This transformative case study used qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the social construction of collaborative and technology leadership among students in a graduate-level course on curriculum leadership. Analysis of interactions among students during an asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) project using critical discourse analysis was completed. Student dialogue was analyzed for how students across different social groups interacted discursively to promote and inhibit the development of leadership in the domains of collaboration and technology, while socially constructing the knowledge context for learning about the societal curriculum for diverse social groups. Findings were that women more than men were verbose and promotive, and that much of their power/language exchanges involved mutual understanding. Black students were underrepresented in the graduate course, but gained power through language and course design. Latino students lacked self-advocacy and emphasized cultural diversity in their use of power/language. An interview with the professor provides insight into the structures that frame student's experiences. These findings are discussed through a three-tiered Critical Discourse Analysis Framework and recommendations are made for educators, leaders and education leadership preparation programs that use on-line learning platforms that support collaborative learning experiences.

The research aims to develop an understanding of the extent to which collaboration occurs through the use of online technologies in the project management environment. Given the breadth of the technological landscape, this research focuses on the use of online collaborative toolsets (OCTs). The research investigates six Project Management Environments (PMEs) and their use of OCTs, and uses a Collaboration scale developed specifically to measure the level of collaboration existing within each PME. The Collaboration scale presents collaboration not as a single entity, but as a scale ranging from low to high across six elements. Central to this theory is that for collaboration to exist, all elements must rate highly against the scale. The research argues that although all collaborative elements are found within a PME, it is the level of each element that determines the degree to which collaboration is occurring. A case study approach incorporated three broad strategies to collect data. The first strategy included a Likert questionnaire using the Dichotomous scale, which was administered to collect data on the operations of the individual projects. The second strategy included interviews that asked the project manager of each case specific questions regarding the PME. The third strategy involved desk research to scan for literature and web artefacts. The conclusions drawn from this research are: 1. OCTs can contain a variety of features, several of which are common amongst all. The research identified common requirements and use of the OCTs within the cases. 2. Although OCTs are capable of facilitating a high level of collaboration, Project Managers do not use OCTs for this purpose. The different project environments reviewed are not necessarily collaborative, nor do they use OCTs to assist with collaborative exercises. 3. OCTs are used predominantly for cooperation and coordinating activities within the PME. 4. Collaboration in the PMEs reviewed exists in degrees, at times being identified with cooperative functions, and at other times coordinating functions. 5. The findings demonstrate a pattern of collaboration, which is consistent across all cases. This pattern demonstrates a variation in the collaborative elements across the PME, and indicates a priority that may exist in regard to how these elements are prescribed within the actual project environment.

Multi-stakeholder dialogue and collaborations have been considered as ‘panacea’ for complex local to global problems confronting governments, businesses and society. And for over a decade now, they have also been increasingly promoted as mechanisms to achieve sustainability. There is, however, a dearth of empirical studies that give deeper insights into the practical dimensions and various implications of such processes for sustainability. This dissertation explores how multi-stakeholder organising processes for sustainability occur in local settings. It relies on a theoretical framework that combines institutional and social movements theoretical perspectives. Such a theoretical cross-fertilisation has been helpful in explaining: (a) how the macro institutional context of sustainable development influences micro interactions of individuals during collaborations; and (b) how those micro interactions may influence the sustainability movement organised at macro societal levels. The dissertation is philosophically based on the principles of critical hermeneutics. It draws on the works of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jürgen Habermas to understand the nature of reality, society and human relationships. The study also uses literature on sustainable development, organising, dialogue, collaboration, stakeholder engagement, emotions and time. Three cases of multi-stakeholder dialogic collaborations organised to address sustainability of two regions in New Zealand were investigated through observations, interviews with participants and documentary research. These processes were developed in response to a regulatory change in New Zealand – the new Local Government Act (2002) which emphasises sustainable development of communities. The data across the three cases was analysed using principles of grounded theory and critical hermeneutics. Analysis reveals how various kinds of institutional pressures (engulfing cultural-cognitive, regulative and normative institutions connected with sustainable development) confront different stakeholders with varying intensities. Those pressures influence stakeholders to become involved in and commit to such collaborations. And as stakeholders participate in such processes, they are shown to engage with one another rationally and emotionally, and with different conceptions of time. The collaborations thus can be characterised by a complex fusion of rationality, emotionality and temporality. On the one hand, multi-stakeholder dialogic collaborations stimulate learning, facilitate relationship building and build social capital for implementing sustainable development. They thus prove themselves as potent governance mechanisms that can help to institutionalise sustainable development. On the other hand, multi-stakeholder dialogic collaborations for sustainability are highly messy, unpredictable, paradoxical and conflict-ridden processes of stakeholder engagement. They are shown to suffer from three major problematics: problematic of misunderstandings; problematic of stakeholders’ emotions; and problematic of stakeholders’ time. They thus, ironically and paradoxically, are also problematic solutions for sustainability.

