TOWARDS IT-SUPPORTED MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES - A DESIGN THEORY BASED ON INTRA-ORGANIZATIONAL WEBLOGS

Management by Objectives (MbO) - invented by Peter Drucker in the 1950s is a leadership approach in which superior managers and subordinate employees jointly define objectives, constantly review achievement-progress and assess final achievements. IT-support for MbO is given within Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) or Employee Performance Management Systems (EPMS). Functions to constantly document achievement-status by employees or asynchronous communication possibilities for objective-discussion are not integrated in these systems. Thus, achievement-discussion has to be done with separate media such as email. Considering this, managers might lose track about achievement-levels and employees likely lose awareness of their objectives. To overcome these problems we interpret this situation from a Principal Agent perspective and conceptualize a specific MbO-tool on a weblog-basis. Within our concept each manager and employee possesses an intra-organizational weblog, in which he/she documents his/her objectives and corresponding status reports. Managers can comment on status reports and delegate sub-objectives via an automatic transfer of objectives from his/her weblog to an employees weblog. Drawing on this, we construct an explanatory design theory for the problems above and for MbO-tools in general. The evaluation by using the Principal Agent theory shows that our approach decreases MbO information asymmetries and increase objective-awareness

A social capital framework to assess ICTs mediated empowerment of environmental community organizations in Western Australia

The potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in empowering generally under-resourced community organizations has increasingly been acknowledged in recent years. While organizational empowerment refers to the capability to fulfil its mission by overcoming resource-scarcities, measuring the contribution of ICTs towards organizational empowerment remains an exigent task. Two different theories, ‘resource dependence’ and ‘social networks’ provide a framework to examine how harnessing social capital leads to organizational empowerment. It is in this context that this work-in-progress paper will explore the implications of ICTs adoption on organizational social capital as a proxy indicator of ICTs mediated empowerment. Based on survey responses from 81 Environmental Community Organizations (ECOs) in Western Australia, the findings indicate: (a) the capability to maintain social capital is strongly correlated with the capability to acquire human and financial capital; (b) the trend of access to ICTs (more than one-tenth ECOs not having an access to the Internet) as well as ICTs adoption (less than one-third and one-tenth ECOs hosting websites and posting blogs respectively) is generally weak; and (c) ICTs tend to benefit ECOs already with higher social capital. Apart from illustrating the usefulness of a social capital framework to gauge ICTs mediated empowerment, the findings also exposed the extent of organizational divide amongst ECOs. This paper therefore acknowledges that access to and adoption of ICTs without the necessary skills and support mechanisms will impede empowerment and suggests ways to make ICTs mediated empowerment genuine

Can environmental governance benefit from an ICT-social capital nexus in civil society?

Although the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to foster social capital in civil society has been duly acknowledged, few studies have empirically explored the ICT-social capital nexus in the context of community organizations. Huysman and Wulf (2004) consider the lack of interest in the area of ‘ICT and social capital’ as worrisome in today’s increasingly network-centric society. Since the prospect of ICT furthering social capital is simply too significant to ignore, this paper responds to this gap by reporting on one aspect of a 2008 survey of environmental community organizations (ECOs) undertaken to develop a broader understanding of the linkages between organizational social capital and information and communication technologies in the Perth region of Western Australia. By exploring the trend of ICT uptake, pattern of intra-organizational as well as inter-organizational interactions, and the association between ICT uptake and organizational interactions, this paper critically engages in the ‘ICT and social capital’ debate and discusses the implications of ICT-social capital nexus in the context of environmental governance

Knowledge Management Goals Revisited – A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Social Software Adoption in Corporate Environments

When it comes to tools serving as knowledge management instruments, social software has gained increasing importance. Whereas corporate social software is almost unanimously recognised to have enabled a fundamental shift in the ways of interacting and communicating within a company, the implementation approaches taken vary a lot from company to company and have not yet been examined in detail. This is also true for the goals set when introducing such tools, as well as for the implementation strategy as a whole. Against this background, we have studied and analysed social software adoption in 23 companies and derived six main goals of corporate social software adoption. These were consequently compared with the goals of knowledge management projects and initiatives, as identified in a series of well-known knowledge management studies. While some of the goals set for the introduction of corporate social software seem to coincide with those resulting from knowledge management studies, some others appear to be new and specific for corporate social software

