Internal Versus External Recruitment – The Story of Three Consecutive Project Managers in an IT Project

As project managers (PMs) play an important role in project success, assigning PMs with appropriate skills and personalities to projects is a crucial task. Nevertheless, empirical research on skill requirements for information technology (IT) PMs is limited and little information systems literature focuses on the role of internally recruited IT PMs. This paper presents a case study of a troubled IT project led by three consecutive PMs, with a range of backgrounds, skills, and personality types. Across subjects, IT project management was found to be a necessity of project success. Additionally, it was observed that internally recruited PMs showed advantages in understanding organisational culture and business processes. Lessons learned from the three PMs confirm the importance of particular skills previously described in the literature, and the need for an additional focus on how an IT PM’s personality facilitates or inhibits IT project outcomes

Action Research in Practice: Balancing the Dual Imperatives

This paper provides a description of and reflections on an action research project. The project is described from its initialisation and conceptualisation through to the completion of the engagement with the clients of the problem-solving exercise. It is hoped that the reflections on the key issues of the action research project will provide opportunities for discussion and learning among readers

Career outcomes and SFIA as tools to design ICT curriculum

Career outcomes are one of the major influencing factors when applicants are selecting their course. While theoretically, linking curriculum design closely with career outcomes might be an ideal situation, in practice, ICT curricula are in a constant state of flux and it is unclear whether the specified career outcomes for a course were part of the curriculum (re-)design process. SFIA provides a common reference model to communicate the value and relevance of a course to potential applicants and employers. This paper reports on the application of the ACS process for designing an ICT curriculum that is directly informed by the career outcomes relevant to both the local and national ICT industry and the necessary SFIA skill sets to attain those career outcomes. Using this approach we are able to illustrate to employers the capabilities of graduates and provide evidence to applicants that the course relates to the advertised career outcomes

A Digital Future in Virtual Reality — Insights for Training

Virtual reality is now being used throughout various sectors. It is a tool which is being increasingly relied upon to support cost-effective and safe opportunities to build skills development. There has, however, been little research into whether a virtual environment provides the same effectiveness as a real-world environment. For virtual reality to be an effective tool, we must better understand the impact of using it. To determine this, we investigate whether there is an additional cognitive load when operating in a virtual environment and we measure whether such a load impacts upon an individual’s performance. Through the use of a ‘quadrant’ study in both real and virtual environments and with both the presence and absence of a secondary task, we identified that there is no significant cognitive load added when working within the virtual environment, and so the use of virtual reality can indeed be effective in terms of comparative performance with the real-world. This research was conducted with approval of the Human Research Ethics Committee (Tasmania) Network; the reference number for the study is: H0018156

The Development and Implementation of Learning Objects in a Higher Education Setting

With the increase in offshore and off-campus demand for University of Tasmania degrees, lecturers have become aware of the need to develop more flexible delivery processes which add value to the student learning experience and provide teaching staff with opportunities for greater creativity in the teaching process. The three cases described will outline a model guiding Learning Object development and teaching within the School of Information Systems and will describe the process of student interaction and response to these Learning Objects. This paper describes the replacement of face-to-face lectures with the online delivery of complex learning objects, resulting in high quality outcomes for students. The development of these discrete re-usable learning objects has followed a ‘tell, show and do ’ model by way of integrating a theory presentation with a practical example exercise, followed by an opportunity for individual review & application of the material within each learning object. The development of these Learning objects has been undertaken in Microsoft ® Office PowerPoint ® with audio narration, with files being compressed using Impatica for PowerPoint ™ and streamed within the University environment by WebCT Vista allowing access to all students enrolled over three local campuses as well as those enrolled interstate and overseas. The application and use of these learning objects has allowed for the concentration of face-to-face resources on highly interactive workshops that are supported by the Learning Objects, rather than on traditional lectures. The outcomes are better coverage of material in the three units, greater student satisfaction with the delivery of the unit and increased flexibility for both the students and staff

A methodological review of exploring turner’s three-process theory of power and the social identity approach

Turner’s Three-Process Theory of Power together with Social Identity Theory (SIT) and Self-Categorization Theory (SCT) have been influential in social psychology to examine power-related behaviors. While positivist experimental and survey methods are common in social psychological studies, these approaches may not adequately consider Turner’s constructs due to a comparative lack of ecological validity. Drawing on a methodology-focused review of the existing research of applying aspects of Turner’s theory of power and SIT/SCT, the interpretivist case study approach by using interviews and other data collections is highlighted as an alternative and useful method to the application of Turner’s framework. The applicability of the interpretive case study approach is further emphasized in comparison with the positivist experiments and surveys. This paper also discusses how this new way of exploration may allow us to understand Turner’s work better. © 2016 QSR

Simple acts for a better world: A gameful system for prosocial behavior - Preliminary design and research plan.

Games and gameful systems designed to support social change most often seek to persuade by inducing empathy and outrage through the depiction of the direness of social issues and thus motivating people to take action. However, motivation is only one possible angle from which to approach behavior change. When capability or opportunity for meaningful impact are not given, people may refrain from taking action even when motivated. This work-in-progress outlines the theoretical background and design plan for a pervasive gameful system. Based on the behavior change wheel this system is designed to propose simple actions tailored to the player’s given capabilities and opportunities, thereby encouraging prosocial behavior. We conclude with a discussion of the research plan for the evaluation of the prototype and the prosocial actions by means of two rounds of mixed-method diary studies

Action research in practice: issues and challenges in a financial services case study

In this paper we give a direct and personal account of the issues and challenges that occurred in an action research study. The research team consisted of five researchers from two Australian universities. The action research case was carried out in a small financial services company and concerned the development of an information systems strategy. However, the focus of the paper is not on information systems, but on the general methodological issues and problems of action research. The authors hope that readers will benefit from the direct and transparent account of the practical methodological problems encountered in the study

Power relations in information systems implementation: the potential contribution of turner's three-process theory of power

This chapter critically reviews the literature on power relations in information systems implementation projects. IS projects redistribute information and power in organizations and are thus implicated in both project progress and ultimately project success. The review firstly considers the ideas of Foucault, Giddens, Clegg, Lukes, and Latour, as these are the most established and prominent theories in the major IS papers on power. This chapter argues for a consideration of a new theory of power and social influence from social psychology deemed suitable for use in IS research. The ideas of this theory have not yet been examined empirically in IS studies of power relations in IS implementations but arguably offer an important opportunity for IS researchers