Pharmacists rely on pharmacy technicians to assist with accurately dispensing prescriptions and providing information to clients. Texas does not have regulations for the education or training of pharmacy technicians, which may result in mistakes when dispensing prescriptions, causing significant harm to customers. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was assessing formally and informally trained pharmacy technicians' job performance as perceived by licensed pharmacists/managers. Data were collected via face to face interviews with 9 pharmacy managers in Texas to gain insight into their lived experiences of supervising not formally and formally trained technicians. Audio recorded interview data were transcribed and organized using the NVivo software. The job performance theory was used to help understand and interpret the data. Pharmacists/managers indicated that pharmacy technicians who receive formal training, when compared to those who have been informally trained on-the-job, have more knowledge, better job performance, less need for training and supervision, and greater salary and other job related opportunities. All 9 of the respondents indicated that the State of Texas should develop a formal set of professional standards for pharmacy technicians and require a formal certification training program. The potential positive social change of this study is a better understanding of the job training and performance of pharmacy technicians that can improve services to communities.

Promoting informal workplace learning to improve workplace learning and performance within a competitive business environment presents a challenge for customer service training managers within a large corporation. The purpose of the study was to determine which attributes of informal workplace learning experiences contributed to meaningful professional development and improved performance. Constructivism and experiential learning provided the theoretical foundations for this study. Conceptually, learning is mediated by the meaning learners attribute to it. The primary research question concerned how customer service training associates perceived informal workplace learning experiences as having meaningful impact on their overall professional development and work performance. An embedded single case study design was used for the study. Data were collected through the use of semi structured interviews of 6 customer service training associates who were selected through maximum variation sampling. Thematic analysis was applied to transcribed interview data. The following were foundational to improvements in learning and performance: (a) participating in work-based projects, (b) receiving feedback through coaching and peer collaboration, (c) associating learning with achieving desired project and professional development objectives, and (d) structuring work activities and support so as to facilitate learning. The study demonstrated that informal workplace learning is grounded in the purposeful integration of certain essential elements. Study results advance social change by contributing to improved learning and performance thus benefitting individual trainers and the customer service organization.

Bullying and toxic leadership in the U. S. Army disrupt bonding processes between leaders and subordinates, which may jeopardize military operations, threaten resiliency initiatives, inhibit leader development, and stifle innovation. Little research, however, has looked at the role of informal leaders who operate outside the formal power structure in military environments. Using social exchange theory as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore the activities of informal leaders who mediated the normal and disrupted leadership bonding processes in an Illinois Army National Guard Infantry Brigade. The research questions explored the informal leaders' influence and behaviors to gain a greater understanding of the bonding processes. A maximum variation purposeful sampling was used to select 25 informal leaders from 8 company size units in an Illinois Army National Guard Infantry Brigade. Publicly available archival data were also considered. All data were coded inductively and then subjected to Braun and Clark's thematic analysis procedure, revealing the perception that informal leaders improved bonding between soldiers and leaders and reduced stress associated with military service. The implications for positive social change include recommendations to the Illinois National Guard to provide support for using informal leaders as a mechanism to promote more cohesive relationships between leaders and subordinates and to explore the use of informal leadership to reduce stress.

Our understanding of how the world works is shaped through countless interactions with things in it. These interactions are our first exposure to science. Through them, we learn that heavy things are hard to push and books do not fall through tables. Our interactions are also shaped by the rules of the groups to which we belong (e.g., families, religious organizations, athletic teams). These rules lead us to accept that some things cannot or should not be done, limiting our interactions with the world. At the same time, these rules change our appreciation for what we do experience. Prior research has focused largely on the separate influences of either physical interactions or social interactions, leaving (relatively) unexplored their combined effects. In this dissertation, I describe how adults understand science related to their long-term participation in a recreational road bicycling group. The cyclists demonstrated a rich understanding of gearing and air resistance that paralleled, on a practical level, the explanations taught in school. This understanding was shaped by the cyclists’ years of physical experience interpreted in light of their individual goals for participating. For the cyclists in this study, knowing the science helped them be more efficient and faster riders. In the end, this study supports the idea that productive and valuable learning takes place in many settings and that it is important to account for the relationship between the social and physical aspects of learning when designing instructional experiences.

