<p>This case study aims to find out what characterizes the Brazilian company Semco and the Swedish company Freys hotels as private owned democratic companies, and whether the mechanisms used to apply and carry on the democratic process are sufficient or not to truly make the workplaces democratic. The way this study is conducted, is by analyzing the definition of workplace democracy and its managerial approaches. To be able to map and study the democratic process in the companies, the authors chose to analyze the parts of the organization that sustain democracy. These parts are structure, information/communication process, individuals and decision-making.</p><p>The theories applied, are theoretical thoughts and definitions of the managerial approaches (empowerment and participation) used to introduce democracy at the workplace. In addition a political framework for analyzing democracy is used. Five previous studies were also highlighted in the theory chapter, in order to reinforce the authors’ choice of theories and give a broaden understanding of the subject studied in this essay. For analysis, seven hypotheses characterizing a democratic company and the use of workplace democracy were tested. The analysis was carried out using collected primary and secondary data from books, articles, interviews and inquiries with employees from Semco and Freys Hotels. Another interview was conducted with Professor Carl Von Otter at the National Institute for Working Life, who explained the meaning of a democratic corporation. </p><p>The results show that the hypotheses can be used to describe workplace democracy. However, the managerial approaches are not sufficient to make a company democratic since</p><p>they can be used in order to restrain employee participation. Participation and involvement should be the basic idea that comes with employment. Another conclusion from the study is that the application and success of workplace democracy depends on the national context. </p>

This research study was an examination of the relationship between mother nurturance and involvement and the Christian formation of adolescents. Mother involvement was measured according to the adolescent's perception in twenty domains of motherhood. Eight domains of Christian formation were evaluated using the Spiritual Formation Inventory (SFI) developed by Brad Waggoner. The literature review includes a biblical theological foundation for motherhood, mother nurturance and involvement literature, and an examination of adolescence. The chasm between the sociological and biblical theological fields of research was bridged through the presentation of mutual perspectives on adolescent development. The research produced several important results. First, the results suggest that mother nurturance was significantly correlated with all SFI domains/subscales except with the Building Relationship domain and the overall SFI score. Second, the results suggest that higher perceived mother involvement could lead to significant increases in SFI subscales and overall SFI scores. Third, the results suggest that desired mother involvement was not significantly related with SFI subscales/domains and the overall SFI. Fourth, the results imply that males have, on average, higher overall SFI scores than females. Fifth, with age, gradual decreases in the Seeking God, Building Relationship, and Doctrine domains/subscales scores were observed as age increases. Similar observations were found for the overall SFI score. This appears to consistently be a direct consequence of age. The effect of type of adolescence was also observed to be significant for such domains (that is, early adolescents had higher scores in these domains than late adolescents). Finally, the qualitative interviews suggested five common themes from the respondents' answers: (1) "She was there for me when I needed her," (2) "She helped shape my character," (3) "She taught me how to live," (4) "She helped shape my faith," and (5) "She was supportive of me." Though answers varied, the three central themes were presence, support, and teaching.

