Management of Information Systems Outsourcing: Challenges and Lessons Learned

To be successful in Information Systems (IS) outsourcing the necessity of better management practices has been pointed out.This research contributes to the knowledge base on management of IS outsourcing by addressing management of ISoutsourcing relationships. The research describes two cases of IS outsourcing relationships that differ in type of activityoutsourced, IS development versus IS maintenance and operation, and relationship composition. From the cases lessonslearnt are identified which with support from IS outsourcing literature are proposed as propositions for management of ISoutsourcing. It can be concluded that if the propositions, related to negotiation, communication and way of working, areadopted in an early stage they could contribute to successful IS outsourcing relationships. Another conclusion is that the ISoutsourcing management approach should not differ between type of IS activity outsourced, but rather reflect the nature ofthe IS activity; if it is a simple or complex activity

A Voice for the Voiceless: Young Women's Leadership Experiences in Zimbabwe

The purpose of the study has been to gain an understanding of how socio-cultural structures and gender norms affect young women’s leadership possibilities. This has been explored through a qualitative case study focusing on how young women leaders, working with sexual and reproductive health rights issues, experience and pursue leadership in Zimbabwe. A theoretical framework based on contextual and relational understandings of women’s leadership and theories of gender relations, intersectionality and body politics was used to analyze the empirical data. The findings revealed that young women leaders have to challenge gender norms and confront negative attitudes as they are perceived as going against women’s expected role in society. In relation to other women leaders within the women’s movement, conflicts between young and older generations were evident. Mentorship and cooperation was seen as main opportunities to facilitate for more young women to pursue leadership. The study’s results showed that young women are put under a lot of pressure in terms of being leaders in an environment that is mainly dominated by men and older women, but also in terms of being role models for other “voiceless” young women

Samspelet mellan fredsprocessers utformning och spoilergruppers agerande: En fallstudie av fredsprocessen i Nordirland

The aim of this thesis is to analyze how different phases of peace processes are related to the behaviour of spoiler groups, and to illustrate this with a case study of the peace process in Northern Ireland. The thesis divides the peace process in three different phases: the prenegotiations, the official negotiations and the implementation phase. In each phase three variables are analyzed: the composition and function of the phase, the behaviour of spoiler groups and their influence on the negotiations. This study concludes that the varying composition of the different phases may lead to different types of spoiler behaviour. In the prenegotiation phase, the spoiler groups aim at manoeuvring the peace process in line with their own agenda. During the official negotiations some groups attempt to spoil the negotiations while others attempt to orientate the talks to achieve advantages for themselves. The behaviour of spoiler groups in these phases is subject to the inclusive character of the peace process, the mistrust between the parties and the lack of political progress in the negotiations. In the implementation phase, the spoiler behaviour is aimed at achieving a renegotiation of the peace accord or preventing the implementation of the agreement. The spoiler behaviour correlates with the composition of the peace accord, e.g. concerning how the accord states that the changes are to be implemented and concerning the potential gains that the accord may bring the parties

Konflikten i Colombia - en studie av faktorer i nya krig

Det har i Colombia sedan 1960-talet pågått en konflikt mellan regeringen och olika väpnade grupper. Konflikten har visat sig vara svårlöst. Vi har utgått från Mary Kaldors teori om nya krig för att analysera vilken roll olika faktorer har spelat i konflikten, för att sedan kunna dra slutsatser om de har försvårat en konfliktlösning. De väpnade gruppernas ökade inblandning i narkotikahandeln har lett till att de har kunnat finansiera sin fortsatta krigföring. Konsekvenserna av detta har blivit att de delvis frångått sin ideologiska målsättning, då de tjänar på att upprätthålla konflikten. Vidare har våldet mot civilbefolkningen ökat, till följd av gruppernas nya krigföring där erövring av territorium sker genom folkfördrivning och mord. Den colombianska regeringens strategier för bekämpning av de väpnade grupperna har förändrats för att svara mot det nya konfliktmönstret. Regeringens strategier har möjliggjorts till följ av den internationella bekämpningen av terrorism. Regeringens säkerhetsstrategi har försvårat lösningen av konflikten, då den genom att stämpla gerillan som terrorister exkluderar dem från den politiska arenan

The process of identifying, solving and preventing drug related problems in the LIMM-study

Objective To avoid negative effects of drug treatment and need for additional medical care, drug treatment must be individualised. Our research group has developed a model for clinical pharmacy which improves several aspects of the patient's drug treatment. This study describes the process behind these improvements, i.e. drug related problems identified by pharmacists within a clinical pharmacy service. Setting Three wards at a department of internal medicine. Method Pharmacists performed systematic interventions during the patient's hospital stay, aiming to identify, solve and prevent drug related problems in the elderly. Identified drug related problems were put forward to the health care team and discussed. Information on identified problems, and their outcomes was collected and analysed. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the health care personnel's attitudes towards the process. Main outcome measure The number of drug related problems identified by the clinical pharmacists, the proportion of problems discussed with the physicians, the proportion of problems adjusted by the physicians and whether pharmacists and physicians prioritised any subgroup of drug related problems when choosing which problems to address. Finally, we wanted to evaluate the health care personnel's attitudes towards the model. Results In total, 1,227 problem were identified in 190 patients. The pharmacists discussed 685 (55.8%) of the identified problems with the physicians who accepted 438 (63.9%) of the suggestions. There was no significant difference in which subgroup to put forward and which to adjust. There was a high response rate (84%) to the questionnaire, and the health care personnel estimated the benefits to be very high, both for the patients and for themselves. Conclusion The process for identifying, solving and preventing drug related problems was good and the different types of problems were considered equally important. The addition of a clinical pharmacy service was considered very useful. This suggests that the addition of our clinical pharmacy service to the hospital setting add skills of great importance

Is breast cancer prognosis inherited?

Introduction: A genetic component is well established in the etiology of breast cancer. It is not well known, however, whether genetic traits also influence prognostic features of the malignant phenotype. Methods: We carried out a population-based cohort study in Sweden based on the nationwide Multi-Generation Register. Among all women with breast cancer diagnosed from 1961 to 2001, 2,787 mother-daughter pairs and 831 sister pairs with breast cancer were identified; we achieved complete follow-up and classified 5-year breast cancer-specific prognosis among proband (mother or oldest sister) into tertiles as poor, intermediary, or good. We used Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival proportions and Cox models to calculate relative risks of dying from breast cancer within 5 years depending on the proband's outcome. Results: The 5-year survival proportion among daughters whose mothers died within 5 years was 87% compared to 91% if the mother was alive (p = 0.03). Among sisters, the corresponding proportions were 70% and 88%, respectively (p = 0.001). After adjustment for potential confounders, daughters and sisters of a proband with poor prognosis had a 60% higher 5-year breast cancer mortality compared to those of a proband with good prognosis (hazard ratio [HR], 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2 to 2.2; p for trend 0.002). This association was slightly stronger among sisters (HR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.0 to 3.4) than among daughters (HR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.3). Conclusion: Breast cancer prognosis of a woman predicts the survival in her first-degree relatives with breast cancer. Our novel findings suggest that breast cancer prognosis might be inherited

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Kommunikation mellan enheter i multinationella organisationer - En studie om hur kommunikationen mellan en kinesisk och en svensk enhet kan optimeras

Studien syftar till att undersöka hur en optimal kommunikation mellan enheter i multinationella organisationer kan etableras, samt vilka möjligheter och barriärer sådana organisationer står inför gällande kommunikation. Den teoretiska referensramen består av olika delar som samtliga behandlar ämnet kommunikation. Tidigare forskning om interkulturell kommunikation blandas med studier om hur tekniska kommunikationsmedel påverkar kommunikationen. Även studier om språklig mångfald, samt en modell som beskriver kommunikationens komplexitet har använts. Studien är genomförd på en kinesisk enhet i en multinationell organisation, enheten har dagligen kontakt med en annan enhet i Sverige. Intervjuerna har genomförts på plats i Kina med sex medarbetare med kinesisk bakgrund och tre medarbetare med svensk bakgrund. Studiens resultat tyder på att multinationella organisationer står inför svårigheter med kommunikationen mellan olika enheter, bland annat på grund av att båda parter ofta kommunicerar på sitt andraspråk. Kulturella skillnader kan också vara en barriär om det får till följd att de olika enheterna har olika sätt att kommunicera, men studien understryker att organisationer inte bör fokusera på olika nationskulturer när de ska förklara och hantera kommunikativa svårigheter. Avsaknaden av direktkommunikation ansikte mot ansikte är också något som försvårar, eftersom det leder till att organisationerna måste använda sig av mer datorbaserad kommunikation. Användningen av den typen av kommunikation tar bort många av de mekanismer som finns vid kommunikation ansikte mot ansikte och gör därför kommunikationen mindre effektiv. Det krävs därför att organisationens medlemmar kan använda ett flertal olika kommunikationsmedel, samt är medvetna om i vilken situation ett visst kommunikationsmedel bör användas. En möjlighet som identifierats är att organisationerna mer medvetet kan utnyttja företagsgemensamma, i detta fall tekniska, termer som individerna delar samma tolkningar av, för att underlätta för individer på de olika enheterna att förstå varandra. En god relation förenklar kommunikationen och multinationella företag bör därför säkerställa att medarbetarna på de olika enheterna besöker varandra, och på så sätt förbättrar relationer. Besöken måste vara välplanerade och uppfylla sitt syfte och därför bör även besöken, precis som de företagsgemensamma termerna, användas mer medvetet

A Conceptual Framework for Studying the Successful Outcome of the IS Outsourcing Process from a Relationship Perspective

This thesis has its point of departure in the identified knowledge gap, which includes the importance of the information systems (IS) outsourcing relationship for studying the success of IS outsourcing. This research study, therefore, is structured with the belief that the disregard of the client-IS supplier relationship when studying IS outsourcing is paradoxical. Paradoxical since the impact of the relationship on the overall IS outsourcing can make the difference between success, less success and even failure. In contrast to the majority of prior research, which has focused IS outsourcing in its entirety, this research study percieves IS outsourcing as a process. Because prior research shows that the success or failure of IS outsourcing is connected to its implementation, this thesis focuses the post-contract stage of the IS outsourcing. The purpose chosen and addressed is to develop a conceptual framework for describing and explaining the degree of successful outcome of the IS outsourcing process using a relationship perspective. To approach this purpose, a literature review study is conducted. The literature review study includes the integration of three theoretical fields: IS, interorganisational business relationships and IS outsourcing. The knowledge domains of particular interest are 'strategies, approaches and frameworks for the IS life cycle', 'the interaction approach' and 'IS outsourcing success'. The purpose is focused through the identification of key conditions, dimensions and interrelations among dimensions. These identified elements, constituting the core elements of the conceptual framework, are a result of the conducted literature review study. The key conditions are identified according to their influence on the degree of successful outcome of the IS outsourcing process from a relationship perspective. Due to the large amount of key conditions identified, they are categorised into nine dimensions: Atmosphere, Behaviour, Contract, Environment, Interatction, IS, Management, Organisation and Outcome. The identified interrelations among these dimensions are fruitful since they provide insights and a favourable point of departure for studying the degree of successful outcome of IS outsourcing processes. The main contribution of this thesis is the conceptual framework for the IS outsourcing process. The key conditions, dimensions and interrelations constitute the conceptual framework as a result of their potential for describing and explaining the degree of successful outcome of the IS outsourcing process from a relationship perspective. The application of the conceptual framework provides managers with core elements to be considered during IS outsourcing decision-making and subsequent design of IS outsourcing. Its usage, moreover, is believed to support managers during the operationalisation of the post-contract stage of IS outsourcing processes. Finally, the conceptual framework is a fruitful 'tool' for future empirical research. Fruitful in the sense that it can provide useful and important insights into how different key conditions infuence the degree of successful outcome of IS outsourcing processes and how these key conditions are interrelated