Usability Specialists as Boundary Spanners – An Appraisal of Usability Specialists’ Work in Multiparty Distributed Open Source Software Development Effort

Part 12: Learning and Knowledge-SharingInternational audienceThis study examines the work of usability specialists in a multiparty research project producing an open source learning application for children, with children. Children as a user group has been acknowledged decades ago and methods for involving them have been devised, but there is a lack of research examining what happens to children’s input in practice, when integrated with actual development. The paper contrasts the empirical findings with the existing research on the usability specialists’ roles and with the knowledge management literature on boundary spanning, which argues that for successful knowledge sharing and arriving at shared understandings there needs to emerge boundary spanners and boundary objects and a new joint field of practice within which the experts involved can collaborate. This paper argues for the boundary spanner position to be acquired by usability specialists. Instances of successful boundary spanning are described and conditions for successful boundary spanning are discussed

An Ethnographic Study of Trust, Distance, Control, Culture and Boundary Spanning within Offshore Outsourcing of IT Services

This PhD dissertation is an ethnographic field study of the collaboration between Berlingske Media, one of the leading media companies in Denmark, and their Indian IT service provider, HCL – one of the largest IT service providers worldwide. The dissertation studies the day-to-day operational collaboration between actors from the client organization and the vendor organization in order to understand how vendor-side actors, as individuals and as a collective, can be constructed as trustworthy collaborators in the eyes of the client-side actors. While trust is the theoretical epicenter of this thesis it is, in acknowledgement of the contextual and dynamic nature of trust, subjected to an interdisciplinary analytical framework. Thus, the four analytical chapters in Part II introduce four different factors that influence the client-side actors’ perceptions of vendor-side actors’ trustworthiness: distance, control, culture and boundary spanning. The analytical conclusions are summarized in Part III of the dissertation. Based on these analytical conclusions a number of practice-oriented suggestions on how the client-side actors’ perceptions of the vendor-side’s trustworthiness can be improved are presented and discussed. Furthermore, the theoretical implications are presented and discussed

Searching For Unity: Achieving Coordinated and Effective Management of Large-Scale Disruptive Events.

The coordinated and effective management of major disruptive events requires the collaboration of highly trained cadres of emergency services professionals, known in the public safety vernacular as unified command teams. Confronted by complex, dynamic, confusing, time sensitive and dangerous environments, they must make their decisions under rapidly evolving conditions. The consequences of inadequate incident command can be devastating on the lives and fortunes of those affected by major disruptive events. Yet finding the formula for efficacious emergency management is complicated by the disjointed configuration of public safety agencies throughout the United States, and compounded by the ad hoc nature of these multidisciplinary command teams, which are often assembled quickly from among disparate groups of public safety agencies. This research strives to develop an understanding of the small group processes which guide the work of unified command teams by investigating the following elements: • The impediments and facilitators of command team formation and collaboration. • Mechanisms of leadership emergence and the characteristics of effective team leaders. • The architecture of incident scene communications and information systems. • The processes utilized by small problem solving teams as they make decisions under uncertainty. Emergency response has been addressed by scholars mostly at the macro-level, focusing on national or international disasters. By studying emergency management on a regional basis, this research helps to fill a gap in the current literature. Utilizing a grounded, mixed methods approach, the bulk of the primary evidence is gathered through 75 semi-structured interviews with experienced incident commanders. Modeling and simulation are also utilized to explore methods of decision support for command teams during complex emergency operations. The field study area consists of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, a region with a disparate aggregation of over 450 public safety agencies. The ultimate goal of this study is to suggest actions to enhance the effectiveness of emergency management during major emergency events. Accordingly, the key policy recommendation of this research is for the development of permanently established, professionally trained unified command teams that can provide large-scale incident management support to local municipalities throughout the region

Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Coastal and Ocean Management

Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Coastal and Ocean Management presents a wealth of knowledge that enhances current best practices to achieve more effective communication and use of marine environmental information. Useful to all major groups in the policy-making process, from senior policy- and decision-makers to practitioners in coastal and ocean management, it helps to increase understanding of catalysts and barriers to communicating research findings. It also serves as a starting point for further research and progress in efficient marine environment management

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia

Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area. Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust, design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future study direction is provided. Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia

The drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility in the supply chain. A case study.

Purpose: The paper studies the way in which a SME integrates CSR into its corporate strategy, the practices it puts in place and how its CSR strategies reflect on its suppliers and customers relations. Methodology/Research limitations: A qualitative case study methodology is used. The use of a single case study limits the generalizing capacity of these findings. Findings: The entrepreneur’s ethical beliefs and value system play a fundamental role in shaping sustainable corporate strategy. Furthermore, the type of competitive strategy selected based on innovation, quality and responsibility clearly emerges both in terms of well defined management procedures and supply chain relations as a whole aimed at involving partners in the process of sustainable innovation. Originality/value: The paper presents a SME that has devised an original innovative business model. The study pivots on the issues of innovation and eco-sustainability in a context of drivers for CRS and business ethics. These values are considered fundamental at International level; the United Nations has declared 2011 the “International Year of Forestry”

The 7th Annual Conference on "Relooking at Development, Value for Money and Public Service Delivery"

The fire services are a salient contestation which are often overlooked by the Social Science scholars. The Department of Cooperative Governance has ultimately promulgated a White Paper on fire services in May 2020. This study therefore aims to review and examine the legislation with a purpose of traversing the intricacies entrenched within the fire landscape. The review and analysis of policies have the potential to analyse the realities and the misnomer which are a perfect avenue to create dialogue. The theoretical framework of manipulation and elitism are employed for attributing meaning towards the study perspectives for practicality and simplicity. The paper follows a systematic procedure of reviewing documents, and policies to elicit information as a methodology adopted for the study. Gaps identified in the White Paper are uncovered and fully discussed. The content was studied, contextualised, and synthesised intellectually to derive meaning on all the aspects. It is the contention of this paper to attribute meaning to policy improvement in the fire services with a consequential contribution to the world of science for sustainable development.University of South AfricaDevelopment Studie

Suffolk University Academic Catalog and Student Handbook, College of Arts and Sciences and Sawyer Business School, 2020-2021

This catalog contains information for both the undergraduate and graduate programs. The student handbook is included here as a separate pdf document. Please contact the Archives if you need assistance navigating this catalog or finding information on policies, degree requirements, or course descriptions.https://dc.suffolk.edu/cassbs-catalogs/1182/thumbnail.jp