Context. Network Function Virtualization was recently proposed by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to improve the network service flexibility by virtualization of network services and applications that run on hardware. To virtualize network functions, the software is decoupled from underlying physical hardware. NFV aims to transform industries by reducing capital investments on hardware by using commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. NFV makes rapid innovative growth in telecom services through software based service deployment. Objectives. This thesis work aims to investigate how business organizations function and the roles in defining a service relationship model. The work also aims to define a service relationship model and to validate it via proof of concept using network function virtualization as a service. For this thesis, we finally apply lean principles for the defined service relationship model to reduce waste and investigate how lean benefits the model to be proven as performance service oriented. Methods. The essence of this work is to make a business organization lean by investigating its actions and applying lean principles. To elaborate, this thesis work involves in a research of papers from IEEE, TMF, IETF and Ericsson. It results in modelling of a PoC by following requirement analysis methodology and by applying lean principles to eliminate unnecessary processes which doesn’t add any value. Results. The results of the work include a full-fledged service relationship model that include three service levels with roles that can fit in to requirement specifications of NFV infrastructure. The results also show the service levels functionalities and their relationships between the roles. It has also been observed that the services that are needed to be standardized are defined with syntax for ways to describe network functions. It is observed that lean principles benefit the service relationship model from reducing waste factors and hereby providing a PoC which is performance service oriented. Conclusions. We conclude that roles defined are fit for the service relationship model designed. Moreover, we conclude that the model can hence contain the flow of service by standardizing the subservices and reducing waste interpreted with lean principles and there is a need for further use case proof of the model in full scale industry trials. It also concludes the ways to describe network functions syntax which follows lean principles that are essential to have them for the sub-services standardization. However, PoC defined can be an assurance to the NFV infrastructure.

Delegation research has traditionally focused on delegation as a whole—how much or how little a leader or supervisor is willing to allocate tasks to their subordinates. Although past research has indicated the importance of delegation for team performance, it has often overlooked one of the main aspects touted by practitioners, choosing the right person for the job. In an effort to provide a more nuanced view of delegation and if the right person is being chosen for the job, this dissertation integrates the theory of work design with delegation while introducing the concept of matched delegation: delegating a task to the individual whose abilities most closely match the demands of the task where individuals receive decision-making authority for tasks that neither exceeds nor discounts their abilities, but rather most closely matches the extent of their abilities. With this, I propose a model whereby two work characteristics (i.e., physical propinquity and psychological safety) influence matched delegation decisions of team leaders and where matched delegation positively impacts team performance. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 519 primary care professionals (PCPs) and their surrounding team members (i.e., a registered nurse, a licensed practical nurse, and an administrative associate) from patient centered medical homes from the Veteran’s Health Administration (VHA). Results showed that neither physical propinquity nor PCP psychological safety significantly influenced matched delegation of tasks to any of the three team members; however, team performance was significantly enhanced by matched delegation to some roles. Although these results provide some indication as to the importance of matched delegation, the mixed results might be due to the unwillingness of PCPs to give up control of tasks. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications, as well as the limitations and directions for future research within the VHA as well as for research studying delegators’ decisions and team processes and performance.

Abstract   The main purpose off this essay is to understand what different ways women and men use to communicate and make themselves acknowledged by their co-workers.  This is done by interviews with people at an ordinary office and trough observations at the workplace. A qualitative method was entrenched and seven respondents, four women and three men, age 43-55 was interviewed.   The theoretical frame contains theories from Goffman’s dramaturgic perspective such as roles, facade etc.  The theories concerning gender come from Hirdman’s different analyses on how the relations between men and women take form.   The data collected shows that men and women use their body language, voice and accessories in different ways to make themselves acknowledge at the office. The study also shows that both sexes have very specific ideas about how it’s proper to dress and act at work for the other sex. Discussions about gender showed that both men and women are fairly suspicious when it comes to issues like allocating according to sex.   Key words: gender, roles, interaction

