Masters of Science / This study aimed to review the change management implemented in a Biopharmaceutical company in Cape Town in the light of existing literature on change management theory. Three main constructs were identified: process of change, readiness for change and climate of change. A quantitative pencil-and-paper survey were used to explore and describe employee experience of the change management process within a single department of a biopharmaceutical company in Cape Town. Cronbach alpha coefficient confirmed internal reliability (α = 0.94) of the questionnaire constructs. Employees across all ages reported average scores for all constructs (M ≥ 2.5 < 4), indicating a similar experience regardless of age. A medium-strong positive correlation (p < 0.01; r = 0.49) was observed between process of change and climate of change. Based on the findings from the literature review and empirical research, recommendations were made to improve the change management processes and experience within biopharmaceutical companies. This study not only contributes to the body of knowledge on change management literature in the biopharmaceutical context, but also provides insight to a biopharmaceutical company to improve future change management practices.

Background: There is an increasing importance of sustainable development in today’s society as a result of various social, environmental, and economic challenges facing the people and planet. To create the change needed to shift from unsustainable activities, everyone must participate, including business organizations. Here, the concept of change readiness is highly relevant as it helps prepare individuals and organizations to accept and not be resistant to change initiatives.  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and explore (1) how change agents create change readiness to prepare employees for organizational change towards sustainability and (2) how these efforts are perceived and experienced by employees.   Method: This thesis uses a qualitative approach with an exploratory nature where two companies (case studies) are included. In total, five organizational members were interviewed to collect empirical data: two change agents and three employees.    Conclusion: The findings display that change agents use two strategies for spreading the change message (persuasive communication and active participation) and unintentionally use the five cognitive components of change readiness (discrepancy, appropriateness, efficacy, principal support and personal valence) to prepare employees for organizational change towards sustainability. In turn, these efforts are perceived and experienced by employees as enhancing their level of change readiness.

The aim of this thesis is to create a tool which quantifies qualitative measures into an indicator system. The system is created on behalf of a company which is associated with investments in new technologies on the energy market. The indicator system is to take into consideration important factors in the first part of an investment cycle, in other words, the screening phase. Qualitative measures will, in each indicator, become quantified and will together create a weighted grade on a potential investment that can help the investor decide whether or not to move forward with said investment. The aim of the thesis is also to evaluate the indicator system on current possible investment options in order to analyse and discuss how the final product will work in the investor company ́s actual context. The method consists of two main parts, a gap analysis which is conducted within the investor company and its owners and a compilation of which indicators that are of greatest importance in a screening phase according to earlier research. The main result of the study is the full indicator system which consist of four indicators: technology readiness of the potential investment, contextual analysis of the potential investment, diversity within the company and the financial burn rate of the company. When applied to current potential investments the result showed that there was negligible to moderate correlation between the indicators, which was important for the system to be validated. It was also concluded that a potential investment should exceed 60 percent of the possible maximum grade in order to pass through the screening phase. The results also showed that there were four apparent gaps, namely consensus between the involved actors, utilization rate of the organizations competencies, to enter new markets and the right competency to do so. The future potential investments of the investor company should therefore aim to fill in these gaps in order to strengthen the role of the company. If doing so while using the indicator system, the risks of choosing investment options that does not fit into the investor company ́s context, will be minimized.

A 2009-2010 National Assessment Survey of youth with special needs such as hemophilia showed that 40% of youth between the ages of 12 and 17 had a transition plan before transitioning to adult care services. The lack of a transition plan caused youth to fall into a fragmented care gap when transition services are inadequate. During the gap, youth with hemophilia increased use of the emergency room and were hospitalized for complications such as frequent joint or muscle bleeding and joint disability. As a result, the health status of affected youth becomes fragile and health care costs escalate. The practice problem for this DNP project was the need for transition education and planning for youth with hemophilia. The practice-focused question asked whether a transition quick guide for youth (aged 12-17) with hemophilia enabled them to increase their knowledge of self-care management skills as evidenced by increased post-test scores of transition readiness. The purpose of the project was to prepare youth with hemophilia who are 12 to 17 years old to make a smooth transition from pediatric to the adult hemophilia clinic by using a transition quick guide to educate them about hemophilia and self-care management. The model used to inform this project was the plan-do-study-act (PDSA), a quality improvement method used to test a relatively small change of transition services within the hemophilia clinic. Sources of evidence were taken from 10 participants with hemophilia. Data to assess the project outcome was collected from pre and post educational interventions, along with demographic data to characterize the sample population from participants' clinic records. A descriptive statistics approach to obtain percentage differences between pretest and post test outcome data was used to answer the project question. Pretest data scores on a 10-point scale were between 19% (lowest score for pretest), and 58% (highest score for pretest). Post test scores after educational session were between 42% (lowest score for post test scores), and 95% (highest post test score). The percentage differences between pretest and post test showed a 14% increase in knowledge, showing that knowledge increased using the transition quick guide. The implication for positive social change was that youth who are adequately prepared for the transition to adult care services will avoid unnecessary health complications and enjoy an improved quality of life.

Students with mild/moderate disabilities frequently experience difficulty in mathematics in high school, and thus are often unprepared for math in college. The student researcher conducted a survey examining the perceptions regarding mathematical readiness of such students by professionals who work with them in high school. Participants included 47 high school special education teachers who completed an online questionnaire about the preparedness of students with disabilities in various mathematical constructs (i.e., algebra, geometry, number sense, calculator skills, and study skills) and the importance of those constructs using Likert-type rankings, as well as perceptions of barriers for transitioning to college. Ratings of student preparedness were low, with a variety of perceived barriers related to family, student, system, and teacher factors. A wide range of potential solutions was also offered, including more parent involvement, more study time and perseverance, better teaching/greater accountability from teachers in younger grades, more co-teaching/less pull-out classes, more math labs in upper grades, more math exposure and practice/math every day, and making math more interesting and applicable/gain student buy-in. Results have implications in terms of the need for greater mathematical preparation for students with disabilities transitioning to college, the importance of teacher perception, and for greater communication and collaboration between high school special education teachers and college disability resource center personnel to increase that preparation.

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The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) plays a critical role in modern industrial systems, contributing to increased efficiency, productivity, and innovation. However,its rapid evolution and the complexity of devices pose significant challenges to digital forensics readiness (DFR). This thesis aims to provide a set of guidelines forimplementing DFR within IIoT environments, addressing challenges such as datacollection and logging, device and data identification, verification, security, analysis,and reporting. The framework was developed through rigorous research processesand guided by expert interviews and a final survey, adhering to design science principles. Although the study’s outcomes are subject to some limitations, such as a smallnumber of experts for evaluation, the research contributes to a significant gap in theexisting literature by providing a robust, adaptable, and comprehensive guide to DFRin IIoT. Offering a foundation for future research to build upon, enhance DFR, andaddressing emerging IIoT technologies and scenarios.

Intractable conflicts are characterized by their duration, level of violence as well as their attractivity of conflict management and resolution efforts. When mediated, they are most often dealt with coercive tactics designed to pressure the parties to reach an agreement. Despite such adverse context, some third-parties choose to remain mildly involved in the process. This has notably been the case for numerous mediations attempts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The objective of this research is to explore under what conditions can facilitative mediation reach a formal agreement in an intractable conflict? We conduct a structured focused comparison of two mediation episodes, the 1993 Norwegian mediation and 2000 American mediation of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. In order to investigate our research question, we employ and articulate the readiness theory elaborated by Dean Pruitt. The empirical findings support our hypothesis that a high level of readiness is necessary for facilitative mediation to result in an agreement. However, some limitations and alternative explanations challenge the explanatory power of our theoretical framework. Further research is necessary to consolidate and precise Pruitt’s model.

This thesis investigates how Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) are implemented within road transport and explores what the potential and intentions of future ITS implementations should be. ITS refers to all information technologies that are used in order to create an improved transport system in terms of safety, effectiveness and sustainability. The study was performed in collaboration with Trafikverket and aims to support them in their work. By conducting interviews, a GAP-analysis made it possible to identify gaps between the current state and the desired state of ITS implementation. The results of the interviews distinguished several common causes for problems with implementation of ITS. Hence, the identified gaps were: responsibility, data exchange and efficiency connections. This study implies that these three gaps are keywords necessary to address in order to solve the identified problems. In order to create an understanding for the future of ITS, a survey was also conducted. The respondents got to evaluate different ITS technologies on a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale. Due to the survey, one of the conclusions is to aim for the highest level of TRL for the four technologies identified with a high TRL. Furthermore, this study came to the conclusion that ITS technology currently have two big societal effects; ITS-technology enables behavioral changes among the users and already existing resources can be used more efficiently. The last conclusion of the study concerned the ITS Directive issued by the European Union (EU). The ITS directive has been important in order to advance the implementation of ITS within EU and Sweden. However, a need to further clarify the importance of international collaboration was identified. Also, an upcoming revision of the directive would be beneficial since its changes would address the gaps identified by this study.

This study attempted to detremine some of the outstanding problems arising in the teaching of reading to first-grade Spanish-American children, and to discover and evaluate methods and materials used by administrators and first-grade teachers in attempting to solve these problems.