This thesis covers years of field work in Malawi, Africa by the author as a Research Agronomist (Tree Nuts) for the Government of Malawi. The thesis is an action research type with core and thesis projects which are closely linked. The client group are large estate managers who control the tree nut industries in Malawi. The political, economic and historical perspectives are different from those commonly faced by Australian agronomists and the isolated location of the work make this a unique study. The thesis includes sections on plantation or estate agriculture, farming systems approaches to research and problem solving, systems concepts in agricultural settings and action research concepts. These provide a framework for the study within the constraints of the government research system and industry expectations. The body of the thesis is a review paper presented to estate managers and co-researchers after one year's work. Relevant outcomes of the study are presented. The discussion draws together the outcomes through reflection on the process and methods used. Advantages and disadvantages are considered and risks, such as the dangers to the researcher of this type of study, are highlighted. / Master of Science (Hons)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:45:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Antonio Paulo Lage Terassovich.pdf: 1153516 bytes, checksum: 16e84494ee419af8ec88202f08f39076 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-10-15 / This master s thesis aims to focus on the average managers perception from comercial Banks on the interviews provided by them, intending to understand the kinds of effective power on the organizations they work for. This research work struggled to specify which power practices an intermediate manager uses (consciously or unconsciously) to carry on his/her work activities. Real Estate Financial Loans Policies in banks was chosen as a sector in this research once it is in considerable growth in these days and its importance has risen significantly in bank institutions, revealing major changes in the sector. The total of units financed by SFH in Brazil (a governamental system to enable citizens to ask for specific loans to purchase houses or apartments) in 2007 and beginning of 2008 reach the highest amounts in terms of volume of units when compared to early 80 s. Some questions arouse in this investigation, such as: Is there a free space in organization rules in which an individual might have total freedom to act? Is there effectively a freedom space for individuals? And for the means of such work, is there a freedom space for a Real Estate Manager? And if so, which perceptions can be gathered in such space? In case there is no freedom at all, rules or bank hierarchy do not alow any kind of freedom? In order to answer those questions, this master s thesis refined as theme an analysis on power and in this context the interviews were carried out so as to verify whether it is possible to distinguish power practices in relationships managers have when they exert their functions in their work environment. The analysis of the interviews identified some kinds of behaviors of those managers when they have to act on the others aiming to exert their fucntions and acomplish their organizational goals in the determined principles established by corporate rules / O objetivo desta dissertação é examinar a percepção da gerência média de bancos comerciais, por meio de entrevistas, buscando compreender as formas de exercício do poder nas organizações em que trabalham. A pesquisa buscou compreender quais as práticas de poder que o gerente intermediário se utiliza, conscientemente ou não, para exercer suas funções. Escolheu-se o setor de crédito imobiliário dentro de instituições bancárias porque ele está em forte crescimento o que aumentou sua importância relativa dentro das áreas dos bancos caracterizando um momento de mudança neste setor. O volume de unidades financiadas com os recursos do SFH Sistema Financeiro da Habitação em 2007 e início de 2008 alcançam, pela primeira vez, os volumes mais altos comparado com o início da década de 80, os maiores de todos os tempos. As perguntas que se faz são: Existe um espaço vazio deixado pelas normas organizacionais em que o indivíduo tem total liberdade de ação? Existe de fato um espaço de liberdade do indivíduo? E para efeitos deste trabalho, existe de fato um espaço de liberdade para o gerente de crédito imobiliário? E se existir, quais as percepções que podem ser encontradas neste espaço? Ou pelo contrário, as normas e a hierarquia dos bancos não deixam área de liberdade alguma? Para responder a essas pergunta a temática escolhida foi o poder e dentro deste contexto as análises das entrevistas serão conduzidas para investigar se é possível distinguir práticas de poder nas relações que os gerentes estabelecem quando exercem suas funções dentro do seu ambiente de trabalho. As análises das entrevistas identificaram alguns tipos de comportamento que os gerentes de crédito imobiliário se utilizam para conseguirem agir sobre a ação dos outros com o objetivo de exercer suas funções e alcançar as metas organizacionais dentro dos limites impostos pelas normas corporativas

