This research explores the development of a framework appropriate to evaluate the readiness of a university to engage with knowledge management. Many universities are evolving from traditional bureaucratic, hierarchical structures to become more flexible, adaptable, commercially viable and competitive and knowledge management is becoming increasingly important in this respect. An over view of knowledge management clarifies what the concept is, and a critical review of current frameworks and models identifies gaps and weaknesses specifically in relation to empirical testing, theoretical underpinning and a holistic approach. This framework addresses those gaps and weaknesses and draws on organisational management, strategy, structure and culture, and systems thinking to ensure a holistic approach. These key elements provide the basis upon which a knowledge management framework is developed. A Soft Systems Methodological approach with a critical dimension is used to underpin this research because enquiry into organisational problem situations is complex and unstructured, based on human activity and social systems. The framework is innovative and offers contributions to knowledge because it: - is a new development within the domain of knowledge management. (it is intended to help evaluate the readiness of universities to engage in knowledge management); - provides a new application of critical systems thinking (critical systems thinking is applied to knowledge management); - uses a new synthesis (it was developed using a synthesis of soft systems principles, knowledge management concepts, and organisational theory); - enables organisations to consider their situations in new ways (by enabling self-critique of KM readiness); - offers new insights into the domain of knowledge management by means of the comprehensive and substantial literature review that helped its development.

Quality is often claimed as the 3rd dimension of any project: the success of a project depends on the management of time, cost and quality. However, quality is a much more elusive substance and its management can be problematic. This thesis examines some of the models proposed for managing quality in projects and considers their relevance via a number of case studies. The present study aims to provide a foundation from which a methodology for the management of quality in projects can be evolved. The general definition of “quality” is still discussed and its interpretation in the specific area of project management is open to debate. In this thesis it has been found useful to consider three levels of quality management in the project environment, broadly equivalent to those usually accepted in operations management: quality control, quality assurance and total quality management. Various methods of quality control have been employed in projects for many years. The emphasis of the present study is on the project management equivalents of quality assurance and total quality management and to examine whether they fulfil the true need. A major element of successful quality management is the establishing of constructive methods of feedback. Feedback is also often claimed to be a vital ingredient of successful project management: learning from past successes, and failures. A conduit to provide feedback is often problematic due to the very nature of projects and their finite lifespan. Mainstream thinking believes that standard quality systems employed in the production and operation environment can be incorporated effectively in project management thus increasing operational consistency and reducing the risk of activity or project failure. However, is the model of quality embedded in these systems relevant to projects with their characteristics of uniqueness and long time scales? Initial debate assumed that existing quality management systems would be of benefit in projects, which exhibited a lower level of uniqueness and were closer to an operations management perspective. A literature review followed to gauge the level of importance attached to quality systems and its role in the project process. This determined that there was a need to investigate what existing quality systems, contributed in a purely project environment and what impact they had on improving project success especially in regard to the uniqueness of the projects and to the size of the project organization involved. In addition, the impact an industry-standard quality system had on project organizations compared to project organizations that did not possesses any formal system. To compare and contrast the conventional approach to quality in projects, the complementary areas of systems thinking and system dynamics were explored. Examining an alternative field to quality management was beneficial in providing a different perspective on how systems can be modelled evaluated and applied to real-world applications. This part of the research contributed significantly to the formation of the ideas and opinions on the way in which the concept of quality should be promoted in project management. In particular, the identification of mental models and the use of graphical representations to describe, illustrate and model the tangible and intangible entities found in most types of system. The use of a case study methodology was seen as the most valid way of attaining a holistic view of the complete project process and exploring the salient issues surrounding quality and projects. The fieldwork carried out to facilitate this goal, comprised of a restricted number of in-depth case studies, which encapsulated complete projects. An essential part of this process was the use of participant observation and in part action research, as these approaches increased the access to the available qualitative data whilst being mutually beneficial to the research and to the organisations involved. The scope of the case studies carried out was governed by a number of constraints: • The availability of suitable projects. • The timespan of the available projects matching that of the research, consequently the projects studied are on a relatively small scale. • The organizations in which the action research process could be a valid exchange of services. • The reluctance of organizations in certain industries to allow access to data on projects in particular activities that had led to project failure. The alternative models and techniques offered by systems thinking and system dynamics were explored to see if they could deliver more insights into the diverse aspects of project quality and how feedback in systems can be effectively represented. From the four case studies carried out, it is evident that there is a need for a fundamental revision on how quality is both defined and measured in project management. There is a need for greater emphasis on the acquisition and retention of knowledge by project organizations including the ability to disperse that knowledge by a practical and useful medium. Existing quality management systems still exhibit their origins, which do not take into account the uniqueness and instability of the project environment. In practice, the demand for registration to an industry-recognised quality standard appears to discriminate against the smaller project organization. The impact on the larger organizations is no less significant due to the creation of ‘underground’ parallel working practices, which are a significant waste of resources. The veneer of compliance to a global standard does not help the project organization learn or accumulate knowledge. In conclusion, this thesis proposes that project management needs an alternative methodology to provide a more practical method of project feedback, to enhance the ability of future projects. This thesis puts forward a foundation for this methodology based upon the valuable attributes of the models identified during the research in addition to the value of the case studies compiled. The aim for the implementation of a practical quality system has to be based on a reappraisal of what its purpose is. Therefore, it is proposed that the objective of any system would be to capture knowledge, store and redistribute that knowledge in a manner that makes a positive contribution to future project success. Emphasis is placed on increasing success by the acquisition of knowledge, in contrast to the traditional quality concepts of decreasing risk by the control of activities. In essence a shift from existing mechanistic systems towards more neurocybernetic systems. The increasing capabilities of communication and information technologies make the practicalities of creating this type of system perfectly feasible.

