The aim of the study is to investigate how young men constructing identities in talk about their own use of violence. The study is based on a fieldwork at a youth detention home in Sweden. The data consists of individual interviews and video recordings of the treatment programme Aggression Replacement Training (ART). Detailed analyses have been made of conversations between the young men, between the young men and the trainers, and of the narratives generated in the individual interviews. The study has a social constructionist approach to identity, which is seen as constructed in a joint achievement in social interaction. An important analytical perspective in the study is how social categories and subcategories are constructed. The study has a particular focus on gender, primarily masculinity, but age and ethnicity are also being emphasised. The analysis draws on four empirical studies. It is shown how the young men construct a preferred self-presentation when talking about violent events. The narratives on violence are either based on experiences or talked about as a hypothetical use of violence. Violence based on personal experience is problematized and legitimized in terms of self-defence, defending friends, restraint and justified violence. Narratives of violence are shown to be interactional resources available to the young men. When talking about violence, the young men can be seen to regulate social relations, and to position themselves in relation to particular discourses of masculinity. The specific understanding of what it entails to be a man enables the use of violence with respect to social categorizations such as age, ethnicity or criminal identity. It is also argued that the treatment programme ART may, at times, facilitate maintaining a criminal identity. / Avhandlingens övergripande syfte är att undersöka hur unga män konstruerar identiteter kring berättelser om eget våldsutövande. Den bygger på en studie gjord vid ett särskilt ungdomshem i Sverige. Såväl enskilda intervjuer som videoinspelningar av behandlingsprogrammet Aggression Replacement Training (ART) har utgjort analysmaterialet. Ingående analyser har gjorts av samtalen mellan de unga männen, mellan de unga männen och behandlingspersonalen, och berättelserna i de enskilda intervjuerna. Avhandlingen bygger på en socialkonstruktionistisk ansats där identitet analyseras i social interaktion med andra. Ett viktigt analytiskt perspektiv i studien är hur sociala kategorier och underkategorier skapas. Ett särskilt fokus ligger på genus och då främst maskulinitet, men även ålder och etnicitet lyfts fram som viktiga perspektiv. Avhandlingen omfattar fyra delstudier. Studien visar hur de unga männen konstruerar en positiv självpresentation när de talar om våldshändelser. Våldsberättelserna är antingen erfarenhetsbaserade eller utgår ifrån tal om hypotetiskt våld. Det erfarenhetsbaserade våldet problematiseras och legitimeras genom att talas om som självförsvar, försvar av kompisar, återhållsamt eller rättmätigt. Studien visar att våldsberättelser är interaktionella resurser för de unga männen. Genom att tala om våld reglerar de sociala relationer och positionerar sig i relation till vissa maskulinitetsdiskurser. Den specifika förståelsen av vad det innebär att vara en man, möjliggör användandet av våld avhängigt andra sociala kategorier, så som ålder, etnicitet och kriminell identitet. Studien indikerar också att behandlingsprogrammet ART ger möjlighet att underlätta upprätthållandet av en kriminell identitet. / <p>Due to copyright matters, have the articles, published in chapter 4, 5, 6 and 7, been removed.</p>

Workplace misbehaviour is seen to be a neglected feature of organizational study (Ackroyd and Thompson; Vardi and Weitz, 2004). Where research has been undertaken into misbehaviour the emphasis tends fall into two broad categories. First of all, organizational behaviour theorists use the term misbehaviour as a means to highlight how the ‘negative’ behaviour of employees gets in the way of formal organizational goals. Secondly, radical sociologists tend to use the term misbehaviour as a means to critique Foucauldian labour process theory. Here an argument is made that suggests the disciplinary affects of new management practices associated with human resource management and total quality management have been overstated. Furthermore, radical sociologists also use the term misbehaviour as means to critique organizational behaviour accounts, which are believed to paint overly optimistic accounts of organizational life. However, on further examination it was discovered that neither a radical sociological approach, nor a traditional organizational behaviour approach, sufficiently addresses the current deficit in our understandings and explanations for workplace misbehaviour. Hence, one of the main themes of this thesis was to design a theoretical and methodological framework to address the deficit in our understandings and explanations. As such, a view was taken of how a radical sociological approach (orthodox labour process analysis) combined with an emerging social psychological perspective (a social identity approach (Haslam, 2001)) could help overcome previous theoretical problems associated with researching misbehaviour. Empirical support for this approach is provided by the detailed examination of the objective and subjective working conditions of four different sets of low status workers. The findings are based on longitudinal covert participant observations, as well as covert interviews and the covert gathering of company documents. The findings depart from previous insights into workplace misbehaviour in stressing the importance of acknowledging and investigating both the organizational and sub-group social identities of low status workers, in relation to such activities. As such, a great deal of the misbehaviour noted in the findings can be attributed to the poor treatment of low status workers by management, yet misbehaviour is equally if not more attributable to the empowering or inhibitive qualities of the many psychological groups that worker can associate with or disassociate themselves from. Recommendations are made about the direction of future research into workplace misbehaviour. There are many suggestions made and include examining misbehaviour in a wider range of settings, sectors and levels of organizations.

