bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Exploratory Cross-National Study of Information Sharing and Human Resource Information Systems
Authors: Chae Bongsug (Kevin) , Prince J. Bruce , Katz Jeffrey , Kabst Rüdiger
Published: May 2012

Information sharing has recently received considerable academic interest because of the importance knowledge management plays in the creation of sustained competitive advantage for global firms. The interest is attributed to the need for achieving higher levels of worker empowerment and effectiveness. However, the existing research in the area lacks an examination of how national differences impact information sharing activities. This study responds to this need by presenting a structured yet exploratory inquiry into factors impacting information sharing and the adoption of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) by examining key national differences. Assessing national differences is extended beyond the examination of national culture by including institutional contexts in the study. Using a 22-country sample from the CRANET database, the study suggests there is a significant and predictable variation in the level of information sharing and HRIS adoption in firms from different countries, and that national differences, including cultural and institutional contexts, have an impact on information sharing. The study also indicates that the level of HRIS adoption is positively associated with information sharing. The authors discuss these findings, their implications for research and practice, and address limitations along with opportunities for future research.
HRM Adaptation to Knowledge Management Initiatives
Authors: Zapata-Cantú Laura , Ramírez Jacobo , Pineda José Luis
Published: May 2012

Organizational knowledge and human capital are increasingly regarded as key levers of competitive advantage in today’s global, dynamic and complex business environment. People are the ultimate knowledge creators and bearers; although organizations may have memory systems, they do not think by themselves. Human resource management (HRM) has a strategic role facilitating knowledge management (KM) initiatives, specifically in activities such as: recruitment, training and compensation. Although many studies raise the question of how HRM shapes KM, limited research in Latin America has explored this matter. This chapter aims to explore how HRM policies and practices have been designed in three organizations located in Mexico, in order to support KM initiatives. The findings suggest that the strategic role of HRM in supporting KM initiatives must be expanded. HRM policies, practices, and compensation systems, such as incentives and bonus packages to motivate employees to create and share knowledge, need to be redefined. Recruitment, selection and, training and development must be tailored to obtain a successful implementation of the KM program.
Team Dynamics in Virtual Spaces
Authors: Yopp Martha C. , Kitchel Allen
Published: May 2012

Collaboration within virtual environments is an increasingly important aspect of organizational and workplace activities. “Virtual teams” are intentional groups of highly qualified people brought together in a virtual environment in order to capitalize upon each member’s unique attributes. In many instances these people represent different organizations, or branches of an organization, who work together virtually to tackle a specific problem or project. This paper examines issues that “virtual teams” encounter and identifies best practices that can positively contribute to effective and efficient teamwork within the virtual environment. The ideas and practices presented may be of value to organizational leaders, planners, human resource professionals, adult educators, and others involved in workforce training.
Social Media
Authors: Tyagi Archana , Tyagi Ragini
Published: May 2012

Social Media is primarily internet and mobile tools allowing people to share, collaborate and publish information. Over the last couple of years, the availability and usage of such tools has emerged substantially and led to a cultural shift, connecting people and allowing them to collaborate in ways that were not possible otherwise. To embrace social media tools seamlessly in the organizations can be a real challenge for human resource management professionals. The specific contribution of this paper is to take a relook at the opportunities which social media tools are able to create for the organizations in terms of learning and collaboration. Living and smooth working in a non-hierarchical network is still a big hurdle for organizations and can be a challenging task faced by human resource departments. This paper presents the foundational components of social media linked with human resource processes and lays the groundwork required for companies to harness the potential of social media in the long run. The ultimate objective of human resource departments is to be ready with a shift in their competency and skill sets by embracing a high degree of “technological readiness”, adaptability and positive attitude towards these new social media tools. An exhaustive literature survey presents the analysis of the paper.
Sources of Legitimacy for the M-Government Initiatives in Turkey
Authors: Cakici N. Meltem , de Kervenoael Ronan
Published: May 2012

Emerging markets have recently been experiencing a dramatic increased in the number of mobile phone per capita. M-government has, hence, been heralded as an opportunity to leap-frog the technology cycle and provide cheaper and more inclusive and services to all. This chapter explores, within an emerging market context, the legitimacy and resistance facing civil servants’ at the engagement stage with m-government activities and the direct implication for resource management. Thirty in depth interview, in Turkey, are drawn-upon with key ICT civil servant in local organizations. The findings show that three types of resources are perceived as central namely: (i) diffusion of information management, (ii) operating system resource management and (iii) human resource management. The main evidence suggests that legitimacy for each resource management, at local level, is an ongoing struggle where all groups deploy multiples forms of resistance. Overall, greater attention in the resource management strategy for m-government application needs to be devoted to enablers such as civil servants rather than the final consumers or citizens.
Scientific Computing in the Context of a Successful Agricultural Research Enterprise
Authors: Silva e Souza Geraldo , Alves Eliseu
Published: May 2012

Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), a governmental agricultural research institution from Brazil, is a case of successful organizacional innovation that has as main characteristics: a public corporation model of organization; scale of operation at national level; spatial decentralization; specialized research units; enhanced training and remuneration of human resources and a vision of an agriculture based on science and technology. Moreover, from the beginning the organization has always been result oriented. Among the structural and political issues that led this enterprise to reach a well succeeded position, the authors argue that the strong application of scientific computing is the underlying reason that enabled high quality results achieved in research, development, and innovation. All of these reasons are presented in the next sections.
Cross-Cultural Learning and Intercultural Competence
Authors: Han Pi-Chi
Published: May 2012

Globalization has increased the need to understand the nature of work-related adult learning and development across national boundaries. It is driving the demand for the workforce that possesses knowledge of other countries and cultures and affecting those who are responsible for developing international learning activities. The author of this chapter calls for adult education and Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals to learn how to apply adult learning theories in cross-cultural learning to help individuals with different cultural backgrounds. This would help these professionals acquire intercultural competence and become successful in international assignments.
The Human Factor in Quality
Authors: Vouzas Fotis
Published: May 2012

The aim of this chapter is to theoretically investigate the implications of ISO 9000:2000 and EQA on HR issues in selected Greek industrial organizations in their road to quality improvement. The study sample consists of two selected industrial organizations that were judged as normal, ordinary, and representative. The data gathering was carried out through extensive and in-depth interviews in the two organizations asking several multiple informants. The study shows that organizations approach to quality is of great influence to effective human resource utilization. There is a tendency to avoid the involvement of HR department on either certification or the EQA and also it is clear that HR department status and role is still very traditional. The small sample does not allow making any generalizations for the majority of Greek organizations in all sectors of the economy. This is the first step towards an understanding of the current context and content of HRM in organizations moving towards total quality management implementing ISO 9000:2000 or EQA model. However, further studies needed to investigate similarities and differences in an international basis. The chapter provides a basis for understanding the present status of HRM implementation under ISO 9000 implementation and EQA model of selected Hellenic organizations and the results can be helpful for academics and practitioners. The author suggests that in order to have a reliable and objective depiction of the effect and influence of ISO 9000:2000 and EQA to the context and content of HRM, a thorough examination and analysis of relevant studies should be conducted which will include all the various approaches, practices and perceptions recorded so far in the literature -some of them based on empirical data and some deriving from rhetoric and “good-stories” or “how things ought to be” perspective.
Managing Professions for Knowledge Management
Authors: Scarso Enrico , Bolisani Ettore
Published: May 2012

In the last years, Knowledge Management (KM) studies have focused on the foundations of this “new managerial discipline”. Today, there is an increasing need to transform the theoretical speculations into managerial tools, and to find solutions to practical questions concerning daily KM activity. A key issue that still requires investigation regards the management of human resources devoted to KM. The paper analyzes this topic by means of an in-depth investigation of the relevant experience of some leading companies. In particular it examines the problem of managing new roles and tasks for KM, the issue of developing structured KM units, and the question of evaluating KM activities. A discussion of the possible implications for research and management is carried out in the conclusion.
Listening and Leadership
Authors: Castaño Javier Pagán , Benítez Dolores Garzón
Published: May 2012

In this chapter, the authors will focus on three ideas: the connection between the company results and the leader’s listening skills; people as the firm’s most valuable resource; and therefore, internal communication as the key for success and full potential of the company. However, the survey concludes that internal communication is scarce and not always effective since one way communication seems to be the most common form of interaction, even though leaders know the importance and value of their human resources.
The Importance of Psychological Contracts in Human Resource Management within the New Global Economy
Authors: Martínez-León Inocencia M.
Published: May 2012

Human resources are considered the company’s most valuable resource. For that reason, organizations require a Human Resource Management (HRM) that provides the adequate work force within the new global economy. The psychological contract includes solid agreements between company and its employees, beyond the written contract, specifying their contributions, expectations, beliefs, promises, and obligations between both parties. Their management requires the definition of the concept of psychological contract, the analysis of its main characteristics and contents; and the identification of its stages of development. Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM) introduces a way of implementing HRM strategies through Web-based tools, improving the psychological contract management. Information phase, Intranet, and internal electronic mail have an important role in socialization stage. The consolidation of psychological contract (maintenance phase) is favoured by Intranet, business-to-employees, internal electronic mail, database, videoconference, and groupware. Finally, in breach phase, intranet, electronic mail, database, videoconference, and groupware are important E-HRM.
Innovations in Technology for Educational Marketing
Authors: Rutaisire John
Published: May 2012

This chapter highlights the importance of educational marketing through modern innovative technologies. It explores how teachers who mark Rwandan primary and secondary examinations perceive the Rwanda National Examinations Council and what the implications are for the effective management of the examinations system. The chapter highlights the Rwandan context in which before the 1994 genocide, the education system was characterized by nepotism, corruption, discrimination and victimization based on ethnicity, regionalism, and gender. Thus, after 1994, the task of the education system was to reverse the imbalance in favor of equity, transparency, accountability and responsiveness in public service. In terms of national examinations, this demanded, among other things, a vigorous marketing strategy through innovation and technology. In spite of the relative success, however, the chapter acknowledges challenges associated with post-conflict educational reconstruction focusing mainly on human resource capacity development and management, and highlights some lessons learned as Rwanda looks forward to the future.
Hu Resources Replaces Human Resources in Health Care
Authors: Davis Emmett
Published: May 2012

Intelligent technologies are exponentially approaching the stage where healthcare professionals must begin to plan for the management of “hu” (human, software, and robotic) resources, replacing management of human resources alone in isolation from other intelligences. The healthcare industry in multiple levels and ways must begin to plan for human resources in health care to extend existing and to develop new conceptual and behavioral skills in order for humans, intelligent software, and robots to optimally partner with each other. The interaction among hu resources will be active and carried out in multiple modes and intellectual and emotional intensities. Healthcare professionals, who shape the social and cultural institutions around intelligence and active knowledge, can optimize the impact and performance of this intelligence partnership.
Emergent Dynamics of Workforce Program Reductions
Authors: Cavaleri Steven , Labedz Chester S. , Stalker George H.
Published: May 2012

This paper reports on research that explores designing a hybrid system dynamics/agent modeling (HSDAM) simulation methodology to evaluate potential effects of a new human resources policy in a company. The study measures the effect of changes in the company’s pension policies on individual employee retention, promotion and employment longevity. The Delphi method for elicitation of expert views was used, as four expert panels composed of human resource specialists and general managers participated in model design and predicted employee behavior. The model integrates multi-level organizational data inputs from macro-level business data to granular individual-level employee information. Each simulation run used four years of workforce longitudinal data at the start. Initially, the expert panel predictions did not validate simulation results. However, once alteration of a key model parameter recalibrated individual employees as more economically rational, later runs provided strong support for the model and modeling approach. The simulation results confirmed, among several expert panel predictions, that setting a policy that decreased the likelihood of employee willingness to retire due to replacement income concerns could lead to other consequences with potentially adverse strategic implications for the firm.
Trends in IT Human Resources and its Determinants
Authors: Agrawal Vijay K. , Agrawal Vipin K. , Taylor Ross , Tenkorang Frank
Published: May 2012

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the various, sometimes contradictory, factors influencing the demand for IT professionals and to build a simple framework that can be used to predict demand. The ability to predict the demand for IT professionals with a reasonable degree of accuracy is important for IHE’s and businesses to correctly identify where their scarce resources should be allocated to develop a curriculum for the 21st century workforce.
Preprocessing MRS Information for Classification of Human Brain Tumours
Authors: Arizmendi C. J. , Vellido A. , Romero E.
Published: May 2012

Brain tumours show a low prevalence as compared to other cancer pathologies. Their impact, both in individual and social terms, far outweighs such low prevalence. Their anatomical specificity also makes them difficult to explore and treat. The use of biopsies is limited to extreme cases due to the risks involved in the surgical procedure, and non-invasive measurements are the standard for diagnostic exploration. The usual measurement techniques come in the modalities of imaging and spectroscopy. In this chapter, the authors analyze magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data from an international database and illustrate the importance of data preprocessing prior to diagnostic classification.
Dashboard to Support the Decision-Making within a Chronic Disease
Authors: Teixeira Leonor , Saavedra Vasco , Simões João Pedro
Published: May 2012

This chapter describes a monitoring system based on alerts and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), applied in clinical context, within a chronic disease (haemophilia). This kind of disease follows the patient through his/her life, and its treatment requires an almost permanent exchange of data/information with healthcare professional (HCPs), with the information and communications technologies (ICTs) a key contribution in this process. However, most applications based on those ICTs do not allow the analysis of heterogeneous data in real-time, requiring the availability of clinicians to check the data and analyze the information to support the clinical decision process. Since time is a scarce resource in the context of healthcare providers, and information a crucial resource in the decision support process, real-time monitoring systems can help finding the right balance between those two resources, presenting the key information in an appropriate format, through alerts and KPIs. The system described in this chapter, named hemo@care_dashboard, aims to support clinical decision-making of healthcare professionals of a specific chronic disease, providing real-time information in a push-logic through alerts and KPIs, displayed on a dashboard.
Building a Lazy Domain Theory for Characterizing Malignant Melanoma
Authors: Armengol Eva , Puig Susana
Published: May 2012

In this chapter, the authors propose an approach for building a model characterizing malignant melanomas. A common way to build a domain model is using an inductive learning method. Such resulting model is a generalization of the known examples. However, in some domains where there is not a clear difference among the classes, the inductive model could be too general. The approach taken in this chapter consists of using lazy learning methods for building what the authors call a lazy domain theory. The main difference between both inductive and lazy theories is that the former is complete whereas the latter is not. This means that the lazy domain theory may not cover all the space of known examples. The authors’ experiments have shown that, despite of this, the lazy domain theory has better performance than the inductive theory.
Web 2.0, the Individual, and the Organization
Authors: Burner Kerry J.
Published: May 2012

This chapter explores the issues that can arise when professionals employ Web 2.0 social networking technologies in service of their professional development by way of informal learning. Issues around privacy, confidentiality, and compliance are discussed and possible actions organizations and individuals can take are presented.
Creating Ongoing Online Support Communities through Social Networks to Promote Professional Learning
Authors: Corbeil Maria Elena , Corbeil Joseph Rene
Published: May 2012

Professionals who want to remain competitive in their fields are turning to Web 2.0 to learn the knowledge and skills they need in order to do their work more efficiently and effectively. Through a detailed description of how one instructor transformed his online graduate courses into dynamic, interactive, ongoing online learning communities that extended beyond the classroom, this chapter provides academics and practitioners a model for establishing a professional network that learners can participate in, and replicate in their workplaces for their professional development and informal learning. An overview of the role of social networking in creating professional development and informal learning opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship, knowledge brokering, and ongoing online support communities, as well as the results of a survey conducted on students’ perceptions of the impact of the social networking strategies and tools on their professional development and informal learning in and out of class will also be discussed.
Social Media as a Learning Tool in Medical Education
Authors: Vahe Mariliis , Zain-Ul-Abdin Khawaja , Türel Yalin Kiliç
Published: May 2012

Social media has become one of the most dominant information phenomena of our time. As its commercial, social, activist, and informational uses multiply, questions are raised as to its efficiency as a learning tool. The authors focus this chapter on social media use in higher education, specifically in the field of medical education, and provide a modern definition of social media and its tools while elaborating on its educational uses and efficiency. Furthermore, they present a situation analysis through a review of original research published on the topic in the last five years, culminating in an identification of the gaps in literature and recommendations for future research endeavors.
It’s All about Personal Connections
Authors: Rodesiler Luke , Tripp Lauren
Published: May 2012

Given the potential of informal online learning via social networks for supporting the career-long professional growth of in-service teachers, research must be conducted to better understand the ways in which today’s future teachers are being prepared for and experiencing such practice. This chapter presents the authors’ efforts to move in that direction, a qualitative study describing six pre-service secondary English language arts teachers’ perceptions of self-directed networked learning during a teaching internship. Findings suggest that participants perceived networked learning as a viable and valuable approach to supplementing professional growth despite also perceiving challenges in the form of context, identity, and time.
Online Mentoring as a Tool for Professional Development and Change of Novice and Experienced Teachers
Authors: Reali Aline Maria de Medeiros Rodrigues , Tancredi Regina Maria Simões Puccinelli , Mizukami Maria da Graça Nicoletti
Published: May 2012

This chapter examines the results of an investigation carried out by the researchers from a Brazilian public institution and experienced teachers (mentors) that aimed to produce knowledge on teacher professional development and learning, investigate educational processes of mentors interacting with novice teachers by e-mail, evaluate the continued education methodology adopted, and contribute to existing knowledge on online continued teacher education. The main sources of data were email communications between mentors and novice teachers, the mentors’ and novice teachers’ reflective journals, and the researchers’ observations from weekly meetings between the mentors and the teachers. The development of the online Mentorship Program has been a much more complex enterprise than a face-to-face equivalent program would have been because it demands entirely new logistics, but it promoted the establishment of professional and affective bonds among the participants, the broadening of professional knowledge, the mastery of online adult education technologies, and the participants’ professional growth.
Efficient Pronunciation Assessment of Taiwanese-Accented English Based on Unsupervised Model Adaptation and Dynamic Sentence Selection
Authors: Wu Chung-Hsien , Su Hung-Yu , Liu Chao-Hong
Published: May 2012

This chapter presents an efficient approach to personalized pronunciation assessment of Taiwanese-accented English. The main goal of this study is to detect frequently occurring mispronunciation patterns of Taiwanese-accented English instead of scoring English pronunciations directly. The proposed assessment help quickly discover personalized mispronunciations of a student, thus English teachers can spend more time on teaching or rectifying students’ pronunciations. In this approach, an unsupervised model adaptation method is performed on the universal acoustic models to recognize the speech of a specific speaker with mispronunciations and Taiwanese accent. A dynamic sentence selection algorithm, considering the mutual information of the related mispronunciations, is proposed to choose a sentence containing the most undetected mispronunciations in order to quickly extract personalized mispronunciations. The experimental results show that the proposed unsupervised adaptation approach obtains an accuracy improvement of about 2.1% on the recognition of Taiwanese-accented English speech.
Numerical Integration Using Swarm Intelligence Techniques
Authors: Khelil Naceur , Djerou Leila , Batouche Mohamed
Published: May 2012

This chapter proposes quadrature methods (PSOQF) for approximate calculation of integrals within Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). PSO is a technique based on the cooperation between particles. The exchange of information between these particles allows to resolve difficult problems. Riemann quadrature formula (RQF) will be discussed first, followed by Trapezoidal quadrature Formula (TQF). Finally, a comparison of these methods presented is given.
Outlier Detection in Logistic Regression
Authors: Nurunnabi A. A. M. , Ali A. B. M. S. , Imon A. H. M. Rahmatullah , Nasser Mohammed
Published: May 2012

The use of logistic regression, its modelling and decision making from the estimated model and subsequent analysis has been drawn a great deal of attention since its inception. The current use of logistic regression methods includes epidemiology, biomedical research, criminology, ecology, engineering, pattern recognition, machine learning, wildlife biology, linguistics, business and finance, et cetera. Logistic regression diagnostics have attracted both theoreticians and practitioners in recent years. Detection and handling of outliers is considered as an important task in the data modelling domain, because the presence of outliers often misleads the modelling performances. Traditionally logistic regression models were used to fit data obtained under experimental conditions. But in recent years, it is an important issue to measure the outliers scale before putting the data as a logistic model input. It requires a higher mathematical level than most of the other material that steps backward to its study and application in spite of its inevitability. This chapter presents several diagnostic aspects and methods in logistic regression. Like linear regression, estimates of the logistic regression are sensitive to the unusual observations: outliers, high leverage, and influential observations. Numerical examples and analysis are presented to demonstrate the most recent outlier diagnostic methods using data sets from medical domain.
Fuzzy Image Segmentation for Mass Detection in Digital Mammography
Authors: Alharbi Hajar Mohammedsaleh H. , Kwan Paul , Jayawardena Ashoka , Sajeev A. S. M.
Published: May 2012

In the last decade, many computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems that utilize a broad range of diagnostic techniques have been proposed. Due to both the inherently complex structure of the breast tissues and the low intensity contrast found in most mammographic images, CAD systems that are based on conventional techniques have been shown to have missed malignant masses in mammographic images that would otherwise be treatable. On the other hand, systems based on fuzzy image processing techniques have been found to be able to detect masses in cases where conventional techniques would have failed. In the current chapter, recent advances in fuzzy image segmentation techniques as applied to mass detection in digital mammography are reviewed. Image segmentation is an important step in CAD systems since the quality of its outcome will significantly affect the processing downstream that can involve both detection and classification of benign versus malignant masses.
Cultural Differences in Trust in High-Tech International Business Ventures
Authors: Gerbasi Alexandra , Latusek Dominika
Published: May 2012

This chapter presents results from the qualitative field study conducted in a Silicon Valley-based American-Polish start-up joint venture. It investigates the issues of collaboration within one firm that is made up of individuals from two countries that differ dramatically in generalized trust: Poland and the United States. The authors explore differences between thick, knowledge-based forms of trust and thin, more social capital-oriented forms of trust, and they discuss how these affect collaboration between representatives of both cultures. Finally, the authors address how these differences in trust can both benefit an organization and also cause it difficulties in managing its employees.
Trust as a Success Factor in Open Innovation
Authors: Ciesielska Malgorzata , Iskoujina Zilia
Published: May 2012

