Cette thèse vise à étudier conjointement deux thèmes de recherche habituellement traités séparés par la littérature académique : les caractéristiques des directeurs généraux et l'engagement des employés au travail. La problématique peut se définir ainsi : quel est l'impact des caractéristiques des dirigeants sur leur engagement au travail ? ou autrement dit, comment les caractéristiques managériales influencent la nature et le degré d'implication des dirigeants au travail? Les dirigeants dans notre travail de recherche seront les dirigeants des banques au Liban : on va essayer de leur créer une typologie. / Organizational commitment has been studied comprehensively along with varied professional groups. The concept that commitment is essential for the apprehension of organizational and professional goals mainly in the Banking organizations has remained unexploited by researchers. The study of employee commitment should be important to Banking organizations receiving large amounts of community savings and playing an important role in the development of the economical sector as a whole.No previous studies have tackled the Lebanese bank managers’ subject in relevance to their organizational commitment and its relation with their biographical traits and their Job perforamance; therefore the study of organizational commitment will particularly be relevant to Lebanese bank managers, as those represent the leading power for the future of the Lebanese banking sector.

L’objet de cette thèse est de comprendre les manifestations de l’implication des étudiants et les mécanismes qui la favorisent. D’abord nous avons exposé les théories de la gouvernance (parties prenantes et responsabilité sociale), les différents modèles d’organisation des universités et la place de l’implication à l’Université. Ces bases théoriques nous ont permis de poser notre modèle. Ensuite, nous avons construit les concepts de notre modèle sur la base de 12 entretiens exploratoires, de recherche documentaire et d’observations ; et présenté le fonctionnement de l’université sénégalaise. Il apparait toutefois nécessaire pour l’université d’identifier les facteurs d’implication des étudiants pour mieux attirer ces derniers. Le recueil de données est principalement constitué d’une étude quantitative (n = 277, taux de retour 92%). Enfin, nous avons analysé les résultats et énuméré les perspectives managériales qui en découlent. Les aspects annexes, la qualité de l’enseignement, la participation dans les associations et les caractéristiques individuelles sont les éléments que la gouvernance des universités doit prendre en compte pour susciter l’implication des étudiants. / The purpose of this thesis is to understand the manifestations of the commitment of students and the mechanisms that favor it. First, we presented the theories of the governance (stakeholders and social responsibility), the different models of organization concerning universities as well as the place of commitment at the University. These theoretica foundations have enabled us to elaborate our research model. Second, we built the concepts of our research model on the basis of 12 exploratory interviews, documentary research and observations, and presented the functioning of the Senegalese University. It appears, however, necessary for the university to identify the factors of the commitment of students in order tobetter attract them. Data collection consists mainly on a quantitative study (n = 277, rate of response: 92%). Finally, we analyzed the results and enumerated the managerial perspectives. Annexes aspects, quality of education, participation in associations and individual characteristics are the elements that the university governance should take into account togenerate the commitment of students.

As compared to short-term forecasting (e.g., 1 day), it is often challenging to accurately forecast the volume of precipitation in a medium-term horizon (e.g., 1 week). As a result, fluctuations in water inflow can trigger generation shortage and electricity price spikes in a power system with major or predominant hydro resources. In this paper, we study a two-stage robust scheduling approach for a hydrothermal power system. We consider water inflow uncertainty and employ a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to represent its seasonality and accordingly construct an uncertainty set in the robust optimization approach. We design a Benders' decomposition algorithm to solve this problem. Results are presented for the proposed approach on a real-world case study.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Brian Niehoff / The purpose of this thesis was to examine the relative efficacy of the incentive plan for loan officers within Farm Credit of the Virginia’s, ACA (FCV). The purpose of FCV’s incentive plan includes promoting firm financial growth and stability, employee retention, and encouraging teamwork. Incentive plans are important financial decisions for companies and these plans have upside potential and downside risk that should be considered in the decision making process. A literature review was conducted to analyze incentive practices and management theory in addition to a review incentive plans from other Farm Credit associations. A survey was also conducted to understand loan officer perceptions of the current incentive plan at FCV. The results of the survey provide insight into employee perceptions about job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, organizational commitment, understanding of the incentive plan, and timing of incentives. Finally, observations with regards to potential improvement in the incentive plan were provided.

Master of Science - Agricultural Education and Communication / Department of Communications and Agricultural Education / Shannon Washburn / Agriculture is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Universities have the opportunity to meet the growing demand for more agricultural graduates. To better understand how to facilitate students in degree completion at Kansas State University, this study looked at the aspirations of freshmen and the expectations of seniors within the College of Agriculture at Kansas State University. The sample included 517 freshmen and 196 seniors, for a total of 713 students who completed the questionnaire. Both freshmen and seniors indicated positivity toward future career goals. Additionally, both groups indicated having participated or the desire to participate in a student organization within the College of Agriculture, and to complete an internship relevant to their major. Intrinsic values, such as relevance to their interests and personal values, were influential in choice of degree for both freshmen and seniors. Both groups responded very positively about future job opportunities and preparedness for the career force. Freshmen and Seniors were relatively consistent in their predication of salary one year and five years after graduation, however freshmen had higher expectations 10 years post-graduation. Forty-two percent (n = 210) of freshmen indicated that they had thought about changing majors, while 29.2% (n = 56) of seniors had responded that they had changed majors during their academic career. Both groups indicated that they had a positive college experience at Kansas State University. According to this research, Kansas State University students need more information about job opportunities and salary expectations. Additionally, more information regarding majors will help students choose a major most connected to their personal interests.

