Succeeding with business process reengineering in the financial service industry

A Doctoral Thesis Presented to the Faculty of The Engineering and Built Environment at the University of Witwatersrand In Fulfilment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Johannesburg, South Africa May, 2016The problem of failed projects has been and still is an interesting topic with many views emanating through various research avenues. The research presented in this thesis is one such avenue. In pursuit of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) via defined and executed projects, the financial institutions of South Africa have not seemed able to succeed in executing a high number of successful BPR projects. The research presented in this thesis was undertaken to understand why this was, even though industry accepted methodologies such as Six Sigma and Lean Engineering were adopted. The research focused on understanding what factors influenced the successful execution of BPR projects, by reviewing prior research and by conducting a case study. This analysis led to the development of the “Organisation Ring of Influence” (ORoI) model which highlighted the impact and influence organisation structures and organisation behaviours have on the successful execution of BPR projects. The primary objective of the research, however, was to take this understanding and combine it with the thinking of Systems Theory, more specifically the sociotechnical problem solving methodology developed by Peter Checkland, known as Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), in order to develop a management approach. If applied, the management approach would improve the probability of success of executed BPR projects. The management approach developed was termed the “Pre Project Organisation Environment Enablement Model” (P2OE2M).MT201

Knowing together

In den letzten Jahren sind eine Reihe neuer Anwendungen im Internet entstanden, die zumeist als Web2.0 oder social software bezeichnet werden. Viele dieser Anwendungen sind gekennzeichnet durch die Einbindung mehrerer Agenten in Prozesse zur Verbreitung, Organisation und Herstellung von Wissen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Dissertation besteht in der Analyse der epistemologischen Relevanz dieser epistemischen social software Anwendungen. Da die Kommunikation und Interaktion zwischen mehreren Agenten deren Schlüsselmerkmal darstellt, bildet die Soziale Erkenntnistheorie als philosophische Disziplin, welche die Weisen untersucht, in denen Wissen sozial bedingt ist, die theoretische Grundlage für die Analyse der epistemischen Prozesse innerhalb dieser Systeme. Weil bisher keine soziale Erkenntnistheorie eine ausreichende Theorie für die Analyse epistemischer social software zur Verfügung stellen konnte, habe ich die Grundlagen für ein neues sozio-epistemisches Model entwickelt, welches zwar im sozio-epistemologischen Diskurs verankert ist, jedoch um Erkenntnisse aus dem Feld der Science and Technology Studies (STS) erweitert wurde. Dieses Model gründet in der Klassifikation von sozio-technischen epistemischen Systemen anhand unterschiedlicher Mechanismen der Schließung, welche zur Beendigung sozio-epistemischer Prozesse verwendet werden. Diese Klassifikation anhand der drei Schließungsmechanismen Integration, Aggregation und Selektion zielt nicht auf die Einebnung der Differenzen zwischen sozio-technischen epistemischen Systemen, vielmehr liegt ihr Wert in ihrer heuristischen Fruchtbarkeit, darin Differenzen aufzumachen. Systeme, welche unterschiedliche Schließungsmechanismen nutzen, sind gebunden an unterschiedliche soziale, technische und epistemische Voraussetzungen, sie haben unterschiedliche Stärken und Schwächen und eignen sich daher für unterschiedliche epistemische Aufgaben. Das von mir entwickelte Modell lenkt dabei die Aufmerksamkeit auf ein bislang weitgehend in der sozialen Erkenntnistheorie vernachlässigtes Thema: das Technische und seine Beziehung zum Sozialen und zum Epistemischen. Da die meisten epistemischen Praktiken heute durchdrungen sind von Technologie, ist deren Berücksichtigung von entscheidender Bedeutung für jede soziale Erkenntnistheorie, die beansprucht, nicht nur normativ angemessen, sondern auch empirisch adäquat zu sein.In recent years new applications emerged on the Web which received the labels Web2.0 or social software. In many of these applications people are engaged in epistemic activities, such as the dissemination, organization or creation of knowledge. The goal of this thesis is to analyze the epistemological relevance of such epistemic social software. Because communication and interaction between multiple agents seems to be the key to understand the epistemic processes within such systems, social epistemology, the philosophical discipline exploring the ways and the extent to which knowledge is social, was chosen as a theoretical framework. However, none of the existing comprehensive social epistemologies delivers a sufficient framework to analyze epistemic social software. Therefore, I have developed a new socio-epistemological framework to analyze epistemic social software which is rooted in socio-epistemological discourse, but amends it with insights from the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). My framework is founded on a tripartite classification of socio-technical epistemic system based on the mechanisms they employ to close socio-epistemic processes. These three mechanisms are integration, aggregation and selection. With this classification I do not aim at reducing the differences between systems to their mechanisms of closure. However, I argue that the classification based on this indicator is heuristically fruitful. Systems employing different mechanisms of closure depend on different social, technical and epistemic prerequisites, have different strengths and weaknesses and are optimal for different epistemic tasks. My model puts a fact into the focus that has been neglected so far in social epistemology: the technical and its relationship to the social and the epistemic. Since most epistemic practices are nowadays pervaded by technologies, such a consideration of the role of technologies in these practices seems to be indispensable for any social epistemology that aims at being not only normatively appropriate, but also empirically adequate

