<p>The aim of this paper is to analyse the perceived power structures in ethnic and non-ethnic football clubs in the way that they are manifested by their respective leadership/administration. For this, three clubs from each respective group (six in total) have been chosen and representatives of each group have been interviewed. Additionally, a qualitative analysis is applied when dealing with the material which in this case implied that they are analysed through an original model that is based on Steven Lukes’s conception of the three dimensional views of power. The point of departure lies in the interviewed representatives giving their accounts of how their respective clubs utilises their control and how they handle certain situations and conflicts. Their accounts invariably reflect upon a particular approach which can be fitted into one or more of Lukes’s dimensional views, which will ultimately provide an overall picture of the perceived power structure within that association. The subsequently comparison of results can then be expected to indicate if there is any difference in perceived power structures between that of ethnic and non-ethnic football clubs. The result of this study would ultimately show that while some notable difference could be manifested on a macro level, there were such great disparities on the micro level that there were in fact greater differences between the individual clubs themselves than that between the clubs as ethnic/non-ethnic groups.</p>

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Disertacijoje teoriniu ir empiriniu lygmenimis yra tyrinėjamos kūrybiškumo bei kūrybinio mąstymo edukacinės dimensijos. Tyrimas parodė, kad kūrybos procesui ir jo rezultatui turi įtakos tokie veiksniai: kūrėjo motyvacija, asmenybės savybių ir charakterio bruožų visuma, gebėjimai, mąstymas, atmintis, mąstymo inercijos dydis, specialiosios ir bendrosios žinios, atkuriamoji ir kuriamoji vaizduotė, intuicija, kuriančiojo elgesys, emocijos, fiziologinė ir psichologinė būsena, socialinė ir fizinė aplinka. Disertacijoje pateikiami autoriaus parengti dinaminis ir komponentinis kūrybos proceso modeliai. Empiriniame tyrime dalyvavo 655 tiriamieji: 601 V–XI klasių mokiniai ir 54 mokytojai. Jiems buvo pateikta autoriaus sudaryta anketa bei du E. E. Туник (2002) kūrybiškumo parametrų įvertinimo subtestai. Nustatyta kūrybinio mąstymo kaita ontogenezėje (nuo 11 metų iki 62 metų amžiaus). Atskleisti mokinių kūrybinio mąstymo ypatumai (originalumas, mąstymo lankstumas, idėjų gausa) grupėse pagal amžių, lytį, kelintas vaikas šeimoje, pažangumą ir gyvenamąją vietą. Tyrimas parodė, kad kūrybinio mąstymo originalumas pasiekia maksimumą 18 metų amžiuje, o po to suaugusiojo amžiuje krinta (p=0,000). Nustatyta, kad egzistuoja teigiamas tiesioginis statistiškai reikšmingas ryšys tarp visų kūrybinio mąstymo parametrų ir asmenybės domėjimasis mokslu (p<0,01) bei menu (p<0,05). Nustatyti statistiškai reikšmingi ryšiai tarp kūrybinio mąstymo parametrų ir savišvietos poreikių. Tyrimas parodė, kad kuo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Educational dimensions of creativity and creative thinking are researched in the dissertation on theoretical and empirical levels. The research shows that creativity (process and its result) is affected by the following factors: motivation of the author, entirety of personal features and character traits, abilities, thinking, scope of thinking inertia, special and general knowledge, reconstructive and constructive imagination, intuition, author’s behaviour, emotions, physiological and psychological state, social and physical environment. Dynamic and component models of creativity process, prepared by the author, are presented in the dissertation. 655 research participants participated in the empirical research: 601 5th-11th form school learners and 54 teachers. 2 subtests by E. E. Туник (2002) assessing creativity parameters and a questionnaire designed by the author were administered to the research participants. The change of creative thinking was determined in its ontogenesis (from 11 to 62 years of age). Peculiarities of learner creative thinking were revealed (originality, flexibility of thinking, abundance of ideas) in groups according to age, gender, birth order, learning progress and place of residence. The research shows that originality of creative thinking reaches its peak at the age of 18, afterwards it decreases during adulthood. (p=0.000). The existence of positive direct statistically significant relationship between all parameters of creative thinking and... [to full text]

