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Overview |
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New information systems generally grow out of existing organizational routines, so a theoretical framework for the structure of organizational routines will help in designing effective information systems.
To study the development of organizational routines, researchers study how groups collectively approach given problems and tasks. In the past, such experiments generally involved people sitting across the table from each other, working with pen and paper. But computer mediation changes the way people organize to solve a problem, and the effects of such mediation have themselves become an object of study.
The World Wide Web provides new opportunities for researchers to run such behavioral experiments on a much broader base of study subjects. CREW investigator Michael Cohen is running a pilot demonstration that does just that.
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Methods |
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The researchers are now debugging a Java version of an online, 2-person card game known as "Transform the Target" (formerly known as "Target the Two"), The game required cooperative behavior by both players, setting each other up to make optimal moves. Subjects will play the game online while investigators observe the development of their cooperative behavior. Clearly on-line participants have much less rich information about their partner's moved. The question is do they develop a routine and if so how. We have investigated this problem face to face and video conferenced and audio conferenced situations, and are now moving to the Web.
One element that makes the idea of Web-based behavioral studies particularly attractive is the form of remuneration online subjects in this study will receive: they will be paid in CyberCoin, the petty cash version of CyberCash. CyberCoin can be spent at participating online merchants' sites, or it can be deposited into a standard checking account. Such a form of online currency could greatly streamline the process of paying subjects in widely dispersed locations.
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