Ryan J. Baxter

Dynamics of inter‐organizational knowledge creation and information technology use across object worlds: the case of an innovative construction project

Organizational research argues that under relational forms of governance a high degree of both information pooling and physical interaction are necessary for inter‐organizational knowledge creation. Yet, recent studies of information and communication technologies (ICTs) suggest that both practices at the same time are sometimes unnecessary. We address this discrepancy by developing a framework whereby the intensity and proportion of these inter‐organizational practices are affected by the object world congruence between designers within and across partnering firms, and the level to which a common information technology platform is embedded in their activity. Through a multi‐level case study of a Frank Gehry construction project we illustrate how designers with highly congruent object worlds, due to a strongly embedded common information technology platform, could jointly create knowledge despite decreased physical interaction. Conversely, designers from firms with incongruent object worlds or with congruent object worlds lacking a strongly embedded common ICT platform demanded a higher degree of physical interaction for effective knowledge creation. Our research suggests a dynamic, evolutionary model of inter‐organizational knowledge creation influenced by variation in object world congruence and the levels of embedding a common ICT platform.

Handoff processes, information quality and patient safety: A trans‐disciplinary literature review

Purpose – Key findings from recent and relevant studies on patient safety and clinical handoffs are summarized and analyzed. After briefly reviewing process management and accounting control theory, the aim of this paper is to discuss how these latter two disciplines can be combined to further improve patient safety in handoffs.Design/methodology/approach – A literature review on studies of patient safety, clinical processes and clinical handoffs was conducted in leading medical, quality, and information systems journals.Findings – This paper issues a call for research using a trans‐disciplinary methodology to shed new light on information quality issues in clinical handoff processes, which in turn should improve patient safety.Research limitations/implications – The literature review employed systematic, heuristic, iterative and practical criteria for identifying and selecting papers, trading off completeness for multi‐disciplinarity. No prior empirical patient safety studies combined process management ...

The Dark Side of Online Knowledge Sharing (Retracted)

ABSTRACT : Given the growing trend of electronic networks of practice and the growing propensity of individuals to rely on the Internet for problem solving, we examine whether programmers in a hypothetical situation would be likely to disclose confidential information through an online forum in attempt to solve a programming problem. We hypothesize and find in a survey of 187 programmers that online forum commitment and trust lead to greater online forum participation, which in turn predicts a higher likelihood of confidential information disclosure. We also find that programmers with greater awareness of security policies exhibit a lower likelihood of deciding to risk disclosing confidential information. The study contributes to extant literature by raising and exploring the potentially negative, dark side of knowledge sharing through electronic networks of practice.

Medication errors, handoff processes and information quality: A community hospital case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how clinical handoffs affect clinical information quality (IQ) and medication administration quality.Design/methodology/approach – A case study was conducted in a US hospital. The authors applied a business process management (BPM) perspective to analyze an end‐to‐end medication administration process and related handoffs, and accounting control theory (ACT) to examine the impact of handoffs on IQ and medication errors.Findings – The study reveals how handoffs can lead to medication errors (by passing information that is not complete, accurate, timely or valid) and can help reduce errors (by preventing, detecting and correcting information quality flaws or prior clinical mistakes).Research limitations/implications – The paper reports on one case study on one hospital unit. Future studies can investigate the impact of clinical IQ on patient safety across the multitude of health information technologies (e.g. computerized provider order entry (CPOE), electro...

Applying Basic Gamification Techniques to IT Compliance Training: Evidence from the Lab and Field

ABSTRACT: Companies depend on internal control to protect the integrity of information systems. IT security and data privacy training are critical controls for safeguarding company information. Employees often dislike the training, however, which can cause a lack of attention to, and poor understanding of, training concepts leading to less effective internal control. To improve the training experience, companies are implementing principles of games in employee training modules, a practice known as gamification. Utilizing a laboratory experiment on data privacy training and a field study involving IT security training for employees of a bank, we test whether a training environment with basic gamification elements results in greater trainee satisfaction and knowledge acquisition than traditional, non-gamified training. We find basic gamification results in higher satisfaction levels in the lab and field, but only marginally significant improvements in learning. Furthermore, these learning improvements are q...

Pilot-Testing Inter-Organizational Systems to Reveal Relational Feasibility Issues

Abstract: Pilot test projects often examine technical, operational, and economic feasibility of new systems. When inter-organizational systems are pilot-tested, it is helpful to also examine relational feasibility. We report on relational feasibility issues identified in two IOS pilot tests in the context of emergency medicine. Lessons learned and implications for using pilot tests to assess relational feasibility in health care and other domains are discussed.

Informed collaboration in health care: An embedded-cases study in geriatric telepsychiatry

Telemedicine, the delivery of medical consultation and services, is enabled by information and communications technologies. Participants in telemedicine consultation services (ie, clinicians, patients, and other parties) use video conferencing, special‐purpose software and/or hardware, and data and notes from electronic medical records and other systems to formulate effective treatment plans. Telemedicine is a particular mode of informed collaboration—information and communications technology–supported collaborative activity in which collaborators rely (wholly or in part) on digitally stored information retrieved from various sources to pursue their collective objectives. We report on an embedded‐cases study of a long‐running geriatric telepsychiatry clinic in the north‐eastern United States. Our analysis draws on the theory of distributed cognition (DCog) to explicate the ways in which information and cognitive effort are distributed across individuals and artefacts to support psychiatric consultation from a distance and how these processes play out over time in routines. On the basis of this case study, we offer a refinement of DCog theory, focusing on four interrelated dynamic processes that, we propose, act as critical enablers of informed collaboration: cognitive offloading, visibility of action, intersubjective understanding, and knowledge redundancy. We discuss practical implications for designing telemedicine services and tools, and we offer suggestions for further research on informed collaboration.

Handoffs and Medication Errors: A Community Hospital Case Study

In hospitals, a handoff occurs when responsibility for care of a patient is transferred to another caregiver, along with information about the patients condition, treatment plans, and orders. Prior studies report that flawed handoffs contribute to adverse events, but few studies have closely analyzed this from an information processing perspective. We report on a case study of medication administration processes and related information quality issues associated with handoffs in one hospital. Applying an interdisciplinary lens (informed by prior work on health care quality, process management, and accounting information systems) this case study reveals evidence that handoffs both contribute to process and data flaws and can help reveal and correct prior errors. Our findings highlight the importance of designing clinical systems and processes that systematically prevent threats to the validity, accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of clinical data and that use handoffs to detect and correct these four types of errors.