Distributed Work Environments

Technology is making the traditional workplace obsolete. Companies are taking advantage of the myriads of digital resources available to make their processes leaner, cut costs and have a larger presence in the global market through the concept of distributed work environment. In this chapter, the author provides an overview of the distributed work environment, as well as the impact it has on the human condition in the workplace. Although this technology driven work concept can be beneficial, companies have to ensure that it is the right business model for them and their employees. The author looks at different factors that companies need to consider in deciding to adopt a distributed work environment model. Several companies, over 125 of them, have successfully implemented the concept and the author shares some examples on how they were able to achieve success and employee satisfaction.

Future of Education in Industry 4.0

With the developments in technology and innovation, the manufacturing, workforce, training, and educational systems were affected. Facing the fourth industrial revolution, academics are researching the possible changes that might arise in education and skills of the future workforce. As the workplace develops, new competencies will surface. With this context in mind, the authors initiated this research. A detailed questionnaire was prepared as a pilot study to comprehend students' views on the use of technology in classrooms and its impact on their learning experience and engagement. Knowledge of their views allowed the authors to draw inferences as to the skills and competencies of future students and whether they would match Industry 4.0. Furthermore, a gap analysis was conducted, whereby the existing situation at a Canadian higher educational institution was compared to the desired situation, and recommendations were put forward.

The Information and the Strategy Business

In recent years we have witnessed a major transformation in society. We went from a society based on industry and transport to another based on information and knowledge. A major challenge for managers is to understand what the information is for formulation, definition, implementation, and control the strategy. The strategy for any organization can be set from the outside in. According to the schools of positioning, the offer of products will have to adapt to changes in the environment. Or from the inside out. According to the movement's schools, the organization influences the middle engaging with your innovative product offerings, since it has skills and capabilities that competitors don't have and that are difficult to imitate or buy. This chapter explores information and business strategies.

Leading, Managing, and Facilitating Organizational Change

This chapter focuses on organizational change and development and how leadership behavior impacts upon the delivery of the desired change, in terms of implementation, effectiveness, and performance. The reflective perspective seeks to explore learning insights gained via business and academic approaches within transformational change programs in two dimensions: first, the author's PhD research project investigated leadership behavioral approaches designed to deliver organizational change and increased engagement and performance; and second, the author's involvement as a business consultant and executive coach, acting for private sector companies on transformational change programs designed to deliver strategic change to drive increases in efficiency, effectiveness, and performance. The purpose of this chapter is to inform professionals involved in organizational change and development within their own or their client organizations and facilitate learning to help better understand the potential of leadership behavior in delivering successful organizational change strategies.

Impediments in Healthcare Digital Transformation

This article is addressing the specific impediments that appear in the process of healthcare digital transformation. Enterprise architecture provides the framework for investigating the behavioral and active structural aspects that apply to business and application layers. This includes an analysis of, including inherent relationship between, selected scopes such as strategy, business, and education to standard elements such as process, service, and function of an application. The presented classification and assignment of individual impediments indicate to healthcare managers where they may potentially struggle during different stages of digital transformation. Among others, they facilitate strategic planning and managerial decisions during implementation of the emerging information technologies and techniques. In addition, the idea is to contribute to the successful implementation of healthcare digital transformation, thereby delivering business value within healthcare sector, and consequently to a better quality of life.

Challenges Facing Health Service Delivery in Developing Countries and Solution Approaches

This chapter describes a case study of the poor access to healthcare in the developing the countries with more focus on the rural areas and presents an adapted remote care delivery system approach for improving and increasing the access to healthcare services by overcoming certain cultural, social, financial, and linguistic barriers. The remote care delivery system integrates traditional practitioners because most people are more confident with the traditional medicine. The chapter presents the results of a practical on-site test of the proposed system. The test has shown the potentiality of the proposed system to improve the quality and effectiveness of healthcare and increase the accessibility of healthcare systems. The chapter also discusses the obstacles for applying standard telemedicine systems and e-health solutions in the developing world.

Corporates in the Digital Age

A proposition for digital transformation of global groups into efficient enterprises is introduced. At the heart of the proposition is a transformational practice aimed at creating a customer-focused, data-driven global culture in any customer-serving company. The digital age has added a level of complexity to the way we acquire and serve customers. Doing a good job in the traditional channels is not enough anymore. Online is increasingly becoming the channel of choice with the two main customer-interaction paradigms: sell and service. And building a great customer experience is probably the most essential factor of success for both functions.

Resistance to Organizational Change in Academia

Resistance to change happens to be a phenomenon in which both the change agents and change recipients are equally responsible for all forms of resistance. Resistance and its various forms are an outcome of the change agents' observations and their interpretations of the conversations, behavior, and reactions of the change recipients. This chapter uses auto-ethnographic reflexive narratives of two change agents involved in the self-assessment process at a college planning to seek US-based business program accreditation to make sense of the change process. The purpose of this chapter is to emphasize the under-reflected role of the change agents and how they influence and affect the behavior of change recipients and thereby contribute towards employee resistance. The chapter also emphasizes the crucial role of reflection and introspection in the sensemaking activities of the change agents in the entire change initiative and thereby adds evidence-based organizational change and development initiatives in an academic setting where research is limited.

Restructuring and Globalization of Telecommunications Industry

Restructuring and globalization are very important for every technology sector. It provides key competitive advantages to the companies over their rivals. Telecommunications sector is an important strategic segment of the modern economy. Telecommunications is also an advanced technology sector and its restructuring is essential to optimize its revenues. Now it has been evolved to information and communication technologies (ICT), which is the main driving force of growth worldwide. In fact, ICT has paved the way for modern globalization. Overall, ICT and ICT-enabled sectors are among the main contributors of global economy. This sector has passed through several restructuring and evolves continuously. Its globalization is obvious as it is the main technology which promotes globalization. In this chapter, the authors provide the restructuring of telecommunications sectors since the time of its inception in the early 19th century. They also analyzed the strategic changes that promote the restructuring and globalization of this sector.

Telework and People with Disabilities

People with disabilities face unique challenges to access work and participate in a work culture and environment. The increasing uptake of telework is promising from a digital inclusion perspective for people with disabilities. This qualitative study explored barriers and problems of including people with disabilities through telework in Australia. The study focused on management and worker perspectives and findings indicate that both parties face unique challenges to accommodate and include people with disabilities in telework arrangements. Worker barriers to access telework relate to management attitudes, physical and infrastructure problems, social isolation misconceptions, lack of management trust, insufficient telework opportunities and inadequate management knowledge of IT support and reasonable adjustment for people with disabilities. Management issues involve cultural intolerance towards diversity and disability in general, as well as a lack of policies and processes that create a supportive environment for people with disabilities who wish to telework.