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1
Scanlon, Thomas Joseph. "Work and non-work stress among solicitors : modelling the work-home interface." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2005. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/22005/.
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Focusing upon solicitors working in private law firms in England and Wales, the study investigates the interrelationships between domain-specific and work-home interference factors and their predictive value in relation to different categories of strain symptomatology and satisfaction outcomes. The research also examines the moderating influences of gender and family type on the interface between work and home, and their differential impacts on well-being. Data were gathered in two stages. Stage one involved 20 interviews that allowed respondents to identify sources of work and home pressures for themselves. Content analysis of the interview transcripts facilitated the development of separate work and home pressure inventories. In addressing the difficulties associated with construct measurement, stage two developed an unorthodox approach for measuring both forms of work-home interference, which was part of an extensive survey instrument that included established outcome measures. The sample group was devised using a cluster sampling strategy whereby legal firms were grouped according to their size and then by regional cities. Nearly 2,500 surveys were distributed with a return rate of nearly 30%. The data set was split into two sub-sets via a cluster sampling strategy based on gender and family type to allow for a series of exploratory and confirmatory analyses in the development and testing of structural equation models of the work and home domain. A distinguishing feature of this study is its examination of the work-home interface at the microlevel, which involved developing a series of structural equation models relevant to the most salient sources of work-home interference and domain-specific pressures experienced by solicitors. Through a series of exploratory and confirmatory analyses, the study' tested three differing sets of explanatory relations as to the interplay between specific aspects of the two domains, and the implications of this interplay for a range of outcomes. The findings provide strong empirical support to assert that work-to-home interference (e. g., concerns over ability) and home-to-work interference (e. g., unfulfilled domestic responsibilities) represent two distinct dimensions of individuals functioning with different rates of prevalence and different role related antecedents and outcomes that indicate that solicitors are being stretched in both domains. The empirical evidence indicates an increasing convergence in the public and private roles of male and female solicitors, highlighting the importance of both sexes having the opportunity to attain a balance between the domains of work and home. The study also demonstrates that work-home interference is not exclusively a problem for employees located in traditional nuclear families and shows that solicitors within differing familial situations (e. g., single persons) experience high levels of work-home interference that can exacerbate domainspecific pressures resulting in a poor state of health and low levels of work and home satisfaction.
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Kilcoyne, Janet. "A case for art as a socially engaged, politicising force, utilising the work of Alfredo Jaar." Thesis, Royal College of Art, 2018. http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/3768/.
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My original contribution to knowledge is a framework constructed via the writings of Antonio Gramsci and Walter Benjamin for understanding what distinguishes art as a political object from art as a socially engaged, politicising force. The dominant understanding of art's reformative social agency raises two ethical problems that the thesis addresses. The first involves the artist's right to assume the authority to represent people and social conditions. The second involves an ethical aesthetic of tastefulness that engages with viewing as opposed to action. The framework I develop argues that art's functionalisms, for good or for ill, do not work with categories of art but are embedded in the politics of all cultural production. By disentangling art from the elitist paradigms enmeshed in concepts of artistic skill and art's own internal history of development, the thesis clarifies what separates art as political object from art as a socially engaged, politicising force. In the thesis, I argue for the advantages of the framework I develop via critical engagements with influential approaches such as those advocated by Clement Greenberg and Roland Barthes, artworks such as those produced by Judy Chicago and Art & Language, and theorists of art's social and political role such as those offered by Chantal Mouffe and Jacques Rancière. A key point made across the thesis is that political art is not necessarily politicising art, with the former being more interested in modifying the forms taken by art - what art is - and the latter asking how art can contribute to social and political change - what art does. Subsequently, the thesis outlines in detail the aforementioned framework inspired by Gramsci and Benjamin. This sets the scene for the second half of the thesis, which discusses the installations and interventions of Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar, whose practices are an exemplary case for illustrating the potential of the framework outlined above. As a self-professed Gramscian, Jaar works to actively participate in practical life as a constructor, organiser and 'permanent persuader' (Gramsci, 1971, p.10), through creating models for 'learning to think, for solving a problem' (Jaar, 2006, p.76). Moreover, as someone who is explicitly political in his practices, and who has been lauded worldwide for his works since the late 1970s, Jaar is a highly appropriate artist through which to highlight the challenges inherent to attempts to make the most of art's social and political potential. The chapters on Jaar consider, in turn, his Chilean works in the late 1970s and early 1980s, his photographic installations, and his explicitly political interventions. I argue that, while at times the work has embodied a politicising dynamic, more often than not the work has remained political and thus within more traditional understandings of art and of the artist. As such, the thesis offers a richer, more holistic approach to theorising art and discussing artistic practices compared to existing scholarship and criticism, and it also enables us to develop more nuanced analyses of artworks which are presented as political and potentially transformative than has hitherto been the case.
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Thompson, Diane. "The social and political construction of care : community care policy and the 'private' carer." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/233629.
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This thesis presents a retrospective critique of the social and political construction of 'informal care' within community care policy from the period of the late 1970s to the mid 1990s. The thesis considers the question of the degree of 'choice' available to informal carers to say 'no' to caring, or aspects of caring, within the reforms' positioning of informal care as the first line of support for adult dependants. The critique focuses on subjectivity, difference, agency and choice. A theoretical and methodological synthesis is developed between feminist post-structuralism, feminist critiques of mainstream social policy, and feminist theory and research, within which a qualitative in-depth interview study with informal carers is situated. The critique is then expanded through the development of a 'Q' Methodology study with a larger cohort of informal carers. The research identified gendered generational differences between the carers, and a 'burden' of care imposed as an outcome of consecutive governments' attempts to residualise welfare. The older carers' levels of agency and choice were severely curtailed. However, the younger female carers were more able to resist the drive of the community care reforms, their counter discourses being based on a new emergent notion of 'rights'. The direction of community care policy was found to be out of step with how the carers within this study perceived their responsibilities and 'obligations'. The thesis argues that whilst post-modernism may have constrained the capacity of governments and reconstituted our understanding of 'care', it has not done so to the extent that we are no longer prepared to make demands for 'care' from and by the state.
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Chimera, Chip. "Emerging practices of action in systemic therapy : how and why family therapists use action methods in their work." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/565810.
