with Jay Cormier, Editor/Publisher of Connections

The fast-growing trend of using virtual teams comes with challenges including the lack of knowledge by some virtual team leaders for managing virtual teams. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the communication strategies that leaders use to manage virtual teams in real time to enhance team performance. The sample was composed of 4 successful virtual team leaders of a multinational accounting firm whose headquarters is in the northeastern region of the United States of America. The conceptual framework that guided this study was Tuckman's small group developmental model. Data consisted of semistructured interviews and the review of archival company documents. The interview protocol, interview transcription, member checking, and methodological triangulation allowed for data reliability and validity. Five themes emerged regarding completion of the 4 stages (comprehension, synthesizing, theorizing, and recontextualizing) of data analysis: time synchronization, face-to-face interaction, continuous training, communication tools and frequency, and leadership training and development. The findings of this study could contribute to social change enhancing communication strategies used in virtual teams, which could result in higher employee satisfaction, which in turn could benefit the organizations and virtual employees, their families, and communities.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} For a long time there has been a problem with unwanted emissions to sanitary systems that causes problems in pipelines, pump stations and in wastewater treatment plants and also adversely affect the quality of the sludge. The wastewater contains for example: sanitary products, hair, grease, pharmaceutical residues etc. also the purification of the wastewater requires large investments. The aim of this study was to investigate the wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) communication methods to reduce the emissions from households to wastewater treatment plants. The study was made by a literature review and an interview survey involving four WWTP: Stockholm vatten och avfall AB, Kalmar vatten AB, Vatten & Miljö i Väst AB and Laholmsbuktens VA. WWTP use several different communication methods such as websites, social media, study visits and campaigns. Because of limited time and lack of resources the WWTPs have difficulty in fulfilling the purposes of their interventions. It also depends on that the interventions are not evaluated or monitored enough. It shows in the interviews that the WWTP are not working actively with best practice and also that there is no legal requirement for WWTPs to inform households about sewage rules and requirements. WWTPs need to create better structures to their interventions and they also need to evaluate and follow up ALL interventions to make progress in the future. The study also consider that a plan for best practice need to be developed and stricter regulations which also households may be sanctioned if they violate. / Det har länge funnits ett problem med oönskade utsläpp i avlopp som orsakar problem i ledningsnät, pumpstationer och reningsverk samt påverkar slamkvaliteten negativt. Dagens sanitetssystem har begränsad kapacitet för att kunna hantera dessa föroreningar och samtidigt även bidra till att sluta kretsloppen. Det finns en del okända risker för miljön med innehållet i avloppsvattnet. Exempelvis på oönskade utsläpp i avloppsvatten är bl.a. tops, hår, hygienartiklar, fett, kemikalier, läkemedelsrester m.m. Reningsprocesserna för utsläppen kräver omfattande ekonomiska satsningar samt stora energi- och kemikaliekostnader. Vad gör egentligen VAbolagen idag för att minska på dessa utsläpp? Syftet med studien är att undersöka VA-bolags kommunikationsmetoder för att minska utsläppen från hushåll till avloppsreningsverken. Frågorna som ställs är följande: - Vilka kommunikationsvägar finns och används för att förmedla information från VAbolagen till anslutna hushåll? - Hur arbetar VA-bolag med kampanjer samt huruvida mäts effektiviteten av kampanjer? - Finns det best practice hos VA-bolagen? Studien bestod av en litteratursammanställning samt en intervjuundersökning där fyra VAbolag medverkade: Stockholms vatten och avfall AB, Kalmar vatten AB, Vatten & Miljö i Väst AB samt Laholmsbuktens VA. Syftet var att ta reda på hur de arbetar med miljökommunikation samt vilka kommunikationsmetoder de använder för att nå ut med information till anslutna hushåll och privatpersoner. I resultatet framkommer att HUR- och VAD- frågorna ligger till grund för miljökommunikation, samt att kommunikation kräver att fem punkter används för att budskap ska nå fram: vad, var, vem, hur och varför. För att skapa ett logiskt upplägg och skapa en helhet för en process bör arbetet läggas upp m.h.a. tre punkter: nulägesbeskrivning, framtidsvision samt en handlingsplan. VA-bolagen använder sig av flera olika kommunikationsvägar som ex. webbaserad hemsida, broschyrer, sociala medier, studiebesök, utskick samt kampanjer. På grund av tidsbrist och bristen på resurser lyckas inte kampanjer fylla de syften de är menade att nå. Det beror även på att kampanjerna inte utvärderas eller följs upp i tillräckligt stor utsträckning. VA bolagen anser att riktade mindre kampanjer och utskick mot rätt målgrupp är av de bättre kommunikationsmetoderna. Däremot framkommer det även att VA-bolagen inte aktivt arbetar med best practice samt att det inte finns något lagligt krav på att VA-bolagen måste informera sina användare om de regler och krav som finns. De slutsatser som kan dras är att VA-bolagen behöver skapa bättre strukturer i sina kampanjer samt att de måste utvärdera och följa upp alla insatser för att kunna göra framsteg i kommande insatser. Ett upplägg för best practice behöver tas fram för att VA-bolagen ständigt ska kunna utvecklas och hela tiden kunna jobba utefter de bästa metoderna för tillfället, utefter de resurser som tillhandahålls. Studien förordar även skärpta regelverk där inte bara verksamheter utan även hushållen kan drabbas och sanktioneras vid upptäckt av regelbrott.

