Outdoor adventure learning (OAL) provides a unique environment to teach organizational change. Therefore, there is an implication these programs can be used to foster necessary specific skills such as leading change, innovation, and thriving in hostile environments to lead in the ever-changing corporate world. Little research, however, supports the efficacy of adventure learning in achieving specific outcomes. Skeptics suggested the benefits of OAL programs do not always generalize effectively from the outdoor experience to the workplace. This paper outlines how utilizing strategic skills and theory to conduct OAL programs are effective and impactful in the corporate world. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions and meaning of a based outdoor adventure learning program among corporate executives using qualitative data analysis (QDA).

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) on marital relationships. MCI refers to age-related decline in memory and other cognitive processes that do not necessarily interfere with daily activities or the maintenance of social relationships with others (Petersen et al., 1999). Using social exchange theory as the theoretical framework to guide this qualitative study, aspects of the marital relationship explored from the nonimpaired spouses’ perspective were couple interaction, intimacy, and the division of household labor. In-depth interviews were conducted with five husbands and five wives (M age = 76.6 yrs., S.D. = 6.64). Open-ended interview questions that focus on issues specific to the marital relationship included: (a) range of activities participated in as a couple, (b) ways of showing care or affection toward one another, and (e) management of everyday life. In addition to participating in the semi-structured interviews, the spouses completed three standardized scales (e.g., Revised Memory & Behavior Problems Checklist, Zarit Burden Interview, Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale). Their responses to these measures provided information about the memory and behavioral changes of the elder as it related to the outcomes for and responses of the spouse. Spouses noted both change and stability within their marriages. They expressed “mixed emotions” concerning the influence of MCI on both them as individuals and on their relationship. Husbands’ responses focused on the negative relationship outcomes (e.g., frustration, stress) associated with caring for a spouse with memory loss; however, wives reported higher levels of burden and depression on the standardized measures than did the husbands. Gender differences were found regarding how husbands and wives view their roles in context to the caregiving situation, as well as how they adapt and cope. Longitudinal research is needed to examine the changes in the dynamics of these late-life marital relationships over time. / Master of Science

I den nuvarande Big data-eran där stora mängder information samlas och bearbetas för att användas i kommersiellt syfte har den digitala integritetens betydelse ökat. Oro kring hur information samlas in och används har blivit mer aktuellt de senaste åren. Facebook-Cambridge Analytica-skandalen är ett exempel på hur information har använts utan användares samtycke med allvarliga konsekvenser. Detta har ökat den oro många känner kring sin personliga integritet. I Europa har General Data Protection Regulation haft en viktig roll i att skydda användares digitala integritet. Tidigare studier visar att oro kring den digitala integriteten har ökat bland vissa grupper i Sverige. En av dessa grupper är universitetsstudenter som är fokus för denna undersökning. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka oron för den digitala integriteten som finns i samhället utifrån studenters perspektiv. Den metod som har använts är semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Undersökningens resultat visar att studenter känner trygghet när de använder informationsteknologi. Resultatet tyder på att de faktorer som påverkar studenters oro, eller brist på den, för sin digitala integritet är kopplat till tillit och kontext. Resultatet visar att orsaken till detta är tillit till GDPR, tillit till att företag kommer att följa de lagar som finns, tron att viss personlig information inte anses ha högt värde samt tillit till den egna förmågan att kunna skydda sig själva. Resultatet visar också att studenter är villiga att ge tillgång till personlig informationen om de anser att det är nödvändigt eller gynnar dem på något sätt. / In the current Big data era, where large amounts of information is collected and processed for commercial use, the importance of digital integrity has become more evident. The Facebook-Cambdrige analytica scandal is an example on how information has been used without consent. This has increased the concerns about users personal information. In Europe the General Data Protection Regulation has been an important part of protecting users digital integrity.  Previous studies show that concerns about digital integrity have increased among certain groups in Sweden. One of these groups are university graduates which are the focus of this study. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the concern for digital integrity that exists in society from the students perspective. The method that has been used in this study has been individual semi-structured interviews.  The results of the study shows that students feel secure when they use information technology. The results suggest that the factors that affect students' concerns, or lack thereof, of their digital integrity are linked to trust and context. The results shows that the reason for this is trust in GDPR, trust that companies will follow the law, belief that some personal information isn't of a high value and belief in their own ability to protect themself. The results of the study also shows that the informants were willing to let websites get access to certain personal information when they trusted the website and when they found it beneficial to them.

Bakgrund och problemformulering: Skiftet till digitala banktjänster innebär ett annat arbetssätt att bibehålla förtroendet hos sina kunder då servicen blir mindre personlig. Förtroende och service är en viktig del hos kunderna samtidigt som det ställs nya krav gällande bekvämlighet och automatiserade självtjänster. Mot denna bakgrund är möjliga problem som kan uppstå en bristande säkerhet samt riskerna kring integriteten.   Syftet: Studiens syfte är att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan kundernas förtroende och bankernas digitala banktjänster. Utöver detta vill forskarna få en förståelse för bankkunders förtroende för sin digitala bank.   Metod: Undersökningen bygger på kvantitativ metod i form av en enkätundersökning som sedan används för att genomföra en korrelationsanalys och regressionsanalys.  Teoretisk referensram: Technology Acceptance Model, Social Exchange Theory, Perceived Risk och Digitala Tillitsmodellen.  Empiri: Empirin har fyra olika fokusområden: kontrollfrågor, förtroende, digitala banktjänster samt risk och säkerhet. Dessa sammanställs och testas i en korrelationsanalys och regressionsanalys för att undersöka samband och testa hypoteser.   Slutsats: Resultatet visar att det föreligger ett positivt samband mellan digitala banktjänsters användbarhet och förtroende för digitala banktjänster samt att upplevd integritetsrisk har ett negativt samband med förtroendet. Trots att det kan finnas ett samband mellan digitala banktjänsternas användarvänlighet och förtroende finns inte tillräckligt med stöd för att bevisa detta. / Background and problem formulation: The shift to digital banking services means a different way of working to maintain the trust of its customers, this as the service has become less personal. Trust and service are valued highly for the customers, while new demands are being made regarding convenience and automated self-service. Against this background, possible problems that may arise are a lack of security and the risks surrounding integrity.  Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate whether there is a relationship between customers' trust and the banks' digital banking services. In addition to this, the researchers want to gain an understanding of bank customers' trust in their digital bank.  Method: The survey is based on a quantitative method in the form of a questionnaire which is then used to carry out a correlation and regression analysis.  Framework: Technology Acceptance Model, Social Exchange Theory, Perceived Risk and Digital Trust Model.  Empiricism: The empiricism has four different focus areas: control questions, trust, digital banking services and lastly risk as well as security. These are compiled and tested in a correlation and regression analysis to examine relationships by testing hypotheses.  Conclusions: The findings show that there is a positive relationship between the usability of digital banking services and trust in digital banking services, and that perceived integrity risk has a negative relationship with trust. Although there may be a link between the ease of use of digital banking services and trust, there is not enough support to prove this.

The ability to backfill leadership positions has become a key focus of business leaders since 2005 when the baby boom workforce started to age. An aging workforce threatens the capability of business leaders to develop leadership pipelines to ensure business success. Grounded by the social exchange theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore successful strategies that technology services managers used to align core business objectives to improve succession planning at a technology services organization located in Dallas, Texas. Data collection and triangulation included semi structured telephone interviews with 12 technology services managers, company documents, and archival information. Data analysis included the examination of rich text data, coding, and classification of themes using Yin's 5-step approach. Four themes emerged, revealing that these managers (a) created and sustained a leadership talent pipeline for high potential employees for future leadership roles; (b) sourced internal candidates with core leadership competencies; (c) remediated leadership skills gaps through developed relationships and documented processes; and (d) re-engineered the replacement planning process for the internal leadership talent pipeline. Implications for positive social change include the potential for technology services managers to implement effective succession planning strategies that could increase employee morale, enhance profitability and growth, and promote healthy community partnerships.

The fast development of the tourism industry has created both positive and negative impacts on host communities. Reacting to these impacts, host residents hold various attitudes towards tourism and tourists. It has come to common agreement that a supportive host community plays a vital role in the successful and long-term development of community tourism. In order to explain the antecedents of community attitudes towards tourism, researchers have investigated the topic from both the extrinsic perspective (such as stage-based models) and the intrinsic perspective (such as the Social Exchange Theory). Nevertheless, there are still several important research gaps and deficiencies within the existing literature. First, the influence of psychological factors (personality) on attitudes towards tourism is somewhat neglected. Second, when examining the relationship between community attitudes towards tourism and the influential factors, the majority of previous studies do not distinguish the orthogonal dimensions of attitudes (such as positive dimension and negative dimension). Third, the existing literature has not addressed the issue of whether specific attitudes towards tourism will lead to a corresponding behaviour when interacting with tourists, and what other factors are determinant in host-guest interactive behaviour. Aiming to address such research gaps and deficiencies, this study has a major objective of developing a theoretical model (encompassing attitude element) to understand the antecedents of host-guest interaction. A quantitative approach was employed for the entire project. A self-administrated questionnaire survey was used to collect primary data. A total of 878 useful questionnaires were returned for analyses. Stratification sampling methods were utilized in communities where population database was accessible, while random sampling methods were used in other communities. The findings from this study confirmed the two major hypotheses in terms of community attitudes towards tourism. First, there was a significant relationship between an individual's personality and his/her attitudes towards tourism. Residents being high on Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness traits and low on the Neuroticism trait tended to be more positive towards tourism than their counterparts. Second, while some factors were found to be influential on both positive and negative dimensions of attitudes towards tourism, others only demonstrated influences on one dimension. The Resident-Tourist Interaction Model developed in this study provided a comprehensive theoretical framework in modelling and predicting host residents' interactive behaviour towards tourists. Drawing on the evaluation results of three leading behavioural theories belonging to the school of cognition, the Model identified attitudinal, volitional, social, motivating and habitual factors for the prediction of resident-tourist interactive behaviour. Motivating factor (intention) was the critical and immediate element for action, which, in turn, was best predicted by subjective norms. External factors (gender, age and personality traits) only moderated the predictive power of the Model by less than two percent. The Model was valid and reliable for the current data. The present study advanced resident-tourist interactive behavioural study by establishing a sound theoretical framework. It also consolidated the body of knowledge in understanding community attitudes towards tourism. Findings from this study have significant practical implications for community tourism planning and management.

This paper explores the political behavior process in information system implementation process. The organizational politics is the critical success/failure factor in the IS implementation process. We expect to understand, in different organizational contexts, what kind of political behavior will occur? What will be the events and processes of these political behaviors? Who's idea? At what time? In what setting? What will be the interaction among these dimensions? How will these political behaviors affect IS outcome and organization? This study will explain political behavior in IS implementation process from different interpretations and perspectives. This study relies on qualitative data collected from two cases--manufacturer Theta and government enterprise Delta--in the forms of interviews, documented data, archival data, and observation over eight month. The data are interpreted through five internally coherent theoretical perspectives: personal perspective, strategic contingency theory, conflict theory, social exchange theory, and structuration theory. Contributions include the following. In practice, we group 35 kind of political behavior into four types: aggression, defense, strengthen, withdrawal. Besides the adverse effects, some kinds of political behavior can lead to the success of the project. The detailed descriptions we use to describe the political behavior process in IS implementation process can help in similar cases to show how to reduce or prevent any negative consequences. Academically, we conduct contextual and process theory analyses of these processes, and use five theoretical perspectives to interpret these phenomena.

The aim of this dissertation was (1) to examine the work choice motivation for accepting the contingent employment in relation to various outcomes (job satisfaction, job involvement, and psychological contract) and the effect on work performance (obedience, and work expectation), and (2) to test whether workers¡¦ interaction may assist in explaining difference between the various outcome and the effect on work performance. The results of this study challenged earlier assumptions on the importance of volition in temporary work research. Analyses were based on a sample of 415 contingent workers from various organizations and types of the contingent employment. The most striking findings were that work choice motivation did not consistently associate with favorable outcomes and the effect on work performance, and that the relationship between work choice motivations related to work performance outcomes were non-significant. By way of contrast, self-fulfilling motive has positively effects on job satisfaction and job involvement, work-life balance motive and self-constrain motive have positive effect on psychological contract, and work control motive has negative effect on job involvement, and psychological contract. Also, this dissertation established that workers¡¦ interaction may have potential to improve the variations on predictions. The result showed that task-related interaction between standard and contingent workers has positive effect on job satisfaction, job involvement, work expectation, and obedience. Moreover, the non-task related interaction has negative effect on obedience. The interaction effects of work choice motivation and workers¡¦ interaction on job attitudes and work performance were also examined in this study. The result shows that the interaction between work-life balance motive and non-task related interaction has positive effect on psychological contract. Moreover, the interaction effect of self-constrain motive and non-task related interaction also has positive effect on psychological contract. The implications were also discussed in this study.