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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
11

Addressing the Barriers to Regional Electric Vehicle Projects through Stakeholder Engagement

Hidy, Kareisa, Javanmashmool, Maryam, Nathe, Nathalie January 2012 (has links)
The transport sector is making slow progress towards sustainability, particularly given the urgency and scale of the sustainability challenges associated with the sector and the number of solutions that exist. This thesis uses a three-phase research methodology to identify and provide guidance to help address the barriers preventing the expansion of one of the most rapidly growing transportation alternatives: electric vehicles. The engagement of stakeholders can act as a strategic point of intervention to address these barriers and facilitate the regional market introduction of the technology. A process was therefore developed to help project management in the pre-project planning phase to address the key challenges to engagement that are commonly experienced on electric vehicle projects. The process combines a Strategic Sustainable Development approach with Best Practice for Engagement. Information was sourced from literature and interviews with experts in electric vehicles, stakeholder engagement and Strategic Sustainable Development. Initial feedback from testing the process on an electric vehicle project indicates that this guidance is timely and likely to become widely applicable on similar projects in the future.
12

Empowering the Steel Industry as a Stakeholder : Environmental Management and Communication through a Social-Ecological Approach

Berg, Alicia January 2013 (has links)
This paper explores a case study of a Swedish tool steel company undergoing a transition from traditional environmental management practices to an enterprise identifying its place as part of a social-ecological system. The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (ESR) was utilized by the company to begin this process by focusing on ecosystem services to determine how an ESR approach contributes to environmental management in practice. What resulted moved beyond the ESR to a tailored methodology, the internalization of a systems perspective, and a proposed new environmental management system. The results of the study provide a concrete, effective method for internalizing a systems perspective through a focus on ecosystems and presents a case for further analysis into what made it successful. It also provides an example of translating theory into practice, illustrating how a company can engage in sustainable development by valuing and managing the resilience of social-ecological systems through identifying their place in that system. The value of the results can be high for the case study company as well as for business in general.
13

Systems assessment of biofuels: Modelling of future cost and greenhouse gas abatement competitiveness between biofuels for transport on the case of Germany

