Thesis advisor: Elizabeth Twomey / This case study evaluated the impact of implementing a Professional Learning Community (PLC) model on the role of teacher-leaders in a suburban school district. The study seeks to understand how the role of teacher-leader has traditionally been viewed by teachers and administrators and what, if any, changes have occurred in that role since PLCs were first implemented. Finally the study looks for signs that the initiative may be sustainable over the long-term by examining the changes that the PLC initiative had on the attitudes of both principals and teacher-leaders. This qualitative case study was conducted by a senior administrator in the school district, acting as participant-observer. Data collection instruments included pre- and post-study interviews, document review, researcher-observation of relevant events and the results of several surveys conducted by others during the implementation of the initiative. The study concludes that the role of teacher-leaders changed during the course of the PLC implementation with teacher-leaders becoming more active in school improvement efforts. The study also found that Principals were more willing to distribute leadership to teachers and teacher-leaders after the Professional Learning Community initiative and teachers and teacher-leaders became more committed to working on school improvement efforts as well. Using current research into the topic of sustainable change, the study suggests that these three findings are indicators the Professional Learning Communities may represent a sustainable concept to drive educational improvement efforts over the long-term. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

This study attempted a holistic synthesis of the problems of Sustainable Development (SD) and Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in the dry deciduous forests of south western Zambia. There are scale-based implications across the entire range of actions required for SFM and REDD+ implementation in tropical forests. Addressing scale mismatches in ecological, social and socio-ecological systems is essential and may help resolve epistemological differences in interdisciplinary research. The importance of local context to SD and SFM supported a case study approach to the social-ecological system. Leaf phenology shows regional variation in deciduousness and varies spatially on a local scale. This highlights the need for researching the eco-physiological source of this variation to assess the effects of climate change on forest phenology. Livelihood analysis in forest communities showed that high levels of social and natural capital confer community resilience to climate change. Land use change was mapped between 1975 and 2005. Zambezi Teak forests decreased in area by 54% between 1975 and 2005. However, changes in area weighted Above Ground Biomass (AGB) are negligible because Zambezi Teak forests are replaced by other woody vegetation. The differences in AGB between plot-based field measurements of AGB and published global biomass maps mean that these maps are not useful for REDD+ projects at the project scale (~10,000 ha). Governance arrangements for Zambezi Teak forests differ between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Although the forests in Zimbabwe have an age structure skewed towards smaller age classes than forests in Zambia, possibly indicating a recovery from logging, this study has not accounted for other covariates which determine forest condition. This research emphasises the importance of case studies for building a global database for inclusion in a meta-analysis, and for the contextual focus which a holistic approach brings to the action-based agenda at the heart of SD and SFM.

Yes / ”Promoting sustainable change” provides answers to those and similar questions and encourages people to learn more about gender equality and diversity in research and innovation systems. This is a toolkit for experienced and new innovators as well as for people who want to learn more about how understanding gender and diversity can lead to more innovation in their everyday lives. / FP7

