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Purpose: Although knowledge transfer is generally conceived as a two-way process in which knowledge is transferred to and from the knowledge source, research has tended to focus on the first part of the process and neglect the second part. This study aims to examine the feedback loop and how knowledge is transferred from the knowledge receiver to the knowledge source. Design/methodology/approach: The paper relies on interviews and archival records to conduct an in-depth case study of cross-border knowledge transfer work carried out by a Canadian non-profit organization. Findings: The paper finds that by learning about receivers' knowledge, background and learning styles, as well as their social context or learning environment, such as language, culture, tradition and history, "source" persons are in fact able to acquire for themselves valuable new knowledge. This in turn assists both the source and receiver to establish shared understandings, thereby facilitating a more effective knowledge transfer thus enhancing learning for both the source and receiver. Research limitations/implications: Given that this is a case study of one organization, the findings of this study may not be readily generalizable to other organizations, or settings. Despite this limitation, the study raises some important questions for further investigation and contributes to existing research on intercultural knowledge transfer. Practical implications: Individuals involved in knowledge transfer who pay attention to the feedback loop can better perform their roles and also improve their knowledge. Originality/value: It has been acknowledged in the literature that expatriates engage in extensive learning while transferring knowledge in their overseas assignments. However, little research has examined what they have learned, how they learn,and the benefits of such learning. This research suggests that knowledge sources can enhance their own knowledge as well as improve knowledge transfer to recipients by nurturing feedback loops.

Purpose: This study sought deeper understanding of how sheltered families accessed and mobilized educationally related relationships and resources during periods of homelessness. Such work is posited to be especially relevant considering that there is a growing crisis of family homelessness in the United States and school- and community-based leaders need to develop more nuanced understandings of how to meet their needs. Research Design: The study was situated in a large urban region in the eastern United States, and data were collected through surveys of 151 sheltered homeless mothers, focus group interviews with 51 homeless mothers, and analysis of a countywide homeless management information system. Data analysis was informed by Lin's network theory of social capital, which, among other relational issues, purposefully considers embedded resources, resource accessibility, and resource mobilization. Findings: The findings revealed several significant obstacles to homeless families' access to and mobilization of network relationships and resources. Amid these challenges, however, the leaders and structures of residential homeless serving agencies appear to play key roles in helping families develop new opportunities. Conclusions: It is suggested that shelters develop programs and philosophies of action that are consonant with their service capacities and locations. Furthermore, shelter, school, and community leaders are urged to construct systems of collaborative understanding and practice. Finally, several suggestions for future research are presented. (Contains 8 notes, 5 figures, and 4 tables.)

The authors developed this experiential exercise to aid students in learning how others perceive them as well as how they perceive others and, ultimately, to begin to help them identify the origins of such perceptions. The exercise's goal is to explore how participants may make inaccurate perceptions of others and how they might pierce through these misperceptions to develop a new way of valuing others. Ultimately, it seeks to help learners identify common biases such as confirmation/disconfirmation bias, stereotyping, projection, and halo effects and to practice active, nonjudgmental listening and empathy as well as receptivity to differences they may have with others. It is especially useful as a structured student experience when studying perception and individual differences in organizational behavior classes, in some of which the authors have used it multiple times. They have also used different iterations to open conferences, as an icebreaker, in executive training, and in self-development courses. Detailed instructions, description of the authors' debriefing experiences, and student evaluations are provided. (Contains 1 table.)

Students from underrepresented groups who seek to become the first in their family to attend college confront economically and racially stratified education systems. This article reports findings from an evaluation of First Graduate, an organization that offers college advising, mentoring, tutoring, and case management to first-generation students starting in seventh grade. We highlight three systems that youth say they encountered on their pathway to college: open enrollment, course taking, and college admissions. We describe how youth navigated these systems and the roles that adults played in support. Our conclusion discusses implications for how after-school programs can support first-generation students.

