This study approaches the study of organisational communication in the Australian public sector by focussing on the gendered nature of the organisation, and presenting results from the grass roots or 'native' level (Gregory, 1983). The theoretical framework of this study draws on a diverse range of philosophical viewpoints, ranging from organisational communication and culture approaches, sociological perspectives, public sector research, and uniquely Australian conceptualisations of gender within the public sphere. This study introduces a new way of conceiving feminist bureaucrats (femocrats), in terms of their relationships with 'natives' within public sector organisations. Difficulties in identifying a distinctly Australian organisational communication arena result from both the paucity of organisational communication, grass roots, and public sector research, and because of the problematic task of assimilating 'bits' of divergent theories, with often incompatible views to inform one comprehensive theoretical framework. The results of focus group and individual interviews suggest that a 'managerial' culture exists both within and externally to public sector organisations. This managerialism originates from within patriarchal and masculine organisational structures, and from a shift of workplace practices where a public service model has been replaced by a more private sector, bottom line, results orientation. While the 'natives' in this study are not representative of all public sector employees, their discourse provides a glimpse into the concerns of grass roots members of organisations, a view that is significant in its absence from organisational communication research, particularly in the Australian context.

The World Health Organisation has developed a concept of ecological health- a notion that health, using a broad definition, is a product of the societies and environments in which we live. It is the aim of the WHO to achieve "Health for All by the Year 2000." This reform agenda incorporates education as a tool for social change. This study investigates the role of education in social change, with local and global health as an objective. The background to the development of this concept is outlined, as are the social issues that make this such an important perspective. Theories of social formation and the role of the school in relation to society are discussed, and the research that confirms that schools do "make a difference" reported. Definitions of change, factors affecting social change and models of change are described. Factors relating specifically to educational change are outlined and related to examples of educational change, designed to promote social change, in Australia. Case studies, composed of descriptions of schools written by staff members to illustrate the process of working towards becoming "Healthy School Communities" and transcripts of interviews, are analysed to determine the extent and type of change that is taking place within each school, and how the changes are happening. Schools reported changes to attitude, understanding, policies and practice. The analysis is then discussed, and the conclusion reached that this construct of education has some useful conceptual frameworks, for the cultural changes that are occurring in Australia and other Western cultures.

Zugl.: Passau, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

<p>This thesis is a field study focusing on change in the agricultural landscape following Ukraine’s post-independence land reform, in which Soviet era collective and state farms were dissolved and the ownership of 30 million hectares of agricultural land was distributed to former collective farm workers. It is based on an eight-week field visit to the southern Ukrainian province of Kherson, during which time the author was able to interview 21 farmers and agricultural officials. Economists, anthropologists and even political scientists have examined post-independence Ukrainian agriculture, and more specifically discussed reasons for the widely-observed continuities between agriculture today and under the Soviet period, despite sweeping reforms. Despite the prominence of land reform as a research subject in landscape studies, there are few landscape treatments of Ukrainian agriculture in English.  The main purpose of this thesis then was to connect the empirical data I gathered in Kherson to landscape and political ecology perspectives in order to develop and explore a research problem dealing with Ukrainian agricultural continuity and change from a geographic perspective. The main conclusion is that a landscape perspective has much to contribute with respect to the debate on Ukrainian agriculture. Specifically, conceiving of the agricultural landscape as landesque capital – long-term land improvements tied to specific agricultural knowledge systems and organizational forms – helps to understand how a heavily capitalized landscape can exert an inertial impact on future developments, thereby (re)producing continuity.</p>

<p>Vid årsskiftet 2010 blev ca 17000 långtidssjukskrivna i Sverige utförsäkrade från Försäkringskassan. De hänvisades till åtgärdsprogrammet Arbetslivsintroduktion hos Arbetsförmedlingen. Riksdagens snabba beslut angående de nya reglerna för sjukförsäkringen kom att kräva mer av den sjukskrivne individen än någonsin tidigare. Det kom också att kräva brådskande planering kring organiseringen och hanteringen av de nya reglerna från både Försäkringskassans och Arbetsförmedlingens personal. Kunskapen var låg om hur de utförsäkrade upplevde hanteringen kring övergången och hur organiseringen och hanteringen kring regeländringarna skedde. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur de utförsäkrade individerna upplevde övergången från Försäkringskassan till Arbetsförmedlingen samt undersöka om det fungerade som det var tänkt med hanteringen kring regeländringarna i sjukförsäkringen. En kvalitativ undersökningsmetod med semistrukturerade intervjuer utfördes med en handläggare från Försäkringskassan, en chef från Arbetsförmedlingen och fyra stycken utförsäkrade individer som gick på Arbetslivsintroduktionen. Undersökningen visade att idén med de nya regeländringarna i sjukförsäkringen var god men att övergången till Arbetsförmedlingen inte fungerade tillfredställande. Studien visade också att beslutet om regeländringarna angående utförsäkringen gick alldeles för snabbt, vilket personal vid Försäkringskassan och Arbetsförmedlingen uppgav</p>

