Diss. phil.-hist. Fak. Univ. Bern, 2005. / Register. Literaturverz.

Introduction: Internationally, there is increasing interest in the potential of information technology to enhance the quality and efficiency of healthcare. Many countries are currently actively pursuing electronic health record implementations. However, the introduction of such systems often has significant consequences for users’ work practices and organisational functioning due to the complex processes involved in implementing and adopting new technology. Problems may be exacerbated in a national implementation context if users feel that systems are imposed and offer insufficient customisability due to a focus on achieving widespread interoperability. England has embarked on a large-scale national implementation of electronic health records. One of the procured systems was Lorenzo, which was to be built while it was being implemented. Investigating the implementation and adoption of Lorenzo is of particular interest as, in theory, the approach of “co-creating” a system in collaboration with the National Health Service (NHS) should help to increase software usability and thereby facilitate integration with work practices. I sought to understand the views and experiences of users as well as organisational consequences of introducing Lorenzo, and how these evolved over time in the complex environment of a national electronic health record implementation. Methodology and methods: I conducted a qualitative longitudinal investigation in purposefully selected secondary and community care settings which were implementing early Lorenzo functionality. I conceptualised the settings as case studies. Data collection was theory-driven in that it utilised a methodological framework, which was developed specifically for the purposes of my study and based on the existing theoretical and empirical literature. Using this framework with multi-sited ethnography helped me to examine the immediate environment in which Lorenzo was implemented without neglecting the organisational and political context in which local developments were situated. Data collection consisted of interviews with Lorenzo users and managers in case study sites; interviews with external stakeholders (including policy makers, system developers, and independent sector representatives) from outside NHS Trusts; non-participant observation of staff meetings and use of the technology; as well as a combination of field notes, documents pertaining to Trusts and wider political developments, and press statements. Data collection and thematic analysis were informed by a sociotechnical Actor-Network Theory-based approach highlighting the interrelated nature of technical and social dimensions. The study also drew on other related theoretical frameworks that helped to address some of Actor-Network Theory’s theoretical and practical shortcomings. Most helpful in this respect were Strong Structuration Theory, the Social Shaping of Technology, and the Theory of the Diffusion of Innovations (theoretically); and multi-sited ethnography and case studies (practically). I employed inductive and deductive analytical techniques utilising thematic tables for organising and interpreting the data. Individual case studies were analysed first in order to examine local dynamics, before cross-case comparisons were made and findings were integrated with data obtained from outside case study sites. Results: I collected data between 2009 and 2011 in three case study sites. The complete dataset comprised interview data from a total of 66 different participants within Trusts, 14 interviews with stakeholders from outside case study sites, 38.5 hours of non-participant observation, 149 pages of press statements, 31 pages of field notes, and a range of national and local Trust documents. The three sites differed in demographics and local implementation strategies, and hence presented diverse stories of sociotechnical change unfolding over time within their complex individual contexts. However, there were also similarities, not least the fact that all were implementing the same system and that they were operating within constantly evolving political and economic contexts. Users found it difficult to integrate Lorenzo with their everyday work practices as the software was perceived to be not fit-for-purpose. Over time, these difficulties attenuated to some extent, particularly in the smaller-scale deployments in sites that had invested significant time and resources to adapt the software to fit with their everyday practices. Lorenzo implementation also had significant consequences for organisational functioning, which was often hampered by local restrictions in software customisability associated with national arrangements. Conclusion: I have developed a theoretically informed methodological framework and applied this to explore sociotechnical processes involved in the implementation and adoption of Lorenzo. In doing so, I identified potentially transferable theoretical insights into local and national developments over time and based on these proposed mechanisms involved in the implementation and adoption process. Overall, my findings help to explain why the adoption of Lorenzo was much slower and on a smaller scale than originally anticipated. The interplay between social (political, individual and organisational) and technical factors was central to implementation progress. At the root of many problems encountered were difficulties with integrating systems with work practices of users and more general organisational functioning. In relation to Lorenzo, co-creating national software with strong user involvement was hampered due to different requirements in individual settings and wider, political and economic constraints. Based on the English experience, there may be some important transferable lessons for similar ventures in other countries. Most importantly, national implementations need to build on a solid basis of local technology adoption by allocating sufficient time for individual users and organisations to adjust to the complex changes that often accompany such service redesign initiatives.

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<p class="Abstract">The work proposed in this thesis continues the research into qualitative model learning (QML), a branch of qualitative reasoning.&nbsp; After the investigation of all existing qualitative model learning systems, especially the state-of-the-art system ILP-QSI, a novel system named QML-Morven is presented. <p class="Abstract">QML-Morven inherits many essential features of the existing QML systems: it can learn models from positive only data, make use of the well-posed model constraints, process hidden variables, learn models from incomplete data, and perform systematic experiments to verify the hypotheses being made by researchers. <p class="Abstract">The development of QML-Morven allows us to further investigate some interesting yet unsolved questions in the QML research.&nbsp; As a result, four significant hypotheses are tested and validated by performing a series of systematic experiments with QML-Morven:&nbsp; 1. The information of state variables and the number of hidden variables are two important actors that can influence the learning, and the different combination of these two factors may give a different learning result in terms of the kernel subset (minimal data for a successful learning) and learning precision; 2. The scalability of QML may be improved by the use of an evolutionary algorithm; 3. For some models, the kernel subsets can be constructed by combining several sets of qualitative states, and the states in a kernel subset tend to scatter over the solution space; 4. The integration of domain-specific knowledge makes QML more applicable for learning the qualitative models of the real-world dynamic systems of high complexity. <p class="Abstract">The results and analysis of these experiments with respect to QML-Morven also raise many questions and indicates several new research directions.&nbsp; In the final part of this thesis, several possible future directions are explored.

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 wide magnitude earthquake hit Haiti and thousands of Haitians were left to cope with the aftermath, and many mental health concerns began to surface (Amnesty International, 2011; Cénat & Derivois, 2014). The main purpose of this study is to understand post-earthquake psychosocial issues in the Haitian context by studying the experiences of Natives in Haiti. This study provides implications for counseling support from international emergency response workers, counselors, counselor educators interested in providing mental health training in Haiti or other developing countries, and researcher's interested in increasing knowledge that has real impact on mental health issues in Haiti. This study aims to answer: "What are the experiences of Haitian Natives post-2010 earthquake in Haiti and the implications for providing appropriate post-crisis psychosocial support?" &lt;br&gt;This qualitative inquiry used Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological model of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 2005) as a theoretical framework. Seven Haitian Natives who survived the earthquake in La Ville, Haiti shared their beliefs, personal narratives, and the culturally responsive care they received after the earthquake. Some of the participants also took part in a focus group. Informants' responses were translated and transcribed, and Interpretative Phenomenology Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze the transcription and field notes. Conceptual models captured the process and outcomes of psychosocial issues related to post-earthquake context in this study and were compared with previously developed conceptual frameworks. The findings of the study yielded nine themes and 27 sub themes. The findings suggest that the interviewee's experiences were both negative and positive. Some of the negative experiences were continuous trauma symptoms such as panic, worry, and fear. Some of the positive experiences were unity, leadership development, posttraumatic growth, and new appreciation for professional mental health. Based on the conclusions and results from this study, implications will be stated as they relate to practice, teaching, and scholarship. / School of Education; / Counselor Education and Supervision (ExCES) / PhD; / Dissertation;

Development is important to the initial phase of a new restaurant multi-unit manager (MUM), and appropriate training should be conducted in concert with acceptance of the position. The purpose of this study is to explore the need for individual training of restaurant MUMs in order to facilitate a smoother transition between executive level management positions. The exhaustive literature review aided in the creation of three research questions to be answered through the interpretation of collected interview data. Restaurant MUMs were invited to participate via LinkedIn, a social media network for professionals. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 restaurant MUMs over a two-week period and then transcribed into Word documents and uploaded into ATLAS.ti for analysis. The use of tools within ATLAS.ti, such as network mapping and semantic layouts, allowed the researcher to interpret the correlation between codes and themes created and therefore, answer the research questions. Conventionally, managers have to leave their restaurants or area for many days in order to obtain the necessary training to be more effective in their positions. This study has concluded that while MUMs are aware of their tasks and responsibilities, they are not aware of training available in order to gain the skillset necessary to complete the tasks. Blanket training programs will not work for MUMs, they need training to be customized to such areas as new openings, wide-spread markets and the changing workforce. More courses in developing others need to be implemented so MUMs can learn the skills needed to properly develop their managers into leaders.

