Motivating creativity through a computer-mediated employee suggestion management system

This paper describes the requirements for an automated employee suggestion management system (ESMS) based on expectancy theory and computer-mediated communications. Although research has found that suggestion systems can be a useful way to obtain and utilize employees' creative ideas, effective suggestion management systems must also motivate employees to think creatively and to participate in the suggestion process. According to expectancy theory, employees are most strongly motivated to participate when they believe that they can do so successfully and when they know that their participation will result in an outcome that they value. The system proposed here addresses the requirements of expectancy theory, and the weaknesses of existing suggestion systems, by establishing a communications infrastructure and protocol similar to those used in group decision support systems. The system motivates employees to submit suggestions by providing an interactive networked forum within which employees and interested stakeholders can openly debate their merits.     

Work environments for employee creativity

Innovative organisations need creative employees who generate new ideas for product or process innovation. This paper presents a conceptual framework for the effect of personal, social-organisational and physical factors on employee creativity. Based on this framework, an instrument to analyse the extent to which the work environment enhances creativity is developed. This instrument was applied to a sample of 409 employees and support was found for the hypothesis that a creative work environment enhances creative performance. This paper illustrates how the instrument can be used in companies to select and implement improvements. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: The ergonomics discipline addresses the work environment mainly for improving health and safety and sometimes productivity and quality. This paper opens a new area for ergonomics: designing work environments for enhancing employee creativity in order to strengthen an organisation's capability for product and process innovation and, consequently, its competitiveness.     

Constructing social systems through computer-mediated communication

The question of whether computer-mediated communication can support the formation of genuine social systems is addressed in this paper. Our hypothesis, that technology creates new forms of social systems beyond real-life milieus, includes the idea that the technology itself may influence how social binding emerges within online environments. In real-life communities, a precondition for social coherence is the existence of social conventions. By observing interaction in virtual environments, we found the use of a range of social conventions. These results were analysed to determine how the use and emergence of conventions might be influenced by the technology. One factor contributing to the coherence of online social systems, but not the only one, appears to be the degree of social presence mediated by the technology. We suggest that social systems can emerge by computer-mediated communication and are shaped by the media of the specific environment.     

Constructing a decision support system for management of employee turnover risk

In the time of knowledge economy, competency among enterprises is focused on the competency of human resources. Employee turnover risk is becoming an important facet influencing the stability and development of enterprises. After analyzing employee turnover risk factors that could threaten enterprise production and operations, we proposed a multi-level model of the evaluation system for employee turnover risk based on the analysis of factors influencing employee turnover risk. A decision support system is proposed for employee turnover risk management using message processing mechanisms and software combination technology and system integration. Data, information and knowledge needed in the system come from enterprises?? internal application systems and external systems. The structure and components of the system which is based on Web Services are presented. We also proposed an analytic system based on knowledge management. At last, strategies to effectively manage employee turnover risk are proposed.     

供暖收费及员工激励管理系统的设计与实现

基于目前北方的供暖企业正逐步实现分户供暖的现状和需求,文章设计并实现了可以进行灵活收费并根据收费情况对收费员按月计提奖金的管理信息系统。该系统采用C／S的体系结构,通过虚拟专用网络(Virtual Private Network,VPN)技术实现了总部与分支部门之间的数据传送,以及供暖企业业务收费与员工激励的集成管理。     

Productivity through computer management of a fully automated transportation system

The Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit System is a fully automated, collection and distribution, origin to destination, non-stop transportation system. The system consists of a feet of 73 electrically powered, rubber tired, passenger carrying vehicles, operating on a dedicated guideway network at 15 second headways. The system provides a safe, comfortable non-polluting, reliable means of public transportation between the Central Business District of Morgantown, West Virginia, and the three separated campuses of West Virginia University.

This paper will address the unique application of computers in operating a public transit system which is considered the first of its kind anywhere in the world.     

在PKI体系下进行电子政务信息的安全管理

首先介绍了电子政务网络的结构,其次分析了PKI体系,最后提出了利用PKI技术,在电子政务网中的内网、外网、以及通过internet访问内网时如何实现信息的安全管理。     

Enhancing creativity through reorganising mental space concealed in a research notes stack

In this article, we propose a method and its implementation to aid the process of creative thinking. The objective of this research is to enhance human scientific creativity with computers. In order to aid the process of creative thinking, we have implemented a system named En Passant 2, which stores the user’s research notes and gives the triggers to recall his/her memories in current context. En Passant 2 has a function to deal with indices and a time attribute of the user’s thought explicitly, and shows the user’s notepads related to his/her awareness of the issues.     

Motivating Creativity and Enhancing Innovation through Employee Suggestion System Technology

Research has found that employee suggestion systems are a useful way to obtain and utilize employees’ creative ideas. To be effective, employees must be motivated to think creatively and to participate in the suggestion system. Unfortunately, motivating employees to participate is a common weakness of suggestion systems. Motivating employees involves more than simply offering rewards to submitters if their suggestions are put to use. According to expectancy theory, rewards will only motivate behaviour if the rewards are valued, if they are closely linked to successful performance, and if employees believe that they can perform successfully. This paper applies expectancy theory to the problem of motivating employees to participate in a suggestion system. We describe suggestion system technology that will increase employees’ motivation to think creatively and participate in the system.     

