This work deals with programs designed to manage data networks and to their use in managerial practice. The purpose is to explain how these programs contribute to a systemic understanding of managed network and system thinking. All these methods are applied on example of two largest wireless ISP companies in South Bohemia. The dissertation explains the issue of making mental models of the managed network, which concerns specially managers of ISP companies. The work is not an administrator view at programs for network management, but rather a management view and instructions how to use these programs in management decisions to solve complex problems and future development of managed network.

In an ever-changing world of work Absa, as a business, is faced with various challenges including the continuous development of skills. Due to technological advancements, eLearning can provide a mechanism to rapidly build the required strategic and tactical skills that the organisation needs. This study explored the challenge of articulating the contribution of eLearning to business performance in an unbounded way. The study focused on the creation of knowledge about how the contribution of eLearning to business performance can be improved. In the process of knowledge creation, the study focused on identifying the point of value creation between Business and an eLearning intervention. This point of value creation can be seen as a leverage point. Systems Thinking was implemented as an approach in order to identify the leverage point. The following research objectives were defined: · To identify the driver problem that prevents eLearning from improving business performance. · To design the systems dynamic model that represents the driver problem. · To identify the leverage point within the systems dynamic model. · To reflect on the effect that the behaviour of the individuals, participating in the research process, has on the research inquiry. The sample of 28 focus group participants was selected from two specific divisions of Absa – the eChannels: Contact Centre and the Learning and Development Department. This sample consisted of Operational Management, Team Leaders, Contact Centre Consultants and learning design experts. Executive Management was excluded from the focus groups, but was included in the process as verifiers. This created an opportunity for Executive Management to voice their opinions. The results of the study indicate that the leverage point for successful contribution of eLearning to business performance is … A shared mental model of expectations between the participating stakeholders. Once Business and the Learning and Development Department start going through the constructive cycle of the systems dynamic model repeatedly, they will continuously build the shared mental model of expectations. This cycle will also build on the: 1) Level of visible support of the line managers; 2) Level of clarity of business needs to all relevant stakeholders; 3) Number of requests from business for eLearning opportunities; and 4) Level of awareness and understanding of appropriate eLearning interventions per target population. The effect of the positive reinforcement of the recurring cycle will ensure that eLearning continuously contributes to business performance. During the study the effect of the research process on the focus group participants as well as the effect of the focus group participants on the research process was also accounted for. Observers reflected on the behaviour of the focus group participants and found that their opinions and thought processes influenced the outcome of the study. The focus group participants felt that they had learnt something new, that the tasks set to the groups was clear and that the topics they had learnt most about were ‘systems thinking’ followed by the ’ relationship between eLearning and business performance’. Copyright / Thesis (PhD (Curriculum Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

Komplexitet och flexibilitet är två faktorer som präglar dagens arbetsplatser, gamla etablerade mönster ersätts med nya och ständigt föränderliga organisations - och anställningsformer. Arbetet är en essentiell del av individens tillvaro som bidrar till inkomsttrygghet såväl som social samhörighet och känsla av identitet. Likaså som förändringar utmanar organisationers och anställdas trygghet skapas också möjlighet för nya infallsvinklar samt strukturella åtgärder. För att hantera dessa förutsättningar är det betydelsefullt att identifiera de områden som lägger grund och främjar arbetsplatsens hållbarhet. Syftet med studien var att utifrån en hälsofrämjande ansats analysera och beskriva medarbetares upplevelser av lärande inom organisationen, samt identifiera faktorer som skapar en hållbar och attraktiv arbetsplats. Den teoretiska referensramen består av teorierna; Senges fem discipliner, Empowerment och WHO- modellen Healthy Workplace. Studien utgår ifrån ett hermeneutiskt förhållningssätt och en abduktiv ansats. Empirin har samlats in genom åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer och analyserades genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys som resulterade i två huvudkategorier och sex subkategorier. Resultatet redogör för hälsofrämjande faktorer i form av ett starkt medarbetarskap som utgörs av en trygg och stabil arbetsmiljö där sammanhållningen stärker både den inre- och yttre kvaliteten. Kompetensutveckling sker formellt som informellt, där arbetsplatslärande som sker mellan medarbetare lyfts fram som mest framträdande. Det förutsätter vidare en öppen dialog, struktur och ett positivt arbetsklimat. Slutligen visade studiens fynd att medarbetarskapet är kärnan i att utveckla starka attraktionsattribut och är avgörande för vad som håller medarbetarna kvar på arbetsplatsen. Vidare konstaterades att ledarskapet ger förutsättningar för att medarbetare tillsammans arbetar i hållbart samt trivsamt arbetsklimat, med fokus på medarbetarnas välmående och arbetstillfredsställelse. / Complexity and flexibility are two factors that characterize today's labor market; old established patterns are replaced with new and ever-changing forms of organization and employment. Work is an essential part of the individual's existence that consists of income security as well as social affiliation and sense of identity. Just as changes challenge the security of organizations and employees, opportunities for new approaches and structural measures are also created. In order to deal with these conditions, it is important to identify the areas that lay the groundwork and promote the sustainability of the workplace. The aim of the study was to analyze and describe employees' experiences of learning within the organization, as well as identify factors that create a sustainable and attractive workplace based on a health promotion approach. The theoretical frame consists of the theories; Senge's five disciplines, Empowerment and WHO- model Healthy Workplace. The study is based on a hermeneutic and abductive approach. The empirical data was collected through eight semi-structured interviews and analyzed through a qualitative content analysis that resulted in two main categories and six subcategories. The result showed that health-promoting factors in form of a strong co-workership that consists of a safe and stable work environment where good companionship strengthens both the internal and external quality. Competence development takes place formally as informally, where workplace learning that occurs between employees is highlighted as most prominent. It also requires an open dialogue, structure and a positive working climate. Finally, the study's findings demonstrate that the co-workership is the core of developing strong attraction attributes and is crucial to what keeps employees in the workplace. Furthermore, it was found that the leadership provides the conditions for employees to work together in a sustainable and pleasant working climate, focusing on the employees' well-being and job satisfaction.

