Master of Political Science & International Affairs (PSIA)
https://dspace.aua.am/xmlui/handle/123456789/79
2024-03-28T11:22:00ZThe ethnic politics of the former Soviet Union: general patterns and impact on ethnic conflict development
https://dspace.aua.am/xmlui/handle/123456789/2384
The ethnic politics of the former Soviet Union: general patterns and impact on ethnic conflict development
Aslikian, Lala
The topic of the given MA Essay is the analysis of the ethnic politics of the USSR and its connection with ethnic conflict development on the territory of the former Soviet Union. The purpose of the essay is to explore the logic of Soviet nationalities policy development, to outline general tendencies, patterns of its development and to give the connection of it with the evolution of ethnic conflicts in the territory of the former Soviet Union. The general framework of the characteristics of identified ethnic conflict is provided as well as their comparison.
By arguing that ethnofederal structure of the Soviet Union contributed to the intensification of ethnic awareness of parties of the conflict, such issues as “ethnic identity,” “territoriality,” “elite formation” and their role in ethnic conflict are explored. Being in some sense different and in the other similar to the previous waves of ethnic conflicts in twentieth century, ethnic strifes on the territory of the former Soviet Union occurred in an environment of transition. Hence, the search for legitimacy in newly emerged states undermines many peculiarities of ethnicity question. Nationalities policy in the former Soviet Union left its legacy on the evolution of ethnic conflicts during Soviet rule and in the transition period. The study outlines venues for ethnicity policy and conflict research issues.
Thesis
2000-01-01T00:00:00ZComparing public and private organizations of Armenia: issues on goal-complexity and ambiguity and job satisfaction
https://dspace.aua.am/xmlui/handle/123456789/2376
Comparing public and private organizations of Armenia: issues on goal-complexity and ambiguity and job satisfaction
Buniatyan, Gayane
This study compares public and private organizations of Armenia and reveals the differences as well as similarities between them in regard to several key issues like goal complexity and job satisfaction, motivation and others. The study is based on research article “Comparing Public and Private Organizations: Empirical Research and the Power of the A Priori” by Rainey and Bozeman (2000). Rainey and Bozeman assess several major streams in the research comparing public and private organizations over the last two decades, which as the authors state: “in some ways refute widely held a priori assumptions about similarities and differences between public and private organizations but which in some ways support such assumptions.” In their article, Rainey and Bozeman sort out the similarities and the differences of public and private organizations. Their analysis has important implications for major theoretical and practical issues like privatization of public services; administrative reforms and the theoretical and practical analysis of major administrative topics, such as organizational goals, individual motivation and work attitudes etc. The aim of this study is to contribute to the formation of similar theoretical and practical issues in the newly formed public administration system of the independent Republic of Armenia. Rainey and Bozeman focus on goal complexity and goal ambiguity; organizational structure; personnel and purchasing processes and work-related attitudes and values, like work satisfaction, motivation, valuation of rewards, and work outcomes. This research concentrates mainly on comparing issues like goal complexity and goal ambiguity and work-related attitudes and values, like work satisfaction, motivation and valuation of rewards in the public and private sectors.
This study has revealed a number of conflicting and mixed results. Some of the key results that this research has yielded are the following. Public agencies of Armenia experience more, though not very large amount of influence from outside, more political interventions, than the private ones. The employees of the public organizations accept that they appease many parties whiles making a decision and that they are undergoing much influence on their organizations from outside. But they say that it does not complicate the goals of their organizations at all and does not make them ambiguous.
The study also reveals that employees in both sectors, public and private prefer financial rewards more than non-pecuniary motivation. This study has shown that generally managers are satisfied with their jobs, non-managers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their current job, and that they are more eager to change jobs. In public organizations non-managers are more satisfied with their jobs, but still they would change their jobs if they could make more money. These results in some way support the existing research findings that exist in public administration domain. There is much empirical evidence in literature that yield the same results as this study has done, and vice versa there are some that witness opposite findings.
Thesis
2003-01-01T00:00:00ZWork motivation among employees of Armenian executive agencies
https://dspace.aua.am/xmlui/handle/123456789/2375
Work motivation among employees of Armenian executive agencies
Danielian, Diana
The present study focuses on work motivation among public officials in Armenian executive agencies. Many scholars emphasized the extreme importance of studying motivation as long as nowadays managers deal with increasingly diverse workforce. These characteristics can be important variables that reinforce or alleviate other forces that shape organizational behavior, especially in government agencies. Workforce motivation and government performance are closely related - the ability of governments to function effectively and efficiently is related directly to the motivation of its work force.
The current study is concentrated on the attitudes of the public employees toward their job and how they are changed with different incentives used. Various researches have found that public employees give low rating to extrinsic motivation such as financial rewards and are mainly motivated by intrinsic motives such as need for personal growth, self-advancement, recognition and praise from peers and managers. The aim of the research was to explore whether this is true for nowadays-Armenian reality when political and economic changes have occurred during the transition phase to democratic governance and there are changes in the perceptions of the work environment as well. For that, exploratory study has been undertaken in Armenian executive agencies. It was supposed to assess the influence of motivational factors on officials’ attitude toward their work and explore whether extrinsic or intrinsic motives are prevailing in their job satisfaction, commitment to organization, and turnover, especially in transition period with changing supporting environment.
The study has found that the most prevailing influence on work motivation among officials of Armenian executive agencies have such intrinsic motives as possibility of personal growth and development, promotion opportunities and recognition from peers and supervisor. They have positive effects on job satisfaction and commitment to organizations. The results supported the proposed hypotheses that intrinsic needs for recognition, self-advancement, and self-realization are dominant over the extrinsic needs for material security and physical comfort and their presence positively influence employees attitude toward their job.
Thesis
2003-01-01T00:00:00ZImpact of power relations on national security of the Transcaucasian states
https://dspace.aua.am/xmlui/handle/123456789/2374
Impact of power relations on national security of the Transcaucasian states
Petrosyan, Armine
In the international environment of continuing struggle for power the importance of national security for sovereign nation-states gains a particular prominence. However, there is a gulf of difference in the meanings of the concept of national security for different nations. For industrialized nations of the developed world national security means struggle for power per se, i.e. increasing the influence over other nations or over the entire regions; the same concept for developing countries, especially for small nations in transition, means physical survival per se.
According to this approach to national security issues for small developing states, there can be distinguished several dimensions of national security, i.e. factors on which the physical survival of small states in transition depends. Military, economic, and demographic dimensions of national survival for the three Transcaucasian states are discussed in the present study.
Based on these dimensions and on “the rules of the game” set by Major Powers on the contemporary international scene, certain foreign, as well as internal, policy alternatives are recommended for Transcaucasian states.
Thesis
2002-01-01T00:00:00Z