Academic mobility and migration of knowledge workers are two concerns in international migration studies, so how academic mobility transforms into immigration has received much attention as well. There are two commonly held approaches to the explanation of immigration of international students: the classic Push and Pull theory and its derivative studies as well as Rational Choice Theory (RCT). However, both sets of theories have their drawbacks, that their analysis is either exclusion of the micro-level decision-making process or neglect of the macro-level social structure. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data are collected, and Giddens structuration theory has been applied to mediate micro and macro level factors for constructing a framework to understand migration motivations of Chinese undergraduate students in Canada. The major conceptions and themes drawn upon from structuration theory include agency and structure, the effects of rules and resources within structures, the capacity and knowledgeability of agent, time-space context, and the theme of duality of structure. Because gender differences are significant in this study, two models are built for female and male students respectively. The practical aim of this study is to generate more policy interests in Canada in Chinese undergraduate students in order to make Canada the foremost destination for them not only for studying abroad but also for settlement.

Emotional labor and its influence on authenticity and identity amongst human service workers has been the focus of numerous studies. Often these studies viewed identity as a stable sense of self. This study set out to examine emotional labor amongst clergy and how it may differ from the emotional labor experienced in other occupations, with the premise that individuals have multiple identities that shift and change depending on the situational context. A thematic analysis of interviews conducted with twenty-seven clergy and a textual analysis of denominational/church texts was conducted to examine the following ideas: 1) how clergy negotiated tensions of authenticity and identity in their work; 2) how clergy described the spiritual and emotional dimensions of their work; 3) how denominational texts address issues of spiritual and emotional labor; and, 4) if clergy felt enabled and/or constrained by denominational standards and beliefs. The results of this study indicated that emotional and spiritual labor amongst clergy is unique for several reasons. One, the emotional labor clergy engaged in served a positive function because they see it as means of helping others. Second, clergy were aware that emotional labor was intrinsic to the job and they engaged in activities to preempt or manage the tension they felt when the job required them to mask their true feelings and display organizationally preferred feelings. Finally, clergy enjoyed the spiritual dimension of their jobs; thus they were engaged in spiritual work (authentic spirituality), not spiritual labor (inauthentic spirituality). Results also indicated that denominational texts did convey a preferred identity or ideal for how pastors should behave. Pastors indicated that the denominational expectations and guidelines for pastors both enabled and constrained them. The majority of the pastors felt the freedom to disagree civilly and the denomination/church provided venues in which pastors could communicate their dissenting views. However, in some cases, pastors felt the denominational guidelines for the "ideal pastor" were in conflict with how they saw their own role as pastor and they left the denomination. Results also revealed how pastors‘ identities shifted and changed as the context in which they were ministering changed.

On account of the rapid change of the consuming market and the industry market and the widely shortening of product¡¦s life cycle, confronting the stress from the market end, the competition strategy of the enterprises has conversed from pursuing high quality and low cost in the past into the strategy of satisfying customers¡¦ requirements. With the influence of satisfying the customers¡¦ diversified requirement of products, in addition that the trades shall continue taking consideration of the original factors of low cost and high quality, factors like the launch time of products, the speed of delivery date and the satisfaction degree of the customers¡¦ requirements have even become the key ones if the enterprises can maintain their competitiveness. Being facing with the threat from low labor cost of China, India and countries in South-east Asia, the superiority that OEM industries used to have has no longer existed and the only competitiveness they have lies in the R&D design capability. In consideration of this, the enterprises have developed toward globalization commerce and the mode of collaborative product commerce and implement the collaborative product commerce to create an superior R&D environment of products in accommodation with the rapid changed competition markets and integrate and cooperation with the supply chain in the upper and lower reach manufacturers and expect to set up systemized procedure from the process of product R&D to the production so as to promote the service quality to the customers as well as to decrease the failure cost of direct material and supplies and shorten the affect Time to Volume to the turnover and profits and further achieve the earlier winning chance of Time To Market and elaborate multiple strength. Under the circumstance that the speed of customers¡¦ favor to the products and its change have become faster and faster, the life cycle of products has then become shorter and shorter and the characteristics and appearances have also become more and more complicated, which have generated situations such as the structure value of products continually changed and increased, giant increasing information quantity and activities of frequent engineering change. Engineering Change (EC) has thus become an essential and important process in the whole products life cycle. How to fast and effectively deal with the engineering change with collaborative cooperation mode and shorten the products¡¦ launch cycle and ensure the quality and the satisfaction degree of the customers shall be considered as one of the important factors that the enterprises maintain their competitiveness. In view that the operation procedure of product R&D is very complicated, during the process the customers¡¦ requirement, technical demands and the capability of the suppliers may be changed due to the time and condition. Therefore, whether to shorten the time of product development and design shall become the key to determine if the enterprise can accomplish in taking the lead in the business field. According to the investigation, to the senior supervisors of an enterprise, most answers to if the time of new products development and change time of products¡¦ design are important are positive. Such answers also mean that the related issues like the procedure of R&D design and the shortening of engineering change procedure are one of the most popular topics in this trade. PTC and Reed Research Group have proceeded a research in object to more than 200 senior supervisors in charge of new products development and management in the global electronic and high technology companies. The result of the research has shown that the leading trades have gained more than 20% growth of revenue through promoting capability of products development and also gained multiple profits. The extraordinary performance of these companies with high growth is attributed to (a) products planning tools and the use of practical methods (b) mutually establish standardized internal and external coordination with cooperated partners (c) the design staffs have gained at an early date three products development capability like the enterprises and the information of supply chains and are enforced to carry them out so that that are able to implement high efficiency and conform to progress and budge and to keep tracking and solving the potential problems soonest within the design cycle. [1] On the basis of the above-mentioned results of investigation, we find that how the enterprises apply tool like Collaborative Product Commerce (CPC) to carry out the engineering change operation under the collaborative environment and further shorten the development and design time of new products and achieve the requests of diversified customers, low cost, high quality and short delivery date and finally become one of the topics that nowadays the enterprises are eager to learn. Engineering change management (ECM) is a sort of changed management in object to the released parts, blueprints, and software during the process of R&D or production and is one part of product R&D procedure. Because it is essential for each stage within the development life cycle of the whole products to carry out engineering change, therefore, the study has proceeded conferring the adjustment condition among the engineering change in object to the collaborative operation of the enterprises and the result of study has also obtained several conclusions to be provided as the reference mode when the enterprises implement ECM system and the related important topic for discussion when it is implemented and the enterprises can make appropriate adjustment and change accordingly. Keywords¡G Collaborative Product Commerce, Engineering Change, Adaptive Structuration Theory

Knowledge management becomes the hot topic of business circles in recent years, more and more enterprises become interested in knowledge management, a lot of scholars are engaged in relevant research one after another too. With the fast development of information science and technology, the administrative system of knowledge is the most important part in knowledge management by enterprises, but some enterprises have found gradually , though information science and technology can help enterprises to do a good job of knowledge management , but really leading knowledge management is the members who participates in, these members include high-order executive , technical staff and user. Leadership , culture , evaluation and technology and technology that four major keys to knowledge management succeed, but because task or have different type attitude emerge at the mission on because organization of enterprise should different, for instance the stratum type organizes, flat organization , radiating type organization and matrix type organize etc., organize each unit their have two or more upper strata management units appear perhaps in matrix type especially, so but more general stratum type complicatedness that comes will come efficiently in the treatment of some tasks on the operation of organizing. So quite a lot