Nanette S. Levinson

U.S.–Africa Virtual Collaboration in Globalization Studies: Success Factors for Complex, Cross-National Learning Teams

This case study highlights findings from the first two years of a cross-institutional and cross-national effort to link university students in South Africa with university students in the United States via a graduate seminar on globalization and the information society. The seminar is taught using synchronous and asynchronous web-based tools, providing students with the opportunity to participate in complex, cross-national learning teams. These Global Syndicates represent important stakeholders in globalization processes. Trust, culture, and ideology emerge as key factors for success in this distributed learning environment. Hindering factors include absence of group process skills, low levels of individual participation, cross-cultural differences in communication style, academic expectations, and work ethic.

R&D management and organizational coupling

Recent studies of excellent R&D management have highlighted the management of loose and tight elements — of change and continuity. Building on these studies, this paper reports on a comprehensive review of the literature and an in-depth study of an R&D laboratory including a series of twenty-nine detailed interviews with research performers and research managers. It presents a strategic approach to enhancing R&D management. This approach focuses on five coupling patterns: linkages of elements within the stages of the R&D cycle; linkages of specific stages of the R&D cycle; linkages across organizational levels; linkages with organizations in a laboratorys environment; and linkages between R&D performers and mentors. These linkages constitute connections across which information moves. Managing this information transfer and achieving the appropriate balance of loose and tight coupling is one of the most significant activities in R&D management. What works is careful and creative attention to existing and needed levels of intensity, rigidity, and freedom throughout the stages of the R&D process.

Interorganizational information systems: new approaches to global economic development

Abstract The emergence of cross-national interorganizational configurations (IOCs) has important implications for information resource structuring, planning, and strategy. Findings reported in this paper stem from a review of the literature, a database of cross-national interorganizational configurations formed during the last two years, and a five-year study of information systems resource management in primarily U.S.-based major organizations. This study involves eight subsets of approximately twelve to fifteen organizations examined once each during this period. Within each organization, a field researcher conducted open-ended, semi-structured interviews with the top information systems manager. Findings indicate the need for a paradigm shift to incorporate the IOC as a level of analysis to match the emerging new world economic order and the needs for cross-national information resources structures and strategies.

A Decade of Globally Distributed Collaborative Learning: Lessons Learned from Cross-National Virtual Teams

During crises, relief agency commanders have to make decisions in a complex and uncertain environment, requiring them to continuously adapt to unforeseen environmental changes. In the process of adaptation, the commanders depend on information management systems for information. Yet there are still numerous reports of situations in which commanders had to make decisions based on incomplete, outdated or incorrect information, indicating poor information quality. In many of these situations, poor information quality can be attributed to the information management process incapable of adapting to external (environmental) changes and internal (team) information needs. Using dynamic capability theory and the findings of a case study, this paper presents four principles for information management adaptability: (1) maintain and update team memory, (2) dedicate resources for environmental scanning, (3) maximize the number of alternative information sources and (4) integrate forecasting and back casting methods in the information management process.

IOs and Global Internet Governance Interorganizational Architecture

Discussing results of our joint project that examines the complex interactions among intergovernmental organizations and other transnational institutions and nonstate actors in the global Internet governance ecosystem, this study highlights themes related to the changing architecture and roles of international organizations from WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) until NetMundial. Attention is paid to old and new categories of organizations that emerged in this context; and how they have been recognized as stakeholders in the process. These organizations form a network, set in an environmental context, thus constituting the interorganizational infrastructure for internet governance today. Additionally, tracing knowledge flows and power differentials over time among the different stakeholder organizations helps to illustrate a major finding, the pro-active role of the international organizations studied here in the messy, complex, and cross-national internet governance ecosystem, shaped by and, at the same time, shaping the technical infrastructure.

A Virtual Educational Exchange: A North-South Virtually Shared Class on Sustainable Development

Increasingly, international competence is considered an important skill to be acquired from an undergraduate education. Because international exchange presents a challenge to many students, there is a need to develop and implement alternative means for incorporating international and cross-cultural experiences into the undergraduate classroom. We report on the implementation of a semester-long, virtually shared course offering between a U.S. and a Bolivian university. As STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors tend to be under-represented in study-abroad programs, this class sought to provide a multidisciplinary experience that could be relevant to both hard and social science majors. Furthermore, the relevance and learning impact of this class was enhanced through the incorporation of a service-learning component in conjunction with a rural Bolivian partner organization. The results of this experience show that virtually shared classroom experiences can successfully facilitate international experiences for undergraduate students.

Internet Governance Institutionalization: Process and Trajectories

While the past decade of Internet governance issues and opportunities has been tumultuous and transformation-filled, the last few years have been particularly interesting in the global Internet governance ecosystem space. Both dramatic and subtle changes as well as continuities characterize the roles of key players in this arena. Much work has been done on nation-states, new institutions such as Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) (e.g., Brousseau et al. 2012; DeNardis 2009, 2014; Epstein 2013; Levinson 2012; Levinson and Cogburn 2011; Malcolm 2008; Mueller 2002a, 2010; Mueller et al. 2007; Pavan 2013), or even the private sector. Comparatively, less work has focused on the roles of international organizations (IOs), including long-standing regional IOs such as the Council of Europe (CoE).

Repositioning the information systems management function: Implications for information systems personnel

One of the most major changes in the information systems management arena today is the repositioning of the information systems management function in large organizations. A study of sixty-seven large organizations indicates a repositioning involving a number of dimensions. With these changes, a whole new set of roles and skills for information systems managers are evolving. There is a critical need to examine the challenges stemming from these new roles and skills and provide a framework for the effective management of information systems personnel as we approach the nineties.

Evaluating the Role of Face-to-Face Residencies in Cross-National, Accessible Cyberlearning

This paper provides an analysis of the role face-to-face residencies play in online, cross-national, graduate degree programs. In 2011, taking a cyber learning approach, the IDPP developed the worlds first fully online masters program in international and comparative disability policy, focused on students with disabilities in the ten countries of Southeast Asia. Using this online masters program as a case study, and incorporating pre-and post-residency survey data, the paper explores the impact of its face-to-face residency in building a sense of community, achieving learning outcomes, and highlight the role of culture and trust within the student cohort as a foundation for the online graduate learning experience. Finally, the paper discusses best practices in evaluating online graduate degree programs, emphasizing the importance of an evaluation committee and an iterative evaluation model. Using pioneering research on evaluating accessible cyber learning, it identifies what works in such settings as well as identifying future research needs.

Social Entrepreneurship and Civic Engagement

This is an extraordinary time of change and opportunity in higher education with a special focus on civic engagement. Approximately twelve years ago, Thomas Ehrlich’s published his call to action for universities and colleges (Ehrlich, 2000), following several key reports on civic responsibility. He defines civic engagement as “working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and nonpolitical processes” (Ehrlich, 2000, Preface, Page vi). Further, he argues that “a morally and civically responsible individual recognizes himself or herself as a member of a larger social fabric and therefore? willing to see the moral and civic dimensions of issues, to make and justify informed moral and civic judgments, and to take action when appropriate” (Ehrlich, 2000, Introduction, page xxvi). (Compare this with the writing of Alderson, 2011 who talks about the moral aspects of social entrepreneurship.)