It has been repeatedly observed that home and local context matter in the education of children. A smooth transition between home and classroom prepares children for enjoyable and meaningful life-long learning. Knowledge building in children is influenced by previous experience, values, beliefs and sociocultural factors associated with community. Against this theoretical background, the thesis examined the integration of local spiritual and cultural values to improve science education in Ethiopia. This autoethnographic research used in-depth interviews, supplementary observations and focus group discussion and my biography to identify the perception and practice of common and unique spiritual and cultural values. The study examined whether these values were included and/or excluded in the school curriculum and explored the possibilities for incorporating values in science education and the anticipated tensions resulting from their inclusion. Students, science teachers, parents, employers, curriculum experts, policymakers, elders, and religious leaders participated in the research, conducted in a randomly selected secondary school in Addis Ababa. The sampling followed a kind of snowball method, with a total of twenty key informants participating in interviews, fifteen classroom observations, and one focus group discussion. The data collection aimed at generating stories, which underlie the autoethnography methodology. Findings indicated that belief in and fear of God animated and sustained the Ethiopian way of life. Although spiritual teachings derived from sacred writings were the initial foundation for Ethiopian cultural norms, the two merged together later, creating a mosaic pervading every aspect of life in Ethiopia. Education was sustained on this merger of spiritual and cultural norms and values. It was also shown that the now century-old system of formal education did not incorporate those local spiritual and cultural values. Current science education also has little relationship to Ethiopian spiritual and cultural norms and is, therefore, in need of restoration. Findings showed that efforts to recapture local spiritual and cultural values in the curriculum may encounter obstacles and tensions. Clearly, the future of a more prosperous Ethiopia depends on the extent to which curriculum stakeholders can overcome these obstacles and put in place a relevant, contextual, and holistic education.

Direct care worker turnover and shortages plague long-term care, weakening its quality, heightening costs for governments and employers, and cyclically breeding further turnover and shortages of workers. To address these issues, I investigate why direct care workers chose employment in long-term care (LTC), assisted living (AL) and specific AL facilities. Data come from a mixed-methods study of 45 AL facilities in Georgia, including interviews with 400 direct care workers. Findings include qualitative data analyzed using a grounded theory approach and descriptive quantitative data. Care workers’ motivations for employment in LTC, AL, and specific AL facilities reflect a split between moral and material values for care work, and care workers’ motivations illustrate a process of reconciling moral and material values. Individuals become care workers for reasons that are both materialistic, like earning a living wage, and moralistic, like the desire to care for others. They take employment expecting it to be consistent with their moral ideals and to satisfy their economic needs. Various individual, facility, industry, and community level factors influence workers’ motivations, and these factors reinforce the inconsistency between moral and material values for care work. Considering the heightening demand for LTC and short supply of care workers, as well as the deindustrialization of the economy, several recommendations are made for policies and practices that would support workers’ motivations for employment in LTC. Areas for future research also are highlighted.

As today's global businesses acknowledge the criticality of being competitive in international markets, this new awakening also compels these businesses to not just understand the diverse cultures across which they manage and operate, but to also recognize the impact of their own cultural grounding within their business contexts. However, there is comparatively less attention given to the subcultural aspects of business culture. Acknowledging a gap in research examining attitudes of subcultures in a single nation to particular management approaches, Peppas conducted a comparative study in 2002 between the subcultures of African Americans and Euro Americans regarding 18 values statements framed around the managerial functions. This study builds upon that quantitative research addressing specifically the management values of the African American subculture. However, while this study is similarly framed around some values examined in Peppas' research, the purpose of this study was to explore the African American subcultural experiences in practice through qualitative inquiry, presenting the informants' emic views to understand uniqueness or commonalities of their management values (attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors). The methodology utilized a purposive sample of 10 African American managers across technology, financial services, oil and gas, healthcare, and banking industries. This basic qualitative, exploratory study employed semi-structured interviews framed around some of the management values examined in the Peppas study in 2002. The data specifically revealed insight regarding aspects of management values of planning, evaluating, innovating; organizing and controlling; recruiting, selecting, rewarding; leadership; communication; and relationships between work and social life. The findings in this study mainly corroborate the findings of related values in the Peppas study of 2002. However, interpretation of the informants' behavioral experiences sometimes contrasted to their expressed beliefs. Emergent themes reveal a consistency in the belief of these African American managers that they are observed more closely than other non-minority managers and that they are challenged and tested by others particularly because they must prove their worthiness. Also, entrenched educational values proved common across all informants' experiences.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-207).

Despite nursing’s espoused professional values of caring and social justice, some patients are stigmatized and receive discriminatory nursing care. There is a gap in existing literature about how nurses deal with the tension they experience when personal and professional values collide. The purpose of this study was to generate a substantive theory of the process that nurses use when faced with values tension in clinical practice and how this affects their behaviour. Using constructivist grounded theory methodology informed by symbolic interactionism and critical social theory, the theory of Juggling a Way of Being was co-constructed with data obtained through interviews with registered nurses (n=8) who provide frontline care in an emergency department in Atlantic Canada. The study’s findings revealed a process fraught with tension as nurse participants assimilated internal and external stressors, adjusted the patient-centered/nurse-centered lens according to their interpretation of the situation, and achieved a point of action or inaction. Implications for nursing practice and administration, education and research are discussed.

Att företag tar fram kärnvärden som ett sätt att ge de anställda riktlinjer för hur de ska agera inom företaget blir allt mer vanligt, men fyller dessa kärnvärden till fullo den funktion i företaget som de är framtagna för? Syftet med denna studie har varit att ge en bild av hur ett specifikt företag, i denna studie Peab, arbetar med att förmedla sina kärnvärden och hur de anställda uppfattar och förhåller sig till dessa värden. För att få fram viktig bakgrundsinformation gjordes det en dokumentgranskning av det material som har tillhandahållits från Peab gällande deras kärnvärden och hur de arbetar med att förmedla dessa. I denna studie har en kvalitativ ansats valts och det genomfördes sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med två olika yrkeskategorier inom företaget, som i denna studie benämns som chefer och yrkesarbetare. Studiens resultat visar att den information som ges kontinuerligt till Peabs medarbetare skiljer sig åt beroende på vilken av de två ovannämnda yrkeskategorierna de anställda tillhör. Detta leder i sin tur till skilda uppfattningar om vad kärnvärdenas uppgift är i företaget och hur hög graden av överensstämmelse är mellan respondenternas egna personliga värderingar och kärnvärdena. / That organizations develop core values as a way to give employees guidance on how to act in the company becomes more common, but are these core values filling the function of the company as they are developed to do? The purpose of this study was to provide a picture of how a specific company , in this study, Peab, is working to convey their core values and how employees perceive and relate to these values. In order to obtain important background information, a document review was made of the material that has been provided from Peab concerning their core values and how they work to convey them. In this study, a qualitative approach was selected and six semi-structured interviews was carried out with two different professional groups in the company, which in this study is referred to as managers and skilled workers. Our result demonstrate that the information given continuously to Peab employees differ depending on which of the above two occupational categories the employees belong to. This in turn leads to different perceptions of what the core values role are in the company and how high the degree of agreement between respondents' personal values and the core values are.

Based on last years events that have taken place, events on the school Lundbergs and the police values of work, has the meaning of having a set of values been questioned. This study aimed to investigate and answer the fundamental values based on the common value basis for the government employees within an organization and how it perceived by employees. The new institutional theory was the framework for this qualitative study conducted with semi-structured interviews. Respondents were employees within the organization. Ethnographic qualitative methodology was the basis for our methodology and we used a thematic model of theme interpretation, communication and knowledge in our analysis. The study shows that there is a lack of communication regarding values and work values within the organization. It’s up to the employees themselves as individuals to become aware of the values and keep their work tied to it. It also emerged in the study that employees had little knowledge of the common core values of the civil service as an employee in the organization should assume in their daily work. The reason for this may be that values are general and can be perceived as self-evident principles, and this is a natural part of their work. Moreover, the study showed that there was a difference between employees who have been employed for quite some time and relative newcomers. Those employees who have been employed for quite some time possessed more knowledge about the values and values work. / Utifrån det senaste årets uppmärksammade händelser på Lundsberg och med polisens värdegrundsarbete, har innebörden av att ha en värdegrund ifrågasatts. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka och besvara hur värdegrundsarbetet utifrån den gemensamma värdegrunden för de statsanställda inom en organisation uppfattas av medarbetarna. Nyinstitutionell teori utgjorde referensram för denna kvalitativa studie som genomförts med semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Respondenterna var medarbetare inom organisationen. Etnografisk kvalitativ metodik låg som grund för vår studie och vi utgick från en tematisk modell med tema tolkning, förmedling och kännedom i vår analys. I studien framkom att medarbetarna upplever en brist i förmedlingen gällande värdegrunden och arbetet omkring den. Det är mycket upp till medarbetarna själva som individer att ta del av värdegrunden och hålla deras arbete knytet till den. Det framkom även i studien att medarbetarna inte hade någon större kännedom om den gemensamma värdegrunden för de statsanställda som medarbetare inom organisationen ska utgå från i sitt dagliga arbete. Detta kan bero på att värdegrunden är generell och upplevas som självklara principer samt redan är en naturlig del av deras arbete. Vidare visade studien att det fanns en skillnad i kännedomen mellan medarbetare som har varit anställda ett längre tag och relativt nyanställda. De med längre anställningstid hade större kännedom om värdegrunden och värdegrundsarbetet inom organisationen.

