Ontology for Representing Human Needs

Need satisfaction plays a fundamental role in human well-being. Hence understanding citizens' needs is crucial for developing a successful social and economic policy. This notwithstanding, the concept of need has not yet found its place in information systems and online tools. Furthermore, assessing needs itself remains a labor-intensive, mostly offline activity, where only a limited support by computational tools is available. In this paper, we make the first step towards employing need management in the design of information systems supporting participation and participatory innovation by proposing OpeNeeD, a family of ontologies for representing human needs data. As a proof of concept, OpeNeeD has been used to represent, enrich and query the results of a needs assessment study in a local citizen community in one of the Vienna districts. The proposed ontology will facilitate such studies and enable the representation of citizens' needs as Linked Data, fostering its co-creation and incentivizing the use of Open Data and services based on it

The Ever-Changing Personality: Revisiting the Concept of Triple-Loop Learning

Purpose - Considering personality as changeable through a bottom-up process of altering states, habits and traits, constitutes a shift in the predominant paradigm within personality psychology. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider Bateson's theory of learning and organizational triple-loop learning in light of this recent empirical evidence. Design/methodology/approach - This paper uses a multi-disciplinary conceptual approach. Based on an integrative analysis of literature from recent work in personality psychology, four dimensions (process, content, time and context) are identified that allow linking personality change and triple-loop learning. Findings - Identifying a bottom-up process of changing states, habits and traits as being central to change personality, allows for reconsidering Bateson's theory of learning as a theory of personality development (Learning II) and personality change (Learning III). Functionally equivalent, organizational triple-loop learning is conceptualized as a change in an organization's identity over time that may be facilitated through a change in responding to events and a change in the organization's routines. Practical implications - Interventions that change how organizations respond to events and that change the routines within an organization may be suitable to facilitate triple-loop learning in terms of changing organizational identity over time. Originality/value - This paper contributes to the discussion on Bateson's theory of learning and organizational triple-loop learning. As interest in personality change grows in organization studies, this paper aims to transfer these findings to organizational learning

Introducing an Artifact for the Assessment of Transversal Professional Competences

This paper departs from a project conducted with the Trade and Craft sector of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Economics. A design science perspective scaffolds the development of an artifact, the net of competences, to support the assessment of transversal professional competences in the validation of prior formal, non-formal and informal learning. This paper contributes to theory by arguing for a structural functional equivalence between a real spider-web and the structure of the net of competences. A process perspective shows how different stakeholders interact in the net of competences. Specifically, we pose the research question "How to assess transversal professional competences?". To answer this question, we describe the design of a self-assessment by outlining item generation, generation of verb levels and the triangulation of items and verbs to create nodes in the net of competences. Abstracting from the previous, we present the algorithm on which the net of competences is based

Introducing an Artifact for the Assessment of Transversal Professional Competences

This paper departs from a project conducted with the Trade and Craft sector of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Economics. A design science perspective scaffolds the development of an artifact, the net of competences, to support the assessment of transversal professional competences in the validation of prior formal, non-formal and informal learning. This paper contributes to theory by arguing for a structural functional equivalence between a real spider-web and the structure of the net of competences. A process perspective shows how different stakeholders interact in the net of competences. Specifically, we pose the research question “How to assess transversal professional competences?”. To answer this question, we describe the design of an self-assessment by outlining item generation, generation of verb levels and the triangulation of items and verbs to create nodes in the net of competences. Abstracting from the previous, we present the algorithm on which the net of competences is based

Hemispheric-wide climate response to regional COVID-19-related aerosol emission reductions: the prominent role of atmospheric circulation adjustments

The national and global restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sudden, albeit temporary, emission reduction of many greenhouse gases (GHGs) and anthropogenic aerosols, whose near-term climate impact were previously found to be negligible when focusing on global- and/or annual-mean scales. Our study aims to investigate the monthly scale coupled climate-and-circulation response to regional, COVID-19-related aerosol emission reductions, using the output from 10 Earth system models participating in the Covid model intercomparison project (CovidMIP). We focus on January–February and March–May 2020, which represent the seasons of largest emission changes in sulfate (SO2) and black carbon (BC). During January–February (JF), a marked decrease in aerosol emissions over eastern China, the main emission region, resulted in a lower aerosol burden, leading to an increase in surface downwelling radiation and ensuing surface warming. Regional sea-level pressure and circulation adjustments drive a precipitation increase over the Maritime Continent, embedded in a negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)- and/or El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-like response over the Pacific, in turn associated with a northwestward displacement and zonal shrinking of the Indo-Pacific Walker cell. Remote climate anomalies across the Northern Hemisphere, including a weakening of the Siberian High and Aleutian Low, as well as anomalous temperature patterns in the northern mid-latitudes, arise primarily as a result of stationary Rossby wave trains generated over East Asia. The anomalous climate pattern and driving dynamical mechanism reverse polarity between JF and MAM (March–May) 2020, which is shown to be consistent with an underlying shift of the dominant region of SO2 emission reduction from eastern China in JF to India in MAM. Our findings highlight the prominent role of large-scale dynamical adjustments in generating a hemispheric-wide aerosol climate imprint even on short timescales, which are largely consistent with longer-term (decadal) trends. Furthermore, our analysis shows the sensitivity of the climate response to the geographical location of the aerosol emission region, even after relatively small, but abrupt, emission changes. Scientific advances in understanding the climate impact of regional aerosol perturbations, especially the rapidly evolving emissions over China and India, are critically needed to reduce current uncertainties in near-future climate projections and to develop scientifically informed hazard mitigation and adaptation policies.</p

Towards a prioritization of needs to support decision making in organizational change processes

A focus on needs and the ability to generate knowledge about needs is highly valuable for organizations because it extends the range of possible solutions and therefore enables them to create more innovative and sustainable products and services. Our paper will explore how a framework based on an abductive reasoning process for the creation and discovery of knowledge about needs in organizations can look like and what the main steps of such a framework are, in order to integrate this approach into the model of the knowledge-based firm. Moreover we will present empirical findings from a project with Austrian companies where this framework has been used

Designing a Tool to Assess Professional Competences: Theoretical Foundations and Potential Applications

This conceptual paper outlines the descriptive theoretical foundations or kernel theories for designing an information and communication technology (ICT) tool to assess professional competences in the Austrian trade and craft sector. Upon completion, the ICT-tool serves as a boundary object in which applicants and assessors can interact. While this paper consists of a literature review and conceptual discussion, the overall project is methodologically placed within a multidisciplinary design-science paradigm. Design science scaffolds and structures the development of a theoretical model, the generation of assessment-items and the ICT-tool itself. This paper discusses the necessary descriptive knowledge or kernel theories on which the design of the ICT-tool rests. First, we describe the validation of prior learning - a process advocated by the European Union to make professional competences visible. Second, we describe the process how professional competences come about: through formal, non-formal and informal learning. Subsequently, we outline a knowledge-driven discourse on professional competences and discuss how different definitions of professional competence afford different approaches for its assessment. By presenting a use-case, we outline how the ICT-tool may guide applicants and assessors through this process

Revealing the Purpose of a Stakeholder Organisation: The Case of a Public University Responding to the COVID-19 'Corona' Crisis

In early March 2020, Austria declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19. Social life was put on hold, public and private organisations were largely shut down, and universities had to adapt their operations. A group of WU academics investigate how one of Europe's biggest public universities in business and economics responded to the crisis and in the process rediscovered its core purpose