Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wyoming, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 30, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 24-30).

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Marriage and Family Therapy, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-53).

This essay explores the similarities between The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and the Bible. It argues that Christian messages and values are represented by several of the characters. Focusing on Aslan, the Lion who is a Christ-like figure, and Mr. Tumnus and three of the children: Peter, Edmund and Lucy; the essay examines the Christian messages of betrayal, resurrection and self-sacrifice. The essay also explores the Christian virtues: forgiveness and courage, which carry important lessons for the young reader. With the aid of the technique of close reading together with specific features of Lewis’s life and belief where relevant, the essay examines the Christian messages and values. The conclusion of this essay further demonstrates the Christian aspects that Ward, Colbert, and Schakel to some extent mention in their studies. While they focus on Christianity in general, this essay analyzes the Christian messages of betrayal, resurrection and self-sacrifice as well as the Christian virtues forgiveness and courage, even further. The essay further demonstrates that Lewis intentionally included Christian messages and moral values.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: When examining organizational values, communication and leadership, how can the relationship between them be defined? This thesis approaches the problem by examining the literature in this field during the past ten years that deals with these three concepts both in theory and in practice. The relationship postulated to exist is defined as one in which leaders are being challenged to communicate the values of the organization in order to focus its members and the organization to a common purpose. An organization that shares a common values system is more successful than one without a coherent values system, and when these values are aligned to values acceptable to society the organization may be perceived as acceptable and thus attains a certain legitimacy. Leaders who share the value systems of their subordinates are similarly accepted and legitimised. The mutual resonance between the values communicated by leaders and those embodied in the organization is crucial, since a discrepancy leads to distrust of the messages being communicated with concommitant loss of effectiviness. Effective communication is, after all, the cornerstone of the organization as it is only through communication that the purpose of the organization can be shared and realized. Leaders in organizations can thus use the knowledge of the existence of such reso~ance to effectively communicate their vision to their subordinates; to disseminate the values of the organization and to enable the organization to grow and prosper. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Wanneer die konsepte van organisatoriese waardes, kommunikasie en leierskap ondersoek word, word die verhouding tussen die konsepte moeilik gedefinieer. Hierdie tesis benader dié probleem deur 'n studie te maak van die literatuur wat die afgelope tien jaar gepubliseer is waarin of een of al drie hierdie konsepte beide in teorie en in die praktyk bespreek is. Die postulering word gestel dat daar 'n verhouding bestaan waarin leiers uitgedaag word om die waardes van die organisasie te kommunikeer om sodoende die lede van die organisasie en die organisasie self op 'n gemeenskaplike doelwit in te stel. 'n Organisasie waarin daar 'n gemeenskaplike waarde sisteem heers is meer geneig na sukses as een daarsonder, en wanneer so 'n waarde sisteem in lyn staan met die waardes wat deur die gemeenskap aanvaar word, word die organisasie as legitiem en aanvaarbaar waargeneem. Leiers wat die waarde sisteme van hulle volgelinge deel word op soortgelyke wyse aanvaar en gelegitimiseer. Die wedersydse resonansie tussen die waardes wat deur leiers gekommunikeer word en dié wat in die organisasie vervat word is van kritieke belang, aangesien 'n diskrepansie kan lei tot 'n vertrouensverlies in die boodskap en gevolglik tot 'n verlies aan effektiewe kommunikasie. Effektiewe kommunikasie is die basis van die organisasie, aangesien dit slegs deur kommunikasie is dat die doelwit van die organisasie gedeel en gerealiseer kan word. Leiers in organisasies kan gevolglik die kennis van die bestaan van so 'n resonansie gebruik om op 'n effektiewe manier hulle visie aan hulle onderlinge te kommunikeer; om die waardes van die organisasie te versprei en om die organisasie se groei en sukses te bevorder.

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The present study used a delay discounting task and the Valued Living Questionnaire to examine the relationship between delay discounting and self-reported values. Thirty-eight participants completed the study. Participants were asked to make choices between immediate and delayed monetary rewards to determine rates of discounting. An exponential function (R2=0.97) provided a strong fit for discounting scores. On the Valued Living Questionnaire, participants rated on a Likert-type scale of 1-10 both the importance and their action in the previous week toward the following values: Family, marriage, parenting, friends, work, education, recreation, spirituality, community, and physical well-being. A composite valued living scored was calculated and compared to participant discounting rates; results suggest that there was a significant relationship between participant valued living scores and K-values (p<0.01) and participant valued living scores and AUC (p<0.02). The results of this study, while preliminary, are important for beginning to understand how values impact decision making.

Television mediation with children is a topic that has been important for parents, educators and scholars since television was introduced into the home. A majority of American families deal with this issue regularly. A significant number of studies in communications, psychology, education and medicine have researched how children and their families are affected. Patterns have been identified by researchers that quantify mediation into specific structures. Through focus groups with parents of tweens, this research investigates how family core values influence mediation in the home by discussing the way parents make choices about television in their daily lives and comparing those results to structures used by scholars. Results show that choices families make about television do not neatly fit into limited categories and are most influenced by a variety of factors including lifestyle choices, every day occurrences, and unavoidable circumstances. Values have a secondary influence.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Mykel R. Taylor / The average land price in Kansas has recently been through a period of large growth and decay, nearly doubling from 2010 to its peak in 2014, but falling from 2014 to 2017 in both real and nominal terms. However, there is anecdotal evidence that not all land prices are dropping at the same rate. Lower quality land prices seem to be dropping at a higher rate than the higher quality land prices. The goal of this analysis is to give analytical evidence to support the belief of different rates of price changes for different qualities of land. The hypothesis is that once the farm economy entered its period of negative growth, the producers that over-leveraged themselves needed to sell some of their assets to correct their balance sheets and that low quality land is the primary asset liquidated. The producers that did not over-leverage themselves would still be looking to purchase the right piece of land. This creates a surplus of less preferred low quality land on the market, while the supply and demand for the high quality land stays strong. This analysis was completed using 56,291 observations on land sales from 33 years starting at the beginning of 1985 and continuing on through the middle of 2017. A real price per acre for the land weighted by the number of acres in each parcel was calculated for each quarter, as well as a variable with the price of land lagged one quarter. Data on real net farm income, the S&P 500, and 30-year fixed-rate mortgage interest rates were also collected and used to create averages for each of the 131 quarters analyzed in this work. Finally, a variable representing the percent of all sales in each quarter in the bottom 25 percent in quality of all land sales was created. Quarterly dummy variables were included to control for seasonality. Two regressions were run with the only difference being the exclusion of the variable representing the bottom quality sales in the first in order to compare the results. Analysis of the first regression shows positive relationships between the dependent variable of the logged real price per acre and the independent variables of the logged lagged real price per acre, real net farm income, the S&P 500, and land sold during the third quarter of the year compared to the first quarter. There is a negative relationship suggested between the logged land price and the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage interest rate. Inclusion of the variable representing sales of land in the bottom quartile of quality suggest results consistent with the first regression, with some of the variables becoming more statistically significant. More importantly, this analysis shows a negative relationship between average land price and the variable representing land quality. This shows that the average land price is affected by the quality of the land sold at a statistically significant level.

Interpreting culture as symbols, stories, rituals and values, the thesis explores the culture of a Jewish and a Catholic secondary school in a dialogical way. The survey of the literature in Chapter 1 identifies relevant school-based research and locates the chosen case-study schools within the context of the British 'dual system'. Chapter 2 draws on the theoretical and methodological literatures of inter-faith dialogue and ethnography to develop and defend a paradigm for the research defined as open-inclusivist and constructivist. The main body of the thesis (Chapters 3-5), based on field-work undertaken in 1996 and 1997, presents the two schools in parallel with each other. Chapter 3 describes the details of the case studies at 'St. Margaret's' and 'Mount Sinai' and my developing research relationship with each school. In Chapter 4 many different voices from each school are woven into two 'tales' about the schools' cultures. This central chapter has a deliberately narrative style. Chapter 5 amplifies the cultural tales through the analysis of broadly quantitative data gained from an extensive questionnaire administered to a sample of senior students in each school. It is the only place in the thesis where views and values from the two schools are directly compared. The final two chapters widen the horizon of the study. Chapter 6 presents voices which were not part of the original case studies but which relate, in different ways, to the culture of the two schools. Chapter 7, with theoretical ideas about Jewish schools and education, and Catholic schools and education, provides resources for further dialogue about culture within Judaism and Catholicism and for Jewish-Christian dialogue. The thesis ends with some reflections on possible implications of the two cultures for discussions about the common good in education.

The aim of this study is to investigate how athleticism can be incorporated as selection criteria within the recruitment process. It is a descriptive case study, whereas Performiq is the company chosen to study. The reason is due to the fact that Performiq attached great importance to athleticism. The study has been built up through semi structured interviews and a content analysis of Performiq’s interview guide and work ads. It is based on the theories of Kahlke &amp; Schmidt’s assessment circle. The results showed that Performiq sees athleticism as a merit and not a requirement and explains how the company incorporates athleticism in their recruitment process. The company does believe that individuals get useful features from their sports that can be of use in future work.