Evaluating operational cloud enterprise systems success : an organizational perspective

This paper presents a formative measurement index to assess cloud enterprise systems success. The scale development procedure is based on Moore and Benbasat (1991), including newer scale development elements which focus on the creation and assessment of formative constructs. The data is analysed using SmartPLS with a sample of 103 IT decision makers. The results show that the perception of net benefits is shaped not only by enterprise-system-specific factors like productivity improvements and higher quality of business processes, but also by factors which are specifically attributed to cloud systems, such as higher strategic flexibility. Reliability, user requirements and customization contribute most to the overall perception of system quality. Information quality shows no cloud-specific facets and is robust in the context of cloud enterprise systems.

Psychological capital as moderator of organizational change demands on nursing stress

Healthcare organizations in all OECD countries have continued to undergo change. These changes have been found to have a negative effect on work engagement of nursing staff. While the extent to which nursing staff dealt with these changes has been documented in the literature, little is known of how they utilized their personal resources to deal with the consequences of these changes. This study will address this gap by integrating the Job Demands-Resources theoretical perspective with Positive Psychology, in particular, psychological capital (PsyCap). PsyCap is operationalized as a source of personal resources. Data were collected from 401 nurses from Australia and analyses were undertaken using Partial Least Squares modelling and moderation analysis. Two types of changes on the nursing work were identified. There was an increase in changes to the work environment of nursing. These changes, included increasing administrative workload and the amount of work, resulted in more job demands and job resources. On the other hand, another type of changes relate to reduction to training and management support, which resulted in less job demands. Nurses with more job demands utilized more job resources to address these increasing demands. We found PsyCap to be a crucial source of personal resources that has a moderating effect on the negative effects of job demands and role stress. PsyCap and job resources were both critical in enhancing the work engagement of nurses, as they encountered changes to nursing work. These findings provided empirical support for a positive psychological perspective of understanding nursing engagement.

Superstars as drivers of organizational identification : empirical findings from professional soccer

This paper examines the effect of superstars on external stakeholders’ organizational identification through the lens of sport. Drawing on social identity theory and the concept of organizational identification, as well as on role model theories and superstar economics, several hypotheses are developed regarding the influence of soccer stars on their fans’ degree of team identification. Using a proprietary data set that combines archival data on professional German soccer players and clubs with survey data on more than 1,400 soccer fans, this study finds evidence for a positive effect of superstar characteristics and role model perception. Moreover, it is found that players who qualify for the definition of a superstar are more important to fans of established teams than to fans of unsuccessful teams. The player's club tenure, however, seems to have no influence on fans’ team identification. It is further argued that the effect of soccer stars on their fans is comparable to that of executives on external stakeholders, and hence, the results are applied to the business domain. The results of this study contribute to existing research by extending the list of personnel-related determinants of organizational identification.

Selection procedures for module discovery : exploring evolutionary algorithms for cognitive science

Evolutionary algorithms are playing an increasingly important role as search methods in cognitive science domains. In this study, methodological issues in the use of evolutionary algorithms were investigated via simulations in which procedures were systematically varied to modify the selection pressures on populations of evolving agents. Traditional roulette wheel, tournament, and variations of these selection algorithms were compared on the “needle-in-a-haystack” problem developed by Hinton and Nowlan in their 1987 study of the Baldwin effect. The task is an important one for cognitive science, as it demonstrates the power of learning as a local search technique in smoothing a fitness landscape that lacks gradient information. One aspect that has continued to foster interest in the problem is the observation of residual learning ability in simulated populations even after long periods of time. Effective evolutionary algorithms balance their search effort between broad exploration of the search space and in-depth exploitation of promising solutions already found. Issues discussed include the differential effects of rank and proportional selection, the tradeoff between migration of populations towards good solutions and maintenance of diversity, and the development of measures that illustrate how each selection algorithm affects the search process over generations. We show that both roulette wheel and tournament algorithms can be modified to appropriately balance search between exploration and exploitation, and effectively eliminate residual learning in this problem.

Designing with people with disabilities : adapting best practices of DIY and organizational approaches

Individualization of design is often necessary particularly when designing with people with disabilities. Maker communities, with their flexible Do-It-Yourself (DIY) practices, offer potential to support individualized and cost-effective product design. However, efforts to adapt DIY practices in designing with people with disabilities tend to face difficulties with regard to continuous commitment, infrastructure provision and proper guidance. We carried out interviews with diverse stakeholders in the disability services sector and carried out observations of local makerspaces to understand their current practices and potential for future collaborations. We found that makerspace participants face difficulties in terms of infrastructure provision and proper guidance whereas Disability Service Organizations face difficulties in continuous expertise. We suggest that artful infrastructuring to blend the best of both approaches offers potential to create a sustainable community that can design individualized technologies to support people with disabilities.

Evidence-based business process management: Using digital opportunities to drive organizational innovation

Process improvement and innovation are risky endeavors, like swimming in unknown waters. In this chapter, I will discuss how process innovation through BPM can benefit from Research-as-a-Service, that is, from the application of research concepts in the processes of BPM projects. A further subject will be how innovations can be converted from confidence-based to evidence-based models due to affordances of digital infrastructures such as large-scale enterprise soft-ware or social media. I will introduce the relevant concepts, provide illustrations for digital capabilities that allow for innovation, and share a number of key takeaway lessons for how organizations can innovate on the basis of digital opportunities and principles of evidence-based BPM: the foundation of all process decisions in facts rather than fiction.

Feeling left out? The mediating role of perceived rejection on workgroup mistreatment and affective, behavioral, and organizational outcomes and the moderating role of organizational norms

This two-study paper examines the detrimental impact of workgroup mistreatment and the mediating role of perceived rejection. In Study 1, perceived rejection emerged as a mediator between workgroup mistreatment and depression, organization-based self-esteem, organizational deviance, and organizational citizenship behaviors. In Study 2, the role of organizational norms was examined. Employees who experienced supportive organizational norms reported lower levels of perceived rejection, depression and turnover intentions, and higher levels of organization-based self-esteem and job satisfaction. Employees in the supportive norms condition reported that they were more likely to seek reconciliation after experiencing mistreatment than those who experienced low support. Perceived rejection also emerged as a mediator. Results, practical implications, and future research directions are discussed.

Performance-Based Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) Acceptance Procedures for In-Place Soil Testing Phase 3

One of the objectives of this study was to evaluate soil testing equipment based on its capability of measuring in-place stiffness or modulus values. As design criteria transition from empirical to mechanistic-empirical, soil test methods and equipment that measure properties such as stiffness and modulus and how they relate to Florida materials are needed. Requirements for the selected equipment are that they be portable, cost effective, reliable, a ccurate, and repeatable. A second objective is that the selected equipment measures soil properties without the use of nuclear materials.The current device used to measure soil compaction is the nuclear density gauge (NDG). Equipment evaluated in this research included lightweight deflectometers (LWD) from different manufacturers, a dynamic cone penetrometer (DCP), a GeoGauge, a Clegg impact soil tester (CIST), a Briaud compaction device (BCD), and a seismic pavement analyzer (SPA). Evaluations were conducted over ranges of measured densities and moistures.Testing (Phases I and II) was conducted in a test box and test pits. Phase III testing was conducted on materials found on five construction projects located in the Jacksonville, Florida, area. Phase I analyses determined that the GeoGauge had the lowest overall coefficient of variance (COV). In ascending order of COV were the accelerometer-type LWD, the geophone-type LWD, the DCP, the BCD, and the SPA which had the highest overall COV. As a result, the BCD and the SPA were excluded from Phase II testing.In Phase II, measurements obtained from the selected equipment were compared to the modulus values obtained by the static plate load test (PLT), the resilient modulus (MR) from laboratory testing, and the NDG measurements. To minimize soil and moisture content variability, the single spot testing sequence was developed. At each location, test results obtained from the portable equipment under evaluation were compared to the values from adjacent NDG, PLT, and laboratory MR measurements. Correlations were developed through statistical analysis. Target values were developed for various soils for verification on similar soils that were field tested in Phase III. The single spot testing sequence also was employed in Phase III, field testing performed on A-3 and A-2-4 embankments, limerock-stabilized subgrade, limerock base, and graded aggregate base found on Florida Department of Transportation construction projects. The Phase II and Phase III results provided potential trend information for future research—specifically, data collection for in-depth statistical analysis for correlations with the laboratory MR for specific soil types under specific moisture conditions. With the collection of enough data, stronger relationships could be expected between measurements from the portable equipment and the MR values. Based on the statistical analyses and the experience gained from extensive use of the equipment, the combination of the DCP and the LWD was selected for in-place soil testing for compaction control acceptance. Test methods and developmental specifications were written for the DCP and the LWD. The developmental specifications include target values for the compaction control of embankment, subgrade, and base materials.

