In Africa, most oil and gas megaprojects exceed their original budget and time deadlines despite advancement in project management processes and systems. This study explored strategies project managers used for megaprojects' success in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, from the perspectives of the owner and contractor organizations. Multiple case study design was utilized to collect data by asking open-ended questions in separate interviews with 4 project managers. Archival project data was also reviewed to eliminate information incongruences. The conceptual framework for the study is the contingency theory that there is no universal management structure for every project. The data analysis approach was thematic coding. Study findings from the data analysis were aggregated into 5 themes. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd themes include the project managers' view of measures of megaproject successes, project managers' strategies for managing the business environment, and the strategies for achieving megaproject execution excellence. The 4th and 5th themes are the strategies for facilitating employee performance and the typical social change development and social change performance initiatives to benefit neighboring communities because of a megaproject. The conclusion from the evidences gathered is that megaproject success is contingent on the ability of the project manager to unravel and address complexity leveraging strategic leadership and systems thinking. From these findings, project managers from the client and contractor organizations may use, adapt, learn, refresh, and improve their project management skills. The significance of the study to positive social change from improving the success rates of megaprojects includes improvement in human capacity development and infrastructural additions that can facilitate economic growth in the region.

Without a comprehensive understanding of anthropogenic pressures on the water environment, it is difficult to develop effective and efficient strategies to support water management in a proactive way. A broader systems perspective and expanded information systems are therefore essential to aid in systematically exploring interlinks between socioeconomic activities and impaired waters at an appropriate scale. This thesis examined the root causes of human-induced water problems, taking the socioeconomic sector into account and using systems thinking and life cycle thinking as the two main methods. The European DPSIR (Drivers-Pressures-State of the Environment-Impacts-Responses) framework was also used as a basis for discussing two kinds of approaches to water management, namely state/impacts-oriented and pressure-oriented. The results indicate that current water management approaches are mainly state/impacts-oriented. The state/impacts-oriented approach is mainly based on observed pollutants in environmental monitoring and/or on biodiversity changes in ecological monitoring. Employing this approach, the main concern is hydrophysical and biogeochemical changes in the water environment and the end result is reactive responses to combat water problems. As a response, a pressure-oriented approach, derived from a DPR (Drivers-Pressures-Responses) model, was developed to aid in alleviating/avoiding human-induced pressures on the water environment. From a principal perspective, this approach could lead to proactive water-centric policy and decision making and the derivation of pressure-oriented information systems. The underlying principle of the DPR approach is that many root causes of human-induced water problems are closely related to anthroposphere metabolism. An industrial ecology (IE) perspective, based on the principle of mass/material balance, was also introduced to trace water flows in the human-oriented water system and to account for emissions/wastes discharged into the natural water system. This IE-based perspective should be used as part of the basis for developing pressure-oriented monitoring and assessing impacts of human-induced pressures on recipient waters. While demonstrating the use of the pressure-oriented approach, two conceptual frameworks were developed, for water quantity and water quality analysis, respectively. These two frameworks could help motivate decision makers to consider water problems in a broader socioeconomic and environment context. Thus they should be the first step in making a broader systems analysis in any given river basin, regarding setting systems boundary and identifying data availability. In this context, a combined hydrological and administrative boundary is suggested to monitor anthropogenic processes and organise socioeconomic activity statistics. / QC 20120515

El objetivo de la tesis es establecer un marco metodológico para la identificación de indicadores GIZC orientados a problemas y temas de interés, para contextos geográficos específicos. La tesis parte de la idea de que los sistemas de indicadores, utilizados para medir el estado de la costa y la implementación de proyectos de Gestión Integrada de las Zonas Costeras (GIZC), deben orientarse a problemas concretos de la zona de estudio y que su validez debe ser comprobada no sólo por la opinión de los expertos, sino también por la percepción de los usuarios y por el análisis estadístico cuantitativo. / The problem addressed by this thesis is the identification of site-specific and problem-oriented sets of indicators, to be used to determine baseline conditions and to monitor the effect of ICZM initiatives.The approach followed integrates contributions from coastal experts and stakeholders, systems theory, and the use of multivariate analysis techniques in order to provide a cost-effective set of indicators, oriented to site-specific problems, with a broad system perspective.A systems approach, based on systems thinking theory and practice, is developed and tested in this thesis to design models of coastal systems, through the identification of the system's components and relations, using the contribution of experts and stakeholders.Quantitative analysis of the system is then carried out, assessing the contribution of stakeholders and using multivariate statistics (principal components analysis), in order to understand the structure of the system, including relationships between variables.The simplification of the system (reduction of the number of variables) is one of the main outcomes, both in the participatory system's design and in the quantitative multivariate analysis, aiming at a cost-effective set of key variables to be used as indicators for coastal management.

In our complex world of today we see that the leader- and followership is getting harder and harder to “command and control” our organizations and our society. The awareness of the decision makers are often too fragmented in relation to the often complex real situations out there. The information is only flowing in organizational stovepipes and not across boundaries as it should today. The patterns of mutual complex dependencies have taken over and we have difficulties in controlling the consequences of our decisions. The relations over organizational borders are often weak and fragmented and the mutual trust is low. Technology has always been a driver for the society to evolve and our idea is that technology can be the main driver for evolving cross boundary collaboration in order to meet the demands of the world. Technology can be the main driver but only if we consider all of the important dimensions when implementing Information and communication technologies (ICT) In order to find the right method of using technology and scientific methods for achieving better cross boundary collaboration a number of data collection activities has been performed, described and analyzed in the work with this thesis. The activities has been diverse in its nature, brainstorming activities, qualitative interviews and a small case study has been combined in order to derive the result – a path forward against further research for a better cross boundary collaboration in our western community. The thesis now have identified a path forward and a scientific framework for taking all of our experiences, existing capabilities, earlier performed research one step further and lift it up to the cross boundary level in organizations and in our society. We have the chance of cultivating all of the properties, relations, amounts of information, and evolve our technology. This may be all that we need in order to achieve a more socially sustainable climate in leader- and followership in our organizations and society. Who knows … maybe we can change the world … or at least make a real difference somewhere!

This dissertation employs both design science and behavioral science research paradigms to investigate an emerging form of technology-enabled human collective intelligence known as information markets. This work establishes a conceptual foundation for the study of organizational information markets and the design and use processes of information markets inside organizations. This research conceptualizes markets from an information systems perspective and presents an information systems research framework for organizational information markets. This work develops a systems theory of information markets to facilitate investigation of the relationships and interactions between markets as systems and their context of use. It proposes a structuration model for design and use of IT artifacts in organizations and applies it to the study of information markets. A framework of market users is developed to guide market design to satisfy the different motivational and informational needs of market users. A design based solution is proposed to an important open question in the information markets literature; how to generate sufficient uninformed trades. This research extends structuration theory by developing the structuration model of technology-induced organization development. A well-designed information market can generate several benefits to organizations that contribute to their growth and development. Due to the importance of software in everyday life, and the high costs and percentages of failure in software projects, this dissertation proposes an information market solution to help organizations better manage the risks facing software projects. It also develops a theoretical framework for the determinants of software project risk assessment accuracy and evaluates the market‘s efficacy in improving assessment accuracy via the use of controlled laboratory experiments. The results of the experiments demonstrate the market‘s efficacy in improving assessment accuracy by increasing the currency, accuracy and completeness of reported status information about project main objectives such as cost, schedule, performance and functionality. The results also demonstrate the market‘s efficacy in increasing individual willingness to report negative status information by decreasing their perception of information asymmetry between them and management/clients, and by increasing their perception of both the anonymity of the reporting mechanism and their perceived self-interest in reporting negative status information.

The impacts of climate change on livestock production are complex problems, existing in the rela-tionship among this sector and others sectors such as environmental, social, economic and political systems. The complexity and dynamic of these impacts cannot be solved simply in isolation with the linear approach. A system thinking methodology is introduced in this paper to understand the impacts of climate change on livestock production, and identify effective interventions strategies to address this systemic problem. System thinking is a way of thinking about the world and relationships which has been developed far along way in the past. Today, systems thinking has become increasingly popular because it provides a \'new way of thinking\' to understand and manage complex problems, whether they rest within a local or global context. While four levels of thinking is a fundamental tool to identify systemic problems, Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) is a visual tool created by a computer program to illustrate the whole picture of climate change impacts. CLD consist of feedbacks for system, which help strategists identify appropriate intervention strategies in solving the systemic problem. / Ảnh hưởng của biến đổi khí hậu đến ngành chăn nuôi là một trong những vấn đề phức tạp, bởi mối quan hệ chặt chẽ có hệ thống của chúng với các lĩnh vực khác như môi trường, xã hội, kinh tế và chính trị. Những tác động phức tạp đa chiều này không thể giải quyết đơn thuần bằng các giải pháp mang tính đơn lẻ. Phương pháp tư duy hệ thống được giới thiệu trong bài này cho phép hiểu đầy đủ, có hệ thống các tác động của biến đổi khí hậu đến ngành chăn nuôi, đồng thời xác định được những giải pháp chiến lược phù hợp để giải quyết vấn đề mang tính hệ thống này. Tư duy hệ thống là cách tư duy và tiếp cận với sự vật, hiện tượng khách quan, và các mối quan hệ của chúng, phương pháp này đã được nghiên cứu và phát triển từ xa xưa. Ngày nay, tư duy hệ thống đang được ứng dụng phổ biến và rộng rãi hơn trong các nghiên cứu phát triển bền vững vì phương pháp này cung cấp một “tư duy mới” để hiểu và quản lý được các vấn đề phức tạp, dù chúng ở qui mô địa phương hay trên phạm vi toàn cầu. Trong đó, bốn cấp bậc của tư duy là công cụ cơ bản để nhận biết các vấn đề phức tạp, và sơ đồ các vòng tròn tác động (CLD) là công cụ trực quan được xây dựng bằng phần mềm máy tính để chỉ ra bức tranh toàn cảnh các tác động của biến đổi khí hậu. Các vòng tròn tác động này phản ánh các diễn biến thực tế và các thông tin giúp cho việc xác định các giải pháp chiến lược.

This thesis problematizes the concept of usefulness, in part by taking questions to the extreme. The starting point is the contemporary view of usefulness, a view that remains within a traditional paradigm of technical rationality in which important aspects are disregarded or not perceived because they are not part of the equation. For scrutiny of technological usefulness that is a socially situated phenomenon regarding physical systems, neither interpretivist nor positivist research approaches are sufficient. Both views are required. Critical Realism supports such duality, facilitating the combination of elements from different paradigms, and provides methodological guidelines for doing this. The critical realist approach makes it possible to transcend the boundaries of technical rationality and contribute an alternative definition of usefulness that takes into account also the situated, the contextual, and the unpredictable. The aim is that this definition will contribute to a transformation of society. Concepts related to usefulness, such as predictability, controllability, effectiveness, and safety, are revisited, redefined, or complemented. Underlying aspects and mechanisms are explored and tensions identified, resulting in a theoretical contribution with models and frameworks explaining what is argued to be the true nature of usefulness. Potentiality is suggested as a complementary concept to effectiveness, similar to how resilience complements safety. Situated usefulness is then defined using these four concepts. The phenomenon known as situation awareness is scrutinized as well, and complemented by system awareness and the thesis title concept, edge awareness. Four cases, two airline crashes and two nuclear power plant events, and three future scenarios, constitute the empirical contribution. The analysis shows that the contributed frameworks and redefinition of usefulness facilitate different or extended explanations of all four events, and that future cases lack considerations of situated usefulness. Research implications center on the human role and our responsibilities in relation to the technology that we use, and on the meaning of concepts defining this role. We are situated human beings. Our role is to be involved and responsible, a role requiring awareness and controllability. The escalating ubiquity and the character of computerized technological systems make therefore the quest for edge awareness more important than ever.