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / In this study an attempt has been made to test hypotheses based on personality theory regarding the relationship between identification with a parent in the nuclear family and its effect on subsequent occupational choice. In addition, the relationship of recalled parent-child climate to identification and occupational choice was also investigated. Typically, in our culture, we find children identifying to a greater degree with the same-sex parent. In addition, we find certain occupations in our culture which are typed as being characteristically more masculine or feminine. Yet each contains members of both sexes, albeit in different proportions. It was, therefore, considered valuable to measure parental identification of both these sexes in the same occupational categories to determine the role parental identification, either same-sex or cross-sex, plays in the occupational choice process. Using the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values, we compared the value systems of 96 carefully screened college students, both male and female, with those of both of their parents. The students were further divided equally into four sex-occupation categories according to college major: males in engineering (MM), females in engineering (FM), males in elementary education (MF), and females in elementary education (FF). The differences in value scores between subjects and each parent, the measure of derived identification, were statistically analyzed to test predictions derived from the first hypothesis. Hypothesis 1: Occupations are chosen which represent the sex-type of the parent with whom there is greater identification in the nuclear family. [TRUNCATED]

The present investigation studied the effect of the sex typed labelling of tasks on children's performance. The children were selected from the 1st, 3rd and 6th forms. To investigate whether the sex appropriate labelling of the task had a direct influence on performance, the same measure of performance - a perceptual motor task - was used across all conditions. The task was labelled either as Needlework (female appropriate) or Electronics (male appropriate). Two main dimensions were investigated. Firstly, the effect of direct labelling of a task as sex appropriate or inappropriate. Secondly, the effect of the instruction to role enact a person competent at the task. In the second study, the role enactment procedure required the children to enact a same age peer whose sex was congruent with the sex typing.of the task. Results of both studies indicated that children perform better at tasks labelled as sex appropriate compared to sex inappropriate. Under the role enactment conditions in both studies, children performed at a higher level than under conventional testing procedures. However, whilst in the role enactment procedure there was no difference in the performance of girls between sex appropriate and sex inappropriate labelled tasks, boys perform better at sex appropriate tasks in both studies. Two measures of sex role stereotyping were used in the investigation. The Rosenkrantz, et al (1968) sex role questionnaire established that the sex role stereotyping of the sixth form sample was similar to a British adult sample. A measure of sex role stereotyping (S. Measure), was developed on a comparable sample of children to the sample selected in the present study. Although the direct relationship between sex role stereotyping and task performance was not established, results suggested the more rigid sex role stereotyping of boys. The third study examined further the effects of sex role enactment on children's performance at tasks. Children were selected from the 3rd and 6th forms. Two tasks were employed, differing on the dimensions of convergence-divergence and sex typing. The tasks were a mechanical reasoning test (D.A.T., 1973) and the Uses of Objects test (Hudson, 1968). Results indicated that under the conventional administrative procedures, boys scored better than girls on the mechanical reasoning test, whereas girls scored better than boys on the Uses of Objects Test. However, the effect of opposite sex role enactment differ- , ed for the 3rd and 6th formers. At the 3rd form level, boys , and girls scores reflected differences in performance according to sex typed dimensions. However, at the sixth form level, girls exhibited a slight but non-significant increase in mechanical reasoning scores and decrease in Uses of Objects scores, while boys'scores significantly decreased on both tasks. The results are interpreted in terms of the increased salience of sex-appropriateness of tasks at adolescence. Further, the results of the measure of sex role stereotyping, B.S.R.I (Bern, 1974) from which,due to sample size,only limited conclusions may be drawn, confirm the results derived from the S Measures of sex role'stereotyping of the stricter adherence of boys to the masculine stereotype

Various authors from countries as diverse as South Africa, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States of America, reported the existence of constraints in corporate communication practitioner career advancement (Moss, 2000:1,6; Moss, Warnaby&Newman, 2000:277,302; Plowman, 1998:243; Spicer, 1997:84; Steyn, 1999:21; Steyn, 2000a:2; Steyn, 2000b:70; Steyn&Puth, 2000:3,7,10,12; Van Ruler, 1997:263; Visagie, 1999:148). Their findings have prompted this exploratory phenomenological research. The primary objective of this research is to explore some corporate communication practitioners’ perceptions of the constraints experienced in advancing to more senior corporate communication roles in the South African banking industry. The research is approached from the excellence and feminist meta-theoretical perspectives. In particular it is based on the strategic contingency theory, organisational structure theory, power-control theory, interpersonal perception theory and corporate communication roles theory. The study focuses on two concepts, namely ‘constraints’ and ‘role’. The research reflected a snapshot in time of the current communication practitioner’s emotional, relational or situational experience of their efforts to advance their careers. The aim was not to support or validate any pre-selected model or theory, but rather to embrace the constraint in a non-assumptive manner as it unfolds from the perspective of the communication practitioner experiencing it (Callahan, 2000:105; Scannell-Desch, 2000). From the findings of the research, one could argue that there are various individual, organisational and professional career constraints that practitioners experience in trying to advance their careers. Over and above the constraints noted in literature, the study identified a few more constraints such as organisational politics, the time spent in the organisation, the practitioner’s lack of networking and relationship building skills, lack of knowledge of overseas practice and the lack of standardisation of communication practitioner deliverables. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Communication Management / MCom / Unrestricted