Introduction Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Middle East occupying the majority of the Arabia Peninsula. In 1934 the exploration of oil propelled this country from one of the poorest to one of the highest in per capita income. Islamic law forms the basis of Saudi Arabia's constitution, its civil and penal codes and guides the Saudis in their daily and family lifestyles, governing morals, dress, eating habits and business dealings. Between 1970 and 1980, there was a sharp increase in the rate of population. Currently the population is estimated at 20.8 million with a projected increase to 44.8 million by the year 2025, with approximately 49% under the age of 20. This rise in population has implications for the health care industry, of which expatriates make up more that 85% of the country's health care system. Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the social and cultural experiences associated with living and working as a registered nurse in a major teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia and to identify and understand how to develop critical thinking skills in Saudi nurses during a nursing education/intervention program in Saudi Arabia. Methodology The researcher reviewed the literature on critical thinking, which allowed the construction of a conceptual model (Appendix 1) to guide teaching and evaluation of critical thinking skills and maintained the focus on dialogue to stimulate interaction and participation in order to promote critical thinking abilities in Saudi nurses. This study adopted ethnography as a methodology and utilised Spradley's (1979)ethnographic research cyclical tasks for data collection and analysis, which are explained in the exploratory, descriptive and explanatory phases of the research. The researcher was a participant observer and collected ethnographic data in the social situation. A variety of data collection methods were employed, which included observation of students and clinical instructors, evaluation of clinical instructors teaching techniques in utilising critical thinking strategies, evaluation of students' responses in the use of critical thinking strategies, focus group interviews of students and clinical instructors and informal interviews conducted within the hospital setting with relevant informants. The use of multi-methods provided the opportunity to examine more fully the richness and complexities of the culture, by gathering data from various sources to validate the consistency of information to reflect the multiple realities of this cultural group. Cultural domains were identified after examining field notes and interviews for terms and clues repeatedly verbalised by informants, in particular students. The researcher organised the domains to formulate taxonomies, leading to cultural themes, which are answered within the research questions in Chapter 8. The research questions for this study are as follows: Research questions 1. What are the issues related to the implementation of critical thinking in a Professional Development Program to improve critical thinking in Saudi nurses? 2. What major elements are involved in creating and sustaining the Saudi Arabian nursing profession? 3. How might Saudi culture be used to support the development of professional nursing identity? Implications for the study This study has the potential to make a significant contribution to nursing education in Saudi Arabia in promoting critical thinking in nurses and in curriculum development for the following reasons. First, didactic instruction was replaced with an interactive approach by utilising critical thinking strategies and devices to facilitate the development of critical thinking abilities. Second, working with a conceptual framework or model made it easier to manage complex multifaceted concepts, such as critical thinking. The model maintained the focus on dialogue and experiential learning thereby assisting students and staff to integrate theory and practice. This model was effective for the program and if duplicated by other programs, could create a learning environment that would allow the effective development and evaluation of critical thinking. The model is reflected in Appendix 1. Recommendations for the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia * To establish the Nursing Practice Act which subsequently leads to the formation of a National Nursing Registration Board. * To transfer nursing into the higher education sectors, to be on par with their Western counterparts. To foster career incentives for men to meet the cultural needs of the people, increase Saudi nurses in the workforce and to raise the image of nursing. * To enact Saudiisation policy. * To incorporate Islamic nursing history into diploma nursing and other nursing educational programs and implemented into the workplace, government policy and the media. * To construct separate male and female hospitals to solve the gender issues. * To systematically collect, collate and analyse nursing data. * To develop continuing education programs to meet educational needs of nurses.

