Information systems and technology: a scientific area oriented to the knowledge needs of professionals involved in the continuous transformation of organizations through information technology

Tecnologias e sistemas de informação é a área científica de enquadramento para aqueles que se interessam, académica ou profissionalmente, pela adopção e exploração de tecnologias da informação no contexto das organizações ou da sociedade. É uma área que emergiu como consequência da importância que as TI tem vindo a assumir nas actividades humanas que envolvem alguma forma de processamento de informação. Dada a sua forte interligação com outras áreas, as suas fronteiras são de difícil delimitação. As actividades dos profissionais de TSI e as suas necessidades de conhecimento são usadas neste artigo como critério para definir o âmbito da área científica. Assim, após uma caracterização das actividades profissionais de TSI, são apresentados os grandes grupos que constituem o corpo de conhecimento da área e são apresentados os principais métodos de I&D usados na produção de novo conhecimento cientificamente válido.Information systems and technology (IST) is the scientific area of reference for those interested, academic or professionally, in the adoption and exploitation of information technology within organizations or society. IST emerged as a consequence of the importance that IT has assumed in human activities that involve some form of information processing. Given its strong association with other areas, its boundaries are difficult to define. The activities of IST professionals and their knowledge needs are used in this article as the criteria to define the scope of the IST scientific area. So, after a characterization of the professional activities of IST, we present the major components of the body of knowledge and the main R&D methods used in the production of new scientifically valid knowledge in the area

Validation criteria for the outcomes of design research

Design research can be described as a form of research that involves the design of some human creation or artefact. These artefacts are designed for some purpose, i.e., they aim at responding to some human necessity, either existing or foreseen. Although these artefacts are inescapable in design research, the actual outcome of design research is knowledge about the artefacts. The knowledge resulting from design research is named knowledge-for-a-purpose. It is contrasted with knowledge-for-understanding, the knowledge resulting from other forms of research. The article addresses the validity of knowledge-for-a-purpose. Four elements for such validity are presented, namely: success of the corresponding artefacts, generality, novelty and explanation capability. In order to attempt to clarify the view underlying the article, design research and its outcomes are contrasted with several other concepts that are common in the design research discourse: design activity, design science, and design science research.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Research and practice in IS: insights from medicine that might contribute to overcoming the relevance deficit in the IS domain

During the ICIS 2018 conference, in San Francisco, two interesting panels addressed themes related to the recurrent debate within the IS domain about the relevance of IS research. One panel - Seeking Public Intellectuals in the Information Systems Discipline: Towards an Impact and Engagement Agenda - discussed the influence (or lack of) of the IS research community on public policies and on public opinion in what concerns problems that affect the society. The other panel - the Senior Scholar Panel - focused on the relationship between IS research and IS professional practice. The perception, by IS academics, that IS research is of little relevance for IS practitioners was addressed once more. These are two different dimensions of the relevance of IS research. Both are important to a pivotal domain in the modern society that creates scholarly knowledge crucial to understanding, influencing and leading the transformations that society is undergoing. Those dimensions are also critical if IS seeks to become a “vibrant, socially relevant and influential” domain as recently mentioned by Hassam and Mathiassen [1]. This article focuses on the relationship between IS research and IS professional practice. I share the view of those that consider that the IS domain encompasses both, an academic facet and a practical facet. The two facets are interdependent and demand forms of collaboration between academics and practitioners that are only perceptible within an overarching view of scientific knowledge and of its production and use. This article aims at proposing such a view. A main feature of the proposed view is that it involves distinguishing among different types of scientific knowledge and different modes of doing research. In particular, it involves emphasizing a form of research that is overlooked in IS - clinical research. Insights from the medicine domain are used to illustrate the place of clinical research and its role in connecting researchers and practitioners

