Technology in education: The Turkish experiment*

Abstract

The literature on informatics in developing countries seldom thoroughly discusses the crucial concept “developing countries”. Most authors seem to implicitly adopt the view that developing countries are “latecomers” which will sooner or later become similar to the “already developed” countries. In this view, the problems of IT development observed in organizations in developing countries are due to the hierarchical “traditional culture”.

In this paper, indigenous computer‐related activities in South‐Western Nigeria (Yorubaland) are used as a case, and the organizational problems observed are compared with aspects of the traditional Yoruba culture of that region. The comparison does not support the cultural hypothesis. An alternative explanation is briefly introduced, based on a concrete historical analysis along a world‐system approach. Finally, the roles of ‘cultural’ and ‘socio‐economic’ factors in national brands of IT development are discussed more generally.     

The design of information technology planning systems for varying organizational contexts

The conduct of IT planning processes has been a dominant managerial concern in organizations. Yet, current IT planning research offers little guidance on the types of planning actions and behaviour that are appropriate to organizational contexts. The motivation of this paper is to extend the existing literature by addressing the following major question: How should organizations design IT planning systems to manage the conduct of their IT planning processes? The paper seeks to address this question by (i) identifying key organizational forces that affect the IT planning processes, (ii) articulating some of the key dimensions of IT planning systems and (iii) elaborating upon propositions for linking designs of IT planning systems with organizational context. The concepts and the propositions are expected to provide significant guidance for further research and practice.     

Planning Local E-Government

User requirements, organizational change, government regulations, and politics are all factors that any organization embarking on a systems development project must take into consideration. These factors, plus that of general societal trends, have an even greater significance for governmental IT organizations that are planning to implement new applications. IS managers in government, as well as those in industry, can use the planning framework presented in this article to manage these factors, as well as the overall requirements and systems planning process.     

Harnessing knowledge workers' participation for IT planning effectiveness: The informational and motivational mediating effects of users' microplanning behaviour

In most organizations, knowledge is produced on a continuous basis such that formal planning methods fail to capture it on time for utilization into effective IT solutions. Microplanning, as user-led informal planning behaviour, allows users as knowledge workers to continuously use their knowledge and skills to identify opportunities for using IT or replanning its existing use. This is the informational effect of microplanning. Microplanning is also an empowering process which enhances users' own motivation. This empowerment effect is referred to as the motivational effect. User microplanning behaviour therefore constitutes the main construct of the model of microplanning effectiveness described in this study. It yields effectiveness through two paths, informational and motivational. After operational definitions for the variables were derived, the two main hypotheses of the study were empirically tested on a sample of 263 knowledge workers. Results of the study fully support the informational and motivational effects of microplanning.     

The role of perceived organizational support,distributive justice and motivation in reactions to new information technology

Despite tremendous investments in information technology (IT), many technological interventions in organizations fail because employees do not fully accept and use IT. The present study explored how perceived organizational support and distributive justice affect employee reactions to new IT from a motivational point of view. Self-determination theory was used to understand how different motivational styles, varying in degree of self-determination, mediate the relationship of perceived organizational support and distributive justice with reactions to new IT. Results showed that perceived organizational support and distributive justice were associated with intrinsic and identified motivation to use the IT, but only POS was related to enjoyment and acceptance of the IT. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were both associated with IT usage, but IT usage was associated with enjoyment and acceptance only when people were intrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation also mediated the effects of POS on enjoyment and acceptance. Moreover, intrinsically motivated users were less likely to use a paper-based appointment booking alternative than those who were not. Implications for managing IT implementations are discussed.     

New type of standard for accessibility,designed to foster the competition and innovation of designers,developers, and project and business management

This paper describes the many beneficiaries of accessibility to IT, creating a multifaceted business opportunity. Evolution is underway as some organizations and governments develop and adopt accessibility standards and regulations. But organized planning, design and development of technology solutions require improved tactics and strategies. The very recent US Section 508 is a new and novel regulatory marketing strategy in the evolution of standards. This regulatory standard's effectiveness dependents upon the 'innovation and divergent thinking' of those directly involved in product design. Designers, developers and their management are most comfortable with an analytical structure based on improved definition and measurement. Research will improve understanding of the human performance requirements of the client audience. Research and standards should continue but certain areas are in need of more immediate focus, e.g. human performance requirements in cognition.     

The case for building a data warehouse

Unfortunately, IT shops in many organizations lack data warehousing expertise because they have deployed existing IT staff resources to address operational source systems and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Because many strategic business solutions depend heavily on a solid data warehouse foundation, many organizations will find themselves lagging behind or out of business, if they do not implement a data warehouse. The paper discusses the benefits and disadvantages of data warehousing. It considers the keys to implementation success along with a few real world examples     

E-government adoption in public administration organizations: integrating institutional theory perspective and resource-based view

We develop and test a theoretical model to investigate the adoption of government-to-government (G2G) information systems in public administration organizations. Specifically, this model explains how top management commitment (TMC) mediates the impact of external institutional pressures on internal organizational resource allocation, which finally leads to the adoption decision. The hypotheses were tested using survey data from public administration organizations in China. Results from partial least squares analyses suggest that coercive and normative pressures positively affect TMC, which then positively affects financial and information technology (IT) human resources in the G2G adoption process. In turn, financial and IT human resources are confirmed to positively affect the intention to adopt G2G. Surprisingly, we do not find support for our hypothesis that mimetic pressures directly influence TMC. Rather, a post hoc analysis implies that mimetic pressures indirectly influence TMC via the influence of coercive pressures. Our findings provide important managerial implications for public administration organizations.     

Relating IT strategy and organizational culture: an empirical study of public sector units in India

This paper analyzes the relationships between selected aspects of organizational culture and IT-Strategy in public sector units (PSUs). Organization culture, which is treated as a shared set of norms and values, is analyzed with respect to IT-Strategies. Organizational culture is assessed in terms of innovative, supportive and bureaucratic cultures. IT strategy is viewed as comprising six generic strategies, namely, centrally planned, leading edge, scarce resource, necessary evil, monopoly and free market. The data on which conclusions were drawn arises from a nation-wide survey covering 72 public sector organizations in India. In addition to the survey research, we conducted an in-depth case study of State Bank of India. This yearlong study commenced in 1996. Statistically significant findings show that it is the innovative element of a PSUs organizational culture that is associated with a delineable IT strategy. Leading edge, free market, and monopoly IT-strategies are found to be related to innovative components of organizational culture. Monopoly and scarce resource strategies are associated with supportive and bureaucratic cultures, respectively. Our case study validates some of these findings in a large bank. Implications for practice as well as research are provided.     

Achieving dynamic capabilities with cloud computing: an empirical investigation

Cloud computing enables convenient and on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. While cloud computing‘s ability to improve operational efficiency has gained much attention in the literature, there has been limited research on how it can help organizations achieve dynamic capabilities. Drawing from dynamic capabilities theory, we conducted a field study using a multiple case study design to examine the following research question: How do organizations achieve dynamic capabilities by using Cloud Computing? We develop a framework that explains how organizations respond to market dynamism by developing sense-and-response strategies that enable them to achieve dynamic capabilities using business process redesign, business network redesign, and business scope redefinition. We discuss how these transformations, in turn, improve organizational outcomes such as service effectiveness and efficiency. Our study also identifies factors that support and hinder the development of dynamic capabilities. Our study contributes to the literature on dynamic capabilities by examining how IT capabilities like cloud computing may accelerate the ability of an organization to achieve dynamic capabilities. We also identify transformational changes of business processes and inter-organizational networks that are enabled by cloud computing. Further, we identify how the essential characteristics of cloud computing support sense and respond strategies.     

Opportunistic strategy formulation for IS/IT planning

Existing models and frameworks for information systems and information technology (IS/IT) planning are not robust enough to explain or predict strategic gains and many organizations are wary of investing further in their information infrastructure. Because technology is not the only ingredient of success, a complete and rigorous reconsideration of the techniques, options and approaches to IS/IT planning linked to business strategy is needed. It is argued that this can only be achieved through consideration of the recent organizational processes involved for creating a successful IS/IT strategy. This paper reviews aspects of both the literature on business strategy and IS/IT planning and considers case examples from two organizations in which the contrasting outcomes from the same technical innovation illustrate the dynamics of opportunistic strategy formulation.     