Unauthorized immigrants account for approximately one-fourth of all immigrants in the United States, yet they dominate public perceptions and are at the heart of a policy impasse. Caught in the middle are the children of these immigrants--youth who are coming of age and living in the shadows. An estimated 5.5 million children and adolescents are growing up with unauthorized parents and are experiencing multiple and yet unrecognized developmental consequences as a result of their family's existence in the shadow of the law. Although these youth are American in spirit and voice, they are nonetheless members of families that are "illegal" in the eyes of the law. In this article, the authors develop a conceptual framework to systematically examine the ways in which unauthorized status affects the millions of children, adolescents, and emerging adults caught in its wake. The authors elucidate the various dimensions of documentation status--going beyond the binary of the "authorized" and "unauthorized." An ecological framework brings to the foreground a variety of systemic levels shaping the daily experiences of children and youth as they move through the developmental spectrum. The article moves on to examine a host of critical developmental outcomes that have implications for child and youth well-being as well as for our nation's future. (Contains 2 notes and 1 figure.)

The work of state higher education system boards is changing. By "system boards," the author means governing boards for all of higher education in a state, governing boards for certain kinds of institutions (such as the Louisiana Community and Technical College System and the California State University system), and state coordinating agencies (such as the Illinois Board of Higher Education). All of them have a general responsibility to promote cooperation and coherence among the institutions for which they are responsible. But times have changed, and so should the ways in which systems boards do that work. The major challenge today is not building capacity; it is instead using the existing capacity of state systems of colleges and universities as efficiently and effectively as possible. Certainly new buildings need to be built, but not as many as during the mid-20th century. New programs need to be started, but not as many. New institutions need to be established, but not many. There are more than enough highly selective universities and not nearly enough colleges committed to meeting the needs of the people in the states in which they are located. The size and strength of the for-profit sector of postsecondary education has also changed American higher education. State boards now have two major responsibilities. First, they must insist upon the public purpose of higher education: to meet the needs of the people of the states in which they are located. Second, they must continue to act as "buffers" between the colleges and universities and the political and bureaucratic institutions of government. In this article, the author lists some of the things the higher education boards--the buffer agencies--should do.

E-Learning standards began to come on the scene in the late 1990s. SCORM is the most widely known and practiced example, but some would say that it has failed to yield the hoped-for results. The authors have been engaged in projects to determine the impact that SCORM has had, and this article presents the results of interviews with individuals who work with e-learning standards, either as developers, publishers of content, or educators. It describes the lessons garnered from the syntheses of the results of those interviews, summarizing the contributions and describing a direction for the future.

This paper describes a role-play exercise used in a second-year tertiary Systems Analysis and Design course, and the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the students' responses to a survey that solicited their perceptions of that role-play experience. The role-play involved students in eliciting user requirements from customers during a Joint Application Development (JAD) session, thus simulating a common industry practice. Each JAD team had to interact to resolve conflicting customer requirements and record in IBM[R] Rational[R] Rose[R] the use cases necessary for a software solution. Completed diagrams were presented to the class using SynchronEyes technology, for review and discussion. The effectiveness of the role-play method was confirmed by students' perceptions collected in the survey following the exercise. The goal of the survey was to discover if students respond positively to learning about JAD, and use case diagrams, through role-play, and if they believe that they have improved their knowledge as a result of that experience. Student responses showed enthusiasm for experiential learning in the form of role-play and belief that learning had occurred. After experiencing the role-plays, students were also able to identify some of the limitations in the use of use cases, thus highlighting aspects that would require their future attention. (Contains 4 tables and 10 figures.)

This study examines instructors' perceptions regarding the skills and topics that are most important in the teaching of a Systems Analysis and Design ("SAD") course and the class time devoted to each. A large number of Information Systems ("IS") educators at AACSB accredited schools across the United States were surveyed. Shannon's entropy is used to analyze the opinions and measure the agreement or disagreement among survey respondents. Findings suggest that object-oriented analysis and structured analysis are topics on which instructors spend the most time, and are also the topics for which there is the greatest disagreement regarding importance. Conversely, the greatest agreement among survey respondents occurs with topics that, on the whole, were perceived as less important and to which less class time is devoted. This analysis provides a basis for comparison to practitioner perceptions. (Contains 5 tables.)

