The left-right concept is considered to facilitate communication and orientation in the political world. It has a long tradition in European politics due to its capacity to absorb different associations over time. However, this dynamic nature of the concept requires periodical reassessments in order to assure that a common conceptualisation endures. This dissertation focuses on reassign what individual left-right orientation means. Usually, this is measured by asking people to place themselves on a scale labelled ‘left’ and ‘right’ at its endpoints. The first empirical analysis of this dissertation shows that this measure is comparable across groups and countries. Thereafter, the relationship between an individual’s issue preference and left-right orientation is considered. The second empirical analysis shows that this relationship is conditioned by the importance people assign to the respective issues. The final analysis demonstrates that what explains left-right orientation is contingent on individual and contextual factors. This implies that in order to understand left-right orientation, it is not enough to identify what has an impact on a person’s position but also account for all those factors that predict variation between individuals. Given this complexity, my conclusion is that the left-right concept runs the risk of becoming too complicated to serve as an analytical tool to shed light on political attitudes and behaviour. / El concepte esquerra-dreta és considerat com un factor facilitador de la comunicació en el món polític. Té una llarga tradició’ en la política europea degut a la seva capacitat d’absorbir diferents associacions a través del temps. Tanmateix, aquesta natura dinàmica del concepte requereix revisions periòdiques per assegurar que persisteix una conceptualització comuna. La present tesi es centra en resignar el que significa l’orientació esquerra-dreta. Normalment, es mesura tot demanant als enquestats posicionar-se a ells mateixos en una escala que va de l’esquerra a la dreta. El primer anàlisi empíric de la present tesi mostra que aquesta mesura és comparable entre grups i països. Seguidament, es considera la relació entre les preferències temàtiques dels individus i llur orientació esquerra-dreta. El segon anàlisi empíric mostra que aquesta relació està condicionada per la importància que les persones assignen als temes respectius. L’anàlisi final demostra que el que explica l’orientació esquerra-dreta depèn de factors contextuals i individuals. Això implica que per entendre l’orientació esquerra-dreta no és suficient identificar què té un impacte en la posició d’una persona sinó també una explicació per a tots aquells factors que preveuen la variació entre individus. Donada aquesta complexitat, la meva conclusió és que el concepte esquerra-dreta corre el risc de convertir-se en massa complicat per a servir com a eina analítica per a l’estudi de les actituds i el comportament politics.

This study examined sense of community (SOC) and participant engagement in the first 12 months of a longitudinal, group-based intervention program for parents, Legacy for ChildrenTM. Previous research in self-help/mutual support groups and alternative living environments for recovering addicts suggested SOC may positively influence engagement in programs and may be an active ingredient to the success of such programs. Literature on SOC has been limited by cross-sectional investigations and lacked a developmental perspective of changes in SOC over time. This study examined the following questions: 1) Does SOC with the parenting program differ between intervention and control participants at 6 months and 12 months following entry into Legacy? 2) How do baseline levels of social support, stress, and self-efficacy relate to sense of community with the parenting program? 3) Do intervention participants’ baseline demographic and psychological characteristics relate to attendance and engagement in the first 20 weeks of parent groups? 4) Does participant engagement predict SOC with the parenting program over time? Does early SOC predict later engagement? Study hypotheses were examined using repeated measures ANOVA, hierarchical linear regression, and structural equation modeling. The sample included 289 mothers recruited at the Miami Legacy for Children intervention site; eligible mothers were adults, received Medicaid, were English speaking, and had a newborn child. Mothers were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Results of the structural model using only intervention participants suggest that attendance and engagement in parent groups contributed significantly and positively to sense of community with the program over time. The intervention group had a slightly higher SOC with the program than the control group. However, levels of SOC with the program declined from 6 to 12 months among intervention participants while stability or slight increases in SOC characterized the control participants’ SOC during this time. Regardless of experimental condition, changes in SOC within the first year of the program were small in magnitude and suggest that changes in SOC between groups may take more time to evaluate fully. Implications of these findings to the development of SOC in intervention settings are discussed.

