The theoretical part introduces the most important theories of cultural dimensions. Namely Schwartz's, Hofstede's and Trompenaars's cultural dimensions. Significant for this work is the GLOBE study, which became the basis for the subsequent analysis of secondary data. The goal is to determine the differences in the use of mobile technology between cultural clusters according GLOBE study and also (not) reject the hypothesis of conformity use of mobile technology for selected purposes. Among the selected purposes belongs micro-blogging, social networking, online dating services, maintaining or publishing on your own site /blog and post comments, reviews or ratings.

The aim, of this paper, is to analyze two international culturally diverse teams, identify positive and negative effects of cultural differences present in the teams and consequently propose measures to eliminate the negative effects and make a better use of the positive ones. In the first part the thesis deals with the theoretical framework of the topic and then proceeds to the application of the knowledge to practice. In the practical part an analysis of data obtained through a questionnaire survey is carried out. The analysis focuses on the cultural setting of the chosen teams, discrepancies between their settings and personal preferences of individual members and furthermore, on specific manifestations of cultural differences present in the teams. Subsequently, a set of measures is proposed, designed to tune the team environments so that the negative elements caused by cultural differences are eliminated while the positive elements are accentuated.

This master thesis is focused on Czech-Arab cultural standards. The main aim of this work is to define Czech-Arab cultural standards and compare them with the theory. The teoretical part of the thesis concentrates on culture, intercultural communication and Hofstede's and Trompanaars's cultural dimensions and also Thomas's cultral standards. The practical part of thesis is focused on the United Arab Emirates, basic information about Emirates, history, arab culture and religion and in the practical part are identified arab cultural standards and they are compred with theory. At the end of the thesis are provided recommendations to Czech travelling to the United Arab Emirates. Key words: culture, culture dimensions, Geert Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars, cultural standards, Alexander Thomas, Czech republic, Czech people, the United Arab Emirates, Arab people.

Corporate reputation has become a source of competitive advantage whose underlying dimensions serve to influence companies‟ strategic direction, in order to maintain sustainable competitiveness. The purpose of this research is to determine the underlying dimensions of corporate reputation as perceived by buyers in the business-to-to business environment.Through critical review of literature on corporate reputation, the importance of building and maintaining a good reputation was highlighted by a myriad of resulting favourable consequences. Literature also revealed underlying dimensions of reputation which were complemented by the findings of the preliminary interviews with a selection of members of the sample to formulate a research instrument.Using stratified sampling of buyers in selected segments served by the steel industry, 169 questionnaire responses were gathered electronically via email and self administered. A factor analysis revealed five factors namely vision and quality of management, employment equity and social responsibility, superior quality of products and committed service, corporate appeal and safety and environment. These collaborated with the literature with the exception of two contributing elements omitted by literature, namely BEE and safety. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The consumers of health care (patients) want their religious and spiritual needs to be addressed within the South African Government Hospitals’ (SAGH) settings. Similarly, the providers of health care (doctors, nurses, and other clinical staff in the multi-disciplinary health care teams) are not religious and spiritual experts to respond to these needs in the health care settings. Therefore, this challenge can be resolved by the Department of Health (DoH) by recognising and embracing the health care chaplaincy. On the same vein, the DoH must employ a holistic and patient-centred medical model in its clinical approach to care. This will translate into the patients’ religious and spiritual needs being provided by the religious and spiritual experts in the SAGH settings. This approach ensures that these services are not counter-productive to the medical approach. The other challenge is lack of trained and licenced providers of religious and spiritual care to practice in the clinical setting by employing the methods which are supported by scientific evidence. The purpose of this research is to investigate a need for the possible establishment of chaplaincy in South African Government Hospitals for holistic approach to care which includes the patients’ religious and spiritual dimensions of being, with a view to develop a chaplaincy model that is responsive to the patients’ religious and spiritual needs. The DoH is expected to provide a well-balanced, holistic and patient-centred health care to all the SA citizenry which resonates with the Constitution of the RSA (1996), the NPRC, the WHO (2010) principles, and global health care norms, standards and principles on addressing the patients’ religious and spiritual needs through the practice of the professional health care chaplaincy. The study employed a qualitative research designs of ethnography (participant observation), to gather first-hand information (data) at the research field, that helps to describe how the religious and spiritual needs are addressed in the SAGH settings; phenomenological approach, to gather information (data) that describe the meaning of the lived experiences of the caregivers and patients in the health care settings; and grounded theory, by analysing and interpreting data from research interviews, in order to explore theory of health care chaplaincy in the SAGH settings with a view to understand its phenomenon. The study followed Osmer’s four task of Practical Theological Interpretation (PTI) as a framework and plan to guide the process of the study, and on how to interpret and respond to the challenges of this research project. The researcher was a participant observer at the PHC research field, purposively sampled and conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 research participants at the PHC research field who consented. The researcher employed a computer spreadsheet to capture, code, analyse and interpret data from the research interviews. The researcher applied a collective social scientists’ approaches from Babbie (et al.), Corbin and Strauss, Flick (et al.), Neuman, Osmer, and Ritchie (et al.). The researcher followed the Limpopo Provincial Department of Health’s (LPDoH) approval letter, applied the ethical principles as prescribed by the University of Pretoria’s Research Ethical Committee (REC) in tandem with the World Medical Association Declaration (WMA) of Helsinki (2013), and the PHC protocol from the DoH and Social Development (SD)/ abbreviation DoHSD, during the entire course of this project. The findings of this research show that there is a need for the establishment of chaplaincy in South African Government Hospitals, and that the DoH need to review its health policy and the medical model with a view to embrace a professional chaplaincy, as experts to respond and address the patients’ religious and spiritual dimensions of being in the clinical health care settings, as member of a multi-disciplinary health care team. The findings provide recommendations towards addressing the patients’ religious and spiritual needs to ensure that the SAGH provides the holistic-patient-centred needs. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Practical Theology / PhD / Unrestricted

