This study examines how people construct and negotiate social identity in neighborhood associations. It builds on previous social identity research by examining how identity construction is important in regards to political behavior, but in an unexamined context - that of neighborhood associations. Neighborhood associations are groups that are formally organized and frequently interact with city employees and elected officials to obtain and/or improve city services in that geographic location. This study is informed by interpretive approaches to social science inquiry. My findings are based on three sources: participant observations of neighborhood association meetings in the City of St. Louis, Missouri during 2008-2009; 31 semi-structured interviews with neighborhood association leaders, members, and city employees during the spring and summer of 2009; and document analysis of association materials such as meeting agendas and by-laws. Neighborhood associations can be both a source of empowerment and exclusion. Needless to say, people negotiate multiple social identities based on race, gender, and class. In general, gendered identities were activated far less than racial or nationalistic identities, and when they were activated, it was in the context of a private interview not a public meeting. In the best situations, people were able to form new collective identities and bridge differences across diverse backgrounds

Information security technologists and business scholars are motivated by a desire to understand how and to what extent the application of IT within enterprise systems leads to improved and secured organizational performance. An effective relationship between business and IT professionals is a primary determinant of success in gaining business advantage through the enterprise system. As business innovation has relied increasingly on partnerships between business and IT professional, a different perspective of how IT professionals view their organizational contributions was needed for organizations to remain competitive. Business knowledge is essential if IT professionals are to create linkages with other organizational units and have a wider perspective about business objectives, thus achieving fit between IT and organizational strategies. Organizations have started responding to this challenge by demanding more business acumen in their IT staff. The focus of this study is on the knowledge that is beyond that of independent business and IT only domain knowledge of information security. Therefore, technical areas of knowledge, such as hardware and software, all of which are closely associated with IT skills, are not discussed in this thesis. This is not to declare that such knowledge is not important. Clearly technical knowledge is part of the IT professional's overall information security technology expertise, but this study is about the organization proficiency of business and the IT professional, and is therefore interested in what enables business and IT professionals to apply their business domain and technical knowledge in ways that are beneficial to the organization and to act cooperatively with their customers and business partners. The purpose of this study is to employ the triangulation method to identify the theoretical links and empirically examine the association between business and IT perspective of information security. An important contribution of this study is the identification of business and IT perspectives on information security technology. By establishing the link between business and IT, the study focuses and evaluates Virtual Private Network (VPN) as an information security technology to find out if VPN can secure and gain competitive advantage by partisan business process and organization performance. This study articulates distinctive characteristics of Virtual Private Network and management processes that extend the range of applicability across diverse business segments. It distinguishes between business and IT and explains why the exploitation of a complementary set of related information security entities (such as VPN) across multiple functions create competitive vi advantages even across a diverse set of businesses that have limited opportunity to exploit business process and organization performance. The most important direct predictor of this study is a high level of communication between business and IT. However, one cannot mandate meaningful communication between individuals. IT people have to earn the right to play a meaningful role in management forums. Based on the findings from this study, one important way for an IT person to be heard is for him/her to devote the time necessary to create competitive advantage and develop shared domain knowledge, the most influential construct in the research model. An IT person needs to understand the leverage points of the industry, the history and current issues of the business units, and to learn to apply business oriented objectives in the application of technology to business problems. This change in view would help focus their attention on security technology and ideas that could produce the most benefit and create competitive advantage, rather than those that offer the most technical promise.

