The research objectives were to determine (a) interrelationships among components of Korean apparel retail stores' management strategies, (b) effects of perceived environmental uncertainty on their management strategies, (c) effects of stores' management strategies on their performance, and (d) market-orientation strategies the stores have implemented. Four hundred top managers of Korean apparel stores in Seoul, Busan, Suwon, Daejeon, and Daegu completed a questionnaire. A structural equations model was used to test the hypotheses concerning relationships between the research variables. The exogenous variables include components of perceived environmental uncertainty (market turbulence, competitive intensity) and top management's willingness to adapt a changing market (top-management emphasis and risk aversion). The endogenous variables include components of market-orientation strategy (intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, response design, response implementation), organicity of organizational structure (centralization, formalization, specialization), and satisfaction with store performance (relative to other Korean retail stores, relative to key competitors). Many of the hypotheses were supported. Perceived market turbulence positively affected stores' market-orientation strategies and functional specialization. Market orientation strategy positively affected stores' functional specialization and centralization of decision making. Intelligence generation positively affected satisfaction with store performance relative to other Korean retail stores and relative to key competitors, and response implementation positively affected satisfaction with store performance relative to other Korean retail stores. Some positive relationships were found between perceived environmental uncertainty and top management's willingness to adapt to a changing market. Also, seven of the eight tested relationships were significant and positive between market-orientation strategy and top management's willingness to adapt to a changing market. Top-management emphasis positively affected organicity of organizational structure. Formalization of store structure positively affected satisfaction with store performance relative to other Korean retail stores and relative to key competitors. A major conclusion is that Korean apparel stores' top managers did not view environmental conditions as important influences on their stores' performance, although their perceptions of environmental uncertainty affected their stores' strategic management in such terms as response design, intelligence generation, and intelligence dissemination.. In addition, despite the positive effects of perceived environmental uncertainty on stores' centralization and functional specialization, the top managers appeared reluctant to fundamentally change their stores' organizational structures. / Ph. D.

Sustainable urban mobility calls for well-informed design of neighborhoods. Although many studies have been conducted in the field, there is little evidence about the relationships between design elements, urban quality and behavior. Little is also known about residents’ valuation of design and urban quality in this context. This study uses a multidisciplinary approach to deal with these issues. The focus is on children’s leisure activities, their travel mode and independence of adult escort in trips to school. Logistic regression models were used to analyze connections between neighborhood design, parents’ satisfaction with urban qualities and children’s behavior. The study included socioeconomic factors, parents’ stated importance of qualities and travel mode to work. It was conducted in a suburban district in the Stockholm region, in three different modernist neighborhoods and one traditional villa area. The results support the hypothesis that environmental and social qualities, and proximity to school, can influence children’s trips to school, and the location and frequency of children’s leisure activities. The results confirm and extend earlier research. Two separate lifestyles were identified across neighborhoods with differencesin housing type and socioeconomic characteristics. They related to parents’ preferences for and priorities of public versus private urban qualities, and location of children’s leisure activity and travel mode to school. The results suggest that schools should be located in neighborhoods, close to both homes and transit, that neighborhoods are car-free or traffic separated and that the outdoor environment is stimulating and cycling-friendly. They further suggest that a higher quality of children’s environment would be achieved if parents’ preferences had greater impact on urban developments, whereas current professional design ideals of mixed traffic and high density can be unsupportive ofthese qualities and can increase car escorts. Altogether, the results point to that design at the neighborhood scale has significance in relation to mobility requirements; and that new priorities are needed in planning and design as part of a comprehensive urban and transportation policy.

Most previous studies emphasized on the single consequence with respect to the effect of budgetary emphasis on budgetary slack or other dysfunctional behaviors, however, the relationships among these dysfunctional behaviors are seldom investigated. In order to understand the relationships among those dysfunctional behaviors, this study attempted to explore a structure model of past performance, perceived environment uncertainty, consideration leadership style, budgetary emphasis and three dysfunctional behaviors including budgetary slack, job-related tension and managerial short-term orientation. The empirical data was randomly drawn from 175 manufacturing managers in Taiwan Security Exchange. The empirical evidence of this research revealed as follows: 1. Managers have no incentive to create budgetary slack in a business which does not evaluate manager¡¦s performance with budgetary goal achievement. There is a significant positive relationship between past performance and budgetary slack, but the direct effect does not exist. The effect of past performance on budgetary slack is indirectly through budgetary emphasis. Similarly, perceived environment uncertainty and consideration leadership style affecting budgetary slack isn¡¦t directly but indirectly by budgetary emphasis. 2. Between budgetary slack and managerial short-term orientation, budgetary slack and job-related tension may exist a spillover effect. While reducing the propensity to build budgetary slack might induce managerial short-term orientation and job-related tension. 3. Weather no matter budget achievement evaluates performance, past performance directly influences the job-related tension. The manager whose performance is poor could have the higher job-related tension. 4. In different industry, the factor that influencing the organization to practice the budget control system is also different. In traditional industry, past performance is the important factor that affecting organization to implement the budget control system and induce the dysfunction behaviors, but perceived environment uncertainty is the important factor in the electronic information industry.

This study examined possible interactions between DRD4 genotype and parenting on children’s externalizing, internalizing, and prosocial behaviors, and explored both parent and child perceptions of all variables. Both diathesis-stress and differential susceptibility hypotheses were assessed for examining possible interactions for children with the DRD4 7-repeat allele. Data were collected from 58 families within the Southern Illinois Twins/Triplets and Siblings Study (SITSS). Results indicated that although no gene-environment interactions were found when examining child perceptions, a significant interaction emerged between DRD4 and parenting in predicting externalizing behaviors when using parent reports. Children without the 7-repeat allele appeared to be malleable to both positive and negative parenting, supporting differential susceptibility. Also, child and parent reports of parenting were both predictive of child behavior. Lastly, MZ twins perceived more similar parenting environments than DZ twins, and there appeared to be a stronger environmental effect of parenting on externalizing after controlling for the effects of genes. This study adds to the differential susceptibility literature and points to the importance of considering perceptions of both children and parents when examining the effects of parenting on child behaviors.

Athletes' effort is widely accepted to be a fundamental component of both their individual performance and the team's success (Giacobbi, Roper, Whitney, & Butryn, 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceptions of psychological climate and self-reported effort. A modified version of the Psychological Climate Questionnaire (Spink, Wilson, Brawley, & Odnokon, 2013) and a self-report measure of effort was distributed to head coaches at 25 Division I athletic programs to share with their student-athletes. Data from 318 student-athletes, participating in 20 different sports, supported five of the six hypotheses in this study. An Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed five dimensions of psychological climate, which where then correlated with a composite score of individual effort. Specifically, perceptions of supportive management (r = .282), role clarity (r = .434), self-expression (r = .287), contribution (r = .428), and challenge (r = .338) were significantly related (p < .01) to self-reported effort. Furthermore, contribution (b = .53, p < .01), role clarity (b = .47, p &lt; .01), challenge (b = .38, p &lt; .01), and self-expression (b = .148, p < .05) were significant in the regression equation while holding all other independent variables constant. Overall, 30% of the variance in individual effort was accounted for by climate. These findings are in line with those of Spink et al. (2013) and further support the idea that how athletes perceive various aspects of their psychological climate is linked to the effort they put forth in practice and competition. / Kinesiology

La moyenne pancanadienne des infirmières qui quittent leur emploi dans la première année d’embauche est de 19,9% (O’Brien-Pallas, 2010). Ce taux représente un coût important puisqu’on estime que l’embauche d’une nouvelle infirmière engendre des frais de formation de l’ordre de 30 000$ (Hayes, 2007). Le présent mémoire repose sur l’idée que le leadership des infirmières chefs et la nature de leurs interventions de gestion jouent un rôle important dans la rétention des infirmières sur les unités ce qui, à son tour, contribue à l’amélioration et au maintien d’un environnement de travail sain qui favorise l’adaptation aux changements organisationnels et opérationnels (Cummings, 2005). Selon une perspective environnementale d’analyse des systèmes organisationnels, cette situation implique que le bon fonctionnement de l’établissement de santé dépend de la capacité à « acquérir et maintenir les ressources », (Pfeffer, 2003 p.2) incluant les ressources humaines. L’objectif de ce mémoire est d’analyser l’influence de la culture organisationnelle et du type de leadership des infirmières chefs sur deux variables soit l’intention de quitter le poste actuel et la qualité perçue du milieu des infirmières soignantes. Cette étude quantitative s’appuie sur un devis corrélationnel. Afin d’assurer la représentativité, un échantillonnage probabiliste a été utilisé. Le biostatisticien de l’Ordre des Infirmières et Infirmiers du Québec (OIIQ) a fourni les noms et coordonnées de 1000 infirmières qui travaillent sur les unités de soins des quatre hôpitaux ciblés par l’étude. L’analyse des données a permis d’identifier quatre relations causales. Une relation a ainsi été établie entre la culture organisationnelle et le type de leadership utilisé. Ensuite une relation a été établie entre la culture organisationnelle et la qualité perçue du milieu. La relation suivante est entre le type de leadership utilisé et la qualité perçue du milieu par les infirmières soignantes. Finalement, l’effet médiateur du leadership résonnant entre la culture organisationnelle et la qualité perçue du milieu a été démontré. Des suggestions d’améliorations aux niveaux organisationnel et académiques ainsi que des recommandations au niveau de la gestion et de la pratique infirmière découlent de l’analyse des données. / The national average of nurses leaving their job in the first year of employment is 19,9% (O’Brien-Pallas, 2010). Those changes represent an important training cost as it is estimated that hiring and orienting a nurse on a unit costs 30 000$ (Hayes, 2007). This thesis is based on the idea that nurse managers’ leadership style and their management interventions are playing an important role in nurse retention. In turn, retention contributes in maintaining and improving a healthy work environment where those conditions facilitate organisational and operational adaptation (Cummings, 2005). From an environmental perspective for analysing organisational systems, this implies that good functioning of health care establishment depends on its capacity of “acquiring and maintaining resources” (Pfeffer, 2003 p.2), which includes human resources. The goal of the present master’s thesis is to analyse the influence of organisational culture and nurse managers’ leadership style on bedside nurses’ intent to quit actual position and their perceived environment quality. This quantitative study is based on a correlational design. To ensure representativeness, a probability sampling was used. Biostatistician of the College of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ) provided the names and addresses of 1,000 nurses working on the wards of four hospitals targeted by the study. Four major relations were detected after data analysis. The first relation was established between organisational culture and the type of leadership used by nurse managers. Second relation was established between organisational culture and its impact on bedside nurses’ perceived environment quality. Third relation was established between the type of leadership used by nurse managers and its impact on bedside nurses’ perceived environment quality. Finally, it was demonstrated that resonant leadership acts as a mediator between organisational culture and perceived environment quality. Suggestions for improvements regarding organizational and academic levels and recommendations at the management and nursing practice levels arising from the analysis.

In dieser Doktorarbeit wurde untersucht, welche Faktoren Wohlbefinden, wahrgenommene Gesundheit und Mobilitätspraktiken von Radfahrenden und Fußgänger:innen während des Unterwegsseins beeinflussen. Ziel war es, die persönliche Exposition gegenüber Feinstaub und Lärm unterwegs zu messen und diese der individuell wahrgenommenen Belastung gegenüberzustellen. Zudem wurden weitere Faktoren, die das Wohlbefinden beeinflussen, untersucht. Die Arbeit beleuchtet überdies, wie über gesunde und angenehme Mobilität informiert werden könnte. Zuerst wurden mobile qualitative Interviews (Go-/Ride-Alongs) durchgeführt und mit tragbaren Sensoren zur Messung von Feinstaub und Lärm ergänzt. Der situative Kontext, die sensorische Wahrnehmung und soziale Aspekte beeinflussen, ob das Unterwegsseins in der Stadt als gesund und angenehm empfunden wird. Diese Faktoren können in vergleichsweise als hoch belastend gemessenen Situationen ausgleichend wirken. Weiterhin wurden Informationsmöglichkeiten für eine gesunde Mobilität in der Stadt exploriert. Ein Literaturreview hat aufgezeigt, dass Gesundheitsthemen wenig Berücksichtigung in Forschung zu Mobilitäts-Apps finden. Daran anschließend wurden Fokusgruppen durchgeführt. Es wurde ermittelt, wie gesunde und angenehme Routen kommuniziert werden können. Hier könnendas Vorhandensein von Routenalternativen und Bewältigungsstrategien ein Gefühl von Selbstwirksamkeit geben. Es wurde eine „pleasant routing app“ vorgeschlagen, die angenehme und gesunde Routenaspekte integriert. Um die Attraktivität des Fahrradfahrens und zu Fuß Gehens zu steigern, sollten Erfahrungen, Wahrnehmungen und Praktiken von Radfahrenden und Fußgänger:innen berücksichtigt werden. Letztendlich kann somit aktive Mobilität ihr Potenzial entfalten und zu einer lebenswerten, gesunden und umweltfreundlichen Stadt beitragen. / This thesis investigates factors influencing cyclists’ and pedestrians’ health and wellbeing on-the-move. Moreover, the possibilities of smartphone apps for supporting a healthy and pleasant trip are investigated. The scope of this thesis is to combine the topic healthy and pleasant mobility with possibilities of mobility apps. First, the thesis explores how cyclists and pedestrians perceive their personal exposure towards air pollution and noise as well as other factors influencing commuting experience and wellbeing on-the-move. This is contrasted to actual measured particulate matter and noise. Qualitative interviews on-the-move (‘go-/ride-alongs’) are complemented by wearable sensors measuring particulate matter and noise. The results show discrepancies as well as coherences between perceived and measured exposure. The situational context, sensory awareness (e.g. water views) and social cues (e.g. seeing other people) are important for a perceived pleasant commute, even in polluted areas. Second, this thesis identifies how far health impacting factors are considered in research using mobility apps to identify their possibilities for supporting a healthy commute. A literature review reveals that research applying mobility apps is lacking the consideration of health topics and it is proposed to integrate health topics in mobility app development. Following these findings, the thesis investigates communication options to inform about a healthy and pleasant commute. Focus groups were applied showing that information should include feasible coping strategies and increase self-efficacy. Pleasant trip characteristics could be included in a healthy mobility app. If active mode users’ experiences, perceptions and practices are considered, cycling and walking can become more attractive and more people are encouraged to cycle or walk. Hence, active modes can unfold their potential for supporting the transformation towards liveable, healthy and environmentally friendly cities.