Dynamic weaving of aspects for business process management systems

Reducing complexity in Information Systems is a main concern in both research and industry. One strategy for reducing complexity is separation of concerns. This strategy advocates separating various concerns, like security and privacy, from the main concern. It results in less complex, easily maintainable, and more reusable Information Systems. Separation of concerns is addressed through the Aspect Oriented paradigm. This paradigm has been well researched and implemented in programming, where languages such as AspectJ have been developed. However, the rsearch on aspect orientation for Business Process Management is still at its beginning. While some efforts have been made proposing Aspect Oriented Business Process Modelling, it has not yet been investigated how to enact such process models in a Workflow Management System. In this paper, we define a set of requirements that specifies the execution of aspect oriented business process models. We create a Coloured Petri Net specification for the semantics of so-called Aspect Service that fulfils these requirements. Such a service extends the capability of a Workflow Management System with support for execution of aspect oriented business process models. The design specification of the Aspect Service is also inspected through state space analysis.

We just make the pictures…?’ How work is portrayed in children’s feature length films

This article explores how adult paid work is portrayed in 'family' feature length films. The study extends previous critical media literature which has overwhelmingly focused on depictions of gender and violence, exploring the visual content of films that is relevant to adult employment. Forty-two G/PG films were analyzed for relevant themes. Consistent with the exploratory nature of the research, themes emerged inductively from the films' content. Results reveal six major themes: males are more visible in adult work roles than women; the division of labour remains gendered; work and home are not mutually exclusive domains; organizational authority and power is wielded in punitive ways; there are avenues to better employment prospects; and status/money is paramount. The findings of the study reflect a range of subject matters related to occupational characteristics and work-related communication and interactions which are typically viewed by children in contemporary society.

Safety leaders’ perceptions of safety culture in a large Australasian construction organisation

This paper reports safety leaders’ perceptions of safety culture in one of Australasia’s largest construction organisations. A modified Delphi method was used including two rounds of data collection. The first round involved 41 semi-structured interviews with safety leaders within the organisation. The second round involved an online quantitative perception survey, with the same sample, aimed at confirming the key themes identified in the interviews. Participants included Senior Executives, Corporate Managers, Project Managers, Safety Managers and Site Supervisors. Interview data was analysed using qualitative thematic analysis, and the survey data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Leaders’ definitions and descriptions of safety culture were primarily action-oriented and some confusion was evident due to the sometimes implicit nature of culture in organisations. Leadership was identified as a key factor for positive safety culture in the organisation, and there was an emphasis on leaders demonstrating commitment to safety, and being visible to the project-based workforce. Barriers to safety culture improvement were also identified, including the subcontractor management issues, pace of change, and reporting requirements. The survey data provided a quantitative confirmation of the interview themes, with some minor discrepancies. The findings highlight that safety culture is a complex construct, which is difficult to define, even for experts in the organisation. Findings on the key factors indicated consistency with the current literature; however the perceptions of barriers to safety culture offer a new understanding in to how safety culture operates in practice.

Creating value in project management using PRINCE2

This important research is published at a critical time in the history of PRINCE2. The world’s project managers are under incredible scrutiny and pressure to ensure their projects deliver quality on time and on budget – and even more so during a world recession. The research shows that PRINCE2 goes a long way to helping them achieve these goals. Although its origins began in the UK, PRINCE2 now has a truly international reach. We are delighted that the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has undertaken this global, thorough and informative research project. While it highlights the strengths of the methodology itself, the report also looks at the challenges organisations face when using a project management method such as PRINCE2. We’re sure the challenges will resonate with project managers around the world. Securing executive support to champion the adoption of PRINCE2, creating a robust business case and prioritising project governance are key issues that all project managers will grapple with during their career. The research also shows that to be thoroughly effective, organisations need to properly embed PRINCE2 and tailor it to suit their particular circumstances. Many successful organisations have sought the effective help of accredited consulting organisations to assist them in developing a programme to tailor and inculcate this method into their organisational culture. The latest version incorporates a whole chapter on tailoring PRINCE2. We believe that the publication of PRINCE2 Directing Successful Projects using PRINCE2 and the development of further support in the form of materials, mentoring and training for senior executives will be of significant benefit to contemporary project based organisations. The APM Group has already developed a qualification for sponsors in conjunction with the UK’s Home Office to help with this.

