Introduction: Persons with disabilities (PWDs) living in rural areas are known to have a higher risk of living in poverty as they have the lowest levels of employment. To assist persons with disabilities to overcome these challenges, the South African government has developed interventions such as social assistance programmes which aim to prevent poverty and assure the basic minimum standard of living. Over the past five years minimal research has been published which focused on the disability grant in the South African context. More specifically, no research has been conducted in the Northern Cape, home to a high proportion of persons with disabilities. Of the research conducted in other parts of South Africa, no studies have sought to understand the experiences of persons with disabilities while engaging in the disability grant process. The research question for this study was, “How are PWDs experiencing the disability grant processes occurring at the SASSA Springbok branch in the NC?” This study therefore aimed to describe the experiences of disabled persons with the disability grant processes as they occurred at the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) in Springbok, Northern Cape. Method: A single instrumental case study research design was utilised. Five participants were purposively sampled. Data were collected through document review of pertinent SASSA documents, non-participant observation, and semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed inductively, taking a thematic approach. Findings: The theme that emerged was Respecting differences is part of humanity. The main findings reveal that engaging with persons with disabilities as humans and not disregarding their humanity because of their disability are imperative to how they experience the disability grant process. Two categories, For us, human dignity matters, and the Impact of context on occupational rights, encapsulate two specific areas that relate to the theme. Conclusion: The experience of the disability grant process in this case study was influenced by stakeholder engagement with participants, mandatory protocols implemented due to the novel coronavirus, and the administrative aspects of the process. Recommendations for an improved overall experience of the disability grant process include streamlining the disability grant application process, the implementation of consistent Batho Pele principles by all stakeholders, suitably accommodating the disability grant application process for all types of disabilities, as well as maintaining the logistical structures put in place (albeit unintentionally) from the year 2020.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between academic emphasis and executive leadership from the perspective of a California charter management organization (CMO) chief executive officer (CEO). Executive leaders in California CMOs have a unique perspective that needs investigated. They experience educational leadership differently depending upon their individual backgrounds, educational experiences, and the families they serve. This study seeks to understand the experiences of a specific group of executive leaders and how they define academic emphasis in their CMO. The theoretical framework used to interpret the research findings was instructional leadership. The framework effectively built a lens for the reader to conceptualize the research of this study. The theoretical framework worked to guide and frame interpretation of respondent data. The research served to inform the research questions, not answer them explicitly. The research used a qualitative case study design approach focused on the story of the lived experience from the individual. The design aspired to interpret meanings and experiences from responses to uncover deep and detailed understanding. A CMO CEO responded to semi-structured interview questions. The interview protocol consisted of various question types: open-ended questions, follow-up questions, and classification questions. As transformational and educational leadership collide in Dr. Viviane Robinson’s current instructional leadership framework, the capability that is not explicitly presented is the ability for school leaders to build capacity for equity consciousness in all teammates in their organization and/or school. The findings from this study suggested that a fourth leadership capability is emerging in Dr. Robinson’s framework. There is a critical need for organization and school leaders to be equipped with the skills to seed an equity consciousness across teammates and other stakeholders.

<p>The dataset is a compiliation of firearm related incidents on US k-12 schools from 1999-2023. The statistical analysis results are used in a systems dynamics simulation model to measure risk response effectiveness and evaluate secondary risks.</p>