Il y a une décennie, le contenu numérique virtuel était limité à quelques applications - majoritairementles jeux vidéos, les films en 3D et la simulation numérique. Aujourd'hui, grâce à l'apparition de cartes graphiques performantes et bon marché, les objets 3D sont utilisés dans de nombreuses applications. A peu près tous les terminaux possédant des capacités d'affichage - des clusters de visualisation haute performance jusqu'aux smart phones - intègrent maintenant une puce graphique qui leur permet de faire du rendu 3D. Ainsi, les applications 3D sont bien plus variées qu'il y a quelques années. On citera par exemple la réalité virtuelle et augmentée en temps réel ou les mondes virtuels 3D. Dans ce contexte, le besoin de méthodes efficaces pour la transmission et la visualisation des données 3D est toujours plus pressant. De plus, la taille des maillages 3D ne cesse de s'accroître avec la précision de la représentation. Par exemple, les scanners 3D actuels sont capables de numériser des objets du monde réel avec une précision de seulement quelques micromètres, et génèrent des maillages contenant plusieurs centaines de millions d''el'ements. D'un autre côté, une précision accrue en simulation numérique requiert des maillages plus fins, et les méthodes massivement parallèles actuelles sont capables de travailler avec des milliards de mailles. Dans ce contexte, la compression de ces données - en particulier la compression de maillages - est un enjeu important. Durant la décennie passée, de nombreuses méthodes ont été développées pour coder les maillages polygonaux. Néanmoins, ces techniques ne sont plus adaptées au contexte actuel, car elles supposentque la compression et la d'ecompression sont des processus sym'etriques qui ont lieu sur un mat'erielsimilaire. Dans le cadre actuel, au contraire, le contenu 3D se trouve cr'e'e, compressé et distribué par des machines de hautes performances, tandis que l'exploitation des données - par exemple, la visualisation - est effectuée à distance sur des périphériques de capacité plus modeste - éventuellement mobiles - qui ne peuvent traiter les maillages de grande taille dans leur int'egralité. Ceci fait de lacompression de maillage un processus intrinsèquement asymétrique.Dans cette thèse, notre objectif est d'étudier et de proposer des méthodes pour la compression de maillages de grande taille. Nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement aux méthodes d'accès aléatoire, qui voient la compression comme un problème intrinsèquement asymétrique. Dans ce modèle, le codeur a accès à des ressources informatiques importantes, tandis que la décompression estun processus temps réel (souple) qui se fait avec du matériel de plus faible puissance. Nous décrivons un algorithme de ce type et l'appliquons au cas de la visualisation interactive. Nous proposons aussi un algorithme streaming pour compresser des maillages hexaèdriques de très grande taille utilisés dans le contexte de la simulation numérique. Nous sommes ainsi capables decompresser des maillages comportant de l'ordre de 50 millions de mailles en moins de deux minutes, et en n'utilisant que quelques mégaoctets de mémoire vive. Enfin, nous proposons, indépendamment de ces deux algorithmes, un cadre théorique général pour améliorer la compression de géométrie. Cet algorithme peut être utilisé pour développer des méthodes de prédiction pour n'importe quel algorithme basé sur un paradigme prédictif - ce qui est la cas dela majorité des méthodes existantes. Nous dérivons ainsi des schémas de prédictions compatibles avec plusieurs méthodes de la littérature. Ces schémas augmentent les taux de compression de 9% enmoyenne. Sous des hypothèses usuelles, nous utilisons aussi ces résultats pour prouver l'optimalité de certains algorithmes existants.

