Thesis (Ph. D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2007. / Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. Includes bibliographical references. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

This paper adopts a communication perspective on public electronic forms (e-forms). By doing so we define forms as instruments for communication and, thus, also instruments through which citizens perform different communicative actions towards government agencies. As such instruments, the forms might be more or less useful. The purpose of this paper is to explore what features of an e-form that increase the communication quality. We conduct a theoretical synthesis of three existing approaches for designing information systems. The result is a combined theory on key features of an e-form that make the establishment of communication quality more likely. The result consists of four key concepts, each of which give rise to one set of design principles for communication from the issuer of the e-form to the user (citizen), and one set of design principles for communication from the user (citizen) to the recipient of the e-form.

This diploma thesis deals with analysis of control and management plans in Saar Gummi Czech, s. r. o. comapany, especialy control and management plans related to extrusion department in Äerven Kostelec. This thesis also focuses on design of a control and management plan creation system. The first part of thesis describes general knowledge and concepts of control an management plans. In the second part thesis describes state of control and management plans in comapany Saar Gummi Czech, s. r. o. In the last part of this thesis will be designed creation system of control and management plans for this company.

Leader-member communications and employee engagement (EE) are critical for organisational success (Barhite, 2017; Kelly, 2021; Kohntopp & McCann, 2020). With a nearinstantaneous shift to remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic, the nature of communication between leaders and followers has changed (Alexander et al., 2020; Braier et al., 2021). In turn, there is uncertainty as to how leader-member communication exchanges and associated EE are facilitated among workers in the remote context (Abowd et al., 2020; Zeuge et al., 2020). Moreover, there is limited research on how to achieve appropriate leadership communication quality and EE enhancement in the virtual leadership-employee interactional context (Bark et al., 2015; Chanana, 2020). It is against this background that the proposed study sought to examine the extent to which leadership communication quality (LCQ), across different channels, affects the level of EE among South African remote employees. The present study assessed LCQ across the following channels: videoconferencing, telephone/audio-conferencing, e-mails, and companies' intranet instant messaging (IIM) channels. This study was founded in the theoretical integration of Social Exchange Theory (Homans, 1958) and Media Richness Theory (Daft & Lengel, 1984). The study hypothesised that greater perceived LCQ, through the use of richer channels, would increase EE among employees in the virtual workspace. A descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative research design was conducted to examine the study's hypotheses. Data was gathered via an online self-report survey from South African (SA) employees that engaged in full-time and part-time remote working schedules (N = 179). Pearson correlation analyses confirmed positive relationships between the LCQ of each channel and EE. However, once all channels were combined in one multiple regression model, only the LCQ of video-conferencing channels was found to be a unique predictor of EE levels. Friedman tests revealed that the respondents' mean rankings of the two LCQ sub-facets assessed (communication clarity and leadership behaviour transmission) were higher for video-conferencing channels than for the other channels. Cumulatively, the research revealed that the channel associated with the highest LCQ was video-conferencing, and that leaders could most likely increase EE among their remote employees by using this channel compared to the other channels assessed. These results may contribute valuable insight to inform the development of digital leadership strategies and connectivity interventions in organisations for the future world of work.

This thesis investigates the impacts of introducing creative experiences in a rigid organization. Based on the methodology suggested by Strauss and Corbin (1998) I have conducted a qualitative study through 8 semi-structured interviews of heterogeneous profiles in an organization where I worked for two years as an apprentice. Specific creative experiences were introduced in order to improve the internal communication, facilitate an organizational change transition and sustain a better social climate. I aimed at understanding the impacts resulting from experiencing such activities both at an individual and organizational level. My findings reveal three positive categories (well-being, corporate affiliation and organizational change facilitation) and three negative categories (individual irritations and a lack of coherence with the corporate identity). I conclude my work with the possible reasons justifying unexpected negative results, stating that trustworthy leadership and the corporate culture are essential when introducing such collaborative activities. My thesis might contribute to the discussions of creative problem solving for the sake of communication and values-added resulting from creative interventions in organizations.

Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) using the existing WLAN have won growing interest in the last years, it can be a perfect supplement to provide location information of users in indoor environments where other positioning techniques such as GPS, are not much effective. The thesis manuscript proposes a new approach to define a WLAN-based indoor positioning system (WLAN-IPS) as a combinatorial optimization problem to guarantee the requested communication quality while optimizing the positioning error. This approach is characterised by several difficult issues we tackled in three steps.At first, we designed a WLAN-IPS and implemented it as a test framework. Using this framework, we looked at the system performance under various experimental constraints. Through these experiments, we went as far as possible in analysing the relationships between the positioning error and the external environmental factors. These relationships were considered as evaluation indicators of the positioning error. Secondly, we proposed a model that defines all major parameters met in the WLAN-IPS from the literature. As the original purpose of the WLAN infrastructures is to provide radio communication access, we introduced an additional purpose which is to minimize the location error within IPS context. Two main indicators were defined in order to evaluate the network Quality of Service (QoS) and the positioning error for Location-Based Service (LBS). Thirdly, after defining the mathematical formulation of the optimisation problem and the key performance indicators, we proposed a mono-objective algorithm and a multi-objective algorithm which are based on Tabu Search metaheuristic to provide good solutions within a reasonable amount of time. The simulations demonstrate that these two algorithms are highly efficient for the indoor positioning optimization problem.

La localisation des personnes et des objets à l’intérieur des bâtiments basée sur les réseaux WLAN connaît un intérêt croissant depuis quelques années ; ce système peut être un parfait complément pour fournir des informations de localisation statique ou dynamique dans des environnements où les techniques de positionnement telles que GPS ne sont pas efficaces. Le manuscrit de thèse propose une nouvelle approche pour définir un système WLAN de positionnement indoor (WLAN-IPS) comme un problème d'optimisation combinatoire afin de garantir à la fois une qualité de communication et une minimisation de l'erreur de positionnement via le réseau. Cette approche est caractérisée par plusieurs questions difficiles que nous abordons en trois étapes.Dans un premier temps, nous avons conçu un réseau WLAN-IPS et mis en œuvre une plateforme de test. Nous avons examiné la performance du système sous diverses contraintes expérimentales et nous nous sommes penchés sur l'analyse des relations entre l'erreur de positionnement et les facteurs environnementaux externes. Ces relations ont permis de proposer des indicateurs pour évaluer l'erreur de positionnement. Ensuite nous avons proposé un modèle physique qui définit tous les paramètres majeurs rencontrés en WLAN-IPS à partir de la littérature. L'objectif initial des infrastructures WLAN étant de fournir un accès radio de qualité au réseau, nous avons introduit un objectif supplémentaire qui est de minimiser l'erreur de localisation dans le contexte IPS. Deux indicateurs principaux ont été définis afin d'évaluer la qualité de service (QoS) et l'erreur de localisation pour LBS (Location-Based Services). Enfin après avoir défini la formulation mathématique du problème d'optimisation et les indicateurs clés de performance, nous avons proposé un algorithme mono-objectif et un algorithme multicritère basés sur Tabu Search et Variable Neighborhood Search pour fournir des bonnes solutions en temps raisonnable. Les simulations montrent que ces deux algorithmes sont très efficaces pour le problème d'optimisation que nous avons posé. / Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) using the existing WLAN have won growing interest in the last years, it can be a perfect supplement to provide location information of users in indoor environments where other positioning techniques such as GPS, are not much effective. The thesis manuscript proposes a new approach to define a WLAN-based indoor positioning system (WLAN-IPS) as a combinatorial optimization problem to guarantee the requested communication quality while optimizing the positioning error. This approach is characterised by several difficult issues we tackled in three steps.At first, we designed a WLAN-IPS and implemented it as a test framework. Using this framework, we looked at the system performance under various experimental constraints. Through these experiments, we went as far as possible in analysing the relationships between the positioning error and the external environmental factors. These relationships were considered as evaluation indicators of the positioning error. Secondly, we proposed a model that defines all major parameters met in the WLAN-IPS from the literature. As the original purpose of the WLAN infrastructures is to provide radio communication access, we introduced an additional purpose which is to minimize the location error within IPS context. Two main indicators were defined in order to evaluate the network Quality of Service (QoS) and the positioning error for Location-Based Service (LBS). Thirdly, after defining the mathematical formulation of the optimisation problem and the key performance indicators, we proposed a mono-objective algorithm and a multi-objective algorithm which are based on Tabu Search metaheuristic to provide good solutions within a reasonable amount of time. The simulations demonstrate that these two algorithms are highly efficient for the indoor positioning optimization problem.

Data warehouse system är något som har växt fram under 1990-talet och det har implementeras hos flera verksamheter. De källsystem som en verksamhet har kan integreras ihop med ett data warehouse system för att skapa en version av verkligheten och ta fram rapporter för beslutsunderlag. Med en version av verkligheten menas att det skapas en gemensam bild som visar hur verksamhetens dagliga arbete sker och utgör grundinformation för de framtagna analyserna från data warehouse systemet. Det blir därför väsenligt för verksamheten att de framtagna rapporterna håller en, enligt verksamheten, tillfredställande god datakvalitet. Detta leder till att datakvaliteten hos data warehouse systemet behöver hålla en tillräckligt hög kvalitetsnivå. Om datakvaliteten hos beslutsunderlaget brister kommer verksamheten inte att ta de optimala besluten för verksamheten utan det kan förekomma att beslut tas som annars inte hade tagits. Att förbättra datakvaliteten hos data warehouse systemet blir därför centralt för verksamheten. Med hjälp av kvalitetsfilosofin Total Quality Management, TQM, har verksamheten ett stöd för att kunna förbättra datakvaliteten eftersom det möjliggör att ett helhetsgrepp om kvaliteten kan tas. Anledningen till att ta ett helhetsperspektiv angående datakvaliteten är att orsakerna till bristande datakvalitet inte enbart beror på orsaker inom själva data warehouse systemet utan beror även på andra orsaker. De kvalitetsförbättrande åtgärder som behöver utföras inom verksamheter varierar eftersom de är situationsanpassade beroende på hur verksamheten fungerar även om det finns mer övergripande gemensamma åtgärder. Det som kommuniceras i form av exempelvis rapporter från data warehouse systemet behöver anses av verksamhetens aktörer som förståeligt och trovärdigt. Anledningen till det är att de framtagna beslutunderlagen behöver vara förståliga och trovärdiga för mottagaren av informationen. Om exempelvis det som kommuniceras i form av rapporter innehåller skräptecken bli det svårt för mottagaren att anse informationen som trovärdig och förståelig. Förbättras kvaliteten hos det kommunikativa budskapet, det vill säga om kommunikationskvaliteten förbättras, kommer datakvaliteten hos data warehouse systemet i slutändan också förbättras. Inom uppsatsen har det tagits fram riktlinjer för att kunna förbättra datakvaliteten hos data warehouse system med hjälp av kommunikationskvaliteten samt TQM. Riktlinjernas syfte är att förbättra datakvaliteten genom att förbättra kvaliteten hos det som kommuniceras inom företagets data warehouse system. Det finns olika åtgärder som är situationsanpassade för att förbättra datakvaliteten med hjälp av kommunikationskvalitet. Ett exempel är att införa en möjlighet för mottagaren att få reda på vem som är sändaren av informationsinnehållet hos de framtagna rapporterna. Detta för att mottagaren bör ha möjlighet att kritisera och kontrollera den kommunikativa handlingen med sändaren, som i sin tur har möjlighet att försvara budskapet. Detta leder till att öka trovärdigheten hos den kommunikativa handlingen. Ett annat exempel är att införa inmatningskontroller hos källsystemen för att undvika att aktörer matar in skräptecken som sedan hamnar i data warehouse systemet. Detta leder till att mottagarens förståelse av det som kommuniceras förbättras. / The data warehouse system is something that has grown during the 1990s and has been implemented in many companies. The operative information system that a company has, can be integrated with a data warehouse system to build one version of the reality and take forward the decision basis. This means that a version of the reality creates a common picture that show how the company’s daily work occurs and constitutes the base of information for the created analysis reports from the data warehouse system. It is therefore important for a company that the reports have an acceptable data quality. This leads to that the data quality in the data warehouse system needs to hold an acceptable level of high quality. If data quality at the decision basis falls short, the company will not take the optimal decision for the company. Instead the company will take decision that normally would not have been taken. To improve the data quality in the data warehouse system would therefore be central for the company. With help from a quality philosophy, like