Interaction and effectiveness of corporate e-learning programmes

This study was conducted in a large Mexican organization running a virtual corporate university. It aimed to evaluate students' perceptions of three types of interaction (learner–teacher, learner–content and learner–learner) and their views on the effectiveness of online courses in terms of satisfaction, learning and behaviours. Twenty-six employees who had studied at least one online course within the organization answered an online survey. Four of them were interviewed. Results show that: (1) Learners value their interaction with the content the most. (2) Online learning is generally perceived as an effective method for delivering corporate training. (3) There is no perceived relationship between online interactions and training effectiveness. The findings are limited to the specific context of the participating organization. Further research into online learning in corporate settings is needed to understand training interactions and changes in job performance.     

Action e-learning: An exploratory case study of action learning applied online

Abstract

Web-based instruction, also called e-learning, is currently one of the most talked-about education and training media. To prepare courses for online delivery and to maintain their effectiveness, the designer must have an understanding of e-learning instructional design principles. Action learning is a proven, effective management development process that has not been implemented to date as an e-learning instructional methodology. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to examine the impact of the action learning process on the effectiveness of management level web-based instruction (WBI). A leader-led, management-level course using face-to-face delivery was converted to web-based instruction where action learning was the delivery methodology. Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Evaluation served as the evaluation tool to determine effectiveness of the intervention. It was found that, though challenging to facilitate, the action learning online method is effective and yields changes in participants' knowledge. However, contrary to expectations, online learning communities did not form.     

A multi-stakeholder view of social media as a supporting tool in higher education: An educator–student perspective

Social media in higher education is becoming increasingly important both in courses' delivery and assessment. This research explores the adoption of social media as a supporting tool in undergraduate (UG) education using both educators' and students' perspectives. The first study involves a survey of 205 educators who reported their views on the importance and use of social media within their management courses. The second study consists of four focus groups, which provides insights into students' perspectives and attitudes toward the use of social media by their educators in higher education. Results show that both educators and students acknowledge the importance of incorporating social media in delivery and assessment of courses and highlight its positive impact on students' deep learning experience and engagement, as well as their enhancement of collaborative and organizational skills. However, faculty is advised to keep a balance in terms of relevance of social media use, control, and usage level of social media platforms.     

An Analysis of Pedagogical Effects of Alternative Teaching Approaches of Goal Programming

Lee, Shim, and Lee [12] suggested the superiority of the signal flow graph (SFG) method over the modified simplex method in enhancing students' learning of goal programming (GP). The present study empirically investigated this claim by analyzing the effect of the SFG method of GP on students' learning. In the process, this study also developed an effective tool for measuring GP knowledge. The findings showed that students who learned the SFG method understood GP better and more easily than those who learned the concept through the modified simplex method. The students who learned the SFG method of GP were also less dependent on rules or formulas than the students who learned the modified simplex method.     

信息技术、核心能力和企业绩效的实证研究

信息技术增强企业竞争力的机理是有效提升企业信息技术应用水平的重要前提。基于核心能力理论构建信息技术资源和信息技术应用能力通过企业核心能力这一中介变量影响企业绩效的理论模型,并考虑环境动态性在信息技术增强企业竞争力过程中的调节效应,应用偏最小二乘法的结构方程模型,对中国296家企业的问卷调查数据进行分析。研究结果表明,在不考虑环境动态性的情况下,无论是信息技术资源还是信息技术应用能力都无法直接影响企业绩效,信息技术必须通过支持企业核心能力间接影响企业绩效;环境动态性在信息技术增强企业竞争力过程中有显著的调节作用,不同环境下信息技术影响企业绩效的机理是不同的,在稳定环境下企业信息技术应用的重点是获取支持核心能力的信息技术资源,在动态环境下企业更应该构建信息技术应用能力,才能实现对不断变化的核心能力的持续支持,进而提升企业绩效。     