Magister Commercii - MCom / The focus of branding is often externally focused, yet it is the employees through their direct interaction with the brand, that can make or break the brand promise. Despite the important role of employees in building the brand, they are often overlooked in brand building strategies. The purpose of the study was to test the effect of internal brand management on brand commitment and brand trust in a government organisation. Front-line employees of the South African Post Office, a state-owned organisation in South Africa was selected to collect the data using convenience sampling. Cronbach Alpha and content validity was used to test the reliability and validity of the measurement instrument. The data was not normally distributed and non-parametric tests were performed during data analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the basic characteristics of the respondents and the correlation coefficient (Rho) was used to test the relationships between variables. All three hypotheses were accepted. The results are consistent with previous research, however, new developments are emerging. For front-line employees to commit to the brand, they must trust the brand, which in turn is created through brand identity. Negative external communication influences the ability of front-line employees to deliver the expected brand promise. Importantly, the role of top management in fostering internal brand management cannot be overlooked.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a behaviorally-based intervention that emphasizes psychological processes related to mindfulness, values, committed actions towards values, defusion from troubling thoughts, and acceptance. ACT is often used with populations who experience psychological inflexibility or stress, but not much research has been done understanding how ACT processes may affect everyday tasks within the common public or within business practices. The present study used a randomized controlled trial to determine the effect that statements related to ACT processes given while receiving a bar tending service altered the outcome tipping percentage from guests. The current research also discussed how each statement used relates back to the various components of ACT. The current study suggests a potential way to increase tips that a bartender or server can receive by providing a simple ACT-based statement to their customers while still maintaining an inviting and friendly environment for entertainment. Results of this study indicated that the use of mindfulness statements was statistically significant, t(53) = 1.68, p < .098. While one of the six prepared and randomized mindfulness statements, “It’s it a nice night for a drink?” used was statistically significant in increasing tip revenue when compared to all other mindfulness statements used and the low-quality control statements used in a one-way ANOVA analysis, F(6, 48) = 1.799, p = .11. Results of this study were not significant for a t-test comparing statements and total tip value received compared to total bill amount t(5) = 0.887, p < .378. Additionally, results of a two-way ANOVA comparing male and female and tip value also displayed no statistical significance F(1, 51) = 0.051, p = .82, F(1, 51) = 1.106, p = .29, with no significant interaction, F(1, 51) = 2.467, p = .12. Lastly, a two-way ANOVA comparing male and female and total tip value received compared to total bill amount displayed no significance as well F(1, 51) = 0.448, p = .50, F(1, 51) = 1.439, p = .23, with no significant interaction F(1, 51) = 0.693, p = .40. Organizational behavior management (OBM) is an area of behavior intervention ripe for ACT research. Future OBM research could extend upon by incorporating the use of ACT, or ACT related processes into everyday business models and behaviors.

Thesis (M.Com. (Marketing Management and Information Systems))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2015 / The objectives of the study were to explore the extent to which three management characteristics related to organisational entrepreneurship in not-for-profit organisations (NPOs) in Gauteng, as well as the relation between organisational entrepreneurship and the organisational performance. The research was based on a quantitative approach which involved a random sample of 257 NPO managers who responded via a self-administered questionnaire. The research instrument measured management’s commitment to their occupation, management’s continuous education and management ethics, as well as organisational entrepreneurship and organisational performance. Data analysis techniques comprised of structural equation modelling which focused on confirmatory factory analysis to confirm conceptual relations and path model analysis to determine the causal relations between each management characteristics with organisational entrepreneurship, and organisational entrepreneurship with organisational performance. Path analysis results returned significant at the 99% confidence level that management’s continuous education and management’s ethics had strong positive causal relations to organisational entrepreneurship, as well as the positive relation of organisational entrepreneurship with organisational performance. The research noted implications for NPO management teams, including the renovation of business model structures to incorporate continuous learning and constructive risk-taking in order to take advantage of the performance benefits derived from organisational entrepreneurship. The study also recommends further research into potential citizenship bodies for NPO management team to foster commitment to their occupation in the non-profit sector.

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA by Coursework and Research Report in the field of Organisational Psychology in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, on 8 February 2016 / The aim of the current study was to investigate two possible mechanisms that might facilitate thriving in the workplace, namely implicit person theories and psychological capital. These variables were chosen because of their potential to operate in accordance with Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden and build hypothesis, with implicit person theories working to broaden thought-action repertoires, and psychological capital working to build personal resources. The study employed a quantitative, non-experimental, correlational, and cross sectional design. A sample of 226 working adults living in South Africa volunteered to participate in the study. They completed four online questionnaires: a demographic questionnaire; the Thriving at Work Scale; the Implicit Person Theories Scale; and the Psychological Capital Questionaire-24 (PCQ-24). To test the hypothesis that implicit person theories and psychological capital jointly facilitate the experience of workplace thriving, a series of correlations, regressions, and mediation analyses were conducted. The results indicated that psychological capital does indeed mediate the relationship between implicit person theories and workplace thriving.

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