Academic literature on the topic 'Commitment and dedication'

Following the phenomenal growth of and competition among coffee chain retailers, the coffee chain market has expanded substantially thanks to rising income levels, the increasing young population, and rapidly changing lifestyles. Attracting consumers’ attention and enhancing their loyalty behaviors has become very difficult for coffee chain retailers. This study seeks to understand the mechanisms through which emotions and the dedication-constraint model lead to brand loyalty and willingness to pay more to certain coffee chain retailers. Emotion responses and dedication-constraint model-based factors are major roles in the formation of loyalty behaviors, but few studies have combined them. To fill this knowledge gap, this study synthesizes emotional responses and the dedication-constraint model to develop a theoretical model. Based on the ambivalent view of emotions, it also examines how positive and negative emotions affect the combination of brand loyalty and willingness to pay more to certain coffee chain retailers. Moreover, it identifies the antecedents of affective and calculative commitments. Our findings indicate that affective commitment had significantly positive effects on positive emotion, brand loyalty, and willingness to pay more. It negatively affects negative emotion. Calculative commitment had significantly positive effects on positive emotion, brand loyalty, and willingness to pay more. However, contrary to our expectations, calculative commitment was positively related to negative emotions. Furthermore, service quality, quality of physical environment, and price fairness significantly affect affective commitments, while only price fairness significantly affects calculative commitments.

In an increasingly complex and dynamic environment, understanding the fundamental mechanisms of customer loyalty toward Airbnb has become very appealing to both researchers and providers in recent years. Most prior studies on Airbnb have focused mainly on dedication-based mechanisms, such as consumer satisfaction or attitude. However, little is currently known about how the theoretical view for adapting dedication-based and constraint-based mechanisms establishes Airbnb consumer loyalty and affects by attributes, such as authentic experience, trust in Airbnb, and social benefits—that is, the vital predictors of affective commitment. It explores social benefits, relative attractiveness, and price fairness as the key antecedents of calculative commitment. This study identifies the relationship using a structural equation modeling method and empirical data collected from 156 Airbnb consumers who use it more than twice. The analysis results show that consumer loyalty toward Airbnb is shaped by dedication- and constraint-based mechanisms. The findings indicate that both affective and calculative commitments significantly affect customer loyalty in the context of Airbnb. Authentic experience, trust in Airbnb, and social benefits significantly affect affective commitment to Airbnb. While both social benefits and relative attractiveness play an important role in enhancing calculative commitment to Airbnb, price fairness is not significantly related to it. Theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are subsequently discussed.

Rooted in commitment theory, this study examines dedication, perceived investments, and felt constraint, three unique aspects of commitment, in midlife using data gathered from a sample of 224 adults surveyed at ages 43 and 50 years. Positive and negative dimensions of couple relations (partner supportiveness and the extent to which one’s partner is demanding and critical, referred to as strain) assessed longitudinally and midlife-specific circumstances, including being in a first marriage or remarriage and parental and empty nest status, were examined as predictors of commitment at age 50. Latent change score modeling revealed partner support and strain as robust predictors of commitment. Higher levels of partner support at age 43 and a more gradual intraindividual decrease in support between ages 43 and 50 predicted higher dedication and perceived investments and less felt constraint at age 50. Higher age 43 levels of partner strain predicted more perceived investments and felt constraint at age 50, while a more rapid increase in strain predicted less dedication and more felt constraint. Being in a first or remarriage, being a parent, or having an empty nest did not predict commitment. These results highlight the importance of initial levels and changes in couple relations for shaping midlife commitment.

Context Professional responsibility, rewards and respect, and time for rejuvenation are factors supporting professional commitment for athletic trainers (ATs) in the high school setting. The inherent complexities of an occupational setting can mitigate perceptions of professional commitment. Thus far, evidence is lacking regarding professional commitment for ATs in other occupational settings. Objective To extend the literature on professional commitment of the AT to the collegiate setting. Design Qualitative study. Setting Collegiate. Patients or Other Participants Thirty-three Board of Certification-certified ATs employed in the collegiate setting (National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I = 11, Division II = 9, Division III = 13) with an average of 10 ± 8 years of clinical experience volunteered. Data saturation guided the total number of participants. Data Collection and Analysis Online journaling via QuestionPro was used to collect data from all participants. Two strategies, multiple-analyst triangulation and peer review, were completed to satisfy data credibility. Data were evaluated using a general inductive approach. Results Likert-scale data revealed no differences regarding levels of professional commitment across divisions. Two themes emerged from the inductive-content analysis: (1) professional responsibility and (2) coworker support. The emergent theme of professional responsibility contained 4 subthemes: (1) dedication to advancing the athletic training profession, (2) ardor for job responsibilities, (3) dedication to the student-athlete, and (4) commitment to education. Our participants were able to better maintain their own professional commitment when they felt their coworkers were also committed to the profession. Conclusions The collegiate ATs investigated in this study, regardless of division, demonstrated professional commitment propelled by their aspiration to advance the profession, as well as their dedication to student-athletes and athletic training students. Maintaining commitment was influenced by a strong sense of coworker support.

