Utilising mindfulness to analyse Agile Global Software Development

As Information Systems Development (ISD) organisations face increasing market demands, ISD strategies such as Agile development and Global Systems Development (GSD) have been employed to help address these demands. With anecdotal evidence pointing to substantially successful implementations, organisations are beginning to embrace the combination of these seemingly orthogonal strategies with beneficial results. However, with the two areas of research still maturing, the bulk of research is made up of anecdotal studies. Utilising mindfulness, a theoretical concept for understanding how organisations can achieve flexibility and reliability, this paper explores how to effectively integrate Agile and GSD methodologies. Incorporating a longitudinal case study, an operationalised mindfulness instrument is applied and triangulated with qualitative data. The findings depict an in-depth analysis of a GSD organisation and provide key contributions for practitioners. Furthermore, theoretical contributions of the paper include: (i) a comprehensive definition of mindfulness that incorporates shared understanding as a key component, and (ii) the development of relationships between the individual mindfulness components

Mindfulness in cooperation and the psychodynamics in high-reliability-organizations

High reliability can be seen as a quality of collective and collaborative work activities which ensure that damages and disasters are avoided. Especially dealing with advanced technologies – like infrastructures of energy or medical supply or information processing – require high reliability since damage can be extensive. According to research conducted by Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe, this particular quality of ‘high reliability’ at work emerges from collaborative activities and dynamics in teams. It is called ‘mindfulness’ which indicates that workers are prepared to notice relevant changes in complex processes and to anticipate risk that will need intervention. However, explanations of mindfulness often refer to the individual mind only. The teams’ capacity to collaborate intellectually remains the question. The theoretical problem consists in determining the relationship between the organizational and the individual plane of development. Therefore, a model to understand the psychodynamics of mindfulness in cooperation is presented and explained in view of the scientification of work. Against this background, societal problems of collaboration within competitive occupational systems or alienated forms of work are revisited

UTILISING MINDFULNESS TO ANALYSE AGILE GLOBAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

As Information Systems Development (ISD) organisations face increasing market demands, ISD strategies such as Agile development and Global Systems Development (GSD) have been employed to help address these demands. With anecdotal evidence pointing to substantially successful implementations, organisations are beginning to embrace the combination of these seemingly orthogonal strategies with beneficial results. However, with the two areas of research still maturing, the bulk of research is made up of anecdotal studies. Utilising mindfulness, a theoretical concept for understanding how organisations can achieve flexibility and reliability, this paper explores how to effectively integrate Agile and GSD methodologies. Incorporating a longitudinal case study, an operationalised mindfulness instrument is applied and triangulated with qualitative data. The findings depict an in-depth analysis of a GSD organisation and provide key contributions for practitioners. Furthermore, theoretical contributions of the paper include: (i) a comprehensive definition of mindfulness that incorporates shared understanding as a key component, and (ii) the development of relationships between the individual mindfulness components

Unexpected Events in Nigerian Construction Projects: A Case of Four Construction Companies

In Nigeria, 50% to 70% of construction projects are delayed due to unexpected events that are linked to lapses in performance, near misses, and surprises. While researchers have theorized on the impact of mindfulness and information systems management (ISM) on unexpected events, information is lacking on how project teams can combine ISM and mindfulness in response to unexpected events in construction projects. The purpose of this case study was to examine how project teams can combine mindfulness with ISM in response to unexpected events during the execution phase of Nigerian construction projects. The framework of High Reliability Theory revealed that unexpected events could be minimized by mindfulness defined by 5 cognitive processes: preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify, sensitivity to operations, commitment to resilience, and deference to expertise. In-depth semi-structured interviews elicited the views of 24 project experts on team behaviors, tactics, and processes for combining mindfulness with ISM. Data analysis was conducted by open coding to identify and reduce data into themes, and axial coding was used to identify and isolate categories. Findings were that project teams could combine mindfulness with ISM in response to unexpected events by integrating effective risk, team, and communication management with appropriate training and technology infrastructure. If policymakers, project clients, and practitioners adopt practices suggested in this study, the implications for social change are that project management practices, organizational learning, and the performance of construction projects may improve, construction wastes may be reduced, and taxpayers may derive optimum benefits from public funds committed to construction projects

A Survey on Trust Management Mechanism for Internet of Things

The Internet is populated with billions of electronic contraptions that have turned into a piece of our texture. Trust administration assumes an essential part in IoT for dependable information combination and reliable information, qualified administrations with setting � mindfulness, and improved client protection and data security.In network arrangement reliable information handling in remote sensor systems is a quickly rising examination theme. In remote sensor arrange calculation is regularly considerably less vitality devouring than correspondence. Reliability of sensor information is most critical part when detecting undertaking done in remote sensor arrange. In this paper we discuss about the trust management mechanism, wireless sensor network, Internet of Things architecture, and also give the literature survey of some papers

