This qualitative study explores how roles are constructed within interprofessional health care teams. It focuses on elucidating the different types of role boundaries, the influences on role construction and the implications for professionals and patients. A comparative case study was conducted with two interprofessional primary health care teams. The data collection included a total of 26 interviews (13 with each team) and non-participant observations of team meetings (2-3 meetings at each site). Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data and a model was developed to represent the emergent findings. The role boundaries are organized around interprofessional interactions (autonomous-collaborative boundaries) and the distribution of tasks (interchangeable-differentiated boundaries). Salient influences are categorized as structural, interpersonal and individual dynamics. The implications of role construction include professional satisfaction and more favourable wait times for patients. The elements in this conceptual model may be transferable to other interprofessional primary health care teams. It may benefit these teams by raising awareness of the potential impact of various within-team influences on role construction.

Children’s mental healthcare in Canada is undergoing a transition: instead of community- and hospital-based services working in parallel, there is a shift to increasing collaboration. When community- and hospital-based children’s mental health service providers work together, differences in their philosophical approaches to treatment can be revealed. However, client experiences of these philosophical differences have not been explored. In this hermeneutic phenomenological study, I interviewed young people and their families who had lived experience of collaboration in a mid-sized Canadian city. I considered the results of these interviews with families who were new to treatment that was shared between hospital- and community-based services in light of literature on current initiatives in collaborative mental health care. I situated my results in the context of my on-going work as a service provider in this Canadian city alongside the reflections of service providers from the two organizations that were the focus of my research: the Children's Hospital and the Community Agency. I found that young people and their parents experience their care as being in a constant state of crisis when connections between these services are not explicit. In contrast, when connections are clear, families feel more able to manage their children’s care. As well, service providers find that when explicit connections are forged between community-and hospital-based services, collaboration becomes more straightforward and is experienced as less hierarchical. The results of my research provide concrete tools, contextualized in the real worlds of current practitioners and clients, to help the future psychotherapists of Ontario work collaboratively towards supporting young people and their families who seek treatment for mental health diagnoses.

Many public health and social issues faced by society today are multifaceted and require joint and collaborative efforts through health promotion partnerships. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is one strategy that consists of engaging community stakeholders from various sectors to pool their expertise and resources in addressing health and social issues holistically. The literature indicates that the effectiveness of partnerships, such as those established within CBPR initiatives, is influenced by collaborative mechanisms that promote the creation of synergy among partners. There is, however, a lack of knowledge with regards to synergy and its key determinants in the context of health promotion partnerships. This qualitative thesis study is conducted as part of The EnRiCH Project, a CBPR initiative conducted in four communities across Canada, which aims at enhancing resilience and preparedness for disasters among high-risk populations. It explores the creation of synergy through the study of dynamics of collaboration shaping the EnRiCH-Québec City partnership and influencing its ability to leverage community resources for emergency preparedness. Emergent themes highlight that optimal collaboration in the EnRiCH-Québec City partnership is about having the “right people, in the right place, at the right time”. These findings provide evidence to inform community stakeholders, researchers and decision-makers on the dynamics of synergy creation and its implications for partnership growth and effectiveness.

Contemporary co-living, as an accommodation alternative, is in a unique position to provide social fulfilment and sustainable development through sharing and community generation. However, it is increasingly clear that there is a lack of understanding of the realities of these spaces, and that this limiting the commercial application of the co-living model. Existing architecture, artefacts, and services are failing to accommodate the needs and objectives of collective users. Therefore, to experience the full ecological, social, and economic benefits of co-living, research must be performed to understand how residents share, experience, and inhabit space. This project responds by applying design thinking and collaborative exploration methods to produce case studies for two contrasting co-living developments in London, UK. Workshops, observations, literature research, and interviews build a foundation of contemporary knowledge. This inspires the design of an exploratory, pedagogical tool, in the form of a modular furniture collection. On top of its physical functionality, it offers developers the opportunity to learn and experiment towards a better understanding of how residents utilise space and resources. A prototype is built and tested with both case study sites acting as Living Labs. The design intervention produces a positive increase in resident well-being and confidence in interacting with the space around them. Moreover, developers confirm an increased understanding of the resident's needs and actions. The success of the project shows the role design can play in contemporary research, positive change, and sustainable development. The results have implications for co-living providers, researchers, and designers supporting sustainable lifestyle alternatives.

