An experimental investigation of the impact of NSS and proximity on negotiation outcomes

Negotiations are often not as rational as desired due to the cognitive difficulty of finding optimal agreements. With higher information-processing capacity and capability, negotiation support systems (NSS) are viewed as a viable solution to overcome this difficulty and help negotiators achieve integrative agreements. In addition, advances in network communication technology have enabled distributed meetings to be carried out easily. This in turn leads to the notion of conducting distributed negotiations by combining NSS and distributed communication technology. This study examined the impact of NSS in face-to-face and distributed settings. The results suggested that NSS led to higher and fairer outcomes for both face-to-face and distributed dyads. Another interesting finding from this study is that there were gains with respect to initial expectations of outcomes when NSS support was provided. As corporations expand globally, NSS will play a significant role in coordinating distributed negotiations, saving time and cost.     

Computer-mediated communication to support distributed requirements elicitations and negotiations tasks

Requirements engineering is one of the most communication-intensive activities in software development, greatly affected by project stakeholder geographical distribution. Despite advances in collaboration technologies, global software teams continue to experience significant challenges in the elicitation and negotiation of requirements. Deciding which communication technologies to deploy to achieve effective communication in distributed requirements engineering activities is not a trivial task. Is face-to-face or text-based communication more appropriate for requirements elicitations and negotiations? In teams that do not have access to face-to-face communication, is text-based communication more useful in requirements elicitations than in requirements negotiations? Here, we report an empirical study that analyzes the effectiveness of synchronous computer-mediated communication in requirements elicitations and negotiations. Our investigation is guided by a theoretical framework that we developed from theories of computer-mediated communication, common ground, and media selection for group tasks; a framework that considers the effectiveness of a communication medium in relation to the information richness needs of requirements elicitation and negotiation tasks. Our findings bring forward empirical evidence about the perceived as well as objective fit between synchronous communication technology and requirements tasks. First, face-to-face is not always the most preferred medium for requirements tasks, and we reveal a number of conditions in which, in contrast to common belief, text-based communication is preferred for requirements communication. Second, we find that in evaluating outcomes of requirements elicitations and negotiations objectively, group performance is not affected by the communication medium. Third, when groups interact only via text-based communication, common ground in requirements negotiations takes longer to achieve than in requirements elicitations, indicating that distributed requirements elicitation is the task where computer-mediated communication tools have most opportunity for successful application.     

Exploring computer-based multilingual negotiation support for English-Chinese dyads: can we negotiate in our native languages?

The increasing number of international negotiations involving multiple languages has triggered a growing reliance on computer-based multilingual support. Whereas empirical studies on negotiation support systems (NSS) have shown that NSS generally improve negotiation performance, very few NSS exist that cater for multilingual negotiations. With multilingual support, international negotiators of different language backgrounds are expected to address communication barriers and problems. This study involves the development of an NSS prototype with multilingual support as well as a laboratory experiment to examine the efficacy of such support on six important negotiation outcome variables (individual outcome, joint outcome, equality of outcome, time to settlement, satisfaction with process and satisfaction with outcome). Findings suggested significant effects of NSS support on individual outcome and joint outcome. Multilingual support helped to improve equality of outcome (under qualified conditions), but the time taken was significantly longer. The paper underlines the possibility and significance of computer-based multilingual support to address diverse linguistic groups in global negotiation context.     

Meetings in a distributed group of experts: Comparing face-to-face,chat and collaborative virtual environments

This paper focuses on Collaborative Virtual Environments, and their potential to support work meetings for geographically distributed experts. The research question concerns the difference between face-to-face-, chat-, and CVE- meetings with regard to efficiency, communication process, problems with the technology, enjoyment and competence development. A small group of experts were observed during their natural work meetings. Six of the groups scheduled meetings were held three times in a chat environment and three times in a CVE. Results suggests that chat and CVE meetings are experienced as more task oriented than face-to-face meetings, and that avatars support turn taking and are enjoyable.     

