Organizational Infrastructure Research Articles

In Search of Ethics Infrastructure in U.S. Local Governments: Building Blocks or Dead End?

The literature in public administration has advanced various propositions to promote ethical behavior. Local governments have undertaken various efforts in that direction. Those efforts are considered critical for building ethical leadership and culture in the long run. Based on a literature review and use of Social Learning Theory, we identify four building blocks of an ethics infrastructure for public organizations. Employing a comprehensive survey of local governments, this paper shows that displaying awareness and knowledge of ethics, enforcing rules and norms, demonstrating policy support for ethical behavior, and incentivizing the right behaviors are key building blocks of ethics infrastructure that still need improvement in local governments. The reality of ethics infrastructure revealed by the survey is far from the idealism promoted in the literature. We discuss the results and offer several insights and remedies.

Protect the land. Poison the sea. An environmental history of the Kirkcudbright Training Area and the firing of depleted uranium by the British Army (1982–2013)

AbstractLocated in the South West of Scotland, the Kirkcudbright Training Area, alongside the extensive Dundrennan weapons ranges, have been used since the Second World War for the training of the British Army. From the Cold War to today, Dundrennan has been the testing ground for the majority of British armoured vehicles, and the controversial firing of depleted uranium shells which took place from 1982 to 2013. This paper examines the response to the firings from protestors, campaigners and environmental campaign groups, and outlines why Scottish nationalists found common ground with them in opposing the actions of the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The response by the MOD, and in particular the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), to accusations of environmental mismanagement of the site are also discussed here. This counter narrative, which stresses the role of military conservation practices (known as ‘khaki conservation’) disseminated through the DIO publication Sanctuary is also scrutinised, noting the tensions between the requirements of the military and its environmental impact.

Sanctuaries or Battlegrounds? State Penetration in Places of Worship, University Campuses, and State Bureaucracy for Pro-Government Mobilization: Evidence from Iran (2015–2019)

What factors shape different levels of pro-government mobilization in authoritarian regimes? The existing literature has considered the threat of anti-regime protests as the primary driver of pro-government mobilization. While we confirm this finding in the literature, we argue that the regime’s organizational infrastructure significantly contributes to pro-regime mobilization. We identify places of worship, university campuses, and state bureaucracy as three main sites where states could extend their organizations for pro-government mobilization. Previous scholarship has considered universities and places of worship as free spaces for oppositional activities, but we argue that states might try to penetrate these sectors to extend their organizational reach. The statistical analyses of our original data on pro-government mobilization in Iran from 2015 to 2019 at the district level ( n = 429) provide robust support for this argument.

Towards The Future - Telerehabilitation In Stroke Care In Pakistanss.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death globally. Pakistan, a low-middle income country (LMIC), reports approximately 350 000 new stroke cases annually, including 20 000 cases each year from Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city populated by 12 million people1. Telerehabilitation is a fairly new branch of telemedicine, defined as the provision of rehabilitation amenities by experts to the patient using telecommunication technology. It reduces hospital stay and expense, thus proving beneficial for both the patient and healthcare provider. Its use is more common in high-income countries (HICs) than LMICs. Popular systems like the Rehab@Home2 framework are examples of telerehabilitation models for patients suffering from stroke3. There is a shortage of literature to comprehensively comment on the impact of telerehabilitation on stroke patients in LMICs. However, telehealth in neurology, termed teleneurology, has the potential for advancement in the treatment of patients with neurological diseases in LMICs, as they have the highest incidence of neurological disorders. A paper proposed that establishing a teleneurology network for Sub-Saharan Africa consisting of transcontinental, inter-regional, intraregional, and national networks will allow neurologists and neurology residents from LMICs to consult with their counterparts in HICs, thus improving the overall quality of the healthcare system4. Pakistan only has 3.2% of the current GDP devoted to the health sector, leading to limited medical facilities nationwide. The outbreak of Covid led to an uplift in the growth of telehealth which encourages evolution in the future. However, this advancement in the use of telehealth has been hindered by several factors since its inception in 2003, including a lack of legal framework and laws for the establishment of new programs, lack of sustainable support from the government, deficiency of funds and resources for the organization of infrastructure, distant rural areas with poverty, low literacy rate, limited cell phone ownership, and internet access. The scarcity of qualified doctors and trained paramedics or nurses and lack of awareness is another significant impediment as depicted by a survey, which informed that 98.2% of doctors employed in the public health sector in Karachi recorded a paucity of training workshops or conferences for telemedicine5. Hence, measures to overcome these barriers like investments from HICs, training workshops from pioneers of the field, and healthcare professionals who can offer services in multiple languages are some of the factors that can aid in effectively introducing telerehabilitation for the masses.

