Call number: LD2668 .T4 1952 L6 / Master of Science

This research addressed change management and learning in a multidisciplinary addictions chronic care environment in order to prepare for shared care planning within an electronic health record. It used a Developmental Work Research approach and was able to use insights from Bernstein’s theory of knowledge structures, Bakhtin’s work on social language and a Critical Realism approach to address weaknesses in the base Activity Theory approach. In these ways problems concerning fragmented, demarcated silo working across clinical and non-clinical addictions services could be examined. The objective of the study was to identify tensions and contradictions in working environments and to engage multidisciplinary workers in a collaborative change laboratory environment via the use of co-configuration and expansive learning. The working group examined past and current practice and were able to formulate new forms of practice, based on the use of a shared care plan tool, to address identified problems and national policy aims. It was able to use the aforementioned theoretical insights to illuminate the multiple utility of the shared care plan tool as a pedagogic device. This enabled the production of new practice possibilities, paradigms and planning to be undertaken, and the consideration of these within the context of ‘real time’ multidisciplinary activity within a forthcoming national IT system. This research has explored, identified and formulated new practice to improve multidisciplinary working between clinical and non-clinical workers across diverse sectors. This will have significant health and cost benefit gains for clients, workers and organisations as well as translating policy aims into effective practice. The next stage will be to manage the roll-out of the forthcoming IT system using the theoretical and methodological developments crafted in this research endeavour.

The evaluation of social worker performance is a problem that frequently confronts the social work profession because the profession continually seeks to discover what it is doing for, and with, the clients it serves in order to learn how to serve them better. A number of studies of effect have been launched to this end. The Area Development Project of Vancouver, British Columbia, is one such study. The project seeks to test a specific treatment method, "integrated family services", on a selected group of one hundred multi-problem families. The experimental design calls for one hundred families in the treatment group and two hundred families in two control groups in order to test the hypothesis that the demonstrating services of the project are more effective in improving the functioning of families with complex problems than the "usual agency services" of health and welfare agencies. Studies of effect on casework services too often assume that there is no significant variation in the performances of professionally trained social workers when there is little reason to believe this to be the case. This study, which was carried out in conjunction with the Area Development Project, aimed at developing a Q-sort measure of family centered casework performance that could be used to test the hypothesis that there are significant differences between the inputs of professionally trained social workers. The proposed instrument would also document any differences between social worker performances should the hypothesis prove true. The completed Q-sort of Family Centered Casework Performance was applied to the Area Development Projects' treatment group social workers to generate a performance score for each of the workers as well as a profile description of the ideal family centered casework performance. It was possible to demonstrate that the inputs of the social workers differed greatly, while at the same time develop a precise profile description of the projects' "integrated family services". The study also attempted to relate the performance levels of the treatment group social workers to client movement in the cases that the workers carried. The establishment of a definite conclusion in regard to this relationship was not possible because of limitations in time and data, however, a means of analysis was developed for use with final data from the Area Development Project when it becomes available. The introductory chapter gives a brief summary of the problem of social worker evaluation, alternative ways of dealing with the problem and a statement of the scope and limitations of the study. The Theoretical framework of the study and the methods utilized are outlined in Chapter II. In Chapter III, the study findings are presented along with descriptive data on the study sample. The thesis concludes with a brief summary of the study and its' conclusions followed by some proposals for dealing with final data on client movement when they become available. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Thesis ( Agricultural Extension) --University of Limpopo, 2014 / Refer to the document

No description available.

Abstract The quality of technical communication, for example the user guides created for various high-technology products, is often criticized. The information is not available when it would be needed, or it is not presented in a way suitable for our purposes. However, in the increasingly technology-based society of today, we are expected to operate a range of technical devices and software programs daily, at work and at home. The current re-structuring of the IT industry in Finland, on the other hand, has affected technical communication profoundly: cost pressures and outsourcing have led to narrow job descriptions, job losses and diminished wellbeing at work. Companies do not seem to appreciate the impact of high-quality technical communication on user experience. The work environments of technical communicators are also challenging: their background is typically in the Humanities, but they work with highly technical products. In many cases, they have learned the needed skills independently and in practice; very few experienced technical communicators have training in the field. In this study, some of the central contradictions in the technical communication activity are explored by applying activity theory on autoethnographic interview data. This study provides new information about technical communication as a profession, but the issues it raises are not limited to technical communication only: the restructuring of the IT sector is a phenomenon affecting a variety of fields. The aim of this dissertation is twofold: 1) to investigate and describe the current status of the field in Finland, and 2) to suggest solutions to some of the problems we are facing using the tools offered by activity theory. / Tiivistelmä Teknisen viestinnän, esimerkiksi erilaisten teknisten järjestelmien käyttöohjekirjojen, maine ei ole kovin hyvä. Tietoa ei ole tarjolla kun sitä tarvitaan, tai se esitetään tavalla joka ei vastaa toiveitamme. Nykypäivän tietoyhteiskunnassa pärjääminen kuitenkin vaatii tietoteknisiä perustaitoja niin kotona, koulussa kuin töissäkin. Suomessa tällä hetkellä käynnissä oleva IT-alan murros taas on vaikuttanut suuresti teknisen viestinnän ammattikuntaan: kustannuspaineet ja ulkoistukset ovat johtaneet työnkuvan kapenemiseen, työpaikkojen menetyksiin ja työviihtyvyyden vähenemiseen. Yrityksissä ei nähdä laadukkaan teknisen viestinnän merkitystä käyttäjäkokemukselle. Teknisten viestijöiden työolosuhteet ovat myös haastavat: he ovat usein humanistitaustaisia henkilöitä, jotka työskentelevät vaativien teknisten tuotteiden parissa. He ovat tyypillisesti opetelleet vaaditut tekniset taidot omatoimisesti työn ohessa, ja hyvin harvalla pidempään alalla olleella on teknisen viestinnän koulutusta tukenaan. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan teknisen viestinnän keskeisiä ristiriitoja tulkitsemalla autoetnografista haastatteluaineistoa toiminnan teorian kautta. Tutkimus luo uutta tietoa teknisestä viestinnästä ammattikuntana, mutta esiin nostetut ongelmat eivät liity pelkästään tekniseen viestintään: IT-sektorilla käynnissä oleva rakennemuutos vaikuttaa useisiin aloihin. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on 1) selvittää alan nykytilanne Suomessa ja 2) tarjota ratkaisuehdotuksia alan haasteisiin toiminnan teorian tarjoamien työkalujen avulla.

