The present studies were designed to advance theoretical understanding of employee adjustment during organisational change. There were two broad aims of the thesis. Firstly, the role of organisational climate factors in facilitating employee adjustment during change was examined by testing models based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) cognitive-phenomenological account of stress and coping processes. In particular, the concept of coping resources was expanded to examine organisational factors rather than individual attributes. Secondly, the extent to which organisational sub-groups differ in their perceptions of climate and levels of adjustment indicators during change was investigated. The research also aimed to inform diagnostic processes within organisational change management by examining the applied value of the empirical findings of each of the studies. The first two studies were empirical tests of a theoretical model of employee adjustment. Study 1 tested a model of employee adjustment to organisational change that examined employee well-being and job satisfaction as outcomes of positive adjustment during change. Firstly, pilot interviews with 67 hospital employees enabled salient aspects of the organisational climate that may facilitate adjustment during organisational change to be confirmed. Next, 779 employees in the same organisation completed a structured questionnaire that examined their perceptions of organisational coping resources, appraisals of change and adjustment indicators. Confirmatory factor analyses established the sound measurement properties of the proposed model and structural equation analyses provided evidence that supported the majority of theoretical predictions. Overall, the final model showed that employees who had positive perceptions about employee relations within the hospital, strong beliefs about the quality of patient care, and felt supported by their supervisors were more positive in their appraisals of the change and reported better personal adjustment. The effects of climate variables on adjustment were direct and indirect (mediated by change appraisals). A particularly influential variable in the model was the effectiveness of employee relations within the organisation. Study 2 tested a model of employee adjustment to organisational change which examined organisational commitment, turnover intentions and absenteeism as outcomes of positive adjustment during change. Firstly, as in Study 1, pilot interviews with 20 state public sector employees enabled salient elements of the organisational climate that may function as resources for coping with organisational change to be confirmed. Next, 877 employees in the same organisation completed a structured questionnaire that examined their perceptions of organisational coping resources, appraisals of change and adjustment indicators. Like Study 1, confirmatory factor analyses established the sound measurement properties of the proposed model and structural equation analyses provided evidence which supported most of the theoretical predictions. Overall, the final model showed that employees who had positive perceptions about customer service, believed that their leaders communicated a vision for the organisation, and felt supported by their supervisors were more positive in their appraisals of the change and reported better personal adjustment. The effects of climate variables on adjustment were direct and indirect (mediated by change appraisals). The extent to which leaders exhibited a vision for the organisation emerged as an important predictor in the model. Together, the results of studies 1 and 2 provided evidence that organisational climate variables are important predictors of the way employees appraise and respond to organisation change. The next two studies presented were focused on group differences in the model variables from studies 1 and 2. Study 3 investigated group differences in perceptions of climate and levels of adjustment during organisational change as a function of an employee's organisational level. The pilot interviews revealed that an employee's organisational level was the most salient source of sub-group identification in the climate of a public sector department. Survey data from study 2 were analysed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The responses of 669 public sector employees were grouped into 3 categories: lower, middle and upper level employees. Results revealed that upper level staff reported higher levels of adjustment during change, across a range of indicators. Study 4 investigated occupational group and organisational level differences in perceptions of climate and levels of adjustment during organisational change. The pilot interviews in this organisation revealed that it was an employee's occupational group membership that provided the most salient group delineator in the hospital climate. Survey data from Study 1 were analysed using MANOVA. The responses of 732 hospital employees were grouped into 4 major occupational categories: medical, nursing, allied health and non-clinical staff. Participants were also grouped on the basis of whether they occupied a management or non-management position. Results revealed statistically significant differences between groups and an interaction between occupation and level. Non-clinical staff were less well adjusted during change than other occupational groups. Managers appraised change as more stressful than non-managers, but felt more in control of the situation. Together, the results of Studies 3 and 4 highlighted the importance of examining employee perceptions at the sub-group level when implementing change and indicated the need for interventions to be targeted at the sub-group level. Overall, the research reported in this dissertation extended a theoretical model of employee adjustment to change and improved the application of the model. This outcome was achieved by investigating the role of environmental coping resources drawn from the organisational climate in improving employee adjustment during change and the degree to which groups differed in their perceptions of these variables. Climate and change appraisal factors were linked with a range of important individual/organisational outcomes such as employee well-being, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, turnover intentions and absenteeism. Differences in perceptions of climate and levels of adjustment during change were also observed at the organisational sub-group level. The findings of the research have implications for the effective management of organisational change. Change should be implemented in conjunction with ongoing organisational development processes involving diagnostic research that identifies the elements of climate that employees draw upon for support in the process of adjustment. Interventions should be based on improving and strengthening these resources. Diagnostic processes should also pay attention to the salient groupings of staff within an organisation so that interventions can be targeted specifically to relevant sub-groups.

A comprehensive understanding is lacking of the experiences persons with acquired physical disabilities have of changes in their engagement in occupations and of the conditions influencing these experiences Furthermore, little is known about the experiences these people have of the rehabilitation process and whether the rehabilitation services satisfy their needs. Access to such knowledge would significantly add to the ability to design rehabilitation services intended to enhance participation in everyday life. The overall aim of this thesis was, therefore, to illuminate and enhance the understanding of how persons with acquired physical disabilities experienced their rehabilitation process and their possibilities to engage in occupations in everyday life. The thesis is comprised of five studies. The planning of the clients’ rehabilitation at hospital was explored through interviews with the clients (n=57) and the professionals (n=50). Interviews exploring how persons with physical disabilities experienced their rehabilitation process (n=15), their occupational lives in their homes (n=13) and the use of assistive devices (n =17) were analysed qualitatively. Data was also collected from persons with spinal cord injury (n =161) by the Impact on Participation and Autonomy questionnaire. The findings showed that the professionals used different strategies to encourage the clients to participate in the planning of the rehabilitation and that the strategies were based on traditions rather than on the individual clients’ desires to participate. The informants’ experiences reflected three parallel chains of rehabilitation over a period of time, a medical, a psychological and a social one. The influence of the different rehabilitation chains on how the clients’ lives turned out varied over time, and the professionals were predominantly involved in the medical rehabilitation chain. The informants’ experiences showed that their engagement in occupations in the home differed profoundly. Access to social support, which was provided under different conditions, was of decisive importance for their occupational engagement. The findings also showed that changes in the informants’ occupations in the home setting transformed the meaning of the home in general. The meaning of using assistive devices was experienced as manifold and double-edged. The incorporation of or resistance to assistive devices was understood as different approaches to adaptation with the same intention: to achieve desired occupational self-images. The majority of the informants perceived their participation in the life situation as sufficient but more than half reported one or more severe problems with participation. Access to social support in everyday occupations had a greater impact on predicting severe problems with participation than certain traditional health related factors or aspects related to the individual. To conclude, the findings indicate that the rehabilitation services need to be better able to adapt to clients’ desires to participate in the planning of their rehabilitation, and designed to satisfy the various needs the clients experience throughout the rehabilitation process. It was revealed that the societal and social environment, as manifested through social interactions, are of central importance in understanding the consequences of and possibilities to engage in occupations supporting participation in everyday life.

I have in my thesis performed a survey that builds on interviews of five former students at Mediepedagogiskt Center (Mpc) that is located at Sundsta-Älvkullegymnasiet in Karlstad which is incorporated into Karlstads-Hammarö comprehensive upper secondary school. The sample group of students all has various withdrawal years between 1997 - 2004. The aim of the survey is to evaluate any direct qualities that these students have had that helped them to get a occupation within the media industry after the completion of their education at Mpc.   This survey also tries to evaluate whether the orientation of their particular style of education is a factor for achieving employment. Before 1998 the course was divided into three A and B-level courses within the directions, photography, graphic design, text communication, sound production and film/television. After 1998 these are now divided into one A, B and C level courses, and one another level courses on A and B-level.   The result shows that something more than” just” a good schooling with high grades is needed to succeed into getting a occupation within the media sector. The survey also suggests that this extra quality often can be difficultly for the schools to teach to the students. The survey also suggests that a greater understanding of these processes might help the schools to convey these internal qualities to the students.   The way you express yourself, your work ethics, social competence, creativity, actual know-how, hunger for knowledge, the will to develop new skills and having a genuine interest are all factors that are often more valued than a good grade or which school one went to.

This study examined whether the demand for more educated science and engineering workers outweighed longstanding practices of discrimination in hiring in high technology industries and science and engineering occupations. The study focused on the effects of education on the distribution of employment and wages among four racial and ethnic groups (non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, Hispanics and Asians), for the period 1992 to 2002. The main data used in the analyses came from the March Annual Demographic Survey. Multinomial logit analyses were used to determine the probabilities of employment, and ordinary least squares, non-parametric regressions and t-tests were used to examine wages. The analyses showed that education was more important in determining employment in S &E occupations, when compared to its effects in other occupations; and compared to race, other demographic and labor market characteristics. The effects of education were greater in S &E jobs in the high technology sector when compared to S &E jobs elsewhere in the economy. However, the effects of education varied with race, the level of education, and the industry/ occupational group under consideration in ways that suggest that both employment and wages continue to be influenced by correlates of race. Based on the findings, the study provides recommendations for policy and future research.

No description available.

De nos jours les cartes d’utilisation/occupation du sol (USOS) à une échelle régionale sont habituellement générées à partir d’images satellitales de résolution modérée (entre 10 m et 30 m). Le National Land Cover Database aux États-Unis et le programme CORINE (Coordination of information on the environment) Land Cover en Europe, tous deux fondés sur les images LANDSAT, en sont des exemples représentatifs. Cependant ces cartes deviennent rapidement obsolètes, spécialement en environnement dynamique comme les megacités et les territoires métropolitains. Pour nombre d’applications, une mise à jour de ces cartes sur une base annuelle est requise. Depuis 2007, le USGS donne accès gratuitement à des images LANDSAT ortho-rectifiées. Des images archivées (depuis 1984) et des images acquises récemment sont disponibles. Sans aucun doute, une telle disponibilité d’images stimulera la recherche sur des méthodes et techniques rapides et efficaces pour un monitoring continue des changements des USOS à partir d’images à résolution moyenne. Cette recherche visait à évaluer le potentiel de telles images satellitales de résolution moyenne pour obtenir de l’information sur les changements des USOS à une échelle régionale dans le cas de la Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM), une métropole nord-américaine typique. Les études précédentes ont démontré que les résultats de détection automatique des changements dépendent de plusieurs facteurs tels : 1) les caractéristiques des images (résolution spatiale, bandes spectrales, etc.); 2) la méthode même utilisée pour la détection automatique des changements; et 3) la complexité du milieu étudié. Dans le cas du milieu étudié, à l’exception du centre-ville et des artères commerciales, les utilisations du sol (industriel, commercial, résidentiel, etc.) sont bien délimitées. Ainsi cette étude s’est concentrée aux autres facteurs pouvant affecter les résultats, nommément, les caractéristiques des images et les méthodes de détection des changements. Nous avons utilisé des images TM/ETM+ de LANDSAT à 30 m de résolution spatiale et avec six bandes spectrales ainsi que des images VNIR-ASTER à 15 m de résolution spatiale et avec trois bandes spectrales afin d’évaluer l’impact des caractéristiques des images sur les résultats de détection des changements. En ce qui a trait à la méthode de détection des changements, nous avons décidé de comparer deux types de techniques automatiques : (1) techniques fournissant des informations principalement sur la localisation des changements et (2)techniques fournissant des informations à la fois sur la localisation des changements et sur les types de changement (classes « de-à »). Les principales conclusions de cette recherche sont les suivantes : Les techniques de détection de changement telles les différences d’image ou l’analyse des vecteurs de changements appliqués aux images multi-temporelles LANDSAT fournissent une image exacte des lieux où un changement est survenu d’une façon rapide et efficace. Elles peuvent donc être intégrées dans un système de monitoring continu à des fins d’évaluation rapide du volume des changements. Les cartes des changements peuvent aussi servir de guide pour l’acquisition d’images de haute résolution spatiale si l’identification détaillée du type de changement est nécessaire. Les techniques de détection de changement telles l’analyse en composantes principales et la comparaison post-classification appliquées aux images multi-temporelles LANDSAT fournissent une image relativement exacte de classes “de-à” mais à un niveau thématique très général (par exemple, bâti à espace vert et vice-versa, boisés à sol nu et vice-versa, etc.). Les images ASTER-VNIR avec une meilleure résolution spatiale mais avec moins de bandes spectrales que LANDSAT n’offrent pas un niveau thématique plus détaillé (par exemple, boisés à espace commercial ou industriel). Les résultats indiquent que la recherche future sur la détection des changements en milieu urbain devrait se concentrer aux changements du couvert végétal puisque les images à résolution moyenne sont très sensibles aux changements de ce type de couvert. Les cartes indiquant la localisation et le type des changements du couvert végétal sont en soi très utiles pour des applications comme le monitoring environnemental ou l’hydrologie urbaine. Elles peuvent aussi servir comme des indicateurs des changements de l’utilisation du sol. De techniques telles l’analyse des vecteurs de changement ou les indices de végétation son employées à cette fin. / Nowadays land use/land cover maps at regional scale are commonly generated with satellite data of medium spatial resolution (between 10 m and 30m). The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) in the United States and the Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) Land Cover program in Europe, both based on LANDSAT images, are two typical examples. However, these maps become rapidly obsolete, especially in highly dynamic areas such as mega cities and metropolitan areas. In many applications, such as to monitor the water quality affected by the Land use/Land cover (LULC) change, the spread of invasive species, policy making for city managers, annual updating of LULC maps is required. Since 2007, the USGS offers access to ortho-rectified LANDSAT imagery free of charge. Both archived (since 1984) and recently acquired images are available. Without doubt, such data availability will stimulate the research on fast and cost effective methods and techniques for “continuous” regional land cover/use map updating using medium resolution satellite imagery. The objective of this research was to evaluate the potential of such medium resolution satellite imagery for providing information on changes useful for the continuous updating of LULC maps at a regional scale in the case of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC) area, a typical North American metropolis. Previous studies have demonstrated that many factors could affect the results of automatic change detection such as: (1) the characteristics of the images (spatial resolution, spectral bands, etc.); (2) the method itself used to automatically detect changes; and (3) the complexity of the landscape. In the study site except for the Central Business District (CBD) and some commercial streets, land uses (industrial, commercial, residential, etc.) are well delimited. Thus this study was focused on the other factors affecting change detection results, namely, the characteristics of the images and the method of change detection. We used 6 spectral bands of LANDSAT TM/ETM+ with 30 m spatial resolution and 3 spectral bands of ASTER-VNIR with 15 m spatial resolution to evaluate the impact of image characteristics on change detection. Concerning the change detection method, we decided to compare two types of automatic techniques: (1) techniques providing information principally on the location of changed areas,and (2) techniques providing information on both the location of changed areas and the type of changes ("from-to" classes). The main conclusions of this research are as follows: Change detection techniques such as image differencing or change vector analysis applied to LANDSAT multi-temporal imagery provide an accurate picture of changed areas in a fast and efficient manner. They can thus be integrated in a continuous monitoring system for a rapid evaluation of the volume of changes. The produced maps could be helpful to guide the acquisition of high spatial resolution imagery if a detailed identification of the type of changes is required. Change detection techniques such as principal component analysis and post-classification comparison applied to LANDSAT multi-temporal imagery could provide a relatively accurate picture of “from-to” classes but at a very general thematic level (for example, built-up to green space and vice-versa, forest lands to bare soil and vice-versa, etc.). ASTER images with better spatial resolution but with less spectral bands than LANDSAT images do not provide more detailed thematic information (for example forest land to commercial or industrial areas). The results indicate that future research should be focused on the detection of changes in the vegetation cover as medium resolution imagery is highly sensitive to this type of surface cover. Maps indicating the location and the type of changes in vegetation cover are in itself very useful for various applications, such as environmental monitoring or urban hydrology, and can be used as indicators on land use changes. Techniques such as change vector analysis or vegetation indices could be used to this end.

<p>Härtill 5 uppsatser</p> / digitalisering@umu

Until the mid 1970s, the image of the Irish Diaspora in Canada in the nineteenth century was that of a dichotomous group consisting of Irish Protestants, who worked their way up the economic ladder into mainstream society, and Irish Catholics, who never found their way out of poverty. However, with the emergence of quantitative analysis, this perception of the Irish came to be regarded as simplistic and anachronistic. New research found that the Irish in nineteenth century Canada were more diverse and complex than previously thought. In order to unravel this diversity and complexity, comprehensive analysis needed to be done at a regional level. In the late nineteenth century prior to the coming of the railway, British Columbia was a 'distinct society': a geographically isolated province anchored not by agriculture but rather resource extraction industries that attracted a largely adult male settler population. As such it provided a unique opportunity in which to study the Irish. My quantitative analysis of the Irish in British Columbia through the Canadian Census of 1881 suggests that within this 'distinct' settler society, Irish Catholics were 'ghettoized' in the workplace, in large part due to their religious affiliation.

Le vieillissement de la main-d’œuvre canadienne entraîne diverses conséquences sur le marché du travail et sur les parcours de fin de vie active. C’est pourquoi cette recherche s’intéresse à la problématique des fins d’emploi de carrière et du passage vers un emploi de transition vers la retraite. À l’aide des données longitudinales de l’Enquête sur la dynamique du travail et du revenu de 2002 à 2007, l’objectif est de mener une analyse descriptive de cette trajectoire selon la profession, ce qui ne semble jamais avoir été fait dans la littérature canadienne. Les résultats montrent que certaines professions ont enregistré proportionnellement plus de fins d’emploi de carrière durant cette période, dont les enseignants et les occupants d’un poste de direction. Des analyses supplémentaires ont calculé la part des travailleurs ayant effectué leur transition dans une profession différente. / In Canada, the ongoing aging of the labour force has direct effects on the labour market and the way workers live their transition to retirement. Thus many believe in the importance of studying the lifecourse of older workers. Using longitudinal data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, this study analyzes the older workers who left a career job between 2002 and 2007, and looks at their subsequent labour market activity in order to know if some of them entered a bridge job. This research focuses on occupational differences for the first time in the Canadian literature. In proportion, the results show higher than average rates of leaving their career job in some specific occupations, especially teachers and managers. Moreover this study aims to measure the proportion of older workers who found a bridge job in a different occupation.

Thesis--Lund. / Extra t.p., with thesis note and imprint (Lund, H. Ohlssons boktr., 1950) inserted. Bibliography: p. [9]-17.