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For an organization to realize the intended benefits of an enternprise resource planning (ERP) investment, it must integrate both technical expertise and functional area knowledge, and it must have continuing support after implementation. The study aims to expand understanding of how organizations ensure the necessary support from functional experts during and after ERP installations. In particular, the study aims to address the question of the type of horizontal support mechanism chosen for this support and how managers make these choices.

The study is a replicated case study based on interviews with project leaders in nine universities judged to have successful PeopleSoft ERP implementations. Thematic analysis is applied to identify the factors influencing managerial choices and organizational decisions made to assure post‐implementation ERP support.

The findings indicate that managers of ERP implementations recognize the necessity for horizontal coordinating mechanisms both during and after implementation. The paper finds no single “best” structure in the cases, nor does it observe that the support structure decision is always based on a deliberate organizational strategy. The findings indicate that selection of post‐implementation support structure is often a negotiated outcome. Ultimately, the paper finds that the outcomes were based on three factors: the situated context of the original implementation project goals; the nature of early commitments made to functional subject matter experts and their departments; and the initial project structure used during the implementation phase.

This research fills a gap in research on ERP support structures by examining how localized organizations assure the necessary support from subject matter experts, commencing with project inception and continuing through post‐implementation. The results contribute to theory by illustrating the value of a process‐based approach to understanding the factors that affect the choice of support structures. The findings contribute to practice by highlighting how early management decisions and the methods executives chose to assure commitments from key stakeholders can restrict the range of options for post‐implementation organizational structures.

Automation represents one of the greatest changes a library can undergo. An automation plan must not only produce an optimum system, but prepare the staff, institution and clientele for far‐reaching change. This change can be accommodated by a functional model consisting of three phases: 1) organization and overview, 2) project expansion, and 3) project consolidation and preparationof the system plan. An educational program is the centerpiece of the process.

R&R Relational Report Writer (R&R) is an after‐market product aimed at dBASEIII and dBASEIII Plus users. It offers dBASE users the opportunity to produce reports that take full advantage of dBASEIII's database management power. The program is impressive for what it does, how it does it, and bow it is documented.

The characteristics of the ubiquitous 360K 5 1/4 inch floppy disk are described. Based on personal experience, and subsequent related experiments, the author details steps to be taken to salvage disks which have been damaged by spilled substances such as coffee with cream and sugar, Classic Coke, hamburger and french fries, and hand cream.

There is a very important principle in financial management, one so basic that it has never really been named. The sort of title that might be attached to it—for example, the principle of minimum non‐allocated cost—is dull and unexciting. Therefore, a metaphoric name—the principle of “minimum unsprung weight”—has been borrowed for this article.

This study examines the method of scenario analysis as a means of exposing hidden assumptions which cause misattributions that lead to multicultural conflict and as a way of assessing cross‐cultural understanding. Results from thirty‐five critical incident interviews of technical professionals and semi‐structured scenario questionnaires from graduate business and engineering students are presented. The results provide support for the use of scenarios as a method of exposing hidden assumptions leading to multicultural conflict and as a process which helps participants deal with the conflict. Implications for organizational research and practice are discussed, including the use of scenario analysis as an evaluation and measurement tool for culturally‐related conflict in organizations.

At the California State Polytechnic University the library buys software to support three models of microcomputers: IBM PC, Apple, and Macintosh. On campus there are three comptuer labs which are maintained by the Computer Center. The library itself contains an IBM PC lab with 40 micros and two different types of printers. The development of a microcomputer software collection began in October 1984, after the Guidelines for Using AACR2 Chapter 9 for Cataloging Microcomputer Software were published and when the OCLC format for machine‐readable data files became available. At the present time the collection comprises about ninety different packages which are housed in Reserve and have a checkout period of four hours.

Recent literature in the strategic management field suggests that firms must learn to re‐bundle internal competencies and resources in order to maintain competitive advantages over time. Utilizing the resource‐based view of the firm and dynamic capabilities perspectives, this paper examines the roles that absorptive and transformative capacity play in organizational innovation, with specific emphasis placed on the role and effectiveness of knowledge management systems as a determinant of innovation practices.

Tribalism is at the forefront of public discussion across the political spectrum in America today. Zombie stories have also risen to unprecedented popularity. Amid present-day racial, political, and otherwise tribal tensions, the story I Am Legend has particular resonance. As the original inspiration behind the modern zombie trope, it was published as a novella in 1954 and has been remade as a film multiple times, in 1964, 1971, and 2007. Using grounded theory, I explore each film regarding what moral attitudes are portrayed concerning confrontation between rival milieus. My findings center on four themes: identification, compassion, ambivalence, and condemnation. Overall, in chronological order, the different renditions of the story exhibit decreasing compassion for the other and decreasing ambivalence about relations with the other. The most dramatic change is between the 1971 and 2007 remakes. Implications for what the changes in the morals presented in the story might reflect in terms of social changes in America are discussed.

This paper focuses on the role of myth in group identity maintenance. It begins by looking at the occupational group, but broadens to show how subsociety and the larger society affected the group's identity and actions. Mississippi Delta blues performers’ use of myth serves as the historical example, and this analysis shows how the group reacted to living in a segregated and racist society. Analysis of songs demonstrates how myth can play a role in tying together this subordinated group in society and perpetuate myth. How the blues subculture still employs these myths today is also addressed.