[dipl] Perustieteiden korkeakoulu / SCI

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/21

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 28

After a hundred years of solitude: Challenging the status quo of Finnish trade magazine industy by applying foresight to business models
(2011) Koponen, Johannes
School of Science | Master's thesis
The topic of this study is business models in Finnish trade magazine publishing. Trade magazines are publications tor different branches of professionals. The trade media industry is a knowledge-intensive field of business. The field faces challenges such as globalization and technological change that are profoundly changing the industry. In the changing environments companies that take advantage of the major structural changes to design their business models to compete differently typically turn out to be the fastest-growing companies. To grasp a complex problem of the trade media business models, a systemic approach is taken. The systemic outside view perspective is especially important because-the intrinsic inertia that exists in all business models: companies may entirely miss the erosion of the ability of their model to generate value until it is too late. A business model is a model that shows the value creation and delivery logic of a particular business, outlining also the structure or revenues, costs and profits of the company in question. Successful business models consist of self-reinforcing victorious cycles. Based on literature, seven different cycles are identified in trade magazine publishing business model. This business model faces threats that are explicitly illustrated with scenarios in this study. Scenarios in the study gain their variables from iterative expert interviews (an argument Delphi study). The research process had four steps. First argument-based variables were generated from Delphi conclusions. Second, the internal coherency of the variables was analysed using the Field Anomaly Relaxation to-organize variables into meaningful scenarios. Third, the requirements the scenarios were compared to the abilities of the current business model. Fourth, novel business model alternatives were generated to each scenario. Each scenario reveals issues within the ability of the current business model to transform to new environments. Moreover, each scenario provides previously unseen business opportunities. In addition to the practical and scientific contributions, the thesis delivers a methodological contribution by drafting a procedure for futures-oriented business model conceptualization. The conceptualization is conducted by using Delphi panel derived future variables, Field Anomaly Relaxation, scenarios and system dynamics based business model representations in constructive research process.
Analysis of tumor growth experiments using mixed-effects modeling
(2012) Laajala, Teemu Daniel
School of Science | Master's thesis
Tumor growth experiments used in pre-clinical cancer drug development often result in challenging response profiles. An implanted human cancer cell line inside a genetically standardized, immune-deficient mouse can shrink spontaneously in a control group or grow aggressively in a treatment group, even if the treatment otherwise appears to block the effective growth of the implanted cancer cells. Such experiments have previously been analysed using simple statistical methods such as comparison of the end-point tumor volume between the treatment and control groups through a t-test. We designed a mixed-effects modelling framework that explores hidden subgroups of the data and seeks to connect the identified groups to established tumor biomarkers. Suitable response and model transformations were proposed to be able to model a wide range of tumor growth experiments. Cross-validation as well as other model validation and diagnostic tools were utilized for motivating the suggested model choice. In addition, various approaches were proposed for the purposes of developing better experiment protocols in the future. The modelling procedure and conclusions made from the statistical inference were shown to be coherent with the previously published studies and the model parameters were assessed to have meaningful interpretation. The biological motivation of the identified categories was shown to be feasible through several biomarkers. The current work provides a fruitful base for future model development.
Content-based recommender system exploiting topic models
(2012) Luostarinen, Tapio
School of Science | Master's thesis
It is often a time-consuming and laborious task to find interesting information from large collections. Recommender systems have become popular in many internet services in recent years to ease the problem. Although collaborative methods are more popular among researchers, content based methods have characteristics that make them more attractive in some situations. Different content-based methods have been proposed, but no comparative study has been published. In this thesis, we study different content-based recommender methods in order to implement one on top of an existing news aggregator. We test using topic models in content-based news recommender systems in order to increase performance. We study the nearest neighbour method, linear regression and naive Bayes classification using traditional word-based data and compare them with the same methods using topics extracted from the dataset with latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). For comparison, we also evaluate the performance using singular value decomposition (SVD) as a dimensionality reduction method. For evaluation, we introduce a novel way of simulating online situation in an offline setting. Our results show that especially linear regression benefits substantially from LDA, but also SVD is shown to be sufficient for achieving improvements. We show that especially the important problem of the cold start situation can be eased with the reduced dimensionality of an LDA model. This kind of representation not only simplifies calculations, but also increases performance and makes the interpretation more intuitive when there is only a small amount of data available. We also compare the three recommendation methods with each other and show that the nearest neighbour method is the most accurate and stable. However, as linear regression performs almost as well when LDA is used and it is computationally the most efficient for calculating predictions, it would be the best method to be implemented in an online system.
