| Policy Conflict Analysis in Distributed System Management | | BIBAK | 1-22 | |
| Jonathan D. Moffett; Morris S. Sloman | |||
| Distributed system management is concerned with the tasks needed to ensure
that large distributed systems can function in accordance with the objectives
of their users. These objectives are typically set out in the form of policies
that are interpreted by the system managers. There are benefits to be gained
by providing automated support for human managers, or actually automating
routine management tasks. To do this, it is desirable to have a model of
policies as objects that can be interpreted by the system itself. The model is
summarized.
It is clear that there is the potential for conflicts between policies. These conflicts may be resolved informally by human managers, but if an automated system is to recognize them and resolve them appropriately, first it is necessary to analyze the types of conflict that may occur. We analyze the types of overlap that may occur between policies, and show that this analysis corresponds to several familiar types of policy conflict. Some possible approaches to the prevention and resolution of conflicts are suggested, and this work is put into the context of other work on policies and related areas, including deontic logic. Keywords: Management policy, Policy conflicts, Authority, Conflict resolution,
Distributed system management | |||
| Information Technology for Group Decision Support: Beyond GDSS | | BIBAK | 23-40 | |
| Matthew R. Jones | |||
| Traditional definitions of group decision support systems provide a narrow
perspective on the way in which information technology (IT) can support group
decision making. An alternative perspective that includes a broader view of
groups, a more descriptive and behavioral view of decisions, a wider view of
support, and a more complex, social view of systems is possible. In this
article the implications of such a perspective on the role of IT in support of
group decision making are explored through a case study of the use of a simple
multiattribute value model in role-reversal exercises. The experience of using
this model in a social policy area in which there was substantial conflict
between different interest groups illustrated a number of important issues. In
particular, the way in which the model was used as a framework for
communication between the conflicting groups and the inherent equivocality of
this communication was highlighted. The contribution of IT-based support to
the effectiveness of this communication, in the context of the role-reversal
workshops, is discussed, and a new topology of IT support for group decision
making is suggested. Finally, some conclusions are drawn on the implications
for group decision support practice. Keywords: Group decision support systems, Group communication support systems,
Negotiation support systems, Organizational communication, Social aspects,
Role-reversal | |||
| Computational Organization Theory: Autonomous Agents and Emergent Behavior | | BIBAK | 41-83 | |
| Michael J. Prietula; Kathleen M. Carley | |||
| A computational organization theory is the articulation of an organization
theory in the form of a computer program. We describe an example of this
approach to studying organizational phenomena through the use of simulated
autonomous intelligent agents, present a detailed description of such a model,
and demonstrate the application through a series of experiments conducted with
the model. The model, called Plural-Soar, represents a partial instantiation
of a cognitively motivated theory that views organizational behavior as
emergent behavior from the collective interaction of intelligent agents over
time, and that causal interpretations of certain organizational phenomena must
be based on theoretically sufficient models of individual deliberation. We
examine the individual and collective behavior of the agents under varying
conditions of agent capabilities defined by their communication and memory
properties. Thirty separate simulations with homogeneous agent groups were run
varying agent type, group size, and number of items in the order list an agent
acquires. The goal of the simulation experiment was to examine how fundamental
properties of individual coordination (communication and memory) affected
individual and group productivity and coordination efforts under different task
properties (group size and order size). The specific results indicate that the
length of the item list enhances performance for one to three agent groups, but
with larger groups memory effects dominate. Communication capabilities led to
an increase in idle time and undesirable collective behavior. The general
conclusion is that there are subtle and complex interactions between agent
capabilities and task properties that can restrict the generality of the
results, and that computational modeling can provide insight into those
interactions. Keywords: Distributed artificial intelligence, Computational organizational theory | |||
