Towards a Personalized Assistance in Distributed Group Facilitation

With the advancement of group decision support systems (GDSS), facilitation has been regarded as one of the most important means in enhancing the outcome of group decisions. Many researchers have spent great efforts in creating useful methodologies and techniques to better support group facilitation. However, most of the research in the current literature deals more with facilitation targeted at a group-level than an individual level. With the increasingly available personalization techniques found in e-commerce, personalized facilitation seems to be a natural direction in group system facilitation research to deal with the needs of individual members for the overall gain of the group. In this paper, we address the needs for personalized facilitation in the context of the “EasyWinWin” framework in software requirements analysis by proposing a conceptual framework of personalized facilitation, developing a system architecture towards personalized facilitation and identifying key functions for a personalized facilitation system

Reciprocal Effect of Team Commitment and Media Richness in eCollaboration: A Conceptual Model

One of the major areas of E-Business applications is the sourcing of expert human resources globally with the help of virtual teams operating in various parts of the world. Major corporations are increasingly using e-Collaboration technologies to make the functioning of these teams economical and effective. The tasks performed by these teams can vary from software design and development to providing back office services like call center support, technical support, transcription services etc. Additionally, after 9/11 corporations have embarked on major initiatives to implement e-Collaboration technologies at the global level to help reduce travel. Extensive work has been done to study the decision-making performance of face-to-face and virtual teams. However, previous studies have found conflicting results regarding the impact of media richness on decision-making performances of teams. This paper posits the significant role of media type on the communication richness when team members have low commitment to the collaborative team projects. A conceptual model that depicts the influence of media type on satisfaction, team conflict, social influence, and supportiveness that influences the team commitment has been developed. The influence of team commitment on communication richness is also examined. A controlled lab experiment is designed to test the research model

Customer Relations Management in Information Systems Research

Customer Relations Management (CRM) involves attracting and keeping “Economically Valuable” customers while repelling and eliminating “Economically Invaluable” ones. CRM involves changing relationships and improving return-on-investment from customer relationships (ROI-CR.) We are experiencing a shift from a transaction-based economy to a relationship-based one (Keen 1999.) Two important business relationship types exist: those between enterprises and customers; and those between and among enterprises (Kalakota 1996.) This paper addresses the former. However, a there is a significant amount of research into traditional “Market Channels” (See (Bowersox 1990; Ganesan 1994; Syed Saad 1996; Cannon 1999; Geyskens 1999) for examples) as well as into eCommerce (EC) Market Channels (See (Kim 1999; Menon 1999; Son 1999)) Recent and upcoming scholarship and professional activities illustrate the importance the IS Research Community places on CRM. This paper presents a framework for IS CRM Research Topics, a discussion of IS CRM scholarly and professional research directions and activities

The effectiveness of virtual facilitation in supporting GDSS appropriation and structured group decision making

Since their introduction a quarter of a century ago, group decision support systems (GDSS) have evolved from applications designed primarily to support decision making for groups in face-to-face settings, to their growing use for “web conferencing,” online collaboration, and distributed group decision-making. Indeed, it is only recently that such groupware applications for conducting face-to-face, as well as “virtual meetings” among dispersed workgroups have achieved mainstream status, as evidenced by Microsoft’s ubiquitous advertising campaign promoting its “Live Meeting” electronic meeting systems (EMS) software. As these applications become more widely adopted, issues relating to their effective utilization are becoming increasingly relevant. This research addresses an area of growing interest in the study of group decision support systems, and one which holds promise for improving the effective utilization of advanced information technologies in general: the feasibility of using virtual facilitation (system-directed multi-modal user support) for supporting the GDSS appropriation process and for improving structured group decision-making efficiency and effectiveness. A multi-modal application for automating the GDSS facilitation process is used to compare conventional GDSS-supported groups with groups using virtual facilitation, as well as groups interacting without computerized decision-making support. A hidden-profile task designed to compare GDSS appropriation levels, user satisfaction, and decision-making efficiency and effectiveness is utilized in an experiment employing auditors, accountants, and IT security professionals as participants. The results of the experiment are analyzed and possible directions for future research efforts are discussed

A Gaming Laboratory to Study Distributed Collaboration Processes.

Current events present many examples of situations where a fast and coordinated response is required from many and diverse organizations and stakeholders. Technology-mediated communication and collaboration may be the only option for getting things done in situations like these. There is a real need for research on the kinds of environments and processes that best support fast response on urgent tasks for virtual teams. The paper presents the development and initial test of a gaming laboratory to study such processes. The laboratory is adaptable to different kinds of situations. We discuss the design principles and implementation of the laboratory environment, along with lessons learned from the first experiences with it

Aide à la Facilitation pour une prise de Décision Collective : Proposition d'un Modèle et d'un Outil

Decision Support Systems (DSS) were designed to resolve ill or non-structured decision problems. Problems where priorities, judgements, intuitions and experience of the decision-maker are essential, where the sequence of operations such as searching for a solution, formalization and structuring of problem is not beforehand known, when criteria for the decision making are numerous, in conflict or hard dependent on the perception of the user and where resolution must be acquired at restricted time. However, traditional DSS have been closed systems and are limited to the data and models contained within the system. In general, the type of support provided is relatively passive because decision makers are expected to scan internal and external data, and find discrepancies and deviations from expectations invoking ad hoc queries and reports that run on operational databases. In the other hand, Furthermore, many mission-critical, decision making situations happen in dynamic, rapidly changing, and often unpredictable distributed environments and require synchronous cooperative session. Unlike other decision making tools, decision support systems (DSS) designed for such situations are challenged by the need to access this decentralised information at time, from anywhere, under tight time constraints. In this thesis we consider, the paradigm of distributed decision-support systems where several decision-makers must reach a common decision. As a solution we propose an integrated framework based on a distributed architecture based on two cooperation modes: (1) Man-machine cooperation (2) Mediated man-man cooperation. According to the former cooperation mode, each decision-maker uses a specific cooperative intelligent decision support system allowing him to solve problem and to generate alternative solutions. The support system is viewed as a set of computer-based tools integrating expert knowledge and using collaboration technologies that help decision-makers and provide them with interactive capabilities to enhance their understanding and information base about options through use of models and data processing. By endowing the machine of additional capacities to intelligently guide the decision maker in its problem solving process, the system plays a collaborator's role with the decision-maker. This implies a human decision-maker and an automated system sharing dynamically the tasks and jointly working towards a decision. We assume that putting the human operator effectively in the loop of such decision support system represents the major guarantee of mastering efficiently the inherent complexity of the problems. Whilst considering the latter mode, The Group Decision Support (GDSS) tools allow the group of decision makers and the facilitator to make collective decision. This kind of cooperation uses a machine as an intermediate communication medium. As many group facilitation tasks can be automated, at least partially to increase the bandwidth of group communication and the ability of the facilitator to monitor and control the meeting process, an automated process to aid even the most inexperienced facilitator. The support to facilitators is considered by incorporating a model of the decision making process. The selected model provides a detailed view of decision making process. Having a model of the decision making process built into the system should enable intelligent decisional guidance. It enables the facilitator to appropriately choose and use the framework's tools and techniques in the group decision-making processes, to monitor group's behaviour, to know when to employ particular tools and techniques to move the group towards congruence. and to provide cues and customized explanations accordingly. We illustrate the applicability and relevance of this framework through a case study related to the management system of the boiler combustion which is one of the most critical systems for the good functioning of an oil plant. It has a high impact on the methods of thinking and apprehension of various problems related to maintenance. It is a multi-participant process with high level interactivity.Nous nous plaçons dans le contexte de situations décisionnelles critiques où les activités de prise de décision collective sont généralement caractérisées par des sessions de coopération synchrones au sein d'environnements distribués dynamiques, évolutifs et souvent imprévisibles. Au cours de ces sessions, les participants agissent simultanément et depuis des points d'accès distribués sur des objets partagés en suivant des règles de coordination pouvant être implicites ou explicites et en utilisant un ensemble d'outils qui leur permettent de progresser de façon coordonnée. Chacun des participants prend quelques décisions partielles, celles-ci servant de base aux suivantes. La prise de décision nécessite alors une synergie d'efforts de plusieurs membres afin que chacun d'eux mette à contribution son savoir-faire. Les membres ayant différents intérêts, compétences et expériences ne sont plus situés dans la même pièce mais utilisent des informations venant d'autres acteurs via des réseaux de type Internet ou intranet. D'ailleurs, c'est grâce à cette synergie que les membres peuvent atteindre des résultats supérieurs à ceux que qu'ils auraient pu réaliser individuellement. Ainsi l'outil pour décider devient l'outil pour décider ensemble. La contribution principale de cette thèse dans le domaine d'aide à la facilitation de la prise de décision collaborative se trouve dans la conception et la mise en œuvre d'un modèle et d'un système dédiée à la facilitation de la prise de décision de groupe synchrone distribuée. Cette structure collective entre agents humains permet d'une part d'additionner et de mutualiser les savoirs et les capacités créatrices, et d'autre part de limiter l'incertitude inhérente au processus de prise de décision par l'échange et la comparaison des points de vue. L'idée directrice de ce modèle est de renforcer la communication ainsi que la coopération entre les différents acteurs impliqués dans la prise de décision collective. Il s'agit d'une phase de production et de résolution créative de problème individuelle précédant la présentation des contributions au collectif. Cette dynamique d'éclatement puis de regroupement implique des mécanismes de coopération et de communication entre le groupe et l'individu

A Grounded Theory of Virtual Facilitation: Building Relationships with Virtual Team Members

The purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the issues facing virtual team facilitators as they implement and facilitate virtual teams. The study asked the following research question: How do facilitators of virtual teams build relationships with their virtual team members? Because virtual teams are a new form of highly dynamic and ambiguous collaborative interaction, a major challenge of this study was the need to generate relevant data and analyze it in an appropriate manner. To achieve this, a research framework involving a training program format was instituted based on methods developed in Action Learning (AL), with data collection and analysis based on grounded theory approaches (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). The AL-based 'virtual team facilitation' training program used in this study was designed to achieve the following three goals: to generate interest and incentive for would-be participants, to give participants information and skills to initiate and facilitate their own virtual teams, and to generate data for analysis. After being recruited, participants were broadly interviewed to determine their prior experience with virtual teams and their perceived needs and concerns in implementing and facilitating their own virtual team. The researcher then developed a ten-week training program to meet these needs. A pilot program and two subsequent training programs were held. During the training programs, each participant planned for, or actually initiated and facilitated a virtual team within their own organizational context. Every two weeks the participants met with the researcher to investigate issues related to initiating and facilitating virtual teams and to discuss issues that were arising in their own virtual teams. In all seven participants from a variety of New Zealand organizations took part in the study. The seven participants formed a diverse group, from the managing director of a one-man, global virtual organization who worked exclusively in global virtual team settings to a self-employed consultant managing a local virtual work team. The participants were in various stages of their virtual team lifecycle, from planning through initiation to full-scale facilitation and evaluation of a just-completed virtual team project. The participants' virtual team project tasks ranged from managing a political campaign on the other side of the world to developing and running a national web-based academic assessment center. A unique feature of this study is that it involves organizational professionals as opposed to students. Data was collected from face-to-face and telephone interviews, group discussions and e-mail correspondences. Data collection extended to several months beyond the end of the training sessions. Using grounded theory techniques, the data was analyzed using "a general method of (constant) comparative analysis". Data was collected and coded simultaneously over the course of the training sessions, with subsequent coding confirming, refining, extending and modify the data. The data showed very clearly that the facilitators considered it essential to build some level of personal relationship with their virtual team members before commencing a virtual working relationship. Further, a unifying framework of three inter-related theoretical steps in the overall process a virtual facilitator goes through when building relationships with virtual team members was inductively derived from this study. These three steps are Assessing Conditions, Choosing Level of Relationship, and Creating Strategies. This study is the first to identify the steps a virtual team facilitator undertakes when building relationships with virtual team members. It has implications for virtual team practice, research and training