Cougars (Puma concolor) have been recolonizing Midwestern North America over the past 2 decades with >950 cougar confirmations east of established populations. Management and public interest in habitat suitability and connectivity east of current cougar range have grown as confirmations increase and models predicting habitat connectivity and population viability for the Midwest show potential for breeding populations. However, although long-range dispersal and recolonization continues, no studies have assessed potential habitat associated with cougars throughout their historical range in eastern North America. I used ArcGIS, the Analytical Hierarchy Process, and geospatial data to model cougar habitat and potential dispersal corridors in eastern North America. The total amount of potential habitat was >2,400,000 km2 and mean patch size was 257,500 km2. Patches of habitat ranged in size from 3,868 km2 (Ozark Mountains) to >2,490,850 km2 (central and eastern Canada) with ≤53,643 km of dispersal corridors connecting patches. With cougars potentially recolonizing areas previously devoid of large carnivores, public acceptance of management efforts is pivotal for the success of their recolonization. However, targeted surveys assessing public perceptions and knowledge of cougars and red wolves (Canis rufus), who have faced similar extirpation in the Southeastern United States are limited. I mailed 20,000 questionnaires and 2,000 follow-up postcards to residents near areas of potential red wolf and cougar habitat in the Southeastern United States in 2020. I used cumulative link models to gauge the associations between sociodemographic predictor with respondent’s knowledge and attitude towards large carnivores. Total response rate was 4.6% with the majority of respondents identifying as male (53.6%), having a 4-year degree or above (54.1%), and 57 ± 16 (SE) years of age. Respondents’ knowledge and attitudes towards large carnivores were largely positive (≥63% positive) with higher education, older age, and current livestock ownership being largest predictors for responses. Attitudes towards red wolves were largely driven by knowledge of red wolves while attitudes towards cougars were primarily driven by livestock ownership. Livestock owners (71.5%) were concerned about safety of livestock in large carnivore habitat, and most respondents (61%) did not trust their local agency to effectively manage large carnivore populations. My research provides a foundation for wildlife managers to develop informed plans, educational programs, and policy decisions for potentially recolonizing large carnivore populations.

