In the Middle East real estate industry, 46% of projects fail in terms of strategic dimensions. Based on the dynamic capabilities approach and contingency approach, the purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to identify the successful strategies project leaders used to improve the alignment of projects with business strategy. Data were collected from 7 Skype semistructured interviews with real estate construction project leaders from 3 real estate organizations ranked among the top 10 in the Middle East. Public organizational documents were used for methodological triangulation. A thematic coding approach was adopted following a nonlinear sequential process that involved four stages: (a) reading and preparing the collected data, (b) coding, (c) abstracting the codes into conceptual categories, and (d) identifying the themes' relationships and patterns and creating a thematic map. The 4 themes identified were the (a) flow of strategy, (b) governance of projects during the development phase, (c) governance of projects during the delivery phase, and (d) measurement of project performance and strategic success. The results confirmed the idiosyncratic nature of the selected contexts and the need to increase some dynamic capabilities' dimensions. The contribution of this study to positive social change includes improved community lifestyle and environmental quality.

Research on talent development has focused on K–12 and adult eminence. This investigation addressed the gap in knowledge regarding talent development between the ages of 18 and 27. The purpose was to explain how a group of emerging adults continued to develop their writing ability into talents valued by themselves and society. The key questions investigated the role of self-perception of high ability in writing in the process of talent development as a lived experience, and the relationship of high ability to adult identity formation. The study also investigated how changes in family relationships and the establishment of independence related to talent development in emerging adulthood. It was a multiple case study of 7 creative writers from top-20 MFA programs. The study results indicated a number of findings. Development of writing talent in emerging adulthood is related to achieving adult identity and independence. Self-perception of high ability was universal, as was creativity. Achievement represented the confluence of intention, intellect, volition, knowledge, and imagination expressed as original work. The psychological process of differentiation and integration was used in adapting to achieve individual goals. Achieving identity for these writers and poets meant finding their voices. Ability was a pervasive factor in achieving identity. Parents, teachers, and peers guided and believed in the subjects’ ability. Family support was generally unconditional. Family mental health issues did not prevent talent development and fathers had a strong impact on sons and daughters. Independence was related to identity and represented having established primacy of self-authority. Contrary to theory, participants benefited from continued institutional support.

Part of the seemingly magical nature of study abroad programs is the imagined community of target language speakers that learners will be able to speak to and connect with, and whose culture they will be invited to join. Far too often, however, study abroad sojourners struggle to actually communicate in the second language (L2), therefore hindering their opportunities to connect with native speakers of the language. This phenomenon is especially salient in short-term study abroad programs where students may have little time for meaningful engagement in the complex activities of social, cultural, and linguistic acclimation. These difficulties are magnified when the increasingly popular short-term study abroad program is a "sheltered" or "island" program (Allen, 2010), in which students take classes designed by faculty at their home institution with peers with whom they share a first language. In response to this situation, this dissertation critically examines the willingness to communicate construct (MacIntyre, Dörnyei, Clément, & Noels, 1998) in the context of a short-term study abroad program in Valladolid, Spain with the goal of understanding why some students eagerly engage with the second language and culture, others do to a lesser degree, and some virtually not at all. This investigation employs a multiple case study approach utilizing ethnographic data collection methods and a sociocultural lens to analyze the construct of willingness to communicate. Data sources include interviews, journals, language contact reports, observations, proficiency assessments, and audio recordings from group activities designed to increase learners' willingness to communicate. Recursive, qualitative analysis of the experiences of three students suggests that experiences, goals, and motivations vary widely across students, and across time, even in just five weeks. Furthermore, analysis suggests that willingness to communicate in a study abroad context does not always align with previous research examining the construct in other settings. Pedagogical and implications for future study abroad program design to foster connections and communication in the target language are also explored.

