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Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

SAEED ULLAH (Editor in Chief)

Federal Urdu University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Prof. Dr. Abderrafiaa Koukam Université De Technologie De Belfort

Montbéliard France

Prof. Amanda Spink Loughborough University

United Kingdom

Dr. Bradford Lee Eden University Of California

USA

Dr. Bernard J. Jansen The Pennsylvania State University University

USA Dr. Bernard T. Han

Western Michigan University USA

Dr. Chia-Nan Wang D&O Biotechnology Co., Ltd

Taiwan

Dr. Clement Leung Hong Kong Baptist University

Dr. David Paper Utah State University

USA

Dr. Donald H. Kraft United States Air Force Academy, Colorado

Springs,Colorado USA

Dr. Hossam Elgindy University Of New South Wales

Australia

Dr.Imtiaz Ahmad Kuwait University

Kuwait

Dr. M. Gordon Hunter The University Of Lethbridge, Alberta,

Canada

Dr. Yacine Lafifi University Of Guelma

Algeria.

Dr. Christos Grecos University Of Central Lancashire.

United Kingdom

Manish Gupta M&T Bank Corporation, Buffalo, New York

USA

Dr. Martin Purvis University Of Otago

New Zealand

Dr. Murali Raman Multimedia University Malaysia,

Malaysia

Dr. Paul Nieuwenhuysen Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050

Brussel Belgium

Dr. Prasad Bingi Indiana-Purdue University

USA

Dr. Ram B. Misra Montclair State University

USA Dr. Rugayah Gy Hashim

Universiti Teknologi Mara Shah Alam, Selangor Malaysia

Dr. Sajid Hussain Fisk University, Nashville

USA Dr. Satish Kumar Agarwal

University Of Bahrain, Manama Kingdom Of Bahrain

Dr. Eng. Sattar B. Sadkhan University Of Babylon

Iraq Dr. Shaher Momani The University Of Jordan

Amman

Dr. Shakil Akhtar Clayton State University

USA

Dr. Shamkant Madhav Khairnar Maharashtra Academy Of Engineering Alandi

Pin-412105, Pune. Maharashtra State India

Dr. Waleed H. Abdulla The University Of Auckland

New Zealand

Dr. Y. Mustafa Union College

310 College Street Barbourville, Ky

USA

Dr. Yong Seog Kim Utah State University

USA

Prof. Dr. Yong Zhang Shenzhen Universit

China

Yu Zheng Microsoft Research Aisa

Dr. Yucong Duan University Of Bourgogne,

France

Associate Editors

Dr. Dorothea La “Chon” Abraham College Of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va

USA

Dr. Jyhjong Lin Ming Chuan University

Taiwan

Dr. Luis. C. Rabelo University Of Central Florida - Orlando, Fl

Usa

Dr. Shenping Hu Shanghai Maritime University

China Dr. Shunfu Hu

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville USA

Dr. Sorinel Oprisan College Of Charleston

Rita Liddy Hollings Science Center Charleston, South Carolina

USA

Dr. Vishal Goyal Punjabi University, Patiala

India

Dr. Weifeng Xu Gannon University

USA

Dr. Xiaochun Cheng Middlesex University

United Kingdom

The expertise of editorial board members are called in settling refereed conflicts about acceptance/rejection and their opinion is considered as final.

Table of Contents

Editorial Editor in Chief 1

Refereed Research Articles Knowledge Strategy For Financial Crime Prevention 2-10

Petter Gottschalk

Linking Geographic Dispersion, Commitment, And Job Satisfaction: TheMediating Role Of Quality Relationship 11-23

Rocco Agrifoglio, Concetta Metallo

Evaluation of ICT Penetration in Selected Insurance Companies: The Lagos Experience 24-30

Apampa, Olatunji Razaq

Introducing A Graduate Research Problem To A Junior Level Class: A Successful Experience 31-35

Ghassan Alkadi, Theresa Beaubouef

Effect of Unconstrained Walking Plane with Virtual Environment on Spatial Learning: An Exploratory Study 36-42

Kanubhai K. Patel, Sanjay Kumar Vij

Reliable Job Scheduler Using RFOH in Grid Computing 43-47Leyli Mohammad Khanli, Maryam Etminan Far, Ali Ghaffari

Relevance of Information Literacy in Digital Environment 48-54R. N. Mishra , C.Mishra

VOL. 1, NO. 1, JULY 2010 ISSN 2079-8407 Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences

©2009-2010 CIS Journal. All rights reserved.

http://www.cisjournal.org

Message from the editor Thank you for downloading the Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences first issue. The main objective of the journal is to publish refereed papers in the area Computing and Information Sciences. It is a quarterly published online international scientific research journal focusing on issues in active research. This issue contains seven research papers selected after pear review. It reflects the quality and style of the journal’s content in the future. Our ambition is to publish work that is truly valuable to both authors and readers. The secondary objective is to assist in the evolving and maturing of IT-dependent organizations, as well as individuals, in information and knowledge based culture and commerce which includes but is not limited to Information Systems, Artificial Intelligence, e-Commerce, Virtual Business and Enterprise, Intelligent Systems, Computer Systems, Information Technology , Computer Networks, e-Government, Database Systems and Theory, Language and Search Engine Design, Knowledge Management, Data Mining/ Web Mining, Computational Intelligence, Distributed Computing, Scientific and High Performance Computing etc. Looking forward to welcoming you as a regular reader.

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KNOWLEDGE STRATEGY FOR FINANCIAL CRIME PREVENTION

Petter Gottschalk

Norwegian School of Management, Nydalsveien, 0484 Oslo, Norway E-Mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Information, intelligence and knowledge are required in corporation to detect and prevent white-collar crime. Information and to a similar extent intelligence consist of facts and other data which is organized to characterize or profile a particular situation, incident, or crime and the individual or group of individuals presumed to be involved. This article presents knowledge management, knowledge categories that are applied in the value configuration of a value shop to combat financial crime. Keywords: Information management; knowledge management; white-collar crime; knowledge management strategy; police; law enforcement. 1. INTRODUCTION In 2008, the office of the director of national intelligence in the USA published Vision 2015, which expands upon the notion of an intelligence enterprise, first introduced in the National Intelligence Strategy and later in the 100 and 500 Day Plans (ODNI, 2008). It charts a new path forward for a globally networked and integrated intelligence enterprise for the 21st century, based on the principles of integration, collaboration, and innovation. The vision is focused on knowledge management (ODNI, 2008: 15):

By 2015, the focus should shift from information sharing (e.g., interoperable systems, information discovery and access) to knowledge sharing (e.g., capturing and disseminating both explicit and tacit knowledge). Just as we are dismantling today’s information “silos”, we will need to bridge the knowledge “archipelagos” of tomorrow in a systematic way that combines both content and context in an on-demand environment. Robust social networking capabilities will be required – expertise location, ubiquitous collaboration services, integrated e-learning solutions, visualization tools, and enterprise content management systems. More importantly, a strategic approach to knowledge sharing and management must be incorporated that includes lessons learned and concept and doctrine development.

When discussing implementation of the vision, ODNI (2008) stresses the importance of adaptability, alignment, and agility. Adaptability is an organization’s aptitude for anticipating, sensing, and responding successfully to changes in the environment. Alignment is the degree of consistency and coherence among an institution’s core strategy, systems, processes, and communications. Agility is an organization’s ability to reconfigure processes and structures quickly – with minimal effort and resources – to seize opportunities and address strategic risks.

In this article, a knowledge strategy for financial crime prevention is presented. The core of a knowledge strategy is a knowledge matrix describing each knowledge category at different knowledge levels. This approach helps bridge knowledge needs and information sources.

2. WHITE-COLLAR CRIME

Edwin Sutherland introduced the concept of "white-collar" crime in 1939. According to Brightman (2009), Sutherland's theory was controversial, particularly since many of the academicians in the audience perceived themselves to be members of the upper echelon of American society. Despite his critics, Sutherland's theory of white-collar criminality served as the catalyst for an area of research that continues today. In particular differential association theory proposes that a person associating with individuals who have deviant or unlawful mores, values, and norms learns criminal behavior. Certain characteristics play a key role in placing individuals in a position to behave unlawfully, including the proposition that criminal behavior is learned through interaction with other persons in the upper echelon, as well as interaction occurring in small intimate groups (Hansen, 2009).

In contrast to Sutherland, Brightman (2009) differs slightly regarding the definition of white-collar crime. While societal status may still determine access to wealth and property, he argues that the term white-collar crime should be broader in scope and include virtually any non-violent act committed for financial gain, regardless of one's social status. For example, access to technology, such as personal computers and the Internet, now allows individuals from all social classes to buy and sell stocks or engage in similar activities that were once the bastion of the financial elite.

In Sutherland's definition of white-collar crime, a white-collar criminal is a person of respectability and high social status who commits crime in the course of his occupation. This excludes many crimes of the upper class, such as most of their cases of murder, adultery, and intoxication, since these are not customarily a part of their procedures (Benson and Simpson, 2009). It also excludes lower class criminals committing financial crime, as pointed out by Brightman (2009). What Sutherland meant by respectable and high social status individuals are not quite clear, but in today's business world we can assume he meant to refer to business managers and executives. They are for the most part individuals with power and influence that is

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associated with respectability and high social status. Part of the standard view of white-collar offenders is that they are mainstream, law-abiding individuals. They are assumed to be irregular offenders, not people who engage in crime on a regular basis (Benson and Simpson, 2009: 39):

Unlike the run-of-the-mill common street criminal who usually has had repeated contacts with the criminal justice system, white-collar offenders are thought not to have prior criminal records.

When white-collar criminals appear before their sentencing judges, they can correctly claim to be first-time offenders. They are wealthy, highly educated, and socially connected. They are elite individuals, according to the description and attitudes of white-collar criminals as suggested by Sutherland. Therefore, very few white-collar criminals are put on trial, and even fewer upper class criminals are sentenced to imprisonment. This is in contrast to most financial crime sentences, where financial criminals appear in the justice system without being wealthy, highly educated, or socially connected. White-collar criminals are not entrenched in criminal lifestyles as common street criminals. They belong to the elite in society, and they are typically individuals employed by and in legitimate organizations. According to Hansen (2009), individuals or groups commit occupational or elite crime for their own purposes or enrichment, rather than for the enrichment of the organization on a whole, in spite of supposed corporate loyalty. 3. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Collier (2006) argues that effective knowledge management is as important to investigating and preventing crime as to any other public or private sector organization in terms of improving performance. Over the past then years, there has been a shift from a reactive, response-led to a proactive, intelligence-led style of law enforcement. In the UK, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, the intelligence-led approach has been developed into a systematic approach such as NIM by national criminal intelligence services. The intelligence used in both strategic and tactical assessments is derived from a number of knowledge and information sources, and the production of assessments represents knowledge work as well. Wilhelmsen (2009) found that "since knowledge and experience often are obtained with great personal and work related costs, the individual or the organization can develop emotional ownership to the information and not be willing to share all they know". However, sharing knowledge in suspected crime cases is vital because misleading information or false information can have unfortunate and harmful consequences. Of special importance is financial crime knowledge among corporate executives. Investigation and prevention of financial crime requires that board members and executive managers have knowledge about crime

categories and motives. Executives need to have knowledge of contexts, complexities, as well as connections. Bevan and Gitsham (2009) argue that such knowledge can be developed through leadership development programs, seeking these knowledge and skills when recruiting new talent into the organization, building these knowledge and skills through career development planning and succession planning, ensuring that performance management and incentive systems enable and reward the building and acquisition of such knowledge, and developing such knowledge through individual as well as collective competency frameworks. Knowledge management has also become important in corporate social responsibility work. Companies increasingly find themselves under pressure to adopt socially responsible forms of operation to prevent financial crime. Preuss and Cordoba-Pachon (2009) distinguish between the element view and the process view of corporate social responsibility knowledge. Elements of knowledge are technical knowledge and knowledge held by other functions. Processes of knowledge are new ways of working with internal and external stakeholders. 4. KNOWLEDGE CATEGORIES There are a number of approaches to knowledge management in the literature. Wang (2009) describes these approaches as schools of knowledge management strategy. First, the systems school strategies aim to capture and store information based on knowledge of individuals in knowledge support repositories. This implies that the fundamental concerns of the system school are the creation and codification of knowledge. Next, the cartographic school strategies focus on mapping knowledge by creating yellow pages or directories of knowledge owners. When people need certain kinds of knowledge, they look in the yellow pages to find who has the knowledge needed and how this person can be reached. Third, the process school strategies aim to provide people not only with the knowledge they request but also with the most useful knowledge that is relevant to their current tasks. This implies an approach to equip individuals with the knowledge they need to effectively perform their tasks. Next, the commercial school strategies support the concept of managing knowledge as an asset and stress the importance of organizations’ capability on recognizing the economic value of their knowledge. Fifth, the organizational school strategies aim to facilitate knowledge management activities by designing organizational structures or inter-organizational networks that connect knowledge owners for sharing knowledge. Sixth, the spatial school strategies take advantage of the use of space to facilitate knowledge exchange. Socialization, such as face-to-face contact, is critical since it accounts for a significant proportion of the transferred knowledge. Seventh and final, the strategic school strategies aim to examine the knowledge, as a key organizational resource, preserved by an organization in order to determine what competitive advantages the

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organization can generate by utilizing its knowledge (Wang, 2009). According to all these schools of knowledge management strategies, knowledge has to be identified in terms of categories and levels. One identification approach suggested here is the knowledge matrix approach. A knowledge matrix is a table that lists knowledge needs. The matrix shows knowledge categories and knowledge levels. Here we make distinctions between the following knowledge categories for investigating and preventing financial crime:

1. Administrative knowledge is knowledge about the role of management and executive leadership. It is knowledge about procedures, rules and regulations.

2. Organization knowledge is knowledge about how the business is organized and management as a law enforcement role. This is knowledge at the organizational level.

3. Employee knowledge is knowledge about where employees spend their working hours, what they do, and why they do it. This is knowledge at the individual level.

4. Process knowledge is knowledge about work processes and practices in business work when committing financial crime. Process knowledge is based on police science, which includes all aspects of policing internally as well as externally (Jaschke et al., 2007). It includes external factors that influence the role and behavior of policing in society.

5. Investigative knowledge is knowledge based on case specific and case oriented collection of information to confirm or disconfirm whether an act or no-act is criminal. Included here are case documents and evidence in such a form that they prove useful in a court case.

6. Intelligence knowledge is knowledge based on a systematic collection of information concerned with a certain topic, a certain domain, certain persons or any other focused scope. Collected information is transformed and processed according to a transparent methodology to discover criminal capacity, dispositions and goals. Transformation and processing generate new insights into criminality that guide the effectiveness and efficiency of prevention and investigation. Included in intelligence knowledge is phenomenological knowledge, which is defined as knowledge about a phenomenon, in terms of what it is about (know-what), how it works (know-how), and why it works (know-why). Phenomenological knowledge enables intelligence workers to "see" what "something" is about, by understanding and not missing when information emerges.

7. Legal knowledge is knowledge of the law, regulations and legal procedures. It is based on access to a variety of legal sources both

nationally and internationally, including court decisions. Legal knowledge is composed of declarative, procedural and analytical knowledge. Declarative knowledge is law and other regulations. Procedural knowledge is the practice of law. Analytical knowledge is the link between case information and laws.

8. Technological knowledge is knowledge about the development, use, exploitation and exploration of information and communication technology. It is knowledge about applications, systems, networks and databases.

9. Analytical knowledge is knowledge about the strategies, tactics and actions that executive managers and investigators can implement to reach desired goals.

An example of investigative knowledge in financial crime investigations is forensic accounting. Forensic accounting is concerned with identifying, recording, settling, extracting, sorting, reporting, and verifying past financial data. The focus of forensic accounting is on evidence revealed by the examination of financial documents. Financial crime such as fraud can be subject to forensic accounting, since fraud encompasses the acquisition of property or economic advantage by means of deception, through either a misrepresentation or concealment. Forensic examinations include consideration of digital evidence, including communications (Curtis, 2008). To develop investigative knowledge in the area of forensic accounting, Kranacher et al. (2008) suggest a model curriculum consisting of several concepts such as basic accounting, basic auditing, transaction processing, business law, business communication and computer skills. The purpose of such a curriculum is to build knowledge, skills and abilities in forensic accounting to combat white-collar crime. In addition to the above classification into knowledge categories, we also make distinctions between knowledge levels:

1. Basic knowledge is knowledge necessary to get work done. Basic knowledge is required for an intelligence officer and investigator as a knowledge worker to understand and interpret information, and basic knowledge is required for an intelligence and investigation unit as a knowledge organization to receive input and produce output. However, basic knowledge alone produces only elementary and basic results of little value and low quality.

2. Advanced knowledge is knowledge necessary to get good work done. Advanced knowledge is required for an intelligence officer and investigator as a knowledge worker to achieve satisfactory work performance, and advanced knowledge is required for an intelligence and investigation unit as a knowledge organization to produce intelligence reports and crime analysis as well as charges that are useful in investigation

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and prevention of financial crime. When advanced knowledge is combined with basic knowledge, then we find professional knowledge workers and professional knowledge organizations in law enforcement.

3. Innovative knowledge is knowledge that makes a

real difference. When intelligence officers and investigators apply innovative knowledge in intelligence and analysis of incoming and

available information, then new insights are generated in terms of crime patterns, criminal profiles and prevention and investigation strategies. When intelligence units apply innovative knowledge, then new methodologies in intelligence and analysis are introduced, that corporate management can learn.

Table 1. Knowledge management matrix for knowledge needs in investigation and prevention of financial crime in organizations.

# Category Basic Knowledge Advanced Knowledge Innovative Knowledge

1 Administrative knowledge

The role of a complaints and whistle-blowing investigator

Sources of information Best practice in complaints and crime investigations

2 Organization knowledge

How the business is organized and managed

How internal misconduct and crime is solved

Power structures in the organization and links to the criminal world

3 Employee knowledge

Where employees spend their working hours

What employees do in their working hours

Why employees do what they do in their working hours

4 Process knowledge

Information sources in investigation and prevention

Analyses techniques in investigation and prevention

Behavior in investigative and preventive work

5 Investigative Knowledge

Investigative procedures Contingent approaches to investigations

Hypothesis and causality in crime

6 Intelligence knowledge

Intelligence procedures Contingent approaches to intelligence

Hypotheses and causality in potential crime

7 Legal knowledge

What investigators can do What investigators cannot do

Expected outcome of court procedure

8 Technological knowledge

Equipment in investigative work

Equipment in analysis work

Artificial intelligence and expert systems

9 Analytical knowledge

Analytical methods Analytical procedures Analytical creativity

Based on these categories and levels, our knowledge matrix consists of 9 knowledge categories and 3 knowledge levels as illustrated in Table 1. The purpose of the table is to illustrate that there are a total of twenty-seven knowledge-needs in investigating and preventing financial crime. Based on the table, each intelligence unit and investigation unit has to identify and fill in the table for knowledge needs.

Knowledge levels were here defined at basic knowledge, advanced knowledge and innovative knowledge. An alternative approach is to define knowledge levels in terms of knowledge depth: know-what, know-how and know-why. These knowledge depth levels represent the extent of insight and understanding about a phenomenon. While know-what is simple perception of what is going on, know-why is complicated insight into cause-and-effect relationships in terms of why it is going on:

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1. Know-what is knowledge about what is happening and what is going on. An executive perceives that something is going on, that might need his or her attention. The executive's insight is limited to perception of something happening. The executive does neither understand how it is happening nor why it is happening.

2. Know-how is knowledge about how financial crime develops, how a criminal behaves or how a criminal activity is organized. The executive's or investigator's insight is not limited to a perception

of something is happening; he or she also understands how it is happening or how it is.

3. Know-why is the knowledge representing the deepest form of understanding and insight into a phenomenon. The executive or investigator does not only know that it occurs and how it occurs. He or she also has developed an understanding of why it occurs or why it is like this. Developing hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships and empirically validating causality are important characteristics of know-why knowledge.