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Different value systems are a major source of diversity between people and culture groups. A better understanding of these differences can be a valuable tool when a diverse work force, as found in South Africa, has to be managed. Values can act as a unifying theory for the field of human motivation, as a way of organising the different needs, motives and goals proposed in other theories. The values theory describes aspects of the human psychological structure that are fundamental, aspects presumably common to all humankind. The objective of this study was to investigate the construct equivalence of the values as measured by the Work and Organizational Values Scale for new applicants from different language groups in the South African Police Service (SAPS), and to investigate the relationship between the value patterns of the different language and gender groups. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The study population consisted of two groups who applied for jobs in the South African Police Services (SAPS). The first group consisted of civilians (N=3 400), while the second group consisted of police applicants (N=1 800). The Work and Organizational Values Scale was administered. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analyses, and multivariate analysis of variance were used to analyse the results. Principal component analysis with a direct oblimin rotation resulted in two factors. The first factor was interpreted as self-enhancement (power, materialism and prestige) versus conservation (conformity and security). The second factor was interpreted as collectivism (social commitment, relations, and environment) versus individualism (goal-orientedness. stimulation and self-direction). These factors were found to be equivalent for four language groups. Statistically significant differences were found between the value priorities of different language groups as well as genders. However, larger practically significant differences were found between males and females than between different language groups. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

It has been repeatedly observed that home and local context matter in the education of children. A smooth transition between home and classroom prepares children for enjoyable and meaningful life-long learning. Knowledge building in children is influenced by previous experience, values, beliefs and sociocultural factors associated with community. Against this theoretical background, the thesis examined the integration of local spiritual and cultural values to improve science education in Ethiopia. This autoethnographic research used in-depth interviews, supplementary observations and focus group discussion and my biography to identify the perception and practice of common and unique spiritual and cultural values. The study examined whether these values were included and/or excluded in the school curriculum and explored the possibilities for incorporating values in science education and the anticipated tensions resulting from their inclusion. Students, science teachers, parents, employers, curriculum experts, policymakers, elders, and religious leaders participated in the research, conducted in a randomly selected secondary school in Addis Ababa. The sampling followed a kind of snowball method, with a total of twenty key informants participating in interviews, fifteen classroom observations, and one focus group discussion. The data collection aimed at generating stories, which underlie the autoethnography methodology. Findings indicated that belief in and fear of God animated and sustained the Ethiopian way of life. Although spiritual teachings derived from sacred writings were the initial foundation for Ethiopian cultural norms, the two merged together later, creating a mosaic pervading every aspect of life in Ethiopia. Education was sustained on this merger of spiritual and cultural norms and values. It was also shown that the now century-old system of formal education did not incorporate those local spiritual and cultural values. Current science education also has little relationship to Ethiopian spiritual and cultural norms and is, therefore, in need of restoration. Findings showed that efforts to recapture local spiritual and cultural values in the curriculum may encounter obstacles and tensions. Clearly, the future of a more prosperous Ethiopia depends on the extent to which curriculum stakeholders can overcome these obstacles and put in place a relevant, contextual, and holistic education.