Lai Lai Tung

A proposed research framework for distributed group support systems

Abstract Globalization, virtual corporations, telecommuting, empowerment of teams, reduced cycle time and the need to frequently make decisions quickly makes it necessary for groups to work together while the participants may be in different locations. Distributed Group Support System ( DGSS ) is a technology that can help groups to overcome some of the difficulties associated with being in different places and sometimes in different time zones. The purpose of this paper is to propose a research framework that addresses the major issues involved in the implementation of DGSSs. These issues were identified in a literature review and in a small scale survey of practitioners. The proposed framework extends the traditional decision room GSS framework by adding relevant topics in all major parts. In addition, a new set of characteristics (input) variables related to communication issues while being in different places, was added.

Explaining cultural differences in decision conferencing

A comparison of two cultures---Western and Asian---in the context of group conflict generation and management.

Adoption, implementation and use of lotus notes in Singapore

Notes (now Notes/Domino) is a comprehensive enterprise-wide groupware infrastructure technology that facilitates communication and collaboration. It is used for developing applications that increase productivity and profitability. This study reports the result of a field study conducted in Singapore. The results provide an insight about the adoption process of Notes, its strategic use of Notes and the benefits realized by organizations. In addition, this study attempts to relate different types of organizations (classified by their culture and technology levels) to the perceived impacts of the introduction of Notes. The major findings indicated that the adoption of Notes is strongly associated with the existing technology level of organizations. However, contrary to common belief, organizations with medium-technology levels are making significantly more use of Notes than organizations with high-technology levels. The study also indicated that organizations with a mechanistic culture use more of Notes for monitoring purposes while organizations with organic culture use it more for dissemination of information and for communication.

Interacting with hypertext: an experimental investigation of navigation tools

Abstract The functionality that comes from hypertext has been an important driver in the growth of electronic commerce. The appropriate use of navigation tools and design of Web sites remains, however, an open research question. The objective of this study was to compare the impact of alternative navigation tools on users’ productivity differences in the retrieving of information. The selected navigation tools are: hierarchical design both with and without page hyperlinks, sequential both with and without page hyperlinks and a search engine. A laboratory experiment tested the effect of these navigation tools. A total of 430 subjects were randomly assigned to work with one of the five navigation tools. The productivity outcomes of the subjects were measured in terms of performance on the information retrieval task, search efficiency, and the self-perception of productivity. The task was an information search of medium complexity. An analysis of the results identifies navigation tools to be a contributing factor to users’ productivity.