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This paper examines the potential for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to improve bus driver effectiveness. Analysis of data gathered reveals the unlikelihood of improvement of individual bus driver effectiveness measures. The authors determined that the most visible benefits were seen in the automatic processing of information related to transferring passengers and in the increased speed with which emergency and maintenance calls can be handled.

Prior research suggests that boundary objects gain meaning through group interaction. Drawing from the literature on strategic ambiguity, we explore the possibility that individuals strategically create potential boundary objects in an attempt to shape the meanings that groups develop. From ethnographic observations of automotive engineers, we identify 2 creation strategies: ambiguity (to create objects that support multiple meanings) and clarity (to create objects that permit a particular meaning). We detail design activities that engineers undertook to create objects under each strategy. We find that, when creating objects, engineers favored a strategy of ambiguity, which they believed would foster healthy long-term group interactions, over a strategy of clarity, which they tended to employ only when they expected resistance to their ideas.

In a comparative field study of ten libraries, we show how technological advances in electronic and digital resources have led to an onslaught of technology questions at the reference desk while prompting new and challenging work away from the desk. Libraries in our sample varied in their approaches to dealing with technological change, with institutional factors appearing to strongly shape their choice. Large, four-year academic libraries adopted a role reinvention approach that reduced reference librarians' desk hours and permitted librarians to follow creative, often technical, pursuits. Small, four-year academic libraries took a structural defense approach that maintained the sanctity of the reference desk as the locus for substantive reference questions. Two-year academic and public libraries followed a resigned surrender approach where reference librarians staffed busy desks and were inundated with patron requests to aid with computer equipment. We discuss the implications of each approach for the work of reference librarians. (Contains 8 figures, 5 tables and 5 footnotes.)

Abstract The bulk of our understanding of teams is based on traditional teams in which all members are collocated and communicate face to face. However, geographically distributed teams, whose members [...]

Manufracturing programs aimed at improving performance often feature employee teams that address production problems at the shop-floor level. According to cognitive models of participation, performance under such programs is improved via the better utilization of skills and knowledge that occurs as employees are allowed greater decision making in their tasks. We examine the cognitive-model premise in a high-technology industry where improvement-team programs are on the rise. We study three types of improvement-team programs among a sample of eight manufacturing sites. The programs feature continuous improvement teams (CIT's), quality circles (QC's), or self-directed work teams (SDWT's) and vary in the amount of decision-making power, skill attainment via training, and skill use granted to employees. A quantitative analysis of performance reveals that CIT programs were associated with the highest direct and indirect productivity, two metrics that were available for each firm. QC and SDWT programs should not be dismissed, however, as they may lead to improvements in quality metrics, as we note in suggestions for future research. Qualitative data gathered in site visits suggest that poor implementation and failure to integrate production programs with engineering departments are two factors that inhibit program success. Index Terms - Continuous improvement, employee participation, manufacturing, quality circles, semiconductor, teams, work groups.

The increasing use of autonomous work groups in manufacturing industries has been accompanied by a growing confusion over exactly what group autonomy connotes. Our intent in this paper is to provide clarity to the quantitative measurement of work group autonomy. An examination of classic case studies from the group literature reveals how group autonomy has been conceptualized over time, while highlighting the absence of more modern-day concerns in areas such as equipment maintenance and quality improvement. In attempting to objectively assess the degree of autonomy held by work groups both in the classic studies and in a modern high-technology industry, we find that the existing measurement instrument fails at the latter. A new more finely grained measuring instrument is introduced that covers decisions in the areas of methods, scheduling, task allocation, resource allocation and management, goals, and boundary management. Items on the instrument address topics in performance evaluation, training, equipment maintenance, group membership, and production, among others. Index Terms - Autonomy, manufacturing, measurement, team, work group.

This paper examines the potential for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to improve bus driver effectiveness. Analysis of data gathered reveals the unlikelihood of improvement of individual bus driver effectiveness measures. The authors determined that the most visible benefits were seen in the automatic processing of information related to transferring passengers and in the increased speed with which emergency and maintenance calls can be handled.

Manufacturing efforts to reduce time to market often adopt a concurrent engineering approach that focuses on coordination and integration among engineering, production, and marketing functions. Technological complexity in the semiconductor industry requires an extension of this paradigm to include multiple engineering groups and a strong production maintenance department. Through interviews with employees drawn from engineering, production, maintenance, marketing, and other departments at three semiconductor plants, organizational problems are uncovered that inhibit successful integration within firms in this industry. Ideas for overcoming these problems are given with suggestions for future research. Index Terms--Concurrent engineering, integration, semiconductor manufacturing.

When explaining the failure of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) projects, re- searchers often turn to differences between how designers perceive and users experience the context of technology use. According to these explanations, ICT4D projects fail because designers take an uninformed stance toward con- text. The ICT4D literature offers four approaches for how designers might better design technology for the context of use. In all four approaches, the target of action is typically the technology itself, not the context. Despite increasing use of these four approaches, projects still fail because of persistent differences between designers' perceptions and users' experience. These differences appear inevitable because ICT4D projects address problems nested in complex systems whose interaction is difficult for designers to understand and predict. Yet, some projects do succeed. We show that success occurred in a Brazilian banking project because users took context-oriented, not technology- oriented, actions to better fit the technology with the context. Based on our case study, we develop propositions that integrate and expand existing theories of ICT4D project success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 5-year, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) primary prevention study was conducted in Washington State to: (1) assess the feasibility of using a FAS diagnostic and prevention clinic as a centre for identifying and targeting primary prevention intervention to high-risk women; (2) generate a comprehensive, lifetime profile of these women; (3) identify factors that have enhanced and/or hindered their ability to achieve abstinence. The results of this study are presented in two parts. Objective 1 is summarized in the preceding paper and objectives 2 and 3 are summarized here. Comprehensive interviews were conducted with 80 women, who had given birth to a child diagnosed with FAS, to document their sociodemographics, reproductive and family planning history, social and healthcare utilization patterns, adverse social experiences, social support network, alcohol use and treatment history, mental health, and intelligence quotient (IQ). These high-risk women were diverse in racial, educational and economic backgrounds, were often victims of abuse, and challenged by mental health issues. Despite their rather harsh psychosocial profile, many demonstrated the ability to overcome their alcohol dependence over time. Relative to the women who had not achieved abstinence, the women who had achieved abstinence had significantly higher IQs, higher household incomes, larger more satisfactory social support networks, were more likely to report a religious affiliation, and were more likely to be receiving mental health treatment for their mental health disorders. The rate of unintended pregnancies and alcohol-exposed pregnancies was substantial. Key barriers to achieving effective family planning were maternal alcohol and drug use, lack of access to birth control and lack of support by their partner to use birth control. A FAS diagnostic and prevention clinic can be used to identify women at high risk for producing children damaged by prenatal alcohol exposure. Primary prevention programmes targeted to this population could lead to measurable reductions in the incidence of FAS. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A 5-year, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) primary prevention study was conducted in Washington State to: (1) assess the feasibility of using a FAS diagnostic and prevention clinic as a centre for identifying and targeting primary prevention intervention to high-risk women (namely women who had given birth to a child with FAS); (2) generate a comprehensive, lifetime profile of these women; (3) identify factors that have enhanced and/or hindered their ability to achieve abstinence. The results of this study are presented in two parts: work on objective 1 is summarized in the present paper; whereas that on objectives 2 and 3 is summarized in the accompanying paper. This project demonstrated that a multidisciplinary FAS Diagnostic and Prevention Network (FAS DPN) clinic could successfully attract and meet the diagnostic and treatment planning needs of patients presenting with prenatal alcohol exposure. One out of every three patients evaluated in the FAS DPN clinics was diagnosed with FAS or static encephalopathy/alcohol exposed. The birth mothers of one out of every three of these children diagnosed with FAS or static encephalopathy/alcohol exposed could be located and directly contacted. Half of the birth mothers directly contacted were still at risk for producing more children damaged by prenatal alcohol exposure. Thus, one out of every 18 children evaluated in the FAS DPN clinics had a birth mother who could be found and was at risk of producing more children damaged by prenatal alcohol exposure. Primary prevention programmes targeted to this high-risk population could lead to measurable, cost-effective reductions in the incidence of FAS. Using this approach, the cost of raising a child with FAS would be roughly 30 times the cost of preventing FAS in the child. The benefit to the children, their mothers, and society would be immeasurable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Part II. Features a multimedia training package used for staff appraisal by the Civil Service Appraisal System in Great Britain. Three main approaches for staff training; Components of the training package; Design of the self-instructional material; Resource pack for trainers.

Part I. Features the multi-media training package for staff appraisal system used in non-industrial civil service in Great Britain. Central principles in the de-centralized implementation of the system; Stages involved in the planning, monitoring, reviewing and communicating cycles of the system; List of priority training needs; Design and development of the system; Overall attitudes of involved employees toward the system.