On March 13^th, Professor Greg Richards spoke at the conference, “Smart cities: Imagining the future National Capital Region,” held at Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Key figures from the academic, public and private sectors exchanged their views on the future of the National Capital Region at this unique event organized by LAC in collaboration with the University of Ottawa and Ottawa 2017, and in partnership with Invest Ottawa and the City of Gatineau.

Professor Richards took part in the opening panel discussion on the smart economy (“Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship, and Citizens’ Participation”). He commented that the National Capital Region, with its strong concentration of knowledge workers, high level of urbanization, and robust technology sector, was well-positioned to develop as a smart city and seize new opportunities to make life better for its citizens. Richards was joined on this panel by John Smit, Manager, Policy Development and Urban Design at the City of Ottawa; Martin Lajeunesse, City Councillor with the City of Gatineau; and Eme Onohua, Vice-President of Global Government Affairs, Xerox Canada.  

The maxim know oneself is as relevant for organizations as for people: the necessary prelude for any important organizational change. Employees, departments, etc. need to have a clear understanding of who they are as organizational actors and what they want to achieve.

It’s a lesson that Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Information Systems (IS) Managers would do well to heed, says Professor Muriel Mignerat of the Telfer School of Management. She recently studied a five-year transformation in the IT function at a large Canadian mental health institution, and one of the takeaways from the research was that CIOs and IS managers must be able to define what the value of information technology in the organization should be.

“Is it to provide high-quality IS at the lowest cost? To identify emerging technologies, find innovative applications for them in the organization, and then implement them?  Is it to serve as a catalyst for change in business processes? Or is the IT function primarily more about managing relationships between suppliers and business units, in order to meet the organization’s needs? Before change can happen, CIOs and IS managers need to have a solid handle on the organization’s current IT function and desired IT function.”

That message might sound simple. Organizations increasingly look to their IT (and the IT function) to help them adapt quickly to change and to achieve higher levels of performance. But a rapidly evolving digital world has made it harder to define what that means in practice for the role of IT, Mignerat notes. And for the CIOs and IS managers who are expected to drive radical IT-based changes, it is not always apparent how they should proceed.

The study highlights that these transformations must start with clarity of purpose with regard to IT. “IT functions can and do transform in order to align themselves with organizational visions and motivations. But without a precise understanding of what the value of IT in the organization should be, change management in IT becomes extremely difficult terrain.”
 

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The research team included Manon Guillemette of Université de Sherbrooke, Muriel Mignerat of the Telfer School of Management and Guy Paré of HEC Montréal. Their study, The role of institutional work in the transformation of the IT function: A longitudinal case study in the healthcare sector, was recently published in the prestigious journal Information and Management.

A multidisciplinary study led by the Telfer School will explore the causes, manifestations and consequences of employees’ disclosure of their mental health problems at work. The findings should better inform executives and human resource professionals on the development of policies for work climates that encourage, rather than discourage, employees from seeking support for the mental health conditions with which they are struggling.

According to lead researcher Professor Laurent Lapierre of the Telfer School, it was vital for this study to focus on disclosure as there is still an invisible stigma around mental illness, even though mental health issues such as depression, burnout, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a higher public profile today than they once did. “The decision to disclose a mental health condition at work is a difficult choice for almost anyone – a teacher battling PTSD, a bank manager facing panic attacks, a nurse recently diagnosed with clinical depression.”

“On the one hand, it’s often a necessary step to receive the needed support and accommodations that enable them to stay on as contributing members of the organization,” Professor Jane O’Reilly of the Telfer School explained. “But at the same time, disclosure can also lead to social mistreatment and career setbacks.”

For this reason, it is important to equip executives and human resource professionals with a better understanding of the workplace factors that explain why individuals are more or less comfortable with disclosure, said Sharon Lewis, Director of Programs & Services for Causeway Work Centre, one of the project’s partners. “We need to be able to identify how workplaces can ensure that disclosure yields positive outcomes for the individuals concerned, and for those with whom they work.”

This study will be the first to use a multitude of rigorous research methods to examine how different workplace factors relate to employees’ willingness to disclose their mental illness at work. It will look at organizational characteristics (e.g. explicit policies on mental health), work unit factors (e.g., interdependence among coworkers, degree of mental illness stigmatization within the unit, work climate/culture within the unit), and individual factors (e.g., perceived severity of one’s mental health issue, anticipated consequences of disclosure versus concealment).

Professor Lapierre noted: “With such a high proportion of employed Canadians experiencing mental illness, there are huge costs incurred by both employers and society as a whole. Given that reality, we found it rather surprising that there is little research work specifically addressing the constellation of factors that may impact disclosure. Ours will be the first study to explore and define the various ways in which employees divulge their mental illness at work in Canada.”

India and Canada collaborate on multiple fronts, including post-secondary education and business. Canadian universities have been attracting international students from India year after year, and India represents an interesting and yet untapped market for Canadian businesses.

On March 6^th, the Telfer School of Management, in collaboration with the Indo-Canadian Ottawa Business Chamber (ICOBC), will host an event on Indo-Canadian collaborative opportunities in business and educational sectors.  This event aims to bring together students, academics and local business leaders to learn how collaboration with India may benefit them.

This networking opportunity for academics, students and local business leaders from the Indo-Canadian community will highlight the opportunities for collaboration in academics and research between the Telfer School of Management and Indian institutions and will promote entrepreneurial activities and business relations.

François Julien, Dean of the Telfer School of Management, will begin the speeches with an opening address. The Honourable Mr. Arun Sahu, Acting High Commissioner of India, and Mr. Marvin Hough, Executive in Residence at the Telfer School of Management, will address macro perspectives of Indo-Canadian collaboration. Wojtek Michalowski, Vice Dean (Research) at the Telfer School of Management, will cover research collaboration, and Greg Richards, MBA Director at the Telfer School of Management, will cover student exchange opportunities.