Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Voluntary'

Abstract

Purpose: A part of this research is to explore if there are partnership firms that voluntarily get an audit of their business. The purpose is to understand and explain why these partnership firms have chosen to get an audit of their business voluntarily. Additionally, the authors research how external stakeholders, such as creditors, view and assess partnership firms that do not execute an audit of their accounts and reports.

Method: To initiate this research, the authors conducted a telephone survey as a pre-study, to assure the viability of this research. As a major part of this research study, qualitative interviews with partnership firms, banks and the Swedish Tax Agency have been conducted to obtain professional opinion in the subject of interest. Previous researches are presented to provide a broader perspective of the debate.

Frame of

Reference: The authors present an extensive background to auditing and accounting. Stakeholder model and agency theory have been applied to facilitate in understanding the relationship between a partnership firm and its stakeholders. Advantages and disadvantages of auditing, as well as the concept of voluntary auditing are presented to facilitate a discussion of the motives of voluntarily executing an audit firms.

Conclusion: After extensive research the authors have identified and determined the most probable motives of voluntary audits as well as understood how these external stakeholders view and assess these partnership firms that do not execute an audit of their accounts and reports. The authors can after a broad research conclude that partners’ central motives to voluntary auditing is to seek the value that is added through it, as the firm obtains professional assistance to raise the credibility of the firm’s financial reports. Auditing frees them from additional burden and time to manage the work related to accounting records and enables them to devote more time to the core business.

Through an audit, partners’ quest for orderliness is fulfilled. Moreover, indications have been seen that partners are open to voluntarily execute an audit to achieve a sense of security in relation to the other partners. Another essential motive to why partners voluntarily execute audits is to be assured that there are no significant inaccuracies or errors in their book-keeping. Overall, partners’ intentions of getting an audit of their accounts and reports are to gain an overview of the business as well to obtain enhanced business image externally.

Creditors are concerned about a firm’s ability to reimburse the obligation. In a newly started firm, banks require annual reports, forecasts and budgets ensure the firm’s solvency. The Swedish Tax Agency receives audit reports from auditors that guide them with hints and directions on what to assess further. Moreover, the Swedish Tax Agency performs tax audits on firms, whereby they conduct an assessment to ensure that the accounts and other documents are in accordance with what is declared to them.

Sammanfattning

Syfte: Avsikten med denna uppsats är att utforska om det finns handelsbolag som frivilligt upprättar revision i sin affärsverksamhet. Syftet är att få förståelse för samt förklara de bakomliggande motiven till handelsbolags val av frivillig revision. Författarna utforskar ytterligare hur externa parter, såsom kreditgivare samt skatteverket, granskar och ser på handelsbolag som inte upprättar revision på sin verksamhet.

Metod: Författarna genomförde en förstudie i form av en telefonenkät, för att försäkra sig om att denna studie är genomförbar. För att erhålla en professionell åsikt kring ämnet i fråga, har denna studie till största del bestått av kvalitativa intervjuer med respondenter från delägare av handelsbolag, banker och skatteverket. Tidigare studier är även presenterade för att tillföra debatten ett bredare perspektiv.

Referensram: Författarna ger en omfattande beskrivning av redovisning och revision. Intressentmodellen och agentteorin har tillämpats i syfte att underlätta förståelsen av relationen mellan företag och dess intressenter. Dessutom beskrivs för- och nackdelar av revision för att underlätta diskussionen kring motiven till frivillig revision i handelsbolag.

Slutsats: Författarna har efter omfattande forskning fastställt de troligaste motiven till frivillig revision samt fått en djupare förståelse för bankernas och skatteverkets ståndpunkt och granskning av handelsbolag som inte är revisionspliktiga. Sammanfattningsvis kan författarna hävda att grundmotiven till frivillig revision är värdet som den tillför, då bolagen erhåller professionell samråd som höjer redovisningens trovärdighet i bolaget. Revision underlättar för delägarna då de inte behöver ta på sig bördan av att tillägna tid och kraft på att själva utföra bokföringen. Detta tillåter delägarna i sin tur att ägna mer tid till själva kärnverksamheten. Genom revision, fullgörs delägarnas strävan efter ordning och reda i bolaget. För övrigt har man sett indikationer på att delägarna är positivt inställda på att frivilligt upprätta revision i handelsbolagen, då revisionen bidrar till att de erhåller en känsla av trygghet. Ett annat motiv, är att revisionen försäkrar dem om det inte förekommer väsentliga felaktigheter eller misstag i boksluten. Delägarnas främsta avsikt till användandet av revision kan i det stora hela summeras till att de får en översiktsbild av sina bolag, såväl som att de erhåller en kvalitetsstämpel och därmed en förhöjd bild av bolaget utåt sett. Kreditgivare är angelägna över bolagens återbetalningsförmåga. Därför kräver banken att nystartade bolag ska framföra sin årsredovisning, budget och framtida prognoser, för att försäkra sig om och fastställa deras återbetalningsförmåga. Skatteverket mottar årsredovisningar från revisorer, som med fördel förser skatteverket med råd och vägledning kring eventuell vidare granskning i bolagen. Skatteverket utför därtill skatterevision, genom att de granskar bolagen i syfte att intyga att de presenterade räkenskaperna och rapporterna överensstämmer med det som har deklarerats och kommit till skatteverkets förfogande.

This evidence-based study is about Chilean voluntary repatriation as a political process rooted in the political history of Chile and in the wider context of the end of the Cold War. It considers the two main socio-political scenarios of the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990) and transitional democracy (1990-) but also brings the interim years of 1988-1990 to the fore. It focuses on the voluntary, class and gender dimensions of voluntary repatriation, arguing that decisions to return are not the product of individual choices or factors as argued in most of the literature, but influenced by a complex interplay of structures operating at the macro and micro levels. Chilean hegemonic institutions such as political parties, the Catholic Church and the family as well as patriotism along with class and gender shaped these decisions. Return discourses such as El Derecho a vivir en 10 patria, later replaced by Chile Somos Todos, were rooted in such matrix. In explaining voluntary repatriation, this study introduces a new concept to the field: the notion of returnism as a political narrative of nationhood and return-control mechanism that succesfully interwove both micro and macro levels in the exilio-retorno compression. A key finding is that the very hegemonic structures that were in place before and during exile were not only reproduced and strengthened during the dictatorship but were also used against it and termed here the like with like argument. Through the socio-political developments that took place both in Chile and exile, this study analyses the experiences of returnees. For this purpose, secondary concepts are introduced. The analysis explains why some returnees 'succeeded' and others 'failed' to find a place in Chilean society and shows paradoxically that voluntary repatriation was more sustainable under dictatorship. Overall, class and gender positioning are determinant in the 'end of the refugee cycle'.

Does voluntary reading matter? While there is much known about the benefits to children who engage in sustained silent reading, commercial reading programs implemented as a result of No Child Left Behind often displace time for children to silently read (NCLB, 2002). An increase in the amount of time children spend with a commercial reading program has meant a decrease in time provided for in-school voluntary reading during the elementary literacy block (Brenner & Hiebert, 2010). This quantitative study used the 2011 restricted-use National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data to determine whether opportunities provided to children for in-school voluntary reading impacted fourth-grade students' achievement levels. The study also considered whether there were differences in the amount of time provided for in-school voluntary reading and choice in reading material to children of differing income levels and ethnic backgrounds. Contingency tables and a multiple linear regression model were used to find associations between achievement data and questionnaire responses. Findings concluded that children who qualified to participate in the National School Lunch Program, as well as Black, Hispanic, and Native American children, have fewer opportunities to silently read, and choose their own books during the school day. For most children, there was a positive relationship between time and choice in reading at school with achievement scores. Black, Hispanic, and Native American children experienced a commercial reading program at a higher rate than their white and Asian peers; there were no detected differences in reading program structure based on economic affluence. The discussion includes consideration of time to silent read at school and choice in reading material as a part of an "opportunity gap" (Darling-Hammond, 2013) that causes disparities in the quality of education provided to children from different backgrounds, and which could also be a factor to the larger achievement gap. Policy implications are discussed.

In recent years, the search for regulatory regimes in order to effectively address human induced climate change have become a prominent political and academic issue. Emission trading schemes have risen in popularity and are widely believed to be an effective, as well as economically efficient, measure and have become a favoured government strategy. On the individual level, many individuals in the industrialised nations now undertake actions to offset their personal direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by voluntarily purchasing carbon credits, normally in association with product or service purchase. While this is a fast growing market, advertised as creating a carbon neutral consumer society, the voluntary carbon credit sector raises fundamental problems with respect to verification and credibility of the claimed offsets and associated projects. Lack of regulation and legal oversight leads to the impossibility of actually obtaining or verifying information on the consequences of voluntary credit purchases. Providers of offset credits who are driven by greed and easy profits will underfunded emissions abatement projects and pay little attention to quality standards. Corporate "green washing" is also likely through voluntary offsets marketed as going carbon neutral. This paper connects voluntary offsets to psychological and behavioural impacts on the individual. We identify three specific issues: the psychology of marketing and purchasing of voluntary offsets, commodification and crowding out of intrinsic motivations and the implicit ethics with its own psychological implications. We also discuss the political economy of voluntary carbon markets and their geo-political implications in terms of the global North- South divide and ethical responsibility for action on human induced climate change. This raises serious concerns over the individualisation of a collective problem, what can and should be expected of individuals as ethical consumers and how markets operate in practice. Such aspects place individual behaviour within a broader social and institutional context that questions the trend in market environmentalism and its impacts on the capability of humans to relate to nature. (authors' abstract)
Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

Since Sweden has one of the most comprehensive welfare states, the role of voluntary organizations active in the field of welfare is often neglected. The unique Swedish nonprofit sector is characterized by 1) the tradition of popular mass movements in which members are central and the real owners of the organization, 2) large membership and volunteering, but low employment levels, 3) dominance in the fields of culture and recreation, but the relative marginalization in welfare. This Ph.D. dissertation empirically studies work and the perception of work in voluntary welfare organizations (VWOs) in Sweden. I completed a series of 38 interviews of employees and volunteers in four VWOs: 1) a children’s rights organization; 2) a women’s center; 3) a volunteer bureau; and 4) a humanitarian organization. A quantitative survey of some 200 VWOs supplements the qualitative data. Looking at the internal work setting and interactions between workers one realizes that work in VWOs is influenced not only by the popular mass movements (folkrörelser), which are the foundation model of all Swedish voluntary organizations, but also by paradigms emerging out of the public and for-profit sectors: 1) the public paradigm permanently shapes voluntary welfare organizations through the action of paid workers who often have public sector work experience; and 2) work in voluntary organizations is partly integrated into the regular labor market, and interfaces emerge between volunteering and professional life (for-profit paradigm). The private sphere also interferes with volunteering. Finally, this sheds a new light on the claims of VWOs that they are autonomous, “free” entities, and their contribution to social integration and strengthening of social ties.

Voluntary turnover has historically been a problem for today's organizations. Traditional models of turnover continue to be utilized in a number of ways in both academia and industry. A newer model of turnover, job embeddedness, has recently been developed in an attempt to better predict voluntary turnover than existing models. Job embeddedness consists of organizational fit, organizational sacrifice, and organizational links. The purpose of this study is to two fold. First, psychometric analyses were conducted on the job embeddedness model. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted on the dimensions of job embeddedness, which revealed a combined model consisting of five factors. This structure was then analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, assessing a 1, 3, and 5 factor model structure. The confirmatory factor analysis established the use of the 5 factor model structure in subsequent analysis in this study. The second purpose of this study is to compare the predictive power of the job embeddedness model versus that of the traditional models of turnover. The traditional model of turnover is comprised of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and perceived job alternatives. In order to compare the predictive power of the job embeddedness and traditional model of voluntary turnover, a series of structural equation model analyses were conducting using LISREL. The job embeddedness model, alone, was found to be the best fit with the sample data. This fit was improved over the other two models tested (traditional model and the combination of the traditional and job embeddedness model). In addition to assessing which model better predicts voluntary turnover, it was tested which age group and gender is a better fit with the job embeddedness model. It was found that the job embeddedness model better predicts turnover intention for older respondents and males.

