Automating Land Management: An Analysis of Information Technology Management Challenges at the Bureau og Land Management

Given society’s massive investment in information technology and the potentially catastrophic consequences of information technology (IT) failures, understanding how IT management policies influence IT management practice and, ultimately, organizational success in implementing and employing information technology is becoming increasingly crucial. This paper describes a study that took place in a large government agency and sheds some light on the interaction of IT policy, practice and success (or, in this case, failure). Following an exploratory case-study research design, the study employed both interpretivist- and positivist-oriented perspectives to develop a descriptive model that identifies significant factors influencing levels of policy compliance. The model describes the central roles that organizational culture and knowledge play in mediating the effects of information technology, organizational resources and IT management policies on IT policy compliance, implementation and use. The model reflects study participants\u27 common-sense understanding of how IT policies work and why they sometimes fail to work. While the factors identified in the model may not be surprising, the manner in which they interact provides provocative insights into why organizations often fail to achieve desired levels of policy compliance and how focusing on policy compliance might lead to unanticipated consequences

The International Joint Commission and Great Lakes Diversions: Indirectly Extending the Reach of the Boundary Waters Treaty

The 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty (Treaty) is a model of, international water resources cooperation because it provides a permanent dispute mechanism, the six member International Joint Commission (IJC). Thus, both Canada and the United States have much to celebrate on the 100th anniversary of the Treaty. However, the most interesting aspect of the Treaty is the regime\u27s ability to evolve through state practice beyond its original dispute resolution function, despite the inconsistent support for IJC involvement in transboundary water issues of the United States. The Treaty has been severely criticized by governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), especially in, Canada, for its limitations. Taking the Great Lakes alone, the area is too large and the resource management issues too complex to permit a single governance regime. Nonetheless, the LTC has been able to use the reference process to adapt the spirit of the Treaty to the new resource challenges, primarily environmental, that the Great Lakes face. This Article offers an example of the power of the IJC to overcome the Treaty\u27s limitations by using its status as an international body to constructively influence the development of a new and important Great Lakes-management regime outside of the Treaty framework

Critical study of the managerial selection practices in Malaysian business organisations

An exploratory study was made on the managerial selection practices of Malaysian business organizations. The data for the study was provided by 62 business organizations comprising 22 Malaysian-owned small and medium enterprises, 26 large locally-owned corporation and 14 Malaysian-based multinational companies. Comparisons of the selection practices were made between the two categories of Malaysian local companies; between the Malaysian local companies and the multinationals, and between selection practices of the Malaysian organizations combined with the practices in the developed countries as revealed by management literature. Analysis of the results reveal that generally there were little differences between the selection practices of the different categories of business organizations operating in Malaysia. The Malaysian managerial selection practices resemble the practices in the Western-oriented developed countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. ·when compared to Japan, a developed Asian country, however, an important difference may be identified in the selection policy or strategy. While Japanese corporations seldom hire outsiders for higher level positions and prefer to train their own personnel in preparation for managerial position in the future, Malaysian organizations followed the Western practice of leaving the door open by selecting their managerial personnel from internal sources (through promotions from within the organizations) as well as by selecting and appointing from external sources by inviting applications from outside their organizations. Majority of the Malaysian organizations (both the locally owned and the multinationals) preferred the multiple hurdle approach over the multiple regression approach. A most likely reason is to save both costs and time by shortening the selection process by not proceeding to consider any further those candidates who were considered not to have fulfilled a cutoff point in the sequence of the selection stages. Management literature, however, cautions that the multiple approach might create undesired result if the validity for each predictor has not been properly established. Findings from this research indicated that there were little differences in the use of selection methods between Malaysia and the developed countries. The preferred tools used in Malaysia and developed countries are ir1terviews, resume or curricular vitae, application forms, biodata, recommendations and references. As is the case in the developed countries, the interview is the dominant method used. Malaysian organizations, however seem to use recommendations and references and job tryouts more frequently than do organizations in the developed countries. The assessment centres which have gained much higher degree of popularity and acceptance in the developed countries appear to have a relatively low frequency in Malaysia, if results of the study were to indicate an accurate picture in the country. The results show that while assessment centres were frequently of used by some companies in Malaysia, probably among the larger ones, overall its use has not been as widespread and frequent as in the developed countries. Cultural dimensions or characteristics appear to have no impact on the Malaysian selection practices. This could be due to the fact that in business management and business practices, Western influence had more influence than any indigenous cultural features. Malaysian organizations, however, recognise the importance of cultural differences within the country and between nations to business practices and strategy. This recognition is indicated by the fact that Malaysian organizations made it one of the requirements that managers and managerial candidates have skills and abilities to effectively deal with culture related issues und matters that are of importance to organizational performance. When compared to other requirements of the manager\u27s knowledge, skills and abilities, however, Malaysian organizations place a higher degree of importance to human and technical skills. This implies that the skills of the manager to perform tasks that require his expertise as well as his skill in managing the workforce is considered more important than culture-related skills. The effectiveness of the Malaysian selection practices could not be properly assessed based on an exploratory study of this nature. This would require more in depth study and research