The increasing complexity of embedded systems development is becoming difficult to handle with development environments based on disjoint engineering tools. Support for interactions between various engineering tools, especially through automated means, has therefore received an increased amount of attention during the last few years. The subsequent increase in the amount of tool integration is leading to an increased impact of tool integration on non-functional properties of development efforts, development environments and end products. At the same time there is a lack of methods and tools for analysing the relationship between these properties and tool integration. To establish a foundation for analysing this generic relationship, the specific relationship between tool integration and the safety of end products is analysed in this thesis. A survey was conducted to analyze the State of the Art of tool integration as related to safety. This survey specifically identified the lack of an efficient handling of tool integration by modern safety standards as an important concern. In relation to this survey, three theories were identified as of specific importance. These are the school of thought known as Systems Thinking, the Systems-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) causality model and the System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) hazard analysis technique. Building on these theories, this thesis provides original contributions intended to (1) describe concepts and models related to tool integration and safety (the first and second contribution), (2) link tool integration to safety in a way that reduces complexity during analysis (the third contribution) and (3) propose how to interpret and make use of the implications of the presented theories and the first three contributions (the fourth and fifth contribution). • The first contribution is a new conceptual model of a development effort that emphasizes tool integration. • The second contribution is a new reference model for tool integration in highly heterogeneous environments. • The third contribution consists of nine safety-related tool chain properties, i.e. properties of tool chains that could mitigate at least part of the risks introduced by tool integration. • The fourth contribution is a proposition on how to identify safety implications due to a high level of automation of tool integration. • The fifth contribution is a proposition for a new software tool qualification process.