Particle swarm optimisation (PSO) is a stochastic, population-based optimisation algorithm. PSO has been applied successfully to a variety of domains. This thesis examines the behaviour of PSO when applied to high dimensional optimisation problems. Empirical experiments are used to illustrate the problems exhibited by the swarm, namely that the particles are prone to leaving the search space and never returning. This thesis does not intend to develop a new version of PSO speci cally for high dimensional problems. Instead, the thesis investigates why PSO fails in high dimensional search spaces. Four di erent types of approaches are examined. The rst is the application of velocity clamping to prevent the initial velocity explosion and to keep particles inside the search space. The second approach selects values for the acceleration coe cients and inertia weights so that particle movement is restrained or so that the swarm follows particular patterns of movement. The third introduces coupling between problem variables, thereby reducing the swarm's movement freedom and forcing the swarm to focus more on certain subspaces within the search space. The nal approach examines the importance of initialisation strategies in controlling the swarm's exploration to exploitation ratio. The thesis shows that the problems exhibited by PSO in high dimensions, particularly unwanted particle roaming, can not be fully mitigated by any of the techniques examined. The thesis provides deeper insight into the reasons for PSO's poor performance by means of extensive empirical tests and theoretical reasoning. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Computer Science / MSc / Unrestricted

Våra anknytningsstilar påverkas redan från barndomen utav våra relationer. Studien undersökte personers olika anknytningsstilar som förekommer och kön i förhållande till Big Five modellens fem personlighetsdimensioner. Denna studie är genomförd med fem tvåvägs variansanalyser för oberoende mätningar. Beprövade mätinstrument användes i studien, vilka är Attachment Style Questionnarie och Shafer’s personality scale. Anknytningsstil och kön användes som oberoende variabler och Big five dimensionerna användes som en beroende variabel i studien. I resultatet framkom det ingen skillnad mellan kön på dimensionerna i Big Five. Det existerade dock skillnader mellan de tre anknytningsstilarna i dimensionerna extraversion, vänlighet samt neuroticism i Big Five. Endast samvetsgrannhet kunde påvisa en statistisk signifikant interaktion mellan anknytningsstil och kön i förhållande till Big Five. Slutsatserna är att studiens resultat stämmer överens till stor del med tidigare forskning.

The problem of this study was to determine whether there is a significant relationship between certain situational factors and high and low scores on the leadership behavior dimensions of industrial supervisors. The behavior dimensions studies were the two dimensions of Consideration and Initiating Structure, as measured by the instrument used in the study.

Attitudes towards immigration in Ireland are the focus of this study and, more specifically, what aspects of life the native-born population perceive to be impacted by immigration into Ireland in 2018. This thesis uses two primary socioeconomic attributes of the native-born respondents as explanatory variables, focusing on education and income levels of the native-born population. The aim of this study is to examine the association between attitudes towards immigration, across different attitudinal dimensions, and socioeconomic status of native-born individuals in the Republic of Ireland in 2018. This thesis uses data taken from round 9 of the European Social Survey and purports that individuals (i) without tertiary education and (ii) on low-incomes will be more likely to oppose immigration across all dimensions of attitudes to immigration, all else equal. In addition, it propagates the idea that individuals will be more likely to oppose immigration due to the perceived effect of immigration on the economy, all else being equal.  This research draws on Group threat theory and Contact theory as the foundation for the hypotheses and research questions and enables investigation into the primary socioeconomic determinants influencing attitudes towards immigration in Ireland. Furthermore, whether an association exists between socioeconomic status and attitudes across all attitudinal dimensions is explored.  The results indicate that, all else equal, those who studied to at least a tertiary level are more likely to display positive attitudes towards immigration than those without a tertiary education, regardless of attitudinal dimension. Similarly, those on the highest incomes are more likely to exhibit positive attitudes to immigration across all dimensions compared to their low-income counterparts, all else being equal. Interestingly however, this thesis did not find statistically significant evidence that individuals will be more likely to oppose immigration due to the perceived impact of immigration on the economy, as was originally hypothesised.