What are the competences in information system required by managers? Curriculum development for management and public administration degrees

[EN] This paper analyzes the competences required by executives to manage information system, and consequently, the competences that must define the information system subjects in non-technical degrees, degrees, such as Public Administration or Business Management. This work reviews the literature about business managers competences on Information Technologies (IT) and compares the theory with the traditional body of knowledge about information systems taught at business schools. By analyzing the executives function, their role in the information system management, and, above, all the importance of their decisions in the effective integration of IT in business processes, this work proposes specific development in seven knowledge areas that facilitate the acquisition of these types of executive competencesDevece Carañana, CA.; Peris-Ortiz, M.; Rueda Armengot, C. (2016). What are the competences in information system required by managers? 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SMEs and Certified Management Standards: The Effect of Motives and Timing on Implementation and Commitment

Existing research on certifiable management standards (CMS) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) tends to focus on large companies and is characterised by disagreement about the role of these standards as drivers of CSR. We contribute to the literature by shifting the analytical focus to the behaviour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that subscribe to multiple CSR related standards. We argue that, in respect of motive and commitment, SMEs are not as different from large companies as the literature suggests, as they are guided by similar institutional and economic motives. Results, based on ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certified SMEs in Greece, demonstrate that later adopters are more susceptible to coercive and mimetic motives and are less likely to commit fully to the CMS requirements, while earlier adopters react to normative motives and considerations of internal efficiency gains and tend to carry out CMS requirements with greater diligence

Organization Development for Social Change

The field of organization development (OD) has emerged from efforts to improve the performance of organizations, largely in the for-profit sector but more recently in the public and not-for-profit sectors as well. This paper examines how OD concepts and tools can be used to solve problems and foster constructive change at the societal level as well. It examines four areas in which OD can make such contributions: (1) strengthening social change-focused organizations, (2) scaling up the impacts of such agencies, (3) creating new inter-organizational systems, and (4) changing contexts that shape the action of actors strategic to social change. It discusses examples and the kinds of change agent roles and interventions that are important for each. Finally, it discusses some implications for organization development intervention, practitioners, and the field at large.This publication is Hauser Center Working Paper No. 25. The Hauser Center Working Paper Series was launched during the summer of 2000. The Series enables the Hauser Center to share with a broad audience important works-in-progress written by Hauser Center scholars and researchers

Professions, Organizations and Institutions: Tenure Systems in Colleges and Universities

A common strategy used by professions to support claims of workplace jurisdiction involves the institutionalization of professionally-endorsed formal structures, yet both theory and research suggest that ensuring the implementation of institutionalized structures after formal adoption can be problematic. This study investigates the influence of organizational characteristics on the implementation of one professionally-created institution in higher education organizations, tenure systems for faculty employment. Our results suggest that implementation of tenure systems is negatively affected by internal resource pressures, but positively affected by countervailing pressures from professionally-linked constituents. The results also suggest self-limiting aspects of the use of tenure systems

A model-driven method for the systematic literature review of qualitative empirical research

This paper explores a model-driven method for systematic literature reviews (SLRs), for use where the empirical studies found in the literature search are based on qualitative research. SLRs are an important component of the evidence-based practice (EBP) paradigm, which is receiving increasing attention in information systems (IS) but has not yet been widely-adopted. We illustrate the model-driven approach to SLRs via an example focused on the use of BPMN (Business Process Modelling Notation) in organizations. We discuss in detail the process followed in using the model-driven SLR method, and show how it is based on a hermeneutic cycle of reading and interpreting, in order to develop and refine a model which synthesizes the research findings of previous qualitative studies. This study can serve as an exemplar for other researchers wishing to carry out model-driven SLRs. We conclude with our reflections on the method and some suggestions for further researc

Choosing how to choose : Institutional pressures affecting the adoption of personnel selection procedures

The gap between science and practice in personnel selection is an ongoing concern of human resource management. This paper takes Oliver´s framework of organizations´ strategic responses to institutional pressures as a basis for outlining the diverse economic and social demands that facilitate or inhibit the application of scientifically recommended selection procedures. Faced with a complex network of multiple requirements, practitioners make more diverse choices in response to any of these pressures than has previously been acknowledged in the scientific literature. Implications for the science-practitioner gap are discussed

Leadership in the shaping and implementation of collaboration agendas: how things happen in a (not quite) joined-up world

This article contributes to the theory if collaboration in social settings and is based on data collected during action research interventions in a number of public and community interorganizational collaborations. We conceptualize leadership in collaborations as stemming from three leadership media - structures, processes, and participants - and argue that none of these is wholly within the control of the members of a collaboration. Leadership activities that participants undertake in order to move a collaborative agenda forward are described