Le fonctionnement interne des équipes de travail : conceptualisation, mesure et validation

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Le fonctionnement interne des équipes de travail : conceptualisation, mesure et validation

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Conceptualisation, design and development of a primary school based child healthy weight intervention

INTRODUCTION: In common with much of the developed world, Scotland has a severe and well established problem with overweight and obesity in childhood with recent figures demonstrating that 31% of Scottish children aged 2-15 years old were overweight including obese in 2014. This problem is more pronounced in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups and in older children across all economic groups (Scottish Health Survey, 2014). Children who are overweight or obese are at increased risk of a number of adverse health outcomes in the short term and throughout their life course (Lobstein and Jackson-Leach, 2006). The Scottish Government tasked all Scottish Health Boards with developing and delivering child healthy weight interventions to clinically overweight or obese children in an attempt to address this health problem. It is therefore imperative to deliver high quality, affordable, appropriately targeted interventions which can make a sustained impact on children’s lifestyles, setting them up for life as healthy weight adults. This research aimed to inform the design, readiness for application and Health Board suitability of an effective primary school-based curricular child healthy weight intervention. METHODS: the process involved in conceptualising a child healthy weight intervention, developing the intervention, planning for implementation and subsequent evaluation was guided by the PRECEDE-PROCEED Model (Green and Kreuter, 2005) and the Intervention Mapping protocol (Lloyd et al. 2011). RESULTS: The outputs from each stage of the development process were used to formulate a child healthy weight intervention conceptual model then develop plans for delivery and evaluation. DISCUSSION: The Fit for School conceptual model developed through this process has the potential to theoretically modify energy balance related behaviours associated with unhealthy weight gain in childhood. It also has the potential to be delivered at a Health Board scale within current organisational restrictions.

Conceptualisation de l’activité pédagogique en contexte d’apprentissage hybride et développement professionnel des enseignant(e)s universitaires

L’intégration des nouvelles technologies en enseignement supérieur ne devrait pas être vue comme un simple effet de mode, mais plutôt comme un cadre de réflexion sur les orientations nouvelles à donner à l’Université du 21ème siècle, en termes de culture institutionnelle, de ressources organisationnelles et d’opérationnalisation d’objectifs de recherche et d’enseignement (Duderstadt et al, 2002 ; Guri-Rosenblit, 2005). En effet, l’émergence d’une nouvelle tendance de formation post-secondaire, qu’est l’intégration des solutions virtuelles au présentiel, n’est pas sans incidences sur les pratiques enseignantes. Or, la littérature n’offre pas de modèles descriptifs satisfaisants permettant de mieux saisir la pertinence des liens entre l’enseignement en contexte d’apprentissage hybride et le développement professionnel des enseignants universitaires. Aussi avons-nous procédé par des observations participantes de deux cours en sciences de la gestion à HEC Montréal, dans les programmes de certificat de premier cycle ainsi que par des entretiens d’explicitation et d’autoconfrontation, pendant toute la session d’automne 2014, pour respectivement recueillir des données sur les pratiques réelles d’un maître d’enseignement, en sociologie du travail, et d’une chargée de cours, en gestion de projets. Notre analyse du corpus, par catégorisations conceptualisantes, a permis la production d’énoncés nomologiques rendant compte de la dynamique de relations entre ces deux phénomènes. Sur le plan scientifique, elle a apporté un éclairage nouveau sur les processus de construction identitaire professionnelle en pédagogie universitaire, en regard des mutations technologiques, socioculturelles et économiques que subissent l’Université, en général, et les pratiques enseignantes et étudiantes, en particulier. L’approche inductive utilisée a donc permis de définir la structure des interactions des deux phénomènes, selon la perspective des deux enseignants, et d’élaborer des modèles d’intervention enracinés dans leurs pratiques quotidiennes. Aussi sur le plan social, ces modèles sont-ils l’expression d’une grammaire de la pensée et de l’action, ancrée dans les valeurs des enseignants eux-mêmes. Nous avons pris en compte le paradigme de la tâche réelle, versus celui de la tâche prescrite, en termes de mise en œuvre concrète des processus pédagogiques, pour rendre les résultats de cette recherche signifiants pour la pratique. Les modèles, qui ont émergé de notre configuration de la pensée dialogique des participants, peuvent être intégrés à la formation des enseignants universitaires en contexte de bimodalisation de l’Université.

