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Browsing INETI by Author "Barrulas, Maria Joaquina"
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- Building a collaboratory in an engineering R&D organizationPublication . Correia, Zita; Egreja, Catarina; Barrulas, Maria Joaquina; Gil, Rui; Ferreira, Diogo R.This paper presents the results achieved throughout the process of preparing the ground to develop a collaboratory in an Engineering R&D organization. This case study is part of a broader research project engaged in building a collaboratory in order to share knowledge and resources among the Portuguese State laboratories. In the process of preparing the ground to develop the collaboratory in the first of the laboratories studied, an information audit was conducted and an online survey was launched. The survey targeted 241 people, including mainly professional researchers, but also research trainees and some technical staff integrating the research teams. The questionnaire was designed so as to collect data on the organization’s information management and information culture, and on the information flows taking place, and their relationship with the objectives of the organization. The questionnaire comprised two distinct and independent parts. The first (on the organization’s information culture and information management) obtained seventy nine responses, while the second (information flows) achieved ninety two, corresponding to 32,8% and 38,2% of the total population, respectively. The work carried out provided the basic requirements for the task of developing a software infrastructure to support the collaboratory, addressing the various aspects of collaborative tools, information archiving, hierarchical tag classification, search, transparent integration of the user local environment with the platform and remote control of scientific instruments.
- Building a collaboratory in an engineering R&D organizationPublication . Correia, Zita; Egreja, Catarina; Barrulas, Maria Joaquina; Gil, Rui; Ferreira, Diogo R.; Cunha, Luís Arriaga daThis paper presents the results achieved so far in the process of preparing the ground to develop a collaboratory in an Engineering R&D organization. This case study is part of a broader research project engaged in building a collaboratory in order to share knowledge and resources among the Portuguese State Laboratories. In the process of preparing the ground to develop the collaboratory in the first of the State Laboratories studied, an information audit was conducted and an online survey was launched. The survey targeted 240 people, including mainly professional researchers (c. 160), but also research trainees and some technical staff integrating the research teams. The questionnaire was designed so as to collect data on the information management and information culture of the organization, on the researchers’ information needs and information seeking, and on the information flows taking place, and was composed of two distinct and independent parts. The first obtained seventy nine responses, while the second achieved ninety two, corresponding to 33% and 38% of the total sample, respectively. The work carried out will provide the basic requirements for the task of developing an infrastructure and tools for the collaboratory, addressing the various aspects of collaborative software tools, information archiving and intelligent search, remote control of scientific instruments and multi-channel access to the services.
- From expatriates’ information needs to information management in the expatriation cyclePublication . Pinheiro, Mónica; Barrulas, Maria JoaquinaGlobalization has intensified the flow of companies’ top executives across borders. New information needs arise and are added to several other challenges faced by these executives when they move to a foreign country. Cultural differences of the host countries, and lack of local language skills preventing expatriates making sense of the social context and physical environment surrounding them, are among those challenges. This paper reports findings of a study aimed at identifying and understanding the role of information in top executives’ mobility process, during expatriation cycle. The study was carried out between 2003 and 2004, and covered half of the existing expatriates working for a Portuguese economic group of the financial sector, in three different country operations. The case study was the methodological approach chosen. To understand the information needs of expatriates, three embedded cases were considered, illustrating the economic group as a whole. The embedded cases corresponded to business operations in three different countries that had begun operating at different times (1997, 2000, and 2003). The choice of the countries accounted for: variety and diversity of the business operations abroad, their political importance and different stages of expatriates in the expatriation cycle. Several data collection methods were used, including indepth interviews with expatriates in their working environments, observations in the field, analysis of internal publications, as well as analysis of the newspapers and other online specialized journals covering most of the references made to the economic group, under study. The study identified two critical moments concerning expatriates information needs. These corresponded to the informational space transitions faced when they moved from the home country to the host country and then back again. The first critical moment occurs when arriving at host country. The transition to a new cultural environment and the acculturation process that takes place, and also deficient local language skills, accounted for the main problems they faced. Without the appropriate mental grids, the environment becomes a meaningless information space. The lack of preparation of expatriates and absence of supporting information for the expatriates’ assignment, accounted for this problem. The second critical moment occurred when they faced the return to their home country business operations. The information gap they faced concerning home operations during the assignment, accounted for the main problems faced by returning expatriates. This information gap concerned changes in the organization while they where abroad. It was mainly due to lack of formal channels maintaining awareness of home country operations across expatriates. Further founding’s accounted for loss of organizational memory of expatriates’ contributions and knowledge while abroad. Based on collected data a typology of expatriates’ information needs was produced. A model incorporating expatriates’ information in the organizational information system, throughout the duration of the assignment, was designed. This model builds up the Antal model that considers the expatriates’ gains for the organizations, and the need for strategic information for the life of organizations, in order to facilitate the move from expatriate mobility to information mobility in the organizational context, helping to preserve the organizational memory needed to understand the underlying environment in which organizations extend their operations.
- Hangout: Redes sociais e o cruzamento de campos no contexto organizacionalPublication . Barrulas, Maria Joaquina; Cardoso, Margarida; Pinheiro, Mónica; Valfigueira, LeonorNeste artigo apresentam-se os resultados de um estudo exploratório realizado no âmbito de um projecto mais vasto, (work in progress), que estuda a utilização de redes sociais e pretende questionar o papel, relevância, potencialidades e limitações destas nas organizações. Partimos do conceito de campo na acepção de Bourdieu, identificamos espaços sociais e espaços informacionais que se cruzam em contextos organizacionais. Escolheram-se os Laboratórios Científicos como terreno experimental por serem organizações de conhecimento intensivo, em que a criação, partilha e uso do conhecimento constituem a sua atividade principal (core activity) e a rede social LinkedIn, por ser a rede profissional online mais utilizada à escala global.
- Role of artifacts for reconfiguring working spaces and information systemsPublication . Pinheiro, Mónica; Barrulas, Maria Joaquina; Carvalho, João A.Individuals, like organizations, need to manage information for work (and non-work) related activities, on a daily basis. In order to extend their communication and fulfill information needs, people use artifacts (man made objects), that became increasingly technological, and in turn, these very technological artifacts are increasingly more dependent upon other supporting technologies, widely referred as infrastructures. In order to design information systems that support workers’needs, what do we know about their use of artifacts? Across time? Inside and outside their organizations? And on the move?
- Some things I tend to overlap even if not necessary. A discussion on PIM artifacts between researcher and research agentPublication . Pinheiro, Mónica; Cardoso, Margarida; Barrulas, Maria Joaquina; Carvalho, João A.The spread of mobile communications and IT artifacts in general, gives rise to a pervasive number of mobile working modalities, inducing transformations in social practices and organizational environments in a networked society. In order to design information systems we need to understand how information artifacts are used to get work done, and how these support work, inside and outside the organizations. By drawing on personal information management studies, information needs, and information-related myths, we built a qualitative study to uncover artifacts used to cross different information spaces, by different individuals, in different working contexts, over three years. The present case follows an approach built by researcher and research agent, across different information spaces, where we confronted the existing body of knowledge with empirical data collected. The first results show that permanent reconfigurations of working spaces beyond organizational boundaries are supported by deliberate mixes of information artifacts, that seem to be determined by familiarity with place, anticipation of needs, type of transportation used, distance and time covered, and access issues.