Coping with rapid information technology change in different national cultures

Coping with rapid information technology change challenges IT organizations throughout the world. National culture theory based on the GLOBE study suggests that culture affects the coping with such change in China and the United States, but does not cogently suggest that coping mechanisms differ in effectiveness across the two cultures. Analysis of data from 71 IT executives and managers in China and 246 in the United States suggests that Chinese IT organizations employ coping mechanisms of vendor support, education and training, and internal procedures more extensively than do U.S. IT organizations. IT organizations in both countries apply education and training as well as internal procedures to successfully deal with the problems of rapid IT change. Vendor support additionally predicted success in Chinese but not U.S. organizations, whereas in both U.S. and Chinese organizations endurance predicted lack of success. The research thus extends national culture theory by proposing that culture affects successful coping. Implications for research suggest the identification of actions to overcome the impact of cultural differences. Implications for practice suggest that multinational corporations deal with rapid IT change differently in divisions in different cultures, regardless of whether in China, the United States, Europe, or elsewhere.     

The synergistic effects of IT-enabled resources on organizational capabilities and firm performance

Computing the value of IT investments and clarifying how the portfolio of IT/IS resources affect a firm's performance and sustainable competitive advantage are critical issues today. We attempted to develop an effective measurement technique and use organizational theory to discover the strategic role of IT-enabled resources in the firm's competitive agenda. Based on a resource-based view of the firm, we proposed a way to evaluate the synergistic effect of such resources on the firm's capabilities, as they, influence the firms’ strategic objectives and improve its financial performance. The technological, human, and organizational resources work together to generate sub-additive cost and super-additive value synergies. Operations, R&D, and marketing capabilities allow firms to implement a business strategy that reflects its customer needs. A survey was conducted to check our framework. Our findings should provide valuable decision guides for practitioners when choosing a portfolio of IT/IS resources for implementing business strategies.     

Information technology offshoring in India: a postcolonial perspective

In recent years India has become the information technology (IT) offshoring destination of choice for many Western organizations. From the perspective of vendor organizations in India, however, the IT offshoring phenomenon is more than just a business relationship with Western firms. It is also embedded within the context of the longstanding imbalances of power in the relationship between the West and the East, the implications of which have been largely ignored in empirical work on offshoring within the information systems (IS) discipline. Drawing on concepts from postcolonial theory and using data from our ethnographic fieldwork, we explore the experiences and responses of one Indian vendor organization to asymmetries of power in its relationship with Western client organizations. Our analysis demonstrates how a postcolonial reading and interpretation of IT offshoring adds an important new dimension to previous IS research and also helps to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the strategies deployed by vendor organizations.     

Deploying Internet banking and e-commerce—case study of a private-sector bank in India

Over the last decade India has been one of the fastest adopters of information technology, particularly because of its capability to provide software solutions to organizations around the world. This capability has provided a tremendous impetus to the domestic banking industry in India to deploy the latest in technology, particularly in the Internet banking and e-commerce arenas. This article discusses the experiences of a private-sector bank in deploying Internet banking and e-commerce in India. Strategic alignment of business and IT strategies, planning and implementation of e-banking initiatives, and management of benefits are captured, along with key contributions to development. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Extending technology usage to work settings: The role of perceived work compatibility in ERP implementation

Spanning over three decades and hundreds of studies, researchers have generated models, that examined user perceptions of technological attributes presumed to influence intention to use IT and consequent usage behavior. While these theories have provided reasonable explanations of IT usage across a broad range of technological and task settings, they did not address the role of IT in organizations, though they have been tested in organizational contexts, the models have not been modified to fit the context of organizational work. Current models are good at explaining IT usage in personal-settings, but they have not adequately examined the role of IT in organizations and thus have limited explanatory power in such settings. Furthermore, organizations deploy IT both to maximize its usage and to derive performance benefits from it. However, current IT usage models generally only consider IT usage as the dependent variable, without examining its performance impact. We extended IT usage models to include the role of IT's perceived work compatibility in shaping users’ IT usage intention, usage, and performance in work settings. The model was empirically validated using a field survey of 138 users of ERP systems in 62 firms in China.     

Factors considered when outsourcing an IS system: an empirical examination of the impacts of organizational size,strategy and the object of a decision

As IT expenditures have been growing over the last few years, organizations have started to scrutinize them more closely and some are deciding to outsource parts of their Information Systems (IS) operations. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research on the impact that the object of an outsourcing decision may have on the factors considered when making such a decision. The impact of organizational size and the firm's strategy has also not been conclusively established in the literature. This paper examines and compares the different supplier, internal, technology and cost factors considered when outsourcing Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) or Decision Support Systems (DSSs) (the object of a decision). It also examines the divergent decision factors for large, medium and small organizations, and the competitive strategy's impact on the factors that are considered. The paper is based on a study with samples from four large SAP Conferences and includes 1889 individuals working in organizations that use enterprise resource planning software. This research found that the object being outsourced, the firm's competitive strategies, and the organizational size are factors that significantly influence the outsourcing decision process. We found that the relative importance of decision factors for the outsourcing of OLTP is significantly different from those for a DSS and that, where the outsourcing object is of strategic importance, there is a closer attention to internal factors. Our findings confirm that outsourcing strategies are aligned with organizational strategies. For example, cost factors dominate in the outsourcing decision among organizations that employ a low-costs strategy as compared to those following a differentiation or niche strategy. Also, compared to firms pursuing other competitive strategies, for the outsourcing of DSS, differentiators place a significantly higher emphasis on supplier factors. Regarding the role of company size, we found significant differences in the importance given to supplier, internal, technology, and cost factors by organizations of different sizes. For example, compared to smaller organizations, larger organizations gave less importance to supplier and technology factors and more importance to cost factors.     

Learning About Ambiguity

This paper proposes a classification system for definition, analysis and management of the primary ambiguities influencing the performance of engineered systems. One category of ambiguities (Intrinsic) is addressed with ‘hardware and structure’ approach that is intended to develop and maintain ‘robust’ damage and defect‐tolerant systems. The other category of ambiguities (Extrinsic) is addressed with ‘human and organizational’ approach intended to develop and maintain high reliability organizations having high reliability management with high reliability systems. Proactive (performed before activities are conducted), Reactive (performed after activities are conducted) and Interactive (performed while activities are conducted) risk management approaches and strategies are described to help develop and maintain systems having desirable performance characteristics, including acceptable ‘safety’. Results from a study of seven organizations that worked for more than 10 years to implement these approaches and strategies to assess and manage ambiguities are summarized.     

Maximizing the positive influence of IT for improving organizational performance

In the analysis of whether information technology (IT) has an impact on organizational performance, focus is usually placed on the relationship between an organization’s investments in IT and that organization’s performance. Therefore, it is standard to devote special attention to the size and complexity of the organization, to the investments in other organizational resources that may affect the performance of IT, and to the manner in which the two variables are measured. However, one area that has not been well explored is the manner in which the relationship between investments in IT and organizational performance develops. In this article, we show empirically that the planning and management of IT influence the organization’s endowment of resources (physical and human), which consequently has positive effects on each of the IT-related areas usually found in organizations (applications, reliable and secure systems and communications, and training and support). In turn, the functioning of these areas influences the impact of IT on the organization, which then has positive effects on organizational performance. We have used data corresponding to IT management in Spanish universities, as well as independent rankings that are useful for evaluating their performance.     

Exploring the Impact of Social Networking on Communication in Organizations

ABSTRACT

Social networking technology has the potential to transform how organizations communicate, cooperate, and connect with key stakeholders. Our research explores how social networking technologies are deployed within organizations and how the use of these technologies is related to effectiveness in organizational communication and promotion. We also identify the facilitating factors and constraints around the use of social networking tools for communication. To examine these questions, we conducted interviews with 131 senior level executives across a broad range of organizations and employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis. The executives were asked to rate numerically and then discuss in narrative form a series of questions about IT strategy and issues affecting social networking in their organization. We find important differences both in the types of tools used as well as how they are used and discuss the implications of our findings for companies seeking to more effectively harness social networking technologies.