Expanding Technological Frames Towards Mediated Collaboration

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the technological and social factors that led to the successful adoption of groupware by a virtual team in a educational setting. Drawing on a theoretical framework based on the concept of technological frames, we conducted an action research study to analyse the chronological sequence of events in groupware adoption. We argue that groupware adoption can be conceptualised as a three-step process of expanding and aligning individual technological frames towards groupware. The first step comprises activities that bring knowledge of new technological opportunities to the participants. The second step involves facilitating the participants to articulate and evaluate their work practices and their use of technology. The third and final step deals with the participants\u27 commitment to, and practical enactment of, groupware technology. The alignment of individual technological frames requires the articulation and re-evaluation of experience with collaborative practice and with the use of technology. One of the key findings is that this activity cannot take place at the outset of groupware adoption

Co-ordinating distributed knowledge: An investigation into the use of an organisational memory

This paper presents an ethnographically informed investigation into the use of an organisational memory, focusing in particular on how information was used in the performance of work. We argue that understanding how people make use of distributed knowledge is crucial to the design of an organisational memory. However, we take the perspective that an ‘organisational memory’ is not technology dependant, but is an emergent property of group interaction. In this sense, the technology does not form the organisational memory, but provides a novel means of augmenting the co-ordination of collaborative action. The study examines the generation, development and maintenance of knowledge repositories and archives. The knowledge and information captured in the organisational memory enabled the team members to establish a common understanding of the design and to gain an appreciation of the issues and concerns of the other disciplines. The study demonstrates why technology should not be thought of in isolation from its contexts of use, but also how designers can make use of the creative flexibility that people employ in their everyday activities. The findings of the study are therefore of direct relevance to both the design of knowledge archives and to the management of this information within organisations

Collaborative Working Environments : Group Needs Approach to Designing Systems for Supporting Spatially Distributed Groups

Collaboration in spatially distributed groups requires technological support for mediating collaborative activities and members’ interactions over time and distance. Technology provides multiple tools for supporting individual, social and task requirements of collaborative groups. Nevertheless, many aspects of computer-mediated interactions are not sufficiently explained and creating an effective computer-supported environment for collaborative groups as a combination of these tools remains a challenge. Meeting this challenge requires taking into consideration different aspects of collaborative interactions from both social and technological perspectives. This thesis discusses the social and technical aspects of collaboration in spatially distributed groups and introduces a design approach for collaborative working environments. Firstly, it presents a comprehensive overview of research on collaborative groups, summarizing three interrelated elements under the umbrella of the group needs approach: individual, task and group maintenance needs. Secondly, it proposes a design approach for collaborative working environments on the basis of group needs and thus presents an alternative for designing computer-supported environment for collaborative groups. This research considers two main types of systems for supporting collaborative groups – groupware and social software – and discusses functionalities originating from these systems. It introduces the Quality Function Deployment method and utilizes its House of Quality concept in order to develop and initially evaluate the First-Stage Prototype – the prototypical implementation of the collaborative working environment combining these two main types. The presented framework is used as a benchmarking tool on the basis of which selected existing platforms for supporting collaboration are evaluated. This research contributes to the area of the Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and discusses actual trends in development of collaborative systems related to the application of new social tools for purposes of computer-supported collaboration.Kollaborative Arbeitsumgebungen – der Gruppenbedürfnisansatz zur Entwicklung von Systemen für die Unterstützung räumlich verteilter Gruppen Die Zusammenarbeit in räumlich verteilten Gruppen erfordert technologische Unterstützung um Interaktionen innerhalb der Gruppen über Zeit und Distanz zu ermöglichen. Dabei bieten heutige Technologien verschiedene Tools zur Unterstützung von individuellen, sozialen und aufgabenorientierten Anforderungen der Gruppen. Allerdings sind viele Aspekte von computervermittelten Interaktionen nicht ausreichend erforscht und die Gestaltung von effektiven computerunterstützten Umgebungen für zusammenarbeitende Gruppen als eine Kombination dieser Tools bleibt eine Herausforderung. Die Erfüllung dieser Anforderungen erfordert die Berücksichtigung unterschiedlicher Aspekte der Gruppeninteraktionen sowohl aus sozialer als auch aus technologischer Perspektive. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die sozialen und technischen Aspekte der Zusammenarbeit in räumlich verteilten Gruppen und präsentiert einen Entwicklungsansatz für Systeme zur Unterstützung der Zusammenarbeit. Zum einen gibt sie einen umfassenden Überblick über den aktuellen Forschungsstand zum Thema kooperative Gruppen und fasst dabei die drei verbundenen Elemente individuelle Bedürfnisse, Aufgabenbedürfnisse und Bedürfnisse zur Aufrechterhaltung der Gruppen unter dem Dach des Gruppenbedürfnisansatzes zusammen. Zum anderen präsentiert die Arbeit ein Entwicklungskonzept für kooperative Arbeitsumgebungen auf Grundlage dieses Ansatzes und somit eine Alternative für die Gestaltung von computerunterstützten Umgebungen für kollaborative Gruppen. Für diese Forschungsarbeit werden im Wesentlichen zwei Arten von Systemen sowie deren Funktionalitäten zur Unterstützung von kollaborativen Gruppen diskutiert – Groupware und Social Software. Um eine prototypische Implementierung einer kollaborativen Arbeitsumgebung zu entwickeln und eine erste Evaluation durchzuführen, wird die Quality Function Deployment Methode und das damit verbundene House of Quality Konzept verwendet. Die Forschungsergebnisse leisten einen Beitrag auf dem Gebiet der computerunterstützten Gruppenarbeit (Computer-Supported Cooperative Work) und diskutieren aktuelle Trends im Bereich der Entwicklung kollaborativer Arbeitsumgebungen, die sich mit der Integration von neuen sozialen Tools zum Zweck computerunterstützter Zusammenarbeit beschäftigen

Connecting for a Social Good: A Multi-level Analysis of a Nascent Online Community

Online communities (OCs) such as Wikipedia have the potential to transform our global society and economy. Building and sustaining OCs, however, appears to be rather complex. Indeed, most OCs fail early on. The extant OC literature cannot fully explain this phenomenon. This thesis is thus motivated by the increasing importance of OCs and the unsolved complexities regarding building and sustaining them. In particular, it aims to answer the research question of how nascent OCs evolve and what the influences are on this evolution. To this end, it examines a longitudinal 34-months long case study of AshokaHub, a nascent global OC of social entrepreneurs, combining interview data with qualitative and quantitative data from the AshokaHub platform. Despite favourable conditions at AshokaHub’s launch and a re-launch with new functionality and curation strategies, user contributions remained limited. Drawing on the OC and social entrepreneurship literatures as well as the theories of affordances, technological frames of reference and groupware adoption, this thesis develops a multi-level model to address the research question. This model theorizes the evolution of nascent OCs and the influence of context and materiality on this evolution. It highlights that OC evolution happens as users across different social worlds within the OC continuously adopt and change their ways of using it. It also highlights that, on an individual user level, this OC evolution happens in a recursive process of framing, affordance perception and affordance actualisation that influences and is influenced by the material characteristics of the OC’s technological platform and is shaped by the OC’s context. This thesis thus contributes to the OC literature by providing insight into how nascent OCs evolve and what influences this evolution. In addition, it contributes to affordance theory by introducing the concept of a collaborative OC affordances. This concept aims to explain how collaborative affordances emerge and evolve on OCs given the generative nature of their underlying technological platforms. These findings have managerial implications as well. Good practices are identified that can support the successful start of an OC. This is complemented with a discussion on how to be situationally aware of the unpredictable evolution of an OC after its start

Online education on campus: A technological frames perspective on the process of technology appropriation.

The advent of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and the Internet has created significant opportunity for online education. Research on this topic has addressed its effectiveness, but as yet little attention has been given to the technology appropriation process in this context. This thesis adopts a social constructivist perspective. To enhance the understanding of online education, the study argues for abandoning the notion of technology as a passive tool and, instead, for considering the contextual issues which surround it. In order to understand how learning and technology appropriation takes place, the organisational and cultural setting needs to be considered. From this underlying conceptual position, the thesis constructs a theoretical framework using theories of collaborative and situated learning in combination with technological frames analysis. Applying this framework, an empirical study is performed on the implementation of an online education system at a traditional U.K. university. Research findings suggest that student perception and interpretation of technology and of online education are strongly influenced by their understanding of the institution, and these perceptions alter students' subsequent behaviour towards technology during the learning process. Furthermore, the study reveals that student appropriation of technology changes in accordance with the surrounding context and their realisation of the educational value which emerges from their interaction with the system over time. The theoretical contribution arises from applying to the study of online education the social constructivist approach to information systems. The methodological contribution lies in demonstrating the value of the interpretive approach for understanding online education on campus. Empirically, the thesis has significant value for educationalists by highlighting the contextual issues that affect student appropriation of technology and the consequent learning outcomes

