LEB603 Task 1a

LEB603 Managing Human Resource in eBusiness Environments

Task 1a: Collection of References

Topic 1: Work and Organisation in eBusiness

Alter S. 2002, Information Systems: The Foundation of E-Business,

4th/International Edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

This book coverage of the e-Business work system framework, system-related

principles, and the general topic of the following topics:
 How to think about systems from a business viewpoint?
 How business professionals can analyse systems for themselves?
 How to build and maintain information systems?
 The elements of a work system and business processes.
 Information and database
 Customers and products
 Human and ethical issues
 E-Business technology
 Major types of information system such as SCM, CRM, EDI, CAD, MRP and
EFT

Moreover, each part is included three cases studies to use leading e-Business
enterprises to analyse situation and problem solving solutions.

Textbooks related to information systems and e-business is often written from one of
two viewpoints: either business issues or technology as the headline. However, this
book reflects its emphasis on business even though the technology topics are covered.
That is the majority reason to choice this book as reference.

Jarvenpaa, S., Tiller, E.H. and Kirsch, L.J. 2000, ‘The Global Network
Organisation of the Future: The rise of bureaucracy and long-term contractual
relationships’, in Information Technology and the Future Enterprise: New Models
for managers, Dickson, G.W, and DeSanctis, G.,Prentice Hall, New Jersey, pp239-
260.

This paper is written by three professors in states (University of Texas at Austin and
University of Pittsburgh). It started to describe the change of environment from
hierarchical structure to dynamic structure. The major changes of virtual managing
system those are capable of quick action than traditional methods. These virtual teams
permeated traditional boundaries and interfaces and provided a highly dynamic
knowledge base. The authors believed that Internet presents more contracting hazards.
In the reality world, the new economy is faceless potential partners who have no
obvious commitment to a long-term business relationship.

This article have many future work and organisation in e-business industry, that
covered implications, organisational structures, e-business and the network model, the
dynamic network model and globalisation.

Galen Hsieh ID: 4074343

LEB603 Task 1a

TechRepublic, Inc. 2002, ‘Dream Development: Staff mentoring’, ZDNet Australia,

URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/hr/story/0,2000024989,20270338,00.htm

E-business and IT both are fast growing industries, organisations’ culture change all
the time due to technology upgrading. The author is an IT manager from
TechRepublic (e-business firm in states) who create his own version of SWOT as
TOWS to develop his staff and support both organisational and departmental values.
The SWOT as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats comes from an old
term in the strategic planning field. The author used TOWS to help employees in IT
department during culture change when moved from sole controllers to an expanded
and shared role within the organisation. When organisation changed their business
culture, it may lose some clients as usual. The author used TOWS to treat employees
to keep key clients as win-win solution. It sounds who really create a dream team.

Topic 2: People in eBusiness

Alboreca, J.Q. and Arboledas, J.R.P. 2001, ‘The Importance of People in E-

business’ URL:
http://www.ebcenter.org/english/content/articulos/01_06_articulos_epeople_01.
html

The new economy is defining a new labour market where the relation between the
employers in the employee is being modified. One of the fundamental challenges in
this field is about e-HRM management; in other words, how is e-business going to
influence the management of people? What competences will be necessary? How will
work be organised in e-business? The problems of how to manage people in e-
business is defining at three different levels: values and missions, working and
managing and human resource management systems. At the first level, value creations
that carry harmony and consistence to the organisation and how to satisfy employees’
needs. At the HRM systems level, how a company handle recruitment, selection,
training, development, compensation, appreciation of dedication, participation
systems and labour relations in e-business field. This paper provide general common
about e-people in e-business.

Cohn, M. 2002, ‘Driving Performance: Human Capital – Demands Spur HR

solutions’, InternetWorld.com URL: http://www.internetworld.com/magazine.php?
inc=090102/09.01.02human.html

Driving the performance is reported the changing of human resource department is

states workplace. It was providing a new wave of human capital management
strategies, solutions, and technologies that happened in industries right now. To solve
problems that including how US employees expect better and faster answers to their
work-related questions about benefits, and how to educate employees for new market
and skills through the Internet.

It includes some case studies to explain how US enterprises use technology to support
them. Those solution vendors such as PeopleSoft and SAP; how companies move
from paper works to Web for human capital management. The eBenefits be promoted
here to go through those vendors’ applications. This reference helped me to
understand when an enterprise moves to virtual, how they organise their e-HCM.

