Growing usage of smart and portable electronic devices demands embedded system designers to provide solutions with better performance and reduced power consumption. Due to the new development of IoT and embedded systems usage, not only power and performance of these devices but also security of them is becoming an important design constraint. In this work, a novel aggressive scaling based on timing speculation is proposed to overcome the drawbacks of traditional DVFS and provide security from power analysis attacks at the same time. Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) is proven to be the most suitable technique for power efficiency in processor designs. Due to its promising benefits, the technique is still getting researchers attention to trade off power and performance of modern processor designs. The issues of traditional DVFS are: 1) Due to its pre-calculated operating points, the system is not able to suit to modern process variations. 2) Since Process Voltage and Temperature (PVT) variations are not considered, large timing margins are added to guarantee a safe operation in the presence of variations. The research work presented here addresses these issues by employing aggressive scaling mechanisms to achieve more power savings with increased performance. This approach uses in-situ timing error monitoring and recovering mechanisms to reduce extra timing margins and to account for process variations. A novel timing error detection and correction mechanism, to achieve more power savings or high performance, is presented. This novel technique has also been shown to improve security of processors against differential power analysis attacks technique. Differential power analysis attacks can extract secret information from embedded systems without knowing much details about the internal architecture of the device. Simulated and experimental data show that the novel technique can provide a performance improvement of 24% or power savings of 44% while occupying less area and power overhead. Overall, the proposed aggressive scaling technique provides an improvement in power consumption and performance while increasing the security of processors from power analysis attacks.

Submitted by Marcos Junio Ferreira de Jesus (marcos_junio@hotmail.com) on 2017-08-17T19:01:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CONTRATUALIZAÇÃO DE RESULTADOS, CONTROLE E APRENDIZAGEM a experiência do HOSPSUS-Rede Mãe Paranaense.pdf: 1376360 bytes, checksum: be481ade7ddac3083ea86ebdaf3567d4 (MD5) / Rejected by Maria Tereza Fernandes Conselmo (maria.conselmo@fgv.br), reason: Marcos, boa noite. Segue a correção a ser feita: Inserir a data de defesa. Após feita a correção submeter novamente a biblioteca digital. Att. Tereza on 2017-08-17T22:43:34Z (GMT) / Submitted by Marcos Junio Ferreira de Jesus (marcos_junio@hotmail.com) on 2017-08-18T02:21:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CONTRATUALIZAÇÃO DE RESULTADOS, CONTROLE E APRENDIZAGEM a experiência do HOSPSUS-Rede Mãe Paranaense.pdf: 1376360 bytes, checksum: be481ade7ddac3083ea86ebdaf3567d4 (MD5) / Rejected by Maria Tereza Fernandes Conselmo (maria.conselmo@fgv.br), reason: Marcos, boa tarde. Inserir data de defesa na 4º folha. Submeter novamente na biblioteca. Att. Tereza SRA on 2017-08-21T16:57:39Z (GMT) / Submitted by Marcos Junio Ferreira de Jesus (marcos_junio@hotmail.com) on 2017-08-21T17:32:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese - CONTRATUALIZAÇÃO DE RESULTADOS, CONTROLE E APRENDIZAGEM a experiência do HOSPSUS-Rede Mãe Paranaense pdf.pdf: 1376693 bytes, checksum: e3739819c1624e92c19a0f452d89814a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Tereza Fernandes Conselmo (maria.conselmo@fgv.br) on 2017-08-23T17:17:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese - CONTRATUALIZAÇÃO DE RESULTADOS, CONTROLE E APRENDIZAGEM a experiência do HOSPSUS-Rede Mãe Paranaense pdf.pdf: 1376693 bytes, checksum: e3739819c1624e92c19a0f452d89814a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-23T18:21:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese - CONTRATUALIZAÇÃO DE RESULTADOS, CONTROLE E APRENDIZAGEM a experiência do HOSPSUS-Rede Mãe Paranaense pdf.pdf: 1376693 bytes, checksum: e3739819c1624e92c19a0f452d89814a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-07-27 / A pesquisa aqui apresentada assenta-se no interesse de discutir a contratualização de resultados em saúde como estratégia para oferecer mais e melhores serviços à população e garantir maior eficiência e efetividade aos serviços públicos prestados a toda a