In der wissenschaftlichen Literatur, in der betrieblichen Praxis und in der gesellschaftlichen Diskussion wird wieder zunehmend mehr die Bedeutung der Beschäftigten für den Unternehmenserfolg hervorgehoben und diskutiert. Unternehmen, die zielgerichtet geeignete Managementstrategien mit Blick auf den Umgang mit ihren Beschäftigten einsetzen, werden in bezug auf ihre ökonomische Wertschöpfung als erfolgreicher charakterisiert. Besonders im Bereich Human Resources Management lassen sich erste Belege finden, die es ermöglichen, den ökonomischen Erfolg von Unternehmen kausal auf einzelne Personalmanagementstrategien zurückzuführen. Ziel eigener Untersuchungen in der IT- und Softwarebranche war es, Unternehmenserfolg auf der Grundlage ökonomischer Erfolgsmaße und des subjektiven Erlebens der Beschäftigten in kleinen und mittleren Softwareunternehmen unter besonderer Fokussierung des Human Resources Management und der Unternehmenskultur zu untersuchen. / In scientific literature, operational practice, and societal discussion, the importance of the employees for the company success is increasingly accentuated. Organizations applying precise management strategies with focus on their employees are characterized more successful in terms of added value. Especially in Human Resource Management, research has shown that companies economical success can causally be ascribed by personnel management strategies.<br /> Aim of this study in the IT- and Software sector was the investigation of company success on the basis of economical success measures and the subjective experience of the employees in small and middle sized software companies, focusing especially on Human Resource Management.

<p>Following South Africa's independence from apartheid rule, there has been progressive developments in policies that promote equity in all spheres including the water sector. Equality in the water sector is not only limited to water access, but also management of the water. This study investigated the factors that empower women in the water sector as an example of gender equity.</p>

<p>The aim of the study is to understand the level of co-operation between emerging and commercial farmers in a Water User Associations. The effort is expected to inform policy and improve practice in the building of new water institutions as government strives to implement IWRM.</p>

<p>Diverse ways of knowing have been recognized by scholars in many disciplines to contribute creative perspectives and novel problem-solving approaches. In the environmental sciences, those dependent on natural resources and working daily with those resources are in one of the best positions to observe and learn from subtle changes in the environment. In the coastal marine and estuarine environment, these experiential knowledge holders are the fishers and their families. In North Carolina, these fishers live in historic villages and, with scientists and policymakers, serve as the downstream stakeholders in watershed management. These three stakeholder groups all have perspectives to contribute to research and management of water quality in the watershed. This dissertation starts by documenting definitions and perspectives of water quality from these three stakeholder groups, establishing the base of information from which future research and management takes place. It then specifically addresses the details of negotiating co-production of knowledge through an ethnographic account of a collaborative research project investigating water pollution. The process of information sharing was highlighted during this process by a facilitated workshop asking participants to reflect upon their collective understanding of water quality more broadly and to plan a research project resulting from a new shared, understanding. The third component of my investigation of different ways of knowing uses North Carolina's Fishery Resource Grant program, which funds collaborative research between fishers and scientists, as a case study of an institution supporting co-produced knowledge about water quality and how the structure of collaboration in funded projects affects the success of the program both scientifically and socially. Together, the three chapters tell a story about the diverse forms of knowledge regarding water quality and how they might work together to better understand the causes and effects of water quality as well as tailor solutions to fit this better understanding. Though the story is of one case, specific to water quality and the coastal communities that depend on it, the story is also one of few optimistic cases in environmental science.</p> / Dissertation

Cougar (Puma concolor) predation has been identified as being one of several factors contributing to the decline of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) throughout the Western United States. In order to better understand how these elusive felines utilize their surroundings and prey, I examined and analyzed cougar predation behavior in North-Central Utah, using global positioning systems (GPS) data from 2002-2010. Twenty-three cougars were fitted with GPS collars and monitored for prey caching behavior. In total 775 potential cache sites were visited and 546 prey remains found. Mule deer comprised the majority of prey at cougar cache sites, but 11 other species were also found. Collectively, adult female mule deer were killed more than any other demographic class. Proportionally there was no difference in the sex or age class of deer killed by cougars in three different population segments, but seasonal differences were found in the number of kills made between cougar groups. Female cougars with kittens had a higher predation rate than males or solitary females, and seasonally more kills were made in the winter vs. summer. Cougars spent an average of 3.3 days on deer kills, and 6.2 days on elk kills. Habitat analyses suggested that cougars preferentially used Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) over other land cover types when caching prey, as well as selected unburned over burned areas for caching and foraging on prey. These results suggest that cougars utilize dense stands of vegetation cover when stalking and concealing their prey. Wildlife managers may want to consider the use of prescribed burns in areas of high cougar predation on mule deer. This habitat manipulation tool could simultaneously help mule deer populations by reducing the percent of stalking cover afforded to cougars when attempting to kill prey, along with increasing nutrient levels of newly burned foliage and allow for an increased diversity in forb and shrub species available to mule deer.

