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For the voluntary sector, economic turbulence often means having to sustain a growing demand on services with a decreasing income. Sharing back-office functions is sometimes suggested as a way in which charities can collaborate to meet this challenge. This study explores the claims made for back-office sharing and how these are borne out by the experiences of charities engaged in such collaborations. Drawing on data gathered through semi-structured interviews with chief executive officers and senior managers of 18 charities in the United Kingdom, the study finds that charities were largely unprepared for the challenges of such collaborations and that the dominant aim of cost savings was often not achieved. A focus on effectiveness seemed to provide better results. These findings challenge the cost-savings premise of back-office collaborations. They also highlight the need for more empirical evidence, and for closer links between theory and practice, to help charities make informed decisions.

Prior research suggests that it is through providing direct support to citizens that public servants gain a source of meaning in their work; and affirm their public service identities. This article explores how employees who work in a public service support function and receive little, if any, direct feedback from citizens may maintain their public service identity during their back office work. The study finds, against much previous empirical research, that these back office employees achieve positive identity affirmation through bureaucratic work. The findings also show that they affirm their caring and community focused public service identity by noting their superiority in this regard when compared with colleagues. However, this augmented self-narrative results in many experiencing feelings of isolation. The article discusses how these findings extend the understanding of identity affirmation among back office public servants and may improve our ability to effectively support these workers.

Within digital transformation, which is continuously progressing, robotic process automation (RPA) is drawing much corporate attention. While RPA is a popular topic in the corporate world, the academic research lacks a theoretical and synoptic analysis of RPA. Conducting a literature review and tool analysis, we propose – in a holistic and structured way – four traits that characterize RPA, providing orientation as well as a focus for further research. Software robots automate processes originally performed by human work. Thus, software robots follow a choreography of technological modules and control flow operators while operating within IT ecosystems and using established applications. Ease-of-use and adaptability allow companies to conceive and implement software robots through (agile) projects. Organizational and IT strategy, governance structures, and management systems therefore must address both the direct effects of software robots automating processes and their indirect impacts on firms.

This article highlights the results of a study investigating whether the growth of syndicated loan activity among US commercial banks was driven by measurable operational cost savings through blockchain-powered back-office automation. Quarterly data from Q1 2010 to Q4 2024 on syndicated loan stocks, commercial and industrial loans, real GDP, bank assets, and non-interest expenses were obtained from the Federal Reserve System’s FRED database. A dummy variable was applied after 2016 to denote the implementation of the first production-level Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) pilots. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) bounds testing approach, evidence of cointegration is found and long-run elasticity is estimated: a steady 1% increase in the volume of syndicated loans reduces the operating expense ratio by 0.147%, which means that almost doubling the volume of loans in the resulting sample leads to approximately 15% structural reduction in the burden on banks’ back offices. The associated error correction model gives a short-run elasticity of –0.276 (i.e., a 1% quarterly shock to loan volume reduces expenses by 0.276 p.p.) and a 47% correction rate to a new equilibrium. Diagnostic tests confirm the absence of sequential correlation and resistance to heteroscedasticity by White’s standard errors. System-wide process improvements were evaluated by examining Hyperledger Fabric’s permissioned channel blockchain, smart contract automation, and multi-signature approval policies, which together simplify Know Your Customer (KYC) document workflows and settlement processes. The findings provide empirical evidence that enterprise DLT platforms deliver significant cost reductions for syndicated loan transactions, with implications for bank, fintech, and regulatory strategies.

Clinical observations have suggested that limited hamstring flexibility may be associated with sagittal spinal curvatures in spine flexed postures. Thus, limited hamstring flexibility may be related to large amounts of spine flexion in “slumped” sitting postures which could contribute to low back pain and injury. The aim of this study was to determine if hamstring and pelvic flexibility are associated with flexed sitting postures using a backless office chair. Forty-one healthy female adults aged 18–69  years were recruited. Subjects performed the Sit-and-Reach test to determine maximum flexibility values and lumbar and pelvic angles were measured with accelerometers. Participants then completed a standardized typing task for a 10-minute sitting trial at an ergonomically adjusted workstation. The results showed no association between hamstring flexibility and seated lumbar spine and pelvic angles (p = 0.999, η2 = 0.000; p = 0.901, η2 = 0.006). Greater pelvic flexibility was associated with a more upright lumbar sitting posture (p = 0.023; η2 = 0.132) but with no specific pelvic sitting posture (p = 0.660; η2 = 0.005). Different movement strategies during the Sit-and-Reach test were detected: all participants moved through their lumbar spine; but only those with ‘excellent’ flexibility also used their pelvis. Individuals in the ‘excellent’ flexibility group were significantly shorter than those with ‘poor’ and ‘good’ flexibility (p = 0.020; η2 = 0.190). In conclusion, hamstring flexibility does not influence sitting posture but pelvic flexibility does. Other factors such as acetabulofemoral joint limitations, consciousness of posture, or the seat itself may also influence sitting posture. Different movement strategies as well as height appear to contribute to the Sit-and-Reach test which should be researched further.

