Sophisticated Information Management Research Articles

Information as an organizational asset: assessment of a public organization’s capabilities in Turkey

This study aims to establish the importance for institutions to assess their information assets as a value in the context of such matters as increased competitive advantage, improved managerial processes, and adaptation to new managerial approaches. In line with this purpose, the study addresses the effects of the evaluation of information assets. Within the scope of the study, a checklist about organizational information assets (such as emails, web content and physical records and electronic records) was developed and it was applied to a large-scale public institution with decision-making authorities with respect to general health policies and practices of Turkey. The study reached findings pertaining to the practices undertaken for information assets within a large-scale public institution at the decision-making level in the field of health in Turkey. At this point, the institution was identified to be able to cover the basic level of records management to a significant extent, but to suffer from shortcomings in sophisticated information management and collaborative practices. On the basis of this observation, the institution was emphasised to be in need of improvements concerning human resources and decision-making practices. The study results also reflect the importance of the assessments for information assets held by institutions.

Digital Repositories for Sophisticated Information Management: Emphasizing Development of Digital Repositories in India

Digital repositories are the main practice of Information Science. In simply manner digital repositories refers to the Archive holds digital content, information or object. Digital repositories to some extend related with Information Systems and Networks (ISN) but the main differences in between two are Digital Depositories are the internal form where as ISN are opposite of that. Digital repositories may be for institutional user or it may be used as knowledge dissemination systems to others. This paper describes the aspects related with digital repositories like- digital repositories in characteristics, problems and so on. The trends regarding open repositories are increasing day-byday.

The Road Ahead

The Road Ahead

Information Use in New Product Development: An Initial Exploratory Empirical Investigation in the Chemical Industry*

In-depth interviews with product developers and product development software providers in a previous qualitative phase of research uncovered eight general types of information that are used across the new product development process (strategic, project management, financial, market and customer, wants and needs, technical, competitor, and regulatory information) and three general approaches to managing information in the process (project-centric, functionally oriented, and fully distributed). This paper presents a second phase of research trying to understand the role that managing knowledge and information plays in developing new products and achieving NPD success. This research phase empirically investigates use of the eight types of information across three general phases of the NPD process in the chemical industry using 81 mail survey responses from marketing and new product development professionals. Respondents were asked to indicate the degree to which each of the eight information types was used in each of the following general phases of new product development: the fuzzy front end, development, and testing and launch. The respondents also provided information on new product development success, information management system sophistication, and innovation strategy. This research makes several contributions to new knowledge. First, this research suggests that information management in product development is even more complex than initially posited in Zahay et al. (2004), with each of the eight types of information identified being used in each of the three phases of development. Unexpectedly, for all but one type of information use is higher in later stages of the NPD process, even though use of several kinds of information early in the project is associated with increased success. Thus, managers may need to encourage teams to start gathering information from outside the firm earlier than is currently the norm. Second, the results suggest that more sophisticated information management systems are indeed associated with increased use of various different types of information, as expected. Third, more sophisticated information management systems are more highly associated with success than less sophisticated information management systems. These results are important, as most new product development information management systems are limited in their ability to handle complex and non-quantitative information such as customer wants and needs, as well as strategic, competitor, and regulatory information. However, being able to transmit information on these issues is associated with increased firm performance and project success from these data. Thus, firms need to figure out how to improve their ability to manage and use non-quantitative information more effectively.

Cracks in the Foundation: The Precarious State of Canada's Primary Care Infrastructure

Cracks in the Foundation: The Precarious State of Canada's Primary Care Infrastructure

Building Geographic Information System Capacity in Local Health Departments: Lessons From a North Carolina Project

State government, university, and local health department (LHD) partners collaborated to build the geographic information system (GIS) capacity of 5 LHDs in North Carolina. Project elements included procuring hardware and software, conducting individualized and group training, developing data layers, guiding the project development process, coordinating participation in technical conferences, providing ongoing project consultation, and evaluating project milestones. The project provided health department personnel with the skills and resources required to use sophisticated information management systems, particularly those that address spatial dimensions of public health practice. This capacity-building project helped LHDs incorporate GIS technology into daily operations, resulting in improved time and cost efficiency. Keys to success included (1) methods training rooted in problems specific to the LHD, (2) required project identification by LHD staff with associated timelines for development, (3) ongoing technical support as staff returned to home offices after training, (4) subgrants to LHDs to ease hardware and software resource constraints, (5) networks of relationships among LHDs and other professional GIS users, and (6) senior LHD leadership who supported the professional development activities being undertaken by staff.

