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The following articles are from "Journal of Organizational Computing":
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-- Volume 1 --
Issue 4
Hiltz, Starr Roxanne and Turoff, Murray (1991): Computer Networking among Executives: A Case Study. In
Journal of Organizational Computing, 1 (4) pp. 357-376
“ Group Support Systems may be "distributed" for nonsimultaneous use by being embedded in a
Computer-Mediated Communication System (CMCS). In this manner, large groups may use them for
complex tasks over an extended period of time. Will executives such systems, and what are their
reactions? This case study of elites engaged in formulating recommendations for the White House
Conference on Productivity demonstrates that executives can use such systems, given that "critical success
factors" are met. Perceived information richness is strongly correlated with perceptions of productivity
enhancement as a result of system use. ”

© All rights reserved Hiltz and Turoff and/or Ablex Publishing
Ruhleder, Karen and King, John Leslie (1991): Computer Support for Work Across Space, Time, and Social
Worlds. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 1 (4) pp. 341-355
“ Collaboration is at the heart of academic enterprise; proposals for systems such as the National
Science Foundation's "National Collaboratory" or Apple Computer's "Knowledge Navigator" seek to
support these collaborative efforts by means of a variety of computing technologies. We examine the
assumptions of the model of collaborative work behind such proposals and suggest ways to extend that
model. We draw on a case study of collaborative efforts in classical scholarship in order to explore more
fully the existing modalities of academic collaboration as it actually occurs. The development of a broader
understanding of collaborative activities will enable us to address more effectively the challenge of
constructings systems to support collaborative work. ”

© All rights reserved Ruhleder and King and/or Ablex Publishing
Eriksson, Inger V. and Nurminen, Markku I. (1991): Doing by Learning: Embedded Application Systems. In
“ We argue that the computerized information system should not look like a system on its own. Rather,
it should be conceived as an inherent part of the work of its users. We therefore introduce the concept of
an embedded system, which describes work tasks and organization. Computer-supported information
tasks are embedded in this environment: They are not parts of a system separated from other activities.
This concept is based on the experiences gained during the development of a user-interface prototype,
derived from a theoretical frame of reference, called act orientation, to information systems, in which all
computerized tasks are interpreted as acts performed by the actual user. Our suggestion continues the
tradition of on-line help and support, reaching radically deeper than usual in related approaches. We
expect that our suggestion will, when applied, improve the control, productivity, quality of the outcome of
work, and quality of working life, assessed from the user's point of view. ”
© All rights reserved Eriksson and Nurminen and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 3
Brunet, Lesley Williams, Morrissey, Charles T. and Gorry, G. Anthony (1991): Oral History and Information
Technology: Human Voices of Assessment. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 1 (3) pp. 251-274
“ Dramatic advances in technology for acquiring, managing, and sharing information promise to
reshape the workplace by eliciting new behaviours and introducing new organizational patterns. For
academic and medical centers, the integration of information technology into programs of education,
research, and patient care is essential for increased organizational effectiveness. At Baylor College of
Medicine, we have developed information-sharing and management tools, collectively called the Virtual
Management System (VNS). The VNS is a multiuser, workstation-based hypermedia system that serves as
a technologically extended analog of the laboratory notebook used in biomedical research. We are
deploying the VNS in scientific groups at Baylor, and are applying oral history techniques to assess its
impact. This article shows how oral history captures the "human voices" of Baylor's experience and helps
us understand the effects of information technology on the processes of biomedical research. ”

© All rights reserved Brunet et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Gibson, David V. (1991): Executive GDSS: Behavioral Considerations at Individual, Organizational, and
Environmental Levels of Analysis. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 1 (3) pp. 303-322
“ This article emphasizes the importance of behavioral considerations at individual, organizational, and
environmental levels of analysis when researching and evaluating the design, implementation, and use of
group decision support systems (GDSS) within complex organizations. Discussion is based on interview
and archival data collected on an executive level GDSS used within a corporate setting. Issues that are
considered generalizable to organizational computing, coordination, and collaboration technologies
concern (a) viewing organization participants as strategic, intuitive information processors, (b)
understanding the importance of organizational power, politics, and situational constraints on decision
making, and (c) appreciating the symbolic value of advanced information technologies to an
organization's external environment. ”

© All rights reserved Gibson and/or Ablex Publishing
Hashim, Safaa H. (1991): WHAT: An Argumentative Groupware Approach for Organizing and Documenting
Research Activities. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 1 (3) pp. 275-302
“ The topic of this paper is a process-vs.-product design method representation called Argumentative
Writing (AW). Argumentative writing is a multi-representation approach for conducting and reporting
research projects. AW has at least two representations: one for structuring the problem-
understanding/solving process and one for communicating its products to others. We discuss WHAT, a
hypertext-based tool for AW. In WHAT (Writing with a Hypermedia-based Argumentative Tool), the
design process is captured using Rittel's Issue Based Information Systems (IBIS) method (Conklin, 1988;
Hashim, 1990a; Rittel, 1980). The product of the design process is represented in WHAT using a general
document-representation scheme. In the Introduction we raise four major issues that we explore in the
rest of the paper. Also in the Introduction, we show the impact the WHAT approach can have on
organizational computing applications such as business education and training (Hashim,
Rathnam,&Whinston, 1991) and the design of dialectical organizational information systems. The section
"A Methodological Basis for AW Tools" deals with the rationale behind choosing the IBIS method in
capturing the design process. The section after that explains WHAT, and the section following it explores
its use as a groupware tool. The applicability of WHAT and its pros and cons are discussed in two separate
sections. In the Conclusion we outline the potentiality of the approach and present suggestions for further
development. Since our first reporting on WHAT (Hashim, 1990b), the AW approach was found
applicable to educational, scientific, and business areas. One such application is for structuring case
discussions in business schools (Hashim et al., 1991). ”

© All rights reserved Hashim and/or Ablex Publishing
Gorry, G. Anthony, Long, Kevin B., Burger, Andrew M., Jung, Cynthia P. and Meyer, Barry D. (1991): The
Virtual Notebook System: An Architecture for Collaborative Work. In Journal of Organizational
Computing, 1 (3) pp. 233-250
“ We have developed the Virtual Notebook System (VNS) to facilitate information acquisition, sharing
and management in groups. The VNS allows teams to create shared electronic notebooks upon whose
pages they can place text and images and, in certain cases audio and video entities. Members of a team
can interconnect the pages of a notebook with navigational links, making the notebook shared hypertext.
Additionally special links, called action links, can be used to tie pages of a notebook to external programs.
Here we discuss the architecture of the VNS and give a number of examples of its use. We also identify
those aspects of the VNS development that seems to have been most important in its success. ”
© All rights reserved Gorry et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 2
Johansen, Robert (1991): Groupware: Future Directions and Wild Cards. In Journal of Organizational
Computing, 1 (2) pp. 219-227
“ Groupware is a perspective on telecommunications and computing that emphasizes the business team
as "user," rather than the individual. This perspective and its associated products and services are riding a
major wave of change: the trend toward business teams (small, cross-organizational, ad hoc, task-focused,
time-driven, cohesive work groups) as a primary mode of operation for the organization of the future. In
this paper, I will explore future directions for the groupware perspective in the marketplace and the
business teams wave. Current product classes will be presented, along with the experiences of early users
of groupware. In addition to overall trends and future directions, possible wild cards will be introduced
and discussed. ”
© All rights reserved Johansen and/or Ablex Publishing
Marschak, Thomas and Vazirani, Umesh (1991): Communication Costs in the Performance of Unrelated
Tasks: Continuum Models and Finite Models. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 1 (2) pp. 205-218
“ We consider two two-person organizations, called A and B. Each organization faces a changing
environment; an environment has two components and each of them is privately observed by one of the
organization's two members. Each organization's task is to respond to the current environment by taking
a correct action; the correct action is a known function of the environment. However, the task of A is
totally unrelated to the task of B: if A knew B's current environment and B's current correct action, that
would tell A nothing at all about its own current correct action (and vice versa). Now suppose that each
organization perform its task by a sequence of message announcements that stop when an "action-taker"
has just enough information about the two members' private observations so that he can take the correct
action. Suppose we measure the effort this requires by the size of the set of possible message
announcements. Then a compelling conjecture says that there can be no saving in total effort if we merge
the two organizations into a single four-person organization in which a single action-taker takes both
actions. The conjecture turns out to be true when the possible messages form a continuum whose size is
measured by its dimension, provided the message-announcing procedure obeys suitable regularity
conditions. When we turn to a model in which the number of possible messages is finite, the situation is
different. While a certain general proposition about coverings and projections is the main tool in proving
the "continuum" conjecture, the finite analog of that proposition is (surprisingly) false. The finite version
of the conjecture holds, on the other hand, when one adds a certain regularity requirement ("contiguity")
to the message-announcement procedure. The truth of the finite conjecture without such a requirement
remains open. ”
© All rights reserved Marschak and Vazirani and/or Ablex Publishing
Busch, Elizabeth, Hamalainen, Matti, Suh, Yongmoo, Whinston, Andrew and Holsapple, Clyde W. (1991):
Issues and Obstacles in the Development of Team Support Systems. In Journal of Organizational
Computing, 1 (2) pp. 161-186
“ This article presents issues and obstacles important when developing team support systems:
information systems designed to support organizational teams. Drawing on the accomplishments of
economics, organization theory, artificial intelligence, and computer-supported cooperative work, key
issues of interest are discussed. The desirable qualitative properties of a team support system are set forth
as well as its generic functional requirements. Several ideas for experimental directions are also
described. ”
© All rights reserved Busch et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Hiltz, Starr Roxanne, Dufner, Donna, Holmes, Michael and Poole, Scott (1991): Distributed Group Support
Systems: Social Dynamics and Design Dilemmas. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 1 (2) pp. 135-
159
“ A "distributed group support system" includes decision support tools and structures embedded within
a computer-mediated communication system rather than installed in a "decision room." It should support
groups who are distributed in space but not time ("synchronous" groups), as well as "asynchronous"
groups whose members participate at different times. Pilot studies conducted in preparation for a series of
controlled experiments are reviewed in order to identify some of the problems of implementing such a
system. Many of the means used by groups meeting in the same place at the same time to coordinate their
activities are missing. Embedding decision support tools within a different communications medium and
environment changes the way they "work." Speculations are presented about software tools and
structuring or facilitation procedures that might replace the "missing" coordination channels. ”
© All rights reserved Hiltz et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Sproull, Lee and Kiesler, Sara (1991): Two-Level Perspective on Electronic Mail in Organizations. In Journal
of Organizational Computing, 1 (2) pp. 125-134
“ Organizational computing tools are often developed and managed with an eye toward increasing
efficiency. Yet today's most widespread organizational computing tool, electronic mail, has an impact that
goes well beyond efficiency effects. This article summarizes a two-level perspective on organizational
computing and reviews research results demonstrating strong organizational effects of electronic mail.
From these results, we draw some lessons for the next generation of organizational computing. ”
© All rights reserved Sproull and Kiesler and/or Ablex Publishing
Bair, James H. (1991): A Layered Model of Organizations: Communication Process and Performance. In
“ Modeling organizations is most useful for predicting the outcome of decisions and courses of action.
However, the tendency has been to view an organization too narrowly, thus overlooking critical variables.
For example, financial models are based on abstract indicators and do not adequately describe human
factors. This article offers a five-layer, multidisciplinary model, where each layer defines units of analysis
and subsystem boundaries. The layers (behavior-motion, activity, process-procedure, function, mission)
define arenas of practical action, ranging from individuals' moment-by-moment behaviors, such as
making telephone calls, to broad policy decisions and functional structure of organizations. ”
© All rights reserved Bair and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 1
Turoff, Murray (1991): Computer-Mediated Communication Requirements for Group Support. In Journal of
Organizational Computing, 1 (1) pp. 85-113
“ This article presents an overview of the historical evolution of computer-mediated communication

(CMC) systems within the context of designing for group support. A number of examples of design
features to support specific group tasks are illustrated. The result of this is the synthesis of a number of
observations on the assumptions and goals for the design of CMC systems. An emphasis is placed on the
advantages offered groups by asynchronous support of the communication process, self-tailoring of
communication structures by users and groups, and the integration into the communication system of
other computer resources and information systems. The systems that have been developed recently at
New Jersey Institute of Technology (EIES2, TEIES, and Personal TEIES) are used to illustrate the
translation of design objectives into specific features and functions. ”

© All rights reserved Turoff and/or Ablex Publishing
Applegate, Lynda, Ellis, Clarence, Holsapple, Clyde W., Radermacher, Franz J. and Whinston, Andrew B.
(1991): Organizational Computing: Definitions and Issues. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 1 (1)
pp. 1-10
Applegate, Lynda M. (1991): Technology Support for Cooperative Work: A Framework for Studying
Introduction and Assimilation in Organizations. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 1 (1) pp. 11-39
“ This article draws on published research on the nature of the innovation process and exploratory field
research in 10 companies to develop a framework for research on organizations' introduction and
assimilation of computer-supported cooperative work technologies. The research reported in this article,
part of a much larger study of the general process of innovation in organizations, focuses specifically on
the transfer and assimilation of new technology innovations. Technologies to support group process,
communication, and coordination in face-to-face group meetings [electronic meeting support systems
(EMSS)] were chosen to illustrate the use of the research framework. The article focuses on the transfer of
these technologies from R&D units to target organizational units and the alignment of group, technology,
and task during assimilation by end-user groups. Research propositions are developed and discussed.
Future articles will present the findings from current research that utilizes the frameworks presented in
this article to study the introduction, transfer, and assimilation of EMSS in organizations. ”
© All rights reserved Applegate and/or Ablex Publishing
Ledyard, John O. (1991): Coordination in Shared Facilities: A New Methodology. In Journal of

“ Shared facilities are a good example of the difficulties inherent in coordination problems and the
benefits to be derived from creative solutions. Traditional methods employed by engineers and others,
because they ignore an important aspect of the problem, can yield solutions that appear successful but
which significantly underutilize these facilities. This article is intended to be an introduction to the types
of problems that can arise and to a new method for systematically studying these problems. The method is
illustrated with the results of a study done for NASA, on the coordination of the use of a Space Station,
which produced a new computer-assisted institution that outperforms existing institutions. ”

© All rights reserved Ledyard and/or Ablex Publishing
Olson, Gary M. and Olson, Judith S. (1991): User-Centered Design of Collaboration Technology. In Journal of
“ Groupware, like other forms of information technology, should be designed with the users' needs and
capabilities as the focus. User-centered system design consists of observation and analysis of users at
work, assistance in design from relevant aspects of theory, and iterative testing with users. We illustrate
the various stages of this approach with our development of groupware for software designers. We have
extensive studies of designers at work, have developed the beginnings of a theory of distributed cognition,
and are at the first stages of iterative testing and redesign of a prototype of a shared editor to support their
work. ”
© All rights reserved Olson and Olson and/or Ablex Publishing
Vamos, T. (1991): Cooperative Communication: Computerware and Humanware. In Journal of

“ This article emphasizes the combined requirements of computer systems and humanistics. In
cooperative computing, negotiations can be used as a basic paradigm by which different roles and their
requisites can be identified -- the facilitator, the mediator, and the negotiator. The negotiation-
cooperation process has a logical sequence of agreements, definition of terms, objectives, mode of
operation, common security measures concerning integrity and liability, handling protocols, etc. The
cooperation is based on models of the subject and the partners -- i.e., a minimum of three models should
be matched. The usual methods of human negotiations supported by metacommunication should have a
computer-realizable substitute. All these subjects are outgrowths of recent research in artificial
intelligence (knowledge-based systems) and cognitive psychology; some experiences are reported in the
field. However, the main task is human-oriented -- education of people for this new powerful means of
coexistence. ”
© All rights reserved Vamos and/or Ablex Publishing
Singh, Baldev and Whinston, Andrew B. (1991): Introduction to the Special Issues. In Journal of
Organizational Computing, 1 (1) p. iii
-- Volume 2 --
Issue 3
Philippakis, Andrew and Goul, Michael (1992): Concepts and Models of Group Membership in Computer-
Supported Knowledge and Decision Tasks. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (3) pp. 243-262
“ Decision groups have assumed new and expanded roles as a result of the application of electronic
technologies such as group DSS. The rational selection and assignment of members to a computer-
supported group is an important research issue with significant implications for organizational
effectiveness. Formal group-composition models are developed for knowledge-based and coalition-
formation decision tasks. In the context of these models, group properties of synthesis, redundancy, and
synergy are defined and related to concepts for rational selection of group members. Conceptual and
operational constructs are presented, providing a practical foundation for initiating detailed analysis of
interactions between group-composition and group-decision processes. Implications for future research
are discussed. ”
© All rights reserved Philippakis and Goul and/or Ablex Publishing
Petrovic, Otto (1992): Empirical Research in Electronic Meeting Systems: A Demand Side Approach. In
“ This study set out to empirically research the time spent by managers in meetings and to identify the
requirements of an information technology system for supporting meetings. It does this by investigating
the time commitment, efficiency, main problems, and benefits of meetings. In addition, it examines
managers' attitudes towards information technology support for meetings. To fulfill this aim, more than
1,000 mainly middle level managers were surveyed. It emerges that a total of 22.4% of working time is
spent in meetings; 34% of this time expenditure is rated inefficient. The opportunity for collective
decision making and exchange of information are seen as the main benefits whereas the failure to identify
critical items and agendas without priorities and targets are seen as the main problems. Analysis of their
attitudes towards technological support of meetings shows that managers in principle have a positive
attitude toward the idea. They specifically wish to see particular support for the preparatory and follow-up
phases and tools to support qualitative-creative tasks. ”

© All rights reserved Petrovic and/or Ablex Publishing
Ramanathan, Srinivas, Rangan, P. Venkat and Vin, Harrick M. (1992): Designing Communication
Architectures for Interorganizational Multimedia Collaboration. In Journal of Organizational
Computing, 2 (3) pp. 277-302
“ Advances in computer and communication technologies have stimulated the integration of digital
video and audio with computing, leading to the development of various computer-assisted collaborations.
In this article, we propose a multilevel conferencing paradigm called super conference for supporting
collaborative interactions between geographically separated groups of users, with each group belonging to
possibly a different organization. In a super conference, each participant must receive and display the
composite media stream obtained by mixing media streams transmitted by all the other participants.
Hierarchical communication architectures are naturally suited for media mixing in super conferences. We
present algorithms for designing hierarchical mixing architectures that optimize real-time end-to-end
delays of media. In order to improve their real-time performance further, we propose multistage mixing
techniques by which mixers can carry out mixing concurrently with communication. Surprisingly, the
optimal architectures for multistage mixing are widely different from those of monostage mixing (in
which, mixing and media communication sequential as opposed to concurrent). Based on real-time delay
constraints of multimedia, we obtain interesting limits on the sizes of both super conferences and groups
within super conferences in optimal hierarchical architectures, which go to show their high scalability in
terms of both the maximum number of participants and the geographical separation between them. At the
Multimedia Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego, we have implemented a conferencing
system on an environment of Sun SPARCstations equipped with digital multimedia hardware. As an
interesting application of the conferencing system, we have developed a telepresenter by which users can
remotely attend lectures in progress. We present initial experiences with the system. ”
© All rights reserved Ramanathan et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Press, Laurence (1992): Systems for Finding People. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (3) pp. 303-
314
“ Finding a previously unknown person with the skills and knowledge to answer a question or perhaps
to collaborate with is an effective use of a computer-mediated communication (CMC) system. This article
discusses two aspects of systems for finding people, system architectures, and organizational implications.
The architectures considered are special interest groups, centralized servers, and decentralized systems.
The organizational implications are the value to organizations of people-finding systems, management
incentives for individuals to participate in them, and participation in the absence of apparent incentives.
The deployment and improvement of people-finding and other CMC systems will bestow a marginal
advantage upon cooperative individuals and organizations with cooperative cultures. As a result, CMC
may marginally alter organizational and human nature, nudging us in the direction of a time when nice
guys finish first. ”

© All rights reserved Press and/or Ablex Publishing
Press, Laurence (1992): Lotus Notes (Groupware) in Context. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (3)
pp. 315-320
“ Notes is a mail and teleconferencing (bulletin board) system for LAN-based users at locations that are
not continuously connected. It supports asynchronous group work in different locations, and has a direct-
manipulation user interface. ”

© All rights reserved Press and/or Ablex Publishing
Lea, Martin and Spears, Russell (1992): Paralanguage and Social Perception in Computer-Mediated
Communication. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (3) pp. 321-341
“ It is widely held that computer-mediated communication (CMC) filters out many of the social and
affective cues associated with human interaction with consequent effects on communication outcomes
and the medium's suitability for interpersonal tasks. The relationship between paralanguage and social
perception in CMC in different social contexts is investigated in two experiments. In Study 1, it was
hypothesized that there would be significant differences in subjects' perceptions of anonymous
communicators as a function of the paralinguistic content of the electronic mail messages they received.
Subjects read three sets of messages containing different types of paralinguistic cues and a fourth set of
control messages. They also completed a set of person-perception rating scales in respect of each message
sender. The hypothesis was supported for both novice electronic mail users and for experienced users
drawn from a large telecommunications organization. In Study 2, subjects participated in group
discussions over a CMCS under four conditions, manipulated in a 2 x 2 between-subjects design. The
salience of the task group was either high or low, and subjects were either de-individuated (physically
isolated and visually anonymous) or individuated (physically copresent and visually identifiable). From
social identity theory, it was hypothesized that de-individuated subjects for whom group identity had been
made salient would evaluate users of paralanguage more positively than when group salience was low, in
accordance with a social attraction response associated with perceptions of group identity. The hypothesis
was supported. The results suggest that paralanguage is one means by which social information is
communicated in CMC and that the meaning of paralinguistic marks is dependent on the group or
individual context that is pre-established for the communication. The studies, therefore, question earlier
assumptions that the social context is dramatically reduced or eliminated in this medium. The
implications of contextual effects for the use of CMC by work groups in organizations are discussed. ”
© All rights reserved Lea and Spears and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 2
Marsden, James R., Pingry, David E. and Wang, Ming-Chian Ken (1992): An Experimental Approach to
Intelligent Organizational Design. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (2) pp. 225-242
“ Organizations in competitive markets have no guarantee of continued existence. The intelligent firm
in such a setting is the firm that can adapt its structure, the one that has the knowledge necessary to
change when change is optimal, and to make enough profit to survive. We argue that the intelligent firm
must understand the relationships among its structure, its production inputs (including information
technology), and its productivity. When market and technological conditions dictate that a change in
structure is optimal, the intelligent firm, the successful firm, will change. We argue that carefully
structured and controlled laboratory experiments provide an excellent source for obtaining the knowledge
necessary for organizations to adapt strategically. We illustrate how such experiments can be used in
determining the relationships between organizational forms and information system constructs, and in
analyzing what mixes yield maximum performance in decision-theoretic and game theoretic settings. ”
© All rights reserved Marsden et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Griggs, Kenneth A. (1992): Visual Agents that Model Organizations. In Journal of Organizational Computing,
2 (2) pp. 203-224
“ The successful use of icons in interface design, games, and simulations to reduce cognitive effort is
well established. This article explores an extension of the concept via a prototype implementation in
Smalltalk-80 that uses object-oriented programming, AI techniques, and iconic "visual agents" as a means
of expanding the scope of the visual model world from narrowly focused metaphors to organizations
themselves. Visual agents are icons that encapsulate data and behavior of organizational objects including
the user. Just as a desktop metaphor is based on "desktop objects" an organizational model world
includes objects found within an organization. These objects are classified using a simple hierarchy
composed of persons, things, and processes at the top level and a set of changeable entities at lower levels.
This hierarchy provides the basis for the development of systems that accomplish managerial level tasks
such as scheduling, reporting, advisement, and assistance. The hierarchical class structure, method
inheritance, and message-passing paradigm of Smalltalk-80 offers an environment, which is itself, a good
model for the approach. Thus, Smalltalk-80, in conjunction with embedded knowledge bases that provide
agents with a limited but functional "intelligence," complete the approach to organizational modeling
proposed here. ”
© All rights reserved Griggs and/or Ablex Publishing
Chen, Minder, Liou, Yihwa Irene and Weber, E. Sue (1992): Developing Intelligent Organizations: A Context-
Based Approach to Individual and Organizational Effectiveness. In Journal of Organizational
Computing, 2 (2) pp. 181-202
“ Organizations interested in intelligent actions in uncertain or equivocal environments must possess

