Asper School
Asper of
School
Business
of Business
- MBA Program
9.614 Information
6150 Management
Age Organizations
of
Information
Part-Time
Systems
MBA, April
& Technology
2002
Instructor:
April-June
Bob2009
Travica
Instructor: Bob Travica
Class 3
Systems Support to
Work Groups
Updated April 2009
6150 Management of Information Systems and Technology
Outline
• Workgroup Concepts
• Group Support Systems (Types, examples)
• Team-Based Organization, Virtual Team
• Evidence in cases
• Messages for change leadership
6150 Management of Information Systems and Technology
2 of 10
Workgroup Concepts
• Key aspects:
• Workgroup:
- Collection of people working together on a
specific task. An organization in small with shorter life.
- task, goals, division of labor (roles)
- interdependence (sequential, parallel, reciprocal)
- composition, communication, leadership
- synergy vs. losses (free ride, groupthink, extremeness)
- cohesion (rational, emotional factors)
- place (collocated vs. distributed teams)
6150 Management of Information Systems and Technology
3 of 10
Workgroups Types (Some)
• Project Teams (R+D, marketing, civil construction,
public accounting industry, software developers;
disband when project ends; Boeing-Rocketdyne)
• Groups embedded in organizational structure
(managers at CFFI, cases in slides 6 & 7)
• Communities of practice/learning (informal, peers,
knowledge creation/sharing driver; Daimler-Chrysler)
• Network-like gatherings (Open Source movement)
6150 Management of Information Systems and Technology
4 of 10
Types of Group Support Systems
• Time & Space-based typology of GSS (Fig. 13-1, p. 475)
• Functionality/Purpose based typology of GSS:
1. Communication for collaboration and knowledge sharing
(e.g., private email, el. bulletin boards; slides 6 & 7)
2. File Sharing, Application Sharing
3. Workflow Support
4. Decision Making
(Boeing-Rocketdyne, Open Source)
(e.g., procurement process; slide 6, Boeing-Rocketdyne)
(group brainstorming and selection via GDSS;
CFFI case, Burr-Brown)
5. Project support (most of the above; Boeing-Rocketdyne)
6150 Management of Information Systems and Technology
5 of 10
GSS for Workflow Support
• Organization: Help Desk in a U.S. software firm
• GSS: Incident Tracking Support System using Lotus Notes software
(a database of problem solving procedures + communication support).
• Effects:
 Opportunistic changes in distribution of work (division of work:
front-line, back-line, and intermediary staff)
 Unexpected reluctance of front-end workers to involve back-end
 Self-motivated learning in free time
W. Orlikowski, “Evolving from Notes: Organizational change around groupware
technology”, 1996.
6150 Management of Information Systems and Technology
6 of 10
GSS for Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
• Organization: Hoffman-La Roche, pharmaceuticals, Switzerland
• GSS: Cosis – proprietary, a laptop & Lotus Notes-based database and
communication system for maintenance of medical instruments
• Users: Maintenance workers (300, globally) enter daily the content
of their visits to a full text database. All can read the database.
• Effects:
 Cosis improved practices of sharing experience, war stories…
 Keys to success: Compact user group, evolutionary system.
C. Ciborra, “Mission critical: Challenges for groupware in a pharmaceutical company”, 1996.
6150 Management of Information Systems and Technology
7 of 10
Team-Based Organization
• Basis in project-driven organizations
• Emphasizing teamwork in functional organization
(education, cultural change)
• Virtual Team (kind of virtual organization;
different or same organization - Boeing-Rocketdyne;
learning to work together and to use technology;
selective use of functionality, intellectual property)
•
Using technology for team support (management
challenge: aligning social & technical)
6150 Management of Information Systems and Technology
8 of 10
Mini-cases
• Boeing-Rocketdyne
• Daimler-Chrysler
• Burr-Brown
• Open Source Movement
(programming code is open to any developer complying with
ground rules – not proprietary )
6150 Management of Information Systems and Technology
9 of 10
Messages for Change Leadership
• Challenge of predicting outcomes from implementing GSS; groups dynamics
hard to predict/control
• Train/cultivate people for teamwork and GSS (facilitate “buy-in”=adoption)
• Be vigilant about outcomes of using GSS, continuous management care needed
• GSS is an enabler to group work not a total solution to an organizational problem
• Define problem clearly and match it with appropriate GSS (if any)
• Eliminate alternative technologies to ensure adoption of the target GSS
• Have complete strategy of implementing GSS, don’t stop at first obstacles (CFFI)