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Victor, Elizabeth Kaye. "Structure and Agency: An Analysis of the Impact of Structure on Group Agents." Scholar Commons, 2012. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4246.
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Different kinds of collectives help to coordinate between individuals and social groups to solve distribution problems, supply goods and services, and enable individuals to live fulfilling lives. Collectives, as part of the process of socialization, contribute to the normalization of behaviors, and consequently, structure our ability to be self-reflective autonomous agents. Contemporary philosophy of action models characterize collective action as the product of individuals who have the proper motivations to perform cooperative activities (bottom-up); or they begin with the social-level phenomena and explain this in terms of individual actions and the mental states that motivate them (top-down). One general goal of this project is to show how and why both of these approaches through focusing solely on the individuals involved fail to capture and account for important types of group actions: those of economic group agents.
Group agents, one kind of organized collective, are unique in that they have the potential to develop group-level decision-making processes that result in the capacity of the group to engage in practical reasoning. Because of this capacity, group agents can be stable and respond to reason--capacities we would not expect from other kinds of collectives. Inasmuch as we value the possibility of influencing the reflexive dynamics that perpetuate social institutions, understanding the range of organization structures and their agential capacities will open up the possibility of altering the course of those dynamics toward more just systems of organization. Understanding what kinds of group agents currently operate within the systems of organizations that make up social institutions is the first step in determining how to move toward developing group agents that are also moral agents. By analyzing how different systems of constraint--inside and outside the firm--inform one another to influence the possibility of design and the group's possibilities for action, I use Christian List and Philip Pettit's account of group agency as a springboard to develop a more adequate account of how structure influences and constrains the possibilities of economic group agents in non-idealized circumstances (i.e. this world, with our history).
My chapters include 1) a taxonomy of organization structures and an analysis of how a narrow conception of organization structure in jurisprudence can lead to systems of constraint that limit the rights and freedoms of individuals even as it seeks to extend them, 2) an evaluation of the popular accounts of collective action (cf. Raimo Tuomela, 1997; Michael Bratman, 1993, 1997, 2009; and Christian List and Philip Pettit, 2011) that could be made to accommodate the actions of certain kinds of economic associations, 3) an exploration of the standards of evaluation that influence these powerful group agents, and how these standards limit the economic group agent's capacity to engage in moral reasoning, and 4) an analysis of the group agent's reasoning capacity and the internal mode of interaction between group agent and group members that perpetuate group agency.
I argue that we can understand group agents that have the capacity to be moral agents as the products of a particular kind of decision-making process within an organization's structure. The decision-making process, together with the organization structure and group member support, produces and sustains judgments and actions at the level of the group that cannot be reduced to the beliefs and actions of particular members. In this way, the group displays a systematic unity of actions based on its own judgments. That is, the group exhibits agency. Moral group agents exhibit more than practical reasoning; they also demonstrate the capacity for critical reflection upon the ends they pursue. Member buy-in promotes a tight connection between group members and their role in bringing about and sustaining group agency, and is the foundation of the group agent. Without a holistic organization structure, a member's personal identities could undermine group aims, thereby undermining group agency. Group moral agency, I argue, begins with promoting an organizational way of life conducive to collective flourishing and respect for members.
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Dougherty, Richard K. Mir Pablo F. "Organizational structure for inter-agency information operations /." Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2001. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA389648.
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Thesis (M.S. in Information Systems and Operations) Naval Postgraduate School, March 2001.Thesis advisors, Carl R. Jones, Thomas, Gerblick. Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-219). Also Available online.
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Morris, Mark. "Managerial agency : personality, psychopathy, structure and leadership." Thesis, Keele University, 2017. http://eprints.keele.ac.uk/2987/.
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This study begins with the clinical observation that psychopathic patients distort and disrupt the organisation containing and caring for them on one hand, and that organisational leaders manage to galvanise followers into realising his vision on the other; the two seeming to be phenomenologically similar; the former is organisationally effective antisocially, and the latter, pro-socially; one destructive and one creative. The study explores the implications of this observation through the sociological, psychological and leadership literatures, having focussed on the question of how managers are effective within organisations and to what extent is the personality or psychopathy of a manager a critical variable. Examining Hitler as a crucial case study, who as a leader combined effectiveness, charisma and a personality cult with a violent and psychopathic regime, the study uses a hermeneutic phenomenology methodology. Having looked at the case through the triangulated lenses of personality, historical context (structure) and managerial case history (agent), the study concludes that charisma rather than psychopathy may the critical success factor, and it proposes and describes a concept of "managerial agency" as a capability that combines charismatic with transactional and more coercive leadership. It argues that the sociological dualism of structure and agency ontologically are the same, such that social structures are collectively held (structurated) ideas. In an organisational (managerial) context they are divided by a relationship between the owner of the structure and the agent. The managerial agent, charismatically uses inspiration of and care for the individual subordinate, to modify (structurate) their psychology and attitudes, establishing energetic adherence to the manager’s task, which influence can be strengthened with more hierarchical transactional factors.
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Bettez, Silvia C. Noblit George W. "Secret agent insiders to whiteness mixed race women negotiating structure and agency /." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,846.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.Title from electronic title page (viewed Dec. 18, 2007). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Education." Discipline: Education; Department/School: Education.
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Jordan-Baker, Craig. "Agency, structure and realism in language and linguistics." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/44185/.
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This thesis considers the scientific status of linguistics and the historical and contemporary attempts to view linguistics as closely aligned to, or one of, the natural sciences. Such attempts share certain common features that make up what is identified here as the ‘Formalist Attitude'. The question ‘what is a language?' is central to the discussion of the scientific status of linguistics, so a central task of the thesis is to show how answers to this question display the features of the Formalist Attitude. In particular it is shown that attempts to constrict the theoretical purview of linguistics around a view of language that sustains claims to natural scientific status fail to account for the social ontology of language and the role of speakers within the creation and reproduction of language. A consequence of this failure is an inability to explain important language phenomena such as language change, arbitrariness and knowledge of language, which the alternative conception of language defended here successfully accounts for. ‘Language' is best seen as a power of speakers to communicate with one another, a view which emphasises the motivated, social, reproductive and transformative aspects of actual speech. The negative and positive arguments jointly defended, support the view that linguistics, considered with respect to its object of knowledge, methodology and ability to offer explanations and predictions, is not akin to natural science but should be considered a social science. Besides historical contextualisation of the problem, the thesis looks at current trends, such as cognitive and integrationist linguistics, that are broadly consistent with its criticisms and conclusions. The purpose of the thesis then is twofold; to identify, explain and criticise a problematic and influential tradition within linguistics and then to provide some Lockean underlabouring for contemporary linguistics that will be valuable to linguists and philosophers.
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Tasselli, Stefano. "Network structure, individual agency and outcomes in organizations." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/283966.
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Kiemtore, Bertrand. "Management structure of communication agency with comprehensive services." Thesis, Сумський державний університет, 2013. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/33167.
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A communication agency is a company responsible for guiding any business, community, association in the development of its internal and / or external to promote the image of the company to the public and external partners.
