Cette thèse explore le rôle de multiculturels dans les multinationales. Les multiculturels sont connus pour leur compétence et leur potentiel culturels susceptibles de contribuer à l’efficacité d’une organisation. Peu d’études à ce jour ont examiné les multiculturels dans les multinationales et pratiquement aucune recherche n’a essayé de comprendre le rôle des multiculturels dans la facilitation d’un processus de travail d’équipe efficace. En vue d’étudier un phénomène qui n’a pas été suffisamment scruté, cette dissertation a mobilisé un travail de terrain ethnographique dans deux multinationales importantes sur une période de 10 mois. Elle étudie les rôles de multiculturels dans des équipes mondiales en se référant à trois contextes : (1) la compétence multiculturelle et son impact sur l’efficacité de l’équipe ; (2) comment les multiculturels influencent les processus de travail d’équipe ; (3) en quoi et comment des facteurs liés au contexte affectent l’aptitude des multiculturels à jouer des rôles. / This dissertation explores multiculturals in global corporations. To date, limited research helps us understand the role of multicultural individuals in facilitating the effective functioning of global teams. To investigate this under-examined phenomenon, this dissertation presents the first empirical study of the roles of multiculturals in organizations by facilitating 10-month ethnographic field work in two MNCs: a leading cosmetic MNC and an auditing and consulting MNC. This dissertation comprises three papers. The first paper develops the theoretical model of bicultural competence and its impact on multicultural team effectiveness. I define bicultural competence, determine its antecedents, and identify two roles that bi/multiculturals might play in promoting multicultural team effectiveness: boundary spanner and conflict mediator. The second paper examines multiculturals’ cultural brokerage role for team work processes in global new product development teams: how multiculturals influence teams’ knowledge processes and handle cross-cultural conflicts (not only collocated but also virtual between corporate headquarters and local subsidiaries). Multiculturals play a critical role that influence knowledge processes and cross-cultural conflict management within global teams where cultural and national heterogeneity seems more complicated than organizational researchers have recognized to date. The third paper investigates boundary conditions and how they impact multiculturals to enact their roles. I compare and contrast multiculturals in two MNCs in different industries. In particular, I identify boundary conditions that have impact on multiculturals in three levels of analysis: organizational; team; individual. Furthermore, I propose what factors challenge or enable multiculturals and accordingly, how multiculturals overcome challenges and use given opportunities in order to perform effectively or yield such challenges in organizations

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Boundary spanners-in-practice are individuals who inhabit more than one social world and bring overlapping place perspectives to bear on the function(s) performed within and across each world. Different from nominated boundary spanners, they are practitioners responsible for the 'translation' of each small world's perspectives thereby increasing collaboration effectiveness to permit the small worlds to work synergistically. The literature on Knowledge Management (KM) has emphasized the organizational importance of individuals performing boundary spanning roles by resolving cross-cultural and cross-organizational knowledge system conflicts helping teams pursue common goals through creation of "joint fields" - a third dimension that is co-jointly developed between the two fields or dimensions that the boundary spanner works to bridge. The Copeland and O'Connor Nondeterministic Model of Engineering Design Activity was utilized as the foundation to develop models of communication mechanics and dynamics when multiple simultaneous interactions of the single nondeterministic user model, the BSIP and two Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), engage during design activity in the Problem-Solving Space. The Problem-Solving Space defines the path through the volumes of plausible answers or 'solution spaces' that will satisfice the problem presented to the BSIP and SMEs. Further model refinement was performed to represent expertise seeking behaviors and the physical and mental models constructed by boundary spanners-in-practice during knowledge domain mapping. This was performed by mapping the three levels of communication complexity (transfer, translation and transformation) to each knowledge boundary (syntactic, semantic and pragmatic) that must be bridged during knowledge domain mapping.

