This study examined the motivation of outdoor staff working in multi-activity residential centres. The study took place against the background of an outdoor industry undergoing major legislative and cultural changes. These changes were discussed at length. Notable amongst the outcomes of the discussed changes was a need to improve staff retention within multi-activity residential centres. The motivation of staff was studied with this in mind. Following an initial pilot study, there were three major phases to the research. These were, a mail-shot questionnaire, focus group interviews and an investigation of personal constructs using a repertory grid (rep grid) technique. Structuring the study in this way allowed for quantitative data to be given depth and developed through qualitative techniques. Following a discussion of the major motivational theories, Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory was nominated as the grounding theory upon which the study was structured. This motivational theory a spect of the study was balanced with consideration of the social and cultural aspects of working in the outdoor industry. The major finding of the study was that outdoor staff are heavily motivated by autonomy, responsibility, challenge, altruism and variety. They are most strongly de-motivated by external factors, notably poor centre administration and inadequate resources. A multilayered motivational model was developed to give structure and synthesis to these findings. It was also found that outdoor staff are less interested in linear career progression in the conventional understanding than in progression through personal and professional development. It was noted, however, that this progression was subject to lifestage changes. Although outdoor staff were found to be transitory it was put forward as a recommendation that challenge and variety could be found from within a stable employment situation and that, as a result, the outdoor industry needed to adopt a different approach to career structure. A second model, the redeveloped career pyramid, was suggested to demonstrate these recommendations.

Recent decades have witnessed a wealth of research into the concept of career stages and the relationship between these stages and the needs, attitudes and behaviours of individuals in the workforce. This high level of research interest has been fuelled by the belief that the human factor is the most critical factor in the success of organisations today and if organisations are to remain competitive in a rapidly changing environment they need to better understand the development needs, work-related attitudes and career concerns of their employees. Whilst a diverse range of career stage models have been put forward over the past fifty years, the models proposed by Super, Crites, Hummel, Moser, Overstreet and Warnath (1957) (psychological fit) and Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson and McKee (1978) (age) have received considerable research attention and are generally considered to be the most useful in explaining the needs, attitudes and behaviours of individuals over the course of their career. Research into career stages has been conducted using a wide range of occupational groups. Only a limited number of researchers, however, have sought to test the utility of career stage concepts using a police sample. Despite their popularity and strong theoretical and empirical grounding, there is no known research that has tested the utility of Super et al. (1957) and Levinson et al.’s (1978) models of career stage using a police sample. The purpose of this study therefore was to contribute to the literature on career stage theory by testing the utility of these models of career stage in explaining the job satisfaction and work commitment of Queensland police officers. The study also explored the influence of other background variables that may also impact on job satisfaction and work commitment. The sample consisted of 246 police officers from the Metropolitan South Region of the Queensland Police Service. A cross sectional design was used to gather the data for the study. The Adult Career Concerns Inventory (ACCI) was used to group respondents into a career stage according to Super et al.’s conceptualisation of career stage. Respondents were also grouped into age-based career stages according to Levinson et al.’s conceptualisation of career stage. The study used established survey instruments to collect data on five facets of job satisfaction, these being satisfaction with pay, promotion, supervision, co-workers and work and five facets of work commitment, these being organisational commitment, job involvement, Protestant work ethic, career commitment and union commitment. Data was also collected on the background variables of organisational and occupational tenure, rank, gender, education level and type, type of duty performed, marital status, completion of the Queensland Police Service’s Management Development Program and membership of an Equal Employment Opportunity target group. A series of MANOVAs were used to explore the relationship between the career stage and other background variables and the various facets of job satisfaction and work commitment. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine if the results were being confounded by relationships with other independent variables. The current study failed to find any evidence to support the utility of Levinson et al.’s model in explaining job satisfaction and work commitment for Queensland Police officers. Whilst some significant differences in job satisfaction and work commitment between Levinson et al.’s age groupings were identified, none of the findings were consistent with the assumptions of their model. In fact, there was some evidence of differences in job-related attitudes across age groupings that directly contradict the assumptions of the Levinson et al. model. The current study also found no support for the utility of Super et al.’s model in explaining the job satisfaction of police officers. Some limited support, however, was found for the utility of Super et al.’s model in predicting work commitment, most notably with respect to organisational commitment, job involvement and career commitment. Differences in mean organisational commitment, job involvement and career commitment scores generally supported the propositions of Super et al., however, only the results for the exploration and disengagement stages reached statistical significance. Statistically significant relationships were found for the background variables of organisational tenure, rank, gender and type of duty. Statistically significant relationships were found for several facets of job satisfaction and work commitment. Work-related attitudes were generally found to peak in the first two years of a police officer’s tenure and then decline as tenure increased. The reason for this decline is complex and not completely clear, but may be at least partially explained by: the structural characteristics of police services; the distinct lack of support and confidence in officers; the influence of the police sub-culture; and the existence of a phenomenon known as police ‘bullshit’. Commissioned officers were found to be significantly more satisfied with promotions and constables were found to have significantly higher levels of organisational commitment than senior constables and sergeants and significantly higher levels of career commitment than sergeants. Other statistically significant relationships found in the current study include female officers reporting significantly higher levels of satisfaction with promotions than male officers and general duties officers reporting significantly higher levels of satisfaction with promotions than officers performing specialist duties and significantly higher levels of loyalty to the union than plain-clothes officers. The study concluded by highlighting the pioneering nature of the current study. It was suggested that considerably more research is necessary in order to clarify and refine the conceptualisation and measurement of police career stages and the relationship between these stages and work-related attitudes. It was recommended that future research should verify and extend the results of the current study, particularly with respect to the influence of tenure as a career stage variable and the nature and role of disengagement in any conceptualisation of career stage for police.

