Glenn Stewart

Business Process Management is recognised as a holistic management strategy aimed at achieving higher performance by optimising business processes. BPM projects require high commitment and leadership capabilities. Leadership has constantly been recognised as one of the critical success factors of BPM projects. However, the nature and characteristics of leadership in BPM are relatively under-researched areas. This paper presents the outcomes of a systematic literature review on leadership in BPM. While our review confirms a strong consensus on the importance of leadership in BPM, it also depicts the dearth of research in this area. We present a detailed analysis on the key themes observed within the current research with identified gaps and a call for action with a recommended research agenda.

Teaching critical reviewing of\u27 research papers to budding post-graduate students is a difficult process.A method that focuses on the match of the theoretical and methodological components of well constructed research is invaluable in assisting students in a structured review of research papers. Gowin\u27s Vee heuristic is such a method. This paper reports on the use of Gowin\u27s Vee to post-graduate students of Information Technology in critiquing research papers and formulating their own research project. Preliminary results show an increased appreciation by students of critical elements of a well formulated pape

Data capture and use is vital for the continuous improvement of both student learning and behavior management. Previous studies on data use in the education sector have highlighted a number of problems associated with data quality and its subsequent use. These include the accuracy, consistency, completeness, and timeliness of data. Engagement issues with data have centred on the interpretation and application of the knowledge that data can provide. No study to date has investigated the link between IS design and the production of quality data that captures student progression and outcomes in either the learning or behavior management environments. This study reports on the design, development, implementation and evaluation of a novel artefact facilitating quality data for one classroom based education service: pastoral care. This study, using design science research methods, shows that Information Systems Design is a major barrier to teacher adoption and use of classroom based Infor...

... Empowerment' Rashi Sehgal Glenn Stewart Faculty of Information Technology Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia rashi. ... Quinn & Spreitzer 1997, Spreitzer 1999), power and control as relational constructs (Spreitzer & Mishra 1999), power ...

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... UNCOVERING IMPLICIT LEADERSHIP BELIEFS: VARIATION BETWEEN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) EXECUTIVES AND BUSINESS EXECUTIVES IN A PUBLIC ... study may be applicable in studying variations in the perception of leadership in cross-cultural teams and ...

This paper presents a new design for studies in Information Technology at a large Australian university. This work is grounded in recommendations of several IT curriculum documents. The paper briefly presents the range of first year units designed to ensure that the student of Information Technology has an effective base of technical and personal skills demanded of IT professional by industry. The paper’s focus is to detail two units that are specifically designed to develop interpersonal skills, communication and team skills, through developing products for the web. The paper is closes by mapping these latter units to IS2002 and ISCCÑ

This paper presents a reflection on using an Enterprise Architecture approach to develop in graduate students a holistic and integrated view of complex enterprises. It presents the unit rationale and design. The paper details the authentic assessment used to engage the students in the learning process. Student performance results are shown. Changes to the unit design are presented, emphasizing the need for students to have a good understanding of enterprise system functionality and deployment.

Most modern organisations have been developing corporate Information Systems for over twenty years, and in that period have experienced both time and cost overrun as well as lack of systems functionality. What effect has this history had on the expectations of both information systems in improving business performance and in the information systems unit in assisting businesses to achieve such process improvement? This paper presents the findings of one detailed case study of a large public sector agency that has experienced this cycle and shows how to conduct an evaluation of the effect on business expectations of its IT function.

This paper describes the rationale for a collaborative research project between academe and industry that was studying barriers to the exploitation of information technology. In particular, the barriers identified include stereotypical beliefs about IT professionals, implicit beliefs about leaders, the nature of the relationship between IT and business management communities, organisational experience with information technology and innovation and IS/IT leadership. The major outputs of the research include: a) the development of an approach to uncover implicit leadership beliefs, and variations in the perception of leadership between the business and IT management communities, b) leadership performance of the IT managers using an established and validated instrument (the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire) and c) the first benchmarks obtained for IT leadership according to the Full Range Leadership Model. This paper discusses the use of Yin's approach to case study research a...

The number of different crises that might occur in any organisation grows as companies adapt to suit the increasing variation of their environments. Management of process change in crisis situations should be swift, appropriate and directed at supporting continual achievement of longer term goals. The changes made in crisis situations should not be reactive and focused on short term problems that may pass in a day or a week. Rather, changes should continue to direct the energies of the organisation in achieving short term objectives and long term goals. A method by which an organisation is able to ‘stay focussed in a crisis’ is by linking processes to goals and identifying those processes most critical to achieving organisational goals. The method is the subject of this paper. A research project has identified and tested this methodology which can be used by business to ensure that process change is focussed on the goals of the organisations and not the ‘squeaky wheel’ of the day.

