Factors affecting employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour in the virtual organisation from the perspectives of well-being and organisational behaviour

Drawing on the concept of organisational behaviour, this research augments the concepts of social capital theory and organisational culture with one pioneering precursor and mediator, the sense of well-being, to develop an integrative understanding of the factors affecting individuals' knowledge-sharing behaviour within the more complex context of the virtual organisation of Taiwanese Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs). A field survey of 131 employees from the selected virtual organisation was analysed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine the outcomes empirically. Our research offers a persuasive body of evidence supporting the notion that increasing employees' sense of well-being can successfully form a bridge that can connect social capital tendency, organisational culture and employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour. Surprisingly, and contrary to common belief, the integrated model shows that social capital tendency seems to play a more important role than organisational culture in affecting employees' sense of well-being within the virtual organisation in a Chinese cultural context. Consequently, this research reveals the subtle interplay of employees' sense of well-being, social capital tendency, organisational culture and knowledge-sharing behaviour, while the in-depth analysis provides strong support for knowledge management research and practice.     

Identifying healthcare actors involved in the adoption of information systems

The adoption of information systems in healthcare is no less significant than in any other commercial or caring organisation. The literature on IS adoption in healthcare, makes it clear that the actors involved in the adoption process are almost universally seen as crucial, which matches our research results too. However, how such actors should be identified remains a topic for investigatory work since these are early days in achieving this. We derive and propose a structured method to model how actors might be identified: structured because such a rationale is explicable and such a method is more readily usable when transferred to others. Our structured method, named IGOHcaps, uses a static and then a dynamic step to pull out the individual, group, organisational and human determinants of the critical actors. In this process, the individual actors' differing views emerge which could enable decision-making bodies to produce more robust proposals if they incorporated some of the appropriate views. We discuss the application of IGOHcaps through a hospital case study. While a single case study cannot be a proof, the engagement of the actors was encouraging.     

Building the hybrid organisation through ERP and enterprise social software

This research traces the implementation of an information system in the form of ERP modules covering tenant and contract management in a Chinese service company. Misalignments between the ERP system specification and user needs led to the adoption of informal processes within the organisation. These processes are facilitated within an informal organisational structure and are based on human interactions undertaken within the formal organisation. Rather than to attempt to suppress the emergence of the informal organisation the company decided to channel the energies of staff involved in informal processes towards organisational goals. The company achieved this by harnessing the capabilities of what we term a hybrid ERP system, combining the functionality of a traditional (formal) ERP installation with the capabilities of Enterprise Social Software (ESS). However the company recognised that the successful operation of the hybrid ERP system would require a number of changes in organisational design in areas such as reporting structures and communication channels. A narrative provided by interviews with company personnel is thematised around the formal and informal characteristics of the organisation as defined in the literature. This leads to a definition of the characteristics of the hybrid organisation and strategies for enabling a hybrid organisation, facilitated by a hybrid ERP system, which directs formal and informal behaviour towards organisational goals and provides a template for future hybrid implementations.     

An empirical study on the integrative pre-implementation model of technology acceptance in a mandatory environment

Technology acceptance has been studied extensively within the IS discipline. Few, if any, have studied end users’ acceptance of newly implemented technologies within organisational contexts before end users start using the technology. Thus, by integrating variables from multiple relevant literature, this research attempts to answer this research question: will the introduction of a richer model for technology acceptance in a mandatory adoption environment, specifically in the pre-implementation phase, allow us to capture and account for the complexities of organisational technology implementations? The research model was tested in an organisational setting where a new content management system was being implemented. A total of 148 employees participated in this survey and partial least squares method was used to analyse the data to test the model. Implementation climate, valence, attitude, and perceived ease of use positively influence goal commitment to technology acceptance in a mandatory environment, and the model has displayed relatively large explanatory and predictive power. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the paper.     

Adoption of information and communication technologies and dominant management orientation in organisations

The purpose of this research was to contribute to the efforts in the research of organisational factors of information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption. We have studied dominant management orientation, researching whether there is a significant difference in the adoption of ICT between organisations where dominant management orientation is towards results and organisations where dominant management orientation is towards people. Research was conducted using case studies for 71 organisations, which yielded quantitative data used for statistical analysis. Empirical research has shown significant difference between two mentioned groups of organisations, and organisations where dominant management orientation was towards results had much better ICT adoption. Also, composite index of ICT adoption, which we have used in previous research, was checked again as a tool for ICT adoption measurement in a different context. Results can provide guidelines regarding desired changes in dominant management orientation for organisations adopting ICT and contribute to improving theoretical framework of factors in ICT adoption.     

