Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:22:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Barbara Soares da Silva.pdf: 1165966 bytes, checksum: ec38215da85928059eae6c11eae19f93 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-12 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / As the world economy becomes more internationalized, domestic companies offer phone call services in different languages to their customers. This study looks at data belonging to an American company based in Brazil that was hired by a Brazilian multinational corporation to provide Service Desk support by phone to its customers. A service desk is a primary IT service called for in IT service management (ITSM) as defined by the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) methodology. It is intended to provide a Single Point of Contact to meet communication needs of both users and IT employees. In this study, the goal is to relate quality standards and it s linguistic features in Service Desk calls held in Spanish. Research methodology includes the following steps: First, a set of calls were collected enabling a corpus of 70 texts that was fully tagged with Biber Spanish Tagger. Secondly, data research has been submitted to SPSS (statistics software) and hand annotation on quality desempenho levels and its linguistic features was done through a taxonomy developed for this research drawing on Hoey (1983). The proposed research is justified due to the fact that the study aims mainly in contributing to Corpus Linguistics filling out corporate telephone service rendering in Spanish and Portuguese language considering there is no previous research in Service Desk area and through the analysis of these languages. Results indicate incidence of calls issues that can be assessed and worked on at a level basis which can raise awareness of attendants to the linguistics characterization of service desk calls / À medida que a economia brasileira se internacionaliza, empresas nacionais têm a necessidade de oferecer serviços de atendimento telefônico em língua estrangeira aos seus clientes. Este estudo baseia-se em dados de uma companhia americana localizada no Brasil, contratada por uma multinacional brasileira para fornecer suporte de Service Desk por telefone aos seus clientes. Um Service Desk é uma prestação de serviço de TI dentro dos serviços de gerenciamento de Tecnologia da informação (ITSM), conforme definido pela metodologia ITIL (Biblioteca de Infraestrutura de Tecnologia da Informação). A intenção é prover um único ponto de contato ( SPOC ) com o intuito de atender às necessidades comunicacionais, tanto de usuários quanto de funcionários de TI. O objetivo deste estudo é identificar e estudar quais são as características linguísticas que uma central de suporte em microinformática apresenta quando presta serviços em língua espanhola a clientes que não estão habituados ao conceito Service Desk. A metodologia da pesquisa inclui os seguintes passos: primeiramente, um conjunto de ligações foi colhido, criando-se um corpus de 70 textos etiquetados com o etiquetador Biber Spanish Tagger. Em seguida, os dados foram submetidos ao software estatístico SPSS e uma anotação manual dos níveis de desempenho de qualidade e suas características linguísticas foi executada por meio de taxonomia desenvolvida para esta pesquisa, baseada em Michael Hoey (1983). A pesquisa proposta é justificada pelo fato do estudo oferecer contribuição à Linguística de Corpus pois não há pesquisas anteriores abordando atendimentos telefônicos em Service Desk analisando a relação entre o uso do Português e do Espanhol. Os resultados indicam baixa incidência de problemas nas ligações; ao serem agrupados, tais problemas indicam diferença nos níveis de qualidade de atendimento do departamento. Esses resultados podem ser avaliados e trabalhados em uma rotina de treinamento, propiciando aos analistas de atendimento maior ciência das características linguísticas das ligações em Service Desk

This study looks at human movement in order to formulate a principle that can potentially enrich the understanding of interior design and spatial awareness within it. It considers the spatial identity of the dis/abled body by looking at the importance of the embodied experience in relation to environment. The body has dynamic abilities; therefore it is an instrument for creating form. This tangible form in context with interior design can inform our understanding of spatial needs and be used as a design-informing tool. Specifically this project uses spatial identity as a theory to guide the conceptual ideas and as a practical tool to design a work environment and showroom for a client with Thrombocytopenia Absent Radius (TAR) syndrome. / October 2007

This study looks at human movement in order to formulate a principle that can potentially enrich the understanding of interior design and spatial awareness within it. It considers the spatial identity of the dis/abled body by looking at the importance of the embodied experience in relation to environment. The body has dynamic abilities; therefore it is an instrument for creating form. This tangible form in context with interior design can inform our understanding of spatial needs and be used as a design-informing tool. Specifically this project uses spatial identity as a theory to guide the conceptual ideas and as a practical tool to design a work environment and showroom for a client with Thrombocytopenia Absent Radius (TAR) syndrome.

