bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Developments, Controversies, and Applications of Ergonomics
Authors: King Kathleen P. , King James J.
Published: May 2011

A common misconception is that health concerns in the workplace are only relevant in manual-labor fields or work zones that deal with hazardous materials or tools. In modern society, however, nearly every workplace can benefit from studying and applying techniques and understanding that regard the human body and its proper alignment or use. While damage to a secretary’s wrists from day after day of typing on a carelessly-designed keyboard might be as dramatic or immediate as a laborer’s foot being crushed by a dropped concrete slab, such subtle injuries can be just as debilitating and dangerous over time. Ergonomics, as a field, addresses the appropriate alignment and use of the body in all sorts of activities. The current school of thinking focuses on proactive human action; however, the scant notice that ergonomics has gleaned has only been brought on because of the injuries incurred when the proactive approach has been ignored. So, ironically enough, the proactive-themed field has only gained any notice or recognition due to reactive action. Due to the efforts of the US Department of Labor (or, more specifically, the Occupational Safety and Health Association [OSHA]), the field of ergonomics has received increased press and familiarity with the general public in recent years. However, this identity has still largely been focused on workplace safety in factories or manual labor, certainly not seemingly benign and harmless office environments. The general public is rarely made aware of the long-term effects of improper posture from using increasingly ubiquitous office/computer technologies because it is not associated with such heavy labor (Bright, 2006). Nagourney (2002) has done one of many studies which demonstrate that even simple corrections to posture and equipment positioning can result in improved physical health for computer users (Also see ECCE, 2006). Also of note is that numerous studies have documented that leaving small repetitive injuries uncorrected (e.g., injuries that result from improper posture while using computers and other office equipment) has been found to culminate in health problems over time (Ullrich & Ullrich Burke, 2006). Because of these findings and the direct benefits of changing position and movement, public, workplace, and formal education needs to be improved. Rather than isolated or temporary injuries, individuals in these conditions experience compounding effects of improper postures resulting in continuing, repetitive (oftentimes unnoticeable) injuries. Therefore OSHA and a broad base of professionals need to continue to educate the general public so that they understand that ergonomics is more than health and safety codes for manual labor or what may be generally perceived as physically harmful workplace situations. At the same time, both personal and public responsibility for health and safety needs to be exercised in communicating information and solutions, and then implementing them in daily practice.
The Diffusion of HRITs Across English- Speaking Countries
Authors: Olivas-Luján Miguel R. , Florkowski Gary W.
Published: May 2011

From an historical perspective, human resource (HR) activities rarely captured the respect of line executives who often view this area as “staff chores” rather than high value-added business. This, coupled with the large amount of complex information required to execute personnel tasks, partially explains why HR departments did not tend to be early adopters of information technologies (ITs). The situation has changed radically over the last decade, as personnel departments increasingly seek to offload paper-intensive, compliance-oriented processes to technology-supported flows so that they are better able to support and evolve the company’s strategy to achieve competitive advantage in an era of increased global competition. Little is known, though, about the process by which HR-related software applications and services spread from firm to firm, and ultimately country to country. In response, we draw upon a set of geographically diverse practitioner surveys and early findings of our ongoing research program (Florkowski & Olivas-Luján, 2006) to examine the diffusion of HRITs across nations. We also include suggestions for future research and definitions of terms that aid in understanding this increasingly important phenomenon.
Effective Leadership in Virtual-Like Organizational Arrangements
Authors: Mackenzie Kenneth D. , Pate Larry E.
Published: May 2011

