Does Analytics Help Resolve Equivocality in the Healthcare Context? Contrasting the Effects of Analyzability and Differentiation

2023 | Journal of the Association for Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Adjerid, Idris; Angst, Corey; Devaraj, Sarv; Berente, Nicholas

Abstract: Organizations are increasingly using data analytics to help make decisions and ... Expand

Abstract: Organizations are increasingly using data analytics to help make decisions and drive positive outcomes. But organizational scholarship has warned us that the sort of information processing associated with analytic capabilities, while effective for uncertainty reduction, may be less effective in equivocal contexts. Equivocality is evident when tasks are not easily analyzable (task analyzability) or when organizational departments are highly differentiated (differentiation). We hypothesize that analytics will be less effective in driving positive outcomes when equivocality is high because of low task analyzability. However, when an organization is more differentiated, resulting in high equivocality, we anticipate that analytics will be more effective in driving positive outcomes. To test this theory, we studied how clinical healthcare analytics influenced experiential quality (akin to patient satisfaction) in over 3,000 hospitals across nine years. Our results show that analytics capabilities, on average, do improve outcomes in terms of patient experiential quality, suggesting that analytics can reduce uncertainty, but we also found evidence for the moderating role of equivocality. Specifically, as task analyzability decreases (i.e., increasing equivocality), clinical healthcare analytics becomes less effective in improving experiential quality. However, when equivocality is high because of differentiation, there is a positive relationship between clinical healthcare analytics and experiential quality but only in larger hospitals. From a managerial perspective, this study has implications for boundary conditions of data analytics in organizations. Collapse

Topics: healthcare analytics technology adoption electronic health record health information system artificial intelligence

Methods: theory development post-hoc analysis experimental group longitudinal research machine learning

Theories: organizational information processing theory

Enterprise Social Networks: A Successful Implementation within a Telecommunication Company

2015 | Americas Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 2

Authors: Chin, Christie Pei-Yee; Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond; Evans, Nina

Abstract: Although enterprise social network (ESN) has been implemented within a number of ... Expand

Abstract: Although enterprise social network (ESN) has been implemented within a number of organizations to facilitate communication, collaboration and engagement among employees, many organizations are struggling to realize the benefits of this emergent workplace social platform (due to employee underutilization). This paper aims to elucidate a successful ESN use case among employees within a leading Australian telecommunication company. The findings indicate that the employees’ ESN behavior is gravitated by utilitarian and hedonic values, and driven by socio-technical factors. The factors are generically categorized as technological (i.e. platform and content quality), organizational (e.g. community management and top management involvement), social (e.g. critical mass, and constructive communication climate), individual (e.g. knowledge self-efficacy) and task factors (i.e. equivocal tasks and integration to business processes). We suggest that a successful implementation of ESN within an organization involves the nexus between these five factors and recommendations are also made about how ESN usage can be enhanced. Collapse

Topics: business process management knowledge sharing social presence task equivocality task characteristic

Methods: qualitative interview case study personal interview literature study

Temporal Distance, Communication Patterns, and Task Performance in Teams

2015 | Journal of Management Information Systems | Citations: 22

Authors: Espinosa, J. Alberto; Nan, Ning; Carmel, Erran

Abstract: Drawing on theories on dispersed teamwork, computer-mediated communications, and ... Expand

Abstract: Drawing on theories on dispersed teamwork, computer-mediated communications, and organizations, we examine the direct associations between temporal distance and team performance as well as the mediating role of team interaction. We tested our research model in a laboratory experiment with four temporal distance conditions. Results show that the direct associations between temporal distance and team performance are substantially diminished when we enter the intervening team communication variables (communication frequency and turn-taking) into the analysis model. We find that communication frequency and turn-taking have differentiated effects on conveyance of information and convergence on its meaning. Conveyance is positively associated with production speed, whereas convergence is positively associated with higher product quality (i.e., accuracy). These findings speak to the theoretical significance of communication patterns and information exchange behaviors in dispersed team research. They also transcend the common wisdom that temporal distance is good for speed and bad for quality. Collapse

Topics: virtual teamwork team productivity information exchange task productivity communication service infrastructure

Methods: experiment regression analysis method survey laboratory experiment descriptive statistic

Theories: adaptive structuration theory structuration theory media synchronicity theory

Editorial

2015 | Journal of Strategic Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Jarvenpaa, Sirkka L.; Staples, Sandy; Teigland, Robin

Abstract: EditorialWelcome to the June 2015 Issue of JSIS that contains the manuscripts a ... Expand

