<p>Job crafting refers to work-related behaviors employees take to make their job better fit with their preferences. While job crafting is based on the premise that employees can make such proactive changes on their own volition, recent work has suggested social context plays an important role in determining whether an employee has the opportunities and ability to engage in job crafting. Such contextual factors include the level of support one’s manager provides as well as one’s ability to obtain instrumental resources such as information and advice as well as emotional resources such as social support from the wider organizational community. Applying conservation of resources (COR) theory, Study 1 proposes that when a manager is perceived to provide a low level of support, employees can leverage their social network in order to engage in job crafting initiatives. For instance, when one’s manager offers relatively little encouragement and availability, it can hinder their subordinate’s ability to engage in job crafting. Additionally, when one’s manager has relatively low status in the organization, they may be less able to help their subordinates develop a network to obtain the types of instrumental resources that fuel job crafting behaviors. Findings based on a survey of 276 full-time workers suggest that employees seeking to job craft can compensate for their manager’s shortcomings by building bonding social capital in the former scenario (i.e., when the manager offers little encouragement and availability) and bridging social capital in the latter (i.e., when the manager has relatively low status). Study 2 focuses on the extent to which employees with differing dispositions towards their work engage in different kinds of job crafting behaviors. Findings from survey data (<em>n</em> = 307) suggest that compared to career orientation (i.e., the tendency to view work as a means for advancement and status enhancement), calling orientation (i.e., the tendency to view work as one’s “calling” in life) reduces the tendency for employees to engage in withdrawal behaviors. However, both calling and career orientation were associated with the tendency to proactively leverage technological and other knowledge-based resources in the execution of their work. Additionally, the study tests how virtual work contexts may influence how employees across different dispositional types engage in specified forms of job crafting. Findings suggest these dynamics persist regardless of telecommuting frequency. Implications for theory and practice are provided for both Studies 1 and 2. </p>

Vandalism is a form of a crime and threatens the safety and unity of a neighborhood. To inspect the issues of vandalism, a case study of Hovsjö in Södertälje is chosen. The area has most immigrants mainly from the Middle Eastern descent. Attempt is made to investigate these issues of vandalism with the help of theory, public documents of the area, history, physical evidence using photographs and conducting interviews of the residents and the authority. The issues of vandalism upon thorough analysis are found to be very subjective and are open to different interpretations. Thus, this thesis is about the authors’ version of interpreting the issue as immigrants from India. One of the key findings from the study is that there is a clear lack of trust between the authorities and the residents of Hovsjö. The reasons for this lack of trust is due to many issues but mostly revolve around the integration of the immigrants into the Swedish society. Thus, few ideas are recommended as an attempt to encourage better integration of immigrants into the Swedish Society and other generic ideas to prevent vandalism and increase the social capital. These ideas include ‘earliest is best’, ‘one size does not fit all’, ‘break the ice’, ‘get the right mix’ etc. among others. / Vandalism är en form av ett brott och hotar en grannskapets säkerhet och enhet. För att inspektera vandalismfrågor väljs en fallstudie av Hovsjö i Södertälje. Området har en majoritet av invandrare främst från Mellanöstern. Man försöker undersöka dessa frågor om vandalism med hjälp av teori, offentliga handlingar i området, tidigare historia, fysiska bevis med fotografier och genomföra intervjuer av invånarna och myndigheten. Frågorna om vandalism efter grundlig analys har visat sig vara mycket subjektiva och är öppna för olika tolkningar. Således handlar denna avhandling om författarnas version av att tolka frågan som invandrare från Indien. Ett av de viktigaste resultaten från studien är att det finns en tydlig brist på förtroende mellan myndigheterna och Hovsjöbor. Orsakerna till denna brist på förtroende beror på många frågor men handlar mest om integrationen av invandrare i det svenska samhället. Således rekommenderas få idéer som ett försök att uppmuntra en bättre integration av invandrare i Swedish Society och andra generiska idéer för att förhindra vandalism och öka det sociala kapitalet. Dessa idéer inkluderar "tidigast är bäst", "en storlek passar inte alla", "bryt isen", "få rätt blandning" etc. bland andra.

Teacher turnover in urban public schools has traditionally been associated with school destabilization and is considered adversarial to school improvement and reform efforts. However, the 2009 federal education reform initiative, Race to the Top, endorsed forced teacher turnover at the lowest performing schools as a strategy for recruiting teachers of greater human capital and commitment to student learning. Using qualitative case study methods, this dissertation explored whether teacher turnover affects school reform efforts, and if so, how, by studying teacher turnover at three urban public high schools in New England. The findings revealed that teacher turnover does affect school reform efforts. In two of the three cases studied, teacher turnover contributed to the churn of human capital and to the disruption of social capital. In both of these cases, school reform efforts were negatively affected. In the third case, the potential negative effects of teacher turnover were largely mitigated through advanced planning. The leadership team also demonstrated how carefully controlled internal turnover could be used to advance reform efforts.