Infrastructure and the cognitive ecosystem: an irrevocable transformation

Disruption of legacy infrastructure systems by novel digital and connected technologies represents not simply the rise of cyberphysical systems as hybrid physical and digital assets but, ultimately, the integration of legacy systems into a new cognitive ecosystem. This cognitive ecosystem, an ecology of massive data flows, artificial intelligence, institutional and intellectual structures, and connected technologies, is poised to alter how humans and artificial intelligence understand and control our world. Infrastructure managers need to be ready for this paradigm shift, recognizing their systems are increasingly being absorbed into an emerging suite of data, analytical tools, and decisionmaking technologies that will fundamentally restructure how legacy systems behave and are controlled, how decisions are made, and most importantly how workers interact with the systems. Infrastructure managers must restructure their organizations and engage in cross-organizational sensemaking if they are to be capable of navigating the complexity of the cognitive ecosystem. The cognitive ecosystem is fundamentally poised to change what infrastructures are, necessitating the need for managers to take a close look at the functions and actions of their own systems. The continuing evolution of the Anthropocene and the cognitive ecosystem has profound implications for infrastructure education. A sustained commitment to change is necessary that restructures and reorients infrastructure organizations within the cognitive ecosystem, where knowledge is generated, and control of services is wielded by myriad stakeholders.

Monitoring and prediction of landslide-related deformation based on the GCN-LSTM algorithm and SAR imagery

A key component of disaster management and infrastructure organization is predicting cumulative deformations caused by landslides. One of the critical points in predicting deformation is to consider the spatio-temporal relationships and interdependencies between the features, such as geological, geomorphological, and geospatial factors (predisposing factors). Using algorithms that create temporal and spatial connections is suggested in this study to address this important point. This study proposes a modified graph convolutional network (GCN) that incorporates a long and short-term memory (LSTM) network (GCN-LSTM) and applies it to the Moio della Civitella landslides (southern Italy) for predicting cumulative deformation. In our proposed deep learning algorithms (DLAs), two types of data are considered, the first is geological, geomorphological, and geospatial information, and the second is cumulative deformations obtained by permanent scatterer interferometry (PSI), with the first investigated as features and the second as labels and goals. This approach is divided into two processing strategies where: (a) Firstly, extracting the spatial interdependency between paired data points using the GCN regression model applied to velocity obtained by PSI and data depicting controlling predisposing factors; (b) secondly, the application of the GCN-LSTM model to predict cumulative landslide deformation (labels of DLAs) based on the correlation distance obtained through the first strategy and determination of spatio-temporal dependency. A comparative assessment of model performance illustrates that GCN-LSTM is superior and outperforms four different DLAs, including recurrent neural networks (RNNs), gated recurrent units (GRU), LSTM, and GCN-GRU. The absolute error between the real and predicted deformation is applied for validation, and in 92% of the data points, this error is lower than 4 mm.

The research nexus and Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI): sharing our goal of an open, connected ecosystem of research objects

As a community, it is impossible to ignore the fact that sharing research and information related to research is a much broader proposition than sharing an article, book, or conference paper. In supporting an evolving scholarly record, making connections between research organizations, contributors, actions, and objects helps give a more complete picture of the scholarly record, which open infrastructure organizations like Crossref call the research nexus. Crossref is working to support this evolution and is thinking about the metadata it collects via its members and that it supplements and curates, to make it broader than the rigid structures traditionally provided by content types. Furthermore, because of Crossref’s commitment to the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI), this network of information will be global and openly available for anyone in the community to access and reuse. The present article describes this vision in more detail, including why it is increasingly important to support the links between research and elements that contribute or are related to that research; how Crossref, its members, and the wider community can support it; and the work and planning Crossref is doing to make it easier to achieve this.