Purpose: The paper points out a novel approach to e-Government back-office reengineering based on creating a Shared-Services Center at the sectorial level. Design/Methodology/Approach: To prove the Shared-Services Center as a proper solution for e-Government back-office reengineering, the authors used the case study of the Housing Facilities Sector in the Republic of North Macedonia. The research process follows Kettingers et al.'s framework of IT-enabled change with a holistic data-driven approach. Findings: The study indicates a complex information flow between stakeholders, an abundance of the same information and data collected from local stakeholders, and enormous citizen and institutional burden. The e-Government back-office reengineering solution for the specific case study based on creating a Shared-Services Center overcomes the problem of data redundancy, radically simplifies the information flow, and reduces citizen burden in line with the \"Once-Only\" principle. Practical Implications: The paper shows that by observing the network of all relevant stakeholders at the sectorial level, based on the information flow of core data, back-office problems can be identified, whereby the Shared-Services Center proves itself as a suitable solution. It may be a prerequisite for further studies on back-office process reengineering at the sectorial level. Originality/Value:  Publications concerning back-office research at the sectorial level and, as in our case, within the House Facility Sector are almost non existing in scientific literature. Considering that there is a lack of analyses based on information flow and visualization of the information-flow network at the sectorial level (before and after the reforms), this paper will add original value to scientific literature.  

Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term \"computer\" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology. Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science. His grandmother's casual remark, \"I wish I'd used my calculus,\" hinted at a career deferred and an education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like many highly educated women of her generation, she studied to become a human computer because nothing else would offer her a place in the scientific world. The book begins with the return of Halley's comet in 1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit. In between, Grier tells us about the surveyors of the French Revolution, describes the calculating machines of Charles Babbage, and guides the reader through the Great Depression to marvel at the giant computing room of the Works Progress Administration. When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research calculation in the hope that they might be part of the scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded by a new electronic machine that took the place and the name of those who were, once, the computers.

Much of the current literature on service work has focused on front-line, customer-facing jobs. Research and theory suggest that while the way in which this work is organized is to a significant degree underpinned by rationalization, there is also an important customer-oriented strand in the organization of front-line work. This begs the question of how work is organized in back-office service work, i.e. service jobs involving work with and for the front-line staff but in which there is no direct interface with customers. Are these jobs also organized as a 'customer-oriented bureaucracy' or are they subject to more straightforward bureaucratization? This article reports on case studies of two types of back-office work — staff in the back office to a call centre in an insurance firm, and staff in the back office to a mobile sales force in two financial service firms. The organization of work is examined systematically across the dimensions of work tasks, form of control, affect in relation to the customer and lateral relations with the front-line staff. It is concluded that to a significant degree back-office work in the three firms is organized according to bureaucratic principles. The conclusion argues that these results are likely to be typical for much of back-office service work.

Software comes from India, hardware comes from China. Why is that? Why did China and India take such different paths to global dominance in new high-tech industries? Will their paths continue to diverge or converge? How can other countries learn from their successes – and failures – in reaching global scale in new industries? To answer these questions, this book presents the first rigorous comparison of the growth of the IT industries in China and India, based on interviews with over 300 companies. It explains the different growth paths of the software and hardware sectors in each country, providing insights into the factors behind the emergence of China and India as global economic powers. It provides a compelling case study of how differences in economic policies and the investment climate affect industrial growth. This book sheds new light on common debates on 'China versus India', on why India is the software capital of the world while China is a manufacturing powerhouse. It refutes common myths about the growth of these industries – for example, the role of Non-Resident Indians or the Y2K problem in the growth of the Indian software industry, the role of government intervention in industrial growth, and the relative size of China and India's software industries.

In this work, context aware scenarios applied to e-Health and m-Health in the framework of typical households (urban and rural) by means of deploying Social Sensors will be described. Interaction with end-users and social/medical staff is achieved using a multi-signal input/output device, capable of sensing and transmitting environmental, biomedical or activity signals and information with the aid of a combined Bluetooth and Mobile system platform. The devices, which play the role of Social Sensors, are implemented and tested in order to guarantee adequate service levels in terms of multiple signal processing tasks as well as robustness in relation with the use wireless transceivers and channel variability. Initial tests within a Living Lab environment have been performed in order to validate overall system operation. The results obtained show good acceptance of the proposed system both by end users as well as by medical and social staff, increasing interaction, reducing overall response time and social inclusion levels, with a compact and moderate cost solution that can readily be largely deployed.