In 2015, 0.2% of African American women were in chief executive officer (CEO) roles and 1.2% were in executive or senior-level roles within a 500 Standard & Poor's (S&P) organization. African American women's lived experiences are underutilized by organizational and human resources (HR) leaders in the development and implementation of recruitment, talent development, diversity and inclusion, and succession planning strategies. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand lived experiences regarding career advancement decision-making strategies for senior-level African American women. The conceptual framework used was social cognitive career theory (SCCT), which addresses the 'what' and 'how' of career development and behaviors across one's life span. The central research questions were about participants' decisions-making strategies used to attain senior-level management positions and how the facets of SCCT impacted their decision-making processes. Snowball sampling was the purposeful strategy used for recruiting 12 African American women who serve/served in a senior-level position within an organization. The data collections sources included interviews and field notes. By deductive and inductive coding, the main themes uncovered were leadership, family, education, authenticity, and faith. The results of this study may benefit organizational and HR leaders as they consider improvement opportunities for their recruitment, talent management, diversity and inclusion policies and programs, and succession planning strategies, inclusive of internal and college recruitment, involvement in community youth initiatives, and strategic alignment of high-level, internal organizational stakeholders.

xiii, 94 p. / The purpose of this study was to explore theoretically linked social cognitive factors that may predict career development outcomes for college women with learning disabilities (N = 136). Following Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), I hypothesized that specific person inputs and background and contextual variables would be predictive of career decision self-efficacy and career outcome expectations. The specific model tested was whether the person input of GPA and contextual inputs of parent education level, perceived barriers, and perceived supports predicted career decision self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectations and whether these relationships were mediated by career education and exploration. These relationships represent early-occurring constructs within SCCT. I used Path Analysis to determine whether the experiences of college women with learning disabilities fit these early-occurring constructs within SCCT. Results demonstrated that the early-occurring constructs of the SCCT model did not fit for this population. I conducted revised and exploratory post hoc models to achieve a better fit for the data. In the revised and exploratory models, one potentially important finding was that real world work experiences, such as paid work, volunteer work, and internship experience, may be of particular importance for the formation of career decision self-efficacy and career outcome expectations for college women with learning disabilities. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. / Committee in charge: Dr. Benedict T. McWhirter, Chair; Dr. Ellen H. McWhirter, Member; Dr. Lauren Lindstrom, Member; Dr. Douglas Blandy, Outside Member

The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of whether or not, and how teachers in a resource-constrained rural school sustain their motivation in and commitment to teaching over a life-span. The Social Cognitive Career Theory was chosen as theoretical framework because it recognises the importance that factors in the environment play when the career paths of individuals unfold. A conceptual framework for ‘teacher career resilience’ was developed by merging current thinking on resilience, teacher resilience and career resilience. The life-history design was framed methodologically as biographical research with participatory principles. Teacher participants (n=5, 3=female and 2=male) were selected according to purposive sampling. Data were generated through participatory interview-conversations, which were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, as well as memory books, joint photograph-taking and field notes in a researcher diary. Five themes emerged from the guided phenomenological analysis process (Hycner, 1985) and narrative comparison. First, this study exposes illiteracy of learners’ parents, demotivated learners, and a negative national teacher fraternity as sources of adversity not previously noted as significant for teachers in rural settings. Second, rural teachers in this study drew strength from their own life experiences of adversity (being from rural areas themselves); and they relied on their own agency in problem solving. Third, in addition participating rural teachers make use of encouraging memories of their own teachers from childhood and partake in informal professional development activities such as collaborative peer discussions rather than mentoring to grow professionally. Fourth, participating teachers in rural resource-constrained South Africa thus use similar internal protective resources (problem solving, strategizing, cognitive restructuring and emotional regulation) in their adaptive coping repertoire to those of other teachers globally. Fifth, teachers did not enter the teaching profession in the same way as has been documented elsewhere; but entered the teaching profession as a result of socio-political and financial influences, chance happenings and the influence of significant teachers in their past. Teachers seem to balance their use of protective resources between internal and external resources in their current practice. Over time, however they draw more on internal protective resources. Teachers conceptualised their teacher career