The Impact of Individual Employee Differences on Information Seeking in Today’s Information Rich Work Environment

Recent advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) such as video conferencing, email, instant messaging, and Intranets have dramatically changed the landscape of communication in most organizations. The objective of this study is to gain an understanding of how different types of organizational members seek information. This is necessary ifor the management to provide the right infrastructure and processes to support such information needs. This study adds to the body of literature on information seeking behavior by incorporating gender, and cultural variables as well as the organizational variables of organizational status (salary or wage) and newcomer status. The findings will help management in assessing what ICT should be installed in order to provide the appropriate support to facilitate information and knowledge dissemination and sharing in organizations

Team Climate and Media Choice in Virtual Teams

As work teams become more distributed, effective computer-mediated communication is increasingly impacting their performance. This study investigates how team climate influences communication frequency among team members and their use of different communication media. Data were collected in two information systems courses offered at an Austrian university in which 50 student teams developed web-based applications and conducted usability tests. A team climate framework based on task and social orientation was used to assess the teams’ performance and communication patterns. We found that both task and social dimensions of team climate were positively related to higher communication frequency as well as objective and subjective performance. Among other things, the results suggest that a task-oriented climate is especially linked to the use of e-mail, while social orientation is linked to the use of face-to-face meetings. We also found differences in communication patterns and performance across four different types of team climates (fully functioning, cozy, cold, and dysfunctional). The results underscore the importance of both task and social dimensions for a team to perform well. Our study contributes to both the academic literature that investigates factors affecting media choice and the practitioner literature that examines how to manage virtual teamwork effectively

Metodología de implantación de modelos de gestión de la información dentro de los sistemas de planificación de recursos empresariales. Aplicación en la pequeña y mediana empresa

La Siguiente Generación de Sistemas de Fabricación (SGSF) trata de dar respuesta a los requerimientos de los nuevos modelos de empresas, en contextos de inteligencia, agilidad y adaptabilidad en un entono global y virtual. La Planificación de Recursos Empresariales (ERP) con soportes de gestión del producto (PDM) y el ciclo de vida del producto (PLM) proporciona soluciones de gestión empresarial sobre la base de un uso coherente de tecnologías de la información para la implantación en sistemas CIM (Computer-Integrated Manufacturing), con un alto grado de adaptabilidad a la estnictura organizativa deseada. En general, esta implementación se lleva desarrollando hace tiempo en grandes empresas, siendo menor (casi nula) su extensión a PYMEs. La presente Tesis Doctoral, define y desarrolla una nueva metodología de implementación pan la generación automática de la información en los procesos de negocio que se verifican en empresas con requerimientos adaptados a las necesidades de la SGSF, dentro de los sistemas de gestión de los recursos empresariales (ERP), atendiendo a la influencia del factor humano. La validez del modelo teórico de la metodología mencionada se ha comprobado al implementarlo en una empresa del tipo PYME, del sector de Ingeniería. Para el establecimiento del Estado del Arte de este tema se ha diseñado y aplicado una metodología específica basada en el ciclo de mejora continua de Shewhart/Deming, aplicando las herramientas de búsqueda y análisis bibliográfico disponibles en la red con acceso a las correspondientes bases de datos