A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Commerce. / Information Systems (IS) project management is fundamental to organlzations who are involved in the development of information systems, yet IS projects can fail for any number of reasons, and insome cases can result in consi derable financial losses for the organisations that undertake them. One pattern of failure is .hat the IS project takes on a life of its own, continuing to absorb valuable resources without reaching its cbjective. A significant number of these projects will ultimately fail, potentially weakening an organisation's competitive position while siphoning off resources that could be spent developing and implementing successful systems. Earned value performance measurement (EVPM) is a management technique that relates resource planning to schedules and to technical performance requirements. It is formed on a platform of fundamental project management, but with earned value performance measurement, with its focus being the continuous measurement of actual achievement against a detailed performance plan, thus providing a basis for problem identification, corrective actions, and management replanning, whilst providing the information necessary to be able to predict the final costs and fmal schedule forecasts for the project. The purpose of this study is to highlight the earned value performance measurement system, and propose it as an alternative approach that can be used for controlling the IS software development effort. / AC 2018

This dissertation hypothesizes the effects of membership change within teams on team coordination and effectiveness. When member change occurs, teams are likely to make attributions relating to how unexpected is the member change, based on the predictability and controllability of that change. The impact of the change (i.e., based on the unexpected nature of that change) on team coordination can be described in terms of flux (i.e., the amount of disruption caused by member change in coordination), and thus, team effectiveness. The membership change and flux-in-coordination relationship is then moderated by the importance of the member leaving the team, referred to as role criticality. The contributions and limitations of these results are discussed, as are directions for future research and practical implications. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2009. / Date of Defense: February 27, 2009. / Teams, Coordination, Effectiveness, Member Change / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Stephen E. Humphrey, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Michael Brady, Outside Committee Member; Mark J. Martinko, Committee Member; Chad Van Iddekinge, Committee Member; Timothy Holcomb, Committee Member.

Beginning as an area of popular and business press interest, emotional intelligence is fast becoming a legitimate area of research for organizational science theorists. The many potential benefits of emotional intelligence have yet to be evaluated within the realm of legitimate academic research, and there are many areas of organizational concern that may be beneficially influenced by this empowering attribute. Emotional labor is one such area, and it has grown as a legitimate concern for organizational participants involved in the practice of using their emotions for organizational purposes. Furthermore, it is a concern for the organizations these individuals serve. The purpose of this dissertation is to review and analyze the literature on emotional intelligence and emotional labor and to discover how emotional intelligence moderates relationships within the emotional labor process. It is hypothesized that this investigation will reveal evidence supporting the general hypothesis that emotionally intelligent organizational members enjoy more effective participation in the emotional labor process, and that emotional intelligence, as a moderator, will alleviate detrimental individual and organizational outcomes of this process. Data were collected using questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed to 29 stores of an 87 year-old retail chain with over 200 stores centralized in the Southeastern United States. A sample of 210 usable employee responses having matching supervisor evaluations was obtained from these efforts. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses. Results were found to support a number of the hypotheses set forth, including affirmative findings for the moderating influence of emotional intelligence on the relationship between various emotional labor performance efforts and outcomes of the emotional labor process. In addition, further analyses of unsupported hypotheses revealed direct main effects of emotional intelligence on some outcomes. A discussion of the results includes an evaluation of research limitations, practical limitations, and directions for future research. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: August 18, 2004. / Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction, Performance, Customer Service, Strain, Non-Acting, Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Labor, Emotion, Surface Acting, Deep Acting, Turnover, Physical Strain, Psychological Strain / Includes bibliographical references. / Gerald R. Ferris, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Pamela Perrewé, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Brymer, Outside Committee Member; Larry Giunipero, Outside Committee Member; Ceasar Douglas, Committee Member; Wayne Hochwarter, Committee Member.

The over-arching purpose of this research is to broaden the study of trust as it applies to developing stable relationships in electronic environments. Previous research has investigated many aspects of trust, but has not looked at the incremental development of it. This may be because methods are difficult to develop that study process models and concepts are difficult to operationalize that influence the incremental progression of variables. Previous empirical research identifies antecedents that emerge to enhance initial perceptions of trust. These may possibly influence the progression of trust to deeper levels. More conceptual work identifies antecedents that swiftly cultivate trust, allowing for stable relationships to develop more quickly. The antecedents investigated in this study are the use of security symbols, trustworthy brand names, and personalization techniques. Developing and testing a process model using antecedents of trust offers one method to study trust development. This dissertation documents a longitudinal experiment that tested hypotheses of the process model, producing data sets that were analyzed using regression and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study indicate that the use of security symbols and trustworthy brand names have a positive and lasting effect on trusting beliefs. The results also show that personalization has a decreasing and lasting effect on trusting beliefs. There was no support for the hypothesis that trust develops over time in electronic environments. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: December 3, 2004. / Electronic Commerce, Disclosure, Trust / Includes bibliographical references. / David B. Paradice, Professor Directing Dissertation; Charles F. Hofacker, Outside Committee Member; Robert M. Mason, Committee Member; Ashley A. Bush, Committee Member.

The purpose of this dissertation was to expand current knowledge about control of software development projects by examining the effects that institutional influences have on the use of control mechanisms by software project teams, and how the different institutional influences affect each other. The findings provide support for an important relationship between institutional profiles and the adoption of formal control mechanisms by software project teams. First, different institutional profiles will support different types of adoption of formal control mechanisms. Second, when the enacted profile of a software project team is consistent with a dominant institutional profile, the use of formal control mechanisms will be faithful to this profile. Third, when the enacted profile is conflicted, the use of formal control mechanisms will be mixed with both ceremonial and faithful appropriations. Fourth, the higher the tenure of the software project team, the more likely the enacted profile will be consistent with the older institutional context. Finally, the level of congruence of software project managers with a particular institutional profile will be positively related to the adoption of formal control mechanisms consistent with that profile. The study also found that when institutional elements are complementary to each other in the form of an institutional profile, they have a much greater influence on social actors than when the elements are independent of each other. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2003. / Date of Defense: October 31, 2003. / Institutional theory, Control theory, Project management, Software project teams / Includes bibliographical references. / Joey F. George, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Robert W. Zmud, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; William P. Anthony, Outside Committee Member; David Paradice, Committee Member.

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archives@tulane.edu / The combination of remote sensing techniques and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to measure water quality allows researchers to monitor changes in various water quality parameters over temporal and spatial scales that are not always readily apparent from in situ measurements. This study involves using Landsat images and in situ data within GIS to map urban expansion and its resulting influences on water quality in the Pontchartrain Basin over the last three decades. The Pontchartrain Basin is located in southeast Louisiana and covers an area of 25,000 km2 that encompasses sixteen parishes east of the Mississippi River and four Mississippi Counties (Penland et al., 2005). A Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image from 1985 and a Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI) image from 2015 were processed using the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) algorithm to map urban expansion. In order to estimate how water quality has changed in the Pontchartrain Basin between 1985 and 2015, in situ water quality data from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality was interpolated using Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK). The results of this study demonstrated that high levels of fecal coliform were consistent with increased urbanization in water bodies in the Pontchartrain Basin. Phosphorous levels were higher in 2015 compared to 1985 and were at levels high enough to lead to eutrophic conditions. Dissolved oxygen levels were lower near the mouth of the Mississippi river in 2015 than in 1985. The results indicated that urbanization has negative impact on water quality. The GIS model is recommended to effectively manage and reduce the processing time of large water quality datasets. / 1 / Dana Carstens

Small business owners need effective strategies to increase profitability. One such strategy is the adoption of information technology (IT). The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by small business enterprise (SBE) owners to implement IT solutions for increased profitability within 3 years of opening their business. The population consisted of 3 small business owners in Orange County Southern California who were profitable by their third year of business. The conceptual framework for this study was based upon general systems theory. Data for this study were collected through semistructured interviews and a review of company documents. Transcript review and member checking were included for validity and reliability purposes. Methodological triangulation, achieved through analysis of business plans, financial documents, and probability trends documents allowed identification of 4 emergent themes: Essential strategies small business owners use to implement IT solutions for increased profitability, the essential relationship between network orientation and successful IT implementation, the relationship between IT consultants and successful implementation, and the relationship between internal IT resources and successful implementation. The findings from this study could impact social change because when SBEs are profitable, SBE owners will contribute to the affluence of their workers, communities, local economies, and society.

For information technology (IT) professionals, the average turnover rate of voluntary employees is approximately 21.5% and occurs in fewer than 5 years. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies IT outsourcing business executives used to retain key IT employees in the New England region of the United States. Three IT business leaders from a single organization were selected to participate because they had implemented strategies to retain key IT employees. Herzberg's 2-factor theory of motivation was used as the conceptual framework for this doctoral study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and review of company policies and personnel handbooks. Clarke and Braun's thematic analysis was used for data analysis, including assembling the data, creating codes from the data, compiling codes to generate themes, and interpreting and presenting themes. Member checking and triangulation processes helped increase study validity and reliability. Three themes emerged from the study: building personal relationships, creating positive company culture, and investing in employee training. The findings of this study may help IT leaders increase employee retention by focusing on work relationships, company culture, and employee training. Findings may contribute to social change by helping IT leaders so they can be civically engaged and address issues of public concern by increasing community volunteering, participating in charitable activities and philanthropy, and becoming politically active through petitioning and collaborating with local authorities.

The development of novel software applications on digital platforms differs from traditional software development and provides unique challenges to the software development manager and team. Application producers must achieve application-platform match, application-market match, value propositions exceeding platform’s core value propositions, and novelty. These desired properties support a new vision of the software development team as entrepreneurs with a goal of developing novel applications on digital platforms. Digital platforms are characterized by an uncertain, risky, and resource-constrained environment, where existing approaches—plan-driven, ad-hoc, and controlled-flexible—have limited applicability. Building on the theoretical basis of the theory of effectuation from the entrepreneurship domain, this dissertation proposes an effectual approach to software development. Preliminary studies are conducted to provide prima facia evidence of effectual thinking in software development teams. Also, pilot interviews at local organizations are conducted to augment the approach. Finally, two case studies are conducted to validate the approach. We find conclusive evidence for the efficacy of effectual software development to develop novel applications on digital platforms. We also find that novel ideas are identified, honed, and incorporated, in the application, using effectual thinking. This study contributes to information systems literature by proposing and validating an effectual approach to software development. This study contributes to entrepreneurship literature by illustrating the role of planning and visionary approaches in effectuation settings. This study also contributes to practitioners by highlighting the theoretical underpinnings of existing approaches and the effectual approach which allows software development teams to incorporate effectual thinking and develop novel software applications. Finally, we conclude with a discussion on the theoretical contributions of this study, limitations, and future research avenues.