The importance of collaboration has been recognized for more than 2000 years. While recent improvement in technology creates vast opportunities for collaboration, effective collaboration remains challenging as ad hoc teams work across time, geographical, language, and technical boundaries, and suffer from process inefficiency. My dissertation addresses part of these challenges by proposing theoretical frameworks for business collaboration and process management. Case study is used as a research strategy for this thesis and it consists of three studies. The first study proposes a process modeling framework to support efficient process model design via model transformation and validation. First, we divide process modeling into three layers and formally define three layers of workflow models. Then, we develop a procedure for transforming a conceptual process model into its corresponding logical process model. Third, we create a validation procedure that can validate whether the derived logical model is consistent with its original conceptual model. The second study proposes a framework for analyzing the relationship between interaction processes and collaboration efficiency in software issue resolution in open source community. We first develop an algorithm to identify frequent interaction process structures referred to as interaction process patterns. Then, we assess patterns' impact through a time-dependent Cox regression model. By applying the interaction process analysis framework to software issue resolution processes, we identify several patterns that are significantly correlated with collaboration efficiency. We further conduct a case study to validate the findings of pattern efficiency in software issue resolution. The third study addresses the issue of suitability of virtual collaboration. Virtual collaboration seems to work well for some cases, but not for others. We define collaboration virtualization as the suitability for a task to be conducted virtually and propose a Collaboration Virtualization Theory (CVT) to explain collaboration virtualization. Three categories (i.e., task, technology, and team) of constructs that determine the suitability of collaboration virtualization are derived from a systematic literature review of related areas. In summary, this dissertation addresses challenges in collaboration and process management, and we believe that our research will have important theoretical and practical impacts on the development of collaboration management systems.

Magistro baigiamasis darbas skirtas aptarti vietos savivaldos ir biudžetinių įstaigų bendradarbiavimo teorinius ir teisinius aspektus, tiriant Anykščių r. savivaldybės ir rajone veikiančių biudžetinių įstaigų atvejį. Siekiant įgyvendinti šio darbo tikslą- ištirti praktinį teorinių ir teisinių bendradarbiavimo principų įgyvendinimą Anykščių r. savivaldybėje ir nustatyti veiksnius, turinčius įtakos bendradarbiavimo plėtrai rajone- buvo analizuojama mokslinė ir teisinė literatūra. Praktiniai bendradarbiavimo aspektai Anykščių r. atskleisti naudojant interviu metodą. Tyrimo metu apklausta 10 Anykščių r. savivaldybės darbuotojų ir 10 rajone veikiančių biudžetinių įstaigų darbuotojų. Autorė analizuoja vietos savivaldos ir bendradarbiavimo vietą viešosios politikos kontekste. Sujungdama viešojo administravimo ir naujosios viešosios vadybos principus, autorė tiria kokie veiksniai ir kokios sąlygos būtinos, norint užtikrinti sėkmingus bendradarbiavimo rezultatus. Akcentuojant tai, kad Lietuva ES nare tapo jau nuo 2007 m., darbe atskleidžiama teisniai, bendradarbiavimą vietos savivaldoje reglamentuojantys, aspektai. Analizuojami tarptautiniai, nacionaliniai ir Anykščių r. savivaldybės išleisti teisės aktai, vertinamas jų adekvatumas vienas kitam. Tyrimo metu gauti duomenys rodo, kad bendradarbiavimo praktikoje Anykščių r. ypatingai pasigendama teorinės bendradarbiavimo apibrėžties, teisinio reglamentavimo ir skatinimo sistemos vykdyti bendradarbiavimo projektus. Buvo patvirtinta... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The subject of the master's thesis is about the budgetary institutions and municipal cooperation analyzed in theoretical and legal aspects by studing the case of Anyksciai district. In order to achieve the objective of the work - to analyze theoretical and legal principles of cooperation in Anyksciai district and to identify the factors affecting the development of cooperation in the area - were analyzed the scientific and legal literature. Practical aspects of cooperation in Anyksciai district were disclosed by use interview method. The study surveyed 10 employees in Anyksciai municipal and 10 budgetary institutions employees operating in the area. The author analyzes the cooperation and local government place in the context of public policy. Combining the public administration and new public management principles, the author examines the factors and conditions which are necessary to ensure the successful results of the cooperation. The emphasis on the fact that Lithuania became an EU member since 2007, author Analyzes the international, national and Anyksciai municipalities to issue laws, evaluates the adequacy of one another. The study showed that in Anyksciai district particularly lack theoretical definition of cooperation, legal and regulatory framework to promote co-operation projects. It was confirmed the hypothesis that the legal regulation and also the incentive system would promote the initiation of cooperation projects. The results show that Anyksciai municipal... [to full text]

