Electronic market as a strategic lever of an innovation virtual system - an integrative approach to territorial innovations management

During the last years, electronic market has become established very quickly in all areas of the business world. Moreover, according to the most recent forecasts, it will grow exponentially during the years. ?Electronic market? phenomenon highlights the most significant effect of the Information and Communication Technologies development: space and time independence of the economic and social processes; every people, every social group, every Organization can communicate or can share information, knowledge, objectives, anywhere and anytime. In this new socioeconomic context, a re-thinking of local system economic growth models becomes necessary. In this paper we present Innovation Virtual System, as a new model for local systems development. Innovation System is conceived as a set of interacting Organizations, embedded in a dense web of social and economic relationships, skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge and at adapting their behavior according to knowledge about their external and internal settings. More specifically, we try to identify the effects of electronic market on these ?knowledge creating? Organizations, that is on their internal learning circuits and on their external relationships. Particularly we focus in the Internet based electronic market, highlighting the differences between Internet and the previous computing and communication environment, in order to give a clearer understanding of Internet as the strategic infrastructure of electronic market. After describing the impact of the Internet based electronic market on a single Organization, we present a framework of a local system collective learning process, and we describe some of the opportunities offered by the Internet based electronic market to this process.

Development of the theory and method to manage organisation's intellectual capital

This thesis adopts a "managing-developing" rather than a "measuring" approach to the intellectual capital of organizations, demonstrating that the former is compatible to the knowledge creation process while the latter is not. In this basis, in the thesis the intellectual capital of an organization is defined as the combination of the intangible assets of an organization that add value to its effort to achieve its goal, referring to the skills, innovation, information, experience and employee attitudes an organization possesses. This thesis proposes a systemic, systematic and humanoriented approach to the management of intellectual capital which includes the participative development of systems to support the management of skills (learning systems), innovation (innovation systems) information (information systems), experience (organizational memory systems) and attitude (selection, reward, career development, retirement systems). The design of such systems needs to be based on organizational requirements and in this thesis a formal method of requirements definition is developed (ORDIC - Organizational Requirements Definition for Intellectual Capital management). The thesis presents a number of case studies of the application of this method in Mexican companies and international corporate groups that demonstrate how the methods can be applied and in particular show the role of users in the use of the component methods of ORDIC. The thesis provides evaluation evidence of the success of the methods in creating systems to manage intellectual capital

Consuming Linked Data within a Large Educational Organization

Large universities tend to spread their services across several departments to serve their substantial student base. It is very common for this to result in developing different systems, which end up in creating many disconnected data silos within the organization. Data isolation is one of the main bottlenecks that prevent unlocking the full potential behind exploiting such data, to provide a better experience at the level of application deployment and data analysis. The Open University is in the process of connecting their data silos by relying on the Linked Data principles within the LUCERO project. We discuss in this paper three use-cases through which we consume Linked Data produced at the Open University: (1) a student services use-case showing how we exploit data connections to deliver learning material related to courses through the university's main course information website; (2) a mobile course application that enables students to easily explore courses by subject, qualification or research topic; and (3) a Leanback TV service that provides students the ability to watch, with a degree of control, a set of podcasts grouped in different channels. Through these use cases, we highlight in this paper the advantages and effects of consuming Linked Data within an organization

Exploring the Sources of Enterprise Agility in Software Organizations

Organizations involved in the design, development and sustainment of software systems have to manage the tension between creating new products and services, while at the same time maintaining their existing portfolio. This paper explores the sources of enterprise agility in software firms, wherein agility is defined as the ability of the organization to sense changes in its environment (both internal and external), and effectively respond to these changes. Using engaged scholarship as the overarching paradigm, we report on the findings of a process study that uses semi-structured interviews, observation, and archival firm & project information for data gathering, and grounded theory methods and comparative case analysis for data analysis and theory generation. The analysis highlights the importance of the four organizational enablers of: stakeholder alignment, employee empowerment, group & organizational learning, and governance mechanisms, as necessary but not sufficient precursors to obtaining enterprise agility. Furthermore, we provide illustrative case examples of the three mechanisms: Continuous Improvement, Creating Systems of Innovation, and Leveraging Globally available Capabilities, that software organizations use to gain enterprise agility

