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  • articleNo Access

    CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND SOFTWARE REUSE SUPPORTIVE 'GENETIC INFORMATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE' MODEL

    The aim of the present research work is to develop an information system development process and a model for the development of new generation information systems. New age information systems are those information systems that are capable of fulfilling the demand of highly dynamic information requirements derived from the competitive environments of business organizations and support controlling the complexity involved in their maintenance and software configuration management. Present research work analyzes the theoretical, financial, technical and practical problems related to the information system development, maintenance and change management to propose an appropriate system development process and a model for the development as well as maintenance of information systems with maximum software reuse. The proposed system development process and model provide inherent support to the business organizations in having total control over information system development, maintenance and software configuration management.

  • articleNo Access

    Configuration Management Model in Evolutionary Software Product Line

    In Software Product Line (SPL), Configuration Management (CM) is a multi-dimensional problem. On the one hand, the Core Assets that constitute a configuration need to be managed, and on the other hand, each product in the product line that is built using a configuration must be managed, and furthermore, the management of all these configurations must be coordinated under a single process. Therefore, CM for product lines is more complex than for single systems. The CM of any software system involves four closely related activities: Change Management (ChM), Version Management (VM), System Building (SB) and Release Management (RM) [I. Sommerville, Software Engineering, 9th edn. (Addison-Wesley, 2010)]. The aim of this paper is to provide ChM and VM models for evolutionary-based SPL system development and maintenance. The proposed models support any level of aggregation in SPLs and have been applied to Mobile SPL as a case study.

  • articleNo Access

    WebBIS: AN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR AGILE INTEGRATION OF WEB SERVICES

    The Web is changing the way organizations are conducting their business. Businesses are rushing to provide modular applications, called Web services, that can be programmatically accessed through the Web. Despite the tremendous developments achieved so far, one of the most important, yet untapped potential, is the use of Web services as facilitators for inter-organizational cooperation. This promising concept, known as Web service composition, is gaining momentum as the potential silver bullet for the envisioned Semantic Web. The development of such integrated services has so far been ad hoc, time-consuming, and requires extensive low-level programming efforts. In this paper, we present WebBIS (Web Base of Internet-accessible Services), a generic framework for composing and managing Web services. We combine the object-oriented and active rules paradigms for such a task. We also provide a ontology-based framework for organizing the Web service space. We finally propose a peer-to-peer mechanism for reporting, propagating, and reacting to changes in Web services.

  • articleNo Access

    Evaluation of Knowledge Management in an Organisation

    Implementation of Knowledge Management (KM) brings significant changes at various levels of an organisation. Knowledge sharing is one of the aspects that plays a significant role in the success of KM. This paper uses empirical research. It will analyse the applicability of KM as a new change in an organisation, while taking into account the aspects influencing knowledge sharing. The research identifies the aspects related to knowledge sharing which will be assessed. This case study has been realised by using a questionnaire at an Iranian research organisation. The five factors of trust, commitment, job satisfaction, learning and organisational communication have been identified and studied as aspects affecting knowledge sharing. The results show that during the implementation of KM there would be a lot of resistance from people. While people seem to welcome this change and find it effective in organisational growth, the assessment shows that there is no adequate preparation in terms of knowledge sharing and KM.

  • articleNo Access

    Investigation of Resistance, Perception and Attitudes of Employees against Change in Information Systems Using Change Management Approach: A Study in a University Hospital

    The need for change in the rapidly developing health sector is essential for the provision of quality health care services. In this study, the technological change experienced in the process of transition from the old hospital information management system used in a university hospital to the new hospital information management system was discussed and employees’ resistance, perceptions and attitudes to change have been examined through a change management approach. In this study, we aimed to examine the level of usage of the change management tools and change management phases in a university hospital through a change management approach in the transition phase to the new HIS. We also aim to discuss faced problems encountered in the change process, help to create consciousness for management of change, examine behavioural reasons of resistance of healthcare professionals and present our experiences and propose solutions in the view of adoption and acceptance management tools against change in Hospital Information Systems (HIS) for healthcare managers. In the research, it has been observed that in the transition to the new information system, the change management tools are applied partially whereas change management phases have been implemented to a large extent. University hospital employees are resistant to Hospital Information Management System replacement. The most resistant groups are doctors and nurses and the least resistant employees are administrative staff. The rise in hospital revenues following the change is noteworthy.