In this Master Thesis the possibility to efficiently divide a graph into spanner islands is examined. Spanner islands are islands of the graph that fulfill the spanner condition, that the distance between two nodes via the edges in the graph cannot be too far, regulated by the stretch constant, compared to the Euclidian distance between them. In the resulting division the least number of nodes connecting to other islands is sought-after. Different heuristics are evaluated with the conclusion that for dense graphs a heuristic using MAX-FLOW to divide problematic nodes gives the best result whereas for sparse graphs a heuristic using the single-link clustering method performs best. The problem of finding a spanner path, a path fulfilling the spanner condition, between two nodes is also investigated. The problem is proven to be NP-complete for a graph of size n if the spanner constant is greater than n^(1+1/k)*k^0.5 for some integer k. An algorithm with complexity O(2^(0.822n)) is given. A special type of graph where all the nodes are located on integer locations along the real line is investigated. An algorithm to solve this problem is presented with a complexity of O(2^((c*log n)^2))), where c is a constant depending only on the spanner constant. For instance, the complexity O(2^((5.32*log n)^2))) can be reached for stretch 1.5. / I det här magisterarbetet undersöks om det är möjligt att på ett effektivt sätt dela upp en graf i spanneröar, dvs. öar som uppfyller spanneregenskapen som består i att avståndet mellan två noder via grafens bågar inte får vara för stort i förhållande till det euklidiska avståndet mellan noderna. Att hitta en uppdelning som skapar så få kontaktpunkter mellan öarna som möjligt eftersöks. Ett antal heuristiker testas och utvärderas med resultatet att en heuristik som använder sig av MAX-FLOW för att dela upp noder som bryter mot spannervillkoret presterar bäst för täta grafer medan en heuristik av typ single-link clustering presterar bäst för glesa grafer. I arbetet visas att problemet att finna en spannerväg, en väg där noderna som passeras uppfyller spannervillkoret, mellan två noder i en graf av storlek n är NP-komplett om spannerkonstanten är större än n^(1+1/k)*k^0.5 för något heltal k. En algoritm för att hitta spannervägar med komplexiteten O(2^(0.822n)) presenteras. Ett specialproblem där grafen ligger längs tallinjen och bara har noder på heltalspunkter studeras slutligen och här konstrueras en algoritm med komplexiteten O(2^((c*log n)^2))) där c är en konstant som beror på spannerkonstanten. Till exempel nås O(2^((5.32*log n)^2))) för stretch 1.5.

Cette thèse traite de l'étude des spanneurs multichemins, comme extension des spanneurs de graphes classiques. Un spanneur H d'un graphe G est un sous-graphe couvrant tel que pour toute paire de sommets du graphe a,b « appartient à » V(G) la distance dans le spanneur dh(a,b) n'est pas trop étirée par rapport à la distance dans le graphe d'origine dg(a,b). Ainsi il existe un facteur d'étirement (alpha, beta) tel que pour tout a,b« appartient à »V(G), dh(a,b)« est inférieur ou égal à » alpha dg(a,b)+beta. Motivés par des considérations de routage à plusieurs chemins et après la remarque que le concept de spanneur peut être étendu à toute métrique « non décroissante », nous introduisons la notion de spanneur multichemins. Après une introduction au domaine, nous parlerons des résultats obtenus concernant d'une part les spanneurs multichemins arêtes disjoints et d'autre part les spanneurs multichemins sommets disjoints. / This thesis deals with multipath spanners, as an extension of classical graph spanners. A spanner H of a graph G is a spanning subgraph such that for any pair of vertices a,b « is an element of » V(G) the distance measured in the spanner dh(a,b) isn't too much stretched compared to the distance measured in the original graph dg(a,b). As such there exists a stretch factor (alpha, beta) such that for all a,b« is an element of »V(G), dh(a,b)«is less than or equal to » alpha dg(a,b)+beta. Motivated by multipath routing and after noting that the concept of spanner can be extended to any “non decreasing” metric, we introduce the notion of multipath spanner. After an introduction to the topic, we will show the results obtained. The first part is devoted to edge-disjoint multipath spanners. The second part id devoted to vertex-disjoint spanners.