TQM, the company have support to improve the data quality since it makes it possible for wholeness about the quality to be taken. The reason to take a holistic perspective about the data quality is because lacking of the data quality not only depends on reasons in the data warehouse system, but also on other reasons. The measurement of the quality improvement which needs to perform in the company depends on the situation on how the company works even in the more overall actions. The communication in form of for example reports from the data warehouse system needs to be understandable and trustworthy for the company’s actors. The reason is that the decision basis needs to be understandable and trustworthy for the receiver of the information. If for example the communication in form of reports contains junk characters it gets difficulty for the receiver of the information to consider if it is trustworthy and understandable. If the quality in the communication message is improving, videlicet that the communication quality improves, the data quality in the data warehouse will also improve in the end. In the thesis has guiding principles been created with the purpose to improve data quality in a data warehouse system with help of communication quality and TQM. Improving the quality in the communication, which is performed at the company’s data warehouse to improve the data quality, does this. There are different measures that are depending on the situations to improve the data quality with help of communication quality. One example is to introduce a possibility for the receiver to get information about who the sender of the information content in the reports is. This is because the receiver needs to have the option to criticize and control the communication acts with the sender, which will have the possibility to defend the message. This leads to a more improved trustworthy in the communication act. Another example is to introduce input controls in the operative system to avoid the actors to feed junk characters that land in the data warehouse system. This leads to that the receivers understanding of the communication improves.

<p>Data warehouse system är något som har växt fram under 1990-talet och det har implementeras hos flera verksamheter. De källsystem som en verksamhet har kan integreras ihop med ett data warehouse system för att skapa en version av verkligheten och ta fram rapporter för beslutsunderlag. Med en version av verkligheten menas att det skapas en gemensam bild som visar hur verksamhetens dagliga arbete sker och utgör grundinformation för de framtagna analyserna från data warehouse systemet. Det blir därför väsenligt för verksamheten att de framtagna rapporterna håller en, enligt verksamheten, tillfredställande god datakvalitet. Detta leder till att datakvaliteten hos data warehouse systemet behöver hålla en tillräckligt hög kvalitetsnivå. Om datakvaliteten hos beslutsunderlaget brister kommer verksamheten inte att ta de optimala besluten för verksamheten utan det kan förekomma att beslut tas som annars inte hade tagits.</p><p>Att förbättra datakvaliteten hos data warehouse systemet blir därför centralt för verksamheten. Med hjälp av kvalitetsfilosofin Total Quality Management, TQM, har verksamheten ett stöd för att kunna förbättra datakvaliteten eftersom det möjliggör att ett helhetsgrepp om kvaliteten kan tas. Anledningen till att ta ett helhetsperspektiv angående datakvaliteten är att orsakerna till bristande datakvalitet inte enbart beror på orsaker inom själva data warehouse systemet utan beror även på andra orsaker. De kvalitetsförbättrande åtgärder som behöver utföras inom verksamheter varierar eftersom de är situationsanpassade beroende på hur verksamheten fungerar även om det finns mer övergripande gemensamma åtgärder.</p><p>Det som kommuniceras i form av exempelvis rapporter från data warehouse systemet behöver anses av verksamhetens aktörer som förståeligt och trovärdigt. Anledningen till det är att de framtagna beslutunderlagen behöver vara förståliga och trovärdiga för mottagaren av informationen. Om exempelvis det som kommuniceras i form av rapporter innehåller skräptecken bli det svårt för mottagaren att anse informationen som trovärdig och förståelig. Förbättras kvaliteten hos det kommunikativa budskapet, det vill säga om kommunikationskvaliteten förbättras, kommer datakvaliteten hos data warehouse systemet i slutändan också förbättras. Inom uppsatsen har det tagits fram riktlinjer för att kunna förbättra datakvaliteten hos data warehouse system med hjälp av kommunikationskvaliteten samt TQM. Riktlinjernas syfte är att förbättra datakvaliteten genom att förbättra kvaliteten hos det som kommuniceras inom företagets data warehouse system.</p><p>Det finns olika åtgärder som är situationsanpassade för att förbättra datakvaliteten med hjälp av kommunikationskvalitet. Ett exempel är att införa en möjlighet för mottagaren att få reda på vem som är sändaren av informationsinnehållet hos de framtagna rapporterna. Detta för att mottagaren bör ha möjlighet att kritisera och kontrollera den kommunikativa handlingen med sändaren, som i sin tur har möjlighet att försvara budskapet. Detta leder till att öka trovärdigheten hos den kommunikativa handlingen. Ett annat exempel är att införa inmatningskontroller hos källsystemen för att undvika att aktörer matar in skräptecken som sedan hamnar i data warehouse systemet. Detta leder till att mottagarens förståelse av det som kommuniceras förbättras.</p> / <p>The data warehouse system is something that has grown during the 1990s and has been implemented in many companies. The operative information system that a company has, can be integrated with a data warehouse system to build one version of the reality and take forward the decision basis. This means that a version of the reality creates a common picture that show how the company’s daily work occurs and constitutes the base of information for the created analysis reports from the data warehouse system. It is therefore important for a company that the reports have an acceptable data quality. This leads to that the data quality in the data warehouse system needs to hold an acceptable level of high quality. If data quality at the decision basis falls short, the company will not take the optimal decision for the company. Instead the company will take decision that normally would not have been taken.</p><p>To improve the data quality in the data warehouse system would therefore be central for the company. With help from a quality philosophy, like TQM, the company have support to improve the data quality since it makes it possible for wholeness about the quality to be taken. The reason to take a holistic perspective about the data quality is because lacking of the data quality not only depends on reasons in the data warehouse system, but also on other reasons. The measurement of the quality improvement which needs to perform in the company depends on the situation on how the company works even in the more overall actions.</p><p>The communication in form of for example reports from the data warehouse system needs to be understandable and trustworthy for the company’s actors. The reason is that the decision basis needs to be understandable and trustworthy for the receiver of the information. If for example the communication in form of reports contains junk characters it gets difficulty for the receiver of the information to consider if it is trustworthy and understandable. If the quality in the communication message is improving, videlicet that the communication quality improves, the data quality in the data warehouse will also improve in the end. In the thesis has guiding principles been created with the purpose to improve data quality in a data warehouse system with help of communication quality and TQM. Improving the quality in the communication, which is performed at the company’s data warehouse to improve the data quality, does this.</p><p>There are different measures that are depending on the situations to improve the data quality with help of communication quality. One example is to introduce a possibility for the receiver to get information about who the sender of the information content in the reports is. This is because the receiver needs to have the option to criticize and control the communication acts with the sender, which will have the possibility to defend the message. This leads to a more improved trustworthy in the communication act. Another example is to introduce input controls in the operative system to avoid the actors to feed junk characters that land in the data warehouse system. This leads to that the receivers understanding of the communication improves.</p>