Intelligent Decisional Assistant that Facilitate the Choice of a Proper Computer System Applied in Busines

The choice of a proper computer system is not an easy task for a decider. One reason could be the present market development of computer systems applied in business. The big number of the Romanian market players determines a big number of computerized products, with a multitude of various properties. Our proposal tries to optimize and facilitate this decisional process within an e-shop where are sold IT packets applied in business, building an online decisional assistant, a special component conceived to facilitate the decision making needed for the selection of the pertinent IT package that fits the requirements of one certain business, described by the decider. The user interacts with the system as an online buyer that visit an e-shop where are sold IT package applied in economy.database, knowledge-base, decision tree, DSS, data mining, agents, reasoning, collaborative

The issue of design in managerial decision making

It is argued that the design of decisions is a process that in many ways is shaped by social factors such as identities, values, and influences. To be able to understand how these factors impact organizational decisions, the focus must be set on the management level. It is the management that shoulders the chief responsibility for designing collective actions, such as decisions. Our propositions indicate that the following measures must be taken in order to improve the quality of organizational decisions: 1. The identity of the people, involved in organizational decision making, affects the quality of decisions and should be taken into account in the design of decisions. 2. The decision maker or designer of decisions should engage the members of an organization to create a shared vision. 3. Getting the members of an organization to express and share common values should improve the decision making process. 4. Being able to socially influence the members of an organization, or other stakeholders involved, as well as letting them participate in the process, should improve the quality of decisions

A COMPARATIVE, PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF TEACHER PARTICIPATION IN VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE ON THE LEVEL OF PROFESSIONAL CAPITAL WITHIN THEIR RESPECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS

The purpose of this comparative, phenomenological, qualitative study is to evaluate the perceptions of expert teacher practitioners and their administrators on the impact that their participation in VCOPs has had on what Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) coined the Professional Capital of their organizations. How has the teachers’ development of a PLN or their participation in a VCOP fostered their growth as individuals or their Human Capital? How, in turn, has the expert teachers’ increased knowledge base furthered instructional practices, promoted the development of next practices, and enhanced their organization’s Social Capital? Finally, how has this new knowledge impacted the decisions teachers within the organization make as they work tirelessly to challenge and inspire the diverse group of students in their classrooms The lived experiences of the participants in this study evidence the profound impact that teacher participation in Virtual Communities of Practice can have on the development of their Human Capital, Social Capital and Decisional Capital. Their experiences within the open and participatory cultures they became a part of were powerful as they were able to personalize their learning and connect with like-minded individuals who pushed their thinking and renewed their love for their profession. It is clear that these interactions raised self-awareness and caused the participants to question existing beliefs and instructional practices. “Scanning and Storytelling,” asking for “Help and Assistance,” “Sharing,” and participating in “Joint Work,” accelerated their learning and brought about the use of new and innovative tools and strategies that enhanced their teaching. When evaluating the impact that these “connected educators” had on the Professional Capital of respective organizations, their colleagues’ readiness for change and the support and active engagement of their principals were key variables. As administrators become more adept at thoughtfully considering culture when managing the Social Capital within their buildings, the more and more these connected educators will be able to act as change agents and their impact will be transformational

THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT – NECESSITY FOR THE MODERNIZATION OF THE ORGANIZATIONS

If individuals and technologies can harmonize their intelligence under various forms, only the intelligent organizations will have the capacity to transform and coordinate these abilities for their own advantage by using informational technologies, by combining the most advanced software technologies with the newest management instruments in order to produce extremely efficient organizations. The information excess is a chronic phenomenon for the modern organization, so that the lack of the capacity to filter and use relevant information is a consequence of the inefficiency to manage the knowledge fund, of the lack of a clear strategy with a common purpose for personnel and team. Today, almost the intelligent organizations must manage and apply the entire knowledge fund, they must use instruments and technologies in order to build an informational architecture, having as a purpose the competitiveness in a turbulent and changing environment. The apportion of the information and knowledge of the organization, the exchange of information between employees, departments and even other companies are facilitated by the information and communication technology. Not all information are valuable, but in order to establish what information respond to the questions What? Where? How? When? and Why? instruments of knowledge management are needed in order to determine what knowledge is qualified to be intellectually active.knowledge, knowledge management, intelligent organization, informational technologies, knowledge exchange, collaborative networks, apportion intelligent instruments