Millinger, Markus 20 February 2019 (has links)
Biofuels are a renewable alternative for reducing the climate impact of transport. Due to the versatility of biomass and complexity of economics and impacts, biofuels are part of a complex system, which is here analysed from a systems perspective. Several models are developed in order to assess the competitiveness of various crop based biofuel options as part of a system, using different economic and environmental functional units. The scope is set to Germany until 2050. The capital and feedstock costs were revised to higher levels compared to common assumptions. The different functional units result in different merit orders for the biofuel options. Currently used biofuels, rape seed based biodiesel and starch crop based bioethanol, were found not to be competitive when considering differentiated and increasing feedstock costs. Advanced liquid fuels were only competitive at extreme assumptions, contrary to common expectations. Instead, sugar beet based ethanol dominated for most of the time span when comparing energetic cost, whereas Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) was competitive on a greenhouse gas abatement (GHG) cost basis, especially at a rapid decarbonisation of the power mix. With a land use GHG abatement functional unit, silage maize based biomethane was the best, with SNG converging only at very high renewables shares of the background systems. Switching from current practise to higher yielding biofuel options can treble the abatement per land area for the present day, and potentially increase it by a factor five in the future. A focus on GHG abatement per area of arable land results in the land passenger transport sector to be of the highest priority due to the suitability of higher yielding biofuel options, followed by land goods transport, shipping and finally aviation. If gaseous fuels are not possible to introduce on a large scale, sectors where liquefied gaseous fuels are suitable become the priority, i.e. goods transport and shipping. The current practise of applying admixture quotas to sub-sectors of land transport renders a significantly lower climate benefit compared to an overall optimal usage, and a large societal transition is required before aviation biofuels become the climate optimal biomass usage. The direct importance of land use has thus far not received enough attention in terms of the economics of biofuels from dedicated crops, as well as for the greenhouse gas emissions policy. Biofuels produced from arable land can provide a strong GHG benefit if an expansion of arable land is hindered through redirecting land use, which requires a holistic policy approach.:Abstract ix Acknowledgments xi List of Publications xiii List of Acronyms xv I Introductory chapters 1 1 Background 3 1.1 Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 Technological Change and Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1.3 Aim and objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2 Methodology 9 2.1 Systems modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.2 Model description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3 Results and discussion 17 3.1 Biofuel techno-economic potential and competitiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.2 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.2.1 Resource base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.2.2 Biomass climate benefit in other sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 3.2.3 Other renewable fuel options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3.2.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 3.2.5 Applicability of results to other regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4 Conclusions 25 4.1 Future research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Bibliography 29 Contribution to Appended Papers 33 Curriculum Vitae 35 CONTENTS II Appended papers 37 1 Competitiveness of advanced and conventional biofuels: Results from least-cost modelling of biofuel competition in Germany 39 2 Biomass price developments inhibit biofuel investments and research in Germany: The crucial future role of high yields 51 3 Relative greenhouse gas abatement cost competitiveness of biofuels in Germany 63 4 Climate optimal deployment of biofuels from crops in Germany 85 / Biokraftstoffe sind eine erneuerbare Alternative zur Verringerung der Klimaauswirkungen des Verkehrs. Aufgrund der Vielseitigkeit der Biomasse und der Komplexität der Ökonomie und der Auswirkungen sind Biokraftstoffe Teil eines