Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Student Preparedness for Academic Writing examines perceptions of student preparedness for academic writing in the first-year literary studies course, English 178, located in the English Department at Stellenbosch University. The research was conducted during 2011 and 2012 making use of a survey which was completed by the 2011 first-year English 178 class, and also utilising a series of interviews with students, tutors and lecturers in 2012. Preparedness for English 178 is framed in terms of Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of socially constructed habitus. In addition to the thought of Bourdieu the thesis draws on the writings of Peter Elbow, Arlene Archer and Pamela Nichols, among others, to analyse and frame the quantitative and qualitative information yielded by the study. The dissertation assesses multiple interlocking elements that comprise student preparedness and finds striking discrepancy between student perception of their preparedness and that of the lecturers and tutors. While tutors, lecturers and the report of the National Benchmark Test all suggest that at least half of all first-year students are poorly prepared for academic writing, only about 21% of students perceive themselves to be poorly prepared. Possible reasons for the difference in views between students and other sources are explored. The thesis concludes by asking if the English 178 course at Stellenbosch University truly tests the students’ academic writing abilities and if the course is balancing its “obligations to students [with the]… obligation[s] to knowledge and society” (Elbow 327). / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verhandeling ondersoek persepsies van studentevoorbereidheid vir akademiese skryf in die eerstejaars-letterkundekursus, Engels 178, gesetel in die Departement Engels aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch. Die navorsing is gedurende 2011 en 2012 gedoen deur gebruik te maak van ’n vraelys wat deur 2011 se Engels 178-eerstejaarsklas voltooi is, asook van ’n reeks onderhoude met studente, tutors en lektore in 2012. In hierdie verhandeling word voorbereidheid vir Engels 178 in terme van Pierre Bourdieu se konsep van sosiaal gekonstrueerde habitus beskryf. Benewens Bourdieu se denke word daar ook na die werke van onder andere Peter Elbow, Arlene Archer en Pamela Nichols verwys om die kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe inligting wat uit die studie voortgekom het, te ontleed en te situeer. Die verhandeling assesseer die veelvuldige ineengeskakelde elemente wat studentevoorbereidheid omvat, en bevind ’n opvallende teenstrydigheid tussen studente se persepsie van hulle eie voorbereidheid en lektore en tutors se persepsie van studente se voorbereidheid. Terwyl tutors en lektore se ervaring en die Nasionale Normtoetsverslag alles daarop wys dat ten minste die helfte van alle eerstejaarstudente swak voorbereid is vir akademiese skryf, beskou slegs ongeveer 21% van studente hulself as swak voorbereid. Moontlike redes vir die verskil in beskouings tussen studente en ander bronne word ondersoek. Die verhandeling sluit af met die vraag of die Engels 178-kursus aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch werklik studente se akademiese skryfvaardighede toets, en of die kursus wel ’n ewewig handhaaf tussen verpligtinge teenoor studente en ’n verantwoordelikheid teenoor kennis en die samelewing (Elbow 327).

The thesis deals with the issue of emergency preparedness of Nestlé Česko, s.r.o, Zora Olomouc. According to the Act. No. 224/2015 Coll., concerning prevention of major accidents caused by selected dangerous chemical substances or chemical preparations and concerning amendment there is underlimit amount of hazardous chemical ammonia in the area and we cannot classify this as group A or B. On these not-classified resources there are not subject to some duties under this Act, especially the obligation to prepare an emergency documentation. There are a lot of factories like this in the Czech republic (and in the world) and there is certain danger for employees of this companies and for civilian population who is in the danger area. There is more than 6700kg of ammonia in the factory Zora and it is quite a lot. We have to look at special precautions. Ammonia is taken as moderately toxic substance that irritates the eyes, mucous membranes, and in high concentrations can cause death. Another dangerous effect, except the toxicity is its explosiveness and flammability. Impacts of hazardous concentrations are not threat only for people but also for animals and the environment.

