U.S.-based Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) face significant competitive forces including market-based pressures in the form of new and increased competition, an escalating cost base and reduced financial aid sources. The practice of customer loyalty development and the study of the loyalty phenomena are prevalent in the marketing literature. Despite the prevalence of studies focusing on relationship marketing concepts and loyalty as drivers of customer retention, little progress has been made in conceptualizing and testing frameworks that can explain the impact of relationship marketing on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty in an IHE setting. This study proposed a relationship marketing approach towards the challenge of increasing student loyalty and thus ultimately student retention. Both offensive (relationship marketing concepts aimed at increasing trust, commitment and perceived value) and defensive (subjective norms and switching costs) strategies were proposed as antecedents of student loyalty. Several existing marketing and organizational behavior scales were modified for use in an IHE environment. Research into the dynamics of relationship marketing in a real-world setting was conducted to (1) confirm the scales for use in the IHE environment , (2) to broaden the settings in which the selected scales have been deployed, and (3) to offer depth to the relationship marketing and loyalty field of study. A survey was administered in three South Florida IHEs and 549 responses were collected. The use of structural equation modeling permitted the researcher to establish the measurement validity of the relationship marketing survey instrument and the statistical reliability and validity of the of the proposed variables. There were significant relationships noted between: trust and perceived value; perceived value and commitment; commitment and loyalty; front line employee behaviors and trust; and management policies and procedures and trust; confirming past studies. However, counter to past research, results showed no significant relationship between subjective norms and commitment. Some of the limitations from previous research were addressed by proposing a more integrated model that combined both offensive and defensive marketing constructs. Future research is needed to determine the causes for the lack of statistical significance for the proposed defensive marketing strategies.

