A network model of interpersonal alignment in dialog

In dyadic communication, both interlocutors adapt to each other linguistically, that is, they align interpersonally. In this article, we develop a framework for modeling interpersonal alignment in terms of the structural similarity of the interlocutors’ dialog lexica. This is done by means of so-called two-layer time-aligned network series, that is, a time-adjusted graph model. The graph model is partitioned into two layers, so that the interlocutors’ lexica are captured as subgraphs of an encompassing dialog graph. Each constituent network of the series is updated utterance-wise. Thus, both the inherent bipartition of dyadic conversations and their gradual development are modeled. The notion of alignment is then operationalized within a quantitative model of structure formation based on the mutual information of the subgraphs that represent the interlocutor’s dialog lexica. By adapting and further developing several models of complex network theory, we show that dialog lexica evolve as a novel class of graphs that have not been considered before in the area of complex (linguistic) networks. Additionally, we show that our framework allows for classifying dialogs according to their alignment status. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first approach to measuring alignment in communication that explores the similarities of graph-like cognitive representations. Keywords: alignment in communication; structural coupling; linguistic networks; graph distance measures; mutual information of graphs; quantitative network analysi

Anticipation dialogs in Vermont’s system of mental healthcare: Sustaining the growth of a dialogic practice culture

Open dialog is both a therapeutic approach and a way of organizing the system of mental healthcare that has been evolving in Finland since the 1980s. In Vermont, over the last decade, there has been an organic statewide effort to begin to integrate dialogic principles into the public system of mental healthcare. Because of the organic nature of these initiatives, there have not been coordinated systemic changes to support dialogic practices. To learn what visions participants in dialogically informed practice contexts have for the future as well as what structural innovations would support these visions anticipation dialogs were offered at three dialogically informed community mental health centers and one public psychiatric. The anticipation dialog was developed in Finland during the late 1980s to aid stuck professional and social networks in finding ways to move forward looking back from an imagined positive future. Twenty-seven multidisciplinary staff members and one service recipient participated in the dialogs. The authors conducted a multi-step process of thematic discourse analysis of all 4 anticipation dialogs. Findings underscore dilemmas entailed in growing a dialogic practice system, including the toll systemic uncertainty takes on workers in the system and the simultaneous pull to offer some amount of open-endedness to the system change process in the spirit of inclusiveness, mutual trust, democracy, and reducing hierarchy. Other key findings influencing sustainability of dialogic practices in community mental health include integrating dialogic work into roles rather than adding them to existing responsibilities. Our experiences indicate that anticipation dialogs may be a way of conducting systemic research that contributes to the forward momentum of system innovation. Offering a greater length of time for organizational anticipation dialogs would be valuable, as would centering the voices of clients and their networks

Safety Culture Development in Dredging and Marine Contractor Companies – Three-Case Study on Safety Programs