Negotiation support systems and team negotiations: The coalition formation perspective

The use of software to support negotiations has captured the attention of academics and practitioners for some three decades and the research stream of negotiation support systems (NSS) has emerged. Over the years, many NSS have been developed and used in training and research but they have been rarely deployed in organizations. Our speculation is that much existing research is confined to dyadic (i.e., one-to-one) settings which may not adequately reflect the real-world situations in which teams, rather than individuals, often engage in negotiations. To address the gap, our current research aspires to conceptualize the NSS in supporting team negotiations and to theoretically examine their impact. Coalition formation has been a prevalent organizational phenomenon that constitutes important dynamics in any negotiating team; it will be conceptualized as the mechanism through which NSS impacts upon team negotiation outcomes in our paper. Globalization has rendered cross-cultural negotiations a commonplace; at the same time, culture serves as a most salient attribute in activating coalitions. In light of the above, cultural diversity is studied as the antecedent to coalition formation and moderates the influence of NSS on the extent of coalition formation. A set of research propositions, derived from a theoretical framework, are raised and their implications discussed.     

Using different communication media in requirements negotiation

Contrary to traditional wisdom, the authors found that, when it comes to requirements negotiations, groups meeting face-to-face perform no better than those using video conferencing and computer support. Furthermore, their study identified a particular distributed group configuration that significantly improved performance and was more conducive to negotiations than face-to-face meetings     

Collaborative Virtual Environment to Facilitate Game Design Evaluation with Children with ASC

ABSTRACT

Involvement of children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) in the design of new educational technology is becoming more prevalent. Despite potential barriers due to communication and ideation difficulties for children with ASC, adapted participatory design methods can successfully facilitate their direct involvement. Nonetheless, methods requiring face-to-face communication can still be difficult for children with ASC and research suggests that technology mediation could facilitate their contribution. This study explores the use of collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) as a medium through which students evaluated existing computer games and offered suggestions for game development. CVEs in which the users were represented by (a) avatars and (b) video-pods were compared to a face-to-face condition. Twelve typically developing (aged 8–9 years), 12 higher ability ASC (12–14) and 4 lower ability ASC children (12–14) participated. All student groups preferred the video-pod CVE and students with ASC were generally better able to contribute effectively through this medium than face-to-face.     

Collaboration Support in Co-located Collaborative Systems for Users with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Literature Review

ABSTRACT

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often display difficulty in social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication skills. They often have problems with recognizing and interpreting gestures and mental states of others, which restricts their capacity to understand implicit information essential to the social awareness and, consequently, the performance of collaborative activities in face-to-face situations (co-located collaboration). This study aims to identify, using a systematic literature review, how co-located collaborative systems designed for individuals with ASD provide the users with collaboration support mechanisms to encourage the performance of collaborative activities and interaction with their partners. Twenty-six studies from six electronic databases between the years 2006 and 2018 were selected and analyzed. Results evidenced the inclusion of different strategies to enforce or stimulate the collaboration among users, although there is a lack of resources for collaboration support as well as of studies designed specifically for individuals with severe ASD.     

A tool supporting root cause analysis for synchronous retrospectives in distributed software teams

ContextRoot cause analysis (RCA) is a useful practice for software project retrospectives, and is typically carried out in synchronous collocated face-to-face meetings. Conducting RCA with distributed teams is challenging, as face-to-face meetings are infeasible. Lack of adequate real-time tool support exacerbates this problem. Furthermore, there are no empirical studies on using RCA in synchronous retrospectives of geographically distributed teams.ObjectiveThis paper presents a real-time cloud-based software tool (ARCA-tool) we developed to support RCA in distributed teams and its initial empirical evaluation. The feasibility of using RCA with distributed teams is also evaluated.MethodWe compared our tool with 35 existing RCA software tools. We conducted field studies of four distributed agile software teams at two international software product companies. The teams conducted RCA collaboratively in synchronous retrospective meetings by using the tool we developed. We collected the data using observations, interviews and questionnaires.ResultsComparison revealed that none of the existing 35 tools matched all the features of our ARCA-tool. The team members found ARCA-tool to be an essential part of their distributed retrospectives. They considered the software as efficient and very easy to learn and use. Additionally, the team members perceived RCA to be a vital part of the retrospectives. In contrast to the prior retrospective practices of the teams, the introduced RCA method was evaluated as efficient and easy to use.ConclusionRCA is a useful practice in synchronous distributed retrospectives. However, it requires software tool support for enabling real-time view and co-creation of a cause-effect diagram. ARCA-tool supports synchronous RCA, and includes support for logging problems and causes, problem prioritization, cause-effect diagramming, and logging of process improvement proposals. It enables conducting RCA in distributed retrospectives.     

A conceptual framework to study the role of communication through social software for coordination in globally-distributed software teams

BackgroundIn Global Software Development (GSD) the lack of face-to-face communication is a major challenge and effective computer-mediated practices are necessary to mitigate the effect of physical distance. Communication through Social Software (SoSo) supports team coordination, helping to deal with geographical distance; however, in Software Engineering literature, there is a lack of suitable theoretical concepts to analyze and describe everyday practices of globally-distributed software development teams and to study the role of communication through SoSo.ObjectiveThe paper proposes a theoretical framework for analyzing how communicative and coordinative practices are constituted and maintained in globally-distributed teams.MethodThe framework is based on the concepts of communicative genres and coordination mechanisms; it is motivated and explicated through examples from two qualitative empirical cases.ResultsCoordination mechanisms and communicative genres mutually support each other. In particular, communication through SoSo supports team members in establishing, developing and maintaining social protocols within the distributed team. Software Engineering tools and methods provide templates for coordination mechanism that need to be adapted and adopted in order to support the project at hand. SoSo serves as a medium for the necessary metawork. The theoretical framework proposed is used to describe both the practices in an established industrial project and the establishing of practices in three student teams. The framework allows explaining the heterogeneity of practices observed.ConclusionsThis paper presents a conceptual framework to study the role of communication through SoSo for coordination in GSD. The usefulness of the framework is supported by empirical findings on the role of SoSo. The theoretical framework can be beneficial for future research that aims to analyze and describe not only the role of SoSo, but also how communicative and coordinative practices can be established and maintained in GSD teams.     

Prototype Platforms for Distributed Agreements

We present a prototype application for coordinating distributed agreements in multi-parties negotiations, where participants can dynamically join ongoing negotiations and where participants know only those parties they have interacted with. Our prototype is tailored to Ad-Hoc network scenarios involving the assignment of tasks for a rescue team operating over disaster areas. Our application is based on asynchronous communication and it exploits the d2pc protocol for committing or aborting a negotiation. Parties have been developed both in Jocaml+Perl and Polyphonic C. The implementation of the commit protocol allows components of both types to participate within the same negotiation.     

A long-term evaluation of the stage of change approach and compensable injury outcomes – a cluster-randomised trial

Abstract

This study investigated the long-term injury outcomes for workers in companies from a range of industries which had been randomly allocated to receive ergonomics interventions tailored according to the stage of change (SOC) approach or standard ergonomics advice. Differences in compensable injury outcomes between the groups were analysed using logistic regression models. Questionnaire results from face-to-face interviews to assess musculoskeletal pain and discomfort (MSPD), job satisfaction and other factors were also analysed. Although not significant at the 0.05 level, after adjusting for workgroup clustering, workers in receipt of tailored advice were 55% (OR = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.19–1.08) less likely to report a compensable injury than those in receipt of standard ergonomics advice. Workload, job satisfaction and MSPD were significantly correlated with injury outcomes. The observed outcomes support the potential value of the SOC approach, as well as highlighting the need to consider workload, job satisfaction and MSPD when planning injury prevention programmes.

Practitioner Summary: This study investigated compensable injury outcomes for workers who had received ergonomics advice tailored according to the stage of change (SOC) approach compared with standard ergonomics advice. The results support the potential value of the SOC approach and highlight the need to consider workload, job satisfaction and musculoskeletal pain and discomfort when planning injury prevention interventions.     

Carpeno: interfacing remote collaborative virtual environments with table-top interaction

Creativity is enhanced by communication and collaboration. Thus, the increasing number of distributed creative tasks requires better support from computer-mediated communication and collaborative tools. In this paper we introduce “Carpeno”, a new system for facilitating intuitive face-to-face and remote collaboration on creative tasks. Normally the most popular and efficient way for people to collaborate is face-to-face, sitting around a table. Computer augmented surface environments, in particular interactive table-top environments, are increasingly used to support face-to-face meetings. They help co-located teams to develop new ideas by facilitating the presentation, manipulation, and exchange of shared digital documents displayed on the table-top surface. Users can see each other at the same time as the information they are talking about. In this way the task space and communication space can be brought together in a more natural and intuitive way. The discussion of digital content is redirected from a computer screen, back to a table where people can gather around. In contrast, collaborative virtual environments (CVE) are used to support remote collaboration. They frequently create familiar discussion scenarios for remote interlocutors by utilizing room metaphors. Here, virtual avatars and table metaphors are used, where the participants can get together and communicate with each other in a way that allows behaviour that is as close to face-to-face collaboration as possible. The Carpeno system described here combines table-top interaction with a CVE to support intuitive face-to-face and remote collaboration. This allows for simultaneous co-located and remote collaboration around a common, interactive table.

Perceived enablers of 3D virtual environments for virtual team learning and innovation

Virtual teams consist of geographically distributed employees working with a common goal using mostly technology for communication and collaboration. Virtual teams face a number of challenges, discussed in the literature in terms of communication through technology, difficulty in building trust, conveying social cues, and creating awareness, as well as cultural differences. These challenges impact collaboration, but also learning and innovation. This research focuses on how a social medium, the 3D virtual environment, is perceived to enable learning and innovation in virtual teams. We study this through a qualitative study based on interviews of distributed work managers’ perception of VEs. The major findings are that VEs are perceived to create collaborative learning atmospheres for virtual teams in terms of enabling engagement, a shared context awareness, and support in social network building. Another finding is that VEs are perceived to enable team learning, knowledge development, and collaboration through persistence of content, information sharing, learning through role-plays and simulations, and visualization. Furthermore, VEs enable the development of co-created content as well as new ways of working in virtual teams.     

Group processes in solving two problems: Face-to-face and computer-mediated communication

In this study, an experiment on communication and problem solving in face-to-face communication and computermediated communication was conducted. The latter was performed in two variants; subjects writing under their own name or subjects writing anonymously. The problems were a Social Dilemma problem and a Criminal Puzzle problem. The theoretical starting point was if, and how, the communication form influences social relations, communication equality and communication processes. A qualitative analysis showed that different problems were related to different patterns of the variables studied. The computer-mediated communication solving the Criminal Puzzle problem induced relatively greater idea generation that was not responded to, while the face-toface communication was associated with relatively more answers. In the Social Dilemma, feedback was relatively more common in face-to-face communication than in computermediated communication. To 'give information about the game' was relatively more common in the anonymous computer-mediated communication than face-to-face situation, indicating that computer-mediated communication is associated with speaker generation of information, but less with responses to the interlocutor. There were no outcome differences or communication equality effects related to communication condition. These results point to the importance of the task related activities in the discussions rather than the importance of medium.     

Rhythmic synchrony and mediated interaction: towards a framework of rhythm in embodied interaction

Our everyday interactions increasingly involve both embodied face-to-face communication and various forms of mediated and distributed communication such as email, skype, and facebook. In daily face-to-face communications, we are connected in rhythm and synchrony at multiple levels ranging from the moment-by-moment continuity of timed syllables to emergent body and vocal rhythms of pragmatic sense-making. Our human capacity to synchronize with each other may be essential for our survival as social beings. Moving our bodies and voices together in time embodies a potent pragmatic purpose that of being together. In this synchrony of self with other, witnessing and being present become part of each other. There is growing research into how rhythm and synchrony operate in embodied face-to-face interaction and this provides parameters for investigating the relations and differences in how we connect and are socially present in the embodied and distributed settings, and understanding the effect of one setting upon the other. This paper explores the arena of research into rhythm in human interaction, musical and linguistic, with a focus on the movements of body and voice. It draws together salient issues and ideas that would form the basis for a framework of rhythm in embodied interaction.     

