Since 2009, International Relations scholars have researched the role of big advocacy groups in giving access to the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots in the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). To further these studies, the focus of this thesis is on the progress of negotiations for the 6-year period since the issue has been adopted, asking the question – How has the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots chosen to frame lethal autonomous weapons systems, and how successful has that framing been for the period of 2013 to 2019? I argue that advocates undertook a normative securitisation process to frame the existential threat lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) pose to human beings. This argument is supported by a dual method research approach of 1) semi-structured elite interviews; and 2) qualitative content analysis of reports. The findings of this research show that, while the advocacy group has not achieved success in the form of a legally binding agreement at the CCW, they have successfully developed a process of moral stigmatization of LAWS that contributes to the creation of a new humanitarian security regime.

Employees who want to leave their companies may exhibit low morale and commitment to organizations, which may affect the way employees interact with customers. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between employees' affective, continuance, and normative commitment to their organizations and their turnover intentions. The target population consisted of individuals with 2 or more years of call center experience who resided in the United States. Meyer, Allen, and Smith's 3-component model of commitment provided the study's theoretical framework. A purposive sampling of participants, which included a targeted audience and individuals who accessed the survey from Facebook and LinkedIn, returned 81 usable surveys. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis. The overall regression model showed a statistically significant relationship between the 3 forms of commitment and turnover intentions, although normative commitment had the strongest relationship with turnover intentions. Study results provide additional evidence showing that employees' affective, continuance, and normative commitment to their organizations relate to their turnover intentions. These results may contribute to positive social change by helping leaders to better understand the relationship between employees' organizational affective, continuance, and normative commitment and turnover intentions. With this knowledge, leaders may be able to decrease turnover and turnover-related costs and increase firm performance. The money saved from turnover costs can be used to develop employees, invest in the company culture, or contribute to community-related programs.

It has been argued that individuals receiving traditional alcohol treatment do not necessarily perceive life-long abstinence from alcohol as a favorable treatment outcome, and that negative expectations associated with this abstinence goal may have an adverse effect on treatment outcome. However, "abstinence expectancies" have never been systematically explored. This study used the Theory of Planned Behavior to investigate the relationship between the abstinence outcome expectancies of alcoholics beginning treatment and subsequent alcohol consumption. The independent and combined effects of abstinence outcome expectancies, alcohol outcome expectancies, self-efficacy expectancies (to abstain from alcohol use), and the normative beliefs of individuals beginning inpatient abstinence-oriented alcohol treatment were related to level of drinking during the 90 days following treatment. One hundred ten individuals receiving inpatient alcohol treatment were recruited for the main portion of this study. A questionnaire that included belief-based measures of attitude toward alcohol and abstinence, a belief-based measure of social normative pressure to either use or abstain from alcohol, a belief-based measure of one's perceived behavioral control to abstain from alcohol, and a measure of behavioral intention to use alcohol during the 3 months following treatment was developed for use in this study. The questionnaire was administered to all subjects. During the 90-day Follow-Up period, subjects were sent brief questionnaires and asked to report any alcohol or drug use. Eighty-nine percent of the subjects provided follow-up information for the first 30 days, while 76% provided information for the entire 90 days. An analysis of the data indicated that scores obtained from the belief-based measure of perceived behavioral control and scores from the belief-based measure of attitude toward abstinence were moderately correlated with intention to abstain from alcohol, while alcohol attitude scores and subjective norm scores were uncorrelated. Contrary to expectations, scores obtained from a measure of intention to use alcohol and the measure of perceived behavioral control were minimally predictive of scores from follow-up measures of drinking. However, intention and perceived behavioral control were minimally predictive of scores from follow-up measures of drinking. However, intention and perceived behavioral control scores were somewhat more predictive of drug use for the 90-day Follow-Up period. These results were discussed in light of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the similarities between alcohol expectancies and drug expectancies.

