UNDERSTANDING THE RATIONALE BEHIND TACTICAL SYSTEMS INTEGRATION PROJECT INITIATIONS AND PATTERNS IN THEIR IMPLEMENTATION APPROACHES

Although the importance of adopting a strategic approach for integration of various internal and external systems in an enterprise has been well advocated, several organizations have been adopting tactical approaches that focus on short-term solutions to integrate relatively a small set of systems. This paper presents the details of an exploratory study aimed at investigating the drivers of such tactical systems integration approaches; expected benefits as perceived by senior IT executives involved in those integration projects; and commonly employed implementation approaches. Data, collected from structured interviews, related to 42 systems integration projects in 12 organizations in Hong Kong was analyzed in this study. Findings from this analysis highlight three different types of implementation foci that link systems integration initiatives with anticipated benefits. These findings are expected to contribute to a better understanding of the rationale behind small-scale tactical systems integration project initiations and the associated patterns in approaches to systems integration project implementations

Opportunities for communication in integrated settings: young deaf children

The integration of deaf children into mainstream schools was heralded by the 1981 Education Act, but has been dogged by conflict about the appropriateness of two dominant approaches to communication. The oral/aural approach, most often followed, is concerned with teaching deaf children to learn to listen and listen to learn. The emphasis has been on the need to 'normalize' deaf children in order to promote their learning and development. The manual/visual approach has focused on sign usage to promote a child's development as a communicator and learner and can be tailored to the child's prospective membership of Deaf/deaf and hearing cultures. The aim of this study is to explore both the oral/aural and the manual/visual approach in relation to young deaf children's experiences of integration. Rather than focusing on modality specific aspects of communication, this study examines the wide range of both resources and strategies deaf children have for interaction in a variety of educational environments, using modality independent tools. This permits a broader examination of deaf children's opportunities for communication in integrated settings than has previously been undertaken. The research involved detailed analysis of direct observation data collected in nursery and reception classes over a period of eighteen months, during which time the experiences of a group of deaf children and matched hearing peers were compared and contrasted. It is argued that the preoccupations of professionals, and their purposes in promoting particular approaches to language and communication need to be challenged if deaf children are not to be disabled by oppressive practices in the name of integration. It is recommended that further research should aim to advance inclusive and empowering education for deaf children through more adequately recognizing the contribution of Deaf/deaf people to processes of enquiry

Alignment of Partnering with Construction IT

Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) are seen as innovations that can manage complexities in construction by focusing on integrating processes and products respectively. Whereas these two innovations have been considered compatible, their practical combination has been mainly anecdotal. The Netherlands was the locale of this study, where both SCM and BIM have been popular approaches. The research objective is to explore their real-world combination and propose strategies for the alignment of SCM and BIM, by viewing Supply Chain (SC) partnering as the inter-organisational proxy of SCM. The main question is: “How to align the SCM philosophy with BIM technologies to achieve integration in the construction industry? What aspects contribute to this alignment?”. The methodology was mixed and both qualitative and quantitative data were analysed. The overarching method was case study research and the unit of analysis was the firm, also referred to as ‘actor’.After a semi-chronological review of the relevant literature, the two constructs of SCM and BIM were found interdependent in product-, process-, and actor-related (P/P/A) dimensions. The study consisted of four other consecutive studies. First, empirical insights into the practical implementation of SC partnering and BIM were obtained via the exploration of five cases. Second, a conceptual model for the quantitative analysis of the product-, process-, and actor-related dimensions was designed. Third, this model and mixed methods were applied to two polar (extreme) cases to analyse the contractual (typically SC-related), digital (typically BIM-related), and informal interactions among the involved actors. Fourth, an additional theoretical exploration of the BIM-enabled SC partnerships took place with focusing also on intra-organisational relations within the involved firms. After the four studies, the findings were systematically combined to create the theoretical synthesis, i.e. generate theory. Three consecutive steps of ‘construct’, ‘internal’, and ‘external’ validity took place after the synthesis, to define the transferability of findings. The systematic combination of findings deduced two routes to achieve SC integration in construction: (a) product-related (emphasis on BIM tools), and (b) actor-related (emphasis on SCM philosophy).The two observed routes to SC integration emerged from the data of the polar cases. Two complementary sets of strategies for SC integration were derived afterwards. These strategies could ease the identification of which route is the ‘closest fit’ to SC integration, and then support the decision-making of how to pursue it. As the concept of BIM is currently a hot topic, it might be wise to undertake a ‘product-related’ route to integration and gradually introduce strategies from the ‘actor-related’ route. However, the ‘actor-related’ route could attain long-term integration and thus, long-lasting relations among the multi-actor networks. The key aspects of the alignment of partnering with construction IT for BIM-enabled SC partnerships are: - The identification of whether the SC complexity is of process-, product- or actor-related nature; - The deployed BIM collaboration patterns, i.e. ad-hoc, linear or distributed; - The SC coordination mechanisms, e.g. centralised or decentralised; - The relation between formal and informal aspects, e.g. symmetric or asymmetric; - The emerging intra-organisational relations due to BIM and SCM implementation; - The hierarchical level that BIM-enabled SC partnership decision-making pertains. As the construction industry evolves into an information-driven sector, the alignment of construction IT with inter-organisational management is preeminent for managing the inherent complexities of the industry. In parallel, embracing inter-organisational approaches for information management such as BIM is a promisingway forward for SCM and construction management

Alignment of Partnering with Construction IT: Exploration and Synthesis of network strategies to integrate BIM-enabled Supply Chains

Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) are seen as innovations that can manage complexities in construction by focusing on integrating processes and products respectively. Whereas these two innovations have been considered compatible, their practical combi-nation has been mainly anecdotal. The Netherlands was the locale of this study, where both SCM and BIM have been popular approaches. The research objective is to explore their real-world combination and propose strategies for the alignment of SCM and BIM, by viewing Supply Chain (SC) partnering as the inter-organisational proxy of SCM. The main question is: “How to align the SCM philosophy with BIM technologies to achieve integration in the construction industry? What aspects contribute to this alignment?â€. The methodology was mixed and both qualitative and quantitative data were analysed. The overarching method was case study research and the unit of analysis was the firm, also referred to as ‘actor’. After a semi-chronological review of the relevant literature, the two constructs of SCM and BIM were found interdependent in product-, process-, and actor-related (P/P/A) dimensions. The study consisted of four other consecutive studies. First, empirical insights into the practical implementation of SC partnering and BIM were obtained via the exploration of five cases. Second, a conceptual model for the quantitative analysis of the product-, process-, and actor-related dimensions was designed. Third, this model and mixed methods were applied to two polar (ex-treme) cases to analyse the contractual (typically SC-related), digital (typically BIM-related), and informal interactions among the involved actors. Fourth, an additional theoretical exploration of the BIM-enabled SC partnerships took place with focusing also on intra-organisational relations within the involved firms. After the four studies, the findings were systematically combined to cre-ate the theoretical synthesis, i.e. generate theory. Three consecutive steps of ‘construct’, ‘internal’, and ‘external’ validity took place after the synthesis, to define the transferability of findings. The systematic combination of findings deduced two routes to achieve SC integration in construction: (a) product-related (emphasis on BIM tools), and (b) actor-related (emphasis on SCM philosophy). The two observed routes to SC integration emerged from the data of the polar cases. Two com-plementary sets of strategies for SC integration were derived afterwards. These strategies could ease the identification of which route is the ‘closest fit’ to SC integration, and then support the decision-making of how to pursue it. As the concept of BIM is currently a hot topic, it might be wise to undertake a ‘product-related’ route to integration and gradually introduce strategies from the ‘actor-related’ route. However, the ‘actor-related’ route could attain long-term integration and thus, long-lasting relations among the multi-actor networks. The key aspects of the alignment of partnering with construction IT for BIM-enabled SC partnerships are: - The identification of whether the SC complexity is of process-, product- or actor-related nature;- The deployed BIM collaboration patterns, i.e. ad-hoc, linear or distributed;- The SC coordination mechanisms, e.g. centralised or decentralised;- The relation between formal and informal aspects, e.g. symmetric or asymmetric;- The emerging intra-organisational relations due to BIM and SCM implementation;- The hierarchical level that BIM-enabled SC partnership decision-making pertains. As the construction industry evolves into an information-driven sector, the alignment of construc-tion IT with inter-organisational management is preeminent for managing the inherent com-plexities of the industry. In parallel, embracing inter-organisational approaches for information management such as BIM is a promisingway forward for SCM and construction management

Cruising Into Conflict: A Mixed Methods Examination of Cruise Missile Possession and the Initiation of Military Force

