Doctoral Theses / Doktorsavhandlingar

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Browsing Doctoral Theses / Doktorsavhandlingar by Subject "design"

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    Competence Systems
    (2002) Lindgren, Rikard; Department of Informatics
    Today, more and more organizations rely upon the competencies of their staffs. This increasing reliance on competence has triggered many organizations to implement competence systems in order to support staff allocation and competence development. Competence systems can be characterized as systems that describe and present measures of individuals’ competencies. Even though the implemented competence systems are seemingly well-designed, it is apparent that such systems are only sporadically used in competence management practice. In spite of the fact that competence systems are aimed at supporting knowledge-based organizations, it seems that the systems do not fit this type of organization. This thesis is about how to design competence systems so that they achieve their intended effects in knowledge-based organizations. The main research question of this thesis is: How can competence systems be designed to support knowledge-based organizations? The objective of this thesis is to produce design-specific knowledge for successful competence systems adoption in knowledge-based organizations. This thesis is based on an action research study covering six organizations. The learning outcome of the first action research cycle was that successful integration of competence systems requires system features conveying a technology spirit more in line with organizational knowledge work practice. On the basis of the first action research cycle, the objective of the second action research cycle was to develop and implement competence systems prototypes in order to understand and improve competence systems adoption in knowledge-based organizations. Based on the evaluation of the prototype systems, the general lesson learned was that an activating technology spirit of competence systems would facilitate their adoption in knowledge-based organizations. The thesis demonstrates that conceptualizations of people’s interests are crucial for successful competence systems adoption in knowledge-based organizations.
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    Designing the new intranet
    (2002) Stenmark, Dick; Department of Informatics
    Designing the new intranet is about exploiting web technology in an organisational context so that the users can better utilise the intranet from a knowledge management perspective. This means to take advantage of the specific features that characterise web technology, to take advantage of the tangible traces of everyday work activities, and to take advantage of the fact that actions on an intranet are not isolated events. The pervading theme in this thesis is how to design the intranet to activate the users rather than a preoccupation with technology per se. The ambition has been to understand why intranets are being underutilised and to influence the way intranets are understood. Another objective has been to design a new framework for intranet implementations in general and for knowledge creation and knowledge sharing in particular. The research described in this thesis has taken place in an industrial environment and in close collaboration with the members of the organisation under study. The results apply to and are relevant to large and/or geographically disperse organisations, where the members do not know or know of each other and the organisation as a whole does not know what it knows. Further, leveraging the knowledge of the employees becomes increasingly important in the post-industrial society, where organisations depend on networks, co-operation, and openness to achieve a competitive edge. This thesis consists of five papers and a framing introduction. Papers 1, 2, and 3 deal with enacted knowledge and competence, whereas papers 4 and 5 are targeted towards innovation and knowledge creation. The introduction places the papers in a context and presents the contributions; (1) the application prototypes, (2) the papers, and (3) the intranet design framework.
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    The evolution of a new(s) genre
    (2004) Ihlström, Carina; Department of Informatics
    This thesis describes and analyzes how the online newspaper genre has evolved since its inception on the Internet in the mid-nineties. The overall research question is: What characterizes the online newspaper genre evolution? The thesis is based on both synchronic and diachronic studies with a multimethod approach (including six different studies involving, e.g., interviews, questionnaires and web site analyses) intended to provide a comprehensive picture of this genre evolution. On the basis of genre theory, the thesis proposes a framework for understanding online newspaper genre evolution, integrating design (layout) aspects with publisher and audience views. Applying this framework to the collected empirical material, the thesis presents a comprehensive and integrated view of this evolution. Over time, online newspapers have evolved into a specific digital genre, with genre characteristics such as content and form, distinguishing them from other digital genres. However, this rapid development has also lead to diversities in form and function, triggering both academics and practitioners to seek ways to design for consistency within the genre. Several factors have influenced the online newspaper genre evolution, e.g., inhouse attitudes, business model shifts and technological progress at the publishers’ side. The audience demographics, habits and preferences have also changed. The layout of the online newspapers has been altered into long pages stuffed with content like news streams, headlines, photos, and services not possible in the printed edition. There has also been a shift towards frequent updates throughout the day and more content produced for the web. In addition, the thesis contributes to digital genre theory by modifications relevant to the online newspaper genre. For example, the concepts of genre awareness and genre interdependence are elaborated, a framework for identifying genre characteristics is proposed, and the concept “positioning” is introduced. Further, the thesis also contributes with implications for online newspaper design and publishing with longitudinal mappings of online newspaper layout and the habits and preferences of the audience.