High-risk, time-critical situations require trust for humans to interact with other agents even if they have never interacted with the agents before. In the near future, robots will perform tasks to help people in such situations, thus robots must understand why a person makes a trust decision in order to effectively aid the person. High casualty rates in several emergency evacuations motivate our use of this scenario as an example of a high-risk, time-critical situation. Emergency guidance robots can be stored inside of buildings then activated to search for victims and guide evacuees to safety. In this dissertation, we determined the conditions under which evacuees would be likely to trust a robot in an emergency evacuation. We began by examining reports of real-world evacuations and considering how guidance robots can best help. We performed two simulations of evacuations and learned that robots could be helpful as long as at least 30% of evacuees trusted their guidance instructions. We then developed several methods for a robot to communicate directional information to evacuees. After performing three rounds of evaluation using virtually, remotely and physically present robots, we concluded that robots should communicate directional information by gesturing with two arms. Next, we studied the effect of situational risk and the robot's previous performance on a participant's decision to use the robot during an interaction. We found that higher risk scenarios caused participants to align their self-reported trust with their decisions in a trust situation. We also discovered that trust in a robot drops after a single error when interaction occurs in a virtual environment. After an exploratory study in trust repair, we have learned that a robot can repair broken trust during the emergency by apologizing for its prior mistake or giving additional information relevant to the situation. Apologizing immediately after the error had no effect. Robots have the potential to save lives in emergency scenarios, but could have an equally disastrous effect if participants overtrust them. To explore this concept, we created a virtual environment of an office as well as a real-world simulation of an emergency evacuation. In both, participants interacted with a robot during a non-emergency phase to experience its behavior and then chose whether to follow the robot’s instructions during an emergency phase or not. In the virtual environment, the emergency was communicated through text, but in the real-world simulation, artificial smoke and fire alarms were used to increase the urgency of the situation. In our virtual environment, we confirmed our previous results that prior robot behavior affected whether participants would trust the robot or not. To our surprise, all participants followed the robot in the real-world simulation of an emergency, despite half observing the same robot perform poorly in a navigation guidance task just minutes before. We performed additional exploratory studies investigating different failure modes. Even when the robot pointed to a dark room with no discernible exit the majority of people did not choose to exit the way they entered. The conclusions of this dissertation are based on the results of fifteen experiments with a total of 2,168 participants (2,071 participants in virtual or remote studies conducted over the internet and 97 participants in physical studies on campus). We have found that most human evacuees will trust an emergency guidance robot that uses understandable information conveyance modalities and exhibits efficient guidance behavior in an evacuation scenario. In interactions with a virtual robot, this trust can be lost because of a single error made by the robot, but a similar effect was not found with real-world robots. This dissertation presents data indicating that victims in emergency situations may overtrust a robot, even when they have recently witnessed the robot malfunction. This work thus demonstrates concerns which are important to both the HRI and rescue robot communities.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The last decade has seen a continuing erosion of trust in business. Companies inability to realise trust in practice has created public cynicism and mistrust. This eruption of mistrust compelled business to ask why trust has become as issue of concern and how one can re-establish trust in commerce. The study will investigate the functioning of the concept of trust in business. Our hypothesis is that a move from mistrust to trust in the current business environment is only possible through a change in our understanding of ethics. A mere change in business processes or a tightening of corporate governance and compliance will not help us to move away from the culture of suspicion that is negatively influencing our business environment. We will propose the work of Emmanuel Levinas as an ethical alternative to the de-ontological and teleological approaches that are currently dominating our understanding of business ethics. Using some of his key concepts we construct what we call an 'embodied trust'. This form of trust is grounded in responsibility towards the other, and not in the rational sentiments of the egotistical subject. We complement this more philosophical approach to trust by building a business case for it by looking at the way it functions in various business instances. We acknowledge that a lot of what we have discussed is already an implicit part of what is happing in the business community. By looking at issues such as integrity, transparency I leadership, corporate culture, stakeholders, corporate social responsibility, branding and corporate governance, we highlight the existing forms of trust that already adhere to the discussed ethical requirements, and indicate the direction that business needs to take to cultivate this kind of trust in all its business processes. We conclude our study by giving two examples that will serve as illustration of our argument. The first being Regal Bank as an example of 'embodied mistrust' and the second being Allan Gray as an illustration of 'embodied trust'. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die laaste dekade is gekenmerk deur 'n voortdurende erosie van vertroue in die sakewereld. Maatskappye se onvermoe om in die praktyk vertroue te skep, het verder bygedra tot openbare sinisme en wantroue in sakepraktyke. Hierdie ontploffing van wantroue het organisasies genoop om te besin oor waarom vertroue so 'n belangrike kwessie is, en oor hoe om dit te herstel. Hierdie studie . ondersoek die wyse waarop die konsep van vertroue in besigheid funksioneer. Dns hipotese is dat die verskuiwing van wantroue na vertroue in die heersende besigheidsomgewing aileen moontlik is deur 'n veranderde begrip van etiek. Die blote verandering in besigheidsprosesse of 'n verskerping van korporatiewe beheer en nakoming van reels sal cns nie help om weg te beweeg van 'n kultuur van agterdog wat besig is om cns besigheidsmilieu negatief te be"(nvloed nie. Ons stel die werk van Emmanuel Levinas as 'n etiese alternatief voar om die de-ontologiese en teleologie5e benaderings te vervang wat tans cns beg rip van besigheidsetiek oorheers. Deur van sy sleutelbegrippe te gebruik, konstrueer ons wat ons noem 'n 'beliggaamde vertroue'. Hierdie vorm van vertroue is gegrond in verantwoordelikheid teenoor die ander en nie in die rasionele trekke van die egotisiese subjek nie. Ons komplementeer ons filosofiese benadering tot vertroue met 'n praktiese kyk op hoe dit funksioneer in verskillende besigheidsprosesse. Baie van dit wat ons bespreek, is reeds implisiet deel van dit wat gebeur in die bre;; besigheidsgemeenskap. Deur te kyk na sake soos integriteit, deursigtigheid, leierskap, korporatiewe kultuur, belanghebbendes, korporatiewe sosiale verantwoordelikheid, handelsmerke en korporatiewe beheer, wys ons uit hoe bestaande vorme van vertroue reeds voldoen aan ons voorgestelde etiese voorwaardes. Hiermee saam gee ons ook die rigting aan waarin besigheid moet ontwikkel om die tipe vertroue deel te maak van al sy besigheidsprosesse. Ons sluit die studie af deur twee voorbeelde te gee ter illustrasie van ons argument. Die eerste is die van Regal Bank as 'n voorbeeld van ' beliggaamde wantroue' en die tweede is die van Allan Gray as 'n illustrasie van 'beliggaamde vertroue'.

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att skapa en djupare förståelse kring hur medarbetare ser på de fyra underdimensionerna i det transformella ledarskapet och om de anser att ett sådant ledarskap skulle kunna bidra till en ökad motivation och ett ökat förtroende. Metod: Studien är baserad på en kvalitativ metod där vi har använt oss av strukturerade intervjuer. Vi intervjuade 10 personer, anställda på större företag. För att kunna analysera vårt material har vi använt oss av en tematisk analys. Resultat & slutsats: Studien visade vilka karaktärsdrag inom det transformella ledarskapet som var önskvärda ur en medarbetares perspektiv och bidrog även med att få en ökad förståelse för vilka karaktärsdrag/beteende som leder till en ökad respektive minskad motivation och förtroende för ledaren. Det som var särskilt intressant var att vi fann flertal negativa påverkningar på medarbetarna om det transformella ledarskapet användes på fel sätt. Om ledaren inte hittade en bra balans kunde beteenden och karaktärsdrag som karakteriserar den transformella ledarna leda till minskat förtroende och motivation. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Det skulle det vara intressant att fördjupa sig i vår studie genom att göra en motsvarande studie, som även fokuserar på hur olika personligheter förhåller sig till de fyra underdimensionerna och dess karaktärsdrag. Detta skulle kunna leda till en djupare insikt i hur den tranformella ledaren bör anpassa sig efter olika personligheter. Vidare hade en motsvarande kvantitativ studie varit intressant för att skapa en ökad generalisering som vi inte kunde uppnå i denna studie. Uppsatsens bidrag: Studien bidrar teoretiskt med att skapa en djupare förståelse för vilka karaktärsdrag och beteenden inom det transformella ledarskapet som är önskvärt ur medarbetares synpunkt, samt vilka av dessa som leder till ökat respektive minskat förtroenden och motivation. Vidare hoppas vi kunna bidra praktiskt genom att de medverkande i studien får en bättre förståelse för vilka egenskaper de anser önskvärda hos en ledare. Detta kan förhoppningsvis påverka deras nuvarande arbetsplats på ett positivt sätt. / Aim: The aim of this study is to create a deeper understanding of how employees look at the four sub-dimensions of the transformational leadership, and if they believe that such leadership could contribute to increased motivation and increased trust. Method: This study is based on a qualitative approach where we used structured interviews. We interviewed 10 people, employees of bigger companies. In order to analyze our material we used a thematic analysis. Result & Conclusions: The study showed the traits of the transformational leadership was desirable from an employee's perspective and also helped to get a better understanding of the characteristics/behavior that leads to an increased or decreased motivation and confidence in the leader. What was particularly interesting was that we found several negative influences on the employees of the transformal leadership used the wrong way. If the leader didn’t found a good balance the behaviors and traits that characterize the transformational leaders could lead to loss of confidence and motivation. Suggestions for future research: It would have been interesting to immerse themselves in our study by doing a counterpart study focused on how different personalities relate to the four under dimensions and its characteristics. This could lead to a deeper insight into how the transformational leader should adapt to different personalities. Furthermore, had a similar quantitative study be interesting to create to get a greater generalization that we could not achieve in this study. Contribution of the thesis: The study will contribute to create a deeper understanding of the characteristics and behaviors of the transformational leadership that is desirable from the employee's point of view. As well as those which lead to increased or decreased confidence and motivation. Furthermore, we hope to contribute practically by giving the participants of the study a better understanding of what characteristics they consider desirable in a leader.Which hopefully can affect their current workplace in a positive way.

My essay is an attempt to describe how complicated it can be to follow the rules and maintain boundaries without obstructing the children in their creative development. The aim is to highlight my approach and emphasize the importance of growing up in a kindergarten with standards and values which may not always coincide with their own opinion. I begin my essay with two stories about Emil five years, defying the rule of not climb up the climbing frame roof and Emma for three years, who are keen to spin on the swing, but followour rule and refrain. I wonder what it is that drives some kids to go against the rules and stretch the limits while others do not have any problem doing that we decided? I also tell about the time I as a newly-qualified nanny was rebuked by a colleague when I acted "recklessly". I would handle the situation differently today? In the last story, I praise a child for being "mischievous", which makes me proud. Can a "mischievous" child also experienced positive? Another issue that is relevant to my dilemma is if we educators must always be consistent or is it arbitrary to make exceptions? To understand my dilemma, I have used a phenomenological method, which means that I, along with the preschool curriculum, relevant literature and personal experience can understand my thoughts and actions from multiple perspectives. That way, I have gained a greater understanding of how crucial preschool standards and my response is for the children's development and self-reliance. Both in terms of rules and boundaries. Being a responsive educator with the ability to take the children's perspective makes it easier to convey a message without violating someone's privacy.

The non-profit sector is growing, where NPOs compete for scarce resources. Meanwhile, innovation in communication technology requires resources and creativity. Can social media work as an efficient tool for communicating organizational goals and values and how does it enhance trust in NPOs relationship with donors? How do NPOs use ICT and social media in communication to donors and how do they implement functional and emotional communication online?  The research area is approached through a deductive, qualitative, and constructivist perspective. Interviews with two leading NPOs were held, as well as a number of interviews with potential donors. The theoretical framework builds upon Morgan and Hunts and MacMillan et al’s models of trust and commitment. Functional and emotional communication was developed through various theories on online communication. The main findings of this thesis are that Swedish NPOs mainly focus on emotional communication in order to obtain emotional commitment before further developing trust, which is created from functional communication. The investigated NPOs use functional communication to a very little extent.

