Financial researchers agree that allocating money to employer stock in a 401(k) plan is a poor strategy, yet many employees do so. Not only does this investment strategy bear unrewarded idiosyncratic risk, but it also correlates employees' retirement portfolios with their human capital. I find evidence that this selection is influenced by the investment preferences of peers, which includes both management at the firm and employees at other firms headquartered in the same city. Specifically, the percentage allocated to company stock by employees in the 401(k) plan is positively related to both the net open-market purchases of company stock by management and the average allocation to company stock in 401(k) plans by employees at other firms headquartered in the same city. Surprisingly, the allocation to company stock in 401(k) plans increases with investment in employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), which are a dominant substitute since they often offer stock at a discount. To identify the cause of this relationship between employees and management, I provide additional support for the peer effects hypothesis through interaction tests. The relationship between employees and management is influenced by distance between peers and trust within the firm - two factors that alter group cohesion and, in turn, the effect of peer influence. These results are robust to size of the firm and also exist for the subsample of firms that have only made matching contributions in cash. Consistent with our understanding of the inertia that exists in employee investment decisions, employee allocations to company stock are influenced for many years by management's initial investment choices made near the time of going public. Lastly, alternative methodologies, including propensity score matched samples and panel regressions, yield the same conclusions.

Thesis (M.M. (Business Executive Coaching))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / Peer coaching within the South African context is not widely promoted or implemented. In the field of coaching, peer coaching is slowly entering the marketplace with a focus on career learning and self-driven leadership development. It is one of the options available to organisations in which to assist leaders with addressing development needs. This research set out to establish the factors behind the rationale to implement a peer coaching program at executive level. The research followed a qualitative design methodology making use of semi-structured interviews to gather data. The richness of the data lay in the semi-structured approach which allowed for the participants to air their views, yet for the researcher to remain true to the purpose of the study. The findings suggest that within the current South African context, there are more constraining factors present which may inhibit the decision to implement a peer coaching program than enabling factors. These include the perceived limited choice of peer coaches available; the challenges of setting up a coach-coachee relationship, which includes trust and confidentiality; the presence of dominant leaders; power dimensions within organisations; environments of mistrust, gossip and competitiveness and the presence of diversity discrimination. It further posits that the leaders of the organisations play a pivotal role in determining the rationale behind the decision to implement a peer coaching program.

