Employee Engagement and Burnout: A Quantitative Study of their Correlations with Job/Organizational Satisfaction

Since Kahn introduced the concept of employee engagement in 1990, the focus on motivating employees has been en vogue in practitioner literature. The federal government as well now measures its agencies annually on how well they implement conditions conducive to engagement. Federal agencies are also ranked annually as “Best Places to Work” based on their aggregated score on three survey items deemed to represent job/organizational satisfaction. The concept of burnout, or the so-called “erosion of engagement”, however, has received significantly less attention. To begin to fill this void in the literature, secondary survey data from the 2017 Organizational Assessment Survey administered to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in San Diego, California was examined. Specifically, the focus of this study was the Headquarters (HQ)/Program Executive Office (PEO) survey, for which 870 out of 1111 military and civilian personnel responded for an overall response rate of 78%. Using factor analytic techniques on the 122 survey items, this study first identified groupings of survey items to construct a potential burnout index, and a sufficiently high Cronbach’s Alpha confirmed the internal consistency of the resultant burnout index. The study then examined demographic differences in employees’ perceptions of burnout, engagement conditions, and job/organizational satisfaction. Finally, regression analysis was used to test whether burnout moderates the relationship between engagement conditions and job/organizational satisfaction. Demographic variables such as HQ organizational code, age, tenure, and intent to leave were significant predictors. While results indicated burnout does not have a significant interaction effect with engagement conditions on job/organizational satisfaction for the overall SPAWAR HQ/PEO workforce, the moderating interaction was detected for one of its HQ organizational codes. The results of this research will help those federal agencies directed to spend time, effort and taxpayer dollars to increase employee engagement. The study’s significance lies in its potential to contribute to the understanding of burnout as a potential moderator of employee engagement

Where Angels Fear to Tread: An Analysis of Sex Differences in Self-Confidence

Paper by Sarah A. Burnet

Interviewing 'Ana': Thematic analysis of voice dialogues with the internal anorexic voice

Overview Many individuals experiencing eating disorders (EDs) describe an internal ‘eating disorder voice’ (EDV) or ‘self’. Preliminary studies link the EDV with development, maintenance and ambivalence to recover from EDs. This thesis aims to develop an in-depth understanding of the EDV, its role in EDs and implications for recovery. Part 1 is a meta-ethnography of experiences of EDVs, involving 19 qualitative studies. The results indicate that experiences of the EDV can have a pervasive impact over the course of EDs. There were common experiences, such as escalating EDV power and malignancy through ED development, and idiosyncratic aspects, for example the EDV’s relations to the self and ED. In recovery, the EDV was framed as both a source of ambivalence and an opportunity for change. Part 2 is an empirical paper, presenting a thematic analysis of voice dialogues with the anorexic voice (AV). This was a joint project. Nine women with anorexia nervosa (AN) participated. ‘Chairwork’ was used to interview participants’ AVs. The analysis describes an interdependent relationship, whereby the person ‘needs’ the AV as it promises to solve their problems, a valued but fraught relationship develops, and the AV ‘needs’ to preserve its influence over the person for its own survival. Where relevant, exploring individuals’ EDV experiences could highlight obstacles to recovery and tailor treatments, but further research is needed to establish effective ways of working with EDVs. Part 3 provides a critical appraisal, focused on experiences of the ethical review process and the dynamic interplay between research and researcher

The cult of St Nicholas in medieval Italy

St Nicholas was one of the most popular saints in medieval Italy. His cult attracted the attention of popes, kings and emperors, and his shrine at Bari became an important international pilgrimage destination. This thesis asks how the cult of St Nicholas came to be so widespread and popular in Italy, and why the saint attracted the attention of diverse groups and individuals. This thesis is structured around four chapters. The first demonstrates that through a process of Latinisation the cult of St Nicholas became integrated within Italian literary traditions and within a new spiritual era. Chapter Two reveals that this Latinisation also occurred within the saint’s iconography. Chapters Three and Four are case studies of the cult in Puglia and Venice, locations which claimed possession of the saint’s relics. These case studies show that the general developments that the cult of St Nicholas underwent in Italy, identified in Chapters One and Two, did not apply universally. Instead, the presence of the saint’s relics resulted in a different profile of the saint in Bari and Venice. Through the process of Latinisation, the cult of St Nicholas became updated and remained relevant for its new Italian audience; Chapters Three and Four show alternative ways that the cult of St Nicholas gained widespread popularity. This thesis presents for the first time an iconographical study of St Nicholas in Italian art, which develops existing research of the saint’s Byzantine iconography. Chapter Four presents a profile of the cult of St Nicholas in Venice in the Middle Ages, which is a significant oversight in the literature. The thesis uses a variety of visual and textual sources, in particular fresco and altarpiece representations, archival documents from Venice and Rome (including the Apostolic Visitations), and under-exploited contemporary and antiquarian Venetian sources

Diffusion of a Passive Scalar Subject to Steady Flow in a Pipe

The Taylor Pipe Flow experiment was designed to be a continuation of the research on the dispersion of soluble matter through a tube conducted by G.I. Taylor [10] [11]. In two-dimensional channel models and three-dimensional circular- and square-faced model glass pipes, we explore the theory of Taylor dispersion explaining the motion of a passive scalar transported by laminar flow. Studies here at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill are implemented to better understand the stochastic system of the dispersion, primarily by calculating the first three moments of the advection of the solute. Depending on the characteristic length and mean velocity, we observe the effects of Poiseuille flow as either advection or diffusion dominates at different regimes characterized by the Taylor time scale, t = R2/D. We conduct experiments to better understand the regimes characterized by the dimensionless Péclet number, Pe = UR/D, where R is the pipe radius, U is the velocity, and D is the diffusion coefficient of the solute. In experiments, we take the intensity of a fluorescein-dyed portion of distilled water and find its corresponding concentration by solving an inverse problem of intensity to concentration. This serves as results to compare with the theoretical approach.Bachelor of Scienc

Saying the unsayable: the online expression of mothers' anger during a pandemic.

This article investigates key triggers for mothers' anger during the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the positive and negative consequences of its expression online. It uses the UK online parenting forum Mumsnet as a research context and source of data. Our findings support previous research into mothers' anger during COVID-19 that suggests that the pandemic has both exacerbated longstanding sources of conflict and created new ones within their homes. This anger is frequently repressed because women need to continue to work and cohabit with the colleagues and family members who have caused this anger. However, we also identify a further trigger for mothers' anger – their frustration at the government's perceived inaction and mis- or even dis-information about the pandemic. This anger can be exacerbated by mainstream media reports and also the sharing of suspicions and complaints on online forums such as Mumsnet. Mumsnet therefore offers a safe space for the venting of women's anger during lockdown, but also a place where feelings of anger can be perpetuated and perhaps even aroused

Women's use and abuse of the news media during the COVID-19 pandemic on Mumsnet.

This article analyses news sources used by women to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK parenting website Mumsnet. By using a non-political online ‘third space’ aimed at women, Mumsnetters are able to avoid the aggression women face when they attempt to discuss news in the wider public sphere of the Internet. This third space can also act as a ‘trusted friend’, allowing women to access important news via a third party. Mumsnetters’ discussion of the news around COVID-19 complicates previous studies’ findings that women prefer to discuss news relating to health, education and the local community rather than politics and international affairs. Mumsnetters discuss the COVID-19 pandemic as both a health story and a political story. They use mainly digital journalism sources, either directly from the mainstream news media or indirectly via social media such as Twitter, thus participating in a hybrid media system. However, some Mumsnet discussants demonstrate a hostility and distrust towards mainstream news sources, even suggesting collusion between the media and the UK government, which has implications for the clear dissemination of government messages around the pandemic

Sesame-Style Decomposition of KS-DFT Molecular Dynamics for Direct Interrogation of Nuclear Models

A common paradigm used in the construction of equations of state is to decompose the thermodynamics into a superposition of three terms: a static-lattice cold curve, a contribution from the thermal motion of the nuclei, and a contribution from the thermal excitation of the electrons. While statistical mechanical models for crystals provide tractable framework for the nuclear contribution in the solid phase, much less is understood about the nuclear contribution above the melt temperature ($C_v^{(\text{nuc})}\approx 3R$) and how it should transition to the high-temperature limit ($C_v^{(\text{nuc})} \sim \frac{3}{2}R$). In this work, we describe an algorithm for extracting both the thermal nuclear and thermal electronic contributions from quantum molecular dynamics (QMD). We then use the VASP QMD package to probe thermal nuclear behavior of liquid aluminum at normal density to compare the results to semi-empirical models -- the Johnson generic model, the Chisolm high-temperature liquid model, and the CRIS model.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, APS Shock Compression of Condensed Matter Conference Proceedings 201

The cult of St Nicholas in medieval Italy

St Nicholas was one of the most popular saints in medieval Italy. His cult attracted the attention of popes, kings and emperors, and his shrine at Bari became an important international pilgrimage destination. This thesis asks how the cult of St Nicholas came to be so widespread and popular in Italy, and why the saint attracted the attention of diverse groups and individuals. This thesis is structured around four chapters. The first demonstrates that through a process of Latinisation the cult of St Nicholas became integrated within Italian literary traditions and within a new spiritual era. Chapter Two reveals that this Latinisation also occurred within the saint’s iconography. Chapters Three and Four are case studies of the cult in Puglia and Venice, locations which claimed possession of the saint’s relics. These case studies show that the general developments that the cult of St Nicholas underwent in Italy, identified in Chapters One and Two, did not apply universally. Instead, the presence of the saint’s relics resulted in a different profile of the saint in Bari and Venice. Through the process of Latinisation, the cult of St Nicholas became updated and remained relevant for its new Italian audience; Chapters Three and Four show alternative ways that the cult of St Nicholas gained widespread popularity. This thesis presents for the first time an iconographical study of St Nicholas in Italian art, which develops existing research of the saint’s Byzantine iconography. Chapter Four presents a profile of the cult of St Nicholas in Venice in the Middle Ages, which is a significant oversight in the literature. The thesis uses a variety of visual and textual sources, in particular fresco and altarpiece representations, archival documents from Venice and Rome (including the Apostolic Visitations), and under-exploited contemporary and antiquarian Venetian sources.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceUniversity of WarwickUniversity of Warwick. Dept. of History of ArtGladys Krieble Delmas FoundationBritish School at RomeGBUnited Kingdo