Showing papers by "Sajda Qureshi published in 1995"

Supporting electronic group processes: a social perspective

Abstract: In recent years, computer mediated communications technologies have presented themselves as a means of supporting group processes. The socialprocesses that take place on electronically supported group meetings are seen to influence the ways in which the technology is appropriated. The focus of this paper is on investigating group processes that take place electronically amongst a group of geographically dispersed individuals. Group processes are explored using an interpretivist strategy that draws upon concepts from Conclusions are drawn as processes may be supported. social network analysis. to how electronic group

Meeting and Working on an Electronic Social Space: Behavioural Considerations and Implications for Cross-cultural End User Computing

Abstract: Current research and practise in end user computing appears to be set within organisational considerations. Since the early eighties, when writers such as Rockart and Flannery (1981) wrote about the rise of end user computing within organisations, greater interdependence of organisational work processes and forms of collaboration that often go beyond organisations have become apparent. End user computing can no longer be seen as a phenomenon that is solely the responsibility of an IS department as it often falls under the custody of groups of users and possibly even a group of organisations. A particular area that needs to be addressed by end user computing is the use of electronic communications technologies which enable communication across different organisations, and countries. There is thus the need to address cross–cultural communication in the light of how electronic communication technologies are used. In particular, a work process is enabled which can tap the expertise of people from very different parts of the world. In effect, the role of end user computing has to address the considerations of an increasingly fluid organisational structure. One which relays on group processes for problem solving and decision making, and operates within a dispersed, multi–faceted work environment in which cultural considerations are paramount (Drucker 1988; Charan 1991; Etzioni 1961). The support of work processes in which people do not physically meet or see each other may be provided within ‘virtual structures’ through Computer Mediated Communications Systems (CMCS). As defined by Hiltz and Turoff (1992), “these systems use computers and telecommunications networks to store, deliver, regulate and process communication among the group members and between the computer and the group”. Although the most common form of CMCS is Meeting and Working on an Electronic Social Space: Behavioural Considerations and Implications for Cross–cultural End User Computing