This dissertation includes empirical studies of educational achievement and resilience of Hispanic ELL. The dataset used is the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort and Birth Cohort. In the first study, we investigated whether there were differences of instructional practices between ELLs and non-ELLs and the type of classrooms they attended. A 2-way ANOVA indicated ELLs were being exposed more often to teacher-directed, whole-classroom instruction than non-ELLs. In respect to classroom types, the results from this study suggest that student-selected activities and amount of workbook and media instruction differed significantly. The multiple regression results indicated that teacher-directed, small-group instruction, use of workbooks, and 3rd-grade reading achievement significantly (p < .05) influence the ELLs 5th-grade achievement. The second study focused on the 5th-grade mathematics achievement of Hispanic ELLs, Hispanic non-ELLs, and White non-ELLs. The findings of this study indicate that 5th -grade students are receiving more teacher-directed, whole-class instruction and using more mathematics worksheets. Student-selected activities and the use of computers are being used the least. The results also indicate that the use of textbooks or worksheets and computers for solving mathematics problems significantly (p less than .05) influence ELLs' mathematic achievement. Our study also revealed that third-grade mathematics achievement directly impacts the student's fifth-grade achievement. Furthermore, Hispanic ELLs learned more when exposed to blackboards and overheads for solving problems. The final study analyzed the resilience and academic achievement of preschool Hispanic students. The MANOVA results indicated the resilient group had a more active home learning environment, greater socioeconomic status, higher cognitive scores, and higher parental expectations. These studies emphasize the need of future research to include longitudinal studies of Hispanic, ELLs from Preschool through upper-level grades to investigate (a) resilience development, patterns, and changes, (b) consistency and variance of effective instructional practices in different types of classroom, and (c) development of achievement in mathematics and reading. Hispanic ELLs face many educational challenges, but the three studies reported here suggest that promoting resilience and implementing effective instructional practices may increase Hispanic ELLs academic achievement as well as positively enhance their home and school environment. The educational and policy implications of our studies suggest more student-centered instruction is needed in the classrooms because not enough effective instruction is being implemented in diverse classrooms. Our findings also suggest that classrooms and policies should focus on early intervention and prevention fostering resilient characteristics, as well as consistent and effective instructional practices.

Now, private and public service industries accounted for 68%GDP. It's almost the same as developed countries. Further, the service industries will be more and more important in Taiwan. Because, a service marketing and management filed has evolved that views the management of service firms differently from the management of manufacturing firms, the HRM of service industries is also different from that of manufacturing firms. In this article, I propose that ¡§HR practices¡¨ would yield increased¡§organization performance",and get increased ¡§organization performance¡¨through the fit of ¡§corporate strategy¡¨. In this article, the questionnaires were summarized the studies about HRM practice and corporate strategies in the service. Then, I implemented the empirical survey. The sample were the service firms that having sustainable competitive advantage. The survey had a response rate of 29 per cent, with a useable sample of 80 establishments. I examine the data using hierarchical regression, ANOVA analysis. In the article, the empirical survey shows that: 1. HR practices in service firms are of seven factors: (1) self-directed team operation (2) To use technologies or software to support employees's tasks. (3) To value employee security (4) multiple and elaborate assessment policy (5) the selection of preferring the candidates that having high skills and knowledge. (6) To value the training, coaching and mentoring. (7) The incentive policies depend on the performance. 2. There is a positive relationships and effect between HR practices and organization performance. 3. Differences of human resource management practices due to the differences of organization performance. 4. The corporate strategy has the moderating effects on the relationship between human resource management practices and organization performance. The main contribution of this article is that I try to discover the relationship between HR practices and organization performance through the two perspectives: universalistic perspective and contingency perspective. I find out the core HR practices and the HR practices that fit the corporate strategy.