Table 2. Alternative knowledge management matrix for knowledge needs in investigation and prevention of financial crime in organizations.

# Category Know-What Know-How Know-Why

1 Administrative knowledge

What investigating colleagues is all about

How investigating colleagues is done

Why investigation and prevention of financial crime is carried out

2 Organization knowledge

What employees do How employees do the things they do

Why employees do the things they do

3 Employee knowledge

What colleagues do during their working hours

How colleagues do their work

Why colleagues do what they do

4 Process knowledge

What kinds of financial crime do occur

How financial crime does occur

Why financial crime does occur

5 Investigative knowledge

What investigative procedures are available

How investigative procedures work

Why investigative procedures work the way they do

6 Intelligence knowledge

What intelligence procedures are available

How intelligence procedures work

Why investigative procedures work the way they do

7 Legal knowledge

What laws and regulations are relevant for financial crime

How these laws and regulations are relevant for financial crime

Why these laws and regulations are relevant for financial crime

8 Technological knowledge

What technological means are available to enforce law on criminal employees

How these technological means enable law enforcement

Why these technological means enable law enforcement

9 Analytical knowledge

What approaches are successful in enforcing law on criminal employees

How are these approaches successful

Why are these approaches successful

One part of the knowledge work is to investigate a crime were a colleague is a suspect. That type of internal policing is described above. It seems easy to forget another part of internal policing as well. Not just executives, but also other colleagues do themselves have a

responsibility to prevent that colleagues get involved in illegal actions during the business work. To succeed with that executives and colleagues need knowledge mentioned above, and it is also important that internal police officers have an interest and dare to take action to prevent or react

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on illegal actions when taken by colleagues during work processes. 5. FROM DATA TO WISDOM While data are numbers and letters without meaning, information is data in a context that makes sense. Information combined with interpretation and reflection is knowledge, while knowledge accumulated over time, as learning is wisdom. In this hierarchical structure we find intelligence as more than information and as less than knowledge. Intelligence is analyzed information, as illustrated in Figure 1.

The word intelligence can refer to a product, a process and the individual organization that shapes raw data into a finished intelligence product as well as the larger community of these organizations. The word intelligence also often refers to the military or agencies like MI5 (Security Service) or MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service) in the UK. However, in this aticle, intelligence is related to criminal actions and defined as a goal-oriented gathering, systematization and analysis of information (Wilhelmsen, 2009).

Knowledge Continuum in Policing

Data

Intelligence

Knowledge

Information

‘Knowled

ge Ladder’

Individual’s ‘prior’ knowledge

based in experience ‘incoming’ information/intelligence

low

high

Level of Interpretation

raw content/facts

Data/‘perceived’ facts + relevance/purpose

Information + ‘organised’ analysis (ie. validated information)

insights/judgments/assessments/beliefs/understandings

Figure 1. Hierarchy of investigation and prevention insight expressed as a continuum Data is considered the raw material out of which information develops. As notes information is data endowed with relevance and purpose. The same can be said about intelligence in that it is a form of insight to which some relevance has been attached through an attempt to offer an organized analysis of the information received by a crime analyst and/or intelligence officer. Hence, this is why intelligence is placed between information and knowledge on the above continuum, as ideally intelligence represents as argued a form of validated information. A core process of policing and law enforcement is investigation. It is a policing truism that information is the lifeblood of an investigation. An investigation goes nowhere if information is not forthcoming about an incident. Information is the raw data that supplies the oxygen, which breathes life into an investigation. Ordinary

rank and file employees either working in human resource departments and accounting departments, or sitting at a computer doing searches, conduct background checks, or more sophisticated crime mapping and intelligence analysis reports and collect information. Information and to a similar extent intelligence then consists of facts and other data which is organized to characterize or profile a particular situation, incident, or crime and the individual or group of individuals presumed to be involved. This organizing of the data to meaningful information of necessity involves some level of interpretation of the facts as presented. However, the role of interpretation here in information is relatively minor in comparison to its role in terms of knowledge construction. In this regard, the role of interpretation in intelligence is greater and more explicit than in information, but not as full blown as in the making of knowledge.

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Knowledge helps develop relevant meaning to information in intelligence work (Innes and Sheptycki, 2004: 6):

The distinction between information and intelligence is well established, but can be difficult to grasp. Information consists of bits of data that, when combined and viewed together with relevant background knowledge, may be used to produce intelligence, which informs the actions and decisions of policing organizations.

Knowledge as implied operates at a higher level of abstraction and consists of judgments and assessments based in personal beliefs, truths, and expectations about the information received and how it is should be analyzed,

evaluated and synthesized - in short interpreted - so that it can be used and implemented into some form of action.

6. KNOWLEDGE WORK IN VALUE SHOPS Investigation and prevention of white-collar crime has the value configuration of a value shop. As can be seen in Figure 2, the five activities of a value shop are interlocking and while they follow a logical sequence, much like the management of any project, the difference from a knowledge management perspective is the way in which knowledge is used as a resource to create value in terms of results for the organization.

Performance Evaluation

Figure 2. The knowledge The logic of the five interactivities in this example is of a policengages in its core business of condproactive investigations. The sequencwith problem understanding, movinvestigation approaches, investigainvestigation implementation, and eninvestigation evaluation. However, these five sequentoverlap and link back to earlier actirelation to activity 5 (control and evaunits when the need for control and are a daily necessity because of the lpolicing unit authority entails. Henmeant to illustrate the reiterative an

Evaluate investigation proces

Carry out the investiga

Prioritize

Develop an

Develop alternative

Investigation Implementation

tion by interviews, surveillance, technical evidence, etc.

Approach Decision

and plan investigative actions for detectives

Investigation Approaches

Problem Definition

understanding of the law enforcement problem

strategies for problem solving through investigation

organization of investigation and prevention units as value shop activities

locking value shop ing unit and how it ucting reactive and e of activities starts es into alternative tion decision, and ds up with criminal

ial activities tend to vities, especially in luation) in policing

command structures egal obligations that ce, the diagram is d cyclical nature of

these five primary activities for managing the knowledge collected during and applied to a specific investigation in a value shop manner. Furthermore, Figure 1 illustrates the expanding domain of the knowledge work performed in financial crime investigations, starting in the centre with problem understanding and ending at the edge with evaluation of all parts of the investigation process. These five primary activities of the value shop in relation to a financial crime investigation and prevention unit can be outlined as:

1. Problem Definition. This involves working with parties to determine the exact nature of the crime and hence how it will be defined. For example, a physical assault in a domestic violence situation

s and results to change direction or complete case investigation

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depending on how the responding officers choose and/or perceive to define it can be either upgraded to the status of grievous bodily harm to the female spouse victim or it may be downgraded to a less serious common, garden variety assault where a bit of rough handing took place towards the spouse. This concept of making crime, a term used on how detectives choose to make incidents into a crime or not, is highly relevant here and is why this first activity has been changed from the original problem finding term used in the business management realm to a problem definition process here in relation to policing work. Moreover, this first investigative activity involves deciding on the overall investigative approach for the case not only in terms of information acquisition but also as indicated on Figure 1 in undertaking the key task, usually by a senior investigative officer in a serious or major incident, of forming an appropriate investigative team to handle the case.

2. Investigation Approaches. This second activity of identifying problem solving approaches involves the actual generation of ideas and action plans for the investigation. As such it is a key process for it sets the direction and tone of the investigation and is very much influenced by the composition of the members of the investigative team. For example, the experience level of investigators and their preferred investigative thinking style might be a critical success factor in this second primary activity of the value shop.

3. Approach Decision. This solution choice activity represents the decision of choosing between alternatives generated in the second activity. While the least important primary activity of the value shop in terms of time and effort, it might be the most important in terms of value. In this case, trying to ensure as far as is possible that what is decided on to do is the best option to follow to get an effective investigative result. A successful solution choice is dependent on two requirements. First, alternative investigation steps were identified in the problem solving approaches activity. It is important to think in terms of alternatives. Otherwise, no choices can be made. Next, criteria for decision-making have to be known and applied to the specific investigation.

4. Investigation Implementation. As the name implies, solution execution represents communicating, organizing, investigating, and implementing decisions. This is an equally important process or phase in an investigation as it involves sorting out from the mass of information coming into the incident room about a case and directing the lines of enquiry as well as establishing the criteria used to eliminate a possible suspect from further scrutiny in the investigation. A miscalculation here can stall or even ruin the whole investigation. Most of the

resources spent on an investigation are used here in this fourth activity of the value shop.

5. Performance Evaluation. Control and evaluation involves monitoring activities and the measurement of how well the solution solved the original problem or met the original need. This is where the command and control chain of authority comes into play for investigation and prevention units and where the determination of the quality and quantity of the evidence is made as to whether or not to charge and prosecute an identified offender in a court of law.

7. CONCLUSION The idea of a knowledge strategy for financial crime prevention is presented in this article. Knowledge strategy represents an emerging trend in computing and information science, where technology is applied to support knowledge work in need of information resources. Knowledge resources can be classified in terms of knowledge categories and knowledge levels, as described in this article. The proposed knowledge matrix approach is useful in crime prevention because it identifies the relevance and relative importance of knowledge categories by knowledge levels. Future research in the area of knowledge strategy for financial crime prevention may concentrate on empirical identification of knowledge categories and knowledge levels in law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, a cross-section of police districts in a country might be applied to identify causal relationships between knowledge categories and the extent of financial crime prevention.

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Linking Geographic Dispersion, Commitment, and Job Satisfaction: the Mediating Role of Quality Relationship

Rocco Agrifoglio Parthenope University of Naples, Medina Street, 40 -80133- Naples (Italy)

[email protected]

Concetta Metallo Parthenope University of Naples, Medina Street, 40 -80133- Naples (Italy)

[email protected]

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on socio-emotional processes in order to understand how geographic dispersion could influence the quality of relationships, job satisfaction, and affective commitment of workers in a team context. In particular, we assume that geographic dispersion of team members affects Team-Member Exchange (TMX) which, in turn, affects their job satisfaction and affective commitment. A survey methodology was used to gather data and a structured questionnaire was administered to researchers of CNR Institutes located in Italy. Findings suggested the importance of TMX in determining job satisfaction and affective commitment of dispersed workers, highlighting the mediator role of it. Keywords: dispersed workers; job satisfaction; affective commitment; TMX. 1. INTRODUCTION

The theme of dispersion has been investigated by

umerous scholars over time (Allen, 1971, 1977; Monge & Kirste, 1980; Monge, Rothman, Eisenberg, Miller, & Kirste, 1985; King & Frost, 2002; Hoegl & Proserpio,

2004). Over the last decades, new communication technologies, such as electronic mail, bulletin boards, document sharing, and video conferencing, have encouraged the process of communication among dispersed people. In fact, technological progress has led to an expansion of synchronous and asynchronous

communication channels, which allow information to be obtained and transferred between different users and workplaces (Shirani, Tafti, & Affisco, 1999). Technology represents a fundamental driving force behind the existence of dispersed workers (Solomon, 2001), providing the opportunity to improve both the communication and the response times between colleagues. In this way, some authors have focused on the role of technology in supporting the process of communication and coordination among employees. Numerous theories have emerged to analyze the interaction among individuals mediated by technology, such as the social presence theory (Short, Williams, & Christie,1976), the media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1984, 1986), and the lack of social context cues (Kerr & Hiltz, 1982; Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire, 1984). According to these theories, technology-mediated communication provides fewer social indicators (cues) than face-to-face communication, as it does not include the social and emotional dimensions of interactions, hence, hampering communication efficiency. In this study, we focused on the role of geographic or spatial dispersion among employees in determining the socio-emotional dynamics of the interaction.

Some scholars have investigated the links between geographic dispersion and other social variables such as communication quality (Allen, 1977), collaboration (Kraut, Egido, & Galegher, 1990), conflict (Hinds & Mortensen, 2005), socialization processes (Latané, 1981), and relational

dynamics (Golden, 2006). Authors have argued that geographic dispersion among people is associated with various emotional, cognitive, and behavioral changes that can affect their work relationships (Orlikowski, 1992; Smith & Vanecek, 1990; Kraut, Fussell, Brennan, & Siegel, 2001). According to Allen (1971, 1977), people who work at different locations more than 30 meters apart have less chances of developing informal relationships and communication. Moreover, geographic dispersion among colleagues in work and daily life reduces the opportunity for face-to-face interactions, negatively affecting work collaborations and interpersonal relationships among them. In this way, physical proximity can build stronger social integration through the higher likelihood of informal and spontaneous communication, as well as social and personal matters (Hoegl & Proserpio, 2004).

In the literature, there has been a significant growth of studies investigating the effects of dispersion on the team dynamics recent reviews of the field are by Powell, Piccoli, & Ives, 2004; Hertel, Geister, & Konradt, 2005). Many studies have analyzed the group dynamics and socio-emotional processes investigating issues such as coordination (Townsend, DeMarie, & Hendrickson, 1998; Hoegl & Proserpio, 2004), communication (Bordia, 1997; DeSanctis & Monge, 1998), trust (Jarvenpaa, Knoll, & Leidner, 1998; Kuo, & Yu, 2009), group composition (Jarvenpaa et al., 1998), leadership (Kristof, Brown, Sims, & Smith, 1995; Hambley, O’Neill, & Kline, 2007),




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cohesion (Chidambaram, 1996; Maznevski & Chudoba, 2000), culture (Jarvenpaa et al., 1998; Massey, Montoya-Weiss, Hung, & Ramesh, 2001), conflicts (Montoya-Weiss, Massey, & Song, 2001; Hinds & Bailey, 2003; Hinds & Mortensen, 2005), satisfaction (Ocker, Hiltz, Turoff, & Fjermestad, 1995; Tung & Turban, 1998), and commitment (Bishop, Scott, & Burroughs, 2000; Workman, Bommer, & Kahnweiler, 2003; Pearce & Herbik, 2004). In any case, scholars have investigated these variables through a comparative analysis between different kinds of teams, in particular, traditional and dispersed teams. Some authors (Smith & Vanecek, 1990; Hightower & Sayeed, 1996) have argued that performances of traditional teams are higher than those of dispersed teams, whereas other studies have shown the opposite (Ocker et al., 1995; Straus, 1996). Although scholars have focused mainly on identifying the levels of satisfaction and commitment through a comparative analysis between traditional and dispersed teams, in the literature, a few studies have attempted to identify the antecedents of these dimensions (Powell et al., 2004).

Nevertheless, relatively little is known about the link between geographic dispersion and an employee’s socio-emotional processes. Moreover, results of the available empirical studies revealed partially contrasting findings. According to Lojeski and colleagues (2006), in the literature, a few contributions have investigated how geographic dispersion can influence the affective and emotional dimensions of a remote worker and, in particular, his or her levels of satisfaction and commitment.

Some contributions (Allen, 1971; Latané, Liu, Nowak, & Bonevento, 1995; Hoegl & Proserpio, 2004; Hinds & Mortensen, 2005; Golden, 2006) have considered geographic dispersion as the main determinant of satisfaction. Other authors, instead, have analyzed the effect of proximity and distance on commitment (Kiesler & Cummings, 2002; Hoegl & Parboteeah, 2003). Geographic dispersion has a negative impact on performance and socio-emotional dynamics, reducing the opportunities for social interaction among members. The frequent interactions encourage social exchange (Blau, 1964), generating feelings of trust, affinity, and gratitude, which promote pro-social behaviors and interpersonal relationships (Seers, Petty, & Cashman, 1995). Compared to previous studies, we believe that the quality of relationship among colleagues, rather than their geographic dispersion, will assume a key role in defining the level of satisfaction and affective commitment.

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of geographic dispersion of team members on an employee’s social and motivational dimensions such as team-member exchange (TMX) quality, job satisfaction, and affective commitment. Particularly, on the basis of social exchange, this study explored the impact of geographic dispersion on socio-emotional dimensions.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS

Geographic Dispersion, Job Satisfaction, and Affective Commitment

The construct of geographic or spatial dispersion was investigated by many scholars (Allen, 1971, 1977; King & Frost, 2002; Hoegl & Proserpio, 2004; O’Leary & Cummings, 2007).

King and Frost (2002) identified three forms of dispersion: social, temporal, and spatial. Social dispersion among people is understood in terms of demographic diversity. Some research has highlighted the impact of social dispersion on group dynamics (Williams & O’Reilly, 1998; Jehn, Northcraft, & Neale, 1999), emphasizing the following variables: coordination, communication, and conflicts. Temporal dispersion is the difference in time zones among people (Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1999; Montoya-Weiss et al., 2001). Knoll (2000) has investigated the impact of temporal dispersion on the processes of communication and team cohesion. Spatial dispersion is the geographic distance among people. Among the other contributions in literature, some studies focused mainly on the impact of dispersion/proximity on the communication processes (Allen, 1971, 1977) and on socialization (Latané, 1981; Latané et al., 1995). According to the authors, increasing spatial dispersion reduces the opportunities for face-to-face meeting, as well as occasional and informal interactions among colleagues, which in turn reduce the effectiveness of communication and socialization processes.

Other authors (Baba, Gluesing, Ratner, & Wagner, 2004; O’Leary & Cummings, 2007) have identified an additional form of distance called configurational dispersion. In particular, it refers to the location of people in different workplaces (e.g., offices, buildings, and structures), concerning “the arrangement of members across sites independent of the spatial and temporal distances among them” (O’Leary & Cummings, 2007:439).

Moreover, Lojeski and colleagues (2006) developed the construct of “virtual distance” that includes temporal, spatial, and relational dimensions. The results of their study highlighted the influence of virtual distance on some socio-emotional variables such as trust, goal clarity, and organizational citizenship.

In this article, we use the term geographic dispersion to refer to the physical or geographical distance between people and, therefore, spatial distance. In particular, we focus on relational dynamics and socio-emotional processes in order to understand how geographic dispersion can influence the quality of relationships, job satisfaction, and affective commitment.

Job satisfaction represents the pleasurable or positive emotional state of a worker resulting from the conduct of his or her work (Locke, 1969, 1976). In the past decades, numerous scholars have focused their research on job satisfaction. In particular, although




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individual job satisfaction is positively related to individual performance (Brayfield & Rothe, 1951; Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959), it represents an outcome of interest in its own right (Mason & Griffin, 2002). In this way, individual job satisfaction should be investigated “as a functionally independent group-level variable” (Mason & Griffin, 2002:272).

Organizational commitment is “the relative strength of an individual’s identification with, and involvement in, a particular organization” (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979:226). Organizational commitment explains the nature of the relationship between the individual and the organization that urges him/her to take a positive and proactive attitude in the organization (Ashforth & Mael, 1989). Allen and Meyer (1990:2-3) identified three dimensions of organizational commitment: (a) affective, or “an affective or emotional attachment to the organization such that the strongly committed individual identifies with, is involved in, and enjoys membership in, the organization”; (b) normative, or “a belief about one's responsibility to the organization”; and (c) continuance commitment, or “a tendency to engage in consistent lines of activity based on the individual’s recognition of the costs (or lost side-bets) associated with discontinuing the activity.” Organizational behavior studies have focused mainly on the affective dimension of commitment. Affective commitment is the most consistent predictor of the psychological link between an individual and a group/organization, which may influence workplace behaviors, such as citizenship behaviors and job performance (Meyer, Becker, & Van Dick, 2006). Consequently, in this work, the continuance and normative components of the commitment were excluded from the investigation.

Some authors have highlighted the importance of an employee’s commitment in a group context (DeSanctis & Monge, 1999; Handy, 1995; Wiesenfeld, Raghuram, & Garud, 1999; Kiesler & Cummings, 2002). Results have shown that commitment requires physical contact and effective support systems to prevent a phenomenon of isolation and high stress levels. According to Handy (1995), shared commitment requires face-to-face interactions that could not occur due to geographical and time dispersion among people. In this way, Butler (1986) argued that the lack of proximity among colleagues and the consequent use of electronic media affect the formation of commitment.

Cooper and Kurland (2002) argued that the use of electronic media reduces the opportunities and the spontaneity of social relations; it impacts negatively on the quality of a member’s relationship, his or her job satisfaction (Yap & Tng, 1990; Golden & Veiga, 2005; Golden, 2006), and commitment (Kiesler & Cummings, 2002). Kiesler and Cummings (2002) believe that face-to-face interactions are essential in order to improve commitment, socialization, and cohesion among people. According to Hoegl and Parboteeah (2003), geographic

dispersion tends to create a lesser sense of identity, trust, cohesion and, consequently, commitment. In this way, some scholars (Hollingshead & McGrath, 1995; Bordia, 1997; Warkentin, Sayeed, & Hightower, 1997; Baltes, Dickson, Sherman, Bauer, & LaGanke, 2002; Kiesler & Cummings, 2002) have shown that traditional team members have a greater level of job satisfaction and affective commitment than members of dispersed teams. However, according to a different approach (Hollingshead & McGrath, 1995; Chidambram, 1996; Walther, 2002), the time and constancy of interactions tend to weaken these differences.

Based on the above reasoning, we assume a negative effect of geographic dispersion on job satisfaction and affective commitment. Thus, we predict:

Hypothesis 1a. Geographic dispersion is negatively

related to job satisfaction. Hypothesis 1b. Geographic dispersion is negatively

related to affective commitment. Team-Member Exchange Quality

Some authors (Graen & Cashman, 1975; Graen,

Cashman, Ginsburg, & Schiemann, 1977; Seers, 1989; Seers et al., 1995; Cole, Schaninger, & Stanley, 2002) have focused mainly on the quality of interpersonal working relationship. In particular, this research has investigated the quality of exchange relationships between an individual and his or her peer group (team-member exchange, TMX), and between an employee and his or her supervisor (leader-member exchange, LMX).

TMX and LMX draw on the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) and the organizational role theory (Katz & Khan, 1978). Social exchange occurs when “an individual is attracted to another if he expects associating with him to be in some way rewarding for himself, and his interest in the expected social rewards draws him to the other” (Blau, 1964:20). Contrary to economic exchange, social exchange arouses feelings of personal obligation, positive affect, trust, and kinship between individuals. Blau (1964) argued that social exchange involves favors that create diffuse future obligations, intensifying relations between people. This perspective requires the existence of an open-ended stream oftransactions between people, with both exchange partners making contributions and receiving intrinsic or extrinsic benefits (Blau, 1964). In organizations, the two most important exchange relationships are between an employee and his or her supervisor (LMX), and between an employee and his or her coworkers (TMX).

TMX analyzes the reciprocity of relationships between people, in terms of assistance and dissemination of ideas and feedback (Seers, 1989; Seers et al., 1995), constituting an indicator of the effectiveness of the member’s working relationship to his colleagues. Therefore, “TMX is a measure of an individual’s




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perception of his or her exchange relationship with the peer group as a whole” (Seers, 1989:119). Seers’ research (1989, 1995) has shown that TMX is a highly variable explanatory of team dynamics. In fact, high levels of TMX mean high levels of cooperation, cohesion, and social reward.

TMX has been analyzed on two levels in the literature: individual and aggregated levels. In particular, an “individual level of analysis involves the individual employee’s perception of his or her reciprocity with other team members” (Seers et al., 1995:23). On the other hand, TMX at an aggregated level of analysis represents “the average reciprocity across the group, which may reflect the extent of teamwork in that group” (Seers et al., 1995:23). Therefore, at an individual level, TMX represents the perception of an employee of the attractiveness of the group, whereas, at an aggregated level, TMX reflects the relative capacity of a group to induce member conformity (Seers, 1989; Seers et al., 1995). In this way, TMX has been used as a variable of individual-level analysis by numerous scholars (e.g., Golden, 2006; Kamdar & Van Dyne, 2007).

Some scholars have highlighted the links between people relationships, higher task performance, and effectiveness of information exchange (Warkentin et al., 1997; Warkentin & Beranek, 1999). According to Warkentin and colleagues (1997), face-to-face meetings are preferred over virtual communication in building relationships. The lack of contextual cues and timeliness of feedback negatively affect the building of relationships between pairs (Daft, Lengel, & Trevino, 1987). Some research (Carlson & Zmud, 1999; Kock, 2002) has shown that the use of electronic media increases the probability that the message is not interpreted correctly. This involves the phenomenon of ambiguity, which may affect the quality of relationship between an individual and his colleagues. Face-to-face interactions reduce the risk of ambiguity, thus encouraging quality work (Homans, 1961).

Therefore, we believe that an increase of geographic dispersion decreases TMX quality. Thus, we predict:

Hypothesis 2. Geographic dispersion is negatively

related to TMX.

People in working relationships cannot be separated both from communication and personal relationships. Stronger relationships between colleagues have been associated with higher task performance and a more effective information exchange (Warkentin et al., 1997). Therefore, building relationships is clearly of fundamental importance to the success of a team (Pauleen, 2003).

TMX is an individual’s perception of exchange relationship with his or her colleagues (Seers, 1989), and it has been analyzed as a determinant of peculiar socio-

emotional dynamics such as satisfaction, identification, cohesion, commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior (Ford & Seers, 2006; Kamdar & Van Dyne, 2007; Love & Forret, 2008). Other scholars (Seers, 1989; Liden, Wayne, & Sparrowe, 2000; Alge, Wiethoff, & Klein, 2003) have focused on the relationship between TMX and performance. In particular, findings have shown the existence of a positive relationship between TMX and two individual job outcomes such as job satisfaction (Seers & Graen, 1984; Gerstner & Day, 1997; Liden, Sparrowe & Wayne, 1997; Golden, 2006) and affective commitment (Keup, 2000; Keup, Bnuiing, & Seers, 2004; Yeh, 2005). A higher degree of job satisfaction and affective commitment is derived from an appropriate amount of face-to-face contacts that favor the personal relationships, historical experience, and understanding of pairs (Crossman & Lee-Kelley, 2004). Therefore, workers with a high TMX level will be characterized by higher levels of job satisfaction and affective commitment.

We believe that TMX quality is an important determinant of job satisfaction and affective commitment. Thus, we predict:

Hypothesis 3a. The negative relationship between geographic dispersion and job satisfaction is mediated by TMX. Hypothesis 3b. The negative relationship between geographic dispersion and affective commitment is mediated by TMX.

3. METHODS

Context The context of analysis is represented by the

National Research Council (CNR) Institutes of Italy. The CNR is a public organization that aims to carry out, promote, spread, transfer, and improve research activities in the main sectors of knowledge growth and of its applications for the scientific, technological, economic, and social development. In this context, research activities are conducted through teamwork, which allows for greater creativity, knowledge sharing, and synergies compared to individual work.

The CNR is divided into 11 departments, which relate to 107 institutes that are further divided into centers and territorial sections. It is distributed all over national territory through a network of institutes that facilitate contacts and cooperation with local firms and organizations. In particular, research teams of the CNR consist of members associated with other organizations (private and public research institutes, universities, corporations, etc.), from other nations or institutes themselves, but working in different places. Therefore, team members could work in different sites and could use electronic media to communicate and coordinate their work. We believe that this context is appropriate to test our hypotheses.




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Procedure

A survey methodology was used to gather data. Survey data were collected during October and November 2008. A structured questionnaire was generated and administered to researchers (Ph.D. students, researchers, professors, and institute directors) of CNR Institutes located in Italy.

In particular, we contacted and also sent a formal e-mail to the Directors of CNR Institutes, asking their willingness to be included in the study. Upon approval by the Director, these Institutes administered the questionnaire (and a letter explaining the purpose and importance of the study) to their researchers, who were drawn up from the Institutes’ mailing list. Of the 107 CNR Institutes contacted, 22 have contributed actively to the research (20%), allowing investigation. Participants

The sample of this study is composed of 128 individuals out of 907 (response rate = 14.11%), situated within 76 research teams and 22 CNR Institutes. Of these individuals, 89.8% are from the institutes of the Campania Region.

The age of team members ranged between 25 and 62 years, with an age average of 39.78 years. The 33.33% of the respondents were represented by women and 52% of the respondents had temporary work. The daily working hours varied from 1 to 12, with an average of 4.77. The duration of the research projects was between 6 and 42 months, with an average of 15.75.

The teams ranged in size from 3 to 21 members, with an average of 7.2 individuals. Of the 76 teams in our sample, 66.7% belonged to traditional teams. Team members are located from one to four locations (sites where researchers are located), with an average of 1.8. The distance between the various sites ranged from 0 to 10,531 km, with an average of 583 km. Finally, dispersed team members use the following media to communicate: 78% e-mail; 56.1% phone; 4.9% chat and/or videoconferencing systems. Measures

Job satisfaction. The construct was measured using Cammann, Fichman, Jenkins, and Klesh’s (1983) three-item scale (α = 0.807). An example of an item used is: “I am satisfied with my work.” The items had seven Likert-type response options ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Affective commitment. This variable was measured using Allen and Meyer’s (1990) eight-item scale (α = 0.848). An example of an item used is: “I really feel as if this organization’s problems are my own.” The items had seven Likert-type response options ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

TMX. The construct was measured using Seers, Petty, and Cashman’s (1995) ten-item scale (α = 0.876). An example of an item used is: “Do other members of your team usually let you know when you do something that makes their jobs easier?” The items had seven Likert-type response options ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Geographic Dispersion. This variable was measured using an indicator provided by O’Leary and Cummings (2007), named the spatial distance index (SDI).

The SDI calculated the spatial distance between sites (expressed in Miles), weighed by the number of members at the sites. In particular, we used the follow O’Leary and Cummings’ formula:

where - Milesi-j is the distance between sites i and j; - k is the total number of sites; - ni and nj respectively are the number of team members in i and j sites; - N is the total number of team members.

Control variables. Finally, we identified the following control variables: age, sex, and prevailing media of communication among team members. In particular, age has been measured in years, whereas sex has been measured by a dummy variable (men = 0, women = 1). Finally, the prevailing mode of communication has also been measured by a dummy variable. When team members communicated mainly by face-to-face meetings, the variable was assigned a value of 0; otherwise, if team members communicated mainly by electronic media, the variable was assigned a value of 1. Results

The process of data analysis consists of two phases. In the first phase, we established the psychometric validity of the scales used. The correlations among the variables are represented in Table 1.

Table 1. Correlations and Descriptive Statistics Among Study Variables




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Reliability Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Age - 39.44 9.02 -

2. Gender - 0.60 0.49 -0.21 -

3. Prevailing media of communication - 0.33 0.47 -0.15 0.13 -

4. Geographic Dispersion - 237.36 949.25 -0.01 0.14 0.01 -

5. TMX 0.88 4.10 0.64 0.03 -0.02 0.03 -0.28** -

6. Job satisfaction 0.80 5.84 1.19 -0.02 0.01 0.02 -0.32** 0.62** -

7. Affective commitment 0.85 5.21 1.12 -0.02 0.08 -0.02 -0.28** 0.65** 0.74** -

** p ≤ .001

Table 1 also shows the mean, the standard deviation, and the Cronbach coefficients for the variables (composite reliability) as well as the correlations between constructs. The Cronbach alphas (0.876 TMX; 0.807 job satisfaction; 0.848 affective commitment) for the items within each construct are sufficiently high. Moreover, the results do not show high levels of correlation between the independent variables. These results reveal a high degree of internal coherence with the scales used and, therefore, the measures testing the model have good psychometric properties.

In the second phase, we tested our hypotheses. The results of linear regression analysis are shown in Table 2. In Table 2 we report the results of three linear regression models.

In the first model, the dependent variable is TMX; in the second model, the dependent variable is job satisfaction; and in the third model, the dependent variable is affective commitment. About the independent variables, Model 1 includes only control variables, Model 2 includes the Geographic Dispersion, and Model 3 includes the TMX variable.

In the second regression model, the dependent variable is job satisfaction; its results show that Geographic Dispersion is negatively related to job satisfaction (β = -0.35, p ≤ 0.001), thus supporting H1a.

In the third regression model, the dependent variable is affective commitment; its results show that the Geographic Dispersion is negatively related to affective commitment (β = -0.31, p ≤ 0.001), thus supporting H1b.

In Table 2, in the first regression model with TMX as the dependent variable, the results show that the Geographic Dispersion is negatively related to TMX (β = -0.30, p ≤ 0.001), thus H2 is supported.

We have applied Baron and Kenny’s (1986) method to test H3a and H3b, which stated that TMX is a mediator variable between geographic dispersion, job satisfaction, and affective commitment. According to Baron and Kenny (1986), a test for mediation can be conducted when: (1) the independent variable (Geographic Dispersion) significantly affects the mediator variable (TMX) (β = -0.30, p ≤ 0.001); (2) the independent variable

(Geographic Dispersion) significantly affects the dependent variables (job satisfaction and affective commitment) (β = -0.35, p ≤ 0.001; β = -0.31, p ≤ 0.001); and (3) the mediator variable (TMX) significantly affects the dependent variables (job satisfaction and affective commitment) (β = 0.57, p ≤ 0.001; β = 0.59, p ≤ 0.001), but when TMX is entered into the model, the relationship between the Geographic Dispersion and the dependent variables vanishes (β = -0.20, p ≥ 0.05; β = -0.15, p ≥ 0.05). Table 2 shows that the Geographic Dispersion is significantly related to job satisfaction and affective commitment (see Model 2), but with the insertion of TMX, this relationship vanishes (see Model 3). These findings support H3a and H3b, therefore, TMX is a mediator variable. 4. DISCUSSION

The aim of this study has been to investigate the

role of geographic dispersion in determining social and motivational factors such as team-member exchange quality (TMX), job satisfaction, and affective commitment.

Findings of our study highlight that geographic dispersion negatively affects job satisfaction and affective commitment among employees. These findings are consistent with previous research describing the role of geographic dispersion in defining the levels of job satisfaction and affective commitment (Hollingshead & McGrath, 1995; Bordia, 1997; Warkentin et al., 1997; Baltes et al., 2002; Kiesler & Cummings, 2002). Some scholars have stated that people using electronic media to communicate and coordinate among themselves at work have a case of isolation, demotivation, and frustration phenomena, which can determine an employee’s job satisfaction (Alge et al., 2003; Golden, 2006). Moreover, literature has highlighted that the frequency of interactions between people increases their tendency to like each other (Homans, 1950), thus creating a positive impact on affective commitment (Tschan, Semmer, & Inversin, 2004).

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Table 2. Linear Regression Analysis Results

TMX Job Satisfaction Affective Commitment

Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Age 0.03 0.04 -0.01 -0.01 -0.04 -0.00 0.00 -0.02

Gender -0.02 0.02 -0.04 0.01 -0.00 0.01 0.12 0.10

Prevailing media of communication 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.00 -0.01 -0.02 -0.03

Geographic Dispersion -0.30** -0.35** -0.20 -0.31** -0.15

TMX 0.57** 0.59**

R Square 0.00 0.08 0.00 0.12 0.42 0.01 0.10 0.42

Adjusted R Square -0.03 0.05 -0.03 0.09 0.39 -0.02 0.07 0.39

∆ Adjusted R Square -0.03 0.07 -0.03 0.11 0.30 -0.02 0.09 0.32

* p ≤ 0.05; ** p ≤ 0.001

Previous research (Seers, 1989; Gerstner & Day, 1997; Liden et al., 1997; Keup et al., 2004) has also focused on the study of interpersonal relations between an individual and his colleagues, highlighting the role of TMX as an explanatory variable of job satisfaction and affective commitment.

Although the constructs of TMX and job satisfaction seem similar, they capture different aspects of the working life of employees. Job satisfaction represents the pleasurable or positive emotional state of a worker resulting from the conduct of his or her work (Locke, 1969, 1976). TMX, on the other hand, is an effective indicator of the reciprocity of relationship that an individual has established with his colleagues (Seers, 1989). According to the social exchange theory, “an individual is attracted to another if he expects associating with him to be in some way rewarding for himself, and his interest in the expected social rewards draws him or the other” (Blau, 1964:20). Therefore, if the worker is able to maximize its gains from social interactions, then his level of job satisfaction increases. Based on these premises, some authors reveal that high levels of TMX, resulting from collaboration, cooperation, cohesion, and social exchange among colleagues, determine the high level of job satisfaction (Seers, 1989; Keup et al., 2004) and affective commitment (Keup, 2000; Keup et al., 2004; Yeh, 2005).

Compared with previous research, the contribution of this study is to highlight the role of TMX as a mediator variable between geographic dispersion and two socio-emotional variables: job satisfaction and affective commitment. In particular, our results highlight the existence of a dual relationship. The first relationship shows that geographic dispersion negatively affects TMX, whereas the second relationship shows that TMX positively affects job satisfaction and affective commitment.

The geographic dispersion of team members favors the use of electronic media to facilitate communication and coordination of group work. The

constant use of these tools typically generates two important consequences. First, it promotes the misunderstanding and ambiguity phenomenon (Carlson & Zmud, 1999; Kock, 2002), negatively affecting TMX. Second, it reduces opportunities for spontaneous social and informal relationships, negatively affecting TMX, job satisfaction, and affective commitment (Yap & Tng, 1990; Kurland & Cooper, 2002; Tschan et al., 2004; Golden & Veiga, 2005; Golden, 2006).

Some scholars have stated that the social interactions between colleagues in the workplace can determinate satisfaction and motivation of people (Emery, 1959), as well as their affective commitment (Tschan et al., 2004). Physical proximity can build stronger social integration with the higher likelihood of informal and spontaneous communication, as well as social and personal matters (Hoegl & Proserpio, 2004). The strong and positive relationship between team members, based on interaction frequency and interpersonal attraction, represents some key dimensions to favor the socio-emotional dynamics. Numerous studies (Orlikowski, 1992; Smith & Vanecek, 1990; Kraut et al., 2001) have shown that physical proximity generates emotional, cognitive, and behavioral changes in individuals, positively affecting the relationship at work.

Face-to-face interaction between workers increases an individual’s expectations to obtain direct and immediate social rewards from other group members (Homans, 1961). In fact, some empirical research have shown, through a comparative analysis between different types of teams, that the traditional team members have a higher level of TMX than dispersed team members (e.g., Seers, 1989; Keup et al., 2004). According to Anderson and Thomas (1996), team work proximity is the focal point for the transmission of socialization of new members. Furthermore, constant interaction encourages the sharing of stories, symbols, lunches and coffee breaks, and celebrations of promotions and anniversaries (Kirkman, Rosen, Gibson, & Tesluk, 2002), which facilitate the processes of socialization and improve the




18

quality of relationship among colleagues. In traditional teams, where the members mainly interact and communicate by face-to-face meetings, these situations are more frequent, increasing the cohesion and spirits of team members. On the contrary, in dispersed teams, where the relationships between members are mainly conducted using ICT and where face-to-face meetings may be occasionally or totally absent, these situations are infrequent and, consequently, the employees have less opportunity to socialize and improve the quality of relationships among themselves. Over time, physical proximity between team members encourages the repetition of these events, reinforcing the relationship previously established and generating others (Zajonc, 1968; Kraut et al., 2001).

5. LIMITATIONS AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

This study has several limitations. The first concerns the size of the sample (128 respondents), which is not particularly representative of the population (response rate = 14.11%). We believe that the problem was in the mode of questionnaire administration. The questionnaire was sent by mail to the directors of CNR Institutes, who proceeded to administer the survey to their researchers, through their mailing list. The second limitation involves not having stratified the sample in thematic areas of research. This condition would have allowed a better description of the sample thorough a comparative analysis between the different areas of discrimination. Finally, the third limit is using a mediation model without having conducted a longitudinal study. In fact, a mediation model could engender some problems about the causal sequence between the independent variable, the mediator variable, and the dependent variable; through a mediation model, the independent variable must cause the mediator variable, which then must cause the dependent variable. These problems could be omitted with the use of a longitudinal study because it allows us to distinguish the causal process in a mediation model, measuring how the level of variables change over time. Although some research have shown theoretically and empirically that TMX affects job satisfaction (Seers & Graen, 1984; Gerstner & Day, 1997; Liden et al., 1997; Golden, 2006) and affective commitment (Keup, 2000; Keup et al., 2004; Yeh, 2005), according to a statistical perspective, we cannot exclude that job satisfaction and affective commitment are two determinants of TMX in this study.