komplexen Systems, das hier aus einer Systemperspektive analysiert wird. Es werden mehrere Modelle entwickelt, um die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit verschiedener biogener Biokraftstoffoptionen als Teil eines Systems unter Verwendung verschiedener wirtschaftlicher und ökologischer Funktionseinheiten zu bewerten. Der Umfang ist auf Deutschland bis 2050 festgelegt. Die Kapital- und Rohstoffkosten wurden im Vergleich zu herkömmlichen Annahmen auf ein höheres Niveau angepasst. Die verschiedenen Funktionseinheiten führen zu unterschiedlichen Merit Order für die Biokraftstoffoptionen. Die derzeit verwendeten Biokraftstoffe, Raps-Saatgut-Biodiesel und Stärkepflanzen-Bioethanol, erwiesen sich als nicht wettbewerbsfähig, wenn man differenzierte und steigende Rohstoffkosten in Betracht zieht. Fortschrittliche flüssige Kraftstoffe waren nur unter extremen Annahmen wettbewerbsfähig, entgegen den üblichen Erwartungen. Stattdessen dominierte Ethanol auf Zuckerrübenbasis für einen Großteil der Zeitspanne beim Vergleich der Energiekosten, während synthetisches Erdgas (SNG) auf der Basis der Treibhausgasvermeidungskosten wettbewerbsfähig war, insbesondere bei einer schnellen Dekarbonisierung des Strommixes. Mit einer Funktionseinheit zur Reduzierung der Treibhausgasemissionen war Silagemais-basiertes Biomethan die beste Option, wobei SNG bei sehr hohen Anteilen an erneuerbaren Energien der Hintergrundsysteme konvergierte. Der Wechsel von der derzeitigen Praxis zu ertragreicheren Biokraftstoffoptionen kann die Verringerung pro Landfläche für die Gegenwart verdreifachen und in Zukunft möglicherweise um den Faktor fünf erhöhen. Die Fokussierung auf die Reduzierung von Treibhausgasen pro Ackerfläche führt dazu, dass der Landpersonenverkehr aufgrund der Eignung ertragreicherer Biokraftstoffoptionen, gefolgt von Landverkehr, Schifffahrt und schließlich Luftfahrt, höchste Priorität genießt. Wenn es nicht möglich ist, gasförmige Kraftstoffe in großem Maßstab einzuführen, werden Sektoren, in denen verflüssigte gasförmige Kraftstoffe geeignet sind, zur Priorität, d.h. Güterverkehr und Schifffahrt. Die aktuelle Praxis der Anwendung von Beimischungsquoten für Teilbereiche des Landverkehrs führt zu einem deutlich geringeren Klimanutzen im Vergleich zu einer insgesamt optimalen Nutzung, und es ist ein großer gesellschaftlicher Wandel erforderlich, bevor Biokraftstoffe aus der Luftfahrt zur klimaoptimalen Biomassenutzung werden. Die direkte Bedeutung der Landnutzung hat bisher nicht genügend Beachtung gefunden, sowohl in Bezug auf die Wirtschaftlichkeit von Biokraftstoffen aus Sonderkulturen als auch in Bezug auf die Treibhausgasemissionen. Biokraftstoffe, die von Anbaubiomasse hergestellt werden, können einen starken Treibhausgasvorteil bieten, wenn eine Ausweitung der Ackerfläche durch eine Neuausrichtung der Landnutzung behindert wird, was einen ganzheitlichen politischen Ansatz erfordert.:Abstract ix Acknowledgments xi List of Publications xiii List of Acronyms xv I Introductory chapters 1 1 Background 3 1.1 Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 Technological Change and Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1.3 Aim and objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2 Methodology 9 2.1 Systems modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.2 Model description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3 Results and discussion 17 3.1 Biofuel techno-economic potential and competitiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.2 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.2.1 Resource base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.2.2 Biomass climate benefit in other sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 3.2.3 Other renewable fuel options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3.2.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 3.2.5 Applicability of results to other regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4 Conclusions 25 4.1 Future research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Bibliography 29 Contribution to Appended Papers 33 Curriculum Vitae 35 CONTENTS II Appended papers 37 1 Competitiveness of advanced and conventional biofuels: Results from least-cost modelling of biofuel competition in Germany 39 2 Biomass price developments inhibit biofuel investments and research in Germany: The crucial future role of high yields 51 3 Relative greenhouse gas abatement cost competitiveness of biofuels in Germany 63 4 Climate optimal deployment of biofuels from crops in Germany 85
14