Overview of the economic activity of cloud providers and research on the theoretical foundations of cloud computing

Introduction. Cloud services have become an integral part of all modern companies, contributing to business development, providing flexibility and scalability and accelerating business operations, the need to use cloud services will only grow in an environment where everything is constantly changing. With services such as data storage, computing power, and application hosting on the Internet, companies of all sizes can gain a competitive advantage.Providers that provide cloud services offer enterprises several advantages over the traditional approach in the organization of IT infrastructure. For example, one of the main types of cloud services is SaaS, or Software-as-a-Service, this model allows companies to pay only for what they use. This gives certain advantages over the use of its own iron, which requires a significant initial investment and ongoing costs to maintain the system in working order. The flexibility that can be provided by using the services of cloud providers is the ability to scale as needed both vertically, improving cloud hardware configurations, and horizontally, increasing the number of computing machines, it is obvious that such scaling attempts in companies that use their own architecture await significant investments and costs.The purpose of the study is to review the economic activities of cloud service providers, research and study the main aspects of cloud services and describe the basic definitions of cloud computing.Methods are based on the system-logical generalization of the content essence of theoretical aspects regarding the use of cloud services.Results. As a result of the study, definitions and recommendations for using the services of cloud providers were provided. The impact of cloud technologies on business and key performance metrics of software product development were analyzed. The practice of using the services of cloud providers by companies from the IT sector and other industries was studied. In addition, an example of the practical use of a cloud database was developed, using the example of database initialization, which demonstrates the practicality and speed of the process.Prospects. Further research will be aimed at the practical development of an application that uses cloud computing and services of cloud functions, such as authorization and authentication of system and database users.

Gambaran Budaya Kerja Organisasi Terhadap Adaptasi Rekam Medis Elektronik dalam Pelayanan Kesehatan di Rumah Sakit

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) have become a vital system aimed at enhancing the efficiency of patient data management in hospitals. EMR is not just an innovation but a necessity that all healthcare services in Indonesia must adhere to, aligning with the targets set forth in the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN). In this context, several supportive factors play a pivotal role in EMR implementation, including organizational work culture, human resources, infrastructure, governance, and leadership. This research aimed to provide insight into hospital preparedness in the context of organizational work culture to ensure the smoother implementation of EMR. The research employed a quantitative approach with descriptive analysis. The research subjects were medical record personnel working in hospitals, with data collected from 15 hospitals of various types in the East Java region. The results of this study highlight several critical aspects of organizational work culture that influence EMR implementation, including training, socialization, mentoring, commitment, support from medical record personnel, and an understanding of how technology can enhance service quality. Nevertheless, the research also identified a prevailing perception that EMR is merely an Information Technology project, which could act as a potential hindrance to successful implementation. This research served as a reminder to hospitals about the importance of paying attention to these aspects as part of comprehensive preparations for EMR implementation. Consequently, it is anticipated that EMR implementation can proceed more efficiently and effectively, delivering greater benefits to patients and overall healthcare service delivery.

Innovating Urban Governance for Sustainable Energy Transitions: Between Institutional Design and Institutional Adaptation

While recent years have seen sustainable transition (ST) scholarship intensely explore field-level analyses of multi-actor governance initiatives, the internal organizational processes have received relatively less attention. This article contributes to theoretical advances on governance and innovation in ST by proposing and developing an overarching theoretical framework of institutional change that meaningfully connects field- and organization-level analyses of ST processes. Based on a multiple method qualitative study of six city administrations, we develop four propositions that illuminate internal organizational processes involved in the institutionalization of novel ST governance arrangements. These processes involve crucial components that trigger institutional adaptation and institutional design mechanisms. Adaptation operates though professional, city, and regional networks as well as through sources of ST financing. Design involves institutional entrepreneurs working in city administrations from the bottom up and leaders in city administration and politics who innovate with ST governance internally, building organizational infrastructures that support and operationalize energy transition agendas.

