Abstract
Digital natives increasingly populate organizations’ management. These new-generation managers more naturally accept management support systems (MSS), but also have higher expectations about how they should accommodate their individual user preferences. As a result, managers question MSS that have been developed without configuration mechanisms to accommodate their working style, relevant MSS use cases, and different MSS access modes. The objective of this article is to reveal managers’ different MSS use situations and propose levers for tailoring (conceptual) MSS design to them. Use situations generalize classes of similar user-group preferences. We first apply findings from a literature review to cluster managers’ user-group preferences into 36 MSS use situations. Second, we propose that the selection of end-user devices can serve as a main lever for MSS configuration. Third, we complete the configuration with a MSS user-interface design. Finally, we demonstrate utility of our configuration model by presenting and evaluating a prototype.
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Notes
Whereas Computer Science (CS) is more focused on information and communication technologies itself (Avison and Elliot 2006, p. 6–8), IS research transforms business requirements into (conceptual) IS design (WKWI 2012). Thus, IS research moves away from a focus on technology to consider the interplay of people, task, and technology. Those working in CS, especially software engineers, then transform these IS designs into efficient software solutions.
Chuttur (2009) claims that the practical value of TAM and its explanations are limited. Determinants such as age, level of education, or setting also significantly impact IS usage. Furthermore, after a series of modifications, a commonly accepted TAM no longer exists (Benbasat and Barki 2007, p. 2011). In other words: “The […] attempts […] to expand TAM in order to adapt it to the constantly changing IT environments has led to a state of theoretical chaos and confusion […].”
Situational design approaches were adopted from organization theory in the early 1990s (Kieser and Kubicek 1992). The theory of cognitive fit states that decision making is efficient and effective when the presentation of a problem is in line with an individual’s approach to problem-solving (Vessey 1991).
It incorporates not only mainstream IS journals, but also social studies of IS. We choose the five top journals from each set, namely: MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Information & Management, Journal of Management Information Systems, and Decision Support Systems as well as European Journal of Information Systems, Information & Organization, Information Systems Journal, Journal of Organizational and End-User Computing, and Journal of Information Technology.
Based on journal rankings of AIS (2010); VHB (2008) and impact factors from http://www.elsevier.com. We found Information and Software Technology, Communication of the ACM, ACM Computing Surveys, Journal of Systems and Software, and the International Journal of Systems Science.
Based on the AIS journal ranking (2010), we selected IEEE Software, Journal of Computer and System Sciences, IEEE Transaction on Computers, and Behaviour & Information Technology.
We found ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Computers in Human Behavior, and AIS Transaction on Human-Computer Interaction in the journal rankings of AIS (2010) and VHB (2008).
To reduce complexity, we assume that requirements stay constant. See Sect. 6 for a proposal on handling change over time with autonomic and autonomous computing.
The MSS access mode and its characteristics – stationary, mobile online, mobile offline – should not follow short-term fads, but stay relatively constant both over time and across individual managers’ MSS requirements. Thus, access mode is our third and final MSS use factor determining the MSS use situations (Fig. 2 ). End-user devices, in turn, change more quickly, especially regarding their size and control philosophy. We therefore consider the selection of the latter to be a lever for configuring MSS (Sect. 3.2).
We are aware that this (and other) classification schemata will likely be out of date in the predictable future. In fact, some tablets already provide built-in HDMI that allows presentations with pocket projectors. However, we think that this classification is sufficiently current to support our research here.
In terms of architecture, our prototype has four MSS layers: (1) information presentation (SAP BO Dashboard); (2) business application (SAP BO Enterprise, SAP ERP Financials); (3) data storage (SAP Business Warehouse); (4) data integration (SAP data services).
The L2 managers all have responsibilities that are comparable to that of C-level managers in smaller companies. Although they did not exclusively consist of L1 members, the focus group delivered results that should be representative regarding the relevance of our configuration model for top managers.
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Accepted after two revisions by Prof. Dr. Müller.
This article is also available in German in print and via http://www.wirtschaftsinformatik.de: Mayer JH, Winter R, Mohr T (2012) Situative Managementunterstützungssysteme. Berücksichtigung zunehmend unterschiedlicher Arbeitsstile, Nutzungsfälle und Zugangsmöglichkeiten. WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK. doi: 10.1007/s11576-012-0337-z.
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Mayer, J.H., Winter, R. & Mohr, T. Situational Management Support Systems. Bus Inf Syst Eng 4, 331–345 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-012-0233-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-012-0233-5