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M.S.

The quality of workplace morale can positively and negatively affect employee engagement. Engaged employees are more likely to participate in active communication with one another. They are also more likely to adopt the organizational goals and work towards creating a productive work environment. Communication and engagement build trust. Established trust between employees and executive leadership is a delicate relationship to maintain, though it is necessary when contending with periods of stress. The organization profiled below experienced the stressor of needing to grow without alienating those afraid of change or used to operating in one predictable direction. There was a desire to generate engagement, build trust and make room for employee-directed change. This desire left the organization open to exploring its culture and its impact on employee engagement.

This phenomenological study examined the experiences of Black teachers in predominately White P-12 schools, and focused on examining the external and internal challenges that Black teachers face who work in predominately White schools. Voices are sometimes ignored or muted in a society dominated by the majority White culture. This study will allow readers to experience the narratives of Black educators who work in these environments. The educators selected for this study were purposefully chosen from predominately White school districts. The researcher interviewed each subject in a semi-structured interview environment to gather data. Results of interviews lead to the emergence of five major themes, which were mentorship, professionalism, exclusion/isolation, cultural differences, relationship building. These findings led to the identification of eleven recommendations for practice and seven recommendations for future research.

Adaptability is defined as having the capacity to be modified for a new use or purpose; the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions. Adaptability in a space can have many venues and effects depending on the intent of its flexibility. This thesis will explore several methods of adaptability in design in context with a Makerspace, a community space which functions to provide the facilities and work environment for a variety of creators to use. In a building typology, a Makerspace with a large variety of users, the ability for the spaces to be informed by and reactive to each individual user is imperative to its objective. The approach to exploring adaptable design solutions is in analyzing the potential makers occupying the space, what their specific needs are and how can architectural designs become flexible in a way that allows the Makers to craft their own work environments. The primary objectives of this thesis are to: 1. Explore some of the various definitions of adaptability and how those meanings can be incorporated into design solutions 2. Identify spaces in the project that can be adapted for their specific purpose 3. Determine the methods of adaptability suited to the building typology and its users 4. Discuss adaptable design in terms of fixed and kinetic characteristics 5. Design spaces that are responsive to the site, the project's purpose and the unique needs of each user. The site of the project is located on the 500 block of South Broadway Street, Baltimore MD in the upper Fells Point district. Site dimensions are roughly 55' by 200' of infill space between surrounding retail and residential properties. This site was chosen to accommodate a Makerspace as it is central to Baltimore city's three major arts districts (Bromo, Highlandtown, and Station North Arts Districts) and could be considered a hub where local makers convene and establish a work space for a period of time that has the specific equipment and environment they require. / Master of Architecture / Adaptability is defined as having the capacity to be modified for a new use or purpose; the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions. This thesis explores ways in which architectural design can be adaptable. To have the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions, in this case the people that will use the space and the purpose of the spaces. Baltimore city is home to a large variety of local artists and creators working on their craft. The three major arts districts in the city, Bromo, Highlandtown, and Station North cultivate a community of people that create and consume artistic and innovative projects. In order to most successfully create, an artist should have access to a work environment that is not a hindrance but an asset to their process. The arts community of Baltimore could greatly benefit from a place that offers suitable work environments to a community which does not typically have a designated place. This thesis uses the building type: Makerspace which is a facility used as a tool for creators or "makers" to enter with an idea and facilitate a project. A makerspace can provide access to communal equipment that would otherwise be expensive for the individual maker to own, private and/or public work spaces to use for the maker's individual needs and a sense of community. The Makerspace was chosen as the vessel for exploration into adaptable design because of the nature of the building's purpose. The people that will inhabit and use the spaces will have a variety of specific needs in a work space. I wanted to explore how the designs of spaces could become flexible to accommodate those specific needs. The primary objectives of this thesis are to: 1. Explore some of the various definitions of adaptability and how those meanings can be incorporated into design solutions 2. Identify spaces in the project that can be adapted for their specific purpose 3. Determine the methods of adaptability suited to the building typology and its users 4. Discuss adaptable design in terms of fixed and kinetic characteristics 5. Design spaces that are responsive to the site, the project's purpose and the unique needs of each user.

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Experts have suggested that a restructuring of the organization of schools is one way to improve the teaching profession. One way to bring about such a restructuring is to allow teachers the opportunity to build collegial relationships. Advocates of peer coaching believe that it can be used to bring about this opportunity to build collegial relationships and allow for the restructuring of schools in order to create a more professional working environment in which teachers work and learn together. This restructuring should decrease isolation of teachers by creating a working environment of trust and allowing for greater resources sharing among the teachers. In turn, teachers' levels of job satisfaction should increase which ultimately should result in better teaching. However, there is little, if any, empirical support for this claim. Administrators who are interested in restructuring schools need information about the implications of building such collegial relationships on the profession of teaching and the working environment of the school. In order to provide this information, 565 teachers in a large suburban Virginia public school system that had implemented peer coaching for a two-year period were surveyed. A questionnaire was used to document the ‘teachers' levels of job satisfaction and perceived usefulness of peer coaching, as well as their perceptions about the degree to which trust and sharing of resources (interactions) existed in their schools. The data collected from the questionnaire was entered into a computer using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS^x). Specifically, descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) and Pearson product-moment correlations were used to describe selected variables and V explore interrelationships between the variables. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine to what extent differences existed between elementary, middle, and high school teachers on the selected variables in the study. Based on the results, the teachers agreed that peer coaching was useful and that they trusted each other. Their participation in resources sharing tended to be more infrequent than frequent. They were satisfied with their teaching jobs. Further, it was found that pairs of the variables were positively and moderately correlated except for a weak correlation between resources sharing and job satisfaction. This meant that, on the whole, the more useful teachers found peer coaching, the more satisfied they were with their jobs, along with perceiving greater degrees of trust and resources sharing. No differences were found to exist among the three levels of teachers on the A usefulness of peer coaching or job satisfaction. All levels differed on the degree of trust that existed in their school. Middle school teachers differed from elementary on the frequency of resources sharing. In conclusion, peer coaching appears to have reduced isolation among the teachers and provided teachers the opportunity to learn about their teaching on the job. Further training in feedback skills and group process skills along with more opportunities to observe one another are recommended as ways to further reduce isolation and create conditions in which teachers are more able to collaboratively solve problems. / Ed. D.

Bakgrund: En hälsosam arbetsplats skapas genom arbete inom flertalet områden med fokusering på de anställdas delaktighet, inflytande, utveckling, hälsa samt balans mellan arbete och fritid vilket i sin tur leder till minskad personalomsättning och därmed större möjligheter att behålla sin personal. Syfte: Studiens syfte var att undersöka vilka hälsofaktorer i arbetsmiljön anställda upplevde påverkar dem att förbli anställda på ett företag samt sambandet mellan upplevd arbetsmiljö och intention till uppsägning. Metod: En kvantitativ tvärsnittsstudie genomfördes där anställda på ett företag inom informationsteknik (n = 114) besvarade en enkät med frågor kring arbetsmiljö, hälsa och intention till uppsägning. Resultat: Huvudresultatet visar ett signifikant samband mellan arbetsmiljöfaktorer och intention till uppsägning. Studien indikerar att arbetsklimat, arbetskrav, delaktighet, självskattad hälsa, arbetstillfredsställelse, belöning samt balans arbete/privatliv kan förklara variansen för intention till uppsägning till 14,6 %. De viktigaste faktorerna för att förbli anställd på företaget var kompetensutveckling samt trivsel med kollegor och arbetsuppgifter. Slutsats: Studien visade att arbetsmiljö till viss del predicerar intention till uppsägning vilket bekräftar tidigare forskning. Detta är betydelsefullt för folkhälsan i stort i och med att människors hälsa påverkas av arbetet och arbetslivet men det kan även vara betydande för företag som i framtiden vill behålla anställda om konkurrensen ökar. / Background: Healthy workplaces are created through work in several areas with a focus in employee involvement, development, health and work-life balance. In return, this will improve the organization and decrease turnover and thereby bigger opportunities to retain personnel. Aim: The aim was to analyze which health factors in the work environment employees experienced as important for them to stay and to examine the relationship between work environment and turnover intention. Method: A quantitative cross-sectional study was carried out and employees on a company in information technology (n = 114) answered a questionnaire about work environment, health and turnover intention. Results: Main results indicate a significant correlation between variables of work environment and turnover intention. This study indicates that working climate, effort, involvement, health, job satisfaction, reward and work-life balance can explain 14,6 % of the variance of turnover intention. The most important factors for employees to stay were their own capacity building and satisfaction with colleagues and assignments. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that work environment to some part predicts turnover intention, which is consistent with previous studies. This is important for public health in general because health is influenced by work and working life but it could also be immensely important for companies that want to keep their employees if the rivalries are higher in the future.

