Call for action : investigating the role of business process management in green IS

Sustainable practices are more than ever on the radar screen of organizations, triggered by a growing demand of the wider population towards approaches and practices that can be considered "green" or "sustainable". Our specific intent with this call for action is to immerse deeper into the role of business processes, and specifically the contributions that the management of these processes can play in leveraging the transformative power of information systems (IS) in order to create environmentally sustainable organizations. Our key premise is that business and information technology (IT) managers need to engage in a process-focused discussion to enable a common, comprehensive understanding of process, and the process-centered opportunities for making these processes, and ultimately the organization as a process-centric entity, "green". Based on a business process lifecycle model, we propose possible avenues for future research.

Tastes of India

A travel article about southern India.

The emerging management services of business transformation management

Business transformations are large-scale organizational change programs that, evidence suggests, are often unsuccessful. Our interest is in identifying the management capabilities required for the successful execution of these projects. We advance a service-oriented view of the enterprise, which suggests that different management services need to be identified and integrated in order to execute business transformation. In order to identify those management services that require integration, we conducted an exploratory empirical study of the demand for management services in US and Asia, and we show that two archetypes of management services exist in business transformation initiatives: transactional and transformational management services. We identify the relevant set of transactional and transformational services and discuss what the demand for these services implies for the execution of business transformations.

Using virtual worlds for collaborative business process modeling

Purpose Process modeling is a complex organizational task that requires many iterations and communication between the business analysts and the domain specialists. The challenge of process modeling is exacerbated, when the process of modeling has to be performed in a cross-organizational, distributed environment. In this paper we suggest a 3D environment for collaborative process modeling, using Virtual World technology. Design/methodology/approach We suggest a new collaborative process modeling approach based on Virtual World technology. We describe the design of an innovative prototype collaborative process modeling approach, implemented as a 3D BPMN modeling environment in Second Life. We use a case study to evaluate the suggested approach. Findings Based on our case study application, we show that our approach increases user empowerment and adds significantly to the collaboration and consensual development of process models even when the relevant stakeholders are geographically dispersed. Research limitations implications – We present design work and a case study. More research is needed to more thoroughly evaluate the presented approach in a variety of real-life process modeling settings. Practical implications Our research outcomes as design artifacts are directly available and applicable by business process management professionals and can be used by business, system and process analysts in real-world practice. Originality/value Our research is the first reported attempt to develop a process modeling approach on the basis of virtual world technology. We describe a novel and innovative 3D BPMN modeling environment in Second Life.

Franchise nations : theorising diaspora from outside In(dia)

Research on diaspora has long been dominated by approaches that centre on displacement, relocation, mixed identities, cultural hybridity, loss, yearning and disaffection. In this paper, I outline a fresh conceptual framework, franchise nation, which approaches the study of diaspora from the perspective of the state. What this framework allows is the study of the processes that states employ to woo, nurture and engage their diasporas so as to extend their sovereignty extra-territorially, ie. statecraft. The franchise nation concept draws on the notion of cultural expediency and complements two approaches that dominate the study of statecraft today: soft power and nation branding. However, the point of this is not, to borrow Gayatri Spivak’s words, to be either pro or anti-sovereign but rather to stay awake to how sovereignty is “invoked, extended, deterritorialised, aggregated, [and] abrogated” (2007). Far from suggesting the imminent arrival of a post-national period, the intention with the franchise nation concept is to explicate and better understand the complexities that inhabit the terrain between diaspora, home and host nation that allow and accompany the exercise of sovereignty from afar.

Enhancing professional ethics : service-learning in teacher education

The ethical conduct of professionals has been the focus of increasing scrutiny over the past several decades as members of the public, the media, professional bodies, and legislative authorities have struggled to define ethical behaviour in times of governmental change, increasing internationalisation, globalised communications, threats of terrorism, and the challenges of developments in science and medicine (e.g., Demmke & Bossaert, 2004). National governments and transnational bodies have responded to these concerns about ethics and corruption through measures such as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2004), Transparency International’s annual corruption index (2010) and Queensland’s Public Sector Ethics Act 1994 (Queensland Parliament 1994). Similarly, academic interest in ethics and its application across a range of domains(e.g., business, health care, social welfare, criminal justice, law, journalism, defence, environment, and media) has also increased. To illustrate, in 1993, a non-partisan, non-profit national umbrella organisation, the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics, was formed following a conference concerned with the teaching of ethics (http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au./aapae/about_aapae/about_aapae.htm), while a recent review of the Excellence in Research for Australian rankings of national and international academic journals revealed that 16 journals related to ethics had received the top ratings of A* or A (Australian Research Council, 2009). In this chapter we examine professional ethics and argue, with specific reference to the context of pre-service teacher education, that Service-learning is one way of enhancing emerging professionals’ understanding of ethics.

