Thesis (D.B.A.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2009. / Includes bibliographical references: leaves 204-222.

The purpose of the research was to improve the use of electronic human resource management in South African businesses by investigating that there is a positive impact when implementing e-HRM on the human resource management function. The research was carried out within a South African business, whose parent business concern is based overseas and has branches operating within South Africa The research was significant as it shaped the researcher’s concern as to whether electronic human resource would be beneficial to a South African business if the business superiors decide to implement e-HRM within their business opinion and what impact it would have. The methodological components that guided the research were a structured questionnaire that was distributed by using a combination of convenience, snowball, and judgemental sampling techniques. Certain aspects highlighted in the literature review were used as the framework for the development of a questionnaire to assess how people perceive the implementation of e-HR on their working environment and if e-HR has helped the business run more efficiently and effectively. Six hypotheses were tested and all were accepted. The potential for generalisations of the findings are that given the potential that e-HRM has for the transformation of human resource, it is reasonable to expect that the sizeable changes required, both in organisation and mindset, are likely to provoke resistance from various end users. What was learned was that HR is often hindered by a multitude of manual, paper based processes and transactions, such as tax, payroll and benefits information, that are costly, prone to errors and time-consuming to manage. This makes it difficult for HR organisations to focus on higher value business in initiatives that may help to drive the profitability and efficiency of the organisations. The implication of the findings about the impact of the implementation of e-HR on the Human Resource Management function was that firms need to figure out how to make technology feasible and industrious, as managers and Human Resource professionals are responsible for redefining how work at their firms or business flow as they need to keep ahead of the information curve and therefore learn how to influence information for business results to be more efficient and effective. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations based on these findings are provided.

This research sets out to provide enhanced knowledge on the impact of transformational leadership on employees' innovation behavior. In particular, drawing on leadership and innovation literature, this research attempts to examine such a relationship by both theorizing and testing the extent to which employees' readiness for change mediates on it. Moreover, this research takes the view that the effectiveness of transformational leadership varies according to the presence of different moderating variables. As such, employees' perceived high commitment work system of their firm as well as these employees' learning capability are examined as moderators on the aforementioned relationship. I collected multi-source and supervisor-employee matched data from two hotels, and the results of data analysis supported the total effect of transformational leadership on innovation behavior, the mediating effect of readiness for change, as well as the moderating effect of employee learning capability. The moderating role of high commitment work system was also found significant but opposite to the initially hypothesized direction. Practically, this research offers implications to managers the importance of leadership on facilitating the change and innovation processes in organizations.

As a mechanism for collecting and sharing information, information and communications technologies (ICT) hold immense potential for individuals and institutions in low- and middle-income countries. Currently the distribution and adoption of ICTs--particularly mobile devices--has far outpaced the provision of other household services like clean water, sanitation, hygiene, or energy services. At the same time, the development and deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices including cellular- and satellite-connected sensors is facilitating more rapid feedback from remote regions where basic services are most limited. When used in conjunction with economic development or public health interventions, these devices and the feedback they provide can inform operation and maintenance activities for field staff and improve the monitoring and evaluation of outcomes for project stakeholders. This dissertation includes three chapters written as journal articles. While each chapter is framed around the work and research efforts being undertaken by the Sustainable Water, Energy, and Environmental Technologies Lab (SweetLab) at Portland State University, the common thread that weaves all three investigations together is the theme of ICT-enabled programmatic feedback. The first chapter introduces the three theoretical lenses that inform these investigations and the ways that ICTs and the data they provide can (1) serve as more appropriate proxies for measuring access to services, (2) reduce information asymmetries between various stakeholders including communities, governments, implementers, and funders, and (3) enable more robust methodologies for measuring outcomes and impacts of interventions within complex adaptive systems. The second chapter presents a critical review of the methodologies and technologies being used to track progress on sanitation and hygiene development goals. Chapter three describes how simple sensors and weight measurements can be combined with complex machine learning algorithms to facilitate more reliable and cost-effective latrine servicing in informal settlements. Chapter four presents the results from an investigation exploring how near-time feedback from sensors installed on motorized boreholes can improve water service delivery and drought resilience in arid regions of Northern Kenya. Finally, chapter five provides a summary of the three manuscripts and discusses the significance of this research for future investigations.

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Computer and Information Science

Innovative companies in technologically advanced environments have to deal with the consequences of choosing between a resource based strategy and possibly missing out on the benefits of cooperative knowledge, or collaborating with their network of suppliers, customers and even competitors and risk diluting their competitive advantage. This thesis is concerned with the cooperative aspect within intricate networks of technologically innovative firms. To gain a better understanding of this phenomena, the most innovative sector in Sweden has been chosen for a case study. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the dynamics of innovation within the telecom sector in Sweden, and determine the level of cooperation within the telecom sector, in terms of the flows of information and embeddedness. The method chosen to fulfil this purpose was via a qualitative approach, and in the form of a case study. Relevant data was collected through five interviews with key personnel within the two companies of interest (Ericsson & TeliaSonera), and triangulated with secondary quantitative and qualitative data. Results indicate that the Swedish telecom sector benefits from a fertile environment that fosters innovative activity, and to that reason it has claimed leadership in the worldwide telecommunications industry. Additionally, this same environment promotes collaboration between the different actors in the sector. A closer examination of the cooperation between TeliaSonera and Ericsson in the 4G network roll-out, indicates that the cooperation, albeit being successful, could be ameliorated further through an increased embeddedness of the partnership.