This thesis explores the innovation and development of the Canadian wine industry. The main objectives are to present the key development factors, innovation, and collaborations, with particular emphasis on collaborations with higher education institutes. It also empirically assesses the extent to which there are differences among the wine producing regions of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. The empirical analysis is based on a firm-level survey of 146 firms. The results show that the Canadian wine production is highly innovative and knowledge intensive. Despite that the wine industry in Canada has developed differently according to its regional context, the pattern of innovation is rather similar among firms.

Three experiments examine how collaboration influences visual search performance. Working with a partner or on their own, participants reported whether a target was present or absent in briefly presented search displays. The search performance of individuals working together (collaborative pairs) was compared to the pooled responses of the individuals working alone (nominal pairs). Collaborative pairs were less likely than nominal pairs to correctly detect a target and they were less likely to make false alarms. Signal detection analyses revealed that collaborative pairs were more sensitive to the presence of the target and had a more conservative response bias than the nominal pairs. This pattern was observed when the search difficulty was increased and when the presence of another individual was matched across pairs. The results are discussed in the context of task sharing, social loafing and current theories of visual search.

Multi-agency collaboration is often advocated as a means of tackling cross-cutting areas of public services and viewed as a solution to service fragmentation, with local agencies on the receiving end of government exhortations to collaborate. Yet there is relatively little research examining the effectiveness of policy tools and mechanisms aiming to stimulate local collaboration. This thesis examines the influence and dynamics of vertical and horizontal coordination tools, investigating their potential to enhance collaboration in local public service delivery networks and to reduce negative externalities. A theoretical framework is employed which synthesises models of policy implementation and bureaucratic decision-making. The empirical research is conducted in relation to organisations working with the homeless in England, and the research methods include a survey of Local Authorities and interviews with civil servants and frontline professionals. While governmental attempts to foster collaboration are partially effective, there are weaknesses with some of the policy tools employed, and limits to State control. Local actors’ collaborative decision-making is influenced more by ‘bottom-up’ than by ‘top-down’ factors. Moreover, the competitive context in which service providers operate leads them to pursue strategies to promote their own organisational interests rather than working towards a dominant common interest. The strategies employed are broadly in line with a bureaucratic politics perspective, and include failure to share information, possessiveness over client outcomes and projecting an image of success rather than sharing problems. Nevertheless, formal collaborative mechanisms do have the potential to alleviate externalities associated with fragmented systems. With strong local management and appropriate central facilitation, they can help to meet client needs and to counter fragmentation, ultimately leading to better services.

Background: Primary care providers, family physicians and nurse practitioners provide most mental health services in Canada. However, primary care providers lack knowledge, skills, and time to provide these services. Access to onsite mental health consultation or collaborative mental health care, affords primary care providers support to offer patients increased access to mental health services. Researchers suggest that interprofessional collaborative relationships are foundational to the success of collaborative mental health care. However, there is little understanding of how to build these relationships. Purpose: The purpose of this grounded theory study was to develop an understanding of how primary care and mental health care providers collaborate to deliver mental health care in primary care settings. Methods: Counsellors, family physicians, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, and program leaders were recruited (N=40). Data were collected using individual (19) and focus group (7) semi-structured interviews. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and open coded. After open coding the first seven interviews, memos were written on each participant and focus group. These memos were sorted, compared to previous memos and then used to create a coding table. This iterative process of open coding, memo writing and then adding emergent codes to the coding table was repeated for all transcripts. Similar codes were grouped then collapsed to create the preliminary categories. Preliminary categories were sent to the participants after the primary care provider interviews and again after the provider focus groups to create the final categories. The final categories were compared to examine their relationships to one another. Findings: The main finding of this study is a theoretical rendering of the participants’ experiences and ascribed meaning of interprofessional collaboration to deliver mental health services in primary care. Specifically, a collaborative relationship building model with four developmental stages: 1) Primary Care Providers Need for Collaboration, 2) Initiating Co-location, 3) Fitting-in, and 4) Growing Reciprocity is offered. Conclusions: The findings underscore that collaborative care requires an understood need for collaboration, organizational support, contextually effective modes of communication, and a perception that collaboration improves patient care. Further research may explore the applicability of this model to other health care contexts. / February 2017

