bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Risk-Based Audit Model for Improving the Success Rates of E-Government Project Implementation
Authors: Aikins Stephen K.
Published: June 2016

This study develops a model to help improve the success rates of e-Government projects. In recent years, several e-Government studies have identified many challenges of e-Government initiatives and the critical success factors of such initiatives. Regular audit reviews of project performance provide cost-effective minimization of risks by providing information to management and by helping to take corrective actions in order to ensure a successful project outcome. Despite the potential contributions of audits and risk management to minimize project failure, e-Government and public administration research pay little attention to risk-based project implementation and the specific methods needed to mitigate project challenges. Based on the assumption that project risks are inherent in all phases of the project lifecycle in various dimensions and levels of significance, and that for public sector projects, these risks manifest in four broad categories - stakeholder, institutional, technical and project management risks - the model developed in this research uses a risk-based audit approach to project implementation to provide a comprehensive and methodic tool to systematically improve the success rates of project implementation.
Developing a Framework of Human Resource Management, Organizational Learning, Knowledge Management Capability, and Organizational Performance
Authors: Kasemsap Kijpokin
Published: June 2016

This chapter introduces the framework and the practical concepts of Human Resource Management (HRM), organizational learning, Knowledge Management Capability (KMC), and organizational performance. This chapter also explains the role of HRM, organizational learning, and KMC on organizational performance. The developed framework presents the relationship among the constructs (i.e., HRM, organizational learning, KMC, and organizational performance) and contributes toward a better understanding of the specific mechanisms through which HRM, organizational learning, and KMC positively influence organizational performance. HRM effectively acts as a trigger toward effective organizational learning and KMC processes, thus creating a valuable organizational performance. Organizational performance that can usually help to perform a task in an integrated manner is a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Understanding the role of HRM, organizational learning, KMC, and organizational performance through the framework will significantly enhance the organizational performance and achieve business goals in the modern business world.
Managing Project Communication
Authors: van Dokkum Esther , Ravesteijn Pascal
Published: June 2016

While social media use has rapidly grown all over the world the use in business context is growing at a steadier pace. Mostly social media is used by businesses as a communication channel aimed at customers either to promote products and services or as part of their web care activities. The use of social media as a means for internal communication is limited; this is especially true for projects. However social media can improve organizational communications and where communication within organizations is important in general, in the context of project management it is a critical success factor. Therefore research was conducted on how social media can be used to enhance communication within projects. In this chapter a framework that can be used to apply social media in project communication is described. The framework shows how social media tools are used by different roles and for different events during a project.
Towards Innovating Electronic Government Projects Management, Utilising Goal-Driven, Knowledge-Based Methods and Tools
Authors: Charalabidis Yannis , Sarantis Demetrios
Published: June 2016

Research shows that e-Government projects have higher failure rates than similar approaches in the private sector indicating the lack of a method to transfer knowledge and apply best management practices in an effective way. After stating the fundamental principles of project management and performing an identification of shortcomings of existing methodologies, that apply to public administration IT projects, the paper presents a conceptual model for e-Government project management that can be structured and adapted to cover all types of relevant projects in an out-of-the-box approach. Being goal oriented and supported by relevant tools, this knowledge base of predefined project components can then be populated and utilised in making more informed decisions for effective project management of e-Government initiatives. This way, the proposed method supports public officials and practitioners in learning from past experience projects and in designing and running e-Government projects in a more systematic manner, thus significantly increasing the likelihood of project success.
Enhancing RCIES Model
Authors: Makki Arwa Mukhtar , Ahmed Tarig Mohamed
Published: June 2016

Risk identification and prioritization is very essential activity in any successful strategic risk management process. Developing a plan for dealing with such problems reduces the impact of unexpected risks and failures while prioritizing risks draws attention, efforts and resources to the risks with great impact on projects success. The aim of this paper, is to identify the critical risk factors in an ERP project through a case study of a successful implementation of an ERP system in a Sudanese organization and to understand how the organization implemented the appropriate controls to minimize its business risks impact. To achieve this objective, a number of key articles were reviewed and analyzed to understand the different critical risk factors influence ERP implementation. New risk factors and controls influence ERP implementation have been identified. A new model of ERP implementation critical risk factors was developed. Furthermore, the risk factors were classified into categories, probability, impact and proximity, then using a prioritizing tool, the results of this study contributes to risks identification and prioritization by pointing to the less priority and the most critical risk factors.
Scope Reductions as Tool for Cost Control in Construction Projects
Authors: Olsson Nils O. E.
Published: June 2016

