This work sought to explore, evaluate and then improve the process of development for personal Military Load Carriage Equipment (MLCE), such as rucksacks. It was suspected that current MLCE had a number of user interaction deficiencies which should have been addressed during development. Three research questions were posed to determine: the influences on MLCE development, what needed improvement in MLCE development and how MLCE development could be improved. The work was based on eight studies conducted in three phases: the first to explore MLCE development and the observed deficiencies, the second to evaluate MLCE development, and the third to improve it. The chosen research strategy was henomenological, using a grounded theory methodology within which phenomena could emerge. Grounded theory approaches were adopted for this research because they were the best way in which to access the design domain. The research was framed within cycles of reflective action research to enable the researcher to re-orientate the enquiry to make the best use of the research opportunities that arose from the organisational context in which the research was sited. An initial investigation into the development of in-service equipment was done via a comparative case study, using documentary analysis and interviews with authorities in the field. Through this investigation it became clear that MLCE development was based on heuristics and tacit knowledge of manufacturing techniques, and collaboration between professional groups, including: materials / manufacturing, human systems, project management and military personnel. Deficiencies within MLCE development, determined through the comparative study, were validated against current practice through a further case study and additional evaluations. A comparison of outputs from these studies was then reviewed in a grounded manner to gain a holistic understanding of MLCE development. The interaction and importance of the various influences on MLCE development was then better understood, in particular the inadequate understanding of MLCE user needs, and requirement specification. To refine the possible avenues and target audience for an improvement of MLCE development stakeholder interviews were undertaken to develop a better understanding of how military user needs were gathered and applied. Following the interview survey, a tool was developed to analyse video and audio data of soldiers operating with MLCE on current operations. The tool was then reviewed by a panel of MLCE developers and stakeholders. The panel thought that the tool had a number of benefits to MLCE development: improving understanding of soldier environments, improved quality and reliability of information used in development, and as a conduit for concept evaluation. The research has provided a novel perspective on MLCE development, and provided a number of avenues upon which subsequent research could focus. The research has been able to make original contributions to understanding, albeit in a manner limited by the methodologies used.

This study investigates physical education (PE) teachers careers and professional development in the context of Taiwanese junior high schools (pupils aged 12-14), where a national educational reform the Grade 1-9 Curriculum was launched in 2001. In particular, from teachers perspectives, this study addresses questions about (1) how and why selected Taiwanese PE teachers engage in professional learning over their careers; (2) the impact of the introduction of a new curriculum and policies; (3) ways in which professional learning could be supported more effectively. Eight case study PE teachers, who simultaneously worked as local coordinators, were invited as participants. Life history method was followed by data analysis using constructivist grounded theory to generate findings at three levels: individual life histories, cross-case themes and a theoretical framework. In addition, the process of data analysis, both manually and using a popular software package, is critically compared. The findings suggest that teachers beliefs about professional development were closely connected to their individual career histories, and these were influenced by a set of personal and contextual factors in relation to their professional lives. Moreover, despite a major government curriculum reform, the implementation of the new curriculum resulted in very little change to these teachers practices, because: (1) the curriculum guidelines were very flexible and were difficult for teachers to fully understand; and (2) there was a lack of evaluation of, or accountability for, teachers practices. This study suggests that the Taiwanese government s aspirations for radical changes to teachers practice (both teaching and learning) are more likely to be realised by ensuring that policies and the new curriculum are based on a more realistic understanding of teachers lives and careers.

This thesis is involved with exploration of key changes drivers and market phenomena in the Southeast Asia and the development of new conceptual frameworks for business environmental analysis of airlines. The research is constructed under the phenomenology paradigm which adopts a coherentism approach and mainly takes airline industry’s publications, statistics, and executives as units of analysis. Hermeneutic phenomenology, a single-embedded case study, concurrent triangulation mixed method, and grounded theory are all used as methodologies. Methods using document reviews, interviews, and questionnaires are applied to surface the key changes drivers, market phenomena and the perceptions of the importance of changes factors. The collected data are analysed by content analysis, thematic analysis, cognitive mapping analysis, constant comparative analysis and descriptive analysis to classify, generalise and develop into proper forms. The research reveals that ‘market’, ‘competition/strategy’, ‘regulation/policy’, ‘infrastructure/resource’, ‘cooperation’, ‘distribution’, ‘technology, and ‘broad’ factors are discovered as key change drivers. Their different importance levels are measured by occurrences, density, centrality, and tail occurrences as root causes of changes. The characteristics of their interrelationships are based on directional and influential dimensions. There are 16 emerged changes/market phenomena and 11 generalised conceptual frameworks and 3 newly developed frameworks for analysing the airline business environment. The quantitative findings from content analysis are evaluated by inter-coder analysis which achieves kappa coefficient = 0.87 indicating high reliability of the analysis. The qualitative findings are qualified through ten criteria assessment of research quality. The deliverables provide both theoretical and methodological contributions. The research limitations are found in some sources of collected data and findings which are caused by scarce data availability and three types of biases. The recommendations for future research into financial performance, changes’ leading indicators and comparative in-depth study in other ASEAN countries and regions are made.

This study presents a normative framework of the RFID implementation process in the UK public sector. It was motivated by the lack of socio-technical studies on the RFID implementation process in the UK public sector and the need for existing and potential RFID project managers to have an implementation model which could guide their effort in implementing any RFID initiatives in the sector. The study has been conducted through a combination of case study research and grounded theory research approach. Primary data have been collected from the in-depth interviews conducted with the RFID project managers from seven public sector organisations, i.e., five libraries and two hospitals. The analyses of the data were in two main stages. The first stage involved the analysis of the RFID implementation process in each of the organisations and the second stage involved a cross analysis of the RFID implementation process across the entire organisations. Potential contribution towards the existing body of knowledge on RFID implementation was in the form of a normative framework of RFID implementation process in the public sector. This framework describes the main and sub activities in the implementation process, and illustrates the dissimilarities and similarities between the implementation processes. Consequently, the implications of the study to the existing and potential RFID project managers in the public sector and also to the study of information system and RFID implementation are discussed.

Climate change, with the possibility of an ice free Arctic ocean by 2015, has generated a renewed interest in the Arctic. This interest is being driven by the possibility of easier access to the abundant supply of resources such as oil, gas, minerals, and fisheries. Interest in Arctic tourism is also growing. Retreating sea ice will provide opportunities to avail of shorter routes for maritime traffic to and from Asia, North America, and Asia via the Arctic Ocean and Northwest Passage. In addition, the rate of population growth of local inhabitants in the Canadian Arctic is the fastest in Canada and one of the fastest in the world. A growing population will increase the demand for sealift resupply to Canada's northern communities. This work presents the first attempt to examine the role of privatization of icebreaking services in light of the present and projected shortages of infrastructure to support development in the Arctic. A unique combination of multiple methods within marine transportation, comprising of Delphi, grounded theory, and quantitative survey, is applied to investigate the potential for private involvement in the delivery of icebreaking services in the Canadian Arctic. This includes a novel application of Strauss and Corbin's Grounded Theory approach to develop hypotheses and relationships grounded in expert opinion. Although the Arctic Ocean may be ice free during the summers, there is still the issue of winter freezing and the threat of lingering multi-year ice which will impede marine transportation especially during periods of darkness and fog. The research shows that the future growth and development of the Canadian Arctic will undoubtedly require the use of designated icebreakers and ice strengthened vessels. However, Canada's fleet of Arctic icebreakers is ageing and considered unsuitable for future demands. While Canada has earmarked CAD $750M for the construction of one new icebreaker scheduled for delivery in 2017, the research shows that Icebreakers can be built outside of Canada for considerably less money and in less time. Also, the management and operation of the Canadian Coast Guard is under considerable security by the Auditor General of Canada. The research shows that not unlike others Arctic nations, there is potential for the creation of private-public partnerships in the delivery of Canadian Coast Guard services, principally icebreaking, in the Arctic.

This thesis investigates the phenomenon of corporate governance in the Egyptian banking sector (EBS); it aims to understand the nature of corporate governance in this context and identify the factors shaping it. Especially that these aspects had been ignored by the literature. Through grounded theory methodology, an empirical study of the nature of corporate governance in the EBS is undertaken, it identifies the factors affecting corporate governance in the EBS, the interests corporate governance is serving and as such outline the model of corporate governance prevailing in the EBS. Grounded theory methodology is illustrated by the thesis in the following ways. First, through an application of the comparative method in the open coding stage based on semi-structured interviews conducted with bank directors and executives, government officials, auditors and central bank officials, open coding developed categories and identified their properties and dimensions. Indeed, the interviews were informed by the survey of banks’ corporate governance (BCG) practices. Second, through axial coding open categories were subsumed into broader categories, and the relationships among these categories were established by means of the paradigm model. This has led to building the Bank Action Choice Matrix and the Paradigm Model of Evolving BCG in the EBS. Axial coding provided the basis of the substantive theory. Third, selective coding based on a second round of semi-structured interviews had identified the core category, verified its relationships with other sub-categories and eventually presented the substantive theory of BCG. The substantive theory was further explored in terms of the New Institutional Sociological Theory (NIST), leading to more formal substantive theory that consider corporate governance a social process affected by non-economic factors such as culture, politics, legal framework and human factors. It identified that BCG is in the process of institutionalization in the EBS. This process is geared toward the regulative pillar of institutions and the use of coercive power by the regulator, with banks adopting corporate governance seeking legitimacy. It also concluded that BCG is a political process, with powerful actors pushing to serve their interests; as such BCG is about power. Finally, it explained the heterogeneity of banks’ strategic responses to BCG institution, as some banks comply while others disguise their non-compliance, affected by internal organizational characteristics that hinder compliance and make some banks more susceptible to external obstacles. This thesis extended the use of grounded theory to explore the phenomenon of corporate governance in an unexplored context, identified the prevailing BCG model in the EBS and explained the substantive theory of BCG in terms of NIST as such offered a non-traditional perspective for corporate governance theorizing. It contributes to better understanding of NIST by accounting for institutionalization as a process and explaining the heterogeneity of organizational strategic responses. Finally, this thesis is the first attempt to combine corporate governance, grounded theory and NIST offering policy-makers useful views for BCG reform.

Hearing disclosures of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a clinical reality for many therapists. Psychologists within mental health services are working increasingly with clients who have traumatic histories, including the presence of CSA. Recently there has been a drive towards improving services for adult survivors of CSA, with an emphasis on asking health and social care service-users about abuse. Recent research has demonstrated that the experience of talking about CSA in psychological therapy can be a complex experience for client and clinician with varied consequences for both parties. The research into psychologists‟ experiences of CSA disclosure has been limited to surveys of psychologists‟ practice and knowledge and has lacked a scientific approach. This study aimed to expand on the scientific research into CSA disclosure with a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach (CGT). CGT was used to explore psychologists‟ experiences of CSA disclosure from clients in Adult Mental Health. Eight psychologists took part in the current study and were recruited from a large Clinical Psychology service in Scotland. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Core categories constructed in this study contributed to a model of psychologists‟ experiences of disclosure in AMH clinical practice. Core categories referred to “Negotiating the Dance of Disclosure” and “Nurturing the Pre-conditions to Disclosure”, which occur in parallel to the therapeutic relationship; whereas “Growing Personally and Professionally” and “Carrying the Weight of the Work” refer to the impact of hearing disclosures and talking about CSA with clients. Research findings are discussed and the implications of this model in relation to theory and areas of development for research and clinical practice are considered.

Cornwall is a peripheral rural location in the South West of the UK, and has experienced almost continual socio-economic decline for more than a century. It has a nationalist heritage and is a popular tourist resort. It is also one of the poorest parts of the UK. Academic work has addressed poverty in Cornwall, but has failed to adequately answer why various development programmes have not improved the economy. Part of the reason for this may be that traditional approaches to regional development utilise identity politics as a development tool, and yet lack sufficient attention to the lived experience of local residents. This work takes the opposite approach, seeking to address this omission by using narratives of identity to understand why Cornwall is still so poor. Supporting data uses a qualitative, grounded methodology, using interviews to explore how decision makers and members of the public construct Cornwall. The research finds that policy is based on a perception of the region which lacks a foundation in lived reality for local residents, and which carries a number of implications. The area and its inhabitants are constructed as being a lifestyle choice, impacting on economic activity and the kinds of investment attracted, which has a negative impact on long term economic growth. The solution proposed is that successful development needs to use a politics of identity that incorporates the realities of life in Cornwall, rather than emphasising an idealised perception. This can be done through adopting a more ‘evolutionary’ method, encouraging economic development to come to accept and work with what already exists, rather than trying to create anew.

This bachelor thesis had the aim to investigate how young female students experience their safety situation in their own neighbourhood, around the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Previous research shows that women tend to feel more fear of crime in public spaces than men, and this feeling is restricting their mobility in time and space. This gender structure is a worldwide phenomenon and is by feminist geographers explained as an expression of the patriarchy. A phenomenological approach was used in this research to gain an understanding of how this gender structure is affecting individual female’s lives. The used method was focus group interviews and two groups were interviewed, with totally seven respondents. The sessions were analysed by using constructivist grounded theory and partly narrative analysis. The interviewees explained that there were certain spaces that they experience as dangerous, foremost dark places without visibility and few people passing. They also stated that places where people had been robbed, raped or kidnapped earlier were more threating. The potential criminal was portrayed as a non-student male, and the male students were described as their potential protectors. The fear was always present in their lives, they felt more or less unsafe in all parts of the campus and even in their homes. This threat restricted their daily mobility in both time and space, and they used different strategies to avoid different types of crimes.

Critical care nurses work in an environment rich in informative interactions. Although there have been post hoc self-report survey studies of nurses' information seeking, there have been no observational studies of the patterns and content of their on-duty information behavior. This study used participant observation and in-context interviews to describe 50 hours of the observable information behavior of a representative sample of critical care nurses in a 20-bed critical care hospital unit. The researcher used open, in vivo, and axial coding to develop a grounded theory model of their consistent pattern of multimedia interactions. The resulting Nurse's Patient-Chart Cycle describes nurses' activities during the shift as centering on a regular alternation with the patient and the patient's chart (various record systems), clearly bounded with nursing "report" interactions at the beginning and the end of the shift. The nurses' demeanor markedly changed between interactions with the chart and interactions with the patient. Other informative interactions were observed with other health care workers and the patient's family, friends and visitors. The nurses' information seeking was centered on the patient. They mostly sought information from people, the patient record and other digital systems. They acted on or passed on most of the information they found. Some information they recorded for their personal use during the shift. The researcher observed the nurses using mostly patient specific information, but they also used some social and logistic information. They occasionally sought knowledge based information. Barriers to information acquisition included illegible handwriting, difficult navigation of online systems, equipment failure, unavailable people, social protocols and mistakes caused by multi-tasking people working with multiple complex systems. No formal use was observed of standardized nursing diagnoses, nursing interventions, or nursing outcomes taxonomies. While the nurses expressed respect for evidence-based practice, there clearly was no time or opportunity for reading research literature (either on paper or online) while on duty. All participants expressed frustration with the amount of redundant data entry required of them. The results of this study have significant implications for the design of clinical information systems and library services for working critical care nurses.