Privacy and biometrics: An empirical examination of employee concerns

Advances in authentication technology have led to a proliferation of biometric-based systems in the workplace. Although biometric technologies offer organizations a cost-effective method of increasing security, employees are often hesitant to permit use. The collection and storage of employee biometric data raises concerns about proper use of these intensely personal identifiers. This work draws from organizational privacy practices, electronic monitoring, procedural fairness, self-construal, and technology adoption theories. We investigate the effects of independent and interdependent self-construal on three newly developed dimensions of employee privacy concern related to organizational use of biometric technology. These dimensions include perceived accountability, perceived vulnerability, and perceived distrust toward the organization. We test the predictive power of our model using data from an organization deploying a new biometric system designed to track employee work assignments under the auspices of improving personnel safety. Results indicate that self-construal plays a significant role in the formulation of privacy concerns and both perceived accountability concerns and perceived vulnerability concerns are significant predictors of attitude toward using biometric technology in the workplace.     

Contexts, work processes, and workspaces

In this paper a framework for the conceptual modelling of organizational contexts is provided and it is embodied into an extension of the TOSCA organizational handbook.The context of a work process is relevant since the effectiveness of the cooperation among its actors is highly dependent on their awareness of it. It requires, on the one hand, that the context is made available in terms of visibility and/or transparency; on the other, that at any time a selection is made so that only what is relevant to the context is provided, leaving the rest in the background. With respect to the first requirement a model of the organizational context is needed, so that all the information regarding its dimensions can be linked together. With respect to the second requirement, a work process model provides some guidelines for designing a system offering a selective access to the context of a work process. The workspace metaphor is a good paradigm to make that information ready at hand, since it is the natural framework within which people do their work.     

BallotShare: An exploration of the design space for digital voting in the workplace

Digital voting is used to support group decision-making in a variety of contexts ranging from politics to mundane everyday collaboration, and the rise in popularity of digital voting has provided an opportunity to re-envision voting as a social tool that better serves democracy. A key design goal for any group decision-making system is the promotion of participation, yet there is little research that explores how the features of digital voting systems themselves can be shaped to configure participation appropriately. In this paper we propose a framework that explores the design space of digital voting from the perspective of participation. We ground our discussion in the design of a social media polling tool called BallotShare; a first instantiation of our proposed framework designed to facilitate the study of decision-making practices in a workplace environment. Across five weeks, participants created and took part in non-standard polls relating to events and other spontaneous group decisions. Following interviews with participants we identified significant drivers and limitations of individual and collective participation in the voting process: social visibility, social inclusion, commitment and delegation, accountability, influence and privacy.     

Evaluating the generalizability of the Organizational Constraints Analysis framework: a hospital bed management case study

Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) provides useful tools for analyzing and modeling work constraints that can inform the development of systems design requirements. However, it does not provide effective tools for analyzing and modeling organizational constraints that can inform the development of organizational design requirements. By integrating organizational theories with the CWA approach, we developed the Organizational Constraints Analysis framework, a formative approach to the analysis, modeling, and design of the organization of work. In this paper, we test the generalizability of the framework by using its two analytical templates—the Organizational Constraints model and Work Possibilities diagram—to analyze the hospital bed management work domain. The research findings suggest that the concepts, investigative probes, and notations from the analytical templates can be applied to complex work domains beyond those in which it was initially developed. We conclude with suggestions for how the Organizational Constraints Analysis framework can complement CWA methods by helping researchers and practitioners develop a broader organizational perspective on the constraints that drive how work can be done in organizations.     

Understanding the effect of knowledge management strategies on knowledge management performance: A contingency perspective

The universalistic perspective research on employing a unidimensional knowledge management (KM) strategy has yielded conflicting findings and recommendations in different contexts. This study proposes a contingency model for investigating the effects of KM strategies on KM performance to resolve these contradictions. Drawing on the knowledge-based view (KBV) of the firm, which identifies knowledge type and origin as two key KM dimensions, this study first defines four KM strategies: external codification, internal codification, external personalization, and internal personalization. A multiple contingency model of KM strategy is then developed based on a technology–organization–environment framework. This study proposes that the effectiveness of each KM strategy depends on both external and internal contextual conditions, namely, environmental knowledge intensity and organizational information systems (IS) maturity. To test and validate the contingency model, we analyze data from 141 firms to explain the effects of KM strategies on KM performance. Our results reveal three KM strategies, not including the internal personalization strategy, which have a significant association with KM performance in their hypothesized contexts. This study expands KM strategy research by theoretically developing an advanced contingency model aligned with external and internal contexts and by providing valuable practical suggestions to managers for selecting a KM strategy based on multiple contingencies related to the external and internal conditions of a firm.     