Magistriniame darbe nagrinėjamas pakartotinis informacijos ir žinių panaudojimas IT pagalbos tarnybose. Trumpai apžvelgti svarbiausi tokio tipo organizacijų veiklos principai, kurie standartizuojami taikant ITIL metodologiją. Darbo tikslas – sukurti IT trikčių registravimo sistemą, kuri panaudodama sukauptą informaciją apie praeityje įvykusias IT triktis spręstų dabartines problemas. Siekiant šio tikslo pasirinkta taikyti neraiškiąją logiką ir atveju paremtą samprotavimą. Darbe pateikiama neraiškiosios logikos ir atveju paremto samprotavimo teorinė apžvalga ir praktinės pritaikymo galimybės, apžvelgiamos intelektualios IT trikčių registravimo sistemos. Atlikus tyrimą ir įvertinus anksčiau sukurtas intelektualias IT trikčių registravimo sistemas, formuojamas naujosios modelis. Nauja sistema, pritaikiusi atveju paremtą samprotavimą ir neraiškiąją logiką, pateikia galimus IT trikčių sprendimus jos naudotojui, tai yra IT pagalbos tarnybos darbuotojui. Sistema yra nepriklausoma nuo kalbos, nes atskirų atvejų paieška vykdoma taikant neraiškiąją logiką. Darbą sudaro 4 dalys: įvadas, IT organizacijos pagal ITIL samprata, teorinė neraiškiosios logikos ir atveju paremto samprotavimo apžvalga, praktinis neraiškiosios logikos pritaikymas IT trikčių registravime bei išvados ir siūlymai, literatūros sąrašas. Darbo apimtis – 75 p. teksto be priedų, 26 iliustr., 5 lent., 60 bibliografiniai šaltiniai. Atskirai pridedami darbo priedai. / The final Master thesis analyses the reuse of information and knowledge in IT helpdesk organizations. Briefly are discussed most important activities of such companies, that are standardized according ITIL. The main goal of the Master thesis is development of IT help-desk ticketing tool, which would reuse past information and knowledge in order to resolve current problems. Adaptation of fuzzy logic and case based reasoning is chosen to accomplish this goal. The second part of work contains theoretical information about fuzzy logic and cased based reasoning, practical application of these sciences; also discusses intelligent IT help-desk incident ticketing systems. After the research of scientific articles about intelligent IT help-desk systems and application of fuzzy logic and case based reasoning, the new model of IT trouble tickets system is created. The new system suggests possible solutions of an IT incident. The solution is found among previous incidents using fuzzy logic. Volume of the thesis – 75 p. of text without appendices, 26 figures, 5 tables, 60 bibliographic sources.

This study looks at human movement in order to formulate a principle that can potentially enrich the understanding of interior design and spatial awareness within it. It considers the spatial identity of the dis/abled body by looking at the importance of the embodied experience in relation to environment. The body has dynamic abilities; therefore it is an instrument for creating form. This tangible form in context with interior design can inform our understanding of spatial needs and be used as a design-informing tool. Specifically this project uses spatial identity as a theory to guide the conceptual ideas and as a practical tool to design a work environment and showroom for a client with Thrombocytopenia Absent Radius (TAR) syndrome.

Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Information and Communication Sciences, Department of Computing, 2007. / "Submitted January 27 2007, revised July 27 2007". / Bibliography: p. 281-304. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xiv, 487 p., bound ill. (some col.)

The assistance and support on service desk play a key role in the business results, under IT services management, whose monitoring and control are generally performed in ITIL framework’s incident management process, through the use of performance indicators established on SLA. In this scenario, due to the existence of multiple stressing factors involved in the exercises of service desk agents activities, over time, the performance at work tends to fall. For this problem, the present work sought to investigate if the use of gamification can improve the performance at work in service desk. In this pursuit, it was developed both a systematic literature review and an experimental study, in the service desk of an governmental organization, whose results pointed to the improvement of performance, by the use of gamification. Then, itwas developed a strategic model for service desk’s performance management, with system dynamics soft approach, which was built through interpretation of collected data from both systematic literature review, interviews with domain experts and the experimental study. The construction of the model was guided by the methodology of organizational performance management known as Balanced Scorecard. After the model was built, it was then validated athwart sessions with domain experts. Thereby, adopting the quanti-quali research methodology, the present work sought to contribute with either IT services management and organizational psychology communities, as well proposing suggestions for future works. / Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Alagoas / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O atendimento e suporte em service desk exercemumpapel fundamental nos resultados de negócios, sob a gestão dos serviços de TI, cujo monitoramento e controle são geralmente realizados no processo de gerenciamento de incidentes do arcabouço ITIL, através do uso de indicadores de desempenho estabelecidos no SLA. Nesse cenário, devido a existência de múltiplos fatores estressores envolvidos no exercício das atividades de agentes de service desk, no decorrer do tempo, o desempenho no trabalho tende a cair. Para esse problema, o presente trabalho buscou investigar se o uso de gamificação podemelhorar o desempenho no trabalho em service desk. Nessa busca, foram realizados tanto uma revisão sistemática da literatura quanto um estudo experimental no service desk de uma organização governamental, cujos resultados apontaram a melhoria de desempenho, através do uso de gamificação. Em seguida, desenvolveu-se um modelo estratégico voltado à gestão de desempenho de service desks, com abordagem soft de dinâmica de sistemas, o qual foi construído através da interpretação de dados coletados na revisão sistemática da literatura, em entrevistas com especialistas de domínio e na pesquisa experimental. A construção desse modelo foi guiada pela metodologia de gestão de desempenho organizacional conhecida como Balanced Scorecard. Após construído, o modelo proposto foi validado por meio de sessões de entrevistas com especialistas de domínio.Desse modo, adotando a metodologia de pesquisa quanti-quali, o presente trabalho buscou contribuir com as comunidades de gestão dos serviços de TI e psicologia organizacional, propondo ainda sugestões para trabalhos futuros.

