The aim of this study was to develop an empowerment model that could be used to enhance nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development. The study explored the extent of nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development; built consensus on: essential leadership attributes and facilitators and barriers to nurse leaders participation in health policy development. A Delphi survey was applied which included the following criteria: expert panelists, iterative rounds, statistical analysis, and consensus building. The expert panelists were purposively selected and included national nurse leaders in leadership positions at the nursing professional associations, nursing regulatory bodies, ministries of health and universities in East Africa. The study was conducted in three iterative rounds. There were 78 expert panelists invited to participate in the study, the response rate was 47% for the first round, 65% for the second round and 100% for the third round. The data collection was done with the use of semi structured (first round) and structured questionnaires (second and third rounds). Data analysis for the first round was done by examining the data for the most commonly occurring categories. The second and third rounds were quantitative and descriptive statistics were used. The consensus accepted for the second round was 90%, and for the third round consensus was 70%. The findings of the study indicate that nurse leaders participate in health policy development though participation is limited and not consistent across all the stages of health policy development. The study revealed consensus on essential leadership attributes required for nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development, including transformational attributes, political skills, interpersonal and communication skills. The facilitators to nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development pertain to: knowledge and skills, involvement, image of nursing, support, structures and processes. Whereas, the barriers relate to: involvement, image of nursing, structures and processes. An empowerment model for nurse leaders participation in health policy development was developed. Implementation of the model may lead to enhance nurse leaders participation in health policy development. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

Many organisations experience the new general data protection regulation (GDPR) as difficult to understand and are unsure as to how they should formulate and communicate a policy that is complied by the organisation's employees. ePrivacy is a separate regulation that works as a compliment to GDPR and makes the regulation even more complex. The purpose of this study is to identify recommendations to formulate policies that increases likelihood that the policy is complied by the organisation's employees. The study was conducted as a case study with a participating company. In this study a policy has been developed within the context of the GDPR and ePrivacythat was then used in interviews with employees of the participating company. This was done in order to research the policy development process and handling of policies in that company. With this research, the knowledge of factors within policy development that affect the employees likelihood to comply with and be aware of the organisation's policies will increase. The recommendations that are formulated as a result of the study may be usedby developers to increase the likelihood that the organisation's policies are complied with and that the employees are more aware of the policies. The recommendations of the study is that developers should take advantage of user involvement in the policy development process. This gives the employees their chance to affect their own work and their processes themselves which will increase their self efficacy and awareness of policies. / Många organisationer upplever att nya dataskyddsförordningen (GDPR) ärsvar att förstå och hur de ska formulera och kommunicera en policy som efterlevs och följs av organisationens anställda. ePrivacy är en separat förordning som är tänkt att komplettera dataskyddsförordningen och gör förordningen än mer komplex. Syftet med studien är att identiera rekommendationer för att formulera policys som höjer sannolikheten att de efterlevs och följs av organisationens anställda. Undersökningen har utförts som en fallstudie på det medverkande företaget. I denna studie har det inom kontexten dataskyddsförordningen och ePrivacy formulerats en policy som sedan användes vid intervjuer med anställda på det medverkande företaget. Detta för att undersöka Policyutvecklingsprocessen och hantering av policys på företaget.Med den här undersökningen ökar kunskapen om vilka faktorer inom policyutveckling som påverkar anställdas sannolikhet att följa organisationens policys och ökar policy-medvetenhet inom organisationen. De rekommendationer som formuleras som ett resultat av undersökningen kan nyttjas av utvecklare för att öka sannolikheten att organisationens policys efterlevs och följs av anställda samt ökar medvetenheten om organisationens policys. Studiens rekommendationer är att utvecklare bör nyttja användarinvolvering i dess policyutvecklingsprocess. Detta ger anställda chansen att påverka sin vardagoch dess arbetsprocesser själva vilket bidrar till höjd upplevd självförmågaoch medvetenhet om policys.