Diversity in global virtual teams : a partnership development perspective

"This study is an attempt to develop and test a comprehensive model for Global Virtual Team (GVT) effectiveness based on development of collaborative partnership among diverse team members and the moderating role of collaborative technology and task. The conceptual model is based on traditional I-P-O framework for understanding GVT effectiveness. Team diversity in terms of surface level, functional, and deep level are treated as the central tenet of team inputs. Collaborative partnership elements are at the process level, moderated by task features and collaborative technology. At the outcome level, this study is more interested in GVT effectiveness as measured by team performance and individual team member satisfaction. Results from a field survey of 58 GVT in various industries indicate three levels of diversity and confirm the moderating role of task interdependence and collaborative technology. Results do not confirm the moderating role of task complexity on the relationship between diversity and collaborative partnership. Results also confirm mediating role of collaborative technology on the relationship between diversity and GVT effectiveness."--Abstract from author supplied metadata

Brave New Wireless World: Mapping the Rise of Ubiquitous Connectivity from Myth to Market

This dissertation offers a critical and historical analysis of the myth of ubiquitous connectivity—a myth widely associated with the technological capabilities offered by “always on” Internet-enabled mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. This myth proclaims that work and social life are optimized, made more flexible, manageable, and productive, through the use of these devices and their related services. The prevalence of this myth—whether articulated as commercial strategy, organizational goal, or mode of social mediation—offers repeated claims that the experience and organization of daily life has passed a technological threshold. Its proponents champion the virtues of the invisible “last mile” tethering individuals (through their devices) primarily to commercial networks. The purpose of this dissertation is to uncover the interaction between the proliferation of media artifacts and the political economic forces and relations occluded by this myth. To do this, herein the development of the BlackBerry, as a specific brand of devices and services, is shown to be intimately interrelated with the myth of ubiquitous connectivity. It demonstrates that the BlackBerry is a technical artifact whose history sheds light on key characteristics of our media environment and the political economic dynamics shaping the development of other technologies, workforce composition and management, and more general consumption proclivities. By pointing to the analytic significance of the BlackBerry, this work does not intend to simply praise its creators for their technical and commercial achievements. Instead, it aims to show how these achievements express a synthesis that represents the motivations of economic actors and prevailing modes of thought most particularly as they are drawn together in and through the myth of ubiquitous connectivity. The narrative arc of this dissertation is anchored by moments of harmonization among political economic interests as these shape (and are shaped by) prevailing modes of producing and relating through ubiquitous connectivity

How knowledge collecting fosters organizational creativity

3noStructured Abstract: Purpose Based on the interactionist perspective proposed by Woodman, Sawyer, and Griffin (1993), this paper conceives organizational creativity as a complex concept whose investigation requires the understanding of the process, the product, the person, and the situation. Accordingly, this work attempts to enrich the understanding of how organizational creativity can be fostered by offering a framework which combines (inter-)individual-level learning (collecting knowledge from others), information sharing (through ICT infrastructures), and contextual factors (perceived top management support). Design/Methodology/Approach The empirical analysis draws on a sample of 362 employees from five subsidiaries of multinational corporations. The analysis is based on multivariate regression models considering Organizational Creativity as dependent variable. Findings The paper shows that individuals’ orientation toward learning from others significantly enhance organizational creativity. However, heavy ICT use negatively moderates the relationship between knowledge collecting and organizational creativity, while top management support does not show a significant moderating effect on the association between knowledge collecting and organizational creativity. Research limitations/implications Although based on a geographically-bounded perimeter, the analysis allows some generalizations. Originality/Value Based on these results, the paper contributes to the literature on organizational creativity by confirming the importance of providing a holistic view of the phenomenon, consistent with its inherent complexity. In so doing, it suggests organizations and their managers should simultaneously pay attention to individual and contextual factors when planning2015 Impact Factor: 1.429 * - 5 year Impact Factor (2015) - 1.868 - * 2015 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2016) - See more at: http://emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=md - ABS 2015 - level 2partially_openopenGiustiniano, Luca; Lombardi, Sara; Cavaliere, VincenzoGiustiniano, Luca; Lombardi, Sara; Cavaliere, Vincenz