Dans le monde des affaires d'aujourd'hui, les besoins des clients changent plus rapidement que jamais et le nombre de concurrents augmente chaque seconde. De plus, la capacité à gérer les changements et l'imprévisibilité sont devenus un facteur crucial pour que les entreprises gagnent en valeur et restent compétitives [Oracle 2013]. Il en résulte que les entreprises sont aujourd'hui confrontées non seulement à la gestion de processus métier structurés, mais également à des processus de plus en plus non structurés. Dans un processus métier structuré commun, tout ce qui concerne le processus peut être prédéterminé au moment de la conception, tel que les activités, la séquence d'exécution des activités, etc. Cependant, dans une structure non structurée, les activités ne peuvent pas être définies précisément au préalable, ainsi que la séquence à exécuter. Pour rester compétitives, répondre aux demandes du marché en constante évolution et améliorer l'efficacité opérationnelle de leurs processus d'affaires, les organisations ont besoin d'une approche de processus novatrice qui peut les aider à gérer les changements, la dynamique et l'imprévisibilité. Dans ce contexte, le concept de Case Management est proposé. Différent du Business Process Management (BPM) qui standardise et automatise les processus métier structurés, CM surmonte les limites de l'approche BPM et fournit une infrastructure pour gérer les changements, la dynamique et l'imprévisibilité dans les processus métier non structurés. Le CM procède en grande partie en fonction de l'évolution des circonstances, et les décisions sont prises à la volée. BPM nécessite un haut niveau de prévisibilité; considérant que le CM a un niveau de prévisibilité moindre mais un niveau d'adaptabilité et de flexibilité plus élevé. Avec l'approche CM, les entreprises sont en mesure de gérer leurs processus métier non structurés de manière plus souple et plus flexible.Cependant, pour ce nouveau domaine, il manque des méthodes de soutien et des outils logiciels. Les principales préoccupations sont: (1) la modélisation de cas (la construction de modéles de cas); (2) la découverte de modèles (l'établissement de modèles de cas à partir de données brutes); (3) l'analyse de modèles (l'analyse de modèles à la fois statiques et dynamiques, par exemple, la dérivation de propriétés avant la mise en place du cas); (4) amélioration du modèle (réduction des coûts, optimisation de la performance opérationnelle, etc.); et (5) la promulgation du modèle (l'exécution d'un scénario avec des case workers dans la boucle). Après un examen approfondi de la littérature, nous avons constaté que seulement quelques efforts ont été faits dans (1) et (5), et aucune contribution notable n'a été faite dans d'autres aspects.Ceci présente notre approche CM qui fournit aux assistants un support complet dans tout le cycle de vie du CM: de l'établissement de modèles de cas à partir de données brutes jusqu'à l'optimisation des modèles de cas. Process Tree est notre choix pour formaliser le modèle découvert, et CMMN (Case Management Model and Notation, une spécification de modèlisation de cas est choisie comme formalisme pour la présentation et la construction de modèles de cas.) En outre, nous adoptons le langage HiLLS. L'analyse de modèle dynamique est permise par le formalisme DEVS, l'analyse de modèle statique est fournie par des méthodes formelles. Quand à la mise en oeuvre de modèle, elle est permise par la mise en ?uvre d'une spécification orientée objet du cas. Nous proposons principalement deux modules: un module concernant la découverte du modèle de cas à partir des historiques d'événements, et un autre module concernant l'amélioration et l'optimisation du modèle de cas. / In today's business world, customer requirements change more rapidly than ever before, and new competitors are increasing every second. Moreover, the ability of managing changes and unpredictability has become a crucial factor for enterprises to make more value and stay competitive [Oracle 2013]. This results in a fact that nowadays enterprises are challenged with not only managing structured business processes, but also more and more unstructured ones. In a common structured business process, everything regarding the process can be predetermined at design time, such as activities, the execution sequence of activities, and so on. However, in an unstructured one the activities cannot be defined precisely beforehand, as well as the sequence to execute. To stay competitive, meet the ever-changing market demands and improve their business process operational efficiency, organizations need a novel process approach that can help them manage changes, dynamics and unpredictability. Under this context, the concept of Case Management is proposed. Different from Business Process Management (BPM) which standardizes and automates structured business processes, CM overcomes the BPM approach limitations and provides an infrastructure for managing changes, dynamics and unpredictability in unstructured business processes. CM proceeds largely depending on evolving circumstances, and decisions are made on the fly. BPM requires a high level of predictability; whereas CM has a lower level of predictability but a higher level of adaptability and flexibility. With CM approach, enterprises are able to manage their unstructured business processes in a more adaptive and flexible manner.However, for this new area it lacks supporting methods and software tools. Major concerns are: (1) case modeling (the construction of case models); (2) model discovery (the establishment of case models from raw data); (3) model analysis (the analysis of models in both static and dynamic manners, e.g., the derivation of properties before the case is enacted); (4) model improvement (the reduction of cost, the optimization of operational performance, etc.); and (5) model enactment (the execution of a case scenario with case workers in the loop). After a thorough literature review we found that only a few efforts have been done in (1) and (5), and no noticeable contribution has been done in other aspects.This these presents our CM approach that provides case workers full supports in the whole lifecycle of CM: from establishing case models from raw data to optimizing case models. Process Tree is our choice to formalize the discovered model, and CMMN (Case Management Model and Notation, a case modeling specification is selected as the formalism for presenting and constructing case models. In addition, we adopt the HiLLS (High Level Language for Systems Specification) formalism to conciliate usability, simulation ability and formal analysis capabilities together. Dynamic model analysis is enabled by DEVS formalism, static model analysis is provided by formal methods, and model enactment is given by the implementation of an object-oriented specification of the case. We propose mainly two modules in this these: one module concerning the discovery of the case model from historical event logs, and another module concerning the improvement and the optimization of the case model.

M.Comm. / Many aspects of the success, or lack of success, of a business can be accurately measured. Revenues, profit and loss, return on assets, share price, price equity ratios, market share, customer satisfaction and many more aspects can be measured and often managed. Apart from the measurable something else is needed: a successful organisational culture. The culture of an organisation is often easier to experience than to describe. The objectives of this study are find a workable definition for culture, tools to measure the culture of groups and leadership skills needed to manage or change the culture of organisations. Various definitions of organisational culture and culture measuring tools are studied. The most promising definition of culture and measuring tools are put to the test in a case study to forni an opinion of the usefulness of such tools for management. Results of this study indicate that the concept culture, as described in the double s cube model, is a very useful tool for managers. It provides a quick and easy entry point to the culture management of an organization. Firstly, the tools that are available to measure culture provide results that could be used to position a company in the double s cube model. Secondly, the results of the culture measurement could be used to formulate and decide on the best course of action when it is necessary to change culture. Culture management is done by manipulating the sociability and solidarity levels in an organisation and by ensuring positive contribution of these elements to business successes. The clear leadership guidelines to achieve this manipulation could be very useful for managers. By using the concept of culture, managers could establish competitive advantages for their businesses. Culture management could be the secret key to open a situation whereby it is possible to improve business performance and at the same time create an environment where people are happy to achieve these goals.