Information security technologists and business scholars are motivated by a desire to understand how and to what extent the application of IT within enterprise systems leads to improved and secured organizational performance. An effective relationship between business and IT professionals is a primary determinant of success in gaining business advantage through the enterprise system. As business innovation has relied increasingly on partnerships between business and IT professional, a different perspective of how IT professionals view their organizational contributions was needed for organizations to remain competitive. Business knowledge is essential if IT professionals are to create linkages with other organizational units and have a wider perspective about business objectives, thus achieving fit between IT and organizational strategies. Organizations have started responding to this challenge by demanding more business acumen in their IT staff. The focus of this study is on the knowledge that is beyond that of independent business and IT only domain knowledge of information security. Therefore, technical areas of knowledge, such as hardware and software, all of which are closely associated with IT skills, are not discussed in this thesis. This is not to declare that such knowledge is not important. Clearly technical knowledge is part of the IT professional's overall information security technology expertise, but this study is about the organization proficiency of business and the IT professional, and is therefore interested in what enables business and IT professionals to apply their business domain and technical knowledge in ways that are beneficial to the organization and to act cooperatively with their customers and business partners. The purpose of this study is to employ the triangulation method to identify the theoretical links and empirically examine the association between business and IT perspective of information security. An important contribution of this study is the identification of business and IT perspectives on information security technology. By establishing the link between business and IT, the study focuses and evaluates Virtual Private Network (VPN) as an information security technology to find out if VPN can secure and gain competitive advantage by partisan business process and organization performance. This study articulates distinctive characteristics of Virtual Private Network and management processes that extend the range of applicability across diverse business segments. It distinguishes between business and IT and explains why the exploitation of a complementary set of related information security entities (such as VPN) across multiple functions create competitive vi advantages even across a diverse set of businesses that have limited opportunity to exploit business process and organization performance. The most important direct predictor of this study is a high level of communication between business and IT. However, one cannot mandate meaningful communication between individuals. IT people have to earn the right to play a meaningful role in management forums. Based on the findings from this study, one important way for an IT person to be heard is for him/her to devote the time necessary to create competitive advantage and develop shared domain knowledge, the most influential construct in the research model. An IT person needs to understand the leverage points of the industry, the history and current issues of the business units, and to learn to apply business oriented objectives in the application of technology to business problems. This change in view would help focus their attention on security technology and ideas that could produce the most benefit and create competitive advantage, rather than those that offer the most technical promise.

The purpose of this study is to tell the story of how four peer helpers within the Unisa Peer Help Volunteer Programme managed their portfolio development processes to monitor their growth and development which took place as a result of their involvement in peer helper activities. The epistemological framework of this study is interpretive and involved in-depth interviews with four peer helpers who rendered volunteer services at the University of South Africa and have been developing their career portfolios over a period of time. Hermeneutics was the method used to analyse the data. The stories of the four participants were transcribed and retold by the researcher in the form of themes that emerged. This study contained the stories of how the participants initially struggled to understand the concept and purpose of portfolios; how they took charge of the process; and how their attitudes changed from uncertainty and confusion to viewing the process as worthwhile - thus enabling them to commit themselves, to varying degrees, to the development of their individual portfolios. Recurring themes present in all four stories were described in the researcher's story of the participants' stories. The information generated by this study could serve as guidelines for not only peer helpers interested in developing their own portfolios, but also for project leaders involved in the management of peer helper groups and who plan to implement portfolios in their programmes. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

The purpose of this study is to tell the story of how four peer helpers within the Unisa Peer Help Volunteer Programme managed their portfolio development processes to monitor their growth and development which took place as a result of their involvement in peer helper activities. The epistemological framework of this study is interpretive and involved in-depth interviews with four peer helpers who rendered volunteer services at the University of South Africa and have been developing their career portfolios over a period of time. Hermeneutics was the method used to analyse the data. The stories of the four participants were transcribed and retold by the researcher in the form of themes that emerged. This study contained the stories of how the participants initially struggled to understand the concept and purpose of portfolios; how they took charge of the process; and how their attitudes changed from uncertainty and confusion to viewing the process as worthwhile - thus enabling them to commit themselves, to varying degrees, to the development of their individual portfolios. Recurring themes present in all four stories were described in the researcher's story of the participants' stories. The information generated by this study could serve as guidelines for not only peer helpers interested in developing their own portfolios, but also for project leaders involved in the management of peer helper groups and who plan to implement portfolios in their programmes. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)