Anaerobic digestion of horse manure : renewable energy and plant nutrients in a systems perspective

Hadin, Åsa January 2016 (has links)
In horse keeping horse manure is produced, which can be utilized as a fertilizer or considered a waste. Horse manure constitutes a resource in terms of both plant nutrients and energy. In addition energy policies and objectives aim at replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources. The interest to improve resource recovery of horse manure increases due various incentives for renewable vehicle fuels, legal requirements on management of manure, and environmental impact from current horse manure management. This thesis aims at describing horse manure management in a life cycle perspective. This is made by (1) identifying factors in horse keeping affect­ing the possibility to use horse manure as a biogas feedstock and to recycle plant nutrients, (2) analysing factors in anaerobic digestion with influence on methane potential and biofertilizer nutrient content and (3) comparing the environmental impact from different horse manure treatment methods. Literature reviews, systematic combining, and simulations have been used as research methods. The results show that horse keeping activities such as feeding, indoor keeping, outdoor keeping and manure storage affect the amount and charac­teristics of horse manure and thereby also the possibilities for anaerobic digestion horse manure. Transport affects the collected amount and spread­ing affects loss of nutrients and nutrient recycling. Simulation results in­dicate the highest methane yield and energy balance from paper bedding, while straw and peat gave a higher nutrient content of the biofertilizer. The highest methane yield was achieved with a low rate of bedding, which in the cases of woodchips and paper is also preferable for plant nutrient recycling. Still, results indicate the best energy balance from anaerobic digestion with a high ratio of bedding. The environmental impact assessment indicates a reduction in global warming potential for anaerobic digestion compared to incineration or composting. / Vid hästhållning alstras hästgödsel som kan användas som växtnäring eller anses vara ett avfall. Hästgödsel utgör både en växtnäringsresurs och en energi resurs. Dessutom styr uppsatta energimål mot att förnybar energi ska ersätta fossila bränslen. Intresset för att öka resursutnyttjandet av hästgödsel ökar på grund av olika incitament för förnybara drivmedel, lagstiftning om gödselhantering och miljöpåverkan från dagens hantering av hästgödsel. I den här avhandlingen beskrivs hästgödselhantering i ett livscykel­perspektiv genom att (1) identifiera olika faktorer vid hästhållningen som påverkar möjligheten att utvinna biogas ur hästgödsel och återföra näringen till jordbruksmark, (2) analysera faktorer i biogasprocessen som påverkar den specifika metanmängden och innehållet av växtnäring i gödseln och (3) jämföra olika gödselhanteringsmetoders miljöpåverkan. Metoderna i avhan­dlingen har varit litteraturstudier, systematisk kombination av teori och em­piri samt simulering. Resultaten visar att utfodringen, om och hur hästarna hålls inomhus och utomhus och hur hästgödsel lagras påverkar mängden hästgödsel och dess egenskaper, och därmed också hur den fungerar som ett biogassubstrat. Trans­porterna har betydelse för hur mycket gödsel som kan samlas in och spridas, medan gödselspridningen påverkar näringsförluster och närings återföring. Resultaten från simuleringarna indikerar högst metanutbyte och bäst energi­balans från papper som strömaterial, medan halm och torv gav högre växt­näringsinnehåll i biogödseln. De högsta resultaten på specifik metanmängd nåddes med låg andel strö, vilket också var positivt för växtnäringsinnehållet vid scenarierna med spån och papper. Samtidigt indikerar resultaten att en hög andel strömaterial ger den bästa energibalansen. Miljöpåverkansbedöm­ningen indikerar att potentialen för klimatpåverkan minskar om hästgödsel behandlas i en biogasprocess jämfört med förbränning eller kompostering.
15

Experiences of professionals in drafting and implementing parenting plans in high-conflict separation and divorce matters in South Africa

Combrinck, Candice 02 1900 (has links)
This study focused on the experiences of professionals in drafting and implementing parenting plans with high-conflict separating and divorcing families in the South African context. The primary aim of the study was to explore the participants’ personal and professional experiences through an in-depth and sensitive inquiry. The data was collected from five participants using face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. The results of this study indicate that professionals experience various challenges when working with high-conflict separating and divorcing families. The participants also shared their perceptions regarding parenting plans. Further research on the challenges specific to drafting and implementing parenting plans with high-conflict separating and divorcing families in the South African context is recommended / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)
16

Experiences of professionals in drafting and implementing parenting plans in high-conflict separation and divorce matters in South Africa

Combrinck, Candice 02 1900 (has links)
This study focused on the experiences of professionals in drafting and implementing parenting plans with high-conflict separating and divorcing families in the South African context. The primary aim of the study was to explore the participants’ personal and professional experiences through an in-depth and sensitive inquiry. The data was collected from five participants using face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. The results of this study indicate that professionals experience various challenges when working with high-conflict separating and divorcing families. The participants also shared their perceptions regarding parenting plans. Further research on the challenges specific to drafting and implementing parenting plans with high-conflict separating and divorcing families in the South African context is recommended / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)
17

A systems approach to biogasplanning in Stockholm, Sweden

Österlin, Calle January 2012 (has links)
The Swedish capital Stockholm is at the forefront of biogas gas use, especially when it comesto biogas used for vehicle gas. This technology has the potential of being a fuel with veryhigh environmental performance, but in order to realize the full potential publicenvironmental management must be optimized. Environmental objectives are anenvironmental management is one tool that is used to strive for the desired development. Theaim of this study is to explain the dynamics within the biogas system in Stockholm, with aparticular emphasis on which factors that affects the amount of biogas available for vehiclegas upgrading on the market in Stockholm. The study has been conducted using modelingsessions with key stakeholders involved in the biogas system. The study concludes that theformulation of environmental objectives has a profound impact on how the variousstakeholders act, and thus how the system behaves. The trade off of how much fossil naturalgas that can be mixed into the renewable biogas based vehicle gas is at the very pinnacle ofcomplex matter. A conclusion that is of vital importance for the local planning process andwhen the experiences of Stockholm’s environmental planning are communicated out to therest of the world.
18

