Online customer service and emotional labor: An exploratory study

The recent growth of service industries as well as the rise of e-commerce has increased the number of online customer service workers. Research on face-to-face service work has shown that these workers are expected to display certain emotions in the course of their work, a phenomenon known as emotional labor. However, little is known about emotional communication among online customer service workers. We explored emotional labor in an online context by examining the degree of emotional presence in mediated service interactions and its relationship with workers' acting strategies (i.e., surface acting, deep acting). Further, we examined if emotional presence and acting strategies predict job satisfaction as well as burnout. Data collected from 130 online customer service workers indicated that they perceive the highest emotional presence in phone conversations, followed by email and chat. Although there was little relationship between emotional presence and acting strategies, those who engage in surface acting are less satisfied with their job and more likely to experience burnout. In addition, those who feel a higher degree of emotional presence over the phone tend to experience higher job satisfaction and less burnout. These findings suggest that online customer service workers also engage in emotional labor.     

Social media at work: The roles of job satisfaction,employment status,and Facebook use with co-workers

Limited research has studied workplace satisfaction in a computer-mediated context, particularly with the use of social media. Based on an analysis of an online survey of working adults (N = 512) in various companies and organizations in a metropolitan area in Southern California, we tested the relationships among time spent on Facebook interacting with co-workers, employment status, and job satisfaction. Results show that an employee's satisfaction at work is positively associated with the amount of time they spend on Facebook interacting with co-workers. Contrary to our initial predictions, results to the second and third hypotheses revealed that part time employees reported having spent the highest amount of time on Facebook with their co-workers, and contract employees reported the highest degree of job satisfaction at work. Results have implications for Facebook as a strategic platform for promoting employee satisfaction at work, and Facebook a social network/ing platform for part time employees seeking further social integration and professional connection.     

数据治理技术

随着信息技术的普及，人类产生的数据量正在以指数级的速度增长，如此海量的数据就要求利用新的方法来管理.数据治理是将一个机构（企业或政府部门）的数据作为战略资产来管理，需要从数据收集到处理应用的一套管理机制，以期提高数据质量，实现广泛的数据共享，最终实现数据价值最大化.目前，各行各业对大数据的研究比较火热，但对于大数据治理的研究还处于起步阶段，一个组织的正确决策离不开良好的数据治理.首先介绍数据治理和大数据治理的概念、发展以及应用的必要性；其次，对已有的数据治理技术——数据规范、数据清洗、数据交换和数据集成进行具体的分析，并介绍了数据治理成熟度和数据治理框架设计；在此基础上，提出了大数据HAO治理模型.该模型以支持人类智能（HI）、人工智能（AI）和组织智能（OI）的三者协同为目标，再以公安的数据治理为例介绍HAO治理的应用；最后是对数据治理的总结和展望.     

Structural determinants of the psychosocial work environment: introducing technology in the work stress framework

To extend current models of psychosocial work stress research into organizational structure, technology is introduced. An exploratory model is developed combining research from ergonomics, epidemiology, and organizational science. It is hypothesized that technology influences a worker's health by structuring the job, and the relationship between the job and a worker's health is mediated by attitudes at work. To test the model, data are used from a 1978 NIOSH survey of postal workers sorting mail (N = 4903). Path analysis shows technology is indirectly associated with job satisfaction and psychosomatic symptoms by how it structured the job. A machine-paced technological system of work is associated with greater job demands, less control in the job, and less co-worker support but not with supervisor support. The implications of this model for prevention strategies at the workplace are discussed suggesting that influencing supervisor support is the most effective way to affect a person's job satisfaction and level of psychosomatic symptomology.     