Incidence, severity and correlates of bicycling injuries in a sample of cyclists in Queensland, Australia

Bicycle injuries, particularly those resulting from single bicycle crashes, are underreported in both police and hospital records. Data on cyclist characteristics and crash circumstances are also often lacking. As a result, the ability to develop comprehensive injury prevention policies is hampered. The aim of this study was to examine the incidence, severity, cyclist characteristics, and crash circumstances associated with cycling injuries in a sample of cyclists in Queensland, Australia. A cross-sectional study of Queensland cyclists was conducted in 2009. Respondents (n=2056) completed an online survey about their cycling experiences, including cycling injuries. Logistic regression modelling was used to examine the associations between demographic and cycling behaviour variables with experiencing cycling injuries in the past year, and, separately, with serious cycling injuries requiring a trip to a hospital. Twenty-seven percent of respondents (n=545) reported injuries, and 6% (n=114) reported serious injuries. In multivariable modelling, reporting an injury was more likely for respondents who had cycled <5 years, compared to ≥10 years (p<0.005); cycled for competition (p=0.01); or experienced harassment from motor vehicle occupants (p<0.001). There were no gender differences in injury incidence, and respondents who cycled for transport did not have an increased risk of injury. Reporting a serious injury was more likely for those whose injury involved other road users (p<0.03). Along with environmental and behavioural approaches for reducing collisions and near-collisions with motor vehicles, interventions that improve the design and maintenance of cycling infrastructure, increase cyclists’ skills, and encourage safe cycling behaviours and bicycle maintenance will also be important for reducing the overall incidence of cycling injuries.

Mentoring across the professions : some issues and challenges

Mentoring has been identified as a valuable learning activity for beginners and more experienced personnel across a range of professions. For example, education, nursing, medicine, law, accounting , and public administration are among those professions that have utilised mentoring programs as a way of socialising and developing the skills and competencies of new professionals. The definition of mentoring used in this paper comes from Hansford, Tennent, and Ehrich (2002, 2003) that describes mentoring as a process whereby a more experienced practitioner works with, supports, guides and provides professional development to a less experienced practitioner. Mentoring, then, is often used to develop novice or less experienced professionals at two important phases in their career: (i) during their initial university training; and (ii) after graduation from university. For example, within the field experience components of many university degrees in education, nursing, medicine, social work, and other human service programs, students are assigned workplace mentors who assist them in transferring important skills and knowledge learned at university into practical setting. For concentrated periods of time during their degree, pre-service teachers, pre-service nurses and medical students work in the field alongside a workplace mentor.

Transitioning to practice across the professions : some lessons from the teaching profession

Across the professions, there is strong interest in the transition between graduation and early stages of professional practice. Our initial literature search revealed that this period of transition is significant to professions that include nursing, vets, midwives, financial planners, lawyers, occupational therapists, doctors as well as our particular area of interest - teachers. This importance is easy to understand for in these applied fields new graduates need to be competent in applying and synthesizing their theoretical content knowledge on a daily basis, often with limited supervision and mentoring (Goetz, Tombs & Hampton, 2005). As such, this transition period is of critical importance to the individual and their feelings of competence and early profession learning. An added layer for graduates in these professions during this transition/probation period is that they are also expected to have well-developed 'soft skills' such as communication, problem solving, and teamwork (Oblinger & Verville, 1998; Rao & Sylvester, 2000) in order to be effective in their roles.

Ethical dilemmas : a model to understand teacher practice

Over recent decades, the field of ethics has been the focus of increasing attention in teaching. This is not surprising given that teaching is a moral activity that is heavily values-laden. Because of this, teachers face ethical dilemmas in the course of their daily work. This paper presents an ethical decision-making model that helps to explain the decision-making processes that individuals or groups are likely to experience when confronted by an ethical dilemma. In order to make sense of the model, we put forward three short ethical dilemma scenarios facing teachers and apply the model to interpret them. Here we identify the critical incident, the forces at play that help to illuminate the incident, the choices confronting the individual and the implications of these choices for the individual, organization and community. Based on our analysis and the wider literature we identify several strategies that may help to minimize the impact of ethical dilemmas. These include the importance of sharing dilemmas with trusted others; having institutional structures in schools that lessen the emergence of harmful actions occurring; the necessity for individual teachers to articulate their own personal and professional ethics; acknowledging that dilemmas have multiple forces at play; the need to educate colleagues about specific issues; and the necessity of appropriate preparation and support for teachers. Of these strategies, providing support for teachers via professional development is explored more fully.