or create a common context of interaction for participants in order to coordinate their activities and use
information effectively. In a learning situation, the establishment of an intelligible context of interaction is
especially important because the learner's assimilation of new information depends on its compatibility
with the learner's existing knowledge and skills. Cognitive theory underlies the authors' discussion of the
functions, development, and expression of intelligence, and informs their discussion of effective action
contexts. Contextual information systems (CIS) are proposed as mechanisms for helping individuals and
organizations manage personal and enterprise-wide knowledge systems. A domain analysis methodology,
developed to facilitate the creation of appropriate action contexts, is presented. Finally, the contributions
CIS can make to human and organizational effectiveness are discussed. ”

© All rights reserved Chen et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Carlson, David A. and Ram, Sudha (1992): A Knowledge Representation for Modeling Organizational
Productivity. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (2) pp. 155-180
“ The primary objective of effective productivity improvement is to reduce unnecessary and wasteful
effort, not simply to speed things up. Constructing an organizational model along these lines might assist
a manager in assessing the organization's current state and in moving to a more desirable position. Such
models may be construed as managers' mental models. A mental model is not a static set of knowledge,
but rather, a dynamic memory that integrates the new information resulting from environmental
scanning. Thus, a mental model consists of some internal representation that reflects the essential
features and relationships in a corresponding real-world system, for example, the organization. This
article proposes an architecture and a representation scheme for implementing computational models
that correspond with the mental models in managers' minds. A four-level architecture is outlined that
consists of a linguistic layer, an epistemological layer, an object-management layer, and an
implementation layer. An iterative, triarchic research method was used that simultaneously developed a
theoretical framework, synthesized evidence from an American Express case study, and specified a
computational representation. A prototype management support system developed as part of this
research, called SPRINT (Strategic Plan and Resource INTegration), is implemented as a frame-based
semantic network using a hypertext interface and is programmed in Smalltalk/V286. ”

© All rights reserved Carlson and Ram and/or Ablex Publishing
Motiwalla, Luvai F. and Nunamaker, Jr. Jay F. (1992): MAIL-MAN: A Knowledge-Based MAIL Assistant for
MANagers. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (2) pp. 131-154
“ Although several collaborative office systems have been developed recently to provide synchronous
communication support for managerial work, they have not capitalized on electronic mail (E-mail), an
existing asynchronous office communication technology widely used by managers. This is because E-mail
technology has yet to incorporate intelligent characteristics and flexibility to support different office
functions, which can enable it to adapt to the changing and uncertain environment of managerial work.
This article addresses the conceptual and technological issues involved in development of E-mail to
support managerial work with MAIL-MAN, a knowledge-based E-mail system unified with other office
applications to model and support managerial work. ”

© All rights reserved Motiwalla and Nunamaker and/or Ablex Publishing
Blanning, Robert W., King, David R., Marsden, James R. and Seror, Ann C. (1992): Intelligent Models of
Human Organizations: The State of the Art. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (2) pp. 123-130
“ The application of concepts from cognitive science and artificial intelligence to organizational
modeling is a new and exciting area of research that may yield useful insights into organization theory and
behavior. In this introduction we offer a framework for organizational intelligence, review the literature in
the area, and introduce the articles in this special issue. ”

© All rights reserved Blanning et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 1
Whinston, Andrew B. (1992): Introduction to the Special Issue. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (1)
p. i
Hamalainen, Matti, Hashim, Safaa, Holsapple, Clyde W., Suh, Yongmoo and Whinston, Andrew B. (1992):
Structured Discourse for Scientific Collaboration: A Framework for Scientific Collaboration Based on
Structured Discourse Analysis. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (1) pp. 1-26
“ This article describes the initial stage of an exploratory research project on improving scientific
collaboration. For the purpose of laying conceptual foundations of scientific collaboration, we discuss
general requirements of a collaborative system for scientific researchers. With these requirements in
mind, we outline the technical design of a prototype system to support scientific collaboration. This design
involves a method of structured discourse and is integrated with electronic mail. The prototype system,
currently being developed, will be tested by the authors who are collaborating on various research projects
in the United States and Finland. Preliminary results will be available in the near term. Further
development will include the incorporation of project management, negotiation support, and document
production tools into the system. ”

© All rights reserved Hamalainen et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Gurbaxani, Vijay and Shi, Edmond (1992): Computers and Coordination in Manufacturing. In Journal of
“ This article examines the role of advanced information technologies, particularly computer-integrated
manufacturing (CIM), in coordinating manufacturing activities. Our focus is on understanding the nature
of changes in organizational structure and processes that are a result of, or are associated with, the
introduction of CIM systems. The analysis is premised on the observation that coordination tasks are
largely related to the acquisition and processing of information and are, therefore, sensitive to the
application of information technology. Economic theories of organization facilitate the development of the
relationships between information costs and the attributes of organizations. We use a model of a
manufacturing firm, which incorporates elements of these theories, to study the organizational
implications of CIM systems. ”

© All rights reserved Gurbaxani and Shi and/or Ablex Publishing
Woo, Carson C. and Chang, Man Kit (1992): An Approach to Facilitate the Automation of Semistructured and
Recurring Negotiations in Organizations. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2 (1) pp. 47-76
“ Communication is vital to the running of a distributed organization. To alleviate the amount of time
organizational workers spend in communication, some tools should be provided for them. We propose a
set of communication tools, based on Ballmer and Brennenstuhl's (1981) speech act classification, which
are to be used by organizational workers during negotiations. These tools provide assistance to the
organizational workers and can be used to program the structured part of the negotiation. Since the
preparation and use of such tools requires additional time and costs, they are only beneficial to the type of
negotiation that has other instances occurring in the future. ”

© All rights reserved Woo and Chang and/or Ablex Publishing
Jong, Peter de (1992): A Framework for the Development of Distributed Organizations. In Journal of
“ A system, Ubik, is described that builds, executes, and maintains distributed computer organizations.
A computer organization is built using three organizational components: structure, action, and power.
The interaction among these three components mirrors some of the complex interactions in the external
organization being modeled. The structure of an organization is modeled with semantic nets built of
linked-together objects. The action of an organization is represented by an object called a configurator,
and initiated by message passing. The power of an organization is maintained by objects, called sponsors,
which delegate processing power to other objects. Active messages are used to build specialized objects
called constructors, questers, and tapeworms. They build, query, monitor, and constrain applications
running within an organization. Ubik is based on the actor concurrent object model. It supports the
parallel execution of organizational applications distributed over networked computers. Ubik contains
tools for the building of organizational applications by end-users. Programming by example is supported
with the use of a pattern-directed language, used within two-dimensional pictures of forms. Distributed
rule-based agents are supported using the semantic nets as knowledge bases and the tapeworms as
rules. ”
© All rights reserved Jong and/or Ablex Publishing
Panko, Raymond (1992): Managerial Communication Patterns. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2

(1) pp. 95-122
“ Use of time studies provide detailed information on organizational communication patterns, offering
a rich base of data for identifying promising new targets for "groupwork" support researchers. This article
looks at use of time data that provide a detailed picture of communication patterns in the workdays of
managers and some other knowledge workers. ”

© All rights reserved Panko and/or Ablex Publishing
-- Volume 3 --
Issue 4
Dubinskas, Frank A. (1993): Virtual Organizations: Computer Conferencing and Organization Design. In
“ Computer conferencing systems link groups of users who "meet" in the virtual space of a computer
and interact around a common purpose or topic. These electronically constituted and mediated groups
can mirror, cross-cut, or hive off from existing organizational structures. This article reports a study of
organizational structuring processes that accompany the introduction of a computer conferencing system
in six industrial organizations. The relationships among technological capabilities and constraints,
existing organization structures, managerial intent, and the unanticipated consequences of
implementation for structural change are discussed. Employing the same software system in each case,
organizational outcomes are radically different. Earlier analysts have focused on a contingency model of
the organization-to-technology relationship. Computer conferencing systems, however, confound the
distinction between technical and organizational systems; they exist in an overlapping border domain
between their two parent systems. This article explores the character of this overlapping domain and
proposes the terms "virtual group" and "virtual organization" to evoke the special status of groups created
through computer conferencing. Virtual organizations are semiotic entities in Weick's [1] sense of
equivoque, and their essentially ambiguous, interpretable character is important in shaping
organizational outcomes. Virtual groups become part of the ongoing process of structuration [2], while
also providing a new tool for organizational design. ”

© All rights reserved Dubinskas and/or Ablex Publishing
Goldstein, David K. (1993): Computer-Based Data and Organizational Learning: The Importance of
Managers' Stories. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (4) pp. 417-442
“ While many organizations are investing large amounts of money to provide computer-based data to
their managers, little is known about how, or even whether, managers use these data to learn about the
business environment. This issue is explored by examining how grocery product managers use
supermarket scanner data to learn about changes in the marketing environment. Managers' stories play a
central role in the four-step process used by one product management organization as it learns from
analyzing computer-based data. First, a manager examines the data and looks for unexpected results --
findings that contradict one or more of her stories about the marketing environment. If something is
found, the manager carries out a relatively unstructured, multistage process to make sense out of the
unexpected result. This process can be viewed as a dialogue between the result and a set of tools at the
manager's disposal (including analyses of computer-based data). Next, the manager tells the story to
share her insights with peers and superiors, developing a common understanding. Finally, the manager
creates an official story, which is used to "sell" new marketing approaches to people outside the product
manager organization -- the sales force and supermarket buyers. ”