WATER AS AN ANSWER TO WELLNESS AND WELFARE - MORE THAN A LIFE STYLE

In 2014, almost half of the customers who have chosen to use the, were aged between 36 and 65 years (25,300/p) and 29% between 16 and 35 years (15,200/p). This type associated with new dilemmas, which affect individuals in nowadays societies, always in search of more welfare, when human aspirations have no boundaries, diseases assume facets that are not always easy to identify (Carvalho,A. et al). This increasing development has a great importance at social level. The Portuguese Spa demand has been growing. Proposal – The impact of this kind of development in social culture. This research aims to analyse - How this impact call for new social restructuring forms and styles of life, but also cover other environments and cultures capable to provide access to more time and leisure. Methodology - Data were obtained inside two SPA’s that belongs to public administration (town hall), as public service (Caldas de Aregos and S. Pedro do Sul) and also from the profound review of literature. It is an important bridge between quantitative and qualitative research methods. We also used an exploratory data analysis. An exploratory analysis is used to find ideas for a theory, but not to test that theory as well. Data analysis and results – The Thermalism in SPA and Welfare way achieved in 2014-2015 56% representation (13% in 2004). Nevertheless it tends to grow more and more. The welfare is the first reason for the customers loyalty. With 51,900 costumers this segment reported an advance compared to the year 2013, 8.3% (+4.0 thousand). Compared to 2013 with 41,500 customers users (44%) classic Hydrotherapy decreased the recent years.(-10.6% less 4,900 customers). The income from those two segments of hydrotherapy (classic and welfare) reached 11.7 million euros, which resulted in a decrease of 10.6%, equivalent to less 1.4 million euros, in 2013. (Turismo de Portugal, 2015). Conclusions - It should be noted that this kind of tourism has been increasing, and also increasing demand, which contributed to improved incoming results for tourism sector. Our proposal was achieved and the data provided were important. Although we don´t have good information available. Summarizing, the level of experience and operation was satisfactory, and certainly that is a very important theme that must be analysed. We found that Spa’s and hydrotherapy are increasingly inserted in Portuguese society, in all age groups. We need to analyse our results more clearly and develop more researches in this important area.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Business and technology integrated model

There is a growing interest in business modeling and architecture in the areas of management and information systems. One of the issues in the area is the lack of integration between the modeling techniques that are employed to support business development and those used for technology modeling. This paper proposes a modeling approach that is capable of integrating the modeling of the business and of the technology. By depicting the business model, the organization structure and the technology architecture, it can contribute to improve existing development practices.(undefined

As tecnologias de informação e a construção de realidades de trabalho inovadoras

As aplicações das Tecnologias de Informação (TI) são normalmente usadas para apoiar aspectos estruturais da organização, tais como missão, estratégia, objectivos, tarefas, processos, responsabilidades, coordenação e controlo das actividades, partilha de recursos, níveis de gestão, tomada de decisão, etc. Acredita-se que estes são aspectos objectivamente identificáveis e, portanto, podem ser analisados e medidos. Por esta razão são objecto de estudo preferencial quando se trata de adoptar ferramentas para resolver problemas organizacionais. No entanto, a complexidade dos processos organizacionais, e a importância da experiência individual e das interacções humanas no condicionamento das percepções tem vindo a realçar a necessidade de considerar uma maior diversidade de aspectos organizacionais bem como estruturar o processo de adopção das aplicações das TI por forma a facilitar a dinâmica própria dos processos de transformação. Na continuação desta tendência, este artigo apresenta e analisa um caso de inovação do ambiente de trabalho suportada pela utilização de uma aplicação das TI. A utilização da aplicação estava a ser efectuada de forma implícita e sem o apoio formal da gestão de topo. O gradual desenvolvimento daquela aplicação era liderado por um agente organizacional com grande influência carismática. A transformação de conceitos e práticas de trabalho era orientada por interesses pessoais e de grupo. O sucesso das transformações pretendidas dependia do sucesso das movimentações políticas levadas a cabo pelo líder no processo. No final, a transformação revelou-se bem sucedida em termos políticos tendo, no entanto, o seu líder optado por introduzir poucas alterações nas práticas de trabalho geralmente consideradas como insatisfatórias. O artigo termina realçando a importância de considerar que as realidades de trabalho têm uma natureza multi-dimensional, pelo que é útil considerar os aspectos estruturais, sociais, políticos e simbólicos quando se pretende fazer a adopção de uma aplicação das TI que introduza alterações relevantes nas práticas e conceitos de trabalho. É ainda realçado que as realidades de trabalho estão constantemente sujeitas à acção combinada de processos sociais de transformação, muitas vezes a decorrer a um nível implícito e sem que os agentes organizacionais que os sustentam tenham plena consciência dos efeitos da sua própria acção. Assim, torna-se cada vez mais importante que as aplicações das TI possuam uma estrutura suficientemente flexível para se poder adaptar a essas transformações