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Purpose – The purpose of this research was to examine the translation of ‘moments of insights’ into sustainable change(s) by executive coachees with different learning styles six to 12 months after the executive coaching intervention had ended. Design/methodology/approach – In this qualitative study, 12 coachees who had completed coaching programmes six to 12 months prior to commencement of the study were selected based on Kolb’s four learning styles (that is, three coachees per learning style). The coachees or research participants were executives, senior managers, professionals or entrepreneurs who had been coached by executive coaches. Essentially, there were three parts to the research process. The first step was to source a sample of coachees using the Kolb’s learning style inventory. The second step was to conduct a semi-structured interview with each coachee. All the interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The third step was to analyse and compare the data using thematic analysis. The findings were interpreted and links were made to the relevant literature. Key findings – Coachees with different learning styles seemed to remember their ‘moments of insight’ in alignment with their learning styles. These coachees, with different learning styles, appeared to translate their ‘moments of insight’ into sustainable change congruently with their learning style preferences. Where any variation was noted in the findings within a learning style, generally it was associated with the coachee having a more balanced learning style, or having a more extreme style within the relevant quadrant of the learning grid. Research limitations/implications - The sample size of this study was small. Nonetheless, the study was intended to be qualitative rather than quantitative. Practical implications – There are implications of this research for both coaches and training institutions for coaches. For the coaches: To recognise how ‘moments of insight’ could lead to transformation of coachees with different learning styles. Knowing and understanding learning style preferences can deepen and further embed learning with regard to the coaching process. Training institutions for coaches: These training institutions need to consider incorporating learning styles in the content of their programme, so that coaches can optimise their coaching of individuals with different learning styles - and learn to work more effectively with metaphors in their coaching interventions with coachees having different learning styles. Originality/value – The study adds to the body of knowledge on understanding how coachees’ different learning styles can impact on coaching, the learning process and the sustainability of changes emanating from the coaching.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:19:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2006 - Luciana Pucci Santos.pdf: 3517624 bytes, checksum: b1e76e06cf5e955e78ca409b0d9a06eb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-04-17 / The present work deals with the subject the management of the sustainable organizacional change in small company in its environments, focusing the problem of its incapacity to support change processes. It was arisen assumption of that the complementary correlation enters the theories of organizacional learning: Fifth Disciplina, Occult Cognition of Santiago and Conex?es between the Phenomena basing conceptually the application of the methodology of Pesquisa-A??o for implantation of the management of the sustainable change in the case study, would result in lines of direction to this type of management. This is the assumption has as objective to revise lines of direction for the conduction of the management of the change and to adjust them it small company and to point a possibility of application of these, by means of the results gotten in the small studied company. In this intention, the adopted methodology was of a study of case carried through through the research-action as a method of conduction of applied empirical research. However, after the stages of intervention of the research-action in the company in study, verified considerable changes in the satisfaction of the collaborators and a new form of leadership supporting the new organizacional dynamics, of which it was possible to survey lines of direction for the conduction of the sustainable change in small company and to point suggestions to the studied company and the future studies. / O presente trabalho trata o tema da gest?o da mudan?a organizacional sustent?vel em pequena empresa em seus ambientes, focalizando o problema da sua incapacidade de sustentar processos de mudan?a. Levantou-se a suposi??o de que a correla??o complementar entre as teorias de aprendizagem organizacional: Quinta Disciplina, Cogni??o de Santiago e Conex?es Ocultas entre os Fen?menos embasando conceitualmente a aplica??o da metodologia de Pesquisa-A??o para implanta??o da gest?o da mudan?a sustent?vel no estudo de caso, resultaria em diretrizes a este tipo de gest?o. Esta suposi??o tem como objetivos revisar diretrizes para a condu??o da gest?o da mudan?a e adequ?-los a pequena empresa e apontar uma possibilidade de aplica??o dessas, por meio dos resultados obtidos na pequena empresa estudada. Neste intuito, a metodologia adotada foi a de um estudo de caso realizado atrav?s da pesquisa-a??o como um m?todo de condu??o de pesquisa emp?rica aplicada. Contudo, ap?s as etapas de interven??o da pesquisa-a??o na empresa em estudo, verificou-se mudan?as consider?veis na satisfa??o dos colaboradores e uma nova forma de lideran?a sustentando a nova din?mica organizacional, da qual foi poss?vel aferir-se diretrizes para a condu??o da mudan?a sustent?vel em pequena empresa e apontar sugest?es ? empresa estudada e a futuros estudos.

In the business sector there is increasing pressure for organisations to embrace Sustainable Development - but what does it really mean for the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Sector? While this concept has received considerable attention in the academic literature, legislation and common language, it has perhaps inevitably lost some of its precision. Within business ventures in the industrialised world, sustainable development has only been applied in a few bigger enterprises. Given that Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) make up the majority of manufacturing capacity in industrial economies it is -worthwhile to examine the concept in order to assess its relevance to the specific needs of SMEs. The author proposes in this research that a very successful way for SMEs to contribute positively towards sustainable development and indeed to survive in a highly competitive environment is to embrace waste minimisation. The author reports that smaller businesses appear to see waste minimisation as peripheral rather than integral to sound and competitive business practice. She argues that waste minimisation can in fact be the key driver for sustainable change within the Small and Medium-Sized sector. The author reports upon her participation in two European Regional Development-funded projects, namely the Environmental Enterprise Project, and the Environmental Mentoring Project, assisting SMEs to establish waste minimisation programmes. These projects served the purpose of gathering raw data for analysis. The projects spanned 3 years and, during that time, a novel -waste minimisation methodology was developed -which generated cost savings and environmental benefits. The principal findings of this research are (i) the waste rninimisation methodology can be effectively used to achieve cultural change within the organisation, (ii) defining waste as "anything that doesn't add value to the customer" enabled the companies to more readily understand waste and thus positively contribute to business improvement.

