Specifying Value in GRL for Guiding BPMN Activities Prioritization

In a value-based requirements engineering approach, the stakeholders’ value propositions must be considered ahead in order to prioritize which requirements will be developed first to drive the software development activities. Early requirements approaches like the Goal- Oriented Requirements Language (GRL) focuses on modeling goals, tasks, contributions, and dependencies in order to satisfy the stakeholders’ needs, but do not provide a mechanism to specify value according to stakeholders’ value propositions. Moreover, in software development, after specifying value propositions, there is a need to align goal elements into business process elements in order to prioritize which business process activity is going to be developed next. Thus, we propose a new approach (value@GRL) to improve GRL and prioritize Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) activities. Value@GRL provides guidelines for specifying value in GRL models according to the stakeholders’ needs and prioritization mechanisms to define BPMN activities\u27 order in an incremental software development

Learning Freedom: A Journey in Training

This Training Course-linked Capstone (CLC) integrates learning related to experiential learning theory, engaged pedagogy, emergent learning, and the nature of consciousness, with relevant experience gained throughout my reflective practice phases at SIT Graduate Institute, toward my development as a trainer. This CLC is intended to serve as an exploratory window into the fundamental grounding for my approach to training, and the journey of my growth in applying theoretical principles in practice. It is rooted in my personal experiences with self-oppression and liberation, which I investigate in order to better understand the relationship between those two concepts, as well as their relevance on a personal level and as a trainer. The theories and published works I reference are mainly drawn from ICHR 5410 Training of Trainers: Ethics and ICHR 5025 Training Design in Experiential Learning (TDEL), which I experienced during the on-campus phase at SIT Graduate Institute. The majority of my insights are derived from reflective self-analysis, which has taken place throughout the past year-and-a-half, during my Reflective Practice phase and beyond, in developing my own professional practice over the past year. The theories and practices discussed in this paper are connected to the work of training as the practice of freedom

A LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVE ON FAMILY ENGAGEMENT: QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SECONDARY DATA

The purpose of the study was to explore the leadership actions and activities that contributed to the implementation of a schoolwide family engagement initiative in a school. A qualitative content analysis of secondary data design was used to investigate the intentional actions and activities of a school leadership team during the implementation of a family engagement initiative within an elementary school. The Coherence Framework (Fullan & Quinn, 2016) provided a lens for which to investigate schoolwide change across drivers and sub-drivers. The findings of this study describe intentional leadership actions and activities when communicating with families, conducting formal assessments, and facilitating professional development. Patterns from the analysis indicate school leaders engage in intentional leadership actions and activities across all drivers and sub-drivers within the Coherence Framework (Fullan & Quinn, 2016). Family engagement practices are driven by core beliefs and consideration of the establishment of collective efficacy within the Coherence Framework may better support implementation of school change within family engagement implementation

Bridging the Gap Between Organisational Needs and ERP Functionality

International audienceWe argue that ERP installations are difficult to align to specific requirements of the enterprise because of the low level at which ERP functionality is described. We raise this level from a functional description to a goal-oriented one. We use SAP R/3 to illustrate this. A SAP goal expresses the task that a SAP function carries out and abstracts away from the performance of this task. Since a SAP goal can be achieved in many ways, we introduce the notion of SAP strategies. We organise goals and strategies as a directed graph called a map. We illustrate the map with the Materials Management Module of SAP. In order to evaluate and compare the use of the map with the functional approach, we develop an evaluation framework. The evaluation and comparison is presented. The materials management map is then used to align the SAP module to the stores and purchase department of an academic institute

Owed Work Ahead: Public Service Motivation, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Deconstruction of Davis-Bacon Noncompliance in Transportation Contracting

Noncompliance with the Davis-Bacon Act (1931)—the accidental or intentional disregard of a federal prevailing wage law—is among the most unethical crimes committed against a business’s own workforce. With the threat of sanctions unpersuasive to preventing fraud, a more forbearing eye may be required to understand the understudied construction companies pressed to ‘serve two masters’ in public-private partnerships. This dissertation uses nested data from 26,903 highway and bridge construction- and construction-adjacent firms, funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and contracted by 28 state Departments of Transportation between 2010-2019, to answer the overall question: do firms that feel like government comply with government? This data is used to perform a macro-level (national) negative binominal regression determining the scope and impact of Davis-Bacon noncompliance on vulnerable (i.e., female and minority) workers, revealing how unstandardized data collection methodologies risk worker discrimination by wage theft, especially those identifying as Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native Hawaiian; a meso-level (organizational) qualitative content analysis of 4,580 of these contractors’ online mission statements with corporate social responsibility (CSR) and public service motivation (PSM) principles, identifying underexplored mutual solutions; and finally, a micro-level (individual) survey deploying Perry’s (1996) four-dimension, 24 Likert-item scale among 160 of these firms’ employees using a logistic regression model, isolating an unexpected relationship between employees’ Other-regarding sympathy and their firms’ compliance status. The findings presented bring the humdrum concept of “compliance” to life by illustrating its direct effects on the lives of vulnerable workers; establish how PSM is presented and measured—or isn’t—by traditional research methods; connect public service to protecting the public interest through compliant behavior; and offer ways in which all parties in public-private partnerships can prevent the 92 year-old Davis-Bacon Act from circling back to its controversial origins, putting an end to a woeful paradox in which vulnerable workers build the infrastructure system whose upkeep marginalizes them

