Annemieke Craig

Behavioral adaptation within cross-cultural virtual teams

With todays business environments no longer confined to national borders, much work is undertaken in global virtual teams. Such teams consist of members located in different countries that communicate via technology media to complete a project task. Much of the research in this area has been focused on the technological aspects of such environments; there is, however, a lack of research into the behavioral aspects and the issue of cultural differences in particular. It has been acknowledged that when cultural diversity is neither recognized nor acted upon, significant challenges can arise for the team. Current advice in the literature suggests that team members should adapt their normal working behavior in consideration of cultural differences. However, there is little indication of how team members should do so. This study investigated if and/or how team members adapt their behavior in cross-cultural virtual teams. The results of this study indicate that team members can adapt their behavior in both spoken and written communication as well as allowing for religious beliefs and time zone differences. This paper discusses specifically how behavior can be adapted, including a discussion of behaviors that caused concern. Finally, a framework of behavioral adaptations is presented for ways to improve cross-cultural virtual team interactions.

Moving from a Web Presence to e-Commerce: The Importance of a Business-Web Strategy for Small-Business Owners

More than half of small businesses in Australia (57%) use a website to promote their business. Having an effective website is an important step for small business owners moving towards e-commerce. The research suggests that once a business has a clear online strategy through a website they are more likely to move to e-commerce. While many small business owners have a business strategy, it is often the case that this strategy does not include their Web presence. This paper describes the results of interviews with small business owners and assessment of their websites. We identify elements that are important for small business owners developing a business-Web strategy. The research indicates that many owners see their websites as little more than an advertising medium and few are ready for the move to e-commerce. Identifying the level of maturity of a small business owners business-Web strategy however can help us understand how prepared a small business owner is to move to e-commerce.

Closing the gap: women education and information technology courses in Australia

The first Women in Computing Symposium was hosted by University of Tasmania, in February 1992. Out of this grew the Australian Woman in Computing group. This and subsequent conferences have provided a forum for women and a few interested men to meet, exchange ideas and present their research. A major focus of the group has been on how to better promote, support and retain female computing students. This paper will firstly report on a number of initiatives taken by Victoria University of Technology and secondly describe research results and strategies employed by other Australian Universities to provide support and encouragement for female students in the computing discipline.

Developing business community portals for SMEs-Issues of design, development and sustainability

Governments worldwide are using funding initiatives to encourage small businesses to adopt e‐commerce technology. In Australia both State and Federal Governments have encouraged e‐commerce uptake through the funding of Internet portal developments that have a specific community or business focus. The success of such portals, as with many Web developments, has been mixed and there is little evidence of any evaluation of the effectiveness of such investments. This paper reports on research into an Australian B2B business community portal from launch to closure. A survey and in‐depth interviews with portal participants were undertaken. The research sought to understand how the portal had been developed, and what factors may have contributed to its demise. The findings identified a number of factors, not discussed in the literature, that are important in portal development. These include: how the development process is undertaken; technological readiness of the small business owners; meeting business expectat...

Evaluation framework underpinning the digital divas programme

In Australia, as elsewhere, womens participation rates in Information Technology (IT) have been low. IT is the generic term used to refer to the many courses in the Computer Science, and Information Systems disciplines. While there have been a number of intervention programmes implemented aimed at encouraging women into IT and retaining them once there, few have included evaluations of the efficacy of the intervention. Thus little is known about the factors contributing to the success, or lack of success, of the interventions, or of the medium and longer term impacts for the participants. In this paper we briefly describe an intervention programme implemented with girls in the high school years. We present an evaluation framework providing a detailed overview of the aims and processes involved in the evaluation of the programme. Data for the evaluation were embedded within the data gathering methods associated with the research on the intervention itself.

Outreach Programmes to Attract Girls into Computing: How the Best Laid Plans Can Sometimes Fail.

This article presents a reflective analysis of an outreach programme called the Digital Divas Club. This curriculum-based programme was delivered in Australian schools with the aim of stimulating junior and middle school girls’ interest in computing courses and careers. We believed that we had developed a strong intervention programme based on previous literature and our collective knowledge and experiences. While it was coordinated by university academics, the programme content was jointly created and modified by practicing school teachers. After four years, when the final data were compiled, it showed that our programme produced significant change to student confidence in computing, but the ability to influence a desire to pursue a career path in computing did not fully eventuate. To gain a deeper insight in to why this may be the case, data collected from two of the schools are interrogated in more detail as described in this article. These schools were at the end of the expected programme outcomes. We found that despite designing a programme that delivered a multi-layered positive computing experience, factors beyond our control such as school culture and teacher technical self-efficacy help account for the unanticipated results. Despite our best laid plans, the expectations that this semester long programme would influence students’ longer term career outcomes may have been aspirational at best.

Theorising about gender and computing interventions through an evaluation framework

Despite over 20 years of intervention programmes, the gender balance in the computing profession is not improving. It has been suggested that the problem with much of the research on gender and computing is that it is under‐theorised. The contribution of this study is an evaluation framework, designed to evaluate gender and computing interventions, which will advance the theorisation of research through programme evaluation. This study was undertaken in three phases: The first involved theory building through an extensive review of the literature resulting in a conceptual framework for intervention programme evaluation. The second phase consisted of a multiple‐case study of 14 major intervention programmes in Australia. Subsequent modifications to the conceptual framework resulted in the gender and computing intervention evaluation framework. The value of the framework was confirmed in phase three by intervention experts and showed that applying the framework will help programme champions to evaluate their programmes more thoroughly. The dissemination of sound evaluation results will then enable a deeper theorisation of the issues surrounding gender and computing interventions.

Outreach programs to promote computer science and ict to high school and middle school students

Catherine Lang Swinburne University of Technology Information and Communication Technologies Australia +61 3 9214 5884 clang@swin.edu.au Reyyan Ayfer Bilkent University Ankara, Turkey +90 312 290 5065 ayfer@bilkent.edu.tr Annemieke Craig Deakin University School of Information Systems Deakin University, Australia +61 3 5227 2152 acraig@deakin.edu.au Jane Chu Prey Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Research Redmond, WA +11392145884 jprey@microsoft.com

Where Are They At With IT

Students from one Australian and one New Zealand University, entering the first year of an undergraduate business course were surveyed at the commencement of their studies. The study sought information about the IT background of these students. This paper reports on the results of that work and specifically on the accessibility of a home computer to students, and its use. Differences in the confidence levels and perceived knowledge of computers of the male and female students were explored with some comparison of the differences between the two universities. Results suggest that male and female students have equal access to computers in the home, though differences remain in the usage of the technology.

The Importance of Outreach Programs to Unblock the Pipeline and Broaden Diversity in ICT Education

There is a need for outreach programs to attract a diverse range of students to the computing discipline. The lack of qualified computing graduates to fill the growing number of computing vacancies is of concern to government and industry and there are few female students entering the computing pipeline at high school level. This paper presents three outreach programs that have the underlying assumption that students need to be reminded about the creativity and potential of computing so that it remains on the radar of their future career options. Each program instigated social and cultural change through a paradigm shift where girls moved from being ICT consumers to ICT creators. By exposing students to a wide variety of ICT activities and careers during secondary schooling, they were more likely to consider studying information systems, computer science or any other computing course at the university level. Results are presented showing student attitudinal changes as well as observed increases in enrolments at secondary school and university courses.