© All rights reserved Goldstein and/or Ablex Publishing
Chidambaram, Laku and Bostrom, Robert (1993): Evolution of Group Performance Over Time: A Repeated
Measures Study of GDSS Effects. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (4) pp. 443-469
“ Many studies in the group decision support system (GDSS) literature have reported on the behavior
and performance of ad hoc groups meeting for the first, and, in fact, the only time. Such one-time studies
of groups may not represent their longer term behavior and performance accurately. Adaptive
Structuration Theory (AST) conceives of technology use as a social practice that emerges over time. AST
suggests that meeting outcomes reflect the extent to which structures offered by the technology (such as
GDSS tool sequences, meeting agenda, etc.) are faithfully appropriated by the group. Such faithful
appropriation, however, takes time. This article explicitly recognizes the relevance of this appropriation
process and reports on a lab study that examined the impact of computer support on group performance
over time. In general, results showed that the performance of computer-supported groups improved over
time, whereas the performance of non-computer-supported groups stayed the same or declined. The
number of alternatives generated by computer-supported groups increased considerably as they became
more proficient in incorporating the technology into group processes. However, the quality of decisions
made by computer-supported groups began to increase slightly, only during the last session. Both these
findings suggest that AST is, in fact, a viable theory for studying group behavior and performance over
time. Results from this study also point out the need for conducting more longitudinal studies of group
processes in the future. ”

© All rights reserved Chidambaram and Bostrom and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 3
Barron, Terry (1993): Impacts of Information Technology on Organizational Size and Shape: Control and
Flexibility Effects. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (3) pp. 363-387
“ We argue that the study of information technology (IT) impacts on organizations has been hindered
by the shortage of formal models from which empirically testable implications of such impacts can be
derived. This article demonstrates the feasibility and usefulness of this approach by constructing and
analyzing optimization models of the organizational design problem for a restricted class of hierarchical
organizations. The literature suggests that two organizational characteristics likely to be affected by IT are
organizational "flexibility" and the nature of organizational control problems. Thus, first, a particular
concept of flexibility is defined and parameterized. Second, organizational design is formalized as an
optimization problem having parameters for flexibility and control effects. Third, probable effects of four
broad classes of IT on the model's parameters are spelled out and then analyzed via comparative statics
and numerical experiments. One general result is that some types of IT impacts could have significant
industry-level effects since large changes in the optimal organizational scale under profit maximization
may result. Some specific hypotheses regarding the impacts of monitoring IT are also derived. Fourth,
suggestions for the formulation of empirical models are given. The model shows that a careful
understanding of the effects of a particular system is vital to predicting its impacts; for example,
monitoring systems of different types can have impacts that are the opposite of one another. The model
suggests that short, medium, and long-run effects of a given IT type can differ from one another, so that
lagged effects of IT investments should be studied carefully, allowing for the possibility of different
directions of change for different lags. ”

© All rights reserved Barron and/or Ablex Publishing
Ang, Soon and Beath, Cynthia Mathis (1993): Hierarchical Elements in Software Contracts. In Journal of
“ Recent literature in information systems notes that software development outsourcing is increasingly
prevalent, despite the complexity of managing development across organizational boundaries.
Information systems researchers have used transaction cost and agency theories to propose incentive
schemes to address this problem. Drawing on legal and organizational theories about contractual
relations between firms, this article describes and illustrates a set of contractual elements, essentially
hierarchical control mechanisms, that can contribute to the governance of external software development.
Software outsourcing contracts using such elements should be viewed as hierarchical, rather than market,
organizational forms, in that they are sheltered from the disciplining influence of market forces. Following
transaction cost theory, the article proposes that the use of hierarchical elements will vary with
transaction characteristics. Actual software contracts are content analyzed to lend empirical support to
the propositions. Future research directions and content-analytic research designs appropriate for
analyzing software contracts are then elaborated. ”

© All rights reserved Ang and Beath and/or Ablex Publishing
Bakos, J. Yannis and Brynjolfsson, Erik (1993): From Vendors to Partners: Information Technology and
Incomplete Contracts in Buyer-Supplier Relationships. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (3) pp.
301-328
“ As search costs and other coordination costs decline, theory predicts that firms should optimally
increase the number of suppliers with which they do business. Despite recent declines in these costs due
to information technology, there is little evidence of an increase in the number of suppliers used. On the
contrary, in many industries, firms are working with fewer suppliers. This suggests that other forces must
be accounted for in a more complete model of buyer-supplier relationships. This article uses the theory of
incomplete contracts to illustrate that incentive considerations can motivate a buyer to limit the number
of employed suppliers. To induce suppliers to make investments that cannot be specified and enforced in
a satisfactory manner via a contractual mechanism, the buyer must commit not to expropriate the ex post
surplus from such investments. Under reasonable bargaining mechanisms, such a commitment will be
more credible if the buyer can choose from fewer alternative suppliers. Information technology increases
the importance of noncontractible investments by suppliers, such as quality, responsiveness, and
innovation; it is shown that when such investments are particularly important, firms will employ fewer
suppliers, and this will be true even when search and transaction costs are very low. ”
© All rights reserved Bakos and Brynjolfsson and/or Ablex Publishing
Ching, Chee, Holsapple, Clyde W. and Whinston, Andrew B. (1993): Modeling Network Organizations: A
Basis for Exploring Computer Support Coordination Possibilities. In Journal of Organizational
Computing, 3 (3) pp. 279-300
“ In recent years, network organizations have gained much attention as more and more of them have
emerged in various industries. The problem of coordination within network organizations is an important
one that differs in major ways from coordination within hierarchies or markets. We contend that
computer technology has a potential for usefully supporting coordination efforts in networks. As a basis
for studying such potential in a systematic way, a formal model of network organizations would be
helpful, particularly to the extent that it represents coordination possibilities. From a long-term
perspective, the success of a network organization depends on more than efficient transaction processing.
It also depends on factors such as participant reliability, motivation, mutual trust, cooperation, creativity,
and prudent evolution. All of these are related to the issue of a participant's value (past, current, ongoing,
changing) to the network. We introduce a model that formalizes some key aspects of network
organizations. At the heart of our formulation is a construct called "reputation," which encapsulates the
many attributes that can characterize participants' past behaviors in a network. This model characterizes
essential informational aspects of a network organization in a quantifiable form that lays a foundation for
analyzing, designing, and implementing computer-based systems to facilitate network operation and
growth. We use the model to discuss possibilities for computer-based support of network organizations at
managerial and strategic levels, as complements to transaction-level Electronic Data Interchange-like
systems. ”
© All rights reserved Ching et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Whang, Seungjin (1993): Analysis of Interorganizational Information Sharing. In Journal of Organizational

Computing, 3 (3) pp. 257-277
“ Recent years have observed a number of interorganization information systems and electronic data
interchanges through which multiple organizations share information. This article studies the incentives
to share information when two or more companies are involved in a supplier-buyer relationship. We
propose two models through which we pursue the question: What type of information will be shared? In
the first model, we study the incentives for a production company to share its queue information with its
customers. The release of queue information has a trade-off between loss of profits and efficient flow
control, but we show that the supplier will share information under certain regularity conditions. The
second model studies the incentive for a supplier to share price information with its buyer. As the buyer
makes its quantity decision based on the price information fed by the supplier, the latter has to choose
between keeping the communication channel alive for good news and benefiting from the buyer's
uninformed purchase decisions. We show that, in most practical situations, the supplier will not
voluntarily share its price information. ”

© All rights reserved Whang and/or Ablex Publishing
Brynjolfsson, Erik and Mendelson, Haim (1993): Information Systems and the Organization of Modern
Enterprise. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (3) pp. 245-255
“ This article and the entire special issue address relationships between information systems and
changes in the organization of modern enterprise, both within and across firms. The emerging
organizational paradigm involves complementary changes in multiple dimensions. The revolution in
information systems merits special attention as both cause and effect of the organizational
transformation. This can be illustrated by considering two key variables: location of information and
location of decision rights in organizations. Depending on the costs of information transmission and
processing, either the "MIS solution" of transferring information or the "organizational redesign solution"
of moving decision rights can be an effective approach toward achieving the necessary collocation of
information and decision rights. When information systems change radically, one cannot expect the
optimal organizational structure to be unaffected. Considering the interplay among information,
incentives, and decision rights in a unified fashion leads to new insights and better organizational
planning. The articles in this special issue address different facets of this interaction. Despite significant
progress, our understanding of the economic role of information systems in organizations remains in its
infancy. Successful design of modern enterprise will require additional narrowing of the historic gap
between research in information systems and research in economics. ”

© All rights reserved Brynjolfsson and Mendelson and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 2
Migliarese, Piero and Paolucci, Emilio (1993): Cooperation Support Through the Use of Group Decision
Systems. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (2) pp. 215-243
“ This article considers the development of the group decision support system (GDSS) field both from
organizational and technological perspectives. The growing importance of teamwork, lateral coordination,
and activities integration inside modern business organizations is emphasized. Technological and
knowledge specialization, quick transformation of business environments, reduction of response time,
and so on, are some of the reasons that can explain the renewed relevance of teamwork. Also, the
development of information technology (IT) is analyzed in relation to the role it is assuming in supporting
group activities. Research in the GDSS field is then introduced. A proposal concerning the identification
of three different phases in GDSS studies is developed, ranging from decision rooms to distributed
systems. Each phase shows distinctive research topics and application fields, together with different
organizational goals. Results of these developments are the growth of potential application areas of GDSS
tools. These theoretical considerations, together with empirical experiences coming from the study of a
real manufacturing environment (an IBM plant where group cooperation plays a fundamental role for
production efficiency), constitute the basis for a research GDSS prototype (GROUPS). Prototype features
are designed to support executives in facing production-planning problems through an improvement in
communications and in knowledge representation. ”

