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Submitted to the faculty of the School of Informatics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Sciences in the School of Informatics,Indiana University May 2005 / An email overload problem occurs when users try to utilize email service in a way it was not designed for. Moreover, many web-based email services provide large email storage space and users tend to keep more unused emails. Issues that cause email overload are 1) Keeping too many emails, 2) Using email for conversational threads, and 3) Using email as a task management tool. Forty-five participants were selected to participate in user study sessions including questionnaire, time-on-task study, and interview. Participants were divided into three groups of 15. Participants in the first group were assigned as Gmail users. Participants in the second group were assigned as Yahoo! Mail users. After finishing user study sessions for the first two groups, the results were analyzed and the new web-based email prototype was designed as a suggestion of how the web-based email could be developed to handle the email overload problem. Then users in the third group tested the new prototype in the same manner the research was conducted with the first two groups of users. Users in the third group were satisfied with the features and design of the new prototype. The design of the new prototype focused on solutions that are able to handle email overload problem which are 1) Email categorizing, 2) Email thread grouping, 3) Email searching, and 4) Email task management. This study illustrates how the web-based email can be designed with features to handle email overload problems while maintaining the interface usable to most users.

I takt med att arbetet på den svenska arbetsmarknaden genomgått en rad förändringar det senaste århundradet har bland annat lågkvalificerade arbeten försvunnit till förmån för mer kvalificerade. Några typiska kännetecken för dagens arbetsmarknad är en högre grad av flexibilitet, tidsbegränsade anställningar och ett allt mer gränslöst arbete. Ett av flera nya managementkoncept som vuxit fram är Lean management, vilket handlar om att effektivisera genom att eliminera icke värdeskapande tid och arbeta utifrån kundens efterfrågan. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om det finns skillnader i hur individer i två olika yrkesgrupper inom en och samma organisation, som arbetar utifrån Lean management, beskriver flexibilitet och bundenhet samt hur de förhåller sig till gränsdragningen mellan arbete och privatliv. Den tidigare forskningen på området visar att flexibiliteten upplevs bero på vilken kontext man befinner sig i. Flexibiliteten i sin tur påverkar hur gränsdragningen mellan arbetstid och fritid ter sig. Samtidigt som det upplevs fördelaktigt med en flexibel arbetssituation visar studier att baksidan kan vara upplevd stress och självexploatering. Gränsdragningen mellan de två sfärerna tycks idag bli allt mer komplex och det blir svårare att skilja mellan arbetstid och fritid. Tematiska semistrukturerade intervjuer ligger som grund för denna kvalitativa studie gjord på ett stort svenskt industriföretag i två olika grupper varav en representerar kunskapsarbete och den andra ett traditionellt produktionsarbete. Resultaten visar en skillnad i upplevd bundenhet respektive flexibilitet i arbetet beroende på vilken yrkesgrupp respondenterna tillhör. Vidare visar resultaten att Lean management genom standardisering och strukturering av arbetet har en skild effekt på de två yrkesgrupperna. Då managementkonceptet Lean tycks likna den traditionella organisationsformen som återfinns inom Taylorismen vore vidare forskning om likheter och skillnader mellan de två intressant.

