Promoting and Supporting Effective Organizational Governance

Internal audit’s role in organizational governance has become increasingly important in the wake of the recent global financial crisis and the continuing spate of governance failures in both financial and public sectors throughout the world. Informed observers and commentators have asked initially, “Where were the external auditors?” then “Where was the audit committee?” and finally, “Where was internal audit in all this?” This report draws on survey responses from internal auditors in 166 countries to take stock of the current role of internal audit in the governance process and learn how internal audit can better position itself to contribute to effective organizational governance

GITAM: A Model for the Adoption of Green IT

Over the last decade, an increasing number of businesses are undertaking initiatives to reduce their environmental footprint and improve their “green” credentials. As information technology (IT) has permeated most, if not all, business processes and supply chains, it offers an important means to tackle the climate problem. On the other hand, IT managers are pressed to reduce the total cost of IT operations and run energy efficient IT shops. Greening IT has therefore become one of the latest considerations to improve a business’s environmental sustainability whilst reducing the cost of IT operations. A growing number of consulting reports speculate the benefits of greening IT for both IT vendors and mainstream businesses that use IT. While the opportunities and potentials of Green IT might be attractive, the extent of Green IT adoption and the actual realization of the benefits that Green IT aficionados allude to remain unknown. Indeed, unless business organisations incorporate Green IT into their operations, the potential benefits of Green IT remain potential and not reality. Currently, there does not appear to be a model to systematically investigate Green IT adoption. This paper proposes such a model called the Green IT Adoption Model (GITAM). The model defines Green IT from four distinct but interrelated perspectives. It posits that the technological, organisational and environmental contextual variables, dynamic Green IT readiness dimensions and strong order Green IT drivers can predict the intention and the breadth and depth of Green IT adoption

E-readiness to G-readiness: developing a green information technology readiness framework

Businesses are under increasing pressure from competitors, regulators and community groups to implement sustainable business practices. Balancing economic and environmental performance to be green and competitive is therefore a key strategic issue. The increased discussion on green information technology (IT) has sparked the interest of this research. Green IT is poised to influence not only technology but also competitive strategy and even the legality of some business strategic options. Understanding and leveraging Green IT is therefore critical for businesses¿ continued progress. Nevertheless, the principles, practices and value of Green IT is yet to be researched. This paper introduces the concept of Green IT and describes the main pillars of a g-readiness framework to help organisations evaluate their readiness for adopting Green IT. It argues that just as e-readiness has been, and continues to be, a critical quality in the digital economy, g-readiness is an equally critical quality in the low carbon digital economy. Without a clear understanding of g-readiness, organisations would approach Green IT initiatives on an ad hoc and somewhat reactive basis which is undesirable

Transdisciplinarity in higher education for sustainability: how discourses are approached in engineering education

Sustainability issues, as unwanted results of not fully respecting natural cycles, are widely recognized as wicked problems, which should not be thought of as problems to be solved, but rather as “conditions” to be managed, as if they were a chronic disease (Seager et al., 2011). There exists a general agreement on the need to reform scientific expertise by developing new ways of knowledge production and decision-making able to cope with the challenges sustainability poses. In this sense, transdisciplinary aspects of sustainability are acknowledged as a transformational stream of sustainability sciencePostprint (author's final draft

Information Technology: FDA Needs to Fully Implement Key Management Practices to Lessen Modernization Risks

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While FDA has taken several important steps toward modernizing its IT environment, much remains to be done. FDA reported spending about $400 million for IT investments in fiscal year 2011; however, the agency currently lacks a comprehensive IT inventory that identifies and provides key information about the systems it uses and is developing. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and GAO guidance call for federal agencies to maintain such an inventory in order to monitor and manage their IT investments. This inventory should include information on each system, such as costs, functionality or purpose, and status. However, FDA does not have such a comprehensive list of its systems. Instead, the agency points to budget documents required by OMB, which included information on 44 IT investments for fiscal year 2011. The agency also provided a partial list of 21 mission-critical systems and modernization initiatives. Nonetheless, agency officials acknowledged that these documents do not identify all FDAs systems or the complete costs, purpose, or status of each system. Until the agency has a complete and comprehensive inventory, it will lack critical information needed to effectively assess its IT portfolio.

Transdisciplinarity in engineering education. A must for sustainable development in technology education

Sustainability issues are widely recognized as wicked problems, which should not be considered as problems to be solved, but as conditions to be governed. There is a general agreement on the need to reform scientific expertise as it is required to deal with sustainability challenges, by developing new ways of knowledge production and decision-making. Transdisciplinary aspects of sustainability are widely acknowledged as a transformational stream of sustainability science. However, when entering transdisciplinarity, also encompassing social sciences and humanities, engineering researchers enter unfamiliar grounds. Advancing sustainable engineering science requires creating new long-term, participatory, solution-oriented programs as platforms to recognize and engage with the macro-ethical, adaptive, and cross-disciplinary challenges embedded in professional issues. Furthermore, the difficulties to change engineering education are broadly analyzed: anachronistic pedagogy, mismatched incentives, insufficient expertise, lack of personal commitment, familiar and comfortable patterns for scholars, overcrowded curriculum, etc. Nevertheless, in spite of any old pattern, operationalizing the goals of the field, developing the necessary competencies, and seeking partnerships between society and the academy will position academic institutions to impact on the transition towards sustainability. We have performed a literature review on different ways of applying or bringing transdisciplinarity approach to higher education, in particular in engineering and technology fields. Deepening the argumentation provided by Julie T. Klein on the three discourses on transdisciplinarity -transcendence, problem solving, transgression- we have analysed the different published initiatives under those discourses to approach transdisciplinarity initiatives in engineering education for sustainabilityPostprint (published version

Strategic Fit In Inter-Organizational Networks: A Life Cycle Framework For The Healthcare IDS

Strategic alliances in the form of inter-organizational networks continue to receive attention in both service and manufacturing industries as a potential form of competitive. The healthcare industry has embraced these strategic alliances with much intensity and perhaps to a greater extent than many other industries. Yet, despite the increasing prevalence of inter-organizational arrangements across most industries, empirical evidence of the value of IT to enhance and support these arrangements is lacking in the IT. Therefore, a need exists to extend IT theory and research to the inter-organizational level of analysis to better meet the needs of contemporary organizations and partnerships. Using the healthcare IDS as the unit of analysis, the primary objective of this study is to stimulate research at the inter-organizational network level of analysis. A conceptual framework of IT value for the inter-organizational network is developed that merges three complementary theoretical concepts, namely the Strategic Alignment Model, the IT-Enabled Business Transformation Framework, and the IT Integration Life Cycle

Information architecture. Volume 2, Part 1: Baseline analysis summary

The Department of Energy (DOE) Information Architecture, Volume 2, Baseline Analysis, is a collaborative and logical next-step effort in the processes required to produce a Departmentwide information architecture. The baseline analysis serves a diverse audience of program management and technical personnel and provides an organized way to examine the Department`s existing or de facto information architecture. A companion document to Volume 1, The Foundations, it furnishes the rationale for establishing a Departmentwide information architecture. This volume, consisting of the Baseline Analysis Summary (part 1), Baseline Analysis (part 2), and Reference Data (part 3), is of interest to readers who wish to understand how the Department`s current information architecture technologies are employed. The analysis identifies how and where current technologies support business areas, programs, sites, and corporate systems

Realizing Business Benefits from Company IT Standardization: Case Study Research into the Organizational Value of IT Standards, Towards a Company IT Standardization Management Framework.

From a practical point of view, this research provides insight into how company IT standards affect business process performance. Furthermore it gives recommendations on how to govern and manage such standards successfully with regard to their selection, implementation and usage. After evaluating this research Business may wish to reconsider the way it currently views the value of company IT standards and the manner with which it deals with them.