Temos aktualumas. Mokykla yra šiuolaikinė ugdymo institucija, kurioje dirbantys pedagogai rūpinasi ne tik žinių perteikimu, bet ir vaikų ugdymu, visuotinai pripažintų vertybių internalizacija, todėl kultūrinis mokyklos gyvenimas, mokinius supanti aplinka yra tinkamiausia terpė vertybių sklaidai. Paauglystės amžius yra kritinis amžius žmogaus gyvenime. Tai – sudėtingas amžiaus tarpsnis, kupinas prieštaravimų ir savo asmenybės suvokimo pastangų, todėl kaip tik šis laikotarpis ypač svarbus mokinių dvasiniam bei meninių ir kultūrinių vertybių ugdymui. Meninio ugdymo, popamokinės veiklos svarba analizuota remiantis A.Girdzijausko, A. Gaižučio, G.Kvieskienės, E.Martišauskienės ir kt. autorių mintimis ir tyrimais bei metodine literatūra, reglamentuojančia ugdymą bendrojo lavinimo mokykloje. Pedagoginės ir psichologinės literatūros bei mokyklos praktinės veiklos pagrindu atliktas tyrimas, siekiant nustatyti paauglių įtraukimo į mokyklos kultūrinį gyvenimą motyvus ir individualizavimo ypatumus. Tyrimo problema – kaip įtraukti paauglius į mokyklos kultūrinį gyvenimą, sudominant siūlomos veiklos įvairove ir kad šis įsitraukimas atitiktų paauglių poreikius, būtų motyvuotas, nepažeistų orumo ir tam tikro savarankiškumo teisės. Tyrimo objektas – 11-14 metų paauglių aktyvus įsitraukimas į mokyklos kultūrinį gyvenimą, siūlant įvairias veiklos formas, atitinkančias jų poreikius bei interesus. Tyrimo tikslas – išsiaiškinti mokykloje siūlomos veiklos formas, atitinkančias 11-14 metų paauglių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Relevance. School is a modern education institution whose staff cares not only about imparting knowledge but about children education and internalization of widespread and world – accepted worths as well. That is why cultural life of school and children environment is the best place to propagate values. Teens period is critical very much in a human life. It is a very difficult period which has a lot of contradictions and attempts of personality perception. This period is very important to develop artistic and cultural values. Artistic training and after – school activity importance analysis are based on A.Girdzijauskas, A.Gaižutis, G.Kvieskienė, E.Martišauskienė and the other authors ideas, research works and methodical literature. In order to identify reasons of teenagers involvement into school cultural life and its individualization peculiarity, it has been done a research based on pedagogical and psychological literature. Research object. 11 – 14 years old teenagers involvement into school cultural life with the variety of suggested activity which corresponds their interests and requirements. Purpose. To find out all the activities for 11 – 14 years old teenagers which are suggested at school and to clear up what stimulates the involvement into school cultural life. Goals. 1. To analyse dramatic, pedagogical, psychological literature. 2. To identify factors which stimulate 11 – 14 years old teenagers to involve into school cultural life. 3. To identify the most... [to full text]

The health of the individual affects all family members, and families influence the process and outcome of healthcare. Nurses attitudes about the importance of involving the patients families in nursing care, greatly influences the quality of the meeting between the family and the nurse. Nurses working inTanzania feel they can not provide adequate healthcare due to heavy work load and limited resources. Tanzanian nurses and patients are highly dependent on the help of the patients' families. The aim of the study was to investigate Tanzanian nurses' attitudes towards involvement of patients' families in nursing care. In this quantitative, descriptive study, a questionnaire called "Families'importance in NursingCare-Nurses'Attitudes" (FINC-NA) was handed out to registered nurses working at a regional hospital inTanzania in 2009. The results were analysed and presented by descriptive statistics such as charts, tables and central values. The 47 nurses who answered the questionnaire had in general supportive attitudes towards the involvement of the patients' family in nursing care. One fifth of the nurses however viewed the patients' families as a burden. One third of the nurses feel that the presence of the patients' families holds them back in their work. Nurses above 40 years of age and nurses with no experience of a familymember being seriously ill had less supportive attitudes towards patients family involvement compared to other subgroups in this study. The nurses with least years of nursing experience had the most supportive attitudes of all the subgroups. Besides nurses own experience of an ill familymember, this study suggests that attitudes are affected by culture, working environment and education.

This thesis focuses on identifying hindrances of achieving a sustainable tourism development on a base of a World Heritage Site. Using a case study of the World Heritage Site Falun Great Copper Mountain, the thesis assesses the situational context by using qualitative methods. Five semi- structured interviews with influential stakeholders were conducted to get an inside view of the current situation and to identify site-specific issues. The thesis identifies a number of factors that determine the successful implementation of measures leading towards sustainable tourism in the long-run; the most important being the lack of clear guidelines for the whole destination and no holistic planning approach within the municipality. The thesis concludes that despite the increased pressures towards establishment of sustainable tourism, the concept remains challenging to operationalize for the World Heritage Site without frameworks and tools from UNESCO.

