Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 1

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 1

Sustainability in design: now! Challenges and opportunities for design research, education and practice in the XXI century

Copyright @ 2010 Greenleaf PublicationsLeNS project funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropeAid, European Commission

Frontline Healthcare Employees: Perspectives on Learning to Use Emotional Intelligence Strategies to Cope with Workplace Stress

Nonclinical frontline employees (FLE) work in a complex role that provides critical administrative support to healthcare organizations and they are extremely vulnerable to workplace stress. These employees frequently encounter challenging situations and routinely interact and serve many demanding customers. The purpose of this exploratory study was to understand how FLEs have learned the abilities they utilized to cope with workplace stress and how these relate to emotional intelligence. Utilizing a comprehensive survey; comprised of a demographic questionnaire, three assessment instruments (PSS, Brief COPE and SSEIT), a critical incident series and individual interviews, this study sought to understand the learned strategies acquired through personal and professional experiences and how those experiences impacted coping tendencies. FLEs were found to perceive high self efficacy and routinely regulated emotions in an effort to manage stress. Employees also adeptly managed routine conflict and impromptu difficult interactions. Formal, Nonformal and informal learning were pivotal to cultivating the strategies utilized in the workplace. Despite unpredictable stress levels, role ambiguity and the desire for stress management training, FLEs were optimistic, demonstrated the ability to use emotional intelligence and coped relatively well in the workplace

Dostoevsky beyond Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky beyond Dostoevsky is a collection of essays with a broad interdisciplinary focus. It includes contributions by leading Dostoevsky scholars, social scientists, scholars of religion and philosophy. The volume considers aesthetics, philosophy, theology, and science of the 19th century Russia and the West that might have informed Dostoevsky’s thought and art. Issues such as evolutionary theory and literature, science and society, scientific and theological components of comparative intellectual history, and aesthetic debates of the nineteenth century Russia form the core of the intellectual framework of this book. Dostoevsky’s oeuvre with its wide-ranging interests and engagement with philosophical, religious, political, economic, and scientific discourses of his time emerges as a particularly important case for the study of cross-fertilization among disciplines

A Study of Warfare Theodicy in the Writings of Ellen G. White and Gregory A. Boyd

The problem of evil has been an issue for all religions over the centuries. But it is a crucial issue for theism because of its affirmation of the co-existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God and evil. Theologians and philosophical theologians have developed a plethora of materials in response to the problem. However, according to critics, none of the responses in and of themselves adequately deals with theism\u27s problem of suffering and evil. As a result, this study explores the warfare theodicy, a Christian response to the problem of sin, suffering, and evil, which seems to have been neglected by scholars for a long time. The study focuses on the writings of Ellen G. White and Gregory A. Boyd, the two foremost detailed and exhaustive presenters of the warfare theodicy in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries respectively. The goal is to assess the relationship between the two models of warfare theodicy and the plausibility of the warfare theodicy as a Christian response to the problem of suffering and evil. The approach to this study is descriptive, analytical, comparative, and evaluative. Chapter 1 provides a survey of the historical background for the problem of evil and introduces the problem, the purpose, and the methodology of the study. Chapter 2 describes three major Christian approaches to the problem of evil and scholarly critiques of these approaches, while chapters 3 and 4 analytically describe Boyd\u27s and White\u27s models of warfare theodicy, respectively. The first section of chapter 5 compares and contrasts the two models of warfare theodicy and the second section evaluates them. Chapter 6 summarizes the findings of the study and then answers the questions concerning the relationship between the two models of the warfare theodicy and their plausibility as a Christian response to the problem of evil. The study shows that the differing outlook of the authors\u27 use of science in theology leads to divergence in the two models of warfare theodicy. Therefore, to the question of the relationship between the two models, the study concludes that they may be related, but given the degree of their differences they are two distinctive warfare theodicies. Concerning the question of the viability of the warfare theodicy, the study concludes that although both models of the warfare theodicy leave some philosophical questions unanswered, the Great Controversy Theodicy is a more satisfactory Christian response to the problem of suffering and evil, and, the Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy is a less satisfactory Christian response to the problem of evil

ICT for development reconsidered: a critical realist approach to the strategic context in Kenya's transition to e-governance

This study contributes to critical information systems research understanding of the broader strategic context of information systems initiatives in developing countries. It investigates contextual influences with structural impacts that may lead to instabilities and discontinuities in the immediate project context using a critical realist paradigm. It was informed by literature on development as discourse, ICT4D policy and technology transfer, E-Government adoption, and information systems research paradigms and applications in developing countries. A disconnection was observed between ICT4D policy practice that favors positivist technology diffusion models and research findings that suggest interpretive and critical contextual approaches. A theoretical framework was developed to reconsider ICT4D from a postcolonial country perspective by integrating critiques of modernity from Critical realism and postcolonial theory. An empirical case study investigation of change in Kenya‘s transition to E-Governance was then conducted and analyzed using a critical realist research framework, the Morphogenetic approach, supplemented by Q-methodology to study subjectivity. Finally ICT change was interpreted using critical realist concepts for structure, culture, and agency, with an overriding direction towards greater freedom. The main research contribution is a new approach to ICT4D where change is conceived within a dialectical framework that assumes people are moral and ethical beings possessing values. Research findings have implications for understanding the strategic context of E-Governance and ICT4D, time and temporality in contextual integrative frameworks, and suggest an alternative approach to strategy analysis in situations of rapid political and institutional change. They highlight the importance of political leaders and development agencies as mediators and interpreters of the strategic context. Development was conceived as a dialectical process towards transformative praxis, which together with the suggested approach to the strategic context, may require us to rethink the meaning of IS project success or failure in postcolonial developing countries