resilience on a continuum: persevering through adversity, both as young children, and as growing professionals. They use their self-efficacy beliefs, embedded in an adversity drenched past, to manage, overcome and cope despite current chronic adversity. Teachers’ overt behavior in adaptive coping processes was dependent on the interrelatedness between their attributes (especially internal protective resources), the environment (chronic adversity) and the continuous loop of influence (appraisal) between these three factors. Teachers became skilled in resilience processes because of the chronic adversity they face. Teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about their adaptive coping extended beyond what they themselves can achieve to what their efforts in teaching may mean to model hope to learners, as their teachers modelled to them, fostering a certain altruistic career anchor. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

COVID-19 has taken a major toll on the tourism industry. Traveler confidence has decreased as travel restrictions and fears regarding the virus have increased. As tourist destinations rely more on local tourism to survive the current crisis, communicating COVID-19 procedures is vital to mitigate tourist ́s safety concerns. Therefore, the objective of this study was to use content analysis to identify COVID-19 policy initiatives highlighted within tourism company websites and to compare regions to identify differences in website communication content. The study analyzed 100 various tourism company websites throughout Sweden. The findings and the supporting literature indicating that the websites should have information available about booking policy, operation limitations, social distance policy, and customer/staff responsibility to properly communicate their COVID-19 policies. Overall, the tourism company websites in this study were lacking in the communication of COVID-19 policies. To ameliorate communication of COVID-19 procedures, this study offers recommendations for tourism firms to incorporate.

In early January 2018, the clothing company H&M released a new collection for children. One of the sweaters in the collection was printed with the text "Coolest monkey in the jungle". The shirt was worn by a dark-skinned child and H&M was accused of racism. This is because the word "monkey" has historically been used as a racist slur to downgrade dark-skinned people. Throughout the scandal H&M has published an official press release, as well as a number of posts on social media, each of which affects the scandal. The purpose of the study is to analyze H&Ms crisis communication with regard to the strategies they used during the shirt scandal. The main question of the study is how did H&M's crisis communication express itself in text during the shirt scandal. The theories used in the study are William Benoit's image repair theory (2014) and Timothy Coombs Situational crisis communication theory (2007), abbreviated SCCT. The methods used are a qualitative content analysis, text analysis and a rhetorical analysis. The qualitative content analysis is based on the chosen theories, so that the survey can extract the underlying message that H&M wants to convey. While the text analysis processes the text itself and how the company wants the reader to perceive the message and how H&M’s texts interact with each other. The rhetorical analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of the text's underlying message and structure with the actual text as a starting point. The rhetorical analysis is done by analysing the text’s structure with the rhetoric disposition scheme as a starting point. H&M’s crisis communication is in this case related to what is proposed in the strategic theories of crisis communication. The main crisis communication strategies used by H&M were admitting responsibility, asking for forgiveness and corrective actions. The rhetoric analysis has shown that the press release and posts on social media have different functions. The press release make greater importance to the structure of the disposition scheme, while the social media posts rather contain certain parts, for example, a greater focus on pathos and the preparatory of counter arguments while communicating to individuals rather than the public.

本論文旨在探討台北犁記餅店在2014年中秋節前夕爆發的餿水油事件中的危機溝通策略，並檢視其危機溝通成效。為探討危機溝通中傳統媒體與新媒體的角色區別，本論文檢視了四大報在餿水油事件中對於台北犁記餅店的線上報導、台北犁記的官方網站與相關官方文件，以及台北犁記的臉書粉絲團。研究結果發現傳統報章媒體已和新媒體高度整合匯流，因此危機事件的傳播速度比起以往更加快速、傳播範圍也更加廣泛。這樣的現象使得公關人員在面對危機事件時，必須更精準地掌握時間做出適當的危機溝通策略，並更加善用社群媒體以和關係人溝通。本論文特別研究台灣中小型本土企業在數位時代中面對危機的溝通策略與成效，提供有別於針對跨國或大型連鎖企業的分析與建議。 / This present case study of Taiwan gutter oil crisis focused on the well-known pastry bakery, Taipei Lee-Chi. This century-old bakery was involved in the food safety crisis during Moon Festival in 2014, resulting in a financial loss of more than NTD 40 million at that time. To explore how traditional and new media play roles in crisis communication for local businesses in Taiwan, the present case study examined relevant news coverage, official documents, and communication activities on social media. More specifically, the analysis included media’s attitude toward the issue shown on major newspaper websites, the responses of Taipei Lee-Chi, and public opinions revealed on its Facebook fan page. The findings suggested that traditional media have converged with new media, and the latter assumes such a powerful influence in crisis communication today. It was found that similar crisis information fast transits from one medium to another, adding more pressure to public relations practitioners to respond to crisis in a timely manner. Social media in particular may not be overlooked and could serve a useful tool in managing corporate crisis. The current study also offered new insights on how local businesses may deal with crisis in the digital age, as most previous crisis studies addressed cases of large national or global corporations.

