Using AHP and the IPMA competence baseline in the project managers selection process

This paper proposes the joint use of the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and the ICB (IPMA Competence Baseline), as a tool for the decision-making process of selecting the most suitable managers for projects. A hierarchical structure, comprising the IPMA’s ICB 3.0 contextual, behavioural and technical competence elements, is constructed for the selection of project managers. It also describes the AHP implementation, illustrating the whole process with an example using all the 46 ICB competence elements as model criteria. This tool can be of high interest to decision-makers because it allows comparing the candidates for managing a project using a systematic and rigorous process with a rich set of proven criteria

Motivations and results for CRM adoption in large companies in Portugal

There are several motivations for CRM systems adoption, some of them aligned with the results of CRM implementation. This paper presents the main findings of a study undertaken among a sample of Portuguese large enterprises, identifying and discussing the main motivations and results of the adoption of CRM systems. It was possible to conclude that the main results of CRM adoption reflect the main motivations as, for instance, improvement of quality of information or process improvement. The findings of this study allow the academic and professional community to better understand the main motivations of large companies for adopting CRM systems, as well as their obtained results, and also allow CRM systems vendors and consultants to better address the needs of their potential clients

Toward a holistic perception of socially responsible ethics

Cel - propozycja holistycznej definicji społecznie odpowiedzialnej etyki biznesu rozumianego jako system. W artykule rozważany jest podstawowy problem: Jak interesariusze rozumieją społecznie odpowiedzialną etykę? Z tego punktu widzenia biznes powinien być badany pod kątem współczesnej etyki. Holizm w percepcji społecznie odpowiedzialnej etyki w biznesie jest nieunikniony; może on wynikać z badań dotyczących wzajemnych zależności pomiędzy praktyką biznesową, ogólną etyką i etyką społecznie odpowiedzialną. Projekt/metodologia/podejście: w artykule prezentowane jest podejście jakościowe opierające się na etyce, etyce biznesu oraz teoriach dialektycznych i systemowych. Wyniki - Etyka może być rozumiana jako subiektywny element punktu wyjścia każdego ludzkiego procesu, włączając w to biznes. Etyka biznesu jest tak samo kluczowa jak innego rodzaju wiedza oraz znajomość zewnętrznych/ obiektywnych warunków, ponieważ ludzie są zarówno bytami racjonalnymi, jak i emocjonalnymi i to połączenie tworzy synergię. Żeby uściślić i wykorzystać w odpowiedni sposób społecznie odpowiedzialną etykę, należy zrozumieć relacje pomiędzy globalizacją a biznesem jako systemem, wziąć pod uwagę nowe koncepcje rozwoju biznesu i społecznie odpowiedzialnej etyki. Badania/ograniczenia/implikacje: Badanie ogranicza się do hipotez i analizy jakościowej. Praktyczne doświadczenie jest zakładane implicite. Hipotezy są testowane przez informację zwrotną pracowników na temat ich percepcji wybranych elementów społecznie odpowiedzialnej etyki w firmach słoweńskich. Do badania przypadków wykorzystano analizę zależności, elementy opisowej statystyki i przedstawiono wyniki graficznie. Praktyczne implikacje: Jest to krok w kierunku rozwijania biznesu z uwzględnieniem koniecznego holistycznego podejścia bazującego na intuicji całości. Zasugerowano bardziej szczegółowe i zorientowane na cele rozumienie i badanie społecznie odpowiedzialnej etyki biznesu jako systemu, funkcjonującego we współczesnym otoczeniu. Oryginalność/wartość: Zaprezentowano nowe podejście dotyczące bardziej holistycznego rozumienia i rozważań w etyce biznesu, które jest rzadkie w głównym nurcie literatury, jak również nowe rozumienie i definicję społecznie odpowiedzialnej etykiPurpose - To offer a new requisitely holistic definition of socially responsible ethics (SRE) of Business systems (BSs). The contribution considers a basic problem: How do stakeholders understand and think about SRE? Therefore business should be investigated from the viewpoint of modern ethics. Requisite holism of perceiving SRE in business reality is unavoidable; it can result from findings and considerations of the interdependence between business practice, general ethics, and SRE. Design/methodology/approach - In this paper qualitative research is performed based on Ethics, Business Ethics, Business, and Dialectical Systems Theories. Findings - Ethics can be viewed as the subjective part of the starting points for any human process, including business. Business ethics (BE) are equally crucial as knowledge and outer/objective conditions are, because humans are both rational and emotional and spiritual beings, and are so in synergy. To clarify and beneficially use SRE, one must understand relations between globalization and characteristics of BSs, new and prevailing development concepts of BSs, and SRE and prevailing BE in BSs. Research limitation/implications - Research is limited to hypotheses and qualitative analysis by means of desk research. Practical experience is considered implicitly. Postulated hypotheses are tested by employees' feedback about their perception of selected factors regarding SRE in Slovenian organizations. For case investigation we used factorial analysis, elements of descriptive statistics, and graphical representation of results. Practical implications - This is a step toward development of business with a requisitely holistic approach founded on requisite wholeness of insight. We suggest a more specifically created and target-oriented approach to understanding and research of SRE of BSs in the current environment. Originality/value - We offer a fresh approach for more holistic understanding and consideration of BE, rarely found in main-stream literature. A new perception and definition of SRE is offere

