A model for understanding collaborative information behavior in context: A study of two healthcare teams

Collaborative information behavior is an essential aspect of organizational work; however, we have very limited understanding of this behavior. Most models of information behavior focus on the individual seeker of information. In this paper, we report the results from two empirical studies that investigate aspects of collaborative information behavior in organizational settings. From these studies, we found that collaborative information behavior differs from individual information behavior with respect to how individuals interact with each other, the complexity of the information need, and the role of information technology. There are specific triggers for transitioning from individual to collaborative information behavior, including lack of domain expertise. The information retrieval technologies used affect collaborative information behavior by acting as important supporting mechanisms. From these results and prior work, we develop a model of collaborative information behavior along the axes of participant behavior, situational elements, and contextual triggers. We also present characteristics of collaborative information system including search, chat, and sharing. We discuss implications for the design of collaborative information retrieval systems and directions for future work.     

Collaborative Information Retrieval in an information-intensive domain

In this article we investigate the expressions of collaborative activities within information seeking and retrieval processes (IS&R). Generally, information seeking and retrieval is regarded as an individual and isolated process in IR research. We assume that an IS&R situation is not merely an individual effort, but inherently involves various collaborative activities. We present empirical results from a real-life and information-intensive setting within the patent domain, showing that the patent task performance process involves highly collaborative aspects throughout the stages of the information seeking and retrieval process. Furthermore, we show that these activities may be categorised and related to different stages in an information seeking and retrieval process. Therefore, the assumption that information retrieval performance is purely individual needs to be reconsidered. Finally, we also propose a refined IR framework involving collaborative aspects.     

Temporal modeling of group information foraging: An application to emergency response

This work seeks to uncover and explain the dynamics of information foraging within small groups. The focus of this work is collaborative information foraging within multidisciplinary emergency response teams during the response to a simulated emergency. The study investigates how such groups distribute their effort between the activities of information seeking and handling (i.e., processing) for information that is unique (i.e., initially held by one member) versus common (i.e., initially held by multiple members). Temporal analysis is applied to the data from a laboratory study of three such groups. The results suggest that temporal analysis may be used to model distribution of effort between seeking and handling, but not how this effort is divided between common versus unique information sources. Opportunities for future research along these lines are identified and briefly discussed.     

Breakdowns in collaborative information seeking: A study of the medication process

Collaborative information seeking is integral to many professional activities. In hospital work, the medication process encompasses continual seeking for information and collaborative grounding of information. This study investigates breakdowns in collaborative information seeking through analyses of the use of the electronic medication record adopted in a Danish healthcare region and of the reports of 5 years of medication incidents at Danish hospitals. The results show that breakdowns in collaborative information seeking is a major source of medication incidents, that most of these breakdowns are breakdowns in collaborative grounding rather than information seeking, that the medication incidents mainly concern breakdowns in the use of records as opposed to oral communication, that the breakdowns span multiple degrees of separation between clinicians, and that the electronic medication record has introduced risks of new kinds of breakdown in collaborative information seeking. In working to prevent and recover from breakdowns in the seeking and sharing of information a focus on collaborative information seeking will point toward collaborative, organizational, and systemic reasons for breakdown and areas for improvement, rather than toward individual error.     

Leader information seeking,team performance and team innovation: Examining the roles of team reflexivity and cooperative outcome interdependence

This study tested how and when leaders’ information seeking from team members influenced team performance and innovation. We developed and examined a model by considering team reflexivity as a mediator and cooperative outcome interdependence as a moderator. The sample comprised 83 work teams and 253 team members from a pharmaceutical firm in China. Multiple-source, time-lagged data were used to test our hypotheses. Based on the social information processing theory, the current study demonstrated that leader information seeking is positively linked to team performance and team innovation. These relationships were mediated by team reflexivity. Further, the positive relationship between leader information seeking and team reflexivity was enhanced when team cooperative outcome interdependence was higher. The indirect effect of leader information seeking on team performance and innovation via team reflexivity was stronger when team cooperative outcome interdependence was higher. We provide empirical and practical implications for information seeking in the workplace.     

