M.Comm. / The goal of this study is to investigate the causes for conflict within the distribution channel currently used by a major manufacturer and exporter of steel products. This manufacturer is currently using six South African based agents. These agents are responsible for the marketing of the manufacturer's products in foreign markets. This channel of indirect exports was chosen due to the lack of a proper infra-structure within the export division of the manufacturer. Conflict between manufacturer and agents can cause foreign end-users to get a distorted image of the manufacturer and its products. Therefore it is necessary to investigate the causes for conflict. Plans can then be made to identify what can be done to switch a conflict situation to a situation of co-operation within the distribution channel. The first part of this study provides a theoretical framework, based on literature from many sources, on the different international distribution channels that are available. Special attention is given to indirect exports and the different forms that are available. Thereafter the causes of conflict and co-operation in the channel are discussed, as well as the different types of conflict and how to manage conflict. The second part of the study is practical, with interviews being held with the six agents to get their view on what causes conflict between them and the manufacturer. Thereafter the personnel of the manufacturer is interviewed to get their perception of the cause of conflict. The two different views are combined in order to make recommendations and conclusions regarding the causes of conflict within the distribution channel. The major cause of conflict in this channel is due to poor communication between the manufacturer and agents. This, problem can only be resolved if most of the information flow is computerised. This will ensure that 'information is reliable and on time. If this can be achieved, conflict situations can be switched to a situation of co-operation.

M.A. (Fundamental Communication) / Communication technologies like the mobile phone often present a double-edged sword in romantic relationships. While the mobile phone can enhance communication, it can simultaneously present a source of conflict. But through the use of a rule-based system, romantic partners can minimise conflict. This study investigated mobile phone usage rules that are negotiated by adolescents and young adults in their romantic relationships and also how these rules have been perceived to affect the romantic relationship. Of particular focus were rules that pertained specifically to the management of personal privacy boundaries by partners through the appendage of the mobile phone. The dialectic framework of Communication Privacy Management presented a nuanced lens from which to investigate the surveillance dimension of mobile phone appropriation in romantic relationships. The rise of peer-to-peer monitoring offered a unique point of departure that makes understanding the manifestation of this form surveillance in romantic relationships relevant. Findings conducted from surveys and interviews indicate that the negotiation of rules for appropriate mobile phone rules is indeed crucial to not only minimising conflict in romantic relationships but also enhancing trust and respect in the dyad. So important were trust and harmony that partners are even willing to allow their implicit rules and understandings of privacy to be superseded by a pursuit for these relational qualities. In addition to this, partners preferred not to resolves relational arguments over the phone because of the impetuous and intrusive nature of the mobile phone persona. While some rules remained constant, the quantitative survey showed that rules were evolutionary in nature as the relationships grew. The subsequent qualitative interviews also confirmed this finding.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether adult attachment style, psychological abuse in the marriage, conflict resolution strategies, and gender are associated with relational quality in childless couples in the early years of their marriage. Data were collected from 92 married couples who were recruited from university campuses, churches, and community organizations through e-mails, flyers, newspaper advertisements and mailings. Conceptualizing the interdependence of dyadic data from the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), multilevel linear modeling (MLM) was used to analyze differences within and between couples. It was hypothesized that higher levels of attachment anxiety or avoidance, psychological abuse, and maladaptive conflict resolution strategies would be associated with lower relational quality. Results indicated that attachment avoidance had stronger associations with relational quality than did attachment anxiety, and that higher levels of attachment avoidance were associated with lower relational quality. Additionally, findings indicated a direct negative relationship between both actor and partner psychological abuse and the actor's relational quality. The discussion section addresses strengths and limitations of the present study as well as directions for future research.