Understanding Shared Services : an exploration of the IS literature

In a competitive environment, companies continuously innovate to offer superior services at lower costs. ‘Shared services’ have been extensively adopted in practice as one means for improving organisational performance. Shared services is considered most appropriate for support functions, and is widely adopted in Human Resource Management, Finance and Accounting; more recently being employed across the Information Systems function. IS applications and infrastructure are an important enabler and driver of shared services in all functional areas. As computer based corporate information systems have become de facto and the internet pervasive and increasingly the backbone of administrative systems, the technical impediments to sharing have come down dramatically. As this trend continues, CIOs and IT professionals will need a deeper understanding of the shared services phenomenon and its implications. The advent of shared services has consequential implications for the IS academic discipline. Yet, archival analysis of IS the academic literature reveals that shared services, though mentioned in more than 100 articles, has received little in depth attention. This paper is the first attempt to investigate and report on the current status of shared services in the IS literature. The paper presents detailed review of literature from main IS journals and conferences, findings evidencing a lack of focus and definitions and objectives lacking conceptual rigour. The paper concludes with a tentative operational definition, a list of perceived main objectives of shared services, and an agenda for related future research.

Shared leadership in Queensland schools : a collective case study

Shared leadership has been identified as a key governance base for the future of government and Catholic schools in Queensland, the state’s two largest providers of school education. Shared leadership values the contributions that many individuals can make through collaboration and teamwork. It claims to improve organisational performance and reduce the increasing pressures faced by principals. However despite these positive features, shared leadership is generally not well understood, not well accepted and not valued by those who practice or study leadership. A collective case study method was chosen, incorporating a series of semi-structured interviews with principals and the use of official school documents. The study has explored the current understanding and practice of shared leadership in four Queensland schools and investigated its potential for use.

Dragline automation - a decade of development : shared autonomy for improving mining equipment productivity

Draglines are massive machines commonly used in surface mining to strip overburden, revealing the targeted minerals for extraction. Automating some or all of the phases of operation of these machines offers the potential for significant productivity and maintenance benefits. The mining industry has a history of slow uptake of automation systems due to the challenges contained in the harsh, complex, three-dimensional (3D), dynamically changing mine operating environment. Robotics as a discipline is finally starting to gain acceptance as a technology with the potential to assist mining operations. This article examines the evolution of robotic technologies applied to draglines in the form of machine embedded intelligent systems. Results from this work include a production trial in which 250,000 tons of material was moved autonomously, experiments demonstrating steps towards full autonomy, and teleexcavation experiments in which a dragline in Australia was tasked by an operator in the United States.

The stewardship paradigm : an enquiry into the ethical obligation associated with being in control of resorces

The resource allocation and utilization discourse is dominated by debates about rights particularly individual property rights and ownership. This is due largely to the philosophic foundations provided by Hobbes and Locke and adopted by Bentham. In our community, though, resources come not merely with rights embedded but also obligations. The relevant laws and equitable principles which give shape to our shared rights and obligations with respect to resources take cognizance not merely of the title to the resource (the proprietary right) but the particular context in which the right is exercised. Moral philosophy regarding resource utilisation has from ancient times taken cognizance of obligations but with ascendance of modernity, the agenda of moral philosophy regarding resources, has been dominated, at least since John Locke, by a preoccupation with property rights; the ethical obligations associated with resource management have been largely ignored. The particular social context has also been ignored. Exploring this applied ethical terrain regarding resource utilisation, this thesis: (1) Revisits the justifications for modem property rights (and in that the exclusion of obligations); (2) Identifies major deficiencies in these justifications and reasons for this; (3) Traces the concept of stewardship as understood in classical Greek writing and in the New Testament, and considers its application in the Patristic period and by Medieval and reformist writers, before turning to investigate its influence on legal and equitable concepts through to the current day; 4) Discusses the nature of the stewardship obligation,maps it and offers a schematic for applying the Stewardship Paradigm to problems arising in daily life; and, (5) Discusses the way in which the Stewardship Paradigm may be applied by, and assists in resolving issues arising from within four dominant philosophic world views: (a) Rawls' social contract theory; (b) Utilitarianism as discussed by Peter Singer; (c) Christianity with particular focus on the theology of Douglas Hall; (d) Feminism particularly as expressed in the ethics of care of Carol Gilligan; and, offers some more general comments about stewardship in the context of an ethically plural community.

Understanding shared services : an exploration of the IS literature

In a competitive environment, companies continuously innovate to offer superior services at lower costs. ‘Shared Services’ have been extensively adopted in practice as a means for improving organizational performance. Shared Services are considered most appropriate for support functions and are widely adopted in human resource management, finance and accounting, and more recently employed as an information systems (IS) function. As computer-based corporate information systems have become de facto and the backbone of administrative systems, the technical impediments to sharing have come down dramatically. As this trend continues, CIOs and IT professionals need a deeper understanding of the Shared Services phenomenon. Yet, analysis of IS academic literature reveals that Shared Services, though mentioned in more than 100 articles, has received little in depth attention. This paper investigates the current status of Shared Services in IS literature. The authors present a detailed review of literature from main IS journals and conferences. The paper concludes with a tentative operational definition, a list of perceived main objectives of Shared Services, and an agenda for related future research.