The impact of computer-mediated communication on the processes and outcomes of negotiated transfer pricing

New communication technologies are offering organizations options that were not previously available. These new opportunities have the potential to impact many aspects of the organization, including coordination and control efforts. Despite a growing literature concerning computer-mediated communication, the basic question of whether the simple switch from written to computer-mediated communication changes behavior still remains unanswered. We argue that advanced information technology has created a frame with enabling and limiting impacts that exists even when the major characteristics are not present.This paper reports the results of a laboratory experiment concerning the effects of communication medium on the process and outcomes of negotiations in a transfer pricing situation. An organizational coordination mechanism and its interactions with communication medium were also examined. Structured negotiations were communicated through written exchanges and through computerized networks where the media richness and technical system capabilities were the same in both media. The negotiation process and outcomes were both measured. The results show that communication medium does effect both the process and outcomes of negotiations, even when media richness and system capabilities are the same in both media. Computer-mediated communication took fewer rounds of negotiation to reach an agreement, leading to an improved process, but had lower outcomes with lower firm profit and lower perceived autonomy. Thus, these results support our argument that medium provides a frame that affects behavior even when the major characteristics of the medium are absent. Further, medium interacts with arbitration, demonstrating the importance of considering other coordination and control mechanisms when examining the impact of medium.     

Location choices of face-to-face interactions in academic buildings: an experience sampling approach

Abstract

Although it is recognised that face-to-face interactions are important for sharing interests and (new) knowledge, it remains unknown how and where students and university employees interact in academic buildings. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse the location choice for face-to-face interactions in an academic building, including several personal- and interaction characteristics. An Experience Sampling Method (ESM) was used to collect data on 643 face-to-face interactions during two weeks in the Flux building at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. In general, students more often interacted in meeting rooms than teaching staff, and support staff interacted less in eat/drink areas and the hallways than other users. Unexpectedly, some of the lectures took place outside of traditional project-/lecture space. Real estate managers of university campuses could use these results to create better interactive work environments that stimulate face-to-face interactions among employees and students of different departments.

Practitioner Summary: Based on longitudinal data of ftf interactions among students and employees in an academic building, results showed that ftf interaction characteristics, compared to personal characteristics, are most important for explaining the location choice of interactions. These insights could help to design academic work environments that optimise the support of interactions.

Abbreviation: ABO: activity-based office; ANOVA: analyses of variance; ESM: experience sampling method; FTF: face-to-face; HR: human resources; MMNL: mixed multinomial logit model; NewWoW: new ways of working     

The Effects of Communication Modality on Outcomes of Collaborative Tasks

Collaborative learning involves students working in small groups to complete tasks related to class instruction. Collaborative learning techniques are widely used in business schools. There is research evidence to suggest that collaborative learning leads to positive outcomes. Specifically, the interaction that occurs among students in completing the group task provides both educational and social benefits. The easy availability of communication technology has changed the modality of interaction among students. This change has been furthered by an increase in the number of students who work full-time and also enroll in business schools. Such students tend to interact more using communication technologies, such as electronic mail and not necessarily face-to-face. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of these changes in communication modalities on the outcomes of group work. The results indicate that while students have a preference for using traditional face-to-face interaction, there seems to be no significant correlation between communication modality and measures of group outcomes.     

Strategic agents for multi-resource negotiation

In electronic commerce markets where selfish agents behave individually, agents often have to acquire multiple resources in order to accomplish a high level task with each resource acquisition requiring negotiations with multiple resource providers. Thus, it is crucial to efficiently coordinate these interrelated negotiations. This paper presents the design and implementation of agents that concurrently negotiate with other entities for acquiring multiple resources. Negotiation agents in this paper are designed to adjust (1) the number of tentative agreements for each resource and (2) the amount of concession they are willing to make in response to changing market conditions and negotiation situations. In our approach, agents utilize a time-dependent negotiation strategy in which the reserve price of each resource is dynamically determined by (1) the likelihood that negotiation will not be successfully completed (conflict probability), (2) the expected agreement price of the resource, and (3) the expected number of final agreements. The negotiation deadline of each resource is determined by its relative scarcity. Agents are permitted to decommit from agreements by paying a time-dependent penalty, and a buyer can make more than one tentative agreement for each resource. The maximum number of tentative agreements for each resource made by an agent is constrained by the market situation. Experimental results show that our negotiation strategy achieved significantly more utilities than simpler strategies.