Do instant messaging interruptions help or hinder knowledge workers’ task performance?

The modern workplace environment is filled with interruptions due to the necessity of coworkers to communicate with each other. Studies have revealed that interruptions can impact task performance (TP). Communication interruptions are due, in part, to the unavoidable side-effect of using technology to facilitate these interactions. This experimental case study reports about an investigation we conducted on the role of instant messaging interruptions (IMI) and its implications on knowledge workers’ TP in a workplace environment. We have gathered data from knowledge workers engaged in an e-learning activity. The case study included a total of 60 experimental observations and analysis of the 120 records revealed that the time to complete a task (TPtct) for certain types of tasks, was significantly affected by IMI. This case study addressed gaps in IM interruption research and practical knowledge about the role of instant messages in the organization. Previous research has been conducted in a laboratory environment with interruptions generated by means other than actual IM. This case study used IMI with participants working in their normal workplace. Findings were used to provide a set of lessons learned recommendations for managers when it comes to the use of IM in the workplace.     

Interruption management and office norms: Technology adoption lessons from a product commercialization study

This paper explores factors that influence technology adoption in an office environment, with an emphasis on technology aimed at managing focused and collaborative work by reducing unwelcome interruptions for its users. Based on surveys, focus groups, and usability studies, our findings suggest that workplace social norms play a pivotal role in the adoption and use of interruption management technologies. Our findings display a marked lag of social norms behind the importance placed on uninterrupted time by individuals; even when individuals see the efficacy of the technology, they often misjudge their peers’ attitudes, underestimating their colleagues’ similar needs. In spite of high levels of perceived usefulness reported by our participants, need and ease of use alone were insufficient to predict uptake; when technology has implications for the office behavioral environment, it must be supported by social norms encouraging adoption. Our results further suggest that feedback, which actively engages a product's user, could be crucial to encouraging prolonged use and enhancing the user experience. Although the findings are drawn from a pre-commercialization study of an interruption management technology, they are broadly relevant to technology adoption cases, with special salience for those within the office context.     

Interruptions in the workplace: A case study to reduce their effects

Collaboration is an important aspect for virtually all workplace environments. Workplaces often encourage and foster collaboration in a variety of ways with the purpose to collectively focus the group's attention on a specific problem and solve it as quickly and as efficiently as possible. While collaboration is generally viewed as a positive aspect of the workplace, the negative aspect—interruption—cannot be ignored. Interruptions are an important research area of human-computer interaction and with the growth of pervasive or ubiquitous computing on the rise, the number of interruptions we experience on a daily basis is also growing. It is for these reasons that interruption is and will continue to be a key issue in workplaces.This report presents the findings of a qualitative research project which explored interruptions in a mid-size software development company based in Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this research was to identify the types of interruptions (both on- and off-task) that occur during typical office software related activities, explore the contextual characteristics surrounding these interruptions, and identify methodologies that could be used to reduce the cost of interruptions and increase employee effectiveness and satisfaction.     

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.     

Social media overload,exhaustion, and use discontinuance: Examining the effects of information overload,system feature overload,and social overload

While users’ discontinuance of use has posed a challenge for social media in recent years, there is a paucity of knowledge on the relationships between different dimensions of overload and how overload adversely affects users’ social media discontinuance behaviors. To address this knowledge gap, this study employed the stressor–strain–outcome (SSO) framework to explain social media discontinuance behaviors from an overload perspective. It also conceptualized social media overload as a multidimensional construct consisting of system feature overload, information overload, and social overload. The proposed research model was empirically validated via 412 valid questionnaire responses collected from Facebook users. Our results indicated that the three types of overload are interconnected through system feature overload. System feature overload, information overload, and social overload engender user exhaustion, which in turn leads to users’ discontinued usage of social media. This study extends current technostress research by demonstrating the value of the SSO perspective in explaining users’ social media discontinuance.     