Master of Science
Department of Family Studies and Human Services
Amber V. Vennum
Patterns in, and quality of, early romantic relationships have been found to impact future relationship outcomes (Donnellan et al., 2005; Overbeek et al., 2007). Commitment and satisfaction with sacrifice have been cited as important constructs in relationship health and stability as they indicate investment in the relationship (Stanley & Markman, 1992; Rusbult, 1983). Little research has been done on the bi-directional relationship of these two constructs. Many authors indicate that commitment predicts sacrifice (e.g. Van Lange, Rusbult, et al., 1997), but others argue that sacrifice predicts subsequent commitment (e.g. Kelley, 1979). The purpose of this study was to explore the time-ordering of these constructs and whether a history of relationship breakup and renewal (termed cyclicality) moderated this relationship in an emerging adult population (n = 246). Using a cross-lagged model over three time points, the present study found support for a bi-directional relationship between commitment and satisfaction with sacrifice that was not moderated by a history of cyclicality. However, partners with a history of breakup and renewal did report lower dedication at Time 3, indicated by a group mean difference. Implications for theory, research, and intervention are discussed.

Little nursing research has focused on nurses’ experiences of nursing severe burns injury patients. This study has provided a gateway to explore, describe and document the experience of nursing severe burns injury patients. This thereby adds to the existing body of nursing knowledge upon which the nursing care of patients with severe burns injury can be made in an informative manner with confidence. This descriptive phenomenological study describes the lived experiences of seven full time registered nurses that care for patients who have sustained a severe burns injury. The descriptive phenomenology of Husserl and the methodological interpretations of Colaizzi underpin this study. Purposeful sampling was utilised to select participants who work in a severe burns injury unit in New South Wales, Australia. The use of in-depth interviews was used to generate data about the participants’ personal and professional experiences’ of nursing severe burns injury patients. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, analysed and described using a descriptive phenomenological methodology. Twenty eight cluster themes emerged from the participants’ experiences which were further merged into nine emergent themes that depicted the experiences of nurses caring for severe burns injury patients which formed the basis of the findings reported. Participants described burns nursing as both physically and emotionally demanding yet rewarding. It was shown that burns nurses have a resilient nature with the ability to cope with the challenges of burns nursing. Participant nurses described how they emotionally detached and became hardened to the devastation of a severe burns injury. The unique bond that formed between burns nurses and their patients’ demonstrated a relationship embedded in trust and understanding that allowed the nurse to continue caring for burns patients for extended periods. Commitment and dedication were found to be fundamental elements for nursing burns patients. Participant nurses were found to feel emotionally exhausted, powerless and burnt out; however, feelings of accomplishment and motivation outweighed these negative emotions. Support and unity was identified as fundamental to burns nursing, without the support of the burns team nurse participants believed that they would not be able to care for patients with severe burns injury. The findings of this study have provided an insight into the experience of nursing severe burns injury patients. It is hoped that the findings of this study will contribute to the care of burns patients and the well being of the burns nurses who care for these patients. The paucity of available literature in the area of burns nursing concludes that more research is required into the impact of nursing severe burns injury patients.
Thesis (M.Nurs.Sc.)- University of Adelaide, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, 2009

碩士
中華大學
企業管理學系
105
With changes of industry environment, it is now an age of buyers’ market with customer orientation in twenty first century. Service and efficiency are particularly stressed and requested in all trades and professions. Human Resource is considered one of the most critical elements for success and victory of enterprises. By the financial deregulation and internationalization, many domestic state-owned financial corporations in Taiwan were privatized. How to attract or retain talented people and thereafter to cultivate employees with professional dedication is now becoming a significant issue of management. In addition, service attitude of employees plays a critical role during the whole process. Undoubtedly it is the key to success of company while satisfied employees can then satisfy customers. It is only through management practice to enhance Internal Service Quality and create Job Satisfaction and Organization Trust of employees toward the company, and further to improve their passion and sense of mission. Based on the above description, this study targets on domestic bank employees to discuss the relationship among Internal Service Quality, Job Satisfaction, Organization Trust, Organization Commitment and Professional Dedication via questionnaire survey and utilizes SPSS17 and AMOS 20 to examine each assumption. Positive analysis was conducted with 304 effective questionnaires and the result showed as follows: 1.Internal Service Quality in domestic financial corporations has positive influence on Job Satisfaction of employees. 2.Internal Service Quality in domestic financial corporations has positive influence on Organization Trust of employees. 3.Organization Trust of bank employees has positive influence on Job Satisfaction. 4.Job Satisfaction of bank employees has positive influence on Organization Commitment. 5.Job Satisfaction of bank employees has positive influence on Professional Dedication. 6.Organization Trust of bank employees has positive influence on Professional Dedication. Among these assumptions, Internal Service Quality on Organization Trust, Job Satisfaction on Organization Commitment, and Organization Trust on Professional Dedication are three relations with the most positive influence. This study provides some practical suggestions according to the above research result as guidance for the financial industry in respect of talent recruitment and cultivation, and for people to self-assess competence to join this industry. In addition, this study also provides some following issues which can be further discussed in the future.

