Digital Commons @ St. Norbert College

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  Knowledge Asymmetries and Service Management: Three Case Studies

  Jamie O'Brien and John Walsh

  The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information systems are used by knowledge-intensive service firms and identify their effects on client–provider interactions. The paper uses data from case studies of service-related departments of three multinational firms. We identified several broad trends present in all three case companies. The required degree of knowledge specialisation, coupled with the ability to leverage knowledge created during service interactions resulted in high degrees of knowledge asymmetries between service provider and clients, which led to clients becoming the recipients of knowledge rather than co-creators. Differences between the cases related to the varying degrees to which information systems had been used to support service interactions. We therefore provide a model that outlines three key phases of activity. Individualisation involves the categorisation and location of tacit knowledge. This was followed by the codification and leveraging of service interactions through standardisation. Finally, the ability to provide alternative, more customised services, was achieved through modularisation. Increasing levels of specialisation of labour resulted in increasing knowledge asymmetries between service provider and client, reducing the need for client participation and co-production. Firms progress through three stages of development using information systems to support leveraging knowledge required for service delivery. The findings are based on case studies of departments within three multinational firms and would benefit from further empirical testing. The paper contributes to the existing literature in several ways. It focusses specifically on knowledge-intensive service firms, where labour is highly specialised. It gives information systems an explicit and significant role in examining how service elements may be leveraged. Finally, it outlines an exploratory model for managing this process.

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  Both Reintroduction and Recolonization Likely Contributed to the Re-establishment of a Fisher Population in East-central Alberta

  Gilbert Proulx, Keith B. Aubry, Adam L. Brandt, Jessica R. Brandt, Benjamin N. Sacks, Jun J. Sato, and Thomas L. Serfass

  Recently, Stewart et al. (2017) investigated the origins of contemporary fisher populations in the Cooking Lake Moraine (CLM) of east-central Alberta, Canada, where fishers (Pekania pennanti) from Ontario and Manitoba, Canada were reintroduced in the early 1990s. To address this objective, Stewart et al. (2017) compared microsatellite alleles from extant fisher populations in the CLM to those from Ontario, Manitoba, and other Alberta populations. They reported that the CLM population clustered with adjacent native Alberta populations, consistent with recolonization, but also that 2 of 109 microsatellite alleles in the CLM occurred only in the source populations from Ontario and Manitoba. Rather than allowing for the possibility that these alleles descended from reintroduced fishers, the authors speculated that they represented random mutations among fishers that recolonized the area naturally from nearby populations in Alberta, and concluded that the reintroduction had failed completely. We disagree with this conclusion for 2 reasons. We contend it is more likely that the 2 alleles represent a genetic signature from the individuals released during the reintroduction, rather than being the result of mutations. We further suggest that, irrespective of the genetic legacy of introduced fishers in the recovered population, the presence of reintroduced fishers in the CLM may have helped facilitate natural recolonization of the area by fishers from surrounding areas. In our view, Stewart et al.’s (2017) findings do not demonstrate conclusively that the reintroduction program failed; on the contrary, we argue that their findings indicate that reintroduced fishers likely contributed to the long-term persistence of fishers in the CLM. The uncertainty surrounding this case underscores the importance of genetic monitoring following reintroductions.

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  On the (Male) Fringes: How Early Religious Women remain “Subordinate” in World History Textbooks

  Erica M. Southworth

  Second Wave feminist researchers identified male-dominated curriculum formats in late twentieth century curriculum materials. This study builds off their work and advances the conversation of women’s inclusion by current United States secondary world history textbook content via a feminist lens to determine the extent of women’s agency in the accounts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The purpose was to determine if textbooks portrayed these patriarchal religions as exclusively male, thereby presenting inaccurate portrayals of the religions and the agents involved, which directly violates NCSS Standards. This study used critical discourse analysis to identify patterns of female marginalization and omission, indicating that modern textbooks still use male-dominated content. This article concludes with pertinent information about early female religious leaders to promote more gender-balanced religious agency discussions in the classroom.

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  Where are our students, developmentally?

  Cristi Burrill and Jennifer Nissen

  Overview of student development theory specific to first-year students and helping first year students be successful. Presented at summer 2017 training for all Gateway course instructors.

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  A Knowledge-Based Framework for Service Management

  Jamie O'Brien and John Walsh

  The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information and communication technologies are used for service standardisation, customisation, and modularisation by knowledge-intensive service firms through the development and empirical validation of a knowledge-based framework. This paper uses 59 in-depth interviews, observational data, and document analysis from case studies of three service-related departments in high-technology, multinational knowledge-intensive business services (KIBSs). Prior research does not conceptualise the relationships between service customisation, standardisation and modularisation. This paper seeks to overcome this gap by integrating insights from research on the role played by both knowledge and information and communication technologies (ICTs) to construct and validate a framework to deal with this gap. It outlines the implications for service firms’ use of ICT to deal with increasing knowledge intensity as well as indicating the circumstances under which service knowledge is best customised, standardised and modularised. Further testing in other industries would prove useful in extending the usefulness and applicability of the findings. The originality of the paper lies in developing and validating the first framework to outline the relationship between how service knowledge is customised, standardised or modularised and indicating the associated issues and challenges. It emphasises the role of knowledge and technology. The value of this framework increases as more firms deal with increasing knowledge intensity in the services they provide and in their use of ICTs to reap the benefits of appropriate knowledge reuse.

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  Using Student GPA to Show the “Nutritional Value” of a Library Service

  Mitchell Scott

  Students can interact, or not interact, with their campus library in a variety of ways and through a variety of services—circulation, interlibrary loan, instruction, using our physical spaces, accessing electronic materials, to name a few. Comparing the GPA of library users to non-users is a valuable assessment strategy for demonstrating the value-added impact or “nutritional value” of library services on our users

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  Map It! Creating Meaningful Learning Experiences in Social Studies with IHMC CmapTools

  Erica M. Southworth

  As a free software tool, IHMC CmapTools redefines the concept mapping learning strategy with an infusion of technology to provide students with meaningful and non-rote learning experiences. The following review discusses what IHMC

  CmapTools is, the literature-supported academic benefits of student-employed concept mapping, and how my secondary social studies colleague and I introduced this software to his students to create meaningful learning opportunities with social studies content. After working with IHMC CmapTools for over four years in both social studies and non-social studies classes, I would strongly encourage social studies educators in grades 5-12 to consider implementing this tool in their instruction as a means of enriching both their students’ engagement with social studies material and their students’ understanding of their own metacognitive processes.

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  Mitogenomic sequences support a north–south subspecies subdivision within Solenodon paradoxus

  Adam L. Brandt, Kirill Grigorev, Yashira M. Afanador-Hernández, Liz A. Paullino, William J. Murphy, Adrell Núñez, Aleksey Komissarov, Jessica R. Brandt, Pavel Dobrynin, David Hernández-Martich, Roberto María, Stephen J. O'Brien, Luis E. Rodríguez, Juan C. Martínez-Cruzado, Taras K. Oleksyk, and Alfred L. Roca

  Solenodons are insectivores found only in Hispaniola and Cuba, with a Mesozoic divergence date versus extant mainland mammals. Solenodons are the oldest lineage of living eutherian mammal for which a mitogenome sequence has not been reported. We determined complete mitogenome sequences for six Hispaniolan solenodons (Solenodon paradoxus) using next-generation sequencing. The solenodon mitogenomes were 16,454–16,457 bp long and carried the expected repertoire of genes. A mitogenomic phylogeny confirmed the basal position of solenodons relative to shrews and moles, with solenodon mitogenomes estimated to have diverged from those of other mammals ca. 78 Mya. Control region sequences of solenodons from the northern (n = 3) and southern (n = 5) Dominican Republic grouped separately in a network, with FST = 0.72 (p = 0.036) between north and south. This regional genetic divergence supports previous morphological and genetic reports recognizing northern (S. p. paradoxus) and southern (S. p. woodi) subspecies in need of separate conservation plans.

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  Predicting Use: COUNTER usage data found to be predictive of ILL use and ILL use to be predictive of COUNTER use.

  Mitchell Scott

  More and more libraries are investigating the possibility of breaking apart or unbundling their Big Deal publisher packages. In doing so, libraries acknowledge and ready themselves for the possibility of a significant portion of journal use shifting to interlibrary loan (ILL), and attempt to estimate what this shift from subscription to the ILL mode means in terms of costs. This study investigates three years of ILL usage data for 169 journals prior to undertaking subscriptions and then COUNTER usage for these same journals over a three year subscription period. The result suggests a predictive ratio of ILL requests to COUNTER uses and COUNTER uses to ILL requests.

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  Prion protein gene sequence and chronic wasting disease susceptibility in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

  Adam L. Brandt, Amy C. Kelly, Michelle L. Green, Paul Shelton, Jan Novakofski, and Nohra E. Mateus-Pinilla

  The sequence of the prion protein gene (PRNP) affects susceptibility to spongiform encephalopathies, or prion diseases in many species. In white-tailed deer, both coding and non-coding single nucleotide polymorphisms have been identified in this gene that correlate to chronic wasting disease (CWD) susceptibility. Previous studies examined individual nucleotide or amino acid mutations; here we examine all nucleotide polymorphisms and their combined effects on CWD. A 626 bp region of PRNP was examined from 703 free-ranging white-tailed deer. Deer were sampled between 2002 and 2010 by hunter harvest or government culling in Illinois and Wisconsin. Fourteen variable nucleotide positions were identified (4 new and 10 previously reported). We identified 68 diplotypes comprised of 24 predicted haplotypes, with the most common diplotype occurring in 123 individuals. Diplotypes that were found exclusively among positive or negative animals were rare, each occurring in less than 1% of the deer studied. Only one haplotype (C, odds ratio 0.240) and 2 diplotypes (AC and BC, odds ratios of 0.161 and 0.108 respectively) has significant associations with CWD resistance. Each contains mutations (one synonymous nucleotide 555C/T and one nonsynonymous nucleotide 286G/A) at positions reported to be significantly associated with reduced CWD susceptibility. Results suggest that deer populations with higher frequencies of haplotype C or diplotypes AC and BC might have a reduced risk for CWD infection – while populations with lower frequencies may have higher risk for infection. Understanding the genetic basis of CWD has improved our ability to assess herd susceptibility and direct management efforts within CWD infected areas.

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  Joseph Mitchell and the City: A Conversation with Thomas Kunkel and Gay Talese

  Thomas Kunkel

  On Oct. 07, 2015, former President Thomas Kunkel, author of Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of the New Yorker (Random House, 2015) and President of St. Norbert College, joined Gay Talese, journalist at Columbia University for an event called “Joseph Mitchell and the City: A Conversation with Thomas Kunkel and Gay Talese.” The two, joined by Steve Coll, staff writer at The New Yorker and Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, discussed Joseph Mitchell and his status as an “icon of New York history”.

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  Returning to your alma mater...and I'm not talking about homecoming!

  Cristi Burrill

  Thought piece on returning to work for your alma mater. Published to the NASPA Women in Student Affairs Knowledge Community blog.

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  Memories of Franziska

  Mary Alyce Lach SSND

  This story is a glimpse into the life of Franziska Huber Gerhardinger, the mother of Blessed Mother Theresa, the Foundress of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

  Franziska was a joy-filled woman with a generous heart. In love and faith, she contributed everything she had to the young community of the School SIsters of Notre Dame.

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  The Land Scouts: Guide Book

  Katie D. Ries

  The Land Scouts promote modern land stewardship and are open to all. The Guide Book gives an overview of the scouts as well as information on getting started earning badges and hosting a troop.

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  Interlibrary Loan Article Use and User GPA: Findings and Implications for Library Services

  Mitchell Scott

  A recent institutional study at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay investigated the academic achievement of interlibrary loan (ILL) users as compared to non-ILL users. While this study provided important local insight into ILL use and the demographics of ILL users (class rank, major), it uncovered a rather minor overall GPA difference,.20 GPA points, between ILL users and non-ILL users. However, within these data was an interesting subset that once thoroughly investigated, provided rich details about ILL article use, the users who rely on ILL for articles, and the GPA differences between users across the spectrum of ILL article use. The resulting analysis compares users who use ILL for a large number of articles, those who use ILL for a medium number of articles, those who use ILL for a small number of articles, and those who do not use ILL. Takeaways from the data presented should provide libraries and practitioners with a greater understanding of ILL article use, its role in user information-seeking behaviors, its correlational effect on student academic achievement, and for whom—ILL article users—libraries are incurring the high cost of articles through ILL.

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  Shedding Gender Stigmas: Work-life Balance Equity in the 21st Century

  Erica M. Southworth

  The gender stigma of work-life balance (WLB) policies as concessions for mothers and female caregivers originated with the push by the Women’s Movement for gender workplace equity in the late 20th century. Unfortunately, this perception continues in the 21st century and retains the additional stigma of employee participation in these policies–—regardless of gender–—as a detrimental career move. Thus, home and work responsibilities for professionals of all genders who desire more occupational flexibility remain unreconciled. Despite this dominant national and international outlook, this article encourages new century organizations and profes- sionals to reject the traditional perception of occupational inequity through gender- colored glasses and instead contemplate the benefits of WLB policies void of gender stigmas. Specifically, organizations could re-create workplace culture with stigma- free WLB policies through administrative leaders’ embracement of and participation in such policies, which may pave the way for establishing occupational equity. Through workplace culture re-creation, organizations may then offer employees–—regardless of gender, marital status, or company position–—flexible work options to assist them in leading happy, healthy, and more productive lives.

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  The Kindness of Flowers

  Kenneth Zahorski

  In this volume, readers will find a broad spectrum of poetry, ranging from intimate recollections of growing up on a small Wisconsin dairy farm to firsthand observations about family, love, travel, nature, seasons, and life's passages. But whatever the subject, and whether waxing serious or whimsical, the author's aim is always for clarity, accessibility, authenticity, and fresh perspective on the familiar and ordinary. In addition, he hopes to engage our feelings, to make his readers active participants in the poetic journey upon which they are about to embark.

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  The Elephants of Gash-Barka, Eritrea: Nuclear and Mitochondrial Genetic Patterns

  Adam L. Brandt, Yohannes Hagos, Yohannes Yacob, Victor David, Nicholas J. Georgiadis, Jeheskel Shoshani, and Alfred L. Roca

  Eritrea has one of the northernmost populations of African elephants. Only about 100 elephants persist in the Gash-Barka administrative zone. Elephants in Eritrea have become completely isolated, with no gene flow from other elephant populations. The conservation of Eritrean elephants would benefit from an understanding of their genetic affinities to elephants elsewhere on the continent and the degree to which genetic variation persists in the population. Using dung samples from Eritrean elephants, we examined 18 species-diagnostic single nucleotide polymorphisms in 3 nuclear genes, sequences of mitochondrial HVR1 and ND5, and genotyped 11 microsatellite loci. The sampled Eritrean elephants carried nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers establishing them as savanna elephants, with closer genetic affinity to Eastern than to North Central savanna elephant populations, and contrary to speculation by some scholars that forest elephants were found in Eritrea. Mitochondrial DNA diversity was relatively low, with 2 haplotypes unique to Eritrea predominating. Microsatellite genotypes could only be determined for a small number of elephants but suggested that the population suffers from low genetic diversity. Conservation efforts should aim to protect Eritrean elephants and their habitat in the short run, with restoration of habitat connectivity and genetic diversity as long-term goals.

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  Howard Pyle in Wisconsin

  Shan Bryan-Hanson, Heather Campbell Coyle, Sally Cubitt, and St. Norbert College

  Excerpts from Howard Pyle in Wisconsin. The book itself is available for purchase from the St. Norbert College Art Galleries or the Green Bay and De Pere Antiquarian Society.

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  Forest elephant mitochondrial genomes reveal that elephantid diversification in Africa tracked climate transitions

  Adam L. Brandt, Yasuko Ishida, Nicholas Georgiadis, and Alfred L. Roca

  Among elephants, the phylogeographic patterns of mitochondrial (mt) and nuclear markers are often incongruent. One hypothesis attributes this to sex differences in dispersal and in the variance of reproductive success. We tested this hypothesis by examining the coalescent dates of genetic markers within elephantid lineages, predicting that lower dispersal and lower variance in reproductive success among females would have increased mtDNA relative to nuclear coalescent dates. We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of two forest elephants, aligning them to mitogenomes of African savanna and Asian elephants, and of woolly mammoths, including the most divergent mitogenomes within each lineage. Using fossil calibrations, the divergence between African elephant F and S clade mitochondrial genomes (originating in forest and savanna elephant lineages, respectively) was estimated as 5.5 Ma. We estimated that the (African) ancestor of the mammoth and Asian elephant lineages diverged 6.0 Ma, indicating that four elephantid lineages had differentiated in Africa by the Miocene–Pliocene transition, concurrent with drier climates. The coalescent date for forest elephant mtDNAs was c. 2.4 Ma, suggesting that the decrease in tropical forest cover during the Pleistocene isolated distinct African forest elephant lineages. For all elephantid lineages, the ratio of mtDNA to nuclear coalescent dates was much greater than 0.25. This is consistent with the expectation that sex differences in dispersal and in variance of reproductive success would have increased the effective population size of mtDNA relative to nuclear markers in elephantids, contributing to the persistence of incongruent mtDNA phylogeographic patterns.

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  Eternal Delight and Deliciousness: The Book of Jonah After Ten Years

  Tom Bolin

  This article reviews scholarship on the Book of Jonah in the decade after the publication of Thomas M. Bolin, Freedom Beyond Forgiveness: The Book of Jonah Re-Examined. Works by Yvonne Sherwood, Sergei Frolov, Ehud Ben Zvi, and Theodore Perry.