This thesis aims to examine the role that the internal politics of the UK and the EU has on their ability to act as leaders in the so-called Brexit negotiations. The study focuses in particular on issues related to the future trade relationship between the two parts. It builds on functionalist and rational institutionalist understandings of international institutions and assumes that the European commission is a supranational institution with an independent ‘actorness’. First the internal politics and the EU and the UK is examined, especially focusing on the level of agreement or disagreement between internal actors. Thereafter, different concepts of leadership developed by Arild Underdal and Oran Young is used to investigate how the level of internal cohesion affects both parts’ abilities to influence the negotiations through leadership. The study finds a high level of unity between the different EU institutions, while it finds a high level of disagreement on several issues within the British government. It is concluded that this influences the parties’ abilities to exercise effective leadership in several ways. As these negotiations at the current stage are on-going, this study does not make conclusions about the actors ability to influence the negotiation outcome. It focuses specifically on the negotiations as they took place within a limited timeframe between the 14th of February and 23rd of April 2018.

The primary aim of the research was to examine the ways in which Psychology Honours students interactionally made sense of their career choices. In addition, the research examined how these students interactionally made sense of psychology as a discipline and field of study, particularly in the context of discussions of career choices. The participants were selected for inclusion into the study (through purposive sampling) if they were currently in their psychology honours year. An interview schedule that contained open-ended questions and prompts was used to guide the focus groups. The findings showed that the participants were contextually creating meanings of career choice and psychology as seen by the acknowledged, additive or at times challenged responses, statements, descriptions etc. in the focus groups. Further research could be performed on students from other disciplines to see if the meanings of ‘psychology’ and ‘career choice’ vary or are similar across disciplines. This would provide the field of psychology with a better understanding of how it is perceived and might provide some constructs that have not been considered yet, with regards to career

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--Western Washington University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-124).

Tactical and incident commanders make decisions in the high-threat law enforcement context of hostage rescue, armed barricaded suspects, and armed suicidal individuals that can result in successful or catastrophic outcomes. This qualitative study offers more evidence—as an integral part of emerging research on education and reaching effective decisions to the current literature—by extending and detailing the decision-making process of commanders that occurs during a high-threat incident. It describes the experience and methods of making decisions in this environment. Furthermore, areas addressed by this research include learning strategies that could better prepare commanders in the processing of information, while optimizing speed and accuracy in decision-making. Particular attention was paid to the role of adaptive expertise in decision-making by understanding how mental models of recurring patterns, necessary for effective situational assessments, are created and subsequently retrieved. The purpose of this study was to explore through interviews, a survey, and focus groups how experienced tactical and incident commanders describe making decisions, and the factors impacting these decisions during events involving hostage rescue, armed barricaded suspects, and armed suicidal individuals. Participants described the necessity of having to adjust their decision-making process frequently in a high-threat situation. This process includes asking strategic questions to obtain actionable intelligence for making sound decisions when this information is not readily provided. Principal factors enabling participants to make sound decisions are good intelligence, the ability to make accurate situational assessments, and having sufficient resources. Additionally, experience as a prior team member and/or team leader, along with previous command mentoring are the key learning strategies that help or hinder participants when making decisions. A key practice recommendation resulting from this study is that command training programs should focus on adaptive decision-making and the critical aspect of determining safety and threat levels through reliable intelligence and good communication. This recommendation can benefit individual commanders, law enforcement agencies, and the communities they serve if improved command decision-making strategies result in fewer lives lost in a high-threatsituation.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of active listening skills on perpetrator response style in crisis negotiations. The extant literature boasts the utility of negotiations in crisis situations for law enforcement that came about in response to cataclysmic events such as the Attica Prison Riots (1971), Munich Massacre (1972), and the Williamsburg incident (1973). Various crisis negotiation models assert the importance of active listening skills in crisis negotiations; given the recent and voluminous media attention on police, this research aimed to provide further support for a cultural shift in police departments around the country to provide their officers with crisis negotiation training. These trainings allow officers to expand their arsenal of tools that decreases their need to rely on a tactical response when verbal de-escalation may be warranted to minimize risk to both officer and subject. The proposed study coded and analyzed audio recordings from the first 20 minutes of 12 simulated negotiations. The author proposed: (1) an increase in the proportion of active listening skills within the first phase of the negotiation would be associated with a decrease in the proportion of negative perpetrator response style in the second phase of the negotiation, (2) an increase in the proportion of active listening skills within the first half of the negotiation would be associated with an increase in the proportion of positive perpetrator response style in the second half of the negotiation, (3) an increase in the proportion of problem-solving utilized during the first phase of the negotiation would be associated with an increase in the proportion of negative perpetrator response style in remainder of the negotiation, and (4) an increase in the proportion of emotional labeling, paraphrasing and summarizing, and open-ended questions utilized during the first half of the negotiation would be associated with an increase in the proportion of positive perpetrator response style in the second half of the negotiation. While no significant results were identified via Pearson’s correlations, scatterplots were constructed for visual inspection of the data, which indicated potential support of hypotheses II and IV when considering the limitations of the study.

This thesis investigates the role of accounting information in the automotive industry restructuring of 2008 and 2009 in Canada. The crisis in the automotive industry led to government-funded restructurings for two of the top manufacturers in North America, effectively adding the government as a third party to the negotiations. Following a series of negotiations that occurred between AutoCo and UnionA, I conduct a case study that examines the individual actors’ use of accounting inscriptions in negotiations, as well as explore the dynamic interaction between accounting and trust at the negotiation table. The use of actor network theory highlights the individual actors, their actor-networks, accounting inscriptions and the continuous translation process inherent in labour-management negotiations. Accounting inscriptions are shown to play a central role in negotiations, particularly as a forum for bringing the actor-networks together. Furthermore, I explicate the notion of tactical trust, as it emphasizes the assessment, monitoring, and adjustment inherent in decisions to trust actors within dynamic business contexts. I also investigate the roles that the Canadian government played throughout the restructuring of the automotive industry. Through an in-depth case study of the restructuring from its antecedents through to outcomes, the research focuses on the roles of the government officials in the negotiations between the company and the unions, and their use of accounting information. The empirics highlight that the government not only acted at a distance but utilized sovereign power and direct intervention to achieve their objectives in the automotive industry restructuring. I find that the accounting served as the flexible substitute for the government’s presence at the negotiations table while they were acting at a distance and is used as an immutable parameter when the government directly intervened. This paper extends the governmentality literature by highlighting the coercive character of government actions, technologies and programs, and the notion of government in action. I consider the implications of these research findings on the labour-management negotiations, accounting, actor network theory and governmentality literature. In conclusion I also highlight various avenues of future research. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2013-10-09 20:46:13.009

Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis is applied to a cross-national data set to test two hypotheses concerning governments' hard-line response against terrorism: do hard-line responses cause more damage vis a vis event outcome and is the hard-line approach a deterrent? Six national factors are included in this analysis: economic development, economic growth rate, democratic development, leftist regime type, military regime type and British colonial legacy. Only the level of economic development, economic growth rate and leftist regime type demonstrated statistically significant relationships with the dependent variable "event frequency." Government response strength demonstrated a strong statistically significant relationship with event outcome, however, its relationship with event frequency was statistically insignificant.

O modelo de competição introduzido no Brasil pós-privatização exigiu a criação da Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (ANATEL) para promover o desenvolvimento das telecomunicações, por meio de infra-estrutura capaz de oferecer à sociedade serviços adequados, diversificados e a preços justos. À ANATEL foram outorgados poderes para a implementação da política de telecomunicações: regulador, com objetivo de editar planos e regulamentos; fiscalizador, com objetivo de coibir práticas abusivas contrárias à legislação e mediador, com objetivo de compor negociações entre os agentes. A dissertação analisou a influência da ANATEL nas negociações na telefonia fixa, tendo como base a elaboração do acordo de interconexão entre a EMBRATEL e a Telefônica, pois, nesse cenário de mudanças, as negociações e conflitos são freqüentes, principalmente quando a questão é a interconexão de redes, pois os interesses econômicos das prestadoras de serviços são divergentes e o Estado cria uma obrigatoriedade de interconexão, tornando complexo o acordo. A ANATEL exigiu que as empresas realizassem a interconexão independente de um contrato, pois para o órgão regulador o interesse público é superior. Assim, o acordo e as questões divergentes estão na ANATEL para decisão por um processo de arbitragem. A celeridade esperada da ANATEL na gestão de conflitos não foi observada na prática, pois o acordo de interconexão está há quase um ano esperando solução. Verifica-se a importância da presença do órgão regulador, pois em razão da complexidade técnica, ele possui ferramentas que obrigam a prestação do serviço, mesmo sem o respaldo contratual. / The competition model introduced in post-privatization Brazil has demanded the creation of ANATEL, which stands for National Telecommunication Agency- (‘Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações’). Such institution is meant to promote the development of telecommunications through infrastructure capable of supplying society with adequate and diversified, fair-priced services. ANATEL has been granted powers for the implementation of the telecommunication policy: regulation powers, aiming at editing plans and regulations; inspection powers, whose objective is to hinder counter-legislation abuse practices; and mediation powers, which aim at composing negotiations among agents. This dissertation has analyzed ANATEL’s influence on the negotiations of ‘settled/fixed’ telephone services, based on the elaboration of the agreement of interconnection between EMBRATEL and Telefônica. In the present scenery of changes, negotiations and conflicts are rather frequent, mainly when the point in question is the interconnection of networks, as not only do telephone companies have divergent economic interests, but the State also makes interconnections mandatory, thus making the agreement rather complex. ANATEL demanded that the companies should consummate the interconnection regardless of a contract, as public interest is the official regulating agency’s first and foremost concern. Therefore, ANATEL is holding the agreement and the divergent issues, waiting for an arbitration process. The celerity expected from ANATEL in conflict management has actually not been noticed, as the agreement of interconnection has remained unsolved for nearly a year. The importance of the presence of the official regulating agency is quite clear, as in the face of technical complexity, such institution possesses the tools which compel the supply of the services, even without the support of a contract.

The European Commission has been negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with Regional Economic Communities of African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States since 2002. The outcomes have been mixed. The negotiations with the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) concluded rather more quickly than was initially envisaged, whereas negotiations with West African Economic Community (ECOWAS) and the remaining ACP regions have been dragging on for several years. This research consequently addresses the key question of what accounts for the variations in the EPA negotiation outcomes, making use of a comparative research approach. It evaluates the explanatory power of three research variables in accounting for the variation in the EPA negotiations outcomes – namely, Best Alternative to the Negotiated Agreement (BATNA); negotiation strategies; and the issues linkage approach – which are deduced from negotiation theory. Principally, the study finds that, the outcomes of the EPA negotiations predominantly depended on the presence or otherwise of a “Best Alternative” to the proposed EPA; that is then complemented by the negotiation strategies pursued by the parties, and the joint application of issues linkage mechanism which facilitated a sense of mutual benefit from the agreements.