...Strategies for Information Systems Evaluation- Six Generic Types Stefan Cronholm and Göran Goldkuhl Linköping University, Sweden scr@ida.liu.se ggo@ida.liu.se Abstract: The aim of this paper is to contribute to the decision of how to perform evaluation depending on the evaluation context. Three general strategies of how to perform evaluation are identified: Goal-free evaluation, goal-based and criteria-based evaluation. Two general strategies of what to evaluate are identified: IT-system as such and IT-system in use. From the three “how-strategies” and the two “what-strategies” we derive a matrix consisting of six generic types of evaluation. Each one of the six types are categorised on a ideal typical level. For each type there is suggested evaluation process model. Keywords: IS Evaluation, IS Assessment, Information Systems, Goal-based evaluation, Goal-free evaluation, Criteria-based evaluation 1. Introduction All over the world there is a huge amount of money spent on IT (e.g. Seddon, 2001). It is therefore important to evaluate the outcome. Evaluation is never an easy task and consequently there are a lot of suggestions for how to evaluate IT-system. Much of the literature on evaluation takes a formal-rational view and sees evaluation as a largely quantitative process of calculating the likely cost/benefit on the basis of defined criteria (Walsham, 1993). There are also interpretative approaches (e.g. Remenyi, 1999; Walsham, 1993). The interpretative perspective views...
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...Mitigating the Adversity of Outsourcing: Outsourcing from the Employee’s Perspective Schillen & Steinke Mitigating the Adversity of Outsourcing: Outsourcing from the Employee’s Perspective Sarah J. Schillen Seattle Pacific University USA sschillen@gmail.com Gerhard Steinke Seattle Pacific University USA gsteinke@spu.edu ABSTRACT This paper explores how outsourcing activities and decisions put the well-being of the remaining employees at risk, ultimately affecting productivity and creating further costs to the employer. It highlights four potential threats to remaining employees: trust, job satisfaction, motivation, and stress. The paper provides several suggestions for mitigating these impacts, including communication to retain trust, acting ethically to ensure satisfied employees, seeking an understanding of employee perspectives to build employee motivation, and providing good planning along with training and development to reduce employee stress. INTRODUCTION Globalization provides organizations with more options than ever before. Business leaders are continuously encouraged to adapt, reevaluate, and strategically improve processes and approaches. Best practices are reinvented rapidly in attempt to keep up with market trends. The quest to recognize new methods for increasing revenue has become the inspiration for exploring new management techniques and strategies. One such rising trend in the advent of global markets is that of outsourcing. Common purposes for outsourcing...
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...I pick up the old crisp photograph lying on my desk. This 74 year old piece of paper was well taken care of. The photo accommodates the aroma that all antiques have . I say that it's the smell of old. An unknown face smiles back at me from the photo. He wears a black sheepskin jacket with a big white wool collar, and underneath he wears a nicely pressed summer tan uniform with small golden painted sterling silver wings pinned to the collars. He wears his cap tilted to the side to show his smoothly styled hair. A young soldier barely old enough to drink. A face yet to see war, but soon to enter in the midst a world engulfed in hell. This man in the photo was my great uncle. And in my hands, printed on that small piece, I hold a tragic story. My grandma told me that he had been shot down in the war, and his body was never returned home. No one knew exactly what he did during the war other than that he was shot down. I felt determined to find out what he did like I had for many other relatives. All I had to go on was a name, Lt Glen R Wrobel. After extensive research I learned the full story. The 22 year old who grew up in Stoddard, Wisconsin and who left 5 siblings and his home to go to Germany and serve as a bombardier on a B-24J Liberator with the 492nd Bomb Squadron....
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...in one hundred battles is not the supreme of excellence. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence. Sun Tzu "The first casualty of war is truth. Rudyard Kipling One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage. Sun Tzu There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind. Napoleon Bonaparte In War, the moral is to the material as three is to one. Napoleon Bonaparte We were as hypnotized by the enemy's propaganda as a rabbit is by a snake. General Eric Von Ludendorf, German General Staff, 1918 The British bombarded our front not only with drum-fire of shells, but also with a drum-fire of printed paper. Besides bombs which kill the body, they drop from the air leaflets which are intended to kill the soul. Fieldmarshall Hindenberg, 1918 All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of those towards whom it intends to direct itself. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), Vol. I ...there was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, 'and this will always be the man in the street.' Arguments must therefore be crude, clear...
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...International Journal of Management and Innovation Volume 1 Issue 1 (2009) Living with Organizational Politics: An Exploration of Employee’s Behavior Rajib Lochan Dhar, Symbiosis International University, India Abstract Though organizational politics has been perceived as a threat; negatively influencing levels of staff retention and work productivity, hardly any studies have focused on the employee’s attitude towards the perceived players and the survival strategies in such an environment in the Indian setting. This study aims to explore the employee’s perception of organizational politics, the phase that they go through while working and the ways they adopt to cope up with it, in a sample of 26 employees working in three different automobile manufacturing companies. Qualitative methods have been used in order to understand the feelings and experiences of employees while working in a politically influenced environment. Analysis of the data was done through phenomenological principles. Findings of this study led to the emergence of four major themes namely perceived threat, attitude towards the players, Coping Strategies and intentions to leave. This study has tried to bring out the emotional circumstances that employees go through while working in a politically influenced environment. Key words: Organization, politics, employees, perception and intention Introduction There is a bit of Machiavelli in every one of us. An environment where everyone agrees with each other is a rare...
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...AHS RESEARCH MANUAL 2011 Student: __________________________ TERESA STERCHI KIM BROWN AHS LIBRARY CONTENTS PREPARATION OF THE RESEARCH PAPER........................................................1 SELECTING AND LIMITING THE TOPIC............................................................1 PREPARING A WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY AND EVALUATING SOURCES…………….2 READING AND TAKING NOTES........................................................................3 DEVELOPING A WORKING OUTLINE/PLAN…………………………………………………….5 DOCUMENTING AND CITING SOURCES USING MLA STYLE……………..……………..7 WRITING THE PAPER…………………………………..…………………...........................18 MLA STYLE OF PARENTHETICAL/IN-TEXT CITATIONS………………………………….19 PLACING CITATIONS IN THE PAPER…………………………………………………………..21 FORMATTING AND TYPING THE REPORT USING THE MLA STYLE…………………26 TYPING THE WORKS CITED PAGE AND SAMPLE TITLE PAGE..........................29 PREPARATION Research is the process of gathering information from different sources on a particular topic. In daily life students may research buying a song on the Internet, buying a new MP3 player, an iPod, or any other product of interest. At school, students may have to research a historical topic, an author or literary work, or a contemporary issue and present their findings in a paper, PowerPoint presentation, or in a movie format. All of this is part of the process of asking questions, looking at the available information, and coming to a conclusion based...
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...AHS RESEARCH MANUAL 2011 Student: __________________________ TERESA STERCHI KIM BROWN AHS LIBRARY CONTENTS PREPARATION OF THE RESEARCH PAPER........................................................1 SELECTING AND LIMITING THE TOPIC............................................................1 PREPARING A WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY AND EVALUATING SOURCES…………….2 READING AND TAKING NOTES........................................................................3 DEVELOPING A WORKING OUTLINE/PLAN…………………………………………………….5 DOCUMENTING AND CITING SOURCES USING MLA STYLE……………..……………..7 WRITING THE PAPER…………………………………..…………………...........................18 MLA STYLE OF PARENTHETICAL/IN-TEXT CITATIONS………………………………….19 PLACING CITATIONS IN THE PAPER…………………………………………………………..21 FORMATTING AND TYPING THE REPORT USING THE MLA STYLE…………………26 TYPING THE WORKS CITED PAGE AND SAMPLE TITLE PAGE..........................29 PREPARATION Research is the process of gathering information from different sources on a particular topic. In daily life students may research buying a song on the Internet, buying a new MP3 player, an iPod, or any other product of interest. At school, students may have to research a historical topic, an author or literary work, or a contemporary issue and present their findings in a paper, PowerPoint presentation, or in a movie format. All of this is part of the process of asking questions, looking at the available information, and coming to a conclusion based...
