239,643 research outputs found
Effective Stakeholder Management Strategies for Information Technology Projects
Information Technology (IT) projects have become critical to business strategy. However, one major issue is that, historically, IT projects have high failure rates, with scholars asserting that ineffective stakeholder management strategies were a major factor for project failure. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies IT executives use for managing IT project stakeholders by exploring the experiences of 2 CIOs and 4 IT directors in two multinational companies, based in Switzerland. Stakeholder theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and company documentation, and analyzed using Yin\u27s 5-step data analysis process to identify and code themes. Five main themes emerged from the data analysis: organizational culture, organizational maturity, leadership, competencies, and post-implementation reviews. The results of this study revealed the importance for leaders to articulate business strategies enabling stakeholders to have a common perspective on project objectives, and to act as a foundation upon which IT executives can create effective stakeholder management strategies. Results indicated that the deployment of effective stakeholder management strategies was dependent on several factors, including organizational culture, leadership style, competencies, and organizational maturity. Findings may contribute to positive social change by encouraging effective stakeholder management to improve knowledge sharing, individual and team motivation, management across cultural boundaries, and stimulate a culture of social responsibility and sustainability
An Evaluation of Mandeni Municpality as a knowledge-based institution as a strategic lever for competitive advantage.
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.South African municipalities have a critical role to play in growing the country’s economy. In order to contribute towards eradicating the triple challenge the country is faced with, it is important that they grow their institutional capacity and capability to lever competitive advantage. Therefore, more than ever, they must realize the important role information and knowledge management (KM) plays as a strategic resource to gain competitive advantage. The aim of this exploratory qualitative phenomenological research study was to evaluate Mandeni Municipality (MM) as a knowledge-based institution as a strategic lever for competitive advantage. A non-probability sampling procedure together with a judgmental sampling technique was used to select a sample of five people from the target population that comprised of managerial staff from MM who had knowledge on the subject. Data were collected through in-depth face-to-face interviews with each of the five participants in the sample. An inductive thematic analysis of the data revealed that there were six major themes applicable to MM in becoming a knowledge-based institution. A salient finding of the study was that; although there is a supporting legislative framework in place applicable to MM as a knowledge-based institution, it was not a single source and not user-friendly. The findings also revealed five significant factors applicable to MM being a knowledge-based institution; human resources, information and communication technology, organizational culture, organizational structure; and resources constraints. , Although these factors were in place, they were inefficiently applied and had inadequacies which impacted negatively on its capacity and capability to gain competitive advantage. In addition, it was also recommended amongst others that MM should: persuade the provincial and national departments responsible for local government to consider KM as a specific requirement in their Integrated Development Planning (IDP) Framework; prepare a KM strategy which must form a sector plan in its IDP; use the KM strategy to inform the on-going municipal budgeting process and the annual organizational, departmental and individual performance plans; appoint a dedicated knowledge and information management officer to champion the strategy
Management consulting.
