This quasi-experimental study was to make a comparison between the level of self-perception prior to and following a training process. The study attested the view that the action learning based program in question was an effective mechanism for change in self-perception. The population studied were officers of the Australian Public Service and the Commonwealth Teaching Service located in the Australian Taxation Office, Austrade, ACT Schools Authority and the Department of Community Services and Health. A pilot study conducted in the Public Service Board in 1987 suggested that an action learning training process may be impacting on management competencies. Respondent's attitudes to nine personality variables were measured using the Saville Holdsworth Occupational (OPQ) Concept 5 Questionnaire. The variables were Assertive, Gregarious, Empathy, Field of Use, Abstract, Structure, Anxieties, Controls and Energies. Using the Solomon's Four quasi-experimental design, containing three experimental and two control groups, pre-test, change and post-test scores were compared using a one-way Analysis of Variance. Where pre-tests were statistically significantly different an Analysis of Covariance was used, The general conclusion from the study was that the experimental groups showed an overall insignificant relationship with training particularly as control groups showed similar differences over time. Apart from few exceptions the results did not support any strong notion of positive change in self-perception as a result of a training intervention.

Cette thèse s'intéresse aux phénomènes électrostatiques émergents dans les modèles magnétiques toroïdaux bi-dimensionnels à symétrie XY, fournissant ainsi un support pour de plus amples recherches dans le domaine de la transition de phase Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT).Dans de nombreux systèmes bi-dimensionnels, dont le modèle bi-dimensionnel XY du magnétisme, la transition BKT contrôle la dissociation thermique de paires de défauts topologiques liés. Le modèle XY est analogue au gaz de Coulomb bi-dimensionnel, à ceci près qu'il peut être simulé sans avoir à modéliser les interactions à longue distance du système Coulombien. Cette thèse élucide ce paradoxe en démontrant que l'approximation de Villain appliquée au modèle XY est strictement équivalente au modèle électrostatique de Maggs-Rossetto (MR) appliqué au système Coulombien bi-dimensionnel.Cette équivalence est utilisée pour sonder la transition BKT par l'application de l'algorithme MR au gaz de Coulomb bi-dimensionel. En simulant le système Coulombien, il est prouvé que les fluctuations dans l'organisation des charges autour du tore sont activées à la température de transition BKT. Ces fluctuations du champ électrique indiquent ainsi la phase de haute température de la transition.Il est ensuite montré que l'exposant critique effectif de la théorie de Bramwell-Holdsworth (BH) peut être mesuré dans les films d'hélium 4 superfluide, qui correspondent à des gaz de Coulomb effectifs dans la limite de systèmes de grandes tailles finies. / This thesis addresses the emergent electrostatics of two-dimensional, toroidal magnetic models that possess XY symmetry, providing a platform for novel investigations into the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition.The BKT transition drives the thermal dissociation of bound pairs of topological defects in many two-dimensional systems, including the two-dimensional XY model of magnetism. The XY model is closely analogous to the two-dimensional Coulomb gas, but can be simulated without computing the long-range interactions of the Coulombic system. This thesis elucidates this paradox by showing that Villain's approximation to the XY model is strictly equivalent to the Maggs-Rossetto (MR) electrostatic model when applied to the two-dimensional Coulomb gas.The mapping is used to probe the BKT transition through the application of the MR algorithm to the two-dimensional Coulomb gas. By simulating the Coulombic system, fluctuations in the winding of charges around the torus are shown to turn on at the BKT transition temperature. These topological-sector fluctuations in the electric field therefore signal the high-temperature phase of the transition.It is then shown that the effective critical exponent of Bramwell-Holdsworth (BH) theory can be measured in superfluid 4He films, which correspond to effective Coulomb gases in the limit of large but finite system size. With the Coulombic system taken as the base BKT system, it is inferred that BH theory is a general property of BKT systems.