Inserting ICT and IS in a Complex Organizational Environment Using an Organizational Learning Model

Within the last few years, knowledge management has become one of the hottest subjects among organisational and information systems theorists and practitioners. Many find in it an amazingly opportunity to bridge the two areas, so many times pursuing common goals following parallel, never matching paths. And they are so absorbed with the new hip that they are letting drop an indissociable concept, organisational learning (OL), with which everything begins. The concept of OL is not new. However, there is an ongoing controversy around the field, as well as around its most recent reedition or pragmatic reconfiguration, the learning organisation. As a result, several models have been developed but, up to now, none seems to have been particularly acclaimed and accepted. This work presents a model for the study of organisational learning, developed in order to fill the gaps found in the literature. Namely, it seems able to work as the integrative framework, providing the holistic context where to study, develop, use and evaluate organisational IS and ICT. It may also help to bridge the theoretical preoccupations and the more rigorous approaches found in the OL field and the empirical drive of the research done in the context of the learning organisation studies

Key factor for hastening the strategic issue diagnosis process: a within organisational model

Previous research on Strategic Issue Diagnosis (SID) had focused on the complexity and novelty associated with the decision-making process in a turbulent environment. What had not been previously addressed in the extant literature is the requirement for speed inherent within the SID process, especially that is related to the gathering of information and facts through an organisation’s environmental scanning procedures. Since proactive management techniques, nimble processes, and systems that allow an organisation to be responsive and build rapid decision-making capabilities are important determinants of success in a turbulent environment, the element of speed associated with SID is an important factor. Our paper identifi es a series of propositions focusing att ention on elements of the environmental scanning processes and management hierarchies that are intended to counteract the recursiveness and redundancy inherent in SID systems and ultimately hasten the strategic decision-making process

Using the PSIC Model to Understand Change in an Educational Setting: The Case of an E-Textbook Implementation

This paper reports on an analysis of the change caused by an e-textbook implementation in a school in South Africa. The PSIC model, a change model from ICT enabled change in organisations, was considered because it affirms existing educational research, but also extends it by recognising the episodic nature of change. On a vertical level the model allowed the researchers to identify and distinguish between the factors and events influencing change in the organisation on four different levels. On a horizontal level, the model makes the disequilibrium between the socio-technical system components visible as they happen over time. Data was collected during an interpretive case study and analysed using the PSIC model. It is found that, despite the preparatory events leading to the full roll out, as well as the positive affordances of the new technology, the equilibrium of the socio-technical components of the work system was severely disrupted. The technology infrastructure did not support the e-textbook systems and more than one system was implemented which caused confusion. Teachers’ experienced that support for teachers and learners was not sufficient and that the e-textbooks did not support the learning and teaching task. Consequently, the researchers suggested some interventions of which some have already been implemented

What drives innovativeness in industrial clusters? Transcending the debate

Industrial clusters, Regional agglomerations, Technological learning

Managing information cycles for intra-organisational coordination of humanitarian logistics

As the humanitarian aid sector is expanding, the need for enhancing coordination capabilities increases as well. This holds especially for the area of logistics, because humanitarian operations typically take place in unstable and risky environments, where infrastructure is poor, while staff turnover is high. The effectiveness of humanitarian logistics critically depends on the availability and quality of logistics support information, but data is often scarce and ICT support to remote areas is limited. The challenges caused by these constraints call for conceptual insight into the intra-organisational coordination process in humanitarian aid. In order to assess current practice of intra-organisational logistics information management for humanitarian aid, we combine humanitarian logistics and organisational literatures to develop a model that ties in information cycles with activity cycles that ultimately should lead to value creation. The model serves as a basis to analyse coordination practice at the Dutch filial of Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF-Holland) and develop implications for research and practice

E-Government implementation Challenges: A Case study

The purpose of this paper is to explore empirically the implementation of e-government in a developing country in the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) and the key challenges that influence implementation. A case study (using interview-based research) was undertaken within the State of Qatar. After reviewing the available literature, the paper first proposes a conceptual model, which was then used to explore e-government related change by considering the key forces influencing implementation from an organisational, technological, social and political context. The empirical results confirmed previously findings in literature and identified a number of new issues that were influencing e-government implementation in Qatar which were not explicitly discussed in prior e-government research

The Integrated Vocational Route (IVR): an employer-driven learning programme in health & social care practice at the FE/HE interface

In 2006, the Open University Awarding Body, Faculty of Health & Social Care and the Vocational Qualifications Assessment Centre began exploratory discussions with health and social care (HSC) employers regarding the creation of a flexible programme of vocational and academic development which would seek to bridge the FE-HE divide, embed learning in the workplace rather than the classroom and facilitate progression in this field of practice. The product of these discussions was the ‘Integrated Vocational Route’ (IVR). The IVR is designed to meet the needs of support staff directly involved in the provision of health and/or social care who have higher career aspirations and employers seeking to develop those non-professional care workers in their organisation whom they believe have the greatest potential to progress to more senior roles. The original programme integrates a Level 3 HSC (Adults) National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) within the OU K101 ‘An Introduction to Health and Social Care’ module (offering 60 credits at NQF Level 4). Successful completion of the IVR will therefore provide both a ‘Certificate of Health and Social Care’ (60 credits at NQF Level 4) and a full NVQ Level 3 HSC Adults award. HSC employer consultation and briefings in twelve UK towns and cities helped shape the IVR model and four organisations (Newcastle City Council, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Trust, Salisbury Foundation NHS Trust and Social Work Information & Interpretation Services [SWIIS] Foster Care Scotland) have been particularly influential in determining IVR design and models of delivery. One such model enables both the IVR tutor and assessor roles to be undertaken by staff within a partner organisation and tutorials to be held in the workplace. Most of the IVR learning and support materials are available online and a bespoke, user-friendly electronic portfolio has been created for the integrated NVQ. By simultaneously developing and assessing academic skills, knowledge and competence related to care practice, the IVR offers better preparation for progression to qualifying routes such as nursing and social work and scope for credit transfer. A second IVR integrating a full Level 3 HSC Children and Young People (CYP) NVQ within the K101 module was offered for the first time in 2009. The IVR is currently being re-developed to accommodate the new vocational Diploma qualifications which replace Level 3 NVQs from 2011

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Using Social Networking Sites (SNS) for Environmental Scanning: An Analysis of Content Monitoring Tools.

In all market segments, social networking sites (SNS) have to be considered an element of value-adding for business, mainly through the possibility of promoting closer interactions between organisations and their customers. Despite this, the main concern is still what is being said on SNS. From this perspective, beyond the diversity of interaction patterns, there are several extra tools (the majority of which are available for free), which intend to aggregate the power of analysis to SNS users. Considering that microblogging platforms are the most widespread in the organisational context, the aim of this paper is to analyse the content monitoring tools available, in order to verify the possibility of utilising them as Environmental Scanning (ES) tools. In this way, it is intended to analyse the basis of ES, the main theories and techniques available, the relationship between ES and virtual environments, especially the internet, and content monitoring tools per se