Examining The Important Business Of ERP Implementation Information Technology Essay

Examining The Important Business Of ERP Implementation Information Technology Essay Enterprise resource planning systems, also called enterprise systems (ES) are among the most important business information technologies that emerged during the last decade. While no two industries ERP systems are the same, the basic concept of ERP systems is focused on standardization and synchronization of information, and as a result, improved efficiency. The benefits of ERP systems include Coordinating processes and information Reducing carrying costs Decreasing cycle time, and Improving responsiveness to customer needs The decision to implement an ERP system is not made lightly. It is expensive, and it usually takes eighteen to twenty-four months to implement from the start of the process to when the first function goes live. A complete suite of functions going live can take three to four years, or more. ERP Implementation Without successful implementation of the ERP system, the projected benefits of improved productivity and competitive advantage would not be forthcoming. This creates trade off for decision makers to find causes and to manage the consequences. Literature suggests that adoption and implementation depends upon various factors during the course of initiation to benefits realization. These factors are influential and hence their understanding is critical to success. Critical Success Factors The following table presents 19 CSFs extracted from the literature and their dominant perspectives that are identified as imperative for successful ERP adoption and implementation. For example, Top Management factor is related to the stakeholders; therefore, it should be implemented by focusing on the Stakeholders perspective of ERP. These factors have been arranged in order of their importance in relation to each of the perspectives. ERP Implementation Critical Success Factors ERP Perspectives Critical Success Factors Importance Stakeholders Top management commitment High Project Champion High Execution Team High External advisory support Medium Vendor Partnership Low Total end-user involvement Low Process Business Process Design High Customization approach Medium Performance measurement and control Low Technology Package requirements and selection Medium System Testing Low Organisation Change Management High Effective Communication High Business vision goals and objectives High Training and education Medium Organisational structure and culture Low Project Project Management High Budget-cost parameters Low Time Low Critical Failure Factors ERP has been implemented all over the world by many companies but their high failure rates suggest that understanding and implementing ERP is a challenging task. The following nine factors are found to be critical in the failure of ERP implementations (A. Momoh, R. Roy, E. Shehab, 2010) Excessive customization Dilemma of internal integration Poor understanding of business implications and requirements Lack of change management Poor data quality Misalignment of IT with business Hidden costs Limited training Lack of top management support Challenges in ERP Implementation There may be various reasons for such rejection or unsuccessful conclusion to ERP adoption as discussed below Management may not be clear about the needs and requirement of IT system such as ERP that why and how they are adopting it or whether such a capital investment is needed or not. A mismatch is created because most of the times managers do not understand the integration between their core business, IT processes, and firms positioning; they may not know about the role that IT can play to their organisations. Management of the firm may not know that these new IT systems can bring multiple synergies or benefits to their company. Firms may not have resources like access, skills, capabilities or dynamic capabilities to generate any tangible output from these systems. Globally operating organisations many times use single ERP solution for all its subsidiaries. This can lead to problems in local subsidiaries such as over budget and time resources spending, lack of technical expertise and compromises in business process. Many firms are not able to leverage already implemented ERP systems for exploiting new business opportunities arising with latest market developments. This creates falsehood of ERP being not successful especially to the top management. Primary focus on adoption and implementation often neglects post-implementation maintenance and support from an early stage after roll out in the life cycle. ERP Integration The benefits of an ERP application are limited unless it is seamlessly integrated with other information systems. Organizations face many challenges in ERP integration The challenges of integrating various functional ERP modules The challenge of integration with other e-business software applications The challenge of integration with legacy systems. The success of ERP implementation is the success of ERP integration. Integration of ERP Modules Packaged ERP software consists of many functional modules (production planning, inventory control, financial and HR). Organizations tend to install modules from the same ERP vendors in the initial ERP implementation. Not all companies will purchase all ERP modules from a single ERP vendor (SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft etc.). The implementation of ERP