<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>

<p> The worldwide software project failure rate, based on a survey of information technology software manager's view of user satisfaction, product quality, and staff productivity, is estimated to be between 24% and 36% and software project success has not kept pace with the advances in hardware. The problem addressed by this study was the limited information about software managers' experiences with data-driven decision making (DDD) in agile software organizations as a tool to improve software development productivity. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how agile software managers view DDD as a tool to improve software development productivity and to understand how agile software development organizations may use DDD now and in the future to improve software development productivity. Research questions asked about software managers', project managers', and agile coaches' lived experiences with DDD via a set of interview questions. The conceptual framework for the research was based on the 3 critical dimensions of software organization productivity improvement: people, process, and tools, which were defined by the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model Integrated published in 2010. Organizations focus on processes to align the people, procedures and methods, and tools and equipment to improve productivity. Positive social change could result from a better understanding of DDD in an agile software development environment; this increased understanding of DDD could enable organizations to create more products, offer more jobs, and better compete in a global economy.</p>

“Getting an overview” is a common task performed by coastal professionals in the early phases of management activities. This task involves collecting a variety of information about an area or topic to generate a first impression. This exploratory study examined this single task in detail so as to make recommendations about customizing search results to support that task through the use of an e-Card. Using a structured questionnaire, 20 coastal managers selected coastal characteristics that they would use to generate that first impression. Analysis of the data revealed fifteen core coastal characteristics that were used for the task. The work role that the professional was involved in emerged as a factor that influences characteristic selection. Fieldwork, such as scientific data collection, and management activities, such as drafting management plans, required different coastal characteristics to generate an overview. A prototype e-Card was designed as a proposed task-based search tool.

No description available.

<p> This quantitative correlational research explored the potential association between the levels of organizational trust and the software testing estimation. This was conducted by exploring the relationships between organizational trust, tester&rsquo;s expertise, organizational technology used, and the number of hours, number of testers, and time-coding estimated by the software testers. The research conducted on a software testing department of a health insurance organization, employed the use of the Organizational Trust Inventory- Short Form (OTI-SF) developed by Philip Bromiley and Larry Cummings and revealed a strong relationship between organizational trust and software testing estimation. The research reviews historical theories of organizational trust and include a deep discussion about software testing practices and software testing estimation. By examining the significant impact of organizational trust on project estimating and time-coding in this research, software testing leaders can benefit from this research to improve project planning and managing process by improving the levels of trust within their organizations.</p>

The problem of the study was to develop a comprehensive model to assist administrators in designing and implementing an integrated information system in a university. The problem was developed because few affective, integrated information systems have been implemented to support decision-making in higher education.Through a review of the literature, an inquiry was conducted into several aspects of university organizations. Based on the inquiry and reaction to key questions, criteria for developing the model were established. To establish a general framework for conceptualizing a comprehensive system model, hierarchical levels in terms of phase, segment, and activity were utilized. Components of the model were developed. The model was evaluated by a group of five experts responsible for and involved in implementing an information system at Ball State University.A review of literature and research relating to the development of a comprehensive model involved the systems approach, organizational and administrative theory, and information systems in higher education. Included were the nature and elements of the systems approach. Organizational and administrative theory were discussed, as were theoretical perspectives, the university as an organizational system, and levels of an organizational system. Comprehensive aspects regarding information systems involved the nature, needs, approaches, structure, status, and integration. The problems, considerations, and procedures for implementing an effective information system were also discussed.The criteria for an effective integrated information system were developed on the basis of connecting all levels of organization, encompassing all functions within an organization, establishing an integrated data base, utilizing appropriate computer technology, and incorporating the human-behavioral element. The criteria for implementing an effective integrated information system comprised extensive user involvement, considerable participation and support of top-level administrators, coordination and communication between technical and user personnel, commitment of adequate resources for implementation, and incorporation of human-relations considerations.A comprehensive systems approach for implementing an integrated information system was developed by describing phases, segments-of phases, activities of segments, and tasks of activities. The main phases were identified as organizational analysis, systems design, implementation, and evaluation. The model was evaluated as developed based on the criteria.Conclusions regarding the value of the model for implementing a computer-based integrated information system in a university are presented. Information relevant to each function and decision must be coordinated among planning, managerial control, and operation. All personnel involved in a system must be aware of informational needs for instruction, student, business, and public affairs. Data regarding students, curriculum, finance, facilities, personnel, and environmental must be stored so that any sequence or combination is available. Computer technology including larger and cheaper information storage, general retrieval systems, data base management systems, and planning models should be utilized. The human element including employee perceptions, preferences, and attitudes on the job must be considered. Extensive user involvement is necessary for success in implementing an integrated information system. Top-level administrators must participate and support the computer-based information system. Coordination and communication between technical and user personnel is necessary. Economic analysis should be applied. Human relations processes must be utilized. The systems approach is useful for implementing management information systems.

Generally, organisations mobilise information from varying sources on which policies, plans, objectives and organisational management are predicated. indeed, everyone within organisation needs information to perform tasks, it is thus indispensable and its use so pervasive that a methodical approach for collection and processing is imperative. In health care organisations, involved with people and life, this is even of greater significance, in many instances allowable margin of error is narrow and can be devastating.Accurate and reliable information in clinical care for example cannot be compromised.On the other hand, adequate assessment of health services quality,effectiveness and efficiency depends on quality of information generated by the system, that is, accurate, relevant, timely, understandable and complete information. To achieve this, appropriate system design and operation is essential. Adoption of primary health care (PHC), in many developing countries in response to the Global 2000, necessitated establishment of chanisms for monitoring and evaluating effectiveness of services and programmes.Accordingly, in 1986 PHC was adopted in Nigeria, concomitantly, system monitoring and evaluation or the PHC Management Information System was effexted.The information system was envisaged to ameliorate the lack of reliable health information that has persisted since nception of modern health services in Nigeria. Findings in this and other studies indicate that existing health information systems have failed to provide accurate and reliable information, systems of data generation and processing are ineffective.The aim of this was to identify and understand factors that have contributed to the seemingly intractable and insalubrious information problem within the Nigerian health care system. It would be a herculean task for a lone researcher to undertake study of the entire health system, within resource and time limitations, data collection was therefore narrowed to the PHC level. Quality of the PHC management information system was assessed, with Bama Local Government as a case study. Focus was on understanding the information system's structure from a broad perspective to include, policies, objectives,established procedures; physical, material and human resources, in terms of their quality and quantity.Data collection was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The structure, process and outcome models provided a framework for in-depth data collection, through observation, interview, review of records and administration of questionnaire, as well as for organisation and analysis of research data. The PHC MIS was followed through, from the village, health facility, local government, state and national levels.Study results suggest general ineffectiveness due to pervasive incongruity in the information system. In the first instance design of the MIS did not reflect information needs of community health workers and the community in general,who to the most part limited appreciation of the MIS structure, objectives to be achieved. Local and regional information need was not delineated, data collected had little relevance to local information needs, resource for systems operation was abysmal, skilled personnel and training provided severely inadequate.Consequently, data collection and processing was hampered, information produced often inaccurate, untimely, immense, irrelevant and unreliable. Data collected were neither analysed nor utilised. The information system was short of being integrated since 60% of functional units within the PHC department as well as related health organisations in the community ran parallel information systems.Research data point to serious incongruity in the organisation and management of the information system. Incongruity that resulted from factors within the organisation as well derived from events within the wider social environment, which however culminated in an effective and dysfunctional information system.Chapters one to three of the thesis deal with conceptual issues related to management information systems, organisational design and quality respectively. In chapter four methodological issues surrounding data collection were discussed. Empirical data and analysis are presented are presented in chapters five to seven. In chapter eight, an attempt was made to develop a model of organisational incongruity, applied to explicate research findings.Chapter nine focuses on measures toward establishment of an effective PHC information system in Nigeria, contributions of this study and suggestions for future research.

Both total quality management (TQM) and the use of information technology (IT) have been widely researched over recent years. However, there has been no well-founded empirical research on the two together - on how IT can support TQM practices. A scarcity of empirical studies on the role of IT in TQM, especially in the non-manufacturing sector, which can illustrate the importance or otherwise of IT for TQM, has prompted this study. Thus the study sought to provide such an empirical base. This study investigated the extent to which IT has been used to support TQM among selected Malaysian public agencies. It also identified the external, organisational and technological factors that may influence the use of IT in TQM. A framework based on the literature of TQM has been derived and used as the conceptual base for the creation of a questionnaire to determine the use of IT in TQM. The questionnaire was sent to 110 Malaysian public agencies that have implemented TQM. The results presented were based on the responses from 47 agencies. The study reveals that IT is helpful for implementing TQM but its usage varies across the nine aspects of TQM processes. 'Important Innovations' exhibits the highest level of IT usage followed closely by 'Information and Analysis'. 'Supplier Quality Assurance', on the other hand, shows the lowest level of IT usage. Regression analysis showed that four independent variables have a significant effect on the use of IT. They are IT experience, top management support, public accountability and IT structure (in order of importance). The responding agencies were then classified into three distinctive IT-usage groups (i. e. low, moderate, and high) according to their IT-usage level. Contextual influences (external, organisational and technological) were then explored using regression analysis. The results revealed that when the IT-usage level is high, technological factors play an important role. However, when the usage level is low, organisational factors become more influential. For the moderate group, both technological and organisational factors affect the usage level.

<p> Organizations that depend on the use of IT in their business models must maintain their systems and keep their systems current to survive (Filipek, 2008; Kulkarni, Kumar, Mookerjee, &amp; Sethi, 2009; Unterkalmsteiner et al., 2012). As most IT departments allocate as much as 80% of their budget to maintain stability while leaving only the other 20% to allow improvements (Telea et al., 2010), high cost of stability may be a reason many IT organizations cannot afford efficient staffing and even jeopardize the existence of the organization (Filipek, 2008; Talib, Abdullah, Atan, &amp; Murad, 2010). The purpose of this exploratory mixed methods study was to discover the IT programming standards used in IT departments that predict a decrease in project maintenance costs. This study employed an exploratory mixed methods data collection and analysis to develop and test a collection of universal programming standards. The qualitative portion of the study resulted in a list of IT programming standards from the Fortune 20 companies of 2011. Surveyed from IT departments in the Fortune 500 companies of 2011, the quantitative portion of this study correlate the degree of enforcement of each IT programming standard to a decrease in average project maintenance costs using a backward stepwise regression. Using a 95% confidence interval and a 5% margin of error (&alpha; = .05), the backward stepwise regression discarded 18 of the 22 IT programming standards. The remaining correlations give evidence that a) the more the department enforces waiting for feedback the higher the maintenance costs, b) the more the department enforces having the architectural team develop coding guidelines the lower the maintenance costs, and c) the more the IT department enforces the following of change management procedures, the higher the maintenance costs.</p>