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this independent work is to highlight how important it is to work with pupils' social knowledge in school. The work also aims to investigate how educators can help acting out pupils in the social interaction. They need to respond to the pupils in the game, but also take a step back when they notice that pupils are starting to change their old behavior. The method on which the work is based is scientific essay writing. The work is based on an experience taken from my reality as an educator at the after-school programme. The incident made me think about a pupil's behavior and my actions towards the pupil. Some of the selected theories and concepts I have used are differentiation competence, communities of practice, life world phenomenology and bioecological system theory. The concepts explain how educators can work with relationship building in school, in order to best meet and understand the pupils. An important idea based on the theories is that pupils are shaped by their encounters with others both at home and at school. That is why it becomes important to pay attention when difficulties arise and help pupils, both individually and collectively. My text ends with me highlighting the most important insights I gained during the work. I have broadened my perspective on the experience. I got time to reflect on my actions and how I would have acted if my and Jacks relationship had been deeper. The work has raised thoughtson how I and other educators should work to help pupils cope with the social interaction independent of the adults. / Syftet med detta självständiga arbete är att belysa hur viktigt det är att arbeta med elevernas sociala kunskaper i skolan. Arbetet syftar också till att undersöka hur pedagogerna kan hjälpa utåtagerande elever i det sociala samspelet. De behöver bemöta eleverna i leken men också taett steg tillbaka när de märker att eleverna börjar förändra sitt gamla beteende. Metoden som ligger till grund för arbetet är vetenskapligt essä skrivande. Arbetet utgår från en erfarenhettagen från min verklighet som pedagog på fritidshemmet. Händelsen fick mig att fundera överen elevs beteende och mitt agerande gentemot eleven. Några av de utvalda teorier ochbegrepp jag har använt är differentierings kompetens, praktikgemenskaper, livsvärlds fenomenlogin och den bioekologiska systemteorin. Begreppen förklarar hur pedagoger kan arbeta med relationsskapande i skolan med olika metoder, för att på bästa sätt bemöta och förstå eleverna. En viktig tanke utifrån teorierna är att eleverna formas av möten med andra både i hemmet och i skolan. Därför blir det viktigt att uppmärksamma när svårigheter uppstår och hjälpa eleverna, både individuellt och kollektivt. Min text avslutas med att jag lyfter de viktigaste insikterna jag fått under arbetet. Jag har vidgat mina perspektiv på händelsen. Jag har fått tid att reflektera kring mitt agerande och hur jag hade agerat om min och Jacks relation varit djupare. Arbetet har väckt tankar kring hur jag och andra pedagoger bör arbeta för att hjälpa eleverna att klara av att hantera det sociala samspelet oberoende av de vuxna.

Das Leben in Gruppen beinhaltet neben vielen Vorteilen auch zahlreiche Nachteile. Gruppenmitglieder konkurrieren über dieselben begrenzten Ressourcen oder verfolgen unterschiedliche Ziele. Während eines Interessenkonfliktes durchläuft jeder Konkurrent einen Entscheidungsprozeß, in dessen Zentrum die Frage steht, ob es sich lohnt für eine bestimmte Ressource zu kämpfen. Dabei muß einbezogen werden, daß aggressive Auseinandersetzungen Kosten verursachen. Diese Kosten können zum einen in Aggressionskosten, z.B. ein erhöhtes Verletzungsrisiko oder hohen Energieverbrauch, und zum anderen in Sozialkosten, z.B. die Störung kooperativer Beziehungen oder Streßreaktionen, aufgeteilt werden. Die unter dem Begriff Konfliktmanagement zusammengefaßten Verhaltensweisen helfen Konfliktkosten zu verringern. So können in Interessenkonflikten Aggression vermieden, deren Stärke gedämpft und soziale Konsequenzen verringert werden. Konfliktmanagement kann vor (pre-conflict management), während (peri-conflict management) und nach (post-conflict management) dem Auftreten von Aggression eingesetzt werden. Die Hypothese, die einem optimalen Konfliktmanagement zu Grunde liegt, ist daß der Nutzen eines Konfliktes seine Kosten übersteigen muß, wobei der Profit (Nutzen – Kosten) aus dem Konflikt maximiert wird. Vereinfachend nenne ich aggressive Auseinandersetzungen von nun an Konflikte. Das Konfliktmanagement von freilebenden Schimpansen (Pan troglodytes verus) wurde im Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire (Westafrika), untersucht. Von 1071 beobachteten Konflikten, die ich während ganztägiger Beobachtungen an 4 männlichen und 11 weiblichen Fokustieren gesammelt habe, wurden 876 zwischen erwachsenen Schimpansen beider Geschlechter analysiert. Multivariate Analysemethoden wurden angewandt, um die entscheidenden Faktoren des Entscheidungsprozesses bei Konflikten aufzuspüren, während überwiegend Paarstatistik für einfaktorielle Analysen verwandt wurde. Dominanzbeziehungen können den Zugang zu Ressourcen regulieren und damit den Ausbruch von Aggression verhindern (pre-conflict management). Frühere Studien haben gezeigt, daß häufig lineare Rangordnungen unter männlichen, nicht aber unter weiblichen Schimpansen bestehen. Die vorliegende Arbeit konnte hingegen eine lineare Rangordnung auch unter den Weibchen der Taï Schimpansen nachweisen, welche auf Grußlauten der untergeordneten Weibchen gerichtet an die Dominanten beruhte (Wittig & Boesch, 2003a). Im Nahrungskontext waren die Taï Weibchen untereinander direkter Konkurrenz (contest competition) ausgesetzt. Dieser Wettstreit wurde intensiver, sobald eine Nahrungsquelle monopolisierbar war oder die Anzahl von Konkurrentinnen anstieg. Der Rang in der Hierarchie unter den Weibchen war abhängig vom Gewinn der Wettstreite aber unabhängig vom Alter. Warum zwischen einigen Weibchen keine Begrüßungen beobachtet wurden, konnte nicht mit dem Fehlen sozio-positiver Beziehungen erklärt werden. Ein Vergleich zwischen Populationen von Schimpansen zeigte Unterschiede in der Nahrungskonkurrenz, dem Raubdruck und der Beobachtungszeit. Diese Faktoren könnten der Grund für die unterschiedlichen Dominanzbeziehungen unter den Weibchen sein. Anschließend untersuchte ich Variablen, die darüber entscheiden, ob und wie intensiv Individuen kämpfen. Dazu erweiterte ich das Relational Model (de Waal, 1996), um die gesamte Dynamik des Entscheidungsprozesses bei Taï Schimpansen beschreiben zu können. Das erweiterte Relational Model basiert auf der Annahme, daß der zu erwartende Profit den Ausbruch von Aggression bestimmt (Wittig & Boesch, 2003b). Schimpansen beider Geschlechter kämpften häufiger um Ressourcen, die von besonderer Bedeutung für sie waren: Nahrung für Weibchen und sozialer Rang für Männchen. Schimpansen benutzten zwei Strategien, die auf ihre Wahrscheinlichkeit diesen Kampf zu gewinnen zurückgeführt wurden. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit einen Kampf zu gewinnen wurde durch die Dominanzbeziehung der Gegner bestimmt. Dominante Angreifer initiierten längere und intensivere Kämpfe, aber bemühten sich Sozialkosten zu begrenzen, indem sie selten Kooperationspartner angriffen. Untergeordnete Angreifer kämpften kürzer und weniger intensiv, riskierten jedoch höhere Sozialkosten, die sie anschließend durch Versöhnungsmechanismen wieder zu verringern versuchten. Beide Strategien resultierten in einem positiven Profit für den Angreifer. Mit dem erweiterten Relational Model kann die gesamte Komplexität von Konflikten zwischen Taï Schimpansen beschrieben werden. Es erlaubt eine größere Flexibilität im Vergleich zur ursprünglichen Version des Models. Das Post-conflict Management sozial lebender Tiere kann dazu eingesetzt werden, Kosten zu reduzieren, die am Ende des Konfliktes bestehen. Dazu werden eine Vielzahl von Verhaltensweisen angewandt, so z.B. Versöhnung (reconciliation), Trost (consolation) oder Weiterleitung von Aggression (redirected aggression). Jede dieser Interaktionen, die erst nach dem Konflikt initiiert werden (PCI = post-conflict interaction), bietet unterschiedliche Vor- und Nachteile, die gelegentlich überlappen. Um den bestmöglichen Vorteil aus einer Konfliktsituation zu ziehen, können Individuen unter verschiedenen PCIs wählen. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersuchte, welche Konfliktsituation bei Taï Schimpansen zu welchen PCIs führten, und überprüfte, ob die Vor- und Nachteilen der ausgewählten PCI mit den Bedürfnissen zur Kostenbegrenzung der Konfliktpartner übereinstimmte (Wittig & Boesch, in press). Ehemalige Gegner versöhnten sich nach Konflikten, wenn ihre Beziehung wertvoll für sie war, und wenn eine Annäherung aneinander nur unwahrscheinlich zu erneuter Aggression geführt hätte. Das Trösten durch Dritte schien manchmal die Versöhnung zu ersetzen. Trost wurde von Dritten angeboten, wenn zwischen ehemaligen Gegnern keine wertvolle Beziehung bestand oder eine Annäherung der Gegner vermutlich wieder zu Aggression geführt hätte. Taï Schimpansen nahmen einen Konflikt wieder auf, wenn die vorherige Auseinandersetzung unentschieden war oder einen unerwarteten Verlierer aufwies. Nach lang anhaltenden Konflikten, oder wenn es wahrscheinlich ausging, daß friedliche PCIs fehlschlagen würden, leiteten Taï Schimpansen die Aggression häufig an Unbeteiligte weiter. Im Gegensatz dazu verhielten sich Taï Schimpansen nach kurzen Konflikten so, weiter als wäre nichts geschehen, und verweigerten jede Art von Interaktion (keine PCI), wenn die betreffende Ressource nicht an Ort oder Zeit gebunden war. Taï Schimpansen schienen Vor- und Nachteile klar gegeneinander abzuwägen, um die geeignetste PCI (Strategie) auszuwählen. Insgesamt scheint Versöhnung die einzige PCI zu sein, mit der es möglich ist, die aggressionsbedingte Störung einer Beziehung zu beseitigen, d.h. eine Beziehung zu reparieren. Obwohl der Nutzen von Versöhnungen allgemein anerkannt ist, war annähernd keine Kenntnis darüber vorhanden, wie ehemalige Gegner eine solche Reparatur durchführen. Frühere Studien gaben Anhaltspunkte über unterschiedliche Längen, Latenzen und Verhaltensweisen von Versöhnungen innerhalb einer Art. Die Gründe für die Variabilität im Versöhnungsverhalten waren jedoch weitgehend unbekannt. Aus diesem Grund untersuchte ich besonders das Versöhnungsverhalten der Taï Schimpansen (Wittig & Boesch, in review). Die Daten bestätigten, daß die Versöhnung eine Beziehung reparieren kann. Aggression störte die Toleranz zwischen den Gegnern, Versöhnung normalisierte diese wieder. Ehemalige Gegner mit wertvollen Beziehungen versöhnten sich häufiger als Partner mit weniger wertvollen Beziehungen. Die Latenz und Dauer der Versöhnung verändern sich in Abhängigkeit voneinander, da kurze Versöhnungen schnell nach einem Konflikt erfolgten. Lange Versöhnungen hingegen dauerten auch lange, bis sie zustande kamen. Hinzu kam, daß Taï Schimpansen eine lange Latenz wählten, wenn ein erneutes Aufflammen der Aggression wahrscheinlich erschien, aber nur kurze Zeit in die Versöhnung investierten, wenn die Zeit anderweitig vorteilhafter genutzt werden konnte. Dahingegen war die Komplexität der Versöhnung abhängig von der Stärke des Konfliktes. Je härter zuvor der Kampf geführt wurde, desto komplexer war di / Besides many advantages, social living also holds several disadvantages. Social partners compete for the same resources or seek contrary goals. When facing such conflicts of interest, competitors go through a decision-making process of whether or not to fight over a resource. However aggressive interactions, which I will refer to here as conflicts, incur costs, which can be separated into costs of aggression (increased risk of injury, higher energy usage) and social costs. Social costs are created by the consequences for the social life, such as the disturbance of cooperative relationships or stress. Conflict management should diminish the costs of conflicts by avoiding escalation to aggression, regulating the intensity of the escalation or dealing with the social consequences (e.g. relationship disturbance or social stress) of the conflict. Thus conflict management can be used before (pre-conflict management), during (peri-conflict management) and after the conflict (post-conflict management). The underlying hypothesis for optimal conflict management is that the benefits prevail over the costs, meanwhile the net-benefit is maximised. I investigated the conflict management of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in the Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. Of the 1071 conflicts observed during full-day focal animal follows of adults (4 males, 11 females), I analysed 876 dyadic conflicts among adult chimpanzees of both sex. Multivariate analysis was carried out to detect the variables that influence the decision-making process, while dyadic statistics were usually conducted for mono-factorial testing. Dominance relationships can regulate access to resources and thus help to avoid aggression (pre-conflict management). Although linear hierarchies are commonly found among male chimpanzees, they are believed to be absent among females. However, I detected a formal linear dominance hierarchy among the Taï females based on greeting behaviour directed from the subordinate to the dominant female. Females faced contest competition over food, which increased when either the food was monopolisable or the number of competitors increased. Dominant females usually possessed the food after the conflict. Winning contests over food, but not age, was related to the dominance rank. Affiliative relationships among the females did not help to explain the absence of greetings in some dyads. However post hoc comparison among chimpanzee populations made differences in food competition, predation risk and observation time apparent, which may explain the difference in dominance relationships. I also examined the decision-making process of whether or not to initiate aggression and how strong to fight. An extended version of the Relational Model (de Waal, 1996a) was developed to describe the dynamics of the decision-making process in Taï chimpanzees, such that the net-benefit determines the occurrence of conflicts. Both sexes fought more frequently for the resources that were most important to them: food for females and social contexts for males. Individuals used two different strategies according to their likelihood of winning the aggressive interaction, which was determined by the dominance relationship of the conflict partners. Dominant initiators had longer and more intense aggressive interactions, but they limited their social disadvantages by fighting non-cooperative partners. Subordinate initiators had shorter and less intense aggressive interactions, but risked more social costs, which they could reduce afterwards by reconciliation. Both strategies included a positive overall net-benefit. The extended Relational Model fits the complexity of wild chimpanzee conflicts and allows for more flexibility in the decision-making process compared to the original model. Post-conflict management in social living animals can reduce costs that remain after aggressive interactions by means of a variety of interactions implemented after aggression (e.g. reconciliation, consolation, redirected aggression). Each post-conflict interaction (PCI) provides different advantages and disadvantages, although the functions may sometimes overlap. Individuals can therefore choose a PCI to achieve the most favourable outcome within a given conflict situation. I investigated which conflict-condition led to which type of PCI and related the choice of PCI to its advantages and disadvantages. Taï chimpanzees used reconciliation to resolve conflicts among high value partners and when approaching the former opponent was unlikely to entail further aggression. Consolation seemed to substitute for reconciliation, when opponents were low value partners or approaching the former opponent was too risky, such as when further aggression was likely. Taï chimpanzees renewed aggression after undecided conflicts and when losers were unexpected. They used redirected aggression after long conflicts, possibly because friendly PCIs were likely to fail. However, Taï chimpanzees continued with business as usual when conflicts were very short, and they avoided further interactions when the accessibility of the resource was unlimited. Taï chimpanzees appeared to follow a clear-cut evaluation process as they seemed to weigh advantages against disadvantages for the appropriate choice of PCI. However reconciliation appears to be the only PCI that is able to repair the relationships of former opponents after being disturbed by aggressive interactions. Despite a consensus about the benefits of reconciliation, it remains unclear how former opponents achieve these benefits. Variation within reconciliation is evident in many species, but understanding what causes the variation has been mostly neglected until now. Therefore I investigated how Taï chimpanzees reconciled. This study provides evidence for the repair function of reconciliation, since aggression disturbed tolerance levels among former opponents and reconciliation restored tolerance to normal levels again. Partners with highly beneficial relationships reconciled more often compared with partners of low mutual benefit. Latency and duration of reconciliation varied in combination, such that short reconciliations were initiated soon after the conflict, while long reconciliations were initiated later. Latency increased with the risk of further aggression, while duration decreased when costs were incurred from interruption of beneficial activities. In contrast, the complexity of reconciliation varied according to the intensity of the preceding conflict, such that reconciliation was more complex after more intense conflicts. My results suggest that relationships between opponents are increasingly disturbed with increasing conflict intensity and reconciliation repairs all relationships independent of their relationship value. I propose that the function of reconciliation is to reduce the disturbance created by aggression, but that reconciliation occurs more frequently the more beneficial it is for former opponents. Taï chimpanzees engaged in conflict management before, during and after the conflict. The decision-making process of Taï chimpanzees is based on economic rules in terms of costs and benefits. Conflict management provides Taï chimpanzees with a tool to minimise the disadvantages of group-living.

Organisationer inom den offentliga sektorn genomgår ständiga förändringar. Tidigare forskning visar att förändringar inom en organisation oftast möts av motstånd vilket senare kan resultera i konflikter. Konflikter som fortgår kan leda till både stora kostnader och minskad produktion. Denna uppsats undersöker mellanchefers hantering av konflikter som uppstår i samband med stora förändringar i organisationen. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med sex stycken mellanchefer på ett kontor inom offentlig sektor samlades data in. Resultatet visade att identifiera motstånd och föra en dialog i ett tidigt stadie kan vara en nyckelfaktor för att hantera och motarbeta konflikter i samband med större förändringar. Resultatet visar också att det finns ett lärande i konflikthantering, dock är det svårt att identifiera i vilket skede detta lärande sker.

The traditional procurement and contracting method within the architectural, engineering and construction industry is often criticised for its fragmented approach and its isolation of designers from contractor and Facilities Management(FM). However, adversarial relationships often occur among the project-team members due to disagreements relating to poor communication, processes, specifications, compliance, cost overruns and the extension of times. Therefore, the integration of FM’s specialists into early design development process comes with challenges, such as conflict between the design team and FM’s specialists over the specifications, local statutory compliance, commissioning method statements and the hand-over process. Furthermore, conflicts have critical effects on cost and schedule in complex projects and creates breakdown of relationships among project participants and results in project delays, claims and disputes. The Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to “to explore effective involvement of FM specialists in the early design-development process of complex building projects in South Africa is perceived to be causing conflicts between the multi-disciplinary professional design team members.” Design/methodology: Mixed methods was adopted for this study including extensive related literature review and pilot study. Purposive (8 interviews) and snowballing (102 participants) sampling techniques were used in data collection. Findings: According to descriptive analysis, participants slightly greed that FM specialists should be involved in the early stage of the design development process with mean score ranging from 3.21 (Inception stage) and 3.71 (Concept and Viability stage). Participants agreed that that FM specialists should be involved during design development stage with a mean score of 4.19 and project close out stage with a mean score of 4.29. Furthermore, from 41 causes of conflicts, 10 received mean scores ranging from 2.66 and 2.97 meaning that there is a low possibilities of causing conflicts while 31 variables received mean scores ranging from 3.00 to 3.97 meaning that there is a moderate possibilities of causing conflicts among FM specialists and design team during design development process. Research limitation/Implications: Potential participants are architects, engineers, project managers, property-development managers and facilities managers. Furthermore, the focus of the study is on medium and large complex projects with buildings systems. In addition, this Originality/Value: The high costs of maintenance during operation and non-compliance with the local statutory requirements of the building systems will affect the results and the application thereof. The integration of the design team and FM’s specialists will provide the client with the final product that is functional and safe to occupy and use for its intent. Furthermore, FM’s specialists’ involvement early in the design-development process would reduce operational and maintenance costs during the operational stage of the building; and they would further ensure that the facility complies with the local statutory requirements. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Construction Economics / MSc / Unrestricted