INTRODUCTION

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70110/2/PFLDAS-12-5-iii-1.pd

Adopting DevOps practices: an enhanced unified theory of acceptance and use of technology framework

DevOps software development approach is widely used in the software engineering discipline. DevOps eliminates the development and operations department barriers. The paper aims to develop a conceptual model for adopting DevOps practices in software development organizations by extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The research also aims to determine the influencing factors of DevOps practices’ acceptance and adoption in software organizations, determine gaps in the software development literature, and introduce a clear picture of current technology acceptance and adoption research in the software industry. A comprehensive literature review clarifies how users accept and adopt new technologies and what leads to adopting DevOps practices in the software industry as the starting point for developing a conceptual framework for adopting DevOps in software organizations. The literature results have formulated the conceptual framework for adopting DevOps practices. The resulting model is expected to improve understanding of software organizations’ acceptance and adoption of DevOps practices. The research hypotheses must be tested to validate the model. Future work will include surveys and expert interviews for model enhancement and validation. This research fulfills the necessity to study how software organizations accept and adopt DevOps practices by enhancing UTAUT

Systematic review of determinants of sales performance: Verbeke et al.’s (2011) classification extended

Abstract Purpose Considering recent changes in sales practices, such as the sales role becoming more strategic, increased reliance on technology for sales activities, increased stress from adding technological responsibilities to the sales role and decreased avenues of social support (such as traditional forms of community) to cope with work-related stressors, there is a need to reconsider Verbeke et al.’s (2011) classification scheme of determinants of sales performance, which was based on literature published before these critical changes became apparent. This paper aims to conduct a systematic review of sales performance research published during 1983–2018 to propose an extension to Verbeke et al.’s (2011) classification. Design/methodology/approach This paper followed a systematic approach to the literature review in five sequential steps – search, selection, quality control, extraction and synthesis – as suggested by Tranfield et al. (2003). In total, 261 peer-reviewed journal papers from 36 different journals were selected for extraction and synthesis. Findings The findings make the following additions to the classification: strategic and nonstrategic activities as a new category, technological drivers of sales performance and job-related psychosocial factors as a broader category to replace role perceptions. Derived from the job demand–control–support model, three subcategories within the category of job-related psychosocial factors are psychological demands (encompasses role perceptions and digital-age stressors such as technostress creators), job control and work-related social support. Research limitations/implications This paper identifies that manager’s role in facilitating technology skills, providing informal social support to remote or virtual salespeople using technology, and encouraging strategic behaviors in salespeople are future research areas having good potential. Understanding and building positive psychology aspects in salespeople and their effect on sales performance is another promising area. Practical implications Newly added technological drivers draw the attention of sales firms toward the influence of technology and its skilful usage on salesperson performance. Newly added strategic activities makes a case for the importance of strategic participation in salesperson performance. Originality/value This review extends Verbeke et al.’s (2011) classification scheme to include recent changes that sales profession and literature have undergone

HUMAN-AI COLLABORATION IN ORGANISATIONS: A LITERATURE REVIEW ON ENABLING VALUE CREATION

The augmentation of human intellect and capability with artificial intelligence is integral to the advancement of next generation human-machine collaboration technologies designed to drive performance improvement and innovation. Yet we have limited understanding of how organisations can translate this potential into creating sustainable business value. We conduct an in-depth literature review of interdisciplinary research on the challenges and opportunities in organisational adoption of human-AI collaboration for value creation. We identify five positions central to how organisations can integrate and align the socio-technical challenges of augmented collaboration, namely strategic positioning, human engagement, organisational evolution, technology development and intelligence building. We synthesise the findings by means of an integrated model that focuses organisations on building the requisite internal microfoundations for the systematic management of augmented systems

Factors that Influence the Synergy between Development and IT Operations in a DevOps Environment