This thesis is about how systems thinking might contribute to the successful management of change (MOC). The motivation is the increasing importance of MOC in an environment where competition and internationalisation of markets are ever intensifying: organisations either "change or die", yet MOC suffers adversely with unacceptably high failure rates. A critique of MOC literature shows that current MOe methodology is characterised by reductionist approaches with a diversity of confusing and contradictory suggestions and recipes. This is seen to be impoverished where different types of organisational change are interacting. All these suggest that MOC methodology itself needs to be improved and a systemic approach is more appropriate. In search of methodological underpinnings for proposing a systemic approach to MOC, literature on systems thinking is reviewed, indicating that systems approaches, especially critical systems thinking, are potentially powerful to inform the development of MOC. Nevertheless, important questions are raised about applying systems ideas to MOC. Further research is needed. And this has been done by triangulating data, theory and method to develop a fuller understanding of systems perspectives and their relevance to MOC. By combining MOC and systems thinking together in a theoretically informed way, a systemic MOC framework is suggested and revised. This framework is seen to provide a characterisation of MOC by identifying the conceptual components, a coherent theoretical structure by specifying and ordering the relationships between these components, and a way of helping understand and manage the diversity in organisational change systemically. This framework is theoretically underpinned and applied to a case study where different types of organisational change and their interactions are surfaced. The outcomes firmly support the view that MOe is characterised by different types of organisational change and their interactions, for which systemic approaches are more appropriate; thus the systemic MOC framework developed is seen to be useful in helping understand and manage organisational change more effectively. The findings are critiqued within the study, and from this come out the conclusions, and recommendations for future research.

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative case study is to describe the formation of a graduate enrollment evaluation system (GEES) to capture and explore the perceptions of key stakeholders to critically examine the barriers and benefits of a PhD nursing program at a large, public designated high research institution. As the research suggest, there is a current need for increased enrollment for nurses into nursing doctorate programs to further meet the patient's expanding demand, to expand the science of the nursing profession, and to increase the pipeline of qualified nursing faculty. Without a pipeline of qualified nursing faculty, fewer new nurses can be trained for the nursing workforce that already experiences a critical deficiency in staffing.

This thesis has two distinct research threads. One thread examines the effectiveness of technology support on the performance of focus groups. Unlike previous research, the work described in this thesis addresses the fundamental issue that groups are social systems, and that comprehensive measurement of the effectiveness of group activities requires assessment of both the task-oriented and social aspects of the group activity. In this research, four different communication modes are used to compare group effectiveness. The second research thread in this thesis is the use of Systems Thinking, and specifically Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), as the framework for inquiring into the effects of technology support on group effectiveness. The strategy in this thesis for developing and evaluating hypotheses extends the general descriptions and guidance in the literature on using SSM for hypothesis testing. Systems thinking also provides the basis for examining the prevailing ???profile deviation??? view that the better the fit between the group task and the technology support the greater the group performance. Using the six perspectives of fit developed by Venkatraman (1989), the most common GSS models and other models developed to examine Task-Technology Fit (TTF) are analysed. The results show that group performance models are most often tested from a ???profile deviation??? perspective and TTF models developed from a profile deviation perspective claim to have predictive and descriptive validity for assessing the level of group performance. To assess whether an SSM based approach can improve the predictive and/or descriptive analysis of the impact of technology support on group work, a field experiment was conducted at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Twenty focus groups of officer cadets assessed their military training program using a GSS in one of four communication modes. The results showed little predictive or descriptive support for the profile deviation perspective of TTF when measuring the group???s overall effectiveness, task effectiveness, participant satisfaction or group relations. The alternative ???gestalt??? perspective, operationalised in this research by using SSM, provided a more comprehensive approach to examining the effectiveness of technology support for group work.

