When the case for organizational change is presented as a “vision,” is action to support the change more likely? This notion was tested in two studies in the context of diversity issues at work. Diversity was selected as the context because Canadian workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse, and organizations are confronted with the challenge of addressing diversity issues appropriately and effectively. Moreover, theoretically critical features of visions, such as a connection with personal values, may be present in a vision of diversity. It was hypothesized that a vision—a picture of a desirable future state—may be more effective when it is aligned with individuals’ self interests and personal values. In Study 1, small groups of undergraduate male and female students (N=221) were presented with a vision of a proposed Employment Equity (EE) program that focused on raising women's employment rates. Self-interest was captured in the design as the interaction of participant gender with extent of employment change for women (small vs. large) resulting from the implementation of the EE program. Value orientation was captured by participants’ importance ranking of social justice on a pre-study measure. Verifying the self interest manipulation, men were seen to perceive that this program would influence their career advancement negatively and this effect was significantly stronger in the condition with the large increase in women’s employment. The most striking finding emerged with the three-way interaction between gender, social justice orientation, and the extent of employment change condition as these variables affected participants’ willingness to support the proposed EE program. Men who placed lower value on social justice showed a straightforward self-interest effect, with lowest support for the policy occurring when the increase in the women’s employment rate was greater. In contrast, men with higher social justice value were more favourable toward the policy that produced a greater change in women’s employment rates. For these men, personal values seemed to trump self-interests. Results involving positive affect mirrored the pattern of these results. Compared to a small employment increase for women, a large mandated increase in women’s employment led men who placed lower value on social justice to report feeling less positive. However, men who placed higher value on social justice reported feeling more positive when the mandated increase in women’s employment was large. Study 2 further examined the role of values in responding to a vision involving diversity. It was hypothesized that when values guide behaviour, the underlying motivation is relatively autonomous. That is, instead of yielding to guilt or social pressure, the values-guided person acts to attain identity fulfillment. To investigate this matter, undergraduate students (N=475) were randomly assigned to watch either a visionary presentation about promoting workforce diversity or a business case presentation. The visionary presentation described a prejudice-free, inclusive workplace; the business case covered the legalities of diversity. It was found that participants whose values were diversity-oriented felt more “inspired” than other participants overall, and this effect was significantly stronger in the vision condition. The primary difference in findings between experimental conditions involved the association between a measure of autonomous motivation and participants’ reports of intended action. A positive, significant association was obtained in the vision condition; no significant association was obtained with the business case. These results are understandable from the conditional nature of autonomous motivation as assessed here. That is, in both conditions, some people (i.e., autonomously motivated people) said that if they acted to promote diversity, it would be in order to promote their personal values. However, it was only in the vision condition in which the connection of diversity-promotion action to personal values was made salient. Thus it appears that a vision can influence behaviour by inducing autonomously motivated people to recognize this connection. The vision was not more influential overall in motivating participants to support the proposed cause. Nonetheless results indicated that a vision can be a complementary tool in a diversity change implementation by sparking an interest to act within the right people. Taken together, the findings from these two studies indicate that a key way a vision motivates behaviour is by forging the link between values and a course of action.

In this work we were trying to disclose children and adolescents values and self-esteem connection with the learning achievements of music. Tasks: 1. Ascertain children and adolescents self-esteem, orientation of values, psychic self-feeling in music lessons connection with the learning achievements of music. 2. Ascertain children and adolescents self-esteem, orientation of values, psychic self-feelings, achievements and difficulties of learning music connection with the interest of music. 3. Compare children and adolescence, girls and boys, interests of music, orientation of values, psychic self-feeling in music lessons, the difficulties of learning music, self-esteem and achievements of learning music. The methods of research: sociological, psychological, studying and analyzing pedagogic literature, forming. 200 schoolchildren in the investigation participated: 100 children and 100 adolescents. Research results confirmed the hypotheses that when music achievements are growing up the psychic self-feeling is better, it is more interesting, (r = 0,234, p = 0,001), pleasantly (r = 0,234, p = 0,001), successful (r = 0,217, p = 0,002) and like to learn music more (r = 0,211, p = 0,003). Research results confirmed the second hypotheses. It was found out, that when music achievements are growing up the self-esteem is getting better. Adolescents evaluate themselves only for “industry” parameter (r = 0,323, p = 0,001). Children evaluate themselves “capable” (r = 0,437, p = 0,000)... [to full text]

Svarbiausiomis šeimos vertybėmis studentai nurodo tarpusavio supratimą ir meilę. Idealios šeimos modeliu laiko tokią šeimą, kurioje išpildomos visos funkcijos, vertina lygiaverčius santykius tarp sutuoktinių, pripažįsta tradicinį pasiskirstymą veiklos rūšimis šeimoje. Pasirengimą santuokai lemia ne tik prigimtis, dvasinė branda, bet ir pačio žmogaus nuostata į santuoką ir šeimos kūrimą. Respondentų nuostata į tėvų šeimos patirties įtaką kuriant savąją šeimą tyrimo hipotezės nepatvirtino, nes jaunimas nenorėtų sekti savo tėvų gyvenimo pavyzdžiu ir savo šeimą kurtų pagal savąjį modelį. Šeimos kūrimo motyvai išliko tie patys: meilė pagrindinis santuokos sudarymo motyvas. Pragmatiški santuokos sudarymo motyvai nedominavo. / Mutual understanding and love are indicated by the students as the main family values. The model of an ideal family is considered to be such a family that fulfills all the functions, where equal relations between spouses are valued, where traditional distribution by types of activity in the family is recognized. Readiness for marriage is determined not only by nature, spiritual maturity but also by attitude of the person himself/herself towards marriage and conclusion of family. The attitude of the respondents towards the influence of the parents` experience on creation of their own family has not confirmed the hypothesis of the investigation as the young people wouldn’t like to follow the example of their parent’s life and would create their own family according to their own model. The motives for creation of a family have remained the same: love is the main motive for conclusion of marriage. Pragmatic motives for conclusion of marriage have not dominated.

This study of leadership is comprised of two parts. The first part presented in this study is a theoretical study of leadership and the second part is an empirical study. The empirical study is comprised of six qualitative interviews that examine the perception of leadership among educators working at a school in the inner city. The work is based on the following issues; Do educators think that there is a link between educational work and leadership? Do educators see a link between leadership and goals, and guidelines that are written in Lgr11 and the Education Act? Does the perception of leadership depend on what training the educators have? In this study I use a hermeneutical approach where I try to create an understanding of the interviewees by interpreting their responses, actions and opinions during the interviews. The material gained from the empirical study has been analyzed and interpreted and then related to the theoretical study. The results show that leadership is something that everyone in the school system is in need of whatever their education. The study also gives clear indications that all staff working in schools practice some form of leadership based on the school curriculum and the school law.

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Within the thought of Bernard Lonergan, is described a universal dynamic structure immanent within intellectual, moral, and religious consciousness. In Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, his analysis of the invariant pattern of that structure grounds a cognitional theory, an epistemology, and a metaphysics which then enables him to propose an ethic based on the structure of the good as immanent within every act of rational self-consciousness. In later works, principally Method in Theology, his orientation shifts to incorporate a new notion of value, which is distinct in that it is apprehended through feeling. The result is an ethic oriented to the transcendental objective of value and developed from the patterns of cognition which apprehend that value. This thesis studies that shift, and focuses on Lonergan's admitted sources to it: Max Scheler, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Jean Piaget, Susanne Langer, Abraham Maslow, and existential thought generally. In reconstructing it, the thesis finds grounds to differentiate the cognitional theory based upon analysis of intellectual as opposed to affective operations, their invariant norms for authentic operation, and their contents in facts and values respectively.

This study sought to explore what human values were being fostered by teachers at secondary schools within the context of the transformation that is occurring in South Africa and in education. Teachers from three different demographic regions: urban, township and rural responded to what human values were being promoted in their classes, why these values were being promoted and if they had changed their values during their teaching career, what factors were responsible for the change. This study is set in the context of a changing educational arena in South Africa. The promotion of values education is seen by the government of South Africa as a cornerstone in assisting with not only the transformation of education and also in the transformation of South Africa and to promulgate nation building. For this study the production of data involved a comparative case study of teachers. responses on values education, at three different geographically located schools. For this aspect, data was obtained through using a questionnaire. Data was also obtained from a semi-structured interview of three teachers, one teacher from each school. This information was then compiled as a narrative. The methodology employed for this study utilized a combination of comparative case study, narrative inquiry and auto-ethnography approaches. The analyses of the data are presented in two levels. Level one analysis which comprises descriptive statistics is contained in Appendix F. Categories that were identified from the emerging trends from the data analysis are presented as a second level of analysis. This study is located within the interpretative/social constructivism research paradigm. Different theories (Piaget, Kohlberg, Gillian, Bandura and Freud) of moral development that propose how values are developed are discussed to highlight the process on how human beings and more especially children formulate their values. Some of the perspectives that explain the development of morals or values include the cognitive approach, the developmental and the social learning perspective. Transformative Change xv Theory (Mezirow, Boyd & Myers) is also outlined, which explains transformation processes in an adult. An interdisciplinary approach was utilised since it was extremely difficult to select any one theoretical framework to guide this thesis. The data analyses revealed that teachers were struggling to adopt change and found that the promotion of human values was difficult to initiate. Teachers cited various reasons as to why this process was fraught with difficulties. The central concern of teachers was a lack of awareness of: values education in general, documents and policies implemented by the government and the education departments to foster positive values and a lack of avenues for professional development in the area of values education. While teachers cited that the country had transformed into a democratic nation, these changes were not experienced at .grassroots level.. It was also found that different teachers were at different levels in their ability to promote values education in their classes. On the basis of the above, my research has suggested the following which serve as a positive contribution to theory pertaining to values education: the theories on values development are largely concerned with the values development of children and does not apply to adults, in this case, teachers, and therefore a theory that will help explain how adults form or change their values is required. An alchemistic values cycle is then proposed. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Darbo tikslas - atskleisti moralinių vertybių ir laisvės santykį J. Girniaus filosofijoje. Darbe taikyti šie metodai: mokslinės literatūros analizė, empirinis tyrimas-kiekybinis, tyrimui atlikti sudaryta anketa. Darbo intelektualinį pagrindą ir jo probleminį turinį sudaro lietuvių filosofo Juozo Girniaus (1915-1994) pažiūros į moralinių vertybių ir laisvės santykį, plačiai ir visapusiškai atskleistos šio filosofo svarbiausiuose veikaluose. Tyrimu nustatyta, jog šiuolaikinio jaunuolio gyvenime moralė yra svarbus dalykas. Tačiau patriotizmas, dora, politika ir religija, priešingai nei J. Girniui nėra svarbūs. Daugumai jų svarbiausia yra šeima. Didžiausiu dorinių vertybių pagrindu jaunimas laiko šeimą, meilę, atsakomybę ir laisvę. Tyrimo hipotezė- šiuolaikinis jaunimas atsakingai vertina laisvę ir moralines vertybes pasitvirtino, tačiau tik iš dalie sutapo su J. Girniaus nuostatomis moralinių vertybių ir laisvės santykio prasme. Lietuvoje iki šiol nėra atliktų didesnės apimties darbų, skirtų moralinių vertybių ir laisvės santykiui nustatyti ir apibrėžti, todėl šis darbas gali pasitarnauti atliekant tokio pobūdžio tyrimus. / The aim of work is to reveal the relation between the moral values and freedom in J. Girnius philosophy. The following methods have been applied in work: analysis of scientific literature, empirical research-quantitative, questionnaire made for research performance. The intellectual basis of work and its problematic content consists of the views of Lithuanian philosopher Juozas Girnius (1915-1994) on the relation of moral values and freedom, which are widely revealed in his main works. The research determines that morality in the life of modern youth is an important thing. However, patriotism, honour, politics and religion, contrary to J. Girnius, are not important. For most of them the most important thing is the family. The biggest basis for moral values for the young people are family, responsibility, love and freedom. The reserch hypothesis-the modern youth responsibly value freedom and moral values has been confirmed, however, it coincided only partly with J. Girnius attitudes concerning the relation of moral values and freedom. There are no such works of bigger amount performed in Lithuania yet which determined or defined the relation between moral values and freedom, therefore this work may serve to make this kind of research.

Mainstream scientists have grave concerns regarding unsustainable lifestyles in a world with finite resources. Lack of environmental literacy, sustainability values, connectedness to nature and environmental education as a core subject need to be addressed through environmental education. This mixed-methods content analysis examines and compares five state environmental education standards, national environmental education guidelines and the Earth Charter for inclusion of sustainability values. The Earth Charter states the international consensus principles of sustainability values. Data were generated through traditional quantitative coding, computer text analysis and the creation of document profiles through qualitative methods. Triangulation of the findings from these three methods showed that state standards and national guidelines adequately address ecological integrity principles, but not environmental justice principles associated with flourishing, sustainable communities. The North American Environmental Education guidelines and Wisconsin and Colorado state standards do include reflection on environmental values, issue analysis and environmental agency objectives. The Advanced Placement Course Description, New York and Texas standards are less concerned with ethics or values and more concerned with an ecological, scientific approach to environmental education. With the current political climate, international sustainability values as expressed by the Earth Charter would not pass through policy gatekeepers. In a standards-driven climate, standards are needed to open the gate for inclusion of environmental education in school curricula.

There has been a recent increase in research investigating the relationship between values and value congruence in the workplace and how this leads to positive organisational outcomes. This study investigated the congruence between employees’ values and their perceptions of organisational values, and how this relates to the organisational outcomes of job satisfaction, work engagement, person organisation fit and resilience. Participants were asked to rate eight values related to the workplace, in relation to how they thought about the values individually and how they perceived their organisation rated the eight values. These ratings were then used to analyse the relationship between values and value congruence and each of the four organisational outcomes. The proposed relationships were tested using data collected from an online survey of 120 employees from nine New Zealand based organisations. The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that values and values congruence is significantly related to job satisfaction, work engagement, person organisation fit and resilience. However the significant relationships were dependent on certain values for each of the four outcomes. Which implies certain values are more salient for each of the outcomes. The results were also discussed in terms of the practical implications for organisations and areas of possible future research.