The learning dimension of digital transformation: Transforming with learning patterns

The road towards a digital organization is partly technical but also about the skills and mindset of the personnel of the company. As the technological base for digitalization is fairly straightforward, the ways of supporting change in people are not evolving as rapidly. This paper suggests an approach to continue learning in an organization, based on concepts around pedagogical theory, learning patterns. This theoretical framework is transferred into a business setting, and the consequences are discussed from the digitalization perspective

Perspectives on the Support of Knowledge Work

This report discusses information systems as support systems for knowledge workers. A case is presented discussing the introduction of two types of information systems into an organisation as support for knowledge workers. The case is interpreted using a set of theories from knowledge theory and the area of knowledge management. The aim of this report is to give empirical input to the understanding of the conditions of knowledge work and information systems. An interpretative framework is presented consisting of a set of perspectives on knowledge work and the use of information systems

Exploring learning in Patient-centered care

This paper consists of investigations into a strategic planning framework for information systems in support ofpatient-centered care (PCC) processes. The planning perspective that underpins the research includes learningtheories, organizational learning and knowledge management in general. A brief review of current PCC goalsand perspectives is used as a starting point for an investigation of PCC activities and support system. Theexamples of existing PCC activities are organized as a learning process and presented in a framework. Sevenmain points of framework includes: 1. Patient understanding and personal knowledge of his/her health situation.2. Facts/information gathering, about the condition that the patient is in. 3. Planning/Formulation of alternatives,based on facts, possible paths of action is planned. 4. Decision-making, including weighing alternatives andchoosing actions. 5. Taking action, performing what has been decided on. 6. Evaluation and record-keeping. 7.Patient interaction with health, either face-to-face experience or supported by technology

Establishing new consulting services in health care organizations: an ANT analysis of patient-centred care

A recent trend in health care is patient-centred e-health, but are health care organizations ready to cope with that change? Changes at the patient level are one aspect but there is a need for reshaping the organization of health care. There is a need to focus much more on prevention care, helping patients to cope and become better self-managers, focusing on the patient process, working together and empowering patients. The aim of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the lack of sustainability over time in two patient-centred care (PCC) projects by using actor network theory (ANT) as an analytical framework. We use case studies from heart fibrillation and heart failure care organization in a Swedish county council. The cases concern initiatives to achieve better interactions for these patients and organize care to become more patient-centred. Both initiatives have now been partly abandoned in the organization, although research and guidelines recommend such care organizations. The analysis of the different actors dominating the translation process towards a PCC network and the way they come together in networks reveal that this is a time-consuming process, taking place long after the initial training and PCC implementation activities. We discuss the temporality of stability, the reversible process with chimerical enrolments and how a complex and changing environment demands constant re-problematization of PCC. We also include how the understanding of the translation and negotiation process can influence decisions on allocating sufficient time and resources to the process. We shed light on the importance of understanding and managing the organizational change in a PCC project and thus also of when to implement patient-centred e-health solutions

Trichoderma viride cellulase induces resistance to the antibiotic pore-forming peptide alamethicin associated with changes in the plasma membrane lipid composition of tobacco BY-2 cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Alamethicin is a membrane-active peptide isolated from the beneficial root-colonising fungus <it>Trichoderma viride</it>. This peptide can insert into membranes to form voltage-dependent pores. We have previously shown that alamethicin efficiently permeabilises the plasma membrane, mitochondria and plastids of cultured plant cells. In the present investigation, tobacco cells (<it>Nicotiana tabacum </it>L. cv Bright Yellow-2) were pre-treated with elicitors of defence responses to study whether this would affect permeabilisation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Oxygen consumption experiments showed that added cellulase, already upon a limited cell wall digestion, induced a cellular resistance to alamethicin permeabilisation. This effect could not be elicited by xylanase or bacterial elicitors such as flg22 or elf18. The induction of alamethicin resistance was independent of novel protein synthesis. Also, the permeabilisation was unaffected by the membrane-depolarising agent FCCP. As judged by lipid analyses, isolated plasma membranes from cellulase-pretreated tobacco cells contained less negatively charged phospholipids (PS and PI), yet higher ratios of membrane lipid fatty acid to sterol and to protein, as compared to control membranes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We suggest that altered membrane lipid composition as induced by cellulase activity may render the cells resistant to alamethicin. This induced resistance could reflect a natural process where the plant cells alter their sensitivity to membrane pore-forming agents secreted by <it>Trichoderma spp</it>. to attack other microorganisms, and thus adding to the beneficial effect that <it>Trichoderma </it>has for plant root growth. Furthermore, our data extends previous reports on artificial membranes on the importance of lipid packing and charge for alamethicin permeabilisation to <it>in vivo </it>conditions.</p

Assessing the Effectiveness of a Performance Evaluation System in the Public Health Care Sector: Some Novel Evidence from the Tuscany Region Experience

Since 80's the introduction of New Public Management principles has promoted the use of performance measurement to drive a more efficient, effective and accountable public sector. The adoption of a sophisticated and comprehensive multidimensional performance measurement system, which looks beyond traditional financial measures, based on organization strategies, such as the balanced scorecard, has thus been suggested. This revolution in the public management came together with the devolution processes that involved most European public health systems. Set within this context, in the last decade, each of the twenty Italian regions developed its own management tools. Among others, the Tuscan performance evaluation system (PES) has been valued as a particularly innovative and comprehensive system. This paper reports the novel experience of the Tuscan PES; in particular, it measures PES effectiveness and discusses the critical factors that could have led to the PES success. Five are the critical success factors identified by researchers: the visual reporting system, the linkage between PES and CEO's reward system, the public disclosure of data, the high level of employees and managers involvement into the entire process and the strong political commitment. All those factors run together to achieve better results; however, the process of development of the system plays a pivotal role. Scholars suggest the use of a constructive approach in order to gain effective changes in human organization. According to this stream of literature, this paper contributes by the novel experience of the Tuscan PES in addressing as a further fruitful application of the constructivist approach in healthcare

Configuring Balanced Scorecards for Measuring Health System Performance: Evidence from 5 Years' Evaluation in Afghanistan

Anbrasi Edward and colleagues report the results of a balanced scorecard performance system used to examine 29 key performance indicators over a 5-year period in Afghanistan, between 2004 and 2008

Examining the joint effects of strategic priorities, use of management control systems, and personal background on hospital performance

This study aims to respond to recent calls for a better understanding of the factors that support the effectiveness of formal control practices in hospitals. Based on survey data from 117 top-level managers in Belgian hospitals, the study investigates the performance effects of the alignment between the use of performance measurement systems (PMS), strategic priorities, and the particular role top-level managers’ personal background plays in this context. The quantitative results suggest that it is the top-level managers’ personal background that brings to life the benefits of the alignment between the use of PMS and strategic priorities in hospitals. Specifically, this paper shows that when the emphasis on partnership or governance strategic priority is high, the effect of the interactive use of PMS on hospital performance is more positive for top-level managers with a clinical background than for those with an administrative background. This study offers value for practitioners in that it supports the argument that hospitals can benefit from involving physicians in the top-level management team

Has management accounting research been critical?

This paper examines the contributions Management Accounting Research (MAR) has (and has not) made to social and critical analyses of management accounting in the twenty-five years since its launch. It commences with a personalised account of the first named author’s experiences of behavioural, social and critical accounting in the twenty-five years before MAR appeared. This covers events in the UK, especially the Management Control Workshop, Management Accounting Research conferences at Aston, the Inter-disciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conferences; key departments and professors; and elsewhere the formation of pan-European networks, and reflections on a years’ visit to the USA. Papers published by MAR are analysed according to year of publication, country of author and research site, research method, research subject (type of organization or subject studied), data analysis method, topic, and theory. This revealed, after initial domination by UK academics, increasing Continental European influence; increasing use of qualitative methods over a wide range of topics, especially new costing methods, control system design, change and implementation, public sector transformation, and more recently risk management and creativity. Theoretical approaches have been diverse, often multi-disciplinary, and have employed surprisingly few economic theories relative to behavioural and social theories. The research spans mainly large public and private sector organisations especially in Europe. Seven themes perceived as of interest to a social and critical theory analysis are evaluated, namely: the search for ‘Relevance Lost’ and new costing; management control, the environment and the search for ‘fits’; reconstituting the public sector; change and institutional theory; post-structural, constructivist and critical contributions; social and environmental accounting; and the changing geography of time and space between European and American research. The paper concludes by assessing the contributions of MAR against the aspirations of groups identified in the opening personal historiography, which have been largely met. MAR has made substantial contributions to social and critical accounting (broadly defined) but not in critical areas endeavouring to give greater voice and influence to marginalised sectors of society worldwide. Third Sector organisations, politics, civil society involvement, development and developing countries, labour, the public interest, political economy, and until recently social and environmental accounting have been neglected