1,721,015 research outputs found
A leisure education programme for working mothers: a case study
No full textThis research developed, implemented and evaluated a Leisure Education/Counselling Programme for a small group of mothers in part-time paid employment. It also examined, explored and discussed the effects the programme had on the women's attitudes towards leisure and constraints on leisure, and formulated recommendations for future programmes.
The research adopted an 'embedded single case study design', using multiple methods of data collection. It was carried out in three parts: first, the women participating in the programme were interviewed about their leisure life-styles and constraints on leisure. Second, the programme was developed (using some of the information from the interviews), implemented, and evaluated by the women and the facilitators. And, thirdly, the women were re-interviewed four weeks after the programme finished.
It was hypothesised that a Leisure Education Programme would benefit these women by giving them an opportunity to explore their leisure needs and identify their leisure constraints. This was proved, but, the sample size was too small for any generalisations to all mothers in paid employment. From the results, the potential to teach women to empower themselves through a programme like this, which advocates women's rights to experience leisure, seemed high, but requires further research.
Overall, the programme, for these women, brought leisure to the fore and enabled them to deal with relevant individual issues in a small and personal group. Some made major shifts towards satisfying their leisure needs; others gained an awareness of their attitudes and the benefits of leisure. Each woman was affected in some positive sense by the programme
Exploring Leadership in E-commerce Adoption in Australian SMEs
Get PDFThis chapter presents the results of a study investigating leadership and leadership styles in e-commerce adoption in small and medium size enterprises in Australia. The results show that top management and CEO' leadership have a key role in small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in developing a vision for e-commerce adoption and that the dominant leadership style is directive with some signs of consultative. Furthermore the study shows that e-commerce adoption is becoming a strategic process and in this process top management is taking into consideration both the organizational knowledge and the knowledge of external consultants
'Connecting to Disasters": The Critical Success Factors of Mobile Phone Utilisation within Disaster Management Operations: The Case of Vanuatu
No full textThis study was an endeavour to contribute to the understanding of mobile phone use in disaster management. The main purpose of the study is to identify the factors necessary for mobile phones to successfully facilitate communication and information dissemination in disaster management operations in Vanuatu, which is viewed as a region experiencing significant risks to natural disasters, as well as a rapidly expanding mobile phone industry.
The research uses qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews from two months of fieldwork in Vanuatu. Interviews were conducted with participants sourced from mobile phone providers, civil society organisations, government departments, and Vanuatu communities.
The research revealed a set of 16 critical success factors that affirmed a number of conclusions drawn from the literature but also revealed information unique to the Vanuatu context. The emerging factors necessary for mobile phone success were developed into a top-down framework with four categories. At the top, factors at the ‘Government Level’ highlighted the need for government leadership and ‘ownership’, particularly in ‘policy formulation’ and ‘sanctioning’ of disseminated information. Below this, key stakeholder groups involved in mobile phones and disaster management make up the ‘Stakeholder Level’, where there was a critical need for ‘communication’, ‘alignment’ and ‘collaboration’ between these groups. Stakeholder groups also need effective ‘staff training’, and a clear understanding of their ‘roles and responsibilities’ surrounding the mobile phone application. The means that enable stakeholders to operate this process make up the ‘Technology Level’, where critical factors include an ‘extensive network’ containing ‘resilient infrastructure’ with swift ‘maintenance and repair processes’. Finally, at the grassroots, community members make up the ‘User Level’. For users mobile phones must be both ‘affordable’ and ‘easy to use’, they also need ‘electricity access’ to meet phone charging needs, as well as knowledge of local areas with sufficient ‘network access’.
These results reveal the importance of addressing ways to improve mobile phone use in disaster management. Mobile phones are now the most widely used information communication technology in Vanuatu, so improving their effectiveness in disaster management operations is important and could have significant implications for communities that are vulnerable to natural disaster hazards
A Grounded Theory of Virtual Facilitation: Building Relationships with Virtual Team Members
No full textThe purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the
issues facing virtual team facilitators as they implement and facilitate virtual
teams. The study asked the following research question:
How do facilitators of virtual teams build relationships with their
virtual team members?
Because virtual teams are a new form of highly dynamic and ambiguous
collaborative interaction, a major challenge of this study was the need to generate
relevant data and analyze it in an appropriate manner. To achieve this, a research
framework involving a training program format was instituted based on methods
developed in Action Learning (AL), with data collection and analysis based on
grounded theory approaches (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
The AL-based 'virtual team facilitation' training program used in this
study was designed to achieve the following three goals: to generate interest and
incentive for would-be participants, to give participants information and skills to
initiate and facilitate their own virtual teams, and to generate data for analysis.
After being recruited, participants were broadly interviewed to determine their
prior experience with virtual teams and their perceived needs and concerns in
implementing and facilitating their own virtual team. The researcher then
developed a ten-week training program to meet these needs. A pilot program and
two subsequent training programs were held. During the training programs, each
participant planned for, or actually initiated and facilitated a virtual team within
their own organizational context. Every two weeks the participants met with the
researcher to investigate issues related to initiating and facilitating virtual teams
and to discuss issues that were arising in their own virtual teams.
In all seven participants from a variety of New Zealand organizations
took part in the study. The seven participants formed a diverse group, from the
managing director of a one-man, global virtual organization who worked
exclusively in global virtual team settings to a self-employed consultant managing a local virtual work team. The participants were in various stages of
their virtual team lifecycle, from planning through initiation to full-scale
facilitation and evaluation of a just-completed virtual team project. The
participants' virtual team project tasks ranged from managing a political
campaign on the other side of the world to developing and running a national
web-based academic assessment center. A unique feature of this study is that it
involves organizational professionals as opposed to students.
Data was collected from face-to-face and telephone interviews, group
discussions and e-mail correspondences. Data collection extended to several
months beyond the end of the training sessions. Using grounded theory
techniques, the data was analyzed using "a general method of (constant)
comparative analysis". Data was collected and coded simultaneously over the
course of the training sessions, with subsequent coding confirming, refining,
extending and modify the data.
The data showed very clearly that the facilitators considered it essential to
build some level of personal relationship with their virtual team members before
commencing a virtual working relationship. Further, a unifying framework of
three inter-related theoretical steps in the overall process a virtual facilitator goes
through when building relationships with virtual team members was inductively
derived from this study. These three steps are Assessing Conditions, Choosing
Level of Relationship, and Creating Strategies.
This study is the first to identify the steps a virtual team facilitator
undertakes when building relationships with virtual team members. It has
implications for virtual team practice, research and training
Digital Genre: a Mechanism for Knowledge Sharing and Reuse in Business Clusters
No full textThe purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge transfer mechanisms in project bidding for two business clusters in New Zealand, and how ICT played a role in facilitating a "virtual space" for sharing and re-use of these mechanisms. Genre Systems was the theoretical framework adopted to guide this inquiry and to build on
further theory. Within the context of this study, genres are the knowledge transfer mechanisms that communicate information and knowledge to members of the community, following specific social rules. The genres and the way they are being employed contribute towards explaining how knowledge is shared and reused by a community.
Action research methodology was used to direct data collection and analysis, and validate how the study was carried out. The study comprised of one action research cycle, which has been divided in five stages: Diagnosis, Planning, Development,
Evaluation, and Specifying Learning. Mapping the clusters' collaborative interactions during project bidding helped to identify the knowledge transfer mechanisms. This allowed the identification of an ICT solution that could improve project bidding, and identification of how this knowledge could be stored for reuse in future bids. One of the clusters decided to work together with the researcher towards the design of a new portal to address their project bidding needs. The portal took six iterations to complete and went live in November 2005. A database, several "digital genres" (since these genres exist in an electronic medium), and some procedures were created to
facilitate knowledge transfer for the cluster's project bidding process. The team had the opportunity to reflect on the whole experience, identify potential features and genres to incorporate in the portal, and start thinking how they could improve the development process in future interventions. The introduction of ICT encouraged the cluster to develop digital genres that were more dynamic and flexible than the ones used before then. The main finding of the
study is a five-step process to create digital genres based on the activities carried out by the team: finding reference points for the digital genre; defining the social rules for the digital genre; embedding the social rules in the template; testing the template; and legitimising the digital genre. Further findings discussed the "natural" and "induced" ways for a cluster to increase its knowledge-base. The first instance takes place during the normal practices of cluster members working together towards business opportunities over a period of time, whereas the later instance is triggered by a specific event or initiative. In this study, the decision by the cluster to introduce website and database technology to assist in managing their knowledge-base provided an opportunity to explore the role
of ICT in increasing the cluster's knowledge-base.
Final findings showed that a project of this nature not only has to overcome the common IT development challenges (budget, project management, user buy-in), but also those derived from working with a team of volunteer people from different organisations, such as in the case of a cluster
The impact of e-commerce on the role of the is professional: an exploratory study
No full textUnderstanding the knowledge, skills and abilities of Information Systems (IS) professionals has been a longstanding goal of information systems research. An IS professional's ability to perform in his or her role is vital to the utilisation of information systems within an organisation. The introduction of e-commerce has opened a new set of challenges for the IS professionals who are most frequently tasked with developing e-commerce solutions. However, they often do not have the competencies required to successfully execute these e-commerce projects. This competency deficit raises an important question: to what extent have the competency requirements of IS professionals changed because of the introduction of e-commerce? Furthermore, what IS role changes have occurred because of the need within organisations to manage e-commerce activities?
To answer these questions, a case research method was used. Interviewed were fifteen IS professionals employed in businesses implementing or maintaining e-commerce strategies. The results indicate that the implementation of e-commerce in organisations has introduced three main business changes: expectations, perceptions, and compliance. These three changes have in turn driven project changes and subsequent changes in the competency and role of the IS professional. The end result of all these changes, is that IS professionals are now required to acquire, among other things, a new set of relationship skills, including group facilitation, relationship management, and peer networking. The implications of this result for the IS professionals are discussed and recommendations for future research and strategies suggested
Business use of the World Wide Web in New Zealand
No full textThe World Wide Web is a key component of an e-commerce venture and its popularity in New Zealand is growing rapidly. Despite the importance of the Web for businesses, few studies have been made of how New Zealand businesses use the Web. To this end, this study reports the results from a survey research of 180 New Zealand businesses on the Web undertaken during the period between August 2000 and August 2001.
The number of different New Zealand industries represented on the Web shows the great diversity of New Zealand businesses making use of the Web. The number of business sites is increasing rapidly with the vast majority of them being owned by very small businesses. The small size of a typical New Zealand business, however, does not seem to affect its ability to create and maintain a quality business site. The businesses made heavy use of Web-based e-mail applications and developed Web sites mostly for advertising, marketing, and customer support. Web sites with facilities for online transactions were rare and security was generally perceived as the biggest huddle hindering e-commerce. The low level of sophistication of most of the Web sites examined suggests that the potential of the Web may not have been fully realised by New Zealand businesses. There seems to be a lack of effort to fully integrate one's Web activities into one's core business practices
A Grounded Theory of Preneurial Agency in Information Technology Creation
No full textThe purpose of this study was to examine how entrepreneurs act to bring an Information Technology-based innovation into being. Successful realisation of such innovations requires collective effort, involving resources and actors both internal and external to the entrepreneur‘s own venture (Van de Ven, 1993a, 2005; Lavie, 2006). The study is qualitative in nature and uses the Glaserian variant of the grounded theory method to collect and analyse data obtained from interviewing entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and collective agents involved in creating IT innovation. Through undertaking open, selective, and theoretical coding and the process of constant comparative analysis, the research produces a substantive theory for explaining: A Grounded Theory of Preneurial Agency in IT Creation.
The Grounded Theory of Preneurial Agency in IT Creation accounts for the actions of both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs who are jointly called ―preneurs‖ within this study, and their interaction with collective agents to create IT innovation. The process of preneurial agency, the actions the preneur undertakes to create the innovative idea and make it a tangible reality, is shown as a triality involving the combined agency of the preneur and collective agents interacting within social structures established by the preneur. To support this abstracted view of entrepreneurship, the study develops and defines a family of terms to describe the process of preneurship, the preneur, preneurial agency, and the preneurial ba within which the actors interact to create IT-based innovation.
The value of the research lies in its view of the preneur‘s process of transition from entrepreneur to intrapreneur and to institutional actor; and how the actions of both the entrepreneur and intrapreneur to create IT innovation can be shown in an abstracted process of preneurial agency. It is expected that through the application of a specific set of actions, presented in The Grounded Theory of Preneurial Agency in IT Creation as six theoretical propositions, practitioners will be better able to inform their practice, and enhance the self management of their preneurial agency and interaction with collective agents
Culture at the Edge: an Exploration of Cultural Adaptation and Sense-Making Across Workgroup Boundaries in Complex Organizations
No full textThe nature and conduct of relationships between functionally specialised workgroups in complex organization is explored in this dissertation. Interviews with twenty eight individuals and two entire workgroups from four large organizations are used as the basis for an experiential phenomenological study that seeks to understand the essences of the lived experience of being a member of such a workgroup. The situated outcomes of the phenomenological study are scrutinised in the light of the literatures of organizational theory, organizational communication theory, and social identity theory. These literatures are used as lenses to explore the possibility that problematic dimensions of intergroup relations might be diminished by the deployment of technology mediated communication channels between the groups concerned. The research finds that, with few exceptions, workgroup membership is a strong part of the individual's sense of social identity. This is consistent with the key elements of social identification theory and self-categorization theory. It also finds that the construction of stereotypes creating mutually oppositional beliefs of positive distinctiveness is unavoidable. Further, the research tends to confirm that individuals in workgroups believe that they are performing their allotted tasks as well as possible. Such beliefs are not necessarily consistent with the expectations of management, but they address issues related own self image and perceived role-performance. Although perceived issues of media richness associated with presently available technologies tend to undermine perceptions of technological solutions in the participant organizations, the research points to useful future opportunities for more effective selection and deployment of appropriate technologies as a basis for the conduct and management of intergroup relationships
The language of leaders: Identifying emergent leaders in global virtual teams
No full textVirtual teams and their leaders are key players in global organizations. Using teams of workers dispersed temporally and geographically has changed the way people work in groups and redefined the nature of teamwork. Emergent leadership issues in computer-mediated communication are vital today because of the increasing prevalence of the virtual organization, the flattening of organizational structures, and the corresponding interest in managing virtual groups and teams. This chapter examines the communication behaviors of participants in two different case studies to determine if number, length, and content of messages are sufficient criteria to identify emergent leaders in asynchronous and synchronous environments. The methodology used can be embedded in collaborative virtual environments as a technology for identifying potential leaders in organizational and educational environments
- …