This paper details the curriculum innovations in a $300,000 project focused on engaging students in learning ICT. Three strategies are discussed. One strategy is to use a digital portfolio to trap student outputs, relate these to industry expectations and provide a means for students to reflect emerging professional competence. Another strategy is to frame the learning experience through a series of authentic tasks. A third strategy is to visualise and track the attainment of skills in terms of industry criteria. This paper reports progress on this project as well as its application to the Enterprise System curriculum area.

Universities are facing increasing competition on a global scale as providers for postgraduate material develop resources for online consumption. Professionals in the field of Information Technology need to continue to maintain contact with their rapidly changing technological and organisational environments. How can universities seek to meet the challenges offered in the global market place and yet meet the local demand? This paper examines one solution to the problem – the offering of a master’s qualification for practicing professionals that is delivered in a variety of ways in order to meet the needs of the client. The paper describes some of the philosophies behind one stream of the degree and the means by which the curriculum has been developed. The final model proposed shows how universities maintain their relevance in an online world by capitalising on their established networks and focusing on job related skills that are refined through discourse with the universities resea...

This paper presents and discusses the design of a problem based learning approach that seeks to embed industrial knowledge in the curriculum. It describes a project currently underway that is developing a business reference model using Process Engineering techniques. This reference model is being implemented in the leading Enterprise-wide System (also known as Enterprise Resource Planning System) SAP R/3. Teaching cases are being developed through collaboration between universities and industry. These teaching cases are to be available for use in the IS curriculum, irrespective of which faculty in which this curriculum is found. The teaching cases will also be available for wide distribution. This paper argues that this approach is in alignment with the recommendations of key curriculum documents and educational approaches. It also argues that the resultant teaching cases will be attractive to students, meet the current requirements of industry while maintaining the focus on educati...

This paper reports a study designed to investigate the concept of User Empowerment in the context of Enterprise Systems (ES) across three hierarchical levels of management of a higher education organization in Australia 1 . The study focuses on how user empowerment can impact the potential components of Enterprise System Success (ESS) and the employee’s immediate work environment. We have drawn from psychological and user empowerment theories to identify 6 components of empowerment that would, hypothetically, effect the individual's user empowerment experience: (1) meaning; (2) impact; (3) user autonomy; (4) computer self-efficacy; (5) self-determination; and (6) competence. To explore this conceptual user empowerment model, information was gathered from 154 respondents using Oracle Financials. The survey instrument included 55 questions based on the dimensions of psychological empowerment (Spreitzer, Kizilos and Nason 1997), dimensions of user empowerment (Doll, Deng and Metts ...

This paper presents the results of a study that focuses on understanding the importance of empowerment as an enabler of Enterprise System (ES) success. This research draws from psychological and User empowerment concepts, using prior validated models and theories on empowerment and ES success measurement. The literature also suggests a conceptual linkage between empowerment and motivation. The data was gathered from 154 respondents in a large organisation, which had implemented Oracle Financials in 1996. Preliminary findings illustrate that user empowerment has a significant impact on ES success.

This paper describes a research project which intends to improve the business-IS/IT alignment of organisations using an innovative new method. The Targeting Method which guides strategy formulation irrespective of organisational structure or strategic planning process utilises a visual cause and effect strategic map which enhances communication, change management and knowledge sharing. Currently organisations achieve strategic IT alignment by passing through 3 levels of consciousness: awareness, integration, and alignment. Alignment takes the integration stage further by focusing on the integration of IT with the organisations fundamental strategies and core competencies. The focus on core competencies is primarily where problems start to occur in these organisations. “An apparently smooth running and highly productive core competence may mutate rapidly into a core rigidity”. Even within high performance six sigma organisations there is little support for the identification of proce...

Data capture and use is vital for the continuous improvement of both student learning and behavior management. Previous studies on data use in the education sector have highlighted a number of problems associated with data quality and its subsequent use. These include the accuracy, consistency, completeness, and timeliness of data. Engagement issues with data have centered on the interpretation and application of the knowledge that data can provide. No study to date has investigated the link between IS design and the production of quality data that captures student progression and outcomes in either the learning or behavior management environments. This study reports on the design, development, implementation and evaluation of a novel artefact facilitating quality data for one classroom based education service: behaviour management. This study, using Design Science Research methods, shows that information systems design is a major barrier to teacher adoption and use of classroom bas...

Business Process Management is a rather new concept in management that promises many advantages to the organizations. Implementation of this concept similar to the other management techniques needs to consider different factors. One of the factors that its importance has been mentioned in many research, is "culture". Despite of many research that have mentioned this factor as an important success factors, there are few research that consider the way that culture affects on BPM implementation. In this study a survey has been conducted between BPM experts to find the ways that culture affects on BPM implementation. SA framework that were introduced by Kettinger and Teng was used for specifying tasks during implementation. Different aspects of culture were extracted from the items that have been introduced by Alibabaei, Bandara et al. The results show that the culture affects Project Planning and Analyzing Process Problems phases more than other phases and has the least effec...

This paper presents the issues confronting a large Australian university in revising its curriculum in order to effectively respond to the changing demands of the technical environment and an increasing need to produce graduates who are team players. The paper first defines the outcomes of an IS education at this university and then moves on to defining an IS curriculum for 2005 (the target year of the first graduates in the revised program). A brief section on educational approaches then follows, which examines our values and beliefs of education and content inclusion. The paper then examines a range of units that are designed to position the student to become an Information Systems Specialist. The paper closes by reviewing the pressures on universities to keep current content and processes and summarizing the mapping of the final IS curriculum to the objectives in ISCC’99.

Leadership of the IT unit appears to be a critical success factor in strategic planning and implementation of technology by organisations. One moderator of successful leadership seems to be the perception of leadership held by the senior business executives. This study evaluated the perceptions of ideal leadership held by the deputy CEO, his first line reports, the CIO and his first line reports and to key IT and business unit managers. This paper shows that the perceptions of ideal leadership held by the organisation exceed those behaviours observed in practice. It shows that though the same model of leadership is held by these communities, the IT executive has higher expectations of leadership behaviour than the Business Executive does.

Teaching critical reviewing of' research papers to budding post-graduate students is a difficult process. A method that focuses on the match of the theoretical and methodological components of well constructed research is invaluable in assisting students in a structured review of research papers. Gowin's "Vee" heuristic is such a method. This paper reports on the use of Gowin's Vee to post-graduate students of Information Technology in critiquing research papers and formulating their own research project. Preliminary results show an increased appreciation by students of critical elements of a well formulated paper.

This paper discusses the design of an introductory unit in a Master of Information Technology program that seeks to develop in the student a deeper understanding of the systemic effects of ICT in organisations. Participating students are converting from another discipline to IT. Graduates tend to become IT managers, consultants or project leaders. This paper discusses how using an Enterprise Architecture framework approach provides students with an integrated view of the complexity and diversity of ICT theory and a vehicle for understanding the socio-technical interdependences occurring in twenty-first century organisations.

It is by now an obvious observation that much of the world depends on information technology. Our infrastructure relies on IT: our buildings, finance systems, roads, airplanes, cars, televisions, washing ma-chines and bread makers; as does much of what we do: our banking, learning and communicating. Almost everyone today uses information technology, but few know how it works, and very few indeed under-stand the mysteries of how to build new systems. This imbalance be-tween ‘users’ and ‘knowers’ grows worse every year. With the ‘dot com collapse’, the number of students studying computers, and information technology more generally, has been shrinking steadily. In the long run, this trend is not likely to be a good thing, either in Australia or else-where. What can we do about this? IT courses worldwide report falling enrollments and high attrition. The glamor of computing – seemingly effortless graphics and animations, and the management of massive computations and data sets – is at odds with the reality of how difficult it can be to coax computers into exhibiting these advanced capabilities; and many students find the transition from the dream to reality too difficult to master. One possibility is to reconceptualize both what and how we teach, making IT more attractive to students without sacrificing the rigor and depth needed to produce graduates capable of life-long learning against the backdrop of rapidly evolving technologies. The Faculty of Information Technology at QUT has long sought to develop curricula and pedagogies that make this possible. The results of this search show in innovative curricula, real-world engagement, and a dominant position in our local market for IT education. QUT’s strategic plan, the ‘QUT Blueprint’*, exhorts the University to be bold, experiment, and engage with the real world in order to ensure we remain relevant and attuned to the needs of both our graduates and the industries that will employ them. The contents of this book report on a significant part of our response to this challenge. I’m honored to be able to write this preface only a year after I joined QUT; the work herein is a credit to my two predecessors as Deans of the Faculty, Professors Dennis Longley and John Gough, and to all the staff of the Faculty, both academic and professional, and current and past. Hopefully it will also help to inspire a new generation of staff and students. To you, the reader, this book is best thought of as a snapshot of a long quest to discover the secrets of how best to approach the moving feast that is IT education. It will be of interest to those looking to develop new curricula of their own, or benchmark their own journeys of dis-covery. We should never imagine that we have all the answers; indeed, it’s our hope that readers will learn from, and improve on, what we have achieved, and share their insights with us in return, so that the co-evolution of ICT teaching around the world can be facilitated. Enjoy! Professor Simon Kaplan Executive Dean, Faculty of Information Technology, Queensland University of Technology September 2005