When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/33167
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Qually, Byron Alexander. "Design and democracy : transformative agency within indigenous structure." Thesis, Open University, 2018. http://oro.open.ac.uk/55017/.
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South African democracy is perceived and evidenced to be under duress. This research questions how design, when underpinned by transdisciplinarity and abduction, can articulate and address this problem. The literature is reviewed to map how designed objects, processes, and philosophy enable and hamper notions of democracy. Within this literature, two concepts are identified as key to a South African context, and require further research - Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and cosmopolitanism. The African concept of Ubuntu, a subset of IKS, is argued to function as an authentic context, however, its ability to influence urban and diverse environments is questioned. Cosmopolitan theory, and Dewey's focus on experimentation, is argued to promote normative organisation, and its application to facilitate urban and dynamic participation is questioned. The Cape Town precinct - Long Street - provides a case study with which to unpack these two key concepts, and obtain empirical data to answer the research questions. Qualitative data is firstly obtained, from key informants who have the authority to influence the case study delineation. Based on this data, an Abductive instrument (Ai), based on Experience Design (XD) and Designing For Participation (DFP) methods, obtains quantitative data from public actors. Findings from the research include: political philosophy is increasingly enabled and countered by design; design is required to deconstruct and not fortify South African democracy; design is capable of operationalising decolonisation as a constructive, and not reductive, act; indigeneity is being reclaimed in urban contexts, and reinterpreted by design; reflective participation, and not historical assimilation, is a fundamental challenge for political studies; publics experiment with, and not on, themselves. The key implication of the research is designing critical representation, which is at the intersection of design, IKS, and cosmopolitanism. Here, empowerment is an indigenous imperative, design synthesises direct and representative democracy, and design intent is hyper-transparent.
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Elder-Vass, David John. "The theory of emergence, social structure and human agency." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.430776.
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Carlton, Nancy. "Structure, agency and power in local authority possession proceedings." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/738385b2-fbac-4ce2-9738-21505a91c532.
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This thesis is a study of the conduct of local authority possession proceedings and the relationships of the parties involved in them: the courts, local authority housing departments and their tenants. On a more general level the thesis is concerned \\ ith the process of change and barriers to change in legal proceedings. The issue underlying these relationships is the nature of the security of tenure given to council tenants by the Housing Act 1980 (consolidated by the Housing Act 1985). On the face of it, discretion as to recovering possession of their properties was removed from local authorities and given to the courts through that legislation. Under the 1985 Act. local authorities are required to show that it is reasonable for a possession order to be made each time they make an application for possession on the ground of rent arrears. Various studies have been carried out about what happens in practice in possession proceedings, both independently and for the Civil Justice Review in 1986, which reported that the courts were more or less "rubber-stamping" local authorities' applications. As a result, the Lord Chancellor's Department instituted some procedural reforms in 1993 which were intended to ensure that courts properly exercise their discretion. This thesis looks at whether the procedural reforms have been effective in changing practice, and having found that they were not, then addresses the question of why that is the case. In seeking to answer the latter point, the author uses Giddens' theory of structuration to analyse the research data. Layder's 'realist' approach to social research is adopted, and provides a framework for discussion of the material by considering it in its micro, macro and historical contexts. The relationships between the agents and the structures pertinent to possession proceedings are analysed, and consideration is gi\en to where power is held and how it is used. By adopting such an approach, it is intended to make a contribution to the social theory oflaw
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Allam, Bahaaeldin Samir Ismail G. "Board characteristics, ownership structure and agency costs : UK evidence." Thesis, Durham University, 2015. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11154/.
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The term “Corporate Governance” always proliferates after large accounting scandals and crises; practitioners claim that governance mechanisms are the cause of these failures, and worldwide reforms take place after each failure; however, these reforms did not succeed in preventing the subsequent falls down. Although corporate governance mechanisms are introduced to monitor and control the managerial opportunistic behaviour in order to reduce the agency costs; most of the prior studies were directed towards investigating the role of governance mechanisms in enhancing firm performance as an indirect proxy of lower agency conflicts, and hence, lower agency costs. This study adds to the debate around the usefulness and the effectiveness of the corporate governance mechanisms in controlling the managerial opportunistic behaviour and reducing agency costs. This study contributes to the governance literature by investigating and comparing the impact of a comprehensive set of governance mechanisms reflecting a wide spectrum of board characteristics and ownership structure on agency costs over the period 2005-2011; in addition to providing a comparison of before and after the financial crisis periods using a large sample of firms listed in FTSE All-Share index. In doing so, two different agency costs proxies are utilised; asset utilisation which reflects the managerial efficiency; and the interaction of free cash flow with growth opportunities which reflects investment decisions agency costs. This comparative analysis extends the governance literature that investigated the pre and during the crisis periods by adding the pre and post the 2008 financial crisis comparison. Lastly, this study considers more than one theoretical paradigm; the empirical evidence lends the support to the agency and resource dependence perspectives and provides partial support to the stewardship view. The results clearly show that not all governance mechanisms lead to lower agency costs; thus, one prescribed structure does not fit all. Moreover, the efficiency of the governance mechanisms is directly affected by surrounding economic conditions (e.g., steady and abnormal conditions); in other words, governance mechanisms which help in reducing agency costs during the normal economic condition could turn out to be useless, inefficient and in some cases detrimental to the managerial effectiveness after the financial crisis. Moreover, the reported results support the claim that interrelation between the different governance mechanisms should be considered in future governance studies.
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Meyerovich, Roman Carleton University Dissertation Political Science. "Structure versus agency: collapse of the USSR re-examined." Ottawa, 1996.
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King, Matthew David. "The structure of responsibility symmetry, agency, and undermining factors /." College Park, Md.: University of Maryland, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/8072.
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Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2008.Thesis research directed by: Dept. of Philosophy. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.
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Akram, Sadiya. "Re-conceptualising the concept of agency in the structure and agency dialectic : habitus and the unconscious." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1266/.
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While the human agent has the capacity for consciousness, intentionality and reflexivity, the same agent must also be affected by the social and political world in which she lives: herein lies the essence of the structure and agency debate. This thesis argues that while realists are in principle committed to a dialectical relationship between structure and agency, there is much dissonance between this commitment and the concepts of agency that they develop. I highlight the exclusion of the unconscious from realist notions of agency and argue that this oversight serves to unbalance the dialectic between structure and agency. The concepts of agency developed by Margaret Archer and Colin Hay are examined and, in varying degrees, both are shown to neglect the unconscious within a dialectical approach. Anthony Giddens is shown to develop a much improved concept of agency, which includes a notion of the unconscious, however, his rejection of the independent causal powers of structure and agency problematises his commitment to the dialectic. A novel approach to theorising agency is offered and draws on insights from Pierre Bourdieu and his notion of habitus. It is suggested that this re-conceptualisation will provide realist social scientist’s with a much improved ontological account of agency and a broader conception of the nature and scope of sociopolitical motivations which inform agential behaviour. A novel methodological framework for researching habitus and its unconscious platform is also explored.
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Yu, Bing. "Agency Costs of Stakeholders and Corporate Finance." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1258316541.
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Caragata, Lea. "Civil society as shadowland, mediations among structure, agency and space." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ27617.pdf.
