Business Commons^™

Outcomes Of Enterprise Resource Planning System On Organizational Productivity, Tambei Chiawah, William G. Dzekashu, Walter R. Mccollum, Evelyn E. Fomuso

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Leaders within local government organizations do not understand how to achieve expected and desired benefits from the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The lack of alignment between social and technical elements in ERP implementation continues to depress organizational productivity. The prime objective of our quantitative correlational study was to examine whether social and technical elements increase use and productivity in ERP implementation. Sociotechnical systems theory provided the theoretical basis for our study. We examined six dimensional variables relating to ERP implementation. Our key findings indicated positive significant relationships between ERP and information sharing, between ERP system quality and …

“It Felt Like Having A Second Job”: Perspectives From Deaf Professionals On Communication Equity In The Workplace, Paul B. Harrelson, Brenda S. Nicodemus

JADARA

More than 50 years of nondiscrimination legislation in the United States has resulted in greater diversity in the workplace; however, questions persist about the communication equity of Deaf employees who use a signed language. In this study, we investigate systemic factors that underlie the provision of signed language interpreting services in the workplace. Using the Critical Incident Technique, observations were collected from 17 Deaf professionals regarding the systems of interpreter provision at work. The data resulted in four main findings: (1) Deaf professionals hold a sophisticated understanding of their communication needs, (2) both quality and quantity of interpreting are important, …

Strategy Resilience: Getting Wise About Philanthropic Strategy In A Post-Pandemic World, Jewlya Lynn, Clare Nolan, Peter Waring

The Foundation Review

Public and private systems worldwide have been disrupted by COVID-19, cutting across all types of philanthropic priorities. Amid this uncertainty, some philanthropic strategies have struggled to find their footing while others have adapted easily, harnessing previously unanticipated opportunities to achieve change. Why have some philanthropic strategies been more successful than others? What wisdom can we draw from this moment that can help us prepare for the future?

During times of crisis, the concept of resilience is frequently applied to nonprofit organizations and their leaders. This article flips the vantage point toward funders, proposing a theory to explain what makes some …

A Neighborhood-Based Family Center Redesign Process: Taking A Systems Perspective, Patricia Bowie, Richard Sussman

The Foundation Review

This article describes how the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, with a subset of its grantees and their program recipients, teamed with the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities to redesign its evaluation process.

The foundation’s shift from traditional program evaluation to a more participatory, learning-focused approach resulted in new tools to assess variables that had been previously unexamined but were critical to program success.

This article examines the redesign process and those new tools – the data from which are being used to improve employee engagement and front-line practice as part of a cross-agency learning network – …

Informing Destination Recommender Systems Design And Evaluation Through Quantitative Research, Ulrike Gretzel, Yeong-Hyeon Hwang, Daniel Fesenmaier

Ulrike Gretzel

Purpose - Destination recommender systems need to become truly human-centric in their design and functionality. This requires a profound understanding of human interactions with technology as well as human behavior related to information search and decision-making in the context of travel and tourism. This paper seeks to review relevant theories that can support the development and evaluation of destination recommender systems and to discuss how quantitative research can inform such theory building and testing. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a review of information search and decision-making literatures, a framework for the development of destination recommender systems is proposed and the implications …

An Analysis Of Safety Culture & Safety Training: Comparing The Impact Of Union, Non-Union, And Right To Work Construction Venues, Harry Miller Csp, Tara Hill, Kris Mason, John S. Gaal Edd

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

The construction industry is one of the most dangerous sectors of the US economy. As such, the safety attitudes and climate within small (residential) contracting firms may play a role in providing a safe culture and working environment. The intent of this practitioner-based research study is to compare and determine if there is a difference in safety practices—based on documented field inspections and their related original number of violations observed by OSHA—between union residential carpentry contractors in the St. Louis area and:

1) non-union residential carpentry contractors in the St. Louis area;

2) non-union residential carpentry contractors across Missouri; and …

Analysis United Kingdom And United States Healthcare, Joyce K. Kutin

Joyce K Kutin RN, MSN, MOL

United Kingdom and the United States are two dissimilar health systems each having uniquely differing focuses, where the primary differences are a parliamentary verses a republic government application toward the socioeconomic requirements of the populace. The United Kingdom’s National Health Service interprets health care as a public service rather than the commodity. The United States healthcare system is riddled with disparities regarding quality, access and cost. The socioeconomic poor and or homeless are less likely to utilize the healthcare system when compared to others who are more fortunate. Health care systems are facing the same challenges around the world with …

Usability Testing Of Public Health Web-Based Information Systems, Sumayya Banna, Kholoud Alkayid, Helen M. Hasan, Joseph A. Meloche

Sumayya a Banna

While the Internet provides many opportunities for increased levels of care and access to information services in the area of public health, many web designers are not yet taking full advantage of its potential. This study looks at Intensive Care and Palliative Care, as important instances where health informatics could improve public web-based services, in meeting the particular information needs of family members of critically and chronically ill patients. This study is significant in adopting an approach to the usability testing of websites based on concepts from Activity Theory. This takes a realistic and practical approach, which identifies the purpose …

Application Of Human Reasoning In Question Answering Systems, Farhad Oroumchian, E. Darudi, M. Rahgozar, B. Ofogi

Farhad Oroumchian

No abstract provided.

Usability Testing Of Public Health Web-Based Information Systems, Sumayya Banna, Kholoud Alkayid, Helen M. Hasan, Joseph A. Meloche

Helen Hasan

While the Internet provides many opportunities for increased levels of care and access to information services in the area of public health, many web designers are not yet taking full advantage of its potential. This study looks at Intensive Care and Palliative Care, as important instances where health informatics could improve public web-based services, in meeting the particular information needs of family members of critically and chronically ill patients. This study is significant in adopting an approach to the usability testing of websites based on concepts from Activity Theory. This takes a realistic and practical approach, which identifies the purpose …

Socio-Technical Systems: From Individual Transactions To Situated Community Activity, Helen M. Hasan

Helen Hasan

Although basic concepts of Activity Theory were articulated almost a century ago, they have stood the test of time and are proving to be appropriate for research into modem situation involving the use of socio-technical systems. Over the past decades the field of Information Systems has advanced from a focus on routine transaction processing systems to more sophisticated applications that support situated community activity. This chapter will describe how Activity Theory is becoming increasing relevant to these types of systems and can be complemented by other approaches such as Complexity Theory and a particular Knowledge Lens. Research is presented that …

Implementing Systems In Complex Work Organisations, Wannapa Suratmethakul, Helen M. Hasan

Helen Hasan

This paper describes research on a case of the introduction, into a large educational institution, of a complex timetabling system that was already well established in other similar organisations. The research has used a grounded theory approach to reveal details within complex phenomena in an organisation when a substantial new system was implemented. The study revealed three critical issues: Knowledge Transfer, System Capability, and Organisational Context that appeared to be related to the problems of implementing the new information system in the organisation. This research adds to the understanding of a common situation where management have an over simplified view …

Identifying Barriers To Internal Supply Chain Integration Using Systems Thinking, Franciscus Bakker, Tillmann Boehme, Dirk Pieter Van Donk

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This exploratory site-centred research investigates barriers to internal supply chain integration in practice, using systems thinking. A multi-method procedure termed the Quick Scan Audit Methodology is applied to four engineering to order case companies from two different country settings to identify and categorize the actual barriers to internal supply chain integration. The study establishes that the case-significant barriers to internal supply chain integration chiefly relate to behavioral / cultural factors and the organizational arrangement / structures imposed on employees. A cross-case comparison reveals two major clusters of supply chain integration barriers termed “fire-fighting” and “functional-silo mentalities”. The fundamental structures of …

Social Networks, Social Learning And Service Systems Improvement, Andrew Sense, Matthew Pepper

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article illustrates and qualitatively explores the value of understanding the social networks present in a service operation through a case study of a local government service network that manages regional development applications. It also examines how social learning underpins service systems performance improvement and how it is instrumental in creating a richer environment for ongoing service network innovation and development. It is argued that gaining a better understanding of these social networks and the social learning potential in a system offers substantial and highly practitioner-friendly avenues to progress service systems capability development. These fi ndings clearly place an emphasis …

Informing Destination Recommender Systems Design And Evaluation Through Quantitative Research, Ulrike Gretzel, Yeong-Hyeon Hwang, Daniel Fesenmaier

