In Manchester, I spoke with some of you about consider the idea of a "macro level for socio-technical design"- Here is the latest issue of the International Journal of SocioTechnology and Knowledge Development which has a link to an article I wrote intended to start a discussion about it. We are welcoming papers that respond, reject, pose alternatives and generally engage the idea of a macro level for socio-technical design. Here is the latest issue with links below. Cheers, Connie International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development (IJSKD) Official Publication of the Information Resources Management Association Volume 4, Issue 4, October - December 2012 Published: Quarterly in Print and Electronically ISSN: 1941-6253 EISSN: 1941-6261 Published by IGI Publishing, Hershey-New York, USA www.igi-global.com/ijskd Editors-in-Chief: José Abdelnour-Nocera (University of West London, UK) and Constance Kampf (Aarhus University, Denmark) PAPER ONE The Organizational Blog as a Boundary Object: The Roles and Dilemmas of Government Agency Bloggers Annette Agerdal-Hjermind (Department of Business Communication, Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark) This article looks at organizational blogger roles and how they both reflect and affect the way knowledge is communicated across department boundaries in a corporate blogging context. The blog is approached from a sociotechnical perspective, addressing and looking into the various roles in a community of practice and the enactment of the bloggers in a transparent context. Empirical examples of discourses at work in an organizational blog are highlighted, and the diverging roles and dilemmas of the blogging employees are discussed. People within the same organization have different goals in relation to the same technology, and the content of the blog and the blog comments are managed differently by the internal bloggers which feel empowered or disempowered. The article pinpoints roles of enactment in a socio-technical perspective through pointing out conflicting goals, roles and the resulting counter discourses and shows examples of how the group of bloggers with the shared narrative tradition is able to mobilize its members and create subgroups for appropriate blog behaviors and changing behavior. To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below. http://www.igi-global.com/article/organizational-blog-boundary-object/74846 To view a PDF sample of this article, click on the link below. http://www.igi-global.com/viewtitlesample.aspx?id=74846&ptid=59639&t=the+org... PAPER TWO Revealing the Socio-Technical Design of Global E-Businesses: A Case of Digital Artists Engaging in Radical Transparency Constance E. Kampf (Department of Business Communication, Institute for Erhvervskoomunikation, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark) Global e-businesses such as Google, Amazon and E-bay affect both users and society. How can society begin to understand this duality in the socio-technical affordances of e-business? This paper examines a digital art performance as an example of the tensions between capitalist businesses and the public commons. Using notions of transparency and knowledge as a form of Knowledge Management rooted in Nonaka’s SECI Model, it examines ways in which knowledge about how Google uses the Internet are made explicit through the digital art performance. It discusses the implications for both defining a macro level of socio-technical design and using dimensions of transparency to understand technology based Internet business, positing global Internet business as having two levels of socio-technical design—1) the micro level, dealing with user interaction, and 2) the macro level, dealing with the social design and implications for society inherent in pervasive technology based businesses. The Macro level of design is operationalized through a combination of knowledge management theory and dimensions of transparency. To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below. http://www.igi-global.com/article/revealing-socio-technical-design-global/74... To view a PDF sample of this article, click on the link below. http://www.igi-global.com/viewtitlesample.aspx?id=74847&ptid=59639&t=reveali... PAPER THREE Design Democratization with Communities: Drawing Toward Locally Meaningful Design Naska Winschiers-Goagoses (Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany), Heike Winschiers-Theophilus (School of Information Technology, Polytechnic of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia), Kasper Rodil (Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark), Gereon Koch Kapuire (School of Information Technology, Polytechnic of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia) and Kasper Jensen (School of Information Technology, Polytechnic of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia) The authors present community drawing as meaningful representations to inform locally valid technology design. They investigate recognition within and across cultural borders, thereby exposing variances of localities. The study contributes to the still scarce body of empirical work on culturally meaningful development of visual representations and recognition, as part of a longitudinal research project in which we co-design a 3D visualization for a specific Namibian pilot site. To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below. http://www.igi-global.com/article/design-democratization-communities/74848 To view a PDF sample of this article, click on the link below. http://www.igi-global.com/viewtitlesample.aspx?id=74848&ptid=59639&t=design+... PAPER FOUR An Effective and Quality Approach to Reduce the Turnover Rate for Hair Salon Industry Jen-Hui Tsai (PhD Program in Management, DaYeh University, Dacun, Changhua, Taiwan), Meng-Chuan Tsai (Department of Human Resource Public Relations, DaYeh University, Dacun, Changhua, Taiwan), Yu-Ming Chung (Department of Chains and Franchising Management, Takming University of Science and Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan) and Chia-Wen Tsai (Department of Information Management, Ming Chuan University, Guishan Township, Taoyuan County, Taiwan) This study aims to provide an effective approach to reduce the turnover rate and forecast the supply of hair stylists for the hair salon industry. An absorbing Markov chain process was applied in this study to forecast the supply of hair stylists for a hair salon chain. A hair salon chain with 13 salons in Taiwan was investigated as the case in this study. According to its business goals and expansion plans, and considering the firm’s present personnel profiles, the authors estimate the future demand for stylists and reduce the turnover rate for this company. In addition, this study finds that, based on a promotion system, the average turnover rate for hairdressing apprentices decreases from 19.500% to 17.770%, and the training period could be shortened from three years to one year and 11 months. Finally, they also found that the estimated supply of hair salon workers at each hierarchy level from 2010 to 2014 will be insufficient. The findings in this study could provide insights for the human resources department of hair salon industry. To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below. http://www.igi-global.com/article/effective-quality-approach-reduce-turnover... To view a PDF sample of this article, click on the link below. http://www.igi-global.com/viewtitlesample.aspx?id=74849&ptid=59639&t=an+effe... **************************************************** For full copies of the above articles, check for this issue of the International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development (IJSKD) in your institution's library. This journal is also included in the IGI Global aggregated "InfoSci-Journals" database: http://www.igi-global.com/eresources/infosci-journals.aspx. ***************************************************** CALL FOR PAPERS Mission of IJSKD: The overall mission of the International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development (IJSKD) is to provide a practical and comprehensive forum for exchanging research ideas and down-to-earth practices which bridge the social and technical gap within organizations and society at large. At the same time it will provide a forum for considering the ethical issues linked to organizational change and development. It will encourage interdisciplinary texts that discuss current practices as well as demonstrating how the advances of - and changes within - technology affect the growth of society (and vice versa). The aim of the journal is to bring together the expertise of people who have worked practically in a changing society across the world for people in the field of organizational development and technology studies including information systems development and implementation. Coverage of IJSKD: This journal will look for practical sociotechnical approaches that can assist practitioners, academics, researchers, and students. A particular focus will be on new ideas and approaches including studies of their practical implementation. Appropriate themes might thus include (but are not restricted to) a sociotechnical perspective on: • Applied Ergonomic Critical success factors (and key performance indicators) for organizations and technological implementation • Culture and trust within organizations and their relevance to technological artifacts • Design and technology development issues including requirements and stakeholder participation • E-government and democracy as affected by technological change • Empowerment and team development • HRM issues for innovation and knowledge sharing • Humanistic redesign and technological politics in organizations • Implementation issues of change and technology • Influence of human factors on operational efficiency • Information systems development • Innovation • Knowledge management systems • Knowledge sharing • Learning organizations • Managing organizational knowledge as a strategic asset • Organizational change • Performance and quality of working life • Quality assessment of computer information systems • Relevance of the worker’s perspective • Social aspects of automation • Sociotechnical systems • Systems failures • Technological forecasting and social change • Technology and its role in society and organizations • Technology in society • Using knowledge management principles to solve organizational performance problems Interested authors should consult the journal's manuscript submission guidelines at www.igi-global.com/ijskd. All inquiries and submissions should be sent to: Editor-in-Chief: Dr. José Abdelnour-Nocera at jose.abdelnour-nocera@uwl.ac.uk