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1 – 10 of over 2000Tengku Adil Tengku Izhar, Torab Torabi and M. Ishaq Bhatti
This paper is about gathering the measurement data and making an effectiveness results to assist decision-making process to evaluate the level of the organizational goals…
Abstract
This paper is about gathering the measurement data and making an effectiveness results to assist decision-making process to evaluate the level of the organizational goals achievement. In order to achieve this aim, we designed GOAL framework as a platform represents five steps for domain experts and entrepreneurs to identify the relevant organizational data to assist decision-making process in relation to the organizational goals. The aim of this paper concentrates on the design of this framework. GOAL framework associated with the organizational goals ontology aim to identify the dependency relationship between organizational goals and dependency relationship between organizational data and organizational goals. Metrics is defined for this dependency to identify which organizational data is relevant to the organizational goals. The framework is flexible to change without affecting things around because the framework is applicable in any organizational data with different organizational goals.
Tengku Adil Tengku Izhar, Bernady O. Apduhan and Torab Torabi
The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of the organizational goal accomplishment by assessing the reliance relationship between organizational data and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of the organizational goal accomplishment by assessing the reliance relationship between organizational data and organizational goals.
Design/methodology/approach
The evaluation of the organizational goals is based on design and operational level, which can serve in ranking of the organizational goals achievement and hence assist the decision-making process in achieving the organizational goals. To achieve this aim, the authors propose an ontology to develop the relationship between organizational data and organizational goals.
Findings
Data goals dependency shows the dependency relationship between organizational data and organizational goals. At the same time, data goals dependency assists the process of identifying data attributes, where the authors suggest that these data attributes are relevant in relation to the organizational goals.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper will serve as the first step to evaluate the relevance of organizational data to assist decision-making in relation to the organizational goals.
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Orestes Vlismas and George Venieris
This study attempts to formulate an ontological proposition for the intellectual capital (IC) domain. This study is motivated by the debate of contemporary thinking for…
Abstract
Purpose
This study attempts to formulate an ontological proposition for the intellectual capital (IC) domain. This study is motivated by the debate of contemporary thinking for different IC research streams (IC1‐ostensive versus IC2‐performative) and their different ontological perceptions for IC. The proposed ontological proposition aims to serve the epistemological requirements towards the development of a common accepted generic IC theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The formulation of the ontology for the IC domain is based on contemporary tools within the fields of ontology and conceptual modelling. The principal dimensions of the ontology for the IC domain are identified following the directions of the Sowa's generalised theory for ontological frameworks. For each dimension, a generic entity is defined by drawing inferences from disciplines relevant to the contemporary IC inquiry. The relationships between the generic entities are modelled with the semantic representations of General Systems Theory (GST).
Findings
This paper provides an answer to the epistemological problem of how to perceive the substance of the IC domain. The derived ontology for the IC domain recognises different IC ontological dimensions that correspond to the IC ontological assumptions of different IC research streams, attempts to associate the IC of an organization with the tangible dimension of the enterprise, and provides conceptual semantics for modelling firm‐specific IC domains under the prism of different epistemological perspectives for IC.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed ontological proposition for the IC domain is an abstract ontology. It might empower researchers with guidelines for systemising the formulation of theoretical propositions and descriptions for their research fields. Yet, as an abstract ontology, it might create difficulty in its practical implementation.
Originality/value
The ontological proposition for the IC domain can contribute towards the debate on the establishment of a common research communicational rationalism within the IC research community for coordinating individual research efforts.
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The purpose of this paper is to present the MEMORAe project, the goal of which is to offer an alternative to the loss of competencies and knowledge in an organization.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the MEMORAe project, the goal of which is to offer an alternative to the loss of competencies and knowledge in an organization.
Design/methodology/approach
Within the project MEMORAe, interest was focused on the capitalization of knowledge and competencies in the context of an organization. The E‐MEMORAe environment was developed based on the concept of learning organizational memory. This environment is dedicated to be used by a semantic learning organization as support for competency‐based training. It is evaluated in this context.
Findings
In the E‐MEMORAe environment, learning content is indexed by knowledge and competencies organized by means of ontologies. Learners can acquire thise knowledge and these competencies by doing different tasks, accessing different contents. In the memory, competencies are defined via the knowledge they enable to be put into practice.
Practical implications
It is known that some industrial communities of practice are interested in the use of E‐MEMORAe.
Originality/value
Within the MEMORAe project, an ontology‐based learning organizational memory is proposed as support for learning object retrieval by competency for competency based learning. Using such a memory enables and goes beyond organizational knowledge management. Knowledge and competencies are defined and structured to facilitate their access and their learning. This latter is also made possible thanks to the resources that they index.
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Hind Lamharhar, Dalila Chiadmi and Laila Benhlima
In e-government domain, an efficient semantic interoperability of services is a big challenge. In this context, semantic technologies play a fundamental role in numerous…
Abstract
Purpose
In e-government domain, an efficient semantic interoperability of services is a big challenge. In this context, semantic technologies play a fundamental role in numerous e-government programs. Indeed, these technologies enable enriching the public service description provided by different public administrations with additional semantic information, which allows automatic services processing and information exchange between involved members in comprehensive and interpretable manner, thus facilitating service integration and cooperation. The most frequently used technologies in this area are semantic web services (SWS) technology and ontology. Thus, for modelling efficiently public services, the authors have exploring, studying and analyzing some of e-government researches and projects that applied semantic technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors address how semantic technologies transform the e-government domain through exploring and studying the use of SWS and ontology in numerous researches and projects applying these technologies in this area. Then, the authors have compared them through a set of criteria defined according to e-government requirements such as the SWS modelling approach for describing semantically public services, ontologies for representing governmental specific features (e.g. regulation and organizational structures) and developed portal for supporting user ' s perspectives. Based on this study, the authors have identified the appropriate standards, frameworks, and models for developing the framework.
Findings
The authors have developed a framework for public services which enhances existing approaches with additional aspects. Thus, the approach comparing to other works improves the service ontology with a cognitive semantic approach to support the multiple usage contexts and situations of services. This semantic is developed in form of a Sit/Ctx ontology developed based on CSs model represented through conceptual graphs theory. The authors have used this model besides OWL-S, improving thus the level of automation of discovery and composition process of public services, which become more efficient with taken into consideration their interrelations and situations.
Originality/value
The approach comparing to other works improves the service ontology with a cognitive semantic approach to support the multiple usage contexts and situations of public services, providing thus the end-users (people and enterprises) a better orientation in discovery process.
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This research seeks to explore the potential of ontologies for reorganizing e‐document management in public administration with the aim of supporting administration in…
Abstract
Purpose
This research seeks to explore the potential of ontologies for reorganizing e‐document management in public administration with the aim of supporting administration in organizing cross‐organizational document and information management.
Design/methodology/approach
Since ontologies are suitable for organizing metadata for annotation of informational resources, the research question is: How can public administrations make use of ontologies for organizing and improving their e‐document management? Findings, based on an action research project in the state administration of Schleswig‐Holstein (Germany).
Findings
The research findings indicate that structuring documents and information through ontologies requires a socio‐technical infrastructure consisting of a number of regularities, services and support on the level of organization as well as information technology.
Research limitations/implications
Since the case of Schleswig‐Holstein is typical for governments trying to enter the information age without having the power and resources to be on the leading edge, the recommendations based on this research may support the strategy development and solution finding in other administrations as well.
Practical implications
A rather small government (such as that of Schleswig‐Holstein) must be aware of its strategic goals and step ahead carefully in order to avoid the risks of misinvestment while reorganizing its e‐document management.
Originality/value
The paper systematically addresses the question “How can public administration make use of ontologies for organizing and improving their e‐document management?”.
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Joselaine Valaski, Sheila Reinehr and Andreia Malucelli
The purpose of this research was to evaluate whether ontology integrated in an organizational learning environment may support the automatic learning material…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research was to evaluate whether ontology integrated in an organizational learning environment may support the automatic learning material classification in a specific knowledge area.
Design/methodology/approach
An ontology for recommending learning material was integrated in the organizational learning environment based on ontology. An experiment was performed with 15 experts and 84 learners. Experts and learners were asked to classify 30 learning material related to Software Engineering area. The results obtained from experts and learners were compared with the ontology results.
Findings
Among 30 learning materials evaluated, 24 learning materials got closer to the expert classification using the ontology than using the learners’ manual classification. The learners had difficulties in correctly classifying the learning materials according to the knowledge area applied.
Originality/value
In an autonomous collaborative environment without a tutor responsible for organizing the learning materials shared by collaborators, an ontology may be an auxiliary mechanism to support automatic learning material classification. The proposed ontology uses recommendations given by the collaborators to get the correct knowledge area classification. The correct classification may support retrieval of appropriate learning materials according to the learners’ needs.
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Organizations have already realized the significance of capturing, sharing and applying the collective experience and know‐how of their members. The aim is to increase…
Abstract
Organizations have already realized the significance of capturing, sharing and applying the collective experience and know‐how of their members. The aim is to increase operational efficiency, productivity, quality of services and get innovative products and solutions to their customers. However, it is well known that technological approaches for managing organizational knowledge need further development for their effective deployment in real settings. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of previous work done in information technology solutions to support knowledge management, to specify important features that an advanced knowledge management system must have in order to be successfully deployed in an organization, and identify emerging technological issues that must be researched and be developed in order the technological expectations of the knowledge management community to be fulfilled.
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Houda Chakiri, Mohammed El Mohajir and Nasser Assem
Most local governance assessment tools are entirely or partially based on stakeholders’ surveys, focus groups and benchmarks of different local governments in the world…
Abstract
Purpose
Most local governance assessment tools are entirely or partially based on stakeholders’ surveys, focus groups and benchmarks of different local governments in the world. These tools remain a subjective way of local governance evaluation. To measure the performance of local good-governance using an unbiased assessment technique, the authors have developed a framework to help automate the design process of a data warehouse (DW), which provides local and central decision-makers with factual, measurable and accurate local government data to help assess the performance of local government. The purpose of this paper is to propose the extraction of the DW schema based on a mixed approach that adopts both i* framework for requirements-based representation and domain ontologies for data source representation, to extract the multi-dimensional (MD) elements. The data was collected from various sources and information systems (ISs) deployed in different municipalities.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors present a framework for the design and implementation of a DW for local good-governance assessment. The extraction of facts and dimensions of the DW’s MD schema is done using a hybrid approach, where the extraction of requirement-based DW schema and source-based DW schema are done in parallel followed by the reconciliation of the obtained schemas to obtain the good-governance assessment DW final design.
Findings
The authors developed a novel framework to design and implement a DW for local good-governance assessment. The framework enables the extraction of the DW MD schema by using domain ontologies to help capture semantic artifacts and minimize misconceptions and misunderstandings between different stakeholders. The introduction and use of domain ontologies during the design process serves the generalization and automation purpose of the framework.
Research limitations/implications
The presently conducted research faced two main limitations as follows: the first is the full automation of the design process of the DW and the second, and most important, is access to local government data as it remains limited because of the lack of digitally stored data in municipalities, especially in developing countries in addition to the difficulty of accessing the data because of regulatory aspects and bureaucracy.
Practical implications
The local government environment is among the public administrations most subject to change-adverse cultures and where the authors can face high levels of resistance and significant difficulties during the implementation of decision support systems, despite the commitment/engagement of decision-makers. Access to data sources stored by different ISs might be challenging. While approaching the municipalities for data access, it was done in the framework of a research project within one of the most notorious universities in the country, which gave more credibility and trust to the research team. There is also a need for further testing of the framework to reveal its scalability and performance characteristics.
Originality/value
Compared to other local government assessment ad hoc tools that are partially or entirely based on subjectively collected data, the framework provides a basis for automated design of a comprehensive local government DW using e-government domain ontologies for data source representation coupled with the goal, rationale and business process diagrams for user requirements representations, thus enabling the extraction of the final DW MD schema.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide a generalized framework that illustrates the potential for the resources, events and agents (REA) model to integrate business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a generalized framework that illustrates the potential for the resources, events and agents (REA) model to integrate business strategy and information systems planning. The essential point of connection, the business process, enables the REA to form a complementary platform to integrate strategic change information to support change strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a case study to illustrate application of the framework.
Findings
The framework illustrates how the expanding ontology and semantic granularity and scalability features of the REA enterprise domain ontology, support mapping a range of change strategies structured using Venkataraman's change framework.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is exploratory in nature. The method uses existing case information, but the nature of the work does not lend itself to the traditional descriptive approach.
Practical implications
Integration of business strategy and information systems planning is critical for organizational success. Poor integration between change initiatives and systems poses a challenge in implementing change strategies. Conceptual models that support change initiatives provide users an effective medium to use domain knowledge to support change strategies.
Originality/value
The paper integrates existing concepts in the REA model (with some modification to the process view of the REA to adapt to multiple change initiatives). To the authors’ knowledge, there are no other papers that have offered a generalized framework for conceptualizing change initiatives of different levels.
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