Data mining of product data
(2013) Kanto, Jaakko
School of Science | Master's thesis
This thesis discusses the integration of product data management and data mining systems in such a way that the new system enables the data mining of the product data. The aim in the data mining of product data of a company is to gain similar advantages as with product data management itself, which are inter alia, time saving benefits by automation and quality improvements. This study investigates the structure of data mining systems and reviews different integrations of product data management and data mining systems. In addition, this thesis studies data mining methods that might be useful in product data analysis and suggests some new applied methods for data mining of product data. The overall aim of this thesis is to provide an introduction to constructing a data mining system and information for applying data mining methods to product data in practice. The case example of this thesis focuses on the building of a system that is capable of the data mining of the title block information from 2D drawings. This is carried out by first using optical character recognizing after which the extracted information is imported into a database for further analysis. In the case example, implementation and the result of the system are examined and additional follow-up improvements are suggested. Today, the data mining of product data is applied in companies only occasionally although there may be arguments for broader use. Currently, the purposes of the use are mostly 3D similarity searches. Other possible uses may be, among other things, the similarity search of items based on the attribute information and similarity search of product structures.
Developing a new global idea creation platform - Case idea marketplace
(2011) Harjanne, Karoliina
School of Science | Master's thesis
Social media has become an inseparable part of the modern society, and companies are currently competing for consumers' time with their own online communities. Companies use social media not only to enhance brand image or attract people to buy products and services, but also to make people innovate, design and concept-products and services for themselves. This sub-phenomenon of social media is called crowdsourcing. Despite the vast type, only few companies know how to actually utilize social media and get the best out of it. This study was made at the Company to support the design and implementation process of a new idea crowdsourcing site that is to be launched in spring 2011. The research question of the study is "How to get organizations' employees, customers and other stakeholders to use the new idea crowdsourcing site to support the idea creation process?" The objectives of the study are as follows:. To identify the known motivations, features and roles of online communities from the literature. To validate the identified motivations, features and roles of users in the context of idea crowdsourcing and to complete them with findings from end-user survey, observation and expert interviews, and. To provide recommendations on how to build a new idea marketplace that will attract a high variety of consumers globally. The literature review offered a list of motivators to be validated empirically in idea creation context. It appeared that similar factors motivate users to participate in an idea marketplace as in any other online community. Elements from ail motivational themes are recommended to include in all idea crowdsourcing challenges. Basic features of online communities were covered in the literature review, but interviews concretized them and linked them tightly to motivators. Features enable motivations, but on the other hand, the according motivation motivates using the feature. Some features are linked to two motivations instead of one. The synthesis presents the recommended features. The literature review specified 55 separate roles, which were cut down into two user roles, normal users and lead users, and a few supporting roles based on the case study. The behaviour from a normal user to a lead user changes very sharply after only a few posts. Motivational differences between these two groups were also discovered.
