Technological change when a large social technology is under the processes of deployment and development are complex and uncertain. In this dynamic context, risks and uncertainties (R&U) incurred are unavoidable, which might obstruct the progression of the technology implementation and innovation. Hence, a set of mechanism and strategy are required from the stakeholders to facilitate these two processes and to deal with R&U arise. This research studied biofuels in the UK by looking at the context of a regulated market. The Scottish Government and two oil companies (BP and Shell) were selected as cases studied. Subsequently, an overarching research question was formulated to drive the research “How these major actors interact with one and another to deal with R&U arising from technological change during a technology deployment and development?” By using Social Shaping of Technology (SST), integrating with Risk Governance and the Risk Regulated Regime; an interdisciplinary concept has been developed. The application of SST was to broaden the risk governance and risk regulated regime, helped to look at R&U of technological change from a social dimension. The research was grounded on social constructionism under an exploratory study. A qualitative case study approach was adopted, backed by three data collection methods-interview, observation and document analysis. This research was aimed to investigate the driving forces for the government and oil companies in taking biofuels as the current energy source for transport; their roles and responsibilities in biofuels deployment and development; interactions taken place, R&U faced during two processes, as well as counteracting strategy implemented to deal with these R&U. After that, explanation building and time series analysis were adopted for data analysis. The research points out there were different types of R&U (expected and unexpected) arose when a technology undergoes the processes of technological change. These different types of R&U required different strategies to deal with. Therefore, the regulators have to set a clear direction for a technology deployment and development, as well as to have the control mechanism with precautionary principle instituted, in order to facilitate the technology implementation and innovation. Meanwhile, oil companies are collaborating with the governments, to commit consistent biofuels supply which fulfil the requirements set by the regulators; as well as established various types of partnership with biotechnology institutions/agriculture industry to conduct the next generation biofuels (NBG) R&D. Such seamless interactions and cooperation, not only aim to reduce the possibilities of R&U occurrence, to minimise the impacts, but also to set a path for the ease of technology adoption and innovation. Therefore, apart from satisfying their respective internal interests of political and economic gains; these two actors have to safeguard the social, economic and environmental benefits for the interests of the general public.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:37:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 15 / Nenhuma / Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar os processos de aprendizagem nos níveis individual, de grupo e organizacional em um sistema de produção industrial que apresenta características tanto do modelo Toyota como do modelo Volvo. O estudo parte do pressuposto que a autonomia do trabalhador em nível de produção é favorável à aprendizagem organizacional.A pesquisa desenvolve-se por meio de um Estudo de Caso em uma empresa de medidores de energia. Os dados coletados consistem na busca das similaridades e divergências entre os dois sistemas de gestão, além de investigar que características colaboram para o processo de aprendizagem individual, do grupo e organizacional. De posse do arcabouço teórico que compara o Sistema Sócio-Técnico (SST) ao Sistema Toyota de Produção (STP), o trabalho vai a campo buscando mapear a estrutura de trabalho de uma organização tendo como base o referencial teórico em questão. Por fim, o trabalho apresenta um Estudo de Caso acompanhado de uma pesquisa exploratória com característica / This study purposes to analyze the learning processes under the individual, group and organizational level in an industrial production system that presents characteristics of both the Toyota model and the Volvo model. It derives from the presupposition that the autonomy of the worker in production level is favorable to organizational learning.The research is developed through a case study in an industry of energy measuring devices. The collected data consist of the search for similarities and divergences between the two management systems, besides investigating which characteristics corroborate to the individual, group and organization learning process. Bearing the theoretical framework that compares the Social-Technical System to the Toyota Production System, the work is taken to the field seeking to map the work structure of an organization holding as base the theoretical referential in question. Finally, this work presents a Case Study accompanied of an exploratory research with qualitative and quantitativ

The advance of the internet and Web 2.0 technologies continue to drive a dramatic change in the way people access and share information through various channels of communication. In the education sector, several learning management systems have been integrated into teaching and learning activities. To increase more interactivities between teachers and learners, tools for synchronous video conferencing are implemented in universities to enable online education. Prior studies indicate that the adoption and use of the tools in higher education institutions have been substantially expanding, more particularly in developed countries. Therefore, understanding the state of integrating synchronous video conference tools to support teaching and learning activities is important for scholars and academicians as this innovative communication technology is proven to have a substantial impact on quality education and effective learning. In Rwanda, before COVID-19, research on the adoption and use of video conference systems is still scarce. The objective of this study was therefore twofold: (1) to understand the adoption and use of synchronous video conference technologies for teaching and learning purposes and (2) to propose a strategy for effective implementation and value addition of video conferencing tools (VCT) at University of Rwanda. A qualitative method was adopted and case study was used as a research strategy for this research. Meanwhile, the Social-Technical System theory was applied in this research for data collection, analysis and reporting of results. 17 responses from participants (teachers and eLearning Officers) were collected using an online internet-based survey questionnaire. Key findings indicate that the adoption and use of video conference systems was found to be at a lower level and the associated contributing inhibitors were identified and reported in this research. Based on the empirical findings and on the responses from participants, this study proposed a contextual strategy for effective integration of video conference systems at the case study institution. Overall, this study concluded that for an effective delivery of live lectures through webinars enabled by the web-based video conference tools, the 10 elements composing the proposed action-oriented strategy for integrating video conference systems should be taken into consideration by the case study institution. Practical and scientific contributions of this research are reported in this thesis and recommendations for further research in connection with the current one have been also put forward.