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This thesis sets out to explore the processes involved when family therapists decide to introduce an action method into a therapy session. Action methods are defined as therapist led physical activities which are introduced into the session for the purpose of enabling the healing of relationships. The literature is examined in relation to connections between family therapy approaches using action and psychodrama psychotherapy relation to work with families and couples. Literature which integrates the two approaches is identified. The core of the study is composed of five interviews with experienced and senior family therapists about how they use action with clients in sessions. It focuses on the beliefs, behaviours and actions which are present at the moment the therapists decide to use action. The interviews examine the therapists’ training and current practice culture, their guiding beliefs and principles about the use of action and the theories on which they have drawn in considering the implementation of action methods. Participants were asked to describe an episode of action by giving a verbal account as well as undertaking a sculpt of the episode using ‘small world’ figures. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using a unique approach blending psychodramatic role analysis (Williams 1989) with the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) (Cronen and Pearce 1985) a communication theory approach used by systemic psychotherapists. The findings indicate that systemic therapists do not have one overarching theoretical approach to using action in therapy, but draw on a range of different models which may be derived from different systemic approaches. The findings further indicate that theories of action which include neurobiological information processing and embodiment are introduced into systemic trainings as important in understanding how action methods impact on individuals and families. A format for therapists to evaluate their use of action methods is proposed for use in supervision or training. It follows the format that is used in the analysis, using psychodramatic role analysis and a CMM hierarchical structure which proposes opening space, spontaneity and playfulness as markers for the culture, identity and relationship levels of the analysis.
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Dantis, Trudy Mary. "Journeying with God: spirituality and participation in faith related activities among Catholic youth in Whangarei : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Social Work in the Social Policy and Social Work Programme, School of Health and Social Services at Massey University." Massey University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10179/1036.
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This thesis examines the spirituality and participation in faith-based activities of young Catholics in Whangarei, New Zealand. Six youth aged 16-17 years have shared their experiences in several areas of Catholicism such as religious attendance, Catholic identity and Catholic faith, morals and values, peer group socialisation and religious commitment. Using a qualitative mixed-methodological approach with the underlying philosophical stance of interpretivism, the intent of the study is to discover ways in which these young Catholics integrate their faith into their daily lives and make meaning out of it. It also compares the religious beliefs and values of Catholic youth in Whangarei to those reported worldwide. The findings reveal many similar themes to those from international studies. Although all of the participants in this study possessed a distinct sense of ‘spirituality’ and being ‘Catholic’ was a very important part of their identity, not all of them seemed to consider it practical to live out their Catholic beliefs. Similarly, although they did not face any insurmountable challenges in practicing their faith in daily life, only a few of them had strong convictions about their faith and, like their peers in other countries, only a few could concretely list the core Catholic beliefs. Concepts of moralistic therapeutic deism were found to affect half the participants while nuances of moralistic relativism were also prevalent. Results also showed a growing disinterest in attending Mass, participating in the sacrament of Confession, leading an active prayer life, being a part of church youth activities and some difficulty in finding similar peer group support. Overall, the findings presented in this thesis suggested that the participants involved in the study could be separated into two groups on the basis of their differing spiritual levels and commitment to the Catholic faith The findings suggest a need for Catholic youth in Whangarei to be supported in their spiritual development in order to help them grow in their Catholic faith. Accordingly, the main recommendations are for community-based services such as providing a variety of youth programmes/groups to engage young people and finding ways to facilitate the secure engagement of youth in a dialogue about their faith and religion, in order to spiritually encourage, nourish and sustain them at whatever stage they might be at.
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Harrison, Poppy. "Assessing the harm inside : a study contextualising boys' self-harm in custody." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/622024.
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Concerns about suicide and self-harm in English prisons are not new (Third report of the commissioners of prisons, 1880, cited in Liebling, 1992). However, a distinct system of intervention and custody for children (as established by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998) is relatively modern, and as such contextual studies about self-harm have largely, to date, overlooked children as a discrete group existing within a separate framework from adults. Similarly, large-scale research exploring self-harm among children in community settings has largely excluded the group of marginalised young people who come to the attention of youth justice services. This study presents a unique analysis of 181 youth justice assessments (‘Assets’) for boys who were remanded or sentenced to custody in under-18 Young Offender Institutions during 2014-15, tracing the subjects of the assessments from the communities they offended in through to a period in custody, using incident reports completed whilst they were there. What results is a contextual study examining the characteristics of the boys and their behaviour in custody. The study considers two central hypotheses: first, that to result in meaningful and supportive interventions, a definition of self-harm among the boys in the research sample often needs to include the harm they have done to their own lives (what the middle classes might call their ‘prospects’) through offending, and, second, that children who display the common traits of self-harming behaviour in custody may be identifiable by a different set of characteristics and needs from those who self-harm in the community. The author concludes that there is a previously undefined set of risk factors which can be applied to children who self-harm in custody for the first time, moving beyond the known risks associated with adolescent self-harm in the general population. Furthermore, it is found that boys who self-harm in custody are often oing so to exercise agency in an environment where they have very limited power, in circumstances defined not only by the restriction of liberty they are experiencing, but by the difficulties they experienced before coming to custody. Recommendations are made as to how policy-makers, through the current reforms to the youth justice system and a revised approach to assessments upon entry to custody, and practitioners, through increased awareness and improved recording of children’s views can more appropriately intervene in these boys’ lives to benefit them and society more widely.
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Thompson, Andrew Paul. "Whanau/family meetings in the paediatric intensive care unit: content, process, and family satisfaction : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy, Social Work, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand." Massey University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10179/1102.
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Family Meetings occur frequently in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) yet little data existed to guide clinicians in the conduct of these meetings. The medical team is required to deliver complex medical information and navigate complex decision-making with a traumatised family during a meeting. The objectives of this study were to describe the content and process of 15 whanau/family meetings in the PICU, identify family meeting characteristics and patient and family attributes that influence family satisfaction and recommend guidelines for health professionals working in the PICU. The study was conducted in a PICU in a university-affiliated children’s hospital in New Zealand (NZ). The process and content of 15 family meetings were analysed using a coding framework previously developed through a qualitative study of family meetings in the adult intensive care unit (Curtis, 2002a). A questionnaire providing a quantitative assessment of family satisfaction drawn from the same study was administered to 30 family members. Demographic data for the study were collected from the patient’s hospital record and these were combined with data relating to the meeting recording and transcript to identify family meeting characteristics and attributes that might influence family satisfaction. The content and process of family meetings in the PICU were described using a framework detailing 28 codes from the six domains: introductions, informational exchange, discussions of the future, decisions, discussions about death and dying, and closings. A comparison of family meeting characteristics and patient and family attributes revealed that longer meetings (40 minutes plus) were associated with lower family satisfaction and should therefore prompt clinicians to consider whether there are unresolved conflicts, difficulties or misunderstandings between the medical team and the family. Recommendations are proposed to guide health professionals in family meetings in the PICU. This is the first study to record and code the content of family meetings in the PICU. The findings from this study will assist clinicians in their meetings with families. The description of the family meeting content will also provide a foundation for future communication training and research in the health environment.