基于UML和平台的嵌入式系统设计方法研究

针对嵌入式系统设计和开发的特点和需求的不断提高导致设计开发的复杂性,研究了将UML和平台结合进行嵌入式系统设计的一种方法,使用UML描述平台细节和所提供的功能;利用UML的扩展特性建立了一种UML平台profile,包含建立新的构造类、构造关系、标签值和约束;并将这种UML和平台相结合的设计方法应用在嵌入式系统实例上,选择了组成嵌入式系统实例的硬件和软件平台,针对实例平台不同的服务层次建立了面向应用建模服务的相应实例平台模型,使用了静态图和动态图表示了这种平台模型,并且描述了实例平台模型的一种应用.     

IT governance challenges in a large not-for-profit healthcare organization: The role of intranets

This paper reports on the implementation of IT governance in a not-for-profit healthcare organization and considers how managerial strategies for this governance relate to the progressive management approach commonly called the Horizontal Organization. Discussion includes how IT governance was implemented and the mechanisms by which power and politics in the organization were harnessed to achieve strategic goals. In this case study, CEO support for IT governance was related principally to the need for fiscal accountability regarding IT investment aligned to the strategic goals of the organization. The case study showed real organizational gains in achieving best value for the investment dollar, accountable time-frames and cost-controls. The move enhanced the professional status of the IT Department, including more widespread acknowledgement for fairness and equity in its processes, an outcome commonly associated with horizontal management structures.     

Information security governance practices in critical infrastructure organizations: A socio-technical and institutional logic perspective

Achieving a sustainable information protection capability within complex business, legal and technical environments is an integral part of supporting an organization’s strategic and compliance objectives. Despite a growing focus on information security governance (ISG) it remains under-explored requiring greater empirical scrutiny and more contextually attuned theorizing. This study adopts an interpretive case approach and uses analytical lenses drawing from socio-technical systems and institutional logics to examine how ISG arrangements are framed and shaped in practice in fourteen Australian Critical Infrastructure Organizations. Our findings illustrate the heterogeneity and malleability of ISG across different organizations involving intra- and inter-organizational relationships and trust mechanisms. We identify the need to reframe ISG, adopting the new label information protection governance (IPG), to present a more multi-faceted view of information protection incorporating a richly layered set of social and technical aspects, that constitute and are constituted by governance arrangements.     

Exploring the boundaries and processes of digital platforms for knowledge work: A review of information systems research

Digital platforms for knowledge work (DPKW), such as Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr, connect clients with millions of workers for a range of knowledge work services, including app development, graphic design, and data analytics. Research on this emergent phenomenon has recently gained traction in terms of publication volume and research diversity. Focusing on the contributions of information systems research, we conducted a literature review to distinguish papers on DPKW from related types of digital platforms, to synthesize what we know about knowledge work on DPKW, and to guide future research. Based on a comprehensive literature search, we derived five boundary conditions, which constitute our definition of DPKW: digitality, value network paradigm, centralized governance, contractual work, and knowledge work. We further developed a conceptual process framework of the constituent processes of DPKW. With this framework, we elaborate on an established process model to distinguish the three macro­level processes of matching, contracting, and executing. We further examined micro­level processes suggested in extant research based on a process linking approach in order to understand how they synchronically instantiate each macro­level process. Emphasizing the significance of the micro­ and macro­level processes and the emergent stage of the literature on DPKW, we offer an agenda for future research and outline implications for practice.     

Balancing high operator's workload through a new job rotation approach: Application to an automotive assembly line

Reducing musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) risk factors and work monotony are the main reasons that persuade a manufacturing industry to apply job rotation in the workforce planning. This research aims to smooth the daily workload by designing an optimal sequence of job rotation using a mathematical model. The study consists of two main steps. The first is an ergonomic analysis of the workstations to evaluate the physical workload of different jobs. An in-house risk assessment method was used to identify physical workloads of each job. In the second step, a mathematical model was developed to schedule job rotation and optimize/balance the cumulative workload. Mixed integer programming is proposed to implement a platform for the ergonomic job rotation.The objective of the job rotation programming in this research was to determine the optimal sequence of jobs for each worker such that the global daily workload of the workers would be balanced. The proposed job rotation strategy reduced the dispersion and the deviation of the daily cumulative workload among the workers considering that the rotation only occurred inside the specific groups and not between the groups.     