Com o advento da internet, surgem no campo da filantropia plataformas digitais que utilizam o poder de mobilização de indivíduos da web 2.0 para apoiar financeiramente projetos socioambientais. Esta dissertação tem por base as experiências da startup Eventos do Bem, que utiliza o método de angariação online Peer-to- Peer (P2P). A abordagem digital do método de captação de recursos P2P consiste na elaboração de campanhas promovidas por indivíduos online os quais podem utilizar seus eventos pessoais prol de uma causa social - como aniversários, casamentos entre outros - para mobilizar sua rede de contatos propondo que seus conhecidos doem para sua campanha ao invés de os presentearem no aniversário. As experiências na realização de campanhas digitais em prol de organizações sociais no referido empreendimento, elucubraram problemas relativos à performance financeira das campanhas. Logo, esta pesquisa foi realizada com o objetivo de propor diretrizes e práticas que potencializem o sucesso deste tipo de arrecadação online. Visto ser um modelo aplicado de forma pioneira no país, como metodologia, optou-se pela estratégia de estudos de caso múltiplos com base em YIN (1994) na qual, em conjunto com o estudo da startup Eventos do Bem, selecionou-se a plataforma estadunidense Charity:Water, referência em angariação P2P. Como unidades de análise, foram abordadas as campanhas de angariação realizadas em ambas as plataformas, focando na categoria de campanhas de aniversário. Logo, o trajeto desta pesquisa delineou-se nas fases: (a) análise da experiência da startup Eventos do Bem, em paralelo com a leitura do referencial teórico pertinente; (b) pesquisa e seleção da plataforma Charity:Water; (c) estudo e realização de 46 entrevistas, compondo-se em 6 entrevistas com funcionários do Charity:Water e 40 efetivadas com criadores de campanhas de aniversário em ambas as plataformas; (d) análise de fatores e práticas influenciadoras das campanhas promovidas nos casos abordados; (e) estudo cross- case e análise dos resultados obtidos. Como resultado da pesquisa, foi delineado um procedimento de boas práticas para potencializar a performance das campanhas digitais, destacando-se ações referentes à interação individual do criador da campanha com toda a sua rede de contatos, a persistência no pedido e a realização de um discurso do pedido de doação com qualidade, isto é, que apresente argumentos para persuadir doadores mais emocionais como também os mais racionais e lógicos. Desta forma, o estudo contribuiu para expandir o debate de captação de recursos online e aponta inovações da técnica P2P no que tange à mecânica do processo de decisão para doar e demonstra que a técnica pode fornecer resultados que vão além da angariação de recursos, estimulando maior engajamento social dos participantes. / With the advent of the Internet, philanthropy is emerging in digital platforms that use the mobilization power of web 2.0 individuals to financially support social and environmental projects. This dissertation is based on the experiences of the startup Eventos do Bem, which uses the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) online raising method. The digital approach of the P2P method of fundraising consists of the elaboration of campaigns promoted by individuals online who can use their personal events for a social cause - such as anniversaries, weddings and others - to mobilize their network of contacts by proposing that their acquaintances ache for their campaign instead of giving them on their birthday. The experiences in the accomplishment of digital campaigns in favor of social organizations in the mentioned enterprise, they have presented problems related to the financial performance of the campaigns. Therefore, this research was carried out with the objective of proposing guidelines and practices that will enhance the success of this type of online collection. As a model pioneered in the country, as a methodology, we chose the strategy of multiple case studies based on YIN (1994) in which, together with the study of the startup Eventos do Bem, we selected the platform American Charity: Water, reference in P2P fundraising. As units of analysis, the campaigns of raising were carried out in both platforms, focusing on the category of birthday campaigns.Therefore, the study\'s path was delineated in the phases: (a) analysis of the startup experience of the Good Events, in parallel with the reading of the relevant theoretical reference; (B) research and selection of the Charity: Water platform; (C) study and performance of 46 interviews, comprising 6 interviews with Charity: Water employees and 40 interviews with fundraisers on both platforms; (D) analysis of factors and practices influencing the campaigns promoted in the cases addressed; (E) cross-case study and analysis of the results obtained. As a result, a procedure of good practices was designed to potentiate fundraising P2P performance, highlighting actions regarding the individual interaction of the campaigner with his entire network of contacts, a persistence without request and realization of a speech of the Request Of giving with quality, is, and presents arguments to persuade donors more emotional as also the most rational and logical. In this way, the study contributed to expand the online fundraising debate and points out innovations of the P2P technique regarding the mechanics of the decision process to donate and demonstrates that the technique can provide results that go beyond fundraising, Stimulating greater social engagement of participants.

Bullying among school children is a social phenomenon that is now recognised as a widespread and serious problem across the globe. While decades of research have generated valuable insights as regards prevalence, main correlates and detrimental health consequences, many questions and gaps remain. For instance, it is unclear why the great majority of peer bystanders not intervene to support victims in a bullying conflict despite holding anti-bullying beliefs. Furthermore, great efforts have been made in the area of peer support and anti-bullying initiatives however there is still no intervention that has shown to be effective long term and cross-culturally. This thesis consists of two empirical studies. To advance knowledge of factors that influence pupils' victim support behaviour, the first study examined the role of perceived friend and peer consequences in predicting intentions to three types of help: provide emotional support, help to stop the bully and get adult support. Structural equation modelling revealed that perceived friend consequences were significantly associated with each of the victim support behaviours studied. Additionally, perceived peer reactions predicted intentions to get adult help. These findings suggest that friends play a more important role than peers in affecting victim support. Some significant gender effects emerged, showing that the overall pattern of associations held for boys, but not for girls. The findings highlight the concerns children hold with regard to their (dis)approving views related to victim support. Outcomes further suggest that victim defending should not be regarded as a broad homogeneous construct. The second study assessed the effectiveness of a cross-age teaching of social issues intervention (CATS) on enhancing pupils' knowledge on three victim support behaviours, and their awareness of the value of helping. In small cooperative groups older pupils were invited to step into the tutor role to prepare a lesson and teach it to two years younger tutees. An experimental-control group design was employed to test participants' performance at three time points over a six to eight week period. CATS tutors significantly improved their knowledge and awareness of the provictim behaviours studied while no positive changes were evident for participants in the control group. Furthermore, children who participated in the project expressed high satisfaction with the intervention. Based on the positive findings it was concluded that CATS is a viable technique for enhancing pupils' knowledge and awareness on prosocial topics. Helping children to see the value of supporting victims of bullying, in any of the ways studied, could help them avoid anticipating negative reactions from friends and peers, and in turn make it more likely that they would choose to help if the need arose.

