Alastair Walker, Tom McBride, Gerhard Basson and Robert Oakley
The assessment of COBIT process maturity levels is fraught with a number of problems regarding the objectivity of the assessment results. Unlike ISO/IEC 15504, COBIT does not…
Abstract
Purpose
The assessment of COBIT process maturity levels is fraught with a number of problems regarding the objectivity of the assessment results. Unlike ISO/IEC 15504, COBIT does not define an assessment model. The purpose of this paper is to align the behavioural aspects of the six COBIT process attributes with achievement results defined for the nine process attributes associated with the ISO/IEC 15504‐2 measurement scale. The authors believe that this alignment permits a translation of the ISO/IEC 15504 assessment data into an objective COBIT process maturity rating.
Design/methodology/approach
The tables presented in the paper identify the COBIT process attributes, the applicable ISO/IEC 15504 process attribute achievement results and the aggregated rating that pertains to the selected achievement results. A final table lists the derived COBIT process maturity level in terms of the ratings for the ISO/IEC 15504 process attribute achievement results for an assessed process.
Findings
The objectivity of the aggregated result (COBIT process maturity level) appeals strongly to end‐users of this measurement result, particularly where contractual obligations must be satisfied.
Practical implications
The method is useful where measurement rigour must be demonstrated in the computation of the COBIT process maturity levels.
Originality/value
This assessment and computational method was developed and trialled in the second half of 2010 in the context of the assessment of 13 information technology (IT) service management processes at two different customer sites. The material is of special value to service managers in companies that have outsourced IT service management processes to external IT service providers.
Details
Keywords
Sofia Lachhab, Tina Šegota, Alastair M. Morrison and J. Andres Coca-Stefaniak
Crisis management has developed as an established field of scholarly research in tourism over the last three decades. More recently, the concept of resilience has emerged within…
Abstract
Purpose
Crisis management has developed as an established field of scholarly research in tourism over the last three decades. More recently, the concept of resilience has emerged within this body of literature as a longer-term planning process. However, important knowledge gaps remain, especially with regards to the strategic responses of small tourism businesses in destinations prone to repeated crises.
Design/methodology/approach
This chapter reviews the literature related to crisis management and resilience in tourism.
Findings
Key knowledge gaps are outlined and discussed in the context of tourism research related to crisis management and resilience, with a specific emphasis on research related to small tourism businesses.
Originality
Although crisis management and resilience are fields of research that continue to generate a considerable amount of scholarly enquiry in tourism, particularly with studies related to the impacts of terrorism on tourism destinations and, more recently, the short- and longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism, there is very little research related to the role of small tourism businesses in this context, in spite of their key role in the tourism system of destinations around the world.
Details
Keywords
Roshini Nandasena, Alastair M. Morrison and J. Andres Coca-Stefaniak
This paper aims to examine critically the literature on transformational tourism and explore a research agenda for a post-COVID future.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine critically the literature on transformational tourism and explore a research agenda for a post-COVID future.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review of the transformational tourism literature is performed over a 42-year period from 1978 to 2020.
Findings
Further research is required in terms of how transformative experiences should be calibrated and measured both in qualitative and quantitative terms, particularly from the perspective of how tourists are transformed by their experiences. Similarly, the nature and depth of these transformative processes remain poorly understood, particularly given the many different types of tourism associated with transformative experiences, which range from religious pilgrimages to backpacking and include several forms of ecotourism.
Practical implications
Future research directions for transformational tourism are discussed with regard to how COVID-19 will transform the dynamics of tourism and travel, including the role of new smart technologies in the creation of enhanced transformational experiences, and the changing expectations and perceptions of transformative travel in the post-COVID era. In addition, the researchers call for future studies on transformational tourism to explore the role of host communities in the delivery of meaningful visitor experiences.
Originality/value
Transformational tourism is an emerging body of research, which has attracted a growing level of interest among tourism scholars in recent years. However, to this date, a systematic review of published literature in this field has not been conducted yet in a holistic sense. This paper offers a framework for future research in this field.
Details
Keywords
Alastair Tombs and Sally Rao Hill
The primary objective of this article is to investigate customer reactions to service employees with accents that differ from a non-native accent taking into account customer…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary objective of this article is to investigate customer reactions to service employees with accents that differ from a non-native accent taking into account customer emotions.
Design/methodology/approach
This article reports on a study with a 2 (accent of service employee: Australian or Indian) × 2 (service employee’s competency: competent or incompetent) × 2 (customer’s affective state: positive or negative) between-subject experimental design to uncover the effects of service employees’ accent on customers’ reactions.
Findings
The findings revealed that hearing a service employee with a foreign accent was not enough on its own to influence customer responses. However, when the service employee is incompetent or the customer was in a negative affective state, a foreign accent appeared to exacerbate the situation.
Research limitations/implications
While the findings indicate that accents are used a cue for customers to evaluate service employees, further research should also take service types, service outcomes, customer-service employee relationships, customers’ ethnic affiliation and ethnocentrism into consideration when examining the effect of accents.
Practical implications
Service managers need to be aware that accents will exacerbate perceptions of already difficult service situations. Providing competent service will help breakdown stereotypes and improve the acceptance of diversity at the customer–employee interface.
Originality/value
This article contributes to the service literature about service attributes and is particularly relevant to economies such as the USA, Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Australia where immigrants are a large part of the service work force.
Details
Keywords
Joseph Bashouri and Glen William Duncan
This theoretical paper aims to develop a model of how best to facilitate projects knowledge sharing within architectural firms to learn from lessons and improve the firm…
Abstract
Purpose
This theoretical paper aims to develop a model of how best to facilitate projects knowledge sharing within architectural firms to learn from lessons and improve the firm innovation capabilities, knowledge and skills.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual framework is developed by reviewing the literature in the fields of knowledge management (KM), the project-based organisation and communities of practice (CoPs) and linking these to the literature on the architectural firm.
Findings
In the architectural firm, KM strategy needs to be linked to the overall business strategy determining the balance of codification/personalisation. The firm needs to be structured as a double-knit organisation connecting projects with CoPs. This structure creates a social network that allows sharing the useful and innovative knowledge created through the design process. Success depends on building a knowledge environment, providing organisational support and building a learning architecture within projects. A balanced combination of information and communication technologies, lessons-learned, storytelling, conversational learning and dialogue are needed as knowledge sharing methods.
Originality/value
This paper's originality is in constructing a conceptual framework or model for knowledge sharing within the architectural firm with CoPs at the heart of that model. This paper is valuable to any architectural practice that aims to protect its reputation, improve its performance and increase its innovative knowledge base. It is also valuable to the construction industry by helping to minimise design mistakes and the consequent cost of construction rework.
Details
Keywords
Explores the existing law in relation to bullying in the workplace and attempts to determine how effective it is in offering legal redress and protection to the victim. Considers…
Abstract
Explores the existing law in relation to bullying in the workplace and attempts to determine how effective it is in offering legal redress and protection to the victim. Considers whether it is time that the UK introduced specific legislation to deal with such behaviour, citing other European countries, particularly Sweden and Norway as possessing examples of potential legislation. Seeks to answer the question, should the UK follow their lead and legislate in this area?