This research study explores the perceptions and experiences of individuals involved in the business collaborations of the Coal Authority (TCA) with other public and private sector organisations. The study offers two major contributions to professional knowledge and practice. The first is that the social and behavioural activities associated with the business collaboration process are of as much concern as the economic and structural aspects. The second is a conceptual model and framework which makes sense of the public sector business collaborating process, and identifies behaviours and practices which are perceived by the participants to positively contribute to successful business collaborating and to minimise the risk of inter-organisational collaboration failure. The research accounts underpinning the study are based on the researcher's direct observation, interviews, accounts and life experiences of over fifty individuals that he engaged with during his thirty months involvement within the research process. This was complemented by his reflective diary recording in real time the thought processes from the participants in both the public and private sector involved in business collaborating on a day-to-day basis, as he immersed himself in a purposeful way in the research setting. Twenty-four of the collaborators work for public sector organisations, twenty-nine work in the private sector. Thematic discourse analysis was used to interpret their life experiences and develop the framework around the four perspectives that emerged. The four perspectives are: • The context perspective • The business and strategy perspective • The delivery perspective • The people perspective Personal reflections on the research process and the framework are based on the Kirkpatrick (1967) four level theoretical model for the evaluation of learning and development outcomes. The researcher also describes the changes in behaviour and practices within TCA with regard to the way the people within TCA interact and collaborate with people from other organisations as a result of the study and its findings. Finally, the researcher demonstrates his achievement of the six learning outcomes of his DBA doctoral programme.

How do self-identified heterosexual Kaqchikel men in the rural areas of Sololá attain status and power in their relationships with women? This question is explored here by analyzing different masculine roles in various social spaces. The complexity of masculine identity requires a meticulous analysis to assess the extent to which the masculine role and identity has been or not a determinant factor in the social and personal development of both women and men in the communities. This exploration also allows us to see the different expressions of masculine identities and evaluate their current role in society. I learned that the Kaqchikel men I interviewed find their social power and status in part through well-established, old ideologies and belief systems, as well as their perception of a biological superiority, which they justify by their hard work in agricultural activities. Based on this socially constructed beliefs and practices, men emphasize the passivity of the women and their social absence – their subordinate status in society. However, the authority of the men is not limited to their remarkable role as leaders and head of the households; it also encompasses pernicious acts such as domestic violence, which is still highly prevalent in contemporary Sololá. This project also explores these men’s perceptions about: (1) the women living in their communities, (2) the low level of education of these women, and (3) the justice system that is still weak and flawed. While all of these are indeed prevailing problems in the communities, women are challenging to an extent all the practices and beliefs associated with the authority of the men. / text

In today’s global religious landscape, many beliefs and practices have been dislocated and thrust into unfamiliar cultural environments and have been forced to adapt to these new settings. There has been a significant amount of research on this phenomenon as it appears in various contexts, much of it centred on the concepts of globalisation/localisation and appropriation. In this dissertation, the same process is explored in relation to the traditions of contemplative prayer from within Eastern Orthodox Christianity known as the Jesus Prayer and hesychasm. These prayer practices have traveled from a primarily monastic Orthodox Christian setting, into general Orthodox Christian usage, and finally into wider contemporary Western culture. As a result of this geographic shift from a local to a global setting, due mainly to immigration and dissemination of relevant texts, there has been a parallel shift of interpretation. This shift of interpretation involves the way the practices are understood in relation to general conceptions of authority and tradition. The present work attempts to explain the divergence of interpretations of these practices by reference to the major themes of authority and tradition, and to several secondary themes such as appropriation, cultural transmission, “glocalisation,” memory, and Orientalism. By looking at accounts of the Jesus Prayer and hesychasm from a variety of sources and perspectives, the contentious issues between accounts will be put into a wider perspective that considers fundamental differences in worldviews.

This dissertation is a program evaluation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) the largest publicly owned utility in the United States. The first essay in this dissertation examines the TVA's use of eminent domain in order to acquire property for the construction of reservoirs. It develops a new model of asymmetric information and then tests the model predictions using property level data from TVA property purchases in the 1930's.The second essay of this dissertation examines the unintended consequences of reservoir development my examining changes in the malaria rate associated with TVA reservoirs. Using panel data methods, I find that the presence of a TVA reservoir leads to large increases in the malaria mortality and morbidity rate, which cost up to 30 percent of TVA federal appropriations. The final essay in this dissertation examines the impact of TVA electrification programs on economic growth. It combines archival and panel data methods to show that contrary to the historical account, TVA electric rates did not differ substantially from the rates charged by private utilities, and secondly, shows that counties that had electricity contracts with the TVA did not have differential economic growth rates for a variety of economic outcomes. In order to control for selection into contracts, I adopt an instrumental variables strategy based on the cost of electric service.