Most studies of leadership focus on leaders who have responsibility for a group of people. This group is usually either an organization or a unit within one. Almost always, the leader is collocated with the “followers” and interacts with them in real time (i.e., synchronized communication). But what about leading when the group lies outside the usual lines of communication set off by the formal organizational structure; when its members are geographically distributed, when they do not belong to the same organization; and when many of the communications are asynchronized, multi-media, over multi-time zones, and criss-cross other countries, functions, and cultures? Leading these untraditional groups is still leading but, outside of the usual hierarchy, the leadership processes can be more dynamic, complex, and technologically dependent. This other world comes in many forms. The general class is called virtual-like organizational arrangements or VLOAs (Mackenzie, 2001). Table 1 presents a classification of VLOAs at different levels and aggregation of people and processes. This classification is illustrative of the immense variety of VLOAs that have been observed and documented. There are undoubtedly many other variants and mutations of VLOAs. Recently, the emergence of virtual teams has made them the most visible subclass of VLOAs. Virtual teams have been the subject of many books and research studies (cf. Davidow & Malone, 1992; Duarte & Snyder, 2006; Fisher & Fisher, 2001; Garton & Wegryn, 2006; Gibson & Cohen, 2003; Kostner, 1994; Lipnack & Stamps, 2000; Williams, 2002). Virtual teams are an important variant of VLOAs because the team’s interaction is facilitated and conditioned by distributed information technologies. What makes VLOAs interesting from both a theoretical and a practical perspective is that they are, in fact, anomalies or mutant organizational forms that have evolved out of real and/or perceived limitations of the traditional hierarchical form of organizations. VLOAs have existed for millennia. Over 2000 years ago, for example, the Roman Republic operated a multi-national, multi-time zone, multi-cultural VLOA in terms of its systems of treaties with conquered, client, or allied peoples. This system allowed Rome to operate with a miniscule bureaucracy while preserving significant parts of the cultures of its member states. Many VLOAs are highly functional and support the attainment of more effective organizations. On the other hand, some VLOAs such as terrorist organizations (e.g., al Quida, cabals, conspiracies, and other unregulated groups seeking power) are definitely designed to disrupt and destroy rather than enhance existing organizations.
Efficiency of Electronic Recruiting Methods
Authors: Puck Jonas F. , Paul Anda
Published: May 2011

The use of technology in personnel recruiting has increased tremendously within the last few years. In particular, the World Wide Web (www) has gained importance for human resource (HR) managers (see, for example, Puck, 2002). Different methods of ehuman resource management have been developed, among them electronic recruiting. According to Lee (2005), “e-recruiting is the second largest application in the e-commerce area” (p. 493). Anyhow, research results on electronic recruiting are relatively scarce and the existing studies are published in a number of different disciplines and publication types. Given both the relevance and the scarce results this chapter aims to review the existing studies and to summarize their findings. To do so, we explain the two major methods of electronic recruiting—internal corporate Web site recruiting and external online recruiting—and discuss their benefits and pitfalls from the perspective of employing companies. Finally, we present possible future developments in the field.
Extending Relationship Marketing to Human Resources Management Using the CaRM Approach to Personnel Recruitment
Authors: Keim Tobias , Fritsch Kerstin
Published: May 2011

Since the early 1990s, relationship-oriented approaches to product and services marketing have gained increasing interest by research and practice. While the overall approach of managing customer interactions has been inherent to the ways of doing business ever since, the recent change from transaction-oriented to relationship- oriented marketing is typically considered as a major paradigm shift (Grönroos, 2004). The current boom of customer relationship management concepts and solutions is only one indicator of this development. However, while relationship marketing has been discussed in various contexts such as business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing, little attention so far has been paid to the question of what such an approach could add to the human resources field. This is astonishing as labor markets due to demographic effects and other changes in labor offer and demand tend to get increasingly narrow. Thus, traditional approaches to personnel marketing might no longer be sufficient and new concepts for the successful recruitment of qualified staff might be needed. Therefore, our research question is: How can we transfer the concepts of relationship marketing to personnel recruitment and what are potential benefits of such an approach? In order to answer this question, we present an approach for the IS-supported management of employer-candidate relationships. We outline two major dimensions of the approach together with selected validation results. The objective is to enhance human resources information systems (HRIS) research and to present an approach that could potentially assist employers in better facing mid-term shortages of qualified staff on a drastically changing labor market.
High Performance IT as Strategic Partner for HR Management
Authors: Pennarola Ferdinando , Caporarello Leonardo
Published: May 2011

The constant growth of the role that information technology (IT) is playing in business today has led to the development of new business models and new business processes (Cline & Guynes, 2001). In the modern business world, characterized by such things as internationalization and cooperation between organizations from different industries, companies are faced with a great many challenges, including: The integration of data sources, applications, platforms, and businesses; The technological and organizational flexibility needed to respond efficiently to changes in the marketplace; The creation of systems that are reliable, robust, and flexible, and that are able to keep pace with the changing needs of their users; Product and service quality. As such, companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of effective IT management (Broadbent & Weill, 1997).
HR Portals as Tools for Relational Resources Management
Authors: Ruta Dino
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to present the coevolution of technology and human resource management, considering the role of enabler that information technology (IT) can play in the reconfiguration of the human resource (HR) function. This approach combines theories on activities, competences, and knowledge and follows the concept of intellectual capital (IC), composed by at least three forms of capital, that is, human, social, and organizational (Sullivan, 2000; Youndt, Subramaniam, & Snell, 2004). This chapter focuses on the value that relations have in the organization. For this reason we shift from the concept of human resource management to the concept of relational resource management that is focused on the management of relations among activities, people, competences, and knowledge as a way to increase and maintain the value of intellectual capital. We present the concepts of HR portal and intellectual capital as a way to leverage knowledge contributing to the development of the relational resource management.
Human Capital Management for Sustainable Competitive Advantage in the New Economy
Authors: Akinyemi Benjamin Oyegoke
Published: May 2011

The critical role of human capital (HC) in creating and sustaining the competitive edge at organizational and national levels is recognized by researchers and practitioners. Human resource (HR) is the major driver of organizational success and the principal element that makes a business. Financial resources and technology are essential but people are the primary means by which progress is made. Leveraging, therefore, the HC to gain and sustain competitive advantage in an environment of accelerated pace of change is highly imperative. The purpose of this article is to discuss the significance and leveraging of human capital (HC) for sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in the new economy. It gives an overview of the human capital management (HCM) concept, distinguishing it from personnel management and human resource management (HRM) and discusses HCM’s significant role as key differentiator for organizational SCA.
Human Resources Strategies for Fair and Legal Employee Selection
Authors: Manley Gregory G.
Published: May 2011

Historically, people have an expectation of being treated fairly, particularly in the workplace. A variety of laws exist in the U.S. to encourage organizations to comply with fair hiring procedures. U.S. organizations are challenged by laws that mandate compliance to fair hiring procedures while maximizing on potential utility of selection tests. Organizations outside of the U.S. could also suffer organizational and societal consequences as a result of hiring procedures perceived as unfair. Some very valid selection tests and procedures, which result in high test utility, may not be considered fair by society or law. This chapter presents possible solutions for human resource managers to insure they are complying with fair selection while maximizing on the usefulness of the selection procedure.
Human-Computer Interaction
Authors: Campderrich Benet
Published: May 2011

In order to get information from the computers people must give them information and commands, therefore human-computer interaction (HCI) consists of information input and output and command input through the so-called user interface (UI). In accordance with its very name HCI concerns both humans—hereinafter called users—and computers, so it is strongly related to ergonomics and human resource management on one hand, and computer technology on the other. Every domain of ergonomics is concerned, that is, physical (working environment, workstation layout), cognitive (perception, memory, learning, human errors), and organizational. Some points of contact between HCI and human resource management are employee profiles (as a basis to look for the interface design best fitted to the future users), task and workflow design, productivity, and learning period minimization.
An Integrating Architecture for Competence Management
Authors: Berio Giuseppe , Harzallah Mounira , Sacco Giovanni Maria
Published: May 2011

Software applications dealing with human resources and their skills, attitudes, and knowledge (such as e-learning systems, skills databases, e-recruitment portals, corporate portals integrated with competence centered services, and functionalities) are often based on database technology (usually relational) for storing, organizing, and searching relevant information. These existing applications have two major limitations. First, they and their databases are based on raw data (such as CVs and job offers and job/role descriptions), which are organized according to some ad-hoc “reference grid” (like a job or trade tree): indeed, limited attention is devoted to data organization and to its foundations. Data organization should be based on the central concept of competency: raw data are interesting if they convey information about what abilities are required for accomplishing tasks and what abilities individuals hold (or have acquired); this information is indeed forming the competence, required and acquired respectively. Second, applications based on database technology do not really support the systematic analysis, exploration, and sharing of raw data and therefore offer limited support and weak integration to what can be called competence management processes. For instance, within a process for assessing individual competencies, it is difficult to implement portal services that try to automatically find out competencies of individuals from their CVs or, inside a company, from other documents (like activity or process reports which individuals have made). Unfortunately, despite a huge amount of work, there is no consensus on the competency definition. This is especially because most of the current work prioritizes some processes over other processes (e.g., evaluating competencies is prioritized over identifying needed competencies). Worse, as usual, some works prioritize enabling technologies over models. This results in partial or overloaded models for representing what competency, acquired and required, is; additionally, there is no clear picture of limitations of these models because prioritized processes are often hidden
Intellectual Capital Models and their Role within Information Systems
Authors: Castilla-Polo Francisca , Gallardo-Vázquez Dolores
Published: May 2011