[ES] Paradigma: Entre el post-positivismo, cuyos hallazgos son probabilidades cuantitativas extraídos de las opiniones del alumnado, y el constructivismo, la realidad cualitativa se construye por interacción social, según las entrevistas en profundidad con el profesorado. Investigación mixta: Según los análisis de datos CUAL y CUAN, sus resultados y conclusiones. Posicionamiento: Ontológico, el investigador conoce la realidad de lo que pretende investigar, sobre una muestra de 17 IES públicos (provincia València), cuya reflexión sobre la E-A de la Tecnología, y los constructos que conforman la identidad STEM. Epistemológico, el investigador participa con conocimiento del hecho a investigar. Metodológico, el contraste de hipótesis y el refinamiento hermenéutico de los análisis CUAL y CUAN. La Teoría Fundamentada es la base del planteamiento CUAL, a través de entrevistas en profundidad y codificación abierta, axial y selectiva, de los temas a investigar: 1. Organización escolar y curricular; 2. Metodología PBL y sinergias STEM; 3. Multidisciplinariedad e interdisciplinariedad STEM; 4. Taxonomía de proyectos. Los datos cualitativos y sus resultados son tratados con Atlas.ti. La Teoría de Aprendizaje Cognitivo Social (SCT), y Teoría Cognitivo Social de Desarrollo de la Carrera (SCCT), son el planteamiento CUAN. El registro de datos CUAN, es a través del diseño de un cuestionario. El grupo "Juicio de expertos" validó estructura y contenido. Los datos y resultados CUAN, son tratados por estadística descriptiva e inferencial. La modelización de los aprendizajes, son tratados por ecuaciones estructurales (SEM). Objetivos: 1. Valorar la metodología por proyectos en un contexto de constantes cambios del currículo y de aprendizaje virtual. 2. Contrastar si el aprendizaje por competencias mejora la adquisición de conocimientos, habilidades y actitudes en un contexto de aprendizaje interdisciplinar. 3. Modelizar los aprendizajes SCT, SCCT, Multidisciplinar, Interdisciplinar y por Proyectos, mediante SEM. Obtención de datos: CUAL (grupos focales profesorado oct. 2019 - feb. 2020; expertos oct. 2019 - abril 2022). Participación 133 docentes (74H, 59M). Todas las sesiones fueron grabadas (audio 70 h). La transcripción audio-texto con AmberScript. CUAN (cuestionarios feb. 2020 - dic. 2020). Participación 1417 alumnos (537 chicas, 831 chicos, 49 errores). El diseño del cuestionario online con Question-Pro. La COVID'19 paralizó el proceso de obtención de datos desde marzo a nov. 2020. Capítulos: I: Introducción. II: Revisión del estado del arte. III: Marco teórico. IV: Metodología de la investigación. V: Análisis cualitativo. VI: Análisis cuantitativo. VII: Conclusiones generales. VIII: Referencias y Anexos. Conclusiones: 1. Currículo denso, rígido y fragmentado no favorece la adquisición de competencias. 2. Formación docente ágil, continua y arraigada a las necesidades. 3. Transición entre niveles educativos, predice la adquisición de competencias del alumnado y la satisfacción docente. 4. Continuidad de estudios no depende del género. No existen diferencias entre chicas y chicos por lo que aprenden, sino por la preferencia de estudios, metodologías aplicadas, expectativas de resultado, y distancia del IES a la metrópoli. 5. Sinergias son posibles, pero la organización de la jornada escolar dificulta compartir experiencias, innovar y divulgar conocimiento. 6. Aprendizaje por proyectos es eficiente y motivador, se aprende haciendo, experimentando soluciones a problemas reales. 7. Aprender buenas prácticas educativas, facilita la multidisciplinar. 8. Uso extensivo del aprendizaje virtual, entretiene más que crear contenido, y se pierde el saber hacer manual. 9. Satisfacción de los aprendizajes disminuye si no se sabe aplicarlos. 