Including a lengthy, comprehensive introduction, this important collection brings together some of the most influential papers that have contributed to our understanding of management consultancy work. The two-volume set encompasses the breadth of conceptual and empirical perspectives and explores those key ideas that have helped to advance our knowledge of this intriguing area. The volumes are divided into a series of thematic sections, affording the reader easy access to a great resource of information. Professors Clark and Avakian have written an original introduction which provides a comprehensive overview of the literature
Through the Eye of the Beholder: Multiple Perspectives on Quality in Women\u27s Health Care
Quality is an illusive concept with different meanings to different people. Providers often define quality in terms of patient outcomes, professional standards of practice, predetermined criteria used to measure quality, and even subjective opinion. Patients describe quality in terms of the interpersonal aspects of care, how well they were treated, and the responsiveness of the provider to their needs. This qualitative study using a semi-structured interview defined quality from the perspectives of patients, physicians, nurses, and payers associated with a hospital-based women\u27s service line, and how the attributes of quality varied among the multiple groups. The study also described how stakeholders become aware of quality and how they determined a hospital\u27s quality. From the findings of the study, a conceptual framework of quality in women\u27s health was developed
Sport psychologists’ experiences of organizational stressors
This study extends stress research by exploring sport psychologists’ experiences of organizational stressors. Twelve accredited sport psychologists (6 academics and 6
practitioners) were interviewed regarding their experiences of organizational stress within their jobs. Content analysis involved categorizing the demands associated
primarily and directly with their occupation under one of the following general dimensions: factors intrinsic to sport psychology, roles in the organization, sport
relationships and interpersonal demands, career and performance development issues, and organizational structure and climate of the profession. A frequency
analysis revealed that academics (ÎŁAOS = 201) experienced more organizational stressors than practitioners (ÎŁPOS = 168). These findings indicate that sport psychologists
experience a wide variety of organizational stressors across different roles, some of which parallel those found previously in other professions. The practical implications for the management of stress for sport psychologists are
discussed
Putting context into organizational intervention design:Using tailored questionnaires to measure initiatives for worker well-being
Realistic evaluation emphasizes the importance of exploring the mechanisms through which organizational interventions are effected. A well-known mechanism in organizational interventions is the screening process. Standardized questionnaires, in popular use, neither consider individuals’ appraisals of working conditions nor the specific context of the workplace. Screening with items tailored to intervention contexts may overcome the limitations of standardized questionnaires. In the present study, we evaluate an approach to develop a tailored questionnaire to measure employees’ appraisals of their specific working conditions. First, we interviewed 56 employees and 17 managers and, later, developed tailored items focused on the working conditions in a postal service. In follow-up interviews, we explore participants’ experiences with the tailored questionnaire, including the development of initiatives, compared to their previous experiences with the company´s annual attitude survey that used standardized scales. Results indicated that participants felt the tailored questionnaire highlighted issues that had previously been ignored, that initiatives were easier to develop due to its specificity, and that the feedback strategy was useful in prioritizing questionnaires. Overall, it can be concluded that tailored questionnaires may be appropriate for use in organizational intervention research and more broadly that evaluations of organizational interventions need to be contextually grounded
Integrating Organisational Change Management and Customer Relationship Management in a Casino
This research aims to solve the problem: how can casinos manage organizational change programs, and internal and external customer relationship management (CRM) programs? To find a solution, it uses two stages of qualitative methods: convergent interviewing and case research about four departments of a casino in Australia. After a thorough data analysis of documents and interview data, 12 themes were identified and they led to the development of a model of how organizational change management and CRM can be integrated to improve initiatives in organisations such as casinos. The model has seven core elements: vision, key challenge, objective, measure, strategy, initiative and outcome. A contribution is the development of this evidence-based model of links between the both types of CRM and organisational change management, with an action checklist for managers. Analytic generalisation beyond the research setting was done in this research, but more external validation could be done in future research. Managers could use the checklist of actions about this research\u27s integrated model, to reduce the high failure rate of change initiatives
Execution: the Critical “What’s Next?” in Strategic Human Resource Management
The Human Resource Planning Society’s 1999 State of the Art/Practice (SOTA/P) study was conducted by a virtual team of researchers who interviewed and surveyed 232 human resource and line executives, consultants, and academics worldwide. Looking three to five years ahead, the study probed four basic topics: (1) major emerging trends in external environments, (2) essential organizational capabilities, (3) critical people issues, and (4) the evolving role of the human resource function. This article briefly reports some of the study’s major findings, along with an implied action agenda – the “gotta do’s for the leading edge. Cutting through the complexity, the general tone is one of urgency emanating from the intersection of several underlying themes: the increasing fierceness of competition, the rapid and unrelenting pace of change, the imperatives of marketplace and thus organizational agility, and the corresponding need to buck prevailing trends by attracting and, especially, retaining and capturing the commitment of world-class talent. While it all adds up to a golden opportunity for human resource functions, there is a clear need to get to get on with it – to get better, faster, and smarter – or run the risk of being left in the proverbial dust. Execute or be executed
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