Information Technology as a Target, Shield, and Weapon in the Post-9/11 Environment

This chapter draws upon normal accident theory and the theory of high reliability organizations to examine the potential impacts of information technology being used as a target in terrorist and other malicious attacks. The chapter also argues that information technology can be used as a shield to prevent further attacks and mitigate their impact if they should occur. A target and shield model is developed, which extends normal accident theory to encompass secondary effects, change, and feedback loops to prevent future accidents. The target and shield model is applied to the Y2K problem and the emerging threats and initiatives in the post-9/11 environment. The model is then extended to encompass the use of IT as a weapon against terrorism.

Comparing Expert Systems and Agent Technology for KM

Agent technology offers a new means of effectively managing knowledge and addresses complex decision processes which heretofore appeared intractable. This chapter presents an overview and comparison of expert system and agent technologies, and shows the latter as a powerful extension in artificial intelligence for systems development. To illustrate, a system developed first using an expert system approach and then an agent-based approach are used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the agent-based approach. Last, the practical implications of a company adoption of agent-based technology for systems development are addressed.

Understanding Web Site Usability

Web site usability is concerned with how easy and intuitive it is for individuals to presence, as perceived by users. The usability of Web sites is important because high usability is associated with a positive attitude and greater trust towards the Web site. Poorly designed Web sites with low usability lead to negative financial impacts. Existing approaches to Web site usability include measurement and tracking of parameters such as response time and task completion time, and software engineering approaches that specify general usability guidelines and common practices during software development. This chapter analyzes usability from the point of view of Web site design parameters. An analysis of usability and other design characteristics of 200 Web sites of different kinds revealed that design aspects such as information content, ease of navigation, download delay, and Web site availability positively influence usability. Web site security and customization were not found to influence usability. The chapter explains these results and suggests design strategies for increasing Web site usability.

An Extended Trust Building Model

This study examines a model of factors influencing system troubleshooter trust in their supervisors, contrasting experiential and nonexperiential factors. System troubleshooters keep important organizational systems operating. Traditional research suggests that trust forms through interactional experience. Recent research indicates that initial interpersonal trust develops through nonexperiential factors that are dispositional (individual differences-related) or institutional (structural/ situational). This chapter combines initial and experiential factors to see which remain effective over time. We found that both institutional and dispositional factors affected troubleshooter trust in the supervisor even after parties gained experience with each other. Quality of experience with the supervisor affected interpersonal trust, while quantity of experience did not. Surprisingly, institutional trust, an initial trust factor, predicted trusting beliefs as strongly as did quality of experience. The study shows that both experiential and nonexperiential factors are important to troubleshooter trust even after parties know each other well.

Exploring the Effectiveness of Information Security Policies

Ensuring the security of corporate information assets has become an extremely complex, challenging and high-priority activity, due partly to their growing organizational importance, but also because of their increasing vulnerability to attacks from viruses, hackers, criminals, and human error. Consequently, organizations are having to prioritise the security of their computer systems, to ensure that their information assets retain their accuracy, confidentiality, and availability. Whilst the importance of the information security policy (InSPy) in ensuring the security of information is widely acknowledged, there has, to date, been little empirical analysis of its impact or effectiveness in this role. To help fill this gap an exploratory study was initiated that sought to investigate the relationship between the uptake and application of information security policies and the accompanying levels of security breaches. To this end a questionnaire was designed, validated, and then targeted at IT managers within large organisations in the United Kingdom. The findings, presented in this chapter, are somewhat surprising, as they show no statistically significant relationships between the adoption of information security policies and the incidence or severity of security breaches. The chapter concludes by exploring the possible interpretations of this unexpected finding, and its implications for the practice of information security management.

