Making Representations Matter: Understanding Practitioner Experience in Participatory Sensemaking

Appropriating new technologies in order to foster collaboration and participatory engagement is a focus for many fields, but there is relatively little research on the experience of practitioners who do so. The role of technology-use mediators is to help make such technologies amenable and of value to the people who interact with them and each other. When the nature of the technology is to provide textual and visual representations of ideas and discussions, issues of form and shaping arise, along with questions of professional ethics. This thesis examines such participatory representational practice, specifically how practitioners make participatory visual representations (pictures, diagrams, knowledge maps) coherent, engaging and useful for groups tackling complex societal and organizational challenges. This thesis develops and applies a method to analyze, characterize, and compare instances of participatory representational practice in such a way as to highlight experiential aspects such as aesthetics, narrative, improvisation, sensemaking, and ethics. It extends taxonomies of such practices found in related research, and contributes to a critique of functionalist or techno-rationalist approaches to studying professional practice. It studies how fourteen practitioners using a visual hypermedia tool engaged participants with the hypermedia representations, and the ways they made the representations matter to the participants. It focuses on the sensemaking challenges that the practitioners encountered in their sessions, and on the ways that the form they gave the visual representations (aesthetics) related to the service they were trying to provide to their participants. Qualitative research methods such as grounded theory are employed to analyze video recordings of the participatory representational sessions. Analytical tools were developed to provide a multi-perspective view on each session. Conceptual and normative frameworks for understanding the practitioner experience in participatory representational practice in context, especially in terms of aesthetics, ethics, narrative, sensemaking, and improvisation, are proposed. The thesis places these concerns in context of other kinds of facilitative and mediation practices as well as research on reflective practice, aesthetic experience, critical HCI, and participatory design

The Semantic Reader Project: Augmenting Scholarly Documents through AI-Powered Interactive Reading Interfaces

Scholarly publications are key to the transfer of knowledge from scholars to others. However, research papers are information-dense, and as the volume of the scientific literature grows, the need for new technology to support the reading process grows. In contrast to the process of finding papers, which has been transformed by Internet technology, the experience of reading research papers has changed little in decades. The PDF format for sharing research papers is widely used due to its portability, but it has significant downsides including: static content, poor accessibility for low-vision readers, and difficulty reading on mobile devices. This paper explores the question "Can recent advances in AI and HCI power intelligent, interactive, and accessible reading interfaces -- even for legacy PDFs?" We describe the Semantic Reader Project, a collaborative effort across multiple institutions to explore automatic creation of dynamic reading interfaces for research papers. Through this project, we've developed ten research prototype interfaces and conducted usability studies with more than 300 participants and real-world users showing improved reading experiences for scholars. We've also released a production reading interface for research papers that will incorporate the best features as they mature. We structure this paper around challenges scholars and the public face when reading research papers -- Discovery, Efficiency, Comprehension, Synthesis, and Accessibility -- and present an overview of our progress and remaining open challenges

Learning through business unit failure: a study of individuals and mid-level managers

Research on business failure focuses primarily on entrepreneurs and largely ignores individuals and mid-level managers who comprise most corporate populations. This study aimed to mitigate this gap by exploring how 15 individuals and mid-level managers working in a Fortune 50 technology company experienced failure and how their beliefs impacted their experience and learnings. Qualitative interview data were analyzed using a schema from the literature. The results suggested that emotional regulation, belief in personal agency, and separation of self from work supported learning and positive outcomes. Future research would create deeper insights into the social impacts on emotions and sensemaking and the importance of dynamics such as relative power

Selenite: Scaffolding Online Sensemaking with Comprehensive Overviews Elicited from Large Language Models

Sensemaking in unfamiliar domains can be challenging, demanding considerable user effort to compare different options with respect to various criteria. Prior research and our formative study found that people would benefit from reading an overview of an information space upfront, including the criteria others previously found useful. However, existing sensemaking tools struggle with the "cold-start" problem -- it not only requires significant input from previous users to generate and share these overviews, but such overviews may also turn out to be biased and incomplete. In this work, we introduce a novel system, Selenite, which leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) as reasoning machines and knowledge retrievers to automatically produce a comprehensive overview of options and criteria to jumpstart users' sensemaking processes. Subsequently, Selenite also adapts as people use it, helping users find, read, and navigate unfamiliar information in a systematic yet personalized manner. Through three studies, we found that Selenite produced accurate and high-quality overviews reliably, significantly accelerated users' information processing, and effectively improved their overall comprehension and sensemaking experience.Comment: Accepted to CHI 202

Competencies And Strategies Utilized By Higher Education Leaders During Planned Change