In contemporary software development, an emergent understanding of the problem domain and envisioned goals forms the basis of designing, testing and development activities. Lack of a common understanding of the domain can result in costly rework or client dissatisfaction. Research shows that the development of shared understanding in this context is a complex and error-prone process and there is room for improvement. Is this because practitioners are not following suggested practice from literature? Or are the actual barriers to shared understanding not being addressed by current tools and techniques? Is the development of shared domain understanding even viewed as problematic (or even important) by practitioners? These are some questions that need to be investigated in order to effectively design process improvements and tool support in this area, yet there is little information related to this. This study takes a multi-case study approach, which incorporate semi-structured interviews with representative from ten small-to-medium organisations. This study focuses on the vendor’s perspective and includes a mix of application domains. Result of the interviews is analysed to discover themes and patterns related to an analysis framework constructed from the literature review. The findings indicate that vendors perceive the process of developing shared application-domain understanding with their clients as being both problematic and important to a successful implementation. Twelve barriers have been identified from the analysis. The results also confirm that the process of sharing understanding development is generally perceived as being evolutionary and collaborative. This process is described by most interviewees comprises iterative phases of elicitation, confirmation and refinement of the understanding. A definite preference for face-to-face interaction is evident at regular times throughout development, particularly in early stages, although the importance of ad-hoc communications by phone or email, as domain knowledge needs arise, is also emphasised. Access to cooperative domain-expert throughout development is generally seen as a critical success factor. Several companies report using in-house domain-expert as client “proxies” in this regard. There is a mix of attitudes apparent regarding the direct communications of developers with client stakeholders. This ranged from insisting that developers are involved from initial elicitation and “kick-off” meetings, to “shielding” developers almost entirely from client. In terms of representations of understanding, participants relate natural-language, screen-shots, mock-ups, prototypes and product-demonstrations as the most useful artefacts for sharing and confirming understanding of the problem domain. They emphasise the importance of flexibility and client familiarity with the representations. In general, there is no clear separation between problem and solution spaces evident when the interviewees discussed representations of understanding, and the preference seems to be for concrete rather than abstract representations. In conclusion, comparisons between the findings and literature generally confirm contemporary thinking regarding domain knowledge sharing, although a number of barriers were given particular emphasis in this field study. The use of computer-based tool support is not widespread and the need to improve the domain knowledge sharing process and tool support in practice is widely acknowledged by the participants in this investigation. This study has identified some fruitful areas of research in this regard.

The world is changing and the business context is no exception. One of the clearest tendencies is a tougher business climate with harder competition due to increased international trade and the expansion of the e-business. At the same time the customers are becoming more sophisticated and demanding. The last decades have also meant that tougher and more frequent demands are being aimed at the businesses from a wider variety of stakeholders; demands regarding how environmental issues, social responsibilities and business ethics should be dealt with. All of the above have driven companies towards implementation of different management systems to be able to cope with the demands as well as to ensure that these issues are being dealt with in an efficient and effective manner. The result is that there might be quite a few management systems that have to be handled, usually a time consuming and bureaucratic task. Theory in the field suggests that an integration of the different management systems is logical and profitable as well as beneficial in many other aspects. Some of the benefits that could be gained due to the holistic approach that the integrated management system (IMS) provides are an alignment of goals and strategies as well as elimination of duplications and sub-optimizations. The IMS will also provide an opportunity for companies to strive towards sustainable development in a balanced manner. Despite this not many companies have intentionally sought to integrate their management systems. Researchers within the field note that there is a lack of empirical data to support the theories regarding how companies act when integrating their management systems, knowledge that might provide insights why integration and IMSs is not more widespread.Hence it is interesting as well as theoretical motivated to further study this area, especially as IMSs might be an aid on the companies’ journey towards sustainable development, a highly important issue. This qualitative multiple case study aims to contribute with knowledge regarding how Swedish companies have handled the issue of IMS, more specific, what driving forces, opportunities and hindrances they have experienced associated with IMS. This, as the knowledge about Swedish firms is limited. The research questions are answered through interviews with managers responsible for the management systems. The findings suggest that companies with more than one management system integrates them to some degree, however not always intentionally, and that it might be a lack of clear motives, driving forces and stakeholder demands that limits further or full integration. The outcome is that integration primarily becomes a coordination of existing management systems with purpose to reduce bureaucracy and redundancies. / Företagsklimatet har de senaste årtiondena genomgått stora förändringar, de tydligaste tendenserna är hur konkurrensen blivit hårdare på grund av utökad internationell och elektronisk handel, samtidigt som kunderna blivit mer kräsna och krävande. Parallellt med detta har vi sett hur allt fler och kraftfullare krav från olika intressenter riktas mot företagen; krav på hur miljö, socialt ansvarstagande och affärsetik bör hanteras. Detta har medfört att företagen implementerat olika ledningssystem för att effektivt hantera dessa frågor. Teorin föreslår att en integrering av ledningssystemen är både logisk och lönsam såväl som i övrigt fördelaktig. Detta då ett integrerat ledningssystem har fördelen av att kunna hantera samtliga frågor på ett holistiskt sätt, bland annat kan uppkomster av dubbelarbete, suboptimeringar och konflikter mellan olika strategier och mål undvikas. Dessutom erbjuder det integrerade ledningssystemet möjligheten att på ett balanserat och effektivt sätt närma sig hållbar utveckling. Trots detta är det relativt få organisationer som medvetet har sökt integrera sina olika ledningssystem för att bättre kunna hantera olika intressenters krav och önskemål. Författare inom området påtalar att det saknas empiriskt stöd för teori kring hur organisationer praktiskt gör när de integrerar, något som annars skulle kunna erbjuda förklaringar till varför integrering inte sker i större utsträckning.Det är alltså såväl intressant som teoretisk motiverat att undersöka detta, speciellt då integrerade ledningssystem kan vara ett hjälpmedel i företagens strävan mot hållbar utveckling. Denna kvalitativa studie syftar således till att bidra med kunskap kring hur svenska företag hanterar frågan om integrerade ledningssystem; vilka drivkrafter, möjligheter och hinder de upplever inom området. Detta då kunskapen om hur svenska företag agerar kring dessa frågor är begränsad. Frågorna besvaras genom tre fallstudier, där intervjuer med ansvariga för ledningssystemen har genomförts. Resultaten indikerar att företag, dock kanske inte alltid medvetet, integrerar sina ledningssystem till en viss grad men att en avsaknad av tydliga motiv, intressentkrav och drivkrafter förklarar varför ytterligare, eller full integrering, ej sker. Detta medför att integrering i första hand innebär att en samordning av befintliga ledningssystem sker i syfte att reducera byråkrati och dubbelarbete.

