Le 1er juin 2016, la politique nationale de gratuité des soins de santé reproductive est entrée en vigueur au Burkina Faso. Elle vise à réduire la mortalité maternelle en améliorant l’accès aux soins de santé pendant la grossesse, l’accouchement, et en post-partum. Si cette politique a permis d’augmenter la fréquentation dans les centres de santé reproductive par les femmes, d’autres barrières pourraient encore limiter le recours à ces services. Il s’agit, d’une part, de la mauvaise qualité des relations entre les femmes et les soignant·e·s, et d’autre part, du faible pouvoir décisionnel des femmes en matière de santé reproductive et de planification familiale. Notre étude vise à décrire ces deux barrières potentielles dans le contexte de la gratuité des soins au Burkina Faso. Nous avons réalisé une étude qualitative descriptive en milieu rural. Des données ont été collectées à l’aide d’entrevues semi-dirigées et de groupes de discussion, auprès de femmes burkinabè en âge d’avoir des enfants, de leurs maris, et d’informatrices clés. Nos résultats montrent, d’une part, que les relations avec les soignant·e·s et la qualité des soins au centre de santé sont perçues comme satisfaisantes par les femmes. D’autre part, si la gratuité des soins semble efficace pour améliorer l’accès aux soins de santé reproductive et à la planification familiale, le poids des normes sociales semble toujours limiter le pouvoir décisionnel des femmes. Au regard de ces résultats, des pistes d’action seraient à envisager en complément de la gratuité pour améliorer le pouvoir décisionnel des femmes en matière de santé. / On June 1, 2016, the national user fee exemption policy has been introduced in Burkina Faso. It aims to reduce maternal mortality by improving access to healthcare during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. This policy has increased the number of women attending reproductive health centres, however other barriers could still prevent women from seeking healthcare. These barriers are, first, the poor quality of relationships between women and healthcare providers, and second, women’s lack of decision-making power in matters of reproductive health and family planning. Our study aims to describe these two potential barriers in the context of free healthcare in Burkina Faso. We carried out a descriptive qualitative study in rural areas. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups from Burkinabe women of childbearing age, their husbands, and key informants. Our results show, on one hand, that relationships with healthcare providers and quality of care at health centres are perceived as satisfactory by women. On the other hand, while the user fee exemption policy seems to be effective in improving access to reproductive care and family planning, social norms seem to limit women’s decision-making power. In view of these results, courses of action could be imagined to improve the decision making power of women regarding reproductive health and family planning.

Democracy in South Africa, among others, has brought a significant number of changes in the education system, including the concept of school management team in schools (SMT). In line with this, the objective of this study was to find out how SMTs experience teamwork in schools; and was conducted in the purposefully sampled six secondary schools in the Tshwane North District. This study was framed within the interpretive approach, and sought to unpack the experience of SMT members with regard to teamwork. An interpretive paradigm made it possible for me to gain an in-depth understanding of SMT member‟s experience of teamwork within their school contexts. I used interviews and questionnaires as research tools to gather data. This study has found that, although the concept of teamwork is well-received, there are significant obstacles to the implementation of teamwork as an alternative form of management. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Education Management)

Si l’on considère que le rôle des actionnaires varie dans un continuum qui s’étend de la passivité à l’une des extrémités jusqu’au contrôle total de la société dans laquelle ils ont investi, on peut affirmer que si, à une certaine époque, les investisseurs institutionnels ont privilégié une certaine forme d’apathie rationnelle, cette réalité a évolué. Loins d’avoir atteint l’autre extrémité du spectre, on doit néanmoins constater que désormais, les dirigeants et les actionnaires dominants doivent faire face à un nombre limité d’actionnaires institutionnels qui se connaissent et détiennent une part importante des titres d’une société. Malgré la présence d’obstacles légaux et organisationnels qui entravent toujours aujourd’hui l’exercice des droits des actionnaires, il semble que les interventions des investisseurs institutionnels aient transcendé la règle de la majorité en ayant recours à des moyens inusités pour diminuer les risques d’opportunisme au sein des sociétés ouvertes. En effet, si l’activisme des investisseurs institutionnels est un phénomène complexe qui prend des formes multiples souvent opaques et qui est difficile à cerner avec précision, il est néanmoins possible d’affirmer que ce mécanisme de gouvernance joue un rôle des plus importants en contribuant à limiter les coûts d’agence découlant de l’extraction de bénéfices privés par les dirigeants et les actionnaires dominants. En effet, au Canada, où la structure de propriété d’une majorité de sociétés est concentrée, l’activisme actionnarial permet de faire contrepoids au vaste pouvoir discrétionnaire des dirigeants ainsi qu’à l’influence qu’exercent les actionnaires dominants afin d’assurer une certaine forme de protection aux droits des actionnaires minoritaires. / If the role of shareholders is regarded as varying along a spectrum ranging from passivity to control of the company in which they have invested, it is safe to say that whereas institutional investors have exhibited a form of rational apathy in the past, this situation has changed significantly in recent years. Although institutional investors are still far from reaching the other end of the spectrum, it is clear that senior management and controlling shareholders are now faced with a limited number of institutional shareholders who know each other and who hold a significant share of the company's stock. In spite of the legal and organizational barriers that still impede the ability of shareholders to exercise their rights, it appears that the actions of institutional investors have transcended majority rule by resorting to unusual ways of reducing the risk of opportunism within publicly held Canadian companies. While the activism of institutional investors is a complex phenomenon embodying various forms which are often opaque and difficult to fully grasp, it can nevertheless be said that this mechanism of governance plays a critical role in slimming down agency costs arising from the realization of private benefits by managers and controlling shareholders. Indeed, in Canada, where most companies have a concentrated ownership structure, shareholder activism can serve as a counterbalance to the broad discretionary powers of company leaders and the influence of controlling shareholders, thus constituting a certain measure of protection for the rights of minority shareholders.