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D. in Interdisciplinary Studies: Management of Technology)--Vanderbilt University, May 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Wikipedia is no longer just another source of knowledge about the world. It is fast becoming a central source, used by other powerful knowledge brokers like Google and Bing to offer authoritative answers to search queries about people, places and things and as information infrastructure for a growing number of Web applications and services. Researchers have found that Wikipedia offers a skewed representation of the world that favours some groups at the expense of others so that representations on the platform have repercussions for the subjects of those representations beyond Wikipedia's domain. It becomes critical in this context to understand how exactly Wikipedia's representations come about, what practices give rise to them and what socio-technical arrangements lead to their expression. This ethnographic study of Wikipedia explores the values, principles and practices that guide what knowledge Wikipedia represents. It follows the foundational principles of Wikipedia in its identity both as an encyclopaedia and a product of the free and open source software and internet freedom rhetoric of the early 2000s. Two case studies are analysed against the backdrop of this ideology, illustrating how different sets of actors battle to extend or reject the boundaries of Wikipedia, and in doing so, affect who are defined as the experts, subjects and revolutionaries of the knowledge that is taken up. The findings of this thesis indicate that Wikipedia's process of decision-making is neither hierarchical nor is it egalitarian; rather, the power to represent on Wikipedia is rhizoid: it happens at the edges rather than in the centre of the network. Instead of everyone having the same power to represent their views on Wikipedia, those who understand how to perform and speak according to Wikipedia's complex technical, symbolic and policy vocabulary tend to prevail over those who possess disciplinary knowledge about the subject being represented. Wikipedians are no amateurs as many would have us believe; nor are they passive collectors of knowledge held in sources; Wikipedians are, instead, active co-creators of knowledge in the form of facts that they support using specially chosen sources. The authority of Wikipedia and Wikipedians is garnered through the performative acts of citation, through the ability of individual editors to construct the traces that represent citation, and through the stabilization and destabilization of facts according to the ideological viewpoints of its editors. In venerating and selecting certain sources among others, Wikipedians also serve to reaffirm traditional centres of authority, while at the same time amplifying new centres of knowledge and denying the authority of knowledge that is not codified in practice. As a result, Wikipedia is becoming the site of new centres of expertise and authoritative knowledge creation, and is signalling a move towards the professionalization of the expertise required to produce factual data in the context of digital networks.

Esta dissertação objetivou analisar os mecanismos e estruturas de promoção à inovação dispostos pela Universidade de Caxias do Sul, a partir do modelo teórico da Tríplice Hélice. A pesquisa envolveu a identificação das interações da universidade com os instrumentos e políticas de inovação da Secretaria da Ciência, Inovação e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico do Governo do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul e com o as atividades aplicadas à inovação da empresa Keko Acessórios S.A. Neste contexto foram caracterizadas as atividades e políticas de inovação dos três agentes considerando suas interações com agentes externos, visando pontuar as interações entre eles. Com abordagem qualitativa, o estudo exploratório empregou entrevistas com roteiro semiestruturado. Utilizou-se o método de análise de discurso, através do software ATLAS.ti®, versão 7. Os resultados apresentam uma participação assídua dos agentes na busca de interações com agentes externos, através de recursos, conhecimento e análise de mercado, para a realização de seus objetivos, dentro das atividades e políticas de inovação. Essa busca fica evidente quando se trata da realização dos objetivos individuais, fazendo com que a interação com os agentes externos seja uma consequência desse processo, limitando a participação externa nas atividades de inovação. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2015-09-21T12:28:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Felipe Luis de Marchi.pdf: 1302058 bytes, checksum: fb4bf2b8ff8ad7822c25a7099994ee5e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-09-21T12:28:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Felipe Luis de Marchi.pdf: 1302058 bytes, checksum: fb4bf2b8ff8ad7822c25a7099994ee5e (MD5) / This dissertation aimed to analyze the mechanisms and structures for the promotion to innovation disposed by University of Caxias do Sul, starting from the theoretical model of the Triple Helix. The research involved the identification of the interactions between the University, the instruments and innovation polices of the Secretary of Science, Innovation and Technological Development of the Government of the State of Rio Grande do Sul and the activities applied to innovation of the company Keko Acessórios S.A.. In this context were characterized the activities and innovation policies of the three agents considering their interactions with external agents, aiming to realize the interactions between them. Using a qualitative approach, this exploratory study employed semi-structured interviews with a script. The method of discourse analysis was used and carried out with Atlas.TI software ®, version 7. The results show an assiduous participation of agents in search of interactions with external agents, through resources, knowledge and analysis of the market for the realization of their goals, activities and innovation policies. This search is evident when it comes to the achievement of individual objectives, making the interaction with external agents a consequence of this process, limiting external participation in innovation activities.