Thesis advisor: Mary Ann Glynn / Organizational research on individuals' identity focuses primarily on social identity, i.e., the self-concept they derive from their membership in a group, paying limited attention to relational identity or their self-definition in their role-relationships and its consequent implications for how individuals in these relationships get their work done. In this study, I address this gap by examining the nature of consultants' relational identity, i.e., their sense of self in their role-relationships with their clients and its implications for their conduct of work. Analysis of 50 in-depth interviews with consultants reveal that their relational identity can be understood by two dimensions: perceived sense of involvement with the relational other and perceived sense of influence over the relational other. Taken together, they explain four distinct ways in which consultants manifest their relational identity, namely: comprehensive, defined, associative, and impoverished relational identity. Further, I found that relational identity is associated with the degree of informality in the conduct of work between the two individuals in the role-relationship. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Organization Studies.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the feelings and experiences of state college transfer STEM students regarding transfer from the state college to the university. The 25 participants in this study were asked to describe their feelings about the transfer process. Data were gathered from the interviews and from a review of short journals and documents. It was hoped that the experiences of successful transfer students would help illustrate the feelings present when these STEM transfer students enter the university as juniors and compete with native juniors or juniors who began their collegiate experiences as freshmen at the university. Each participant had varied experiences and feelings from the experience. There was no one process that each student traveled through. Findings included: financial influences on decision-making, inconsistencies in advising causing anxieties, hands on learning impacts persistence, negative connotations for transfer students, class size impacts difficulty, the importance of university transfer orientation, and areas in need of improvement. During participant interviews, the issue of finance and budgeting was the most prevalent topic. Participants found that their state college advisors did not always understand their intended career paths causing confusion and anxiety. They valued hands on experiences provided by state college professors who encouraged them to continue their education. The increased class size at the university was disconcerting to many study participants. At the state college professors had open-door policies for students with questions or in need of extra assistance with course materials. Participants felt that the classification of transfer student had some negative connotations at the university. Students were reluctant to be singled out as state college transfer students. In addition, transfer orientation was viewed by older participants as demeaning. Participants were asked about changes they would make in the transfer process. The link programs seemed to be under promoted. A database for immigration information was suggested. Participants also suggested changes to transfer student orientation. This study was limited to 25 successful transfer students. The results should not be generalized to a larger population, but instead provide ideas for future policy discussions and research. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This study was designed to describe and analyse the nature of the integration processes of the Libyan community in the UK. It explores the experience of their integration in order to understand how Libyan migrants have come to live in Britain and their relationships with wider UK society. The study also explores the extent to which the experience of Libyan immigrants supports the idea that Britain is a multicultural society. Whilst studies have been conducted examining the issue of Arab migration in the UK and the difficulties which they face (integration, equity, rights, social marginalization and stigmatization) no study has been carried out on Libyan migrants in the UK, so this study is unique. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 38 participants of Libyan migrants living in the UK (aged 18-65). Using snowball sampling, individual interviews were conducted with 27 participants; with the leaders of six selected Libyan civil migrants associations; and in addition to this a focus group with five young Libyans was conducted in order to explore the ways in which Libyans are integrating into UK society. The participants are mixed with regard to terms of age and length of stay in the UK. 13 of the participants were born in Britain or raised in Britain from an early age, whereas the rest emigrated from Libya as adults. 17 of the respondents are male and 21 are female. All of the participants in this study have lived in Britain for a minimum of 12 years, and the longest time span is 41 years. A large proportion of Libyans in the UK have emigrated to the UK due to their desire to gain graduate qualifications to improve their future career opportunities, as well as to make the most of economic opportunities, particularly in skilled sectors. In addition, some come to the UK to for political reasons. The results highlighted most of the participants' desire to integrate into the host community. To facilitate their integration, the first and second generations' participants revealed that the transition to the UK has required a balance between their past and present lives, resulting in adapting a dual identity through the combining of their strong sense of cultural heritage with the determination to contribute to their society. This dual identity is even more pronounced among the younger generations of Libyans as most of them were born and /or grow up in the UK. The study suggests that questions remain about the success of multiculturalism in the UK. While some participants described positive experiences and how they were able to practice their culture, others expressed concern about resentment towards immigrants, in particular after the Brexit vote. In addition some of the interviewees described how migrants are expected to integrate into the host society but that more needs to be done by the government to promote a multicultural environment. Thus, from the experience of Libyan immigrants while the UK is a multicultural society and they appreciate the freedom to practice their culture and religion, more can be done to improve relations in the society.