systems could last many years. The integration of ERP modules could be either the integration of modules from different vendors, or the different versions of the modules from the same vendor. Integration of E-Business Applications E-business practice is the combination of strategies, technologies and processes to electronically coordinate both internal and external business processes, and manage enterprise-wide resources. E-business software systems generally fall into four categories: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Knowledge Management (KM). To get the most out of ERP systems, ERP should be tightly integrated with other e-business software Supply Chain systems, CRM, knowledge management, B2B exchange and ecommerce storefront on the Internet. Integration with Legacy Systems Over the years, legacy systems have accumulated vast amount of data vital to the survival, operations, and expansion of corporations and non-profit organizations. Integration of ERP systems with legacy systems is more complex than the integration of ERP modules and Integration of e-business Applications. It routinely requires the installation of third-party interface software for the communication between ERP software systems and legacy systems. Second generation ERP systems use relational database management systems (RDBMS) to store enterprise data. Data conversion from legacy systems to RDBMS is a often a time-consuming and tedious process. While most interface software provides API for ERP to access legacy systems, some vendors offer integration module that automates or accelerates the transformation of legacy application logic and data into reusable components with XML, SOAP, J2EE and .NET interfaces. Cost of ERP Implementation According to any accounting method, ERP investments are among the largest single concentrated investments in dollars and human resources in most industrial organisations. An ERP implementation generally has three cost phases Acquisition Implementation, and Post-implementation Acquisition Costs Initial planning and acquisition costs are a real part of ERP implementation costs. Most of these initial costs fall in the area of human resource expenses (people) due to the amount of time key staff must dedicate to carefully analyzing the need for an ERP system, making a decision to pursue the implementation, and then planning for it. Implementation Costs Once the decision is made to implement an ERP system, the development of the implementation budget can begin in earnest. A realistically developed and funded implementation budget that covers all components and aspects of the project ensures as smooth a process as possible and lessens to some degree the stress an ERP implementation places on staff. An appropriate budget will minimize the surprises of unexpected costs and the abrupt search for funds to cover these costs. The following are the major cost components of an ERP system implementation Cost of new hardware: One major cost, usually, is the cost of new hardware, including network infrastructure, database servers, application servers, Web servers, disks, load-balancing switch, and storage and disaster recovery devices. Cost of additional hardware: The more people there are who use the system on a daily basis, the more application servers will be needed. A quick response time requires more application servers, more memory, and a faster processor speed, among other components. To avoid system downtime, redundant database servers are needed to provide automatic backup when one server malfunctions. The cost of additional hardware must be balanced with how much the organization wants the new system to improve client services and business processes. Software licensing costs: Software licensing costs include the ERP vendor software package and any third-party software the organization decides to include as part of the initial implementation. The ERP vendor software includes the functional software for human resources and student records as well as all the software components required to run the new system, including the database, system tools, operating systems, compilers, and network and integration software. Third party software is often purchased to enhance the functionality of the system. Software maintenance cost: The majority of ERP vendors include a software maintenance cost component in their contracts. These maintenance costs generally vary between 18 and 24 percent of the initial licensing cost, depending on the level of maintenance the organisation requires. Software maintenance fees typically cover software patches, new releases, vendor help-desk support, user mailing list servers, and the right to attend a vendors user conference. Hardware maintenance fees: Hardware maintenance fees are similar to software maintenance fees and cover many of the same support services that software maintenance fees cover, for example, vendor help desk, user mailing list servers, and patches and upgrades to operating systems. In addition, organisations should build in hardware replacement costs as part of the ongoing budget. The life cycle for most hardware is three years. Staffing costs: A third significant cost associated with implementing an ERP system is staffing. To fully staff a project an organisation must consider internal staff assigned to the project (some think of internal staff as an indirect budget cost), backfill for these staff positions, and vendor or other outside consultants. The staffing