This research explores the relationship between sense of coherence, work engagement and organisational commitment in an automotive development institution in South Africa. The study was conducted through quantitative research. The study used the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) to measure sense of coherence, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) to measure work engagement and the Organisational Commitment Scale (OCS) to measure organisational commitment. A biographical questionnaire was also used. The questionnaires were administered to a sample of 46 employees, 37 of whom were based in the company’s Pretoria office and nine at their Eastern Cape office. In view of the fact that the sample was small, 100 % of the population was included in the study. A theoretical relationship between the constructs was determined and an empirical study provided evidence of the degree of relationship that existed between them. The results reveal significant relationships to exist between some sub-scales, however, statistical significance could not be reached for some correlations.
Psychology
M. Admin. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The current work environment demands a lot from employees. Organisations implement strategies to reduce cost and increase productivity, often ignoring the well-being and needs of employees. Factors such as virtual offices are becoming a reality as cell phones, laptops, tablets and other technology make availability a reality 24 hours a day. This leads to employees being confronted with work wherever and whenever it is required. These factors can lead to distress or eustress or both. Some employees experience symptoms of burnout due to all these demands placed on them, yet others experience eustress. Work well-being is crucial to ensure that employees are engaged and committed to their job and contribute to the success of the organisation they are employed with. In the model of work-related well-being of Nelson and Simmons (2003), which will be discussed in this research, burnout is regarded as distress, while work engagement is regarded as eustress. The objective of this study is to determine whether a relationship exists between the dimensions of work-related well-being within selected sectors in South Africa – whether it leads to either burnout or work engagement and whether it is similar in different sectors. Various models can be used to explain these effects but for the purposes of this study the following models were consulted, namely the Comprehensive Model of Burnout and Engagement (COBE), the Effort-Recovery (E-R) Model and the Job Demand / Resources (JD-R) model. The participants in this study are educators and administrative personnel from tertiary education institutions (n = 1324), secondary schools (n = 1177), employees from the insurance industry (n = 613), and correctional services (n = 892). The measurement vii instruments used are the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the Job Demands-Resources Scale and the Organisational Stress Screening Tool (ASSET). The results indicate that there is a relationship between the dimensions of work-related well-being in different sectors and that it has great predictive value in different sectors.
MA (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

AbstractThe clinical aspects of COVID-19 are discussed. A picture of what happens in a hospital—the ward and the intensive care unit (ICU)—is described. The impact of the disease on patients, medical professionals, and other staff, and case studies of patients who recovered as well as those who did not, are presented. The lived experience, over the ten-months period of the pandemic, of these individuals is portrayed.The lived experience of the author and that of her team is portrayed from the inception of the pandemic to date. The author traces changes made to diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients over time. Patient treatment and management regimens were refined and streamlined during this period. And the health system was re-designed to cope with the influx of huge numbers of COVID-19 patients. During this time, diagnostic tools and treatment regimens evolved. Doctors and their teams of nurses and technicians worked tirelessly day and night to cope with the onslaught. The public, however, stigmatized healthcare workers as they were overcoming with the fear of getting infected.Ten months ago, the medical profession knew very little about the virus or the disease as both were new. But with its dedication and commitment, the medical fraternity managed to cope with the rising number of patients with whatever tools it had. This period witnessed a rapid learning curve.

This prologue provides an overview of American higher education. Over time, as Americans established colleges and universities across the nation, they stridently declared these institutions' commitment to advancing the public good. The form this commitment took surely changed over the years and college and university officials undoubtedly employed the rhetoric of the public interest while simultaneously advancing policies and practices that did little to advance it. Nevertheless, the archival record informing this book's study reveals a broad array of higher-education institutions demonstrating a continuing dedication to the common good even while broader social, political, and economic forces undermined, if not directly opposed, that aim. This book thus investigates the founding decades of eleven very different colleges and universities and explains how these institutions' characteristics both reflected and responded to changes in American society.

When Greville makes the unconventional choice to dedicate his literary collection to a dead poet—Philip Sidney—he radically casts into question received conventions of speaking for and about other authors. While maintaining in the Dedication his lifelong Calvinist distrust of human agency, Greville also authorizes his account of Sidney’s deeds and words by claiming to know the truth about his friend’s “motives” and “intents.” It is an interpretive conundrum exacerbated by his commitment to write in the literary plain style with its artful pose of artless familiaritas. This chapter shows how the compound ambivalence of the Dedication on the topic of literary tradition—the question of how Greville’s reception of Sidney will be received in turn by Greville’s own imagined readers—exemplifies a broader cultural tension between the growing trust in the force of authorial character on reader understanding and yet a new skepticism about the very possibility of intersubjective communication.

This chapter explores the law’s commitment to preserving the existing norms and practices that shape courtship, sex, and marriage. Judges are much less likely to provide remedies for examples of intimate deception they believe are commonplace and more likely to give remedies in cases they think are deviant and unusual. When judges assume that many forms of deceit are typical in courtship, sex, and marriage, they help make that so—normalizing the deception by protecting it from legal disapproval and redress. This dedication to safeguarding ordinary deception in intimate relationships has also functioned to protect extraordinary deceit. Courts have sometimes denied remedies for admittedly egregious intimate deception out of concern that providing redress might create a slippery slope that would ultimately jeopardize more ordinary deceivers. Indeed, the judicial commitment to shielding commonplace intimate deception has even helped defendants who deceived business competitors or government officials.

Abstract Health advocacy requires long-term dedication, energy, and commitment to a cause, issue, or policy change. This final chapter addresses the importance of working with longevity and sustainability in mind and how strategic planning and determining long-term objectives are necessary to achieve the desired outcomes for individuals and communities. The importance of making steadfast progress while building resilience within one’s self and the community is emphasized. This includes addressing burnout and compassion fatigue at the individual and organizational levels. Some strategies are provided for sustaining advocacy efforts as well as the self in the process. Advocacy requires deep rest and building up reserves for the long haul.

Leadership performance outcomes reflected existential phenomenological methods in an account of museum volunteer perceptions. Volunteers developed personal transformation leadership during the production of a museum digital collection, a purposeful project, creating an archive, a digital repository for video media, supporting mediated meaning, reflective thinking, and mindset coaching strategies. Evidence of leadership outcomes advanced museum education outreach for personal and community transformative social change. Continuous interactions included independent volunteers forming an interdependent working group and creating successful leader volunteers. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West housed the archive, as perceptions of leadership reported evolving leadership. The nature of perceptions involved thematic investigation, expanding potential for purpose, time, expertise, commitment, dedication, and collaboration in transformation leadership.

The introduction to Between Heimat and Hatred: Jews and the Right in Germany, 1871 and 1935 outlines the major themes of the book. The book studies German Jews involved in ventures that were from the beginning, or became increasingly, of the Right. Jewish agricultural settlement, Jews’ participation in the so-called Defense of Germandom in the East, their place in military and veteran circles and finally right-of-center politics form the core of this book. The book investigates the inherent tension in the involvement in such ventures between sincere dedication to them and the apologetic defense against antisemitic stereotypes of rootlessness, intellectualism or cosmopolitanism. It asks at which point even a defensive commitment became no longer tenable. The introduction also provides an overview of the individual chapters and the sources used.

This chapter focuses on Georgetown College, the founding of which seems characterized by a collection of inconsistencies. The most intriguing incongruity associated with Georgetown's establishment is that although the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church founded the institution to educate young men to enter religious life—in essence, to prepare them for seminary—the college practiced religious tolerance and admitted students from a variety of Christian denominations. Consequently, few graduates entered the priesthood. As for the institution's educational purpose, the first prospectus declared a dedication to advancing the common good. The most compelling aspect of Georgetown's prospectus is the way it asserted the institution's commitment to advancing the public good through promoting “the grand interests of society.” Manifesting the same social ethos of civic-mindedness, its officials aimed to educate graduates who would better society through their life pursuits.

Demining is calamity of third world countries. The clearing is ceaseless, more expensive than the spreading, and terrorist return is obtained by weakening of the antagonistic population. The mines are cheapest weapon, built to make horrible injuries, affecting active people, with major falls-off into economic growth. The disaster is notably cruel in Sri Lanka, with anti-person mines spread in the northeast region. After the ceasefire, the international organisations started the mine sweeping, with poor issues, due to politico-economical motivations in direct bond with wants in the technical effectiveness. The pitiable situation is worsened, as most rich lands are removed from farming exploitation, with increasing of the internally displaced persons. Now, clearing is engineering duty, and the humanitarian goal comes to be technical challenge. The advanced robotics fulfils clean and reliable tasks, on condition to upgrade sophistication and cost and to loose third-world appropriateness. The challenge is to turn local machines and awareness into effective robotic aids, willingly used by the local people, and to enhance the on-going outcomes. The analysis, mainly, addresses the following points: - the engaged technologies need to provide special purpose outfits and to involve operators having adapted uniformity; - the work-flow pre-setting ought to detail the duty-cycles and to establish the standard achievements; - the planning has to specify the on-process warning/emergency management and the failure protection rules; - the operators’ instruction and training shall aim at off-process optimised work-flows to circumvent risky issues; - the effectiveness comes from organised routine agendas, in conformity with allotted tasks and emergency events. This is a mix of organisational and technologic demands, calling for responsible commitment of the involved people, so that the local Civil Service is entitled to do the clearing operations, and the all engaged community is solidly concerned. The winning solution shall look at low-cost robotic outfits, to be obtained with resort to nearby available resources and competences (e.g., drawn on from the local agricultural machinery and know-how), and full account of the cost limits, while aiming at the process effectiveness by the mix of enabling cues, principally deferred to enhancing the regional awareness and the factual dedication. The paper stresses on fairly unorthodox robots, addressing unmanned effectors facilities joined with intelligent remote-command abilities, not as advanced achievements, rather as cheapest productivity upgrading, assembled from standard farming devices, through the shared know-how and commitment of locally involved operators.

The Gülen movement’s educational mission is, at its core and in its praxis, remarkably simi- lar to the centuries-old Jesuit educational tradition. It can be argued that both educational movements are united in a shared mission today –a deep concern for the spiritual freedom of the individual and a commitment to the betterment of the world. Both movements seek to instil values such as honesty, dedication, compassion and tolerance. To achieve this goal, students are offered a narrative of the past as a foundation on which to build an understanding of the modern world. Furthermore, they are educated holistically – in ethics and social justice as well as the sciences – what Gülen calls a ‘marriage of mind and heart’. This paper focuses on four shared values of education: commitment, responsibility, virtue and service. Within this framework, themes found in the Gülen educational movement, such as the Golden Generation and the concept of hizmet, are compared to similar Jesuit notions such as A.M.D.G., cura personalis, and ‘Men and Women for Others’. Differences and nu- ances are also addressed in the paper. The discussion aims to highlight the importance of values-oriented education in the modern world. The Gülen–Jesuit educational nexus is one positive bridge to inter-religious understanding and, importantly, collaborative action. The educational endeavors associated with the Turkish-Muslim Gülen movement have popu- larized, possibly more than any other facet of the group, Fethullah Gülen’s mission to prom- ulgate and cultivate an individually transformative Islam in the modern world. As the teach- ers and business partners of the Gülen movement continue to work to form conscientious, open-minded and just students in different cultures across the world, they will continue to be challenged and influenced by a myriad of different perspectives, religions, and socio-political groups; and, in turn, they will succeed in positively influencing those same cultures, as they have in many cases already. Of the many groups with which the Gülen movement has inter- acted in its ever-expanding intercultural milieu, this paper will focus on one: the educational charge of a Roman Catholic religious order called the Society of Jesus, a group more com- monly known as the Jesuits. This paper shows that the educational mission of the Gülen movement is, at its core, remark- ably similar to the mission of the centuries-old Jesuit Catholic educational tradition. In fact, it can be argued that the Gülen and Jesuit educational missions are, in theory and in praxis, united in a shared mission today; one that is rooted in a deep concern for the spiritual free- dom of the individual and dedicated to the betterment of the world. In analyzing this shared mission, this paper aims to discuss the importance of values-oriented education; particularly by addressing how the Gülen-Jesuit educational nexus can act as one positive bridge to inter- religious understanding and, importantly, cooperation and action in our transitioning world. In order to achieve this end, this paper begins with a short analysis of each movement’s back- ground with regard to education. Afterwards, the each movement’s notion of religious educa- tion is discussed. Finally, the focus turns to the mission themes the educational movements have in common. While there is a plethora of shared mission traits from which one could choose, for practical purposes this paper uses as its foundation for comparison four themes distilled by William J. Byron, S.J., from a mission statement from Georgetown University, the Jesuit university in Washington, D.C., which reads: Georgetown seeks to be a place where understanding is joined to commitment; where the search for truth is informed by a sense of responsibility for the life of society; where academic excellence in teaching...is joined with the cultivation of virtue; and where a community is formed which sustains men and women in their education and their conviction that life is only lived well when it is lived generously in the service of others (Byron 1997, 653). The first of these themes is a commitment to the understanding that God works in the world through people. The second is a responsibility to raise individual students to act justly in and for the world. The third is virtue, with the understanding that the way to achieve the mission of these schools is through educating students to be morally upright. Finally, the fourth theme is the need to be actively engaged in service to make the world a more peaceful, tolerant and just place to live. Commitment, responsibility, virtue, and service are, significantly, foundational for not only Jesuit schools, but Gülen schools as well.