Information avoidance behavior on social network sites: Information irrelevance,overload, and the moderating role of time pressure

Drawing on the stressor-strain-outcome framework, this study investigates how information irrelevance and overload induce social network fatigue, and the relationship of these variables to users’ information avoidance behavior. It also examines the conditions under which social network fatigue is more likely to be translated into information avoidance behavior. The analysis of data collected from 341 users of WeChat Moments suggests that information irrelevance directly leads to information avoidance behavior, and social media fatigue as a mediator partially mediates the impact of information overload on information avoidance behavior and fully mediates the impact of social overload on information avoidance behavior. Furthermore, time pressure strengthens the effect of social network fatigue on information avoidance behavior. This study fulfills the identified need for an in-depth investigation of actual discontinuous behavior in social network services (SNSs) by investigating information avoidance behavior and its antecedents. The findings provide SNSs providers with guidelines on how to manage users’ behavior so that they remain active users of the SNSs.     

Complementary or supplementary? Understanding users’ unfollowing behavior from the perspective of person-environment fit

The loss of followers poses a severe threat to the development of microblogging platforms and bloggers. However, the reasons behind users’ unfollowing behavior remain unclear. Drawing on the person-environment fit framework, we examined how different types of person-environment misfits affect users’ unfollowing intention and the relationship between these misfits. We collected the data to test the research model from 305 Weibo users via an online survey. The results suggest that from the perspective of complementary misfit, information overload increases social media fatigue, and information irrelevance increases followers’ expectation disconfirmation. From the perspective of supplementary misfit, perceived value dissimilarity positively affects followers’ fatigue and disconfirmation. These negative psychological states consequently lead to followers’ unfollowing intention. Furthermore, our results revealed the positive effects of perceived value dissimilarity on information overload and information irrelevance. We also discuss the theoretical contributions and practical implications of this study.     

The effects of information literacy on trust in government websites: Evidence from an online experiment

Information and communication technologies in use in government systems can bring about expected benefits only when citizens are willing and able to use such systems. Previous studies from various disciplines provided a fundamental understanding of human behavior with technology adoption that focused mainly on the technical and supply sides of this adoption. We argue that it is necessary to move away from an assumption that users form a homogeneous group under the phenomenon of the digital divide. Having conducted an online experiment, this study empirically examined the effects of personal factors, particularly the perceived information literacy, and the perceived information overload, on the user’s perceptions on the usefulness and trust in a government website. We find that the higher an individual perceives one’s information literacy, the more he or she trusts the website, and this is mediated by one’s perceived information overload (negatively) and perceived usefulness (positively). This research provides a more balanced understanding of the behavior of e-government adoption, supplemented with the details of citizen engagement factors, and specifies meaningful practical implications for successful e-government policies.     

互联网知识共享平台信息过载效应与弱化机制——基于知乎的案例研究

【目的/意义】信息过载效应成为了制约互联网知识共享平台发展的一大阻碍,本研究致力于探索弱化信息 过载的有效机制。【方法/过程】采用单案例纵向研究方法,选取知乎这一知识共享平台为研究对象,并基于其社区 阶段和平台阶段的动态演变加以研究。【结果/结论】研究发现了互联网知识共享平台弱化信息过载效应的系统机 制--高质信息“生成-选择-传播”机制,并基于知乎发展的不同阶段,发现了上述机制的动态演变性,丰富了信息 过载弱化机制的系统视角,推进了知识共享相关研究在互联网情境下的发展,为互联网知识共享平台提供了切实 可行的管理启示。     

Exploring the group holiday decision-making process with the support of technology

Numerous studies have examined the decision-making process and the associated information search behaviour of tourists. However, very few have focused on how tourists make plans for their trips when travelling in groups. This paper adds to the knowledge of the decision-making process of tourist groups with a specific focus on intra-group interaction and the support of technology. This research adopted a mixed-methods approach, combining two studies. Study 1 employed a focus group to gain an understanding of the decision-making process within a tourist group, while Study 2 employed a questionnaire survey to explore how the use of technology in such a process varies among different categories of groups. Study 1 proposed a model for a group holiday decision-making process with four components: information acquisition, intra-group information sharing, knowledge transfer, and decision making. It was adapted from the “Infogineering Model” and the encoding and decoding theory in communication studies. Study 2 identified new influential factors on the use of technology by tourist groups for decision making. Ultimately, this research produced a number of theoretical implications, as well as practical implications in terms of how practitioners can better support Chinese tourists, family travellers, and tourists with little prior travel experience, and how technology can facilitate group holiday decision making.     

The impact of past performance on information valuation in virtual communities: Empirical study in online stock message boards

Unlike other types of virtual communities, individuals participate in online stock message boards for their material needs rather than non-material needs (e.g., sense of belonging). They may seek and read others’ opinions to make better investment performances. The value of information in online stock message boards may vary from person to person according to their past investment experiences. However, little is known regarding how their past investment performance influences the value of others’ opinions. Therefore, our study investigates how individuals process others’ opinions on stock message boards for their investment decisions when they have different levels of past investment performance. We proposed the unique research model with two paths consisting of both online stock message board factors and individual factors to determine continuous use of online stock message boards. We conducted SEM analysis with 452 questionnaire data. The results, first, showed that message boards factors (e.g., satisfaction using others’ opinions) have a positive impact on continuous intention to use while their own satisfaction with past investment activities has a negative impact on continuous intention to use. In addition, we believe that this is one of the few papers to examine the moderating role of self-attribution bias on the effects of stock investment performance. Our results indicated that investors with strong self-attribution bias lower the usefulness of opinions when losing money while they increased confidence in their investment-related abilities when achieving a profit from investment. This study will help to support and extend the theory of IS continuance model while providing practical insights for online stock message board managers by suggesting ways to vitalize online stock message boards.     

Debunking the instant messaging myth?

Instant messaging is a beneficial tool in the workplace that aids communication and decision-making, yet it’s widely accepted that productivity suffers due to frequent interruptions. Previous research conducted with surveys and atypical IM interactions support such claims; however, prior research demonstrated with a systematic study and behavioral measures that IM-ing is not detrimental to quality and timeliness of work. The current study expands the research literature by examining the effects of frequent IM-ing on productivity, quality of work, and time on-task in a laboratory setting. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and independent samples t-tests for group and IM type. Data demonstrated little performance differences between those who received IMs and those who did not. This research appears to suggest that IM-ing has some impact on overall task completion time but IM-ers productivity time was faster. Therefore, it may be more harmful to resort to the commonly held notion that all off-task behavior equates negative effects and unproductive employees. Future directions for researchers and managers are discussed.     

创业者社会网络、市场信息对创业绩效的影响研究

 摘要： 本文探讨了社会网络和市场信息对创业企业绩效的影响,并以西安高新技术产业开发区154家创业企业的调研数据为依托,实证检验了个人网络和商业网络在这个过程中所起到的作用。研究结果显示,个人网络与商业网络对市场信息获取与利用的过程具有不同的作用,对于市场信息的获取,商业网络具有更加积极的作用,而对于市场信息的利用,个人网络则具有更加积极的作用。市场信息的获取正向影响市场信息的利用,而市场信息的利用对新创企业绩效有显著的正向影响。这些结论为创业实践中对于个人网络和商业网络作用的认识,以及市场信息获取与利用的关系提供了相应的管理启示。     

Market information approaches, product innovativeness, and firm performance: An empirical study in the fashion industry

In this study the authors propose a distinction between two approaches to market information, rooted in the marked-based learning theory. The two approaches are conceptualized and operationalized on the basis of their differences along three processes: generation, dissemination and use of market information. In the retrospective approach, the generation process is based on expressed customer needs and extant market relations; the dissemination is based on formal mechanisms; the use process is more instrumental. In the forward-looking approach, the generation process is based on latent customer needs and on the evolutionary patterns of the future market relations; the dissemination process is more informal; the use of information is more conceptual. A series of hypotheses concerning the relationships between these approaches, product innovativeness and firm performance are tested on a sample of Italian fashion firms. Results suggest that the two approaches are complementary for firm performance, but have opposite effects on product innovativeness: while a forward-looking approach is positively related to product innovativeness, a retrospective approach seems to be negatively related. The results also shed light on how market information approaches and product innovativeness jointly affect firm performance.     

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.     