Managing the KM Trade-Off: Knowledge Centralization versus Distribution

KM is more an archipelago of theories and practices rather than a monolithic approach. We propose a conceptual map that organizes some major approaches to KM according to their assumptions on the nature of knowledge. The paper introduces the two major views on knowledge ­objectivist, subjectivist - and explodes each of them into two major approaches to KM: knowledge as a market, and knowledge as intellectual capital (the objectivistic perspective); knowledge as mental models, and knowledge as practice (the subjectivist perspective). We argue that the dichotomy between objective and subjective approaches is intrinsic to KM within complex organizations, as each side of the dichotomy responds to different, and often conflicting, needs: on the one hand, the need to maximize the value of knowledge through its replication; on the other hand, the need to keep knowledge appropriate to an increasingly complex and changing environment. Moreover, as a proposal for a deeper discussion, such trade-off will be suggested as the origin of other relevant KM related trade-offs that will be listed. Managing these trade-offs will be proposed as a main challenge of KM

Readiness for Inter-Institutional Collaboration Among Adventist Institutions of Higher Education in North America : Stages of Change

Problem The current sociological and economic environment faced by higher education in North America has inspired many institutions to form consortiums in an attempt to enhance institutional viability. The Association of Adventist Colleges and Universities (AACU) is a consortium of 15 Seventh-day Adventist institutions of higher education in North America. This consortium was formed as an attempt to increase collaboration, enhance quality, and augment institutional viability. The purpose of this study was to describe the current inter-institutional environment for collaboration among AACU member institutions. Currently, there has not been formal research into the collaborative environment of the Association of Adventist Colleges and Universities. Without an understanding of the status of inter-institutional collaboration in Adventist higher education, the path to increased inter-institutional collaboration is likely to fail. Method This study was a quantitative study using survey research methodology in which a survey developed by James Prochaska was adapted to assess inter-institutional collaboration among Adventist colleges and universities in North America. The survey was administered via web-based technology (Zoomerang) to faculty and administrators at the 15 Adventist institutions of higher education in North America. In particular, this survey and the Transtheoretical Model were chosen as they have been used to measure organizational change relative to elements of collaboration but have not been used within an inter-institutional setting. Results Analysis of stage of inter-institutional collaboration among Adventist institutions of higher education in North America found that approximately 57% of the participants are at the precontemplative or contemplative stages whereas about 42% are at the action or maintenance stages. Stage of collaboration is not related to gender, whereas work assignment as faculty or administration, age of the participant, and years of experience in Adventist higher education do have a significant relationship with stage of inter-institutional collaboration. The majority of faculty are at precontemplation whereas the majority of administrators are in maintenance. The data suggest that older participants tend to be further along in the stage of inter-institutional collaboration than are younger participants. Further investigation into the significance of the relationship of age and stage demonstrated that when faculty and administrator were analyzed by work assignment and age, there was no significant relationship between age and stage of inter-institutional collaboration. Years of experience was found to have a significant relationship with stage of inter-institutional collaboration. Analysis would suggest that more experienced participants are further along on the stage of inter-institutional collaboration, but when years of experience was analyzed by work assignment only, faculty demonstrated a significant relationship between stage and years of experience in Adventist higher education. Data analysis with respect to the relationship between stage of inter-institutional collaboration and the outcome measures of the Transtheoretical Model indicated a significant relationship between stage and behavioral frequency, decisional balance, and self-efficacy. There is a significant relationship between stage of inter-institutional collaboration and the linear combination of decisional balance, self-efficacy, and behavioral frequency. However, there is no significant interaction effect between stage of inter-institutional collaboration and the demographic characteristics of gender, age, years of experience in Adventist higher education, and work classification as faculty or administrator. The data suggest that the relationship between stage of inter-institutional collaboration and the linear combination of decisional balance, self-efficacy, and behavioral frequency does not depend on demographic characteristics. Conclusions Adventist higher education in North American is in the process of developing a more inter-institutionally collaborative system. This study described the environment for inter-institutionally collaboration within Adventist higher education and identified a variety of group-related stage differences. With group differences in mind, failure to match change processes with the stage of inter-institutional collaboration will decrease the likelihood of continued collaborative growth within Adventist higher education in North America. This study indicated that the Transtheoretical Model of human change is reliable across demographic characteristics and appropriate in the organizational environment