¡@¡@The related researches on voluntary services in Taiwan, instead of focusing on psychological extent, such as personality traits, have mainly been centered on its external fields, including volunteer recruitment, training and management. In terms of the research on personality traits, people usually take the paid staff, such as police officers, medical staff, teachers and leaders as the subject. However, unpaid volunteer is not often to be seen in such study based on the big five personality traits or five factor model (FFM). By questionnaires, the basic statuses of volunteers in Kaohsiung Hakka Cultural Museum have been analyzed in this research, as well as the impact of FFM on the motivations of volunteers. The findings are: ¡@¡@A. Most of the volunteers in Hakka Cultural Museum are usually retired with the average age around 50 years old. The status of them is usually married, having 2 or 3 children. The education level is either college, senior high or vocational high school. Their years of services are more than 5 years, and they would provide voluntary services continuously. ¡@¡@B. In the perspective of personality traits, the volunteers in Hakka Cultural Museum are often full of energy (extraversion), with the preference for adventure and discussing popular issues (openness to experience), with the tendency to be cooperative rather then antagonistic (agreeableness), responsible (conscientiousness) and seldom to experience helplessness (emotional stability). ¡@¡@C. The volunteers who provide services with the motivations for self-fulfillment, willingness of learning and interest have the tendencies of extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness. As for the volunteers who provide service due to the introduction of family or friend, or with the motivation for killing time, they have the characteristics of openness to experience. Finally, the volunteers with the motivations for material things have the tendency of neuroticism.

General tax officers are important assets of government organization. Tax officers provide frontline service for people, therefore, their service quality and work performance have an influence on government image. The purpose of this study is to explore the relation between tax officers¡¦ perceived organizational support (POS) and organization citizenship behavior (OCB). Furthermore, we want to realize whether tax officers¡¦ voluntary workers motivations (VWM) have mediation between POS and OCB. In this study, expectations through literature review and empirical study to explore the POS,VWM , and OCB on the view of the perspective taking with prosocial motivation, providing suggestions to the tax authorities and the relevant organization. This study is the case of Revenue Service East and West District Office, Kaohsiung City. There are 481 valid questionnaires, including directors and staff. By means of reliability, validity, factor analysis, descriptive statistics, correlate analysis, we use hierarchical regression to realize research variables and verify hypothesis. The main conclusions of this study are as below: 1.Tax officers are able to develop highly OCB. There are no significant difference in staff cognition themselves as well as in directors¡¦ cognition to staff. 2. Tax officers¡¦ lower POS results in lower in-Role Behavior. 3. There is a certain difference in correlation between VWM and OCB. 4. Tax officers¡¦ attitude, cognition and behavior towards their work will produce significant change after participating in voluntary activities. According to the conclusion of this research, we propose suggestions to relative organizations as a reference.

This study examines whether corporate transparency about a restatement influences the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) decision to issue an enforcement action. I consider corporate transparency to be higher when firms initiate an independent investigation into the restatement, display the restatement in a more prominent press release location, and/or report the restatement in a more visible SEC filing (i.e., Form 8-K). My sample of restatement observations spans nine years, 1997-2005, and is taken from the databases compiled by the General Accounting Office. For each restatement observation, I hand-collect information on SEC enforcement actions from the SEC's website and information on corporate transparency from company press releases and SEC filings. In order to determine the influence of corporate transparency, I develop a model predicting which restatement firms will be sanctioned by the SEC that includes measures of restatement severity, restatement characteristics, firm characteristics, and all three measures of corporate transparency. I find that, on average, greater restatement transparency increases the likelihood of an SEC sanction. This result is strongest before the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), where all three proxies for corporate transparency are positive and significant predictors of SEC enforcement actions. After SOX, however, more visible SEC filings decrease the likelihood of an SEC sanction, suggesting that the SEC rewards this type of transparent behavior. In addition, the SEC also rewards corporate transparency by reducing monetary penalties when an enforcement action is issued. These results extend prior research (Bowen et al. 2005; Files et al. 2008; Gordon et al. 2008; Myers et al. 2008) by providing the first evidence on how corporate transparency affects the SEC's decision to issue an enforcement action. The results may be useful to managers of restating firms and academics researching SEC enforcement actions.