Despite our theoretical commitment to community development (CD) approaches in occupational therapy, current practice models focus on individual interventions, rather than identifying how occupational therapists (OTs) can contribute at a community level. Consequently, OTs attempting to work with communities may not have clear guidance on methods of community engagement or strategies for addressing community level issues. This research examined three cases of OTs working in CD in different regions of Canada in order to 1) generate in-depth interpretive case descriptions of CD practice; and 2) conceptualize CD from the perspective and practices of occupational therapy. Data collection in each case occurred over three weeks and included approximately 30 hours of observations, document reviews and 14 interviews with health professionals and program participants. Constructivist grounded theory informed data analysis. The conceptual framework generated from the cross-case analysis describes the context of CD in which the OTs bridged the health and community sectors. The OTs were in community-focused positions located within regional health authorities. The OTs strategically used both professional and personal self to enable more equitable power sharing between health services, community agencies and consumers, creating opportunities for meaningful engagement with and in communities. Four main CD strategies contributed to this power shift: 1) building consumer and community capacity, 2) nurturing community partnerships, 3) influencing the health care system, and 4) linking sectors and resources. These OTs focused on a set of core values while drawing on their professional experiences. Individual, organizational and community-level changes resulted from these CD initiatives. The conceptualizations developed in this study can inform the practice of OTs by identifying potential CD strategies for enabling occupations with communities and sensitizing OTs to historical contextual tensions and power inequities. From this, the applicability of current occupational therapy models to communities can be extended, enhancing reflexive CD practice. / Thesis (Ph.D, Rehabilitation Science) -- Queen's University, 2010-03-04 13:35:42.337

Follow-up is a natural component of both project management and projects which, curiously enough, the research community has not previously addressed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the follow-up process in project management. The follow-up process is defined as a process where execution and implementation is improved through the exertion of continuous control. The method used was a multiple-case study, building on data from four organizations actively implementing follow-up processes. The data comprised interviews with project managers from the case organizations, company documentation, annual reports, publicly available information and presentations. The sectors the case organizations operated in were IT services, manufacturing, event organization, and a governmental administrative authority. Five themes emerged from an analysis of the empirical data which were found to influence the follow-up process in projects. The five themes are Documentation, Standardization, Accountability, Learning and Risk Assessment. With insights from the five themes, the research community and project managers can gain a strong understanding of what the follow-up process looks like and its role in project management. The implications for project managers include a better appreciation of the follow-up process and knowledge of the aspects to consider when setting up a new project process. With this paper the authors hope to contribute to the improvement of project management research and practice through a heightened awareness and understanding of the follow-up process.

In contemporary software development, an emergent understanding of the problem domain and envisioned goals forms the basis of designing, testing and development activities. Lack of a common understanding of the domain can result in costly rework or client dissatisfaction. Research shows that the development of shared understanding in this context is a complex and error-prone process and there is room for improvement. Is this because practitioners are not following suggested practice from literature? Or are the actual barriers to shared understanding not being addressed by current tools and techniques? Is the development of shared domain understanding even viewed as problematic (or even important) by practitioners? These are some questions that need to be investigated in order to effectively design process improvements and tool support in this area, yet there is little information related to this. This study takes a multi-case study approach, which incorporate semi-structured interviews with representative from ten small-to-medium organisations. This study focuses on the vendor’s perspective and includes a mix of application domains. Result of the interviews is analysed to discover themes and patterns related to an analysis framework constructed from the literature review. The findings indicate that vendors perceive the process of developing shared application-domain understanding with their clients as being both problematic and important to a successful implementation. Twelve barriers have been identified from the analysis. The results also confirm that the process of sharing understanding development is generally perceived as being evolutionary and collaborative. This process is described by most interviewees comprises iterative phases of elicitation, confirmation and refinement of the understanding. A definite preference for face-to-face interaction is evident at regular times throughout development, particularly in early stages, although the importance of ad-hoc communications by phone or email, as domain knowledge needs arise, is also emphasised. Access to cooperative domain-expert throughout development is generally seen as a critical success factor. Several companies report using in-house domain-expert as client “proxies” in this regard. There is a mix of attitudes apparent regarding the direct communications of developers with client stakeholders. This ranged from insisting that developers are involved from initial elicitation and “kick-off” meetings, to “shielding” developers almost entirely from client. In terms of representations of understanding, participants relate natural-language, screen-shots, mock-ups, prototypes and product-demonstrations as the most useful artefacts for sharing and confirming understanding of the problem domain. They emphasise the importance of flexibility and client familiarity with the representations. In general, there is no clear separation between problem and solution spaces evident when the interviewees discussed representations of understanding, and the preference seems to be for concrete rather than abstract representations. In conclusion, comparisons between the findings and literature generally confirm contemporary thinking regarding domain knowledge sharing, although a number of barriers were given particular emphasis in this field study. The use of computer-based tool support is not widespread and the need to improve the domain knowledge sharing process and tool support in practice is widely acknowledged by the participants in this investigation. This study has identified some fruitful areas of research in this regard.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate and describe how three large companies with Swedish presence have coped with the investment appraisal ex-ante a purchase of a BI system. Further, the paper strives to investigate how the companies evaluated the perceived benefits, which are of intangible nature and hence difficult to quantify.

During the past five years (2010-2015), U.S. universities experienced a simultaneous downturn in financial support along with rapid changes in technology and increased demand for accountability. Academic libraries, among the most central and visible units in the university system, were often at the forefront of financial cutbacks and increased pressure to demonstrate both unit effectiveness and closer alignment with the overall institutional mission. Little research existed to document academic libraries’ changes during this volatile period in history, or how the role of the academic library as part of the university system evolved during this period. Through interviews with the library leaders at four public, doctoral, comprehensive research universities in Florida, and an examination of a variety of documents, artifacts, news sources, and electronic and other resources, this qualitative multiple case study explored how four academic libraries were reframed, using the analytic lens of Bolman and Deal’s (2008) theory of reframing organizations. The evidence from this study revealed these four libraries demonstrated engagement in strategic changes across all four of the frames of Bolman and Deal’s (2008) theory of reframing organizations to become innovative, agile, pro-active organizations closely involved in the academic enterprise of their parent universities, and with a reimagined sense of place and purpose as the symbolic heart of the campus. A clear understanding of the activities of these four libraries in reframing their organizations may better inform the future evolution of academic libraries in higher education.