Univ., Diss.--Erfurt, 2007.

This thesis describes a research study that examined how collaborative reflective practice with three staff members in a middle years school affected their psychological constructs of what constitutes a good school. Using an action research design, the study made use of personal construct psychology and the methodology of repertory grid technique. Repertory grid results were analyzed using methods developed from personal construct theory (cluster analysis, principal components analysis and messy change grid analysis). This permitted insight into the nature and processes of changes that occurred. These processes were examined in light of Leithwood’s work on teacher development and Fullan’s thoughts on educational change. Using these models as an analytical framework, an evaluation was made of the potential uses and value of repertory grid technique in middle schools. The technique aligns well with the Leithwood and Fullan models and has notable benefits and advantages to offer the field of educational leadership.

This thesis describes a research study that examined how collaborative reflective practice with three staff members in a middle years school affected their psychological constructs of what constitutes a good school. Using an action research design, the study made use of personal construct psychology and the methodology of repertory grid technique. Repertory grid results were analyzed using methods developed from personal construct theory (cluster analysis, principal components analysis and messy change grid analysis). This permitted insight into the nature and processes of changes that occurred. These processes were examined in light of Leithwood’s work on teacher development and Fullan’s thoughts on educational change. Using these models as an analytical framework, an evaluation was made of the potential uses and value of repertory grid technique in middle schools. The technique aligns well with the Leithwood and Fullan models and has notable benefits and advantages to offer the field of educational leadership.

Konstanz, Univ., Diplomarbeit, 2006.

Zugl.: Bremen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2004.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2000--Freiburg (Breisgau).

The promise of telemedicine is great as observed in developed countries. However, its adoption in developing countries has been very slow. The Kenyan government approved telemedicine (use of ICT to overcome geographical barriers and increase access to health care services) as a strategic approach of improving healthcare delivery especially in the marginalised areas of the country. However, the adoption of telemedicine is further hindered in developing countries by the fact that the cost of implementing telemedicine technology is deemed high and the resources needed are scarce especially in the public sector. Extant literature on healthcare technological innovation indicates that organisation collaboration can expedite the adoption of telemedicine especially in developing countries. Since it is highlighted that empirical evidence on how organisation collaboration can facilitate telemedicine deployment in developing countries is still lacking, this research aims to develop a model to examine the potential of various organisation factors in facilitating telemedicine deployment in developing countries. This study employed a conceptual research framework to examine organisation factors that may influence organisation collaboration in facilitating telemedicine deployment in developing countries. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 50 private and public hospitals located in Eastern Kenya. 177 valid questionnaires were received and analysed using SPSS software (version 20). The findings of this research revealed that Kenyan hospitals collaborate with other organisations mainly to lessen budget restrained suffered during technological innovation process. Further, it was revealed that organisation affiliation might enhance their ability to adopt telemedicine. Organisation affiliation was observed to significantly influence organisation resources, organisation’s innovation acceptance, organisation’s innovative capacities, organisation agility and collaborative innovation aspects. In addition, all the organisational model factors were supported and explained 46.5% of the variance in collaborative innovation internal outcomes and 53.2% of the variance in collaborative innovation external outcomes. However, personnel innovation acceptance made no significant effect on collaborative innovation outcomes.

