A data protection methodology to preserve critical information from the possible threat of information loss

M.Tech.Information is a company’s greatest asset that is continually under threat from human error, technological failure, natural disasters and other external factors. These threats need to be identified and quantified and their relevant protection techniques need to be deployed. This research will allow businesses to ascertain which of these data protection strategies to embrace and deploy, thereby highlighting the balance between cost and value for their business needs. Every commercial enterprise should understand the business value of their data and realise that protecting this data is of utmost importance. However, company data often resides on different mediums, in different locations and implementing a data protection strategy is not always cost effective in terms of the cost of storage mediums and protection methods. The challenges that businesses face is trying to distinguish between mission-critical data from other business data, excluding any non-business or invaluable data that resides on their systems. Thus a cost-effective data protection strategy can be implemented according to the different values of business data. This research provides a model to enable an organisation to: · Utilise the model as a framework or guideline in determining a strategy for protection, storage, retrieval and preservation of business critical data. · Define the data protection strategy to meet the organisation’s business requirements. · Define a cost effective data protection solution that encompasses protection, storage, retrieval and preservation of business critical data. · Make strategic decisions based on an array of best practices to ensure mission-critical data is protected accordingly. iii · Draw a conclusion between the costs of implementing these solutions against the real business value of the data that it protects

Conceptualising organisational ethics talks

D.Litt. et Phil.The moral tone and ethical consciousness of an organisation are often reflected in everyday spoken discourse. Discourse (both written and verbal) sends a message about how an organisation does business. Ethical discourse, in turn, sends a message about the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way of conducting business, which helps people make better decisions. When business related ethical issues are openly and honestly discussed it propels ethical awareness which in turn may inspire responsible action. Ethical awareness increases responsiveness and sensitivity to ethical issues, as well as enhanced ethical decision-making. The notion of “moral” talk in organisations, i.e. talking about ethics, or organisational “ethics talk” (OET), has however, been scantily addressed in business ethics research and literature (the exception being the work of Waters and Bird in the late 1980s). It can be postulated that OET may be a powerful vehicle for the institutionalisation of ethics in the organisations. For it to be utilised optimally, it has to be placed under theoretical scrutiny before it can be applied in organisational ethics management initiatives. The primary objective of this research was to design an appropriate conceptual framework from which to develop a substantive model for (OET) in an attempt to clarify the concept and its components. A qualitative methodology with grounded theory as a research strategy was employed to develop the substantive model. Eight ethics experts (N=8) were purposively selected to partake as research participants, chosen because of their knowledge, education and experience in the field of business ethics. The research participants’ perceptions, experience and understanding of OET were explored to develop the substantive model. The primary data collection method was semi-structured interviews, which generated rich and descriptive data. The data was systematically analysed using grounded x theory. An in-depth literature review was undertaken following the fieldwork. This was integrated with results of the data analysis once the theoretical directions had become clear. Member checking was executed throughout the research process and a focus group was conducted to verify interpretations and substantiate the initial OET model. The outcomes of the focus group discussion resulted in the drafting of the final model for OET. Based on the findings, OET was defined as intra-organisational spoken or written articulation that reflects the consideration of the ethical interests of (a) the ‘self’ (e.g. organisation, the well being of its members in particular context), and (b) the ‘other’ (e.g. other internal and external stakeholders, other organisations, society). The central elements of the model consist of the following themes: enabling contextual factors, potential catalysts, barriers to OET and effects thereof, categorisation of OET, forms of OET, purposive and unintentional OET, motivations for OET and resulting effects (i.e. outcome versus no outcome)

Materials for filtering and frequency control in the next generations of mobile communication systems

A very large development of the mobile radiocommunications is expected to occur in the 15 next years. In the introduction, the most important among the present and future systems are listed and their main characteristics are briefly indicated. The case of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) presently studied in the European community to enter service in the beginning of the 2000's is particularly discussed since, it is now, the most ambitious project in this field. The equipments of the future numerical radiocommunication systems will include a large number of piezo-electric devices for filtering and frequency generation. New characteristics (higher frequencies, larger bandwidth, very reduced dimensions, etc...) will be required for these devices so that new developments will be necessary to find solutions to these requirements. It is believed, that the corresponding evolutions will be very significant of the main trends in piezo-electricity for the next ten years. This paper review the UHF and VHF filtering technologies and the frequency generation techniques the most likely to be used in the future radiomobile systems. For each kind of devices (filters for either UHF or an intermediate frequency and frequency sources), we discuss the most probable requirements, the present state of the different technologies, the new advances required to develop highly miniaturized devices for the mobile equipments or high performances sub-assembly for the base stations. In most cases, it appears that the availability of new piezo-electric materials and the obtainment of better characteristics for the existing materials will be essential factors in the achievement of the required characteristics for these devices. The possibilities of integrating piezo-electric resonators or filters with the micro-electronics contributing to the same or to related functions is also discussed together with the interest of developing new thin film piezo-electric materials permitting this integration