Syftet med undersökningen är studera vad som präglar auktoriteten i den svenska skolan, undersöka värdet av goda relationer i klassrummet samt studera hur konflikthantering påverkas av gruppsituationen som råder i klassrummet. Mina frågeställningar handlar om vilken betydelse ledarskap, respekt och auktoritet får i relationen mellan lärare och elever, vad som avgör om en lärare respekteras av elever och vad det beror på att en lärare får eller inte får auktoritet i en grupp. I studien undersöks också hur det är möjligt att på olika sätt hantera konfliktsituationer.    För att undersöka detta har jag gjort strukturerade intervjuer med sex olika lärare inom gymnasiet och högstadiet, med olika bakgrund, erfarenhet och ämnesområden. Resultatet har jag sedan jämfört med olika teorier om ledarskap, grupprocesser och konflikthantering.   Min undersökning visar att auktoritet måste förtjänas genom bland annat social kompetens och goda relationer. I studien framgår att de viktigaste yttre faktorerna för att lyckas är gruppstorleken och tiden. När det gäller konflikthantering, kan slutsatsen dras att det är viktigt att gå varsamt fram i ett inledande skede, och att fokus i början måste ligga på att skapa en positiv känsla och få med sig gruppen. Vid fostrande av elever och korrigerande av avvikande och respektlösa beteenden, visar undersökningen att det är önskvärt och betydligt effektivare att ta en konflikt utanför klassrummet, i ett enskilt samtal med en elev. / The aim of this study is to discern what characterizes authority in the modern Swedish school, to explore the value of good relations in the classroom, and also to examine how the management of conflicts is affected by the group situation which occurs in the classroom.   The questions at issue are to which degree leadership, respect and authority affect and determine the relation between teacher and students, in what manner a teacher receives respect from his students, and why a teacher may or may not gain authority in a classroom. I am also curious as to how to handle certain common conflict situations in the best way.   In order to examine these questions, I have interviewed six teachers of varying age and professional experience, who all teach in high schools. The result of the interviews has then been compared with the current theories about leadership, group processes and conflict management.   My study shows that authority must be acquired through social skills and good relations. The most important factors, which are not dependent upon the teacher, are the size of the group and time. Regarding the management of conflicts, a conclusion may be made that it is important to be careful and gentle in the initial phase, and to create a positive feeling at the beginning in order to be accepted by the group. If misbehavior must be corrected and a conflict is emerging, the study shows that it is more efficient to deal with the student outside  the classroom, speaking in private. In this way, the student is not affected by the rest of the group, and the conflict is less likely to escalate.

Inspired by Michael Foucault’s "technologies of the self" and Jacques Rancière's idea of the politics of aesthetics, specifically, his concept of "the distribution of the sensible", this thesis examines two groups of people who actively pursue creativity in China today: first, a group of Chinese youth who seek their identity as creative writers through their participation in the Xin Gainian Zuowen Dasai, or the New Concept Writing Competition, held by Mengya magazine since 1998; second, a group of men and women who are grouped together under the name of "Dafen painters", who pursue their creative identities as oil painters either for their own artistic dreams or for better lives. Through these two cases, this thesis explores the relationship between creative practices and individuals’ identity formation, and attempts to achieve a better understanding of how the formation of these identities relate to broader desires for creative identity in China’s society today. This paper argues that an individual's own desire for creative expression and recognition in fact acts to diminish their ability to engage in truly creative expression, and that the attempts at recognition reconfigure groups to block individuals from finding opportunities to express their creative identities.

The South African Government launched a skills development initiative in February 2001 to be led by leaders of twenty five Sector Education Training Authorities (SETAs). This study identifies a strategy and the transformational leadership competencies to be included in the strategy to develop the SETA leaders. / Dr. A. Lategan

This thesis analyzes the movement for Trinity River improvement and describes the methods used to promote the project.

The problem of legitimate authority is widely regarded as fundamental to moral and political philosophy. This thesis aims to explain what the problem precisely is, and to offer a practical method for solving it. The starting point is a claim about the phenomenology of the person as an inherently authoritative agent: we are persons, as distinct from mere ‘things’, by virtue of the authority we possess over ourselves. This claim explains, I argue, why there is a problem of legitimate authority – why the exercise of state authority stands in need of justification – and what the problem precisely is: given the inherent tension between the authority of the state on the one hand, and the self-governing authority of persons on the other, the problem of legitimate authority is essentially that of creating the conditions for optimal reconciliation between them. The bulk of the thesis is devoted to a search for a solution to this problem. The ideal solution lies in developing a concept which I call the Authorization Principle. In its most basic form, the principle states that the exercise of state authority is legitimate only when it is exercised to enforce arrangements that all citizens authorize the state to enforce. The conclusion of the thesis is that the principle should be formulated as follows: The exercise of state authority is legitimate insofar as it is exercised within the provisions of a constitutional arrangement constructed through a process that gives equal weight to all the epistemically undefeated concerns in the society regarding the conditions necessary for persons to exercise personal authority. The solution proposed in the thesis for the problem of legitimate authority has three important implications. The first is that it is entirely within the capacity of ordinary democratic societies to solve the problem. The second is that there is no single legitimate way to govern a society. Standards for the legitimate use of state authority are in some way indexed to culture, ability and resources as well as to other aspects of a society’s unique circumstances. The third is that a society cannot settle the problem of legitimate authority once and for all. The state’s arrangement will require revision every so often in order to maintain the legitimacy of state authority.

This project was a case study with a Local Authority (Charnwood Borough Council, Leicestershire) to research the options in response to the challenges of managing household waste. This research focused on establishing and analysing methods of improving the sustainability of household waste management operation within a Waste Collection Authority, where the interaction with a variety of external and internal stakeholders meant a holistic approach was needed. Waste management practices and performances in Charnwood were evaluated and benchmarked against national standards and the demography of a semi-rural Borough. Waste management practices nationally were also reviewed. The performance of the LA was quantitatively compared with other UK LAs where higher recycling performances are achieved. Differences were separate food waste collection and treatment; a larger proportion of urban housing and the university with a transient population. Other differences included strategy and operational practices for garden waste, the storage, collection, transportation and treatment of waste. A time series statistical model was modified and applied to investigate long term waste generation trends from the Boroughs official waste data returns to Defra. These were used to assess the success of interventions undertaken. This statistical model was able to differentiate interventions that were able to achieve lasting improvements in either waste minimisation or recycling. The declaration of a Zero Waste Strategy was to capture the public imagination. A series of focus groups and public consultations were held to judge public reaction and develop and refine the strategy. These were used to adapt the Zero Waste idea to suit the local conditions. A major conclusion was that householder involvement would be crucial for successful implementation of the further separation of waste that would be required.