This chapter analyzes trust, open innovation, and software development modes. Basing on the case of GNOME – Nokia collaboration, it shows how trust can be perceived as a strategic resource, which is actually the crucial ingredient of successful collaboration. The dichotomy of the professional (expert) trust and the political trust is proposed as an interpretive key to understanding trust enactment in open source communities.
Management of Virtual Teams and Capabilities in Business Networks
Authors: Juntunen A.T.
Published: May 2012

This chapter investigates and analyzes the management of capabilities in virtual teams in a business network context. This is a qualitative case study in the ICT-sector in Finland. This chapter will demonstrate that the organizations have a good chance to succeed if they can harness the external and internal knowledge and utilize the capabilities and knowledge in virtual teams to support organizational goals and strategies. It also illustrates the importance of trust in building and maintaining relationships. This chapter aims to contribute to the prior strategic management and business networks research.
In the Name of Flexibility
Authors: Trux Marja-Liisa
Published: May 2012

This chapter takes you to a data security workplace in Finland. It presents reflections on the tensions of managing selves and others, as experienced by the employees and the managers. It argues that a generally critical approach to normative management may overlook the actual complexity and ambiguous nature of the late modern cultural environment. Both self-authoring and manipulative moves are made difficult by the amalgamating hegemonic and countercultural currents. The author points at chances for resistance through new forms of literacy. Instead of dropping “culture” as a conservative or managerial pursuit, we must learn to navigate successfully in the broken cultural landscape of today’s workplaces. The very same images that can be used for manipulation are open to more solidary configurations by the cultural and social imagination of organizational members.
Professional and Managerial Language in Hybrid Industry-Research Organizations and within the Hybrid Clinician Manager Role
Authors: Kippist Louise , Hayes Kathryn J. , Fitzgerald Janna-Anneke
Published: May 2012

Interactions between professionals and managers are vital to medical and commercialization outcomes. This chapter considers how boundaries between professionals and managers are expressed through language in two contexts: between researchers and managers in temporary Australian hybrid industry-research organizations and within the same individual performing a hybrid clinician-manager role in Australian health care organizations. Semi-structured interviews of twenty scientists, engineers, and managers, focusing on their experiences, and perceptions of occupational culture, revealed that language norms contributed to knowledge creation, and played a role in maintaining a hierarchy among research institutions. Semi-structured interviews of twenty doctors and managers, focusing on their perception and experience of the hybrid clinician manager’s role within health care organizations, revealed that professional identity influenced language norms used by doctors and managers and contributed to the tensions experienced in their interactions. Distinctive patterns of argumentation and language were identified as typical of commercial and research occupations and were also distinctive in doctors working in hybrid clinician manager’s roles. The scientists, engineers, and managers working in hybrid industry-research organizations and the doctors and managers working in health care organizations reported frustration and reduced effectiveness of argumentation due to different norms for dissent.
Stories of Material Storytelling
Authors: Jørgensen Kenneth Mølbjerg , Strand Anete M. Camille
Published: May 2012

Material storytelling is used here to denote a material-discursive understanding of technology, and how technology works in organizations in terms of story performance. The idea is that technology configures organizations in spatial, temporal and material terms. We are inspired by Karen Barad’s work in quantum physics in developing the term material storytelling, which relies on a material-discursive understanding of storytelling. By introducing material storytelling we resituate the hegemonic relationship of discourse and language over matter. As such technology regains a central space in both understanding and managing organizations. It implies that attention is relocated to the petty and lowly everyday routines, techniques and material artifacts, which are implicit in what we do in everyday life but govern the agential possibilities for acting in this world. We frame the chapter as a story of material storytelling of a change project in a bank. We experiment with the writing style by going back and forth between two different layers of text. The first layer tells the stories of material storytelling, while the other draws out the theoretical/methodological implications of this approach in terms understanding and managing technology.
Architecture and Mechanisms of Energy Auto-Tuning
Authors: Götz Sebastian , Wilke Claas , Cech Sebastian , Aßmann Uwe
Published: May 2012

Energy efficiency of IT infrastructures has been a well-discussed research topic for several decades. The resulting approaches include hardware optimizations, resource management in operating systems, network protocols, and many more. The approach the authors present in this chapter is a self-optimization technique for IT infrastructures, which takes hard- and software components as well as users of software applications into account. It is able to ensure minimal energy consumption for a user request along with a set of non-functional requirements (e.g., the refresh rate of a data extraction tool). To optimize the ratio between utility of end users and the cost in terms of energy consumption, the system needs inherent variability leading to differentiated energy profiles and mechanisms to reconfigure the system at runtime. The authors present their approach called Energy Auto-Tuning (EAT) comprised of these mechanisms and an architecture which automatically tunes the energy efficiency of IT systems.
Towards a Structured Cloud ROI
Authors: Chang Victor , Wills Gary , Walters Robert John , Currie Wendy
Published: May 2012