nÃo hà / MyGSI à uma proposta de arquitetura de seguranÃa para ambientes de grades peer-to-peer. Utilizando mecanismos de autenticaÃÃo, controle de acesso e delegaÃÃo de direitos de acesso, MyGSI permite a troca de informaÃÃes e o compartilhamento de recursos de forma segura atravÃs de trÃs mÃdulos: MyAuth, MyAC e MyDel. MyAuth à o mÃdulo responsÃvel pela autenticaÃÃo utilizando a infra-estrutura de chaves pÃblicas. MyAC à o mÃdulo responsÃvel pelo controle de acesso e permite o gerenciamento descentralizado de polÃticas de controle de acesso. MyDel à o mÃdulo responsÃvel pelo processo de delegaÃÃo de direitos de acesso atravÃs de correntes de certificados. MyGSI foi desenvolvido na linguagem JAVA e integrado na grade OurGrid. O processo de integraÃÃo de MyGSI com o OurGrid, alguns cenÃrios de uso e os resultados desta integraÃÃo tambÃm sÃo apresentados nesta dissertaÃÃo. / MyGSI is a proposal of security architecture for peer-to-peer grid environments. MyGSI uses authentication mechanisms, access control and delegation of access rights. MyGSI allows the exchange of information in secure mode, and is composed of three modules: MyAuth, MyAC and MyDel. MyAuth uses public key infrastructure to deal with authentication. MyAC deals with access control, allowing a decentralized access control policies management. MyDel deals with the delegation of access rights implemented through certified chains. MyGSI was developed in JAVA and was integrated to OurGrid successfully. Some examples and results of this integration are also presented

All over the world, adolescent obesity is a serious health problem. Many researchers have focused on diet and exercise, because those behaviors are modifiable risk factors for obesity. To reduce or prevent the prevalence of adolescent obesity, contributions of diverse contextual factors to adolescents’ diet and exercise have been studied. However, little is known about peer influences on adolescents’ diet and exercise, compared to the studies of other contextual factors such as parents and school. In addition, in contrast to Western countries with higher prevalence of adolescent obesity, few studies have been conducted in countries with different cultures. Exploring the influence of peers on diet and exercise of adolescents in those countries could help to develop culturally-appropriate interventions to prevent adolescents from becoming obese. Thus, the purpose of this set of three studies was to examine adolescents’ diet and exercise in the context of peer factors and relationships. The purpose of the first study was to systematically review research assessing contribution of peer to adolescents’ diet and exercise. Twenty four articles were identified, using the electronic databases, PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and SCOPUS. According to the findings from this review, the diet and exercise of adolescents was positively associated with that of their peers. Additionally, gender, the type of diet and exercise, and the closeness of friends could influence these associations. The second study identified the parent-, school-, and peer-factors contributing to dietary and exercise behaviors of adolescents in the United States, by using data from the Health Behaviour of School-Aged Children study. Findings from the current analysis indicated that parent- and peer-factors could influence either diet or exercise of adolescents; while school-factor were found to be associated only with adolescents’ diet. The third study explored the diet and exercise of Korean female adolescents within their classroom-based peer networks. Using social network analysis, dietary behaviors of female adolescents in this study were clustered within their classrooms. Several adolescents played a role in bridging two or more peer networks. However, less information about female adolescents’ exercise behaviors within classroom-based peer network was obtained. In summary, peers are an important contextual factor for developing adolescents’ diet and exercise behaviors that could contribute to adolescent obesity. These associations could be influenced by the characteristics of friendships such as gender of friends, the closeness of friends, and network characteristics of friendships. Peers can be potential targets for interventions to reduce or prevent the development of adolescent obesity.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wyoming, 2006. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 18, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (p. 228-238).