There is a growing demand to know the status and evolution of firms’ intangible assets. It is motivated by the strategic relevance assigned to these intangible assets. The so-called intangible economy is one of the approaches to the study of intellectual capital (IC), which has attracted the interest of most researchers. The intangible economy treats these assets, because of their special attributes, as having the potential to create competitive advantages for the firm. In this context, the management of intangibles becomes a fundamental strategy from the competitive point of view. If the company does not manage correctly its intangible assets or IC, strategic opportunities will be lost, and even because of the turbulence and complexity of the present environments the position reached in the market could be damaged. This is the topic of the present work. Specifically, we will characterize the concept of IC, and in particular of human capital. Human capital is one of the three divisions into which the intangible dimension of organizations is structured. That intangible dimension is linked to the values, attitudes, and competence of the organization’s employees.
A Knowledge Management Approach to Improving E Business Collaboration
Authors: Cox Sharon , Perkins John
Published: May 2011

Information and communication technology (ICT) helps to remove barriers and improve mechanisms that support e-business. E-business involves collaborative systems that enable trading partners to work together as members of communities of practice. This article argues that the ICT components of e-business are necessary to support communication but in themselves are often insufficient as enablers of collaboration. A knowledge management orientation is taken to viewing the dyad between human ability, organisational need, and the extent to which electronic information systems can mediate between them. Concepts from the social practice literature are identified that may contribute to addressing the gap between generic technology and situated business applications, which may inform human resource strategy.
Learning Organizations vs. Static Organizations in the Context of E-HRM
Authors: Wang Viktor
Published: May 2011

Electronic human resource management (e-HRM) may mean that human resource management must now embrace electronic provisions. The environments that today’s managers work in have changed. The methods through which human resource managers choose to ameliorate an organization have changed. With the current technological revolution taking place, management methods can be catered to electronically. Although applying e-based solutions to human resource management is important, managers must have a clear view of what learning and static organizations may entail in order to add the electronic effect to ameliorate management. Without in-depth knowledge of learning organizations vs. static organizations, e-HRM would become an empty term. In today’s organizations, corporate leaders use strategies such as “downsizing,” “restructuring,” and “merging” in an effort to prevent an organization from collapsing or going bankrupt. Such organizations that go through these processes wish to say goodbye to their past, which may qualify them as what we call static organizations. To depart from static organizations, today’s organizations must strive to become what we call learning organizations in order to remain competitive in a global economy (Petty & Brewer, 2005). Learning organizations are drastically different from static organizations in terms of structure, atmosphere, management philosophy, decision making, and communication. Addressing these indispensable aspects may lead to the rise or fall of an organization in today’s competitive global economy.
Orchestrating the Multi-Channel Character of Formal and Informal Communication in "Virtual Teams"
Authors: Kratzer J. , Leenders Roger Th. A.J. , Engelen J.M.L. Van
Published: May 2011

Communication is a basic process of organization. When one conceives the organization as an everchanging system of interactions (White, 1992), one notes that communication aids in the development and maintenance of organizational purposes as its members motivate, inform, and inspire each other. In other words, communication is the ‘nerve system’ that makes organizations and organizational units cohere and permit their members to coordinate all work efforts. It is conventional to make a distinction between the formal and informal aspects of communication in organizations. Informal communication arises from the people’s needs for relatedness, affiliation, and security, and emerges spontaneously, whereas formal communication describes the organizationally blue-printed work-related linkages between employees. Informal communication is ‘emergent communication’ naturally occurring (e.g., Monge & Contractor, 2003). In contrast, formal communication is imposed, or mandated, representing the legitimate authority of the organization and is reflected by the organizational chart (Aldrich, 1976). In the past, communication was solely based on face-to-face contacts. In history there have been several milestones that broadened the number of available communication channels and eased the way of communicating. Since the early beginnings, the predominantly face-to-face communication was gradually complemented with written media, in particular, since the production and use of paper (Johannes Gutenberg 1397-1468). This process gradually spread all over the world. Centuries later, in the 1870s, two inventors, Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically. The telephone was invented. Again, a century later in the early days of computers, visionaries foresaw offices and factories humming with self-propelled robots. Today, a more likely vision has the firm humming with communicating employees. Most organizations have installed a complex network of interconnected computers that are embedded in a world of cyberspace, complemented with computer-based telephones and videoconferencing technologies. Organizations have now a very broad (and increasingly broadening) choice to orchestrate their formal and informal channels of communication, but at the same time the challenge to properly utilize the manifold possible media ensembles. Research is still in the very early stages to offer insights in how to managerially orchestrate the wide range of communicational channels. This article attempts to shed some light at the determination of media ensembles by formal and informal communication.
Podcasting as Mobile Learning
Authors: King Kathleen P.
Published: May 2011

The impact that e-learning has had on the workplace over the last 20 years is paramount. From video-conferencing to desktop Webinars, business has included technology and distance learning solutions in its model of human resource development. However audio and video podcasting as mobile learning stands to provide a very different dimension of distance learning. Instead of being restrained and constrained to a desktop or conference room, professional learning truly can be “anytime, anywhere.” From the office, to the gym, the shopping mall, to the beach, veteran professionals and young adults alike are exploring how to use mobile technology to improve their personal and professional learning. This article provides a background on this wave of mobile learning, including how podcasting has arisen, lessons learned, and growing trends. In addition, it examines issues that face HRIS (human resources information system), e-HRM (electronic human resource management system), individuals and professionals within mobile learning. Podcasts are digital audio files, which are hosted on the Internet and published via a special scripting language. Podcasts are usually produced in a series, so that there are more than one episode and the scripting language, XML (extensible markup language) and RSS (really simple syndication), enables updates of the series to be sent to the listener’s computer or wireless device automatically (King & Gura, 2007). This article begins with an introduction to the topic of podcasting and podcasting as mobile learning. The background section provides a detailed definition of this emergent technology and usage, while later the discussion turns to the critical issue of copyright and podcasting. Considering the forms and possibilities for professional learning through this mobile technology is a vital component of this article before we turn to the lively topic of trends in new and social media, which includes podcasting. The conclusion of the article brings us full circle as we consider how this fits together for podcasting as mobile learning.
The Right Work Ethic for Human Resource Managers
Authors: Wang Viktor
Published: May 2011

To determine whether a country is well developed or not, one can look at how much intelligent work people in that country engage in. It is safe to claim a healthy work ethic is the driving force behind the rise or fall of an organization in today’s competitive economy. The rise or fall of an organization also has to do with human resource management theory and practice. An organizational climate in which self-improvement is highly approved is likely to increase human performance (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 2005). A behavioral management philosophy is that a climate that approves and rewards new behaviors will encourage the maintenance of these new behaviors. This is probably why human resource managers need to study work ethics, especially in their relationship to theory X and theory Y. This article begins with a background of different perspectives of work ethics, continues with the argument that a healthy work ethic is needed in today’s human resource management, including e-human resource management (e-HRM) in the 21st century, and concludes with future trends and a brief summary. It is the author’s intent that through this vibrant discussion of a healthy work ethic in this new century, we can reach some common agreement, although this topic itself has always been a controversial one.
Transformative Learning
Authors: King Kathleen P.
Published: May 2011

Given the broad spectrum of life experience as we reach adulthood, our learning histories, abilities and preferences are as varied as we are. Thus emerges the field of “adult learning.” In addition to these many variations of experiences, this field of education and human resource development also recognizes that there is the infinite multiplier of the many contexts within which adults live and work to further variegate their learning experiences. With such a perspective of human experience, a framework with which to understand and appreciate the differences, developments, and process of learning adults may experience can guide consideration and development of training, teaching, learning, and professional growth. Transformative learning offers one such guide as a prominent and open-ended theory of adult learning. This theory of learning is consistent with the stark realization that our world and work are changing more rapidly than that to which we can adjust. Transformative learning helps us as those interested in HRIS to better understand the process through which adults address new information and views that do not smoothly articulate with their current understanding. Dramatic transformations face organizational leaders and support staff and entire organizations frequently. They are clearly evident and recalled staff and leaders alike whether organizations are facing the introduction of a new vision, adapting to a changing organizational culture, coping with economic hardship, or being forced to re-examine their mission and purpose (Altman, 1998; Caudron, 2000; Waldersee, 1997). What is the impact of such shared experience? Are there common stages of experience? And how can human resource information specialists benefit from and use the perspective of transformative learning to support significant learning within our organizations? This chapter will briefly begin to answer to these questions by introducing transformative learning theory, the background research, and trends related to it. Based on many years of adult learning research and theory building across many contexts, transformative learning has only come to the field of human resources information systems recently.
Ambiguity and Group Consensus
Authors: Shepherd Morgan M. , Martz Jr , Raghavan Vijay
Published: May 2011

