Ethics was identified by the Ethiopian government as one of the areas requiring attention and was made an integral part of the ongoing Civil Service Reform Program since 1996. Despite the reform efforts that have been going on for about two decades, no rigorous academic and empirical research has been conducted to understand the nature and depth of the problems. Moreover, the theoretical discourses in the general literature and the national efforts made by the government and its development partners also emphasize on the structural and procedural issues of ethics, giving little focus to the behavioural components or dimensions of ethics of civil servants. The purpose of this study was to investigate and critically analyse the nature and dynamics of work ethics in the Ethiopian civil service; and to assess the ethical environment within which the public sector operates in the country. Mixed research method was applied. Questionnaires were used to collect primary quantitative data from two groups of research participants – civil servants and the service users; whereas primary qualitative data were collected employing in-depth interviews from managers and key experts in the field. Data from secondary sources were also used. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive analysis. The qualitative ones were analysed using the qualitative data analysis technique with the emphasis on the phenomenological approach. The study showed that there is clearly growing awareness of ethical challenges within the civil service, though a fundamental change in the ethical conduct of the employees is not yet realized. It is also found out that there is no problem of legislation and policy frameworks; rather the problem lies in the weak implementation and enforcement of them. Leadership behaviour, absence of strong institutions, poor accountability system, poor remuneration and politicization of the civil service were identified as the biggest challenges to foster ethical conduct. Accordingly, it is suggested that the government play a key role in addressing the problems that hamper the effective implementation of the reform efforts. Other stakeholders such as the civic society organizations, religious institutions, the private sector, schools and the general public should also work closely with the government. Ensuring ethical conduct requires synergy of all actors, ranging from ordinary citizens to high-level decision-making bodies. / Business Management / D.B.L.

This thesis deals with the theme of substitute family care, which is currently topical. The aim of my thesis is to look and bring into the problems of substitute family care in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part is focused on the forms of substitute family care and their characteristics. There is described a mediation of adoption and foster care, where inherently belongs a motivation of applicants. An integral part of substitute family care is also the issue of adoption child from different ethnicity and influence of biological family on upbringing by his substitute parents. There are also explained ethical principles which play an important role in solution of ethical problems and dilemmas in substitute family care.

The thesis deals with the dilemmas of social workers who are working with seniors. In the theoretical part there are defined terms such as ?a senior? and ?senior age?, ?the basic physical and psychological changes that accompany this period?. There is also characterized the challenge of working with this group. Due to issues connected with work with elderly, the emergence of dilemmas can be assumed. These are characterized by Mr. L. Musil. In defining the underlying criteria for decisions, there are furthemore described ethical guidelines and their use in determining social workers? decision making. The practical part includes a research probe, which is conceived as a pilot research. Probe research examines whether social workers are faced with dilemmas and what particular dilemmas they are faced with. This part summarizes the results and presents possibilities of changes and adjustments of the research.

