Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão do Conhecimento / Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-23T13:46:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 236511.pdf: 1485017 bytes, checksum: eab13a5338e53f812d3ee14b6af56bc3 (MD5) / Com o advento de uma economia baseada em conhecimento, os trabalhadores passam a ter maior liberdade e mobilidade tornando-se os próprios donos do novo capital. Nessa nova realidade, o tempo médio que um trabalhador do conhecimento fica em um emprego está diminuindo e, consequentemente, a taxa de rotatividade em vários setores está se elevando. Desse modo, o desafio para as organizações é maximizar o tempo que esses trabalhadores do conhecimento permanecem em suas organizações, sendo este, um dos desígnios da gestão do conhecimento. A gestão do conhecimento busca aproveitar o conhecimento dos funcionários e da própria organização enquanto ela realiza negócios, produz produtos, utiliza e cria seus processos e inova novos produtos e serviços. Um aspecto relevante da gestão do conhecimento é que a mesma amplia as possibilidades da organização, uma vez que se pode utilizar a memória da mesma, a qual tem por finalidade melhorar o desempenho organizacional através do gerenciamento eficaz do conhecimento, não sendo somente um arquivo de informações, mas principalmente uma ferramenta para gerenciar seus ativos intelectuais. Assim, a memória organizacional deve ser utilizada para compartilhar o conhecimento dos membros e da organização, a fim de executar as tarefas no tempo certo e com base nas experiências dos seus trabalhadores e da organização. Nesse contexto, a presente pesquisa tem como objetivo verificar a influência dos conhecimentos individuais na memória organizacional do call center da Celesc, a partir da percepção de seus operadores. Para tanto foram aplicados questionários com foco nas oportunidades individuais que os funcionários possuem para efetuar mudanças nos componentes da memória organizacional. A análise dos resultados permitiu afirmar que os entrevistados acreditam que os seus conhecimentos são compartilhados com os colegas; que suas experiências são capturadas ou registradas de alguma forma pela empresa; que possuem oportunidades de alterar, atualizar ou melhorar os componentes da memória organizacional; bem como, na respectiva empresa existe uma cultura que incentiva o compartilhamento do conhecimento. Finalmente, pode-se afirmar que a pesquisa mostrou que uma alta taxa de rotatividade pode ter influências nos componentes da memória organizacional.

Long calls are highly stereotyped calls used by primates to communicate across distances; the function of these calls has been debated. Goustard (1983:405) defines them as " ... an extended utterance which has a high degree of structural organization." Habitat structure has been considered a shaping force of the acoustic structure of nonhuman primate long calls as part of the local adaptation hypothesis (Brown et al. 1995). This study examines the effect of phylogeny, habitat density, diet, and social and mating systems as seen through the structure of the fundamental frequency (the lowest frequency of the call; Rogers 2000; Ey, Pfefferle, and Fischer 2007). Results of ANOVA and post hoc tests indicate there are both phylogenetic and habitat-related influences in the acoustic structure of the first phrase (first part of the long call separated from the next by a discrete break). Dietary preferences and social and mating systems are also correlated with acoustic structure.

In recent decades, technology has played a significant role in English language teaching. Current Indonesian policies in education encourage teachers to integrate technology into teaching and learning activities to bolster the effectiveness and efficiency of their teaching practice (Ministry of National Education Indonesia, 2013). Previous studies found that various technology-based pedagogies yielded rewarding results for learners’ language skills in Indonesia, yet teachers report a lack of skills and knowledge necessary for CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) integration (Cahyani & Cahyono, 2012; Ridwan, 2017). There are, however, limited studies examining teachers’ readiness and skills to implement technology use in their classroom instructions. Therefore, the present study investigates teachers’ technological skills to implement CALL-based English as Foreign Language (EFL) instructions, particularly in Maluku, Indonesia using the TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge) Framework (Koehler & Mishra, 2006). EFL high school teachers (N=43) from Maluku, Indonesia participated in the study. The data were collected using an online TPACK survey (Schmidt et al, 2009; Sahin, 2011) and follow-up interviews (Nila, 2013). The teachers showed interest and awareness of the use of technology to facilitate efficient and effective EFL instruction. The majority of participants demonstrated their perceived understanding of utilizing and combining technology with their pedagogical practices. Further, the interviews uncovered the fact that a handful of technology tools were already employed to improve students’ practice of English inside and beyond classrooms. These findings shed light on the reality that Indonesian EFL teachers are prepared to enact CALL. Nevertheless, participants encountered challenges for effective enactment of CALL-based EFL instruction such as a lack of CALL training and accessible technology to facilitate learning. The findings then suggest a need for training modules for technology incorporation in ELT, quality school facilities, and assistance in developing technology based EFL teaching.

