Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1989. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

Information Systems (IS’s) have provided organisations with huge efficiency gains and benefits over the years; however an outstanding problem that is yet to be successfully tackled is that of the troublesome maintenance phase. Consuming vast resources and thwarting business progression in a competitive global market place, system maintenance has been recognised as one of the key areas where IS is failing organisations. Organisations are too often faced with the dilemma of either replacement or the continual upkeep of an unwieldy system. The ability for IS’s to be able to adapt to exogenous influences is even more acute today than at any time in the past. This is due to IS’s namely, Web Information Systems (WIS’s) increasingly and continually having to accommodate the needs of organisations to interconnect with a plethora of additional systems as well as supporting evolving business models. The richness of the interconnectivity, functionalities and services WIS’s now offer are shaping social, cultural and economic behaviour on a truly global scale, making the maintenance of such systems and evermore pertinent issue. The growth and proliferation of WIS’s shows no sign of abating which leads to the conclusion that what some have termed as the ‘maintenance iceberg’ should not be ignored. The quandary that commercial organisations face is typically driven by two key aspects; firstly, systems are built on the cultural premise of using fixed requirements, with not enough thought or attention being paid to systems abilities to deviate from these requirements. Secondly, systems do not generally cope well with adapting to unpredictable change arising from outside of the organisations environment. Over the recent past, different paradigms, approaches and methods have attempted to make software development more predictable, controllable and adaptable, however, the benefits of such measures in relation to the maintenance dilemma have been limited. The concept of flexible systems that are able to cope with such change in an efficient manner is currently an objective that few can claim to have realised successfully. The primary focus of the thesis was to examine WIS post-development change in order to empirically substantiate and understand the nature of the maintenance phase. This was done with the intention to determine exactly ‘where’ and ‘how’ flexibility could be targeted to address these changes. This study uses an emergent analytical approach to identify and catalogue the nature of change occurring within WIS maintenance. However, the research framework design underwent a significant revision as the initial results indicated that a greater emphasis and refocus was required to achieve the research objective. To study WIS’s in an appropriate and detailed context, a single case study was conducted in a web development software house. In total the case study approach was used to collect empirical evidence from four projects that investigated post-development change requests in order to identify areas of the system susceptible to change. The maintenance phases of three WIS projects were considered in-depth, resulting in the collection of over four hundred change requests. The fourth project served as a validation case. The results are presented and the findings are used to identify key trends and characteristics that depict WIS maintenance change. The analytical information derived from the change requests is consolidated and shown diagrammatically for the key areas of change using profile models developed in this thesis. Based on the results, the thesis concludes and contributes to the ongoing debate that there is a discernable difference when considering WIS maintenance change compared to that of traditional IS maintenance. The detailed characteristics displayed in the profile models are then used to map specific flexibility criteria that ultimately are required to facilitate change. This is achieved using the Flexibility Matrix of Change (FMoC) tool which was developed within the remit of this research. This tool is a qualitative measurement scheme that aligns WIS maintenance changes to a reciprocal flexibility attribute. Thus, the wider aim of this thesis is to also expand the awareness of flexibility and its importance as a key component of the WIS lifecycle.

This research suggests that to model the complex dynamics of the organisational change in a firm evolving as it implements internet technologies requires capturing diverse independent and interdependent processes across multiple temporal and spatial context both within and external to the firm. This presents both an ontological and epistemological challenge as dominant research methods are either atemporal in nature and attribute action to disembodied variables or are simply storytelling. To provide explanatory legitimacy requires going deeper to capture the action of actors 'acting' within multiple levels of context and to pinpoint deeper 'rock-bottom' causal mechanisms that drive the higher order processes that give rise to the 'organisational life' we observe. To accomplish explanatory legitimacy I develop an analytical method that makes processuality fundamental and allows for the examination and theorising about mechanisms. The first essential element of this method is a framework that guides the researcher in the systematic gathering together of what we already know from the multidisciplinary and eclectic research in e-business, and in the intensive work of gathering empirical evidence. I apply a new methodology I call narrative sequence analysis, that combines process tracing and sequence analyses to make processes intelligible and help illustrate how mechanisms drive these processes. I use this method to develop an explanatory account of the process of e-business development covering three episodes of change within the Commonwealth Bank of Australia from 1995 to 2006. The research finds that the firm evolves over time as it develops new capabilities and identifies and pursues development opportunities by assembling and committing resources to e-business though both technology development and business application. It draws on past experience and gradually learns to develop, integrate and implement technology into existing business operations, discovers new innovative opportunities in which to apply the technology or is drawn into new areas by others who identify opportunities in which to apply the firm's knowledge, resources and technology. The path to development depends on the firms starting position and the timing of the sequence of events encountered along the way. It is a coevolutionary process where the firm interacts, cooperates, adapts and responds to the actions and interactions of other actors, balanced by the uncertainty of e-business and business operation risk.

This is a study of teacher professional development at the school level using teacher research as a strategy for both teacher professional learning and school change. A qualitative study was conducted to determine the conditions that would develop and sustain teachers researching their own practice in a culture of inquiry. Participant observation in one school over a two year period was used to investigate the issue of how to embed teacher research as a central feature of teachers� work. As a result of working with teachers as they researched their practice I have developed a model to explain and understand the complexities of schools and their cultures. Teachers researching their practice provided the driving force in the interplay of the elements of the model and had the potential to change school culture. Relationships, structures and processes are central to this model. Social and professional relationships between the teachers and the university partner developed and were supported by structures and processes. As the research continued these relationships changed and evolved. These relationships help develop a culture of inquiry in schools. The school/university partnership in this study evolved from an initial symbiotic�cooperative partnership (in which I shared my expertise and supported the work of teachers) into a later organic�collaborative partnership (one based on mutual and shared goals and benefits). The existing team of four teachers and the allocation of time for them to meet provided the essential structures for the teachers to research their practice. The collective leadership style instigated by the school Principal provided important human and financial support for the development of inquiry cultures. Collaboration and collegiality as forms of association enabled teachers to conduct research which challenged their individual and collective beliefs and assumptions about students� learning and their classroom practice. The content and form of teacher culture mediated the effects of teachers researching their practice. There are critical and transformational effects when teachers research their practice as part of their core work. Introducing these teachers to research was not without its difficulties. There were events and factors in the school relating to relationships, structures and processes which hindered the development of teacher research in a culture of inquiry. Because of the time frame of this study there is no evidence that school culture change is permanent. This could be the subject of future research.

Thesis (MA(Sos.))--Universiteit van Pretoria, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-80).

This research suggests that to model the complex dynamics of the organisational change in a firm evolving as it implements internet technologies requires capturing diverse independent and interdependent processes across multiple temporal and spatial context both within and external to the firm. This presents both an ontological and epistemological challenge as dominant research methods are either atemporal in nature and attribute action to disembodied variables or are simply storytelling. To provide explanatory legitimacy requires going deeper to capture the action of actors 'acting' within multiple levels of context and to pinpoint deeper 'rock-bottom' causal mechanisms that drive the higher order processes that give rise to the 'organisational life' we observe. To accomplish explanatory legitimacy I develop an analytical method that makes processuality fundamental and allows for the examination and theorising about mechanisms. The first essential element of this method is a framework that guides the researcher in the systematic gathering together of what we already know from the multidisciplinary and eclectic research in e-business, and in the intensive work of gathering empirical evidence. I apply a new methodology I call narrative sequence analysis, that combines process tracing and sequence analyses to make processes intelligible and help illustrate how mechanisms drive these processes. I use this method to develop an explanatory account of the process of e-business development covering three episodes of change within the Commonwealth Bank of Australia from 1995 to 2006. The research finds that the firm evolves over time as it develops new capabilities and identifies and pursues development opportunities by assembling and committing resources to e-business though both technology development and business application. It draws on past experience and gradually learns to develop, integrate and implement technology into existing business operations, discovers new innovative opportunities in which to apply the technology or is drawn into new areas by others who identify opportunities in which to apply the firm's knowledge, resources and technology. The path to development depends on the firms starting position and the timing of the sequence of events encountered along the way. It is a coevolutionary process where the firm interacts, cooperates, adapts and responds to the actions and interactions of other actors, balanced by the uncertainty of e-business and business operation risk.

