Supporting Human Experts’ Collaborative Work: Modelling Organizational Context Knowledge in Cooperative Information Systems

Author(s):  
S. Kirn
Author(s):  
Reima Suomi ◽  
Reetta Raitoharju

Social and healthcare industries offer demanding occupations, as they are very human-contact intensive workplaces and, moreover, the customers are usually met in critical and not-wished-for situations. Possible actions are many, and seldom are there clear procedures on how to continue: Each customer contact is a place for genuine decisions. Add to this deliberate service situation a computer, and you can count on difficulties. Our focus is on how information systems affect the stress levels of health and social-care workers. Our empirical study shows–among many other factors–strong correlation between the use of computers and stress levels in the healthcare professions: The more computer use, the more stress. Wediscuss what could be done to manage stress levels in relationship to computer use in health and social-care industries. In conclusion, we wrap the research findings together and propose our extensions to the current knowledge on the relationship between stress and information systems in health care. Our most important finding is that when users understand the total collaborative work setting, computer work obtains meaning, and stress levels reduce.


Author(s):  
José-Rodrigo Córdoba

In the era of globalization, the use of technologies like the Internet has created possibilities for individuals to interact across geographical locations. Businesses are grasping the benefits of collaboration and gaining from extending it inside and outside traditional boundaries (Doz & Kosonen, 2007; Evans & Wolf, 2006). It is common nowadays to see a manufacturing process being undertaken by a number of groups from suppliers and several tiers that connect across supply chains (Christopher, 2005). Information systems and information technologies support these activities by facilitating the streamlining and automation of interorganizational information flows (Galliers, 1999). However, despite the increasing availability of systems and technologies to facilitate collaboration and online work, it is far from clear what type of impacts such systems are generating in the work of individuals (Meng & Agarwal, 2007), and how they can support collaboration outside organizational boundaries. To foster collaboration, managers need to enable coordination between groups and to ensure their autonomy, while at the same time guarantee delivery of value to the business. How can businesses develop collaborations and with them obtain competitive advantages? What are the roles that information systems and technologies can play? Evans and Wolf (2006) present two key examples of business collaboration (i.e., the Linux community and the Toyota production systems) which show how traditional business practices need to be challenged if not transformed radically. According to them, organizations should devise simple and modular tasks so that different suppliers (or internal teams) can undertake them with few guidelines. Collaboration needs to be kept simple and open. It needs to be fuelled with a high number of small-scale interactions inside and outside organizations with simple (i.e., standard) technologies to support them. Work needs to be made visible so that information about it can be continuously updated and shared. A number of options (e.g., for production or service processes) needs to be maintained so that innovations do not focus only on what works well at a particular moment in time, but what could be valuable for the future. Organizational structures should be replaced by networks of leaders who act as connectors between individuals. But even if the above strategies are adopted, Evans and Wolf (2006) also highlight that collaboration needs an appropriate work environment where trust is the norm. Trust enables individuals to exchange information and share the intellectual property of their findings. With trust, it is understood that rewards are going to be shared and that it is more important to “get on with the job” in case there are problems to be solved than to claim for individual compensations. Trust will also ensure that even those who compete (inside or outside organizations) can work together to develop solutions to common problems. The more collaborative work is developed, a higher degree of trust exists, and a higher number of opportunities can flourish to convert solutions in innovations. The issue of trust will be revisited later in the chapter.


Information Systems (IS) are complex artifacts which could be viewed as playing the role of an interface between the organizational structure and processes and the technological capabilities. IS design is influenced by—and has an influence on—its outer environment: organizational context. Much of past research in IS is of explanatory nature and has largely focused on the processes and functions of outer environment, including organizations and individuals. There is not sufficient theoretical elaboration on the organizational and technological connections of the IS artifacts. Some of the most prominent theoretical models of IS do not incorporate the very nature of information systems to a substantial extent. The information content of these models is also questionable. IS research has been criticized by some members of the research community for lack of identity and lack of relevance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 4-6
Author(s):  
Ayesha Irum ◽  
Rama Shankar Yadav

Purpose The article presents an overview of the Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) and its relevance in the current organizational context. It broadly captures the advantages of HRIS and the significant challenges involved in its implementation and succeeding stages. Design/methodology/approach A string of research articles in the domain is reviewed for the briefing. Findings HRIS is salient in supplementing various Human Resource (HR) functions ranging from HR planning to performance management. It can act as a catalyst in establishing the significance of HR in strategic decision making. It helps managers to effectively store large amounts of employee data and draw inferences from it to make pro-employee decisions. However, despite being relevant in HR functions, HRIS is often surrounded by concerns like employee privacy breach and misuse of information. Originality/value The article showcases the transformation of the Human Resource function to strengthen its strategic position in the organization and sustain HR professionals. Adoption of HRIS helps to convert HR to a data-driven function.


Author(s):  
David Paradice ◽  
Robert A. Davis

Decision support systems have always had a goal of supporting decision-makers. Over time, DSS have taken many forms, or many forms of computer-based support have been considered in the context of DSS, depending on one’s particular perspective. Regardless, there have been decision support systems (DSS), expert systems, executive information systems, group DSS (GDSS), group support systems (GSS), collaborative systems (or computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) environments), knowledge-based systems, and inquiring systems, all of which are described elsewhere in this encyclopedia. The progression of decision support system types that have emerged follows to some degree the increasing complexity of the problems being addressed. Some of the early DSS involved single decision-makers utilizing spreadsheet models to solve problems. Such an approach would be inadequate in addressing complex problems because one aspect of problem complexity is that multiple stakeholders typically exist. Baldwin (1993) examined the need for supporting multiple views and provides the only attempt found in the information systems literature to operationalize the concept of a perspective. In his work, a view is defined as a set of beliefs that partially describe a general subject of discourse. He identified three major components of a view: the belief or notion to convey, a language to represent the notion, and a subject of discourse. He further described notions as comprising aspects and a vantage point. Aspects are the characteristics or attributes of a subject or situation that a particular notion emphasizes. A vantage point is described by the level of detail (i.e., overview or detailed analysis). Assuming the subject of discourse can be identified with the notion, Baldwin described how differences in views may occur via differences in the notion, the language, or both.


2009 ◽  
pp. 729-755
Author(s):  
Javier García-Guzmán ◽  
María-Isabel Sánchez-Segura ◽  
Antonio de Amescua-Seco ◽  
Mariano Navarro

This chapter introduces a framework for designing, distributing, and managing mobile applications that uses and updates information coming from different data sources (databases and systems from different organizations) for helping mobile workers to perform their job. A summary of the state of the art in relation to mobile applications integration is presented. Then, the authors describe the appropriate organizational context for applying the integration framework proposed. Next, the framework components and how the framework is use are explained. Finally, the trials performed for testing the mobile applications architecture are discussed, presenting the main conclusions and future work. Furthermore, the authors hope that understanding the concepts related to the integration of mobile applications through the presentation of an integration framework will not only inform researchers of a better design for mobile application architectures, but also assist in the understanding of intricate relationships between the types of functionality required by this kind of systems.


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