Business planning in emerging firms : do nascent and young firms use business planning differently

Previous research suggested that due to the uncertainties surrounding the venture creation process, planning activities may be more valuable for already operating firms than for emerging ventures (McGrath and MacMillan, 1995). Business planning may serve different purposes during the early stages of the venture development process. Early planning during the nascent stage may be used to marshal the resources toward the achievement of preliminary goals (Locke and Latham, 2000), to gain external legitimization and funding (Karlssson & Honig, 2009; Stinchcombe, 1965). Planning may reduce the risk of future failure by facilitating the decision making process of launching -or not- the venture (Chwolka & Raith, 2011) by analysing the opportunity and its market potential (Boyd, 1991; Delmar & Shane, 2003). In later stages, planning may have a more internal role and may act as a strategic implementation tool (Brews & Hunt, 1999). However, if the reasons why ventures should engage (Frese, 2009) –or not- (Honig, 2004) in business planning have been investigated quite extensively (Brinckmann et al., 2010), how business plans are actually used over time by new ventures at different stages of their development and how these uses impact the performance of the firms are still unclear.

The culture of the journey as structure of the landscape: an inquiry on mobility facilities and identity of place

The structure of the travel, meant as cultural activity, is proposed as a key to read and design the urban or rural landscape.

Green business process management: towards the sustainable enterprise

- Preface by Richard T. Watson - Discusses the emerging challenges of designing “green” business processes - Presents tools and methods that organizations can use in order to design and implement environmentally sustainable processes - Provides insights from cases where organizations successfully engaged in more sustainable business practices Green Business Process Management – Towards the Sustainable Enterprise" consolidates the global state-of-the-art knowledge about how business processes can be managed and improved in light of sustainability objectives. Business organizations, a dominant part of our society, have always been a major contributor to the degradation of our natural environment, through the resource consumption, greenhouse emissions, and wastage production associated with their business processes. In order to lessen their impact on the natural environment, organizations must design and implement environmentally sustainable business processes. Finding solutions to this organizational design problem is the key challenge of Green Business Process Management. This book discusses the emerging challenges of designing “green” business processes, presents tools and methods that organizations can use in order to design and implement environmentally sustainable processes, and provides insights from cases where organizations successfully engaged in more sustainable business practices. The book is of relevance to both practitioners and academics who are interested in understanding, designing, and implementing “green” business processes. It also constitutes a valuable resource for students and lecturers in the fields of information systems, management, and sustainable development.

Green Business Process Management

In managing their operations, organizations have traditionally focused on economic imperatives in terms of time, cost, efficiency, and quality. In doing so, they have been a major contributor to environmental degradation caused by re-source consumption, greenhouse emissions, and wastage. As a consequence, or-ganizations are increasingly encouraged to improve their operations also from an ecological perspective, and thus to consider environmental sustainability as an additional management imperative. In order to lessen their impact on the natural environment, organizations must design and implement environmentally sustainable processes, which we call the challenge of Green Business Process Management (Green BPM). This chapter elaborates on the challenge and perspec-tive of Green BPM, and explores the contributions that business process management can provide to creating environmentally sustainable organizations. Our key premise is that business as well as information technology managers need to engage in a process-focused discussion to enable a common, comprehensive understanding of organizational processes, and the process-centered opportunities for making these processes, and ultimately the organization as a process-centric entity, “green.” Through our review of the key BPM capability areas and how they can be framed in terms of environmental sustainability considerations, we provide an overview and introduction to the subsequent chapters in this book.

Modeling and Analyzing the Carbon Footprint of Business Processes

Many corporations and individuals realize that environmental sustainability is an urgent problem to address. In this chapter, we contribute to the emerging academic discussion by proposing two innovative approaches for engaging in the development of environmentally sustainable business processes. Specifically, we describe an extended process modeling approach for capturing and documenting the dioxide emissions produced during the execution of a business process. For illustration, we apply this approach to the case of a governmental Shared Services provider. Second, we then introduce an analysis method for measuring the carbon dioxide emissions produced during the execution of a business process. To illustrative this approach, we apply it in the real-life case of an European airport and show how this information can be leveraged in the re-design of “green” busi-ness processes.

Small business entity tax concessions : through the eyes of the practitioner

The often competing imperatives of equity, simplicity and efficiency in the income tax regime, particularly the notion of simplicity, has been most evident within Australia’s small business sector over the last decade. In an attempt to provide tax simplification and reduce the tax compliance burden faced by Australian small businesses, provisions collectively referred to as the ‘simplified tax system’ or STS were introduced. The STS was designed to provide eligible small businesses with the option of adopting a range of ‘simplified’ tax measures designed to simplify their tax affairs whilst at the same time, reducing their tax compliance costs. Ultimately, a low take-up rate and accompanying criticisms led to a remodelled and rebadged concessionary regime known as the ‘Small Business Entity’ (SBE) regime which came into effect from 1 July 2007. This paper, through a pilot study, investigates the SBE regime though the eyes of the practitioner. In line the Australian Federal Government’s objective of simplification and reduced compliance costs, the purpose of the study was to (1) determine the extent to which the SBE concessions are being adopted by tax practitioners on behalf of their clients, (2) gain an understanding as to which individual SBE tax concessions are most favoured by practitioners, (3) determine the primary motivation as to why tax practitioners recommend particular SBE concessions to their clients, and (4) canvass the opinions of practitioners as to whether they believed that the introduction of the SBE concessions had met their stated objective of reducing tax compliance costs for small businesses. The findings of this research indicate that, while there is a perception that the SBE concessions are worth embracing, contrary to the policy intent, the reasons behind adopting the concessions was the opportunity to minimise a clients’ tax liability. It was revealed that adopting particular concessions had nothing to do with compliance costs savings and, in fact, the SBE concessions merely added another layer of complexity to an already cumbersome and complex tax code, which resulted in increased compliance costs for their small businesses clients. Further, the SBE concessions allowed tax practitioners the opportunity to engage in effective tax minimisation, thereby fulfilling the client advocacy role of the tax practitioner in maximising their clients’ tax preferences.

Development of zonal cartilage constructs : effects of chondrocyte subpopulation, compressive stimulation, and culture models

Articular cartilage is a highly resilient tissue located at the ends of long bones. It has a zonal structure, which has functional significance in load-bearing. Cartilage does not spontaneously heal itself when damaged, and untreated cartilage lesions or age-related wear often lead to osteoarthritis (OA). OA is a degenerative condition that is highly prevalent, age-associated, and significantly affects patient mobility and quality of life. There is no cure for OA, and patients usually resort to replacing the biological joint with an artificial prosthesis. An alternative approach is to dynamically regenerate damaged or diseased cartilage through cartilage tissue engineering, where cells, materials, and stimuli are combined to form new cartilage. However, despite extensive research, major limitations remain that have prevented the wide-spread application of tissue-engineered cartilage. Critically, there is a dearth of information on whether autologous chondrocytes obtained from OA patients can be used to successfully generate cartilage tissues with structural hierarchy typically found in normal articular cartilage. I aim to address these limitations in this thesis by showing that chondrocyte subpopulations isolated from macroscopically normal areas of the cartilage can be used to engineer stratified cartilage tissues and that compressive loading plays an important role in zone-dependent biosynthesis of these chondrocytes. I first demonstrate that chondrocyte subpopulations from the superficial (S) and middle/deep (MD) zones of OA cartilage are responsive to compressive stimulation in vitro, and that the effect of compression on construct quality is zone-dependent. I also show that compressive stimulation can influence pericelluar matrix production, matrix metalloproteinase secretion, and cytokine expression in zonal chondrocytes in an alginate hydrogel model. Subsequently, I focus on recreating the zonal structure by forming layered constructs using the alginate-released chondrocyte (ARC) method either with or without polymeric scaffolds. Resulting zonal ARC constructs had hyaline morphology, and expressed cartilage matrix molecules such as proteoglycans and collagen type II in both scaffold-free and scaffold-based approaches. Overall, my findings demonstrate that chondrocyte subpopulations obtained from OA joints respond sensitively to compressive stimulation, and are able to form cartilaginous constructs with stratified organization similar to native cartilage using the scaffold-free and scaffold-based ARC technique. The ultimate goal in tissue engineering is to help provide improved treatment options for patients suffering from debilitating conditions such as OA. Further investigations in developing functional cartilage replacement tissues using autologous chondrocytes will bring us a step closer to improving the quality of life for millions of OA patients worldwide.

