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Taysom, Eloise. "Change or be changed : understanding resilience in socio-technical systems." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2017. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/268522.
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The world we live in is increasingly complex, interconnected and unpredictable. We face social and technological challenges, which must be overcome through the maintenance and redesign of existing systems, as well as the design and integration of new systems. Each of these systems has stakeholders at different levels and across domains, from those governing societies, to technical experts working on well-defined tasks. These stakeholders generally want their system to survive, or even thrive, in the face of uncertainty and unexpected influences. To describe this desire, people, from politicians to CEOs, use the word resilience. Resilience is a term that is referred to across domains in academic and public discourse. However, the exact definition of resilience is elusive, and it is not clear how to apply resilience in the context of socio-technical systems. To design resilient systems, we must first be able to answer questions including: Does a resilient system change to accommodate influences or stay the same? If the system changes, where should this change take place? How do we decide which system, or sub-system, to make resilient and at what level of abstraction? In this research I show how we can answer these questions by eliciting, combining and contrasting the perspectives of multiple stakeholders of socio-technical systems. In order to talk to these stakeholders, in interviews and workshops, I had to overcome communication barriers. Communicating about resilience is challenging because the term means different things to different people, both within and across domains. In this research I use diagrams to develop our understanding of resilience as a concept, prompt discussions with stakeholders, represent examples of resilience, and compare stakeholder perspectives across domains. Using these diagrams, I present three characteristics of resilience that have emerged from the literature and empirical studies: resisting, recovering and changing in response to influences. I also show how resilience is framed by stakeholders’ perspectives and depends on how a system’s boundary, purpose and timescale is defined. The characteristics of resilience are related to system dimensions, structure and function, with a focus on the similarities and differences between social and technical sub-systems. This research contributes a new understanding of resilience in the context of design practice, which moves us closer towards being able to design resilient socio-technical systems.
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Lloyd, Carolyn E. "Understanding change in the landmine regime." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq24867.pdf.
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Osborne, Joe Michael. "Understanding Northern Hemisphere land precipitation change." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/18448.
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Water is key to life on Earth. The distribution and quantity of precipitation controls the availability of water, yet little is known about past changes in precipitation. This is especially true at regional scales. The land region of the Northern Hemisphere, especially the mid-latitude region, offers an ideal opportunity to compare and contrast output from climate models with our longest and most comprehensive precipitation observations. This thesis develops current understanding, with the aid of climate models, to attribute changes in global mean precipitation to known key forcings. Perhaps the most obvious feature of twentieth-century global mean precipitation change is a decrease in response to mid-twentieth-century aerosol forcing. Changes in historical precipitation for the land mean of two regions in the Northern Hemisphere are shown to strongly resemble changes in the global mean, due to a greater sensitivity to aerosol forcing than greenhouse gas forcing. This aerosol response is predictable across models, which offer an ideal resource to test this constraint due to their large range in aerosol forcing. However, this aerosol response is not evident in these key mid-latitude precipitation observations. Observed runoff changes, derived from river discharge measurements, also contrast with observed precipitation changes in this region. This contrast is a consequence of an obvious breakpoint in the runoff-precipitation relationship. An ensemble of land surface models that are driven with observed precipitation data fails to simulate this contrast and breakpoint. Combined, these two lines of evidence strongly suggest that Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude precipitation observations are unreliable, at least in the early twentieth century. It is expected that the true trend is disguised by inhomogeneities. This should be recognised in future research that is reliant on these data.
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Baxter, Sarah Louise. "Young children's understanding of weight change." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5254/.
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The prevalence rates of childhood obesity are at an all-time high. Alongside this worldwide problem is the important issue of weight-related stereotypes. As well as growing up with these, children are also experiencing societal pressure to be ‘thin’, which is influencing many children’s desire to change their body shape and size. At a time when children are measured and weighed in schools and healthy living initiatives are common, this study aimed to engage young children in conversations about weight change. Specifically, children’s understanding of how weight loss and weight gain are achieved, and the potential motivations for and consequences of weight change, were explored. In addition, the study examined whether understanding differed between boys and girls. One hundred, four to six year-old school children (62 boys, 38 girls, mean age five years and two months) were individually interviewed. Each child was read a story in which the main character was either overweight or of average weight. Subsequently, this character was shown as either having lost or gained weight. Children were then asked a series of semi-structured questions. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Frequency counts of the children’s responses which helped generate each theme, yielded quantitative data. The results revealed that young children have an understanding of how food intake and exercise can influence weight change. Reasons given for why the fictional character may want to change weight included positive and negative motivations, such as, to increase or decrease negative reactions from others, to improve or worsen appearance, and to increase or decrease physical activities. The children offered positive and negative consequences to gaining/losing weight. The themes generated included; severe consequences, appearance, physical activity, increase/decrease in negative reactions from others and increase in health. The responses commonly focused on the avoidance of becoming/being overweight. Overall, few differences in understanding were observed between boys and girls. The findings indicate that children as young as four years-old have a clear understanding of the pressures faced by individuals to have a certain body shape, and the negative consequences which occur if they don’t. Therefore, health education surrounding these topics needs to occur at a very young age.
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Squires, Graham. "Understanding the dynamics of neighbourhood change." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2009. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/understanding-the-dynamics-of-neighbourhood-change(682a6f75-22e4-4698-b8c3-fb0323e9d98b).html.
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Zou, Lijie. "Toward an improved understanding of software change." Thesis, Waterloo, Ont. : University of Waterloo, [School of Computer Science], 2003. http://etd.uwaterloo.ca/etd/lzou2003.pdf.
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Thesis (M.Math)--University of Waterloo, 2003."A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Mathematics in Computer Science. Includes bibliographical references.
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Drummond, Geoffrey, and n/a. "Understanding organisation culture, leadership, conflict, and change." Swinburne University of Technology, 1996. http://adt.lib.swin.edu.au./public/adt-VSWT20060821.092317.
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While many studies have been carried out on organizational culture, leadership, conflict and change, mostly from an instrumentalist perspective, studies have left unanswered the question of how they are related. This thesis employs narrative theory and especially that of Ricoeur together with the social theory of Bourdieu. By considering organization culture (and its sub cultures) as being configured by multiple narratives; leaders as enacting or developing narratives; conflict as the attempt by one or more persons to impose their narratives on others as the correct interpretation of a given situation; and change as the adoption of new narratives it has been possible to impart new understandings to these concepts. Extensions are offered of the narrative theory of Ricoeur and the social theory of Bourdieu (which has strong implications for culture and the operation of power). They are then combined and applied to a narrative presentation of empirical data. This new or extended theory has powerful explanatory value with regard to the relationship between the chosen organisational aspects. Emphasis is given to the dynamic interplay which prevails between the individual (habitus) and the organisation (field).
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Crosswell, Leanne. "Understanding teacher commitment in times of change." Queensland University of Technology, 2006. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16238/.