Galen Hsieh ID: 4074343

LEB603 Task 1a

Greengard, S. 2000, ‘Establishing Human E-Source’, BusinessFianceMag.com

URL: http://www.businessfinancemag.com/archives/appfiles/Article.cfm?
IssueID=327&ArticleID=13594&Print=Y&CurrChannel=8

Enter electronic human resources management (e-HRM), in today’s emerging digital

economy, the human resources department is quickly becoming a hub for various
corporate systems, transactions and data. In the best of circumstances, emerging
electronic tools are revolutionising the way work gets done. It is covering the
differences between traditional HRM and e-HRM. There are many enterprises found
problems when they transfer from paper works to digitalise. This article addressed
IBM when it moves to ‘e’ world. In addition, use enterprise resource plan (ERP) to
integrate e-HRM via ERP applications and think about ROI that could brought in the
future. The culture change and training improvement are become another significant
issues in e-Business world. That is how this reference meant for me to add in here.

Topic 3: The Employment Contract in eBusiness

Bahls, S.C. and Bahls, J.E. 2001, ‘Stay-in Contract’, Entrepreneur magazine. URL:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/Magazines/Copy_of_MA_SegArticle/0,4453,29112
0----1-,00.html

As many online e-business issues are targeting US market. This article is illustrated
how employment contract important in high-tech companies. One of the authors
Steven C. Bahls who is the dean of Capitol University Law School in Columbus,
Ohio, teaches entrepreneurship law. Who is trying to use this article to educate
employer and employee in how important to stay-in employment contract. As we
know that contract is an agreement. The employment contract has more than an
agreement, which also including responsibilities, compensation, bonuses, stock
options, rights to any inventions and patents, expense accounts and more. I am go
through this article to know that employment contract also useful when acquisition,
merger, takeover and selling companies, it helped to attract key employees.

Silver, J. 2002, ‘Contracts of Employment – What they mean to you’, SitePoint.com

URL: http://www.ecommercebase.com/article.php?aid=785&pid=0

The author is a virtual law practice lawyer in states; the goal of this article is
describing the differences between employees and contractors to define the meaning
of employment contract. It shows different responsibility between those two bodies,
who policies (legal) and Acts (US law) to make samples. The major different is
employees as defined here do not have contracts; hence, employees dealing with
policies with different duties.

Even though, it forced on contractors more than employees, and providing advices of
how to write agreement for contractors. Issues are including services, payment,
relationship, Inappropriate Acts, Keeping Information Confidential, Ownship of work
product (intellectual property), Non-Solicitation, Non-Compete, Representations and
Warranties, Indemnification, Termination and Term.

Galen Hsieh ID: 4074343

LEB603 Task 1a

ZDNet Australia, ‘Aust court case highlights tech threats to business info’, URL:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000024985,20269909,00.htm

I would like to add this Australia court case study as reference. This story is
happening on our everyday life that shows how employer and employee defined the
employment contract. Does the agreement between two parties clear enough, or not?

This is a court issue that related with employment contract and company’s intellectual
property in digital technology age. As the beginning of the article shows that Federal
court is highlighting the difficulties large corporations face when protecting their
intellectual property and threatens to make document management more complicated
for system administrators.

This scenario happened when Deutsche Bank is seeking damages from a former
senior executive it accuses of breaching confidentiality provisions in his employment
contract and the Corporations Act 2001 after emailing documents from the company
to his partner’s laptop. On the opposite way, this former executive, Ross Johnstone, is
seeking to have the legality of his employment contract with the bank tested by the
court. His lawyers contend that they contained information that was trivial, not
commercially valuable and available in the public domain.

I think it is an interesting issues that company’s need to ensure their confidentiality

agreements strong enough to protect their intellectual property when dealing with
senior executives and policies on use of company IT equipment.

Topic 4: Determining Human Resource Requirements

‘Employment Practices: Recruitment and Retention Policies 2002’, NSW

Department of Industrial Relations (DIR). URL:
http://www.dir.nsw.gov.au/workplace/practice/recruit.html

I found this article from “My Workplace” at the NSW state government agency –
Department of Industrial Relations’ website. It is an employment guide for employers.
These policies are covering all issues in topic 4 and 5.

It started with how to define the job - the requirements of the job, job description, idea
of applicants, and types of job (full-time, part-time or casual). Moreover, it provides
the how to attract applicants by job advertisements, how to write and so on. Each of
part have samples and related contact details. Generally, this guide is very clear to tell
an employer how to select employees. At the opposite way, it also provides
information for job seekers the definition of job types, legal requirements - equal
employment opportunity law and so on.

I think government official press is a good reference; because it always concern about
legislations and some more issues than usual.

Galen Hsieh ID: 4074343

LEB603 Task 1a

Greengard, S. 1998, ‘Power training via the web’, BusinessFianceMag.com

URL: http://www.businessfinancemag.com/archives/appfiles/Article.cfm?
IssueID=95&ArticleID=4392&Print=Y&CurrChannel=8

The web training can cut cost more than half, it sounds great in today’s high
competitive business environment. However, it also presents technical obstacles; that
is what I learn from this reference. To use virtual campus training like this course can
save huge amount and travelling times in any size of enterprises. The effectives from
online training is makes employees feel more flexible and cutting at least half of cost.
The technical problems are mostly comes from technology changing, such as
applications’ version upgrading, software bugs and so on.

It used Bell Canada as an example to describe how effectives to train employees via
the Internet and its budget. Moreover, it posted five ways to make distance learning
pay off to support its values.

Topic 5: Recruitment and Selection, Legal and Ethical Issues

Caudron, S. 1999, ’The Whole Truth About Workplace Lies’,

BusinessFianceMag.com URL:
http://www.businessfinancemag.com/archives/appfiles/Article.cfm?
IssueID=172&ArticleID=5741&Print=Y&CurrChannel=8

Cheating, it is a common ethical issue that happened anywhere. Why people lie and
how to lie are be discussed widely on this paper. It is become serious problems in
modern business environment. Most of these bad behaviours may against the law in
some countries. The real cases told us how dangerous they are. The survey on this
report shows that nearly 50 percent workers had engaged in one or more unethical
and/or illegal actions in 1996. There are four types of liars be described, also tech
managers how to discover liars from employees.

I think those problems rates in virtual organisations should be higher than traditional
business environment.

Madigan, C. O. 1998, ‘Emotional Smarts’, BusinessFianceMag.com URL:

http://www.businessfinancemag.com/archives/appfiles/Article.cfm?
IssueID=93&ArticleID=4369&Print=Y&CurrChannel=8

The ‘emotional smarts’ is related with Emotional Intelligence (EI), the article is
defining EI; its behaviours and thinking. What the different between EI and IQ? The
case study did research in 3M and Bell Lab as examples how EI to perform. Then,
more importantly is focusing business applications of EI. The US Air Force is using
emotional quotient (EQ) test to improve the failure rates. The real case studies
explained how emotional intelligence is a much more powerful predictor of success
than IQ. Since EI and EQ becoming popular in human resource management, this
article is made me to understand more of EI. The virtual workplace is different as
traditional office ammonisation. The six concepts in EI training could improve virtual
team-works more cost-effective and value-creation.

Galen Hsieh ID: 4074343

LEB603 Task 1a

Moses, B. ’Give People Belief in the future’, Workforce, June 2000, Vol. 79, No. 6,
pp. 134-141

Give people belief in the future is described how organisation helping people cope;
the related strategies and how to delivery the supports. It is part of HR strategic
management that illustrated: 1. Recognize that people are a non-renewable resource.
2. Communicate clearly and honestly. 3. Demonstrate an appreciation for individuals.
4. Live up to the new employment contract. 5. Provide opportunities for self-
assessment and self-determination.

Two of delivery programs had been discussed here: EAP (Employee Assistance
Program) and CMP (career-management program). That gave me some ideas about
how difficult to plan HR in virtual environment.

Organisations stand to gain some significant benefits from providing self-assessment

and career-planning assistance to their people. Individuals become more flexible and
adaptive. Morale and commitment are renewed.

Silver, J. 2002, ‘Legal Issues for eCommerce Business’, SitePoint.com URL:

http://www.ecommercebase.com/article.php?aid=943&pid=0

The author is the CEO and Founder of a virtual law practice firm, Coollawyer Legal
Forms in states. There are four legal issues for who plan to start business online.
These issues are including incorporation, trademark, copyright and the website. Each
issue has clear explanation, examples and related law Act to support. Evan
unfortunately those acts are in states only, however the major concepts are the same.
Trademark and copyright are related with Intellectual Property as same as most
countries. It giving tips to ask employers be sure to get agreement from contractors
about work copyrights to protect both sides. The clickwrap agreement for users, this
includes payment, age, and tax and so on; that sometimes people forget to add to
against the law.