Building Strategic Technology Alliances for Teaching and Learning

There is a major need for higher education to confront intense competition, enhance academic programs to meet the challenges of this competition, and to develop new teaching and learning strategies to meet the demands of the global marketplace. Technology and the Internet are intended to break down the barriers of time and space and enable more students to participate and collaborate with faculty and other students. Critical thresholds must be met in order to use technology to communicate, collaborate, and transform teaching and learning. Strategic technology alliances establish a partnership between technology vendors and higher education that will achieve these thresholds to meet the teaching and learning needs of the 21st century student. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Performance Impacts of Strategy,Information Technology Applications,and Business Process Outsourcing in U.S. Manufacturing Plants

This paper develops a conceptual model to study the role of outsourcing strategies and plant‐level information technology (IT) application infrastructure in the outsourcing of production and support business processes, as well as their subsequent impact on overall plant performance. We validate this model empirically using cross‐sectional survey data from U.S. manufacturing plants. We find that some IT applications are more effective at enabling the outsourcing of business processes than others. For example, the implementation of enterprise management systems is associated with the outsourcing of both production and support processes, whereas operations management systems are not associated with the outsourcing of plant processes. Plants with a low‐cost outsourcing strategy are more likely to outsource support processes than plants with a competency‐focused outsourcing strategy. However, both cost‐ and competency‐based strategies have a positive and similar impact on the outsourcing of production processes. In terms of implications for plant performance, our findings indicate that the outsourcing of production and support processes is associated with higher gross margins. Although plant IT infrastructure is positively associated with favorable on‐time delivery rates, there is no positive association between the incidence of plant outsourcing and on‐time delivery rates. These results have implications for crafting plant‐level outsourcing strategies and for investments in IT systems to facilitate the outsourcing of business processes for enhanced plant performance.     

Revitalizing the MBA for the New Millennium: A Collaborative Action Research Approach

Business schools are facing increased competition due to information technology innovations and customer dissatisfaction. In response, business schools are turning to a variety of solutions, such as team teaching, integrated curricula, and distance learning. This article presents the results of a collaborative action research project initiated by one business school faced with the need to revitalize its MBA program. The faculty engaged in this project learned much about the challenges of teaching an integrative course and the constancy of change. We share our conclusions and recommendations about an integrated curriculum, distance learning, adult learning, team teaching, revisions in program duration and structure, as well as advice on the necessary administrative support and compensation for business schools contemplating such changes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Information technology project outcomes: user participation structures and the impact of organization behavior and human resource management issues

Despite considerable research examining user participation in information technology (IT) project implementation, the findings are equivocal concerning how beneficial IT user participation is for project outcomes. Likewise, evidence concerning the management of various forms of user participation is also mixed. This study posits an integrated user participation structure composed of a combination of steering committees, cross-functional teams and project champions performing different functions and supporting each other during the course of project implementation. The study builds a research model that identifies the impact of various organization behavior and human resource management (OB/HRM) issues on the ability of the user participation structure to influence IT project outcomes. It presents the results of field research in the form of nine case studies to identify various OB/HRM factors that can discriminate between different IT project outcomes. The field study leads to a revised research model that emphasizes the role of processes and dynamics within the user participation structure, as well as the role of OB/HRM variables, in influencing the relationship between user participation structures and IT project outcomes.     

Managerial Influences on Intraorganizational Information Technology Use: A Principal-Agent Model

Our current understanding of information technology (IT) usage does not explain why and how managers can influence organizational members to use a new IT. Drawing on principal-agent research, this paper develops and tests a model of intraorganizational IT usage that addresses this important issue. Managerial incentives and control are examined as important components of managerial influences, which are linked to IT usage via a principal-agent model (PAM). Seven research hypotheses are generated from this model and empirically tested using a laboratory experiment. Results of the study indicate that managers can promote IT usage within organizations by designing appropriate incentives and control structures such as monitoring and multiple-period contracts. However, the effectiveness of these structures will depend on potential users' ability to distinguish between various forms of incentives and control.     

