This thesis explores the processual nature of agency and constraints in the experience of medicalized conception in a not yet explored locale: Bogota, Colombia. In ten months of ethnographic research at two fertility centers in Bogota, and interview data from over 100 in-depth interviews with women and men undergoing ARTs and clinic staff, a complex ART industry driven by both doctors (qua entrepreneurs) and the couples seeking medicalized conception was explored. This thesis identifies how relationships in the clinic combined with understandings of “the fragmented body” (as a medicalized object under scrutiny) and “the self” (as a conscious agent), to produce intricate dynamics of agency and constraints that co-evolved in a processual manner. Tracing the experiences of women in infertility treatment chronologically, the thesis explores how knowledge was established and renegotiated through productive power fields that relationally incorporated embodied, personal knowledge and authoritative medical expertise. Women adapted to constraints in both active and passive ways to create and assert their ever-transforming agentive capacities. In these processes, they were constantly reflecting on, and renegotiating their position in the treatment process, as well as in their social lives more broadly. Drawing on, and seeking to contribute to, literature on agency in ARTs from across the world, particularly literature that considers agency as a process co-established by the constraints it confronts, this thesis makes two key arguments: First, that agency in Colombian ART clinics is defined as reflection and renegotiation, rather than as something which occurs at a singular moment of reflection and renegotiation. Second, that this negotiated process is constrained, but not contained. In other words, agency is a process that looks both backwards and forwards. Women and couples incorporated different personal histories and embodied knowledge into negotiating the treatment process and constraints they encountered, and adapted their experiences of ART treatments to other aspects of their lives, negotiating constraints that reach beyond the clinical setting.

The current thesis aimed to identify the process through which jurors reach their decisions, and to investigate the factors that may make the trial by jury process unfair for the individuals involved in criminal trials (i.e., the defendant, the prosecution and the defence). An initial literature review highlighted that two separate threshold models may be able to explain the processes (i.e., both rational and intuitive) through which jurors reach their decisions: 1) the Diffusion Threshold Model and 2) the Counter Threshold Model. The first study investigated which model of juror decision making was appropriate. In this quasi-experiment, 60 participants took part, and made verdicts (of Guilty, Not Guilty and Not Proven) over nine vignettes. Participants were asked to rate the evidence as either Guilty, Not Guilty or Not Proven, and to state how likely (from 1-100) they thought it was that the defendant was guilty. After all the evidence had been presented, participants were asked to give a verdict. Then, participants were asked to state the last piece of evidence they needed to reach said verdict (symbolising the threshold). The results suggested that the Diffusion Threshold Model best explained the decision processes of jurors. The second study investigated if the reaching of a threshold caused confirmation bias and/or evidence distortion to occur, and if information interaction allowed said threshold to be reached. Each of the 108 participants listened to one vignette, which contained an opening statement, eight pieces of evidence (four prosecution and four defence) and two closing statements (one prosecution and one defence). Participants were asked to state their perceived likelihood of guilt in regard to the defendant after each piece of evidence. After all the evidence had been presented, participants were asked to give a verdict and to state the last piece of evidence they needed to give said verdict (symbolising the threshold). The results showed that information integration occurred throughout a trial, but the reaching of a threshold promoted confirmation bias. The third study looked to investigate potential factors that may have an impact on juror perceptions of guilt and the verdicts given by jurors. In this study, 128 participants listened to two vignettes. The vignettes were manipulated, and counterbalanced, for both the anchor (strong versus weak initial piece of evidence) and number of verdicts available (two-verdicts were available or three-verdicts were available with the additional Not Proven verdict) factors. Participants also completed the Pre-trial juror bias questionnaire (PJAQ), which allowed participants to be categorised according to their bias. The results highlighted that pre-trial biases did have an impact on the belief of guilt given, and that jurors in a three-verdict system were less likely to give a Not Guilty verdict in comparison to jurors in a two-verdict system. The findings in the current thesis have suggested that the Diffusion Threshold Model can adequately explain the process through which jurors reach their decisions, that individuals integrate information until they reach an appropriate threshold, that the reaching of a threshold can promote confirmation bias, and that extra-legal factors, such as pre-trial biases, can have an impact on juror perceptions of guilt. The results also highlighted that certain factors (i.e., thresholds that promote confirmation bias) may make the trial by jury process unfair for individuals (i.e., the defendant) who are involved in a criminal trial.

It is well established that one of the key contributing factors to the growth of countries’ economies is the existence of appropriate economic and social infrastructures. The setup of these infrastructures and their operation or delivery of public services associated with them have proved to be a costly and often unaffordable business for most governments. Therefore, private sector participation in the delivery of public services has been opted for by governments under Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Additional reasons for the public sector to choose a PPP framework to deliver public services include the public sector representatives’ lack of sufficient technical knowledge and specifications required by most projects; the required amount of investment to implement such projects is too high to be affordable by the public sector alone; the increasing difficulties of predicting and controlling the uncertainties that typically govern the phases of such projects including the level of actual demand for the related services by the time the project is operational; the level of bureaucracy in the public sector and its implications on the time frame of decision-making processes; the relatively low efficiency in project execution by the public sector; and most importantly the fact that, in practice, these difficulties are often better managed by the private sector who seem to possess both the financial and the executive capabilities to undertake such projects Currently, there is a gap in the game theory literature on modelling PPP related decisions and issues. This thesis contributes to reducing such gap by proposing three novel and practice-oriented game theoretical models along with algorithms for solving them, namely an ordinal game for the shortlisting of potential private sector partners; two non-cooperative dynamic games for negotiation with shortlisted private sector partners and selection of private sector partner to award the PPP contract to; and a non-cooperative dynamic game for financial renegotiation post-PPP contract award. In sum, each novel game addresses an important problem faced by the private sector during the typical stages of the life cycle of PPPs, namely private sector partner selection at the tendering stage; negotiation between the public sector and shortlisted bidders to select the candidate to whom to award a PPP contract to at the post-tendering stage; and financial re-negotiation between the public sector and the selected private sector partner at the post-contract award stage.

This study examines decision-making processes involved in the development, integration and management of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in self-managing secondary schools and influences that affect these processes. To obtain an holistic view of ICT decision-making processes, a case study is undertaken of three co-educational, state secondary schools within a regional New Zealand city, thereby establishing a multiple case study. The principal, network manager and three staff nominated by the principal as playing an active role in ICT decision-making processes were interviewed using an open-ended interview. Five frequently cited generic decision-making models, developed by theorists to describe specific features of the decision-making process, are examined to provide a theoretical platform against which the interview data are analysed and interpreted. The study concludes that ICT decision-making in the case study schools is influenced particularly by technical knowledge and understandings. Such decision-making tends to be ad-hoc, isolated from other important influences particularly in relation to teaching and learning issues, and 'bounded' because of limited information, the limitations of existing technology, and the inability of schools to keep abreast of technological changes. Six implications are therefore put forward to inform future ICT decision-making in schools. They are: 1. Schools should develop a strategic plan that is underpinned with technical planning requirements; 2. Technical advice and professional development should be provided for principals; 3. Principals should consult outside the school environment for technical advice to assist with decisions; 4. The role of the ICT committee should be redefined to include planning and development of ICT; 5. Principals should ensure that staff receive professional development; and 6. Schools should consider student access and the best way of integrating ICT into teaching and learning. The study highlights the need for schools to develop strategic plans that address teaching and learning issues in the development, integration and management of ICT in self-managing secondary schools. Technical decisions should be made in support of these.

<p>In this dissertation different decision-making processes are considered. The concept of information is described and different types of information are identified. These are operative information, supportive information, state-of-the-art-information, feedback information, directive information and private-interpersonal information. The research method, which has been used in this investigation, is personal interviews. Those who participated in the investigation were decision-makers from five different organizations. One aim was to investigate decision-making processes used in organizations and compare them with certain theoretical decision-making processes. Another aim was to identify what types of information were used in the different parts of a decision-making process. One conclusion is that the decision-making processes used in organizations differ from each other, mostly in the first and last phase, but they are still fairly similar. The main difference in the first phase is the focus on the overall goal of the organization and in the last phase if evaluation is included in the decision-making process. Another conclusion is that all types of information, except private-interpersonal information, are used in the different decision-making processes.</p>

This study has endeavored to discover the pertinent characteristics associated with sports gambling. Three variables appear to be especially prominent in the literature concerning gambling. Chasing one's losses is a gambling specific behavior that has been linked to pathological gambling (Lesieur, 1984). When gambler's chase their losses, they attempt to win back previously lost wagers with future gambles. In addition, previous research has focused on both the cognitive and decision making processes associated with gambling (Kahneman & Tversky, 1978; Langer, 1975). I have hypothesized that the manner in which cognitive processes, decision making, and chasing one's losses interact is a primary variable that contributes to pathological gambling. An additional hypothesis concerns the manner in which sports knowledge affects gambling behavior. The research described in this dissertation has attempted to examine the relevant cognitive and decision making processes associated with pathological gambling. Subjects engaged in gambling simulation over a six week period of time. This simulation replicated real-world gambling with the exception that money could not be lost. The top three winners were paid a percentage of their earnings in order to help insure internal validity. Results indicate that subjects with a high degree of sports knowledge gambled at a higher level and lost a greater amount of wagers than subjects with a low degree of sports knowledge. Implications associated with this include the possibility that individuals utilize knowledge as way to discount and distort statistical probabilities associated with gambling. In this study, cognition processes and decision making were not related to gambling outcomes. / text