Together they shall not fade away: Opportunities and challenges of self-tracking for dementia care

Dementia is a major public health concern, and mobile technologies have been identified as having the potential to improve the quality of life for individuals with dementia and their caregivers. Recent research, however, suggests that technology-based solutions are frequently driven by and beneficial to caregivers, not both. Emerging personal technologies that are equipped with self-tracking are an ideal option for accommodating person-centered care in light of the collaborative nature of dementia care. However, there is a lack of investigation on how tracking occurs in the context of dementia care. This article presents a thematic analysis of the types of tracking-related information desired in dementia care online communities, as well as how and by whom they are desired through adapting the Conceptual Model of Shared Health Informatics (CoMSHI) for tracking in chronic illness management. Our findings show that four types of tracking metrics are desired for nine types of information: safety alert for wandering, falls, and strangers, reminders of daily life activities and medical and health related activities, monitoring data related to daily life activities and data related to health status, and remote control for patients' daily life activities and financial safety. Family members, caregivers, community members, and persons with dementia involved in work with tracked data face specific challenges. We recommend that self-tracking technologies be implemented in dementia care through collaboration, with the recognition of different types of information as well as different roles involved and with particular attention paid to different types of data work and related roles in data work.     

基于共享心智模型的在线旅游信息协作搜索团队认知研究

[目的/意义] 深化对在线旅游信息协作搜索的整体认识,为专业化旅游信息协作搜索服务平台建设优化等提供启发和借鉴。[方法/过程] 聚焦于在线旅游信息协作搜索情境下的团队认知,以共享心智模型表征团队认知,以高校学生为研究样本,应用扎根理论方法,探讨在线旅游信息协作搜索团队共享心智模型建构过程。[结果/结论] 识别出四大核心环节——个体感知与探索、团队任务解析、团队信息收集和团队信息决策,并理清了各个环节的认知活动与共享心智模型内容。     

Evaluating collaborative information-seeking interfaces with a search-oriented inspection method and re-framed information seeking theory

Despite the many implicit references to the social contexts of search within information seeking and retrieval research, there has been relatively little work that has specifically investigated the additional requirements for collaborative information-seeking interfaces. Here, we re-assess an existing analytical inspection framework, designed for individual information seeking, and then apply it to evaluate a recent collaborative information-seeking interface: SearchTogether. The framework was built upon two models of solitary information seeking, and so as part of the re-assessment we first re-frame the models for collaborative contexts. We re-frame a model of search tactics, providing revised definitions that consider known collaborators. We then re-frame a model of searcher profiles to analyse support for different group dynamics. After presenting an analysis of SearchTogether, we reflect on its accuracy, showing that the framework identified eight known truths, eight new insights, and no known-to-be-untrue insights into the design. We conclude that the framework: (a) can still be applied to collaborative information-seeking interfaces; (b) can successfully produce additional requirements for collaborative information-seeking interfaces; and (c) can successfully model different dynamics of collaborating searchers.     

Collaborative information seeking: The combined activity of information seeking and collaborative grounding

Since common ground is pivotal to collaboration, this paper proposes to define collaborative information seeking as the combined activity of information seeking and collaborative grounding. While information-seeking activities are necessary for collaborating actors to acquire new information, the activities involved in information seeking are often performed by varying subgroups of actors. Consequently, collaborative grounding is necessary to share information among collaborating actors and, thereby, establish and maintain the common ground necessary for their collaborative work. By focusing on the collaborative level, collaborative information seeking aims to avoid both individual reductionism and group reductionism, while at the same time recognizing that only some information and understanding need be shared.     

知识团队中变革型领导对组织公民行为的影响

本文用实证研究的方法探讨了我国高科技组织的知识工作团队中团队领导者的变革型领导行为对团队成员组织公民行为的影响作用及影响机制。通过对来自四个城市的12家高科技组织的52个知识工作团队的领导者和294名团队成员的调查,研究结果发现:变革型领导行为对团队成员的组织公民行为具有显著的影响作用;关系导向的变革型领导行为对成员的组织公民行为影响作用更为强烈;领导-成员交换在变革型领导和团队成员组织公民行为之间起到部分中介作用。     

Consumer health information needs: A systematic review of measures

Information needs motivate human information behavior. Knowledge of information needs is critical for user-centered information behavior research and system design. In consumer health information behavior research, there is a lack of understanding of how consumer health information needs (CHIN) is measured in empirical studies. This study is a systematic review of empirical quantitative studies on CHIN, with a focus on how CHIN is defined and operationalized. A search of six academic databases and citation-track of relevant articles identified a total of 216 relevant articles. These articles were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. We found that few included articles explicitly defined either CHIN or information needs in general. When definitions were given, they were from a cognitive perspective and largely ignored the multidimensionality of the concept. Consistent with this cognitive-centered conceptualization, CHIN was operationalized primarily as information topics, with some articles also measuring several additional attributes, including level of importance, fulfilment, amount of information needed, and frequency of needs. These findings suggest that CHIN is undertheorized. To address this gap, future studies should attend to social and emotional dimensions of CHIN, such as motivations, goals, activities, and emotions. Further, more research is needed to understand how CHIN is related to consumer health information seeking behavior and to the social and environmental context in which the needs arise.     

Let’s search together,but not too close! An analysis of communication and performance in collaborative information seeking

Communication is considered to be one of the most essential components of collaboration, but our understanding as to which form of communication provides the most optimal cost-benefit balance lacks severely. To help investigate effects of various communication channels on a collaborative project, we conducted a user study with 30 pairs (60 participants) in three different conditions – co-located, remotely located with text chat, and remotely located with text as well as audio chat, in an exploratory search task. Using both quantitative and qualitative data analysis, we found that teams with remotely located participants were more effective in terms of being able to explore more diverse information. Adding audio support for remote collaboration helped participants to lower their cognitive load as well as negative emotions compared to those working in the same space. We also show how these findings could help design more effective systems for collaborative information seeking tasks using adequate and appropriate communication. We argue that collaboration is an important aspect of human-centered IR, and that our work provides interesting insights into people doing information seeking/retrieval in collaboration.     

研发团队激励机制设计的情景分析

面对工作任务的相互依赖性和技术复杂性的不断提高,越来越多的企业采用团队作为其研发活动的基本工作单元。本文从权变理论的角度分析组织、团队和个体三个层面的情景因素对设计研发团队激励机制的影响。     

Do teams need both hands? An analysis of team process ambidexterity and the enabling role of information technology

As a core organizational resource, business processes are vital for organizational teams. To deal with today’s volatile business environment, organizations need to be ambidextrous in terms of process capabilities. However, little is known about how process ambidexterity, process standardization, and process agility, are enabled by information technology (IT) and related to team-level activities. To fill this gap in the literature, we conducted a field study based on 160 teams of 1081 individuals from seven companies in South Korea. Our results show that IT enables both process standardization and agility, and that a team’s process ambidexterity has a positive effect on inter-team coordination and team innovation, which in turn have a direct impact on team performance. Our findings highlight the importance of process ambidexterity by investigating the enabling role of IT and its outcomes in a team. Our results offer theoretical and practical implications from the perspective of team process ambidexterity.     

知识惯性与知识创造行为:组织记忆与创新氛围的作用

本文对知识惯性与研发团队知识创造行为的关系,以及组织记忆与团队创新氛围在以上关系所起的前置、调节与中介作用进行了实证研究。研究以我国深圳地区67家高新技术企业的135个研发团队为实证研究对象,通过对问卷调查数据进行层级回归分析发现：（1）知识惯性会显著地破坏团队创新氛围,进而负向影响团队知识创造行为,团队创新氛围在知识惯性与团队知识创造行为关系中起完全的中介作用;（2）团队组织记忆对团队知识惯性并无直接作用关系,但会显著地调节知识惯性与团队创新氛围之间的负向关系,即团队组织记忆不会直接促进团队知识惯性的产生,但会强化知识惯性对团队创新氛围所造成的负向影响。     

知识工作团队中组织公民行为对团队有效性的影响作用研究

以42个高科技企业和科研组织的知识工作团队为研究对象,探讨团队成员整体上表现出的组织公民行为对团队有效性的影响作用。团队有效性包括团队绩效以及团队成员的满意度。研究结果表明,助人行为、维护人际和谐、信息分享这些人际层面的组织公民行为对团队绩效和团队成员的满意度具有积极的影响作用。     

Search on surfaces: Exploring the potential of interactive tabletops for collaborative search tasks

Collaborative information seeking often takes place in co-located settings; such opportunities may be planned (business colleagues meeting in a conference room or students working together in a library) or spontaneous (family members gathered in their living room or friends meeting at a café). Surface computing technologies (i.e., interactive tabletops) hold great potential for enhancing collaborative information seeking activities. Such devices provide engaging direct manipulation interactions, facilitate awareness of collaborators’ activities, and afford spatial organization of content. However, current tabletop technologies also present several challenges that creators of collaborative information seeking system must account for in their designs. In this article, we explore the design space for collaborative search systems on interactive tabletops, discussing the benefits and challenges of creating search applications for these devices. We discuss how features of our tabletop search prototypes TeamSearch, FourBySix Search, Cambiera, and WeSearch, illustrate different aspects of this design space.     

IT knowledge integration capability and team performance: The role of team climate

Previous research considering a normative perspective for fostering knowledge integration at the team level of analysis underscores that teams are often reluctant to share important knowledge among their members. In the attempt to provide a wider perspective on team knowledge integration, we take a different perspective, basing our arguments on team climate theoretical framework. Specifically, we argue that an autonomy and experimental climate (i.e. shared perception that the team supports autonomous action and experimentation and risk taking) can favor the team's ability to integrate members’ knowledge. Indeed, focusing on members’ willingness to contribute to team well-being, team autonomy and experimental climate may enhance the team's capability to integrate knowledge enabled by the IT infrastructure (IT knowledge integration capability). We tested our research model on a sample of 410 members and leaders of 69 organizational work teams. Results show the critical role played by team climate in favoring IT knowledge integration capability, which in turn affects team outcomes.     

Team intuition as a continuum construct and new product creativity: The role of environmental turbulence, team experience, and stress

Although past research has reported the benefits of intuition in new product decision-making (i.e., higher quality product; enhanced customer satisfaction), intuition has largely been studied as an individual phenomenon and little work has examined the role of intuition on new product development (NPD) project teams. Furthermore, in a turbulent environment, NPD project teams may rely more on intuitive judgments, and other factors such as experience and stress may also influence the relationship between team intuition and team decision making. Drawing from the organizational design literature on creativity in decision making, this study builds a conceptual model of NPD team intuition and its effect on the team's ability to generate creative new products. We then derive hypotheses regarding team intuition, stress, environmental turbulence, and new product creativity, and test the hypotheses using data from a sample of 155 firms operating in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey. We specifically test whether an inverted-U relationship exists between team intuition and new product creativity (that is, a balance of both intuitive and rational judgments is preferred), and whether this relationship is moderated by team experience and stress. Moreover, direct impact of turbulent conditions (i.e. market and technical turbulence) on intuition was also examined. The results of our empirical study with a sample of 310 new product/project developers and 155 project managers showed a positive and linear relation between turbulent conditions (both market and technical) and team intuition and an inverted U-shaped team intuition-new product creativity relation for teams with high experience and low stress. Finally, theoretical implications for future research and managerial implications for practitioners are discussed in the conclusion section.