© All rights reserved Migliarese and Paolucci and/or Ablex Publishing
Gaines, Brian R. and Malcolm, Nicholas (1993): Supporting Collaboration in Digital Journal Production. In
“ As digital journals come into use there arise new possibilities for the computer support of the group
processes that are involved in developing, editing, reviewing, revising, annotating, and generally using a
publication. There are now a number of products and research tools designed to support group-writing
teams that can be extended to support a wider range of interacting roles and activities. Most, however,
require use of nonmainstream word-processing systems, and usually assume that full information is
continuously available through a network to mediate and avoid conflicts. In the context of digital journals,
it is more realistic to suppose that they will be distributed through both on-line and off-line media, and
that a requirement for continuous network access would severely limit their use. This article reports
research on group-writing tools that deviate as little as possible from conventional word processors and
assume only intermittent network connection for document exchange and conflict resolution. The system
developed can be used by some people as a conventional word processor, by others as a versioning and
text and sound annotation system, and by others as a full hypertext system, all while working with the
same corpus of documents. It offers full typographic and page-layout facilities and imports typographic
text from, and exports to, the mainstream commercial word processors so that users are not locked into a
nonstandard technology. It is presented here as an example of the increased functionality that may be
made available through a digital journal, supporting many of the current roles and activities involved in
journal creation and use while deviating minimally from current journal and word-processing
practice. ”
© All rights reserved Gaines and Malcolm and/or Ablex Publishing
Gaines, Brian R. (1993): An Agenda for Digital Journals: The Socio-Technical Infrastructure of Knowledge
Dissemination. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (2) pp. 135-193
“ The problems of information overload from the growth of scholarly literature, and the need to use
information technology to manage them, were identified by major writers and scientists over 50 years
ago. Yet, the main form of scholarly communication, the journal, is still circulated in paper form as it has
been for over 300 years. The economic arguments for using computer and communication technology to
overcome these problems through a new form of scientific communication, the electronic or digital
journal, were vigorously presented in the 1970s. Experimental trials of digital journals with the
technologies of the 1970s and 1980s have not been successful. In the 1990s, the continuing value of
current journal systems is again being questioned in terms of soaring library costs, the burden of the
current refereeing system, and the diminishing returns of journal publication brought about by
information overload. This article presents a fundamental examination of the prerequisites for the
introduction of digital journals, at one level in terms of the role of journals in the social and economic
processes of human knowledge production, and at another in terms of the state of the art in the relevant
technologies. Models of the processes underlying the growth of knowledge in the literature on the
philosophy, history, and psychology of science are first used to analyze the structure and role of the social
infrastructure of journals, including the editorial and refereeing systems and the role of commercial
publishers and libraries. The motivation for digital journals and past experience is surveyed, then the
learning curves, and current costs and performances of the enabling hardware, software,
communications, and interface technologies. Examples of the current impact of computer and
communications technology on scholarly discourse are given to enable probable changes to be predicted
in the structure of journals when they are transferred to digital form. Finally, the social and technological
analyses are used to outline some architectures for a first generation of digital journals emulating the
current medium, and for the evolution of later generations diverging in characteristics to take advantage
of the new medium. ”

© All rights reserved Gaines and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 1
Whinston, Andrew B. (1993): Introduction to the Special Issue. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (1)
p. iii
DeSanctis, Gerardine, Poole, Marshall Scott, Dickson, Gary W. and Jackson, Brad M. (1993): Interpretive
Analysis of Team Use of Group Technologies. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (1) pp. 1-29
“ Studies of the impacts of new computing technologies on organizations often lead to contradictory or
equivocal findings. Studies showing negative or null effects of computing are as commonplace as those
showing benefits. Moreover, outcomes are nonuniform across individuals, groups, or organizational units
and sometimes vary within the same study. To explain the commonality as well as the variance in the
results of new technology introduction, we propose adaptive structuration theory. The theory focuses on
how technology structures are applied in interpersonal interaction and the specific nature of
appropriation patterns. We illustrate the power of the theory through interpretative analysis of three
teams as they adapt to use of a group decision support system over a period of eight months. The analyses
highlight differences in technology impacts across the three teams and also explain some common
outcomes. Our analytic approach appears to be useful in the study of organizational computing impacts in
general and group decision support system effects in particular. ”

© All rights reserved DeSanctis et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Quarterman, John S. and Carl-Mitchell, Smoot (1993): The Computing Paradigm Shift. In Journal of
“ Over the last five years, there has been a shift from centralized to distributed computing. Timesharing
and batch systems still have uses, but the large mainframe is no longer the only way to do computing.
Networks have spread computing power, access, and costs beyond centralized computer centers. Personal
computers have made computing accessible to many new users. Distributed computing attempts to bring
the manageability of mainframe computing together with the accessibility of networked computing and
the transparency of personal computing. ”

© All rights reserved Quarterman and Carl-Mitchell and/or Ablex Publishing
Chang, Ai-Mei, Bailey, Jr. Andrew D., Mutchler, Jane F. and Whinston, Andrew B. (1993): Modeling the
Going-Concern Judgment Using Argumentation Theory. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (1)
pp. 51-85
“ A going-concern judgment is an important classification of a client that auditors are called upon to
render. We study the collective group process of interpretation that auditors are engaged in by examining
their individual interpretation processes and their interactions among themselves and with clients. The
interpretation process leading to the going-concern judgment involves four phases: (1) recognizing any
potential going-concern problems, (2) understanding the cause of those problems, (3) evaluating client
plans to mitigate those problems, and (4) rendering a going-concern judgment. We capture the process
underlying a going-concern judgment by representing the content and process of the interactions using an
argumentation language. ”
© All rights reserved Chang et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Rein, Gail L., Holsapple, Clyde W. and Whinston, Andrew B. (1993): Computer Support of Organization
Design and Learning. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 3 (1) pp. 87-120
“ Organization design is a pervasive phenomenon that significantly impacts performance, and yet
organization design activity has received little direct support from computer technology. If organization
learning is viewed as the process whereby knowledge is developed, then organization design both
influences the organizational learning that occurs and is at least a partial reflection of the organizational
learning that has occurred. This article examines the significance, bases, and means for developing
multiuser, computer-based environments for supporting organization design and learning. The article
introduces a working perspective of organization design and learning highlighted by three key ideas.
Organization design and learning (1) is defined in terms of organization work, structure, and process; (2)
is an ongoing evolutionary phenomenon; and (3) can and should be an inclusive, distributed,
multiparticipant effort. The article identifies the requirements for computer-based technology that
supports this working perspective and then presents an overview of a prototype technology that addresses
these requirements. The prototype technology consists of two interacting components: Deva, an
interactive, multiuser, graphical editor for managing process descriptions; and GPOD, an associated
group process for using Deva for organization design. We conclude that such technologies will enable
organizations to become self-organizing systems, thereby allowing them to compete more effectively and
survive in today's rapidly changing environment. ”

© All rights reserved Rein et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Ledyard, John O. (1993): The Design of Coordination Mechanisms and Organizational Computing. In
“ We provide an introduction to a theory of coordination mechanism design and show how to apply it to
an assignment problem. The purpose is to introduce those familiar with organizational computing, but
unfamiliar with game theory and economics, to the subject. We also describe briefly how we can test new
mechanisms before taking them into the field. Finally, we raise some unresolved research questions. ”
© All rights reserved Ledyard and/or Ablex Publishing
-- Volume 4 --
Issue 4
Karagiannis, D., Radermacher, F. J., Teufel, B. and Wynne, B. E. (1994): Towards CSCW: Meta-Level
Environments for Enhanced Group and Organization Effectiveness. In Journal of Organizational
Computing, 4 (4) pp. 367-392
“ The article deals with Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and its valuable contributions
to organizing cooperation and joint work among partners in many contexts. In the field of CSCW, complex
issues such as coordination and negotiation can be identified as being characteristic, fundamental and
important research topics that have to be elaborated on urgently. Better support in coordination and in
negotiation, and a stronger use of knowledge about people involved, roles, positions, values, strategies,
and activities seem to be important topics. It is the view of this article that such aims can only be achieved
if there is a close coupling of CSCW components with a powerful underlying corporate information
system. In order to achieve these aims, enterprise information systems and group support are to be
combined as a strategic way into the informational future of the enterprise. In this context, a good
conceptual model and proper implementation of an Enterprise Data Model (EDM) are a fundamental
prerequisite for full group support in an organizational environment. The EDM can be considered as a
basic support repository for general planning processes. The article introduces an architectural concept
for Computer-Supported Collaborative Systems (CSCS) consisting of a three-level system architecture of a
basic object level, user and coordination object level, and a specific goal-oriented object level. The
approach in this article is based on experiences from the application field of distributed software
development. ”
© All rights reserved Karagiannis et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Mosier, Jane N. and Tammaro, Susan G. (1994): Video Teleconference Use Among Geographically Dispersed
Work Groups: A Field Investigation of Usage Patterns and User Preferences. In Journal of
“ Use of video teleconferencing (VTC) has been on the rise for several years, yet researchers have often
discussed the failure of VTCs to support communication. The VTC facility at the MITRE Corporation is
used more than would have been predicted by other research. Surveys were mailed to 300 MITRE
employees who were known to have used our VTC facility or to have traveled (or both) during August of
1991. The survey asked respondents to describe at least one geographically dispersed work group of which
they are a member, and it asked them to discuss how they choose among various approaches to
communication, including holding face-to-face meetings and VTCs. Respondents felt that VTC is highly
useful. It is best used for meetings that have little emotional content or requirements for interpersonal
contact. The content of the meeting, however, was not the primary reason given for choosing between
travel and VTCs. Cost and inconvenience of travel were cited as reasons for using VTC, and unavailability
of VTC was cited as a reason to travel. Results are compared with those of conflicting studies. ”
© All rights reserved Mosier and Tammaro and/or Ablex Publishing
Witte, Duncan M. (1994): Full-Life-Cycle Economics: An Evaluation Methodology for Information

Technology Projects. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (4) pp. 393-403
“ This article presents a methodology for the examination and evaluation of proposed information
technology projects. Through an examination of successes and failures in estimating project costs and
benefits, a number of weaknesses have been identified. The areas of "hidden" costs and intangible (or at
least difficult to quantify) benefits have been particularly difficult to estimate. The methodology presented
here seeks to retain the strengths of older methodologies, while addressing these identified weaknesses.
This methodology, while not a substitute for good judgment, provides a framework for the standardization
of economic analysis. As such, it provides both management and clients with a better basis for decisions
regarding investments in information technology. ”

© All rights reserved Witte and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 3
Dewan, Prasun, Choudhary, Rajiv and Shen, HongHai (1994): An Editing-Based Characterization of the
Design Space of Collaborative Applications. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (3) pp. 219-239
“ The design space of collaborative applications is characterized using the notion of generalized
multiuser editing. Generalized multiuser editing allows users to view interactive applications as editors of
data structures. It offers several collaboration functions, which allow users to collaboratively edit
application data structures. These functions include coupling, concurrency control, access control, and
multiuser undo. Coupling allows the users to share editing changes, access control and concurrency
control prevent them from making unauthorized and inconsistent changes, respectively, and multiuser
undo allows them collaboratively to undo or redo changes. These functions must be performed flexibly to
accommodate different applications, users, phases of collaboration, and bandwidths of the
communication links. In this paper, we define and motivate the notion of generalized multiuser editing
and describe some of the issues, approaches, tradeoffs, principles, and requirements related to the design
of the functions offered by it. ”

© All rights reserved Dewan et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Navarro, James J. (1994): Computer Supported Self-Managing Teams. In Journal of Organizational

Computing, 4 (3) pp. 317-342
“ For several decades investigations in the behavioral sciences have focused on those conditions that
promote team effectiveness. These conditions have been applied to the development of self-managing
teams. This article defines requirements for computer support using the conditions that enhance the
performance of self-managing teams. We discuss the fundamentals of team design defining what a self-
managing team is, propose a self-managing team development model, and introduce three approaches to
the design of self-managing teams: sociotechnical systems, a normative model, and social-learning theory.
We then introduce a team information architecture (TIA) for the support of self-managing teams and
describe computer support requirements for the design, formation, management, and mentoring of self-
managing teams. We conclude by reviewing the conditions required for team effectiveness and compare
the TIA against those conditions. ”

