Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Mary Stuckey, committee chair; Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Leonard Teel, committee members. Electronic text (100 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Feb. 6, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-100).

Universiẗat, Diss., 2006--Bielefeld.

A idealizaÃÃo deste trabalho surgiu da necessidade de conhecer a estruturaÃÃo dos programas de treinamentos nos call centers - centros de atendimentos aos clientes. A experiÃncia de mercado, obtida pela autora, sinalizava deficiÃncias no processo de capacitaÃÃo da mÃo de obra do setor. O objetivo geral deste trabalho foi de analisar os programas de treinamentos aplicados nos call centers de pequeno porte de empresas de serviÃos de saÃde do municÃpio de Fortaleza. A metodologia utilizada foi uma pesquisa exploratÃria, descritiva e qualitativa em uma amostra nÃo probabilÃstica. Foram pesquisadas quatro empresas, cuja escolha seguiu os seguintes critÃrios: as empresas deveriam ter mais de cinco anos no mercado; deveriam possuir call center para realizar os atendimentos aos clientes com no mÃximo 100 posiÃÃes de atendimento e ser do segmento de serviÃos de saÃde. As informaÃÃes das empresas foram obtidas a partir de profissionais que estavam em cargos de gestÃo e possuÃam pelo menos um ano de experiÃncia no segmento de call center. Os quatro pressupostos confirmados foram os seguintes: os call centers realizam os treinamentos atravÃs de mÃdulos diversos com enfoque tÃcnico e comportamental; os fatores que, na opiniÃo dos entrevistados, motivam a realizaÃÃo dos treinamentos sÃo dois, o desejo de crescer no mercado, segunda confirmaÃÃo e as reclamaÃÃes feitas pelos clientes, terceira confirmaÃÃo. A quarta confirmaÃÃo foi referente ao valor do investimento necessÃrio para a realizaÃÃo dos treinamentos, todas as quatro empresas pesquisadas, consideraram o fator investimento como empecilho no processo de capacitaÃÃo.

O objetivo fundamental deste trabalho foi buscar uma melhor compreensão sobre o fenômeno da inovação nas empresas de serviços onde o Call Center é empregado como a principal forma de interação empresa/usuário. Desta forma procurou-se identificar as possíveis contribuições do Call Center para os esforços voltados à inovação. Procurou-se seguir uma linha de abordagem segundo a qual, para se estudar e compreender o funcionamento do processo inovativo nas empresas, se faz necessário um estudo com maior profundidade nas organizações, investigando, por exemplo, como ocorreram - em detalhes - as inovações. Para essa finalidade foram conduzidos estudos de casos em cinco diferentes organizações de serviços. Para se analisar o papel do Call Center no processo inovativo foi desenvolvida e aplicada nos casos uma estrutura de análise composta por diferentes características de um Call Center, a saber: tipos de indicadores de desempenho; integração vertical/horizontal; qualificação e remuneração dos operadores; e empregos de scripts. A aplicação da estrutura de análise nos casos revelou que as empresas empregam diferentes modelos de Call Center a partir de estratégias distintas. Houve casos onde as empresas optaram por não utilizar o Call Center incorporado ao seu processo inovativo, mesmo que ele representasse um canal de interação importante com o usuário, o que em tese, serviria como fonte de idéias a serem utilizadas como fonte de inovação. Por outro lado, houve casos onde o Call Center desempenhou um papel relevante dentro do processo inovativo, como nos casos das inovações da Assistência Técnica Domiciliar da empresa Beta ou do Controle Remoto Infantil da empresa Delta. Os casos analisados mostraram também que a estratégia de não incorporar o Call Center no processo inovativo está fortemente associada a uma visão segundo a qual ele representa um Centro de Custo (onde são perseguidas medidas para a sua minimização) em contraposição a um Centro de Resultados, isto é, parte integrante de um processo estruturado intencionalmente para gerar inovação. / The main objective of this thesis is to improve the understanding of the phenomenon of the innovation in service companies where the Call Center is the principal means of interaction between the enterprise and its customers. This paper also describes the possible contributions of the Call Center area in all innovation processes. It focuses on the idea that in order to study and understand how the innovation process takes place, a more in depth study of these companies was required. A number of case studies were conducted in five different service enterprises. A structure analysis, composed of different types of performance indicators such as vertical/horizontal integration; operator qualification and wages; and different uses of scripts, was developed in order to analyze the role of a Call Center in the innovative process. The application of the structure analysis in the enterprises which were studied showed that they adopt different Call Center models based on distinct strategies. There were cases where enterprises clearly chose not to make use of a Call Center in their innovative process, even though it could represent an important interaction channel with users and at the same time serve as a means to collect ideas to be used as a source of innovation. In others the results showed that the strategy of not incorporating a Call Center in the innovative process is strongly associated to the belief that it represents a Cost Center rather than a Result Center where it is part of an intentional structured process for innovation. On the other hand, there were enterprises where the Call Center played a major role within the innovative process as in the case of developing innovation for domestic technical assistance of Beta enterprise or Childrens remote control of Delta enterprise.

La presente tesis pretende optimizar los recursos en un call center especializado en la evaluación de créditos perteneciente a la empresa GMG servicios del Perú S.A. ubicado en la ciudad de Lima en el distrito de Santiago de Surco, parte de su expansión e incursión en el mercado sudamericano, ingresa al Perú con su marca comercial “El Gallo más Gallo” dedicada a la venta de electrodomésticos, motos, equipos de cómputo y telefonía, entre otros, dirigida fundamentalmente a clientes de ingresos medio-bajos y bajos, además de presentar un crecimiento sostenible en el tiempo. El estudio de caso se centra en analizar la adecuada asignación de recursos del área de call center, así como también la demora de atención a las llamadas entrantes. Una vez conocida la situación actual se diagnosticó que los recursos no eran utilizados de manera adecuada para cumplir de manera óptima con los servicios que se brindan en dicho call center. La empresa no ha hecho ningún tipo de estudio para asignar sus recursos adecuadamente, por lo que se han basado en experiencia y mediante el tiempo van modificando según sus experiencias. Además de ello se verifica que los indicadores de tasa de abandono, duración de llamadas y demora de contestación al cliente que permiten medir el desempeño del call center no cumplen con las expectativas de la gerencia general de la empresa. Ante ello se presenta un modelo de asignación de recursos propuesto, el cual es un modelo estructurado con una serie de actividades consecuentes de un proceso y que son alimentados por la información obtenida de un modelo de programación lineal y cuyo soporte operativo se basa en una herramienta especializada llamada Lingo. Es así que el modelo matemático y la herramienta de simulación por el Promodel se relacionan e introducen en el proceso propuesto, donde la integración asegura que las decisiones se tomen en base a información relevante focalizada en la nueva asignación de recursos, para así mejorar los índices mencionados anteriormente y que se maximice el negocio aprovechando las oportunidades de generar más ganancias debido a la eficiencia del proceso y a la alza de demanda para la obtención de créditos mediante la empresa objeto de estudio. The present thesis tries to optimize the resources in a call center specialized in the belonging credit evaluation to the company GMG services of Peru S.A. located in the city of Lima in the district of Santiago of Rut, part of his expansion and incursion on the South American market, deposits Peru with his commercial brand " The Rooster more Rooster " dedicated to the sale of domestic appliances, motorcycles, equipments of calculation and telephony, between others, directed fundamentally clients of average-low and low income, beside presenting a sustainable growth in the time. The study of case centres on analyzing the suitable assignment of resources of the area of call center, as well as also the delay of attention to the next calls. Once known the current situation diagnosed that the resources were not used of way adapted to expire in an ideal way with the services that are offered in the saying call center. The company has not done any type of stupid to assign his resources adequately, by what they have been based on experience and by means of the time they are modifying according to his experiences. Besides it one checks that the indicators of rate of abandon, duration of calls and delay of answer that allow to the client to measure the performance of the call center do not expire with the expectations of the general management of the company. Before it there appears a model of assignment of resources proposed, who is a model structured with a series of consistent activities of a process and that are fed by the information obtained of a model of linear programming and whose operative support is based on a specialized tool called Lingo. It is so the mathematical model and the tool of support relate and introduce in the proposed process, where the integration assures that the decisions should take on the basis of relevant information focused in the new assignment of resources, this way to improve the indexes mentioned previously and that maximizes the business taking advantage of the opportunities to generate more earnings due to the efficiency of the process and the rise of demand for the credit obtaining by means of the company I object of study.

No description available.

This dissertation explores discipline-specific writing support spaces in an attempt to better understand disciplinary writing from various perspectives. Neal Lerner suggests that writing center scholarship would benefit from interdisciplinary work; therefore, I investigate spaces that are uniquely positioned in disciplines to identify disciplinary questions within writing center work. These spaces will allow writing center professionals to gain a better understanding of the intersections between writing in the disciplines and writing center work, and the writing center's role in student learning, from within the disciplines. We can then integrate these interdisciplinary frameworks into writing center scholarship to broaden perspectives and subsequently better accommodate students across disciplines. This scholarship could offer some clarity as we try to expand our scholarly purview in order to identify some of the questions writing center professionals should be asking. Through ten interviews from three different academic institution, this dissertation interrogates questions that have been embedded within writing center scholarship for decades. This dissertation shows the prominence of the generalist / specialist debate, the 'students can't write' narrative, and explores a situated learning theory in writing center practice. While there has been valuable research done in writing center research and scholarship in an attempt to move writing centers out of the margins, many writing centers still maintain a marginalized status to some faculty and administrators within their institutions. Unless we shift the perception of, and the narratives coming from, writing centers, we might be replaced by writing support centers that are not affiliated with writing centers. These writing support spaces, as shown in this dissertation, provide students a plethora of discipline-specific resources, often including research and communication. If writing centers do not distinguish themselves as a place that can help students across disciplines, writing centers might move from a marginalized position into having no position within the institution at all. For writing center scholars, professionals, and students, the findings of this dissertation mean that as writing centers attempt to accommodate students who write in the disciplines, our identity potentially becomes distorted. Therefore, we must pay special attention to the narratives we use in the writing center and subsequently circulate to our faculty. We have an opportunity to reconsider those narratives and offer a new theoretical framework for how we conceive of and define writing center work. If we do not adapt a situated learning theory in writing centers, we might consider other alternatives so that writing support spaces, such as those highlighted here, do not replace writing centers altogether. Those of us who are involved in writing center theory and practice have a responsibility to consider the alternative venues students might seek for help and to, as a community, identify best practices and theoretical frameworks as writing centers seek to accommodate disciplinary writers. / Ph. D.