Computational Sociolinguistics: A Survey

Language is a social phenomenon and variation is inherent to its social nature. Recently, there has been a surge of interest within the computational linguistics (CL) community in the social dimension of language. In this article we present a survey of the emerging field of "Computational Sociolinguistics" that reflects this increased interest. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of CL research on sociolinguistic themes, featuring topics such as the relation between language and social identity, language use in social interaction and multilingual communication. Moreover, we demonstrate the potential for synergy between the research communities involved, by showing how the large-scale data-driven methods that are widely used in CL can complement existing sociolinguistic studies, and how sociolinguistics can inform and challenge the methods and assumptions employed in CL studies. We hope to convey the possible benefits of a closer collaboration between the two communities and conclude with a discussion of open challenges.Comment: To appear in Computational Linguistics. Accepted for publication: 18th February, 201

Free and open source software adoption framework for Swiss small and medium-sized tourist enterprises

The link between IT and the hospitality and tourism industry has been the focus of many research initiatives. As the hospitality and tourism sectors significantly contribute to a nation’s economy, it is imperative that hospitality and tourism enterprises enhance their competitiveness to participate and survive in the global competition. It is common that the tourism and hospitality sector in any economy consists primarily of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In the case of Switzerland, tourism and hospitality is one of the sectors that employs a significant workforce but is mainly comprised of SMEs. Swiss tourism SMEs are under immense pressure to achieve and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. Although information technology (IT) adoption has been strongly advocated for tourism enterprises to ensure their success in the global tourism value chain, tourism SMEs have not been utilising IT solutions in their businesses due to the prohibitive costs and a lack of appropriate information about IT solutions. A special class of IT applications known as free and open source software (F/OSS) is growing in prominence and offers scope to provide viable and affordable solutions for various operational and strategic levels for businesses. F/OSSs are socially developed software solutions that are primarily low cost in comparison to their proprietary counterparts. This thesis argues that, in the context of Swiss tourism SMEs, F/OSS-type applications can provide low-cost and high-quality technological solutions, which could assist in improving their competitiveness. Accordingly, the objective of this study is to create an F/OSS adoption framework, which enables analysis of Swiss SMTEs’ willingness to adopt F/OSS applications in their operations. Based on the level of FOSS development and the potential areas for technology adoption within SMTEs areas as outlined in the previous literature, this study proposes and empirically tests an F/OSS adoption model in the context of Swiss tourism SMEs. The model identifies direct and indirect determinants of FOSS adoption which are moderated by demographic factors (age, gender, education and internet experience). The research design consisted of sampling techniques, questionnaire development, qualitative interviews, and pre- and pilot testing of the survey instrument. In order to test the model, data was collected electronically from 152 cross-sectional participants. The data analysis consisted of descriptive analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of this analysis demonstrated that the predictors of BI to adopt F/OSS explained 23.2 per cent of the variance. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to further validate the research model. In terms of a general F/OSS acceptance model in the context of Swiss SMTEs, based on the findings of the current research, effort expectancy, social influence and community influence are significant determinants of Swiss SMTEs’ behavioural intention towards F/OSS adoption, more than performance expectancy and facilitating conditions. Moreover, the characteristics of Swiss SMTEs and of F/OSS itself could be valid factors influencing the behavioural intentions of Swiss SMTEs. The main contribution of this thesis lies in filling the gap in the research by proposing and testing an F/OSS adoption model that can assess how F/OSS-type applications might be adopted by tourism SMEs. The model contains both direct and indirect determinants of F/OSS adoption. Researchers and practitioners can benefit from the results of this study as it contributes towards our understanding of SMEs’ stance on and intentions to adopt F/OSS

Towards Web 2.0 Schools: Rethinking the Teachers

This paper aims at analyzing the Web 2.0 based distance education in the K-12 schools as an emerging phenomenon that catalyzes a new educational reform all over the world. Some pre-Web 2.0 best practice examples are analyzed in order to draw the main findings in the paper. The teacher’s professional qualification designed to meet the new challenges is considered as a key problem for a successful penetration of this phenomenon in the schools. It is emphasized on the importance of designing a life-long teacher training strategy adapted to the new achievements in the technology enhanced learning research and the new learning theories. Building social skills and competencies appropriate to work in a Web 2.0 based learning environment and other global ‘social software’ is recommended to be included both in the school curricula and the corresponding teacher development curricula. Such skills and competencies should penetrate the curricula of any life-long learning initiative dedicated to the citizens of the information society