needs of the implementation must be fully understood and proactive approaches to potential staffing problems must be taken. Training Costs: Training project implementation staff on a new system is vital if the new system is to meet the institutions implementation objectives. Vendor consultants usually provide hands-on training for key functional users and technical support staff. The cost of this training is usually included under consultant costs in the budget. Customisation Costs: Customization of vendor software generally adds significant cost to an ERP implementation, and it is a cost that will repeat itself every time there is a new release of the software. Organisations must carefully consider the implications of customizing vendor software. Post Implementation Costs Staffing costs are associated with every patch, fix, new release, or new version of the system. If any modification was made to the underlying code, the code has to be recreated every time a new release or version is installed. As mentioned previously, there are ongoing software costs (such as when a new database is released, upgrades are made to operating systems and networking systems, or new third-party software is installed). Additionally, there are ongoing hardware costs as hardware is upgraded or replaced, and there are yearly hardware and software maintenance fees. Consulting fees continue as new releases and new versions of the software are implemented. Knowledge Management Issues The following table outlines the Main KM issues found in various stages of ERP adoption. Life-cycle Stage KM Issues Agenda formation When the original idea to adopt ERP is accepted, preparations were made to facilitate adoption. Team members with different knowledge backgrounds and expertise faced a challenge to externalize the embrained knowledge within the team. Developing strong internal team bonds during the early phase appeared critical in facilitating knowledge sharing and creation in later phases. Broader awareness was encourages as the wider community needed to be more actively involved during the design and adoption phases. Design Involves understanding ERP and organizational processes and fashioning a mutual fit. Team focused on accessing the embodied and embedded knowledge distributed in the wider organization to capture knowledge. There was a need to build relationships between the team and other BU members to understand the processes and improve chances that the various stakeholders would view the new ERP systems positively. The project team accessed knowledge through developing a more open network structure that facilitated wider information flow. Accessing distributed knowledge that was embodied and embedded across the organization relied on a variety of social networking activities that involved bridging with others across the organization. Implementation Involves configuring the IT system and introducing changes to organizational systems and processes. Main challenge stemmed from need to change users knowledge and encourage them to share knowledge with each other. The team managed to surface and change some of the deeply embedded and encultured collective knowledge through social interactions to remove boundaries between functions. Team integrated knowledge through mapping of information, processes and routines of the legacy systems into the ERP modules with the use of conversion templates. Team managed to encourage users, using a participative policy, to identify tacit knowledge within their work processes through informal discussions and numerous brainstorming sessions. Fostering social relationships among users was found to be crucial to the success of ERP implementation Appropriation ERP system is fully embedded within the organization so that it is accepted as a routine. A knowledge-based hub (CSC) was formed to codify some of the knowledge about ERP system use and encourage the sharing of knowledge and experiences in facilitating the ERP process. Knowledge-enabling structures contributed to the ERP systems in facilitating the development of organization memory and improving structural integration across the organization. The integration of internal and external ERP processes may create new barriers that could hinder future cross-functional knowledge integration unless prior personal relationships are established. Overcoming ERP Implementation Challenges In order to overcome the challenges and objections to ERP implementation, first and foremost, the following aspects of the system need to be carefully considered during implementation Function: The functions of the ERP system should be well defined to cover the companys necessary business functions. It is also important to choose the right software considering whether or not it can support the defined functions as well as its functionality. Subjective norm: All the members in the company should be encouraged to use the ERP system because their use can increase the companys business value and productivity. Output: To make the ERP system more useful, the company should focus more on enhancing the quality of output during its implementation, especially in management and measurement reports. Perceived ease of use: The ERP system should be easy to use. A complex system decreases usefulness, which also make users reluctant to work with. To make the system easier, many researchers recommended that it should be carefully designed to be user friendly, considering screen design, user interface, page layout, help facilities, menus, etc. Result demonstrability: The company should clearly define what positive results can be expected from the use of the ERP system before or during ERP implementation. This action can make the system more useful, and help employers understand why they should use the ERP system. In order to ensure a successful implementation of the ERP system, the following model is proposed Description of Variables in ERP Success Model Variable Explanation Output Quality of the system output including management and performance report Job relevance An individuals perception regarding the degree to which the target system is applicable to his or her job Image The degree to which use of the system is perceived to enhance ones image or status in ones social system Result demonstrability The tangibility of the results of using the system, including their observability and communicability Compatibility Quality of the system in exchanging data with other systems System reliability The degree to which the system ensures the delivery of data to the users Internal support The degree of the companys internal support for the ERP implementation project (top management support, training, and project planning) Function The functionality of the ERP software and its matching with the companys necessary business functions Consultant support The degree to which consultant support helps to make ERP implementation successful Subjective norm The persons perception that most people who are important to him think he should or should not perform the behavior in question Perceived usefulness The degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance Perceived ease of use The degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort Intention to use User behavior in intention to use and actual system use ERP benefits The degree of user satisfaction with the ERP system and Individual and organizational impacts from the ERP system Project success/progress The degree to which the implementation project was completed on time, and within the budget as initially planned Project success/quality The degree of the quality of the ERP system and matching the scope of the ERP system with the companys needs

Meaning of life †Happiness Essay

By Occasionally, there comes a time in everyone’s life when they ask themselves if they have a purpose. This question is not easy to answer, but can only be answered by the person themselves. I once asked myself this very question. My purpose in life is simply to live. My answer to this question may be wrong, may look simple, and you may even laugh at it, but it means much more than it seems. The term â€Å"to live† has many meanings to me. Love, happiness, charity, and justice are just a few meanings I feel are parallel to this term. Love is a constant reminder of why I would want to have a purpose in life. When a person loves with their heart, the feeling they have is like no other. Anyone can love with his or her mind or body, but love of the heart and soul is hard to come by. I have loved with my mind many times before, but its not the same. I believe I have been struck with love, because it hit me like a freight train. The swift perfume and luscious looks of a girl are usually only temporary and I forget about it after the essence is gone. Although I believe I found the perfect combination of perfume, looks, and personality. Her name is Jodi Block. She is the the coolest person I know. She likes me for who I really am and doesn’t laugh at me for mistakes I make, or ever criticizes me for anything I do. She is always there with a compliment or telling me how good of a job I did on something. She is always there to listen to me when I have get something off my chest. I don’t know what I would do with out her. At the current moment, the only people I love with my heart are Jodi, my mother and father, and my two siblings Jordan and Erin. I don’t like to admit it, but its the truth. Like any son or daughter, I would be devastated if anything ever happened to them before their time. They are my main reason for wanting to succeed. The world has come to know that being happy is better than being sad. I believe the reason for this can never have an exact answer, but happiness is good and sadness is bad. Almost everyone agrees with this statement. The dilemma we must face ourselves with is what makes us happy and sad. There is no universal constant that makes everyone happy or everyone sad. The factors are for everyone. For myself, going hunting, fishing, driving, and being with Jodi are fun and make me happy. These factors associated with myself are for the most part positive activities. Surrounding myself with positive reflections comes by nature. Many people these days are materially well off, but are unhappy. We surround ourselves with clever toys, movies, and fashionable clothing, but in reality we are as mortal as any other is. Like most, I feel infringed upon when negativity is present. Though happiness is the goal of most, being sad is necessary. To be always happy in life would be as useless as having Christmas day everyday. We would soon begin detesting it. The question we must ask ourselves is what do we need to have that perfect balance of happiness? True happiness can only come from the understanding of that individual’s environment and nature of existence. Charity is a virtue that is deemed torturous by some, prosperous by others, but a necessity by most. Helping