Scope management is a key issue in construction projects. This paper studies scope reductions. Potential reductions of project scope as well as budget contingencies have been a tool for cost control of governmental investments in Norway since 2001. This paper studies implementation of such reduction in major construction projects in different governmental sectors. Project representatives were contacted to obtain information about actual use of pre-defined potential scope reductions. Eight of the 14 studied projects did not implement any of the predefined reductions. Six projects implemented some of the reductions. These reductions were mainly general reductions of the quality of the facilities. The Norwegian reduction lists are based on an unusually high degree of specification of potential actions for cost control. International best practice is more concerned with general approaches. To function as intended, possible reductions should be possible to implement late in a project. General contingencies appear to be more effective for cost control than predefined scope reductions.
Seamless Mobility Management
Authors: Mitra Sulata
Published: June 2016

The next generation wireless networks will be heterogeneous wireless environments because of the coexistence of a large variety of wireless access technologies. The different networks have different architectures and protocols. So it is difficult for a user to roam from one radio system to another which can be solved by using the Internet protocol as a common interconnection protocol as it needs no assumptions about the characteristics of the underlying technologies. An all-IP wireless network is an IP-based wireless access system that makes wireless networks more robust, scalable, and cost effective. The nodes in such a network are mobile nodes as they change their location and point of attachment to the Internet frequently. The mobility management is an important research issue in an all-IP wireless network for providing seamless roaming facility to mobile nodes from one wireless system to another. The dynamic resource management is also required in this environment to ensure sufficient resource in the selected route for transmission or reception of the data packets during seamless roaming of the mobile nodes. This chapter is aimed at the researchers and the policy makers making them aware of the different means of mobility management and resource management for mobile nodes in all-IP wireless networks.
Using Twitter for Collaborative Student and Project Manager Learning
Authors: Barnett-Richards Kate , Sams Marie
Published: June 2016

This chapter presents an insight into a pilot project which took place at a UK higher education institution which used Twitter as a social media tool for engaging industry managers and students in sharing knowledge and collaborating on problem solving in the field of project management. Project management education and team formation literature is discussed, as well as reflections from the authors on the advantages and challenges for project teams on using Twitter as a social media tool. The wider implications for Project Managers adopting social media is considered more broadly, and important factors are recommended when making decisions whether to use social media to encourage teamwork and co-operation.
A Project Risk Management Methodology Developed for an Electrical Portuguese Organization
Authors: Peixoto Joana , Tereso Anabela , Fernandes Gabriela , Almeida Rui
Published: June 2016

This chapter resulted from an action-research undertaken on a Portuguese electric energy organization – EDP Distribution. The research aimed to develop, propose and implement a risk management methodology to integrate in the project management (PM) practices of an ongoing project. The methodology implemented allowed the project team to initiate systematized risk management practices through a simple structure, easy to apply, and with a degree of complexity compatible with the effort that the PM team could initially engage. It is expected that the proposed methodology signaled the initiation of the project risk management (PRM) process standardization in the EDP Distribution organization.
Alignment of Project Management with Business Strategy
Authors: Chaudhry Bilal Ahmed
Published: June 2016

Project management is the use of different techniques to deliver project with meeting required objectives within defined constraints. Corporate strategy is plan by which organizations aspire to achieve organizational business goals. In recent times, project management is also used to achieve organizational goals by aligning project management with business strategy of an organization. This research is carried to explore the effects of aligning project management with business strategy on projects and organizations. Case studies were carried out in three organizations; one from public sector; one from private and one from semi-government organization. Results of this research revealed that alignment of business strategy with project management is beneficial for both organization and projects especially in terms of organizational growth and project success.
An Integrated Approach to Collaborative Learning in Projects
Authors: Veronese Giuliana Teixeira , Chaves Marcirio
Published: June 2016

Information Technologies 2.0 (IT 2.0) is transforming the project management by improving communication and collaboration. It provides better experience than the traditional software package allowing document sharing, integrated task tracking, enforcing team processes and agile planning. Despite the benefits brought by IT 2.0, their use to promote lessons learned (LL) remains unexplored. For many project managers to obtain and integrate information from different tools of previous similar projects remains a challenge. This chapter emphasizes the need of combining traditional LL processes and methods with IT 2.0. It describes the IT 2.0 uses and how these technologies can support LL processes and methods in project settings. It delivers a proposal focusing on both IT 2.0-centered LL processes and an updating of traditional LL methods with IT 2.0. This proposal aims to help project managers to improve the management of LL and, as a result, the project learning.
Applying a Core Competence Model on Swedish Job Advertisements for IT Project Managers
Authors: Marcusson Leif , Lundqvist Siw
Published: June 2016

