Insights from Industry Leaders: A Maturity Model for Strengthening Communication Measurement and Evaluation

Much scholarship has been devoted to identifying barriers that prevent the advancement of communication measurement and evaluation. This research focuses on the characteristics, objectives, and practices of chief communication officers (CCOs) with successful measurement and evaluation programs. Three key dimensions of practice emerged from in-depth interviews: communication executives’ measurement practices and evaluation programs were used to adjust communication strategies; were aligned with other business units; and were integrated with business priority plans. Interviewees also focused on the ability of communication measurement practices and evaluation programs to provide insights for executives, to align communication with the work of other business units, and to connect the organization with the outside environment and stakeholders. This study extends strategic communication scholarship by discussing how overcoming barriers and advancing measurement and evaluation work relates to roles adopted by organizational leaders. This article also offers a preliminary, scalable maturity model that aids in the development, formalization, and optimization of strategic communication measurement and evaluation. This study demonstrates the capacity for communication evaluation to overcome perceived barriers, realize appropriate stature with organizations, and grow communication functions accordingly

Data-Informed Leadership in Education

Explores ideas, frameworks, and beliefs concerning the use of data in educational decision making and in the work of leaders at state and local levels as it relates to the improvement of teaching and learning

Poverty Eradication Dilemma: Understanding Poverty Dynamics in Nebbi District, Uganda

This paper addresses a current methodological gap in poverty measurement, which stems from acknowledging the multi-dimensionality of poverty, on the one hand, and using an income/consumption measurement of poverty as thenorm, on the other

New Trends regarding the Operational Risks in Financial Sector

Risks, especially "operational risks" are part of corporate life, they are the essence of financial institutions' activities. Operational risks are complex and often interlinked and have to be managed properly. Today, there is more pressure to avoid operational risks while continuing to improve corporate performance in the new environment. The operational risk management of the future has to be seen in the wider context of globalization and Internet-related technologies. The two major future drivers - globalization and Internet-related technologies - will challenge the firms from financial sector to take on additional and partly new operational risk.operational risk, financial sector, models, trends

Big data for monitoring educational systems

This report considers “how advances in big data are likely to transform the context and methodology of monitoring educational systems within a long-term perspective (10-30 years) and impact the evidence based policy development in the sector”, big data are “large amounts of different types of data produced with high velocity from a high number of various types of sources.” Five independent experts were commissioned by Ecorys, responding to themes of: students' privacy, educational equity and efficiency, student tracking, assessment and skills. The experts were asked to consider the “macro perspective on governance on educational systems at all levels from primary, secondary education and tertiary – the latter covering all aspects of tertiary from further, to higher, and to VET”, prioritising primary and secondary levels of education

Two pawns in their game - Inventory and customer efficiency

This thesis examines efficiency in the retail industry in two different directions. In the first setting, the link between inventory efficiency and performance is examined in relation to firm characteristics and exogenous explanatory variables. More specifically, in addition to general firm-specific characteristics, the effects of chain affiliation and time trends within retail chains is examined. The effects of business environment factors on inventory turnover are examined on the basis of geographic location and market conditions. In the customer efficiency setting, efficiency is studied by observing customers’ in-store behaviours to identify how specific customer characteristics in general, and the use of in-store carrying equipment in particular, are associated with shopper efficiency. These two avenues for detecting important retail efficiency metrics are examined in three individual research papers. The papers empirically demonstrate two different perspectives on efficiency that are important for retailers to be aware of. From this customer and retailer perspective, several dilemmas exist that have been only partly covered in the three papers. This dissertation aims to discuss some of these dilemmas and to demonstrate some of the dualities that exist in the intricate interconnection between the customer and the retailer in the pursuit of efficiency. Overall, the thesis offers new insights, makes significant contributions to the literature and to retail practice in terms of the complex topic of retailer logistical performance and customer efficiency and develops a better understanding of some tenets of eminent and sustainable brick and mortar retailing

Beyond Panoptic Surveillance: On the Ethical Dilemmas of the Connected Workplace

Technological advances such as the Internet-of-Things, big data, and artificial intelligence have enabled new ways of managerial oversight moving away from panoptic surveillance to what we call “connected surveillance”. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of connected surveillance which purpose is not only scruitizing employees’ work performance but also health, personal beliefs, and other private matters. With the implementation of connected workplaces, therefore, various ethical dilemmas arise. We highlight four emerging dilemmas, namely: (1) the good of the individual versus the good of the community, (2) ownership versus information disclosure, (3) justice versus mercy, and (4) truth versus loyalty. We discuss those ethical dilemmas for the case of corporate wellness programs which is frequently used as guise to introduce connected surveillance. Following a socio-technical perspective, we discuss ethical responses that focus on people involvement and technology assessment. We also highlight practical responses that can aim at mitigating the dilemmas

Beyond panoptic surveillance: On the ethical dilemmas of the connected workplace

Technological advances such as the Internet-of-Things, big data, and artificial intelligence have enabled new ways of managerial oversight moving away from panoptic surveillance to what we call “connected surveillance”. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of connected surveillance, which purpose is not only scrutinizing employees’ work performance, but also health, personal beliefs, and other private matters. With the implementation of connected workplaces, therefore, various ethical dilemmas arise. We highlight four emerging dilemmas, namely: (1) the good of the individual versus the good of the community, (2) ownership versus information disclosure, (3) justice versus mercy, and (4) truth versus loyalty. We discuss those ethical dilemmas for the case of corporate wellness programs which is frequently being used as guise to introduce connected surveillance. Following a socio-technical perspective, we discuss ethical responses that focus on people involvement and technology assessment. We highlight practical responses that can aim at mitigating the dilemmas