Interactivity in the daily routines of online newsrooms: dealing with an uncomfortable myth

This article analyzes interactivity in online journalism as a powerful myth with which journalists have to deal in their daily work. A constructivist approach to media innovation is used to explore the historical origins of the myth that predicted interactivity would change journalism and to confront it with the actual practices of online media projects through published empirical research and four case studies selected from an average European regional market. The analysis of the cases is based on ethnography of online newsrooms working routines and in-depth interviews with reporters, editors and web developers. The actual role of the myth of interactivity in shaping the development of these four online news projects is discussed taking into account the material and organizational context of the newsrooms. Findings suggest that the professional culture of traditional journalism has a strong inertia in the online newsrooms that prevents them from developing most of the ideals of interactivity, as they do not fit in the standardized news production routines.     

Safety Cultural Preconditions for Organizational Learning in High‐Risk Organizations

The research on organizational accidents shows that both safety culture and complex technology make members of high‐risk organizations blind to hazards and signals of danger. I discuss how these forms of ignorance can be reduced by means of cultural redundancy, which I understand as the organizational promotion of several co‐existing frames of reference of equal standing. This approach is contrary to the main stream research on safety culture, which promotes the ideal of a ‘unitary safety culture’. Previous research shows that organizational learning occur trough comparison of perspectives and reflection upon practice. I argue that cultural redundancy is a precondition for processes of learning and culture change that may reduce ignorance to hazards and signals of danger in high‐risk organizations. Such processes are, however, contingent on a climate of trust and openness in which co‐existing safety cultures can meet and set forth processes of organizational learning.     

Communities of practice model driven knowledge management in multinational knowledge based enterprises

Existing research in intelligent manufacturing literature has highlighted the need for linking organizational culture, business strategy with Knowledge Management (KM) as well as measuring the performance of knowledge management systems for best practice. Communities of Practice (CoPs) are accepted as best practice and distinct from organizational structures while implementing KM. Besides, employing CoPs as an approach for linking business strategies with KM design, CoPs can be the prevailing way for group learning and innovation building within firms. As firms grow in size, scope, and complexity, CoPs members who regularly engage in sharing and learning based on common interests, could improve organizational performance. The purpose of this work is to design a CoPs model for KM which addresses issues related to organization culture, business strategy and performance measurement reported in earlier publications in intelligent manufacturing. A CoPs evaluation hierarchy for KM is developed. It includes four dimensions and sixteen criteria for studying and evaluating organizational culture and business strategy. Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach has been employed to quantitatively analyze various criteria priorities and business strategy preferences of CoPs. In order to validate the CoPs model, a case study has been undertaken in two multinational knowledge based organizations and the results are compared to differentiate strategic preferences. The contributions of this paper include: a) Definition of a CoPs model based on sixteen criteria which helps to understand an organization’s KM culture or CoPs; b) Employing these criteria to link an organization‘s KM culture with four business strategies; c) Develop a quantitative method for measuring KM performance in the context of four business strategies, and d) Validating the CoPs model through its application in two multinationals in Taiwan and Japan. The CoPs model thus can be used by organizations to understand their KM culture, allocate resources towards the chosen business strategy and measure KM performance in the context of the chosen business strategy.     

A taxonomy of tool-related issues affecting the adoption of model-driven engineering

Although poor tool support is often blamed for the low uptake of model-driven engineering (MDE), recent studies have shown that adoption problems are as likely to be down to social and organizational factors as with tooling issues. This article discusses the impact of tools on MDE adoption and practice and does so while placing tooling within a broader organizational context. The article revisits previous data on MDE use in industry (19 in-depth interviews with MDE practitioners) and reanalyzes that data through the specific lens of MDE tools in an attempt to identify and categorize the issues that users had with the tools they adopted. In addition, the article presents new data: 20 new interviews in two specific companies—and analyzes it through the same lens. A key contribution of the paper is a loose taxonomy of tool-related considerations, based on empirical industry data, which can be used to reflect on the tooling landscape as well as inform future research on MDE tools.     