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Teacher commitment is one of the key elements in education and is arguably becoming an increasingly important factor. The work teachers engage in on a daily basis is complex and demanding and requires a level of personal engagement and commitment. With the escalating demands and new challenges inherent in the current educational climate, what it means to be a committed teacher is also changing. It has become imperative to gain further insight into teacher commitment due to its close association with concepts such as quality of teaching, teacher adaptability, teacher attendance, teacher burnout, teacher retention, organisational "health" of the school, and student attitudes and learning outcomes. This multi-method study examined the phenomenon of teacher commitment as it is perceived by the teachers themselves. The research used a multi-method enquiry approach that employed two rarely connected qualitative methods of phenomenography and case study. It combined the two methods in an effort to extrapolate and enhance the results from one method (phenomenography) with the results from another method (case study). The combined methodology was considered to be appropriate to investigate the complex phenomenon of teacher commitment, specifically the multi-dimensional nature of teacher commitment, which is an area that had not previously been fully explored. In the phenomenographic investigation of this study, 30 experienced classroom teachers were interviewed. Participants worked in schools that represent the diverse education settings and contexts of Queensland. Geographically the range included teachers from suburban (Brisbane), regional (Rockhampton) and remote (Longreach) settings. Schools that participated in the research included special schools, primary schools, high schools and schools of distance education. This interview data were analysed to identify categories of description and develop a conceptual "map" of teacher commitment. The school site of Willowbark State School, a small inner city school was then investigated as a case study. The case study elaborated on the phenomenographic categories of teacher commitment identified by this study. Case study data were collected from a range of sources that included the school website, school documents, anecdotal evidence collected from observations and informal discussions and formal interviews with five educators with extended teaching experience. One of the significant outcomes of the study was an informed conceptualised Model of Contemporary Teacher Commitment that illustrates the relationship between the key categories of description and as such demonstrates the "collective mind" of the teachers in the study. The study identified six categories of description of teacher commitment. These categories included teacher commitment as a passion, investment of "extra" time, a focus on the students, maintaining professional knowledge, engagement with the school community and transmitting knowledge and values. These categories are integrated into the model by the use of two summarising dimensions, a "personal dimension" and a professional "enactment dimension." Another key finding that emerges from the study was the centrality of passion within teacher commitment. This finding challenges the position that teacher commitment can be discussed merely in terms of external factors such as students and subject areas. What the findings of this study do indicate is that a passionate connection to teaching is fundamental to any discussion about teacher commitment and this has implications for school and system leaders.
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Scott, Pamela H. "Understanding and Managing Change: A Leadership Perspective." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2012. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/3046.
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Jones, Sarah A. "Understanding change within emotionally unstable personality disorder." Thesis, Canterbury Christ Church University, 2017. http://create.canterbury.ac.uk/16351/.
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Qualitative research has begun focussing on the experience of change within psychological therapy for individuals with a diagnosis of Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD). However, many individuals do not access therapy but instead utilise other forms of support. This study aimed to develop a holistic theory of change, applicable to but extendable beyond the remit of psychological therapy. Twelve individuals were interviewed using semi-structured format about their experience of change. Five individuals with a diagnosis of EUPD were interviewed alongside seven staff members. A Grounded Theory methodology was used. The key change experience was defined as one of ‘shifting positions’ where the individual began evolving their relationship to themselves, to others and to help. This process was often facilitated by development of safe and trusting relationships and a personal readiness to change. The change process could simultaneously be enhanced and set back by staff and Mental Health Services. This change process mirrors and expands the findings of previous research and offers a change model applicable across settings. Future research should include the perspective of carers and clinical settings should explore how best to support staff to attune to individuals’ needs in order to facilitate change.
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Alimadadi, Jani Saba. "Understanding motifs of program behaviour and change." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/63465.
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Program comprehension is crucial in software engineering; a necessary step for performing many tasks. However, the implicit and intricate relations between program entities hinder comprehension of program behaviour and change. It is particularly a difficult endeavour to understand dynamic and modern programming languages such as JavaScript, which has grown to be among the most popular languages. Comprehending such applications is challenging due to the temporal and implicit relations of asynchronous, DOM-related and event-driven entities spread over the client and server sides.
The goal of the work presented in this dissertation is to facilitate program comprehension through the following techniques. First, we propose a generic technique for capturing low-level event-based interactions in a web application and mapping those to a higher-level behavioural model. This model is then transformed into an interactive visualization, representing episodes of execution through different semantic levels of granularity. Then, we present a DOM-sensitive hybrid change impact analysis technique for JavaScript through a combination of static and dynamic analysis. Our approach incorporates a novel ranking algorithm for indicating the importance of each entity in the impact set. Next, we introduce a method for capturing a behavioural model of full-stack JavaScript applications’ execution. The model is temporal and context-sensitive to accommodate asynchronous events, as well as the scheduling and execution of lifelines of callbacks. We present a visualization of the model to facilitate program comprehension for developers. Finally, we propose an approach for facilitating comprehension by creating an abstract model of software behaviour. The model encompasses hierarchies of recurring and application-specific motifs. The motifs are abstract patterns extracted from traces through our novel technique, inspired by bioinformatics algorithms. The motifs provide an overview of the behaviour at a high level, while encapsulating semantically related sequences in execution. We design a visualization that allows developers to observe and interact with inferred motifs.
We implement our techniques in open-source tools and evaluate them through a set of controlled experiments. The results show that our techniques significantly improve developers’ performance in comprehending the behaviour and impact of change in software systems.Applied Science, Faculty of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of
Graduate
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Furman, Margaret. "Environmental farm planning, understanding prospects for sustained change." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/mq24466.pdf.
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Sampath, Raj. "Exploring Organizational Change through an Understanding of Intrapreneurship." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4098.
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Organizations need to constantly innovate to be relevant in a highly competitive market. Intrapreneurship, defined as entrepreneurship within the organization, is one method to bring about this constant innovation. The purpose of this study was to explore intrapreneurship, through a multiple case study, to gain a better understanding of which business strategies can foster successful intrapreneurship initiatives. The theories of Pinchot and Porter on intrapreneurship and organizational competitiveness formed the theoretical lens for this study. The sample for this study consisted of 5 business leaders in Atlanta, Georgia who had demonstrated intrapreneurship in their organization by encouraging their employees to pursue this method of innovation. Interviews took place with the leaders, and their collected narratives were analyzed for recurring themes. Additional pertinent financial data analysis was included for triangulation purposes. Emergent themes included the need for transformational leadership, the need for innovation at all levels of the organization, acceptance of failure and risk, facilitating empowerment, the beneficial link between intrapreneurship and operations management, recognition and rewards for employees expressing their creativity, company culture versus multicultural employees, and the need for creativity and competitiveness. These findings could bring about social change for employees through employee engagement and self-satisfaction. Employees have an opportunity to express their creativity through intrapreneurship initiatives.
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Vadeboncoeur, Nathan Noel. "Knowing climate change : modelling, understanding, and managing risk." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/50777.