After Chernobyl accident in 1986 it was concluded that a bad safety culture contributed to it. Development of a good safety culture became a regulation requirement in many countries, and a necessity in many industries including dredging and marine operations. The thesis is carried out as a multiple case study applying qualitative methods. Three cases are represented by the leading dredging and marine contractor companies, being three out of four biggest in the world. Data was collected by means of nine semi-structured interviews and from documents related to safety culture and safety programs. The aim of the thesis is to better understand companies’ view on safety culture and its development; the influence of safety programs on safety culture and its measurement; related problems and challenges. The theoretical framework grounds in intertwined concepts of safety culture and safety, model of organizational culture of Schein, and means to measure quality and maturity of safety culture. Safety culture is being developed in the companies during the last 7-12 years within the framework of safety programs, which revealed great similarity. The results of the thesis demonstrate that the companies consider that safety culture can be engineered, changed, measured, and maintained. Safety culture is a part of companies’ organizational culture and helps to take care of safety, provides market advantages to the companies. Safety culture improvement leads to organizational culture improvement, namely communication, increase of trust, democratic management style, and highlights the aspect of care for all employees. Safety culture is being developed within three core elements: mindset and understanding, structures and functions, and practices. According to the model of Schein (2017) safety culture is created within three cultural levels: artifacts (observable behaviour, structures, and processes), espoused beliefs and values (ideals, goals, rationalizations), and basic underlaying assumptions (taken for granted beliefs, values, which determine thought, perception, and behaviour). The mindset of the companies is based on the espoused values of Vision Zero and that proper safety behaviour improves safety; the underlaying assumptions that all incidents and accidents are preventable, and that safety behaviour will provide long-lasting safe performance. Management sincere commitment and involvement, employees’ empowerment, incentive structures, and reporting play important roles in a strong culture development. The study results show much focus on engineering risk assessment approach and less on sociotechnical perspective. The development is driven by industrial experience, market developments, and influence of ISO standards for risk. The influence of safety programs on safety culture is measured by safety statistics, interviews, group dialogs, feedback, behaviour during trainings, and safety climate surveys. The quality of safety communication, employees’ care for safety, involvement, and management commitment are assessed. Safety culture maturity is evaluated and certified by external Safety Culture Ladder audits mostly upon tender necessity. Some companies’ units possess certificates of third (calculating) and fourth (proactive) maturity steps. Development of safety culture is a gradual, continuous, and complex process demanding constant effort, monitoring, and financing. The cases demonstrate a reasonable progress. Safety culture evolutionized from compliance to rules and procedures to more proactive behaviour of all employees, nevertheless espoused values need to be extended by the ones reflecting dynamic and complex sociotechnical nature of safety. Combination of several safety perspectives, including sociotechnical perspective, Safety II and resilience can further improve existing safety cultures. Risk science can contribute to better understanding, assessment, and prevention of risks. Certain problems and challenges were detected. Disrupted investments into the safety programs, insincere management commitment led occasionally to formal attitudes of employees. Companies’ growth, temporary employment, subcontractors’ involvement, and external influences create challenges for the safety programs and safety culture development. Learning, communication, and cooperation suffered during Covid-19 pandemic. Personal physical participation in learning was substituted by online participation and e-learning and undermined its quality.

Assessments in Policy-Making: Case Studies from the Arctic Council

Julkaistu versi

The Role of Environmental Education of New Curriculum in North Cyprus

Environmental education is extremely important when it comes to protecting the environment and consequently life on Earth. Agenda 21, which is a big international agreement, has called for a “re-orientation” of all education toward sustainability. From this point of view, a project was launched in June 2015 with the purpose of developing new curricula in North Cyprus on environmental education. Through the development of innovative and technology-enhanced curriculum materials, the project aimed to empower awareness of Turkish Cypriot and teachers and students on issues pertaining to the environmental problems in North Cyprus. In the context of the project, curriculum materials were prepared and workshops were offered to teachers. By using a combination of face-to-face and online strategies, educators collaborated on developing and implementing projects and activities on environment and technology. Collaborating teachers provided an opportunity to work in teams to identify specific thematic units in the areas of environment that are critical for Turkish Cypriots and which will serve as the focus of the professional development program. During this project, five new curricula were prepared about environmental education and discussed with teachers

Knowledge Transfer and Boundary Conditions: A Study of SMEs in Business Incubation Centers in China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine innovative practices and emphasize the mechanism of knowledge transfer across knowledge boundaries. By comparing and discussing the emerging boundary issues in knowledge transfer among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) registered in the incubation centers in China, this paper identified the main knowledge transfer approach and several contextual and organizational factors impacting knowledge transfer. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conduct 39 semi-structured in-depth interviews with employees working within business incubation centers in China. The study uses thematic analysis for data analysis. Findings – Our results contribute to the literature of knowledge transfer and in particular to our understanding of boundary conditions and knowledge transfer approaches in emerging economies. The results also highlight several contextual and organizational factors which impact knowledge transformation across the pragmatic boundary in the context of China. Practical implications – First, organizations need to establish an effective process with tools to accommodate novelty; second, organizations should be aware of the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on innovative performance; and third, it will help organizations if they adopt and integrate information-rich media in managing innovative practices. Originality/value – This research highlights the impact of contextual and organizational factors of SMEs on knowledge transfer in emerging markets and chooses incubation centers as study subjects, which is an organizational context that has not been thoroughly studied due to its unique nature and emerging complexity

