An Integrative Approach to Developing Organisational Capabilities and Individual Skills

The tightly coupled relationship between organisational capability and the skills and competences of the individuals working in that organisation has long been recognised in both the academic literature and by the practitioner community. Simply improving individuals’ skills and hoping that the organisation’s capability automatically improves in tandem is not sufficient, however. This relationship is non-trivial and needs to be actively managed, meaning that people need to have shared goals and not just fragmented learning (Kim, 1993).Prior knowledge and skills at the individual and collective level form the basis for developing capabilities in an organisation (Nieves & Haller, 2014). An organisation’s capabilities, therefore, lie primarily in the organising principles by which individuals’ and functional expertise is structured, coordinated, and communicated (Zander & Kogut, 1995). This requires deliberate intervention by the organisation’s management to enable or drive individual learning to improve organisational capabilities and therefore organisational performance (Vargas, Lloria, & Roig-Dobón, 2016). This brings our focus to organisational learning, which is defined as “increasing an organization’s capacity to take effective action” (Kim, 1993, p. 43), rather than perpetuating a fragmented learning approach.Feedback from users of the Innovation Value Institute’s (IVI) IT-Capability Maturity Framework(IT-CMF)has indicated that while the capability improvement tools provide a roadmap of what needs to be done, there is a gap in terms of how to go about enabling that. Similarly, users of the Skills Framework for the Information Age(SFIA) indicate that it is useful for identifying skills gaps and training requirements,but is less helpful at demonstrating how the organisation has improved following a skills-based intervention. Stakeholders involved with EU initiatives around the development of an ICT Profession have also confirmed the importance of the relationship between individual skills and organisational capability. The lack of a unified approach to this issue of organisational learningthat they identify further corroborates the difficulties in simultaneously addressing organisational capability and individual skills development,Based on this recognised need to address individual skills and organisational capability development in a holistic way, the IVI and the SFIA Foundation have been collaborating to link the capability improving IT-CMF with the skills improving SFIA framework. This was achieved through further collaboration with the British Computer Society (BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT), using their SFIAplusWork Activities as the mechanism through which SFIA and IT-CMF could be connected at a comparable level of alignment between Skills and Capabilities

Governance Framework for ICT Professionalism - Proposal

This research project was launched by the European Commission Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry as part of the European Commission’s on-going e-skills agenda. The specific objective of WP5 is to develop proposals for a pan-European institutional and governance framework for the ICT profession, and as such it is also part of an on-going initiative to mature ICT Professionalism in Europe. This work builds on earlier work undertaken in the 2012 IVI/CEPIS study on a European ICT Professionalism Framework (Mclaughlin et al., 2012) and will be followed by a research project which aims to identify a sustainable operating model for the promotion of ICT professionalism in Europe (European Commission, 2013). The current project aims to support the development of a European institutional and governance framework for ICT professionalism, with the goal of enhancing professionalism and mobility across Europe. The proposed framework has been developed iteratively in conjunction with stakeholder representatives. The research report also includes validated stakeholder value models and recommendations for next steps

Getting better value from IT: integrating organisational capability and skills framework

This paper reports on a collaborative project to integrate an IT organisational capability framework, the IT Capability Maturity Framework (IT-CMF) with an IT skills framework, the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). The aim is to develop an integrated tool and method for improving IT capability at a strategic organisational level through a focused improvement plan which also identifies key skills needed to drive that improvement. The research, policy and practice drivers are discussed and the method of mapping the two frameworks is described. Finally, the proposed user journey and prototype tools are described and plans for future development considered

Selecting a Suitable Methodology for Designing Innovative Solutions to Support Capability Improvement in a Complex Organisational Context as part of an Industry- Academic Collaboration

