The main aim of the study is to compare the extent to which the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence of baby boomers, generation X, Y and Z employees of Denel Dynamics is being satisfied and how this influences motivational strategies. The issue of generation is becoming more important due to different ways and methods required to manage different generations. A quantitative study was done by means of a structured questionnaire which was used in to determine the motivational preferences of the participants. This questionnaire was developed by Van den Broeck, Vansteenkiste, De Witte, Soenens and Lens (2010) and is based on the self-determination theory developed by Deci and Ryan. Results indicate that baby boomers have a stronger need for autonomy as compared to the other generations. Similar needs for relatedness were shown by all the generations. In view of the findings, recommendations are made to management to optimize motivational strategies and these recommendations show how each generational needs relating to self-determination theory should be addressed. / MBA (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Vid rehabilitering efter en idrottsskada kan man se dålig följsamhet av rehabiliteringsträningen och en av de främsta orsakerna som påverkar hur rehabiliteringen efterföljs och utgången av den är idrottarens motivation. Här kan man se hur det framförallt är en autonom motivation som resulterar i att rehabiliteringsträningen utförs. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka upplevda motivationsfaktorer hos damfotbollsspelare i samband med rehabilitering efter en idrottsskada och i vilken utsträckning som dessa motivationsfaktorer sågs som autonoma. Metod: Kvalitativa intervjuer utifrån en semi-strukturerad intervjuguide med damfotbollsspelare som genomgår en rehabilitering efter en idrottsskada analyserade med innehållsanalys och utifrån självbestämmande teorin. Resultat: Motivationsfaktorerna som upplevdes var motiven till varför de utförde rehabiliteringsträningen, sina målsättningar, ett socialt stöd samt av en extern och intern press. Den upplevda autonomin varierade något men överlag var det en yttre motivation som drev dem varpå beteendet därmed inte var helt självbestämt. Resultat är tänkt att ge en ökad förståelse för damfotbollsspelarnas motivation i samband med deras rehabilitering så att sjukgymnaster, tränare m.fl. som är en del i rehabiliteringsprocessen kan bidra till att öka den autonoma motivationen och på så sätt förbättra följsamheten och utgången av rehabiliteringen. / When rehabilitating after a sports injury poor adherence of the rehabilitation program can be seen and one of the main causes that affects if the rehabilitation is followed and the outcome of it is the athlete’s motivation. Here you can see how it is primarily an autonomous motivation that results in a rehabilitation training that is performed. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the perceived motivations of female football players during rehabilitation after a sports injury and the extent to which these motivators were seen as autonomous. Method: Qualitative interviews based on a semi-structured interview guide with female football players undergoing rehabilitation after a sports injury analyzed with content analysis and the basis of the self-determination theory. Results: The players were motivated by the reasons to why they performed the rehabilitation, their goals, social support and an external and internal pressure. The perceived autonomy varied somewhat but overall it was an external motivation that drove them whereupon behavior therefore was not entirely self-determined. Results are supposed to provide a better understanding of women's football players' motivation in relation to their rehabilitation so physical therapists, coaches, etc. which is part of the rehabilitation process can contribute to increasing the autonomous motivation and thus improve compliance and outcome of rehabilitation.

The aim of the study was to conceptualise psychological empowerment as perceived in a South African context in terms of the dimensions and contributing factors. The study was conducted by means of quantitative and qualitative methods. The sample included employees from different geographic areas, genders, races, level of education and positions in organisations in different sectors. Relationships between demographic variables and psychological empowerment were determined. To determine to what extent South Africans are psychologically empowered, according to Spreitzer’s (1995) model, means and standard deviations were calculated for the four dimensions (meaning, competence, self-determination and impact) and overall psychological empowerment (PE) and a percentile table was utilised to establish a norm and compare it with a norm established in previous research. Management practices were found to be significantly related to PE. However, when regression analysis was done, only the practices, motivation, delegation and job and role clarity significantly predicted PE. Perceptions of empowerment were investigated and it appeared that economic empowerment is emphasised in the media, while the majority of interview respondents seemed to have a balanced or positive view of empowerment as enabling. The psychological experiences of employees were explored and dimensions of psychological empowerment that are similar to what was found by previous research emerged. Some characteristics were found to be unique given the present context. Dimensions and characteristics that emerged from the study were resilience, sense of competence, sense of achievement, sense of control, sense of meaning, making a difference and empowerment of others. The theoretical frameworks proposed by Menon (2001) and Zimmerman (1995) were investigated, which confirmed the importance of a goal orientation and pro-active behaviour in psychological empowerment. These theories were evaluated and compared to cognitive theories as suitable frameworks for the study of psychological empowerment. Contributing factors that emerged from the qualitative study most prominently were opportunity and recognition. Locus of control emerged as a possible intrapersonal factor and it was explored further as a contributing factor. Together with the significant factors from the quantitative survey, these factors were employed to recommend a strategy for the development of psychological empowerment with the dimensions of empowerment as outcomes. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Personal assistance from a welfare perspective, offering a variety of reasons is perceived as a different design assistance than is usually there in the public social assistance depending on the strong foundations of the handicap principle autonomy and influence is in terms of how, what and when the operation is performed. The aim of our study was to highlight the handicap principle influence and autonomy in the operation of personal assistance. It is intended both to illustrate the legislature's intentions and ideologues expectations and also to examine a number of managers and personal assistants experiences of the conditions that exist for realize these principles. In order to answer our purpose and our issues, we have chosen a qualitative approach. We have first conducted a literature review and secondly implemented six interviews with personal assistants and managers. As theoretical analysis concepts are used formulations in the process and legislation as well as previous research on the handicap principle influence and self-determination and also Hasenfelds theory of human service organizations. We chose an integrated performance analysis and reporting of our study materials. The results showed that the proportion of the disability, relationships and the organization is of importance for the realization of the handicap principle influence and autonomy. This indicates an intent which is diverse and complex since there are several aspects to consider in organizations where people are the raw material.

Through a qualitative investigation, this study explored what motivated Indian faculty to seek academic positions at universities in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. instead of returning to India after completing their doctorates in one of these countries. Twenty-four in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted over a two-year period with STEM Indian faculty who received their undergraduate degrees in India but their doctorates abroad and who were currently teaching at universities in one of the three aforementioned countries. While there have been several studies investigating trends in international student mobility, few studies have investigated mobility trends amongst faculty, especially those faculty who leave developing nations, such as India, for jobs in first world countries. Theories on globalization, internationalization and brain drain/migration studies guided this study and several theoretical lenses, such as Self Determination Theory, Transnationalism and Social Network Theory, were used to analyze the data. While push-pull literature argues that individuals might be pushed from their home countries because of poor salaries, lacking infrastructure, and lack of access to resources, this study revealed that it was poor communication on behalf of the Indian universities, departmental politics and rigid academic systems that demotivated these participants from returning. This study provides a framework for future research on the complicated process involved in faculty decision-making with regards to career trajectory and possibly how to approach future studies on the complicated job process for international faculty seeking employment outside their native countries.

Sammanfattning Ideella ledare är en stor del av idrotten i Sverige och dessa ledare är i sin tur väldigt viktiga för idrottsrörelsen då de kan anses vara de största bidragsgivarna idrottsrörelsen har. Ett ideellt engagemang är något man gör på sin fritid och är således oavlönat. Undersökningen riktar sig mot mindre föreningar och i synnerhet cykelföreningar. I mindre föreningar tenderar det ofta att vara samma personer som är aktivitets- och organisationsledare vilket skiljer sig ifrån större föreningar där man ofta är det ena eller det andra. Syftet med studien är att undersöka ideella ledare i mindre cykelföreningar. Detta för att förstå hur man ska behålla dessa ledare med en god motivation då de även ofta sitter på flera poster när det gäller mindre föreningar. För att svara på syftet och frågeställningarna så har jag använt mig av motivationsteorin Self-Determination Theory. Detta är en kvalitativ undersökning som omfattar sex respondentintervjuer inom mindre cykelföreningar. Jag har använt mig av halvstrukturerade intervjuer och därefter gjort en kvalitativ innehållsanalys för att tolka data. Huvudresultatet visar på att ideella ledare i föreningarna beskriver en inre motivation och att man tenderar att bemöta deltagarna med en öppenhet. I diskussionen visar jag studiens resultat med tidigare forskning och teorier. Resultaten visar även konkreta tips för att stärka den inre motivationen hos ideella ledare vilket kan vara till nytta för ideella föreningar och organisationer. / Abstract Sports in Sweden has its foundation among voluntary coaches. Those coaches are very important for Swedish sports as they are often seen to be very important to the sport. A voluntary engagement is something done in your spare time and it is unpaid. This study is aimed at smaller sports clubs, especially in the sport of cycling. Often it is the same person that is a coach for training and also are involved in organization, this differs from larger sport clubs. The aim of this study is to examine voluntary coaches in smaller cycling clubs. Understanding how to keep these coaches with great motivation is important also in other places within the organization because of the smaller club. To do this I have used a motivational theory named Self-Determination Theory. In this study I have used qualitative approach as well as I have done six interviews among coaches in cycle clubs. I have used semi-structured interview method and then I have analyzed my data with a qualitative content analysis. The main finding of this study shows that voluntary coaches often are inspired by an intrinsic motivation, and that the coaches often meet their followers with openness. In the discussion, the results of this study get related to earlier research and theories. There I also show a concrete tip for how to strengthen intrinsic motivation in voluntary coaches. This can be useful by voluntary clubs and organizations.