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Thesis (DTech (Human Resources Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-233). / Reputable organisational gurus agree that workplace competency can be measured by the skills, knowledge and attitude of the employees. Skill and knowledge are the minimum that is expected from employers but attitude, which includes the construct of emotional intelligence, is more difficult to measure. It has often been said that people in organisations are hired for their skills and knowledge but fired for their poor attitude or behaviour. Changing adult behaviour is considered by many human resource practitioners to be nigh impossible. Human beings are creatures of habit and by the age of six years old their personalities are virtually formed. (Baldwin, 2001). If the six year old further experiences poor parenting or any other traumatic experiences, it may transpire that the adult who enters the workplace presents as a dysfunctional person. This person can rely only on skills and knowledge and will do his best to project an acceptable behavioural front to the organisation.The premise of this research suggests that improved self-awareness can allow people in the workplace to recognise their own ‘blind spots’ and choose to deal differently with others when faced with conflict. It may be unrealistic to expect employees to demonstrate high levels of emotional intelligence, when they have never been given the opportunities to learn these skills. However, ignoring the behaviours that lead to dysfunctional conflict may come at a high cost for organisations. The researcher alludes to the cost of industrial disputes in South Africa, which are reaching unacceptable levels for both the private and the government institutions. It is also an alarming trend that many government institutions ignore the cost of lengthy individual labour disputes and outsource their responsibility to lawyers and forensic investigators, rather than adopting sound conflict resolution practices to resolve these matters. The effect of these strategies is to protect politicians and to blame the officials in administrative positions and furthermore to prosecute them via legal channels, a process that costs both ratepayers and taxpayers millions of rands in unnecessarily wasted revenue.The primary research objective was to determine the most effective approaches to utilise the Enneagram as a tool to resolve subliminal conflict in the workplace. The researcher argues that increased self-awareness leads to individuals being more emotionally intelligent. In order to grow self-awareness an intervention or tool is needed to ‘wake the person up’ from his automatic responses to situations. The Enneagram is a modern tool with ancient roots, which can be used to give people clarity on their automatic behavioural responses. It is not intended to put people in ‘boxes’, but rather to help them recognise what their fixations are and then to give them options and pointers on where they could progress in their development. Hudson and Riso (1993, 1995, 1996, 2000 and 2002) have authored five books and are recognised as being two of the most credible researchers and authors of the Enneagram. They identified three social styles based on the research of Karen Horney. The researcher investigated the relationship between the Hornevian social styles and a Conflict Assessment questionnaire. Secondary objectives were thus as follows:• Conducting a pilot study in the design of Conflict Assessment Style questionnaires. • Investigating the relationship between the Conflict Assessment Style questionnaires and the Hornevian social styles and to applying the consequent information during conflict training workshops. • Facilitating the Mastering Conflict workshops. • Designing Enneagram typing cards. • Holding coaching sessions with each of the nine personality types in order to resolve a subliminal conflict issue. Ontological coaching was suggested as an additional intervention over and above the conflict workshops to enable employees to deal effectively with conflict in the workplace. This way of coaching encourages people to become self-generating and self-correcting. This coaching methodology deals with people in a holistic manner and is based on phenomenological principles. Qualified coaches, either internal or external to the organisation, are able to hold a mirror to employees faced with dysfunctional conflict work situations to find solutions that lead to personal growth for those employees. When the lessons learned from coaching enable the individual to adapt or change, the organisation benefits too, in that the lessons learned are often passed on to others in that organisation. Sustained conflict resolving mechanisms have further advantages: employees who are parents or hold leadership positions in their communities are able to apply these behaviours in those spheres too, thus creating a systemic positive change. The researcher demonstrated how the Enneagram could be used as a model to help coaches understand their clients’ subliminal reactions to conflict situations. The intention of these coaching conversations was to assist employees in dealing with potentially dysfunctional conflict situations in a process that is both time efficient and creates lasting problem solving. The researcher proposes that organisations that are serious about creating environments where people want to work, grow and succeed must adopt strategies where people are able to become more self-aware and to deal more effectively with conflict that does not enhance creativity. It is incumbent on the organisation to create learning forums for employees and to provide coaching dialogue as ways to explore meaningful and sustained remedies to dealing with dysfunctional conflict in the workplace. The researcher did not propose that the Enneagram is the only model that could be used in personal development interventions, but found it to be robust as a model to help “unstick” employees from their false perceptions of conflict situations, thus creating a way forward that offers lasting change and personal growth.

The thesis deals with optimization of project management in a custom web development company. The theoretical part is devoted to the description of traditional and agile approaches of project management. The analytical part describes the current state of project management. The main part of the thesis consists of optimization of project management by agile SCRUM method, case study implementation and evaluation of benefits and costs of introduced change.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) communications has emerged as a promising technology for high data rate wireless personal area networks (WPANs). Several proposals for UWB-based WPANs have been made. One widely popular proposal is based on multi-channel OFDM. This proposal was recently standardized by European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). In this dissertation, we address several important aspects that impact the performance of OFDM-based UWB systems. First, we propose an interference management distributed reservation protocol (IMDRP) for these communications. IM-DRP aims at reducing interference between uncooperative beacon groups that operate simultaneously over the same area. We then integrate IM-DRP into the design of a rate adaptation strategy that exploits the multi-rate capability of OFDM-based UWB systems. Besides maintaining a target packet error rate, our proposed strategy attempts to reduce the required reservation time over a link, hence allowing more links to be concurrently activated. Second, we propose a novel overhearing-aware joint routing and rate selection (ORRS) scheme. For a given source-destination pair, ORRS aims at selecting a path and its transmission rates that achieve the minimum channel reservation time, leading to low blocking rate for prospective reservations and high network throughput. At the same time, ORRS takes advantage of packet overhearing, a typical characteristic of broadcast communications. Finally, we propose a novel resource utilization mechanism (RUM) for improving the throughput in multi-rate UWB-based WPANs. RUM exploits opportunistic-relaying and time-spreading techniques to improve link reliability and increase the transmission rate, and hence network throughput. Simulation results indicate that our proposed protocols and schemes achieve significant throughput improvement compared with other protocols.