Following too much on Facebook brand page: A concept of brand overload and its validation

As consumers increasingly engage in online brand communities, the demand of brand-related activities (e.g., finding relevant product information and sharing product information) also increases. Consumers may feel overwhelmed by these brand-related activities. To provide an understanding of this phenomenon, we conceptualize it as brand overload and then empirically examine its antecedents and consequences based upon the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework in the context of online brand community. Using two rounds of surveys to collect data from 409 American consumers, our results show that consumer-generated content and social interaction quality are the primary drivers of information and social overload. Consumer-generated content quality has a quadratic effect on information overload following an inverted U shape. Social interaction quality also significantly affects social overload following an inverted U-shaped relationship. Information and social overload are both positively related to brand overload, which in turn leads to brand disloyalty as the negative consequence. In addition, to supplement the quantitative study, a qualitative study was used to test and substantiate the proposed research model. With its mixed-method design, our study contributes to the literature by proposing the concept of brand overload and empirically investigating its antecedents and consequences from the SOR perspective. Practically, our study delivers insights for companies on how to use online brand communities strategically and efficiently to avoid negative impacts.     

个体感知差异和职场排斥对知识共享行为的影响机制

本研究基于自我归类理论和社会需要理论，探索个体感知差异对职场排斥和知识共享行为的影响，以及成就需要和归属需要在这个过程中的调节效应。利用来自356位企业员工的样本数据，采用分层回归的方法进行假设验证。结论显示个体感知差异负向影响知识共享行为，职场排斥中介了二者之间的负向关系，个体成就需要和归属需要反向调节个体感知差异与知识共享行为、个体感知差异与职场排斥之间的关系。研究结果为知识共享领域的研究提供了新的视角和框架，同时对企业管理实践有一定的现实意义。     

End-user oriented strategies to facilitate multi-organizational adoption of emergency management information systems

Response to large-scale emergencies is a cooperative process that requires the active and coordinated participation of a variety of functionally independent agencies operating in adjacent regions. In practice, this essential cooperation is sometimes not attained or is reduced due to poor information sharing, non-fluent communication flows, and lack of coordination. We report an empirical study of IT-mediated cooperation among Spanish response agencies and we describe the challenges of adoption, information sharing, communication flows, and coordination among agencies that do not share a unity of command. We analyze three strategies aimed at supporting acceptance and surmounting political, organizational and personal distrust or skepticism: participatory design, advanced collaborative tools inducing cognitive absorption, and end-user communities of practice.     

Protecting knowledge: How legal requirements to reveal information affect the importance of secrecy

Most firms use secrecy to protect their knowledge from potential imitators. However, the theoretical foundations for secrecy have not been well explored. We extend knowledge protection literature and propose theoretical mechanisms explaining how information visibility influences the importance of secrecy as a knowledge protection instrument. Building on mechanisms from information economics and signaling theory, we postulate that secrecy is more important for protecting knowledge for firms that have legal requirements to reveal information to shareholders. Furthermore, we argue that this effect is contingent on the location in a technological cluster, on a firm’s investment in fixed assets and on a firm’s past innovation performance. We test our hypotheses using a representative sample of 683 firms in Germany between 2005 and 2013. Our results support the moderation effect of a technological cluster and a firm’s investment in fixed assets. Our findings inform both academics and managers on how firms balance information disclosure requirements with the use of secrecy as a knowledge protection instrument.     

Chatbot as an emergency exist: Mediated empathy for resilience via human-AI interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic

As a global health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has also made heavy mental and emotional tolls become shared experiences of global communities, especially among females who were affected more by the pandemic than males for anxiety and depression. By connecting multiple facets of empathy as key mechanisms of information processing with the communication theory of resilience, the present study examines human-AI interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to understand digitally mediated empathy and how the intertwining of empathic and communicative processes of resilience works as coping strategies for COVID-19 disruption. Mixed methods were adopted to explore the using experiences and effects of Replika, a chatbot companion powered by AI, with ethnographic research, in-depth interviews, and grounded theory-based analysis. Findings of this research extend empathy theories from interpersonal communication to human-AI interactions and show five types of digitally mediated empathy among Chinese female Replika users with varying degrees of cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and empathic response involved in the information processing processes, i.e., companion buddy, responsive diary, emotion-handling program, electronic pet, and tool for venting. When processing information obtained from AI and collaborative interactions with the AI chatbot, multiple facets of mediated empathy become unexpected pathways to resilience and enhance users’ well-being. This study fills the research gap by exploring empathy and resilience processes in human-AI interactions. Practical implications, especially for increasing individuals’ psychological resilience as an important component of global recovery from the pandemic, suggestions for future chatbot design, and future research directions are also discussed.