Sverige påbörjade en upprustning efter Rysslands invasion av Ukraina 2014. Debatten kring Sveriges försvarsförmåga har under den gångna våren åter igen aktualiserats och kommit på allas läppar på grund av Rysslands senaste invasion av Ukraina. Sveriges regering har beslutat att Försvarsmakten ska få ökade ekonomiska anslag och att organisationen ska utökas personellt. En stor del av Arméns förband kommer i framtiden allt utgöras av tidvis tjänstgörande personal, dvs reservofficerare, tidvis tjänstgörande soldater samt värnpliktiga. De här personalkategorierna behöver både upprätthålla sin kompetens och utvecklas för att fylla sin plats i krigsorganisationen. I dagsläget när reservofficerare kallas till tjänstgöring i samband med utbildning eller träning är deltagandet frivilligt. Försvarsmaktens uppfattning är att knappt hälften av Sveriges ca 6 800 reservofficerare har övat sedan 2014. Syftet med studien är att utforska vad som motiverar respektive vad som uppfattas som försvårande eller rent hindrande faktorer till tjänstgöring för reservofficerarna vid Skaraborgs regemente. Studiens fokus är på vad som engagerar dem att tjänstgöra i Försvarsmakten och vad som kan öka deras motivation. Studien baseras på intervjuer. Den insamlande empirin är analyserad med Grounded theory. I analysen kombineras två olika teorier om motivation för att förstå reservofficerarnas situation. Amitai Etzionis Compliance theory, en teori kring hur olika styrformer inom organisationer korrelerar med motivation, kombineras med Herzberg, Mausner och Snydermans The motivation to work, en teori om motivation på arbetsplatsen. Reservofficerarna upplever i grunden att tjänstgöringen är motiverande och Försvarsmakten skall fortsätta stärka relationen med sina anställda och dra nytta av förbandsandan. Studien har identifierat fem huvudsakliga områden som påverkar reservofficerarnas engagemang: militära miljön, kommunikation, växelverkan, regler samt lön och ersättning. Den speciella miljön som uppstår i Försvarsmakten är den enskilt mest motiverande faktorn för tjänstgöring. Det är en miljö som de intervjuade reservofficerarna trivs i, en miljö som de dessutom uppger är svår att finna någon annanstans. Miljön består av den unika kombinationen militära kontexten, relationen till kollegorna och känslan av att tillhöra något större. / Sweden began a rearmament after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The debate over Sweden's defense capability has again been brought to the fore again this spring and has come to everyone's lips due to Russia's latest invasion of Ukraine. The Swedish government has decided that the Armed Forces will receive increased financial grants and that the organization will be expanded in personnel. In the future, a large part of the Army's units will all consist of part-time personnel, ie reserve officers, part-time soldiers and conscripts. These categories of personnel both need to maintain their skills and develop to fill their place in the war organization. At present, when reserve officers are called up for duty in connection with education or training, participation is voluntary. The Armed Forces' perception is that almost half of Sweden's approximately 6,800 reserve officers have not served since 2014. The purpose of the study is to explore what motivates and what is perceived as aggravating or purely hindering factors for service for the reserve officers in Skaraborg regiment. The study's focus is on what engages them to serve in the Armed Forces and what can increase their motivation. The study is based on interviews. The collected empirics are analyzed with Grounded theory. The analysis combines two different theories of motivation to understand the situation of reserve officers. Amitai Etzioni's Compliance theory, a theory on power, involvement, and their correlates in organizations, is combined with Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman's The motivation to work, a theory of motivation in the workplace. The reserve officers perceive the service as fundamentally motivating and the Armed Forces is recommended to strengthen the relationship with their employees and benefit from the spirit in the unit. The study has identified five areas that mainly affects the reserve officers' engagement: the military environment, communication, interaction, rules, and pay and compensation. The special environment that arises in the Armed Forces is the single most motivating factor for service. It is an environment that the interviewed reserve officers thrive in, an environment that they also state is difficult to find anywhere else. The environment consists of the unique combination of military context, the relationship with colleagues and the feeling of belonging to something bigger.

Försvarsmakten i Sverige har under 2020-talet behov av fler yrkesofficerare OF-3 än vad prognosen är att nuvarande personalförsörjningssystem producerar. Ledtiderna i systemet är ett årtionde eller mer till OF-3, så beslut tagna tidigare under 2000-talet sätter nuläget. Utan systemförändring har även de som år 2030 befordras till OF-3 redan idag påbörjat sin officersutbildning. Ökar 2030-talets efterfrågan på officerare OF-3 bortom dagens prognoser behöver dessa inom kort rekryteras till Försvarsmakten. För att kunna möta ökad efterfrågan, både nu på 2020-talet och i framtiden, är det nödvändigt att komplettera befintligt system. Syftet med studien är att i en svensk kontext, genom intervjuer, undersöka uppfattningar om möjligheter och begränsningar med rekrytering till högre befattningsnivåer än OF-1. Med avstamp i dessa uppfattningar, genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys och slutsatser dragna på resultatet från innehållsanalysen, så identifieras komponenter för en svensk modell. Studien lämnar ett krigsvetenskapligt bidrag inom skapande av militär förmåga. Bidraget illustreras med komponenter till en modell för svensk nyrekrytering av erfarna officerare.

How firms compete for an advantage is among the most critical questions in Business Strategy. While several researchers link executives to key strategic outcomes, much less is understood on how the Upper-Echelon team drives the actual competitive behavior of the firm, which is manifested in the launching of observable and purposeful competitive actions within the marketplace. Considering that competitive behavior research tends to overlook the importance of human assets, in general, and executive human assets, in particular, I explore how the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the Chief Executive (CEO), Top Management Team (TMT), and Board of Directors (BOD) impact a firm's competitive behavior. In addition, I examine how sources of Social Capital, or the relationships between these Upper-Echelon actors, influence a firm's competitive behavior. Moreover, I argue and test for the moderating influence of executive compensation on firm competitive behavior. Applying relational demography to capture Human Capital and sources of Social Capital within the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry, I find some empirical support that executives do, indeed, affect firm competitive behavior. Overall, the empirical evidence indicates that the Human Capital of the CEO, TMT, and BOD can influence all dimensions of a firm's Competitive Intensity. Unexpectedly and, contrary to prediction, executive dissimilarity (not similarity) tended to greatly influence a firm's Competitive Activity and Repertoire Complexity. Also, the moderating impact of executive bonus and incentive pay was largely supported. This dissertation contributes to both the competitive behavior and Upper-Echelon literatures. Notably, this dissertation adds to the very limited work that attempts to theoretically link and empirically test for executive impact on firm competitive behavior. By so doing, it begins to open the "black box" on how human assets at the Upper Echelon affect strategic outcomes through a firm's competitive behavior. / Ph. D.