M.Tech. (Operations Management) / The research is about the application of lean manufacturing tool known as manufacturing kaizen in order to improve a work process at . The company is based in Kempton Park, South Africa, used as a case study to evaluate the benefit of manufacturing kaizen at a specific industrial concern. The research demonstrated how manufacturing kaizen when used appropriately can help APSAP PTY LTD to eliminate waste, have better inventory control, short process cycle times, and better overall financial and operational procedures. The goal was to reduce the identified waste using manufacturing kaizen tool. Waste reduction eventually reduced the cycle time of the work process. The primary objective of the thesis was to study and analyze the cylinder preparation process in APSAP PTY LTD. The process activities were captured, then analyzed using the process map. The secondary objective was to identify waste in the process. Major businesses in South Africa have been trying to adopt new business initiatives in order to stay competitive. One way to increase this is to apply proper manufacturing strategy and use of lean manufacturing or continuous improvement tools to achieve business objective which is to stay competitive and to increase profit. The research addresses the application of a lean manufacturing tool called manufacturing kaizen. Manufacturing kaizen refers to a technique used for improving a work process by the eliminating waste within that process in the organization. It is one of the improvement tools that focus on cost reduction by eliminating non-value added activities. Kaizen achieves the elimination of waste by empowering people with tools and a process to uncover improvement opportunities and make change. Participants are key aspect in implementing the manufacturing kaizen event, since they are the people directly involved. Identifying the key people that will be used in the manufacturing kaizen event is very crucial for the success of the event. Any changes or improvements of the process will have direct impact to the people. It is important that people who are directly affected by change become part of the process and feel empowered. Kaizen understands waste to be any activity that is not value adding from the perspective of the customer. The research unpacks manufacturing Kaizen and looks into its qualitative nature and its application within a working environment and how it influence productivity. It also investigates how this tool can be applied in a process or chemical industry and the benefits it can provide to an organization. The initial step in the approach was to outline data collected and examining techniques used to collect the data. The researcher carried out direct observation as he was physically present, and personally monitored what was taking place. The results show that labor productivity can be improved over time after the introduction of manufacturing kaizen. It concludes that with the introduction of manufacturing kaizen, transformation at workplace can be established leading to productivity improvement within an organization. The research has shown that with the proper use of manufacturing kaizen , waste reduction can be achieved.

This research was based on the premise that psychological research on risk-taking behaviour has emphasized a one-dimensional model of instrumentality and cognitive functioning derived from male experience. The central research question "How do women experience risk-taking?" was investigated by analyzing definitions and examples of personal risk described by 44 women, and by comparing relationships between subgroups assigned by occupation and by sex-role orientation. The findings indicated that women experienced risk-taking that spanned both dimensions of affiliation (connection to others) and instrumentality (attainment of personal goals). A new definition of risk-taking was proposed that incorporated elements of uncertainty, emotional involvement, loss, and a process of change. Women in traditional occupations described a similar number of affiliative and instrumental risks, while women in non-traditional occupations emphasized instrumental risks. It was observed that the opportunity and demand for risk-taking appeared related to social context and work activity. Significant differences were also found between women in traditional and non-traditional occupations with respect to sex-role orientation (from the Bern Sex-Role Inventory), employment status, income level, and number of children. No differences were found between sub-groups designated by occupation and by sex-role orientation with respect to estimates of risk-taking tendency from a self-estimate scale and the Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire. The results supported a critique of the Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire, citing an emphasis on instrumental and hypothetical risk-taking. Participants also reported that the CDQ was not relevant to their lives. The feminist approach encouraged active participation and evaluation by the women in the study. As a result, participants reported an increased understanding of themselves and of the process of risk-taking. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this descriptive study is to investigate the perception of practice of health care professionals at a mental institution, as it pertains to their work with dying patients, and also to identify areas of change. The conceptual framework is constructed of six factors important to palliative care that have been identified from the literature. These are personal death anxiety, organizational structure of the hospital system, role expectations of professionals, teamwork, education and training for care of the dying, and conveyance and exchange of diagnostic information. The sample surveyed by a written questionnaire included physicians, psychiatrists, health care workers, social workers and pastoral care workers from the Geriatric Division of Riverview Hospital, Port Coquitlam. The findings indicate that age, sex, marital status and length of working experience at Riverview Hospital had no significant association with personal death anxiety. Informal education such as workshops and in-services had a significant correlation with personal death anxiety, as did perception of being competent and/or confident about working with the dying. The study also raised concerns that not all was being done for the dying patients and their families at this institution. Suggestions such as education and training, support mechanisms, and less stereotyping of professional roles were offered to improve this situation. As well, findings indicated that there was a need for palliative care service either in the form of a team or separate unit, or simply the practicing of the palliative care philosophy. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Three issues were examined in this study: (1) the extent to which psychological challenge or stress elicits changes in the breathing patterns of normal subjects; (2) whether breathing pattern changes covary with cardiovascular arousal; and (3) whether individuals identified as being potentially at-risk for developing hypertension respond to mental challenge tasks with breathing pattern and cardiovascular changes that are reliably different from those of lower risk individuals. Subjects were 100 healthy young men divided into reactor quintiles on the basis of their heart rate (HR) changes to a 1-minute cold pressor test. Those in the upper quintile were designated as being at-risk for developing hypertension. Their cardiovascular and respiratory changes to two counterbalanced versions of a 5-minute mental arithmetic test (Easy & Hard) were compared with those of the third and fifth quintile subjects. Marked individual differences were evident in the direction and extent of breathing changes. Overall, the rate, amplitude, variability, and predominant mode of breathing increased substantially over resting levels in response to the math tasks. Only breathing rate and variability reliably covaried with task difficulty. Little correspondence was found between breathing changes and cardiovascular arousal. The data did indicate a trend for breathing to shift towards greater ribcage dominance as task difficulty increased. This was especially true for the at-risk group and least true for the low reactor quintile. The expected group differences in cardiovascular reactivity were not found however, implying that the HR reactivity to cold stimulation is not a good predictor of reactivity to acute mental challenge or stress. Overall, the results suggest that breathing patterns change in response to psychological stress but are not clearly associated with cardiovascular arousal. The attempt to identify subgroups of aberrant breathers on the basis of HR reactivity also yielded equivocal results. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to identify the curricula emphases of home economics in Oyo state secondary schools, and to analyze the relationship between subject matter emphasis and selected aspects about teaching and the teacher. Sixty-two home economics teachers in Oyo state, Nigeria, responded to a mailed survey asking them to indicate the degree of emphasis given to 50 topics in five subject matter areas of home economics: Human Development and the Family, Home Management and Family Economics, Foods and Nutrition, Textiles and Clothing, and Housing. The most taught subject matter area was Foods and Nutrition followed by Home Management and Family Economics, Textiles and Clothing, Human Development and the Family, and Housing. A similar rank order was observed for subject matter competence and for preference for teaching subject matter. Scores on the topics within each subject matter area, however, indicated that all of these topics and the subject matter areas were moderately emphasized in the curriculum. The philosophical views of home economics as homemaking education; home economics as household management and home economics as cooking and sewing exist concurrently. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the above five subject matter areas and selected aspects about teaching and the teacher. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated no significant relationship. Some of the problems facing home economics as a subject in the secondary schools were lack of laboratory space, equipment, finance, and shortage of home economics teachers. Collaborative curriculum development and local co-operative responses may offer the means to overcome the shortage of resources for programs in specific locales. Further research in the form of case studies of successful home economics programs could be informative in understanding better the necessary components which should be fostered in strengthening home economics programs. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This study investigated the question: What is the experience of immigration for Iranian women? This was accomplished by using an existential-phenomenological approach. The study included four adult single female co-researchers who had migrated to Canada from Iran and, by their own reckoning, were feeling settled in this country. The co-researchers were asked to describe their experience of immigration, from the beginning to the time they felt adjusted. The descriptions were audio-taped and transcribed. The analysis of these descriptions was conducted according to the method described by Colaizzi (1978). From the four descriptions thirty-two themes were derived. These themes were clarified and woven into a narrative description of the experience of immigration. Highlighted in the narrative description were five significant phases involved in the process which depicted an approximate symmetry of experiences. These significant experiences included sense of loss and attachment to the homeland, awareness of differences and conflicts, sense of self-invalidation and disorientation, reviewing oneself and the situation and sense of personal growth, stability and deriving meaning from the experience. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This thesis is an exploratory ecological study of the role of the family environment as it relates to a number of variables under investigation in the Vancouver Day Care Research Project's extensive contextual study of children enrolled in family day care settings. These variables include child language scores, indices of socio-economic status, conditions of maternal employment and attitudes related to maternal employment, other measures of the home environment, and parental attitudes to childrearing. In addition, the family environments of the family day care caregivers were examined in relation to the quality of care provided. The Moos Family Environment Scale (1986) was administered to parents and caregivers enrolled in the study. Scores from its ten subscales were correlated with measures of the variables of interest and then tested for significance. Data was then analyzed for important trends, patterns and highlights. Results showed that exposure of family members to stimulating ideas and activities is facilitative of child language skills, while an emphasis on achievement seems to have a negative effect. Families from higher socio-economic status homes seemed to be more likely to provide these opportunities for their children, particularly if they are well-educated. Findings also indicate that mothers who are satisfied with their employment tend to provide more positive family environments for their children than those who are working reluctantly. Mothers who worked part-time also appeared to provide better family environments than did those who experienced the increased stress of full-time employment. Adult-centered parenting values which stressed obedience were associated with family environments which were less facilitative of child cognitive development, whereas homes with child-centered parenting values appeared to be more positive. Family day care caregivers who provided superior childcare were found to be more organized in their own families, more supportive of one another, and more able to allow their family members to function independently than were other caregivers. There was considerable overlap in the results for each variable of interest; many similar features were found in the environments which were considered optimal in terms of language development, socio-economic factors, conditions of maternal employment, attitudes to childrearing, and high quality care for children. The study results strongly support the importance of exposure to a wide range of intellectual and cultural stimuli, participation in activities outside the home, expression of feelings amongst family members, and well-organized family functioning in the creation of optimal family environments; an emphasis on achievement, and the use of rigid rules and doctrine were found to be deleterious to the creation of positive home environments. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Although many factors have been Implicated in the etiology and maintenance of anorexia nervosa and bulimia, anxiety, particularly in the context of eating, may be critical. Applying the tri-partite model of anxiety, this study was designed to assess anxiety before, during, and after eating in eating disorder and normal control subjects. The experimental eating procedure was preceded by a neutral task. Four groups of ten female subjects each participated: normal-weight females, restricting-anorexics, bulimic-anorexics, and bulimics. Anxiety was assessed by self-report (ratings of pleasure, arousal, and anxiety), psychophysiological (heart rate and skin conductance) and behavioural (food consumption) measures. Controls reported themselves to be non-anxious throughout the study arid ate almost all of the small test meal. Somewhat surprisingly, physiological arousal (especially heart rate) was high during eating. During the neutral task, heart rate declined slightly in all groups. The eating disorder groups indicated a high level of anxiety throughout the study which showed a trend to increase further during eating. In addition, anorexics and bulimics described dysfunctional beliefs regarding the effects of eating on body shape and weight. Similar to controls, physiological arousal was high during eating. Overall, heart rate proved to be a more useful measure of arousal than skin conductance because many anorexics were hyporesponsive. Restricting-anorexics ate the least amount, bulimic-anorexics ate slightly more, and bulimics ate similar amounts to controls. Thus, food consumption was probably associated with weight status. Several conclusions were drawn. Women with eating disorders have a high level of general anxiety probably because of a conflict between biological pressures to eat and fears of weight gain. The high physiological arousal during eating appears to reinforce perceptions of anxiety. The eating disorder groups showed different degrees of concordance among measures of anxiety. Borrowing from the research on phobias, therapeutic procedures such as cognitive therapy, progressive relaxation, and exposure treatments can address the different components of anxiety anorexics and bulimics experience during eating. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate