Project Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1995. / This is an electronic reproduction of TREN, #090-0174. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 249-267).

Project Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 249-267).

The current volume of research in the field of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) is focused on identifying the factors, which influence their effectiveness. The realisation that there is a need to move forwards from the structural aspects of HPWS towards understanding their implementation has led to two new sectors of research. The first sector is investigating the role of actors in implementation using aspects such as cross functionality, shared responsibility and interaction. Another sector is investigating the impact of contextual factors on the implementation of HPWS. This research has combined the two sectors and looks at the implementation of HPWS from the perspectives of both the actors and the environment. This research investigates how the interaction between actors affects the implementation of HPWS. Also how internal and external institutional factors affect this interaction as well as the implementation. This research is qualitatively based on an interpretivist paradigm. Case study research design was used to conduct the research. Two Saudi Arabian banks were selected as case studies. Data was collected using 54 semi-structured interviews and 61 focus group interviews. Data about implementation and the impact of institutional factors was obtained through semi-structured interviews with human resource managers, line managers and senior managers. Data about employee outcomes was obtained using focus group interviews with the employees. This research finds evidence of conflict between the intended and actual outcomes of HPWS in the Saudi banking sector due to institutional pressures. This research contributes and extends the growing body of research on HPWS implementation by including the interaction of actors and accounting for institutional pressures. The finding highlights that the combination of these two factors are contextual institutional conductors and contribute to diversity in the implementation of HPWS practices. The managerial benefit of this research is that its model can help practitioners to improve their social interaction conditions for better performance.

Abstract Product development (PD) has an important role as a key competitive factor in business environments. The capacity of designers and other stakeholders to perceive and process product related information is burdened by the increasing complexity of products and the high demands of working life. Therefore, companies need new human-centred perspectives and methods of balancing and enhancing their overall PD processes in order to develop successful products. The main motive for this research arises from the fact that ergonomics design research has been scarce from the process-oriented and systemic methods perspective. It has mainly focused on the methods, such as those needed in user interface design, and the usability and safety testing of products. The purpose of this dissertation is to consider the PD work system from the macroergonomics perspective. Macroergonomics is a top-down sociotechnical systems approach that is concerned with the analysis, design and evaluation of work systems. Nowadays, the individual user context is the dominating source of product requirements, but the designers’ work system has significant influence on its outcome as well. As an open work system, PD covers the use and design contexts of a product, not only at the individual, but also at the social and system levels. In this dissertation, the use and design contexts of products are examined through six individual studies, which were carried out during a demanding PD project of a new simulation game. In this design process, from the initial state to the goal state, macroergonomics was used as the main theoretical guideline. In many companies, PD processes are considered and developed mainly from the project management or technological points of view. However, because of the increasing complexity and systemic nature of products, PD organisations, too, will have to become more participatory, more networked and more systems oriented. As the main findings, this dissertation indicates that the macroergonomic approach can enrich the PD process and its outcomes by emphasising the balance between the technical and social subsystems of PD work system. The emerging complexity of products must be controlled from the entire PD work system, not the individual context of use only. The research introduces a new PD work system model that includes both the design and use contexts of products and demonstrates their analogical sociotechnical structures. The value of this dissertation for the industry is that companies can overcome certain emerging challenges of PD by applying the introduced macroergonomic principles. The findings of the research may encompass the re-designing of the current PD process in a company. Instead of shutting their eyes to the complexity of the surrounding world, companies should consider it as the macroergonomic PD work system and be more aware about the overall product requirements.

Work systems are comprised of the technical and social systems that should harmoniously work together to ensure a successful attainment of organizational goals and objectives. Information security controls are often designed to protect the information system and seldom consider the work system design. Using a positivist case study, this research examines the user's perception of having to choose between completing job tasks or remaining compliant with information security controls. An understanding of this phenomenon can help mitigate the risk associated with an information system security user's choice. Most previous research fails to consider the work system perspective on this issue. This study is based on the socio-technical system theory, the Leavitt Diamond Model (1965). Using this model as a lens to examine user information security behavior and perspectives, the Synergistic Security Model was developed. The research data indicated that the relationships between the structure, technology, task and people constructs can have an impact on user information security behavior. The research found that a change in the organization's information security policies, technology, or a change in employee processes for task completion can impact a user's information security choice. Some of the information security situations found in the research could be easily changed to lower the risk of a user's choice to circumvent information security. This change could be a technical configuration change, a purchase of a new technology or a change in a process to help impact a user's choice to circumvent information security controls. The Synergistic Security Model can help researchers understand the relationships between the general constructs found in a work system and how those relationships can influence user behaviors. The research presented in the paper examines a triad relationship between each work system construct, consisting of: Structure-Technology-People; Structure-Task-People; Task-Technology-People; and Task-Technology-Structure. The findings indicate that the relationship between the constructs can have a significant impact on user information security behavior and therefore should be a consideration when designing an efficient and effective information security program.