© All rights reserved Navarro and/or Ablex Publishing
Bhargava, Hemant K., Krishnan, Ramayya and Whinston, Andrew B. (1994): On Integrating Collaboration
and Decision Analysis Techniques. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (3) pp. 297-316
“ We discuss how methods for computer-based collaboration and computer-aided decision analysis
may be combined to yield a new generation of decision support systems. We examine the role of these
technologies using a three-phase model (problem definition; problem structuring; modeling/analysis) of
decision making activities. We argue that decision making is a recursive mesh of these three phases; i.e.,
each phase involves argumentation/discussion, structuring, and analysis. Representations and methods
suited to one kind of activity (e.g., discussion) are not directly suited to the others. Decision support
systems, therefore, should facilitate the use of all of these methods in a way that information represented
under each of them may be combined effectively, supporting the decision makers in switching from one
activity to another. ”
© All rights reserved Bhargava et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Ledyard, John O., Porter, David and Rangel, Antonio (1994): Using Computerized Exchange Systems to Solve
an Allocation Problem in Project Management. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (3) pp. 271-
296
“ In this article we study the allocation problem facing the management of a large research and
development project. The project management has to allocate resources among competing users to
achieve the project goal. Besides the constraint of scarcity, the allocation problem is difficult because
users have private parameters that project management requires to know in order to make an optimal
allocation. Furthermore, users have incentives to misrepresent the information about these parameters to
advance their individual agendas, which can differ from the project goal. A method to solve the allocation
problem using computerized exchange institutions is introduced and analyzed. We emphasize that the
rules of the exchange should be carefully selected, because different rules produce different results. We
use the methodology of experimental economics to demonstrate this conclusion. This research was
motivated by JPL's Cassini Mission to Saturn. A computerized exchange described in this article has been
implemented by the Cassini Project to assist in the management of the resources used in the design and
operation of science instruments. ”

© All rights reserved Ledyard et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Mackenzie, Kenneth D., Shoemaker, Terry and Utter, Donald F. (1994): Development of Organizational
Design Support Systems. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (3) pp. 241-270
“ This article provides a framework and a case study for the development of the organizational design
support system (ODSS). The organizational design development interdependencies consist of four
mutually interdependent parts: (1) development of applicable organizational theory, (2) development of
applicable methods for organizational design, (3) application of organizational design to real
organizations, and (4) concurrent engineering of an information system to support organizational design.
All four parts are presented along with an explanation of how the interdependencies were accommodated.
The properties of the ODSS software are described. The processes and results of the organizational design
of a real organization are presented. This article calls into question the nature of organizational
computing. ”
© All rights reserved Mackenzie et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Applegate, Lynda and Whinston, Andrew B. (1994): Introduction to the Special Issue: Organizational
Computing Coordination and Collaboration. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (3) pp. iii-iv
Issue 2
Srikanth, Rajan (1994): Constructing Conceptual Models for Knowledge Capture and Delivery Systems. In
“ Appropriate conceptualization of the nature of entities and relationships in a problem domain is a key
prerequisite to the successful design of computerized decision aids for business, especially those
developed for more than one idiosyncratic user. The need for a reliable conceptual model is particularly
acute in the design of decision support systems that must function in problem-solving situations with no
existing theoretical framework or where theory and practice differ considerably. This paper presents an
interative procedure for developing a reliable conceptual model by testing the "fit" of successive revisions
of the model against a collection of "think-aloud" verbal problem-solving protocols of people with
experience in the domain. The model is revised each time until it is verifiably and consistently accurate.
Such a procedure, it is argued, is more objective and reliable than intuition or traditional knowledge
engineering and requires considerably less experimental data collection and analysis than more elaborate
empirical model development procedures. The feasibility of this procedure is illustrated by using it to
construct a conceptual model for a computer-based system that seeks to capture knowledge used during
project planning and deliver it for use during project control. ”

© All rights reserved Srikanth and/or Ablex Publishing
Dennis, Alan R. (1994): Electronic Support for Large Groups. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (2)
pp. 177-197
“ One of the key challenges in applying information technology to improve group performance lies in
matching the capabilities of technology to the needs of the situation. Groups can choose meeting styles
that use solely electronic communication, solely verbal communication, or a combination of both verbal
and electronic communication. This paper reports on a series of ten case studies of large groups
performing information generation tasks. For these groups and tasks, meeting styles with a greater
proportion of electronic communication were found to result in higher perceived effectiveness, efficiency,
and participant satisfaction. Qualitative evidence suggested that in this situation, the parallelism, direct
access to the meeting memory, and anonymity offered by pure electronic communication outweighed its
reduced media richness. ”

© All rights reserved Dennis and/or Ablex Publishing
Lucas, Jr. Henry C. and Olson, Margrethe (1994): The Impact of Information Technology on Organizational
Flexibility. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (2) pp. 155-176
“ This paper argues that information technology can have a significant impact on organizational
flexibility. Information technology (IT) contributes to flexibility by 1) changing the nature of organization
boundaries and the time when work occurs 2) altering the nature and pace of work, and 3) helping firms
respond to changing market conditions. But, there are also aspects of technology which can decrease
flexibility, and there may be second-order impacts of flexibility that are not easily predicted. Examples to
illustrate the impact of information technology on two industries and three companies are presented. The
paper concludes that management should consider the use of information technology to increase
flexibility and suggests strategies for implementing flexible systems. ”

© All rights reserved Lucas and Olson and/or Ablex Publishing
Zhang, Wen-Ran, Wang, Wenhua and King, Ronald S. (1994): A-Pool: An Agent-Oriented Open System Shell
for Distributed Decision Process Modeling. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (2) pp. 127-154
“ An agent-oriented open system shell, A-Pool, for distributed decision process modeling in the
Internet domain is presented. Unlike most decision support systems, A-Pool provides a testbed for
modeling and understanding the cognitive aspects of distributed decision processes themselves rather
than for domain-specific problem solving. This is achieved with a pool of virtual agents and a pool of
cognitive maps of the agents at each A-Pool node. The virtual agent scheme extends object-oriented
programming to the Internet domain and supports different communication and collaboration protocols
with virtual communities, virtual sessions, and virtual conferences. The cognitive map scheme supports
perspective sharing and various conflict integration and resolution strategies through cognitive map
composition, derivation, and focus generation. Thus each A-Pool node provides an architecture for
modeling interdependencies and for ensuring global coherence; in addition, the communication is
asynchronous and the control is distributed, allowing a large degree of autonomy and the examination of
various thoughts and social protocols involved in strategic planning in an open system environment. Basic
ideas are illustrated with a running example. ”

© All rights reserved Zhang et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Watson, Richard T., Alexander, Mary B., Pollard, Carol E. and Bostrom, Robert (1994): Perceptions of
Facilitators of a Keypad-Based Group Support System. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (2)
pp. 103-125
“ Organizations are using Group Support Systems (GSSs) to improve the quality of group meetings.
Keypad-based GSSs are a widely used form of this technology, yet there has been little research on their
use and effects. This paper reports the findings of a survey of facilitators of a particular keypad GSS.
Facilitators indicate that keypad technology improves the quality of meetings for a variety of tasks in a
range of group settings and cultures. The findings are in general agreement with field studies of
workstation-based systems. ”
© All rights reserved Watson et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 1
Moffett, Jonathan D. and Sloman, Morris S. (1994): Policy Conflict Analysis in Distributed System
Management. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (1) pp. 1-22
“ Distributed system management is concerned with the tasks needed to ensure that large distributed
systems can function in accordance with the objectives of their users. These objectives are typically set out
in the form of policies that are interpreted by the system managers. There are benefits to be gained by
providing automated support for human managers, or actually automating routine management tasks. To
do this, it is desirable to have a model of policies as objects that can be interpreted by the system itself.
The model is summarized. It is clear that there is the potential for conflicts between policies. These
conflicts may be resolved informally by human managers, but if an automated system is to recognize them
and resolve them appropriately, first it is necessary to analyze the types of conflict that may occur. We
analyze the types of overlap that may occur between policies, and show that this analysis corresponds to
several familiar types of policy conflict. Some possible approaches to the prevention and resolution of
conflicts are suggested, and this work is put into the context of other work on policies and related areas,
including deontic logic. ”

© All rights reserved Moffett and Sloman and/or Ablex Publishing
Jones, Matthew R. (1994): Information Technology for Group Decision Support: Beyond GDSS. In Journal of
“ Traditional definitions of group decision support systems provide a narrow perspective on the way in
which information technology (IT) can support group decision making. An alternative perspective that
includes a broader view of groups, a more descriptive and behavioral view of decisions, a wider view of
support, and a more complex, social view of systems is possible. In this article the implications of such a
perspective on the role of IT in support of group decision making are explored through a case study of the
use of a simple multiattribute value model in role-reversal exercises. The experience of using this model in
a social policy area in which there was substantial conflict between different interest groups illustrated a
number of important issues. In particular, the way in which the model was used as a framework for
communication between the conflicting groups and the inherent equivocality of this communication was
highlighted. The contribution of IT-based support to the effectiveness of this communication, in the
context of the role-reversal workshops, is discussed, and a new topology of IT support for group decision
making is suggested. Finally, some conclusions are drawn on the implications for group decision support
practice. ”
© All rights reserved Jones and/or Ablex Publishing
Prietula, Michael J. and Carley, Kathleen M. (1994): Computational Organization Theory: Autonomous
Agents and Emergent Behavior. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (1) pp. 41-83
“ A computational organization theory is the articulation of an organization theory in the form of a

computer program. We describe an example of this approach to studying organizational phenomena
through the use of simulated autonomous intelligent agents, present a detailed description of such a
model, and demonstrate the application through a series of experiments conducted with the model. The
model, called Plural-Soar, represents a partial instantiation of a cognitively motivated theory that views
organizational behavior as emergent behavior from the collective interaction of intelligent agents over
time, and that causal interpretations of certain organizational phenomena must be based on theoretically
sufficient models of individual deliberation. We examine the individual and collective behavior of the
agents under varying conditions of agent capabilities defined by their communication and memory
properties. Thirty separate simulations with homogeneous agent groups were run varying agent type,
group size, and number of items in the order list an agent acquires. The goal of the simulation experiment
was to examine how fundamental properties of individual coordination (communication and memory)
affected individual and group productivity and coordination efforts under different task properties (group
size and order size). The specific results indicate that the length of the item list enhances performance for
one to three agent groups, but with larger groups memory effects dominate. Communication capabilities
led to an increase in idle time and undesirable collective behavior. The general conclusion is that there are
subtle and complex interactions between agent capabilities and task properties that can restrict the
generality of the results, and that computational modeling can provide insight into those interactions. ”
© All rights reserved Prietula and Carley and/or Ablex Publishing
Kachelmeier, Steven J. and Shehata, Mohamed (1994): Perspectives on the Cross-Cultural Experimental
Examination of Economic Models. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 4 (1) pp. 85-99
“ This article summarizes recent efforts in applying experimental methodologies to organizational