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Kraal, Ben J. "Considering design for automatic speech recognition in use." Thesis, University of Canberra, 2006. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/16990/1/c16990.pdf.
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Talking to a computer is hard. Large vocabulary automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems are difficult to use and yet they are used by many people in their daily work. This thesis addresses the question: How is ASR used and made usable and useful in the workplace now? To answer these questions I went into two workplaces where ASR is currently used and one where ASR could be used in the future. This field work was done with designing in mind. ASR dictation systems are currently used in the Australian Public Service (APS) by people who suffer chronic workplace overuse injuries and in the Hansard department of Parliament House (Hansard) by un-injured people. Analysing the experiences of the users in the APS and at Hansard showed that using an ASR system in the workplace follows a broad trajectory that ends in the continued effort to maintain its usefulness. The usefulness of the ASR systems is "performed into existence" by the users with varying degrees of success. For both the APS and Hansard users, they use ASR to allow work to be performed; ASR acts to bridge the gap between otherwise incompatible ways of working. This thesis also asks: How could ASR be used and made usable and useful in workplaces in the future? To answer this question, I observed the work of communicating sentences at the ACT Magistrates Court. Communicating sentences is a process that is distributed in space and time throughout the Court and embodied in a set of documents that have a co-ordinating role. A design for an ASR system that supports the process of communicating sentences while respecting existing work process is described. Moving from field work to design is problematic. This thesis performs the process of moving from field work to design, as described above, and reflects the use of various analytic methods used to distill insights from field work data. The contributions of this thesis are: * The pragmatic use of existing social research methods and their antecedents as a corpus of analyses to inspire new designs; * a demonstration of the use of Actor-Network Theory in design both as critique and as part of a design process; * empirical field-work evidence of how large vocabulary ASR is used in the workplace; * a design showing how ASR could be introduced to the rich, complicated, environment of the ACT Magistrates Court; and, * a performance of the process of moving from field work to design.
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Howard, Susan. "A Christian perspective on enabling spiritual formation in relation to work." Thesis, University of Winchester, 2017. http://repository.winchester.ac.uk/721/.
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This thesis is an action research investigation into the influence of my Christian habitus on my consultancy practice. My research question: How does my Christian faith inform the work I do? is located within the academic field of Spirit at Work. The complexity and difficulties of my professional practice are explored using the literature on Christian spirituality. My investigation uses the research method of practical theology to explore: my own Christian perspective; my role as a spiritual mentor; the nature of spiritual formation; and, faith in relation to work. The analytical methods of theological reflection, narrative inquiry, and autoethnography support the critical reflection. Five themes emerge: the evangelical basis of my Christian perspective; an understanding of the grace of God; the consideration of resistance as sin; strategies to enable spiritual formation; and complex combinations of faith in relation to work. This study has enabled me to interrogate my approach to spiritual formation in relation to work. My inquiry in a variety of contexts – with colleagues, one individual, and with a client –has developed my ability as a reflexive practitioner, and has strengthened my vocation as a spiritual mentor. I have used the Holistic Development Model (HDM) to underpin my approach to spiritual mentoring, and created a Christian interpretation of it. Spiritual formation is explored through the topics of: church, faith, purpose and mission using scripture, adventure and leadership, and difficulty and struggle. The research provides insights into my work as a professional consultant in the area of leadership development. My reflexive learning, combined with participative inquiry, provides an insider perspective on living within an evangelical Christian worldview. Difficulties over how to interpret Christian faith in work contexts are explored, particularly with regard to inclusivity. The research links spiritual formation with leadership, concluding that, in my practice, faith takes precedence.
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Jenkins, David William. "Risk assessment applied to consumer products with reference to CE marking machines for use at work." Thesis, Aston University, 2004. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/12230/.
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New Approach Directives now govern the health and safety of most products whether destined for workplace or domestic use. These Directives have been enacted into UK law by various specific legislation principally relating to work equipment, machinery and consumer products. This research investigates whether the risk assessment approach used to ensure the safety of machinery may be applied to consumer products. Crucially, consumer products are subject to the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) 1987, where there is no direct reference to 'assessing risk'. This contrasts with the law governing the safety of products used in the workplace, where risk assessment underpins the approach. New Approach Directives are supported by European harmonised standards, and in the case of machinery, further supported by the risk assessment standard, EN 1050. The system regulating consumer product safety is discussed, its key elements identified and a graphical model produced. This model incorporates such matters as conformity assessment, the system of regulation, near miss and accident reporting. A key finding of the research is that New Approach Directives have a common feature of specifying essential performance requirements that provide a hazard prompt-list that can form the basis for a risk assessment (the hazard identification stage). Drawing upon 272 prosecution cases, and with thirty examples examined in detail, this research provides evidence that despite the high degree of regulation, unsafe consumer products still find their way onto the market. The research presents a number of risk assessment tools to help Trading Standards Officers (TSOs) prioritise their work at the initial inspection stage when dealing with subsequent enforcement action.
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Shorrock, Sarah. "Protecting vulnerable people : an exploration of the risk factors and processes associated with Lancashire's Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH)." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2017. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/23075/.
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Miles, Joy. "The impact of welfare policy on social workers : everyday practice in a fostering and adoption unit." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2010. http://research.gold.ac.uk/6533/.
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This research employs an anthropological perspective in the examination of the impact upon social workers of changing welfare policies within a fostering and adoption unit in a London Borough. It is a study of the ways in which issues of policy, governance and power affect people on the ground. Nonetheless, this study is very much about the relationships between macro as well as micro processes. For that reason, it includes an illustration of the irreversible shift from the old notions of care, via major reforms to public sector management, and the introduction of market principles into welfare during the 1980s and 1990s. This research also highlights the notion of family and kinship as a set of ideas that are reproduced in government rhetoric about what environment is normal (and what is ideal) for children. In this context, fostering and adoption have become sites for significant and sustained policy legislation over a number of decades. Thus, the fostering and adoption unit offered a unique location for the focus on the fit between the formal specificity of top-down policy upon the day-to-day practices that social workers engage in. In so doing, it reveals how the redefinition of the role of social workers in the twenty-first century results in a tension between notions of professionalism and public sector managerialism. It draws attention to social workers as instruments of government control and intervention, and provides the framework through which to demonstrate the continually changing nature of the identity of social workers in negotiations of power. At the same time, it provides the context for another major strand of government policy legislation for local authorities that are based on the historical discourse of modernisation.
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Kilburn-Toppin, Jasmine. "Crafting artisanal identities in early modern London : the spatial, material and social practices of guild communities c.1560-1640." Thesis, Royal College of Art, 2013. http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/1356/.
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In recent decades, scholars have begun to substantially reassess the economic and political significance of the craft guilds of sixteenth and seventeenth century London. Revisionist work by economic historians (Epstein and Prak, 2008), has convincingly overturned the notion that guilds were unanimously restrictive of commercial growth, opposed to innovative practices and exploitative of their members. Several political and social studies (Rappaport, 1989; Archer, 1991; Gadd and Wallis, 2002) have demonstrated the dynamic and philanthropic nature of these corporate bodies, which provided avenues for occupational mobility and charitable support; ensuring that London remained stable despite the extraordinary demographic, financial and social pressures of the final decades of the sixteenth century. The longstanding interpretation of ‘guild decline’ in the early modern era has thus been widely problematized and shown to be anachronistic. This thesis proposes a new methodology for examining the craft guilds of late sixteenth and early seventeenth century London, and suggests that the established scholarship has overlooked the significance of artisanal knowledge, skills and identities in the construction of meaningful communities of workshop practitioners, small-scale merchants, and the regulators of the crafts and trades. In this study, the built environments and material artefacts associated with London guilds are considered as active cultural and social agents (Appadurai; Kopytoff, 1986) which both reflected, and in turn reinforced identity formation, and the ritual and political boundaries of communal life. The changing structure of livery halls, their internal configurations and external designs, and the material furnishings and collections gifted, displayed and utilised within these institutional homes, are shown to be essential means through which guildsmen established competing claims for civic authority and professional artisanal accomplishment. Using textual, visual and material evidence from a range of London craft guilds - primarily, but not exclusively, the Goldsmiths’, Armourers’, Carpenters’ and Pewterers’ Companies - this work examines the physical and epistemological place of artisanal cultures, c.1560-1640. It considers the collaborative processes through which workmanship was evaluated by master craftsmen on early modern building sites, and the political and social value of such artisanal skills, techniques and knowledge within their associated livery halls. It is demonstrated that through the donation of visual and material artefacts to company buildings, and their subsequent use in the convivial, political and religious rites of the guilds, craftsmen were able to shape their reputations and post-mortem legacies. Their material gifts and bequests reveal that guild halls were simultaneously sites of memorisation (Archer, 2001), sociability, craft regulation and artisanal innovation. Within communities of living guildsmen, freemen wished to be remembered as affluent civic philanthropists, guardians of illustrious histories and, crucially, as masters of their respective artisanal practices. The changing spatial and material environments of guild halls are shown to be social products of complex organisations, which honoured both commensality and hierarchy; fraternal values and political and epistemological distinctions. The rebuilding projects of the London livery halls are considered in juxtaposition to the strained spatial and political relationships between guild halls and city workshops, and contemporary efforts to uphold the authority of liverymen to inspect artisanal standards and material quality within the wider urban environment.
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(9819311), Joanna Mensinga. "Quilting professional stories: A gendered experience of choosing social work as a career." Thesis, 2005. https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Quilting_professional_stories_A_gendered_experience_of_choosing_social_work_as_a_career/13422944.
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The literature and research investigating why people choose social work as a career has tended to focus on motivational traits rather than on the choice experience itself. Whereas the vocational sector has moved to include a focus on the narrative processes involved with selecting a career, much of the social work research fails to capture the meaning-making processes individuals engage in to make sense of their career choices within their personal and social contexts. This research project describes the meaning-making processes two students participating in the social work program at Central Queensland University and I employ to understand our career choice experiences. Over a period of four years, using a research approach that combines Clandinin and Connellys (2000) narrative inquiry with Riessmans (2003) emphasis on social positioning within narratives, Geraldine, John and I explore the interplay between individual, community and professional agendas in our past, present and imagined career choice experiences particularly focusing on the impact of gender. Identifying the importance of caring as a hallmark of the profession and what draws us to social work, this co-constructed research text highlights the agendas that predominantly support womens entrance into the profession and challenge mens participation. Drawing on the metaphor of a quilt to describe our career choice experience, this project draws attention to the importance for aspiring social workers to carefully choose, cut and join together bits of gendered narrative material to create a professional story that both legitimises their entrance into the profession and to position them within the larger career sector.
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Zufferey, Carole. "Homelessness, social work, socal policy and the print media in Australian cities." 2007. http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/43096.
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The social work response to homelessness emerges from particular historical, sociopolitical and economic contexts. It is influenced by public perceptions of service provision as represented in the print media and by political and policy processes. This research study examines dominant representations of homelessness and social work in the print media, social policy and social work practice. The focus of the thesis is how discourses from the Australian print media, social policy and social work practice co-exist in constructing homelessness as a particular social problem and influence social workers and social work responses to homelessness. Two research studies provide the empirical basis for this thesis. A mixed method approach is used. Firstly, a quantitative content analysis of newspaper articles in three Australian capital cities examines public discourses relevant to the constructions of homelessness, 'homeless people' and service provision. Secondly, a qualitative discourse analysis of interviews with social workers employed in the field of homelessness in inner city Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney explores how social workers make meaning of their identity and responses to homelessness in contemporary practice settings. The social work study highlights the varied and complex contributions of social workers to Australian policy and practice responses to homelessness, which is a new and important contribution to the existing body of research. The theoretical influences on this thesis are social constructionist, feminist, critical and post-modern social work perspectives. These varied approaches enable an analysis of power that incorporates contradictions, complexities and social work resistances (Pease and Fook, 1999).PhD Doctorate
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(9882032), G. Kam Tong Fan. "The future of a professional association: A causal layered perspective." Thesis, 2010. https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/The_future_of_a_professional_association_A_causal_layered_perspective/13438106.
