Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Although registered nurses have a plethora of information sources available to assist them in making clinical decisions, how this information informs such decisions is not well understood. Through the work undertaken in this thesis a deeper understanding of information use in clinical practice is developed. Information use in clinical uncertainty is explored, specifically in the context of making decisions about enteral feeding practices within critical care environments. Instrumental case studies were used to access the information use processes of registered nurses working in an intensive care unit. Two case sites (a Level III intensive care unit in metropolitan teaching hospital and a Level II intensive care unit in a district hospital) were selected for the purpose of theoretical replication. Data were collected to inform specific issues. Concurrent verbal protocols (think aloud), observation and retrospective probing were used to explore documented clinical decisions and the information used to inform those decisions. Q sorting was used to determine the accessibility and usefulness of information available to participants and focus groups were used to explore senior nurse clinician’s perceptions of the authority of the identified information sources. A synthesis of findings from the two case sites highlighted three key issues. First, natural testimony (the use of personal communication to obtain information) was privileged over other, more formal sources of information however the veracity of the information obtained through natural testimony was not explicitly assessed. Registered nurses relied on the credibility of the person providing the information, leaving the information itself unchallenged. The clear reliance on information accessed through natural testimony, but the evident lack of critical evaluation of information obtained in this way, indicates a need for the development of strategies for the critical assessment of the accuracy of this clinical information. Second, the findings highlighted nurses’ use of clinical inquiry. Nurses used clinical inquiry to resolve clinical uncertainty as well as for logistic reasons. Participant’s use of inquiry was influenced by their approach to work, the impact of both organisational and personal perspectives on the perceived value of their work; and by models of clinical leadership where an investment in relational capital was considered a strategy to positively influence a culture of inquiry. Although organisational documents which are designed to ensure quality and consistency of patient care as required by current clinical governance strategies were considered useful, these document were not widely used as a primary source of information. The use of organisational documents, as well as the need to practice in concert with such documents, was identified as a factor negatively impacting on the development and support of nurses’ use of clinical inquiry. Third, findings addressed the usefulness of information for clinical decisions and the resolution of clinical uncertainty. The usefulness of information was influenced by its relevance to a clinical question or information deficit, and by the media used to convey the information. In general, print based media was considered more useful than other forms such as electronic documents. While original research was not considered useful, nurses valued research-based practice and responded positively to incorporating research into practice, particularly if research was pre-appraised by colleagues who were able to disseminate research findings to the clinical area and facilitate its use in clinical practice. This case study indicates that information use is less about individuals and the clinical context in which they are making decisions, and more about the social, cultural and organisational influences that shape decision making, and the information selected to support those decisions. The preference for natural testimony as information in decision making may, on first consideration, be viewed as undesirable in a work context that relies on accurate and consistent documentation. Determining the credibility of the information provider and the accuracy of the information itself is also challenging in an environment where this type of information and the approach to accessing it is selected for its ease of accessibility and the speed at which it can be applied. Yet, the pervasiveness with which nurses rely on others for information suggests verbal testimony is important in the context of clinical practice and highlights the need to develop a clearer understanding of why nurses privilege this information. Therefore verbal testimony must be considered carefully as a strategy for providing information, particularly research-based information and this study therefore highlights the need to develop strategies that enable those providing information to convey their expertise as a clinician as well as a user and provider of information. The organisational culture and work structures currently in place in Australia are unlikely to undergo significant change in the coming years, therefore their impact on information use warrants careful consideration. The nursing profession and the higher education sector aim to foster through inquiry, the independent, evidence-based practice of registered nurses. Health care organisations also highly value independent, evidence-based practice but also promote patient safety through use of current clinical governance strategies. While these two goals can be complimentary they also create tension when clinical governance strategies stifle inquiry and independent decision making of registered nurses. Ultimately, the current health care system in Australia and the wider community expect an evidence base for practice together with clinical governance strategies that promote safe practice. Nurses, as part, of this system must be accountable for both in the context of their clinical practice. We therefore need with some urgency to determine how to best balance these complementary and simultaneously competing ideals.