E-Learning in the workplace: an annotated bibliography

Provides an overview of the literature relating to e-learning in workplaces in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Summary The key findings of this annotated bibliography are: E-learning can provide flexible learning options for employees and allow them to upskill more rapidly. E-learning in the workplace can decrease the costs of upskilling a workforce through reducing travel and employee time away from work. E-learning is particularly useful for a geographically-dispersed workforce because it can deliver a consistent training experience. The uptake of e-learning in the workplace is increasing. Many New Zealand firms have the systems and infrastructure to support e-learning, but often lack the capability to implement it successfully. To overcome design inadequacies in e-learning courses, new skills and personnel are required in the teams charged with developing and delivering it. Firms need to have strategies and plans in place to support their e-learning which integrate or align with their overall plans and strategies. Support by managers for  e-learning in the workplace (including allocating sufficient time for it) is critical to success. Large organisations are more likely to adopt e-learning than small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because they have better infrastructure and systems and can more readily achieve economies of scale and return on investment. SMEs can form collaborative networks to share knowledge, resources, and expertise to overcome the cost and relevance barriers they face when implementing e-learning. E-learning is most often used in workplaces to supplement traditional delivery (blended learning). Blended learning can contribute to significant gains in learner achievement. The focus in workplace e-learning has moved from ‘courses’ to learning content that is available to employees as and when needed. E-learning is more effective when people can access it in small ‘chunks’, reflect on it, and then apply it immediately. E-learning supports informal learning in the workplace because it makes it easier to codify information and knowledge and make this available to the organisation and its external stakeholders. The most common technologies and systems used to support workplace e-learning are learning management systems, video, mobile devices, social networking tools, wikis, weblogs, simulations/virtual reality, CD-ROMs, and DVDs. Some of the main barriers to implementing e-learning in the workplace are: high up-front costs that include new and/or upgraded systems, training the trainers, and developing interactive and/or personalised content employee resistance to e-learning organisations not having an appropriate learning culture in place lack of management support adopting technologies and systems that are difficult to use and access, are unreliable, and/or lack technical support employees and trainers lacking the skills and capabilities to teach and learn in e-learning environments irrelevance to real-time work tasks and not integrated with business processes

The eLIDA CAMEL model of collaborative partnership: a community of practice in design for learning

Using a communities of practice (CoP) e-learning model for collaborative partnership in Design for Learning (D4L) can facilitate successful innovation while enabling ongoing 'critical friend' appraisals of effective practice. This paper reports on 21 e-learning case studies collected by the JISC-funded UK eLIDA CAMEL Design for Learning Project. The project implemented and evaluated learning design (LD) tools in higher and further education within the JISC Design for Learning pedagogic e-learning programme in 2006-07. Project partners carried out user evaluations on innovative tools with a learning design functionality, collecting design for learning case studies and LD sequences in a range of post-16/HE contexts using LAMS and Moodle. The project brought together learning activity sequences from post-16/HE partners into a collaborative e-learning community of practice based on the CAMEL (Collaborative Approaches to the Management of e-Learning) model, contributing to international developments in design for learning. This paper briefly provides an overview of the key project outputs in terms of their contribution to e-learning innovations, including evaluation results from teachers and students using online surveys. The paper explores intentionality in the development of a community of practice in design for learning, reporting on trials of learning design and social software in bridging tensions between formalised intra-institutional e-learning relationships and inter-institutional project team dynamic D4L practitioner development. Following a brief report of practitioner D4L e-learning case studies and student feedback, the catalytic role of the 'critical friend' is highlighted and recommended as a key ingredient in the successful development of a nomadic model of communities of practice in the management of e-learning projects. eLIDA CAMEL Partners included the Association of Learning Technology (ALT), JISC infoNet, three universities and five FE/Sixth Form Colleges. Results reported to the UK JISC Experts' Pedagogy Group demonstrated e-learning innovations by practitioners in D4L case studies, illuminated by the role of the 'critical friend', Professor Mark Stiles of Staffordshire University. The project also benefited from case study evaluations by Dr Liz Masterman of Oxford University Learning Technologies Group and the leading work of ALT and JISC infoNet in the development of the CAMEL model

Success factors in knowledge sharing behaviour among student bloggers

The aim of this research is to identify which factors may enable to Malaysian undergraduate students in sharing their knowledge successfully. Each university has their own method of delivering knowledge to their undergraduates, but occasionally there is still a need to meet the requirements of students and this has not been achieved.The research question is: what is the criterion enforce knowledge sharing behaviour successful among Malaysian undergraduate students in Universiti Utara Malaysia.From the research question, it lead to form the aim of this research in identify the success factors for effective knowledge sharing behaviour among selected Malaysian undergraduate students in Universiti Utara Malaysia.This research is initiated with an introduction to knowledge.The importance of knowledge to humans and also its connection with this research is the focus to begin with