Conceptualisation de l’activité pédagogique en contexte d’apprentissage hybride et développement professionnel des enseignant(e)s universitaires

L’intégration des nouvelles technologies en enseignement supérieur ne devrait pas être vue comme un simple effet de mode, mais plutôt comme un cadre de réflexion sur les orientations nouvelles à donner à l’Université du 21ème siècle, en termes de culture institutionnelle, de ressources organisationnelles et d’opérationnalisation d’objectifs de recherche et d’enseignement (Duderstadt et al, 2002 ; Guri-Rosenblit, 2005). En effet, l’émergence d’une nouvelle tendance de formation post-secondaire, qu’est l’intégration des solutions virtuelles au présentiel, n’est pas sans incidences sur les pratiques enseignantes. Or, la littérature n’offre pas de modèles descriptifs satisfaisants permettant de mieux saisir la pertinence des liens entre l’enseignement en contexte d’apprentissage hybride et le développement professionnel des enseignants universitaires. Aussi avons-nous procédé par des observations participantes de deux cours en sciences de la gestion à HEC Montréal, dans les programmes de certificat de premier cycle ainsi que par des entretiens d’explicitation et d’autoconfrontation, pendant toute la session d’automne 2014, pour respectivement recueillir des données sur les pratiques réelles d’un maître d’enseignement, en sociologie du travail, et d’une chargée de cours, en gestion de projets. Notre analyse du corpus, par catégorisations conceptualisantes, a permis la production d’énoncés nomologiques rendant compte de la dynamique de relations entre ces deux phénomènes. Sur le plan scientifique, elle a apporté un éclairage nouveau sur les processus de construction identitaire professionnelle en pédagogie universitaire, en regard des mutations technologiques, socioculturelles et économiques que subissent l’Université, en général, et les pratiques enseignantes et étudiantes, en particulier. L’approche inductive utilisée a donc permis de définir la structure des interactions des deux phénomènes, selon la perspective des deux enseignants, et d’élaborer des modèles d’intervention enracinés dans leurs pratiques quotidiennes. Aussi sur le plan social, ces modèles sont-ils l’expression d’une grammaire de la pensée et de l’action, ancrée dans les valeurs des enseignants eux-mêmes. Nous avons pris en compte le paradigme de la tâche réelle, versus celui de la tâche prescrite, en termes de mise en œuvre concrète des processus pédagogiques, pour rendre les résultats de cette recherche signifiants pour la pratique. Les modèles, qui ont émergé de notre configuration de la pensée dialogique des participants, peuvent être intégrés à la formation des enseignants universitaires en contexte de bimodalisation de l’Université.

Interdisciplinarity and Design Conceptualisation: Contributions from a Small-Scale Design Experiment

Literature emphasises the sparse research focused in collaborative and open approaches in the design conceptualisation stage, also known as the Fuzzy Front-End (FFE). Presently, the most challenging discussion arising from this specific field of research lies in understanding on whether or not to structure the referred conceptual stage. Accordingly, the established hypothesis behind this study sustains that a structured approach in the FFE would benefit the interdisciplinary dialogue. Therefore, two objectives support this study: to understand the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach in the FFE, and to test one proposed model for this conceptual stage. By means of a small-scale design experiment, this paper pretends to give additional contributions to this area of research, in the context of new product development (NPD). The general research supporting this specific study aims to conceptualise in the area of newly and futuristic aircraft configurations. Hence, this same topic based the conceptualisation process in the conducted ideation sessions, which are conducted by five different teams of three elements each. The results of the different ideation sessions reinforce the contemporary paradigm of Open Innovation (OI), which is based in trust and communication to better collaborate. The postulated hypothesis for this study is partially validated as teams testing the proposed and structured model generally consider that its usage would benefit the integration of different disciplines. Besides, a general feeling that a structured approach integrates different perspectives and gives creativity a focus pervades. Nevertheless, the small-scale of the design experiment attributes some limitations to this study, despite giving new insights in how to better organise coming and more sustained studies. Interestingly, the importance of sketching as an interdisciplinary means of communication is underlined with the obtained results.

