Robert Joseph Skovira

A Data Driven Conceptual Analysis of Globalization — Cultural Affects and Hofstedian Organizational Frames: The Slovak Republic Example

It has been argued that culture effects how individ uals implement, understand, live, and do business within a defined political, organizational, an d ethnic environment. This essay presents a context for analyzing possible cultural shifts ba sed on Hofstede and Hofstede’s conception that a society’s culture constituted in and presented in individuals’ views and routines determines an identifiable cultural profile. In particular, H ofstede’s indices on Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity and Individuality are applie d to two populations—one a United States university population and the other from a Slovak R epublic university. The overall purpose is to determine if Hofstede’s orginal research findings a re the same today in an era of the internet, globalization, and economic change.

Analysis of Cultural Effects on Business Curricular Subject Matter

It has been argued that culture effects how individ uals implement, understand, and teach the curriculum of business courses within a society’s educ ational institutions (Bur cik, Kohun, & Skovira, 2007; DeLorenzo, Kohun, & Skovira, 2006; Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). The curricula and their subject matter of business faculties refl ect the societies in which the curricula are developed and in which they are taught. The essay presents a rubric for analyzing this curr icular phenomena based on Hofstede and Hofstede’s (2005) conception that a society’s cultu re constituted in and presented in individuals’ views and routines is determinate of professorial u nderstandings and teachings of business subject matter. In particular, Hofstede’s indices on Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance is applied to select business curricula from the Slovak Republic and the United States. The analysis includes a rubric of curricular attributes from a convenienc e sample of select university business programs in the Slovak Republic and the United States for co mparative purposes.

Framing the Corporate Security Problem: The Ecology of Security

Introduction Security and information systems are intertwined. The complex interactions and interconnections among people, software applications, networks, operating systems, and organizational policies create myriads of exploitable points. Daily newspapers present accounts of intrusions, stolen laptops, and other security breakdowns. The global implications of a security meltdown of apocalyptic proportions has been the guise of a novel (Brown, 1998). Intrusions and attempts at intruding are happening continuously at every moment of an information systems life. According to Consumer Reports (2006), in any given 24 hour period there are approximately 60 million intrusion attempts. The estimated cost of security defenses in the face of attacks is approximately

An Ethical Ecology of a Corporate Leader: Modeling the Ethical Frame of Corporate Leadership

7.8 billion for 2004-2006; the costs of spamming and viruses are approximately

Decision-Making and its Social-Cultural Environments: A Proposed Research Model

5.2 billion; the costs of spyware intrusions are approximately

Toward a Theory of Informing Objects

2.6 billion. Phishing intrusions amount approximately

Modeling an Assessing Rubric: Reflections of Red Ink

630 million (Consumer Reports, 2006). There are other estimates (Bodin, Gordon & Loeb, 2005; Kros, Foltz & Metcalf, 2004-2005). What the cost is now or will be in a years time is anyones guess. In the Information Age, where interconnectivity and information access and availability are paramount, malware and malicious exploitation of information system vulnerabilities have become epidemic (Seshadri, Luk, Perrig, Van Doorn, & Khosla, 2006; Whitman, 2003). Security and security awareness are necessary elements of a secure environment, even as people have access to required information and information resources. Information security involves making information accessible to those who need the information, while maintaining integrity and confidentiality (Carstens, McCauley-Bell, Malone, & DeMara, 2004, p. 68). Security Vulnerabilities In the digital world, where an individuals desk top computer is networked not only within the organization but also to the world via the WWW, it is safe to say that everything: the computer and its operating system, the network and web site, the information on it or in corporate databases, the software used to conduct business and query the databases, and the person, is vulnerable and subject to some kind of malicious attack. A vulnerability is a weakness...that might be exploited to cause loss or harm (Pfleeger, 1997, p. 3). Hardware is vulnerable to interruptions (also called denial of service) and interceptions (by stealing) (Pfleeger, 1997; Graff & van Wyk, 2003). The accessibility and visibility of computers (laptops are stolen), printers, even cables, and equipment (hard drives are recycled) of all kinds make them vulnerable to security breakdowns (Pfleeger, 1997; Whitman, 2003; Volonino & Robinson, 2004). Software is open to interruptive (being deleted) threats. Software, at least in part, and its functionality can be captured and used without appropriate permissions. Software can be changed in unpermitted ways by unauthorized persons (Pfleeger, 1997; Whitman, 2003). Information can be subject to unauthorized capture and use. Use of information can be disrupted. Unauthorized access to an information system can lead to information being inappropriately changed, even made up, or appropriated contrary to privacy laws (Pfleeger, 1997; Whitman, 2003; Volonino & Robinson, 2004). People are especially prime points of exploitation for unpermitted access to and use of information and its system. People become opened gates for incursions into applications, operating systems, and networks (Carstens et al., 2004; Bailes & Templeton, 2006; Campbell, 2006). Information systems become vulnerable when key personnel are unavailable and are not reliable. This happens in many possible ways, but the chief manner is framed by and works through peoples mental models of trust. There is also a problem with usability designs of systems. For the user, security ought to be transparent. …

Conceptualizing Global, Economic, Social-cultural, and Ethical Frames as an Evaluative Technique or Rubric

The paper is a discussion of the ethical frame of corporate leadership. The ethical frame is a manager’s ethical ecology. An ethical ecology is about the complex weave of moral obligations, intentions, actions, and consequences of doing business. This paper is a discussion of the ethical conceptual model or frame of a corporate leader. The paper looks at the various structural components and relationships of a worldview of ethical management. The structural components are corporate policy and codes of conduct, financial affairs, environmental concerns, human resources, organizational reputation, relationships, and the corporate leader’s personal moral frame. The essay discusses these categories of ethical management as organizers of an ethical perspective within a corporate environment.

Praxis of Building and Using a Virtual Learning Environment

The paper presents a research model for understanding decision-making assumed to being done within decision-making situations contextualized within a multilayered social-cultural environment which includes a national social-cultural environment, an organizational matrix, a professional worldview, and a familial environment influencing behavior, and for this essay, decisionmaking. These social-cultural matricies have various dimensions, for example, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. The various levels consist of multiple communities of discourse and practice, that is, social group or networks with attending meaning-systems, vocabularies, and practices. These communities influence communicative and decision-making styles. People exhibit these styles within decision-making situations which, in this paper, are located within organizations, or companies.

The Whats We Teach about in a KM course: A Taxonomic Description of Two Ontological Narratives

This essay is a delineation of some ideas associated with the concept of informing object as a methodological unit of description and analysis of documents and other things used by members of communities of discourse and practice in social-cultural environments. The essay argues that an informing object is a sense-making artifact of a social group and attending system of meanings and used pragmatically and normatively within common situations. The paper presents and discusses some putative attributes of an informing object as a means to describing and analyzing contexts of information and communication technologies.