Il successo delle riforme economiche cinesi negli anni '80 e negli anni '90 ha posto in discussione le politiche ufficiali di sviluppo (note come Washington consensus ) delle istituzioni multilaterali. Il consenso, ammettendo che le istituzioni sono importanti per la crescita, prescrive che i Paesi in via di sviluppo dovrebbero adottare governi che da un lato disciplinino un sistema di diritti di proprietà stabili e chiaramente definiti, e che dall'altro creino istituzioni che rafforzino i mercati: la buona governance in termini di liberalizzazione, privatizzazione delle proprietà statali e assenza di corruzione dovrebbe portare allo sviluppo economico. Nessuna di queste condizioni era presente in Cina: i diritti di proprietà apparivano essere né stabili né chiari, la corruzione era diffusa, e il governo era coinvolto in tutti i settori dell'economia. Questa ricerca utilizza i risultati della scuola della political economy per mettere in dubbio la validità dell'incompleta analisi del consenso e per dimostrare come le istituzioni cinesi abbiano appreso la lezione storica del capitalismo: i diritti di proprietà erano instabili, orizzontalmente indefiniti ma verticalmente definiti, e lo stato poté guidare la transizione capitalistica perché il sistema clientelare con il Partito attivo in qualità di political economy residual claimant era compatibile con i costi e i benefici connessi alla diffusione delle attività di mercato. / The success of China's economic reforms in the 1980s and in the 1990s has challenged the official development prescriptions known as Washington Consensus of multilateral institutions. By admitting that institutions matter for growth, the consensus suggests that developing countries should install a government which presides over a system of clear and stable property rights, and which does not interfere with markets but creates institutions that strengthen markets: good governance in terms of liberalisation, privatisation of State-owned assets and absence of corruption should result in economic development. None of these conditions were present in China: property rights appeared to be neither stable nor clear, corruption was widespread, and the government was involved in all sectors of the economy. This research draws on the findings of the political economy school to question the validity of the incomplete analysis of the consensus and to show how China's institutions learned the historical lesson of capitalism: property rights were unstable and horizontally unclear but vertically clear, and the state could guide the capitalist transition because the patron-client framework with the Party as the political economy residual claimant was compatible with the costs and benefits related to the rise of market activities.

Magistro baigiamajame darbe išanalizuoti Šiaulių m. savivaldybės bendruomenės sveikatos tarybos veiklos principai, sveikatos politikos formavimas ir įgyvendinimas Šiaulių mieste. Teorinėje dalyje analizuojama Lietuvos savivaldybių bendruomenių sveikatos tarybų veikla, Europos Sąjungos ir Lietuvos sveikatos politikos dokumentai bei jų įgyvendinimas bendruomenėje. Išanalizuota Šiaulių m. bendruomenės sveikatos tarybos sveikatos politikos veiklos kryptys, tarpžinybinis bendradarbiavimas. Ketvirtojoje dalyje nagrinėjamas Šiaulių m. bendruomenės sveikatos tarybos narių požiūris apie sveikatos politikos formavimą ir įgyvendinimą Šiaulių m. savivaldybėje, bendruomenės sveikatos tarybos bendradarbiavimo galimybes ir vykdomos veiklos vertinimą. / In the Master‘s Thesis, the principles of health policy development and implementation from Health Community Council of Siauliai city municipality are analyzed. In the theoretical part, analysis of the Health Community Councils activity of Lithuanian municipalities, the European Union and the Lithuanian health policy documents and their implementation in the community are investigated in a theoretical aspect. Data results on Health Community Council health policy activities and inter-agency cooperation are analyzed as well. In the fourth part, there is considered the approach of Health Community Council members to state their opinion about health policy development and implementation, collaborative capabilities and performance assessment in Siauliai city.

Because of the public and environmental interaction's ascensional problems it encouraged to develop environment policy and evolve different shapes since the year dot up till today. Obviously, the policy's development is not the finite process. The main subjects are introducing at work by encouraging to implement environment policy in Lithuania. The Law environmental formulation is the most analysing in Lithuania. Environment policy development is under review since restoring Lithuania's Independence since 1918-1940. Also since 1940 when Lithuania became Soviet Union. Since 1990 after Lithuania restored political Independence there were analysing environmental policy development. Especially juristics and institutional changes in environmental of policy. The policy development was more under consideration after Lithuania joined with most of the international deed of liberty requirements realization and by integrating to the European Union. There is a special department for financial implement in environment policy for implementation of discussion. Especially developing European Union's financial source of consequence. In pursuance to anticipate the environment policy tendencies and perspectives of development there are European Union’s directives’ (for which were negotiated requirements periods for realization) analysis in details, Long-Term Development Strategy of the State and National Strategy for Sustainable Development for the reaching the goals. Environment policy's... [to full text]

