The Impact of GSS on an Organization\u27s Information Accessibility

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in groups in business and other organizations. Concepts such as interactive meetings, empowered work teams, participative management, and total quality management have altered the dynamics and significance of group work within organizations (Finley 1992; Hunt 1993). Most managers agree that both formal and ad hoc groups significantly influence the behavior of individuals in larger organizations in which they work. The impactof groups on the organization is so pervasive that rarely will managers spend an entire day without attending at least one group meeting (White and Bednar 1991). Drucker (1988) suggested that the new organization would consist of groups of knowledge specialists and that the traditional command and control organization was on the way out. According to Finley (1992), the new ethic for success in business is that every person has to contribute to team decisions. This focus on teams has provided a challenge to information system (IS) specialists as far as providing necessary facilitative technology to fulfill the needs of companies focusing on groups and group work. George, Nunamaker, and Valacich (1992) suggested that one of the most promising trends for the IS field was this focus on groups and group work. The technology that supports the group decision making process has been referred to as group support systems. Most of the research in the GSS area has focused on decision room technology and most of this research has focused on theoretical, conceptual, and empirical research concerned with the design, implementation, and impact on the group process and outcomes (cf, Jelassi and Beauclair 1987, Gray 1987, DeSanctis and Gallupe 1985, Gallupe and McKeen 1990). Little research has been conducted concerning the impact of decision room use on the organization; specifically how the use of decision room use impacts the organization\u27s design, its nature, and its decision making process. In 1993, Huber, Valacich,and Jessup, proposed a theory for the impact of GSS on an organization. Their theory consisted of four concepts: a) availability of GSS leads to use of GSS;b) use of GSS leads to increased information accessibility;c) increased information accessibility leads to changes in organizational design;d) increased information accessibility and changes in organizational design lead to improvements in the effectiveness of intelligence development and decision makin

Computer use and attitudes for a sample of Canterbury, New Zealand dairy farmers

With the objective of collecting data for assessing research hypotheses about information management, a mail survey was carried out on Canterbury dairy farmers between July and August of 2000. From a total of 537 questionnaires sent, 300 were received, resulting in 290 usable responses. This report describes the average farm, farm sizes, the manager's dairy farming experience and age, tenancy, education, management teams, non-family people giving a reasonable input into farm decision making, farm office equipment used, computer use, software utilisation, information sources, internet use, farmer goals, and farmer opinions about information management. While almost three quarters of the farmers own a computer, 61% are using computerised systems to manage farm information. Financial management was the most common use of computers with 54.48% of the farmers using them in this way, followed by the livestock area with 35.17%, while only 16.9% of the farmers were using software to support their feed management. Farmers using computerised systems were younger, more educated, and more profit oriented than non-users. This group managed bigger farms, they have been farming less time both in Canterbury and in total, and they also used farm advisers more extensively in their decision making, and they spent more time doing office work

Abstract versus concrete construal in decision-making groups: How seeing “a group” versus “individuals” shapes information processing within homogeneous and diverse teams

Modern organizations increasingly rely on teams to act as information processors—pooling and integrating various sources of information in order to solve complex problems and reach quality decisions. Traditional frameworks for the influence of diversity suggest that diversity can enhance decision making by adding to the backgrounds and perspectives that can be applied to a given task. However, this additive view of diversity is unable to account for more recent findings that show that members of homogeneous and diverse groups differ in their decision-making processes even when they have access to identical task-relevant information. I propose a novel theoretical framework whereby in homogeneous groups, members construe the group more abstractly as a group, while members of diverse groups construe the group more concretely as individuals. These differences in cognitive orientation shape relational goals, communication norms and additional task-relevant cognitions within groups. I test some of the propositions set forth in two studies. In the first, I find that homogeneous group members’ tendency to focus on building positive relationships at the cost of thorough task consideration relative to diverse groups only occurs at more abstract levels of construal and can be eliminated by priming more concrete construal. In the second study, I find that members of diverse groups voice their unique opinions more frequently, use more first-person singular pronouns (i.e., “I”, “me”), and use more concrete language in their group discussions relative to homogeneous groups. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as future applications of this novel framework are also discussed

Exploring the Nuances of \u27Wickedness\u27 in Information Systems Development

Information Systems Development (ISD) practice is an inherently challenging undertaking, as exemplified by the high rate of ISD project failures. The scale of the challenge is often heightened in distributed environments where ISD practitioners can face considerable complexity, uncertainty, and contention. The concept of -˜wickedness’ epitomizes such challenges. However, ISD literature has yet to fully explore the nuances of wickedness found in ISD practices within distributed environments. To address this gap, we use a theoretical framework to analyze case study findings from an interdisciplinary connected health project. In particular, we break open the social aspects of wickedness and explore their impact on shared understanding and shared commitment in ISD projects. The paper highlights the implications that these nuances have for group decision-making in distributed ISD project teams

When values are unknown: Navigating complex medical decisions with professional guardians

Objectives: 1. Identify challenges with complex medical decision-making in a patient that has a professional guardian. 2. Describe the ethical principles involved when the decision-maker is a professional guardian. 3. Describe a communication approach to help navigate decision-making with professional guardians. Background: Decision-making is challenging when patients are unable to express their values. Surrogate decision-makers ideally make decisions using a model of substituted judgement. However, court appointed guardians without a personal relationship to the patient (i.e. a professional guardian) are usually unable to use substituted judgement. Professional guardians often need to make decisions based on best interests. With insufficient guidance from medical teams, guardians may elect for continued disease-directed interventions even when they are no longer in the best interests of the patient. Case Description: A 60-year-old woman with a history of cerebral palsy, hiatal hernia involving the stomach and colon, dysphagia requiring jejunostomy tube placement, and severe malnutrition was transferred from an outside hospital for surgical hernia repair. The patient lacked decision-making capacity. She had no known family involvement and had a court-appointed professional guardian. She had multiple prior attempts at feeding tube procedures and a complicated exploratory laparotomy at the outside hospital and was still not tolerating tube feeds. Surgery determined that hernia repair would be technically difficult and would require a significant post-op rehabilitation period. Palliative care and ethics were consulted to assist with decision-making. We gathered information about the patient’s life from people at her group home and learned about the risks and benefits from the surgical team’s perspective. We guided the surgical team to think through the benefits and burdens of the surgery and ultimately supported their conclusion that the surgery was not in the patient’s best interests. A clear recommendation not to proceed with the surgery was communicated to the guardian. Conclusion: Gathering collateral information about the patient’s life, using the principle of best interests, and clearly communicating a recommendation aids in decision-making with professional guardians and helps to avoid interventions which are more likely to harm than to benefit a patient.https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/merf2019caserpt/1030/thumbnail.jp

Decision-making in virtual teams: Role of interaction and technology

Teknikens utveckling har under de senaste två decennierna stött utvecklingen av virtuella team, bestående av geografiskt utspridda medlemmar som samarbetar med hjälp av teknik. Virtuella team bildas för att utföra komplexa arbetsuppgifter och lyckade beslut är avgörande för deras prestanda. Trots deras popularitet, vet man lite om beslutfattandes karaktär i virtuella team. Det finns ett behov av att studera detta ämne mer ingående och beakta effekterna av den senaste tekniken. I detta diplomarbete har jag valt att utforska beslutfattningsprocessen i virtuella team med syftet att upptäcka kritiska faktorer för lyckade och misslyckade beslut. Tidigare teorier om beslutsfattande i samlokaliserade team används för att testa deras giltighet i virtuella miljöer. Jag har också forskat i hur teknikspecifika särdrag påverkar beslutsprocessen för att belysa teknikens roll i virtuella teams beslutsfattande. Jag undersökte 21 team, bestående av tre personer, som utförde en uppgift som involverade beslutsfattning. Testen utfördes i en laboratoriemiljö. Hälften av teamen använde sig av ett webbkonferens verktyg och hälften använde sig av en virtuell miljö. Forskningsresultatet stödde antagandet att man kan tillämpa allmänna teorier om beslutsfattande i virtuella miljöer. Speciellt teorin "vigilant decision-making" fick stöd från resultatet. Faktorer såsom gemensam förståelse, grundlig diskussion innan beslutsfattande, stor mängd värdefull information delad, mycket ifrågasättande och omvärdering visade sig vara viktiga för lyckade beslut. Team som misslyckade hade å andra sidan omvända tendenser och gjorde store felaktiga antaganden som ledde till misslyckade beslut. Mycket ifrågasättning och omvärdering kunde rädda grupper som var på väg att göra ett misstag. Dessutom inverkade specifika tekniska funktioner på beslutsfattandet i virtuella miljöer. Webbkonferens verktyget visade sig ha en del fördelar i jämförelse med den virtuella miljön i denna specifika uppgift. Uttryckligen, den virtuella miljön innehöll ett antal fallgropar som berodde på programmets användarvänlighet i samband med möjligheten till individuella och obearbetade beslut.Advances in technology have over the last two decades supported the development of virtual teams, constituted of geographically distributed members collaborating through technology. Virtual teams are formed to perform complex tasks, and successful decision-making is crucial for their performance. Despite the popularity of virtual teams, little is known about the nature of decision-making in them. There is a need to study this subject in more detail, and take into account the effects of the newest technologies. In this thesis I have chosen to investigate the decision-making process in virtual teams, aiming at discovering critical factors for success and failure. Earlier theories on decision-making in co-located teams are applied to test their validity for a virtual setting. I have also studied how technology specific features affect the decision-making process in order to shed light to what the role of technology is in virtual team decision-making. I studied 21 teams of three persons each, collaborating on a decision-making task in a laboratory setting. A web conferencing tool was used by half of the groups and a virtual environment by rest of the groups. The sessions were recorded and transcribed for enabling qualitative analysis of team discussions and interaction with technology. My findings supported the applicability of general decision-making theories for virtual teams. Especially, vigilant decision-making theory gained support from the findings. Factors, such as shared understanding, thorough discussion before decision, high amount of valuable information shared, much questioning, and reevaluation were found to be important for successful decisions. Unsuccessful teams, on the other hand, had reverse tendencies and made major wrong assumptions that led to poor decisions. High questioning and reevaluation could save a group that were about to make mistakes. Moreover, specific technology capabilities influenced slightly the virtual team decision-making. The web conferencing tool showed to have some advantages over the virtual environment in this specific task. Specifically, the virtual environment contained some pitfalls due to ease of use and a high possibility of individual and unprocessed decisions

Use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in cancer multidisciplinary team meetings: an explorative study based on EU healthcare professionals

Objectives: Multidisciplinary teams in cancer care are increasingly using information and communication technology (ICT), hospital health information system (HIS) functionalities and ICT-driven care components. We aimed to explore the use of these tools in multidisciplinary team meetings (MTMs) and to identify the critical challenges posed by their adoption based on the perspective of professionals representatives from European scientific societies. Design: This qualitative study used discussion of cases and focus group technique to generate data. Thematic analysis was applied. Setting: Healthcare professionals working in a multidisciplinary cancer care environment. Participants: Selection of informants was carried out by European scientific societies in accordance with professionals' degree of experience in adopting the implementation of ICT and from different health systems. Results: Professionals representatives of 9 European scientific societies were involved. Up to 10 ICTs, HIS functionalities and care components are embedded in the informational and decision-making processes along three stages of MTMs. ICTs play a key role in opening MTMs to other institutions (eg, by means of molecular tumour boards) and information types (eg, patient-reported outcome measures), and in contributing to the internal efficiency of teams. While ICTs and care components have their own challenges, the information technology context is characterised by the massive generation of unstructured data, the lack of interoperability between systems from different hospitals and HIS that are conceived to store and classify information rather than to work with it. Conclusions: The emergence of an MTM model that is better integrated in the wider health system context and incorporates inputs from patients and support systems make traditional meetings more dynamic and interconnected. Although these changes signal a second transition in the development process of multidisciplinary teams, they occur in a context marked by clear gaps between the information and management needs of MTMs and the adequacy of current HIS

The development and formative evaluation of an interactive, multimedia, multimethod, simulation on teacher evaluation

The goal of this dissertation was to produce a prototype interactive, multimedia simulation that could be used by an instructor as an experience medium in bridging theory of teacher evaluation with practice. Nine administrative skills found to be frequently a part of the school administrators day by the NASSP were used as guidelines in designing the environment for the realism of the simulation; The simulation consists of three main segments in a video format that closely follow the Clinical Supervision Model of Teacher Evaluation. Options and variations for the simulation include teacher selection, several realistic administrative decision-making problems, teacher rating, and length of the simulation. On-screen graphics, written assignments, simulated inter-office communications, video segments, group interaction, and realistic consequences are utilized in the simulation and vary from simulation to simulation according to the responses of the participant. All of the included devices are controlled by the information input into the computer by an instructor or operator according to the responses of the participant and the chronological stage of the simulation; Students participate in the simulation in simulated administrative teams. The use of teams facilitates engagement of a reflective practice that would provide appropriate simulation analysis. Aspects of reflective practice are also reinforced in simulation written assignments. Actual simulation time is estimated to be 45 to 50 minutes for completion, which does not include preparatory assignments and group discussions

Group Collaboration And Group Decision Making Information Technologies In Petroleum Industry

The technical management of important natural resources such as oil and gas resources is a challenging responsibility that faces oil companies. The increasing global demand for oil and gas coupled with declining oil and gas reserves has forced the oil industry to make significant changes in its business processes. Major oil companies have exploration and production operations that span several continents. Massive amount of data that is generated at all levels in an oil company has to be stored, analyzed and disseminated. In this paper, the changes in the management practices and business processes in the oil industry are traced over the past several decades. The use and application of information technology as change agents is also explored and evaluated. In particular, this paper focuses on the role of visualization centers in the oil and gas industry in revolutionizing effective group decision making that has enabled teams to be more productive, innovative, and outcome-focused