<p>Innovation and entrepreneurship are recognized by many scholars as two of the key factors in company, regional and ultimately national growth. Up until now scholars have focused on macro level research leading to theories such as different innovation systems which explain how society through legislation and other incentives can facilitate the collaboration process between e.g. industry and academy leading to innovation. Despite this interest in the innovation process little effort has been made to elucidate how collaboration and innovation occurs from an individual perspective. This process involves individuals that interact in a knowledge exchange process.</p><p>Boundary spanners have been identified as facilitators and drivers of innovative processes between organizations. Their extensive networks enable them to distinguish collaboration opportunities and win-win situations with outside partners. In most industries boundary spanners are quite uncommon but within the life science sector many employees are potential boundary spanners since they often have an academic background and thus a good network with a major collaboration partner. We decided to look into the life science industry in order to investigate the exchange process in innovation collaborations and the role of academic background among boundary spanners. The research question that has guided this thesis was set to;</p><p>what prominent exchange customs exist among these boundary spanners and what does the background of these individuals have for these exchanges?</p><p>To be able to answer our research question and fulfill our aim we have made a qualitative hermeneutical study. By using a pending approach between deduction and induction we have continuously created understanding during the process of our theoretical and empirical generation. By performing five in-depth interviews with representatives from three different life science organizations we investigated how collaboration processes with academia are built and what role academic background can have for the boundary spanners involved.</p><p>From our empirical findings we derived answers to meet our aim;"identify prominent exchange customs among boundary spanners in innovation processes between academic and industry partners."</p><p>Exchange customs were dependent on foremost networking procedures or procedures indirectly dependent in networks. The actions of searching, screening and signalling were found to be central in the innovation process and for exchange customs. Furthermore we answered two set of sub-purposes;(i) what role does academic background have for the development of exchange customs and procedures pursued by boundary spanners in industry?</p><p>and(ii) how can background knowledge of academia contribute to or mitigate exchanges between boundary spanners in industry and academia?</p><p>The role of academic background was found to contribute significantly to all network dependent activities such as the above mentioned exchange customs. Moreover, we identified the process of academic self contact, i.e. when academia approaches industry with ideas, which could be a direct effect from signalling processes or personal networks. Background knowledge about academia affects exchange customs since it creates a better understanding of the academic partners' needs.</p><p> </p>

Innovation and entrepreneurship are recognized by many scholars as two of the key factors in company, regional and ultimately national growth. Up until now scholars have focused on macro level research leading to theories such as different innovation systems which explain how society through legislation and other incentives can facilitate the collaboration process between e.g. industry and academy leading to innovation. Despite this interest in the innovation process little effort has been made to elucidate how collaboration and innovation occurs from an individual perspective. This process involves individuals that interact in a knowledge exchange process. Boundary spanners have been identified as facilitators and drivers of innovative processes between organizations. Their extensive networks enable them to distinguish collaboration opportunities and win-win situations with outside partners. In most industries boundary spanners are quite uncommon but within the life science sector many employees are potential boundary spanners since they often have an academic background and thus a good network with a major collaboration partner. We decided to look into the life science industry in order to investigate the exchange process in innovation collaborations and the role of academic background among boundary spanners. The research question that has guided this thesis was set to; what prominent exchange customs exist among these boundary spanners and what does the background of these individuals have for these exchanges? To be able to answer our research question and fulfill our aim we have made a qualitative hermeneutical study. By using a pending approach between deduction and induction we have continuously created understanding during the process of our theoretical and empirical generation. By performing five in-depth interviews with representatives from three different life science organizations we investigated how collaboration processes with academia are built and what role academic background can have for the boundary spanners involved. From our empirical findings we derived answers to meet our aim;"identify prominent exchange customs among boundary spanners in innovation processes between academic and industry partners." Exchange customs were dependent on foremost networking procedures or procedures indirectly dependent in networks. The actions of searching, screening and signalling were found to be central in the innovation process and for exchange customs. Furthermore we answered two set of sub-purposes;(i) what role does academic background have for the development of exchange customs and procedures pursued by boundary spanners in industry? and(ii) how can background knowledge of academia contribute to or mitigate exchanges between boundary spanners in industry and academia? The role of academic background was found to contribute significantly to all network dependent activities such as the above mentioned exchange customs. Moreover, we identified the process of academic self contact, i.e. when academia approaches industry with ideas, which could be a direct effect from signalling processes or personal networks. Background knowledge about academia affects exchange customs since it creates a better understanding of the academic partners' needs.

