Software is one of the core elements that drive the modern economy, with visible use in areas such as personal computing, telecommunications and banking, and background use in areas such as aircraft traffic management, nuclear power generation, and automotive control systems. Organizations that build software are unique in that they span industrial domains, and at their core of what they do is codifying human knowledge. When we talk about software organizations, we think of organizations that work in the three broad areas of shrink wrapped application software, software-intensive systems, or software services.  By shrink wrapped application software, we refer to the software that one can buy in a retail store for use on his or her computer. Software-intensive systems are part of a larger system such as air traffic management, and software services focus on making software work for other organizations. This thesis uses studies of eight software organizations to understand how these organizations are able to identify changes to their environment, and create the required capabilities to meet those changes – in other words, how these organizations gain enterprise agility. To understand enterprise agility, we ask three simple questions, namely how does the organization improve what it currently does? What does the organization do? and Who does the work that the organization chooses to do? By answering each of these questions in the context of software organizations, we identify the three mechanisms of Software Process Improvement (SPI), Creating Systems of Innovation (CSI), and Leveraging Globally Available Capabilities (LGAC). These three mechanisms are interconnected and interdependent. By creating rich descriptions of how these mechanisms are implemented in the organizations that we studied in the thesis, we are able to build confidence that these mechanisms are an accurate representation of the approaches that organizations use. In addition to identifying the mechanisms, by analyzing across the cases, we identify the four organizational enablers of stakeholder alignment, employee empowerment, group & organizational learning, and governance. Organizations can create enterprise agility by ensuring the presence of the four organizational enablers and leveraging some combination of the three mechanisms. While it is possible for the organization to create enterprise agility in the absence of these mechanisms, we believe that the agility generated is not sustainable. To survive in the tough economic conditions of today, software organizations need to be aware of, and actively manage both the enablers and the mechanisms for sustained success. This thesis is a first step in finding more effective ways to manage software organizations as a whole, rather than as a collection of individual projects. It presents a philosophy of thinking about software organizations that addresses the uniqueness of these organizations while at the same time leveraging best practices and thought leadership from the disciplines of software engineering, quality,  knowledge management, strategy, organizational theory, and stakeholder theory.

This dissertation is an experiment in thinking with the story, not about the story in order to erase the boundaries between analysis and narrative. CASA, Community Action Stops Abuse, is the context for this research on the lived realities and meaning of working with an empowerment philosophy. A University-Community Initiative (UCI) grant with CASA and the University of South Florida is the occasion to study the communicative aspects of individual and collective perceptions of empowerment. The dissertation focuses broadly on two UCI project goals: developing a collaborative relationship and producing a booklet of stories about the work of paid staff and volunteers. The heart of the dissertation is my relationship with the CASA workers and how scholarship and advocacy intersect with a philosophy of reciprocal and compassionate empowerment.

Ample empirical evidence highlights the significant prevalence of persons with mental health issues and concurrent disorders involved in the criminal justice system. This population frequently uses services provided by community based non-profit organizations for aid and support. Yet, there is a dearth of research that addresses the prevalence of mental health issues and concurrent disorders amongst those served by such organizations, and the barriers to community reintegration that they face. Focusing on the prevalence of mental health issues and concurrent disorders among individuals involved or at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system, the John Howard Society of Waterloo-Wellington and the University of Guelph embarked upon a mixed-methods community-engaged research partnership. Information for the clients in the ‘Community Aftercare’ program was collected in relation to mental health issues and concurrent disorders. Our data reveal the ‘typical’ profile of the clients accessing the Aftercare program, which includes a high prevalence of mental health issues and concurrent disorders. Further, interviews identified stigma, history of victimization, complex needs, criminal history, diminished welfare state, and a lack of social support/social capital as barriers faced by the Aftercare clients. The Aftercare program, however, acts as a form of social support and builds social capital for the clients. A lack of adequate funding to address the complex needs of the Aftercare clients was identified as a program limitation, and the findings revealed a need for additional funding.

<p>This dissertation extends our knowledge of digital affordances in communicating complex scientific information by building and testing a climate change adaptation website for the Colombian coffee sector, <a href="http://www.climaycafe.com/">www.climaycafe.com</a>. This project offers both a practical component (scholarship of engagement) and theoretical component (extension of our understanding of the objective/subjective nature of affordances). Practically, it seeks to create a collaborative and tailored science communication solution for improved information access to support climate change adaptation. Theoretically, it extends our understanding of affordances in a digital environment through a qualitative assessment, specifically how occupational identity influences the subjective nature of affordances. Data is gathered through an iterative qualitative assessment of users’ interpretation of the perceived affordances on the website. The results demonstrate that occupational identity has an influence on perceived digital affordances, particularly influenced by (1) Perceived Social Status of Occupation, (2) Perception of Value Based on Occupational Demands, (3) Occupational Influence on Perceived Reliability and (4) Usability Preferences Based on Occupation. We additionally found that as creators we can set general goals for digital tools and achieve general success in obtaining them, but ultimately the users will dictate their needs within this broader framework. Lastly, there is a self-identified need for more practical knowledge and information access for coffee farmers in these regions of Colombia around climate change adaptation.</p>

No description available.

This item contains the agenda, minutes, and attachments for the Faculty Senate meeting on this date. There may be additional materials from the meeting available at the Faculty Center.