Investigating Coordination Indicators in Epidemiological Surveillance for Influenza

Containing infectious disease requires coordination among various epidemiology organizations on a global basis. Coordination at a global level is dependent epidemiological surveillance processes that, while under the management of local epidemiology departments, require the participation of a disparate group of non-epidemiologists. In this paper, the influenza virus is isolated to examine if strong analytic process coordination is occurring in practice for this annually reoccurring disease. Confirmatory factor analysis is utilized on 2,484 cases of influenza recorded during a 15-month timeframe in the epidemiological database of a local public health department. The results confirm the presence of four, primary constructs that underlie this analytical process. The results suggest that coordination conflict is substantial even with a cyclically, reoccurring disease. The analysis demonstrates how theory and methodology can intertwine to assist in identifying process coordination and conflict in epidemiological surveillance, and support the application of this analysis approach to other analytical processes

Assessing Value in Organizational Knowledge Creation: Considerations for Knowledge Workers

This is the published version. Copyright 2005 MIS Quarterly.To maintain competitive advantage, a firm's investment decisions related to knowledge creation are likely to be strategic in nature. However, strategic investments usually have an element of risk linked to uncertain and deferred investment benefits. To date, such investment decisions relating to knowledge workers have not been extensively researched. In this paper, we explore the following research question: How do we strategically assess knowledge creation over time giving consideration to complex decision criteria in order to improve organizational value? We develop a model based on economic and organization theory for assessing organizational value with regard to knowledge creation investments. Our model prototype provides managers with a learning tool relating to the timing and selection of knowledge creation investments. Our own use of the tool in simulation experiments yielded several insights which suggest that the decisions typically made by managers may dilute knowledge creation investments. Our results demonstrate that the organizational benefit of knowledge creation processes should be well aligned with near-term tasks. Under instances of high knowledge depreciation, however, it is unlikely that individual workers can optimize knowledge creation process decisions without organizational involvement in matching skills to task complexities. The organizational benefits of consistent and frequent knowledge creation process participation increase over time as the match of skills and task complexities improve

Assessing Value in Organizational Knowledge Creation: Considerations for Knowledge Workers

To maintain competitive advantage, a firm\u27s investment decisions related to knowledge creation are likely to be strategic in nature. However, strategic investments usually have an element of risk linked to uncertain and deferred investment benefits. To date, such investment decisions relating to knowledge workers have not been extensively researched. In this paper, we explore the following research question: How do we strategically assess knowledge creation over time giving consideration to complex decision criteria in order to improve organizational value? We develop a model based on economic and organization theory for assessing organizational value with regard to knowledge creation investments. Our model prototype provides managers with a learning tool relating to the timing and selection of knowledge creation investments. Our own use of the tool in simulation experiments yielded several insights which suggest that the decisions typically made by managers may dilute knowledge creation investments. Our results demonstrate that the organizational benefit of knowledge creation processes should be well aligned with near-term tasks. Under instances of high knowledge depreciation, however, it is unlikely that individual workers can optimize knowledge creation process decisions without organizational involvement in matching skills to task complexities. The organizational benefits of consistent and frequent knowledge creation process participation increase over time as the match of skills and task complexities improve