This dissertation attempts to fill the gap in the sociological literature at the intersection of religion and community by examining how local, urban Catholic churches shape and nurture multiple models of community commitment based on differing public-private dimensions of ritual practice and moral calls to action. For this study, I conducted 41 interviews with young adults ages 22-36 actively involved in one of three organizationally distinct Roman Catholic churches in downtown Boston: a parish church, operated by the Archdiocese of Boston; a service church, operated by a religious order of evangelical missionaries; and a Eucharistic shrine, operated by a liturgical order of devout priests and brothers. My empirical findings show that young adult Catholics gravitate towards churches that align with their conceptions of how Catholicism should be practiced based largely on patterns of parental socialization. Young adults who grew up in dual-Catholic-parent households are more likely to attend St. Cecilia’s diocesan parish or St. Clement’s Eucharistic Shrine. Young adults from families with only one active Catholic parent were more likely to attend The Paulist Center. The collective identity of young adult Catholics emerges from patterns of Catholic identity which are activated in church settings and defined through meaningful role identities established by the organizational framing accomplished by local clergy leadership. Young adult commitment to local churches may be explained through the interaction between their socialization into Catholic faith and its expression in organizational practices that resonate cognitively and emotionally. Ritual memory is tapped through the interaction of collective identities and institutional offerings that guide decision-making around church choice and commitment. Each institutional setting and respective community adapts its own modes of interaction to communicate the resonant message via social practices that result in active religious belonging. In addition, as previous research has shown, participation in church activities and strong social connections within congregations contribute to greater voluntarism and commitment in the larger community. The example of local Catholic churches highlights the importance of multidimensional social networks that can align collective identities with bespoke calls to action amid the evolving needs and aspirations of multiple groups and constituencies.

Widespread concern over recent changes in American civic life has spawned arguments in a range of disciplines about the importance of social capital, citizen civic capacity and deliberative democratic engagement in supporting the development of engaged citizens, as well as supporting a democracy that is effective, publicly-minded and accountable. This study contributes to this literature by empirically investigating the potential for a specific type of place-based community development called "cohousing" to enhance the quantity and quality of resident civic engagement. Cohousing neighborhoods marry elements of social contact design with democratic self-governance and intentional social practices designed to build trust and cohesion among neighbors. In addition to investigating civic engagement in cohousing, this study investigates the degree to which U.S. cohousing neighborhoods build social capital, develop residents' democratic capacities and provide a platform for deliberative democratic practice. The results of the study indicate extraordinarily high levels of civic engagement by U.S. cohousing residents as compared to both the general population and to individuals with similar educational, income and racial characteristics. A multiple-case analysis of three neighborhoods, selected for positive deviance in civic engagement levels, were found to possess high levels of trust, social cohesion and norms of reciprocity. Case community residents were also found to be developing a range of democratic capacities, individually and collectively, particularly through engagement in community self-governance via structures of distributed leadership and the use of consensus-based, community decision-making processes. This study suggests that self-governing, communities of place, such as cohousing neighborhoods may represent a promising new avenue for enhanced citizen-engagement at the grassroots-community level. These neighborhoods also represent an excellent arena for future investigation into conditions, necessary and sufficient, to catalyze increased democratic capacity and civic engagement on the part of citizens. / Ph. D.

The United Nations (2016) and International Olympic Committee (2015) have offered analyses highlighting sport's contributions to societal well-being. More particularly, and for their part, scholars have suggested that sport for development (SFD) initiatives can encourage the development of social capital (Kidd and Donnelly, 2007; Nicholson and Hoye, 2008; Lyras and Welty Peachy, 2011; Coalter, 2013). This dissertation investigated those researchers' claims by exploring the relationship between two SFD organization sports programs and social capital formation among their youth participants in Kigali, Rwanda. I conducted semi-structured interviews with the leaders of both SFD entities to obtain their perceptions concerning whether and how the efforts I examined were linked to social capital creation. I utilized the World Bank's Social Capital Initiative Networks View of social capital for my analysis (Woolcock and Narayan, 2000). This study's participants, coaches and curriculum designers, argued that sport for development initiatives fostered such relationships in a variety of ways, including easing ethnic divisions among those participating and challenging social norms, especially as related to gender. Those interviewed for this inquiry also suggested that SFD programs encouraged the formation of simultaneous amalgams of bonding and bridging social capital among participating youth; novel and potentially powerful evidence of the efficacy of sport programming. / Doctor of Philosophy / The United Nations (2016) and International Olympic Committee (2015) have each highlighted the significant contributions sport has made, and can make, to societal well-being. Previous research has suggested that sport for development (SFD) initiatives encourage these results be encouraging the development of social capital (Kidd and Donnelly, 2007; Nicholson and Hoye, 2008; Lyras and Welty Peachy, 2011; Coalter, 2013). This inquiry explored the relationship between SFD and three forms of social capital as perceived by interviewees drawn from the leaders of two such nongovernmental programs in Kigali, Rwanda. The study utilized the Networks View of social capital developed by the World Bank's Social Capital Initiative to examine whether sport for development initiatives fostered social capital (Woolcock and Narayan, 2000). According to this study's participants, such efforts did indeed promote social capital in a variety of ways, including easing ethnic divides and challenging social norms related to gender. Additionally, interviewees also suggested that SFD programs encouraged the formation of simultaneous bundles of bonding and bridging social capital among participating youth; novel and potentially powerful evidence of the efficacy of sport programming.