Strategic shifts toward regenerative sustainability: the pivotal role of ecological knowledge

Rahman, Saeed 02 January 2020 (has links)
Increasingly, firms like Patagonia, IKEA, General Mills, or Barilla actively seek to understand their interdependence with nature, build innovative capabilities, and generate more radical shifts toward sustainability. This creates exciting opportunities to investigate exactly how these companies obtain knowledge about ecosystem dynamics and processes and how they use it both to cope with climate change or declining ecosystem resilience and contribute to maintain or even strengthen ecosystems. Despite the considerable potential to advance research on organizational strategy and corporate sustainability, the notion of ‘ecological knowledge’ has yet to enter the scholarly work of management and business organization in a substantive manner. At present, we know almost nothing about the processes, mechanisms, and routines that enable an organization to, first, recognize the value of such knowledge and to, then, systematically access, co-create, integrate and utilize such knowledge into its broader knowledge and resource base. My dissertation attempts to fill this gap and opens up new directions for research on the role of ecological knowledge in corporate sustainability management. More specifically, I ask: What are the processes through which organizations can effectively access, co-create, integrate and utilize ecological knowledge with current organizational knowledge and strategies? I link strategic and organization-focused concepts of knowledge and the perspective of absorptive capacity with the notion of ecological knowledge from modern ecology, especially from the social-ecological systems literature, to shed light on the processes through which organizations can effectively access, co-create, integrate and utilize new ecological knowledge into their operational and strategic decision making. I adopt a qualitative, emergent, and inductive strategy drawing on a grounded research approach to gain an in-depth, cross-validated, and processual understanding of the mechanisms through which organizations can promote and enhance ecosystem health including biodiversity. I undertook my study on the organic agriculture sector, a sub-sector of the modern agriculture and agri-food industry. I collected data from nineteen agriculture and agri-food organizations based in British Columbia (BC), the westernmost province of Canada, using multiple data sources including in-depth interviews, observations, company documents, reports, newspaper articles and field reports. Based on my analysis, I develop a grounded theory about the processes through which organizations can successfully deepen their ecological knowledge and then utilize this knowledge to more sustainably manage their relationships with nature and contribute to protecting or even strengthening ecosystem functionality. With my dissertation, I address the call from scholars in Organization and the Natural Environment (ONE) and Corporate Sustainability for more transdisciplinary cross-fertilization as an essential approach to building compelling new theory and models in the field. First, my analysis offers a more fine-grained understanding of the types, components, dimensions, and characteristics of ecological knowledge. Second, my analysis uncovers a micro-level account of the processes by which individuals as critical actors identify, evaluate and make sense of the organization-environment interrelationships across various scales of time and space. I also identify the multiple personal characteristics of individual actors that influence these processes in various stages and circumstances. Third, my study offers insights into the factors that can strengthen an organization’s relational capacity to build mutual trust and collaboration with holders of ecological knowledge. Fourth, it sheds light on how firms engage with and motivate multiple community stakeholders in building a collaborative process of mutual learning, knowledge sharing, and knowledge co-creation to build joint capacity for coping successfully with many complex challenges of sustainability, thus contributing to the wellbeing of the entire social-ecological system. Collectively, these contributions provide a deeper and more holistic understanding of the processes of acquiring and co-creating ecological knowledge that can allow an organization to transition successfully towards greater ecological sustainability. My dissertation also offers numerous practically relevant insights for businesses facing the challenges of economic, social and environmental sustainability, as well as specific guidance on how companies can protect or enhance their supply of natural capital and contribute toward greater stability of the broader human-nature systems in which they are embedded. / Graduate / 2023-11-15
19