<p>Software modeling is an integral practice for software engineers especially as the complexity of software solutions increase. There is precedent in industry to model information systems in terms of functions, structures, and behaviors. While constructing these models, abstraction and systems thinking are employed to determine elements essential to the solution and how they are connected. However, both abstraction and systems thinking are difficult to put in practice and difficult to teach due to the, often, ill-structured nature of real-world IT problems. Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the industry standard for software modeling but unfortunately it is often used incorrectly and misunderstood by novices. This has also been observed in educational contexts where students encounter difficulty in employing the appropriate level of abstraction in modeling and programming contexts and not necessarily being able to view or treat software systems as being interconnected. </p> <p>The researcher detailed a multi-methods approach, through the lens of pragmatism, towards understanding patterns of student proficiency with abstraction and software modeling in terms capturing the functional, structural, and behavioral aspects of an information system, as given by the Structures-Behaviors-Function framework. The quantitative strand involved the development of rubrics to analyze functional, structural, and behavioral models given by UML activity diagrams, class diagrams, and sequence diagrams, respectively. The subjects of this study were students enrolled in a sophomore-level systems analysis and design class. Descriptive analysis revealed patterns of modeling proficiency. Students were generally proficient in modeling the system in terms of functions but there was an overall drop-off in proficiency when modeling the system in terms of structures and behaviors. The results of the clustering analysis revealed underlying profiles of students based on abstract thinking and systems thinking ability. Two distinct clusters – high performing students and moderate performing students – were revealed with statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of abstract thinking and systems thinking ability. Further correlational analysis was performed on each cluster. The results of the correlational analyses pointed to significant positive associations between software modeling proficiency and the constructs of abstract thinking and systems thinking. Logistic regression analysis was then performed, and it could be inferred from the regression model that abstract thinking in terms of behaviors and systems thinking in terms of aligning sequence diagrams with activity diagrams were the most important predictors of high performance. </p> The qualitative strand of this study involved a case study approach using the think-aloud protocol centered around exploring how students utilized abstract thinking and systems thinking while constructing software models. The participants of this study were students who had completed the sophomore-level systems analysis and design course. Thematic analysis was utilized to identify themes of abstract thinking and systems thinking within the epistemic games of structural, functional, and process analyses. Two different approaches towards modeling information systems were identified and chronological visualizations for each approach were presented. Overall, it could be inferred from the results and findings of the study that the learning design of the sophomore-level course was successful in equipping students with the skills to proficiently model information systems in terms of functions. However, the students were not as proficient in modeling information systems in terms of structures and behaviors. The theoretical contribution of this study was centered around the application of the SBF framework and epistemic forms and games in the context of information systems. The methodological contributions pertain to the rubrics that were developed which can be used to evaluate software modeling proficiency as well as abstract thinking and systems thinking. Abstract thinking and systems thinking were successfully characterized in the context of information systems modeling. The results of this study have implications in computing education. The suggested instructional approaches and scaffolds can be utilized to improve outcomes in terms of structural and behavioral modeling proficiency.

Urbanization coupled with the lack of space has led to soil sealing and encroachment upon stream corridors in many cities the world over. This has caused not just the degradation of the riparian ecosystem, but has also increased the frequency and intensity of flash flooding. India is one of the countries worst affected by urban floods. To manage flood risk, especially in the case of rain-fed urban streams, not just the government but also the public needs to be engaged in the management of the stream corridor. In this context of flood risk management, the resilience concept is increasingly being applied. It revisits some fundamental notions conventionally associated with viewing and managing floods, beginning by acknowledging that floods are natural and unavoidable, and resilience, not stability is the desirable quality. This research aims to study how governance attributes like public participation can enhance flood resilience. To this end, relevant literature on resilience and governance has been studied followed by a study of the events surrounding the flooding of the Ramnadi stream corridor in Pune city through policy analysis, data derived from documents and maps, and through semi-structured interviews with stakeholders like locals, experts, activists and civic authorities. Categorization and meaning interpretation of relevant data has enabled an analysis of the governance structure for the Ramnadi corridor using a causal loop diagram. The nodes, linkages and feedback loops in this diagram have been studied to understand how public participation affects resilience characteristics. Findings of this investigation along with draft recommendations for specific actors were presented to stakeholders in a validation workshop. Implications of the results on the theories of flood resilience, governance and public participation have been examined which has enabled their analytic generalization. General policy recommendations have been based on this. Subsequently, recommendations which promote systems approach based public participation and systems thinking in the governance of social-ecological systems have been made.:Table of Contents i List of figures iv List of tables vi Abbreviations vi Definitions vii 1 Introduction: Urban Floods, Urban Causes 1 1.1 Urban flood risk in India 3 1.2 Flooding in urban stream corridors 5 1.3 Rationale and aims of the research 8 1.4 Structure of the document 9 2 Theoretical and Conceptual Framework 13 2.1 Flood risk management 15 2.1.1 Towards a systems approach 16 2.2 Social-ecological systems 17 2.2.1 The stream corridor as a social-ecological system 17 2.3 Resilience 22 2.3.1 From ecological resilience to social-ecological resilience 23 2.3.2 Characteristics of resilience 24 2.4 Resilience in the light of other prevalent concepts for flood risk management 29 2.5 Flood Resilience 30 2.5.1 Flood resistance vs flood resilience 31 2.6 Governance 32 2.6.1 Resilience building attributes of governance 33 2.6.2 The Resilience characteristics vs. Governance attributes matrix 36 2.6.3 Special focus: Public participation 37 2.7 Research Questions 44 2.8 Conclusions from the theoretical and conceptual study 45 3 Research design and methods 47 3.1 Overall research design 48 3.1.1 The case study approach 51 3.1.2 Sampling of the case study 54 3.1.3 Boundaries of the case study 56 3.2 Data collection methods 57 3.2.1 Why interviews? 57 3.2.2 Interviewing techniques 58 3.3 Data analysis 61 3.3.1 Coding and Categorization 63 3.3.2 Meaning interpretation: 64 3.3.3 Causal loop diagram 65 3.3.4 Validation of the results and recommendations 66 3.4 Concluding remarks on the adopted research design and methods 67 4 The Ramnadi corridor: A Social-Ecological System 69 4.1 Ramnadi in context 70 4.2 A journey along the Ramnadi 75 4.2.1 Section 1: Ramnadi at the source 77 4.2.2 Section 2: Ramnadi in Bhukum 79 4.2.3 Section 3: Ramnadi between Bhukum and Pune Municipal Corporation limits 84 4.2.4 Section 4: Ramnadi in Bavdhan 87 4.2.5 Section 5: Ramnadi between the Pashan Lake and its confluence with the Mula River 91 4.3 Conclusion after the Ramnadi corridor reconnaissance 93 5 Changes in flood governance and observations from the case study 95 5.1 The history of local governance in India 96 5.2 Institutional framework for urban flood management in India 97 5.3 Flood governance and participation in the stream corridors of PunePune 98 5.3.1 The Ramnadi 98 5.3.2 The Devnadi 103 5.4 Remarks on the changes in flood governance seen in the case study 105 6 Understanding the causal links between governance attributes and flood resilience 107 6.1 The need for a Causal Loop Diagram 108 6.2 Causal Loop Diagram 109 6.2.1 Use of Causal Loop Diagram in this Thesis 109 6.2.2 The importance of identifying archetypes 111 6.2.3 Explanation of the causal loop diagram of governance of the Ramnadi corridor 113 6.2.4 Understanding the implications of change in the governance structure between 2010 and 2016 on flood resilience 141 6.3 The importance of public participation for flood resilience 142 6.3.1 Public participation promotes self-organization 142 6.3.2 Public participation increases the adaptive capacity through promotion of learning 142 6.3.3 Public participation increases robustness 143 6.3.4 Public participation increases redundancy 143 6.3.5 Public participation can increase resilience by boosting other governance attributes 143 6.3.6 Some emerging ideas on complex systems and their implications for public participation 145 6.4 Benefits of systems thinking and of the causal loop diagram for public participation 147 6.5 Conclusions from the causal loop diagram based study 149 7 Towards flood resilience through public participation 151 7.1 Continuous public participation and event-based public participation 153 7.1.1 The need for continuous public participation 154 7.1.2 Disadvantages of continuous public participation 158 7.2 Institutional recommendations for continuous public participation 158 7.2.1 Municipal Corporations and other urban local development bodies 158 7.2.2 Schools: 164 7.2.3 NGOs: 166 7.2.4 Ward Councils: 167 7.3 Conclusion 169 8 Epilogue: Discussion and Avenues for Further Research 171 8.1 Answering the research questions in the course of this research 172 8.2 Key lessons 173 8.3 Theoretical contribution to governance, public participation and resilience 174 8.3.1 Interplay between governance attributes 174 8.3.2 A new paradigm for classification of public participation 175 8.3.3 Systems approach for social-ecological resilience 175 8.4 Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 176 8.5 Limitations of the research 176 8.6 Avenues for further research 177 9 References 179 10 Appendices 193