Lived experiences of diverse university staff during COVID-19: an examination of workplace wellbeing

ABSTRACT Survey research has evidenced the work-related stresses reported by higher education staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, with indications that some groups may have been more vulnerable than others. However, for the most part, this research has not taken into account individuals’ intersecting identities and their circumstances, which are likely to influence the strategies which are best placed to support their wellbeing. This qualitative study contributes to this area of research through an examination of workplace wellbeing for diverse professional and academic staff, providing a more in-depth understanding of their lived experiences during the pandemic. Data were 36 open-ended questionnaires and 20 interviews from diverse academic and professional staff, in terms of their intersecting gender, sexual and ethnic identities; age; job role and grade scale; caregiving responsibilities and disability status, at a large UK public research university. Using inductive thematic analysis, the findings support key influences identified in the quantitative studies but also highlight new themes such as the salience of ethnic, religious and gender identities and anxiety and trauma from the pandemic. The findings further emphasise the importance of the organisational infrastructure to support staff welfare. Evidence-based, workplace strategies are offered to address the key findings. Overall, our study highlights the importance of providing targeted support and acknowledging the traumatic experiences of university staff during crisis situations and underscores how equity, diversity and inclusion are key considerations for wellbeing practices and policies in the workplace.

Pilot implementation of MiLES: a web-based intervention targeted at managers with the aim of enhancing the successful return to work of employees with cancer

Background MiLES is a web-based intervention targeted at managers with the aim of enhancing the successful return to work (RTW) of employees with cancer. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers to and facilitators of implementing MiLES in organizations, from a manager’s perspective. Material and Methods MiLES was implemented as a pilot in four organizations for six weeks. Sixteen managers were included, of which fourteen were interviewed regarding their perceived barriers to and facilitators of implementation of MiLES in their organization. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed with content analysis. Results The managers experienced barriers to and facilitators of implementation related to: (1) implementation responsibilities, (2) the intervention’s content, and (3) organizational characteristics. Regarding implementation responsibilities, management board approval and an organizational infrastructure with distinct described implementation responsibilities were perceived as facilitators. Regarding the intervention’s content, its accessibility, user-friendliness and completeness were perceived as facilitators. If the content did not meet the manager’s specific needs, this was perceived as a barrier. Regarding organizational characteristics, several intangible (e.g., added value of MiLES within different organizations) and tangible (e.g., integration into absenteeism registration) organizational characteristics were perceived as facilitators. The absence of a quiet place to use MiLES was perceived as barrier. Conclusion Implementation of MiLES in organizations may benefit from an infrastructure within the organization that defines responsibilities regarding intervention delivery to managers of employees with cancer. Such an infrastructure should be aligned to existing organizational structures. As per interviewed managers, MiLES has added value in diverse organizations.

Sisterhood Is X: On Feminist Solidarity Then and Now

In the 1970s and 1980s, sisterhood became a critical concept in the making of internationalist feminisms built on an infrastructure of women's movements, international organizations, and postcolonial states. Perhaps most famously, radical feminist Robin Morgan declared over three anthologies and three decades that sisterhood is, in the present tense, powerful (1970), global (1984), and forever (2003). It was envisioned differently by women of color and Third World feminists who saw sisterhood as a critical praxis of survival in the face of authoritarianism. Today, the moral invocation of sisterhood as powerful and forever is far less viable. So, is sisterhood all bad for twenty-first-century feminisms? In this essay, I return to bell hooks's formulations of sisterhood as a pedagogy of political solidarity to ask, what kind of solidarity is possible under the rubric of sisterhood and how might we imagine a global feminist politics of solidarity today?