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Climate change is a complex problem. Approaches to understanding climate change risk and preparing for its management include assessments of biophysical changes, the influence of public risk perceptions on support for policies aimed at adapting to these changes, and analysis of the governance structures charged with developing and implementing climate action plans. Climate change issues, however, are often approached from a disciplinary perspective and there are few studies examining how climate risk is viewed from multiple perspectives in a particular locale. This thesis takes a bottom-up approach to understanding climate change by focusing on how climate risk is understood on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, as a biophysical, social, and governance issue. It begins by surveying the available biophysical information of climate change and presents a sea level rise impact model for the Sunshine Coast. Next, it explores how public perceptions of climate risk (as distinct from climate change knowledge as scientific literacy) develop and how these affect support for climate change policies. It then examines the perspective of a local government, the Town of Gibsons, in planning for climate change adaptation. Here, it focuses on how decision- makers plan for climate change by examining their perspectives on biophysical risks and the social context within which climate issues are located. Throughout the thesis, I argue that the process of adapting to climate change (a risk management strategy) has strongly social roots and that understanding how climate change fits within the context of individual communities is, along with knowledge of biophysical hazards, an essential component of adaptation.Science, Faculty of
Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for
Graduate
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Hashem, Dawood. "Understanding change in disability sport in the UAE." Thesis, Brunel University, 2014. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/9209.
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Despite an ever growing body of research on disability sport very little is known about its organisational dimension and the role disability sport organisations play in promoting sport and how they change and adapt to their environment. This is a critical omission and the main aim of this thesis is to fill this gap in our knowledge. More specifically, the study addresses change in disability sport organisation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has different culture, religion, language, and laws as compared to the Western world .The main question addressed by the thesis is what factors, processes, and mechanisms are responsible for organisational change in disability sport in the UAE? Using a contextualist approach to organisational change (Pettigrew, 1985), the study is concerned with understanding long-term processes in their context. Three in-depth case studies with disability sport organisations were conducted covering a period from 1992 to 2012. The study reveals that Islam regards disability as a social issue whereby a Muslim society has the responsibility for individuals with disability as opposed to the medical or functional models, which place the emphasis on rehabilitation, functionality and personal responsibility. This interpretation of disability in Islam has shaped organisational visions and structures concerned with providing socializing opportunities and not with long-term strategies and performance targets. Change in the UAE disability sport organisations was episodic and reflected periods of divergence between the internal structure of these organisations and the environmental demands to be more receptive to political expectations and those of people with disability. Change was triggered by specific events which were responsible for shaping organisational structures, processes and strategies. The mode of change alternated between first-order changes, such as those prescribed by law and Governmental interventions, and second-order changes or those resulting from changes in cognitive frameworks held by various organisational members. Change was concerned with transforming the three organisations from places to socialise to professional bodies with rules and enhanced performances. An important finding with conceptual and practical implications is about the role of national culture (i.e., Arab) and religion (i.e. Islam) in shaping change in disability sport organisations in the UAE, where a significant distinction between religion and culture is established. The study identifies several theoretical and policy implications.
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Taylor, Andrew Robert. "Conversations about coping, understanding how mature students manage change." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq24428.pdf.
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Tosey, P. C. "Understanding change : An inquiry relating organizational and psychotherapeutic contexts." Thesis, University of Bath, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.371234.
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Al-Duneibat, Ali Abedalqader. "Towards an understanding of auditing change in the UK." Thesis, University of Essex, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.247012.
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Williams, Linnae Denise. "Understanding Teachers' Change Towards a Reform-Oriented Mathematics Classroom." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2010. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2332.
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Within the current mathematics teacher population there are teachers that want to change from traditional teaching styles to become more reform-oriented (i.e. focusing on student understanding rather than procedures). Many of these teachers do not know how to begin this change. This research looks into the tools that are most valuable for teachers as they change from traditional teaching practices to include more reform-oriented teaching practices. Through this phenomenological study, six successful reform-oriented teachers were interviewed to understand what tools they found to be most valuable in their process of change. The interviews uncovered a common guiding principle that facilitates successful change towards reform teaching—focusing on the students' mathematics. This guiding principle led all the teachers to implementing task-based lessons and improving their questioning towards their students. The two tools found to be of most value, reflection and collaboration, are identified and explored. The implications of a reform curriculum are also discussed. Limitations of the study are identified and areas of future research are explored.
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Levers, Christian. "Understanding spatial patterns of land-system change in Europe." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/17485.
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Die Nutzung von terrestrischen Ökosystemen zur Befriedigung der Grundbedürfnisse der Menschheit hat tiefgreifende Auswirkungen auf das Erdsystem und führte zur Ausprägung von anthropogen dominierten Landsystemen. Diese sind von hoher Komplexität, da sie aus einer Vielzahl von unterschiedlichsten Einflussfaktoren angetriebenen Landnutzungsveränderungen hervorgegangen sind. Aktuelle Forderungen nach einer nachhaltigen zukünftigen Landnutzung erfordern ein fundiertes und integratives Verständnis dieser Komplexität. Das Hauptziel dieser Arbeit ist es, ein besseres Verständnis der raum-zeitlichen Muster und Determinanten des Landsystemwandels, insbesondere der Landnutzungsintensität, in Europa zwischen 1990 und 2010 zu erlangen. Europa ist ein interessantes Studiengebiet, da es jüngst starke Landnutzungsveränderungen erlebte und seine Heterogenität zu einer Vielfalt von Landsystemen und Landsystemveränderungen führte. Das Ziel der Arbeit wurde durch (i) die Kartierung von Intensitätsmustern und deren Veränderungen in Forst- und Agrarsystemen sowie der Ermittlung der dafür einflussreichsten räumlichen Determinanten und (ii) die Kartierung und Charakterisierung archetypischer Muster und Entwicklungsverläufe von Landsystemen untersucht. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit zeigten einen deutlichen Ost-West-Unterschied in Landsystemmustern und -veränderungen in Europa, mit intensiv genutzten und intensivierenden Regionen vor allem in Westeuropa. Dennoch wurde Europa vor allem durch relativ stabile Landsystemmuster gekennzeichnet und (De-)Intensivierungstrends waren nur von untergeordneter Bedeutung. Intensitätsmuster und -veränderungen waren stark an Standortbedingungen gebunden, vor allem an edaphische, klimatische, und länderspezifische Besonderheiten. Diese Arbeit erweitert das Verständnis des Landsystemwandels in Europa und kann zur Entwicklung wissenschaftlicher und politikbezogener Maßnahmen sowie zur Erreichung einer nachhaltigeren Landnutzung in Europa beitragen.The utilisation of terrestrial ecosystems to satisfy the basic needs of humankind has profound impacts on the Earth System and led to the development of human-dominated land systems. These are substantially complex as they evolved from a multitude of land-change pathways driven by a variety of influential factors. Current calls for a more sustainable future land-use require a sound and integrative understanding of this complexity. The main goal of this thesis is to better understand the spatio-temporal patterns and the determinants of land-system change in Europe between 1990 and 2010, especially with regard to land-use intensity. Europe serves as an interesting study region as it recently experienced a period of marked land-use change, and since its large environmental, political, and socio-economic heterogeneity resulted in a diversity of land systems and land-change pathways. Land-system changes in Europe were examined by (i) mapping patterns and changes in forestry and agricultural intensity and identifying the most influential spatial determinants related to these changes, and (ii) mapping and characterising archetypical patterns and trajectories of land systems considering both land-use extent and intensity indicators. Results revealed a distinct east-west divide in Europe’s land-system patterns and change trajectories, with intensively used and intensifying regions particularly located in Western Europe. However, Europe was mainly characterised by relatively stable land-systems patterns with (de-) intensification trends being only of minor importance. Land-use intensity levels and changes were strongly related to site conditions, especially with regard to soil and climate, as well as to country-specific characteristics. By fostering the understanding of land-system change, this thesis has the potential to contribute to scientific and policy-related actions that address current efforts to guide future land systems in Europe to a more sustainable use.