The results of the study have some managerial implications. The geographic dispersion of team members involves a greater use of electronic media to communicate and generate some consequences that need to be properly managed. Research suggests that dispersed team members are less satisfied than traditional team members. Hallowell

(1999) argued that the dissatisfaction of employees may be the loss of the “human moment”, typically of dispersed teams. However, our study shows that geographic dispersion does not determine the individual levels of satisfaction and commitment, but these levels are influenced by TMX. Therefore, managers who hope to maximize job satisfaction and affective commitment of workers should consider the key role assumed by TMX.

Organizations can still have the significant benefits of using dispersed workers if they create appropriate organizational conditions. In particular, managers should schedule social activities and other interactive opportunities involving the team members in order to maintain sufficient affective exchanges. Moreover, managers need to encourage participative, cooperative, communicative, and forgiving individual behaviors that foster a high-quality exchange relationship.

However, the possibility of promoting the quality of relationships between an individual and their peers in a teamwork context also depends on team design. If a traditional design is chosen, face-to-face interaction facilitates the processes of socialization, reinforcing and improving the quality of relationship previously established among colleagues and generating new ones. On the contrary, if a geographically dispersed design is chosen, careful attention should be given to building and maintaining relationships among team members. In this way, organizations should encourage socialization among team members that aims to promote more frequent face-to-face meetings. Therefore, it is very important that a regular temporal pattern for face-to-face meetings be provided through monthly or semi-annual deadlines. In fact, face-to-face socializing encourages the development of social ties, which in turn facilitates on-line interaction. Thus, if workers cannot meet, then it is necessary to use electronic media as a means of high-quality communication and to carefully plan virtual meetings through the use of audio-visual conferencing systems. A rich medium enables people to communicate quickly and more efficiently, reducing the risk of ambiguous or equivocal messages. Moreover, members who use a rich medium for a sufficient time may be able adapt to it, developing strong intragroup relationships and communicating almost as effectively as traditionally teams. 6. CONCLUSIONS

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact

of geographic dispersion of team members on an employee’s social and motivational dimensions such as team-member exchange (TMX) quality, job satisfaction, and affective commitment. In particular, this study explored the impact of geographic dispersion on socio-emotional dimensions by social exchange framework.

Compared with previous research, we assumed that TMX quality between co-workers affects their socio-




19

emotional dynamics such as job satisfaction and affective commitment rather than geographic dispersion alone. Findings supported our hypotheses, highlighting the key role of relationship quality among colleagues geographically dispersed. In particular, findings suggest that relationship quality between co-workers is a determinant dimension both in the face-to-face interaction and computer mediated communication. The interactions between colleagues encourage social exchange and generate feelings of trust, affinity, and gratitude, promoting pro-social behaviors and interpersonal relationships and increasing the level of employee’s commitment and job satisfaction. Moreover, this research also suggests some managerial implications to improve the teamwork and, particularly, the socio-emotional dynamics of dispersed employees, highlighting the possibility to obtain direct and indirect benefits for individuals and organizations. REFERENCES

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Evaluation of ICT Penetration in Selected Insurance Companies:

The Lagos Experience

Apampa, Olatunji Razaq Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi.

P.M.B 21023, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail:[email protected]

ABSTRACT

This paper takes a critical look at the level of information and communication technology (ICT) penetration in the Nigerian Insurance Industry. The effect of adoption and use of ICT on the insurance industry is measured by means of survey questionnaires designed to elicit information from respondent who are mainly insurance personnel. Two sets of questionnaires were administered, one for junior and middle level employees and the other for senior cadre managers (IT managers inclusive), directors and executives. Both questionnaires were sectionalized. The questionnaire for junior personnel had three sections. Section one contained questions to elicit demographic and institutional information about respondents. Section two was aimed at finding out how respondents processed information prior to the adoption of ICTs by their organization, while section three was geared towards finding out post-adoption information behaviour of respondents. The questionnaire for insurance executives and top mangers, and IT managers had four sections. The first section was aimed at finding out demographic and institutional information about respondents. The second section was designed to elicit information on the extent of ICT adoption by their organization. The third section was geared at eliciting information on the effects of adoption and use of ICTs on the organization. The fourth section was for IT managers only, this section sought to elicit information on their perspective of organization ICT usage. Results show that most insurance companies in Nigeria are yet to fully aligned ICTs with business and organizational goals. Although most have adopted ICTs for business, however its role in insurance is yet to be fully understood. Thirteen (13) insurance companies and two (2) insurance brokerage firms were surveyed, to make a total of fifteen (15). For most insurance executives and managers ICTs are very important and highly regarded in the organizational value chain. The study also indicates directions for future research, including the identification of the best possible means of aligning ICTs with organizational goals. Keywords: insurance, ICT, IT, computers, software, information systems. 1. INTRODUCTION Information technologies (IT) over the years have become an important tool not only for business but also for governance and personal use. The ICT revolution has not only altered the way we live, work, conduct business and recreate, but has also created new infrastructures for business, scientific advancement and social interactions (UNECA, 2001). This revolution has fuelled the proliferation of new media and the globalization of business and finance. The insurance industry is very important sector for any economy, as it provides coverage for businesses, investments and individuals through the sale of insurance policies, and collection of specified fees called premium. With many policies on the bouquet list of most insurance companies and the ever rising number of customers and policy holders, it has become virtually impossible for most insurance companies to operate effectively and efficiently without the adoption and use of ICTs. 2. BACKGROUND ON THE NIGERIAN INSURANCE INDUSTRY According Falegan (1991), the Nigerian insurance industry has passed through three

distinguishable phases. The initial open door phase was roughly between 1900 and 1960. The transitional phase, which coincided with the first national development plan period, was between 1962 and 1969, and the take off phase started in 1990 and is still on till this day. Perhaps another phase is the recapitalization and consolidation phase of recent which has been characterized by stringent measures from government. None-the-less most insurance companies in Nigeria have adopted the use of ICTs at varying degree, with little success for most. According to O’Brien (2002), there are many ways that organizations may view and use information technology depending on their goals, aims and objectives. Organizations may use ICT to strategize; they could as well be content to use ICT to support efficient everyday operation. The process of information technology adoption and use is critical to deriving the benefits of information technology (Karahanna et al, 1999). The seamless storage retrieval, sorting, filtering distribution and sharing of information can lead to substantial gains in production, distribution, marketing and creation of new products and services. Businesses, large or small rely on quality information for just about everything they do (Mescon et al, 1999) and today computers play a central role in communications, especially with business

24




and commercial activities. The Internet, electronic mail, videoconferencing are some of the capabilities of computer systems in recent times. Traditionally, information systems were designed to work in the immediate workplace environment. But recent developments in concepts and design of technologies have greatly considered the possibility of work outside offices and the work place, and have come up with a number of interesting discoveries and design. Thanks to nanotechnology, miniaturized devices such as laptops, palm tops and memory cads now come in handy for business. According to Steven Alter (2002), without the technical progress, new ways of doing and managing work would not have been feasible. 3. BENEFITS OF ICT With respect to insurance business in Nigeria, quite a number of benefits have been derived from the adoption and use of ICTs over the years; two of the most prominent benefit includes faster means of communication and timeliness of operation. A technology such as video conferencing has made online real-time interaction with partners and associates located outside the headquarters a reality. Through their websites there is room for feedback and interaction with customers and potential policy holders. Vital documents, information and resources are now shared and exchanged seamlessly online. This mechanism makes it very easy to process claims and maintain policies. 4. OBJECTIVES This paper examines to what extent and how registered insurance companies located in Lagos metropolis have been affected by the adoption and use of ICTs. Specifically the study aims to:

(a) To determine the specifics tasks ICTs are applied in insurance operations.

(b) To determine the effects of ICTs on insurance personnel and job satisfaction.

(c) To determine the effect of ICTs on services rendered by insurance companies.

(d) To determine both tangible and intangible benefits derived from the adoption and usage of ICTs by insurance companies.

5. METHODOLOGY Since the majority of insurance companies operating in Nigeria have their head offices in Lagos, the metropolis was taken as the representative sample for the study. What is more, most of the activities within the industry take place in Lagos; in fact Lagos is the pulse of the insurance industry in Nigeria. The type of data used for the study is basically primary. This means that the data were generated directly for the field.

To ensure data integrity, only trusted employees and individuals were sample, and the sampling was done personally. A period of three weeks was earmarked for the sampling, and this was done to enable respondents have enough time to study, understand, and reply appropriately to questions posed to them. In addition to the steps above, reliable individuals within each insurance company were engaged based on the recommendation of their General Managers to help monitor progress, and forestall the loss and mishandling of questionnaires by respondents. All of these were done with the knowledge and permission of executives and managers in each of the company sampled. A number of criteria were considered in determining the choice of insurance company and brokerage firm for inclusion in the sample for this study, namely: a. The insurance company or brokerage firm must

have its head office in Lagos. b. the insurance company or brokerage firm to be

surveyed must be duly registered by the National Insurance Commission (NIC).

c. The insurance company or brokerage firm must be known to be reputable, with at least with ten years of practice in the industry.

d. The insurance company or brokerage firm must have adopted the use of ICTs for its operations

Thirteen (13) insurance companies and two (2) insurance brokerage firms were surveyed, to make a total of fifteen (15). For each insurance company, six employees in the cadre of managers, supervisors, clerks, secretaries and the like were surveyed, and four in the cadre of executives and top managers, making a total of ten respondents from each company. The same method was applied in sampling employees from the two brokerage firms. The total sample size was therefore 150. The implication of this is that the survey employed a stratified random sampling approach. This was necessitated by the need to elicit different information from the different cadre of the sample population. The executives and top mangers were better positioned to provide answers to questions on the gains derived from the adoption and use of ICTs, while employees and personnel were found to be most suited for providing answers to questions on the level of job satisfaction due to the adoption and use of ICTs. Primary data which was collected via questionnaires was use in this study. Questionnaires have been used variously as reliable instrument for data collection in studies similar to this, hence the choice. Two sets of questionnaires were administered, one for the junior employees and personnel of insurance companies to be surveyed, and the other for insurance executives and top managers. The questionnaires were structured and direct, and they were carefully prepared to elicit the required data only. Both questionnaires were sectionalized. The questionnaire for junior personnel had three sections. Section one contained questions to elicit demographic and institutional information about respondents. Section two

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was aimed at finding out how respondents processed information prior to the adoption of ICTs by their organization, while section three was geared towards finding out post-adoption information behaviour of respondents. The questionnaire for insurance executives and top mangers, and IT managers had four sections. The first section was aimed at finding out demographic and institutional information about respondents. The second section was designed to elicit information on the extent of ICT adoption by their organization. The third section was geared at eliciting information on the effects of adoption and use of ICTs on the organization. The fourth section was for IT managers only, this section sought to elicit information on their perspective of organization ICT usage. 6. RESULTS The first set of questionnaire was administered to elicit information from a cross section of junior employees and personnel sampled for the survey. Out of the 90 questionnaires administered to junior employees, only 64 were duly completed and returned, this is a response rate of about 67%.

Table 1 Category of insurance

Category Frequency Percent Core Insurance 55 85.9 Insurance Broker 7 10.9 No response 2 3.1 Total 64 100

Table 2 Position of respondents in the organization

Position Frequency Percent Manager 18 28.1 Supervisor 17 26.6 Clerk 4 6.3 Computer operator 1 1.6 Secretary 3 4.7 Others 20 31.3 No response 1 1.6 Total 64 100

Effects of Adoption and use of ICTs Sixty-three (98.4%) of insurance employees said that training programmes were organized prior to full adoption and use of computers and other ICTs.

Table 3 Adequacy of training

Training was adequate Frequency Percent Yes 43 67.2 No 13 20.3 Undecided 5 7.8 No response 2 3.1 Total 64 100

Table 4 Availability of computer systems

Use computer Frequency Percent Yes 48 75 No 16 25 Total 64 100

Table 5 Official duties for which computers are used

Official duties Frequency Percent Payroll 3 4.7 Desktop publishing 8 12.5 Insurance applications 18 28.1 Processing of claims and liabilities

7 10.9

Other use 11 17.2 No response 17 26.6 Total 64 100

Table 6 Internet connectivity

Internet Frequency Percent Yes 45 70.3 No 19 29.7 Total 64 100

Table 7 Type of Internet connectivity

Connectivity Frequency Percent Dial – up 12 18.8 Broadband 27 42.2 No response 25 39.1 Total 64 100

Table 8 Official use of the Internet

Frequency Internet facility Yes No No

response

Total Percent

Electronic mail 40 18 6 63 62.5 28.1

Search for information

39 16 9 64 60.9 25.0

Visit websites 35 20 9 64 54.7 31.3

Participate in online fora

12 43 9 64 18.8 67.2

Table 9 Use of ICTs

ICTS Frequency Yes No

(Yes) Percent

Facsimile 52 7 81.3 Printers 54 4 84 Internet telephony 13 39 20.3 Video conferencing 5 43 7.8 Video telephone 5 43 7.8 Cellular/mobile phones 47 8 73.4 Mobile radio 5 43 7.8 Multimedia projector 16 34 25 PCS phone system 10 40 15.6 Cable TV 14 34 21.9

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Compact disk 25 26 39.1 Floppy diskette 38 15 59.4 Cartridge and flash disk 21 29 32.8

Table 10 Improved insurance services

Services frequency percent Strongly Agree 38 59.4 Agree 1 28.1 Disagree 1 1.6 No response 7 10.9 Total 64 100

Table 11 Customer and policy holder satisfaction

Customer satisfaction Frequency Percent Strongly Agree 34 53.1 Agree 20 31.3 Undecided 2 3.1 Total 64 87.5

Table 12 Insurance personnel and job satisfaction

Job satisfaction Frequency Percent Strongly agree 22 34.4 Agree 28 43.8 Undecided 3 4.7 Strongly disagree 1 1.6 Disagree 1 1.6 No response 9 14.1 Table 64 100

Table 13 ICTs and amount of effort put into work

Reduction in effort Frequency Percent Strongly agree 29 45.3 Agree 24 37.5 Undecided 1 1.6 Disagree 2 3.1 No Response 8 12.5 Total 64 100

Table 14 Functions and responsibilities of IT Department

Responsibility of ICT department

Frequency Percent

Control of network and systems 16 25 Maintenance 17 26.6 Application development 7 10.9 Storage of information 3 4.7 Organization of training programmes

2 3.1

No response 19 29.7 Total 64 100 Table 15 Benefits of ICTs

Benefits Frequency Percent Less effort required in doing work

21 32.8

Faster communication of 2 3.1

information Adequate information storage facilities

3 4.7

Timeliness of operations 15 23.4 Customer satisfaction 8 12.5 No response 15 23.4 Total 64 100 6a. Results from Questionnaires for Insurance Executives and Managers The second set of questionnaires was structured to elicit information from insurance executives, managers and IT managers. From the 60 questionnaires administered only 37 were duly completed and returned. This is about 61% response rate.

Table 16 Position of respondents in the company

Position Frequency Percent Insurance executive 1 2.7 Insurance manager 25 67.6 IT manager 7 18.9 Others 4 10.8 Total 37 100

Table 17 Gender of respondents

Gender Frequency Percent Male 24 64.9 Female 10 27 No response 3 8.1 Total 37 100

Table 18 Years of service to insurance industry

Number of years Frequency Percent Less than 2 years 8 21.6 Between 2 and 5 years 7 18.9 Between 6 and 9 years 9 24.3 More than 10 years 13 35.1 Total 37 100

Table 19 Company policy on ICT

ICT Policy Frequency Percent Yes 17 45.9 No 16 43.2 No response 4 10.8 Total 37 100 Although 73% of respondents said that ICT is given due consideration in board delibrationsFrom among the ranks of insurance executives, managers and IT managers sampled, fourteen (38%) strongly agree that the adoption and use of ICTs in their organization has helped to improve organizational management. Another fifteen (41%) also agree, but one executive (2.7%) strongly disagree, while five (14%) were not sure and hence remain undecided.

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On the assertion that the adoption and use of ICTs have been helped to reduce the cost of running insurance companies, five respondents representing 14% strongly agree, eighteen (48%) agree, four (11%) strongly disagrees, while one respondent (2.7%) disagree, and eight (22%) remain undecided about the assertion. On the effect of ICT on productivity, 29.7% strongly agreed, while 56.8% agreed, while 2.7% strongly disagreed. Another 2.7% disagreed with the assertion. For most insurance executives and managers ICTs are very important and highly regarded in the organizational value chain. Eighteen respondents (48%) from within the ranks strongly agree to this, while another eighteen (48%) agree. No dissent was recorded for the assertion. Twenty-nine respondents (78%) said that they have experienced increased customer patronage due to the adoption and use of ICTs. Notwithstanding, four respondents (11%) said that they are yet to experience an increase in customer patronage, and three (8%) were not sure and hence categorized as being undecided. For most insurance companies in Nigeria, especially those having their headquarters located in Lagos, the adoption and use of ICTs has not really led to the creation of new products and services for customers. These findings are corroborated in table 4.29 above. 7. OTHER ISSUES ON THE ADOPTION AND USE OF ICTS About 79.4% of insurance executives and managers sampled in the survey believes that huge investment on ICTs is justified, 3% said no and some 18% are yet to make up their minds, and hence categorized as being undecided. In the same vein, 64% said that the adoption and use of ICTs has led to an increase in revenue earnings for their companies, while 15% showed dissent by saying no, some 21% are undecided on the revenue issue. Interestingly, most insurance companies do not see ICT as direct means to an end; rather they see it as a necessary tool for their operations. Information elicited from a cross section of insurance IT managers revealed that five (14%) were part of the IT implementation process for their organization, and another five (14%) were convinced that the system in place is suitable for insurance business. Four (11%) IT managers said that they were not part of the implementation process, but have a good understanding of the system already in place. The type of network being managed also varies. Two (5.4%) said that they operate a distributed network, while another six (16%) said that they were on a client/server network. The study revealed that about 75% of insurance employees and personnel have computers to themselves in their offices for official duties. Tasks to which computers are put include payroll (15%), application development (28%), desktop publishing (13%), and processing of claims and liabilities (11%). About 70% of insurance companies sampled have internet facility; about 19% are on dial-up, while 42% are on broadband access. Official uses of the Internet include electronic-mail, information

search, visiting websites and online discussion. However, the use of electronic mailing system to send and receive information ranks highest in usage of Internet facilities. Information search comes next, followed by online forum participation. Only a handful engages in online discussions. Aside the computer, ICTs that enjoys frequent patronage in most insurance offices include, the printer, facsimile, Internet telephony, mobile phones, and PCS phone system. Others include storage devices like compact disk, floppy diskettes, cartridges and flash disks. Cable television is also frequently patronized as a source of entertainment and information, especially on the world stock market. Other ICTs such as video conferencing, video telephony and mobile radio are hardly used by majority of these companies. It is the printer and fax machine majority find indispensable. Mobile phones whether privately owned or not has also been put to good use by more than three-quarter of employees and personnel to communicate information for business and official reasons. For now studies revealed that only a quarter (25%) of insurance personnel relies on multimedia projectors to present information in board deliberations, seminars, workshops and symposium. Mobile radios are used specifically by security personnel to communicate within a small radius area, usually an office complex and its environs. For most employees and personnel in the Nigerian insurance industry, the adoption and use of ICTs is a welcomed development. Although training programmes were organized to improve the computing skills of employees prior to adoption, quite a number of them (20%) found the training they receive inadequate. Nonetheless, about one-third strongly agree that they have job satisfaction; other (44%) also consent mildly with a yes. Indeed very few disagreed (3.6%). These views are closely related with the amount of effort put into work since there cannot be job satisfaction without a reduction in the effort required for the job. Most junior employees agreed that they have experience increased productivity since the adoption and use of ICTs. However, most insurance executives and senior managers (27%), strongly hold the view that ICTs has led to an increase in organizational productivity, while others merely agree (54%). As already noted by Stairs and Reynolds (2001), it is important to understand that ICT is not productive by itself. Rather it takes a well managed, superbly trained, motivated people with or without ICTs to deliver measurable gains in output. ICTs are expensive to acquire and maintain. Studies showed that about halve of the insurance companies surveyed spend less than N2m (13, 423 USD) per annum on the acquisition and maintenance of computer systems. Others (40%) spend between N3m for similar reasons. Other ICTs that gulp substantial resources annually include Internet connectivity, telephone, LAN, office machineries and equipments like printers, fax machines and copiers. Cable television also account for about annum in subscriptions. On the average, most insurance companies spend between N5m and N8m (33, 557 to 53, 691 USD) to

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acquire and maintain ICTs per annum. Yet most of these companies remain firm and resolute in their alignment with ICTs. Most executives and senior managers are convinced that the huge investment is justified when the benefits derived are considered. They also believe that visible increments in revenue earnings per annum are direct benefits from the adoption and use of ICTs. Other benefits considered tangible include, timeliness of insurance operations, adequate information storage facilities, faster means of communication and reduction in the amount of effort put into work. Intangible benefits on the other hand include customer satisfaction and good corporate image. 7. CONCLUSIONS Although most insurance companies in Nigeria are at various levels of adoption and ICT usage, nevertheless benefits have been derived to an appreciable extent. Researchers have argued that aside the benefits other factors makes it mandatory for insurance companies to adopt and use ICTs. According to Barrett and Walsham (1995), the turbulence in the general insurance industry was intimately connected with the trend towards the use of ICTS for business innovation in the industry. Robyn (2001) however has a different view, for him, it is basically the decline in the price of ICTS that explains the diffusion of ICT use in business. This view was corroborated by Gordon (1987), he said that, “the quality adjusted cost of computing have decreased over 6000-fold relative to equipment prices outside the ICT sector”. In fact some studies estimate that as much as 50% of recent equipment investment is in ICT. It is hoped that increased familiarity, ease of use and end user computing may lead to reduced lags between the cost and benefits of ICT. The need to speed up insurance operation, among them processing of claims and liabilities have left most insurance companies with no choice but to adopt and integrate ICTs to operational scheme. Most companies now see the need to include ICTs in their business goals, but formulating the right policies that should strategically position ICTs for effective service delivery remains a problem. Nonetheless a good percentage of their annual income goes into servicing ICTs. The truth that must be told about ICTs in the Nigerian insurance industry is that ICTs are still relatively new, and most organizational culture, attitudes and behavior that are still prevalent evolved from a world with little ICTs. According to Robyn (2001) surveys have indicated that innovative companies use ICTs as facilitating technologies to gather, process, and use knowledge about themselves on their future. Further more, economist have recognized for some time that, compared to other goods, Information is particularly vulnerable to rent dissipation, in which one company’s gain comes at the expense of others, instead of creating new wealth (Brynjolfsson and Yang, 1996). Insurance companies are at a vantage position when compared with co-financial sector operators such as banks, because customers and insurance policy holders

seldom get a firsthand feel of the effects ICTs on transactions they engage, and hence hardly pressurize insurance companies for prompt service delivery. This is however not the case in the banking sector where effectiveness can easily be measured as a function timeliness of service delivery; online banking is a typical example. It is important however that insurance companies engage the services of qualified professional and consultants to painstakingly understudy the required and expected roles ICTs are to play in insurance business. This should reveal some rather salient feature in the business, and this should in turn lead gradually to changes in institutional and organizational culture and behaviour. Once insurance companies can truly position ICTs strategically, a much better perception and utilization level should take place. For now most insurance personnel are amazed by the capabilities and potentials of ICTs. In addition, it should be noted that market value of most insurance companies would capture the lagged (untapped) benefits of ICT investment, when the stock market is efficient enough to take into account the long term benefits of the investment on ICTs. REFERENCES Alter, S (1999). Information Systems: A Management Perspective. 3rd Edition, Addition-Wesley Inc. USA.

Alter, S. (2002). Information systems: foundation of E-Business. 4th Edition, Prentice Hall, NH

USA

Applegate, L. Frito-Lay Inc: A strategic Transition (consolidate), Harvard business School, 9-193-040, Boston, USA.

Barrett, M. and Walsham, G. Using IT to support Business Innovation: A case study of the London insurance market. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 7 No.2 pp 3-22, 1995.

Bradley, S.P. Hausiman, J.A. and Nolan, r.C. (1993). Global Competition and Technology. In

Bradley, S.P Hausman, J.A. Nolan, R.L. (Eds) Globalization, Technology and Competition.

Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, USA.

Brancheau, J.C., Janz, B.D and J.C. Wetherbe, J.C. “Key issues in information systems

management: 1994-95 SIM Delphi result”. MIS Quarterly. Volume 20 No. 2 June 1990,

pp 225-242.

Brynjolfsson, E and Yang, S. Information Technology and Productivity. Academy Press, Volume

143, p179-214, 1996.

Child, J. and Smith, C. (1987). The Context and Process of organizational Transformation – Cadbury limited in its Sector. Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 24 No. 6

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Loveridge, R and Pitt, M. (1990). The Strategic Management of Technological Innovation. John Wiley & Sons, Chiehester, U.K.

David, P.A. (1990). The Dynamo and the Computer and Dynamo: A Historical perspective on the Modern Productivity Paradox. American Economic Review papers and proceedings, Volume 80 No. 2 May, 355-361. Mescon, M.h., Bovee, C.L. and Thill, J.V. (1999).

Business Today. 9th edition Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River.

Dixit, a.K. and Pindyk (1995). “The Options approach to Capital Investment”. Harvard Business Review, May – June: 105 – 115.

O’Brien, J.A. (2002). Management Information Systems: Managing Information Technology in the E. Business Enterprise, 5th Edition, McGraw – Hill Irwin, NY, USA 530p. Fealegan, J.I. (1991). Insurance: An Introductory Text.

University of Lagos Press. Okigbo, P.N. (1981). Nigerian Financial system, Structure and Growth. Lonma Essex. Gordon, R.J. (1991). “Productivity, Wage, and Prices

Inside and Outside of Manufacturing in the U.S., Japan, and Europe”. European Economic Review, April, Vol. 31, No 3, 685 – 739.

Robyn, G. Measuring the economic importance of ICT. Discussion Paper No. 2 Statistics Information Networks branch of UNIDO, October 2001, 23p. Hage, J. (1980). Theories of Organizations. John Wiley

& sons, NY, USA Scala, s. and McGrath, R. (1993). Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic data interchange: an industry Perspective. Information and Management, 25.pp 85-91. Irukwu, J.O. (1974). Accident and Motor Insurance.

Beacod Press Lagos. Nigeria. Schneider, K. (1987). Services hurt by Technology: productivity is declining. The New York times, June 29, D1, D6.

Karahana, E., Straub, D.W. and chervany, N.L. (1999). Information Technology Adoption Across Time; A cross–sectional comparison of pre-adoption and post–adoption beliefs. MIS Quarterly, Vol. 23 No. 2 pp 183 – 213, 1999. Stair, R.M. and Reynolds, G.W. (2001). Principles of

Information Systems: A Managerial Approach. 5th edition, Course Technology, Boston, MA, USA. Keen, P (1991). Shaping the future: Business Design

through Information Technology. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Ma, USA. Thurow, L. (1987). Developing National Information and

Communications Infrastructure CNICD. Policies, plans and Strategies: the ‘why and how’. Kriebel, C.H. (1989). Understanding the strategic

investment in IT. In Lauden, K.C. and Turner, J.A. (Ed). Information Technology and Management Strategy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hall.

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Introducing a Graduate Research Problem to a Junior Level Class:

A Successful Experience

1Ghassan Alkadi, Theresa Beaubouef 2

Southeastern Louisiana University 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Formulating a research project to be designed and implemented by a junior level class during a short time period is a formidable undertaking. In this paper the authors discuss the problem of rough querying of databases presented to the information systems course and the special issues involved with the design and development of such a system. Of particular note was the greater emphasis in this project on research, and the special challenges involved with exposing undergraduates to graduate-level research concepts and tasks. The students were asked by the instructor to research and learn Database Connectivity, SQL Syntax, Microsoft C# Syntax, Graphical-User Interface Controls, and Database Structure and Design and the .Net framework. The students had to elicit the software requirements from the client at different meetings. Moreover, the students worked on their communicational and oral skills because they had to present their final product to the client and provide ample documentation. Keywords: Rough Querying, Research Project, Oral and Communicational Skills 1. INTRODUCTION

As part of an information systems course it is important that students develop the knowledge and skills to formally design and implement a nontrivial information system. In our course students are first exposed to concepts and practices, and begin by working on small projects to reinforce what they have learned to prepare them for their final projects. It is this final project that is most important and is the subject of this paper. The final project involves some real world application for a client, and although the instructor is knowledgeable about the basics of the project in order to ensure its appropriateness for the course, he has no part in the formulation of the problem or the specification of the requirements. For the work discussed here, the client happened to be another faculty member.

The instructor of the information systems course asked “the client” to present the students with a research problem that could be programmed within five weeks of the semester. The problem involved rough querying of databases, and the students were required to develop from scratch a rough querying information system. The students were asked to elicit the requirements from the client and produce a Software Requirements Specification (SRS) document and to make sure that the customer was in full agreement with it and signed off on it. There were several challenges in the process of developing such a system. To name a few: (1) researching the problem, (2) learning software tools, such as MS LINQ, and (3) learning MS C# and the .NET framework.

The client played the role of a non-programmer and asked for vague requirements at the beginning to entice the students to do more research. Not only were the students required to code construct the system at hand, but to produce other important documents and manuals for the

user. The students were grouped into four teams and were asked to compete against each other in producing the best system. Each group was asked to create a Webpage that updates both of the instructors with the latest updates. Notwithstanding the effort required of the students, the majority were ecstatic about the opportunity to start immediately. A survey was conducted at the end of the semester which elicited students’ opinions of how the class fared was very favorable. The following paragraphs discuss the problem and the effects of it on the students’ knowledge, whether programmatically or research based. Later sections explain in greater detail the way the course was conduced, the results, and the benefits obtained from the course. 2. THE PROBLEM AT HAND

Information systems are everywhere in society, and businesses and organizations invest significant time, personnel, and financial resources into these systems. Because of this, it is imperative that the maximum use possible is obtained from databases and information systems. An information system, by its name, provides a higher level of product from data than a simple database; however, most information systems today continue to lack the ability to manage uncertain and imprecise data or to incorporate some type of uncertainty management into the querying and access of crisp data.

Several techniques have been proposed throughout recent years to try and overcome this deficiency, and various mathematical theories for the management of uncertainty proposed such as probability, possibility, interval logic, and fuzzy and rough set theories. Models have been developed that incorporate uncertainty management into the underlying data model, whether it is relational, object-oriented, or a combination

31




of the two (Beaubouef, Petry, & Buckles 1995; Buckles, and Petry 1982). Another approach has been to apply uncertainty management in the querying of crisp data, leaving the underlying model unchanged (Anvari, and Rose 1987; Bosc, and Pivert 1991).

It is this approach that is taken in this project: an information system that incorporates the rough querying of crisp data for a relational database (Beaubouef, and Petry 1995). Rough set techniques are built on top of an information system, and user interfaces designed for incorporating these concepts. In this manner, our system is better able to model some enterprise in the real world since it incorporates uncertainty management techniques, yet it makes use of existing databases without changing the underlying structure of the data.

The basic concepts of rough sets are briefly described as follows:

Rough set theory is a mathematical formalism for representing uncertainty. An approximation region in rough sets partitions some universe into equivalence classes (Pawlak 1982). This partitioning can be adjusted to increase or decrease its granularity, to group items together that are considered indiscernible for a given purpose, or to “bin” ordered domains into range groups.

Any finite union of these elementary sets is called a definable set. A rough set X ⊆ U, however, is defined in terms of the definable sets by specifying its lower (RX) and upper ( R X) approximation regions:

RX = {x ∈ U | [x]R ⊆ X} and

R X = {x ∈ U | [x]R ∩ X ≠ ∅}. RX is the positive region, U- R X is the negative

region, and R X – RX is the boundary or borderline region of the rough set X, allowing for the distinction between certain and possible inclusion in a rough set.

Rough set techniques may be incorporated into the querying through the use of user-defined equivalence classes and rough predicates. This method is flexible in that the user may change the specifications as necessary without changing any of the actual application data.

The first specifications to be made are the indiscernibility relations. An indiscernibility relation, which is required for every domain, partitions the domain into equivalence classes of attribute values which are indiscernible from one another. In crisp data, each value belongs to an equivalence class containing only one member, the value itself. If no indiscernibility relation is defined for some domain, the data within the domain is considered crisp, and values are automatically partitioned into singleton equivalence classes.

Rough set theory is well developed and formalized, and the literature on rough sets is quite vast. In order to fully understand this theory, one must have a good understanding of mathematics, logic, and proofs. The basics of the rough set theory are easy for an average college junior to comprehend, but anything beyond the basic concepts requires mathematical maturity, diligent study, and research comparable to that done in graduate

study. This was one of the challenges of this project, since the students in the course are mostly juniors.

Another challenge is that students in this course have not been exposed to very much formal database terminology or database query languages, having not yet taken the senior level database course. Therefore, students in the course were required to learn much of the database material on their own.

Recognizing the challenges associated with this project, the instructor appointed one member of each group to be in charge of research. This person spent considerable time trying to understand the literature on rough sets and the mathematical constructs, and determined which areas were relevant to the current project. He then related his understanding to the other group members during the design and development project and resolved questions as they arose. 3. HOW THE COURSE WAS CONDUCTED At the beginning of the semester, students were grouped into teams and assigned group leaders to handle the tasks assigned by the instructor. The instructor had also assigned a project manager to oversee the work of all the students when they were meeting in the majors’ lab and to answer any technical question that they may have had. The instructor almost always chooses a student that had previously taken the class and performed well in it to be the project manager. Each group was assigned a list of topics of research. Examples of the topics included Database Connectivity, SQL Syntax, Microsoft C# Syntax, Graphical-User Interface Controls, and Database Structure and Design. Obviously, the students had no idea about the language to be used to develop the software system until they saw the list of research topics. Each group had to orally present their research work to the rest of the class. In addition, they were required to post their work on the class discussion board to exchange information. After the research phase was over, the second phase began with Phase I. New teams were created for Phase I and new team leaders assigned. The performance of each team leader and member was evaluated by the students in their respective groups and by the instructor, who would use these observations later on to determine who would be the leader in the final phase. Two weeks were given as the due date for code constructing a human resource software system that basically handled employees’ records that include many fields. The students were not only graded on satisfying the requirements imposed by the instructor, but also on the GUI interface and its user friendliness. The instructor insinuated that the students were to compete, making the pace of this phase quite frantic. The majority of the students did not know anything about C#, nor did they know anything about coding together in a group environment, so team dynamics was a new phenomenon to all of them. Hence, the learning curve for them was a steep one. Amazingly, three out of the four groups did very well. One group did manage to satisfy the

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majority of the requirements but failed to have a good GUI. The second phase was a more involved one. The requirements became more difficult since this phase involved additional functions, such as administrators in addition to regular users. The teams were shuffled again, with the intent of creating groups with totally new team members and group leaders that hadn’t yet served in this capacity. The instructor allowed the students to use any software developed earlier in Phase I. Phase II also had to be complete in two weeks. C# remained the language to use for developing the software. To the instructor’s astonishment, one group opted to start from scratch even though the instructor tried his best to sway them from doing so. The other groups used the code that was posted on the discussion board. The GUI this time around was very good across the board. There were a few requirements not met because of their complexity, namely scheduling of employees’ working hours for an upcoming week or month in a calendar. Additionally, applying over time rates for part time and full time employees was a complicated process considering that a 401 K is involved with tax rates. After the presentation of Phase II, the students were very anxious to know who the client would be for the final phase and what type of requirements they would be facing. The final phase allowed five weeks for delivery of the final product. The instructor asked a colleague, the “client”, to come to the class and provide the sketchy requirements for the students. The groups were shuffled again and the selection of the group leaders depended on two important characteristics: leadership and communication skills. Programming skills are also, of course, highly regarded. The instructor advised all group leaders to assign one member of each group to dedicate significant time to research, a member that was proficient in math and logic. Moreover, the group leaders had to communicate with the client to set up meetings to thoroughly discuss the requirements and to resolve any questions regarding the problem at hand. The groups had to create WebPages to keep the instructor and the customer abreast of all the updates (Southeastern 08). The

webpage also listed the requirements, along with a biography, contact information and personal picture of each group member. Such features tremendously helped other group members, other teams, and the instructor and his client. All of the groups chose C# and the .NET framework to construct the code (Microsoft Visual Studio 2008). They also chose to use MS LINQ (Microsoft LINQ 2008). 4. SUCCESSFUL RESULTS AND DELIVERABLES The four groups presented their work on the due dates assigned for them. They showcased their PowerPoint presentations and the software systems they developed. The groups were evaluated by the client as well as the instructor for meeting the requirements, graphical user interface and user friendliness. Each group member was evaluated individually by the group leader and other group members. Code construction contribution was another main factor in determining final grades. The group leader was evaluated by his members and the instructor. All of the software systems were successful in delivering the majority of the specifications. Not a single group failed in delivering the software system required. (Southeastern 08) shows the links for each project and the team members that were involved in creating them. Specific deliverables that were required by the client included:

1. Welcome Packet: 1.1. Flyer that contains a photo of group and

a description of individual and group strengths/qualifications

1.2. Letter 2. Software Package (generic system)

2.1. Must run on a PC 2.2. Complete User and System Manuals 2.3. Detailed documentation on how things

were developed and why a specific language was chosen.

2.4. Must have a good GUI 3. A research paper that may be submitted as an

undergraduate paper

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SURVEY AND EVALUATION FORMS

A sample of the evaluation form that was used in the class is shown below. Instructions: Fill out information pertaining to every member of your team including yourself. For each member you will assign them a rating from 1 to 10 (1 being worst and 10 being best) for the following categories. Then proceed to the section below to continue.

Member Name Leader Member Member Member Member

Productivity Quantity Quality

Reliability Team Membership

Cooperation Attitude

Communication Individuality

Creativity Positive Feedback

Adaptability Conscientiousness

Total Points The following evaluation pertains to Team Leaders only:

• Communications: o Listening o Persuading

• Organizational Skills: o Planning o Goal Setting

• Team-Building Skills: o Empathy o Motivation

• Leadership Skills: o Setting Example o Energy o Vision o Delegating o Positive Outlook

• Coping Skills: o Flexibility o Creativity o Patience o Persistence

• Technological Skills: o Experience o Project Knowledge

The submission of these mandatory forms helped significantly in resolving any problems that may have arisen between students. Another survey was conducted to elicit feedback from the students to see how this class helped them with their programming and communication skills. The survey is shown below: 1. What team size do you like be part of?

a. 3 b. 4 c. 5 d. Other? _____

The following pertains to the role of team manager: 2. When you were a team leader, which of the following

was the most important to you? The most difficult? The most rewarding? Why?

a. Spend ample time to help the team set goals to finish on time

b. Provide encouragement when a team member is discouraged

c. Decision making d. Keep the team focused on the task at hand

3. How did you resolve conflicts between team members?

a. Let the project manager resolve it b. Let the instructor resolve it c. Try your best to resolve the conflict without

neither the project manage nor the instructor know

d. Do nothing 4. How much support do you provide?

a. Encourage team members to make decisions on their own

b. Focus on developing teamwork c. Reduce the level of direction to a minimum

5. How do you delegate tasks to your members? a. Provide minimal direction b. Merely monitor milestones and code

contribution c. Allow each member the freedom to choose

any task he/she deem appropriate 6. How much training did you provide your team

members? a. None b. Minimal c. Maximal

7. How much input did you require of your team members?

a. None b. Minimal c. Maximal

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The following pertains to the language, platform, etc. 8. How comfortable were you with the chosen language

by your leader? a. Very b. Moderately c. Slightly d. Not all

9. How comfortable were you with the IDE, platform, and .Net framework?

a. Very b. Moderately c. Slightly d. Very

10. How much improved are your communication skills after the course?

a. Very b. Moderately c. Slightly d. Not all

11. Has your ability to work and communicate with others improved after taking this course?


12. Has your knowledge base increased after taking this course (programming as well as understanding the customer’s requirements)


Please discuss what you consider to be the major strengths/benefits of the course and address any concerns you may have. (Use the back of sheet if necessary.)

