Intellectual Capital Architectures and Bilateral Learning: A Framework For Human Resource Management

Both researchers and managers are increasingly interested in how firms can pursue bilateral learning; that is, simultaneously exploring new knowledge domains while exploiting current ones (cf., March, 1991). To address this issue, this paper introduces a framework of intellectual capital architectures that combine unique configurations of human, social, and organizational capital. These architectures support bilateral learning by helping to create supplementary alignment between human and social capital as well as complementary alignment between people-embodied knowledge (human and social capital) and organization-embodied knowledge (organizational capital). In order to establish the context for bilateral learning, the framework also identifies unique sets of HR practices that may influence the combinations of human, social, and organizational capital

Collaborative design : managing task interdependencies and multiple perspectives

This paper focuses on two characteristics of collaborative design with respect to cooperative work: the importance of work interdependencies linked to the nature of design problems; and the fundamental function of design cooperative work arrangement which is the confrontation and combination of perspectives. These two intrinsic characteristics of the design work stress specific cooperative processes: coordination processes in order to manage task interdependencies, establishment of common ground and negotiation mechanisms in order to manage the integration of multiple perspectives in design

A survey of agent-oriented methodologies

This article introduces the current agent-oriented methodologies. It discusses what approaches have been followed (mainly extending existing object oriented and knowledge engineering methodologies), the suitability of these approaches for agent modelling, and some conclusions drawn from the survey

Cooperatives Quality: evidence from Greece

The study of the role and contribution of ISO 9000 QMS to the corporate strategic development and organisational change and performance improvement of the Greek Agrocoops, as well as the identification and analysis of the drivers and constraints of this system’s effective implementation and efficient use has and/or should have been the subject of increased attention in recent times, as the majority of these organisations face increasing financial and business operating problems over the last three decades, as it was identified in a collective work of Papageorgiou et al, published in “Syneteristiki Poreia” (volumes of years 2000-2003) and the re-configuration of their organisational practices and activities, referring to any management system adapted and applied – e.g. the ISO 9000 QMS, is considered a must for their business survival in the words of Arvanitoyiannis (2001). As a result of the aforementioned facts and due to his current professional status, the researcher decided to focus his DBA research on issues relating to the role and contribution of the quality management systems - and more particularly of the ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems - to the achievement of Greek Agricultural Cooperatives’ corporate strategic goals and organisational performance improvement through the improvement of their business processes. The critical examination of the ISO 9000 – QualityManagement Systems’ implementation process and use purpose by the Agricultural Cooperatives sector in Greece is the broad and general Topic of my Doctorate Research. It is mainly connected with the following two current issues: - on one hand, with the reanimation of the ongoing dialogue and debate concerning the perspectives of the Agricultural Cooperatives in Greece and the future status of the 15% of the country’s active population, which is occupied in the broader agricultural sector (Bank of Greece, 2002), and - on the other hand, with the ever increasing public concern, interest and demand for safer, healthier and quality enhanced food products and services all over the world (ICAP, 2002 and Arvanitoyiannis, 2000)

Possible kinds of values added by the purchasing department

Value-based purchasing focuses the decisions of purchasing professionals on the creation of value, rather than on the traditional objectives of cost savings and efficiency. Most of the purchasing researchers see purchasing as a strategic contributor to the added value of the organizations. But only a few contributions discuss the possible kinds of values that the purchasing department could actually add to the organization. This paper tries to fill this gap and reviews the traditional and strategic concepts of values added by purchasing and the factors affecting value added. Furthermore the paper presents a conceptual model of factors affecting value added by the purchasing department. In order to discover the influence of these factors on the capacity of the purchasing department to add value to the organization, we conducted an empirical study. The preliminary findings of the empirical research are presented at the end of the paper

Two Case Studies of Subsystem Design for General-Purpose CSCW Software Architectures

This paper discusses subsystem design guidelines for the software architecture of general-purpose computer supported cooperative work systems, i.e., systems that are designed to be applicable in various application areas requiring explicit collaboration support. In our opinion, guidelines for subsystem level design are rarely given most guidelines currently given apply to the programming language level. We extract guidelines from a case study of the redesign and extension of an advanced commercial workflow management system and place them into the context of existing software engineering research. The guidelines are then validated against the design decisions made in the construction of a widely used web-based groupware system. Our approach is based on the well-known distinction between essential (logical) and physical architectures. We show how essential architecture design can be based on a direct mapping of abstract functional concepts as found in general-purpose systems to modules in the essential architecture. The essential architecture is next mapped to a physical architecture by applying software clustering and replication to achieve the required distribution and performance characteristics