sociedade. O objeto empírico da análise foi a experiência de contratualização de resultados nos serviços de saúde pública efetuada pelo governo do Paraná, a partir de 2011. Por meio de pesquisa exploratória com abordagem qualitativa, examinei como opera o modelo de contratualização estabelecido pela Secretaria de Estado da Saúde do Paraná junto às instituições hospitalares, para impulsionar as organizações à melhoria de atividades técnicas e administrativas. Nessa direção, busquei verificar de que forma os mecanismos estabelecidos pelo HOSPSUS poderiam influenciar as organizações à melhoria de suas atividades, e de que forma os atores institucionais reagem e adaptam seu comportamento às metas contratualizadas. A pesquisa partiu da ideia de que os resultados vêm sendo produzidos por meio de uma combinação de controle (por parte dos mecanismos do programa) e de aprendizagem (dos atores). Após o trabalho em campo, por meio de entrevistas, discussões, participação em reuniões e análise de seus resultados, pude confirmar a hipótese de que o modelo de contratualização para resultados implementado pela SESA-PR combina dois grupos de mecanismos: controle e aprendizagem. / The research presented here is based on the interest of discussing the contractualisation of health outcomes as a strategy to offer more and better services to the population and to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness of public services provided to society as a whole. The empirical object of the analysis was the experience of contracting of results in the public health services carried out by the Paraná government, as of 2011. Through exploratory research with a qualitative approach, I examined how the contractual model established by the State Health Department of Paraná works with hospital institutions to encourage organizations to improve technical and administrative activities. In this direction, I sought to verify how the mechanisms established by HOSPSUS could influence organizations to improve their activities, and how institutional actors react and adapt their behavior to contractualized goals. The research started from the idea that the results have been produced through a combination of control (by the mechanisms of the program) and of learning (of the actors). After working in the field, through interviews, discussions, participation in meetings and analysis of its results, I was able to confirm the hypothesis that the contractual model for results implemented by SESA-PR combines two groups of mechanisms: control and learning.

Além do fato de as organizações se encontrarem em ambientes turbulentos com rápidas e radicais mudanças, soma-se a importância que se tem dado à questão da implementação das ações estratégicas nas empresas. Assim justifica-se uma análise mais cuidadosa para entender como as empresas podem buscar a implementação bem sucedida de suas ações de melhoria e mudança, alinhando-as e integrando-as aos seus objetivos e metas estratégicos. Para tratar essa questão, esta pesquisa propõe uma sistematização para o processo de gestão de melhoria e mudança de desempenho. Entretanto, agir não significa simplesmente mudar, mas sim tomar ações para a melhoria e mudança na direção que a própria empresa escolheu para seguir, ou seja, sua estratégia. Porém, para uma efetiva gestão da implementação da estratégia, a organização deverá ter um sistema para avaliação e medição do seu desempenho. Dessa forma, este trabalho está estruturado, inicialmente, com uma discussão teórica sobre os temas estratégia, gestão de melhorias e mudanças e medição do desempenho organizacional. Com o embasamento teórico, é realizada uma proposta de um modelo para a gestão de melhorias e mudanças estratégicas, que é detalhada em processos e atividades. Com o objetivo de analisar o caráter prático dessa proposta conceitual, foi desenvolvido um estudo de caso em uma empresa considerada “caso de sucesso” em seu processo de gestão de melhoria. Pôde-se notar a importância de se ter um processo estruturado e sistematizado para gerenciar a melhoria e mudança, entretanto, o desenvolvimento desse processo deve assumir a realidade e entender as características particulares de cada empresa / Besides the fact of organizations finding themselves in a turbulent environment with fast and radical changes, the importance they have given to the subject of strategic actions implementation is becoming higher. Then, it has justified a more careful analysis to understand how companies can reach a successful implementation of their improvement and change actions, aligning and integrating them into their objectives and strategic goals. To treat that subject, this research proposes the systematization to the process of performance improvement and change management. However, acting does not simply means changing, but taking actions in order to reach improvement and change in the direction chosen by the own company, in other words, their strategy. However, for an effective management of the strategy implementation, the organization should have a performance evaluation and measurement system. In that way, this work is based, initially, on a theoretical discussion about themes like strategy, improvements and changes management and performance management. After this, a model of improvement and strategic change management is proposed, which is detailed in process and activities section. A case study was developed within a company considered “success case” with the objective of analyzing the practical character of this conceptual proposal. It was noticed the importance of having a structured and systematized process to manage improvements and changes. However, the development of this process should assume the company’s reality to understand its peculiars characteristics

Introduction: Falls are the leading cause of death due to injury among the elderly. Every 24 minutes an older adult dies from a fall related injury. Studies using 3 different methods were performed at a large urban, academic medical center in the US. Aim #1: Understand the advantages and disadvantages of QI methodologies (Lean and Six Sigma) and HFE when applied to fall prevention in the acute care setting: o Evaluate the contribution of QI and HFE to fall prevention with a focus on reducing falls with serious injury. o Use studies with different methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma) to develop and implement an intervention with the goal of decreasing total falls and falls with injury. o Compare methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma and HFE) to understand their benefits and limitations. Aim #2: Develop recommendations for fall prevention: o Investigate interventions and assess success of fall prevention. o Develop an understanding of interventions that prevent falls resulting in injury. Methodology and Results: Study #1 (Method = Lean, Intervention = Standard Work): Study #1 used Lean techniques such as standard work to improve fall risk assessment and intervention selection. Total falls decreased by 22%. At first glance this appears successful but a deeper evaluation of the serious injuries revealed more improvement is needed. There were still 15 falls with serious injuries that occurred among the three oncology divisions. These rare but serious injuries result in a longer hospital stay and increased cost of treatment that is not reimbursed. Due to a climate of increasing financial pressure further reduction of serious injury was desired. Study #2 (Method = Six Sigma, Intervention = Patient Partnering: Study #2 used Six Sigma tools to investigate root causes of falls. An intervention called Patient Partnering was developed to encourage patients to call for help and participate in preventing their own falls. There were no falls with serious injury for over 14 consecutive months. However, the intervention was difficult to sustain due to resistance from nurses and patients. Falls with injuries resumed as the intervention ceased. Study #3 (Method = Qualitative HFE, Intervention = Patient Interview): Study #3 was a qualitative study based on Human Factors principles to understand patient s perception of fall risk. It was found that patients did not think they would fall and felt particularly safe and protected while in hospital. They found it difficult to get around with IV tubes and crowed spaces. They wanted information and assistance when they need it, in the format they prefer (customized for each individual patient). Impact on society: Falls prevention interventions need to be designed for all the stakeholders (patients and staff). Patients think nurses will keep them safe and are willing to participate with fall prevention if they feel it is tailored to their needs. Until all perspectives are taken into account it is unlikely that there will be sustained and embedded improvements. Key message: Falls with injury are rare events with complex root causes that require agile solutions with constant revision to align with rapidly changing conditions and interactions. Reducing injury will take a balance between safe environment, organization, processes, tasks and behaviors from staff and patients.