Market orientation in the nonprofit sector

As the nonprofit sector moves into a more competitive environment it is being required by the community to become more efficient and effective. One response is for nonprofit organisations to become market oriented, which is the familiar response in the for-profit sector. Two components of market orientation, that is market segmentation and customer oriented products, fit well within the peculiarities of a nonprofit organisation. This is usually accompanied by the desire to obtain a competitive advantage causes problems for various stakeholders within the organisation. This paper contends that three factors, management, scarcity of resources, and conflict between organisational objectives and market orientation, are major influences on the adoption of a market oriented culture for a nonprofit organisation.

City meeting places: Brisbane's Hungry Jack's and Melbourne's Flinders Street Station

When arranging a place to meet in Brisbane, it has become almost second nature to say, “I’ll meet you outside Hungry Jack’s,” which is located in Queen Street Mall. In Melbourne, the common saying is, “I’ll meet you under the clocks,” which refers to the row of clocks above the main entrance to Flinders Street Railway Station. The saying “I’ll meet you under the clocks” is loaded with memory and history for most Melbournians—from WWII farewells to after school meetings. The clocks, and the station, have become part of the symbolic culture of the city. A feature of these two sites is the diversity of people who arrange to meet there, ranging from business people, tourists, teenagers, lovers, families to local schoolchildren. These two spaces cross boundaries of exclusion and enable people to feel as though they belong the city. While it seems appropriate for people to arrange to meet at a railway station, it is interesting that many people who meet at Flinders Street Station do not travel by train to arrive there: some walk; some take the tram and then walk; others arrive by bus. Similarly, most of the many people who arrange to meet outside Hungry Jack’s in Brisbane do not intend to enter the store...

An empirical study of business method patent applications filed in Australia 2000-2009

This article sets out the results of an empirical research study into the uses to which the Australian patent system is being put in the early 21st century. The focus of the study is business method patents, which are of interest because they are a controversial class of patent that are thought to differ significantly from the mechanical, chemical and industrial inventions that have traditionally been the mainstay of the patent system. The purpose of the study is to understand what sort of business method patent applications have been lodged in Australia in the first decade of this century and how the patent office is responding to those applications.

The Creative Industries, Culture and Policy

The rise of creative industries requires new thinking in communication, media and cultural studies, media and cultural policy, and the arts and information sectors. The Creative Industries, Culture and Policy sets the agenda for these debates, providing a richer understanding of the dynamics of cultural markets, creative labor, finance and risk, and how culture is distributed, marketed and creatively reused through new media technologies. This book: develops a global perspective on the creative industries and creative economy draws insights from media and cultural studies, innovation economics, cultural policy studies, and economic and cultural geography explores what it means for policy-makers when culture and creativity move from the margins to the center of economic dynamics makes extensive use of case studies in ways that are relevant not only to researchers and policy-makers, but also to the generation of students who will increasingly be establishing a ‘portfolio career’ in the creative industries. International in coverage, The Creative Industries traces the historical and contemporary ideas that make the cultural economy more relevant that it has ever been. It is essential reading for students and academics in media, communication and cultural studies. Table of Contents - Introduction - Origins of Creative Industries Policy - International Models of Creative Industries Policy - From Culture Industries to Cultural Economy - Products, Services, Production and Creative Work - Consumption, Markets, Technology and Cultural Trade - Globalization, Cities and Creative Spaces - Creative Industries and Public Policy - Conclusion