The focus of this research is the construction of a shared vision for the environment. Specifically, the purpose of this research was to examine the construction of shared vision between different rhetorical communities for the Lake Omapere Restoration Project. In this investigation, I applied Bormann's (1972; 1983) symbolic convergence theory to the communication processes of the Resource Management Act (1991). The intended outcome of this research was to gain further understanding of the communication processes in place within the Resource Management Act 1991 in order to foster a more holistic, bicultural approach for the development of Aotearoa New Zealand*. My premise was that shared understanding through storytelling could be a useful tool for producing equitable bicultural environmental decisions. This research is concerned with how that shared vision is created rhetorically. It is based on the theoretical understanding that language constructs people's social reality (Escobar, 1996; Pearce, 1989). The literature review established that people make sense of the material world through language, deep emotional connection to the land and decision-making processes. This discussion of the different ways people come to view the material world provided the background for the central research question. The primary research question that guided the investigation was how do different rhetorical communities construct shared vision for the environment? In order to answer this question data were collected using archival records retrieved from the Northland Regional Council. The analysis of the data involved the application of Bormann's (1972; 1983) symbolic convergence theory to the construction of shared vision for the polluted condition of Lake Omapere in Northland. The fantasy theme analysis of the texts revealed two fantasy themes personifying Lake Omapere: first, the story of the dying lake, followed by second fantasy theme of the salvation of the lake. These two fantasy themes provided the rhetorical ground for the evolution of shared rhetorical vision for the restoration of the wellbeing of Lake Omapere. Following Bormann (1972; 1983), the study showed that symbolic convergence theory accounts for the irrational as well as rational aspects of positive collaborative action for the environment. This research has contributed to knowledge by showing that Bormann's (1972; 1983) symbolic convergence theory is a useful framework for explaining the process by which different rhetorical communities construct shared vision. The fantasy theme analysis approach was specifically designed for this research. Burke's (1966) "hexed" pentad was used in the initial stages of analysis to determine the elements of the fantasy themes. This study showed that construction of shared vision encompasses at least three forms of communication: consciousness creating, raising and sustaining. The study also contributed further questions as to the nature of the resulting shared vision. This study shows that the democratic dialogue that is produced from sharing stories can result in justice. The emergence of shared vision produced a new reality and an altered worldview where kaitiakitanga** has become a crucial focus for the future of Lake Omapere. The restoration of the wellbeing of Lake Omapere through establishing kaitiakitanga is now a rhetorical reality and will shape future decisions made regarding the management and restoration of the lake. The implications involved with incorporating the indigenous spiritual relational perspectives in legislation are a crucial concern for environmental decision-making both locally and internationally and further application of symbolic convergence theory research in this area is recommended.* Aotearoa New Zealand combines both the Māori and English names and is used in this thesis to acknowledge the bicultural intention of environment resource management.** Stewardship.

Tourism does not operate in a predictable and mechanistic environment and is influenced by unpredictable circumstances. Influences include underlying values and perceptions keeping the system unpredictable and dynamic. Tourism that utilises natural resources is exposed to the additional unpredictability of natural changes and activities and/or decisions of other stakeholders. Tourism research generally adopts reductionist approaches and has not effectively understood tourism as a stakeholder within a complex system of stakeholders. Reductionist approaches have led to interpretations of sustainable tourism development being highly focused and sector specific limiting understanding of the complex systems in which tourism operates and resulting in narrow perspectives. To understand underlying elements influencing the system, a new paradigm is required.