Perspectives on faculty development.

This article reviews the requirements necessary to address nursing faculty development needs to continue to strengthen nursing education for state-of-the-art reflective practice. Included in the discussion are the importance of information and sophisticated information management; strategies to enhance teaching competency, efficiency, and the quality of instruction; current measures of quality facilities and resources; and the contributions of teaching and learning centers. The discussion ends by emphasizing the need to embrace the concept of differentiated nursing practice.

Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory

The past decade has brought advanced information technologies, which include electronic messaging systems, executive information systems, collaborative systems, group decision support systems, and other technologies that use sophisticated information management to enable multiparty participation in organization activities. Developers and users of these systems hold high hopes for their potential to change organizations for the better, but actual changes often do not occur, or occur inconsistently. We propose adaptive structuration theory (AST) as a viable approach for studying the role of advanced information technologies in organization change. AST examines the change process from two vantage points: (1) the types of structures that are provided by advanced technologies, and (2) the structures that actually emerge in human action as people interact with these technologies. To illustrate the principles of AST, we consider the small group meeting and the use of a group decision support system (GDSS). A GDSS is an interesting technology for study because it can be structured in a myriad of ways, and social interaction unfolds as the GDSS is used. Both the structure of the technology and the emergent structure of social action can be studied. We begin by positioning AST among competing theoretical perspectives of technology and change. Next, we describe the theoretical roots and scope of the theory as it is applied to GDSS use and state the essential assumptions, concepts, and propositions of AST. We outline an analytic strategy for applying AST principles and provide an illustration of how our analytic approach can shed light on the impacts of advanced technologies on organizations. A major strength of AST is that it expounds the nature of social structures within advanced information technologies and the key interaction processes that figure in their use. By capturing these processes and tracing their impacts, we can reveal the complexity of technology-organization relationships. We can attain a better understanding of how to implement technologies, and we may also be able to develop improved designs or educational programs that promote productive adaptations.

SHOULD THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE HAVE AN INFORMATION STRATEGY?

The National Health Service (NHS) Review committed the NHS to the development of sophisticated information management processes and to the creation of a massive information technology infrastructure, and the success of the new arrangements depends critically upon progress in these two areas. Yet the NHS has a modest track record in both, which the period since the review has served only to highlight. The article examines the political environment in which information is exchanged and technology implemented, in order to explain the current state of play and the likely pace and direction of future developments. In particular it focuses upon the role of the NHS Management Executive in influencing these developments, and argues that success will depend on the extent to which national information policies encourage collaboration between key groups of managers and professionals and support the implementation of contracts for health services.

Case Management in a Community-Based AIDS Agency

The case management program at APLA hastens the receipt of medical, psychological, and social services to persons diagnosed with AIDS and ARC. The design accommodates the unique problems encountered by this client population that are created largely by the stigma and fear associated with HIV infection in the United States. As a community-based AIDS agency, APLA expediently uses the services of professional and paraprofessional volunteers to extend the capacity of case management staff. The complexity of care associated with HIV infection has demanded the development of a sophisticated information management system to improve the communications and the efficiency of the case management program.

Developing Engineering Design Software Using Hypercard

The Hypercard software, recently introduced for the Apple Macintosh computers, has attracted a lot of attention. The literature portrays it as a sophisticated information management system. Most applications written using this software are business oriented. This paper examines its potential as a tool for developing sophisticated engineering design applications. Basic concepts of Hypercard and its associated programming language, called HYPERTALK, are presented. Details are given for the development of a stack for design of axially loaded steel columns. Based on this experience, it is concluded that Hypercard offers an ideal environment for developing highly interactive design modules requiring relatively less “number crunching.” The overall development time is reduced dramatically.