In society today, there is a great focus on sustainability and that companies should contribute to sustainable development. One way to do this is through transparency between the company and its stakeholders regarding how they work on these important issues. This is done through sustainability reports that can be designed in different ways, but this study focuses on those that follow the Global Reporting Initiative, which is the dominant framework globally.   Prior research has shown mixed conclusions regarding GRI and its usefulness. In these, both positive and negative aspects of the framework have been highlighted. This study examines what and how high and low ranked businesses based on SBI report to study the usefulness of GRI. In addition, various theories will be used to examine what may be the reasons for the similarities and differences between the groups. This result is also related to prior research that studied sustainability reporting in connection with the selected theories.   The study was conducted as a method where qualitative data was quantified through a quantitative content analysis. The sustainability reports of 32 companies were reviewed based on their GRI-index and data was then statistically tested using Chi-square-tests and a Fisher's exact test. The study shows that there is no significant difference in what the high and low ranked businesses report. This difference applies to the total number of indicators as well as within the different series, economic, environmental and social. Regarding how the companies report, the study shows that the low ranked businesses are more likely to report indicators for which they do not meet the requirements, this result is also statistically significant. The reasons for the similarities and differences that were identified can be discussed in relations to institutional theory, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory.

Published Article / It is widely assumed that sustainability reporting is a mechanism that companies can use to demonstrate their trustworthiness with regard to development in a sustainable manner. This article uses the Mayer, Davis and Schoorman trust model as basis to discuss how sustainability reporting can enhance trustworthiness in a sustainable development context. The study also uses a survey-questionnaire, sent to South African sustainability reporters, to explore whether they are finding sustainability reporting useful for enhancing companies' trustworthiness among stakeholders in a sustainable development context. Respondents indicate, amongst other things, that sustainability reporting in South Africa has a role to play in enhancing trustworthiness, more so among contractual stakeholders than among community stakeholders. To entrench trust benefits in the long term will however require long term strategies. Such strategies should focus on increasing the engagement of community stakeholders, authentic use of the GRI and implementing effective control systems that prevent the misuse of sustainability reports, while not preventing the formation of real trust.

As a response to the growing public awareness on the importance of organisational contributions to sustainable development, there is an increased incentive for corporations to report on their sustainability activities. In parallel with this has been the development of 'Sustainable HRM' which embraces a growing body of practitioner and academic literature connecting the notions of corporate sustainability to HRM. The aim of this article is to analyse corporate sustainability reporting amongst the world's largest companies and to assess the HRM aspects of sustainability within these reports in comparison to environmental aspects of sustainable management and whether organisational attributes - principally country-of-origin - influences the reporting of such practices. A focus in this article is the extent to which the reporting of various aspects of sustainability may reflect dominant models of corporate governance in the country in which a company is headquartered. The findings suggest, first and against expectations, that the overall disclosure on HRM-related performance is not lower than that on environmental performance. Second, companies report more on their internal workforce compared to their external workforce. Finally, international differences, in particular those between companies headquartered in liberal market economies and coordinated market economies, are not as apparent as expected. (authors' abstract)

The Materials Genome Initiative was announced by the White House in June of 2011, and is a multi-agency initiative which calls the materials community to find ways to discover, develop, manufacture, and deploy advanced materials systems faster and more cost-efficiently. Currently, the amount of time it takes to discover and develop a new material system, optimize its properties, integrate it in to a system, certify that system, and develop the manufacturing capability so that it can be deployed in a commercial component takes at least 20 years. Since this trend holds regardless of the material system in question, the implication is that it is the process by which we as a community move through these seven steps, which causes the lengthy timeline. Historically, the discovery, development, and property optimization of a material system relies heavily on deep scientific knowledge, intuition and trial-and-error physical experimentation. Therefore much of the design and testing of materials in these early stages is currently performed through time-consuming and repetitive experimental and characterization feedback loops. Some of these feedback loops could be eliminated in the property optimization step with improved powerful and accurate computational modeling tools. However, while the ability of computational models to be used in this way is not new, models that have been developed in this space have consistently underperformed. Oftentimes, these models fail because they fail to accurately account for the various physical and chemical mechanisms that are driving the system, or because they fail to account for all of the variables which must be included. Here we propose a standard method of communication for these relationships in the form a process-structure-property-performance map, which leverages the known knowledge database of the material system to clearly and visually communicate the relevant variables and their various relationships in a defined materials design space. Such a map is developed here for high-strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys, which offer a good example of a material system which could benefit from such a standard. This class of alloys, which are typically utilized in aircraft components, have been incorporated in commercial components for nearly 75 years, and due to its long history is a well characterized and well developed system that is highly suited to this kind of examination. In Part I of this work, we develop this standard by first examining the known knowledge database in this system to deduce what the important process, microstructure, and mechanical property variables are that are of interest. Once these variables and the relationships between them are identified, they are organized into a PSPP map according to a proposed set of steps, and can act as a visual standard that can clearly communicate critical information about the mechanisms of the system. For example, if a model developed within this system does not include a variable or a mechanism depicted within the map, it can be used to communicate the ways in which the model will be constrained. Similarly, when experimental data is collected within this space the map can be used to clearly communicate which variables in the space were held constant, which variables were tracked and accurately measured, and if any variables were unaccounted for. This information can help to communicate what situations the data can be used in, and how the space that the experimental data can be used in is constrained. In Part II of this work, we vary multiple parameters within the high-strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu system defined in Part I, and attempted to track and measure as many of the variables within the space as possible using commonly available testing and characterization methods. In tackling such a large project in the complicated materials system of high-strength wrought Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys, we are able to understand which current testing and characterization methods are well suited to tracking these variables when the number of test specimens becomes quite large and when variability among those specimens is involved. We are also able to identify opportunities for future work in this area, which could be focused on improving our ability to implement projects of the scope that is required here. In addition to evaluating the feasibility of the various measurement and characterization methods, the raw data and the analyzed results for this work are cataloged in an associated data repository and have been made available for use in future work in this and other areas.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of collaboration among members of a first grade team as they participated in a state mandated reading initiative. The second purpose was to examine how top-down mandates of state reading initiatives and collaboration among team members translated into “secret stories” of classroom instruction for the three focus teachers. The study also considered my role as the campus reading coach, as I attempted to facilitate the translation of the reading initiative to meet the diverse needs of the team members, while navigating issues of power among the campus administration and the first grade team. Qualitative research methods were used to document and describe (a) the interactions and collaboration of the first grade team during grade level reading meetings; (b) the formation of micro-groups due to power issues; (c) literacy practices of the three focus teachers and; (d) the secret stories of members of the first grade team as they navigated the troubled landscape of the second year of the reading initiative. The first grade meetings were observed and documented for five months, as teachers completed the reading initiative modules and attempted to translate those practices in order to complement their existing classroom practices. Each of the three focus first grade teachers was interviewed and recorded during classroom instruction. Interviews with students were also conducted in order to gain the perspective of literacy practices from a child’s point of view. Data for the study included field notes from observations, student and teacher interviews, digital images of student work and classroom texts, and digital video and audio recordings of interviews and classroom instruction. The findings of the study indicate that teachers translated staff development practices in accordance with their existing beliefs and tended to gravitate toward and collaborate with those who shared common pedagogical beliefs. The role of the reading coach was best served when the coaching protocols were transparent to all team members. The study revealed the inevitability of conflict in an atmosphere of collaboration as well as the notion that teachers are the true curriculum makers regardless of the initiative. / text

<p>Globaliseringen har bidragit till nya möjligheter men också hot för företag. Västvärldens företag kan lägga produktionen i delar av världen där kostnaden för att tillverka en vara är lägre än i hemlandet. I dessa leverantörsled kan missförhållanden uppstå såsom kränkningar av mänskliga rättigheter. Intressenter av olika slag fordrar mer transparens av företagen, det vill säga de kräver information utöver den finansiella i företagens rapporter.</p><p>Hållbarhetsredovisning är en form av redovisning som har blivit allt vanligare och anses generellt innehålla information om företagets ekonomiska, miljömässiga och sociala prestanda. I jämförelse med den finansiella redovisningen existerar det ännu inga standarder för denna form av rapportering. Global Reporting Initiative är en internationellt erkänd organisation som arbetar för att utforma riktlinjer för hållbarhetsrapportering, vilka är frivilliga att upprätta. Hållbarhetsredovisningen visar på att redovisningen går mot en ny era där det inte endast räcker med finansiell redovisning utan företagen bör ta ett större ansvar gentemot samhället och miljön.</p><p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur företag mäter och redovisar mänskliga rättigheter. En kvalitativ metod har använts för att genomföra studien, där fem företags hållbarhetsredovisningar har undersökts. Teorin som ligger till grund för undersökningen är de informationskvalitativa egenskaperna, vilka genomsyrar den finansiella redovisningen.</p><p>Slutsatserna visar att fallföretagen inte mäter mänskliga rättigheter på arbetsplatsen i kvantitativa termer. Däremot redovisar de mänskliga rättigheter i form av kvalitativ information. Av studien framkom även att informationen i de undersökta hållbarhetsredovisningarna är begriplig, att uppförandekoder är en del av relevansen, att granskningen ökar tillförlitligheten och att jämförbarheten blir relativt god tack vare GRI: s riktlinjer och dess innehållsförteckning.</p>

This study examined the perceptions of stakeholders in the Georgia Mountains Manufacturing (GMM) region in terms of how the education providers, high schools, and technical colleges worked together to address pathways, skills-gap training, and increase human capital for the benefit of both industry and the communities in the region. The GMM initiative was funded in 2010 with a two-year grant through the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development (GOWD) under former Governor Sonny Purdue. The purpose was to address graduation rates, employment readiness, and specific training needs of manufacturing industries in the region. That initiative was designed to create a Georgia Work Ready Region that provided targeted training for advanced manufacturing jobs within one state sector. This dissertation research examined the public-private partnerships to provide a better understanding of the education and economic development factors in the region. The researcher used semi-structured interviews to examine stakeholder perceptions of the relationships found between business and industry, government and local education providers in the six-county area. Twelve members participated in semi-structured interviews about the delivery of career and technical education (CTE) programs in the designated work-ready region. The researcher identified the employability traits that educators and employers desire for success in middle-skill manufacturing jobs. Although education and economic development partnerships were stimulated by the demonstration project they could not sustain long term viability in the region. Additionally, the CTE delivery system lacked the flexibility to design new school-to-work transitions for the sector.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva olika arbetssätt som lärare använder i sin matematikundervisning, och vilka faktorer som vissa lärare anser styr vilka arbetssätt de väljer att arbeta med, samt att visa på hur vissa lärare anser att de har ändrat sin undervisning sedan de deltagit i Matematiksatsningen, som är en satsning från regeringen att förbättra matematikundervisningen, eller under sin tid som lärare. I den teoretiska bakgrunden beskrivs ramfaktorteorin, vilket är yttre faktorer som kan påverka skolan som organisation, exempelvis i form av tidsfördelning, klasstorlek och andra ekonomiska resurser. Jag beskriver också den sociokulturella teorin och hur Piaget och Vygotskij beskriver barns olika intelligensnivåer. Undersökningens datainsamling skedde i form av kvalitativ halvstrukturerad intervju, där jag utgick från en intervjuguide med frågor för att ta reda på vilka arbetssätt dessa lärare säger sig arbeta med och vilka faktorer de anser påverkar deras val av arbetssätt. Samt hur de anser att Matematiklyftet har påverkat deras sätt att undervisa och hur de anser att de har ändrat sin undervisning under tiden som lärare. Resultatet av intervjuerna kan kort sammanfattas att de intervjuade lärarna arbetar med många arbetssätt men i olika utsträckning, och att faktorer som påverkar valet av arbetssätt också ser olika ut, i stora drag nämner de faktorer som gruppstorlek, gruppsammansättning, miljö och material. De intervjuade lärarna beskriver också att de under sin tid som lärare och framförallt efter Matematiklyftet har dragit ner på drillövningar och istället jobbar mer med problemlösninguppgifter. / The purpose of this study is to describe the different working methods that teachers use in their teaching of mathematics, and the factors that some teachers believe effect the choice of their working methods.  The interviewed teachers also describe how they think that they have changed their teaching since they participated in Math Initiative, which is an effort to improve mathematics education from the government, or their time as teachers.   In the theoretical background I describe ramfaktorteorin, which are external factors that can affect the school as an organization, such as scheduling, class size and other economic resources.  I also describe the socio-cultural theory and how Piaget and Vygotskij describes children's different levels of intelligence.   I collected data for my thesis in the form of qualitative semi-structured interview, which was based on an interview guide. With these questions I wanted to find out what different work methods these teachers say they use in their teaching in mathematics. What factors do they believe affect their choice of working methods? And how they think that Mathematics Initiative has affected their way of teaching and how they believe that they have changed their teaching during their time as a teacher. The result of the interviews can be summarized that the interviewed teachers work with many different working methods in very varying degrees, and the factors that affect the choice of working methods also varying, they mention factors  group size, group composition, environment and materials. The interviewed teachers also describes that during their time as a teacher and especially after the Mathematics Initiative they have drawn down on drill exercises and instead work more with problem-solving tasks.