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Retz, Aaron Josef. "Structure, contingency and agency : examining the science of self-understanding /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AR/09arr441.pdf.
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Le, Boutillier Shaun. "Dualism and duality : an examination of the structure-agency debate." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2008. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2075/.
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Within the structure-agency debate the works of Margaret Archer and Anthony Giddens represent opposite opinions of the society-person connection and the status of social types. Their views are defined, respectively, by an adherence to dualism or duality. Whilst Archer's theory requires ontological proof that social structures, as emergent phenomena, exist sui generis Giddens' argument, based on a commitment to hermeneutics and pragmatism carries no such ontological baggage. I argue that the demands of Archer's and Bhaskar's realism are unmet and that duality is the most plausible position to hold in the structure-agency debate. In Chapter One I set out Giddens' theory and note his rejection of relativism in favour of pragmatism. In Chapter Two I argue that the bedrock of Archer's theory, Bhaskar's naturalism, when carried to the social sciences, is flawed by the inability to 'close' systems. In Chapter Three I show how realists have modified Bhaskar's realism in order to separate structure from agency. However, as with past attempts at basing realism on the concept of emergence this raises the spectre of reification. In Chapter Four I discuss and demonstrate the ways in which the concept of supervenience may or may not be helpful in proving the sui generis status of social facts. In the first half of Chapter 5 I make a distinction between morphological and cultural types and demonstrate that separating 'ideas' from those individuals who hold them is nonsensical and therefore dualism is fundamentally flawed. In the second half of the chapter I argue that there are logical grounds for rejecting the transposition of realism from the natural to the social sciences. In Chapter Six I defend Giddens' thesis against criticisms concerning voluntarism, the clarity of the notion of social structure and its relationship to system.
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Parker, Lucy Charlene. "Examination of the Relationship between Classism and Career Agency." Thesis, Northern Illinois University, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10976608.
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Classism is a recently studied, but historically existent form of oppression. Classism may involve students feeling that they cannot pursue a degree or career due to discrimination related to their social class status. This study explored the relationship between classism, gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, and career agency through survey design research. Career agency is the primary dependent variable in this study. Career agency includes career choice, career forethought, and career related actions related. Psychometrically established instruments including The Experiences With Perceived Classism Scale–Short Form and The Career Futures Inventory–Revised were used to assess classism and career agency. Using this design, data were collected from undergraduate university students of various genders, races, socioeconomic statuses, ages, career anticipations, and potential experiences of classism at a large Midwestern university in the United States. Student data were collected to explore any potential associations between any self-report of perceived classism and students’ reported career agency. Student responses were then analyzed through correlations, an independent samples t-test, and a multiple linear regression analysis.
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Duggins, Shaun D. "The Development of Sense of Agency." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/psych_theses/88.
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Agency, a behavioral and psychological concept, is an individual’s sense of what they can do and what they think they can do. It is imperative to understand how a sense of agency in youths can be fostered and transformed into constructive action. This study builds on previous research to better identify predictors of agency, focusing on social and political involvement and opportunity structure. Additionally, it analyzes and proposes the use of a new measure of agency, the Community Leadership (CL) scale. Eighty-five teens (ages 13 to 18) were administered surveys. Involvement was found to be significantly related to agency. It was also related to opportunity structure, but opportunity structure was not significantly related to agency. Opportunity structure seems to partly influence the relationship between involvement and agency. When compared to previously validated measures of agency, the CL scale proved to be a shorter and psychometrically sound alternative measure.
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Lê, Patrick Lâm. "Does Clark Kent tweet ? Structure, Agency and Materiality in Institutional Theory." Thesis, Jouy-en Josas, HEC, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015EHEC0001/document.
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Cette thèse examine deux questions de recherche: Comment l’adoption des technologies en ligne impacte-t-elle le comportement des acteurs et leur reproduction des institutions ? Quels rôles jouent la structure, l’agence et la matérialité dans ces changements ? Ma principale conclusion est que les acteurs font preuve d’une forme d’agence pratique en tirant avantage d’une situation émergente qui est caractérisée par de nouvelles conditions matérielles. La thèse s’articule autour de trois essais. Le premier essai examine comment les normes professionnelles et les caractéristiques matérielles de Twitter guident la gestion des rôles endossés par les journalistes. Le second essai analyse les dynamiques de la construction de sens et leur relation au contexte institutionnel. Le troisième essai consiste en une revue de littérature systématique portant sur la méthode de l’ethnographie en ligne. Dans le dernier chapitre de ma thèse, après avoir présenté ses limitations et des pistes pour des recherches futures, je souligne les implications pratiques de mes travauxThis dissertation examines two main research questions: How does the adoption of online technology impact actors’ behavior and their enactment of institutions? What roles do structure, agency and materiality play in this change? Its main conclusion is that actors mostly exhibit a form of practical-evaluative agency by taking advantage of an emergent situation which is characterized by new material conditions. The dissertation is articulated around three essays. In the first essay, I investigate how professional norms and the material features of Twitter guide journalists’ online boundary management behavior. In the second essay, I examine the dynamics of meaning construction and their relation to the institutional context. In the third essay, I systematically review online ethnography and its boundary challenges. Finally, in the last chapter of the dissertation, after presenting its limitations and avenues for future research, I highlight the practical implications of my work
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Atwood, Cynthia. "Border security agency structure: a hindrance to demonstrating border security success." Thesis, Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/38874.
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CHDS State/LocalLong-awaited immigration reform may become a reality in 2013, as Congress debates the merits of a comprehensive overhaul. The primary criteria for triggering reforms in the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S.744), involves demonstrated control of the Southwest border. The debate has been complicated, however, because only a few analysts and not the Department of Homeland Security itself have been able to produce acceptable metrics that illustrate success at enforcing border operations, at or between, the ports of entry.
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Hodkinson, Philip Michael. "Careership and markets : structure and agency in the transition to work." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.294471.
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Al-Saud, K. F. T. "The inter-penetration of agency and structure within the Saudi bureaucracy." Thesis, Swansea University, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.635722.
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The place of the public sector bureaucracy in the political, social and economic life of Saudi Arabia is central. It plays a major role in both policy making and implementation and it is charged with development, planning and administration. Therefore whether or not the bureaucracy is succeeding in meeting this responsibility is of interest to and directly affects every member of the society. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that there are two forces at work within the Saudi bureaucracy. First, there is an overt, formal, systematic and rational structure that has been planned and organised. Secondly, there is a covert, informal, network that has no official status or recognition, yet is immensely powerful. We conceive of the inter-relation of these forces, following its discussion in the literature as 'the dialectic of agency and structure'. This work shows that trying to understand one without the other will deliver at best only a partial understanding. The formal structure follows the overt model of other bureaucracies in the modern world. The second, is based around relationships and personal power differences: between the people who work in the bureaucracy and between those officials and the public. We attempt to show how there is an ever-present interpenetration of agency and structure in Saudi bureaucratic organisational life. By demonstrating that this state of affairs exists, we are not claiming to be able to find a final resolution, much less a solution, to the problems faced by the bureaucracy.
