Forming communications networks between civilian government agencies and police departments -- Community-policing.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Technology Degree in Information Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2014. / This study reports on the design of a framework for measuring e-government readiness. Particular attention is paid to providing a measurement framework that is feasible for municipalities and supports their efforts to utilize e-government for the benefit of the society and the economy. The evaluation of e-government readiness for municipalities can provide a useful barometer to measure the critical needs of citizens. In addition, it can be useful for improving the effectiveness of government services and could assist information communication technology industry to access information for implementing efficient infrastructures to support the delivery of e-services. The model of e-government readiness measurement as reported in this dissertation is based on heterogeneous factors of supporting e-services, individual citizens, technological infrastructure, government and supporting industry. The readiness measurement process utilized data obtained from a survey of 219 government employees from 4 municipalities in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The partial least square method was used to determine the relationship between the measured factors. The study results revealed the measurement factors to be significant determinants of municipality e-government readiness with an overall goodness of fit performance of 0.81 and predictive power of 0.68. In addition, a response based segmentation approach of finite mixture partial least squares is applied to uncover unobserved heterogeneity in government employees. The study findings show that the main difference characterising the two uncovered segments of population heterogeneity lies in the internet accessibility using computers. The impact of government readiness and technology readiness on predicting e-government readiness is stronger for the first segment than for the second segment. The segment specific analysis clearly shows that the impact of factors that influence the readiness of e-government can differ vastly, depending on the background of participants. The study findings generally provide a foundation for policymakers and technology practitioners who are interested in propagating e-government readiness awareness across the country. In addition, factors that determine the e-government readiness could provide new insights for future studies on e-municipality service improvement evaluations.

Thesis (MA (Public and Development Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / Internal communication has the potential of improving the ability of local authorities to deliver effective and efficient basic services. Local authorities are the pillar upon which governments rely to champion the decentralisation process which has been widely hailed as enabling service delivery to the communities. The Lilongwe City Assembly recognises the need to address internal communication issues, but have neither carried out any meaningful analysis of its internal communication nor has it developed an internal communication plan or guidelines. The communication audit methodology is relatively unknown in the public sector in Malawi and it is hoped that this study brings to light the advantages of giving organisational communication its deserved role in activities of the public sector. It is hoped that this study would be replicated in the remaining 38 local assemblies with a view to improving service delivery. This study assessed the internal communication of the Assembly as part of a broader perspective of organisational communication. Specifically, it measured the effectiveness of internal communication at the Lilongwe City Assembly. The methodology involved measuring the perceived current and ideal amounts of information in eight fundamental areas of internal communication, namely receiving information from others, sending information to others, action on information sent, channels of communication, communication relationships, communication and work satisfaction, timeliness of information received from key sources and sources of information. Findings from a sample of 186 respondents of the Assembly indicated a great need to receive information and to interact with Assembly management more frequently than what is happening currently. The communication between subordinates and co-workers seems to be satisfactory. However, the majority of respondents expressed the need to engage with Assembly management on a number of key issues, including staff welfare, salaries and benefits. In addition, a concern about the inability of employees to master the English language was cited as reducing the capacity of the Assembly to fully implement its work activities. / cmc2010

Esta dissertação insere-se no contexto de estudos do inglês como língua franca para negócios, em um cenário de expansão da comunicação internacional com o aumento do acesso à Internet e às suas ferramentas (LOUHIALA-SALMINEN & KANKAANRANTA, 2009). No Brasil, grande parte dos estudos na área de inglês para negócios é realizada sob a ótica da Abordagem Instrumental, com enfoque na elaboração de cursos de inglês para fins profissionais e na criação de material didático. Poucas contribuições foram encontradas sobre a escrita em inglês, parte integrante da comunicação corporativa que nos permite compreender como os indivíduos e instituições se organizam (BAZERMAN, 2005). Desta forma, com o intuito de contribuir para uma melhor compreensão sobre a realidade de uso da escrita corporativa em inglês no Brasil, esta pesquisa realizou um estudo de caso sobre o uso de e-mails em uma empresa brasileira de pequeno porte que oferece serviços de TI. A fundamentação teórica deste trabalho englobou conceitos da Teoria da Atividade Sócio-Histórico-Cultural (VYGOTSKY, 1996; LEONTIEV, 1981; ENGESTROM, 1987) e o conceito de gênero textual como ação social da Escola Nova Retórica (BAZERMAN, 2005). Como metodologia de coleta, foi solicitado o acesso à comunicação escrita em inglês por e-mail em dois projetos realizados pela consultoria de TI. Para proceder à análise dos dados coletados, utilizei os conceitos de atividade e contradições (ENGESTROM, 1987) e de gênero textual (BAZERMAN, 2005). Para a análise de questões de pragmática intercultural que surgiram no decorrer da pesquisa, foi utilizado o conceito de ato de fala (SEARLE, 1989) e a teoria da polidez (BROWN & LEVINSON, 1978; BLUM-KULKA & OLSHTAIN, 1984). A partir da análise da comunicação escrita por e-mail, foram realizadas entrevistas com participantes com o intuito de preencher lacunas encontradas. Os resultados deste trabalho indicaram evidências sobre (1) a relação instrumental entre a atividade de comunicação escrita e a atividade de consultoria de TI, sendo a primeira imprescindível para a segunda; (2) a necessidade de conhecimento de pragmática intercultural por parte dos integrantes para a redação de e-mails em um contexto multicultural; e (3) a caracterização do e-mail como suporte por meio do qual circulam diversos gêneros textuais. O estudo aponta para a necessidade de maior investigação sobre o ensino de pragmática intercultural em cursos de inglês para negócios, de forma a capacitar o mundo corporativo para enfrentar a cada vez mais frequente comunicação intercultural. Além disso, este trabalho busca refletir sobre o que é e-mail e como profissionais de negócios que interagem com o uso dessa ferramenta se comportam / In the Information Age (BRANDT, 2005), English is considered to be the lingua franca for corporate communication. Its use has become more frequent in companies due to the growth of international communication and the expansion of access to the Internet and its tools (LOUHIALA-SALMINEN & KANKAANRANTA, 2009). In Brazil, most studies in the field, developed through the widely recognized ESP (English for Specific Purposes) perspective, have been restricted to investigating the design of English language courses and material. Few contributions have been dedicated to the study of English writing, which plays a central role in corporate communication and allows the understanding of how individuals and institutions are organized (BAZERMAN, 2005). Thus, aiming at contributing to a better view of the reality of corporate writing in English in Brazil, the present research has developed a case study on e-mail use in a small Brazilian Information Technology company. As a theoretical framework, this research has adopted the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory approach (VYGOTSKY, 1996; LEONTIEV, 1981; ENGESTROM, 1987) as well as the New Rhetorics concept of genre as a social action (BAZERMAN, 2005). For data collection, the technology consultancy company granted access to the written communication exchanged in English by e-mail in two different projects. In order to proceed with the analysis of the collected data, the concepts of activity and contradiction (ENGESTROM, 1987) as well as writing genre (BAZERMAN, 2005) were used. To further investigate intercultural pragmatics issues raised during analysis, this study relied on the concept of speech act (SEARLE, 1989) and politeness theory (BROWN & LEVINSON, 1978; BLUM-KULKA & OLSHTAIN, 1984). Questions raised during the written communication analysis were answered through interviews with participants in the projects. Our findings revealed that (1) the written communication activity is part of the technology consultancy activity, playing the role of a tool which is used by the participants towards the realization of the object; (2) that the lack of intercultural pragmatics knowledge by the e-mail writers became a barrier in a context of multicultural communication and also that (3) e-mails can be considered vehicles through which several different writing genres can be delivered, contradicting the idea that e-mail is a writing genre itself. This study suggests the need of further investigation on the teaching of cultural pragmatics in business English courses in order to enable participants in the corporate world to face the increasingly frequent intercultural communication. In addition, this research attempts to reflect on what e-mail is and also on how language is used in it in a business scenario

Esta dissertação insere-se no contexto de estudos do inglês como língua franca para negócios, em um cenário de expansão da comunicação internacional com o aumento do acesso à Internet e às suas ferramentas (LOUHIALA-SALMINEN & KANKAANRANTA, 2009). No Brasil, grande parte dos estudos na área de inglês para negócios é realizada sob a ótica da Abordagem Instrumental, com enfoque na elaboração de cursos de inglês para fins profissionais e na criação de material didático. Poucas contribuições foram encontradas sobre a escrita em inglês, parte integrante da comunicação corporativa que nos permite compreender como os indivíduos e instituições se organizam (BAZERMAN, 2005). Desta forma, com o intuito de contribuir para uma melhor compreensão sobre a realidade de uso da escrita corporativa em inglês no Brasil, esta pesquisa realizou um estudo de caso sobre o uso de e-mails em uma empresa brasileira de pequeno porte que oferece serviços de TI. A fundamentação teórica deste trabalho englobou conceitos da Teoria da Atividade Sócio-Histórico-Cultural (VYGOTSKY, 1996; LEONTIEV, 1981; ENGESTROM, 1987) e o conceito de gênero textual como ação social da Escola Nova Retórica (BAZERMAN, 2005). Como metodologia de coleta, foi solicitado o acesso à comunicação escrita em inglês por e-mail em dois projetos realizados pela consultoria de TI. Para proceder à análise dos dados coletados, utilizei os conceitos de atividade e contradições (ENGESTROM, 1987) e de gênero textual (BAZERMAN, 2005). Para a análise de questões de pragmática intercultural que surgiram no decorrer da pesquisa, foi utilizado o conceito de ato de fala (SEARLE, 1989) e a teoria da polidez (BROWN & LEVINSON, 1978; BLUM-KULKA & OLSHTAIN, 1984). A partir da análise da comunicação escrita por e-mail, foram realizadas entrevistas com participantes com o intuito de preencher lacunas encontradas. Os resultados deste trabalho indicaram evidências sobre (1) a relação instrumental entre a atividade de comunicação escrita e a atividade de consultoria de TI, sendo a primeira imprescindível para a segunda; (2) a necessidade de conhecimento de pragmática intercultural por parte dos integrantes para a redação de e-mails em um contexto multicultural; e (3) a caracterização do e-mail como suporte por meio do qual circulam diversos gêneros textuais. O estudo aponta para a necessidade de maior investigação sobre o ensino de pragmática intercultural em cursos de inglês para negócios, de forma a capacitar o mundo corporativo para enfrentar a cada vez mais frequente comunicação intercultural. Além disso, este trabalho busca refletir sobre o que é e-mail e como profissionais de negócios que interagem com o uso dessa ferramenta se comportam / In the Information Age (BRANDT, 2005), English is considered to be the lingua franca for corporate communication. Its use has become more frequent in companies due to the growth of international communication and the expansion of access to the Internet and its tools (LOUHIALA-SALMINEN & KANKAANRANTA, 2009). In Brazil, most studies in the field, developed through the widely recognized ESP (English for Specific Purposes) perspective, have been restricted to investigating the design of English language courses and material. Few contributions have been dedicated to the study of English writing, which plays a central role in corporate communication and allows the understanding of how individuals and institutions are organized (BAZERMAN, 2005). Thus, aiming at contributing to a better view of the reality of corporate writing in English in Brazil, the present research has developed a case study on e-mail use in a small Brazilian Information Technology company. As a theoretical framework, this research has adopted the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory approach (VYGOTSKY, 1996; LEONTIEV, 1981; ENGESTROM, 1987) as well as the New Rhetorics concept of genre as a social action (BAZERMAN, 2005). For data collection, the technology consultancy company granted access to the written communication exchanged in English by e-mail in two different projects. In order to proceed with the analysis of the collected data, the concepts of activity and contradiction (ENGESTROM, 1987) as well as writing genre (BAZERMAN, 2005) were used. To further investigate intercultural pragmatics issues raised during analysis, this study relied on the concept of speech act (SEARLE, 1989) and politeness theory (BROWN & LEVINSON, 1978; BLUM-KULKA & OLSHTAIN, 1984). Questions raised during the written communication analysis were answered through interviews with participants in the projects. Our findings revealed that (1) the written communication activity is part of the technology consultancy activity, playing the role of a tool which is used by the participants towards the realization of the object; (2) that the lack of intercultural pragmatics knowledge by the e-mail writers became a barrier in a context of multicultural communication and also that (3) e-mails can be considered vehicles through which several different writing genres can be delivered, contradicting the idea that e-mail is a writing genre itself. This study suggests the need of further investigation on the teaching of cultural pragmatics in business English courses in order to enable participants in the corporate world to face the increasingly frequent intercultural communication. In addition, this research attempts to reflect on what e-mail is and also on how language is used in it in a business scenario

As Ouvidorias públicas são interlocutoras entre o cidadão e a Administração, pautando-se nos princípios constitucionais da Legalidade, Impessoalidade, Moralidade, Publicidade e Eficiência, atuando como instrumento de participação na gestão democrática e como representantes legítimas dos interesses dos cidadãos. O acesso à informação é base da democracia, encontrando-se assegurado constitucionalmente (art. 5º, XIV e XXXIII) e infraconstitucionalmente (Lei nº 12.527, de 18.11.2011). A liberdade conferida aos cidadãos abarca o direito de acesso a informação, especialmente porque viabiliza a participação popular e, por via de consequencia, torna dinâmica a democracia. Uma sociedade bem informada é capaz de intervir eficazmente no destino do Estado, fazendo valer a soberania da vontade popular. A participação garante ao cidadão o acesso aos atos de gestão do governo, possibilitando à coletividade o exercício do controle social sobre os atos do Estado. O trabalho objetiva examinar a Ouvidoria da UTFPR como um instrumento de participação popular na gestão administrativa. A pesquisa realizada é exploratória e aplicada, tendo por método o estudo de caso. Na coleta de dados, utiliza-se de múltiplas fontes de evidência: documentação, registros em arquivo, questionário e artefatos físicos. Os resultados denotam que a procura pelos serviços da Ouvidoria da UTFPR é crescente, inobstante as dificuldades enfrentadas pelos ouvidores no desempenho de seu mister – pouco ou nenhum espaço físico, impossibilidade de dedicação exclusiva à atividade, dentre outras. Os questionários respondidos por ouvidores, ex-ouvidores e gestores permitem concluir que a Ouvidoria pública universitária da UTFPR é um espaço de comunicação do usuário com a Administração, um instrumento de participação popular na gestão administrativa. No entanto, sua autonomia deve ser robustecida. Como resultado, propõe-se a implementação de avaliação periódica do usuário/cliente, maior divulgação da Ouvidoria, alteração da localização da Ouvidoria no sítio eletrônico da Universidade, investimento em cursos de mediação. / The office of ombudsman intermediate communication between citizens and the Administration, based on the constitutional principles of Legality, Impersonality, and Efficiency, acting as an instrument of participation in the democratic management and as lawful representatives to the citizens´ interests. Information access is based on democracy and is enlisted as a constitutional (article 5, XIV e XXXIII of Brazil´s Federal Constitution) and infra-constitutionally (Law nº 12.527, of November 18th, 2011) right. The freedom granted to citizens comprises the participation in the right to access information, especially since it allows popular participation and consequently, makes democracy more dynamic. A well informed society is able to take effective action in the State´s destiny, enforcing the sovereignty of common will. Public participation grants citizen access to governmental management acts, enabling social control over the acts of the State. The hereby paper focus on examining UTFPR´s Ombudsman as an instrument of public participation in administrative management. The present research is exploratory and applied, using a study case as the method. In the data collection, multiple sources of evidence are used: article records, a questionnaire and physical artifacts. The results show that UTFPR´s Ombudsman service demand is rising, regardless of the challenges faced by the office of the Ombudsman while exercising the constitutionally imposed task – little or no physical room, impossibility of full time dedication to the office, among others challenges. The questionnaires answered by Ombudsman officers, former officers and managers enable the researcher to conclude that the Office of the UTFPR Ombudsman is a place of communication between the user and the Administration, an instrument of popular participation in management. However, its autonomy must be strengthened. As a result of the research, the author concludes that the implementation of periodical evaluation by the user/customer; more Ombudsman disclosure; changes in the University´s website concerning the Ombudsman; investment in courses on mediation, are advisable.