  • articleNo Access

    SUPPLEMENTING THE SIX FACETS MODEL OF TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT WITH A MODIFIED ANALYTIC HIERARCHIC PROCESS: THE EFFECTIVE EVALUATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGY PRIOR TO IMPLEMENTATION

    The Six Facets Model presents a tool for managing the implementation of change in an organization. Its utility, however, is largely to be found after the decision to implement a major technological change has been made. This paper proposes a Modified Analytic Hierarchic Process (MAHP) to supplement the Six Facets Model by allowing the manager to consider whether to implement a new technology before turning to the Six Facets Model to ensure a successful implementation. The combination of these tools yields a simple, yet powerful, approach to the management of new technology.

  • articleNo Access

    World Class Manufacturing Operations Management: Scale Development and LHEMI Model Proposition

    This paper aims to create a quantitative model of World Class Manufacturing (WCM) using the findings of Oliveira (2015) who identified six constructs using the PLS-PM method to create a WCM-LHEMI model, which is an acronym for Lean Manufacturing, Human Resource Management, Environmental Practices, and Marketing Integration. We created a questionnaire using the variables that exploratory factor analyses identified as consistent and distributed it to 1000 professionals using the LinkedIn professional network. From these, our final sample consisted of 180 completed questionnaires, which exceeded the 68 answers needed to have an adequate sample based on suggestions by G*Power Software. Eleven hypotheses were analyzed and six were accepted and considered valid. A goal of this research was to examine the professional’s perception about the need for enterprises to have environmental practices to become WCM enterprises. A main contribution of this study was to propose a WCM model using professional perceptions about what denotes a WCM enterprise through a PLS Statistics method.

  • articleNo Access

    Change Agents’ Required Expertise to Implement an Educational Technology: A Mixed-Method Study

    To support trainers in implementing emerging educational technologies into their practices, training centers nominate one or several change agents. The aim of this study is to identify their individual human factors in this organizational change process. Twenty-one experts in organizational change, training, and educational technology participated in this study that combined semi-structured interviews with two job analysis questionnaires. The data were first treated separately with descriptive statistics and directed content analysis. They were then analyzed jointly with a factorial correspondence analysis completed with a hierarchical ascending classification. Results highlight the core activity of a project manager and eight additional activities with their own individual human factors. They provide to the change agents’ team benefits, such as management, strategy, communication, training, analysis, facilitation, and technological, pedagogical, and financial expertise. Those findings suggest a protean activity of the change agent, hardly manageable by a single person, which practitioners should anticipate when managing change. This research also proposes an original method to obtain a deeper understanding of an unexplored concept like change agents.

  • articleNo Access

    CHANGE MANAGEMENT THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN PUBLIC SECTOR ENTERPRISES

    Corporate entrepreneurship has been of interest to academics, business leaders and government officials over the past four decades, particularly in terms of enhancing organizational performance. Although the understanding of corporate entrepreneurship continues to develop, the research usually focuses on private sector business activity. The research to date has not provided a consensus on the nature of public sector corporate entrepreneurship. Even though in recent years the topic has appeared in the public administration literature with increasing frequency, public sector corporate entrepreneurship remains poorly defined and its interpretation fragmented. In this study, public sector corporate entrepreneurship is investigated by developing and testing an integrative model using data obtained from 134 public sector state and semi-state enterprises in Ireland. The results indicate public sector organizations can manage change through entrepreneurship when they adapt to a munificent environment and when the decision-making style and control system is aligned. Public sector organizations focusing on corporate entrepreneurship (renewal) are at least marginally positively associated with organizational performance (growth and development) a primary policy goal particularly in the current economic climate. The article concludes by discussing the implications for theory, practice and future research areas.

