Requisite variety and intercultural teams: to what extent is Ashby's law useful ?

Requisite variety and intercultural teams: To what extent is Ashby's law useful? The “Law of Requisite Variety” (LRV) is frequently evoked to explain the design, functioning and performance of intercultural teams. But to what extent does the law really enhance understanding in this particular field? The authors consider that LRV has rarely been questioned in-depth in management studies. The paper briefly details LRV in the cybernetics context before “translating” it to social systems, organizations and intercultural teams. Using a qualitative case-study method, the case of an intercultural team is analysed and questioned from the perspective of LRV. The results show that LRV superficially fits the composition of this team, but is unable to explain the human and social dynamics that evolve during the work process.law of requisite variety; requisite variety; intercultural teams ; complexity ; diversity; systems; case study

Reflecting on the usability of research on culture in designing interaction

The concept of culture has been attractive to producers of interactive\ud systems who are willing to design useful and relevant solutions to users\ud increasingly located in culturally diverse contexts. Despite a substantial body of\ud research on culture and technology, interaction designers have not always been\ud able to apply these research outputs to effectively define requirements for\ud culturally diverse users. This paper frames this issue as one of understanding of\ud the different paradigms underpinning the cultural models being applied to\ud interface development and research. Drawing on different social science theories,\ud the authors discuss top-down and bottom-up perspectives in the study of users‟\ud cultural differences and discuss the extent to which each provides usable design\ud knowledge. The case is made for combining bottom-up and top-down perspectives\ud into a sociotechnical approach that can produce knowledge useful and usable by\ud interaction designers. This is illustrated with a case study about the design of\ud interactive systems for farmers in rural Kenya

Requisite variety and intercultural teams: to what extent is Ashby's law useful ?

Cahiers de recherche n° 2009 04 E5Requisite variety and intercultural teams: To what extent is Ashby's law useful? The “Law of Requisite Variety” (LRV) is frequently evoked to explain the design, functioning and performance of intercultural teams. But to what extent does the law really enhance understanding in this particular field? The authors consider that LRV has rarely been questioned in-depth in management studies. The paper briefly details LRV in the cybernetics context before “translating” it to social systems, organizations and intercultural teams. Using a qualitative case-study method, the case of an intercultural team is analysed and questioned from the perspective of LRV. The results show that LRV superficially fits the composition of this team, but is unable to explain the human and social dynamics that evolve during the work process

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF GLOBAL ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING PROGRAMMES: AN EMPIRICAL MODEL BASED ON EXPERT INTERVIEWS

The number of companies operating globally is constantly increasing. In order for these companies to operate globally, they require a global view of processes and their implementation in global enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. These ERP systems allow to integrate an organization’s information sources and to harmonize its processes across multiple sites and countries. But, not all global ERP programmes are successfully implemented. Some implementation projects fail in terms of classical project tracking, e.g. slippage of roll-out dates, budget overruns or missed qualitative objectives, while others fail more severely in their business impact, e.g. intended business benefits are not achieved including process standardization, process automation and asset carrying cost reduction. To reduce the number of failed ERP programs, their critical success factors have been investigated but reports of these are not sufficiently comprehensive for global programmes as multi-national operations generate aspects that need to be addressed for success. This study explores the critical success factors of global ERP programmes and derives a predictive model of success. Use of this model may aid companies in developing effective global ERP programmes

Exploring Cultural Impact on Long-Term Utilization of Enterprise Systems

Culture has been increasingly recognized as a key determinant of IS and ERP success. By drawing on theoretical antecedents in previous IS and culture studies, this paper examines and analyzes cultural impact on ERP utilization in China. The study involved 25 semi-structured interviews in two Chinese companies. The findings identified that China's cultural features of high power distance, low uncertainty avoidance and collectivism, can originate a set of crucial ERP barriers and problems, which are located in diverse management and organizational areas in Chinese companies. The study suggested that, in order to address these cultural obstacles and thus ensure long-term ERP success, Chinese enterprises need to substantially change their traditional business procedures, staff attitudes, and management behaviour. Given that many cultural factors are not unique to a country, the findings of this study should have applicability beyond China

Determinants and dynamics of schooling and child labor in Bolivia

This paper investigates the determinants of primary school enrollment, attendance and child labor in Bolivia from 1999 to 2007. The analysis also aims at identifying the substitution and complementary relationships between schooling and working. Although enrollment rates show a significant improvement, lack of attendance remains an issue. The empirical results reveal that the increase in enrollment is led by indigenous children and those living in urban areas. Moreover, contrary to common belief, being extremely poor and indigenous are the main determinants of school attendance. Although extremely poor children increased their school attendance, they were not able to reduce child labor. However, for indigenous children school attendance and child labor were substitutes, increasing schooling and reducing child labor.Street Children,Primary Education,Education For All,Youth and Governance,Children and Youth

Who Should I Approach? Knowledge Sourcing in Enterprise System Implementation

During enterprise system implementation, organizations transfer system-related knowledge to end users through training sessions and by having them involved in the system design and implementation processes. However, during actual use of the system, end users acquire informal knowledge from co-workers through their social networks. Existing research has focused on the structural features of social networks and their impact on regulating knowledge flow between end users and across the network. The personal attributes and preferences of end users that could impact their knowledge acquisition and processing capabilities have not been considered. This paper examines the expertise level of end users, their gender, and the complexity of their job tasks in influencing system-related knowledge acquisition and its impact on performance outcomes. Data for this study was collected from active users of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that had been implemented across multiple business units of diversified business conglomerate in the United States

ERP: More than Just a System The Role of ERP in Mergers and Acquisitions

Company takeovers continue to be a common corporate practice. Where these involve the acquisition of similar businesses the speed of integration is regarded as a contributory factor to the success of the acquisition. In this paper the contribution of the implementation of the acquirer’s ERP system to integration is explored. ERP implementation may impose the acquirer’s business procedures, processes, data formats, values and underlying culture and has the potential to be a powerful tool to drive the level of integration being sought. In this qualitative study the authors explore a series of ERP implementations in the Asia Pacific region that appear to have successfully contributed to the integration of a global company’s business in this region, and contrast these findings against other conflicting outcomes reported in the literature. Implementation strategies that are considered to have contributed to this success were developed. These strategies were based on an appreciation of the cultural dimensions predominant in the region, and included emphasis on the strategic aim, sharing leadership between Head Office and the local business, project teams comprising a mix of Head Office analysts and regional business people, and strong communication practices in which a sense of community was developed

Similarities and Differences of Custom Designed ERP Systems Development and Implementation in Two Cases in Services and Manufacturing

In this paper we made a comparative review of two case studies in development, design, and implementation of in-house custom-designed Enterprise Resource Planning packages in manufacturing and services. For comparison, we scanned through business solutions, tangible and intangible benefits, process of implementation, implementation problems and planning, benefits of ERP implementation, business processes, business strategies, project goals, IT infrastructure, and key critical success factors (KCSFs). The KCSFs and the important key factors were the focus point in evaluation of differences. For instance, in manufacturing, the innovation strategy was identified as an important KCSF in implementation planning phase whereas in service, understanding client business processes was identified as an important KCSF in planning phase

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history