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The debate over allocation of rangeland resources has gained increasing momentum in the 1990’s. These days, several constraints are facing landowners, including high estate taxes, reduced profit margins of agricultural/ranching operations and increased legal restrictions in land use. Previous studies point out to strong private property rights among landowners, which have often been assumed to lead to short-term land management goals that are not particularly beneficial to society. This study analyses the multidimensionality of property rights and how this determines the variation in willingness to undertake various ecologically sustainable management practices without compensation and the variation in the perception of threats by the landowner. A study was conducted on randomly selected landowners in three states, Texas, Utah and Colorado in 2001; an average response rate of 51.3% was obtained across all three states. A descriptive analysis was conducted, tabulating the identifying characteristics of the respondent rancher/farmer and their property, their opinion regarding the rights and responsibilities of landowner, their likely willingness to implement different management practices and threats to the future viability of their ranching operation, searching for testable hypotheses. In analysis of effect of multidimensionality of property rights on the willingness to undertake management practices without compensation, results confirmed the significance of three property rights except the individual property rights scale. Respondent’s perception of the threats to the future viability of future operation was analyzed using directed acyclic graphs (DAG). The DAG revealed several directed edges (causal effects), but the presence of several bi-directed edges (cause and effect being indeterminable) were also identified. The subsequent regression analysis showed no significant property rights scales, but component analyses identified a few significant property rights orientations. The low significance is attributed to the presence of bi-directed edges.

By the increasing using of global teams within organization, it is eagerly for us to understand how the ¡§team¡¨ form and work, and more importantly, ¡§what¡¨ makes it work. This research focus on the trust issue, which may be increased by proper managerial behaviors and HRM practices to increase knowledge innovation. The research was conducted using a qualitative approach; case details were collected from global teams involving at least two different nationalities. The research aims to investigate the influences of managerial behavior, HRM practices and trust on knowledge innovation in global teams. Findings reveal that different industries of global team tend to apply different knowledge innovation strategies. Moreover, HRM practices and managerial behaviours have significant and positive impacts on trust to raise knowledge innovation in global teams.

While facing a dynamic environment, a company needs innovation to enhance their competitiveness and to continue to grow in terms of profits. For the company, the question becomes not ¡§whether¡¨ but ¡§how¡¨ to innovate. This thesis, with a perspective of human resources, explores how organizational innovation capabilities, innovative culture, and human resource practices directly affect the effectiveness of innovation. In addition, the indirect impact of human resource practices intertwined with innovation capabilities and innovative culture as a mediator is also under scrutiny. This thesis is conducted through opinion survey, with 201 samples out of 250 manufacturers introduced by Tianxia Magazine. With the valid 111 questionnaires replied by the chairs or directors of human resources department in each company, the findings of this thesis can be summarized as follows: 1. Innovation capability impacts the innovation performance positively. 2. Innovative culture impacts the innovation performance positively. 3. Human resource practices impacts the innovation performance positively. 4. Human resource practices impacts the innovation capability positively. 5. Innovation capability has mediating effect between human resource practices and innovation performance. 6. Human resource practices impacts the innovative culture positively. 7. Innovative culture has mediating effect between human resource practices and innovation performance.

Background: Previous researchers have identified perceptions and practices as key barriers to women's advancement opportunities. Moreover, the region of Umeå in Sweden has been experiencing a low representation of female managers, and the manufacturing industry is male-dominated throughout the country. Management perceptions of female managers could be categorized in four different perspectives and these were used after some modification, by adding other, relevant theories from the field of women in management. Organizational practices had shown to be crucial in enforcing gender equality in organizations, and for this study, internal and external recruitment, succession planning and training and development were explored. The intention was to explore how organizational practices had been influenced by management perceptions of female managers, by looking for indicators within these.Purpose: To explore how management, in general, perceive female managers, and how these perceptions might influence organizational practices.Research questions: How do management of several manufacturing companies in the Umeå region perceive female middle managers? and Do these perceptions affect the organizational practices? If so, how?Key concepts:Management perceptions: Subjective constructions of human behavior, more specifically, management attitudes and beliefs towards female middle managers.Middle manager: Someone who deals directly with employees and is in charge of at least one subordinate level and reports to a top-level manager.Organizational practices: Strategic activities in a company.Methodology: This exploratory study was conducted with a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews. Primary data was collected from six different companies in the Umeå Region and secondary data consisted of scientific articles.Findings and conclusions: The perceptions of female middle managers held by management at manufacturing companies in the Umeå Region did influence the organizational practices. In general, all had positive perceptions of women in terms of the economic benefits that they could bring to the companies. In addition, women’s opportunities in the manufacturing companies were influenced by management perceptions of whether women were considered to have the necessary, technical competencies for management positions. Furthermore, it was concluded that those manufacturing companies whose management prioritized the questions of women in management, had the highest representation of female middle managers.