The Relationship of Strategic Intent to the Enablers and Inhibitors of E-Business Adoption in SMEs

Small firms’ use of e-business is limited and little is known about what drives them to embrace e-business. Using survey data from 354 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK West Midlands, this chapter investigates e-business use and drivers. It first discusses different growth strategies adopted by SMEs and reviews Internet adoption in SMEs. Drivers and inhibitors of e-business are identified. Three research questions are derived—does strategic intent drive e-business adoption and is it a factor of market position or product innovation? Is this consistent across sectors? And how is strategic intent and industry adoption influenced by the enablers and inhibitors of e-business adoption? This research demonstrates that strategic intent influences decisions to invest in e-business. Those SMEs remaining in their existing markets are the least likely to invest, primarily due to the Internet not being seen as necessary for growth. Product innovation rather than market penetration drives e-business and e-business drivers and inhibitors provide insights into this.

Evidence of Compensatory Adaptation to Unnatural Media in a Field Study of Process Redesign Dyads

Much of the past research on electronic communication media suggests that those media pose obstacles to communication in collaborative tasks when compared with the face-to-face medium. On the other hand, past research also points at mixed findings in connection with the quality of the outcomes of collaborative tasks, generally suggesting that the use of electronic communication media has no negative effect on those outcomes. A new theoretical framework building on human evolution theory, called compensatory adaptation theory, has been proposed to explain these contradictory findings. This study provides a review and test of compensatory adaptation theory. It investigates the impact of the use of an electronic communication medium on 20 business process redesign dyads involving managers and professionals at a large defense contractor, with a focus on cognitive effort, communication ambiguity, message preparation, fluency, and task outcome quality. The study suggests that even though the use of electronic communication media seemed to increase cognitive effort and communication ambiguity, it had a neutral impact on task outcome quality. These results appear to be an outcome of compensatory adaptation, whereby the members of the dyads interacting through the electronic communication medium modified their behavior in order to compensate for the obstacles posed by the medium, which is suggested by a decrease in fluency and an increase in message preparation. The results generally support predictions based on compensatory adaptation theory.

Salary Differences Between Male and Female Software Developers

In this chapter, we quantify the differences in the hourly salaries of female software developers with their male counterparts using the human capital model based on economic theory. In addition to the gender factor, the human capital model includes other control variables that may account for the salary differences such as education, experience, and specific skills, such as object-oriented programming and SQL. Our models indicate that gender is a statistically and practically significant factor in assessing a software developer’s salary.

The Relevance of Learning Processes for IT Implementation

The starting point of this chapter is the belief that it is neither the quality of the technology, nor that of the individual users, but the interactions amongst people in groups of users concerning a new system that determines the success or failure of IT implementation. Aiming at conceptualisation of the role of group learning in IT implementation, we first develop a theoretical framework based on the experiential learning cycle that includes five processes: collective acting, group reflecting, knowledge disseminating, sharing understanding, and mutual adjustment. Second, we illustrate the roles of learning processes in three case studies. Analysis of the interviews with 98 users of information technologies has revealed a unique function of group learning in the IT implementation. It is shown that group learning emerges immediately after a new IT is introduced to the targeted users; it may take different directions (for or against adoption of the technology); it itself can develop during the IT implementation and either progress or take a turn for the worse. The chapter elaborates on three organisational conditions important for directing the constructive group learning: managerial support issues, structural and nonstructural group characteristics, and technological features that turn group learning in a positive direction.

A Question of Timing

Information acquisition and its use are frequently considered critical to the decision- making process, yet related research, especially about the timing of information acquisition, is limited. This study explores the impact of information acquisition on decision time and perceived decision quality for groups that used group support systems (GSS) to work on a fuzzy task. We found that more information was accessed from a Web-based system in the first part of the group decision-making process, when the decision environment was searched and possible courses of action were analyzed. We also found that the proportion of information accessed in the first part of the meeting was significantly related to the decision time. More specifically, when most information was accessed in the first part of the decision-making session, the relationship between decision time and amount of information accessed in the early part of the meeting was positive and linear. However, a curvilinear relationship was found between decision time and amount of information accessed in the latter part of the decision-making session. Unlike the findings of a previous study, this earlier access of information is not associated with improved perceived decision quality.