Explosion Of Information Technology Research Articles

Employee Monitoring: Evaluative Surveillance v. Privacy

In this paper I will address the tension between evaluative surveillance and privacy against the backdrop of the current explosion of information technology. More specifically, and after a brief analysis and justification of privacy rights, I will argue that knowledge of the different kinds of surveillance used at any given company should be made explicit to the employees. Moreover, there will be certain kinds of evaluative monitoring that violate privacy rights and should not be used in most cases. As we shall see, certain jobs may warrant a smaller domain of privacy. We should not conclude, however, that the arguments used in these cases are easily generalized.

The Role of Computer Labs in Teaching and Learning Process in The Field of Mathematical Sciences

Integrating information technology into teaching and learning process can be carried out through theme-centered and softwarecentered approaches. Along with the explosion of information technology, teaching and learning in mathematical science is further extended with the diversity of mathematical and statistical software packages available in the computer lab. This paper discusses the use of a computer lab among lecturers at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The objective is to determine the role of the computer lab as a medium of teaching and learning process in mathematical sciences. The paper ends with some appropriate approaches to promote the use of computer labs in the teaching and learning process.

Understanding Qualitative Evidence for Emergency Nursing Practice

attributes that make them who they are. 3 The benefits of EBP are many and include benefits to patients, clinicians, organizations, and to the nursing profession. Patients experience improved outcomes when the care they receive is based on scientific evidence. They gain a sense of ownership of their health when their preferences and values are integrated into their plans of care, as called for in the definition by Sackett and colleagues. Nurses benefit by having a clinical practice that is based on sound evidence. We gain autonomy, experience tremendous professional growth, and personally benefit from the recognition of our critical thinking skills. Our organizations also experience benefits related to EBP, including improved patient outcomes and satisfaction, consistency in care delivery, and the nurturing of an environment supportive of professional nursing practice. EBP can serve as a stimulus for collaborative and interdisciplinary practices, can improve job satisfaction for involved practitioners, and is a useful retention and recruitment tool at a time when many organizations are faced with challenges in this area. In addition, EBP benefits our nursing profession by contributing to the professional image of nursing, providing vision for our future collective direction, providing opportunities for professional networking, and encouraging nurses to both use and contribute to the growth and development of our science. While nursing research and EBP are unique, their integration within a single setting has the potential to enhance the larger assimilation of research within the clinical arena. This larger degree of evidence integration is essential to advancing practice because we know that many of our currentpracticesarebasedonoutdatedtextbookknowledge,the practicesofourpeers,orwhatwelearnedasstudents,andthe latter two sources may or may not be based on evidence. The explosion of information technology, including the availability of Web-based information, adds a layer of complexity to the already difficult task of keeping our nursing practices current. It is impossible to keep up with the sheer volume of new information being published each day. EBP models can provide ways for clinicians working in today’s fast-paced care delivery environments to synthesize and apply large volumes of research knowledge to their practices.

Attitudinal Correlates of Selected Nigerian Librarians Towards the Use of Information Technology

The explosion of information technology (IT) since the beginning of the 20th century rendered manual-based library systems, in academic, research, special and public libraries, irrelevant. Implementing information technology in the digital age depends largely on librarians' attitudes. This study examines the attitudinal correlates of selected Nigerian librarians towards the use and application of IT in their libraries. Forty-one librarians were surveyed from the four selected automated libraries in state of Oyo in Nigeria form the study's population. Two research questions were developed to guide the study. The results indicate that four out of the five variables age, gender, educational qualifications and prior knowledge of IT significantly correlate with the librarians' attitudes towards IT. The other variable, IT anxiety, correlates negatively with the librarians' attitudes towards IT. Findings further show that all the five variables significantly predict librarian's attitude towards IT with prior IT experience showing the greatest predictive effect. Based on these findings, libraries in the developing countries should consider sending their librarians, who do not have knowledge of IT, to IT training in order to remove fear and anxiety hindering them from developing a better attitude towards the use of IT in their libraries.

