Employee engagement : the development of a three dimensional model of engagement; and an exploration of its relationship with affective leader behaviours

This study was designed to examine affective leader behaviours, and their impact on cognitive, affective and behavioural engagement. Researchers (e.g., Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005; Moorman et al., 1998) have called for more research to be directed toward modelling and testing sets of relationships which better approximate the complexity associated with contemporary organisational experience. This research has attempted to do this by clarifying and defining the construct of engagement, and then by examining how each of the engagement dimensions are impacted by affective leader behaviours. Specifically, a model was tested that identifies leader behaviour antecedents of cognitive, affective and behavioural engagement. Data was collected from five public-sector organisations. Structural equation modelling was used to identify the relationships between the engagement dimensions and leader behaviours. The results suggested that affective leader behaviours had a substantial direct impact on cognitive engagement, which in turn influenced affective engagement, which then influenced intent to stay and extra-role performance. The results indicated a directional process for engagement, but particularly highlighted the significant impact of affective leader behaviours as an antecedent to engagement. In general terms, the findings will provide a platform from which to develop a robust measure of engagement, and will be helpful to human resource practitioners interested in understanding the directional process of engagement and the importance of affective leadership as an antecedent to engagement.

Airports in their urban settings : towards a conceptual model of interfaces in the Australian context

In Australia, airports have emerged as important sub-regional activity centres and now pose challenges for both airport operation and planning in the surrounding urban and regional environment. The changing nature of airports in their metropolitan context and the emergence of new pressures and problems require the introduction of a fresh conceptual framework to assist the better understanding of these complex roles and spatial interactions. The approach draws upon the meta-concept of interfaces of an ‘airport metropolis’ as an organising device consisting of four main domains: economic development, land use,infrastructure, and governance. The paper uses the framework to further discuss airport and regional interactions and highlights the use of sustainability criteria to operationalise the model. The approach aims to move research and practice beyond the traditionally compartmentalised analysis of airport issues and policy-making by highlighting interdependencies between airports and regions.

Elicitator : an expert elicitation tool for regression in ecology

Expert elicitation is the process of retrieving and quantifying expert knowledge in a particular domain. Such information is of particular value when the empirical data is expensive, limited, or unreliable. This paper describes a new software tool, called Elicitator, which assists in quantifying expert knowledge in a form suitable for use as a prior model in Bayesian regression. Potential environmental domains for applying this elicitation tool include habitat modeling, assessing detectability or eradication, ecological condition assessments, risk analysis, and quantifying inputs to complex models of ecological processes. The tool has been developed to be user-friendly, extensible, and facilitate consistent and repeatable elicitation of expert knowledge across these various domains. We demonstrate its application to elicitation for logistic regression in a geographically based ecological context. The underlying statistical methodology is also novel, utilizing an indirect elicitation approach to target expert knowledge on a case-by-case basis. For several elicitation sites (or cases), experts are asked simply to quantify their estimated ecological response (e.g. probability of presence), and its range of plausible values, after inspecting (habitat) covariates via GIS.

Measuring CRM and SCM benefits : a preliminary measurement model

Organizations invest heavily in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems, and their related infrastructure, presumably expecting positive benefits to the organization. Assessing the benefits of such applications is an important aspect of managing such systems. Considering the salient differences between CRM and SCM applications with other intra-organizational applications, existing Information Systems benefits measurement models and frameworks are ill-suited to gauge benefits of inter-organizational systems. This paper reports the preliminary findings of a measurement model developed to assess benefits of CRM and SCM applications. The preliminary model, which reflects the characteristics of the Analytic Theory, is derived using a review of 55 academic studies and 44 papers from the practice. Six hundred and six identified benefits were then synthesized in to 74 non-overlapping benefits, arranged under six dimensions.

Thai word segmentation with hidden Markov Model and decision tree

The Thai written language is one of the languages that does not have word boundaries. In order to discover the meaning of the document, all texts must be separated into syllables, words, sentences, and paragraphs. This paper develops a novel method to segment the Thai text by combining a non-dictionary based technique with a dictionary-based technique. This method first applies the Thai language grammar rules to the text for identifying syllables. The hidden Markov model is then used for merging possible syllables into words. The identified words are verified with a lexical dictionary and a decision tree is employed to discover the words unidentified by the lexical dictionary. Documents used in the litigation process of Thai court proceedings have been used in experiments. The results which are segmented words, obtained by the proposed method outperform the results obtained by other existing methods.