This is a study of teacher professional development at the school level using teacher research as a strategy for both teacher professional learning and school change. A qualitative study was conducted to determine the conditions that would develop and sustain teachers researching their own practice in a culture of inquiry. Participant observation in one school over a two year period was used to investigate the issue of how to embed teacher research as a central feature of teachers� work. As a result of working with teachers as they researched their practice I have developed a model to explain and understand the complexities of schools and their cultures. Teachers researching their practice provided the driving force in the interplay of the elements of the model and had the potential to change school culture. Relationships, structures and processes are central to this model. Social and professional relationships between the teachers and the university partner developed and were supported by structures and processes. As the research continued these relationships changed and evolved. These relationships help develop a culture of inquiry in schools. The school/university partnership in this study evolved from an initial symbiotic�cooperative partnership (in which I shared my expertise and supported the work of teachers) into a later organic�collaborative partnership (one based on mutual and shared goals and benefits). The existing team of four teachers and the allocation of time for them to meet provided the essential structures for the teachers to research their practice. The collective leadership style instigated by the school Principal provided important human and financial support for the development of inquiry cultures. Collaboration and collegiality as forms of association enabled teachers to conduct research which challenged their individual and collective beliefs and assumptions about students� learning and their classroom practice. The content and form of teacher culture mediated the effects of teachers researching their practice. There are critical and transformational effects when teachers research their practice as part of their core work. Introducing these teachers to research was not without its difficulties. There were events and factors in the school relating to relationships, structures and processes which hindered the development of teacher research in a culture of inquiry. Because of the time frame of this study there is no evidence that school culture change is permanent. This could be the subject of future research.

The “University” is under pressure to address both local and general requirements from society towards a phenomenon called globalisation. In Brazil, the Ministry of Education has tried, without success, to promote institutional change. Confronted by this situation a process initiated by an internal change agent and based upon the introduction of Action Research was itself the subject of this AR Study by the change agent. This thesis draws upon the findings of that AR and uses it to critically examine the potential to foster change within the higher education context in Brazil using AR. The research was designed in two synchronous processes taking place at two different levels. The first is the facilitation of the uptake of Action Research by a group of academic staff, and the second is the research into that process as a piece of Action Research in its own right by the change agent/facilitator. Facilitation of change has been described as taking place in three phases: a) Mobilization; b) Implementation; and c) Continuation. Throughout such phases in this case data were systematically gathered by the use of five instruments of data collection: 1) Observation; 2) Diary; 3) Questionnaires; 4) Interviews; and 5) Sociogram. Results show my personal learning in facilitating this process of change and two main contributions to knowledge. The first is one which, though local and specific, may nevertheless speak to the challenges faced by other practitioners. Exemplified in this study by the critical exploration of the ‘Daisy Model’ of introducing AR that led to its modification into the ‘Flower Model’. The second is that new knowledge which appears to be more generalisable and for which a case can be made for its wider applicability. Again exemplified in the continuous and disruptive process of change that unfolded to reveal a suitable framework for the use of Action Research as a vehicle of change in a rural university in Brazil where all actions were based on four central principles that emerged from the research: neutrality, voluntary participation, time and motivation. The future success and sustainability of the change processes begun are contingent upon the reaction of the current management of the institution. Five scenarios are examined and a second phase for this AR project is suggested that attempts to address the issues raised.

Human civilization is failing in the fight to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and limit the impact of anthropogenic climate change. Whilst there are likely numerous reasons for this inertia, societal risk perception plays a fundamental role in influencing the speed and effectiveness of political and social action to address climate change. This study presents the psychological, sociological and cultural reasons for variations in the perceptions of risk amongst a group of climate change sceptics in Sweden. Highlighting cognitive barriers and characteristics associated with different ideological biases and worldviews. The paper concludes that people become more or less sceptical to climate change based on a variety of potentially intersectional issues. Whilst gender, age and wisdom all play a role, the social groups with which people identify, as well as individuals’ values and ideas of what constitutes an ideal society ultimately shape ones perception of risk in relation to climate change. The implications for the communication of climate science are discussed, revealing that any inclusive communication strategy will fail unless it is presented in a way that affirms rather than challenges one’s cultural identity.