A critical realist perspective of enterprise architecture evolution : preliminary findings

This paper investigates how Enterprise Architecture (EA) evolves due to emerging trends. It specifically explores how EA integrates the Service-oriented Architecture (SOA). Archer’s Morphogenetic theory is used as an analytical approach to distinguish the architectural conditions under which SOA is introduced, to study the relationships between these conditions and SOA introduction, and to reflect on EA evolution (elaborations) that then take place. The paper focuses on reasons for why EA evolution could take place, or not and what architectural changes could happen due to SOA integration. The research builds on sound theoretical foundations to discuss EA evolution in a field that often lacks a solid theoretical groundwork. Specifically, it proposes that critical realism, using the morphogenetic theory, can provide a useful theoretical foundation to study enterprise architecture (EA) evolution. The initial results of a literature review (a-priori model) were extended using explorative interviews. The findings of this study are threefold. First, there are five different levels of EA-SOA integration outcomes. Second, a mature EA, flexible and well-defined EA framework and comprehensive objectives of EA improve the integration outcomes. Third, the analytical separation using Archer’s theory is helpful in order to understand how these different integration outcomes are generated.

Service-oriented architecture integration within enterprise architecture : a-priori model

This paper proposes that critical realism can provide a useful theoretical foundation to study enterprise architecture (EA) evolution. Specifically it will investigate the practically relevant and academically challenging question of how EAs integrate the Service-oriented Architecture (SOA). Archer’s Morphogenetic theory is used as an analytical approach to distinguish the architectural conditions under which SOA is introduced, to study the relationships between these conditions and SOA introduction, and to reflect on EA evolution (elaborations) that then take place. The focus lies on the reasons why EA evolution takes place (or not) and what architectural changes happen. This paper uses the findings of a literature review to build an a-priori model informed by Archer’s theory to understand EA evolution in a field that often lacks a solid theoretical groundwork. The findings are threefold. First, EA can evolve on different levels (different integration outcomes). Second, the integration outcomes are classified into three levels: business architecture, information systems architecture and technology architecture. Third, the analytical separation using Archer’s theory is helpful in order to understand how these different integration outcomes are generated.

Enhancing enterprise social network use : a control theory study

Organizations employ Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs) (e.g., Yammer) expecting better intra-organizational communication, effective knowledge sharing and, in general, greater collaboration. Despite their similarities with Public Social Networks (PSNs) (e.g., Twitter), ESNs are struggling to gain credence with employees. This paper is part of a larger research project that investigates mechanisms to enhance employees’ engagement in the ESNs. Through the lens of Control Theory, this paper reports preliminary findings of a pilot case study aimed to propose formal and informal mechanisms that impact employees’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to encourage their use of ESNs. The study results highlight (i) the need to better understand employees’ extrinsic and intrinsic motivations to use Social Networks, and (ii) that unlike a PSN which acts as a hedonic system, an ESN acts as a utilitarian system, highlighting the importance of supporting intrinsic motivations in its implementation.

A theory of process modelling impact

Process modelling – the design and use of graphical documentations of an organisation’s business processes – is a key method to document and use information about business processes. Still, despite current interest in process modelling, this research area faces essential challenges. Key unanswered questions concern the impact of process modelling in organisational practice, and the mechanisms through which impacts are developed. To answer these questions and to provide a better understanding of process modelling impact, I turn to the concept of affordances. Affordances describe the possibilities for goal-oriented action that technical objects offer to specified users. This notion has received growing attention from IS researchers. I report on my efforts to further develop the IS discipline’s understanding of affordances and impacts from informational objects, such as process models used by analysts for purposes of information systems analysis and design. Specifically, I seek to extend existing theory on the emergence and actualisation of affordances. I develop a research model that describes the process by which affordances are perceived and actualised and explain their dependence on available information and actualisation effort. I present my plans for operationalising and testing this research model empirically, and provide details about my design of a full-cycle, mixed methods study currently in progress.

Testing an extended theory of planned behavior to predict young people's intentions to join a bone marrow donor registry

An extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to understand the factors, particularly control perceptions and affective reactions, given conflicting findings in previous research, informing younger people's intentions to join a bone marrow registry. Participants (N  = 174) completed attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC), moral norm, anticipated regret, self-identity, and intention items for registering. The extended TPB (except PBC) explained 67.2% of variance in intention. Further testing is needed as to the volitional nature of registering. Moral norm, anticipated regret, and self-identity are likely intervention targets for increasing younger people's bone marrow registry participation.