Modern energy saving technologies are become increasingly mature, easier to implement and financially profitable. Both the European Union and the Swedish government have directives with goals regarding energy savings for the year 2020 and 2030. Here, making buildings more energy efficient plays a large role as around 40% of the total energy usage in Europe can be related to buildings. Constructing new, nearly zero energy houses is currently very popular, but as a vast majority of all buildings in a country like Sweden are older buildings, built before 1980, a majority of the used energy will come from these buildings. Hence, there is plenty of incentive for carrying out energy saving actions and investments in older buildings. From previous research and interviews with energy consultants, it can be concluded that energy saving actions are not being carried to the extent that is possible. This thesis aims to find out why this is and mainly what the main obstacles are when implementing energy saving solutions in older buildings. A case study, consisting of eight interviews with energy consultants and real estate owners was carried out in order to get an understanding of the current situation and the different stakeholders views on this issue. The results showed that, at least in the represented cases, there is a will among real estate owners for moving forward with energy saving. An understanding has also recently emerged where most real estate owners realize that there are great financial incentives connected to implementing energy saving solutions to current, older buildings. However, increased will of making a change has not yet resulted in a majority of buildings having installed energy saving solutions. One factor for this is that each building is its own individual case and therefore needs to be handled individually due to different conditions and are therefore suitable for different energy saving actions. Other factors include lack of technical and financial understanding among some real estate owners, slow decision making processes and ownership types. The research explores theories related to decision makings to provide a comprehensive overview regarding the current situation of energy saving in Sweden, as well as a contribution to the theoretical literature regarding decision making / Modern teknik inom energibesparing blir allt mer mognare, lättare att implementera och finansiellt lönsamt. Både den europeiska unionen och den svenska regeringen har direktiv med mål för energibesparing för år 2020 och 2030. Här spelar byggnader en viktig roll, då byggnader står för ca 40 % av den totala energianvändningen i Europa. Att bygga nya, nära noll energi byggnader är för närvarande väldigt populärt. Men i ett land som Sverige, där majoriteten av alla byggnader är äldre byggnader, kommer majoriteten av energianvändningen fortfarande från dessa. Därav finns det stora incitament till att genomföra energieffektiviserande åtgärder på äldre byggnader i Sverige. Från tidigare studier och intervjuer med energikonsulter kan det fastslås att energibesparande åtgärder ej genomförs i den grad som det är möjligt. Målet med denna rapport är att utröna varför det är så samt vilka huvudsakliga hinder som kan relateras till energibesparing i äldre byggnader. För att få en överblick av den befintliga situationen samt hur olika intressenter ser på denna fråga genomfördes en fallstudie bestående av åtta intervjuer med energikonsulter och fastighetsägare. Resultaten från studien pekade på att det finns en vilja bland fastighetsägare att gå vidare med energibesparande åtgärder. På senare tid har även en förståelse vuxit fram bland fastighetsägare där man inser att det även finns stora finansiella incitament med att implementera energibesparande åtgärder på äldre byggnader. Detta har dock ännu ej lett till att energibesparande åtgärder genomförts på en majoritet av befintliga byggnader. En anledning till detta är att varje byggnad måste hanteras individuellt då alla har olika förutsättningar och därmed lämpar sig för olika energibesparande lösningar. Andra faktorer inkluderar teknisk och ekonomisk kunskapsbrist bland vissa fastighetsägare, långsamma beslutsprocesser och ägarstrukturer. Studien nyttjar teorier relaterade till beslutsfattning för att ge läsaren en överblick av den befintliga situationen kring energibesparing i Sverige. I tillägg bidrar studien till den teoretiska litteraturen om beslutsfattning.