We developed a diffusive load balancing scheme that equalizes the available capacities of nodes in a peer-to-peer (P2P) system. These nodes may have different resource capacities, geographic locations, or availabilities (i.e., length of time being part of the peer-to-peer system). The services on these nodes may have different service times and arrival rates of requests. Using the diffusive scheme, the system is able to maintain similar response times for its services. Our scheme is a modification of the diffusive load balancing algorithms proposed for parallel computing systems. This scheme is able to handle services with heterogeneous resource requirements and P2P nodes with heterogeneous capacities. We also adapted the diffusive scheme to clustered peer-to-peer system, where a load balancing operation may move services or nodes between clusters. After a literature survey of this field, this thesis investigates the following issues using analytical reasoning and extensive simulation studies. The load balancing operations equalize the available capacities of the nodes in a neighborhood to their averages. As a result, the available capacities of all nodes in the P2P system converge to a global average. We found that this convergence is faster when the scheme uses neighborhoods defined by the structure of the structured P2P overlay network rather than using randomly selected neighbors. For a system with churn (i.e. nodes joining and leaving), the load balancing operations maintain the standard deviation of the available capacities of nodes within a bound. This bound depends on the amount of churn and the frequency of load balancing operations, as well as on the capacities of the nodes. However, the sizes of the services have little impact on this bound. In a clustered peer-to-peer system, the size of the bound largely depends on the average cluster size. When nodes are moved among clusters for load balancing, the numbers of cluster splits and merges are reduced. This may reduce the maintenance cost of the overlay network.

The suicide of a loved one is a traumatic life event that brings considerable emotional suffering. In the present study, the term suicide survivor refers to an individual bereaved though suicide. In the aftermath of their loss, some suicide survivors become peer counsellors and thereby draw on their painful experiences to provide assistance to others bereaved in this manner. Although these individuals play an important supportive role, little is known about their experiences with doing this kind of volunteer work. This study sought to explore the phenomenon of peer counselling in suicide bereavement by addressing the question, what are the lived experiences of suicide survivors who become peer counsellors? The purpose of the study was to understand how these individuals conceptualize their volunteer work and how their volunteerism may affect their own ongoing healing from the loss to suicide. Participants were 15 individuals bereaved through suicide who had been volunteering with others bereaved in the same manner for at least two years. This research employed a qualitative phenomenological methodology to provide a detailed description of participants’ journeys that went from experiencing the suicide of a loved one, to the decision to become a peer counsellor, to, finally, providing support to other survivors. The findings suggest that participants understand the provision of peer counselling as a transformative process. As a result of their volunteering, they undergo personal growth and acquire new skills. They conceptualize providing peer counselling as reaching out to other survivors of suicide and thereby countering the loneliness and isolation of suicide bereavement. For the participants, being a peer counsellor means actively challenging the silence around suicide by speaking out about suicide-related issues and offering other survivors a safe space to share their stories. The broader implications of these findings for suicide postvention research and clinical practice are addressed.

This study narratively explores the experiences of five public school counsellors and one high school teacher using Conversation Peace, a restorative action peer mediation program published jointly in 2001 by Fraser Region Community Justice Initiatives Association (CJI), Langley, British Columbia, Canada, and School District #35, Langley, British Columbia, Canada. This categorical-content analysis (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998) resulted in data describing 20 common themes, 12 with similar responses, and 8 with varying responses amongst participants. Two of the similar findings were the crucial importance of (a) confidentiality within the mediation process, and (b) the school counsellor’s role within the overall and day-to-day implementation of this peer mediation program. Two of the varying findings were (a) the time involvement of the school counsellor within the peer mediation program, and (b) the differences in the number of trained peer mediators and peer mediations within schools.