Ralph Westfall - Telecommuting Research

Ralph Westfall's Education

Claremont Graduate University, Ph.D. - Information Science 1997 
44 units in Information Science, 8 units of management courses at the Drucker Graduate School of Management
Dissertation: Remote Work: a Conceptual Perspective on the Demand for Telecommuting

University of Southern California, MSBA - Decision Systems 1987
14 units in Decision Systems, 8 units in Real Estate courses 

University of California, Los Angeles, MBA - Marketing 1966
22 units in Marketing, 27 units in other management courses at the Anderson School 

University of California, Los Angeles, BA - Psychology 1964
32 units in Psychology, 30 units in physical sciences and mathematics 

Miscellaneous Course Work at Other Colleges
10 units in programming languages, 8 units in Japanese 

Honors
Beta Gamma Sigma at UCLA and USC 

Ralph Westfall's Publications

Gray, P. and Westfall, R. (1995) "Agency Theory and Telecommuting," OR/MS Today (22:4), August, p. 24. 

PonTell, S., Gray, P., Markus, M. L., and Westfall, R. D. (1996) "The Demand for Telecommuting," Proceedings of the Telecommuting '96 Conference, R. T. Watson and R. P. Bostrom (eds.), Jacksonville, FL, April 25-26. 

Turban, E., McLean, E., Wetherbe, J. (1999) with contributions by Westfall, R. and Rainer, K. Ch. 13, "Information Technology Economics," Information Technology for Management: Making Connections for Strategic Advantage, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York. 

Turban, E., McLean, E., & Wetherbe, J. (1999) with contributions by Westfall, R. and Rainer, K. Ch. 14, "Systems Development," Information Technology for Management: Making Connections for Strategic Advantage, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York. 

Westfall, R. D. (1997) "$200,001--A Space Database Odyssey," in Teaching Information Systems with Cases, New MIS Cases and Cases Under Development, S. L. Huff and H. Lucas (eds.). 

Westfall, R. D. (1999) "An I S Research Relevance Manifesto," Communications of the Association for Information Systems (2:14), September. 

Westfall, R. D. (2001) "Dare to Be Relevant," Communications of the Association for Information Systems (6:26), March.

Westfall, R. D. (1997) "Does Telecommuting Really Increase Productivity? Fifteen Rival Hypotheses," AIS Americas Conference, Indianapolis, IN, August 15-17.

Westfall, R. D. (2004) "Does Telecommuting Really Increase Productivity?" Communications of the ACM (47)8, pp. 93-96. 

Westfall, R. D. (1998) "Evaluation and Assimilation Skills As Key Knowledge Aspects Of Information Technology Literacy," in Working Papers of the Workshop on What Everyone Should Know about Information Technology, National Research Council, Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, January.

Westfall, R. D. (2001) " 'Hello, World' Considered Harmful," Communications of the ACM (44)10, pp. 129-130.

Westfall, R. D. (accepted) "If Your Pearls of Wisdom Fall in a Forest...," Communications of the ACM.

Westfall, R. D. (1999) "Making Information Systems Research More Relevant: Academic and Industry Perspectives," Session T4.5 (panel organizer), International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS'99)

Westfall, R. D. (2000) "Meta-Skills in Information Systems Education," Journal of Computer Information Systems (40:2), Winter, pp. 69-73. 

Westfall, R. D. (2000) "Reuse of Web-Based Teaching Materials in IS Courses," AIS Americas Conference, Long Beach, CA, August 10-13. 

Westfall, R. D. (1993) "Social Integration as a Tool for Managing End User Computing and Decentralized Information Technology," Fourth Annual Conference Proceedings, C. E. T. Rohm, Jr. (ed.), International Information Management Association, San Bernardino, CA, October, pp. 1-9.

Westfall, R. D. (2004) "Telecommuting and HCI," The Encyclopedia of Human Computer Interaction, W. S. Bainbridge (ed.), Berkshire Publishing Co., Great Barrington, MA.

Westfall, R. D. (2003) "Telecommuting and Remote Work", Internet Encyclopedia, H. Bidgoli (ed.), John Wiley and Sons, New York. 

Westfall, R. D. (2001) "The DASH-AREA.COM Case: Creating a National Internet Portal as a Class Project," Boston, MA: AIS Americas Conference, pp. 193-198. (8/5/01 PowerPoint presentation.)

Westfall, R. D. (1997) "The Telecommuting Paradox," Information Systems Management (14:4), Fall, pp. 15-20. 

Westfall, R. D. (1998) "The Microeconomics of Remote Work," The Virtual Workplace, M. Igbaria and M. Tan (eds.), Idea Group Publishing, Harrisburg, PA. 

Westfall, R. D. (1997) "Using the Learning Needs Model for Introductory Information Systems Classes," Decision Sciences Institute Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, November 22-25.

Westfall, R. and Gray, P. (1995) "Forum: Considerations for the Virtual Office," Communications of the ACM (38,12), December, pp. 14-15.


Ralph Westfall's Presentations

Westfall, R. D. "I S Research Relevance - Shouldn't We Practice What We Teach?," Claremont Graduate University, School of Information Science "Brown Bag Seminars and Lecture Series," November 6, 2001.

Westfall, R. D. "Search Engine Optimization," Azusa Pacific University, April 21, 2005.

Westfall, R. D. "XML From the Inside Out," California State Polytechnic University, CIS Speakers Series, April 11, 2001.

Westfall, R. D. "Technology for the Bottom Line," California Small Business Roundable, Yosemite National Park, September 25, 2005.


Ralph Westfall's Teaching Experience

School Semester/Quarter Course
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Fall 2000 through Winter 2007 Client/Server Programming with Visual Basic (.NET since 2004)
Winter 2000 through Winter 2007 E-Commerce Application Development (CIS & EBZ)
Fall 2003 through Spring 2007 Fundamentals of Web Site Development
Fall 1999 through Spring 2004 Interactive Web Development
Fall 2006 through Winter 2007 Intermediate Object-Oriented Programming (Java)
Fall 1999, Fall 2002 Introduction to Microcomputing
Winter 2005 Multimedia Applications on the Web
Winter 2001 through Spring 2007 Object-Oriented Programming (Java)
Spring 2000, 2003 and 2006 Web Site Development (dash-area.com, booktruck.com)
University of Redlands Summer 1999 Geographic Information Systems
California State University, Long Beach Fall 1998, Spring 1999 Internet Applications in Business
Summer 1997 through Spring 1999 Management of Information Systems
Fall 1998 Selected Topics (Java)
University of Southern California Fall 1996 Business Database Systems
Spring 1997 through Spring 1998 Computer-Based Business Systems
Biola University Spring 1997 Computer Organization
Spring 1997 Database Management
DeVry Institute Fall 1994 through Spring 1996 Computer Applications for Business
Pacific Christian College Spring 1994 Management Information Systems

Ralph Westfall's References

Claremont Graduate University, (909) 621-8209

Programs in Information Science, 
130 E. Ninth St. 
Claremont, CA 91711-6190 

Dr. Paul Gray, Founding Chair, Paul.Gray@cgu.edu

Dr. M. Lynne Markus, Professor, M.Lynne.Markus@cgu.edu

Dr. Lorne Olfman, Associate Professor, Lorne.Olfman@cgu.edu
 

University of Southern California, (213) 740-4837

Marshall School of Business Administration, 
Bridge Hall 401L 
Los Angeles, CA 90089-1421 

Dr. Omar El Sawy, Professor, omar.elsawy@marshall.usc.edu


Ralph Westfall's Business Employment and Consulting Experience

Over 15 years designing, developing and managing computer systems and databases for financial analysis, accounting, and operations. Research experience on a major, Caltrans-funded project. Consulting engagements in a variety of industries. 

Center for the New West, California Center, Ontario, CA, 1994 - 1995

Case manager for Caltrans-funded WorkSmart research project, which addressed the technological and organizational aspects of telecommuting, the virtual office, and other aspects of remote work. Project included data collection and analysis, developing recommendations for clients (a Caltrans district office, a "Big 6" accounting firm, a major advertising agency, and two telephone companies), and supervision of other researchers. 

Bank of America, Los Angeles, CA, 1992 - 1994

Used FOCUS and Lotus 1-2-3 to develop analyses for excess properties resulting from merger. Migrated Security Pacific property management data to Bank of America systems. 

Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, CA, 1984 - 1992

Designed, developed and implemented real estate management and cost control systems using FOCUS, RAMIS, and Lotus 1-2-3. Managed database of 800+ properties, 500 leases, etc. 

Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, CA, 1968 - 1983

Conducted financial and demographic analyses and developed strategic plans for new branch bank locations. Developed computer programs in BASIC to facilitate these activities. 

Mattel, Inc., Hawthorne, CA, 1966 - 1968

Conducted marketing research related to new products and sales of existing products. 

Consulting Engagements

Clients include non-profit organizations, banks in California, Arizona and Nevada, a multi-branch real estate broker, and a toy company. 

Ralph Westfall's Computing Education and Skills

  • Environments: PC-DOS, Windows, VAX/VMS, VM, MVS, UNIX 
  • Database Management Systems: FOCUS, RAMIS, dBase, Microsoft Access 
  • Productivity Software: Excel, Word, PowerPoint 
  • Geographic Information Systems: ArcView 3.0 
  • Distance Learning: WebTycho (University of Maryland-University College proprietary system) 
  • Programming Languages: Visual Basic, BASIC, REXX, Pascal, COBOL, FORTRAN, IBM 360 Assembler 
  • Internet: HTML, Java, JavaScript, ASP, XML
  • MCSE Exam Passed: Networking Essentials (70-058) 

Ralph Westfall's Affiliations

Association for Computing Machinery, Association for Information Systems 
ISWorld

ISWorld Net Home Page

ISWorld Net is a worldwide network of information systems academics, researchers and professionals. This link accesses resources for our field. 

Telecommuting Research Links


Ralph Westfall's Favorite Search Engine (search the web)

Google http://www.google.com/

The Google search engine was developed by computer science types at Stanford. It works incredibly well for most searches--the "I'm feeling lucky" button takes you to the very top item on its search lists--but is almost useless for others. The frequent successes make it very worthwhile. 

Search the web using Google
(used with permission)



Search Ralph Westfall's Web Site

Search For:
Match:  Any word All words Exact phrase
Sound-alike matching 
Dated:
From:
To:
Within: 
Show:  results  summaries
Sort by: 

Current News Headline Links