Systems analysis and design is a standard course offering within information systems programs and often an important lecture topic in Information Systems core courses. Given the persistent difficulty that organizations experience in implementing systems that meet their requirements, it is important to help students in these courses get a tangible sense of the challenges they will face, whether as Information Systems practitioners or business professionals, in the systems analysis and design process. This article presents a hands-on design game that focuses in particular on the structuring of opportunities for user participation in requirements definition. The game provides a platform for raising pivotal questions about communication, knowledge transfer, and the level and timing of user involvement during systems projects. The exercise has been used and refined over a period of several years in core courses in information technology management at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and in classes in systems analysis and design. The article includes theoretical grounding in user participation issues, background information about the game, specification of the materials needed, step-by-step instructions for conducting the game, and teaching notes to support classroom discussion. These materials are designed to be useful to Information Systems faculty who want to supplement lecture and/or reading material on the subject of systems development. (Contains 2 figures.)

Using multiple years of data collected from about 100 child care centers in Palm Beach County, Florida, the authors studied whether the Quality Improvement System (QIS) made a significant impact on quality of child care centers. Based on a pre- and postresearch design spanning a period of 13 months, QIS appeared to be effective in improving quality of child care centers. The effects of QIS were quite limited during the first few years, but improvement accelerated over time. Results clearly demonstrated that (1) systematic initiatives like QIS can become efficient and effective in improving quality of early childhood care and education; (2) improvement is more difficult in certain areas of early childhood care and education (e.g., program structure) than others (e.g., activities that centers offer to children); and (3) education change (improvement) takes time. (Contains 6 tables and 5 notes.)

Object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD) is not an easy subject to learn. There are many challenges confronting students when studying OOAD. Students have particular difficulty abstracting real-world problems within the context of OOAD. They are unable to effectively build object-oriented (OO) models from the problem domain because they essentially do not know "what" to model. This article investigates the difficulties and misconceptions undergraduate students have with analysing systems using unified modelling language analysis class and sequence diagrams. These models were chosen because they represent important static and dynamic aspects of the software system under development. The results of this study will help students produce effective OO models, and facilitate software engineering lecturers design learning materials and approaches for introductory OOAD courses. (Contains 2 notes, 8 tables, and 13 figures.)

This report demonstrates how the application of Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA) methods assisted in assessing a small training company's Print Production Management (PPM) system. PPM is the process by which printed materials are conceptualized, estimated, released to a commercial printer, proofed, and delivered to the client. The current PPM process had not been evaluated or updated to reflect shifts in both the training and printing industries. The assessment found that the unrevised process was becoming obsolete, hindering performance, and costing the organization time and money. Recommendations were made for staffing and workflow, and implementation of tools were developed to support performance and contribute to successful execution of projects with printed elements. This report includes a follow-up evaluation made eight months after study completion. (Contains 3 figures.)

There is growing interest in collectibles of many types, as indicated by the popularity of television programs such as the History Channel's "Pawn Stars" and "American Pickers" and the Public Broadcasting Service's "Antiques Road Show." The availability of online auction sites such as eBay has enabled many people to collect items of interest as a hobby and to sell parts of their collection as a business or for extra income. As a collection grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to track through manual methods, and it is often useful to develop a computer-based system for this purpose. This case raises the possibility of developing an information system to manage a collection of sports autographs. This case may be used in a systems analysis and design, database, or systems development course to address a number of important topics such as: systems scope identification, problem and opportunity analysis, requirements analysis, data modeling, and application development. The case is designed to provoke interest and raise a sufficient level of complexity to challenge students to apply a range of systems development and database concepts. While the case addresses sports collectibles, its concepts may be applicable other types of systems, especially those involving other types of collections or "one of a kind" items. Since many students are likely to have at least some experience using online auction sites, following professional sports, seeing television programs about collectibles, or attending flea markets where collectibles are sold, the case builds in some way on their life experience. This teaching case enables students to discover how systems development and database concepts are applicable to a practical problem solving scenario.