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...Journal of Education and Practice ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.5, No.6, 2014 www.iiste.org The Impact of Whatsapp Messenger Usage on Students Performance in Tertiary Institutions in Ghana Johnson Yeboah (Lecturer)*,George Dominic Ewur (Lecturer) School of Business, Marketing Department, Takoradi Polytechnic, P.O box 256, Takoradi, Ghana Email:gastybg@yahoo.com Abstract The perceived high level of usage of social networking applications amongst students of tertiary institutions in Ghana is inevitable. However, little is understood from empirical viewpoint about the intensity, of usage of whatsapp messenger and its impact on the academic performance of students in tertiary institutions. This study seeks to empirically identify the impact of social network (whatsapp messenger) on the performance of tertiary students in Ghana from the perspective of the students. To achieve this, 50 students from five tertiary institutions were interviewed and 500 questionnaires were administered to students from same institutions. The study revealed that, whatsapp instead of making communication easier and faster thereby enhancing effective flow of information and idea sharing among students, rather has impacted negatively on the performance of tertiary students in Ghana .The study among other things unveiled the following: whatsapp takes much of students study time , results in procrastination related problems, destroys students’ spellings and grammatical construction...
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...Why Does an Equal-Weighted Portfolio Outperform Value- and Price-Weighted Portfolios March 2012 Yuliya Plyakha Raman Uppal Goethe University Frankfurt EDHEC Business School Grigory Vilkov Goethe University Frankfurt Abstract We compare the performance of equal-, value-, and price-weighted portfolios of stocks in the major U.S. equity indices over the last four decades. We find that the equal-weighted portfolio with monthly rebalancing outperforms the value- and price-weighted portfolios in terms of total mean return, four factor alpha, Sharpe ratio, and certainty-equivalent return, even though the equal-weighted portfolio has greater portfolio risk. The total return of the equal-weighted portfolio exceeds that of the value- and price-weighted because the equal-weighted portfolio has both a higher return for bearing systematic risk and a higher alpha measured using the four-factor model. The nonparametric monotonicity relation test indicates that the differences in the total return of the equal-weighted portfolio and the value- and price-weighted portfolios is monotonically related to size, price, liquidity and idiosyncratic volatility. The higher systematic return of the equal-weighted portfolio arises from its higher exposure to the market, size, and value factors. The higher alpha of the equal-weighted portfolio arises from the monthly rebalancing required to maintain equal weights, which is a contrarian strategy that exploits reversal and idiosyncratic volatility...
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...barrelhouse pianist, “The Honey dripper,” did the same thing. In 1934, John Lee Williamson who was a harmonica wizard (“Sonny Boy”), travelled from Jackson in Tennessee to the Windy City where he cut his “Good Morning Little School Girl” three years after. George Leaner, who started retailing discs of blues in Chicago throughout the 1930s, elicited, “The Central Railroad of Illinois carried the blues towards Chicago. Having thousands of workers who arose to work in the plants of meat-packing and the mills of steel originated the [blues artists].” These immigrants played diverse blues styles. First, most carried country blues towards the city, then by the early 1940s, they made the recording of a hybrid of blues, newer swing rhythms and vaudeville styles, which comprised the rolling-bass piano, boogie-woogie, a sound that soon became connected with the Louis Jordan’s jump-blues band who had 18 number-one successes from the period of 1942 to 1950. Some dubbed it the “Bluebird Beat”, the initial Chicago blues, because of the numerous blues performers who recorded for Bluebird label of the RCA Victor (Trotter, 1991 ). A white talent-scout music producer, Lester Melrose, recognized the scene of Chicago blues throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s. As Willie Dixon, songwriter, bassist, and talent guide, expressed to the Living Blues, “I started to go up to house of Tampa Red where many of the other artists of blues were, on the 35th and State Street. He possessed a residence over a pawnshop. And...
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...Capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a few markets. This unique system allows for a merchant to market just about any product to the masses dependent on a public opinion of the commodity, legality, availability, and profitability. Some commodities, although carrying high demand are regulated heavily and sometimes even ban from the market place for reasons pertaining to public safety. Others, however, showing to be a health hazard are still allowed to remain on the market. This definition is according to Merriam-Webster.com. This paper will focus on the economics of cannabis and how by its decriminalization, or legalization, it can be a profitable commodity in the marketplace by the following. Providing an overview of cannabis and how political games have caused an unearned negative public opinion on the commodity. Listing arguments that support the claim that by legalizing this commodity not only crime rates in general, but violent crime rates, will drop noticeably if not substantially providing a savings in the cost of enforcing and prosecuting such crimes. And, that by decriminalization, the federal government can regulate this commodity much like alcohol and tobacco providing new sources of tax revenue. A History of Cannabis The best way to understand the public image...
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...1223384 A PROPOSAL TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT THAT FOREIGN AID HAS HAD ON DEVELOPMENT IN KENYA RESEARCH STUDIES MOD001774 SHIRLEY JONES SID 1223384 FACULTY OF HEALTH, SOCIAL CARE AND EDUCATION 2012/13 1 SID 1223384 ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of foreign aid on development in Kenya. The study will investigate the effect that foreign aid has had on development, appraising its benefits as well as exposing its shortcomings. Judging from the level of aid that the developing world receives and the economic development that takes place in third world countries, there appears to be an inverse relationship between aid and development. With this continuing debate, my interest of study has been to find out foreign aid’s impact to development in Kenya as it is dependent of aid but poverty still seems impossibility in the country for many decades. Therefore, the study will seek to expose these pitfalls of foreign assistance to a nation’s growth and development, using the Kenyan example to illustrate this relationship. The prevailing research methodology shall be of a qualitative positivist nature. Debates still exist around foreign aid dependency and economic development in the “Third World” countries as despite the input from developed countries there hasn’t been much change witnessed in the developing nations which are still drowning in poverty since 1960’s. The study will highlight on the demerit of excess foreign aid has development whereby the...
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...7.0 REFERENCES For Internal Circulation Only TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN COLLEGE HARVARD REFERENCING SYSTEM 1.0 INTRODUCTION Referencing or citing means acknowledging the source of information and ideas you have used in your assignments (e.g. essay, report, project, research paper, etc.). This is a standard practice at all institutions of higher learning including Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) College. This learning guide on Harvard referencing system was developed based on the following references: Curtin University Library 2007, Harvard Referencing. Fisher, D & Hanstock, T 1998, Citing References. Saunders, M, Lewis, P & Thornhill, A 2005, Research Methods for Business Students. University of Bournemouth 2005, Citing References. University of South Australia 2006, Referencing using the Harvard author–date system. 2.0 THE IMPORTANCE OF CITING REFERENCES The following are reasons why referencing is needed: to acknowledge debts to other writers to demonstrate the body/scope of knowledge upon which your research is based on to enable all those who read your work...
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...important factor of rewards. Additionally, job satisfaction is another crucial term within the same body of literature. Job satisfaction is likely to provide employees of all levels with feelings of fulfillment, achievement and even pleasure for their job. Thus, such feelings can make people more productive, creative and therefore more profitable for the organization. Furthermore, feelings of job satisfaction can strengthen the commitment and loyalty of employees with the organization, which is very necessary in present times where all firms are looking for competitive advantage and especially through their people. The objective of this study is to examine the correlation of the rewards systems and job satisfaction, based on a qualitative research. An attempt is also made to identify differences in (correspondent author) Department of Business Administration Technological Educational Institute of Patras, Greece E-mail: ketygalapatra@yahoo.gr Address: Eitou 4, 263 32 Patra, Greece. 2 Amsterdam Business School - Accounting Group University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands E-mail: g.georgakopoulos@uva.nl. 3 Department of Finance and Auditing Technological...
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...attempts to fill part of this void in literature by examining the relationship between job stress, job satisfaction and performance among 100 managers of private manufacturing firms. The study’s findings suggest that higher stress levels are related to lower performance whereas higher job satisfaction indicates higher performance. The main objective was to see if there was any relationship between job performance, job satisfaction and job stress & to preface model for the same. The research was assessed by using various instruments. Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Job Stress, Job Manufacturing Firms, Occupational Stress Index Performance, Private 1. Introduction 1.1 Job Performance in Relation to Job Satisfaction In the field of Industrial / Organizational psychology, one of the most researched areas is the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001). Landy (1989) described this relationship as the “Holy Grail” of Industrial psychology. Research linking job performance with satisfaction and other attitudes has been studied since at least 1939, with the Hawthorne studies (Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1939). In Judge et al. (2001), it was found by Brayfield and Crockett (1955) that there is only a minimal relationship between job performance and job satisfaction. However, since 1955, Judge et al. (2001) cited that there are other studies by Locke (1970), Schwab & Cummings (1970), and Vroom (1964) that have shown that there...
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