Organisational Sustainability Modelling (OSM) is a new way to measure Cloud business performance quantitatively and accurately, and is a key area offered by Cloud Computing Business Framework (CCBF). OSM combines statistical computation and 3D Visualisation to present the Return on Investment (ROI) arising from the adoption of Cloud Computing by organisations, and makes use of a highly structured and organised process to review and evaluate Cloud business performance. The School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), University of Southampton, focusing on cost-savings, is the case study used to illustrate. In addition, i-Solutions and Corporate Planning of the University of Southampton, focusing on user confidence level and service improvement, are another two case studies to support. Data measurements have been taken in the past three years and quantitative analysis has been carefully checked and calculated by OSM to measure ROI. The University of Southampton has achieved cost saving and user confidence with service improvement offered by Cloud adoption and services, which have been deployed by several universities in the adoption of CCBF.
Reducing Design Margins by Adaptive Compensation for Thermal and Aging Variations
Authors: Qi Zhenyu , Zhang Yan , Stan Mircea
Published: May 2012

Corner-based design and verification are based on worst-case analysis, thus introducing over-pessimism and large area and power overhead and leading to unnecessary energy consumption. Typical case-based design and verification maximize energy efficiency through design margins reduction and adaptive computation, thus helping achieve sustainable computing. Dynamically adapting to manufacturing, environmental, and usage variations is the key to shaving unnecessary design margins, which requires on-chip modules that can sense and configure design parameters both globally and locally to maximize computation efficiency, and maintain this efficiency over the lifetime of the system. This chapter presents an adaptive threshold compensation scheme using a transimpedance amplifier and adaptive body biasing to overcome the effects of temperature variation, reliability degradation, and process variation. The effectiveness and versatility of the scheme are demonstrated with two example applications, one as a temperature aware design to maintain IONto IOFFcurrent ratio, the other as a reliability sensor for NBTI (Negative Bias Temperature Instability).
Mitigating the Environmental Impact of Smartphones with Device Reuse
Authors: Li Xun , Ortiz Pablo , Kuczenski Brandon , Franklin Diana , Chong Frederic T.
Published: May 2012

The rapid growth of information technology has not only brought substantial economic and societal benefit but also led to an unsustainable disposable model in which mobile devices are replaced in a matter of months. The environmental impact of this stream of handsets in terms of manufacturing energy, materials, and disposal costs is alarming. This chapter aims at raising today’s environmental issues of the increasing smartphone market, as well as providing a quantitative analysis on the environmental impact of different life-cycle stages of the smartphones, including the manufacturing stage, using stage, and recycling. To achieve sustainable computing and best utilize the energy consumed during manufacturing the large number of devices, this chapter demonstrates the methodology and techniques towards reusing smartphones by presenting a case study on reusing smartphones for elementary school education.
Green Video Compression for Portable and Low-Power Applications
Authors: Solak Serdar Burak , Labeau Fabrice
Published: May 2012

This chapter presents recent advances in the implementation of video compression that allow for energy efficiency and management. Algorithmic complexity reduction and complexity management are key to the implementation of video compression in a green computing environment. The authors concentrate on low-power applications (such as smartphones or autonomous cameras), in which the ability to manage algorithmic complexity (and thus energy consumption) to match battery conditions and the priority of other tasks is one of the key enablers for reduced energy consumption. First, a study of the state-of-the-art video coding standard H.264/AVC and an analysis of its encoder complexity will be presented. Secondly, low complexity H.264/AVC encoder implementations will be explored in two categories as: Low Complexity Motion Estimation Algorithms and Low Complexity Mode Decision Algorithms. Later, a discussion of Complexity Scalable Encoding Algorithms that can adaptively adjust their computational complexities will follow. During the discussions, the authors will also introduce a novel framework for managing the complexity of an H.264/AVC encoder in a processor or power constrained environment as well as a complexity reduction tool. The chapter will conclude with a discussion about the future of sustainable green computing in video compression, followed by summary and concluding remarks.
The Education Part of Green Computing in Higher Education and Beyond
Authors: Connolly Mary V.
Published: May 2012