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Research on the roles of women in the past commonly focuses on either the demure or the radical. This study of female entrepreneurs shows an area in which women occupied a more central position in their communities. Female entrepreneurs were able to possess a certain degree of independence without being viewed, or viewing themselves, as rebellious. This thesis focuses exclusively on the women who owned businesses on a two-block length of one street, South Meridian, in Indianapolis, over a forty-year period. Even with this limited focus, there is substantial variation in the motivations of the women. Some entered in to business with the support of their wealthy families, while others were obligated to work to support their families. The stories of these women can be revealed through their presence in official documents, city directories, and newspapers of the time. In addition to the individual stories of female entrepreneurs, these sources provide information about who the businesswomen of the time were as a group. The majority were born in the United States and among that group most were born in the state of Indiana. The most common businesses owned by women were millinery shops, dress shops, and boarding houses. Other demographic characteristics, such as age, marital status, and time in business, do not form a pattern across the group. These sources also show how women compared to men who were in business in the same location over the same period. Most of the female entrepreneurs of the South Side of Indianapolis around the turn of the century worked in fields that could fit under the heading of “women’s work,” but this categorization ignores the intricacies of their positions as business people. These women were not solely providing a service or producing a good, similar to what they would be expected to do in the home as wives, mothers, or daughters. They were also responsible for the other aspects of business ownership, including finding and maintaining premises, purchasing products and materials, and managing finances. It is these details that, for example, set apart the owner of a dress shop from a woman making clothes for her family.

Bullying is a persistent and common problem in schools nationwide. The experience of bullying can affect the social, psychological, academic, and emotional development of children. Youth can be involved in bullying in various ways, including as a victim, perpetrator, witness, or bystander. Upstanders play a significant role in the prevention of bullying, and the presence of upstanders in the student body is related to positive school climate. Minimal research on upstander behavior currently exists in the literature. The purpose of this study was to evaluate specific predictors of witness roles utilizing demographic and other variables. The data from 3438 student surveys analyzed in the present study were collected from a prior study on school climate across 35 schools in Southern Illinois. Results indicated that gender, grade, and minority status were predictors of upstander behavior. However, no demographic variables predicted either bystander or reinforcer behaviors As expected, indirect upstander behaviors occurring after an incident were reported less frequently than behaviors occurring directly with the victim, or in the moment. Upstander behaviors occurring in the moment were significantly and positively correlated with other upstander behaviors, and negatively correlated with perpetrator behaviors, whereas reinforcer behaviors were significantly and positively correlated. The results of this study and implications for future interventions are discussed.

The Jamaican don is a non-state actor who wields considerable power and control inside that nation's garrison communities. A don is a male figure, usually from the community in which he plays a leadership role. Garrisons in Jamaica have often emerged as neighborhoods that are don-ruled shadow versions of the official State. These are poor inner city communities characterized by homogeneous and, in some cases, over-voting patterns for one of Jamaica's two major political parties: the Peoples National Party (PNP) or the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP). This dissertation explores the major roles dons played in Jamaican garrisons. It focused on one community in the downtown metro area of one of the nation's cities. Additionally, it investigated the factors that account for the evolution of such roles performed by dons from the 1960s to the present. I used governance theories and the concept of embeddedness as an analytic framework to interpret the power and authority dons have in garrisons. Dons, as it turned out, perform four central roles in garrisons: security/protection, social welfare, partisan mobilization and law, order and conflict resolution via "jungle justice" measures. Different types of dons perform alternate mixes of these roles. The case study described here led me to develop a taxonomy of these informal community leaders by separating them into Mega, Area and Street Dons. I argue overall that dons are embedded governing authorities in Jamaican garrisons based on the socio-economic and political roles they carry out. By examining the responsibilities of dons in Jamaica, this analysis contributes to the literature on the activities of non-state criminal actors and their forms of influence on governance processes. The study suggests that it may now be appropriate to re-think the nature of governance and the actors we broadly assume are legitimate holders of power and authority in developing nation contexts. / Ph. D.