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Promoting and encouraging genealogy tourism in County Mayo
Get PDFThere are over 70 million people of Irish descent scattered across the globe, forming a nostalgic Diasporic network that links County Mayo and the rest of Ireland to places such as the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. While the concepts of cultural affinity and roots have served as ‘puli’ factors which have attracted large numbers of sentimental ethnic tourists to Ireland since the 1970s, the advent of the Internet as a ‘virtual’ research tool for family history research, and the ongoing reconfiguration of the tourism industry in general, have raised countless questions about the future of Ireland’s genealogy tourism industry. Using evidence gleaned from extensive fieldwork in County Mayo, this study is concerned with the challenges and opportunities currently facing genealogy as a tourism product. Special attention is paid to the notion that tourism in the new Europe needs to be proactively managed with forethought rather than retrospectively reacting to change. Following an overview of the current heritage management difficulties that exist in promoting and encouraging genealogy tourism in County Mayo, an attempt is made to illustrate how these may be best addressed by the development of new marketing strategies and work/organisational practices for the genealogy tourism industry as a whole - including the encouragement of dynamic activity within both ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ tourism sub-spaces. The findings reveal that although there have been significant improvements in the provision of genealogy services in County Mayo since the turn of the millennium, these have not been matched by dedicated marketing strategies by the service providers and the tourism agencies to promote these services. Changes in tourism patterns and the emergence of cultural tourism as an important element in the tourism product mix, suggest that there are real opportunities to further nurture and develop genealogy tourism in County Mayo
An empirical study : the delivery phase of large-scale information systems development in the Irish Public Sector
Get PDFThe study of information systems development and implementation in the Irish Public Sector is abundant with both empirical and anecdotal evidence of failures. In recent years the Irish Credit Unions failed to introduce the standardised Information System ISIS. The\ud
Government failed to introduce the proposed electronic voting system. The implementation of an enterprise information system is laden with dangers and prone to\ud
failure. Even technically elegant systems, can fail, when critical human and organisational factors are not identified and expediently managed. The purpose of this research was to examine the factors and strategies that impacted the failure or success of a large-scale enterprise information system implementation. The\ud
primary objective was to identify implementation related causes of information systems failures, and to prescribe best practices for minimising the risk of failure. The focus of this study is on the delivery phase of the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems in two public sector organisations. In-depth studies of the Health Service Executive PPARS System and the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, \ud
Banner System were conducted. The research recommends that end-user involvement in all stages of the information systems development process is paramount and decisive. The study finds that, in order to\ud
ensure a successful outcome of the implementation, committed managers from all levels\ud
of management must efficiently manage the change and effectively communicate with stakeholders. Appropriate educating and training the users, reengineering business\ud
processes to gain the most from the new system, and, planning, monitoring and controlling the project, are all vital factors to be considered during each stage of the proces
The history, ecology and management of Partry House Estate Woodlands, Partry, County Mayo
Get PDFThe history, ecology and management of Partry House Estate Woodlands situated on the shores of Lough Carra were examined by investigating their current ecology and structural development and contrasting this information with the historical evidence of their management. By combining the historical documentary evidence with the ecological data, the structural processes occurring in each of the woodlands were\ud
established leading to a greater understanding of the woodland development processes taking place. Also, valuable baseline data on species composition and diversity was gathered for the woodlands and vegetation maps were established. Partry House Estate has a long history of establishment that has not been researched\ud
in the past and this study rectifies this. Using a combination of historical documents and sources, a chronology of events, management and ownership was ascertained. As part of the study a deer exclusion experiment was set up in each of the woodlands\ud
to determine the effect of deer grazing on the vegetation layer and tree regeneration. The initial findings of the experiment indicate that excessive deer grazing is resulting in the loss of species diversity and regeneration. Their presence is influencing the\ud
natural successional processes in the woodlands which are negatively impacting upon the biodiversity value of Partry House Estate Woodlands. The combined results of the field survey data and the historical data were used to guide the decision whether to manage the woodlands or not. It has been suggested that active adaptive management would be the most suitable approach to managing the woodlands of Partry House Estate and management prescriptions are outlined in a ten year management plan for these woodlands
Empathy and teamwork: reflections on the legacy of Claudio Ciborra through the phenomenology of Edith Stein
Get PDFClaudio Ciborra argued that the position of information and communications technology (ICT) in organisations requires a shift from the present focus on the scientific paradigm to an alternative centre of gravity: human existence in everyday life. The paper proposes to make a contribution by examining the role of empathy in relationships among people working in industrial teams. Relevance is addressed by means of empirical evidence that emerged during interviews carried out in the longitudinal case-study of a supply chain transformation initiative in American Power Conversion (APC) Ireland. Rigour is applied by building on the legacy of Ciborra viewed through the lens of the phenomenology of Edith Stein which was developed during her doctoral studies as a student of Edmund Husserl. Furthermore it is proposed that Stein's philosophy of empathy can provide a theoretical framework for the understanding of organizations, teamwork and information systems. The concept can also provide impetus for future work in the area of human computer interaction (HCI) that is increasingly being employed in automated business transactions. In addition, it is suggested that Husserl's proposition that an objective external world can only be experienced inter-subjectively has the potential to contribute some new insights to the present impasse within the positivist-interpretivist debate
An investigation into manufacturing planning and control systems within Irish engineering sector
Get PDFManufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems, among a number of sub-systems \ud