Scholars and political candidates have frequently viewed online political participation as a weaker and less meaningful form of political involvement than traditional, offline activities. This thesis presents an overview of the literature on political participation and the Internet in order to understand the origins of this view and why participation on social media may be uniquely meaningful in comparison with other Internet-based activities. Examination of social media using Resource Theory and Social Identity Theory justify this unique status by highlighting and rationalizing social media's exceptional capacity to build and maintain weak-tie networks while also generating an intimacy between constituents and candidates. Social Identity Theory also provides an argument for the potential of social media for reaching and mobilizing first-time participants through its capacity to passively reach and attract constituents for non-political, personal and identity-serving reasons. This thesis then shows how social media-enable first-time participants may be more inclined to continue and expanding their participation over time, thereby substantially affecting participation trends in the United States. Using case studies composed of qualitative data collected on candidate views of the Internet and social media in U.S. House campaigns, this thesis examines the state of Web campaigning in 2010 in comparison to the theoretically "archetypal" Web campaign in order to provide indications of whether the prescribed theoretical activities deliver meaningful citizen engagement and valuable returns to campaigns. / Master of Arts

The increasing demands of efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector encourage political leaders and policy makers to adopt and apply advanced techniques and solutions to overcome flaws in public organizational performance. Entrepreneurship was introduced in several Western countries as a way to improve their processes and management through adopting private sector management principles and market-oriented techniques. In 2015, Saudi Arabia announced its 2030 vision, which introduced hundreds of innovative and creative initiatives aiming to overcome issues of the turbulent environment, future oil depletion, budgetary pressures, and public demands for efficiency and effectiveness. Building on interdisciplinary perspectives, this study investigates entrepreneurial orientation among Saudi public employees from all administrative regions across the country. Building on McClelland's theory of motivation, this study hypothesizes that the motives of need for achievement, need for affiliation, and need for power are positively associated with entrepreneurial behavior. It also hypothesizes that excessive organizational hierarchy, formalization, and lack of autonomy constrain employees' entrepreneurial activities. Moreover, this study adopts a sociological perspective in proposing solutions for facilitating entrepreneurial orientation among public employees by hypothesizing that human and social capital promote an entrepreneurial orientation. Multiple regression analysis reveals that Saudi public employees with a higher level of need for achievement and need for power tend to be more entrepreneurial, while need for affiliation fails to predict entrepreneurial orientation. Furthermore, the findings suggest that a high level of hierarchy and formalization in public organizations is negatively associated to entrepreneurial orientation, while a high level of autonomy is positively associated with entrepreneurial orientation. Finally, the study finds that employees with a high level of breadth and depth of experience (human capital) are more likely to be entrepreneurial, while a high level of bonding social capital and bridging social capital promote a negative and a positive entrepreneurial orientation, respectively.

Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / This individual case study is part of a larger group study examining how principals benefit from and shape professional capital to improve schools. Limited studies consider how the recruiting principal’s individual pathway may impact who they chose to recruit. Accordingly, this qualitative study examined the factors that influence educators to become principals and how these factors influence principals' decisions to recruit other potential candidates into the principalship. This study explored the professional journeys of eight school principals from one large urban school district in Massachusetts and how their principal pathways impacted their recruitment strategies. Findings revealed that building principals often credited their collegial relationship and interactions as playing an important role in their pathway to the principalship. Another finding from this study revealed that principals recruited potential leaders with the same qualifications or characteristics as themselves through the informal recruitment practices of tapping and their narrow definition of fit. Recommendations of this study suggest that districts should develop more formal social networks that ensure all educators have access to the necessary support and pipelines to consider the principal pathway. And, principals must reflect on their own principal pathway and potential bias to disrupt the cycle of recruiting a homophilous leadership workforce. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Promoting population health is an essential task for sustainable development. This study explores the association between socioeconomic status and perceived health in the United States, with special attention on the influence of living arrangements. It also improves the existing explanations of causal mechanisms underlying the impact of SES on health among Americans over 50. Using the first and seventh waves of Health and Retirement Study to run ordered logistic regression, this research addresses the importance of living arrangements and social capital on self-reported health. Income and education are both important predictors of self-reported health. In addition, living arrangements and household social capital also affects self-reported health after controlling individuals’ characteristics and SES indicators. These effects do not appear to mediate the socioeconomic effects on self-reported health. Future research should highlight better measures of living arrangements and social capital, as well as explore longitudinal analyses.