Power, politics and legitimacy in information systems implementation : an ethnographic study

Systems implementation is inherently a political process. However, the majority of the literature in the area of systems implementation takes a simplistic look at factors attributed to success. These studies provide empirical evidence that “human factors” such as “top management support” contribute to a successful implementation. Rather than accept this, we challenge this view and explore two “human” issues – power and legitimacy inside systems implementation. By exploring the implementation of a learning management system at the University of New Zealand, issues such as power and legitimacy affect the way an implementation team collaborates. Systems implementation is a complex and messy process and we need to understand the implementation process, acknowledging that top management support is not always necessary to “successfully” implement a system.

Language and power in vocational education and training

In this paper I explore the way language is used in Training Packages, and the impact this language has when Training Packages are used to support work-based vocational programs. Training Packages are a fundamental component of the regulatory framework of the national vocational education and training (VET) system [in Australia]. The national strategy for VET places employers and individuals at the centre of VET, and policy commitments to access and equity are enshrined in the auditable standards of the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF). Yet Training Packages and related official VET texts are written in an abstract, generalised and complex language form which acts as an insurmountable barrier to many people at the front line of VET. My PhD research (a work in progress) explores the proposition that this language form is representative of, and constructive in, unequal power relationships. Early data analysis suggests that VET practitioners and training participants talk about their experience of this language in terms of power and exclusion. In contrast, the official VET response generally leaves the official language form above challenge, and instead largely focuses on the presumed deficient language and literacy skills of those who are excluded by these texts.

Power analysis and simulation of a vehicle under combined loads

This paper presents an analytical model of fuel consumption (AMFC) to coordinate the driving power and manage the overall fuel consumption for an internal combustion engine vehicle. The model calculates the different loads applied on the vehicle including road-slope, road-friction, wind-drag, accessories, and mechanical losses. Also, it solves the combustion equation of the engine under different working conditions including various fuel compositions, excess airs and air inlet temperatures. Then it determines the contribution of each load to signify the energy distribution and power flows of the vehicle. Unlike the conventional models in which the vehicle speed needs to be given as an input, the developed model can predict the vehicle speed and acceleration under different working conditions by allowing the speed to vary within a predefined range only. Furthermore, the model indicates the ways to minimises the vehicles' fuel consumption under various driving conditions. The results show that the model has the potential to assist in the vehicle energy management.

Working together : collaboration between midwives and doctors in public hospitals

While collaborative, multidisciplinary teamwork is widely espoused as the goal of contemporary hospitals, it is hard to achieve. In maternity care especially, professional rivalries and deep-seated philosophical differences over childbirth generate significant tensions. This article draws on qualitative research in several Victorian public maternity units to consider the challenges to inter-professional collaboration. It reports what doctors and midwives looked for in colleagues they liked to work with — the attributes of a “good doctor” or a “good midwife”. Although their ideals did not entirely match, both groups respected skill and hard work and sought mutual trust, respect and accountability. Yet effective working together is limited both by tensions over role boundaries and power and by incivility that is intensified by increasing workloads and a fragmented labour force. The skills and qualities that form the basis of “professional courtesy” need to be recognised as Aust Health Rev 2009: 33(2): 315–324 essential to good collaborative practice.

Impact of leadership and power on successful ERP adoption

Case study research investigating the impact of culture upon a Hong Kong based construction contractor's leadership in implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system unearthed rich data relating to the predominantly Hong Kong Chinese cultural perspective of power, leadership and followership. Intimately involved participants were surveyed using both structured and semi-structured interviews. The study's focus was centred upon the interplay between culture, power and how people interact with the way that the ERP is used and how teams of people involved in the ERP implementation, perceived the supportive nature of the organisation's leadership in deploying the ERP. A culturally sensitive empowering leadership style was a significant issue in successfully project managing and deploying the ERP. Understanding how teams and their leaders interact and how power and trust influences the facilitation role of leadership is also useful in gauging how an ERP can be most effectively deployed.

Satellite dialysis nursing : technology, caring and power

Aim. This paper is a report of an exploration of nurses’ perceptions of the quality of satellite dialysis care and how aspects of power that influenced quality nursing care.

Background. In Australia, the majority of people living with established kidney failure undertake haemodialysis in nurse-run satellite dialysis units. Haemodialysis nurses provide the majority of care, and their perceptions of what constitutes quality nursing care may influence their care of the person receiving haemodialysis.

Method. A critical ethnographic study was conducted where data were collected from one metropolitan satellite dialysis unit in Australia over a 12-month period throughout 2005. The methods included non-participant observation, interviews, document analysis, reflective field notes and participant feedback.

Findings. Three theoretical constructs were identified: ‘What is quality?’, ‘What is not quality?’ and What influences quality?’ Nurses considered technical knowledge, technical skills and personal respect as characteristics of quality. Long-term blood pressure management and arranging transport for people receiving dialysis treatment were not seen to be priorities for quality care. The person receiving dialysis treatment, management, nurse and environment were considered major factors determining quality dialysis nursing care.

