Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2006.

Both total quality management (TQM) and the use of information technology (IT) have been widely researched over recent years. However, there has been no well-founded empirical research on the two together - on how IT can support TQM practices. A scarcity of empirical studies on the role of IT in TQM, especially in the non-manufacturing sector, which can illustrate the importance or otherwise of IT for TQM, has prompted this study. Thus the study sought to provide such an empirical base. This study investigated the extent to which IT has been used to support TQM among selected Malaysian public agencies. It also identified the external, organisational and technological factors that may influence the use of IT in TQM. A framework based on the literature of TQM has been derived and used as the conceptual base for the creation of a questionnaire to determine the use of IT in TQM. The questionnaire was sent to 110 Malaysian public agencies that have implemented TQM. The results presented were based on the responses from 47 agencies. The study reveals that IT is helpful for implementing TQM but its usage varies across the nine aspects of TQM processes. 'Important Innovations' exhibits the highest level of IT usage followed closely by 'Information and Analysis'. 'Supplier Quality Assurance', on the other hand, shows the lowest level of IT usage. Regression analysis showed that four independent variables have a significant effect on the use of IT. They are IT experience, top management support, public accountability and IT structure (in order of importance). The responding agencies were then classified into three distinctive IT-usage groups (i. e. low, moderate, and high) according to their IT-usage level. Contextual influences (external, organisational and technological) were then explored using regression analysis. The results revealed that when the IT-usage level is high, technological factors play an important role. However, when the usage level is low, organisational factors become more influential. For the moderate group, both technological and organisational factors affect the usage level.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, November, 1997. / Title from PDF t.p.

Participatory Sensing (PS) is a new data collection paradigm in which people use their cellular phone resources to sense and transmit data of interest to address a collective problem that would have been very difficult to assess otherwise. Although many PS-based applications can be foreseen to solve interesting and useful problems, many of them have not been fully implemented due to privacy concerns. As a result, several privacy-preserving mechanisms have been proposed. This dissertation presents the state-of-the-art of privacy-preserving mechanisms for PS systems. It includes a new taxonomy and describes the most important issues in the design, implementation, and evaluation of privacy-preserving mechanisms. Then, the most important mechanisms available in the literature are described, classified and qualitatively evaluated based on design issues. The dissertation also presents a model to study the interactions between privacy-preserving, incentive and inference mechanisms and the effects that they may have on one another, and more importantly, on the quality of information that the system provides to the final user. Then, a new hybrid privacy-preserving mechanism is proposed. This algorithm dynamically divides the area of interest into cells of different sizes according to the variability of the variable of interest being measured and chooses between two privacy-preserving mechanisms depending on the size of the cell. In small cells, where participants can be identified easier, the algorithm uses a double-encryption technique to protect the privacy of the participants and increase the quality of the information. In bigger cells, where the variability of the variable of interest is low, data anonymization and obfuscation techniques are used to protect the actual location (privacy) of the participant. The proposed mechanism is evaluated along with other privacy-preserving mechanisms using a real PS system for air pollution monitoring. The systems are evaluated considering the quality of information provided to the final user, energy consumption, and the level of privacy protection. This last criterion is evaluated when the adversary is able to compromise one or several records in the system. The experiments show the superior performance of proposed mechanism and the existing trade-offs in terms of privacy, quality of information, and energy consumption.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xxi, 298 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-157).

Thesis (M.S.C.I.T.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jul. 14, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

An ICT tool is not only used in healthcare as an aid for caregivers, but can also help enhance the care experience of care recipients as these tools can bring benefit to the recipient. The positive care experience can also have the opposite effect, depending on the quality of information conveyed to the recipient. This study deals with SMS reminders information related to the quality of the care experience. It examines whether SMS reminders within the health system contains sufficient quality information to influence recipients care experience to the positive. This study was conducted by a qualitative method of semi-structured interviews with both care recipients and caregivers. This is to get two different perspectives on the information and quality care experience – from a care recipients perspective as receiving the SMS reminder, and from a caregivers perspective that send out the SMS reminders. By conducting a literature review, we acquired material that formed the basis of our interview questions. The results of the study show that SMS reminders in the current situation does not contain sufficient high quality information in order to reach a positive care experience for patients. In addition to information quality, we have also identified communication as a major factor contributing to increasing health care experience. Besides these two factors, we could also deduce that health care consumers have different needs depending on the life situation they are in.

This thesis describes the use of calculation and the quality of information which is given. The goal of this thesis is to analyse the current situation in the company, assess and propose appropriated options for improving the structure of costs in a calculation formula and then the management would receive quality information for managing. The theoretical part describes the classification of costs, calculations and the system of calculations. The practical part is based on acquired knowledge and is illustrated by this specific water-supply company including its financial analysis and analysis of methodology for compiling calculations and related proposals to improve.