Abstract: EditorialWelcome to the June 2015 Issue of JSIS that contains the manuscripts accepted for the special issue of ''Strategic and Policy Perspectives on Social Media Technologies.''The special issue was organized to understand the phenomenon of social media technologies and tools with a focus on strategic and policy implications. The special issue received nearly 30 submissions. The five papers included in this issue move the information systems (IS) field forward with many significant theoretical, practical, and methodological implications.The papers report on a variety of organizational uses of social media systems including individual use and online user innovation communities as well as a wide variety of benefits including employee performance and organizational value. These uses and benefits are impacted by a number of enablers such as social capital (ties with others, knowledge of others, trust) and the culture and structure of the organization. The findings debunk some myths related to social media such as that internal use of social media is poor for productivity. Indeed, the special issue reports on findings that internal use can be not only good for productivity but also for innovation while external use does not necessarily lead to improved performance. Internally, management should even encourage the use of social media for hedonic purposes -it is okay to have fun at work. The papers also highlight the challenges of enabling emergent open communication and how openness needs to be balanced with more hierarchical communication needs and controls. Overall, the papers report largely positive effects of use. Hence, much value can be gained by organizations through promoting social media systems in the organization. However, the social media system should not be taken as given nor treated as a technological panacea. Rather to gain the positive effects, the organization needs to design the system to fit the context and its users.The papers in this special issue deploy a wide variety of methods to explore social media in the context of firms and beyond -from qualitative case studies to quantitative surveys to design research and social network analysis. Social media is also influencing our research methods. For example, in terms of design research, there is an emphasis on engagement and learning over problem solving.The first paper titled ''Communicational Ambidexterity as a New Capability to Manage Social Cedia Communication within Organizations'' by Jimmy Huang (The University of Warwick, UK), João Baptista (The University of Warwick, UK), and Sue Newell (University of Sussex, UK) sheds light on how organizations are able to simultaneously encourage both top-down, formal communication (univocal) with bottom-up, informal communication (multivocal) within an organization. In particular, the authors examine how an organization when implementing social media for internal use can ensure coherency in internal communication while allowing for its employees to voice their different views and ideas, which potentially may diverge from those of the organization. The authors conducted an extensive longitudinal case study at a multinational telecom organization from 2006 to 2011 and collected data through interviews, documentation, informal dialogue, and onsite observations during this five-year period. The findings from this study indicate that the organization was able to create complementarity between the two distinct and potentially contradictory modes of univocal and multivocal use of social media by developing distinctive, yet complementary governance structures and a supportive organizational culture. Conceptualizing their findings, the authors draw on the theory of ambidexterity to develop the concept of ''communicational ambidexterity''. The authors propose communicational ambidexterity as a new organizational capability that emerges as an organization implements social media and learns how to use these new media to communicate, share, and participate in organizational conversations. The authors further discuss three mechanisms that enable the development of this capability: architecting communication, governing communication, and creating a dynamic culture of communication, as well as how these mechanisms may reinforce each other. As a result, this paper contributes to the IS field by complementing previous work investigating ambidexterity in the context of IT projects/products and IT companies as well as highlights for practitioners how the challenges implementing social media for internal use may be overcome such that significant benefits are achieved. Collapse

Topics: social media innovation management organizational value social network website

Methods: longitudinal research focus group design science LexisNexis literature sample

Theories: dynamic capabilities theory ambidexterity theory theory of task technology fit

What’s in IT for employees? Understanding the relationship between use and performance in enterprise social software

2015 | Journal of Strategic Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Kuegler, Maurice; Smolnik, Stefan; Kane, Gerald

Abstract: Despite enterprise social software platforms’ (ESSPs) widespread diffusion in re ... Expand

Abstract: Despite enterprise social software platforms’ (ESSPs) widespread diffusion in recent years, the impact of such systems on employee performance is not clear. This study explores the link between ESSP use and its potential performance impacts. Our findings show that ESSP use influences employee performance in two ways: through improved task performance and employee innovation. We also show that task equivocality moderates the relationship between ESSP use and employee performance outcomes, with ESSP use having a stronger impact on the performance of non-routine tasks. Finally, we show that using ESSPs for connecting within teams has a stronger effect on task performance, while using ESSP for connecting across teams has a stronger effect on employee innovation. These results can help researchers and practitioners better understand how ESSP use affects employee performance and the conditions best suited to achieve these performance outcomes in an enterprise setting. Collapse

Topics: task productivity task equivocality individual productivity social media information system use

Methods: survey descriptive statistic card sorting statistical hypothesis test survey design

Theories: organizational behavior theory

Synchronous and Asynchronous Collaboration Technology Use in Teamwork

2013 | Americas Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Sundaravej, Thanaporn

Abstract: As project teams have become dispersed and communication technology has evolved, ... Expand

Abstract: As project teams have become dispersed and communication technology has evolved, organizations have increasingly moved towards usage of synchronous communication technologies such as video/web/audio conferencing and instant messaging to facilitate collaboration among team members although usage of asynchronous communication technologies such as electronic mail, wikis, blogs, social networks, and fax continue to play an important role in the exchange of information within teams. Little however is known about the influence of a team member’s task characteristics and extent of usage of such contemporary collaboration technologies on the member’s task outcomes. Collapse

Topics: IT supported collaboration knowledge sharing task productivity information system use task interdependence

