Finding a reflexive voice : -- researching the problems of implementing new learning practices within a New Zealand manufacturing organisation : a 100pt thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Human Resources Management at Massey University

This study explored the social forces mediating manager's participation in a new reflexive participative learning practice designed to improve profitability within a New Zealand manufacturing organisation. Despite a large theoretical and managerial body of literature on organisational learning there has been little empirical investigation of how people experience and engage their reflexivity towards challenging the status-quo to create high level learning and new knowledge. Power was identified as a potential moderator of the reflexive learning experience and the variable relations of power and learning were constructed from a review of literature and these relationships were explored and investigated within the case study. Two prevailing discourses were identified as powerful moderators of public reflexivity, the traditionalist discourse which constructed managers actions and conversations towards insularism and survivalist concerns and the productionist discourse in which institutionalised production practices encircled and mediated managers actions and what constituted legitimacy in conversations. This study used a critical action research method to place the reflexive experience of managers and the researcher at the centre of the study and provide data representative of the social discourses that constructed variable freedoms and constraints upon the reflexive voice

Valuing human resources: perceptions and practices in UK organisations.

Despite Government and academic interest in valuing human resources, there has been relatively little progress in reflecting the value of human resources in UK organisations. This research uses a survey questionnaire to identify perceptions and practices in the area of valuing human resources in three types of UK organizations; traditional companies, knowledge intensive companies and local authorities. The survey focuses on the importance of valuing human resources, current measurement practices, key barriers to the valuation of human resources and the progress expected in this field over five years in UK organisations. Although the majority of respondents identified that the measurement/valuation of human resources was important to their organization, only little or moderate progress in recognizing the worth of human resources in financial statements was expected. The main reasons for this were identified to be lack of understanding and support of the area by others in the organization, particularly senior management, lack of resources, uncertainty as to what information should be reported and lack of precision and reliability in current human resource measures. The research identified that there is more interest in the area from human resource professionals than accounting professionals and that valuation of human resources should be included in internal reports rather than reported externally. More research is now needed, both on conceptual models for valuing human resources within organizations and empirical research focusing on issues such as gaining commitment to valuing of human resources by senior management, the development of systems of valuing human resources, how systems to value employees, when developed, are implemented in organisations and the consequences, both intended and unintended of how the systems operate in practice

Exploring the relationship between appraisals of stressful encounters and the associated emotions in a work setting

Exploring work stress using a transactional perspective requires researchers to consider not just the role of appraisal of a stressful encounter but also the relationship of this appraisal with emotions. This research sets out to explore the appraisal-emotion relationship in a work setting. Using data from 174 civic administrators from New Zealand, sequential tree analysis (which presents patterns in a system of hierarchical ordering) was used to create the pattern of appraisals of stress associated with each of three emotions: anger, anxiety and frustration. The results suggest that if we are to advance our understanding of the appraisal-emotion relationship then future research needs to explore what common characteristics bind together and help shape appraisal patterns, whether some appraisals are more complex than others, and whether some appraisals are more potent than others. The results also raise the question of how best such relationships should be investigated in order to understand the nature of a stressful encounter. In the future, work stress researchers may wish to consider the utility of more context-sensitive measures such as appraisals

Penerapan Media Video Pembelajaran Terhadap Hasil Belajar Siswa Pada Materi Asam Basa Di SMA Negeri 1 Langowan

Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui rata-rata hasil belajar siswa dengan menerapkan media video pembelajaran pada materi asam basa di kelas XI MIPA SMA Negeri 1 Langowan. Penelitian ini adalah penelitian kuantitatif menggunakan metode eksperimen dengan menggunakan desain posttest only control group design. Sampel dalam penelitian ini adalah kelas XI MIPA 2 sebagai kelas eksperimen dan XI MIPA 3 sebagai kelas kontrol dengan masing-masing kelas berjumlah 30 siswa. Pengambilan data dilakukan dengan memberikan posttest setelah proses pembelajaran. Data hasil penelitian yang diperoleh berupa selisih nilai rata-rata posttest kelas eksperimen dan kelas kontrol yaitu sebesar 36,2. Dengan rata-rata nilai posttest kelas eksperimen yaitu 83,37 sedangkan rata-rata nilai posttest kelas kontrol yaitu 47,17. Uji hipotesis pada penelitian ini menggunakan uji t pada . Hasil analisis data untuk hasil belajar diperoleh yaitu thitung = 12,201  ttabel = 2,001. Dengan demikian dapat disimpulkan bahwa rata-rata hasil belajar siswa dengan menggunakan media video pembelajaran lebih tinggi dari pada rata-rata hasil belajar siswa dengan menggunakan metode ceramah pada materi asam basa di SMA Negeri 1 Langowan

Utilization of Coconut Fiber Waste as Insecticides against Epilachna sparsa

The coconut fiber waste in North Sulawesi is very abundant, but the use and development are still limited. The main issues that cause no growth in coconut fiber industy are the lack of product innovation and processing technology.  Coconut husk pyrolysis produces a liquid smoke yield of 22%. Factional distillation liquid smoke coconut coir at 150oC temperature produces the FS-150 fraction. Mortality test of fraction FS-150 caused 80% mortality of insects at a concentration of 10% solution and 60% at 5% concentration against E. sparsa insects. The results of GC-MS analysis of the fraction FS-150, identified 21 compounds that can be classified into three groups: phenolic compounds, acids, and carbonyl. The third group of the compound is a compound that is predicted to affect insect mortality E. sparsa, so that liquid smoke coconut husk fraction of FS-150 has the potential to be developed into a natural insecticide. Keywords: Pyrolysis, coconut coir, redistillation, insecticides, E. spars

Predisposition to Out-of-Body Experience (OBE) is associated with aberrations in multisensory integration:psychophysiological support from a “rubber-hand illusion” study

It has been argued that disorders in body-ownership and aberrant experiences in self-consciousness are due to biases in multisensory integration. Here we examine whether such biases are also associated with spontaneous Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs) in a non-clinical population. One-hundred and eighty participants took part in a rubber-hand illusion (RHI) experiment with synchronous and asynchronous visual and tactile stimulation. A realistic threat was delivered to the rubber-hand after a fixed period of stimulation. Self-report exit questionnaires measured the subjective strength of the illusion and psychophysiological measures (skin conductance responses / finger temperature) provided an objective index of fear / anxiety towards the threat. Control participants reported a stronger RHI, and revealed larger threat-related skin conductance responses during synchronous compared with asynchronous brushing. For participants predisposed to OBEs, the magnitude of the skin conductance was not influenced by brushing synchrony - fear responses were just as strong in the asynchronous condition as they were in the synchronous condition. There were also no reliable effects of finger-temperature for either group. Collectively, these findings are taken as support for the presence of particular biases in multisensory integration (perhaps via predictive coding mechanisms) in which imprecise top-down tuning occurs resulting in aberrant experiences in self-consciousness even in non-clinical hallucinators