Joseph KK Ho's work diary

For the class on Research in IT (Seminars 1 and 2), pls pay attention to the following notes: Seminar 1 tasks: I make use of Saunders et al (edition 5) and provide the following questions for review: Question 4.3: "Why are the radical paradigms relevant in business  and management research given that most managers would say that the purpose of organisational investigation is to develop recommendations  for action to solve problems without radical change?" Question 4.4: "You have chosen to undertake your research project following the deductive approach. What factors may cause you to work inductively, although working deductively is your preferred choice?" Related note: Also note the blog on academic publishers : http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/12/major-websites-of-academic-publishers.html   Seminar 2 tasks:  On the topic of Information Systems as a subject and as a discipline, pls refer to: Checkland an...

Quite a number of my final year project supervision for the Building Services Engineering students is related to energy saving approaches as applied in Buildings. Such approaches should be reviewed in the Chapter of Literature Review in Dissertation Reports. Subsequently, these energy saving approaches should drive the Research Design of the dissertation projects. As to the Research Designs of the projects, they should be explained and justified in the Chapter "Research Methods". Here I want to provide some information on Energy Saving Approaches in Built Environment as references: Systems approaches (pdf): http://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2010/data/papers/2011.pdf PMV index approach: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132396000273 Energy saving measures: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132396000273 A middle out approach (pdf): http://www.climateaccess.org/sites/default/files/Janda_A%20middle%20out%20approach.pdf Energy...

My Strategic Financial Management students need to study Apple Computers in their case study. I have the impression that some of them are not familiar with the thinking and leadership style of Steve Jobs. I provide some youtube links about Steve Jobs as follows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc  (Steve Jobs at Stanford U) Steve Jobs ans Bill Gates on stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLraZy0eRhs&feature=related  (1983) Steve Jobs's joke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv1pvRDFFqs&feature=related Steve Jobs on a secret: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QztwBzcVaw&feature=related Rules for success: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRoHtUjIkmY&feature=related Steve Jobs on Quality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrS7JQv-zgY Managing people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60dheI4ARg&feature=related

For the coming lecture (lecture 2) of Research in IT , I will cover the following readings: Methods of social research (Bailey): Chapter 3: Constructing social explanations Research Concepts for Management Studies (Thomas): Chapter 3: Theory and Management Studies Also refer to https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150215071217090.357691.713727089&type=3  for examples of theoretical frameworks Research Methods for Business Students (Saunders et al):  Chapter 3: Critically reviewing the literature Information Systems Action Research (Kock[editor]): Chapter 1: Action Research by Checkland and Holwell. The hypothesis-testing research process of natural science The cycle of action research in human situations The process of action research: a. enter the problem situation; b. establish roles; c. declare Methodology and Framework; d. take part in change prcess; e. exit; f. reflect on experience and record learning Case study Research Method (Yin, 1989: c...

For my last Strategic Financial Management lecture, I will mainly covers the followings: Innovation and entrepreneurship: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/03/innovation-and-entrepreneurship.html Hypercompetition Enterprise Risk Management Assignment tasks - discussion. References On hypercompetition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercompetition Related facebook forum on innovation and entrepreneurship: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/275915824054/ D'Aveni, R.A. (1995) "Coping with hypercompetition: Utilizing the new 7S's framework" Academy of Management Executive , Vol. 9(3), pp. 45-60

I have been recently appointed as the course leader of a BA (Hons) (Housing) for a UK University and I am now recruiting part-time teaching staff on this new programme (to be launched in early 2013). Anyone in the Housing profession (e.g. CIH) who is interested in part-time teaching, pls send cv to me (josephho33@yahoo.com.hk) for consideration.

The second set of Corporate Governance topics includes: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/04/ceo-selection-and-succession-planning.html http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/04/compliance-and-risk-management-in.html http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/04/board-of-directors-involvement-in.html Students need to study the respective chapters before attending the class.

The following academic forums in facebook are maintained by me (altogether 17 forums) - an update: ·        Global Business Management: https://www.facebook.com/josephho33#!/groups/277360354171/ ·        Company secretaryship and administration: https://www.facebook.com/josephho33#!/groups/101268536591624/ ·        Social Sciences: https://www.facebook.com/josephho33#!/groups/125235494183216/ ·        Hospitality and Tourism Management: https://www.facebook.com/josephho33#!/groups/309682730258/ ·        Built environment study: https://www.facebook.com/josephho33#!/groups/178966298896032/ ·        Information Technology management: https://www.facebook.com/josephho33#!/groups/316183782575/ ·        Accounting and Finance: https://www.facebook.com/josephho33#!/g...