Methods: survey

Theories: media richness theory

Contextual constraints in media choice: Beyond information richness

2011 | Decision Support Systems | Citations: 16

Authors: Palvia, Prashant; Pinjani, Praveen; Cannoy, Sherrie; Jacks, Tim

Abstract: In today's dynamic environment, managers and organizations are faced with varied ... Expand

Abstract: In today's dynamic environment, managers and organizations are faced with varied choices in communicating information for enhanced decision making. In business, the selection of the appropriate media needs to be efficient and effective for decision making and can be crucial in certain circumstances. Recent studies have relied on numerous theories to explain media choice. This research work goes beyond the traditional task characteristics of equivocality and uncertainty from the media richness theory. It addresses additional contextual constraints including the needs for urgency, confidentiality, accountability, social interaction, and information integrity from the sender's perspective and how these interact with equivocality and uncertainty in the choice of a medium for communication. Results demonstrate a significant change in media selection under all five contextual constraints, although not always in the direction predicted. Email was consistently the top preference, contrary to theoretical expectations. The study adds empirical support to the growing trend of moving beyond media and information richness in order to explain media choice in organizations. Collapse

Topics: media richness electronic mail task characteristic usability task equivocality

Methods: survey chi squared test

Theories: media richness theory theory of task technology fit social presence theory

CONCEPTUALIZING A VERY RICH USAGE CONSTRUCT TO MEASURE THE IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIAL WEB SITE USAGE ON INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

2011 | European Conference On Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Raeth, Philip; Smolnik, Stefan; Kuegler, Maurice

Abstract: This paper describes a conceptual model investigating the impact of organization ... Expand

Abstract: This paper describes a conceptual model investigating the impact of organizational social web site (SWS) usage on individual performance. Previous research on SWS usage offers rather lean measures, which do not account for the context (i.e. the task the system is used for). We address this research gap by constructing a very rich usage measure and introducing it in the context of organizational SWS usage. We propose that the elements of SWS usage, namely user, system, and task, impact individual performance through two forms of organizational learning – exploration and exploitation – as well as through user cognitions during usage. We further present a conceptual model as the foundation for future empirical research on the impact of SWS usage on individual performance. The theoretical contribution lies in constructing a very rich system usage construct and the resulting conceptual model. Our contribution to practice is providing an instrument to measure organizational SWS usage and its performance impacts. Collapse

Topics: information system use organization learning task characteristic task equivocality website

Methods: conceptual modelling qualitative interview theoretical contribution survey design card sorting

Theories: flow theory theory of planned behavior theory of task technology fit motivation theory

Measuring the Impact of Organizational Social Web Site Usage on Work Performance: A Multilevel Model

2011 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 2

Authors: Raeth, Philip; Kã, Maurice

Abstract: This paper describes the development of a multilevel model for investigating the ... Expand

Abstract: This paper describes the development of a multilevel model for investigating the impact of organizational social web site (SWS) usage on individual and team performance. Despite the SWS focus on collective phenomena – such as crowd sourcing and collective intelligence – previous research on SWS usage in general does not investigate it as a multilevel phenomenon. Our paper addresses this gap by drawing on existing guidelines for multilevel theorizing. We thus propose that SWS usage impacts individual and team performance through its improved collaboration capabilities. Organizational learning and social capital theories serve as the theoretical foundation. Ultimately, we present a multilevel model as the foundation for future empirical research on SWS usage’s impact on individual and team performance. Our research’s contribution lies in the theoretical derivation of a multilevel model. Collapse

Topics: team productivity information system use task characteristic task equivocality website

Methods: hierarchical linear modeling qualitative interview theory development personal interview survey design

Theories: social capital theory

Let's Shop Online Together: An Empirical Investigation of Collaborative Online Shopping Support

2010 | Information Systems Research | Citations: 64

Authors: Zhu, Lei; Benbasat, Izak; Jiang, Zhenhui

Abstract: Prior studies investigating business-to-consumer e-commerce have focused predomi ... Expand

Abstract: Prior studies investigating business-to-consumer e-commerce have focused predominantly on online shopping by individuals on their own, although consumers often desire to conduct their shopping activities with others. This study explores the important, but seldom studied, topic of collaborative online shopping. It investigates two design components that are pertinent to collaborative online shopping support tools, namely, navigation support and communication support. Results from a laboratory experiment indicate that compared to separate navigation, shared navigation effectively reduces uncoupling (i.e., the loss of coordination with one's shopping partner) incidents per product discussed and leads to fewer communication exchanges dedicated to resolving each uncoupling incident, thereby enhancing coordination performance. Compared to text chat, voice chat does not help reduce the occurrence of uncoupling, but likely increases the efficiency in resolving uncoupling. The results further show that shared navigation and voice chat can significantly enhance the collaborative shoppers' perceptions of social presence derived from their online shopping experiences. The interaction effect on social presence implies that the benefit of shared navigation is higher in the presence of text chat than in the presence of voice chat. Collapse

Topics: electronic commerce social presence media richness social media online chat

Methods: experiment parametric test ANOVA laboratory experiment survey

Theories: media richness theory adaptation-level theory