Earl McKinney

Information about information: a taxonomy of views

Information is poorly defined in the Information Systems research literature, and is almost always unspecified, a reflexive, all-purpose but indiscriminant solution to an unbounded variety of problems. We present a taxonomy of four views-token, syntax, representation, and adaptation-to enable scholars and practitioners to specify their concept of information. This taxonomy is normative, but we also provide a background review of the etymology and chronology of information, and we sample uses of the term in current IS research. IS research will improve as the term information, via the taxonomy we contribute, is employed more explicitly and consistently.

How Swift Starting Action Teams Get off the Ground What United Flight 232 and Airline Flight Crews Can Tell Us About Team Communication

In 1989, United Airlines Flight 232 survived a catastrophic in-flight engine explosion because of, in part, the crew’s ability to communicate while under crisis conditions. Drawing on the experience of Flight 232, other flight deck crew research, and the authors’own flying experiences, the authors develop a descriptive, proposition-based model of the communication process dynamics found in such groups, which they call swift starting action teams. They argue that swift starting action teams, composed of highly trained strangers within one organization, must use communication processes that enable them to perform well immediately and manage crises in high risk environments. These processes depend on each team’s use and awareness of communication values and communication interactions. The authors discuss the communication dynamics of swift starting action teams and the implication of considering such teams in future research.

The role of communication values in swift starting action teams: IT insights from flight crew experience

We define a new subset of action teams termed swift starting action teams. These high technology groups of professional, well trained strangers perform from the moment they start working and face high stakes from the beginning. For these teams, we present evidence that the expression of communication values precedes effective task communication and team performance. IT professionals increasingly team with other professionals in high technology environments, such as swift starting action teams. Communication and communication values are important to the success of action team interactions common to IT professionals, such as requirements analysis, knowledge discovery interviews, and end user service engagements.

Effects of deliberate practice on crisis decision performance

This study examined the impact of deliberate practice on pilot decision making in once-in-a-career crisis decision scenarios. First we explored the impact of deliberate practice on pilot decision-making performance for crisis flying scenarios that had been practiced in their entirety. Then we looked at the impact of deliberate practice in which one aspect of the crisis scenario - the particular malfunction - was unpracticed. We analyzed pilot decision-making performance in response to 160 airborne mechanical malfunctions. We initially found that deliberate practice significantly improves decision-making performance for wholly practiced crises but does not improve decision-making performance when the specific malfunction has not been practiced. We then split decision making for each crisis into two phases: assessment and action selection. For wholly practiced crisis scenarios, additional deliberate practice positively impacts each decision-making phase. However, for part-practiced scenarios, deliberate practice appears to differentially affect phase of error. Specifically, pilots with more deliberate practice erred in action selection, whereas less-practiced pilots erred in assessment. Actual or potential applications of this research include training proscriptions for crisis decision making.

Crisis IT design implications for high risk systems: systems, control and information propositions

The systems view is presented as a complement to the more traditional scientific approach to help reduce and mitigate risk in high risk systems. Implications for this systemic approach are described, principally in the areas of control and information. Most generally, we investigate how high risk systems use information to maintain control, and how IT systems should be designed to support this activity. Two variations in the systems view – the objective and constructive – are distilled and compared, and for each, the implications for crisis IT systems design are discussed. The limitations of the two variations of the systems view are presented, as is a brief annotated bibliography for further reading about the systems view.