Kollektives Handeln ist erforderlich um nachhaltige Entwicklungspfade in gekoppelten sozial-ökologischen Systemen zu erschließen, fernab von gefährlichen Kippelementen. Ohne anderen Modellierungsprinzipien ihren Nutzen abzuerkennen, schlägt diese Dissertation die Agent-Umwelt Schnittstelle als die mathematische Grundlage für das Modellieren sozial-ökologischer Systeme vor. Zuerst erweitert diese Arbeit eine Methode aus der Literatur der statistischen Physik über Lerndynamiken, um einen deterministischen Grenzübergang von etablierten Verstärkungslernalgorithmen aus der Forschung zu künstlicher Intelligenz herzuleiten. Die resultierenden Lerndynamiken zeigen eine große Bandbreite verschiedener dynamischer Regime wie z.B. Fixpunkte, Grenzzyklen oder deterministisches Chaos. Zweitens werden die hergeleiteten Lerngleichungen auf eine neu eingeführte Umwelt, das Ökologisches Öffentliches Gut, angewendet,. Sie modelliert ein gekoppeltes sozial-ökologisches Dilemma und erweitert damit etablierte soziale Dilemmaspiele um ein ökologisches Kippelement. Bekannte theoretische und empirische Ergebnisse werden reproduziert und neuartige, qualitativ verschiedene Parameterregime aufgezeigt, darunter eines, in dem diese belohnungsoptimierenden Lern-Agenten es vorziehen, gemeinsam unter einem Kollaps der Umwelt zu leiden, als in einer florierenden Umwelt zu kooperieren. Drittens stellt diese Arbeit das Optimierungsparadigma der Lern-Agenten in Frage. Die drei Entscheidungsparadimen ökonomischen Optimierung, Nachhaltigkeit und Sicherheit werden systematisch miteinander verglichen, während sie auf das Management eines umweltlichen Kippelements angewendet werden. Es wird gezeigt, dass kein Paradigma garantiert, Anforderungen anderer Paradigmen zu erfüllen, sowie dass das Fehlen eines Meisterparadigmas von besonderer Bedeutung für das Klimasystem ist, da dieses sich am Rand zwischen Parameterbereichen befinden kann, wo ökonomische Optimierung weder nachhaltig noch sicher wird. / Collective action is required to enter sustainable development pathways in coupled social-ecological systems, safely away from dangerous tipping elements. Without denying the usefulness of other model design principles, this thesis proposes the agent-environment interface as the mathematical foundation for the design of social-ecological system models. First, this work refines techniques from the statistical physics literature on learning dynamics to derive a deterministic limit of established reinforcement learning algorithms from artificial intelligence research. Illustrations of the resulting learning dynamics reveal a wide range of different dynamical regimes, such as fixed points, periodic orbits and deterministic chaos. Second, the derived multi-state learning equations are applied to a newly introduced environment, the Ecological Public Good. It models a coupled social-ecological dilemma, extending established repeated social dilemma games by an ecological tipping element. Known theoretical and empirical results are reproduced and novel qualitatively different parameter regimes are discovered, including one in which these reward-optimizing agents prefer to collectively suffer in environmental collapse rather than cooperating in a prosperous environment. Third, this thesis challenges the reward optimizing paradigm of the learning equations. It presents a novel formal comparison of the three decision paradigms of economic optimization, sustainability and safety for the governance of an environmental tipping element. It is shown that no paradigm guarantees fulfilling requirements imposed by another paradigm. Further, the absence of a master paradigm is shown to be of special relevance for governing the climate system, since the latter may reside at the edge between parameter regimes where economic welfare optimization becomes neither sustainable nor safe.

Title: The importance of risk for the empowerment of individuals with mental disabilities and the possibility of taking in DZR Terezin Objectives: The aim of this paper is to examine the phenomenon of risk-taking and its importance in the process of empowerment of persons with mental disabilities in social services. Methods: In empirical research we were surveyed employee attitudes DZR Terezin to the issue of risk in social services. In the first part of the research was to look at the views and attitudes of social workers employed form questionnaire (Lepešková, 2013) in a group of 22 employees - women with a mean age of 46 years. The second part of the research were semi-structured interviews with staff enabling deeper qualitative analysis of the problem. Talks with 7 employees participated. 6 women and 1 man. The recording was used edited form an interview. Results: The survey both methods show that the respondents as one of the most important tasks when working with the risks and support to people deemed to support their independence. The aim is to get clients to the extent possible, make their own decisions about their own lives. An essential element in this process is considered self- management. The client does not passively wait to social service workers determine what to do and what will...

The work involves comparingethical values in the general population without serious damage to the general health, and in pacients within overal disease where i tis clear that the scale of values of the two groups are different. From futher examinations came some additional insights /see Chapter 4 d/ and chapter 5 work/. Results and conclusions are in line with Anglo-Saxon literature/ European and overseas/ and our own experience with treating pacients. No medical industry can not fully ensure full health of pacients. There is a set of values focused on specific medical professions and their own core values. These parameters set values based on many aspects of professional decision meking. And those serve to assess the pacientś needs. How to treat and the doctorś own medical approach to the pacient with severe overal ilness correspondens to the hierarchy of ethical values in Ozar-Sokol scheme. Proposal of six major ethical values concerning dentistry and access to treatment and justice in distribution and alocation of resources in surgical pacients with variety of serious medical interventions: heart surgery, transplants, etc./ ethical values contribute to the proces of decision- making in case of conflict. Not all Ozar-Sokol scheme recognizes those. From the perspective of pacients with serious...

