Organisational Semiotics: Informatics without the Computer?

Governments around the world are adapting the e-government initiative to provide new ways of delivering their services. The e-government initiative aims to increase government performance efficiency; however, there are a number of limitations facing the success of the e-government initiative. One of the key limitations is the citizensâ€™ lack of knowledge about the e-government services which, in turn, requires an in-depth understanding of the citizensâ€™ needs in order to provide them with the right service, at the right time. One way to accomplish this is by using the life-event approach, which is considered to be a citizen-centric approach that matches the citizenâ€™s life-events with the needed e-government services. Moreover, with the increasing population using or organising their lives on social media, some services are turning to organising and recording a personâ€™s life. One such example is the â€˜timelineâ€™ on Facebook, in which the events in a personâ€™s life are being recorded, and considered to be a source for capturing citizenâ€™s life-events and needs.This research aims to develop a mechanism to advertise e-government services to citizens by using social media based on the life-event approach. Accordingly, the Social Media - Norm-Based Life-Event (SM-NoBLE) system is implemented with a mechanism for extracting citizenâ€™s life-events from citizen interactions with social media. Then, it matches life-events with relevant e-services using the Norm-Based Life-Event (NoBLE) framework and the concept of norms borrowed from organisational semiotics for the matching mechanism. This research creates a case study of Saudi Arabia to apply the SM-NoBLE system to evaluate accuracy and functionality.

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Workarounds

Advances in Healthcare Information Systems and Administration - Handbook of Research on Patient Safety and Quality Care through Health Informatics ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-4546-2.ch006 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 76-113 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nada Nadhrah ◽

Vaughan Michell

Keyword(s):

Patient Safety ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Clinical Work ◽

Analysis Model ◽

Work Processes ◽

Work Process ◽

Work Activity ◽

Relative Safety ◽

Activity Performance ◽

Organisational Semiotics

Patient safety and the quality of clinical interventions rely on the application of best practices in clinical processes to achieve clinical and service specifications for patients. However, outcomes vary due to variations in work activity performance in terms of efficiency and quality, and variations in what is done. This chapter explores the concept of deviations from formal work processes as workarounds in health interventions. It examines workaround evolution and development, the motivation for them, and types. It identifies their positive and negative impact on patient safety and quality. The chapter is based on primary research and workaround case studies of 14 staff in three hospitals. The approach supports the work to develop a generic conceptual normative analysis model of workarounds and adopts BPMN and organisational semiotics to qualitatively and quantitatively define and compare the original work process and workaround. This chapter extends definitions of workaround types and the relationship between actors in the formal work process and informal workaround process. The authors propose a conceptual model to identify the relative safety risk of workarounds and hence their likely patient impact. The discussion focuses on the initial findings of this model on patient safety and how different workaround types impact patient safety. The chapter highlights examples of the clinical work deviations and shows that they can have both positive and negative benefits for patient safety. It emphasises how, using an informatics approach, workarounds need to be considered in detail to understand the motivation and potential impact on health activities.

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Workarounds

Healthcare Administration ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-6339-8.ch016 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 285-322 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nada Nadhrah ◽

Vaughan Michell

Keyword(s):

Patient Safety ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Clinical Work ◽

Analysis Model ◽

Work Processes ◽

Work Process ◽

Work Activity ◽

Relative Safety ◽

Activity Performance ◽

Organisational Semiotics

Patient safety and the quality of clinical interventions rely on the application of best practices in clinical processes to achieve clinical and service specifications for patients. However, outcomes vary due to variations in work activity performance in terms of efficiency and quality, and variations in what is done. This chapter explores the concept of deviations from formal work processes as workarounds in health interventions. It examines workaround evolution and development, the motivation for them, and types. It identifies their positive and negative impact on patient safety and quality. The chapter is based on primary research and workaround case studies of 14 staff in three hospitals. The approach supports the work to develop a generic conceptual normative analysis model of workarounds and adopts BPMN and organisational semiotics to qualitatively and quantitatively define and compare the original work process and workaround. This chapter extends definitions of workaround types and the relationship between actors in the formal work process and informal workaround process. The authors propose a conceptual model to identify the relative safety risk of workarounds and hence their likely patient impact. The discussion focuses on the initial findings of this model on patient safety and how different workaround types impact patient safety. The chapter highlights examples of the clinical work deviations and shows that they can have both positive and negative benefits for patient safety. It emphasises how, using an informatics approach, workarounds need to be considered in detail to understand the motivation and potential impact on health activities.

Download Full-text