the fellow man has been known to happen since the dawn of time. Think of how many charitable acts have been committed throughout our many years of existence. Some of us would not be alive today if it were not for the fact. Think of when that soldier helped his comrade out of the trench or when that businessman spared a few coins for the homeless man on the street. These few examples show that when a person is in a time of need and they are not helped, grave dangers lie ahead until they are helped. Personally, I feel it is a duty to commit a charitable act when possible. If volunteer work is needed and I do not sign up without good reason, I normally feel guilty. I put myself in the position of the needed. If I were that person in need, would I have someone to help me? I answer yes through volunteer work, donations, or charitable acts. Charity is a necessity to those who receive, a simple act to those who give, and blessing to us all. Some have said that you can measure a person’s worth by how successful they have been. I beg to differ because of other factors, but prosperity is a virtue deemed important. I want to prosper in the future not only because I would like to make my parents proud, but because I was born for success. For years it has been engraved into my sub conscience that if I work hard, I will be prosperous. I plan on leading a successful life, but prosperity is not limited to long-term future actions. Anyone can be successful in just setting a worthwhile goal and accomplishing it. In the past two years I’ve sat through numerous business lectures and career workshops that were designed to broaden my intellectual thinking of the job market. Quite frankly, I’m sick of hearing about statistics with this technology field and how much money I can make in that one. I’ve learned plenty of skills to make myself prosperous and even learned â€Å"the art of verbal manipulation†, which is supposedly going to help me get a higher salary. Prosperity has its importance, but I say you can measure a person’s worth by how happy they are and have been. Knowing your personality is an aspect of life that I feel is important. You must be able to judge yourself before you can judge another. Personally, I have a moderate preference for emotions and impressions, but prefer my own familiar traits because that is where I feel most at ease. I don’t like being in strange places or having numerous relationships. I prefer having a small number of friends that are deep and important, rather than a ton of friends that I see every once in a while. An important component of my personality is reflected in my lifestyle. My preference is for that of a spontaneous and flexible life, rather than a set and fixed one. Taking things as they come is intriguing to me and surprises in life are even better. Feeling good about oneself is vital to survival. Without it, extreme measures, including suicide, may be taken. Though I do have my occasional letdowns, I am happy with who I am and with what I have become. Next to love and happiness, I feel drive and dedication are the most important virtues a person can have. Because I live my life from goal to goal, achieving and having other virtues come that much more easily. My most recent goal was to make sure I get to work and back home safely. My current goal is to try and write over four pages for my philosophy of life essay. Though I’m not quite there yet, setting goals comes natural to me. I do not prefer to write my goals down and keep track of how I’m doing on them. I rather keep them in my head and refer to them when needed. This is a previously stated aspect of my personality. Whether everyone knows it or not, setting and thinking out our goals is the basis for achieving them. Drive and dedication achieve goals for any hardworking individual. Above love, happiness, and dedication is my relationship with God. Though I have not visited his home on a consistent basis, I know when to pay my respect. I feel praising Him is necessary, but I choose to do it in my own way. I tend to pray when least expected. My relationship with God may not be to full scale, but I believe Him, love Him, praise Him, and respect Him. The rest is just details. I asked myself if I had a purpose in life during my junior year of high school. At the time, I had almost no idea of what I was asking myself. Though I still do not know the meaning of life, I know my purpose in life is to live with happiness, love, prosperity, charity, justice, and determination. My relationship and praise of God is the most important factor. In summary, I long to love, but do not love to long. Happiness and contentment are thrived on by all, but not all realize that it is charity which will bring these virtues. Besides these, drive and determination will also bring a person to be prosperous and happy. My philosophy is to live life to its fullest with no virtuous restrictions on yourself. Always taking another chance, exploring the boundaries, fighting my limitations. Always wanting more than I can have, opening doors that are better left closed, and wounds that should have long since healed. Accomplishing little in my endeavors to fulfill my life and trying to make sense of it all. Always trying to make the impossible a reality, attempting to fix the unrepairable. Doing things the hard way is how I make my way, thriving on stress and attempting the impossible. Some say I take great pleasure in self-affliction, I ask if there is any other way.

Information and Knowledge Management Essay

The group presented Xerox and NASA as case studies for Information and Knowledge Management concepts and processes. These two case studies are chosen for their unique experiences. It is not the focus of this material to compare and contrast the two cases. The objective of this material is to discuss how the key issues that were chosen by the group relate to the growing literature about Information and Knowledge Management. Along with this, efforts to differentiate Information Management and Knowledge Management provide a better grasp of these two concepts, their practices and their roles in organizations. Xerox’s case focused on its organizations efforts to arrive at accessing its knowledge by transforming tacit into explicit. Prior to the establishment of its knowledge base system, in the form of Eureka II, ethnographic work on Xerox employees provided an initiative for the company to grow an interest in managing its organizational learning. The key issues from this study were identified. Andrew Cox’s investigation of Xerox’s Eureka system and its inception seems to indicate that knowledge management is a re-packaged concept of information management. The employment of Orr’s ethnographic work implicates a possibility that the organization used this innovation as its own â€Å"rebranding tool†. (Suchman in Cox, 2007, p. 7). Furthermore, the group inquires about the concept of communities of practice (CoPs) as a more promising alternative to the technical approach implemented in Eureka’s construction as knowledge base system. The case study of Xerox provided an opportunity to glimpse how an organization behaves and transforms its practices to create innovations and, in turn, keep its stability and competitive edge in the market. The special case of NASA’s Challenger incident is an important specimen to investigate how an organization manages its security and safety practices. The nature of NASA as an organization can be understood by examining its vision, mission and goals. However, the group focused on a particular incident and its chronology. Risk analysis and risk management are some of the concepts that relate to this organization’s experience in information and knowledge management. Some of the key concerns for this case are identified as: (1) Should NASA have a Eureka-type system? ; (2) Do you think communities of practice would have helped NASA? ; and (3) How would NASA have benefited from going through the alignment process? This material attempts to clarify these inquiries and to provide direction by citing numerous studies and concepts in the field of knowledge management. Discussion NASA’s case, particularly of Challenger incident, can be examined by using the concept of risk assessment and management. Risk management is defined in NASA’s literature as â€Å" a management process by which the safety risks can be brought to levels or values that are acceptable to the final approval authority. † (ASEB, p. 79). Processes such as the establishment of acceptable risk levels, formalization of changes in system design or operational method to achieve such risk levels , system validation and certification and system quality assurance were enumerated as part of risk management. ASEB, p 79). After the Challenger incident, recommendations such as hierarchical tasks were cited: The Committee believes that risk management must be the responsibility of line management (i. e. , program manager and, ultimately, the Administrator of NASA). Only this program management, not the safety organizations, can make judicious use of means available to achieve the operational goals while reducing the safety risks to acceptable levels. Safety organizations cannot, however, assure safe operation; they can only assure that the safety risks have been properly evaluated, and that the system configuration and operation is being controlled to those risk levels which have been accepted by top management. (4. 1, 4. 3) (ASEB, p. 79) The passage above was one of the lessons learned, the identification of the elements of and responsibilities for risk assessment and risk management, as cited in the assessment document in 1988. Establishment of responsibility for program direction and integration, the need for quantitative measures of relative risk, the need for integrated review and overview in the assessment of risk and in independent evaluation of retention rationales, independence of the certification of flight hardware and of software validation and verification, and safety margins for flight structures were all cited as lessons learned following the Challenger accident. Clearly, risk management is an aspect of information management in this particular case. Aside from the initiatives for changes in the areas of risk assessment and management, examining NASA as a learning organization might helpfully illustrate the information processes within the organization. Organizational learning in NASA can be traced back to Apollo era when centralization of shuttle management structure was adopted. (Mahler & Casamayou, 2009, p. 164). But these lessons can be unlearned as what the case of the Challenger accident had shown. Prior to the Columbia accident that followed in 2003, unlearning in critical decision areas occurred. Mahler & Casamayou (2009) relates this event as follows: Similarly, there was initial evidence that NASA had learned to resist schedule pressures. The agency delayed launches to deal with ongoing technical problems and made the decision to rely on the shuttle only when absolutely needed, But these lessons from the Challenger faded in the 1990s under severe budget constraints and new schedule pressures created by our participation in the International Space Station. (2009, p. 164) This relates how outside forces can affect organizational learning. Public organizational learning, not unlike corporate organizational learning, is affected by its environment. Risk assessment and management, instead of context in market competence and capital gains in corporations, becomes the context of reliable goals and public stature in public organizations such as NASA. There are particulars of public organizational learning that should be brought to light to better understand the information processes and learning behaviors within NASA. Mahler & Casamayou (2009) enumerated a three-part process of organizational learning. One is problem recognition, another is analyzing the results to produce inferences about cause and effect in the hopes of arriving at an understanding how to achieve better results, and the last one is the institution of new knowledge that the organization will benefit from. (Mahler & Casamayou, 2009, p. 166). These processes summarizes the processes of public organizational learning on a macro-level. It is also important to examine the interactions of actors within the organization. During the group presentation, inquiries about how NASA should benefit from a Eureka-type system was mentioned. The concept of communities of practice (CoPs) within NASA, as a source of Andrew Cox’s (2004)non-canonical knowledge was explored. Before the establishment of any knowledge base systems, an eventful experience is treated as a learning source. As with NASA’s case, following the Apollo era, detection systems were installed and had been reliable ever since its inception. These quantitative measures of assessing risks and failures runs parallel with the practice of corporate organizations over-reliance on technology, as what the firs-generation knowledge management practice brought us its â€Å"IT trap†. (Huysman & Wulf, 2006). What should also be noted is the transformation of NASA into a complex system of actors, decision makers and diagnostic and technological tools. As a system becomes more complex, there could be a higher possibility for unexpected and undesirable outcomes. The concept of Charles Perrow’s (1999) normal accident theory is closely related to this inference. The nature of function and decision-making within NASA exemplifies Perrow’s concepts of coupling and interactions. Interactions can be tightly coupled or loosely coupled, as with NASA’s case it is of course tightly coupled. These tightly coupled interactions found within an organization cannot tolerate delay. Interactions can be linear or complex. (Perrow,1999). As with NASA’s case, it is undoubtedly complex. As mentioned earlier, the possible over-reliance on diagnostic systems and isolation of decision makers and pressure to launch are accountable for the incident. Judging and perceiving also play a role in learning. Decisions in NASA’s case are measure-based and as well as judgement-based which could be said, is more reliant on intuition and non-verbal experience. But in this case, NASA’s critical decision actors were not thoroughly immersed in the safety measure practice which in turn shows that organizational structure has a role in the incident. As Baumard (1999) related in his work on tacit knowledge in organizations, ‘puzzled organizations’ are manifest when accidents take place. The notion of ‘acceptability’ was, in effect, a social construction developed in the context of an organization in which the perception of risk thresholds had been modified by the routinization of the mastery of a complex technology. If the O-ring problem had been brought to the attention of an untrained public it would quite probably have provoked an animated reaction. In a different social context it would have been found entirely ‘unacceptable’ to launch space shuttles with joints that risked giving way, whatever the level of this risk. Despite the accuracy, the precision to categorize the risk associated with the joints as ‘acceptable’ seems to be based more on the common meaning of the word ‘acceptable’ than on any scientific definition. There is no equivalent to the ‘acceptable’ in other areas of exact science—it is a value judgement, not a measure. This suggests that, it ‘reality is hidden by measures’ (Berry, 1983), measures too may be sometime hidden by reality. The road to disaster in the Challenger shuttle case was clearly of social construction.

Television For Children ( Chapter 3 Personal, Social, And...

Project 3: Television for Children (Chapter 3-Personal, Social, Moral Development) Since I was little up to now, television has changed from what I grew up with. For this project I watched three television shows, one in the morning, one late afternoon, and one evening show before eight pm. In the morning I watched Dora and Friends: Into the City. At first I was surprised that Dora grew up and different from what I used to watch Dora. Similar to the Dora the Explorer, Dora and Friends: Into the City is a show about Dora and her friends Anna and Pablo. This show demonstrated more prosocial acts than violets acts. Dora and Friends: Into the City showed prosocial acts such as making a story for a group of little kids, and helping Kate find her book. The only violet acts was stealing and yelling. In the afternoon I watched iCarly, one my old favorite TV shows. This show is about three teenagers, Carly, Sam, and Freddy, whom make a live internet show, similar to modern day YouTube. Inter esting, I found that late afternoon shows appear to show more violent acts than prosocial acts. Sam would push people down, kick, and beat them up. Even though Sam is a character that demonstrates silly behavior, this could send a message to kids to beat up others when one is irritated, or upset. The only prosocial acts I saw was hugging and cheering others up. To compare the morning show to the afternoon show, I think the morning shows show more prosocial acts than violent acts to remindShow MoreRelatedThe Effects of Gender Roles and Gender Identity on Behaviour Essay examples1550 Words   |  7 Pages Social Influences ================= Such as, Identification theory, which is: 1. Sexual attraction to the opposite sex 2. Anxiety about sexual attraction 3. Identification with same sex parent- adapting there characteristics Social learning theory, which is: 1. Learning through observation 2. Rewards punishments received for gender appropriate / inappropriate behaviour. 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