Please read the abstract in the section 08chapter7 (pp228-229) / Thesis (DPhil (Agricultural Extension))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / DPhil / unrestricted

In den Ingenieurwissenschaften ist die Arbeit in Laboren ein zentraler Bestandteil aktiver Hochschullehre und -forschung. Jedoch besteht ein grundlegendes Problem in der Einbettung von Laborarbeit in computergestützte Arbeitsabläufe wie etwa dem E-Learning. Für eine nachhaltige Kompetenzentwicklung bei Studierenden können die Bereiche der aktiven Laborarbeit und der Lehre nicht weiterhin isoliert voneinander betrachtet werden. Der vorliegende Artikel beschreibt den Aufbau einer kooperativen Forschungsumgebung für die wissenschaftliche Laborarbeit, welche sich in die hochschulweiten und sogar organisationsübergreifenden IT-Infrastrukturen nahtlos einbetten lässt. Dabei wird deutlich, dass eine innovative kooperative Forschungsumgebung Synergien zwischen Forschung und Lehre maßgeblich fördern kann.

In recent years there has been a growing literature that advocates various forms of participatory development. This is illustrated by the promotion of approaches/tools such as participatory rural appraisal (PRA), participatory technology development (PTD), and participatory process projects 1 These "new" approaches are fast taking on the form of a new generalised orthodoxy for solving development problems. It would seem from the perspective of some of the promoters of this orthodoxy that the problem of development is no longer one of not having the right approaches and methods, but one of getting recalcitrant policy makers, bureaucrats, academics to appreciate and adopt these new methods and techniques. My concerns with this new advocacy are that: i It does not relate to experience; ii It does not address issues of power structure and control over information and other resources in multiple and complex arenas of science and technology (S&T); iii By placing major emphasis on management approaches and tools, the new orthodoxy is cutting itself off from a critical reflective understanding of the deeper determinants of technical and social change. Unfortunately, I suspect that if this new orthodoxy does not develop a more critical reflective view of itself then, like previous dominant orthodoxies, it will soon have to develop a range of "escape hatches" to explain why these participatory approaches are not giving the results that their advocates promise. / AVOCADO series; v 06/95

This study is an empirical work about healthcare in the process of transformation. The speciic healthcare concerns foot and leg wound care within the homecare. The theoretical frame of the study relies on the Activity theory applied onto the healthcare workers involved into the wound care of the hard healing leg and foot ulcers. The transformation process involving this activity is seen as the example of the expansive learning and which is part of the activity theory. The method used is known, according to the Engeström (the leading figure within the currunt Activity research) as "etnography of trouble". The focus is on identifying conflicts which take place within the work activity. The purpose of the study was to increase understanding of how the wound care business is performed in home care in light of expansive learning theory. Results show the need for the wound care within the homecare to develop at the subject level as much as the system level. There are two specific developmental areas in concern, the tehnical-instrumental (development of digital assistance) and interaction-communication dmension (development of a new communication channel on vertical level). Both solutions liberate individuals competens. In the question of communication channel connected to the leadership this would create conditions for tehnical solutions to appear quicker. / Detta studie är ett empiriskt arbete och handlar om vårdarbete i förändring. Det specifika vårdarbete som denna studie behandlar är vård av ben- och fotsår (svårläkta sår) inom hemsjukvården. Teosretiskt anlägger jag ett verksamhetsteoretiskt perspektiv på vårdpersonalens arbete med svarläkta sår. På den förändringen som sker i sårvårdens praktik tar jag det analytiska greppet att jag betratar den som ett möjligt exempel på expansivt lärande. metod har varit inriktad på det som Engeström kallar för "etnography of trouble". En viktig fokus har varit att komma åt motsättningar, spänningar, eller "gnissel" i vårdverksamheten. Insamlade data består av observationer, intervjuer och dokumentation. Syftet med studien har varit att öka förståelse för hur sårvårds verksamhet utförds inom hemsjukvården i ljuset av Expansivt lärande teori. Resultatet visar att sårvård inom hemsjukvården behöver utvecklas likaså på subjekt som på systemnivå. Två specifik utvecklingsfaktorer handlar om teknisk/instrumentell dimension (utveckling av en ny kommunikationskanal på vertikal nivå). Båda lösningar frigör individens kompetens. Skulle det öppnas en mer direkt kontakt med ledningen det skulle skapa förutsättningar för snabbare utveckling av nödvändiga tekniska lösningar.