The Relationship Between Psychological Ownership and IT-Driven Value

The concept of psychological ownership is employed in order to enhance our understanding of the relationship between users and information technology professionals and to describe the IT/business process relationship. We use co-ownership to signify a complementary relationship in which users are involved in IT while IT professionals are simultaneously involved in business processes. In an initial study, interviews at four organizations suggest that co-ownership explains information systems’ success and top-rated returns from IT investments. In a second study, we are developing a measure of co-ownership and testing its effect on IT value and performance through a large-scale survey

Human factors and cultural influences in implementing agile philosophy and agility in global software development

As software becomes increasingly important to all aspects of industry, developers should be encouraged to adopt best practice and hence improve the quality of the processes used, and achieve targets relating to time, budget and quality. In the software industry, several software methodologies have been used to address software development problems; however some of these processes may be too bureaucratic. The Agile Alliance formed in 2001, sought to address this problem; accordingly, they developed a manifesto and twelve principles, to which all agile software methods adhere. The purpose of the manifesto and its principles is to uncover better ways of developing software. Agile software development methods seem to address the software development industry’s need for more agile processes that are responsive to changes during software development. Agile values and principles require a major cultural change for software managers, e.g. collective team responsibility and self-organisation, especially in large organisations with a strong culture of planning and centralised power. In large global organisations, this issue is likely to be exacerbated by cultural diversity. The objective of this thesis is to analyse the possibility, of using agile methods or practices in different cultures, and study what changes are required, to adapt agile approaches to different global application development issues. The study found that certain agile practices can be useful in different cultures and some practices required major cultural adaptation. A study of suitable practices for different cultures such as Australia, India and the United Kingdom and the associated suggested changes required are the main areas of study. Human factors have been identified by researchers and practitioners to impact on software development projects. Similarly, cultural differences may also be influential in a global market. The principles of agile software development focus on iterative adaptation and improvement of the activities of individual software development teams to increase effectiveness. This research programme focused specifically on national culture based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Hall’s cultural dimensions and the relationships between different aspects of national culture and the implementation of agile methods. To investigate this aspect of software development, a set of cultural dimensions and consolidated cultural agile attributes were developed, that are considered necessary for implementing agile methods. Based on relevancy, cultural dimensions such as Individualism/Collectivism, Power distance index, Uncertainty avoidance index, Time and Context were selected and studied. Some of cultural agile attributes studied include Transparency, Dedicated team, Decision making, Tolerance for change, Time keeping and Authoritative. This set was identified from a literature review on culture for agile methods, a detailed analysis of relevant commonly used agile methods and from feedback from agile experts. This thesis involves qualitative interviews conducted in Australia, India, and the UK using an interpretive paradigm and aims to identify cultural dimensions to implement agile methods in the software engineering community. The results of this research programme provide an analytical comparative framework for implementing agile methods in different cultures, and insight into how cultural differences may affect a software project and how these challenges can be addressed through agile principles

The role of communication in enterprise system implementation

The research efforts up to date have not been directed towards the study of the role of communication during an implementation of an enterprise system. However, some efforts are noted which stress communication as a critical factor and a problem in general during the implementation. During the scoping phase of this research, communication was proved to be of significance as a process in the realisation of embedding of an enterprise system into the business. Considering the complexity of an implementation of a system and consequently the complexity of its study, the research method based on processual approach was developed to enable a better understanding of the dynamics of this process. Three case studies have been conducted with the focus on the understanding of the role and significance of communication. They included interviews with the employees involved in the project or affected by the new system: project managers, top managers, system specialists, and users. The findings focus on the elements important to realise the communication process: communication strategy, management activities such as announcements, motivation to communicate, resources such as time, how informed the people who are involved are, communication across the project, communication structure and process, facilitators as people who enable the communication process, and communication about the technical issues. Special focus was on the effect of communication on the transfer of psychological ownership of the system, concerns about change and employee commitment. Additionally, several themes are found to affect communication. These are: organisational structure, team cohesion and trust. The role of communication confirms that all the parties need to use the same language to enable common understanding. The communication process is found to have direct and indirect influence on development of common organisational goals, positive attitude towards the new system, and embedding of the new system in current organisational functioning.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Impact of the Alignment Between Information Systems and Marketing on Business Performance

The purpose of this research was to determine the impact of the strategic alignment between information systems (IS) and marketing on business performance. The work of Chan (1992) was used as a point of departure. She had explored the fit between IS and business strategies and had used strategic orientation as a basis for determining the fit (alignment). Although the marketing literature did not reveal any measure for alignment, measures existed for market orientation. This appeared to be the approximate marketing equivalent of strategic orientation. Given the strategic nature of market orientation, it was decided to use it in addition to strategic orientation in order to calculate alignment. It was also decided to use marketing performance as an intermediary dependent variable. A conceptual model was devised which could be applied to the assessment of alignment according to either strategic orientation or market orientation. It consisted of three constructs: alignment, marketing performance and business performance. Implicit in this model was the calculation of alignment based either on strategic orientation or on market orientation. Two versions of the model would thus be tested. A mixed methods approach was adopted for the research. First, a qualitative phase of interviews with 36 respondents (the heads of information technology (IT)/IS and the heads of marketing of 18 companies) was conducted. The purpose was to obtain a deeper understanding of perceptions of alignment between IS and marketing, and to ascertain the different measures used for marketing performance and business performance. The findings served to refine the conceptual model and inform the second phase survey. The second phase was quantitative and consisted of a mail survey of heads of IT and heads of marketing of large New Zealand companies. In total 415 responses were received, 350 of them being pairs from 175 companies. Pairs of responses were a requirement for the calculation of alignment. A new formula was developed for the calculation. This was used to calculate alignment according to both strategic orientation and market orientation. The data collected in the second phase were used to test the model, using both factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Statistically significant evidence was provided that indicated that the alignment between IS and marketing exerts a positive impact on both business performance and marketing performance, and that marketing performance exerts a positive impact on business performance. This is so, irrespective of whether alignment is calculated according to strategic orientation or market orientation. The value of the research lies in the development of a parsimonious model which measures the alignment between IS and marketing and the impact of that on business performance. It also lies in the development of a robust formula for the calculation of alignment. It further demonstrates the value of a cross-disciplinary approach which could have significant implications for both academic research and for practitioners. The potential impact on companies consists of the breaking down of the silo mentality; an emphasis on cross-functional teamwork, cross-functional training and job rotation; and an impact on organizational structure and culture