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This is a case study on the opportunities provided by Open Source library systems and the experience of delivering these systems through a shared service.

This chapter derives from desk research, interviews, and direct involvement in the project. The format is a case study, setting out a detailed timeline of events with information that can be applied in other settings.

This chapter presents reflections on the value and limitations of collaboration amongst libraries and librarians on an innovative approach to library systems and technologies. It also presents reflections on lessons learned from the processes and detailed discussion of the success factors for shared services and the reasons why such initiatives may not result in the outcomes predicted at the start.

Libraries and IT services considering Open Source and shared service approaches to provision will find material in this study useful when planning their projects.

The nature of collaboration and collaborative working is studied and observations made about the way that outcomes cannot always be predicted or controlled. In a genuine collaboration, the outcome is determined by the interactions between the partners and is unique to the specifics of that collaboration.

The case study derives from interviews, written material and direct observation not generally in the public domain, providing a strong insider’s view of the activity.

For several decades researchers have attempted to explain the process of organization growth and development. The various models devised can be divided into roughly two categories: those which emphasize nature, and those emphasizing nurture as the cause for change. The Dynamic System Planning Model is described, which borrows from both traditions, in particular from open systems theory and from the individual learning models. Issues outlined in this model are the frequently mentioned concerns of presidents of small changing firms. Although based in open system theory, it translates readily into practical application in day‐to‐day management, as interviews with presidents attest.

Through description and consideration of 12 models developed as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), a new model of successful school leadership is developed.

The paper is necessarily descriptive in nature. For the first time, 12 ISSPP models are described together, and these descriptions are then used inductively to create a new successful school leadership model.

The open systems approach adopted depicts schools as a continuous cycle of input-transformation-output with feedback loops that inform each stage of the cycle. The inputs are the variables that lead to transformation. The transformation stage is the actions or processes that individuals, groups and organisations engage in because of the inputs, and these lead to a range of student and school outcomes. Feedback loops connect the stages, and the whole model is open to the influence of five contextual forces: economic, political, socio-cultural, technological and system, institutional and educational.

Models are an important way to make sense of complex phenomena. A new model of successful school leadership, with an open systems approach, provides a different frame to consider the findings of the ISSPP and potentially allows the ISSPP research to inform practice and connect with other school leadership views in new ways.

On many occasions, organizational science research has been referred to as fragmented and disjointed, resulting in a literature that is, in the opinion of many, difficult to navigate and comprehend. One potential explanation is that scholars have failed to comprehend that organizations are complex and intricate systems. In order to move us past this morass, we recommend that researchers extend beyond traditional rational, mechanistic, and variable-centered approaches to research and integrate a more advantageous pattern-oriented approach within their research program. Pattern-oriented methods approximate real-life phenomena by adopting a holistic, integrative approach to research wherein individual- and organizational-systems are viewed as non-decomposable organized wholes. We argue that the pattern-oriented approach has the potential to overcome a number of breakdowns faced by alternate approaches, while offering a novel and more representative lens from which to view organizational- and HRM-related issues. The proposed incorporation of the pattern-oriented approach is framed within a review and evaluation of current approaches to organizational research and is supplemented with a discussion of methodological and theoretical implications as well as potential applications of the pattern-oriented approach.

In this paper, the aim is to present a modeling strategy for a flexible rotor/active magnetic bearing (AMB) system with non‐collocation. Special attention is paid to the vibration reduction and the stable passage through the first critical speed.

The finite element method based on Euller‐Bernoulli beam theory is applied in the formulation of the rotor model. Since rotor/AMB systems are complex mechatronic systems, reduced order approach is used in the control system design. This study applies the modal decomposition method and the modal truncation method, thus retaining the lower order bending modes. The obtained numerical results are compared with the measured open loop frequency responses and the existing differences are compensated in order to obtain accurate numerical model.

Frequency response of the entire system model (flexible shaft, actuators, power amplifiers and sensors) with amplitudes expressed in rotor lateral displacements can be verified by the measured frequency responses. The deviations in the amplitude and phase diagrams are then successfully corrected using the appropriate model modifications.

The results of this research find direct applications in flexible rotors supported by AMBs, e.g. high speed spindles, turbo molecular pumps, flywheel energy storage systems, etc. The presented procedure can be especially valuable in the design of model based controllers.

An AMB system model is developed and presented in this paper, in conjunction with a systematic description of an efficient procedure for the elimination of the typical mismatches between the simulation and experiment. Firstly, rotor/AMB test rig is stabilized with an appropriately tuned PID controller and an open loop frequency response is obtained for such a system. This response is then compared to corresponding simulation results for which mismatches are identified and eliminated thus yielding an accurate model of the system.

