Information technology and military performance

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 519-544).Militaries have long been eager to adopt the latest technology (IT) in a quest to improve knowledge of and control over the battlefield. At the same time, uncertainty and confusion have remained prominent in actual experience of war. IT usage sometimes improves knowledge, but it sometimes contributes to tactical blunders and misplaced hubris. As militaries invest intensively in IT, they also tend to develop larger headquarters staffs, depend more heavily on planning and intelligence, and employ a larger percentage of personnel in knowledge work rather than physical combat. Both optimists and pessimists about the so-called "revolution in military affairs" have tended to overlook the ways in which IT is profoundly and ambiguously embedded in everyday organizational life. Technocrats embrace IT to "lift the fog of war," but IT often becomes a source of breakdowns, misperception, and politicization. To describe the conditions under which IT usage improves or degrades organizational performance, this dissertation develops the notion of information friction, an aggregate measure of the intensity of organizational struggle to coordinate IT with the operational environment. It articulates hypotheses about how the structure of the external battlefield, internal bureaucratic politics, and patterns of human-computer interaction can either exacerbate or relieve friction, which thus degrades or improves performance. Technological determinism alone cannot account for the increasing complexity and variable performances of information phenomena. Information friction theory is empirically grounded in a participant-observation study of U.S. special operations in Iraq from 2007 to 2008. To test the external validity of insights gained through fieldwork in Iraq, an historical study of the 1940 Battle of Britain examines IT usage in a totally different structural, organizational, and technological context.(cont.) These paired cases show that high information friction, and thus degraded performance, can arise with sophisticated IT, while lower friction and impressive performance can occur with far less sophisticated networks. The social context, not just the quality of technology, makes all the difference. Many shorter examples from recent military history are included to illustrate concepts. This project should be of broad interest to students of organizational knowledge, IT, and military effectiveness.by Jon Randall Lindsay.Ph.D

Actas da 10ª Conferência sobre Redes de Computadores

Universidade do MinhoCCTCCentro AlgoritmiCisco SystemsIEEE Portugal Sectio

The assessment and development of methods in (spatial) sound ecology

As vital ecosystems across the globe enter unchartered pressure from climate change industrial land use, understanding the processes driving ecosystem viability has never been more critical. Nuanced ecosystem understanding comes from well-collected field data and a wealth of associated interpretations. In recent years the most popular methods of ecosystem monitoring have revolutionised from often damaging and labour-intensive manual data collection to automated methods of data collection and analysis. Sound ecology describes the school of research that uses information transmitted through sound to infer properties about an area's species, biodiversity, and health. In this thesis, we explore and develop state-of-the-art automated monitoring with sound, specifically relating to data storage practice and spatial acoustic recording and data analysis. In the first chapter, we explore the necessity and methods of ecosystem monitoring, focusing on acoustic monitoring, later exploring how and why sound is recorded and the current state-of-the-art in acoustic monitoring. Chapter one concludes with us setting out the aims and overall content of the following chapters. We begin the second chapter by exploring methods used to mitigate data storage expense, a widespread issue as automated methods quickly amass vast amounts of data which can be expensive and impractical to manage. Importantly I explain how these data management practices are often used without known consequence, something I then address. Specifically, I present evidence that the most used data reduction methods (namely compression and temporal subsetting) have a surprisingly small impact on the information content of recorded sound compared to the method of analysis. This work also adds to the increasing evidence that deep learning-based methods of environmental sound quantification are more powerful and robust to experimental variation than more traditional acoustic indices. In the latter chapters, I focus on using multichannel acoustic recording for sound-source localisation. Knowing where a sound originated has a range of ecological uses, including counting individuals, locating threats, and monitoring habitat use. While an exciting application of acoustic technology, spatial acoustics has had minimal uptake owing to the expense, impracticality and inaccessibility of equipment. In my third chapter, I introduce MAARU (Multichannel Acoustic Autonomous Recording Unit), a low-cost, easy-to-use and accessible solution to this problem. I explain the software and hardware necessary for spatial recording and show how MAARU can be used to localise the direction of a sound to within ±10˚ accurately. In the fourth chapter, I explore how MAARU devices deployed in the field can be used for enhanced ecosystem monitoring by spatially clustering individuals by calling directions for more accurate abundance approximations and crude species-specific habitat usage monitoring. Most literature on spatial acoustics cites the need for many accurately synced recording devices over an area. This chapter provides the first evidence of advances made with just one recorder. Finally, I conclude this thesis by restating my aims and discussing my success in achieving them. Specifically, in the thesis’ conclusion, I reiterate the contributions made to the field as a direct result of this work and outline some possible development avenues.Open Acces