In South Africa, the staff of higher education institutions experiences several stressors in their work and home domains. Therefore, it is important to understand how these two life domains are in interaction with each other. The general objective of this study was to investigate how higher education staff experienced work-personal life interaction (WPLI). A sample of 24 higher education staff that was willing to participate in the study was taken from different faculties and departments from a higher education institution in the Free State Province. For the purpose of this research, a qualitative design from a phenomenological approach was used. The specific objectives of this study were to determine the experiences, main dimensions, antecedents, consequences, and strategies in the lives of higher education staff. The results obtained indicated that Afrikaans and African women and men experienced time and strain-based conflict. Their work environment was characterised by a heavy workload, long working hours, resulting in work being taken home, and their home environment was characterised by a demanding family (spouses and children) and household duties. Men and women also thought about things in the family domain (e.g., when their children were sick) while they were at work. This caused a constant spill over, leaving employees tired and stressed. Strategies (e.g., prioritising, planning and time management) and support (e.g., spouses, division of family and household duties, friends and colleagues, as well as the flexible working hours) helped them to cope with this interaction. Recommendations were made for future research and the organisation. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Information Technology is an essential part of the National Curriculum in the UK, yet despite the growth of IT in schools that this has generated, there is evidence that children are not to be taken into consideration enough when designing aspects of educational software. The functionality available in education software packages tends to be made available through static icons, yet there are problems with their implementation as they can at times cause confusion for the user in terms of the functionality that they are aiming to represent. In order to make icons in educational software more effective, and to meet the needs of children, of the use of animated icons has been suggested. Animating the function of the icon aims to provide a clarification of its meaning and demonstrate its capabilities, as well as explaining to the user the method of use. However, there is little information available on how to support the design of effective animated icons. Focusing on a target age group of 11 to 12 year olds, this thesis argues that some form of support mechanism should be developed for the design of animated icons to ensure that consideration is being given to the types of object that children find useful and accessible. A set of dimensions where guidance on visual aspects of the icon may be useful are developed through analysis of relevant literature and it is highlighted that they do not provide any insight into what types of object may be helpful in designing the animated icons. This thesis then argues that animated icon design can be usefully informed by psychological theories of learning and that using such theories as a base may provide an understanding of how children identify icon functionality. The thesis introduces and critiques Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology theory, Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory and Leontjev’s Activity Theory, identifying aspects of the theories which may be of relevance to the design of animated icons. By investigating the relationships between the dimensions of animated icons and the concepts from the theories of learning, insights are developed into the impact of visual factors on a child’s identification and understanding of icon functionality. The thesis goes on to report a practical study where the sample is a group of 11 to 12 year old children. The practical study consists of three phases. The first phase gathers data related to the children’s familiarity with computers and the types of software packages that they use. The second phase looks at their use and recognition of static icon functionality. The last phase involves using the findings from phases 1 and 2 to create and evaluate a set of animated icons, the development of which is based on the relationships between the concepts from theories of learning and the identified dimensions of animated icons. The analysis of the evidence from the practical study leads to a small set of design principles being proposed that are aimed to provide advice/guidance on how to design animated icons effectively for this target age group, with an emphasis on the types of object that might be used. The principles are underpinned by the concepts from the theories of learning and presented in a manner that aims to be understandable by, and accessible to, designers.

In recent decades, reflective practice has become a key driver and an increasingly influential referent in the professional development of student teachers. Yet, the complex, somewhat elusive boundaries of reflective practice make this phenomenon difficult to define. The purpose of this study was to analyse and synthesise existing literature and research in order to better understand the multi-faceted nature of reflective practice. From an informed platform, a new conceptual framework was designed both to capture and investigate nine dimensions of reflective practice in which student teachers could demonstrate capacity and commitment. Eighty year 4 student teachers, who had undertaken action research projects during their final school experience, and thirteen university lecturers, who had guided the student teachers throughout this enterprise, were participants in this study. Data were gathered through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews that incorporated a series of closed and open-ended responses. Quantitative data were analysed to calculate statistical frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations; and, qualitative data via analytic induction methods to identify common themes and to extract narratives of experience. Findings showed that a majority (>90%) of student teachers perceived their capacity and commitment to engage in six dimensions of reflective practice [and most (>80%) in eight] had influenced their professional development. These perceptions were not wholly congruent with those of dissertation supervisors with variance between supervisors also evident. Qualitative distinctions, in the use of three types of reflective conversation, were found between male and female student teachers and within each gender group. Several constraints in the development of student teachers’ reflective practice also emerged. Further research is recommended into: what evidence and criteria shape judgments about reflective practice; how school-based staff might effectively support student teachers’ development of reflective practice; and, how the framework designed for this study might be replicated and refined to enhance reflective practice in personal professional development across disciplines.

Organisational commitment, viewed as a measurable psychological state, is a core variable of interest in Organisational Behaviour research. It has been studied for more than four decades, largely focusing on the identification of its antecedents and consequences. One widely used conceptualisation is Meyer and Allen‘s (1991) three-component model of commitment, which considers commitment as having three forms: affective, continuance and normative (emotional attachment to an organisation, the perceived cost associated with leaving it and the perceived obligation to remain in it). This research contributes in three ways to improving our understanding of public-sector work behaviour, with particular reference to organisational commitment. Firstly, it examines the multi-dimensionality of organisational commitment. Secondly, it explores the relationships between Meyer and Allen‘s three components, modifying the concept of continuance commitment to include two sub-components, high personal sacrifice and low perceived alternatives, thus proposing a four-factor model, Antecedents and Consequences of Organisational Commitment Components (ACOCC). Thirdly, it considers antecedent variables, including Hofstede‘s (1980) four cultural dimensions (individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance and masculinity/femininity), as well as selected consequences: in role behaviour, organisational citizen behaviour and employee intention to leave. These selected variables are deemed to be suitable for Saudi Arabian culture and have never been tested before in that context. The study investigates how the commitment components are associated with and mediate relationships with the set of possible work behaviours. Using a sample of 700 employees from different organisation levels (drawn from 16 Saudi ministries in two cities, Riyadh and Jeddah) the hypotheses were tested through structural equation modelling, which confirmed the fit of the proposed recursive ACOCC model. The regression paths were significant between the antecedents (opportunities for learning, impersonal bureaucratic arrangements and Hofstede‘s four cultural dimensions) and affective and normative commitment, as well as for continuance commitment for reasons of high personal sacrifice. Intention to leave and organisational citizen behaviour were fully mediated by the commitment components. Thus the findings reveal the level and form of organisational commitment among public-sector employees and of relationships between the antecedents and consequences of that commitment in a non-Western culture, specifically Saudi Arabia. In particular, they highlight the significant mediation role of organisational commitment. The findings also permit exploration of a number of issues pertaining to cultural dimensions impacting on organisational commitment. Noteworthy here, for example, is the high degree of uncertainty avoidance found among Saudi public-sector top-level managers. These different results have important implications for the nature and management of commitment among government employees in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries as a whole.