The study of nurses’ viewpoint on the use of learning organization principles

Introduction: Nowadays due to the dramatic speed of improvements in medical sciences, the use of learning organization approach is essential to make hospitals dynamic. Therefore, applying the learning organization is beneficial as it has practicability. From the viewpoint of Senge, an organization would be a learner if the five principles of personal mastery, mental models, common vision, team learning, and systems thinking are taken into account. According to the central role of nurses in making positive changes in professional nursing activities and responding to patients’ needs, the aim of this study was to assess the nurses’ viewpoint on the use of learning organization principles in Imam Reza hospital in Sirjan city.Methods: In this cross–sectional study, all staff nurses of Imam Reza hospital constituted the sampling. Senge’s learning organization questionnaires, after applying the necessary changes and determining its reliability and validity, was used to gather data. All participants were informed of the goals of the study. Finally, 141 questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS software.Results: The average scores of learning organization for all parameters were higher than the average score of each parameter. There was a significant difference between contract-based nurses with permanently employed nurses and tarhy nurses in the light of the total score of questionnaire, team learning, and systems thinking (P 0.05).Conclusion: Based on the results, the rate of applying learning organization principles in this hospital was more than the average. This indicates the importance of positive perspectives, reinforcement of information, team work, creating a shared perspective of the future, and systems viewpoint. Therefore, stabilizing the employment conditions, having hopes for the future of work, and recruiting younger staff are all highly beneficial in the application of learning organization principles

A method for assessing and developing features of a learning organization

The primary objective of this thesis is to evolve a method for assessing and developing features of a learning organization . To fulfill this, I approached the thesis by examining several research questions and using multiple research methodologies. The research questions were not all established at the outset. Rather, they evolved as features of a journey down a road less traveled. With this journey came the decision to write the thesis in the first person. The first research question was Q1: What will bridge the divide between organizational learning and the learning organization? By reviewing the extant literature on organizational learning and the learning organization, I developed a theoretical framework that linked these two streams. The framework suggests that the extent of divide between the two streams is determined by the extent of learning transfer. The learning transfer is affected by the learning barriers operating at the levels of learning (i.e., individuals, groups, and organizational). This led me to my second research question Q2: What are these barriers to learning transfer and how do they impact the levels of learning in the organization? I cumulated the dispersed literature on learning barriers, and synthesized the learning barriers into five key dimensions: Intrapersonal, relational, cultural, structural, and societal. I then used the Delphi technique on 17 individuals to investigate the impact of the learning barriers on the levels of learning. This generated two additional research questions. The third research question was Q3: How do individuals initiate a double-loop change? This deals with the little researched area of initiation of double-loop change whilst engaging with the interfaces at the levels of learning. I used multiple case studies to examine this question and found that individuals transit through four distinct stages when initiating double-loop change: 'embedded', 'embedded discomfited', 'scripted', and 'unscripted'. Once double-loop learning has been initiated at the individual level, it is important that it is transferred across the organization. Therefore, my fourth research question was Q4: How does a new shared understanding for a double-loop change develop across the organization? I did an in-depth, single case based investigation of an organization. Using Identity and Complexity theory perspectives, I tracked the evolving new shared understanding through four phases: de-identification phase, situated re-identification phase, transition phase, and identification with core ideology phase. The key insights from examining these research questions, particularly insights from examining Q3 and Q4, enabled me to suggest nine key organizational interventions necessary to overcome the learning barriers and develop a learning organization: Identifying, developing, and dispersing double-loop mastery; Enabling constructive contradictions; Creating a superordinate organizational identity; Building emotional intelligence (in individuals and groups); Ambidextrous leadership; Strategic support for experimentation; Promoting 'systems doing'; Accessibility of valid information; Institutionalizing scanning across industry boundaries. When these nine organizational interventions are implemented, they produce five new learning organization orientations: genetic diversity, organizational ideology, organizational dualism, organizational coupling, and strategic play. These five new learning organizational orientations provide the archetypes of the learning organization. I then developed an instrument to assess these five new orientations, and did a preliminary testing of the instrument. While aspects of my work overlaid with previous knowledge, new advances in knowledge were established by: Postulating a link between the streams of organizational learning and learning organization Synthesizing learning barriers into the five key dimensions, and investigating their impact on the levels of learning Understanding the stages of double-loop learning initiation by an individual, whilst engaging with the interfaces at the levels of learning Understanding the process of a new shared understanding evolving Postulating five new orientations of the learning organizatio

