The construction industry is considered the world over as a major contributor to the high rates of waste generation in developed countries. The negative influence of waste generation on the environment, natural resources, and the profitability of firms puts increasing pressure on the industry to reduce the waste it generates. The pressures to reduce waste are heightened by current trends demanding sustainable management of waste for the purposes of economic, social, and environmental gains. Literature on factors influencing waste management (WM) suggests government legislation is the most critical success factor for ensuring waste is sustainably managed. A review of the literature however indicated that researches holistically investigating the practices of construction firms and the extent to which these practices meet the intended outcomes of government legislation on waste are not present. Thus this research was undertaken to holistically investigate WM practices in the UK construction industry, to identify best practices and the extent to which they meet the intended outcomes of government WM legislation ad policy. The study adopted a multiple case study design to examine WM approaches, strategies and practices at both the corporate and project level within construction companies. Four construction companies who had won awards for their sustainability and environmental performance were purposefully selected to investigate best practice WM. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, passive observations, and documentary analysis. Analysis of the data revealed that the drivers for WM in the construction industry are: economic considerations; company sustainability agenda; company image; client requirements; environmental concerns; government legislation; moral and social demands; industrial benchmarking; environmental concerns; and the requirements of standards. Regarding the influence of legislation, the results revealed that government legislation plays a secondary role in influencing WM as clients are interested in using only compliant firms. Best practices targeting design to reduce waste through standardisation and prefabrication; on-site segregation through multi-skip provision; supply take back schemes; intensified site education; and the use of incentives were identified to lead to improved WM. The results also indicated that company sustainability agenda is the most influential driver for achieving sustainable construction, demolition and excavation (CD&E) WM. The findings highlighted the importance of having a clear vision and structure for WM at the corporate level alongside strategies to be implemented on projects to ensure sustainable WM is achieved. To help construction firms in achieving sustainable WM, which is the ultimate goal of government legislation, a best practice framework has been developed based on the findings from the study and evaluated using semi-structured interviews with selected target participants. The framework presents a coherent and systematic approach for achieving sustainable WM in construction companies by providing a roadmap for instituting measures at both corporate and project levels, taking into account factors that are likely to promote or inhibit the achievement of sustainable WM.

The popularity of decentralized systems is increasing day by day. These decentralized systems are preferable to centralized systems for many reasons, specifically they are more reliable and more resource efficient. Decentralized systems are more effective in the area of information management in the case when the data is distributed across multiple peers and maintained in a synchronized manner. This data synchronization is the main requirement for information management systems deployed in a decentralized environment, especially when data/information is needed for monitoring purposes or some dependent data artifacts rely upon this data. In order to ensure a consistent and cohesive synchronization of dependent/derived data in a decentralized environment, a dependency management system is needed. In a dependency management system, when one chunk of data relies on another piece of data, the resulting derived data artifacts can use a decentralized systems approach but must consider several critical issues, such as how the system behaves if any peer goes down, how the dependent data can be recalculated, and how the data which was stored on a failed peer can be recovered. In case of a churn (resulting from failing peers), how does the system adapt the transmission of data artifacts with respect to their access patterns and how does the system provide consistency management? The major focus of this thesis was to addresses the churn behavior issues and to suggest and evaluate potential solutions while ensuring a load balanced network, within the scope of a dependency information management system running in a decentralized network. Additionally, in peer-to-peer (P2P) algorithms, it is a very common assumption that all peers in the network have similar resources and capacities which is not true in real world networks. The peer‟s characteristics can be quite different in actual P2P systems; as the peers may differ in available bandwidth, CPU load, available storage space, stability, etc. As a consequence, peers having low capacities are forced to handle the same computational load which the high capacity peers handle, resulting in poor overall system performance. In order to handle this situation, the concept of utility based replication is introduced in this thesis to avoid the assumption of peer equality, enabling efficient operation even in heterogeneous environments where the peers have different configurations. In addition, the proposed protocol assures a load balanced network while meeting the requirement for high data availability, thus keeping the distributed dependent data consistent and cohesive across the network. Furthermore, an implementation and evaluation in the PeerfactSim.KOM P2P simulator of an integrated dependency management framework, D4M, was done. In order to benchmark the implementation of proposed protocol, the performance and fairness tests were examined. A conclusion is that the proposed solution adds little overhead to the management of the data availability in a distributed data management systems despite using a heterogeneous P2P environment. Additionally, the results show that the various P2P clusters can be introduced in the network based on peer‟s capabilities. / Populariteten av decentraliserade system ökar varje dag. Dessa decentraliserade system är att föredra framför centraliserade system för många anledningar, speciellt de är mer säkra och mer resurseffektiv. Decentraliserade system är mer effektiva inom informationshantering i fall när data delas ut över flera Peers och underhållas på ett synkroniserat sätt. Dessa data synkronisering är huvudkravet för informationshantering som utplacerade i en decentraliserad miljö, särskilt när data / information behövs för att kontrollera eller några beroende artefakter uppgifter lita på dessa data. För att säkerställa en konsistent och härstammar synkronisering av beroende / härledd data i en decentraliserad miljö, är ett beroende ledningssystem behövs. I ett beroende ledningssystem, när en bit av data som beror på en annan bit av data, kan de resulterande erhållna uppgifterna artefakter använd decentraliserad system approach, men måste tänka på flera viktiga frågor, såsom hur systemet fungerar om någon peer går ner, hur beroende data kan omräknas, och hur de data som lagrats på en felaktig peer kan återvinnas. I fall av churn (på grund av brist Peers), hur systemet anpassar sändning av data artefakter med avseende på deras tillgång mönster och hur systemet ger konsistens förvaltning? Den viktigaste fokus för denna avhandling var att behandlas churn beteende frågor och föreslå och bedöma möjliga lösningar samtidigt som en belastning välbalanserat nätverk, inom ramen för ett beroende information management system som kör i ett decentraliserade nätverket. Dessutom, i peerto- peer (P2P) algoritmer, är det en mycket vanlig uppfattning att alla Peers i nätverket har liknande resurser och kapacitet vilket inte är sant i verkliga nätverk. Peer egenskaper kan vara ganska olika i verkliga P2P system, som de Peers kan skilja sig tillgänglig bandbredd, CPU tillgängligt lagringsutrymme, stabilitet, etc. Som en följd, är peers har låg kapacitet tvingade att hantera sammaberäkningsbelastningen som har hög kapacitet peer hanterar vilket resulterar i dåligsystemets totala prestanda. För att hantera den här situationen, är begreppet verktygetbaserad replikering införs i denna uppsats att undvika antagandet om peer jämlikhet, så att effektiv drift även i heterogena miljöer där Peers har olika konfigurationer. Dessutom säkerställer det föreslagna protokollet en belastning välbalanserat nätverk med iakttagande kraven på hög tillgänglighet och därför hålla distribuerade beroende datakonsekvent och kohesiv över nätverket. Vidare ett genomförande och utvärdering iPeerfactSim.KOM P2P simulatorn av en integrerad beroende förvaltningsram, D4M, var gjort[.] De prestandatester och tester rättvisa undersöktes för att riktmärka genomförandet avföreslagna protokollet. En slutsats är att den föreslagna lösningen tillagt lite overhead för förvaltningen av tillgången till uppgifterna inom ett distribuerade system för datahantering, trots med användning av en heterogen P2P miljö. Dessutom visar resultaten att de olikaP2P-kluster kan införas i nätverket baserat på peer-möjligheter.

The study focuses on key characteristics that affect diversity management (DM) in the United States. Developing effective strategies to support and enhance workforce diversity is a competitive business advantage as diverse workforce economic and social contributions outpace homogeneous workgroups. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that service organization leaders (diversity practitioner-leaders) use to develop DM programs to support competitive business advantage and sustainable growth. The general systems theory and DM framework were the lens that guided the study. Five diversity practitioner-leaders from service organizations with business operations in the northwestern region of United States were interviewed. Participants responded to open-ended interview questions. Data collection processes included validating and triangulating the information gathered from participants via transcript review and use of archival business documents and peer-reviewed sources. Following the thematic data analysis, major themes emerged that include linking diversity programs to business goals, educating and creating diversity awareness, and implementing diversity reporting and accountability. Findings revealed strategies that diversity practitioner-leaders could use to enhance workplace DM practices and support sustainable business growth. The study findings could help organizational leaders to affect positive social change by building diverse, welcoming, and all-inclusive workplace cultures, whereby all employees can strive to achieve their full potential, thus improving employee engagement and productivity. As workplace diversity improves, employees' engagement and productivity increases as well as their socioeconomic contributions.

