Beyond the organizational ‘container’: Conceptualizing 21st century sociotechnical work

Do you wanna dance? Tales of trust and driving trust factors in robot medication counseling in the pharmacy context

Introduction: The sustainable implementation of socially assistive robots in a pharmacy setting requires that customers trust the robot. Our aim was to explore young adults' anticipations of and motives for trusting robot medication counseling in a high-stakes scenario. Methods: Through a co-creation approach, we co-designed a prototype application for the Furhat platform together with young adults. In-lab testing of a pharmacy scenario, where the robot provides medication counseling related to emergency contraceptive pills, was conducted to deepen our understanding of some factors driving young adults' initial trust establishment and anticipations of interacting with a robot in a high-stakes scenario. Qualitative data from interviews with six study participants were analyzed using inductive, reflexive thematic analysis and are presented through a narrative approach. Results: We outline five tales of trust characterized by personas. A continuum of different anticipations for consulting a robot in medication counseling is presented, ranging from low to high expectations of use. Driving factors in the initial trust establishment process are position, autonomy, boundaries, shame, gaze, and alignment. Discussion: The article adds to the understanding of the dimensions of the multifaceted trust concept, of driving trust factors, and of the subsequent anticipation to trust robots in a high-stakes pharmacy context.

Conceptual modelling for life sciences based on systemist foundations

BACKGROUND

All aspects of our society, including the life sciences, need a mechanism for people working within them to represent the concepts they employ to carry out their research. For the information systems being designed and developed to support researchers and scientists in conducting their work, conceptual models of the relevant domains are usually designed as both blueprints for a system being developed and as a means of communication between the designer and developer. Most conceptual modelling concepts are generic in the sense that they are applied with the same understanding across many applications. Problems in the life sciences, however, are especially complex and important, because they deal with humans, their well-being, and their interactions with the environment as well as other organisms.

RESULTS

This work proposes a "systemist" perspective for creating a conceptual model of a life scientist's problem. We introduce the notion of a system and then show how it can be applied to the development of an information system for handling genomic-related information. We extend our discussion to show how the proposed systemist perspective can support the modelling of precision medicine.

CONCLUSION

This research recognizes challenges in life sciences research of how to model problems to better represent the connections between physical and digital worlds. We propose a new notation that explicitly incorporates systemist thinking, as well as the components of systems based on recent ontological foundations. The new notation captures important semantics in the domain of life sciences. It may be used to facilitate understanding, communication and problem-solving more broadly. We also provide a precise, sound, ontologically supported characterization of the term "system," as a basic construct for conceptual modelling in life sciences.

Weiter so mit MTO? Konzeptionelle Entwicklungsbedarfe soziotechnischer Arbeits- und Systemgestaltung

Dieser konzeptionelle Beitrag nimmt auf Grundlage ausgewählter Publikationen zu soziotechnischer Arbeits- und Systemgestaltung (STS) den Stand der Diskussion auf und stellt aktuelle Suchprozesse und Lösungsansätze vor, mit denen soziotechnische Ansätze aktuelle Herausforderungen der Arbeits- bzw. Systemgestaltung in industriellen Kontexten bearbeiten. Darauf aufbauend werden Forschungs- und Entwicklungsdesiderate benannt sowie Ansatzpunkte aufgezeigt, um zu praktisch tragfähigen Gestaltungsmethoden und -lösungen zu kommen. Dafür werden Erfahrungen und erste Ergebnisse eigener praktischer Forschungsarbeiten genutzt.

Steps toward a digital ecology: ecological principles for the study of digital ecosystems

The notion of digital ecosystems has become a fruitful metaphor for examining the effects of digitalization across boundaries of organization, industry, lifeworld, mind, and body. In business-economic terms, the metaphor has inspired IS research into new business models, while in engineering terms, it has led to important insights into the design and governance of digital platforms. Studying digital ecosystems in these terms, however, makes it difficult to trace and explain those effects of digitalization, which do not materialize predominantly in economic and engineering patterns. Important relationships and their effects may therefore go unnoticed. In response, I draw on the ecological epistemology of Gregory Bateson and others to contribute an ecological approach to digital ecosystems. Such an understanding, I argue, expands the possibilities for tracing and explaining the wide-reaching, boundary-crossing effects of digitalization and the runaway dynamics they may lead to. I suggest to do this based on three principles: (1) part-of-ness—phenomena are to be observed as always part of a larger ecosystem; (2) systemic wisdom—ecosystems have limits, which need to be respected; and (3) information ecology—ecosystems are not mechanical but informed, cognitive systems. As my contribution, I propose six avenues for future IS research into digital ecology.

Overcoming the Single-IS Paradigm in Individual-Level IS Research

Over the years, the number of digital technologies that individuals use in their work and nonwork lives has increased significantly. These different technologies are often subject to interactions and interdependencies among them, which creates new challenges and opportunities for individuals. For instance, multiple digital technologies might be incompatible or offer redundant information to individuals. In this research, we offer a framework that can help scholars to study phenomena that involve multiple digital technologies and can assist designers and developers in making design decisions that facilitate beneficial interactions between technologies and mitigate undesirable ones.

Digital assemblages, information infrastructures, and mobile knowledge work

We theorize mobile knowledge workers’ uses of digital and material resources in support of their working practices. We do so to advance current conceptualizations of both “information infrastructures” and “digital assemblages” as elements of contemporary knowledge work. We focus on mobile knowledge workers as they are (increasingly) self-employed (e.g., as freelancers, entrepreneurs, temporary workers, and contractors), competing for work, and collaborating with others: one likely future of work that we can study empirically. To pursue their work, mobile knowledge workers draw together collections of commodity digital technologies or digital assemblages (e.g., laptops, phones, public WiFi, cloud storage, and apps), relying on a reservoir of knowledge about new and emergent means to navigate this professional terrain. We find that digital assemblages are created and repurposed by workers in their infrastructuring practices and in response to mobility demands and technological environments. In their constitution, they are generative to both collaborative and organizational goals. Building from this, we theorize that digital assemblages, as individuated forms of information infrastructure, sustain stability and internal cohesion even as they allow for openness and generativity.

Belonging and Social Integration as Factors of Well-Being in Latin America and Latin Europe Organizations

Background

Studies and meta-analyses found individual, meso and micro-social factors that are associated with individual well-being, as well as a positive socio-emotional climate or collective well-being.

Aim

This article simultaneously studies and examines these factors of well-being.

Method

Well-Being is measured as a dependent variable at the individual and collective level, as well as the predictors, in three cross-sectional and one longitudinal studies. Education and social intervention workers (N = 1300, K = 80) from Chile, Spain and Uruguay participate; a subsample of educators (k = 1, n = 37) from the south central Chile and from Chile, Uruguay and Spain (n = 1149); workers from organizations in Latin America and Southern Europe, military cadets from Argentina (N < 1000); and teams (K = 14) from Spanish companies.

Results

Individual and collective well-being indicators were related, suggesting that the emotional climate as a context improves personal well-being. Individual factors (emotional creativity and openness and universalism values), psychosocial factors (low stress, control over work and social support supervisors and peers) were positively associated with personal well-being in education and social intervention context. Organizational dynamic or transformational culture is directly and indirectly associated with individual well-being through previously described psychosocial factors. Group processes such as internal communication and safe participation, task orientation or climate of excellence as well as leadership style that reinforces participation and belonging, were positively associated with collective well-being in labor and military context and predict team work socio-emotional climate in a longitudinal study- but were unrelated to individual well-being. Transformational leadership plays a mediating role between functional factors and social-emotional climate in work teams. Organizational role autonomy, functional organizational leadership, integration and resources were associated with collective well-being in organizations. Organizational leadership moderates the relationship between task orientation and collective well-being in military context.

Conclusion

Individual and microsocial factors influence personal well-being. Meso level factors favorable to well-being through processes which reinforce social belonging, influence directly collective well-being and indirectly personal well-being. Leadership that reinforces participation and belonging play a central role for emotional climate. Stress and emotional climate playing an important pivotal role for psychological well-being.

Personal knowledge management and enactment of personal knowledge infrastructures as shadow IT

Purpose

Personal knowledge management (KM) lends new emphasis to ways through which individual knowledge workers engage with knowledge in organizational contexts. This paper aims to go beyond an organizational approach to KM to examine key personal KM and knowledge building (KB) practices among adult professionals.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a summary of the findings from interviews with 58 consultants from 17 managing consulting firms. Participants were selected based on their knowledge-intensive roles and their willingness to share information about their knowledge practices. Data analysis was inductive and revealed multiple personal KM activities common among research participants, and the way these are supported by informal ties and various technologies.

Findings

This work highlights ways in which “shadow information technology” undergirds personal knowledge infrastructures and supports KM and KB practices in the context of management consulting firms. The results uncover how personal knowledge infrastructures emerge from personal KM and KB practices, and the role of informal social networks as well as social media in supporting personal KM and KB.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes an overall conceptual model of factors that help knowledge workers build a personal knowledge infrastructure. By affording an understanding of socially embedded personal KM activities, this work helps organizations create a balance between KM strategies at the organizational level and personal knowledge goals of individual workers.

Originality/value

Much of the previous research on KM adopts organizational approaches to KM, accentuating how organizations can effectively capture, organize and distribute organizational knowledge (primarily through KM systems).

Soziotechnisch – agil – lean: Konzepte und Vorgehensweisen für Arbeits- und Organisationsgestaltung in Digitalisierungsprozessen

In diesem konzeptionellen Beitrag für die Zeitschrift „Gruppe – Interaktion – Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO)“ werden leane, agile und soziotechnische Konzepte der Arbeitsgestaltung beschrieben und miteinander verglichen. Vor dem Hintergrund der Digitalisierung benötigen die Akteur*innen betrieblicher Arbeitsgestaltung mehr denn je Orientierungswissen. Derzeit dominieren diesbezüglich Ansätze, die sich an agilen und Lean-Production- bzw. Lean-Mangement-Konzepten orientieren. Punktuell wird auch an soziotechnische Konzepte (STS-D) der Arbeitsgestaltung angeknüpft (insbesondere in der Informatik). Allerdings ist die praktische Umsetzung der Konzepte aber einerseits deutlich diverser und hybrider als es in den Konzepttexten nahegelegt wird. Andererseits lassen sich selbst auf konzeptioneller Ebene nicht immer eindeutige Unterschiede zwischen agilen, leanen und soziotechnischen Prinzipien der System- und Arbeitsgestaltung ausmachen. Es wird dargelegt, dass soziotechnische Konzepte insbesondere aufgrund ihrer Berücksichtigung technischer Arbeitsmittel, ihrer Verfahrenshinweise in Veränderungsprozessen sowie aufgrund des Vorhandenseins von Evaluationskriterien den Herausforderungen der Digitalisierung am adäquatesten zu begegnen scheinen. Agile und Lean-Konzepte sollten folglich um soziotechnische Elemente der Arbeitsgestaltung ergänzt werden.

Metahuman systems = humans + machines that learn

Metahuman systems are new, emergent, sociotechnical systems where machines that learn join human learning and create original systemic capabilities. Metahuman systems will change many facets of the way we think about organizations and work. They will push information systems research in new directions that may involve a revision of the field’s research goals, methods and theorizing. Information systems researchers can look beyond the capabilities and constraints of human learning toward hybrid human/machine learning systems that exhibit major differences in scale, scope and speed. We review how these changes influence organization design and goals. We identify four organizational level generic functions critical to organize metahuman systems properly: delegating, monitoring, cultivating, and reflecting. We show how each function raises new research questions for the field. We conclude by noting that improved understanding of metahuman systems will primarily come from learning-by-doing as information systems scholars try out new forms of hybrid learning in multiple settings to generate novel, generalizable, impactful designs. Such trials will result in improved understanding of metahuman systems. This need for large-scale experimentation will push many scholars out from their comfort zone, because it calls for the revitalization of action research programs that informed the first wave of socio-technical research at the dawn of automating work systems.

A Collaboratory for the Distributed Collaborations Within a Biosecurity Laboratory and Across Different Organizations

This paper presents our work in the design and development of collaborative platforms to support distributed scientific collaborations in a national biosecurity laboratory which carries out diagnostics and research work in animal diseases. We have focused on two types of collaboration challenges. One is the “distributed” collaborations between scientists working inside the physical containment areas and scientists working in the general office area within the laboratory. The second is the collaborative diagnosis and decision-making work between this laboratory and other organizations working on the responses of emergency animal diseases. The “biosecurity collaboration platform” which addresses the first challenge has been implemented and used by the scientists in the laboratory. The platform integrates shared digital workspaces and supports the sharing and interaction of scientific data from various resources and laboratory instruments (e.g. microscopes). The “secure collaboration platform” which addresses the second challenge is an extension of the biosecurity collaboration platform and integrates eAuthentication and eAuthorization technologies to support secure communication and information sharing between experts from different organizations. Results from user studies have shown that the collaboration platforms can provide core capabilities of communication, trustworthy information sharing and access to real-time data from scientific instruments in complex collaborations in the biosecurity domain.

Development of a Change Management Instrument for the Implementation of Technologies

The manufacturing industry is increasingly being dominated by information and communication technology, leading to the development of cyber-physical systems. Most existing frameworks on the assessment of such technological advancements see the technology as a solitary system. However, research has shown that other environmental factors like organizational processes or human factors are also affected. Drawing on the sociotechnical systems approach, future technologies could be evaluated using scenarios of digitized work. These scenarios can help classify new technologies and uncover their advantages and constraints in order to provide guidance for the digital development of organizations. We developed an instrument for evaluating scenarios of digitized work on the relevant dimensions ‘technology’, ‘human’ and ‘organization’ and conducted a quantitative study applying this instrument on three different scenarios (N = 24 subject matter experts). Results show that our instrument is capable of measuring technological, human and organizational aspects of technology implementations and detecting differences in the scenarios under investigation. The instrument’s practical value is significant as it enables the user to compare and quantify scenarios and helps companies to decide which technology they should implement.

How Agile Practices Impact Customer Responsiveness and Development Success: A Field Study

Agile information systems development methods have become popular; however, which specific agile practice to use remains unclear. We argue that three types of agile practices exist—for management, development, and standards—which affect the customer responsiveness of software teams differently. We examine this theory in a field study of a large organization. We find that agile practices improve software team response effectiveness or efficiency, but not both. Agile standards do not improve response mechanisms but are still important to successful information systems development. Our findings help discriminating agile practices and yield insights into how information development projects should be managed.