The influence of organizational culture and climate on entrepreneurial intentions among research scientists

Over the past decades, universities have increasingly become involved in entrepreneurial activities. Despite efforts to embrace their ‘third mission’, universities still demonstrate great heterogeneity in terms of their involvement in academic entrepreneurship. This papers adopts an institutional perspective to understand how organizational characteristics affect research scientists’ entrepreneurial intentions. Specifically, we study the impact of university culture and climate on entrepreneurial intentions, including intentions to spin off a company, to engage in patenting or licensing and to interact with industry through contract research or consulting. Using a sample of 437 research scientists from Swedish and German universities, our results reveal that the extent to which universities articulate entrepreneurship as a fundamental element of their mission fosters research scientists’ intentions to engage in spin-off creation and intellectual property rights, but not industry-science interaction. Furthermore, the presence of university role models positively affects research scientists’ propensity to engage in entrepreneurial activities, both directly and indirectly through entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Finally, research scientists working at universities which explicitly reward people for ‘third mission’ related output show higher levels of spin-off and patenting or licensing intentions. This study has implications for both academics and practitioners, including university managers and policy makers.

A longitudinal study of employee adaptation to organizational change: The role of change-related information and change-related self-efficacy

This study examined the role of information, efficacy, and 3 stressors in predicting adjustment to organizational change. Participants were 589 government employees undergoing an 18-month process of regionalization. To examine if the predictor variables had long-term effects on adjustment, the authors assessed psychological well-being, client engagement, and job satisfaction again at a 2-year follow-up. At Time 1, there was evidence to suggest that information was indirectly related to psychological well-being, client engagement, and job satisfaction, via its positive relationship to efficacy. There also was evidence to suggest that efficacy was related to reduced stress appraisals, thereby heightening client engagement. Last, there was consistent support for the stress-buffering role of Time 1 self-efficacy in the prediction of Time 2 job satisfaction.

The moderating role of task characteristics in determining responses to a stressful work simulation

Two experimental studies were conducted to examine whether the stress-buffering effects of behavioral control on work task responses varied as a function of procedural information. Study 1 manipulated low and high levels of task demands, behavioral control, and procedural information for 128 introductory psychology students completing an in-basket activity. ANOVA procedures revealed a significant three-way interaction among these variables in the prediction of subjective task performance and task satisfaction. It was found that procedural information buffered the negative effects of task demands on ratings of performance and satisfaction only under conditions of low behavioral control. This pattern of results suggests that procedural information may have a compensatory effect when the work environment is characterized by a combination of high task demands and low behavioral control. Study 2 (N=256) utilized simple and complex versions of the in-basket activity to examine the extent to which the interactive relationship among task demands, behavioral control, and procedural information varied as a function of task complexity. There was further support for the stress-buffering role of procedural information on work task responses under conditions of low behavioral control. This effect was, however, only present when the in-basket activity was characterized by high task complexity, suggesting that the interactive relationship among these variables may depend on the type of tasks performed at work.

A longitudinal investigation of coping processes during a merger: Implications for job satisfaction and organizational identification

This study tested the utility of a stress and coping model of employee adjustment to a merger. Two hundred and twenty employees completed both questionnaires (Time 1: 3 months after merger implementation; Time 2: 2 years later). Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that positive event characteristics predicted greater appraisals of self-efficacy and less stress at Time 1. Self-efficacy, in turn, predicted greater use of problem-focused coping at Time 2, whereas stress predicted a greater use of problem-focused and avoidance coping. Finally, problem-focused coping predicted higher levels of job satisfaction and identification with the merged organization (Time 2), whereas avoidance coping predicted lower identification.