in an organisation, are the pivotal infrastructures that support the' organisation’s \ud
strategy in order to create competitive advantage in the market place. It provides \ud
information to efficiently manage the flow of materials, effectively utilize people and \ud
equipment, coordinate internal activities with those of suppliers and communicate \ud
with customers about market requirements.\ud
Several studies emphasized the need for alignment between the manufacturing \ud
planning and control methods and the manufacturing environment, in order to \ud
improve companies’ performance. Matching the MPC systems dimensions with the \ud
manufacturing environment is problematic.\ud
Throughout the literature there is a lack of empirical- studies that match specific \ud
manufacturing environment and planning methods. This thesis provides a practical \ud
knowledge investigating the MPC system used within the Irish engineering sector and \ud
examines the effect on performance, of linking those systems to' the business \ud
environment. The underlying hypothesis is that good performance is the result of \ud
matching the MPC system with the manufacturing environment and good use of the \ud
MPC system employed. A conceptual framework, based on the literature review has \ud
been developed. Further it examines how the use of those systems influences the \ud
companies’ performance. The thesis concludes that the performance of Irish \ud
companies improves when they can match the MPC system with the manufacturing \ud
environment and they use it efficiently
An e-learning platform to support environmental compliance – part I: needs analysis and design
Get PDFCurrent and emerging environmental legislation is driving organisations to become environmentally compliant thereby leading to improved environmental performance and reduced costs, time to market, regulatory concerns and future liabilities (Baxter 2001). To help achieve this compliance, the DeFESS project aims to research, develop and validate an e-learning platform to deliver training programmes in environmental design and management. This training platform will support them in building their understanding of the legal obligations regarding the integration of environmental needs into product design. In this paper, tools and methodologies to enable organisations to achieve and maintain environmental compliance are discussed
LCA/LCC tools for environmental compliance
Get PDFSMEs are increasingly aware of the importance of the environmental impact of their business especially because of customer and legislation demands to support organisations complying with environmental directives. The authors propose two decision-support tools to be used by designers in the early phases of product development: 1. a Life Cycle Assessment tool and 2. a Life Cycle Cost estimation tool. These tools can assist organisations in measuring the environmental performance of a product whilst also assessing the product’s life cycle cost
Managing lean supply and innovation: cross-cultural knowledge transfer in an multi-national company
Get PDFThere is growing evidence that organisations are increasingly using the concept of lean supply to foster innovation. This paper considers key factors that influence this management approach in the context of the cross-cultural transfer of both codified and tacit knowledge embedded in a manufacturing process. It reports current empirical research on a multi-national company American Power Conversion (APC)'s production line transfer from Galway, Ireland to Suzhou, P. R. China. It aims to explore the key factors influencing APC's lean manufacturing and knowledge transfer, and further provide a base-line from which pragmatic advice can be given to companies pursuing manufacturing or supply strategies. The research proposes to make a contribution on examining the key factors that influence the effective transfer of knowledge between two important countries in the global manufacturing landscape
Supply chain transformation in APC Ireland: lean thinking, opposing logics and bricolage
Get PDFThis paper presents a number of observations and\ud
findings from an ongoing study of supply chain\ud
transformation in a subsidiary of American Power Conversion (APC) located in the West of Ireland.\ud
The study is being carried out in a period of significant change within both the Irish economy and the\ud
APC Corporation. The research addresses the question of how innovation can contribute to the sustainability and development of the Operations function in a time of transition. To begin with, a review is presented of\ud
relevant research and theory in the areas\ud
of lean supply, innovative culture and information systems bricolage. Then the context and composition of the lean transformation team involved in the case study are described together with the research design.\ud
The work proposes to make a contribution in two areas.\ud
Firstly by providing empirical evidence of the role of innovation in an organizational transformation and the challenge of incorporating bricolage in the course of\ud
information systems design. Secondly to the building of theory by proposing that organizational innovation\ud
can be viewed as a dynamic process of tuning\ud
“opposing logics”. The paper concludes by suggesting\ud
that the study has significance in the context of Ireland’s objectives of moving to an innovation economy and of strengthening academic-industrial collaboration
An investigation of regulations affecting small audit practitioners: a practitioner's view
Get PDFStatutory auditors are of critical importance to the efficient operation of the economy\ud
and capital markets. They perform the public assurance role, by giving credibility to\ud
audited financial statements and by acting in the public interest.\ud
In Ireland, regulations affecting statutory auditors have been evolving since 1963.\ud
However, recent years have characterised a significant escalation of the regulations\ud
affecting statutory auditors. On the one hand, legislators have imposed many new\ud
‘whistle - blowing’ obligations on statutory auditors in order to protect investors and\ud
in the name of the public interests. On the other hand, the APB, driven by a need of\ud
harmonisation and also investors’ protection has introduced the universal set of the\ud
ISAs.\ud
This study has shown that all of the new regulations were designed for audits of large,\ud
often multinational companies and they are not necessary appropriate for small audit\ud
practices. It also reveals that the volume, complexity and rigidity of these regulations\ud
put an unnecessary burden and pressure on small practitioners. This research further\ud
presents the views of small audit practitioners on the new regulations and also\ud
assesses the effectiveness of these provisions taking into account the special\ud
relationship between small practitioners and their clients.\ud
In addition, this thesis discusses the proposals concerning different concessions for\ud
small practitioners such as: de minimis provisions, an introduction of a separate set of\ud
standards and also exemptions from certain provisions. Furthermore, it evaluates and\ud
recommends how the small practitioners can cope with the high burden of regulations\ud
in the fast changing regulatory framework.\ud
Finally, this study anticipates the potential future of small audit firms in light of the\ud
current project of the European Commission considering an increase of the audit\ud
exemption threshold to €10 millio