Doctor of Philosophy / Aim and significance: The aim of this research was to explore the phenomenon of Australian nursing home care from the perspective of those who provide and receive it. Its focus is on the processes of ‘quality care’ provision and the meanings and evaluations that care providers attach to their work. In other words, its purpose was to shed light on the practices based on a conceptualisation of care that is entwined with the mechanisms of ‘care’ production and identity creation, or what actually happens in the daily life of the complex social phenomenon that is a nursing home. A related aim was to add to understandings of clinical nursing competence and develop tools that will assist nurses to conceptualise and implement positive change in this setting. Background: The provision of care to our elderly has become a major concern with the ageing of the world population. This is occurring in the context of decline in the capacity of families to take on the responsibility of elder care, and of increasing commercialisation of medical care. Governments have responded by shifting their responsibilities from direct care provision to become auditors of the business of care provision that is supported by public funding. However poor care delivery has largely been hidden from the public gaze. Governments present themselves as having systems in place, creating the illusion of rational control; in reality, like the market economy, there is a ‘black box’ of unknown factors driven by human impulse. The aim of this study was to open up the black box of ‘quality care’ to direct observation, drawing insights from the literature on organisational culture and with a focus on the frontline worker and the construct of quality assurance. Specific research objectives were to: • Document the beliefs and attitudes of care providers towards elderly people in general and the needs of nursing home residents in particular • Elicit the range of meanings and evaluations that care providers attach to their work • Describe their constructions of ‘care’ and ‘quality of care’ and the organisational factors they believe to impact (positively and negatively) on their ability to provide it. • Through in-depth understanding of a particular setting, generate grounded theoretical insights into the phenomenon of quality of residential care that are more widely applicable Method: The study adopted a paradigmatic bricoleur approach, seeking to develop connections between a diverse range of methodologies. These included combinative ethnography, phenomenology, hermeneutics and traditional grounded theory. Conceptual insights were drawn from organisational studies, psychosocial nursing and coping theory. The research site was an Australian for-profit suburban nursing home. The student investigator conducted more than 500 hours of participant observation, recording extensive field notes which were analysed through the perspective of a hermeneutic middle way horizon that directed an augmented constant comparison traditional grounded theory approach. Additional data were collected through formal indepth interviews with six key stakeholders. Interviews were tape recorded, transcribed in full and analysed to reveal themes that were brought within a hermeneutic circle that spiralled recursively from the whole to the part and back to the whole. Findings: Eight key interrelated factors in the production of care within the nursing home were identified: internal and external accountability (the accreditation system); economic considerations; management and training; advocacy; characteristic of residents; care providers’ working conditions and environmental stressors; organisational culture; and the work/care styles of individual care providers. I have categorised the latter into two main types: ‘tortoises’ and ‘hares’. This typology is then used to generate a process-driven schematic diagram that tracks a hypothetical novice care provider through the process of learning how to produce ‘care’. Specifically, I found that nursing home ‘care’ is the outcome of a complex social process involving the interplay between resident, relative, care provider, proprietor, quality assessors and government within the phenomenon of the nursing home. Such care, indeed the phenomenon of the nursing home itself, is not a stable, controllable entity but is in a constant state of flux – what I refer to as a moral ecology. In their everyday practice, care providers devise a construction of ‘quality care’ that is more clearly grounded in their own worldviews and the development of the own identity than in the formal quality assurance system of standards, guidelines and evaluations. Conclusion: Understanding the ‘black box’ of processes that produce care is the key to identifying courses of action that will improve care outcomes. The study findings also question the validity, assumptions and significance of the accreditation system, which only identifies some of the component variables, disregarding both the complexity within the ‘black box’ and failing to acknowledge that the quality of care outcomes is overwhelmingly dependent on individual care providers.