Examines an emerging need for a new management model based upon evolving technological dynamics within the enterprise. The central question, of whether a new management construct is required to lead industry into the new millennium, is answered with arguments supporting the emergence of a new model. This new model finds support from six highly placed managers who are close to such technological infighting as the bus wars, as well as the costly proprietary resistance of major manufacturing segments to open systems change. These executives affirm the emergence of a new cyber‐management model, tempting the imaginations of those historians who have waited for the next management wave to crest.

Observes that performance measurement models are largely based on deterministic assumptions about the world. Suggests that it is time to re‐align performance measurement with post‐deterministic discoveries made in the physical sciences, especially quantum physics. In the physical sciences, scientists have (reluctantly) come to accept that the world has a fundamental uncertainty at its core. Asks the question of what lessons can be drawn for performance measurement from this knowledge of the physical world. Addresses this question first by describing the development and epistemological consequences of three post‐deterministic (physical world) discoveries of: uncertainty, bounded instability, and self‐organisation. Then traces the equivalent path to uncertainty in management. Concludes that it is time for the oldest management theories, which still underpin current performance systems, to be realigned with knowledge on uncertainty. Ends with a look at two current performance systems, activity‐based management, and the Balanced Scorecard. In line with knowledge about fundamental uncertainty, these (and other) performance systems should focus on identification of the “aggregate system” critical few.

This paper aims to discuss the idea that businesses, for survival in the market, need a competitive edge. This edge can be achieved by focusing on business processes as informational work (IW) systems rather than physical work systems and then to focus on achieving information integrity. In order to achieve this aim the strategy should be to model a business process to achieve both operational and goal integrity. An analytical framework for the same is to be described.

The paper uses an analytical approach. First a literature survey is conducted to find out whether the business process models being followed currently are sufficient to give a competitive edge to business. Subsequently, the information integrity approach is introduced and a framework is suggested to model the business processes.

The main findings of the paper are that the current business processes which are physical in nature need to be perceived as information oriented processes. Moreover, these IW systems need to process information with integrity. The paper explains the concept of information integrity in a detailed way by covering all aspects of the same, namely identification of business process as a multistage information system, explanation of information as a function of recipient, suggesting a structure of a good business process model, identifying the criticality of information integrity for business competitive advantage and listing the emerging information integrity requirements.

The paper adds value because it analytically puts forth the complete check list of activities for business process modeling with information integrity.

The purpose of this paper is to argue in favor of the open hardware philosophy (open-source hardware – OSH) as a technological innovation and academic entrepreneurshipmodel in Brazil.

This argument is based on three pillars. The first one refers to a bibliographic review of theoretical frameworks related to academic entrepreneurship and technological innovation to emphasize the disruptive innovation capacity of academia. Second, a few elements related to the Brazilian political, economic and structural scenario, which entail a (more) favorable environment to technological innovation and academic entrepreneurship, is presented. Finally, concepts related to OSH and its business model are approached to demonstrate the facilitating effect toward the whole process.

As a result of the argument made herein, it is possible to perceive the viability of the OSH model in terms of entrepreneurship and technological innovation in the academic sphere, and to perceive its benefits before social and economic needs in areas such as health and education.

There are no empirical or quantifiable data in the literature that enable comparison between OSH and traditional technological innovation models.

The considerations on the philosophical value of OSH and its business models are scarcely explored in international literature. As far as we know, relating OSH to technological innovation entrepreneurship in the academic sphere, as well as its singularities in Brazil regarding the innovation national system and social and economic demands, is a unique approach in literature.

The purpose of this study is to answer the following questions: what are an open system and its components? How can the open system model be used to describe a library system including its objectives and functions? What is the situation of librarianship in Pakistan in terms of the elements, characteristics and features of an open system model?

The study is based on a review of the literature. The challenges which are faced by librarianship today are presented as a supra‐system of a library system. Inputs (people, knowledge, material, energy, capital and finance), processes, outputs and feedback mechanism of Pakistani librarianship are described. Characteristics of an open system such as users, controller, cycle of events, teleology, mission and negative entropy are presented with special reference to libraries in Pakistan.

That the Library system in Pakistan would benefit from the application of an open systems approach, but resource and other constraints prevent this from happening.

Attempts to show how open systems theory can be applied to the sphere of a national library system.

The barriers to implementing the systems model offered in this paper are essentially practical: resource constraints, political priorities, and related social or governmental factors.

The paper is useful not only to understand how a library can be studied using systems theory but also to have a picture of the present state of librarianship in Pakistan.