A Dialectical Approach to Information Retrieval: Exploring a Contradiction in Terms

Information retrieval (IR) is the process of representing the meaning of documents so that people who want the information they contain can retrieve them. It is, therefore, centrally concerned with information and meaning. It is concerned with them both on a pragmatic level in terms of designing and making IR systems, and on a theoretical level in terms of why and how these systems work and what this could have to do with the nature of meaning and information. This thesis is primarily about the theoretical and philosophical issues in IR. The main question discussed is the extent to which an investigation into the relationship between the subjective and the objective can improve our understanding of how meaning and information operate in IR. My thesis is that this relationship is a dialectical one, the subjective and the objective exist in a mutually antagonistic and dependent relationship, and that this new perspective on its nature can be theoretically useful for IR. Thus I develop a new theoretical perspective, the dialectical model, which is then used to improve conceptual clarity in a number of difficult and intractable IR problems. The aim is not to solve these problems but to provide a clearer insight into their nature

The Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney: the rise and fall of a musical organisation

The Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney, formed as the Sydney Philharmonic Society in 1885, represented the rich tradition of amateur choral organisations present in Sydney in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Under the strong leadership of two of their conductors, Roberto Hazon and Joseph Bradley, the Philharmonic Society presented the Sydney and Australian premieres of many choral works, engaged the services of many international vocal soloists, performed for full houses, and was invited to perform at many important civic and state events. Yet this organisation has been forgotten by history and the Sydney music community. Although many issues contributed to the decline of this amateur organisation, the strongest factors included the Philharmonic’s inability to maintain consistency in their leadership in later years, a change in general musical trends from amateur vocal performances to professional orchestral concerts, an increase in competition from other entertainments, the establishment of the ABC, and an ongoing lack of support from the city and state governments. These were further exacerbated by the lack of support from members of the Sydney press, particularly the Sydney Morning Herald. Therefore, an in-depth study into the story of the Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney not only uncovers the history of a forgotten music organisation, it also contributes to a deeper understanding of the musical performance culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Sydney

The Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney: the rise and fall of a musical organisation

The Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney, formed as the Sydney Philharmonic Society in 1885, represented the rich tradition of amateur choral organisations present in Sydney in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Under the strong leadership of two of their conductors, Roberto Hazon and Joseph Bradley, the Philharmonic Society presented the Sydney and Australian premieres of many choral works, engaged the services of many international vocal soloists, performed for full houses, and was invited to perform at many important civic and state events. Yet this organisation has been forgotten by history and the Sydney music community. Although many issues contributed to the decline of this amateur organisation, the strongest factors included the Philharmonic’s inability to maintain consistency in their leadership in later years, a change in general musical trends from amateur vocal performances to professional orchestral concerts, an increase in competition from other entertainments, the establishment of the ABC, and an ongoing lack of support from the city and state governments. These were further exacerbated by the lack of support from members of the Sydney press, particularly the Sydney Morning Herald. Therefore, an in-depth study into the story of the Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney not only uncovers the history of a forgotten music organisation, it also contributes to a deeper understanding of the musical performance culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Sydney

When is it time to stop an IT project?

IT projects should deliver value to organizations but there are cases when, however well planned a project may have been, changes in the environment and/or in the strategic priorities of the organization mean it can never deliver value. Value is a subjective term and simply means, in this context, something that is important to the organization which would generally result in profit, in a commercial entity, or improved service, in a public entity. This paper addresses the problem of how to ensure that you will have the capabilities in place to know when your project can no longer deliver value and to take appropriate action. It does not discuss in detail the technical issues of project management execution, as a well-executed project can still fail to deliver value. Rather, it looks at the specific question of knowing when projects can no longer deliver value and putting measures in place to both prevent and address project escalation. We show how a capability based approach supported by the IT-CMF framework can improve your ability to quickly identify projects that have started but now can no longer deliver value. This capability approach increases the agility of the organization and makes it easier to develop and maintain competitive advantage

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

Benefits Assessment and Realization - in the digital business context

In the ever-changing digital business environment, organizations need to be able to adapt quickly and become more agile. The IT Capability Maturity Framework (IT-CMF) is an IT management framework comprised of 36 key areas or Critical Capabilities (CCs) [2], one of which is Benefits Assessment and Realization (BAR). This position paper presents an overview of key insights, to provide context and understanding of the value of organizations having an effective benefits assessment and realization capability in the digital business context, as derived from academic and practitioner literature

Enterprise Information Management: Managing data and information for business advantage