Applying virtual reality for trust-building e-commerce environments

The application of virtual reality in e-commerce has enormous potential for transforming online shopping into a real-world equivalent. However, the growing research interest focuses on virtual reality technology adoption for the development of e-commerce environments without addressing social and behavioral facets of online shopping such as trust. At the same time, trust is a critical success factor for e-commerce and remains an open issue as to how it can be accomplished within an online store. This paper shows that the use of virtual reality for online shopping environments offers an advanced customer experience compared to conventional web stores and enables the formation of customer trust. The paper presents a prototype virtual shopping mall environment, designed on principles derived by an empirically tested model for building trust in e-commerce. The environment is evaluated with an empirical study providing evidence and explaining that a virtual reality shopping environment would be preferred by customers over a conventional web store and would facilitate the assessment of the e-vendor’s trustworthiness.     

“Verba Volant Scripta Manent” a false axiom within virtual environments. A semi-automatic tool for retrieval of semantics understanding for speech-enabled VR applications

Traditional interaction with virtual environments (VE) via widgets or menus forces users to rigidly sequential interactions. Previous research has proved that the adoption of speech recognition (SR) allows more flexible and natural forms of interaction resembling the human-to-human communication pattern. This feature though requires programmers to compile some human supplied knowledge in the form grammars. These are then used at runtime to process spoken utterances into complete commands. Further speech recognition (SR) must be hard-coded into the application.This paper presents a completely automatic process to build a body of knowledge from the information embedded within the application source code. The programmer in fact embeds, throughout the coding process, a vast amount of semantic information. This research work exploits this semantic richness and it provides a self-configurable system, which automatically adapts its understanding of human commands according to the content and to the semantic information defined within the application's source code.     

Organisational learning—a critical systems thinking discipline

This paper deals with the application of critical systems thinking in the domain of organisational learning and knowledge management. Its viewpoint is that deep organisational learning only takes place when the business systems' stakeholders reflect on their actions and thus inquire about their purpose(s) in relation to the business system and the other stakeholders they perceive to exist. This is done by reflecting both on the sources of motivation and/or deception that are contained in their purpose, and also on the sources of collective motivation and/or deception that are contained in the business system's purpose. The development of an organisational information system that captures, manages and institutionalises meaningful information—a knowledge management system—cannot be separated from organisational learning practices, since it should be the result of these very practices. Although Senge's five disciplines provide a useful starting-point in looking at organisational learning, we argue for a critical systems approach, instead of an uncritical Systems Dynamics one that concentrates only on the organisational learning practices.We proceed to outline a methodology called Business Systems Purpose Analysis (BSPA) that offers a participatory structure for team and organisational learning, upon which the stakeholders can take legitimate action that is based on the force of the better argument. In addition, the organisational learning process in BSPA leads to the development of an intrinsically motivated information organisational system that allows for the institutionalisation of the learning process itself in the form of an organisational knowledge management system. This could be a specific application, or something as wide-ranging as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Examples of the use of BSPA in two ERP implementations are presented.     

Examining the intended and unintended consequences of organisational privacy safeguards

Research shows that despite organisational efforts to achieve privacy compliance, privacy breaches continue to rise. The extant studies on organisational privacy compliance concentrate on the extent to which privacy threats can be alleviated through a combination of technical and human controls and the positive (and often intended) influences of these controls. This focus inadvertently neglects unintended consequences such as impeded workflow in medical practices. To address this research conflict, this study uses an interpretive grounded theory research approach to investigate the consequences of privacy safeguard enactment in medical practices, including whether it influences their ability to meet privacy requirements and whether workflows are impeded. Our central contribution is a theoretical framework, the unintended consequences of privacy safeguard enactment (UCPSE) framework, which explicates the process by which privacy safeguards are evaluated and subsequently bypassed and the resulting influence on organisational compliance. The UCPSE highlights the importance of the imbalance challenge, which is the result of unintended consequences outweighing the intended consequences of privacy safeguard enactment. Failure to address the imbalance challenge leads to the adoption of workarounds that may ultimately harm the organisation’s privacy compliance. Despite several research calls, the consequences and effectiveness of organisational privacy efforts are largely missing from both information systems and health informatics research. This study is one of the first attempts to both systematically identify the impacts of privacy safeguard enactment and to examine its implications for privacy compliance in the healthcare domain. The findings also have practical implications for healthcare executives on the UCPSE and how they could alleviate the imbalance challenge to thwart workarounds and the subsequent negative effects on privacy compliance.     