This paper describes the process of investigating a number of different research methodologies in order to select a suitable approach for an effective Industry-Academic collaborative research project. The research project in question is a 15-month research partnership between a global financial organisation and a research team from a university institute. The aim is to collaboratively design innovative solutions to support the company’s programme to improve their Information Technology (IT) capabilities using the IT Capability Maturity Framework (IT-CMF). A number of potential approaches were investigated, including Action Research (AR), Canonical Action Research (AR), Design Science Research (DSR), Design Thinking/User Experience (UX) and Action Design Research (ADR). Having discussed these approaches, this paper then explains why ADR was chosen as the approach for this project and examines its validity in practice throughout the first half of the project. The key contribution of this paper is a critical discussion of a decision-making process around methodology selection in a current Industry-Academic research project that aims to produce innovative solutions based on an organisational intervention. This problem is relevant to any discipline that engages in Industry-Academic collaboration, particularly with regard to socio-technical problems, including, for example, Information Systems (IS), Management and Organisation Studies

The role of ethics in developing professionalism within the global ICT community

This paper reports on a series of research and policy development projects investigating the development of Information Communication Technology (ICT) as a profession with a specific focus on the role of ethics. It addresses three main issues: to what extent ethics contribute to the development of the professional identity of ICT practitioners; what practices and policies can promote the development of ICT ethics; how these practices and policies can usefully be coordinated internationally. Within the European policy framework, professional ethics is seen as one of the four pillars of ICT professionalism, the others being: competences; bodies of knowledge; education and training. A diverse range of international stakeholders were consulted over a period of four years. The challenges of agreeing on what it means to be an ICT Professional and the best way to develop and implement ethical frameworks in culturally and economically diverse regions are discussed. Findings include the need to: be sensitive to the cultural and economic factors of different regions; integrate work on ethics with other aspects of professionalism; and promote multiple types of engagement with professional ethics

‘Good to know’: An Exploration of the role and Influence of Professional Ethics in ICT Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs)

As our dependency on ever-more complex, opaque, and ubiquitous information and communication technologies (ICTs) increases, ethical concerns about the development of those technologies are also rising. One approach to mitigate these concerns is to improve the maturity of the ICT profession through codification of its knowledge base and professional ethics. In this paper, some key theoretical approaches to ethics with a long-established tradition within Philosophy are explored and how these approaches may manifest in the codification of knowledge within ICT Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs) is discussed. BoKs provide a common vocabulary and knowledge inventory to aid communication and encourage shared values and practices, particularly in emerging professional areas such as the ICT profession. Thus, identifying and understanding how ethics are codified in ICT BoKs is important for maturing ICT professional practice in general, and more specifically, for the resolution of ethical concerns. This paper 1) explores considerations and approaches to how ethics are incorporated within ICT BoKs, and 2) conducts content analysis on how ethics are codified within the content structure of ICT Boks. It is found that theoretical ethical approaches are rarely explicated cited in BoKS though, in the more mature BoKs, the discussion of ethics does include consideration of most of the major philosophical approaches. The implications of how knowledge about ethics is described and integrated into the wider knowledge infrastructure of the ICT profession including curriculum guidelines and accreditation processes is discussed. In a wider contribution to the Knowledge Management discipline, potential lessons to increase maturity for other emerging professions through the development of BoKs are also outlined

Codifying knowledge about ethics into ICT professional Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs): an analysis of approaches.

Ethical concerns about the development and ubiquity of ICT (Information and communications technology) are rising as awareness of our increased dependency on ICT, combined with the potential lack of transparency of new technologies such as IoT and AI, unfold. One way of tackling this is to increase professionalism within ICT, and Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs) are an important part of this. BoKs represent the knowledge needed to function as a profession and are becoming increasingly essential to aid communication and encourage shared values and practices, particularly in emerging professional areas. They are valuable and influential in developing the scope and maturity of the ICT profession and, in turn, ICT development in society. Thus, identifying and understanding the codification of ethics in BoKs is important to maturing ICT professional practice in resolving ethical concerns. This paper 1) explores considerations and approaches to the incorporation of ethics within BoKs, and 2) carries out content analysis on how ethics are codified within the content structure of ICT BoKs. Findings reveal a range of different approaches, which suggests the value of categorising these approaches and developing guidance on a more consistent approach. We conclude by recommending future research for revealing and tackling both overt and implicit aspects to ethics within BoKs

‘Good to know’: An exploration of the role and influence of professional ethics in ICT Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs).

As our dependency on ever-more complex, opaque, and ubiquitous information and communication technologies (ICTs) increases, ethical concerns about the development of those technologies are also rising. One approach to mitigate these concerns is to improve the maturity of the ICT profession through codification of its knowledge base and professional ethics. In this paper, some key theoretical approaches to ethics with a long-established tradition within Philosophy are explored and how these approaches may manifest in the codification of knowledge within ICT Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs) is discussed. BoKs provide a common vocabulary and knowledge inventory to aid communication and encourage shared values and practices, particularly in emerging professional areas such as the ICT profession. Thus, identifying and understanding how ethics are codified in ICT BoKs is important for maturing ICT professional practice in general, and more specifically, for the resolution of ethical concerns. This paper 1) explores considerations and approaches to how ethics are incorporated within ICT BoKs, and 2) conducts content analysis on how ethics are codified within the content structure of ICT Boks. It is found that theoretical ethical approaches are rarely explicitly cited in BoKS though, in the more mature BoKs, the discussion of ethics does include consideration of most of the major philosophical approaches. The implications of how knowledge about ethics is described and integrated into the wider knowledge infrastructure of the ICT profession including curriculum guidelines and accreditation processes is discussed. In a wider contribution to the Knowledge Management discipline, potential lessons to increase maturity for other emerging professions through the development of BoKs are also outlined

Codifying knowledge about ethics into ICT professional Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs): an analysis of approaches.

Ethical concerns about the development and ubiquity of ICT (Information and communications technology) are rising as awareness of our increased dependency on ICT, combined with the potential lack of transparency of new technologies such as IoT and AI, unfold. One way of tackling this is to increase professionalism within ICT, and Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs) are an important part of this. BoKs represent the knowledge needed to function as a profession and are becoming increasingly essential to aid communication and encourage shared values and practices, particularly in emerging professional areas. They are valuable and influential in developing the scope and maturity of the ICT profession and, in turn, ICT development in society. Thus, identifying and understanding the codification of ethics in BoKs is important to maturing ICT professional practice in resolving ethical concerns. This paper 1) explores considerations and approaches to the incorporation of ethics within BoKs, and 2) carries out content analysis on how ethics are codified within the content structure of ICT BoKs. Findings reveal a range of different approaches, which suggests the value of categorising these approaches and developing guidance on a more consistent approach. We conclude by recommending future research for revealing and tackling both overt and implicit aspects to ethics within BoKs

Optically controlling the competition between spin flips and intersite spin transfer in a Heusler half-metal on sub-100 fs timescales

The direct manipulation of spins via light may provide a path toward ultrafast energy-efficient devices. However, distinguishing the microscopic processes that can occur during ultrafast laser excitation in magnetic alloys is challenging. Here, we study the Heusler compound Co2MnGa, a material that exhibits very strong light-induced spin transfers across the entire M-edge. By combining the element-specificity of extreme ultraviolet high harmonic probes with time-dependent density functional theory, we disentangle the competition between three ultrafast light-induced processes that occur in Co2MnGa: same-site Co-Co spin transfer, intersite Co-Mn spin transfer, and ultrafast spin-flips mediated by spin-orbit coupling. By measuring the dynamic magnetic asymmetry across the entire M-edges of the two magnetic sublattices involved, we uncover the relative dominance of these processes at different probe energy regions and times during the laser pulse. Our combined approach enables a comprehensive microscopic interpretation of laser-induced magnetization dynamics on timescales shorter than 100 fs.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figure