基于优先级的Three-Queue调度算法研究

针对Hadoop平台上调度算法存在的不足,提出了一种改进的调度算法———Triple-Queue算法。在充分考虑数据的本地性后,Triple-Queue算法设计了一种改进的优先级计算模型,以有效地区分用户作业的等级,同时又保证一定程度的公平性,进而减小作业执行时间,避免系统资源浪费。实验结果表明,随着数据量的提高,该算法执行效率明显提高,同时能够较好地解决数据本地性问题。     

Virtual organisation breeding environments value system and its elements

Value systems are strategic management tools aimed at supporting the definition and assessment of organisational strategies towards successful value creation processes. Value systems aim to identify the value generation objects available in an organisation to respond to business opportunities and innovate in order to remain competitive in the market. Also, value systems support governance models towards a regulatory role in the value exchange among business entities. In a Virtual Organisation Breeding Environment (VBE), a long-term strategic alliance of organisations, value systems play also the same role as strategic management tools for the identification of the diversity of value generation objects available in the VBE members. VBE value systems recognize, measure and configure the available value generation objects inside a VBE network towards the creation of successful Virtual Organisations (VOs) and the development of new collaboration (business) opportunities. This paper presents a conceptual model to identify the different VBE value system elements, such as value generation objects (or assets that generate value), its performance measurement system, and the guidelines to define an ethical code to guarantee the ethical viability of the VBE business operation.     

Sustaining complementor engagement in digital platform ecosystems: Antecedents,behaviours and engagement trajectories

Digital platform ecosystems increasingly dominate the enterprise software domain, and the persistence of platforms depends on the sustained engagement of complementors. However, there is a limited understanding of its antecedents, complementors' evaluation of antecedents and the manifestations and dynamic changes of complementors' engagement. Therefore, we investigate complementors' engagement within platform ecosystems over time. We draw on actor and stakeholder engagement from service research to conceptualise complementor engagement (CE) and create an integrated empirical understanding of CE and its dynamics in digital platform ecosystems. Our embedded case study builds on 30 interviews with complementors in Anubis and Osiris enterprise software platform ecosystems. Inductive data analysis reveals five CE antecedents: platform resources and rules, platform value proposition, platform agents, customer needs and other complementors' value propositions. The antecedents are associated with three CE behaviours: generating, networking and synchronising. Further analysis of CE over time resulted in 26 different sequences representing stable and changing engagement trajectories, the latter comprising selective, growing and abating engagement as subcategories. We show how complementors' evaluations of antecedents lead to behaviour changes, providing a novel perspective on the dynamics underlying CE. Finally, we link complementors' evaluation outcomes to their (dis)satisfaction, contributing to the discussion on what drives and impedes CE. The findings implicate the debate on dynamic platform governance and inform platform owners about using cooperative and competitive approaches in the short and long term.     

Personal information management effectiveness of knowledge workers: conceptual development and empirical validation

What critical factors contribute to knowledge workers’ effective information management and consequent job performance? This paper begins to address this important question by developing a conceptual definition of a new construct called personal information management effectiveness (PIME) and its constituent dimensions. Specifically, we theorize that PIME consists of two underlying dimensions: personal information management motivation (PIMM) and personal information management capability (PIMC). Synthesizing the extant literature on information management and information orientation, we further conceptualize PIMM as having four sub-dimensions of proactiveness, sharing, transparency, and formality, and PIMC as possessing five sub-dimensions of sensing, collecting, organizing, processing, and maintaining. Moreover, we develop a theoretical model that positions PIME as a mediator between two selected individual characteristics (IT self-efficacy and need-for-cognition) and job performance. New measures for PIME dimensions were developed and shown to have strong psychometric properties. The proposed model was empirically tested using data collected from 352 knowledge workers. As theorized, PIME was found to have significant effects on job performance (41%) and fully mediate the effects that the selected individual characteristics have on job performance. Responding to recent calls for advanced research on personal information management, the measures of PIMM and PIMC developed in this study have practical value as research and diagnostic tools and the findings provide useful insights to help organizations improve knowledge workers’ information management practices.     

It governance in the public sector: a conceptual model

Information technology governance (ITG) has been identified as an organizational ability of great importance for IT strategic alignment and the delivery of business though IT. However, the results and contribution of ITG are poorly understood. This work presents an explanatory model of the effects of IT governance mechanisms on IT and organizational performance of public organizations. To test the model, data was collected from a survey conducted in 146 Brazilian public organizations. Partial least squares analysis was applied to test the proposed model. The results indicate that (i) IT performance is positively correlated with organizational performance, (ii) relational mechanisms between IT and a business are determinant factors for the performance of IT, and also positively correlated with organizational performance, and (iii), decision structure and process maturity are not significantly correlated with IT performance.     

Gendered selves and identities of information technology professionals in global software organizations in India

Global software organization (GSOs) are a recent form of work settings where Information Technology (IT) professionals engage in information and communication technology (ICT) mediated software development work for businesses across the globe. Issues of self, identity, and gender are linked to particularities of GSOs as a work setting. Using an interpretative, ethnographic approach, empirical data from a case study in India was analyzed to understand how gender was expressed in GSOs and linked to the concepts of self and identity of IT workers. Data suggests that GSOs are a global work setting where local issues of gender reflect social arrangements in Indian society. These arrangements have implications for GSOs as a work setting, for software development work, as well as for the selves and identities of IT workers. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Crafting Information Technology Governance

Information Technology (IT) governance has emerged as a fundamental business imperative, and rightfully so, because it is key to realizing IT business value. IT governance describes the distribution of IT decision-making rights and responsibilities among different stakeholders in the enterprise, and defines the procedures and mechanisms for making and monitoring strategic IT decisions. This article presents a holistic view of IT governance, in which structural, process, and relational capabilities are an integral part of an effective IT governance architecture. the article concludes with an IT Governance Assessment Process (ITGAP) model, with which business and IT executives can assess the effectiveness of their company's current IT governance architecture.     

Platform drifting: When work digitalization hijacks its spirit

Organizations are increasingly digitalizing the work associated with information exchange by using enterprise social media. However, social media’s openness to outsider users poses significant challenges to maintaining alignment between social media logic (or platform logic that guides decisions and actions on the platform) and the dominant organizational logic. Through an in-depth, longitudinal, abductive study of three successive social media implementations in a single organization, I explore the process of maintaining (or losing) social media alignment and its long-term consequences on the nature of the work. The paper shows that digitalization exposes the work to continuous adjustment within and across three elements of digital work: digital infrastructure work (embracing new uses of the platform at the user level), digital strategy work (redesigning governance policies), and aligning work (fitting uses with the platform logic underlying digital work). The findings show that despite initial social media alignment, through continuous coevolution of these three elements, the platform logic underlying digital community work eventually drifted away from supporting the organization’s original logic of cohesion to supporting an alternative logic of inclusivity. Accordingly, a process model of platform drifting has been developed. By taking a closer look at actual practices, the paper contributes to digital work research by identifying distinct elements of digital work involved in social media (mis)alignment and illustrates the profound, long-term consequences of social media on the nature of the work.     

The work compatibility improvement framework: an assessment of the worker–work environment interaction in the manufacturing sector

The manufacturing sector in the US is challenged by high health care costs and shortage of qualified workers, which are largely attributed to the degree of fit between the worker and work environment. In this regard, a healthy worker–work environment interface is a necessary and sufficient condition for the containment of health care costs and the retaining/attraction of highly qualified knowledge workers and should be based on the principles of optimum physical, cognitive and emotional health for the workers. In prior research, the Work Compatibility Improvement Framework (WCIF) was introduced as a vehicle to address these issues and was defined as the identification, improvement and maintenance of the well-being characteristics of the workforce and its interaction with the work environment through the application of engineering, medicine, management and human sciences methodologies, technologies and best practices. This paper advances WCIF by examining its applications in manufacturing with regard to the evaluation of working conditions impacting musculoskeletal/stress outcome measures. A study was conducted in a machining department of a bag packaging manufacturer in the Midwest of the United States. The work tasks were planned and executed with regard to the following aims: (1) to compute work compatibility as a function of work demands and energisers; (2) to establish whether the prevalence of musculoskeletal/stress disorders increases with a decrease in the quality of worker–work environment interface in terms of work compatibility level and other work factors such as shift and job category. A major finding is that a ‘poor’ work environment (a function of all work domains) results in musculoskeletal/stress disorders that are 105% and 67% higher than those for a ‘good’ work environment. The evening shift exhibited the poorest compatibility followed by the night shift relative to the day shift. Application of the work compatibility approach demonstrated the detection of non-added value work. It is essential to evaluate the various domains of worker–work environment interface to uncover the root causes that tend to sub-optimise the physical/cognitive/emotional health of the workforce. The WCIF was used to uncover the non-value added effort in the work process. These findings will have major implications for developing and implementing customised design interventions with the aim to maximise the benefit and reduce the cost of employees in a manufacturing enterprise. The study findings suggest that the WCIF should be pursued as a potential strategic tool for optimising human performance in an enterprise to create healthy workplaces.     

商业银行审计信息化平台的优化和趋势分析

审计信息化平台是企业内部审计实施的重要工作平台,平台的应用好坏直接影响审计工作的质量,进而影响审计监督和公司治理效果.本文通过审计信息化平台的应用实践,总结和归纳了目前平台存在的不足和缺陷,并试着提出短期的系统优化思路.同时立足长远,分析了制约审计信息化平台发展的深层次原因,尝试着对未来的平台趋势进行分析,以期为平台的远期规划提供一定的参考和借鉴.     

The work compatibility improvement framework: an assessment of the worker-work environment interaction in the manufacturing sector

The manufacturing sector in the US is challenged by high health care costs and shortage of qualified workers, which are largely attributed to the degree of fit between the worker and work environment. In this regard, a healthy worker-work environment interface is a necessary and sufficient condition for the containment of health care costs and the retaining/attraction of highly qualified knowledge workers and should be based on the principles of optimum physical, cognitive and emotional health for the workers. In prior research, the Work Compatibility Improvement Framework (WCIF) was introduced as a vehicle to address these issues and was defined as the identification, improvement and maintenance of the well-being characteristics of the workforce and its interaction with the work environment through the application of engineering, medicine, management and human sciences methodologies, technologies and best practices. This paper advances WCIF by examining its applications in manufacturing with regard to the evaluation of working conditions impacting musculoskeletal/stress outcome measures. A study was conducted in a machining department of a bag packaging manufacturer in the Midwest of the United States. The work tasks were planned and executed with regard to the following aims: (1) to compute work compatibility as a function of work demands and energisers; (2) to establish whether the prevalence of musculoskeletal/stress disorders increases with a decrease in the quality of worker-work environment interface in terms of work compatibility level and other work factors such as shift and job category. A major finding is that a 'poor' work environment (a function of all work domains) results in musculoskeletal/stress disorders that are 105% and 67% higher than those for a 'good' work environment. The evening shift exhibited the poorest compatibility followed by the night shift relative to the day shift. Application of the work compatibility approach demonstrated the detection of non-added value work. It is essential to evaluate the various domains of worker-work environment interface to uncover the root causes that tend to sub-optimise the physical/cognitive/emotional health of the workforce. The WCIF was used to uncover the non-value added effort in the work process. These findings will have major implications for developing and implementing customised design interventions with the aim to maximise the benefit and reduce the cost of employees in a manufacturing enterprise. The study findings suggest that the WCIF should be pursued as a potential strategic tool for optimising human performance in an enterprise to create healthy workplaces.