In mature product markets competitive advantage is increasingly realised by the careful design and engineering of product attributes that emphasise a brand’s values. In the high-luxury automotive segment, user satisfaction appears to be particularly influenced by products that are perceived to be typical to the brand’s lineage. This research aims to explore the links between product specifications and the categorisation of the product as belonging to the brand, by studying the effect with the Bentley brand’s interiors. The research uses cognitive categorisation theory and related methodologies as a basis for understanding the cognitive processes that operate between the input of specific multisensory stimuli and assessments of typicality and therefore satisfaction. These processes are interpreted through Semantic Differentiation techniques in a number of studies of Bentley products and competitor vehicles. The results suggest that by identifying and defining a number of product properties, of varying importance, and measuring subject’s responses to them, brand-based categorisation effects can be visualised and quantified. The research investigates if these effects have been stable over time and finds that some patterns exist that might be used to predict how future products might be categorised. The benefits of the resulting assessment and measurement tool to the product development process appear to be at least two-fold; firstly, by informing the process, product specifications may be set and designs developed, that are considered more accurate, good and right for the brand, resulting in controlled development time and costs and increased consumer satisfaction. Secondly, by enabling the process, property strengths, weakness and competitive threats may be understood that facilitate experimental and actual design modifications to optimise brand distinctiveness.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Animal Sciences and Industry / KC Olson / The objective of this series of studies was to develop and improve methods of production in cow/calf operations of the Great Plains. Ultrasound measures of longissimus muscle depth (LMD) and intramuscular fat (IMF) of Angus × heifers were used to predict lifetime cow productivity. IMF and LMD were categorized into high, medium, and low groups (IMFG and LMDG, respectively). Cows in the high and medium LMDG had greater (P < 0.05) pregnancy rates than cows in the low LMDG. Calf BW at weaning increased (P < 0.05) as dam IMF increased. Angus crossbred cows grazing native range were used to evaluate the effects of pre-partum ruminally-protected choline (RPC) supplementation on postpartum beef cow and calf performance. Under the conditions of our study, RPC supplementation had minimal (P > 0.05) effects on pregnancy rates and performance of beef cows and calves. Lactating crossbred cows with calves and non-pregnant, non-lactating Boer-cross nannies were used to evaluate the effects of co-grazing on herbivory patterns and animal performance while grazing native tallgrass rangeland infested heavily by sericea lespedeza (SL). The proportion of individual SL plants that had been grazed at the end of the trial was greater (P < 0.01) in co-grazed pastures than in single-species pastures. Grazing cows and goats in combination increased (P < 0.01) grazing pressure on SL without negatively affecting beef cow performance, beef calf performance, or residual forage biomass. Angus × cows and heifers grazing native range were used to evaluate the effects of pre-partum corn steep liquor supplementation on postpartum beef cow and calf performance. Under the conditions of our study, CSL supplementation did not generally promote beef cow and calf performance that was equivalent to supplementation with an isonitrogenous, dry, corn-soy alternative. Cow calf pairs were used to evaluate the effects of grazing system (GS) and stocking rate (SR) on cow and calf performance. Late season rest-rotation (LSRR) was compared with continuous (CONT) grazing at low, moderate, and high SR. Under the conditions of our study, CONT produced consistently better (P < 0.01) late-season cow and calf performance than LSRR. Season-long effects of SR on animal performance were minimal; moreover, GS and SR treatments produced equivalent pregnancy rates.

This thesis uses a new institutional sociology perspective to examine financial risk management practices adopted by Saudi listed companies and identify the factors that influence these practices. In Islamic shariah law, using conventional derivatives is prohibited and so this thesis aims to determine if there is an institutional logic within the organisational field and a community of practice that results from networks of actors. The study also, examines the effect of different types of coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphic pressures on the adoption of risk management practices by Saudi listed companies. For this purpose, two pieces of empirical work are employed, (i) semi- structured interviews; and (ii) statistical tests. The interviews were held with 22 treasury managers of Saudi listed companies in 2011 to explore their perspectives of financial risk management practices. The second empirical work uses binary logistic regression to test the factors that might affect the adoption of financial risk management practices of 132 listed companies using publicly available data in 2011. Most of the previous studies relating to financial risk management practices have been undertaken in developing countries Therefore, there is a need to expand the scope of existing research by investigating such practices in Islamic countries to test the relevance of existing theory there and to enrich the risk financial management literature. This thesis investigate 12 factors: (the influence of political factors, cultural factors, and the competitive environment in Saudi society as well as nine institutional characteristics, comprising: firm size; profitability; leverage; being an Islamic company; auditor type; industrial sector; ownership structure; number of subsidiaries and exports) to identify to what extent they affect the financial risk management practices in the organisational field. The main findings indicate that Saudi listed companies hedge more interest rate risk than other financial risks, using conventional derivatives contracts which are prohibited in Islam. This finding is surprising in a country such as Saudi Arabia that is regulated and dominated by Shariah law. The political, cultural and competitive environments also affect the financial risk management practices in the organisational field. In addition, firm size in Saudi Arabia is related to interest rate risk and foreign exchange rate risk; also more leveraged companies and companies audited by Big-4 firms hedge interest rate risk. In addition, Islamic companies depend on Islamic derivatives that are available to hedge financial risk. Furthermore, the profitability of companies, industrial sector and their ownership structure has little influence on the risk management practices in Saudi listed companies. Finally, having subsidiaries and exports also affects hedging practices. It seems that actors are involved in similar networks and that considerable boundary-spanning takes place across these networks especially by treasury managers. This results in several different communities of practice with different organisational logics.