Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1580. Adviser: Linda C. Smith. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-210) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the available strategies IT leaders at ABC, a Managed IT Services company in the SME sector in Columbus, Ohio, may use to avoid data breaches in the cloud environment. The security framework established by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) provided the conceptual framework for this study. A purposeful sampling strategy was used to select 10 IT leaders to participate in the study. Data were gathered through open-ended, semi-structured individual face-to-face interviews, asynchronous discussions through e-mails, and reviews of company-provided documents. An inductive thematic analysis was used to analyze all the data collected in the study. The following six major themes emerged from the data relating to descriptions of the data security threats and vulnerabilities facing IT leaders in the cloud, and the strategies they may use to avoid a breach of their data: (1) managing the human factor, (2) managing the network environment, (3) types of data security threats, (4) people pose the most significant risk, (5) elements of an effective strategy, and (6) addressing password issues. The results indicated that IT leaders face multifaceted data security threats in the cloud and these could be addressed through a combination of strategies including user education, securing the network, limiting user access to IT resources, and addressing password issues.</p><p>

<p> More than half of information technology (IT) outsourced projects fail, primarily due to a lack of effective management practices surrounding the outsourcing end-to-end process. Ineffective management of the IT outsourcing (ITO) process affects organizations in the form of higher than expected project costs, including greater vendor switching or reintegration costs, poor quality, and loss of profits. These effects indicate that some business leaders lack the strategies to effectively manage the ITO process. The purpose of this single-case study was to apply the transaction cost economics (TCE) theory to explore strategies 5 business professionals use to manage an ITO project in a financial services organization located in the Midwestern region of the United States. Participant selection was purposeful and was based on the integral role the participants play on the ITO project. Data collection occurred via face-to-face semistructured interviews with the participants and the review of company documents. Data were analyzed using inductive coding of phrases, word frequency searches, and theme interpretation. Three themes emerged: vendor governance and oversight, collaborative strategic partnership, and risk management strategies enabled effective management of ITO. Identifying and executing appropriate outsourcing strategies may contribute to social change by improving outsourcing infrastructure, which might support job creation; increasing standards of living, especially within emerging markets; and heightening awareness of different cultures, norms, and languages among people living in different regions around the world to establish commonalities and gain alignment with business practices.</p><p>

<p> Organizational change initiatives are more likely to fail than to succeed, especially when the change challenges corporate culture and norms. Researchers have explored factors that contribute to change failure, to include the relationship between leadership behaviors and change success. Peer reviewed studies have yet to examine these variables in the context of Agile and DevOps implementations as the catalyst for change. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to determine the extent to which a relationship exists between transformational leadership behaviors of front-line managers, employee readiness for change, and employee organizational citizenship behavior during Agile and DevOps initiatives. The population included all IT professionals in the U.S. working full-time at companies with more than 500 employees whose work processes had been altered by Agile or DevOps implementations. A sample of 400 qualified panel participants provided data through an online SurveyGizmo survey. Quotas ensured that the survey sample represented the gender and ethnicity distribution among U.S. IT professionals according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data collected were analyzed for missing data, reliability, and normality. Pearson&rsquo;s r calculations and linear regression analysis revealed that a moderate yet statistically significant correlation exists between the transformational leadership behaviors of respondents&rsquo; front-line managers and their own readiness for change and organizational citizenship behavior. The results could have been skewed by the higher than expected proportion of managers and executives who responded to the survey. Future researchers could extend the work started in this present study by adding quotas to ensure the survey responses align to average employee-manager ratios. This study could also be replicated with participants in a single company so that findings could be supported through qualitative methods such as interviews and panel discussions.</p>

<p> Mobile marketing is a marketing technique which uses established systems that give businesses the ability to communicate directly with customers through smartphones or other mobile devices. Small businesses lack experience in developing and using mobile marketing strategies to increase sales. The fundamental idea of mobile marketing is to improve the business marketing performance to maximize profits. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how five small business marketers successfully created and implemented mobile marketing strategies to increase brand awareness and sales. The research focused on successful, small, independent businesses that have successfully used mobile marketing. This study is motivated by two research questions: (1) How are successful mobile marketing strategies created to increase brand awareness and sales? (2) How is mobile marketing used in the small business marketing communication mix? Participants were the primary people in charge of creating and implementing mobile marketing strategies for the small businesses. Data was obtained from semi-structured interviews with small business marketers, collection of mobile marketing documents, observation of mobile marketing processes and mobile marketing platforms. The six themes that emerged were: thinking strategically, identifying mobile channels for consumer engagement, analyzing the purpose of mobile marketing, developing mobile marketing objectives, evaluating the use of SMS/MMS, and measuring the value of mobile marketing strategies. The findings of this study may help small business marketers gain insight into planning and implementation of mobile marketing strategies that can be used to influence consumer acceptance and use of mobile marketing. Also, understanding how mobile channels are used in the sales funnel, from the initial contact, to the final purchase, and measuring the value of mobile marketing strategies may help marketers create and implement the strategies needed to increase brand awareness and sales.</p><p>

<p> Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations are expensive, time-consuming, and often do not lead to the expected outcome of integrated IT systems. Many German universities are implementing ERP systems as Campus Management Systems (CMS) and a solution to any problem, need, or requirement the organization has. This exploratory case study describes cases of CMS implementations in administrative departments in German universities. Thirteen non-managerial staff members in the registrar offices of two universities shared their experiences about critical factors during and after a CMS implementation. The interview questions focused on (a) implementation experiences, (b) implementation leadership, and (c) impact on daily work processes. The interviews were held, transcribed, and analyzed in German. The inductive analysis of the interviews revealed three main themes: (a) communication, (b) system customization, and (c) team composition and resources. The predominant subject in the theme communication was lack of internal and external communication regarding the CMS project. The overarching system customization theme was the complexity of administrative requirements and continuous and rapid adaptation needs requiring increased CMS team support. The focus of the team composition and resources theme was to employ knowledgeable employees thorough and beyond the end of the project to react to changing requirements. These themes are concurrent with previous research but are unique in that previous research did not focus on CMS in Germany. The themes differ because sub-categories are stakeholder group specific and highlight CMS implementation phase dependencies.</p><p> Keywords: Enterprise resource planning systems, Higher Education, success and risk factors, Germany</p>

<p> Today's information technology (IT) professional must go beyond their technical ability and obtain new leadership skills. Simultaneously obtaining business acumen, developing successful IT-business relationships, communicating effectively, and still being technical makes being an IT professional more challenging than ever. It is the viewpoint of this researcher that self-awareness is the foundational level skill set needed to foster the insights needed to adopt and apply these skills to increase success in the IT professional. Previous research has examined the relationship of self-awareness and it's impact on leadership effectiveness and even explores correlations with emotional intelligence and IT organizations success. However, gaps remain in the literature to the specific correlations of the value and perception of self-awareness within the IT professional, and what specific role self-awareness plays in IT professionals' success. The purpose of this research was to understand and quantify how IT professionals perceive the meaning of the word self-awareness, and the connection between self-awareness and increased effectiveness. A comprehensive survey was conducted with 164 IT and business professionals of different levels, different size organizations and different industries to formalize quantitative answers to these questions. Follow-up interviews were also conducted to gain further clarification of survey results. The results reveal that self-awareness was viewed positively and critical to the success of the IT professional regardless of gender, role, educational level or years in the industry. The data also showed that if more investment in self-awareness training where to incur, the importance of that skill would increase, and the importance of technical skills would decrease; provided they had an external influence ("sponsor") that provided feedback to invest in such skills. They had to have their awareness raised, to raise their awareness, and this effort had to be intentional. Self-awareness had direct positive correlations to improved relationship management. Study limitations and implications to the organization development field are also discussed.</p>

<p> According to Markus's theory of reuse, when digital repositories are deployed to collect and distribute organizational assets, they supposedly help ensure accountability, extend information exchange, and improve productivity. Such repositories require a large investment due to the continuing costs of hardware, software, user licenses, training, and technical support. The problem addressed in this study was the lack of evidence in the literature on whether users in fact reused enough digital assets in repositories to justify the investment. The objective of the study was to investigate the organizational value of repositories to better inform architectural, construction, software and other industries whether repositories are worth the investment. This study was designed to examine asset reuse of medical images at a health information publisher. The research question focused on the amount of asset reuse over time, which was determined from existing repository transaction logs generated over an 8-year period by all users. A longitudinal census data analysis of archival research was performed on the entire dataset of 85,250 transaction logs. The results showed that 42 users downloaded those assets, including 11,059 images, indicating that the repository was used by sufficient users at this publisher of about 80 employees. From those images, 1,443 medical images were reused for new product development, showing a minimal asset reuse rate of 13%. Assistants (42%), writers (20%), and librarians (16%) were the primary users of this repository. Collectively, these results demonstrated the value of repositories in improving organizational productivity&mdash;through reuse of existing digital assets such as medical images to avoid unnecessary duplication costs&mdash;for social change and economic transformation.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore senior librarians&rsquo; perceptions of successful leadership skills in the 21st century. Library organizations in the postindustrial environment of the 21st century operate in a new context involving digitization, global libraries, cultural diversity, cultural intelligence, and cross-cultural management. This new context requires a postindustrial paradigm of leadership emphasizing influence and collaboration as defined by Rost (1991). The purposive sample used for this case study consisted of 10 senior library leaders. The data gathered consisted of demographic information and responses to six open-ended interview questions. Data were entered, coded, and analyzed for themes and patterns using NVivo 10 software. The analysis revealed significant emergent themes relating to successful library leadership skills. Results from this case study suggest successful library leadership skills in the 21st century involve two levels: foundational level and interpersonal level. At the foundational level are technical and knowledge skills, which are the building blocks for the next level of interpersonal skills. Interweaving these interpersonal skills are persuasion skills and collaborative skills, both at the core of the postindustrial paradigm of leadership. These two levels of skills, with an emphasis on persuasion skills, should form the basis of succession planning programs for next generation librarians. Implementing such programs could lead to increased leadership diversity, greater job satisfaction, improved job performance and effectiveness, helping the retention of librarians, and easing staff shortage. Further studies are recommended.</p>

<p> The current research used grounded theory methodology (GTM) to construct a conceptualization of personal knowledge within a knowledge management (KM) perspective. The need for the current research was based on the use of just two categories of knowledge, explicit and tacit, within KM literature to explain diverse characteristics of personal knowledge. The construct of tacit knowledge has often been explicated and debated in KM literature. The debate over tacit knowledge arose from the complex epistemological roots of tacit knowing and the construct of tacit knowledge popularized by organizational knowledge creation theory. The ongoing debate over tacit knowledge in KM literature has shed little light on personal knowledge within a KM perspective. The current research set aside the debate over tacit knowledge and pursued the construct of personal knowledge from the perspective of the knower using GTM. Thirty-seven interviews were conducted with fourteen participants. Interviews were audio recorded and coding was accomplished with the qualitative data analysis software MAXQDA. </p><p> A total of eight categories were identified. These were organized into two groups. The core category <i>being overwhelmed</i> represented the absence of personal knowledge. The categories <i>questioning self, seeking help,</i> and <i>microthinking</i> fit under being overwhelmed. Together these categories were inverse indicators because they all decreased as knowledge acquisition progressed. The core category <i> being confident</i> represented the presence of personal knowledge. The categories <i>remembering, multitasking,</i> and <i>speed</i> fit under being overwhelmed. Together these categories were direct indicators because they all increased as knowledge acquisition progressed. </p><p> Three significant conclusions were drawn from the current research. These conclusions led to the conceptualization of personal knowledge from a KM perspective. The first significant conclusion was the conceptualization of a process of knowing as <i>Integrated Complexity: From Overwhelmed to Confident</i> (ICOC). The second significant conclusion was personal knowing as first-person epistemology is a universally lived experience that includes commitments to internal and external requirements as well as a bias toward integration. The third significant conclusion was personal knowledge can be viewed as a complex adaptive system. Finally, the current research concluded that personal knowledge within a KM perspective is a complex adaptive system maintained through acts of first-person epistemology.</p>