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O'Connor, Maureen. "Understanding sensemaking in organisational change : a cognitive mapping approach." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2017. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7164/.
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In this thesis I argue for consideration of an anticipatory level of sensemaking that influences how individuals think about and respond to organisational change. In asking how knowledgeable agents understand an altered environment, I adopt a holistic view of organisational and cognitive sensemaking literatures, to produce a sensemaking template identifying four key relational influences: Equilibration, Intentionality, Temporal Context, and Knowledge Structures. The sensemaking template is used to inform the design of an interpretive study. A single local authority in the West Midlands region of England is the setting for the field research which was working to meet increasing demands for local services against a backdrop of austerity budgets and decreasing resources in 2012-2013. I employ cognitive mapping as part of a multi-method approach to identify previously tacit frames of reference used by research participants in making sense of self-selected episodes of change in the organisation. In arguing that organisational change emerges through the enactment of cognitive agency, I use empirical data to expound on a previously invisible sensemaking process that is complex and nuanced, and which offers methodological, theoretical and analytical contributions to knowledge.
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Martin, Aguirre Juan Francisco. "Improving understanding of climate change dynamics using interactive simulations." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/43742.
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Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2008.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-69).
Global climate change is one of the most complex problems that human kind will face during the 21st century. Long delays in changing greenhouse gas emissions and in the response of the climate to anthropogenic forcing mean action to limit the risks of "dangerous interference with the climate system" must begin now, before further impacts of climate change are observed. However, research shows even well educated adults do not understand the time delays and other basic stock and flow dynamics of the climate, resulting in widespread belief that action to limit emissions can be delayed. Poor intuitive understanding of the dynamic structure of climate change has important consequences for building public support for mitigation policies. We introduce an interactive simulation designed to improve people's understanding of climate change dynamics and influence their attitude towards mitigation action. We report results of an experiment using the simulator in an interactive workshop with highly educated adults. Results show a positive shift in participant opinion about the urgency of emissions reductions and improved performance on tasks involving stocks and flows in the context of climate change.
by Juan Francisco Martin Aguirre.
S.M.
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Duncan, Simon, A. L. Ellingsæter, and J. Carter. "Understanding tradition: marital name change in Britain and Norway." Sage, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/17522.
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YesMarital surname change is a striking example of the survival of tradition. A practice emerging from patriarchal history has become embedded in an age of de-traditionalisation and women’s emancipation. Is the tradition of women’s marital name change just some sort of inertia or drag, which will slowly disappear as modernity progresses, or does this tradition fulfil more contemporary roles? Are women and men just dupes to tradition, or alternatively do they use tradition to further their aims? We examine how different approaches - individualisation theory, new institutionalism and bricolage - might tackle these questions. This examination is set within a comparative analysis of marital surname change in Britain and Norway, using small qualitative samples. We find that while individualisation and new institutionalism offer partial explanations, bricolage offers a more adaptable viewpoint.
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Super, Elizabeth. "Reform or transform? : understanding institutional change in transitional justice." Thesis, Ulster University, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.685411.
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Institutional reform, or the review and restructure of state institutions, is broadly accepted as an element of transitional justice in both scholarship and practice. Nevertheless, discussion of institutional reform in transitional justice shows little consistency or coherence either in the institutions targeted for reform, nor in the objectives which institutional reform is said to pursue. The thesis identified conceptual confusion in the objectives attached to institutional reform in transitional justice, which move unsystematically between the pursuit of (1) past-focused accountability, (2) the prevention of reCUlTence of past crimes, (3) establishing the rule of law, and (4) the promotion and protection of human rights into the future. Moreover, the thesis identifies the unhelpful investment of institutional reform with transformative objectives by transitional justice scholars, without the elaboration of either the targeted institutions for refonn or meaningful indicators of transformation. The thesis responds to these identified shortcomings in the study and practice of institutional reform in transitional justice, firstly, by bringing greater conceptual clarity to the area and, secondly, and relatedly, by redressing the paucity of empirical data on institutional reform in transitional justice. To redress the pat1iality of underpinning data, and the need for greater clarity in what institutions to study, two large-N, cross-national qualitative databases were created on vetting and lustration processes and ombuds offices in transitional states. Furthermore, the thesis considers the application of depth and pervasiveness in institutional change theory to original empirical data of institutional reform in transitional justice. The thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge in two key ways. First, the thesis has developed a comprehensive and robust empirical data set on the scale of the practice of two case studies of institutional reform in transitional states. Second, utilizing this rich new data, the thesis works inductively to understand the diversity 0/ institutional reform in transitional justice and, drawing on institutional change theory, proposes a new framework for distinguishing between institutional reform and institutional transformation.
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Kenny, Maeve. "Understanding change in psychotherapy : the literature and parents' experiences." Thesis, Canterbury Christ Church University, 2015. http://create.canterbury.ac.uk/13808/.
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Understanding how change occurs in psychotherapy is imperative in informing clinical practice. Increasing attention has been given to the role that qualitative research could play in enhancing our understanding of therapeutic change. Although quantitative research suggests that parent-child psychotherapy is effective in facilitating change, no research to date has focused on how parents make sense of their change experience. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse semi-structured interviews of eight parents who had completed parent-child psychotherapy about their understanding of change. Five master themes emerged which encapsulated participant’s understanding of change. These included constructing a survivor narrative, the experience of being understood enabling further understanding, adjusting expectations and practicing acceptance and feeling empowered to relinquish control. The final theme summarised how despite psychotherapy being conceptualised as a ‘precious’ resource, there was a sense that its limitations could negatively impact participant’s wellbeing. The study concluded that meaningful elements of change were identified from the parents’ experience. Findings were discussed in relation to previous research. Limitations and implications for future research and practice were examined.
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Eckert, Jeffery S. "Toward a holistic understanding of sexual orientation." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2002. http://www.tren.com.
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Vieira, Julie Ann. "Karl Rahner's understanding of the dynamic of continuity and change." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0009/MQ36607.pdf.
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McCarthy, John Paul. "Understanding subnational population and household change in Scotland, 1991-2009." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.589001.
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The populations of sub national geographical areas in Scotland are subject to dramatic changes over time as fertility, mortality and migratory processes exert influences on the resident population. Changes in households and housing stock and their associated characteristics also contribute to the dynamics of changing sub national areas, but have been the focus of less attention than the components of population change. An in- depth understanding of the change processes is considered essential for effective planning and for the allocation of funding and services. This thesis has contributed to that understanding of population and household changes at subnational level, at which differences can be extreme. Rates of population change, the components of population change and households have been derived for Scottish Council Areas and Data Zones, the latter being recently created small area spatial units, and have been compared over time and summarised using a selection of classifications. The picture of change which has emerged is one of a mobile population redistributing and relocating in different ways, depending on time period (1991-2001, 2001-2009) age group (ten year period-cohorts), household types (occupancy classes) and housing classes (building type), influenced by factors such as life course position and changes to the housing stock as a result of development and re-development. Fluctuating rates of fertility, mortality and migration, increasing numbers of households occupying previously vacant properties, and increased occupation in housing types such as flats are witnessed at national and sub national levels. This thesis helps to understand the complicated mosaic of change in time and space which is witnessed in Scotland in the past twenty years when subnational areas are considered.
