This thesis is an investigation into the exercise of autonomy in the practice of collaborative, project-based classrooms. The investigation set out to answer two research questions: What are the forms of autonomy expected of students in project-based classes?, and What are the factors that mediate the employment of autonomy in these classes? The investigation gathered qualitative data from students and teachers of four project-based, computer-assisted courses in four language departments at The University of Melbourne. The study was carried out in two stages, over two years. In all, a total of ten 14-week classes run by four teachers were investigated, containing a total of 136 students. The first year (stage one of the investigation) focussed on teacher practice and course syllabi, and addressed the first research question. The second year (stage two), focussed on student practice and addressed the second research question.

Zugl.: Halle (Saale), Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2007

School of Economics and Management, Diss.--Lund, 2008.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Abilene Christian University, 1994. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-56).

Thesis (MA (Industrial Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / In the new service economy organisations have to distinguish themselves from their competitors in terms of the quality of their service delivery. In order to attain this new goal organisations realise the important role that customers play in their success. Organisations also recognize that modern day customers have different wants and higher expectations regarding service delivery compared to only a decade ago. To live up to these new challenges a novel form of conducting business was introduced to the global labour market: Telephone call centres provide quality and efficient service in the most cost-effective way possible by, inter alia, utilising customer service representatives (CSRs) to attend to clients’ each and every need – this job demand is termed emotional labour. Due to the way in which the CSRs’ work is structured and the wide-ranging demands placed on them, these individuals experience countless and varied stressors on the job. The result, in a nutshell, is that CSRs become emotionally exhausted and eventually leave the call centre. The purpose of the present research study is, therefore, to identify to what extent emotional labour influences CSRs’ feelings of emotional exhaustion, and whether the latter results in detrimental outcomes that undermine organisations’ success and competitive advantage in the marketplace. A large organisation’s call centre operators participated in the study (n = 84). Seven focus groups were conducted for the purpose of qualitative data collection: Six groups consisted of CSRs (N = 30) and one group consisted of team leaders (N = 4). Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the focus group interviews. The participants (n = 84) also completed questionnaires measuring emotional labour, emotional exhaustion, supervisor support, organisational commitment, and intentions to leave. Analysis of the interview data supported the existence of the five theoretical constructs and additional sources of job stress, over and above emotional labour, were identified. Pearson product-moment correlation analysis was used to analyse the questionnaire data, followed by multiple regression analysis with organisational commitment and intentions to leave as dependent variables, and the remaining constructs as the predictors. After determining the fit of the measurement model, consisting of the five constructs, a structural model was tested. Both the measurement and structural models produced acceptable goodness-of-fit statistics. The results of the structural model did not indicate a significant correlation between the total construct emotional labour and emotional exhaustion. Significant correlations were found between emotional labour and supervisor support, emotional exhaustion and organisational commitment and intentions to leave respectively, and organisational commitment and intentions to leave. Multiple regression analysis indicated emotional exhaustion is a significant predictor of both lowered organisational commitment and increased intentions to leave. Structural equation modelling indicated emotional exhaustion is causally related to intentions to leave through organisational commitment. The findings are congruent with previous research on the detrimental effect of emotional exhaustion on organisational outcomes and illuminate the complex relationship between emotional labour and emotional exhaustion. Interventions minimising the impact of both emotional labour and emotional exhaustion, within a call centre environment, are explored.