of modern enterprises all adopt this organization method , research this mainly with view and is it is it probe into with course theory one matrix type organize enterprise during the process of channeling into knowledge management about step time organize to come to complement, Structuration of theory, times of culture and different leader classify with science and technology or other as literary composition surface that consult is it pursue difference of effect to have in leader , culture , assessment, the difficulty met and gains, do it for other reference while channeling into the management activity of knowledge in initial stage of enterprise which is similar to institutional framework . Try to complement from the view of the Structuration theory with the process theory by way of case study in this research This research adopts the law of case study and goes on, select a domestic industrial computer company listed to do for the target further investigating it, adopt a single case to design in studying the design, but carry on the collection of the materials through the interview way of the depth with the matrix type organization difference organizing, in the course of studying, three undertaking groups count 13 colleagues in researcher's interview case company altogether, duplicate the interview content to analyze for the draft word for word , understand why need information management in the case company in depth after interview? The annotation explanatory note of information management? Pursue the system of information management? Pursue the culture of information management? Pursue the present situation of personnel of information management? Pursue the science and technology and tool used of information management? Pursue the type of information management attitude? Set up those knowledge management activity? (take , take and socialize by outside inside), pursue change and result of information management? (the procedure , science and technology and structure); And use the structure of composing a piece of writing and offering now to carry on the difference analysis between different undertaking group of case company, will regard running as and will be similar to the research that enterprises pursue information management to consult relevantly in the future . This study found that the communication between managers and users is the necessarily sustained work. The communication process will influence on managers and users¡¦ cognition about KMS. This cognition will again influence on their communication behavior. Therefore, the key success factor of implementing KMS has relations with their common consensuses about the system implementation. Companies should realize the gap between managers and users¡¦ need by means of sustained communication to find the best way to develop KMS. Then, users¡¦ participation in the system implementation can increase the opportunities for managers and users¡¦ interaction. During the interaction process, they dominate the system development, and then the structure of their power will change. Therefore, the key success factor of implementing KMS has relations with their power structure. Companies should realize the structure of managers and users¡¦ power and give users more power to dominate the resource of KMS under managers¡¦ appropriate control. Besides, managers have to reveal their support by practical actions for convincing users to participate in the system implementation and then try to form a culture which is suited to the KMS implementation to sanction their behavior. Therefore, the key success factor of implementing KMS has relations with whether managers can form a culture which is suited to the KMS implementation. Companies should establish proper rules to have managers and users contribute or share knowledge during the routine work and form a culture which is suited to the KMS implementation to sanction their behavior.

The purpose of this thesis is to offer an exposition of Anthony Giddens¡¦ thoughts on modernity. The terms ¡¥modern¡¦ and ¡¥modernity¡¦ are probably among the most frequently used yet rarely discussed with regards to meaning and connotation. In contemporary social theories, the term modernity is frequently taken as either obsolete or true by definition. In this thesis, I try to interpret Giddens¡¦ ideas on modernity to offer a better purchase on current ideas within the field. In the first chapter, I explain why I think the research on modernity is critical to contemporary social science. Moreover, to explicate Giddens¡¦ thinking, I also discuss Giddens¡¦ academic life and the contemporary academic study in Taiwan of Giddens¡¦ writings. In the second chapter, I briefly describe Giddens¡¦ most widely discussed theory, the Structuration theory, for I think it is the theoretical basis of the thoughts on modernity. I also refer to two important contemporary thinkers¡¦ to trace Giddens¡¦ theoretical background, namely Roy Bhaskar and Jürgen Habermas. In following two chapters, I detail Giddens¡¦ theory of modernity, focusing on its fundamental characteristics, consequences and implications for the study of an increasingly globalized world. In the fifth chapter, I review the criticisms on Giddens¡¦ theory of modernity and try to defend some of those criticisms. In the conclusion chapter, I briefly go through the major points of this thesis and assess Giddens¡¦ insights to the study of modernity.

