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A large number of due process hearings regarding the delivery of special education services to children with disabilities occur nationally and the number is increasing. Differences of opinion between professionals and parents concerning whether or not a child is disabled, the diagnosis of a disability, and the special services recommended or provided has resulted in parent-professional conflict accompanied by substantial financial and emotional costs to parents, professionals and educational agencies. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the origins and dynamics of parent-professional conflict about special education services and identify promising approaches and strategies for preventing and resolving conflict between professionals and parents of children with disabilities.A comprehensive literature review revealed the major origins of conflict about special education services in the schools. These include (a) legislative mandates; (b) attrition of special education personnel; (c) ineffective leadership in the schools; (d) lack of collaboration between general and special educators and parents; and (e) hidden constraints in educational agencies such as time, money, and resources. The combination of "systemic cracks" in the nation's educational system and the failure of professionals and parents to use effective "communication and collaboration skills" were found to be the major sources of conflict between professionals and parents.Five promising approaches and strategies were identified for preventing or resolving conflicts about special education. First, identify systemic problems, initiate school-wide dialogues, and implement a change process to reform problems through legislation, policies, organizational structures, and operating procedures. Second, follow ten basic principles of dialogue and collaboration while communicating with each other. Third, engage in positive dialogue where each party reflects and takes responsibility for reaching a mutually shared alternative solution by understanding the other person's point of view and conversing as equals. Fourth, train professionals to adopt an interest-based approach to dispute resolution by engaging all stakeholders in a school-wide dialogue, addressing underlying interests or needs rather than reacting to demands. Fifth, use third party intermediaries such as parent-to-parent assistance, dispute resolution case managers, individualized education program facilitators and intervene at the onset of the conflict.

This study investigates the effects of the organizational ethical context (ethical climate and ethical culture) in Chinese enterprises on accounting professionals’ perceptions of earnings management, organizational-professional conflict (OPC) and affective organizational commitment (OC). We also test the effects of Machiavellianism on these factors, and the interactive effects of Machiavellianism and ethical context on OPC and OC. The findings, based on responses from 89 accounting professionals employed by Chinese enterprises at staff, supervisor and manager levels, indicate that in general the perceived ethical context did not affect judgments of the acceptability of earnings management. However, as anticipated, perceptions of a stronger benevolent/cosmopolitan climate (one that places more emphasis on the public interest) were associated with harsher judgments of accounting earnings management. Machiavellianism also had a marginally significant effect on judgments of accounting earnings management and a significant effect on judgments of operating earnings management, with high Machiavellians judging the actions to be more ethical. Two aspects of ethical culture, obedience to authority and ethical norms, were found to be significantly associated with organizational-professional conflict and affective organizational commitment. Contrary to our expectations, high Machiavellians appeared to be more, rather than less, sensitive to the perceived ethical context in their organization. Specifically, the perceived organizational ethical culture had a greater (lesser) impact on affective organizational commitment for high (low) Machiavellians.

This thesis is an exploration of a head teacher's experience of Lesson Study. It aims to consider how Lesson Study develops teacher learning through consideration of collaboration, expertise and professional conflict. The methodology embraces the lived experience of introducing a collaborative method of teacher development, Lesson Study into a primary school and exploring its impact. The research is conducted through an exploratory layered method, considering the Lesson Study teams, the whole school and the head teacher's thoughts and reflections on and about Lesson Study. The exploration in this thesis found that Lesson Study is far from breath-takingly simple (Dudley, 2013) and that there are many complexities and variables within each Lesson Study group that need to be considered carefully in order to enhance any opportunity for teacher learning. This thesis describes how these different elements, collaboration, expertise and professional conflict, interacted in two different Lesson Study teams. These findings, are presented alongside the head teacher's reflections. Building on these reflections the thesis starts to articulate how Lesson Study could offer teacher learning opportunities and which elements of school culture, teacher expertise and understanding would need to be developed, honed and considered in order to create an outcome which results in teacher learning. This research provides an exploration how teacher learning may be generated through Lesson Study work. It extends the current literature on teacher learning in Lesson Study by identifying and exploring professional conflict alongside collaboration and expertise. Teacher learning opportunities are not simply created in the context the research took place. It concludes that while teacher learning can be generated through Lesson Study; the conditions and culture of a setting, alongside the skills, knowledge and expertise of the teachers involved in each team are also crucial.

The behaviour of employees is increasingly being recognised as the critical factor in achievement of organisational effectiveness. Therefore, the need to address inefficiencies that are derived from the organisation-employee relationship is being recognised as important to organisational success. For many years the concept of organisational commitment provided the means to develop theory in relation to organisation-employee relationships. More recently, however, other types of workrelated commitments have been identified as having importance to the organisationemployee relationship. In the contemporary political-economic context, professionals are increasingly becoming employees of organisations which operate according to market or quasi-market principles. There are some fundamental differences between professional occupations and non-professional occupations. These differences may have consequences for the relationship between professional employees and their employing organisation. The differences may also have consequences for other workrelated outcomes for professional employees in ways that are different from the work-related outcomes of non-professional employees. Importantly, for professional employees commitment to the profession is developed during the pre-workplace entry educational experiences and may have consequences for the retention of professional employees within organisations, as well as retention within the profession. Therefore, the commitment of professional employees to their occupation may be both an antecedent to and a consequence of other work-related outcomes. However, to date, professional commitment has not been studied from a developmental perspective and the effect of workplace exposure on professional commitment is not understood. This thesis reports the findings of a study in which a theoretical model of the relationship between professional commitment prior to workplace entry and professional turnover intention was evaluated using path analysis. The relationships included in the model were between commitment to the profession as both an antecedent to, and a consequence of organisational-professional conflict, job satisfaction and organisational commitment, as well as the relationship that each of these variables may have to organisational turnover intention and professional turnover intention. A repeated measures design was used with a sample of nursing professionals. Professional commitment before entry to the workplace was measured, and after a period of workplace exposure, professional commitment was again measured, as well as the other work-related outcomes identified in the model. The Blau (2003) occupational commitment measure was used to measure the pre-and-post workplace entry levels of professional commitment. The thesis also examined the factor structure of the Blau (2003) occupational commitment measure. The results of the model evaluation indicated that it is a plausible model of the identified relationships. Examination of the factor structure of the Blau (2003) occupational commitment measure indicated that it is best represented by five rather than four components. This research found that professional commitment was quite stable in the initial period of workplace exposure. The research findings also indicated that the relationship between professional commitment and organisational commitment was mediated by job satisfaction and that organisational-professional conflict and job satisfaction were directly related to organisational commitment. The research found that job satisfaction and professional commitment after a period of workplace exposure were related to organisational turnover intention, but that organisational commitment was not. The final major research finding was that organisational turnover intention was the only workplace variable in the model that was directly related to professional turnover intention. This research has contributed to the organisational behaviour literature through the development and initial evaluation of a model of the relationship between professional commitment prior to workplace entry and professional turnover intention. The results of the model suggested that when organisations provide professional employees with workplace experiences that are professionally, as well as personally satisfying, they promote retention of professional employees with their own organisation, as well as retention of professionals within the profession. This research recommends that for organisations that employ professionals, the model of the organisation-professional employee relationship that is likely to promote the retention of professional employees both within the organisation and within the profession, is a partnership model. Conflict resolution principles are recommended to inform the partnership model of the organisation-professional employee relationship. In addition, the empowering leadership style is recommended for organisations that employ professionals, because it is better matched to the employment mode and characteristics of professional employees.