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Matthews, Catherine S. "Trade credit management within small professional firms : practice, agency and structure." Thesis, University of Brighton, 2013. https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/1a993efc-5b21-45d1-85d6-fd6c3bffc60d.
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This research surfaces the complex process of managing trade credit within small professional firms, exploring drivers of idiosyncratic practice within particular contexts. Despite the acknowledged macro-economic significance of trade credit, little is known of its management at firm-level. The well documented susceptibility of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to liquidity problems implies the importance of the management of internal resources for such firms. Small professional firms provided the opportunity to explore trade credit management where the length of the work in progress cycle can be pronounced, and where amounts receivable represent a crucial element. Current research is dominated by deductive approaches that assume a normative paradigm and have identified ‘poor’ financial management practices. Inductive, qualitative research regarding financial management within small firms is scarce, but has shown that insights into informal practice are crucial to understanding the nuances of small firm operations, and that normative practice does not necessarily provide an appropriate benchmark. This dualism has been observed within the SME literature as resulting from the adoption of an objectivist or subjectivist position. Utilising the richness of multiple case studies this research has sought to move beyond the subjective/objective divide, exploring the role of neglected informal processes whilst recognising the existence and influence of social structures. Structuration theory provided a useful lens through which to view reciprocal interactions between practitioners, the firm, and structures within society, and a means of avoiding the dichotomy between subjectivist and objectivist research. Trade credit management was explored within sixteen firms selected to represent four professional areas: accountancy, solicitors, architects and surveyors. Each case represented an account of practice within the context of the firm, and the wider environment. Practice was surfaced through interviews and other documentary sources. Causal maps were used to analyse interview transcripts and other evidence, enabling the display of factors, and relationships between them. These grounded portrayals of practice were aggregated intra-profession to create four diagrams that displayed key areas of firm practice, and the influence of emergent causal axial codes. An inter-profession diagram summarised cross case analysis. Inter profession analysis revealed an overarching narrative framework of organising, meta-level constructs that highlighted the complexity of practitioner decision making and reflected informal and formal dimensions of practice. The role of practitioners as reflexive agents in their interactions with social structures within their environments was highlighted. Responses at different environmental levels reflected practitioner’s interpretations of their structural context, demonstrating idiosyncratic practice alongside shared behaviours. This research contributes to knowledge in the presentation of cross case analysis, framed using structuration theory to consider the nature of agency and structure within the trade credit management practice of small professional firms. Cross case analysis surfaced multi-dimensional features of trade credit management practice and the nature and location of the influence of causal axial codes upon firm practice, summarised in a final cross case network of causation. This research therefore provides new insight for policy makers and small firm advisors in highlighting limitations with normative practice and affirms the need to recognise trade credit management as an integrated aspect of business management that reflects the diverse objectives and motivations of practitioners.
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Stapleton, Sarah Jane. "Institutions in/cognito : the political constitution of agency." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33074.
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Operating at the boundaries of philosophy of mind, cognitive science, politics and social theory, this thesis aims to develop an interdisciplinary model of the relationship between agency and structure. This thesis explores the question of why the agency/structure argument in the social sciences has not yet been resolved and argues for an interdisciplinary model of agency to be utilised by social theory. In the wake of poststructuralism there has been a gravitation back towards characterising the terms of this debate in more strongly dichotomous terms, arguing for the autonomy of agency in particular as a natural kind. This trend can be seen most clearly in Archer's analytical dualism within the morphogenetic theory of social elaboration, where the desire for the clarity of dualist terms has become tangled with claims to ontology. I suggest that this tendency is not limited to social theory, but is characteristic of the neoliberal political environment from which such theory is being produced, understood and utilised. Understanding the way in which our political and social context influences the ways in which we may understand or conceptualise a problem such as this, establishing the logical intuition and methods which we use to do this kind of deductive reasoning, is key for both performing the philosophical task of engaging in the agency-structure debate, but is thoroughly interrelated with how we need to conceptualise that relationship itself. It is both the method and the content, the 'how' and the 'what', of investigating the relationship between external social structures and the feeling of autonomous authorship and choice. I argue that the political value system inherent to neoliberal and economic logics, which prioritise and naturalise individuality and autonomous, internal agentic capacity, works to make the experience of agency appear inevitable and universal. This thesis engages with the assumptions that underpin this illusion, looking to philosophy of mind in order to etch out a framework for understanding agency. This framework has two necessary components. Firstly, that it acknowledges the experience of agency as real, and that as a way-of-being-in-the- world it is necessary to continue to explore how individuals experience agency in their environments. Secondly, and most importantly, that this 'realism' about agency, does not inevitably indicate that agency has an ontological and epistemological reality that transcends the particular social and political contexts in which it makes sense. The thesis explores how the fundamental components of agency, intelligence and cognition are produced in the interrelationships between a subject and their physical, social and political environment. The argument presented is that deliberative consciousness and self-awareness emerge as a response to, and as an effect of, complex social interaction. In contrast to Archer's conception of the sui generis, causal efficacy of reflexive agency, this thesis argues that smooth, embodied, coping with the environment is the preferred mode of interacting with the world. By critically engaging with the idea that those studying social dynamics should conceptualize agency as internal and inherent the thesis explores and critiques the prevalent use of the term 'agency' within social theory, arguing that an explicit engagement with what agency is is an understudied but fundamental and necessary philosophical task within sociology. A strong position is proposed that social institutions not only precede the self-aware, experience of choice and autonomy, but actively produce it. This proposition stands in opposition to dualistic notions of agency and structure as they are conceived by critical realism. This has widespread political implications in a field that often assumes agency to be an intrinsic part of human nature that stands outside of socialisation. This goal of this thesis is to demonstrate that in order to understand the experience of agency within our particular contexts and how it manifests as a force for social change, social theory must engage critically with philosophy of consciousness.
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Fu, Guopeng. "Physics teachers and China's curriculum reform : the interplay between agency and structure." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/50426.
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This study explored how individual and collective agencies among physics teachers in a select high school were enabled and constrained in the context of the on-going curriculum reform in China. Human agency as used in this study was informed by five perspectives: Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory; Giddens’ Structuration Theory; Giroux’s critical pedagogy; Seixas’ historical consciousness; and Davies’ feminist and poststructuralist perspective.
The study employed autoethnographical methods including observation, interviewing, the researcher’s and teachers’ reflective journaling, and data collection through the researcher’s involvement with various school activities which took place in one high school. The analysis of the data corpus employed portraiture and constant comparative method. The portraits of the researcher and selected teachers depicted their agencies in terms of origin, motivation, shape, and negotiation.
The findings included: 1) individual teacher agency was significantly influenced by history, currency, moral standards, and students; 2) collective agency was shaped by structural changes, leadership and modern technology; and 3) collective teacher agency created the demands for individual teachers’ professional development, a conducive culture for teacher collaboration, and concrete examples that teachers could constantly refer to, reflect upon, and learn from for reform implementation.
