Organization Of Division Research Articles

Organizational Divisions in BIM-Enabled Commercial Construction

Proponents claim that the adoption of building information modeling BIM will lead to greater efficiencies through increased collaboration. In this paper, we present research that examines the use of BIM technologies for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire life safety systems often referred to as MEP coordination and how the introduction of BIM influences collaboration and communication. Using data from over 12 months of ethnographic observations of the MEP coordination process for two commercial construction projects and interviews with 65 industry leaders across the United States, we find that BIM-enabled projects are often tightly coupled technologi- cally, but divided organizationally. This means that while BIM makes visible the connections among project members, it is not fostering closer collaboration across different companies. We outline the competing obligations to scope, project, and company as one cause for this division. Obligations to an individual scope of work or to a particular company can conflict with project goals. Individual leadership, especially that of the MEP coordinator in the teams we studied, often substitutes for stronger project cohesion and organization. Organi- zational forces and structures must be accounted for in order for BIM to be implemented successfully.

Researchers Lay Out Challenges Facing Developers ofDSM-V

Researchers Lay Out Challenges Facing Developers of<i>DSM-V</i>

Discourses On Mass Versus Elite Sport and Pre-Adult Football in Norway

This article focuses on the discursive framework of pre-adult football in Norway. The analytical starting point features debates in two major Norwegian newspapers, started by the head of the elite division of the Norwegian national sport organization. His main concern is to discuss the conditions for elite sport — focusing on legitimation and talent development. This discussion serves as a focus for the investigation of the social anchoring of organized sport. It is argued that the state's interest in the population's health, the way sport is organized, and dominant values related to children, together form the discourse of pre-adult sport. The main characteristics of this discourse are that the values of mass sport dominate, the issue of mass versus elite sport is relatively mute, and that clear discursive positions are hard to detect.

Healthcare technology management competency and its impacts on IT–healthcare partnerships development

Objective This study presents a conceptual model to investigate the healthcare technology management (HTM) competency required by healthcare IS professionals and the impact of such competency in gaining strategic advantages through information technology (IT) by development of partnerships with people from different divisions of healthcare organizations. Methods First, a scale to measure HTM competency was developed and validated, then it was used to collect the large-scale survey data. Second, the partial least squares (PLS) method was used to empirically test the conceptual model and hypotheses through the large-scale survey data collected. Results The empirical results support the proposed structure for HTM competency encompassing the four skills/knowledge domains: healthcare organization overview, external knowledge networking, healthcare technology integration, and management and interpersonal. The findings indicate that HTM competency positively influences the attitudes of information system (IS) professionals towards their willingness to develop partnerships with healthcare professionals. Conclusions The findings improve our understanding of the concept of HTM competency and its influence on IT–healthcare partnerships. The conceptual model of HTM is of particular value to those concerned with skills/knowledge training and competency development for IS professionals in healthcare organizations. Healthcare organizations can develop HTM profiles for individual IS professionals in accordance with their own organization contexts. Executive management can take advantage of such HTM profiles to assist in making succession-planning decisions by evaluating the competency levels and development needs of their employees.

The Implementation of the Quota Requirements of the Directive `Television Without Frontiers'

/ The television programming and production quotas introduced in 1989 by the European Directive `Television without Frontiers' were intended to improve the European audiovisual industry and to protect European culture. Nearly two decades since the implementation of these regulations, one may ask what effects they have had. This article addresses this question by analysing the challenges entailed in the European quotas for broadcasters from different European countries. The analysis is based on the assumption that television broadcasters are organizations with specific structures. On the one hand, they can react to quotas by relying only on their existing structures (e.g. planning practices or the availability of specific organizational divisions); on the other hand, quotas may affect these structures and change some features of media organizations. These dynamics engender unexpected side-effects that cannot be neglected when evaluating the success of quota requirements.

THE AUSTRALIAN SOLAR ECLIPSE EXPEDITIONS OF 1947 AND 1949

On 1 November 1948 the Radio Astronomy Group within the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's Division of Radiophysics observed a partial solar eclipse on a range of radio frequencies at three different sites within Australia. These observations helped establish Australia's reputation as a leader in solar radio astronomy. A second partial eclipse occurred on 22 October 1949, and the Division again mounted a major expedition, this time with very different results. This paper examines the contribution of the eclipse observations and contrasts the very different results achieved. While scientific progress is generally well documented, stumbling in the path of progress is often overlooked. In looking to future research it is important to realise that progress is often only made in the face of adversity.

ERP evaluation during the shakedown phase: lessons from an after‐sales division

Abstract. Integrated information systems and operational efficiency are both pivotal issues for contemporary firms. While there is substantial evidence that enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems can deliver related improvements, the implementation of these systems can turn out to be a very complex and risky task. One key aspect of managing these risks is maintaining operational momentum and preventing possible problems from escalating in the so‐called shakedown phase shortly after system implementation. The objective of this paper is to examine how user evaluations of ERP system success could be used to trace down the source of potential problems, which can arise during the shakedown phase, and how and why experienced system success might vary between different user groups. The paper builds on a case study completed in the after‐sales division of a large multinational organization. This context is considered a fruitful empirical setting for the study as the business sets enormous demands for ERP system functionality and its smooth implementation. Based on the case study, it is argued that in such a context the importance of sufficient user skills, data reliability and intra‐organizational communication becomes emphasized in the ERP implementation process. Moreover, results illustrate how downstream operations and customer relations are particularly vulnerable to problems accumulated in upstream business processes. Related problems can potentially form a self‐fulfilling cycle, where the lack of skills and information constantly deteriorates both user perceptions and actual operational performance.

Library Organization Information Literacy Units

(2007). Library Organization Information Literacy Units. Science & Technology Libraries: Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 93-106.

Metaphors of America: Labor, global integration, and Transylvanian identities

Deconstructing the diverse meaning behind the common metaphor “Little America”, this paper explores widely disparate ethnic identity conceptions and inter-ethnic relations in two regions of Transylvania, showing them as dependent on the ways in which each region was integrated into changing patterns of global labor. Regional ethnic identity and relations in the Jiu Valley coal producing region and in the mixed agro-industrial Fǎgǎraş zone vary greatly. In the former, ethnic identity was downplayed and inter-ethnic relations always kept on an even keel owing to the particular process of regional settlement and the common integration of the region’s ethnic groups into the hard coal industry that dominated the Valley from the middle of the 18th century. In the latter region, ethnic relations were frequently tense due to a highly discrete ethnic-based division of labor and organization of political hierarchy. Despite these differences, citizens of each region expressed their ethnic dynamic through use of the “Little America” metaphor. However, in the Jiu Valley this referred to alleged ethnic peace of cooperating national groups, while in Fǎgǎraş this notion referred to the dream of struggling for social mobility and differentiation. The paper thus shows how such basic ethnic conceptions, shaped by the treatment of regional labor in successive phases of the global economy, influence a wide range of differing attitudes toward diverse social and political processes, including socialist development policies and the modern global labor market.

Effects of heavy metals and strontium on division of root cap cells and meristem structural organization

In order to define relations between the behavior of quiescent center cells and the condition of root cap cells, effects of various metal salts on the root meristem structure, root growth, and division of root cap cells were investigated. Two-day-old maize (Zea mays L., cv. Diamant) seedlings were incubated on solutions containing 35 μM Ni(NO3)2), 10 μM Pb(NO3)2, or 3 mM Sr(NO3)2 in the absence or in the presence of 3 mM Ca(NO3)2. Toxic effects of metals were assessed from inhibition of the primary root length increment following 24-h and 48-h incubations as compared to the roots grown on water or on 3 mM Ca(NO3)2 solution. Metal localization in the root apex tissues following 24-h and 48-h incubations was determined using histochemical techniques. Cell lengths in three upper layers of root cap columella were determined, and the mitotic index in these cells was calculated. In the absence of Ca(NO3)2, the metals were found both in the meristem and in the root cap. Pb and Sr were revealed primarily in the cell walls, and Ni, in the cell protoplasts. In the presence of Ca(NO3)2, metal content in all root tissues was decreased, and their toxic effect on root growth was ameliorated. Pb and Ni inhibited cell division in the root cap. Pb caused an increase in the root cap cell length as early as following 24-h incubation, and Ni, only following 48-h incubation. Pb activated division of quiescent center cells in the direction of root cap. These effects, as well as possible involvement of dermatogen and cortex cells, resulted in a regrowth of a new root cap already after a 24-h incubation period. In this case, the meristem was transformed from a closed structure into the open one. Following 48-h incubation, Ni brought about only few divisions of quiescent center cells in the direction of root cap. It was suggested that inhibition of divisions of the root cap upper layer cells and a decrease in the sloughing off its cells can stimulate the quiescent center cell divisions. A similarity of the quiescent center and animal stem cells is discussed.

Poweract and Organizational Work: Gérard Mendel's Socio-psychoanalysis

One of the principal merits of Gérard Mendel's socio-psychoanalysis lies in the fact that it strives to understand how organizational reality influences individual psychic reality, including in its unconscious dimension. A collective practice, it aims to study how actors, in the framework of their daily professional activity, and organized into specific groups (homogeneous in terms of profession), reflect by themselves on the forces that impact their personality. The working hypothesis of socio-psychoanalysis is that the hold of organizations on individuals is such that the latter have very little power over their acts of work; whence the negative psychological effects with their harmful socio-economic consequences. For Mendel, it seems necessary to intervene right from the beginning of the socio-psychoanalytic process in the dimension of the organization of work. The intervention methodology adopted is that of an institutional system whose function is to counter, as much as possible, the pathogenic effects of the organization of work by neutralizing the hierarchical, technical, social and organizational divisions that run through it, in order to trigger a `movement of appropriation of the act' (poweract). Thus, when the conditions are in place for individuals to exercise real power over their productive acts, then pleasure, creativity, motivation, participation and a sense of responsibility may all develop in them. In so doing, the system endeavours not only to act on the concrete reality of work, but also to enable certain psychosocial changes in the personality.

Factors affecting duration and effort estimation errors in software development projects

The purpose of this research was to fill a gap in the literature pertaining to the influence of project uncertainty and managerial factors on duration and effort estimation errors. Four dimensions were considered: project uncertainty, use of estimation development processes, use of estimation management processes, and the estimator’s experience. Correlation analysis and linear regression models were used to test the model and the hypotheses on the relations between the four dimensions and estimation errors, using a sample of 43 internal software development projects executed during the year 2002 in the IT division of a large government organization in Israel. Our findings indicate that, in general, a high level of uncertainty is associated with higher effort estimation errors while increased use of estimation development processes and estimation management processes, as well as greater estimator experience, are correlated with lower duration estimation errors. From a practical perspective, the specific findings of this study can be used as guidelines for better duration and effort estimation. Accounting for project uncertainty while managing expectations regarding estimate accuracy; investing more in detailed planning and selecting estimators based on the number of projects they have managed rather than their cumulative experience in project management, may reduce estimation errors.

Mapping the journalism–blogging relationship

Using a systems framework from the sociology of occupations, this article maps the journalism-blogging relationship, revealing areas of conflict between the two, vulnerabilities, and predictors of vulnerability. The systems framework suggests occupations exist within a network of other occupations and that they encroach into each other’s jurisdictional areas. A variety of factors shape these fluid processes. Factors that are external to the occupation include organizational division of labor, revenue needs, and relationships with other institutions. Internal factors include the degree to which journalists control the definition of problems and inference to solutions, and the success with which they solve problems. Difficulties posed by external and internal factors have led journalism to neglect some types of news information, which in turn have been poached by bloggers. These include partisan expression, ‘old stories’, stories driven by non-elite sources, and highly specialized content. A model for future study is constructed from these observations.

:Divisions of Labor: Globality, Ideology, and War in the Shaping of the Japanese Labor Movement

Lonny E. Carlile's book is welcome on two counts. First, it provides a lively narrative of the political history of the Japanese labor movement from 1945 to the early 1960s. Second, it puts that history into comparative perspective by interspersing detailed chapters on Japan with chapters on parallel developments in France, Italy, and Germany, to emphasize that the political trajectory of Japanese labor was largely determined by the same global forces that shaped the course of European labor in this period. “Divisions of labor” refers to ideological and organizational divisions within the labor movement and its allied political parties and also to “divisions” in the sense of labor organizations mobilized for “war,” be it class war, the struggle for power in the labor movement, or taking sides in the Cold War. The first two chapters, on European and Japanese labor from 1920 to 1945, respectively, serve as valuable background to the rest of the book. Carlile shows that, as in France, Italy, and Germany, the Japanese labor movement fragmented into rival social democratic, communist, and left-socialist camps in the 1920s, and that, again as in France and Italy, the Japanese left-socialists tried to build a popular front to resist fascism in the 1930s. But as he relates in later chapters, whereas the momentum of the wartime resistance in France and Italy led to “resistance coalition” governments intent upon modifying capitalism in a socialist direction soon after World War II, the Japanese popular front was crushed by the imperial state. Although the idea of a popular front continued to animate the resurgent postwar Japanese labor movement and indeed facilitated the rise of the socialist Katayama Tetsu cabinet in June 1947, the increasingly conservative policies of the American Occupation and the rapid revival of prewar labor splits precluded any possibility of a viable “resistance coalition” in Japan; the Katayama cabinet, which lasted only eight months, was a very brief exception to the pattern of conservative party rule throughout, and well beyond, the period covered by this book. In this respect, labor's postwar political context closely resembled the German case.

Trends on management education an interview with Mary Jo Hatch

During her presence at Federal University of Bahia in March, 2006, for an opening conference on Organization theory, at the NPGA (Post-graduate Centre on Administration), CIAGS (Interdisciplinary Centre of Development and Social Management) linked to the ANPAD´s Program on Teaching Development, Mary Jo Hatch (the C. Coleman McGehee Eminent Scholars Research Professor of Banking and Commerce at McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia) provided us, on behalf of the Organizacoes & Sociedade Journal, with an interview about management education. Mary Jo Hatch has a Ph.D. in Organization Behavior from Stanford University and her research has been published in many international journals on management. She is also past chair of the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management and the author of many books, such as: Organization Theory: Modern, Symbolic and Postmodern Perspectives (Oxford University Press), The Expressive Organization: Linking Identity, Reputation and the Corporate Brand (co-edited with M. Schultz and M. H. Larsen) and Organization Identity: A Reader (co-edited with M. Schultz), and The Three Faces of Leadership: Manager, Artist, Priest (with M. Kostera and A. Kozminski).

The Corporate Social Responsibility of the Pharmaceutical Industry: Idealism without Illusion and Realism without Resignation

In recent years society has come to expect more from the "socially-responsible" company and the global HIV/AIDS pandemic in particular has resulted in some critics saying that the "Big Pharma" companies have not been living up to their social responsibilities. Corporate social responsibility can be understood as the socio-economic product of the organizational division of labor in complex modern society. Global poverty and poor health conditions are in the main the responsibilities of the world's national governments and international governmental organizations, which possess society's mandate and appropriate organizational capabilities. Private enterprises have neither the societal mandate nor the organizational capabilities to feed the poor or provide health care to the sick in their home countries or in the developing world. Nevertheless, private enterprises do have responsibilities to society that can be categorized as what they must do, what they ought do, and what they can do.

The role of quantitative genetic studies in animal physiological ecology

Evolutionary physiology is a new discipline with roots in comparative physiology. One major change in the emergence of this discipline was an explicit new focus on viewing organisms as the evolutionary products of natural selection. The shift in research emphasis from comparative physiology to evolutionary physiology has resulted in physiological traits becoming important elements in broad research programs of evolution and ecology. Evolutionary quantitative genetics is a theory-based biological discipline that has developed the quantitative tools to test explicit evolutionary hypotheses. The role of quantitative genetics has been paramount, in studying the microevolution of morphology, behavior and life history, but not comparative physiology. As a consequence, little basic information is known such as additive genetic variation of physiological traits and the magnitude of genetically based trade-offs (i.e., genetic correlations) with other traits. Here we explore possible causes for such gap, which we believe are related with the inconsistency of what we call physiological traits across taxonomic and organizational divisions, combined with logistical problems of pedigree‐based analyses in complex traits.

Affect Networks: A Structural Analysis of the Relationship Between Work Ties and Job-Related Affect.

The relationship between organizational networks and employees' affect was examined in 2 organizations. In Study 1, social network analysis of work ties and job-related affect for 259 employees showed that affect converged within work interaction groups. Similarity of affect between employees depended on the presence of work ties and structural equivalence. Affect was also related to the size and density of employees' work networks. Study 2 used a 10-week diary study of 31 employees to examine a merger of 2 organizational divisions and found that negative changes in employees' affect were related to having fewer cross-divisional ties and to experiencing greater reductions in network density. The findings suggest that affect permeates through and is shaped by organizational networks.

The complexity of team training: what we have learned from aviation and its applications to medicine.

Errors in health care that compromise patient safety are tied to latent failures in the structure and function of systems. Teams of people perform most care delivered today, yet training often remains focused on individual responsibilities. Training programmes for all healthcare workers need to increase the educational experience of working in interdisciplinary teams. The complexities of team training require a multifunctional (systems) approach, which crosses organisational divisions to allow communication, accountability, and creation and maintenance of interdisciplinary teams. This report identifies challenges for medical education in performing the research, identifying performance measurements, and modifying educational curricula for the advancement of interdisciplinary teams, based on the complexity of team training identified in commercial aviation.

Tiba inhibition of in vitro organogenesis in excised tobacco leaf explants

Abstract Triiodobenzoic acid (TIBA), an anti-auxin, was found to inhibit both shoot and root formation in cultured excised leaf explants of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.). The shoot formation (SF) medium used required only exogenous cytokinin (N6-benzyladenine) and the root formation (RF) medium required both auxin (indole-3-butyric acid) and cytokinin (kinetin). By transferring the explants from SF or RF media to SF or RF media with TIBA (4.0×10−5 M), respectively or vice versa, at different times in culture, it was found that TIBA inhibition was at the time of meristemoid formation and after determination of organogenesis. This indicates that TIBA interfered with endogenous auxin involvement in organized cell division.