This thesis analyzes the ignored humanitarian concerns in the development of the EU Asylum Policy. As a result of the strict migration control concerns, EU has engaged in forming a new regional refugee protection system which is tacitly based on limiting the access of protection seekers to the EU territories. In that context, the thesis aims to assess the scope and impact of the externalizing tendencies in the EU asylum policy development and thereby aims to attract the attention to the contradiction that EU falls in its human rights and refugee protection commitments while trying to prevent refugees from arriving to the Union&rsquo / s territories. To this aim, after giving a general account of the development of EU Asylum competence, the thesis will extensively deal with the pre-entry and the post-entry access prevention measures which act to serve to this access prevention strategy. Under pre-entry access prevention measures, the thesis will deal with the visa requirement, carrier sanctions and other complementary tools which prevent the protection seekers from ever arriving at the EU territory. Under the post-entry access prevention mechanisms the thesis will analyze the &lsquo / safe third country&rsquo / and &lsquo / host third country&rsquo / implementations and readmission agreements which aim to divert the protections seekers summarily out of the EU territories. In analyzing these policies, the thesis will try to demonstrate how EU Member States try to shirk their non-refoulment obligation, which is the heart of the refugee protection regime, through applying legitimate deemed means.

Through a case study about the impact of IT adoption in a residential aged care organisation, this thesis examines the increasing pressure for service integration as mainstreamed through reform policies. Specifically, the research investigates the role of IT in facilitating the 1997 aged care reform agenda of 'ageing in place' focusing on the levels of transformation from the policy context to the organisational/management context, and to the context of service provision by care staff. A single embedded case study (Yin, 1993) is used in order to meet the general objective to capture the dynamics of the impact of ageing in place in the three social contexts. The research is informed by social constructionism, a theoretical framework that emphasises the significance and effects of language in shaping social realities (Ainsworth, 2001; Hosking, 1999). The framework, therefore, justifies the qualitative analysis of both written (i.e., policy documents) and spoken (i.e., interviews with staff) texts to address meaning in relation to context. Changing technologies can result in altered societal structures (Betz, 2003) at all levels, from the very complex to the very basic. As such, it is important to understand a few basic premises of technology. First, technology is a human invention to improve the well-being of society (Ayres, 1996). Consequently, technological inventions that improve the quality of life are seen by people as a necessity for modern living. In the case of ageing, modernisation and technological advances effectively resulted in people becoming healthier and living longer (Department of Health and Aged Care [DHAC], 2000). Second, technology is a human means to control nature (Betz, 2003). As such, technological advances can be seen as a modernising process of predicting and regulating the effects of the trends existing in the environment, such as ageing. Ageing in the twenty first century presents a challenge to government's development policies because ageing is depicted as a steady force with a long-term economic impact (Johnson, 1999). Third, a technology becomes powerful when it is sponsored by the market (Betz, 2003; Hughes, 1983). Unless a technology is backed by business, it lacks the influence on a large scale. Fourth, technology is used to enable change. By using IT, governments, business and the community are co-operating through a paradigm similar to the business sector. As a result, the service environment is shifting towards more business-like approaches. To sustain the changes brought by a different paradigm and modes of operation, the rhetoric of technology is employed. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate the use of IT in processes of organisational adaptations to reform, which requires the examination of: a) specific meaning of IT as used in long-term care policies for older people since the last structural reform, b) the rationale behind the introduction of a new IT system into a residential care organisation, and c) the meaning of IT as articulated by care staff who have experienced a change in technology. The first paper represents a rhetorical analysis at the macro or policy level. There is a significant influence of a global political actor in developing proactive strategies on ageing, which results in a new, multi-organisational approach in delivering government-subsidised services, such as residential care. Three key institutional texts were selected to represent international to local policy development since the time ageing became a global concern. Since then, ageing is also viewed as a human rights issue. Using Burke's pentad, an analytic framework to analyse rhetoric in texts (Stillar, 1998), these institutional texts are seen to employ the rhetoric of 'technology for sustainability' to justify changes to policy approaches that seek long-term viability. Technology, in the name of sustainable development ensures support for economic growth, which balances the long-term effects of population ageing. The existence of a global force, such as population ageing, allows the intervening powers of the UN in mainstreaming ageing into development policies. Accordingly, it initiates corresponding actions at national (Australian Commonwealth Government) and state (Queensland Government) levels. IT is a medium of communication, knowledge transfer, and standard practice at these levels of actions. The second paper represents a qualitative analysis at the meso or organisational level. This paper explores the cogent rationale in the introduction of a computer-based, care documentation system in a large residential aged care organisation. Twenty two staff, from every level of the organisation, were interviewed to get an insight into the role of IT in substantive changes to organisational structure and modes of service provision. Responses from staff indicate external and internal influence that pressured the organisation to change. In the bid to sustain the future of aged care, the industry is changing through the introduction of new structure of service delivery. The Aged Care Structural Reform instigated a shift towards sustainable service provision that is consumer-driven, with a fixed cost compliance mechanism and performance criteria that are tied to funding. Facing the requirement for evidence to corroborate funding, a residential care organisation changed its structure of service delivery by introducing a new strategic direction. IT is part of this new strategic direction, planning, and operations of a changed service environment. The third paper represents a qualitative analysis at the micro or individual level to examine the impact of IT at frontline service delivery. This study is also based on interviews with twenty-two staff, across the organisational structure; however, this time the focus is more on staff who are involved in providing direct care to older residents at the organisation. The reason behind this is that IT has always been a management tool which handles management priorities such as financial planning and performance monitoring. The themes arising from the interviews indicate discord at the level of service delivery from the introduction of a new technical system. It also points to the idea that staff generally refer to ethical ideas and future promise of the new system. In summary, these three papers attached to this thesis support the notion that the meaning of technology is socially constructed. First, technology in the aged care sector has particular reference to improving or enhancing the well-being of older people, and in this case, the provision of high quality services that fulfil the needs of older people. Second, IT has an important role in meeting the evidence-based requirement, such as in the use of information in manipulating the use of resources required for the ageing population. Third, the meaning of IT is conceived from the context requiring its use such as the need to use resource efficiently to ensure long-term sustainability, which were emphasised in the last reform. Fourth, IT is used to enable structural changes in organisations to implement generic practices originated from the business sector, requiring the use of strong rhetoric such as balance and future. The limit of this case study is that these dimensions of technology can only be applied to the specific context of aged care and is not generalisable to other political contexts. However, the strength of the study rests on the macro-, meso- and micro-analysis of the meaning of technology. Therefore, future studies should investigate and compare the dimensions of technology in other contexts.

Over the past twenty years, the idea that planning and development practices should be ‘sustainable’ has become a key tenet of discourses characterising the field of planning and development. As part of the agenda to balance and integrate economic, environmental and social interests, democratic participatory governance arrangements are frequently purported to be necessary to achieve ‘sustainable development’ at both local and global levels. Despite the theoretical disjuncture between ideas of democratic civic participation, on the one hand, and civic participation as a means to achieve pre-determined sustainability goals on the other, notions of civic participation for sustainability have become integral features of sustainable development discourses. Underpinned by a conceptual and methodological intent to perform an epistemological ‘break’ with notions of civic participation for sustainability, this thesis explicates how citizens are enrolled in the sustainable development agenda in the discourse of policy. More specifically, it examines how assumptions about civic participation in sustainable development policy discourses operate, and unpacks some discursive strategies through which policy language ‘enrols’ citizens in the same set of assumptions around their normative requirement for participation in sustainable development. Focussing in on a case study sustainable development policy document – a draft regional plan representing a case of ‘enrolling the citizen in sustainability’ - it employs three sociological perspectives/methods that progressively highlight some of the ways that the policy language enjoins citizens as active participants in ‘sustainable’ regional planning. As a thesis-by-publication, the application of each perspective/method is reported in the form of an article prepared for publication in an academic journal. In a departure from common-sense understandings of civic participation for sustainability, the first article examines the governmentality of sustainable development policy. Specifically, this article explores how civic community – particularly community rights and responsibilities – are deployed in the policy discourse as techniques of government that shape and regulate the conduct of subjects. In this respect, rather than seeing civic community as a specific ‘thing’ and participation as corresponding to particular types of ‘activities’, this paper demonstrates how notions of civic participation are constructed and mobilised in the language of sustainable development policy in ways that facilitate government ‘at a distance’. The second article begs another kind of question of the policy – one concerned more specifically with how the everyday practices of subjects become aligned with the principles of sustainable development. This paper, therefore, investigates the role of pedagogy in establishing governance relations in which citizens are called to participate as part of the problematic of sustainability. The analysis suggests that viewing the case study policy in terms of relationships of informal pedagogy provided insights into the positioning of the citizen as an ‘acquirer’ of sustainability principles. In this instance, the pedagogic values of the text provide for low levels of discretion in how citizens could position themselves in the moral order of the discourse. This results in a strong injunction for citizens to subscribe to sustainability principles in a participatory spirit coupled with the requirement for citizens to delegate to the experts to carry out these principles. The third article represents a further breakdown of the ways in which citizens become enrolled in ‘sustainable’ regional planning within the language of the case study policy. Applying an ethnomethodological perspective, specifically Membership Categorization Analysis, this article examines the way ‘the citizen’ and ‘civic values and obligations’ are produced in the interactional context of the text. This study shows how the generation of a substantive moral order that ties the citizen to sustainable values and obligations with respect to the region, is underpinned by a normative morality associated with the production of orderliness in ‘text-in-interaction’. As such, it demonstrates how the production and positioning of ‘the citizen’ in relation to the institutional authors of the policy, and the region more generally, are practical accomplishments that orient the reader to identify him/herself as a ‘citizen’ and embrace the ‘civic values and obligations’ to which he/she is bound. Together, the different conceptual and methodological approaches applied in the thesis provide a more holistic picture of the different ways in which citizens are discursively enrolled in the sustainability agenda. At the substantive level, each analysis reveals a different dimension of how the active citizen is mobilised as a responsible agent for sustainable development. In this respect, civic participation for sustainability is actualised and reproduced through the realms of language, not necessarily through applied occasions of civic participation in the ‘taken-for-granted’ sense. Furthermore, at the conceptual and methodological level, the thesis makes a significant contribution to sociological inquiry into relationships of governance. Rather than residing within the boundaries of a specific sociological perspective, it shows how different approaches that would traditionally be applied in a mutually exclusive manner, can complement each other to advance understanding of how governance discourses operate. In this respect, it provides a rigorous conceptual and methodological platform for further investigations into how citizens become enrolled in programmes of government.