No campo das competências coletivas, a identificação e o reconhecimento de lacunas teóricoempíricas (BITENCOURT, 2001; BONOTTO, 2005; RUAS, 2001; SANDBERG, 2000) têm sido um importante elemento motivador de novos estudos na área. Assim, o presente estudo busca elementos que possam representar uma contribuição acadêmica ao campo das competências coletivas, desenvolvendo uma articulação conceitual com o pensamento sistêmico e com arranjos produtivos locais. Nessa articulação, o que se busca é identificar pontos de contato entre as três abordagens que possam representar avanços para a sua aplicação em projetos de desenvolvimento local. O principal objetivo é verificar como o pensamento sistêmico pode contribuir para a identificação das competências coletivas e seu estágio de formação, no caso, do APL vitivinícola da Serra Gaúcha. A metodologia utilizada foi o estudo de caso (YIN, 2005), com coleta de dados, através da história oral, baseada em entrevistas, observação direta e análise documental, tendo como unidade de análise as principais entidades que representam o setor vitivinícola nacional. Para análise dos resultados, foi utilizada a técnica de análise de conteúdo. Os principais resultados indicam que, através de um esforço deliberado, o nível de percepção relativo à interdependência presente no ALP vitivinícola da Serra Gaúcha, pode fomentar o desenvolvimento de uma cultura endógena de colaboração, que possibilite manifestar uma competência coletiva. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-05-13T15:33:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Adriana Locatelli Bertolini.pdf: 1613026 bytes, checksum: bdd54bc222feb5cfcb681aab474291c5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-13T15:33:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Adriana Locatelli Bertolini.pdf: 1613026 bytes, checksum: bdd54bc222feb5cfcb681aab474291c5 (MD5) / In the field of collective competences, identification and recognition of theoretical and empirical gaps (BITENCOURT, 2001; BONOTTO, 2005; RUAS, 2001; SANDBERG, 2000) have been an important motivator for further studies in the area. Thus, this study seeks to elements that may represent an academic contribution to the field of collective competences, developing a conceptual articulation with the systems thinking and local productive arrangements. In this connection, what is sought is to identify points of contact among the three approaches that can represent enhancements to its application in local development projects. The main objective is to identify how the system thinking may contribute to the identification of the collective competence and its stage of training based on Local Productive Arrangements of vitiviniculture of Serra Gaucha. The methodology used was a case study (YIN, 2005), with data collection through oral history, based on interviews, direct observation and document analysis, using for unit of analysis, the main agencies that represent the national wine industry. To analyze the results, we used the technique of content analysis. The main results indicate that through a deliberate effort, the level of perception in relation to the interdependence present in the LPA of vitiniculture of Serra Gaucha, can foster the development of a endogenous culture of collaboration that allows to express a collective competence.

Devido à complexidade das relações entre os mais diversos agentes nos mercados atuais, aumenta a importância do conhecimento a respeito do processo decisório desses agentes. Busca-se uma maior compreensão desse processo, relativo ao setor agropecuário, que, por sua vez, apresenta maior risco e incerteza do que outros negócios, pois está sujeito à sazonalidade da produção, à variável climática e à perecibilidade. Sabe-se também que a gestão das propriedades rurais, que compreende coleta de dados, geração de informações, tomadas de decisão e ações decorrentes, é insuficientemente tratada na literatura, uma vez que os trabalhos existentes nessa área estão mais restritos aos aspectos econômicos da gestão. Observa-se a necessidade de maior compreensão desses processos de gestão, a partir de uma visão holística, uma vez que o processo de tomada de decisão pode ser evidenciado por uma racionalidade que tende a incluir fatores sociais, políticos e culturais, ampliando a abrangência puramente econômica. Evidencia-se ainda a importância do elemento “informação”, disponível e utilizado no processo. Diante desse contexto, o presente estudo objetiva avaliar quais informações e fontes de informação são consideradas pelos produtores nas pequenas e médias unidades de produção, nos seus processos de tomada de decisão, em Giruá, na região noroeste do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. A pesquisa caracteriza-se como um estudo descritivo, o qual serviu para alcançar os objetivos definidos, procedendo-se, para tanto, o levantamento dos dados primários junto a 120 produtores da região. Após a coleta dos dados, efetuou-se a tabulação e análise estatística dos mesmos. Por meio dos resultados apresentados, pode-se identificar as informações que o produtor considera no seu processo decisório, as fontes de informação que os produtores utilizam e a respectiva avaliação sobre essas fontes. As relações entre as variáveis relevantes apresentadas permitem observar que a interação de elementos do sistema de produção pode influenciar o processo de tomada de decisão dos produtores, e que a compreensão do processo decisório dos produtores pode ser auxiliada pelo entendimento dessas relações, sob o enfoque que considera a exploração agrícola um sistema. Desse modo, este estudo contribui para ampliar a compreensão sobre o comportamento, as necessidades e o processo de tomada de decisão dos produtores rurais. / Having in mind the complexity of the relationships among several different agents in the markets nowadays, the importance of these agents’ decision-making process knowledge is on the increase. A higher comprehension of this process is sought in the agriculture and farm business sector, which in turn presents more risks than other sectors, because it is subject to the seasonality of the crops, to the climate variables, to the perishability of the production. It is also of concern that the management of rural properties, which demands data collection, information production, decision making and consequent actions, is insufficiently covered in the literature, since the current bibliography in this area is mostly restrict to the economical aspects of management. Thus, it is necessary to analyze it from a holistic view, since the process of decision-making can be evidenced by a rationality that tends to include social, political and cultural factors, extending the range that was only economical. The importance of the information available and used in the process is also evidenced. In the face of this context, the present study was conducted in order to evaluate what sort of information and what sources of information are considered by the farm producer in the small and medium-sized units of production, during their processes of decision making, in Giruá, in the northwest region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The research is characterized as a descriptive study, which has helped reach the presented objectives. The procedures were the primary data collection across a hundred and twenty farm producers in the region. After the collection, the data was tabulated and statistically analyzed. Through the presented results, it was possible to identify which sort of information the rural producer takes into consideration in his decision making process, which sources of information he uses and their corresponding evaluation of these sources. The relationships among the relevant variables presented lead to observe that the interactions among the elements of the production system can influence the producers’ decision making process, and that, from the view of agricultural exploitation as a system, the comprehension of these relationships can help the producers understand the decision making process. Thus, this study contributes to the enhancement of the comprehension of the behavior, the needs and the decision making process of the farm producers.