Does high products complexity &amp; production cost drive high customer involvement in product development? Author: Ellen Wendel Tutor/Examiner: Sarah Philipson   Background   The purpose of this thesis first arose when interviewing the CEO and the chief of product development of a Swedish wood company. The lack of communication between the two of them and the overall information flow within the company seemed to me brutally bad. When leaving that company a question popped up: Do a low production cost/unit and/or a low product complexity on an industrial market result in low customer involvement?   Problem focus/hypotheses   Product failure is costly and time consuming; doing it right the first time can keep a company alive and give it competitive advantages, Matzler et al (1997). Customer involvement has proven to increase the chances for a successful product launch, von Hippel (1988), Lagrosen (2005), Pitta et al (1996) and Matzler et al (1997). With the assumption that customer involvement can affect product development in a positive way, any conditions that might drive customer involvement in product development would be of interest. This thesis investigates three hypotheses concerning how product complexity and production cost drive customers involvement; H1: High product complexity positively predicts the use of high customer involvement in the product development. H2: High production cost positively predicts the use of high customer involvement in the product development. H3: High production cost and high product complexity together positively predicts the use of high customer involvement.   Method   The main study was executed with surveys sent per e-mail. The investigated populations are wood component suppliers and machine suppliers. The suppliers were chosen to get a vast range of product complexity and production cost. The hypotheses were analyzed with chi-square statistics and percentages.   To get a basic understanding of the industry, I first made a pre-study; interviewing two suppliers and telephone interviewing the head of glued edge pine panel issues at the Swedish Wood &amp; Furniture Association.   Findings   Hypothesis 1 I conclude that higher product complexity leads to higher customer involvement on both industries. This result gives more validation to the emerging theory stated by Richard et al (2004). Hypothesis 2  This thesis validates hypothesis 2 among wood suppliers. I suggest future research to validate a possible theory the states that higher production cost drive higher customer involvement. Hypothesis 2 is not accepted on the machine supplier industry since the results were inconclusive. No overall pattern was found.  However, the result indicates that the hypothesis might be correct up until a certain level of complexity, after which the relationship is negative. Hypothesis 3   I consider hypothesis 2 to be validated on the wood supplier market. I suggest future research to validate a possible theory the states that higher production cost and product complexity and production cost combined drive higher customer involvement. The thesis result indicates that hypothesis 3, on the machine supplier market, might be correct up until a certain level of complexity and production cost combination, after which the relationship is negative. Hypothesis 3 cannot be accepted for the machine supplier industry since the results are inconclusive. General findings from the hypotheses All three hypotheses indicate a positive prediction that product complexity, production cost and the two variables combined will drive the behavior of “usage or no usage” of customer involvement, regardless of industry. / <p>Opponenter: Elna Hägglund och Frida Tillmar</p>

This research suggests that positive parent involvement and partnership with schools is a prerequisite of effective schooling and that co-operation between home and school can raise educational achievement The purpose of this study was to determine by means of review of literature and empirical investigation, the nature of parent involvement in education, methods available to involve parents in the education of children, and the reasons for non-involvement of parents in education of children, The empirical study was aimed at determining the degree of parent involvement and reasons of non-involvement of parents in the education of children in the North West Province in the district of Potchefstroom, as well as the attitudes of educators towards parent involvement in the education system. Chapter 1 deals with the statement of the problem, aims of the research and the methods employed in achieving the purpose of the study, This includes a discussion of the population and sample used for the empirical research and an outline of the chapters, Chapter 2 highlights the nature and scope of parent involvement In education, fundamental and educational grounds for parent involvement were discussed; models of parent involvement were identified and discussed, advantages and disadvantages of parent involvement were mentioned, ways in which parents become involved in education of their children and reasons for non-involvement of parents in education were discussed. In Chapter 3, the focus was on the context of parent involvement in South Africa. Parent involvement in the pre-democratic era and democratic era was discussed. The empirical research design, administrative procedures, population and the random sampling as well as statistical techniques were discussed in Chapter 4. The duly completed questionnaires returned by educators and parents of the children of the selected schools as respondents were empirically analysed in Chapter 5. The last chapter, Chapter 6, throws light on the summary of all the chapters; research findings and recommendations based on the research findings derived from the previous chapters, as well as final remarks. This implies that all relevant issues raised in all chapters are summarised and recommendations are also made. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003