Published studies have reported that Information System (IS) projects succeed or fail based on how effectively the organizational issues were understood and addressed in the specification, development and implementation stages of the project. This is particularly true in the design and delivery of Inter-Organizational Systems (IOS) that can affect the power structure among several stakeholders and impact their established business relationships. Systems analysts act as the "facilitator" for IOS projects, and the need to effectively leverage a variety of stakeholders who have a diversity of interests and expectations to build a global view of the problems to be solved by the system and get all the stakeholders "on board". This case study presents a business problem of global scope that touches multiple organizations and functional areas. GlobePort's inadequate information systems for product registration in one of their product distribution channels, that involves business partners--distributors and resellers, has created problems in several areas of the company, leading to excessive administrative costs, poor customer service and impact to their financial performance. The global scope of GlobePort's dilemma requires a thorough analysis of the organizational issues that can confound any technology solution. Several frameworks from existing IS research literature are presented to develop the student's critical thinking and analysis capabilities in performing problem definition, stakeholder analysis and organizational feasibility. Students are called upon to analyze the problems and propose an IOS solution for GlobePort's situation. (Contains 4 endnotes and 3 figures.)

As a concept, the next-generation catalog (NGC) is not new to librarians, who have been wishing for better OPAC interfaces for their integrated library systems (ILSs). The NGC has been the focus of discussion for more than 5 years now, from the 2006 report of the implementation of Endeca at North Carolina State University, to Marshall Breeding's 2007 issue of "Library Technical Reports" dedicated to the NGC, to Roy Tennant's repeated "lipstick on a pig" criticisms of superficial OPAC improvements. Several research articles have also been published that measured NGC features in online catalogs, but they have been limited in scope. Using the 12 NGC features described in this article, the authors set out to measure on a large scale how individual OPACs measured up on these features. (Contains 3 figures.)

Since the 1970s, using his world-systems analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein has developed a wide-ranging framework for the social sciences, with potential applications for comparative educational research. In this paper we outline key aspects of Wallerstein's theorising, and then analyse the uptake, understandings, and applications of his analysis in the field of comparative and international education, through a case study of the "Comparative Education Review" (CER) journal from 1980 to 2008. This paper examines how, and how widely, his analysis has been adopted and interpreted. Our analysis highlights significant and--given the broader emphasis in comparative education on questions of education and development--surprising absences in the application of this approach. We conclude by arguing for the use and development of three critical features of his analysis in comparative work, as relevant and timely interventions in the field.

The question of the manner in which universities have organised themselves to embed the "quality" agenda in Scotland is addressed in this paper by considering whether the seemingly different structures generated are in fact sophisticated and efficient forms of resource allocation, or organic and emergent structures with only local applicability and limited rationale. In exploring individuals' conceptions of their own institutional structures to support the Scottish Quality Enhancement Framework, which is the Quality Assurance Agency's enhancement-led approach in Scotland involving all universities, a series of different structures have emerged. These have been reproduced as a series of maps showing the various quality agencies and individuals and the interrelationships between them. Rather than the development of one single model in the face of sectoral requirements, a variety of approaches were in evidence, revealing structural differences across institutions as a result of the presence or absence of particular bodies. Analysis of the maps through an approach based on the four "lenses" provided by transactional, business, ecological and situationist perspectives sheds light on whether these individual responses are rooted in efficiency or are based more on Lindblom's interpretation of "muddling through". Using these models as a basis, a system is produced for others to interrogate quality structures within their own institutions. (Contains 4 figures and 1 table.)

Calls to fire the lowest-performing teachers are widespread, but such actions are not likely to improve teacher quality. Instead, educators should focus on improving the education system that can prevent even good teachers from providing high-quality teaching. To improve the teaching environment, educators and policy makers need to better understand the challenge. They must view the barriers to quality in terms of "systems," rather than merely the attributes of individual teachers. That's because variations in teaching performance flow largely from variables that have little to do with the qualities of teachers themselves. Thus, improving the quality of the nation's teachers won't come simply from trimming away the weakest performers.

This article provides a behavioral systems approach to improve operational performance in health and human service organizations. This article provides six performance truths that are relevant to any organization and a case study from a community mental health network of agencies. A comprehensive analysis, as described here, will help health and human service leaders identify the critical areas in which to focus improvement efforts to better achieve their organizational mission. (Contains 6 figures.)

The tools and techniques utilized in the technical communications profession are constantly improving and changing. Information Technology (IT) organizations devote the necessary resources to equip and train engineering, marketing, and sales teams, but often fail to do so for technical documentation teams. Many IT organizations tend to view documentation as an afterthought; however, consumers of IT products frequently base their purchasing decisions on the end user documentation's content, layout, and presentation. Documentation teams play a unique role in IT organizations as they help to build and create a public identity through end user manuals and the corporate website, as well as maintain intellectual knowledge through knowledge sharing and management. The technical communicator "makes sense" of complex engineering specifications by creating user-friendly manuals for the layman. The practitioner who compiles and records this complex information is a valuable resource to any IT organization. Therefore, on-going training for technical documentation teams is essential to stay competitive in the fast-paced technical market. Technical communicators in IT organizations who only write end user manuals are becoming a rarity. Research indicates a marked trend toward technical writers in multiple roles and varied responsibilities that include web design and development, and business systems analysis functions. Although these added roles and responsibilities require training on some of the newer software tools and more complex programming tools, technical communicators are experiencing difficulty keeping pace with these tools. This article discusses technical documentation teams in IT organizations and provides an on-going training assessment to help technical documentation managers identify their team's strengths and weaknesses. In addition, measures and results from a study conducted at eight IT organizations, are provided to show the effect of how the integration of on-going training for documentation teams enhances individual competency and improves team performance.

Networks aiming for fundamental changes bring together a variety of actors who are part and parcel of a problematic context. These system innovation projects need to be accompanied by a monitoring and evaluation approach that supports and maintains reflexivity to be able to deal with uncertainties and conflicts while challenging current practices and related institutions. This article reports on experiences with reflexive process monitoring (RPM)--an approach that has been applied in several networks in the Dutch agricultural sector, which strive for sustainable development. Particular attention is paid to conducting system analyses--a core element of the methodology. The first results show that system analyses indeed have the potential to enhance reflexivity if carried out collectively. However, regular patterns of thinking and acting within projects interfere in subtle ways with the new knowledge generated and limit the transformation of the reflexive feedback and insights into action. (Contains 2 figures, 2 tables and 6 notes.)

The present study was carried out within a systems analysis and design workshop. In addition to the standard analysis and design tasks, this workshop included practices designed to enhance student capabilities related to non-technical knowledge areas, such as critical thinking, interpersonal and team skills, and business understanding. Each task was reviewed and assessed by both the students and the instructor. The main research study objective was to examine the effect of team-based peer-review on the students' learning process in an information systems workshop, What is presented is data referring to the grading process, to students' enhanced learning reflected in the narrowing gap between the instructor's and the students' grading, as well as the students' reflections demonstrating their perception of the workshop's components. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

School shooting cases since the late 1990s have prompted school officials and legislators to develop and implement programs and measures that would prevent violence in school. Despite the number of explanations by the media, politicians, organizations, and researchers about the etiology of school shootings, we are not united in our understanding of the risk factors, particularly those relevant to racial minorities and immigrants. This article examines the Virginia Tech shooting incident using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. We assess a number of risk factors that operate within five system levels (the micro, meso, exo, macro, and chrono systems) and draw implications for assessment and intervention.

Acquiring the knowledge to assemble an integrated Information System (IS) development process that is tailored to the specific needs of a project has become increasingly important. It is therefore necessary for educators to impart to students this crucial skill. However, Situational Method Engineering (SME) is an inherently complex process that may not be suitable for students to apply in a classroom IS development project. SME is defined as the systematic creation of new methods from parts of existing methods, i.e., the method fragments, by taking into account the specific business situation of each IS development project. A less complex pedagogical approach is to teach students how to design an IS development process variant that incorporates the building blocks of various existing processes in order to leverage the advantages of each individual process. This paper first proposes a framework for teaching students the designing of process variants, followed by a preliminary empirical study conducted in a genuine classroom setting to determine whether the framework benefits students. Through the preliminary study, we discuss how the student IS development project teams had successfully applied our framework to design and use their own process variants. The initial observations obtained from the study also suggest that students who designed their own process variant appeared to consistently outperform those who did not, i.e., students which opted to use the traditional waterfall model. (Contains 5 figures and 6 tables.)

