Does Mobile Technology Matter? A Student Centric Perspective

Based on a student-centric perspective, this study seeks to understand how mobile technology influences students’ learning experiences. Our research motivation is driven by the increasing attention paid to mobile technology in the research and business community. Set in a public university setting, our investigation seeks to shed light on how teaching and learning could be reshaped by mobile technology, most specifically, emerging tablet PCs. The findings, based on two MIS (Management Information Systems) courses, one graduate and the other undergraduate, suggest that overall students perceived the mobility of tablet PC positively. In addition, graduate students expressed a higher degree of learning satisfaction and greater expectation of future technology usage than undergraduate students. Indeed, mobile technology seems to matter to students’ learning in general. The finding is particularly relevant when considering how to incorporate mobile technology into teaching practice as such technology-driven teaching practice is increasingly being expected in the contemporary networked society. Additional insights for managers, technology vendors, and college instructors are also discussed

Critical Factors and Multisite Implementation of ERP: A Case Study in the UAE

Despite extensive studies in the ERP literature, little empirical understanding has been reached in relation to ERP implementation experiences in developing markets, particularly in the UAE context. Derived from the notions of critical successful factors and multisite implementation, two of widely researched areas in ERP studies, this paper thus seeks to provide practical insights about organizations’ ERP implementation experiences in the UAE setting. More specifically, it describes and contrasts critical factors and multisite implementation experiences in two case organizations situated in the UAE. These case organizations, one being categorized as a global company and the other local, provide interesting comparison of ERP implementation because of their complementary organizational structure and business strategies. In contrast to traditional ERP frameworks’ suggestions, these case organizations’ experiences reveal that contemporary ERP implementations might be more complex than previously expected since none of these case organizations’ ERP experiences follows suggestions made by frameworks based. Further discussion about how to better understand and examine maturing ERP technology in an increasingly globalized business environment such as the UAE is provided

Enhancing learning with authoritative actions: Reflective practice of positive power

Drawing from classic power perspective, my reflective practice illuminates how power action, traditionally recognized as negative and detrimental to teaching process and learning outcomes, could be shaped in a positive way to enhance learning. Insights gained from this action research set in a politically charged and culturally homogenous environment provide critical perspective to the research community and challenge traditional practices of teaching and learning. Implications gained call for attention to critical perspective of empirical studies that could provide lessons for educators and researchers to create a more effective teaching and learning environment with authoritative power. An action framework is created in the end to illustrate how the positive authoritative process can be achieved

Theorizing Collective Green Actions

The notion of “green” has gained increasing attention over the years. Many major companies have made significant attempt to better fit into the green concept. Are these corporate marketing endeavors purely based on their environmental consciousness or driven by their intention to gain social recognition which could in turn reshape their corporate image that better reflects the concerns of environments, climate change, and green IT issues? This question is interesting to explore because the complexity and difficulty of ‘green endeavor’ has been widely addressed among practitioners and researchers. Based on an institutional perspective, this paper thus proposes a theoretical framework that helps organizations analyze these green issues in the competitive marketplaces. Propositions of the framework theorize that organizations will inevitably face various isomorphic pressures that lead them to initiate or follow green actions collectively. Those isomorphic pressures usually stem from influential agencies or initiatives in their respective fields such as REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), the Green Grid, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and European Waste Catalogs (EWC). The implications of this theoretical framework suggest that organizations need to undertake green actions shiftily in order to continuously validate their competitive status in the global, networked economy. The cost of failing to do so, i.e. being ‘not’ green, might be beyond any organization’s measure in the long term. Further implications of collective green actions are made to the UAE local industries and research community

