Maiju Vuolle

Developing a questionnaire for measuring mobile business service experience

In this paper, three dimensions are conceptualized to represent elements of mobile business service experience. By combining these perspectives, namely usability, mobile working context and mobile work productivity, we aim to understand the nature of mobile work and how mobile business services could support users in this context. A questionnaire, MoBiS-Q, for measuring these dimensions has been developed and tested in three pilot studies during real service development processes. Iterative item generation and refinement were conducted through examination of the literature, interviews and pre-testing. MoBiS-Q is a multidisciplinary tool that provides a basis for joint development between relevant parties and departments in an organization, including user representatives, sales, marketing, product management, technology, and usability.

Analysing the impacts of ICT on knowledge work productivity

Purpose – The potential of information and communication technology (ICT) in improving knowledge work productivity is well‐documented in the existing literature. However, prior research fails to provide means for analyzing whether the potential can be realized in a specific organizational context. Thus, this paper aims to focus on the context‐specific analysis of the impacts of ICT services on knowledge work.Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a literature review and a case study conducted in a medium‐sized European teleoperator company. The case study examines the measurement process for capturing the knowledge work productivity impacts produced by a new ICT service used by the company.Findings – ICT can be used to eliminate non‐value‐adding tasks or to make them more efficient. ICT can also improve employee welfare, for example, through transforming the content of work by deleting unimportant activities. The empirical study showed that, contrary to the view presented in the prior literature, i...

Measuring the intangible aspects of an R&D project

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the measurement of intangible aspects of research and development (R&D) projects, particularly from the funding organizations point‐of‐view.Design/methodology/approach – A literature review on R&D measurement is carried out in order to identify the intangible factors to be measured as well as potential indicators. The practical applicability of the measures is discussed in light of an exploratory case study.Findings – Lists of intangible inputs and outputs of R&D projects are presented along with some potential measures. The assessment of the intangible aspects of R&D projects is considered important for the funding organization. However, the current measurement practices are inadequate.Research limitations/implications – The results provide a summary of the current status of the topic and a basis for further research.Originality/value – The knowledge about the intangible aspects of R&D projects summarized in this paper has been scattered before in a wide set of previ...

‘New Ways of Working’ as a tool for improving the performance of a knowledge-intensive company

This paper explores ‘New Ways of Working’ (NewWoW) – that is, non-traditional mobile and flexible work practices, settings and locations using sufficient ICT tools – as a novel approach to improve the performance of a knowledge-intensive organization. This paper makes a contribution by illustrating how the measurement of the impacts of NewWoW can be done and by producing empirical evidence of the benefits of NewWoW. The conceptual background of the study is anchored in the literature on knowledge work productivity and performance as well as on NewWoW. The empirical section reports a longitudinal case study of a change process during which the case company, Rapal, went through a NewWoW project. The impacts of the change are evaluated based on the results of both objective and subjective performance measures. The project was successful and resulted in significant cost savings as well as improvements in environmental performance (CO2 emissions).

Identifying Usability and Productivity Dimensions for Measuring the Success of Mobile Business Services

This paper reviews existing measures used for evaluating the usability of information systems and those used for evaluating the level of the productivity of a company. We discuss the usefulness of the existing measures in the mobile business context, where both mobility and work-context pose specific demands for the mobile business services. The review showed that the existing measures rarely consider the great contextual variation caused by the mobility of the services and the demands this poses on usability; which, in turn, affects productivity. To build a measurement tool that better meets the requirements of mobile business services, we completed case studies on two mobile business services, one used in passenger transport and the other in construction sites. Based on the understanding gained from the case studies, we propose a list of dimensions and items addressing both usability and productivity aspects that work as the basis for a multidisciplinary measurement tool.