Syftet med studien är att studera kvinnliga akademikers upplevelser av möjlighet till akademisk karriär. Studien besvarar följande frågeställningar: Hur uppfattar kvinnliga akademiker karriärstrukturen vid lärosätet utifrån ett genusperspektiv? Vilka möjligheter och hinder till karriärutveckling har kvinnliga akademiker identifierat och kan de i sådana fall kopplas till kön/jämställdhet? För att besvara vårt syfte och våra frågeställningar används en kvalitativ metod i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer med kvinnor vid det berörda lärosätet. De teoretiska utgångspunkter som används för att analysera det empiriska materialet är Yvonne Hirdmans genussystem och Rosabeth Moss Kanters förklaringsmodell. Resultatet visar att kvinnor vid lärosätet upplever möjligheten till akademisk karriär som begränsad eftersom karriärstrukturen vid lärosätet är anpassad efter en manlig norm, vilket får en hindrande effekt för kvinnors karriärutveckling. Vidare bekräftar resultatet tidigare forskning som visar på att kvinnor möter hindrande faktorer kopplade till kön när de försöker avancera i karriären. / The aim of this study is to investigate female academics’ experiences of the opportunity for academic career. The study answers the following research questions: How do female academics perceive the career structure by the university from a gender perspective? Which opportunities and obstacles to career development did they identify and can they be connected to gender/gender equality? In order to answer our aim and our research questions a qualitative method is used in the form of semi-structured interviews with women at the university concerned. The theoretical starting points used to analyze the empirical material are Yvonne Hirdman’s gender system and a model by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. The result shows that women at the university experience the opportunity for academic career as limited since the career structure is adapted to a male norm, which contributes to an impeding effect on women’s career development. Furthermore, the result confirms previous research that shows women face impeding factors linked to gender when trying to advance in their careers.

The thesis deals with the further education of pedagogical employees at selected hight school. The work is divided into theoretical and empirical part. At the beginning of the first chapter are explained the basic terms. The next section is focused on legal framework that deal with further education. At the end of the theoretical part are presented some of the studies, which have already been conducted and which have investigated the opportunities of teacher´s further education and trends in that field in Czech republic and all over the world. The empirical part concentrates on the research and describes its implementation and the results and conclusions, which are derived from the research.