The main objective of this work is to increase the knowledge about corporate governance and voluntary disclosure in reducing information asymmetries. The first chapter is a review of the literature on corporate governance and voluntary disclosure. The second chapter analyzes whether board composition and voluntary disclosure substitute or complement each other in reducing information asymmetries. Finally, the third chapter analyzes the role of disclosure and governance in the biotech setting in enhancing analysts ability to forecasts earnings. More in detail, in the second chapter, we assess the impact of corporate governance on firms’ product-related disclosure of biotechnology companies in the presence of agency and proprietary costs. In order to conduct this investigation we use regression analysis employing data compiled from 10-K forms and proxy statements. We hypothesize that voluntary disclosure – considering the approach suggested by Lev et.al. (2004) – is a function of governance structure measured by a set of independent variables based on the board of directors typology proposed by Hillman et.al. (2000) and Baysinger and Butler (1985). Our results show that corporate governance plays a role in orienting the heterogeneity of product-level disclosures provided by US biotech companies. Moreover, using biotech setting, which provides unique heterogeneity in the level of disclosure, we show that background of board members affects corporate disclosure. Specifically, specialist directors and community members exert markedly different effect on disclosure. Support specialists generally pressed for increased disclosure, unless it is against firm interest. Community influentials vote for vague disclosure but tend to disclose information early. The later may be due to the desire to prop-up their personal public profile, at the expense of shareholders. The study further explores and provides useful insights and practical implications for corporate governance standard setters. They should consider the various competences of board members such as skills, expertise, knowledge and specific functions of individual directors in expressing the impact of corporate governance on firms voluntary disclosure. In the last chapter, we uses US biotech firms to assess how corporate governance mechanisms, such as board composition, board size and product related voluntary disclosure, affect the information environment faced by financial analysts in forecasting earnings. Information environment is defined as forecast accuracy, forecast dispersion, precision of public information, precision of private information, as in Barron et.al. (1998, 2002). We consider the methodology introduced by Baysinger and Butler (1985) and Hillman et.al. (2000) and we analyze each independent directors according to his specific background. On the relation between voluntary disclosure and analysts forecasts, we have build our own measure of voluntary disclosure index, by hand-collecting all the information specific to the biotech products that firms have into their portfolio. We measure the voluntary disclosure of biotech products based on the Business Section Analysis (part I) of the Annual Report (10-K form), precisely on the drug development programs, that provide key information about the various products under development of each biotechnology company. Additionally, we examine whether voluntary disclosure were disclosed consistently over time and we follow the path of disclosure by developing an persistent disclosure index at the firm level. Our results shows that US biotech firms with more independent directors on the board reduces the forecast dispersion. The quality of corporate governance affects information transparency and play a role in reducing the uncertainty associated with future firms’ performance by increasing the precision of analysts’ earnings forecasts. Better corporate governance mechanisms promotes transparency that benefits the users of firms’ disclosure. Forecast accuracy increases when voluntary disclosure is constant over time. Analysts forecast dispersion decreases when more independent directors sits on the board. Voluntary disclosure is fully effective to financial analysts only if the information is comparable over time. When information is constant over time it increases forecast accuracy and reduces the dispersion. Voluntary disclosure and corporate governance quality are two mechanisms that act is complement to improve the quality of information available to financial analysts
l principale obiettivo di questo lavoro è di quello di contribuire ad una maggiore comprensione delle politiche di comunicazione delle imprese e dei meccanismi di corporate governance, in particolare le caratteristiche dei consiglieri di amministrazione nel ridurre le asimmetrie informative. Nel primo capitolo sono state analizzate le teorie più rilevanti dell’accountability, come la voluntary disclosure e la corporate governance con l’obiettivo di evidenziare i contributi più significativi che ad esse sono state mosse e identificando nuovi temi di ricerca. Il capitolo secondo studia se i meccanismi di governance, quali la composizione del board è un sostituto piuttosto che un complemento della comunicazione volontaria nel ridurre le asimmetrie informative. Il terzo capitolo sottopone a verifica empirica le asserzioni più rilevanti derivanti dal ruolo che la corporate governance e voluntary disclosure hanno sulle proprietà delle previsioni degli analisti. Più nel dettaglio, il secondo capitolo mette in evidenza l’impatto che la composizione del consiglio di amministrazione ha sulla comunicazione volontaria riguardante i prodotti in sviluppo delle imprese biotech statunitense in presenza di alti costi di proprietà e di agenzia che li caratterizzano. Per analizzare come il board composition impattano sulla comunicazione volontaria, la ricerca distingue i componenti del consiglio di amministrazione in base al background e alle precedenti esperienze lavorative in tre categorie: a) business experts, sono gli amministratori esecutivi le cui competenze sono legate al processo decisionale; b) support specialists, si riferiscono ai esperti in ambiti specifici come finanza, diritto, ricerca e sviluppo, amministrazione e controllo; c) community influentials, si tratta di politici, membri di organizzazioni non profit che portano”knowledge, experience and linkages relevant to firm’s external environment” [Baron, 1985]. La classificazione proposta, basata sul ruolo potenziale dei singoli amministratori all’interno del consiglio di amministrazione amplia l’attenzione sulle funzioni che il consiglio di amministrazione riveste, prendendo un passo avanti rispetto alla maggior parte dei studi esistenti, e centrandosi non solo sul ruolo di monitoraggio ma anche sul potenziale contributo al processo decisionale strategico. Per ciascuna azienda biotech si è proceduto alla classificazione degli amministratori nelle tre categorie in precedenza presentate. Sono stata analizzate le biografie di ciascun amministratore dal documento DEF 14-A. La verifica empirica si è svolta considerando che la comunicazione volontaria – usando l’indice di voluntary disclosure costruito dal Guo et.al. (2004) – è una funzione della struttura di governance misurata come composizione del consiglio di amministrazione, usando il approccio proposto da Hillman et.al. (2000) e Baysinger and Butler (1985), descritta prima. I risultati ottenuti mettono in risalto il ruolo strategico che il board rinveste e inoltre conferma come la composizione del board in termini di competenze influenza la sua capacità di monitoraggio e quindi riduca, i costi di monitoraggio che la società deve sostenere. In particolare, si evidenzia come diversi membri del consiglio di amministrazione, quale support specialists and community influentials esercitano un ruolo diverso sulla voluntary disclosure. In generale, i support specialists tendono a favorire un incremento della disclosure. Al contrario, i comunity influentials votano per una “vague” disclosure, però tendono a fornire le informazioni prima. Questo ultimo risultato può essere dovuto al desiderio da parte dei community influentials di proteggere la loro reputazione alle spese dei shareholders. In conclusione, la ricerca condotta ha evidenziato come il problema della composizione del board deve essere affrontata superando la tradizionale classificazione degli amministratori in esecutivi e indipendenti. In tale ambito, assume una maggiore rilevanza il background, le competenze, e i legami degli amministratori. In fine, il presente lavoro porta in attenzione importante implicazioni per i corporate governance standard setters, che dovrebbero mostrare una maggiore attenzione e considerare il ruolo di ciascun membro al interno del consiglio di amministrazione nel specificare le varie direttive. L’ultimo capitolo della tesi tratta il ruolo che la governance e la voluntary disclosure hanno nell’influire le previsioni degli analisti, analizzate principalmente in un contesto statunitense delle aziende biotech. L’attenzione del ricerca è volta innanzitutto ad analizzare il ruolo che la board composition e le modalità con cui le società forniscono le informazioni, e successivamente come tali informazioni vengono interpretate dagli analisti finanziari nel produrre stime dei risultati aziendali (EPS). Oggetto di analisi sono le proprietà delle previsioni degli analisti, come la forecast accuracy, forecast dispersion, precision of public information, precision of private information (Barron et.al. 1998, 2002), usando, nominate più semplicemente information environment. Il framework utilizzato per la misurazione della disclosure è quello proposto da Guo et.al. (2004) che ci ha permesso anche di costruire un indice di consistenza della disclosure nel tempo. Questo ultimo viene calcolato come la differenza tra la voluntary disclosure nell’anno t meno la voluntary disclosure nell’anno (t-1) diviso la disclosure al tempo (t-1). Tutte le informazioni riguardante la comunicazione volontaria dei prodotti in sviluppo che le aziende biotech hanno nel portafoglio sono hand-collected usando come fonte il 10-K form, che deve essere predisposto da ciascuna società quaotata al New York Stock Exchange e depositato presso la SEC. Questo ci ha permesso di creare un database unico. Per quanto riguarda la corporate governance - board composition abbiamo presso in con il profilo degli singoli membri del consiglio di amministrazione in termini di background e competenze

This dissertation investigates the effect of complementarity in the private provision of public goods. The inclusion of complementarity in contributions transforms the classic voluntary contribution mechanism into a coordination game, in which we are able to study how different behavioral types interact. The first chapter generalizes the linear voluntary contribution mechanism case by allowing agents' contributions to be complements in production. When complementarity is sufficiently high, an additional full-contribution equilibrium emerges. We experimentally investigate subjects' behavior using a between-subject design that varies complementarity. When two equilibria exist, subjects tend to coordinate on contributions close to the efficient equilibrium. When complementarity is sizable but only a zero-contribution selfish-equilibrium exists, subjects persistently contribute above it. Observed choices and other nonchoice data indicate heterogeneity among subjects and two distinct types. Homo pecuniarius maximizes profits by best responding to beliefs, while Homo behavioralis identifies this strategy but chooses to deviate from it, sacrificing pecuniary rewards to support altruism or competitiveness. The second chapter studies the effect of introducing thresholds on equilibrium selection in the voluntary contribution mechanism with complementarity (VCMC). The introduction of thresholds expands the basin of attraction of the socially inefficient equilibrium by raising the minimum group output necessary for a positive return from cooperation. If contributions are not sufficient to generate the minimum output, the social return is zero. The data suggest that the introduction of thresholds does not alter the equilibrium selection or the pattern of contribution dynamics. Individuals are still able to coordinate on the socially preferable outcome. The third chapter examines experimentally the effect of displaying feedback about the income of other group members on the evolution of contributions in the VCMC. The results show that the degree of coordination responds to the way information about outcomes is made available to subjects. Emphasis on income differences can be detrimental from a social perspective and may result in the unraveling of cooperation.
Arts, Faculty of
Vancouver School of Economics
Graduate

This thesis presents an archaeological, historical, and ethnohistorical study of the nineteenth-century BaPhuthi, a peripatetic, horticulturist chiefdom with a political economy premised upon cattle raiding and active in southern Africa's Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains. The BaPhuthi appear as a valuable case study for exploring how 'tribes' and cultural identities (particularly when rooted in subsistence strategies) are historically and archaeologically constructed. Firstly, the thesis explores how eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sociocultural taxonomies were crafted by colonists and colonial subjects alike, with ethnonyms acting as ciphers for political and economic behaviours and locational traits rather than emic identifications. The BaPhuthi's choice to combine traits of hierarchical chiefdoms with pronounced mobility and heterodox, 'outlaw' activities (i.e. voluntarily becoming barbarians) confounded these taxa, as the BaPhuthi failed to conform to expectations of forager, farmer, chiefly, or 'savage' behaviour, rendering them historically marginal or invisible. The thesis thus employs a range of archival evidence to reconstruct BaPhuthi lifeways and historical trajectories. The BaPhuthi emerged and thrived in the borderlands between Moshoeshoe I's Basotho state, the eastern Cape Colony, and the Orange Free State: they exploited the ambiguities of colonial authority to build an extensive network of alliances premised upon cattle raiding, aided by their ability to turn the inhospitable terrain of the Maloti-Drakensberg to their advantage. This analysis illuminates the BaPhuthi as a culturally hybrid, ethnogenetic polity that attracted and discharged a disparate following as needed, while maintaining a degree of solidarity and chiefly hierarchy. The thesis details the BaPhuthi's peripatetic settlement strategy: BaPhuthi leaders established multiple dispersed political seats throughout their territories south of the Senqu River, which they would frequently activate and deactivate, enabling them to settle their heterogeneous following within their territories. The thesis then explores archaeological corollaries of BaPhuthi lifeways: historical analysis suggests that the BaPhuthi's archaeological footprint would be ephemeral (despite their polity's regional significance), and archaeological approaches to Iron Age Farming Communities (based in the historical identities described above) currently do not fully accommodate polities such as the BaPhuthi. The thesis discusses a methodology designed to address the archaeology of the BaPhuthi polity and its results. Considering how the BaPhuthi fashioned a diverse, heterodox chiefdom that manipulated the ambiguities of colonial rule encourages re-visiting prevailing conceptions of how cultural identities and economies are rooted in contingent historical circumstances; drawing on comparative cases from North and South America suggests revising longstanding views of the Maloti-Drakensberg as a marginal colonial theatre and re-positioning heterodox actors as capable of influencing the terms of colonial encounters.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1986.
MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH
Bibliography: leaves 75-82.
by Carol Ann Lurie.
M.C.P.

The primary purpose of the study is to investigate the main reasons why real estate brokers voluntarily choose to de-‐egister themselves after a short time in the profession and to come up with suggestions in order to prevent it. The sudy entails both a quantitative and a qualitative method. The first was conducted  hrough a survey to gather information about de--‐registrations throughout the last three years. The qualitative method  was  applied to reinforce the quantitative survey. This was conducted through interviewing people in the industry. In total, 58  de--‐registrated real estate brokers and  six people from the industry participated in the study. Of the 58 who participated in the survey, 81% were women and the remaining 19% men. 97% of participants were less than 30 years old. All were operating as a real estate agent in less than five years. One cannot claim that the deregistration is due to only  one reason,   the motives for  cancellation can be many. However, the tree main reasons are the following; working hours and availability, the salary structure and the pressure and the stress that these factors contribute to. The survey also shows that contributing factors are false expectations about the profession and partly a lack of information from the institutions. Finally, the experience is that there is a gap between the theoretical school and the practical profession. The conclusion of the research is that the internship that is compulsory to do in order to be able to work as a broker should be implemented as an educational requirement, preferably in the beginning  of the educational program. Moreover, in order to retain skilled labour, the industry has to improve the working conditions. We believe that the industry winners in the long run will be the companies who focuses on flexibility and differentiated working methods regarding salary and ways of working. In the end of the study it is discussed whether a potential change in the Swedish law, adjusting the work of real estate brokers, would reduce the stress and the pressure about the availability due to the brokers.
Syftet med studien är att utreda de huvudsakliga orsakerna till att många fastighetsmäklare frivilligt väljer att avregistrera sig efter en kort tid som verksamma inom yrket och komma med förslag på vad som kan göras för att motverka detta. I rbetet har en kvantitativ och en kvalitativ metod tillämpats. Den förstnämnda i form av en enkätundersökning för att samla in information om avregistreringar under de senaste tre åren. Den kvalitativa metoden har tillämpats för att fördjupa den kvantitativa undersökningen. Detta i form av intervjuer med verksamma personer i branschen. Sammanlagt deltog 58 avregistrerade fastighetsmäklare och sex personer i branschen i studien. Av de 58 personer som deltog i undersökningen var 81 % kvinnor och resterande 19 % män. Av dessa  var     97 % under 30 år och samtliga verksamma som fastighetsmäklare mindre än fem år. Det går inte att säga att avregistreringarna beror av en anledning utan skälen till en  avregistrering kan vara många. De tre huvudsakliga skälen är arbetstiderna och tillgängligheten, lönestrukturen och den press och stress de här faktorerna bidrar till. Undersökningen visar att felaktiga förväntningar på yrket och en till viss del bristande information från lärosätena är bidragande faktorer.  Slutligen upplevs ett gap mellan skolbänk och yrke som till stor del beror av en teoretisk utbildning inför ett praktiskt yrke. Vi har därför kommit fram till att praktiken som krävs för att kunna arbeta som fastighetsmäklare bör implementeras som ett utbildningskrav, gärna i början på utbildningen. Från branschens sida krävs förbättrade anställningsvillkor för att behålla kompetent arbetskraft. De företag som läggerfokus på flexibilitet och valmöjlighet angående ersättningsmodeller och arbetssätt tror vi kommer vara de stora vinnarna i längden. Mot slutet av arbetet diskuteras om en lagändring i fastighetsmäklarlagen skulle vara aktuell för att minska ansvaret på den enskilda fastighetsmäklaren för att reducera stressen och pressen på tillgänglighet.

Magíster en Economía Aplicada
Ingeniero Civil Industrial
En este trabajo comparamos la eficiencia de la votación por mayoría con producción endógena de información, tanto permitiendo como no permitiendo la abstención por parte de los votantes. Estudiamos elecciones en donde existe incerteza con respecto a cuál es el mejor candidato, aunque los votantes pueden adquirir información sobre sus alternativas a un costo. Analizamos esto bajo dos instituciones muy distintas, votación voluntaria y obligatoria, y encontramos que bajo ambas los votantes prácticamente no se informan. Sin embargo, bajo ciertas condiciones la información se agrega completamente y el mejor candidato es elegido. Encontramos que esta agregación de información es mayor bajo votación voluntaria y que, por lo tanto, ésta domina a la votación obligatoria.

The belief that Scotland showed undue patriotism by providing a high proportion of volunteers in 1914-16 needs to be looked at in a new light. While the New Armies of 1914-16 may have been volunteer in concept, they were not volunteer in actuality, and, while there was no doubt a proportion of men in Scotland, as elsewhere in the British Empire, who were prepared to come forward for purely altruistic or 'patriotic' ideals, the majority enlisted for more practical or realistic reasons. External forces either pushed or pulled those men and enticed or forced them to enlist. Previous analyses have been primarily top down. We know how many men served, and with what units, but not why. This thesis is an investigation of Scottish recruitment from the bottom up, to determine whether or not those who enlisted came from any particular section of Scottish society. This investigates and explains the driving forces behind voluntary recruitment in Scotland, August 1914 - December 1915, its methods, course taken, and its impact on the country as a whole.

Voluntary simplicity is a cultural movement constructed around overt expressions of individualism in response to the excesses of ‘consumer society’. As the term also suggests, its general public recognition as a critical force against over-consumption appeals to a ‘moral good’. This has turned voluntary simplicity into a socially reflective movement which often appeals to ‘community’ and the social norms of collective action. This thesis explores historical developments in the theories of individualism and communitarianism which have influenced understandings of what constitutes a ‘voluntary simplifier’. The author contends that Ronald Inglehart’s (1977) theory of ‘postmaterialism’, the seminal theory underpinning voluntary simplicity, was quickly transformed into a concept which connoted various individual and social ‘goods’. This became a source of criticism for communitarian critics of consumerism, who associated this development with self-interest, further moral decline and a growing “culture of narcissism”. This is at odds with more recent theorists who view individualism in more pragmatic ways. Paul Lichterman’s (1996) notion of a “culture of personalism” and Clive Hamilton’s (2008) appeal to a kind of philosophical individualism have proven to be more compelling to both voluntary simplifiers and ‘self-help’ authors. This has not been a universally positive development, however. An examination of the “Simple Living Forums” within the thesis reveals a strong sense of modesty and commitment to pluralism amongst voluntary simplifiers, which reflects both an affirmation and a denial of self. Voluntary simplicity continues to lack adequate framing processes which are essential for maintaining a social movement. The thesis therefore concludes that voluntary simplicity is, ironically, associated with the excesses of consumer society and alienation from democratic processes. Because elements of consumer society have become part of the processes of late-capitalism, voluntary simplicity remains trapped between its critical centre and a culture of self-interest and insignificance.

Social researchers have independently investigated behaviors in voluntary association membership and participation in outdoor recreation activities. A small amount of scholarly work has theorized a link between activity in voluntary associations and recreation behavior. These studies have concentrated on the associational affiliations of outdoor recreationists, and their concern for the environment. The purpose of this study was to determine if differences exist between outdoor recreationists who are members of environmental/outdoor recreation voluntary associations, and those who are nonmembers. Organizational membership was designated as the dependent variable. Independent variables were designed to assess (1) incentives for voluntary association membership, (2) motivations for participation in outdoor recreation activities, (3) environmental concern, and (4) social class. A random sample of outdoor recreationists was drawn from the California membership of a large recreational equipment cooperative (R.E.I. Co-op). Data were collected by mail survey. Of the 1500 questionnaires sent, thirty-four were undeliverable, and 1085 were returned for a response rate of 74.0 percent. The sample reflected a substantially higher organizational membership level than the general population with a forty percent membership rate. Members were differentiated from nonmembers by significantly higher ratings on (1) instrumental incentives (public goods) for membership in voluntary associations, (2) intellectual motivations for participation in outdoor recreation, (3) environmental concern, and (4) age and education level. A discriminant function analysis identified instrumental incentives as the most powerful predictor of organizational membership. Results indicated public goods are a primary incentive for outdoor recreationists to join voluntary associations. This suggests a need to re-define instrumental benefits in light of the personal values associated with them. A common thread of intellectual pursuit distinguished members from nonmembers. Intellectual motivations for outdoor recreation, education level, age and environmental concern provided evidence that members are somewhat more oriented toward intellectual development, suggesting that environmental and outdoor recreation-related voluntary associations might benefit from focusing on the educational benefits of membership, and directing promotional communications through channels used by outdoor recreationists. Given the findings of a strong relationship between outdoor recreation and voluntary association membership, further scholarly work should concentrate on the instrumental and intellectual benefits of both behaviors to promote understanding of their synergy.

The high costs associated with turnover and the loss of skilled employees have a significant adverse effect on organizational performance. The loss of one skilled worker can cost 25-500% of an employee's salary with respect to replacement, training, and productivity. The purpose of this descriptive multiple case study was to explore strategies for frontline managers and human resource managers to reduce voluntary employee turnover. The sample consisted of 5 frontline supervisors and 6 human resource leaders with successful experience designing and implementing strategies to reduce voluntary employee turnover in 8 organizations in Orange County, Florida. The conceptual framework for this study was the competing values framework, which researchers have used to explore turnover in different settings. Methodological triangulation occurred from individual interviews, a focus group, and companies' documents. Interview data were analyzed using the modified van Kaam method and the constant comparative method. Analysis resulted in 4 themes (a) knowledge of your workforce, including what motivates your employees; (b) communication, including addressing communication barriers; (c) employee engagement, including leadership development; and (d) performance evaluations, including using a 360-degree feedback system. Social change implications include the potential to help human resource leaders align employee values with the organizational culture, thus increasing job satisfaction and decreasing voluntary employee turnover, which may contribute to lowering unemployment and minimizing the need for social services due to the loss of income.

Obiettivo della tesi è illustrare le modalità di rientro dei capitali dall'estero attraverso la collaborazione volontaria, in modo particolare evidenziando sia gli aspetti positivi che quelli negativi che la caratterizzano e i dubbi che sono sorti nella sua messa in atto.

The South African White Paper for Social Welfare (1997:58) acknowledges the importance to children of living in a secure and nurturing family. Nevertheless, many families are unable to fulfil their parenting roles as a result of the increasing pressures in society. One of these pressures concerns the employment of parents. There is an increasing tendency for people to relocate to bigger cities where there are more job opportunities. This then results in many children being left in the care of grandparents or other relatives while the biological parents pursue job opportunities in other cities. The aim of this study was to enhance an understanding of children’s experiences of these voluntary parental absences and the factors that contribute to their resilience during this process. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual design was employed and seven primary school children (10-12 years) from Port Elizabeth participated in semi-structured interviews including drawings. Trustworthiness was ensured and data analysis was conducted by using Tesch’s model (in Creswell, 1998). Four themes were derived from the study: Children’s perception of a family, where the participants defined family according to characteristics of (amongst others) care and love; Children’s experiences of living with a substitute family, where there was a process of detachment from biological parents, attachment to the substitute family and present experiences in the new family; Resilience in children, where the participants revealed their ways of coping; and, lastly, Suggestions from the participants on how other children in the same situation could cope.

The purposes of this study were twofold. The first was to construct a modified model of the voluntary turnover process that clarifies the antecedents of turnover intentions and turnover behavior. The second was to investigate empirically the proposed model's validity by assessing the influences of nine variables of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job search, intention to stay in the organization, and six demographic variables as potential predictors of employee voluntary turnover.

This thesis examines the issue of child protection policy in voluntary sector organisations. More particularly it examines policies concerned with protecting children from child sexual abuse, within the Church of England and British voluntary sector sport over a period in the mid-1990s. Using a poststructuralist theory, specifically Actor Network Theory (ANT) this thesis explores child protection policy and discussion through case studies in the contexts of one Church of England diocese and seven voluntary sector sport organisations, utilising semistructured interviews and documentary analysis. It is suggested that the Church of England and British voluntary sector sport have common discursive 'frames', through the historical incorporation of Christian discourses into the beginnings of modem sport in the 19th Century English Public Schools, that support sexual violence against women and children and which provide legitimate identities for abusers. This cultural support for abuse, combined with similar incoherence in the organisational structures in both the Church of England and British voluntary sector sport organisations, is identified as preventing the effective dissemination of child protection policy, where such existed. The major difference between the two areas is identified as the focus within sport organisations on an 'organisational body project' by which organisational aims are achieved. This focus on the body in sport, it is argued, provides increased access and opportunities for abuse by those, like coaches, who most immediately manage the 'organisational body project'.

The governance of Australian nonprofit voluntary sport organisations (VSOs) was once almost the exclusive domain of volunteers. However, changes in government policy and funding levels in recent years has led to the introduction of professional staff in these organisations. Rapid changes to the political, social and economic environment have created new complexities with which VSOs and their governing boards must grapple. Boards act as the main decision making body for these organisations, and as such have a significant impact on the governance of these organisations, and therefore their ability to deliver services. While the process of professionalisation within VSOs has been well documented, very little research has examined factors that may influence the ability of the boards of VSOs to perform effectively. The fields of nonprofit governance and sport management provided a theoretical and conceptual framework for the investigation of the board performance of VSOs. Two broad themes concerning research into board performance were identified in the nonprofit literature; the structural characteristics of the board, and board-executive relations. These two themes have also been addressed to a limited extent within the sport management literature, but not in relation to board performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between board performance, board structures and board-executive relations in Australian VSOs. The study investigated the differences in board structure between effective and ineffective boards, and the relationship between board performance and various elements of board structure, specifically complexity, formalisation and centralisation. The differences in the nature of board-executive relations between effective and ineffective boards, and the relationship of board performance to board-executive relations were also investigated. The sampling frame for the study was state governing bodies of sport in the state of Victoria, Australia. Seven case organisations were identified by a panel of experts; four exhibiting effective board performance and three exhibiting ineffective board performance. Data were collected through structured interviews with executives, from an examination of board documents, from a self-administered questionnaire of executives, board chairs and board members, and through semi-structured interviews with executives, board chairs and board members. Data were collected on board performance, the complexity, formalisation and centralisation of the boards, power patterns within the boards, and the nature of board-executive relations. Data analysis involved both quantitative and qualitative techniques. It was concluded that effective board performance was related to a higher level of board centralisation and associated with a higher level of board formalisation. Board performance was not related to board complexity. Board power patterns that were perceived to be powerless or fragmented were related to lower levels of board performance. Elements of the board-executive relationship that were related to effective board performance were identified as establishing trust between the board and executive, the control of information by the executive, shared board leadership and the responsibility for board performance. Importantly, the study identified the central role executives have in determining the ability of VSO boards to perform effectively. The study contributed to the body of knowledge concerning the governance of VSOs, specifically the measurement of board performance, and the investigation of its relationship with board structure and board-executive relations. A number of questions were advanced for the development of theory and empirical investigation through further research. The study also extended what is known about the models of nonprofit governance and their utility in explaining the workings of VSO boards. The findings of this study suggest that there is a need to adapt such models to the organisational context of member-based organisations such as VSOs.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2007.
Thesis Advisor(s): Thomas J. Mackin, Nadav Morag. "March 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-79). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Business Administration)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2007.
Thesis Advisor(s): Stephen Mehay, Raymond Franck. "March 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-104). Also available in print.