In recent years, an increasing number of people move into cities to search for better opportunities for themselves and their families. This movement is known as urbanisation and makes it difficult for the local government to fully understand citizens’ needs particularly pertaining to public safety matters. During the first phase of the Public Safety Smart City project, it was identified that there is a need for feedback loop to facilitate effective communication of public safety issues between citizens and local government. This means that EL citizens do not have a better channel in place to address their public safety issues to the local government. This could lead to the decisions made by the local government in public safety not fully communicated back to the citizens. The primary objective of the study is to develop a feedback loop model that will assist in more effective reporting of public safety issues between citizens and the local government. The study followed an interpretivism paradigm and the research methodology employed is the qualitative approach. This was influenced by the existing De Fleur model of communication, secondary data and also semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with eleven citizens and four managers from the Department of Public Safety. It was ascertained that the lack of a feedback loop about public safety issues between citizens and local government is likely to increase public safety issues. Findings revealed that this is because citizens are not continuously updated about their reports and also about the state of public safety matters. Furthermore, the methods of communication utilised lead to poor communication of public safety issues. The study concludes that the introduction of an Information and Communication Technology enabled feedback loop between citizens and local government can help in reducing public safety issues and make public safety officials proactive rather than reactive.

Thesis (MPAM.) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / The purpose of this study was to investigate municipal-citizen communication channels of the Thulamela Local Municipality, and their implications on service delivery. The study adopted a mixed method, qualitative-quantitative sequential approach. Qualitative data was sourced from key-informants comprised of community leaders, Ward Committee members, and a Community Development Workers. Quantitative data was sourced from ordinary community members of Dumasi village. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used as data collection tools for both the qualitative and quantitative phases. Thematic Content Analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Data analysis for the quantitative data was conducted using Cronbach’s Alpha, t-test and ANOVA test. The findings from both studies revealed that respondents perceived Thulamela Municipality’s communication channels to be ineffective. Community members’ reluctance to attend community meetings and lack of proper feedback were identified as the main causes. The findings further revealed that ineffectiveness of the communication channels leads to an increase in the number of community service delivery protests. Several suggestions are made resulting from the findings of this study. These include the designing and implementation of context-specific, municipal-citizen communication channels, in consultation with local communities.

This study focuses on the use of information resources and communication technologies, both traditional and electronic, by academic library directors. The purpose is to improve understanding of managerial behavior when using information resources and communication technologies within a shared information environment. Taylor's concept of an information use environment is used to capture the elements associated with information use and communication within the context of decision-making styles, managerial roles, organizational environments, and professional communities. This qualitative study uses interviews, observations, questionnaires, and documents. Library directors participating in the study are from doctoral-degree granting universities in the southwestern United States. Data collection involved on-site observations with a PDA (personal digital assistant), structured interviews with library directors and their administrative assistants, the Decision Style Inventory, and a questionnaire based on Mintzberg's managerial roles. Findings show the existence of a continuum in managerial activities between an Administrator and an Administrator/Academic as critical to understanding information use and communication patterns among library directors. There is a gap between self-perception of managerial activities and actual performance, a finding that would not have surfaced without the use of multiple methods. Other findings include the need for a technical ombudsman, a managerial-level position reporting to the library director; the importance of information management as an administrative responsibility; the importance of trust when evaluating information; and the importance of integrating information and communication across formats, time, and managerial activities.

Augmentative-alternative communication (AAC) systems are used to give voice to individuals who are nonverbal. As AAC systems become more complex and prevalent in the classroom expectations of school-based professionals expand. However, the roles of those expected to support AAC systems, primarily teachers and speech-language pathologists (SLPs), are not clearly defined. Without clearly defined roles, professionals may not provide needed support to students who use AAC. Dewey's theory of community suggests that role confusion leads to insufficient and ineffective services. The purpose of this cross-sectional quantitative study was to determine how teachers and SLPs view their roles in supporting AAC. The key research question examined associations linking the instructional role of the individual to perceptions of who is responsible for implementing and supporting AAC in the classroom. An Internet-based survey, consisting of 21 questions set on a categorical scale, was sent to teachers and SLPs who are members of a technology advocacy and support center located in a mid Atlantic US state. Responses collected through the survey site were analyzed using a chi squared test. Overall findings indicated that the teacher was perceived as primarily responsible to provide support within the classroom; SLPs provided additional support outside of the classroom, such as creation of overlays and vocabulary selection. Assistive technology coordinators also provided support in terms of obtaining the AAC system. In general, leadership changed as support tasks changed. Results of the survey may aid in the development of guidance to support teachers and SLPs working with students who use AAC in the classroom. Improving services for students with AAC needs supports social change by enabling them to use their voice and become more independent.