Abstract This study examined student welfare teams in elementary, middle and junior high schools where a staff of group members tried to build a shared understanding of clients' problems and the solutions through conversation. The goal of the study was to identify what kind of socio-cognitive processes the welfare teams used and in which situations during the social interaction these processes occured in order to achieve the shared understanding. The goal of the first research question was to explore student welfare teams' shared understanding of their clients' problems and what kind solutions were constructed with the help of these socio-cognitive processes. The second study question focused on student welfare teams' decision making methods. The goal was to investigate how the teams chose certain solutions for the client. The third part of the research was to investigate how the team members as individuals use argumentation and actions to build the solution for the client. The study was qualitative in nature and was conducted by a case study influenced by research tradition of social constructionism and also tradition of fenomenology. The research data consisted of student welfare team meeting in elementary, middle and junior high schools. The data was collected in two schools during 2009–2010 and consisted of 28 student welfare team meetings, 16 hours in total. In the study there were 39 participants. The analysis was done by using content analysis. The results showed that the student welfare teams built the shared understanding of the task and the solutions through construction of knowledge and constructive conflicts. These socio-cognitive processes occured when the teams built the shared understanding of client's problems, solutions or both. According the results of this study the shared understanding that had been built of client's problem in the beginning of the meeting improved the construction of shared understanding of the solution. The constructive conflicts enabled the creation of a more qualified result provided all the team members co-operated when constructive conflict appeared. The research revealed that the majority of decision making processes in student welfare teams were based on expertise of client's problem area and the existing rules and regulations. The procedures for the client were built in a way which often required argumentation of the listeners. Arguments included team member's expertise on similar situations and the problems and effects of the presented procedure. The results of this study enable deeper understanding of student welfare teams in schools; how shared understanding of client's problems and the procedures suitable for the situation are built in student welfare teams by social interaction. The research opens a new perspective to be considered in the development of multidisciplinary groups. / Tiivistelmä Tämän tutkimuksen tutkimusaiheena on jaetun ymmärryksen rakentuminen moniammatillisten oppilashuoltoryhmien kokouksissa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, millaisten sosiokognitiivisten prosessien avulla oppilashuoltoryhmä rakentaa jaettua ymmärrystä käsiteltävästä tehtävästä ja asiakkaalle sopivista ratkaisumalleista. Ensimmäisen tutkimuskysymyksen avulla haluttiin saada selville, missä tilanteissa sosiokognitiiviset prosessit esiintyvät moniammatillisen oppilashuoltoryhmän vuorovaikutuksessa sekä millainen jaettu ymmärrys asiakkaan ongelmista ja tilanteeseen sopivista ratkaisumalleista muodostuu sosiokognitiivisten prosessien avulla. Toinen keskeinen tutkimusongelma liittyi pienryhmän päätöksentekoprosessiin. Tutkimuksen avulla haluttiin selvittää, miten moniammatillisen oppilashuoltoryhmän jäsenet tekevät päätöksen asiakkaalle suunnattavista ratkaisumalleista Lisäksi tutkimuksen kolmannen tutkimuskysymyksen avulla haluttiin saada selville, miten moniammatillisen oppilashuoltoryhmän jäsenet rakentavat asiakkaalle suunnattavia ratkaisumalleja yksilötasolla. Tutkimus toteutettiin laadullisena tapaustutkimuksena, joka nojautui ontologiselta lähestymistavaltaan sosiaalisen konstruktionismin tutkimuksen traditioon. Lisäksi se oli yhteneväinen joiltakin osin fenomenologisen tutkimustradition kanssa. Tutkimuksen aineisto muodostui sekä yläkoulun että alakoulun oppilashuoltoryhmän kokouksista sekä hojks-arviointikokouksista. Lukuvuoden 2009–2010 välisenä aikana kokouksia videoitiin 28, yhteensä 16 tuntia. Tutkimukseen osallistui kaiken kaikkiaan 39 henkilöä. Tutkimuksen aineisto analysoitiin sisällönanalyysin avulla. Tutkimustulokset osoittivat, että moniammatillisen oppilashuoltoryhmän jäsenet rakensivat jaettua ymmärrystä tehtävästä ja tilanteeseen sopivista ratkaisumalleista tiedon konstruoinnin ja konstruktiivisten konfliktien avulla. Sosiokognitiivisia prosesseja hyödynnettiin joko asiakkaan ongelmien, ratkaisumallien tai ongelmien ja ratkaisumallien rakentamisessa. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että jaetun ymmärryksen muodostuminen asiakkaan ongelmasta keskustelun alussa selkeytti tehtävän tavoitetta, jolloin mahdollisuus onnistua tehtävän suorittamisessa parani. Konstruktiivisten konfliktien avulla oppilashuoltoryhmillä oli mahdollisuus saavuttaa uusia ja parempia tulkintoja asiakkaasta ja tilanteeseen sopivista ratkaisumalleista. Ilmiön toteutuminen edellytti kuitenkin ryhmän jäsenten osallistumista esille tuodun epäkohdan muokkaamiseen yhdessä. Tutkimuksessa kävi myös ilmi, että moniammatillisten oppilashuoltoryhmien päätöksenteko perustui useimmiten asiakkaan ongelma-alueen asiantuntijuuteen ja olemassa oleviin sääntöihin ja määräyksiin. Asiakkaalle suunnattavat ratkaisumallit rakennettiin tavalla, joka edellytti usein kuulijoiden argumentointia. Ratkaisumalleihin liitetyissä perusteluissa oppilashuoltoryhmän jäsenet toivat esille asiantuntemuksensa, joka sisälsi tietoa vastaavanlaisissa tilanteissa käytetyissä ratkaisumalleista, niiden ongelmista ja vaikuttavuudesta. Tämän tutkimuksen tulokset nähdään syvemmän ymmärryksen mahdollistajana moniammatillisista oppilashuoltoryhmistä peruskouluissa. Tutkimustulokset ovat lisänneet ymmärrystä siitä, kuinka moniammatillisissa oppilashuoltoryhmissä rakennetaan jaettua ymmärrystä asiakkaan ongelmista ja tilanteisiin sopivista ratkaisumalleista vuorovaikutuksen avulla. Tutkimus tuo esille myös uusia moniammatillisten verkostojen kehittämistyössä huomioon otettavia näkökulmia.

Several industrial sectors experience an increased reliance on mechatronic systems as electronics and software are being embedded into the traditional mechanical systems of these industries. Important challenges within mechatronics engineering comes from management of multi-disciplinary development project teams and the highly complex scope of problems, which in turn require extensive coordination and integration, both in terms of technical and organisational matters. The concept of cross-functional integration in product development research has in previous research mainly addressed integration of the functions marketing, R&D, and manufacturing, and whereas the present thesis is delimited to include only the R&D organization and the functions and engineering disciplines within such an organization. The purpose with thesis has been to investigate mechatronics engineering in order to understand and explain how co-operation, integration, and knowledge sharing between engineering disciplines can be supported. This research has been realized by empirical studies in mechatronic development settings in engineering companies, but also by taking part in industrial and academic research projects that develop and study computer-aided mechatronics engineering. Findings presented in this thesis show that mechatronics is a matter of integration at three organizational levels where the most substantial needs are found to be at the team-level and the individual level. Furthermore, it is identified that to be able to succeed in mechatronics engineering, managers and engineers must look beyond disciplinary needs. Subsequently, both teamwork and competence management become key issues for management of mechatronics engineering. Finally, computer-supported and model-based development of mechatronics show great potential for successful integration of engineering disciplines, even though such technological aids are still rather immature and needs further research and development. A tentative analysis model of organizational integration for mechatronics engineering is also presented and discussed in this thesis. Based on the presented findings, it is concluded that companies incorporating electronics and software in their mechanical products must effectively manage software and electronics development of these embedded systems. Despite the focus on cross-functional integration in engineering companies, this thesis shows examples of inadequate integration of software and electronics engineering with mechanical integration in organisations dominated by the latter. Future research studies are needed to investigate the relation between factors influencing the need for organizational integration and potential integration mechanisms. To further understand mechatronics engineering it is important to look deeper into research issues such as changed conditions for the engineering profession implied by multidisciplinary settings, social systems supporting integration of disciplines, changed work conditions due to implementation of technological aids for model-based system development, relationship between product and organizational complexity, organizational designs supporting integration of engineering disciplines, and cross-disciplinary training of highly specialized engineers. / QC 20101123

Community mental health teams common in many countries with developed community mental health care have been slowly advancing in recent years. It is expected that this trend will continue to grow with the reform of psychiatric care. The diploma thesis focuses on community mental health teams for the target group of people with severe mental illness, which are one of the basic pillars of mental health care abroad. The theoretical part describes the activities of these teams in the context of community mental health care and also presents these teams mainly in terms of their composition and way of work. The research part analyzes the current situation of four specific teams in terms of multidisciplinary composition and team cooperation, describes and interprets some of the specific difficulties that these services face in the beginning of multidisciplinary teamwork and captures some specific moments of their functioning. Utilizing a qualitative approach through in-depth interviews with team leaders and their founding organizations has enabled them to convey the specific context of these teams and at least partially capture the dynamics of their current state and development. The practical part points to some factors that may complicate the teamwork, such as insufficient involvement of medical staff...