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - Destination recommender systems need to become truly human-centric in their design and functionality. This requires a profound understanding of human interactions with technology as well as human behavior related to information search and decision-making in the context of travel and tourism. This paper seeks to review relevant theories that can support the development and evaluation of destination recommender systems and to discuss how quantitative research can inform such theory building and testing. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a review of information search and decision-making literatures, a framework for the development of destination recommender systems is proposed and the implications …

New Performance Measurement And Management Control Systems, Ted Watts, Carol J. Mcnair-Connolly

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - Focusing on how performance management systems support control, this article seeks to provide two "next-generation" performance scorecards - the Performance Wheel, suitable for most organizations and the Small Business Performance Pyramid, which acknowledges the unique requirements of small business. This development considers the historical development, increasing variety and often the poorly integrated status of performance measurement systems - one of business management's most important tools.

Design/methodology/approach - The paper considers the issues of various performance measurement models - the Performance Pyramid, the Results and Determinants mode, the Balanced Scorecard - through the integration of perspectives, metrics and terminology. …

Strategic Discourse Across Organizational Meetings:Towards A Systems Perspective., Brendan K. O'Rourke, Martin Duffy

Conference Papers

Strategic Discourse across Organizational meetings: Towards a Systems Perspective Abstract This paper presents a tentative theoretical conception of how organizational meetings may be viewed as a system rather than as individual events. Perspectives from process metaphysics(Langley and Tsoukas, 2010), meso-discourse analysis (Alvesson and Karreman, 2000, 2011) and systems thinking (von Bertalanffy, 1969) are adopted, to explore and expand the theoretical resources available to conceptualise a ‘system of meetings’. The primary data draws from 130+ hours of recorded meeting proceedings, spanning 58 meeting events, from multiple sub-groups within a medium sized company.

Dynamic Pricing Support Systems For Diy Retailers - A Case Study From Austria, Martin Natter, Thomas K. Reutterer, Andreas Mild

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Merchandise managers have long dreamt of automated dynamic systems to help them make well-informed pricing decisions. However, such systems have proved as elusive as the Holy Grail - until now, that is. The story of an Austrian DIY retailer shows often undetected opportunities to use valuable information, hidden in retailers' data warehouses, on consumer reactions to previous price changes in order to make automatic pricing and promotion decisions.

Usability Testing Of Public Health Web-Based Information Systems, Sumayya Banna, Kholoud Alkayid, Helen M. Hasan, Joseph A. Meloche

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

While the Internet provides many opportunities for increased levels of care and access to information services in the area of public health, many web designers are not yet taking full advantage of its potential. This study looks at Intensive Care and Palliative Care, as important instances where health informatics could improve public web-based services, in meeting the particular information needs of family members of critically and chronically ill patients. This study is significant in adopting an approach to the usability testing of websites based on concepts from Activity Theory. This takes a realistic and practical approach, which identifies the purpose …

Management Control Systems: A Model For R&D Units, Parulian Silaen, Robert B. Williams

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a proposal for a new conceptual framework for management control systems (MCS) in R&D units. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is a descriptive study that reviews the control literature and proposes an MCS framework in the light of four key elements: desired ends, actors, control implementation, and control tools. Findings - The study found two sub-elements of desired ends (directional and yardstick) to be complementary in a low level of uncertainty, while directional should be emphasized more in a high level of uncertainty. Five sub-elements of actors are used differently along …

Telling Stories Of Libraries And Leadership, Audrey Defrank

Criss Library Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

A presentation outlining the four frames of leadership and storytelling as they relate to libraries. Leadership Orientation Questionnaire; Overview; Inspiration; Leadership; Reframing Leadership; Structural Frame; Human Resources Frame; Political Frame; Symbolic Frame; Where do you fit in the frame?; Native American Storytelling; Organizations as Cultures; Story Narrative; Telling the Story.