Measuring Consumer Loyalty : the loyalty orientation scale

Reflecting its importance to thc financial success of organisations, interest in consumer loyalty continues unabated. However, there are still many unanswered questions about its conceptualisation and measurement.These questions must he resolved before academics and practitioners can usefully apply the concept. We argue that consumer loyalty is best conceptualised as a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Based on this multi-dimensional view, we develop and test a new measure of consumer loyalty. We hypothesise a threedimensional structure containing affective, temporal and instrumental dimensions, Results from a preliminary test are reported. The results indicate that the construct can be reprcxeuted with two dimensions: affective and temporal loyally. As an additional check on the reliability of our results, we find significant correlations between these two dimensions and a measure of behavioural loyalty.

Predatory police : the roles of ethics and networks as mediating factors

The institution the police force has been established to protect citizens and their property from harm and predatory opportunism. However, there have been occasions when the very people assigned to protect become part of the predatory force against society. Predatory policing occurs when the police use their powers to extort money in the form of bribes. While, the concept is receiving attention in Europe but there have not been any direct studies in Australia. To overcome this research deficit and determine the extent, if any, of predatory policing in Australia data is interrogated from four police corruption inquiries in the Australian states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. In addition, it examines the role of the type of networks used by corrupt police officers. The synthesis and application of public corruption and network literatures to the predatory policing domain provides new and relevant insights to assist those responsible for the administration of our institutions of justice. The paper concludes with a framework, drawn from the first stage of the project, to assist in the conceptualisation and monitoring of this public problem.

A national building products inventory

Australia has no nationally accepted building products life cycle inventory (LCI) database for use in building Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) assessment (BEA) tools. More information about the sustainability of the supply chain is limited by industry’s lack of real capacity to deliver objective information on process and product environmental impact. Recognition of these deficits emerged during compilation of a National LCI database to inform LCADesign, a prototype 3 dimensional object oriented computer aided design (3-D CAD) commercial building design tool. Development of this Australian LCI represents 24 staff years of effort here since 1995. Further development of LCADesign extensions is proposed as being essential to support key applications demanded from a more holistic theoretical framework calling for modules of new building and construction industry tools. A proposed tool, conceptually called LCADetails, is to serve the building product industries own needs as well as that of commercial building design amongst other industries’ prospective needs. In this paper, a proposition is examined that the existing national LCI database should be further expanded to serve Australian building product industries’ needs as well as to provide details for its client-base from a web based portal containing a module of practical supply and procurement applications. Along with improved supply chain assessment services, this proposed portal is envisaged to facilitate industry environmental life cycle improvement assessment and support decision-making to provide accredited data for operational reporting capabilities, load-based reasoning as well as BEA applications. This paper provides an overview of developments to date, including a novel 3-D CAD information and communications technology (ICT) platform for more holistic integration of existing tools for true cost assessment. Further conceptualisation of future prospects, based on a new holistic life cycle assessment framework LCADevelop, considering stakeholder relationships and their need for a range of complementary tools leveraging automated function off such ICT platforms to inform dimensionally defined operations for such as automotive, civil, transport and industrial applications are also explored.

A Malaysian tale : pre-service teacher education and ICT integration for a better world

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education is often a topic of much discussion within all sectors of education with educators and educational researchers continually looking for innovative ways of using these technologies to support and enhance student outcomes in education. Consequently, Malaysia is no exception to this and as the Ministry of Education (MOE), Malaysia strives to meet its government’s Vision 2020, educational reform across all educational sectors has become imperative. ICT will play an integral role in the educational reform process and teacher education programs are no exception to this. ICT and capacity building will play an important role in the re-conceptualisation of teacher education programs. This paper reports on how a collaborative capacity building project between two Malaysian teacher education Institutes and an Australian University has given lecturers and pre-service teachers an opportunity to redefine their use of ICT in their prospective teaching areas of science, mathematics and design and technology. It also highlights the positive capacity building programs that occurred between both Australian university lecturers and Malaysian Institute lecturers and how this contributed to the effective integration and use of ICT.

Performance of public private partnerships : an evolutionary perspective

PPPs are held to be a powerful way of mobilising private finance and resources to deliver public infrastructure. Theoretically, research into procurement has begun to acknowledge difficulties with the classification and assessment of different types of procurement, particularly those which do not sufficiently acknowledge variety within specific types of procurement methods. This paper advances a theoretical framework based on an evolutionary economic conceptualisation of a routine, which can accommodate the variety evident in procurement projects, in particular PPPs. The paper tests how the various elements of a PPP, as advanced in the theoretical framework, affect performance across 10 case studies. It concludes, that a limited number of elements of a PPP affect their performance, and provides strong evidence for the theoretical model advanced in this paper.

Understanding how to enhance business creativity

This PhD study examines some of what happens in an individual’s mind regarding creativity during problem solving within an organisational context. It presents innovations related to creative motivation, cognitive style and framing effects that can be applied by managers to enhance individual employee creativity within the organisation and thereby assist organisations to become more innovative. The project delivers an understanding of how to leverage natural changes in creative motivation levels during problem solving. This pattern of response is called Creative Resolve Response (CRR). The project also presents evidence of how framing effects can be used to influence decisions involving creative options in order to enhance the potential for managers get employees to select creative options more often for implementation. The study’s objectives are to understand: • How creative motivation changes during problem solving • How cognitive style moderates these creative motivation changes • How framing effects apply to decisions involving creative options to solve problems • How cognitive style moderate these framing effects The thesis presents the findings from three controlled experiments based around self reports during contrived problem solving and decision making situations. The first experiment suggests that creative motivation varies in a predictable and systematic way during problem solving as a function of the problem solver’s perception of progress. The second experiment suggests that there are specific framing effects related to decisions involving creativity. It seems that simply describing an alternative as innovative may activate perceptual biases that overcome risk based framing effects. The third experiment suggests that cognitive style moderates decisions involving creativity in complex ways. It seems that in some contexts, decision makers will prefer a creative option, regardless of their cognitive style, if this option is both outside the bounds of what is officially allowed and yet ultimately safe. The thesis delivers innovation on three levels: theoretical, methodological and empirical. The highlights of these findings are outlined below: 1. Theoretical innovation with the conceptualisation of Creative Resolve Response based on an extension of Amabile’s research regarding creative motivation. 2. Theoretical innovation linking creative motivation and Kirton’s research on cognitive style. 3. Theoretical innovation linking both risk based and attribute framing effects to cognitive style. 4. Methodological innovation for defining and testing preferences for creative solution implementation in the form of operationalised creativity decision alternatives. 5. Methodological innovation to identify extreme decision options by applying Shafir’s findings regarding attribute framing effects in reverse to create a test. 6. Empirical innovation with statistically significant research findings which indicate creative motivation varies in a systematic way. 7. Empirical innovation with statistically significant research findings which identify innovation descriptor framing effects 8. Empirical innovation with statistically significant research findings which expand understanding of Kirton’s cognitive style descriptors including the importance of safe rule breaking. 9. Empirical innovation with statistically significant research findings which validate how framing effects do apply to decisions involving operationalised creativity. Drawing on previous research related to creative motivation, cognitive style, framing effects and supervisor interactions with employees, this study delivers insights which can assist managers to increase the production and implementation of creativity in organisations. Hopefully this will result in organisations which are more innovative. Such organisations have the potential to provide ongoing economic and social benefits.

