Development in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics

This paper outlines the ICT statistical developments that the ABS has undertaken over recent years. These developments have been on both the supply side (ICT industry) and the demand side (use of IT by sector). The content of ABS ICT surveys has changed significantly over the last few years and are expected to develop further in line with industry changes and emerging policy needs.
Recent developments in household collections have been the inclusion of IT use questions in the 2001 Census of Population and Housing and in various ABS social surveys such as Children's Participation in Culture and Leisure Activities. Annual business IT use surveys are now conducted and include topics such as Internet commerce and IT security. Biennial ICT industry surveys are conducted to provide data on ICT production, imports and exports, ICT industry employment, performance and structure information. An Internet activity survey is run every six months and provides regional Internet access details and infrastructure details on Internet service providers.
A major development for 2002–03 will be the compilation of an ICT satellite account. ABS intends to produce an ICT Information Development Plan to guide its future statistical development work in the ICT field.     

PMP® certification as a core competency: Necessary but not sufficient

This research seeks to investigate the relationship between project management certification and established project management core competencies in the IT industry. This study was conducted in two phases, the objective being to first identify those characteristics most common to the successful hire of project managers, from the perspective of IT recruiters. Once identified, the study sought to determine preference for these characteristics from the point of view of corporate IT executives. Two hypotheses were tested in an effort to determine the valuation of Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification as a core competency and as an indicator of project success. Both hypotheses were rejected, as results indicated that PMP® certification was the least valued of 15 core competencies and that there was no difference in project success rates between PMP®‐certified project managers and uncertified project managers. In addition, recruiters' and IT executives' suggestions for improvement in the delivery of the project management body of knowledge are discussed.     

In the LEED: Racing to the Top in Environmental Self‐Regulation

Does voluntary participation in eco‐certification become more substantive over time, or less? Although past research on voluntary programs suggests that later participants are more likely to greenwash by only symbolically adopting voluntary standards, theories of regulatory competition suggest a possible “race to the top.” We argue that participation in voluntary programs can facilitate competition that enables a race, and we advance a theory of self‐regulatory competition to explain dynamics of participation in voluntary environmental programs. Under this perspective, environmental self‐regulation may facilitate a race to the top, despite possibilities for purely symbolic adoption. Analyzing data from a voluntary green building certification program in the United States, we introduce a methodology to distinguish propensities for symbolic certification from more substantive environmental performance. Data demonstrate that later adopters invest additional resources to attain higher certification, becoming greener and suggesting a race to the top in a voluntary greenbuilding certification program.     

A Collective Effort to Understand Formalized Program Review

In response to the growing field of Leadership Studies, the International Leadership Association appointed a task force to explore questions concerning formalized program review systems, such as a peer review process, accreditation, and/or certification. The inquiry involved questions regarding the value of a formalized program review process to advance the field of leadership studies and discover important patterns emerging in areas such as content, teaching, outcomes, and assessment. This article provides a summary of the work completed by the International Leadership Association's Formalized Program Review task force from 2011–2012 to explore and recommend options related to formalized program review for curricular based leadership studies programs.     

The Influence of Environmental Pressures, Diversification Strategy, and Union/Nonunion Setting on Employee Participation

This study tests the hypotheses that environment, diversification strategy, and union/nonunion setting affect the number and variety of employee participation programs. A survey of large U.S. manufacturing firms measured the implementation of employee participation programs. Regression results suggest that environmental pressures exert a direct effect on participation in union settings. However, in nonunion settings, environment and diversification strategy both correlated directly with participation. These results suggest that unions could potentially affect participation program implementation.     

