MANAGERS AND COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY: A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE FOR IMPROVING MANAGEMENT SUPPORT SYSTEMS

Over the last years managers have expanded their role in operations and nowadays they make decisions faster than in the past. Collaboration technology promises to support managers in doing so. Hence, the present situation is favorable for a redesign of management support systems (MSS) incorporating collaboration technology. To examine such technology, we consider analyst - and consumer -type managers´ perspectives and cover collaboration technology for different devices. Based on findings from a literature review and arguments validated in structured manager interviews, we propose four initial design guidelines facilitating collaboration for managers: (1) Coordination: MSS should indicate the availability of other users, send read confirmations, and provide document sharing. (2) Communication: MSS should enable on-topic annotations and sending them to other users at the push of a button. (3) Cooperation: MSS should provide a comprehensive managerial self-service search function. (4) Devices: For shared documents and textual annotations tablets have become managers most wanted smart device type

A First Perspective on Requirements of New-Generation Managers for Collaboration Technology to be Integrated into Management Support Systems

Companies today are mostly populated by new-generation managers—consisting of digital natives and digital immi­grants. New-generation managers have expanded their role in operations and have to make decisions faster than in the past. Management support systems (MSS) serve as mana­gers’ central, hands-on, day-to-day source of information. Thus, the present situation is favorable for redesigning MSS in two respects: On the one hand, new-generation mana­gers’ faster decision making is driving a new demand for self-service MSS. Unlike earlier MSS, self-service MSS accommodate individual user preferences and increasingly enable managers to operate MSS themselves. On the other hand, as companies become larger and more dispersed, face-to-face meetings and even telephone calls become less prac­tical, but new collaboration technology is becoming in­creasingly important. Subject to these considerations, we examine collaboration technology—technology assisting people working towards the same goals—suitable to be incorporated into MSS for new-generation managers’ self service