This review of the literature was in investigation of informal measures used to assess syntax in normal-language and language-impaired, school-aged children. From the eighteen studies that were researched in this review of the literature, 86 measures and their variants were reviewed. Data concerning the T-unit, the most widely used measure for determining syntactic maturity was reviewed as well. Any findings uncovered regarding the syntactic skills of normal - language and/or language-impaired, school - aged children were summarized (typically on the basis of ability level, age or grade level, and sex). In addition, the strengths and weaknesses in previous studies of oral syntactic maturity in either normal-language or language - impaired, school- aged children was discussed. This was done by systematically reviewing indicators of study quality.

La presente investigación analiza las diferencias salariales regionales en Ecuador empleando los datos de la Encuesta Nacional de Empleo y Desempleo para 2007 y 2017 a nivel de zonas de planificación. Los objetivos de la presente investigación son: (i) estimar las diferencias salariales regionales aplicando la metodología desarrollada por Fortin et al. (2018), en lo que supone el uso de una nueva aplicación en investigaciones para Ecuador; (ii) analizar las brechas salariales entre regiones distinguiendo entre el sector formal e informal del mercado de trabajo y (iii) estimar los diferenciales salariales según el nivel educativo de la población en función de dos grupos, quienes tienen instrucción universitaria y quienes tienen otros niveles educativos como primaria, secundaria o no tienen ningún nivel educativo. Entre los principales resultados se obtiene que, tanto a nivel del salario promedio como por percentiles, la desigualdad disminuye de 2007 a 2017 en la mayoría de zonas de estudio. Las mayores brechas salariales sobre el promedio nacional se estiman en las zonas 8 y 9, correspondiente a las ciudades de Guayaquil y Quito respectivamente. En general, para los distintos grupos de estudio se destaca que la disparidad salarial se justifica por el efecto composición, específicamente por las características del puesto de la empresa como el tamaño de la empresa, la cualificación del puesto de trabajo y la formalidad del empleo, mientras que las variables como etnia y género explican principalmente las diferencias salariales en el percentil más bajo de la distribución. Por lo que resulta imprescindible la convergencia productiva de los territorios mediante el mejoramiento de las competitividades territoriales, e incentivando el acceso al mercado laboral formal ecuatoriano.

Magister Commercii - MCom / There have been many studies focussing on informal sector in South Africa in the last 25 years. This paper adds to the wealth of research that has been conducted in this field. It examines the linkages between the formal sector and informal sector, and how they interact with each other. The study uses probit models and fixed effects models to investigate how variables such as age, education and skill level affect employability and income in the labour market. This paper uses two data sets: wave 1 to wave 5 panel data of the 2008-2016 National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) to investigate the nature of the formal sector and the informal sector in South Africa. To study the linkages between the firms in the formal and informal sector, it uses the eThekwini Large and Medium Manufacturing Firm Survey dataset collected in 2013/2014.

The increasing frequency of disasters in recent years has made clear the importance of preparing for their devastating impacts. The intersection of immigrant status and older age in immigrant older adults subjects them to a high risk for harm in disasters. Thus, ensuring that this population can effectively prepare for disasters is crucial. However, research that focuses on disaster preparedness among immigrant older adults in a Canadian context is limited. We interviewed informal caregivers of immigrant older adults to explore their experiences regarding the disaster preparedness of their care recipients. We aimed to describe caregivers’ knowledge of disaster risk among immigrant older adults, as well as their experiences and perceptions of barriers and facilitators of preparedness among older immigrants. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with a sample of 10 informal caregivers of older immigrants who reside in Ottawa and Toronto. All interviews were audio-recorded, and interview content was analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Participants were able to identify the additional risks their older immigrant family members experience, and they took on the responsibility for disaster preparedness and response for the care recipients. However, the following barriers to preparedness efforts were identified: The financial costs of preparing, lack of confidence to prepare due to inadequate information about preparedness measures, communication difficulties among family members, and time constraints. Participants’ contingency plans for caregiving for the older immigrants were largely unspoken, and influenced by cultural norms. Lastly, faith-based organizations were seen by participants as potentially having a significant role in their family members’ disaster preparedness and response; participants were largely unaware of any other relevant community-based supports. We anticipate that our results will provide insight into the barriers and protective factors that older immigrants and their caregivers experience in safeguarding against harm in disasters, and we anticipate the recommendations will inform policies and interventions to support them.

No description available.

No description available.