Thesis (MCom)--Stellenbosch University, 2015 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT : The industrial psychology literature related to call centres highlights the negative aspects of call centre work environments and the resultant adverse impact on workers’ well-being. Call centres have been labelled the “coal mines of the 21st century”, “assembly lines in the head” and “satanic mills” (Janse van Rensburg, Boonzaier, & Boonzaier, 2013, p. 2). High levels of stress, high staff turnover and burnout are all factors that are often experienced by call centre agents (Banks & Roodt, 2011). However, Van der Colff and Rothman (2009) report that some call centre agents, regardless of the high job demands, do not develop burnout. These agents cope better than others under highly demanding and stressful work conditions. To build on these findings, the present study took a detailed look at factors affecting the well-being of employees working in call centres. Specifically, the question was asked, “Why is there variance in work engagement, job burnout and intention to quit amongst the employees in call centres?” The job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014) was used as a framework to investigate the well-being of call centre agents employed in the outbound departments of two branches of a Cape Town call centre. The primary objective of this study was to develop and empirically test a structural model, derived from theory, explaining the antecedents of variance in work engagement, job burnout and intention to quit amongst call centre employees. The antecedents comprise transformational leadership (as a job resource), emotional intelligence and psychological capital (as employees’ personal resources), and emotional labour (as job demands) present in a call centre environment. An ex post facto correlational design was used to test the formulated hypotheses in this research study. Quantitative data was collected from 223 call centre agents by means of non-probability convenience sampling. A self-administered hard-copy survey was distributed to the two call centre branches, given that call centre agents agreed to participate in the research study. Measuring instruments consisted of (1) the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-17) questionnaire (Schaufeli et al., 2002), (2) the Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey (MBI-GS) (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001), (3) the Turnover Intention Scale (TIS) (Ding & Lin, 2006; Lee, 2000), (4) the Emotional Demands and Emotion-rule Dissonance scales (Xanthopoulou, Bakker, & Fischbach, 2013), (5) the adapted Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5x short) (Van Aswegen & Engelbrecht, 2009), (6) the Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory (Gignac, 2010) and (7) the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007). The data was analysed using item analyses and structural equation modelling (SEM). A PLS path analysis was conducted to determine the model fit. From the 21 hypotheses formulated in the study, six were found to be significant. It is noteworthy, however, that 12 of the non-significant paths were related to the moderating effects. Hypotheses 1, 3 and 8 were also found to be not significant. However, hypotheses 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 were all found to be statistically significant and therefore supported the JD-R theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014), which postulates that job demands are generally the most important predictors of job burnout, whereas job resources and personal resources are generally the most important predictors of work engagement. Also, it was found that call centre agents experiencing a high level of work engagement were less inclined to leave the organisation. The study’s findings shed light on the importance of developing interventions that can foster job and personal resources in the pursuit of optimising work engagement. In addition, the call centre agents can be bolstered in coping with existing job demands and cumulatively this also results in a decrease in the employees’ level of burnout and in their intention to leave the company. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : Bedryfsielkundige literatuur met betrekking tot inbelsentrums beklemtoon die negatiewe aspekte van die werkomgewing van inbelsentrums en die gevolglike nadelige effek op werkers se welsyn. Inbelsentrums is reeds beskryf as die “steenkoolmyne van die 21ste eeu”, ‘”monteerbande in die kop” en “sataniese meule” (Janse van Rensburg, Boonzaier, & Boonzaier, 2013, p. 2). Hoë vlakke van stres, hoë personeelomset en uitbranding is faktore wat gereeld deur inbelsentrum-agente ervaar word (Banks & Roodt, 2011). Van der Colff en Rothman (2009) rapporteer egter dat ten spyte van hulle hoë werkvereistes, sommige inbelsentrumagente nie uitbranding ervaar nie. Hierdie agente vaar beter as ander onder hoogs veeleisende en stresvolle werkomstandighede. Om verder te bou op die navorsing wat reeds onderneem is, kyk die huidige studie na die faktore wat moontlik die welsyn van werknemers in inbelsentrums affekteer. Met ander woorde, dit soek na die antwoord op die navorsingsinisiërende vraag: “Hoekom is daar verskille in die werksbegeestering, werksuitbranding en intensie om die organisasie te verlaat onder werknemers in inbelsentrums?” Om op hierdie navorsingsinisiërende vraag te kan reageer, is die job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014) gebruik as raamwerk spesifiek om die welsyn van inbelsentrumagente wat in die uitbel-departemente binne twee takke van ‘n bekende uitbelsentrum, geleë in Kaapstad, te ondersoek. Die hoofdoelwit van hierdie studie was om ’n strukturele model te ontwikkel en te toets wat die antesedente van variansie in werksbegeestering, werksuitbranding en die intensie om die organisaie te verlaat, onder inbelsentrumwerknemers verklaar. Die spesifieke antesedente wat in hierdie studie getoets is, was transformasie-leierskap (as ’n werkshulpbron), emosionele intelligensie en sielkundige kapitaal (psychological capital) (as werknemers se persoonlike hulpbronne), en emosionele arbeid (as werkseise) wat in ‘n inbelsentrum-omgewing teenwoordig is. ʼn Ex post facto korrelasie-ontwerp is gebruik om die geformuleerde hipoteses in hierdie studie te toets. Kwantitatiewe data is by 223 inbelsentrumagente deur middel van nie-waarskynlikheids gerieflikheidsteekproeftrekking ingesamel. ’n Selfgeadministreerde hardekopie-opname is in die twee takke van die inbelsentrum versprei, aangesien hulle ingestem het om aan die studie deel te neem. Die opname het spesifieke latente veranderlikes gemeet wat op die studie van toepassing is deur gebruik te maak van betroubare en geldige meetinstrumente. Hierdie instrumente sluit in (1) die Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-17) vraelys (Schaufeli et al., 2002), (2) die Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey (MBI-GS) (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001), (3) die Turnover Intention Scale (TIS) (Ding & Lin, 2006; Lee, 2000), (4) die Emotional Demands en Emotion-rule Dissonance skale (Xanthopoulou, Bakker, & Fischbach, 2013), (5) die aangepaste Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5x kort) (Van Aswegen & Engelbrecht, 2009), (6) die Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory (Gignac, 2010) en (7) die Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007). Die versamelde data is deur middel van item-analise en strukturele vergelykingsmodellering geanaliseer. ’n PLS pad-ontleding is onderneem om modelpassing te bepaal. Vanuit die 21 hipoteses wat vir hierdie studie geformuleer is, is ses bevind om betekenisvol te wees. Dit is egter merkwaardig dat 12 van die nie-betekenisvolle bane verband gehou het met modererende effekte. Hipoteses 1, 3 en 8 is ook bevind om nie-betekenisvol te wees. Hierdie nie-betekenisvolle bane kan op grond van verskeie redes ontstaan. Hipoteses 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 en 9 is egter almal bevind om statisties betekenisvol te wees en ondersteun dus die JD-R teorie (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014). Hierdie teorie hou voor dat werksvereistes oor die algemeen die belangrikste voorspellers van werksuitbranding is, terwyl werkshulpbronne en persoonlike hulpbronne oor die algemeen die vernaamste voorspellers van werksbegeestering is. Dit is ook bevind dat inbelsentrumagente wat ’n hoë vlak van werksbegeestering ervaar, minder geneig is om die organisasie te verlaat. Die studie se bevindings werp lig op die belangrikheid daarvan om ingrypings te ontwikkel wat werks- en persoonlike hulpbronne kan kweek in die nastrewing van die optimering van begeestering en om inbelsentrumagente te help om die bestaande werkseise te hanteer. Gevolglik sal hierdie uitkoms lei tot ’n vermindering in die werknemers se vlakke van uitbranding en in hulle intensies om die organisasie te verlaat.