These results offer important insights for understanding how physics teacher agency is manifest in the on-going curriculum reform in China. Further, the study offers a clear understanding of the influences underlying physics teachers’ agency deployment as they engage with the curriculum reform process. Finally, this study’s findings justify a case for preparing physics teachers on how to deploy both individual and collective agencies in the face of the complicated social structures and ultimately shed light on the desired curriculum decentralization in China.Education, Faculty of
Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of
Graduate
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Fittipaldi, Luis Antonio Egidio. "Agency, structure and subjectivity : towards a new metaphorical model of the mind." Thesis, Brunel University, 2013. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/13631.
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The current thesis is based on the research of the psychoanalytical concepts of agency, subject and structure while it correlates the same notions with the clinical observations of patients with personality disorder in crisis [patient group]. It also proposes an answer to the problem of agency and structure, incorporating structuration theory and recursivity. This is done by the construction and outline of a new framework, which is designated as the scaffolding model. The analysis of the analytical observations demonstrated that patients present in the clinical arena with dual narratives that include two accounts, which have been identified as the problem and the solution formed scenarios. This twofold situation is guided by a dyadic functioning process, which is a functional pattern that not only regulates language but it also maintains an integrated function in the brain and in the mind of the subject. It constitutes a new structure, which associates the brain-mind and language [+senses], forming a “self-organization system”. Agency, here, is the power or vacuum that allows symbolic action. This research offers a new tool in the treatment of members of the patient group or in the treatment of subjects who present ambivalently or in conflict. This new approach designated as dual narratives facilitate a different perspective than the ones already established, such as cognitive analytical therapy, which give answers to the same clinical situations. Dual narratives work at two levels. This is done by preventing risks and by looking into the causes of the ambivalence of the subject, using Lacanian concepts, such as the notion of the signifier, and exploring the subjective position.
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Grabowski, Lorie Jean Schabo. "Welfare participation and perceived self-efficacy : structure, agency, and the self-concept /." Diss., ON-CAMPUS Access For University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Click on "Connect to Digital Dissertations", 2001. http://www.lib.umn.edu/articles/proquest.phtml.
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Wallace, Gerald Leon. "Decisions of capital structure in the presence of agency and collusive monopsony." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6394.
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The United States acute care hospital (ACH) market provides a unique environment in which to examine questions about market structure and performance. The ACHs operate in a mature market of health services that is highly regulated and has one dominant primary consumer of services. The uncharacteristic industry structure offers the opportunity to analyze pervasive agency relationships and capital structure issues in a new setting. In addition, the policies of the U.S. Government have created an environment in which tacit collusion is likely to flourish, which leads to market buyer power (monopsony, or buyers acting as one monopoly buyer). A key question is the extent to which monopsony and agency affect capital structure decisions. Agency is defined by Ross (1973, p.134) as a relationship formed between a principle and their agents, “when one, designated as the agent, acts for, on behalf of, or as representative for the other, designated the principal, in a particular domain of decision problems.” This thesis extends the agency framework provided by Jensen and Meckling (1976), along with the econometric understanding of monopsony in healthcare via tacit collusion, as suggested by Pauly (1998) and Sevilla (2005), and the research constraints of monopsony under an all-or-nothing contract, as outlined by Taylor (2003). Using data on ACHs from the period of 1995 to 2007 for approximately 5,000 ACHs, which was derived from the Medicare Cost Report and medical payments for a sub-population of 1,500, this research examines the determinants of capital structure in a distorted market. Building upon this initial analysis, the research seeks to examine the effects of market distortions upon free cash flow, and ultimately, capital structure. Two theories of distortion are presented that would affect free cash flow: The first is that of the agency cost of free cash flow and signaling, and the second is a theory of monopsony via tacit collusion between buyers. A model of the agency relationship between ACHs and the U.S. Government is proposed, promoting agency cost (signaling and the agency cost of free cash flows) as a causal relation with free cash flows and capital structure (Jensen & Meckling 1976; Jensen 1986). Empirical models of agency are constructed, examining the dependence on government business and the relation to the leverage (signaling) and free cash flows (agency cost of free cash flows) for ACHs. In addition, a complementary theory of capital structure determinant via market power (monopsony) is formulated, suggesting that monopsony conditions within the ACH market affect free cash flows and capital structure. The analysis provides a framework for understanding the environments in which ACHs operate and the strength of bargaining within the market. The research concludes with a review of the determinants of capital structure in light of the inefficiencies and distortions of the industry and the relationships observed.
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Rudd, Peter W. "Structure and agency in youth transitions : student perspectives on vocational further education." Thesis, University of Surrey, 1996. http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/805/.
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SOUSA, ELIZEU SANTIAGO TAVARES DE. "AGENCY, STRUCTURE, COGNITION: THE INTERNATIONAL THOUGHT OF JOAQUIM NABUCO AND OLIVEIRA LIMA." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2013. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=21922@1.
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PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIROCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
O propósito deste trabalho será o de compreender o pensamento internacional de Joaquim Nabuco e Oliveira Lima mediante a reconstrução e sistematização da visão de mundo desses protagonistas do pensamento internacional brasileiro entre as décadas de 1890 e 1910, momento que, ao nosso ver, abrigou o debate inaugural da diplomacia moderna do país. Esta dissertação analisará ainda a construção das estruturas cognitivas que incidiram sobre a agência desses personagens. Uma das hipóteses defendidas é a da co-constituição entre o pensamento internacional brasileiro e a tradição político-diplomática. As ideias e os projetos de inserção internacional defendidos por Nabuco e Oliveira Lima viriam a influenciar durante o século XX a forma pela qual a diplomacia brasileira atuaria, sob a forma de paradigmas ou mapas cognitivos. Enquanto o primeiro foi o precursor do americanismo, o segundo foi o pai do pensamento globalista na política externa brasileira.
The purpose of this work will be to understand the international political thought of Joaquim Nabuco and Oliveira Lima through the reconstruction and systematization of the worldviews of these protagonists of the Brazilian international political thought between the decades of 1890 and 1910, period during which the debate of national modern diplomacy was, in our view, inaugurated. This dissertation will also analyze the construction of the cognitive structure that impinged on the agency of these figures. One of the hypotheses defended is the co-constitution between the Brazilian international thought and the political and diplomatic tradition. The ideas and the projects of international insertion advocated by Nabuco and Oliveira Lima would influence the way in which Brazilian diplomacy would operate, during the twentieth century, in the form of paradigms or cognitive maps. Whereas the former was the precursor of Americanism, the latter was the father of the Globalist thought in the Brazilian foreign policy.
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Martin, Natalie. "Structure, process and agency : the evolution of EU Turkey relations 1999-2004." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2012. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/10106.
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When Turkey became a candidate of the EU in 1999 it had been a problematic applicant for forty years due to residual unpopularity with several member states for cultural, economic, security and normative reasons. However, the Helsinki European Council heralded a change of fortunes for Ankara and by 2005 accession negotiations had opened. This happened in spite of Turkey remaining an unpopular candidate with some member states. Moreover, since 2005, Turkey s standing within the EU has returned to a position akin to its pre-1999 stasis. This thesis thus asks: why did Turkey make such progress between 1999 and 2004/5? What was the specific configuration of structures, processes and actions that enabled that to happen then but not before or after? The thesis approaches this puzzle using a stretched eclectic version of Historical Institutionalism which can incorporate the effects of both structure and agency. In this way it can include the influence of wider structural factors, such as CEEC enlargement, Cyprus and ESDP as well as the agency of Turkey s advocates within the EU. It is a detailed qualitative process-tracing study which uses semi-structured interviews and documentary evidence to make a case for a given explanation. It concludes that a path dependent process, influenced by both structure and agency, can be traced from the Helsinki European Council to that in Brussels five years later which rhetorically entrapped the member states into agreeing to open accession negotiations in spite of Turkey s underlying unpopularity. By adopting this framework for analysis, the thesis makes a contribution to the literature on the Turkey-EU accession process by viewing the time period as a whole and taking a temporal rather than a snapshot approach. In so doing it is possible to explain why and how Turkey was able to make such progress between 1999 and 2004. It is also valuable in the study of present Turkey-EU relations as the ultimate conclusion has to be that there was a unique window of opportunity for both Turkey and the EU during this time and the window may now have closed.
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Foster, Nicola. "Structure and agency in the economics of public policy for TB control." Doctoral thesis, Faculty of Health Sciences, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31228.
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Globally, Tuberculosis remains a devastating disease, despite the availability of treatment. The disease is associated with poverty, and those with the disease incur a high cost of accessing care, while simultaneously experiencing income loss due to a loss in productivity. A key challenge in TB programmes remains the accurate diagnosis of the disease, especially in people who are HIV positive. Diagnosing TB can be very resource intensive and the accuracy of diagnosis is dependent on a range of disease, health service organisation and provider behaviour factors. This thesis seeks to enhance understanding of how the behaviour of healthcare workers mediates the value of TB diagnostic algorithms, and how this may affect the costs, outcomes as well as the economic burden associated with the disease in South Africa. The work presented is based on empirical work done alongside a pragmatic cluster randomized control trial. Empirically, it examines the longitudinal economic burden of TB diagnosis and treatment in South Africa. The discrepancies between the time at which patients incur the greatest cost and income loss, and the available social protection are highlighted. Based on empirical work, a purpose-built state-transition mathematical model of TB diagnosis and treatment was developed to estimate the cost-effectiveness, from the perspective of the health service and the patient, of health systems interventions to strengthen TB diagnosis. Recognising healthcare workers as those who ultimately express policies, the behaviour of healthcare workers was included in the cost-effectiveness analysis by 1) using data from a pragmatic trial reflecting routine practice and clinical decision-making at the time of the study; 2) developing a conceptual framework of the relationship between behaviour at decision points and disease outcomes; and 3) investigating how these interactions may influence the value of the diagnostic algorithm. Possible public policy levers to improve TB diagnosis in healthcare facilities, as well as the potential mediators of costs and effects were explored. The thesis concludes with recommendations for further methodological work to expand on the approach explored in this thesis to improve how heterogeneity in estimates of cost-effectiveness is presented to decision-makers.
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Chua, Jaime D. "Bridging Structure-Agency Divide: A Structurational Approach to Institutional Adaptation and Innovation." Case Western Reserve University Doctor of Management / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=casedm1568731826882752.
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O'Callaghan, Steve. "Agency problems and ownership structure in large private firms in the UK." Thesis, Bangor University, 2015. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/agency-problems-and-ownership-structure-in-large-private-firms-in-the-uk(0cf73dc9-b0a0-429a-a1aa-652e74c4fdf7).html.
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This thesis investigates the relationships between ownership structure and agency costs, executive compensation and earnings management in large private firms in the UK. The study employs a sample of 1223 firms and data is collected from the FAME database and Annual Returns submitted to Companies House. The study uses a cross-sectional data set, with data from sample firms 2013 financial reports, and employs univariate tests and OLS and 2SLS regressions to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings of the agency cost study are that high and low agency cost firms differ significantly in their managerial ownership and, to a lessor extent, in their ownership concentration. Agency costs, measured by the expense ratio, are negatively related to managerial ownership. Measured by asset utilisation, agency costs are non-linearly related to managerial ownership, declining and then rising with increasing managerial ownership. There is limited evidence of a monitoring effect associated with concentrated ownership. The findings of the executive compensation study are that compensation is cubicly related to managerial ownership and is lower where ownership is highly concentrated. Compensation is sensitive to accounting performance. Pay-performance sensitivity is lower in firms in which the Managing Director is a majority shareholder and in firms in which ownership is highly concentrated. The findings of the earnings management study are that income increasing discretionary accruals, considered in isolation, are non-linearly (U-shaped) related to managerial ownership. Firms in which managerial ownership is low exhibit significantly higher income increasing discretionary accruals when firms experience a cash-flow loss or decline. A similar result is obtained using both measures of poor cash-flow performance, however the magnitude of the coefficients indicates that the effect is stronger when a cash-flow loss is experienced. In general the results show that both low and high levels of managerial ownership are associated with significant agency costs in large private firms and that concentrated ownership performs a limited monitoring role in these firms.
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Gardner, Emily A. "Narrative Structure and Reader Skepticism in Frankenstein." University of Toledo Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=uthonors1387214518.
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Walker, Marquita R. "Perceptions of educational attainment on intragenerational social mobility : individual agency within class structure /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p3164547.
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Buckley, Barbara Jean. "The structure and enactment of agency in the context of rural nursing practice." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/52673.
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There is a growing awareness of inequities in rural healthcare in Canada and internationally. Rural nurses are embedded within complex healthcare structures, yet little attention has been paid to their experiences. These complex structures can function to both constrain and enable nurses to provide equitable, safe, and quality healthcare services to rural populations. This ethnographic study was conducted with rural nurses to explore the relationship between healthcare structures and rural nurses’ enactment of their agency. Informed by Structuration Theory (Giddens, 1984), Sewell’s (1992) notion of reciprocity, and a relational ethics lens, this research illuminates the relationship between the structures and rural nurses’ enactment of their agency in providing healthcare to rural based populations. Carspecken’s Critical Qualitative Research method (1996) was used to guide data collection during 528 hours of fieldwork and participant observations with primary nurse and allied healthcare provider participants (n=14). Additional data collected included: in-depth interviews (n=18); participant demographics; documents; and cultural commodities.
Findings showed that the rural structure-nurse agent relationship was strained by urban-based policy-making. In particular, the rural practice context lacked sufficient physical and human resources to enact urban-policy directives (e.g. being unable to provide consistent primary and palliative care services). Nursing’s lack of active participation in policy decision-making has further impacted lack of policy directives toward fostering development of rural practice expertise. Key themes of: “we’re it”; “unseen complexity”; “pulling the nurse’s card”; “how many hands do you see?” and “beg forgiveness Monday morning” exemplified the disjuncture between rural and urban healthcare policy and practice. Inequities in access to healthcare services ultimately expanded rural nurses’ perceived moral obligations to include providing ad hoc care to the community outside of the formal system.