  • articleNo Access

    BPR AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF A LARGE SPANISH ELECTRICITY COMPANY

    The aim of this study is to explain the key factors affecting the success of BPR in a large European electricity company. First a review of the "business process re-engineering" (BPR) concept and its relationship with organisational change and change management is carried out. This is followed by the analysis of the idea of BPR adopted by the company, an explanation of the main guidelines of the implementation carried out, and an interpretation of the results that were obtained. The balance, both in economic and change management terms, was highly positive, although organisational and cultural change, in a strong sense of the term, remains a matter still to be resolved by the company.

  • articleNo Access

    HOW TO USE PILOT PROJECTS TO IMPLEMENT OPEN INNOVATION

    Existing empirical research indicates that strong organizational barriers and inertia need to be overcome to ensure a smooth transition of a firm's approach to technological innovation from Closed to Open Innovation. The objective of the paper is to study how firms can identify, plan, and manage a pilot project so as to unfreeze the status quo and prepare the ground for a successful shift toward Open Innovation. Integrating existing literature in the field of innovation management, organizational change and project management, the paper develops a conceptual framework which identifies three steps a pilot project goes through (i.e. conception, realization and transfer of project's results) and the aspects that should be looked at along these stages so as to mobilize the organization and revolutionize its strategic approach to innovation management. These issues are investigated using a multiple case study involving 4 firms that can be considered as "early adopters" of Open Innovation in Italy. The paper provides several insights to R&D managers and Chief Technology Officers that will hopefully help them foresee and properly administer the organizational implications of adopting Open approaches to innovation management.

  • articleNo Access

    INNOVATION APPROACHES FOR OLD PRODUCTS REVITALISATION AFTER TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: THE RISE OF TECHNOLOGY REVERSE

    Incumbent companies sometimes innovate and attempt to revitalise old technology-based products, in decline after technological change, by improvements of their technical performance and/or extensions of their lifetime into the market. The name of this innovation approach is "sailing ship effect," the acceleration of innovation in the old technology in response to the threat from the new. However, in theory firms could achieve revitalisation even by an alternative innovation approach based on the development of completely new products. The article reports an illustrative case study: the innovation approach of some of the main incumbent organisations in photography industry after the emergence of digital cameras. In this case, incumbent companies developed and launched film scanners, new technology-based products aimed at supporting users of old analog cameras after the rise of digital imaging. The article contributes to the extant literature about innovation approaches for old products' revitalisation by analysing how established firms can achieve this goal with completely new technological products. The approach of technology reverse is proposed.

  • articleNo Access

    DIGITAL BUSINESS MODELS A LITERATURE-BASED TAXONOMY AND RESEARCH AVENUES

    Digital technologies and connectivity offer unprecedented opportunities for businesses to adapt and reinvent themselves to gain and sustain competitive advantage. Digital transformation and business model innovation have generated a large body of research in recent years due to their great practical importance. This study critically evaluates this extensive literature and aims to capture different understandings of digital business models (DBMs), identify knowledge gaps and highlight perspectives for further research. To achieve this, the literature review deductively filters out the most relevant 626 studies. For this purpose, the literature is clustered into the areas of “definition and terminology”, “classification and taxonomy”, “technology”, “configuration, structures and processes”, “drivers and determinants” and “results and impacts”. The most important scientific results and approaches are discussed and corresponding implications are derived from previous research in order to summarise the most important findings and perspectives for science and practice.

  • articleNo Access

    A STUDY OF MANAGEMENT ATTITUDES TO A PERFORMANCE APPROACH TO CONSTRUCTION WORKER SAFETY

    The construction industry remains the most dangerous industrial sector to be employed in. This poor safety and health performance record has resulted in safety and health regulations being subjected to major revisions in many countries during the last three decades. In several cases, new legislative and regulatory approaches have replaced existing regulations and legislation. The international trend of moving away from deemed-to-comply or command-and-control approaches to a performance-based approach presents formidable challenges to the construction industry. Changing to a performance approach demands a radical departure from the old way that contractors conduct their business. This change requires a paradigm shift and as such will be difficult to bring about. However, without management of construction firms supporting and driving the change, it is unlikely that the performance approach could be implemented effectively and successfully. Executive commitment and investment is demanded that is cognitive, emotional and financial, but also consistently visible. This paper discusses the results of a survey of managers of construction firms in the United States regarding their attitude to a performance approach to construction safety. The objective of the study was to measure the support for a change from the present prescriptive paradigm to a performance one. The findings suggest that management of construction firms supported the introduction and implementation of a performance approach to construction worker safety.

  • chapterNo Access

    Towards Ensuring a Correct Dynamic Adaptation of Workflows

    Business environments are complex and evolve dynamically to react to environmental or contextual changes. Nowadays, many businesses use business processes to describe and automate their operations. However, current business process systems are based on executing statically defined workflows, which do not naturally allow the handling of emergent needs. In this work we are developing mechanisms to allow for a dynamic adaptation of workflows, and consider assurances that the derived workflows still achieve the main aims of the originals. Specifically, these mechanisms are self-adaptive workflows, based on policies, and self-managed adaptations, based on the refinement checking of an underlying formal model. The formal model, developed using the process algebra known as communicating sequential processes (CSP), allows for checking the correctness of desired adaptations at system runtime and when the adaptation is being attempted. In this paper we present the overview of our approach.

  • chapterNo Access

    Chapter 11: Organizational Impact of Digital Open Innovation in Retail Banks: Managing External and Internal Pressure

    This chapter aims to investigate how banks build their dynamic capabilities and deal with corollary rigidities in the era of digital open innovation. Our analysis of two in-depth case studies stresses the challenges that banks face in the era of digitalization. It indicates that banks are transforming themselves deeply in terms of organizational structure, internal processes and interactions, and individual competences; human resistance to change and core rigidities being the most challenging issues to solve. Our results show that people-centered managerial practices — rather than purely technology-centered ones — seem to be highly promising to develop dynamic capabilities within banks. To succeed in developing their innovative capabilities banks have to find the right balance between the external constraints due to the specificity of their activities and the desire and need to innovate in order to satisfy their interconnected clients. To achieve this delicate equilibrium and proceed to the appropriate structural and organizational changes, awareness and collective mindset from banks’ executive management appear certainly as one if not the first determining factor to succeed.

  • chapterNo Access

    Chapter 5: True Storytelling Tools for Teams

    This chapter is a review of a set of practical tools and techniques that emerged from a year’s worth of dedicated True Storytelling in practice. The author is a change management practitioner and experienced graduate school instructor whose teaching and operational practice was revolutionized by the application of True Storytelling principles. These insights and tools may be useful for anyone seeking to lead, manage, support, or participate in emotionally charged significant change management processes in their organization.

  • chapterNo Access

    The Organizational Structure of Greek Libraries: The State of the Art and the perspective of team working

    The paper examines the organizational structure of Greek libraries, in the context of continuing change. It seeks the influence of the information technology and the new complex procedures that are necessary.

    Management turns to a more vertical hierarchy transferring decision-making and responsibilities to the lower levels.

    What that means is that library staff has to participate to decision making, problem solving, risk undertaking, innovation transferring. The most active role of human resources of the libraries ensures the effectiveness and efficiency of the management of library change. Consequently, the team working has characterized as the most effective working model.

  • chapterNo Access

    Change Management in the University Library

    The paper presents a methodology of achieving change management in the university libraries and its application to a case study on Transilvania University Library of Brasov. The model discussed in the paper, original in many aspects, outlines two major stages determining the results of the changes upon the organization's overall performance: implementing changes from a strategic point of view and approaching change as a project. The case study includes a synthetic presentation of the library revealing changes done in the last decade and the major deficiencies associated to the changes management approach. The authors present the central priorities of the strategy elaborated by the library management for the coming years and underline the expectation of their achievement with good results, through the professional approach of the change, based on modern management methods and principles, such as team work, staff involving and leadership.