The potential role of local government in NSW to address public health nutrition issues has received encouraging reports. This treatise deals with the question of whether intersectoral collaboration theory is useful to assist development of a relationship with local government to develop food and nutrition policy. Intersectoral collaboration theory describes six conditions necessary for successful action: necessity, opportunity, capacity, relationships, planned action, and sustained outcomes. The project was a feasibility study carried out in a densely populated and multicultural local government area in Sydney�s southwest during April 1998. Eight Council employees and one elected representative were interviewed using the semi-structured questionnaire to collect a range of opinions and knowledge about Council�s involvement in a food and nutrition policy. Conceptual frameworks for the study included the Ottawa Charter and the food and nutrition system. Theoretical underpinning�s were provided by intersectoral collaboration theory and organisational change theory. Using intersectoral collaboration theory, analysis of the interviews revealed that participants were very concerned with conditions of necessity, opportunity and capacity to develop food and nutrition policy. Intersectoral collaboration theory correctly predicted that the action proposed would have to assist Council to achieve their core business, gain social and political support and be possible within the current economic environment and level of other resources available. Participants were not able to identify how a food and nutrition policy would meet these conditions and be feasible within the current capacity of the organisation, and therefore did not become fully engaged in the feasibility study. The health sector needs to develop arguments for local government involvement from their perspective. Organisational change within the heath sector is required to develop capacity for intersectoral partnerships, as an effective strategy to address public health nutrition issues.

Mobile collaborative work is a developing sub-area of Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW). The future of this field will be marked by a significant increase in mobile device usage as a tool for co-workers to cooperate, collaborate and work on a shared workspace in real-time to produce artefacts such as diagrams, text and graphics regardless of their geographical locations. A real-time collaboration editor can utilise a centralised or a replicated architecture. In a centralised architecture, a central server holds the shared document as well as manages the various aspects of the collaboration, such as the document consistency, ordering of updates, resolving conflicts and the session membership. Every user's action needs to be propagated to the central server, and the server will apply it to the document to ensure it results in the intended document state. Alternatively, a decentralised or replicated architecture can be used where there is no central server to store the shared document. Every participating site contains a copy of the shared document (replica) to work on separately. Using this architecture, every user's action needs to be broadcast to all participating sites so each site can update their replicas accordingly. The replicated architecture is attractive for such applications, especially in wireless and ad-hoc networks, since it does not rely on a central server and a user can continue to work on his or her own local document replica even during disconnection period. However, in the absence of a dedicated server, the collaboration is managed by individual devices. This presents challenges to implement collaborative editors in a replicated architecture, especially in a mobile network which is characterised by limited resource reliability and availability. This thesis addresses challenges and requirements to implement group editors in wireless ad-hoc network environments where resources are scarce and the network is significantly less stable and less robust than wired fixed networks. The major contribution of this thesis is a proposed framework that comprises the proposed algorithms and techniques to allow each device to manage the important aspects of collaboration such as document consistency, conflict handling and resolution, session membership and document partitioning. Firstly, the proposed document consistency algorithm ensures the document replicas held by each device are kept consistent despite the concurrent updates by the collaboration participants while taking into account the limited resource of mobile devices and mobile networks. Secondly, the proposed conflict management technique provides users with conflict status and information so that users can handle and resolve conflicts appropriately. Thirdly, the proposed membership management algorithm ensures all participants receive all necessary updates and allows users to join a currently active collaboration session. Fourthly, the proposed document partitioning algorithm provides flexibility for users to work on selected parts of the document and reduces the resource consumption. Finally, a basic implementation of the framework is presented to show how it can support a real time collaboration scenario.

