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No description available.

In the last two decades, ignoring the bulk of educational research findings, policymakers shaped educational policy into a standardized testing movement that now dominates education. Now, to comply with No Child Left Behind, teachers and administrators shape curriculum in a way that maximizes student achievement measured by these tests. Recently, business and educational leaders initiated a reform movement to broaden curriculum, narrowed by this inadequate standardized testing movement, so that necessary 21st century learning skills can be practiced through project-based learning. The Federal Government’s enforcement of power over education created the climate that defined the current educational policy that gave birth to the standardized testing movement. In this climate, this reform to boost 21st century learning skills does not gain practical traction that results in changed policy, because it is impossible for standardized testing to assess most of these skills and this type of learning due to the limitations of bubbled-multiple choice questions. Instead of shaping policy to foster these 21st century learning skills, policymakers push another reform, through TAP (The System for Teacher and Student Advancement) and Value-Added Assessment. This reform attempts to improve instruction through teacher merit pay--a device that has failed many times in educational reform history. Unfortunately, most TAP systems use standardized tests as the only student achievement measurement, so almost all student achievement gains involving 21st century learning skills and project-based learning are not officially measured. Efforts to use portfolios and authentic assessment, the measurement tools that should be used to measure these higherlevel skills, are not supported by policymakers, because the lack of standardization requires more trust in the assessment ability of local school districts and communities. Consequently, a massive disconnect exists where standardized testing is being reinvigorated instead of de-emphasized, and this comes with the potential price of many teachers and administrators not embracing 21st century learning skills and project-based learning as much as they could if they were not bound by standardized test results. Ultimately, these two reforms that contradict each other involve larger issues of jurisdictional power over education at federal, state, and local levels, and ideological challenges to teacher job security and teacher representation.

Kunskap har kommit att bli ansedd som en strategiskt viktig tillgång för organisationer. I projektbaserade organisationer där projekt bedrivs fristående har problem med att  systematiskt integrera ett arbete med kunskapsöverföring identifierats. Projekt kan beskrivas som fristående organisationer utan historia vilket medför att kunskap inom projektet måste skapas under projektets gång om den inte inhämtas utifrån. Denna studie adresserar utmaningen med att bedriva en effektiv kunskapsöverföring inom organisationer. Då många satsningar på kunskapsöverföring misslyckas syftar denna studie därför till att undersöka hur kunskapsöverföring kan bli en integrerad del av en projektbaserad organisation. För att uppfylla syftet med studien har en fallstudie genomförts på Försvarets Materielverk i Stockholm. I studien har processen för kunskapsöverföring analyserats där de ingående delarna i processen identifierats. Vidare har även de faktorer som påverkar integrering av ett bredare arbete med kunskapsöverföring identifierats. Utifrån processen för kunskapsöverföring och dess påverkande faktorer har en strategi för arbetet med kunskapsöverföring inom en projektbaserad organisation presenterats. Det empiriska materialet har inhämtats via intervjuer, en enkätundersökning samt interna dokument. Resultatet från den empiriska datainsamlingen visar att det är flera parametrar som måste samverka med varandra för att kunskapsöverföring ska bli en integrerad del av en projektbaserad organisation. Inom den studerade organisationen ses barriärer som förhindrar effektivt tillvaratagande, distribuering, lagring och återvinning av kunskap. För att hantera dessa barriärer och möjliggöra en utveckling av kunskapsöverföringen inom organisationen ges följande rekommendationer till organisationsledningen: Styrning för kunskapsöverföring från organisationsledningen för att uppnå ett systematiskt arbete med kunskapsöverföring i organisationens projekt. Skapa funktionella förutsättningar i projekt för att utgöra en grund för hur arbetet med kunskapsöverföring ska bedrivas Arbeta långsiktigt då en förändringsprocess är tidskrävande / Knowledge has in recent years become considered as a strategically important asset for organizations. In project-based organizations, a problem with a systematic integration of knowledge management has been identified. Projects can be described as separate organizations without history, which means that knowledge must be created within the project if it is not acquired from the outside. This study addresses the challenge with conducting effective knowledge management within organizations. As many efforts in knowledge management fail, the aim of this study is therefore to investigate how knowledge management can become an integrated process of a project-based organization. In order to fulfill the purpose of the study, a case study at the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration has been conducted. The study has analyzed the process of knowledge transfer, where the components of the process have been identified. Furthermore, factors affecting the integration of a broader work with Knowledge Management have been identified. Based on the process of Knowledge Management, together with the factors affecting the process, a strategy for working with Knowledge Management in a project-based organization has been presented. The empirical material is gathered through interviews, a survey and internal documents. The result shows that there are several parameters that must interact in order for Knowledge Management to become an integrated process in a project-based organization. Within the studied organization, barriers that prevent effective acquisition, distribution, storage and retrieval of knowledge, are identified. To address these barriers and enable development of the Knowledge Management process within the organization, the following recommendations are given to the management of the organization.  Governance for Knowledge Management from organizational management in order to achieve a systematic approach to Knowledge Management within the projects.  Create functional prerequisites in order to provide a basis for how the Knowledge Management process is to be conducted.  Work with a long-term perspective, as change processes takes time.

Background: Project-based organizations have become increasingly important in theory and practice. In these kinds of organizations core activities are performed by means of projects which offer advantages such as adaptability and flexibility. Yet, the project-based work context also bears risks for the mental health of the employees involved. Purpose: The research objective of this study is to enhance our holistic understanding of mental health promotion in project-based organizations from the perspective of individual project workers. The focus is on challenges that project workers face in their project-based work regarding mental health, how they cope with these challenges, and which organizational support mechanisms help them to cope with the challenges they face. Methodology: We chose a qualitative research approach with semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Ten project workers from different industries were interviewed. They worked in PBOs in Germany and Sweden. In addition, we talked to four mental health experts and participated in a workshop and three webinars on mental health at work. Findings: High and complex workload, difficulties in achieving work-life balance, and uncertainty regarding new projects were highlighted as main stressors. The project workers use individual coping strategies to deal with these challenges and they find themselves to be responsible for their mental health. Still, social and structural support mechanisms werefound to be crucial, since they serve as necessary preconditions to effectively make use of individual coping strategies.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The increasing trends towards customization which has also been emphasized as a competitive advantage have resulted in engineering-to-order (ETO) companies having a leading role in many industries. However, in parallel with this digital information and technological advancement is rising, and companies are aiming to improve their processes to consequently reach greater success in their operations. Recent research has discussed Industry 4.0 and improved production planning methods in the manufacturing industry. Thus, manufacturing companies are striving to increase their efficiency levels and readily available data has been one of the most important and common denominators for this transformation, in fact, considered a necessity to survive in the current highly competitive market. Despite this, data collection which is a crucial part remains unexplored by academia and especially in ETO but also production planning methodologies as well as tool considering that they have a complex production process and relies heavily on manual labor from skilled operators.  Thus, this thesis sets out to investigate and explore shopfloor data collection and production planning and control (PPC) in the ETO environment. The research approach used here was a case study at an electrical transformer manufacturing plant located in Sweden. However, this study has also considered benchmarking companies as well to achieve the result of this study. Data collection techniques used were interviews, observation, and an extensive literature review that has guided the realization of the aim and gave a base to the suggested improvement for the problems identified. The findings of this master thesis illustrated that there is a lack of detailed plans, detailed information, manual effort, and lack of IT development which negatively impacts the performance of PPC. Furthermore, this had a strong correlation with the still manual shopfloor data collection that many ETO companies rely on. Principles that can be employed to mitigate the effects are further discussed in detail throughout the thesis.