Student engagement in academic work is critical for learning and scholastic achievement. Fortunately, an abundance of empirical evidence and engagement theories recommend what educational contexts are most likely to engage students in learning. Yet the epidemic of adolescent disengagement in schools suggests there is a gap, even a chasm, between student engagement research and practice. This study addresses this critical void in the literature; to understand how education theory can inform practice to improve the quality of student engagement in learning. I approached my research question, “How do secondary social studies teachers promote and sustain student engagement in academic work?” through the lens of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002). Self-determination theory suggests that teachers’ support of students’ psychological needs for autonomy (e.g. by minimizing coercion, maximizing student voices and choices, providing meaningful rationales for learning), competence (e.g. by providing challenging work along with structures and feedback to promote self-efficacy), and relatedness (e.g. by developing warm and caring relationships in the classroom) facilitates and promotes student engagement. Using a multiple case study design, rich and varied data collection processes, and directed qualitative content analysis, I explored how social studies teachers may support (or thwart) their students’ needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. The students in this study confirmed their needs for autonomy, to engage in “real discussions” with their peers and make decisions about important problems. They shared that they engage in learning when activities are meaningful, real world and worth their effort. I found that social studies teachers support autonomy by developing students’ emotional, personal, social, conceptual and authentic connections to the content. In addition, I confirmed that warm and trusting classroom relationships, coupled with challenging, organized and structured learning experiences that promote student efficacy, support students’ needs for relatedness and competency in the classroom. Accordingly, engaging students in academic work necessitates that teachers meet all three of these basic needs. By exploring engagement through the experiences of teachers and students in real classroom settings, I provide social studies educators with a rich and user-friendly understanding of how student engagement can be developed and sustained.

Les étudiants de première année de licence de l’Université Catholique de Lille (UCL) constituent une population à part. D’une part, ils sont inscrits dans l’enseignement supérieur privé associatif, qui constitue une part minoritaire, mais croissante du paysage de l’enseignement supérieur français. D’autre part, leurs caractéristiques socio-économiques et leurs antécédents scolaires ne semblent pas suffisants pour expliquer leur taux de réussite plus élevé que l’ensemble des étudiants de première année de licence. Or, dans les pays occidentaux, les taux d’échecs observés en première année d’université ont généré une large littérature scientifique cherchant à mieux comprendre quelles caractéristiques étaient en mesure d’expliquer l’échec ou la réussite étudiante. Parmi les pistes proposées, l’étude des caractéristiques motivationnelles semble prometteuse. Nous nous sommes donc demandé quelles étaient les caractéristiques motivationnelles, que nous avons appelées profils, des étudiants de première année de licence de l’UCL. Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons essayé de savoir si les activités pédagogiques proposées habituellement en première année pouvaient se révéler un élément déterminant au niveau de la motivation. Le contexte de l’UCL, misant fortement sur l’innovation pédagogique pour l’avenir, rend cet éclairage particulièrement intéressant pour les responsables pédagogiques et les enseignants. Mais la particularité du système d’accès au supérieur et la spécificité de l’enseignement supérieur privé associatif nous ont également amené à questionner la motivation à effectuer des études de ces étudiants. En effet, il est difficile de s’imaginer mesurer la motivation dans une activité pédagogique sans tenir compte des motivations à s’engager dans les études de manière générale. Nous nous sommes appuyés sur un cadre de référence original empruntant à la fois à la théorie de l’autodétermination (Deci et Ryan, 1985) et de la dynamique motivationnelle au sein d’une activité pédagogique (Viau, 2009). Si l’objectif général est d’établir les profils motivationnels des étudiants de première année de licence de l’UCL, nous nous sommes demandé quelles caractéristiques personnelles (âge, sexe, origine sociale, antécédents scolaires, discipline, type d’établissement, choix et type de sélection) significatives influencent les profils motivationnels. Les résultats de l’étude portant sur 457 étudiants montrent une motivation très élevée envers les études, soutenue par des motifs à la fois intrinsèques et extrinsèques, pourtant opposés selon la théorie de l’autodétermination. Les étudiants montrent une motivation élevée envers les travaux dirigés qui allient théorie et pratique mais aussi envers les activités pédagogiques avec lesquelles ils sont familiers. Les étudiants de faculté sont motivés envers les cours magistraux et moins envers les projets, ce qui est l’inverse des étudiants en école. Notons que le résultat le plus original provient de l’étude des caractéristiques faisant varier les profils. En effet, aucune des caractéristiques personnelles étudiées ne fait varier les profils à l’exception des disciplines et du type d’établissement (école ou faculté) où sont observées des variations statistiques. En outre, au sein d’une même discipline, les différences existent en fonction du type d’établissement. Autrement dit, des facteurs contextuels propres aux établissements ou à la culture disciplinaire sont à l’origine des différents profils motivationnels. Ces conclusions renforcent le rôle de l’institution et des facteurs environnementaux propres aux établissements dans les niveaux de motivation des étudiants. Notre recherche donne également des données importantes aux acteurs de terrain en contact direct avec les étudiants.