Les systèmes complexes à longue durée de service sont des systèmes de grande taille qui ont généralement un comportement stochastique. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions, particulièrement, un type de ces systèmes : le système de vélos en libre-service. Le principe de fonctionnement de ce service de transports est de disposer des vélos dans diverses stations de la ville. Les usagers viennent prendre des vélos pour effectuer un trajet et puis les déposent dans des stations quelconques.Comme la durée d’exploitation de ces systèmes est longue, de nouveaux besoins (par exemple l’attractivité de station) et une dégradation de performance peuvent survenir. Un outil d’aide à la décision est ainsi nécessaire pour analyser et améliorer la performance par des opérations de pilotage (p.ex. changement de la taille de flotte) ou de re-conception (p.ex. changement de la capacité d’une station). L’approche suivie, pour cette finalité, est la modélisation stochastique en utilisant un réseau de files d’attente possédant des files à capacités limitées et un mécanisme de blocage. La méthode de résolution du modèle proposé est définie dans les travaux de Kouvatsos (1994). Notre cas d’étude est un sous-réseau de 20 stations du système Vélib’ de Paris. L’analyse de la performance suite aux changements exogènes et aux opérations d’amélioration (pilotage et re-conception), nous a permis de déduire un ensemble de préconisations qui peuvent améliorer les performances du système. Comme la méthode de résolution de ce modèle possède une complexité importante, nous proposons une méthode d’agrégation des stations pour réduire la taille du problème en ayant des erreurs maîtrisables. Cette méthode est implémentée et évaluée pour un système particulier où tous les paramètres sont homogènes. Enfin, l’étude de cette méthode pour un système non-homogène et d’autres perspectives sont proposées pour étendre ces travaux de recherche. / Complex systems having a long period of service are large scale systems that typically have stochastic behavior. In this thesis, we study, in particular, one type of these systems: the Bike Sharing System. The operating principle of this transport service consists of a fleet of bikes disposed in various stations. The users come to take bicycles to use them for their trip and then bring them back in any stations.As these systems are supposed to operate for long periods, new requirements can overcome (eg. station attractiveness) and performance degradation may occur. A decision support tool is thus required to analyze and improve the performance by control operations (eg. fleet size change) or re-design (eg. changing the capacity of a station).The stochastic modeling approach is used through a network of queues with limited capacity queues and a blocking mechanism. The resolution method of the proposed model is defined in the research work of Kouvatsos (1994).The case study is a sub-network of 20 Vélib's stations in Paris. The performance analysis according to exogenous changes and improvement operations (control and re-design) allowed us to deduce recommendations that can improve the performance of the system.As the method of solving this model has a great complexity, we propose a method of aggregation of the stations to reduce the size of the problem by having controllable errors. This method is implemented and evaluated for a particular system where all the parameters are homogeneous. Finally, the study of this method for a non-homogeneous system and other perspectives are proposed to extend this research work.

Patient satisfaction dimensions have a wide ranging and significant impact on organizational performance in the healthcare industry. In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Value Based Purchasing (HVBP) Program links patient satisfaction to Medicare reimbursement, putting millions of dollars at risk for health systems. A gap in the literature exists in the exploration of how a patient's experience in the emergency department affects their satisfaction with inpatient services. In a multiple regression analysis, the relationship between HVBP Patient Experience of Care and hospital level factors including emergency department wait times are explored. Results indicate a statistically significant relationship between hospital level factors and standardized measure of patient satisfaction with a moderate adjusted effect size (p= <.0001, R2 adjusted= 0.184). Emergency department wait times post physician admit orders were most salient in predicting patient satisfaction scores (rs2= 0.434, β= -0.334, p= <.001). Recommendations to improve emergency department wait times include focusing on key decision points and implementation of electronic systems to support the movement of admitted patients out of the emergency department as quickly as possible.