The Strategy of Utilize Unused Lands for Production Purposes in Turkey

The aim of this study is to discuss the feasibility of the strategy to utilize unused lands for production purposes in Turkey and the effects of the land resources in Turkey on the implementation of the strategy. An unused (unproductive) land is a land that reduces the quality in terms of components that define a land, causes adverse conditions to affect the land use, and is not utilized for agricultural purposes within a crop rotation period of time. Published in the Official Gazette No. 30224 of 10/28/2017 and put into effect, the Year 2018 Program reads: "The utilization of unused agricultural lands for production purposes shall create models for the effective operation of agricultural farms". In addition, the sub-paragraph 11 on Policies and Measures, which are set out under the title of 5th Growth and Employment Strategy as a part of the 2019-2021 Medium Term Program in accordance with the Presidential Decree No. 108 of 9/20/2018, reads: "Organizational and legal infrastructure shall be established to utilize unused agricultural lands for production purposes." From this perspective, there is a need to reform the unplanned land use and the forms of property and use as it is one of the agricultural infrastructure problems in Turkey. The importance of introducing a system to give a true picture about the market of agricultural lands and making sure it is influenced less by other industries is self-evident. The land resources that Turkey currently has, challenges concerning those lands and agricultural structure make it difficult to execute the strategy. There are some major social, economic, legal and technical barriers to the achievement of the goals. This study offers recommendations on how to remove those barriers based on the figures of a study commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and analyzes the unused agricultural lands in Turkey and the possibilities to utilize them for production purposes. Agricultural lands are utilized for non-agricultural purposes, and the studies over how to utilize unused agricultural lands with conditions that reduce the quality of lands in terms of components that define a land point to a contradiction between what is intended and what is actual. Without making any land use plans, it is impossible for any effort of developing a land use strategy to be efficient.

Improving safety of navigation by constructing a dynamic model of the navigator's actions in the conditions of navigation risks

This study tackles the complex task of constructing a dynamic model of a navigator, planning their experience trajectory, and making decisions under navigational risks in the maritime industry using automated control systems. the proposed mathematical model accounts for individual skills, experiences, and personalities, while considering unpredictable industry dynamics. the study asserts the importance of adaptable automated control systems capable of simulating navigation risk situations and determining suitable career and development paths. in addition, it discusses the importance of assessing external factors such as economic, technological, and regulatory changes and ensuring compliance with industry standards, data security, and privacy. the paper further emphasizes the necessity for scalability and flexibility, as well as the seamless integration of automated systems with existing organizational infrastructures. the study concludes that the proposed model, optimized for the "safety of navigation" parameter using the Pontryagin maximum principle, enhances recruitment processes, creates comprehensive professional profiles for seafarers, and supports career development. the paper suggests the potential of this model's application in other maritime and related professions, ultimately enhancing individualized training and operational efficiency.

Инновационные подходы к разработке организационно-технологической документации в транспортном строительстве

Purpose: To determine modern innovative composition of organizational-technological documentationat large transport facility construction. To hold the analysis of branch regulatory-technical documentation,relevant self-regulatory organization requirements. To define classification and specifics of the constructionof new types of large transport facilities which for, organizational-technological documentation is developed.To determine the relevance and practical applicability of documentation as a part of WPP (work productionprojects). To outline the basics of the preparation of transport facility construction organization which comprisesproduction-economic, technological and managerial infrastructure of contractor construction organizations,defines the system of relations between relevant subdivisions of general- and sub-contracting constructionalenterprises. Methods: Questionnaire and expert survey of engineering-technical workers of constructionalorganizations. Expert evaluation of production documentation, probabilistic modeling at the evaluation ofproduction processes, methods of multi-criteria evaluation of organizational-technological documentationvariants. Results: Main requirements to organizational-technological documentation composition for newtypes of modern transport construction facilities are formulated. Foundations for branch methodologicaldocuments on organizational-technological preparatory of work of contracting construction organizations havebeen developed. Practical significance: Efficiency improvement of large transport facility construction. Onthe basis of innovative organizational-technological solutions, prime cost of constructive-installing works isreduced and construction time is cut.

