Common solutions for knowledge management generally depend on databases or text base searches. Th... more Common solutions for knowledge management generally depend on databases or text base searches. This paper presents a new approach to knowledge management--treemaps. This approach allows employees to search for expertise in specific areas and give them multiple employees to contact for that knowledge, ranked by a self-assessment of their knowledge. Additionally the same knowledge measurement tool provides managers and human resources an easy summary that allows them to view organizational knowledge gaps and training opportunities. This paper explores the feasibility of using treemapping technology to create the first step in a knowledge management program. Treemaps are graphic visualizations of large sets of information with many hierarchical levels. Treemaps were created for the knowledge held by a leading supplier of mechanical and electromechanical systems to the automotive, transportation, and office furniture industries. The methods used to create the treemaps will be discussed,...
Abstract In this article, we describe a process for applying sentiment analysis to accelerate the... more Abstract In this article, we describe a process for applying sentiment analysis to accelerate the identification of topics and trends in datasets of critical incident responses. Using our work applying the critical incident technique (CIT) at two hospital systems as a case study, we propose a practical methodology to identify trends in narrative data using emotional content assessment and data visualization. An overall framework is provided for engineering managers that is generalizable to other large narrative datasets, such as consumer complaints or survey results, for identifying the patterns in narrative responses more quickly and economically than by manual reviews.
Resilience benefits from the use of protective factors, as opposed to risk factors, which are ass... more Resilience benefits from the use of protective factors, as opposed to risk factors, which are associated with vulnerability. Considerable research and instrument development has been conducted in clinical settings for patients. The need existed for an instrument to be developed in a workplace setting to measure resilience of employees. This study developed and tested a resilience instrument for employees in the workplace. The research instrument was distributed to executives and nurses working in the United States in hospital settings. Five-hundred-forty completed and usable responses were obtained. The instrument contained an inventory of workplace resilience, a job stress questionnaire, and relevant demographics. The resilience items were written based on previous work by the lead author and inspired by Weick's [1] sense-making theory. A four-factor model yielded an instrument having psychometric properties showing good model fit. Twenty items were retained for the resulting W...
Management Systems Laboratories (MSL) has worked with the US Department of Energy (DOE) and sever... more Management Systems Laboratories (MSL) has worked with the US Department of Energy (DOE) and several of its contractors as they understand and assess the DOE culture change and change the contractor culture to serve DOE's needs. Primarily, these contractors have been those whose responsibilities include starting up and operating weapons materials facilities. The number and scope of these activities have
Managers can exploit the similarities of culture management and efforts to improve productivity a... more Managers can exploit the similarities of culture management and efforts to improve productivity and quality because they both rely on values and traditions. Both are continuous, valve-driven processes requiring daily monitoring and evaluation. And both demand strong effective leadership and commitment from all employees. We must shift from organizations that strive for productivity and quality in their final products and
The critical incident technique was used successfully to assess a bottom-up view of the culture o... more The critical incident technique was used successfully to assess a bottom-up view of the culture of a healthcare organization.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to extract lessons and implications for managers in dece... more Abstract: The purpose of this article is to extract lessons and implications for managers in decentralized operations who seek to integrate their organizational culture across all operations. This is accomplished via a case study of the role of culture measurement and resultant action planning in a regional healthcare system in the midwest United States. The system's vision was to provide a seamless patient experience everywhere in the system. Managers in engineering and technical organizations having decentralized functions can learn from this system's experience in using culture measurement to support organizational system integration.
PICMET '07 - 2007 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering & Technology, 2007
ABSTRACT Supplier evaluation is critical to managing an organization's supply base. Key t... more ABSTRACT Supplier evaluation is critical to managing an organization's supply base. Key to that evaluation is portraying the information graphically. Organizations with large supply bases find traditional methods are overwhelmed with large datasets. A tier 1 automotive supplier's quality system tracked eight performance measures for its many divisions and plants within the divisions. Each plant had a multitude of suppliers. Even when pivot tables, and pivot charts were used, the effective representation of that information wasn't accomplished through spreadsheets. Treemapping is a data visualization technology that makes efficient use of space and allows very large hierarchies to be displayed in their entirety. It sorts data using a user-defined hierarchy and displays data to meet the user's needs and decision making style. This paper provides a case study on the use of treemaps as a supplier performance rating system. The system was presented to users of the Excel-based system and their perceptions and evaluations of the treemap system were analyzed. They found the treemap system provided them with better information, made their job easier, and allowed for a full representation of supplier performance. Users were also appreciative of the ability to "drill down" on details of specific suppliers.
