Ontology-based knowledge management for technology intensive industries

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Enterprise modelling framework for dynamic and complex business environment: socio-technical systems perspective

The modern business environment is characterised by dynamism and ambiguity. The causes include global economic change, rapid change requirements, shortened development life cycles and the increasing complexity of information technology and information systems (IT/IS). However, enterprises have been seen as socio-technical systems. The dynamic complex business environment cannot be understood without intensive modelling and simulation. Nevertheless, there is no single description of reality, which has been seen as relative to its context and point of view. Human perception is considered an important determinant for the subjectivist view of reality. Many scholars working in the socio-technical systems and enterprise modelling domains have conceived the holistic sociotechnical systems analysis and design possible using a limited number of procedural and modelling approaches. For instance, the ETHICS and Human-centred design approaches of socio-technical analysis and design, goal-oriented and process-oriented modelling of enterprise modelling perspectives, and the Zachman and DoDAF enterprise architecture frameworks all have limitations that can be improved upon, which have been significantly explained in this thesis. [Continues.

Sustainability Strategies for Small Business Restaurant Owners

Half of new businesses in the United States cease to exist after the first 5 years of operations, and the failure rate continues to increase after the first 10 years. The study was grounded on von Bertalanffy\u27s systems theory to explore business strategies that small business restaurant owners use to sustain their business beyond 5 years. Data were collected by engaging 3 small restaurant business owners in the Little Rock, Arkansas metropolis who sustained their business beyond 5 years. Information obtained from face-to-face interviews and data mining organizational document were analyzed with the support of qualitative software to generate themes. Data analysis included semistructured interviews and review of business documents using data mining and coding keywords for thematic analysis. A total of 5 themes were discovered from the findings, which included formal and informal training, customer relationship, startup resources, capacity building, and consistent quality of food and services. The social change implications of the study include identifying strategies to sustain small restaurant business to create more jobs for local residents, which can positively impact the economic viability of the Little Rock area

IT-gestütztes Compliance Management für Geschäftsprozesse

Die Einhaltung regulatorischer Anforderungen und interner Richtlinien ist zunehmend kritisch für den Unternehmenserfolg geworden. In dieser Arbeit wird ein Ansatz vorgestellt, der eine effiziente Compliance-Prüfung von Geschäftsprozessen basierend auf den in standardisierten Ereignisprotokollen aufgezeichneten Ereignisdaten ermöglicht. Neben einer Referenzimplementierung des Ansatzes werden eine Erweiterung für ein Geschäftsprozessmanagementwerkzeug sowie ein webbasiertes Dashboard entwickelt

The effect of institutional perspective on safety climate through a mediating role of governance practice

Bangladesh has encountered several ready-made garments manufacturing (RMG) industry disasters leading to the loss of valuable human lives due to the factory owner’s tendency to cut corners on safety. In 2013, the safety issue came into the limelight when Rana Plaza took less than 90 seconds to crumble with the workers inside, killing more than 1,100 and injuring more than 2,500 people. The sudden breakdown of Rana Plaza fetched home the much-needed attention, persuading different institutions to offer corrective steps which can rectify hazardous situations in thousands of factories. Nonetheless, irrespective of various institutions’ making effort to improve the safety situation, much remains to be done to ensure industrial safety behaviour and compliance. Recently, Accord Bangladesh Quarterly Report (2018: 3) acknowledged that while making an improvement, “major life-threatening safety concerns remain outstanding in too many factories and need to be fixed urgently”. Hence, crucial questions need to be explored: To what extent do institutional perspectives improve organisational safety behaviours? Whether governance mechanism can force organisations to commit and ensure workers safety? While a considerable attention has been paid to the institutional perspectives, existing literature is fragmented and disconnected with safety climate and performance measures. Therefore, this study examines institutional impacts on changing organisational safety climate and its performance, through the mediating role of governance practice. The survey results of 256 RMG workers from128 garments factories in Bangladesh with a usable response rate of 72.31% and satisfactory indices (e.g. Chi-square x2/df=1.620, RMR=.012, SRMR=.051, RMSEA=.049, CFI=.982, IFI=.983) demonstrate each component of safety climate is significantly associated with at least two institutional perspectives. This study suggests that regulations and laws only provide procedural instructions and guidance rather than definitive protocols. While norms and culturally established standards are decisive to the establishment of safety practices. Additionally, making organisations more accountable and/or obedient towards lawful practices can guarantee management’s commitment to safety and create a compulsion to pledge safety practices. Furthermore, accountable and ethical organisational behaviours motivate workers to actively participate in safety activities that ultimately result in fewer accidents and injuries. Interestingly, the study found that culturally established norm of safety is perceived as taken-for-granted by the workers, which refrain them from participating in voluntary safety activities. In general, establishing organisational safety climate can be considered as a socialised activity that is much contingent on the institutional pressures to comply with specific requirements and the organisational intention to uphold their legitimacy. The findings shed light on the way in which different types of institutional influence could be better exercised to facilitate safety improvement; reconditioning and reinforcing government policy can resolve sporadic safety climate level of the industry. While the study has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding, it also arises several questions that need further investigations. Finally, further research is needed to determine the impact of improvement mechanisms on workplace safety performance, such as how workplace design, safety training programmes, and institutional enforcement policies protect the well-being of workers

Business process resource networks: a multi-theoretical study of continuous organisational transformation

Drawing on multiple theoretical lenses, this research studies continuous transformation, or ‘morphing’, of a business process resource network (BPRN). The aim is to further our understanding of continuous organisational change at the lowest levels of analysis within an organisation: that is, at the resource level, and that resource’s relationships to other resources as they exist within a BPRN. Data was gathered from a single, in depth case study. Analysis was achieved by means of mapping BPRN evolution using ‘temporal bracketing’, ‘visual’ and ‘narrative’ approaches (Langley, 1999). The analysis revealed two mechanisms that appear to govern microstate morphing: bond strength and stakeholder expectation. In addition, four factors emerged as important: environmental turbulence, timing and timeliness of changes, concurrency of changes, and enduring business logic. An emergent model of microstate morphing which acknowledges the importance of socio-materiality in actor network morphogenesis (ANM) is presented. This study shows how effective relationships and configuration of resources within the BPRN can be achieved to facilitate timely, purposeful morphing. Five propositions are offered from the emergent ANM model. Specifically, these relate to the conditional operating parameters and the identified generative mechanisms for continuous organisational transformation within the BPRN. Implications for practice are significant. A heuristic discussion guide containing a series of questions framed around the ANM model to highlight the challenges of microstate morphing for practitioners is proposed. Two routes for future research are suggested: replication studies, and quantifying BPRN change in relation to an organisation’s environment using a ii survey instrument and inferential statistical analysis based on the ANM model features and propositions

Authentic alignment : toward an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) informed model of the learning environment in health professions education

It is well established that the goals of education can only be achieved through the constructive alignment of instruction, learning and assessment. There is a gap in research interpreting the lived experiences of stakeholders within the UK learning environment toward understanding the real impact – authenticity – of curricular alignment. This investigation uses a critical realist framework to explore the emergent quality of authenticity as a function of alignment.This project deals broadly with alignment of anatomy pedagogy within UK undergraduate medical education. The thread of alignment is woven through four aims: 1) to understand the alignment of anatomy within the medical curriculum via the relationships of its stakeholders; 2) to explore the apparent complexity of the learning environment (LE); 3) to generate a critical evaluation of the methodology, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis as an approach appropriate for realist research in the complex fields of medical and health professions education; 4) to propose a functional, authentic model of the learning environment.Findings indicate that the complexity and uncertainty inherent in the LE can be reflected in spatiotemporal models. Findings meet the thesis aims, suggesting: 1) the alignment of anatomy within the medical curriculum is complex and forms a multiplicity of perspectives; 2) this complexity is ripe for phenomenological exploration; 3) IPA is particularly suitable for realist research exploring complexity in HPE; 4) Authentic Alignment theory offers a spatiotemporal model of the complex HPE learning environment:the T-icosa