Unleashing the Effectiveness of Process-oriented Information Systems: Problem Analysis, Critical Success Factors, Implications

Process-oriented information systems (IS) aim at the computerized support of business processes. So far, contemporary IS have often fail to meet this goal. To better understand this drawback, to systematically identify its rationales, and to derive critical success factors for business process support, we conducted three empirical studies: an exploratory case study in the automotive domain, an online survey among 79 IT professionals, and another online survey among 70 business process management (BPM) experts. This paper summarizes the findings of these studies, puts them in relation with each other, and uses them to show that "process-orientation" is scarce and "process-awareness" is needed in IS engineering

An evaluation of the total quality management implementation strategy for the advanced solid rocket motor project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

An evaluation of the NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) strategy to implement Total Quality Management (TQM) in the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) Project is presented. The evaluation of the implementation strategy reflected the Civil Service personnel perspective at the project level. The external and internal environments at MSFC were analyzed for their effects on the ASRM TQM strategy. Organizational forms, cultures, management systems, problem solving techniques, and training were assessed for their influence on the implementation strategy. The influence of ASRM's effort was assessed relative to its impact on mature projects as well as future projects at MSFC

Psychological Safety and Norm Clarity in Software Engineering Teams

In the software engineering industry today, companies primarily conduct their work in teams. To increase organizational productivity, it is thus crucial to know the factors that affect team effectiveness. Two team-related concepts that have gained prominence lately are psychological safety and team norms. Still, few studies exist that explore these in a software engineering context. Therefore, with the aim of extending the knowledge of these concepts, we examined if psychological safety and team norm clarity associate positively with software developers' self-assessed team performance and job satisfaction, two important elements of effectiveness. We collected industry survey data from practitioners (N = 217) in 38 development teams working for five different organizations. The result of multiple linear regression analyses indicates that both psychological safety and team norm clarity predict team members' self-assessed performance and job satisfaction. The findings also suggest that clarity of norms is a stronger (30\% and 71\% stronger, respectively) predictor than psychological safety. This research highlights the need to examine, in more detail, the relationship between social norms and software development. The findings of this study could serve as an empirical baseline for such, future work.Comment: Submitted to CHASE'201

Independent Evaluation of the Jim Joseph Foundation's Education Initiative Year 4 Report

Research indicates that well-prepared educators help produce strong learning outcomes for students. For the continued health of Jewish education, higher education institutions should have the capacity to prepare sufficient numbers of highly qualified educators and education leaders for careers in Jewish education. Teachers, division heads, and school heads represent a substantial segment of the educator population in Jewish day schools. More than 5,000 educators enter new positions in Jewish day schools every year and are in need of adequate preparation. The most frequent obstacle to instructional quality in Jewish day schools is the difficulty in recruiting qualified teachers (Ben-Avie & Kress, 2006; Jewish Education Service of North America, 2008; Kidron et al., in press; Krakowski, 2011; Sales, 2007).A similar problem has been observed in supplementary schools in congregational or communal settings. These schools enroll the majority of Jewish children and adolescents receiving a Jewish education in the United States (Wertheimer, 2008). In recent years, congregations have begun to replace traditional educational programs with new approaches that aim to raise the quality of instruction and the level of parent and student satisfaction relative to their programs. These new approaches may include greater integration of experiential Jewish education and community service, family learning, and the integration of all aspects of congregational learning under the leadership of one director (Rechtschaffen, 2011; Sales, Samuel, Koren, & Shain, 2010). High-quality programs that are updated or reconstructed across time to meet the needs of the Jewish community require well-prepared directors and educators. However, many directors and educators in congregational schools have not participated in teacher preparation programs, and the depth of Jewish content knowledge among these teachers is highly variable (Stodolsky, Dorph, & Rosov, 2008)

Involving employees in six sigma

Six sigma is a quality improvement philosophy with systematic and formal approach. In order to successfully implement and utilize six sigma the basic disciplines of it should be adopted by the entire organization. Furthermore, employee involvement is crucial in six sigma implementation. This thesis addresses the challenges of long-lasting involvement in the case company. It focuses on gaps of involving six sigma trained employees, Black Belts. Theoretical framework of the thesis illustrates different factors influencing employee involvement. Influencing factors can be divided into ten categories: organizational culture, managerial commitment, leadership style, employee empowerment, employees’ perceptions, communication, training, goals, performance measurement and incentives. Factors and categories overlap and are related to each other. The framework provides holistic view of employee involvement in six sigma context but can be used also with other quality management philosophies. This thesis was conducted as a case study and written on an assignment to a power and automation technology company. Due to the nature of research problem, the data collection was conducted by interviewing case company personnel. In order to study involvement from employees’ point of view interview questions were designed to be open-ended and to allow the interviewees to tell freely about the phenomenon. This thesis provides empirical support on previous studies in organizational support, management commitment and employee empowerment. In addition, it indicates the importance of separate function for Black Belts in the organization. The gaps in Black Belt involvement can be categorized under two categories: Management driven gaps are related to management commitment, organizational structure and culture and information systems. Black Belt driven gaps are related to practice and effort of using six sigma. This thesis finds solutions for bridging these gaps in the case company by applying findings from literature research and suggestions given by the interviewees. For each gap, actions are suggested for bridging the discrepancy between current and desired situations. The thesis states that in order to embed six sigma in the organization the most crucial gaps, lack of management commitment, six sigma vision and possibilities to use six sigma, should be diminished.siirretty Doriast

The role of cultural value dimensions in relational demography

The Malaysian public sector has undergone various transformations since the Independence. From its custodial role in the newly independent country, the public sector had changed and taken an active role in the country’s economic development. However, since 1980s onwards, the philosophy and techniques of New Public Management (NPM) have been implemented in Malaysia.This again transformed the public sector from being an engine of economic growth to become a facilitator to the private sector and service provider to the public. In line with NPM’s underlying belief of the superiority of businesslike practices, various contemporary management practices and philosophy were implemented in the Malaysian public sector. The implantation of private sector practices in the public sector was enhanced with the introduction a performance measurement system which utilises the use of key performance indicators in 2005. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine and analyse the current improvement programme within the wider public sector reform programmes in Malaysia. The issues and consequences of using key performance indicators in the public sector are discussed. To understand further the reasons and the push for reform, contextual descriptions of the various phases of public sector reform in Malaysia are also discussed in this paper

Integrating internal communications, human resource management and marketing concepts into the new internal marketing philosophy

Successful companies attach great importance to human resource management and internal communications, because they are aware of the value of those activities and of strategic advantage they can bring to the organization. They should also realize that it is necessary to live internal marketing philosophy, if they stream to offer quality products and services to both markets: internal and external. The idea of satisfied employees for the benefit of satisfied customers is accepted and developed by both academicians and practitioners, through the concepts of internal marketing, internal communications and human resource management. Consequently, the paper had two objectives: (1) to analyze concepts of internal marketing (IM), internal communications (IC) and human resource management (HRM) parallelly, and define their scopes, overlaps and differences; and (2) to propose a new internal marketing philosophy that combines three before mentioned concepts. The conclusion that emerged after reaching both objectives was that the new internal marketing philosophy should be grounded in a relationship marketing theory. It should not be limited to neither of three functional areas that are commonly connected to it – internal communications, human resource management or marketing. It is for sure that managing internal relationships should not be restricted to any function, and should not apply traditional marketing concepts and tools. That would ruin the nature of internal relationship marketing, and would not encompass all tasks it should fulfill.internal marketing philosophy, internal marketing, internal communications, human resource management (HRM)