Official Statistics on ICT in Japan

Taking into account the developments of ICT in recent years, a lot of countries are dealing with the preparation of statistics on ICT. In Japan, the Basic Law on Formation of an Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society (Basic Law on IT) was enforced on January 6, 2001, in which the Government is obliged to prepare official statistics related to ICT. In Japan, at least 41 kinds of official statistical surveys, including questions related to ICT, have been conducted in the past five years. Their main purpose, survey items and survey methods are various and different from each other. To grasp the new development in IT as a whole, “IT Indicators in Japan”, which is a new compendium on ICT, was compiled in 2001. Also, “Information and Communications in Japan”, which is a white paper published in 2001, presented basic data on the extent to which IT has permeated the economic activity and people's lives. In addition, the 11th revision of the Japan Standard Industrial Classification (JSIC) was published by the Statistical Standards Department, Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (MPHPT) in March 2002 in response to the change of economy and society including the development of ICT. The Working Group on Indicators for the Information Society of OECD has been working for several years in order to prepare internationally comparable and statistically measurable ICT indicators and related ICT statistics. In this paper, an overview of the present situation of Japanese official statistics related to ICT is given with some analysis. In addition, some problems are raised which should be considered from the viewpoint of the necessity and measurability and so on for the appropriate preparation of ICT indicators and e‐commerce‐related statistics. “IT; Information Technology” and “ICT; Information and Communications Technology” are often used without any distinction. “ICT” is used in this paper except where “IT” is used as a proper noun, as it is considered almost the same as “IT”. The views expressed herein are those of the author, and are not necessarily those of the Statistical Standards Department or any other Japanese government authorities.     

Formalized Program Review: An Evolution

From the beginning, the same or similar opportunities and concerns have arisen at each step in International Leadership Association (ILA)–sponsored conversations and actions related to guidelines, standards, and accreditation of leadership education programs in higher education. Opportunities include increased legitimacy, program development, and more robust responses to external accreditation requirements. Concerns include dampening autonomy and creativity, skepticism that such a diverse field could be evaluated by a common program review model, increased bureaucratization, and, with regard to external review, ethical concerns. Because these conversations and actions have occurred over the past 8 years and have culminated most recently with preliminary recommendations of the ILA's Task Force on Formalized Program Review, we can learn from the history of the debates around these issues and the solutions that were derived to address them. The most salient of these solutions is found in the logic of the process order of Guiding Questions: Guidelines for Leadership Education Programs. The first step in Guiding Questions is for program faculty to produce a written conceptual framework that is grounded not only in theory but also in the context of the institution, college, and department. This should preserve local autonomy and creativity. Further, emphasis for evaluation purposes on program content, teaching and learning methods, and assessment and outcomes measures that are coherent and consistent with these locally derived conceptual frameworks should allow broad application across the diversity of the field. Local control should also minimize bureaucratization and help mitigate ethical concerns. The trend is toward increasing support for formalized program review. Concerns as well as opportunities remain. However, others, including external accrediting organizations and institutional effectiveness offices, should not be determining the terms of our legitimacy and accountability. We must do that for ourselves. Building on what we have learned over the past 8 years shows the way forward.     

The effect of voluntary brownfields programs on nearby property values: Evidence from Illinois

Brownfields are properties whose redevelopment is hampered by known or suspected contamination and by concerns about associated liability. Because failing to redevelop brownfields may negatively affect welfare and the environment, a number of states have created voluntary programs to reduce liability risks and encourage redevelopment of brownfields. For clean or remediated properties, the state certifies that owners of such sites are not subject to federal or state liability under certain conditions. Certification could increase nearby property values because of decreased contamination risk and amenities associated with redeveloping the brownfield. This paper focuses on the Site Remediation Program in Illinois, and estimates the effect of brownfields certification on nearby property values. Employing several strategies to account for unobserved and time-varying variables that may be correlated with certification, I find that the entry and certification of a brownfield 0.25 miles away raises the value of a property by about 1% compared to an otherwise identical property.     

No man is an island: Social and human capital in IT capacity building in the Maldives

In many developing countries, lack of IT skills and human capital impede the potential of IT investments in organizations in developing countries [Lee, J. (2001). Education for technology readiness: Prospects for developing countries. Journal of Human Development, 2(1), 115–151]. This paper draws upon theories of human and social capital, and knowledge, to explain enablers/obstacles for knowledge creation and transfer for IT capacity building in a tourism organization in a developing country – the Maldives. IT capacity building is intimately linked to knowledge and skills at the level of human resource development. Using the Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) [Nahapiet, J., & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23, 242–267] framework for the role of social capital in knowledge creation and transfer, we examine the major issues of IT capacity building for the case organization. We conclude that the role of cognitive capital is the most important for the tourism sector of the Maldives, and may play a vital role in accumulating structural and relational capital, together with appropriate government policies on ICT.     

Program planning with Tobit analysis—the United States food stamp case

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the usefulness of the Tobit model in program planning. The avenue of display is the U.S. Food Stamp Program. Special analytical problems are encountered when the number of eligible nonparticipants of government programs is substantial. Under such circumstances difficulties arise with the use of ordinary regression techniques. The Tobit model is designed to reliably estimate relations from data encumbered with obstacles of this kind. Applications shown herein include program participation prediction and elasticities and probability changes associated with isolated exogenous variable changes.     

Consciousness-Based Management Development

Abstract

Training in meditation is being introduced into corporations worldwide, yet analyses of programs are rare. Case studies document the experiences of members of three top management teams who learned the Transcendental Meditation program in corporate-supported programs and suggest a new trend in management development: Con-sciousness-Based^SM Management Development. This approach, which allows managers to access inner latent capacities, appears to meet criteria described in the literature for an effective management and team development program. The comprehensive changes reported are said to result from unfolding the organizing power of Natural Law in the awareness of the manager.     

The SHRM learning system—A brief history

This article presents an historical overview of the HR Learning System of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the origins of the Learning System, and its ties to the process of certification by the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). The evolution of the Learning System is described, as well as how content is developed. The growth of the Learning System in its many platforms will be utilized in 1999 by over 14,000 individuals—many, as mentioned above, for purposes of certification and an equal number for purposes of general professional development in human resource management. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Gender as a moderator of the relationship between Facebook<Superscript>®</Superscript> addiction and self-efficacy for learning in a college sample: the mediating effect of deliberative belief

The present study explores the mediating role of deliberative belief and the moderating role of gender on the relationships between Facebook^® addiction and self-efficacy for learning among 690 college students. Self-administered questionnaires, including a Facebook^® Addiction Scale, a Deliberative Belief Scale and a Self-efficacy for Learning Scale were utilized to collect the data. The results indicated that there was a negatively significant relationship between Facebook^® addiction and deliberative belief (β = ? 0.25, p < .001) and a positively significant relationship between deliberative belief and self-efficacy for learning (β = + 0.53, p < .001). A multigroup analysis using structure equation modeling also demonstrated that gender moderated the relationship between Facebook^® addiction and deliberative belief. The findings revealed that high Facebook^® addiction was associated with decreased deliberative belief, which was further associated with decreased self-efficacy for learning. Moreover, Facebook^® addiction tends to significantly reduce the self-efficacy for learning for male students but not for female students.     

Global team members’ performance and the roles of cross-cultural training,cultural intelligence,and contact intensity: the case of global teams in IT offshoring sector

Abstract

This study investigates an unexplored form of global team prevalent in the Information Technology (IT) offshoring sector where IT service providers work alongside with client representatives in a global team context. Guided by theories of intelligence and intergroup contact, this study investigates global team members’ individual-level task performance. Specifically, this study examines the development of global team members’ cultural intelligence (CQ) following cross-cultural training. This study also determines the effects of improved CQ on individual-level task performance and examines the moderating role of contact intensity on the relationship between improved CQ and individual-level task performance. Data on the development of CQ, participation in cross-cultural training, and contact intensity were collected from 225 global team members while data on task performance were obtained from each of the global team members’ supervisors. The results of the statistical analyses reveal that: (i) CQ improved following participation in cross-cultural training sessions; (ii) improved CQ is positively and significantly related to individual-level task performance; and (iii) contact intensity moderates the relationship between improved CQ and individual-level task performance. These findings have a number of theoretical and practical implications for international organizations such as those in the IT offshoring sector.     

The importance of employer contacts: Evidence based on selection on observables and internal replication

I estimate effects of the labor market training program “Swit” on employment using both register and survey data. Swit was initiated in an attempt to increase the supply of qualified personnel in the IT sector. Based on the register data I find a large positive effect from the Swit on employment as compared to conventional programs directed towards IT. By also using survey information I conclude that the effect was due to increased employer contacts. The result is of interest because of the relatively large effect especially for individuals with traditionally weak positions on the labor market. Furthermore, I methodologically demonstrate how information about the contents of the programs may corroborate findings based on conditional independence assumptions.     

