This qualitative study aims to examine the challenges of fast fashion consumption, encompassing a comprehensive examination of various factors and multifaceted dilemmas related to consumer choices. Clothing consumption serves more than just material needs, with today's society witnessing a strong connection between consumption and social norms, trends, and ideals, especially through social media. The choice of fashion consumption proves to be a complex issue in sustainability discussions. This complexity is heightened as social media influencers actively endorse and glamorize fast fashion products despite their well-known environmental consequences. The study navigates and sheds light on the interaction between influencers, who serve as marketers for these fast fashion products on social media, and their followers as recipients of the advertising and potential consumers. The interaction between both influencers and followers is explored through qualitative semi-structured interviews. The complex issue of fast fashion consumption is analyzed through a theoretical framework integrating Two-step flow theory, Cultivation theory, Social learning theory and the theory of Cognitive dissonance, as well as the respondents' attitudes, opinions, and positions. The purpose of the study is to illuminate the influential role of influencer marketing on followers' consumption and perception of fast fashion, particularly regarding the environmental aspects and sustainability.  The research questions are: "How do influencers shape followers' perspectives and purchasing behavior regarding fast fashion?", "How do followers reflect on their own fast fashion consumption affected by influencers on social media?", and "What other factors, besides influencers, can influence followers' consumption decisions regarding fast fashion?". In this qualitative study, the analysis of interviews with influencers and their followers reveals complex narratives and patterns in the context of fast fashion. Six key themes emerge, including; environmental awareness, ambivalence, the impact and power of influencers', responsibility, social norms and consumption culture. The analysis highlights followers' increased environmental awareness and their simultaneous struggle with impulsive consumption. Influencers play a central role in shaping followers' views and behaviors and acting as trendsetters. However, followers express concerns about collective and environmental responsibility, portraying influencers as having a dominant position when regarding fashion consumption through social media.

Yes / This paper develops a theory of the subjectivity of the leader through the philosophical lens of Hegel’s master/slave dialectic and its recent interpretation by the philosopher Judith Butler. This is used to analyse the working life history of a man who rose from poverty to a leadership position in a large company and eventually to running his own successful business. Hegel’s dialectic is foundational to much Western thought, but in this paper, I rashly update it by inserting a leader in between the master, whose approval the leader needs if s/he is to sustain self-hood, and the follower, who becomes a tool that the leader uses when trying to gain that elusive approval. The analysis follows the structure of Butler’s reading of the Dialectic and develops understanding of the norms that govern how leaders should act and the persons they should be. Hard work has become for leaders an ethical endeavour, but they grieve the sacrifice of leisure. They enjoy a frisson of erotic pleasure at their power over others but feel guilt as a result. They must prove their leadership skills by ensuring their followers are perfect employees but at the same time must prove their followers are poor workers who need their continued leadership. This leads to the conclusion that the leader is someone who is both powerful and powerless. This analysis is intended not to demonize leaders, but to show the harm that follows the emphasis on leadership as a desirable and necessary organizational function.

The purpose of the following study was to investigate the role of interpersonal congruence between leaders' and followers' implicit theories of leadership (ILTs) and followership (IFTs) in both partners' perspectives of the leader-follower relationship. While most literature focuses on assessments of the leader-member exchange (LMX) relationship, this study examined perceived support, identification with one's partner, and contribution to the relationship, in addition to LMX. Congruence between self-views and interpersonal congruence on implicit theories was examined as moderators of these relationships, such that the strength of these relationships was predicted to increase as self-views aligned more highly with implicit theories. Data from 103 independent pairs of full-time working adults (across an organizational sample as well as varied workforce snowball sample) were analyzed using eight manifest path models. Leader ILT -- follower ILT congruence significantly and positive predicted leader-rated LMX and perceived support, but not identification and contribution. Leader IFT -- follower IFT congruence significantly and positive predicted follower-rated LMX and perceived support, but not identification and contribution. The results of this study suggest expectations are meaningful predictors of both partner's assessments of multiple relationship-oriented outcome variables, but only with regard to perceptions of outcomes from the perspective of one's dyadic partner. / Ph. D.

Over the past five decades, the Saudi government has adopted many agricultural policies aimed to: achieve self-sufficiency of food, increase the participation of the agricultural sector in the economy, and reduce the consumption of irrigation water. Due to conflicts among government objectives and the incompatibility of farmers' objectives with those of some agricultural policies, the government has not been able to fully achieve its objectives. To accomplish its goals the government, or decision maker needs to understand the farmer, or follower, reaction when s/he adopts a new decision. The dissertation aims to build a model that achieves government goals of minimizing the total irrigation water used while improving the total revenue from agricultural production, while incorporating farmers’ objective of maximizing their profit. To do this, linear programming and bi-level multi-objective multi-follower models are developed and applied to six regions of Saudi Arabia, which account for around 70 percent of cropland and consume about 13.131 BCM of irrigation water per year. The result of the linear programming model applied to the Riyadh region shows there is an unobserved factor effect on the farmers’ decisions, including irrigation water demand that comes from the presence of indirect subsidies. On the other hand, the bi-level multi-objective, multi-follower model shows there is the possibility to minimize irrigation water consumption while maintaining current total revenue from crop production through reallocating irrigation water among regions, while applying a variety of crop specific tax and subsidy policies among the regions to alter planting decisions.