This study estimated the association between aggressive behavior and two different types of emotion regulation, one operating on the conscious level with voluntary effort (i.e., suppression) and the other operating on the unconscious level with involuntary effort, or automatically (i.e., repression). Results from a correlation analysis among self-assessed suppression and repression and other-rated aggressive behavior showed that repression is more significantly linked to aggressive behavior than suppression. Further investigation using physiological and neural assessments was performed to determine the critical properties, including cardiac reactivity and neural substrates, of repression related to aggressive behavior. Based on the findings from multiple approaches in assessment, this study suggests that unconscious emotion change inferred from self-assessed repression (in Study 1) and neural activity (in Study 2) more significantly predicts aggressive behavior than personality. Implications for both aggression and emotion research are discussed along with the measurement equivalence issue.

This thesis seeks to understand how social capital develops within voluntary sports clubs. It adopts a micro-perspective to examine how social capital, defined as ‘the ability to secure resources by virtue of membership in social networks or larger social structures’ (Portes and Landolt, 2000: 532), emerges from social interaction within voluntary sports club contexts. The thesis is informed by a critical realist perspective that focuses on the underlying social mechanisms involved and how they operate differently for different groups and individuals in different circumstances. The empirical analysis, which represents the main contribution of the thesis, is based on three case studies of voluntary sports clubs in the UK. These case studies were carried out over 18 months and involved a number of in-depth interviews with members and organisers and periods of observation at each of the clubs. The analysis shows that members accessed a range of resources through the social ties they formed at the clubs. Interestingly, the analysis demonstrates that, as well as forming strong and weak ties, as standard network models would predict, members formed ‘compartmentally intimate’ ties at the clubs: strong ties that were domain-specific. The analysis reveals that several core mechanisms – reciprocity exchanges, enforceable trust, value introjection and bounded solidarity – operated at the clubs to develop social capital for members, but that these mechanisms were influenced in multiple ways by various elements of context. In particular, the analysis focuses on the socio-organisational context of the clubs and identifies several key elements, including the nature of the focal activity, the voluntariness of participation, the co-operative nature of engagement, the relative absence of hierarchy and the diversity of membership. Overall, the thesis provides support for an organisationally embedded view of social capital development and offers a rare example of critical realist research on social capital.

Humans interact with the world through voluntary, goal-directed action. A phenomenal corollary of this capacity is the sense of agency. This refers to the conscious experience one has of one's own agency; the sense in which actions and their results are caused or controlled by one's ‘Self’. Recent accounts have tended to emphasise either the role of efferent processes within the motor system or the role of general-purpose inferential mechanisms in the sense of agency. In this thesis these different accounts of agency, and their neural substrates, were systematically investigated. It was found that the sense of agency is best understood as a combination of both mechanisms. Several factors selectively influencing the two mechanisms were identified across a series of behavioural experiments in healthy volunteers. Physiological experiments confirmed the efferent contribution to the sense of agency, and identified it with the pre-supplementary motor area. The importance of the sense of agency to normal human functioning can be seen in certain disorders. Abnormal sense of agency profoundly impacts the overall sense of self and also social functioning. This thesis investigated the sense of agency in Schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease. Abnormalities in the sense-of agency were found in both clinical groups, and these abnormalities were explained by known pathophysiology and cognitive impairments in these groups.

A large body of research has investigated the effects of religion on individual behavior and, more recently, the collective performance of societies. Religion is predominantly credited with favorable outcomes, such as pro-social behavior, better health and higher life satisfaction. Religious and non-religious individuals also differ in their values and preferences. Moreover, religious institutions such as churches also have a large direct effect on society by being an employer or a social welfare provider. Against this background, the constant decline in church membership rates in Germany since the late 1960s is an economically relevant phenomenon. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the economic causes and consequences of church disaffiliation, from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. Based on an extensive literature review of models of religious consumption choices I conclude that most of the previous work does not pay sufficient attention to the institutional framework of church membership and church financing in Europe. I develop a theoretical model in which I analyze an individual’s decisions on church membership and on voluntary giving to religious and secular organizations against the institutional backgrounds of the German church tax system and the Italian tax assignment system. The model predicts that in a church tax system individuals with a higher income and those who have to pay a higher church tax rate are more likely to disaffiliate from the church. In contrast, in a tax assignment system cost-benefit considerations of church membership should not take place. Furthermore, the model shows that church and assignment taxes can crowd out voluntary giving to religious and non-religious purposes. In the empirical part of the dissertation I focus on the case of Germany, testing the hypotheses derived from the theoretical discussion with the help of the German Taxpayer Panel for the years 2001 to 2006. The main research question in the first empirical chapter is whether the institutional framework in the form of the existing church tax regulations has a statistically significant effect on the decision to leave the church. The hypothesis is that ceteris paribus an increase in the price of church membership increases the probability that an individual disaffiliates from the church. The estimation results show that both the price of church membership in the first year of the observation period and the change in price experienced by the individual have a significant positive, but moderate effect on the probability of church disaffiliation. In the second empirical part of the dissertation I ask if church members and non-members differ in their voluntary giving and if the giving behavior changes from before to after disaffiliation. I distinguish between the decision whether to make a contribution at all and the decision how much to give. The results imply that church members are not less, but rather more likely to make a charitable contribution than non-members. However, I do find that the average amount given by church members is below the amount given by non-members. This finding suggests that church taxes and additional voluntary donations might be substitutes at the intensive margin. With respect to church disaffiliation, I find evidence that giving is moderately higher after individuals have left the church than before. However, results are inconsistent in whether the increase is due to a higher inclination to give, a higher amount given by those who make a contribution, or both.

The paper examines the extent to which the prestige value of a retiree’s former occupation increases the likelihood that they will make a transition into volunteering after retirement. Following social production function theory, we assume that when a person retires, the prestige value attached to their former occupation fades. The fact that volunteering has the character of a collective good provides the opportunity to gain social prestige to offset the loss of occupational prestige. However, the extent of the incentive to volunteer will be distributed unequally across occupations: the higher the former occupational prestige value, the higher the perceived loss of prestige after retirement. Thus, doing a job with high prestige value increases the incentive to volunteer in retirement. This assumption is tested, using data taken from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) 1992-2013. The sample contains 1,631 workers and 589 retirees, 278 of whom transitioned into volunteering during the observation window. Based on Kaplan-Meier-Failure-Estimates and complementary log-log hazard models, findings show a positive effect of occupational prestige on the transition into volunteering. Thus, the loss of high occupational prestige can be compensated by the social prestige associated with volunteering. Formal volunteering in retirement follows, albeit to a lesser extent, the logic of the occupational social strata.