Biosecurity threats : the design of surveillance systems, based on power and risk

We consider the problem of designing a surveillance system to detect a broad range of invasive species across a heterogeneous sampling frame. We present a model to detect a range of invertebrate invasives whilst addressing the challenges of multiple data sources, stratifying for differential risk, managing labour costs and providing sufficient power of detection.We determine the number of detection devices required and their allocation across the landscape within limiting resource constraints. The resulting plan will lead to reduced financial and ecological costs and an optimal surveillance system.

Evaluating information systems

The book within which this chapter appears is published as a research reference book (not a coursework textbook) on Management Information Systems (MIS) for seniors or graduate students in Chinese universities. It is hoped that this chapter, along with the others, will be helpful to MIS scholars and PhD/Masters research students in China who seek understanding of several central Information Systems (IS) research topics and related issues. The subject of this chapter - ‘Evaluating Information Systems’ - is broad, and cannot be addressed in its entirety in any depth within a single book chapter. The chapter proceeds from the truism that organizations have limited resources and those resources need to be invested in a way that provides greatest benefit to the organization. IT expenditure represents a substantial portion of any organization’s investment budget and IT related innovations have broad organizational impacts. Evaluation of the impact of this major investment is essential to justify this expenditure both pre- and post-investment. Evaluation is also important to prioritize possible improvements. The chapter (and most of the literature reviewed herein) admittedly assumes a blackbox view of IS/IT1, emphasizing measures of its consequences (e.g. for organizational performance or the economy) or perceptions of its quality from a user perspective. This reflects the MIS emphasis – a ‘management’ emphasis rather than a software engineering emphasis2, where a software engineering emphasis might be on the technical characteristics and technical performance. Though a black-box approach limits diagnostic specificity of findings from a technical perspective, it offers many benefits. In addition to superior management information, these benefits may include economy of measurement and comparability of findings (e.g. see Part 4 on Benchmarking IS). The chapter does not purport to be a comprehensive treatment of the relevant literature. It does, however, reflect many of the more influential works, and a representative range of important writings in the area. The author has been somewhat opportunistic in Part 2, employing a single journal – The Journal of Strategic Information Systems – to derive a classification of literature in the broader domain. Nonetheless, the arguments for this approach are believed to be sound, and the value from this exercise real. The chapter drills down from the general to the specific. It commences with a highlevel overview of the general topic area. This is achieved in 2 parts: - Part 1 addressing existing research in the more comprehensive IS research outlets (e.g. MISQ, JAIS, ISR, JMIS, ICIS), and Part 2 addressing existing research in a key specialist outlet (i.e. Journal of Strategic Information Systems). Subsequently, in Part 3, the chapter narrows to focus on the sub-topic ‘Information Systems Success Measurement’; then drilling deeper to become even more focused in Part 4 on ‘Benchmarking Information Systems’. In other words, the chapter drills down from Parts 1&2 Value of IS, to Part 3 Measuring Information Systems Success, to Part 4 Benchmarking IS. While the commencing Parts (1&2) are by definition broadly relevant to the chapter topic, the subsequent, more focused Parts (3 and 4) admittedly reflect the author’s more specific interests. Thus, the three chapter foci – value of IS, measuring IS success, and benchmarking IS - are not mutually exclusive, but, rather, each subsequent focus is in most respects a sub-set of the former. Parts 1&2, ‘the Value of IS’, take a broad view, with much emphasis on ‘the business Value of IS’, or the relationship between information technology and organizational performance. Part 3, ‘Information System Success Measurement’, focuses more specifically on measures and constructs employed in empirical research into the drivers of IS success (ISS). (DeLone and McLean 1992) inventoried and rationalized disparate prior measures of ISS into 6 constructs – System Quality, Information Quality, Individual Impact, Organizational Impact, Satisfaction and Use (later suggesting a 7th construct – Service Quality (DeLone and McLean 2003)). These 6 constructs have been used extensively, individually or in some combination, as the dependent variable in research seeking to better understand the important antecedents or drivers of IS Success. Part 3 reviews this body of work. Part 4, ‘Benchmarking Information Systems’, drills deeper again, focusing more specifically on a measure of the IS that can be used as a ‘benchmark’3. This section consolidates and extends the work of the author and his colleagues4 to derive a robust, validated IS-Impact measurement model for benchmarking contemporary Information Systems (IS). Though IS-Impact, like ISS, has potential value in empirical, causal research, its design and validation has emphasized its role and value as a comparator; a measure that is simple, robust and generalizable and which yields results that are as far as possible comparable across time, across stakeholders, and across differing systems and systems contexts.