South Africa is recognised as one of the megadiverse nations of the world. In recent years, the South African Government has prioritised human needs, without adequately safeguarding the country’s natural resources. Biodiversity is the living fabric of our planet, responsible for human health, well-being and ultimately, the preservation of the environment. It is the Government’s responsibility to ensure that processes and policy frameworks recognise the significance of biodiversity and its role in ensuring a sustainable future for the country while at the same time ensuring essential services delivery to its people. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of environmental governance on biodiversity management at the local government level in South Africa. The study was conducted in three Metropolitan Municipalities in South Africa. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire from officials of these municipalities. Variables that were assessed include capacity assessment, intergovernmental relations, budget and biodiversity management. Interviews were conducted with the Heads of the environmental departments of the municipalities. A review of the defining national and international environmental law was conducted to evaluate the transformation, challenges and successes of biodiversity mangement at the local government level in South Africa. The results of this study highlight the challenges faced by local governments in implementing biodiversity management such as capacity constraints, lack of resources and the absence of a biodiversity mandate at the local government sphere. Integrating biodiversity management at the local level will only be possible through more robust policy development, stronger cooperation and communication among the different levels of government, as well as enhanced capacity (skills) and resource provision in the municipalities. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Science)

The aim of this study was to develop an empowerment model that could be used to enhance nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development. The study explored the extent of nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development; built consensus on: essential leadership attributes and facilitators and barriers to nurse leaders participation in health policy development. A Delphi survey was applied which included the following criteria: expert panelists, iterative rounds, statistical analysis, and consensus building. The expert panelists were purposively selected and included national nurse leaders in leadership positions at the nursing professional associations, nursing regulatory bodies, ministries of health and universities in East Africa. The study was conducted in three iterative rounds. There were 78 expert panelists invited to participate in the study, the response rate was 47% for the first round, 65% for the second round and 100% for the third round. The data collection was done with the use of semi structured (first round) and structured questionnaires (second and third rounds). Data analysis for the first round was done by examining the data for the most commonly occurring categories. The second and third rounds were quantitative and descriptive statistics were used. The consensus accepted for the second round was 90%, and for the third round consensus was 70%. The findings of the study indicate that nurse leaders participate in health policy development though participation is limited and not consistent across all the stages of health policy development. The study revealed consensus on essential leadership attributes required for nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development, including transformational attributes, political skills, interpersonal and communication skills. The facilitators to nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development pertain to: knowledge and skills, involvement, image of nursing, support, structures and processes. Whereas, the barriers relate to: involvement, image of nursing, structures and processes. An empowerment model for nurse leaders participation in health policy development was developed. Implementation of the model may lead to enhance nurse leaders participation in health policy development. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)