Competence Development and Capacity Building of Sawmill Enterprises in Kenya – A Human Resources Development Approach

The Kenyan forestry and sawmilling industry have been subject to a changing environment since 1999 when the industrial forest plantations were closed down. This has lowered raw material supply and it has affected and reduced the sawmill operations and the viability of the sawmill enterprises. The capacity of the 276 registered sawmills is not sufficient to fulfill sawn timber demand in Kenya. This is because of the technological degradation and lack of a qualified labor force, which were caused because of non-existent sawmilling education and further training in Kenya. Lack of competent sawmill workers has led to low raw material recovery, under utilization of resources and loss of employment. The objective of the work was to suggest models, methods and approaches for the competence and capacity development of the Kenyan sawmilling industry, sawmills and their workers. A nationwide field survey, interviews, questionnaire and literature review was used for data collection to find out the sawmills’ competence development areas and to suggest models and methods for their capacity building. The sampling frame included 22 sawmills that represented 72,5% of all the registered sawmills in Kenya. The results confirmed that the sawmills’ technological level was backwards, productivity low, raw material recovery unacceptable and workers’ professional education low. The future challenges will be how to establish the sawmills’ capacity building and workers’ competence development. Sawmilling industry development requires various actions through new development models and approaches. Activities should be started for technological development and workers’ competence development. This requires re-starting of vocational training in sawmilling and the establishment of more effective co-operation between the sawmills and their stakeholder groups. In competence development the Enterprise Competence Management Model of Nurminen (2007) can be used, whereas the best training model and approach would be a practically oriented learning at work model in which the short courses, technical assistance and extension services would be the key functions.

Forecasting of wind speeds and directions with artificial neural networks

In this master’s thesis, wind speeds and directions were modeled with the aim of developing suitable models for hourly, daily, weekly and monthly forecasting. Artificial Neural Networks implemented in MATLAB software were used to perform the forecasts. Three main types of artificial neural network were built, namely: Feed forward neural networks, Jordan Elman neural networks and Cascade forward neural networks. Four sub models of each of these neural networks were also built, corresponding to the four forecast horizons, for both wind speeds and directions. A single neural network topology was used for each of the forecast horizons, regardless of the model type. All the models were then trained with real data of wind speeds and directions collected over a period of two years in the municipal region of Puumala in Finland. Only 70% of the data was used for training, validation and testing of the models, while the second last 15% of the data was presented to the trained models for verification. The model outputs were then compared to the last 15% of the original data, by measuring the mean square errors and sum square errors between them. Based on the results, the feed forward networks returned the lowest generalization errors for hourly, weekly and monthly forecasts of wind speeds; Jordan Elman networks returned the lowest errors when used for forecasting of daily wind speeds. Cascade forward networks gave the lowest errors when used for forecasting daily, weekly and monthly wind directions; Jordan Elman networks returned the lowest errors when used for hourly forecasting. The errors were relatively low during training of the models, but shot up upon simulation with new inputs. In addition, a combination of hyperbolic tangent transfer functions for both hidden and output layers returned better results compared to other combinations of transfer functions. In general, wind speeds were more predictable as compared to wind directions, opening up opportunities for further research into building better models for wind direction forecasting.

Enhancing absorptive capacity in a non-research and development. An action research approach to converting individual observations into organisational awareness

The ability to recognize potential knowledge and convert it into business opportunities is one of the key factors of renewal in uncertain environments. This thesis examines absorptive capacity in the context of non-research and development innovation, with a primary focus on the social interaction that facilitates the absorption of knowledge. It proposes that everyone is and should be entitled to take part in the social interaction that shapes individual observations into innovations. Both innovation and absorptive capacity have been traditionally related to research and development departments and institutions. These innovations need to be adopted and adapted by others. This so-called waterfall model of innovations is only one aspect of new knowledge generation and innovation. In addition to this Science–Technology–Innovation perspective, more attention has been recently paid to the Doing–Using–Interacting mode of generating new knowledge and innovations. The amount of literature on absorptive capacity is vast, yet the concept is reified. The greater part of the literature links absorptive capacity to research and development departments. Some publications have focused on the nature of absorptive capacity in practice and the role of social interaction in enhancing it. Recent literature on absorptive capacity calls for studies that shed light on the relationship between individual absorptive capacity and organisational absorptive capacity. There has also been a call to examine absorptive capacity in non-research and development environments. Drawing on the literature on employee-driven innovation and social capital, this thesis looks at how individual observations and ideas are converted into something that an organisation can use. The critical phases of absorptive capacity, during which the ideas of individuals are incorporated into a group context, are assimilation and transformation. These two phases are seen as complementary: whereas assimilation is the application of easy-to-accept knowledge, transformation challenges the current way of thinking. The two require distinct kinds of social interaction and practices. The results of this study can been crystallised thus: “Enhancing absorptive capacity in practicebased non-research and development context is to organise the optimal circumstances for social interaction. Every individual is a potential source of signals leading to innovations. The individual, thus, recognises opportunities and acquires signals. Through the social interaction processes of assimilation and transformation, these signals are processed into the organisation’s reality and language. The conditions of creative social capital facilitate the interplay between assimilation and transformation. An organisation that strives for employee-driven innovation gains the benefits of a broader surface for opportunity recognition and faster absorption.” If organisations and managers become more aware of the benefits of enhancing absorptive capacity in practice, they have reason to assign resources to those practices that facilitate the creation of absorptive capacity. By recognising the underlying social mechanisms and structural features that lead either to assimilation or transformation, it is easier to balance between renewal and effective operations.

Building organizational creativity – a multitheory and multilevel approach for understanding and stimulating organizational creativity

Organizational creativity is increasingly important for organizations aiming to survive and thrive in complex and unexpectedly changing environments. It is precondition of innovation and a driver of an organization’s performance success. Whereas innovation research increasingly promotes high-involvement and participatory innovation, the models of organizational creativity are still mainly based on an individual-creativity view. Likewise, the definitions of organizational creativity and innovation are somewhat equal, and they are used as interchangeable constructs, while on the other hand they are seen as different constructs. Creativity is seen as generation of novel and useful ideas, whereas innovation is seen as the implementation of these ideas. The research streams of innovation and organizational creativity seem to be advancing somewhat separately, although together they could provide many synergy advantages. Thereby, this study addresses three main research gaps. First, as the knowledge and knowing is being increasingly expertized and distributed in organizations, the conceptualization of organizational creativity needs to face that perspective, rather than relying on the individual-creativity view. Thus, the conceptualization of organizational creativity needs clarification, especially as an organizational-level phenomenon (i.e., creativity by an organization). Second, approaches to consciously build organizational creativity to increase the capacity of an organization to demonstrate novelty in its knowledgeable actions are rare. The current creativity techniques are mainly based on individual-creativity views, and they mainly focus on the occasional problem-solving cases among a limited number of individuals, whereas, the development of collective creativity and creativity by the organization lacks approaches. Third, in terms of organizational creativity as a collective phenomenon, the engagement, contributions, and participation of organizational members into activities of common meaning creation are more important than the individualcreativity skills. Therefore, the development approaches to foster creativity as social, emerging, embodied, and collective creativity are needed to complement the current creativity techniques. To address these gaps, the study takes a multiparadigm perspective to face the following three objectives. The first objective of this study is to clarify and extend the conceptualization of organizational creativity. The second is to study the development of organizational creativity. The third is to explore how an improvisational theater based approach fosters organizational creativity. The study consists of two parts comprising the introductory part (part I) and six publications (part II). Each publication addresses the research questions of the thesis through detailed subquestions. The study makes three main contributions to the research of organizational creativity. First, it contributes toward the conceptualization of organizational creativity by extending the current view of organizational creativity. This study views organizational creativity as a multilevel construct constituting both of individual and collective (group and organizational) creativity. In contrast to current views of organizational creativity, this study bases on organizational (collective) knowledge that is based on and demonstrated through the knowledgeable actions of an organization as a whole. The study defines organizational creativity as an overall ability of an organization to demonstrate novelty in its knowledgeable actions (through what it does and how it does what it does).Second, this study contributes toward the development of organizational creativity as multi-level phenomena, introducing developmental approaches that face two or more of these levels simultaneously. More specifically, the study presents the cross-level approaches to building organizational creativity, by using an approach based in improvisational theater and considering assessment of organizational renewal capability. Third, the study contributes on development of organizational creativity using an improvisational theater based approach as twofold meaning. First, it fosters individual and collective creativity simultaneously and builds space for creativity to occur. Second, it models collective and distributed creativity processes, thereby, contributing to the conceptualization of organizational creativity.

Building the ‘Digital’ Library: Routes to Managing our Institutional Digital Learning, Teaching and Research Assets Together

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Building a Research Data Registry for the UK

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Timing of Capacity Change: Models for Capital Intensive Industry

The suitable timing of capacity investments is a remarkable issue especially in capital intensive industries. Despite its importance, fairly few studies have been published on the topic. In the present study models for the timing of capacity change in capital intensive industry are developed. The study considers mainly the optimal timing of single capacity changes. The review of earlier research describes connections between cost, capacity and timing literature, and empirical examples are used to describe the starting point of the study and to test the developed models. The study includes four models, which describe the timing question from different perspectives. The first model, which minimizes unit costs, has been built for capacity expansion and replacement situations. It is shown that the optimal timing of an investment can be presented with the capacity and cost advantage ratios. After the unit cost minimization model the view is extended to the direction of profit maximization. The second model states that early investments are preferable if the change of fixed costs is small compared to the change of the contribution margin. The third model is a numerical discounted cash flow model, which emphasizes the roles of start-up time, capacity utilization rate and value of waiting as drivers of the profitable timing of a project. The last model expands the view from project level to company level and connects the flexibility of assets and cost structures to the timing problem. The main results of the research are the solutions of the models and analysis or simulations done with the models. The relevance and applicability of the results are verified by evaluating the logic of the models and by numerical cases.

Building Environmental Management System for Laboratory Products Manufacturing Company according ISO 14001-standard

Tutkielman tavoitteena on rakentaa toimiva ympäristöjärjestelmä Thermo Fisher Scientific Oy:lle. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on myös löytää kahdelle täysin erilaiselle toiminnalle yhtenäinen ympäristöjärjestelmä, jonka avulla pystytään ottamaan huomioon molempien toimipaikkojen hieman erilaiset vaatimukset. Lisäksi tavoitteena on muodostaa ympäristöjärjestelmälle oma organisaatio, jonka avulla ympäristöjärjestelmän integrointi yrityksen prosesseihin voidaan suorittaa sujuvasti. Aluksi tutkimusongelmaa lähestytään teoreettisesta näkökulmasta,jossa tarkastellaan ympäristöjärjestelmän historiaa, rakennetta, etuja sekä ISO 14001–standardin rakennetta ja sen etenemistä ympäristöjärjestelmän rakentamisen yhteydessä aina kolmannen osapuolen sertifiointiin asti. Empiria osa alkaa alustavalla ympäristökatselmuksella, jossa selvitetään ympäristöasioiden hoidon nykytaso ja luodaan pohja koko ympäristöjärjestelmän luomiselle, jonka vankimpana perustana on ympäristöpolitiikka. Johdon hyväksymä ympäristöpolitiikka varmistaa johdon sitoutumisen järjestelmään. Ympäristöjärjestelmän toimintarakenteen muodostaminen kahdelle erilaiselle toiminnalle onnistui tutkimuksessa kiitettävästi. Se miten ympäristöjärjestelmä toimii todellisuudessa, tullaan näkemään käytännön kokemuksien yhteydessä.

Capturing Weak Signals for Foresight Building

Tulevaisuuden hahmottamisen merkitys heikkojen signaalien avulla on korostunut viime vuosien aikana merkittävästi,koska yrityksen liiketoimintaympäristössä tapahtuvia muutoksia on ollut yhä vaikeampaa ennustaa historian perusteella. Liiketoimintaympäristössä monien muutoksien merkkejä on ollut nähtävissä, mutta niitä on ollut vaikea havaita. Heikkoja signaaleja tunnistamalla ja keräämällä sekä reagoimalla tilanteeseen riittävän ajoissa, on mahdollista saavuttaa ylivoimaista kilpailuetua. Kirjallisuustutkimus keskittyy heikkojen signaalien tunnistamisen haasteisiin liiketoimintaympäristöstä, signaalien ja informaation kehittymiseen sekä informaation hallintaan organisaatiossa. Kiinnostus näihin perustuu tarpeeseen määritellä heikkojen signaalien tunnistamiseen vaadittava prosessi, jonka avulla heikot signaalit voidaan huomioida M-real Oyj:n päätöksenteossa. Kirjallisuustutkimus osoittaa selvästi sen, että heikkoja signaaleita on olemassa ja niitä pystytään tunnistamaan liiketoimintaympäristöstä. Signaaleja voidaan rikastuttaa yrityksessä olevalla tietämyksellä ja hyödyntää edelleen päätöksenteossa. Vertailtaessa sekä kirjallisuustutkimusta että empiiristä tutkimusta tuli ilmi selkeästi tiedon moninaisuus; määrä,laatu ja tiedonsaannin oikea-aikaisuus päätöksenteossa. Tutkimuksen aikana kehittyi prosessimalli tiedon suodattamiselle, luokittelulle ja heikkojen signaalien tunnistamiselle. Työn edetessä prosessimalli kehittyi osaksi tässä työssä kehitettyä kokonaisuutta 'Weak Signal Capturing' -työkalua. Monistamalla työkalua voidaan kerätä heikkoja signaaleja eri M-realin liiketoiminnan osa-alueilta. Tietoja systemaattisesti kokoamalla voidaan kartoittaa tulevaisuutta koko M-realille.