La compagnie Sigfox est reconnue comme un acteur prometteur pour des transmissions de longue-distance et faible consommation, dans le contexte de l'IoT. La modulation à bande ultra étroite (Ultra Narrow Band (UNB)), la technologie de communication choisie par Sigfox, permet de transmettre des informations dans des bandes de signal très étroites (typiquement 100 Hz). A cause de l'imprécision fréquentielle causée par les oscillateurs générateurs de fréquence, il n'est pas réaliste de transmettre des signaux UNB dans des canaux parfaitement orthogonaux. L'accès naturel au canal radio pour le système de UNB est de type ALOHA, avec un aspect aléatoire à la fois en en temps et en fréquence. Cet accès aléatoire peut introduire des collisions qui dégradent la performance du réseau. Le but de cette thèse est de caractériser la capacité des réseaux basés sur UNB, ainsi que d’améliorer la performance en considérant l'aspect aléatoire en temps et en fréquence. La première contribution de cette thèse, est une évaluation de la capacité en théorie et en simulation pour une seule station de base (BS), sous des conditions de canal idéaliste ou réaliste. En conditions idéalistes, nous avons exprimé la capacité pour le cas de l'ALOHA généralisé, et l'avons étendu aux cas de réplications. Pour les conditions réalistes, nous avons pris en compte l'interférence spectrale d'UNB et le path loss (sans et avec Rayleigh fading) afin de caractériser la performance des réseaux UNB, avec l'outil géométrie stochastique. La deuxième contribution est d'appliquer l’annulation successive d'interférence (SIC), qui nous permet d'atténuer les interférences, dans des réseaux de UNB. Nous avons fourni une analyse théorique de la performance des réseaux en considérant le SIC et l'interférence spectrale de UNB, pour le cas de mono-BS. La troisième contribution est l'amélioration de la performance des réseaux UNB, en exploitant la diversité de multi-BS. Nous avons fait une analyse théorique de performance en considérant multi-BS et selection combining (SC). En particulier, nous avons considéré que l’interférence vue par chaque BS est corrélée. Nous avons ainsi démontré mathématiquement que cette corrélation ne peut pas être supprimée dans des systèmes UNB. Ensuite, nous avons appliqué les technologies de la combinaison des signaux plus complexes comme MRC (max ratio combining) et EGC (equal gain combining), ainsi que le SIC à travers multi-BS. Nous avons évalué l'amélioration de performance que chaque technologie apporte, et les avons comparées. Nous avons souligné l'efficacité de ces technologies qui nous permettent d’obtenir des gains importants comparés au cas mono-BS (e.x. 125 fois plus de réduction d'erreur avec SIC globale). La dernière contribution est une validation expérimentale du modèle d'interférence spectrale de UNB, ainsi que la capacité des réseaux UNB, sur un testbed de radio FIT/Cortexlab. / Sigfox rises as a promising candidate dedicated for long-distance and low-power transmissions in the IoT backgrounds. Ultra Narrow Band (UNB), being the communication technology chosen by Sigfox, allows to transmit information through signals whose bandwidth is very limited, typically 100 Hz. Due to the imprecision restraint on electronic devices, it is impossible to transmit UNB signals in orthogonal channels. The natural radio access for this kind of system is thus random ALOHA, in both time and frequency domain. This random access can induce collisions which degrades the networks performance. The aim of this thesis is to characterize the capacity of UNB based networks, as well as to enhance its performance, by considering the randomness in time and frequency. The first contribution of the thesis, is the theoretical and numerical capacity evaluation under idealized and realistic channel conditions, for mono base station (BS) case. Under idealized conditions, we have quantified this capacity for generalized ALOHA case and extended for replications. We highlight the time-frequency duality in UNB systems, and that there exists an optimum replication number for a given network parameter set. Under realistic conditions, we have taken into account the specific spectral interference of UNB systems and propagation path loss (without and with Rayleigh fading) to characterize the performance, with the aid of stochastic geometry. The second contribution is the enhancement of UNB network performance in single BS case. We propose to use successive interference cancellation (SIC) in UNB networks, which allows to mitigate the interference. We have provided a theoretical analysis by considering both SIC and the spectral interference, for mono-BS case. We bring to light the efficiency of SIC in enhancing UNB system performance. The third contribution is the improvement of UNB systems, by exploiting the multiple BS diversity. An analytical performance evaluation considering the simplest selection combining is conducted. In particular, we consider the interference viewed by all the BSs are correlated. Then we apply more complex signal combining technologies such as MRC (max ratio combining) and EGC (equal gain combining), and even interference cancellation across multi-BS in UNB networks. We evaluate the performance improvement that each technology can bring, and compare them with each other. We highlight the efficiency of these multi-BS technologies which allow us to achieve significant performance enhancement compared to mono-BS (e.x. 125 times better performance with global SIC). Last but not least, we experimentally verify the the spectral interference model and network capacity on a cognitive radio testbed.

L’objet de cette thèse est l’élaboration d’un modèle logique de mesure du maintien des valeurs, ainsi que son opérationnalisation afin d’entreprendre l’évaluation de la performance des systèmes de santé. Le maintien des valeurs est l’une des quatre fonctions de la théorie de l’action sociale de T.Parsons permettant d’analyser les systèmes d’action. Les autres fonctions sont l’adaptation, la production et l’atteinte des buts. Cette théorie est la base du modèle EGIPSS (évaluation globale et intégrée de la performance des systèmes de santé), dans lequel cette thèse s’insère. La fonction étudiée correspond, dans l’oeuvre de T.Parsons, au sous-système culturel. Elle renvoie à l’intangible, soit à l’univers symbolique par lequel l’action prend son sens et les fonctions du système s’articulent. Le modèle logique de mesure du maintien des valeurs est structuré autour de deux concepts principaux, les valeurs individuelles et organisationnelles et la qualité de vie au travail. À travers les valeurs individuelles et organisationnelles, nous mesurons la hiérarchie et l’intensité des valeurs, ainsi que le niveau de concordance interindividuelle et le degré de congruence entre les valeurs individuelles et organisationnelles. La qualité de vie au travail est composée de plusieurs concepts permettant d’analyser et d’évaluer l’environnement de travail, le climat organisationnel, la satisfaction au travail, les réactions comportementales et l’état de santé des employés. La mesure de ces différents aspects a donné lieu à la conception de trois questionnaires et de trente indicateurs. Ma thèse présente, donc, chacun des concepts sélectionnés et leurs articulations, ainsi que les outils de mesure qui ont été construits afin d’évaluer la dimension du maintien des valeurs. Enfin, nous exposons un exemple d’opérationnalisation de ce modèle de mesure appliqué à deux hôpitaux dans la province du Mato Grosso du Sud au Brésil. Cette thèse se conclut par une réflexion sur l’utilisation de l’évaluation comme outil de gestion soutenant l’amélioration de la performance et l’imputabilité. Ce projet comportait un double enjeu. Tout d’abord, la conceptualisation de la dimension du maintien des valeurs à partir d’une littérature abondante, mais manquant d’intégration théorique, puis la création d’outils de mesure permettant de saisir autant les aspects objectifs que subjectifs des valeurs et de la qualité de vie au travail. En effet, on trouve dans la littérature de nombreuses disciplines et de multiples courants théoriques tels que la psychologie industrielle et organisationnelle, la sociologie, les sciences infirmières, les théories sur le comportement organisationnel, la théorie des organisations, qui ont conçu des modèles pour analyser et comprendre les perceptions, les attitudes et les comportements humains dans les organisations. Ainsi, l’intérêt scientifique de ce projet découle de la création d’un modèle dynamique et intégrateur offrant une synthèse des différents champs théoriques abordant la question de l’interaction entre les perceptions individuelles et collectives au travail, les conditions objectives de travail et leurs influences sur les attitudes et les comportements au travail. D’autre part, ce projet revêt un intérêt opérationnel puisqu’il vise à fournir aux décideurs du système de santé des connaissances et données concernant un aspect de la performance fortement négligé par la plupart des modèles internationaux d’évaluation de la performance. / The purpose of my thesis is to develop a logical model to measure the latency that we also call the values maintenance and its operationalization in order to evaluate health systems performance. Latency is one of the four functions of the general theory of action developed by T. Parsons. His theory is the basis of the EGIPSS model (Comprehensive and Integrated Assessment of the Performance of Health Systems), in which my thesis is inserted. The function of latency is viewed by Parsons as a sub-cultural system. This function reflects the intangible or symbolic universe in which the action takes its meaning. It connects the four functions of the system together. The logical model for measuring latency is structured around two main dimensions, individual and organizational values and quality of life at work. Through individual and organizational values, we measure the intensity and the hierarchy of values, and the level of concordance between individuals and the degree of congruence between the individual and organizational values. Quality of work life is composed of several concepts to analyze and assess work environment, organizational climate, job satisfaction, behavioural responses and health status of employees. The measurement of these aspects has led to the design of questionnaires and thirty three indicators. Thus, my thesis presents each of the selected concepts, as well as, their articulation and measurement tools that were built to assess the latency function. Finally, I present an example of the operationalization of the measurement model and the results of the evaluation which have been taken place in two hospitals in the state of Mato Grosso of south in Brazil. This thesis ends with a reflection on the use of evaluation as a management tool supporting performance improvement and accountability. This project involved a dual challenge. On the one hand, the conceptualization of the construct of maintenance of values from an extensive literature, but lacking of theoretical integration, and the creation of measurement tools to capture all aspects of objective and subjective values and quality of work life. Indeed, we find in the literature many disciplines and multiple theoretical approaches such as industrial and organizational psychology, sociology, nursing, theories of organizational behavior, organizational theory, which developed models to analyze and understand the perceptions, attitudes and human behavior in organizations. Thus, the scientific interest of this project arises from the creation of a dynamic and integrated model which synthesizes different theoretical fields addressing the issue of the interaction between individual and collective perceptions at work, the objective conditions of work and their influence on attitudes and behaviors at work. In addition, this project has an operational interest because it aims to provide to decision-makers knowledge and evidences on aspects of performance that have been neglected by most international models for performance evaluation.

Ce travail de thèse, réalisé dans le cadre d’une convention CIFRE avec l’entreprise Essilor et le laboratoire ERPI de l’Université de Lorraine, propose un cadre d’évolution des organisations basée sur le management opérationnel des connaissances et des compétences. Nous avons mis en valeur les mécanismes organisationnels de partage et de mise en oeuvre des connaissances et compétences en environnement de conception, afin de proposer des modèles, méthodes et outils permettant aux acteurs et organisations d’améliorer leurs performances. Quatre aspects ont été développés dans ce travail, dont trois contributions et une évaluation de l’efficacité du cadre d’évolution proposé : • L’élaboration d’une méthode de modélisation d’entreprise basée sur le modèle conceptuel KROM et de sa déclinaison en modèles opérationnels. Cette méthode vise à expliciter les liens organisationnels des concepts de connaissance et de compétence afin de les rattacher à leurs contextes de mise en oeuvre. • La définition d’un cadre global d’évolution d’une organisation sur la base du management de ses connaissances et compétences. Ce cadre d’évolution comprend une caractérisation et une évaluation de la maturité des organisations dans leurs pratiques de gestion des connaissances et des compétences, ainsi qu’une méthode d’évolution des organisations reposant sur la proposition de scénarios d’actions d’amélioration : la méthode ACKME. • La proposition d’une approche organisationnelle de conception de Systèmes Multi-agents (SMA) appelée DOCK, permettant de spécifier des SMA adaptés aux enjeux rencontrés par les approches d’ingénierie à base de connaissances, à savoir la prise en compte et la gestion du cycle de vie de la connaissance. • Une évaluation de l’intérêt du cadre d’évolution mis en oeuvre (les trois contributions précédentes) sur la base de l’évaluation des compétences des acteurs de l’organisation. Cette évaluation repose d’une part sur la possibilité d’intégrer le cadre d’évolution dans une approche globale de pilotage du changement dans l’organisation et d’autre part, sur des expérimentations menées au sein du service Ingénierie d’Essilor. / This research, carried out under a PhD “CIFRE” with the company ESSILOR and the ERPI Laboratory of the Lorraine University, proposes a framework to make organizations evolve, based on the operational management of knowledge and competences. We have enhanced the organizational mechanisms of sharing, and the use of knowledge and competences within the design environment, in order to propose models, methods and tools allowing actors and organizations to improve their performances. Four key elements have been developed in this research, including three contributions and an assessment of the efficiency of the proposed development framework: • The development of an enterprise modeling method based on the conceptual model KROM and its translation into operational models. This method aims to clarify the organizational links of the knowledge and competence concepts in order to link them to their implementation contexts. • The definition of a global framework to make an organization evolve based on the management of its knowledge and competence assets. This evolution framework includes a characterization and an assessment of the organizations’ maturity in their knowledge and competences management practices, as well as a method to make organizations change, based on the proposal of scenario of improvement actions: the ACKME method. • The proposal of an organizational approach to design Multi-agent systems (MAS) called DOCK, allowing the designer to specify MAS oriented toward the issues faced by knowledge engineering approaches, namely the recognition and management of the knowledge life cycle. • An assessment of the value of the implemented framework (the three previous contributions) based on the assessment of the competences of the actors within the organization. This evaluation is based, on one hand, on the possibility to integrate the evolution framework into a global steering approach to make the organization evolve, and on the other hand, on experiments led within the Engineering department of Essilor

Problem-solving ability is now the most sought-after trait in up-and-coming executives, according to a survey of 1 000 executives conducted by Caliper Associates, reported in the Wall Street Journal by Hal Lancaster (Hoenig, 2002:338). This trait would include the ability to solve human performance problems, something many people tend to steer clear of. According to Piskurich (2002:57-58) and Rothwell, Hohne and King (2000:67-71), the most common problem-solving tools that are used when solving human performance problems are brainstorming, cause-and-effect analysis, and the five why’s technique. Although techniques such as these have proven to be robust and useful, what is required to solve human performance problems is a logical and verifiable process that can establish a data point about which relevant information can be recognized and gathered, and against which the conclusion can be evaluated, to have confirmed knowledge of the root cause of the problems. Unfortunately, existing root cause analysis processes tend to focus on processes and systems, rather than on individual performance (Bowling, 2003). The main objective of this study was to develop a root cause analysis process that would uncover the root cause(s) of uncontrolled variation(s) in human performance and prevent the recurrence of events causing the variation. In addition to addressing individual human performance incidents, it is also necessary continually to manage people’s performance to detect and address any occurrences (or recurrences) of performance variations. Therefore, in addition to the main objective, the study also aimed to develop a Human Performance Management Model that incorporated the root cause analysis process as a problem-solving tool. Action research was used in this study, because of the cyclical iterative nature of this type of research, and because it is a rigorous, responsive and flexible process. The study consisted of three cycles. The end result was a structured root cause analysis process – the Human Performance Variation Analysis (HPVA) process – that enables the systematic collection of valid and reliable information, as is required to solve variation in human performance. The HPVA process is a three-part process that consists of 11 steps. The process is in turn a tool that forms part of a ten-step Human Performance Management Model. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on human performance management by presenting the following: • a systematic root cause analysis process that uncovers the root causes of human performance problems effectively and consistently and that controls these causes of problems in a way that prevents the problems from recurring; and • a Human Performance Management Model that will help to sustain the new, improved performance; prevent the same or similar performance problem(s) in other areas of the organisation; and ultimately, create an environment and culture of continuous human performance improvement. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted