Introduction: The potential benefits of collaborative goal setting in the clinical setting have been shown. However, we have a limited understanding about what needs to have transpired between a patient and his or her clinician for them to report that they engaged in collaborative goal setting. Therefore, our ability to monitor and foster collaborative goal setting remains limited. Methods: My three-manuscript dissertation used a mixed-methods approach utilizing both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The aims of my study were to: (1) develop a conceptual model of collaborative goal setting as perceived by patients; (2) generate a list of survey items for possible inclusion in a measure of collaborative goal setting, using results from patient focus groups and input from an expert panel; and (3) administer the collaborative goal setting measure to a sociodemographically diverse sample of patients with diabetes and test the psychometric properties of the measure. Results: Study 1 found that patients described collaborative goal setting as containing four distinct domains that occurred within the context of a caring relationship with their health care provider: (1) listen and learn from each other; (2) share ideas honestly; (3) agree on a measurable objective; and (4) support for goal achievement. Patients also articulated clear responsibilities for themselves and their clinicians within each domain and described collaborative goal setting as a process that occurs over time. Study 2 found that the second-order factor analysis supported the proposed measurement structure of a 37-item measure of patient-perceived collaborative goal setting. Overall model fit of the first-order model was good (χ = 4366.13, p<.001; RMSEA = .08). The internal consistency of the second-order model scales [caring relationship, listen and learn, share ideas, agree on a measurable objective, and support for goal achievement] were very high (α = .89-.94) as was the reliability (Mcdonald’s Ώ = .819). Study 3 found that the only significant pathway was the relationship between collaborative goal setting and self-management, which was partially mediated by self-efficacy (p<.05). After controlling for a variety of socio-demographic characteristics, the partial mediation model with self-efficacy was no longer significant (p=.055), however, the direct effects remained significant: self-management and collaborative goal setting (p<.001) and self-efficacy (p<.001), as well as self-efficacy on collaborative goal setting (p<.05). Discussion: Findings from these three studies support the new measure of collaborative goal setting developed from patient perceptions of this process.

La littérature relative à la santé et sécurité au travail a mis en évidence l'importance des perceptions de sécurité comme déterminant de la santé et sécurité au travail et des comportements de sécurité (Barlin et Frone, 2004). Peu d'études, cependant, ont étudié le rôle du climat de sécurité (Neal et Griffin, 2004) dans le processus de l'épuisement professionnel. Cette recherche propose un modèle original qui vise à déterminer l'impact du climat de sécurité en tant que antécédent de l'épuisement professionnel de santé. Aussi nous avons intégré les « safety workarounds (Halbesleben, Wakefield & Wakefield, 2008) afin de montrer leur effet médiateur dans la relation climat de sécurité / burnout. Les résultats issus de notre enquête empirique confirment nos hypothèses. / The literature has highlighted the importance of individual perceptions of organizational safety rules and policies in their motivation to comply (Barlin & Frone, 2004). Yet, few studies, however, have investigated the role of safety climate (Neal & Griffin, 2004) on the burnout process. This research proposes an original model that seeks to determine the impact of safety climate as an antecedent independent variable to burnout. The practice of workarounds (Halbesleben, Wakefield & Wakefield, 2008) is incorporated in the model. Workarounds has been shown to be related to occupational safety issues and psychological health. The sample consisted in 281 health professional working in operating rooms. This research validates two important hypotheses. First, it highlights the impact of safety climate on burnout. As such, this finding adds to the literature by enriching the taxonomy of burnout antecedents. Second, it shows that workarounds plays a role in mediating the impact of safety climate on burnout. The relation of workarounds to burnout is complex. Its mediating role should not be limited to another form of coping. It also relates to pro-active attitudes for an added value to performance. As such, workarounds can act as indicators of the perceived state of safety climate held by professionals. Finally, this research emphasizes the necessity for including safety climate as a prevention tool in organizational health and safety practices.