Recruitments of IT project managers are costly and time-consuming, which makes it important to handle them effectively. IT project managers' key function in IT projects conveys that the prerequisites in such job ads become extensive and hard to satisfy because of overloaded descriptions. The organization's core competence (henceforth CC) requirements need to be decisive and explicitly expressed. Hence, each recruitment process should involve the defining of what the CC qualifications are. Advertisements were collected (2010-2013) and a CC lens was tested for assessment of CC criteria in order to get an indication of its value. The study's practical implication is an added understanding of the importance to discern what core competence/-s a specific project requires and furthermore to match those with the job requirements during the recruitment process. The implication for research is an inspiration for further development of methods for determining core competence criteria for recruiting IT-project managers.
CMMI Implementation and Results
Authors: Liberato Marco , Varajão João , Martins Paulo
Published: June 2016

Companies focus on software development in order to survive in a highly competitive world. They not only need to keep up to date with the changes that are occurring in their environment, but they also need to assure the effectiveness of their processes. One way to do that is pursuing high quality standards by continuously improving the development processes. In this chapter, the authors describe the project of CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) implementation in a software company specialized in information technology services for banking. The project was initiated with the aim of optimizing the software development process. Throughout the chapter, various aspects of the project are covered, such as the actions taken to implement the CMMI maturity level 2, the tools used to support the implementation, and the obtained results. These are useful and could serve as a reference basis for companies that consider the implementation of a maturity model.
Innovating Practices in Managing Engineering Design Projects
Authors: Gonçalves Fernando Abreu , Figueiredo José
Published: June 2016

We can address innovation from different perspectives. In engineering practices we can look to changes resulting from attempts to discover ways of overcoming difficulties. How can we manage these innovative practices in engineering design projects? Furthering our perspective we use an actor-network way to look at change processes as chains of translations between heterogeneous actors that are enrolled in changes and where patterns of action are inscribed in durable manners. In an actor-network, the chains of inscriptions are stronger if the number of aligned actors is bigger, and this is the case of engineering projects where the cost of change builds up with time. Through the use of some stylized situations, the authors construct a Perturbation Index to obtain numeric values to assess the dynamics of innovations in engineering practices. The aim is that the application of this index to real situations could lead to meaningful descriptions of such innovation processes. Managing innovation in engineering design projects has to do with the management of project scope. The proposal extends scope management from its definition and planning phases through the control of changes along the execution.
Inside the Project Management Institute
Authors: Walker Deborah , Garrett Dave
Published: June 2016

PMI is the world's leading not-for-profit professional membership association for the project, program, and portfolio management profession. Now in its 46th year, the association provides global advocacy, collaboration, education, and research to more than 2.9 million professionals working in nearly every country in the world. To better support project practitioners in their role as “change agents,” PMI utilizes popular social media platforms, as well as a robust virtual community. Through social media, PMI creates an environment in which project practitioners create, curate, and share strong value-added content, take part in well-informed discussions, and collaborate to seek effective solutions.
IT Governance Practices of SMEs in South Africa and the Factors Influencing Their Effectiveness
Authors: Boamah-Abu Charles , Kyobe Michael
Published: June 2016

The higher failure rate in SMEs is attributable factors including poor leadership, management and governance. Although IT adoption is prevalent in SMEs, not much is known about its governance. This research investigated IT governance practices in 67 SMEs in selected industries and provinces in South Africa. The findings revealed both sound and poor practices. SMEs with centralised IT departments had better practices, e. g., IT strategic investments; closer interactions among IT and business managers; and training of employees. The other SMEs managed IT opportunities poorly, e. g., irrationally IT investment decision-making; poorly defined IT roles and responsibilities; and noncompliance with IT legislations. It was also found that firm size, industry type and location influenced IT governance practices. Larger SMEs had more effective practices and there were differences in IT resource management among provinces. However, age of a firm and years of IT usage did not have much influence.
Managing International Information Technology Project Relationships
Authors: Haried Peter , Huang Chun-Lung
Published: June 2016