Introduction The National Department of Tourism (NDT) identified the underutilisation of tourist attractions as a challenge facing South Africa’s tourism. According to eThekwini Municipality (2014) and Gauteng Provincial Government (2001), domestic business tourists, amongst others, visit tourist attractions. The likelihood of business tourists requesting that hotel front office staff arrange visits to tourist attractions is acknowledged in the literature. There is, however, a dearth of research investigating the relationship between hotel front office staff and business tourists’ intentions to visit tourist attractions (hereafter mostly referred to as business tourists’ visiting intentions). The conceptualisation of this relationship is discussed in the context of hotel front office staff, interest in tourist attractions, and business tourists’ visiting intentions. The proposed mediating role of Interest in tourist attractions is highlighted, which was tested statistically, while evidence is provided that Hotel front office staff, Interest in tourist attractions, and Business tourists’ visiting intentions can serve in a causal Model of Business Tourist’s Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions. The inclusion of these constructs in a causal model will enable hotel and tourist attractions managers develop strategies to attract business tourists. Main research question Against the background of Frazier, Tix and Barron’s (2004) and Ro’s (2012) Mediation Model, see section 1.3, the following main research question was proposed for the present study: Is the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions mediated by Interest in tourist attractions in a Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions? Literature review Based on the main research question, this study resulted in the proposal of a theoretical causal model for the mediating role of tourist attractions and a causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions. The likelihood of the newly conceptualised Interest in tourist attractions as a mediator in the relationship between the Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions is evident in tourism literature. As far as could be determined, the influence of interest in tourist attractions in the relationship between hotel front office staff and business tourists’ visiting intentions has not been established to date. An extensive literature review was conducted to conceptualise hotel front office staff, interest in tourist attractions, and business tourists’ visiting intentions as constructs to include in the theoretical model from which the causal model was developed. Business tourists’ demographic details were investigated in the context of gender, age, and province. Research design A research design comprises the research approach and research method of a study. In the present research, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to generate the study’s primary data. A statistical study design was adopted for the purpose of conducting factor analysis (FA) and validating the causal model by means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) through structural equation modelling (SEM). Furthermore, this study was causal-explanatory, as it explored the mediating role of Interest in tourist attractions. International Business Machines (IBM) software SPSS 22.0 was used to conduct this study’s FA, and IBM SPSS AMOS 22.00 was used for this study’s CFA through SEM. Research method Convenience sampling, which is a non-probability sampling method, was used to select the respondents. The target population was domestic business tourists who stayed at the selected three-star hotel between 15 July 2014 and 15 April 2015. A new measuring instrument was developed to comprehensively investigate hotel front office staff, interest in tourist attractions, and business tourists’ visiting intentions. A seven-point intensity Likert scale was used for all items in the questionnaire. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire issued to domestic business tourists upon hotel check-in. The sample comprised 282 respondents. Results and discussion Data sets for all constructs were inspected for central tendency, distribution, and missing values. Missing values were replaced by the respective items’ mean score. Once inspected, PCA was conducted to explore the uni-dimensionality of items, and to reduce constructs. All constructs were retained by the PCA, and the achievement of Cronbach alpha scores exceeding .70 confirmed the validity and reliability of constructs (Hotel front office staff, Interest in tourist attractions, and Business tourists’ visiting intentions). PCA was not conducted on Business Tourists’ Visiting Intentions, due to a significant Cronbach’s alpha and the presence of only four items measuring the construct. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed positive inter-correlations between dimensions of the constructs Hotel front office staff and Interest in tourist attractions. CFA was conducted to establish the causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions. The establishment of a causal model was followed by exploring the mediating effect of Interest in tourist attractions on the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model confirmed that Interest in tourist attractions fully mediates the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. This successfully answered this study’s main research question. This study makes a unique contribution by establishing a causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions, confirming Interest in tourist attractions as a mediator in the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model proves that there is no relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions without the indirect connection with Interest in tourist attractions. In support of this study’s results, Yang, Jou, and in tourist attractions, and business tourists’ visiting intentions. A seven-point intensity Likert scale was used for all items in the questionnaire. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire issued to domestic business tourists upon hotel check-in. The sample comprised 282 respondents. Results and discussion Data sets for all constructs were inspected for central tendency, distribution, and missing values. Missing values were replaced by the respective items’ mean score. Once inspected, PCA was conducted to explore the uni-dimensionality of items, and to reduce constructs. All constructs were retained by the PCA, and the achievement of Cronbach alpha scores exceeding .70 confirmed the validity and reliability of constructs (Hotel front office staff, Interest in tourist attractions, and Business tourists’ visiting intentions). PCA was not conducted on Business Tourists’ Visiting Intentions, due to a significant Cronbach’s alpha and the presence of only four items measuring the construct. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed positive inter-correlations between dimensions of the constructs Hotel front office staff and Interest in tourist attractions. CFA was conducted to establish the causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions. The establishment of a causal model was followed by exploring the mediating effect of Interest in tourist attractions on the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model confirmed that Interest in tourist attractions fully mediates the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. This successfully answered this study’s main research question. This study makes a unique contribution by establishing a causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions, confirming Interest in tourist attractions as a mediator in the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model proves that there is no relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions without the indirect connection with Interest in tourist attractions. In support of this study’s results, Yang, Jou, andin tourist attractions, and business tourists’ visiting intentions. A seven-point intensity Likert scale was used for all items in the questionnaire. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire issued to domestic business tourists upon hotel check-in. The sample comprised 282 respondents. Results and discussion Data sets for all constructs were inspected for central tendency, distribution, and missing values. Missing values were replaced by the respective items’ mean score. Once inspected, PCA was conducted to explore the uni-dimensionality of items, and to reduce constructs. All constructs were retained by the PCA, and the achievement of Cronbach alpha scores exceeding .70 confirmed the validity and reliability of constructs (Hotel front office staff, Interest in tourist attractions, and Business tourists’ visiting intentions). PCA was not conducted on Business Tourists’ Visiting Intentions, due to a significant Cronbach’s alpha and the presence of only four items measuring the construct. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed positive inter-correlations between dimensions of the constructs Hotel front office staff and Interest in tourist attractions. CFA was conducted to establish the causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions. The establishment of a causal model was followed by exploring the mediating effect of Interest in tourist attractions on the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model confirmed that Interest in tourist attractions fully mediates the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. This successfully answered this study’s main research question. This study makes a unique contribution by establishing a causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions, confirming Interest in tourist attractions as a mediator in the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model proves that there is no relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions without the indirect connection with Interest in tourist attractions. In support of this study’s results, Yang, Jou, and Cheng (2011) asserted that business tourists expect hotels to arrange their visits to tourist attractions. According to Kasavana and Brooks (2009), it is a duty of the hotel front office staff to arrange visits to tourist attractions. Limitations This study was limited to domestic business tourists only, thereby excluding international business tourists. A non-probability sampling method was used to select respondents; this study’s results can therefore not be generalised to the population of domestic business tourists who stay at the selected three-star hotel in Pretoria. This study’s sample was uneven in the context of gender, age, and province of residence. Future research Future studies could explore the established causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions at a different hotel, to verify the validity of the model. Future studies could also explore the moderating effect of domestic business tourists with regard to age, gender, and province of residence in the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Interest in tourist attractions. Future studies could further explore the causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions using a different biographical segment, e.g., leisure tourists. Conclusion This study aimed to determine whether scores for Hotel front office staff related to scores for Business tourists’ visiting intentions, and how this relationship is mediated by scores on Tourist attractions scores. The Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions confirmed that Interest in tourist attractions fully mediates the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. Based on these results, this study’s main research objective has been achieved. / Business Management / M. Com. (Tourism Management)