In a mixed methods study designed to explore the competencies and strategies utilized by self-described successful leaders of public, four-year U. S. institutions, this study confirmed that there was little difference among academic and non-academic leaders in their approach to successful change beyond that found in terms of non-academic preference for resilience and an academic preference for personal learning. Both leaders (N=47) showed high agreement for the nine proposed competencies, five of which were statistically higher in perceived importance (personal learning, resilience, emotional engagement/creating a safe space, networking/coalition building, and project management). Adapting Bolman and Deal’s four frames (2013) as an organizing framework for interview responses (N=25), the most frequent strategy themes in descending order were: personal strategies (including resilience, perseverance, setting expectations, establishing credibility, openness, adaptability/flexibility), political strategies (including knowing who to engage, scheming, sr. leader support, academic leader discretion), structure strategies (including forming/staffing a team and team activities such as benchmarking, use of a change model, creating a team charter), and symbolic strategies (including communication, inspiration, and emotional engagement activities). This study supports the creation of a competency framework that could be used for the recruitment/selection, coaching/mentoring, and ongoing development of both academic and non-academic higher education change leaders. Planning and change launch with communication were the primary phases referenced; institutionalization was minimally featured. Leaders would do well to partner with others in central units such as organizational development and/or human resource professionals to set change goals, monitor and evaluate progress, and embed the change into organizational structures, systems, and processes

Interactive maps: What we know and what we need to know

This article provides a review of the current state of science regarding cartographic interaction a complement to the traditional focus within cartography on cartographic representation. Cartographic interaction is defined as the dialog between a human and map mediated through a computing device and is essential to the research into interactive cartography geovisualization and geovisual analytics. The review is structured around six fundamental questions facing a science of cartographic interaction: (1) what is cartographic interaction (e.g. digital versus analog interactions interaction versus interfaces stages of interaction interactive maps versus mapping systems versus map mash-ups); (2) why provide cartographic interaction (e.g. visual thinking geographic insight the stages of science the cartographic problematic); (3) when should cartographic interaction be provided (e.g. static versus interactive maps interface complexity the productivity paradox flexibility versus constraint work versus enabling interactions); (4) who should be provided with cartographic interaction (e.g. user-centered design user ability expertise and motivation adaptive cartography and geocollaboration); (5) where should cartographic interaction be provided (e.g. input capabilities bandwidth and processing power display capabilities mobile mapping and location-based services); and (6) how should cartographic interaction be provided (e.g. interaction primitives objective-based versus operator-based versus operand-based taxonomies interface styles interface design)? The article concludes with a summary of research questions facing cartographic interaction and offers an outlook for cartography as a field of study moving forward

The coaching experience as identity work: Reflective metaphors

Orientation: Coaching facilitates identity work, and metaphors are often used in coaching to make sense of the self. Research purpose: To explore coaching clients’ coaching experience as expressed through metaphors, from an identity work perspective. Motivation for the study: The use of metaphor in coaching has not been realised, and coaching as a vehicle for identity work is underexplored. Research approach/design and method: A hermeneutic phenomenological methodology and qualitative design directed the study. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven clients who had participated in a coaching programme. Reflective metaphors from the interviews constituted the data set, which was analysed through hermeneutic phenomenological analysis. Main findings: Guided by identity theory, four themes were co-constructed from the data, which describe how coaching develops a self-processing competence reflected in these iterative cycles: (1) self-exploration and self-reflection; (2) self-awareness and self-insight; (3) self-acceptance and self-determination; and (4) self-actualisation and self-transcendence. These cycles of identity work align with transactional and transformational identity work to enable construction of an independent and interdependent self. Practical/managerial implications: The findings highlight the value of metaphors as a self-reflective sensemaking tool. Coaching is aligned with integrated transactional and transformational identity work, which can be used to assess the transformational value of coaching as a process. Contribution/value-add: The study describes the personal transformational value of coaching through metaphors, and it establishes identity work as a key process outcome of successful coaching. The findings offer a novel conceptualisation of transactional and transformational identity work as a process perspective to effective coaching

How do top management teams in regulated industries evolve their strategies in response to signals from performance measures?

A conceptual framework was derived by exploring how strategy change and top management team literatures inform the performance measurement field. It began to explain the role top management teams play using signals from their performance measures to evolve strategy. Adopting a Realist perspective, case study research was undertaken to seek out the approaches taken by managers in four organisations operating in UK regulated industry. Using the strategy chart tool developed by Mills et al (1998) in a retrospective manner and mapping changes in performance measures over the same time period, the research identified events in which changes in strategy and performance measures were linked. These event data sets were triangulated by interviewing managers about the roles they played and specifically the actions and factors to which they paid attention during the events. The findings were used to test and develop the conceptual framework. This resulted in an empirical framework that verifies existing theory that performance evaluation is a process of learning and inducing change. It confirms that this can be achieved whilst balancing alignment of the measures to implement strategy and adapting them to formulate strategy (Bourne et al 2000, Gimbert et al 2010, Kolehmainen 2010, Martinez et al 2010, Micheli and Manzoni 2010, Micheli et al 2011). Furthermore it develops theoretical understanding through the conduct of case studies into the role and key features of a performance measurement system which both supports the implementation and the formulation of strategy (Gimbert et al 2010, Micheli and Manzoni 2010) and finally the case studies provide rich description of what strategists actually do in crafting strategy as called for by those writing in the strategy-as-practice field (Whittington et al 2006). The framework may also benefit practitioners since it describes the factors to which top management teams may pay attention in using performance measures to develop business strategy in regulated industries

Entrepreneurial internationalization: A process perspective

The pre-internationalization period from venture foundation to its first international market entry is researched extensively by scholars in the field of international entrepreneurship. However, we know less about the internationalization process per se and especially of how it unfolds over time beyond the firms initial entry into global markets. Moreover, learning and networking and their interplay are considered important activities underpinning the process of internationalization. Learning does not happen in isolation – it happens in relationships. Besides our understanding of the importance of learning and networking as behavioral processes underlying internationalization, we only have a scarce understanding of how these two processes play out over time as the new venture internationalizes. In order to shed more light on the interplay of learning and networking during entrepreneurial internationalization, I applied event-driven process research and captured learning and networking processes as they unfolded in real-time over a 32 month period within an international new venture from the global mobile video game industry in Colombia (South America). My research is able to make important contributions to the field of international entrepreneurship. First, I provide a method of how process theory can be created based on longitudinal, real-time process data. Second, I am showing how experiential learning as a process of transformation of experience plays out at the level of the entrepreneur and the team as the process of entrepreneurial internationalization unfolds. Third, my framework shows that the role of the network goes beyond the common view in international entrepreneurship literature of the network as a source of knowledge. Fourth, my research illustrates empirically of how dynamic capabilities emerge in a new venture and how they are able to reconfigure the resource base of the firm in a concrete way on the micro-level. Fifth, my research is able to extend our current knowledge on the cyclical nature between learning and networking by providing empirical evidence of the feedback loop between these two processes and the triggers and underlying mechanisms causing a spiraling effect. Sixth, I argue that futureoriented sensemaking in interaction with others is central to strategy-making during entrepreneurial internationalization.Yrityksen kansainvälistymistä edeltävä ajanjakso (perustamisesta ensimmäisille markkinoille) on yksi tutkituimmista teemoista kansainvälisessä yrittäjyydessä. Itse kansainvälistymisprosessi ja erityisesti sen muotoutuminen ajan kuluessa on jäänyt vähemmälle huomiolle. Tutkijat ovat todenneet että oppiminen ja verkostoituminen sekä niiden yhdistäminen ovat tärkeitä prosessin etenemisen kannalta – oppiminen kun tapahtuu liikesuhteissa. Meillä on kuitenkin vielä opittavaa siinä, miten oppiminen ja verkostoituminen kehittyvät rinnakkain kun uusi yritys kansainvälistyy. Tämä tutkimus keskittyy oppimisen ja verkostoitumisen vuorovaikutukseen yrittäjämäisessä kansainvälistymisessä. Tutkimus on tapahtumalähtöinen prosessitutkimus kolumbialaisesta, globaalisti toimivasta videopeliyrityksestä. Yrityksen oppimis- ja verkostoitumisprosesseja seurattiin reaaliajassa 32 kuukauden ajan. Tutkimus tuottaa uutta tietoa erityisesti kansainvälisen yrittäjyyden tutkimukseen. Ensinnäkin, tutkimus tarjoaa esimerkin siitä kuinka prosessiteoriaa voidaan kehittää perustuen pitkittäiseen, reaaliaikaiseen prosessiaineistoon. Toisaalta, tutkimus osoittaa kuinka kokemuksellinen oppiminen kehittyy kansainvälistymisprosessin aikana, sekä yksilön, johtoryhmän että yrityksen tasolla. Aikaisemmasta tutkimuksesta poiketen yrityksen verkostoa ei tarkastella vain relevantin tiedon lähteenä, vaan arvokkaana rajapintana yrityksen oppimiselle. Tutkimuksessa käy myös ilmi miten yrityksen osaaminen, erityisesti ns. dynaamiset kyvykkyydet, kehittyy prosessin aikana ja miten yritys voi järjestää resurssinsa uudelleen siten, että ne paremmin palvelevat yrityksen kansainvälistymistavoitteita. Oppiminen ja verkostoituminen on tutkimuksessa kuvattu syklisinä prosesseina ja kuvaus tavoittaa sekä yhtymäkohdat prosessien välillä että ärsykkeet, jotka vievät prosessia eteenpäin/taaksepäin. Tutkimus osoittaa, että tulevaisuusssuuntautunut vuorovaikutus ympäristön kanssa on keskeistä strategiatyössä, kun on kyse yrittäjämäisestä kansainvälistymisestä