The Spatial 2:1 Resonant Orbits in Multibody Models: Analysis and Applications

Andrew Joseph Binder (18848701) 24 June 2024 (has links)
<p dir="ltr">Within the aerospace community in recent years, there has been a marked increase in interest in cislunar space. To this end, the study of the dynamics of this regime has flourished in both quantity and quality in recent years, spearheaded by the use of simplified dynamical models to gain insight into the dynamics and to generate viable mission concepts. The most popular and simple of these models, the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem, has been thoroughly explored to meet these goals (even well-prior to the recent spike in interest). Much work has been done investigating periodic orbits within these models, and similarly has been performed on non-periodic transfers into periodic orbits. Studied less is the superposition of these two concepts, or using periodic orbits as a way to transit, for example, cislunar space. In this thesis, the development of periodic orbits amenable to transiting is accomplished. Beginning from periodic orbit families already present in the literature, this research finds a novel and useful family of periodic orbits, here dubbed the spatial 2:1-resonant orbit family. Within this newly-discovered family, multitudes of qualitative behaviors interesting to the astrodynamics community are found. Many family members seem accommadating to a diverse set of mission profiles, from purely-unstable family members best suited to use as transfers, to marginally stable ones best suited to longer-term use. This family as a whole is analyzed and catalogued with thorough descriptions of behavior, both quantitative and qualitative. While the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem serves as an excellent starting point for analysis, trajectories found there must be generalized to higher-fidelity modeling. In this spirit, this thesis also focuses on demonstrating such generalization and putting it into practice using the more sophisticated Elliptic-Restricted Three-Body Problem. Documentation of the numerical tools necessary and helpful in accomplishing this generalization is included in this work. Prototypically, the truly 2:1 sidereally-resonant unstable member of the 2:1 family is transitioned into the elliptic problem, as is a nearly-stable L2 Halo orbit family member. This new trajectory is paired with a more classically-present example to show the validity of the methodology. To aid this analysis, symmetries present within the elliptic model are also explored and explained. With this analysis completed, this orbit family is demonstrated to be both interesting and useful, when considered under even more realistic modelling. Further work to mature this novel family of orbits is merited, both for use as the fundamental building block for transfers and for use for more-permanent habitation. More broadly, this work aims to achieve a further proliferation of the merger between transfer and orbit, concepts which seem distinct at first, but deserve more gradual consideration as different flavors of the same idea.</p>
20

Forskarstött förändringsarbete i själva verket : Att förbättra arbetssituationen för 15 000 brevbärare / Researcher support for change in real service : Improving the work situation of 15,000 postmen

