Fundamental concepts in management research and ensuring research quality : focusing on case study method

This paper discusses fundamental concepts in management research and ensuring research quality. It was presented at the European Academy of Management annual conference in 2008

A framework for deriving semantic web services

Web service-based development represents an emerging approach for the development of distributed information systems. Web services have been mainly applied by software practitioners as a means to modularize system functionality that can be offered across a network (e.g., intranet and/or the Internet). Although web services have been predominantly developed as a technical solution for integrating software systems, there is a more business-oriented aspect that developers and enterprises need to deal with in order to benefit from the full potential of web services in an electronic market. This ‘ignored’ aspect is the representation of the semantics underlying the services themselves as well as the ‘things’ that the services manage. Currently languages like the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) provide the syntactic means to describe web services, but lack in providing a semantic underpinning. In order to harvest all the benefits of web services technology, a framework has been developed for deriving business semantics from syntactic descriptions of web services. The benefits of such a framework are two-fold. Firstly, the framework provides a way to gradually construct domain ontologies from previously defined technical services. Secondly, the framework enables the migration of syntactically defined web services toward semantic web services. The study follows a design research approach which (1) identifies the problem area and its relevance from an industrial case study and previous research, (2) develops the framework as a design artifact and (3) evaluates the application of the framework through a relevant scenario

Technology for social work education

The intention of this paper is to examine aspects of the role of information technology in social work education in relation to existing developments within an international context, conceptual issues concerning the application of CAL to the teaching of social work, and the implication of these issues for the development of integrated teaching modules in Interpersonal Skills and Research Methods, together with some of the practical issues encountered and solutions being adopted The context for the paper is joint work by the authors as members of the ProCare Project, a partnership between Southampton and Bournemouth Universities, and part of the UK Government‐funded Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) in Higher Education. ProCare is developing courseware on Interpersonal Skills and on Research Methods for use in qualifying‐level Social Work and Nursing education. While the emphasis is on the social work version of the Interpersonal Skills module, limited reference is made to the nursing component and the differential approaches that proved necessary within the subject areas under development

Geoscience after IT: Part J. Human requirements that shape the evolving geoscience information system

The geoscience record is constrained by the limitations of human thought and of the technology for handling information. IT can lead us away from the tyranny of older technology, but to find the right path, we need to understand our own limitations. Language, images, data and mathematical models, are tools for expressing and recording our ideas. Backed by intuition, they enable us to think in various modes, to build knowledge from information and create models as artificial views of a real world. Markup languages may accommodate more flexible and better connected records, and the object-oriented approach may help to match IT more closely to our thought processes

Transhuman and posthuman – on relevance of "cyborgisation" on legal and ethical issues

I will discuss issues which can be seen as taken strictly from the science fiction literature. Nonetheless, I would like to demonstrate that those issues not so far from now will have a big influence on the ethical discourse and also the law and social philosophy. The first part aims at clarifying concept of “cyborg” and “cyborgization”. I will consider only meanings coined for scientific or philosophical purposes. I will also indicate two experiments, which bring to life “the first cyborg” – term in which the head-scientist of these experiments used to describe his effects. In the second part I will show ideas of transhumanists in the context of technological achievements mentioned earlier. I will concentrate on the human enhancement idea, underling majority of transhumanist’s branches. I will try to demonstrate that it is realistic concept. In the third part I will shift my attention to some of consequences which flow from “cyborgisation” and human enhancements mentioned in prior parts. I will present two rights seen by transhumanist’s philosophers as able to become human rights in the near future. In these frames I will consider the “morphological freedom” and the “cognitive liberty”. At the end, in the fourth part I will summarize my considerations about the influence of semi-fictitious technologies. I will try to bring on an unambiguous conclusion that aforesaid issues could in the nearest future become very substantial for every area of the theory and policy of law

Blending Words & Numbers: Towards a Framework for Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Strategies for Organizational Research

