Controlling Telework: An Exploratory Investigation of Portfolios of Control Applied to Remote Knowledge Workers

Abstract Enabled by the development of information technologies, telecommuting and telework have been incorporated into organizations for around 30 years. However, there still exists resistance to this work arrangement, particularly from middle-level managers. Formal knowledge about how to manage telework is needed to keep the managers better informed. I conducted a qualitative exploratory study to investigate how managers exercise controls in the telework environment and examined the role of the use of information technologies in organizational controls in this work environment. Based on interview data with people from two work groups that participate in telework program, I found that the managers exercise a portfolio of controls that consist all four documented control forms (outcome, behavior, clan and self control), and controlling the employees’ adoption and use of information technologies is a new form of behavior control in the telework environment

An Empirical Study on the Adoption of Instant Messages for Work Purposes

Instant messenger (IM), a communication technology originally used by individuals in their personal lives, has been increasingly adopted and used to facilitate work-related activities. Up to now, empirical research on IM use is still lacking. We conducted a qualitative study collecting interview data from a work group using IM for work purposes. We found that people have formed various patterns of IM adoption. Drawing on the theory of structure and agency, we explained that the adoption patterns are formed by both the group-level structures (peer pressure, social impact, managerial rules) and the individual-level agency factors (users’ free choice based on their technology use history, age, and use habits)

A TETRAD-based Approach for Theory Development in Information Systems Research

Theory development and theory testing are two primary processes in social science research. Statistical methods and tools are used in various stages of these processes. Information systems researchers have employed many statistical methods and tools for theory testing. However, very few statistical approaches are known to help researchers with theory development. In this paper, we introduce TETRAD as a powerful approach to aid researchers in developing and discovering new theoretical relationships. We illustrate the TETRAD approach by re-analyzing data from two articles published in premier information systems journals. The results from the previous examples demonstrate that TETRAD is a useful tool for uncovering potential theoretical relationships, especially when prior knowledge of underlying theory bases is lacking. We demonstrate that TETRAD is an effective and powerful statistical tool that can assist researchers in the iterative process of theory development

The Impact Of Relationships And Confucian Ethics On Chinese Employees’ Whistle-Blowing Willingness In Software Projects

One of the reasons why software projects suffer from high failure rate is that employees working on the project are often reluctant to blow the whistle informing the upper-level management about the failing status of the project. In this study, we examine the impacts of organizational commitment, interpersonal closeness, and Confucian ethics on the employees’ whistle-blowing intentions in the Eastern culture context. Based on data collected from 144 Chinese MBA students, we found that the relationship with the organization and that with the wrongdoer both significantly affect the employees’ willingness to blow the whistle. With respect to the influence of Confucian ethics, we found that the employee’s ethical disposition on loyalty between sovereign and subject positively affects the whistleblowing willingness, and the employee’s ethical disposition on trust between friends positively moderates the relationship between closeness with the wrongdoer and the whistle-blowing willingness

Strongly enhanced dielectric and energy storage properties in lead-free perovskite titanate thin films by alloying

Lead-free perovskite oxide thin films prepared by alloying of titanates and materials with lower melting points are shown to have enhanced ferroelectric and dielectric properties. BaTiO3 (or SrTiO3) with 25% addition of BiFeO3 has much improved crystalline perfection because of the lower melting point of the BiFeO3 giving enhanced growth kinetics. The maximum dielectric peak temperature of BaTiO3 is increased by similar to 200 degrees C and leakage currents are reduced by up to a factor of similar to 100. The loss tangent reduces up to 300 degrees C, with a factor of > 14 reduction at room temperature. The dielectric breakdown strength is higher by a factor of similar to 3 (> 2200 kV cm(-1)) and from room temperature up to 500 degrees C the dielectric constant is > 1000. Also, a low variation of dielectric constant of similar to 9% from room temperature to 330 degrees C is obtained, compared to similar to 110% for BaTiO3. The maximum polarization (P-max) is double that of BaTiO3, at 125.3 mu C cm(-2). The film has high energy storage densities of > 52 J cm(-3) at 2050 kV cm(-1), matching Pb-based ferroelectric films. The strongly improved performance is important for applications in energy storage and in high temperature (up to 300 degrees C) capacitors as well as wider application in other electronic and energy technologie

QTL mapping and BSA-seq map a major QTL for the node of the first fruiting branch in cotton

