Rationale: Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) occurs when “multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, careers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care” (WHO, 2010, p. 13). Successful discharge planning for patients from hospitals is dependent upon IPC (Shepperd et al., 2004). The purpose of this study is to identify and examine barriers or facilitators to IPC as they pertain to discharge planning on a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: Case study design using an online survey, participant observation and semi-structured interviews for data collection. Healthcare workers on a NICU at a large Canadian teaching hospital were surveyed to determine their views on the discharge planning process, leadership and IPC. Participant observations took place during the weekly IPC rounds to observe the healthcare workers when discussing discharge plans and to identify key informants for interviews. Based on these observations, 10 health care workers were selected to interview to gain a more in depth understanding of IPC in the discharge planning. Data collection occurred from December 2010 to February 2011. Results: Survey results (n=66) indicate that the majority of healthcare workers on the NICU support IPC. However, the interview data demonstrated that problems arose during an emergency discharge. An emergency discharge occurs when an existing patient on the NICU needs to be discharged to another unit in order to provide a bed for a new admission. The lack of effective communication, role clarity issues, and a need for mutual respect act as barriers to the full participation of all members of the interprofessional team in an emergency discharge. Conclusions: Defining the context is important; IPC works well in a non-emergency situation on the NICU. The level of involvement of the healthcare workers in IPC varies due to previous experience working on interprofessional teams (IPT). The medical lead is responsible for making the decision about a discharge. However, what has been identified as important is an IPC leader who is responsible for ensuring that all information from the IPT members is accessible to inform the medical lead. / UOIT

Governance is a response to a recognition that traditional forms of decision-making have become inadequate to address complex societal and health problems generated by significant social and global changes (Chhotray & Stoker, 2009). The contributions of scientific and technical knowledge towards solving these complex problems have also been recognized as insufficient (Jasanoff, 2007). Community-based research (CBR) is an approach to research which is designed to make use of the knowledge of community and university members and their participation and collaboration ―in all phases of the research process, with a shared goal of producing knowledge that will be translated into action or positive change for the community‖ (Lantz, Israel, Schulz & Reyes, 2006, p. 239). However, although the contributions of lay knowledge have been acknowledged, how governance or collaborative decision-making is arranged in the context of community-based research is not well described in the literature. In order to address this knowledge gap, a study was undertaken in which in-depth interviews were conducted with community and university members of Canadian CBR collaborations to determine their governing experiences. Results are reported in a thesis by research papers. The first paper focuses on describing the governance structures that CBR collaborations used. In the second paper, the nature and content of problems which occurred in governing CBR collaborations, point to the importance of theory for conceptualizing and solving governance problems. To develop a theory of participation in governance of community-based research, the third paper uses Arnstein‘s theory of participation to propose a grounded theoretical basis for implementing participation in governance of CBR collaborations (Arnstein, 1969). Governance is a means of organizing, shaping and steering a course of decision-making. Governance is a critical component in the organization of knowledge production. Study and theory of governance in community-based research may help in improving understanding and implementation of a critical population health practice.

Nowadays, for many enterprises, the advantages coming from the savings of e-procurement systems, which contribute to the increasing of gross profit, benefit more than those coming from the earnings. After depressed economic environment in recent years, the e-procurement system seems to show its unique importance. Even with the economic climate getting better , the urgency to build a sustainable e-procurement system is still very important in establishing the long term competitive advantage of the companies. In this thesis , an e-procurement strategic alignment model is proposed to build relevant theories through the case study approach . The e-procurement model in the thesis is composed of four major perspectives , including factors such as product , process , supplier¡¦s attraction and supplier relationship. Besides, related issues in each factor are also addressed. In the so-called meagre profit era , every enterprise should think of e-procurement as a major strategic tool . That is to say , by means of a series of strategic operation in e-procurement and Web / Internet solution , it can reduce transaction cost and streamline procurement process to maximize the synergy in a company . If the procurement is service , sometimes it is referred to outsourcing . In thesis , e-collaboration plays an important role in strategic products in the supply chain which includes the buyer, Intel , and two suppliers ,OSE and ASE . Futhermore , an e-sourcing system which was usually adopted and executed before e-procurement system was discussed in thesis. Here there are four hypotheses resulted from case analysis in this study shown below: Hypothesis 1.¡RIf the procurement or outsourcing service are regarded as one part of the core competence of the enterprise , the company seldom tend to procure products outside or outsource this kind of service. Hypothesis 2.¡RThe higher the extent to the structuralization of the procurement processes, the easier the processes set up automatically. Hypothesis 3.¡RThe easier the factors in supply attraction are quantified , the higher the possibility of those factors are electonicalized since quantitative analysis can lead to standardization and structuralization of associated factors . Keywords¡Re-procurement , procurement strategy , outsourcing , e-collaboration

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 114 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-99).

This research focused on the community arts organization, Center Stage Texas (CST), and its arts integration collaboration with an urban school in East Austin, Texas. Aspects of this organization’s programming was studied to gain more knowledge about the essential components a community arts organization needs to consider when conducting a partnered, arts integrated project and how programming should be implemented in these particular school settings in order to achieve the greatest impact and success. / text

Research has identified collegiality, encouraged by the school leader, as one of the factors present in highly effective schools. However, there is not a widely accepted understanding of what collegiality is or how it is fostered. This study examined teachers' perceptions about collegiality and leadership practices that supported its development in schools. This investigation of the collegial experiences and understandings of teachers in three elementary school settings was conducted primarily through interviews and observation. A high level of collegiality existed among the staff at the three schools, and staff perceptions of the factors that impacted those collegial experiences yielded important data. Three basic questions guided this research: (1) How do teachers demonstrate their own collegial behaviors in schools?; (2) What conditions do teachers identify that enhance teacher collegiality?; and (3) What are the leadership behaviors that foster and support collegiality? A summary of the findings suggested that teachers talking about practice and teachers teaching one another were the two most often discussed and practiced indicators of collegiality. The findings of this study strengthen the connection between well-established transformational leadership practices and teacher collegiality. Both aspiring and practicing leaders need to understand the theory and research behind the practice of transformational leadership and its link to collegiality in schools.This study has added to the body of research, supporting the link between leadership behavior of principals and the collegiality of teachers. Transformational leadership practices contribute to school effectiveness and continuing teacher growth and development. This has implications for the day-to-day practice of leaders, for the professional development of teachers, and for leadership development. A deep understanding of collegiality and the leadership practices that support and sustain it is necessary in an era of continuous school improvement.

Lacome is a multi-user cross-platform system that supports collaboration in a shared large screen display environment. Lacome allows users to share their desktops or application windows using any standard VNC server. It supports multi-user concurrent interaction on the public shared display as well as input redirection so users can control each other's applications. La-come supports separate types of interaction through a Lacome client for window management tasks on the shared display(move, resize, iconify, de-iconify) and for application interactions through the VNC servers. The system architecture provides for Publishers that share information and Navigators that access information. A Lacome client can have either or both, and can initiate additional Publishers on other VNC servers that may not be Lacome clients. Explicit access control policies on both the server side the client side provide a flexible framework for sharing. The architecture builds on standard cross-platform components such as VNC and JRE. Interaction techniques used in the window manager ensure simple and transparent multi-user interactions for managing the shared display space. We illustrate the design and implementation of Lacome and provide insights from initial user experience with the system.

The following written work is about the collaboration between the parents having early age children with speech and communication, intellectual, body and position disorders and specialists (the working staff of the educational institution). There are 9 % of children which have some speech, comuniciation, intelectual,body and position and other disabilities in Lithuania.These disabilities limit development,social adaptation and educiation of children.It is impossible to cure them absolutely, but it is very important to give support in organizing treatment, correction and education in early years together with family. The parents need to be motivated to become active participants in cooperation with specialists, to be open to explain what kind of assistance they expect, what kind of help they need. The aim of this research is to reveal the peculiarities of parents and specialists’ collaboration while bringing children with speech and communication, intellectual, body and position disorders up. The purposes of research: to survey the various science literature of parents and specialists’ collaboration, realize the present situation, develop collaboration’s factors, estimate specialists’ support, help to a family, find out more about the problems of parents and specialists’ collaboration and announce the recommendations. The methods of research are theoretical and diagnostically. The results of research displayed that specialists (the working staff of the educational... [to full text]

Although many studies have been performed on collaboration in multimodal interfaces not many of these have looked specifically on how the supported modalities influence the task solving strategies chosen and the communication between users solving a joint task in collaborative virtual environments. Therefore, the thesis studies performed aimed at shedding light on these aspects of multimodality. The specific research question studied is: How do changes in modality combinations influence employed work strategies, communication during task solving and the task efficiency in collaborative multimodal virtual environments? The studies performed build on theories from HCI, CSCW, human perception and mediated communication and are thus inter-disciplinary in nature. A variety of cases have been studied; collaboration between sighted and visually impaired, task solving in visually demanding environments and to some extent support for achieving medical diagnoses. The research presented in this thesis began with a field study in elementary schools, focusing on collaboration between visually impaired and sighted pupils. The shared environment was in this case a virtual room in which objects could be moved around by means of haptic devices. The results showed a great potential for haptic feedback when it came to supporting collaboration and most of all communication between the participants. A lack of awareness information about mostly the sighted pupils’ actions laid the ground for a follow-up study in which sighted and blindfolded students solved tasks in the same interface. A formal experiment was carried out in this case, comparing a visual/haptic environment with a visual/haptic/audio environment. Results showed that the addition of audio feedback to the visual/haptic environment was beneficial in many respects. Up until now, the focus had been entirely on collaboration between sighted persons and those who cannot see. This is why the next experimental study, based on an abstract gaming environment, aimed at collaboration between sighted persons. Since the earlier studies showed that the combination of modalities clearly matter, this new experiment compared three modality combinations – visual/haptic, visual/audio and visual/haptic/audio. Once again, the results clearly showed that the combination of modalities has an effect on task performance and that it influences collaboration and communication in particular. All studies performed have been subject to both quantitative analysis of performance measures and qualitative analysis of dialogues between collaborators. Even though quantitative data on task performance has played an important role, the main focus has been on qualitative data in all studies performed. The results show that different combinations of modalities influence the collaboration and in particular the communication between two participants solving tasks in different ways in a number of multimodal interfaces. In all cases in which a visual/haptic/audio condition has been compared to a visual/haptic or a visual/audio condition the performance was significantly better in the visual/haptic/audio condition. One of the most important conclusions drawn from the qualitative analysis of dialogues is that both haptic and audio feedback can have communicative properties which influence the dialogue and as a consequence the collaboration. / <p>QC 20131108</p>

Collaboration is neither the ethos, nor the experience, of most professionals in health care. Nevertheless, the concept of collaboration has become increasingly popular in recent years, promising to enhance all aspects of work, academic, and political life. And while collaboration is a significant and complex phenomenon, it has not been clearly understood for its impact on health care professionals and their work, or for the factors that influence its success or failure. The purpose of the study was to explore the meaning of collaboration, as conveyed by the lived experience of health care professionals, as well as the interpersonal and interactional determinants and their impact on the outcomes of their collaboration. The conceptual paradigm of phenomenology and hermeneutic phenomenological methods guided the research. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 health care professionals engaged in interprofessional practice in a novel community-based geriatric care program. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Ricoeur’s procedural steps were used to analyze the transcripts. Acquiring the ‘real world’ experiences of health care professionals enabled the emergence of six themes: engaging in collective thinking and action to produce best outcomes and optimize clients’ health; responding to collaboration for self and other members as a continued work in progress; experiencing the personal and professional rewards as markers of success with collaboration; existing challenges create barriers that impede collaboration; experiencing the interactional dynamics of collaboration and their influences requires the interpersonal attributes of quality communication, openness, trust, and respect; and forming a common vision is necessary for collaboration but difficult to achieve. The findings of this study suggest that collaboration is a genuinely experiential phenomenon: it is a human process that requires leadership on the part of all health care professionals to negotiate and agree upon the processes that will enhance their relationships and are necessary for collaboration to unfold. This study produced a number of recommendations that can be offered to multiple stakeholders in the geriatric care setting, as well as extended to those in the other domains of health care.