Information technology and the autonomy–control duality: toward a theory

We examine the relationship between firms’ human resources (HR) practices and their information technology (IT) practices, focusing on the dichotomy between autonomy and control. We define facilitating HR practices as those that exhibit the following characteristics: worker autonomy, connectedness, learning, valuing individuals, trust, and flexibility in business processes. We then characterize facilitating IT practices, which are practices that facilitate employee collaboration, autonomy, and wider access to information. We contrast these categories of practice to traditional HR and monitoring IT, respectively. Drawing from theories of complementarities and configuration, we propose that alignment between HR and IT strategies originates at the level of individual practices. We consider the effects of this alignment on worker performance. We then ground our discussion in exploratory empirical and qualitative results.

Ergonomics in industrially developing countries: does its application differ from that in industrially advanced countries?

Demographic characteristics of industrially developing countries (IDCs) and some comparisons with industrially advanced countries (IACs), particularly those aspects relevant to ergonomics, are presented. The majority of IDC populations are engaged in subsistence agriculture (the “informal” sector) and consideration is given to the scope for ergonomics interventions, aimed primarily at raising productivity to alleviate the poverty suffered by rural families. Ergonomics issues prevalent in the “formal” sector are also discussed and the importance of finding simple, low-cost solutions through participatory approaches emphasised. The possible contributions of ergonomics to alleviating problems common to both sectors, such as transport, are also indicated and attention is drawn to the difficulties of applying formal standards. The improvement of living and working conditions from incorporating an ergonomics approach into the sustainable livelihoods model, by enhancing human capital, is described in the context of the other livelihood assets. This demonstrates the importance of the cultural dimension for the successful delivery of ergonomics benefits. The application of ergonomics differs between IDCs and IACs particularly through the limited infrastructure in IDCs to support ergonomics activity and interventions. This broaches the different contributions that can be made by ergonomics and occupational health practitioners and implies the need for closer collaboration between these professions.     

A case for more case study research in the implementation of Information Technology in less‐developed countries *

Abstract

While the potentially crucial role of information technology in the development of Third World countries has been widely prescribed, the evolving interaction between IT and the organization during the process of IT implementation and its implications for managers in these environments, has received little attention. This paper argues for more fieldwork to better analyze the dynamic interweaving between the new technology and the social/organizational setting in which it is being embedded.     

A Frame Based Architecture for Information Integration in CIMS

This paper foumulates and architecture for information integration in computer integrated manufacturing systems(CIMS).The architecture takes the frame structure as single link among applications and between applications and physical storage.All the advantages in form features based intgrated systems can be found in the frame-based architecture as the frame structrue here takes from features as its primitives.But other advantage,e.g.,default knowledge and dynamic domain knowledge can be attached to frames and the frame structure is easy to be changed and extended,which cannot be found ing form reatures based systems,can also be showed in frame based architectures as the frame structure is a typical knowledge representation scheme in artificial intelligence and many researches and interests have put on it.     

Information technology and accounting in the accomplishment of public policy — A cautionary tale

Information and accounting technologies are increasingly being applied in public policy practice. In American health care organizations, for instance, millions have been spent on new automated information systems that track resource usage, output levels, assign costs to Diagnosis-Related-Groups and calculate profitability and productivity. It is not obvious, however, that such use of these technologies will necessarily lead to “better” health outcomes. The health sector has historically entrenched concepts of disease and the roles of the doctor, hospital and state in health provision. This agenda has, in turn, influenced the rules for the compilation of records that are the primary input into information systems. In the absence of a fundamental restructuring of this agenda, it is likely that information and accounting technologies will not solve problems, merely rearrange and manage them within pre-existing parameters.     

Considerations for Information Systems “Backsourcing”: A Framework for Knowledge Re-integration

Backsourcing is motivated by opportunities arising from changes in the business situation, redefinition of the character of outsourced service declining in quality or due to the discovery of flaws in the contract. The situation of backsourcing clearly has major implications for an organization in terms of monetary investments, IS infrastructure and changes in employee requirements during and after the process. The paper considers a detailed analysis of two case studies of backsourcing reported from JP Morgan Chase (USA) and Sainsbury (UK). A major contribution of the paper is to identify important strategies to be followed in backsourcing projects to ensure efficient knowledge re-integration.     