The focus of this research was Year 12 student leadership in three Catholic schools. Pivotal to the thesis were the leadership experiences and self-perceptions of the schools’ Year 12 students. Two theoretical propositions underscored the study: all Year 12 students are called to some form of leadership within their school; and schools should strive to build a leadership culture inclusive of all Year 12 students. The review of the literature drew attention to three themes which formed the conceptual framework underpinning the research, namely organisational leadership, Christian leadership and its meaning for the Catholic School, and student leadership. In the light of the review it seemed appropriate that the conduct of the study should be predominantly qualitative, interpretive, and planned around collective case study. For each of the three case study schools, data collection took the form of a document search, an interview with a key informant staff member, a Year 12 student survey questionnaire utilising both qualitative and quantitative questions, and two Year 12 student focus group interviews. The “general analytic strategy” (Yin, 1994, p. 30) employed in this research was to follow the theoretical propositions underlying this study which, in turn, reflected a set of seven research questions. Findings from the study indicated that there was a strong belief among senior students from the three schools that every Year 12 student should have the opportunity to participate in leadership. Furthermore, students saw leadership as entailing duty, a sense of service, as well as involvement with younger students. Students also highlighted a range of benefits associated with leadership participation, as well as certain pressures, notably the need to balance study commitments with leadership responsibilities, and the demands of having to be a role model “all the time”.

Despite the rapid growth in the provision of tourism higher education in the past 40 years, uncertainties remain about the content and nature of tourism degrees and how these are aligned with the needs of the tourism industry. Some research has been done on tourism higher education curriculum design, but the extent to which tourism higher education meets industry needs has not yet been closely investigated. This study aims to ascertain whether a gap exists between what education institutions provide in their undergraduate curricula in the way of tourism knowledge and skills sets, and what knowledge and skills sets are required by the tourism industry. A conceptual framework was developed to outline the research process, which involved two steps. First, content analysis of tourism curricula was conducted as the preliminary research. A list of 34 subject areas was synthesised from all core subjects offered in tourism courses in a sample of Australian universities according to subjects? titles, themes and detailed descriptions. A list of 27 skills and abilities was identified by collating university generic skills and tourism discipline attributes from these institutions. Based on the study of tourism curricula, two web-based surveys were then designed and distributed in order to investigate the respective perceptions of industry professionals and academic providers on the subjects and skills sets necessary for tourism employment. In analysing the data, perceptions about the subjects and skills sets were compared between tourism industry professionals and academic providers. Importance- performance analysis, gap analysis, and SPSS statistical tools were applied to analyse this data. The study found considerable variance between the views of industry professionals and academic providers in Australia. Their views vary firstly on the relative value of tertiary degrees for tourism professionals; secondly, on the relative merits of skills and abilities needed to work in the tourism sector; and thirdly, on the relative merits of various subjects taught at university. These findings establish the existence of a gap between the existing tourism curriculum at university level, and the needs of the tourism industry. The findings of this study also provide evidence to suggest that tourism higher education provision should not be isolated from real practice and that those involved in curriculum design should work closely with industry representatives to ensure a strong connection between theory and practice, thus improving the likelihood that graduates of tourism higher education courses will graduate with knowledge and skills sets which are closely aligned with the needs and expectations of the tourism industry

This thesis presents a case study of the drink drive initiatives, including marketing communications, legislation and enforcement practices implemented in the state of Victoria (Australia) between 1989-2000. It has been argued that the 51% reduction in road toll was related to these initiatives. In order to explore the veracity of these claims, a holistic case study approach was adopted. In addition to an examination of the communications tactics and extant practices of enforcement agencies, the study involved interviews with two distinct groups: professionals in various fields pertaining to road safety, and members of the general Victorian driving community. The focus of this work was on the advertising and communications campaigns that were run by the Transport Accident Commission from 1989-2000; however the policy and enforcement initiatives were also examined in terms of their potential impact on the lowering of the road toll. Suggestions for the improvement of policy and communication strategies within a social marketing context are made.

This research investigates the role of strategic alignment in the success of data warehouse implementation. Data warehouse technology is inherently complex, requires significant capital investment and development time. Many organizations fail to realize the full benefits from it. While failure to realize benefits has been attributed to numerous causes, ranging from technical to organizational reasons, the underlying strategic alignment issues have not been studied. This research confirms, through two case studies, that the successful adoption of the data warehouse depends on its alignment to the business plans and strategy. The research found that the factors that are critical to the alignment of data warehouses to business strategy and plans are (a) joint responsibility between data warehouse and business managers, (b) alignment between data warehouse plan and business plan, (c) business user satisfaction, (d) flexibility in data warehouse planning and (e) technical integration of the data warehouse. In the case studies, the impact of strategic alignment was visible both at implementation and use levels. The key findings from the case studies are that a) Senior management commitment and involvement are necessary for the initiation of the data warehouse project. The awareness and involvement of data warehouse managers in corporate strategies and a high level of joint responsibility between business and data warehouse managers is critical to strategic alignment and successful adoption of the data warehouse. b) Communication of the strategic direction between the business and data warehouse managers is important for the strategic alignment of the data warehouse. Significant knowledge sharing among the stakeholders and frequent communication between the iv data warehouse managers and users facilitates better understanding of the data warehouse and its successful adoption. c) User participation in the data warehouse project, perceived usefulness of the data warehouse, ease of use and data quality (accuracy, consistency, reliability and timelines) were significant factors in strategic alignment of the data warehouse. d) Technology selection based on its ability to address business and user requirements, and the skills and response of the data warehousing team led to better alignment of the data warehouse to business plans and strategies. e) The flexibility to respond to changes in business needs and flexibility in data warehouse planning is critical to strategic alignment and successful adoption of the data warehouse. Alignment is seen as a process requiring continuous adaptation and coordination of plans and goals. This research provides a pathway for facilitating successful adoption of data warehouse. The model developed in this research allows data warehouse professionals to ensure that their project when implemented, achieve the strategic goals and business objectives of the organization.

For the Australian heritage manager, management of a place is a value-laden enterprise with a vast degree of difference between values. Decisions regarding management of Australian heritage sites require knowledge of the site and the degree of significance that the place holds – whether archaeological, scientific, social, and / or historic. Attitudes towards heritage and its level of importance may be affected by a person’s cultural background. Understanding visitors, including an appreciation of their differing values of importance regarding heritage, is needed so that appropriate management decisions can be implemented. Knowledge of the type(s) of methodology to best ascertain cross-cultural differences appears to be limited. It would appear that methodological guidelines in undertaking cross-cultural research are mostly limited to language translation, conceptual and experiential equivalency, with measurement equivalency the most difficult to achieve between Asian and Western cultures. The investigation concentrated on the countries of Japan and the USA. In terms of both cultural and heritage visitor numbers and greatest expenditure per night, these two countries are amongst Australia’s top four. The USA is comparatively young, only a few hundred years old in regards to its built heritage sites, whereas Japan has a longer history, being a few thousand years old. Control groups in each country were also included so that if any influences from the research sites occurred, the control group would allow a more objective indication of cultural backgrounds. From the results, attitudes towards heritage are influenced by cultural backgrounds. The results indicate that first and foremost, Americans value and place greater importance upon culturally built heritage, whilst the Japanese value and place greater importance upon the intangible – the stories of the place, the people and the social values of the time. From the research, a conceptual and strategic framework for the Australian heritage manager regarding marketing to these two cultural groups is proposed.

<p>Due to the globalization trend, the transformation of Chinese OEM has become a hot topic in the last decades. Although the previous literature suggested that there were many different determinants influencing firms to be successful companies, there is a lack of combination in the context of Chinese OEM. Thus, the purpose of this research study is to find out the approach of Chinese OEMs to successfully launch their own products based on three perspectives - organizational structure, processes and culture.Applying a qualitative approach, the data was gathered through semi-structured telephone interviews with the senior personnel of one Chinese OEM company (Damekiss), complemented with secondary data collected from the company’s and public websites.The results of analysis showed different views of how organizational structure, process and culture influencing on the transformation of Chinese OEM. We found that four functions (i.e. manufacturing, distribution, new product development and human resource management) influenced the transformation of Chinese OEM in organizational structure perspective. Among these functions, human resource management and distribution are extremely weak in the organizational structure of Chinese OEM. Regarding to the process of formulating these functions, the deep understanding of the customers’ preferences and collaboration partners that influenced building distribution were figured out. In the case company, it showed a relative poor ability on distribution which would be the barriers for further developing. Building HRM process was raised as another issue of the transformation of Chinese OEMs. According to the case company, HRM was poorly organized. The recruitment did not get enough attention; the training programs stayed at a lower level. The last not least, the corporate culture was also proven to be playing an important role in the transformation of Chinese OEMs. Awareness of corporate culture as one of significant aspects influencing the entire company was found in the case company. Slogan, company heroes and rituals as an internal culture were properly used to motivate employees.</p>

<p>Syftet med denna studie är att på ta reda på vad en bra hands-on-artefakt för museum är och hur den bör utformas. En kvalitativ fallstudie är gjord på utställningen Sinnrika människan på Naturhistoriska riksmuseet. Empirin har fåtts fram genom korta intervjuer och observation med museibesökare samt djupgående intervjuer med personer insatta i ämnet. Resultatet har sedan både analyserats individuellt och korsanalyserats, efter detta har resultatet kategoriserats. Slutsatsen för studien visade att det är många aspekter som spelar in vid skapandet av en interaktiv station, en av de viktigaste aspekterna är tydlighet om vad syftet med stationen är och hur den utförs.</p> / <p>The purpose with this case study is to find out what a good hands-on-artifact made for museums is and how it should be designed. The study is made at the Marvels of the human body located at the Swedish museum of Natural history. The empirical material has been collected trough short interviews and observations with visitors at the museum and extended interviews with people working in the field. The results have then been analyzed individually but also together, after this the results have been categorized. The conclusion of this study showed that there is a lot of aspect to have in mind when creating interactive stations, one of the most important aspects is distinctiveness about the purpose of the station and how it should be carried out.</p>

<p><strong>Background:</strong> Around the world, markets deregulates, which leads to increased competition. Meetings between the consumer and the employees of a company determine how the customer perceives the company and / or its brand. This has result in that many companies have realized the importance of internal using the same marketing skills that are used externally. In 2009, pharmacy market went from being a monopoly market to be a regulated competitive market.</p><p><strong>Problem:</strong> Is there any internal conditions for a private company, whose culture and structure was formed under a state monopoly, to create a strong corporate brand?</p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The purpose of this paper is to, through a case study, analyze and evaluate the internal marketing in a company which has undergone a change of ownership and retained the same staff.</p><p><strong>Method:</strong> Through interviews with key personnel and staff , data was gathered for the case study, which means that the method is qualitative. Only one of the company's pharmacies has been included in the study.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> The authors of this paper perceive that company has the required internal conditions to create a strong corporate brand, since the company i.e. has taken into consideration the history of the pharmacy staff, the management shows a personal commitment, campaigns are communicated internally, staff and customers consciously or unconsciously may be involved in shaping the content of the corporate brand, and that dialogue exists between staff and management so that management can have an understanding of how staff perceive the company's vision and corporate brand, which in turn leads the company to form a brand that staff can accept and understand because their norms and values has been taken into consideration.</p>

<p>This thesis examines how cultural diversity within an organization might influence managers‟ information-handling process. The models used are; Geert Hofstede‟s five dimensions of national culture, to represent the cultural diversity; and Henry Mintzberg‟s definition of the manager‟s informational roles, to represent the managers‟ information-handling.To show this empirically, a case study of a half-Swedish, half-Vietnamese-owned retail company, UMA Ltd Co, was conducted. This company is situated in Vietnam and employs a range of different nationalities. Interviews were conducted with seven of UMA‟s managers to gain an understanding of their opinions concerning their informational roles, as well as to identify issues and benefits within the company caused by the cultural diversity.The results of the interviews revealed some relevant cultural issues and benefits of working in a culturally diverse company. It was evident through the analysis, in which the cultural dimensions were applied onto the informational roles, that there are a number of problems at UMA in need of repair. For instance, differences in employees‟ perception of the power distance dimension seem to affect how information is spread and gained. This is also caused by the unclear organizational structure of the company, where employees, instead of realizing who they are obliged to answer to, rather follow their culturally given hierarchical system. Further issues caused by the cultural diversity at UMA are presented in the conclusion of this thesis.</p>