Thesis (D. Min.)--Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universiẗat Saarbrücken, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-320).

När vi skriver detta examensarbete, år 2008, är debatten om miljön stor om hur konsumenten, företagen, staten etc. kan minska sin miljöpåverkan genom att jobba smartare. Inom företagen bedrivs som bekant ett ständigt arbete med hur man kan reducera sina kostnader. Vi har valt att skriva om de möten i arbetslivet som kan hållas på distans, ett område som går båda debatterna till mötes. Eftersom många mötesdeltagare (deltagare) idag flyger eller åker bil för att komma till och från möten så genererar distansmöten fördelar som att det reducerar företagens kostnader samtidigt som det ger en minskad miljöpåverkan. Vi har i vår studie närmare undersökt hur distansmöten bedrivs idag inom de två företag som vi är verksamma inom, vilka policys och verktyg som finns för att främja dessa och hur deltagarna själva ser på saken. Detta för att få svar på de forskningsfrågor som vi gemensamt arbetat fram i samråd med vår handledare. Forskningsfrågorna är följande, Vilka skäl finns det till att hantera möten på distans jämfört med traditionella fysiska möten? Vilka typer av möten kan hanteras på distans? Hur kan effektiva och kvalitativa möten hållas på distans? Hur kan en organisation främja distansmöten? Vårt syfte är att undersöka om det finns några tydliga mönster angående vilka möten en organisation hanterar på distans och i så fall skapa en djupare förståelse för dessa och de riktlinjer som idag finns för distansmöten. Ett av våra mål är också att det material vi får fram skall kunna fungera stödjande vid utformning av mötespolicys. Den metod som vi använt är triangulering där vår insamling av primärdata gjordes med totalt 16 st intervjuer och en enkät där hela 146 av ca 400 respondenter svarade. Vi har även använt sekundärdata genom dokument såsom resepolicys och miljöpolicys. Parallellt med vår insamling av empiriskt material har vi studerat relevant litteratur som tar upp ämnesområdet distansmöten. Vi har i rapporten valt att avgränsa oss och endast fokusera på interna möten i de båda studerade företagen eftersom den sociala relationen i externa möten ofta ses som alltför viktig för att i större utsträckning hanteras via distans. Studien visar att en medvetenhet om de fördelar distansmöten ger kostnadsmässigt och miljömässigt finns i de studerade företagen, men att de främsta skälen till att hantera möten på distans ur deltagarens perspektiv är kostnadsbesparingen och den tidsvinst de genererar. Resultatet pekar också på att alla typer av interna möten kan hanteras via distans, men att förhandlingar är den mötestyp som är absolut svårast. Flertalet faktorer som exempelvis mötets karaktär, kostnad, tillgänglig teknik och deltagarnas vana vid distansmöten påverkar också starkt huruvida ett möte hanteras på distans eller inte. För att få till stånd effektiva och kvalitativa distansmöten så visar studien att krav ställs på tydlighet i vad som skall avhandlas och hur detta ska skötas, ordförandens egenskaper, de tekniska hjälpmedlen samt att tiden för mötet begränsas till max 1-2 timmar. Tydlighet visar sig också vara en avgörande faktor ur ett organisatoriskt perspektiv där de policys och riktlinjer som sätts indirekt och direkt påverkar hur distansmöten bedrivs i organisationens olika delar.

Bakgrund: det organisationer har gemensamt är att människor sätts systematiskt sammanför att gemensamt lösa en uppgift. Möten är en av de vanligaste händelserna i organisationen och är ständigt återkommande. Idag behöver inte möten vara platsbundet till ett fysiskt rum utan kan genomföras genom digitala verktyg. I samband med den rådande pandemin (Covid-19) har det skett en omställning från kontorsarbete till hemarbete vilket har resulterat i att allt fler möten hålls virtuellt. Det innovativa sättet att arbeta virtuellt medför utmaningar för organisationer. Vidare finns det en svårighet att förmedla känslor via digitala verktyg samt att avsaknaden av fysiska möten påverkar interaktionen mellan medarbetare och ledare. Det kan då komplicera förståelse och som i sin tur påverkar meningsskapande i möten. Möten är viktiga platser för bland annat kommunikation, gruppbeslut och problemlösning. Vidare är möten en ekonomisk investering för företagoch upptar deltagarnas tid från andra produktiva aktiviteter. Det blir då av vikt att möten är relevanta och resurseffektiva ur ett företagsperspektiv. Syfte: syftet med studien är att bidra med en djupare förståelse för den upplevda skillnaden mellan fysiska och virtuella möten hos anställda inom ett programutvecklingsföretag. Studien syftar till att bidra med rikliga beskrivningar för de människor som är i liknande kontext. Vidare ska upplevelsen av skillnader studeras utifrån sensemakingteorin. Det finns en förhoppning om att uppsatsen kan ge andra forskare ett bedömningsunderlag om det går applicera studiens resultat i ett annat sammanhang. Metod: studien baseras på en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer och har fallstudie som forskningsstrategi. Fallstudien har genomförts hos ett företag inom programutveckling och har erfarenhet av både fysiska möten och virtuella möten. Respondenterna består av nio medarbetare som ger berättelser och beskrivningar utifrån deras upplevelser av möten. Vidare har organisatoriska dokument använts för att säkerställa studiens trovärdighet. Empiri och slutsats: studien visar på att det finns upplevda skillnader mellan fysiska och virtuella möten. Det kan konstateras att beroende på vilket sorts möte som ska genomföras så passar olika forum. Mötens meningsskapande kan återspeglas i att det ska gynna både organisationen och medarbetarna genom att det ska leda till en output. / Background: what organizations have in common are people that put together systematically to solve a task. Meetings are the most common occurrence in organizations and are recurrent. The meetings today, don’t have to be bound to a physical room. Digital platforms have made it possible to meet virtually. In connection with the current pandemic, there has been a shift from office work to homework which has resulted in more and more meetings being held virtually. The innovative way of working virtually creates challenges for organizations. For instance, there is a difficulty in conveying emotions through digital tools and the lack of physical meetings affects the interaction between employees and leaders. That can complicate understanding and complicate the creation of meaning in meetings. Meetings are important places for communication, group decisions and solving problems. Moreover, meetings can be seen as a financial investment for companies and take up time for participants' other productive activities. It is important from a company perspective that meetings are relevant and efficient for resources. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to obtain a deeper understanding of the difference in the experience between physical meetings and virtual meetings at a software development company. The study aims to contribute with more detailed descriptions for people who are in a similar context. Furthermore, the experience of differences will be studied on the basis of sensemaking theory. Hopefully the study can provide other researchers with an assessment basis if it is possible to apply the results of the study in other contexts. Methods: the study is based on a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews and the research strategy is to study a case. The case study is conducted at a company that works with software development. The company has experience of both physical and virtual meetings. The respondents are nine employees who gave stories and descriptionsbased on their experiences of meetings. Furthermore, organizational documents have been used to ensure the credibility of the study. Results and conclusion: the study shows that there are perceived differences between physical and virtual meetings. It can be stated that depending on the type of meeting to be held, different forums are suitable. The sensemaking of the meetings can be reflected in the fact that it will benefit both the organization and the employees by giving an output for the organization.

This dissertation describes the successful implementation of a work group infrastructure to support electronic meetings. An exploratory study was undertaken to observe and document the broad range of activities necessary to implement an infrastructure for work groups in a field setting. Activities falling within the scope of this dissertation include the design of a set of work group software tools, the implementation of that software, the gathering of field data, and the interpretation of those data in reference to the software's impact. The dissertation also reports on the effects of the implementation on work group performance, group characteristics, task characteristics, and the technology itself. The final product of the study is a set of factors critical for the successful implementation of a work group infrastructure, including observations and insights related to facility design, software design, facilitation training, and management involvement.

This dissertation investigated the effects of group size, group member proximity and the interaction of these two variables on the performance of brainstorming groups in a synchronous, computer-mediated environment. A laboratory experiment was employed to manipulate the independent variables group size (4- and 8-member) group member proximity. Group member proximity was manipulated by allowing proximate groups to work in a single meeting room, while members of distributed group worked in separate rooms. The subjects, upper-level, undergraduate business students, were asked to identify and discuss all "people, groups and organizations" that would be affected by a proposed policy to require all undergraduate business students to have individual access to a personal computer. The computer-mediated brainstorming system allowed all group members to enter and share information simultaneously, as all communication was electronic. Group performance was assessed by counting the total number of unique solutions generated and by the sum of expert rated quality scores for each unique solution. Groups in all conditions contributed approximately the same number of comments and felt equally satisfied. Contrary to an ample body of noncomputer-mediated brainstorming research, large groups were more productive than small groups for both idea quantity and quality. Small groups were, however, more productive than large groups on a per person basis, as increased group size yielded diminishing returns. Remote groups were more productive than proximate groups. Group researchers have found that group interaction produces productivity gains and losses, each of which increase in strength as the group size increases. This research found group productivity losses for computer-mediated brainstorming to be relatively constant, as the technology mitigated productivity inhibitors in conditions where prior noncomputer-mediated research has found these losses to increase (i.e., larger groups).