Many organizations in recent years have adopted an offshore model to deliver most or part of their information technology needs. While offshoring can be associated with significant cost savings and implementation benefits, it can also be a challenge to effectively manage the international client-vendor relationship. Thus, it is argued that the effective management, coordination and structuring of the international client-vendor relationship is critical to project management success. In this paper an agency perspective is applied to examine the management of international client-vendor relationships in offshore information technology (IT) projects. This paper synthesizes key relational findings from eight offshore IT projects consisting of 29 client interviews. The authors' findings suggest that the relational tenets of agency theory (shirking, privately held information, task programmability and monitoring) play key roles in successfully managing international project relationships. Based on the findings, propositions are presented to guide future offshore IT project research and organizations to successfully manage and structure their client-vendor relationships.
Teaching Software Project Management
Authors: Periyasamy Kasi
Published: June 2016

Software project management is an inherent part of software engineering. While technical expertise is an important factor to complete a software product, knowledge and experience in project management are equally important. Teaching software project management is always a challenge. Most software engineering courses teach technical skills and knowledge on software development but lack project management guidance. On the other hand, project management courses taught by management faculty do not connect to technical activities. Therefore, a blend of technical and managerial skills must be taught together to train software engineers. This chapter describes the author's experience in teaching a graduate level software project management course with emphasis on blending technical and non-technical skills. The chapter includes the different modes/styles in which the course was taught, the challenges faced, the benefits gained, and the current status of the course.
A Study of a Federally Funded Project between Higher-Ed Institutions in the U.S. and Pakistan
Authors: Ray Anirban , Reilly Colleen A. , Tirrell Jeremy W.
Published: June 2016

The study explores the technical and intercultural challenges involved in a Department of State (DoS)-funded collaborative research project between a Mid-Sized Regional Public University in the U.S. and an International Research Institution in Pakistan. The collaborative research project on which the study is based is particularly significant as the groups from each institution face the central communication challenges that are the hallmark of distributed teams, namely physical separation, multiple organizations, and different time zones. This manuscript highlights the importance of intercultural factors in shaping the institutional relationships and examines expectations for collective responsibility in the given context.
Strategic Human Resource Development Alignment
Authors: Herd Ann , Alagaraja Meera
Published: June 2016

The critical role of human resource development (HRD) in helping organizations identify and meet their strategic objectives in today's competitive and ever-changing global marketplace is increasingly being recognized by both scholars and practitioners. While many HRD scholars have examined the importance of HRD alignment with the organization's strategic objectives, there exist few conceptualizations of this alignment from the employee's perspective. Drawing on strategic HRD and management “line of sight” literature, the purpose of this chapter is to explore the theoretical conceptualization and a proposed model of employee perceptions of the strategic alignment of HRD in their organizations. Strategic HRD alignment from the employee's perspective is explored, and future research directions are discussed, in relation to strategic HRD, organizational learning culture, perceived investment in employee development, and performance-related outcomes for which HRD scholar-practitioners strive in their quest to facilitate organizational strategic objectives.
Towards Effective Teaching in Project Management
Authors: Zhao Xiaohui
Published: June 2016

As a typical IT management subject, IT project management has existed as a core subject in universities for a long period. Unlike other subjects, project management requires solid experience to fully understand its concepts and methodologies. Reluctantly, many academics often face the situation that their students lack such experience, and how to ensure the teaching/learning quality becomes an important issue to solve. This chapter first identifies some typical issues with project management students and the corresponding challenges to effective teaching. Some teaching methods are also introduced together with the sharing of the author's experience in applying them in class. The effectiveness of the methods is evaluated according to the teaching improvements in terms of student feedback and satisfaction statistics.
Enhancing Organisational Maturity with Benefits Management
Authors: Gomes Jorge , Romão Mário
Published: June 2016

The business challenges that some companies face require enterprise-wide solutions that call for an integrated approach and an effective management of organisational resources in order to achieve business objectives with an acceptable level of risk. A maturity model is an improvement approach which provides organisations with the essential elements for effective change. The maturity models process helps to integrate traditionally separate organisational functions, enhances goals and priorities, supplies guidance for quality processes and shares benchmarks for appraising current outcomes. The benefits management approach emerges as a complement to traditional management practices and proposes a continuous mapping of business benefits and the implementation and monitoring of intermediate results. Benefits management reinforces the distinction between project results and business benefits. Based on a case study, the authors show how a set of business objectives derived from a maturity level upgrade can be obtained from identifying, structuring and monitoring objectives and benefits. This was supported by information technology enablers and organisational changes which were all framed in an organisational maturity level that had been previously measured.
Recruiting a Project Manager
Authors: Kar Neelov , Mitra Subhro
Published: June 2016

