224 research outputs found
Exploring the Information behaviour of expectant and new mothers: a longitudinal study
No full textThe rise in online information-seeking raises important questions for information systems researchers, such as how can we tailor information resources to meet the needs of diverse user groups? The study of information behaviour may be able to provide the answers. Information behaviour is the study of human interaction with information resources, the influencers of that interaction, and how information is processed and used. Information behaviour studies place the user at the centre of the investigation. To-date, information processing and use is one area of information behaviour where uncertainty exists, caused by inconsistent defining terminology and a dearth of empirical investigation. This thesis presents an adapted health information behaviour model, a revised version of Wilson (1997). The model highlights the iterative nature of information behaviour while explicating information processing and use. The model is evaluated using a prospective longitudinal case study of expectant and new mothers. As a user group, they are a challenge for information providers attempting to judge their information resource requirements. Expectant and new mothers seek and consume a diverse range of topics from a variety of resources. They do not just seek information for themselves, expectant and new mothers also seek information concerning the health and well-being of their families. The objective of this thesis is identifying design guidelines for eHealth information resources for expectant and new mothers. This is achieved by understanding how expectant and new mothers process information resources. For the purpose of this research, information processing is determined through an analysis of the subjective assessment criteria used to evaluate and compare different information resources. This thesis illustrates connections between subjective assessment criteria and other areas of information behaviour, such as information use outcomes and task type. The longitudinal nature of the study affords the opportunity to observe changes in information behaviour over time
Democratising data governance: theorising workaround-centric data activities as patterns of action
No full textData issues are detrimental and costly for organisations. So, this study investigates how employees pragmatically execute patterns of action to fix data issues. Each pattern is built upon linked workaround-centric data activities (WCDA), which are overlooked in current data governance and workaround research. Five field studies in Indonesian organisations are conducted to achieve this objective. They include a plantation company, a furniture manufacturer, a hospital, a government agency, and a university.
As the research roadmap, this study conceptualises workaround-centric data issues (WCDI) and activities (WCDA) from workaround literature as taxonomies. Next, it extends a narrative network approach to model WCDA. In the end, it investigates five organisations to capture two things. First, it captures WCDA patterns of action to fix data issues. Second, it captures how employees identify data issues before fixing them.
This research reveals several findings. First, workaround literature suggests that data availability and accuracy are the most frequently occurring issues. Second, the empirical work suggests that data availability and accuracy issues introduce six action patterns. It reveals that evaluate data (part of WCDA) is the common denominator for these patterns. Third, as part of evaluating data, employees execute five "checking" approaches to identify data issues: check data templates, check supervisor validation, check data accuracy, check data consistency, and check data completeness.
There are three significant contributions to data governance and workaround research. First, this study challenges the mainstream assumption in data governance research. It suggests that addressing data issues must be preventive practices (e.g., pre-determined, top-down, and before the data are produced). This research shows that curative practices (e.g., reactive, bottom-up, and after the data are produced) are the norm. They exist to address immediate data needs such as managerial reporting.
Second, this research challenges two widely held assumptions in workaround research: 1) a workaround is an atomic process, and 2) a workaround is an isolated process. It opens the workaround black box and shows that a workaround can consist of interlinked WCDA (e.g., a pattern of action). So, a workaround is neither atomic nor isolated.
Third, this study progresses our understanding of WCDA and their relationships (as patterns of action). It identifies WCDA types from the literature. After that, it identifies WCDA patterns to address data issues from field studies. These patterns provide non-managerial employees with plausible pictures to govern data with minimal top-management intervention.
These patterns allow employees to reflect on their work and present these creative practices to top management whenever necessary. Therefore, these patterns democratise data governance in organisations by making governance meaningful for operational employees. In the end, this research discusses theoretical contributions and managerial implications for data governance research and practices
Health Information Use During Pregnancy (Presentation)
No full textThe internet is a popular choice for health information-seeking (Rowley, Johnson, & Sbaffi, 2017). While some researchers have raised concerns over the quality of information online and the lack of quality standards (Ghasemaghaei & Hassanein, 2015; Metzger, 2007; Savolainen, 2011), health information-seeking is generally viewed as a positive activity (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007). The internet provides convenient, cost-effective and private access to a fast body of medical information and patient support (Quinn, Bond, & Nugent, 2017; Sbaffi & Zhao, 2019). Researchers have argued that this availability has helped to encourage the move “from physician‐as‐expert to patient‐as‐consumer in healthcare encounters” (Gage & Panagakis, 2012, p.444).
Information use, also known as information use outcomes, are the result of individuals processing the information that they find during information-seeking (Mahony, Sammon, & Heavin, 2016; Savolainen, 2006). This exploratory research investigates the information behaviour of women during pregnancy and categories their information use outcomes based on two criteria, internal versus external use and positive versus negative impact. Despite the interest in health information-seeking in the literature, the outcome of this process has received less attention (Pluye et al., 2019). This research aims to help provide more insight into information use outcomes
Exploring characteristics of IT capability in enabling a customer-focused strategy
No full textThe customer-focused approach is a prominent trend pursued by organisations. Every part of an organisation that follows this approach has a role in the success of that organisation's customer-focused strategy. The role of information technology (IT) in enabling and facilitating customer focus is not fully recognised or appreciated by some managers. The motivation for this study is to develop a new way of thinking about customer-focused strategy and to illustrate that IT has a significant role in the success of the relationship between an organisation and its customers. This research study aims to explore strategies for focusing on the customer, the characteristics of IT capabilities (ITC) and the relationship between business and IT in delivering customer-focused strategies (CFS). A qualitative exploratory approach was conducted with three large organisations: Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Arab National Bank (ANB) in Saudi Arabia, and Electricity Supply Board Networks (ESB Networks) in Ireland. Qualitative data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with 35 business and IT managers. The data collected were analysed using coding and comparative techniques. These case studies reveal that the focus of these organisations is on knowing the customer and empowering the customer experience through multiple interaction channels, improving the fulfilment time for customers and transforming customer services to digital. This focus on the customer increases the importance of ITC in the fulfilment, continuity, automation, integration and availability of customer services. Both ITC and CFS are supported by a working relationship characterised by shared responsibility, mutual trust, partnership and agility between IT and business in handling customer services. A multi-site exploratory study reveals the emergence of self-service initiatives and customer usability. This highlights an organisation’s ability to predict customer needs proactively and enable customers to control their own services. Roles also emerged for ITC in implementing, enabling and initiating business strategies to focus on the customer. These initiatives and ITC roles support the formation of customer focus digitalisation in terms of provision, interactivity and information capabilities. This study illustrates a theoretical model of customer focus digitalisation. This model refocuses services and interactions between organisations and customers and places greater emphasis on the digital form. This could be one of the building blocks in supporting the processes managed between technology and business. This study also provides organisations with practical classifications for understanding and characterising the role of ITC in supporting organisational strategies towards customers. ITC roles are classified into those of implementer, enabler, autonomous, initiator, and generator of revenue
A holistic view of the social and technical factors that Influence the assimilation of an mHealth tool in developing countries
No full textThe integration of smartphones and mobile devices into healthcare systems has been proposed to address some of the physical barriers to healthcare delivery in rural areas of developing countries. This has prompted a number of intervention initiatives to develop novel mHealth tools for specific regions. However, despite all the research and the investment, there has been slow practical progress. This thesis attributes this slow progress to compartmentalised thinking and limited holistic exploration. In order to understand these problems, this thesis undertook a number of studies, i.e., a review-focused, a past-focused, a future-focused, and policy-focused studies to understand how an mHealth tool could be assimilated in rural areas of developing countries. These studies took place in the context of an mHealth app being explored for introduction to assist with the diagnosis and treatment of sick children under the age of five in Enugu State, Nigeria. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to create a more socially and technologically holistic understanding of the factors that influence the introduction of mHealth tools into rural areas of developing countries. First, findings from the review-focused study illustrate two key trends in existing research. Most strikingly, little research has looked at the role of patient-to-patient interactions. Furthermore, the interactions between system developers and the other stakeholder groups are notably under-represented. Second, findings from the past-focused study indicate that, (i) at the social-level, there is a perceived limitation of services, human resources and a sense of exclusion from the urban health system; (ii) at ‘material-level, observations were made of the significant infrastructural and technological limitations that discourage rural healthcare workers (RHCWs) and parents/guardians (PGs) from spending prolonged periods at the rural health centres; (iii) at the ‘practice-level’, there is the formal diagnosis treatment method practiced by the RHCWs in the midst of the PGs diagnosis and treatment practices and African traditional healing practices, and (iv) at ‘imbrication-level’, the entanglement of phones with internet access have exposed PGs to a range of health information outside the control or guidance of health professionals. Third, from the future-focused study, findings show a set of factors which are bound as an emerging explanatory model which influence primary appraisal of an mHealth tool in a new context. These factors describe a set of individual and social influences that governments, funding bodies and non-governmental organisations should consider before the introduction of an mHealth tool. Fourth, from the policy-focused study, a framework is proposed that differentiates between interventions targeting traits and states, the latter being situation-specific, and the former which seeks to improve individual’s abilities, job knowledge, and skills as they relate to an mHealth tool. Furthermore, the framework differentiates between individual and social interventions, the former being resilient to personnel change, and the latter seeking to improve crucial situations that would otherwise cause social systems to break down around an mHealth tool. These findings have implications for theory, practice, and future research. These implications are discussed in the final chapter of this thesis
Health Information Systems – Opportunities and Challenges in a Global Health Ecosystem
No full textHealth Information Systems (HIS) and Health Information Technology (HIT) have experienced significant growth in use and improved functionality in recent years. The global HIS/HIT market is estimated to grow exponentially in value by 2020. This growth in market size is largely attributable to three key factors: 1) the need for disruptive solutions to challenge the spiraling cost of healthcare, 2) the increased penetration into new markets of healthcare related systems, and 3) the increasing demand for personalized medicine driven by the availability of novel, real-time data streams not previously experienced in the healthcare domain. This short article explores these three aspects of HIS/HIT. In order to achieve meaningful advances in people\u27s health through the provision of new technologies, a more integrated and holistic approach is needed in the design and implementation of HIS. The increasing costs of healthcare coupled with the heightened expectations of stakeholders continues to place increasing pressure on those tasked with delivering new health technologies that are ‘fit for purpose’ in respective healthcare settings. More attention needs to be given to understanding the cost of healthcare and how HIS/HIT may create value in healthcare services
Characterising the knowledge approach of a firm: an investigation of knowledge activities in five software SMEs
No full textAn organisation’s ability to successfully compete in a changing market place is contingent on its ability to manage what it knows, in order to serve the objectives of the firm. While it has been argued that due to their size, knowledge management (KM) is not a concern for smaller organisations, in the current economic climate, it is expected that a more formalised approach to KM allows the company to seize opportunities as they arise, and deal with environmental uncertainty more effectively. In view of this, the objective of this study was to devise a classification of knowledge activities (KAs) which facilitates the exploration of a Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in terms of the type and extent to which knowledge is managed. Furthermore, analysis of KAs provided a greater understanding of the fit between the firm’s objectives and the KM approach pursued. In order to achieve this, five case studies were conducted. Based on the classification of KAs identified, a qualitative analysis approach was used to code each of the twenty eight interviews carried out. Both quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods were applied to facilitate data reduction and generate meaning from the significant volume of data collected. The output from this study includes a classification of KAs which provides rich insight into how SMEs are motivated to deal with knowledge as a means of achieving their organisational objectives. From a practitioner viewpoint, this study seeks to offer an improved understanding of a software SMEs’ approach to KM
Co-authoring in Academic Research:From quarter-baked intuition to publication
No full textDr Ciara Hackett (QUB School of Law) and Prof Harry Van Buren (the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Honorary Professor, QUB School of Law) speak with Dr Ciarán O’Kelly about co-authoring in academic research.They ask how accurate and, indeed, how healthy it is to think of academics as solitary actors. They discuss both the merits of and the challenges involved in collaboration and co-authoring. Who ought one co-author with? What workflows work best? What ethical issues emerge
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