Students of Research in IT (NCC), pls be reminded that your tutorials 1 and 2 tasks are as follows: Tutorial 1: Related note for tutorial 1: Tutorial 2 tasks: Related notes for tutorial 2 tasks  Groups 2 and 3 reports need to follow the structure below: When doing your tutorial tasks, it is useful to refer to the facebook forum on IT management to get some ideas on ICT issues, topics and concerns (re: https://www.facebook.com/josephho33?ref=tn_tnmn#!/groups/316183782575/ ). It is also useful to do some google and elibrary search so as to be informed on some ICT theories to use. In my diagrams above, I have made use of Soft Systems Methodology notions to elaborate on the tutorial tasks. In the tutorial class (#2), I will make use of the following article for the class discussion of tutorial tasks: Balocco, R. and Miragliotta, G. (2011) "Research Paper: RFId adoption in the FMCG supply chain: an interpretative framework...

To facilitate the organization of e-learning material and its delivery to my students, I launch a new facebook forum on Built Environment study . The link is as follows: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150150912762090.340626.713727089&type=3#!/groups/178966298896032/ I will gather more relevant materials in this forum in due course.

It so happens that I have recently been invited to be the course leader on a BA (Hon) Housing programme [top up one].The programme has the following subjects: The Housing Professional: 2 Contemporary Housing Policy Geographical Imaginations Housing difference and Diversity Dissertation. I notice that there is a Master of Housing Management offered by the Faculty of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong, and that HKU Space offers a Professional Dilploma in Housing Management . The related professional body is the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH). References CIH: http://www.cih.org/ Inside housing magazine: http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/ Facebook forum on Built Environment study: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/178966298896032/ Chiu, L.H. (editor) (2006) Professional Housing Management Practices in Hong Kong, HK University Press Housing, Theory and Society , Routledge (academic journal) Housing Studies , Routledge (academic journal) Habitat Internat...

Student A asked: do I have to write an acknowledgement in my dissertation. Professor Ho: It is not compulsory; I would recommend you to do so. Student A: But all my data are secondary data, and I did not contact people for filling in questionnaires or for an interview? So, I have nobody to thank for.. Professor Ho: You could still thank for your family's support or God... Student A: Really? Professor Ho: Yes, indeed!

In recent academic board meetings, I came across some questions from students, which are typical; the answers from schools are also classical. I recap them here: Students: I am not happy to attend classes on Saturdays and Sundays. I am sure so from work and I am not able to spare time to spend with my family... can the centre do something about it? School Admin: Not feasible.. the Degree programme is intensive and we need to maintain a required level of study contents, and academic standards..  Indeed, many MBA programmes hold classes on Saturdays and Sundays... thus, you have to make do with it..... Professor Ho: I have seen students posting in facebooks that they are sleepy during those sessions. I advise them to bring along a pillow with them to the class..  The other thing is: students should not rely solely on attending classes to learn their taught subjects; they should do more pre-readings before the classes.. by doing so, they will not feel so tired to pick up tota...

There are two questions: Question 1: why study for professional accounting exam? Because, if you want to be the CFOs of companies, especially of listed cos, you need to be a qualified accountant.. Question 2: Why should I study the professional exam of this accounting body and not that one? Because, if you study this one, you get a lot of exemptions to study for another one; and if you pass all the exam of this one, you automatically gain the membership of another one, which is very prestigious... Question 3: How about study for that one in this case? That one is good... because you only need to submit a dissertation report to gain membership of that one on condition that you are already a full member of this one... A few years later, you get a business name card with lots of professional titles and academic qualifications... there are other benefits of gaining these professsional qualifications.. For some students, these are important career goals to pursue.... These are...

From the study of the topics covered in the presentation requirements of Strategic Financial Management, I note the following 3 key concepts and provide following information for students' reference: Strategic position http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/cid_tg_strategic_position_mar08.pdf.pdf Distinctive competences / unique resources http://www.enotes.com/distinctive-competence-reference/distinctive-competence http://www.di.net/articles/archive/1980/ ; also watch video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0IXEFZJsv0&feature=related ; another video on resource based view (video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KN81_oYl1s&feature=related Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Framework: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_risk_management http://www.coso.org/documents/coso_erm_executivesummary.pdf The concept of Critical Success Factors has been covered in another blog note. Below is a handwritten note based on Prahalad and Hamel on core ...

Some students and lecturers ask me this question "Where is Cityedu ?" and "Does Cityedu still exist?" ... Simply, it is in our heart. If you think it is there, it is still there.. all around you... and in our heart and memory.. It sounds too abstract, right? Let me provide you with the following links which can be considered as the relics of the centre.   For the Global Business Management (GBM) programme, I represent Cityedu's GBM programme and I am still active in teaching and research. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150241824722090.372205.713727089&type=3 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150254293227090.376125.713727089&type=3 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150234277957090.370023.713727089&type=3 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150151109492090.340708.713727089&type=3 https://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=713727089#!/media/set/?set=a.10150098233967090.311892.713727089&type=3 ...