Effect of algorithms on the identification of copy number variants in healthy Finnish individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorder
(2012) Kanduri, Chakravarthi
School of Science | Master's thesis
Copy Number Variations, a form of genomic structural variation, are known to alter the gene expression, thereby causing phenotypic variation and increasing the risk of disease susceptibility. In order to understand the role of CNVs in the genetic variation of human populations, it has become increasingly common to incorporate CNV maps in disease-association studies. Yet, there is neither an experimental method nor an algorithm that can accurately identify a CNV. In addition to this void, population-specific differences exist in CNV maps making it more complicated to get the big picture of genomic variations. To address some of these issues, this study makes an assessment of two most popular algorithms available for Illumina-based platforms alongside contributing to the global variation map with Finnish population-specific CNVs. Illumina HumanOmniExpress-12 v1 beadchip was used for genotyping 203 trios (father, mother, offspring) of healthy individuals and 90 other trios, in which the offspring is affected with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). CNVs were identified using PennCNV and QuantiSNP, two most popular algorithms for Illumina-based platforms, which uses Hidden Markov Models to detect CNVs. Comparisons were made to check the agreement in CNV-calls, differences in size statistics and size dis
Evaluating the fit of business models in the event management ecosystem
(2012) Cheung, Zeerim
School of Science | Master's thesis
Events are an important part of people's lives and significant amount of leisure time and money is spent on them. There is a large variety of leisure events to which consumers can attend. Events can, for example, range from a local market arranged by volunteers to large city festivals organised by the public sector to major sport and music events organised by a global company. All of these events can happen at the same time in the same region competing with each other for consumers' limited leisure time. Additionally, all these events are provided by different types of actors ranging from individuals to non-profit organisations or companies each of them dealing with a network of partners to organise events. This variety of events offers diverse opportunities for organisations to develop products and services that create value directly and indirectly, through other organisations, to consumers and even increasing their well-being. The main goal of this thesis is to identify value creation opportunities in the event field especially through collaborations between actors in the event field. Additionally, potential threats, such as the growing bargaining power of certain actors, to the event field are analysed. These goals are reached by studying the business models collected from a diverse set of organisations in the event field by interviews with representatives of the organisations. These business models are analysed and different roles of actors in the event field are described. By analysing the roles, their value contribution to the field, and value flows between the different roles, an event management ecosystem is created. The ecosystem is examined for existing and potential value drivers and the competitive dynamics of the ecosystem. The result of this thesis is both illustrations of the event management ecosystem and the results from the analyses of the ecosystem. The ecosystem is a robust tool that managers in organisations in the event field can use to review their own position and find value creating opportunities. This thesis also provides both concrete suggestions for organisations to develop their business and detailed advice on how to use the ecosystem to discover value creation opportunities. Finally, the research strategy employed in this study can also be effectively employed in other industries.
Everyday Favors and Social Exchange in a Local Gift Exchange System - Case: Kassi
(2011) Suhonen, Emmi
School of Science | Master's thesis
This thesis focuses on online gift exchange in a setting where online and offline interactions are tightly intertwined and most of the exchanges require face-to-face interaction to be completed. Thesis presents a local online gift exchange system, Kassi, and a case study of its use. Based on survey material, interviews and logs of system usage, users' motivations to contribute to the system and the community are analyzed. Research questions consider also the underlying social phenomena that should be considered in the design process of Kassi. While most users held favorable attitudes towards the system, many reasons for not using the service were found. Most of the reasons concerned uncertainties in expected behavior, lack of norms for exchange activities and not knowing how the system functions as a whole. Findings are set into perspective by discussing different ways of defining participation, measuring use and qualifying different types of contributions. Thesis argues that when users try to fit a system into their everyday lives, designers should consider supporting such efforts looking the as a whole, including the social phenomena and behavior outside the system itself.
