Managers in modern organizations are confronted with ever-increasing volumes of information that they must evaluate when making a decision. Data warehousing and data mining technologies have given managers a number of valuable tools that can help them store, retrieve, and analyze information contained in large databases; however, maximizing user performance with these tools remains a challenge for information systems professionals. One important and under-explored aspect of the effectiveness of these tools is the design of the query interface. In this study, we compared the use of visual and text-based interfaces on both low and high complexity tasks. Results demonstrated that decision maker performance was more accurate using the text-based interface when task complexity was low; however, decision makers using the visual interface performed better when task complexity was high. In addition, decision makers' subjective mental workload was significantly lower when using the visual interface, regardless of task complexity. In contrast to expectations, less time was needed to make a decision on low complexity tasks when using the visual interface, but those results were reversed under conditions of high task complexity. These results have important implications for the design of managerial decision-making systems, particularly in complex decision-making environments.
Company web sites support a plethora of customer-oriented activities. While web designers should adhere to evolving web design standards, another dimension of effective web design involves better understanding users perceptions and motivation regarding their web site experiences. As such, this research examines differences in user perceptions and motivation across different web-based tasks to better understand what drives a user's intention to revisit a web site. A within-subject experimental design was used to test individual intention to return and reuse a web site. Results demonstrate that the primary driver of intention to return to a web site varies based on the type of task performed.
ABSTRACT Geographic information systems (GIS) have taken on an increasingly important role supporting decision making in many organizations. GIS have been used to support a breadth of tasks including oil and mineral exploration, facility location, logistics support, and facilities management decisions. The effectiveness of GIS as a decision support tool comes primarily from the visual display of data in the form of maps. When presenting information as a geographic map, the level of data aggregation potentially affects aspects of task complexity such as information load and the potential for pattern recognition by the user. Other task attributes expected to be related to data aggregation effects include problem size, the degree of data dispersion, and users' spatial orientation skills. We conducted an experiment to study these effects and their interactions. Subjects used a GIS including map‐based information characterized by different levels of problem size, data dispersion, and data aggregation. Spatial orientation skill was examined as a covariate in the experimental treatments. The results indicate that all of these geographic information characteristics have significant impacts on decision performance. Moreover, many interactions are present among the factors. We evaluate these interactions in order to derive implications for practice and for future research.
Abstract The probability of a global organization developing a competitive advantage will be dramatically diminished without a sufficient supply of qualified managers. The expatriate manager has played a central role in the organizational evolution from an international to multinational perspective. As the era of the global organization evolves, the need for increased diversity and multiculturalism in the global workforce is heightened. This paper explores a complementary model of global staffing based upon inpatriation of host-country and third-country nationals to serve as 'linking pins' between the organization's headquarters and foreign subsidiaries. The ultimate goal and value in inpatriation lies in its ability to facilitate competitive advantage through an increased emphasis on developing multiple strategic perspectives through multiculturalism. Keywords: InpatriationGlobal Human Resource ManagementMulti-culturalism
Technology acceptance model, which is based on theory of planned behavior (TPB) and theory of reasoned action (TRA), posits beliefs as the underlying reason for the individual adoption decisions. While the model has been very successful in explaining the individual adoption of technology, various researchers have called for the need for alternate approaches to explain the adoption phenomenon. To develop the alternate model of individual technology acceptance, this research uses the theories of human motivation, which propose need fulfillment as the basis for human actions. Perceived incremental need gap (PING) is conceptualized as the construct to assess the extent of individual need fulfillment. PING assesses the degree to which an individual perceives that technology will fulfill his needs. This assessment is based on the capabilities of the technology for need fulfillment and forms the core logic of the proposed motivational model of adoption. Further, it is proposed that the ability of individual to assess the impact of technology is limited by the extent of his comprehension of the technology. The individual differences in technology comprehension affect their abilities to assess and use the technology. Model proposes that individuals with greater ability to comprehend technology evaluate the extent to which a technology meets their needs through their own interactions with the technology while those with lesser technology comprehension depend on peers and other significant others to develop their motivations for adoption.
The use of the term (e.g., team, organization) is frequently used in describing existing organizational structures. However, structures appear to be on a continuum of virtualness instead of a binary or not virtual structure. This paper develops a research framework defining “virtualness” based on differences in team member location, the degree of work cycle synchronicity, and differences in team member culture.
Interrupted work environments are commonplace in today’s organizations. In addition, organizational work is increasingly performed using some form of computer support. Consequently, there is a need to examine how the design and delivery of information systems can help to mitigate the potentially deleterious effects of interruptions on decision-maker performance. This paper reports the results of two experiments that investigate the influence of interruptions on different types of tasks and the ability of information presentation formats to alleviate them. Interruptions were found to facilitate performance on simple tasks, while inhibiting performance on more complex tasks. Furthermore, there was some evidence that the frequency of interruptions and similarity of the content of the primary and interruption tasks also negatively influenced performance. Finally, interruptions moderated the relationship between information presentation format and specific types of tasks.
Decision makers have become accustomed to making decisions using summarized or aggregate data through the use of financial and accounting reports. The use of aggregate data minimizes the effects of information overload on a decision maker; however it may not provide a decision maker all the details he or she would like to have. The effects of aggregated versus detailed information presentation on decision making has been previously examined. However, these earlier studies have ignored the impact of limited rime availability on the decision maker. A laboratory experiment using a 2/spl times/2/spl times/2 factorial design was conducted to investigate the factorial of limited time availability, data aggregation, and decision task on decision making. Results from the experiment indicate a main effect for each of the three factors and an interaction effect between the level of data aggregation and time availability.
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