This research addressed the need for in-depth investigation of what actually happens in the practice of risk management in software package implementation projects. There is strong 'official' sanction in the IT literature for the use of formal risk management processes for IT projects but there is a confused picture of their application in practice. While many potential risk factors for IT projects have been identified, and formal procedures have been prescribed for the management of these risks, there has been little work investigating how project managers assess these risks in practice and what countermeasures they employ against these risks in their projects. In particular, the study used an interpretive critical decision interview approach to focus on those areas of risk management knowledge that project managers have acquired through experience, i.e. tacit knowledge. A new categorization of risk factors emanating from three sources -- vendor, client, and third party -reveals risk factors not previously identified. Some of these new factors arise from the three sources noted, while others arise from the package implementation focus of the projects and from aspects arising from the location of the projects in Hong Kong. Key factors that cause problems even when anticipated and mitigated, and the most often unanticipated problems are also identified. The study further presents an examination of the studied managers' risk management practices, and the strategies they use to address both potential and actual problems. This examination revealed close conformance with recommended literature prescriptions at some stages of projects, and significant variation at other stages, with strategies applied being broad and general rather than risk specific. A useful categorization of these strategies into four broad groups relating to different sets of risk factors is presented, reflecting the actual practice of respondents. Tacit knowledge was revealed throughout these investigations in the variances observed between prescribed and actual practice, and particularly from an examination of project managers' decision-making practices from two different perspectives - rational and naturalistic. A hybrid decision-making model is proposed to capture the actual processes observed, and to provide prescriptive guidance for risk management practice. The investigation makes a contribution to the field of IT project risk management in three ways. First, the investigation has addressed the need for empirical studies into IT risk management practices and the factors influencing project managers in their choice and application of strategies to manage risk. Second, by examining how experienced IT project managers approach the task of managing risk in software package implementations, the study has extended our understanding of the nature of the knowledge and skills that effective IT project managers develop through experience. Third, the study makes a theoretical contribution to our understanding of IT project risk management by examining the decision-making processes followed by IT project managers from the perspective of two contrasting theories of decision-making - the rational method and the Naturalistic Decision Making theory.

Abstract The aim of this study was to understand the relationships among the personality traits, risk attitudes, risk management practices, and decision making processes of dairy farmers in SE Queensland. Risk management and decision making processes are two of many components of managerial ability. The hypothesis was proposed that dairy farmers’ personalities influence their risk attitudes, decision making processes, and risk management abilities. Case studies of 46 dairy farmers in SE Queensland involving the completion of personality inventories (NEO-PI-R) based on the Five-Factor Model of personality; questionnaires and informal interviews were used to test the hypotheses. The thesis contains three parts. The first part, Chapter 1, is the introduction to the thesis. The second part of the thesis, Chapter 2 through Chapter 6, consists of an extensive review of the literature on the major topics pertinent to the project. In Chapter 2, a definition of “competence” in the context of this study is given, and an explanation of the evidence for a connection between personality and competence and thus job performance is detailed. In Chapter 3, the literature on personality is reviewed with particular emphasis on trait theory and the development of the Five-Factor Model of personality (FFM). In Chapter 4, the literature review on personality assessment using testing instruments designed for use in the context of the FFM is presented, and the rationale for the personality test instrument is expounded. It is the task of the manager to manage risk, so that considering risk attitude when making decisions is also an integral part of the study of the role of managers. Chapter 5 reviews the contemporary literature on risk and risk management with an emphasis on the application of risk management principles to dairy farms. In Chapter 6, the literature on decision theory is reviewed. Decision-making and risk management are intertwined. The behaviour resulting from the process of making a decision reflects the personality and risk attitude of the decision-maker. In this chapter, the distinction is made between formal and informal models of decision making, and examples are given. The third part of the project comprises Chapters 7 through Chapter 11. Chapter 7 outlines the research approach used – case studies - and paves the way for the following two chapters, which present a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of the data from the case studies. Chapter 8 presents part 1 of the investigation - the qualitative analysis of the case studies. This chapter introduces and explains the terminology used in the questionnaire and examines the trends and feeling in the farmers’ answers. Chapter 9 presents part 2 of the analysis – quantitative results of the personality assessments and interviews from the case studies with SE Queensland dairy farmers which were conducted to assess their risk management and decision making abilities. Chapter 10 provides a summary of the research findings, and then discusses the results with respect to the diverse responses of farmers to common external pressures. The chapter discusses the relevance of personality to the formation of management strategy and concludes with a short introduction to systems thinking as a way of thinking about the complex systems inherent in dairy farming. Chapter 11 reviews the subjects covered in the thesis and draws conclusions from the research. It outlines implications for policy makers and managers and proposes directions for further research in this area of investigation. Key Words: Five-Factor Model of Personality, risk, decision making processes, dairy farmers, management