This research examines the effect of cruise missile possession on state behavior. Specifically, it seeks to determine if countries who possess cruise missiles are more likely to initiate a military threat, display, or use of force than countries who do not possess cruise missiles. Traditional International Relations theory suggests that, all else being equal, a state with an asymmetrical military advantage should enjoy concessions from target states, decreasing the likelihood of armed conflict. Accordingly, coercion theory warns the use of armed force to change adversarial behavior should be exercised sparingly. However, this dissertation finds that states possessing cruise missile initiate armed force at twice the rate of states who do not possess cruise missiles and are significantly more likely overall to initiate a militarized interstate dispute or crisis. These conclusions suggest these weapons provide a qualitatively unique capability that makes armed force an attractive coercive option at lower levels of conflict. As more states seek to fill defense gaps and counter major power military capabilities, cruise missiles continue to proliferate, lending urgency to an understanding of their effects on conflict initiation short of war. Using a mixed method approach, this research provides a systematic empirical analysis, using an original dataset of cruise missile possession created specifically for this project, to measure changes in state behavior. Additionally, I present two explanatory case studies, to illustrate coercive cruise missile use, focusing on the 1982 Falkland Conflict and the use of cruise missiles as a coercive tool by the United States in the 1990s. This research may have profound implications for both international relations scholars and policy makers. The results demonstrate that cruise missiles increase the likelihood of using military threats, displays, and uses of force regardless of regime type. More research may be needed to understand the impact of technology on coercive strategy, while policy makers may choose to call for more robust controls on the spread of cruise missile technology. Advisor: Ross A. Mille

Researching British university sport initiations

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The study of sport initiations is in its infancy. So far, the North American-centric research has focussed on ‘exposing and condemning’ morally unacceptable initiation activities, which are referred to as hazing. Hazing moral panics in North America has resulted in universities utilising sport initiation empirical research to construct anti-hazing policies; policies proven to be ineffective in banning sport initiations. The purpose of this research is to address some of the gaps in the knowledge of sport initiations. A two stage ethnographic research approach was utilised to collect information on British university sport initiations. An international student embedded himself as a student-athlete within a British university to learn the cultural meanings of a foreign sport culture and to possess an emic perspective. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with key policy actors possessing differing organisational cultural perspectives (differentiational and fragmentational), specifically university staff and sport - rugby union, football, and track and field - club members from multiple higher education institutions. The researcher’s ethnographic confessional tale of his experience as a self-funded international student is combined with the data from interviewee participants to construct British university sport initiations as a resistance research topic.This study is part-funded by The National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers (NOTA)

Interorganisational collaboration in the public sector

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The research applies the contextual context, content, and process (CCP) framework to explore the contextual and processual factors that are associated with implementing interorganisational collaborative arrangements in the public sector. Collaborative arrangements in the public sector are found to be complex, difficult to implement, and liable to failure when not fully explored and recognised. Background theory reveals the absence of a multilevel lens that can embrace the multifaceted nature of interorganisational collaborations, the multiple contextual levels, the process stages and micro-actions, and the interplay between the process and the context. By identifying the need to explore contextual and processual factors, the background theory informs the focal theory which proposes an extended CCP framework as a useful multilevel lens to elucidate the research problem. The framework is developed and validated through multidisciplinary literature synthesisation, the pilot stage, and the main fieldwork which applies qualitative methods based on multiple case studies from the public sector in Oman as data sources’ techniques. The originality of this study stemming from developing and validating a novel multilevel contextual framework. The emerged multifaceted CCP framework, used to explore contextual and processual factors when implementing collaborative arrangements in the public sector, is found to be an applicable, feasible, and useful analysis tool. It can help public policy-makers, public management, academics, change agents, and collaborating organisations in identifying the inhibitive, supportive prerequisites, and in general influencing contextual factors. It helps also in elucidating and minimising uncertainty about the nature and micro-actions of the processual stages

Key Performance Indicators\u27 Effects on Public Sector Infrastructure Project Efficiency in Grenada

Grenada is 1 of 15 developing countries in Caribbean Community known as CARICOM. The infrastructure capital projects in these developing countries are plagued with an array of issues: unethical practices, inadequate supervision, lack of transparency and accountability, inadequate monitoring and evaluation, cost overruns, and inefficiencies. In the 1980s and 1990s, the International Monitory Fund and World Bank introduced a balanced scorecard engineered under the structural adjustment program, but it was unable to improve infrastructure project efficiencies. This qualitative case study sought to understand the role of management key performance indicators (KPIs) on public sector infrastructure capital project efficiency on the island of Grenada. An institutional assessment and development framework and a classical management theoretical framework methodology were used to explore the effects of management KPIs on public sector infrastructure capital projects efficiencies in developing countries. The research incorporated a constructivist philosophy that underpins the evaluation and perception of the government, the National Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA), project teams, systems, and stakeholders. A purposive sampling strategy with elements of snowballing was used to obtain 12 representative participants for interviews, and a systematic approach of transcribing, coding, and thematic analysis was done. Findings indicate inadequacies in the BSC performance measure system on infrastructure projects, which justifies the use of comprehensive management KPIs. Positive social change implications of this study include recommendations for comprehensive management KPIs and policies to improve public sector infrastructure project efficiency in Grenada

Alcohol, transitions and the University 'Bubble':a qualitative case study

Summary. Drinking behaviour in the UK population continues to be of topical interest with ongoing references to a drinking culture consistent in the British media. This is despite an overall fall in drinking patterns across the UK reported by public health sources in recent years. ‘Heavy drinking’1 in universities has been suggested as a normative social behaviour and there are a number of studies that describe this in large scale descriptive studies of patterns of drinking and trends in morbidity and mortality. However, longitudinal, qualitative case studies which explore the interpretations of drinking in the social context of a university across different courses are limited. Design and methodology. This is a longitudinal, instrumental case study which followed a cohort of undergraduate students through their time at university with multiple data collection points across three years from 2012 to 2015. In depth interviews with a variety of stakeholders and other methods were triangulated to explore the nature of drinking behaviour over time at one university. Participants from a range of courses were recruited and individual and focus group interviews were conducted, recorded and transcribed. QSR NVivo software was used to collect, organise and code data and thematic analysis was utilised to explore the findings Key Findings: - There is an enduring perception at the Case University that heavy drinking is an expected student behaviour. - Participants felt ‘safe’ at the Case University to drink heavily because it was transient and they said they would not continue with that behaviour once they started work (the ‘bubble’ effect). - For younger students, (18-24-year-olds), the motivation for drinking alcohol changed over three years from ‘having fun’ and ‘partying’ in the first year to ‘relieving stress’ and ‘relaxing’ in the third year. - The Student Union (SU) body and some academic staff appeared complicit in the normalisation of drinking at the Case University. - Some young people ‘pretended’ to drink in order to achieve a sense of belonging to their peer group. - Non-drinkers felt uncomfortable in the SU bar and avoided that social space, reporting that there was particular pressure to drink in that environment. Key Recommendations - There needs to be a move towards changing the cultural expectations that heavy drinking is a key feature of student life at the Case University. - A culture of inclusivity at the Case University is needed to accommodate those who choose not to drink or drink in moderation. - Considerations of how the Case University promotes drinking in the setting and how risk is managed is important

Inside outsourcing: A grounded theory of relationship formation within a nascent service system

The theory of relationship formation developed in this study tells a coherent story about the relational work of service initiation in technology outsourcing. The study is focused on the contractually defined period of time at the beginning of outsourcing service delivery. As with a play-within-a-play, this work goes on primarily behind the scenes, away from the concurrent task of launching the inter-firm relationship between the client and the provider that will extend for the term of the full contract. This grounded theory study was completed over an eight-month period. The findings are grounded in interviews with 25 individuals who were actively involved in the work of service initiation. Additionally, data sources included extensive observation and access to documents and other artifacts. Data analysis was completed with the analytic processes of dimensional and situational analysis. The situational analysis describes five continuously shifting aspects of the situation that create the context, or supporting structure, for relationship formation. The dimensional analysis builds from the situational analysis to describe four deeply interrelated dimensions: (1) Helping, (2) Veiling / unVeiling, (3) Having Expectation, and (4) Responding to Turbulence. The study then presents a conceptual model of a grounded theory of relationship. It is through the enactment of this total model that relationship formation can be recognized as a vehicle for accomplishing work. An understanding that relationship formation depends on a way of recognizing and honoring the power of relationships and the role they play in supporting the everyday tasks of service initiation emerged from this work. As a result, this study does not strive to define relationship as one thing or even a group of things. Instead, it proposes a conceptual model through which relationships are formed and can be recognized as such. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible at the OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu