Thesis advisor: Christina Matz / Retirement is a significant transition in an individual’s life course. More and more people are working past traditional retirement ages. Planning before retirement has been shown to relate to a number of positive outcomes and lead to a smoother transition to a retired life, such as more retirement savings, better retirement satisfaction, better social life, health, and mental health. However, most of the studies about retirement to date have focused on the impact of health and wealth in preparing for a successful retirement. This dissertation examines three issues related to retirement planning and expectations: (1) How do work and family relationships relate to having a plan to reduce or stop work and expected retirement timing in late life, and are there gender and occupational differences in these relationships? (2) How do workplace experiences relate to expectations to retire earlier or later than what is normative in different occupations? (3) Does sense of control explain the relationship between involuntary retirement and retirement satisfaction? To answer the three questions, the author adopts the role theory, the age norm theory, and the theory of self-efficacy to explain the background and findings. The data for this dissertation comes from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative dataset that captures the information about the health and retirement issues among adults over age 50 in the U.S. This proposed study uses pooled cross-sectional data from waves 2012 and 2014. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and logistic regression were used to examine the effect of work and family relationships and the plans/retirement timing of pre-retirees. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine workplace factors that contribute to the non-normative retirement age expectations. Mediation analysis was used to study how personal mastery, perceived constraints, and domain-specific control mediates the relationship between involuntary retirement and retirement satisfaction. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

This comparative case study aimed to explore the elements that align with Senge&rsquo / s framework of the Learning Organization, comprised of the disciplines of Personal Mastery, Shared Vision, Mental Models, Team Learning, and Systems Thinking, in the English Language Preparatory Programs of two selected higher education institutions to determine what characteristics of a learning organization they possess. In this study, qualitative case study method was employed. The study was conducted in two organizations, one (Organization A), part of a private Englishmedium university, and the other (Organization B), part of a public Englishmedium university, in Ankara, Turkey. The sample contained seven administrators and twenty-two instructors from Organization A and seventeen instructors and 3 administrators from Organization B. The data collected through semi-structured interviews were analyzed using content analysis technique. The findings revealed that both organizations are evolving towards a learning organization, but have not institutionalized the five disciplines to an ideal state yet. Organization A is doing somewhat better than Organization B as regards the disciplines of Team Learning and Personal Mastery / however, there is no considerable difference between the organizations in terms of the disciplines of Shared Vision, Mental Models and Systems Thinking. Overall, in both organizations there are impediments in terms of the development and achievement of personal visions, learning of individuals and teams, development of a shared vision, surfacing and questioning mental models, and acting from a comprehensive systems approach.

The complex, multi-faceted sustainability challenge that society faces calls for a strategic approach to sustainable development. Strategic planning processes towards sustainability in organisations and communities are oftentimes led by a facilitator or facilitative leader. We argue that planning processes of complex and transformational change, call for collaboration among stakeholders and for highly skilled facilitative leaders who are committed to the development of self, others and society. This thesis explores the ‘interior state’ of facilitative leaders as a high leverage point in moving society towards sustainability. We identify nine personal capacities that enable leaders to facilitate collaboration in Strategic Sustainable Development: (1) Being Present, (2) Whole Self-Awareness, (3) Suspension & Letting Go, (4) Compassion, (5) Intention Aligned with Higher Purpose, (6) Whole System Awareness, (7) Personal Power, (8) Sense of Humour, and (9) Holding Dualities and Paradoxes. We identify a range of personal and collective practices that help develop these personal capacities. We propose these capacities are the foundation for a more holistic and authentic facilitation approach applied to strategic sustainable development.