Project management is a practice based profession. Just knowing the project management principles does not make a person a successful project manager. It is more important to assess how the candidate applies the project management principle in practice than merely knowing the theoretical aspects of project management. Project Managers play a critical role in the organization. They are responsible for maintaining the revenue stream by ensuring steady flow of project deliverables, be it an internal initiative or a client program. As a Hiring Manager one has to use the right tools and methods to select the right candidate for the position of Project Manager. In this article some of the basic qualities of a Project Manager and the interview techniques adopted to select a Project Manager are discussed. The paper ends with discussion on new competency areas of Project Managers and new roles played by Project Managers in those areas.
The Project Knowledge Management Success over the Project's Lifecycle
Authors: Nauman Shazia , Ullah M. Abid
Published: June 2016

The current research aims to investigate the relationship knowledge management (KM) practices play in the success of project knowledge management over the project life cycle i.e. at the beginning of the project, during the project and after the project. Results demonstrate that among the three phases of the project, KM practices during the project phase have a greater impact on the success of project knowledge management. This research has implications for HR and project professionals as our findings indicate that the training of project members, evaluations by external consultants, regular meetings with project leaders and reviewing lessons learnt are the most significant factors for the success of project knowledge management in the context of projects being undertaken in Pakistan.
Challenges Faced by South African Human Resource Practitioners in Multinational Corporations
Authors: Carrim Nasima Mohamed Hoosen , Senne Yvonne
Published: June 2016

This chapter focuses on the challenges faced by human resource (HR) practitioners in multinational corporations (MNCs) in different sectors operating in South Africa. The chapter briefly outlines the global and South African challenges experienced by HR practitioners. The institutional, resource-based and Hofstede's cultural values theories is used as the theoretical framework. The authors conducted interviews with HR practitioners in four different western MNCs with the objective of identifying the challenges faced by them in these organizations. The results of the investigation revealed that MNCs enforce HR practices for employees at executive managerial posts in order to maintain their competitive advantage. MNCs simultaneously integrate their HR practices with the institutional and cultural practices of the host country for employees at lower levels. These diverse HR practices create challenges for HR practitioners in these MNCs. Some recommendations are made regarding solutions to the problems identified.
Considering Sustainability in Project Management Processes
Authors: Silvius Gilbert
Published: June 2016

Sustainability is one of the most important challenges of our time. How can prosperity be developed without compromising the life of future generations? Companies are integrating sustainability in their marketing, corporate communication, annual reports and in their actions. The concept of sustainability has more recently also been linked to project management. Sustainability needs change of business models, products, services, resources, processes, etc. and projects are a frequently used practice of realizing change. Several studies explored how the concept of sustainability impacts project management. This chapter elaborates on the impact of sustainability found in literature and analyses the most influential standards of project management processes for their coverage of this impact. The study concludes that the most important standards of project management processes still fail to refer convincingly to sustainability considerations. Based on the author's analysis, this chapter also provides guidance for the further development of the process standards towards a ‘sustainable project management' process.
Factors Causing Project Cost Overrun in the Telecommunications Industry in Oman
Authors: Al Zadjali Zahra A. , Bashir Hamdi A. , Maqrashi Ali A.
Published: June 2016

Several studies have been carried out to investigate the causes of project cost overrun in different industries worldwide. This paper reports on the results of a study investigating the factors causing project cost overrun in Oman. Data required for this study were collected from 44 project engineers and managers of client and contracting companies involved in telecommunications projects. According to the analysis of results, 14 out of 37 factors are identified as major causes of project cost overrun. While most of the identified factors could affect any types of projects carried out in any country, one of the factors, namely lengthy tendering process might be unique to the projects carried out in Oman. Moreover, this study investigates the association between company size in terms of number of employees and causes of project cost overrun. The results show that there is no strong evidence to suggest that the causes of cost overrun differ significantly according to company size.
Measuring Knowledge Enablers and Project Success in IT Organizations
Authors: McKay II Donald S. , Ellis Timothy J.
Published: June 2016