Take service employees of financial industries for example, the purpose of this study is to discuss the effects of human resource systems on service employees¡¦ organizational commitment and role performance. Moreover, the result of this study will be the reference for service industries to make their human resource management policies. The questionnaire survey was adopted for the study. The samples are the front-line service employees of financial industries of Taiwan. There were totally 480 questionnaires were released, and 401 of them are valid samples. Through statistics analysis, the main results of the study are: 1. Except profit sharing, other practices of high performance work system have positively influential effect on value and effort commitment, effort commitment or both of value and effort commitment and effort commitment. Moreover, except profit sharing, other practices of high performance work system have positively influential effect on commitment of service employees. 2. Job descriptions have positively influential effect on in-role behavior. Therefore, Job descriptions could make service employees easy to follow the code of conduct and operation processes. One of this research result is one practice of high performance work system has positively influential effect on in-role behavior. 3. Job descriptions have positively influential effect on OCBI-behaviors that immediately benefit specific individuals and indirectly through this means contribute to the organization. On the other hand, job descriptions could make service employees easy to achieve the requests of organization. Moreover, it could make service employees get positive attitude and free-will to help colleagues. One of this research result is one practice of high performance work system has positively influential effect on organizational citizenship behavior. Based on the above conclusions, this study offers some suggestions as the references for the service industry.

Syftet med studien var att få en bättre förståelse för hur sjukhusen använder sig av data och information i samband med Business Intelligence (BI). Det gjordes genom att undersöka ett fall som var ett BI- system och det var uppbyggt av människor och teknologier i PMI funktionen inom Karolinska universitetssjukhus. Forskningsfrågorna som skulle besvaras inkluderade vad det är som utmärker användandet av beslutsstöd för de medicinska processerna inom Perioperativ medicin och intensivvård. Dessutom skulle det undersökas hur framtiden ser ut med BI användningen inom PMI. De avdelningar som undersöktes inkluderade perioperativ vård, intensivvårdsavdelningen (IVA) och en translationell forskningsplattform. Detta gjordes som en kvalitativ fallstudie där relevanta personer med olika roller inom PMI intervjuades. Dessa roller inkluderade en BI arkitekt, anestesiläkare och enhetschefer. Empirin som samlades in inkluderade semi strukturerade intervjuer vilket var den främsta datakällan. Interna dokument med fakta kring verksamheten användes som komplement. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten som användes var ett BI ramverk och ett ramverk för arbetssystem, men andra teorier angående BI-förmågor användes också. Det resultat som genererades av studien var att samtliga delar av BI-systemet behöver fungera väl tillsammans för att ett beslutstöd ska på den högsta graden kunna erbjudas. Det visade sig att organisationsminnet och informationsintegreringen byggde upp det första steget i beslutstödet, därefter så är det insiktsskpandet som skapar uppfattningar av tidigare händelser. Sist är det presentation/kommunikation som erbjuder slutanvändaren informationen i form av dashboards. En annan slutsats var att den ökade mängden data inte egentligen hade en påverkan på BI-system och beslutsfattandet. / The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of how hospitals use data and information in conjunction with Business intelligence (BI). That was done by examining a case that was a BI-system which people and technologies of the PMI department in Karolinska university hospital were a part of. The research questions that were supposed to be answered included what distinguished the usage of decision support in the medical processes in PMI. In addition to this the effect the increasing access of data had on the aforementioned processes were also to be examined. The departments that were examined included preoperative care, intensive care unit (ICU) and a translational research platform. This was conducted as a qualitative case study where relevant people who worked in PMI with different roles were to be interviewed. This included a BI architect, anaesthesiologist and unit managers. The empirical data that was created included several semi structured interviews which were the main data source and internal documents that had useful information regarding the departments. The main theoretical framework that was used to analyse the data was a BI framework and work system theories, but other theories regarding BI capabilities were also used. The result that was generated by the study was that all the different parts of the analysed BI-system have to work together in order for the decision support to be as good as possible. The results also showed that the BI capabilities organizational memory and information integration builds the first step towards decision support. Then it is insight creation and presentation/communication that creates the understanding of previous events. Another conclusion was that the increasing amounts of data did not have a major effect on the BI-system or decision support as a whole.

Denna uppsats består av en fallstudie vars syfte är att bidra med kunskap kring vilka faktorer som påverkar arbetet av att stödja utbildning på ett lärosäte för högre utbildning, i relation till digital transformation, vid kriser som COVID-19-pandemin. Studien bidrar även med förståelse för relaterade begrepp som har ett samband med digital transformation vid liknande kriser. För att uppfylla syftet har ett valt arbetssystem på ett lärosäte för högre utbildning undersökts genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer med ett urval av respondenter. Det studerade arbetssystemet har valts ut för att dels få en överblick över arbetssystemet och dess roller, dels för att ta reda på hur detta arbetssystem förhållit sig till begrepp som har en koppling till digital transformation vid COVID-19-pandemin. Resultatet visar att begreppen ambidexteritet, agilitet, digital motståndskraft och digital transformation har ett samband, och att dessa begrepp är faktorer som påverkar arbetet av att stödja utbildning vid kriser som liknar COVID-19-pandemin. Andra viktiga faktorer som har en koppling till dessa begrepp och anses ha en påverkan är kursplaner, utvärderingar, IT-kompetens, innovationsförmåga samt digitala verktyg. Dessa slutsatser baseras på upplevelser och erfarenheter från de representerade rollerna ur det valda arbetssystemet. / This is a case study whose purpose is to contribute with knowledge about the factors that affect the work of supporting education at a higher education institution, in relation to digital transformation, in crises such as the COVID-19-pandemic. The study also contributes with an understanding of related concepts that are related to digital transformation in similar crises. To fulfill this purpose, a selected work system at a higher education institution has been studied through semi-structured interviews with a sample of respondents. The studied work system has been selected to get an overview of the roles within the work system, as well as to find out how this work system relates to concepts related to digital transformation in the COVID-19-pandemic. The results shows that the concepts of ambidexterity, agility, digital resilience, and digital transformation are related, and that these concepts are factors that influence the work of supporting education in crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. Other important factors that are linked to these concepts and are considered to have an impact are syllabi, evaluations, IT skills, innovation ability and digital tools. These conclusions are based on experiences and opinions by the represented roles from the chosen work system.

In this article, we will reflect on the methodologies of ethical technology assessment (TA cf. Grunwald 2010), accompanying research projects focusing on tactile internet solutions with humans in the loop (TaHIL). We outline how TA might be oriented towards a set of prima facie values (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013) that address possible implications and consequences of technology use. This framework shall be applied to the development of tactile Internet technology treating such technology as a special kind of cyber-physical system. Because the impact of technical developments and their unintended consequences cannot be anticipated from the outset, it is all the more important to address ethically relevant aspects right from the start in research projects that develop TaHIL-applications.:1. Aim of the basic research in Technology Assessment 2. TA as an integrative part of the iterative research approach 3. Responsible Research and Innovation: three dimensional Path Developments 4. Dilemmata in the democratization of skills 5. Work systems within the framework of TaHIL technologies 6. Implementation process 7. Conclusion

Informationssystem har fått en allt större betydelse för området hållbarhet och inom utvecklingen av hållbara leverantörskedjor. Informationssystem (IS) och informationsteknik (IT) är ett väsentligt verktyg för att verksamheter ska kunna arbeta hållbart. Denna studie undersöker hur hållbarhet påverkar informationssystemens roll i leverantörskedjor och dessutom förstå hur affärsvärde främjas i samband med att verksamheter förhåller sig till hållbara affärsaktiviteter.  Studiens resultat baseras från olika arbetsroller i olika branscher vars organisation har en betydande roll i leverantörskedjor. Datainsamlingen skedde via semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet påvisar att hållbarhetsarbete påverkar informationssystem i och med att det förändrar hur verksamheter arbetar i sina leverantörskedjor. Att utgå från att informationssystem är en typ av arbetssystem påvisar resultatet att det är olika delar av informationssystem som påverkats. Verksamheter är tvungna att svara på förändring eftersom att en större efterfrågan på att arbeta hållbart hela vägen har ökat från konsumenter och intressenter.Detta leder till att verksamheter behöver utvärdera sin leverantörskedja och dokumentera hur informationssystem påverkar social, ekonomisk samt miljömässiga hållbarhetsaspekter för att kunna förbättra sina affärsaktiviteter. Hållbar utveckling är ett nytt område som har börjat appliceras inom IS dock behöver det betraktas som en ny dimension vid utvärdering av informationssystem. / Information systems has gotten a bigger role in the field of sustainability and in the development of sustainable supply chains. Information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) is an essential tool for businesses to work sustainably. This study researches how sustainability affects the role that information systems have in supply chains and how business values can be promoted in connection to businesses attitudes towards sustainable business activities.  This study's result is based on different work roles in different industries where the organization has an important role in the supply chain. The data collection took place via semi-structured interviews. The results show that work with sustainability affects information systems since businesses change the way they work in their supply chains. Assuming that information systems is a type of work system the results show that different parts of the information system are affected. Businesses have to respond to change because a greater demand for working sustainably all the way has increased from consumers and stakeholders. This leads to businesses having to evaluate their supply chain and document how information systems affect social, economic and environmental sustainability aspects in order to improve their business activities. Sustainable development is a new area that is starting to apply in IS but it needs to be seen as a new dimension in evaluation of information systems.