Si l’on considère que le rôle des actionnaires varie dans un continuum qui s’étend de la passivité à l’une des extrémités jusqu’au contrôle total de la société dans laquelle ils ont investi, on peut affirmer que si, à une certaine époque, les investisseurs institutionnels ont privilégié une certaine forme d’apathie rationnelle, cette réalité a évolué. Loins d’avoir atteint l’autre extrémité du spectre, on doit néanmoins constater que désormais, les dirigeants et les actionnaires dominants doivent faire face à un nombre limité d’actionnaires institutionnels qui se connaissent et détiennent une part importante des titres d’une société. Malgré la présence d’obstacles légaux et organisationnels qui entravent toujours aujourd’hui l’exercice des droits des actionnaires, il semble que les interventions des investisseurs institutionnels aient transcendé la règle de la majorité en ayant recours à des moyens inusités pour diminuer les risques d’opportunisme au sein des sociétés ouvertes. En effet, si l’activisme des investisseurs institutionnels est un phénomène complexe qui prend des formes multiples souvent opaques et qui est difficile à cerner avec précision, il est néanmoins possible d’affirmer que ce mécanisme de gouvernance joue un rôle des plus importants en contribuant à limiter les coûts d’agence découlant de l’extraction de bénéfices privés par les dirigeants et les actionnaires dominants. En effet, au Canada, où la structure de propriété d’une majorité de sociétés est concentrée, l’activisme actionnarial permet de faire contrepoids au vaste pouvoir discrétionnaire des dirigeants ainsi qu’à l’influence qu’exercent les actionnaires dominants afin d’assurer une certaine forme de protection aux droits des actionnaires minoritaires. / If the role of shareholders is regarded as varying along a spectrum ranging from passivity to control of the company in which they have invested, it is safe to say that whereas institutional investors have exhibited a form of rational apathy in the past, this situation has changed significantly in recent years. Although institutional investors are still far from reaching the other end of the spectrum, it is clear that senior management and controlling shareholders are now faced with a limited number of institutional shareholders who know each other and who hold a significant share of the company's stock. In spite of the legal and organizational barriers that still impede the ability of shareholders to exercise their rights, it appears that the actions of institutional investors have transcended majority rule by resorting to unusual ways of reducing the risk of opportunism within publicly held Canadian companies. While the activism of institutional investors is a complex phenomenon embodying various forms which are often opaque and difficult to fully grasp, it can nevertheless be said that this mechanism of governance plays a critical role in slimming down agency costs arising from the realization of private benefits by managers and controlling shareholders. Indeed, in Canada, where most companies have a concentrated ownership structure, shareholder activism can serve as a counterbalance to the broad discretionary powers of company leaders and the influence of controlling shareholders, thus constituting a certain measure of protection for the rights of minority shareholders.

This dissertation focuses on the living arrangements of multi-generational households among ten biggest immigrant groups in the United States. Specifically, it examines whether the husband's or the wife's older parents were more likely to be present. Co-residence patterns were taken as a proxy that reflected relative decision-making power in the family. A number of factors hypothesized to be associated with the outcome were examined to explore the effect of immigration on gender role ideology and gender relations in the post-1965 immigrant family. More than 102,000 multi-generational households from the 2000 U.S. Census were included in the analyses. Results suggested that while there were positive signs for women's increasing status and relative decision-making power, the influence of original sending culture where immigrants have come from proved to be strong and persistent. Those from more patriarchal sending cultures, represented by India, Korea, and China, were more likely to have the husband's parents co-residing; while those from less patriarchal sending cultures, represented by Jamaica, Cuba, and El Salvador, were more likely to have the wife's parents present in the household. These findings illustrate the complex nature of gender relations in the immigrant family whereby the effect of assimilation is found in some domains, while the influence of sending culture is enduring or even reinforced in other domains. Results of this research contribute to the better understanding of the diversity of changes in gender relations that accompany immigration.

Democracy in South Africa, among others, has brought a significant number of changes in the education system, including the concept of school management team in schools (SMT). In line with this, the objective of this study was to find out how SMTs experience teamwork in schools; and was conducted in the purposefully sampled six secondary schools in the Tshwane North District. This study was framed within the interpretive approach, and sought to unpack the experience of SMT members with regard to teamwork. An interpretive paradigm made it possible for me to gain an in-depth understanding of SMT member‟s experience of teamwork within their school contexts. I used interviews and questionnaires as research tools to gather data. This study has found that, although the concept of teamwork is well-received, there are significant obstacles to the implementation of teamwork as an alternative form of management. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Education Management)