Abstract Titel: Medias skildring av privatleasing Författare: Mattias Beer   Handledare: Jonas Jonsson Examinator: Sven Ross Typ av arbete: Kandidatuppsats i medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap vid Stockholms Universitet Tidpunkt: Höstterminen 2016 Antal ord: 11 441 Syfte och frågeställning: Att undersöka hur två svenska dagstidningar valt att skildra privatleasing under en vald period. Detta görs genom att besvara följande frågeställning: På vilket sätt skildrar Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet konceptet privatleasing i sina tidningsartiklar under tidsperioden 1 januari 2015 till och med den 1 oktober 2016? Metod och material: Kvantitativ innehållsanalys på samtliga artiklar publicerade i Dagens Nyheter samt Svenska Dagbladet under perioden 1 januari 2015 till 1 oktober 2016. Huvudresultat: I studien framkom det en förändring i artiklarna under undersökningsperioden, en förändring från en positiv vinkling av privatleasing till en mer kritisk och undersökande vinkel. Nyckelord: Privatleasing, kvantitativ innehållsanalys, dagstidningar, agenda setting

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / "Sanitation is dignity" as the state has proclaimed while water is life. Yet to date, there are families and communities that are still dreaming that one day their dignity will be restored and they will have access to proper toilets, clean water that are within close proximity including proper houses. In the 24th year of democracy, people in South Africa are still protesting and challenging government to address the inequalities of the past and reset the agenda of change. These persistent protests are about basic needs and service delivery, but increasingly protestors are invoking the concept of relative needs, dignity and human rights and taking protests to the powerful and wealthy. In fact, the idea of the state as sacrosanct has been deflated since protestors throw poo at state officials and vandalise state infrastructure. The “poo wars” that broke out in 2012 with poo dumped at the airport and government buildings continued with the dumping of excrement on the Rhodes statue at UCT shows that the poor can sometimes set the agenda of change and force politicians to listen. Among the defensive responses raised by authorities is that people put their shacks on private land or pieces of land that are not suitable for housing (wetlands). Politically, there are complex issues in the Western Cape, both the Province and the City of Cape Town Metro are Democratic Alliance (DA) run whilst national government is ruled by the African National Congress (ANC). The majority of townships residents are ANC supporters with a few DA Proportional Representative (PR) councillors. This study looks at a qualitative exploration of the complexities in agenda-setting and participation processes in sanitation services in Site C, Khayelitsha between 2010-2013.Residents see agenda setting and engagements as unilateral, as this study found. It is designed into six chapters. The study was designed in a manner that it would reflect the knowledge and understanding the notion of consultation, community participation in decision-making, agenda-setting and implementation of projects or programmes by the people of Khayelitsha-Site C, Councillors, Shopstewards and officials of the City of Cape Town. Over 20 interviews were completed. A key finding is that by taking poo out of its usual place, taking it out of the private into the public domain and to the rich and by invading their space, the issues of the poor are no longer confined to ghetto townships. Boundaries between state and civil society have become porous. Cape Town’s poor residents using portable toilets commonly known as "pota-pota", and also the temporary toilets commonly known as ‘Mshengu’ have argued that these interim services are not only poorly maintained and dirty but are vastly inferior compared to white areas.