The Influence Of Perceived Credibility On Preferences For Recommender Systems As Sources Of Advice, Kyung Hyan Yoo, Ulrike Gretzel

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Recommender systems promise to support travelers in complex decision-making processes; however, whether a recommendation is seen as credible advice and actually taken into account not only depends on travelers' perceptions of the recommendation but also of the system as the advice giver. A scale to measure recommender system credibility was developed and tested. The results confirm that credibility has two dimensions: expertise and trustworthiness. Further, significant gender differences in credibility perceptions were found. The findings also indicate that respondents prefer humans as recommendation sources and that this preference is influenced by perceptions of lack of credibility of recommender systems as …

Optimising User Acceptance Of Mandated Mobile Health Systems (Mhs): The Epoc (Electronic Point-Of-Care) Project Experience, Lois Burgess, Joan Cooper, Jason P. Sargent

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

From a clinical perspective, the use of mobile technologies such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) within hospital environments is not new. A paradigm shift however, is underway towards the acceptance and utility of such systems within community-based healthcare environments. Notwithstanding, introducing new technologies and associated work practices has intrinsic risks which must be addressed. In situations where end-users of a system are traditionally averse to technology through entrenched paper-based work practices (for example, community health workers), the process of managing change bears considerable determination in system implementation success. The authors propose a novel approach to end user acceptance within the …

Systems Dynamics Modelling Of Human And Information Aspects Of Network-Centric Configurations, Helen M. Hasan

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper is based on the definition of a network-centric structure as one which enables members of an organisation to create and leverage information to increase competitive advantage through the joint efforts of creative individuals and independent teams. While the technical components of this environment are enabling, the organisational and behavioural components generate value as traditionally competitive workers strive to cooperate in self-directed, distributed teams. Many organisations are now complex hybrids of hierarchical and network-centric configurations and there is a need to increase our understanding of their human and informational aspects. Due to its suitability for managing complexity without reducing …

N-Gens Of Change: Personal Response Systems And Net-Generation Students, Brian Murphy, Ciorstan J. Smark

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Personal Response Systems are a technology similar to use to a television remote control or a mobile telephone for sending SMS messages. They enable almost instant communication between student and instructor in lecture situations. This paper examines the claims made by Personal Response Systems and considers whether they may be especially appropriate to the preferences and expectations of Net- Generation students. The Net-Generation (also known as N-Gens) is made up of students born between 1981 and 2001. They now make up the bulk of finance students in universities across our region. But have we really adapted our lecturing styles to …

Globalization And National Industrial Relations Systems: Theoretical Implications From The Singapore Case, Tan Ern Ser, Balakrishnan Parasuraman

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In the 1960’s, Kerr and his associates (1973[1960]) — Dunlop, Harbison, and Myers— proposed the convergence thesis, which resonates with the “end of ideology” thesis propounded by Bell (1962). Not surprisingly, the thesis about the inevitability of societal convergence prompted some scholars to look for continuing diversity, an oft-cited prime example being Japan (Dore, 1973). Indeed, until the late 1980’s, Japan was still touted as a critical case which not only defied the convergence thesis, but could also serve as a growth model worthy of emulation by developing countries aspiring to First World living standards and, paradoxically, even developed countries …

Hoglex Demand Systems And Welfare Policy In Major Asean Developing Countries: A Bayesian Analysis Using Expenditure Unit Records, Hikaru Hasegawa, Rebecca Valenzuela, Tran Van Hoa

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

the explicit and estimable HOGLEX demand system ( Tran Van Hoa, 1983, 1985 and Jerison and Jersion 1984) links for the first time an important aspect of economic theory and the statisticals of Box-Cox transformation analysis.

Implementing Systems In Complex Work Organisations, Wannapa Suratmethakul, Helen M. Hasan

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper describes research on a case of the introduction, into a large educational institution, of a complex timetabling system that was already well established in other similar organisations. The research has used a grounded theory approach to reveal details within complex phenomena in an organisation when a substantial new system was implemented. The study revealed three critical issues: Knowledge Transfer, System Capability, and Organisational Context that appeared to be related to the problems of implementing the new information system in the organisation. This research adds to the understanding of a common situation where management have an over simplified view …

Systems Resemblance And Workpractice Evolution: Implications For Work Activity (Re)Design, Rodney J. Clarke

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper is concerned with addressing the question of how apparently disparate and unconnected systems can resemble each other. The question of what counts as a systems resemblance necessitates developing contextual workpractice descriptions associated with the systems features and ultimately entire systems. Using systemic semiotics an apparent ontogenetic convergence between entirely different systems is used to show that systems resemblance can be inferred when the constituent workpractices of information systems consist of comparable register features and especially if they exhibit comparable generic features. The implications of these findings for a new class of work activity (re)design practices are considered.

Application Of Human Reasoning In Question Answering Systems, Farhad Oroumchian, E. Darudi, M. Rahgozar, B. Ofogi

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.