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This study investigated the level of alliance of social workers in Singapore with their professional association, the Singapore Association of Social Workers (SASW). Currently, there is a lack of studies exploring, in some depth, membership issues amongst professional social work associations and their probable future. This study utilised a futures methodology framework, namely the 'Causal Layered analysis' (CLA) as its main research tools. A face-to-face semi-structured interview was administered to a non-proportional stratified sample of 27 qualified social workers. The main objective was to suggest strategies that would strengthen the current level of alliance between social workers and SASW, resolve some pertinent professional issues, and develop a new future for the Association. The findings suggested that respondents' views of alliances were highly influenced by broader personal, national and even global, structural and systemic issues as well as inherent organizational issues faced by the professional association. Despite social workers being critical of their own professional association, they were hopeful that it could effect positive changes for the profession. Many did not consider themselves as part of the change process; instead, they adopted a bystander stance and would only come to the rescue of SASW should it face serious threats of being dissolved. Factors that drew social workers to join and remain with SASW lie in the extent of how the Association's services, events and projects were being targeted, personalized and carried through sufficiently to add value to their current workplace achievements. There was a call for SASW to adopt strong bonding strategies that would interconnect as well as integrate social workers into a strong professional force.
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Yu, Nilan G. "Managing competing mandates : social work in Philippine municipalities." 2005. http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/46349.
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This study set out to answer the question: In what ways do social work practitioners in Philippine municipalities manage competing mandates? The research question was informed by a number of theoretical propositions outlined in Chapter 1 and a particular construction of social work as described in Chapter 2. The approach taken was to ground the study in a particular practice setting, with the study participants being social workers serving as Municipal Social Welfare and Development (MSWD) Officers in Philippine municipalities.
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Adams, Jennifer. "A Bit of Give and Take: Older Volunteers' Sources of Value and Worth." 2008. http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/48830.
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This thesis is a study of older volunteers and their feelings of being valued and of worth within that role. The perceptions of older volunteers and their managers within three participating non-government organisations, government and organisational policy documents and relevant legislation and literature in the fields of ageing and volunteering provided data for the research. Changing political, economic and social conditions together with ageing of the Australian population have resulted in human services being increasingly contracted to non-government organisations. This in turn has resulted in more services than hitherto being delivered by volunteers many of whom are older people. Population ageing implies that there will be an increasing need for human services provision in the first half of the twenty first century. Whether there will be sufficient volunteers to maintain these services will depend at least in part on the responsiveness of organisations to their volunteer base and the effectiveness of their recruitment strategies. This research indicates that a sense of mastery over their circumstances is critical to volunteer satisfaction. Volunteers discussed their perceptions of maintaining control over their circumstances through the process of initiating volunteering arrangements and negotiating role changes in response to their changing health or abilities. Managers recognised the need to be responsive to the changing abilities of older volunteers and identified strategies for maintaining the volunteer contribution. Management style and in particular communication emerged as integral to volunteer satisfaction and an awareness of and responsiveness to differing motivators was important, particularly in relation to social networking and making a worthwhile contribution as a source of feeling valued.
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Stewart, Kathryn Janet. "Adding quality to the quilt : adolescent experiences of critical incident responses in secondary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work at Massey University (Palmerston North campus), New Zealand." 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10179/796.
Full textAbstract:
Critical incidents impact on populations that experience them. Within secondary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand, there is an expectation that a response is made to schools that experience such incidents. There is much conflicting international research as to the efficacy of these responses. The adult experts are making decisions that they believe are in the best possible interests of the young people; they are putting together a quilt that they believe will nurture young people. The expertise and knowledge of a major stakeholder – the young people involved in the critical incident response – has been for the most part, omitted from research. This particular study set out to gather data about young people’s experiences of critical incident responses, so that the quilt being provided has input from this group and so is able to better meet their needs. The study had four major facets. It incorporated reflections on my intrinsic involvement in this field of practice and was, therefore, heuristic. Secondly, qualitative research was utilised to explore with young people their stories about what happened for them at the time of an incident. Thirdly, it incorporated principles of participatory research as an acknowledgement that young people are central stakeholders in secondary schools and that their voice was one that needed to be heard in order that the best responses may be offered. Lastly, it was utilisation focused. It was designed so that the findings were not just written up and filed away but disseminated to those who make decisions at the school level and policy level. At the analysis stage, two major methods were used. Firstly, inductive analysis was used to identify the themes that emerged from the interviews with the young people. Triangulation was then used to consolidate these themes using the input from Collaborative Groups and a systematic review of the knowledge that I have gained over the time that I have been involved with young people in the critical incident response area. This analysis of the contribution from the young people resulted in several areas being highlighted. Firstly, participants asked that those responding to critical incidents considered the use of language and the power of words, Secondly, they believed that schools needed to act proactively and to have a plan and, in association with this, that they develop a culture that better cared for the needs of young people. Thirdly, the young people involved requested that the ‘right’ people responded at the time of an incident: the qualities of the ‘right’ people and the ‘wrong’ people were also identified. Next, the young people were well able to identify the positives that could ensue out of negative situations, and lastly, they expressed their wish that there be a place for their involvement at the time of a critical incident response.
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(11262267), Alissa P. Cress. "A POPULATION IGNORED: FOSTER PARENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF GIFTEDNESS AND ITS ROLE IN THE EXPERIENCES OF YOUTH IN FOSTER CARE." Thesis, 2021.
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In this dissertation, I sought to understand foster parents’ perceptions of giftedness, how foster children’s strengths, gifts, and talents affect their experiences and those of their foster parents, and what resources and information foster parents have for supporting their foster children’s education and gifts. To understand these beliefs, I analyzed quantitative and qualitative survey data from 53 foster parents throughout the United States and analyzed interviews from 14 of those foster parents. Most foster parents surveyed perceived their foster children as a little or very different academically and in other ways than their peers not in foster care, and perceived they had different educational experiences than their peers, largely attributed to their lived experiences prior to entering and during foster care. Most participants felt their foster children’s abilities, strengths, and talents affected foster parents a little or very much. Interviewed and surveyed foster parents defined giftedness as including the following attributes: academic achievement, natural ability or innate talent, intelligence, domain-specific capabilities, performance or skills above average for their age or above their peers, unique approaches to learning, and motivation for learning. Interviewees also addressed non-academic forms of giftedness, socioemotional characteristics of children with gifts and talents, and noted that these students may have some difficulties in school. Foster parents explained the adaptations they have made to their parenting because of their foster children’s strengths, talents, and abilities, and highlighted the unique life experiences of foster children, which were not only hinderances but also could help them succeed academically and in life. Participants also expressed why they think foster children are not identified for gifted education programming. Foster parents had many needs related to their foster children’s education and strengths, talents, and abilities. They made recommendations to those who train new foster parents and provide ongoing training to current foster parents; to schools and teachers of foster children; and to new foster parents about how to best meet the needs of foster children and encourage their gifts and talents.