From the point of view of interrole conflict, this study probes into the conflict that a physician encounters in his/her environment and the subsequent conflict effect on the satisfaction and intention to quit. In addition to investigating the source of conflict, the study develops a questionnaire to understand the influence of dual professional conflict on satisfaction and intention to quit. Simultaneously, the study examines the mediating effect of physician's satisfaction on dual professional conflict and intention to quit, and tests the moderating effect of professional commitment on other consequences. The rapid changes of healthcare insurance policy in Taiwan have a great impact on the hospital administration. In addition, it has a tremendous influence on physician¡¦s behaviors, which arouse conflicts on both organizational-professional (OPC) and personal-professional (PPC) levels. In the past, there were few research on interrole conflict, especially on the source of physicians' OPC and PPC. Taiwan¡¦s national health insurance and global budget system is unique (to) healthcare insurance system in the worldwide(Taiwan).Literatures are not enough to offer the cause of the dual conflicts of physicians and relevant consequences. The study, first, carries on case interview in accordance with literature review to form questionnaires and builds up hypotheses. Second, it collects the survey materials by combining quantitative and qualitative research in order to obtain a deeper and more accurate analysis of the study results. Physician including residents and attending physician from both public and private hospitals in Taiwan were enrolled for study. A total of 1,200 questionnaires were distributed and 776 were valid questionnaires. The result shows five variables in the source of conflict by using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). These five variables are significantly correlated with physician¡¦s dual professional conflicts. Results from regression analysis show that affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment of professional commitment have a moderating effect on the relationship between dual professional conflicts and the output variables. Furthermore, by structural equation modeling these results show that both internal and external job satisfaction mediate between physicians¡¦ OPC and their intention to quit, and professional satisfaction partially mediate between physicians¡¦ PPC and their intention to quit. Physicians are one of the important professional groups. Even though changes in healthcare insurance policy are worldwide phenomenon, there is relatively few studies probing into interrole conflict among physicians in Taiwan. This study developed questionnaires of the source of conflict and confirmed both the moderating effect of professional commitment and the mediating effect of satisfaction, which contributes to fill the gap in this field. These results provide a managerial reference in clinical practice and as well as a foundation of future studies.

This thesis examines whether and how historians’ reliance on medical treatises has limited the historiography of contagion as it relates to fourteenth through sixteenth century England. It analyses the context, contents, audience, and codicology of six English tractates, four on the plague and two on the sweating sickness. Before the early seventeenth century, most English tractates were translations/adaptations of Continental works, with ‘uniquely English’ content added. Although the plague dominates studies of pre-modern disease, focusing on the plague hinders comparative analyses that can reveal much about contemporary understanding of contagion. The socio-political-professional contexts in which the tractates were written and disseminated affected their contents, circulation and, ultimately, audiences. Although largely ignored by historians, the tractates’ prefatory dedications, together with their codicology, reveals that the texts were likely accessible to non-elite audiences. Rather than being limited to its medical sense, contagion formed part of the larger discourse about the human condition.

This thesis examines whether and how historians’ reliance on medical treatises has limited the historiography of contagion as it relates to fourteenth through sixteenth century England. It analyses the context, contents, audience, and codicology of six English tractates, four on the plague and two on the sweating sickness. Before the early seventeenth century, most English tractates were translations/adaptations of Continental works, with ‘uniquely English’ content added. Although the plague dominates studies of pre-modern disease, focusing on the plague hinders comparative analyses that can reveal much about contemporary understanding of contagion. The socio-political-professional contexts in which the tractates were written and disseminated affected their contents, circulation and, ultimately, audiences. Although largely ignored by historians, the tractates’ prefatory dedications, together with their codicology, reveals that the texts were likely accessible to non-elite audiences. Rather than being limited to its medical sense, contagion formed part of the larger discourse about the human condition.

This thesis examines whether and how historians’ reliance on medical treatises has limited the historiography of contagion as it relates to fourteenth through sixteenth century England. It analyses the context, contents, audience, and codicology of six English tractates, four on the plague and two on the sweating sickness. Before the early seventeenth century, most English tractates were translations/adaptations of Continental works, with ‘uniquely English’ content added. Although the plague dominates studies of pre-modern disease, focusing on the plague hinders comparative analyses that can reveal much about contemporary understanding of contagion. The socio-political-professional contexts in which the tractates were written and disseminated affected their contents, circulation and, ultimately, audiences. Although largely ignored by historians, the tractates’ prefatory dedications, together with their codicology, reveals that the texts were likely accessible to non-elite audiences. Rather than being limited to its medical sense, contagion formed part of the larger discourse about the human condition.