The effects of a mindfulness-based program on the incidence of injuries in young male soccer players

We tested the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based program in reducing sport injury incidence. 168 young male elite soccer players were randomly assigned to mindfulness (MG) and control (CG) groups. The MG consisted of 7 sessions based on the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment approach while the CG consisted of 7 presentations on sport injury psychology. Athlete-exposure and injury data were recorded during one season. State and trait mindfulness, sport anxiety, stress, and attention control of participants were assessed. Number of injuries, average of injuries per team, and days lost to injury in the MG weresignificantly lower than in the CG. Mindfulness and attention control werelower and sport anxiety and stress were higher in injured players than innon-injured players. Psychological variables were associated with injury. Mindfulness training may reduce the injury risk of young soccer players due to improved mindfulness and attention control and reduced sport anxiety

Benefits of mindfulness for parenting in mothers of preschoolers in Chile

Indexación: Scopus.The present study evaluated whether mothers' participation in a mindfulness-based intervention led to statistically significant differences in their general levels of stress, depression, anxiety, parental stress, mindful parenting, and mindfulness. Forty-three mothers of preschool-age children participated, 21 in the intervention group and 22 in the comparison group. Scores of mental health variables were within normal ranges before the intervention. All of the participants worked at the Universidad Católica de Chile (Catholic University of Chile), and their children attended university preschool centers. Repeated measured ANOVA analysis were performed considering differences between gain scores of each group, rather than post-treatment group differences. This was chosen in order to approach initial differences in some of the measures (mindfulness, mindful parenting, and stress) probably due to self-selection. As predicted, the intervention group showed a significant reduction in general and parental stress and an increase in mindful parenting and general mindfulness variables when compared with the comparison group. Effect sizes ranged from small to medium, with the highest Cohen's d in stress (general and parental) and mindful parenting. In most cases, the significant change was observed between pre- and post-test measures. Follow-up measures indicated that the effects were maintained after 2 months. © 2018 Corthorn.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01443/ful

Meditation Awareness Training (MAT) for Work-related Wellbeing and Job Performance: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Due to its potential to concurrently improve work-related wellbeing (WRW) and job performance, occupational stakeholders are becoming increasingly interested in the applications of meditation. The present study conducted the first randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of meditation on outcomes relating to both WRW and job performance. Office-based middle-hierarchy managers (n = 152) received an eight-week meditation intervention (Meditation Awareness Training; MAT) or an active control intervention. MAT participants demonstrated significant and sustainable improvements (with strong effect sizes) over control-group participants in levels of work-related stress, job satisfaction, psychological distress, and employer-rated job performance. There are a number of novel implications: (i) meditation can effectuate a perceptual shift in how employees experience their work and psychological environment and may thus constitute a cost-effective WRW intervention, (ii) meditation-based (i.e., present-moment-focussed) working styles may be more effective than goal-based (i.e., future-orientated) working styles, and (iii) meditation may reduce the separation made by employees between their own interests and those of the organizations they work for

Cognitive resilience in Emergency Room operations: A theoretical framework.

System resilience implies practitioners\u2019 capacity to cope with unexpected events, i.e. cognitive resilience. To address it, we outline a framework based on the Skill-Rule-Knowledge model grounding it in the operators\u2019 sensitivity to the variety that normally occurs in complex systems activities. This variety can hide information enabling the organization to be proactive and to manage unexpected events. Each situation can be described with a SRK profile, according to the cognitive processes necessary to control it. Operators\u2019 reliability can therefore be analyzed by evaluating the match between their cognitive SRK profile and that demanded by the current situation. System resilience is ensured by the capacity of operators to: (i) choose the most suitable cognitive level; (ii) freely move along these levels according to the situation; (iii) be mindful towards variety; (iv) transfer their personal mindfulness into group dynamic adaptation. The outcome of these behaviors is a balance of mindfulness (constant attention to anomalous signals) and dynamic adaptation (organizational adjustment of existing rules according to the new information). This continuous equilibrium between chaos and order is the strategy followed by adaptive complex systems in order to evolve and can be successfully applied to high-risk organizations to enhance the emergence of resilient behaviors

Emotional Regulation and Interpersonal Effectiveness as Mechanisms of Change for Treatment Outcomes Within a DBT Program for Adolescents

Predictive modeling was used to identify the degree that hypothesized moderators of dialectical behavioral therapy for adolescents (DBT-A) treatment outcomes predicted anxiety and depression symptoms over time. Participants were 66 adolescents (41 girls; 25 boys) with a mean age of 15.38 years (SD = 1.51) who completed a 7-week DBT-A intervention. Analyses revealed convergent models, wherein emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness were substantial predictors of change in the symptoms of anxiety, F(4, 65) = 23.21, p \u3c .01, R2 = .60, and depression, F(4, 65) = 29.76, p \u3c .01, R2 = .66