Developing shared understandings of standards-based assessment : online moderation practices across geographically diverse contexts

This thesis investigates the place of online moderation in supporting teachers to work in a system of standards-based assessment. The participants of the study were fifty middle school teachers who met online with the aim of developing consistency in their judgement decisions. Data were gathered through observation of the online meetings, interviews, surveys and the collection of artefacts. The data were viewed and analysed through sociocultural theories of learning and sociocultural theories of technology, and demonstrates how utilising these theories can add depth to understanding the added complexity of developing shared meaning of standards in an online context. The findings contribute to current understanding of standards-based assessment by examining the social moderation process as it acts to increase the reliability of judgements that are made within a standards framework. Specifically, the study investigates the opportunities afforded by conducting social moderation practices in a synchronous online context. The study explicates how the technology affects the negotiation of judgements and the development of shared meanings of assessment standards, while demonstrating how involvement in online moderation discussions can support teachers to become and belong within a practice of standards-based assessment. This research responds to a growing international interest in standards-based assessment and the use of social moderation to develop consistency in judgement decisions. Online moderation is a new practice to address these concerns on a systemic basis.

Public sector strategy classification system for shared service identification

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to address the lack of consistent means through which strategies are identified and discussed across theoretical perspectives in the field of business strategy. A standardised referencing system is offered to codify the means by which strategies can be identified, from which new business services and information systems may be derived. This taxonomy was developed using qualitative content analysis study of government agencies’ strategic plans. This taxonomy is useful for identifying strategy formation and determining gaps and opportunities. Managers will benefit from a more transparent strategic design process that reduces ambiguity, aids in identifying and correcting gaps in strategy formulation, and fosters enhanced strategic analysis. Key benefits to academics are the improved dialogue in strategic management field and suggest that progress in the field requires that fundamentals of strategy formulation and classification be considered more carefully. Finally, the formalization of strategy can lead to the clear identification of new business services, which inform ICT investment decisions and shared service prioritisation.

An exploration of shared services types in higher education

The emerging global Higher Education (HE) market challenges all universities to reconsider their mission, in order to function effectively and efficiently, and to be responsive to changing marketplace demands. Universities are considering cooperating or sharing in a wide range of areas, in order to achieve sought after cost savings and improvements in performance.Studies suggest that a wide range of services could potentially be shared across Higher Education Institutions (HEIs),offering several potential benefits. While there are many individual documented examples of how shared services have been applied in the Higher Education sector, there has been little synthesis, conceptualization or discussion (in general or in the HE sector) around the different types of possible shared services options and how they are structured. A deeper understanding of potential types of sharing arrangements will be of value to those universities considering shared services, implementing shared services, and managing shared services. Through analysis of 36 documented case studies of shared services in HE, this study sought to synthesize a typology of sharing arrangements. An inductive approach was used to identify the core differentiating dimensions. The findings present eight types of sharing arrangements that occur in the HE sector, with descriptions and examples from the case studies observed.

Creating new narratives through shared time and space : the performer/audience connection in multi-site dance events

Site-specific performance provides choices in audience experience via degrees of scale, proximity, levels of immersion and viewing perspectives. Beyond these choices, multi-site promenade events also form a connected audience/performer relationship in which moving together in time and space can produce a shared narrative and aesthetic sensibility of collective, yet individuated and shifting meanings. This paper interrogates this notion through audience/performer experiences in two separate multi-site, dance-led events. here/there/then/now occurred in four intimate sites within the Brisbane Powerhouse, providing a theatricalised platform for audiences to create linked narratives through open-ended and fragmented intertextuality. Accented Body, based on the concept of “the body as site and in site” and notions of connectivity, provided a more expansive platform for a similar, but heightened, shared engagement. Audiences traversed 6 outdoor and 2 indoor Brisbane sites moving to varying levels of a large complex. Eleven, predominantly interactive, screens provided links to other sites as well as to distributed presences in Seoul and London. The differentiation in scale and travel time between sites deepened the immersive experiences of audiences who reported transformative engagements with both site and architecture, accompanied by a sense of extended and yet quickened time.

Toward a shared understanding of competency in programming : an invitation to the BABELnot Project

The ICT degrees in most Australian universities have a sequence of up to three programming subjects, or units. BABELnot is an ALTC-funded project that will document the academic standards associated with those three subjects in the six participating universities and, if possible, at other universities. This will necessitate the development of a rich framework for describing the learning goals associated with programming. It will also be necessary to benchmark exam questions that are mapped onto this framework. As part of the project, workshops are planned for ACE 2012, ICER 2012 and ACE 2013, to elicit feedback from the broader Australasian computing education community, and to disseminate the project’s findings. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the project to that broader Australasian computing education community and to invite their active participation.