Exploring users’ experiences of using personal cloud storage services: a phenomenological study

Recently, cloud computing has attracted great attention for both personal and organisational usages. Despite a large number of research conducted about cloud adoption, little is known about how users practically experienced the usage and adoption of Personal Could Storage Service (PCSSs) particularly in the context of developing countries. To address this gap, this paper seeks a clear understanding of how participants have profoundly experienced and perceived PCSSs to obtain worthwhile insights towards the essence of PCSSs’ adoption as a multifaceted phenomenon. Applying the interpretive phenomenology as a research method, required data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with 12 experienced participants. The results reveal that users’ intentions to adopt PCSSs are highly influenced by three emerged themes, including demand-side factors, supply-side factors, and institutional factors. Concerning the demand-side factors, the paper demonstrates how user-centric aspects work in favour of PCSSs’ adoption. As to the supply-side factors, this research promotes an understanding of how the participants have perceived tangible and non-tangible features of PCSSs as a determinant of the adoption. Regarding the formal and informal institutions, remarkable roles of regulatory environments and culture are highlighted, respectively. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed for both academia and practitioners.     

The moderating effect of the business strategic orientation on eCommerce adoption: Evidence from UK family run SMEs

This study investigates eCommerce adoption in family run SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises). Specifically, the objectives of the study are twofold: (a) to examine environmental and organisational determinants of eCommerce adoption in the family business context; (b) to explore the moderating effect of business strategic orientation on the relationships between adoption determinants and adoption decision. A quantitative questionnaire survey was executed. The sampling frame was outlined based on the OneSource database and 88 companies were involved. Results of logistic regression analyses proffer support that ‘external pressure’ and ‘perceived benefits’ are predictors of eCommerce adoption. Moreover, the findings indicate that the strategic orientation of family businesses will function as a moderator in the adoption process.     

The challenges of virtual partnerships: Critical success factors in the formation of inter-organisational teams

Virtual teams formed across organisational boundaries and organised around an opportunity are a relatively new area of research. A review of previous research shows that, although virtual teams have been well defined as a concept, only a few studies have contributed to the understanding of the processes of assembling and maintaining effective inter-organisational teams enabled by new modes of communication. By combining cross-disciplinary theoretical approaches, the reported study presents a conceptual overview for collective teaming in virtual settings. The findings of the study confirm that inter-organisational teams follow special development patterns, which can be described as cyclical self-energising processes.     

It's not only what I think but what they think! The moderating effect of social norms

The current research extends our knowledge of the main effects of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived control over the individual's technology adoption. We propose a critical buffering role of social influence on the collectivistic culture in the relationship between attitude, perceived behavioral control, and Information Technology (IT) adoption. Adoption behavior was studied among 132 college students being introduced to a new virtual learning system. While past research mainly treated these three variables as being in parallel relationships, we found a moderating role for subjective norm on technology attitude and perceived control on adoption intent. Implications and limitations for understating the role of social influence in the collectivistic society are discussed.     

Creative Problem Solving in Second Life: An Action Research Study

A digital Creative Problem‐Solving (CPS) process was facilitated in a 3D virtual world in order to assess whether such an environment was conducive to remote synchronous creative collaboration. IBM associates comprised the majority of the group that was involved in the process. Insights regarding the experience working within this virtual environment are discussed at length as seen through the eyes of the authors (CPS facilitators) of this paper and through the eyes of the participants. Data was gathered through a short feedback form administered to all participants, and informal interviews were also held to explore ways to improve the CPS experience. Results were encouraging. In common, participants reported that their experiences were deeply engaging and conducive to creative collaboration. An argument is made for the early adoption and use of this type of virtual worlds for remote‐synchronous creativity interactions. Finally, from a systems view of creativity, the authors identify opportunities for future research studies that examine the efficacy of creative collaboration within virtual worlds.     