Lack of appropriate level of beneficiary involvement during the project lifecycle may lead to mismatch between the project output and needs of beneficiaries. Therefore, involving beneficiaries in the project helps to assure that the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) provide the right solution to needs of beneficiaries as well as sustaining project results. Although beneficiary involvement is useful, the challenge is to determine how and when to involve beneficiaries in the project.    The purpose of this study is to improve the process of managing beneficiary involvement in NGOs. To achieve this, a review of the existing literature was done to have an initial understanding of beneficiary involvement. During our literature review, we identified six progressive levels of involvement which include: information sharing, listening and learning, joint assessment, shared decision-making, collaboration and empowerment.  Based on this literature review, we suggested a framework for managing beneficiary involvement.   In addition, we conducted a multiple case study and collected data from five different cases through interviews. Our respondents were professionals with several years of experience in developing and implementing development projects which are aimed at improving the livelihood of vulnerable communities. Through the analysis of the empirical findings, we got new insights on how the process of beneficiary involvement is managed. We identified four additional levels of beneficiary involvement within the project cycle. These include incentive system, peer facilitators, group forming, and cost sharing. The study also reveals the factors that affect beneficiary involvement, such as cultural context and, donors’ influence and requirements. We also highlighted that the appropriate level of beneficiary involvement should be chosen depending on the project context. Regardless of these factors, the research findings show that beneficiary involvement creates a sense of ownership, enhances project outcome and is useful in sustaining a project’s results in the long term. Therefore, NGOs should endeavour to involve beneficiaries as much as possible to ensure that the projects being implemented are addressing community needs.

The purpose of the study is to analyze what characterizes the interaction between preschool teachers and parents born abroad, furthermore what promotes and impedes the intercommunication between them. There is a lack of studies about the parental involvement in preschools whilst numerous studies can be found concerning the parental involvement within educational establishment subsequent to preschools. The completed study is qualitative, and based on interviews with five teachers in three different Reggio Emilia inspired preschools. The results of this study show that preschool teachers often face various challenges in their daily work. These challenges often originate in different pre- understandings about the societal norms, values and behavioral rules. The results also show that conflicts may arise between preschool teachers and the foreign-born parents because of distinct sentiments regarding previously mentioned values. Subsequently this causes the preschool teachers to obtain the role of the educator in relation to the parents. This positioning may complicate parental collaboration because it often contributes to an unequal power relationship being created. What promotes the cooperation with parents is to increase the visibility and awareness of societal structures, in order to attempt to change the communication and interaction patterns that are generally accepted in preschools and used extensively in this context.

The purpose of this dissertation was threefold. First, this researcher identified and critically examined selected characteristics of professional social science journal articles related to African American grandparents; the level of their involvement/role (arbiter for parent-child conflict, bearer of family history, caretaker/ childrearing, emotional gratification, gift giving, passing traditions/values and role modeling). Secondly, this researcher identified and evaluated selected characteristics (race, gender, university affiliation and academic degree) of all authors associated with articles chosen for this dissertation study to determine who were writing these articles. Finally, a content analysis exploring direction of inclusion or exclusion of grandparents and scope of literature and research related to the dissertation as discovered in articles of professional social science journals covering a 16-year study period. Survey research and content analysis techniques were utilized to examine relevant articles in professional social science journals in a pool of 12,082 articles for the study period. Implications for counseling African Americans and Black family research are included. Limitations inherent in this study were that (1) relevant journal articles may have been overlooked because the authors used terms in their title or text which 'were related to African American grandparents but were unknown to the researcher; (2) the researcher assumed that descriptive data were necessary to analyze study journals and authors as well as to provide an analysis of the direction and scope of literature and research; and (3) a total of three (3) years of study journals were unavailable to the researcher which altered the number and percent of pages and articles pertaining to African American grandparents issues. Directions for future study conclude this investigation.