Seksuaalisen suuntautumisen selittäminen

Summary: Explaining sexual orientation

Memoria virtualis - death and mourning rituals in online environments

The main objective of this work has been to understand the ritual aspect of how private people use the Internet to mourn and honor their intimates in various online environments. The research material was compiled in 2007–2013 through ethnographic and autoethnographic observations in social media applications, online memorial websites, one shared virtual environment (Second Life) and one massive multi-player online role-playing game (World of Warcraft). The research material consists of – in addition to the ethnographic observations – three online surveys with 153 respondents (mainly from Finland, the United States and the United Kingdom). In addition, the researcher conducted 38 longer online interviews (i.e. via email, an avatar). The theoretical framework is derived from ritual theory, hermeneutic-phenomenological anthropology and discourse analysis. The research questions are as follows: Why are death rituals practiced in online environments? How are virtual memorials created in various online environments? What kind of systems of meanings are virtual memorials constructed from? The results indicate that online mourning and honoring is appropriated in addition to the “traditional” offline rituals. In online environments the bereaved can choose, where, when, how and with whom they share their grief and loss. Memorials are created in the web intentionally and unintentionally, where the latter refers inter alia to the Facebook profile of the deceased where his/her intimates gather to mourn and honor immediately after the death. The first refers to intentionally memorialized online places spaces via different service providers. Virtual memorials are a way to construct the identity of the deceased, as well as the bereaved in multiple ways. They also re-enforce and create a sense of communality both privately and publicly, and enable one meaningful online place where all the intimates of the deceased can gather together to mourn and honor despite the geographical or time distances. Tämä väitöstutkimus tarkastelee miten nykyiset kuolemanrituaalit ovat digitalisoituneet verkkoympäristöihin. Tutkimus on suoritettu verkkoetnografisin sekä autoetnografisin menetelmin sosiaalisen median sivustoilla, virtuaalimuistomerkkipalveluissa, yhdestä virtuaalimaailmassa (Second Life) sekä yhdestä reaaliaikaisessa verkkopelissä (World of Warcraft) vuosina 2007–2013. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu etnografisten havainnointien lisäksi kolmesta verkkokyselystä, joissa vastaajia on yhteensä 153 pääasiassa Suomesta, Yhdysvalloista sekä Iso-Britanniasta. Kyselyjen lisäksi tutkija on tehnyt myös 38 laajempaa verkkohaastattelua eri ympäristöissä (esim. sähköposti, avatar virtuaalimaailmassa). Teoreettinen kehys koostuu rituaaliteoriasta, hermeneuttis-phenomenologiasta sekä diskurssianalyysista. Tutkimuskysymykset ovat seuraavat: miksi kuolemanrituaaleja harjoitetaan verkkoympäristöissä, miten virtuaalisia muistomerkkejä luodaan verkkoon, sekä millaisista merkitysjärjestelmistä virtuaaliset muistomerkit muodostuvat? Tutkimustulosten mukaan verkkosureminen ja muistaminen ovat tulleet perinteisten kuolemanrituaalien rinnalle, jolloin sureva itse voi päättää miten, missä, milloin sekä kenen kanssa suree läheistään. Muistomerkkejä verkkoon luodaan suunnitellusti (intentional) sekä suunnittelemattomasti (unintentional), jolloin jälkimmäinen viittaa esimerkiksi edesmenneen Facebook profiiliin, missä hänen läheisensä kokoontuvat muistelemaan ja suremaan välittömästi kuoleman jälkeen. Ensimmäinen taas viittaa suunnitelmalliseen muistomerkin luomiseen, jota varten löytyy useita palveluntarjoajia. Virtuaalimuistomerkit ovat keino rakentaa sekä edesmenneen että surevan identiteettiä, vahvistaa ja luoda yhteisöllisyyttä niin yksityisesti kuin julkisesti, sekä luoda yksi yhteinen aina ja kaikkialta saavutettavissa oleva merkityksellinen paikka verkkoon, missä kaikki läheiset voivat ajasta ja paikasta riippumatta muistella ja surra läheistään.

Computational Market Dynamics of Virtual Economies

The last two decades have provided a vast opportunity to live and explore the compulsive imaginary world or virtual world through massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). MMORPG gives a wide range of opportunities to its users to participate with multi-players on the same platform, to communicate and to do real time actions. There is a virtual economy in these games which is largely player-driven. In-game currency provides its users to build up their Avatars, to buy or sell the necessary goods to play, survive in the games and so on. As a part of virtual economies generated through EVE Online, this thesis mainly focuses on how the prices of the minerals in EVE Online behave by applying the Jabłonska- Capasso-Morale (JCM) mathematical simulation model. It is to verify up to what degree the model can reproduce the virtual economy behavior. The model is applied to buy and sell prices of two minerals namely, isogen and morphite. The simulation results demonstrate that JCM model ts reasonably well to the mineral prices, which lets us conclude that virtual economies behave similarly to the real ones.