User interface design of advanced process control system for causticizing

Abstract. The aim of this thesis was to design new interfaces for Valmet Automation Oy’s causticizing Advanced Process Control product. The goal for the research was to determine how pulp mill’s operators’ needs and Valmet’s engineers needs from the user interface can be taken into account and how the interface can be implemented into ongoing project. The thesis describes the user interface design principles and best practices with human factors and ergonomics. The theory describes the causticizing process and how it is controlled with the advanced process control. From the technical theory, the thesis moves on to describing user experience and user interface design in depth. The human factors and ergonomics are elaborated from design point of view, and how the interface can support and enhance operators’ work ergonomics. The thesis also describes how the design process should be carried through. Aim of the theory part is to elaborate what are the design principles and best practices, and how they can be utilized in industrial interface design. The practical part of the thesis was conducted by interview research. The research was done with two user groups: with Valmet’s engineers who are responsible for the Advanced Process Control products, and with operators who are the main end users of the product. Presented theory and conducted interview research was utilized in the interface design with Valmet UI system. The design was done in cooperation with project’s stakeholders. As a result, separate interfaces were designed for operators and for control tuning. Operators’ interface was designed to support their work and the overall operating system design. The designed operator interface includes only the essential elements of the top-level control system which are supportive for operator decision making process. The designed control tuning interface was made to include more information which is relevant for the engineering work.Kaustisointiprosessin ylätason säädön käyttöliittymäsuunnittelu. Tiivistelmä. Diplomityön tavoitteena oli kehittää Valmet Automation Oy:n kaustisoinnin Advanced Process Control -tuotteelle uusi käyttöliittymä. Tutkimuskohteena oli selvittää miten sellutehtaan operaattoreiden ja Valmetin insinöörien tarpeet käyttöliittymältä saadaan huomioitua, sekä miten käyttöliittymän suunnittelu voidaan toteuttaa toimitettavaan projektiin. Työ avaa käyttöliittymäsuunnittelun teoriaa ja perusteita yhdessä inhimillisten tekijöiden kanssa. Teoria esittelee kaustoinnin prosessikuvauksen ja kuinka sitä ohjataan Valmetin ylätason kehittyneellä säätömenetelmällä. Teoria etenee teknillisistä kuvauksista käyttäjäkokemuksen esittelyyn sekä käyttöliittymäsuunnittelun perusteisiin ja käytäntöihin. Työ avaa mitä inhimillisiä tekijöitä käyttöliittymäsuunnittelussa tulee ottaa huomioon, jotta käyttöliittymä tukisi operaattorin työergonomiaa, sekä kuinka käyttöliittymäsuunnittelu tulisi toteuttaa kokonaisuutena. Kokeellisessa osassa toteutettiin haastattelututkimus, johon osallistui kaksi käyttäjäryhmää: Valmetin insinöörit, jotka ovat vastuussa Advanced Process Control -tuotteista, ja operaattorit sellutehtaalta, jotka ovat tuotteen pääkäyttäjiä. Diplomityössä esitelty teoria ja toteutettu haastattelututkimus toimi pohjana uusien käyttöliittymien suunnitteluun Valmet UI -järjestelmään. Käyttöliittymien suunnittelu toteutettiin yhdessä projektin sidosryhmien kanssa. Työn tuloksena suunniteltiin erilliset käyttöliittymät operaattoreille ja ylätason säädön viritykseen. Operaattoreiden käyttöliittymä suunniteltiin tukemaan heidän työtään ja kokonaisjärjestelmää mahdollisimman hyvin. Operaattoreiden käyttöliittymä sisältää vain ylätason säädölle olennaiset elementit, jotka tukevat operaattoreiden päätöksentekoa säätömenetelmää vaihtaessa. Säädön viritykseen suunniteltu käyttöliittymä on vapaamuotoisempi ja se sisältää enemmän informaatiota, mikä on säädön viritykselle oleellista