A publicação do livro “The machine that changed the world” de Womack et al. (1990) tornou popular no mundo ocidental o termo Lean, que segundo os autores seria a forma generalizada do sistema Toyota de produção. Desde então, a academia tem se dedicado a estudar diversos aspectos envolvidos com o Lean. Apesar do conhecimento teórico gerado, poucas empresas têm conseguindo aplicar esta estratégia de manufatura apropriadamente e experimentar os supostos benefícios. Este é o caso, por exemplo, da siderúrgica AGR (nome fictício). Em 2004, a empresa iniciou um programa formal para transformação Lean e poucos anos depois os esforços foram descontinuados. Recentemente, novos direcionamentos na empresa conduziram à retomada destes esforços. Neste contexto específico, um questionamento foi realizado: como os esforços Lean podem ser retomados e organizados na AGR? Cabe ressaltar que implicitamente este questionamento desdobrou em uma revisão da literatura que identificou diferentes pontos de vista teóricos sobre o fenômeno Lean. Neste sentido, Fujimoto (1999), como pensador mais proeminente da escola de pensamento evolucionária – utilizando uma abordagem interpretativista – argumenta que a Toyota apresenta uma capacidade de aprendizagem evolucionária que permite a emergência de um novo sistema de manufatura ao longo do tempo. A provável ausência desta capacidade de aprendizagem em empresas que buscam se tornar Lean indicaria uma das razões pelas quais se tem dificuldade em alcançar e sustentar este sistema. Observando a descrição desta capacidade na Toyota, verifica-se que a mesma ocorre via construção social da realidade. Desta forma, uma aprendizagem similar poderia ser gerada ao operacionalizar-se a Soft Systems Methodology no processo de estruturação da transformação Lean. Uma pesquisa-ação foi conduzida para avaliar esta possibilidade na prática e ao mesmo tempo auxiliar a AGR com a situação problemática na retomada dos esforços Lean. / The term lean became popular in the Western world after publication of "The machine that changed the world" (Womack et al., 1990) which argues it is the generalized form of the Toyota Production System. Since then, the academy has been investigating several aspects about it. Despite theoretical knowledge contribution, few companies have been able to implement this manufacturing strategy properly and, therefore, have experienced the supposed benefits. This is the case of AGR (fictitious name) steelmaking facility. The company started a lean transformation program in 2004 and few years later the efforts were discontinued. Recently new directions led other attempt at lean efforts. In this particular context, an inquiry was made: how the lean efforts can be organized and reinitiate in AGR? It is noteworthy that this implicitly unfolded a literature review that identified different theoretical views on the lean phenomenon. Fujimoto (1999) as the most prominent thinker of evolutionary school of thought – using an interpretivist approach – argues that Toyota has an evolutionary learning capability that enables the emergence of a new manufacturing system over time. The absence of a similar learning capability in companies seeking lean practices indicates one possible reason why they are difficult to achieve and sustain. Fujimoto (1999) describes it operating at Toyota through social construction of reality. Thus, a similar learning could be generated applying the Soft Systems Methodology as the structuration process for lean transformation. An action research was conducted to evaluate this proposition in practice and at the same time to help AGR in the attempt at lean efforts.