When you assemble a number of people to have advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those people all their prejudices, their passions, their errors or opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly, can a perfect production be expected? ~ Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention, September 15, 1787 Franklin’s eighteenth century question foreshadows a basic concern for today’s team-dominated business world. First, while individuals are still important, groups are becoming the de-facto unit of work for organizations today. Working cooperatively is becoming a necessity; working collaboratively is becoming paramount to career success. Second, as the work environment changes into a virtual work environment, it is important to know how groups deal with making decisions. In this light, before we ask groups to come to consensus in a virtual environment, we must be clear on how well they understand consensus itself.
Collaborative Alliance for the Implementation of Computer Integrated Manufacturing in Small and Medium Enterprises
Authors: Marri H. B. , Gunasekaran A. , Irani Z. , Putnik G.D.
Published: May 2011

For all small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the long term goal is to stay in business, grow, and make profit, especially for manufacturing SMEs that must understand the dynamic changes that are taking place in the business environment. For SMEs to remain competitive, they must deliver products to customers at the minimum possible cost, the best possible quality, and the minimum lead time starting from the product conception stage to final delivery, service, and disposal (Marri, Gunasekaran, Kobu, & Grieve, 2002). SMEs can achieve this goal by implementing computer integrated manufacturing (CIM). The aim of CIM is to produce the required amount of the product of acceptable quality at the right time. If CIM technologies are fully integrated, the SMEs can respond rapidly to changes in product design, demand, or mix. The high investment required for AMT implementation is becoming a major hurdle for SMEs to cross. This is due to lack of financial resources which has stalled the initiative in adopting CIM. Undoubtedly, this has caused a decrease in rate of adoption of CIM in SMEs. With the collaborative alliance, CIM can successfully be implemented in SMEs.
Collaborative Development within Open Source Communities
Authors: Soriano Javier , Frutos Sonia , Jiménez. Miguel
Published: May 2011

Open source communities are one of the most successful-- and least appreciated--examples of high-performance collaboration and community building on the Internet today. Open source communities began as loosely organized, ad-hoc communities of contributors from all over the world who shared an interest in meeting a common need. However, the organization of these communities has proven to be very flexible and capable of carrying out all kind of developments, ranging from minor projects to huge programs such as Apache (Höhn, & Herr, 2004; Mockus, Fielding, & Herbsleb, 2005).
Risk Management in Enterprise Networking
Authors: Karvonen Iris
Published: May 2011

Enterprises aim to gain benefits and competitive advantages by creating and participating in cooperation networks. Long-term collaboration networks are also called breeding environments (Afsarmanesh & Camarinha- Matos, 2005) to describe the need for systematic development of collaboration preparedness. As there is a customer request, a short-term virtual organization (VO) is created to fulfil the task, which most often is a delivery of a product or a service to the customer (Karvonen, Jansson, Salkari, & Ollus, 2004; Kürümlüoglu, Nøstdal, & Karvonen, 2005).
Service-Oriented Architectures and ESB in VE Integration
Authors: Protogeros Nicolaos
Published: May 2011

Service-oriented architectures (SOA), mostly based on Web services (W3C), provide an industrial standard for deploying, publishing, discovering, and invoking enterprise’s services. From its emergence, many specialists have predicted that SOA will revolutionize the distributed computing paradigm and it will make various kinds of e-business (e.g., virtual enterprises, inter-enterprise collaboration, and ASP paradigms) a reality. This article examines the service-oriented architectures (SOA) applied to innovative organization schemes such as virtual enterprises (VE) to resolve the enterprise organizational structure integration problem. The evolution of software architectures from traditional to SOA is presented, along with the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, and problems and difficulties in applying the SOA, while also focusing on the compatibility between SOA and modern organizational structures. The new standard in the service orchestration level BPEL is considered as a language for business process modelling and its impact to the integration problem is examined. New messaging protocols and frameworks such as the enterprise service bus (ESB) or messaging service bus are also examined. The main focus is on the SOA technology trends of modern organizational structures with regards their formation and integration. The comparison between SOA and traditional architectures provides a clear path to their adoption in various cases.
Social Network Analysis for Investigating Large Scientific Research Project
Authors: Nie Kun , de Souza Euler G.M. , Medeni Tunç D.
Published: May 2011

Resulting from the development of science and technology, scientific research dedicating to solve economic, social, environmental, and other related complex problems needs team work of research groups with different academic backgrounds. Motivated by this requirement, some established organizations and sponsored projects with the purpose of promoting multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary research have been increasing, the organizations such as SFI (The Santa Fe Institute), IIASA (The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis), SIS (Society for Interdisciplinary Studies), AIS (The Association for Integrative Studies), ISIS (Institute for Science and Interdisciplinary Studies), and so forth. Some of these attempts achieved the desirable goals, while the majority did not.
Socio-Semantic Web for Sharing Knowledge
Authors: Peraboni Cristian , Ripamonti Laura A.
Published: May 2011

The study of knowledge fascinated humanity since remote times (Wiig, 2000): the first “western” traces of this study dates back to the works of important Greek philosophers (e.g., Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle). On the same vein, Indian and eastern philosophers (e.g., Lao Tzu and Confucius) focused their attention on knowledge as an essential learning process to obtain a fulfilling spiritual and concrete life. From a more practical point of view, we could also observe that humanity has always (un)consciously, but effectively, used knowledge as a mean of survival.
Software Quality in Open Source Software Ecosystems
Authors: Kamthan Pankaj
Published: May 2011

The steady rise of open source software (OSS) (Raymond, 1999) over the last few decades has made a noticeable impact on many sectors of society where software has a role to play. As reflected from the frequency of media articles, traffic on mailing lists, and growing research literature, OSS has garnered much support in the software community. Indeed, from the early days of GNU software, to X Window System, to Linux and its utilities, and more recently the Apache Software Project, OSS has changed the way software is developed and used. As the deployment of OSS increases, the issue of its quality with respect to its stakeholders arises. We contend that the open source community collectively bears responsibility of producing “high-quality” OSS. Lack of quality raises various risks for organizations adopting OSS (Golden, 2004). This article discusses the manifestation of quality in open source software development (OSSD) from a traditional software engineering standpoint. The organization is as follows. We first outline the background and related work necessary for the discussion that follows, and state our position. This is followed by a detailed treatment of key software engineering practices that directly or indirectly impact the quality of OSS. Next, challenges and directions for future research are outlined and, finally, concluding remarks are given.
Technology in Distance Learning
Authors: da Cruz Bandeira Fernando
Published: May 2011

The origins of distance learning (DL), as an alternative way of learning, can be traced back to the 19th century (Rumble, 1988) although it was only with the foundation of the Open University (1969 United Kingdom) that it won its reputation, not only as an alternative way of learning with its individual pedagogic and didactic model, but also as an academic discipline (Holmberg 1989). Since then, and although DL has developed in many ways, according to the different geographical, political, and social circumstances (Moore & Anderson, 2003), it converged into a common ground of practices, concepts, and theories that are widely accepted as its field of practice and theory.
Telework and Data Privacy and Security
Authors: Suomi Reima
Published: May 2011

Telework is a major phenomenon of the information society. It refers to work being done independently of time and place, still often in an employment relationship with an organization, and heavily supported by modern information and communication technology. Telework can also be identified in terms such as e-work and distance work or telecommuting, in general telework is a part of the virtual organization metaphor. Telework, through its liberty from place and time specificity or performing work, is a major change agent leading us towards a new information and knowledge society. It is expected to bring in productivity, better output quality and employee, employer and customer satisfaction. A better utilization of human resources can be expected, as through telework employees can work to many organizations, so sharing and also strengthening their professional skills and status.
Thematic-Based Group Communication
Authors: Pardede Raymond , Hosszú Gábor , Kovács Ferenc
Published: May 2011

In the network level computer group-communication (one-to-many) technology, IP-multicast contributes significant roles in enhancing the physical network scalability by replicating identical packets at routers. However, since its initial proposal the IP-multicast has not been widely enabled due to the slow pace of its deployment. Hence, the application-level multicast (ALM) concept emerged to solve this deployment issue by shifting the multicast support from routers to end-systems. The article reviews the most important facts of the Application-Level Multicast and its proposed models. Furthermore, the article describes a novel concept of modeling relative density of members called bunched mode and a proposed host-end multicast transport protocol called shortest tunnel first (STF). The bunched mode is based on the thematic multicast concept (TMC), which means that it is a typical multicast scenario where there are a lot of interested hosts in certain institutes and these institutes are relatively far from each other. The developed analysis tool NetSim and the implementation of the TMC called PardedeCAST are also presented as the tools of this research.
Trends and Future Directions of Net-Enabled Connectivity
Authors: Chengalur-Smith Indushobha , Duchessi Peter
Published: May 2011

In a global economy, organizations need to collaborate with other organizations because physical networks of suppliers and partners compete against one another rather than individual organizations. To enable more effective and efficient physical networks, organizations are using information and communications technologies (ICTs) to connect mutually dependent activities and tasks. Connected organizations may attain greater insight into the availability of critical resources, improved ability to respond quickly to events affecting the organization, and greater awareness of the variation between plans and actual results.
Understanding and Using Boundaries in NVOs
Authors: Song Haigang , Medeni Tunç D. , de Souza Euler G.M. , Nie Kun
Published: May 2011