The U.S. health care delivery system faces serious challenges such as an increasing demand for services due to an aging population, unhealthy lifestyles, growth in the number of uninsured individuals, and an increase in chronic diseases. At the same time, the system has to cope with a limited supply of money, physicians, and nurses inferior quality of care delivered by U.S. hospitals. While the U.S. hospital industry is adapting to address these issues, not much progress in improving the quality of care delivered has been made over the last decade. However, theories exist that management systems, organizational traits, and leadership are key factors for hospitals to improve quality of care outcomes. This study takes a holistic look at these factors to identify and analyze critical drivers for better quality of care outcomes of U.S. hospitals. The study also aims to identify differences between chief executive officers' (CEOs) leadership traits among lean (mediocre performance), high (top 20th percentile), and low performing (bottom 20th percentile) U.S. hospitals in regards to their quality of care measures. Two separate online surveys were conducted. The first online survey was targeted at all 4,697 U.S. hospitals that are required to disclose quality of care measures to the Federal government. Results of this first survey revealed that two management system factors drive quality of care outcomes of U.S. hospitals. Furthermore, findings also show that critical access hospitals have a lower quality of care performance than acute care hospitals. Thus, based on the results from this survey, we concluded that management system factors are main drivers of hospital performance, whereas organizational trait and leadership factors did not significantly contribute to hospital performance. A second survey to CEOs and CEO followers in 9 selected hospitals found significant differences between CEO traits leading lean and low performing hospitals, and, to a lesser degree, significant differences among high and low performing hospitals. However, the study did not find any significant differences in CEO traits between lean and high performing hospitals. Findings also include that some management system factors differed significantly between lean and high performing hospitals, but no evidence for such differences could be found between lean and high and high and low performing hospitals, respectively. These results suggest that management systems and CEO leadership traits play an important role in determining U.S. hospital performance as measured by their quality of care. / Ph. D.

A total of 58 percent of elderly individuals receiving elderly care report experiencing loneliness, as indicated by the National Board of Health and Welfare's annual survey focused on this demographic. Regardless of the adverse effects of loneliness on health, addressing and acknowledging involuntary loneliness is crucial, given its potential to cause discomfort and diminish the wellbeing of the elderly. The objective of this study is to explore how aid officers, through conversations with the elderly, identify and address loneliness among this population. Additionally, the study aims to understand the actions aid workers take upon recognizing loneliness. The goal is to determine whether aid officers' perceptions of loneliness in the elderly are linked to various interventions provided by social services for this demographic. The research questions focus on how aid officers observe and address feelings of involuntary loneliness in the elderly, the nature of the needs assessment conducted by aid officers regarding these feelings, and the types of interventions offered to address loneliness among the elderly. The study adopts a qualitative approach, involving interviews with four aid officers from the Health Care and Care Administration. These aid officers are responsible for approving interventions, including social care for the elderly. The theoretical framework for interpreting the findings encompasses the activity theory and continuity theory. The results and analysis indicate that aid officers individually recognize and address loneliness in the elderly. However, they operate within common guidelines and templates, particularly in the context of social interventions where loneliness plays a role in the assessment for granting social interventions.

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Studien undersökte hanteringen av stressade och pressade situationer inom sjöfarten genom intervjuer med sex nautiska sjöbefäl. Syftet var att undersöka hur nautiska befäl upplever stressade och pressade situationer ombord på fartyg, vilka metoder och strategier som används för att hantera dessa situationer samt hur erfarenheter kan bidra till framtida ledarskap. Öppna semistrukturerade intervjuer i en neutral miljö användes för att dokumentera sjöbefälens erfarenheter och beteenden i stressade och pressade situationer. Resultaten visar att checklistor och gruppdynamik spelar en viktig roll för att effektivt lösa stressade och pressade situationer. Denna studie betonar vikten av närvaro, snabb problemlösning och övning på checklistor för att förbereda sig för potentiella nödsituationer. Genom att förstå de faktorer som påverkar befälens beslutsfattande och självinsikt under stressade och pressade incidenter, kan slutsatserna dras om hur upplevelsen av sådana incidenter formar framtida ledare. / The study examined the management of stressed and pressured situations within the maritime industry through interviews with six nautical officers. The aim was to investigate how nautical officers experience stressful and pressured situations on board ships, which methods and strategies are used to handle these situations, and how experiences can contribute to future leadership. Open semi-structured interviews in a neutral environment were used to document the experiences and behaviors of maritime officers in a stressful and pressured situation. The results indicate that checklists and group dynamics play a crucial role in effectively resolving stressful and pressured situations. This study emphasizes the importance of presence, rapid problem-solving and practice with checklists to prepare for potential emergencies. By understanding the factors influencing officers decision-making and self-awareness during stressful and pressured incidents, conclusions can be drawn about how the experience of such incidents shapes future leaders.