SmartWoW – constructing a tool for knowledge work performance analysis

Purpose - – New Ways of Working (NewWoW) refers to a novel approach for improving the performance of knowledge work. The purpose of this paper is to seek innovative solutions concerning facilities, information technology tools and work practices in order to be able to “work smarter, not harder.” In order to develop work practices toward the NewWoW mode there is a need for an analytical management tool that would help assess the status of the organization’s current work practices and demonstrate the impacts of development initiatives. This paper introduces such a tool. Design/methodology/approach - – Constructive research approach was chosen to guide the development of the Smart ways of working (SmartWoW) tool. The tool was designed on the basis of previous knowledge work performance literature as well as on interviews in two knowledge-intensive organizations. The usefulness of the tool was verified by applying it in four organizations. Findings - – SmartWoW is a compact questionnaire tool for analyzing and measuring knowledge work at the individual level. The questionnaire consists of four areas: work environment, personal work practices, well-being at work and productivity. As SmartWoW is a standardized tool its results are comparable between organizations. Research limitations/implications - – SmartWoW was designed a pragmatic managerial tool. It is considered possible that it can be valuable as a research instrument as well but the current limited amount of collected data does not yet facilitate determining its usefulness from that perspective. Originality/value - – This paper makes a contribution to the existing literature on knowledge work measurement and management by introducing an analytical tool which takes into account the NewWoW perspective.

Theoretical Evaluation Models Used in Mobile Work Context

This paper reviews what theoretical models of technology evaluation are used in mobile work context. We examine how these models are extended to take mobility and organisational contexts into account. We found that most of the extensions were related to mobile task and mobile technology aspects but also costs, impacts and organisational viability were added. The paper provides discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of these models and suggests how the combination of these models could be developed further.

Experience-Driven Design of Ambiences for Future Pop Up Workspaces

Knowledge work is in transformation and new means for supporting workers’ wellbeing and productivity are needed. Pop Up workspaces are temporary and often social working environments where people can modify their environment to suit their current work mode. The aim of the present research was to explore the opportunities of future Pop Up workspaces, and specifically their technology-mediated ambiences that can provide meaningful experiences for the workers. We employed the Experience-Driven Design (EDD) approach to gain insights of the desired experiences in Pop Up workspaces. We first conducted three participatory group sessions to ideate experience types for Pop Up workspaces. We then run a multidisciplinary concepting workshop in which we designed concepts for technology-mediated ambiences. Five experience categories for worker mindsets were identified, namely Liberty, Fellowship, Determination, Retreat and Recovery. We present ambience concepts that utilise the mindsets and related target experiences, and how they can be supported by ambient technologies.

Methods for identifying and measuring the performance impacts of work environment changes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce and evaluate methods for analysing the impacts of work environment changes. New working practices and work environments present the potential to improve both the productivity and the wellbeing of knowledge workers, and more widely, the performance of organisations and the wider society. The flexibility offered by information and communication technology has influenced changes in the physical environment where activity-based offices are becoming the standard. Research offers some evidence on the impacts of work environment changes, but studies examining methods that could be useful in capturing the overall impacts and how to measure them are lacking. Design/methodology/approach This paper concludes research of the last five years and includes data from several organisations. The paper presents and empirically demonstrates the application of three complementary ways to analyse the impacts of knowledge work redesigns. The methods include: interview framework for modelling the potential of new ways of working (NWoW); questionnaire tool for measuring the subjective knowledge work performance in the NWoW context; and multidimensional performance measurement for measuring the performance impacts at the organisational level. Findings This paper presents a framework for identifying the productivity potential and measuring the impacts of work environment changes. The paper introduces the empirical examples of three different methods for analysing the impacts of NWoW and discusses the usefulness and challenges of the methods. The results also support the idea of a measurement process and confirm that it suits NWoW context. Practical implications The three methods explored in this study can be used in organisations for planning and measuring work environment changes. The paper presents a comprehensive approach to work environment which could help managers to identify and improve the critical points of knowledge work. Originality/value Changes in the work environment are huge for knowledge workers, but it is still unclear whether their effects on performance are negative or positive. The value of this paper is that it applies traditional measurement methods to NWoW contexts, and analyses how these could be used in research and management.

Towards Business Potential of Workplace Services in Finland

Abstract People no longer work as they worked 15 years ago. One of the major changes, as Laing (2013) stated, is that the employee no longer has to go to work, but information technology brings the work to the employee. Due to the independency of work from time and place, employees are working in a new way in multiple locations. For service providers, this offers a new business field. Thus, the paper focuses on this new business opportunity. The aim of the paper is to identify the business potential to build up and elaborate the workplace service business. Interviews with national workplace service providers and international workplace experts were conducted in order to get practical insight on the topic. Based on the interviews, two development steps are required to utilise the new business opportunity: (1) the transaction-oriented way to provide workplace services should be substituted by new business models, and (2) the workplace service should be re-thought and re-designed as a service that is not solely dependent on physical space. Based on the new business model and service, a new business opportunity could be harnessed.