Most everybody is ambitious about their own careers. Most of us aspire to be promoted to positions with greater responsibilities and benefits and have a clear sense of what we mean by a "successful career." Politicians are no different, and there is no apparent reason why they should be. However, unlike what happens in other occupations, politicians are forced periodically---i.e., at the end of each term they serve---to make a decision about what to do with their careers. This decision is made under the uncertainty about their ability to continue their careers according to their plans. The possibility of electoral defeat spares no one in spite of all that politicians do to avoid being voted out of office. Thus, at the end of each term, politicians must ponder what they want to do with their careers or where they want to go next. Politicians inform their decisions with their beliefs about their performance in office---or their performance as challengers---and their assessments of the difficulty of winning office in the following election. This raises the question about why some politicians decide to stay in office. Concretely, why do some politicians decide to get reelected while others seek election in "higher" or even "lower" offices? And also, why are some politicians more successful in having lasting careers? I focus on the career decisions that politicians make routinely and in the duration of their careers by considering individual and district factors that explain why politicians decide to run for particular offices and the length of their tenures.

The best predictor of future criminal behavior is past criminal behavior. At the same time, the vast majority of people who engage in crime are teenagers and stop offending with age. Explaining these empirical findings has been the main task of life-course criminology, and contributing to an understanding of how and why offenders continue their criminal careers once they have started, and how and why they stop, is also the purpose of this dissertation. To do this, the dissertation studies a number of facets of the criminal career: the importance of childhood risk factors (Paper I), the notions of turning points (Paper II) and intermittency (Paper III), and the connection between masculinities and criminal careers (Paper IV). In contrast to much life-course criminological research, the dissertation mainly relies on qualitative life history interviews, collected as part of The Stockholm Life Course Project. The findings suggest a need for increased sensitivity to offenders’ lives, and their complexity. Whereas continuity and change can be understood within a frame of age-graded social control, this perspective needs to be extended and developed further, in mainly three ways. First, the concept and phenomenon of human agency needs closer study. Second, lived experiences of various forms of social stratification (e.g. gender, ethnicity, and so on) must be integrated into understandings of continuity and change in crime, seeing as phenomena such as social control may be contingent on these in important ways. Third, this dissertation highlights the need to go beyond the transition to adulthood and explore the later stages of criminal careers. In closing, the dissertation suggests that we move toward a focus on the contingencies of criminal careers and the factors, events, and processes that help shape them. If we understand those contingencies in more detail, possible implications for policy and practice also emerge. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defence the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Submitted</p>

This thesis is concerned with social aspects of early Christianity. It considers the social origins and careers of the early Christians, as far as they can be traced in the scanty and fragmented evidence. The spread of Christianity is examined in relation to the prevailing social and economic conditions of the Roman world in the first centuries AD, The Christian attitudes to slavery and the penetration of Christianity into the countryside are discussed at some length. The evidence considered does not justify the traditional views which regard early Christianity as a religion of the underprivileged and the oppressed. Except for the imperial slaves and a small number of favourites of Christian masters, slaves, as far as it can be established, were not eager to embrace the new relegion, while in-the countyside, Christianity seems to have found its first adherants among the landowning and Hellenized peasants. In the cities, besides bankers, artisans and prosperous freedmen, Christianity attracted, as it is illustrated, many people of leisure, education and wealth. Overall, it is maintained, that although in principle Christianity drew its members from all social classes and groups, professing egalitarian doctrines, it was in effect more successful with the middle classes of the cities, which it organized under the leadership of wealthy and highly educated church officials. Millennial and prophetic tendencies, with strong social implications, such as were manifest among the first generation of Christians, survived or were revived only as marginal phenomena, especially in the countryside. Mainstream Christianity advocated and encouraged strict observance of the existing social order.

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Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Anthony Jurich / Gender is a constructing concept around which the traditionally structured marriage was formed. An undercurrent of traditional thought still influences how women make their decisions around pursuing a career and caring for their children. Their relationships with their husbands, in part influences both their decision-making and experience of their roles. This was a qualitative multiple care study describing women's decision-making around and their experiences of these roles. Themes found in the participant's narratives related to finances, intentional decision-making, and the fluidity of child-care and work roles. Final reflections during the child launching phase of life showed that role congruency was important for the participants and that they were currently satisfied with their situations.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / Tertiary education is becoming increasingly costly for many students. According to Pieterse (2005), young people can barely afford to make mistakes in their career decisions, as this could cost them too much in time and money. According to Coertse and Schepers (2004), one of the most important decisions adolescents will ever face is choosing what career to pursue. Coertse and Schepers (2004) propose that an adolescent’s career has significant consequences on their identity, values and aspirations. The most efficient way to develop young persons’ abilities, and assist them in realising their true potential, is through the educational and vocational training offered in schools (Lens, Herrera & Lacante, 2004). Many students do not receive proper career guidance at secondary schooling and they find themselves in their final year graduating, and unsure in terms of the career they are going to pursue. Hence, there exists a great need in the South African context for career guidance and for additional research in the levels of career maturity amongst final year undergraduate students. Career maturity has important implications for career development and decision-making practices (Schreuder & Coetzee, 2014). The term career maturity represents a readiness to engage in and the ability to master certain career developmental tasks appropriate to the age and level of an individual (Langley, Du Toit & Herbst, 1996). In previously disadvantaged communities in South Africa, career and educational planning was characterised by under- development, marginalisation, and under-resourcing (Pieterse, 2005). This could negatively impact students’ motivation towards, and perspectives of, their future careers. The present study aimed to assess the career maturity levels among final year students at a tertiary institution. Specifically, how students’ age, gender, stated certainty of career and type of secondary school influenced their career maturity levels. The sample group (N=149) consisted of final year undergraduate students, who were conveniently drawn to voluntarily partake in the research. Participants completed a biographical questionnaire as well as the Career Development Questionnaire (CDQ). Anonymity was ensured and the students were informed that all the information would be treated with strict confidentiality and used only for the stated research purposes. Statistical analyses involved descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation, T-test and Analysis of variance). The results indicated no significant relationship between the age, stated certainty of career, type of secondary school students attended and their career maturity. However, a significant relationship was found between gender and career maturity.

