No description available.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The main purpose of this study was to assess the psychological well-being of mothers and their pre-adolescent children (aged 10-12). Specifically, the study used a mixed methods sequential explanatory design to compare and understand the interaction between 245 single and married mother-pre adolescent relationships with regard to self esteem, autonomously-supportive and psychologically controlling parenting practices. And their familial enviironment within low and high socio-economic settings. A qualitative component was used to explore mothers' understanding of their relationships with their pre adolescent children. The Coppersmith- Self-steem Inventory and the Satisfaction with Life Scale were used to assess the psychological well-being of mothers and children, the Perceptions of Parents Scale for autonomously-supportive maternal parenting practices, Parent Psychological Control for psychologically controlling parenting practices and the environment Scale for family functioning. The findings provide an understanding of how healthy families function within enhancing and hindering environments and empasises the importance of parenting. / South Africa

This study involves establishing imperative customer relationship value antecedents and mediators within the business-to-business (B2B) railway industry of Southern Africa and determining whether these relationship value antecedents and mediators will achieve customer retention as an outcome. The goal is to create a conceptual model for the B2B railway industry of Southern Africa, which will be done through reviewing well-established theories and past literature on the topics of relationship marketing, relationship value, and retention within the B2B industry. After an examination of the existing literature, a proposed conceptual model will be developed and tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with a sample of 265 B2B supplier companies operating in the Southern African railway market. The CFA represents the measurement model of this research, which proposes the relationship value antecedents, mediators, and their influence on retention within the B2B railway industry of Southern Africa. Secondly, structural equation modelling (SEM) will be conducted, in order to test relation-ships with latent factors. The results indicate that the factors of service, supplier, relational, and financial performance are important antecedents, and that satisfaction and relationship value are significant mediators of customer retention in the B2B railway industry of Southern Africa. / Business Management / D. Admin. (Business Management)

Headache pain impacts most of the population at some point in life, at an enormous cost to day-to-day functioning. Determination of the variables that are associated with prevalence and severity of headaches has been inconsistent. One area that deserves more attention is the relationship between headaches and sleep. For instance, several sleep parameters may precipitate or exacerbate headaches, but previous research often used inconsistent and limited assessments of both headaches and sleep, making results difficult to interpret and compare. The current study seeks to extend previous research by using more comprehensive and empirically validated assessment techniques to study the relationship between sleep and headaches in a healthy sample. Greater self-reported sleep quality is related to lower headache frequency and severity, and lower self-reported sleep quality is characteristic of individuals having migraine-type headaches. Greater sleep efficiency is related to lower headache severity and shorter headache duration. Greater sleep onset latency is related to longer headache duration and greater headache severity. Greater number of nighttime awakenings is related to greater headache severity and is characteristic of individuals having a diagnosable headache disorder (either tension-type or migraine-type). Stress appeared to be a partial mediator between self-reported sleep quality and headache severity. Further experimental studies may clarify causality between sleep and headache.

Marketing channel research has relied on a variety of theoretical perspectives to understand interfirm relationship management and governance processes between a buyer and a seller, such as a supplier and a distributor. However, conclusions arising from different theoretical perspectives sometimes can be controversial. For example, both the economic approach and the sociological approach that conventionally dominate extant marketing channel research encourage firms to commit to existing relationships. Seeking new partners increases transaction costs, and therefore can harm incumbent relationship loyalty, leading to potential exchange hazards. On the other hand, however, network theory and the resource-based view suggest that exploring new relationships can help firms gain new knowledge and capabilities that contribute to superior firm performance and competitiveness. Therefore, how marketing channel firms balance the seemingly contradictory strategies - committing to the incumbent relationship (i.e. relationship exploitation strategy) while also exploring new relationships (i.e. relationship exploration strategy) is the central theme of the thesis. By focusing on the distributor firms, the thesis investigates the issue by two essays. The first essay examines how a distributor's relationship exploration strategy and relationship exploitation strategy influence its opportunism. The research provides different boundary conditions for how to manage relationship exploration strategy and relationship exploitation strategy, including two types of uncertainties (environment uncertainty and performance ambiguity), and two types of network factors (network density and network centrality). One of the interesting findings in the first essay is that while relationship exploitation reduces opportunism as predicted, relationship exploration exerts no significant main effect. This finding demonstrates that relationship exploration strategy is not the opposite of relationship exploitation strategy; rather, it is a conceptually independent construct. The nature of relationship exploration and its effect on incumbent relationship is the subject of the second essay. A theoretical framework was thereby developed to examine how a distributor's relationship exploration strategy can enhance its own dynamic capabilities, which in turn can promote the dyadic relationship quality between the distributor and its incumbent supplier. In sum, relationship exploration is not necessarily destructive. If firms are able to develop their own dynamic capabilities in forms of absorptive capacity and innovative capability, exploring new relationships can be a constructive co-development strategy beneficial for sustaining long-term continuity in the channel dyads.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2008. / Confidentiality is an essential tool in a therapeutic relationship, thus, the focus of this study was based on the views and experiences of intern psychologists and registered psychologists on the concept of confidentiality in a therapeutic relationship. The researcher selected ten participants, of which four were intern psychologists and six were registered psychologists. A qualitative research method of collecting data was used in a form of an open-ended questionare. This questionare was consitituted of two quastions which formulated vignettes of participants. A phenomenomenological approach was adopted in this study to facilitate the understanding of the information gathered. The findings from the present study indicated that confidentiality in a therapeutic relationship is a confusing stance. There was a strong view that confidentiality leaves psychologists in a dilemma especially where there is conflict of interest. This was noted to be of significance that the participants believed that the clients they serve are their first priority. It was also found in this study that the lawyer-client relationship is protected as compared to a client-psychologist relationship. This study concluded with a brief discussion on the limitations of the study and recommendations of future research.

Many banks invest heavily in customer relationship management (CRM) system implementation and expect to increase their profitability. However, the failure rates of CRM projects are significant. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies implemented by CRM managers in the banking industry to achieve CRM system effectiveness. CRM implementers from 1 medium and 2 large banks in Minnesota who successfully implemented CRM systems were selected. Data were collected primarily from participant interviews, websites, and social media pages. Bertalanffy's general systems theory was the underlying conceptual framework for this study. Data triangulation and member checking were used to ensure the quality of the data collected. The data were analyzed with Yin's 5-step data analysis technique. Five themes were identified: organizational focus, autocratic top management, technical capability, user-driven development, and the implementation team. Current and future CRM managers can apply these findings in establishing strategies to improve the effectiveness of their CRM. Successful CRM systems in banks may lead to increased profitability which enables both the banks and their customers to support social innovations such as fair trade, hospice care, and improved financial services to local small businesses.

A child 's family is the center of his world during infancy and extending into the preschool years. As a child nears school age and in succeeding years, he reaches out into the world beyond his home environment. He comes in contact with the world of other people who arc not included in his family circle. In this new world of peers, the child finds something he does not find at home. Here are other individuals like himself who have many things in common, such as age, appearance, interests , and desires. We find in this peer culture, children who can better satisfy their growing needs of self-identification and social adjustment by being in a neighborhood gang or just playing together than they can in the home environment alone. Association with peers is an important supplement to a child's associations in the home.

Relationship marketing represents a paradigm shift in marketing practice. The primary purpose of relationship marketing is to foster a mutually beneficial exchange between partners. Relationship commitment and trust serve as central constructs in relationship marketing. After the importance of relationship marketing is discussed, (1) antecedents and consequences of trust in relationship marketing are examined, (2) the multidimensionality of trust is discussed and tested, which also serves as the contribution to the literature, and (4) with respect to those dimensions of trust identified in this paper, the moderating effects of product type on the relationship are examined. Test results reveal that for utilitarian products, calculus-based trust has a greater impact on commitment than socio-normative trust; and for symbolic products, socio-normative trust has a greater impact on commitment than calculus-based trust. Managerial implications, with respect to this research, are provided.

An examination of the affinities between Baudelaire and Gautier in matters of aesthetic principle, as seen in the light of their personal relations, the social climate of their times, and their works. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)