IT/IS Outsourcing in Large Companies - Motivations and Risks

Companies can outsource Information Technologies (IT) /Information Systems (IS) at various scales, from a small percentage of services to the entire range of services that they need. Outsourcing is associated to a set of motivations related to perceived benefits, but it also has inherent risks. This paper discusses the main results of a survey carried out to determine several aspects of outsourcing practice in large companies. It presents the most frequently contracted services (application development and application maintenance), the most prevailing motivations (financial motives and access to world-class capabilities) and the main risks (loss of control, loss of intellectual capital, and unexpected costs), as perceived by companies.COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

University technology transfer: assessment of invention disclosures by technology transfer offices

University technology transfer offices (TTOs) encourage researchers to disclose their inventive results to assess their novelty, industrial applicability, and inventive step to protect and devise a plan to gather the necessary resources for its deployment. To describe the invention disclosure process and to gain knowledge about assessment practices to understand the invention, its market, potential for transfer, and accessibility to finance, Portuguese university TTOs were asked to provide information on their internal processes through a semi- structured survey. The most frequent practices have been identified, including, the analysis of all the technology applications, the assessment of the technology readiness level, patentability, strength of its claims, and protection costs; assessment of the extent of technology demand and potential licensees; and analysis of available sources of finance. The approach was essentially descriptive and exploratory to convey information on how to proceed to guide the initial evaluation that triggers the valorisation process.This work was funded by national funds, through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and FCT/MCTES in the scope of projects UIDB/05549/2020 and UIDB/00319/2020

The impact of the digital divide in the potential use of an electronic market for health and social care services

Cada vez mais os indivíduos necessitam de competências digitais avançadas para participar plenamente na sociedade. Numa Europa em crescente envelhecimento é atualmente reconhecida a importância e o potencial da indústria de serviços para envelhecer bem baseados nas tecnologias de informação e de comunicação (TIC), de que é exemplo o mercado eletrónico de serviços sociais e de cuidados de saúde, o GuiMarket, proposto pelos autores para um município do Norte de Portugal. Com base nos resultados de um inquérito realizado junto de uma amostra de 315 indivíduos, o artigo discute a importância reconhecida a tal serviço e a frequência de utilização prevista, concluindo existir uma íntima relação entre o acesso às TIC e a utilização que os inquiridos preveem fazer do GuiMarket.More and more, individuals need advanced digital skills to fully participate in society. In a Europe increasingly aging is now recognized the importance and potential of the service industry for aging well based on information and communication technologies (ICT), as exemplified by the electronic market of social services and healthcare, the GuiMarket, that the authors proposed to a municipality in the North of Portugal. Based on the results of a survey undertaken on a sample of 315 individuals, this article discusses the importance recognized to such service and the frequency of intended use, concluding that there is an intimate relationship between the access to ICT and the use that respondents anticipate making of the GuiMarket

Tecnologias e sistemas de informação em entidades hospitalares : dois casos de hospitais portugueses

As tecnologias e sistemas de informação são atualmente fundamentais para o bom funcionamento de virtualmente qualquer tipo de organização e as entidades hospitalares não fogem a esta regra. Com vista a desenvolver uma avaliação profunda da gestão de sistemas e tecnologias da informação em hospitais de vários países, tem vindo a ser desenvolvido um estudo coordenado pelo grupo GESITI/Saúde. Neste artigo são apresentados os resultados desse estudo para os casos concretos de dois hospitais portugueses. Entre outros aspetos, é caracterizada a estrutura de gestão, as tecnologias utilizadas e o recurso ao comércio eletrónico nestas entidades hospitalares

DIGITAL WELFARE AND VULNERABLE CITIZENS: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Governments worldwide are digitizing their social welfare policies and services despite the persistence of significant levels of digital exclusion. Although digitization may simplify processes and offer better services at lower costs, it may also marginalize citizens with limited digital access and skills, imposing administrative burdens on them and undermining their privacy. This research in progress attempts to make sense of the flourishing literature on the digital transformation of welfare policies and services and its implications for vulnerable citizens. An integrative literature review was conducted, adopting a critical-interpretive perspective. The literature analyzed thus far showcases the multiple ways in which supposedly neutral technology might deepen the exclusion of vulnerable citizens and points to the need for a research agenda focused on developing contexts and on the experience of vulnerable people

Direct Communication versus Virtual Communication in Virtual Teams

AbstractSeveral studies suggest that computer-mediated communication can lead to decreases in group effectiveness and reduce satisfaction levels in terms of trust and comfort of its users. Supported by an experiment, where the emotional or affective aspects of communication were tested with the experimentation of two architectures, Direct Communication Architecture (DCA) and the Virtual Communication Architecture (VCA) this paper validates the thesis that, from the users’ perspective, there is no opposition to the acceptance of virtual environments and interfaces for communication, and that these environments are able to cope with the reconfiguration dynamics requirements of virtual teams or client-server relations in a virtual enterprise operation

Agile Project Management: A Communicational Workflow Proposal

Embracing agility brings change to companies and everyone involved, so people have a fundamental role in project development. It is essential that teams have a good communication, motivation and concern about quality and client satisfaction, Agile Manufacturing is using Agile Project Management to provide the right team to performance difficult tasks and achieve goals. This paper proposes a team that deals with Agile Project Management, named as AGILE team, composed by a product owner, a team leader and team members, and a communication workflow proposal concerning the conjunction of 3 momentums (requirements analyze, planning and design) along the Agile Project Management. The proposed model is being implemented in a lightening manufacturing company in a very early stage.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio