Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-142). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-142). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2008. / Adviser: Y.H. Chiang. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Copenhagen. / "Tillæg. Udkast til lov om entreprenørens omsætningsbeskyttelse": p. [377]-379. "Trykfejl": slip attached to p. [3] of cover. "Litteratur": p. [vii]-xxiii.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-64).

Thesis (doctoral)--Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2006. / Thesis documentation and errata sheets inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-199). Also available electronically via World Wide Web in PDF format.

During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the U.S. government has relied heavily on military contracting companies and their employees to carry out military missions in Middle East. Since 2001, high salaries and the call to serve the country have persuaded many people to take the risk of working in war zones. Yet the many individuals who have been injured while performing such duties now find themselves caught between their insurance companies and the U.S. Department of Labor, as they fight for the workers’ compensation and healthcare coverage they were promised. / text

Planning, estimating and control management functions as performed by Portuguese construction companies were studied. For this purpose, inquiries were made into the way a set of Portuguese contractors carried out these tasks, with special reference to planning, estimating and the preparation of data for control during the pre-contract stage. There is a lack of integration among those functions in the current practice of companies surveyed. This is a problem that companies would like to see solved. Data systems analysis was used to tackle the problem. It was concluded that there is no functional dependency between planning and estimating in most construction projects. This is especially due to the form in which. data is structured in the basic documents currently used for those functions (the bill of quantities for estimating and the construction programme for planning). A possible integrated approach to planning and estimating is suggested by considering construction works assigned both to the items of the bill of quantities and to the activities of the construction programme. This facilitates the preparation of data for control on site because costs and time are closely related in this approach. A model for the integration of planning and estimating management functions during the pre-contract stage of construction projects is presented. The model also enables one to achieve efficient preparation of data for control on site. Computer support for the model is also presented. This is based on a Database Management System which provides for an adequate environment for the model. The model was tested in some Portuguese construction companies, and led to satisfactory results. Those companies highlighted the advantage of building up the model upon a relational database which makes data manipulation and retrieval easier and allows for integration among management functions.

Research on information security culture evolved because technical security controls and policies have failed to eliminate information security incidents. Although existing research has addressed the measurement and cultivation of an information security culture, it has not addressed how to maintain that culture. This study focused on that gap by exploring the values and assumptions that inhibit assimilation of new members into an information security culture. Contract employees represent a distinct set of new organizational members with additional challenges assimilating into an organization's information security culture. This study addressed two research questions about how and why pre-existing information security related values and assumptions of new contract employees conflicted with the prevalent information security culture that created information security risks. This study applied an ethnographic approach to the examination of the assimilation of new contract employees based on Schein's framework of organizational culture. The findings revealed that IT contractors displayed a sense of responsibility for information security. However, the IT contractors demonstrated a detachment from the organization's information security culture through a lack of interest in the mission, goals and strategies. As a result of this detachment, information security concerns were linked to a lack of understanding of the information the organization sought to protect, the risk tolerance and the response to unforeseen security incidents. The contractors' detachment was traced to assumptions that resulted from their temporal relationship with the organization and their perception of being organizational outsiders. In addition to identifying the risk and mechanisms behind contractors' failure to assimilate, this study extended research into professional sub-groups within an information security culture. The study offered a contribution to research in its approach to Schein's framework by focusing on the inter-relationships between assumptions. The findings identified where organizations should be cognizant of specific contractor information security assumptions and how they create risk. The findings suggest that organization should encourage the engagement of contractor in social interactions with direct staff and the avoid actions leading to the perception of inequitable treatment. However, future research will be required to confirm the extent that these actions might have in overcoming the contractor's deeply rooted assumptions.

This thesis investigates the commitment bonds of individuals through the lens of liminality. While workers are able to commit to multiple targets and this has been linked to important performance outcomes, previous study of commitment in the workplace is almost exclusively concerned with organisational contexts and employer-employee dyads thus neglecting the increasingly fragmented and diverse world of work. Commitment is developed here by examining it in a liminal position, a term often applied to cross-boundary knowledge workers due to its ambiguous and uncertain nature but also the freedom of being 'betwixt and between' organisations, professions, and clients. Indicative of this liminal position are independent consultants, a growing army of self-employed freelance knowledge workers who use their tacit knowledge and high levels of human capital to solve complex problems for multiple business clients. Independent consultancy is a growing area and as self-employed independent contractors they are an increasingly important policy battleground. They are vital to our understanding of a changing world of work where existing theories and frameworks are becoming stretched, distorted and perhaps even irrelevant. Adopting a pragmatist research philosophy and making use of a reflexive metamethodology, 50 semi-structured interviews using critical incidents and participatory visual methods were conducted. Thematic analysis was used and a new method of visual metaphor analysis pioneered. The resulting findings focus on three areas. Firstly important targets of commitment are identified; clients, professional bodies, and collaborators. I argue that these act as substitutes for commitment to an organisation because they perform a similar role. Secondly, these bonds of commitment are underpinned by the inherent freedom of a liminal position. Although this freedom is evident in various ways, a more critical reading suggests that it is more complex and relational rather than total. Finally, this freedom from organisational ties and structures can cause conflicts of commitment based on knowledge, time, and contractual issues. Devoid of an organisational employer and many of the accompanying administrative and support mechanisms these conflicts are resolved at an individual level by turning the conflict into a synergy, preventing, avoiding, or in extreme cases changing the nature of the bond altogether. The primary contributions to knowledge are the development of substitutes for organisational commitment, the detailing of conflicts of commitment and their resolution, and the inherent freedom of a liminal position which underpins these. Furthermore, this thesis offers the first investigation using the Klein et al. (2012) reconceptualisation to investigate commitment outside of an organisational employment setting. This context and aspects of liminality are used to further problematise the extant literature and theory around the volition inherent in commitment and the isolation and measurement of targets. Understanding of liminality is advanced in terms of freedom, which is often assumed but rarely explored, and anti-structure by arguing that liminality is full of structure in the form of commitment bonds which act as important anchors and reference points to help minimise the ambiguity.