Technique for risk identification of software acquisition and information technologies

In this chapter, the authors present the automatization of a technique for identifying the risks that may affect software acquisition projects. The proposed technique can have an impact in two software acquisition areas: 1) acquisition software contract for: Fully Developed (FD) software, Modified-Off-The-Shelf (MOTS) software, and Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software; and 2) information technology services contract, which can be a result of using the required technological tools for the operation of any organization. In both cases, it is indispensable to manage and address (track) the risks that may affect the success of any project type mentioned above

Friends or Foe?Unravelling the role of familiness in promoting business ethics in the workplace

Scholars have argued that business ethics is a crucial ingredient for the successful recipe of human resource management. However, little is known about the factors that trigger an organizational commitment towards the promotion of an ethical approach in crafting human resource management practices. This is especially true for family firms, whose ethical slant in devising human resource management practices has been under-researched. This chapter intends to push forward our knowledge in the field of business ethics investigating the role of familiness in determining ethically-rooted human resource management practices among small and medium-sized enterprises. More specifically, the authors investigated how awareness of business ethics issues and formalization of human resource management policies and practices affect the SMEs commitment to ethics. Family firms were found to be aware of the ethical challenges that characterize human resource management; however, no evidence was retrieved about the role of familiness in triggering an ethical commitment in managing human resources

Beyond the Media Literacy. Complex Scenarios and New Literacies for the Future Education

The advent of new media and web technologies made both contents and “containers” more “liquid” and requires an in depth reflection on the multi-facets concept of literacy in which the author tries to develop from an education point of view that can be defined as “experiential”. According to such reflection, in the present scenarios, the “design” becomes central to education, underlining the need of educational activities, which should include among their objectives the dissemination of what one may call “design literacy”