published_or_final_version / Business / Master / Master of Philosophy

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Commerce (M Com) at the University of the Witwatersrand, February 2017 / Information systems development (ISD) project teams are involved in requirements elicitation, analysis, development, testing and deployment of various information technology solutions. These teams often compete with each other for limited resources in an attempt to fulfil their organisational mandate. As a result, project teams can exert power over each other and employ various influence tactics in attempt to gain and maintain positions of power which allow them to control key resources and influence decision making processes. This study examined the strategic environmental and structural conditions of fulfilment which influence the power of ISD project teams, and the extent to which influence tactics can impact on team power level. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire instrument. A sample of 106 teams from five companies was obtained. The companies operate in the financial services and government sectors. A single key informant responded on behalf of their team. Correlation and regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized links between power and the structural conditions of fulfilment namely centrality and substitutability, as well as, the environmental condition of coping with uncertainty. The moderating effects of influence tactics on these relationships was tested via hierarchical moderated regression. Results indicated that the strategic condition of coping with uncertainty significantly and positively affects perceived team power, whilst substitutability significantly and negatively affects perceived team power. Support for the structural condition of centrality was not found to be significant. Additionally, the influence tactic of rational persuasion was found to moderate the relationship between power and coping with uncertainty such that rational persuasion interacts with coping with uncertainty to affect power. Results also indicated that the influence tactic of collaboration was not a moderator but rather has significant direct effects on perceived team power. The study concluded that ISD project teams who cope with project uncertainties and whose tasks and functionalities are difficult to replace, as well as, those who effectively collaborate with other teams will have greater power within project settings. Moreover, ISD project teams can combine rational persuasion tactics with coping with uncertainty to exert even stronger effects on power. The outcomes of this study help to bring an understanding of the impact of the strategic conditions factors on perceived team power within ISD project settings, as well as the role of specific influence tactics in the formation of power. / GR2018

by Lo Wai-kuen, Ng Wai-ming. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1986

by Li Wai Ming. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-79). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.v / PREFACE --- p.vi / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Company Background --- p.1 / Polymers Division --- p.2 / Project Objectives --- p.3 / Methodology --- p.4 / Chapter II --- LITERATURE REVIEW - THE EMERGING CONCEPT & TECHNOLOGY OF EIS --- p.7 / Evolution of EIS --- p.7 / Definition and Characteristics of EIS --- p.9 / The Executive's Role --- p.10 / Chapter III --- REVIEW OF CURRENT SYSTEM AND INFORMATION NEEDS --- p.15 / BPCS - AS/400 --- p.15 / Personal Computer Usage --- p.17 / Local Area Network --- p.17 / Management Information System --- p.18 / Limitations of Current Management Information System --- p.19 / Information Needs of Executives --- p.20 / Chapter IV --- CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF THE EIS --- p.23 / Addressing Problems of the Current MIS --- p.23 / New System --- p.24 / Chapter V --- SELECTION OF TOOLS --- p.26 / Considerations for Hardware and Software Selection --- p.26 / Client Server Concept --- p.28 / Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0 for Windows & Microsoft SQL Server4.21 --- p.29 / Potential Problems --- p.34 / Chapter VI --- COST ESTIMATION --- p.36 / Hardware --- p.36 / Software --- p.36 / Personnel Cost --- p.36 / Time Frame of Development --- p.37 / Chapter VII --- RESOURCE ALLOCATION --- p.38 / Existing Computing Resources in PO Division --- p.38 / Chapter VIII --- DESIGNING THE EIS INTERFACE AND DATABASE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW SYSTEM --- p.40 / User Interface --- p.41 / Information Provided by the System --- p.41 / Database Structure --- p.42 / Data Security --- p.43 / Chapter IX --- DISCUSSION --- p.44 / Implementation Problems --- p.44 / Evaluation --- p.45 / Chapter X --- CONCLUSION --- p.48 / APPENDIX --- p.53 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.78

A major challenge to achieving business process agility is the fragmentation of business processes, especially in organizations with semiautonomous business units. This fragmentation manifests itself in the form of diversified business processes performing similar activities. To address this challenge and achieve synergies across business units, processes should be integrated. Extant research on business process management has not paid much attention to such integration. Motivated by this concern, the primary objectives of my research are: “1) to understand how integration of similar business processes is achieved by semiautonomous business units and 2) to develop a process modeling support system that can help find similarities among business process models to aid process designers and to empirically evaluate its effectiveness in supporting process modeling activities.” I use a two-phased approach to address above objectives. In the first phase, I draw upon the analytic concept of frames of reference to develop a socio-cognitive process model to understand cognitive processes of stakeholders involved in the business process integration. This is done by analyzing the shifts in frame salience and frame congruence to enable the development of common-yet-tailorable business process. Data collection was conducted at ManCo, a Fortune 500 manufacturing company that had undertaken a process integration initiative in its multi-billion dollar supply chain across its five business units. Using qualitative data analysis, I identify four frame domains. Shifts in the frame salience and congruence highlight how, through a series of events, process stakeholders bring about integration. Frames domains identified in phase 1 highlight how individual business units’ perceptions differ. The use of diverse terminologies to refer to similar concepts added to the inability of process designers to reuse existing process models. These observations motivated the design research conducted in the second phase. I develop a prototype system, BPSimilar, which helps users to retrieve semantically similar process models. The approach to retrieve process models combines structural and semantic similarity-matching. The need for such a mechanism to speed up the model development was suggested by the case study. The effectiveness of BPSimilar for improving performance of users is evaluated in a qualitative study using verbal protocol analysis.

Understanding individual adaptation to Information Systems (IS) has received relatively little attention in IS research. For furthering these issues, a multi-paper dissertation is adopted and studies distinct aspects of user interaction with IT related with adaptation. Thus, in order to better understand how system users adapt to IT disruptions this study examines (1) how system users who become disrupted by IS that provide them with too much information interact with these systems, (2) the influence of espoused cultural values (Srite et al. 2006) on user coping strategies of adaptation to IS, and (3) middle managers responses to the implementation of disruptive IT in public administration. These dissertation studies together help improve our knowledge on individual adaptive responses to IT disruptions.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Adviser: William C. Bozeman. Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-321).

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1980.

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The advances in library net working technology has brought an inexpensive way of distributing and sharing information within the organization as well as libraries located in remote areas.The advantages of Intranet, Extranet and Internet being numerous, includes streamlining of the information processing and management, facilitating information dissemination and enriching communications and collaborations. Attempts have been made to discuss opportunities provided by these three advanced networks enabling librarians and information professionals in efficient collection development, management and serving users with value added information at ease.