Evidence-Based Policy and Social Work in Health and Mental Health

SUMMARY Social policies, including those in healthcare, have most often been developed in response to the pressure of vested interest groups, practicalities of the day, politics, ideologies and values, habits and traditions, and resource constraints. Knowledge, including that gained through systematic research and careful reasoning, too often has entered into the policy process in a haphazard fashion overwhelmed by these other forces. Too often our most valuable resource, knowledge, has been squandered. As a consequence social policies and healthcare policies have fallen short of their potential effectiveness, especially in terms of long-term outcomes. However, with the dawn of the 21st century major global changes are occurring such that social policies must be responsive to unprecedented global threats to population health, changing demographics, increasingly constrained resources, and growing citizen demand for equitable and valued outcomes. This will require that social policies of the 21st century place knowledge and evidence at the center of the policy-making process. Knowledge is the world's most valuable resource and it should no longer be squandered so flagrantly. The knowledge and information technology explosion is producing unprecedented resources that should be used for effective healthcare policies. The challenge is to find ways to rapidly disseminate and efficiently use knowledge and evidence in the policy process. This article describes new developments in evidence-based policy as a promising strategy for the use of knowledge to enhance health and mental health worldwide.

The role and characteristics of a manager in the strategic transformation of the health care system

Introduction: Global markets and competition, fast changes, the explosion of information technology, integration processes in international relations are some of the initial factors for changes in health care organizations and their management. Management represents an evolving new generic function of all organizations of social significance across the world. Managers in the health sector have exceptionally complex roles that require new skills and methods. The objective of this study is to analyze in grater detail, explain and describe the role and necessary skills of a health care manager in the strategic transformation of health care management. The modern health care manager can get the best results by strengthening human resources and meeting employees' personal needs in accordance with the global and specific goals of the health care institution. The manager is at the same time a mentor and a facilitator, putting to best use the forementioned transformation strategies whilst expending the resources carefully, strengthening the collective efforts, involving employees in the decision-making process and motivating teamwork and collective problem-solving.

Decomposing Composition: Service-Oriented Software Engineers

This article deals with software development life cycles to support development in service-centric software systems. The explosion of information technology (including service-oriented architecture) and its underlying capabilities has led to the evolution of software development life cycles over the past three decades. Software engineers are continuously exploring approaches to software and system development that are domain, application, and technology independent. Early approaches included waterfall life cycles that promote creating concrete requirements before any significant design or development occurs.

Evidence-based practice: from medicine to social work

The last 10 years have witnessed an increasing interest in evidence-based practice in the field of medicine. The product of a time characterised by the explosion of information technology, a heightened sense of risk, and the enshrining of the principles of economy, effectiveness, transparency and consumerism, evidence-based practice has rapidly expanded from medicine to other fields, including social work. The new paradigm has generated not only great enthusiasm in many areas of the social work profession but also an intense debate about the transferability of the principles of evidence-based practice from medicine to a discipline that operates amidst particularly complex and multifaceted societal factors. Similarly, the concept of evidence upon which social work practice should be based has been the object of considerable discussion, though initial emphasis on results from randomised controlled trials seems to be gradually shifting towards broader approaches to defining evidence. Although organisational constraints and job pressures are likely to favour the use, among practitioners, of ‘preappraised’ resources, this should not prevent social workers from acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary to make independent and critical appraisal of evidence.

Development Phase of Systematic Training: New Technology Lends Assistance

The problem and the solution. The field of human resource development (HRD) has long ascribed to the analysis, design, develop, implement, and evaluate (ADDIE) model for the systematic creation and delivery of training programs. The development phase is where the actual materials and course content used in the teaching-learning process are created. With the explosion of information technologies in today’s world, the course developer must now make the best decision about how to use electronic support related to training. There is a need to explore the development phase of systematic training to see what information technologies are available for the training developer and how these technologies enhance the development process and outcomes.