This thesis presents a new approach to the long-standing question of how electoral rules influence the behaviour of legislators. It begins with the argument that fresh empirical advances can be made by moving beyond the pervasive but rigid assumption that all legislators want to be re-elected and, by extension, that every incumbent values this goal to the same degree. Rather, I propose that individual Members of Parliament (MPs) vary in the extent to which they personally desire or depend upon re-election. Following the principles of a difference-in-differences design, this observation allows me to devise a theoretical framework capable of testing whether MPs' vote-seeking behaviour differs within parliaments in a way that varies predictably across countries. Specifically, I propose that in electoral systems where party-centric behaviour increases re-election chances, MPs particularly invested in the goal of re-election should cater to the party to an even greater extent than their colleagues. Conversely, in systems where a personal vote can generate electoral gains, MPs most ambitious for re-election should engage in this type of vote-winning strategy to the greatest extent. I test this prediction across the UK House of Commons and the German Bundestag, and within Germany's mixed-member system. Newly-collected biographical data on over 1700 MPs is used to conduct the first systematic MP-level operationalisation of re-election ambition based on legislators' career backgrounds. Career politicians are thereby identified as those most ambitious for re-election. Using voting behaviour from 1.8 million vote choices in legislative roll-calls as a proxy for the degree to which an MP caters to the party or to his or her personal reputation, the quantitative multilevel analysis reveals strong evidence for the proposed behavioural pattern. The contribution made by this study is two-fold. First, it uncovers the interaction between electoral rules and individual re-election ambition as a new explanation for MP-level variation in legislative behaviour. Second, its research design overcomes shortcomings in previous empirical tests for the existing theory on how electoral rules impact MP behaviour (e.g. Carey and Shugart 1995), producing more robust evidence in support of this influential framework.

Nous présentons, dans ce manuscrit, un dispositif informatique d'aide à la formation des futurs enseignants de FLE en Colombie. Il prend ses sources dans la linguistique textuelle et cherche à améliorer le niveau linguistique des étudiants universitaires actuellement en formation. Pour ce faire, le dispositif est fondé sur un corpus textuel spécifiquement annoté et étiqueté grâce aux outils de traitement automatique de langues (TAL) et à des annotations manuelles en format XML. Ceci permet de développer des activités à visée formative, en tenant compte des besoins exprimés par les publics cibles (enseignants-formateurs et leurs étudiants en formation).Comme nous l'exposons tout au long de cette thèse, l'élaboration d'un système comme le nôtre est le produit de la mise en œuvre de connaissances et de compétences issues de plusieurs disciplines et/ou domaines : didactique des langues, ingénierie pédagogique, linguistique générale, linguistique textuelle, linguistique de corpus, TAL et ALAO. Il se veut, principalement, un dispositif pédagogique pour la formation des étudiants en FLE dans le contexte de l'éducation supérieure en Colombie, un outil pensé en fonction des besoins et des objectifs de cet apprentissage. L'originalité de notre système repose sur le type de public choisi, le modèle didactique de formation mis en œuvre et la spécificité du corpus utilisé. À notre connaissance, il s'agit d'un des premiers systèmes d'ALAO fondé sur la linguistique textuelle s'adressant à la formation des futurs enseignants de FLE dans un contexte exolingue. / This thesis presents a computer device aimed at helping future FFL teacher training in Colombian universities. It is grounded in text linguistics and aims to contribute to improving the linguistic level of university students currently in training. To do so, this device is based on a textual corpus specifically annotated and labeled thanks to natural language processing (NLP) tools and to manual annotations in XML format. This should allow the development of activities with a formative aim, while also taking into account the needs expressed by the target public (teachers/trainers and their students, the trainees).As explained throughout this thesis, the elaboration of such a system is based on knowledge and skills stemming from several disciplines and/or fields: language didactics, educational engineering, general linguistics, textual linguistics, corpus linguistics, NLP and CALL. The ambition is to provide trainees and trainers in higher education in Colombia with a tool designed according to their needs and their learning aims and objectives. Finally, the originality of this system consists in the choice of target users, the didactic training model implemented and the specificity of the corpus annotated for the activities. It is one of the first CALL systems based on textual linguistics specifically targeted at training future FFL teachers in a non-native language context.

