There exists a severe deficit of studies exploring the psychological aspects of Christian worship experiences despite worship’s importance in Christianity and in many people’s lives. Transformational worship experiences can have lasting effects on one’s outlook and psychological functioning (Chou, 2008; Cutler, 1976; Ellison & George, 1994; Fife, Adegoke, McCoy, & Brewer, 2011; Salsman, Brown, Brechting, & Carlson, 2005), yet very few studies have investigated these experiences. The current study sought to explore the effects of group size and style of worship on participants’ feelings of deindividuation and focus on others within the congregation. Seventy-six middle aged adults from a range of ethnicities and denominations took part in an interview that included measures of religious support, social support, style of worship service, and a number of free-response questions about a transformational worship experience in the participant’s past. It was predicted that a more ceremonial worship style and that higher scores in religious and social support would be associated with less focus on specific others, that a more ceremonial worship style would be associated with more religious and social support, and that, depending on the level of religious and social support, the relationship between ceremonial style and focus on other would vary. Except for a significant positive correlation between ceremonial worship style and religious support, the proposed hypotheses were not supported.

Abstract The advent of knowledge economy era signifies the importance of knowledge, and knowledge management is drawing great attention. The success of knowledge management depends on the willingness of employees to share knowledge. This research studies whether organization support and social support will affect employee's commitment to organization, and whether more commitment will make employees more willing to share knowledge for the benefit of the organization. Furthermore, this research will verify the mediating effect of organizational commitment on the interaction among organization support, social support and knowledge sharing willingness. This research uses questionnaires for experiment and verification, total 550 questionnaires are sent to traditional manufacturer and communication service companies located in Southern Taiwan, which are randomly selected from the top 1000 manufacturers and the top 500 companies according Business Week 2006, and 486 questionnaires returned. The effective questionnaires return rate is 88.4%. The results of this research is following: (1) The profession support and mission support had positively effect to the organization commitment, and the first had more effect than the second. (2) In the society support, the emotional support and the tool support had positively effect to the organization commitment, and the first had more effect than the second. Also the supervisor's support had more effect than the family and friend's support. (3) In the organization commitment, emotion had positively effect to the knowledge sharing willingness, but the persistent promise did not. (4)The supervisor and senior employee had more organization commitment and knowledge sharing willingness than other employees.

The purpose of the dissertation was to explore how students’ perceptions of different types of autonomy support can be associated with the motivational construct of student interest, differentiated into situational and individual interest, mediated by different levels of cognitive processing such as surface processing and deep processing, using SEM (structural equation modeling). It was hypothesized that 1) PCAS (perceived cognitive autonomy support) would influence students’ individual interest, the later phase of interest development, and also that 2) the relationship between these would be mediated by deep level of cognitive processing, referred to as deep processing in the study, highlighting the impact of PCAS on both cognitive processing and motivation. To this end, there were three phases to the current study: (a) a first qualitative phase using open-ended questions and a focus group interview about whether and how students perceive and experience different types of autonomy support they encounter from their instructors (Study1A); (b) a second scale development phase to develop and finalize the PCAS-K (perceived cognitive autonomy support, Korean version) and PC-K (perceived choice, Korean version) in the Korean educational context (Study1B); and (c) a third phase to investigate the relationships among students’ perceptions of various types of autonomy support, different levels of cognitive processing, and student interest (Study2, main study). The results suggested that perceived cognitive autonomy support was positively related to situational interest directly and also indirectly to both situational and individual interest, whereas perceived choice was associated with neither interest constructs. In addition, perceived cognitive autonomy support was highly correlated with other constructs such as surface processing and deep processing, whereas perceived choice was not related to any other latent variables in the study. In contrast to my expectations, perceived cognitive autonomy support was not positively related to individual interest by mediation of deep processing. Instead, perceived cognitive autonomy support was positively associated with situational interest, mediated by deep processing. In light of the findings, the study spotlights cognitive autonomy support as a significant predictor of cognitive processing and student motivation. Further research is needed with different individuals in various contexts in order to elucidate further the relationships among these variables. / text

