EXPLORING IT-BASED KNOWLEDGE SHARING PRACTICES: REPRESENTING KNOWLEDGE WITHIN AND ACROSS PROJECTS Drawing on the social representation literature combined with a need to better understand knowledge sharing across projects, this research lays the ground for the development of a theoretical account seeking to explain the relationship between project members’ representations of knowledge sharing practices and the use of knowledge-based systems as boundary objects or shared systems. The concept of social representations is particularly appropriate for studying social issues in continuous evolution such as the adoption of a new information system. The research design is structured as an interpretive case study, focusing on the knowledge sharing practices within and across four project groups. The findings showed significant divergence among the groups’ social representations. Sharing knowledge across projects was rather challenging, despite the potential advantages provided by the knowledge-based system. Therefore, technological change does not automatically trigger the intended changes in work practices and routines. The groups’ social representations need to be aligned with the desired behaviour or patterns of actions.

In 1984, in the background that the level of salary in Taiwan was far lower than Europe and America, UMC was the first company setting up the employee bonus shares as well as the allotment of stock dividends in order to allure the domestic and overseas elites. Afterwards, this mechanism has become the characteristic of Taiwan¡¦s electronic industry to appeal the talents . By 2007, the issue of expenditure of employee bonus shares emerged. Undoubtedly, the high technology industry, in which the employees benefitted the most from the system of employee bonus shares and the allotment of stock dividends, was the one being impacted the most. Therefore, every company took various measures to avoid the employees¡¦ leaving and maintain the company competitive in response to this situation. The system of expenditure of employee bonus shares has been conducted for 2 years since 2008. So the impacts of this mechanism have been presented and the influences of those responsive measures should have been in effect. What was the impact from the system of expenditure of employee bonus shares to Taiwan¡¦s high-tech industries indeed? What was the measure dealing with the human resources that each company took to reply this situation? Thus, this study took some Taiwan public high-tech companies and consultant companies famous for its specialization in employee salary and bonus as our case studies. Through the collection of these case studies, we found some common measures between these companies. Besides, to increase the practical value of this study, we analyzed the measures, the background factors, and all the impacts in details and in depth. In sum, we hope we could offer the directional guidelines for the development of innovative employee incentives and provide some advices to those companies encountering the problems in designing the reward system. The findings were listed as below: 1. For the most companies, they did not take the timely measures in 2008. In the year of 2008, the global economic climate declined. Each company focused on the matters how to increase the sales and decrease the expenditures, so they viewed the leaving of employees as healthy and allowed. That was why they did not take timely measures for the system of expenditure of employee bonus shares. By 2010, due to the economic climate recovery, the sales of each company turned better and the companies started to plan the new reward mechanism to induce and keep those elites in house. 2. Those responsive measures only focused on the adjustment of the employee reward system, but other human resources practices did not change too much. Those respondents emphasized largely in the adjustment of the salary structure or other new design of the reward system; however, they did nothing to the side of the human resources. 3. The number of transfer is expected to increase largely in 2010. Because the economic climate and the income of each company are getting better, the respondents all anticipated they will be impacted by the increasing turnover rate of their employees. Similarly, recruiting talents from other corporations would get intense and the employees would start to search the opportunity to serve in other company. In addition, the human resources would leap over from one industry to another, because the incentive of the employee bonus shares in high-tech industry disappeared. As result, the high-tech industry may not be the first priority for a job. The brand power of the company, the operating status, the vision of the future, and even the individual growth for the employees could be the major indicators for a job. To sum up, from the case studies in regard to the human resources practices in Taiwan¡¦s high-tech industry, we could find the system of expenditure of employee bonus shares did not bring the severe change to the human resources in Taiwan¡¦s high-tech industry. In fact, the hugest influence is that the high-tech industry is not so attractive as before anymore. In the future, competing for the human resources would not only limit to the high-tech industry, because other outstanding corporations from various industries and the foreign companies may lead to the flow of those elites moving between industries.

La tesi di dottorato indaga l'evoluzione del mito di Elettra dalla fine dell'Ottocento ai giorni nostri, attraverso una prospettiva prevalentemente drammaturgica, ma con attenzione anche verso la letteratura e il cinema: l'idea che domina la ricerca è quella di osservare le relazioni fra questa vicenda e, in particolare, questo personaggio, e il periodo storico in cui vengono rielaborate le sue riscritture, al fine di porre in rilievo la metastoricità del mito e le sue relazioni con l'antropologia e la psicologia. Il percorso prende in esame, complessivamente, trentacinque testi, tre pellicole cinematografiche e vari riferimenti culturali tesi a scoprire, almeno in parte, la funzione del mito nella contemporaneità. / The doctor degree thesis investigates the Elektra's myth evolution from the last years of the nineteenth century to our times, through a dramatic perspective, but also taking heed of literature and cinema: the prevailing idea of the research is observing the relationships between this myth and, above all, Elektra's character, and the historical period of re-writing. The analysis is on 35 texts, 3 films and many others cultural references to discover Elektra in the contemporaneity.

Despite economic difficulties, the emphasis on and investment in teacher professional development (PD) across the world continues, as countries strive to improve educational standards to compete in a globalised knowledge economy. However, researchers have little evidence of its impact on teachers’ professional practice. While it is acknowledged that PD needs to be assessed and evaluated, there is little guidance as to how this might be achieved. Much focus is on short-term impact, with longer-term impact often ignored despite sustainability of practices being highlighted as critical for school improvement. This study set out to explore the impact of a collaborative PD initiative on teachers’ professional practice in five urban disadvantaged primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. A qualitative approach was used to explore shortterm and longer-term impact, along with factors that helped or hindered the development and sustainability of the PD practice. The literature review revealed gaps in existing frameworks for evaluation, resulting in the development of a ‘Professional Development Impact Evaluation Framework’ which is presented in the thesis. It demonstrates how the framework was both developed from extant literature and critiqued through application, and discusses its potential for evaluating the impact of a range of PD activities and answering the call for accountability in these straitened times. Findings revealed a PD legacy that resulted not only in practices being sustained, but demonstrating a PD multiplier, where the impact of the collaborative PD initiative extended beyond the initiative itself to include many changes, even at a cultural level. Given the significance of the PD multiplier, this study suggests that PD facilitators support such cultural changes on a larger scale in schools. A significant feature of change is the teacher as a change-agent, and this study proposes a number of typologies of teacher engagement which may have some implications for teacher PD. Impacting on these typologies were three key elements that contributed to ii teachers’ professional learning and which reflect a developing notion of agentic teacher professionalism: bottom-up approaches with top-down support; autonomy and professional trust; and collaborative practices and collective responsibility.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Baylor University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 152-155).