Sähköverkkoyhtiön keskijänniteverkon kehittämissuunnitelma

Tämän työn tavoitteena oli laatia KSS Energia Oy:n keskijänniteverkon kehittämissuunnitelma. Tätä varten selvitettiin verkon nykytila ja sen toimivuus korvaustilanteissa. Suunnitelmaa varten laadittiin verkoston vuoteen 2020 asti ulottuva kuormitusennuste. Kehittämissuunnitelmassa paikannettiin alueet, joilla kuormitettavuus, korvattavuus tai oikosulkukestoisuus olisivat toimivansähkönjakelun esteinä tulevaisuudessa. Työn painopistealueiksi muodostuivat Vuolenkosken, Paimenpolun ja Valkealan alueet. Näiden alueiden kasvavan tehontarpeen tyydyttämiseksi selvitettiin uusien sähköasemien rakentamisvaihtoehtoja. Suunnitelmassa tarkasteltiin ja vertailtiin kolmen uuden sähköaseman rakentamista keskijänniteverkon saneerausvaihtoehtoon. Työssä selvitettiin myös miten alueen kuormituksen kasvun aiheuttama lisätehontarpeen jakelu voidaan hoitaa. Näiden alueiden kuormituksen kasvu edellyttää uusien sähköasemien rakentamista seuraavien 10vuoden kuluessa.

Building Strong Brands with Sponsorship: Case Battery Energy Drink

Tutkimuksen päätavoitteena oli ymmärtää vahvojen brändien ja brändipääoman rakentamisprosessia, painottaen erityisesti sponsoroinnin roolia tässä prosessissa. Tutkimus suoritettiin laadullisena tutkimuksena, jossa käytettiintapaustutkimusmenetelmää. Tutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin suurimmista online artikkelitietokannoista sekä kolmesta henkilökohtaisesta haastattelusta case-yrityksen edustajien kanssa. Tutkimuksen teoreettisen perustan muodosti brändipääoma-käsite ja sen osa-alueet, näiden liittyminen vahvoihin brändeihin ja brändien rakentamiseen, sekä sponsoroinnin strateginen käyttö brändien rakentamisessa. Lisäksi tutkimuksen empiirinen perusta arvio ja testasi näitä oletuksia ja aikaisemmin käsiteltyjä teorioita case-brändi Battery energiajuoman valossa. Tutkimus osoitti, että nykypäivänä kovan kilpailun markkinointiympäristössä, sponsorointi edustaa vaihtoehtoista tapaa rakentaa vahvoja, omalaatuisia ja suotuisia brändejä, joilla on korkea brändipääoma. Sponsoroinnista on tullut yhä tärkeämpi kommunikointiväline brändien rakentamisessa ja erityisesti siellä missä perinteiset menetelmät ovat muuttumassa tehottomiksi. Empiirisessä osassa selvisi, että sponsorointia on käytetty menestyksekkäästi strategisena keinona vahvan ja omalaatuisen Battery brändin ja sen korkean brändipääoman rakentamisessa.

Absorptive capacity and the effect of social integration mechanisms in knowledge utilization

Tiedosta on tullut määräävä tekijä yrityksensuorituskyvylle. Yritykset hankkivat aktiivisesti uutta tietoa ulkoisesta ympäristöstään ja tallentavat sitä tietokantoihinsa. Uusi tieto on innovaatioiden ja uusien ideoiden peruselementti. Uudet ideat pitää myös kaupallistaa, jotta niiden avulla voidaan hankkia kilpailuetua. Absorptiivisen kapasiteetin malli yhdistää tiedon prosessointiin liittyvät kyvykkyydet, jotka vaikuttavat yrityksen kykyyn hyödyntää tietoa tehokkaasti. Ennen kuin tietoa voidaan käyttää uusien tuotteiden ja palveluiden luomiseen, täytyy sitä jakaa yrityksessä ja muuttaa se yrityksen toimintaa palvelevaksi. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa innovaatiot ovat vahvasti liitetty yrityksen kykyyn uudistua. Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma tutkii sosiaalisten integraatiomekanismien vaikutusta potentiaalisen absorptiivisen kapasiteetin muuttamiseen toteutuneeksi absorptiiviseksi kapasiteetiksi. Yksilöiden ja osastojen välisen yhteistyön sekä luottamuksen vaikutus tiedon sisäistämiseen tutkittiin. Tutkielma pohjautuu monikansallisessa yrityksessä keväällä 2006 suoritettuun uudistumiskyky-tutkimukseen. Tutkielma keskittyy yrityksen kykyyn uudistua uuden tiedon ja innovaatioiden avulla. Tutkielma on kvantitatiivinen tapaustutkimus. Tutkielmassa tehtyjen havaintojen mukaan sosiaaliset integraatiomekanismit ovat tärkeitä uuden tiedon hyödyntämisessä. Tiedon eksplisiittyyden havaitaan vaikuttavan tiedon muuttamiseen yritykselle hyödylliseksi resurssiksi.