Building partnerships as a key strategy in developing an event management model for an international dance event : a case study of the 2008 WDA (World Dance Alliance) Global Summit, Brisbane, Australia

With the increasing growth of cultural events both in Australia and internationally, there has also been an increase in event management studies; in theory and in practice. Although a series of related knowledge and skills required specifically by event managers has already been identified by many researchers (Perry et al., 1996; Getz, 2002 & Silvers et al., 2006) and generic event management models proposed, including ‘project management’ strategies in an event context (Getz, 2007), knowledge gaps still exist in relation to identifying specific types of events, especially for not-for-profit arts events. For events of a largely voluntary nature, insufficient resources are recognised as the most challenging; including finance, human resources and infrastructure. Therefore, the concepts and principles which are adopted by large scale commercial events may not be suitable for not-for-profit arts events aiming at providing professional network opportunities for artists. Building partnerships are identified as a key strategy in developing an effective event management model for this type of event. Using the 2008 World Dance Alliance Global Summit (WDAGS) in Brisbane 13-18 July, as a case study, the level, nature and relationship of key partners are investigated. Data is triangulated from interviews with organisers of the 2008 WDAGS, on-line and email surveys of delegates, participant observation and analysis of formal and informal documents, to produce a management model suited to this kind of event.

A model of teacher professional development based on the principles of lesson study

The researcher’s professional role as an Education Officer was the impetus for this study. Designing and implementing professional development activities is a significant component of the researcher’s position description and as a result of reflection and feedback from participants and colleagues, the creation of a more effective model of professional development became the focus for this study. Few studies have examined all three links between the purposes of professional development that is, increasing teacher knowledge, improving teacher practice, and improving student outcomes. This study is significant in that it investigates the nature of the growth of teachers who participated in a model of professional development which was based upon the principles of Lesson Study. The research provides qualitative and empirical data to establish some links between teacher knowledge, teacher practice, and student learning outcomes. Teacher knowledge in this study refers to mathematics content knowledge as well as pedagogical-content knowledge. The outcomes for students include achievement outcomes, attitudinal outcomes, and behavioural outcomes. As the study was conducted at one school-site, existence proof research was the focus of the methodology and data collection. Developing over the 2007 school year, with five teacher-participants and approximately 160 students from Year Levels 6 to 9, the Lesson Study-principled model of professional development provided the teacher-participants with on-site, on-going, and reflective learning based on their classroom environment. The focus area for the professional development was strategising the engagement with and solution of worded mathematics problems. A design experiment was used to develop the professional development as an intervention of prevailing teacher practice for which data were collected prior to and after the period of intervention. A model of teacher change was developed as an underpinning framework for the development of the study, and was useful in making decisions about data collection and analyses. Data sources consisted of questionnaires, pre-tests and post-tests, interviews, and researcher observations and field notes. The data clearly showed that: content knowledge and pedagogical-content knowledge were increased among the teacher-participants; teacher practice changed in a positive manner; and that a majority of students demonstrated improved learning outcomes. The positive changes to teacher practice are described in this study as the demonstrated use of mixed pedagogical practices rather than a polarisation to either traditional pedagogical practices or contemporary pedagogical practices. The improvement in student learning outcomes was most significant as improved achievement outcomes as indicated by the comparison of pre-test and post-test scores. The effectiveness of the Lesson Study-principled model of professional development used in this study was evaluated using Guskey’s (2005) Five Levels of Professional Development Evaluation.

Developing an integrated decision model for the enhancement of sustainability deliverables for Australian road infrastructure projects

Road and highway infrastructure provides the backbone for a nation's economic growth. The versatile dispersion of population in Australia, from sparsely settled communities in remote areas to regenerated inner city suburbs with high density living in metropolitans, calls for continuing development and improvement on roads infrastructure under the current federal government policies and state governments' strategic plans. As road infrastructure projects involve large resources and mechanism, achieving sustainability not only in economic scales but also through environmental and social responsibility becomes a crucial issue. Current efforts are often impeded by different interpretation on sustainability agenda by stakeholders involved in these types of projects. As a result, sustainability deliverables at the project level is not often as transparent and measurable, compared to promises in project briefs and designs. This paper reviews the past studies on sustainable infrastructure construction, focusing on roads and highway projects. Through literature study and consultation with the industry, key sustainability indicators specific to road infrastructure projects have been identified. Based on these findings, this paper introduces an on-going research project aimed at identifying and integrating the different perceptions and priority needs of the stakeholders, and issues that impact on the gap between sustainability foci and its actual realization at project end level. The exploration helps generate an integrated decision-making model for sustainable road infrastructure projects. The research will promote to the industry more systematic and integrated approaches to decision-making on the implementation of sustainability strategies to achieve deliverable goals throughout the development and delivery process of road infrastructure projects in Australia.