Introduction: Information overload occurs when received information exceed the consumer's ability to process the information and the consumers are overwhelmed by the information. How the consumer can process the information and if the consumer will be overwhelmed depends on the quantity and quality of the information. There is a large amount of information on social media and social media is a crucial platform for companies to communicate to consumers, that can cause information overload, whereas the information consumer receives effects consumers purchase intentions. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explain the effect information overload in terms of quantity and quality of information on social media has on consumers purchase intentions. Conceptual: The theory regarding information overload was conceptualised with the theory of consumers purchase intentions. This lead to the two hypotheses; H1: Information overload in terms of quantity of information on social media has a positive effect on consumers purchase intentions; H2: Information overload in terms of quality of information on social media has a positive effect on consumers purchase intentions. Methodology: The research approach used was deductive with a quantitative nature. Following, a questionnaire was formed and shared online in order to gather data to meet the purpose. The sample used was convenience- and snowball sampling and consisted of social media users. After collecting the data, 173 responses could be used and the answers was then analysed to get the results. Result: Both hypotheses could be rejected. H1, did not have a effect on consumers purchase intentions and H2, had a negative effect on consumers purchase intentions. Conclusion: When putting information overload in a social media context and its effect on consumer purchase intentions, the results differs compared to previous research of information overload in terms of quantity of information but not regarding information overload in terms of quality of information.

Introdução: A qualidade da informação é um assunto muito complexo, cheio de meandros pelo fato de lidar com um número extremamente grande de variáveis, por essa razão é preciso investir em sistemas de informações gerenciais, implementar o processo de mudança organizacional e capacitar as pessoas para adaptação às novas realidades. Há grande necessidade de veracidade e exatidão nos registros de saúde para embasamento de estudos epidemiológicos, desenvolvimento de políticas de saúde e estratégias de prevenção e promoção da saúde. Dados incorretos trazem prejuizos do planejamento à execução da atenção. Método: Estudo longitudinal, qualitativo, retrospectivo para a análise da qualidade das codificações atribuidas aos 1194 diagósticos em prontuários de clínica médica, cirúrgica e UTI de um hospital de pequeno porte no Vale do Paraíba. Resultados: Foram consultados 1.194 prontuários, foram identificados: 465 diagnósticos sem a codificação atribuida (38,94 por cento ). Após a correção do banco de dados, realizada por um codificador treinado, 511 das 729 (70,10 por cento ) codificações estavam adequadas, 68 (9,33 por cento ) diagnósticos continham uma codificação completamente diferente da correta, 82 (11,24 por cento ) codificações estavam apenas com a sub categoria incorreta e 68 (9,33 por cento ) continham apenas o capítulo adequado. Conclusão: A qualidade de informação no que diz respeito à codificação diagnóstica tem um índice de concordância de 70,10 por cento e de discordância de 29,90 por cento . Falhas no fluxo administrativo, o despreparo das equipes operacionais para lançar as informações adequadamente no sistema integrado do Hospital e a ausência de um profissional codificador treinado para tal atividade são pontos fracos encontrados e que podem ter contribuido para uma taxa de não preenchimento dos códigos elevada e que modificou alguns grupos de patologias ditos como principais e também a ordem de representatividade destes nos rankings epidemiológicos. / Introduction: The quality of information is a very complex subject, full of intricacies because dealing with an extremely large number of variables, therefore we must invest in management information systems, implement organizational change process and enable people to adaptat to new realities. There is great need for truthfulness and accuracy in health records for basis of epidemiological studies, health policy development and strategies for prevention and health promotion. Incorrect data bring losses from planning to implementation of the attention. Method: Longitudinal study, qualitative, retrospective to examine the quality of coding assigned to 1.194 diagnoses to general medical records, surgical and ICU of a small hospital in the Vale do Paraíba. Results: 1.194 records were consulted, were identified: 465 diagnoses without the assigned encoding (38.94 per cent ). After the database correction, performed by a trained coder, 511 of 729 (70.10 per cent ) encodings were appropriate, 68 (9.33 per cent ) diagnoses contained a completely different coding from the correct, 82 (11.24 per cent ) encodings were only with the subcategory incorrect and 68 (9.33 per cent ) contained only the appropriate chapter. Conclusions: quality information with respect to the diagnostic code has a concordance rate of 70.10 per cent and 29.90 per cent of mismatch. Flaws in the administrative flow, the unpreparedness of the operational teams to launch the information properly in the integrated system of the Hospital and the absence of a professional coder trained for such activity are found weaknesses that may have contributed to a high non-completion rate of Codes that modified some of the main groups of diseases and also the representation of the order of epidemiological rankings.