This thesis investigates the management of social capital processes as they are accomplished-understood, experienced and shaped-by owner-managers. The aim of the thesis is to develop a deeper understanding of the management of social capital processes, to achieve a greater congruence between real-life perspectives and experiences and social capital literature. The thesis argues that social capital is situational, and in the economic situation the theory has been bounded by rational choice framing assumptions. The research problem is that claims for the universality of the economic way of looking at life, and for looking at social capital processes are over-stated. Predicated on this insight the research investigates economic notions of rationality, and low and non-rationality, as well as their inter-dependence in the management of social capital processes. The research follows a qualitative approach for data collection, with flexible pre-coding to guide the research where to look, while retaining an inductive openness to emergent data. The research population is drawn from SME owner-managers in the service and retail sectors, who were researched over two years using semi-structured interviews, observation, and by researcher participant observation. The thesis presents a number of contributions to knowledge. First, the thesis offers an in-depth, single source review explicating the meaning of the economic form of social capital, with reference to its intellectual antecedents, conceptual debates and key theoretical authors. The second (emergent research) contribution is to identify the significance of ethics and autodidactic reading for managing social capital processes. The third (theoretical) contribution argues for an expanded social capital perspective, beyond the prevailing and over-confident rational framing assumptions, and also for a new holistic ontological understanding. The fourth contribution is to identify a number of generic processes which can guide the management of social capital processes.

L‟analyse des expériences vécues par les personnes vivant le VIH offre une meilleure compréhension de la manière de vivre de celles-ci et du poids de la maladie qui touche simultanément les dimensions physiques, affectives, sociales et économiques des personnes directement ou indirectement concernées.La perte d‟utilité sociale à cause des stigmates, des exclusions et de la souffrance dus aux effets des traitements ou de la maladie constitue un coût dont les effets sur les trajectoires de maladie se traduisent par une régression de la qualité de vie des personnes séropositives. Le VIH, marqueur de la vulnérabilité du capital santé, du capital économique et du capital social, implique des efforts de gestion par les personnes atteintes, des contraintes de ressources pour faire face aux difficultés liées à la maladie. Dans cette situation, le capital social s‟impose comme alternative d‟investissement pour améliorer la qualité de vie avec le VIH.L‟objectif de ce travail est donc d‟étudier à travers l‟analyse des cas des personnes séropositives au VIH, leur investissement dans le capital social pour répondre aux exigences imposées par une vie avec une maladie chronique, stigmatisante, précarisante et transmissible.La méthodologie utilisée est une série de deux enquêtes (d‟un an d‟intervalle entre juin 2010 et décembre 2011) par entretiens approfondis auprès de trente personnes séropositives, habitant la ville de Marseille et ayant volontairement accepté de participer à l‟étude.La définition du capital social adoptée est celle de la théorie de l‟économie générale des pratiques de Pierre Bourdieu qui explique les actions et les intérêts des individus. Tout ceci, sans exclure la portée analytique de ce concept en santé publique sous ses trois formes à savoir le bonding, le bridging et le linking respectivement pour le soutien social, l‟appui ou la participation communautaire et l‟intervention institutionnelle. Le cadre conceptuel retenu, est le plus à même d‟être en cohérence avec la définition choisie. C'est-à-dire la théorie des functionnings et capabilities d'Amartya SEN qui montre les conditions d'analyse et d'optimalisation du bien-être général à partir de l'autonomie fonctionnelle du malade et la liberté de ce dernier de choisir ses modes de vie pour le gain de son utilité sociale.Les résultats de cette recherche montrent les traits originaux de l‟expérience individuelle avec le VIH. Ils vérifient l‟hypothèse selon laquelle le choc de l‟annonce de la séropositivité a été vécu comme la mort en sursis avec remise en cause toute idée de construire un projet d‟avenir pour les personnes infectées avant les années 1996 à cause de l‟absence des thérapies efficaces. En outre, ce travail soutient que les inégalités sociales et les difficultés vécues par les personnes séropositives sont en partie dues à la reproduction des facteurs de précarisation issus de leur milieu de vie dans l‟enfance. Ensuite, l‟investissement dans le capital social comme stratégie mise en oeuvre pour vivre normalement avec le VIH, bien que variant selon les ressources de chacun, constitue une option efficace d‟accès aux soins, à l‟information et à la prévention, tout en contribuant à l‟amélioration de la qualité de vie des personnes infectées. / The analysis of the experiences of people living HIV provides a better understanding of the way of living of the weight of the disease affecting at the same time the dimensions physical, emotional, social and economic of the persons directly or indirectly concerned.The loss of social utility because of the stigma, the exclusions and suffering due to the effects of the treatments or disease is a cost which the effects on the trajectories of disease result in a regression of the quality of life of people living with HIV. HIV, marker of the vulnerability of the capital health, social capital and economic capital, involves management efforts by individuals, constraints of resources to deal with the difficulties associated with the disease. In this situation, social capital is required as an alternative investment to improve the quality of life with HIV.The objective of this work is therefore to study through the analysis of the cases of HIV-positive people to HIV, their investment in the share capital to meet the requirements imposed by a life with a chronic illness, stigma, precarisante and communicable.The methodology used is a series of two surveys (one year interval between June 2010 and December 2011) by extensive interviews with thirty HIV-positive people, who live in the city of Marseille and who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study.The definition of social capital is that of the theory of Pierre Bourdieu practices general economy that explains the actions and interests of individuals. All this, without excluding the analytical scope of this concept in public health in its three forms namely the bonding, the bridging and linking respectively for social support, support or community participation and institutional intervention. The conceptual framework chosen, is the most likely to be in line with the chosen definition. That is the theory of functionnings and capabilities of Amartya SEN that shows conditions analysis and optimization of well-being from the functional autonomy of the patient and the freedom of the latter to choose its modes of life to gain its social usefulness.The results of this research show the original features of the individual experience with HIV. They verify the hypothesis that the shock of the announcement of seropositivity was experienced as death in conditional release in question any idea to build a project for the future for those infected before the 1996 because of the lack of effective therapies.In addition, this work supports social inequalities and the difficulties experienced by the HIV-positive are partly due to the reproduction of from insecure factors of the living environment in childhood. Second, investment in social capital as strategy implementation to live normally with HIV, although depending on the resources, is an effective option of access to care, education and prevention, while contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of infected people.

Voluntary participation of citizens in formal organizations is considered an important indicator of an efficient civic society. It is also one of the assumptions of functional democratic regime. In this diploma thesis, I explain the differences between countries in civic involvement with general characteristics of national cultures. These characteristics were clearly described and defined by Geert Hofstede. I use his dimensions in this paper. The paper should contribute to understanding the motivations for engaging in formal organizations. As it proves that commitment is significantly related to the culture of the nation (especially to the cultural dimension Uncertainty Avoidance), it is clear that the change in the activity of citizens can be very slow and the differences between nations are likely to remain.

The thesis is focused on utilization of social networking sites as a tool for virtual team collaboration support. The first goal is to identify critical success factors of virtual teamwork, which are currently not supported by groupware tools, based on description of virtual team characteristics and processes. Identified critical success factors represent the basis for the completion of next goal, which is to describe aspects of social networking sites, which are able to support the identified critical success factors. That leads to the main goal of the thesis, which consists of two main parts. First part is the analysis of social networking sites aspects influence on virtual teamwork critical success factors. The second part is the practical solution of utilization of social networking sites for virtual teamwork support. Final solution includes all social networking sites implementation phases starting from choosing the product, implementation process and ending with setting of team processes and utilization principles. Social networking sites aspects description is based on current enterprise information systems trends and the final solution results from the analysis and synthesis of findings from both previous thesis parts. The main contribution of the thesis is the solution of social networking sites utilization inside the organization and providing of practical instructions for implementation of social networking sites in order to support virtual teamwork.

The thesis focuses on the networking topic. The networking is defined and compared to other terms that are often used as a synonym, e.g. social capital. Three contexts are researched. The first study aims networking online, its specifics, advantages and possible risks. The second part studies selected correlations of networking activities of University of economics alumni. The third study searches out the networking activities and standards of Czech managers in the field of finance. The results are connected with the possible usage in both fields, the one of university education and management too.

Magister Artium - MA / Cape Town has arguably the most diversified urban agriculture sector across the country. Nevertheless, the desired gains of urban agriculture are barely realized. The organization of urban agriculture, specifically the nature in which urban farmers are organized in relation to supporting actors, is identified as a significant factor in influencing the success of the activity. Surprisingly, the literature on the organization of urban farmers and supporting actors in Cape Town is scanty. It is on this basis that this study aimed to investigate the organization of urban farmers and their relationship with supporting actors in Mitchells Plain. Informed by the social capital theory, a case-study approach was employed where both the qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were utilized to meet the study objectives. A random sampling technique was used in the selection of the 60 respondents for a questionnaire survey. Purposive sampling was employed to select the key informant respondents which included knowledgeable urban farmers, Non-Governmental Organization officials, a Research official and a Provincial Department of Agriculture official. Secondary data collection was achieved through a systematic review of scholarly literature and policy documents. The statistical software IBM SPSS 25 was employed to process and analyze quantitative data through descriptive and inferential techniques. For qualitative data, thematic analysis was conducted to process the transcribed interviews whilst a hermeneutic approach was used to analyze secondary data. The study findings show that urban farmers are organized into loose and largely fragmented informal networks within Mitchells Plain. Although these forms of networks in their current state are beneficial to household farmers, community farmers require more formal networks to operate optimally and receive resources beyond non-governmental organization assistance. Moreover, the study discovered a lack of meaningful coordination of activities between the supporting actors involved in urban farming initiatives which militate against the success of urban agriculture activities in the community. Consequently, the study recommends that supporting actors need to develop functional partnerships to enhance the impact of urban agriculture activities. Also, community farmers are encouraged to affiliate with formal networks while household farmers simply need to enhance informal networking amongst themselves to improve activity coordination and resource access from supporting actors.

The study was conducted to explore the role of social capital in the implementation of Fruit and Vegetable Incentive Programs (FVIP) through a case study of the Appalachian Farmacy (AF) program and to fill a gap in literature on social capital utility in the implementation and evaluation of FVIPs. The study was guided by a conceptual model adopted from Berkman et al. (2000) to identify the mechanisms through which social networks can impact health. A qualitative content analysis was conducted retrospectively on secondary data from the evaluation of AF program to identify social capital attributes. In addition, the study conducted two focus groups with AF participants and four interviews with AF program administrators to explore their perceptions on the role of social capital in the implementation of FVIPs using a phenomenological approach. The study utilized both inductive and deductive analysis techniques with the conceptual model as the guide for analysis. The Bengtsson’s four steps for conducting content analysis were used for AF content analysis and Tracy’s (2013) two-level coding was used to analyze the focus groups and interviews. All the findings were triangulated and mapped on the study’s framework to identify the main and emergent themes. The findings revealed the main avenues for social networks were: cooking classes, farmers markets, recruitment sites, and a low-income housing complex. The main social capital 3 mechanisms were: instrumental and informational social support; social participation and engagement; and social influence. The main actors in the networks were the program administrators, market vendors, and other participants. Lastly, the health pathways identified were the changes in perceptions towards diet and health. The emergent themes revealed that barriers to access and individual characteristics were potential moderating themes, and case management by the program administrators was a potential mediating theme to program implementation. The study showed that the model was effective in exploring social capital in FVIPs. It highlighted the role that social networks, program actors and social capital play in implementation of public health interventions. Social capital may play an important role in health promotion and more research is needed to identify the mediating influences of the model.

Waterpipe smoking (WPS) is a global epidemic. The prevalence of WPS threatens to surpass cigarette smoking in certain parts of the world. Although current WPS interventions have had some effect in creating awareness of the dangers of WPS, these interventions alone have not succeeded in reducing WPS among university students, despite them knowing the harmful effects of WPS. Since WPS is seen to be a social event, a more holistic perspective of reducing WPS through linking health psychology with social factors encountered such as emphasizing the influences of the collective group and social connections on individual smoking behavior. Thus, social capital is a useful concept, which focuses our attention on an important set of resources inherent in relationships, networks, associations and their norms; all of which have been given insufficient priority in the health literature. The aim of this research was to examine what cognitive and structural bonding social capital factors contributed towards the understanding of WPS behaviors. Thus, this study explored three questions: How has exposure to previous WPS campaigns and/ or interventions influenced participants behavior towards WPS? What was the association between structural factors of WPS and bonding social capital among university students in relation to WPS? What was the association between cognitive factors of WPS and bonding social capital among university students in relation to WPS? A qualitative evaluation using three focus group interviews were used to answer the questions. The study design followed an abductive approach. The data was analyzed using thematic content analysis. Results from the study suggested that even though there have been numerous health interventions to reduce WPS, such as education in schools, posters at the university and TV documentaries, people continue to smoke the waterpipe, despite knowledge of the dangers of WPS smoking. Instead, participants attributed their frequent smoking behavior to groups collectively influencing each other to smoke. Factors of hygiene, homogenous group composition (in terms of race, age and/ or education) and the type of organizational setting (familiar vs. unfamiliar), played a role in the way social relations and interactions influence permeability and mobility of WPS groups, reinforcing structural bonding social capital. Factors of cognitive bonding social capital were also highlighted, where prior contact and gender played a role in setting out conditions of exclusion. Cognitive bonding social capital, along with the structural aspects, is a useful way to understand how these connections may be linked to population health, especially in WPS. Thus, health promoters need to invest more energy into developing programs and policies that take into consideration the social dimensions within the broader context of the university, which social capital may have to offer, contributing to a more critical approach to health psychology when designing interventions and cessation programs.

Job creation remains a critical challenge for South Africa. Despite strong achievements in macro-economic stability and increases in employment, the growing labour force has outstripped the capacity of the labour market to absorb young people. The state of the country’s skills base, rendered inadequate by the legacy of apartheid, contributes to sustained inequalities in the labour market. This impacts on the capacity of the economy to grow in an increasingly competitive global environment. In this context, Vocational Education and Training (VET) is viewed as an important mechanism for building the necessary intermediate technical skills to support key sectors of the economy. However, international experience demonstrates that expanding the VET system and developing human capital more broadly will not in itself lead to increased job creation. The alignment of skills supply and demand can only be achieved through a well-developed understanding of the factors that support or inhibit the transition of young people into the labour market. This study investigates these factors through the lens of social capital theory. Through tracing 1,532 individuals who graduated from FET Colleges in the Gauteng province in 1999, the study interrogates the role of bonding and bridging social capital in supporting the transition into colleges and from colleges into the labour market. The findings show support for the three hypotheses: 1) Poor socio-economic family contexts appear to offer little information from which to make effective educational choices. Young people generally make such choices on the basis of perceived long-term value of post-school education rather than short-term economic considerations. 2) FET colleges are ineffective agents of bridging social capital and therefore have limited impact on the rate of employment, in particular the rate of relevant employment. 3) Personal networks are critical, but in impoverished environments are ineffective for finding meaningful employment on initial entry into the labour market. Therefore, restricted social networks have the potential to further entrench social inequality. The study contributes to a greater understanding of the challenges facing youth in navigating through the transition from school to work and the implications for FET policy in pressurising colleges to create access to effective social networks for their students and thereby meaningfully contribute to job creation.

The main goal of this diploma thesis is analysis of importance of social capital in process of international migration of two migration groups in Czechia. Specifically were researched immigrants from Ukraine and Vietnam living in Czechia and their specifics. The thesis contains of theoretical and empirical parts. The goal of theoretical part is mainly an analysis of related scientific literature and researches. This part of the thesis deals with process of international migration, social capital, social capital in the context of international migration and importance of temperament in relation to international migration. The thesis also provides a brief introduction to history of migration tendencies of both researched groups in Czechia. The following empirical part is based on own questionnaire survey. Respondents were chosen from immigrants who are connected to non-governmental organizations. Collecting of questionnaires was organized as so called "snowball" method of picking of respondents in coordination with cooperating non-governmental organizations. Quantitative statistical analysis of the collected data shows that social capital is an important factor for both studied migration groups, which aids them and which they utilize in all parts of the migration process. No statistically significant...