Abstract Effective and Quality Technical Support in Business to Business Partnerships with focus on the High-Tech (Semiconductor Industry) Products Fred Kishwahili Byabagye, MSE The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 Supervisor: Kyle Lewis Co-Supervisor: Tony Ambler My choice of this thesis topic is very much in line with my passionate desire to contribute and share my experience in the area of Business to Business (B2B) technical support while continuing to explore the constantly evolving challenges involved when a corporation that makes semiconductor products (Original Semiconductor Manufacturer) has to provide effective and efficient quality technical support to another corporation (Original Equipment Manufacturer) that uses the semiconductor product in designing a final product. For example, how does an Original Semiconductor manufacture (OSM) such as AMD or Intel provide effective technical support to an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) such as HP or Dell? This partnership has to be well managed to ensure continuous technical support from new product conception through the sustaining phase of the product. This area of business to business technical support is not well understood because of company Intellectual Property (IP) issues and propriety information involved. This type of activity happens under Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), behind “firewalls” and varies from corporation to corporation. Most people have had experience with or have heard stories about customer service issues between an individual consumer customer and a corporation selling a product (such as buying a PC/Laptop from Dell or HP). This thesis will not explore this area since it is very familiar and well understood. First, by drawing on my observations spanning 16 years working in different customer facing areas for AMD and noting the changes that have taken place in the way B2B technical support has evolved, I will constantly point out scenarios that continuously come up in an effort to deliver quality and effective customer technical support. Second, there is a lot of literature available that explores how the semiconductor industry has changed from companies being component sellers to “solutions providers”. Historically, technical support used to be considered as only necessary after a product had gone into production. However, that model has changed in the current environment of more complex products such as Microprocessors (CPU), System-on-a-Chip (SoC), and Accelerated Processing units (APU). For B2B customer technical support to be effective and high quality, it has to meet and exceed the customers’ expectations throughout the product life-cycle. / text

The aim of this study is to find out the impact of monetary allowances and compensations to receivers: families and persons. The main questions were: what kind of monetary relief makes the biggest influence to the life of families, which fields of family life (reproductive, economic, child-raising) monetary relief impacts the most. The methods of qualitative interviewing of social work experts and quantitative questioning of social workers were used. In this study it was find out that the biggest impact to the family life makes social allowance and allowance of child. Allowance of child makes the biggest influence to large families, especially living in rural areas. Some families in order to receive allowances decided not to register marriage, to have children, hide their real income and number of persons, living in family. Conditions of getting social allowance encouraged persons to register in the market of labor, but did not encouraged them to look for the job, to change their qualifications. Many allowance receivers were illegal workers. Allowances also negatively impacts families’ social status and self-perception, but this is most probably effects of poverty. Experts evaluate the positive impact of allowances to the life of family as poor; allowances, especially social allowance, are too small to maintain family in crisis, and do not perform its main function.

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This project explores the challenges of managing in times of organisational stress. The New Zealand department of corrections is facing multiple pressures which are only set to increase including: financial strictures as government funding is being highly scrutinised, greater demand as inmate numbers increase, and reduced capabilities as many staff lack experience. A grounded theory in a case study setting (three prisons in Christchurch, New Zealand) was undertaken utilising repertory grid and semi-structured interviews to explore the ways in which managers cope during times of such stress. A total of 11 interviews were conducted. In the case, I considered what differentiates effective managers from those who appear less able to cope. It was found that effective managers are those who are able to build trust and respect with their constituents. When staff trust and respect their managers it is because they feel valued and perceive their manager to be on their side; they are then willing to reciprocate. Positive regard, demonstrations of support, and leading by example were found to be key factors leading to being perceived as being on the staff’s side. The links between trust, respect and performance along with the valuation of staff wellbeing were examined.