Although there is considerable interest in the role of performance management systems (PMS) to enhance innovation and performance, there is limited literature regarding successful implementation in organisations. Most research has focused on the technicalities of performance management implementations, while neglecting the human reactions that influence the outcomes of such systems. This research therefore aimed to examine employees’ perceptions of performance management systems in various organisations and how performance management systems, or the lack thereof, specifically influence performance in the Namibian organisational context. A multiple case study methodology was adopted for the research, where open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from various organisations. Data was primarily analysed by means of qualitative content analysis which was supported by the pattern matching technique. The research findings supported goal setting theory which predicts that performance benefits can be realised by implementing specific challenging goals because they have a motivational effect on employees compared to vague and easy goals. Findings also supported theory which suggests employee participation in goal setting and providing feedback led to higher performance compared to when goals are assigned and no feedback is given. The findings supported predicted positive relationships between rewards and performance. However, findings also suggested that performance management systems, or lack thereof, are unfair because rewards are distributed unjustly, which has a negative effect on performance. Nevertheless, it was suggested that employees are more motivated to perform by intrinsic factors, including achieving challenging goals, than extrinsic factors. These findings not only supported goal setting theory, they supported McGregor’s (1960) theory Y which argued that employees are ambitious and motivated by more than money, yet surprisingly also supported his theory X as it was revealed that some employees would only work harder if rewards, or performance bonuses, are given. Although the research aimed to test goal setting theory, findings also supported Vroom’s (1964) valence-instrumentality-expectancy theory, Maslow’s (1943) and McClelland’s (1975) need theories, which all argue that performance is enhanced by other sources of motivation. The findings supported contradictory theories, yet discovered interdependency among the theories, which created a cyclical notion. This means, Vroom’s (1964) theory argues that an employee can be motivated to perform better when there is a belief that the better performance will lead to good performance appraisal and in the realisation of personal goal in the form of some reward. It, however, implies that goal setting theory has no impact on employees’ performance. Yet, according to the qualitative findings, some employees will only increase performance if their performance is monitored and appraised. Therefore organisations are required to have performance management systems in place, in turn, supporting goal setting theory. The research attempted to generate meaningful insight that would be beneficial to organisations, in and outside Namibia, that are considering implementing or improving their performance management systems by incorporating what employees perceive to be fundamentally important. Communication, management support, performance feedback, education and training, goal setting and employee participation are amongst the factors perceived as essential to effective performance management systems implementation. As literature (Bernardin & Beatty, 1984; Fox & Spector, 2002) has affirmed, these findings stress that the effectiveness of performance management systems depends on employees’ attitudes and perceptions of the systems.

The objective of this research is to test the hypothesis that pricing conduct in South Africa, revealed by studies of pricing microdata, can be shown to have an impact on the modeling and conduct of monetary policy. In order to discern stylised facts about pricing conduct in South Africa, use is made of two unique microdata sets, which are the unit level basis of South Africa’s measured CPI and PPI over the period from December 2001 to December 2007. In particular, based on techniques which have been used in comparable studies in other countries, facts have been brought to light concerning inter alia the frequency of price changes, the magnitude of price changes, the duration of prices, heterogeneity in pricing, as well as evidence of seasonality, time-dependence and state-dependence in pricing conduct. In order to understand the implications of such pricing conduct, a basic closed economy theoretical model and thereafter an open economy New Keynesian DSGE model are used to compare the impact of various pricing assumptions. In general, but with some qualification regarding difficulties that arise in comparing pricing microdata with pricing conduct estimated in macro models, it is found that prices are more flexible than those estimated in the open economy DSGE model, implying sharper but less persistent interest rate responses to various shocks. Furthermore, the form of the New Keynesian Phillips curve used in the open economy DSGE model is found to be inconsistent with certain facts revealed through the price microdata.

Student Number : 8403267 - PhD thesis - School of Pathology - Faculty of Health Sciences / Sub-Saharan Africa is the eye of the HIV epidemic. This study was conducted when treatment for the majority of HIV-infected patients in low resource settings was considered unattainable and the risks of diagnosing HIV often outweighed the benefits. Coupled with the complexities of HIV diagnosis in infancy, children typically were only diagnosed once already ill or not at all. Key strategies to address the paediatric epidemic focused on preventing mother to child transmission and reducing mortality and morbidity of infected children predominantly with co-trimoxazole prophylaxis. Both strategies required early diagnosis of HIV infection in infancy for monitoring prevention programs and identifying infected children respectively. The diagnostic algorithm for resource limited settings recommended the use of inexpensive, technically simpler HIV antibody detection assays that are unsuitable for use in HIV-exposed children under 12-months of age. Paradoxically this algorithm provided a barrier to HIV diagnosis in children because of high loss to follow-up rates and death in the first year of life. The objective of this study was to establish an accurate, affordable diagnostic algorithm for early diagnosis of HIV infection that could be rapidly implemented in South Africa and benefit other resource limited settings. The HIV infection status of 300 vertically exposed infants was determined according to first world criteria in a prospective, cohort study at Coronation Hospital, Johannesburg over 21 months. This status was used to assess the accuracy of clinical examinations and HIV assays in diagnosing HIV at 6-weeks, 3-, 7- and 12-months of age. The average cost of determining an infant’s HIV infection status was measured. A single HIV DNA PCR test at 6-weeks of age proved highly accurate in determining HIV status at a marginally increased cost to government and was incorporated by the South African Department of Health into national policy. The ultrasensitive p24 antigen assay and HIV antibody detection assays on serum and oral fluid were identified as valuable candidates where PCR testing is unavailable. Dried blood spot samples from heelpricks are critical for policy to be translated into practice since skills to perform venesection in 6-week old babies are limited. The next challenge lies in operationalising these findings at a clinical and laboratory level to the benefit of the 300 000 South African children annually exposed to HIV at birth. The urgency of early diagnosis has been increased by the availability of highly effective antiretroviral therapy.