Parent-teacher conferences are an important component of parent involvement practice in any school. However, parent-teacher conferences often come short of the expectations of both parents and teachers and fail to lead to lasting solutions to learners' problems. This study focuses on the implementation of parent-teacher conferences in primary schools. The problem was investigated by means of a literature study and an empirical investigation. The literature identified approaches to and models of parent involvement, common barriers to parent-teacher communication and the characteristics of effective conferences. A qualitative investigation explored the process of a small sample of parent-teacher conferences in a selected primary school in Mamelodi, Gauteng Province. Data was gathered by participant observation. Findings showed that teacher talk predominated during conferences; the importance of mutual trust and teachers' listening to parents; guiding parents to improve learning at home and barriers to communication. Recommendations based on the findings were made. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Education management)

This dissertation is a participant observer’s account of implementing a multisite, randomised controlled trial within Her Majesty’s Prison Service. It adds to a scarce literature detailing the steps involved in implementing experiments in custodial settings by providing a candid account of the route from planning to successful implementation. The randomised controlled trial was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Sycamore Tree Programme. This programme’s goal is to teach prisoners the wider harm of crime and includes a face-to-face meeting between a victim of crime and the participating offenders. It derives its rehabilitative potential from restorative justice and seeks to foster hope that change is possible for offenders, thus aiding them to desist from crime. Its development and theoretical basis are described for the first time. In an in-depth narrative the dissertation details how at every stage strategies were developed to manage participant procurement, random assignment, maintaining treatment integrity, and preparing for final outcome measurements. The randomised controlled trial was designed to produce an individual experiment in eight prisons. These will be combined in a meta-analysis as well as analysed as a pooled sample. Overall the implementation process took close to two years and involved a charitable body, Her Majesty’s Prison Service, the National Offender Management Service, and two police forces. This work has demonstrated how the unstable nature of English prison populations and the risk-averse climate must be addressed when conducting experiments in that environment. It has also illustrated the gap between the rhetoric of evidence-based policy and the facilitation of research designed to seek that evidence. Nevertheless, developing trusting relationships and combining rapidly learnt skills with inherent abilities ensured that the evaluation methodology was supported and protected through the various challenges it met. Finally, the dissertation suggests conditions for closer collaboration between government executive bodies and researchers that might increase the number of experiments undertaken in prisons. It also aims to encourage researchers that prison experiments, although not easy, are feasible, defendable, and, above all, worthwhile.

The shifting topography of contemporary Japanese society is engendering a significant reorientation of men’s family relations. However, exactly how Japanese men are adapting to these broad-based trends, including parent-child relations, demographics, marriage norms, care provision, residential choices, and gender roles, as well as in the decline of Confucian worldviews, remains relatively obscure. In this dissertation, I explore men’s everyday practices underpinning their family relations as husbands, fathers, sons-in-law, and grandfathers. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the summers of 2013 and 2014 in Hyogo, through narrative interviews and participant-observation. I find husbands’ view of their wives transitioning from having a culturally prescribed duty to perform domestic matters to simply having responsibility for domestic matters. This opens up space for negotiation within married couples, with my informants providing what I refer to as additional help, which offers new insight into charting the evolution of hegemonic masculinity. I evidence relatedness founded on exchange as an approach to understand relations across the extended family, which importantly involves additional help, financial resources, and intimacy. I underscore how men selectively seek intimacy in some family relations, notably as fathers and grandfathers. Provision of additional help and seeking of intimacy lead to men’s (re)construction of masculinities differing across family relations, with an important reason for men to select their practices so as to craft their family relations is to address their sense of well-being. Further, the pattern of men’s family relations reveals the emergence of substantially novel sons-in-law relations, as compared to that found in ie patriarchal norms. This evidence suggests a fundamental shift from a vertically-dominated set of family relations, as in the ie household, to a more horizontal, fluid set of relations across the extended family.

Text in Afrikaans / Loosit is a pastoral care model which may be applied to primary school children in South Africa and the use thereof is explored in this research project. Loosit consists of a series of plays as well as a discipleship program. These plays, humoristic yet contextually relevant to children, are done on a set resembling school toilets. Children are encouraged to write to the leading character, Uncle Jani Tor, and to post the letters in the `toilet` post box. Themes focused on in this project are problems with friends, social pressure, problems in the family and death. There is a specific focus on the ethics of Loosit as a model of pastoral care applicable to children. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