Establishing library ‘key skill’ confidence levels amongst a cohort of nursing students at an English university

This article presents the findings of a small-scale preliminary survey of one cohort of students studying towards a Diploma/BSc in Nursing. The survey sought to establish student characteristics and indicate their confidence levels using identified key library facilities. From questionnaires (N=64), the data confirmed the 'typicality' of the student group illuminating a breadth of prior experiences in terms of students' prior learning and perceived confidence in using library resources. Whilst a number of respondents indicated confidence using identified library resources, a significant number of students (typically over one third n=14+) indicated that they lacked confidence in and did not utilise library facilities. This suggests that they may not be using the resources to full advantage. Over half of the respondents (53% n=23) had not attended library skills training within the last two years and 9% (n=4) had not used the library although they were completing assignments. This survey points to gaps in student confidence, and by implication, use of key library skills, particularly those involving electronic resources. At a time of widening participation and the explosion of information technology, this survey is a timely reminder of the need to revisit key skill development for nursing students studying in higher education.

A New Model for Physician Group Structure

A New Model for Physician Group Structure

Computer-based monitoring in the American workplace: Surveillance technologies and legal challenges

With the explosion in information technology, deploying desktop Internet access for corporations is becoming common place. Corporate managers are dealing with issues of protecting their corporations from legal exposure, especially in relation to downloading of pornographic or racist material, and from unwanted content. While the reasons offered by employers for doing computer-based monitoring may appear ethical and legal, employers who aggressively monitor must stay current on the laws because they may be liable for multiple violations of federal and state laws. This paper reviews surveillance technologies and discusses different arguments of computer-based monitoring. This is followed by the discussion of related federal and state laws and judicial decisions. The paper concludes with guidelines for developing computer-based monitoring policies.

Overcoming the Oil and Gas Talent Void By Focusing on the Core Business

Playing to its core strengths is generally a sound strategy for any company, in any industry. But it is especially important now for oil and gas companies, when technical and scientific talent in the oil patch is so hard to come by. The oil and gas work force has been declining steadily for almost 20 years. During that time, many companies that should have been competing vigorously for the dwindling resource of human capital instead found themselves staffing up in noncore functions. Supply and Demand Leads to…Bust? Other industries have had their slumps, but the bust that hit the oil and gas industry in 1986 was unusually severe and has left long-lasting marks. When commodity prices collapsed, technical, professional, and field workers were forced to leave the industry by the hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of companies disappeared, and in many cases they were acquired by larger competitors. The most striking way in which the oil and gas slump of 1986 was quite different from that which affected other industries is that when the recovery came, workers who had been forced to leave did not return. More alarmingly, they were not replaced with new talent either. The reasons were numerous. Chief among them was the intensely cyclical nature of the industry and the depth of the downside. People were no longer willing to weather the cyclical nature of oil prices. Also responsible were the explosion of information technology, the advent of the Internet, and the subsequent boom in high-tech, high-paying jobs in this hot new industry. The best and brightest technical and professional workers now had more options than ever before. Of course, one also needs to be honest about the image problem. Negative portrayals of the oil and gas industry in the media and political circles undoubtedly caused many qualified young workers to take their talents elsewhere. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were approximately 33,000 petroleum engineers in the United States in 1983. By 2002, that number had dropped 45% to 18,000. The numbers for geologists and geophysicists are similar—from 65,000 in 1983 to 48,000 in 2002, a drop of 26%. Conversely, the number of computer systems analysts exploded from 276,000 in 1983 to 1.7 million in 2002—a growth of 531%. While young people were choosing different career paths, the oil and gas workers who entered the work force in the 1960s and 1970s—and survived the 1980s—continued to shepherd the industry through turbulent times. They are now either retired or nearing retirement age, leaving the industry with a serious lack of manpower.