This teaching case presents a systems development project useful for courses in object-oriented analysis and design. The case has a strong focus on the business, methodology, modeling and implementation aspects of systems development. The case is centered on a fictitious ambulance and emergency services company (Rescue911). The case describes that the company's current systems no longer meet their business requirements and outlines the need for a new systems solution. The new situation is presented in form of business requirements, a conceptual system breakdown and interviews with the stakeholders. The teaching notes present business process and object-oriented analysis diagrams to complement the case. Students are confronted with realistic and different categories of business artifacts as input for their systems development project. Suggested project deliverables are outlined. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)

This study utilized the Information Systems Success (ISS) model in examining e-learning systems success. The study was built on the premise that system quality (SQ) and information quality (IQ) influence system use and user satisfaction, which in turn impact system success. A structural equation model (SEM), using LISREL, was used to test the measurement and structural models using a convenience sample of 674 students at a Midwestern university. The results revealed that both system quality and information quality had significant positive impact on user satisfaction and system use. Additionally, the results showed that user satisfaction, compared to system use, had a stronger impact on system success. Implications for educators and researchers are reported. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems can represent one of the largest investments of human and financial resources by a higher education institution. They also bring a significant process reengineering aspect to the institution and the associated implementation project through the integration of compiled industry best practices into the software. It is becoming more critical for those administrators and chief information officers who must justify the significant on-going expense and operational impacts to realize the benefits of an ERP system and to be able to quantify those benefits. The benefits are not usually realized at "go live," which is the point of the project at which the ERP system becomes the production database for the operation of the organization and users enter data in the system for normal operations. It may take months or even years for an organization to fully assimilate all of the process changes enabled by the new system. The purposes of this research were: (1) to explore the ERP student administration system post-implementation experiences of six case-study institutions; and (2) to present their successes and challenges so that higher education administrators and leaders can use information from these experiences to determine what actions they may need to take at their own institutions for a successful post-implementation experience. This study adds to the small body of research focused on the higher education post-implementation ERP experience and contributes to the growing area of ERP post-implementation research. In addition, the research offers useful insights into the continuing impact of an ERP implementation project on the higher education institutional environment following "go live." (Contains 5 tables.)

Complexity is a feature common to all vocational education and training (VET) governance arrangements, due to the wide range of students VET systems caters for, and the number of stakeholders involved in both decision making and funding and financing. In this article, Pierre and Peter's framework of governance is used to examine complexity in VET governance models. Criticism has been made of complex decision-making processes in VET governance models, whether stemming from co-determination with social partners or shared responsibilities in federations between national and sub-national governments, with the contention being that such complex processes reduce system adaptability. This article argues that the focus on decision-making processes is misguided and the effects of other complex system processes should be considered. First, debate needs to be broadened to take into account how governance frameworks emerge from historical and political differences, such as the impact of federal structures of government. Adaptability depends on more than decision-making processes. Second, international comparisons suggest that complex policy instruments, whether the result of convoluted decision-making or not, may demonstrate greater adaptability in the system but also threaten system coherence. Finally, complex processes for allocating resources and generating feedback seem to increase system accountability, although unintended consequences for other system outcomes may yet emerge. (Contains 1 figure.)

Purpose: This paper examines the critical effect of learning from past changes on employees' evaluations regarding the extent that a crisis can be controlled and prevented. It is suggested that previous changes incorporate elements of a double-loop learning process that shape managerial perceptions of crisis controllability and crisis prevention. Design/methodology/approach: The present study is based on a field study of 225 NPOs. Using closed-end questionnaires the issues pertaining to crisis and learning are examined. Findings: The results show that the mere experience of previous changes enhances managers' estimations of crisis control, but lowers their estimations of crisis prevention. These results indicate that using the double-loop learning process contributes to a better understanding of organizational competence in non-profit organizations. Research limitations/implications: The present study provides a starting-point for further research, in which crisis is seen as the antecedent of possible learning experiences that could further enhance capabilities of preventing future crises. The sample is restricted to nonprofit settings, using a relatively small sample. Further studies should address this link using for-profit and public organizations, or even conduct comparative studies. Originality/value: No empirical studies are available that assess the line between crisis learning and probable crisis prevention evaluations. The notable and promising side-effect of the study shows how much remains unexplored in regard to both crisis and learning, forming important lessons for managers. (Contains 4 tables.)