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Contradictory Demands (contradictory + demand)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	50%

Selected Abstracts

Cultivation and engineering of a software metrics program

INFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 1 2003
Jakob Iversen
Abstract. This paper reports from a case study of an organization that implements a software metrics program to measure the effects of its improvement efforts. The program measures key indicators of all completed projects and summarizes progress information in a quarterly management report. The implementation turns out to be long and complex, as the organization is confronted with dilemmas based on contradictory demands and value conflicts. The process is interpreted as a combination of a rational engineering process in which a metrics program is constructed and put into use, and an evolutionary cultivation process in which basic values of the software organization are confronted and transformed. The analysis exemplifies the difficulties and challenges that software organizations face when bringing known principles for software metrics programs into practical use. The article discusses the insights gained from the case in six lessons that may be used by Software Process Improvement managers in implementing a successful metrics program. [source]

Is Thabo Mbeki Africa's Saviour?

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2003
Gerrit Olivier
Foreign relations are the main preoccupation of South African president, Thabo Mbeki. His role perception is dominated by a mission to improve the plight of Africa, and second to that, to act as the Third World's überdiplomat. Under his administration, South Africa's foreign policy has become almost an adjunct of his more holistic diplomatic pursuits. The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is the magnum opus of Mbeki's foreign policy, and the success or failure of this grand design for an African renaissance will determine his legacy and make or break his leadership in South Africa and in the rest of Africa. The success of his NEPAD diplomacy is a daunting task, requiring the support of his African peers, his South African constituency, and the leadership of the developed nations of the world. Dealing with these diverse elements, Mbeki's policy-making oscillates between realism and idealism, and between ideology and interests, giving the impression of a style of a prudent bureaucrat rather than that of a single-minded reformer. In the end, his diplomacy seems to founder because it fails to satisfy the contradictory demands of any of these three constituencies. However, even if NEPAD should fail as a project, its role could be that of a harbinger of a new political and economic era in Africa and the movement away from post-colonial orthodoxy. [source]

Telephone advisory services,nursing between organisational and occupational professionalism

NEW TECHNOLOGY, WORK AND EMPLOYMENT, Issue 1-2 2008
Ylva Fältholm
In this paper, we explore how telephone advisory services (TAS) and the implementation of new technology affect nurses and the nursing profession. This study shows that TAS and applied technology embodies ideas of standardisation and efficiency, and promotes an organisational professionalism such that it challenges occupational professionalism. Torn between organisational and occupational professionalism, the nurses develop strategies to deal with their contradictory demands. [source]

Structures and processes in intermediary nongovernmental organizations: Research evidence from Northern Ireland

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 4 2005
John M. Bruton
This article reports the results of an exploratory study of the organizational characteristics, functions, and roles of intermediary nonprofit organizations selected by the European Union to deliver global grant funding in relation to its Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. The results show that the main factor for determining organizational processes is the need to respond to conflicting pressures from two directions: upward to funding agencies and downward to community groups. This produces contradictory demands that are imported into the organizations as a set of internal tensions. The different structures and capabilities developed by the organizations to maintain unity and integrity in response to these tensions are explored and related to differences in the perceived role of the organizations. [source]