According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

Quasi-experimentation - design and analysis issues for field settings - cook,td, campbell,dt

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Qualitative Research in Information Systems

How the mind works

This paper expands, refines, and explicates media synchronicity theory, originally proposed in a conference proceeding in 1999 (Dennis and Valacich 1999). Media synchronicity theory (MST) focuses on the ability of media to support synchronicity, a shared pattern of coordinated behavior among individuals as they work together. We expand on the original propositions of MST to argue that communication is composed of two primary processes: conveyance and convergence. The familiarity of individuals with the tasks they are performing and with their coworkers will also affect the relative amounts of these two processes. Media synchronicity theory proposes that for conveyance processes, use of media supporting lower synchronicity should result in better communication performance. For convergence processes, use of media supporting higher synchronicity should result in better communication performance. We identify five capabilities of media (symbol sets, parallelism, transmission velocity, rehearsability, and reprocessability) that influence the development of synchronicity and thus the successful performance of conveyance and convergence communication processes. The successful completion of most tasks involving more than one individual requires both conveyance and convergence processes, thus communication performance will be improved when individuals use a variety of media to perform a task, rather than just one medium.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/25148857.pdf

Media, tasks, and communication processes: a theory of media synchronicity

Business process redesign has been intensely studied, particularly since the mid 1990s. One aspect that received little attention, however, is the relationship between business process modeling choices and redesign success. This research gap is addressed through a multi-methods study of 18 business process redesign projects conducted in 18 different organizations. A structural equation model is developed and tested based on data collected from those projects; the results are then triangulated with qualitative data. The structural equation model depicts relationships between the following broad perceptual constructs: communication flow orientation of a business process model, quality of a business process model, and business process redesign success. The communication flow orientation of a business process model is defined as the extent to which a model explicitly shows how communication interactions take place in a process. A model's perceived quality is defined as the degree to which the model presents the following perceptual sub-constructs: ease of generation, ease of understanding, completeness, and accuracy. The results of the study suggest that the degree of communication flow orientation of a business process model is significantly related to the model's perceived quality. Perceived model quality, in turn, is significantly related to perceived business process redesign success. Interestingly, a business process model's perceived completeness does not seem to be influenced by a model's communication flow orientation. The structural equation model accounted for 56% of the explained variance in the business process redesign success construct. The main implication of this study is that a focus on communication flows in business processes is an important ingredient in successful business process redesign projects.

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Communication flow orientation in business process modeling and its effect on redesign success: Results from a field study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of process improvement team member perceptions regarding the effectiveness of asynchronous e‐collaboration.Design/methodology/approach – A field‐based, two‐phase canonical action research study was conducted at two different sites. Data were obtained from observations and interviews of all team members. Media synchronicity theory was utilized to hypothesize the interplay of media capabilities, task communication processes, and team functions.Findings – Eight primarily virtual teams solved complex problems and provided feedback on the effectiveness of various communications media. The results support media synchronicity theory.Research limitations/implications – Media synchronicity theory provides an alternative explanation for studies both supporting and contradicting media richness theory. The teams in this study were newly formed. Further investigation of established teams and other contexts is warranted.Practical implications – For comp...

Virtual teams in and out of synchronicity

As authors of Information Systems (IS) Action Research (AR) studies attempt to report their results, the calls for AR research design, conduct, presentation, and evaluation guidelines must be answered to advance the maturation process of AR and move it into a more prominent position in mainstream publications. AR is a research approach that is most often associated with researchers who subscribe to an interpretive epistemology and collect qualitative data and is more common in Europe and Australia than in North America. To further IS AR, especially in North America, we offer ten recommendations based on a post-positivist synthesis of four dialectics: rigor/relevance, positivist/interpretive epistemology, quantitative/qualitative methodology, and confirmatory/disconfirmatory evidence. Any researcher may profit from developing his or her own synthesis of these four dialectics. Our synthesis reveals an innovative view of falsifiability, grounded theory methodology, triangulation, and recommendations for presentation of findings to a broad audience in mainstream research journals.

/pdf/furthering-information-systems-action-research-a-post-4lko1k9wwc.pdf

Furthering Information Systems Action Research: A Post-Positivist Synthesis of Four Dialectics

Using the theoretical lens of compensatory adaptation theory, this study examines how organizational problem-solving teams adapt to lean media and effectively communicate. We examined several successful virtual teams using a bulletin board as their primary communication medium to perform complex process improvement tasks in their natural business environment. Although some established theories predict failure using lean media, savings from use of simple e-collaboration technologies provide motivation for conduct of virtual teams. Compensatory adaptation theory argues that e-collaboration technologies often pose obstacles to communication, and yet also lead to better team outcomes than the face-to-face medium. This study provides support for that theory. Members of the virtual teams reported adapting their communication to be more focused, clear, precise, neutral, concrete, concise, persuasive, considerate, and complete in order to overcome the obstacles posed by media of low richness. As a result of those adaptations, the teams perceived better quality and achieved success of the team outcome.

Adaptations that Virtual Teams Make so that Complex Tasks Can Be Performed Using Simple E-Collaboration Technologies

As geographic, temporal, and cost constraints move organizations toward virtual teamwork for increasingly complex tasks, research on the impact of groups attempting to solve business problems without face-to-face communication becomes more critical. In two independent studies in two different organizations, virtual groups provided feedback related to choice of communications media. The results of the studies lend support to Media Synchronicity Theory which suggests that communications media with low synchronicity (e.g. e-mail, bulletin board) may be appropriate for "conveyance" of information, whereas media with high synchronicity (e.g. face-to-face, video conference) may be more desirable for "convergence" on shared meaning. For researchers, Media Synchronicity Theory provides an alternative explanation for the variety of studies both supporting and contradicting Media Richness and Social Presence theories. For practitioners, the results suggest an approach to communications media choices that may improve the effectiveness of team problem solving.

Dorrie DeLuca

Papers

Communication flow orientation in business process modeling and its effect on redesign success: Results from a field study

Virtual teams in and out of synchronicity

Furthering Information Systems Action Research: A Post-Positivist Synthesis of Four Dialectics

Adaptations that Virtual Teams Make so that Complex Tasks Can Be Performed Using Simple E-Collaboration Technologies

Outcomes from Conduct of Virtual Teams at Two Sites: Support for Media Synchronicity Theory