Product is the core of an enterprise, and the major portion of its cost is determined in the design phase. By managing the design chain more effectively the enterprise can design the product to fit customer need, cut down cost and speed up time to market. All the benefits give rise to the implementation of Collaborative Product Commerce (CPC) system, whose purpose is to let all relevant parties including the focal company, customers, and suppliers to design, develop and manage the product in its whole product life cycle. In the literature of information technology (IT) and organizational change, the expected results of IT implementation may not happen, depending on the interaction between technology and organization. To illustrate this phenomenon, Adaptive Structuration Theory¡¦s (AST) is invoked to probe into the interaction between the CPC system and the organization. Our research findings indicated that the implementation of CPC system is influenced by the CPC¡¦s spirit, organizational environment, task features and group¡¦s internal structure. All these lead to variation in the appropriation process, which in turn has impact on the organizational performance. AST is helpful to explain the problems encountered in implementing CPC system. These include the improvement of product design and development process, the integration of CPC system and ERP system, the selection of consulting firms, and the user¡¦s attitudes. The CPC spirit is to achieve the optimized product design and development process. In the aspect of organizational environment, both executive support and openness of organizational culture are positive factors for implementation. In the aspect task feature, the relationship of the focal company with its downstream or upstream partners has significant impact on the task to be implemented by the CPC system, whether the appropriation process will go smoothly depends the reengineering effort made on the existing processes. In the aspect of group¡¦s internal structure, the experience, learning capability, and computer efficacy of user have positive impact on implementation. In addition, the consultants are also helpful to the implementation, which can be judged by their experiences, turnover rate, and domain knowledge. The appropriation process is evaluated by the consensus and the attitude of the user towards the CPC system, and these two factors all have positive impact on the implementation. The final conclusion renders that a prior established product data management in company with product design and development process reengineering will be helpful to the implementation of CPC system. In addition, the consultants interpret CPC¡¦s spirit. Therefore a partnership with the consultant company and the communication between the user and the consultant are helpful to the implementation of CPC system.

Globalization and the new knowledge economy have far-reaching implications for higher education mainly in the economic, political, social and technological aspects of knowledge production. Higher education institutions are the main providers of both knowledge and knowledge workers. While research and teaching are the main processes for producing knowledge at colleges and universities (Clark, 1983), information technology has been an enabling infrastructure for globalization and the main vehicle for the dissemination of knowledge as well as for facilitating knowledge in becoming a commodity (Altbach, 2006; Altbach & Teichler, 2001; McBurnie, 2001). This has led to the penetration of higher education institutions by market forces and the business sector. The commercial value of these knowledge assets in the new knowledge economy has brought economic, political, and social implications for higher education institutions. Now, they seek to strategically manage their organizational knowledge (Metcalfe, 2006; Trow, 2001). Information technology has become embedded in higher education's knowledge production and has led to reorganization of conventional academic structures, faculty work, and teaching practices.This research addresses diverse fields of study such as organizational change, sociology of organizations, and political economy of organizations, and focuses on a single developing country. The structurational model of technology, the power-process perspective of technology, the theory of academic capitalism, and the framework for strategic management of intellectual capital were joined in this study to examine: (a) the intellectual capital created through instructional production and delivery of information technology enhanced courses and its strategic management; and (b) the impact of information technology on the organization of higher education and faculty's academic work with regard to instructional production and delivery.Findings show that information technology is not regarded as an opportunity to develop intellectual capital; thus, dependency on foreign technology is favored. An academic capitalist knowledge/learning regime is still incipient in developing countries; therefore, intellectual property policies and commercialization of intellectual assets are new to higher education institutions. The vast majority of these institutions are teaching-oriented; hence, the incorporation of information technology has re-structured their organization and in turn had an impact on managerial capacity, academic work and the academic profession.