Knowledge enablers exist at the organizational and project levels. There is however, no meaningful means to measure organizational or project knowledge sharing. The need to understand the elements that enable this flow of knowledge is dramatically evidenced in information technology organizations in which insufficient knowledge sharing leads to intellectual capital loss, rework, skills deterioration, and repeated mistakes that increase project costs or failures. The goal of this study was to examine the relationship among knowledge sharing processes at the organizational level – organizational learning enablers (OLEs) – the project level – project learning enablers (PLEs) – and project success variables (PSVs). After identifying and validating the OLE, PLE, and PSV constructs they were codified in a survey. Results showed a positive and significant relationship among OLEs, PLEs, and PSVs. A multiple regression indicated that the combination of OLEs and PLEs accounted for 30% of a project's success, however, PLEs alone were not statistically significant.
Perspectives of Big Data Analysis for Knowledge Generation in Project Management Contexts
Authors: Jamil George Leal , Carvalho Luiz Fernando Magalhães
Published: June 2016

Knowledge generation for Project Management (PM) is a critical modern issue. Projects are a complex, inter-related set of tasks that aim to provide a service or product in a controlled, managed way. In these scenarios, there is a continuous producing of data and information, which is a potential situation for Knowledge Management (KM) interaction. This chapter evaluates aspects and factors on how it is possible to process data and information, in order to generate applicable knowledge to improve project management. A specific consideration is to understand the observation of contexts of huge amounts of data—known nowadays as Big Data—and its potential knowledge generation for project management, as presented in the final study case. A better comprehension on how knowledge management practices, applied to Big Data contexts, can improve project management processes is the main objective in this chapter.
Social Project Management?
Authors: Silvius Gilbert
Published: June 2016

This conclusion aims to reflect upon and summarize the lessons that may be learned from this book. In three concise paragraphs, it discusses the common ground amongst the different contributions, the ‘takeaways' from the book and the concept of ‘social project management' as the future outlook on social media in project management.
Why Change Programmes Don't Produce Change
Authors: McDonagh Joe
Published: June 2016

Since the 1950s, the problems associated with the introduction IT in work organisations have proved to be of an enduring nature. Why do so many IT-enabled change initiatives fail to deliver on their promised outcomes? Having considered the nature of this dilemma with IT and related explanations from the literature in management and organisation studies, this chapter draws into sharp focus a range of institutional, organisational, and group pathologies that impede the effective delivery of IT-enabled change initiatives. Habitual organisational responses to these pathologies are highlighted as are the limitations of programme and project management when seeking to address pathologies that are predominantly of a behavioural nature. Implications for professional practice are outlined. The chapter draws to a close by reiterating the propensity for fragmentation and the role of good organisation development and change practices in fostering an integrated approach to IT-enabled change.
Child Maltreatment Prevention in Rural Communities
Authors: Alabi Tosin O. , Barnes Sandra D.
Published: June 2016

For more than half a century, child maltreatment prevention programs have been implemented in communities across America with hopes of stopping the abuse and neglect of children. To broaden the understanding of maltreatment in rural families, risk markers and protective factors are discussed with specific attention to contextual stressors and resources available in rural communities. Furthermore, primary maltreatment prevention initiatives directed at improving parenting practices and increasing public awareness of child maltreatment are reviewed. Also discussed are empirically supported secondary and tertiary maltreatment prevention programs that are commonly used to intervene with families at risk for interfacing with child welfare and protection agencies, or in instances of substantiated maltreatment. Preventing ill-treatment of children in rural communities requires ingenuity, community engagement and leadership, and governmental funding to best serve children and their families.
Does Location Matter?
Authors: Adi Samar
Published: June 2016

Domestic Violence is a societal issue that affects all members of a family where it occurs; children are especially vulnerable even when violence isn't directed towards them. Exposure to family violence has been shown to impact all the developmental stages of childhood; the consequences this exposure to trauma can have lifelong effects. As a result many programs attempt to provide children services to assist with increasing resiliency as well as mitigating the effects caused by exposure to violence. Rural communities face specific barriers unique to their areas – this chapter will explore the impact Domestic Violence has on people living in these underserved regions. While there is limited research on the impact of domestic violence on children living in rural communities this chapter will summarize some of the risks faced by families as well as discuss considerations with assessment and treatment.
Treating Child Sexual Abuse in Rural Communities
Authors: Kenyon-George Leah Genieve
Published: June 2016

The focus of this chapter will be to discuss the treatment of child sexual abuse in a rural setting. Children in rural communities who have experienced such traumas are entitled to the same access and quality of services available in urban centres. Although the rates of trauma are similar in urban and rural settings, rural centres often lack adequate mental health services for children and families. According to Jones and colleagues (2014), each year in the United States approximately 22% of children between the ages of two and seventeen experience trauma. As we know, the impacts of trauma on the developing brain are significant, as are the negative outcomes on affective, behavioral and cognitive functioning (Cohen, Mannarino, & Deblinger, 2006). Mental health service providers face unique challenges in terms of practicing in rural or remote communities. Multiple barriers exist to practice in these communities, including lack of resources, lack of specialist knowledge, and the training and supervision of professionals, to name a few.
When the System Fails
Authors: Ford Jacqueline Y.
Published: June 2016

Guided by the lens of psychodynamic theory, Ford (2015) investigated the challenges faced by adoptive families of traumatized children. Fifteen families were randomly selected to participate in this study from a group of 30 parents who adopted traumatized children in Arizona. Thematic categories were drawn and summarized. Textual descriptions evolved from the thematic groups acknowledging their experiences and how these lived experiences guided their decision to adopt a traumatized child. Verification techniques, data mining, journaling, clustering, brainstorming, and peer reviews were used to ensure the quality of data. Emergent themes emphasized the need for adoption-focused training specific to traumatized children. Ford's (2015) study revealed that these adoptive families desired to be equipped with specialized therapeutic training before and after their adoptions.
Childhood Trauma and Barriers in a Rural Setting
Authors: Salcido Sonja Lee
Published: June 2016

This chapter details the experiences author had while attempting to obtain medical and psychological help for her children while living in a rural area. This chapter, per the author's request, addresses childhood trauma and barriers that need to be broken down so that emotional healing can begin. This submission is personal, and real occurrences. Rural areas generally have less resources available and because rural areas are sometimes remote, financial resources may not be available for a parent or caregiver to travel to obtain the needed help. Rural towns are normally condensed. This means that there is less privacy, and more ways for perpetrators to work a system of abuse within the schools, community, and churches in order to continue “getting to” the victim-- the child, or in this submission, child and parent. Healing from trauma can only begin when the barriers are recognized, broken down, and eliminated.
The DDA Method
Authors: Bagi Katalin
Published: June 2016

“DDA” stands for “Discontinuous Deformation Analysis”, suggesting that the displacement field of the analyzed domain shows abrupt changes on the element boundaries in the model. This chapter introduces the theoretical fundaments of DDA: mechanical characteristics of the elements together with the basic degrees of freedom, contact behavior, the equations of motion and their numerical integration with the help of Newmark's beta-method taking into account contact creation, loss and sliding with the help of an open-close iteration technique. Finally, a short overview on practical and scientific applications for masonry structures is given.
Introduction to the Combined Finite-Discrete Element Method
Authors: Hazay Máté , Munjiza Ante
Published: June 2016

This chapter presents a general overview of the combined Finite-Discrete Element Method (FEM/DEM) which is considered as a state-of-the-art technique for the mechanical analysis of masonry structures. In a FEM/DEM simulation each discrete element representing a stone block is discretized into finite elements in order to describe the deformability of the blocks. This chapter deals with the main steps of the FEM/DEM including contact detection, contact interaction, fracture and fragmentation algorithms, calculation of deformations and the time integration of the equation of motion. The FEM/DEM is advantageously used to simulate transition from continua to discontinua processes which may lead to the collapse of the structure. Some examples for practical applications found in the literature are mentioned.
Curricular Collaborations
Authors: Ryan Susan M. , Grubbs W. Tandy
Published: June 2016

As libraries make the transition from information repositories to centers of learning, librarians are under pressure to collaborate more effectively with other academic units and departments. At the same time, classroom faculty feel pressure to experiment with innovative teaching methods, to provide experiential learning opportunities, to be more interdisciplinary and collaborative, and to engage their students more proactively. A 3D printing curricular collaboration between a library and an academic department is presented that illustrates the importance of collaboration and innovation, the changing mission of libraries, the learning styles of millennial students, and the benefits of experiential learning. The chapter explores in-depth both the opportunities presented by curricular collaborations and the challenges to providing technologies in a curricular context.
The Boston Library Consortium and RapidR
Authors: O'Grady Alison R.
Published: June 2016

This chapter is intended to describe the history of collaboration between the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) and RapidILL in developing new and unmediated resource sharing products: RapidX, RapidX for All, Rapid chapter sharing and RapidR, (Rapid Returnable sharing). This narrative explains the process of testing and piloting these products as part of a consortium that has a long partnership of being forward thinking in improving resource sharing among its partner libraries. Some of this chapter describes Interlibrary Loan and consortiums in detail which is intended to provide historical perspective to the 21st century implementation of RapidR. It is hoped that the story of the BLC and RapidILL may give guidance and provide advice to other libraries and consortiums if they are in search of new ways to share library materials in a more efficient, cost effective and unmediated manner.
Revisiting Intercultural Competence
Authors: Holliday Adrian
Published: June 2016