In the contemporary tourism industry, the competitive game is between destinations. Tourism operations struggle to remain competitive on the international market and their success depends to a large extent on other complementary and competing tourism organizations at the destination. It is the sum of the total tourism offerings at the destination which determines its attractiveness. This research explores tourism collaboration process as a means of generating destination competitiveness. The focus of the research is on the enhancing factors which contribute to the success of the collaboration and to the development of quality tourism products. The research studies the case of Biking Dalarna, a collaboration of different organizations at five biking destinations in Dalarna, Sweden. Its purpose is to develop biking tourism in the region and to make Dalarna into Sweden’s leading biking destination. It is a qualitative research; the empirical data was collected through in depth interviews with representatives of six Biking Dalarna member organizations. The qualitative data collected from the participants provides inside look into the members reflections and experience of collaborating. The findings of this research demonstrate how collaboration has improved the biking product in Dalarna and promoted solutions to development problems. The research finds the good relationship between the collaborating actors and the involvement and leadership of the regional tourism management organization as the most contributing factors to the success of Biking Dalarna. The research also suggests that a third desired outcome of collaboration, improved marketing attributes was yet to be achieved in the case of Biking Dalarna.

Objective: To analyze factors that lead nurses and doulas to have positive views of each other. Design: A multivariate analysis of a cross-sectional survey, the Maternity Support Survey. Setting: Online survey with labor and delivery nurses, doulas, and childbirth educators in the United States and Canada. Participants: A convenience sample of 704 labor and delivery nurses and 1,470 doulas. Methods: Multiple regression analysis was used to examine five sets of hypotheses about nurses' and doulas' attitudes toward each other. Scales of nurses' attitudes toward doulas and doulas' attitudes toward nurses included beliefs that nurses/doulas enhance communication, are collaborative team members, enhance a woman's birth experience, interfere with the ability to provide care, or interfere with relationships with the women for whom they care. Results: For nurses, exposure to doulas in their primary hospitals was associated with more positive views, whereas working more hours, feeling overworked, and a preference for clinical tasks over labor support were associated with more negative views of doulas. For doulas, working primarily in one hospital and certification were associated with more positive views of nurses. Nurses with more positive attitudes toward common obstetric practices had more negative attitudes toward doulas, whereas doulas with more positive attitudes toward common obstetric practices had more positive attitudes toward nurses. Conclusion: Our findings show factors that influence mutual understanding and appreciation of nurses and doulas for each other. These factors can be influenced by educational efforts to improve interprofessional collaboration between these maternity care support roles.

After almost two semesters as a graduate student at the University of Vermont, I decided that I wanted to do more in my second year of graduate school. It was through conversations with my colleagues that I determined that stepping out of my comfort zone of student affairs and looking into academic affairs would help develop me as not only a student affairs professional but as an educator as well. During the fall semester of 2016, I participated in an independent study where I served as a Teaching Assistant for a university diversity requirement course titled “The Political Economy of Race”. For this course I worked directly with a faculty member in the Department of Economics to cultivate a holistic classroom experience for the students in the course. Throughout the course of the semester, I was able to witness many different dynamics that were helpful to not only the students but to the professionals in the room as well. Upon completing the semester, I determined that I wanted to do more research and explore the benefits of collaborative partnerships between faculty and staff on college campuses; my focus for this research was to be around partnerships between professionals in student affairs and academic affairs. Although there has not been a lot of research around this particular topic in Higher Education, it is beginning to be studied as colleges and universities are expected to produce more valuable experiences for students. Through both research and experiential learning, I have found that there are benefits to collaborative partnerships between academic and student affairs in Higher Education as well as drawbacks to these partnerships. I have also made recommendations for future collaborative projects between faculty and staff as well as recommendations for future research in this area. Overall, there is value in the collaboration of student and academic affairs; however, it is the duty of Higher Education professionals to understand that value and work more collaboratively to ensure that students are served holistically.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.