Explaining Emergence and Consequences of Specific Formal Controls in IS Outsourcing – A Process-View

IS outsourcing projects often fail to achieve project goals. To inhibit this failure, managers need to design formal controls that are tailored to the specific contextual demands. However, the dynamic and uncertain nature of IS outsourcing projects makes the design of such specific formal controls at the outset of a project challenging. Hence, the process of translating high-level project goals into specific formal controls becomes crucial for success or failure of IS outsourcing projects. Based on a comparative case study of four IS outsourcing projects, our study enhances current understanding of such translation processes and their consequences by developing a process model that explains the success or failure to achieve high-level project goals as an outcome of two unique translation patterns. This novel process-based explanation for how and why IS outsourcing projects succeed or fail has important implications for control theory and IS project escalation literature.

The influence of formal and informal sales controls on customer-directed selling behaviors and sales unit effectiveness

Adaptive selling (AS) and customer-oriented selling (COS) constitute two key customer-directed selling behaviors for the success of the modern sales force. However, knowledge regarding the organizational factors that can induce salespeople to engage in those behaviors is strikingly limited. Against this background, we develop a comprehensive model that delineates the influences of formal and informal sales controls on AS and COS and, through them, on sales unit effectiveness. Based on a sample of sales managers in a major European Union country, we present new evidence that (a) formal and informal sales controls exert differential impact on salespeople's AS and COS behaviors; (b) AS directly and positively influences sales unit effectiveness; (c) COS affects sales unit effectiveness only indirectly, i.e. by fostering AS; and (d) outcome and cultural controls directly improve sales unit effectiveness. We conclude with a discussion of our findings for academics and practitioners.

Integración de la Medicina Tradicional y del Sistema de Salud Formal en las Estrategias Familiares Andinas

La medicina tradicional no solamente sigue vigente en los Andes bolivianos, sino constituye la opción de primera elección para las familias rurales. Un estudio realizado en dos comunidades de la Subcentral Waka Playa, Municipio Tapacarí, muestra que los campesinos quechua-hablantes de los valles interandinos integran el sistema tradicional con el sistema de salud formal en el marco de sus estrategias familiares, reflejando un diálogo ínter-ontológico entre diferentes concepciones de salud y de enfermedad. A lo largo de una larga interacción con su entorno natural, los pobladores de los Andes han desarrollado concepciones específicas sobre el ser humano, su relación con la naturaleza, la salud y la enfermedad. Este proceso resultó en un sistema de salud complejo, donde intervienen expertos locales como son los curanderos-adivinos y los parteros y que se basa en un amplio uso y conocimiento de la flora y fauna nativas. A parte de estos conocimientos especializados, la medicina tradicional andina se expresa también en las prácticas terapéuticas diarias de la población, transmitidas y re-inventadas de generación en generación en el contexto de la familia y de la comunidad. La introducción del sistema de salud formal en el área de estudio en los años 90, representado por una posta de salud, impactó las comunidades locales principalmente por el acceso a vacunas – y la consecuente erradicación de algunas enfermedades - y a métodos contraceptivos. Sin embargo, la biomedicina es todavía de acceso muy limitado además de, según la población local, no tener la capacidad para curar ciertas enfermedades locales como el “susto,” el “mal viento” o la “colerina”. Como en otras áreas del conocimiento ecológico local, se observa una pérdida general de los conocimientos vinculados a la medicina tradicional andina debido a varios factores socioeconómicos, el más impactante siendo el proceso masivo de migración de las zonas rurales a los centros urbanos y al trópico boliviano. Sin embargo, estos conocimientos todavía se mantienen vigentes y son altamente valorizados por la población local, como un elemento del mantenimiento de sus formas de vida y de relacionamiento con la “Madre Tierra” (Pachamama). Las familias de Waka Playa integran la medicina tradicional y el sistema de salud formal en sus estrategias de vida, en diferentes grados según factores como la migración, la educación, el sexo y la edad. El uso de la flora medicinal local también es diferenciado según la localización de la vivienda principal de las familias y la consecuente concentración geográfica de sus actividades en las diferentes zonas de producción agroecológicas. Por ultimo, el interés personal influye sobre el grado y el tipo de conocimiento de cada familia. La medicina tradicional juega un rol fundamental en el bien-estar de las familias campesinas andinas y por ello constituye un potencial importante para un desarrollo sostenible. En esta perspectiva, la revalorización de los saberes locales y la construcción de puentes de diálogo con el sistema de salud local son sumamente importantes. Este punto de vista tiene perspectivas prometedoras en el contexto político actual boliviano, que apoya la medicina tradicional en el marco del reconocimiento de las identidades indígenas, en miras a un desarrollo endógeno.

The Emergence of Formal Control Specificity in Information Systems Outsourcing: A Process-View

Information systems (IS) outsourcing projects often fail to achieve initial goals. To avoid project failure, managers need to design formal controls that meet the specific contextual demands of the project. However, the dynamic and uncertain nature of IS outsourcing projects makes it difficult to design such specific formal controls at the outset of a project. It is hence crucial to translate high-level project goals into specific formal controls during the course of a project. This study seeks to understand the underlying patterns of such translation processes. Based on a comparative case study of four outsourced software development projects, we inductively develop a process model that consists of three unique patterns. The process model shows that the performance implications of emergent controls with higher specificity depend on differences in the translation process. Specific formal controls have positive implications for goal achievement if only the stakeholder context is adapted, while they are negative for goal achievement if in the translation process tasks are unintendedly adapted. In the latter case projects incrementally drift away from their initial direction. Our findings help to better understand control dynamics in IS outsourcing projects. We contribute to a process theoretic understanding of IS outsourcing governance and we derive implications for control theory and the IS project escalation literature.

Public service use by residents of Jackson Hinds Gardens before and after enrollment

Homelessness is associated with high use of public services such as health care and criminal justice services. Intervention designs to reverse homelessness have broadly fallen into two categories: either standard care which employs requisitely addressing the causes of homelessness, or housing first, which emphasizes provision of permanent housing without requisitely addressing the causes of homelessness. Multiple cities have recently commenced housing first interventions. Locally, Houston’s first housing first development is the Jackson Hinds Gardens project. The purpose of this study is to analyze the public service use of residents of housing first in Houston. Residents of Jackson Hinds Gardens who have been enrolled for at least 6 months were evaluated for public service use for an equal amount of time preceding and during their residence at Jackson Hinds. Resident interactions with county health services and criminal justice entities were determined by electronic database searches; these data were supplemented by life experience interview data. Service usage values pre- and post-enrollment at Jackson Hinds Gardens were compared by paired t-test analyses. We found that ER and inpatient usage decreased following enrollment in Jackson Hinds, although these reductions were not significant. In contrast, outpatient care and number of medications significantly increased following enrollment. These analyses inform on the effects of housing first in another major city, as well as informing the ethical considerations regarding housing first versus standard care. ^

2011 Home Demonstration Gardens

Themes for the 2011 Home Demonstration Garden Field Days included 1) a storybook garden (vegetables and annual flowers named after characters in classic fairytales), 2) warty pumpkins, 3) new flowers and vegetables, 4) summer squash named after types of cats, 5) pole beans, and 6) sunflowers without pollen for use as cut flowers.

2010 Home Demonstration Gardens

Themes for the 2010 Home Demonstration Garden Field Days were several newer cultivars of annual flowers (zinnia, four o’clocks, gazania, gaillardia, petunia, coleus, and vinca), a blooming quilt block, eggplant cultivars (including an inedible eggplant), and a compost trial.

2011 Home Demonstration Gardens

Themes for the 2011 Home Demonstration Garden Field Days included 1) a storybook garden (vegetables and annual flowers named after characters in classic fairytales), 2) warty pumpkins, 3) new flowers and vegetables, 4) summer squash named after types of cats, 5) pole beans, and 6) sunflowers without pollen for use as cut flowers.

Estudios acerca de una axiologia formal y fenomenológica

Fil: Jesinghaus, Carlos.

La educación formal como instituido que media los procesos de inclusión/exclusión de las personas en situación de discapacidad

En estas sociedades occidentales modernas, deviene como “normal" y cotidiano la uniformización de los sujetos; resultando valores cada vez más preciados y exigidos la hegemonía en pensamiento, acción y sensación. En este sentido, y para el logro de tal emprendimiento, se entiende que han ido cambiando a lo largo de estos últimos tres siglos las formas de requerir tal hegemonía, no así la esencia de la misma, orientando a los seres en su individualidad y colectivamente hacia una hegemonía del deber ser. Se considera en este trabajo a la educación formal como uno de los pilares en los que se ha sostenido la formación de los sujetos sociales modernos. Será en base a las demarcaciones propias del disciplinamiento y la normalización adquirida a través de la currícula educativa que se delimiten marginalidades entre lo que se es y lo que se espera de cada sujeto.