10. Dificultades de la interdisciplinariedad STEM, se superan después de un proceso multidisciplinariedad y no al revés. / [CA] Paradigma: Entre el postpositivisme, les troballes del qual són probabilitats quantitatives extrets de les opinions de l'alumnat, i el constructivisme, la realitat qualitativa es construeix per interacció social, segons les entrevistes en profunditat amb el professorat. Investigació mixta: Segons les anàlisis de dades QUAL i CUAN, els resultats i les conclusions. Posicionament: Ontològic, l'investigador coneix la realitat del que pretén investigar, sobre una mostra de 17 IES públics (província València), la reflexió dels quals sobre l'E-A de la Tecnologia, i els constructes que conformen la identitat STEM. Epistemològic, l'investigador participa amb coneixement del fet a investigar. Metodològic, el contrast d'hipòtesis i el refinament hermenèutic de les anàlisis QUAL i QUAN. La Teoria Fonamentada és la base del plantejament QUAL, mitjançant entrevistes en profunditat i codificació oberta, axial i selectiva, dels temes a investigar: 1. Organització escolar i curricular; 2. Metodologia PBL i sinergies STEM; 3. Multidisciplinarietat i interdisciplinarietat STEM; 4. Taxonomia de projectes. Les dades qualitatives i els seus resultats són tractats amb Atlas.ti. La Teoria d'Aprenentatge Cognitiu Social (SCT) i Teoria Cognitiu Social de Desenvolupament de la Carrera (SCCT) són el plantejament CUAN. El registre de dades CUAN és a través del disseny d'un qüestionari. El grup Judici d'experts va validar estructura i contingut. Les dades i resultats CUAN són tractats per estadística descriptiva i inferencial. La modelització dels aprenentatges són tractats per equacions estructurals (SEM). Objectius: 1. Valorar la metodologia per projectes en un context de canvis constants del currículum i d'aprenentatge virtual. 2. Contrastar si laprenentatge per competències millora ladquisició de coneixements, habilitats i actituds en un context daprenentatge interdisciplinari. 3. Modelitzar els aprenentatges SCT, SCCT, Multidisciplinar, Interdisciplinar i per Projectes, mitjançant SEM. Obtenció de dades: QUAL (grups focals professorat oct. 2019 - feb. 2020; experts oct. 2019 - abril 2022). Participació 133 docents (74H, 59M). Totes les sessions van ser gravades (àudio 70 h). La transcripció àudio-text amb AmberScript. QUAN (qüestionaris feb. 2020 - des. 2020). Participació 1417 alumnes (537 xiques, 831 xics, 49 errors). El disseny del qüestionari en línia amb Question-Pro. La COVID'19 va paralitzar el procés d'obtenció de dades des del març al nov. 2020. Capítols: I: Introducció. II: revisió de l'estat de l'art. III: Marc teòric. IV: Metodologia de la investigació. V: Anàlisi qualitativa. VI: Anàlisi quantitativa. VII: Conclusions generals. VIII: Referències i Annexos. Conclusions: 1. Currículum dens, rígid i fragmentat no afavoreix l'adquisició de competències. 2. Formació docent àgil, contínua i arrelada a les necessitats. 3. Transició entre nivells educatius, prediu l'adquisició de competències de l'alumnat i la satisfacció docent. 4. Continuïtat dels estudis no depèn del gènere. No hi ha diferències entre noies i nois pel que aprenen, sinó per la preferència d'estudis, metodologies aplicades, expectatives de resultat i distància de l'IES a la metròpoli. 5. Les sinèrgies són possibles, però l'organització de la jornada escolar dificulta compartir experiències, innovar i divulgar coneixement. 6. Aprenentatge per projectes és eficient i motivador, s'aprèn fent experimentant solucions a problemes reals. 7. Aprendre bones pràctiques educatives facilita la multidisciplinar. 8. Ús extensiu de l'aprenentatge virtual, entreté més que crear contingut, i es perd saber fer manual. 