“Flipped Classroom” for Teaching Business Research in a Business Management Course

This presentation will report on a cross-department collaboration between the library and the business/economics department at Lehman College to conduct information literacy instruction as a “flipped classroom.”

Information system development for demolition material management

Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Information Systems and Development, held in Melbourne, Australia, August 29-31, 2003

Framework for undergraduate engineering management studies

The importance of management to the long-term careers of practicing professional engineers has long been recognized. Undergraduate engineering education should therefore provide an exposure to the management skills required by engineers in professional practice. For the rational and effective design of undergraduate engineering management studies, it is essential to understand the nature of engineering management and to identify those management skills identified as important by practicing professional engineers. Through an investigation of the recent literature, the management skills considered important by engineering stakeholder groups are identified and ranked. This information is supplemented by recent surveys conducted by the author of stakeholders in Australia, including academic staff, mature age undergraduate students, and recent graduates of the engineering programs at Deakin University in Australia. Based on an examination of the literature and original research, a framework of ranked classified management skills is proposed. Broadly, the ranking framework is generic professional skills first, followed by general management skills and technical discipline specific management skills, followed by other professional discipline skills and theoretical skills.

Program management: the next step in the evolution of project management?

The term ‘program management’, while referred to occasionally in journals, organisation publications and by training consultants, is not a widely acknowledged notion. While literature on project management is plentiful and the concept is well entrenched in both a practical and academic
sense, program management is a term that is used differently by various sectors. Its meaning is less defined and more broadly applied than that of project management. For example, although Program Managers are sometimes recruited under that title, the definition still remains somewhat
obscure. Seen mostly in the health and education public sectors, program management is commonly thought of as separate to project management but, as this paper will suggest, program management is more likely an extension of project management and a complementary tool to achieving
organisational outcomes. This paper attempts to clarify the distinctions between the management approaches by looking at existing literature and comparing it to common practice in a government instrumentality. It will become apparent that further research is needed regarding this significant
step in the evolution of management practices.

A framework for environmental management system adoption and maintenance : an Australian perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for environmental management system (EMS) adoption which can be used by managers to enable them to achieve a faster, smoother, effective and sustainable EMS implementation. This is termed by the authors as “successful” EMS implementation.
Design/methodology/approach – The framework presented is based on an extensive field study conducted in Australia that included a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews conducted with practitioners, the results of which have been reported in this and other journals.
Findings – The framework presented covers three distinct phases, namely development, certification and maintenance and continuous improvement. Preliminary assessment of this framework by a group of Australian experts that included four senior managers, one academic and one consultant suggests that this framework is a useful tool for implementing an effective EMS.
Practical implications – Each of the three phases of the framework provides a step-by-step approach and a sequential map towards a successful EMS implementation.
Originality/value – The framework has been developed from extensive fieldwork and has been validated by a group of “experts” which comprised of four industry practitioners, one management academic, and one EMS consultant. The framework provides a detailed understanding of the steps involved in the implementation, certification, and maintenance of EMS.

Deception: a tool and curse for security management

With the proliferation of electronic information systems over the last two decades, the integrity of the stored data and its uses have become an essential component of effective organisational functioning. This digitised format, used in input, output, processing, storage, and communication, has given those wishing to deceive new opportunities. This paper examines the nature of deception and its potential as a new security risk in the information age.

Establishing quality online: supporting productive academic teams

Quality online education requires successful management of resources and services. This paper examines the increasing need to support productive academic teams and foster collaboration in developing a high quality online environment. The paper is based on a study into academic support services and collaboration at Deakin University. The provision of quality support was found to be increasingly challenging given the complexity of the online university environment. A number of recommendations arise out of the study including some practical changes to service, the need to commit to innovation, the importance of frameworks and standards as well as a range of broader cultural, organisational and political changes.

Mental tactility: the ascendance of writing in online management education

A qualitative study of online management education and the role of writing as an indicative measure of thinking and learning. Established educational models, such as Dale's Cone of Experience, are expanded and redeveloped to illustrate the central role of writing as a critical thinking process which appears to be increasing, rather than decreasing, with the advent of online multimedia technology. In an environment of increasing reliance on audiovisual stimulus in online education, the authors contend that tertiary educators may witness an ascendance or re-emergence of writing as central to the academic experience. This may be both supply and demand driven. Drawing on a study of two undergraduate units in the Bachelor of Commerce and applying hermeneutics to develop challenging insights, the authors present a case for educators to remain conversant with the art of teaching writing, and to promote writing to improve educational outcomes.

Australian commercial-critical infrastructure management protection

Secure management of Australia's commercial critical infrastructure presents ongoing challenges to owners and the government. Although managed via a high-level information sharing collaboration of government and business, critical infrastructure protection is further complicated by the lack of a lower-level scalable model exhibiting its various levels, sectors and sub-sectors. This research builds on the work of Marasea (2003) to establish a descriptive critical infrastructure model and also considers the influence and proposed modelling of critical infrastructure dependency inter-relationships.

Critical infrastructure protection, modelling and management: an Australian commercial case study

This research extends upon the previous work of Pye and Warren (2005) and presents a refinement of the previously proposed critical infrastructure model to enhance further our understanding and apprecication of where the likely inter-play and existance of dependency relationships between infrastructures coexist.

These associations are presented as a number of linkages that exist within each sector of Australia'a critical infrastructure, which is then extended further to the modelling of dependency inter-relationships that exist between critical infrastructures itilising Petri Nets.  The recognition and identification of such reliance relationships between critical infrastructures is necessary to allow both infrastructure owners and the government to identify and effectively manage and maintain the security, stability and availability of their particular critical infrastructure against potential scenario driven effects.  These issues are reflected within a case study as modelled using the Petri Net approach to encapsulate the issues of reliance relationships by drawing upon an Australian commercial case study.

International and culturally inclusive curricula-an engineering management unit audit case study

SEB421 Strategic Issues in Engineering is a final-year engineering management study unit at Deakin University in which the enrolled student population has grown to include significant numbers of international students. Given this change, it was considered timely to conduct a review of the unit, with regard to principles of international and culturally inclusive curricula. Despite the historically white Anglo-Saxon male culture of engineering education in Australia, there are a wide range of international and cultural aspects related to engineering education. A review of the literature reveals a diversity of interpretations of 'internationalisation' and 'cultural inclusiveness'. From a pragmatic perspective, it is noted that organisational policy can provide guidance for academic staff seeking to make courses more inclusive. From a review of the literature and relevant university policies, a list of 'international and culturally inclusive curricula' guidelines for engineering management education was developed. Comparing a prior audit of SEB421 with these guidelines revealed progress on international and culturally inclusive curricula, but identified opportunities for improvement. The guidelines were applied to the curriculum/syllabus, content/study materials, conduct and assessment of the unit, to identify further opportunities for improvement. A plan for improvement of the unit and an associated timetable for this work were developed. It was noted that some changes can be made immediately, while others are contingent upon the timetable imposed by university systems. It was further noted that issues of change within a single study unit intersect with wider issues of program curriculum, and, while pilot activities can provide a start, eventually the wider issue of international and culturally inclusive curricula across the entire undergraduate engineering program needs to be considered.

Ethnocentricity in academic marketing journals: a study of authors, reviewers, editorial boards and editors

Purpose – This paper aims to examine and compare a set of key characteristics of ethnocentricity that influence the policy of academic marketing journals, and hence the provenance, authorship and nature of articles in academic marketing journals.

Design/methodology/approach – The “fundamental” characteristics of three major marketing journals, published in the USA, the UK and New Zealand, were examined for the six-year period from the start of 2000 to the end of 2006. Data were collected from editorials and web homepages. Analysis was conducted of 811 articles, 1,676 authors, three editorial teams and three sets of reviewers

Findings – There is a challenging academic ethnocentricity in the management and implied policy of the three journals. The extent varies, but the inescapable conclusion is that the world-wide research community in marketing is not properly represented by leading journals.

Research limitations/implications – The sample was intentionally small, and unrepresentative of any category except “leading quality”. The findings are intended to add momentum to a debate and point ways forward, not to provide generalisable answers.

Practical implications – The findings suggest that: the editorial boards and reviewing teams should be made more representative geographically; editorships should be organized around the concept of a team of geographically differentiated editors; editorial and review teams should be ethnographically representative of individuals who do research and wish to publish it, particularly beyond the English-speaking world. In general, the world-wide research community in marketing would benefit from less ethnocentricity in academic journals, and these leading examples should strive to reduce it.

Originality/value – The impact of ethnocentricity is underestimated in this context. The issue needs to be discussed, because of paradigmatic influences that it can have on a journal and the profile of its authors, and hence on journal ranking and perceptions of journal quality.

Online pedagogy and academic work

This paper emerges from a study that foregrounds the complex nature of the consequences of a decision to implement a range of new technologies including a Learning Management System at one university. The paper draws upon data from interviews with academics to provide insights into the experience of being academic in the 21st century during a time when new technologies of teaching, learning and administration impact on the work of professional academics. It focuses on how academics view and understand online teaching environments; how they make professional judgments about their use of online environments in their teaching and how they make professional judgments about pedagogy. In doing this the paper looks at the differing levels of uptake of new technologies by academics, their levels of engagement and disengagement, the complexity of their relationship with these technologies and their impact on the pedagogy of academics in the study as it looks at patterns of usage in terms of age, gender and levels of experience of academics. It demonstrates the importance of pedagogy to academics and the problems that academics face many of which can be attributed to the impact of measures of bureaucratisation and standardisation including the introduction of an LMS that some argue has lead to the homogenisation of the experience of teaching and learning for both academics and students.