WATER AS AN ANSWER TO WELLNESS AND WELFARE - MORE THAN A LIFE STYLE

In 2014, almost half of the customers who have chosen to use the, were aged between 36 and 65 years (25,300/p) and 29% between 16 and 35 years (15,200/p). This type associated with new dilemmas, which affect individuals in nowadays societies, always in search of more welfare, when human aspirations have no boundaries, diseases assume facets that are not always easy to identify (Carvalho,A. et al). This increasing development has a great importance at social level. The Portuguese Spa demand has been growing. Proposal – The impact of this kind of development in social culture. This research aims to analyse - How this impact call for new social restructuring forms and styles of life, but also cover other environments and cultures capable to provide access to more time and leisure. Methodology - Data were obtained inside two SPA’s that belongs to public administration (town hall), as public service (Caldas de Aregos and S. Pedro do Sul) and also from the profound review of literature. It is an important bridge between quantitative and qualitative research methods. We also used an exploratory data analysis. An exploratory analysis is used to find ideas for a theory, but not to test that theory as well. Data analysis and results – The Thermalism in SPA and Welfare way achieved in 2014-2015 56% representation (13% in 2004). Nevertheless it tends to grow more and more. The welfare is the first reason for the customers loyalty. With 51,900 costumers this segment reported an advance compared to the year 2013, 8.3% (+4.0 thousand). Compared to 2013 with 41,500 customers users (44%) classic Hydrotherapy decreased the recent years.(-10.6% less 4,900 customers). The income from those two segments of hydrotherapy (classic and welfare) reached 11.7 million euros, which resulted in a decrease of 10.6%, equivalent to less 1.4 million euros, in 2013. (Turismo de Portugal, 2015). Conclusions - It should be noted that this kind of tourism has been increasing, and also increasing demand, which contributed to improved incoming results for tourism sector. Our proposal was achieved and the data provided were important. Although we don´t have good information available. Summarizing, the level of experience and operation was satisfactory, and certainly that is a very important theme that must be analysed. We found that Spa’s and hydrotherapy are increasingly inserted in Portuguese society, in all age groups. We need to analyse our results more clearly and develop more researches in this important area.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards constructionist Organizational Data Mining (ODM) : changing the focus from technology to social construction of knowledge

This chapter addresses the definition of organizational data mining (ODM) practices that leverage knowledge creation in organizations. It argues that knowledge resides in human minds and it is created by the continuous action and interaction happening in specific social contexts. Knowledge has a rational and an emotional foundation. When represented, knowledge becomes information that shapes the action and interaction by which individuals and communities create their specific knowledge. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the advantages of adopting a constructionist approach and to present some constructionist guidelines to assist the definition of ODM practices that leverage knowledge creation in organizations

Health and Wellness Tourism, Thermalism and SPA

Health, spa’s, hydrotherapy, tourism, welfare and economic interests become deeply intertwined components Several situations call for new social restructuring forms and styles of life, but also cover other environments and cultures capable to provide access to more time and leisure, which is reflected by behavioral changes and appellative alternative medicines. It is in these situations that the phenomena of Hydrotherapy/SPA’s and tourism, coming from times of yore, with its entire range of activities, have achieved great strength, also appearing as an answer to these well-being matters ( Leandro, E. et al, 2014). In 2014, almost half of the customers who have chosen to use the, were aged between 36 and 65 years (25,300/p) and 29% between 16 and 35 years (15,200/p). This type associated with new dilemmas, which affect individuals in nowadays societies, always in search of more welfare, when human aspirations have no boundaries, diseases assume facets that are not always easy to identify (Carvalho,A. et al). This increasing development has a great importance at social level. The Portuguese Spa demand has been growing. The impact of this kind of development in social culture. This research aims to analyse - How this impact call for new social restructuring forms and styles of life, but also cover other environments and cultures capable to provide access to more time and leisure. Data were obtained inside two SPA’s that belongs to public administration (town hall), as public service (Caldas de Aregos and S. Pedro do Sul) and also from the profound review of literature. It is an important bridge between quantitative and qualitative research methods. We also used an exploratory data analysis. An exploratory analysis is used to find ideas for a theory, but not to test that theory as well. The Thermalism in SPA and Welfare way achieved in 2014-2015, 56% representation (13% in 2004). Nevertheless it tends to grow more and more. The welfare is the first reason for the customers loyalty. With 51,900 costumers this segment reported an advance compared to the year 2013, 8.3% (+4.0 thousand). Compared to 2013 with 41,500 customers users (44%) classic Hydrotherapy decreased the recent years (-10.6% less 4,900 customers). The income from those two segments of hydrotherapy (classic and welfare) reached 11.7 million euros, which resulted in a decrease of 10.6%, equivalent to less 1.4 million euros, in 2013. (Turismo de Portugal, 2015). It should be noted that this kind of tourism has been increasing, and also increasing demand, which contributed to improved incoming results for tourism sector. Our proposal was achieved and the data provided were important. Although we don´t have good information available. Summarizing, the level of experience and operation was satisfactory, and certainly that is a very important theme that must be analysed. We found that Spa’s and hydrotherapy are increasingly inserted in Portuguese society, in all age groups. We need to analyse our results more clearly and develop more researches in this important area.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio