Organizational affordances: A structuration theory approach to affordances

Affordance is an important concept in the field of human–computer interaction. There are various interpretations of affordances, often extending the original notion of James J. Gibson. Often the treatment of affordances in the current human–computer interaction literature has been a one-to-one relationship between a user and an artefact. We believe that the social and cultural contexts within which an artefact is situated affect the way in which the artefact is used and the notion of affordance needs to be seen as a dynamic, always emerging relationship between people and their environment. Using a Structuration Theory approach, we conceptualize the notion of affordance at a much broader level, encompassing social and cultural aspects. We suggest that affordances should be seen at three levels: single user, organizational (or work group) and societal. Focusing on the organizational level affordances, we provide details of several important factors that affect the emergence of affordances. - This article provides a new perspective on the discourse of affordance with the use of Structuration Theory. - It shows how affordance can be understood as ‘use’ in situated practices (i.e. ‘technology-in-practice’) - The Structuration Theory approach to affordances is showcased using two case studies.

A collaborative multi-agent based conference planner application using web and grid services

Distributed Collaborative Computing services have taken over centralized computing platforms allowing the development of distributed collaborative user applications. These applications enable people and computers to work together more productively. Multi-Agent System (MAS) has emerged as a distributed collaborative environment which allows a number of agents to cooperate and interact with each other in a complex environment. We want to place our agents in problems whose solutions require the collation and fusion of information, knowledge or data from distributed and autonomous information sources. In this paper we present the design and implementation of an agent based conference planner application that uses collaborative effort of agents which function continuously and autonomously in a particular environment. The application also enables the collaborative use of services deployed geographically wide in different technologies i.e. Software Agents, Grid computing and Web service. The premise of the application is that it allows autonomous agents interacting with web and grid services to plan a conference as a proxy to their owners (humans). © 2005 IEEE.

Complexity of collaborative work in residential aged care facilities: An analysis of information exchange for medication management

Information exchange (IE) is a critical component of the complex collaborative medication process in residential aged care facilities (RACFs). Designing information and communication technology (ICT) to support complex processes requires a profound understanding of the IE that underpins their execution. There is little existing research that investigates the complexity of IE in RACFs and its impact on ICT design. The aim of this study was thus to undertake an in-depth exploration of the IE process involved in medication management to identify its implications for the design of ICT. The study was undertaken at a large metropolitan facility in NSW, Australia. A total of three focus groups, eleven interviews and two observation sessions were conducted between July to August 2010. Process modelling was undertaken by translating the qualitative data via in-depth iterative inductive analysis. The findings highlight the complexity and collaborative nature of IE in RACF medication management. These models emphasize the need to: a) deal with temporal complexity; b) rely on an interdependent set of coordinative artefacts; and c) use synchronous communication channels for coordination. Taken together these are crucial aspects of the IE process in RACF medication management that need to be catered for when designing ICT in this critical area. This study provides important new evidence of the advantages of viewing process as a part of a system rather than as segregated tasks as a means of identifying the latent requirements for ICT design and that is able to support complex collaborative processes like medication management in RACFs. © 2012 IEEE.

Managing teams: Comparing organizational and sport psychological approaches to teamwork

This paper examines how teams and teamwork research have been conceptualised in the fields of sport psychology and organizational psychology. Specifically, it provides a close inspection of the general theoretical assumptions that inhere in the two disciplines. The results of a discursive analysis of research literature suggest that the fields have significantly different ways of conceptualising teams and teamwork and that conceptual borrowing may prove fruitful. A key argument is however, that in order for meaningful cross-fertilisation to take place a sound understanding of these differences is necessary. Working from this premise, the essential differences between sport and organizational approaches to teams are outlined. The paper is concluded with a discussion of contributions that organizational psychology can make to understandings of sport-oriented teams.

Evaluation of collaborative assessment of work integrated learning

The international trend towards an increasingly standards-based approach to higher education and the resultant focus on the assurance of learning in tertiary programs have generated a strong emphasis on the assessment of outcomes across the higher education sector. In legal education, curriculum reform is highly prevalent internationally as a result of various reviews of legal education. As legal education focuses more on the attainment of a broader set of outcomes encompassing soft skills, capabilities and attributes, more authentic assessment will need to be developed appropriate to this new environment, meaning that modes of assessment with strong application in real-life settings should be preferred.

Student facilitated PBL - A capstone collaborative learning experience in the Griffith University MBBS program

We report on an innovation in teaching and learning designed to extend the collaborative learning of PBL, that occurs during the first two years of a four year graduate entry medical program, to a capstone learning experience to assist the transition to a hospital based year 3. During the last five weeks of Year 2 the PBL sessions consist of an initial student facilitated session early in the week followed by a large format session for the entire class convened by two clinicians. The new format PBL was perceived positively by the students and staff involved and may have advantages over traditional formats in developing students' clinical reasoning and differential diagnosis skills.

How do construction firms learn on collaborative infrastructure projects?

Construction firms that employ collaborative procurement approaches develop operating routines through joint learning so as to improve infrastructure project performance. This paper reports a study based on a survey sample of 320 construction practitioners which were involved in collaborative infrastructure delivery in Australia. The study developed valid and reliable scales for measuring collaborative learning capability (CLC), and used the scales to evaluate the CLC of contractor and consultant firms within the sample. The evaluation suggests that whilst these firms explore knowledge from both internal and external sources, transform both explicit and tacit knowledge, and apply and internalise new knowledge, they can improve the extent to which these routines are applied to optimise project performance.

Nickel(II) meso-hydroxyporphyrin complexes revisited: Palladium-catalysed synthesis, electronic structures of derived oxy radicals, and oxidative coupling to a dioxoporphodimethene dyad

We report the synthesis and characterisation of new examples of meso-hydroxynickel(II) porphyrins with 5,15-diphenyl and 10-phenyl-5,15-diphenyl/diaryl substitu- tion. The OH group was introduced by using carbonate or hydroxide as nucleophile by using palladium/phosphine cat- alysis. The NiPor OHs exist in solution in equilibrium with the corresponding oxy radicals NiPor OC. The 15-phenyl group stabilises the radicals, so that the 1H NMR spectra of {NiPor OH} are extremely broad due to chemical exchange with the paramagnetic species. The radical concentration for the diphenylporphyrin analogue is only 1%, and its NMR line-broadening was able to be studied by variable-tempera- ture NMR spectroscopy. The EPR signals of NiPor OC are con- sistent with somewhat delocalised porphyrinyloxy radicals, and the spin distributions calculated by using density func- tional theory match the EPR and NMR spectroscopic obser- vations. Nickel(II) meso-hydroxy-10,20-diphenylporphyrin was oxidatively coupled to a dioxo-terminated porphodimethene dyad, the strongly red-shifted electronic spectrum of which was successfully modelled by using time-dependent DFT calculations.