Wm. Benjamin Martz

The integration of ERP into a logistics curriculum: applying a systems approach

The area of logistics and enterprise resource planning (ERP) have a natural bond in that both deal explicitly with identifying working with business processes. This also generates concerns. For example, typical education and training paradigms implementations are often task‐oriented (scientific management) not process‐oriented (systems management). This creates a paradoxical situation where those taught to work with logistics and ERP systems tend to focus only on and understand a limited role within the business. We examine the process‐oriented versus task‐oriented approach used in a high‐tech manufacturing organization to validate the conjecture. In addition, we propose that students exposed to the integration of ERP topics in their logistics coursework develop more process‐oriented thinking than do those students exposed to more traditional or functional area education. The foundations for a preferred model for ERP education and training are proposed.

Testing for the Transfer of Tacit Knowledge: Making a Case for Implicit Learning

Companies are beginning to realize that simply storing data in warehouses and databases is not sufficient to ensure the usefulness of that data or information. As information is processed with a purpose (Ackoff & Emery, 1972), it becomes knowledge. Knowledge exists on many planes; one is the tacit-explicit plane described by Polanyi (1966). Knowledge-based applications are becoming a key factor in determining organizational value. For example, Activity-Based Costing (ABC) and Knowledge Value Added (KVA) are two methodologies that organizations use to measure explicit knowledge. However, this interest in measuring and managing knowledge creates two important questions. First, do companies include tacit knowledge in their measurements of knowledge? Second, can educators demonstrate that they are helping increase tacit knowledge? This paper posits that companies may not be including the full range of knowledge in their endeavor to measure knowledge in their organizations. To help make a case for including tacit knowledge and implicit learning, an active learning exercise is created to demonstrate a method to quantify and test for changes in both types of knowledge. The results show that the activity created observable changes in explicit and tacit knowledge. Future research will need to concentrate further on understanding how the two types of knowledge interact. For now though, these results demonstrate one way to observe the two types of knowledge and more importantly, point out the need for organizations to find ways to value both implicit and explicit knowledge.

Media Richness Theory and the Distance Education Environment

Distance learning is becoming an increasingly popular delivery option for education. Course management platforms (CMP) are the main technological delivery mechanisms for the distance learning courses. CMPs include an abundance of functions by which to communicate and run a distance class. As such, these technologies provide an excellent environment to test the implications of Media Richness Theory (MRT). Based upon a review of “interaction” theories, this paper formulates three conjectures based upon the media richness used in the CMP. The accuracy of these conjectures is tested using a set of data collected from subjects in an established distance education program. The results of this research study show that the richer the distance education environment, the higher the reported satisfaction with the distance course/program, the more reported communication among students/faculty, and the higher the valuation of the course delivery platform by the users.

Managing Distance Education for Success

By 2006, the distance education industry is predicted to be well beyond

A Typology of Requisite Skills for Information Technology Professionals

33.6 billion (Merit Education, 2003). As with most markets, one of the keys to taking advantage of this growing market is customer satisfaction. Therefore, the greater the student satisfaction in a distance pro-gram, the more likely that program will be successful. This article identifies five key components of satisfaction for distance education programs. First, a viable list of potential indicators for student satisfaction is developed from the previous research that compares traditional education environments to distance education environments. A questionnaire was developed using these variables and administered to 341 distance students. The results revealed five constructs for student satisfaction in a distance education program (Martz & Reddy, 2005). Using these factors as guidance, this paper extends those findings to provide some operational and administrative implications.

Group consensus: do we know it when we see it?

Based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of data gathered in structured interviews with 96 IT managers and executives, this paper proposes a typology of IT skills. The resulting typology is comprehensive enough to represent both current and future skills, concise enough to do so in a parsimonious and easily understood manner, consistent with general themes from prior research, and generalizable enough to accommodate future changes in the field.

The Influence of Media Factors on Ethical Behavior

The issue of consensus is unclear in technology-supported meetings. Research indicates that technology supported groups have less consensus than face-to-face groups, and that it is the technology that is at least partly to blame for the non-consensus process loss. This paper reports on an experiment that addresses the issue of how well individuals understand consensus. The results show overwhelmingly that individuals neither agree on what consensus looks like nor do they apply a consistent interpretation of consensus. In addition, the lack of consensus in technology-supported groups may not be due to the technology at all, but rather to the incorrect assumption that individuals know consensus when they see it.

Business informatics as a research discipline

As the number of scandals in the business world continue, there seems to be a greater need for ethics training This study looks at some of the known characteristics of information, and the influence those characteristics have on students when it comes to ethical behavior. Mason developed the PAPA ethics categories, and this study examines the Property category in depth. A set of scenarios was developed around three main constructs: the costs of a product (free or not); the type of product (an MP3 file vs. a test); the medium of a product (digital format or tangible); and the ownership perspective (owned by a friend or owned by the subject). The overall results show students are lacking in ethics, and that there is a difference in ethical behavior when MP3 files are studied

ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY: THREE EXPERIMENTS ON THE QUALITY OF INFORMATION

The purpose of this paper is to develop a research model for the business informatics discipline. Borrowing concepts from a range of complementary areas, including Warfields General Systems Design, McGrath et al.s Knowledge Accrual Process, the ongoing IT Artifact discussion in the Information Systems (IS) literature base, and the characteristics of information, a model (Figure 2) is developed and discussed. The final section of the paper reconciles the model with several of the key concerns currently found in academic discussion over IS as a discipline. A final definition using Mason and Mitroffs format as a guide is presented.

Testing Social Information Processing Theories in Distance Education

ABSTRACT Information has become a strategic business resource (Peters and Waterman 1982). This article posits that this pattern of information use generates more than just technical issues; it creates issues around how information is filtered. A key questions is how can we assure we get the same information out that was put in? Subquestions to this main question include: What information should be stored? How can we identify deceptive information? When we see the same data, do we get the same information? In this article, we explore these three filters, which are known to impact information quality. Finally, the potential for future research streams aligned with this model are discussed.