Information Security Assessment: Procedures and Methodology: When investing in technology isn’t enough

It very often happens while setting up or renovating company IT infrastructure that most of the investment goes into purchasing new products. In particular, this may occur in the area of security, which is often not given the attention it deserves. The worst error one can commit is that of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on perimeter protection products (firewalls, content filtering, etc.) and rearguard products (intrusion detection systems) without having assessed vulnerabilities and assets, and developed a post-implementation security management program.     

A λ-unifiability test for set theory

We present a semi-decision algorithm for the unifiability of two set-theoretic formulas modulo -reduction. The algorithm is based on the approach developed by G. Huet for type theory, but requires additional measures because formulas in set theory are not all normalizable. We present the algorithm in an Ada-like pseudocode, and then prove two theorems that show the completeness and correctness of the procedure. We conclude by showing that -unification is not a complete quantifier substitution method for set theory-unlile first-order unification and first-order logic. In this respect set theory is similar to type theory (higher-order logic).This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under award number ISI-8560438. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.     

Assessing important factors that support component‐based development in developing countries

Abstract

Most developing countries (DCs) have yet to fully benefit from the many advances in the information technology (IT) field because of specific problems experienced by these countries. Examples include a lack of systems infrastructure and resources to invest in IT. Component‐Based Development (CBD) offers a number of benefits that the DCs can tap into, such as reducing development and maintenance costs and improving reuse across projects. CBD entail purchasing a number of off‐the‐shelf software components, each satisfying some part of the requirements of the system and integrating these components into the required system. This paper will discuss the findings of a survey conducted in a specific developing country (Zambia) to assess important factors that support the CBD process. The results suggests that, although CBD has great potential for DCs there are some social and technical factors that need to be addressed by organisations in DCs for this to be fully realised. For example, the results show that from the social point of view there is lack of management support for CBD and from the technical point of view that organisations were not familiar with the technology for integrating components.     

To use or not to use? Social media in higher education in developing countries

This research is a response to the universal use of social media by students for academic-related purposes. It bridges a gap in knowledge in relation to the value and use of social media as effective teaching and learning tool in higher education in developing countries. A pre-tested questionnaire survey was self-administered to faculty members in the eight public Egyptian higher institutions offering tourism and hotel management programs. The results showed that social media have a great value for academic-related purposes, particularly as teaching and learning tool; however, the actual use by faculty was at a minimal level. In-depth interviews were conducted to identify the perils, barriers and concerns for the minimal use. Several barriers were identified with some specific to developing countries' context. Nonetheless, there was consensus by faculty that if these barriers were overcome, social media could be developed as an innovative and effective tool for teaching and learning. Implications for researchers and policy makers are discussed.     

A flexible rule for evidential combination in Dempster–Shafer theory of evidence

Dempster’s combination rule in Dempster–Shafer theory of evidence is widely used to combine multiple pieces of evidence. However, when the evidence is severely conflicting, the result could be counter-intuitive. Thus, many alternative combination rules have been proposed to address this issue. Nevertheless, the existing ones sometimes behave not very well. This may be because they do not hold some essential properties. To this end, this paper firstly identifies some of the important properties. Then, following the cues from these properties, we propose a novel evidential combination rule as a remediation of Dempster’s combination rule in Dempster–Shafertheory. Our new rule is based on the concept of complete conflict (we introduced in this paper), Dempster’s combination rule, and the concept of evidence weight. Moreover, we illustrate the effectiveness of our new rule by using it to successfully resolve well-known Zadeh’s counter-example, which is against Dempster’s combination rule. Finally, we confirm the advantages of our method over the existing methods through some examples.     

Exploring pre-service teachers' use of technology: The technology acceptance model and expectancy–value theory

Understanding how prepared teachers are to use technology to enhance their teaching can assist researchers to support them better, yet the theoretical basis for understanding teachers' self-beliefs is in need of stronger empirical support. The first objective of this study was to replicate and extend prior research that empirically tested portions of the technology acceptance model (TAM) amongst pre-service teachers. The second objective was to empirically test an alternative set of antecedents of behavioural intentions to use technology based on the expectancy–value theory (EVT). Four theoretical models were tested using structural equation modelling with a sample of pre-service teachers (N = 249). Results provide support for the TAM and the extended TAM models, however, no support was found for the combined EVT and TAM models. We discuss the implications to promote teacher integration of technology in the classroom by creating facilitating conditions.