Patricia Alexander

Desperately Seeking Systems Thinking in ICT4D

The ICT4D context is a complex, multi‐faceted one that needs to take into account political, cultural, economic and infrastructural factors, which often prove to be more challenging to deal with than the technological aspects. This messy context may benefit from a systems approach: Systems thinking provides a holistic view and transdisciplinary methods to describe and analyse complex situations. But to what extent has ICT4D benefited from systems thinking in the past? This paper presents a literature survey of the use of systems thinking in ICT4D. Prominent ICT4D publication outlets have been searched for any reference to systems thinking. The papers identified in the search are discussed in terms of the problems they address and the systems methods used. The results of the survey indicate not only a lack of the use of systems concepts in ICT4D, but also a fragmentedness in the application of systems concepts. The paper tries to make sense of these findings and provides a few perspectives to help interpret them. It concludes with a challenge to systems thinkers to put more effort into disseminating their work to the ICT4D research audience.

Methodological challenges in e-skills shortage research in South Africa

This paper is situated within the context of the challenges related to the processes currently being undertaken in South Africa by the government to stimulate e-Skills capacity. The paper reports on findings of a systematic textual examination of existing ICT skills shortage research reports. Acknowledging the shortcoming of existing e-skills categories in a diverse, ever-changing ICT environment as well as the complexity of determining supply and demand for ICT skills, it is found that existing research on these matters in a South African context is difficult to interpret, not comprehensive enough and often not credible.

Changing career choice factors as the economic environment changes

This paper reports on a longitudinal study carried out amongst students at one South African university over three years. The research identifies changes in perceptions regarding the factors that these students consider important in choosing a career and pays attention to four groups, namely female non-computing major students, male non-computing major students, female computing major students and male computing major students. Interest in the subject remains the most important factor. Major changes were identified regarding how important self-efficacy is considered to be and the importance of career progress. Another important finding is that male computing major students appear to be totally re-evaluating their beliefs regarding what is important in choosing a career. The third finding relates specifically to changes regarding self confidence in using computer technology amongst male students regardless of whether they are intending on taking computing and non-computing third year courses.

A scheme of analysis for eVoting as a technological innovation system

This paper seeks to determine whether the introduction of technology in the electoral processes can be regarded as a technological innovation system. This is done by analysing and evaluating eVoting systems using data obtained from interviews and reviewing documentation relating to a multicase study of the Namibian and South African context. The study reveals that the adapted scheme of analysis proposed for technological innovation systems can be successfully applied to an eVoting system to obtain insights into the functions of the system, the electoral processes involved, and the process of introducing the innovation (techno‐change process). From the analysis, it can be deduced that an eVoting system may be classified as technological innovation system as the researcher was able to analyse, identify, and link the 6 steps of the scheme of analysis to the electoral processes. This analytical process is expected to provide improved insights into the techno‐change processes and the electoral processes and enhance adoption of the eVoting system. The findings not only explain how to improve the usability of the electoral system and its efficiency but also help in crafting policies and strategies that can counter the barriers of implementing and adoption of the technology.

The Impact of Leadership, Trust and Time on Technology Choice by Virtual Teams

This paper describes research relating to collaborative work by an ad hoc virtual team of students at a distance education university in South Africa. Feedback obtained after the task was completed indicates that the adoption of swift trust by at least one team member is required to move the collaboration process forward. The pattern of communication flow of the virtual team is important as it reflects the trust relationships; this was seen to be star shaped with the self-appointed leader, the most trusting team member, in the centre. The swift trust shown by the leader is rapidly followed by knowledge-based trust developed by each team member towards the leader but not towards all other members. It seems possible that low levels of initial trust lead to Perceived Ease of Use being given precedence over Perceived Usefulness when choosing the collaboration technology and this results in sub-optimal task-technology fit. Ad hoc virtual teams should be assisted by implementing strategies for leadership, building trust and for handling time constraints.