In-vehicle technology functional requirements for older drivers

Older drivers represent the fastest growing segment of the road user population. Cognitive and physiological capabilities diminishes with ages. The design of future in-vehicle interfaces have to take into account older drivers' needs and capabilities. Older drivers have different capabilities which impact on their driving patterns and subsequently on road crash patterns. New in-vehicle technology could improve safety, comfort and maintain elderly people's mobility for longer. Existing research has focused on the ergonomic and Human Machine Interface (HMI) aspects of in-vehicle technology to assist the elderly. However there is a lack of comprehensive research on identifying the most relevant technology and associated functionalities that could improve older drivers' road safety. To identify future research priorities for older drivers, this paper presents: (i) a review of age related functional impairments, (ii) a brief description of some key characteristics of older driver crashes and (iii) a conceptualisation of the most relevant technology interventions based on traffic psychology theory and crash data.

Dromoeconomics: Towards a Political Economy of Speed

In this article we present an alternative theoretical perspective on contemporary cultural, political and economic practices in advanced countries. Like other articles in this issue of parallax, our focus is on conceptualising the economies of excess. However, our ideas do not draw on the writings of Georges Bataille in The Accursed Share, but principally on Virilio’s Speed & Politics: An Essay on Dromology and Marx’s Capital and the Grundrisse.4 Using a modest synthesis of tools provided by these theorists, we put forward a tentative conceptualisation of ‘dromoeconomics’, or, a political economy of speed.

A phenomenological study of contemplative experiences : implications for interior design

This research reports on a project concerned with the relationship between the person and the environment in the context of achieving a contemplative or existential state – a state which can be experienced either consciously or subconsciously. The need for such a study originated with the desire to contribute to the design of multicultural spaces which could be used for a range of activities within the public and the personal arena, activities including contemplation, meditation and prayer. The concept of ‘sacred’ is explored in the literature review and in primary interviews with the participants of this study. Given that the word ‘sacred’ is highly value-laden and potentially alienating for some people, it was decided to use the more accessible term ‘contemplative’. The outcomes of the study inform the practice of interior design and architecture which tends currently to neglect the potential for all spaces to be existentially meaningful. Informed by phenomenological methodology, data were collected from a diverse group of people, using photo-elicitation and interviews. The technique of photo-elicitation proved to be highly effective in helping people reveal their everyday lived experience of contemplative spaces. Reflective analysis (Van Manen 2000) was used to explore the data collected. The initial stage of analysis produced three categories of data: varying conceptions of contemplation, aspects of the person involved in the contemplation, and aspects of environment involved in contemplation. From this, it was found that achieving a state of contemplation involves both the person and the environment in a dialectic process of unfolding. The unfolding has various physical, psycho-social, and existential dimensions or qualities which operate sequentially and simultaneously. Two concepts emerged as being central to unfolding: ‘Cleansing’ and ‘Nothingness’. Unfolding is found to comprise the Core; Distinction; Manifestation; Cleansing; Creation; and Sharing. This has a parallel with Mircea Eliade’s (1959) definition of sacred as something that manifests itself as different from the profane. The power of design, re-contextualization through utility and purpose, and the existential engagements between the person and environment are used as a basis for establishing the potential contribution of the study to interior design. In this way, the study makes a contribution to our understanding of how space and its elements inspire, support and sustain person environment interaction – particularly at the existential level – as well as to our understanding of the multi-dimensional and holistic nature of this interaction. In addition, it points to the need for a phenomenological re-conceptualisation of the design/client relationship. In summary, the contributions of this research are: the exploration of contemplative experience as sacred experience; an understanding of the design of space as creating engagement between person and environment; a rationale for the introduction of a phenomenological approach to the relationship between designer and clients; and raising awareness of the spiritual in a holistic approach to design.