Common solutions for knowledge management generally depend on databases or text base searches. Th... more Common solutions for knowledge management generally depend on databases or text base searches. This paper presents a new approach to knowledge management--treemaps. This approach allows employees to search for expertise in specific areas and give them multiple employees to contact for that knowledge, ranked by a self-assessment of their knowledge. Additionally the same knowledge measurement tool provides managers and human resources an easy summary that allows them to view organizational knowledge gaps and training opportunities. This paper explores the feasibility of using treemapping technology to create the first step in a knowledge management program. Treemaps are graphic visualizations of large sets of information with many hierarchical levels. Treemaps were created for the knowledge held by a leading supplier of mechanical and electromechanical systems to the automotive, transportation, and office furniture industries. The methods used to create the treemaps will be discussed,...
Abstract In this article, we describe a process for applying sentiment analysis to accelerate the... more Abstract In this article, we describe a process for applying sentiment analysis to accelerate the identification of topics and trends in datasets of critical incident responses. Using our work applying the critical incident technique (CIT) at two hospital systems as a case study, we propose a practical methodology to identify trends in narrative data using emotional content assessment and data visualization. An overall framework is provided for engineering managers that is generalizable to other large narrative datasets, such as consumer complaints or survey results, for identifying the patterns in narrative responses more quickly and economically than by manual reviews.
Resilience benefits from the use of protective factors, as opposed to risk factors, which are ass... more Resilience benefits from the use of protective factors, as opposed to risk factors, which are associated with vulnerability. Considerable research and instrument development has been conducted in clinical settings for patients. The need existed for an instrument to be developed in a workplace setting to measure resilience of employees. This study developed and tested a resilience instrument for employees in the workplace. The research instrument was distributed to executives and nurses working in the United States in hospital settings. Five-hundred-forty completed and usable responses were obtained. The instrument contained an inventory of workplace resilience, a job stress questionnaire, and relevant demographics. The resilience items were written based on previous work by the lead author and inspired by Weick's [1] sense-making theory. A four-factor model yielded an instrument having psychometric properties showing good model fit. Twenty items were retained for the resulting W...
Management Systems Laboratories (MSL) has worked with the US Department of Energy (DOE) and sever... more Management Systems Laboratories (MSL) has worked with the US Department of Energy (DOE) and several of its contractors as they understand and assess the DOE culture change and change the contractor culture to serve DOE's needs. Primarily, these contractors have been those whose responsibilities include starting up and operating weapons materials facilities. The number and scope of these activities have
Managers can exploit the similarities of culture management and efforts to improve productivity a... more Managers can exploit the similarities of culture management and efforts to improve productivity and quality because they both rely on values and traditions. Both are continuous, valve-driven processes requiring daily monitoring and evaluation. And both demand strong effective leadership and commitment from all employees. We must shift from organizations that strive for productivity and quality in their final products and
The critical incident technique was used successfully to assess a bottom-up view of the culture o... more The critical incident technique was used successfully to assess a bottom-up view of the culture of a healthcare organization.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to extract lessons and implications for managers in dece... more Abstract: The purpose of this article is to extract lessons and implications for managers in decentralized operations who seek to integrate their organizational culture across all operations. This is accomplished via a case study of the role of culture measurement and resultant action planning in a regional healthcare system in the midwest United States. The system's vision was to provide a seamless patient experience everywhere in the system. Managers in engineering and technical organizations having decentralized functions can learn from this system's experience in using culture measurement to support organizational system integration.
PICMET '07 - 2007 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering & Technology, 2007
ABSTRACT Supplier evaluation is critical to managing an organization's supply base. Key t... more ABSTRACT Supplier evaluation is critical to managing an organization's supply base. Key to that evaluation is portraying the information graphically. Organizations with large supply bases find traditional methods are overwhelmed with large datasets. A tier 1 automotive supplier's quality system tracked eight performance measures for its many divisions and plants within the divisions. Each plant had a multitude of suppliers. Even when pivot tables, and pivot charts were used, the effective representation of that information wasn't accomplished through spreadsheets. Treemapping is a data visualization technology that makes efficient use of space and allows very large hierarchies to be displayed in their entirety. It sorts data using a user-defined hierarchy and displays data to meet the user's needs and decision making style. This paper provides a case study on the use of treemaps as a supplier performance rating system. The system was presented to users of the Excel-based system and their perceptions and evaluations of the treemap system were analyzed. They found the treemap system provided them with better information, made their job easier, and allowed for a full representation of supplier performance. Users were also appreciative of the ability to "drill down" on details of specific suppliers.
Uploads
Papers by Larry Mallak