In response to criticism on the concept of "unlearning", we suggested that unlearning on an individual level should be defined as the reduction of the influence of old knowledge on cognitive and/or behavioural processes. In this article, we apply a systems thinking perspective on this definition to explore how far this kind of unlearning can possibly go and what happens if this process is inward-directed, i.e. affects the cognitive and behavioural patterns that define who we are. We take a knowledge perspective on the concept of the self and suggest that unlearning could trigger a disequilibrium, which in turn, enables a deep learning process and guides us to what is referred to as ideal or best version of the self. This does not only have implications for the individual level but it can initiate fundamental change processes in organizations.

Overview: A global shortage of over 7.2 million health workers poses a threat to service delivery particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa bears a quarter of the global burden of disease; yet, it only has three percent of all health workers. Maldistribution and migration both to urban and international destinations pose persistent challenges to service delivery particularly to rural and remote populations. In Kenya, the health human resources are mostly concentrated in urban areas, and in some cases as high 70% of the health workers are serving only 20% of the population. Literature to date, particularly in the context of Kenya, has focused on doctors and more recently nurses. There has been a gap in analysis in exploring mid-level cadres such as clinical officers, a cadre of non-physician clinicians. Research objectives: The objectives of the research were to: 1) conduct a contextual analysis of human resources for health in Kenya; 2) understand the migration perspectives of Kenyan health professionals including doctors, nurses and clinical officers through an online survey; 3) explore the role of mid-level health worker cadre of clinical officers as a promising practice for Kenya. The thesis is presented in three papers congruent with the three research objectives. I interrogated these areas at a macro, meso and macro level using systems thinking theory. Findings: The first paper found significant developments in the policy context of managing health professionals in Kenya all of which have improved the working conditions for health professionals. International migration was found to have decreased over the past decade and was not deemed be a policy priority by government and development partner stakeholders. Health professional representatives, on the other hand, asserted that they continue to be disgruntled with the current situation and would not hesitate to migrate given the opportunity. The second paper found that the factors that discourage health professionals from staying in Kenya are similar to those available in the literature and include: dissatisfaction with remuneration, governance, working conditions and living conditions. Among health professionals considering migration, few had made short-term plans to leave. Family ties and fear of the unknown were found to be strong factors for continuing to work as health professionals in Kenya. Job security was found to be high in the government while recruitment agencies were not found to play a significant role in migration decisions of health professionals. The third paper found that there was general support for the scale of up clinical officers to enhance the Kenyan health workforce. Barriers to scale-up included resistance from medical doctors, who felt that clinical officers were not competent enough to handle complicated cases, and a lack of employment opportunities given a surplus of about 3,000 unemployed clinical officers in Kenya, who could potentially fill in the health workforce gaps. Conclusion: Overall policy developments have been implemented since 2007 presenting a promising future to the management of human resources for health (HRH) in Kenya. Although few health professionals are making concrete steps to migrate out of Kenya they continue to be dissatisfied with the current living and working conditions. Maldistribution and overall shortages of health professionals continue to hamper service delivery to vulnerable rural populations. Mitigating factors include the potential of scaling up the clinical officer cadre particularly through the surplus of 3000 unemployed clinical officers, a process that requires sufficient political and professional will. A holistic multi-level approach to health system planning is crucial to ensure that any new investments are well coordinated and involve an overall scale-up of health professionals.

abstract: Childhood obesity has been on the rise for the past decade, and it has been hypothesized that students' food choices may be influenced by easy access to food outlets near their schools that provide unhealthful options. But the results of recent studies on the relationship between the food environment around schools and student weight status are mixed and often contradictory. Most studies have used measures of weight and height that were self-reported by students, or have relied on data from a relatively small sample of students. I examine the association between weight status among school students and the food environment surrounding their schools using professionally-measured, student-level data across the full school-age spectrum. De-identified data were obtained for over 30,000 K-12 students in 79 public schools located in four New Jersey cities. Locations of alternative food-outlets (specifically, supermarkets, convenience stores, small grocery stores, and limited-service restaurants) were obtained from commercial sources and geocoded to develop proximity measures. A simplified social-ecological framework was used to conceptualize the multi-level the association between students' BMI and school proximity to food outlets and multivariate analyses were used to estimate this relationship controlling for student- and school-level factors. Over twenty percent of the students were obese, compared to the national average at 17% (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2012). On average, students had 2.6 convenience stores, 2.9 limited-service restaurants, and 0.1 supermarkets within a quarter mile of their school. This study suggests that easy access to small grocery stores (which this study uniquely examines as a separate food outlet category) that offer healthy choices including five types of fresh vegetable, five types of fresh fruits, low-fat dairy, and lean meats is associated with lower BMI z score and lower probability of being obese for middle and high school students. This suggests that improving access to such small food outlets may be a promising area for future investigation in obesity mitigation research. Also, this study separates students of pre-schools, kindergartens and elementary schools (neighborhood schools) from that of the middle and high schools (non-neighborhood) schools because the two groups of schools have different neighborhood characteristics, as well as open-school and bussing policies that result in different levels of exposure that students have to the food outlets around the schools. The result of this study suggests that the relationship between students' weight outcomes and food environment around schools is different in the two groups of schools. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Sustainability 2013

