Knowledge discovery for moderating collaborative projects

In today's global market environment, enterprises are increasingly turning towards collaboration in projects to leverage their resources, skills and expertise, and simultaneously address the challenges posed in diverse and competitive markets. Moderators, which are knowledge based systems have successfully been used to support collaborative teams by raising awareness of problems or conflicts. However, the functioning of a moderator is limited to the knowledge it has about the team members. Knowledge acquisition, learning and updating of knowledge are the major challenges for a Moderator's implementation. To address these challenges a Knowledge discOvery And daTa minINg inteGrated (KOATING) framework is presented for Moderators to enable them to continuously learn from the operational databases of the company and semi-automatically update the corresponding expert module. The architecture for the Universal Knowledge Moderator (UKM) shows how the existing moderators can be extended to support global manufacturing. A method for designing and developing the knowledge acquisition module of the Moderator for manual and semi-automatic update of knowledge is documented using the Unified Modelling Language (UML). UML has been used to explore the static structure and dynamic behaviour, and describe the system analysis, system design and system development aspects of the proposed KOATING framework. The proof of design has been presented using a case study for a collaborative project in the form of construction project supply chain. It has been shown that Moderators can "learn" by extracting various kinds of knowledge from Post Project Reports (PPRs) using different types of text mining techniques. Furthermore, it also proposed that the knowledge discovery integrated moderators can be used to support and enhance collaboration by identifying appropriate business opportunities and identifying corresponding partners for creation of a virtual organization. A case study is presented in the context of a UK based SME. Finally, this thesis concludes by summarizing the thesis, outlining its novelties and contributions, and recommending future research

Community development framework for Niger Delta in Nigeria

The need for community development sustainability is vital for nation’s progression, transformation and general well-being of a respective community. Nevertheless, its impact on community members particularly in rural communities remained a major issue that has not been adequately addressed. This scenario also captured in the Niger Delta Region in Nigeria where so much effort has been put in by the government in the region yet not much has been achieved. Therefore, this study is intended to examine the challenges and catalyst for community development sustainability in the Niger Delta region. A mixed methodology was employed in this study to elicit an in-depth and meaningful data on Niger Delta community’s participation to facilitate development sustainability. The in-depth interview was employed in the qualitative study using 19 interviewees from across six selected communities from three states in the Niger Delta region and three key officers from the NDDC making a total of twenty two interviewees. Survey was used for only community members using 300 questionnaires which were administered using the cluster sampling technique. The pick and drop-off technique was used for data collection and 284 questionnaires representing a total response rate of 94.7% were returned. The interviews were thematically coded thereafter analysed using the Nvivo 10 software while the SPSS version 20 was used for the quantitative data analysis. The results from both findings were triangulated and the findings show that three fundamental elements: Community, developmental agency and government were identified as crucial for community developmental sustainability. The findings from the study demonstrate that the role of community members is key element in achieving community developmental sustainability whereas the approach and strategies adopted by government and developmental agencies motivates community participation and involvement in developmental programs. The research findings elicit the pertinent role of community participation on development sustainability, and proposed a framework that promotes community development sustainability. The study concludes that government reactiveness towards developmental goals; adequate funding and relationship of community members with developmental agencies are salient issues that needs adequate attention in developmental plans

Leading implementation in health and social care : the line manager in the spotlight

Background: Health and social care organizations are frequently undergoing changes intended to improve quality of care and are expected to implement practices based on the best available evidence. However, about two-thirds of all implementation efforts fail. This has resulted in the well-known evidence-practice gap that means patients and clients may not receive the best possible care. Leadership is critical for implementation success. Implementation science and leadership research suggest that implementation is a structured process that requires certain leadership actions, which should be performed in an active and engaging way to increase the likelihood of implementation success. Line managers’ play a key role in facilitating implementation processes because they are usually responsible for implementing and directly overseeing implementation efforts. Yet what line managers’ do and how they can lead implementation is not well understood. Aim: The overall aim of this thesis is to increase the knowledge of line managers’ leadership during implementation. More specifically, this thesis explores leadership from the line manager perspective (Study I and Study III) and from the employee perspective (Study III), and validates a scale used to measure implementation leadership from line managers’ and employees’ perspective (Study IV). This thesis also investigates how context influences line managers in leading implementation (Study II). Methods: Multiple designs and data collection methods were used in this thesis. Study I and Study II, which were conducted in social care, used a cross-sectional qualitative design in which data were collected using semi-structured interviews. These studies explored how line managers’ describe their actions when leading implementation (Study I) and how context influences them in this process (Study II). Study I uses the “Phases of an Implementation” and Study II the “Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research” frameworks from implementation science to analyse the data. Study III and Study IV were conducted in health care. Study III used a longitudinal design and data were collected using web-based questionnaires administered to line managers and employees at three time points (at pre-, and post-intervention, and at a six-month follow-up). This study investigated agreement between line managers and their employees’ for general leadership behaviours. Study IV was a validation study that used a cross-sectional design. Data were collected from web-based questionnaires distributed to employees. The leadership theory, “Full-Range Leadership Model”, was used in both Study III and Study IV to measure leadership. Findings: Study I found that line managers described their implementation leadership as a rather ad hoc, unstructured process in which they were active in some phases while passive in others. They were most active in informing and preparing their employees for an implementation when a decision had been made on which effort to implement. The line managers’ were most passive in performing an analysis of needs prior to an implementation decision and in following up the process in the later phases of an implementation. Study II found that many factors in the inner and outer context influenced line managers’ implementation leadership. These contextual factors include support from the closest manager and senior management, social interactions (networks and internal communications), opportunities to improve knowledge and skills, and opportunities to apply for project funding. However, not all factors, when available, had an impact on the managers’ implementation leadership. One explanation for this was that an interaction between factors was often needed to have a positive impact (e.g., project funding from actors in the outer context only had an impact if a positive and supportive climate existed in the inner context). Study III found a disagreement between line managers’ self-ratings and their employees’ ratings of the managers’ leadership. The managers rated their leadership either more positive (higher) or less positive (lower) than their employees. A leadership intervention aimed at improving implementation leadership led to greater agreement at unit level. Study IV found that the iLead scale showed good psychometric properties and can be used to measure active and passive implementation leadership. Conclusions: Line managers could benefit from being cognizant of implementation as a structured process that requires strategic thinking. Training interventions that develop managers’ knowledge and skills may be supportive in how to most effectively lead implementation. It should be acknowledged, however, that line managers’ task in leading implementation need to align with all other challenging managerial activities that they perform daily. Furthermore, feedback on line managers’ leadership behaviours that includes their employees’ perspective can help managers become more aware of their leadership behaviours and thus become more effective leaders. The iLead scale is a valid scale that can be used to measure managers’ active and passive implementation leadership from both their own and employees’ perspective. Finally, line managers need support in leading implementation and are influenced by various contextual factors. Yet the contextual factors that provide support are complex, various, and often overlapping. A one-size-fits-all support does not exist. Each line manager’s situation should be considered in its entirety when tailoring individual manager support