Our physical, social and mental health are all important for our wellbeing and no one should feel ill or mistreated because of their work situation. Despite this, an increasing number of people are suffering from unhealthy workload or victimization at work. Mental illness is an increasing problem and cost society around 70 billion SEK each year, 50 % of which can be related to loss in production caused by sick-leave. In addition to the immeasurable human costs, Sweden now faces one of its greatest challenges in modern time. In order to counteract this development, the Swedish Work Environmental Authority released new provisions regarding the organisational and social work environment called AFS 2015:4 which are aimed at all activities where an employee perform work on the employers account. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of difficulties and possibilities when revising current work practices to fulfil the provisions. The thesis uses a case study approach taking place in an organisation within Svevia, a Swedish construction company, using a literature review, a document analysis, interviews and a questionnaire. The findings indicate that even though the organisation had major efforts put into their work environment management, there were improvements to be made regarding the organisational and social work environment. Furthermore, what can be improved and how the organisation can support the improvements to fulfill the provisions and work towards a better work environment is concluded. The results are of great practical use not only to the case organisation but to all organisations similar in nature.

Chow Shuk Yee. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-74). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Definition of sexual harassment --- p.2 / Responses of sexual harassment --- p.3 / Reporting of sexual harassment --- p.4 / Antecedents of reporting sexual harassment --- p.5 / Attitudes towards reporting --- p.7 / Perceived normative pressure towards reporting --- p.9 / Perceived behavioral control of reporting --- p.9 / Gender difference on reporting sexual harassment --- p.10 / Knowledge of protection against victimization of sexual harassment --- p.11 / Consequences of sexual harassment --- p.12 / The present study --- p.14 / Objectives of the study --- p.15 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Method --- p.17 / Elicitation Study --- p.17 / Participants --- p.17 / Materials --- p.17 / Main Study --- p.18 / Participants --- p.18 / Materials --- p.18 / Procedure --- p.23 / In-depth interviews --- p.23 / Participants --- p.23 / Materials --- p.23 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Results --- p.25 / Demographic data --- p.25 / Antecedents of reporting sexual harassment --- p.28 / Moderating effect of gender on the relationship of antecedents of reporting and reporting behavior --- p.37 / Moderating effect of knowledge of protection against victimization on the relationship of antecedents of reporting and reporting behavior --- p.40 / Six antecedents and reporting among victims of sexual harassment --- p.43 / Consequences of sexual harassment in the workplace --- p.45 / Interview data --- p.48 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Discussion --- p.52 / Antecedents of reporting sexual harassment --- p.52 / Empowerment through protection against victimization? --- p.55 / Consequences of sexual harassment --- p.56 / Organizational commitment --- p.56 / More psychological impact on male victims? --- p.57 / Discrepancy in the definition of sexual harassment --- p.58 / Implications --- p.58 / Limitations --- p.61 / Further studies --- p.62 / Conclusion --- p.63