This thesis concerns the impact of purchase of service contracts on voluntary sector providers of social care. Voluntary agencies in Britain have traditionally received annual grant-aid from local authority social services departments in acknowledgement of the many different care and support services they have provided to the community. However, following the reorganisation of the personal social services in the early 1990s (National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990), this funding mechanism shifted increasingly towards a tighter, contractual, relationship in which expectations about service levels, monitoring arrangements, quality and costs were made explicit and formally agreed. This changes the way in which voluntary sector providers have to work, their relationship with statutory sector agencies and their interface with the wider community. Whilst interest in social care contracting is growing, policy analysts have done little to qualitatively study the contracting process from the voluntary sector perspective. This study aims to bridge this gap. It offers a close examination of twenty-three voluntary sector agencies in four local authorities in England. It sheds light on the impact of replacing grant-aid with contractual income, contributes to the understanding of how voluntary sector providers of social care services experience the contracting process and explores how the local authority-voluntary sector interface is developing. Understanding the voluntary sector perspective on social care contracting can assist statutory sector purchasers to develop systems that best meet both sectors' needs. Prominent amongst the findings are the following: (1) despite the introduction of a 'quasi-market' in social care there was little evidence of a competitive market for contracts between voluntary sector providers; (2) local authorities were inclined to offer service agreements to recognised and trusted voluntary sector providers; (3) the language and legal status of social care contracting is regarded as ambiguous by voluntary managers - different local authorities have adopted distinct language and definitions; (4) the notion that voluntary providers are the preferred providers of local authorities was questioned by a number of statutory sector respondents - there was evidence that statutory sector purchasers were willing to make use of the for profit sector for service provision; (5) whilst some voluntary providers had been able to negotiate successful contracts with purchasers many commented on the conflictual nature of this process; (6) the monitoring of contracts is very mixed and there were concerns over the robustness of local authorities in collecting relevant data.

1. Bogomolova S.N. Individual susceptibility to danger. Psychological and ergonomic questions of safety of activity. Abstracts of reports. Tallinn: Tartu, 1986, pp. 169 - 171. 2. Bykova S.V. Risk-taking as a stable feature of personality. International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2016, vol. 1. no. 1, pp. 157-160. 3. Vdovychenko O.V. Psychodiagnostics of tolerance for risk in various spheres of life. Psychology Bulletin of Kharkiv National Pedagogical University named after G.S. Skovoroda. 2017, Ed. 55. pp. 328-337. Psychology Bulletin. Kh.: KhNPU, 2015, Ed. 50, pp. 80-100. 4. Ivannikov V.A. Psychological mechanisms of volitional regulation (2nd ed.). M.: URAO, 1998, pp. 101-135. Scientific Supervisor: Hirchuk O.V., Senior Lecturer
The professional activity of psychologists establishes certain requirements on the volitional regulation of specialists in this sphere, in particular on self-control, endurance and initiative. Meanwhile, psychologists also have certain occupational risks in their work directly affecting their effectiveness and productivity. The use of the term "volitional regulation" is likened to the image of "will power." In scientific works, the specific content of volitional regulation is interpreted in various ways: volitional regulation in works by W. James is interpreted as a mechanism for constructing behavior along the line of the greatest resistance; L. Vygotskyi defines the regulation of human behavior as the global function of the will. Thus, it is possible to conclude that volitional regulation of behavior is a special kind of mental regulation of behavior, consisting of the assimilation of signals from the external and internal environment

There is increasing evidence that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are the major cause for global warming. A changing external environment and societal pressure is driving companies to respond to climate change and to limit further contribution where possible. Despite carbon emissions still being largely unregulated and carbon disclosure not being mandatory, many companies in South Africa have voluntarily decided to reduce emissions and make disclosures to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Institutional, socio-political and economic voluntary disclosure theories all indicate that there is a pressure for companies to monitor their climate mitigation, evaluate the costs of disclosing and manage stakeholders’ pressures by producing voluntary climate change disclosure. The CDP scores the disclosure made by each company as a measure of the company’s progress towards environmental stewardship. The highest CDP score indicates that a company has leadership in its efforts to environmental stewardship and so addressed stakeholders’ concerns. This study aims to determine which factors, either company specific or individual company responses within the CDP questionnaire, influence a high CDP climate change score for South African companies. The top 100 South African companies were selected using a full Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listing as at 31 March 2017 and the climate change programme score and individual company responses to the climate change questionnaire were obtained from the CDP for the five-year period from 2013 to 2017. A random effect model was used to examine the determinants of voluntary disclosure of carbon information. The results indicate that while CDP scores have improved post the signing of the Paris Agreement in December 2015, providing incentives for managing climate change has also led to improvements in the CDP score which results in improved climate change disclosure. Furthermore, the longer the company assesses climate change risks and opportunities into the future, the better its CDP score. This research contributes a more thorough understanding of disclosure theories, as established from these results. In terms of institutional theories, institutional investors should call for incentives to motivate for climate change management because companies might then be more likely to receive a better CDP score. In terms of socio-political theories, this study’s findings indicate that managers should be made aware that the further into the future they consider climate change risk management the better because this practice will result in the company obtaining an improved CDP score, while simultaneously managing stakeholders’ perceptions of the company. Additionally, this study contributes by making recommendations for companies and policy makers.

Voluntary environmental initiatives (VEIs) promise to provide firms and facilities additional flexibility and motivation in managing their environmental affairs in part by reducing compliance and enforcement costs and improving their public image. As a result, since 1990, over 13,000 organizations have participated in more than 100 US and international VEIs. In order for these initiatives to be successful, they need to be implemented following good practice guidelines, reliable enforcement mechanisms, appropriate monitoring, reporting, transparency, and public information availability. All of these activities may be contingent on high levels of stakeholder participation. Little is known, however, about how different stakeholders have been involved in the development of these programs and how this participation varies for different types of VEIs. By conducting an Internet based survey to 63 VEI managers, this research examines the diversity and intensity of stakeholder participation in the design and implementation of VEIs relative to sponsorship. This study concluded that VEIs developed by a partnership between different organizations had the largest number of different types of stakeholders involved. Yet, industry and government sponsored initiatives had a number of different types of participants very close to what occurred in the design of partnership VEIs. Third-party initiatives had the lowest diversity of participants involved in the design of their programs. This pattern illustrates that the VEI sponsors traditionally more susceptible to criticism in terms of credibility are the ones more concerned with stakeholder involvement in the development of their initiatives. As for the role of specific stakeholders, it was observed that government sponsored VEIs had a higher degree of involvement from industry associations than from any other stakeholder. Even if the degree of involvement by non-profit organizations was not considerably lower than by industry associations, the existing difference supports the critique that government VEIs are generally developed in a tighter cooperation with the private sector and sometimes without the collaboration of the civil society. As for third-party initiatives, it was observed that the industry sector had a higher degree of involvement than the government.
Master of Urban and Regional Planning