There are four million voluntary attritions a month in the US. Many of these people choses to become freelance consultants (gig workers) working through digital gig platforms for better work-life balance. At the same time organizations requires a more flexible access to skills and competences to cope with an ever more dynamic business environment. This trend is also apparent in Europe. As people with the necessary skills and abilities is increasingly found on digital gig platforms, organizations must turn to these platforms to find needed competence. The act of hiring these digital gig workers through digital gig platforms are called crowdsourcing. The risks of crowdsourcing have mostly been studied from the perspective of gig workers and platform operator and there is a lack of understanding regarding the risk with crowdsourcing from the perspective of hiring organizations.       Our aim is to understand what risks organizations perceive with digital gig platforms and digital gig workers, and how organizations could mitigate the perceived risks by using a risk management framework. We conducted a qualitative case study around crowdsourcing as a process. Seven semi-structured interviews with mangers in organizations of various seize and industries were made. These interviews were supplemented with a document study of digital gig platform policies as these policies can reflect common concerns expressed by hiring organizations. Findings shows that there are several perceived organizational risks in crowdsourcing digital gig workers from digital gig platforms. The perceived risks can be categorized as HR, financial, market, operational, technological and supply chain types of risk. These types of risks can be either internal, external, or voluntary risks. The discussion revolves around where the different perceived organizational risks would fit within a risk management framework. The risks can be connected to all components of existing risk management frameworks. Our risk management model of crowdsourcing can be used as a heuristic tool for practitioners and contributes to theory by creating understanding of the risks with crowdsourcing from the perspective of organizations.

The problem addressed by this research is a demand for increased flexibility in access to organisational information, driven by the increasing popularity of mobile devices. Employees increasingly bring private devices to work (Bring Your Own Device, BYOD) or use work devices for private purposes (Choose Your Own Device, CYOD). This puts managers in a difficult position, since they want the benefits of mobility, without exposing organisational data to further risk. The research focuses on management (particularly information security management) issues in the design and implementation of strategies for mobile devices.  There are two objectives. The first is to identify existing information security management strategies for mobile and dual-use devices. The second is to develop a framework for analysing, evaluating and implementing a mobile device strategy. The overall research strategy is inspired by Design Science; where the mission is to develop an artefact, in this case a framework, which will help to solve a practical problem. Methods include literature review, theoretical development, and the collection and analysis of qualitative data through interviews with executives. The main result of this work is the framework, which deals with the complete process, including analysis, design and implementation of a mobile device management strategy. It helps researchers to understand necessary steps in analysing phenomenon like BYOD and gives practitioners guidance in which analyses to conduct when working on strategies for mobile devices. The framework was developed primarily through theoretical work (with inspiration from the mobile security and strategic management literature, and the ISO/IEC 27000 standard), and evaluated and refined through the empirical studies. The results include twelve management issues, a research agenda, argumentation for CYOD and, guidance for researchers and practitioners.

Submitted by Elba Lopes (elba.lopes@fecap.br) on 2017-08-23T15:38:52Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Antonio_Cesar_Polo.pdf: 2722503 bytes, checksum: e2d32aeb4ecefc90cc5bdb5c422e9ed3 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-23T15:38:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Antonio_Cesar_Polo.pdf: 2722503 bytes, checksum: e2d32aeb4ecefc90cc5bdb5c422e9ed3 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-05-27 / The 1990s demonstrated a growth of ERP (enterprise resource planning) adoption amongst organizations, and among scholars it has been studied in a series of aca-demic publications, that defined ERPs as a contributor to obtain competitive advan-tage and organizational performance. The present study encompasses the new ERP configuration, dedicated to support companies in its front end operations and value chain integration, so called ERPII model, and investigates the relationship with the Dynamic Capabilities during the post-implementation phase. In order to ac-complish this objectives, a conceptual Framework is developed, to articulate the construct variables with the level of market turbulence. Furthermore, a quantitative field research is executed, based on a survey, and the research results are interpreted under the Framework perspective, where the results are validated through statistical tests such as Spearman correlation, Mann-Withney and Kruskal-Wallis, in order to obtain an explicative analysis of the Dynamic Capabilities role in the sustenance of ERPII. The results, evidenced Dynamic Capabilities in all presuppositions articulated by the Framework, with positive impacts in reconfiguration of routines responsible for ERPII sustenance and its organizational performance contribution. In this sense, the major effects were identified in sensing and seizing of market opportunities focused on evolving ERPII, management initiatives to encourage tacit and explicit learning processes, coordination of ERPII quality and performance metrics, and level of uncertain of business market related to ERPII context. / Os anos de 1990 apresentaram um crescimento na ado????o dos sistemas de gest??o empresarial (ERPs) pelas organiza????es, e o tema foi estudado em um grande n??me-ro de publica????es acad??micas, que apontaram o mesmo como um impulsionador da obten????o da vantagem competitiva e desempenho empresarial. A presente disserta-????o aborda a configura????o contempor??nea dos sistemas ERPs, dedicada a suportar as empresas em suas opera????es de linha de frente e integra????o com a cadeia de valor, dentro do modelo conceitual chamado ERPII, e analisa suas rela????es com as Capacidades Din??micas em sua fase de p??s-implementa????o. Para tanto, um Fra-mework conceitual ?? proposto, com o objetivo de articular as vari??veis relativas aos constructos, agregando-as a indicadores concernentes ao n??vel de incerteza do am-biente. Em continuidade, o trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa de campo, executada por meio de um instrumento de pesquisa de natureza quantitativa. Por fim, sob a ??ti-ca do Framework desenvolvido, os resultados da pesquisa s??o validados estatisti-camente por meio de testes de correla????o de Spearman, Mann-Withney e Kruskal-Wallis, visando obter uma an??lise explicativa do papel das Capacidades Din??micas na sustenta????o do ERPII. Como resultados, observou-se a presen??a das Capacida-des Din??micas em todos os pressupostos articulados por meio do Framework, com impacto positivo na reconfigura????o de rotinas respons??veis pela sustenta????o do ERPII e consequente contribui????o para o desempenho organizacional. Nesse senti-do, os fatores que exerceram maior influ??ncia foram os relacionados a mecanismos de prospec????o e tratamento de oportunidades e atualiza????es do ERPII, seguidos por a????es gerenciais de incentivo ?? aprendizagem t??cita e expl??cita, coordena????o de in-dicadores de qualidade e desempenho, e n??vel de dinamicidade do mercado de ne-g??cios no contexto do ERPII.