This study examines the tone of management disclosures and their impact on capital markets. In particular, I examine the positive and negative tone, as defined by the Harvard IV-4 Dictionary, during conference calls and the impact on analyst accuracy, dispersion of analysts' estimates, cumulative abnormal returns, abnormal trading volumes, and the number of days after the end of the quarter. Results indicate that pessimism is significantly related to decreased analyst accuracy. A one percent increase in the pessimism of a conference call results in a decrease in analyst accuracy by approximately 10%. In addition, an increase in pessimism is associated with an increase in the dispersion of analysts' estimates. Pessimism is related to negative abnormal returns in the 30 days after the end of the conference call and also to increased trading volume in the three days after the conference call. A one percent increase in the pessimism of a conference call is related to a negative abnormal return of approximately .4%. These findings are consistent with the theory that the positive and negative tone of a conference call provides incremental information to the capital markets. I am unable to find significant results for an increase in the number of days between the end of the quarter and the conference call date. These results are robust to using a more financially oriented dictionary created by Loughran and McDonald (2011) / Ph. D.

No description available.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Business Administration in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2014 / Call centres have become an important source for organisations to provide efficient information to their customers through cost-effective communication channels. Call centres are defined as a work environment in which the main business is mediated by computer- and telephone-based technologies that allow the effective distribution of incoming calls to available staff, and permit customer–employee communication simultaneously with the use of display screen equipment (DSE) and instant access to information. Working in a call centre is often linked with high stress levels, difficult customers, shift work, high workload demand, absenteeism and high employee turnover rates. The work characteristics of call centres include performance targets where employees are required to achieve set targets, undergo close performance monitoring, performance appraisal systems, limited task variation, repetitive work and limited autonomy. The physical environment in the call centre is often associated with open-plan office layouts and booths where noise levels and workstations are positioned in close proximity to each other. Wellbeing in call centres has become a concern and the research was undertaken to establish what effects the working environment (physical environment and job characteristics) in call centres in the Cape Metropole has on the wellbeing of call centre agents. A quantitative research method was employed in the study. A structured questionnaire was distributed via SurveyMonkey® to call centre agents from four participating call centres in the Cape Metropole. The combined target population of the four call centres was 760. A sample size of 200 was determined by using the Raosoft Incorporated® calculation tool. Although the aforesaid sample size sufficed, a response rate of 275 was received. Questions relating to job characteristics and significance of the work were based on the Job Diagnostic Survey by Hackman and Oldham. Social support questions were based on the instrument developed by Caplan, Cobb, French, Van Harrison & Pinneau in 1975. Job demand questions were based on the instrument developed by Karasek in 1979, and only the section on job demand was used. Performance monitoring and physical work environment were measured by using the questions based on these variables by Sprigg et al in 2003. Emotional wellbeing questions relating to burnout were measured using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory. The wellbeing questions relating to vocal health, optical health and auditory health were based on the questionnaires developed by Sprigg et al. in 2003. General health was measured using the “Somatic Complaints” section of the NIOSH Generic Job Stress Questionnaire. Musculoskeletal health problems were measured using the Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ) developed by Hedge in 1994. Research question 1 addressed the gender perceptions of job characteristics, physical work environment and emotional and physical wellbeing. A T-test was conducted to answer the research question and the results revealed that there was no significant difference in gender perception on job characteristics; however there was a significant difference in perception of the physical work environment and wellbeing. Research question 2 addressed whether there is a significant difference in emotional and physical wellbeing experienced by call centre agents from various industries. A MANOVA analysis was conducted to determine the significance in industries, p = .015, and an ANOVA analysis was conducted that revealed agents working in the online retail as well as financial service industries were more likely to experience disengagement, p = .035. Research question 3 addressed the factors in the workplace environment that contribute to emotional and physical wellbeing problems. An ANOVA analysis was conducted and the results revealed lack of skills variety, p = .014, contributes to exhaustion; lack of autonomy, p = .040, contributes to disengagement; lack of supervisor support, p = .009, contributes to exhaustion, job demands, p = .000, contribute to exhaustion, performance monitoring, p = .036, contributes to exhaustion; and workstation layout, p = .001, contributes to auditory health problems. Research question 4 addressed whether there is a significant relationship between job characteristics, physical work environment and wellbeing. A Pearson correlation analysis was conducted and the results revealed that there is a significant relationship between job characteristics, physical work environment, and wellbeing. It can be concluded that the workplace environment does have an impact on the wellbeing of call centre agents in the Cape Metropole. It is imperative that the management of call centres understand the nature of the job and how the physical environment contributes to job stress; burnout; vocal, auditory, and optical health problems; and musculoskeletal disorders. The researcher recognises that there are essential job characteristics associated with call centre work but that there are elements of the job that can be redesigned to improve the wellbeing of call centre agents. It is recommended that management implement interventions which will redesign those elements within the workplace environment that contribute to wellbeing issues. The findings of this study add to existing literature and knowledge of the workplace environment and wellbeing of call centre agents.

