DYNAMIC CONTEXTUALIZATION IN COMPUTER SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE WORK

Computer-mediated collaboration, a dominant mode of organizational communication particularly in dispersed and multinational organizations, introduces unique opportunities but also new problems. One of these problems is the higher risk of misunderstandings, which is more likely to occur in computer-mediated teamwork than in face-to-face teams (Cramton, 2001). Moreover, it may be particularly acute when distributed workers come from different functional backgrounds, holding different perspectives (Dougherty, 1992; Powell et al., 2004). Dispersed collaborations are also likely to suffer problems of culture since collaborators are embedded in a different local work setting with its own rules, language, histories, and myths (Armstrong & Cole, 2002). Current theories of communication suggest that misunderstanding may be reduced by contextualization, i.e., providing contextual information to explain a core message. However, a central hypothesize in the current research, is that contextualization is beneficial in some situations but not in others. Treating contextualization as a form of adaptive behavior, the research model aims to understand its contingent impact on performance in collaborative tasks. The motivation for contextualization is explained, arguing that it can be predicted by the extent to which the perspectives of the collaborators are different or shared: a difference of perspectives between collaborators motivates them to contextualize in order to increase mutual understanding and thereby increase performance. Computer support should also motivate communicators to contextualize by making it easier for them to do so. A controlled experiment tested these relationships in a collaborative machine-assembly task performed by dyads. The collaborators\u27 perspectives and the level of computer support were manipulated, and contextualization behavior, mutual understanding and performance were measured. Results show that contextualization is effective only for dyads with different perspectives and may be detrimental when perspectives are similar. When computer support is available, users may contextualize even if it is counterproductive. Therefore, computer-mediated collaboration should be designed to ensure only effective contextualization. Some potential practical implications for collaborative systems are offered

The Impact of Technology Support for Contextualization and Media System Dependency on Enterprise Social Media Use

While enterprise social media (ESM) increasingly plays a vital role in improving teamwork in organizations, our understanding of how ESM is used by team members is still limited. Although researchers have investigated the impacts of ESM use, relatively few studies explore how individual members exhibit different extents of ESM usage behavior. Drawing upon media system dependency theory, we propose that ESM support for cognitive and affective contextualization can enhance individuals’ different types of dependency relations with the ESM by fulfilling their needs, which in turn lead to their different extents of usage behavior. Firms in China where ESM applications are used regularly will be surveyed to verify the associated hypotheses. The research design and expected contributions of this research will be discussed

How Online Social Networks Create Value for Organizations: A Resource-Based Perspective

Online Social Network (OSN) is an emerging communication technology which has increasingly been used. Todayorganizations are paying more attention to the importance of these networks and are trying to create value with theseemerging technologies. Current literature focuses on the information and network implications of these networks at theindividual and group levels, leaving the organizational level impact understudied. This study examines how these networkscreate value for organizations. We propose a model based on Sambamurthy et al. (2003) framework conceptualizing the OSNand explaining how OSN capabilities bring about customer agility through digital options of communication facilitation

ENHANCING COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATION BY DESIGNING AN EMAIL PROTOTYPE: A CASE STUDY

In today\u27s modern world, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and computer mediated communication (CMC) are central and most crucial in the activities of organizations and in their success in achieving their goals and purposes. Organizations are established to achieve goals that one person cannot accomplish alone, and the knowledge that is collected by individuals should be reserved for the general use of the organizational community. Now, organizational workers need more than ever to share the knowledge they each gather, and they are involved in joint activities that need the support of information systems. Communication between individuals is at large extent in the form of computer mediated cooperation, and computerized applications ascribed as groupware (group support systems) include shared environments, whiteboards, electronic group calendars, chat rooms and more. Groupware systems support groups of people that work together by facilitating communication between them and by improving coordination. The overall success of organizations is certainly dependent on computer mediated communications that need to be designed to achieve a high level of mutual understanding and minimal occurrences of communication breakdowns. Perhaps the most widespread mode of CMC at work is email. Organizational workers are engaged in this asynchronous communication on a daily basis, having multiple contacts and the ability to preserve exchanged messages in an archive for future use. This study examines the possible ways to enhance CMC among users exchanging email messages in a company named Artigiani that specializes in manufacturing handles, hooks, hangers, and bathroom accessories. We closely Artigiani, and conducted content analysis of email messages. We were particularly interested in the exchanging of messages between customer service representatives (CSRs) and their customers which are professional workers such as carpenters, contractors, architects, interior designers and personal customers. CSRs in Artigiani are in great pressure to respond quickly to emails, and they feel stressed by the high volume of incoming messages, and by the fact that they tend to lose important items when they need them (such as previous messages exchanged, and items that they wish to attach to new messages). In addition, we identified communication breakdowns and misunderstanding that mainly result from differences in knowledge and perspectives of communicators. We follow previous work in CMC that stress the need for reinventing the email client, and put our focus on a communicational strategy called contextualization, which is the activity of providing the explicit addition of contextual information to a core message to ensure effective communication. We present a prototype for an email user interface that puts contextualization as a central component for enhancing effective CMC and for effectively managing and controlling organizational activities, especially the ongoing management of product ordering, and related decision making. examined communication i

Is Communication the Key to Success? Investigating the Impact of Agile Practices on Information Systems Development Projects

In recent years, agile methodologies for information systems development (ISD) have increasingly attracted the attention of the research community. Agile ISD methodologies are considered an effective way for managing ISD projects in environments characterized by rapidly changing requirements. Although the body of knowledge on agile ISD is constantly growing, we still lack a detailed understanding of the fundamental processes underpinning agile ISD methodologies. In this paper, we investigate how agile practices affect the team communication processes in order to extend our knowledge on the theoretical underpinnings of agile ISD projects. This is achieved by developing a preliminary research model that is based on a solid theoretical foundation. As a theoretical framework, we employ the unified model of ISD success and extend it with context-specific insights from the cognitive-affective model of organizational communication and media naturalness theory. In consequence, we suggest several propositions for future testing

Human-in-the-Loop AI Reviewing: Feasibility, Opportunities, and Risks

The promise of AI for academic work is bewitching and easy to envisage, but the risks involved are often hard to detect and usually not readily exposed. In this opinion piece, we explore the feasibility, opportunities, and risks of using large language models (LLMs) for reviewing academic submissions, while keeping the human in the loop. We experiment with GPT-4 in the role of a reviewer to demonstrate the opportunities and the risks we experience and ways to mitigate them. The reviews are structured according to a conference review form with the dual purpose of evaluating submissions for editorial decisions and providing authors with constructive feedback according to predefined criteria, which include contribution, soundness, and presentation. We demonstrate feasibility by evaluating and comparing LLM reviews with human reviews, concluding that current AI-augmented reviewing is sufficiently accurate to alleviate the burden of reviewing but not completely and not for all cases. We then enumerate the opportunities of AI-augmented reviewing and present open questions. Next, we identify the risks of AI-augmented reviewing, highlighting bias, value misalignment, and misuse. We conclude with recommendations for managing these risks

Knowledge Sharing Routines in Inter-Organizational Relationships and in the Presence of Partner-Specific Absorptive Capacity and Incentives for Transparency: The Moderating Role of Information Technology

To stay competitive, organizations frequently need to access and manage knowledge resources external to their boundaries. Inter-organizational relationships are a typical mechanism to achieve these goals. Relational governance mechanisms are germane to this context and knowledge sharing routines, a component of relational governance, are critical to knowledge management in such situations. This paper examines the relationship between knowledge sharing routines and outcomes of inter-organizational relationships in normal contexts, and in the presence of partner-specific absorptive capacity and of incentives encouraging transparency. The moderating role of IT usage on all these relationship is examined. The hypotheses are validated using meta-analytic procedure, which enables one to glean an overall view of findings in prior literature on the relationships of interest

A Transactive Memory Systems Perspective on Virtual Team Creativity

Regulating the creativity of virtual teams (VTs) has turned up to be a major concern for many companies. Furthermore, organizations with geographically distributed teams, are struggling to keep up satisfactory VT relations to enhance creativity initiatives. This research analyses how firms can manage the relationship between transactive memory systems (TMS) components (specialization, coordination and credibility) with VT creativity. We examined the collected data from 231 professionals employing structural equation modeling to assess the model fit and partial least squares to evaluate the robustness of our results. Our investigations found different results. The first conclusion shows that TMS components have a positive impact on VT creativity. Second, our study gives a confirmation of the combined intra and inter-TMS components’ effect on VT creativity

Enhancing Shared Understanding in Collaborative Online Shopping

This study explores the emerging phenomenon of collaborative online shopping by comparing three navigation support designs: separate navigation with location cue, split screen navigation, and tightly-bonded shared navigation. The impacts of the three navigation support designs on collaborative customers’ actual and perceived shared understanding were investigated in a laboratory experiment. The moderating effect of shopping group structure was also examined. The experimental results show that (1) split screen navigation leads to more actual shared understanding than separate navigation with location cue; (2) tightly-bonded shared navigation leads to less perceived shared understanding than split screen navigation; (3) in terms of actual shared understanding, the superiority of split screen navigation over tightly-bonded shared navigation is less prominent for customers in co-buyers structure than for those in buyer/advisor structure. The results also indicate that perceived shared understanding influences the perceived decision quality, which further affects customers’ intentions to revisit the online store

HOW DO ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRMS APPROPRIATE VALUE IN BIO DATA INFRASTRUCTURES: AN EXPLORATORY QUALITATIVE STUDY

Recent technological advances such as in genome sequencing have exploded bio data infra-structures including those that comprise of generic - anonymized or pseudonymized - data. As open data, the bio data infrastructures do not constrain the final application context for their data. Rather it is up to complementors, taking the role of digital entrepreneurs, to appropriate value from this data through their revenue streams while at the same time scaling their opera-tions and ventures. We undertake a qualitative explorative study of bio data ventures examining the tension of applying open generic genome data to specific contexts for customers while being able to scale their businesses. The study uses primary data from 26 interviews and secondary data to reveal six strategies that complementors use for value appropriation. We derive three mechanisms of appropriating value at different stages of the value chain for bio data analysis on open data infrastructures: data contextualizing, data decontextualizing, and data recontex-tualizing. The study sheds light to how bio data – which has received limited attention in infor-mation systems research – can be an important source of value appropriation in digital ecosys-tems