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Brandenburg, Uwe. "Survival and identity : understanding university groupings in times of change." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.601140.
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Over the last decades, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have been undergoing a phase of transition existing in high velocity environments. HE reforms that include diverse phenomena - from world rankings to financial independence from the state, market dependence, increasing accountability, among others - throw HEIs into a "state of uncertainry", especially regarding strategies for survival and ensuring identity in an increasingly globalised and competitive higher education market. HEIs are looking for tactical solutions to manage these pressures and groupings are considered one of them. HEI groupings also need to survive in a market of other competing groupings, raising the question which groupings might it be best to belong to and what might be the implications of choices made. The dissertation provides a new and in-depth description and analysis of HEI groupings concerning identity as well as the importance of coherence on certain dimensions and properties. It also provides some practical advice on HEI grouping management regarding Survival criteria and maintaining identity in particular. The thesis explores critical factors for the survival of HEI groupings, such as a sufficient level of internal coherence in three dimensions (temporality, spatiality, sociality), the production of social externalities and private benefits, the establishment of a brand, and the maintenance of an identity. The research is founded on the theory of voluntary clubs (Potoski/Prakash) and organisational identity (Gioia). It also analyses the use of visualisation software to grasp the core problems or challenges of a grouping. To this end, a qualitative approach combining documents, interviews, statistical data and surveys has been used. The research findings suggest that there is no "best buy"; rather that each HEI has to analyse its reasons to enter a grouping critically, that groupings need to serve different needs, and not every grouping can cater for every need. However, there are factors critical for survival, most prominently the aspect of identity. Additionally, the thesis provides evidence for the usefulness of visualisation software to depict complex settings as well as the relevance of the theory of voluntary clubs and Gioia's organisational identity metaphor for describing, explaining and understanding HEI groupings, on the one hand, and critical aspects for possible failure, on the other.
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Henderson-Carter, Rya S. "A Business Case for Return on Investment| Understanding Organizational Change." Thesis, Walden University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3644831.
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Since 2010, 2,000 U. S. leaders spent $150 billion on return on investment (ROI) training, yet questions still exist on how to measure the benefits of organizational change. The purpose of this embedded single-case study was to explore how business leaders could use ROI to characterize the benefit of intervention strategies for organizational change. Stakeholder theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory formed the conceptual framework for this study. A purposive sample of 20 civilian personnel managers located at a medical facility for veterans in central Texas participated in semistructured interviews. The 5 primary themes that emerged using thematic analysis were (a) training, (b) leadership, (c) communication, (d) recognition, and (e) consistency. Implications for positive social change include the possibility of organizational leaders applying these findings to develop better intervention strategies. Such interventions could improve processes for stakeholders and create an open dialogue with business leaders within the government sector.
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Gardner, Toby A. "Understanding the consequences of habitat change for tropical forest biodiversity." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.441551.
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Lubin, Erin. "Understanding Planned Change Among Remote Nonfaculty Employees in Higher Education." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4386.
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Implementing planned change in online university divisions with remote nonfaculty employees is a unique challenge. The problem that compelled this study was the need to understand the challenges of implementing planned change for a group of geographically remote nonfaculty employees who served as field team members (FTM) in an online university's support division. The purpose of this research was to explore change from the perspectives of remote FTM, their managers, and the division's Vice President to better understand and suggest research-derived strategies to make change initiatives more meaningful and inclusive. The qualitative ethnographic design was informed by systems theory, Tuckman and Jensen's theory of group dynamics, Burke-Litwin's model of organizational change, and Lewin's change theory. The 13 participants had a minimum of 9 months in their respective positions. Semistructured focus group interviews were combined with individual interviews to address research questions focusing on organizational factors, team dynamics, leadership dynamics, remote experiences, and organizational climate. Each participant group identified its own set of priorities that need to be addressed for positive change to occur. Additionally, change management should include communication strategies and collaboration to reduce change barriers. A policy recommendation was developed based on the findings proposing strategies to better implement and manage planned change. The purposeful inclusion of geographically dispersed employees in change processes will help shape positive perceptions, thus making change initiatives more meaningful and inclusive for remote team members.
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Henderson-Carter, Rya S. "A Business Case for Return on Investment: Understanding Organizational Change." ScholarWorks, 2011. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/1168.
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Since 2010, 2,000 U. S. leaders spent {dollar}150 billion on return on investment (ROI) training, yet questions still exist on how to measure the benefits of organizational change. The purpose of this embedded single-case study was to explore how business leaders could use ROI to characterize the benefit of intervention strategies for organizational change. Stakeholder theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory formed the conceptual framework for this study. A purposive sample of 20 civilian personnel managers located at a medical facility for veterans in central Texas participated in semistructured interviews. The 5 primary themes that emerged using thematic analysis were (a) training, (b) leadership, (c) communication, (d) recognition, and (e) consistency. Implications for positive social change include the possibility of organizational leaders applying these findings to develop better intervention strategies. Such interventions could improve processes for stakeholders and create an open dialogue with business leaders within the government sector.
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Roeuny, Sondra. "Understanding the Value of Relationships in Developing Sustainable Community Change." Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10256597.
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Since the 1980s, community leadership development programs (CLDPs) across the United States have been developing the capacities of citizens to become effective local leaders. Generally, CLDPs focus on three key areas: building and enhancing the leadership skills of their participants; increasing participants’ awareness and knowledge about their communities; and cultivating the participants’ relationships with each other and with other community leaders. However, when it comes to evaluation studies about the impact of CLDPs, most of the scholarly work has focused on assessing the change in the leadership skills of the programs’ participants. Only limited research focuses on how CLDPs impact the ability of local leaders to work together over time to achieve collective action.
This research study investigated a type of CLDP, the American Leadership Forum-Great Valley Chapter program (ALF-GVC). Through the lens of social network theory and the relational capacity framework, it examined how relationships that are cultivated during the ALF-GVC program impact the ways in which its senior fellows work together to address community issues. Insights from the collective experience of 30 research participants revealed that the ALF-GVC program does impact the relational capacity of its senior fellows. Specifically, evidence supports that the ALF-GVC program helps create a positive internal working environment for senior fellows. The program was associated with increasing the size, diversity, cooperation, and cohesion of the research participants’ networks. As such, by expanding our understanding of how local leaders build relationships and the ways in which those relationships impact how they work together over time to address community issues, the findings from this research study contribute to the literature and practice, all of which can be used to help sustain and strengthen civic engagement in the United States.
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Reiss, Veronica Raffaela Sophie. "Viennese planning culture : understanding change and continuity through the Hauptbahnhof." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62893.
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Today, cities across the globe face a multitude of similar challenges – climate change, new disruptive technologies, new conceptions of both labour and capital, and mass migration, among others; simultaneously, planning scholars are continually acknowledging the diversity of both the conception and practice of planning around the world. As such, the concept of planning cultures has grown in recognition and importance. While the literature around planning cultures grows, few area specific studies have been completed. This thesis seeks to contribute to the understanding of the planning culture of Vienna, Austria, through an exploration of the history of urban planning in Vienna and through a contemporary case study of the planning of the Vienna Hauptbahnhof project, the recently completed central train station. This thesis seeks to expand the understanding of planning processes, practices, and outcomes in Vienna, a city world renowned for its affordable and social housing, as well as for its high quality of life.Applied Science, Faculty of
Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of
Graduate
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Tam, Jordan. "Understanding adaptation and social-ecological change in Chilean coastal communities." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/58314.
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In recent decades, attempts have been made to integrate social and ecological dimensions of change into understandings of resource sustainability, yet challenges persist. Complex dynamics in social-ecological systems fuel these challenges, rendering it difficult to anticipate and address problems arising from development or environmental change. This dissertation examines the ability of common-pool resource (CPR) theories to address and realize sustainable management. Traditionally, CPR systems have been understood as a set of design principles for managing resources, especially single-resource regimes wherein local drivers of change are known. However, most CPR settings are embedded in complex systems and affected by drivers at global to local scales. This recognition has led many scholars to champion adaptation as the way forward, but significant confusion remains over key concepts, including adaptive capacity. Focusing on Chile’s small-scale fishers and divers, I explore how user adaptations and sociocultural shifts in response to globalization can threaten the resilience of Chile’s celebrated territorial user rights regime. I develop a typology of user motivations, and explain how these intersect with user adaptations and expand our ability to create more robust management. By studying the concrete adaptation behaviours of marine users, I also demonstrate how adaptive capacity is a proactive process and behaviour-specific, contrary to assessment methods that emphasize generalizability. Similarly, by measuring social learning as the propensity of individuals to attend to social information, I show how social learning may not be uniformly positive (and may even be negative) for social-ecological outcomes, counter to expectations in contemporary resource literatures. Finally, it is generally assumed that common understanding of resource dynamics will improve the kinds of collective action that ensures the success of CPRs. Results suggest that other variables may be more important (e.g., migrant population), and the positive role of common understanding requires further testing using clear measures. Overall, the results of this dissertation suggest a need to attend to, and account for, a broader set of potentially significant social and psychological variables. Adopting a more precise and critical eye regarding human factors, as endeavoured in this study, may help the science of social-ecological sustainability progress more capably and effectively.Science, Faculty of
Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for
Graduate
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Housser, Sarah Farris. "The retirement opportunity : understanding positive psychological change in later life." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/31921.
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The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of people who report positive
psychological change following retirement in order to better understand the nature and process of this change. Using qualitative interpretive description methodology, semi-structured interviews were tape recorded, transcribed, analyzed for themes and interpreted for clinical application. This study found that following retirement the nine men and women aged 58-75 changed profoundly, and in ways that defy stereotypes about old age as a time of stagnation and decline. Adults whose career was characterized by discipline and responsibility became more playful and relaxed. They experienced an increased awareness, understanding and acceptance of the path their life had taken, including acknowledgement of mistakes and regret and responsibility for their life going forward. They experienced changes to limiting patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, marked by increased flexibility, humility and autonomy. There were a number of similarities in how this group approached the transition to retirement. These cannot be conclusively linked to the changes participants experienced; however in looking at what was common to how they approached retirement, one may reasonably draw some inferences about approach to retirement and the outcome of change and growth. From this exemplary group of people we may derive best practices about managing retirement
that can be brought to a broader group by way of retirement planning resources, counselling interventions and human resource policy and practice.Education, Faculty of
Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of
Graduate
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Mawhinney, Hanne B. "An interpretive framework for understanding the politics of policy change." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6597.
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The research design guiding the study emphasized the development of conceptual elements of policy change, which have been identified in the current policy literature, through the examination of two substantive educational policy changes. A methodology of theoretical sampling was used to develop a conceptual framework grounded in the phenomenology of change. In the first step of the three-stage research path, a number of problematic issues and themes were identified through a review of the literature on policy change. The conceptual trends which emerge from a review of current research on policy processes, identified the core elements of the IF developed in this thesis. Together, the trends identified in the literature suggest that policy change involves a dynamic interplay of ideas, institutional structures and political processes that are embedded in an historical-political context, which emerges from the ecology of interactions within policy communities and policy networks. These elements formed the basis of study's theoretical orientation, and established the direction for the research undertaken to develop the IF. Six research questions developed from the literature provided the framework for the second stage of empirical inquiry into issues surrounding two policy changes made by the government of Ontario, directed at Franco-Ontarian educational governance and funding of Roman Catholic schools. Bill 30, passed in June, 1986, extended full funding for Roman Catholic education to the end of secondary school. Bill 109, enacted in 1988, established a French-language school board in the Ottawa-Carleton region of the province. The politics surrounding these two policy changes were investigated by conducting interviews with 70 policy actors. Documents and newspaper coverage of the policy changes were used to confirm and extend the observations of policy actors. Analysis of the documents and of the taped and transcribed interviews provided the empirical basis for the third and final stage of the study. In this final stage of the research, the conceptual issues identified in the literature were analyzed in the context of the findings of the investigation of the two policy changes. This analysis, reported in two chapters of the thesis, developed the ideas and concepts of the Interpretive Framework (IF) for understanding the politics of policy change. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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Powney, Gary. "Understanding drivers of species distribution change : a trait-based approach." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/39367.
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The impacts of anthropogenic environmental change on biodiversity are well documented, with threats such as habitat loss and climate change identified as causes of change in species distributions. The high degree of variation in responses of species to environmental change can be partly explained through comparative analyses of species traits. I carried out a phylogenetically informed trait-based analysis of plant range change in Britain, discovering that traits associated with competitive ability and habitat specialism both explained variation in range changes. Competitive, habitat generalists out-perform ed species specialised to nutrient-poor conditions; a result which can be attributed to the impact of agricultural intensification in Britain. A limitation of the comparative approach is that the models do not directly test the impact of environmental change on species distribution patterns, but instead infer potential impacts. I tested the potential of comparative analyses from a spatial context by conducting a spatial analysis of plant distribution change in Britain, examining the direct impact of environmental change on the spatial distribution of the trait characteristics of species that have gone locally extinct. I discovered a loss of species associated with nitrogen poor soils in regions that had an increase in arable land cover, a result that supports the results from the trait-based analysis of plant range change and demonstrates that comparative studies can accurately infer drivers of distribution change. I found that the cross-region transferability of trait-based models of range change to be related to land cover similarity, highlighting that the trait-based approach is dependent on a regional context. Additionally, I discovered that traits derived from distribution data were significant predictors of range shift across many taxonomic groups, out-performing traditional life history traits. This thesis highlights the potential of the data accumulated through the increased public participation in biological recording to address previously unanswerable ecological research questions.
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Ingvarsson, Lovisa, and Robin Strömbäck. "Internal Communication in Organizational Changes : A study of how project managers can create an understanding for change." Thesis, Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-74614.
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Purpose – The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of how project managers in large organizations can create an understanding for organizational changes by internal communication. Method – This research study has an abductive approach and was conducted as a single case study. The empirical data has been chosen to be qualitative since it gives the ability to explain, describe and understand the research questions. Observations set the direction of the research, and 17 semi-structured interviews were further conducted at the case company. Findings – The findings show that 'System functionality', 'Organizational value', 'Individual value' and 'Project value', are four different types of information desired by involved employees to have an understanding for an organizational change. These types of information have shown to most effectively, for a project manager, be communicated through the use of 'Standardized communication methods', 'Direct communication methods' with a 'Distinct communication transfer', to reach involved employees by internal communication. Theoretical implications – The study provides a framework for how, what, and to whom a project manager can create an understanding for all affected employees by internal communication. The framework proposes that the project manager is in the center of a communication structure and therefore plays a key role in communicating change. Practical implications – Our framework contributes by presenting findings that are more defined and practically oriented compared to prior studies, as we combine several factors and suggest how information could be internally communicated by a project manager during change. It shows that a mix of both in-person communication and digital communication methods with distinct communication responsibilities are required to reach all involved employees, thus creating less resistance towards an organizational change.
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Topper, Lauren. "Evaluating the 'Parental Understanding of Neurodisability Questionnaire' as a measure of change." Thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2014. http://digirep.rhul.ac.uk/items/0d7c8774-87ee-2cd2-dfe4-46da4a2155a8/1/.
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This thesis aimed to provide a second validation phase of a recently developed measure: the Parental Understanding of Neurodisability Questionnaire (PUN-Q) (Moran et al., submitted). The PUN-Q is a thirteen item self-report questionnaire measuring parents' understanding of their child's neurodisability. This thesis prospectively validated the PUN-Q over three time points, prior to and following a child's attendance at a Tier-Four paediatric diagnostic assessment, for queries regarding social communication. Four main aims were investigated: 1) to establish prospective Construct Validity by comparing the PUN-Q to two other parent-report measures (perceived self-efficacy and parenting stress); 2) to examine test-retest reliability of the PUN-Q by comparing two pre-assessment time points; 3) to examine whether the PUN-Q is sensitive measuring potential pre-and-post assessment changes to parental understanding; 4) to explore the relationship between the PUN-Q and child emotional, behavioural and social communication difficulties. These objectives were addressed using data collected from 37 parents, due to time constraints the study was underpowered at Times two and three (n=26, n=11, respectively); bootstrapping confidence intervals were therefore estimated for non-parametric data. Evidence was provided for Construct Validity at Time 1, but not at Time 3. Test-retest reliability was suggested for the PUN-Q between two non-intervention time points. Results suggested that the PUN-Q is responsive to changes over time, and that the clinic's diagnostic assessment is effective in enhancing parental understanding. The PUN-Q was not shown to be related to child-related outcomes. These preliminary results suggest that the PUN-Q is an important measure that can reliably and conveniently measure parental understanding of their child's neurodisability symptoms. This study suggests a role for parental understanding within a wider model of parenting stress and coping with disability. Further validation is needed to allow dissemination to the wider neurodisability service, and to less complex symptom presentations.
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Gowdy, Daniel Troyce. "Serving change| Understanding the efficacy of servant leader behaviors to influence follower commitment to organizational change." Thesis, Indiana Wesleyan University, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3742928.
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Leading successful organizational change is central to an effective leadership approach. Servant leadership with its emphasis on follower growth and development, may be beneficial for organizational change. This study added to the understanding of servant leadership and commitment to organizational change by surveying participants (n = 244) of a large non-profit specialized healthcare organization implementing an electronic medical records system to assess if perceived servant leader behaviors correlate with followers’ attitude toward change. This study utilized Winston and Fields’ (in press) Essential Servant Leadership Behaviors (ESLB) scale to assess servant leadership’s ability to predict follower commitment to change mindset and interaction time with supervisor as a mediating mechanism. The survey results showed ESLB was found to be a statistically significant but weak positive predictor of affective commitment to change and a statistically significant but weak negative predictor of continuance commitment to change. The results showed evidence that servant leadership behaviors are appropriate for not just maintaining status quo but are also influential during disruptive times of organizational change. No significant relationship was found between ESLB and normative commitment to change. Interaction time with supervisor was not a mediating variable between ESLB and follower commitment to change.
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Wan, Tingting. "Understanding small-holding households in a changing Chinese village." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/15943.
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This thesis looks in detail at four small-holding households in a Chinese village that is experiencing the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation that has occurred in China over a number of decades. The research explores the dynamics of the households, which are at a point where traditional values and modes of living are challenged by the changing social, economic and cultural context. These small-holding village households are characterised by an interdependent set of family and household relationships and an intricate interplay between cultural expectations, resources dynamics, bonds of affect and economic and social activities. The research draws upon key literature concerned with household, family and economic life, to analyse the research data concerning these Chinese village households experiencing change. The research has been conducted within a narrative inquiry framework, as an appropriate approach for understanding the processes of adaptation to changes at the levels of households and individual members: what people do, how they feel, how they interpret ‘the self’ in the context of social, economic and cultural change, and how they talk about all of this. Fieldwork was carried out over the period from 2011 to 2014 in the village of Shang (a pseudonym) in the Huangshan area, Anhui province. In-depth interviews, informal interviews and conversations with household members were combined with long-term participant observation in the village, encompassing various households and many social events. The analysis of the resulting data is provided around three key topics: ‘Divisions of Labour, Household Work and Changing Economic Life’, ‘Resources and the Household’, and ‘Household and Networks’. People have a range of different ways of coping with changes, influenced by many factors including their roles and aspirations and bonds of love and caring; while at the household level, the different styles and layers of livelihood are influenced by and in turn influence the organisation of material and particularly non-material resources in the household. The stories that people tell about their experiences, feelings and understandings demonstrate that they are actively responding and adapting to change rather than being passive recipients or resistant to this. Both change and continuity are witnessed through focusing analysis at both individual and household levels. Combining ideas about the household as a resource system and a narrative inquiry approach provides detailed insights on Chinese village households in their changing social and economic context.
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Otto, James. "A Search for Periodic and Quasi-Periodic Patterns in Select Proxy Data with a Goal to Understanding Temperature Variation." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2005. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc849601/.
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In this work over 200 temperature proxy data sets have been analyzed to determine if periodic and or quasi-periodic patterns exist in the data sets. References to the journal articles where data are recorded are provided. Chapter 1 serves an introduction to the problem of temperature determination in providing information on how various proxy data sources are derived. Examples are given of the techniques followed in producing proxy data that predict temperature for each method used. In chapter 2 temperature proxy data spanning the last 4000 years, from 2,000 BCE to 2,000 CE, are analyzed to determine if overarching patterns exist in proxy data sets. An average of over 100 proxy data sets was used to produce Figure 4. An overview of the data shows that several “peaks” can be identified. The data were then subjected to analysis using a series of frequency modulated cosine waves. This analysis led to a function that can be expressed by equation 3. The literature was examined to determine what mathematical models had been published to fit the experimental proxy data for temperature. A number of attempts have been made to fit data from limited data sets with some degree of success. Some other papers have used a sinusoidal function to best fit the changes in the temperature. After consideration of many published papers and reviewing long time streams of proxy data that appeared to have sine wave patterns, a new model was proposed for trial. As the patterns observed showed “almost” repeating sine cycles, a frequency modulated sine wave was chosen to obtain a best fit function. Although other papers have used a sinusoidal function to best fit the changes in the temperature, the “best fit” was limited. Thus, it was decided that a frequency modulated sine wave may be a better model that would provide a more precise fit. This proved to be the case and the more than 240 temperature proxy data sets were analyzed using Equation 3. In chapter 3 the time span for the proxy data was extended to cover the period of time 12,000 BCE to 2000 CE. The data were then tested by using the equation above to search for periodic/quasi-periodic patterns. These results are summarized under select conditions of time periods. In chapter 4 the interval of time is extended over 1,000,000 years of time to test for long period “periodic” changes in global temperature. These results are provided for overall analysis. The function f(x) as described above was used to test for periodic/quasi-periodic changes in the data. Chapter 5 provides an analysis of temperature proxy data for an interval of time of 3,000,000 years to establish how global temperature has varied during the last three million years. Some long-term quasi-periodic patterns are identified. Chapter 6 provides a summation of the model proposed for global temperature that can be expected if similar trends continue over future years as have prevailed for the past few million years. Data sets that were used in this work are tabulated in the appendices of this paper.