This paper argues that intercultural competence is not something that needs to be acquired anew but that needs to be recovered from our past experience of small culture formation developed during the process of socialization from birth. This small culture formation is on the go because it is a constant activity in response to everyday engagement with other people. It is activated by drawing threads of experience that can connect with the experiences of others. During cultural travel such threads can be pulled both from home to abroad and back again. This is however not a straightforward process because operating in the other directions are blocks that are created by Self and Other politics and essentialist discourses of culture that can enter into the process at any point, also fueled by our everyday understanding of the world and the global position and politics inherited from national structures. Any process of intercultural competence training needs to help intercultural travelers to recover existing threads and avoid blocks by means of ethnographic disciplines.
An Extended Model of E-Government Adoption by Civil Servants in Greece
Authors: Karavasilis Ioannis , Vrana Vasiliki G. , Zafiropoulos Kostas
Published: June 2016

E-government in Greece lacks a customer-centric view in its implementation. Government is driving its development agenda and investment on electronic services without measuring what increases customers' willingness to adopt offered services. The study has taken a lead in understanding the factors that affect e-government adoption by teachers in Greece. It uses constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the theoretical extension of the TAM (TAM2), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) and integrates the constructs of perceived behavioral control, trust in e-government, perceived risk, personal innovativeness and awareness in a model. The validated model offers a starting point for the investigation of factors affecting the adoption of e-government services and can be extended by using domain-specific constructs to fit all Greek governmental organizations.
Ready, Set, Govern
Authors: Alghamdi Ibrahim A. , Goodwin Robert , Rampersad Giselle
Published: June 2016

Despite the importance of organizational readiness for successful e-Government, limited studies examine internal organizational factors needed for the transformation to e-Government. This study contributes to the literatures pertaining to e-Readiness and e-Government, by offering an Organizational E-Government Readiness (OEGR) model which uncovers critical factors imperative for e-Government readiness in public organizations. Based on a quantitative survey of key government officials in Saudi Arabia, the study applied structural equation modelling to test the OEGR model. Quantitative findings revealed that various factors including strategy, national e-Government program, processes, ICT infrastructure, and human resources had a positive impact on OEGR as compared to the no direct link between user's access and OEGR. The model equips government agencies with a systematic approach for assessing OEGR.
Design Principles for Crisis Information Management Systems
Authors: Nikolai Cynthia Marie , Johnson Troy , Prietula Michael , Becerra-Fernandez Irma , Madey Gregory R.
Published: June 2016

Since Hurricane Katrina, a lot of research has gone into improving disaster management through the use of crisis information management systems (CIMS). There has been much interest in how to design dynamic CIMS, particularly with respect to web-based emergency management systems. In the authors' research, they set out to design and develop a distributed web-based training and research tool for emergency managers and scholars. In order to develop their training system, they needed to simulate the CIMS that emergency managers use during a crisis and with which they could run training and research simulations. This raised the question: What exactly is a CIMS, and how does one design one? In order to answer this question, the authors engaged in nine months of field research at the Miami-Dade Emergency Operations Center in Miami-Dade County, FL. Through their field research and the emergency management experience of one of the authors, they identified several additional design principles for CIMS in today's technological and communication landscape. This paper outlines the resulting recommendations.
Theoretical Analysis of Different Classifiers under Reduction Rough Data Set
Authors: Ripon Shamim H , Kamal Sarwar , Hossain Saddam , Dey Nilanjan
Published: June 2016

Rough set plays vital role to overcome the complexities, vagueness, uncertainty, imprecision, and incomplete data during features analysis. Classification is tested on certain dataset that maintain an exact class and review process where key attributes decide the class positions. To assess efficient and automated learning, algorithms are used over training datasets. Generally, classification is supervised learning whereas clustering is unsupervised. Classifications under mathematical models deal with mining rules and machine learning. The Objective of this work is to establish a strong theoretical and manual analysis among three popular classifier namely K-nearest neighbor (K-NN), Naive Bayes and Apriori algorithm. Hybridization with rough sets among these three classifiers enables enable to address larger datasets. Performances of three classifiers have tested in absence and presence of rough sets. This work is in the phase of implementation for DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) datasets and it will design automated system to assess classifier under machine learning environment.