One of the most important characteristics of virtual and networked organizations is the facilitation of interactions across institutional boundaries. However, the facilitation of this cross-boundary interaction does not mean that these boundaries cease to exist altogether; they may change forms, but still maintain their function and importance, and should be taken into consideration both in theory and practice. The metaphor of a jigsaw puzzle highlights the significance of the boundaries for institutions.
Using Annotations for Information Sharing in a Networked Community
Authors: Qayyum Muhammad Asim
Published: May 2011

The interaction process between humans and published writings started a long time ago, and people have been making notes or providing written comments about the material that they have been reading ever since. These comments were then circulated and shared among their colleagues and were believed to have played an important part in the dissemination of knowledge (Tribble, 1997). With advances in computing technology, paper-based print is giving way to digital media as more printed documents now appear in an electronic format. These electronic copies of a document are likely to be read, possibly marked, and shared by a number of people. Therefore, a rise in knowledge and information sharing via electronic (e-) writings (in the form of annotations) should be anticipated as active reading and document sharing becomes a convenient activity. Thus, the focus of this article is on elaborating the basic concepts of information sharing among networked reader communities through markings made on electronic (e-) documents.
Virtual Logistics from Outsourcing Logistics
Authors: Modrák Vladimir
Published: May 2011

The wide utilisation of information communication technology has significantly affected also a development of logistics services concepts. Consequently, research in the area of virtual companies including logistics services is developing. Presented visions are commandingly optimistic, even though sceptics are already gathering counter-arguments against those visions. As an important factor of strengthening, the above-mentioned optimistic vision can be accounted for by a tendency of wider applications of outsourcing. Activities carried out by specialised external providers for a larger number of customers are usually cheaper, particularly because of fixed costs. Moreover, organisations that provide outsourcing bring into partnership their own know-how from optimisation of logistical activities. Cooperation in this field helps to eliminate or reduce unexpected idle periods in transport, such as long transport routes, reloading, customs clearing, and other. A higher form of outsourcing is the inclusion of logistical centers (LC) into a supply chain (SC). With the progressing globalization, the significance of integrated logistical centers is increasing. The aim of the article is to describe the concept of an integrated architecture of a logistic center reflecting progressive trends in logistic management. It also includes a model of features for a designing of a virtual logistical center and description of typical signs of virtual corporations.
XBRL in Business Reporting
Authors: Martins Margarida Silva , Rodrigues Lúcia Lima
Published: May 2011

Hard-copy paper documents have been the traditional medium for business reporting to shareholders and investors. More recently, electronic versions of business reports have become common on company Web sites. However, electronic formats do not guarantee that information can be properly searched and extracted since distinct types of users have different needs of information. Several reporting languages have been developed to solve these problems.
A Methodology for Situated Analysis and Design
Authors: Waller Vivienne , Johnston Robert B. , Milton Simon K.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a new high level methodology for the analysis and design of information systems specifically to support routine action at the operational level of organizations. The authors argue that traditional methods fail to adequately address the unique requirements of support for routine operational action. The main innovation of the methodology is the use of an action-centred approach derived from recent work on the nature of purposeful human action, and as such, emphasises both the information requirements for action and the dependence of action upon appropriately structured environments. A brief case study illustrates how using the methodology can sensitize the analyst to opportunities to increase human efficiency and effectiveness through lighter weight information systems.
Process Models of SDLCs
Authors: Rodriguez Laura C. , Mora Manuel , Martin Miguel Vargas , O’Connor Rory , Alvarez Francisco
Published: May 2011

The software engineering discipline has developed the concept of software process to guide development teams towards a high-quality end product to be delivered on-time and within the planned budget. Consequently,several software-systems development life-cycles (PM-SDLCs) have been theoretically formulated and empirically tested over the years. In this chapter, a conceptual research methodology is used to review the state of the art on the main PM-SDLCs formulated for software-intensive systems, with the aim to answer the following research questions: (a) What are the main characteristics that describe the PM-SDLCs?, (b) What are the common and unique characteristics of such PM-SDLCs?, and (c) What are the main benefits and limitations of PM-SDLCs from a viewpoint of a conceptual analysis? This research is motivated by a gap in the literature on comprehensive studies that describe and compare the main PMSDLCs and organizes a view of the large variety of PM-SDLCs.