Inclusive Leadership\u27s Evolving Context: Organizational Climate and Culture Connect

Conventional forms of leadership that are prominent in organizational life today are seemingly antithetical to the landscape of our dynamic, global society. The continued focus on traditional hierarchies with leadership that functions in a “chain of command” manner begs the question of how organizations can reshape routines and relationships to reflect processes of inclusion and collaboration that have the capability of provoking progressive change in organizations. Diversity and Inclusion scholars have identified the newer construct of inclusive leadership as apt to advance climates and cultures of inclusion through social processes that encourage inclusive practices and behaviors. These fluid aspects of inclusive leadership strengthen how organizations foster the engagement of organizational members across groups, functions, and/or levels to stimulate change within work settings. While scholars have ascertained the necessity of expanding our knowledge of the inclusion construct by examining inclusion in more depth, inclusive leadership remains an anomaly as it positions leadership as a collective, social process. The complexities associated with research in this area were instrumental in my choice to pursue an exploratory critical (single) case study with grounded theory for this dissertation research to better understand the social processes associated with inclusive leadership within a contained work environment. This multiple method qualitative study utilized intensive interviewing, field observations, and document reviews to explore inclusive leadership in a K-12 school district. Thematic, content, and dimensional analyses elicited findings associated with human connection, change, and evolving contexts associated with inclusive systems. The overlapping case study and grounded theory findings served as the basis for the development of an inclusive leadership model. The research provided empirical evidence of inclusive leadership’s effect on organizational climates and cultures eliciting four theoretical propositions that expand scholarship in the areas inclusive leadership, inclusive practices and behaviors, and climates and cultures of inclusion. Recommendations for future research invite further exploration of inclusive leadership with inquiry across multiple organizations and/or different sectors with the use of different research designs to build on this study’s findings. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.ed

Digital Inclusion in Detroit, Michigan: A Study of Community Leadership, Network Building, and Possibility of Closing the Digital Divide

The digital divide is described by technology experts and scholars as the disparity between digitally literate individuals with access to broadband internet and internet communications technologies (ICTs) and those who do not have access to ICTs nor possess digital skills. Approximately 19 million Americans, 6 percent of the population, are without reliable internet service. In Detroit, Michigan, approximately 40 percent of city residents live without an at home internet connection making it the most digitally disconnected city in the United States. Economic, social, and political factors have contributed to this high number of disconnected residents. Any resident affected by digital inequities faces daily challenges in accessing and navigating simple services. These inequities impact a Detroit resident's ability to find employment to provide for their family, a student's ability to complete a homework assignment, and an older citizen's ability to access healthcare services and pay their bills. Affected residents also miss out on being part of the political conversation. The digital divide can impact a resident's ability to access news, research political candidates, and register to vote for the first time. The digital divide must be understood as a spectrum, it is not binary. It is complex, manifested by a history of inequalities between countries, nations, and communities. Solutions in this space require a great deal of organizational collaboration, data gathering, and local expertise. Scholarly research has highlighted that grassroots efforts usually catalyze the solutions in this space, and local community nonprofits know the impacts for those most affected intimately and accurately. However, there is a scarcity of published academic work on the digital divide in Detroit particularly assessing the needs and work of residents and community leaders. We still don't know how these local change makers working in nonprofits, public sectors, and academia are viewing the digital divide. There is not much data on how they interact with one another or if their needs and behaviors share patterns. Lastly, we don't know how these stakeholders measure their success. This research seeks to begin to answer these questions using a primarily qualitative approach. I focus this work on local leadership in the non-profit and public sectors in Detroit. Based on qualitative research and secondary data collection through 8 interviews with community leaders, my research provides insight into how these leaders of the digital inclusion and equity efforts in Detroit see the current state of the digital divide, what they are doing about it, and what they believe they need to successfully reach their goals. These findings provide insights to what future collaborative efforts and relationships might look like as well as highlights suggestions and next steps for this work to continue.Master of Science in InformationSchool of Informationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/168556/1/20201105_Lang,Brittany_Final_MTOP_Thesis.pd

Addressing the equity gap in California community colleges’ transfer pathways: a transfer center guide for supporting underrepresented student success

California Community Colleges (CCC) are integral in ensuring student enrollment, persistence, and subsequent higher education degree attainment. As one of the most affordable institutions of learning, community colleges symbolize access to various degree and certificate completion options, transfer opportunities, vocation and remedial education, as well as workforce training. However, a high percentage of students, especially from underrepresented backgrounds, systematically falls short of the set institutional guidelines and do not complete a degree or transfer within the expected timeframes. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the effective strategies utilized by CCC transfer center directors (TCDs) for supporting underrepresented student transfer efforts. Several dimensions of the transfer process were examined through an equity lens, including institutional and individual factors, as well as policy implications in the established transfer center functions. The interviews conducted with study participants revealed the challenges and opportunities associated with facilitating transfer efforts on-campus and revealed best practices for new practitioners coming into the field. Some of the main themes that emerge, such as lack of awareness regarding available resources, negative self-perception, and financial implications can act as perceived and real barriers in the pursuit of transfer success. Providing holistic support programs and comprehensive services in terms of transfer exploration and preparation can greatly mitigate these roadblocks, especially for underrepresented community college students