Administrative professional's role in the processing, retrieval, dissemination and repackaging of information in the networked enterprise
- Authors: Thomas, Henda Judith
- Date: 2008-06-23T13:33:47Z
- Subjects: Administrative assistants , Information organization , Information retrieval , Office information systems , Knowledge management
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:3445 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/683
- Description: The purpose of this research was to establish the administrative professional's role in the processing, retrieval, dissemination and repackaging of digital information in the networked enterprise, and to determine how the administrative professional can add value to the organisation and enhance its competitive position in industry. The digital economy has changed business practices to such an extent that research of the digital office environment and the administrative professional’s role in this new world of work has become necessary. This research subsequently aimed to clarify the administrative professional’s role as an information specialist in the organisation. The following sub-questions were formulated for this project: · What is the current profile of the administrative professional in the organisation? · What changes have taken place in the digital environment? · What are the current technological and information systems skills of the administrative professional? · How can the administrative professional add value to the enterprise in the digital environment? The profile of the administrative professional in the organisation was discussed with specific reference to the history, duties and etymology of the administrative professional. The traditional methods of handling information flow were also investigated. The digital environment was also evaluated. It was found that due to rapid changes in the digital environment, employers’ key expectations of their administrative staff were also changing. Research conducted indicated that employers expect administrative iii professionals to be skilled in new and emerging technologies and show a high degree of information management skills. New Information management skills were evaluated within the framework of information systems available in the networked enterprise. These statements were evaluated and the following aspects amongst others discussed: · The way that the enterprise conducts business in the digital economy. · The latest information technology advances and trends. · Information infrastructure and architecture. · Management of information sources in the enterprise. · Strategic information systems necessary for competitive advantage. · The Web revolution. · Developments in electronic commerce (EC). · The different organisational applications. · Knowledge Management (KM). · Managerial systems and decision support systems (DSS). · Data management such as warehousing, analysing, mining, and visualisation. · Intelligent support systems. · The management of information resources and security. The statements that the administrative professional’s roles have changed through the use of computers, the Web, and other advanced office technologies to perform vital information management functions in the modern office, have been empirically studied and proven to be correct. Information and communications technology (ICT) has become the major launch pad of business activities in the world and causes fundamental shifts in the management structure and the operations procedures in enterprises. In the light of these changes, the researcher empirically justified the specific skills and abilities of the contemporary administrative professional. This was done through an emphasis on managerial perceptions about the role of the administrative professional. The importance of the administrative professional’s ability to provide the correct information in a context that aids decision-making was examined. The level of awareness iv of emerging information and communications technology tools and techniques that is regarded as necessary by the manager was evaluated. , Prof. P. A. van Brakel
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Applying information architecture in design thinking : ideating solutions to the wicked problem of addiction
- Authors: Hobbs, Jason Richard
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Industrial design , Design and technology , Information technology , Information organization
- Language: English
- Type: Masters (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/485650 , uj:44150
- Description: Abstract: This research project explores the use of Information Architecture (IA) in Design Thinking for the purposes of ideating solutions to wicked problems. A constructivist account of IA is advanced in this study offering new perspectives, distinct to those offered by the mainstream IA employed in digital design, heralding from Library and Information Science. This reframing of IA creates a new space to explore what value may be found lying dormant in the relationship between IA and DT, and Design in general. The Research Through Design (RTD) methodology serves to support the constructive nature of this inquiry. In RTD, the researcher operates both in the role of designer and researcher, executing and critically reflecting upon a design project. For this study, a design project was conducted to address the complex social problem of addiction as it manifests in Johannesburg, South Africa. A new form of IA, Conceptual IA (CIA), is notionally developed to observe and discuss IA when enacted in Ideation following the DT process-method. The findings and conclusions offered emerge from qualitative analysis of observations and reflection upon the design project’s enactment. Within its scope, the study reveals that IA, as reframed, can be understood as operating tacitly within design (and the world) as that which contains and transmits socio-ontological meaning, decoded, recoded and encoded in design. Explicit use of IA methods, tools and techniques greatly enhanced synthetic cognition across the whole of the DT process-method enacted. Furthermore, CIA conducted in Ideation provided the concept for a social systems solution central to a strategy design which synthetically resolved the challenges presented by the wicked problem of addiction. IA and design developed to realise the concept, as blueprints, describe how use of the system in the world triggers a transformation and transcendence of this concept: in use, the IA of the concept being embedded within the structural form of the designed object, comes to be a new socio-ontological phenomena. In this way, a (speculative) theoretical account is given for how an instrumental / ontological mediation of social reality may occur, at scale, by IA employed in Design. , M.A. (Design)
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Developing a scaleable information architecture for an enterprise wide consolidated information management platform
- Authors: Van der Walt, Pieter Willem
- Date: 2009-01-15T13:10:59Z
- Subjects: Information organization , Management information systems , Information technology , Information audits , Information resources management
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:14794 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/1870
- Description: D.Litt. et Phil. , This research addresses the concept of “information architecture” as a way of visualising and describing the various information assets and interaction of these assets within the organisation. The research further provides definitions of information and contextualises the information audit and information model as key tool for the information manager in establishing the information architecture. The establishment of the information architecture is illustrated through a case study within a large conglomeration of companies requiring a scaleable information architecture in order to address its information requirements. Through a process of interviews the information requirements of key decisions makers are established. These requirements are translated into an information architecture that forms the basis of support in delivering future information requirements for the company. The results of this research have been successfully implemented and now form the foundation of all future information management projects within this particular case study.
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