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(9797021), Kerry Francis. "Finding meaning in tragedy: A social constructionist perspective." Thesis, 2010. https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Finding_meaning_in_tragedy_A_social_constructionist_perspective/13462931.
Full textAbstract:
Under the banner of social constructionism, this study examined meaning making around tragedy. This was achieved through investigating the category of tragedy; in particular, how the category is applied and under what conditions it is deployed. Secondly, the study investigated the discursive resources with which we make sense of tragedy. The specific aims of this research were to examine how the category of tragedy is utilised in language; how meaning making around tragedies occurs in the discursive context; and to investigate how these resources are flexibly combined in both diverse and shared patterns understanding of tragedy. The scope of this research entailed (1) an examination of public text about tragedies in order to develop an understanding of the circumstances in which the category is deployed and what is being achieved by this deployment; (2) an identification of the resources available in public text via which we make sense of tragedy, and (3) an application of a representative sample of ways of talking about tragedy in order to investigate the ways in which these are flexibly and meaningfully combined. Two methodologies were employed to address these aims: a discursive psychological analysis and Q method. Social constructionism has provided an overarching framework for much of the unpacking of discursive interaction that occurs in a variety of settings. Social constructionism has highlighted the constructive and performative nature of language use, and under its umbrella, many hitherto taken-for-granted phenomena have been investigated. Within psychology, this has meant a reconceptualisation of the individual and many of the processes presumed by psychology to be intrinsically individual processes, such as memory, attitudes, attribution, motivation, and social categorisation. Following in the relatively new and arguably non-mainstream tradition of the application of social constructionist theorising and methodologies, this study explores tragedy from this fresh perspective, using a mixed method approach to do so. Material for the discursive analysis was gathered from two national newspapers (The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald) spanning approximately a two-year period. Articles where the word tragedy was used or could reasonably be expected to be used were collected. This material was examined in order gain a sense of ‘characteristics’ of tragedy; what functions its use performed in the public text; and to investigate whether the meaning making themes identified in previous research were apparent in this data. Of interest were the variable ways the category of tragedy was utilised, the characteristics that appeared to make deployment of the category more likely, and the themes deployed in making sense of tragedy. Analysis demonstrated that the category of tragedy is applied flexibly across a range of situations, events, and outcomes and that its application performs different functions in different situations. For example, the descriptor ‘tragedy’ can signal the profound nature of an event and its impacts or it can be used ironically. Various meaning making themes were apparent in this public discourse, and these included accounting for why something happened (finding reasons), connection with others, coming to terms, moving on, and finding benefits from the experience. In addition to this newspaper text, data gathered from a series of 3 focus groups with a total of 12 participants and from a further 8 participants who supplied their written contributions to the topic formed the concourse from which the Q statements were drawn. Initially, 94 statements were pilot tested by 15 participants to check for clarity and relevance to the topic. The resultant final sort comprised 60 statements and was administered to a diverse group of 20 participants, including 8 males and 12 females, aged between 21 and 69 years. Five factors with eigenvalues above 1 resulted from the principal components analysis and were retained for rotation using the varimax technique. Factor one, labelled growth, was characterised by an emphasis on the good that comes out of tragedy. Factor two, connection, emphasised the interconnectedness that tragedy makes possible. Factor three, labelled pragmatic, captured the construction of tragedy as media and politically driven. Factor four, labelled the individual account, focussed on the subjective nature of the experience of tragedy, while Factor five, described an existential construction of tragedy that emphasised the impacts that tragedy has on our perspectives and psyches. The study confirmed prior findings that meaning making is of key importance in adjusting to major upheavals. It also illustrated that meaning is made socially through talking and other symbolic forms of interaction, such as ritual. Given the importance of meaning making for acceptance and positive growth, further investigation into meaning making, particularly after tragic events is warranted.
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(9819095), Dennis Mealor. "The Production of a creative work: An illustrated contemporary gothic novel entitled "The Silting", accompanied by a research-based critical reflection (exegesis) of the work." Thesis, 2008. https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/The_Production_of_a_creative_work_An_illustrated_contemporary_gothic_novel_entitled_The_Silting_accompanied_by_a_research-based_critical_reflection_exegesis_of_the_work/13420991.
Full textAbstract:
"This PhD project involved the writing of an illustrated contemporary Gothic novel entitled The Silting. Concurrent with the writing of the novel, a substantial, theoretically informed exegetical critique of the novel was also produced. The Novel: The Silting is a contemporary Gothic novel set in a fictitious English seaside village called Cove. The Siltings narrative is predominantly driven by the psychotic interior monologue of the narrator Johnathan Wolms. Despite Johnathans cynical and nihilistic demeanour, he becomes obsessed with the apparent divine presence of an ancient stone cube the Cube - that speaks to him from its housing in an old windmill. The Cubes influence seems intrinsically connected to a number of other characters, such as the mill owners daughter Abby. The Exegesis, produced concurrently with the writing of The Silting, explores the process of creating The Silting particularly with regard to its location within the contemporary Gothic genre, as well as its role in terms of metafictionality. Significantly, the latter concept became more pronounced as both the novel and exegesis drafts proceeded, in that the self-reflexive, metafictional interplay of the novel seemed to spill across both fictional and exegetic frames. In this way, the writing of the novel influenced the nature of the exegesis; and vice versa, exegetic research came to influence the content and narrative direction of the novel." -- abstract
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(9815483), Wendy Madsen. "Nursing, nurses and their work in Rockhampton: 1930 - 1950." Thesis, 1997. https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Nursing_nurses_and_their_work_in_Rockhampton_1930_-_1950/20113994.
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This dissertation has used an historical approach to investigate nursing at the Rockhampton Hospital between 1930 and 1950. It has focussed on the work practices of those nurses who carried out the majority of the work, the trainee nurses. The work practices examined include those related to infection control, treatments and interventions, monitoring activities and ward management issues such as hierarchical structure and communication.