An evaluation of social learning and learner outcomes in a massive open online course (MOOC): a healthcare sector case study

ABSTRACT

This paper responds to calls for new inquiries into the use of technology in HRD. We examine how, and to what extent, social media tools contribute to learner experiences and learner outcomes in an HRD intervention in a workplace context. We analyse qualitative and quantitative data relating to a massive open online course (MOOC) in a healthcare sector case study setting. We examine the interaction between the MOOC programme, social learning through social media tools and learner outcomes. The results of our evaluation show that usage of social media tools does not significantly affect knowledge outcomes but social media usage enhances affective outcomes. We conclude that social media tools can foster productive social learning processes. We also find evidence of some reluctance to engage with the technologies and declining patterns of interactivity using social media over the duration of the MOOC programme. We conclude that a more nuanced theorization to take account of personal and professional workplace context is necessary to explain how learners regulate their engagement with social media tools and the effect of social technologies for sustained social learning in HRD interventions.     

Relationship between Online Retailers’ Reputation and Product Returns

Customer product returns are key cost drivers that eat into online retailers’ profits. However, management research has neglected to examine ways of reducing return rates without causing a concomitant decrease in sales. Drawing from signalling and dissonance theories, we investigate the relationship between online retailers’ reputation and product return rates. Two experiments designed to produce causal conclusions show that reputation reduces return rates (Studies 1 and 2) and that return motivation is a boundary condition for that relationship (Study 2). A field study based on an online consumer panel demonstrates the robustness of the negative impact of online retailer reputation on product returns in a setting that emphasizes external validity (Study 3), in comparison with Studies 1 and 2, which maximize internal validity. Study 3 also examines managerially important contingencies of the causal relationship by considering three variables: purchase frequency; retailer type; and customer gender. Overall findings indicate that an online retailer's reputation is a powerful means of reducing product return rates. The findings also show that the strength of the relationship between reputation and product returns is influenced by return motivation and the three variables investigated in the field study.     

Copyright Issues for the Distance Learning Professor

The Internet has made the accessibility of knowledge both instantaneous and global. The professor who teaches online must be aware of the legal issues created by digital technology. The scope of the Fair Use Doctrine in the U.S. Copyright Law is under debate by educators and copyright owners. Educators advocate amending the scope of works available for distance learning, under the Fair Use principle, to include the same range of exclusions allowed in face to face classrooms such as: audiovisual works, movies and videos. While copyright owners advocate licensing of materials, educators feel that licensing procedures and costs need to be geared to the needs and ability to pay of the educational institution, otherwise their distance learning students will not have access to the same materials as those who sit in the classroom. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Comparison of the influences of structured on-the-job training and classroom training approaches on trainees’ motivation to learn

Increasing trainees’ learning motivation is critical to help them perform well in the training programme. This paper aims to examine the influences of the structured on-the-job training (S-OJT) and classroom training approaches on trainees’ learning motivation and learning performance. An exploratory study was conducted with 90 students from a vocational school located at the Yunlin County in the Midwest of Taiwan who enrolled in a course entitled ‘hair coloring’. The training modules for S-OJT and classroom training were developed and delivered in the training courses. The survey was administered prior to and after the training courses to assess the influences of the training approaches. It was found that the trainees who received S-OJT generated higher learning motivation and learning performance compared with those who received the classroom training. Moreover, the trainees with lower initial learning motivation were motivated more and generated higher learning performance after receiving S-OJT. This study provides the potential theoretical and practical implications and can serve as reference when choosing the training approach for a designed training programme.     

Endogenous Adaptation: The Effects of Technology Position and Planning Mode on IT‐Enabled Change*

The redesign of information technology (IT)‐enabled work processes often necessitates fundamental design changes to the intended work process, the IT platform hosting the work process, or both. Research suggests that such design changes often can be traced to earlier decisions involving endogenous adaptation or internal organizational change. Two such decisions are a firm's technology position and planning mode. This study examines the relationship between technology position and planning mode in predicting the magnitude of design change in process redesign projects. The conceptual frame applied in examining these relationships involves a synthesis of Miles and Snow's adaptive cycle with elements central to concurrent engineering. Our results indicate that the magnitude of design change is related to differences in technology position and planning mode. To effectively implement organizational change, firms must leverage their IT platform by carefully timing IT investments in accordance with their adopted technology position. Directing the trajectory of a firm's IT platform and deploying it so as to complement the firm's technology position reduces design uncertainty, promoting reengineering success.     

