Electronic support for large groups

One of the key challenges in applying information technology to improve group performance lies in matching the capabilities of technology to the needs of the situation. Groups can choose meeting styles that use solely electronic communication, solely verbal communication, or a combination of both verbal and electronic communication. This paper reports on a series of ten case studies of large groups performing information generation tasks. For these groups and tasks, meeting styles with a greater proportion of electronic communication were found to result in higher perceived effectiveness, efficiency, and participant satisfaction. Qualitative evidence suggested that in this situation, the parallelism, direct access to the meeting memory, and anonymity offered by pure electronic communication outweighed its reduced media richness.     

A research framework for group support systems

Over the last decade, many methodologies and techniques have been devised to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of cooperative working. The efficacy of many of these approaches has not been rigorously assessed, causing doubt about their applicability and helping restrict their use. Additionally, research effort has been dissipated. The need is for a generally agreed framework within which research can be conducted and results determined. This article proposes such a framework, involving the identification of the context, process, and outcome variables which, a priori, are deemed important to understanding, and subsequently predicting, the appropriate forms of intervention in the workings of groups. Six major components have been identified: the organizational environment, the group context, the process context, the group process, the substantive outcomes, and process performance indicators. Within these six components, 16 macrovariables have been identified. Within these macrovariables, 90 variables have been selected that characterize an issue-handling situation and its outcomes. The framework is applicable to a very wide range of group support systems used in many contexts.     

Participants' perceptions on the role of facilitators using Group Decision Support Systems

The impact of facilitation upon group meetings has been a topic of research and debate for over 40 years. However, with the emergence and increasing usage of Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS), the role of facilitators is once more being addressed. Facilitators aim to substantially increase the effectiveness of group working, making meetings more productive and efficient through the management of both content and process. However, while the benefit that facilitators can bring is acknowledged, developing the necessary skills and techniques is more problematic. There are few manuals for would-be faciliators to draw upon, and much of their ability is acquired through experience. This article therefore attempts to increase the knowledge available and to provide facilitators with some practical suggestions. The research focuses on a series of interviews with group members (participants) who had used a particular GDSS—Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA)—for organizational decision making. From the analysis of the interviews, a number of reoccurring issues were identified which are presented as a set of learning points. These cover not only the workshop/meeting itself, but also the pre-workshop and post-workshop stages. The article also reflects on the impact which these identified learning points have on design and future GDSS development.     

Towards an Instrument to Measure Participants' Perceptions on Facilitation in Group Support Systems Meetings

Facilitation is often considered to be one of the key factors in the successful application of GSS. Research on GSS facilitation has revealed insight into the types of tasks performed by facilitators and the potential positive effects of facilitation on group consensus and satisfaction. However, earlier research has rarely approached GSS facilitation from the participants' point of view. In this study a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 369 participants of facilitated GSS meetings in order to measure their perceptions of various facilitation tasks. The results suggested three categories of facilitation tasks that are perceived as important by participants. Each of these categories strongly correlated with participants' meeting satisfaction. Further research is needed to refine these categories so that the instrument may be used to evaluate a facilitator's performance.     

虚拟企业文化相关问题分析

企业文化在相当程度上决定了企业的发展状况,企业文化具有务实性、投资性、有形性、变革性、独特性等特点。作为现代企业发展的一种新型的组织形式,企业文化可对虚拟企业在特殊管理模式及员工的管理特征等方面提供支持,对企业的发展壮大具有非常现实的意义和长远的历史意义     

Facilitating computer-supported meetings: A cumulative analysis in a multiple-criteria task environment

There have been many instances of the ineffective applications of new information technology. This article describes a program of enhancing the effectiveness of a new technology, Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS), through a series of studies which resulted in improvements in the technology itself as well as in how the technology is supported. Our approach emphasizes human facilitation and facilitative features embedded in the GDSS software.     

Differences between workstations and keypad group support systems: Implications for keypad GSS facilitators

Organizations are successfully using group support systems (GSS) to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction in organizational meetings. Meeting success relies on making an appropriate match between group, taks, and technology. This responsibility often falls to the meeting facilitator. This article draws upon GSS and facilitation literature to develop a framework for the discussion of effective facilitation in workstation and keypad meeting environments. The article identifies differences between the systems and how they impact upon the behavior of the meeting facilitators and their choice of technology. Compensatory actions are proposed for keypad facilitators to address the lack of key workstation features. Keypad strengths are also identified to show the opportunities available to facilitators to maximize the benefits of using these GSS. Further, it is proposed that different types of GSS are not mutually exclusive and should be seen as complementary components of a suite of GSS tools designed to support organizational goals.     

Adaptiveness in Virtual Teams: Organisational Challenges and Research Directions

Computer supported teams are capturing the attention of academics and practitioners as organisations increasingly put them into practice as virtual teams. The practical relevance of current research into computer supported teams could be increased if greater attention is paid to organisational challenges as they form the context within which virtual teamwork takes place. A model of organisational challenges mapped against processes of adaptation is developed to highlight principle factors affecting virtual teams. A sample of current research groups studying computer-supported teams is plotted onto this map to reveal the extent to which current research addresses these contextual factors. From this map insights are distilled with respect to what is known and is not known about virtual teams. This paper concludes with specific research needs in the study of virtual teams.     

农产品虚拟供应链管理及虚拟物流中心建构

农产品供应对现代供应链管理技术具有特殊依赖性,农产品虚拟物流中心是基于虚拟供应链管理技术,提升我国农产品市场竞争力的重要工具。农产品虚拟物流中心的构建应由政府搭建平台,企业实施运作,实现大规模并行处理,构建分布广泛、反应敏捷、功能强大的农产品物流网络。     

Electronic Meetings and Intense Group Conflict: Effects of a Policy-Modeling Performance Support System and an Audio Communication Support System on Satisfaction and Agreement

Ad-hoc decision teams were used to examine the effects of an electronic meeting system (EMS) on group satisfaction and agreement. The decision task provoked intense conflict of values. The EMS had two core features - a policy-modeling group performance support system (incorporating structured decision methods and computer-supported cognitive feedback using Multi-Attribute Utility Analysis and Social Judgment Analysis), and an audio-based group communication support system (allowed dispersed members to communicate by voice). Policy groups reached higher agreement than conventional decision-making groups, apparently due primarily to the structure for cognitive-conflict tasks that was imposed on group discussion rather than computer-supported cognitive feedback displays. Audio groups were more satisfied with the conflict process than face-to-face groups. Decision agreement was equivalent across the two media. These audio effects for a highly equivocal task represent a further challenge to media richness theory.     

Information for decision making in marketing: the use of Group Support Systems (GSS)

Group Support Systems (GSS) Technology is an information technology which seeks to support collaborative work. Extensively used to support organisational activities, it has not yet been tested to the full within the market research setting. The paper reports on a GSS focus group meeting to determine key questions of concern about the National Training Reform Agenda. Participants were leaders in a primary industry in Australia and the questions would be related to a public relations exercise. GSS provided the opportunity to deal with complex issues efficiently and yet preserve the conversational characteristics of the focus group meeting.     

电子商务虚拟物流研究趋向

虚拟物流是电子商务物流的一个发展模式,很多研究集中在这个范围内。在对电子商务虚拟物流领域的文献综述的基础上,提出了该领域的两大研究趋向:基于服务控制的电子商务虚拟物流管理模式和虚拟物流的决策中心研究。     

Issues in the Design of Facilitated Collaboration Processes

Groups often rely on the expertise of facilitators to support them in their collaboration processes. The design and preparation of a collaboration process is an important facilitation task. Although there is a significant body of knowledge about the effects of facilitation, there is a dearth of knowledge about the ways in which facilitators design collaboration processes. Increased understanding in this area will contribute to the effective design and use of collaboration support and to the development of collaboration process design support. The research reported in this paper explores the strategies and techniques facilitators use to design a collaboration process, and the aspects of this task they perceive as challenging. We present the results of a questionnaire among professional facilitators. We compare facilitators with different expertise levels to identify challenges in the design of collaboration processes. We discovered that although the activities performed and information used by novices is not very different from expert practices, their limited experience makes them less flexible. When the actual session brings surprises such as different outcomes or conflict, novices cannot easily adapt their designs to accommodate these.     

虚拟企业合作伙伴的管理

虚拟企业是一种能够适应科技迅速发展和经济全球化趋势的新型企业组织形式。在虚拟企业的组建与运作过程中,要根据顾客实际需要对各伙伴关系进行整合,在不断整合过程中,伙伴之间关系融洽,对合作伙伴的管理成为虚拟企业正常运转的重中之重     

虚拟企业的组织本质解释

虚拟企业作为一种新型的组织形式 ,目前 ,国内外许多的经济学家、管理学家已对其进行了多方面的研究 ,如虚拟企业的产生、定义、特点、优势等 ,但是 ,并未曾涉及虚拟企业的组织本质。采用“交易费用”理论来解释虚拟企业的产生、存在的原因 ,进而揭露其组织本质———企业间的矩阵结构。     

我国商品流通虚实结构演进研究

在电子虚拟流通蓬勃发展的推动下,传统实体流通与电子虚拟流通的经济联系和比例关系即商品流通虚实结构应运而生.对这一结构的认识和把握,直接影响着我国流通体系未来的现代化和高级化进程.本文从实证定位商品流通虚实结构的变动因素入手,系统剖析虚实结构动态演进的原理,从中发掘虚实结构的演进规律和发展趋势,最终为优化我国商品流通虚实结构提出建设思路.     

虚拟企业组织组建障碍及对策

虚拟组织的产生将会开创企业组织革命的新纪元。组建虚拟组织面临着成员企业目标不一致、寻求和管理合作伙伴与资源重组等诸多障碍。在组建中对合作伙伴的选择上,要不断完善评价指标体系和综合方法;重视跨文化管理;树立合作竞争观念,充分发挥核心企业的作用,以更好地实现企业的目标。     

Labor-management contract negotiations in an electronic meeting room: A case study

We present perhaps the first case study of labor-management contract talks conducted in an electronic meeting room supported by a computer Negotiation Support System (NSS). The organization's union and management representatives spent a total of 57 hours (13 sessions) in the electronic meeting room; their efforts resulted successfully in a contract ratified by both sides. The NSS described comprised three tools from theGroup Systems electronic meeting system and three ad hoc tools. Besides the NSS, three other intervention factors were introduced in tandem with the NSS: new negotiation process techniques, the active involvement of third party mediators, and a unique negotiation setting. The new process techniques were introduced based on the goals of integrative bargaining and the Win-Win techniques. The negotiation process was divided into three distinct stages: strategy, issues, and bargaining.