Software development processes have been associated with severe conflicts between the development and operations teams. The problems further worsened by the occasional performance of activities such as planning, testing, integration, and releases. Many developing software development concepts reveal attempts to address these challenges. For instance, continuous integration is a practice that has emerged to reduce disconnects between development and IT operational deployments. In a comparable thread, the current emphasis on DevOps acknowledges that the integration between software development and its operational deployment needs to be a continuous whole. Problems involving the integration of software development and operations require positive synergy within DevOps teams. Team synergy brings about team effectiveness and performance as well as creating opportunities for innovation. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that influence team synergy between the development and operations teams in a DevOps environment. The researcher conducted a case study at one of South Africa's leading information and communication technology services providers. Thirteen participants were interviewed to provide insight into the research questions. Interviews were conducted at the premises of the participating organization in Cape Town. The participants in the study preferred pseudonyms instead of their actual names to preserve anonymity. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. During the analysis of the transcribed data, themes and categories were identified. The themes and categories that emerged from the data sources were aligned to the theoretical framework. The findings from this study describe enabling and inhibiting factors that influence the synergy between development and operations teams in a DevOps environment. Recognizing that DevOps teams face several challenges, the factors identified in this study provide insights into how organizations can influence the build and motivate their DevOps teams to achieve team synergy. The contribution to DevOps research is the application of a theoretical framework that suggests the importance of team social capital dimensions in the formation of team synergy. Based on its findings, this study recommends that further investigation and improvement on strategies to mitigate the factors that inhibit the dimensions of team social capital and prevent team synergy in a DevOps environment. The study also recommends a more detailed and practical demonstration to validate the value of the theoretical framework and continue to improve or extend it. This study revealed that DevOps teams operate in a complex and dynamic environment with many stakeholders and complex technical infrastructure. Based on this outcome, the study also suggests that future studies can take a different approach to create a different perspective on the synergy between DevOps teams by focusing on the behavior of the actors and complex problematic situations involving social activities

Occupational Cultures as a Challenge to Technological Innovation

This paper explains conflict over technological process innovation in cultural terms, drawing primarily on a case study of electric power distribution and strategies to automate its operation

Exploring the Use and Adoption of Workplace Automation through Metaphors: A Discourse Dynamics Analysis

Organizational metaphors represent an important study area in the information systems (IS) field. In this paper, I review previous work on organizational metaphors in IS research and build on this work by proposing a discourse dynamics approach to metaphors as an alternative lens for conceptualizing and studying IS metaphors. With this approach, one can recast organizational metaphors from something that researchers commonly perceive as detached from the subjects they investigate—a view fixed in much IS thinking—to something that results from both language and the mind, that has a situational nature, and that individuals can deploy in flexible and dynamic ways. Drawing on in-depth focus group studies, I illustrate the discourse dynamics approach via analyzing metaphors that individuals made in describing workplace automation. With this study, I not only raise new questions in relation to theorizing about and analyzing organizational metaphors in IS research but also illustrate metaphors’ usefulness as a form of sense making to generate fresh insights into the implications that arise from adopting and using workplace automation that remain unnoticed if one used more conventional methods

Implementing e-Services in Lagos State, Nigeria: the interplay of Cultural Perceptions and Working Practices during an automation initiative : Nigeria e-government culture and working practices

Accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of Government Information Quarterly.The public sector’s adoption of Information and Communication Technologies is often seen as a way of increasing efficiency. However, developing public e-Services involves a series of organisational and social complexities. In this paper, we examine the organisational issues of implementing an ERP system, which was designed and developed within the context of Lagos State’s e-Services project. By doing so, we showcase the impact of organisational cultural perceptions and working practices of individuals. Our findings illustrate the strong role of cultural dimensions, particularly those pertaining to religion and multi-ethnicity. Our study provides insights to international organisations and governments alike toward project policy formulation within the context of ICT-based initiatives and reforms that aim to bring forward developmental progress.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Influences on User Trust in Healthcare Artificial Intelligence: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prominent in domains such as healthcare. It is argued to be transformative through altering the way in which healthcare data is used. The realisation and success of AI depend heavily on people’s trust in its applications. Yet, influences on trust in healthcare AI (HAI) applications so far have been underexplored. The objective of this study was to identify aspects related to users, AI applications and the wider context influencing trust in HAI. METHODS: We performed a systematic review to map out influences on user trust in HAI. To identify relevant studies, we searched seven electronic databases in November 2019 (ACM digital library, IEEE Explore, NHS Evidence, ProQuest Dissertations & Thesis Global, PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection). Searches were restricted to publications available in English and German. To be included studies had to be empirical; focus on an AI application (excluding robotics) in a health-related setting; and evaluate applications with regards to users. RESULTS: Three studies, one mixed-method and two qualitative studies in English were included. Influences on trust fell into three broad categories: human-related (knowledge, expectation, mental model, self-efficacy, type of user, age, gender), AI-related (data privacy and safety, operational safety, transparency, design, customizability, trialability, explainability, understandability, power-control-balance, benevolence) and context-related (AI company, media, users’ social network). The factors resulted in an updated logic model illustrating the relationship between these aspects. CONCLUSIONS: Trust in HAI depends on a variety of factors, both external and internal to AI applications. This study contributes to our understanding of what influences trust in HAI by highlighting key influences, as well as pointing to gaps and issues in existing research on trust and AI. In so doing, it offers a starting point for further investigation of trust environments as well as trustworthy AI applications

Hospital robot at work: something alien or an intelligent colleague?

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