Blending qualitative and quantitative research methods is widely propagatedas a strategy for both quality control and enrichment of organizationresearch. This has been recognized in the organization literature for morethan twenty years. However, during the last decade the progress in thepractice of research has not been altogether impressive. Ambiguity is one ofthe key problems in this respect. This paper tries to clarify the discussion onblended methods, by (1) clarifying concepts used to describe blendeddesign, (2) inventoririzing and categorizing the different forms and objectivesof blended design, and (3) developing a provisional framework. The studydeparts from the research practice, the sequences of action in concretestudies. The focus is on research as a process, rather than on specificmethods. Finally, the paper suggest some directions for a developmentprogram for blending methods.economics of technology ;

The Open Society and coach education: a philosophical agenda for policy reform and future sociological research

Background: The realisation of the strategic importance of high quality coaching to the achievement of national sport policy objectives is resulting in extensive movements to professionalise the coaching industry. Interest in coach education is therefore growing among academics and policy-makers alike. A recent review of literature in this field, however, reveals a troubling problem situation: formal coach education is important for coach learning but tends to be expensive, inflexible and overly technical and therefore has little real impact on coaching practice. The solutions offered by many academics are, unfortunately, vague and often philosophically flawed. This is particularly so when the descriptive model of communities of practice (CoP) is suggested as a prescriptive model for coach education. The first part of the paper, therefore, ends with an extended critique of the use of CoP as a model for coach education. Purpose: To provide a clear philosophical argument for the direction of reform for coach education, drawing on a normative theory of the ideal conditions for the growth of knowledge. Discussion: Starting with the argument that any descriptive (or ‘evidence-based’) model is inherently conservative, the second part of the paper offers an alternative solution to the problem of coach education that is openly prescriptive (or normative). It is the Popperian ideal type of an Open Society (OS). It is argued that the concept of an OS is a better prescriptive model for coach learning for a number of reasons. First, it is based on a logically sound epistemological theory of the ideal social conditions for the growth of knowledge. Second, it is simple and easy for lay people to understand. Third, as an ideal type, it offers a target or goal against which progress towards a better method of coach education can be measured. In this final sense, it also offers a clear agenda for policy reform and future sociological research. Conclusions: The paper makes a series of practical recommendations for reforming coach education and its institutions based on the model of the OS. Foremost among these are making learning resources free at the point of use and using Web 2.0 technologies to democratise educational episodes and widen participation in coach education programmes of all kinds

Mapping the Oceans - Helping Students Make Connections

COSEE-Ocean Systems (OS) is moving forward in its development of effective tools and techniques to aid learners in better understanding the context of the oceans in both the earth and solar systems. Acting upon recent national efforts to "map" ocean topics into the educational standards, COSEE-OS is piloting effective ways to bring the relevance of the oceans to classrooms. This resource introduces concept mapping and demonstrates its effectiveness. Educational levels: Primary elementary, Intermediate elementary, Middle school, High school, Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division, Graduate or professional

Construct redundancy in process modelling grammars: Improving the explanatory power of ontological analysis

Conceptual modelling supports developers and users of information systems in areas of documentation, analysis or system redesign. The ongoing interest in the modelling of business processes has led to a variety of different grammars, raising the question of the quality of these grammars for modelling. An established way of evaluating the quality of a modelling grammar is by means of an ontological analysis, which can determine the extent to which grammars contain construct deficit, overload, excess or redundancy. While several studies have shown the relevance of most of these criteria, predictions about construct redundancy have yielded inconsistent results in the past, with some studies suggesting that redundancy may even be beneficial for modelling in practice. In this paper we seek to contribute to clarifying the concept of construct redundancy by introducing a revision to the ontological analysis method. Based on the concept of inheritance we propose an approach that distinguishes between specialized and distinct construct redundancy. We demonstrate the potential explanatory power of the revised method by reviewing and clarifying previous results found in the literature