Almost 25 years ago, Clawson, Bostrom, and Anson (1993) drew attention to the fact that the ability to facilitate diverse human and technological interactions will be one of the most essential skills for leading and contributing to all levels of the organization in the future (p. 547). Today, there is an increased interest in studying facilitated meetings, wherein facilitation is most commonly understood as the process of helping groups work effectively to accomplish shared outcomes. Nevertheless, little of the existing research has provided empirically-grounded insights into the practice of facilitation. This thesis aims to close this gap by means of providing a detailed analysis of how facilitators go about doing facilitation work in facilitated computer-supported workplace meetings. The data comprise 53 hours of audio- and video-recorded multi-party interactions among facilitator(s) and participants, occurring during facilitated meetings in a business setting. The data were analysed using conversation analysis to examine the talk and embodied conduct of facilitators and meeting participants, as these unfold sequentially. The first analytic chapter reveals the macro-organization of the facilitated meetings, and it contrasts the practice view with the theoretical approach towards the organization of the facilitated meetings. The second analytic chapter investigates the interactional practices used by the facilitators to unpack participation that has already been elicited, captured, and displayed graphically on the public screen via the use of technology. In the third analytic chapter, I explore how the facilitators use computer software to build visual representations of the participants contributions. In the final analytic chapter, I investigate the practices of decision-making in meeting settings with multiple participants. Overall, this thesis makes innovative contributions to our understanding of the practice of facilitated computer-supported workplace meetings. It challenges existing literature on facilitation by finding that facilitators can orchestrate participant input, questioning the facilitator s role as content-neutral , as proposed by leading practitioners in the field of facilitation (e.g., Kaner et al., 2014). At the same time, it shows how the manipulation of computer software is an accountable action and how the decision-making process occasions or constrains the production of alignment between participant(s) and facilitator(s). The thesis also contributes to conversation analytic research on questioning, as well as the action of unpacking participation. I show that the notion that open-ended questions better elicit participation than interrogatives is generally not supported empirically, at least in this context. The thesis contributes to existing literature on multi-party meeting interaction, showing how the departure from the canonical next-speaker selection technique which involves the use of address terms and address positions in an utterance takes place. Further, it enhances our understanding of how computer software constrains and/or affords progressivity in interaction. In this sense, I enhance our understanding of the concept of agency of artefacts. Finally, I contribute to knowledge on group decision-making, an under-researched yet core activity in facilitated and other types of meetings. Here, I contribute to the body of work on the interplay between deontics and epistemics in interaction. This thesis shows the applicability of conversation analysis to the study of facilitation. By analysing talk and embodied conduct, communicative practices for accomplishing successful facilitated meetings are revealed and these should be of core interest to both professional and novice facilitators.

Hospital personnel are commonly tasked with implementing innovative and evidence-based practices. However, successes are often limited and short-lived. One likely explanation is that implementation processes vary between sites, leading to differences in implementation outcomes. In this dissertation, I built on the organizational and implementation science literatures to improve our understanding of implementation processes and how they unfolded in small, rural hospitals in Iowa. I adopted two theoretical perspectives – process and variance models. Process models explain change as a series of steps or phases that organizations go through when implementing changes, while variance models explain variation in change outcomes as a relationship between variables. More specifically, I examined Kotter’s process model of change and tested the proposition that performance on earlier steps influences performance on subsequent steps. I then built on the literature on the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) framework to examine the implementation processes from the variance model perspective. I first developed a typology of internal facilitation activities that hospital change agents engaged in throughout the implementation process, and then built on organizational implementation models to assess the influence of management support, time availability and team viability on sustainment and non-sustainment of facilitation activities. This study was based on a qualitative longitudinal evaluation of TeamSTEPPS implementation in critical access hospitals in Iowa. Our research team recruited 17 hospitals attending TeamSTEPPS Master Training in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and followed them for a period of two years, interviewing key informants quarterly to inquire about their goals, strategies and activities, barriers and facilitators, and the progress they were making. My analytic samples for the dissertation included 8-10 hospitals and varied depending on the research questions. For each construct, a group of student coders read and coded the interview transcripts (two coders per transcript) using both inductive and deductive coding approaches. The coded content was reviewed and disagreements discussed in a group meeting until differences have been resolved. To examine the Kotter model, hospitals were scored on their performance on the three phases, which allowed for assessing whether their performance was consistent across the three phases as the model proposes. To develop the typology of facilitation activities, I compared and contrasted the different types of activities to identify the characteristics that distinguish them. To test sustainment of facilitation activities, I used the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis method to calibrate and test the relationships using set-theoretic methods. As needed, I also qualitatively re-examined the cases to identify exemplar cases or identify additional factors that helped develop our understanding of the implementation processes. I found that the Kotter model helped explain the implementation processes in half the hospitals, while the other hospitals followed different trajectories, depending on implementation scope. Next, four types of facilitation activities were identified – Leadership, Buy-in, Customization and Accountability. They are distinguished by who engaged in the activities, what or whom they targeted, and the timing patterns of the activities. I also found that facilitation activities were sustained in hospitals with both senior and middle manager support and whose facilitator team remained viable throughout the implementation process. These findings contributed to our understanding of implementation processes. Individual findings and their implications were discussed. Overall, both process and variance model perspectives provide useful but different insights into implementation processes. I concluded that both perspectives are needed to inform practice and future research.