<p>Purpose – During the past decades, implementing reforms becomes a popular topic for most manufacturers. With the aim to cope with the environment changes, there are urgent needs for these manufacturing companies to carry on reforms on the existing businesses. At the same time, value creation under a new service dominant logic for manufacturers are cited by many scholars. The aim of this paper is to analyze the new dominant logic, with the comparison of traditional goods dominant logic, recognize the advanced value creation model. To go a step further, this paper also discusses about the way of implementing reforms and new business logic for manufacturers.</p><p>Methodology – This paper mainly takes the methodology of literature review. The literatures reviewed here include academic papers, books, and website information. The main field of literatures include: service definition and service characteristics; goods-dominant logic versus service dominant logic; and value creation (co-creation). On the other hand, some small case studies can also be found in this paper.</p><p>Findings – After the comparing between goods dominant logic and service dominant logic, this paper suggests the service-dominant logic as a preferred business logic. Because it provides a more interactive way of consumption, presents a value-in-use view rather than value-in-exchange, and requires manufacturers playing a role of assisting customers in value creating process. For those manufacturers wish to implement the service dominant logic, this paper suggests them to take innovations on their business, which including the innovations on products/services, business processes, and business models.</p><p>Research limitations/implications – As a relative new field of study, the research is mostly taken by literature review. However, the research on the implementing of new business logic and reforms requires more voice from the real industry.  </p><p>Practical implications – Manufacturers may position themselves to new roles by involving in the customers’ value creating process. Taking innovations from a integrated view may help manufacturers to achieve the higher value under service dominant logic.</p><p>Originality/value – This paper concluded the ongoing service dominant logic development, after which, offers a discussion on the implementing of which for the manufacturing companies.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--Addis Ababa University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-139).

The relationship between magyarization and Hungarian civil society during the reform era of Hungarian history (1790-1848) is the subject of this dissertation. This thesis examines the cultural and political activities of three liberal oppositional nobles: András Fáy (1786-1864), István Bezerédj (1796-1856) and Ödön Beöthy (1796-1854). These three men were chosen as the basis of this study because of their commitment to a two-pronged approach to politics: they advocated greater cultural magyarization in the multiethnic Hungarian Kingdom and campaigned to extend the protection of the Hungarian constitution to segments of the non-aristocratic portion of the Hungarian population. I argue that magyarization and civil society were closely connected: magyarization unfolded within the confines of civil society, and civil society was meant to guarantee that magyarization would leave room for cultural homogeneity. I locate the success and ambivalence of Fáy, Bezerédj and Beöthy’s efforts to shape Hungarian civil society not in the peculiar mixture of liberal and national elements that characterized their political campaigns, including their magyarization impulses, but in their social position as Magyar nobles transforming a multiethnic and socially-stratified Hungarian population. On a more subtle level, the fact that these three men based their reform efforts on grass-roots transformation and on the interconnectedness between the capital centres and the counties is also a central concern of this thesis. / History

This thesis has two parts, each with a different subject. Part 1 studies the macroeconomic implications of alternative health care reforms. Part 2 studies the computation and simulation of dynamic competitive equilibria in models with heterogeneous agents and market frictions. In 2007, 44.5 million non-elderly in the U.S did not have health insurance coverage. Empirical studies suggest that there are serious negative consequences associated with uninsurance. Consequently, there is wide agreement that reforming the current health care system is desirable and several proposals have been discussed among economists and in the political arena. However, little attention has been paid to quantify the macroeconomic consequences of reforming the health insurance system in the U.S. The objective of this section is to develop a theoretical framework to evaluate a broad set of health care reform plans. I build a model that is capable of reproducing a set of key facts of health expenditure and insurance demand patterns, as well as key macroeconomic conditions of the U.S. during the last decade. Then, I use this model to derive the macroeconomic implications of alternative reforms and alternative ways of funding these reforms. The second part of this thesis studies the computation and simulation of dynamic competitive equilibria in models with heterogeneous agents and market frictions. This type of models have been of considerable interest in macroeconomics and finance to analyze the effects of various macroeconomic policies, the evolution of wealth and income distribution, and the variability of asset prices. However, there is no reliable algorithm available to compute their equilibria. We develop a theoretical framework for the computation and simulation of dynamic competitive markets economies with heterogeneous agents and market frictions. We apply these methods to some macroeconomic models and find important improvements over traditional methods.

This qualitative study inquired into the personal experience of three engineering professors and one associate dean who participated in an engineering education coalition—the Foundation Coalition—a National Science Foundation-funded project which attempted to reform undergraduate engineering curricula at six U.S. institutions of higher education. Through analysis of occupational life histories, and data from a larger study of curricular change processes, two dominant social narratives emerged. Cultural attributes of academia were conceptualized as a master narrative. The reform effort emerged as a counter-narrative by calling for a “culture change” in engineering education. I describe five areas where the counter-narrative challenged the master narrative: the rationale and need for educational change, the nature of faculty work, disciplinary relationships, relationships among faculty, and the incentive and reward system. The counter-narrative of reform promoted curricular and pedagogical change, more interdisciplinary and integrated foundations for engineering education, and encouraged partnerships and community over faculty isolation and autonomy. The counter-narrative challenged faculty complicity with the master narrative and offered alternative ways of viewing their role as faculty in higher education. The master and counter-narratives clashed over the nature of faculty work in research universities, fueling the ongoing debate about the relative value of research and teaching and the associated reward system. This study found that the four participants used different strategies to navigate the conflict between the two social narratives. One participant was informed by an ideal vision of engineering education, and never relinquished the quest for an opportunity to realize that vision. Another professor, energized by the collaborative environment created by the Coalition, continued to find creative avenues to partner with others to improve engineering education. A third participant worked, through compromise and accommodation, to craft an improved curriculum that worked within the local institutional culture. And finally, an associate dean, who rejected the duality of the master/counter-narrative worldview, reframed the reform effort by encouraging faculty working in educational change to view their work as scholarship. The findings from this study support faculty engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning and encourage faculty developers to find ways of supporting faculty in that effort.