This paper seeks to examine the failures of the current retirement plan structure, focusing on the structure’s reliance on unpredictable future market returns and the unwillingness of the parties involved to negotiate in order to further enhance their own self-centered interests. Currently, both defined contribution and defined benefit plans encounter a funding crisis in both the public and the private sectors. This paper will discuss how retirement plans, by nature, rely on assumptions of market returns, which naturally depend on the volatility of the market and increase the risk and uncertainty in retirement plans. In addition, since defined benefit plans mostly exist in the public sector today, this paper will examine defined benefit plans in relation to the public sector’s funding crisis and hope to shed light on the politics and tensions between the parties involved in public retirement plans that are preventing effectiveness and efficiency. Finally, this paper will also present alternative retirement plan strategies for which academics and scholars have advocated. However, at the end of the day, as opposed to relying on others to dictate one’s future benefits, which are based on the goodwill of others and uncertainty in the market, Americans should recognize their lack of savings and improve their personal financial literacy and develop individualized savings plans.

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Electromechanical Engineering

This paper discusses the effects of wind development in rural areas. Areas of focus include: direct job creation, indirect job creation, tax revenue and government policies. The effects of state and federal renewable energy policies are discussed and well as the impacts to rural economies.

This study examines whether aquaculture has the potential to reduce deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. The natural resources of the Peruvian Amazon are subject to extreme pressures due to increases in subsistence farming, cattle ranching, and logging in the region. The resulting loss of biodiversity has affected the delicate soil balance that is characteristic of the Amazon, and has contributed to water pollution as well as erosion (Guerra et al. 2001). One of the highest rates of deforestation in the Amazon basin can be found at the foothills of the eastern Andes (Lepers et al. 2005), which includes the area in this study, located in the Peruvian state of Amazonas. In this part of the Amazon, deforestation is mainly caused by small-scale subsistence agriculture (Achard et al. 1998) such as that found in the communities of Condorcanqui. Fishing is an essential part of the socio-economic system that functions in the Peruvian Amazon. Fish meat is the most important source of animal protein in the Amazon, and the main generator of cash for indigenous people (McDaniel, 1997). However, freshwater Amazonian fisheries have been subject to extreme overexploitation in the past few decades (Rainforest Conservation Fund, 1999). Boats with technological equipment and large-scale capacities have threatened stocks in local rivers and oxbow lakes, which has affected the ability of small-scale, native fisherman to support themselves (Rainforest Conservation Fund, 1999). The Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana (IIAP) has assisted the development of fish farming in the Condorcanqui region as a way to augment diets and decrease the ecological impact of subsistence farming. Fish farming can also be seen as a way to substitute for the loss of traditional river fishing. IIAP has become the leading governmental organization in fisheries research and aquaculture in the Peruvian Amazon, and works to provide native-species fingerlings, and educational courses to native aquaculturists. This study surveys the subsistence villages along road and river communities to determine the impact of fish farming on deforestation in the Condorcanqui region. This region is populated by small communities of indigenous Awajún and Wampí tribesmen, who practice subsistence agriculture. Data was collected from a sample of 184 families in ten different communities. Five of the villages were situated along the banks of the Nieva or Santiago river systems, while the other five were accessible by road, travelling southwest from the town of Santa Maria de Nieva. Data was collected with the assistance of the Research Institute of the Peruvian Amazon (IIAP), which provided a guide who had relations with all of the communities. All of the families in the sample practice subsistence agriculture, while 104 of the respondents supplement their agricultural crops with fish from aquaculture ponds integrated into their farmland. The participants answered a range of questions about the size of their farms, and the productivity of their land. We use a variety of regression-based approaches to determine how incorporating aquaculture into subsistence farmlands affects deforestation rates after controlling for socioeconomic and farm characteristics. Our study suggests that an extra square meter of aquaculture reduces the area deforested for crops on approximately a one for one basis. However, aquaculture should maintain its productivity for much longer than cropping, as it does not depend on soils whose fertility can be exhausted in a few years. Our simulations, based on our survey results, indicate that over time aquaculture should reduce deforestation significantly, especially in areas where soils provide only a few years of subsistence crops. These should be regarded as interesting but preliminary results. Because we used a convenience-based sampling approach, our results could be affected by selection bias. In addition, we do not have enough information to test whether selection bias in the implementation of fish farming affect our results. Therefore, these results suggest that aquaculture could be useful in limiting deforestation, but additional work should use experimental methods or more in-depth surveys to measure the effect of aquaculture on deforestation.

The study examines the adherence to principled leadership styles by persons in position of authority and develops a method to determine the extent to which those people deviate from principled leadership practices for purpose of political expediency. Two fortune 500 companies, three smaller local companies and select Western Kentucky University faculty were surveyed using the MACH V Attitude Inventory for determining Machiavellian tendencies via an online survey site. An examination and evaluation of survey results yielded a surpirsingly consistent neutral score, but no indication of Machiavellian tendencies within the respondent group.