Military service system is the beginning of founding national defense and a way of establishing civilians serving military service. It has great effects on the nation as well as individuals. With the change of time and space, the military strategy in R.O.C. has also undergone concrete transformation. After 1979, R.O.C. adopts the idea of defensive posture in building up troops. R.O.C. Armed Forces also pushes a whole programming of reconstructing troops, such as "Ten-Year Military Buildup Concepts", "Jingshi Program" and "Jingjin Program". The adjustment in organization and objectives in big range is regarded as the great military reconstruction since the establishment of the army. Therefore, the influence is deep and wide. Besides, the military service system serves as the source of high quality and proper quantity personnel, so the choice of military service system should depend on the guidelines of military strategies and the requirement of force structure. Hence, whether the force sourcing or the shortening of the service term should keep the flexibility and tenacity, in accordance with the gradual adjustment of buildup plan. Otherwise, the military strategic target cannot be achieved. Nowadays, the military buildup plan is based on the "fighting, equipment, organization, training, and employing" and the goal of "what we fight, what we get." And "Ten-Year Military Buildup Concepts" and "Five-Year Defense Force Programming" are important documents in ¡§designing¡¨ long-term force construction needs, which instruct the force structure in the future toward the target of reducing the total numbers of soldiers and promote personnel's character. Among these objectives, the military service system is an important part of "organization", and the root of weapon system efficiency. Currently the design of R.O.C. military service system is mainly on the voluntary system to meet the requirement of military personnel. Speaking of the trend of military service system, the voluntary system is the mainstream indeed. However, the factors of designing military service system are very complicated. There is no good or bad one. From the literature review about the military service system, most of them are concerned about whether the voluntary system or conscription system is good or bad and shortening of service time. Few of them mention the deep underlying theories behind military service system and the problem arising from the process of military transformation. This study mainly explores the problems encountered in the reform of the military service system. The policy-making authorities must face up to these factors and search for long-term and complete solution. Otherwise, the effect of the voluntary system to elevate the military power will be reduced and it will cause more and more problems in the future.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the acute effects of local vibration on muscle performance at different durations and frequencies. Fifteen male handball players participated in the study voluntarily. University&rsquo / s Ethics Committee approved the study and the informed consent forms were filled by all participants. Different vibration durations, (10 sec, 1 min, 10 min), different frequencies (40 and 80 Hz), dominancy (dominant and non-dominant) and conditions (vibration and no-vibration) were independent variables of study. Dependent variables were maximum isometric strength measures under different situations. One way Repeated measures ANOVA, Bonferoni adjusted paired sample t-tests and Two way Repeated ANOVA was used for statistical analyses. Result of this study demonstrated that local vibration (LV) induced significantly higher muscle activity than no vibration (NV) condition. Strength improvements were obtained in quadriceps muscles of dominant and non-dominant legs for 40 Hz and 80 Hz. When 40 Hz vibration was applied to dominant leg with different durations (10 sec, 1 min, 10 min), significantly higher strength measures were found than no vibration. When 80 Hz vibration was applied to dominant leg with different durations (10 sec, 1 min, 10 min), only 10-sec vibration duration revealed significant increase in strength measures. When 40 Hz vibration was applied to non-dominant leg with different durations, (10 sec, 1 min, 10 min) significantly higher strength measures were found than no vibration. When 80 Hz vibration was applied to non-dominant leg with different durations (10 sec, 1 min, 10 min), 10-sec and 1 min vibration durations revealed significant increase in strength measures. However, no significant difference was obtained when the different vibration durations were compared between 40 Hz and 80 Hz.

The pressure for economic integration has been reinforced by developments in technology, changes in market structures and the emergence of transnational corporations. Rightsizing has emerged as a critical process in this present era of shrinking space, shrinking time and disappearing borders in the context of employee engagement and human capital. It is often adopted by most organizations to help them become more agile and flexible and thereby cater to the competitive demands. The diverse impacts of rightsizing on various actors however question the justice aspect of the entire process. This study addresses rightsizing from the perspective of social justice by taking into consideration the assessments of the processes by the affected actors namely, the implementers who drive the rightsizing processes; the separated who leave the organization as a result of rightsizing; and the stayers who remain in the organization and have observed the process. It also aims at understanding the various rightsizing processes from an empirical perspective and examines the causal relatedness of the rightsizing processes and outcome across some of the Indian organizations and the actors. Review of literature: The gamut of literature in rightsizing has provided a strong foundation for the researcher to gain a critical understanding of the various processes underlying rightsizing. The key challenge in rightsizing concerns the fairness aspect of the entire process considering the fact that in most cases rightsizing results in gains for some people and loss for others. Given that judgments of fairness are highly subjective, the lack of an absolute standard for determining fairness in this situation has been identified as a gap. As many studies highlight the ambivalence in results with regard to the outcome of rightsizing and attribute them to the rightsizing processes, the relationship of the rightsizing processes and the outcome has emerged as an area of interest. Though there have been correlation based analysis between various rightsizing variables, causal models that link the rightsizing processes to the outcome have been found missing. The dearth of studies from the Indian set up have also prompted the need to build segregate and aggregate causal models of rightsizing processes and outcome at the organization and actor levels. Aim, objectives and methodology: The aim of this study has been to identify the rightsizing processes that contribute towards positive outcome for both the organization and the individuals concerned from the social justice perspective. The objectives were: 1. To compare and contrast the implementation of rightsizing processes in some of the Indian organizations. 2. To develop a framework for understanding and classifying rightsizing processes in relation to the social justice perspective. 3. To identify the effective rightsizing processes that contribute significantly towards minimizing individual stress and maximizing commitment towards the organization. 4. To outline appropriate guidelines based on the justice perspectives of the actors for better implementation of rightsizing in organizations. The conceptual model links the actors, their assessments of the rightsizing processes and the outcome of the entire process as affecting their individual stress and commitment towards the organization. The just processes of rightsizing have been decided based on the assessment of actors and on the extent of their agreement with one another on implementation of the discrete rightsizing practices. Accordingly those practices that all the three groups of actors, namely the implementers, stayers and separated perceive to have been implemented will be classified as the "best practices" or system 4 practices; the practices that have been perceived to have been implemented by the implementers and stayers but not the separated will be classified as the "better practices" or system 3 practices; those practices that the implementers and separated perceive as implemented will be the "ineffective practices" or system 2 practices; and the practices where all the three groups differ with one another with regard to the extent of implementation will be termed the "poor practices" or system 1 practices. The questionnaire was finalized after a preliminary and pilot study. Data was collected from 727 respondents across four organizations, one private manufacturing unit referred to as Org-1, one state public sector unit referred to as Org-2, two central public sector units referred to as Org-3 and Org-4. The total sample consisted of 137 implementers, 320 stayers and 270 separated. Results and discussion: The first part of the analysis focused on validating the rightsizing processes through factor analysis and also testing the reliability using Chronbach alpha. The implementation of the rightsizing processes across the four organizations was compared using Bonferroni post hoc comparisons. Org-1 and Org-4 had implemented most of the rightsizing practices adequately. The perceptions of the employees of Org-2 and Org-3 were found to be significantly inadequate when compared to Org-1 and Org-4 with respect to many of the practices. The second set of analysis compares the assessments of the actors with regard to the implementation of the various rightsizing practices, and classifies them into one of the four systems based on the framework developed. The system 4 practices consist of, the notification period; the severance package; the amount of money that the organizations wished to save after rightsizing and avoidance of ineffective cost reduction strategies. The outcome of rightsizing with respect to role clarity and role sufficiency also falls into system 4. The system 3 practices consist of understanding the need for rightsizing; the need for manpower reduction, proactive cost reduction strategies, separation of the sick and criteria for separation of the redundant. System 1 practices comprise of internal stakeholders, alternate strategies adopted by the organization before resorting to separation of the employees, preparation and communication, leadership, review and control and assistance provided to the separated. The outcome with regard to job security and commitment also falls in this category. The final set of analysis aims at identifying those processes that contribute significantly towards the outcome at both the organizational level and from the perceptions of the actors through path analysis. The path analysis was conducted at the segregate and aggregate levels for the organizations and the actors. Initially a full segregate model where all the independent variables are linked to the dependent variables was fit for the 4 organizations and for the 3 categories of actors. Those processes that contributed significantly towards the outcome with respect to the actors and the organizations were structured onto two final aggregate models. The validity of these aggregate models was examined for the organizations and actors respectively. Conclusion: This study provides a deeper understanding of the various processes underlying rightsizing in the three different stages of implementation. These validated measures can be used as a template by the organizations to study and guide further rightsizing initiatives. Through this research three groups of individuals diversely affected by rightsizing have been brought together under one common framework which is a methodological innovation. Inspite of having different interests, it is possible to obtain a consensus in their assessments of some of the rightsizing practices. This is an important conclusion that can be drawn in support of the social justice perspective with regard to rightsizing. The relationship between the rightsizing processes as affecting the outcome of stress and commitment can also be understood from a causal perspective across organizations and actors through segregate and aggregate models. The best practices with knowledge capital and social capital can also be included in understanding the perspectives of the actors and classification of rightsizing best practices in future work.

<p>Background: The last few years a globalization of the capital market has occurred. This have led to that it is more important for the companies that their financial information can be compared with other companies in order to compete on same grounds. In order to fa-cilitate for the companies within EU to compete with other companies and in order to strive for an internal market EU decided that IFRS should be used by all listed companies within the union.</p><p>Problem: In 2006 the first financial reports according to IFRS will be published, and then it will be interesting to investigate how the companies have chosen to communicate the transition to its stakeholders. According to IFRS some information is compulsive but the companies have chosen to disclose voluntary information to a different degree.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe to what extent the Swedish listed com-panies have reported the transition to IFRS in their consolidated financial statements.</p><p>Method: In this essay a quantitative method have been chosen in order to find general re-lations. The data collection is done with help of an evaluation model that have been devel-oped for this study. The data have been collected from the chosen companies’ annual re-ports.</p><p>Conclusion: The study shows that the amounts of information about the transition to IFRS within the company’s annual reports vary a lot. The result of the transition is also varying. The study shows a connection between the companies’ net sales and how much in-formation the companies publish in their annual reports. The study found no relation be-tween how the transition to IFRS affected the companies equity or the result and how much voluntary information that was disclosed.</p> / <p>Bakgrund: De senaste åren har en stark globalisering av kapitalmarknaden skett. Detta har lett till att det har blivit viktigare för företagen att deras finansiella information kan jämföras med andra företag för att konkurrera på samma grunder. För att underlätta för företagen inom EU att konkurrera med andra företag och för att fortsätta strävan efter en inre marknad har EU beslutat att IFRS skall tillämpas av alla börsnoterade företag inom unionen.</p><p>Problem: 2006 kommer de första årsredovisningarna enligt IFRS att publiceras, det är då intressant att undersöka hur företagen valt att kommunicera övergången till sina intressen-ter. I IFRS anges att en del information är tvingande men företagen har valt att I olika om-fattning ha med frivillig information.</p><p>Syfte: Att beskriva i vilken omfattning de svenska börsnoterade företagen har rapporterat övergången till IFRS i sin koncernredovisning.</p><p>Metod: I denna uppsats har en kvantitativ metod valts för att generella samband skall hit-tas. Datainsamlingen sker genom ett utvärderingsunderlag som utvecklats för denna studie. Data har samlats in från de utvalda företagens årsredovisningar.</p><p>Slutsats: Undersökningen visar att mängden information om övergången till IFRS i företagens årsredovisning varierar kraftigt. Även resultatet är varierande. Det finns ett samband mellan företagens omsättning och hur mycket information företagen publicerar I sina års-redovisningar. Det finns dock inget samband mellan hur övergången till IFRS påverkat eget kapital eller resultat och mängden information.</p>

This study reveals science fiction fan culture as it was observed during a science fiction convention in southern California in 2009. Conventions, although social gatherings, are also places where learning takes place, and the culture is shared. The researcher, a fan herself, collected demographic data through an anonymous survey, then interviewed several fans to develop information about their educational history, cultural attitudes, and interactions with text. The evidence presented shows this group identifies itself as a subculture with its own language, arts, values, and traditions. Fandom also exhibits many characteristics of an affinity group as described by Gee (2003), in that its members are united by a common cause, and hold similar attitudes toward knowledge acquisition and information sharing. After describing who science fiction fans are, this study explores the many types of texts with which fans interact, and the types of literacy they demonstrate by doing so. In addition to being proficient readers of traditional text, fans demonstrate strong visual, computer, and genre literacy skills. Fans use these skills to interact with multiple forms of media including books, movies, television, art, blogs, fan fiction, and video games, to name a few. Furthermore, fan interests are shown to span a variety of text types including mainstream literature and nonfiction, as well as other genres. Finally, the study discusses the implications some of its findings may have for education. Importantly, it appears that a free reading program (especially as described by Krashen in 1993), which encourages students to read what they choose, would be an efficacious method of motivating students to practice higher order thinking skills. Furthermore, students should be encouraged to interact with multiple types of texts across a variety of genre including, but not limited to, science fiction. This implies that students need access to a variety of reading material including classics, genre literature, comic books, and graphic novels. / Dr. Jeannine M. Fontaine Dr. Resa Crane Bizzaro Dr. Karen Hellekson

Diss. Stockholm : Univ., 2007.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983.