O presente trabalho investiga as transformações nas formas de prestação de trabalho e nos tempos de trabalho em razão do rearranjo das relações laborais e das novas tecnologias de comunicação e informação. O objetivo dessa dissertação é compreender se a reordenação do modelo de trabalho clássico e a proliferação das novas tecnologias de comunicação e informação compatibilizam-se com o regime de sobreaviso e se este serve como resposta aos novos problemas decorrentes da conexão e disponibilidade dos trabalhadores. Na primeira parte do trabalho é feita uma análise das formas de organização do trabalho que motivaram o desenvolvimento das normas de Direito do Trabalho que regulam o controle da jornada e do contexto fático que contribuiu para o surgimento das regras limitadoras da duração do trabalho. No segundo capítulo, analisa-se as transformações determinadas principalmente pelo modelo pós-industrial, marcado por um grande avanço das tecnologias da informação, que reformulou as características da duração do trabalho para o qual foi concebido o Direito do Trabalho tradicional. No terceiro capítulo aborda-se justamente os reflexos das transformações do mundo do trabalho especificamente sobre o modelo do sobreaviso, para verificar a compatibilidade das normas já existentes com os novos meios de prestação de trabalho. A abordagem do trabalho é marcada pelos métodos indutivo e dialético, e a técnica de pesquisa adotada é a documentação indireta, a partir de pesquisa documental e de pesquisa bibliográfica. Ao final, como resultado do estudo, compreende-se que o regime de sobreaviso não se revela adequado como única resposta aos problemas decorrentes das transformações dos modos de prestação de trabalho e dos tempos de trabalho, razão pela qual se faz necessário buscar alternativas para assegurar outras respostas a essas situações laborais. / This work investigates the transformations in work patterns and working times due to the rearrangement of labor relations and the new technologies of communication and information. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand whether the reorganization of the classic work model and the proliferation of new communication and information technologies are compatible with the 'oncall/ standby time" and whether it serves as an answer to the new problems arising from the connection and availability of workers. The first part of this paper analyzes the forms of labor organization that motivated the development of Labor Law rules that regulate the control of time and the context that contributed to the emergence of the regulations limiting the duration of work. In the second chapter, it is analyzed the transformations determined mainly by the post-industrial model, marked by a significant advance in information technology, which reformulated the characteristics of the duration of work for which the traditional Labor Law was conceived. In the third chapter, the consequences of the transformations of the labor world are explicitly approached on the model of "on call time/standby time," to check if the existing rules are compatible with the rearrangement of labor. This work approach is marked by the inductive and dialectical methods, and the research technique adopted is the indirect documentation, based on documentary research and bibliographic research. In the end, as a result of the study, it is understood that the "on call time/standby time" is not appropriate as the only answer to the problems arising from the changes of work and working hours, which is why it is necessary to seek alternatives to ensure other responses to these situations.

Submitted by Fernando Teixeira (fernote7@gmail.com) on 2017-12-08T15:48:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Download File (1).pdf: 1437428 bytes, checksum: d6dfbfe41919a0cdd657900b6784f310 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2017-12-08T16:04:57Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Download File (1).pdf: 1437428 bytes, checksum: d6dfbfe41919a0cdd657900b6784f310 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-22T17:16:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Download File (1).pdf: 1437428 bytes, checksum: d6dfbfe41919a0cdd657900b6784f310 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-29 / In this thesis we revisit numerical methods for the simulation of the Heston model’sEuropean call. Specifically, we study the Euler, the Kahl-Jackel an two versions of theexact algorithm schemes. To perform this task, firstly we present a literature reviewwhich brings stochastic calculus, the Black-Scholes (BS) model and its limitations,the stochastic volatility methods and why they resolve the issues of the BS model,and the peculiarities of the numerical methods. We provide recommendations whenwe acknowledge that the reader might need more specifics and might need to divedeeper into a given topic. We introduce the methods aforementioned providing all ourimplementations in R language within a package.