Practices that are used by pipeline operators to prevent mechanical damage are examined in this paper. A set of practices specific to pipeline operations is presented. The practices were initially developed by a group of subject matter experts working under the auspices of the American Petroleum Institute and the Association of Oil Pipelines (API/AOPL) Performance Excellence Team. The practices drew upon the work started within the Common Ground Initiative in the late 1990s and continued by the Common Ground Alliance. The practices presented were reviewed again in preparation of this report. The practices build upon practices defined by Common Ground Alliance (CGA), largely by providing greater specificity and ensuring completeness and follow through in communication and documentation. A subset of these practices became the foundation of the standard, API 1166 Excavation Monitoring and Observation. The paper also provides an overview of historical safety performance for the period 1995 through 2003; with a specific focus on mechanical damage related incidents including the additional detail available in the recent change in Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA, US-DOT) Incident Reporting. This period was selected because it represented the time period where there was a heightened interest in preventing damage to pipelines as described above. The large majority of mechanical damage related incidents result in an immediate impact; a small portion occur at some later point in time. Data for the nine-year period indicate that approximately 90 percent of the incidents result in an immediate impact. This is significant in that it underscores the importance of prevention of damage. The experience of hazardous liquid pipelines has shown a continuing decrease in numbers of annual incidents. The experience of natural gas pipelines has not shown a decreasing trend; in fact, it is relatively flat for the period of study. While the heightened awareness and strong commitment to dedication are known to have had an impact on damage prevention through numerous stories and vast experience shared by a variety of stakeholders, it is prudent to be concerned that the performance may be reaching a “plateau”.

Abstract A country grows depending on its people talent, dedication, and creativity. Giving emphasize to people development and enhancing their competencies is a result of understanding of the country's need to have fresh minds and importance of onboarding talents at their early stages to experience work environment and obtain the required exposure. The business has always kept an eye on developing fresh graduates and secure the best opportunities for their capability to grow as well as supporting them to get positions that support their career paths. Gaining experience can be through actual practical processes on how work is implemented or as easy as being a part of a team or shadowing team members or leaders for soft skills learning. The idea of initiating a program such as "Ruwad" came from the lack of opportunities provided in the market for graduates, and the fact of having a market that is demanding experienced candidate to be hired. It's also linked to the need of having skilled nationals in the country to work in different areas and support building a succession plan to replace expats working in core roles. As part of in country value (ICV) commitment required by operators to be achieved through the business, this program focuses on providing exposure to national workforce or candidates as part of their development and contribution to the country which is one of the main elements of Oman vision 2040. It worth to highlight that the program is also formed to meet the market need on experienced graduates from multiple disciplines (technical & on-technical). Initiating this program within bp Oman will benefit the graduates to have the right skills and understanding when required which will give them the opportunity to play an important role as a member contributing to the country's economy. bp Oman has always strive to promote ICV. It is engaged in various forums and initiatives to create an advanced marketplace, adequate utilization of national's abilities and knowledge. Through Ruwad program we are setting the fundamentals for effective training program and enable main stakeholder to be part of our strategic plan as well as giving them the required tools to adopt our path where the cycle of learning and expertise will be rolling continuously.

Over recent decades Islamic traditions have emerged in new forms in different parts of the Muslim world, interacting differently with secular and neo-liberal patterns of thought and action. In Turkey Fethullah Gülen’s community has been a powerful player in the national debate about the place of Islam in individual and collective life. Through emphasis on the im- portance of ‘secular education’ and a commitment to the defence of both democratic princi- ples and international human rights, Gülen has diffused a new and appealing version of how a ‘good Muslim’ should act in contemporary society. In particular he has defended the role of Islam in the formation of individuals as ethically-responsible moral subjects, a project that overlaps significantly with the ‘secular’ one of forming responsible citizens. Concomitantly, he has shifted the Sufi emphasis on self-discipline/self-denial towards an active, socially- oriented service of others – a form of religious effort that implies a strongly ‘secular’ faith in the human ability to make this world better. This paper looks at the lives of some members of the community to show how this pattern of conduct has affected them. They say that teaching and learning ‘secular’ scientific subjects, combined with total dedication to the project of the movement, constitute, for them, ways to accomplish Islamic deeds and come closer to God. This leads to a consideration of how such a rethinking of Islamic activism has influenced po- litical and sociological transition in Turkey, and a discussion of the potential contribution of the movement towards the development of a more human society in contemporary Europe. From the 1920s onwards, in the context offered by the decline and collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Islamic thinkers, associations and social movements have proliferated their efforts in order to suggest ways to live a good “Muslim life” under newly emerging conditions. Prior to this period, different generations of Muslim Reformers had already argued the compat- ibility of Islam with reason and “modernity”, claiming for the need to renew Islamic tradition recurring to ijtihad. Yet until the end of the XIX century, traditional educational systems, public forms of Islam and models of government had not been dismissed. Only with the dismantlement of the Empire and the constitution of national governments in its different regions, Islamic intellectuals had to face the problem of arranging new patterns of action for Muslim people. With the establishment of multiple nation-states in the so-called Middle East, Islamic intel- lectuals had to cope with secular conceptions about the subject and its place and space for action in society. They had to come to terms with the definitive affirmation of secularism and the consequent process of reconfiguration of local sensibilities, forms of social organisation, and modes of action. As a consequence of these processes, Islamic thinkers started to place emphasis over believers’ individual choice and responsibility both in maintaining an Islamic conduct daily and in realising the values of Islamic society. While under the Ottoman rule to be part of the Islamic ummah was considered an implicit consequence of being a subject of the empire. Not many scientific works have looked at contemporary forms of Islam from this perspective. Usually Islamic instances are considered the outcome of an enduring and unchanging tradition, which try to reproduce itself in opposition to outer-imposed secular practices. Rarely present-day forms of Islamic reasoning and practice have been considered as the result of a process of adjustment to new styles of governance under the modern state. Instead, I argue that new Islamic patterns of action depend on a history of practical and conceptual revision they undertake under different and locally specific versions of secularism. From this perspective I will deal with the specific case of Fethullah Gülen, the head of one of the most famous and influent “renewalist” Islamic movements of contemporary Turkey. From the 1980s this Islamic leader has been able to weave a powerful network of invisible social ties from which he gets both economic and cultural capital. Yet what interests me most in this paper, is that with his open-minded and moderate arguments, Gülen has inspired many people in Turkey to live Islam in a new way. Recurring to ijtihad and drawing from secular epistemology specific ideas about moral agency, he has proposed to a wide public a very at- tractive path for being “good Muslims” in their daily conduct. After an introductive explanation of the movement’s project and of the ideas on which it is based, my aim will be to focus on such a pattern of action. Particular attention will be dedi- cated to Gülen’s conception of a “good Muslim” as a morally-guided agent, because such a conception reveals underneath secular ideas on both responsibility and moral agency. These considerations will constitute the basis from which we can look at the transformation of Islam – and more generally of “the religion” – in the contemporary world. Then a part will be dedicated to defining the specificity of Gülen’s proposal, which will be compared with that of other Islamic revivalist movements in other contexts. Some common point between them will merge from this comparison. Both indeed use the concept of respon- sibility in order to push subjects to actively engage in reviving Islam. Yet, on the other hand, I will show how Gülen’s followers distinguish themselves by the fact their commitment pos- sesses a socially-oriented and reformist character. Finally I will consider the proximity of Gülen’s conceptualisation of moral agency with that the modern state has organised around the idea of “civic virtues”. I argue Gülen’s recall for taking responsibility of social moral decline is a way of charging his followers with a similar burden the modern state has charged its citizens. Thus I suggest the Islamic leader’s pro- posal can be seen as the tentative of supporting the modernity project by defining a new and specific space to Islam and religion into it. This proposal opens the possibility of new and interesting forms of interconnection between secular ideas of modernity and the so-called “Islamic” ones. At the same time I think it sheds a new light over contemporary “renewalist” movements, which can be considered a concrete proposal about how to realise, in a different background, modern forms of governance by reconsidering their moral basis.

Attention to safety and health are of ever-increasing priority to industrial organizations. Good Safety is demanded by stockholders, employees, and the community while increasing injury costs provide additional motivation for safety and health excellence. Safety has always been a strong corporate value of DuPont and a vital part of its culture. As a result, DuPont has become a benchmark in safety and health performance. Since 1990, DuPont has re-engineered itself to meet global competition and address future vision. In the new re-engineered organizational structures, DuPont has also had to re-engineer its safety management systems. A special Discovery Team was chartered by DuPont senior management to determine the “best practices’ for safety and health being used in DuPont best-performing sites. A summary of the findings is presented, and five of the practices are discussed. Excellence in safety and health management is more important today than ever. Public awareness, federal and state regulations, and enlightened management have resulted in a widespread conviction that all employees have the right to work in an environment that will not adversely affect their safety and health. In DuPont, we believe that excellence in safety and health is necessary to achieve global competitiveness, maintain employee loyalty, and be an accepted member of the communities in which we make, handle, use, and transport products. Safety can also be the “catalyst” to achieving excellence in other important business parameters. The organizational and communication skills developed by management, individuals, and teams in safety can be directly applied to other company initiatives. As we look into the 21st Century, we must also recognize that new organizational structures (flatter with empowered teams) will require new safety management techniques and systems in order to maintain continuous improvement in safety performance. Injury costs, which have risen dramatically in the past twenty years, provide another incentive for safety and health excellence. Shown in the Figure 1, injury costs have increased even after correcting for inflation. Many companies have found these costs to be an “invisible drain” on earnings and profitability. In some organizations, significant initiatives have been launched to better manage the workers’ compensation systems. We have found that the ultimate solution is to prevent injuries and incidents before they occur. A globally-respected company, DuPont is regarded as a well-managed, extremely ethical firm that is the benchmark in industrial safety performance. Like many other companies, DuPont has re-engineered itself and downsized its operations since 1985. Through these changes, we have maintained dedication to our principles and developed new techniques to manage in these organizational environments. As a diversified company, our operations involve chemical process facilities, production line operations, field activities, and sales and distribution of materials. Our customer base is almost entirely industrial and yet we still maintain a high level of consumer awareness and positive perception. The DuPont concern for safety dates back to the early 1800s and the first days of the company. In 1802 E.I. DuPont, a Frenchman, began manufacturing quality grade explosives to fill America’s growing need to build roads, clear fields, increase mining output, and protect its recently won independence. Because explosives production is such a hazardous industry, DuPont recognized and accepted the need for an effective safety effort. The building walls of the first powder mill near Wilmington, Delaware, were built three stones thick on three sides. The back remained open to the Brandywine River to direct any explosive forces away from other buildings and employees. To set the safety example, DuPont also built his home and the homes of his managers next to the powder yard. An effective safety program was a necessity. It represented the first defense against instant corporate liquidation. Safety needs more than a well-designed plant, however. In 1811, work rules were posted in the mill to guide employee work habits. Though not nearly as sophisticated as the safety standards of today, they did introduce an important basic concept — that safety must be a line management responsibility. Later, DuPont introduced an employee health program and hired a company doctor. An early step taken in 1912 was the keeping of safety statistics, approximately 60 years before the federal requirement to do so. We had a visible measure of our safety performance and were determined that we were going to improve it. When the nation entered World War I, the DuPont Company supplied 40 percent of the explosives used by the Allied Forces, more than 1.5 billion pounds. To accomplish this task, over 30,000 new employees were hired and trained to build and operate many plants. Among these facilities was the largest smokeless powder plant the world had ever seen. The new plant was producing granulated powder in a record 116 days after ground breaking. The trends on the safety performance chart reflect the problems that a large new work force can pose until the employees fully accept the company’s safety philosophy. The first arrow reflects the World War I scale-up, and the second arrow represents rapid diversification into new businesses during the 1920s. These instances of significant deterioration in safety performance reinforced DuPont’s commitment to reduce the unsafe acts that were causing 96 percent of our injuries. Only 4 percent of injuries result from unsafe conditions or equipment — the remainder result from the unsafe acts of people. This is an important concept if we are to focus our attention on reducing injuries and incidents within the work environment. World War II brought on a similar set of demands. The story was similar to World War I but the numbers were even more astonishing: one billion dollars in capital expenditures, 54 new plants, 75,000 additional employees, and 4.5 billion pounds of explosives produced — 20 percent of the volume used by the Allied Forces. Yet, the performance during the war years showed no significant deviation from the pre-war years. In 1941, the DuPont Company was 10 times safer than all industry and 9 times safer than the Chemical Industry. Management and the line organization were finally working as they should to control the real causes of injuries. Today, DuPont is about 50 times safer than US industrial safety performance averages. Comparing performance to other industries, it is interesting to note that seemingly “hazard-free” industries seem to have extraordinarily high injury rates. This is because, as DuPont has found out, performance is a function of injury prevention and safety management systems, not hazard exposure. Our success in safety results from a sound safety management philosophy. Each of the 125 DuPont facilities is responsible for its own safety program, progress, and performance. However, management at each of these facilities approaches safety from the same fundamental and sound philosophy. This philosophy can be expressed in eleven straightforward principles. The first principle is that all injuries can be prevented. That statement may seem a bit optimistic. In fact, we believe that this is a realistic goal and not just a theoretical objective. Our safety performance proves that the objective is achievable. We have plants with over 2,000 employees that have operated for over 10 years without a lost time injury. As injuries and incidents are investigated, we can always identify actions that could have prevented that incident. If we manage safety in a proactive — rather than reactive — manner, we will eliminate injuries by reducing the acts and conditions that cause them. The second principle is that management, which includes all levels through first-line supervisors, is responsible and accountable for preventing injuries. Only when senior management exerts sustained and consistent leadership in establishing safety goals, demanding accountability for safety performance and providing the necessary resources, can a safety program be effective in an industrial environment. The third principle states that, while recognizing management responsibility, it takes the combined energy of the entire organization to reach sustained, continuous improvement in safety and health performance. Creating an environment in which employees feel ownership for the safety effort and make significant contributions is an essential task for management, and one that needs deliberate and ongoing attention. The fourth principle is a corollary to the first principle that all injuries are preventable. It holds that all operating exposures that may result in injuries or illnesses can be controlled. No matter what the exposure, an effective safeguard can be provided. It is preferable, of course, to eliminate sources of danger, but when this is not reasonable or practical, supervision must specify measures such as special training, safety devices, and protective clothing. Our fifth safety principle states that safety is a condition of employment. Conscientious assumption of safety responsibility is required from all employees from their first day on the job. Each employee must be convinced that he or she has a responsibility for working safely. The sixth safety principle: Employees must be trained to work safely. We have found that an awareness for safety does not come naturally and that people have to be trained to work safely. With effective training programs to teach, motivate, and sustain safety knowledge, all injuries and illnesses can be eliminated. Our seventh principle holds that management must audit performance on the workplace to assess safety program success. Comprehensive inspections of both facilities and programs not only confirm their effectiveness in achieving the desired performance, but also detect specific problems and help to identify weaknesses in the safety effort. The Company’s eighth principle states that all deficiencies must be corrected promptly. Without prompt action, risk of injuries will increase and, even more important, the credibility of management’s safety efforts will suffer. Our ninth principle is a statement that off-the-job safety is an important part of the overall safety effort. We do not expect nor want employees to “turn safety on” as they come to work and “turn it off” when they go home. The company safety culture truly becomes of the individual employee’s way of thinking. The tenth principle recognizes that it’s good business to prevent injuries. Injuries cost money. However, hidden or indirect costs usually exceed the direct cost. Our last principle is the most important. Safety must be integrated as core business and personal value. There are two reasons for this. First, we’ve learned from almost 200 years of experience that 96 percent of safety incidents are directly caused by the action of people, not by faulty equipment or inadequate safety standards. But conversely, it is our people who provide the solutions to our safety problems. They are the one essential ingredient in the recipe for a safe workplace. Intelligent, trained, and motivated employees are any company’s greatest resource. Our success in safety depends upon the men and women in our plants following procedures, participating actively in training, and identifying and alerting each other and management to potential hazards. By demonstrating a real concern for each employee, management helps establish a mutual respect, and the foundation is laid for a solid safety program. This, of course, is also the foundation for good employee relations. An important lesson learned in DuPont is that the majority of injuries are caused by unsafe acts and at-risk behaviors rather than unsafe equipment or conditions. In fact, in several DuPont studies it was estimated that 96 percent of injuries are caused by unsafe acts. This was particularly revealing when considering safety audits — if audits were only focused on conditions, at best we could only prevent four percent of our injuries. By establishing management systems for safety auditing that focus on people, including audit training, techniques, and plans, all incidents are preventable. Of course, employee contribution and involvement in auditing leads to sustainability through stakeholdership in the system. Management safety audits help to make manage the “behavioral balance.” Every job and task performed at a site can do be done at-risk or safely. The essence of a good safety system ensures that safe behavior is the accepted norm amongst employees, and that it is the expected and respected way of doing things. Shifting employees norms contributes mightily to changing culture. The management safety audit provides a way to quantify these norms. DuPont safety performance has continued to improve since we began keeping records in 1911 until about 1990. In the 1990–1994 time frame, performance deteriorated as shown in the chart that follows: This increase in injuries caused great concern to senior DuPont management as well as employees. It occurred while the corporation was undergoing changes in organization. In order to sustain our technological, competitive, and business leadership positions, DuPont began re-engineering itself beginning in about 1990. New streamlined organizational structures and collaborative work processes eliminated many positions and levels of management and supervision. The total employment of the company was reduced about 25 percent during these four years. In our traditional hierarchical organization structures, every level of supervision and management knew exactly what they were expected to do with safety, and all had important roles. As many of these levels were eliminated, new systems needed to be identified for these new organizations. In early 1995, Edgar S. Woolard, DuPont Chairman, chartered a Corporate Discovery Team to look for processes that will put DuPont on a consistent path toward a goal of zero injuries and occupational illnesses. The cross-functional team used a mode of “discovery through learning” from as many DuPont employees and sites around the world. The Discovery Team fostered the rapid sharing and leveraging of “best practices” and innovative approaches being pursued at DuPont’s plants, field sites, laboratories, and office locations. In short, the team examined the company’s current state, described the future state, identified barriers between the two, and recommended key ways to overcome these barriers. After reporting back to executive management in April, 1995, the Discovery Team was realigned to help organizations implement their recommendations. The Discovery Team reconfirmed key values in DuPont — in short, that all injuries, incidents, and occupational illnesses are preventable and that safety is a source of competitive advantage. As such, the steps taken to improve safety performance also improve overall competitiveness. Senior management made this belief clear: “We will strengthen our business by making safety excellence an integral part of all business activities.” One of the key findings of the Discovery Team was the identification of the best practices used within the company, which are listed below: ▪ Felt Leadership – Management Commitment ▪ Business Integration ▪ Responsibility and Accountability ▪ Individual/Team Involvement and Influence ▪ Contractor Safety ▪ Metrics and Measurements ▪ Communications ▪ Rewards and Recognition ▪ Caring Interdependent Culture; Team-Based Work Process and Systems ▪ Performance Standards and Operating Discipline ▪ Training/Capability ▪ Technology ▪ Safety and Health Resources ▪ Management and Team Audits ▪ Deviation Investigation ▪ Risk Management and Emergency Response ▪ Process Safety ▪ Off-the-Job Safety and Health Education Attention to each of these best practices is essential to achieve sustained improvements in safety and health. The Discovery Implementation in conjunction with DuPont Safety and Environmental Management Services has developed a Safety Self-Assessment around these systems. In this presentation, we will discuss a few of these practices and learn what they mean. Paper published with permission.

Addiction Recovery Agency (Ara) and Beacon Counseling Trust (BCT) provide critical safer gambling education and treatment services for the West of England, North West England, and Wales. Their respective dedication to the safer gambling field and commitment to enhancing system integration led to a natural partnership between the two organisations. Drawing from Ara and BCT’s significant expertise, they partnered to develop a suite of safer gambling programmes. As the suite of innovative programmes grew, they recognised a need to articulate and share their leadership in transforming the safer gambling landscape in England and Wales. The Safer Gambling Movement describes Ara and Beacon’s leadership in developing a grassroots movement to build momentum for a national public health approach in Great Britain by first building this capacity in England and Wales. GREO was brought on as the evaluation partner to help create a theory of change to describe this work and lay the foundation for future evaluations.