Gendered perceptions of design on smartphones - A study of designing appealing smartphones for women
(2012) Koskinen, Annina
School of Science | Master's thesis
Smartphones are expected to replace feature phones in the developed markets. Men are adopting them faster than women and that creates a market opportunity for companies that succeed in offering products that appeal to women. However, there is little research done on how to do that, as gender is typically a neglected topic in user-centered product design with the aim of accomplishing a "design for all" philosophy. Still, there is evidence that women feel that most consumer electronics companies fail in creating appealing products to them. This study investigates how to design appealing smartphones for women. That is accomplished by studying the differences between men and women, role of gender in product design, gendered perceptions of smartphone appeal, and women as users of technology and smartphones in particular. The research method is qualitative and the empirical data is gathered by interviewing consumers, and professionals working in smartphone design and development. A preliminary study investigates consumers' gendered perceptions of smartphone design appeal and a main study tries to reveal what is the current role of gender in smartphone design and what kind of knowledge the experts working in a smartphone company have formed on women through their work. During the research, factors that may lead to smartphones that appeal more to men than to women were identified and practical recommendations on how to fix that are presented. It is not necessary to tailor smartphones specifically to female users, but to make sure that the design is universal, personal, holistic, simple, meaningful and adaptive. To support the design work, it is recommended that the teams designing and developing the smartphones are diverse by gender or at least educated on gendered preferences and needs. In addition it is important to use gender-balanced testing groups with varying technical competences and to always analyse user research results by gender and to report any found gendered differences. Designing products that are successfully perceived as gender-neutral does not mean that gender of users should be ignored. On the contrary, it requires making sure that the products meet the needs and wishes of both men and women.
Improvisaatio IT-integraation onnistumistekijänä - Tapaustutkimus yrityskaupan jälkeisen IT-integraation toteuttamisesta yhteistyössä IT-toimittajan kanssa
(2011) Mäenpää, Riikka Johanna
School of Science | Master's thesis
This master's thesis studies post-acquisition IT integration from the perspective of knowledge sharing in situations where a buyer's IT is outsourced to an external IT service provider. In today's business acquisitions have a remarkable impact on a company's growth and competitive advantage. However, over 50 % of mergers and acquisitions fail to meet their target. Failure is often caused by problems in the post-acquisition IT-integration. Successful IT-integration, on the other hand, helps to achieve the object of the acquisition. The continuous global growth of IT outsourcing in past decades has resulted in IT service providers becoming increasingly involved in post-acquisition IT-integration. Efficient knowledge sharing between all the actors involved is required for successful IT-integration. Nevertheless, knowledge sharing across boundaries in post-acquisition integration and IT-integration in outsourced IT situations has been scantly researched. This research closes some of the research gaps by answering the question "How is post-acquisition IT-integration carried out in situations where a buyer's IT is outsourced?" The research method utilized qualitative case research executed by SimLab^TM process development, process research and grounded theory methods. The case under research is post-acquisition IT-integration which was carried out in cooperation with a buyer and its IT service provider. Analysis of the research is based on defining trading zones, "the places of .cooperation and knowledge sharing". In each trading zone, an analysis was carried out of the type of knowledge boundaries between the actors, the type of shared knowledge, the integration procedure, the feasibility of the procedures, and their ability to support IT integration to succeed. The most significant results of this research show that in addition to planned integration actions emphasized in existing post-acquisition IT-integration research, improvisation is also essential in order to complete IT integration successfully. In an organizational context, improvisation means adapting actions according to the situation in a way that was not planned in advance. Improvisation is especially suitable in new, unexpected and rapidly changing situations, which are typical in IT-integration. In addition, by developing competences through the improvisation, the success of the upcoming post-acquisition IT-integrations is assured.
Organisaatioverkoston sisäinen viestintä ja yhteistyö usean organisaation yhteistyöhankkeessa - tapaustutkimus pääkaupunkiseudun ilmastoneuvonnasta
(2011) Kuusela, Ilona
School of Science | Master's thesis
As a part of the climate strategy of the Helsinki metropolitan area, in 2008 the Helsinki city's environmental centre launched the development of a new centre of climate advice and services. In 2010 the outcome of the project, Ilmastoinfo, was launched. A workgroup built of members of the financier organizations of Ilmastoinfo took part in developing the centre and its services. The workgroup gathered in workshops during the entire project and its members acted as links between the environmental centre's project and the project's financier organizations. After the inauguration of Ilmastoinfo and a change in the management, the workgroup has been facing changes in its objectives and processes. The performance of the workgroup will affect the success of Ilmastoinfo in the future. In this study a model for the internal communication and collaboration of llmastoinfo and its financier organization network is suggested. One part of the model is a computer based solution to support the internal communication and cooperative work. The suggested guidelines have been made based on the workgroup's members' half structured interviews, formal and informal conversations with the workgroup about its activities and Ilmastoinfo's future, observing the workshops, and scientific investigation on virtual organizations and dispersed work. One important finding of this study is that the leader of the workgroup should focus on developing interpersonal relationships and trust in the workgroup to maintain its commitment. Another important finding was the need for an explicit communications protocol to organize the internal communication and the use of electronic medias. In addition, several different practical guidelines to organize and coordinate the collaboration of the workgroup were proposed. Based on the interviews and the research on collaborative technologies and computer supported cooperative work, collaboration software was also designed for the workgroup's needs. In the empirical research, the workgroup's activities were found to be centred on events and campaigns and to consist mostly of file sharing. The most important parts of the collaboration software are thus a shared calendar and a file sharing tool.