IT Politics in the Domain of Knowledge Workers: A Chronological Analysis

Markus’s study of IT politics has been influential for the IT implementation literature since the 1980s. However, mistakes of the top-down implementation approach could still be easily found in many organizations. Derived from Markus’s notion of interaction theory and Drucker’s work on knowledge workers, this paper illustrates a LMS (learning management systems) implementation case that evolves from such traditional top-down approach. Based on a chronological analysis, the case study narrates how IT politics was shaped in a context where most stakeholders were highly skillful knowledge workers whose academic autonomy was largely overlooked. Reflective discussion suggests how the implementation process might have been better managed. Evidently, even decades after Markus’s and Drucker’s influential work, history still repeated itself and IT politics continued to provide lessons for contemporary IT managers and researchers. Future strategy and implementation approach for campus IT projects and LMS implementation in particular are recommended

Culturally Sensitive IS Teaching: Lessons Learned to Manage Motivation Issues

This paper seeks to raise awareness of culturally sensitive teaching that is largely overlooked in the IS teaching community. In a global, networked environment commonly faced by the contemporary business or academic world, it is imperative to prepare future IT professionals with adequate cultural understanding of such a multicultural environment in which their future work practice will engage. Derived from a teaching case situated in the context of HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in the US, this paper narrates and reflects cultural issues and challenges that are increasingly prevalent in today‟s education systems. More specifically, the study analyzes motivational issues that are commonly observed in a homogeneous student group and provides practice lessons to help educators who might face similar issues in their teaching context to manage those issues. Insights gained from the study help reflect the significance of developing culturally sensitive pedagogy that might require future IS educators‟ and researchers‟ attention

Mobile Technology and Culture Change: A Redefining View of Time and Space

The fast development of mobile technology in recent years has penetrated the global business world. Empirical studies, however, are substantially lagging behind this exponential technology expansion. This study thus seeks to provide a refreshing understanding of organizational changes enabled by mobile technology. More specifically, based on an interpretive approach, my study analyzes how mobile technology redefines the notions of time and space in the organization‟s routines and structures and how such redefining changes in turn subtly transform organizational culture. Valuable practical implications and future research directions are thus suggested

Managing Wireless Networks in the Healthcare Sector: Emerging Experiences of Cultural Impacts

The existing body of knowledge has generally supported that organizational culture plays a significant role in shaping group identity, work pattern, communication schemes, and interpersonal relations; all of these cultural elements are important organizational factors that shape workplaces and operational routines. In the context of emerging information technology, it has also been suggested that organizational culture could affect IT implementation and management. However, little is known about how emerging information technology shapes organizational culture, which in turn helps reshape the organization as a whole. The purpose of this paper is thus to build empirical understanding of how IT in general and emerging wireless networks in particular reshapes organizational culture. Case studies conducted in two hospitals situated in southwest U.S.A. illustrated that the implementation of wireless networks indeed helped shape and/or reshape organizational culture in the healthcare sector and in turn enhance healthcare organizations’ competitiveness in the marketplace. For IT managers and practitioners in healthcare institutions, effective strategy to plan and manage emerging ITs such as wireless networks will thus have long-term implications on cultivating organizational culture that could eventually reshape workplace and competitiveness

Social Perspectives of Globalizing VoIP Technology

Based on theoretical lenses of fads and fashions and isomorphic pressures, this research in progress proposes social perspectives that help understand the rapid penetration of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in the global market. Online interviews between sixteen undergraduate students and their interviewees worldwide provided preliminary understanding which revealed that users often developed awareness of VoIP technology because of their social contacts and their purpose for using VoIP was mostly for maintaining social connections. The potential contribution of such social perspectives on VoIP technology in the global market could thus be expected

The Leapfrog Effects of Wireless Networks for SMEs: Preliminary Findings from a Community Hospital

This article briefly summarizes a case study that investigates how wireless networks renovate a community hospital’s competitive operations. Due to limited resources, this small community hospital failed to follow specific implementation patterns that most large or more advanced hospitals experienced. Consequently, older versions of wireless networks have never been implemented in this hospital. Interestingly, as technology capabilities of wireless networks continued to emerge in the industry, certain leapfrog effects of these emerging wireless technologies helped this hospital to surpass many of its larger competitors who continued to operate on older versions of wireless networks and relevant technologies. This community hospital’s experiences thus provided insightful lessons for other SMEs that are facing constant technological changes in their respective fields