We study the problem of finding the smallest power of an input graph that has <em>k</em> disjoint dominating sets, where the <em>i</em>th power of an input graph <em>G</em> is constructed by adding edges between pairs of vertices in <em>G</em> at distance <em>i</em> or less, and a subset of vertices in a graph <em>G</em> is a dominating set if and only if every vertex in <em>G</em> is adjacent to a vertex in this subset.   The problem is a different view of the <em>d</em>-domatic number problem in which the goal is to find the maximum number of disjoint dominating sets in the <em>d</em>th power of the input graph.   This problem is motivated by applications in multi-facility location and distributed networks. In the facility location framework, for instance, there are <em>k</em> types of services that all clients in different regions of a city should receive. A graph representing the map of regions in the city is given where the nodes of the graph represent regions and neighboring regions are connected by edges. The problem is how to establish facility servers in the city (each region can host at most one server) such that every client in the city can access a facility server in its region or in a region in the neighborhood. Since it may not be possible to find a facility location satisfying this condition, "a region in the neighborhood" required in the question is modified to "a region at the minimum possible distance <em>d</em>".   In this thesis, we study the connection of the above-mentioned problem with similar problems including the domatic number problem and the <em>d</em>-domatic number problem. We show that the problem is NP-complete for any fixed <em>k</em> greater than two even when the input graph is restricted to split graphs, <em>2</em>-connected graphs, or planar bipartite graphs of degree four. In addition, the problem is in P for bounded tree-width graphs, when considering <em>k</em> as a constant, and for strongly chordal graphs, for any <em>k</em>. Then, we provide a slightly simpler proof for a known upper bound for the problem. We also develop an exact (exponential) algorithm for the problem, running in time <em>O</em>(2. 73^<em>n</em>). Moreover, we prove that the problem cannot be approximated within ratio smaller than <em>2</em> even for split graphs, <em>2</em>-connected graphs, and planar bipartite graphs of degree four. We propose a greedy <em>3</em>-approximation algorithm for the problem in the general case, and other approximation ratios for permutation graphs, distance-hereditary graphs, cocomparability graphs, dually chordal graphs, and chordal graphs. Finally, we list some directions for future work.

We study the problem of finding the smallest power of an input graph that has <em>k</em> disjoint dominating sets, where the <em>i</em>th power of an input graph <em>G</em> is constructed by adding edges between pairs of vertices in <em>G</em> at distance <em>i</em> or less, and a subset of vertices in a graph <em>G</em> is a dominating set if and only if every vertex in <em>G</em> is adjacent to a vertex in this subset.   The problem is a different view of the <em>d</em>-domatic number problem in which the goal is to find the maximum number of disjoint dominating sets in the <em>d</em>th power of the input graph.   This problem is motivated by applications in multi-facility location and distributed networks. In the facility location framework, for instance, there are <em>k</em> types of services that all clients in different regions of a city should receive. A graph representing the map of regions in the city is given where the nodes of the graph represent regions and neighboring regions are connected by edges. The problem is how to establish facility servers in the city (each region can host at most one server) such that every client in the city can access a facility server in its region or in a region in the neighborhood. Since it may not be possible to find a facility location satisfying this condition, "a region in the neighborhood" required in the question is modified to "a region at the minimum possible distance <em>d</em>".   In this thesis, we study the connection of the above-mentioned problem with similar problems including the domatic number problem and the <em>d</em>-domatic number problem. We show that the problem is NP-complete for any fixed <em>k</em> greater than two even when the input graph is restricted to split graphs, <em>2</em>-connected graphs, or planar bipartite graphs of degree four. In addition, the problem is in P for bounded tree-width graphs, when considering <em>k</em> as a constant, and for strongly chordal graphs, for any <em>k</em>. Then, we provide a slightly simpler proof for a known upper bound for the problem. We also develop an exact (exponential) algorithm for the problem, running in time <em>O</em>(2. 73^<em>n</em>). Moreover, we prove that the problem cannot be approximated within ratio smaller than <em>2</em> even for split graphs, <em>2</em>-connected graphs, and planar bipartite graphs of degree four. We propose a greedy <em>3</em>-approximation algorithm for the problem in the general case, and other approximation ratios for permutation graphs, distance-hereditary graphs, cocomparability graphs, dually chordal graphs, and chordal graphs. Finally, we list some directions for future work.