Integrating cognitive and collective aspects of work in evaluating technology

Ergonomic criteria are receiving increasing attention from designers but their applications do not ensure that technology matches the user's abilities, needs, and work constraints. In this paper, we used two series of studies conducted in the healthcare system to illustrate how important work analysis is in evaluating new technology in order to identify critical dimensions of work and anticipate the impact of the devices on these dimensions: one looking at a new automatic drug device for anesthetists and one at a new robotic surgery system. Given the results, we developed a methodology for evaluation of new technology in complex systems. The aim is to insist to assess the impacts of technology on all the dimensions of work: technical, performance, cognitive, organizational, and economic. Which dimensions and criteria will be developed more in detail depends on the results of the work analysis.     

Agent-based accountable grid computing systems

Accountability is an important aspect of any computer system. It assures that every action executed in the system can be traced back to some entity. Accountability is even more crucial for assuring the safety and security of grid systems, given the very large number of users active in these sophisticated environments. However, no comprehensive approach to accountability for grid systems presently exists. Our work addresses this inadequacy by developing a comprehensive accountability system driven by policies and supported by accountability agents. In this paper, we first discuss the requirements that have driven the design of our accountability system and then discuss the key elements of our accountability framework. We also show how accountability data can be used to detect anomalies performed by exploiting resources, such as computing power and/or network bandwidth, etc., made available by grid systems and then protect systems from these malicious actions. A model for optimizing a time frequency to monitor a queue usage is introduced as an example to be used in the initial step of the detection against the anomalous usage patterns of a monitored object. We describe a fully operational implementation of our accountability system and report the results from extensive experimental evaluations of it. Our experiments, carried out using an emulated laboratory test-bed, demonstrate that the implemented system is efficient and scalable for grid systems consisting of large numbers of resources and users.     

A situation model to support awareness in collaborative design

The concept of awareness was introduced to underline the importance of shared knowledge and enhance collaborative work. Actors require much knowledge about their work situation and their collaborators’ activities in order to complete their own activities successfully. This paper first contributes to a detailed literature review about the concept of awareness. This review helps to identify key awareness-related requirements for the development of collaborative systems. The second contribution is related to the proposal of a generic situation model that is based on the concept of entities, interactions and specific roles. This new conceptual framework intends to favor situation awareness and support shared representations. It concerns both technical and organizational design activities and describes the collaborative situations from multiple views and at different organizational levels (project, team and individual). The proposal's interest and its feasibility for use in the development of collaborative systems are demonstrated by instances related to a case study and by analyzing the potential satisfaction of the identified awareness-related requirements. To sum up, the paper offers a synthesis of key context-related concepts and a generic model for the representation of collaborative situations to increase awareness.     

The design of information technology planning systems for varying organizational contexts

The conduct of IT planning processes has been a dominant managerial concern in organizations. Yet, current IT planning research offers little guidance on the types of planning actions and behaviour that are appropriate to organizational contexts. The motivation of this paper is to extend the existing literature by addressing the following major question: How should organizations design IT planning systems to manage the conduct of their IT planning processes? The paper seeks to address this question by (i) identifying key organizational forces that affect the IT planning processes, (ii) articulating some of the key dimensions of IT planning systems and (iii) elaborating upon propositions for linking designs of IT planning systems with organizational context. The concepts and the propositions are expected to provide significant guidance for further research and practice.     

Stress, computer-based work monitoring and measurement systems: a conceptual overview

The design and implementation of computer-based work monitoring systems can result in changes in the organization, job and task. Electronic performance monitoring (EPM) systems are one type of change based on principles of work simplification and work rationalization. In this new work arrangement, control and coordination functions are allocated to the computer. The supervisor becomes a monitor of information and primarily provides negative performance feedback to the employee. The employee is constrained in his/her ability to use either job resources or social resources to meet the greater demands resulting from the system controlling the pace of work. It is proposed that these work arrangements provoke stress responses in employees that can result in short-term illness and potentially long-term changes in health status. Information enriched work environments are proposed as an alternative. These new work arrangements could improve job resources and social resources to manage job demands and reduce the potentially damaging stress responses. To provide a frame of reference we focus on the impact of EPM systems on the organizational and job elements involved in provoking individual stress responses. The impact of EPM systems on individual health is described using a psychosocial stress framework. Ergonomics interventions discussed include: participation in the design process; allocation of control and coordination functions between the computer and the employee; development of feedback systems; and work measurement and the development of performance appraisal systems.     

Extending technology usage to work settings: The role of perceived work compatibility in ERP implementation

Spanning over three decades and hundreds of studies, researchers have generated models, that examined user perceptions of technological attributes presumed to influence intention to use IT and consequent usage behavior. While these theories have provided reasonable explanations of IT usage across a broad range of technological and task settings, they did not address the role of IT in organizations, though they have been tested in organizational contexts, the models have not been modified to fit the context of organizational work. Current models are good at explaining IT usage in personal-settings, but they have not adequately examined the role of IT in organizations and thus have limited explanatory power in such settings. Furthermore, organizations deploy IT both to maximize its usage and to derive performance benefits from it. However, current IT usage models generally only consider IT usage as the dependent variable, without examining its performance impact. We extended IT usage models to include the role of IT's perceived work compatibility in shaping users’ IT usage intention, usage, and performance in work settings. The model was empirically validated using a field survey of 138 users of ERP systems in 62 firms in China.     

KOMPASS: a method for complementary function allocation in automated work systems

A method supporting complementary function allocation in automated work systems called KOMPASS will be presented. KOMPASS supports interdisciplinary design teams in deciding about function allocation in automated systems, taking into account the need for an integral consideration of people-related, technological and organizational factors in the design of work systems in order to satisfy the demands for effectiveness and safety of the overall work system as well as for motivating jobs for the human operators. A set of empirically tested criteria for the evaluation of the complementarity of system design forms the basis of guidelines for the analysis of work systems, individual tasks and human–machine systems as well as for a heuristic for system design. The method is described, including a practical example of an automation project to which it was applied.     

Temporal effects of information systems on business processes: focusing on the dimensions of temporality

This study investigates how information systems affect the temporality of business processes in organizations. It is first described how the dimensions of temporality were developed. Among the many dimensions based on other studies, eleven dimensions were selected for our purposes in investigating the external temporality in the first instance and tracing changes in temporality. We then identified six dimensions (duration, sequence, temporal location, deadline, cycle and rhythm) which could effectively assess the temporal effects of information systems. We used them to describe and analyse temporal changes which resulted from the implementation of Korea Trade Network in two case companies. Through the case study, this paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of information systems and temporality in organizational contexts. Differential cycles, polychronicity and changes in inter-personal or inter-departmental relations mediated by temporal shifts are presented for their implications on time, work and information systems.     

Process and technology challenges in swift-starting virtual teams

Virtual teams often face tight schedules and a need to start quickly and perform instantly. The goal of our study was to enhance understanding of the challenges faced by such teams. We used time–interaction–performance theory as the framework for following the processes and functions within virtual teams working on a systems development task. Our study provided a detailed examination of the group process, applied to virtual teams working under time pressure. The challenges faced by virtual teams in such settings showed that teams must work to enhance their effectiveness in multiple dimensions.     

Disability and Vulnerability: Interpretations of Risk in Everyday Life

Definitions and assessments of social vulnerability are commonly based on systemic relations and processes on a macrolevel. There is a danger of ascribing vulnerability to someone, regardless of their individual circumstances; thus, microlevel information regarding everyday life is also needed. Experiences of risk and attitudes towards vulnerability were explored in five group interviews. Related to instrumental aids, bodily endurance and external causes, vulnerability was found to be a ubiquitous primer in everyday decision‐making. The disabled individual's interpretative framework for risk and vulnerability is shaped by objectifying his/her own body, and by being accustomed to everything taking a long time. The interpretative framework helps in decision‐making and in managing any ‘contextual inertia’ involved in stressful situations.     

Knowledge work support by semantic task management

This paper describes the particular requirements of knowledge work in an industrial setting and its support by semantic technologies. This setting is characterized by specific demands with respect to information handling, communication and work coordination. It is shown how semantic technologies can meet these demands. Specifically, the Social Semantic Desktop (SSD) is discussed that covers requirements for individual structuring and proceeding as well as organizational needs. It is discussed which aspects come to the fore in an industrial setting and require particular consideration. Here we find a focus on communication and on work coordination. The latter is addressed by semantic task management and allows for new approaches towards experience management in industry. In this respect the SSD opens up completely new opportunities. It is shown how such a framework has been realized in the European Integrated Project Nepomuk.