This dissertation demonstrates that seventeenth-century dramatists and theatrical practitioners invented a dazzling series of specialized technologies for representing space. I argue that ubiquitous stage technologies, such as doors, props, musical instruments, and curtains, were used to create a dynamic sense of location—both fictional locations within the represented action and the audience’s location within a specific theater structure. Scholarship on the early modern spatial imaginary has tended to focus on broader cultural changes in how English people understood the world around them, in part through the massive growth of London as an urban center, and in part through England’s burgeoning empire and increasing contact with the world beyond its shores. At the same time, theater scholars have increasingly emphasized the material conditions of theatrical production, including the composition of theatrical companies, the features of different theater buildings, and the nature of costumes and cosmetics. My research extends this theater historical work to show how the details of theatrical practice shaped perceptions of space, including the space of the theater itself as well as the rapidly expanding sense of both urban and global space outside the theater’s walls. My chapters are organized around the different tools used to represent particular types of place, while also tracing a chronological development marked by both continuity and change. In part, this means looking back towards the theatrical traditions out of which this drama sprang, as when I show how the disposition of stage doors in Roman New Comedy or the use of props in medieval morality plays were redeployed by playwrights such as Ben Jonson or Thomas Dekker. I also argue for a more complex relationship than we have assumed between the spatial arrangements of the prewar Shakespearean stage and that of the Restoration. While the introduction of painted scenery is typically taken to mark a break in how space was represented onstage, I establish that playwrights in this era continued to experiment with many of the same spatial techniques used by their precursors in the prewar theaters. By carefully tracing how the same spatial tools – the movement of actors in and out of the doors, the management of discovery spaces, and the positioning of musicians and sound machines – continued to be used alongside the painted scenery, I help us see more clearly how those tools were already active in shaping the perception of theatrical space in the pre-1642 theaters.

Illustrative matter in pocket. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This dissertation explores how the descriptive backgrounds of the Victorian novel helped to shape the emerging concept of environment in the nineteenth century. Thomas Carlyle introduced “environment” into English in 1827, spurring writers, scientists, and social thinkers to forge a diverse conceptual lexicon for describing the relationship between organisms and their material surroundings. Comte developed the idea of a singular organic “medium” that supports and nourishes all living beings, while Darwin imagined the plural “conditions of existence” as a chaotic field of competitive struggle. Whereas Zola’s “milieu” exerted destructive pressure on the individual, Spencer claimed that “environment” was in fact constitutive of life itself. This project argues that novelists turned to vivid description as a means of materializing these competing environmental discourses, and exploring their social and affective implications. From the noxious fogs of Bleak House, to Mary Mitford’s concern for the sufferings of uprooted vegetables, novelists gave detailed attention to the exchanges between individual bodies and the physical world. Each of my four chapters examines how a Victorian writer used a distinct type of description to explore an environmental concept: Mitford’s botanical detail and natural theology’s idea of correspondence between body and world; Eliot’s weather and Comte’s organic medium; Hardy’s architecture and Spencer’s theory of environment; and Stevenson’s islands and the discourse of circumstance. Whereas recent critical re-evaluations of description often prize its detachability from narrative, this dissertation thus argues that description was central to the Victorian novel’s ability to represent interactions between individuals and their surroundings. Through close analysis of the descriptive surrounds of nineteenth-century realist fiction (weather, atmosphere, landscape, architecture), this project shows how the novel’s described backgrounds shape and participate in plot in surprising ways, functioning not merely as static pictorial backgrounds to narrative, but rather as dynamic participants in it. The Victorian novel, this dissertation ultimately shows, places interactions between characters and their environments at the center, rather than the periphery, of its drama.