This thesis investigated aspects of plant recruitment across an altitudinal gradient of mountain tops in the Victorian Alps, Australia, and provides a baseline for the patterns and processes of alpine plant recruitment in the absence of large-scale disturbance. The patterns in alpine vegetation across the study sites were described in relation to abiotic environmental factors. Temperatures were lower and precipitation was higher at the high altitude sites. The vegetation did not differ significantly between the sites, although sites at low altitudes were shrubbier than those at high altitudes. Analysis of the soil seed bank revealed high mean densities of germinable seed (80 to 1400 seeds m-2) across the gradient of sites. The similarity between the seed bank samples and the standing vegetation was low (qualitative similarity: 0.08 to 0.2; quantitative similarity: 0.03 to 0.19). In laboratory germination experiments, I found rapid and substantial germination. Final percent germination was above 90% for most species. One species, Aciphylla glacialis, showed evidence of dormancy mechanisms. In subsequent experiments, I found that innate primary seed dormancy in this species could be broken with cold-wet stratification. There were no significant patterns in natural seedling recruitment across the altitudinal gradient. Similarities between the seedling flora and the standing vegetation were low (qualitative similarity: 0.18 to 0.45: quantitative similarity 0.04 to 0.09). Mean seedling density was best predicted by a combination of soil wilting point, altitude and plant litter. In some cases, seedling density was greater than 80 seedlings m-2. The relative importance of either negative (competitive) or positive (facilitative) interactions between seedlings with adjacent vegetation were investigated in relation to seed germination, seedling growth and seedling survival. Facilitative interactions were common at the higher altitude sites. At lower altitudes, facilitative and competitive interactions were common. Without close neighbours at high altitudes, seedlings were unlikely to survive into their second year. An understanding of plant recruitment can provide a useful basis for predicting species responses to large-scale disturbance and climate change.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1982. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Neonatal mortality remains a problem worldwide, despite the existence of low-cost and evidence-based interventions. Unfortunately, the translation of these interventions into practice is deficient. The aim of this thesis was to study aspects of knowledge translation (KT) before and during the Neonatal Knowledge Into Practice (NeoKIP) trial in Quang Ninh, Vietnam. Over a period of three years, this trial evaluated the use of facilitators from the Women’s Union who supported maternal and newborn health groups (MNHG) comprised of eight local stakeholders, as an intervention for improved neonatal survival. In the first two studies (before intervention) we assessed primary health care staff’s knowledge and material preparedness regarding evidence-based neonatal care and explored how primary health care staff translated knowledge into practice. The last two studies (during intervention) were process evaluations aimed at describing the implementation, process and mechanism of the NeoKIP intervention. Primary health care workers achieved 60% of the maximum score in the knowledge survey. Two separate geographical areas were identified with differences in staff levels of knowledge and concurrent disparities in neonatal survival, antenatal care and post-natal home visits. Staff perceived formal training to be the best way to acquire knowledge but asked for more interaction between colleagues within the healthcare system. Traditional medicine, lack of resources, low workload and poorly paid staff constituted barriers for the development of staff knowledge and skills. Eleven facilitators were trained to cover eight facilitator positions. Of the 44 MNHGs, 43 completed their activities to the end of the study. In total, 95% of the monthly meetings with a MNHG and a facilitator were conducted with attendance at 86%. MNHGs identified 32 unique problems, mainly families’ knowledge/behavior, and implemented 39 unique actions, mostly regarding communication. MNHGs experienced that the group was strategically composed to influence change in the communes and facilitators were identified as being important to sustaining activities over time. The facilitators’ lack of health knowledge was regarded as a deficit in assisting the MNHGs, but their performance and skills increased over time. This low-cost model, building on local stakeholder involvement, has the capacity to be scaled up within existing healthcare structures.

Pollinator sharing in mixed species communities is expected to significantly contribute to mating patterns in contemporary populations but may also affect the evolutionary trajectory of traits associated with plant mating. In this thesis, I considered how the spring environment and pollinator sharing may contribute to the widespread convergence in traits among spring flowering species using comparative biology. The proposed correlation between a spring flowering phenology and white or light floral colour, fleshy fruits, woody growth forms and understory occupation is confirmed. In addition, I examined the effects of pollinator responses to community and population traits to determine the relative importance of inter- and intraspecific interactions in pollinator mediated reproductive success of a spring flowering species, Trillium grandiflorum. In this study, the reproductive success of T. grandiflorum was pollen limited. However, the magnitude of pollen limitation was influenced only by intraspecific density and varied independently of community diversity. The results of this thesis contribute significantly to our understanding of pollinator-mediated interactions in spring flowering communities but also highlight future avenues of investigation.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to apply the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARiHS) framework to a provincial osteoporosis management program to describe unit level factors that may have influenced implementation among participating inpatient rehabilitation units. A toolbox of measures was proposed to operationalize the frameworks elements of evidence, context and facilitation. A cross-sectional survey was completed with clinicians responsible for championing the program and their managers. Results demonstrated that leadership behaviours, organizational climate traits and champion behaviours varied among practice environments indicating that attention to unit level factors outlined by the PARiHS framework could increase the uptake of research evidence in practice. The proposed toolbox could be utilized as a diagnostic and prescriptive tool to identify potential implementation barriers, and guide the selection of appropriate tools/strategies to overcome them. Furthermore, it will enable future studies to provide further empirical support for the PARiHS framework

This project explores the connections between the worlds we hope for and the worlds we help create. Over the course of several months, I conducted three sets of narrative interviews with three anti-oppression education facilitators, and a self-study with myself. Using narrative inquiry through a specifically anti-colonial lens as my method of analysis, I worked in partnership with my interview participants to draw meaning out of our interviews. Growing from these discussions, this thesis explores the work that discourses of hope do in our practices as facilitators of education for change. How do the things that we learn to hope for inform the way we teach, and the possibilities that are allowed in, or locked out, of our classrooms? In problematizing certain functions of certain discourses of hope, this study also explores the possibilities of anti-colonial hopings as a process of generating decolonizing dreams through education for change.

The purpose of this thesis is to apply the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARiHS) framework to a provincial osteoporosis management program to describe unit level factors that may have influenced implementation among participating inpatient rehabilitation units. A toolbox of measures was proposed to operationalize the frameworks elements of evidence, context and facilitation. A cross-sectional survey was completed with clinicians responsible for championing the program and their managers. Results demonstrated that leadership behaviours, organizational climate traits and champion behaviours varied among practice environments indicating that attention to unit level factors outlined by the PARiHS framework could increase the uptake of research evidence in practice. The proposed toolbox could be utilized as a diagnostic and prescriptive tool to identify potential implementation barriers, and guide the selection of appropriate tools/strategies to overcome them. Furthermore, it will enable future studies to provide further empirical support for the PARiHS framework