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Thesis Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology in Information Technology in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technonlogy / The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in business has evolved to such an extent that many organizations (if not all) rely on Information Technology (IT) systems to better manage their processes, get competitive advantage, improve performance (efficiency and effectiveness), provide quality services on time and most importantly to keep customers happy. This has changed the way people communicate and conduct businesses, lowering processing cost, time and improving a return on investment. Therefore, high quality software systems are essential. Organizations adopt Agile Scrum methodologies in order to develop applications that help them to obtain a return on investment quickly, to improve customer satisfaction and to maintain competitive advantage. However, the IT industry is yet to develop error-free software that meets the expected quality standards. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the extent to which software quality assurance measures can be understood and applied to maximize the quality of software projects developed under Scrum methodology. A qualitative research method informed by an interpretive approach was used to collect and analyse data. Following the purposive sampling technique, five Scrum teams operating in different environments and two academics from one academic institution were interviewed. Structuration Theory (ST) was then used as an analytical framework to analyse data and to improve the understanding of Scrum practices and related quality assurance (QA) processes. Drawing on the major terms of ST, the contextual terrain of the Scrum development process was mapped. It reflected that rules are important aspects of Scrum functions. However, rules are not as strictly applied as in the traditional methodologies. The developer skill, project type and size have a direct influence on the practice/s. In Scrum, rules are flexible in that they can be modified to meet the environment and conditions of the team. Equally significant are resources, most particularly, time and the human resources in the form of developers and Scrum leaders. Otherwise, unit testing, user acceptance testing, close collaboration and code reviews were perceived as the most important practices in Scrum projects. In view of the findings, recommendations can be summed up into 4 main points; (1) that to ensure quality assurance in Scrum, Scrum teams, especially team leaders, should enforce compliance to standards, regardless of time pressures and tight deadlines; (2) It seems that the practice of working with the client to test final products as a quality assurance mechanism is working for all parties. This practice is encouraged and must be maintained; (3) Code reviews must be enforced, and that organisations invest in resources including the constant training of developers; (4) Project product owners, project managers, team leaders and business analysts should regularly meet with the user to verify requirements prior to the implementation phase. Active stakeholder involvement can minimize development costs and time.

La question de recherche du présent mémoire : « Quels sont les facteurs d’apparition et de maintien de la vulnérabilité sociale associés aux parcours de vie d’individus en situation de vulnérabilité à Sherbrooke? » s’intéresse au concept de vulnérabilité sociale. Plus spécifiquement, nous cherchons à circonscrire ce concept en le différenciant des concepts de pauvreté et d’exclusion sociale tout en le liant à du contenu expérientiel à l’aide d’une posture inductive et constructiviste. Pour y parvenir, nous analysons les parcours de vie de cinq individus vulnérables résidant à Sherbrooke et qui font appel à des services d’organismes communautaires. Afin de bien baliser l’étendu des parcours analysés, la recherche se base sur un cadre conceptuel riche incluant la théorie de la structuration de Giddens (1997), la théorie des parcours de vie de Bernard (2006), la théorie des capitaux de Bourdieu (1997) et une conceptualisation des facteurs basée sur les déterminants sociaux de la santé de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (2013) insérée dans un système écologique simplifié en 3 niveaux (individuel, social et macrosocial). La présente étude dresse donc un portrait rigoureux et holistique des différents facteurs entourant l’individu, son environnement social et l’interaction entre les deux de façon à approfondir les éléments clés associés à la vulnérabilité sociale. Nous avons ensuite réalisé une analyse de codification émergente liée directement aux parcours de vie retenus et une deuxième analyse basée plus spécifiquement sur la théorie de la structuration afin de bien identifier les facteurs de vulnérabilité sociale présents. Par le fait même, nous nous sommes également intéressés à l’interinfluence entre les facteurs individuels, sociaux et macrosociaux en dressant un portrait du processus d’apparition et de maintien de la vulnérabilité sociale en lien avec les dynamiques d’action des participants. Nous avons finalement proposé des pistes de réalisations concrètes visant la prévention et le rétablissement chez des personnes pouvant vivant un épisode. Parmi les constats présentés, nommons un paradoxe observé au sein de plusieurs services gouvernementaux où les réponses offertes risquent continuellement de porter préjudice aux requérants. En effet, nous observons un glissement entre les messages d’humanité portés par les politiques publiques et leur opérationnalisation souvent négligente auprès des populations vulnérables. Nous remettons ainsi en question certaines tendances néolibérales « à la mode » visant à individualiser les problèmes sociaux ou encore à responsabiliser l’individu face à des enjeux sociaux. Il apparaît clair qu’un système d’aide particulariste (non universaliste) alimente les stigmates entourant les bénéficiaires et complique bien souvent inutilement les expériences souffrantes vécues tôt ou tard par la population.