Conclusion. Aspects of power and oppression operated for nurses and people receiving dialysis treatment within the satellite dialysis context, and this environment was perceived by the nurses as very different from hospital dialysis units.

Effect of company size on occupational health and safety

It is mandatory in all Australian jurisdictions for construction companies to provide a safe working environment for their workers and sub-contractors. Consequently, occupational health and safety (OHS) is a major issue for construction companies mainly due to the fear of prosecution. The introduction of zero tolerance by the Victorian government “WorkCover Authority” in 1999 provided increased legislative OHS standards for the construction industry. This has placed an increased burden on construction companies especially small firms that are not in a position of financial strength. This research is based on benchmarking study of OHS performance of 44 construction companies in
Victoria, Australia. The results show that the size of the company is a major contributing factor to their OHS performance. Small companies employing less than 25 employees have comparatively low levels of OHS performance compared to larger firms. Company size is a limiting factor that impacts on the ability of small firms to implement comprehensive OHS plans. This research calls into question that notion that increasing legislative requirements will improve OHS outcomes.

Environmental incidents in a developing country and corporate environmental disclosures : a study of a multinational gas company

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the environmental disclosure initiatives of Niko Resources Ltd – a Canada-based multinational oil and gas company – following the two major environmental blowouts at a gas field in Bangladesh in 2005. As part of the examination, the authors particularly focus on whether Niko’s disclosure strategy was associated with public concern pertaining to the blowouts.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors reviewed news articles about Niko’s environmental incidents in Bangladesh and Niko’s communication media, including annual reports, press releases and stand-alone social responsibility report over the period 2004-2007, to understand whether news media attention as proxy for public concern has an impact on Niko’s disclosure practices in relation to the affected local community in Bangladesh.
Findings – The findings show that Niko did not provide any non-financial environmental information within its annual reports and press releases as a part of its responsibility to the local community which was affected by the blowouts, but it did produce a stand-alone report to address the issue. However, financial environmental disclosures, such as the environmental contingent liability disclosure, were adequately provided through annual reports to meet the regulatory requirements concerning environmental persecutions. The findings also suggest that Niko’s non-financial disclosure within a stand-alone report was associated with the public pressures as measured by negative media coverage towards the Niko blowouts.
Research limitations/implications – This paper concludes that the motive for Niko’s non-financial environmental disclosure, via a stand-alone report, reflected survival considerations:
the company’s reaction did not suggest any real attempt to hold broader accountability for its activities in a developing country.
Originality/value – This is the first known paper that investigates a multinational company’s disclosure behavior in relation to environmental incidents which occurred in a local community.

Power relations in IS projects – a critical review and a new research agenda

This paper seeks to review and examine the major theoretical underpinnings of research into power relations in IS projects. In order to keep the review manageable and to furnish a reasonable explanation of the ideas and papers referenced, the review is restricted to the ideas of Foucault, Giddens and Clegg. Partly, this restriction was due to the wish of the authors to deal seriously with the ideas presented, and not to produce an exhaustive but terse and taxonomic style review. Partly, the selection of the above theorists is due to the fact that the major IS papers on power relations have drawn on their work. This paper concludes with the presentation of a new theory of power and social influence from social psychology suitable for use in IS research. The ideas of this theory have not yet been examined empirically. Thus, IS researchers are challenged to employ these ideas in their empirical research.

Size and power properties of structural break unit root tests

In this article, we compare the small sample size and power properties of a newly developed endogenous structural break unit root test of Narayan and Popp (NP, 2010) with the existing two break unit root tests, namely the Lumsdaine and Papell (LP, 1997) and the Lee and Strazicich (LS, 2003) tests. In contrast to the widely used LP and LS tests, the NP test chooses the break date by maximizing the significance of the break dummy coefficient. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the NP test has better size and high power, and identifies the structural breaks accurately. Power and size comparisons of the NP test with the LP and LS tests reveal that the NP test is significantly superior.

Ritual power : illuminating the blind spot of births, deaths and marriages in news media research

This article conceptualises the role and place of the newspaper births, deaths and marriages column in Western societies and its relationship to news media. It identifies the births, deaths and marriages notices as a ‘blind spot’ within journalism and media research generated by powerful cultural norms and conventions shaping the field. This is exemplified by the ‘mythical’ divide between political economy and culturalist approaches to media studies that has created a gap where people’s everyday practices or the social value of ‘commercial’ content tends to be overlooked in discussions about news media. Drawing more deeply from cultural studies and scholarship around media power and rituals, the births, deaths and marriages column provides a compelling unique illustration of the ways newspapers – especially at the local level – continue to be perceived as central to the social in this changing media world. A qualitative research project into the future of small commercial newspapers in Australia provides rich data for exploring these key ideas.