Background: To stay competitive and efficient on a global market, firms have to generate new products and service ideas using closed or open innovation processes. Open innovation activities emerge from both internal and external innovative resources and while SMEs could and do adopt a variation of innovation models, they tend to adopt open innovation activities. Collaboration is one of the most important factors of open innovation and SMEs collaborate to enhance their internal innovation activities and outcomes, as it provides them access to complementary assets and technologically knowledge. However, the literature is not clear as to how SME decide on prospect partners." Purpose:The overall purpose of this thesis is to map the structure of the decision-making process of SMEs regarding partner selection at the early stage of technology exploration (R&D stage) within open innovation and new product development. Method:The approach of this study is a qualitative research method with an abductive inspired research approach. The data are collected through interview study. A Theory Driven Thematic Analysis technique is used to analyse the data. The respondents are found by nonprobability sampling in form of purposive sampling. Findings:Our findings show that SMEs managers, R&D managers, and CEOs who participated within this research consider many practical factors that drive their decision making process regarding partner selection. The main goal they try to achieve when choosing partners is to build collaborations with: the highest quality of outcomes, most cost-effective activities, and most time-effective processes. Conclusion:SMEs, within our sample, do not follow a specific or pre-written strategies when choosing partners. Moreover, SMEs managers prefer to innovate internally without collaborations if they had the needed resources. If SMEs manager had to collaborate, they search for existing partners. However, if they had no existing partners to fulfil the needed resources, they search for new partners

The diploma thesis deals with the specific collaborative tools used in given company. It aims to validate the hypotheses selected within the surveyed company. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part contains theoretical bases of the thesis. It outlines issues of information technology and communication tools since their beginnings towards the latest trends. The focus is on enterprise Microsoft and its products Microsoft Lync, Microsoft SharePoint and Windows Phone and enterprise BlackBerry and its contribution to the development and use of mobile communication devices. The practical part contains characteristics of surveyed company, the process of creating the survey, methodology, analysis and evaluation of given hypotheses.

Increasing collaborative working between GPs and community pharmacists has recently become a high priority for the NHS. Previous research suggests that interaction is limited and problematic between the two professions, forming a barrier to service provision. This PhD aimed to explore the level, nature and process of interaction between GPs and community pharmacists, using a social network analysis approach.The study focused on four geographically different case study areas and 90 GPs and community pharmacists participated in total. A two-stage design was adopted. Firstly data were collected through a network questionnaire and analysed using social network analysis. Secondly, qualitative interviews were conducted to provide narrative to the network findings and analysed using the framework approach.The nature of contact was characterised as mostly indirect through brokers, de-personalised and non-reciprocal and seemingly at odds with collaborative behaviour. A misalignment in responses pointed to asymmetry in the relationship, representing little commonality, knowing and understanding of each other. Through social network analysis, individuals and dyads in possession of strong ties were identified. Strong ties were not the norm and were characterised by more personalised forms of reciprocal contact. Qualitative interviews provided insight into the processes of interaction between the two professional groups. An approach to the interaction, which involved pharmacists tactically managing the potential conflict in the interaction through use of deferential and sometimes subservient behaviour, was conceptualised as the ‘pharmacist-GP game’. Those pharmacists with strong ties to GPs also, at times, adopted aspects of this approach but also attempted to set themselves apart from other pharmacists in order to develop and maintain their strong ties with GPs. However, possession of strong ties did not always lead to capitalisation, and the benefits of possessing these were often viewed as efficiency and convenience gains rather than anything more wide-reaching. Often, more isolated GPs and pharmacists did not view strong ties as a necessity, with the benefits of these not considered rewarding enough for the time and effort required to achieve them. This effort-reward conflict was identified as an important constraint faced by GPs and pharmacists in relation to transforming these loose connections into more integrated networks. Other micro and macro level constraints were also identified and a series of accompanying recommendations made for future practice and research.

