The purpose of this study was to investigate how pension funds use charts in popular reports. Popular reports communicate a fund’s financial health to non-technical audiences, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate how pension funds use charts in popular reports. Popular reports communicate a fund’s financial health to non-technical audiences, and often contain charts, tables, and other graphical elements. Do these graphics meet audiences’ information needs and align with chart best practices?
Design/methodology/approach
This study focused on the 60 retirement funds receiving a 2021 popular report award from the Government Finance Officers Association. The author analyzed each graphic’s topic and design.
Findings
Most funds presented key topics (such as funding rate and portfolio return), but they generally lacked helpful benchmarks or peer comparisons. A total of 30% of reports had one or more broken charts, where their visual elements did not match the underlying data. A total of 70% of the reports contained at least one badly designed chart. These design flaws included non-zero (truncated) axes, hidden non-zero axes and misleading 3D perspectives.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine chart quality in pension fund popular reports.
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Nathan Garrett, Brian Thoms, Nimer Alrushiedat and Terry Ryan
The purpose of this paper is to show the practicality of a new portfolio design that incorporates distributed content, emphasizes student ownership, encourages social learning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show the practicality of a new portfolio design that incorporates distributed content, emphasizes student ownership, encourages social learning, and acknowledges the central importance of ease of use.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach's practicality is demonstrated through survey results and usage logs from two case studies.
Findings
Students enjoy using this system, and report that its social aspects improve their academic performance and motivation. They also report it as being more social than their past experiences with BlackBoard.
Originality/value
The paper provides support for a vision of distributed educational software centered on portfolios, anchored by course tools, connected to assessment outcomes, and opened for public learning.
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Helen C. Barrett and Nathan Garrett
The purpose of this article is to outline a vision for digital stories of development, or online personal learning environments, which may eventually replace what we currently…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to outline a vision for digital stories of development, or online personal learning environments, which may eventually replace what we currently call “electronic portfolios” in education.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual article that provides a lifelong, life‐wide perspective on electronic portfolios based on the authors' research, focusing on some of the issues that need to be addressed to make this vision a reality.
Findings
Based on the concept of “lifetime personal web space,” this online archive of a life's collection of reflections, memories, digital artefacts and memorabilia, both personal and professional, has the potential to change the current paradigm of electronic portfolios, mostly institution‐bound, and focus instead on the individual or the family as the center for creating a digital archive, which can be used in a variety of contexts across the lifespan, from schools to universities to the workplace. Finally, this archive can be used to develop personal histories and reflective narratives to preserve our stories for future generations. A possible scenario is followed by the challenges faced when developing this service for widespread dissemination. This is not a formal research paper with analysis, discussion or results. The paper is meant to provide a vision or future direction for electronic portfolios that could be stored in the internet “cloud” for a lifetime and beyond.
Practical implications
This paper encourages individuals as well as institutions to explore new ways to construct electronic portfolios in the Internet “cloud” so that the owner of the portfolio has access across their lifespan. This paper could also be used by Web 2.0 developers to improve the development of tools, making them more useable and accessible across the lifespan, from early readers to the elderly.
Originality/value
This paper provides a future vision of the potential for cloud computing to be used as a lifetime store of memories and digital memorabilia, as well as a broader vision of the electronic portfolio process across the lifespan.
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Jonathan Reeve, Isabelle Zaugg and Tian Zheng
As data-driven tools increasingly shape our life and tech ethics crises become strikingly frequent, data ethics coursework is urgently needed. The purpose of this study is to map…
Abstract
Purpose
As data-driven tools increasingly shape our life and tech ethics crises become strikingly frequent, data ethics coursework is urgently needed. The purpose of this study is to map the field of data ethics curricula, tracking relations between courses, instructors, texts and writers, and present a proof-of-concept interactive website for exploring these relations. This method is designed to be used in curricular research and development and provides multiple vantage points on this multidisciplinary field.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use data science methods to foster insights about the field of data ethics education and literature. The authors present a semantic, linked open data graph in the Resource Description Framework, along with proof-of-concept analyses and an exploratory website. Its framework is open-source and language-agnostic, providing the seed for future contributions of code, syllabi and resources from the global data ethics community.
Findings
This method provides a convenient means of exploring an overview of the field of data ethics’ social and textual relations. For educators designing or refining a course, the authors provide a method for curricular introspection and discovery of transdisciplinary curricula.
Research limitations/implications
The syllabi the authors have collected are self-selected and represent only a subset of the field. Furthermore, this method exclusively represents a course’s assigned literature rather than a holistic view of what courses teach. The authors present a prototype rather than a finished product.
Originality/value
This curricular survey provides a new way of modeling a field of study, using existing ontologies to organize graph data into a comprehensible overview. This framework may be repurposed to map the institutional knowledge structures of other disciplines, as well.
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THE Garrett Corporation, Los Angeles‐based unit of Allied‐Signal Inc., is marking its 50th anniversary during 1986.
The libraries of British industrial firms are traced from their beginnings in the chemical industry in the last thirty years of the nineteenth century till 1939, by which date…
Abstract
The libraries of British industrial firms are traced from their beginnings in the chemical industry in the last thirty years of the nineteenth century till 1939, by which date they had spread to many branches of industry and had been recognized as an important part of the industrial and library worlds, thus establishing standard patterns of work. The origins and significance of Aslib are discussed.
This study aims to examine the role of blockchain technology (BCT) in trust in financial reporting (TFR) and the use of smart contracts (USC). It aims to ascertain the mediating…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the role of blockchain technology (BCT) in trust in financial reporting (TFR) and the use of smart contracts (USC). It aims to ascertain the mediating role of USC in the relationship between BCT and TFR, thereby contributing to the limited empirical literature in this domain.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a sample of the accountants’ familiarity with BCT, a structural equation model was constructed and analyzed using AMOS 24. The model proposes and tests relationships between BCT, USC and TFR.
Findings
The study highlights BCT’s significant positive influence on TFR, with USC mediating this effect. It provides empirical evidence that supports the transformative potential of BCT and USC in enhancing TFR.
Practical implications
These findings have significant implications for practitioners, regulatory bodies and policymakers. By highlighting the effectiveness of BCT and USC in fostering TFR, the study makes one aware of strategies to mitigate financial malpractices. It promotes the adoption of BCT in accounting practices.
Originality/value
This study addresses a gap in the literature by investigating the complex interplay of BCT, USC and TFR. It offers a unique perspective by exploring the mediating role of USC, thereby enhancing our understanding of the mechanisms through which BCT can foster TFR.
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Luminita Hurbean, Louie H.M. Wong, Carol XJ Ou, Robert M. Davison and Octavian Dospinescu
The authors investigate the relationship between instant messenger (IM) use and work performance, mediated by interruptions and two key indicators of the stress associated with…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors investigate the relationship between instant messenger (IM) use and work performance, mediated by interruptions and two key indicators of the stress associated with technology use: overload and complexity.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors validate this research model using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with data collected through a survey of 416 working professionals.
Findings
The data reveal that while IM use contributes minimally to work interruptions and to a greater extent to technological complexity, these two constructs fully mediate the direct influence of IM use at work on technology overload, and meanwhile significantly and directly contribute to work performance.
Research limitations/implications
This research provides theoretical insights into the deployment of IM and its actual impacts in the workplace. To improve the generalisation of the findings, the authors call for more IM-related research in other countries, with more native theories and various methodologies in this domain.
Practical implications
The level of stress generated through IM use is moderate, considering IM is not a significant contributor to work interruptions. Thus, despite the potential negative effects of IM communication, the positive effects of using IM at work prevail. As a result, the technology can be promoted as long as employees, their managers and the organisation as a whole are well prepared. Employees can transfer skills and behaviour from the personal setting to their work environment and thus may find an intrinsic motivation to make better use of the IM technology at work.
Originality/value
The authors argue that this research model is novel for its perspective on evaluating the actual impacts of IM use at work instead of the reasons of using it. The authors conceptualise the process to explain how IM contributes to interruptions and other technostress indicators in the working context, and the impact on performance. Contrary to some prior research, the authors find that overall IM applications do not have a negative impact on work performance, and instead may enhance it.
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Pengzhen Yin, Carol X.J. Ou, Robert M. Davison and Jie Wu
The overload effects associated with the use of mobile information and communication technologies (MICTs) in the workplace have become increasingly prevalent. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
The overload effects associated with the use of mobile information and communication technologies (MICTs) in the workplace have become increasingly prevalent. The purpose of this paper is to examine the overload effects of using MICTs at work on employees’ job satisfaction, and explore the corresponding coping strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is grounded on the cognitive load theory and the coping model of user adaptation. The overload antecedents and coping strategies are integrated into one model. Theoretical hypotheses are tested with survey data collected from a sample of 178 employees at work in China.
Findings
The results indicate that information overload significantly reduces job satisfaction, while the influence of interruption overload on job satisfaction is not significant. Two coping strategies (information processing timeliness and job control assistant support) can significantly improve job satisfaction. Information processing timeliness significantly moderates the relationships between two types of overload effects and job satisfaction. Job control assistant support also significantly moderates the relationship between interruption overload and job satisfaction.
Practical implications
This study suggests that information overload and interruption overload could constitute an important index to indicate employees’ overload level when using MICTs at work. The two coping strategies provide managers with effective ways to improve employees’ job satisfaction. By taking advantage of the moderation effects of coping strategies, managers could lower employees’ evaluation of overload to an appropriate level.
Originality/value
This study provides a comprehensive model to examine how the overload resulting from using MICTs in the workplace affects employees’ work status, and how to cope with it. Two types of overload are conceptualized and corresponding coping strategies are identified. The measurements of principal constructs are developed and empirically validated. The results provide theoretical and practical insights on human resource management and human–computer interaction.