Workflow support for scheduling in surgical care processes

Real-world business processes rely on the availability of scarce, shared resources, both human and non-human. Current workflow management systems support allocation of individual human resources to tasks but lack support for the full range of resource types used in practice, and the inevitable constraints on their availability and applicability. Based on past experience with resource-intensive workflow applications, we derive generic requirements for a workflow system which can use its knowledge of resource capabilities and availability to help create feasible task schedules. We then define the necessary architecture for implementing such a system and demonstrate its practicality through a proof-of-concept implementation. This work is presented in the context of a real-life surgical care process observed in a number of German hospitals.

Remixing social media for location sharing on public urban screens

This paper introduces Sapporo World Window (hereafter SWW), an interactive social media mash-up deployed in a newly built urban public underground space utilising ten public displays and urban dwellers’ mobile phones. SWW enables users to share their favourite locations with fellow citizens and visitors through integrating various social media contents to a coherent whole. The system aims to engage citizens in socio-cultural and technological interactions, turning the underground space into a creative and lively social space. We present first insight from an initial user study in a real world setting.

A prototype augmented reality collaborative process modelling tool

Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually requires the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational business settings. While there are many process modelling tools available, the support they provide for remote collaboration is still limited. This demonstration showcases a novel prototype application that implements collaborative virtual environment and augmented reality technologies to improve remote collaborative process modelling, with an aim to assisting common collaboration tasks by providing an increased sense of immersion in an intuitive shared work and task space. Our tool is easily deployed using open source software, and commodity hardware, and is expected to assist with saving money on travel costs for large scale process modelling projects covering national and international centres within an enterprise.

Green, Greener, BPM?

I am sure you’ve heard it too: Green is the new Black. While this was true back in the days when Henry Ford introduced process standardization with his assembly line for the Ford Model T (over 15 million of these were sold!), Green is also the color of choice for many business organizations, private and public. I am not talking about the actual color of their business shirts or their logo 2.0.; I am referring to the eco-aware movement that has pushed sustainability into the top ten list of business buzz-words. What used to be a boutique market for tourism and political activists has become the biggest business revolution since the e-commerce boom. Public and private organizations alike push towards “sustainable” solutions and practices. That push is partly triggered by the immense reputational gains associated with branding your organization as “green”, and partly by emerging societal, legal and constitutional regulations that force organizations to become more ecologically aware and sustainable. But the boom goes beyond organizational reality. Even in academia, sustainability has become a research “fashion wave” (see [1] if you are interested in research fashion waves) similar to the hype around Neuroscience that our colleagues in the natural sciences are witnessing these days. Mind you, I’m a fan. A big fan in fact. As academics, we are constantly searching for problem areas that are characterized by an opportunity to do rigorous research (studies that are executed to perfection) on relevant topics (studies that have applied practical value and provide impact to the community). What would be a better playground than exploring the options that Business Process Management provides for creating a sustainable, green future? I’m getting excited just writing about this! So, join me in exploring some of the current thoughts around how BPM can contribute to the sustainability fashion parade and let me introduce you to some of the works that scholars have produced recently in their attempts to identify solutions.

A Raman spectroscopic study of bukovskýite Fe2(AsO4)(SO4)(OH)•7H2O-a mineral phase with a significant role in arsenic migration

The Raman spectrum of bukovskýite, Fe3+2(OH)(SO4)(AsO4)•7H2O has been studied and compared with the Raman spectrum of an amorphous gel containing specifically Fe, As and S elements and is understood as an intermediate product in the formation of bukovskýite. Observed bands are assigned to the stretching and bending vibrations of (SO4)2- and (AsO4)3- units, stretching and bending vibrations and librational modes of hydrogen bonded water molecules, stretching and bending vibrations of hydrogen bonded (OH)- ions and Fe3+-(O,OH) units. Approximate range of O-H...O hydrogen bond lengths is inferred from the Raman spectra. Raman spectra of crystalline bukovskýite and of the amorphous gel differ in that the bukovskýite spectrum is more complex, observed bands are sharp, the degenerate bands of (SO4)2- and (AsO4)3- are split and more intense. Lower wavenumbers of  H2O bending vibration in the spectrum of the amorphous gel may indicate the presence of weaker hydrogen bonds compared with those in bukovskýite.