This study explores the capabilities of collaborative intermediary organisations (CIOs) and its value generating potential at the city scale. As an emerging organisational form, CIOs create public interest value by creating specific platforms for deliberations and collaboration between diverse stakeholders. This study is important in light of growing and divisive economic and social disparities. Effective solutions to complex problems require legitimate collaborative platforms aimed at creating public interest value. CIOs are one such platform. This study first explores the Johannesburg inner city context to understand the potential and design implications for CIOs. It furthermore identifies CIO capabilities and explores the question of how CIOs create value. Sixteen interviews with CIO leaders, experts and sector representatives from business, government and the community involved with CIOs were conducted. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather qualitative data which was analysed through content analysis. The research findings suggest that despite a challenging partnership context, through particular design considerations and relevant organisational capabilities, CIOs are a useful and noteworthy enabler for public interest value creation. The identified capabilities are collaborative leadership, the ability to build trust in action, supporting weaker sector to fulfill mandates, sound analytical skills as well as distinctive attributes which emphasise a commitment to the long term. CIOs create value directly by convening partners, providing a neutral platform and a ‘translation’ service, as well as through creatively leveraging diverse perspectives. The findings further show that leadership and mutual interest between sectors are the primary sources of CIO value. The value is realised through interaction between the respective partners which provides a host of intangible benefits. The study furthermore shows the potential of capable CIOs to activate further collaborative value. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Background: The world becomes more connected as technology advances and with the internet as a distribution channel more companies internationalises. However, there are still cultural differences around the world that marketers must take into consideration. The marketing industry faces difficult challenges in adaptation to international marketing, as collaboration between local marketing agencies could be a solution.   Purpose: The purpose of the study is to contribute with understanding of how local marketing agencies can work together for global clients, and how these agencies can adapt local marketing for these clients. In order to understand how marketing agencies can work together, this study will contribute with understanding of this collaboration between local marketing agencies and how they can help each other grow their businesses.   Method: This study uses a qualitative method with unstructured interviews of five people operational within a network of local marketing agencies.     Theory: The theoretical framework for this study consists of theories in international marketing, collaboration and learning.   Results and conclusions: By collaborating in a network, local marketing agencies get access to international markets and can support global clients. By having multiple local agencies working together for global clients, these agencies all provide local knowledge and create local communication. The collaboration in a network is most effective if the competition is eliminated, which can be done through shared ownership and personal connection within the network.

The aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States resulted in the introduction of the National Fusion Center Network. This effort seeks to empower National Security by effectively sharing information between various law enforcement organizations. Since the establishment of the Network, information that addresses the Networks' standard operating procedures and existing barriers to share information effectively has been lacking. This caused many criticisms as to whether the network is in fact effective in fulfilling its mandate to effectively share information between the various law enforcement agencies. Utilizing Bandura's cognitive theory of behavioral change, this phenomenological study identifies the strategies utilized by the Fusion center Network to share information while addressing the barriers that arise during the process. Qualitative data consists of interviews conducted with a purposive sample of N=8 employees at two Fusion Centers in the Network. Data were inductively coded, analyzed, and summarized to answer the research questions and illustrate relevance to the framework. Findings made it clear that staff respondents believe that the Fusion Center Network has a tangible impact on Information Sharing between law enforcement, government, and non-government agencies. This expanded the field of knowledge regarding the Fusion Center Network and made room for future researchers to expound on. Recommendations offered by this study are geared towards assisting policy makers, partner organizations and the public at large to make better decisions toward protecting the Homeland from future acts of terror. This study carries implications for creating positive social change by providing recommendations to assist legislators develop effective policies and to increase national security measures of the United States.