Motivational Influences on Transfer: Dimensions and Boundary Conditions

The focus of this dissertation is the motivational influences on transfer in higher education and professional training contexts. To estimate these motivational influences, the dissertation includes seven individual studies that are structured in two parts. Part I, Dimensions, aims at identifying the dimensionality of motivation to transfer and its structural relations with training-related antecedents and outcomes. Part II, Boundary Conditions, aims at testing the predictive validity of motivation theories used in contemporary training research under different study conditions. Data in this dissertation was gathered from multi-item questionnaires, which were analyzed differently in Part I and Part II. Studies in Part I employed exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, partial least squares (PLS) path modeling, and mediation analysis. Studies in Part II used artifact distribution meta-analysis, (nested) subgroup analysis, and weighted least squares (WLS) multiple regression. Results demonstrate that motivation to transfer can be conceptualized as a three-dimensional construct, including autonomous motivation to transfer, controlled motivation to transfer, and intention to transfer, given a theoretical framework informed by expectancy theory, self-determination theory, and the theory of planned behavior. Results also demonstrate that a range of boundary conditions moderates motivational influences on transfer. To test the predictive validity of expectancy theory, social cognitive theory, and the theory of goal orientations under different study settings, a total of 17 boundary conditions were meta-analyzed, including age; assessment criterion; assessment source; attendance policy; collaboration among trainees; computer support; instruction; instrument used to measure motivation; level of education; publication type; social training context; SS/SMC bias; study setting; survey modality; type of knowledge being trained; use of a control group; and work context. Together, the findings cumulated in this thesis support the basic premise that motivation is centrally important for transfer, but that motivational influences need to be understood from a more differentiated perspective than commonly found in the literature, in order to account for several dimensions and boundary conditions. The results of this dissertation across the seven individual studies are reflected in terms of their implications for theory development and their significance for training evaluation and the design of training environments. Limitations and directions to take in future research are discussed.

Assessing the effectiveness of non-profit forestry organisations : an ultimate goal approach

Summary

Project Success through Effective Decisions: Case Studies on Project Goal Setting, Success Evaluation and Managerial Decision Making

The objective of the thesis is to structure and model the factors that contribute to and can be used in evaluating project success. The purpose of this thesis is to enhance the understanding of three research topics. The goal setting process, success evaluation and decision-making process are studied in the context of a project, business unitand its business environment. To achieve the objective three research questionsare posed. These are 1) how to set measurable project goals, 2) how to evaluateproject success and 3) how to affect project success with managerial decisions.The main theoretical contribution comes from deriving a synthesis of these research topics which have mostly been discussed apart from each other in prior research. The research strategy of the study has features from at least the constructive, nomothetical, and decision-oriented research approaches. This strategy guides the theoretical and empirical part of the study. Relevant concepts and a framework are composed on the basis of the prior research contributions within the problem area. A literature review is used to derive constructs of factors withinthe framework. They are related to project goal setting, success evaluation, and decision making. On the basis of this, the case study method is applied to complement the framework. The empirical data includes one product development program, three construction projects, as well as one organization development, hardware/software, and marketing project in their contexts. In two of the case studiesthe analytic hierarchy process is used to formulate a hierarchical model that returns a numerical evaluation of the degree of project success. It has its origin in the solution idea which in turn has its foundation in the notion of projectsuccess. The achieved results are condensed in the form of a process model thatintegrates project goal setting, success evaluation and decision making. The process of project goal setting is analysed as a part of an open system that includes a project, the business unit and its competitive environment. Four main constructs of factors are suggested. First, the project characteristics and requirements are clarified. The second and the third construct comprise the components of client/market segment attractiveness and sources of competitive advantage. Together they determine the competitive position of a business unit. Fourth, the relevant goals and the situation of a business unit are clarified to stress their contribution to the project goals. Empirical evidence is gained on the exploitation of increased knowledge and on the reaction to changes in the business environment during a project to ensure project success. The relevance of a successful project to a company or a business unit tends to increase the higher the reference level of project goals is set. However, normal performance or sometimes performance below this normal level is intentionally accepted. Success measures make project success quantifiable. There are result-oriented, process-oriented and resource-oriented success measures. The study also links result measurements to enablers that portray the key processes. The success measures can be classified into success domains determining the areas on which success is assessed. Empiricalevidence is gained on six success domains: strategy, project implementation, product, stakeholder relationships, learning situation and company functions. However, some project goals, like safety, can be assessed using success measures that belong to two success domains. For example a safety index is used for assessing occupational safety during a project, which is related to project implementation. Product safety requirements, in turn, are connected to the product characteristics and thus to the product-related success domain. Strategic success measures can be used to weave the project phases together. Empirical evidence on their static nature is gained. In order-oriented projects the project phases are oftencontractually divided into different suppliers or contractors. A project from the supplier's perspective can represent only a part of the ¿whole project¿ viewed from the client's perspective. Therefore static success measures are mostly used within the contractually agreed project scope and duration. Proof is also acquired on the dynamic use of operational success measures. They help to focus on the key issues during each project phase. Furthermore, it is shown that the original success domains and success measures, their weights and target values can change dynamically. New success measures can replace the old ones to correspond better with the emphasis of the particular project phase. This adjustment concentrates on the key decision milestones. As a conclusion, the study suggests a combination of static and dynamic success measures. Their linkage to an incentive system can make the project management proactive, enable fast feedback and enhancethe motivation of the personnel. It is argued that the sequence of effective decisions is closely linked to the dynamic control of project success. According to the used definition, effective decisions aim at adequate decision quality and decision implementation. The findings support that project managers construct and use a chain of key decision milestones to evaluate and affect success during aproject. These milestones can be seen as a part of the business processes. Different managers prioritise the key decision milestones to a varying degree. Divergent managerial perspectives, power, responsibilities and involvement during a project offer some explanation for this. Finally, the study introduces the use ofHard Gate and Soft Gate decision milestones. The managers may use the former milestones to provide decision support on result measurements and ad hoc critical conditions. In the latter milestones they may make intermediate success evaluation also on the basis of other types of success measures, like process and resource measures.