issues in an international context. Such efforts can be roughly classified as adopting the experimental
traditions of either psychology or economics. Distinctions between these two traditions are discussed,
along with their implications for cross-cultural research. The use of laboratory methods in an
international domain can address cultural themes as well as issues involving incentive structures, as
illustrated by a synthesis of the authors' program of study conducted in the People's Republic of
China. ”
© All rights reserved Kachelmeier and Shehata and/or Ablex Publishing
-- Volume 5 --
Issue 4
Walther, Joseph B. and Tidwell, Lisa C. (1995): Nonverbal Cues in Computer-Mediated Communication, and
the Effect of Chronemics on Relational Communication. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (4)
pp. 355-378
“ Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been described as lacking nonverbal cues, which
affects the nature of interpersonal interaction via the medium. Yet much CMC conveys nonverbal cues in
terms of chronemics, or time-related messages. Different uses of time signals in electronic mail were
hypothesized to affect interpersonal perceptions of CMC senders and respondents. An experiment altered
the time stamps in replicated e-mail messages in order to assess two time variations: (a) the time of day a
message was sent and (b) the time lag until a reply was received. Results revealed significant interactions
among these variables, and the task-orientation or socioemotional orientation of the verbal messages,
which affected perceptions of communicators' intimacy/liking or dominance/submissiveness. Findings
extend recent theories regarding social attributions and the adaptation of social cues in CMC
behavior. ”
© All rights reserved Walther and Tidwell and/or Ablex Publishing
Bhargava, Hemant K. (1995): Using Quiddities for Detecting Semantic Conflicts in Information Systems. In
“ When multiple people are involved in designing an information systems application, there can be
conflicts in terminologies used by them for various elements represented in the application. These
problems are recognized in database design, federated databases, knowledge-based systems,
mathematical modeling systems, and cooperative work systems. A computer-based method for detecting
such naming conflicts, once the users have declared certain additional information for all of the
represented elements, is presented. The approach extends earlier work by Bhargava, Kimbrough, and
Krishnan in the context of model integration. There is a description of how this additional information
(called quiddity) is to be formulated and represented, and several automated procedures are presented
that detect naming conflicts on the basis of this information. The practical utility of this approach is also
discussed. ”
© All rights reserved Bhargava and/or Ablex Publishing
Bordetsky, Alexander B. and Levy, Pavel J. (1995): Collaborative Computing for Decision Support in
Cardiovascular Consulting. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (4) pp. 401-416
“ Vascular medicine is a newly developing discipline heavily based on geographically distributed

consulting, and there is thus a strong need for computerized decision support in doctor-to-doctor
collaboration for the management of vascular patients. The latest achievements in collaborative and
multimedia computing for group decision support are incorporated into cardiovascular consulting.
Feasibility analysis of the two basic components is addressed: (a) the communication system of
collaborative computing as identified subject to the specifics of data flow and networking in
geographically distributed cardiovascular consulting; and (b) the structure and representations for
intelligent software agents that enable transfer of individual expert cardiovascular knowledge, support
group brainstorming, and maintain the ongoing learning of group experience and analysis of patients
cases. ”
© All rights reserved Bordetsky and Levy and/or Ablex Publishing
Barua, Anitesh, Chellappa, Ramnath and Whinston, Andrew B. (1995): Creating a Collaboratory in
Cyberspace: Theoretical Foundation and an Implementation. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5
(4) pp. 417-442
“ Internet applications such as the World Wide Web (WWW) have created the possibility of developing
global collaborative platforms for supporting interactions between professionals and academics in various
disciplines. While Web browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape have revolutionized the way we use the
Internet, we envision the need for a theory-based approach to the development of Collaboratories on the
Internet. Based on complementarity theory, we provide a conceptual foundation for designing
Collaboratories which maximize users' value through the judicious choice of complementary design
factors. We emphasize the need for developments in the area of "open" collaborative systems, and suggest
that analyzing the design problem from a complementarity theory standpoint can lead to useful insights
regarding the value users derive from the system. We also describe the design and an early
implementation of an MIS Collaboratory, which uses this theoretical foundation to organize information
and to provide a forum for document-centric, multimedia interactions between users. While the prototype
focuses on the MIS discipline, we believe that the general principles of our design are applicable to other
areas as well. ”
© All rights reserved Barua et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 3
Weber, Bruce W. (1995): Bypass Trading and Market Quality in Electronic Securities Exchanges. In Journal
of Organizational Computing, 5 (3) pp. 327-353
“ Electronic financial markets use information technology to disseminate prices, quantities, and buyer
and supplier identities. Increased visibility and market transparency have recognized benefits, but may
introduce imperfections, and create profitable opportunities to "bypass" established exchanges. In the
U.S., dissemination of real-time securities market information has equipped several firms to develop
competing, off-exchange trading mechanisms that rely on central market price data, but whose
transactions bypass the established market. Significant trading away from the principal market may
reduce market quality and increase transactions costs. A simulation model of trading in a continuous
auction market (similar to the market structure of the New York Stock Exchange) is used to examine the
effects of increasing levels of trading activity through an off-exchange dealer. The results indicate
competition from an alternative trading venue has mixed effects on the trading costs borne by investors --
raising costs for some and lowering them for others. Contrary to U.S. regulatory goals, off-market trading
expands the role of profit-seeking dealers and lowers the probability that some investors' orders will
execute. ”
© All rights reserved Weber and/or Ablex Publishing
Riggins, Frederick J., Mukhopadhyay, Tridas and Kriebel, Charles H. (1995): Optimal Policies for Subsidizing
Supplier Interorganizational System Adoption. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (3) pp. 295-
325
“ We develop a static two-stage model of network externalities where the buyer has adequate
information about the suppliers' costs to join the network such that it is able to make differential subsidy
payments. If the expected network size is small, suppliers encounter negative externalities as the buyer
rewards the suppliers joining the system, but at a decreasing rate. On the other hand, if the expected
network size is large, the buyer can exert increasing pressure on the few remaining suppliers to join the
network, thus forcing positive externalities on these suppliers. We show that if the buyer can make
differential subsidy payments, it may need to subsidize only a fraction of the nonjoiners up to a
"spontaneous expansion point," after which the positive externalities force the remaining suppliers to join
the network. We also examine a dynamic model where the suppliers' costs to join the network decrease
over time. We show that in this case, the buyer should incorporate a "bang-bang" strategy, such that after
some specified time period the buyer should immediately pay for the costs to join the network of all
suppliers needed to reach the spontaneous expansion point. ”

© All rights reserved Riggins et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Dewan, Rajiv M. and Dewan, Sanjeev (1995): Managerial Incentives and the Value of Information Systems
Timeliness. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (3) pp. 277-294
“ The emergence of "time-based competition" is making timeliness an increasingly important attribute

of information systems in modern business organizations. This article focuses on the decision support role
of information systems and examines the time value of information in delegated decision settings. We
extend the principal-agent model to incorporate the timing of information in the agent's decision-making
process. The analysis demonstrates that while more timely information results in higher value in the
absence of incentive conflicts, more timely information is not necessarily more valuable in settings with
incentive conflict. This potentially adverse impact of managerial incentives on the value of timeliness has
to be considered in designing information systems. Consideration of user incentives may result in
designing information systems that do not completely satisfy individual user "requirements," perhaps
through suitable access restrictions. ”

© All rights reserved Dewan and Dewan and/or Ablex Publishing
Banker, Rajiv D. and Johnston, Holly H. (1995): An Empirical Study of the Business Value of the U.S.
Airlines' Computerized Reservations Systems. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (3) pp. 255-275
“ The U.S. airlines' computerized reservations systems (CRSs) have frequently been cited as examples
of the successful use of information technologies (ITs) for strategic purposes. Recent literature contains
logical arguments and anecdotal evidence which suggest that the carriers that have invested in the
systems have been able to use them, in concert with other operating and marketing strategies, to achieve
competitive advantage. However, very little rigorous, model-based empirical evidence has been brought to
bear on this issue. The purpose of this article is to develop economic models for examining the business
value of the CRSs and to provide empirical evidence regarding that value during the early 1980s. The
modelling builds upon previous research aimed at estimating the business value of ITs and is
generalizable to estimating the value of ITs in other settings. We find that increases in the use of the CRSs
were associated with more highly significant increases in their owners' shares of air passenger traffic than
reductions in the costs of reservations and sales labor and travel agent commissions. Also, the
associations for the two leading CRSs, American's Sabre and United's Apollo, were stronger and more
highly significant than those for Delta's DATASII, Eastern's SODA, and TWA's PARS. ”
© All rights reserved Banker and Johnston and/or Ablex Publishing
Wang, Eric T. G. and Barron, Terry (1995): The Decision to Outsource IS Processing Under Internal
Information Asymmetry and Conflicting Objectives. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (3) pp.
219-253
“ The central management's decision to outsource an organization's information processing to an

external supplier is studied. The internal computing resource is represented by a queuing model; its
manager has private information about the department's cost and has objectives that may differ from
those of the organization. Outsourcing decision rules are derived for both the cost center and profit center
organizational forms for the internal department. With a cost center, the IS manager must report on the
department's cost parameter, which models his or her private information, in order for the central
management to make its decision; a mechanism design approach is used to ensure truthful reporting. The
decision is shown to be quite complex, depending in part on the shape of the long-run marginal cost
function for the internal department, thus requiring considerable knowledge on the part of the central
management. Full and no outsourcing are the most frequent outcomes, but partial outsourcing is optimal
in one case. Various other implications are discussed, including the distortion of the decision caused by
the information asymmetry and the beneficial effects of even the threat of outsourcing on the internal
department's efficiency. In contrast, the decision rule for a profit center is very simple: The internal
department should be retained as long as it can at least break even in the face of the external competition.
Thus, very limited communication between the IS manager and central management suffices in this case.
Again, full, partial, and no outsourcing are all possible as the optimal decision. The efficiency of the profit
center can also be expected to be improved by the presence of the external source as the result of a
reduction in its monopoly power. ”

© All rights reserved Wang and Barron and/or Ablex Publishing
Alpar, Paul and Saharia, Aditya N. (1995): Outsourcing Information System Functions: An Organization
Economics Perspective. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (3) pp. 197-217
“ Outsourcing of information systems functions has become a frequently chosen alternative of

providing information systems services. This is true across many industries and all firm sizes.
Practitioners have developed a number of guidelines relating to outsourcing. While many of these
guidelines seem plausible their underlying economic reasons are often not identified because they are not
based on any theory. We analyze outsourcing of information systems functions using the transaction cost
economics framework. The framework allows us to incorporate production as well as coordination costs in
evaluating the outsourcing option. ”

© All rights reserved Alpar and Saharia and/or Ablex Publishing
Barua, Anitesh and Richmond, William B. (1995): Introduction to the Special Issue on Economics of
Information Systems. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (3) pp. 195-196
Issue 2
Naiman, Channah F. and Ouksel, Aris M. (1995): A Classification of Semantic Conflicts in Heterogeneous
Database Systems. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (2) pp. 167-193
“ Increasingly companies are doing business in an environment replete with heterogeneous

information systems which must cooperate. Cooperation between these systems presupposes the
resolution of the semantic conflicts that are bound to occur. In this article, we propose a classification of
semantic conflicts which can be used as the basis for the incremental discovery and resolution of these
conflicts. We classify conflicts along the two dimensions of naming and abstraction, which, taken
together, capture the semantic mapping of the conflict. We add a third dimension, level of heterogeneity,
to assist in the schematic mapping between two databases. The classification provides a systematic
representation of alternative semantic interpretations of conflicts during the reconciliation process. As a
result, the design of query-directed dynamic reconciliation systems is possible. The classification is shown
to be sound and minimal. Completeness is discussed. ”