In order for the population as a whole to consider green computing an essential part of environmental responsibility, the average citizen must be made aware of the issues and motivated to act. Often the users of technology are not technically trained; hence, information must be presented in language suitable for a lay person in this area. This chapter addresses current efforts being made to provide this education. Resources available from the federal government, state governments, non-profit groups, trade associations, and colleges and universities are discussed. In particular, in preparation for this chapter, the websites of all 50 states were surveyed for appropriate information. The entire life cycle of computing equipment is covered so that businesses and individual households are able to obtain the information needed to make environmentally sound technology decisions.
Drivers and Barriers to Online Social Networks’ Usage
Authors: Eid Riyad , Hughes Emrys
Published: May 2012

Although the past years have witnessed growth in online social networks, the underlying factors driving and inhibiting its diffusion are not well understood. This paper presents empirical research that investigates the factors driving and inhibiting the online social networks usage. It gives a brief overview of the academic literature on the diffusion online social networks. The conduct and findings of a mail survey are then reported. The paper concludes that online social networks in general and Facebook in particular will become an extremely important tool in the future, with the drivers overcoming the barriers in influencing the rate. Furthermore, the study has enhanced previous theories related to Facebook, and it offers a platform for further investigations to take shape in light of what has been discussed and analysed.
Automatic Categorization of Reviews and Opinions of Internet E-Shopping Customers
Authors: Žižka Jan , Rukavitsyn Vadim
Published: May 2012

E-shopping customers, blog authors, reviewers, and other web contributors can express their opinions of a purchased item, film, book, and so forth. Typically, various opinions are centered around one topic (e.g., a commodity, film, etc.). From the Business Intelligence viewpoint, such entries are very valuable; however, they are difficult to automatically process because they are in a natural language. Human beings can distinguish the various opinions. Because of the very large data volumes, could a machine do the same? The suggested method uses the machine-learning (ML) based approach to this classification problem, demonstrating via real-world data that a machine can learn from examples relatively well. The classification accuracy is better than 70%; it is not perfect because of typical problems associated with processing unstructured textual items in natural languages. The data characteristics and experimental results are shown.
A Fuzzy Clustering Model for Fuzzy Data with Outliers
Authors: Zarandi M. H. Fazel , Razaee Zahra S.
Published: May 2012

This paper proposes a fuzzy clustering model for fuzzy data with outliers. The model is based on Wasserstein distance between interval valued data, which is generalized to fuzzy data. In addition, Keller’s approach is used to identify outliers and reduce their influences. The authors also define a transformation to change the distance to the Euclidean distance. With the help of this approach, the problem of fuzzy clustering of fuzzy data is reduced to fuzzy clustering of crisp data. In order to show the performance of the proposed clustering algorithm, two simulation experiments are discussed.
Indirect Adaptive Fuzzy Control for a Class of Uncertain Nonlinear Systems with Unknown Control Direction
Authors: Labiod Salim , Boubertakh Hamid , Guerra Thierry Marie
Published: May 2012

In this paper, the authors propose two indirect adaptive fuzzy control schemes for a class of uncertain continuous-time single-input single-output (SISO) nonlinear dynamic systems with known and unknown control direction. Within these schemes, fuzzy systems are used to approximate unknown nonlinear functions and the Nussbaum gain technique is used to deal with the unknown control direction. This paper first presents a singularity-free indirect adaptive control algorithm for nonlinear systems with known control direction, and then this control algorithm is generalized for the case of unknown control direction. The proposed adaptive controllers are free from singularity, allow initialization to zero of all adjustable parameters of the used fuzzy systems, and guarantee asymptotic convergence of the tracking error to zero. Simulations performed on a nonlinear system are given to show the feasibility of the proposed adaptive control schemes.
Security Policy Specification
Authors: Bernabé Jorge Bernal , Pérez Juan M. Marín , Calero Jose M. Alcaraz , Re Jesús D. Jiménez , Clemente Félix J.G. , Pérez Gregorio Martínez , Skarmeta Antonio F.G.
Published: May 2012

Policy-based management of information systems enables the specification of high-level policies which need to be refined into lower level configurations suitable to be directly applied to services and final devices in order to achieve the high-level behavior previous specified. This chapter presents a proposal for describing high-level security policies and for carrying out the policy refinement process for which low level policies and configurations are achieved. Firstly, an analysis of different research works related to the specification of security policy is provided. Then, a detailed description of the information model used for describing the information systems and the policies is described. After that, the language designed for specifying high level security policies is explained as well as the low level language based on the Common Information Model. Finally, some aspect about the policy refinement process done in the policy-based system in order to achieve low-level policies from the high-level security policies is outlined together with a description of the tools which can assist in the definition of the security policies and in the process refinement process.