nÃo hà / A felicidade sempre foi discutida pela filosofia ao longo da histÃria da humanidade, influenciando a forma de viver e organizar as mais diferentes sociedades. Nos Ãltimos anos, o estudo acadÃmico sobre o tema vem crescendo exponencialmente nas mais diversas Ãreas do saber. De tal modo que, o objetivo principal desta pesquisa à levantar, caracterizar e analisar a produÃÃo especÃfica sobre felicidade e polÃticas pÃblicas. Para tal fim, realiza-se uma pesquisa bibliogrÃfica sobre felicidade/bem-estar subjetivo e polÃticas pÃblicas, a partir de obras indexadas em bases de dados nacionais e internacionais e outros mÃtodos complementares, permitindo assim identificar as principais obras e pesquisadores. Analisa-se entÃo tal literatura a partir da perspectiva do pensamento sistÃmico e do referencial teÃrico selecionado, a fim de gerar uma visÃo holÃstica do conceito de felicidade: o sentir, o pensar e o agir. O resultado à um mapeamento atualizado e crÃtico deste campo de estudo ao caracterizar a produÃÃo acadÃmica existente nas dimensÃes epistemolÃgica, ontolÃgica e metodolÃgica. Constatou-se que o tema da felicidade nas polÃticas pÃblicas acompanha o recente crescimento exponencial do estudo sobre felicidade, representando, contudo, uma pequena parcela deste universo. Predomina-se os autores e centros de pesquisa de origem anglo-saxà e a economia como principal Ãrea do conhecimento. A interdisciplinaridade à a marca das obras analisadas, alinhando-se, em ordem de impacto, a economia, a psicologia, a filosofia e a sociologia. As experiÃncias ainda sÃo escassas e inconsistentes de sistematizaÃÃo, em sua maioria. Apesar disso, considera-se que a literatura e as experiÃncias prÃticas desenvolvem-se a passos largos e com credibilidade cientÃfica suficiente para agregar elementos a uma perspectiva mais Ãtica e abrangente de desenvolvimento e de avaliaÃÃo de polÃticas pÃblicas. Palavras-chave: Felicidade. Desenvolvimento. Pensamento sistÃmico. / Happiness has been always discussed in philosophy throughout the history of humankind, influencing the way we live and organize the most different societies. In recent years, the academic study on the subject has grown exponentially in the most diverse areas of knowledge. Such that the main objective of this research is to raise, characterize and analyze the specific production on happiness and public policy. For this purpose, we make a research over literature on happiness/subjective well-being and public policy, from articles indexed in databases of national and international data and other complementary methods, allowing to identify the major works and researchers. Then such literature is analyzed from the perspective of systems thinking and the selected theoretical framework in order to generate a holistic view of the concept of happiness: Seeing, Knowing and Doing. The result is an updated and critical mapping of the study of this field by characterizing the existing academic literature on the epistemological, ontological and methodological dimensions. It was found that the subject happiness in the public policies is accompanying the recent exponential growth of hapiness studies, representing, nevertheless, a small portion of this universe. Predominate the anglo-saxon authors and research centers and the economy as the main area of knowledge. The interdisciplinary approach is the hallmark of the analyzed works, aligning to them, in order of impact, economics, psychology, philosophy and sociology. Experiments are mostly still rare and inconsistent systematized. Nevertheless, it is considered that literature and the practical experiences have a fast developmet with enough elements to a more ethical and comprehensive overview of development and evaluation of public policies.

Precious and base metal mining projects can serve as a stepping-stone in moving the mining industry towards achieving compliance with a scientific-principled definition of global socio-ecological sustainability. Using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development to assess the current reality of mine project development has resulted in identifying gaps between current best practices and a desired vision of sustainability constrained by science based principles. These gaps provide opportunities for sustainability driven innovation. Evaluation of mining project phases and their impacts on ecological and social systems using the four Sustainability Principles highlight specific opportunities to create value for social, economic and ecologic systems. Companies choosing to develop mining projects using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development can expect to achieve many business benefits, including improved reputation, increased transparency and stakeholder trust. Strengthening these aspects will provide robust support to companies as they manoeuvre to define their role in a sustainable society. This thesis examines how current processes for mining projects can be developed to support a successful transition into a sustainable society.