Orientador: Thomas Patrick Dwyer / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T08:08:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ferreira_LuizRenatoRibeiro_M.pdf: 2150459 bytes, checksum: 64393db436e20814e741a8fe9d7f583f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Este estudo apresenta uma reflexão sobre os processos técnicos e políticos encontrados elas administrações públicas municipais de cidades de pequeno e médio portes em suas tentativas de introduzir novas tecnologias de gestão baseadas nos ambientes da cidade digital. Com o uso de entrevistas, observações de campo e estudos bibliográficos, analisa também as relações de poder, os processos decisórios, as implicações políticas e o comportamento do corpo burocrático nesses momentos de transformações e transição do Poder Público Municipal, geradas a partir dos processos de globalização e inovação / Abstract: This dissertation presents a reflection on the technical and political processes found by public municipal administrations small-sized to medium-sized cities while trying to introduce new management technologies based on the environments of the digital city. Though the use of interviews, field observations and bibliographical studies, it also analyzes the power relations, the decision-making processes, the political implications and the behavior of the bureaucracy body in these moments of transformation and transition of the Public Municipal Power, which come from the globalization and innovation processes / Mestrado / Sociedade da Informação / Mestre em Ciência Política

In 2016, women represented 16.6% of all Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) in local governments across the United States. Previous studies have investigated gender disparities in managerial representation, which is explained by the glass ceiling phenomenon; however, little is known about whether the women that occupy these male dominated positions have the similar levels of responsibilities as their male counterparts. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to understand if gender disparities in levels of work authority manifest as a new form of the glass ceiling. Work authority in this study is operationalized as CAOs’ sanctioning authority (control over personnel operations) and decision-making authority (control over formal operations). Using a mixed methods research design, this investigation is implemented in two phases. The first phase employs Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression to explore the relationship between CAOs’ gender and CAOs’ level of work authority as well as the relationship between CAOs’ levels of work authority and annual pay. In the second phase, using a qualitative research method, I conduct an in-depth investigation of similarities and differences in the career paths of CAOs and the factors that shape their career-related decisions. This research has five main findings. First, female CAOs do not have similar level of sanctioning authority as their male counterparts. Second, disparities in level of sanctioning authority yield economic inequality among CAOs. Third, male and female CAOs take different career paths. Last, female CAOs perform dual roles—professional and personal—whereas most male CAOs are less burdened with household responsibilities in their personal lives. Last, for female CAOs with family responsibilities, their career paths are significantly fashioned by the presence of institutional and social support networks. Findings inform policy makers and public management practices. It informs that gender-based disparities in the workforce continually manifest in new forms, creating unequal employment opportunities for men and women in the workforce. Such disparities also continue perpetuating economic inequalities among men and women in the workforce. Also, it informs public management practices of the critical impact that institutional support has on leveling the playing field women to participate in male-dominated careers.

This master´s thesis solves the construction technological project of Pharmacy Pavilon II at the Veterinary University in Brno. It consists of parts of the project site equipment, technical reports, schedule of the main building, the control and test plan, design, an inventory of machines, financial plan of organization development, a register of environmental aspects, technological regulations and the plan for securing material resources.

The purpose of this study is to examine what happens when design thinking is used to create a leadership development program, increase leadership competencies, and participants perceptions of design thinking. This study uses action research to examine the experiences and design thinking to create a leadership program in a formal hierarchical. This study collected data during a two-cycle action research process. The findings from this study revealed that design thinking can be used to create a formal leadership development program. The ability to use design thinking’s human centered design can also help increase the leadership competencies of trust and collaborations. Additionally, despite early concerns participants enjoyed using design thinking in this study yet concerns remain about adopting it into core work. These findings have important implications for formal organizations exploring the ability to increase leadership development programs, leadership competencies, and organizational innovation.

Empirical research studies that focus on the experiences of Latinas in executive leadership are limited. In its entirety, workforce research has overlooked how social and cultural experiences influence this group’s leadership development. This gap in research has failed to uplift the Latina executive voice and their achievements. Addressing this gap has the potential to influence distinctive workforce practices and future scholarship. Utilizing an asset-based perspective, this study presents counter narratives that intentionally focus on exploring Latina leaders’ voices. The importance of intersectional experience and social identities illustrate non-monolithic, yet aligned, experiences among study participants. This foundational dissertation explored mentoring phenomena through a qualitative study with Latina, nonprofit, chief executive officers (CEO) in the State of California as protégés. The nonprofit racial leadership gap provided context for the high number of Latinas/os in California relative to the minimal number of Latinas holding executive positions. This context warranted a necessary exploration into how mentoring experiences positively influenced Latina leadership development (LLD) so that findings may be replicated for future practice. A hermeneutic phenomenological research design maintained participant engagement which explored two key research questions: 1. What are the salient characteristics of quality mentoring relationships for Latina nonprofit executive leaders in California 2. How have quality mentoring relationships influenced Latina leaders’ sense of self-efficacy and leadership development? Data were collected via demographic questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and researcher field notes. Participants included 10 Latina CEOs of California nonprofit organizations. They represented all five regions of the state. Study findings demonstrated that:(a) mentoring relationship type evolved over time, b) a constellation of mentors were integral to leadership growth, c) mentors supported expressions of authenticity and LLD, d) mentor-protégé match suitability acted as a sphere of influence, and e) peer mentoring promoted a sense of openness and vulnerability. Findings revealed that quality mentoring relationships encouraged participant leadership development that positively impacted executive self-efficacy and retention. Recommendations are presented that further support Latina executive leaders’ development. Four recommendations are presented for formal and informal mentoring practices, and two proposals are offered for future mentoring research that extends the foundational work of this study. Furthermore, a researcher journal was maintained throughout the duration of this study. The journal led to the development of a researcher self-reflexivity process model. This model illustrated how researcher positionality evolved from insider-to-outsider, yet sustained researcher-participant engagement from pre-data collection through data analysis that reconciled pre-suppositions, interpretations, and meaning-making. This study represents the richness found in stories that have been minimally included in empirical literature. It offers implications for the value of uplifting voices to enhance leadership practice and future research.

Existing literature indicates that although both academics and practitioners recognize knowledge management (KM) as a source of competitive advantage, users are not always willing to use a knowledge management system (KMS). Because of the social nature of knowledge transfer, a KMS can be considered a socio-technical system. Many explanations have been presented for this failure to utilize the KMS. These explanations include a number of the socio-technical factors relating to people, processes, and technologies. While these factors may have significant explanatory power when examined independently, existing studies have not sufficiently addressed the interactions among all three socio-technical factors or their impacts on KMS usage. The goal of this study was to develop a comprehensive understanding of socio-technical factors that impact KMS usage within decision support systems (DSS). A comprehensive framework was presented that will be helpful in developing and improving KMS initiatives and thus improving KM across the organization. This study identified factors of people (self-efficacy, social ties, and ease of use), processes (leadership, culture/climate, and governance), and technologies (system & information quality, and technology fit) and their influence on KMS system usage. Analysis for this problem required a causal, non-contrived field study employing structural equation modeling. Founded on socio-technical systems theory, nine hypotheses were proposed. Data was collected using a 36 item survey distributed to KMS users from a variety of industries in the United States. Confirmatory factor analysis and an eight-stage structural equation modeling procedure were used to analyze 97 usable responses. The results confirmed that technology-oriented factors predicted knowledge seeking and contributing in DSS. Furthermore, significant positive relationships were confirmed between certain sociotechnical factors including: (1) people and process, (2) people and technology, (3) processes and technology, (4) processes and people, (5) technology and people, and (6) technology and processes. These findings extend the relevance and statistical power of existing studies on KMS usage. This study indicated that the most important concerns for increasing KMS usage were system quality, information quality, and technology fit. Results also confirmed that in the context of this study, people-oriented factors (self-efficacy, social ties, and ease of use/usefulness) and organizational process factors (leadership, organizational culture/climate, and governance) were not critical factors directly responsible for increasing KMS usage. However, the relationships among socio-technical factors all had positive significant relationships. Therefore, investments in people and process-oriented factors will create a more favorable perspective on technology-oriented factors, which in turn can increase KMS usage. On a practical front, this study provided indicators to managers regarding a number of desirable and undesirable conditions that should be taken into consideration when developing or implementing knowledge management initiatives and the systems to support them. This study offered an original contribution to the existing bodies of knowledge on socio-technical factors and KMS usage behavior. The constructs presented in this study highlighted the significance of social and technical relationships in understanding knowledge seeking and contribution in a decision-driven organization.

This case study explored the use of site-visitation as a diagnostic tool for school improvement. Nine charter schools in New Orleans were selected for the study. Based on qualitative research and systems theory, a within- and cross-case analysis of nine semi-structured interviews with school leaders were conducted. The school leaders’ experiences with the state-run site-visitation model and their use of the findings for school improvement was explored. The findings led to the development of a hybrid accountability model that encompasses the components school leaders believe will lead to school improvement. This study aims to assist educators, policy makers, and researchers to better understand site-visitation and its role in school improvement.

The work motivation construct is central to the theory and practice of many social science disciplines. Yet, due to the novelty of validated measures appropriate for a deep cross-national comparison, studies that contrast different administrative regimes remain scarce. This study represents an initial empirical effort to validate the Public Service Motivation (PSM) instrument proposed by Kim and colleagues (2013) in a previously unstudied context. The two former communist countries analyzed in this dissertation—Belarus and Poland— followed diametrically opposite development strategies: a fully decentralized administrative regime in Poland and a highly centralized regime in Belarus. The employees (n = 677) of public and nonprofit organizations in the border regions of Podlaskie Wojewodstwo (Poland) and Hrodna Voblasc (Belarus) are the subjects of study. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed three dimensions of public service motivation in the two regions: compassion, self-sacrifice, and attraction to public service. The statistical models tested in this dissertation suggest that nonprofit sector employees exhibit higher levels of PSM than their public sector counterparts. Nonprofit sector employees also reveal a similar set of values and work attitudes across the countries. Thus, the study concludes that in terms of PSM, employees of nonprofit organizations constitute a homogenous group that exists atop the administrative regimes. However, the findings propose significant differences between public sector agencies across the two countries. Contrary to expectations, data suggest that organization centralization in Poland is equal to—or for some items even higher than—that of Belarus. We can conclude that the absence of administrative decentralization of service provision in a country does not necessarily undermine decentralized practices within organizations. Further analysis reveals strong correlations between organization centralization and PSM for the Polish sample. Meanwhile, in Belarus, correlations between organization centralization items and PSM are weak and mostly insignificant. The analysis indicates other factors beyond organization centralization that significantly impact PSM in both sectors. PSM of the employees in the studied region is highly correlated with their participation in religious practices, political parties, or labor unions as well as location of their organization in a capital and type of social service provided.

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