Digital Project Leadership and Talent Management in the As-Practice Perspective

Digital Transformation studies have emphasized the emergence of new post-alignment challenges with a more seamless integration of business and technology strategies. Project leaders face more complex tasks, requiring hybrid skillsets, blending business and technology expertise, and spanning operational and strategic levels. The research question motivating this review is: how can IT executives best identify and position IT professionals and managers to fit digital leadership roles? These challenges are directly linked to Talent Management (TM) practices to help coach project teams and managers in developing digital leadership competencies. A brief literature review is presented, grounded in theoretical perspectives that link these competencies to IT and digital strategy outcomes. A model is proposed to integrate the literature around Strategy-as-Practice and Project-as-Practice serving as broader theoretical canvas. The conclusion proposes a research agenda to help integrate TM with digital leadership and encourage new empirical studies of digital projects in the “as-practice” perspective

How collaborative innovation and co-creation can deliver value: a stakeholder approach

This project explores how collaborative innovation and co-creation between stakeholders can deliver value for firms. In today’s increasingly competitive and fast-changing global marketplace, firms must seek to develop more frequent and higher quality innovations (Ngugi et al, 2010). In addition, customers, employees and other stakeholders are demanding opportunities to co-create and collaborate with businesses more and more. As Ramaswamy (2010) comments: “Providers of products and services are challenged by customers who are increasingly informed, connected, networked and empowered. Customers, employees and stakeholders are demanding higher quality interactions and experiences from businesses and a deeper engagement in the value-creation and service delivery processes” (Ramaswamy, 2010, pp. 22). Given this increasing need to collaborate, innovate and co-create, firms need a better understanding of how they can engage in these activities in a way that maximises the value created for all stakeholders; this project, through exploratory, qualitative research interviews and a wide-ranging literature review, seeks to make a contribution in this area

A Model for the role of Information Technology leaders in Disaster recovery planning and organizational resilience

Natural and man-made disasters in the past several years have resulted in millions in damages and losses. Despite this, disaster recovery is often not considered by boards as a priority. This paper will detail the current research on organizational resilience in relation to disaster recovery. It will cover the best practices for IT leaders to prepare for disasters and make their organizations more resilient. It will also show how IT leaders can work to convince their boards to invest in disaster recovery planning and how they can build organizational resilience culture in their organizations through a structured organizational culture change process

Coping with Rapid Changes in IT: An Update

Dealing with rapid changes in technology within and outside of their company is a constant challenge for IT managers. About two decades ago, a series of studies and in particular Benamati & Lederer (2001) showed that a range of coping strategies to deal with such rapid changes exists. These coping strategies range from the use of external support by consultants or vendors, or IT education and training to keep up with the demands of new technologies, to simply enduring change and trying to weather technological trends in the belief that they may not have a substantial impact on the company\u27s business. We argue that the current trend towards digital transformation further accelerates technological change in many companies. In this study, we therefore present a conceptual replication of the original series of studies on coping mechanisms and strategies to deal with the challenges of rapid technological change. Our findings indicate that the variety of coping strategies and mechanisms employed by IT managers has become more diverse. In particular, we find that today IT managers try to prepare their companies more proactively for technological change by providing the necessary resources and by creating an appropriate organizational environment, rather than by relying on external support by consultants or vendors, or even by simply ignoring technological developments altogether

Developing a strategic management framework for information technology migration to free open source software in the South African public sector

The Government of South Africa adopted a policy on Free Open Source Software (FOSS) in 2003. This policy requires all government entities to migrate their IT to open source. This adoption of the FOSS policy is based on evidence of potential FOSS contributions to economic development generally, and directly support South African economic development priorities. In spite of the adoption of this policy, rates of adoption of FOSS in the SA government are low. This is partly because there is a lack of documentation of successful cases of migration. In addition, there is no strategic management framework that managers can use as a guide for migration. This lack of documentation may result in managers in government finding it difficult to know how best to go about migrating to FOSS. A failure to address this problem will delay the take-up of FOSS, in spite of all its stated benefits. Evidence so far within the government of South Africa is that the adoption of FOSS is progressing rather slowly. Making use of a qualitative research method that combines grounded theory with a case study method in four South African Government organisations, this study develops a strategic management framework for IT migration to FOSS in the South African public service. The four organisations that were part of this study were: the National Library of South Africa; the Presidential National Commission on Information Society and Development; the Electronic National Traffic Information System and the State Information Technology Agency. Data was collected using an open-ended interview guide. A strategic management framework for Information Technology migration to FOSS will assist the Government of South Africa with the better implementation of its FOSS policy. The framework will provide guidance to public sector managers regarding how the process of migrating can best be managed. Content analysis is used to derive the framework that shows that IT migration to FOSS in the public sector of South Africa follows a strategic management process. This process goes through the phases of strategic planning, operational planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. The framework is developed using eclectic explanations of strategic management, including mechanistic and organic perspectives. Correspondence analysis is used to corroborate and validate the framework. The framework is accompanied by a set of management guidelines that managers in the public sector can use in migrating their organisations' IT to FOSS.School for Business Leadership(D.B.L. (Strategic Management)

Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge Management : A Comparative Analysis of Web 2.0 In Russian and Anglo-Saxon Contexts.

This research aims at establishing whether national culture has an impact on the internal adoption and use of Web 2. 0 in organizations, and providing an explanation to how this may be happening. The rationale for it was derived from two factors. The initial indication that such impact can exist came from the evident skewness in the distribution of levels of activity on Wikipedia shown by representatives of different countries. The analysis of the literature dedicated to Knowledge Management, national culture and Web 2. 0 also highlighted theoretical reasons for culture-dependence in Web 2. 0's adoption and use. Achieving the aim in a robust manner required fulfilling a number of objectives. First, it had to be proven that there was a correlation between the national culture and the propensity to use Web 2. 0 sites. Second, it was necessary to verify whether the same trends held in an organizational context, and (third) an explanation had to be sought as to what the underlying mechanisms could be. The evidence gathered via a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods shows that indeed, there is evidence that the national culture does play a role in the degree and the way Web 2. 0 is used in organizations, and provides an explanation of the mechanisms involved. The thesis makes a fundamental contribution by expanding the existing body of literature into an unexplored area lying at the intersection of national culture, Web 2. 0 and Knowledge Management, and by highlighting and addressing the limitations in the theories used

Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge Management : A Comparative Analysis of Web 2.0 In Russian and Anglo-Saxon Contexts.

This research aims at establishing whether national culture has an impact on the internal adoption and use of Web 2. 0 in organizations, and providing an explanation to how this may be happening. The rationale for it was derived from two factors. The initial indication that such impact can exist came from the evident skewness in the distribution of levels of activity on Wikipedia shown by representatives of different countries. The analysis of the literature dedicated to Knowledge Management, national culture and Web 2. 0 also highlighted theoretical reasons for culture-dependence in Web 2. 0's adoption and use. Achieving the aim in a robust manner required fulfilling a number of objectives. First, it had to be proven that there was a correlation between the national culture and the propensity to use Web 2. 0 sites. Second, it was necessary to verify whether the same trends held in an organizational context, and (third) an explanation had to be sought as to what the underlying mechanisms could be. The evidence gathered via a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods shows that indeed, there is evidence that the national culture does play a role in the degree and the way Web 2. 0 is used in organizations, and provides an explanation of the mechanisms involved. The thesis makes a fundamental contribution by expanding the existing body of literature into an unexplored area lying at the intersection of national culture, Web 2. 0 and Knowledge Management, and by highlighting and addressing the limitations in the theories used