The work involves comparingethical values in the general population without serious damage to the general health, and in pacients within overal disease where i tis clear that the scale of values of the two groups are different. From futher examinations came some additional insights /see Chapter 4 d/ and chapter 5 work/. Results and conclusions are in line with Anglo-Saxon literature/ European and overseas/ and our own experience with treating pacients. No medical industry can not fully ensure full health of pacients. There is a set of values focused on specific medical professions and their own core values. These parameters set values based on many aspects of professional decision meking. And those serve to assess the pacientś needs. How to treat and the doctorś own medical approach to the pacient with severe overal ilness correspondens to the hierarchy of ethical values in Ozar-Sokol scheme. Proposal of six major ethical values concerning dentistry and access to treatment and justice in distribution and alocation of resources in surgical pacients with variety of serious medical interventions: heart surgery, transplants, etc./ ethical values contribute to the proces of decision- making in case of conflict. Not all Ozar-Sokol scheme recognizes those. From the perspective of pacients with serious...

Syftet med studien är att undersöka socialarbetares position genom deras upplevelser av hur lagstiftning, kommunala riktlinjer samt egna värderingar harmonierar i arbetet med missbruksärenden. I studien besvaras frågor gällande hur socialarbetare upplever att deras värderingar och kompetens harmonierar med lagstiftning och kommunala riktlinjer men även hur socialarbetare hanterar eventuella spänningsförhållanden mellan lagstiftning, kommunala riktlinjer, egna värderingar samt klienters förväntningar. Uppsatsen bygger på sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialarbetare som i sitt dagliga arbete handlägger missbruksärenden och det insamlade materialet analyserades med hjälp av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Studiens resultat ger inte en lika negativ bild av socialarbetarnas upplevelser som tidigare forskning pekar på. Studien visar att socialarbetare upplever olika situationer där deras värderingar inte överensstämmer med kommunala riktlinjer eller lagstiftning. Exempel på situationer där socialarbetare upplever konflikter är hög arbetsbelastning, begränsat handlingsutrymme samt den rådande tvångslagstiftningen gällande missbruk. Beroende på vilken motstridighet som upplevs varierar hanteringen av denna. Hanteringen av motstridigheterna handlar i denna studie om hur socialarbetaren i situationen väljer att agera genom att exempelvis vara lojal och anpassa sig, protestera i någon form eller det sista alternativet, göra en sorti, vilket innebär att man lämnar organisationen. / The purpose of the study is to examine the position of social workers through their experiences of how legislation, municipal guidelines and their own values ​​harmonize in the work with substance abuse cases. The study answers questions not only regarding how social workers feel about their values ​​and skills harmonizing with legislation and municipal guidelines, but also how social workers handle any tensions between legislation, municipal guidelines, their own values ​​and clients' expectations. The essay is based on six semi-structured interviews with social workers who in their daily work handle substance abuse cases and the collected material was analyzed with the help of a qualitative content analysis. The results of the study do not give us a negative picture of the social workers' experiences as previous research points out. The study shows that social workers experience different situations where their values ​​do not comply with municipal guidelines or legislation. Examples of situations where social workers experience conflicts are a high workload, limited room for maneuver and the current coercive legislation regarding abuse. Depending on the contradiction experienced, the handling of this varies. The management of the contradictions in this study is about how the social worker in the situation chooses to act by, for example, being loyal and adapting, protesting in some form or the last alternative, making a sortie, which means leaving the organization.

Syftet med studien har varit att genom intervjuer med yrkesverksamma socionomer undersöka socialarbetares erfarenheter och uppfattning kring det sociala arbetet med barn och föräldrar. Studien har särskilt ämnat att studera socialarbetares handlingsutrymme samt dilemman, svårigheter och utmaningar som socialarbetare tvingas hantera i det sociala barnavårdsarbetet. Studien har sin grund i en kvalitativ forskningsansats och har utgått från åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer där professionellas erfarenheter i det sociala barnavårdsarbetet har undersökts. Empirin har sedan bearbetats utifrån en tematisk analys som i sin tur har tolkats i relation till teorier om gräsrotsbyråkratens handlingsutrymme och dilemma. Resultatet påvisar att socialarbetare har ett stort handlingsutrymme vilket ger dem möjlighet att påverka olika beslut samt att handlingsutrymmet är konstant närvarande i socialarbetarens vardag. Studiens resultat belyser också svårigheten i att bedöma barnets bästa och att det råder en tveksamhet i hur socialarbetare arbetar efter barnets bästa. Frågan ställs om barnets bästa alltid är i centrum eller om föräldrars rättigheter tar för stor plats i dagens barnavårdsarbete. Ett annat ämne som framkommer i resultatet är socialarbetarens stora tolkningsutrymme. Resultatet lyfter svårigheterna i att ha ett stort tolkningsutrymme och att det kan innebära att olika socialarbetare tolkar lagar och föreskrifter på olika sätt beroende på vem socialarbetaren är som person. Resultatet belyser också det sociala arbetets komplexitet och vikten av att våga ta hjälp av kollegor när socialarbetare ställs inför olika dilemman. Slutligen berör resultatet bristen på resurser och den höga arbetsbelastningen som råder bland socialarbetare. Resultatet lyfter konsekvenser som kommer med hög arbetsbelastning och resursbrist samt vad som kan tänkas förbättras inom socialt arbetet med barn och familjer. / The aim of the study has been to investigate social workers' experiences and perceptions of social work with children and parents through interviews with professional social workers. In particular, the study aims to delve into the social worker's room for maneuver, conflicts, difficulties and challenges that social workers are forced to deal with in social child welfare work. The study is based on a qualitative research approach and is based on eight semi-structured interviews where professionals' experiences in the social childcare work were examined. Empiricism has been analyzed with a thematic analysis, and with theories of street-level bureaucracy. The result of the study shows that the social worker’s room for maneuver is constantly present in a social worker’s everyday life. The result shows that social workers have a large room for maneuver and a great opportunity to influence different decisions. The result of the study also indicates the difficulty in assessing the child’s best interests and that there is a doubt in how social workers work according to the best interest of the child. The question is asked whether the best interests of the child are always at the center or whether parents’ rights take up too much space in today’s child welfare work. Another topic that emerges in the result is the social worker’s large scope for interpretation. The result highlights the difficulties in having a large scope for interpretation and that it can mean that different social workers interpret laws and regulations in different ways depending on who the social worker is as a person. The result also highlights the complexity of social work and the importance of daring to enlist the help of colleagues when social workers face different dilemmas. Finally, the result concerns the lack of resources and the high workload of social workers. The result highlights the consequences that come with high workload and too few resources and what might be improved in social work with children and families.

This qualitative research study described African American female secondary educators’ challenges in their educational working relationships. The purpose was to truly understand the challenges that African American female secondary teachers experienced in the classroom, outside of the classroom, in their dealings with their students’ parents, colleagues, and their relationships with school administrators. This study focused on the challenges 10 African American female secondary teachers encountered in their educational work environment. This study also took into account how those teachers’ relationships with their students’ parents, colleagues, and administrators affected the teacher/student relationship. In an effort to increase student achievement, researchers, educators, students, parents, and administrators must all work closely to improve relationships between teachers and students within their district. Moreover, district policies must continue to encourage the development of schoolamily-community collaboration as an essential component vital to student academic improvement efforts. Administrators must continue to equip African American female secondary educators with a range of practices for involving students, parents, colleagues, and administrators to improve student outcomes. The best efforts are comprehensive, seeking to involve all teachers, students, parents, their colleagues, and administrators in a variety of roles. African American female secondary teachers can be empowered through training, time, and support. There are long-lasting, long-term investments in cultivating positive relationships between teachers and students that will help students reach their full potential. The cost in terms of student outcomes not achieved is incalculable.