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Political behavior prevails in organizations. Recently, organization researchers dedicate themselves to the issues related to perceptions of organization politics. The motivation of those organization studies is nothing more than the willingness of improving organization commitment, in turns to enhance long-term competitiveness in organizations. This study is based on the Revised Model of Perceptions of Organizational Politics, Ferris et al (2002), to discuss the relationship among perceptions of organizational politics, organizational commitment, job satisfaction and organizational cynicism. The study also examines whether the perceptions of organizational politics through mediating effects, job satisfaction and organizational cynicism, will influence organizational commitment. After using structural equation modeling¡]SEM¡^ to analyze the research data in 2008, provided by Political Perception Research Team, which is led by Prof. Chin-Ming Ho, the new findings include: 1.For the influence of perceptions of organizational politics to organization commitment: ¡§general political behavior¡¨ shows a significant positive correlation; for ¡§go along to get ahead¡¨, it is not notable; regarding ¡§pay and promotion policies¡¨, it represents significant negative correlation.. 2.There is significant negative impact between perceptions of organizational politics and job satisfaction. 3.There is significant positive impact between perceptions of organizational politics and organizational cynicism. 4.Job satisfaction has positive impact to organizational commitment. 5.Organization cynicism has negative impact to organizational commitment. 6.Job satisfaction and organizational cynicism are the mediators of organizational commitment and perceptions of organization politics.

The community development in Taiwan has its unique connotation and meaning, some scholars pointed that the key to the continuous promotion of community development is in the self identity, collective participation and active support. Promotion of community development fears discontinuity. The phenomenon that commonly appears is discontinuity of residents¡¦ participation or unsatisfactory cohesive force of community. As a consequence, the community development is regarded as a mean to enable collective action of community residents, what affects the communities to enable an effective collective action is an issue to be discussed in the study. There are four purposes of this study : firstly; is to get to know the theoretical base of local community development task in Taiwan; secondly; to proof the effect among social capital, community empowerment and collective action; thirdly; to explore the operation strategies for ¡§urban¡¨ and ¡§rural¡¨ community development and lastly, to combine social capital, community empowerment and collective action theories related aspects to construct a ¡§continuous development model¡¨ for the community development in Taiwan. The research variables with regard to the community collective action of this study include: ¡§civic engagement¡¨, ¡§interpersonal trust¡¨, ¡§social networks¡¨, ¡§community empowerment¡¨, ¡§individual and social benefits (incentives)¡¨ etc., with community participants (effective sample size of 573 people in total) from 19 community development associations as research objects; including 10 communities in Kaohsiung city (urban community), 9 communities in Kaohsiung county and Tainan county (rural community), with questionnaires acquired to proceed reliability analysis and exploratory factor analysis, using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to construct variables and model test that affect the collective action of community residents for community development. According to analysis of overall sample, there is certain effect of civic engagement on social capital, community empowerment on social capital, social capital on collective action, and individual and social benefits (incentives) on collective action; moreover, a direct impact of community empowerment is shown on the collective action. According to the model fit outcomes, urban community samples are more close to ideal standard, followed by overall sample. The suggestions and strategies proposed upon the research outcomes were mainly divided into 3 directions : first of all, to increase activity management and construct interactive network from social capital perspective; second, to advance identification affection through learning capability from community empowerment perspective; eventually, to provide incentives to enable an interest from collective action perspective. There shall be positive and effective influence on the community collective action once the community development is planned and fulfilled as per 3 dimensions recommended by the study.

This study is based on the fundamentals of Perceptions of Organizational Politics (POP) proposed by Ferris et al. (2002). We use the SPSS 15.0 and the structural equation modeling (SEM) to verify the relationship between the POP and the turnover intention. And we further confirm the mediating effects of job anxiety and organizational cynicism. This study used the scales of 35 items collected by Dr. Chin-ming Ho and the other members of the last research team of POP in 2008. The research is based on the revision model of POP and questionnaire survey. The sample consisted of 1,890 employee selected from 40 organizations covering 9 industrial sectors in Taiwan. We further use of the SEM to measure the relationship amongst the constructs. The results of this study are as following. Perception of organizational politics has a significant effect on turnover intention. Perceptionsof organizational politics has three measured dimentions. Both measured dimentions of gerenal political behavior and organization policies and practices present positive effect on turnover intention. Measured dimention of go alone to get ahead presents negative effect on turnover intention. Perception of organizational politics and job anxiety present positive remarkable related. Perception of organizational politics and organizational cynicism present positive remarkable related. Job anxiety has a significant moderate effect on the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and turnover intention. Organizational cynicism has a significant moderate effect on the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and turnover intention.