Le domaine de la théorie de la decision a été très actif depuis von Neumann Morgenstern 1943. De nouveaux modèles de décision ont révolutionné la manière avec laquelle on peut analyser nos actions et nos décisions. Cependant, le paradoxe de Allais en 1953 a obligé les théoriciens à clarifier l’objectif de leurs modèles. Alors de nombreux auteurs ont mis en avant le but normatif du modèle utilité espérée (les choix tel que nous devrions les faire, potentiellement meilleurs) et ont délaissé l’objectif descriptif (les choix réels, potentiellement biaisés).Cette évolution a permis a la discipline de définir de claire et solides méthodes de validation empirique de son approche descriptive. Cependant à l’inverse, la théorie de la decision normatif peine toujours à déterminer une méthodologie objective et constructive afin de trancher ses débats internes au sujet de la rationalité des modèles de théorie de la décision. Fournir une telle méthodologie est l’objectif principal de cette thèse. / Decision Theory has been a very dynamic field since von Neumann and Morgenstern 1943. New decision models have opened new ways to think about our actions and every day decisions.Allais’ Paradox in 1953 forced decision theorists to be clearer about the intents their models and several authors claimed that expected utility solely has a normative intent (choices that we should make, potentially better) and not a descriptive one (choices as we make them, potentially flawed).It also allowed to define better methods of validation for a descriptive point of view. Best practices in descriptive decision theory have emerged and we have now clear-cut and vetted methods of justifying the use of a given model of decision theory for a descriptive aim.However for normative decision theory that intents to help us make better choices, we do not have a clear cut way to determine and "prove" that a given model is the right one. This thesis provides an empirical design that provides such a methodology.

La thèse de doctorat porte sur l’analyse de l’inflation de la charge normative du patrimoine culturel, reposant dans le droit actuel essentiellement sur les épaules du propriétaire, public ou privé, tout en proposant, dans un volet normatif, un modèle de répartition de la charge plus équilibrée selon les droits et les intérêts des différents acteurs du patrimoine (propriétaire, autorité publique, mais aussi l’acteur collectif).À partir d’une analyse historique du droit du patrimoine culturel belge, la thèse s’attelle à démontrer l’intervention accrue de l’autorité publique dans le droit de propriété, à évaluer celle-ci et, enfin, à proposer des réflexions prospectives quant à la répartition de la charge normative de la protection du patrimoine culturel. Le champ d’analyse se limite au droit belge du patrimoine architectural (les monuments et les sites), ainsi qu’au droit belge des biens culturels mobiliers, ces deux domaines mettant particulièrement en relief les points de tension entre les intérêts individuels et les intérêts collectifs. Le premier volet de la thèse repose sur une description minutieuse des législations et des pratiques patrimoniales de 1835 à nos jours, élaborée à l’aide d’une grille de lecture analytique, afin de démontrer une ingérence renforcée dans le droit de propriété par l’autorité publique compétente. Le deuxième volet évalue cette analyse descriptive, en la relativisant par d’autres éléments, notamment par la charge incombant également à l’autorité publique gardienne du patrimoine. Dans l’exercice d’évaluation, est en outre réalisé un examen exhaustif des évolutions jurisprudentielles du contentieux de l’indemnité en cas de charge disproportionnée imposée au propriétaire, indiquant également un souci d’équilibre lors de l’intervention étatique. Enfin, le troisième volet, qui constitue le cœur de la thèse, s’inscrit dans une dynamique prospective, visant à interroger de manière radicale le droit de propriété, afin de le replacer dans son contexte et de le revisiter à la faveur du patrimoine culturel. À l’aide de la théorie du droit, et notamment de la théorie des biens communs, est ainsi développé le modèle de la propriété culturelle d’intérêt partagé, qui tiendrait mieux compte des intérêts et des droits de chacun des acteurs. Ce modèle accueillerait par ailleurs l’acteur collectif, sous toutes ses multiples composantes, qui s’inscrit entre le propriétaire et l’autorité publique, prenant tant du côté du droit sur la chose (accès, usage et jouissance collective) que de l’intérêt à la chose (intérêt culturel de conservation et de transmission). L’autre versant du modèle est celui de la responsabilité partagée du patrimoine culturel, permettant de mieux répartir la charge entre le propriétaire, l’autorité publique et la collectivité. Ce modèle bicéphale est opérationnalisé en revisitant la propriété tout en étudiant la responsabilité de manière complémentaire. Sont ainsi explorés certains outils de droit privé (contrat, fondation, trust), ainsi que certaines modalités de financement alternatif (mécénat et crowdfunding). / The research analyses the legal burden of cultural heritage, mostly resting on the shoulders of the public or private owner, according to actual legislation. At the same time, the research develops a normative model for a more balanced distribution of the burden, taking various interests and rights of the different actors (owner, public authority but also the collective actor) into consideration. From a historical analysis of Belgian cultural heritage law, the research demonstrates an increased intervention of the public authority in property right. It also measures this intervention and proposes forward-looking ways to rebalance the legal burden for the protection of cultural heritage. The research field is limited to Belgian law on architectural heritage (monuments and sites) and on movable cultural goods, as these both areas particularly highlight the tension between individual and collective interests.The first part of the research meticulously describes the heritage practice and legislations from 1835 onwards, through an analytical reading grid, in order to show an increased interference in ownership rights by the competent public authority. The second part assesses this descriptive analysis by relativizing it with other elements, such as the burden also resting on the public authority as steward. Moreover, in the evaluation exercise, this research exhaustively examines case law changes regarding the excessive burden imposed on the owner in compensation claims, indicating a concern for a balanced State intervention. Finally, the third part, which lies at the heart of the research, is more forward-looking, critically and radically putting into question property right, in order to contextualise it and to revisit in favour of cultural heritage.Relying on legal theory, and in particular on the theory of the commons, this research develops the model of a cultural property of shared interest, which would better take into consideration the interests and rights of each actor. This model would welcome the collective actor, in all its multiple forms, and who would take place between the owner and the public authority, taking both on the side of the right on the object (collective access, use and enjoyment) as on the side of the interest to the object (cultural interest to conservation and transmission). The other side of the model is the shared responsibility towards cultural heritage, allowing for a better distribution of the burden between the owner, the public authority and the collective actor. The research operationalizes this two-headed model by revisiting property and, complementarily, by studying responsibility. It explores certain legal tools in private law (contract, foundation, trust), and certain alternative financial modes (sponsoring and patronage, crowdfunding).