As escolas públicas valorizam o planejamento escolar como uma das preocupações administrativas e pedagógicas a fim de que sejam criadas condições para a efetiva realização do que foi estabelecido. Entretanto, as escolas públicas municipais não contam com planos administrativos elaborados. A presente pesquisa tem o objetivo de identificar a visão do diretor escolar sobre a gestão estratégica com balanced scorecard (BSC) e mapa estratégico no setor público. Para atingir o objetivo visado, a pesquisa teve como primeiro passo, o repasse de dados e informações do GREFIC da FEARP-USP para seleção das escolas públicas no município de Ribeirão Preto/SP e, a partir disso, uma abordagem qualitativa, utilizando o estudo de caso como procedimento técnico nas escolas públicas levantadas. A pesquisa caracterizou-se como aplicada e descritiva. As técnicas de coleta de dados foram a observação, o questionário, a entrevista, o diário de campo e o grupo focal. Foram entrevistadas oito diretoras escolares. O grupo focal foi aplicado em três diretoras escolares concomitantemente a uma capacitação sobre o tema \"gestão estratégica com BSC no setor público\". Foi feita a observação não participante em duas escolas. Na análise de dados, foi utilizada a análise de conteúdo. Como resultado, constatou-se que a visão da gestão estratégica, para o diretor escolar, foi de pensar em metas e objetivos para melhoria da vida escolar do aluno. Já a perspectiva do diretor escolar sobre a aplicação da gestão estratégica com BSC e mapa estratégico no setor público foi a de que as ferramentas aparecem como viáveis dentro do setor público e das escolas públicas, porém, ambos precisam ser adaptados para melhor utilização. Foi elaborado um esboço do BSC e mapa estratégico no setor público, especificamente da escola pública. Conclui-se que as escolas necessitam de um plano administrativo específico para uma gestão mais eficiente e participativa. O BSC e o mapa estratégico são viáveis para o setor público e para as escolas públicas municipais, desde que sejam adaptados. Este projeto contribuiu para a pesquisa do BSC no setor público, bem como para a melhoria da educação pública brasileira. / Public schools value school planning as one of the administrative and pedagogical concerns to create conditions for the effective realization of what has been established. We argue, however, municipal public schools do not have elaborate administrative plans. The aim of this research is to identify the principals vision of strategic management with balanced scorecard (BSC) and strategic map in the public sector. To reach the proposed objective, the research had as a first step the transfer of data and information from the GREFIC of FEARP-USP for the selection of public schools in Ribeirão Preto/SP city and from there a qualitative approach, with the use of the case study as technical procedure in public schools raised. The research was characterized as applied and descriptive. The data collection techniques were observation, the questionnaire, the interview, the field diary and the focus group. Eight school principals were interviewed. The focus group was applied to three principals\' concomitant with a training about strategic management with BSC in the public sector. Non-participant observation was done in two schools. Data analysis was performed using content analysis. The results indicate that the vision of strategic management for the principal was to think about goals and objectives to improve the student\'s school life. The principal\'s view on the application of strategic management with BSC and strategic map in the public sector was that tools appear as viable within the public sector and public schools, but both need to be adapted for better use. An outline of the BSC and strategic map was made in the public sector, specifically the public school. We conclude that schools need a specific administrative plan for a more efficient and participatory management. The BSC and the strategic map are feasible for the public sector and municipal public schools, provided they are adapted. This project contributed to the BSC\'s research in the public sector, as well as the improvement of Brazilian public education.

Studiens bygger på deltagande observationer och ett antal intervjuer på ett nystartat bolag under peroden 25 januari till 18 mars under sammanlagt 28 dagar. Det huvudsakliga resultat är att visa på ett antal narrativ som förekommer i bolaget. Dessa produceras och reproduceras huvudsakligen muntligt. Med tonvikten på det muntliga blir lokalen en materiell faktor av betydelse, liksom bolaget C-media som finns i samma lokal och därmed fungerar som en referenspunkt. Dessa narrativ och materiella faktorer av betydelse gäller i just detta fall och kan inte ses som något generaliserbart. Resultatet analyseras med utgångspunkt i de teorier inom fältet communicative constitution of communication, med fokus på materialitet och narrativ. Den övergripande slutsatsen är det finns materiella faktorer som kan vara av betydelse för en organisations kommunikation och därmed för organisationens kommunikationsfunktion. / The study is based on participatory observation and a number of interviews at a newly founded company during January 25th through March 18th, during a total of 28 days. The main result is a number of narratives present at the the company. These are produced and reproduced mainly orally. With an oral bias the office building itself becomes a material factor, as is the other company residing in the same office. These narratives and material factors are at play in this case, but cannot be generalised to other organisations. The results are analysed using theories in the field of communicative constitution of communication, focusing on materiality and narratives. The overall conclusion is that there are material factors that can be of importance for the communication in an organisation, and as such for the communications function.