Το βασικό χαρακτηριστικό των ασύρματων δικτύων αυθαίρετης τοπολογίας (wireless ad hoc networks) είναι πως δεν απαιτούν την ύπαρξη σταθερής υποδομής (σε αντίθεση π.χ. με τα κυψελωτά δίκτυα). Ένα ιδιαίτερα σημαντικό παράδειγμα τέτοιων δικτύων αποτελούν τα λεγόμενα δίκτυα αισθητήρων (sensor networks), τα οποία μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν σε τομείς όπως η παρακολούθηση και καταγραφή φυσικών φαινομένων, ή η προσωρινή δημιουργία δικτύου επικοινωνίας σε περιοχές που έχουν πληγεί από κάποια καταστροφή, κλπ., και επομένως αποτελούν μια ερευνητική περιοχή μεγάλου ενδιαφέροντος. Στα δίκτυα αυτά, όταν ένας κόμβος πρέπει να στείλει ένα πακέτο σε κόμβο που βρίσκεται εκτός της ακτίνας μετάδοσης του, τότε η μετάδοση γίνεται μέσω κόμβων που βρίσκονται πάνω σε μια διαδρομή μεταξύ αυτών των δύο κόμβων. Επειδή, όμως, οι κόμβοι αυτοί συνήθως έχουν περιορισμένη ενέργεια, ο τρόπος δρομολόγησης είναι καθοριστικός για τη λειτουργία του δικτύου. Τα πρωτόκολλα δρομολόγησης βασίζονται σε διάφορες μεθόδους όπως: κάθε κόμβος να επικοινωνεί μόνο με ορισμένους από τους γείτονες του, ή κάθε κόμβος να επιλέγει κόμβους στους οποίους θα μεταδώσει πακέτα με βάση τη γεωμετρική θέση τους. Μια άλλη μέθοδος δρομολόγησης είναι η κατασκευή ενός εικονικού δικτύου υποδομής, οι κόμβοι του οποίου είναι κόμβοι του ασύρματου δικτύου και οι ακμές του οποίου χρησιμοποιούνται για τη μεταφορά των πακέτων. Η κατασκευή του δικτύου υποδομής πρέπει να πραγματοποιηθεί με κατανεμημένο τρόπο και το μέγεθος και η δομή του πρέπει να είναι τέτοια ώστε η δρομολόγηση να απαιτεί όσο το δυνατόν λιγότερη κατανάλωση ενέργειας από τους κόμβους. Στα πλαίσια της διπλωματικής αυτής εργασίας: 1) Αναπτύχθηκαν δύο νέες μέθοδοι δρομολόγησης σε ασύρματα δίκτυα αυθαίρετης τοπολογίας μέσω κατασκευής εικονικών δικτύων υποδομής. Οι μέθοδοι αυτοί βασίζονται σε αντίστοιχους αλγόριθμους κατασκευής επικαλυπτόντων υπογραφημάτων και έχουν την ιδιότητα ότι τα εικονικά δίκτυα που παράγονται έχουν σχετικά μικρό αριθμό ακμών, ενώ παράλληλα η απόσταση μεταξύ δύο κόμβων στο εικονικό δίκτυο είναι το πολύ t φορές μεγαλύτερη από την ελάχιστη απόσταση τους στο αρχικό δίκτυο (όπου t είναι παράμετρος που εξαρτάται από τον αλγόριθμο). 2) Υλοποιήθηκαν οι δύο αυτές νέες μέθοδοι δρομολόγησης σε κατάλληλο περιβάλλον εξομοίωσης και έγινε εκτενής πειραματική αξιολόγηση τους. / The characteristic feature of wireless ad hoc networks is that there is no fixed infastructure (in constrast with cellular networks). One considerabe example of such networks is sensor networks, which can be used to monitor a natural phenomenon, or to construct a temporary communication network in areas where a disaster has occurred, etc, therefore wireless ad hoc networks is a research area of great interest. In wireless ad hoc networks when a node needs to send a message to a node which relies outside of its transmission range, then the transmission takes place through the nodes which rely on a path which connects these two nodes. The wireless nodes, however, have limited energy, therefore routing method is crusial for the operation of the network. Routing protocols are based on several methods, such as: each node is allowed to communicate with only a selected subset of its neighbors, or each node chooses to transmits a message to one of its neighbors based on its geometrical position. Another routing method is to construct a virtual backbone network. The virtual network has the same nodes as the ad hoc network, but only its links are used for the routing of messages. The construction of the virtual network must be executed in a distributed way and its size and structure must be suitable to allow the nodes to consume as less energy as possible in order to support the routing protocol. In this work 1) we have developed two new routing methods for wireless ad hoc networks by constructing virtual networks. These two methods are based on corresponding algorithms for maintaining spanners. The virtual networks constructed have relatively small number of links, while having the ability that for every pair of nodes their distance in the virtual network is at most t times their distance in the ad hoc network (parameter t depends on the algorithm). 2) we have implemented these two algorithms in a simulation environment, and we have conducted an extensive study on them.