This study has been inspired by the political events in the past few years that signalled a general decline, instead of consolidation, of democracy in South Africa. The decline has caused a rising trust deficit between the government and the citizens of South Africa. These events have raised questions of the role of the media in the consolidation of democracy. Katrin Voltmer's pioneering work, The Media in Transitional Democracies (2013) shines an important light in delineating the role of the media in transitions, including democratic consolidation. Much of the focus of scholastic research in the subject of media and democracy has been on news and journalistic content. Jurgen Habermas' seminal work, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1989) also accorded more weight to the rational and cognitive, as opposed to the affective and emotive aspects of the media when arguing in favour of emancipatory potential of the public sphere. The rational and cognitive aspects are generally associated with news and journalistic content (McGuigan, 2005: 430). Unlike Habermas, this study follows the lead by scholars like Van Zoonen (2006) and McGuigan's (2005) interest in the popular entertainment content which has often been regarded as having little significance in politics, especially democracy. In its emphasis on the consolidation aspect of South African democratic transition, the study is conducted against the backdrop of the broader ‘third wave' transitions of the early 1990's (Huntington, 1991). The study's theoretical framework is aligned with Christians et al.'s (2009) revision of the Four Theories (Siebert, et al, 1956) of the press. Their approach is useful because of its normative strength that opens the possibilities of media roles in democratization. The normative approach allows a free exploration of the potential of the media, instead of restricting the media to the political systems within which they operate. In addition, it aligns itself to Jim McGuigan's theory of the cultural public sphere which highlights the often-ignored political potency of popular cultural texts in the public sphere. McGuigan (2005: 430) argues that the affective or emotive aspects of popular cultural texts enhance, rather than hinder, the quality of political engagement in the public sphere. Through entertainment television programmes, democratic ways of life can be portrayed as part of everyday, ordinary life (Stevenson, 2010: 276). Against the widely held expectation that the media should play a positive role in democracies, some scholars have noted that in reality, “this is not necessarily so” (Jebril, Stetka & Loveless, 2013: 3). Rather, the media can serve dictatorships as happily as they serve democracies (Voltmer, 2013: 23). Using the case studies of two soap operas of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Muvhango and 7de Laan, the study explores the role of popular media in the enhancement or consolidation of democracy, and the circumstances under which this is carried out. The media of interest for this study is public service broadcasting (PSB). For most democracies of the third wave, especially in Africa, PSB has been an easy victim of political power. Because of its dependence on the state, PSB tends to be more susceptible to political interference than other media types. Like other PSBs, the SABC has clearly spelt-out objectives that are linked to the national developmental objectives, including the goal of promoting and deepening democracy. This connection makes it possible to evaluate the selected entertainment case studies against these objectives. The study uses Multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) because it allows for the analysis of text in its multimodal form such as visuals and audio. It equally allows for the application of analytical tools borrowed from film and television theories. By indirect measurement, MCDA model is used in the study to evaluate how democracy is represented (promoted, negated, omitted) in various aspects of the text.