<p>In recent years, science has shifted from a focus on reductionist explanations of biological phenomena to a more integrated, systems approach. This shift has made its way into curricular recommendations for undergraduate education. To understand complex biological phenomena, it has been argued that students employ mechanistic reasoning, in which one describes a mechanism by identifying the activities that produce change, the entities which engage in activities, and the starting and ending conditions. Students’ use of mechanistic reasoning requires engaging in the complex task of simultaneously integrating and coordinating multiple elements across space and time. In addition, students must link and organize their scientific ideas and then structure their thoughts into a network of knowledge, as described by the theory of knowledge integration. Previous studies that have explored students’ understanding of scientific concepts using knowledge integration as a lens found that students’ nonmechanistic ideas prevented them from identifying gaps in the connections between their ideas and from forming normative knowledge. Thus, this dissertation investigates the features of undergraduate biology students’ systems thinking using knowledge integration and mechanistic reasoning as conceptual and analytical frameworks. Using a semi-structured interview, we asked students to describe functional definitions of and relationships between three fundamental modules in biology (i.e., gene regulation, cell-cell communication, and the relationship between genotype and phenotype). In the first study, we found that the majority of students did not have normative functional definitions for how and why gene regulation occurs or how phenotype is regulated. When describing the relationships in an open context, most students expressed unidirectional, linear knowledge networks which lacked Mechanistic connections. In our second study, we examined how students described a transition point in biofilm development after being cued to think about the three modules. Though students struggled to transfer over relevant ideas to the biofilm context (such as gene regulation and cell-cell communication processes), we found that explanations were more specified in the nature of connections and content including more Mechanistic descriptions. In the third study, we explored features of biology students’ and instructors’ knowledge networks in an open context and situated to a context of the participants’ choice. Within an open context, most students described multidirectional, non-linear knowledge networks similar to instructors. In the specific context, the majority of students described non-linear knowledge networks, but some students modified their structures to be linear. Although the structures became less complex in the specific context, the nature of connections and content became more specified. Across all studies, we found that context greatly affected students’ systems thinking as revealed by the changing features of the knowledge networks. Specifically, context helped students identify what relationships they deeply understood and could transfer and allowed for the creation of a detailed explanation relevant to the specific biological phenomenon. For students to develop a broad systems perspective of biology, we recommend instructors engage students in the process of knowledge integration. Embed opportunities for students to think about biology concepts in various contexts, particularly where students grapple with nuanced and complex transfer of ideas. These practices will encourage students to form causal, mechanistic linkages between concepts and build an integrated, expert-like understanding of biology.</p>