This thesis aimed to study the actual and perceived quality of midwifery practices during childbirth at peripheral and central health care levels in two low-income countries, Angola (I-III) and Mozambique (IV-V). Theoretical models interpreting women's and midwives' views have been developed. Objectives: Study I evaluates midwives' use of an adapted model of the World Health Organization's partograph, a tool used to monitor the progress of labour. Study II describes midwives experiences of working without immediate medical assistance. Study III explores women's perceptions of care-seeking behaviour during childbirth. Study IV observes perinatal midwifery care routines and examine partograph documentation. Study V explores and develops a theoretical understanding of factors perceived to obstruct or facilitate midwives ability to provide quality of perinatal care. Methods: Study I: A one-group pre-and post-test interventional evaluation of 100 partographs from one peripheral delivery unit. Study II: Semi structured interviews with eleven midwives, analysed in a qualitative process comprising six steps. Study III. Ten focus group discussions with pregnant and non-pregnant women, analysed using the grounded theory technique. Study IV. Pre-and post intervention observation of midwifery care of 702 vs. 616 women during delivery and examination of the partographs. Study V: In-depth interviews with 16 midwives, analysed using grounded theory technique. Educational interventions were designed and applied in study II and IV. Results: Study I. Significant improvement of documenting was found in seven of the ten variables and more partographs were correctly documented in sample II compared to sample I. Missed transfers increased, however, in sample II. Study II: The midwives experiences were sorted under four main areas: (1) Society/culture (2) Significant Others (3) Personal Self (4) Professional Self. Confidence was felt in the role as autonomous midwives but dependency on various factors such as the partograph, a functional referral system, peer support, community trust and continuous supervision was emphasised. Socio-economic hardships were identified as major stress factors for themselves and the women. Study III: Women seemed compelled to "mould" their care seeking behaviour and four patterns, two 'avoiding' and two 'approaching' institutional care were identified. The salient features of each pattern were found to be "personal courage", [B1]"disempowerment", "discarding traditional practices" and "awareness and emancipation". Study IV. No improvements were found in quality of care following the intervention. Common problems proved to be hypothermia and rare initiation of the graphic part of the partograph, which monitors progress of labour. Study V. A process labelled "changing perinatal care management" emerged, which comprised four dimensions addressing aspects related to i) existing environment ii) midwives' interaction with women in labour, iii) midwifery profession and iv) caring technology in order to improve quality of care. Communication and collaboration were identified as change agents. Conclusions: The findings in this thesis indicate that midwives' ability to provide quality of maternal and perinatal care in lowincome and post-war affected countries is restricted by organizational, structural, educational as well as attitudinal aspects. Women in need of assistance during childbirth are negatively affected as a consequence of midwives reaction to the various constraints, which at times (Luanda) seems to oblige adverse care seeking behaviour. Midwives recognises the need for change, but change is found to be a slow and complex process, which requires engagement by all levels of the care chain. A model suggesting how to achieve quality of maternal and perinatal care in Safe Motherhood context is presented.

<p>U radu se proučavaju osnovne karakteristike organizacije kao i njenih struktura<br />koje na indirektan načinu utiču na model organizacionog dizajna industrijskih<br />sistema. U modelu je prikazana povezanost elemenata organizacionog dizajna sa<br />karakteristikama zaposlenih i karakteristikama organizacije</p> / <p>Paper includes studying the basic characteristics of organization as well its<br />structures that indirectly affect the model of organizational design of industrial<br />systems. Model shows connection between the elements of organizational design<br />with the characteristics of employees and the characteristics of the organization</p>