<p> The following study explored the experiential eustress accounts of nurses within a hospital work environment. Previous literature found some level of connection between eustress and hope, self-efficacy, collaboration, resilience, and self-perceptions of health. However, the previous literature was attempting to explore and explain a cognitively appraised construct, eustress, without first gathering experiential accounts of the construct from participants. This may have altered the discoveries previously made and necessitates the following research. The current study produced data that helped to address the gap in the previous literature relevant to the guiding research question: What is the eustress experience of RNs in organizational contexts? The constructivist grounded theory method was used to answer the research question. The current study explored the experiential accounts of 12 Registered Nurses (RN) from a hospital within the Western US. All participants were RNs, female, aged 25-65 and having various experience levels (5 to 43 years). Various levels of grounded theory coding were used on the data to produce three models and a theory. The current study found that the participants explained eustress differently than the terminology used in previous literature. All accounts of eustress were directly connected to intense situations (highly stressful experience) that had positive outcomes. These eustress experiences altered the RNs in self-reported beneficial ways, ranging from enhancing confidence, resilience, and professional growth to changing motivation, altering professional perceptions, and changing how they felt about stress in general. The presence of a collaborative, open-minded, and trustworthy team was also noted as having a profound effect on participant recollections of eustress.</p><p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / In studies of behavior of individuals it has been found that knowledge of the results of performance enables Ss to increase the accuracy and reduce the variability of their responses. Similarly, studies of groups indicate an increase in accuracy following receipt of information concerning results. To explain this it has been suggested that the information enables members to develop an organization to solve problems. In this research an attempt was made to investigate the relationship between increased information concerning performance and the development of aspects of organization in small groups. A positive relation was predicted between these two conceptual variables through a process approximating the following formulation. With increased information the Ss' responses become less variable (more stable). This increased stability enables the Ss to develop a set of expectations or conjectures about the behavior of others in the group. The information in addition to increasing the stability ot responses also provides the basis against which the Ss may test their conjectures. A validated set of expectations should enable Ss to coordinate their responses with those of others. This in turn should result in an increase in group accuracy. While this formulation is not tested in the experiment reported here, aspects of it are directly dealt with. [TRUNCATED]

<p>This mixed methods study examined the impact of an online mindfulness-training program on mindfulness and the attention levels of eight employees working in an organization. All participants showed increased levels of mindfulness at the end of the intervention. The attention levels for participants increased for two of the three attention scales used to measure attention levels. The two attention scales that showed increases were mind wandering and attention, whereas distraction showed no significant increase comparing baseline to post-levels. The qualitative information gathered emphasized learning and greater levels of awareness around mental states and emotional states. This study showed preliminary support for the value of online mindfulness programs in organizations and future research should continue to examine how mindfulness can support employees.

<p> Research and development (R&amp;D) innovation has become an important competitive advantage that is essential to the biopharma industry and critical to drug development (Bennani, 2012; Cuatrecasas, 2006; Douglas, et al., 2010; Garnier, 2008; Hine &amp; Kapeleris, 2006; McKelvey, 2008; Pisano, 2006, 2010). Cultivating R&amp;D innovation carries a distinct challenge of balancing between fostering conditions for creativity while at the same time managing for technical, scientific and operational efficiencies. However, the trend in the industry is toward using more process management techniques focused on formalization, standardization, control and efficiency in order to accelerate drug discovery efforts (Brown &amp; Svenson, 1998; Cardinal, 2001; Cuatrecasas, 2006; Hine &amp; Kaperleris, 2006; Johnstone et al., 2011; Paul et al., 2010; Scannell et al., 2012; Sewing et al., 2008; Ullman &amp; Boutellier, 2008). </p><p> This study was designed to explore how early drug discovery scientists experience creativity in a highly coordinated and managed work environment. The research questions were as follows: <i>How do scientists working in the early discovery phases of the R&amp;D pipeline experience creativity; and how does a highly managed and coordinated work environment influence scientists&rsquo; experience of creativity?</i> The basis for understanding their experiences was captured through detailed stories and reflections about their personal background, early influences and professional experiences as a scientist. </p><p> The sample included 10 early drug discovery scientists who work for either a pharmaceutical, biotech or bio-pharmaceutical company based in the United States of America (USA). A basic qualitative study was conducted with in-depth interviews as the primary method of data collection. Data were analyzed using multiple iterations of coding, describing and classifying to interpret what creativity means, how scientists experience creativity within their work environment and what factors influence this experience. Conclusions and implications about what creativity means, how scientists experience creativity and the various dynamics that shape this experience are presented in the following pages.</p><p>

xi, 105 p. : map. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This thesis explores the empowerment effects of informal education programs run by the highly acclaimed non-governmental organization (NGO) Tostan in Senegal, West Africa. My interviews with 25 women in six rural communities in Senegal reveal that participants in Tostan training programs experience multiple forms and degrees of empowerment. The respondents in this study report sometimes feeling empowered in terms of education, access to resources, individualization and participation. In light of the literature on empowerment, my respondents remain only partially empowered, constrained by existing sociopolitical relations and economic dependency. My research also considers whether there are structural limits to empowerment when an outside NGO comes into a community for a relatively short time to promote change better produced indigenously. / Committee in Charge: Dr. Dennis Galvan, Chair; Dr. Stephen Wooten; Dr. Anne Williams

Railroads have been subject to federal regulation since 1887. Due to the development of competing modes of transportation and changes in types of products being shipped, regulation began to impede efficiency and viability of firms, leading to partial deregulation of the industry in 1980. Partial deregulation allowed railroads to reduce costs, notably through mergers and line abandonment, which were aggressively pursued following deregulation and led to dramatic efficiency gains. However, concerns remain over increased consolidation, lack of competition in the industry, and the ability of firms to continue to realize efficiency gains. This dissertation investigates more recent developments in the rail industry with an eye towards regulation's effect and role. I begin with a study into the markups of price over marginal cost and elasticities of scale in the rail industry. Scale elasticities provide information on where firms are operating on their average cost curves, and markups provide a more theoretically appealing method of examining pricing behavior than the revenue-to-variable-cost measure currently used by regulators. I extend previously developed methods to identify markups and scales for each firm and in each year. I find prices well in excess of marginal cost, and evidence firms are operating near minimum efficient scale, indicating efficiency gains from deregulation may be fully realized. I then present a study that examines productivity changes in the rail industry and the role of technological change. I extend stochastic frontier frameworks to allow productivity and the state of technology to evolve flexibly through time and vary across firms. I find firms turn towards technological innovation to realize productivity gains when other channels previously offered by deregulation are not available. I finish with a study of allocative errors in the rail industry. I again extend a stochastic frontier model to include differences in production across firms and allow allocative errors to be correlated with competitive pressures. I find that incorporating flexibility into the description of firm production is crucial for obtaining unbiased estimates of allocative errors, overcapitalization is prevalent in the rate-regulated rail industry, and additional competition does not appear to reduce inefficiency. This dissertation includes unpublished co-authored material.

Max Weber is generally regarded as a major authority in the fields of organizational, administrative and educational administration theory, whose contributions are most often understood to be a theory of bureaucracy, with a lesser influence in theories of authority and rationality of the bureaucratic and charismatic kinds. As a writer in the classical sociological tradition, his theoretical orientation is most often identified as structural-functionalist, systems theoretical, or scientific management. However, during the last twenty-five years a growing body of scholarship in contemporary European academic history and Weberian studies in particular, have challenged this dominant English-speaking view of Weber's work. The results of this attention have brought to the fore a number of dimensions of his works which do not fit easily into any of the paradigms with which he has been most often associated: his historicist methodology and programme of studies; the verstehende or interpretive methodological paradigm including a non-positivist conception of ideal type, value-freedom (objectivity), value relevance, elective affinity, and cross-cultural and cross-historical comparative techniques: and his complete system of typologies clearly outlined in Economy and Society which includes a comprehensive mapping of levels of social action and relationship extending from the individual unit of analysis through types of group interaction to types of institutional social behaviour. Based upon a world-historical body of evidence, Weber details in the typologies the possible substantive types of social organization--economic, legal, religious, political, and familial--constructed in a heuristic and interpretive manner, intended to mediate between subjective and objective levels of social reality. The central purpose of this study is to recapture the full import and scope of a Weberian problematic for educational administration theory. This is undertaken by: describing the German intellectual climate in which Weber worked in order to establish the epistemological foundations influencing his work in contrast to the Anglo-American and French traditions; reconstructing a comprehensive model of his verstehende method and identifying his major contributions to political analysis, conflict theory, administrative theory (including a critique of bureaucracy), and educational organization; and demonstrating through an inventory of organizational, administrative, and educational administration texts, the degree to which his various contributions have, until recently, been lost to sociocultural studies in the English-speaking world. The results of these studies are used to extend Weber's verstehende approach to the construction of an outline of educational organization and administration analogous to his study of religious groups and organizations in Economy and Society as a framework for future research in educational administration. / Graduate

M.Ed. (Education Management) / In this study aspects relevant to effective school management are considered from a didactic-pedagogic perspective. The future development of the community is to a large extent determined by education. The requirements of and demands that are made on education require that schools be regarded more and more as undertakings. Aspects which determine and influence the effectiveness of a school are thus important. The quality of leadership of the school principal and his managerial ability are determining factors indispensable for effective school management. This quality and ability are indispensable for the establishment and promotion of aspects that determine school effectiveness. The elements of management are not separate entities, but a uniform whole. In an organization they form an inseparable part of management and occur in a scientifically planned way. It is important for a school principal to have knowledge of the elements of management that influence school effectiveness. Managerial adoption is a determining factor in the,development of the style of management of the principal. The way in which a school principal relates towards his staff can determine the success he will experience as principal. The quality of his leadership can be a determining factor in the success he attains as manager. Leadership is a component of management. As manager of a school the school principal has a leadership duty. The ability to lead is thus part of his complex task. The leadership situation and the style of leadership are, among other things, important aspects which determine how effectively a leader will react in a given situation. The leadership of the school principal is also decisive for the standard and the improvement of teaching in the school. It plays a significant role in the effectiveness with which the school performs its educational function. As leader, the school principal plays an important role in the successful execution, implementation and application of the aspects of effective school management. The training and preparation of teachers can never be regarded as complete. The development of personnel according to fundamental needs is an ideal. As professional leader the school principal is also primarily responsible for personnel development in the school. School climate is the experience of an individual in the observation of how the staff and pupils of a school communicate and co-operate. Programmes for the improvement of school climate are essential in view of the close correlation between school climate and pupil achievement. The development of personnel, the renewal of management functions and the establishment of a climate of interaction between the school principal and the staff, are, among other things, aspects of effective school management. By utilizing purposeful personnel development, paying attention to the improvement of school climate, and by examining the style of leadership of the school principals, school effectiveness can be enhanced.

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M. Ed. (Education Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract