Don’t curse the inflow of emails: It can help you do your job better

When email interruptions are congruent with our core responsibilities, they help us process tasks mindfully, writes Shamel Adda

A Call for Engaging Context in HCI/MIS Research with Examples from the Area of Technology Interruptions

This paper contributes to the discussion on future directions of Human-Computer Interaction in Information Systems (HCI/MIS) research by explicating the role of task- and social context. We show that context has not been sufficiently engaged, and argue why it is important to pay more attention to it in theory and design of future HCI/MIS research. Drawing on examples from the core HCI area of technology interruptions, we formulate a set of general research questions and guidelines, which allow us to represent the context of multiple users in continuous collaboration with multiple tools while working on tasks that are intertwined within business processes. These guidelines will generate new insights for HCI/MIS research and allow us to develop research that captures the changing nature of the computing environment

IT and NPD Performance: Unveiling the Mediating Effects of Process Integration and Knowledge Integration

The elusive relationship between information technology (IT) and business value continues to challenge academics and researchers. Recently, it has been suggested that a process-level framework that accounts for intermediate organizational factors is likely to allow us to better understand the antecedents of the business value of IT. This paper develops a model examining the impact of distinct IT usages on new product development (NPD) process performance. The mediating roles of two distinct integration types are examined: process integration and knowledge integration. These two integration types are conceptualized and distinguished from each other in an effort to provide a deeper understanding as to how they are influenced by IT and how they influence NPD performance. The model contributes to research by elucidating the role of IT in the NPD process and by extending the extant theory on integration and NPD performance and incorporating the distinct effects of the two integration types

IT Interruptions in Project Environments: A Taxonomy and Preliminary Performance Investigation

Despite the growing emergence of information technology interruptions–those interruptions that are mediated or induced by information technology–little is known about their nature and their consequences on performance. This paper develops a taxonomy of information technology interruptions and presents propositions that relate distinct interruption types and subtypes to individual performance in project environments. A qualitative inquiry of product development teams is used to deductively validate the taxonomy and propositions, and to develop new insights based on an inductive analysis. The paper contributes to research by developing a conceptualization of information technology interruptions in the context of individuals working on interdependent tasks that are nested in related projects. Also, it shows how distinct types of information technology interruptions exhibit differential effects on performance that vary from positive to negative

IT Interruptions and Coordination Effectiveness in Software Development Groups: A Conceptual, Multilevel Model

Research abounds on software teams enhancing their processes via IT. However, the unintended group-level effects of interruptions triggered by such IT are rarely examined. This paper develops a conceptual, multilevel model that focuses on the paths linking individually experienced IT interruptions to group coordination outcomes. Drawing on coordination theory and the work interruptions literature, we propose that different IT interruption types exhibit different effects. IT intrusions create resource constraints that emerge to the group level via interdependencies and debilitate group coordination effectiveness. To mitigate these effects, groups engage in coordination by task organization. IT interventions facilitate coordination by group problem-solving (a cross-level effect), which enhances coordination effectiveness. This research extends the IT interruptions literature by focusing on the multilevel effects, and extends the IT impacts literature by unearthing the unintended differential effects of IT via interruptions of group members’ work

Theorizing the Multilevel Effects of Interruptions and the Role of Communication Technology

Our understanding of how interrupting the work of an individual affects group outcomes and the role of communication technologies (CT) in shaping these effects is limited. Drawing upon coordination theory and the literatures on computer-mediated communication and interruptions, this paper develops a multilevel theory of work interruptions. It suggests that interruptions that target individuals can also affect other group members through various ripple effects and a cross-level direct effect. We also discuss how the usage of five CT capabilities during interruption episodes can moderate the impact of interruptions at the individual and group levels. Our theoretical model draws attention to the importance of examining the individual-to-group processes to better understand the impact of interruptions in group environments. Additionally, by accounting for the role of the use of CT capabilities during interruption episodes, our work contributes to both the interruptions literature, which dedicates scant attention to the interrupting media, and to IS research on media use and media effects

Why We Don’t Block 3rd Party Trackers: An Attributional Theory Perspective

Research on online consumer privacy typically relies on the trust-risk framework to explain users’ reactions to perceived privacy threats. However, little is known about such reactions in the context of third party tracking, where there is no explicitly defined agent to be trusted. In this research-in-progress, we propose an that in these situations users rely to the their attributional styles to shape their future actions. We present a model that predicts behavioral intentions based on traditional protection motivation theory and complements it with the construct of attributional style

Algorithmic Decision-Making Systems: A Conceptualization and Agenda for Green IS Research

Algorithmic decision-making systems (ADMSs), consisting of the two distinct but related concepts of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics (BDA), represent the most current computing advances for decision-making. ADMSs are associated with significant opportunities and challenges in a wide range of high-impact application areas. However, the conceptual confusion around ADMSs limits information systems (IS) research in comprehensively studying them and their impacts within a clearly defined cumulative tradition. This literature review develops an inclusive conceptualization of ADMS through the ideas of AI and BDA to mitigate such shortcomings. The conceptualization of ADMS is inductively generated following a grounded theory approach used to analyze the content of 54 IS articles. The resulting conceptualization includes eleven key aspects representing the intricate socio-technical nature of current computing processes for decision-making. Lastly, a green IS research agenda is proposed to illustrate the applicability of the ADMS conceptualization to IS scholarship

Exploring Mindfulness to Mitigate IT Addiction

This paper develops a research model to explore how mindfulness interventions can help to mitigate IT addiction. The paper integrates mindfulness-to-meaning theory with social cognitive theory to propose a research model that will be empirically investigated in a series of studies

Communication about Planned Obsolescence as an Atypical Two-sided Message

While many information technology vendors deliberately cut their products’ lifecycles to elicit repeat purchases, consumers are often unaware of such planned obsolescence. This paper investigates the effects of atypical two-sided communication about planned obsolescence on consumers’ beliefs and buying intentions. Drawing upon insights from inoculation theory, we hypothesize that trust and intent to buy initially decrease after individuals are exposed to communication about planned obsolescence, but that they partly bounce back after some time during which the inoculated individuals get a chance to discuss and practice counter-arguing the two-sided message. Through a repeated measures survey design, we confirm the study’s main hypotheses. We also show that the drop in intent to buy depends on gender, the importance given to friendship, and the weighted average decrease in friends’ intent to buy