This paper presents an overview of key literature (academic and practitioner) that has informed the Enterprise Information Management (EIM) Critical Capability (CC) of IT-CMF in the digital business context. The paper highlights the key insights that underpin the EIM CC, and presents an up-to-date view of key thinking in this area. The goal of an effective EIM capability is to ensure that quality data and information is available to support the business activities of the organization. It ensures availability of appropriate operational data and information for business transactions, and consistently enables timely and informed decision-making. An effective EIM capability must include strategic integration between business goals and the information and data management strategy to support these. Managing data and information effectively also requires that the IT function supports, rather than drives, an organization’s strategic needs [1]. As a note on terminology, this position paper adopts the view, based on the Data Management Association International’s (DAMA) Body of Knowledge [1] (p.20) that data and information are so closely related that a precise differentiation between their meanings cannot usefully be provided. In terms of how they are managed in organizations, however, it can be useful to make a distinction between them for the purposes of clear communication about the requirements and expectations of different stakeholders e.g. a sales report (information) based on data from the data warehouse (data)

Enterprise Information Management: Managing data and information for business advantage

This paper presents an overview of key literature (academic and practitioner) that has informed the Enterprise Information Management (EIM) Critical Capability (CC) of IT-CMF in the digital business context. The paper highlights the key insights that underpin the EIM CC, and presents an up-to-date view of key thinking in this area. The goal of an effective EIM capability is to ensure that quality data and information is available to support the business activities of the organization. It ensures availability of appropriate operational data and information for business transactions, and consistently enables timely and informed decision-making. An effective EIM capability must include strategic integration between business goals and the information and data management strategy to support these. Managing data and information effectively also requires that the IT function supports, rather than drives, an organization’s strategic needs [1]. As a note on terminology, this position paper adopts the view, based on the Data Management Association International’s (DAMA) Body of Knowledge [1] (p.20) that data and information are so closely related that a precise differentiation between their meanings cannot usefully be provided. In terms of how they are managed in organizations, however, it can be useful to make a distinction between them for the purposes of clear communication about the requirements and expectations of different stakeholders e.g. a sales report (information) based on data from the data warehouse (data)

Knowledge Management in Academic Industry Collaborations: how to best foster Innovation Capability?

Purpose Academic industry collaborations (AIC) are increasingly seen as a key part of national innovation policies as an approach to creating and exploiting knowledge. They, however, present a complex challenge in terms of knowledge management (KM). This is partly due to the wide range of stakeholders, the input of government policy, and also the different cultures, practices and expectations of those involved. The research questions are as follows: RQ1: How do participants perceive and experience knowledge creation and transfer in academic industry collaborations? RQ2: How can the intersection between knowledge management literature and AIC inform and improve both disciplines and practices? Methods (1) An analysis of KM literature in terms of AIC. (2) Exploratory in-depth interviews with participant stakeholders of AIC projects. (3) Findings are then analysed in terms of existing concepts in KM literature. Findings Initial findings suggest that a more in-depth acknowledgement of the role of power, tensions and differences between stakeholders is important in understanding and improving the innovation potential of AIC projects. A more nuanced understanding of knowledge transfer is also needed with tailored approaches for particular project stages and organisations. Practical Implications The role of academic industry collaborations in fostering innovation by facilitating knowledge creation and transfer is seen as increasingly important as a social and political priority but KM has so far not yet engaged fully with this. This paper suggests that extending KM from a primarily organisation level focus to a broader societal focus would be a useful development

Knowledge Management in Academic Industry Collaborations: how to best foster Innovation Capability?

Purpose Academic industry collaborations (AIC) are increasingly seen as a key part of national innovation policies as an approach to creating and exploiting knowledge. They, however, present a complex challenge in terms of knowledge management (KM). This is partly due to the wide range of stakeholders, the input of government policy, and also the different cultures, practices and expectations of those involved. The research questions are as follows: RQ1: How do participants perceive and experience knowledge creation and transfer in academic industry collaborations? RQ2: How can the intersection between knowledge management literature and AIC inform and improve both disciplines and practices? Methods (1) An analysis of KM literature in terms of AIC. (2) Exploratory in-depth interviews with participant stakeholders of AIC projects. (3) Findings are then analysed in terms of existing concepts in KM literature. Findings Initial findings suggest that a more in-depth acknowledgement of the role of power, tensions and differences between stakeholders is important in understanding and improving the innovation potential of AIC projects. A more nuanced understanding of knowledge transfer is also needed with tailored approaches for particular project stages and organisations. Practical Implications The role of academic industry collaborations in fostering innovation by facilitating knowledge creation and transfer is seen as increasingly important as a social and political priority but KM has so far not yet engaged fully with this. This paper suggests that extending KM from a primarily organisation level focus to a broader societal focus would be a useful development