The feedback was exceptionally good. The majority of the students said that their communicational and programming skills have increased considerably. They were delighted that they were exposed to the .Net framework and C# language. Also, they were thrilled that they could tackle a graduate problem despite the fact that they are still juniors. 5. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

In summary, this course was one of the most successful classes the instructor has ever taught. As a matter of fact, the Student Opinion of Teaching evaluation for this class was completed, and the results of the evaluation were outstanding. The vast majority of the students concluded that this class was a great learning experience for them. The “client,” who is a colleague, was accurate in proposing to the instructor that the undergraduates should be exposed to a graduate level research problem. The instructor of this course will collaborate with the client to introduce future students to similar research problems, expecting them to design and construct software for robust solutions.

REFERENCES Anvari, M. and Rose, G., "Fuzzy Relational Databases," in Analysis of Fuzzy Information: Volume II, Artificial Intelligence and Decision Systems (J. Bezdek, ed.), CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 1987.

Beaubouef, T., Petry, F., and Buckles, B. "Extension of the Relational Database and its Algebra with Rough Set Techniques," Computational Intelligence, Vol. 11, No. 2, May, 1995, pp. 233-245.

Beaubouef, T. and Petry, F., "Rough Querying of Crisp Data in Relational Databases," in Soft Computing (eds. T.Y. Lin and A.M. Wildberger), Society for Computer Simulation, San Diego, California, 1995.

Bosc, P. and Pivert, O., "Fuzzy Querying in Conventional Databases," in Fuzzy Logic for the Management of Uncertainty (J. Kacprzyk and L. Zadeh, eds.), John Wiley Pub., 1991.

Buckles, B. and Petry, F., "A Fuzzy Representation of Data for Relational Databases," Fuzzy Sets and Systems, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1982, 213-226.

Microsoft LINQ (2008). Retrieved from: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa904594.aspx

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.microsoft.com/express/

Pawlak, Z., "Rough Sets," International Journal of Computer and Information Sciences, 11, 1982, 341-356.

Southeastern Louisiana University, CMPS 383 Project Site, http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/a/dafre/portal.htm

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http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/a/dafre/portal.htm




Effect of Unconstrained Walking Plane with Virtual Environment on Spatial

Learning: An Exploratory Study

Kanubhai K. Patel1, Sanjay Kumar Vij 2

1Ahmedabad University Post Box No.: 4206, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad 380 009

Phone: +91-9824394304, Fax: +91-79-26402987, Email: [email protected] 2Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Technology

Post Box No.: 22, Vasad-388 306, Gujarat.

Phone: +91-9825343410, Fax: +91-2692-274540, Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT We have integrated the treadmill-style locomotion interface, called the unconstrained walking plane (UWP), with virtual environment (VE) to enable non-visual spatial learning (NSL). This setting allows for a new type of experience, whereby participants with visual disability can explore VE for NSL and to develop cognitive maps of it. Although audio and haptic interface has been studied for NSL, nothing is known about the use of locomotion interface for supporting NSL. We report an experiment that investigates the efficacy of UWP for NSL, formation of cognitive maps, and thereby enhancing the mobility skill of visual impaired people (VIP). Two groups of participants — blind-folded sighted, and blind — learned spatial layout in VE. They used two exploration modes: guided (training phase) and unguided (testing phase). In unguided exploration mode, spatial layout knowledge was assessed by asking participants to perform object localization task and target-object task. Results reveal that the participants have benefited by the learning, i.e. there were significant improvements in post-training navigation performance of the participants. Keywords: Cognitive maps, locomotion interface, spatial learning, visual impairment, virtual environment. 1. INTRODUCTION Unlike in case of sighted people, spatial information is not fully available to visually impaired people (VIP) causing difficulties in their mobility in new and unfamiliar locations. As they are handicapped to gather this crucial information, they face great difficulties in generating efficient mental maps of spaces and, therefore, in navigating efficiently in new and unfamiliar spaces. Consequently, many VIP become passive, depending on others for assistance. More than 30% of the VIP does not ambulate independently outdoors ([2], [16]). This constraint can be overcome by providing mental mapping of spaces, and of the possible paths for navigating through these spaces which are essential for the development of efficient mobility skills. Such assistance might not be required after a reasonable number of repeated visits to the new space as these visits enable formation of mental map of the new space subconsciously. Thus, a good number of researchers focused on using technology to simulate visits to a new space for cognitive maps formation. Although isolated solutions have been attempted, no integrated solution of non-visual spatial learning (NSL) to VIP is available to the best of our knowledge. Also most of the simulated environments are far away from reality and the challenge in this approach is to create a near real-life experience. Virtual Environment (VE) creates the illusion of participation in a synthetic environment rather than going through external observation of such an environment

Figure 1: Spatial learning by VE exploration using UWP

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([19]). Essentially, VE allows users to interact with a simulated environment.

Users can interact with a virtual environment either through the use of standard input devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired glove, the Polhemus boom arm, or else omni-directional treadmill. We provided omni-directional UWP (as shown in Figure 1) based on treadmill as a locomotion interface to the VE to acquire spatial knowledge and thereby to structure spatial cognitive maps of an area. VE is used to provide spatial information to the VIP and prepare them for independent travel. The locomotion interface is used to simulate walking from one location to another location. The device is of a limited size that allows a user to walk on it and provide a sensation as if he is walking on an unconstrained plane. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the efficacy of the UWP for NSL which leads to enhancement of the mobility skills of VIP. The main research questions of this study are as follows:

1. Does VE exploration using UWP contribute to the construction of a cognitive map of the unknown space which enhances the mobility skill of VIP?

2. Does VE exploration using UWP contribute to communicate the spatial knowledge and thereby to localize the landmarks of the unknown space?

3. Does UWP provide overall satisfaction with natural walking, full immersion, enjoyment and secure way to walk?

These research questions lead to the following hypothesis, which were explored during the research study.

1. Participants can create cognitive maps of an area, localize the landmarks and there is significant improvement in navigation performance of the blind participants after getting training on our system. We hypothesized that participants have benefited by the training, i.e. post-training navigation performance of the participants is same as of pre-training navigation performance.

2. Users of all types of participants (i.e. blind-folded sighted and blind) performed object-localization task equally. This hypothesis will help us to determine whether type of blindness influences spatial learning or not.

3. Participants strongly agree that UWP provides overall satisfaction for spatial learning. UWP provides a possibility for the blind user to perform natural walking with full immersion and realism. The rationale for our expectations was that UWP may lead to complete perceptual and reduced memory processing that is likely to result in reduction in the demand on learning layouts without visual information. The remaining paper is structured as follows: Section

2 presents the review of related literature. Section 3 describes planning and procedure for experiments; Section

4 illustrates the results; while Section 5 concludes the paper and presents the limitations of device.

2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Spatial Learning

In recent years, a plethora of assistive navigation technologies have been designed to enhance and maintain the independence of the community of visually impaired. VE has been a popular paradigm in simulation-based training, game and entertainment industries ([3]). It has also been used for rehabilitation and learning environments for people with disabilities (e.g., physical, mental, and learning disabilities) ([17], [14]). Recent technological advances, particularly in haptic interface technology, enable blind individuals to expand their knowledge as a result of using artificially made reality through haptic and audio feedback. Research on the use of haptic devices by people who are blind for construction of cognitive maps includes ([16], [21]). The use of audio interface by VIP for construction of cognitive maps includes Audio-Tactile BATS ([18]); modeling audio-based virtual environments for children with visual disabilities ([11]). The use of audio-haptics interface by VIP for construction of cognitive maps includes haptics and vocal navigation software (Virtual Sea – for blind sailors [15]; Haptics Soundscapes team [13]). Although audio and haptic interface has been studied for NSL, nothing is known about the use of locomotion interface for supporting NSL. Locomotion Interface

Good number of devices has been developed over the last two decades to integrate locomotion interfaces with VE. We have categorized the most common VE locomotion approaches as follow:

• Treadmill-style interface ([1], [4], [10], [20]), • pedaling devices (such as bicycles or unicycles) ([5]), • walking-in-place devices ([12]), • the motion foot pad ([6]), • actuated shoes ([7]), • the string walker ([8]), and • Finger walking-in-place devices ([9]).

Generally, a locomotion interface should cancel the user’s self motion in a place to allow the user to go to anywhere in a large virtual space on foot. For example, a treadmill can cancel the user’s motion by moving its belt in the opposite direction. Its main advantage is that it does not require a user to wear any kind of devices as required in some other locomotion devices.

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3. PLANNING AND PROCEDURE FOR EXPERIMENT

The experiment was conducted to examine whether the participants were able to create cognitive maps of so-called survey-map type by exploring the VE, and to evaluate the practical effectiveness of this newly developed aid.

Participants

Fourteen volunteers recruited as test participants for this research. All participants were between the ages 17 and 35 and unknown about place, have self-reported normal spatial learning. They were divided in to two groups — bind-folded sighted (8 participants) and blind (five congenital blinds and one late blind) — learned to form the cognitive maps from a VE exploration.

Experimental Apparatus We developed UWP for VE exploration. The

mechanical structure of UWP is shown in Figure 2. It consists of a motor-less treadmill resting on a mechanical rotating base.

The experimental software is run on a laptop-based system with a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB RAM and a 15” monitor. It is developed in Java language using the JDK 1.5 API.

Figure 2: Mechanical structure of UWP

We developed computer-simulated virtual environment based on ground floor of our institute (as shown in Figure 3), which has three corridors and eight landmarks. It has one main entrance. The system lets the participant to form cognitive maps of unknown areas by exploring VE using UWP (as shown in Figure 1). It can be considered an application of “learning-by-exploring”

principle for acquisition of spatial knowledge and thereby formation of cognitive maps using VE. It guides the VIP through speech by describing surroundings, guiding directions, and giving early information of a turning, crossings, etc. Additionally, occurrences of various events (e.g. arrival of a junction, arrival of object(s) of interest, etc.) are signaled by sound through speakers or headphones.

Research Instruments

Nine main instruments served the study; the last five instruments were developed for the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. The research instruments were:

1. The Unknown Target Space - The space to be explored as a virtual space in the VE (see Figure 3). It is a 230-square-foot building with one entrance, eight landmarks and three corridors.

2. Exploration Task - Each participant was asked individually to explore the virtual building and to complete the given task. The task was repeated four times, taking maximum five minutes for each trial. The experimenters informed the subjects that they would be asked a) to describe the building and its components, b) to locate five landmarks as asked by the experimenter, and c) to perform target-object task at the end of their exploration.

3. Object-localization task – Participants were asked to locate particular five objects in a fifth trial of navigation (with in five minutes). In this trial participants were provided contextual help only. In case of confusion, participant may get help from system by paying penalty for it. Same way, in case of mistake made by participants, system warns them and provides help.

Figure 3: Screen shot of Computer-simulated

environments

4. Target-object Task - In the last trial, participants were asked to perform target-object task that is “to go to computer lab starting from main Entrance”. Participants were asked to perform this task using contextual help only. In case of confusion, participant may get help from system by paying penalty for it.

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Same way, in case of mistake made by participants, system warns them.

5. Questionnaire - The questionnaire comprised of 8 questions concerning the participants’ views and feedback about the UWP and system. The participants were given this questionnaire at the end of last trial.

6. Interview – The participants were asked to give verbal description of the unknown environment. Participants were asked about their experience and views about the study.

7. Observations - For recording the participant’s exploration, we used video camera of cell phone. Their navigation process and audio remarks in the VE were recorded during the tasks. The information from these recordings was combined with the computer log recording.

8. Computer Log - The log enabled the researcher to analyze users’ learning and exploration process in the VE, as regards to their distances traversed, duration taken, and breaks.

9. Evaluation Schemes - It served the researcher’s analysis of the participants’ mobility skills and their acquaintance process with the new space.

Procedure

All participants carried out the specified tasks and were observed individually. The study was carried out in five stages: (i) familiarization with the VE features and operation of the UWP; (ii) participants’ exploration of the unknown virtual space using the UWP; (iii) performing object-localization task (the participants were asked to locate five landmarks as asked by the experimenter); (iv) participants were asked to perform the Target-object task (the user were asked to go to particular landmark); (v) participants were asked to answer questionnaire and give a verbal description of the environment. In the last four stages, i.e. (ii) to (v), all participants’ performances were video-recorded.

In first stage, i.e. familiarization stage, participants spent a few minutes using the system in a simple virtual environment. The duration of such practice session was typically about 3 minutes. It helped the participants to familiarize themselves with the UWP and the system, before the trials began. The goal of this stage was not to give enough time to participants to achieve competence.

After the familiarization stage, the following three tasks were given to participants:

1. Exploration task: Participants were asked to explore the VE and to complete the given task. Each participant repeated the task four times, taking maximum five minutes for each trial. Participants navigated the virtual space using first mode of navigation, i.e. they were provided the contextual cues and system help both.

2.

3. Object-localization task The participants were asked to locate five landmarks as asked by the experimenter. This task took a maximum of five minutes. Participants navigated the virtual space using second mode of navigation, i.e. without system help. In case of confusion, participant may get help from system by paying penalty for it. Same way, in case of mistake made by participants, system warns them.

4. Target-object task. The participants were asked to complete

following task, i.e. “Go to the Computer Laboratory starting from Main Entrance”. The time allotted for this task was maximum 5 minutes. Participants navigated the virtual space using second mode of navigation, i.e. without system help. In case of confusion, participant may get help from system by paying penalty for it. Same way, in case of mistake made by participants, system warns them.

Statistical Analysis

The independent variables used for the analysis included (i) trial number, (ii) mode of virtual navigation, and (iii) the type of participants (blind-folded sighted and blind). The dependent variables were categorized into two categories:

(a) Number of objects located and identified correctly, and

(b) (i) time taken, (ii) number of times help taken, (iii) number of times help provided, and (iv) number of pauses taken to complete the task of traversing 350-feet length of specified route. A t-test was used to analyze the experimental data with a level of significance (α) taken as 0.05. The feedback from the participants was also analyzed using t-test.

4. RESULTS

Hypothesis 1:

Ho: The participants have not benefited by the training, i.e. post-training navigation performance of the participants is same as of pre-training navigation performance.

Ha: The participants have benefited by the training, i.e. there is significant difference in post-training navigation performance and pre-training navigation performance of the user.

We claimed that spatial learning with our system can greatly enhance the navigation performance and mobility skills of participants. The VE exploration using UWP contributes to the construction of a cognitive map of the unknown space which enhances the mobility skill of blind.

Significant improvements were found in the post-training trial as compare to the pre-training trial concerning the characteristics of the exploration process. These differences are related to three variables: the total

39




duration of the exploration, the number of times helps taken, the number of times helps provided and the number of pauses made while exploring the unknown space. Data in Table 1 show significant differences between the pre-training trial and the post-training trial in that participants during the pre-training trial took more number of helps and pauses during their exploration tasks. To analyze the statistical significance of post-training gains, the paired samples t-test was used.

Table 1. Pre-training / Post-training mean scores in spatial earning performance l

Variables Pre-training Post-training

P<0.05 Parti.

Mean SD Mean SD Time taken (in minutes)

2.91 0.43 1.91 0.21

Number of times help taken

6.88 0.64 1.87 0.52

Number of times help provided

7.38 0.52 1.75 0.46

BFS (8 in No.)

Number of times pauses

6.88 0.35 2.25 0.46

Time taken (in minutes)

3.07 0.39 2.17 0.12

Number of times help taken

6.83 0.75 1.83 0.41

Number of times help provided

7.00 0.63 1.33 0.52

BL (6 in No.)

Number of times pauses

6.50 0.55 2.00 0.52

Significant post-training difference was found (i) T7 = 5.95, p<0.05 and (ii) T5 = 5.32, p<0.05 for the factor of time taken to complete the task. Here calculated value is more than table value, so null hypothesis is rejected. We can say that the participants have benefited by the training, i.e. there is significant difference in post-training navigation performance and pre-training navigation performance of the user. It is possible to think that the UWP is the key factor for the improvement in the scores.

Hypothesis 2:

Ho: Participants of all types of participants performed object-localization task equally.

Ha: Performance for object-localization task is not same by all types of participants.

T able 2. Mean scores during object-localization task

BFS BL Mean 4.50 4.33 SD 0.75 0.81 N 8 6

The VE exploration using UWP contributes to

communicate the spatial knowledge equally to participants of all types of blindness and thereby they can locate the landmarks of the unknown space equally.

As per t-test, there is a 95% confidence level (5% significance level) that population mean will range between 3.90 (i.e., 4 landmarks) to 5.09 (i.e., 5 landmarks) for BFS and between 3.61 (i.e., 4 landmarks) to 5.05 (i.e., 5 landmarks) for BL.

The calculated value (T13=0.394, p<0.05) is less than table value, so it is possible to think that there is no significant difference between the BFS and the BL group concerning the characteristics of the landmark localization process. Irrespective of the type of participants, the system provided the same possibility for a user to recognize or localize the landmarks correctly.

Hypothesis 3: Ho: Participants strongly agree that UWP

provides overall satisfaction for non-visual spatial learning.

Ha: Participants strongly disagree that UWP provides overall satisfaction for non-visual spatial learning.

Figure 4: Participants feedback

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As per t-test, there is a 95% confidence level (5% significance level) that population mean will range between 4.22 (i.e., 4 rank of agree) to 5.03 (i.e., 5 rank of strongly agree) for BFS and between 4.44 (i.e., 4 rank of agree) to 5.22 (i.e., 5 rank of agree) for BL.

The calculated t-value is less than table value, so it is possible to think that the all participants strongly agree that UWP provides overall satisfaction for NSL. The result proved that our novel UWP is effective for NSL by VIP to perform natural walking with full immersion and realism.

General comments and feedback:

The kind of general comments and feedback received from the participants is given below:

“The virtual movements did not become natural until 3-4 trials”.

“The exploration got easier progressively each time”.

“I found it somewhat difficult to explore. As I explored, I got better”.

Although there was a general satisfaction among the participants, there were some comments indicating a scope for further improvements in the device. Such comments are given below:

“I had difficulty making immediate turns in the virtual environment”.

“Virtual walking through keyboard needs more efforts than real walking”.

5. CONCLUSION

We have integrated the novel treadmill-style locomotion interface - unconstrained walking plane (UWP) - with virtual environment (VE) to enable non-visual spatial learning (NSL). UWP allows user to navigate in VE as they walk on the device. The motivation to use UWP was driven by its potential to provide near-natural feeling of real walking leading to NSL and effective development of cognitive maps for unknown locations. Results reveal that the participants have benefited by the training, i.e. there were significant improvements in post-training navigation performance of the participants.

The experimental results and participants’ feedback have conclusively indicated that the UWP is very effective for independent NSL and thereby enhancement of mobility skills of VIP. Its simplicity of design coupled with supervised multi-modal training facility makes it an effective device for virtual walking simulation and thereby for NSL. The results match with our expectations that UWP would result in complete perceptual and reduced memory processing that considerably reduces demand on learning spatial layouts without visual information. One known limitation of our device is its inability to simulate movements on slopes and highly zigzag paths

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study is supported in part by the Education Directorate, Computer Society of India. Special thank to my students and colleagues for their support during experimental study.

