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A framework for a strategy fit with national and organizational culture holds several implications for multinational business managers. First, culture is a critical variable in the strategy process and it should be explicitly examined as a part of the process. Second, culture might encourage and support organizationally a particular business level strategy and may affect marketing practices. This approach views transactional and relational practices as part of a continuum. This study has examined over 250 firms in the United States and the Cote d’Ivoire on the dimensions of their organizational culture, national culture and contemporary marketing practices. In essence, this is a test of the convergence theory versus cultural specificity debate. The study first establishes a model in the US of the relationship between organizational culture and contemporary marketing practices and then tests it in Cote d’Ivoire. Lisrel is used to examine the goodness of the fit of the model. Results indicate that differences in national cultures call for differences in marketing practices since the US model does not fit in Cote d’Ivoire. The differences between the two models and implications for a new Ivorian model are discussed.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University. University Professors Program. / This is a study of the relationship between persistent Bantu traditional values and social, political and economic institutions, using the premises of the Convergence Theory and the Invariance Hypothesis to determine what that relationship should be. Traditional values like the concept of man as a life force, the principle of communalism and the belief in the interaction between the dead, the living and those to be born have remained invariant throughout the history of the Bantu. This, contrary to the prescriptions of the dominant modernization theory which calls for the dismantling of these values once the society faces the so called "universal forces of change," like the introduction of modern industries, the development of means of communications, the growth of urban centers and above all, the development of modern science and technology. We used a descriptive analysis approach to examine the relationship between values and patterns of authority on the one hand and patterns of solidarity on the other. We did this first in the traditional setting. Then we did an analytical content criticism of those values in the colonial and post colonial periods which most people link to the introduction of modernization in Africa. We found out that, despite change in the environment, traditional values stay the same. Change will occur at the structural level but in order for the new institutions to be legitimate, they must reflect the traditional values of the people. This in a way explains the failure of some imposed political and social institutions to function in Africa.

This thesis investigates the public sector in Latvia and the research question is “what is the nature of transition of Human Resource Management ideologies and paradigms against the backdrop of larger scale dynamic development in Latvia?” The interest within this research is that of the contextual paradigmatic view of Human Resource Management (HRM) (Brewster et al., 2010; Brewster, 1999; Moreley, 2004) exploring the contextual factors, or surrounding antecedents of HRM (Brewster, et al., 2010). The research is a case study of the public sector within the State of Latvia for what became a journey through the complex history of this country revealing a state with a varied and dramatic past which has been subject to various invasions, occupations and subjected to the control and command society of the Soviet Union for a considerable number of years. The journey from Soviet control of the politically motivated ‘cadre’ system into independence has provided a rich source of research exploring how human resource management (HRM) has developed within the public sector. This was investigated as a case study since it is a ‘constant’ in relation to changes and a good indicator of attitudes to management from a national perspective. As well as past ‘models’ or attitudes to HRM from a Soviet perspective, various models of HRM have been explored and discussed, particularly in relation to the universalistic nature of Westernised typologies. The concept of a European model has been considered and discussed with consideration of various ‘clusters’ of practices which take into account cultural aspects, in particular national culture, as an important element within the study. Overarching this is the growing interest in convergence or divergence of HRM as the Central Eastern European states have developed post-independence (Brewster, 2004). The mixed methods approach used is firmly place within the qualitative field or phenomenological approach and explores aspects such as behaviour, perspectives, experiences and feelings (Atkinson et al., 2001; Marshall and Rossman, 2006). The research utilises grounded theory building (Glaser and Straus, 1967; Charmaz, 2014; Bryant and Charmaz, 2007; Strauss and Corbin, 1997; Glaser, 2002)) combining multiple data collection methods taking a pragmatic approach to research. The level of analysis explores the macro, meso and micro level environments of the Latvian public sector. The macro-level concerns interactions between state and society from a broad perspective, fundamentally this is the level where decision-making takes place, the meso-level explores individual ‘behaviours’ embedded in every day social practices shaped or constrained by material and infrastructural contexts and the micro-level of individual behaviour and action). Exploratory research has considered historical accounts along with what was sparse research within the area. A Soviet perspective was considered for the period immediately preceding independence. Elite interviews were carried out followed by a survey questionnaire. The opportunity to enter the organisation and undertake observations was thwarted by a change of government and therefore ‘access’ afforded to the researcher. The findings are integrated throughout this work as is the nature of grounded theory building, and given the paucity of research has become part of a wider social study of a system finding its identity through difficult times. The results and analysis takes into account not only elite interviews and the survey questionnaire but also background historical research. The result is a fertile breeding ground for investigation which offers many avenues for further research. Various questions for future research are raised within the thesis and remain an interest of the researcher to take forward.

Cette thèse se concentre sur l'étude d'un algorithme multi niveaux de régions de confiance en norme infinie, conçu pour la résolution de problèmes d'optimisation non linéaires de grande taille pouvant être soumis a des contraintes de bornes. L'étude est réalisée tant sur le plan théorique que numérique. L'algorithme RMTR8 que nous étudions ici a été élaboré a partir de l'algorithme présente par Gratton, Sartenaer et Toint (2008b), et modifie d'abord en remplaçant l'usage de la norme Euclidienne par une norme infinie, et ensuite en l'adaptant a la résolution de problèmes de minimisation soumis a des contraintes de bornes. Dans un premier temps, les spécificités du nouvel algorithme sont exposées et discutées. De plus, l'algorithme est démontré globalement convergent au sens de Conn, Gould et Toint (2000), c'est-a-dire convergent vers un minimum local au départ de tout point admissible. D'autre part, il est démontre que la propriété d'identification des contraintes actives des méthodes de régions de confiance basées sur l'utilisation d'un point de Cauchy peut être étendue a tout solveur interne respectant une décroissance suffisante. En conséquence, cette propriété d'identification est aussi respectée par une variante particulière du nouvel algorithme. Par la suite, nous étudions différents critères d'arrêt pour les algorithmes d'optimisation avec contraintes de bornes afin de déterminer le sens et les avantages de chacun, et ce pour pouvoir choisir aisément celui qui convient le mieux a certaines situations. En particulier, les critères d'arrêts sont analyses en termes d'erreur inverse (backward erreur), tant au sens classique du terme (avec l'usage d'une norme produit) que du point de vue de l'optimisation multicritères. Enfin, un algorithme pratique est mis en place, utilisant en particulier une technique similaire au lissage de Gauss-Seidel comme solveur interne. Des expérimentations numériques sont réalisées sur une version FORTRAN 95 de l'algorithme. Elles permettent d'une part de définir un panel de paramètres efficaces par défaut et, d'autre part, de comparer le nouvel algorithme a d'autres algorithmes classiques d'optimisation, comme la technique de raffinement de maillage ou la méthode du gradient conjugue, sur des problèmes avec et sans contraintes de bornes. Ces comparaisons numériques semblent donner l'avantage à l'algorithme multi niveaux, en particulier sur les cas peu non-linéaires, comportement attendu de la part d'un algorithme inspire des techniques multi grilles. En conclusion, l'algorithme de région de confiance multi niveaux présente dans cette thèse est une amélioration du précédent algorithme de cette classe d'une part par l'usage de la norme infinie et d'autre part grâce a son traitement de possibles contraintes de bornes. Il est analyse tant sur le plan de la convergence que de son comportement vis-à-vis des bornes, ou encore de la définition de son critère d'arrêt. Il montre en outre un comportement numérique prometteur. / This thesis concerns the study of a multilevel trust-region algorithm in infinity norm, designed for the solution of nonlinear optimization problems of high size, possibly submitted to bound constraints. The study looks at both theoretical and numerical sides. The multilevel algorithm RMTR8 that we study has been developed on the basis of the algorithm created by Gratton, Sartenaer and Toint (2008b), which was modified first by replacing the use of the Euclidean norm by the infinity norm and also by adapting it to solve bound-constrained problems. In a first part, the main features of the new algorithm are exposed and discussed. The algorithm is then proved globally convergent in the sense of Conn, Gould and Toint (2000), which means that it converges to a local minimum when starting from any feasible point. Moreover, it is shown that the active constraints identification property of the trust-region methods based on the use of a Cauchy step can be extended to any internal solver that satisfies a sufficient decrease property. As a consequence, this identification property also holds for a specific variant of our new algorithm. Later, we study several stopping criteria for nonlinear bound-constrained algorithms, in order to determine their meaning and their advantages from specific points of view, and such that we can choose easily the one that suits best specific situations. In particular, the stopping criteria are examined in terms of backward error analysis, which has to be understood both in the usual meaning (using a product norm) and in a multicriteria optimization framework. In the end, a practical algorithm is set on, that uses a Gauss-Seidel-like smoothing technique as an internal solver. Numerical tests are run on a FORTRAN 95 version of the algorithm in order to define a set of efficient default parameters for our method, as well as to compare the algorithm with other classical algorithms like the mesh refinement technique and the conjugate gradient method, on both unconstrained and bound-constrained problems. These comparisons seem to give the advantage to the designed multilevel algorithm, particularly on nearly quadratic problems, which is the behavior expected from an algorithm inspired by multigrid techniques. In conclusion, the multilevel trust-region algorithm presented in this thesis is an improvement of the previous algorithm of this kind because of the use of the infinity norm as well as because of its handling of bound constraints. Its convergence, its behavior concerning the bounds and the definition of its stopping criteria are studied. Moreover, it shows a promising numerical behavior.

MGS / Institute for Gender and Youth Studies / ‘Gonyalelwa lapa’ is a form of a marriage whereby a family marries a woman to a deceased son who passed on without having biological children, for the purpose of restoring or reviving the deceased’s name. The woman is married with her existing children, or to bear children who will take the surname of the deceased man. Women find it difficult to leave such marriages for the fear of losing their children whom they signed off by accepting to be married under this type of marriage. This study employs the feminist standpoint methodological approach in order to explore experiences of women who are married for ‘lapa’. The study purposefully selected a sample of 8 women who are married under ‘Gonyalelwa lapa’ as well as 4 key informants. Findings demonstrate that women marry for ‘lapa’ mainly for economic reasons, to escape stigmatization, for the acquisition of the marital surname, which is tied to being acknowledged, respected and recognized by the community. Nevertheless, these women face multidimensional challenges within their in-laws’ households: they receive no support from the inlaws; their girl-children suffer discrimination based on ‘sex-preference’, boys are given more value on the basis that a boy will be able to perpetuate a deceased man’s name. Most women married under this type of marriage suffer from emotional and economic abuse at the hands of their in-laws. The study reveals that these challenges are attributed to lack of physical presence of the husband in the family. The study recommends that a large scale study be conducted on this or related topic, to build knowledge and create an awareness of such a marriage as to facilitate its inclusion in Customary Marriage Act.

Contemporary social and political discourses often emphasise the security threat of Jihadism towards Europe and the United States as the main terrorist threat. Two decades into the twenty-first century, however, the new threat of right-wing terrorism has emerged as the statistically most prominent form of terror. As these attacks are predominantly carried out through so-called lone wolf tactics, it becomes essential to understand how these actors operate. While there is a growing amount of empirical literature that seeks to understand this phenomenon of lone-wolf terrorism, many follow similar frameworks with explanatory models which are dependent on assumptions and common truisms, such as that lone wolves are loners with depressive personality disorders who are cultivated in a vacuum independent from social ties. This study instead explores group psycho-historical factors through the theoretical framework of Symbolic Convergence Theory, which is applied through discourse analysis. The research thus aims to identify group fantasies and grand narratives which ties these lone wolves to a community on which they depend upon in radicalisation and subsequently, in carrying out the attacks. The findings consequently suggest that the typology of lone wolf terrorism is misleading as the subjects indicate a group consciousness with a cohesiveness which grows stronger as they increasingly interpret a growing danger towards their community dependent on commonly recurring fantasies and narratives.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis sought to attain a greater understanding of persuasion through narrative. First, a rhetorical analysis was conducted. The rhetorical analysis identified fantasy themes represented in two original music video artifacts. These themes formed what the author calls Symbolic Convergence Cycle of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Next, an experiment was conducted to provide further evidence that realistic narrative presentations have a greater ability to shape perceptions than more abstract presentations. Findings included that women were more likely to identify subtle abusive behaviors as abusive then men. However, after exposure to conditions containing the visual portion of the music video “Love the Way You Lie”, both female and male participants were less likely to identify subtle abusive behavior as abusive. This revealed that even though two messages can contain the same themes about the subject of IPV, the way that these messages were presented effected the way in which viewers interpreted the messages.

For this project I analyze the film Bronson, focusing on its connection to the contemporary masculinity crisis discourse or the belief that traditional notions of masculinity are in peril due to changing gender norms and women's social progress. I argue Bronson privileges a narrow, violent conception of masculinity through its presentation of violence and domination over other men. I use Ernest Bormann's Symbolic Convergence Theory to analyze how the film makes sense of the real life events it is based on in a way that appeals to the contemporary masculinity crisis discourse. I argue that Bronson is a notable representation of masculinity because it recounts the life of an infamous criminal in a fashion that frames his actions as a resistance to effeminate men. The film's treatment of masculinity is problematic because it advances a restrictive notion of masculinity that involves violent, destructive behavior.

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