The Chatter of the Visible

The Chatter of the Visible examines the paradoxical narrative features of the photo montage aesthetics of artists associated with Dada, Constructivism, and the New Objectivity. While montage strategies have commonly been associated with the purposeful interruption of and challenge to narrative consistency and continuity, McBride offers an historicized reappraisal of 1920s and 1930s German photo montage work to show that its peculiar mimicry was less a rejection of narrative and more an extension or permutation of it—a means for thinking in narrative textures exceeding constraints imposed by “flat” print media (especially the novel and other literary genres). McBride’s contribution to the conversation around Weimar-era montage is in her situation of the form of the work as a discursive practice in its own right, which affords humans a new way to negotiate temporality; as a particular mode of thinking that productively relates the particular to the universal; or as a culturally specific form of cognition

A Quaint & Curious Volume

John J. Dobbins, Professor of Roman Art and Archaeology, taught at the University of Virginia in the Department of Art from 1978 until his retirement in 2019. His legacy of research and pedagogy is explored in <i>A Quaint & Curious Volume: Essays in Honor of John J. Dobbins</i>. Professor Dobbins’ research in the field of Roman art and archaeology spans the geographical and chronological limits of the Roman Empire, from Pompeii to Syria, and Etruria to Spain. This volume demonstrates some of his wide-reaching interests, expressed through the research of his former graduate students. Several essays examine the city of Pompeii and cover the topics of masonry analysis, re-examinations of streets and drains, and analyses of the heating capacity of baths in Pompeii. Beyond Pompeii, the archaeological remains of bakeries are employed to elucidate labor specialization in the Late Roman period across the Mediterranean basin. Collaborations between Professor Dobbins and his former students are also explored, including a pioneering online numismatic database and close examination of sculpture and mosaics, including expressions of identity and patronage through case studies of the Ara Pacis and mosaics at Antioch-on-the-Orontes. <i>A Quaint & Curious Volume </i>not only demonstrates John Dobbins’ scholarly legacy, but also presents new readings of archaeological data and art, illustrating the impact that one professor can have on the wider field of Roman art and archaeology through the continuing work of his students

A Quaint & Curious Volume

John J. Dobbins, Professor of Roman Art and Archaeology, taught at the University of Virginia in the Department of Art from 1978 until his retirement in 2019. His legacy of research and pedagogy is explored in <i>A Quaint & Curious Volume: Essays in Honor of John J. Dobbins</i>. Professor Dobbins’ research in the field of Roman art and archaeology spans the geographical and chronological limits of the Roman Empire, from Pompeii to Syria, and Etruria to Spain. This volume demonstrates some of his wide-reaching interests, expressed through the research of his former graduate students. Several essays examine the city of Pompeii and cover the topics of masonry analysis, re-examinations of streets and drains, and analyses of the heating capacity of baths in Pompeii. Beyond Pompeii, the archaeological remains of bakeries are employed to elucidate labor specialization in the Late Roman period across the Mediterranean basin. Collaborations between Professor Dobbins and his former students are also explored, including a pioneering online numismatic database and close examination of sculpture and mosaics, including expressions of identity and patronage through case studies of the Ara Pacis and mosaics at Antioch-on-the-Orontes. <i>A Quaint & Curious Volume </i>not only demonstrates John Dobbins’ scholarly legacy, but also presents new readings of archaeological data and art, illustrating the impact that one professor can have on the wider field of Roman art and archaeology through the continuing work of his students

Women writers on art and perceptions of the female connoisseur, 1780-1860

It has been suggested that women were broadly excluded from the art world of the eighteenth century because of prevailing views on female taste, which considered them incapable of appreciating high art. Satirical representations of women spectators suggest a vulgar mode of art-viewing, associated with a preference for gaudy colour and excessive finish, and for portraiture over history painting, reversing the academic canon. A survey of periodicals reveals that such stereotypes persisted throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, my investigation of women's writing on art between 1780 and 1860 indicates the extent of their involvement in the art world. Initially through travel-writing, and across an increasingly wide range of genres, women published a wealth of material on art, ranging from popular handbooks and painting manuals to scholarly treatises. This study is the first to focus on these largely neglected texts as a collective body of work, and to demonstrate women's sophisticated engagement with contemporary and historical art in this period. Through their social networks, travel, meticulous research and self-presentation as 'proper' women writers, individuals such as Maria Graham (Lady Calicott), Anna Jameson, Mary Philadelphia Merrifield and Elizabeth Rigby (Lady Eastlake) built up a public reputation, despite their unofficial status. Far from being merely industrious 'compilers', these women were in the vanguard of changes in taste, through their promotion of the Primitives and of German connoisseurship, and their iconographical studies. I investigate how these largely self-educated amateurs established their authority, and how their writing negotiated negative perceptions of the female viewer. I show that the strategies they employed were determined as much by their class, education and religion, as by their sex. Given the high praise these writers received from reviewers, artists and fellow connoisseurs, I argue that it was possible to perceive women's taste far more positively than the satirical stereotypes suggest. This thesis offers a substantial reassessment of the scale and nature of women's contribution to the evolving discipline of art history in the early Victorian period