学习型组织中知识共享的智障及治理策略研究

通过回顾相关文献,总结出组织学习的2个层次、组织学习过程的2个阶段及知识共享不畅的3个主要因素,并在此基础上建立了组织学习智障的分析框架.认为从知识共享的角度,动机不足造成个体与组织认知智障,机会缺失与能力匮乏造成个体与组织行为智障.然后针对以上4种学习智障,提出了相应的HRM策略,以促进组织内知识共享、克服组织学习智障.     

Systems Collaboration and Strategic Collaboration: Their Impacts on Supply Chain Responsiveness and Market Performance*

Recognizing the importance of interfirm collaboration and recent advancement of information technology (IT) to enhance joint decision making between firms, this study conceptualizes systems collaboration and strategic collaboration as two essential types of interfirm collaboration. The study then simultaneously examines the multiple roles of systems collaboration and strategic collaboration, and how they directly and indirectly influence a firm's supply chain responsiveness and market performance. Hypotheses are tested on survey data collected from 184 firms. Results suggest that the sequential relationships among IT competency, interfirm collaboration, and supply chain responsiveness have significant market performance implications.     

Are Individual Differences Germane to the Acceptance of New Information Technologies?

Persuading users to adopt new information technologies persists as an important problem confronting those responsible for implementing new information systems. In order to better understand and manage the process of new technology adoption, several theoretical models have been proposed, of which the technology acceptance model (TAM) has gained considerable support. Beliefs and attitudes represent significant constructs in TAM. A parallel research stream suggests that individual difference factors are important in information technology acceptance but does not explicate the process by which acceptance is influenced. The objective of this paper is to clarify this process by proposing a theoretical model wherein the relationship between individual differences and IT acceptance is hypothesized to be mediated by the constructs of the technology acceptance model. In essence then, these factors are viewed as influencing an individual's beliefs about an information technology innovation; this relationship is further supported by drawing upon extensive research in learning. The theoretical model was tested in an empirical study of 230 users of an information technology innovation. Results confirm the basic structure of the model, including the mediating role of beliefs. Results also identify several individual difference variables that have significant effects on TAM's beliefs. Theoretical contributions and practical implications that follow are discussed.     

Education DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A TOOL FOR ASSIGNING STUDENTS TO GROUPS FOR CLASS PROJECTS*

Group project work is an integral part of many university courses. Assigning students to project groups can be difficult because of the students' diverse backgrounds. Many instructors therefore decide not to assign group projects. This paper develops and validates an instrument that assigns both experienced and inexperienced students to different project groups, thereby creating a balanced, fair environment. The instrument is checked for reliability and validity and then is used to assign students to different project groups. Based on group performance, the end-of-the-semester results also are provided. Path analysis is used to test a causal model. Conclusions and implications for future research are presented.     

Employee Misuse of Information Technology Resources: Testing a Contemporary Deterrence Model

Recent research in information systems and operations management has considered the positive impacts of information technology (IT). However, an undesirable side effect of firms’ increasing reliance on IT to support the distribution and delivery of goods and services to customers is a greater exposure to a diverse set of IT security risks. One such risk is intentional employee misuse of technology resources. In this article, we draw upon modern deterrence frameworks to develop a predictive model of technology misuse intention that incorporates formal and informal sanctions as well as employment context factors. The model specifies previously untested relationships between formal and informal sanctions, thereby providing fresh insight into the role of sanctions in deterring technology misuse in organizations. Our results suggest that a predisposition toward the need for social approval and moral beliefs regarding the behavior are key determinants of technology misuse. Contrary to criminological research that has questioned the relative importance of formal sanctions in the deterrence process, we also found that the threat of formal sanctions has both direct and indirect influences on technology misuse intention. Further, from an employment context standpoint, employees who spend more working days away from the office (i.e., “virtual” mode) appear more inclined to misuse their organization's technology resources. The findings have implications for the research and practice of technology management.