Donating blood and organs : using an extended theory of planned behavior perspective to identify similarities and differences in individual motivations to donate

Due to the critical shortage and continued need of blood and organ donations (ODs), research exploring similarities and differences in the motivational determinants of these behaviors is needed. In a sample of 258 university students, we used a cross-sectional design to test the utility of an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) including moral norm, self-identity and in-group altruism (family/close friends and ethnic group), to predict people’s blood and OD intentions. Overall, the extended TPB explained 77.0% and 74.6% of variance in blood and OD intentions, respectively. In regression analyses, common contributors to intentions across donation contexts were attitude, self-efficacy and self-identity. Normative influences varied with subjective norm as a significant predictor related to OD intentions but not blood donation intentions at the final step of regression analyses. Moral norm did not contribute significantly to blood or OD intentions. In-group altruism (family/close friends) was significantly related to OD intentions only in regressions. Future donation strategies should increase confidence to donate, foster a perception of self as the type of person who donates blood and/or organs, and address preferences to donate organs to in-group members only.

The potential of combining phenomenography, variation theory and threshold concepts to inform curriculum design in higher education

This chapter describes an innovative method of curriculum design that is based on combining phenomenographic research, and the associated variation theory of learning, with the notion of disciplinary threshold concepts to focus specialised design attention on the most significant and difficult parts of the curriculum. The method involves three primary stages: (i) identification of disciplinary concepts worthy of intensive curriculum design attention, using the criteria for threshold concepts; (ii) action research into variation in students’ understandings/misunderstandings of those concepts, using phenomenography as the research approach; (iii) design of learning activities to address the poorer understandings identified in the second stage, using variation theory as a guiding framework. The curriculum design method is inherently theory and evidence based. It was developed and trialed during a two-year project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, using physics and law disciplines as case studies. Disciplinary teachers’ perceptions of the impact of the method on their teaching and understanding of student learning were profound. Attempts to measure the impact on student learning were less conclusive; teachers often unintentionally deviated from the design when putting it into practice for the first time. Suggestions for improved implementation of the method are discussed.

Children and information communication technologies in the media : a study using moral panic theory

This thesis is an investigation of the media's representation of children and ICT. The study draws on moral panic theory and Queensland newspaper media, to identify the impact of newspaper reporting on the public's perceptions of young people and ICT.

Ensuring sessional academic success by rethinking the place of academic development

There has been growing recognition of the contribution that Sessional Academics make to student learning in higher education; with recent studies concluding that around half Australian university teaching is now performed by casual staff [Red Report 2008; May, 2013]. However, sector-wide research and institutional audits continue to raise concerns about academic development and quality assurance, as well as the recognition and retention of Sessional Academics. In response, universities offer academic development programs. However, while such centrally offered programs are undoubtedly useful, they are necessarily generic and cannot address the local contexts of faculties or provide ‘on the ground’ support. This paper presents a new, distributed model of academic support and development for Sessional academics at Queensland University of Technology. Entitled the Sessional Academic Success program, it employs the principles of distributed leadership. Experienced Sessional academics are trained and supported to assume roles as Sessional Academic Success Advisors within their schools. Complementing our central programs, they design bespoke, locally situated, peer-to-peer academic development for new Sessional teachers; provide ‘just in time’, safe and reliable advice; and build supportive communities of teaching practice in their local contexts. This distributed model re-envisages the forms and places of academic development and support. It helps ensure that new Sessional Academics are embraced by faculty life. And, recognizing that experienced Sessional Academics have much to contribute to the advancement of learning and teaching, it builds their capacity through leadership opportunities. As the designer/facilitator of the program and a Sessional Academic Success Advisor, the authors take a dialogic approach and together describe the design, implementation and outcomes of the program.

Footprints to pathways : reconciliation action planning in industry to sustain Indigenous employment in Queensland

This paper provides an introductory discussion to a study focusing on industry Reconciliation Action Plans (RAP) and sustaining Indigenous employment in Queensland. Indigenous people continue to experience deep and persistent disadvantage in employment, which limits their life prospects (McLachlan, Gilgillan & Gordon, 2013). A major contributing factor to this detriment is irregular employment and or unemployment. A reasonable standard of living has been found to be determined by access to economic resources such as income and wealth. Denial of this access, denies access to income streams, social status, and engagement in meaningful activities. Hence, job loss and joblessness are triggers of disadvantage (McLachlan, et al., 2013). For young Indigenous people, lack of access has lasting effects particularly if they have multiple characteristics that place them at risk of disadvantage. The project aims to develop knowledge and understanding of Industry RAPs mediate employment opportunities for Indigenous people and how young Indigenous people conceive of their employment options and the processes by which employers can best support Indigenous people. It adopts two theoretical frameworks to investigate the aim of the study : (1) Lave and Wenger’s (1991) theory of communities of practice and, (2) Sen’s (1993) capability approach which provides a structure for examining individual well-being in the context of societal inequality. This paper discusses the first research question of the study: What are Industry Reconciliation Action Plans? What is included in RAPs? Why do Industries develop RAPs? How do RAPs attract, recruit, retain, and tenure Indigenous people? The project’s significance rests with its focus on Industry, employers, policies and practices that aid the attraction and retention of Indigenous people in employment.

Autonomous movement-driven place recognition calibration for generic multi-sensor robot platforms

In this paper we present a method for autonomously tuning the threshold between learning and recognizing a place in the world, based on both how the rodent brain is thought to process and calibrate multisensory data and the pivoting movement behaviour that rodents perform in doing so. The approach makes no assumptions about the number and type of sensors, the robot platform, or the environment, relying only on the ability of a robot to perform two revolutions on the spot. In addition, it self-assesses the quality of the tuning process in order to identify situations in which tuning may have failed. We demonstrate the autonomous movement-driven threshold tuning on a Pioneer 3DX robot in eight locations spread over an office environment and a building car park, and then evaluate the mapping capability of the system on journeys through these environments. The system is able to pick a place recognition threshold that enables successful environment mapping in six of the eight locations while also autonomously flagging the tuning failure in the remaining two locations. We discuss how the method, in combination with parallel work on autonomous weighting of individual sensors, moves the parameter dependent RatSLAM system significantly closer to sensor, platform and environment agnostic operation.

Dealing with shadows : capturing intrinsic scene appearance for image-based outdoor localisation

In outdoor environments shadows are common. These typically strong visual features cause considerable change in the appearance of a place, and therefore confound vision-based localisation approaches. In this paper we describe how to convert a colour image of the scene to a greyscale invariant image where pixel values are a function of underlying material property not lighting. We summarise the theory of shadow invariant images and discuss the modelling and calibration issues which are important for non-ideal off-the-shelf colour cameras. We evaluate the technique with a commonly used robotic camera and an autonomous car operating in an outdoor environment, and show that it can outperform the use of ordinary greyscale images for the task of visual localisation.

Criminalisation and normative theory

Criminal law scholarship is enjoying a renaissance in normative theory, evident in a growing list of publications from leading scholars that attempt to elucidate a set of principles on which criminalisation and criminal law might — indeed should — be based. This development has been less marked in Australia, where a stream of criminologically influenced criminal law scholarship, teaching and practice has emerged over nearly three decades. There are certain tensions between this predominantly contextual, process-oriented and criminological tradition that has emerged in Australia, characterised by a critical approach to the search for ‘general principles’ of the criminal law, and the more recent revival of interest in developing a set of principles on which a ‘normative theory of criminal law’ might be founded. Aspects of this tension will be detailed through examination of recent examples of criminalisation in New South Wales that are broadly representative of trends across all Australian urisdictions. The article will then reflect on the links between these particular features of criminalisation and attempts to develop a ‘normative theory’ of criminalisation.

A theory of literacies for considering the role of adult and community education in postcolonial change

In this paper, I use a case study drawn from education in the Grenada revolution and afterwards to discuss lessons that postcolonial societies can learn from comparing two approaches to adult basic and popular education. I argue that some approaches to adult education provide subordinate literacies and catch-up schooling on the cheap, while others contribute to sociopolitical change by helping participants develop powerful literacies that challenge the structures of injustice, inefficiency, and dysfunctionality that are still entrenched in most societies. The paper puts forward the concept of epistemic, humanist and public ‘literacies’ as a tool for considering the role of adult education in national development.