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<p>This dissertation addresses the issue of user adoption of interface agents for electronic mail (email). Interface agents are reactive, continuous, collaborative, and autonomous software entities that act on a user's behalf by communicating directly with a person offering assistance and advice in performing computer-related activities. The study presents and empirically validates a model that describes user adoption behavior, offers insights on important features of this technology from the end-user perspective, reports on critical incidents of agent usage, and offers recommendations for developers and marketers.</p> <p>As means of investigating this phenomenon, a survey of actual users of an interface agent-based email system was conducted. Emphasis was placed on identifying user needs and key factors that influence their adoption decisions. Data analysis involved quantitative and qualitative techniques (Partial Least Squares, descriptive statistics, classical content analysis). An extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model was introduced and tested, and the user context surrounding email agent adoption was explored. Survey findings suggest that existing management information systems and social sciences theories, models, and methodologies may be fruitfully applied to investigate user adoption of novel interface agent technologies.</p> <p>By combining and synthesizing results of a deductive and inductive analysis of the survey data, a new, grand model of interface agents adoption and use is suggested that is the central contribution of this research. According to this model, in voluntarily usage conditions, two general types of factors influence user adoption behavior - user perceptions and agent operability. User perceptions are either positive or negative mental reflections of several properties of an agent, such as perceived enjoyment, usefulness, ease of use, intrusiveness, and attractiveness. Agent operability embraces factors pertaining to operational characteristics of an agent, such as compatibility, system interference, reliability, and personalization.</p> <p>Findings also suggest that to foster the diffusion of highly useful agent systems, developers and marketers need to become aware of the importance of individual user characteristics, enhance their understanding of factors influencing people's adoption decisions, and demonstrate the functionality of interface agents through non-agent technologies.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>While dispositional antecedents to organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) have been established, scant attention has been given to the interpersonal and attitudinal processes that may mediate the effects of personality on OCB. Similarly, we know little with respect to the influence of supervisor and subordinate personality on leader-member-change quality (LMX). In this study, a path analytic model was developed and tested in which the effects of leader and follower personality attributes on LMX quality were hypothesized to be mediated through cognitive (role ambiguity), perceptual (perceived similarity), and affective (subordinate affect toward supervisor) variables. The model also positions LMX as mediating the effects of these cognitive, perceptual, and affective variables on job satisfaction and OCB. Structural Equation Modeling supported the hypothesized model. Results were consistent with both affective and role definition process explanations for LMX development. There was particularly strong support for the role of follower affect in mediating the influence of LMX on OCB. The theoretical and applied significance of these findings are discussed.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This thesis investigated how Chief Executive Officers' (CEOs) commitment to managing diversity and perceptions of that commitment affect actual diversity practices and outcomes in organizations. Data were collected in a field survey from 196 Canadian organizations covered under the federal employment equity programs. The results indicate that CEOs' personal attributes such as individual values, cognition about diversity, and leadership styles affect their commitment to managing diversity. Moreover, subordinates' perceptions ofCEOs' commitment were more important than CEOs' self-reported commitment in predicting actual diversity practices and outcomes. CEOs' commitment to diversity also accounted for more explained variance in the adoption of diversity management than environmental factors, suggesting that the environment is limited in determining organizational diversity practices. This thesis concluded that although there are strong institutional pressures to implement employment equity, organizational decision makers exercise strategic choice in the way they respond to these pressures.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular, having already reached over 1.5 billion mobile subscribers. Such mobile devices propose increasing value to consumers found in "anytime/anywhere" connectivity, communication, and data services. Although progress has been made in terms of technological innovations, many mobile applications remain difficult to use, lack flexibility and robustness. Some key usability challenges facing m-Business (mobile business) applications include limited screen size and quality, limited input methods and navigation difficulties. Additionally, the mobile user has to share his or her attention between the application and the surrounding environment (e.g. visual and/or auditory stimuli). Furthermore, the user's state and personal characteristics (e.g. age, motion) may be key factors in their ability to use a mobile device. This context (i.e. technology, task, environment, and user characteristics) of use may have a significant impact on the usability of such devices.</p> <p>This dissertation aims to support the claim that context impacts the usability of mobile devices, and in doing so it attempts to answer the following research questions: 1) What is the impact of distractions on the usability of mobile devices for wireless data services? 2) Does Expectancy-Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) help to explain the user's evaluative process of usability with a mobile device for wireless data services? 3) What is the impact of usability on consumers' behavioural intention towards using mobile devices for wireless data services? 4) Which factors become relevant when studying usability within a context of use?</p> <p>Based on existing research, a framework is proposed and a research model is developed. An empirical study is performed to validate the model and answer the research questions outlined. To simulate a real-world setting where the context of using a mobile device is constantly changing, a laboratory experiment (2x2 factorial design) was performed involving 93 subjects. Distractions were simulated in this study in the form of either user motion or environmental noise (i.e. background auditory and visual stimuli). A structural equation modelling analysis confirmed the impacts of distractions on perceived usability (i.e. efficiency and effectiveness) of, and in turn the users' behavioural intention to use, a mobile device for wireless data services. The applicability of the Expectancy-Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) in explaining a mobile user's evaluative process of usability was also explored and was found moderately significant in explaining the impact of user expectations of perceived performance.</p> <p>This dissertation contributes to theory and enhances our understanding of usable mobile devices for wireless data services. Implications for practice with respect to both interface design for mobile devices and marketing of mobile services are also presented.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The aims of this study are three fold: (1) to identify the trait profiles (combination of personality attributes and cognitive ability) of effective team members, (2) to identify those behaviours linking personality attributes to effective team performance and (3) to identify those behaviours linking cognitive ability to effective team performance. The primary contribution of this study is in meeting the last two objectives. Ultimately, the objective was to relate team members' personality and cognitive ability to the team's performance by better understanding the intervening (in)effective behaviours. Subjects were 480 second year undergraduate business students in 94 teams of 5 to 6 members. Teams can be examined at two levels -- at the level of the individual team member and at the level of the team (by combining individual team member attribute information and relating it to team performance). At the level of the individual team member, three of the Big Five personality traits -- extroversion, conscientiousness and cognitive ability -- predict the effectiveness of team members. However, team members who are very high in extroversion tend to be unfocused and this is detrimental to their performance. At the team level of analysis, the greater the proportion of team members high in cognitive ability, conscientiousness, extroversion and openness to experience the better a team performs. Using findings from the two levels, it is suggested that human resource practitioners select team members who are in the top one-third of the population in openness to experience and conscientiousness. They should select extroverts with percentile ranking between 66% and 93%. Lastly, they should seek people high in cognitive ability. Team members engage in specific (in)effective behaviours. These behaviours were grouped and a typology emerged that was confirmed through Confirmatory Factor Analysis and builds on previous typologies. The identification of these behaviours is essential to training people to become more effective team contributors. Generally, neurotic team members are unfocused, ineffective in conflict situations and provide the team with little input. Extroverts are active members but tend to be unfocused. Members open to experience generate ideas, encourage others to express ideas and synthesize and summarize team ideas. Agreeable team members communicate effectively, avert conflict and ensure everyone participates. Conscientious team members focus on task-related behaviours -- set goals, get everyone working towards the goals and monitor progress. Team members high in cognitive ability not only take on task-related behaviour but are also socially adept.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>A number of studies have established that women in managerial positions are more likely to be participative (involving subordinates in their decision-making) than their male counterparts. The present research was designed to address the question of whether certain antecedent conditions--in particular, features of organizational culture--affect the degree to which women and men differ in participative behaviour. This question is important for several reasons: scientific understanding (since gender-based differences, especially behavioural ones, are little understood), development of organizational theory, and greater understanding for practitioners of how participative managerial styles can be fostered. The research design is a field study, utilizing a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures. While this design created a number of constraints, I believe that it was useful in terms of trustworthiness of the findings. The naturalistic setting and the opportunity to triangulate the findings were among the advantages of the research design; disadvantages included a necessarily small sample size, and purposive sampling limited by the ability and willingness of organizational gatekeepers and members to take part in the research. The central focus of investigation was whether and how organizational culture influences participative behaviour for women managers. The initial model proposed that in traditional organizations, gender salience is heightened for women in managerial roles because of their scarcity and because managerial stereotypes tend to involve traits generally perceived (in North American culture) as masculine. Findings showed that heightened gender salience accounted for at least part of the observed gender difference in participative behaviour. The findings of the research at first seemed paradoxical, since the organization which was the least traditional (i.e., the most woman-friendly in its policies) was also the one in which gender salience seemed to be high compared to the rest of the sample. This finding led to a modification of the original model to a more complex, time-dependent understanding of the process under study.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>A sequencing problem involves finding a sequence in which to process a set of jobs that minimizes a given cost function. The primary difficulty with such problems is that as the number of jobs increases the number of sequences grows astronomically large, and the problems become intractable. Pairwise job interchange is one of the most commonly used solution techniques for sequencing problems. It compares the cost of sequences that differ only in the interchange of two jobs. In this way the cost function indicates a preference for the ordering of certain pairs of jobs such that if a pair of jobs is not in preference order, then the jobs can be interchanged with no increase in cost. The traditional method of pairwise job interchange assumes that either there are no intermediate jobs (adjacent pairwise interchange ) or that an interchange can be performed no matter what the intermediate jobs are (nonadjacent pairwise interchange ). In this thesis we introduce a generalization that permits the pairwise interchange of a pair of jobs provided that the intermediate jobs belong to a restricted subset of jobs (subset -restricted pairwise interchange ). We use subset-restricted pairwise interchange to derive a dominance order on the jobs. This is a partial ordering of the jobs that consists of pairs whose relative order can be fixed in an optimal sequence. The search space can then be reduced to consist of only those sequences that satisfy the relative job orderings in the dominance order. We apply this technique to certain one- and two-machine sequencing problems, and show that the use of our dominance orders significantly reduces the computation time necessary to solve these problems.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Lot streaming is the process of splitting a job or lot to allow overlapping between successive operations in a multistage system. The use of transfer lots usually results in a shorter makespan and lower work-in-process inventory than without it.</p> <p>In the thesis, we first study the discrete version of schedules which minimize the makespan for a single job in two- and three- machine flow shops. The optimal solution on s sublots can be obtained in O(s) time for the two-machine problem. We also present the first polynomial time solution for the three-machine problem. Two very good quality approximations for the discrete lot streaming solution in m-machine flow shops are also presented.</p> <p>Other topics studied are the effect of setups (either detached or attached) on continuous lot streaming for three-machine flow shops. We show that, in most cases, the optimal schedule and its structure change substantially in comparison with the no setup case. In the presence of either detached or attached setups, the three-machine flow shop problem on s sublots can be solved in O(s) time.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This study investigated the conceptual distinctiveness and causal links (based on Randall and Cote's (1991) model) between organizational commitment (OC), occupational commitment (OcC), job involvement (JI), work involvement (WI), and intentions to withdraw from the organization and from the occupation. The process involved exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses which supported the distinctiveness of the constructs. Results suggest that WI affects both OC and OcC indirectly through its effect on JI. Furthermore, JI affects intention to leave the organization indirectly through its effect on OC, and affects intention to leave the occupation indirectly through its effect on OcC. Analyses also suggest that OC and OcC have direct and indirect effects on both forms of withdrawal intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)