In this dissertation different decision-making processes are considered. The concept of information is described and different types of information are identified. These are operative information, supportive information, state-of-the-art-information, feedback information, directive information and private-interpersonal information. The research method, which has been used in this investigation, is personal interviews. Those who participated in the investigation were decision-makers from five different organizations. One aim was to investigate decision-making processes used in organizations and compare them with certain theoretical decision-making processes. Another aim was to identify what types of information were used in the different parts of a decision-making process. One conclusion is that the decision-making processes used in organizations differ from each other, mostly in the first and last phase, but they are still fairly similar. The main difference in the first phase is the focus on the overall goal of the organization and in the last phase if evaluation is included in the decision-making process. Another conclusion is that all types of information, except private-interpersonal information, are used in the different decision-making processes.

In the current global market, knowledge is viewed as a source of competitive advantage. In particular, it has become a crucial factor for Multinational Corporations (MNCs). MNCs are searching for appropriate ways to manage and use their knowledge effectively and efficiently. Their challenge is how to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and maximise the value from all available knowledge assets. In response to this, MNCs use Knowledge Management Systems (KMSs) for sharing, utilising and integrating knowledge as well as supporting Decision-making Processes. Therefore, the primary concern of this research is to examine knowledge sharing by using KMSs to support decision-making processes in MNCs. The study extends the existing literature on KMSs, knowledge sharing, and decision-making processes by proposing and empirically testing a new conceptual model in MNCs. For this purpose, a mixed-methods approach has been designed, combining semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire to collect data from MNCs participants from Europe and the Middle-East. In the first phase of this study, 42 semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from 32 different MNCs in 12 countries to explore the main factors affecting knowledge sharing by using KMSs to support decision-making processes. A conceptual framework comprising four core dimensions was developed using thematic analysis. In the first dimension, Knowledge Management Systems, three themes were identified: technology acceptance, communication tools, and KMSs usage. In the second dimension, Knowledge Sharing Practices, the three themes were: content, willingness to share, and external factors. In Culture, the themes were: national culture, organisational culture, and information technology culture. In the fourth dimension, Decision-making Processes, extent of analysis and speed of decision-making were identified. This study went a step further than merely identifying the factors that affect KS. A conceptual model and twelve hypotheses were developed based on the findings of the thematic analysis, literature review, and the research objectives. The new model comprises seven constructs: organisational culture, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of using KMSs, KMSs usage, knowledge sharing, decision-making processes and organisational effectiveness. A survey was conducted to collect data on participants’ perceptions to test the model. Responses from 221 KMSs users were analysed. Structural equation modelling was conducted to test the hypothesised relationships. The results revealed that all hypotheses are statistically significant. KMSs usage and organisational culture have a positive and significant impact on knowledge sharing, with organisational culture having the largest impact. KMSs usage, knowledge sharing and organisational culture have a significant effect on decision-making processes; knowledge sharing has the biggest impact, followed by KMSs usage, and a marginally positive impact of organisational culture. Moreover, perceived ease of use has a strong and positive significant impact on the perceived usefulness of KMSs. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and organisational culture have a positive and significant effect on KMSs usage, with organisational culture having the largest impact. Finally, organisational culture, decision-making processes and perceived usefulness have a positive and significant impact on organisational effectiveness, but decision-making processes have the biggest impact. This study has practical implications for different stakeholders in MNCs, including managers, decision makers, KMSs designers, IT specialists, and consultants, in linking KMSs usage and knowledge sharing with decision-making processes and organisational effectiveness, and by focusing on organisational culture in knowledge management.