Findings underscore that it is vital that rural nurses have an active voice in rural healthcare policy and decision-making in order to strengthen reciprocal relations and to provide equitable, safe, and ethical healthcare services for rural communities. Recommendations also include support for a nursing role in policy-making, increasing education opportunities, and expanding the scope of rural nursing practice to meet the demands of the rural practice context.Applied Science, Faculty of
Nursing, School of
Graduate
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Mesmer, Marie. "Vertical occupational segregation and secretaries : a multiple case study of structure and agency." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2000. http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/842700/.
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This sociological study investigates how the process of vertical occupational segregation by sex is maintained at the end of the 20th century. It explores the secretarial role and opportunities for career advancement beyond this "pink-collar" occupation within four organizations in England that were self-identified as promoting equal opportunities. The evidence stems from case studies conducted at the BBC in 1992 and at the BBC, Channel Four, Rank Xerox, and Unilever in 1994. Data were collected in three forms: (i) semi-structured interviews; 18 with mid- to senior-level secretaries, 10 with managers, and 13 with personnel representatives; (ii) office observations; and (iii) materials related to the individual companies, Opportunity 2000, and the European Community. Secretaries' opportunities for advancement were found to be rare. A pink-collar wall, rather than a glass ceiling, was discovered, due to a combination of structural constraints and the actions, or agency, of secretaries. This research extends the dual-systems model of occupational segregation by using the case study methodology and by including women's experiences and behaviour within the theoretical framework. This study expands current knowledge about the lives of ordinary working women and the persistent phenomenon of occupational segregation.
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Forbes, Jeannie Harris. "Structure and agency in the 'Brand Box' : a self-ethnography of university branding." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.578988.
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This thesis uses an in-depth case study of an English university's brand to examine the utility of Martin Kornberger's account of branding. It argues that structuration theory powerfully explains both the relationships between Kornberger's four main categories of branding theory, and the relationships within the empirical evidence presented in the thesis. Using self-ethnography, the thesis reports on an extensive set of semi-structured interviews with 33 participants at the University of Exeter which generated over 600 pages of rich qualitative data, and looks at how the Institution has sought to position itself in the emerging higher education market since the mid-1990s. The thesis offers a summary of the major developments in higher education in England, focussing on the creation of a more marketized sector, and noting the emergence of both the commodification of HE and the rise of the student-as-consumer. It undertakes an extensive review of the theoretical literature on branding, using Kornberger's 2010 book Brand Society to organise the discussion into the four quadrants of his brand box, which in turn becomes the organising principle used to structure the discussion of the empirical material. The thesis concludes by drawing out the main empirical findings from the data, and then turns to examine the utility of Kornberger's account of branding, thus constituting the first detailed use of his work in an empirical setting; it finds that his account is predominantly an agency-based one, as distinct from a structure-based . account. The thesis points out the power of structure-based accounts of branding, and how the two accounts interact, which has important implications not only with regards to the specific case study examined in the thesis, but for branding theory more generally. Specifically, Giddens' theory of structuration is used to resolve the tension between the agency-based and the structure-based accounts of branding advanced in Kornberger's brand box. Finally, the thesis looks at the implications of the forthcoming major changes in the English HE environment and what this implies for the role of branding in higher education.
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Smith, Sarah Elizabeth. "Colonial contacts and individual burials| Structure, agency, and identity in 19th century Wisconsin." Thesis, The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1571930.
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Individual burials are always representative of both individuals and collective actors. The physical remains, material culture, and represented practices in burials can be used in concert to study identities and social personas amongst individual and collective actors. These identities and social personas are the result of the interaction between agency and structure, where both individuals and groups act to change and reproduce social structures.
The three burials upon which this study is based are currently held in the collections of the Milwaukee Public Museum. They are all indigenous burials created in Wisconsin in the 19th century. Biological sex, stature, age, and pathologies were identified from skeletal analysis and the material culture of each burial was analyzed using a Use/Origin model to attempt to understand how these individuals negotiated and constructed identities within a colonial system.
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Shojaei, Reyhaneh sadat. "Deep understanding of private housing supply in Tehran : applied structure and agency approach." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2015. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/11680/.
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The Tehran housing market is the largest concentration of most forms of economic activity, with the largest and most important housing market in the country. The roots of economic and demographic centralization in Tehran go back to the time when it became the capital of Iran. This market is a complex market dominated by the private sector, and encounters many problems such as high housing prices and a shortcoming in the housing supply, which seem unsolvable to experts and residents. In spite of multiple agents and institutions involved in this sector and engaging at different level of authority – state, government, and local – there is no official information or research for identifying this wide variety of actors and the housing market’s performance is ambiguous for both policy makers and private actors. Lack of understating in this scope causes inefficiency in the market and makes the housing plan and policies inapplicable and inappropriate for the social system. This research, therefore, was undertaken to develop a deep understanding of the structure and operation of the private housing supply in Tehran; in particular, it attempts to identify the constraints on housing provision. From the structure and agency philosophical perspective and using a qualitative approach based on 40 interviews as the primary data collection method, this research focused on the way that the housing development process takes place in Tehran and the relationship between the structuring dynamics of housing development process and the particular interests, beliefs, perceptions and strategies of each individual agent. It is concluded that, in general, the housing development process involves a complex and contextual embeddedness of institution and agency relationships. The housing development process in Tehran is shaped by the form of economic and institutional structure, which in turn affects the interests and the way agents behave in deploying rules and resources. The state control, lack of democracy, government policies, and unstable institutional environments caused turbulence in the housing sector.
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Bartlett, Tom. "The transgressions of wise men : structure, tension and agency in intercultural development discourse." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/24931.
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This thesis is based on fieldwork carried out in Guyana, South America, between 1999 and 2002, looking at the use of English in negotiating situations between the indigenous Makushi communities of the North Rupununi Savannah, the Government of Guyana, and non-governmental and international development organisations. It considers notions of liminality and third-space encounters as they relate to the evolution within the Discourse of Development of fora that temporarily accommodate both indigenous and external modes of discourse, so opening up for debate the ideologies behind them while fostering the interactive development of a third mode capable of expressing relevant aspects of both ideological systems simultaneously and so capable of expanding each individually. The need for such a hybrid space is placed in relation to the material situation of the Makushi people and wider socioeconomic and cultural issues of power, ideology and the limits of agency. The ongoing development of this space is illustrated through detailed analysis of linguistic interaction within the specific forum of the North Rupununi District Development Board. A theory is developed for relating micro and macro issues of discourse and power and a two-way relationship established between top-down pressures towards conformity and bottom-up processes of agentive change. This framework is then related to the current subordinate position of Makushi communities within Guyana and their existing achievements in developing hybrid discourses to challenge this situation. The thesis concludes with a consideration of possible applications within the existing development context in the North Rupununi, within international development in general, and within the education system.
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Okonkwo, Amaechi Dickson. "Agency or structure? : Nigerian University students' perspectives of influences on sexual risk taking." Thesis, Swansea University, 2009. https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42787.