The less you know: the utility of ambiguity and uncertainty in counter-terrorism

Terrorism is a complex issue without any clear or simple solutions. Much of the problem space around counterterrorism is amorphous, and most of the vast literature attempting to impose clarity on terrorism studies fails to do so. This thesis takes a different approach by exploring how ambiguity and uncertainty might be leveraged as a tool for Western liberal democracies in the fight against terrorism. Strategies of Cold War nuclear deterrence are examined and specific instances of the advantages of uncertainty are identified. Ambiguity and uncertainty are defined and described in detail, and examples of how they might be used are discussed. This thesis concludes that greater terror threats warrant greater use of strategies employing uncertainty on the part of one’s enemies and oneself.http://archive.org/details/thelessyouknowut1094545253Preparedness Liaison, Oregon Health AuthorityApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Eroticism, Identity, and Cultural Context: Toyen and the Prague Avant-garde

This dissertation situates the life and work of the artist Toyen (Marie Čermínová, 1902-80), a founding member of the Prague surrealist group, within the larger discourses of modernism and feminism/gender studies. In particular, it explicates Toyen's construction of gender and eroticism within the contexts of early twentieth-century Czech feminism and sex reformism, the interwar Prague avant-garde, and Prague and Paris surrealism. Toyen's interest in sexuality and eroticism, while unusual in its extent and expression, is intimately related to her historical and geographic position as an urban Czech forming her artistic personality during first a period of economic boom, avant-garde optimism, increased opportunities for women, and sex reformism, and then a period of economic crisis, restriction of women's employment, social conservatism, and tension between the subconscious and the socialist realist. Toyen's ambiguously gendered self-presentation, while again unusual, needs to be considered in light of her enthusiastic reception within three predominantly male avant-garde groups (Devětsil, Prague surrealism, and Paris surrealism). I stress that the social and cultural environment of her childhood and youth created an atmosphere that enabled her to pursue lifelong personal interests and obsessions in a manner that was unusually public for a female artist of her generation.As a case study of one artist working within a specific avant-garde movement, this project contributes to critical re-evaluation of surrealism, the Central European contribution to modernism, and the role of female artists in the avant-garde. This intervention in the history of surrealism makes its intellectual contribution by changing our perception of the movement, giving vivid evidence of the Prague group's difference from and influence on the Paris group, and presenting a more complex and nuanced view of women's role in and treatment by surrealism.This dissertation employs a mixed methodology that combines investigation of historical context with aspects of feminist, psychoanalytic, iconographic, and semiotic approaches. No previous study of Toyen or the Czech interwar avant-garde has been done in this manner

The Gamut: A Journal of Ideas and Information, No. 13, Fall 1984

CONTENTS OF ISSUE NO. 13, FALL 1984 Editorial: Our Fifth Year, 3 Dick Feagler: The Two Conventions, 4 Noted cynic observes the follies of national politics The Gamut Photography Contest Winners, 9 Brenda L. Lewison, Jim Boland, Janine Bentivegna, Eileen M. Delehanty, Genevieve Gauthier, Rhoda Grannum, Buena Johnson, Charles J. Mintz, Tom Ritter, Wayne Sot Louis Giannetti: Italian Neorealist Cinema, 20 Political philosophies and political realities shaped the work of the great post-war Italian filmmakers Gary Engle: Krazy Kat and the Spirit of Surrealism, 28 George Herriman\u27s famous cartoon strip reflects early twentieth century artistic ideas. The Gamut Prize in Short Fiction Carol Felder: Colleagues, 40 Jennifer Bass Gostin: Seeds, 45 Elizabeth Searle: The Answer Man, 47 John Greppin: The Gypsy Language, 50 Language is the link that holds together this people without a country: latest in the Languages of the World series G. Whitney Azoy: Habib\u27s Last Ride, 53 Traditional myth patterns give dispossessed Afghans a grasp on their crumbling world David R. Mason: Alfred North Whitehead -A Civilized Philosopher, 59 The great British thinker moved to America and brought philosophy out of the clouds and into everyday life Michael Cole: Through A Lens, Darkly, 68 Three Prose Poems inspired by photographs of Jerry Uelsmann Carole Venaleck: The Invisible Power of Color, 72 You may not know what that red room is doing to you Louise Boston and Edward J. McNeeley: Computer Memory, 76 The heart of the information revolution Karl Kempton: Two Concrete Poems, 80 BACK MATTER John Stark Bellamy II: In Praise of Gissing, 82 Hester Lewellen: On a Murder Jury, 84https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/gamut_archives/1010/thumbnail.jp