Purpose: This study aims to (1) describe and analyse the local ground operator’s role in the network of the Botswana tourism industry, (2) to investigate what factors characterize and influence their relationships with foreign tour operators, as well as (3) to provide implications for improving these relations. Methodology: This study has been conducted as a case study, where the empirical data was collected during a two months field trip to Botswana. A qualitative research method, and a deductive approach has been used. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with ground operators to get their perspective of their own situation, and one with a person representing a governmental organisation. Most data was collected through the interviews, but participating observation also served as a source of information. The validity and reliability of the study has been enhanced by defining core concepts, interviewing several respondents, using an interview guide and recording most of the interviews. Results: Local ground operators play are crucial role in the network of Botswana’s tourism industry, as they are engaged in a high number of business relationships, are bringing the services at the destination together, and are connecting them to the tourists. They play a role as both customers and suppliers. Their relationship to tour operators abroad consists of a lot of resource ties, activity links as well as some actor bonds. Trust is found to be a very essential part of the relationship, and they perceive themselves as being dependent on the tour operators. Culture is not identified as a major influencing factor. As for managerial recommendations, a better communication in expectations and an increased adaptation of products and processes, to create customer dependence, are among the results advised.

Due to the attractive advantages of wireless communication technologies, wireless networking and mobile computing has developed expeditiously and gained ample prevalence. Thereby, many practical applications are being designed for the use of wireless ad hoc networks in both military and civilian scenarios. However, some security concerns have arisen from such networks, especially in that misbehaving nodes pose a major threat during the construction of a trusted network. Therefore, security is one of the key challenges in wireless ad hoc networks, requiring significant attention due to their own features and concerns. This thesis presents several computational models and security strategies for the design of secure, trustworthy networks, which are able to make rational decisions when encountering potential threats. In this thesis, we first propose a distributed network management model for secure group communication. Our approach simplifies the complexity of traditional group management and supports the inclusion of other security mechanisms for the purpose of secure communications. As a decentralized management method, trust can perform well in a dynamic and agile environment. Our proposed trust system defines the concept of trust, establishes the trust relationship between distributed nodes, involves the novel and effective computational model, and specifies a set of trust-based rules in this system for wireless nodes. We also propose a hybrid cryptosystem through the application of both symmetric and asymmetric key algorithms to provide reliable and secure protection of data confidentiality. With the design of selective encryption, uncertainty is incorporated into data encryption and the overhead spent on the data protection is significantly reduced. Thus, the communicating parties not only obtain reliable security protection, but also improve the efficiency of data communication. Through security analysis and simulation experiments, we have shown how decentralized management is useful in wireless and ad hoc scenarios, how trust provides feasible solutions for misbehavior detection, and how our proposed strategies offer security properties.

The purpose of this research is to study how organizations maintain their competitive advantage in today’s turbulent and highly competitive business environment, by striving to become a learning organization. The impact of factors such as leadership (both transformational and transactional leadership) and trust on an organization’s learning capability is empirically examined. This research adds to the existing body of literature in two ways. First, it argues that a transactional leadership style can influence learning, despite research spanning the last decade that has focused on transformational leadership theory as the dominant model of effective leadership. Therefore, the importance of both leadership styles, each having valuable differential effects is emphasized in this study. Second, the previously untested role of trust as mediating the relationship between leadership and organizational learning capability is examined. It is argued that without supervisor trust, the opportunities for a learning organization to reach its full potential and to subsequently develop learning capabilities is reduced. Findings from this study support the influence of both leadership styles on learning. Trust in one’s supervisor was also found to fully mediate the relationship between leadership and learning.

The importance of good relationship among parties in the construction industry has been accepted as one of the central issues of an organisation's success. The growing acceptance to the Relational Contracting approaches that representing partnering, supply chain alliances and other types of collaborative working relationships shows how construction organisations are moving forward from the traditional adversarial culture to a more harmonious working environment. However the application of the Relational Contracting Norms in the context of national culture has received relatively little attention in the literature. This study attempts to fill this void by investigating how good relationships develop within construction projects in Malaysia. It also investigates the adaptability of the relational contracting norms in different cultural setting and explores whether similar relational contracting norms emerge in different projects before developing a relationship development model that is applicable to the academic and practitioners. By using qualitative approach, the main data was collected from 36 semi-structured in-depth interviews across four case studies. The results were validated by 20 follow-up interviews with selected respondents, two stages of expert interviews and cross-case analysis. This study found that good relationships within construction projects in the Malaysian construction industry developed from the interplay of twelve structural and relational dimensions that went through three stages of relationship development process in project setting. It highlights the significant importance of the value and emotion-related dimensions in developing good relationships. A relationship development model was produced based on these twelve dimensions (special contract directive, power, performance, trust, commitment, loyalty, personal relationships, emotions, values, social interaction, work inter-dependency and political connection). The research contributes to construction management literature by supporting the Transaction Cost Economics Theory and extends the Relational Contracting Theory. It proposes seven new dimensions that are incorporated in the newly proposed relationship development model. Although the study was conducted in a specific national culture, it is argued that the model is applicable to other context on the basis that spiritual, emotional and human components of the work experience could be learned by other cultures.