Forest Certification and ISO 14001: Current State and Motivation in Forest Companies

In this study, we explore the current state of specific corporate responsibility practices in the global forest sector. We compare the motivations for the leading forest industry companies to invest in certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), and in the ISO 14001 environmental management system. For the empirical investigation, we use quantitative survey data collected from 60 of the world's leading forestry companies. This study's empirical results indicate that incentives for adopting forest certification are more often external rather than internal, and more market driven than regulation driven, which would suggest the dominance of extrinsic motivation. The results also indicate that the adoption of ISO 14001 certification represents a reactive strategic approach, emphasizing customer satisfaction as a key motivation. Motivations differ depending on the firm's business sector and the geographical location of its headquarters. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Utilization and productivity of the Duke physician's associate

The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) Formulate a theoretical model of the typical medical practice as a system for producing medical care, with particular attention to the role of middle-level health workers such as graduates of Duke University's Physician's Associate Program. (2) Develop a methodology for collecting data necessary to estimate the relevant parameters in the model, and to describe current patterns of utilization of Duke PA's. (3) Draw substantive conclusions, insofar as the model and data collection methodology permit, about the actual and potential productivity of Duke PA's.As of October 1971 Duke University had graduated 68 PA's from its Physician's Associate Program. Of these, 34 are employed as assistants in family practice or general medicine in a variety of private and institutional settings. Data were collected on eleven of these 34 PA's. No attempt was made to study the other 34 graduates engaged in clinical specialties, administration, or other functions. Neither was any attempt made to collect data on or draw inferences about the utilization and productivity of graduates of any other program such as the MEDEX Program.⁴     

The impact of a STEM-based entrepreneurship program on the entrepreneurial intention of secondary school female students

Despite dedicated effort and research in the last two decades, the entrepreneurship field is still limited by little evidence-based knowledge of the impacts of entrepreneurship programs on the entrepreneurial intention of students in pre-university levels of study. Further, gender equity continues to be an issue in the entrepreneurial sector, particularly in STEM-focused entrepreneurship. In this context, this study was designed to explore the effects of a one-day female-focused STEM-based entrepreneurship program (for brevity, we call it the OzGirlsEntrepreneurship program) on the entrepreneurial intention of secondary school female students. The study collected data from two surveys completed by 193 secondary school female students, aged 14–16 years, who participated in the OzGirlsEntrepreneurship program. This program encouraged girls to develop and implement creative computational solutions to socially relevant problems, with an Internet of Things (IoT) component using the micro:bit device. The findings reveal that a key factor in the development of entrepreneurial attitudes in young female students is associated with soft-skills development, particularly in the areas of creative thinking, risk-taking, problem-solving, and leadership development. The importance of meaningful human connections, including positive role modelling and peer to peer learning were also important factors in fostering entrepreneurial intent. With these factors in mind, our findings highlight that the OzGirlsEntrepreneurship program substantially increased the entrepreneurial intention of secondary school female students. In addition, this study offers actionable implications and recommendations to develop and deliver entrepreneurship education programs for secondary school level students.

     

The impact of RFID adoption on donor subsidy through for-profit and not-for-profit newsvendor: Implications for Indian Public Distribution system

Subsidy programs are sponsored by government and international agencies to improve affordability and accessibility of food and health products for socially deprived community. Although the donors in such programs allocate substantial resources to fund subsidies, a lot of it is wasted due to the inefficiency in the system arising out of product shrinkage and misplacement. This study analyzes the impact of private participation and advanced technology like RFID adoption on the donor subsidy under target consumption level. We formulate the problem as a donor funding the subsidy program through for-profit/not-for-profit newsvendor and compare the equivalent subsidy per consumption with and without RFID. We perform numerical analysis, collecting data from the public distribution system of India, and the results indicate that, unless the for-profit firm operates under a substantially reduced level of shrinkage and misplacement, the donor should always prefer a not-for-profit firm for program implementation. We also observe that among all the scenarios, a not-for-profit firm with advanced technology like RFID requires minimum donor subsidy to generate the target expected consumption.