Karltun Erlandsson, Anette January 2007 (has links)
Denna avhandling belyser forskarstött förändringsarbete, inom ”Servicenätet Posten”, den division inom Posten Sverige AB som ansvarar för postdistribution till kunderna. Förändringsarbetet har handlat om att förbättra arbetssituationen för 15 000 brevbärare. Den teoretiska grunden utgörs av ett systemtänkande där konceptet ”Människa-Teknik-Organisation” (MTO), används för att granska interventionsprocessen. Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att bidra till kunskapsutveckling-en om forskarstött förändringsarbete utifrån följande delsyften: 1) att illustrera hur ett systemtänkande i förändringsarbete påverkar förståelsen för hur systemkomponenterna Människa, Teknik och Organisation (MTO) interagerar i praktiken, 2) att exemplifiera hur den kunskapen kan omsättas i praktiken genom utveckling och implementering av MTO-anpassade lösningar i samverkan mellan forskare och praktiker, 3) att empiriskt exemplifiera hur former för participation kan bidra till framgångsrikt förändringsarbete genom analys och syntes av process och resultat. Forskningsprojektet har bedrivits med en interaktiv ansats. Den interaktiva ansatsen har gjort det möjligt att belysa samverkan mellan forskare och praktiker på ett verklig-hetsnära och realistiskt sätt under fyra projektfaser fördelade över en femårsperiod. Den inledande projektfasen innebar en diagnostisering av problematiken. Ett antal åtgärdsförslag presenterades av forskargruppen och ledde vidare till ett forskarstött ut-vecklingsarbete under en andra projektfas då ett underlag till olika förbättringsåtgärder arbetades fram. Detta inbegrep utveckling av såväl teknisk som arbetsorganisatorisk ka-raktär för att åstadkomma effektiva och hälsosamma arbetsprocesser för brevbärare inom postutdelningsverksamheten. I en tredje projektfas testades och utvärderades hela åtgärdspaketet genom implementering på ett pilotkontor. I en fjärde och sista projektfas implementerades förbättringsåtgärderna på samtliga 602 postutdelningskontor i landet och forskarna gjorde en utvärdering. Resultaten visar hur man genom att anlägga ett MTO-perspektiv i förändringsarbete ökar möjligheterna att få klarhet i vilka faktorer som påverkar effektiviteten i ett pro-duktionssystem i sin helhet. Den tvärvetenskapliga forskningssatsningen i kombination med samverkan forskare/praktiker visade sig vara en förutsättning för att skapa förståel-se för interaktionen mellan M-T-O-komponenterna. Avhandlingen visar vidare hur olika former för participation i praktiken kan bidra till framgångsrikt förändringsarbete både vad gäller process och resultat. Den utförliga redogörelsen för interventionsprocessen, forskarrollens skiftande karaktär samt hindrande och främjande faktorer för forskarstött förändringsarbete, utgör andra viktiga kunskapsbidrag. / This dissertation illuminates researcher-supported work for change within the “Postal Service Network”, the division within Posten Sverige AB with responsibility for mail distribution to customers. The intervention has been concerned with improving the work situation of 15,000 postmen. The theoretical foundation consists in a form of systems thinking in which the con-cept of Man-Technology-Organisation (MTO) is employed to scrutinise the intervention process. The overall aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the development of know-ledge in the arena of researcher-supported work for change. It proceeds on the basis of the following objectives 1) to illustrate how systems thinking in the change process influences understanding of how the system’s Man-Technology-Organisation (MTO) components interact in practice, 2) to exemplify how this knowledge can be transformed in practice through the development and implementation of MTO-adapted solutions into collaboration between researchers and practitioners, 3) to exemplify empirically how forms for participation can contribute to a successful change process through the analy-sis and synthesis of both process and results. The research project has been conducted interactively. The interactive approach has made it possible to illuminate collaboration between researchers and practitioners in a down-to-earth and realistic manner during four project phases spread over a five-year period. The introductory project phase involved diagnosis of the problem. A number of proposals for action were presented by the research team, which led on to researcher-supported developmental work during a second project phase when a basis for various improvement measures was created. This involved development of both a technical and work-organisational nature to achieve efficient and healthy work processes for postmen in mail distribution. At a third project phase the entire package of measures was tested and evaluated through implementation in a pilot office. At the fourth and final phase of the project the improvements were implemented in all 602 postal distribution offices in Sweden, and the researchers performed an evaluation. The results show how adopting an MTO perspective on work for change increases opportunities to obtain clarity with regard to which factors influence efficiency in a pro-duction system as a whole. The cross-disciplinary research approach, in combination with researcher/practitioner collaboration, proved to be a prerequisite for creating un-derstanding of the interaction between the MTO components. Further, the dissertation shows how different forms of participation in practice can contribute to successful work for change with regard to both process and results. The extensive reporting of the inter-vention process and accounts of the shifting nature of the researcher’s role and of hin-dering and promoting factors in researcher-supported work for change constitute other important contributions to knowledge.

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