Murali Venkatesh

Effects of problem formulation and process structures on performance and perceptions in a GDSS environment: an experiment

A laboratory study examined the effects of problem formulation and process structuring on group performance and member perceptions within a GDSS environment on a problem-solving task. All groups solved the problem. Control groups had no preceding formulation stage. Half the non-control groups received a simple advocacy treatment, while others were also given a specific formulation heuristic to follow. Full heuristic groups were, significantly better on formulation score and appeared to have an edge on solution score as well. The simple advocacy groups had the more favorable process and outcome perceptions; worst perceptions were expressed by the full heuristic groups. Speculation is offered about GDSS structural restrictiveness and task perceptions as well as about the link between problem formulation and solution.<<ETX>>

A cognitive-motivational model of decision satisfaction

Satisfaction is a condition that contributes to the development of intrinsic motivation and a continuing motivation to learn. Research that helps to identify the factors that contribute to learning satisfaction is useful for educators. This paper introduces the Cognitive-Motivational Model of Decision Satisfaction, a model that extends Kruglanskis work on closure and builds on Kellers work on the motivational aspects of instruction and learning. Focusing on decision-making activities in a learning context, this model recognizes the importance of information-processing in judgmental tasks and specifies confidence as a major contributing factor to learning satisfaction. Some potential applications to both classroom and computer-based learning environments are suggested.

The political economy of convergence. The Janus faces of Korean convergence

Abstract Drawing upon qualitative data from stakeholders in convergence in Korea, this study traces the process of convergence in terms of politics, regulation, and policy, and examines how the stakeholders’ interests are aligned and coordinated in the process of convergence in Korea. Using actor network theory, the study relates the sociotechnological construction of Korea’s strategy for convergence reform. Key research questions are: (1) What strategy has Korea adopted, (2) What social and political factors have influenced strategy formulation, and (3) How different interests have stabilised ideologies in which actors formulate their strategies based on their interests. Despite the dynamics of interactions, the actor-network around convergence has not been effectively stabilised yet, as the politics of convergence is complex and marked by paradoxical features.

Extending Social Constructivism with Institutional Theory: A Broadband Civic Networking Case

A longitudinal study of broadband civic network design is analyzed using social construction of technology (SCOT) approach and then through the lens of institutional theory. SCOT is useful to show how artifacts take on the forms they do; institutional theory, by locating (design) action in a cultural, historical and structural context can complement SCOT by explaining why they tend to assume certain forms. Broadband civic networking initiatives often have mixed goals: ensuring financial viability and realizing normative social aims. In the present case, this tension was resolved by fitting the networks technological and social form to a criterion of legitimacy prevailing among power centers in the broader field; this succeeded in eliciting necessary financial resources to sustain the network, but at the expense of the projects normative aims. Institutional approaches theorize the relation of cultural ideas and social structure, and that of structure and social action, to interrogate micro-politics of social constructions and the (intended/unintended) forms they assume. To engage the Why question, constructivists need to theorize action. Sociological institutional theory offers pointers.

Analysis of the Development of Kutztown Community Network

This study investigates the development, discourse, design, and social interactions within the Kutztown community network. Drawing on the theory of social construction of technology, the study employs an in-depth case study approach to investigate how the community network was designed and how the Kutztown community participated in the network development. The findings show that there was little societal input into the design process; the design process was influenced by political economy factors, which now threaten the viability of the network. The study highlights the significant role of intermediation in developing community networks and concludes that community participation should not be limited to particular development stages.

Community Network Development: A Dialectical View

Drawing on an ongoing longitudinal research study, we discuss problems in the development of Urban-net, a next generation community network in a city in central New York. The project was funded under a state program to diffuse broadband technologies in economically depressed areas of the state. The network is technologically complex and entails high costs for subscribers. The political economy of the development process has biased the subscriber base toward the resource rich and away from the resource poor, and toward uses like intra-organizational connectivity and Internet access and away from community-oriented uses as originally envisaged. These trends raise troubling questions about network ontology and function, and about the relation between the network and its physical host community.

The role of institutional logics in the design of e-governance systems

ABSTRACT E-governance is premised on the notion that information technology can be used to reconfigure relations among various government departments as well as between governments and other stakeholders such as the private sector and civil society. This study uses social construction of technology (SCOT) and institutional theory as the lenses through which to deconstruct the process involved in using information technology to enhance transparency and accountability of an urban local government in India. It highlights how diverse stakeholders, by tapping into existing notions of good governance, articulated the project as resolving the need for timely, accurate, and structured information for decision-making. This problem definition led to the recognition that fundamental to transforming how the urban local government works was a reform in its financial management systems.

Radical Praxis and Civic Network Design

Technology-powered civic networks are social constructions that develop in relation to a particular macro-structure. Macro-structural realities such as differential access to power and resources modulate how effective actors are in inscribing their preferences into emergent network forms. With civic network design viewed as the locus of conflict and struggle, the designer must consciously cultivate an outlook of reflexivity. Social learning is foundational to the means as well as ends of socially-progressive design work. Current socially-progressive civic network design practice is analogous to advocacy planning in urban planning, where designers advocate for social inclusion.

Architecture, Infrastructure, and Broadband Civic Network Design: An Institutional View

Cultural values frame architectures, and architectures motivate infrastructures-by which we mean the foundational telecommunications and Internet access services that software applications depend on. Design is the social process that realizes architectural elements in an infrastructure. This process is often a conflicted one where transformative visions confront the realities of entrenched power, where innovation confronts pressure from institutionalized interests and practices working to resist change and reproduce the status quo in the design outcome. We use this viewpoint to discuss design aspects of the Urban-net, a broadband civic networking case. Civic networks are embodiments of distinctive technological configurations and forms of social order. In choosing some technological configurations over others, designers are favoring some social structural configurations over alternatives. To the extent that a civic network sets out to reconfigure the prevailing social order (as was the case in the Urban-net project considered here), the design process becomes the arena where challengers of the prevailing order encounter its defenders. In this case the defenders prevailed, and the design that emerged was conservative and reproduced the status quo. What steps can stakeholders take so that the project’s future development is in line with the original aim of structural change? We outline two strategies. We argue the importance of articulating cultural desiderata in an architecture that stakeholders can use to open up the infrastructure to new constituents and incremental change. Next, we argue the importance of designing the conditions of design. The climate in which social interactions occur can powerfully shape design outcomes, but this does not usually figure in stakeholders’ design concerns.

Social design's implications for the IS field

Social design is the collective task of developing an artifact for the public good. These projects are managed by community member volunteers who all have a shared conception of the public interest. In this paper we address the lack of attention social design has received in the Information Systems design research community. The paper focuses on the social organization of the design collective and outlines the threat social dilemmas pose to these projects. Throughout this discussion we challenge traditional models of action which do not support the collective action of social design. The constitutive design model is presented as a way of addressing social dilemmas in social design projects. How these social dilemmas are handled can significantly affect the form of the artifact being developed. Finally, we propose an academic curriculum for teaching the principles of social design in Information schools geared towards producing more socially conscious technical practitioners.