| Perspectives on the Cross-Cultural Experimental Examination of Economic Models | | BIBAK | 85-99 | |
| Steven J. Kachelmeier; Mohamed Shehata | |||
| This article summarizes recent efforts in applying experimental
methodologies to organizational issues in an international context. Such
efforts can be roughly classified as adopting the experimental traditions of
either psychology or economics. Distinctions between these two traditions are
discussed, along with their implications for cross-cultural research. The use
of laboratory methods in an international domain can address cultural themes as
well as issues involving incentive structures, as illustrated by a synthesis of
the authors' program of study conducted in the People's Republic of China. Keywords: Culture, Incentives, Experimental economics, China | |||
| Perceptions of Facilitators of a Keypad-Based Group Support System | | BIBAK | 103-125 | |
| Richard T. Watson; Mary B. Alexander; Carol E. Pollard; Robert P. Bostrom | |||
| Organizations are using Group Support Systems (GSSs) to improve the quality
of group meetings. Keypad-based GSSs are a widely used form of this
technology, yet there has been little research on their use and effects. This
paper reports the findings of a survey of facilitators of a particular keypad
GSS. Facilitators indicate that keypad technology improves the quality of
meetings for a variety of tasks in a range of group settings and cultures. The
findings are in general agreement with field studies of workstation-based
systems. Keywords: Group support systems, Keypad, Facilitator | |||
| A-Pool: An Agent-Oriented Open System Shell for Distributed Decision Process Modeling | | BIBAK | 127-154 | |
| Wen-Ran Zhang; Wenhua Wang; Ronald S. King | |||
| An agent-oriented open system shell, A-Pool, for distributed decision
process modeling in the Internet domain is presented. Unlike most decision
support systems, A-Pool provides a testbed for modeling and understanding the
cognitive aspects of distributed decision processes themselves rather than for
domain-specific problem solving. This is achieved with a pool of virtual
agents and a pool of cognitive maps of the agents at each A-Pool node. The
virtual agent scheme extends object-oriented programming to the Internet domain
and supports different communication and collaboration protocols with virtual
communities, virtual sessions, and virtual conferences. The cognitive map
scheme supports perspective sharing and various conflict integration and
resolution strategies through cognitive map composition, derivation, and focus
generation. Thus each A-Pool node provides an architecture for modeling
interdependencies and for ensuring global coherence; in addition, the
communication is asynchronous and the control is distributed, allowing a large
degree of autonomy and the examination of various thoughts and social protocols
involved in strategic planning in an open system environment. Basic ideas are
illustrated with a running example. Keywords: Agent-oriented open system, Virtual communities, Virtual conference,
Cognitive-map-based conflict resolution, Cooperation and coordination without
coercion, Distributed decision process modeling | |||
| The Impact of Information Technology on Organizational Flexibility | | BIBAK | 155-176 | |
| Henry C., Jr. Lucas; Margrethe Olson | |||
| This paper argues that information technology can have a significant impact
on organizational flexibility. Information technology (IT) contributes to
flexibility by 1) changing the nature of organization boundaries and the time
when work occurs 2) altering the nature and pace of work, and 3) helping firms
respond to changing market conditions. But, there are also aspects of
technology which can decrease flexibility, and there may be second-order
impacts of flexibility that are not easily predicted. Examples to illustrate
the impact of information technology on two industries and three companies are
presented. The paper concludes that management should consider the use of
information technology to increase flexibility and suggests strategies for
implementing flexible systems. Keywords: Organizational flexibility, Impact of information technology,
Implementation, Second-order effects | |||
| Electronic Support for Large Groups | | BIBAK | 177-197 | |
| Alan R. Dennis | |||
| 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. Keywords: GSS, Group support system, Anonymity, Blocking, Memory, Media richness | |||
| Constructing Conceptual Models for Knowledge Capture and Delivery Systems | | BIBAK | 199-217 | |
| Rajan Srikanth | |||
| Appropriate conceptualization of the nature of entities and relationships in
a problem domain is a key prerequisite to the successful design of computerized
decision aids for business, especially those developed for more than one
idiosyncratic user. The need for a reliable conceptual model is particularly
acute in the design of decision support systems that must function in
problem-solving situations with no existing theoretical framework or where
theory and practice differ considerably.
This paper presents an iterative procedure for developing a reliable conceptual model by testing the "fit" of successive revisions of the model against a collection of "think-aloud" verbal problem-solving protocols of people with experience in the domain. The model is revised each time until it is verifiably and consistently accurate. Such a procedure, it is argued, is more objective and reliable than intuition or traditional knowledge engineering and requires considerably less experimental data collection and analysis than more elaborate empirical model development procedures. The feasibility of this procedure is illustrated by using it to construct a conceptual model for a computer-based system that seeks to capture knowledge used during project planning and deliver it for use during project control. Keywords: Conceptual modeling, Empirical model development, Verbal problem-solving
protocols, Design of decision-aiding systems, Design of knowledge capture and
delivery systems, Project planning and control | |||
| Introduction to the Special Issue: Organizational Computing Coordination and Collaboration | | BIB | iii-iv | |
| Lynda Applegate; Andrew B. Whinston | |||
| An Editing-Based Characterization of the Design Space of Collaborative Applications | | BIBAK | 219-239 | |
| Prasun Dewan; Rajiv Choudhary; Honghai Shen | |||
| The design space of collaborative applications is characterized using the
notion of generalized multiuser editing. Generalized multiuser editing allows
users to view interactive applications as editors of data structures. It
offers several collaboration functions, which allow users to collaboratively
edit application data structures. These functions include coupling,
concurrency control, access control, and multiuser undo. Coupling allows the
users to share editing changes, access control and concurrency control prevent
them from making unauthorized and inconsistent changes, respectively, and
multiuser undo allows them collaboratively to undo or redo changes. These
functions must be performed flexibly to accommodate different applications,
users, phases of collaboration, and bandwidths of the communication links. In
this paper, we define and motivate the notion of generalized multiuser editing
and describe some of the issues, approaches, tradeoffs, principles, and
requirements related to the design of the functions offered by it. Keywords: Access control, Collaboration, Computer supported cooperative work,
Coupling, Concurrency control, Editing, Adaptive, Sharing, Undo, User interface | |||
| Development of Organizational Design Support Systems | | BIBAK | 241-270 | |
| Kenneth D. Mackenzie; Terry Shoemaker; Donald F. Utter | |||
| This article provides a framework and a case study for the development of
the organizational design support system (ODSS). The organizational design
development interdependencies consist of four mutually interdependent parts:
(1) development of applicable organizational theory, (2) development of
applicable methods for organizational design, (3) application of organizational
design to real organizations, and (4) concurrent engineering of an information
system to support organizational design. All four parts are presented along
with an explanation of how the interdependencies were accommodated. The
properties of the ODSS software are described. The processes and results of
the organizational design of a real organization are presented. This article
calls into question the nature of organizational computing. Keywords: Organizational design, Organizational computing, Organizational hologram | |||
| Using Computerized Exchange Systems to Solve an Allocation Problem in Project Management | | BIBAK | 271-296 | |
| John O. Ledyard; David Porter; Antonio Rangel | |||
| In this article we study the allocation problem facing the management of a
large research and development project. The project management has to allocate
resources among competing users to achieve the project goal. Besides the
constraint of scarcity, the allocation problem is difficult because users have
private parameters that project management requires to know in order to make an
optimal allocation. Furthermore, users have incentives to misrepresent the
information about these parameters to advance their individual agendas, which
can differ from the project goal. A method to solve the allocation problem
using computerized exchange institutions is introduced and analyzed. We
emphasize that the rules of the exchange should be carefully selected, because
different rules produce different results. We use the methodology of
experimental economics to demonstrate this conclusion. This research was
motivated by JPL's Cassini Mission to Saturn. A computerized exchange
described in this article has been implemented by the Cassini Project to assist
in the management of the resources used in the design and operation of science
instruments. Keywords: Computerized exchange, Experimental economics, Project management, Group
decision support systems | |||
| On Integrating Collaboration and Decision Analysis Techniques | | BIBAK | 297-316 | |
| Hemant K. Bhargava; Ramayya Krishnan; Andrew B. Whinston | |||
| We discuss how methods for computer-based collaboration and computer-aided
decision analysis may be combined to yield a new generation of decision support
systems. We examine the role of these technologies using a three-phase model
(problem definition; problem structuring; modeling/analysis) of decision making
activities. We argue that decision making is a recursive mesh of these three
phases; i.e., each phase involves argumentation/discussion, structuring, and
analysis. Representations and methods suited to one kind of activity (e.g.,
discussion) are not directly suited to the others. Decision support systems,
therefore, should facilitate the use of all of these methods in a way that
information represented under each of them may be combined effectively,
supporting the decision makers in switching from one activity to another. Keywords: Division support, Collaborative work, Systems integration | |||
| Computer Supported Self-Managing Teams | | BIBAK | 317-342 | |
| James J. Navarro | |||
| For several decades investigations in the behavioral sciences have focused
on those conditions that promote team effectiveness. These conditions have
been applied to the development of self-managing teams. This article defines
requirements for computer support using the conditions that enhance the
performance of self-managing teams. We discuss the fundamentals of team design
defining what a self-managing team is, propose a self-managing team development
model, and introduce three approaches to the design of self-managing teams:
sociotechnical systems, a normative model, and social-learning theory. We then
introduce a team information architecture (TIA) for the support of
self-managing teams and describe computer support requirements for the design,
formation, management, and mentoring of self-managing teams. We conclude by
reviewing the conditions required for team effectiveness and compare the TIA
against those conditions. Keywords: Computer-supported cooperative work, Groupware, Workgroup computing,
Self-managing teams, Teams, Nonhierarchical management, Horizontal
organizations, Team information architecture | |||
| Video Teleconference Use Among Geographically Dispersed Work Groups: A Field Investigation of Usage Patterns and User Preferences | | BIBAK | 343-365 | |
| Jane N. Mosier; Susan G. Tammaro | |||
| Use of video teleconferencing (VTC) has been on the rise for several years,
yet researchers have often discussed the failure of VTCs to support
communication. The VTC facility at the MITRE Corporation is used more than
would have been predicted by other research. Surveys were mailed to 300 MITRE
employees who were known to have used our VTC facility or to have traveled (or
both) during August of 1991. The survey asked respondents to describe at least
one geographically dispersed work group of which they are a member, and it
asked them to discuss how they choose among various approaches to
communication, including holding face-to-face meetings and VTCs. Respondents
felt that VTC is highly useful. It is best used for meetings that have little
emotional content or requirements for interpersonal contact. The content of
the meeting, however, was not the primary reason given for choosing between
travel and VTCs. Cost and inconvenience of travel were cited as reasons for
using VTC, and unavailability of VTC was cited as a reason to travel. Results
are compared with those of conflicting studies. Keywords: Video teleconferencing, Media space, Groupware, Collaborative computing,
Small group communication | |||
| Towards CSCW: Meta-Level Environments for Enhanced Group and Organization Effectiveness | | BIBAK | 367-392 | |
| D. Karagiannis; F. J. Radermacher; B. Teufel; B. E. Wynne | |||
| The article deals with Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and its
valuable contributions to organizing cooperation and joint work among partners
in many contexts. In the field of CSCW, complex issues such as coordination
and negotiation can be identified as being characteristic, fundamental and
important research topics that have to be elaborated on urgently. Better
support in coordination and in negotiation, and a stronger use of knowledge
about people involved, roles, positions, values, strategies, and activities
seem to be important topics. It is the view of this article that such aims can
only be achieved if there is a close coupling of CSCW components with a
powerful underlying corporate information system. In order to achieve these
aims, enterprise information systems and group support are to be combined as a
strategic way into the informational future of the enterprise. In this
context, a good conceptual model and proper implementation of an Enterprise
Data Model (EDM) are a fundamental prerequisite for full group support in an
organizational environment. The EDM can be considered as a basic support
repository for general planning processes. The article introduces an
architectural concept for Computer-Supported Collaborative Systems (CSCS)
consisting of a three-level system architecture of a basic object level, user
and coordination object level, and a specific goal-oriented object level. The
approach in this article is based on experiences from the application field of
distributed software development. Keywords: Architectural concepts, Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW),
Coordination, Corporate information system, Enterprise data model, Enterprise
information system, Group support, Knowledge processing, Negotiation, Planning
scenarios | |||
| Full-Life-Cycle Economics: An Evaluation Methodology for Information Technology Projects | | BIBAK | 393-403 | |
| Duncan M. Witte | |||
| This article presents a methodology for the examination and evaluation of
proposed information technology projects. Through an examination of successes
and failures in estimating project costs and benefits, a number of weaknesses
have been identified. The areas of "hidden" costs and intangible (or at least
difficult to quantify) benefits have been particularly difficult to estimate.
The methodology presented here seeks to retain the strengths of older
methodologies, while addressing these identified weaknesses. This methodology,
while not a substitute for good judgment, provides a framework for the
standardization of economic analysis. As such, it provides both management and
clients with a better basis for decisions regarding investments in information
technology. Keywords: Project economics, Methodology, Information technology, Computing, Software
development | |||