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

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

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

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

A Competency Perspective on the Occupational Network (O*Net)

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model which integrates the well-established US-based occupational information network (O*Net) into a competence perspective. Taking serious claims about lifelong learning, one of the biggest challenges is the assessment of tacit knowledge and competences. To tackle this challenge, we depart from four well-established competences (personal competence, social competence, methodic competence and domain competence), and integrate descriptors from the O*Net. We argue that learning outcomes (what a person should be able to do) can be made comparable and accessible when linking them with the descriptors from the O*Net. This approach is in line with the European Qualification Framework (EQF), that aims at establishing comparability of learning outcomes within the European Union and relies on theories linking individual to organizational learnin

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

Valuing Prior Learning: Designing an ICT Artifact to Assess Professional Competences Through Text Mining

Purpose: This paper introduces an ICT artifact that uses text mining to support the innovative and standardized assessment of professional competences within the validation of prior learning. By assessing, we mean comparing identified and documented professional competences against a standard or reference point. We evaluate the designed artifact by matching a set of curriculum vitae (CV) scraped from LinkedIn against a comprehensive model of professional competence. Design/Methodology/Approach: A design science approach informed the development and evaluation of the ICT artifact presented in this paper. Findings: A proof of concept shows that the ICT artifact can support assessors within the validation of prior learning procedure. Rather the output of such an ICT artifact can be used to structure documentation in the validation process. Research limitations/implications: Evaluating the artifact shows that ICT support to assess documented learning outcomes is a promising endeavor but remains a challenge. Further research should work on standardized ways to document professional competences, ICT artifacts that capture the semantic content of documents, and refine ontologies of theoretical models of professional competences. Practical implications: Text mining methods to assess professional competences rely on large bodies of textual data - thus a thoroughly built and large portfolio is necessary as input for this ICT artifact. Originality/value: Following the recent call of European policy makers to develop standardized and ICT-based approaches for the assessment of professional competences, we designed and evaluated an ICT artifact that supports the automatized assessment of professional competences within the validation of prior learning