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Proactive behaviors are defined as employees’ future-oriented, agentic behaviors that aim to improve workplace conditions. Recent research alludes that employee perceptions of whether they have permission to act proactively may influence their actions. With these ideas in mind, this dissertation introduces the concept of proactivity permission, which is defined as the perception of the extent to which an employee is allowed to perform proactive actions at work. Using a multilevel research design with 501 employees from 112 work groups, I examined the effects of employee and supervisor personality characteristics, relational factors, and contextual factors on proactivity permission. Findings indicate that employee personality characteristics (i.e., psychological entitlement and psychological reactance) positively influence employee proactivity permission beliefs, whereas supervisor personality characteristics (i.e., social dominance orientation and rule-based reasoning) negatively influence proactivity permission judgments of supervisors. The quality of relationships (LMX) between a focal employee and his/her supervisor positively affects both employee proactivity permission and supervisor proactivity permission judgments, while workplace contextual factors (e.g., organizational rule formalization, rule consistency, and normative tightness) are relatively distal to, and play a minor role in, proactivity permission. Additionally, this dissertation finds that employees who believe they have permission to act proactively engage in proactive behaviors to a greater extent, and that supervisors are more supportive toward the proactive behaviors of those employees who they perceive to have greater permission to act proactively. In all, this dissertation offers important contributions to theory and research on employee proactivity and suggests several practical recommendations for managers and organizations who are interested in fostering greater proactivity in the workplace. / Business Administration/Human Resource Management

The concept of Normative Power Europe (NPE) conceptualizes the European Union (EU) as a unique international actor, empowered by a foundation consisting of certain norms and values. Scholars of the NPE underline the significance of discursive representation strategies in the EU’s normative power international identity. A normative power EU should express no value-judgment or articulate any hierarchical positioning in the so-called othering– the construction of the self and the other– and display reflexivity. Previous research shows that NPE was weakened by Europe’s refugee crisis 2015-2016, partly by the strategic cooperation on migration that was established with Turkey. However, some argue that the European Parliament (EP) managed to uphold the normative power identity through safeguarding the values and norms of the EU’s normative basis. Through identifying and analyzing the discursive representations of Turkey 2010-2011, 2015-2016 and 2021, this thesis explores how and if the normative power EU via the EP withstood the challenges of the refugee crisis or if the crisis ultimately became the bane of NPE. The results show a dominant pattern of non-normative othering in all three cases, which undermines the claims of EP as a safeguard as well as the legitimacy of the NPE concept. The results however do not determine if the NPE concept is to be ruled out for good or not. The thesis contributes to the previous research on normative power, identity construction and European foreign policy.