Resandet har blivit en självklarhet i det moderna samhället där mötet med nya kulturer och människor är viktiga beståndsdelar. I och med detta har backpackerresor blivit ett vanligt förekommande fenomen där människor väljer att resa under längre tid till platser längre bort. Studien hoppas kunna bidra till turismforskningen genom att skapa en större förståelse över resemotiv vilket kan förutspå framtidens behov inom backpackerresandet. Studien syftar till att undersöka resemotiv till en backpackerresa och om nya kulturmöten bidrar till identitetsskapande hos individen. Nyckelorden som genomsyrar studien är resemotiv, identitet och kulturmöten. Studien använder ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt som består av åtta intervjuer med respondenter mellan åldrarna 20-30 år som har backpackat i Sydostasien och Australien. Intervjuerna transkriberades och bearbetades för att kunna analyseras tillsammans med de valda teorierna. Uppsatsens resultat stöds av teorier inom det aktuella forskningsområdet, där Abraham Maslows behovshierarki har hjälp till att styrka resemotiv. Erving Goffman, George Herbert Mead, Anthony Giddens och Émile Durkheims teorier har används för att förstå hur en identitet skapas. Edward Hall och Gert Jan Hofstede, Paul Pedersen & Geert Hofstede har används för att styrka kulturmötens betydelse i en individs utveckling. Resultatet i studien visar att motivet till en backpackerresa ligger i känslan av frihet och kravlöshet. Respondenterna har blivit stärkta av den aktuella backpackerresan men en identitetsförvirring kunde tydas efter resan. Identitetsförvirringen bestod i att respondenternas världsbild vidgats och att intrycken medförde en tvetydig syn på framtiden. / Travel has become a matter of course in modern society, where the meeting with new cultures and people are important elements. Backpacking travels has become a common phenomenon in which people choose to travel longer to places further away. The study hopes to contribute to tourism research by creating a greater understanding of travel motives, which can predict future needs in the backpacking industry. The study aims to look into the motives of a backpacking trip and if cultural meetings contribute to a personal development for the individual. The keywords that permeates this study is travel motives, identity and cultural meetings. The study uses a qualitative approach which consists of eight interviews with respondents between the ages of 20-30 years old and who has been backpacking in Southeast Asia and Australia. The interviews were transcribed and processed to be analyzed together with the selected theories. Selected theories in the field of research have been produced to strengthen the results, where Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has helped to establish travel motives. Erving Goffman’s, George Herbert Mead’s, Anthony Giddens and Émile Durkheim's theories has been used to understand how identity is created. Edward Hall’s and Gert Jan Hofstede, Paul Pedersen & Geert Hofstede’s theories has been used to prove the role of cultural impact in an individual's personal development. The results of the study show that the travel motives for a backpacking trip is the feeling of freedom and permissiveness. The respondents have been strengthened by the backpacking trip, but an identity confusion could be deciphered after the trip. The identity confusion where laying in an enlarged worldview and an ambiguous view of the future of the respondent.

Notre recherche porte sur un réseau territorialisé d’organisations (RTO) pour développer l’attractivité d’une destination touristique de réunions et de congrès. Le concept de cluster, en tant que forme spécifique de RTO, a retenu notre attention, car il partage un certain nombre de caractéristiques avec une destination touristique.Pour cette dernière, les relations inter organisationnelles sont essentielles au développement de son attractivité. Afin de questionner les mécanismes sous-jacents à la structuration d’un réseau, notre méthodologie se compose d’une analyse structurale et d’une étude qualitative. La première nous permet de représenter graphiquement la structure du réseau et d’appréhender ses propriétés. La seconde, qui repose sur l’approche par la proximité, nous permet de comprendre la stratégie des acteurs à partir des relations inter organisationnelles.Les résultats de cette étude de cas menée dans la région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur soulignent l’importance de la proximité de ressources matérielles et immatérielles, et de la proximité de médiation pour activer les coopérations autour de la promotion de la destination. / Destination planners and managers put all their efforts and resources to elaborate adequate plans to reach destination attractiveness in a very competitive market. Our research highlights the importance of cooperation in order to promote the brand and the image of the destination. In this frame, the concept of cluster is relevant as it shares common features with tourism destination.This study aims at identifying the most salient factors activating the inter-organizational relationships. Using structural analysis and proximities approach, we attempt to consider all the factors influencing the cooperation between organizations to reach destination attractiveness.We analyze tourism from the perspective of travel motives. Meetings and congresses tourism experts in the region Provence-Alps-French Riviera have answered a questionnaire and have been interviewed. Our results show that the most important categories for an attractive destination are the proximities of immaterial and material resources, and proximities of mediation. Findings indicate that the region Provence-Alps-French Riviera might not be the most relevant area to implement a cluster.

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.

This qualitative study was conducted with participation from social workers employed at a Southern California child welfare agency and researched whether the use of Child/Family Team-Decision Making meetings were a benefit to social workers’ practice. Furthermore, the study examined social workers’ beliefs about the meetings’ impact on foster children and their families in connection with the outcomes of safety, permanence and well-being. Safety, permanence and well-being are the three domains used to evaluate the success of foster children and their families. Family team-decision making meetings have the common goals of safety, permanence and well-being through promoting shared decision-making, empowerment and continued relationships between workers and the families they serve. The 10 participants of this study were recruited by the researcher through self- knowledge of employees and their job function. Data was gathered through in-person interviews with participants as well as the participants they referred. The data in this study was qualitative and was gathered in two phases then recorded and analyzed using open coding followed by axial coding. The findings of this study revealed that including all of the people who are affected by the decisions made in these meetings is essential to good child welfare social work practice. Concepts such as engagement, group and community cooperation and dynamics, social worker training and knowledge and agency support were themes that permeated throughout the data. These themes were intertwined with foster child safety, permanence and well-being. This study also concluded that attending and participating in CFTDMs enhances a social worker’s knowledge base and assists in their feelings of competence and confidence in their job performance.