Towards the development of an organisation development model for the mining industry

D. Litt. et Phil.(Leadership in Performance and Change)The aim of this study was to develop an organisation development model to support organisational change and transformation in a dynamic, continuously changing business environment, specifically for the mining industry in South Africa. Literature revealed that there is a tendency to employ universal and generic models to challenges of organisational change, whereas successful 00 needs a situation specific or contextualised approach. The field of OD reflects a paucity of empirical research, necessitating a greater research competence and more in-depth, robust empirical 00 studies to answer to 'contemporary contextual and environmental challenges. A further call is voiced towards OD to resolve organisational change challenges from a systemic perspective, which has been a central tenet of the field. A number of research participants from a South African company that has been implementing organisational change and transformation interventions in the mining sector, were selected by means of purposive sampling. A modernist qualitative approach with the case study as research strategy was utilised during the development of the model. Various data collection techniques were utilised with grounded theory as a data analysis technique to explore and systematically develop the concepts and categories of the model. Atlas.ti, together with manual coding procedures were utilised to systematically organise and analyse the rich descriptive data. Credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability were ensured by following the guidelines presented in the literature. In the literature study, the sample's narrative was critically contrasted against the established scientific knowledge base of OD, considering specifically taxonomies, models and theories related to the emergent OD model. The resulting model deviates from the established perspectives on OD, in that it reflects a hybrid of several fields of study endeavour. The latter is consistent with a business practice perspective that integrates and deal with a single application domain, compared to a science-informed perspective which conducts research largely within defined (and confined) disciplinary boundaries. The OD model has implications for the mining industry in South Africa, and the development of grounded theory should facilitate the application thereof in future research

Using qualitative methodology in ergonomics: theoretical background and practical examples

Qualitative methodology offers the opportunity for ergonomists to investigate work problems and research questions using context-sensitive tools for data collection and analysis. This is particularly useful in contexts with complex social and cultural dimensions, for example the high level of emotional and intimate personal interactions between staff and patients in the health care industry. Two aims have been achieved in this thesis. The first is to set out a clear process for using qualitative methodology in ergonomics by taking a middle ground position with respect to the background philosophy. A generic process for carrying out qualitative research is described and shown in detail in the two case studies. The ergonomists case study found that there was considerable interest in expanding the ergonomics tool box to include qualitative methodology. However concerns were raised about a perceived lack of knowledge with respect to the process for doing qualitative research. This needs to be addressed by including teaching qualitative methodology in ergonomics courses. The second aim is use qualitative methodology to identify characteristics of hospitals with respect to the practice of ergonomics. Three themes emerged: organisational issues (complexity and size); staff issues (multiplicity of professionals and gender); and patient issues (dirty and emotional work; patient expectations; and life, death and mistakes). These themes were also found in the practical case study on manual handling problems in occupational therapy. This suggests that knowledge of the characteristics of an industry can help the ergonomist to understand the context of the work problem or research question. A final dynamic model of ergonomics is proposed to bring together the internal dimensions of a person (representing physical, cognitive and spiritual levels) and the external dimensions of their interactions at a micro level (e. g. tasks) and at wider organisational and societal levels (macro). This model shows the importance of using qualitative methodology to achieve a more complete understanding of human interactions: the basis of the definition of ergonomics