I kursen Examensarbete i Integrerad produktutveckling på Högskolan i Skövde har under våren 2017 ett produktutvecklingsprojekt för Kinnarps utförts av designingenjörsstudenterna Eva Henriksson och Sofie Johansson. Kinnarps är ett företag som tillverkar möbler för offentliga miljöer och vill nu i samband med deras nya satsning, att utveckla utformningen av hur lärmiljöer ser ut, ta fram ett höj- och sänkbart elevbord anpassat för årskurs 4-9. Under projektet användes och utvärderades också QFD – Quality Function Deployment som ett verktyg för att identifiera och uppfylla rätt kundbehov. Förstudien och användandet av QFD innebar bland annat att genomföra intervjuer och observationer av användare och målgruppen, identifiera trender i lärmiljöer, utföra konkurrentanalyser, utvärdera och vikta kundbehov samt att översätta behoven till kvalitéer som gick att uppfylla.Förstudien visade på att bordets viktigaste kvaliteter att uppfylla var att det skulle vara flexibelt, mobilt, tyst och enkelt att justera.Konceptutvecklingen inleddes med att identifiera och utvärdera olika höj- och sänkmekanismer. Därefter påbörjades konceptgenerering som utfördes med hjälp av olika kreativitetsmetoder. Koncepten utvärderades och sållades kontinuerligt under processen efter hur väl de uppfyllde kundbehoven samt genom användartester och återkoppling med målgruppen. Inför konceptvalet återstod till sist två koncept. Beslutet av det slutliga konceptet grundades i hur väl det uppfyllde de identifierade kundbehoven.Resultatet blev ett bord som uppfyller de ställda kraven och passar väl in i de lärmiljöer som finns idag men är också anpassat för hur lärmiljöer troligtvis kommer se ut i framtiden. Bordet har den funktionalitet som efterfrågades av användarna samtidigt som det har en utformning som är unik och tilltalande. / During the spring semester of 2017 a product development project has been carried out by two Design Engineering Students, Eva Henriksson and Sofie Johansson, in cooperation with Kinnarps. Kinnarps is a company who develops and sells furniture for public environments and as they are now focusing on the development of how educational spaces are formed and furnished they wanted to develop a height adjustable student desk for pupils between the ages of 10 to 16. To be able to reassure whether the correct customer requirements were identified and fulfilled in the right way QFD – Quality Function Deployment was used and analyzed as a part of the project. The use of QFD during the pre-study included, amongst other things, the execution of interviews and observations of users and the target group, performing competitive analyses, looking into trends , evaluate and weighing the importance of different needs and translating those into measureable specifications.The pre-study showed that needs like mobility, flexibility, simple adjustment and that the table should be as quiet as possible were the most important ones.The concept generation phase started by identifying and evaluating different options of height adjustment mechanisms. Creativity methods were used to generate ideas on how different parts of the table could be constructed. The generated concepts were then evaluated and screened continuously by looking on how well they fulfilled the customer requirements and through user tests and feedback from the target group. Two concepts remained before the final selection. The choice between these two concepts were based on to which extend each of them fulfilled the customer requirements. The final design of the table fulfills the requirements that were set and fits well into the educational spaces as they are formed today and how they probably will be designed in the future. The functionality that were requested by the users have been fulfilled while the table still has a unique and appealing look.

This master's thesis is focused on Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Objective of the project was to analyze, design and implement a game engine, which would provide simulation of IT service operation in real or accelerated time or in turns. Basic part of the engine is a creators mode, which allows users to create custom IT services and specify their behaviour during operation, like the service would be used in real. Another part of the engine is a players mode and simple service desk. In this mode, players can take care of fluent operation of their services. Thanks to this, they can learn and train practices, which are described in ITIL.