Thesis (Ph. D.)--Purdue University. / Cover title. Vita: p. [3] of cover. Bibliography: p. 41-43.

The objectives of this dissertation are to examine how expatriates¡¦ social network affect the ability of access information/resource and knowing- whom capital on their career advancement, as well as the effects of perceived organizational support correlate to host and home social network. Specially, this research investigates dual sources (host and home office) of expatriates¡¦ network in order to understand the impact on the network abilities and extent. Through confirmed factor analysis of pretest data, measurements were refined and the questionnaire used for the study was developed. For the study, 267 surveys were used for the data analyses. Structural equation modeling in LISREL 8.8 was employed to analyze the relationships among the latent constructs. The findings from the study revealed significant relationships between 1) expatriates¡¦ social network of host office and access information & resource, 2) social network of host office and knowing whom capital, 3) expatriates¡¦ social network of home office and access information & resource, 4) access information & resource and career advancement, and knowing whom capital and career advancement. This study contribute theoretically to the expatriates dual social network literature by clarifying the relationships among host social network, home social network, social network abilities and career advancement, while the previous studies focus on expatriates host country context. This research findings pointed out the expatriates not re-establish a personal network in the host environment but still keep contact with his/her home social network. The expatriates¡¦ host social network has direct and strong effect on access to information/resources and knowing-whom capital. And the expatriates¡¦ home social network also has positive impact on access to information/resources. This empirical model also provides future research with a new angle of view over expatriates social network and career advancement.

A social rehabilitation in the Seniors´ Home Máj in České Budějovice A social rehabilitation is a complex of activities encouraging an independence, self-sufficiency and social integration of clients of the Seniors´ Home. An aim of the thesis is to evaluate a progress of the social rehabilitation in the Seniors´ Home Máj in České Budějovice. A qualitative research was carried out to achieve objectives of the thesis. Five clients were chosen in order to determine a subjective evaluation of the social rehabilitation. Semi-standardized interviews were conducted with them. An observation method was applied at their engaging in activities in the Seniors´ Home as well as at seniors outside this facility, and a method of document analysis. Obtained information has been contained in case studies and they were analysed by using a grounded theory. Semi-standardized interviews were also conducted to find out attitudes of the professional staff and managers to the social rehabilitation. Factors affecting clients´ social functioning were also monitored in a course of the observation. Information from the interviews with the staff and the observation were again analysed through a method of the grounded theory. The thesis confirms findings of similarly oriented researches. It shows that the course of the social rehabilitation is influenced by institutional, personal and economic influences. The effect of applied methods and techniques of the social rehabilitation depends on an approach of the staff as well as clients and a quality of the clients´ social relations. The research has proven that an integration of clients in the facility as well as outside is supported by a wide offer of leisure time activities. Even if the clients in the Seniors´ Home have enough opportunities for mutual meetings, they are not usually successful in establishing a fully-fledged friendship and they often feel lonely. Although there is encouraged self-sufficiency per clients´ individual needs in the Seniors´ Home Máj, therapeutic activities are conducted and clients participate in physical activities, their level of self-sufficiency reduces. Results of the diploma thesis are stimulating for the staff of the Seniors´ Home Máj as well as for other social service founders and providers.

Unlike many of their North African and West African compatriots who reunified with family and settled in France in the 1970s and 80s, the decision of migrant worker hostel residents not to return definitively to places of origin at retirement is puzzling. Firstly, it calls into question the assumptions of the ‘myth of return’ literature, which explains non-return on the basis of family localisation. In the case of ‘geographically-single’ hostel residents, however, the grounds for non-return cannot be family localisation, since the men’s families remain in places of origin. Secondly, older hostel residents also remain unmoved by the financial incentives of a return homewards, where their French state pensions would have far greater purchasing power. Instead of definitive return, the overwhelming preference of hostel residents is for back-and-forth migration, between the hostel in France and communities of origin. The aim of this dissertation is to resolve this puzzle, by asking: What explains the hostel residents’ preference for back-and-forth mobility over definitive return at retirement? In order to make sense of these mobility decisions, several theories of migration are presented and evaluated against qualitative data from a multi-sited research design incorporating ethnography, life story and semi-structured interviews, and archive material. This fieldwork was carried out across France, Morocco and Senegal. Although no one theory adequately accounts for all the phenomena observed, the added value of each theory becomes most apparent when levels of analysis are kept distinct: at the household level as regards remittances; at the kinship/village level as regards re-integration in the home context; at the meso-level of ethnic communities in terms of migrants’ transnational ties; and at the macro-level of social systems concerning inclusion in healthcare and administrative organisations. Widening the focus beyond the puzzle/dilemma of late-in-life mobility, the thesis concludes by questioning what ‘home’ can mean for the retired hostel residents. An innovative way of theorising home – building on conventional conceptions of home based on territory and community – is outlined, arguing that to be ‘at home’ can also mean to be ‘included’ in different ‘social systems’. With this argument the thesis aims to contribute to broader debates on what it means for immigrants to belong and achieve inclusion in society.

This research explores home supervision requirements (HSRs) in Scotland; as well as the views about, and experiences of those who are affected the most by this type of compulsory intervention – young people, their parents and social workers. Home supervision requirements are a type of legal supervision order at home which is unique to the Scottish system of child legislation. Despite being the most common type of disposal used by the Children’s Hearing little is known about how HSRs work in practice. There is some evidence that young people who are subject to a HSR are likely to leave school with fewer qualifications than their peers – including young people who were ‘looked after’ away from home. Concerns with this gap in our understandings, combined with concerns for the poorer educational outcomes of young people who are subject to a HSR, has lead the Scottish Government, in collaboration with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), to set up and fund this case studentship. The research was conducted in a relatively large urban local authority in Scotland and used a multi-method approach in order to find out more about the nature, scope and outcomes of HSRs; as well as young people’s, their parents’ and social workers’ views about, and experiences of HSRs. I have conducted secondary analysis of data obtained from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA). SCRA provided aggregated data on all 98 young people who were subject to a HSR in Thistle city for 12 months or more at 31st of December 2008. This information provided a ‘profile’ of young people subject to a HSR as well as a charter of their involvement with the Hearing System. This highlights the similarities between young people who are subject to a HSR and those who are subject to other types of supervision requirements (SRs) in Scotland. I also carried out documentary analysis of young people’s social work case files. Social work case files contain a number of different documents which provide qualitative information in narrative form about young people and their families, as well as a history of contact with social services. What gets recorded, how and to what effect is the result of the same system that they describe and influence. Case files are therefore of interest not because of what they record but how they construct subjects and facilitate the management of individuals and populations – in this case young people and their parents. Finally, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 young people, nine parents, one carer and 10 social workers. All of the young people interviewed had been known to social services for a considerable length of time, with some having been on and off different types of supervision requirements for five years or more. The interviews revealed a great deal of ambivalence towards HSRs from all stakeholders, and a lack of clarity about the nature and scope of the intervention. Drawing on post-theories critique on the rationalist, reductionist assumptions of modern discourses that dominate social policy and practice this study concludes that rather than asking whether HSRs are successful or not, we should first consider what HSRs are for. I propose that HSR is a disciplinary technique which aims to facilitate the management of individuals and populations. Social control should not however be understood as exclusive of disciplinary powers but as an inevitable and irreducible characteristic of all social relations. It is important therefore to explore how practice exercises control; how this is contested, resisted and transformed; and to what effect.

87 Abstract This master thesis was focused on Validation method, whose author is an American social worker Naomi Feil, who created this as a help with communication with disoriented elderly people. The aim of the thesis was describe Validation, it's theoretical background which was set by The author herself and find out how is this method used in actual work with the disoriented old people in czech care homes. Thesis was divided in to two parts - theoretical and emipirical. In the first part was mainly concentrated on explaining the method itself. It's principles, reasons for origin, Validation techniques and use of Validation in czech environment. Empirical part was focused on finding out how practical usage of Validation looks like. To find out I used questionnaire that was send to care homes, where the employees finished some Validation training which was also criterion for choosing these respondents. From these results of the research I can say that the theoretical basis created by Naomi Feil is mostly not used in czech care homes. According to the questionnaires most employees of the care homes accepted the principles of Validation mostly it's empatiic communication. As is indicated in discussion, in my opinion it's more important to accept the principles of the method then mastery of the theoretical...

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Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

The aim of this study is to understand from a professional perspective the importance of the biological children’s participation in the family home process and how family home social workers use their room for maneuver to involve the biological children in the family home process. The method used to answer the aim and the research questions was semi-structured interviews with seven women that work as family home social workers and the empirical material was analyzed through a thematic analysis. The theoretical framework we used to analyze the results was Lipsky's theory of Street-level bureaucracy and discretion. The main findings of this study were that family home social workers think that the participation of biological children is important both for the child's own wellbeing, for the whole family's dynamics and for the outcome of a family home placement. The most common methods used by family home social workers to involve biological children are relationship building and different types of conversations depending on the children's age and maturity. The study showsin the family home investigation, there are formalized guidelines that the family home social workers work according to but there are no general guidelines in the work with biological children in the further family home placement. That results in a discretion for the family home social workers. The study shows opportunities for improvement in making the biological children more involved in the family home process and that the biological children's participation is important for the work of family home social workers. Our results both confirm and contrast previous international and national research presented in the study.

The diploma thesis is focused on the ambiguous position of private retirement homes in terms of view of legislative anchoring, public funding, management, operation and quality standards. It also identifies problematic areas of private retirement homes, which is not well described phenomenon in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part deals with the concept of Public Private Partnership. The factual background develops in detail the situation of private retirement homes in the Czech Republic. The aim of this thesis is to find out how the legislative conditions are set to Czech private retirement home's financing, establishing and management. Another aim is to find out the differences between public and private retirement homes and to identify potential problem areas.