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Riedlinger, Dyanna. "Community-based assessments of change, contributions of Inuvialuit knowledge to understanding climate change in the Canadian Arctic." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ57574.pdf.
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Lönnberg, Linnea. "The Military Profession in Times of Change : Understanding the Capacities for Handling Military Change among Swedish Officers." Thesis, Försvarshögskolan, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-9710.
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With the aim to situate the study of military professionalism and its relationship to change firmly in an empirical analysis, this thesis uses the method of grounded theory to study the elements of military professional mindset that impacts on the professional capacity to understand and handle military change. Theoretically the study situates itself in both the study of military professionalism and the study of military change, and challenges previous literature by stating that there are elements of the military profession that makes it adaptable to change. The results are based on data from interviews with military officers working for the Swedish Armed Forces and the analysis is developed through a multiple-step coding procedure which thoroughly grounds the study in empirics. The study finds that military professionals have a holistic mindset when understanding their own profession in relation to the military organisation and military change. Both rigid and definitive elements, such as hierarchy and loyalty, and less rigid elements, such as flexibility, adaptability and military preparedness, impacts the capacity to handle change and are seen as important elements of the professional mindset.
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Fennimore, Todd F. "Understanding change in medicine and the biomedical sciences: Modeling change as interactions among flows with arrow diagrams." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1307626543.
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Brink, Melanie K. "Teachers' Perceived Understanding of Formative Assessment And How This Understanding Impacts Their Own Classroom Instruction." OpenSIUC, 2017. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/1342.
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The key purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an understanding of classroom teachers’ perceptions of the process and impact of formative assessment on classroom instruction in a secondary school. The study was designed to obtain information about how teachers view formative assessment as part of their everyday planning and preparation, as well as sought to determine whether or not there was a correlation between teachers’ perceived understanding of formative assessment and their implementation of formative assessment in the classroom. The three main research questions that guided this study were: 1) How do teachers’ perceptions of their own understanding of formative assessment affect their instructional practice? 2) How do teachers’ perceptions of their own understanding of formative assessment evolve over time? 3) What supports exist to help teachers implement formative assessment at the high school level? The case study focused on participants who were current 9-12 public school teachers representing mathematics, physical education, and foreign language. To triangulate the data, multiple types of data were collected from the teachers. Pre- and post-surveys, unstructured interviews, focus groups, classroom observations with participant observation notes, and logs were used to collect the data. Data was then analyzed using analysis of the pre-surveys and compared with information gained from the other data sources. Data was later analyzed using the post-survey and compared with the information from other data sources to determine individual teacher growth over time. The results from the first research question indicated that teachers understood the accountability of both teachers and students in the assessment process, but required additional support in determining how student learning becomes the basis for use of formative assessment, types of different methods used, and overall teacher competencies about formative assessment. The second research question indicated that growth occurred when professional supports were given in areas where weaknesses were identified. Initially, formative assessment was viewed by many as a means of compliance with the new teacher evaluation system. With continued professional development, teachers’ acceptance of formative assessment increased as their understanding of the process dually increased. In addition, as teachers began to see growth in student achievement, their overall acceptance of formative assessment also increased. The third and final research question indicated that supports must not only be global in nature, but must also be focused on the individual. When teachers know where they are and know the target of where they want or need to be, instructional growth does occur. Supports for teacher instructional practice will vary based on identified needs, understanding of formative assessment, and the type of supports available. Recommendations for follow-up study include the use of additional focus groups, extending the formative assessment survey to include lengthening the time of the study, and a change in setting to avoid certain nuances that can occur with studying the same school district. Additionally, research should be completed on the long-term effects of personalized professional development and whether teachers continue to use formative assessment practices as they gain more extensive experience. Since this particular school was undergoing a complete system change while the study was being completed, it would be dually important to investigate a school that was not in the midst of such a change. With all the additional supports available to the teachers in this study, it is important to see if a teacher’s perceived understanding of formative assessment would continue to translate into instructional practice if whole school and individual supports were not as prevalent.
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Cetin, Gulcan. "The Effect Of Conceptual Change Instruction On Understanding Of Ecology Concepts." Phd thesis, METU, 2003. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/1260322/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of conceptual change text oriented instruction accompanied by demonstrations in small groups (CCTI) on ninth grade students&rsquoachievement and understanding levels of ecology, attitudes towards biology, and attitudes towards environment. The instruments used in this study were the Test of Ecological Concepts (TEC), the Attitude Scale towards Biology (ASB), the Attitude Scale towards Environment (ASE), and the Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT). All data were collected from the public high school in Balikesir in the Spring Semester of 2001-2002. 88 students from four classes and two teachers were included in this study. Two of the classes were called control group and two of them were called experimental group. While the TEC, ASE and ASB were administered to all of the students as pre- and post-tests, the TOLT were conducted as pre-test. Data related to the TEC, ASB, and ASE were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). The results of the MANCOVA showed that there was significant effect of the treatment which was the conceptual change texts oriented instruction accompanied by demonstrations in small groups on the TEC, while there were no significant effect of the treatment on the attitudes towards biology and attitudes towards environment.
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Cetin, Pinar Seda. "Effects Of Conceptual Change Oriented Instruction On Understanding Of Gases Concepts." Phd thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12611252/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The main purpose of the study was to compare the effectiveness of conceptual
change oriented instruction accompanied with computer animations and traditionally
designed chemistry instruction on 10th grade students&rsquounderstanding, achievement and retention of gases concepts and attitudes towards chemistry as a school subject. Also students&rsquo
views about nature of science were investigated. Quasi experimental design was used in this study. 67 tenth grade students from two intact classes of a chemistry course taught by the same teacher in Sokullu High School were enrolled. The hypotheses were tested by using analyses of covariance and two- way analyses of variance. The results indicated that instruction based on conceptual change approach caused significantly better acquisition of the scientific conceptions, achievement and retention related to gases concepts than traditionally designed chemistry instruction. Science process skill was determined as a strong predictor in the concepts related to gases. Moreover instruction based on conceptual change approach improved students&rsquo
attitudes as a school subject. However no significant effect of gender difference on students&rsquo
understanding, achievement and attitudes toward chemistry as a school subject was found. Finally experimental group students&rsquo
views about some characteristics of nature of science were determined as more realistic than control group students.