Arkalgud Ramaprasad

Envisioning management of information

Organizations generate and dissipate information. The main argument of this paper is that managing the information generation-information dissipation-organization cycle is central to the performance of a modern organization. The two key goals in managing the cycle are to ensure that the cycle is positively reinforcing, and that generation and dissipation are balanced. A positively reinforcing cycle will result in a continuously learning, effective organization; a negatively reinforcing cycle, on the other hand, will result in a decadent, ineffective organization. A cycle in which generation and dissipation are balanced is functional; lack of balance manifests itself as dysfunctionalities such as information overload, information in jail, and misinformation. An organization is a cause as well as a consequence of information generation and dissipation. Consequently, the effectiveness of an organization depends upon the semiotics of the stimuli and agents used for information generation and dissipation. A manager who understands the stimuli, agents, and semiotics--tacitly or explicitly--will be more effective than one who does not. The role of a researcher is to explicate the tacit knowledge if it exists, and to develop new knowledge if it does not, and thereby to make the information generation-information dissipation-organization cycle more effective and efficient.

Formal participation and performance of the system development group: the role of group heterogeneity and group-based rewards

This study examines the influence of two selected group structural characteristics on successful participation in system development. It draws upon work-group design research to develop and test nine hypotheses that link group heterogeneity and group-based rewards to participation and performance outcomes. Some interesting findings emerge from the study.The nature of the relationship between group heterogeneity and participation is not the same as that between group-based rewards and participation. Both heterogeneity and group-based rewards directly impact participation; and as participation positively impacts outcomes, both variables indirectly impact outcomes. In addition, group-based rewards have a direct effect on performance outcomes, while no direct effect is detected between heterogeneity and performance outcomes. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this study found the effect of group-based rewards on participation is not always positive. The study suggests that group-based rewards could suppress participation in heterogeneous system development groups. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for managerial practice and future research.

Ontological Meta-Analysis and Synthesis

We present ontological meta-analysis and synthesis as a method for reviewing, mapping, and visualizing the research literature in a domain cumulatively, logically, systematically, and systemically. The method will highlight the domain’s bright spots which are heavily emphasized, the light spots which are lightly emphasized, the blank spots which are not emphasized, and the blind spots which have been overlooked. It will highlight the biases and asymmetries in the domain’s research; the research can then be realigned to make it stronger and more effective. We illustrate the method using the emerging domain of Public Health Informatics (PHI). We present an ontological framework for the domain, map the literature onto the framework, and highlight its bright, light, and blank/blind spots. We conclude with a discussion of how (a) the results can be used to realign PHI research, and (b) the method can be used in other information systems domains.

Ontological design

In this paper, we describe the concept of ontological design. We show how ontologies can be used as cognitive maps of complex, ill-structured, plastic problems. They can be used to concisely encapsulate the core logic of a problem. From it one can also derive a closed set of a very large number of natural language descriptions of a problem. The ontologies can be plastic but at the same time systematic, repeatable, and extensible. They can be used to map the gaps between the states-of-the-art, -practice, and - need. Knowing the gaps strategies can be designed to bridge them. Thus, ontological design is a method of logical analysis, synthesis of research and practical knowledge, its interpretation, and application to the design of solutions to complex, ill-structured, and plastic problems. We illustrate ontological design in the context of eHealth.

Exploring the Relationship Between Communication Risk Perception and Communication Portfolio

With the rapid development of information communication technologies (ICT) over the past decade, the nature of how organization members communicate has changed, becoming far more complex and challenging. Communication risks brought about by technology-mediated communication can sometimes be detrimental to the overall organizational function and success. We classify these communication risks into three types: reception, understanding, and action risks. We propose the notion of communication portfolio which refers to a single ICT or a specific combination of lCTs that can be used to manage any perceived risk of communication. Specifically, this study aims to examine the relationship between perceived risks (i.e., risk of reception, risk of understanding, and risk of action) in the communication process and the dimensions (i.e., content, and structuring mechanism) of the communication portfolio used for communication. We also identify communication risk factors that may accentuate the different types of risks. We develop a communication risk perception framework to illustrate the relationship between the communication risk factors, the different types of communication risks, and the communication portfolio. Finally, we illustrate how the communication risk perception framework can be applied in a real-life natural setting by using the shuttle Challenger incident, as an example.

Managing the transition to bricks and clicks

Egghead, a brick-and-mortar computer retailer, with stores across 200 locations, abandoned its brick establishments to become a pure Internet set-up, Egghead.com.<br><br>Charles Schwab was quick to react to the strategies of E*Trade and other competitors and moved its brokerage services to the Web. It gradually expanded its Web services to many areas, integrated its offline and online operations and became a brick-and-click set-up.<br><br>Through effective use of the Internet, UPS has been able to offer all of its services on the Web, as well as extend them. Apart from offering Web-based package tracking and delivery confirmation services, UPS offers document exchange service through which its business clients can transmit documents over the Net.

Design, development and implementation of a global information warehouse: a case study at IBM

The characteristics of a global information warehouse (GIW) can be understood with reference to the three dimensions implied by the three words in its name. These dimensions are boundary of the system, semiotic level of the objects in the system, and organization of objects in the system, corresponding to the terms ‘global’, ‘information’ and ‘warehouse’, respectively. This paper defines these three dimensions and describes the system characteristics that flow from the definitions. These characteristics also highlight the issues involved in the design, development and implementation of GIWs. The case study following the discussion of the three dimensions illustrates these issues.

Internet usage for information provisioning: theoretical construct development and empirical validation in the clinical decision-making context

Despite substantial discussion of the Internets impact on individual activities, there is an absence of a theoretically grounded measure of Internet usage for the provisioning of information required by decision-makers. Our research addresses this void in the literature. We conceptualize Internet Usage for Information Provisioning (IUIP) as the degree to which the Internet is used to meet information requirements of individual decision-makers engaged in diagnostic decision-making tasks. Drawing on the information processing theoretical framework, three dimensions (usage for breadth of content, usage for depth of content, and usage for interaction dynamism) of IUIP are identified. The construct was validated through a two-phase empirical study conducted in the physician clinical decision-making context. The first phase involved interviewing physicians to establish face validity of the dimensions and to generate multi-item measures for each dimension. The second phase consisted of surveying physicians to evaluate measurement properties and nomological validity. Principal components analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and partial least squares analysis were the primary statistical techniques used to analyze the data and evaluate construct validity. Our results suggest that decision-makers operating in uncertain and equivocal decision contexts use the Internet to a greater degree for their content needs and selective attention requirements. Our results also suggest that a fit between the users information processing requirements and technology, and selected social norms, lead to higher levels of IUIP. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

An Ontological Map for Meaningful Use of Healthcare Information Systems (MUHIS)

An ontological map of meaningful use of healthcare information systems (MUHIS) is the visualization of its requirements and practices using an ontology. We map (a) the Stages 1and 2 meaningful use requirements set by the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) for Electronic Health Records (EHR), and (b) the current literature on meaningful use, to derive the ontological map of the requirements and practices respectively. The map is fragmented and incomplete. The results will focus attention on the gaps (a) in the requirements, (b) in practices, and (c) between requirements and practices, and highlight the bright, light, blank, and blind spots in MUHIS. These gaps should be (a) bridged if they are important, (b) ignored if they are unimportant, or (c) reconsidered if they have been overlooked. Feedback based on incremental ontological maps over time will help to continuously improve MUHIS.

Understanding Public Confidence in Government to Prevent Terrorist Attacks

A primary goal of terrorism is to instill a sense of fear and vulnerability in a population and to erode its confidence in government and law enforcement agencies to protect citizens against future attacks. In recognition of its importance, the Department of Homeland Security includes public confidence as one of the principal metrics used to assess the consequences of terrorist attacks. Hence, a detailed understanding of the variations in public confidence among individuals, terrorist event types, and as a function of time is critical to developing this metric. In this exploratory study, a questionnaire was designed, tested, and administered to small groups of individuals to measure public confidence in the ability of federal, state, and local governments and their public safety agencies to prevent acts of terrorism. Data was collected from three groups before and after they watched mock television news broadcasts portraying a smallpox attack, a series of suicide bomber attacks, a refinery explosion attack, and cyber intrusions on financial institutions, resulting in identity theft. Our findings are: (a) although the aggregate confidence level is low, there are optimists and pessimists; (b) the subjects are discriminating in interpreting the nature of a terrorist attack, the time horizon, and its impact; (c) confidence recovery after a terrorist event has an incubation period; and (d) the patterns of recovery of confidence of the optimists and the pessimists are different. These findings can affect the strategy and policies to manage public confidence after a terrorist event.