The employee¡¦s perceptions of organizational politics will increase due to the ¡§uncertainty¡¨ of environment and ¡§scarcity¡¨ of resources. It will also affect employee¡¦s attitude and behavior. This study is based on the revision model of Perceptions of Organizational Politics (POP) proposed by Ferris et al. (2002). We investigate the relationship between the perceptions of organizational politics, the organizational citizenship behavior, and the organizational cynicism. Finally we further confirm the mediating effects of organizational cynicism. This study used the scales of 35 items collected by Dr. Chin-ming Ho and the other members of the last research team of POP in 2008. The research is based on the revision model of POP and questionnaire survey. The sample consisted of 1,890 employee selected from 40 organizations covering 9 industrial sectors in Taiwan. We further use of the structural equation modeling (SEM) to measure the relationship amongst the constructs. The perceptions of organizational politics have been reduced to three factors: general political behavior, going along to get ahead and pay and promotion policies. The major results of this study are as fallowing: 1.The pay and promotion policies had negative effect on the organizational citizenship behavior. 2.The perceptions of organizational politics had positive effect on the organizational cynicism. 3.The organizational cynicism had negative effect on the organizational citizenship behavior. 4.The perceptions of organizational politics had an indirect negative effect, through the mediating effects of organizational cynicism, in the organizational citizenship behavior.

This investigation is followed Ferris et al. (2002) proposed revised modeling of organizational politics perceptions, and based on structural equation modeling to study the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and job performance, and the relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Further research whether the perception of organizational politics influence job performance by the mediating effects of organizational commitment and job satisfaction. A survey research is conducted using the analysis data of Professor, Mr. Chin-Ming Ho research group of perceptions of organizational politics in 2008. After evidence-based results, the findings are as follows: 1. Perceptions of organizational politics has no significant effect three dimensions, "general political behavior", "going along and getting ahead", "the difference between politics and practices", of job performance . 2. Perceptions of organizational politics has no significant effect on "general political behavior" of organizational commitment, but has negative effect on "going along and getting ahead" and "the difference between politics and practices". 3. Perceptions of organizational politics has significant negative effect on job satisfaction. 4. Organizational commitment has positive impact on job performance. 5. Job satisfaction has positive impact on job performance. 6. Organizational commitment and job satisfaction are the intervening variables for perceptions of organizational politics and job performance.

In order to understand the relative impact from natural and anthropogenic sources, Principal Component Analysis - Structural Equation Modeling (PCA-SEM) was used to analyze the phytoplankton dynamics in coastal waters of Taiwan. PCA was used to analyze the changes of the water quality, followed by constructing of conceptual model which incorporated with biological data, and finally verified by SEM. Three study sites were selected: Chang Hua coastal waters, Kaohsiung mud dumping waters and the adjacent waters of Kaohsiung Nansing project. These sites represent the ordinary coastal water ecosystem of western Taiwan, off-shore ocean with one defined pollution sources, and anthropogenic impacted water area, respectively. The results showed that in Chang Hua coastal waters, river input and seasonal change were the primary factors effecting phytoplankton change. Water temperature was the main reason of phytoplankton changes, followed by the influence of dissolved organic matter in Kaohsiung mud dumping site. Whereas waters near Kaohsiung Nansing project, cooling water from Daling power plant coupled with the change of nutrients and heavy metal concentrations, as well as oil pollution, were the major causes of phytoplankton variation. The goodness-of-fits were good for the three models in this study, revealing that PCA- SEM is suitable to analyze the environmental changes of the costal waters of Taiwan. Logistic methods used in this study are also good for the study of benthic or fish community, and are suitable to apply on environmental impact assessments.

This study is focused on how characters of management control system affect organizational climate and the how the relation between those two factors guide performance in different organizations. With four diffent case studies in Taiwan, this study found three types of reaction in management control system, organizational climate and organizational performance: mediator model, moderating model and interactive model. This study showed that the relationship among management control system, organizational climate and performance are not in a given type; there would be various possible mixes in their relationship. In mediator model, management control system is an important factor to improve performance and the awareness of organizational climate in employee directly affected the guiding effects of management control system to organizational performance. According to the previous finding, an environment makes the employee have better awareness about organizational climate will help managers to reach the performance goals with management control systems. In moderating model, organizational climate moderate the linkeage between managemeant control system and the awareness of performance in employee. It is not ony the factor to adjust effects of management control system but also change managers¡¦ designs of management control system and moderate the relationsip on management control system and performance. Organizational performance could be improved when managers design indicators and controlling mechanism with considered interactive effects in organizational climate. This study also found that industrial characters will affect operational process of management control system and awareness of organizational climate in employee. Due to professional knowledge is an important factor for employee in service industry to provide servive to their customers, attendance rate and safety of customers are two important indicators to management control system in such industry. According to this reaesch, the case in service industry put more focus on this performance item than the cases in manufacturing industry, so the study found the characters of industrial technology will also a factor to affect the design of management control system