Protection motivation and deterrence: a framework for security policy compliance in organisations

Enterprises establish computer security policies to ensure the security of information resources; however, if employees and end-users of organisational information systems (IS) are not keen or are unwilling to follow security policies, then these efforts are in vain. Our study is informed by the literature on IS adoption, protection-motivation theory, deterrence theory, and organisational behaviour, and is motivated by the fundamental premise that the adoption of information security practices and policies is affected by organisational, environmental, and behavioural factors. We develop an Integrated Protection Motivation and Deterrence model of security policy compliance under the umbrella of Taylor-Todd's Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour. Furthermore, we evaluate the effect of organisational commitment on employee security compliance intentions. Finally, we empirically test the theoretical model with a data set representing the survey responses of 312 employees from 78 organisations. Our results suggest that (a) threat perceptions about the severity of breaches and response perceptions of response efficacy, self-efficacy, and response costs are likely to affect policy attitudes; (b) organisational commitment and social influence have a significant impact on compliance intentions; and (c) resource availability is a significant factor in enhancing self-efficacy, which in turn, is a significant predictor of policy compliance intentions. We find that employees in our sample underestimate the probability of security breaches.     

Do organisational and environmental factors moderate the effects of Internet-based interorganisational systems on firm performance?

We developed a model of the relationships among several organisational, interorganisational and technological factors, the adoption of Internet-based interorganisational systems (IBIS) and various measures of firm performance. We used structural equation modelling to empirically test these relationships. The findings showed that adopting IBIS indirectly improves the operational performance of firms through business process performance. The positive effect on financial performance of adopting IBIS is not direct, but through the mediating effects of operational performance and business process performance. We also utilised multiple group analysis to test some of the model relationships across firms using several organisational and environmental factors as moderators. The organisational factors tested are firm type, age and ownership type. The environmental factors consisted of dynamism, complexity and hostility. We found that the organisational factors are significant moderators and that complexity and hostility are not significant moderators. However, the effects of dynamism as a moderator are less clear.     

Knowledge construction and misconstruction: A case study approach in asynchronous discussion using Knowledge Construction – Message Map (KCMM) and Knowledge Construction – Message Graph (KCMG)

This paper introduces a methodology for analyzing the knowledge construction and misconstruction processes occurring in online asynchronous discussion for Secondary 2 (Grade 8) students. The use of purposive sampling targeting specific students in a single course forum could potentially advance understanding of these processes using Knowledge Construction – Message Map (KCMM) and Knowledge Construction – Message Graph (KCMG). This paper traced the communication patterns and knowledge construction as well as misconstruction processes of students working in groups to formulate scientific ideas. This methodology reveals the dynamics of asynchronous discussion through mapping and quantifying the electronic learning process. This will equip educational practitioners and researchers with a useful tool for describing online interaction through adoption of a measurement methodology more systematic and effective than anecdotally. The research findings suggest that self-directed learning through asynchronous discussion has to be monitored by facilitators as learners possessed misconceptions that could potentially mislead other participants.     

Distinguishing the adoption of business intelligence systems from their implementation: the role of managers’ personality profiles

For decades, the marketing guidelines of enterprise software providers have focused on those managers who are likely to be more innovative in adopting new information systems. The current study argues that this approach demands improvements for two reasons: (1) this tactic may be biased, since past studies have only examined the single trait of innovativeness and its impact on an individual adoption intention and (2) the organisational implementation intention might be more important than the individual adoption intention, but the former has been largely ignored in the existing literature. Based on the case of business intelligence (BI) systems and data from 62 senior managers, this study is a pioneer in that it empirically reveals that managers’ individual adoption intention is distinct from their organisational implementation intention. Further, while managers’ innovativeness may be a significant determinant of their individual adoption intention towards BI systems, the issue of whether managers actually implement BI systems in their organisations is dominated by their involvement characteristics. Fruitful suggestions are proposed for practitioners and scholars.     

The repertory grid technique: Its place in empirical software engineering research

Personal construct theory (applied via the repertory grid technique) supports interpretivist research in a structured manner and, as such, has relevance for researchers conducting studies focused on the human and organisational aspects of software engineering. Personal construct theory (which underpins the repertory grid technique) is introduced, and the technique and its administration is discussed. Research studies from the literature are reviewed to provide illustrative examples of its application within a software engineering context. Since any research approach needs to answer questions about its reliability and validity within a particular study, these issues are considered for repertory grid investigations and criteria are offered that can be used to judge these issues within a planned, and/or reported, study.