Frequency-Domain and Wide-Pulse Time-Domain Measurements of Lanthanide Luminescence and Lanthanide-Based Resonance Energy Transfer

Resonance energy transfer (RET) is a non-radiative transfer of the excitation energy from the initially excited luminescent donor to an acceptor. The requirements for the resonance energy transfer are: i) the spectral overlap between the donor emission spectrum and the acceptor absorption spectrum, ii) the close proximity of the donor and the acceptor, and iii) the suitable relative orientations of the donor emission and the acceptor absorption transition dipoles. As a result of the RET process the donor luminescence intensity and the donor lifetime are decreased. If the acceptor is luminescent, a sensitized acceptor emission appears. The rate of RET depends strongly on the donor–acceptor distance (r) and is inversely proportional to r6. The distance dependence of RET is utilized in binding assays. The proximity requirement and the selective detection of the RET-modified emission signal allow homogeneous separation free assays. The term lanthanide-based RET is used when luminescent lanthanide compounds are used as donors. The long luminescence lifetimes, the large Stokes’ shifts and the intense, sharply-spiked emission spectra of the lanthanide donors offer advantages over the conventional organic donor molecules. Both the organic lanthanide chelates and the inorganic up-converting phosphor (UCP) particles have been used as donor labels in the RET based binding assays. In the present work lanthanide luminescence and lanthanide-based resonance energy transfer phenomena were studied. Luminescence lifetime measurements had an essential role in the research. Modular frequency-domain and time-domain luminometers were assembled and used successfully in the lifetime measurements. The frequency-domain luminometer operated in the low frequency domain ( 100 kHz) and utilized a novel dual-phase lock-in detection of the luminescence. One of the studied phenomena was the recently discovered non-overlapping fluorescence resonance energy transfer (nFRET). The studied properties were the distance and temperature dependences of nFRET. The distance dependence was found to deviate from the Förster theory and a clear temperature dependence was observed whereas conventional RET was completely independent of the temperature. Based on the experimental results two thermally activated mechanisms were proposed for the nFRET process. The work with the UCP particles involved the measurement of the luminescence properties of the UCP particles synthesized in our laboratory. The goal of the UCP particle research is to develop UCP donor labels for binding assays. In the present work the effect of the dopant concentrations and the core–shell structure on the total up-conversion luminescence intensity, the red–green emission ratio, and the luminescence lifetime was studied. Also the non-radiative nature of the energy transfer from the UCP particle donors to organic acceptors was demonstrated for the first time in aqueous environment and with a controlled donor–acceptor distance.

Emancipating and developing learning activity: Systemic intervention and re-instrumentation in higher education.

The central theme of this thesis is the emancipation and further development of learning activity in higher education in the context of the ongoing digital transformation of our societies. It was developed in response to the highly problematic mainstream approach to digital re-instrumentation of teaching and studying practises in contemporary higher education. The mainstream approach is largely based on centralisation, standardisation, commoditisation, and commercialisation, while re-producing the general patterns of control, responsibility, and dependence that are characteristic for activity systems of schooling. Whereas much of educational research and development focuses on the optimisation and fine-tuning of schooling, the overall inquiry that is underlying this thesis has been carried out from an explicitly critical position and within a framework of action science. It thus conceptualises learning activity in higher education not only as an object of inquiry but also as an object to engage with and to intervene into from a perspective of intentional change. The knowledge-constituting interest of this type of inquiry can be tentatively described as a combination of heuristic-instrumental (guidelines for contextualised action and intervention), practical-phronetic (deliberation of value-rational aspects of means and ends), and developmental-emancipatory (deliberation of issues of power, self-determination, and growth) aspects. Its goal is the production of orientation knowledge for educational practise. The thesis provides an analysis, argumentation, and normative claim on why the development of learning activity should be turned into an object of individual|collective inquiry and intentional change in higher education, and why the current state of affairs in higher education actually impedes such a development. It argues for a decisive shift of attention to the intentional emancipation and further development of learning activity as an important cultural instrument for human (self-)production within the digital transformation. The thesis also attempts an in-depth exploration of what type of methodological rationale can actually be applied to an object of inquiry (developing learning activity) that is at the same time conceptualised as an object of intentional change within the ongoing digital transformation. The result of this retrospective reflection is the formulation of “optimally incomplete” guidelines for educational R&D practise that shares the practicalphronetic (value related) and developmental-emancipatory (power related) orientations that had been driving the overall inquiry. In addition, the thesis formulates the instrumental-heuristic knowledge claim that the conceptual instruments that were adapted and validated in the context of a series of intervention studies provide means to effectively intervene into existing practise in higher education to support the necessary development of (increasingly emancipated) networked learning activity. It suggests that digital networked instruments (tools and services) generally should be considered and treated as transient elements within critical systemic intervention research in higher education. It further argues for the predominant use of loosely-coupled, digital networked instruments that allow for individual|collective ownership, control, (co-)production, and re-use in other contexts and for other purposes. Since the range of digital instrumentation options is continuously expanding and currently shows no signs of an imminent slow-down or consolidation, individual and collective exploration and experimentation of this realm needs to be systematically incorporated into higher education practise.