The rising cost of college education and high unemployment levels among recent college graduates are raising the question "Is college worth its cost?" in the minds of many Americans. A recent study published by the Associated Press found that one out of every two recent college graduates is jobless or underemployed, suggesting maybe college isn't…

Information system professionals strive to determine requirements by interviewing clients, observing activities at the client's site, and studying existing system documentation. Still this often leads to vague and inaccurate requirements documentation. When teaching the skills needed to determine requirements, it is important to recreate a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities for expansive learning during organisational change. It considers the introduction of "lean production" as a disturbance to the existing work practices. Design/methodology/approach: The paper considers two case studies of "lean production" training with…

Public policy discourses claim that there is a "crisis" in the literacy and numeracy levels of the Australian workforce. In this paper, we propose a methodology for examining this "crisis" from a critical perspective. We draw on findings from an ongoing research project by the authors which investigates production workers'…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the rationale for the lack of growth in the two-wheeler service sector despite an exponential growth in the number of two-wheelers on Indian roads. Design/methodology/approach: The data of a premier manufacturer were gathered to develop a system dynamics model. Policy experimentation was carried out…

The Exploring Making Through Mobile Emergent Technologies (EMMET) program sought to disrupt the trajectory from rural high school to factory floor by introducing STEM and computational thinking (STEM+C) skills through mentorship training and hands-on activities involving creative production--often referred to as "making." The program…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to older workers (OWs)' subjective engagement in working and learning in the manufacturing industry. Workplace learning (WPL) literature rarely considers the subjective side of learning from a cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) account. Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopts a…

Contrary to previous views of an acute shortage of chemists at the beginning of the twentieth century, this study found that the number of chemists identifiable by name in the Manchester area was substantial, even in 1902. Moreover, the majority were qualified to some extent. The total number of chemists and their degree of formal qualification…

Purpose: The aim of this contribution is to describe a new complexity-science-based approach for improving safety, quality and efficiency and the way it was implemented by TenarisDalmine. Design/methodology/approach: This methodology is called "a safety-building community". It consists of a safety-behaviour social self-construction…

This dissertation is an investigation into how trade liberalization and the adoption of information technology have impacted labour and productivity in India's manufacturing sector respectively. The second chapter analyses the relationship between India's liberalization of tariffs on imported intermediate inputs (henceforth input tariff…

The need to build a more robust workforce development pipeline is evident in the hundreds of thousands of job openings in our nation's advanced manufacturing industry. Rapid technological change has created a severe skills gap, compounded by a pending wave of retirements due to the aging of the workforce. These challenges are particularly…

This report explores the crucial transformation of the United States from an industrial to a post-industrial economy, with a particular focus on the shifting skill levels and incomes of American workers. It shows the increasing value of postsecondary education in today's economy and examines how workers have fared as the nation's focus has shifted…

Mergers and acquisitions have historically experienced failure rates from 50% to more than 80%. Successful integration of information technology (IT) systems can be the difference between postmerger success or failure. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the entropy phenomenon during postmerger IT integration. To that end, a…

Like many states at the turn of the century, Wisconsin was faced with a multibillion-dollar deficit due to a sagging economy brought on by the dotcom bubble burst and the economic impact of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. As the state legislature grappled with the budget crisis, blame was freely assigned. The state was at…

The Internet has revolutionized the way users share and acquire knowledge. As important and popular Web-based applications, online discussion forums provide interactive platforms for users to exchange information and report problems. With the rapid growth of social networks and an ever increasing number of Internet users, online forums have…