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Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-16T14:48:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2591414 bytes, checksum: 7d0876b45145b2d4909efd2ccc9586f4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-04-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / With high degree of breadth on the organisation and interdependence with its processes, the deployment of integrated management systems (ERP Enterprise Resource Planning) is not a simple task. Project management failures, unmet expectations, lengthy deployment deadlines and costs that reach up to five times the value of product licensing itself are among the factors that stimulate the development of research on the organizational consequences of deploying such systems and managerial factors that influence or hinder the success of deployments. It can be seen a predominance of technical focus on the issues inherent in deploying ERP. However, it's growing discontent with the inability of that focus to explain some important aspects in CISS projects. In fact, software development is a complex sociotechnical activity, whose success lies in the collective sense of work teams as to their efficiency and ability to solve problems in joint effort. Accordingly, the focus of research, even in those involving technical and social prospects, has prioritized the technology provider teams performance, or development teams, thus ignoring completely the performance of its counterpart in the success of a deployment the customer team. Working on this subject, Bellini (2006) proposed a conceptual framework, METRICS, for planning, control and evaluation support on the performance of the "CuTe" (customer teams), in implementing customized information systems software (CISS). The framework was applied in the execution of a major project ERP deployment in southern Brazil, adopting case study and indepth interviews with analysts, developers and users-keys (lead users) from the system. Considering the relevance of this discussion, the demand for validation of theoretical models, the calling to methodological diversity in the field and regional differences that may interfere in this validation, this dissertation seeks answer to question: the METRICS framework members constructs are verifiable from the construction of cognitive maps of professionals engaged in CISS projects in Brazilian Northeast? Aiming, therefore, to obtain empirical evidence that contribute to a new and original assessment of the original theoretical constructs and nomological networks contained within the framework. Data collection to answer the research question was enlighted by the theory of personal constructs and repertory grid method, integrated with laddering techniques and content analysis, applied on interviews with 16 professionals involved in CISS projects, while the outcomes were discussed from the socio-technical perspective of work systems. With 68 measures empirically verified, 77.3% METRICS framework found backing in professional practice of individuals engaged in CISS projects in the Brazilian states of Bahia, Paraíba and Pernambuco. Discussion of conceptual and theoretical results suggests METRICS framework s actuality, as well as its suitability for broader research on professional management and IT teams. / Com elevado grau de abrangência sobre a organização e interdependência com seus processos, a implantação de sistemas integrados de gestão (ERP enterprise resource planning) não é tarefa simples. Falhas de gestão de projetos, expectativas não atendidas, longos prazos de implantação e custos que alcançam até cinco vezes o valor de licenciamento do produto em si estão entre os fatores que estimulam o desenvolvimento de pesquisas sobre as consequências organizacionais da implantação de tais sistemas e os fatores gerenciais que influenciam ou dificultam o sucesso das implantações. Observa-se predominância de enfoque técnico sobre as questões inerentes à implantação ERP. No entanto, é crescente o descontentamento com a incapacidade desse enfoque em explicar alguns aspectos importantes em projetos. De fato, o desenvolvimento de software é uma complexa atividade sociotécnica, cujo sucesso reside no senso coletivo das equipes de trabalho quanto à sua eficiência e capacidade de resolver problemas em esforço conjunto. Nesse sentido, verifica-se que o foco das pesquisas, mesmo aquelas envolvendo as perspectivas técnica e social, tem priorizado o desempenho das equipes provedoras de tecnologia, ou equipes de desenvolvimento, assim ignorando quase por completo o desempenho de sua contraparte no sucesso de implantações a equipe-cliente. Trabalhando sobre essa temática, Bellini (2006) propôs o framework conceitual METRICS para apoio ao planejamento, controle, avaliação e registro do desempenho de equipes-clientes (CuTes customer teams) em projetos de desenvolvimento de sistemas de informação customizados (CISS). O framework foi aplicado na execução de um grande projeto de implantação ERP na Região Sul do Brasil, adotando estudo de caso e entrevistas em profundidade com analistas, desenvolvedores e usuários-chaves (lead users) do sistema. Considerando a relevância dessa discussão, a demanda por validação de modelos teóricos, o chamado à diversidade metodológica no campo e diferenças regionais que possam interferir nessa validação a presente dissertação busca resposta à seguinte questão de pesquisa: Os construtos do framework METRICS são verificáveis a partir da construção de mapas cognitivos de profissionais de TI atuantes em projetos CISS no Nordeste? Objetiva-se, portanto, obter evidências empíricas que contribuam para uma nova e original validação dos construtos e redes nomológicas daquele framework. A obtenção dos dados para resposta à questão de pesquisa se deu à luz da teoria dos construtos pessoais e do método repertory grid integrado a técnicas de laddering e análise de conteúdo, com aplicação em entrevistas com 16 profissionais de TI atuantes em projetos CISS, e os resultados foram discutidos sob a perspectiva sociotécnica dos sistemas de trabalho. Com 68 medidas verificadas empiricamente, 77,3% do framework METRICS encontrou respaldo na prática profissional de indivíduos engajados em projetos CISS nos estados da Bahia, Paraíba e Pernambuco. Os resultados sugerem a atualidade conceitual e aplicada do framework METRICS em projetos CISS, bem como sua adequação para a realização de pesquisas mais abrangentes sobre gestão de profissionais e equipes de TI.

In software visualization, but also in information visualization in general, there is a great need for evaluation of visualization metaphors. To reduce the amount of empirical studies a omputational approach has been applied successfully, e.g., to graph visualization. It is based on measurable aesthetic heuristics that are used to estimate the human perception and the processing of visualizations. This paper lays a foundation for adopting this approach to any field of information visualization by providing a method, the repertory grid technique, to identify aesthetics that are measurable, metaphor-specific, and relevant to the user in a structured and repeatable way. We identified 25 unique aesthetics and revealed that the visual appearance of the investigated visualizations is mainly influenced by the package structure whereby methods are underrepresented. These findings were used to improve existing visualizations.