Les processus de prise de décision dans la conception demandent aux concepteurs de prioriser les spécifications et les variables afin de développer des solutions plus proches des objectifs du produit. Néanmoins, la taille des informations est souvent volumineuse et difficile à comprendre : garder la trace de la liste des variables dépendantes, des variables indépendantes et des objectifs de conception est une tâche complexe, avec potentiellement des retraitements et perte de temps, surtout lorsqu'il est nécessaire d'identifier quand une modification sur une variable peut avoir un impact sur les performances du produit.L'objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une méthode qui permettant d'obtenir un trade-off entre les objectifs de conception. Ce trade-off est basé sur deux aspects : i) le développement d'un modèle de traçabilité, gérant les informations à partir des exigences du produit (dans le domaine linguistique) jusqu'à la définition des variables (dans le domaine des nombres réels). ii) un cadre d’amélioration de la conception, fondé sur la définition des fonctions de désirabilité des objectifs de conception. La propagation de ces fonctions jusqu’à les variables de conception permettent de calculer la combinaison de valeurs qui maximisent l’index global de désirabilité de la solution.La proposition de thèse peut être comprise comme une approche hybride, comprenant une partie exploratoire interactive et une partie interactive inductive. Sur la partie exploratoire, les concepteurs peuvent modifier les variables à l'aide d'outils visuels afin de comprendre en temps réel l'impact de ces modifications sur les objectifs de conception. Sur la partie inductive, les concepteurs utilisent une méthode de pré-dimensionnement proposée, qui calcule les valeurs des variables qui maximisent la désirabilité des objectifs de conception. Cette méthode fonctionne sur un environnement de conception multidisciplinaire, avec des problèmes convexes ou non-convexes. / Preliminary design decision-making processes are related to the prioritisation of design specifications and variables in order to develop solutions that are closer to product's requirements. Nevertheless, the size of the information is often large and hard to understand: keeping in track the list of dependent variables, independent variables and design objectives is a challenging task, with potentially reprocessing and loss of time, especially when it is necessary to identify how a modification on a variable might impact the performance of the product.The objective of this thesis is to generate a method that can obtain a trade-off among the design objectives desirability. This trade-off process is supported on two aspects: i) the development of a traceability model, managing information from the input requirements (in the linguistic field) up to the variables definition (in the real numbers field). ii) A design amelioration framework, based on the definition of the design objectives desirability functions; the propagation of these functions until design variables allow to calculate the combinations of values that maximise the global desirability of the solution.The proposal of the thesis can be understood as a hybrid approach, including an interactive exploratory part and an inductive interactive part. On the exploratory part, designers can modify the variables using visual tools in order to understand in real time how these modifications have an impact on the design objectives. On the inductive part, designers make use a proposed pre-sizing method that calculates the values of the variables that maximise the desirability of the design objectives. This proposal is developed to perform on a multidisciplinary design environment, facing, either convex and non-convex problems.