Submitted by Alison Vanceto (alison-vanceto@hotmail.com) on 2017-04-19T13:10:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissAGA.pdf: 2653986 bytes, checksum: f212333b15678e14d9c6782d6c4cd24f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (ronisp@ufscar.br) on 2017-04-24T17:30:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissAGA.pdf: 2653986 bytes, checksum: f212333b15678e14d9c6782d6c4cd24f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (ronisp@ufscar.br) on 2017-04-24T17:30:33Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissAGA.pdf: 2653986 bytes, checksum: f212333b15678e14d9c6782d6c4cd24f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-24T17:37:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissAGA.pdf: 2653986 bytes, checksum: f212333b15678e14d9c6782d6c4cd24f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-16 / Não recebi financiamento / The study characterized the area of communication and the scientific popularization in science park environments, which aims to strengthen science, technology and innovation through the realization of partnerships and, thus, boost the socioeconomic development of a country. The study assumes that, although the science parks are projects that reach the most diverse agents and receive public funding, they have an unidirectional public communication, which is not very accessible to the citizen. In this sense, this research maps the strategies and tools of scientific outreach used by science park environments and analyzes journalistic products published by science parks. It also verifies if they approach the STS Studies – which explores the importance of the democratization of knowledge from the relations between these three agents: science, technology and society – and the democratic model of public communication according to the criteria already established in the field literature. This qualitative exploratory research used mixed data collection procedures and considered the communication of four science parks that have definitive accreditation by the São Paulo System of Science Parks – Science Parks of Ribeirão Preto, Santos, São Carlos and São José dos Campos. This study starts with the presentation of some bibliographical studies, which will help to understand the importance of public communication and scientific outreach in the area of science, technology and innovation and will show the historical and current contexts of technological parks in Brazil, more specifically in the State of São Paulo. It proceeds with a field study with interviews with press officers, outsourced agents and managers of science parks. Finally, analyzes are presented – from interviews and journalistic products – to evaluate whether the communication area of these parks make public communication and whether they are similar to the preestablished criteria of communication in STS Studies. The results found herein contribute to studies in public communication of science, scientific outreach in innovation environments and public perception of science and technology. / O presente trabalho caracterizou a área de comunicação e a divulgação científica em ambientes de parques tecnológicos, que visam fortalecer a ciência, tecnologia e inovação por meio da concretização de parcerias e, dessa maneira, impulsionar o desenvolvimento socioeconômico de um país. O estudo parte do pressuposto de que, embora sejam empreendimentos que atinjam os mais diversos agentes e recebam financiamento público, os parques tecnológicos realizam uma comunicação pública unidirecional, não sendo acessível pelo cidadão comum. Nesse sentido, busca-se mapear as estratégias e ferramentas de divulgação científica utilizadas e analisar produtos jornalísticos divulgados por parques tecnológicos, verificando se eles se aproximam dos Estudos CTS – que exploram a importância da democratização do conhecimento a partir das relações entre esses três agentes: ciência, tecnologia e sociedade – e do modelo democrático da comunicação pública de acordo com critérios já estabelecidos pela literatura da área. Trata-se de uma pesquisa exploratória qualitativa, com procedimentos mistos de coleta de dados, tendo em vista que analisa a comunicação de quatro parques tecnológicos que possuem credenciamento definitivo pelo Sistema Paulista de Parques Tecnológicos – Parques Tecnológicos de Ribeirão Preto, Santos, São Carlos e São José dos Campos. Sua execução terá como ponto de partida os estudos bibliográficos, que ajudarão a entender a importância da comunicação pública e da divulgação científica na área da ciência, tecnologia e inovação e mostrarão os contextos histórico e atual dos parques tecnológicos no Brasil, mais especificamente no Estado de São Paulo. Na sequência, apresenta-se um estudo de campo com a realização de entrevistas com assessorias de imprensa, agentes terceirizados e gestores dos parques tecnológicos. Por fim, tem-se as análises de conteúdo – das entrevistas e dos produtos jornalísticos – para verificar se a área comunicacional desses empreendimentos exerce comunicação pública e se está próxima aos critérios pré-estabelecidos de comunicação em Estudos CTS. Os resultados poderão contribuir para os estudos em comunicação pública da ciência, divulgação científica em ambientes de inovação e na percepção pública da ciência e tecnologia.