This research study looked at the cultural value preferences in Western management practice for African manager and non-manager employees exemplified by Nigerian cement industries. The study specifically focused on management practice of leadership, motivation, recruitment and promotion around which their cultural values, the meaning of their work-world and their coping strategies are structured. From management and culture theory perspectives, managerial practices are affected both by Western factors, such as education, money, challenging tasks, and by traditional factors, such as family, ethnicity, social connections etc. The theoretical bases for this study drew largely from three streams of literature. The first theoretical base for the study relates to traditional African environment of management, especially the cultural perspectives. The second drew largely from the theoretical discourse on culture, management and organisation perspectives. The mainstream schools of management discourse on management theories and models as proposed by Western management theorists represent the third stream. As a methodology, the study used a quantitative questionnaire survey and qualitative open-ended interviews to collect data on the manager and non-manager employees in the organisations. The quantitative questionnaires and open-ended interviews centered national dimensions of cultures and on these Western and traditional factors of: leadership styles, motivation, dedication, satisfaction, ethnicity, family and social connections. The survey confirms that the dimension of national cultures of Nigeria as measured by the work-values and desires of the employees population are somehow different from those obtained by Hofstede’s study for the West African Region. Nigeria is still more collectivistic, although at least Nigeria has become relatively more individualist since Hofstede’s study. Over the years between Hofstede’ IBM study and the present study, there has been no change in the difference in Power Distance. Power Distance is much higher in Nigeria, like elsewhere in Africa, and this is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. The large Power Distance in Nigeria means that the ideal manager is benevolent paternalistic. On recruitment and promotion, one major point made is that the traditional factors are generally felt by the respondents as influencing employees’ recruitment and promotion more than the modern (intrinsic) factors. The employees however, generally felt that the modern (intrinsic) factors should or ought to have greater influence. Building on the premises that every society is unique and its trajectory is shaped by its unique historical events, cultural norms and values, it can be argued that since the history of Western management concept in Africa is short, Africa then has a unique opportunity to develop its own unique management values based on its unique traditions. However, the increasing globalisation of market economies suggests that management values in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general can hardly be realised without proactively contributing to the Western management concepts in its unique ways. As the intensity of interaction between Western management practices and African traditional values increases, we can anticipate the increase in the importance of a new form of management concepts and practices in various African countries. Based on others and this study, the study proposes a “management heterogeneity” concept that reflects this new and unique perspective. Management heterogeneity perspective endorses the view that the practice of leadership, motivation, recruitment and promotion are developed differently in different cultural societies and organisations. But it adopts a pragmatic position on the mounting social and economic challenges now facing African organisations and argues further that management techniques, skills and behaviours practiced in different cultures and organisations can be brought together in a positive synergistic blend to address the needs of a given society and organisation and improve its ability to deliver effective and relevant values to its actors. It is the ability to judiciously select and combine the Western and traditional values and practices into new practices that fit the managerial requirements of a given group of organisational members that provides management its competitive edge in a culturally dynamic management environment.

Inledningen beskriver Skåneidrottens projekt Senior Sport School, som bygger på de fyra hörnpelarna för ett gott åldrande, det vill säga fysisk aktivitet, social gemenskap, meningsfullhet och kunskap om kostvanor. Senior Sport School är en idrottsskola som uppmuntrar seniorer till ett livslångt idrottande. Tidigare forskning framhåller vikten av att bibehålla fysisk vardagsfunktion, social gemenskap och goda kostvanor i senior ålder för att främja självständighet och oberoende från vården. Syftet med studien var att undersöka pensionärers upplevelser av aktiviteter genomförda i Senior Sport School och hur dessa aktiviteter kan relateras till ett hälsosamt åldrande. Metoden är kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer och deltagarna i studien valdes utifrån tidigare medverkan i Senior Sport School. Resultatet framställs genom de teman som framträdde i intervjuerna, dessa var hälsosamt åldrande, social gemenskap, lärande och idrottskulturens betydelse. I diskussionen lyfts att idrottsskolan upplevs som en viktig social plattform. Det dolda lärandet som seniorerna får genom idrottsskolan har en central roll. Idrottsskolan kan ses som ett stöd i seniorernas lärandeprocess så att de kan förstå och använda sig av hälsoinformation för att förbättra sin hälsa. Konklusionen är att idrottsskola för seniorer upplevs spela en viktig roll för ett hälsosamt åldrande. Social gemenskap och fysisk aktivitet lyft av deltagarna som betydelsefulla men Senior Sport School kan även ses som en viktig del i seniorers kunskapsutveckling. Studiens resultat är positivt för folkhälsan i stort men det krävs fortsatt forskning för att nå ut till flera grupper i samhället. / The introduction presents Skåneidrottens project Senior Sport School, which is based on the four cornerstones of prosperous ageing, i.e. physical activity, social connections, meaningfulness and dietary education. Senior Sport School encourages seniors to a lifelong sport participation. Previous research emphasizes the importance of maintaining physical functionality, social connections and good dietary habits in older age to promote self-reliance and independence from health care. The aim of the study is to investigate pensioners´ views on their participation in activities conducted at Senior Sport School, and whether their experiences can be related to healthy ageing. The method is qualitative semi-structured interviews and participants in the study were selected based on previous participation in Senior Sport School. The results are produced through the themes of the interviews. The themes are healthy ageing, social connections, education and the importance of sporting culture. The discussion emphasizes that Senior Sport School is perceived as an important social platform. The hidden education that seniors receive through Senior Sport School has a central role. Senior Sport School is a support in the seniors´ education process so that they can understand and use the information to improve their health. The conclusion is that a sport school for seniors plays an important role in healthy ageing. Social connections and physical activity is highlighted by the participants as significant, but Senior Sport School is also an important part of seniors´ education development. The study´s results are positive for public health, but further research is needed to engage other groups in society.

This thesis questions a series of assumptions concerning the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century modernization of European spaces. Current scholarship tends to concur with essayistic texts and images by contemporary intellectuals that technological and organizational developments increased the freedom of movement of those living in western-European societies, while at the same time alienating them from each other and from their environment. I assess this claim with the help of Dutch travel egodocuments such as travel diaries and letters. After a prosopographical investigation of all available northern-Netherlandish travel egodocuments created between 1500 and 1915, a selection of these documents is examined in greater detail. In these documents, travellers regarded the possession of identity documents, a correct appearance, and a fitting social identity along with their personal contacts, physical capabilities, and the weather as the most important factors influencing whether they managed to gain access to places. A discussion of these factors demonstrates that no linear increase, nor a decrease, occurred in the spatial power felt by travellers. The exclusion many travellers continued to experience was often overdetermined. The largest groups affected by this were women and less educated families. Yet travellers could also play out different access factors against each other. By paying attention to how practices matched hopes and expectations, it is possible to discover how gravely social inequities were really felt by travellers. Perhaps surprisingly, all social groups desired to visit the same types of places. Their main difference concerned the atmosphere of the places where the different groups felt at home. To a large degree this matched travellers' unequal opportunities. Therefore, although opportunities remained strongly unequal throughout the period, this was not always experienced as a problem. Also, in cases where it was, many travellers knew strategies to work around the obstacles created for them.