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This thesis is about influences on young people's sexual risk taking. It is situated within a complex context of young people's sustained structural/self-sexualisation, significant sexual activity, unwanted outcomes such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs), intended benefits such as pleasure, and recurrent interventionists' promotion of abstinence-until-marriage sexual norm to young people. The above conceptualization is tested with a mixed-methodology that recruited fifty-six students with a snowball sampling technique. McCracken's long-interview and Stones' empirical research brackets for structuration theory facilitated narrative data collection, which were subjected to structural-hermeneutic analysis. Respondents identified four broad influences on their dominantly heterosexual behaviour. They include external influences (mass media), internal influences (positive pre-dispositions to premarital sex), agency (purposeful sexual action), and (un)intended outcome (STI and pleasure). Respondents emphasize that influences are non-hierarchical, differentially combine, and are dependent on individuals, contexts and seasons. They also infer the Nigerian context concurrently constrain and enable their sexual conducts via three normative sexual behaviour options. These are (1) the dominant Nigerian culture promoted abstinence-until-marriage. (2) Modernity sanctioned safer-sex with contraceptives. (3) Collective/individuated preference for unprotected premarital sex, periodic abstinence and contraceptive use. Respondents admit they practise the latter, which is a hybridization of option (1) and (2) and is illustrative of the co-influence of structure and agency on action. The conclusion is drawn that sexual risk taking is influenced by young people's concurrent structural/self sexualisation and their pursuit of contextual, personal and collectively meaningfial goals. Consequently, dominant linear conceptualizations of sexual risk taking, e.g. problem behaviour, will continue to be limited in effectiveness because they neglect these complex, recursive and interrelated influences. Thus, pragmatic efforts to manage risk-prone sexualities must concurrently engage their complex structural and agential sources, governed by safer-sex promotion, a recognition of multiple influences and individuated/collective value that both society and young people attach to sex.
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Noronha, Gregory Mario. "Industry characteristics, agency theory, and the interaction of capital structure and dividend policy." Diss., Virginia Tech, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/39752.
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Cutajar, Beverly. "The impact of organisational culture on the management of employees' talents : the case of Maltese ICT organisations." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28229.
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Organisational culture is one key phenomenon that was investigated both in comparative ways as well as an influence on various management mechanisms and systems, in academic and practitioner literature. Talent management is one such mechanism that has attracted debate in practitioner domains, although academic research is lacking. This study investigates the effect of organisational culture on employee talent management, taking the case of Malta based ICT companies. It includes a review of literature about organisational culture and structure, agency and talent management, exploring gaps in literature that call for further research. In addressing one such gap, this study reports the findings established in research conducted among identified stakeholders who are related to the Maltese ICT sector. It presents the views discovered through qualitative interviews among senior and middle management in ICT firms. These views are compared and contrasted against the findings made from a quantitative investigation involving a self-completion survey, in which, 79 managers and 128 employees engaged in ICT firms in Malta participated. The main findings suggest that most organisations do not have a culture built around a clear set of values. Secondly, there is no talent structure based on HR practices that feeds into the business strategy. Thirdly, this research found no evidence of measurement of the return on investment of talent among the Maltese ICT firms participating in this study. These findings support some of the theoretical issues presented in the literature review that show the lack of guiding principles around talent and the impact of organisational culture on the management of talents. The recommendations presented in this study show how organisations can embrace a culture focusing on creating a talent “mindset” for effective talent optimisation that enhances performance and productivity.
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Luo, Haowen. "Is 100 Percent Debt Optimal? Three Essays on Aggressive Capital Structure and Myth of Negative Book Equity Firms." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2016. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc862869/.
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This dissertation comprises of three related essays in regard of puzzling negative book equity phenomenon among U.S. public firms. In essay 1, I present the evidence that there is an increasing trend of negative book equity firms over the past 50 years, from 0.3% up to over 5% among publicly traded firms in US. In contrast to previous research which generally classify these firms as distressed firms with highly likelihood of bankruptcy, I propose a new method to separate Healthy Negative Book Equity Firms (HNBEF) from relatively more distressed negative book equity firms. The results show that HNBEF have much higher net income and interest coverage ratio, they survive longer, and pay more dividends. More interestingly, these firms are often actively increase share repurchases and debt issuance. These facts, combined with their strong profitability, indicate that managers of these firms are actively increasing their leverage and choose to be negative book equity firms.
To explain the existence of HNBEF, in essay 2, I investigate several possible reasons that may contribute to the extreme leverage of these firms. I find that HNBEF are substantially undervalued by their book assets as stated on the balance sheet. In addition, the value of intangible assets, especially those off-balance sheet intangible assets, is positively related to the probability of becoming HNBEF. Moreover, I find that characteristics of intangible assets and firms also play important role on existence of HNBEF. Specifically, I find that both liquidity and redeployability of intangible assets are positively related with the probability of becoming HNBEF. Also, firms associated with closer borrower-lender relationship are more likely to become HNBEF.
To investigate if the aggressive capital structure adopted by HNBEF is optimal, in essay 3, I performed several tests to analyze how these firms differ from other firms in terms of operating performance, corporate governance and firm value. My research finds that compared to firms from same industry and with similar size, managers of HNBEF invest more heavily in their own firms, and HNBEF have better corporate governance. In addition, HNBEF are associated with better operating performance and higher value.
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Silva, Andre Espozel Pinheiro da. "Testing dynamic agency predictions to corporate finance." reponame:Repositório Institucional do FGV, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10438/18243.
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This papers tests theoretical predictions concerning to agent compensation, debt structure and investment in the models of dynamic agency in DeMarzo and Fishman (2007), DeMarzo and Sannikov (2006) and DeMarzo, Fishman, He and Wang (2012). The results related to agent compensation are consistent with the patterns predicted in the models, indicating that the firm-years that the models would have as more likely to pay dividends are indeed the ones more likely to pay; also, among firms that pay dividends, more profits generate higher dividend payments and higher executive compensation, as predicted in the models. The prediction that firms that go well and reach a payment threshold present marginal q equal to average q, and thus after controlling for average q cash flows would not explain investment is also supported by the tests in here. On the other hand, predictions related to the role of the credit line and to the debt structure are not compatible with the results in here. The credit line doesn’t seem to be the provider of financial slack that protects the firm from low cash flows and also doesn’t seem to have the dynamics of being paid when profits are high and being more used when profits are low.
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Allan, James P. "The British Labour Party in Opposition, 1979-1997: Structures, Agency, and Party Change." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/9567.
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The British Labour Party has spent eighteen years in opposition since 1979. During that time it lost four consecutive general elections to the Conservative Party. In 1997, however, it now looks set to win its first election since 1974. This thesis examines the Labour Party in opposition since 1979, using a theoretical framework informed by Anthony Giddens' structuration theory. Based on a dialectical notion of the structure and agency linkage, a two-tiered framework is constructed which at one level views a political party as consisting of a set of structures which can constrain and enable party leaders in their attempts to make the party electorally successful, and at another level the party is regarded as a collective agent in its own right, which in turn is subject to the effects of larger external structures. By comparing the strategies adopted by the Labour Party and its leaders since 1979, the thesis demonstrates that the apparent recovery in the Party's electoral fortunes has corresponded with an increase in the ability of agents to successfully negotiate structural constraints, whilst taking advantage of enabling structures. However, it is also clear that the transformation of Labour into an electorally viable party in 1997 is not solely the product of agency in the period since the last election; rather, it is the culmination of a longer-term process of party change.Master of Arts