9. Satisfacció dels aprenentatges disminueix si no se sap aplicar-los. 10. Dificultats de la interdisciplinarietat STEM, se superen després d"un procés multidisciplinarietat i no al revés. / [EN] Paradigm: Between post-positivism, whose findings are quantitative probabilities extracted from the opinions of the students, and constructivism, qualitative reality is built by social interaction, according to in-depth interviews with teachers. Mixed research: According to the QUAL and QUAN data analyses, their results and conclusions. Positioning: Ontological, the researcher knows the reality of what he intends to investigate, on a sample of 17 public IES (Valencia province), whose reflection on the E-A of Technology, and the constructs that make up the STEM identity. Epistemological, the researcher participates with knowledge of the fact to be investigated. Methodology, the contrast of hypotheses and the hermeneutic refinement of the QUAL and QUAN analyses. The Grounded Theory is the basis of the QUAL approach, through in-depth interviews and open, axial and selective coding, of the topics to be investigated: 1. School and curricular organization; 2. PBL methodology and STEM synergies; 3. STEM multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity; 4. Taxonomy of projects. The qualitative data and its results are processed with Atlas.ti. Social Cognitive Learning Theory (SCT), and Social Cognitive Theory of Career Development (SCCT), are the QUAN approach. The CUAN data record is through the design of a questionnaire. The "Expert Judgment" group validated structure and content. The QUAN data and results are treated by descriptive and inferential statistics. The modeling of learning is treated by structural equations (SEM). Goals: 1. Evaluate the methodology by projects in a context of constant changes in the curriculum and virtual learning. 2. Test whether competency-based learning improves the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes in an interdisciplinary learning context. 3. Model SCT, SCCT, Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary and Project learning, through SEM. Data collection: QUAL (teacher focus groups Oct. 2019 - Feb. 2020; experts Oct. 2019 - April 2022). Participation 133 teachers (74H, 59M). All sessions were recorded (audio 70 h). Audio-text transcription with AmberScript. QUAN (questionnaires Feb. 2020 - Dec. 2020). Participation 1417 students (537 girls, 831 boys, 49 errors). The design of the online questionnaire with Question-Pro. COVID'19 paralyzed the data collection process from March to Nov. 2020. Chapters: I. Introduction. II: Review of the state of the art. III: Theoretical framework. IV: Research methodology. V: Qualitative analysis. VI: Quantitative analysis. VII: General conclusions. VIII: References and Annexes. Conclusions: 1. Dense, rigid and fragmented curriculum does not favor the acquisition of skills. 2. Agile, continuous teacher training rooted in needs. 3. Transition between educational levels, predicts the acquisition of student skills and teacher satisfaction. 4. Continuity of studies does not depend on gender. There are no differences between girls and boys because of what they learn, but because of the preference of studies, applied methodologies, expectations of results, and distance from the IES to the metropolis. 5. Synergies are possible, but the organization of the school day makes it difficult to share experiences, innovate and disseminate knowledge. 6. Project-based learning is efficient and motivating, you learn by doing, experimenting with solutions to real problems. 7. Learning good educational practices facilitates multidisciplinary. 8. Extensive use of virtual learning, it entertains more than creating content, and manual know-how is lost. 9. Satisfaction of the learning decreases if one does not know how to apply it. 10. Difficulties of STEM interdisciplinarity are overcome after a multidisciplinary process and not the other way around. / Torres Barchino, E. (2023). Análisis y propuesta de mejora de la enseñanza de las tecnologías en la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato: un enfoque desde el aprendizaje basado en proyectos (PBL) y la interdisciplinariedad de áreas STEM [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/199198