Thesis (Ph. D.)--Colorado State University, 1991. / Includes decision support system programs (App. B). Includes bibliographical references (p. [141]-144). Also available in print version.

Proefschrift Rijksuniversiteit Limburg, Maastricht. / Met lit. opg. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

Software toolkits are under development to help construct applications that support group-working. Toolkit developers adopt different approaches to group-work support in order to tackle different issues and a toolkit is commonly characterised by the approach adopted. It is difficult to compare toolkits because of this lack of apparent commonality and it is difficult to decide which toolkits meet specific application requirements.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Kevin Gwinner / Companies must weigh the trade-offs of support strategies and choose between the effectiveness of meeting customer expectations and the cost of implementing product support tools and services. These support strategies can be critical to the success of a company and therefore, must provide efficient problem resolution in order to meet the satisfaction of the customer and retailer. This thesis reviews survey data collected from a large agricultural equipment company’s retailers on their satisfaction of product support tools and services provided by the company, and how the retailers utilize these product support tools and services when attempting to resolve a product issue. This evaluation of a company’s product support strategy leads to the identification of potential solutions to help maximize the efficiency of the problem resolution process, as well as minimize the opportunity costs and financial costs of product support sources.

No description available.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / The findings in this study demonstrate that the Child Support Grant is only effective if it is incorporated into the household income, that recipients of the grant mainly spend it on food and in paying school fees for their children. Although the recipients share the same sentiments with regards to the amount of the grant, they all agree that it does have a positive impact on the lives of the children, especially when it is combined with the household income

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / A large body of research on staff turnover report that intention to leave the organisation is one of the key predictor’s to staff turnover (Chen & Francesco, 2003; Steel & Lounsbury, 2009). Researchers agree that when organisational commitment is high amongst staff the result is low turnover (Abdulkadir & Orkan, 2009; Culpepper, 2011; Muse & Stamper, 2007; Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002). A strong correlation between voluntary turnover and the three organisational commitment dimensions (namely, affective, continuance and normative) was also found (Tansky & Cohen, 2001; Ucar & Otten, 2010). Organisational commitment has been identified as an important employee job related behaviour and perceived organisational support plays a vital role in enhancing employees’ organisational commitment. As employees’ commitment increases, employees feel more obligated and committed towards their organisation and products of this increased commitment are favourable benefits such as organisational effectiveness, reduced turnover, improved performance and reduced absenteeism (Yang, Wu, Chang, & Chien, 2011). The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between perceived organisational support, organisational commitment and turnover intentions. Convenience sampling was used to identify the sample and questionnaires were used to collect the data. The questionnaires used to gain information include a biographical questionnaire; Eisenberger et al.’s Survey of Perceived Organisational Support, Meyer and Allen’s Organisational Commitment Questionnaire and Roodt’s Turnover Intentions Questionnaire. These questionnaires were administered to individuals employed as load control agents and support staff at a selected company in the aviation industry. The data was analysed using SPSS version 22. The results of the study reveal that no statistically significant relationship exists between perceived organisational support and turnover intentions amongst employees, however a statistically significant relationship between organisational commitment and its various dimensions namely, affective, continuance and normative commitment was found with turnover intentions. Furthermore, a statistically significant relationship between perceived organisational support and organisational commitment and its various dimensions namely, affective, continuous and normative commitment was also found. In addition to this both perceived organisational support and organisational commitment were found to predict turnover intentions. However, organisational commitment was found to be a stronger predictor of turnover intentions than perceived organisational support. Furthermore, when exploring the dimensions of organisational commitment and turnover intentions, normative commitment was found to be the strongest predictor of turnover intentions. Limitations of the findings are presented and possible recommendations for the organisation and future research are also provided.

The study was conducted in the Mthatha District, Mqanduli area, and it sought to enquire about the role of junior secondary school principals in supporting Grade R teachers in order to make teaching and learning in the Grade R classes effective. The researcher has noticed with concern the poor conditions of Grade R classes in the schools and felt a need for proper support. She felt the principal could champion the concept of support better, in his capacity as a manager in the school. Studies in Early Childhood Development have been done, and they pertained to all aspects of child development, parental support etc., but studies that view support from a managerial perspective in Mthatha District are scarce. Under quantitative research design, a survey research method was employed to collect a large portion of the data. A questionnaire consisting of closed and open ended questions was used in order to collect data from the Grade R teachers. Open ended questions were used in order to get a broader view and perceptions. Comprehensive sampling was used in this study because the whole population fell into the sample. All ethical considerations were observes and after receipt of permission to conduct research in the schools, a questionnaire was distributed personally to all the schools in the sample. Data was analyzed by means of the SPSS. Some of the findings identified in the study pertained to: the need for material support including good infrastructure, poor communication between principal and Grade R teacher, scarce meetings specifically for Grade R. The individual findings, together with the implications were discussed in relation to the research questions. The researcher recommended that technical support should be attended to and the principal must communicate frequently with the Grade R teacher. Financial limitations and negative attitudes from some principals were the major limitations the researcher encountered.

This study is premised on the plight of custodial women, who sometimes complain about lack of financial support and the physical absence or disengagement of non-custodial fathers in the lives of their children after divorce. A notable number of non-custodial fathers in the KSD Municipal area have been identified through this study to be disengaging themselves physically from the lives of their children after divorce. The research analysis point to a number of compelling factors for post-divorce paternal disengagement.The research study is an exploratory study in which a mixed method of both qualitative and quantitative research design have been utilised. The researcher was interested in using qualifying words and the use of statistical analysis to describe the father disengagement phenomenon. The hypothesis for this study is: psychological, social and structural factors contribute to the disengagement of non-custodial fathers after divorce. The researcher drew up a sample which Bailey (1982) defines as a subset or portion of the total population. The researcher selected respondents according to the purposive sample which Rubin and Babbie (1993:259) defines as a type of non-probability sampling method in which the researcher uses his own judgement in the selection of respondents. In sampling, 30 respondents who are non-custodial parents were selected to participate in the study. Disengaged non-custodial father was the unit of analysis.The data was collected by means of administering questionnaires and voice recordings. The researcher also utilized in-depth interviews as stated by Boyce and Neale (2006) as being useful when you want detailed information about a person’s thoughts and behaviours, or when the researcher wants to explore new ideas in-depth. The latter approach is most appropriate in qualitative data collection. However, data was analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively.The findings of the study have in many ways answered questions the researcher has been curious about. The ex-wives’ feelings, in-laws, lack of residence, lack of communication between the divorced parents, remarriages, a child or children’s refusal to meet his/her father after divorce have been cited by the respondents as mitigating factors to non-custodial father disengagement. The psychological state of the divorced parties, that of anger, depression, overwhelmed by parenting alone or anxiety or distraught emotional state all form psychological factors. The latter factors were found not to be properly managed well and have often resulted in post-divorce father disengagement. The emotional pain by the non-custodial fathers of not seeing their children for a long time even demonstrates that structural challenges are also contributing factors to post-divorce father disengagement.In the light of the above findings the researcher would recommended mandatory counseling for parenting after divorce, expansion of the family advocate office, provision of a national program for divorced men, creating positive pictures of fatherhood through the media, incorporation of fatherhood or parenthood into the curriculum in our institutions of higher learning and mobilization of men at all levels to take position actions in remedying the experience of divorce.

The purpose of this research is to explore how people make sense of the word feel in their communication across different social relationships and contexts. Assuming the use of the word feel is linked to the act of emotional expression, a secondary purpose is to examine how the perceived management of the word feel may be linked to well-being. Fifteen individual participants shared their perceptions about how they use the word feel over eight types of interpersonal relationships. Discourse analysis revealed that the function of the word feel was to self-disclose emotions or to inquire about them in others. The word feel emerged as a tool that can be wielded to achieve catharsis, intimacy, or social support while framing several subject positions within a discourse of emotional disclosure. When the word feel was reciprocated with others, participant perceptions showed how social status influenced how it was managed in relationships. In particular, the vulnerable disclosing parties were required to take risks in order to achieve the benefits of disclosure. Ruptures in the discourse occurred when participants who did not have opportunities to self-disclose experienced an unwanted emotional tension, an interest in receiving social support, or a drive to find closeness. These instances led to a use of the word feel outside of its emergent social rules. Finally, the beliefs of participants showed it was not just status that played a role in its management but gender as well. The findings show that although the deployment of feel requires judicious management of the risks inherent in emotional self-disclosure, the use of this can indicate the exchange of social resources known to have positive effects on well-being.