Computer-assisted creativity: Emulation of cognitive processes on a multi-agent system

For creativity to be computed, it is paramount to understand the cognitive processes involved, which have been elucidated by either surveying creative people or discovering regions of the human brain that activate during creative endeavors. From this scattering, the author proposes a holistic framework to describe them and their interaction. Hence, creativity can be regarded as a meta process which coordinates autonomous cognitive processes such as planning or divergent thinking. To represent the interplay of cognitive processes around creativity, models are developed in the Agent Unified Modeling Language (AUML). Then, the execution of each process is delegated to autonomous agents and a global coordination protocol is devised. The implementation of the MAS is done on the JADE platform. Two modules of the resultant system are exemplified: opus planning and divergent exploration. The coordination protocol is also presented. The domain in which the software system is tested is the creation of musical pieces.     

Appropriate computer-mediated communication: An Australian indigenous information system case study

This article discusses ways to operationalise the concept of culturally appropriate computer-mediated communication, utilising information systems (IS) development methodologies and adopting a postmodern and postcolonial perspective. By way of illustration, it describes progress on the participative development of the Ieramugadu Cultural Information System. This project is designed to develop and evaluate innovative procedures for elicitation, analysis, storage and communication of indigenous cultural heritage information. It is investigating culturally appropriate IS design techniques, multimedia approaches and ways to ensure protection of secret/sacred information. Ethical issues are foregrounded.     

Improving problem solving and creativity through use of complex-dynamic simulations

This article presents an instructional method to improve problem solving and creativity by employing computer-based simulations. The instructional method described is based upon empirical research conducted by the authors. The simulation presents contextually meaningful problem situations that require learners to analyze and prepare solution proposal(s). Following the learner input, the simulation assesses the proposal and offers back to the learners the consequences of their decisions while also iteratively updating the situational conditions. This type of simulation, unlike conventional simulations that are used for acquisition of knowledge, is complex-dynamic, requiring the learner to fully employ their knowledge base by constructing solutions to domain-specific problems. The focus of complex-dynamic simulations is to improve and elaborate learner cognitive abilities employed in the service of problem solving and creativity.     

Contextuality and computer-mediated communication: a cross cultural comparison

The purpose of this study is to assess the applicability of Hall’s cultural dimension of contextuality to computer-mediated communication (CMC) in internet forums. A content analysis of 376 postings from German (a low-context culture) and Indian (a high-context culture) internet forums was conducted. The results partially validate the explanatory power of contextuality. Congruent with Hall’s cultural perspective, it was found that Indians disclose less private information in online discussions than Germans. Furthermore, Indians used more emoticons than their German counterparts, reflecting the higher importance of nonverbal communication in high-context cultures.     

Towards deeper learning through creativity within online communities in primary education

Despite recent British government moves to equip all Primary Schools with fast broadband connections to the Internet, it would seem that many schools as yet make little use of the increased capacity this affords other than to incorporate more and more rich multimedia in the form of interactive games or animated presentations to illustrate particular concepts or practise specific skills. Whilst not wanting to deny the potential and value of such activities, this paper will focus on the potential use of online communities to reverse this rather unidirectional relationship children often experience with the Internet. That is, the potential within online communities to facilitate a more reciprocal relationship as children become benefactors as well as recipients of the wealth of web-based information, and the quality of learning that may ensue.     

Using a game controller for relaying deictic gestures in computer-mediated communication

In computer-mediated communication, participants often experience a loss of information that would have been conveyed by non-verbal means in a face-to-face communication. They need to compensate for this loss by being more verbose which may have a negative impact on the efficiency of communication or give rise to misunderstandings. In this paper, we present a computer system that augments the imagery perceived from the remote site with additional visual information and that can be controlled by using a Nintendo Wiimote game controller. Our prototype illustrates our approach how a system might be able to partially compensate for the information typically lost in conventional video conferencing where deictic gestures cannot be relayed properly to the remote site. Concerning user acceptance, our user tests also show that the visualization technique is crucial which is used for highlighting the objects or persons that are being pointed at. Adequate visualization techniques based on non-photorealistic rendering are proposed.     

员工健康智能分析和评估系统

提出人工神经网络（Artificial Neural Network,ANN）和专家系统（Expert System,ES）相结合的系统方案,设计智能决策支持系统（Intelligent Decision Support System,IDSS）以便对员工健康状况和健康隐患进行综合分析和评估．该系统能为员工给出保持健康的建议,同时给出BP网络技术用于员工身体整体状况评价的实例．实践表明人工神经网络和专家系统的整合可较好地分析与评估员工的健康情况．     

A trust-based service suggestion system using human plausible reasoning

Nowadays, there is a growing need to manage trust in open systems as they may contain untrustworthy service providers. Agent Trust Management (ATM) tries to address the problem of finding a set of the most trusted agents in multi agent systems. This paper presents ScubAA, a novel generic ATM framework based on the theory of Human Plausible Reasoning (HPR). For each user’s request, ScubAA determines a ranked list of the most trusted service agents, within the context of the request, and forwards the request to those trusted services only. ScubAA determines an agent’s degree of trust in terms of a single personalized value derived from several types of evidences such as user’s feedback, history of user’s interactions, context of the submitted request, references from third party users as well as from third party service agents, and structure of the society of agents. ScubAA is able to utilize more trust evidences towards a more accurate value of trust. We also propose a function to figure out how similar two users are in a given context. We apply the proposed HPR-based ATM framework to the domain of Web search. The resulting ATM system recommends to the user a list of the most trusted search engines ranked according to the retrieval precision of documents returned in response to the user’s query as well as the degree of trust of the search engines have gained by interacting with other related users within the context of the query. In addition, we conduct a statistical analysis of ScubAA based on ANOVA and by using a data set of forty queries in different domains. This analysis clearly reveals that ScubAA is able to successfully assess the trustworthiness of service agents.