Extending UTAUT with competitive pressure for SMEs digitalization adoption in two European nations: a multi-group analysis

PurposeIn this article, the authors draw-upon an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and propose a research model involving performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), facilitating conditions (FC) and competitive pressure (CP) as potential salient factors explaining the adoption of digitalization in European SMEs. The authors also postulate that there may be cross-cultural differences, thereby leading us to include the country as a moderator in the model.Design/methodology/approachThe authors validate this model with a cross-cultural sample involving 188 owner-managers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and through the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) techniques as well as multi-group analysis.FindingsThe results using the study’s global dataset indicate that PE, FC and CP significantly affect owner-managers intentions toward digitalization in SMEs. The authors’ application of the multi-group analysis also suggests that although the two countries differ in digitalization adoption intention, the differences are statistically insignificant. In the conclusion, the authors highlight several implications these findings have for theory and practice.Practical implicationsThe authors recommend that the providers of emerging digital technologies should improve on the performance features of those technologies and ensure they are relevant to the SMEs. By doing so, the adoption of digitalization will grow, because owner-managers of SMEs will have the confidence that adopting such technologies will improve their operations. Second, SMEs are required to provide adequate organizational and technical infrastructure to support digitalization adoption.Originality/valueAside from being among the few attempts to extend the explanatory power of UTAUT with PE, EE, FC and CP in investigating digitalization adoption in SMEs context, this study also validates its model with rigorous methodological approach as well as three datasets (global, Czech Republic and Slovakia) thereby strengthening the validity of the results.

The Good, The Bad, What HBCUs Wish They Had: The Benefit of Data Warehouse Technology

In the middle of a technological revolution, we are working in a global market and organizations are all competing to survive. As these organizations try to develop strategies, many have determined that the solution is data. Planning, development, and implementation of data warehouses will provide the infrastructure for organizations to integrate decision support systems and business tools to generate reporting and data visualizations to assist in decision-making. Many organizations are taking advantage of this technology but many are lagging behind, one example is Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). HBCUs serve a unique population of students that other institutions may not offer an opportunity to. Due to low enrollment and a harsh economy, many institutions struggle with recruitment and retention, and HBCUs struggle more than others. HBCUs lack the data warehouse and decision support systems as their peers. HBCUs would benefit in the area of retention and recruitment if given data warehouse and decision support system technology.

Barriers and Facilitators of Palliative Care in Older Adults With Heart Failure: A Qualitative Content Analysis.

Objectives: The progressive and unpredictable course of heart failure (HF) has made the provision of palliative care (PC) services to older adults with HF a serious challenge. This study aimed to explain the barriers and facilitators of PC in older adults with HF. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using the content analysis approach. A sample of 15 participants, including 6 patients, 2 family caregivers, and 7 healthcare team members (4 nurses, a psychiatric nurse, a nutritionist, and a PC physician) were selected by purposive sampling over 10 months (November 21, 2020 to September 1, 2021). The data were collected using semistructured in-person interviews until data saturation and analyzed with conventional qualitative content analysis. Results: The findings revealed the main category of "neglecting the provision of PC," with 4 subcategories of "weak organizational structure," "poor social support," "older adults' and healthcare teams' poor knowledge," and "limited financial resources" as the barriers of PC and the main category of "enjoying support potentials" with 3 subcategories of "the cooperation of the government, benefactors, and nongovernmental organizations," "empathy from the family and relatives," and "benefiting from the presence of healthcare workers" as PC facilitators. Conclusions: The findings of this study explained the barriers and facilitators of PC in older adults with HF. Removing the barriers and supporting the facilitators give older adults with HF better access to PC. Therefore, to expand PC centers for older adults with HF, health system officials, and policy-makers should pay attention to organizational infrastructures and remove the barriers at organizational, social, educational, and economic levels with the cooperation of governmental organizations, benefactors, and nongovernmental organizations.

Managerial influences on the inclusion of transgender and gender-diverse employees: A critical multi-method study

This article examined the work experiences of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals concerning the organisational environment and managerial influence on their workplace inclusion. The qualitative multi-method study design included semi-structured online interviews with TGD workers ( n = 22); followed by an open-ended, photo-elicit questionnaire with organisational leaders and management personnel, including human resource management and career development practitioners ( n = 42), to evaluate their awareness and approach regarding the inclusion of TGD individuals. A critical grounded theory approach was applied to identify numerous enablers and barriers for TGD employees. Further analysis identified three impact areas of managers: building an inclusive organisational infrastructure, fostering a safe psychological environment and supporting diverse impression-fit management. The three managerial areas provide practical recommendations concerning language use, leadership style, work practices and arrangements that should be considered for increasing TGD workplace inclusion. JEL Classification: M12, M14