Internationalization of a service - A case study from the field of industrial services in the context of conglomerate
(2011) Jysmä, Tia
School of Science | Master's thesis
The internationalization process of a firm has received significant interest in the academic literature. However, the majority of this literature has concentrated on manufacturing firms, with service firm internationalization gaining very little attention. This study concentrates on the internationalization process of an industrial maintenance outsourcing service in the context of an international conglomerate. The study provides an internationalization process model as well as practical recommendations for a case company. The study answers two research questions: how can an industrial maintenance outsourcing service be established in a foreign country, and what synergy benefits could there be between the new service and the foreign country's existing business unit and services. Previous research is reviewed in relation to the subjects of industrial maintenance outsourcing, the internationalization process and synergy advantages between business units. Industrial maintenance outsourcing is studied in order to understand the context for internationalization. Internationalization process models developed for manufacturing firms are reviewed, as well as the literature related to service firm internationalization. Finally, possible synergy advantages are studied to understand what .synergies there could be to support the internationalization development in a conglomerate. This study is a constructive case study. The existing theory is first synthesized into a theoretical construction, which is then developed further and improved on the basis of the case study. The case study was conducted in a European conglomerate covering the areas of construction, building systems services and industrial services. According to the results, the internationalization process suitable for this context includes four main phases: initial analysis, trans-human exports, intra-firm exports and local service production. The aim is to gradually increase the relevant knowledge in the foreign country, while at the same time the commitment of the company to the foreign country increases and the responsibility for the new operations moves to the foreign country employees, Regarding synergies, there are six possible synergy sources between the different services that can be looked at from three different viewpoints. For the case company, the most important step would be to form an operating model for internationalization and then align unit motivations according to their expected roles. The study supports the notion that the internationalization models developed for manufacturing firms have some underlying principles that could be considered useful and applicable also for service firms. Also, support was found for the gradual internationalization of service firms.
Missing Value Imputation Using Subspace Methods with Applications on Survey Data
(2012) Vatanen, Tommi
Master's thesis
In survey practice as well as in many other data analysis tasks, missing values are a common encounter. In this thesis, the missing value imputation task is studied using three subspace methods, principal component analysis (PCA), the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) and the Generative Topographic Mapping (GTM). The application area of interest is survey imputation, where imputation is conventionally conducted using, e.g., hot deck methods or multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE). Similarities and differences between imputation in survey practice and recommendation systems are discussed, as well. The formalism behind missing value imputation is described together with general mechanisms giving rise to missing data. A detailed review of the aforementioned subspace methods in presence of missing data is given in order to motivate the novelties and new implementations contributed. The contributions of this thesis include (i) a novel way of treating missing data in the SOM algorithm, which is shown to improve properties of the model, (ii) a fine-tuned GTM, where the number of radial basis functions is increased during learning and the initialization is made using the SOM, and (iii) a novel regularization for the GTM for binary data. Experimental comparisons of existing and proposed methods are made using the wine data set and Likert-scale data from two wellbeing-related surveys. The variational Bayesian PCA is shown to be superior in the single imputation task. It also enables automatic relevance determination, i.e., automatic selection of the number of principal components needed. Finally, multiple imputation (MI) using the subspace methods and MICE is demonstrated. It is shown, that with survey data with less than 2 % missing data, all MI methods provide very similar population le vel results.
A networked business model for a global insurance company
(2012) Juntunen, Pontus
School of Science | Master's thesis
The business model as a concept has obtained increasingly attention of both the academia and among practicing managers. This study researches the building of a new business model for international people insurance products. Furthermore, the purpose of the study is to identify the necessary elements for building a new business model for the case company. More closely, the research question is formulated as follows: What kind o/business model should the company build/or global corporate people insurance products? The study was conducted with a constructive research methodology. Management literature provided a framework for approaching the building of a new business model in a company. The business model was based on interviews among selected experts in the case company and the data were complemented with internal documents. A special focus was on the identification of the necessary elements of a business model. Each identified element was then addressed in the interviews to provide a picture of the requirements underlying each element, and finally provided with a case specific solution. In addition, the network view of the company and especially the relations, management and governance mechanisms for networks were researched in more detail to provide a basis for the value network element in the new business model. The results suggest that the chosen business model elements customer, offering, value proposition, capabilities, value network and profit generation model can be used to form a new business model. In addition, intentionally using a partner network can provide a company the necessary capabilities and resources, if these are not available in-house, for building a business model. The managerial and governance mechanisms for this partner network can be addressed through some general guidelines; however, the concrete solutions are case specific.
Overcoming knowledge gaps in post-merger integration - a case study
(2011) Martela, Eero
School of Science | Master's thesis
Post-merger integration has received only little attention in scientific literature. This is despite the great influence that mergers and acquisitions have on reshaping businesses and despite the fact that most mergers and acquisitions fail to meet their targets, which is often due to poor post-merger integration. The aim of this study is to provide tools for coping with post-merger integration challenges by providing insights into how knowledge gaps can be overcome in those situations. The data for this study was collected and analysed by applying the methods of qualitative research and grounded theory in a case study, in which two corrective software maintenance processes were integrated. The integration was a part of a merger of equals of two large European based ICT companies. The results of the study contribute to the fields of post-merger integration and knowledge processes in two ways. First, this study focuses on knowledge gaps, which have not yet been widely introduced in the field of knowledge processes. Second, knowledge processes of post-merger integration have so far been discussed by mainly focusing on knowledge transfer and on only a few knowledge types per study. This research does not separate different knowledge processes and presents five different knowledge types that suffered from gaps. The findings of this research provide cause-effect descriptions of techniques that were used to overcome knowledge gaps in post-merger integration as well as a description of the characteristics of each technique. In addition, the study includes an analysis of each technique's relation to the timeline of the merger and an analysis of how the differences between the merging organizations affected the use of the techniques. The conclusion is that, first, knowledge gaps emerge in different knowledge areas during post-merger integration and, second, those knowledge gaps may be overcome by using eight different techniques. The overcoming of these gaps is challenging and resource craving due to the sticky nature of knowledge and because former knowledge processing practices may not be applicable in the new situation. Therefore, the management should plan how to apply different techniques at different stages of post-merger integration in order to overcome knowledge gaps.
Process and web application development of medical applications of additive manufacturing
(2011) Vehviläinen, Juho
Master's thesis
Julkishallinnon tietojärjestelmän hankintaprosessi
(2012) Kyttänen, Erno
School of Science | Master's thesis
This thesis deals with the procurement process for beneficiary of the organization from the perspective of public administration. Characterized by the public administration is that it would have to compete the contracting each information in accordance with the law. The study I was interested in the factors that cause problems in such procurement process. Second, I was interested in finding out the ways in which information system procurement process should be developed to allow the procurement process penetrations would go without any problems. The research data used as the theoretical data, previous studies and interviews with self-made. Theoretical material was found in models that help to pay attention to structural factors in the procurement process. These models do not describe the problems encountered in practice. Concrete problems were found when examined in previous studies of information systems procurement processes. The problem consisting of elements found in each stage of the procurement process. The interviews were sought expert judgment results of the studies. The interviews were also found in the process more new problems, but also suggested solutions the problems. As a result of the first steps of the procurement process can be said to constitute the main problems in the procurement process. Solutions can be found in public administration organizations in co-operation and development of architectural work.
Role of HR in supporting supervisors' people management activities - a study in Finnish nuclear power plant context
(2012) Poukka, Paula
School of Science | Master's thesis
The nuclear power industry in Finland is in a state of change due to for example new permits granted by the government and aging of the operating personnel. In this new and more labour competitive environment, it becomes ever so relevant for the competence intensive nuclear power organizations to put effort into caring for their human resources. Previous studies show that supervisor behaviour has a strong impact on employees' performance, motivation and overall image of the organization. The supervisors have a key role in making sure the workforce is high in psychological well-being and able to operate at its best. Thus, it is essential for the organizations to ensure their supervisors have the needed abilities to succeed as people managers. This thesis study focused on examining the support the human resource (HR) functions offer to the supervisors in their people management role, and how supervisors themselves perceive the given support. The study was conducted in a Finnish nuclear power plant context. The research method was qualitative and the empirical data was gathered in the participating organizations with separate supervisor and HR group interviews in May and June 2011. Altogether 14 people were interviewed in 6 group interviews. The data was later supplemented with two follow-up phone interviews in November 2011. According to the results the organizations have in recent year's increasingly devolved HR responsibilities to the supervisors. To help supervisors prosper as people managers, the HR functions could provide more systematic guidance to 'supervisor trainings and other development activities, and facilitate forums for exchanging knowledge and good practices related to supervisory work. The HR function could also take more responsibility in following up on the HR processes, and the division of responsibilities between HR and the supervisors especially relating administrative duties should be clear, functional and well communicated. The nuclear power plants' organization cultures traditionally have a strong technical orientation. Truly incorporating focus on people management in the cultures requires visible senior management commitment and incorporating people management goals in supervisors' performance management evaluations. Also close partnership between the supervisors and the HR function is important. Increasing personal connections between the HR specialists, and supervisors would open the organizations a significant channel of influence to the employees and their well-being.
IT-organisointilogiikan muokkautuminen fuusiossa: tapaustutkimus yliopistokontekstissa
(2012) Simola, Kaisa Maria
School of Science | Master's thesis
This Master's Thesis studies how the organizing logic of IT function is shaped by a merger and how the IT organizing logic shapes the merger itself. A merger is a situation where two or more organizations combine their operations to form a single organization. Accordingly, the IT functions are also combined to form a new, joint IT function for the new organization. Thus the organizing logic of the new IT function becomes one of the central issues of the merger. The study is an action research case study. The case is the merging of three universities' IT functions into a central IT function for the newly formed Aalto University. The empirical data consists of interviews and supporting documents. The data was analysed based on a framework placing IT organization logic as the content of a transformation. The IT organization logic is a framework which views the IT function consisting of both formal integration architectures and relational architectures, which define the ways in which the IT function interacts and operates within the IT organization itself as well as the rest of the organization and external partners. These architectures act as enablers for IT capabilities. Success of IT integration is often seen as one of mergers' key success factors, but few studies have concentrated on the IT's organizing logic as an enabler of an IT function's success. This study is the first rich empirical description studying how IT organizing logic is shaped by the merger and how the organizing logic shapes the merger itself. The results imply that the IT organizing logic goes through major transformations in a merger, and conserving any old architectures and capabilities in a rapidly transforming environment is very challenging especially if sustaining the old practices is not supported well enough. Shaping of the IT organizing logic also has an impact on the merging process. Architectures that don't fit well to the new operating environment can have serious disabling effects on the merging process. The findings of the study support previous research results on the role of the structuring of IT operations as a key enabler of success of an IT organization. The findings also point out the IT organizing logic's central position as a success factor of post-merger IT integration.
Strategic alliance performance - perspectives of alliance partners
(2011) Brandt, Eveliina
School of Science | Master's thesis

Browse

Browsing [dipl] Perustieteiden korkeakoulu / SCI by Department "Tietojenkäsittelytieteen laitos"