Playing to Learn: Business Simulation Games as Leadership Learning Environments

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate if participation in business simulation gaming sessions can make different leadership styles visible and provide students with experiences beneficial for the development of leadership skills. Particularly, the focus is to describe the development of leadership styles when leading virtual teams in computer-­supported collaborative game settings and to identify the outcomes of using computer simulation games as leadership training tools. To answer to the objectives of the study, three empirical experiments were conducted to explore if participation in business simulation gaming sessions (Study I and II), which integrate face-­to-­face and virtual communication (Study III and IV), can make different leadership styles visible and provide students with experiences beneficial for the development of leadership skills. In the first experiment, a group of multicultural graduate business students (N=41) participated in gaming sessions with a computerized business simulation game (Study III). In the second experiment, a group of graduate students (N=9) participated in the training with a ‘real estate’ computer game (Study I and II). In the third experiment, a business simulation gaming session was organized for graduate students group (N=26) and the participants played the simulation game in virtual teams, which were organizationally and geographically dispersed but connected via technology (Study IV). Each team in all experiments had three to four students and students were between 22 and 25 years old. The business computer games used for the empirical experiments presented an enormous number of complex operations in which a team leader needed to make the final decisions involved in leading the team to win the game. These gaming environments were interactive;; participants interacted by solving the given tasks in the game. Thus, strategy and appropriate leadership were needed to be successful. The training was competition-­based and required implementation of leadership skills. The data of these studies consist of observations, participants’ reflective essays written after the gaming sessions, pre-­ and post-­tests questionnaires and participants’ answers to open-­ ended questions. Participants’ interactions and collaboration were observed when they played the computer games. The transcripts of notes from observations and students dialogs were coded in terms of transactional, transformational, heroic and post-­heroic leadership styles. For the data analysis of the transcribed notes from observations, content analysis and discourse analysis was implemented. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was also utilized in the study to measure transformational and transactional leadership styles;; in addition, quantitative (one-­way repeated measures ANOVA) and qualitative data analyses have been performed. The results of this study indicate that in the business simulation gaming environment, certain leadership characteristics emerged spontaneously. Experiences about leadership varied between the teams and were dependent on the role individual students had in their team. These four studies showed that simulation gaming environment has the potential to be used in higher education to exercise the leadership styles relevant in real-­world work contexts. Further, the study indicated that given debriefing sessions, the simulation game context has much potential to benefit learning. The participants who showed interest in leadership roles were given the opportunity of developing leadership skills in practice. The study also provides evidence of unpredictable situations that participants can experience and learn from during the gaming sessions. The study illustrates the complex nature of experiences from the gaming environments and the need for the team leader and role divisions during the gaming sessions. It could be concluded that the experience of simulation game training illustrated the complexity of real life situations and provided participants with the challenges of virtual leadership experiences and the difficulties of using leadership styles in practice. As a result, the study offers playing computer simulation games in small teams as one way to exercise leadership styles in practice.

The role of organization-level factors on informal learning process

This study discusses the nature of informal learning process in business organizations, and the importance of different organization-level factors in this process. The purpose of this study is to understand the role of organization-level factors on informal learning process with three subquestions: how informal learning process takes place in business organizations, what organization-level factors affects informal learning process, and how informal learning process is affected by organizational-level factors. The theoretical background of this study includes literatures on the concept of informal learning, its process, and organization-level factors that can affect informal learning process. The empirical research has been conducted in this study by face-to-face interviews. The interviews were conducted between June and August 2015 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Thirteen interviews were made with the employees from different hierarchical levels from four freight forwarding MNCs in Bangladesh. Constant comparative analysis has been used to process the collected data until reaching a level of saturation. The empirical research found that all the phases in an informal learning process are not linear and sequential, and the role of organization-level factors on each phase varies with the degree and nature of each factor. In addition, the results also revealed that all the organization-level factors do not interact with each other while playing their role on informal learning process. The findings of this study considerably extend our understanding of the important role of HRD, manager, colleague, culture, and work structure on informal learning process in the workplace. However, future research in different organizational contexts is required to generalize the findings of this study.

The role of organization-level factors on informal learning process

This study discusses the nature of informal learning process in business organizations, and the importance of different organization-level factors in this process. The purpose of this study is to understand the role of organization-level factors on informal learning process with three subquestions: how informal learning process takes place in business organizations, what organizationlevel factors affects informal learning process, and how informal learning process is affected by organizational-level factors. The theoretical background of this study includes literatures on the concept of informal learning, its process, and organization-level factors that can affect informal learning process. The empirical research has been conducted in this study by face-to-face interviews. The interviews were conducted between June and August 2015 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Thirteen interviews were made with the employees from different hierarchical levels from four freight forwarding MNCs in Bangladesh. Constant comparative analysis has been used to process the collected data until reaching a level of saturation. The empirical research found that all the phases in an informal learning process are not linear and sequential, and the role of organization-level factors on each phase varies with the degree and nature of each factor. In addition, the results also revealed that all the organization-level factors do not interact with each other while playing their role on informal learning process. The findings of this study considerably extend our understanding of the important role of HRD, manager, colleague, culture, and work structure on informal learning process in the workplace. However, future research in different organizational contexts is required to generalize the findings of this study.