Social support has been proven to play a major role in the well-being of an individual. Unfortunately, the conceptualisation of the construct is vague and many authors disagree about the various properties and dimensions of the construct. Seen from a health-related perspective, social support can be regarded as divided into two main spectrums, the main-effect model and the stress-buffering model. The main-effect model proposes that social support has a beneficial effect, whether or not an individual is under stress, while the stress-buffering model proposes that social support buffers an individual from potentially pathological influences. The construct is furthermore conceptualised as consisting of distinct structural, functional and perceptual dimensions. The aim of the research was to develop an instrument which would incorporate all three of these dimensions and could be proven valid and statistically reliable. A cross-sectional survey design was used. An availability sample of qualified educators in the North-West Province of South Africa was used. The Social Support Survey was developed as a measuring instrument and administered along with a biographical questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Contrary to expectation, factor analysis indicated that the four factors regarding the characteristics of the support, as well as the five factors regarding the types of support, were clustered around the source of support. This might be due to the Likert-scale matrix design of the questionnaire, which required participants to answer a wide range of questions regarding the type, importance, amount, adequacy and accessibility of support. By way of conclusion, recommendations were made. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Intelligent decision systems have the potential to support and greatly amplify human decision-making across a number of industries and domains. However, despite the rapid improvement in the underlying capabilities of these “intelligent” systems, increasing their acceptance as decision aids in industry has remained a formidable challenge. If intelligent systems are to be successful, and their full impact on decision-making performance realized, a greater understanding of the factors that influence recommendation acceptance from intelligent machines is needed. Through an empirical experiment in the financial services industry, this study investigated the effects of perceived behavioral similarity (similarity state) on the dependent variables of recommendation acceptance, decision performance and decision efficiency under varying conditions of uncertainty (volatility state). It is hypothesized in this study that behavioral similarity as a design element will positively influence the acceptance rate of machine recommendations by human users. The level of uncertainty in the decision context is expected to moderate this relationship. In addition, an increase in recommendation acceptance should positively influence both decision performance and decision efficiency. The quantitative exploration of behavioral similarity as a design element revealed a number of key findings. Most importantly, behavioral similarity was found to positively influence the acceptance rate of machine recommendations. However, uncertainty did not moderate the level of recommendation acceptance as expected. The experiment also revealed that behavioral similarity positively influenced decision performance during periods of elevated uncertainty. This relationship was moderated based on the level of uncertainty in the decision context. The investigation of decision efficiency also revealed a statistically significant result. However, the results for decision efficiency were in the opposite direction of the hypothesized relationship. Interestingly, decisions made with the behaviorally similar decision aid were less efficient, based on length of time to make a decision, compared to decisions made with the low-similarity decision aid. The results of decision efficiency were stable across both levels of uncertainty in the decision context.

Social support has been proven to play a major role in the well-being of an individual. Unfortunately, the conceptualisation of the construct is vague and many authors disagree about the various properties and dimensions of the construct. Seen from a health-related perspective, social support can be regarded as divided into two main spectrums, the main-effect model and the stress-buffering model. The main-effect model proposes that social support has a beneficial effect, whether or not an individual is under stress, while the stress-buffering model proposes that social support buffers an individual from potentially pathological influences. The construct is furthermore conceptualised as consisting of distinct structural, functional and perceptual dimensions. The aim of the research was to develop an instrument which would incorporate all three of these dimensions and could be proven valid and statistically reliable. A cross-sectional survey design was used. An availability sample of qualified educators in the North-West Province of South Africa was used. The Social Support Survey was developed as a measuring instrument and administered along with a biographical questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Contrary to expectation, factor analysis indicated that the four factors regarding the characteristics of the support, as well as the five factors regarding the types of support, were clustered around the source of support. This might be due to the Likert-scale matrix design of the questionnaire, which required participants to answer a wide range of questions regarding the type, importance, amount, adequacy and accessibility of support. By way of conclusion, recommendations were made. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.