There are several techniques on how to make an ineffective oral presentation on assignment/ dissertation report: Come to the presentation venue late for 10 minutes and complain about the traffic jam; also make sure that the phone number you provide to the education centre is invalid so that the academic staff is not able to contact you before the presentation session. Struggle to read out the notes from a piece of paper and then ask the lecturer if you could make your presentation in Cantonese instead of English Just read out descriptive content about your subject matter in a monotonous tone without explicitly explaining your dissertation aims, literature review findings, research design, key findings and recommendations. When reading out the content from your piece of note, always look at the computer monitor. Try to struggle to pronounciate some of the words in your notes, e.g. "perspective" so that the lecturer cannot follow your line of reasoning (which is very diso...

I have heard about it a few times; according to the academic thinking, team works and group assignments develop students' skills to work as a team with other classmates. I am sure that it sometimes does that. However, in many cases, the experience to work as a team with classmates is terrible: some of the team-mates are not motivated to study, some are not capable intellectually. The frequent unproductive team meetings consume a lot of your previous study time, which you could otherwise employ to do your own individual assignments or do more readings by yourself. What is worse, all the other good quality classmates could have been reserved by other classmates and you are left to work with the incapable ones. As a result, your academic performance and learning process is much spoilt by these incapable and uncommitted classmates. Another problem is the conflict arising from the peer assessment of team-member contribution to group assignments. If the whole idea of group works is to ...

The following are highlights on the assignment tasks required on the subject of Research in IT . The requirements will be further explained in workshops. [this requirement is now replaced by a new one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/224504317660848/#!/photo.php?fbid=10150976562302090&set=o.224504317660848&type=1&theater ] Reference: RIT_Combined_Assignment_March 2012_Final

My recommended readings for Research in Information Technology class are as follows: Adams, J., Khan, H.T.A., Raeside, R. and White, D. (2007) "Chapter 3: The Research Cycle" Research Methods for Graduate Business and Social Science Students , Response (SAGE). Adams, J., Khan, H.T.A., Raeside, R. and White, D. (2007) "Chapter 12: Correlation and Regression" Research Methods for Graduate Business and Social Science Students , Response (SAGE). Bailey, K.D. (1994) "Chapter 3: Constructing  Social Explanations" Methods of Social Research , The Free Press. Baldwin, L.P., Irani, Z. and Love, P.E.D. (2001) "Outsourincg information systems: drawing lessons from a banking case study" European Journal of Information Systems 10, 15-24. Checkland, P. and Holwell, S. (1998) "Chapter 2: Information Systems: The Anatomy of a Confusion" Information, Systems and Information Systems , Wiley. Checkland, P. and Holwell, S. (1998) "Chapter 3:...

Some years ago, I had a student in my Information Systems degree programme. His full-time job was an English teacher. One day, he asked me to offer him a motto which he intended to incorporate into his books on English language.. the student was quite interesting. Below is the motto from me with his book cover:

The following is a list of enhanced notes on Research in IT (extracted): http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/04/internet-links-related-to-research.html  (part 1) http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/05/extracted-enhanced-notes-research.html  (part 2)  ( http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/05/extracted-enhanced-lecture-notes-on.html  (part 3) http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/05/extracted-enhanced-notes-on-research.html  (part 4) http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/05/extracted-enhanced-notes-on-research_01.html  (part 5) http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/05/extracted-enhanced-notes-on-research_1638.html  (part 6) http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/05/extracted-enhanced-notes-on-research_5823.html  (part 7) http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/05/extracted-enhanced-note-on-research.html  (part 8) Students studying this subject should join the course forum: ...

The following extracted enhanced note on Research Methods in IT (Part 8) covers the theme of Future Development : E xample 1   Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf7HxU0ZR_Q&feature=related   What is Internet of things , in your own words? Example 2   Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soLSjDj-FHI&feature=related   What are the 5 mobile trends identified in the video? Could you think of 1 more mobile trend for 2012? Example 3 - technological forecasting     Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_forecasting Example 4: journals on technological forecasting   1. Futures, published by Pergamon 2. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, published by Elsevier 3. Technovation , published by Pergamon Reference Related blog article on socio-technical systems and innovation: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/05/socio-technical-systems-dynamics.html

The following extracted enhanced note is on Research Methods in IT (part 7). The theme is Information Technology Development : Example 1 - digital convergence   Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_convergence   Example 2: VOIP   Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q_BrQpZfFE&feature=related     Example 3: VPN   Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q7bj3dNbR8&feature=related   Example 4: GIS Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5s8kbEdB68 Example 5: email management   Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZNpk5hjS3A   Question: What are the main challenges email management as identified in the video?   Example 6: phishing     Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRcv1OlmKVw

The following extracted enhanced note is on Research Methods in IT (Part 6). The theme is Information Systems in an organizational context : Example 1 - groupware   Links:   A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYpCXLD934A&feature=related   B: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLmbUOoY6pw&feature=related be.com/watch?v=XLmbUOoY6pw&feature=related   Question: What are the main business values of using a groupware product for a company that you are familiar with?   Example 2 - business process management     Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YXqnEXnnBk   Also refer the following link on further information of BPM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_management   Example 3 - ERP Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTkLgDlrjKs&feature=related Does the video clearly explain the main functions of an ERP system?     Example 4 - CRM   Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?...