Small, M.W. ‘Ethical Values: The ties that bind?’ Curtin Business School, Perth,
Australia. URL: http://www.wa.ipaa.org.au/papers/small.html

This reference was made to the concept of ‘alienation’ earlier in the paper as one
indicator of a society which was in danger of fragmenting and becoming ‘chaotic’. In
addition made to an Australian society, which does seem increasingly to be unaware
of or dismissive of basic human ethical values such as:

Trust, integrity, justice, honesty; and to more challenging concepts such as: moral
principles, moral standards, moral thinking, moral conscientiousness, moral
commitment, moral accountability and so on.

This paper used quite a lot Australia government and enterprises as examples; it
helped me to understand ethical values in Aussie business activities. That is the
majority reason to make me to choice this article as one of main references. I will also
make this as Topic 6’s reference.

Galen Hsieh ID: 4074343

LEB603 Task 1a

Technology & Business, 2002, ‘Online for hire’. URL:

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/hr/story/0,2000024989,20268539,00.htm

This article is downloading from ZDNet Australia, also published on Technology &
Business magazine. Online for hire is illustrated advantage and disadvantage of e-
recruitment in Australia and US. In new economy age, to hire people online is faster
turnover and cheaper than traditional newspaper advertisement; especially for IT
industry. A survey from Olivier Recruitment Group had been used for aids. For
companies who seeking employees ASAP, the e-recruitment is very useful to concern
about timing for responses. The traditional newspaper job guide is always post on
Saturday, so it takes more than 3-4 days to get applicants. To use the e-recruitment
agencies such as Seek, JobNet or companies’ own website may get response
immediately. On the other hand, the disadvantage is how to target potential
applicants. Internet as an open source area, some candidates may not relevant. The e-
recruitment as e-HRM is very new idea for enterprises to makes me think this how
vital of this paper.

Topic 6: Trust and its Significance for eBusiness

Goman, C.K. 2002, ‘Viewpoint: Five reasons people don't tell what they know’,
destinationKM.com URL: http://www.destinationKM.com/articles/default.asp?
articleid=960

This article is discussed the trust with knowledge management in digital age. The
author found more than 99% executive officers do not feel comfortable to share what
they know with others, event their employees. He believes in the perfect knowledge-
sharing model, managers are valued not because they know more than their staffs, but
because they can quickly communicate to their staffs what they know and get staff
members to do the same with each other. Leaders build environments of trust and
mutual respect where creative contribution is nurtured, and where employees at all
levels understand that being successful in this networked world increasingly requires
collaboration.

Therefore, the author listed five reasons why people do not share what they know and
how these can impact an enterprise. Each reason has different viewpoints with
personality, culture and education backgrounds.

Malothra, Y. 1997, Virtual Corporations, Human Issues & Information Technology,

Training & Development Magazine's Interview with Founding Chairman and CKO,
Brint Institute. URL: http://www.brint.com/EmergOrg.htm

This article is delve into some key aspects of today's Virtual Organisations,
particularly, human issues, information technology, control and trust. There are four
sub-topics are discussed:
1. What do visual companies do about trust?
2. Does a company become more or less hierarchical?
3. How are companies helping employees to deal with new technology and new
ways of communicating?
4. How do employees feel about losing real human contact?

Galen Hsieh ID: 4074343

LEB603 Task 1a

Even this article was featured in May 1997, it does discussed the trust and entrust
issues between employee-to-employer (and opposite way), human-to-technology and
human-to-human in virtual organisations. Those problems are getting serious in
nowadays with time-to-time changing technology. Those challenges are bringing deep
impacts to managers and human resource department.

Mason, R.O., Culnan, M.J., Ang, S. and Mason, F. 2000, ‘Privacy in the age of the
Internet’, in Information Technology and the Future Enterprise: New Models for
managers, Dickson, G.W, and DeSanctis, G. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, pp208-
238.

This article focuses primarily on customer-to-seller relationships and only touches

briefly on some of the threats to privacy that modern technology poses to people
occupying each of the other social roles. In addition to identify some of the conditions
under that one’s privacy may be ethically invaded while emphasising threats that
should be thwarted. There are many individual issues be discussed here, a major
challenge of the virtual world is to establish the proper balance between individual
privacy and social participation.

The crucial role of trust in e-business is the key issue to compare with early trust
(when the Internet had been found) and trust between employer and employee. This
paper covered many common issues we found on press and may happen in workplace
right now. This book also posted some famous cases that happened in year 2000,
about employees privacy violates, ethical hack, trust and anti-trust and so on. Those
four authors are academic researchers and industrial associates that used lots of data
and resources to support their concepts.

Galen Hsieh ID: 4074343