The Quality of Spanish Health Information Websites

Spurred by the explosion of information technology and access to information, Internet health sites used to gather information about disease and wellness have become an accepted health education tool (Sciamanna, Clark, Houston & Diaz, 2002). There is growing evidence of concerted efforts to use the Internet to increase the access of health information to underserved populations such as Hispanics, a subpopulation with significant disparity in access to health care and health information (Hartel & Mehling, 2002). Many Hispanics are in danger of being left behind in the process, not because they reside on the wrong side of the “technology-divide,” but because they reside on the wrong side of the “quality gap.” Although 36% of Hispanics report having Internet access (Barreto, Ibarra, Macias & Pachon, 2000), the full advantage of the Internet requires that they have access to quality information. And while there has been significant work carried out on the reliability of health material on the Internet, only a few studies have looked at the quality of the health information on the Web written in Spanish (Berland et al., 2001). In this study, 10 health themes were searched using popular search engines to generate fifty health Websites aimed at providing Spanish speakers health information. The sites were then evaluated by two raters using a 16-question assessment tool that was validated in previous research done on Internet health Websites. Summated Kappa coefficients on the reviewer ratings were found to have high inter-rater reliability (r =.78). The results of this evaluation indicated that there is significant variability in the quality of health information on the Web. Furthermore, this lack of consistency in quality in health Websites is more likely to be seen in those developed and managed within Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. The article concludes that a mechanism should be developed to standardize the quality of the health information on the Internet, and to ensure the Internet as a promising vehicle through which to eliminate health disparities in Spanish populations.

Freedom from Choice

Freedom from Choice

The Turnover and Retention of it Managers in Rapidly Changing Organizations

The explosion of information technology (IT) during the 1990s created tremendous opportunities and challenges for IT professionals. As organizations expanded and integrated their information technology into their business functions and made greater use of the Internet as a business tool and marketing channel, the demand for IT managers to guide these efforts created unprecedented career opportunities. Industry sources suggest that even amid the peaks and valleys of turbulent IT business cycles, there is a chronic shortage of top-quality IT managers in North America and that this situation will persist well into the foreseeable future. These supply-and-demand dynamics make it imperative for organizations to know why IT managers leave their positions and, using this knowledge, formulate effective retention strategies.

Famine and Famine Early Warning: Some Contributions by Geographers

Introduction FAMINE HAS BEEN a universal feature of human history that largely disappeared from Western experience after 1850. However, the catastrophic run of drought and famine in sub-Saharan Africa from the 1970s onward raised famine to a topic of global concern. In response to these emergencies, the international community began to develop information systems that would provide an early warning of food security emergencies. Since 1975, a number of formal systems have been launched to provide this information. They have drawn on a variety of physical and economic data sources to make their forecasts (Hutchinson, 1991). The quantity and quality of data that have been gathered to monitor the status of food security across Africa has increased dramatically as a consequence of the explosion in information technology. However, development of the theoretical framework in which these data are interpreted has tended to lag technical capacity. Surprising to some, much of the framework that has been put in place draws, in part, on the work of geographers.

Platforms and Real Options in Industrial Organization

We need a robust theory to analyse the dynamics of new industrial organizations that are being created by the explosion of information technology. This paper sets out a new theoretical perspective and suggests a new empirical framework towards formulating such a theory. The new conceptual tools of analysis presented here include the “platform” as a key element of new market structures, “real options” analysis to deal with genuine uncertainty, and an understanding of a new form of competition that takes place among different platforms. JEL Classification Numbers: L10, L12, L15, D81.

Employee Monitoring and Computer Technology: Evaluative Surveillance V. Privacy

Abstract:In this article I address the tension between evaluative surveillance and privacy against the backdrop of the current explosion of information technology. More specifically, and after a brief analysis of privacy rights, I argue that knowledge of the different kinds of surveillance used at any given company should be made explicit to the employees. Moreover, there will be certain kinds of evaluative monitoring that violate privacy rights and should not be used in most cases.

Challenges to Engineering Education in the 21st Century

The advent of the 21st century is marked by three significant features that will critically influence the global engineering market: the end of the Cold War and the liberalization of world economies, the information technology explosion, and the emergence of new dynamic and potent economies. The global engineering market at the dawning of the 21st century brings new challenges to engineering education and to the fundamental assets of the global engineer. This paper presents some concepts on the profile of the global engineer and his education portfolio. The paper also proposes that American universities ride the tide of progress and compete vigorously in the global education scene.