绿色转型分析:数据中心碳排放管理的分析工具

There is increasing awareness that human activity may threaten delicate ecological systems. From evidence of global warming to concerns about water and soil toxicity, individuals and groups are asking what they can do to reduce their environmental impact. New technologies, processes and laws relating to carbon emissions and other environmental issues come forth and will seriously affect how companies operate in the future. Green transformation is increasingly a key management initiative in a corporate response to climate change. This paper presents a software tool, Green Transformation Workbench, which can help companies work toward the goals in logical, manageable stages as well as position them to reach the vision of a Sustainable Business and Corporate Social Responsibility. The Green Transformation Workbench provides a framework that aligns processes, people and infrastructure of an enterprise to realize targets on carbon emissions. It implements a methodical approach that was devised to analyze green transformation opportunities and make business cases for transformation initiatives and thereby provides decision-support to the consultants. The Workbench is a practitioner's tool for business transformation addressing the issues. The Green Transformation Workbench builds on IBM's component business model and offers a consolidated view into data center operational components, processes, metric and infrastructure. It provides an intuitive way to evaluate and understand various opportunities in infrastructure consolidation and operational improvement. It embodies structured analytical models, both qualitative and quantitative, to enhance the consultants' practices. It provides diagnostics in data center operations based on benchmark data and business case analyses to the proposed green solutions. The Green Transformation Workbench has been instantiated with data from real-world data centers and applied to address a client situation as a case study.     

Requirements engineering for organizational transformation

Traditional approaches to requirements elicitation stress systematic and rational analysis and representation of organizational context and system requirements. This paper argues that the introduction of any computer-based system to an organization transforms the organization and changes the work patterns of the system's users in the organization. These changes interact with the users' values and beliefs and trigger emotional responses which are sometimes directed against the computer-based system and its proponents. The paper debunks myths about how smoothly such organizational transformations take place, describes case studies showing how organizational transformation really takes place, and introduces and confirms by case studies some guidelines for eliciting requirements and the relevant emotional issues for a computer-based system that is being introduced into an organization to change its work patterns.     

Comprehensive aspect weaving for Java

Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) has been successfully applied to application code thanks to techniques such as Java bytecode instrumentation. Unfortunately, with existing AOP frameworks for Java such as AspectJ, aspects cannot be woven into the standard Java class library. This restriction is particularly unfortunate for aspects that would benefit from comprehensive aspect weaving with complete method coverage, such as profiling or debugging aspects. In this article we present MAJOR, a new tool for comprehensive aspect weaving, which ensures that aspects are woven into all classes loaded in a Java Virtual Machine, including those in the standard Java class library. MAJOR includes the pluggable module CARAJillo, which supports efficient access to a complete and customizable calling context representation. We validate our approach with three case studies. Firstly, we weave existing profiling aspects with MAJOR which otherwise would generate incomplete profiles. Secondly, we introduce an aspect for memory leak detection that also benefits from comprehensive weaving. Thirdly, we present an aspect subsuming the functionality of ReCrash, an existing tool based on low-level bytecode instrumentation techniques that generates unit tests to reproduce program failures. Our aspect-based tools are concisely implemented in a few lines of code, and leverage MAJOR and CARAJillo for comprehensive aspect weaving and for efficient access to calling context information.     

Learning strategies for management accounting in unprogrammable contexts

Management accounting finds its roots in the development of traditional mass industry. The present context of management accounting has changed remarkably. Managers are facing increasing uncertainty and diversity. There is a growing need for new strategies and instruments that go beyond traditional accounting practice.This article attempts to contribute to this search. It analyzes the changing context for decision making and describes the main strategies for dealing with decision making in unprogrammable contexts: (a) take into account more and more non-standardized information; (b) follow and copy experiences; (c) reversed accounting; (d) experiment and search; (e) design approach; and (f) increase feedback during and after the innovation. Finally, the article contingently relates the strategies to organizational change. An illustrative case study is used throughout the article.The exploratory study is part of the five-year research program on Technology, Work, and Organization, initiated and funded by the Dutch government.     

A new environment for education? The computer in the home

This paper derives from an interdisciplinary research project which is studying the engagement of young people with different aspects of techno-popular culture. The focus is on the young person and the significance of digital technologies in their lives as a whole. Drawing on cultural studies research we are investigating the ways in which the contexts for computer use are structured by the different discourses present within the family, and the ways in which these discourses may provide a framing context for children’s interactions with digital technology. Drawing on socio-cultural research we take the view that learning is learning to do something with a cultural or cognitive tool. Our analysis of data from case studies of 16 families shows that the context of home computer use amongst young people is far from a simple and uniform phenomenon and is structured by the different discourses present within the family. What young people learn through interaction with computers is thus as much framed by the context of use as by the affordance of the technology.     

Ergonomics: influencing management behaviour

If successful, ergonomics can prevent accidents and improve occupational safety and health. This success creates 'non-events' that are counterintuitive to organizational goals of efficiency and optimization. It is, therefore, difficult to cost-justify ergonomics to organizations and their management. This paper presents three specific strategies and one general strategy for marketing ergonomics and occupational safety and health. The specific strategies involve: (1) understanding corporate culture and translating ergonomics into that cultural context; (2) identifying criteria that motivate people to use ergonomics; and (3) introducing ergonomics proactively as a tool for cost avoidance. The more general strategy suggests that we need to be more involved at the organizational design and management level. By operating at the organizational level we can make changes from within the management structure rather than making suggestions to management.     

The Work of IT System Developers in Context: An Organizational Case Study

The HCI community has become increasingly interested in analyzing the organizational context of systems design (e.g., Curtis, Krasner, & Iscoe, 1988). Previous work has focused on product development organizations in identifying organizational constraints on the work of system designers (Grudin, 1991b). This case study focuses on the working practices of internal system developers as they both developed a new IT system for the organization and managed the concomitant process of change. Here the organizational context (in terms of shared beliefs, politics and inter- and intragroup relations) is seen as informing both the manner in which the project was conducted and, to some extent, the customization of the product. The role of internal system developers as organizational change agents is highlighted, with emphasis on their image management and political strategies in effecting change.     

Influences on regression testing strategies in agile software development environments

Regression testing is a well-established practice in software development, but in recent years it has seen a change of status and emphasis with the increasing popularity of agile methods, which stress the central role of regression testing in maintaining software quality. The objectives of this article are to investigate regression testing strategies in agile development teams and identify the factors that can influence the adoption and implementation of this practice. We have used a mixed methods approach to our research, beginning with an analysis of the literature to identify research themes related to the adoption of regression testing techniques under agile methodologies, from which we developed an analytical framework for the study. This was followed by three exploratory case studies that we used to exercise the main elements of the framework, develop some key themes of interest, and devise a questionnaire for the final stage of the study, an on-line survey to explore the main issues identified in the case studies across different contexts. Within our specific sample, our results suggest that organizational maturity is a key factor in effective regression testing practices and that the adoption of such practices is helped by a coherent testing philosophy and change management processes. We also found that the return on investment in automated regression testing was positive for our respondents and that adopting these practices in the context of agile methods had been a relatively painless process for the organizations in our survey. We conclude that investing in regression testing tools and processes is likely to be beneficial for organizations. However, further work is needed in assessing how organizational culture impacts on the quality process and the financial outcomes for commercial software development organizations.     

An integrated assessment approach to conduct analyses of climate change impacts on whole-farm systems

This paper argues that an integrated assessment (IA) approach, combining simulation modelling with deliberative processes involving decision makers and other stakeholders, has the potential to generate credible and relevant assessments of climate change impacts on farming systems. The justification for the approach proposed is that while simulation modelling provides an effective way of exploring the range of possible impacts of climate change and a means of testing the consequences of possible management or policy interventions, the interpretation of the outputs is highly dependent on the point of view of the stakeholder. Inevitably, whatever the responses to climate change, there will be trade-offs between the benefits and costs to a range of stakeholders. The use of a deliberative process that includes stakeholders, both in defining the topics addressed and in debating the interpretations of the outcomes, addresses many of the limitations that have been previously identified in the use of computer-based tools for agricultural decision support. The paper further argues that the concepts of resilience and adaptive capacity are useful for the assessment of climate change impacts as they provide an underpinning theory for processes of change in land use systems. The integrated modelling framework (IMF) developed for the simulation of whole-farm systems is detailed, including components for crop and soil processes, livestock systems and a tool for scheduling of resource use within management plans. The use of the IMF for assessing climate change impacts is then outlined to demonstrate the range of analyses possible. The paper concludes with a critique of the IA approach and notes that issues of quantification and communication of uncertainty are central to the success of the methodology.     

Organizational schemata of e-portfolios for fostering higher-order thinking

The information technology of online e-portfolio systems have been widely used during the past several years along with the diffusion of electronic teaching-learning systems. However, for the time being e-portfolio is viewed more as an assessment tool or a showcase tool, but less as an active learning tool. The current generic e-portfolio systems store artifacts in the chronological order on the course basis, providing few facets for active thinking. The question of how we can make e-portfolio a useful learning tool to improve students’ learning outcomes is still open to research. Among various students’ learning outcomes, higher-order thinking has become an important outcome of education. One vision of education evolution is to change the modes of thinking of students. This study is to meet the challenge of e-portfolios by investigating a significant research question: how e-portfolios can be used as a learning tool for students to foster higher-order thinking. Specifically, this study proposes an ontological approach to organizational schema of e-portfolios so that e-portfolios can be logically and dynamically organized into thinking-driven networks. The ontological schemata can serve as visible maps for the virtual e-portfolios repository shared by all teachers and students to foster higher-order thinking. A case study that implements a prototype of organizational schemata of e-portfolios demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed approach for fostering higher-order thinking.     

Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50): A new tool for diagnosing occupational safety climate

Although there is a plethora of questionnaire instruments for measuring safety climate or culture, very few have proven able to present a factor structure that is consistent in different contexts, and many have a vague theoretical grounding. The Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50) was developed by a team of Nordic occupational safety researchers based on organizational and safety climate theory, psychological theory, previous empirical research, empirical results acquired through international studies, and a continuous development process. Safety climate is defined as workgroup members’ shared perceptions of management and workgroup safety related policies, procedures and practices. NOSACQ-50 consists of 50 items across seven dimensions, i.e. shared perceptions of: 1) management safety priority, commitment and competence; 2) management safety empowerment; and 3) management safety justice; as well as shared perceptions of 4) workers’ safety commitment; 5) workers’ safety priority and risk non-acceptance; 6) safety communication, learning, and trust in co-workers’ safety competence; and 7) workers’ trust in the efficacy of safety systems. Initial versions of the instrument were tested for validity and reliability in four separate Nordic studies using native language versions in each respective Nordic country. NOSACQ-50 was found to be a reliable instrument for measuring safety climate, and valid for predicting safety motivation, perceived safety level, and self-rated safety behavior. The validity of NOSACQ-50 was further confirmed by its ability to distinguish between organizational units through detecting significant differences in safety climate.

Relevance to industry

NOSACQ-50 will enable comparative studies of safety climate between and within companies, industries and countries. It is suitable for research purposes as well as for practical use in evaluating safety climate status, as a diagnostic tool, and in evaluating the effect of safety climate interventions.     

From means to ends: The transformation of ERP in a manufacturing company

In this paper, we present a case study of the restructuring of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system within a manufacturing company, in particular the combination of Material Requirement Planning (MRP) with a Just In Time (JIT) material management procedure at the assembly lines. We focus in this study upon the mutual shaping of technology and organizational culture, in particular the virtualization of the organization. It is argued that the implementation of ERP in this specific context was more than an adaptation of a standardized information system relative to organizational requirements, and that the organizational adaptations were more than a re-engineering of business processes relative to ERP. Instead, we suggest that in this case the ERP system itself has been transformed, including a change in the signification of ERP within the company.     

A formal representation for context-aware business processes

A business process is a set of activities performed in a coordinated manner within an organizational and technical environment that is aimed toward a business goal. The flexibility of a process is related to an understanding of the unexpected events that occur when people, systems and resources interact and require adjustments. Thus, business processes must be designed to respond to information about different events and their specificity. This information defines what the literature calls “context”. To broaden the perception of context in the case of a business process, this work proposes an approach to characterize the context of a business process activity in a given domain through conceptual models structured in layers. A case study was conducted to evaluate the proposal, which provided evidence of the applicability of the model.     

Moral organizational creativity: Exploring ethical antecedents for a new construct

The objective of this article is to provide the means of supporting the coexistence of creativity and ethics at the organizational level. It contributes to the literature by offering a process model that shows how organizational creativity can be combined with ethics. This work begins by examining how the features of ethical work climates may affect creativity in organizations. We advocate the position that an organization can be both creative and moral through the triggering of moral imagination, dependent in part on the type of ethical work climate espoused in the workplace. As a result, we offer a new formulation of organizational creativity that includes an explicit ethical dimension: moral organizational creativity. This expanded concept treats the dominant elements of ethical work climates and moral imagination as essential ingredients of ethical and organizational creativity. Investigating the link between ethical work climates and moral imagination is meaningful to understanding how an organization can address the requirements of creativity and ethics and therefore enhance organizational creativity.     

A context-based model for Knowledge Management embodied in work processes

Knowledge Management has become a prominent subject for organizations, but often the information that flows in a well-defined design work process is not characterized and treated in such a way as to promote its reuse. We argue that context is a fundamental information resource for improving how activities and interactions are understood and carried on. Our premise is that it is important for organizational learning that decisions, solutions, discussions and actions executed in work processes should be retrievable. We describe an environment that supports the cycle of creating and dealing with information about activities and interactions, focusing on their context. A formal ontology-based representation of context is presented to support the use of this environment. Two case studies are described and their results analyzed. The goal of this paper is to discuss and specify mechanisms that can be used to collect contextual information within such an environment.     

An IHS-based change detection approach for assessment of urban expansion impact on arable land loss in China

China is experiencing a drastic loss of arable land as a result of the continuing process of rapid urbanization. This loss could have an adverse impact not only on China's sustainable development but also on the world food market. To provide a robust and economical tool for evaluating the impact of this process, we developed an IHS (Intensity, Hue, Saturation)-based approach for detecting the change from arable land to urban land by using Landsat TM and SPOT Pan images in different years. This approach takes full advantage of the colour distortion related to the changes in objects after IHS and reverse IHS transformation. Based on case studies in Guangzhou city and Nanyang city, choosing Landsat TM bands 7, 4, and 3 as the input RGB component and employing an exponential contrast stretch and a high-pass filter in SPOT Pan pre-processing led to the greatest change in detection accuracy.