ABSTRACT Providing equitable learning opportunities for all students has been a persistent issue for some time. This is evident by the science achievement gap that still exists between male and female students as well as between White and many non-White student populations (NCES, 2007, 2009, 2009b) and an underrepresentation of female, African-American, Hispanic, and Native Americans in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related careers (NCES, 2009b). In addition to gender and ethnicity, socioeconomic status and linguistic differences are also factors that can marginalize students in the science classroom. One factor attributed to the achievement gap and low participation in STEM career is equitable access to resources including textbooks, laboratory equipment, qualified science teachers, and type of instruction. Extensive literature supports authentic science as one way of improving science learning. However, the majority of students do not have access to this type of resource. Additionally, extensive literature posits that culturally relevant pedagogy is one way of improving education. This study examines students' participation in an authentic science experience and argues that this is one way of providing culturally relevant pedagogy in science classrooms. The purpose of this study was to better understand how marginalized students were affected by their participation in an authentic science experience, within the context of an algae biofuel project. Accordingly, an interpretivist approach was taken. Data were collected from pre/post surveys and tests, semi-structured interviews, student journals, and classroom observations. Data analysis used a mixed methods approach. The data from this study were analyzed to better understand whether students perceived the experience to be one of authentic science, as well as how students science identities, perceptions about who can do science, attitudes toward science, and learning of science practices were affected by participation in an authentic science experience. Findings indicated that participation in an authentic science experience has a positive effect on science identities, scientist perceptions, science attitudes, and learning of science and is one approach to mitigating the effects of marginalization in the science classroom. Additional findings indicated that a relationship between the authenticity of the experience and the outcomes (science identity, perceptions about who can do science, science attitudes, and learning of science). This study provides empirical evidence to support authentic science learning as a means of improving students' learning, attitudes, and identities with respect to science. This study endorses authentic science experiences for all students, marginalized included. This has implications for how we prepare future and support current science teachers. In addition, this study shows how this model can be used to effectively implement science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

TCG is a small real estate investment and property management company that seeks to go through a lean transformation to simplify and improve its processes. The main purpose for any business developing a lean business structure is to focus organizational resources on eliminating waste and optimize business processes to become more productive. The main objective of this thesis will be to identify problem areas in TCG’s property management process and provide an improvement plan based on lean methodologies. In addition, this thesis will propose a five-year financial plan based on TCG’s current financial state as well as new capital investments and process improvement goals. / text

This case study investigated the ways in which its participants drew from available language and literacy practices as they constructed identities in various contexts. Data was gathered using ethnographic methods, including field notes, interviews, artifact collection, and video data. Observations took place within a fifth grade classroom and select focal participants were interviewed and collected video data on their own outside of school. The study was framed through theories of context-dependent identities, built from the semiotic resources available to people based on context and positionality. Findings suggest the participants engaged in multimodal, heteroglossic composing practices outside of school, while inside of school their composing practices were defined by accountability measures imposed on them from outside the classroom. Findings also showed how the classroom community was discursively built and maintained, at times functioning as a homogenizing force even though the discourses defining the community were those of acceptance and diversity. Participants cultivated what they viewed were acceptable identities within the classroom through the language and literacy norms and practices therein. The study suggests implications for educators in how language and literacy practices shape acceptable identities and the spaces for them, and for how the construct of community is understood and intended in classrooms versus how it functions in practice. / text