Virtual knowledge spaces: A call for research

Davis (1989) authored the widely acclaimed book titled “Future Perfect” prescribing that, in a “future perfect, anyone in an anytime – anyplace mode would be able to communicate to anyone else in the world.” The year 2020 provided clear affirmation that the knowledge workforce of the future is poised to not only communicate anytime – anyplace, but to create workplace environments that thrive across time zones and unlimited virtual locations. Knowledge management (KM) is “a systematic and integrative process of coordinating organization-wide activities of acquiring, creating, storing, sharing, diffusing, and deploying knowledge by individuals and groups, in pursuit of major organizational goals” (Rastogi, 2000, p. 40). Information scientists and knowledge management scholars must reexamine models of organizational learning, competency development and organizational culture to harness the collective capability of not only a virtual workforce, but a virtual organization. The researchers’ “work in progress” poster presents a preliminary systematic literature review and offers guiding questions to scholars and scholar practitioners exploring this rich area of KM research in a virtual organization. The three primary research areas are organizational learning, knowledge archiving, and knowledge system modeling. The final systematic literature review will define the topic and will utilize scholarly research methodologies (e.g., Torocco, 2016) to critically analyze and synthesize existing knowledge management literature and present virtual workforce implications that give direction for future research. In this growing research area, this poster poses the questions: (1) What are the obstacles of storing and deploying knowledge in a virtual organization? (2) How does the virtual organization impact the social nature of knowledge (namely sharing and creation)? (3) How must knowledge systems evolve to accommodate a virtual workforce? Davis, S. (1989). Future Perfect. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley. Rastogi, P. (2000) Knowledge management and intellectual capital — the new virtuous reality of competitiveness. Human Systems Management 19(1), 39 – 49. Torocco, R. (2016). Writing Integrative Reviews of Literature: Methods and Purposes. International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology, 7(1), 62 – 70. doi: 10.4018/IJAVET.201607010

СУЧАСНІ ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ ФОРМУВАННЯ ІНШОМОВНОЇ КОМУНІКАТИВНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНЦІЇ У ВИЩИХ ВІЙСЬКОВИХ НАВЧАЛЬНИХ ЗАКЛАДАХ (MODERN TECHNOLOGIES FOREIGN COMMUNICATIVE COMPRTENCE FORMATION IN HIGHER MILITARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS)

У статті визначається умови досягнення високого рівня оволодіння іноземною мовою у вищих навчальних закладах. Розглядаються інформаційно-комунікативні технології при викладанні іноземних мов у вищих військовихнавчальних закладах. Зазначаються наукові основи технології навчання з використанням інформаційно-комунікативних технологій. Описується метод застосування відеоматеріалів, що сприяє підвищенню комунікативної компетенції військовослужбовців. Пропонується визначення поняття сучасні технології в освіті. (In the article the conditions of achievement of high levels of foreign language in higher educational institutions are determined. Information and communication technologies in teaching foreign languages in higher military educational institutions are considered. Scientific fundamentals of using information and communication technologies are learned. The method of video application that improves the communicative competence of soldiers is offered. The definition of modern technology in education is proposed. Modern technologies in education – a professionally oriented foreign language learning, project work in education, the use of information and communication technologies, work with educational computer programs in foreign languages (multimedia systems) technology in distance learning foreign languages, creating presentations in the program PowerPoint, using Internet resources, learning a foreign language in the computer sector (forums, blogs, e-mail), new test technology. The article describes the peculiarities of work with video and possible activities for the learners. The aim of intensifying training in higher military school – through integrated use of the most effective forms, methods and means of teaching and the organization of close cooperation between them to ensure better satisfying the current requirements to practice training of military specialists.

Intelligent robust control of redun-dant smart robotic arm Pt II: Quantum computing KB optimizer

In the first part of the article, two ways of fuzzy controller’s implementation showed. First way applied one controller for all links of the manipulator and showed the best performance. However, such an implementation is not possible in complex control objects, such as a planar redundant manipulator with seven degrees of freedom (DoF). The second way use of separated control when an independent fuzzy controller controls each link. The decomposition control due to a slight decrease in the quality of management has greatly simplified the processes of creating and placing knowledge bases. In this paper (Part II), the advantages and limitations of intelligent control systems based on soft computing technology described. To eliminate the mismatch of the work of separate independent fuzzy controllers, methods for self-organizing coordination control based on quantum computing technologies to create and design robust intelligent control systems for robotic manipulators with 3DOF and 7DOF described. Quantum fuzzy inference as quantum self-organization algorithm of imperfect KBs introduced. Quantum computational intelligence smart toolkit QCOptKBTMbased on quantum fuzzy inference applied. QCOptKBTM toolkit include quantum deep machine learning in on line. Successful engineering application of end-to-end quantum computing information technologies (as quantum sophisticated algorithms and quantum programming) in searching of solutions of algorithmic unsolved problems in classical dynamic intelligent control systems, artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent cognitive robotics discussed. Quantum computing supremacy in efficient solution of intractable classical tasks as global robustness of redundant robotic manipulator in unpredicted control situations demonstrated. As result, the new synergetic self-organization information effect of robust KB design from responses of imperfect KBs (partial KB robustness cretead on toolkit SCOptKBTM in Pat I) fined