This dissertation has placed nursing history at the centrepoint of three related disciplinary fields - medical, labour and women's history. This has allowed some of the origins of the rituals, traditions and culture of nursing to be identified. In particular the image of nurses as the doctor's handmaiden has been examined. This dissertation has revealed that while a large proportion of nursing activities were regulated by doctors, nurses controlled a significant amount of their work. This dissertation has, therefore, supported and challenged the foundations of the handmaiden image.
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(9789011), Betty Cosgrove. "Mount Morgan: Images and realities: dynamics and decline of a mining town." Thesis, 2001. https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Mount_Morgan_Images_and_realities_dynamics_and_decline_of_a_mining_town/13420163.
Full textAbstract:
Most histories and reports of Mount Morgan concentrate on the mining experience and financial achievements of the first Company rather than the mining town. This dissertation presents a social history of Mount Morgan that addresses the establishment, rise and fall of the town during the period of the first syndicate and succeeding company, 1883-1927. The thesis contends that the transformation of the landscape was to industrial, urban space where the working-class attitudes of miners and others defined a town character, despite the aspiration of many to social status through private enterprise and public influence. Further, the scope of research encompassed local involvement in colonial and state politics, and the presence of local government authority, law courts and press that placed an urban stamp on the town. Issues discussed also relate to geographic, climatic and single company influences that caused the difference between Mount Morgan and other mining towns that did not survive. The traditional perception of mining town impermanence was contradicted at Mount Morgan, where town and suburban communities were witness to a range of collective support in religious adherence, benefit associations, fraternalism and ritual, leisure, sport, education, and social cohesion in times of mining disaster. Moreover, despite increasing familial connections, antagonistic attitudes prevailed between the defensively parochial town of Mount Morgan and the nearby regional centre of Rockhampton. The rise of unionism at Mount Morgan challenged an apathetic working-class population to workplace solidarity in reaction to the Company's long established, almost feudal control of the town as well as the mine. It is argued that, despite a decade of failing ore markets and soaring production costs at the mine, the attitudes and actions of a union dominated workforce were paramount in decline of the town and ultimate closure of the mine. Mount Morgan survived the exodus of thousands of residents. A defiant place, the town exhibited a pride bolstered by the perpetuation of myths that presented a public image shielded from the life-long realities of economic and social adversity.
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(10994988), Minglu Li. "ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECT SOCIAL ENGINEERING ATTACKS." Thesis, 2021.
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Social engineering attacks can have serious consequences when it comes to information security. A social engineering attack aims at sensitive personal information by using personality weaknesses and using manipulation techniques. Because the user is often seen as the weakest link, techniques like phishing, baiting, and vishing, and deception are used to glean important personal information successfully. This article will analyze the relationship between the environment and social engineering attacks. This data consists of 516 people taking a survey. When it comes to discovering the relationship, there are two parts of the analysis. One is a high-dimensional analysis using multiple algorithms to find a connection between the environment and people’s behavior. The other uses a text analysis algorithm to study the pattern of survey questions, which can help discover why certain people have the same tendency in the same scenario. After combining these two, we might show how people have different reactions when dealing with social engineering attacks due to environmental factors.
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(9836804), Madeline Sprajcer. "The impact of on-call work on anxiety, sleep, and cognitive performance in a laboratory environment." Thesis, 2019. https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/The_impact_of_on-call_work_on_anxiety_sleep_and_cognitive_performance_in_a_laboratory_environment/13452683.
Full textAbstract:
Given the current production and service requirements for many organisations, 24/7 operations have become increasingly commonplace. This has resulted in a greater use of non-standard working arrangements, including shift work, and increasingly, on-call work. Despite being operationally essential for many industries, there has been limited research on the human impact of on-call work. There is evidence to suggest that workers experience increased anxiety surrounding their on-call periods, which has been linked with poorer sleep outcomes. It is well known that poor sleep can result in significant cognitive and work performance decrements. As such, it is vital to understand any changes to anxiety and subsequent sleep, as decrements may have far reaching implications for worker and organisational health and safety. This is particularly pertinent as on-call work is often performed in response to emergency situations or in workplaces with high levels of safety risk (i.e., emergency services, healthcare, power network services).
Despite the potentially severe consequences of impaired cognitive performance when on-call, no research has determined which components of on-call work may lead to increased worker anxiety and poorer sleep. Additionally, little previous research has investigated the effects of on-call periods decoupled from the sleep restriction that accompanies the calls and call-outs themselves. As such, this thesis investigates how certain components of on-call work affect anxiety, sleep, and cognitive performance in a laboratory context, without the confounding effect of shortened or interrupted sleep periods. This thesis consists of three studies, each designed to address one component of on-call work thought to cause anxiety. Seventy-two healthy, male participants were recruited to participate in a four-night laboratory study in the Appleton Institute’s time-isolated sleep laboratory (n = 24 per study). The same methodology was employed in each study, aside from the on-call conditions they comprised. The four nights of each study were; an adaptation night, a control night (not on-call), and two counterbalanced on-call nights designed to address specific on-call components.
These components were;
Study 1: The likelihood of receiving a call (on-call conditions = definitely and maybe; Chapter 3),
Study 2: How stressful the tasks to be performed on-call are (on-call conditions = high stress and low stress; Chapter 4), and
Study 3: The perceived chance of missing the alarm (on-call conditions = high chance and low chance; Chapter 5).
Participants were given instructions regarding their on-call status prior to bed each night. Outcome measures included pre-bed state anxiety, sleep (as measured by both polysomnography and quantitative electroencephalographic assessment), and next day cognitive performance. The effect of trait anxiety on state anxiety, sleep, and cognitive performance was measured across all three studies. The relationship between trait anxiety and each of these outcome variables was examined in the context of each on-call component, to determine if higher levels of trait anxiety result in poorer tolerance of on-call work (Chapter 6).
Results indicated that conditions with uncertainty around the on-call alarm resulted in poorer sleep and cognitive performance. These differences were seen when participants were instructed that they may be called (Chapter 3), and when there was a high chance of missing the alarm (Chapter 5). Further, next day cognitive performance improved when participants performed a high stress task on-call, compared with a low stress task, potentially as a result of increased physiological and psychological arousal (Chapter 4). However, the magnitude of these changes was limited. When the effect of trait anxiety was examined in the context of these three studies, it appeared that individuals with lower trait anxiety were no more tolerant of on-call working arrangements than those with higher trait anxiety (Chapter 6).
From this thesis we can conclude that there are some components of on-call work that affect anxiety, sleep, and cognitive performance outcomes more than others. Specifically, the uncertainty around calls seems to produce the most noticeable decrements, though these decrements were not large in magnitude. The findings of this thesis suggest potentially simple, cost-effective strategies for minimising the uncertainty surrounding on-call periods (e.g., a backup call system, or the identification and management of call likelihood). Additionally, findings suggest that there may be some protective effects of performing high stress tasks on cognitive performance on-call. However, it is important to note that this protective effect was apparent under laboratory conditions with just one high stress on-call night, and must be interpreted with caution. These findings are presented with a view to making on-call periods safer and more productive for workers and organisations.
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(5930969), Augustine M. Agyemang. "THE IMPACTS OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION WORK ZONES ON THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM, TRAVEL BEHAVIOR OF ROAD USERS AND SURROUNDING BUSINESSES." Thesis, 2019.
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In our daily use of the transportation system, we are faced with several road construction work zones. These construction work zones change how road users interact with the transportation system due to the changes that occur in the system such as increased travel times, increased delay times and vehicle stopped times. A microscopic traffic simulation was developed to depict the changes that occur in the transportation system. The impacts of the changes in the transportation system on the human travel behavior was investigated using ordered probit and logit models using five independent variables; age, gender, driving experience, annual mileage and percentage of non-work trips. Finally, a business impact assessment framework was developed to assess the impact of the road construction work zones on various businesses categories such as grocery stores, pharmacy, liquor stores and fast foods. Traffic simulation results showed that the introduction of work zones in the road network introduces an increase in delay times, vehicle stopped times, and travel times. Also, the change in average travel times, delay times and vehicle stopped times differed from road link to link. The observed average changes saw an increase as high as 318 seconds per vehicle, 237 seconds per vehicle and 242 seconds per vehicle for travel time, delay time and vehicle stopped time, respectively, for the morning peak period. An average increase as high as 1607 seconds per vehicle, 258 seconds per vehicle and 265 seconds per vehicle was observed for travel time, delay time and vehicle stopped time, respectively, for the afternoon peak period. The statistical model results indicated that, on a work trip, a high driving experience, high annual mileage, and high percentage of non-work trips makes an individual more likely to change their route. The results also showed gender difference in route choice behavior. Concerning business impacts, businesses in the work zone were impacted differently with grocery and pharmacy stores having the highest and lowest total loss in revenue, respectively.
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(9776186), Lenore Adie. "Operationalizing Queensland's Smart State policy through teachers' work: An analysis of discourses in a Central Queensland school." Thesis, 2006. https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Operationalizing_Queensland_s_Smart_State_policy_through_teachers_work_An_analysis_of_discourses_in_a_Central_Queensland_school/13416698.
Full textAbstract:
The notion of Queensland as a Smart State is the Queensland Beattie Governments response to global conditions that require a new type of worker and citizen for a new knowledge economy. The role of education in the success of the Smart State is clearly outlined in the Queensland Governments vision statements and policies, identifying teachers as a key factor in the production of this new type of worker and citizen. In this study I explore the relationship between Queenslands Smart State policy and the daily practices of teachers as they are implicated in the building of a Smart State. The study takes place during what is unquestionably the largest and most comprehensive reform effort to be imposed on Queensland schools and teachers, under the auspices of a Smart State. The research includes policy analysis of two key Smart State documents, and fieldwork involving semi-structured interviews, observations and artefact collection of the work of two primary school teachers. Using Faircloughs theories regarding the relationship between discourse and social change, it is possible to show how changes occurring in contemporary organisations are related to changes in discourse, in particular, those surrounding the discourses of a knowledge economy or globalisation. The Smart State is conceptualised in this study as regimes of discourses that may produce new practices and new ways of acting and being (Fairclough, 2001a). The interdiscursive, linguistic and semiotic strategies used in Smart State policy are analysed to show how this discourse is emerging into a hegemonic position, while identifying the dominant discourses reiterated in the policy as necessary skills for a new type of worker. These discourses are mapped onto those identified through the fieldwork of teachers daily work practices to determine if Smart State discourses are becoming apparent in teachers work. This study is significant because it makes visible the current relationship between the discourses of the Smart State and teachers daily work. In this current climate of rapid change and economic survival it is important that the operationalization of a Smart State can be attributed to teachers work as new ways of acting and interacting become a part of their daily practices.
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(9779021), Angela Bancilhon. "Work, lifestyle and location: An exploratory study on the motivations of digital entrepreneurs." Thesis, 2020. https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Work_lifestyle_and_location_An_exploratory_study_on_the_motivations_of_digital_entrepreneurs/13409123.
Full textAbstract:
At the nexus of alternate ways of working and living, a new type of entrepreneur has emerged. With varying degrees of flexibility over how, when and where they work, Digital Entrepreneurs (DEs) are a potentially significant breed of online business owner about which little is known. This thesis explores the motivations of DEs in creating their businesses, how they balance work with lifestyle domains and the role of location in their lives. Digital entrepreneurship is a highly topical yet under researched phenomenon. Employing a qualitative multiple case study research approach, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with thirty-six digital entrepreneurs in Australia and Bali. The aim of this approach was to gain insight into the subjective experience of DEs and a broader understanding of how they work and live. Motivational theories inform the study’s theoretical framework, with Push-Pull Theory being the most prominent. While a significant body of literature exists in relation to the motivations of traditional entrepreneurs, the digital landscape provides an alternative context for business ownership and allows a new degree of temporal and spatial flexibility.
Five key themes emerged from the research findings through thematic analysis of the data. Each of these five themes provide potentially significant insights into the DE phenomenon and they are discussed and explored in light of relevant literature. These themes are synthesised into a model which presents the key motivational forces for digital entrepreneurship, informed by Push-Pull Theory, in the context of the digital landscape and broader economic and sociocultural environment. In view of DEs’ temporal flexibility, the findings provide insights as to the different approaches DEs take to balancing work with other life domains. Also presented are the work, lifestyle and community factors that emerged as significant for DEs in choosing where to base themselves. Further, in the absence of a widely accepted definition of the term “Digital Entrepreneur” this study proposes a definition based on the research findings. This research has practical implications for regional and tourist areas looking to attract DEs, for the coworking spaces that support them and for those considering digital entrepreneurship.