least at the university level, to become complicit in the creation of a fragmented/hybrid professional self composed of clashing multiple identities where one is rendered ambivalent and uncertain yet somehow able to adapt and cope. This professional self says much about the need for ELTs’ associations in Japan and perhaps elsewhere to engage in a critical discussion of what counts as ‘professionalism’ by raising and attending to the importance of member voice.

Teams research has traditionally treated teams as static entities while paying limited attention to the dynamics introduced by changes in team membership. Furthermore, the few studies that have examined the effects of team membership change have focused on the effects of membership change at a single point in time without considering the potential effects on team performance trajectories over time. In an effort to extend this research and understand how teams respond over time to changes in team membership, this dissertation integrates Team Adaptation Theory with Collective Turnover Theory and proposes a model in which three characteristics of membership change events (quantity of team members changed, status of team members changed, and shared experience of unchanged, continuing team members) influence immediate team performance and serve as signals for post-change team adaptation. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 253 primary care medical teams in a large U.S. healthcare system. Results showed that membership change events were immediately disruptive to primary care Continuity outcomes, but not to Access or Coordination outcomes. Counter to hypotheses, these immediate disruptions were larger when changes involved members who occupied lower-status roles within teams. Furthermore, team performance trajectories were lower when unchanged, continuing team members had larger amounts of shared work experience. This study contributes to theory and teams research by identifying shared experience as a moderator of the membership change-team performance relationship and by linking the effects of membership change characteristics to both initial post-change performance and longer-term performance trajectories.

This thesis focuses on the relationship between job satisfaction and union membership of long day care employees in Melbourne and Sydney, and uses the exit-voice/union-voice model as an analytical framework. The data includes surveys of child-care staff and students enrolled in child-care courses, interviews with child-care staff, union officials and employer representatives, and official documentation. While child-care workers report high levels of job satisfaction, it is argued that the considerable ‘exit voice’ of the survey respondents is a demonstration of job dissatisfaction. The reported levels of satisfaction are a manifestation of satisfaction with the intrinsic features of the work (child development outcomes) and the limited employment opportunities of females generally. The exit voice is a manifestation of dissatisfaction with the extrinsic features of the job (pay and career advancement). The thesis failed to detect evidence of a strong relationship between job (dis)satisfaction and union membership, due to the ‘caring profession syndrome’, a perceived lack of union instrumentality, and problems associated with the ability of unions to recruit and organise an industry consisting of over 4,000 small workplaces. The findings show that both staff and students are highly sympathetic towards unions, that working in child-care changes attitudes about work but not unions, and that there exists a strong union voice among child-care workers despite the relative low levels of union membership. The thesis discusses the implications for union organisation so that the supply of union membership might correspond with the demands for this membership, particularly in regard to employee motivations and commitments. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)