The dynamics around managing urban infrastructure are changing dramatically. Today’s infrastructure management challenges – in the wake of shrinking coffers and stricter stakeholders’ requirements – include finding better condition assessment tools and prediction models, and effective and intelligent use of hard-earn data to ensure the sustainability of urban infrastructure systems. Wastewater collection networks – an important and critical component of urban infrastructure – have been neglected, and as a result, municipalities in North America and other parts of the world have accrued significant liabilities and infrastructure deficits. To reduce cost of ownership, to cope with heighten accountability, and to provide reliable and sustainable service, these systems need to be managed in an effective and intelligent manner. The overall objective of this research is to present a new strategic management framework and related tools to support multi-perspective maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement (M, R&R) planning for wastewater collection networks. The principal objectives of this research include: (1) Developing a comprehensive wastewater collection network asset database consisting of high quality condition assessment data to support the work presented in this thesis, as well as, the future research in this area. (2) Proposing a framework and related system to aggregate heterogeneous data from municipal wastewater collection networks to develop better understanding of their historical and future performance. (3) Developing statistical models to understand the deterioration of wastewater pipelines. (4) To investigate how strategic management principles and theories can be applied to effectively manage wastewater collection networks, and propose a new management framework and related system. (5) Demonstrating the application of strategic management framework and economic principles along with the proposed deterioration model to develop long-term financial sustainability plans for wastewater collection networks. A relational database application, WatBAMS (Waterloo Buried Asset Management System), consisting of high quality data from the City of Niagara Falls wastewater collection system is developed. The wastewater pipelines’ inspections were completed using a relatively new Side Scanner and Evaluation Technology camera that has advantages over the traditional Closed Circuit Television cameras. Appropriate quality assurance and quality control procedures were developed and adopted to capture, store and analyze the condition assessment data. To aggregate heterogeneous data from municipal wastewater collection systems, a data integration framework based on data warehousing approach is proposed. A prototype application, BAMS (Buried Asset Management System), based on XML technologies and specifications shows implementation of the proposed framework. Using wastewater pipelines condition assessment data from the City of Niagara Falls wastewater collection network, the limitations of ordinary and binary logistic regression methodologies for deterioration modeling of wastewater pipelines are demonstrated. Two new empirical models based on ordinal regression modeling technique are proposed. A new multi-perspective – that is, operational/technical, social/political, regulatory, and finance – strategic management framework based on modified balanced-scorecard model is developed. The proposed framework is based on the findings of the first Canadian National Asset Management workshop held in Hamilton, Ontario in 2007. The application of balanced-scorecard model along with additional management tools, such as strategy maps, dashboard reports and business intelligence applications, is presented using data from the City of Niagara Falls. Using economic principles and example management scenarios, application of Monte Carlo simulation technique along with the proposed deterioration model is presented to forecast financial requirements for long-term M, R&R plans for wastewater collection networks. A myriad of asset management systems and frameworks were found for transportation infrastructure. However, to date few efforts have been concentrated on understanding the performance behaviour of wastewater collection systems, and developing effective and intelligent M, R&R strategies. Incomplete inventories, and scarcity and poor quality of existing datasets on wastewater collection systems were found to be critical and limiting issues in conducting research in this field. It was found that the existing deterioration models either violated model assumptions or assumptions could not be verified due to limited and questionable quality data. The degradation of Reinforced Concrete pipes was found to be affected by age, whereas, for Vitrified Clay pipes, the degradation was not age dependent. The results of financial simulation model show that the City of Niagara Falls can save millions of dollars, in the long-term, by following a pro-active M, R&R strategy. The work presented in this thesis provides an insight into how an effective and intelligent management system can be developed for wastewater collection networks. The proposed framework and related system will lead to the sustainability of wastewater collection networks and assist municipal public works departments to proactively manage their wastewater collection networks.

Big amounts of test data generated by the current used software testing tools (QA-C/QA-C++ and Cantata) contain a variety of different values. The variances cause enormous challenges in data aggregation and interpretation that directly affect generation of test metrics. Due to the circumstance of data processing, this master thesis introduces a database-centric test management framework for test metrics aims at centrally handling the big data as well as facilitating the generation of test metrics. Each test result will be individually parsed to be a particular format before being stored in a centralized database. A friendly front-end user interface is connected and synchronized with the database that allows authorized users to interact with the stored data. With a granularity tracking mechanism, any stored data will be systematically located and programmatically interpreted by a test metrics generator to create various kinds of high-quality test metrics. The automatization of the framework is driven by Jenkins CI to automatically and periodically performing the sequential operations. The technology greatly and effectively optimizes and reduces effort in the development, as well as enhance the performance of the software testing processes. In this research, the framework is only started at managing the testing processes on software-unit level. However, because of the independence of the database from levels of software testing, it could also be expanded to support software development at any level.

No description available.