ABSTRACT THE EFFECTS OF HOSPITAL UNIT NURSE LEADERS’ PERCEIVED FOLLOWER SUPPORT ON NURSING STAFF PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES by JOY BAILEY Hospital unit nurse leaders are increasingly expected to deliver high quality patient outcomes at less cost yet very little is known about how they accomplish these goals while meeting work force demands and the needs of the organization. Whereas the literature is replete with studies about the work environment of nurses in general, very little has been published that examines the work environment of unit nurse leaders even though, by virtue of their role, they are inextricably linked to both staff performance and patient outcomes and ultimately the success of hospital organizations. The purpose of this study was to examine nursing support relationships (unit nurse leaders’ perceived follower support (PFS), nursing staff perception of leader supportive supervision (SS) and unit nurse leaders’ perceived organizational support), unit nurse leaders’ work stressors (role conflict, workload and span of control) and nursing staff outcomes of work team cohesion (WTC), job satisfaction, absenteeism and turnover intent on the acute care hospital nursing unit. Thirty-two unit nurse leaders from nine urban hospitals, along with 397 of the staff they supervised were surveyed. Seventy-seven percent (n = 305) of the nursing staff were registered nurses; the remaining 23% (n = 92) were nursing assistants and unit secretaries. The average nurse leader’s span of control was 41staff members (SD=43.5; range: 24-135). Most nurse leaders were affiliated with academic medical centers. Results showed that leaders with higher levels of PFS were more likely to display higher levels of SS of their staff and that higher levels of SS were associated with greater WTC, higher staff job satisfaction and increased staff intent to remain with the organization. Supportive supervision mediated the relationship between PFS and staff work team cohesion, job satisfaction and turnover intent. Also the negative effects of nurse leader role conflict on SS weakened with higher PFS. This preliminary study lays the ground work for more expansive studies on supportive interactions between unit nurse leaders and their staff, with potential to inform nurse administrators about the importance of the unit leader/staff relationship and its influence on nursing staff performance outcomes and ultimately patient outcomes.

Ce travail traite de l'évitement d'obstacles pour les robots mobiles à roues. D’abord, deux solutions sont proposées dans le cas d’un seul robot autonome. La première est une amélioration de la technique des champs de potentiel afin de contraster l’apparition de minima locaux. Le résultat se base sur l’application de la définition de l’ «Input-to-State Stability» pour des ensembles décomposables. Chaque fois que le robot mobile approche un minimum local l’introduction d’un contrôle dédié lui permet de l’éviter et de terminer la tâche. La deuxième solution se base sur l’utilisation de la technique du «Supervisory Control» qui permet de diviser la tâche principale en deux sous tâches : un algorithme de supervision gère deux signaux de commande, le premier en charge de faire atteindre la destination, le deuxième d’éviter les obstacles. Les deux signaux de commande permettent de compléter la mission en temps fini en assurant la robustesse par rapport aux perturbations représentant certaines dynamiques négligées. Les deux solutions ont été mises en service sur un robot mobile «Turtlebot 2». Pour contrôler une formation de type leader-follower qui puisse éviter collisions et obstacles, une modification de l’algorithme de supervision précédent a été proposée ; elle divise la tâche principale en trois sous-problèmes gérés par trois lois de commande. Le rôle du leader est adapté pour être la référence du groupe avec un rôle actif : ralentir la formation en cas de manœuvre d'évitement pour certains robots. La méthode proposée permet au groupe de se déplacer et à chaque agent d’éviter les obstacles, ou les collisions, de manière décentralisée / This dissertation work addresses the obstacle avoidance for wheeled mobile robots. The supervisory control framework coupled with the output regulation technique allowed to solve the obstacle avoidance problem and to formally prove the existence of an effective solution: two outputs for two objectives, reaching the goal and avoiding the obstacles. To have fast, reliable and robust results the designed control laws are finite-time, a particular class very appropriate to the purpose. The novelty of the approach lies in the easiness of the geometric approach to avoid the obstacle and on the formal proof provided under some assumptions. The solution have been thus extended to control a leader follower formation which, sustained from the previous result, uses two outputs but three controls to nail the problem. The Leader role is redesigned to be the reference of the group and not just the most advanced agent, moreover it has a active role slowing down the formation in case of collision avoidance manoeuvre for some robots. The proposed method, formally proven, makes the group move together and allow each agent to avoid obstacles or collision in a decentralized way. In addition, a further contribution of this dissertation, it is represented by a modification of the well known potential field method to avoid one of the common drawback of the method: the appearance of local minima. Control theory tools helps again to propose a solution that can be formally proven: the application of the definition of Input-to-State Stability (ISS) for decomposable sets allows to treat separate obstacles adding a perturbation which is able to move the trajectory away from a critic point

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Introduction: The co-construction of leadership is a relatively new theoretical concept thatis growing in demand in the field of science. Since our global workforce becomes moreheterogenous and attitudes towards leader-follower relationships evolve, a successfulinteraction between leaders and followers becomes more central to the overall functioningof an organisation. With a global business climate that gradually shifts its focus onemploying more horizontal modes of organising, more emphasis is put on improving thequality of dyadic work relationships. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the esteemed role of follower behaviourin the co-construction of leadership in an intercultural context. Since most literatureemphasis on leader-follower relationships we are interested in exploring a follower-centricperspective on the co-construction of leadership. By adding the aspect of interculturalcontexts, a broader understanding of the impact of culture and communication can beapplied to this study. Research methodology: This study is a case study based on a qualitative research methodwith an inductive research approach. We have held nine recorded semi-structuredinterviews nearly equally spread between leaders and followers with different culturalbackgrounds working for a MNC in the finance industry. We have created a conceptualtheoretical model which was constructed based on findings of empirical data, which isbased on the following five themes - follower behaviour, leader behaviour, working in anintercultural context, leader-follower relationship, and co-construction of leadership. Results and analysis: The result of this study reveals that follower behaviour, leaderbehaviour, dyadic leader-follower relationships, and constructive communication areimportant aspects to have knowledge of to comprehend what actions can be undertaken tofacilitate the co-construction of leadership in an intercultural context. Conclusion: The role of follower behaviour in the co-construction of leadership in anintercultural context plays an active role in the co-constructing of leadership. Bydisplaying certain desirable behaviour and traits, as well as communicating constructively,followers can positively influence leadership. This can be facilitated by leaders that enablefollowers with trust, partnership and growth. In addition, interculturality adds anadditional layer that encompasses diverse perspectives and approaches and encouragespersonal growth.

This dissertation consists of two largely stand-alone chapters. The first chapter presents a goal-activation theory of the antecedents of advice taking. I propose that three separate categories of goals - decision quality, social standing, and emotional well-being - influence receptivity to advice. Decision quality goals increase striving toward a good outcome in the decision for which the advice was given. Social standing goals focus attention on the social effects of the act of taking or rejecting the advice. Emotional well-being goals are related to establishing or maintaining a desired affective state. Each of these goals can be activated by attributes of the situation, advice, advisee, and advisor. Because they increase striving toward different ends, the goals direct attention to disparate advice-related cues and affect the evaluation of those cues. This results in different responses to advice. At the current time, nearly all research on advice taking has addressed decision quality goals and related cues. By presenting this theory, I hope to increase interest in a wider set of antecedents of advice taking. The second chapter reports a series of studies testing hypotheses derived from the theory presented in the first chapter. Specifically, I contrast the effects of an advisor's relative expertise to effects of the advisor's relative hierarchical position on advice taking. I hypothesize that the effects of expertise are driven by decision quality goals, while the effects of relative hierarchical position relate to social standing goals. I further hypothesize that advisees' conceptions of appropriate leader-follower relations (specifically, follower co-production role orientation; Carsten & Uhl-Bien, 2012) activate social standing goals, but not decision quality goals. Lastly, I propose that outcome accountability increases attention to decision quality goals and reduces attention to social standing goals.

"Many assembly machines for consumer products suffer from the fact that the mechanisms used to impart the necessary assembly motions to the product are orders of magnitude more massive than the product payloads that they carry. This characteristic subsequently limits the operating speed of the machine. If the follower train could be made less massive without sacrificing accuracy and control, it would therefore allow higher speeds. It is well-known that structures that carry only tensile loads can be much less massive than those that must also carry compressive loads. This concept is demonstrated in many structures, such as the suspension bridge. This master’s project set out to investigate the feasibility of a tension-member follower train for a generic cam-driven pick and place mechanism. This system was first dynamically simulated using a computer model, and then tested by constructing a proof of concept prototype. A cam-driven, low-mass tension member (in this case a spring steel strip over pulleys) under spring preload was used to replace the bellcranks and connecting rods typical of a conventional follower train. The system was determined to be feasible and will allow for increased operating speeds at potentially lower costs as an additional benefit."