Over the last two decades, biophilic design and green architecture have been gaining moremomentum throughout the world, to combat climate change and promote sustainability.Biophilic design states that humans have an innate connection with nature, and thatconnection invokes human well-being, productivity, coexistence with nature, andbiodiversity. It is estimated that by 2050, over 65% of people will live in urban settings, which should incentivize biophilic design oriented urban planning. Introducing biophilic design aspects in neighbourhoods can create environments for betterconnection between residents, and with nature. This research evaluates the affordability ofbiophilic designed apartments and if there is a correlation between the biophilic designintensity and the price tag. Research also aims to review the importance and barriers of biophilic design apartments among urban oriented academics and architects using semi-structured interviews. This paper intends to fill a research gap and provide a comprehensive understanding of affordability of biophilic designed apartments, in varying geographicalareas. The analysis was done in three steps of mixed methodology using a housing affordabilityindex, a biophilic pattern score and interviews. The findings highlight the crisis of housingunaffordability, specifically proving biophilic design apartments are severely unaffordableusing quantitative research. The study also established neutral correlation between thebiophilic patterns intensity and apartment affordability index of the selected buildingsamples. Thus, there is further research needed to find the causes of housing unaffordability,which directly equates to the health and quality of people. The research gave insights onreasoning behind low prevalence of biophilic design apartments. To summarise, the studyhighlights an important issue of unaffordability that needs to be addressed by stakeholderslike the government, planning committee, architects, and real estate developers.

The global market is very competitive due to fast changes in complex business environments and to survive or expand the business, organizations must embrace organizational change. However, adapting to change is not always easy, where organizations may experience obstacles and resistance along the way. Organizations may also experience that it is very hard to implement lean successfully, due to lack of know-how but especially resistance. The traditional way is to blame the blue-collars for the disturbing circumstances but in modern times the wind has changed its course where the managers themselves can be a contributor for implementation failures. Therefore, the aim of the research is to investigate what advantages that can be obtained by implementing a certain change initiative. Furthermore, to determine where resistance occurs and how to eliminate or reduce them. The change initiative in this research is implemented by conducting a case study in a Small Medium Enterprise (SMEs), where the main goal is to reduce the changeover time of a machine, by finding improvement suggestions using the Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology. The results generated several improvement opportunities and gave an indication that there is a huge potential for improvements and elimination of waste during a typical changeover. The positive outcomes of implementing these improvement opportunities could theoretically reduce the changeover time, which directly reduces the overall cost but higher responsiveness, flexibility and efficiency can also be obtained. However, the evidence tells a story where the organization could experience obstacles during the implementation of the improvement suggestions, due to several factors. Surprisingly, the evidence points out that one root problem for resistance is difficulties of describing the underlying reason of the change initiative to the blue-collars. Moreover, there is in fact resistance and lack of awareness of the SMED methodology among the blue-collars and the managers, where fear of the unknown is another root problem for resistance.

Bakgrund: För att hjälpa användare genom de IT-förändringsprocesser som genomförs på grund av digitalisering använder förändringsledningens verktyg inom change management. I tidigare forskning framgår att användarinvolvering är viktigt för att förändringar ska kunna bli framgångsrika, speciellt inom IT. Samtidigt visar forskaretyder forskningen på att hanteringen involveringen av användare i förändringsprocesser är problematisk, exempelvis på grund av användares inställning och motivation. Eftersom nya IT-system förväntas användas av just användare är en förståelse av deras situation viktig för att förändringsledningen ska kunna skapa förutsättningar för att genomföra hållbara förändringar som är hållbara i organisationen. Syfte: Studien syftar till att undersöka på vilka sätt intressenter med olika perspektiv  användarena och förändringsledningen upplevt en genomförd IT-förändringsprocess, med fokus på användarnas involvering i och inställning till förändring. Studien syftar därigenom att visa hur en flerdimensionell syn och förståelse för en förändring kan hjälpa organisationer i deras respektive förändringsarbeten. Detta för att reda utse hur en flerdimensionell syn och förståelse för av en förändring kan hjälpa organisationer att genomföra mer hållbara förändringar. Metod: Med en kvalitativ ansats genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med användare samt personer ur ledningen på två organisationer samt den gemensamma förändringsledningen då. dDessa organisationer har tillsammans har genomfört en förändringsprocess. som Förändringen motsvarar vårt studerade fall i denna fallstudie. Det empiriska materialet har sedan tolkats och analyserats så att vi kunnat dra slutsatser utifrån det. Slutsats: Användare och förändringsledare kan upplevera förändringsprocesser olika utifrån deras respektive perspektiv. Exempelvis har dDetDet upplevda behovet av en förväntad förändring har visatr sig ha stor påverkan på användarnas inställning till den studerade förändringen. Detta både gällande deras vilja att medverka samt deras acceptans av förändringen. För att ledare ska kunna genomföra hållbara förändringar visar studien vikten av att centrera användarna, exempelvis genom informering, användarmedverkan och utbildning, för att öka derass involvering och kunskap. Att ha användaren i fokus är inte bara viktigt under själva projektprocessen, utan även under tiden efter att förändringens resultat implementerats genomförts. Detta för att användarna ska kunna få stöd i sin anpassning och transitionsprocess och därmed ta till sig förändringen fullt ut. Enligt vår studie skulle det därigenom öka möjligheterna för organisationen att genomföra förändringar som uppnår sitt förväntade värde ur olika intressenters både förändringsledningens och användarnas perspektiv och därmed bidra till förändringens hållbarhet. / Background: To help users through an IT change process, that is implemented to attain the need of digitalization, different tools for of change management are used. Previous research state that users and user involvement in change processes are important factors to be able to succeed with changein IT. Additionally, research shows that management of users is problematic due to user attitude and their motivation. Since a new system is expected to be used by the users, it is important for the change management to gain a good understanding of the users' situation to create a basis for organizations to attain sustainable changes. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine how the stakeholdersusers and change management  with different perspectives experience an implemented IT change processes, focusing on the user’s involvement and their attitude towards it. Furthermore the study aimstudy aims to unravel how a multidimensional perspective and understanding can help organizations to implement more sustainable changes.   Method: Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews led to a conduction of empirical data from users and change leaders from two organizations. These two organizations had together accomplished a change process which we use as our case study. Furthermore, the empirical data has been interpreted and analyzed in order to conduce a conclusion. Conclusion: Users and the change management of an organizationleaders can experience change processes different depending onaccording to their different perspectives. For instance, tOur caseThe study showed that the expected change has a big impact on the users' attitude towards the change process, concerning b. oth their ambition to participate and to accept the change. We suggest the management toThe management should centralize the users, using informing, user participation and education to increase their involvement and knowledge. To centralize the user is not only important during the project process but it is also important after the result of the change has been implemented. The change management needneeds to support the users during their adaption and transition process for them to assimilate the changefully absorb the change. According to our study, it would therefore increase the opportunities for the organization to accomplish changes that can attain it’sits expected value from the perspective of different stakeholdersusers and change management to eventually terminate in sustainable change..

This paper examined how Change Management and Transformational Leadership can be effective tools in transitioning towards sustainable agriculture in Europe. This paper starts with providing empirical evidence for climate change and shows that Northern and Southern Europe are impacted differently by climate change. Then this paper examined how climate change affects farmers in the different parts of Europe and what Societal, Environmental, Leadership and Organisational changes have to be made to transition towards sustainable agriculture in Europe. The qualitative analysis shows that, according to farmer associations, there is a need for a variety of options, a lack of communication and insufficient involvement of farmers on a policy making level. This paper ends with explaining how Change Management and Transformational Leadership can be used as tools to improve communication between stakeholders and improve the involvement of farmers in the co-creation process. Therefore, this paper concludes that Change Management and Transformational leadership will help the European Union in realising sustainable agriculture in Europe.