Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed Oct. 10, 2007). PDF text v, 109 p. : ill. (some col.) UMI publication number: AAT 3260511. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2227. Adviser: Alan R. Dennis. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 21, 2007)."

Prepared in association with the Sloan School of Management

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> Agile Software Development methods such as Scrum, SAFe, Kanban, and Large Scale Agile (LeSS) promise substantial benefits in terms of productivity, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, quality project management overhead, and time to market. As Agile methods have become widespread in the software development industry and begin to take root in the overall business community, there is an increasing need to understand the firm level impact of the implementation of these methods. To build the most effective business case for organizations in and out of the software development industry, it is imperative that a case be made to show that the implementation of Agile frameworks has constituted a competitive advantage. This study investigated the organization level performance impact of switching from traditional methods to the use of Agile frameworks. The results showed that changing from a traditional methodology to an Agile framework resulted in higher return on assets and lower operating expense ratios. The interaction between time and methodology for OER, ROA, or revenues in Table 6 did not show a significant difference, indicating that the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. Thus, we cannot say whether performance differs as a function of type of agile methodology. That said, the non-parametric sign test shows that the median improvement in Operating Expense Ratios were highest for Scrum while SAFe seemed to show a slightly higher improvement in Return on Assets. On the whole, Scrum seems to outperform SAFe in terms of operating efficiency (as measured by OER) but lags in terms of ROA.</p><p>

<p> The Frightful Five&mdash;Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet, the parent company of Google&mdash;shape the way data are generated and distributed across digital space (Manjoo, 2017). Through their technologies and increase in scope and scale, these titans provide new ways for people to create, find, and share information online. And, with such control, they have continued as well as expanded their reign over information commerce, changing the way that people and technology interact. In this way, tech giants act as gatekeepers over data, as well as serve as all-mighty-creators over technologies that arguably <i>act on</i> humans. </p><p> To explain, debates over whether or not technologies are employing &ldquo;computational agency&rdquo; (Tufecki, 2015, p. 207) have developed. One of these disputes is commonly referred to as the Great Artificial Intelligence (AI) Debate, and is currently being publicly argued between two of the most prominent tech titans: Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (Narkar, 2017). On one side of the AI argument, sits tech mogul Musk, who is crying for regulatory restrictions over AI and painting doomsday pictures of robots killing humans. Conversely, on the other side of the dispute, sits tech giant Zuckerberg, who claims AI will enhance society as it makes the world a better place. </p><p> This great AI debate underscores what Illich (1973) described as organizations that practice in convivial versus non-convivial ways. In other words, as tech titans are continuing to advance technology, it can be argued that they are operating in convivial ways as they enhance society through their participatory tools that work <i>with</i> humans to complete a task. Alternatively, it can be debated that technology organizations may be functioning in non-convivial ways as they manipulate society for the sake of their technologies. And, while these technologies may be <i>participating with</i> humans (convivial) to complete a task, they may actually be <i>working for</i> and/or acting on humans (non-convivial) to do an activity. </p><p> The purpose of this dissertation was to establish a unique approach to studying the conviviality of technology titans and how they organize digital space, a concept the researcher coined as digital conviviality. <i>Digital conviviality</i> is when a technology company operates in digital convivial ways such that it: (a) builds tools for digital communication; (b) has a value proposition that, while aimed at generating a profit, is also focused on using its technology to enhance society, instead of manipulating society for the sake of its technologies; and (c) designs technological tools that <i> work with</i> humans, instead of tools that <i>work for</i> humans or tools that <i>act on</i> humans, to accomplish a task. To further understand this conception of digital conviviality, an investigation was piloted into a tech titan that arguably claims to promote digital conviviality at its core: Google. </p><p> Using Illich&rsquo;s (1973) notion of conviviality as a guide, an exploration into Google&rsquo;s approach to convivial technologies was conducted. This study sought to understand Google&rsquo;s ability to shape information in the arts and culture space. Through its Google Cultural Institute (GCI) and Google Arts &amp; Culture (GAC) initiatives, Google focused on &ldquo;democratizing access to the world&rsquo;s culture&rdquo; (Google CI Chromecast, 2014, 00:44). In this way, the study aimed to answer the overarching question: in what ways is the GCI considered a digital convivial company, and conversely, in what ways is it not? Based on this, an explication of the concept of digital conviviality and a framework for studying such things were developed. </p><p> Drawing from several disciplines, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks (e.g., science and technology, posthumanism, actor-network theory, design science in information systems, business models, digital methods, and convivial studies), a body of theory was gathered together, synthesized, and enhanced. Next, the collected information was used to assemble and create a new methodological strategy called digital convivial tracking with a design science (DS) approach and actor-network theory (ANT) mindset. Digital convivial tracking employs traditional qualitative methods, as well as innovative digital methods, to trace important objects throughout a digital ecosystem. Because the GCI digitizes the world&rsquo;s arts and culture, the iconic <i>The Starry Night</i> painting by Vincent van Gogh (1889d) was selected as the object to track across the institute&rsquo;s ecosystem. This process helped identify the GCI&rsquo;s complex and entangled business model, as well as its technological innovations. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p><p>

The thesis explores Educational Management Information Systems in Slovenia and England from a comparative perspective. The thesis evolves from the argument that postindustrial social developments mean a major shift in educational management in general, and in educational management information systems, as parts of educational management. The main argument, methodology, and organization of the thesis are explained in Chapter One. Chapter Two focuses on an overview of some of the theories about industrial and postindustrial societies; including theories of the 'information society', postmodernity, and postfordism; explores educational change in industrial and postindustrial societies; and thirdly, analyzes selected concepts of general and educational management which have developed in the twentieth century. In Chapter Three this larger theoretical framework is narrowed and refined by analysis of the concepts of an educational information system which evolved and developed within particular management theories. First, this thesis' definition of an EMIS is offered; second, principles of educational management in industrial and postindustrial social settings are explored; and third two ideal typical models of EMIS, 'fordist' and the 'postfordist', are delineated. Chapter Four and Chapter Five focus on contemporary social and educational contexts, the empirical research, and the analysis of findings in Slovenia and England. Empirical data on the two countries of England and Slovenia, collected through interviews and documents and analyzed in the previous two chapters, are compared in Chapter Six. In the same chapter these data are contrasted with the two ideal typical EMIS models. Chapter Six also provides an overall interpretation and concludes by outlining several policy implications of the thesis.

<p> As Internet technologies have grown, virtual employees have become a large part of many sectors of business. The problem is that virtual team members may have lower job satisfaction than counterparts in traditional roles and virtual workers may suffer from turnover. Transformational leadership is associated with higher employee job satisfaction and performance; however, it remains unclear how particular leadership styles may affect virtual employees. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to describe the perceptions of virtual employees concerning their perceptions of extraversion/introversion of leaders and how they perceive the attributes of leaders when using different modes of communication, and how these issues affect their job satisfaction. A generic qualitative design was used with a purposeful sample from the population of virtual employees. The data were collected using an online questionnaire and qualitative methods were used to code and develop subthemes and themes. The results contained several themes: differences in interactions with introverts and extraverts; effectiveness and motivation driving communications with leaders; participants&rsquo; perceived congruence between preferred leader and current leader and the follower&rsquo;s satisfaction level. The study&rsquo;s novelty was revealed in details of perceived leadership style and personality, and virtual communication modes. The participants indicated they perceive and interact distinctively with introverts versus extroverts, including an expectation to use different communication modes and preferences or bias toward introverts and extroverts. Context of communications tended to be functionally or relationally motivated for most participants. However, participants&rsquo; motive and communication choices were often accommodating to the perceived leader personality types and aligned with follower&rsquo;s congruence and satisfaction with their leader. Conclusions and recommendations were that virtual workers&rsquo; preconceptions about introversion and extraversion are relevant to virtual communication choices with leaders should be explored for research and for practice. Congruence between an ideal and current leader has been studied quantitatively but few contextual details were available in those studies. An unexpected finding was that some participants were congruent with their leader but were unsatisfied. Another conclusion and recommendation was that qualitative results found are consistent with other studies and based on these results can be further explored qualitatively.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to uncover the perceptions of Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) project leaders and project teams regarding knowledge transfer between client and vendor partners during the opening and closing transition phases of the ITO projects. Purposeful sampling was used to identify ITO knowledge assets, including project team members as well as documents and artifacts, within the participating organizations that may provide information regarding the knowledge transfer processes during the transition phases of the ITO project. The sample criteria were ITO project team members from one US-based client organization and the US company&rsquo;s international vendor partners. The study population included project managers, analyst, developers, subject matter experts (SMEs) and other ITO knowledge workers involved in ITO project from one US-based organization. Interview and document analysis was done with the aid of NVivo Pro 11^&reg; research software. Four themes emerged from the study participants' responses including (a) KT approaches to plans and processes relative to opening and closing phases of ITO projects; (b) KT dependencies relative to IT project team members reliance on project tools, processes, and artifacts; (c) Determinants of KT success or failure relative to project team member's perceptions; and (d) The role of documentation relative to communication and distribution of KT outcomes. This qualitative exploratory case study may provide insights into additional aspects of knowledge transfer during ITO transition phases, which may be used by IT leaders and project teams to plan for successful knowledge transfer during the transition phases of ITO projects.</p><p>