Optimal power allocation and load distribution for multiple heterogeneous multicore server processors across clouds and data centers

For multiple heterogeneous multicore server processors across clouds and data centers, the aggregated performance of the cloud of clouds can be optimized by load distribution and balancing. Energy efficiency is one of the most important issues for large-scale server systems in current and future data centers. The multicore processor technology provides new levels of performance and energy efficiency. The present paper aims to develop power and performance constrained load distribution methods for cloud computing in current and future large-scale data centers. In particular, we address the problem of optimal power allocation and load distribution for multiple heterogeneous multicore server processors across clouds and data centers. Our strategy is to formulate optimal power allocation and load distribution for multiple servers in a cloud of clouds as optimization problems, i.e., power constrained performance optimization and performance constrained power optimization. Our research problems in large-scale data centers are well-defined multivariable optimization problems, which explore the power-performance tradeoff by fixing one factor and minimizing the other, from the perspective of optimal load distribution. It is clear that such power and performance optimization is important for a cloud computing provider to efficiently utilize all the available resources. We model a multicore server processor as a queuing system with multiple servers. Our optimization problems are solved for two different models of core speed, where one model assumes that a core runs at zero speed when it is idle, and the other model assumes that a core runs at a constant speed. Our results in this paper provide new theoretical insights into power management and performance optimization in data centers.

Role of energy storage in the power system network

Today’s power system network is more complex with enhanced responsibility to maintain reliable, stable and quality supply of power at transmission and distribution level. Maintaining grid balance is a bigger issue, in case of any unexpected generation shortage or grid disturbance or any participation of an intermittent nature of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power in the energy mix. In order to compensate such imbalance and improve reliability, and stability of power system, an energy storage system (ESS) can be considered as a vital solution. Also ESS can be used to mitigate associated issues of renewable energy sources while integration into the power system network. Thus ESS supports to get a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by means of integrating more renewable energy sources to the grid effectively. There are various types of Energy Storage (ES) technologies which are being used in power systems network for large scale (MW) to small scale (KW) level. Based on the type and characteristics, each storage technology is suitable for a particular role of applications. This paper presents an extensive review study on various types of ES technologies in characteristics and applications point of view. It also demonstrates various applications of ESS in detail. Finally, with the aid of ES-selectTM tool software, a feasibility analysis has been carried out to identify a suitable ES technology for appropriate applications at different grid locations and also helps to develop a smart hybrid storage system for grid applications in future.

Volume, intensity, and timing of muscle power potentiation are variable

Whereas muscle potentiation is consistently demonstrated with evoked contractile properties, the potentiation of functional and physiological measures is inconsistent. The objective was to compare a variety of conditioning stimuli volumes and intensities over a 15-min recovery period. Twelve volleyball players were subjected to conditioning stimuli that included 10 repetitions of half squats with 70% of 1-repetition maximum (RM) (10 × 70), 5 × 70, 5 × 85, 3 × 85, 3 × 90, 1 × 90, and control. Jump height, power, velocity, and force were measured at baseline, 1, 3, 5, 10, and 15 min. Data were analysed with a 2-way repeated measure ANOVA and magnitude-based inferences. The ANOVA indicated significant decreases in jump height, power, and velocity during recovery. This should not be interpreted that no potentiation occurred. Each dependent variable reached a peak at a slightly different time: peak jump height (2.8 ± 2.3 min), mean power (3.6 ± 3.01 min), peak power (2.5 ± 1.8 min), and peak velocity (2.5 ± 1.8 min). Magnitude-based inference revealed that both the 5 × 70 and 3 × 85 protocol elicited changes that exceeded 75% likelihood of exceeding the smallest worthwhile change (SWC) for peak power and velocity. The 10 × 70 and the 5 × 70 had a substantial likelihood of potentiating peak velocity and mean power above the SWC, respectively. Magnitude-based inferences revealed that while no protocol had a substantial likelihood of potentiating the peak vertical jump, the 5 × 70 had the most consistent substantial likelihood of increasing the peak of most dependent variables. We were unable to consistently predict if these peaks occurred at 1, 3, or 5 min poststimulation, though declines after 5 min seems probable.

Impacts of integration of wind and solar PV in a typical power network

Integration of solar PV and wind in to the distribution network is one of the most promising challenges of the modern power system networks to meet the growing demand of energy. Analysis of the effects of solar and wind intermittencies in the network are vital to maintain the power quality. Keeping this in view, this research paper focuses on impact analysis study of a typical power network with hybrid generation: solar PV and wind integration to quantify the level of impacts like power variation and voltage variation in the network through load flow analysis. Initially, a typical network model is developed using PSS-SINCAL and load profile analysis has been carried out based on the typical daily load profile and wind/solar profile to verify the power and voltage variations extensively in the network considering different scenarios. Results of this research analysis can be used as guidelines for utility grid to provide regulated and improved quality of energy supply by implementing appropriate planning of generation reserve and other control measures in the network