Designing organizational interfaces

"April 1985." "This paper appeared in the Proceedings of the CHI'85 Conference on Human Factors on Computing Systems, ... San Francisco, CA, April 14-18, 1985."--P. [5]Includes bibliographical references (p. 11-14).Thomas W. Malone

Integrating working at home with information systems management

The history of computerization has its origin in the automation of manual processes - searching out the segments that could be put on a computer. The intended result was that the entire job would be done faster and cheaper. Thus, current computer-based information systems tend to make more efficient use of computers than people. The management function, on the other hand, often seems to focus on competitive skills and salesmanship rather than on the ability to attract and hold talented people. But, such impersonal factors that have driven management practices are changing. There has been a complete reversal in the relative costs of one computer versus one employee. The cost of a computer is now a fraction of that of an information worker. Another change to be reckoned with is the emergence of computers as facilitators of human communications (Turoff, 1985). Since there are other costs besides salary that must be considered in maintaining the office workforce, some corporate managers are looking for alternatives to the traditional locational and temporal aspects of office work. Recognizing that technology for personal computing has progressed in just a few short years from video games to some very sophisticated applications, management may even consider if it would be beneficial to encourage employees to buy personal computers for use at home. One way to do this is a computer purchase program subsidized by the employer. There are many different views of what working at home really is; there is much conjecture as to the success or failure of such programs. This paper attempts to review the current literature associated with the subject of remote work and to provide a framework for further understanding. The author thanks Dr. Murray Turoff, professor at the Computerized Conferencing and Communications Center of New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey, for his help and guidance in the preparation of this paper. The author also thanks Ms. Carol D\u27Agostino, Electronic Services Unlimited, New York City; Mr. John L. Johnsen, Integrated Resources Life Companies, Fort Lee, New Jersey, Mr. Ralph S. McCrae, Control Data Corporation, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Mr. Charles W. Schmidt, Lift, Inc., Northbrook, Illinois, for their valuable input

The design and implementation of the SEAU procedure management system

An emerging requirement across a range of industries is to be able to quickly and efficiently automate an organisation's official, and also more ad-hoc, policies and procedures. A Procedure Management System is a system which assists users in carrying out these procedures. The purpose of the research presented in this thesis has been to: • define a low-level model for the representation of procedures • construct a platform-independent prototype Procedure Management System (PMS) (the SEAU system) which supports this model • experiment with the use of this PMS for representing and enacting procedures defined using other high-level models • assess the suitability of the model as a low-level model for the representation of procedures. We begin by explaining what a Procedure Management System is and by examining some existing Procedure Management Systems and the models used in them for procedure representation. We then discuss some important issues in the design of a Procedure Management System, particularly the models used for representing procedures. A number of guidelines are outlined which should be followed in the design of a model for representing procedure and for the design of a prototype Procedure Management System. A low-level rule-based model for the representation of procedures which may be used as the basis for a PMS is then presented. Also given are some important features of high-level procedure specification models and it is shown how these might be implemented in a PMS. The architecture of the SEAU (Submission, Execution, Allocation, User- Interface) PMS, and the individual components which make up this system, are described. The criteria that must be conformed to by programs which are to be used with the SEAU system are also given, and the way in which the system assists in the execution of sub-procedures is described. The use of the SEAU system for the implementation of example procedures, defined using a number of different high-level models, is then examined. It is explained how some of the features of these models may be implemented using the low-level model used in the SEAU system, and features of the example procedures which caused some difficulty during implementation are highlighted. Finally, we summarise the conclusions reached as a result of this research and outline some possible future research directions, including ways in which the SEAU system might be enhanced

Organisatorische und technische Aspekte beim Einsatz von Workflowmanagementsystemen:Proceedings zum Workshop vom 10. April 1997

Während zur Funktionalität und Architektur von Workflowmanagementsystemen bereits diverse, mittlerweile auch umfangreiche Publikationen vorliegen, thematisiert der Münsteraner Workflow-Workshop primär Erfahrungen beim Einsatz dieser Systeme. Dabei sollen zum einen bewußt ‘weichere Faktoren’ - wie z. B. die Integration der Mitarbeiter in den Prozeß der Workflow-Einführung - diskutiert werden. Zum anderen sollen auch bestehende Workflowmanagementkonzepte und -systeme kritisch reflektiert werden

The usage of student administrative management systems: a case study of Australian and Thai University

Despite the growing adoption and popularity of Student Administrative Management Systems (SAMS) in universities worldwide; however there has been little examination of how SAMS are used in universities. Thus, the aim of this research is to make a contribution to organisations such as universities and higher educational institutions through increasing their understanding of the outcomes of using SAMS. This research studies the usage of SAMS in the Australian and Thai universities. Accordingly, two representative universities in Australia and Thailand respectively are chosen on the basis that both institutions have implemented SAMS. The study adopts a qualitative approach in order to explore the rich data provided by participants. Focus groups, interviews and field observations have been the principal data collection methods. Specifically, Grounded Theory has been employed to analyse the data by identifying the phenomena and the consequences resulting from the case studies, with the literature survey providing an initial conceptual framework for this research. In this research, the analysis of data revealed the factors that influence on system usage across specified groups of users. The study also discovered that systems are affected by the organisations in which they are located and system constraints. The major conceptualisation from this research is the notion of poor system quality which implies that SAMS is misaligned. Another point to consider is that system usage is significant to the task as well as the users, because systems are mandated for specific and important tasks. In the universities, the users created and implemented a variety of workarounds to manage and execute their tasks. As a result, the implications of the workarounds were identified, reflecting the context of the university setting. In this research, the substantive theory was developed to help organisations better understand the usage of SAMS in the university environment. Understanding the SAMS usage in higher education environments provides an important step for contributing and supporting future studies of system usage