This study assesses the influence of writing center tutorials on student writing and presents tutoring best practices. Writing center scholars have emphasized the need for evidence-based studies to understand how one-on-one tutorials influence student writing practices. After examining twenty tutorial recordings along with their pre-and post-intervention drafts in two state universities (ten in each university), the author traced the influence of writing center tutorials on students' post-session revisions and identified tutoring best practices. The findings show that all the twenty students included in the study followed up on the issues addressed in their tutorials, in some form or the other, in their post-session drafts. In terms of tutoring strategies, the findings revealed that although most of the tutors in the study could identify and speak about global concerns (i.e. development, structure, purpose, audience), many lacked specific strategies to address these concerns effectively. To address this concern, this study identifies tutoring best practices related to global concerns. Furthermore, the findings also revealed that the tutors faced challenges navigating the directive/non-directive continuum of tutoring. To address this concern, this study presents tutoring best practices to demonstrate how tutors can shift flexible between directive and non-directive strategies during a session. / Ph. D. / Writing center scholars have emphasized the need for evidence-based studies to develop a deeper understanding of how one-on-one writing center tutorials influence student writing practices. My aim in this study was to examine how writing center tutorials influence student writing and to identify tutoring best practices. To assess how writing center tutorials influence student writing practices, I asked this question: Do students carry over what is discussed in their writing center sessions into their post-session drafts? To assess tutoring best practices, I asked: What tutoring strategies influenced students to revise their drafts? To examine these two questions, I recorded twenty writing center tutorials in two state universities (ten in each university) and collected the drafts that students brought to their tutorials (i.e. the pre-intervention drafts) as well as the drafts that students revised after their tutorials (i.e. the post-intervention drafts). By comparing the pre-and post-intervention drafts and listening to the tutorial recordings, I was able to determine not just what issues were discussed in each of the twenty tutorials, but also how much of this discussion was carried over by students in their post-intervention drafts. As a result, I was able to demonstrate how students make use of their writing center instruction after attending a writing center session. In other words, I was able to show what aspects of a session students’ carried over into their post-intervention draft. My analysis revealed that all the twenty students included in my study incorporated their tutors’ suggestions, in some form or the other, in their post-intervention drafts. Thus, I was able to show the various ways in which a writing center tutorial can influence student revisions. I also used my data to identify tutoring best practices. For instance, my data revealed that although most of the tutors in the study could identify and speak about global concerns in a student’s paper (i.e. development, structure, purpose, audience), many lacked specific strategies to address these concerns effectively. To address this need, I examined the tutoring strategies used by the tutors in my study to address such global concerns and identified best practices related to such interventions. I also analyzed my data to examine how tutors use directive (i.e. providing direct instructions or suggestions) and nondirective (i.e. engaging students by soliciting their views) methods of tutoring. Although many writing center scholars and practitioners recommend using a flexible approach to alternate between these two methods depending on the nature of each session, tutors often find it challenging to do so in actual practice. Through my analysis, I identified best practices to demonstrate how tutors can adopt a flexible approach between directive and non-directive tutoring strategies. Such tutoring best practices can be a useful resource for tutor training programs and contribute to the overall development of writing center pedagogy.

The presence of turbulence in astrophysical magnetic fields can have a significant effect on the diffusion of particles and, therefore, should be taken into account when performing simulations involving particle propagation. After reviewing the constructionof the turbulent magnetic field component, we incorporate this feature in two separate projects. In the first, we consider the possible source(s) of hadronic cosmic rays thought to be responsible for the diffuse TeV gamma-ray emission in the vicinity ofthe Galactic center. Assuming a completely turbulent magnetic field with an average strength of 10-100microG, we find that relativistic protons do not travel far enough to produce gamma-rays spatially correlated with the giant molecular clouds, as seen by HESS,when injected into the interstellar medium by a single point source, such as the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. Increasing the number of point sources to five does improve the longitudinal extent of the emission but either shows only weak correlation with the molecular gas or highlights the source positions - both pictures areinconsistent with HESS observations. We conclude that protons must be accelerated throughout the Galactic center region via e.g. a second-order Fermi process in order to reproduce the HESS gamma-ray map if the magnetic field there is completely turbulent. Secondly, we examine the possible link between the asymmetric 511keV electron-positron annihilation emission from the inner Galactic disk and hard low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). Three different magnetic field configurations were considered: a completely turbulent field, a field in which the turbulent component has equal energy density as the mean component, and a strongly ordered field with little turbulence. Assuming the environment around each LMXB system is the same, we find that the LMXBs alone cannot account for all the positrons necessary to sufficiently fill the region regardless of the particular magnetic field structure chosen. Another transport mechanism (e.g. a galactic wind) in addition to the diffusive motion caused by the magnetic field fluctuations and/or allowing the LMXBs to be embedded in different phases of the interstellar medium is needed for the LMXB picture to remain a viable possibility.

This detailed report of an internship at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, includes an organizational profile, a description of the activities performed during the internship, and an analysis of an organizational management challenge, a proposed resolution to the management challenge, and a discussion of the short and long range effects of the internship on the organization. Image and branding techniques are important aspects of the analysis and the resolution of the management challenge.