My research investigates the relationship between the architectural designer and the use that he or she makes of digital media as part of the design process. My principal research question is: what is the advantage of including digital media as part of the designers' 'toolset' in the early stages of design? The context is a highly successful and high profile mid-sized Australian architectural practice. The study considers the nature of architectural designing as a creative activity and the extent to which advantages could be gained by including digital media as part of the designers' toolset in the early stages of design. Designers seem to be polarised between championing the role of digital media as part of their design processes and downright rejecting it. One such extreme position is a view that this media has either 'no place' (Martens et al. 2007:np; Sanders 1996:4-5) within architectural design and is thus seen as 'just another tool' filling at best an ancillary and service role in the design process (Kvan, Mark et al. 2004:np). This view suggests therefore that designing with digital media has hardly advanced (Corrigan 2003:86). An opposing view is that digital media can take a more fundamental place to advance design methods (Rahim 2006:1), even revolutionarily improve the design process beyond 'question and debate' (Winner 1986:6 in Steele 2001:13), resulting in a 'new architecture' (Lindsey 2001:12) and encouraging significant change in designing through semi-automated generation of design and interconnected ways of communicating (Lindsey 2001:12). Resulting from my study, I have found, however, that the more negative views (Winner 1986:6; Sanders 1996:4-5) regarding the integration of digital media into the architectural design process tend to distract from the more balanced investigation into how a designer masters an expanding architectural design practice. As a doctoral candidate I take a participant-observer position within Terroir where I have been employed for the past five years. My experiences in responding to my research question suggest that the advantage of digital media is not a question of whether or not to integrate the tools. The question is more an issue of how a designer masters an expanding design process through an approach that includes ideas, conventional media and digital media. My thesis demonstrates the changes that occurred through the integration of digital media and, conversely, possibilities to opportunistically further improve on conventional design practice. My research suggests that mutuality exists in the relationship between the designer and their digital media. Through their co-evolution, changes can occur where there is not only an integration of digital media with design, but also both media and design practice change through their integration. I also discuss how an uptake of digital media gives grounds for a new specialised ro le in practice. A new role emerged within the collaborative firm of architects, which I have called in this thesis the digital ideator. It is a role that I demonstrate as potentially being central to digital media integrated with design practice.

This thesis examines the way a change management entity facilitated a deep and lasting business transformation, undertaken as a major program of projects that were engaged in business process re-engineering, logistics supply change management and formation of joint ventures and forms of alliance. It takes a project management perspective with a strong focus on how the Corridor project achieved change through leadership, co-learning strategies and collaboration. It takes place within the context of a unique historical period of economic transition for Latin America. The research focuses on the Corridor as a single entity using five case studies of different complexity. The Corridor Project developed as a dynamic community of practice with project management office characteristics where a number of projects were born and evolved through their different life cycles as business transformation outcomes. The Corridor could become a model to put into practice in other regions of the world where production and consumption asymmetries are found or where infrastructural asymmetries could call for a Corridor-like project to overcome trade imbalances or increase regional trade - all this leading to a series of business transformation opportunities to let corporations become more competitive by making a strategic use of knowledge sharing and transfer.

Lorsque plusieurs personnes collaborent dans le but de réaliser une tâche, il n'est pas nécessaire qu'elles parlent. Elles peuvent très bien collaborer uniquement par les gestes et le regard. Il est donc important de s'intéresser au non verbal lorsque l'on souhaite étudier la collaboration. Cette thèse se donne pour objectif de mieux comprendre l'usage des systèmes de communication qui permettent de collaborer à distance, mais aussi en co-présence. Ces le cas lorsque l'on doit réaliser une tâche à deux, en utilisant une application informatique. Le recueil d'indicateurs non verbaux permet de rendre compte de l'activité de collaboration. Une méthode de recueil des comportements non verbaux est proposée et testée. Ces indicateurs concernent, plus particulièrement, certains types de gestes des bras et des mains et à l'orientation du regard vers l'autre. Une catégorie d'indicateurs non verbaux est proposée, elle s'appuie sur des catégories existantes. Cette catégorie prend en compte à la fois la manipulation des objets de l'environnement et les interactions sociales. Cette méthode permet de dégager des patterns non verbaux, qui varient sous l'influence de plusieurs facteurs. Les résultats issus de trois expériences, montrent que les patterns non verbaux observés, varient en fonction de la tâche, du dispositif technique utilisé et des situations de communication, manipulées. De plus, cette méthode a également permis d'isoler d'autres facteurs, tels que des phases d'activité, l'effet de plusieurs situations de communication (e.g. visibilité, co-présence).