High-commitment call-centers kännetecknas av investeringar i HR-praktiker såsom utbildning, vilka kräver transfer till arbetet för att generera avkastning på investeringen. Studien ämnade undersöka hur demografiska profiler relaterar till transfereffekter, self-efficacy och prestation. Den ämnade även undersöka vikten av antal utbildningstillfällen för self-efficacy och prestation samt faktorer som hindrar/faciliterar transfer. En multi-methods sequential explanatory design användes, där två studier genom-fördes på ett svenskt call-center som utförde en utbildningsinsats. I studie 1 samlades data in med en enkät (n = 51) och i studie 2 genomfördes intervjuer (n = 6). I studie 1 identifierades tre kluster med skilda demo-grafiska bakgrunder, bl.a. ålder och utbildningsnivå. En signifikant skillnad i transfer återfanns dem emellan. Neutral transfer återfanns och self-efficacy var högst hos deltagare som slutfört utbildningen. I studie 2 framkom att det upplevdes viktigt att utbildningens nytta var tydlig och att ett neutralt transferklimat rådde. Studierna antyder att hänsyn bör tas till det övergripande transfersystemet tillsammans med individen för att bäst facilitera transfer.

Throughout the long history of the library, there have been many examples of methodical approaches to creating techniques, tools and knowledge that contribute to creating the library profession as we know it today. Collection arrangement and book labelling represent skills that are built into the very foundations of librarianship.With the opening of each new library, with collection merging or moving, or when building open access to a collection from scratch, librarians continue to question the methods they inherited. Librarians have to have a good understanding of the details and functions of book labelling in order to make an informed decision on how much of the work required for book labelling and re-shelving can be saved or replaced by other methods of locating and presenting documents.

Today, graphs are used for many things. In engineering, graphs are used to design circuits in very large scale integration. In computer science, graphs are used in the representation of the structure of software. They show information such as the flow of data through the program (known as the data flow graph [1]) or the information about the calling sequence of programs (known as the call graph [145]). These graphs consist of many classes of graphs and may occupy a large area and involve a large number of vertices and edges. The manual layout of graphs is a tedious and error prone task. Algorithms for graph layout exist but tend to only produce a 'good' layout when they are applied to specific classes of small graphs. In this thesis, research is presented into a new automatic graph layout technique. Within many graphs, common structures exist. These are structures that produce 'good' layouts that are instantly recognisable and, when combined, can be used to improve the layout of the graphs. In this thesis common structures are given that are present in call graphs. A method of using subgraph isomorphism to detect these common structures is also presented. The method is known as the ANHOF method. This method is implemented in the ANHOF system, and is used to improve the layout of call graphs. The resulting layouts are an improvement over layouts from other algorithms because these common structures are evident and the number of edge crossings, clusters and aspect ratio are improved.

Though knowledge has become an increasingly important resource for modern businesses, it was not until the mid-1990's that the 'knowledge management' research stream emerged in the business and information systems literature. Initial research on how to manage knowledge came from an objectivist epistemology of knowledge that viewed it as something that was capable of captured, stored and transferred via information to increase organisational efficiency. This study is grounded in a more recent and alternative perspective that takes a practice based epistemology seeing knowledge as embedded in and inseparable from practice. The practices of interest relate to how knowledge work is performed in environments where there is heavy reliance on information systems. Using an interpretive case study this research analyses the practices of a product support centre of a US multinational. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and internal documentation, including access to the firms „knowledge management‟ repository. Two central practices were examined: how product support engineers made sense of problems to develop fix procedures and how these were subsequently documented. Even within a work environment where client fixes were verifiable, suggesting an objectivist epistemology, this research found that the practice based perspective could be used to provide a different perspective and develop alternative and useful insights. The study contributes to the practice based perspective on knowledge management by providing an analysis of context specific knowledge work practices by analysing how even in procedural repetitive work agency can be exhibited as actors enact practices. It also helps develop the application of Structuration Theory by aiding an understanding of how meanings, norms and resources are developed, drawn upon, conflict, and are changed as everyday work is accomplished. The study is of relevance by providing an understanding of informal knowledge work practices rather than their formal description.