This research is an exploratory study on green roof adoption by medium to large private housing organizations in Malmö, Sweden. The research aims to explore the drivers and the barriers for the green roofs adoption. Also to look for what leadership effect on overcoming the barriers and promoting the drivers for green roof adoption. The theoretical contribution is the assessment of the motivations on transformational and adaptive leadership. The thesis employs a qualitative method with non-structured and semi-structured interviews. It develops an analytical framework combining systems thinking and leadership theories to look on the practice of green roof adoption. The thesis identifies the main drivers and barriers in relation to the internal and external positions of actors and rules in the system of green roof adoption in Malmö among private housing organizations. The main findings are that transformational leadership effect motives on overcoming the barriers and adaptive leadership motivation effect on promoting the drivers. It also summarizes three categories of green roof adoption, namely the transformations, adapters and green skinners. The study also has practical contribution with recommendation of policy implication to Malmö. Furthermore, models and figures for future researches on green roof adoption among housing organizations.

Circular fashion has become a favoured option for the fashion industry to transition toward as the fast fashion industry becomes unsustainable. Current research within academia, business and policy focuses on the lifecycle stages of the garments, with the designer and design phase in focus. Research on circular economy predominantly looks at material flows and the lifecycle. This however fails to acknowledge potential innovation and the capacity for this change to occur. This study uncovers the perspectives of the designer, who are largely absent from the current research agenda, in order to identify leverage points in the current system which would allow accelerated transition toward a circular fashion system. Using workshops as a method to involve designers, paired together with critical systems theory; the study first highlights a large gap between academia and reality, and reveals that there is a large misconception between designers from fast fashion and designers from luxury fashion and the power influences they allow, while, underlying internal organizational structures pose as an obstacle minimizing capacities for change. Finally, using a three horizons framework as a technique, six leverage points are identified: cultural norm, strong teams, digitalization, leadership for sustainability, education &amp; knowledge and reducing intergenerational conflicts. Overall, the study provides a holistic view of the current environment and the transition toward circular fashion, how lifecycle phases connect to circular economy frameworks and highlights innovation and the ways in which the designer can be re-empowered. The study bridges fashion business with sustainability science in a straightforward way and sets and refines the future research on solutions and challenges.

Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) organizations, which provide health care services to low-income, underserved patients, are underfunded. From 2000 to 2007, the cost of treating an FQHC patient increased by $146, while federal compensation to FQHCs increased by only $44 per patient. One FQHC organization in rural Alabama experienced financial losses from the fiscal year 2011 through 2014, jeopardizing services to approximately 6,000 low-income patients. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to analyze the subject organization and discover opportunities to improve financial performance. The research question pertained to the opportunities for improving profitability at the subject organization. The conceptual framework was the systems thinking model. Along with data from the literature review, reviews of the organization's archived data containing employee feedback and feedback from unstructured interviews of four of the 14 FQHC chief executive officers in Alabama were used to develop the profitability model. No employees were interviewed or surveyed during this study, however, a review of archived documents revealed information provided by employees that was helpful in developing the profitability model. To help determine the subject organization's performance, data from independent auditors, technical assistants, FQHC performance reports, the organization's electronic health record system, accounting system, meeting minutes and performance reports were coded, classified, and analyzed. Data from these sources was compared to the profitability model and a gap analysis was used to identify the areas and causes of poor performance. The results indicated that the rural environment impacted the organization's financial performance. The subject FQHC organization may be able to use the results of this study to improve profitability. This study contributes to positive social change by providing a profitability model that other FQHC organizations may use to improve their financial viability and expand services to underserved patients throughout the United States.