REFERENCES

[1] A. De Luca, R. Mattone, and P. R. Giordano. Acceleration-level control of the CyberCarpet. Proc. Of 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Roma, I, pp. 2330-2335, 2007.

[2] D. Clark-Carter, A. Heyes and C. Howarth. The effect of non-visual preview upon the walking speed of visually impaired people. Ergonomics, 29 (12), pp.1575–81, 1986.

[3] G. Burdea and P. Coiffet. Virtual Reality Technology. John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, USA, 2003.

[4] H. Iwata and Y. Yoshida. Path Reproduction Tests Using a Torus Treadmill. PRESENCE, 8(6), 587-597, 1999.

[5] H. Iwata and T. Fuji. Virtual Preambulator: A Novel Interface Device for Locomotion in Virtual Environment. Proc. of IEEE VRAIS’96, pp. 60-65, 1996.

[6] H. Iwata, H. Yano, H. Fukushima, and H. Noma. CirculaFloor, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Vol.25, No.1. pp. 64-67, 2005.

[7] H. Iwata, H. Yano, and H. Tomioka. Powered Shoes, SIGGRAPH 2006 Conference DVD, 2006.

[8] H. Iwata, H. Yano, and M. Tomiyoshi. String walker. Paper presented at SIGGRAPH 2007, 2007.

[9] J. Kim, D. Gracanin, K. Matkovi, and F. Quek. Finger Walking in Place (FWIP): a Traveling Technique in Virtual Environments. Proc. of SmartGraphics 2008, Springer LNCS 5166/2008, 2008.

[10] J. M. Hollerbach, Y. Xu, R. Christensen, and S. C. Jacobsen. Design specifications for the second generation Sarcos Treadport locomotion interface. Haptics Symposium, Proc. ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division, DSC- Vol. 69-2, Orlando, Nov. 5-10, 2000, pp. 1293-1298, 2000.

[11] J. Sanchez and N. Baloian. Modelling Audio-based Virtual Environments for Children with Visual Disabilities. Proc. of the ED-Media Conference 2005, Montréal, Canada, AACE press, pp. 1652-1659, 2005.

[12] L. Sibert, J. Templeman, R. Page, J. Barron, J. McCune, and P. Denbrook. Initial Assessment of Human Performance Using the Gaiter Interaction Technique to Control Locomotion in Fully Immersive Virtual Environments. (Technical Report) Washington, D.C: Naval Research Laboratory, 2004.

[13] M. Rice, R. Jacobson, G. Golledge, and D. Jones. Design Considerations for Haptic and Auditory Map Interfaces. Cartography and Geographic

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Information Science, Volume 32, Number 4, October 2005, pp. 381-391(11), 2005.

[14] M. Schultheis and A. Rizzo. The application of virtual reality technology for rehabilitation, Rehabilitation Psychology, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 296–311, 2001.

[15] M. Simonnet, J.-Y. Guinard, and J. Tisseau. Preliminary work for vocal and haptic navigation software for blind sailors. International Journal of Disability and Human Development. 52 (2), pp. 61-67, 2006.

[16] O. Lahav and D. Mioduser. A blind person's cognitive mapping of new spaces using a haptic virtual environment. Journal of Research in Special Education Needs. Vol.3, No.3. pp. 172-177, 2003.

[17] P. J. Standen, D. J. Brown, and J. J. Cromby. The effective use of virtual environments in the education and rehabilitation of students with

intellectual disabilities, British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 289–299, 2001.

[18] P. Parente and G. Bishop. BATS: The Blind Audio Tactile Mapping System. In 41st Annual ACM Southeast Conference (ACMSE 2003), Savannah, Georgia, 2003.

[19] R. A. Earnshaw, M. A. Gigante, and H. Jones. (Eds.). Virtual Reality Systems. Academic Press, New York, pp. 143-159, 1993.

[20] R. P. Darken, W. R. Cockayne, and D. Carmein. The Omni-Directional Treadmill: A Locomotion Device for Virtual Worlds. Proc. of UIST’97, pp. 213-221, 1997.

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Reliable Job Scheduler using RFOH in Grid Computing

Leyli Mohammad Khanli Dept. of Computer Science, Tabriz University Tabriz, Iran

[email protected]

Maryam Etminan Far Dept. of Computer Engineering, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University Tabriz, Iran

[email protected]

Ali Ghaffari Dept. of Computer Engineering, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University Tabriz, Iran

H TU [email protected]

ABSTRACT Distributed and dynamic nature of Grids causes the probability of failure is great in such systems. So fault tolerance has become a crucial area in computational Grid. In this paper, we propose a new Genetic Algorithm that used RFOH for having reliable job scheduling in computational Grid. This strategy maintains the fault occurrence history of resources in Grid Information Server (GIS). Genetic Algorithm with RFOH finds a near optimal solution for the problem. Furthermore, it increases the percentage of jobs executed within specified deadline. The simulation results demonstrate that proposed strategy decreases the probability of failure and therefore increases reliability. Also it reduces total execution time of jobs. So we will have a combination of reliability and user satisfaction.

Keywords: Grid Computing; Reliability; RFOH; Job Scheduling; Genetic Algorithm; Fault Tolerance

1. INTRODUCTION Computer scientists in the mid-1990s began

exploring the design and development of an analogous infrastructure called the computational power Grid [1, 2]. A Grid is a type of parallel and distributed system that enables the sharing, selection, and aggregation of geographically distributed autonomous and heterogeneous resources dynamically at runtime, depending on their availability, capability, performance, cost, and users' quality-of-service requirements [3]. Resources can be computers, memories, instruments (such as telescope), software applications, and data that all are connected through the Internet.

In Grid environments, there are many jobs to schedule for parallel execution on this system. Since that scheduling problem is a NP-Hard problem, we can use evolutionary algorithms to solve it. Among these algorithms, genetic Algorithm (GA) is more usual which is used in this paper. GA is a global search technique, which maintains a pool of potential solutions called Chromosome [4]. The GA produces new solutions through combining the good features of existing solutions randomly. In this algorithm, there is an operation named Crossover operation for global searches through the solution space by randomly exchanging portions of two chromosomes. Another important local search operator is Mutation, which works by randomly changing one of the genes in a chromosome. The whole process is repeated number of times, called generations or iterations.

Typically, the probability of a failure is higher in the grid computing than in a traditional parallel computing [5, 6] and the failure of resources affects job execution fatally. Therefore, a fault tolerance service is essential in

computational grids [5]. One of important goals in distributed systems such as Grid is to construct the system in such a way that it can automatically recover from error without serious decreasing of system performance.

For having reliable and thereupon fault tolerant job scheduling in the Grid, we propose a new strategy. In this strategy, Resource Fault Occurrence History (RFOH) information is used in GA. Hence this causes achieving a suitable solution for scheduling problem, which has reliability too. The reason is that we try to reduce the selection probability of resources with more fault occurrence history.

Rest of paper is organized as following: Section 2 contains the description of the related work. In section 3, proposed strategy is described. Section 4 discusses the simulation results and finally Section 5 concludes the paper.

2. RELATED WORK The probability of a failure in large-scale Grids is

much greater than traditional parallel systems [5, 6]. Thus, Grid system should be able to identify and manage faults and support reliable execution of jobs. Grid System failure handling techniques are classified as task-level and workflow-level [7]. Task-level techniques mask the effects of the execution failure of tasks in the Grid system, while workflow-level techniques manipulate the system structure such as execution flow to deal with erroneous conditions. Checkpoint technique is one of the task-level techniques. This technique moves failed tasks transparently to other resources, so that the task can continue its execution from the point of failure [8].

In [8] with using GA, a solution was proposed for allocating jobs to resources by Grid scheduler. Also for

43






having fault tolerant job scheduling, Checkpoint technique was used. But RFOH information wasn’t considered as what we used in our strategy.

In [6] the history of the fault occurrence of resource is maintained in GIS. Whenever a resource broker has a job to schedule it uses this information from GIS and depending on this information, it uses different intensity of Check pointing considering that resources have different tendency towards fault. In that way, only quality of Check pointing is discussed and there is no attention to the type of scheduling. But, we used this information in other format within GA for having reliable and thereupon fault tolerant job scheduler.

In this paper, we use RFOH information in GA. doing this; we can reduce the selection probability of the resources with more fault occurrence history. Therefore we have a reliable scheduling and kind of fault tolerance. Further we could have user satisfaction in job scheduling, too. Hence we have a combination of reliability and user satisfaction.

3. OUR NEW APPROACH

According to Fig. 1, our proposed strategy consists of three components: (a) Fault Detector, (b) RFOH Storage, and (c) Job Scheduler. Each of these components is explained at following.

Figure 1. An overview of our new scheduler components

A. Fault Detector Fault detection on the resources is done by the

resource broker. After job allocation to the resource, the resource broker should receive a response of job execution from it within a certain time interval. If in this time interval, the resource broker could not get any response, it realizes that a fault occurred on that resource. Then in next step it sends the information about that fault to GIS. Mentioned time interval is a function of resource speed, communication latency, and queue length of the resource.

B. RFOH storage For having a reliable job scheduler, we use

RFOH in GA. This causes to reduce the selection probability of resources with more fault occurrence history. To store RFOH, GIS maintains the history of the fault occurred in resources in a table called Fault Occurrence History Table (FOHT) [9]. FOHT has two columns. First column presents the history of fault occurred in the resources and second column keeps the number of job execution by resources. So the number of rows and the number of resources are equal. According to [9], FOHT is updated when:

1) The resource is unable to execute the given job in the specified deadline. Then fault index of this resource (first cell) is incremented by 1.

2) A job is allocated to the resource. Then number of job execution by this resource (second cell) is incremented by 1.

Therefore FOHT is updated with the following equation for ith resource [9].

(1)

Fig. 2 presents a part of FOHT in a given time. For example, this figure indicates the number of job execution by R1 is 6700 but at ten times of these executions, fault occurred.

Figure 2. A part of FOHT in a given time

C. Job scheduler We assumed that there are n jobs such J1, J2, …,

Jn and we want to allocate them to m resources such R1, R2, …, Rm. Such scheduling problem is a NP-Hard problem. So we use Genetic Algorithm to solve it. As mentioned before, for having reliable and fault tolerant job scheduling, we use RFOH in this algorithm. According to Fig. 3, this method has 5 steps which work as mentioned below:

2 1

6700 10 R1

100 5 R2

123 0 R3

120 8 R4

25 3 R5

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

A) Fault Detector

FOHT

Resource Broker Resources

C) Job Scheduler

User 2 User n

…

… User 1

⎩⎨⎧

++

=resource i toallocation job With: 1 [i,2] FOHT

resource iin occurencefault With : 1[i,1] FOHT [i] FOHT

th

th

44




Figure 3. The steps of our proposed strategy

1) Population initialization: At first we generate an

initial population of chromosomes randomly. With regards to Fig. 4, each chromosome represents a possible solution, which is a mapping sequence between jobs and resources. In this method the length of chromosomes and the number of jobs in Grid are equal.

According to Fig. 4, The J1, J2, and J3 jobs are executed by R6, R1, R3 resources respectively.

… R3 R1 R6

… J3 J2 J1

Figure 4. Representation of a part of a chromosome

2) Chromosome evaluation: Each chromosome must evaluate to specify its fitness value. This is implemented with fitness function which is defined based on below parameters.

a) Users Satisfaction: We assume that the considered parameter of user is the response time of job execution. So the fitness function is defined as below:

∑=

=n

iti

Rf1

1 (2)

In (2) iis Response Time of execution of itR th job

at one chromosome. According to this equation a chromosome with proper resources for job executing - that have less execution time – will have less fitness value in the population. So in this population whatever the fitness value of a chromosome becomes lesser than others, it will be a best solution for our problem.

b) Reliability: As we mentioned, for having a reliable job scheduler, we use RFOH in our strategy. By using RFOH information, the resources with more tendencies to failure will have less probability to select. So we can define the fitness function as below:

(3) )100]2,[]1,[

12 ×

=

n

i iFOHTiFOHT

According to (3), we must calculate the sum of

percentage of RFOH to total number of job execution proportion for each selective resource with using FOHT. Hence, a chromosome with great fault occurrence probability will have great fitness value in the population. Therefore we attempt to minimize fitness value of chromosomes. This causes the reduction of selection probability of resources which are more tendencies to failure.

Now by combining (2) and (3), we can introduce a fitness function for chromosome evaluating as below:

∑∑==

×+=n

i

n

it iFOHT

iFOHTRfi

11)100

]2,[]1,[( (4)

This equation shows that if the resources within a chromosome have less total response time for executing each job and less fault occurrence history, that chromosome will have a less fitness value. Considering that we attempt to minimize fitness value in the population, such chromosome will have great probability for selection as a solution.

3) Implement Crossover and Mutation operators: After evaluating chromosome for finding proper solution, we use Crossover and Mutation operators. There are various types of Crossover and Mutation operators. In this strategy, we used Two Points Crossover and a kind of Uniform Mutation. Two points Crossover operator selects a random pair of chromosomes and exchanges a random part of those. Our Mutation operator randomly selects a chromosome, and then randomly selects a job within the chromosome, and - according to first column of FOHT - if its resource has more than one fault occurrence history, reassigns it to a new resource randomly.

4) Replacement: After Crossover and Mutation performed, we replace offsprings with their parent chromosomes in the population.

5) So far, one iteration of algorithm is done. This algorithm stops when a predefined number of evolutions are reached, or all chromosomes converge to the same mapping, or no improvement in recent evaluations, or a cost bound is met [9].

Finally after stopping the algorithm, the chromosome with less fitness value is selected as a problem solution.

(= ∑f

45




4. SIMULATION RESULTS In this section, we evaluate our proposed strategy

in two steps. In both steps, we have used Matlab toolbox for Genetic Algorithms as a simulator that named “gatool”. The simulation parameters and settings are listed in Table1.

Table1. Simulation parameters and settings

Number of jobs 120

Job types (40 jobs in each group)

Short: 1-10 instructions Middle: 45-55 instructions Long: 90-100 instructions

Number of resources 120

Resource types (24 nodes in each group )

Very Slow, with 1MFlops Slow, with 10MFlops Middle, with 50MFlops Fast, with 90MFlops Very Fast, with 100MFlops

Resource failure rates

Very Faulty: 90%-100% fault occurrence Faulty: 45%-55% fault occurrence Safe: 0%-10% fault occurrence

Having 120 jobs for executing, with regards to

Fig. 4, the general schema of chromosomes is as Fig. 5. According to step 1 in section B of part III, first a random population is generated. Then in step 2, each chromosome is evaluated according to (4). We can create FOHT and also calculate total execution time of each chromosome with attention to Table 1 settings. After that, in step 3 Crossover and Mutation operators are used in population and offsprings is replaced with their parents in step 4 and then step 2 is resumed. After the number of iterations, one of introduced conditions in step 5 will occur and cause to stop algorithm. In this time, a chromosome with lesser fitness value can be a near best solution for our problem.

Rk …. Rj Ri

J120 … J2 J1

Figure 5. General schema of chromosomes in our example

D. Evaluation of total execution time Simulation results illustrate that our proposed

strategy can select proper resources for job executing with less execution time. For performance evaluation, we compared our new algorithm with the algorithm which never uses RFOH information. Fig. 6 represents that if during execution the fault doesn’t occur, the total execution time with our new strategy is less than total execution time without RFOH information. So the performance of GA with RFOH is better than simple GA in the case of total execution time.

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

Number of Nodes

Exec

utio

n Ti

me

with

out F

ailu

re (m

s)

with attention to RFOH

without attention to RFOH

Figure 6. Total execution time comparison by varying

number of resources

E. Evaluation of fault tolerance and reliability According to fig. 7, our new strategy causes to

reduce the probability percentage of fault occurrence in the selective resources for executing jobs. This figure shows that without RFOH information the probability of faulty resources selection is great. Furthermore, this probability reduces with decreasing the number of resources. But with our strategy it decreases.

Also fig. 8 represents that in simple GA without attention to RFOH information, the reliability decreases. But usage our new strategy increase the reliability. Therefore we have a rather reliable selection because the resources with more fault occurrence history weren’t selected.

We must notice that despite if a resource has a kind of reliability, but it is a slow machine it is not suitable. So it isn’t selected to execute one of our jobs. This shows that we can have a combination of user satisfaction and reliability.

0 20 40 60 80 100 12020

30

40

50

60

70

80

Number of Nodes

Failu

re P

roba

bilit

y Pe

rcen

tage



Figure 7. Failure probability percentage comparison by

varying number of resources

46




47

0 20 40 60 80 100 1200.005

0.01

0.015

0.02

0.025

0.03

0.035

Number of Nodes

Rel

iabi

lity

Perc

enta

ge



Figure 8. Reliability percentage comparison by varying

number of resources

5. CONCLUSION

In Grid environments, task execution failures can occur for various reasons. In this paper we presented a new GA for reliable job scheduling in the Grid. This algorithm uses RFOH information which is maintained in FOHT. The using of this information causes the reduction of selecting chance of the resources which have more failure probability. Simulation results indicate that our proposed strategy decreases total time of job executing.

REFERENCES

[1] I. Foster, C. Kesselman, and S. Tueke, “The anatomy of the grid: Enabling scalable virtual organizations,” Supercomputing Applications, 2001.

[2] Foster and C. Kesselman, “The Grid Blueprint for a Future Computing Infrastructure,” San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 1999.

[3] M. Baker, R. Buyya and D. Laforenza , “Grids and Grid Technologies for Wide-area Distributed Computing,” Software-Practice & Experience, Vol. 32, No.15, 2002, pp: 1437-1466.

[4] A.Y. Zomaya, R.C. Lee, and S. Olariu , “An Introduction to Genetic-Based Scheduling in Parallel-Processor Systems,” Solutions to Parallel and Distributed Computing Problems: Lessons from Biological Science, A.Y. Zomaya, F. Ercal, and S. Olariu, eds., New York: Wiley, 2001, chapter 5, pp. 111-133.

[5] HwaMin Lee, KwangSik Chung, SungHo Chin, JongHyuk Lee, DaeWon Lee, 2005 ,"A resource management and fault tolerance services in grid computing", Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, Vol. 65, pp. 1305-1317.

[6] Babar Nazir, Taimoor Khan, “Fault Tolerant Job Scheduling in Computational Grid,” 2nd International Conference on Emerging Technologies Peshawar, Pakistan (IEEE—ICET), 2006 .

[7] S. Hwang and C. Kesselman. “Grid Workflow: A Flexible Failure Handling Framework for the Grid,” In 12th IEEE International Symposium on High Performance Distributed Computing (HPDC’03), Seattle, Washington, USA, IEEE CS Press, Los Alamitos, CA, USA, June 22 - 24, 2003.

[8] S. Baghavathi Priya, M. Prakash, Dr. K. K. Dhwan, “Fault Tolerance-Genetic Algorithm for Grid Task Scheduling using Check Point,” The Sixth International Conference on Grid and Cooperative Computing (GCC), 2007.

[9] Leyli Mohammad Khanli, Maryam Etminan Far, and Amir Masoud Rahmani, “RFOH: a New Fault Tolerant Job Scheduler in Grid Computing”, The 2nd International Conference on Computer Engineering and Applications (ICCEA), Bali Island, Indonesia, March 19-21, 2010.




RELEVANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

R. N. Mishra 1, C.Mishra 2

1Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Mizoram University, Aizwal, Mizoram,

E-mail: [email protected]

2Library Trainee, Library and Information Centre, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikhode, Kerala E-Mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Information Literacy (IL) along with information and communication technology has become significant in library environment. Information literacy in library services is required not only to optimize the use of library resources in teaching, learning and research but also train the users to make them aware about information sources and access authentic information from vast array of electronic information sources, etc. Librarians have to impart skills on web searching techniques, evaluation and establishing authenticity and reliability of information retrieved from internet domain to the users The paper focuses some of the major areas for the relevance of information literacy in contemporary library and information services. Methodology followed for the study is based on the documents available library including on internet. Library professionals need to be aware of using the skills involved in acquiring e-resources from a wide range of information resources including organization and proper dissemination to the users. Further, they require creating awareness among the users about the adaptability of new technologies, capability of information building etc. 1. INTRODUCTION

Librarianship in the present digital age is not restrained to the documents rather; the profession has now amalgamated to multifarious subfields. Advancement of technologies and its application in library services, multifarious, multidimensional needs of the users due to inter-disciplinary research are some of the factors which are responsible for the librarian to accept and adapt to the changing situations causing thereby, change in library profession. In the developing scenario, the dimension of the profession has been extended to content developer, knowledge creator, content manager, etc. Information literacy happens to be one of the important sub-fields of librarianship that has now been recognized as an independent and indispensable field of librarianship. Librarians justify information literacy as increasing democratic participation by all users. Christine Bruce 1 has traced the use of the term information literacy back to the late 1960s and relates it to early developments in computer-based information technology, but it was not until 1980s that was used widely. Information Literacy in the age of multiple technological appliances in the field of libraries and information centers opened avenues for the researchers to obtain vast array of filtered information in their concerned subject from Internet domain. Information Literacy is defined as the skill to know the need of information including its identification, location so as to serve the users in an effectual way. Due to the availability of mammoth of literature in a versatile subject fields, it becomes essential to analyze the quality of information which can be used by the users for academic purpose. According to Maughan [2] the primary issues relating to information literacy are:

• Strong commitment from the institution/ organization;

• Strong obligation from the library administration; • Proficiency in teaching, technology, and

assessment among library staff; • Faculty who will partner with librarians and other

information-handling professionals.

2. SIGNIFICANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY

Information Literacy is a transformational process where the learner needs to find, understand, evaluate, and use information in various forms to create for personal, social or global purposes. Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize the information with the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively. Gilton[3] expressed Information literacy cannot be equated with computer literacy as it requires a technological know-how to manipulation of both computer hardware and software or library literacy which in turn requires the ability to use a library's collection and its services, although there is a strong relationship among all these concepts. Each of the literacy requires some level of critical thinking. But compared with computer literacy, information literacy goes beyond merely having access to and knowledge of how to use the technology because technology alone does not guarantee quality learning experiences. Compared with library literacy, information literacy is more than searching through an online catalog or other reference materials because information literacy is not a technique rather it is a goal oriented skill for learners. However, Shapiro & Shelly [4] have defined Information literacy as a new liberal art that extends from knowing how to use

48






computers and access information to critical reflection on the nature of information itself its technical infrastructure and its social cultural and philosophical context and impact. Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning which is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. According to Doyle [5], information literate person in 21st century need to:

• Recognize the need for information ; • Locate required information ; • Formulate questions based on information needs; • Identify potential sources of information ; • Develop successful search strategies; • Access sources of information including

computer-based and other technologies • Evaluate information no matter what the source ; • Organize information for practical application; • Integrate new information into an existing body

of knowledge ; • Use information in critical thinking and problem

solving ; and

• Use information ethically and legally. The information literacy can be defined in terms of a set of competencies where an informed citizen of a society ought to possess for participating intelligently and actively in the society. The American Library Association's (ALA) Presidential Committee on Information Literacy in its final report has stated that, to be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information [6]. Shapiro-et al. [7] have defined information literacy as a new liberal art that extends knowing the technique of using computers and access information. Information Literacy encompasses to various terminologies having their own semantic content in addition to differences characterized by the type of skills, level, categories of learning, and instructional facilitating methods. Different concepts of Information Literacy have been evolved from library instructions and information skills-focused programs. The corresponding terms of information literacy [8] have been explained below in Table-1.

Table-1: Analogous terms of Information Literacy

Information Fluency It concerns with capability or mastering of information competencies

User Education It is a global approach to teach information access to users communities

Library Instructions It focuses on library, technical and technological skills Bibliographic Instructions It relates to user training on information search and retrieval Information Competencies It connotes to skills and goals on information Information Skills It focuses on ability to acquire information User Orientation It relates to make aware the users about use of technology

3. LITERACY TO INFORMATION LITERACY: A PARADIGM SHIFT Literacy denotes to communication through notation. Notational techniques can be used for both explicit and tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge has some limitations which recognize the character of scientific procedures but, the explicit knowledge is available in a recorded form in various ways such as documentary, non-documentary, electronic form. This offers a positive budding value creation for its reliability. The pool of knowledge acquired from the library scientists in various forms in diverse sources including Internet requires reaching to the user communities. So, it becomes primary concern for the librarian to scan, filter and disseminate the users in the right time. The application of ICT and its application in the libraries have not only drastically changed the concept of literacy but also the acquisition of knowledge in the libraries and information centers gained momentum. Hence, there is a tremendous influence of ICT in the libraries which lead to information literacy. In a digital environment, it has become indispensable for the information manager, librarians etc. to empower user for

getting right information at the right time in a right way so that the users can apply for lifelong capability building. 4. POTENTIALITY OF INFORMATION LITERACY Information Technology has brought drastic changes in the field of acquisition, organization, management and dissemination of information. The technological changes with tools have created a positive threat to adapt to the changing situation. Further, the users are also unable to cope-up with these modern technologies. The uncertain quality and expanding quantity of information pose major challenges and threats for the society. The recognition of rapid technological changes together with proliferation of information sources has initiated the shifting of instructions from library to information literacy. The users are not able to make out their information choice for pursuing academic studies due to escalating complexity of digital environment. Increasingly as information comes to users in unfiltered formats, the users raise questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability. Further, information is available through multiple medias, including graphical, acoustic, and textual, and these posed a new challenges for the users

49




to evaluate and understand. Therefore, a competency standard for higher education as follows has been developed by ACRL[9]. Following are some of the important components which precipitated to the development of information literacy.

• Information Explosion • Advent of information and communication

technologies(ICTs) • Divergent and vast varieties of information sources • Wide dispersal of information • Birth of new discipline with new demands • Unawareness of users to new technologies • Lack of information capability building

• Technological changes • Participate citizenship • Creation of new knowledge • User empowerment

5. DIMENTIONS OF INFORMATION LITERACY Information Literacy is a comprehensive and never ending life long process. It has a wide range of fields which can be summarized as follows. Table-2 supplemented with Fig.1 below clearly depicts a schematic view of the different dimensions of information literacy.

Table-2: Schematic view of the different dimensions of information literacy.

Media Literacy It is the ability to comprehend and create images in variety of media in order to communicate effectively.

Network Literacy It the ability to properly manage, connect and organize to assess, evaluate and get information in a right way.

Web Literacy It a subset of information literacy requires the ability to access, search, utilize, communicate and create information on the world wide web (WWW).

Digital Literacy It refers an ability to assess, collect, organize, evaluate and use of digital Resources and services in an effective way.

Scientific Literacy Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes which are required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity.

Visual Literacy Visual literacy is the ability to understand and use images. This includes thinking, learning, and expressing oneself in terms of image. Photographs, cartoons, line drawings, diagrams, concept maps, and other visual representations are all important in visual literacy.

Critical literacy It is the ability to evaluate critically the human, intellectual and social strengths, benefits and costs of Information Technology.

Fig 1: Schematic view of dimensions of Information Literacy The other dimensions related to information literacy are, (i) Library Orientation, (ii) Bibliographic

Instruction, (iii) User Education, and (iv) Training on Information Skill. While, the library orientation

50




concentrates on using a library and its sections including location of resources, bibliographic instruction emphasizes to find out documents in the library. The user education is related with the mechanics involved for using particular resources. Training on Information skill is related with the phenomena associated with the use of technology to retrieve information in the library.

Information literacy relates to both cognitive and transferable skills, such as problem solving, evaluation and communication skills. The four different strategies of information literacy [10] placed in Table- 3 can be visualized in different angles with regard to users.

Table-3: Strategies of information literacy

Information Literacy Student Skills and Strategies Student outcome Curriculum and Teaching Design

IL is a problem-solving process for the users as the user is required to submit his requirements, information need. He is required to explore information by way of proper planning about the probable location of relevant information. In the process, he can self evaluate the processing and searching of information.

IL enhances the skill of generating presumptions, analyzing the problems while searching the required information from vast array of information sources. IL further develops the confidence of analyzing the constraints associated with retrieval of right, authentic information and generate creativity ideas to solve new emerging problems.

The student being one of the primary learners of IL builds self-reliance, independent and self-motivated.

IL has a positive brunt on the teaching faculties while designing need based curriculum. The teaching faculties develop the capability to retrieve the filtered information, and putting of innovative ideas.

6. GLOBAL SCENARIO ON INFORMATION LITERACY Information literacy scenario has become a global challenge. Many professional organizations and associations have taken this as a challenging task including the Librarians and Information Scientists. Following are some of the global platforms where information literacy has gained momentum in the digital environment.

The Community Services Group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals[11] has a sub group called the Information Literacy Group. The Information Literacy Group aims to provide a forum across the UK for all sectors of the profession, which encourages debate and allows the exchange of knowledge

in all aspects of information literacy. The Society of College, National and University

Libraries (SCONUL)[12] has a Working Group on Information Literacy, whose remit is to take a lead role in the development of theory and practice in relation to information literacy (IL) and its role in the process of learning in further and higher education within the UK.

The Higher Education Academy Information and Computing Sciences (HEA ICS) [13],UK subject centre is keen to support both academics and practitioners in developing students IT and information literacy skills. The HEA ICS runs a couple of workshops a year on information literacy.

The American Library Association (ALA) [14] supports the American Association of School

Librarians (AASL) and the American Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) in the development of information literacy materials.

Australian and New Zealand libraries have created the Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy (ANZIIL) [15]. ANZIIL supports organizations, institutions and individuals in the promotion of information literacy and, in particular, the embedding of information literacy within the total educational process. The Institute identifies, facilitates, fosters and supports best practice in information literacy through: Professional Development; Promotion, Marketing and Advocacy; Research.

Information literacy interest group of Canadian Library Association [16] has also put major concern on information literacy.

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) [17] have developed a Information Literacy Section the primary purpose of the Information Literacy Section is to foster international cooperation in the development of information skills education in all types of libraries.

The High-Level Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on 6-9 November 2005 developed the Alexandria Proclamation on information literacy and lifelong learning [18]. It declares that “Information Literacy and lifelong learning are the beacons of the Information Society, illuminating the courses to development, prosperity and freedom."

51




7. CHALLENGING ROLE OF LIBRAN The Librarian plays a significant role in promoting and inculcating information literacy skills in electronic era. Dynamic and quality information is the growing demands in the present set of environment. Due to technological impediments the Librarians require sound knowledge in collection, organization, management of knowledge and disseminate according to the demands of the user. As users are quite unaware of the source of information, the Librarians need to play an indispensable role in providing the right direction for obtaining the information. Further, to bridge the gap between the Librarian and the users, it requires getting the users acquainted with new technological innovations along with computer knowledge, skills and subject knowledge. The Librarian having technically qualified with sound knowledge over the technologies supplemented with innovative mind is the need of the hour to make information literacy successful. Libraries can be provide multiple access points to electronic and print information and need to offer pertinent training programme to help users to gain necessary information skills. It can be effective resources for information access and assist people in learning important information handling skills. Librarians are competent in collecting, organizing, evaluating and providing access to information in all formats. He has an active role in the electronic information environment as an educator, trainer, collaborator, manager, leader, and advocate. A suitable partnership should be developed among teachers and faculty on all levels of education to bring about curriculum reconstruction and dynamic learning. So its indeed an opportune time for librarians to establish themselves as leaders in preparing students for the information age, helping user to find new and improved methods of teaching curriculum construction and will becoming a leader , educator and trainer; in the arena of the information globalization. Regarding integration of information literacy in academic curriculum, role of the librarian is most significant in the teaching learning environment by including appropriate criteria for outcome measurements regarding information literacy. New technology has posed a challenge as well as opportunity among the information literates to gain, access the electronic information and to become information literate. Hence a new opportunity for the librarian rests on to demonstrate their expertise in judicious information collection, management and dissemination to the right users. Librarians requires to share their expertise, expression, skills, knowledge, working styles and techniques among the users community to impart optimum information services to empower the user in electronic era. Hence by the promotion of information literacy among information community librarian will have to test the result of challenge and opportunity to show himself as learner, trainer, teachers, collaborators, knowledge manager and marketer, planner, contents expert and coordinator to develop citizens for lifelong learner in e-learning age. Last but not the least a most prominent

leadership role among the librarians is to bridge the gap between information rich and information poor people to make a equalize balance among information rich and poor in the information literacy age. A schematic view of the information literacy showing the proficiencies required to be build by the librarian has been depicted in Fig. 2. To gain impetus of information literacy among the users, the following activities are required to be undertaken by the librarian. • Act as information user before information

disseminator; • Direct participation with faculty, staffs and

community members; • Proving orientation skills on sources of

information and its uses; • Organization of Seminars and workshops; • Participation in classroom teaching on search

strategies and techniques on information collection, dissemination;

• Develop collaboration among all; • Removing gap between user and librarian; • Accept as educator for knowledge dissemination; • Expand professional horizons among the users; • Encouraging students for discussion methods; • Build a new paradigms and frames of analysis

among the user; • Active participation in curriculum design; • Showing directions of resource availability and

use; • Maintaining liaison between students and faculty

; and • Actively participate in user empowerment

programme. In order to perform the role as information literacy librarian several mediums and techniques are available before the librarian to promote the goal of information literacy among the user. The techniques like User Orientation, Online Interaction, Virtual Reference Desk (VRD), Chat Reference, conducting workshops, Search Strategies, Classroom Teaching and designed course contents, Institute Portal, Conducting Information Literacy workshops etc are some of the important means to promote information literacy among the learning communities. Among all information literacy blog is going to be an important toll among the librarians to empower the user in this information literacy age. The current challenges to libraries are attracting greater support, raising the value of information literacy, and blurring the edges of the faculty/librarian divide. The focal attention of the librarians needs to be given us of the librarian-faculty dialogue requires moving from what the library owns to how the library can contribute to student learning. Maughan [19] mentioned one-to-one, librarian-to-faculty partnerships, computer instructional centers, campus curriculum committees, and faculty senate committees. In the light of above discussions, iinformation literacy implies several skills which are otherwise known as competencies that are required to be information literate.

52




8. SUGGESTION TO ACHIEVE INFORMATION LITERACY ICT environment requires to be realized right from the school level and more emphasis needs to be given in college and university levels. University library being the highest body in academic purview require shouldering the responsibilities for proper information

dissemination to the literate mass constituting faculties, research scholars, students etc. Further, the library and information centers also require providing information training to the institutions so as to focus more on research and development. Eventually these institutions will concentrate more on problem-solving approaches and specialized areas and will not have to spend their resources on just routine training.

Fig 2: Schematic view of role of Information Literacy Librarian To achieve information literacy successfully, the following suggestions can be taken care of.

Universal education aimed at a 100 percent literate population;

Quality education, through schools having well-stocked, active libraries equipped with ICT;

A national information and communication policy to promote use of information;

Access to information as a basic right; Formal and informal arrangements on a national

and international basis for interchange and exchange of information;

Consciousness of the value of information and use of information for optimum utilization of natural resources;

Establishment of databanks in the country on a geographical basis, commodity basis, and service basis;

A dependable infrastructure for maintenance of ICT;

Elimination of disparity between rural and urban communities, through serious efforts for bridging the gap; and

Rational distribution of government patronage (for example, geographic consideration in allocation of sponsorship for higher education)

9. CONCLUSION Information literacy which is a transformational process lies at the core of lifelong learning and it empowers people in all walks of life to obtain, evaluate, use and generate information effectively so to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals. Further in a democratic setup, it is also a fundamental human right in a digital environment that promotes social inclusion of all nations. In the process, information literacy enables sharing of resources, knowledge more effectively with the help of technology. Information Literacy is undeniably an indispensable concept for the user empowerment in 21st century. It not only helps to empower the user but also act as lifelong learning for capacity building. Universally it requires to be promoted throughout the world so as to cope up with technology changes with the proliferation of knowledge. Library and information centers have a crucial role to collect organize and manage information for the users. User empowerment is another positive dimension in this regard. LIS professional has a crucial role to organize the scattered and unorganized information to provide the refined and tailored made information to the user. The librarian needs to develop user oriented collection development. Developing adequate collaboration and cooperation among the staffs, user and faculties for the successful of information literacy is one of the crucial functions of the librarian especially in a digital environment. He should know all the ways and mean to

Inform

ation Literacy Librarian

Curriculum Construction

Collaborative Teaching

Advocacy

User Awareness Programme

Search Strategy

User Orientation

Knowledge Manager

Leadership

Communication

Capacity Building

Life-long Learning

Resource Evaluator/ Generator

Planning of Literacy On-line Reference

53




effectively and smoothly transfer of information for the need of information society. The gap between user and librarian should be bridged so that user can feel free to clear his doubts to enrich his knowledge. From the aforesaid discussions it can be concluded that, information literacy is essential to promote optimum utilization of information resources both traditional and electronic including removal of all barriers for better access to electronic information resources. Therefore, practicing of information literacy both for the Libraries and Information Centers has become indispensable so as to coup with the emerging changing situations. REFRENCES [1] Bruce Christine, The seven faces of information

literacy (Adelaide: Auslib Press) 1997. (http://dis.shef.ac.uk/literacy/definitions.htm.) (Accessed on 12.4.2010)

[2] Pat Davitt Maughan, Information Literacy Survey. (University of California, Berkeley Library), 1995. (www.lib.berkeley.edu/Teaching Lib/Survey.html) (Accessed on 1.1. 2008). [3] Gilton Donna L, A, World of differences:

Preparing for Information literacy instruction for diverse groups. Multifaceted Review; 3(3) (1994).

[4] Shapiro J J and Shelley K H, Information Technology as a Liberal Art. Educom Review (1996). [5] Doyle, Christina. (1992) Outcome measures for

information literacy within the national education goals of 1990: final report of the National Forum on Information Literacy. Summary of findings. Washington, DC: US Department of Education. (ERIC document no; ED 351033). (http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/23/4a/12.pdfl)

[6] www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_literacy (Accessed on 22.6.07) [7] Op.cit. Shapiro J J and Shelley K H. [8] http://bivir.uacj.mx/DHI/DoctosNacioInter/ Docs/Guidelines.pdf (Accessed on 10.5.10) [9] Snavely, Loanne. (2001) Information literacy

standards for higher education: an international perspective. in: 67th IFLA Council and General Conference: August 16-25, 2001: Proceedings. The Hague: IFLA.

http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla67/papers/073-126e.pdf

[10] Information Literacy. Building Blogs of Research: Overview of Designs, Process and Outcomes. (http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/1over/infolit1.html) (Accessed on 24.6.10)

[11] www.slainte.org.uk/ (Accessed on 10.5.10) [12] http://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/ information_literacy/ (Accessed on 10.5.10) [13] http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/events/ index.php (Accessed on 10.5.10)

[14] American Association for School Librarians and Associations for Educational Communications and Technology. Information Literacy Standards for Students’ Learning. Standards and Indicators. (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guideline sandstandards/informationpower/InformationLite racyStandards_final.pdf) (Accessed on 10.5.10) [15] Bundy Allan. Ed. (2004). Australian and New

Zealand Institute for Information Literacy Framework. Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy. Adelaide. (http://www.caul.edu.au/info-literacy/InfoLiteracyFramework.pdf) (Accessed on 10.5.10)

[16] Canadian Library Association. Information Literacy Interest Groups. (http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Information_Literacy). (Accessed on 10.5.10)

[17] Lau Jesus. Guidelines on information literacy for lifelong learning. (http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s42/pub/IL-Guidelines2006.pdf) (Accessed on 10.5.10)

[18] INFLANET. Beacons of the information society. The Alexandria Proclamation on information literacy and lifelong learning. ( http://archive.ifla.org/III/wsis/BeaconInfSoc.html (Accessed on 10.5.10)

[19] Op.cit. Pat Davitt Maughan

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http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Teaching

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_literacy

http://bivir.uacj.mx/DHI/DoctosNacioInter/

http://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/

http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/events/

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guideline

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