This research stems from the need by organisations to retain their key talent in the context of the change in the psychological contract manifesting in the emergence of boundaryless careers. Employees have ceased to be loyal to one organisation and this has marginalised employers as they still need to retain their key talent as a source of competitive advantage. Most organisations have segmented their workforce to develop talent pools of high potential employees to meet the organisation’s current and future critical skills needs. Hence, this study investigates the impact of inclusion in the talent pool on the psychological contract. Various instruments in the literature study were used to measure the psychological contract of employees in the talent pools in comparison to those not in talent pools. These include the transactional and relational psychological contract instrument by Millward and Hopkins (1998), organisational citizenship behaviour by Coyle-Shapiro (2002), trust by Robinson and Rousseau (1994) and turnover intention by Blomme et al. (2010). The study presents findings from 195 employees from three different organisations, about 50% of whom were in talent pools. The study shows that both groups of employees in and outside talent pools consider their psychological contract with their employers as less transactional. Although being part of the talent pool has a positive impact on the relational psychological contract and organisational commitment, it does not necessarily translate into trust and the intention to stay with organisations. Employees in talent pools are not different to those not in talent pools with regard to trust and the turnover intention. The report offers insights aimed at managers to understand the psychological contracts of their employees within the talent pools to avoid unnecessary violations and to explore new value propositions that are aligned to those contracts. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The Geoscience Quantitative Preparation Survey (GQPS) was developed to address a deficiency in the available literature regarding the competency and preparation of early-career geologists in geoscience job-related quantitative skills – namely, geologic numeracy. The final version of the GQPS included self-confidence, usage, satisfaction, and demographic sections. The GQPS was expected to produce data that would allow for an evaluation of the geologic numeracy of early-career geologists and the success of approximately 20 years of increased focus on quantitatively literate geoscience graduates. The self-confidence section of the GQPS included quantitative methods and quantitative skills. The usage section asked whether participants used methods or skills from the confidence section in both work and non-work settings. Satisfaction items asked how satisfied participants were with the quantitative preparation they received as undergraduates, relative to career needs, and included items on quantitative problem solving, quantitative communication, and computers. Limited demographic information was collected including time since bachelor’s graduation, years of related experience, undergraduate alma mater, current job status and field, and highest level of education. Satisfaction values for quantitative problem solving and quantitative communication indicate that respondents were largely satisfied with their undergraduate preparation, with values slightly higher for the geoscience department than for the university as a whole. Satisfaction items related to the use of computers were nearly uniform across all response levels and were not indicative of satisfaction (or any other particular response). Demographic responses indicate it is reasonable to make some generalizations to the overall population of early-career geologists. Early-career geologists in the sample population showed indications of geologic numeracy. This result indicates the educational trend of the last 20 years of focus on quantitatively literate geoscience graduates has had some success, although this focus cannot be compared to prior years due to lack of data. The GQPS was successful for answering its research questions, but requires validation as a complete scale before it is likely to be used by outside parties.

Subjects in this study were 5,523 respondents from a survey which was sent to households throughout the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine two basic components of career orientation: career indecision and career insight. Correlational analyses found relationships between career indecision and average job tenure, industry leaving intentions, industry staying intentions, and job satisfaction. Correlational analyses found relationships between career insight, industry staying intentions and job satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses were run using both career indecision and career insight as independent variables found that they had useful levels of incremental validity in predicting industry leaving intentions and job satisfaction. Potential uses of the two-dimensional career indecision - career insight model are discussed.

In recent years, American interest in motorsports has experienced increasing growth as the potential impact of the industry' on state and local economies has been recognized. At the same time, an increasing number of college students have begun to express an interest in career opportunities in the motorsport industry. This paper will provide a first look at the extent of management-oriented career options in motorsports. In addition, a case study of a partnership between a university and motorsport venue, established to support the academic preparation of students interested in a career in the motorsport industry, will be discussed.