Understanding the genetic basis of the node of the first fruiting branch (NFFB) improves early-maturity cotton breeding. Here we report QTL mapping on 200 F2 plants and derivative F2:3 and F2:4 populations by genotyping by sequencing (GBS). BC1F2 population was constructed by backcrossing one F2:4 line with the maternal parent JF914 and used for BSA-seq for further QTL mapping. A total of 1,305,642 SNPs were developed between the parents by GBS, and 2,907,790 SNPs were detected by BSA-seq. A high-density genetic map was constructed containing 11,488 SNPs and spanning 4,202.12 cM in length. A total of 13 QTL were mapped in the 3 tested populations. JF914 conferred favorable alleles for 11 QTL, and JF173 conferred favorable alleles for the other 2 QTL. Two stable QTL were repeatedly mapped in F2:3 and F2:4, including qNFFB-D3-1 and qNFFB-D6-1. Only qNFFB-D3-1 contributed more than 10% of the phenotypic variation. This QTL covered about 24.7 Mb (17,130,008–41,839,226 bp) on chromosome D3. Two regions on D3 (41,779,195–41,836,120 bp, 41,836,768–41,872,287 bp) were found by BSA-seq and covered about 92.4 Kb. This 92.4 Kb region overlapped with the stable QTL qNFFB-D3-1 and contained 8 annotated genes. By qRT-PCR, Ghir_D03G012430 showed a lower expression level from the 1- to 2-leaf stage and a higher expression level from the 3- to 6-leaf stage in the buds of JF173 than that of JF914. Ghir_D03G012390 reached the highest level at the 3- and 5-leaf stages in the buds of JF173 and JF914, respectively. As JF173 has lower NFFB and more early maturity than JF914, these two genes might be important in cell division and differentiation during NFFB formation in the seedling stage. The results of this study will facilitate a better understanding of the genetic basis of NFFB and benefit cotton molecular breeding for improving earliness traits

Upper Critical Field and Kondo Effects in Fe(Te0.9Se0.1) Thin Films by Pulsed Field Measurements

The transition temperatures of epitaxial films of Fe(Te(0:9)Se(0:1)) are remarkably insensitive to applied magnetic field, leading to predictions of upper critical fields B(c2)(T = 0) in excess of 100 T. Using pulsed magnetic fields, we find B(c2)(0) to be on the order of 45 T, similar to values in bulk material and still in excess of the paramagnetic limit. The same films show strong magnetoresistance in fields above B(c2)(T), consistent with the observed Kondo minimum seen above T(c). Fits to the temperature dependence in the context of the WHH model, using the experimental value of the Maki parameter, require an effective spin-orbit relaxation parameter of order unity. We suggest that Kondo localization plays a similar role to spin-orbit pair breaking in making WHH fits to the data

Transformational dynamics of BZO and BHO nanorods imposed by Y2O3 nanoparticles for improved isotropic pinning in YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films

An elastic strain model was applied to evaluate the rigidity of the c-axis aligned one-dimensional artificial pinning centers (1D-APCs) in YBa2Cu3O7-δ matrix films. Higher rigidity was predicted for BaZrO3 1D-APCs than that of the BaHfO3 1D-APCs. This suggests a secondary APC doping of Y2O3 in the 1D-APC/YBa2Cu3O7-δ nanocomposite films would generate a stronger perturbation to the c-axis alignment of the BaHfO3 1D-APCs and therefore a more isotropic magnetic vortex pinning landscape. In order to experimentally confirm this, we have made a comparative study of the critical current density Jc (H, θ, T) of 2 vol.% BaZrO3 + 3 vol.%Y2O3 and 2 vol.%BaHfO3 + 3 vol.%Y2O3 double-doped (DD) YBa2Cu3O7-δ films deposited at their optimal growth conditions. A much enhanced isotropic pinning was observed in the BaHfO3 DD samples. For example, at 65 K and 9.0 T, the variation of the Jc across the entire θ range from θ=0 (H//c) to θ=90 degree (H//ab) is less than 18% for BaHfO3 DD films, in contrast to about 100% for the BaZrO3 DD counterpart. In addition, lower α values from the Jc(H) ∼ H-α fitting were observed in the BaHfO3 DD films in a large θ range away from the H//c-axis. Since the two samples have comparable Jc values at H//c-axis, the improved isotropic pinning in BaHfO3 DD films confirms the theoretically predicted higher tunability of the BaHfO3 1D-APCs in APC/YBa2Cu3O7-δ nanocomposite films