<p>Understanding transcriptional regulation in development and disease is one of the central questions in modern biology. The current working model is that Transcription Factors (TFs) combinatorially bind to specific regions of the genome and drive the expression of groups of genes in a cell-type specific fashion. In organisms with large genomes, particularly mammals, TFs bind to enhancer regions that are often several kilobases away from the genes they regulate, which makes identifying the regulators of gene expression difficult. In order to overcome these obstacles and uncover transcriptional regulatory networks, we used an approach combining expression profiling and genome-wide identification of enhancers followed by motif analysis. Further, we applied these approaches to uncover the TFs important in mammalian sex determination.</p><p>Using expression data from a panel of 19 human cell lines we identified genes showing patterns of cell-type specific up-regulation, down-regulation and constitutive expression. We then utilized matched DNase-seq data to assign DNase Hypersensitivity Sites (DHSs) to each gene based on proximity. These DHSs were scanned for matches to motifs and compiled to generate scores reflecting the presence of TF binding sites (TFBSs) in each gene's putative regulatory regions. We used a sparse logistic regression classifier to classify differentially regulated groups of genes. Comparing our approach to proximal promoter regions, we discovered that using sequence features in regions of open chromatin provided significant performance improvement. Crucially, we discovered both known and novel regulators of gene expression in different cell types. For some of these TFs, we found cell-type specific footprints indicating direct binding to their cognate motifs.</p><p>The mammalian gonad is an excellent system to study cell fate determination processes and the dynamic regulation orchestrated by TFs in development. At embryonic day (E) 10.5, the bipotential gonad initiates either testis development in XY embryos, or ovarian development in XX embryos. Genetic studies over the last 3 decades have revealed about 30 genes important in this process, but there are still significant gaps in our understanding. Specifically, we do not know the network of TFs and their specific combinations that cause the rapid changes in gene expression observed during gonadal fate commitment. Further, more than half the cases of human sex reversal are as yet unexplained. </p><p>To apply the methods we developed to identify regulators of gene expression to the gonad, we took two approaches. First, we carried out a careful dissection of the transcriptional dynamics during gonad differentiation in the critical window between E11.0 and E12.0. We profiled the transcriptome at 6 equally spaced time points and developed a Hidden Markov Model to reveal the cascades of transcription that drive the differentiation of the gonad. Further, we discovered that while the ovary maintains its transcriptional state at this early stage, concurrent up- and down-regulation of hundreds of genes are orchestrated by the testis pathway. Further, we compared two different strains of mice with differential susceptibility to XY male-to-female sex reversal. This analysis revealed that in the C57BL/6J strain, the male pathway is delayed by ~5 hours, likely explaining the increased susceptibility to sex reversal in this strain. Finally, we validated the function of Lmo4, a transcriptional co-factor up-regulated in XY gonads at E11.6 in both strains. RNAi mediated knockdown of Lmo4 in primary gonadal cells led to the down-regulation of male pathway genes including key regulators such as Sox9 and Fgf9. </p><p>To find the enhancers in the XY gonad, we conducted DNase-seq in E13.5 XY supporting cells. In addition, we conducted ChIP-seq for H3K27ac, a mark correlated with active enhancer activity. Further, we conducted motif analysis to reveal novel regulators of sex determination. Our work is an important step towards combining expression and chromatin profiling data to assemble transcriptional networks and is applicable to several systems.</p> / Dissertation

Engagement is an increasingly important construct in organizational and educational settings. Research indicates that engagement is positively related to satisfaction, commitment, and performance in the workplace. This study investigated the relationship of Total Engagement to complete a thesis with Self-Determination Theory individual motivational constructs, the personality constructs of Psychological Capital and Core Self-Evaluations, and the experiential construct of Flow Propensity. The results indicated significant relationships between all constructs and engagement. Further, Psychological Capital and Flow Propensity explained 55% of the variance in Total Engagement to complete a thesis.