Comment Evaluation and Revision in a Bilingual Electronic Meeting

Translation accuracy continues to be a major problem in multilingual electronic meetings and a significant reason for such systems’ lack of acceptance and use. One way of increasing accuracy is detecting potential errors before a comment is added to the discussion. By comparing the original message text with a round-trip translation (RTT) and correcting any wording mistakes, misunderstandings might be prevented in the overall conversation. In this study, one group used an electronic meeting system with automatic translation that detected differences between a participant’s typed comment and a RTT. If there was a significant change, the group member was then given an opportunity to modify the text before submitting it to the transcript. Another group, serving as the control group, used an equivalent electronic meeting system without error detection. Results show that there was only a slight, non-significant increase in comprehension when comments were revised and translated to German with an 80% similarity threshold, but there would have been a significant increase in comprehension if a 50% threshold had been chosen.

Supporting Synchronous Collaboration with Heterogeneous Devices

The increasing availability of mobile devices in today’s business contexts raises the demand to shift the focus of groupware framework design. Instead of solely focusing on functional requirements of specific application domains or device characteristics, nonfunctional requirements need to be taken into account as well. Flexibility concerning the integration of devices and tailorability of the framework according to different usage contexts is essential for addressing device heterogeneity. Besides flexibility, in order to support the development of real-world applications involving heterogeneous devices, robustness and scalability concerns have to be addressed explicitly by the framework. This article presents Agilo, a groupware framework for synchronous collaboration. The framework incorporates approaches addressing flexibility, robustness, and scalability issues. The combination of these concerns makes it suitable for development of collaborative applications involving up to hundreds of users. As an example application, a commercial electronic meeting system is presented by illustrating typical usage scenarios, explaining applicationspecific requirements and describing the system design.

Leadership Style, Anonymity, and the Discussion of an Ethical Issue in an Electronic Context

A laboratory experiment was conducted with 42 student groups to evaluate the effects of transactional vs. transformational leadership styles and anonymity when groups supported by an Electronic Meeting System (EMS) discussed the ethical issue of copying copyrighted software. A confederate leader displayed either transformational or transactional behaviors. Transformational leaders motivate effort by raising the awareness of followers to make them aspire to higher-order needs and values and by developing them to fulfill their aspirations. Transactional leaders motivate effort by highlighting the contractual exchange involved in a relationship. Participants working with a transformational confederate were more likely to make arguments that challenged the copying of copyrighted software than those working with one who was more transactional. These arguments, in turn, caused groups exposed to such arguments to have greater deviation among its members in intentions to copy the software. Participants working with a transactional confederate were more likely to make arguments in favor of copying copyrighted software. These arguments, in turn, caused groups exposed to such arguments to have a greater mean of intentions to copy the software. Implications for practice and future research on ethics and leadership in the electronic context are discussed.

Effects of Leadership Style and Anonymity on Arguments and Intentions Related to Acting Unethically

A laboratory experiment was conducted with 42 student groups to evaluate the effects of transactional vs. transformational leadership styles and anonymity when groups supported by an electronic meeting system (EMS) discussed the ethical issue of copying copyrighted software. A confederate leader displayed either transformational or transactional behaviors. Transformational leaders motivate effort by raising the awareness of followers to make them aspire to higher order needs and values, and developing them to fulfill their aspirations. Transactional leaders motivate effort by highlighting the contractual exchange involved in a relationship. Participants working with a transformational confederate were more likely to make arguments that challenged the copying of copyrighted software than those working with one who was more transactional. These arguments in turn caused groups exposed to such arguments to have greater deviation among its members in intentions to copy the software. Participants working with a transactional confederate were more likely to make arguments in favor of copying copyrighted software. These arguments in turn caused groups exposed to such arguments to have a greater mean of intentions to copy the software. Implications for practice and future research on ethics and leadership are discussed.