In the theoretical section of my master thesis I focused especially on the role of the health services within the crisis management. In particular chapters I tried to write down a simple and comprehensive summary of the role of the healthcare within the integrated rescue system, I dealt with the function of the Ministry of Health, the hierarchy of the healthcare in solving the emergencies, the valid law and the crisis preparedness in the healthcare. In one part of my master thesis I also mentioned the importance of testing the professional and practical readiness of particular units of the integrated rescue system by emergency exercises and the characterization of their individual types. Of course I could not omit the crisis planning and a brief description of some chosen types of plans that are used during emergencies.The goal of my thesis was to map the preparedness of the South-Bohemian Region inpatient healthcare facilities for possible emergencies in the respective facility or out of it and the medical staff´s awareness of possible risks and of possible solving the emergencies in the respective facility.In the practical section of my master thesis I used the methods of quantitative research. The technique of this research is based on the questionnaire survey with bounded, half-bounded and open questions. The questionnaire designated for medical staff consists of 23 questions. The first three questions are focused on the characterization of the respondents; the remaining twenty questions are to find out the stock of knowledge related to the crisis preparedness. The respondent gets one point for each correct answer to a knowledge question. This part of the questionnaire is composed as a multiple-choice test and one can get 43 points at most. The questions were created using the crisis plans that are valid in the České Budějovice Hospital. After our mutual agreement I took over the questionnaire designated for healthcare facilities from Mgr. Jolana Němečková, who analysed the crisis preparedness of the South-Moravian Region healthcare facilities in her master thesis. I did not change the method of questionnaire analysis either to enable a subsequent benchmarking of the results in the South-Moravian Region and the South-Bohemian Region. The questionnaire consists of 28 questions. One can get one point for a dichotomous question and two points for a closed-ended question. The highest possible score was 22 points. The results of the questionnaire survey for medical staff show that the preparedness of the České Budějovice Hospital´s medical staff is at a very good level. The average score was 37 out of 43 points and that complies with the classification 2. When analysing the relation of the preparedness with the highest achieved education level and the preparedness with the length of the practice, the positive correlation was confirmed. That means that the higher achieved education and the longer practice, the more was the knowledge of the respective area. The results of the questionnaire survey for the inpatient healthcare facilities management are not so positive. The average score was 12.3 and that complies almost with the classification 4, which means a bad preparedness. In comparison with the South-Moravian Region healthcare facilities, the preparedness in the South-Bohemian Region is one level worse. For the purposes of my master thesis I set four hypotheses that were proved or falsified during a follow-up statistical assessment. Hypotheses No. 1 and No. 2 cannot be accepted. Hypotheses No. 3 and No. 4 were accepted.

This diploma thesis deals with problematic of emergency medical service preparedness in the Czech Republic, in the place of disaster and during this situation especially in bus accident with large number of injuries and casualties. Bus accident can create high risk of forming mass disaster due to many people transported in small area with low safety components. High risk of many injuries and casualties with chaotic first call make hard decision to activate plans to solve this situation for emergency services. Theoretical part of diploma thesis maps transformation of Czech paramedic system organization from districts to regions and new legislations for emergency medical service that solve preparedness, organization and duties during large incidents. Due to this new legislations were formed offices for emergency preparedness which ensure this preparedness. Practical part of diploma thesis is analysis of Czech paramedic preparedness that solve bus accidents as disaster. For this analysis were used data from regional emergency medical service headquarters (EMS HQ) - bus accident reports, drills for staff and special material equipments. But only 3 EMS HQ provided acceptable data and 1 EMS HQ partly acceptable data. Aim of this study is assessment in preparedness change for disaster during examined time (2000 - 2011) and comparison of real event to training drills. This part of thesis is supplied by statistic data (transformed into graphs) of bus accidents with injuries and casualties from department of Transportation Police of the Czech republic and Fire Rescue Service Directorate. Whole practical part is made by analysis of primary (documents, EMS HQ personal visits) and secondary information (information servers, journals). Within this analysis was made evaluation of Czech emergency medical preparedness for bus accidents with large number of injuries and casualties. This analysis shows that in area of the Czech Republic is missing central directorate for Czech paramedic system. Which is shown in varying material, drill and whole preparedness for disaster situation. This problem is also made by new legislation that were not here before (law for emergency medical system and law notices). High variation of equipments and procedures in solving disasters can cause difficulties during accident intervention on the borders of paramedic regions. For comparison to other countries preparedness is in this thesis mentioned Poland - special training course for specialist in disaster management, USA - Medical Alert Center (MAC) and Israel - control system for disaster drills.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to evaluate the needs and preparedness of municipalities with extended competence of the South Bohemian Region for an extraordinary event of drought. To achieve the stated goal, a search of available literature and foreign sources was carried out, which helped obtain the basic information necessary to understand this issue. A qualitative research method based on a structured interview was used to analyze the needs and readiness of municipalities with extended competence. This research was carried out among the crisis management personnel of municipalities with extended competence in the territory of the South Bohemian Region. Other experts such as those involved in the crisis management department of the South Bohemian Regional Office, the Department of the Environment of Municipalities with Extended Powers or the Fire Brigade of the South Bohemian Region were also questioned. The available documents also examined details of selected aspects that increase the resilience and preparedness of municipalities with extended jurisdiction for drought. These documents examined the extent of involvement of state administration and self-government in drought preparedness issues and the way of implementation in the analyzed documents. Afterwards, the information collected was arranged and evaluated. The research has shown that the preparedness of the municipalities with extended powers for the extraordinary event of drought is insufficient. Documentation dealing with drought issues has not been elaborated for individual administrative districts of municipalities with extended competence and has not been incorporated in the emergency plan of the region or the crisis plan of the municipality with extended competence. Another problem is the insufficient information of municipalities with extended competence on drought episodes in the administrative districts of municipalities with extended competence in the territory of the South Bohemian Region. The research also identified a problem with a low number of drinking water sources and insufficient provision of alternative or emergency drinking water sources.

Today's globalized world is much more vulnerable than we are often willing to admit. We live in a society which is considerably dependent on a stable supply of electricity. Potential large power outage also called blackout may be a very dangerous situation for our community. Usually we don't realize all consequences there can be for our everyday life, people's health, the security and the economy of the country. Despite the efforts of the responsible authorities, the complications for the population can be very serious. The effects of such unfortunate event can be reduced in a variety of ways. An option is to support an informed society that can take care of itself in times of crisis. This text is focused on the current approach to raising and maintaining awareness of the people for masive power outage not only in the Czech Republic. The aim of the thesis is to compare the information environment of the Czech Republic with the situation in neighboring Germany. It is important to keep on mind that many important systems serving under normal conditions to inform the population will not work when such an event occurs. It can be necessary to proceed with alternative solutions and communication channels. In the education context, it's realisic to inform the majority of the population only about the most important measures and appropriate patterns of blackout behavior. With the restoration of energy supplies, the task of informing the population doesn't end. By selecting key information, this work could contribute to the society.

Population evacuation plan is one of the plans of specific operations, which are covered within the region's emergency plan according to Decree No. 328/2001 Coll.Evacuation belongs among the basic methods of population protection, being a summary of principles and organisation measures to ensure moving the persons, animals and material assets from the area endangered by an extraordinary event to other area. In the case of an extraordinary event endangering larger territorial unit, not only the populated agglomerations and industrial facilities may be included in the area evacuation, but also the inpatient healthcare facilities, where the situation difficulty is amplified by the patients depending on care by medical personnel and provision of healthcare services. Presently, there is no clear legal standard imposing an obligation on organisations to elaborate a complete evacuation plan. This issue is covered only partially in the sphere of legislation concerning fire protection. Nevertheless within the region's emergency plan elaborated for solution of extraordinary events requiring declaration of the third level (in the case of endangering more than 100 and less than 1,000 persons) and special level of alarm (when more than 1,000, a part of a municipality or enterprise grounds are endangered), all organisations with more than 100 persons should have the evacuation plans prepared. In the case of inpatient healthcare facilities, elaboration of evacuation plans is absolutely inevitable. The theoretical part of the dissertation describes the general principles and methods of performing the population evacuation. Attention was paid also to professional coverage, evacuation authorities and organisations and their structure according to the scope of the taken measures. In the chapter called "Application of the evacuation plan to inpatient healthcare facilities", the general principles and procedures concerning evacuation were applied to the inpatient healthcare facilities. In the practical part of the dissertation, an analysis of preparedness of the inpatient healthcare facilities for possible area evacuation to all-nation extent was made and the hitherto experience of the personnel of the inpatient healthcare facilities with any type of evacuation and their preparedness for possible complete evacuation were examined. Such examinations were made by questionnaire surveys. The collected data have been processed by statistical methods. The evaluation of results is presented in the "Results" chapter. On the basis of the acquired knowledge, a proposal of evacuation plan was drafted for the inpatient healthcare facilities. At the end of the dissertation, the procedures are suggested that may help manage perfectly the potential complete evacuation. Expected utilisation of the dissertation results was directed to definition of the optimum procedures and measures leading to successful management of evacuation of an inpatient health care facility. The dissertation conclusions may be used not only as the document for creating evacuation plans for other health care facilities, but they may contribute to considerable extent to elaboration of uniform evacuation preparation methodology within the emergency preparedness of the healthcare services.

Contemporary terrorism is becoming increasingly indiscriminate, and rail bound traffic appears to be vulnerable and at high risk for terrorist attacks. An attack targeting a train or subway system can have enormous implications, both in terms of human suffering and long-term societal consequences. This dissertation aims to analyze how public and private organizations prepare for and respond to crises emanating from terrorism targeting rail bound traffic. It also examines different practices, networks and ideas related to interorganizational collaboration. Contemporary research emphasizes the importance and advantages of collaborative action in crisis management, and the idea of inter-organizational collaboration is also embedded in policy documents and has support among practitioners. Despite this, interorganizational collaboration often turns out to be difficult in practice, and it stands out as a critical factor in many crisis situations. Hence, it is crucial to identify and better understand the challenges associated with interorganizational collaboration in the context of terrorist-induced crises. This dissertation is a contribution to this endeavor. In order to capture the inherent complexity of the topic this dissertation combines and merges literature from three research fields: crisis management research, disaster medicine research and terrorism studies. The dissertation examines international experiences of terrorist attacks directed against rail bound traffic. It identifies the way in which attacks have changed over time and analyzes the main challenges of providing pre-hospital care following a mass-casualty attack. In addition, Sweden is used to provide empirical focus in an analysis of preparedness. Relying on scenario-based interviews with central crisis management actors and actors from rail bound traffic, current preparedness practices for responding to a multi-site terrorist attack on rail bound traffic in Sweden is analyzed. The research shows that both public and private organizations have developed risk awareness about terrorist-induced crises. However, their preparedness practices are characterized by significant variations and substantial uncertainty. Scare resources are a critical factor, and actors find it difficult to invest in preparedness for seldom-occurring crises. This difficulty is accentuated by the fact that no major mass-casualty attack has taken place in Sweden. A terrorist attack differs from a routine event and poses new and different challenges for inter-organizational collaboration. A large number of organizations are supposed to work together under severe time constraints, and their work can be delayed by particular security concerns. It is assumed that rail bound traffic actors engage in collaborative crisis management; however, there appear to be few mechanisms to prepare them, in a systematic way, for managing this particular type of crisis. Among actors, inter-organizational collaboration is understood primarily from a normative view rather than from the point of view of its practical meaning. As a consequence, it is difficult to turn risk awareness and a commitment to working together into actual practical action. In addition, collaboration between different levels in the crisis management system is particularly challenging. This dissertation also identifies a tension between viewing crisis management as an example of policy-as-usual or from a crises-as-exceptions perspective.

Bakgrund: I Sverige har den offentliga sektorn till följd av New Public Management-vågen som sköljde in över landet i början på 80-talet i stor utsträckning valt använda sig av målstyrning, vilken syftar till att styra verksamheten utifrån mål. Samtidigt skedde en systematisk nedmontering av det svenska civilförsvaret och med det också en minskad förmåga att hantera kriser, då det till stor del varit civilförsvarets uppgift tidigare. Idag, drygt 30 år senare, är krishantering återigen på agendan hos kommunerna och ämnet aktualiseras av de tragiska händelser som skett på senare tid så som branden i Västmanland 2014 och terrordådet i Stockholm 2017 den 7/4. Kommunerna ska arbeta för att minska sårbarheten samtidigt som de använder målstyrning som har ett annat ursprungligt syfte än det närmsta ideologiska hos kommunerna. Syfte: Syftet med studien blir därmed att få en ökad förståelse av hur relationen mellan resiliens och målstyrning i svenska kommuner fungerar, samt att identifiera förmågor vilka möjliggör ett funktionellt förhållande Metod: Det här är en kvalitativ studie genomförd med hjälp av fallstudier av två svenska kommuner. Den bygger på sju semistrukturerade intervjuer, varav två expertintervjuer - en hos den större kommunen och fyra hos den mindre kommunen. Studien har en induktiv ansats och utgår därmed ifrån empirin. Slutsats: Studien visar att det finns två sidor av relationen. En där klassiska målstyrningen fungerar bra för det förberedande arbetet mot resiliens. Den andra sidan av relationen visar att klassisk målstyrning inte fungerar fullt ut, utan kräver viss anpassning. För att relationen ska fungera krävs istället något som författarna benämner ”resilient styrning”, vilken bygger på flexibla ”insatsmål” och att organisationen innehar vissa förmågor som erhålls med hjälp av bl.a. övningar och utbildningar. / Background: The New Public Management wave swept over Sweden during the 80’s, and with it came the introduction of Management by Objectives in the Swedish municipalities, a management method that they still use. During the same time Sweden began to dismantle its civil defence, which prior to the dismantling were the ones given the task of crisis-management and the preparations of it. Now the responsibilities fall on the municipalities in Sweden to address the matter of crisis-management and preparation of crisis, regulated by certain laws. This subject is tragically being actualised by events such as the big fire in Västmanland 2014 and the act of terror in Stockholm the 7/4 2017, events that demand that the municipalities are prepared for the crisis and able to handle them, and therefore continue their function. Aim: The aim of the thesis is to increase the understanding of the relationship between management by objectives and resilience, as well as identifying skills that are needed to maintain it. Methodology: This is a qualitative case-study within two municipalities in Sweden which is built upon seven semi-structured interviews, whereas two of them are expert- interviews, four are made in a smaller municipality and one in a big municipality. The thesis has an inductive approach and is therefore build upon empirical findings. Conclusion: The thesis concludes that there are two sides of the relationship. One where classical management by objectives functions well, regarding the initial work needed for becoming a more resilient organization. However, it doesn’t work at later stages since it’s impossible to set the goals in a crisis beforehand. Therefore, the authors propose what they name “resilient management”, which is built upon “operation objectives” that requires certain skills from the organisation that are acquired by, for example, practising. With this proposed method, the relationship can be maintained but somewhat altered.

With increasing incidence of severe disasters, global policies and frameworks have been shifting towards an emphasis on collaboration and community resilience. The greater use of information systems to assist with disasters has prompted a need to examine how technology can support collaboration and resilience. Hence, this thesis aims to identify a set of requirements for a collaborative online asset mapping tool through a requirement engineering process. A multiple case study design was used with the objective of answering: (1) what are the functional, non-functional, and general system requirements of an online asset mapping tool for disaster preparedness; (2) is a standard “off-the-shelf” asset-mapping application feasible for community development and adaptive capacity building for disaster management; and (3) what are the potential designs that can address the requirements? The specific cases examined were The Region of Waterloo, Ontario and Truro, Nova Scotia. The data from the cases was used to perform qualitative content analysis combined with activity diagrams, to determine and analyze the requirements for an online asset mapping tool to aid in disaster preparedness. The findings of the research included shared requirements between the two communities that encompassed: system purpose, system functionalities, user characteristics, and system requirements. Furthermore, prototype user interface (UI) wireframes were developed using the requirements results to show a potential design of an online asset mapping application. This thesis research addressed the need to design a tool that facilitates all aspects of the asset mapping process. Ultimately, this research builds the foundation to which future research can examine the requirements to design and develop a citizen-oriented tool to enhance community disaster resilience.