How to prioritize needs in order to guide profound innovation

Bedürfnisse motivieren uns und liegen menschlichem Handeln zugrunde. Das gilt auf einer individuellen Ebene aber zugleich auch in der Interaktion in sozialen Systemen. Wenn wir als Mitglieder eines sozialen Systems unsere Bedürfnisse kennen, dann können wir ausgewogenere, nachhaltigere und konsensfähige Entscheidungen treffen. Es reicht jedoch nicht, seine Bedürfnisse und die anderer nur zu kennen. Damit Wissen um Bedürfnisse konkret handlungsleitend wird, muss man wissen, welche Bedürfnisse wichtiger sind als andere und wo man limitierte Zeit und Ressourcen investiert. Hierzu braucht man Wissen darüber, welches Bedürfnis bei der Befriedigung den größten Nutzen bringt. Da Gruppen vernetzt sind und sich dort unterschiedliche Perspektiven und Meinungen treffen, ist es wichtig, verschieden Sichtweisen in handlungsleitende Entscheidungen mit einzubinden. Aus diesem Grund behandelt diese Arbeit die Priorisierung von Bedürfniswissen aus einer system-theoretischen Perspektive. Die Forschungsfrage kann daher wie folgt umrissen werden: Wie kann Wissen über Bedürfnisse in sozialen Systemen priorisiert werden, damit sich damit Strategien entwickeln lassen, diese Bedürfnisse zu befriedigen? Die Forschungsfrage umreißt also ein Entscheidungsfindungsproblem. Zur Lösung wird eine Methode zur Unterstützung von Entscheidungsprozessen vorgeschlagen. Um die Frage zu beantworten schlage ich im ersten Teil vor, dass das Paradigma der Aktionsforschung gut geeignet ist da es erlaubt, direkt mit und in sozialen System zu forschen und diese auch zu verändern. Das stellt die Grundlage dar, um die Methode zu testen und evaluieren zu können. In der theoretischen Fundierung stelle ich Ansätze aus der Philosophie, der Psychologie, den Bereichen Wirtschaftswissenschaften und Marktforschung vor, die eine solche Priorisierung theoretisch vorgeschlagen oder konkrete Methoden für die praktische Umsetzung dazu entwickelt und angewandt haben. Grundlage der Arbeit ist ein praktischer Ansatz aus dem organisationalen Lernen zum explizieren von Bedürfniswissen, Bewextra. Es wird eine Methode vorgestellt, die das Ergebnis, einen validierten Katalog von geteilten Bedürfnissen innerhalb eines Systems, priorisiert, als Entscheidungsgrundlage dient und damit handlungsweisend bei der Entwicklung von Strategien zur Bedürfnisbefriedigung ist. Ich schlage vor, die hierzu relevanten Interessensgruppen eines sozialen Systems zu ermitteln und daraus Sichten auf ein System abzuleiten. Drei Interessensgruppen sind Teil eines Bewextra-Prozesses: Mitglieder des Systems selbst, die Entscheidungsträger, und Experten, die in einen solchen Lernprozess mit eingebunden wurden. In zwei Fallstudien mit der Wirtschaftskammer Österreich wurde die Methode getestet. Reflektion über und Erfahrungen aus den Fallstudien deuten darauf hin, dass ein Teil der Methode, eine Einflussmatrix adaptiert werden muss. Alternativen zur Adaption, nämlich eine Digitalisierung der Methode bzw. die Einflussmatrix in einem Workshop abzuhalten werden im letzten Kapitel.Psychological and physiological well-being strongly depends on the satisfaction of needs (Thomson, 2005). We can define a fundamental need as a necessity for a purpose (e.g. survival, avoidance of harm, well-being). Needs seem to resist phenomenological and introspective assessment, i.e. we are not consciously aware of them (Maslow, 1943; McLeod, 2011). From a knowledge-based management perspective, it is possible to assess previously unconscious or hidden needs and make them explicit (Goffin & Lemke, 2004; Goffin, Lemke, & Koners, 2010; Kaiser, Fordinal, & Kragulj, 2014; Kaiser & Kragulj, 2016). It has been previously shown that considering needs of organizational members can have a significant impact on innovation (Bayus, 2008; Patnaik, 2004; Van der Bijl-Brouwer & Dorst, 2014) and organizational learning processes. However, mere explicit knowledge about needs lacks the strategic capacity-to-act which decision makers require to develop strategies to address those needs (Kragulj & Fahrenbach, 2016). Consequently, the following research question can be derived: How to prioritize needs in a social system in order to guide effective need-satisfaction strategies? Based on an action research methodology (Checkland & Holwell, 2007), this work introduces an extension of a previously developed method, Bewextra (Kaiser et al., 2014; Kaiser & Kragulj, 2016). In Bewextra-Collect, data is acquired in a future-learning-approach (Scharmer, 2009) by asking system members to report their dreams and wishes in a workshop setting. In Bewextra-Analytic, hypothesis about needs are generated using an abductive reasoning and a haptic clustering approach based on grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006; Reichertz, 2007). In Bewextra-Validate, system members are asked to validate the need hypotheses with an online questionnaire. Bewextra results in a catalogue of explicated and validated needs. Following Thomson (2005), who argues that needs are matters of priority, this work proposes a decision-support-system to prioritize the outcome of Bewextra in a coherent and replicable way with the aim to provide guidance for decision-makers within organizations and to inform scenario and strategy development. Using critical systems thinking, relevant stakeholders are identified (Achterkamp & Vos, 2007; Freeman, 1984). If a need gets validated, it gets considered in the Bewextra Need Priority Index (BNPI) which reflects three perspectives: (1) the internal view of a system measures the importance and relevance of a need from the viewpoint of the members of an organization, (2) the external view considers the opinion of externals acquainted with the organization (e.g. experts, customers, facilitators), and (3) the systemic view refers to the inherent relation of needs in a network. It asks about the impact of the satisfaction of one need on another. All variables are assessed on separate scales. In order to combine them, i.e. add them, they have to be normalized and re-scaled. All views are connected to weights which can be adjusted flexible and allow the decision maker to reflect his/her preferences and strategy. Based on the BNPI, need-satisfying strategies can be developed. Strategy development is a future-oriented process, based on cognitive processes like episodic future thinking (Atance & O’Neill, 2001) or imagination (Szpunar, 2010). Reflecting two case studies led to the point that one part of the Bewextra Need Priority Index, namely a cross-impact-matrix (Gordon & Hayward, 1968; Vester, 1999), a method from the field of future studies (Gordon, 1992) has to be adapted. Two directions are proposed, namely a digitalization and a workshop setting in which the cross-impact-matrix can be applied. Both possibilities are subsequently discussed