© All rights reserved Naiman and Ouksel and/or Ablex Publishing
Duncan, George T., Krishnan, Ramayya and Mukherjee, Sumitra (1995): Inference Channel Detection in
Multilevel Relational Databases: A Graph-Based Approach. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5
(2) pp. 123-138
“ In a multilevel relational (MLR) database, users are not allowed to access data classified at a level
higher than their own security classification. However, it may be possible for a low-level user to infer
high-level data. This article provides methods to detect and eliminate such inference channels. A graph-
based representation of the database schema developed provides a convenient method for inference
channel detection by reducing the problem to one of connectivity in the network. Inference channels are
eliminated while imposing minimum restrictions on legitimate access using an algorithm based on
minimum cut set identification. This approach is then extended to address the problems of abductive and
probabilistic inference channels. An abductive inference channel is said to exist when information
external to the database is used in the inference process. By demonstrating that only arcs between nodes
in different strongly connected components may lead to abductive inference channels, the complexity of
the problem of abductive inference channel detection is reduced. The uncertainty about the nature and
extent of external information used in the inference process is captured by assigning subjective
probabilities. Under the assumption of statistical independence, an algorithm based on identification of
paths bounded in length is developed that is adequate for probabilistic inference channel detection. When
this assumption is relaxed, upper bounds on the probability of the existence of inference channels is
provided. ”
© All rights reserved Duncan et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Chatterjee, Abhirup, Segev, Arie and Chandra, Rakesh (1995): Modeling Time-Performance Trade-Offs in
Federated Databases. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (2) pp. 139-166
“ One of the key roles played by information technology is to increase organizational productivity.
However, an uncontrolled proliferation of heterogeneous DBMSs can affect the user in an adverse way.
Query processing becomes a complicated problem in such an environment, as the same data item can
have conflicting definitions and values in different databases. We introduce the Matching join for the
heterogeneous environment where the tuples are compared of and joined if they match, where matching
can be defined by the user's choice rules and weights. Matching joins are generally processing intensive
and can interfere with the performance of the individual databases. The partitioning strategy introduced
in this article can be used to reduce the query processing cost. This approach can also be applied to the
general types of time-constrained queries. ”

© All rights reserved Chatterjee et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Madnick, Stuart E., Storey, Veda C. and Wang, Richard Y. (1995): Introduction to the Special Issue: WITS'92.
In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (2) pp. iii-iv
Madnick, Stuart E. (1995): Integrating Information from Global Systems: Dealing with the "On- and Off-
Ramps. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (2) pp. 69-82
“ The notion of an "information superhighway" has attracted considerable attention. It offers the
possibility to access information from around the world in support of many important applications in
areas such as finance, manufacturing, and transportation (e.g., global risk management, integrated supply
chain management, and global in-transit visibility). Unfortunately, there are significant challenges to be
overcome. One particular problem is context interchange, which can be thought of as dealing with the
"on- and off-ramps" of the information superhighway. Each source of information and potential receiver
of that information may operate with a different context. A context is the collection of implicit
assumptions about the context definition (i.e., meaning) and context characteristics (i.e., quality) of the
information. When the information moves from one context to another, it may be misinterpreted (e.g.,
sender expressed the price in French francs; receiver assumed that it meant U.S. dollars). This article
describes various forms of context challenges and examples of potential context mediation services, such
as data semantics acquisition, data quality attributes, and evolving semantics and quality, that can
mitigate the problem. ”

© All rights reserved Madnick and/or Ablex Publishing
Moore, Scott A. and Kimbrough, Steven O. (1995): Message Management Systems at Work: Prototypes for
Business Communication. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (2) pp. 83-100
“ In this article, we describe two applications based on a system for office communication that is more
flexible and expressive than other systems. This system allows the computerization of tasks that
previously required manual intervention because of each task's complexity. The applications, one
automating office tasks and the other simulating a bicycle industry, highlight the system's ability to
accommodate changes to the communication language. They also highlight the utility of both the formal
language used by the system and the inferential model of communications used to interpret the
messages. ”
© All rights reserved Moore and Kimbrough and/or Ablex Publishing
Jang, Yeona, Ishii, Alexander T. and Wang, Richard Y. (1995): A Qualitative Approach to Automatic Data
Quality Judgment. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (2) pp. 101-121
“ As the integration of information systems enables greater accessibility to multiple data sources, the
issue of data quality becomes increasingly important. In general, data quality is determined by several
factors, or quality parameters, which are often not independent of each other. As a consequence, it is often
necessary to represent, and reason with, domain-specific knowledge about the relationships among
quality parameters, if insightful judgments about the overall quality of data are to be made. This article
presents a formulation of the data-quality judgment problem that is amenable to a "knowledge-based"
approach, where a data consumer can input such domain-specific knowledge and then rely on an
automated system to deduce information about overall data quality. A primary feature of this work is the
notion of a data quality calculus. The data quality calculus is a data quality judgment framework based on
a "census of needs," and provides a framework for deriving an overall data quality value from a collection
of local relationships among quality parameters. By specifying new, or alternate, local relationships,
individual data consumers can tailor the framework to reflect individual requirements. This
customizability has the potential to be useful when various pieces of data come from different sources,
some of which may be unfamiliar. Based on the calculus, it is possible to implement a data quality
reasoner system that is capable of assisting data consumers in judging data quality. ”
© All rights reserved Jang et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
Issue 1
Holsapple, Clyde W. and Luo, Wenhong (1995): Dependent Variables for Organizational Computing
Research: An Empirical Study. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (1) pp. 31-51
“ An important area of organizational computing (OC) research involves empirical evaluation of OC

systems. However, there has been insufficient work on identifying dependent variables that need to be
measured to assess the impacts of such systems. We have previously suggested a framework from which
various OC research models can be derived, each having five organization infrastructure purposes as
dependent variables. In this article, we report on an empirical study conducted to verify that a) these five
purposes are distinct dimensions of organizational performance and that b) collectively, they characterize
the performance of an organization. The results show that the five purposes are considered to be
important, distinct, and comprehensive factors in measuring organizational performance by management
scholars. ”
© All rights reserved Holsapple and Luo and/or Ablex Publishing
Dustdar, Schahram (1995): Desktop Multimedia Conferencing: IBMs Person to Person in Organizational
Context. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (1) pp. 25-29
“ A trend in cooperative systems is the emergence of multimedia systems that aim to support
synchronous cooperation in a manner which unifies both remote and colocated users. These systems
combine information-sharing facilities provided in real time with video- and audiocommunication
services. This review of IBM's desktop multimedia conferencing system Person to Person (P2P) presents
the characteristics of its utilities. Further, it discusses some organizational impacts and implementation
issues within an organizational context. ”

© All rights reserved Dustdar and/or Ablex Publishing
Clapper, Danial L. (1995): EBT: A Tool for Electronic Brainstorming Researchers. In Journal of
“ EBT is a stand-alone electronic brainstorming tool designed specifically for researchers. It can be
used for face-to-face as well as dispersed groups, and will work in a typical college computer lab LAN
environment. Its features include anonymous and nonanonymous idea-generation modes, the ability to
run multiple simultaneous sessions, and the option of generating a session logfile which indicates the
originator and time of each idea generated during a session. EBT is available to researchers on the
Internet via anonymous ftp. ”

© All rights reserved Clapper and/or Ablex Publishing
Rao, H. Raghav and An, Joon M. (1995): The Effect of Team Composition on Decision Scheme, Information
Search, and Perceived Complexity. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (1) pp. 1-20
“ This study assesses the effect of team composition on decision schemes, perceived complexity, and
external information search conducted during team problem-solving processes. The study draws on a
systematic review of relevant literature in group psychology, organization behavior, and marketing
science, and it is followed by a quasi-experimental study for verification of the propositions. The
independent variable chosen is team composition: teams are classified into "experienced" teams and
"inexperienced" teams. The intervening variables are external information search, decision schemes, and
perceived complexity. The study has implications for team decision support system design. ”
© All rights reserved Rao and An and/or Ablex Publishing
Chen, Su-Shing (1995): The Role of Information Infrastructure and Intelligent Agents in Manufacturing
Enterprises. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 5 (1) pp. 53-67
“ Manufacturing is a complex application domain, traditionally a realm of engineers and factory

workers. As we are in the information age, the manufacturing domain has become more dependent on
information through the use of computers and computer-controlled machines. In the arena of advanced
manufacturing, a number of concepts such as the "virtual corporation" and "virtual factory" have
emerged, requiring that manufacturing be highly information-intensive and knowledge-based. This article
examines the role of the information infrastructure and explores the use of intelligent agents in its
implementation for advanced manufacturing enterprises. The information infrastructure forms a complex
hierarchy of distributed, heterogeneous information systems. Intelligent agents play various roles at
different levels of the hierarchy to provide interoperability, reliability, programmability, and
controllability. ”
© All rights reserved Chen and/or Ablex Publishing
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Journal of Organizational Computing

Example publications from this periodical

enhancement as a result of system use. ”

constructings systems to support collaborative work. ”

us understand the effects of information technology on the processes of biomedical research. ”

organization's external environment. ”

discussions in business schools (Hashim et al., 1991). ”

“ This article presents an overview of the historical evolution of computer-mediated communication

translation of design objectives into specific features and functions. ”

Ledyard, John O. (1991): Coordination in Shared Facilities: A New Methodology. In Journal of

which produced a new computer-assisted institution that outperforms existing institutions. ”

Vamos, T. (1991): Cooperative Communication: Computerware and Humanware. In Journal of

phases and tools to support qualitative-creative tasks. ”

guys finish first. ”

manipulation user interface. ”

“ Organizations interested in intelligent actions in uncertain or equivocal environments must possess

CIS can make to human and organizational effectiveness are discussed. ”

semantic network using a hypertext interface and is programmed in Smalltalk/V286. ”

applications to model and support managerial work. ”

the area, and introduce the articles in this special issue. ”

production tools into the system. ”

implications of CIM systems. ”

negotiation that has other instances occurring in the future. ”

Panko, Raymond (1992): Managerial Communication Patterns. In Journal of Organizational Computing, 2

managers and some other knowledge workers. ”

also providing a new tool for organizational design. ”

manager organization -- the sales force and supermarket buyers. ”

processes in the future. ”

directions of change for different lags. ”

analyzing software contracts are then elaborated. ”

Whang, Seungjin (1993): Analysis of Interorganizational Information Sharing. In Journal of Organizational

voluntarily share its price information. ”

between research in information systems and research in economics. ”

communications and in knowledge representation. ”

of the new medium. ”

general and group decision support system effects in particular. ”

the transparency of personal computing. ”

survive in today's rapidly changing environment. ”

Witte, Duncan M. (1994): Full-Life-Cycle Economics: An Evaluation Methodology for Information

regarding investments in information technology. ”

of the functions offered by it. ”

Navarro, James J. (1994): Computer Supported Self-Managing Teams. In Journal of Organizational

the TIA against those conditions. ”

operation of science instruments. ”

project planning and deliver it for use during project control. ”

reduced media richness. ”

flexibility and suggests strategies for implementing flexible systems. ”

ideas are illustrated with a running example. ”

including deontic logic. ”

“ A computational organization theory is the articulation of an organization theory in the form of a

“ This article summarizes recent efforts in applying experimental methodologies to organizational

“ Vascular medicine is a newly developing discipline heavily based on geographically distributed

suppliers needed to reach the spontaneous expansion point. ”

“ The emergence of "time-based competition" is making timeliness an increasingly important attribute

through suitable access restrictions. ”

“ The central management's decision to outsource an organization's information processing to an

reduction in its monopoly power. ”

“ Outsourcing of information systems functions has become a frequently chosen alternative of

evaluating the outsourcing option. ”